Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, June 11, 2010

HISD forces 162 teachers out of under-performing schools | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD forces 162 teachers out of under-performing schools | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD forces 162 teachers out of under-performing schools

More than 160 teachers in Houston ISD's under-performing middle and high schools weren't offered jobs at those campuses next year, the district announced Friday evening. The decision affects staffing at nine schools targeted in Superintendent Terry Grier's "Apollo 20" reform plan.
Of the 600 teachers at those schools last year, 358 — or 60 percent — learned on Friday that the district wants them to return to help with the improvement efforts. But the district is forcing 162 teachers, or 27 percent of the staff, out of those schools. The administration made the decisions based on "an exhaustive data-driven evaluation" of the teachers, according to the news release, which didn't specify what data were used.
An additional 80 teachers at the targeted schools previously had decided to retire, resign or transfer to other campuses, according to HISD. "In some cases, teachers opted not to stay due to a personal conflict with the longer school year and longer school day schedules of the Apollo schools," the news release said.
The affected high schools are Jones, Kashmere, Lee and Sharpstown. The middle schools are Attucks, Dowling, Fondren, Key and Ryan. Most of the campuses also will be getting new principals.
The teachers forced out will be allowed to apply for other teaching jobs in the district, and

Schools Matter: Imagine and 501(c)(3) Status

Schools Matter: Imagine and 501(c)(3) Status

Imagine and 501(c)(3) Status

The commentary below comes from Dean Marc Millot. Dean's experience setting up a complicated nonprofit corporation may help shed some light on why Imagine is still waiting for 501(c)(3) status. I've added a brief comment at the end.

Imagine Schools is as a nonprofit corporation under Virginia state law. That only exempts the organization from the state's income tax. Five years ago the national charter school operator applied for exemption from federal income taxes under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). They have yet to receive a determination. Why?

In "Failure of Imagination", Pittsburgh City Paper reporter Chris Young passes on Imagine executive vice president Sam Howard's explanation: "The IRS takes forever to do anything."

This issue has been bugging me for a long while. As it happens, circa 1999, leveraging the

Remainders: Look to Brooklyn for hot pre-k and gifted programs | GothamSchools

Last year’s cue-card incident cost UFT’s political chief his job | GothamSchools

Remainders: Look to Brooklyn for hot pre-k and gifted programs





Last year’s cue-card incident cost UFT’s political chief his job

Remember that time when we caught the teachers union prompting City Council members with cue cards? Barraged with criticism, then-union president Randi Weingarten said she regretted the lobbying tactic and pledged on television to “make some changes in the union.”
I never figured out what the changes were — until today. After the incident, Marvin Reiskin, the union’s political director, retired. He was due to leave at the end of the year, anyway, but the retirement happened a month or so

Details on city’s plans to improve failing schools delayed a week

More than thirty schools waiting to hear how they’ll have to change under a federal program targeting low-performing schools will have to wait longer.
The federal government is giving New York State $308 million to help fix its lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, 34 of which are in New York City. To receive the funds, school districts must explain to the state which of four pre-approved models of school improvement they plan to use. The city’s plans were originally due today, but they’ve been delayed as city and teachers union officials haggle.
“While we work to finalize labor issues, we’ve been granted a one week extension on our application,” Department of Education spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said. “Given the wide variety of schools involved, we want to make sure we have as many options as possible to fix these struggling schools.”
One major issue is whether the union contract limits which of the four models can be applied to schools. City officials have argued that the only model that does not require that teachers lose their position — the so-called

Harvard Student Detained By Immigration : NPR

Harvard Student Detained By Immigration : NPR

Harvard Student Detained By Immigration

Eric Balderas, an undocumented student who just completed his first year at Harvard, was detained by immigration authorities after he tried to board a plane from his hometown of San Antonio to Boston using a consulate card from Mexico and his student ID.

Free Technology for Teachers: Video - Oil Spill by the Numbers

Free Technology for Teachers: Video - Oil Spill by the Numbers

Video - Oil Spill by the Numbers

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more 50 days now. Time has produced a video documenting the events of the oil spill and the quantity of oil now in the Gulf of Mexico. The Oil Spill by the Numbers is embedded below.



H/T to Jeffery Hill's The English Blog.

Applications for Education
This video could be useful for showing students the breadth of the impact of the oil spill. After watching the video you could have students develop their own timelines related to the oil spill.

Oil Spill Poster # 2 � Tangerine, Florida

Oil Spill Poster # 2 � Tangerine, Florida

Oil Spill Poster # 2

8th Grade Oil Spill Art Project

Spare the Rod… & other Inappropriate Conventional Wisdom Dealing with Youth | Lefty Parent

Spare the Rod… & other Inappropriate Conventional Wisdom Dealing with Youth | Lefty Parent

Spare the Rod… & other Inappropriate Conventional Wisdom Dealing with Youth

Kids are obviously stakeholders in their own lives, and like most other stakeholders they generally want and deserve to have input into decisions made about the course of their lives, if not having the final say on those decisions. There seem to be a lot of adults, who play a stewardship role in kids’ lives as parents, teachers, etc. that don’t seem to get this. Or maybe relying on inappropriate myths or conventional cultural wisdom, they think their responsibility as stewards to these kids somehow trumps kids’ own right to self-direction.

We adults mostly understand this when dealing with other adults, and our society and most of its institutions basically “get it” that adult stakeholders should have input or even the final say in key decisions in their lives, unless they are say convicted criminals or judged mentally incompetent. This is a key element of the whole evolving concept of individualism over the past five centuries of human history and thought in the transition from feudal monarchies to citizen republics and free enterprise.

But when it comes to youth, our society and its institutions are often still inclined to use that older feudal model

Statement by the President on World Day Against Child Labor | The White House

Statement by the President on World Day Against Child Labor | The White House

Statement by the President on World Day Against Child Labor

Childhood is a time that should be spent in classrooms and on playgrounds, but for 215 million children around the world, it is a time spent working, often in dangerous and deplorable conditions. And while reports indicate that child labor continues to decline, much work remains to be done.
I applaud my Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, who has helped increase our efforts to address child labor abroad and here at home. My Administration is committing $60 million this year to support efforts to reduce child labor around the world. The Department of Labor has also taken steps to improve protections for child workers in the United States, and we have dramatically increased our child labor law enforcement efforts. And this week the Department of State and the Department of Labor jointly hosted a conference on child labor that demonstrated our intention to take a whole of government approach to this issue. Participants from multiple federal agencies and the National Security Council, alongside NGOs and multilateral organizations, all reaffirmed a commitment to take action against child labor in the year ahead. We must address the root causes of child labor by ensuring access to education for all children and helping families to secure sustainable livelihoods and to overcome the poverty that contributes to child labor. On this World Day Against Child Labor, all of us must recommit ourselves to creating a world where our children have a brighter future, free of exploitive labor.

Sac City and teachers union reaches deal - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sac City and teachers union reaches deal - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sac City and teachers union reaches deal

The Sacramento City Unified School District and the Sacramento City Teachers Association are expected to announce a two-year agreement Monday that preserves class sizes and saves pink slipped teachers and counselors.
District officials said details of the agreement will not be available until Monday, while specific impacts will be hammered out in the coming weeks. The deal still needs to be ratified by union members.
The district and teachers union hope to maintain 25 students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade classes, according to a press release. The agreement is also expected to save many middle and high school counselor positions.
"I am extremely proud of our entire district today," said district Superintendent Jonathan Raymond in a press release. "This announcement illustrates a commitment by both sides to stand together as we weather uncertain financial times, regardless of how long they may last."
Union members will vote on the agreement on Monday. It will then go to the school board for final approval later

LAUSD In Search of Funds | NBC Los Angeles

LAUSD In Search of Funds | NBC Los Angeles

LAUSD In Search of Funds

"If Measure E required a simple majority to pass, we would be celebrating right now," an LAUSD statement said.

Updated 4:01 PM PDT, Fri, Jun 11, 2010
AP
Leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District were looking toSacramento and Washington, D.C., Friday in hopes of securing more funding for schools, now that voters rejected a proposed $100 parcel tax.
Measure E was supported by more than half of voters during Tuesday's election, but it required a two-thirds majority vote to pass.
"If Measure E required a simple majority to pass, we would be celebrating right now," LAUSD Board of Education President Monica Garcia and board member Steve Zimmer said in a joint statement. "The two-thirds requirement, however, proved too high of a threshold in such uncertain economic times.
"LAUSD students did not create our budget crisis and they cannot afford to be its victims," according to the statement. "That's why we woke up early this morning, rolled up our sleeves and began the work on new fronts to generate revenue for LAUSD."
According to Garcia and Zimmer, the district was pushing federal legislators to pass a $23 billion proposal that would save 300,000 teaching positions across the country. About $2.8 billion would come to California, with $225 million to the LAUSD, they said.

HISD hires official to oversee under-performing schools | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD hires official to oversee under-performing schools | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

June 11, 2010

HISD hires official to oversee under-performing schools

Houston ISD announced today that Jeremy Beard, the principal of a top-rated charter school in the small border town of Donna, will oversee the under-performing middle and high schools targeted by Superintendent Terry Grier's "Apollo 20" reform plan. Beard is one of HISD's 22 new school improvement officers, which are Grier's version of executive principals. According to HISD's news release, Beard will be responsible for "coaching and mentoring" the principals at four high schools (Lee, Kashmere, Sharpstown and Jones) and five middle schools (Fondren, Key, Ryan, Attucks and Dowling middle schools). Nearly all these schools will have new principals. The Apollo 20 plan calls for ousting those principals who had been at their low-rated schools for more than two years.
Beard has been the principal of IDEA College Preparatory since 2005. The school, rated "exemplary" last year, offers the International Baccalaureate program and serves mostly low-income, Hispanic children. Its philosophy and approach sound similar to the popular Houston-based charter schools KIPP and YES Prep. IDEA has a longer school day and year

How Should LAUSD Be Structured? - Perdaily.com

How Should LAUSD Be Structured? - Perdaily.com

How Should LAUSD Be Structured?

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While there is no shortage of discussions dealing with fixing public education in the United States and more specifically LAUSD here in Los Angeles, it seems that a certain fundamental question remains aloof from this conversation:

It is the purported purpose and uncontradicted position among all parties in the debate on fixing the long-failed public education system that education is more than ever necessary. The foundational purpose of public education is to teach at the very least a sufficient amount of basic language, math, social studies, and science skills so that students can ultimately assume their future role as responsible adults and productive members of society. As productive working members of society with the necessary knowledge acquired from education they must also serve as arbiters of power as anticipated by our constitution. What seems a gross disconnect from

Join Superintendent Raymond’s SUMMER READING challenge and Get Caught Reading a great book! SAC City DAC

Join Superintendent Raymond’s SUMMER READING challenge and Get Caught Reading a great book! SAC City DAC Education News & Comment

Join Superintendent Raymond’s SUMMER READING challenge and Get Caught Reading a great book!


~ SCUSD is coming together to encourage, inspire, and require our students to become engaged with reading and to develop a life-long love of reading and literacy.~

Join Superintendent Raymond’s SUMMER READING challenge and Get Caught Reading a great book!


Read two or more books this summer and record the titles on a Reading Log.
Bring the completed Reading Log when you return to school in the Fall.
We are aiming for 80,000 books!

Recommended Reading Lists:


Tips for Parents

Reading Tips for Students

Summer Reading Programs
at Sacramento Public Libraries



Summer School
June 21 -July 30, 2010
(July 5, 2010, Holiday)
Contact:
Mike Crosby, Summer School Office 643-9427

Special Education Summer Programs
Contact:
Vivian Miller, Special Education Services 643-9116

 Go to Sacramento City Unified School District Web Site