Friday, July 16, 2010

Education | College orientation is emphasized more and even involves some parents | Seattle Times Newspaper

College orientation is emphasized more and even involves some parents

Universities are putting more emphasis on orientation than ever before, hoping it will boost student success and avert problems during the school year.

By Bonnie Miller Rubin

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — A generation ago, college orientation was a perfunctory affair, lasting little more than a day. The focus was on registering for classes and buying textbooks. If parents were needed at all, it was primarily for their wallets.

Now, universities are putting more emphasis on this annual ritual than ever before, hoping that time and energy expended during the summer will boost student success and avert problems during the school year.

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for example, orientation lasts 2 ½ days and includes a separate program for parents, increased from one day to two in 2006. DePaul University also has beefed up its

Later Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools #education #edu #news

Parents 4 democratic Schools

Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

School Tech Connect: Teachers' Letters To Obama

Schools Matter: Students and Teachers Everywhere Coming to Raleigh July 20 to March Against Resegregation

Students and Teachers Everywhere Coming to Raleigh July 20 to March Against Resegregation

by Jim Horn

Popout

From IndyWeek:

. . .the NAACP, the Great Schools in Wake coalition and a slew of other groups have come fiercely to

EdFund’s Fund Your Future� Wins Award for Best Public Service Series | The Rancho Cordova Post

EdFund’s Fund Your Future® Wins Award for Best Public Service Series

EdFund’s Fund Your Future® workbook received the Magnum Opus Award for Best Public Service Series. Creating outreach materials that work is one of the ways EdFund serves students and families who need information on how to finance a college education.

In these uncertain economic times, it is more important than ever for students and families to understand all the options available to help pay for college. EdFund offers English and Spanish versions of the Fund Your Future financial aid

Local News | Parents of Bonner County autistic girl say they weren't consulted on education plan | Seattle Times Newspaper

Parents of Bonner County autistic girl say they weren't consulted on education plan

Calling the police was one of the remedies included in the educational and behavioral plan for an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested and handcuffed at her elementary school in Bonner County.

By Jody Lawrence-Turner

The Spokesman-Review

Calling the police was one of the remedies included in the educational and behavioral plan for an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested and handcuffed at her elementary school in Bonner County.

Evelyn Towry's "individual education plan," or IEP, included police intervention as a course of action if the child misbehaved, according to a federal lawsuit filed by her parents, Spring and Charles Towry.

It's not unusual for such plans to include the possibility that police be called, and it's generally a matter of district policy, said Jean Taylor, Idaho Department of Education special education coordinator.

"Those policies include all ages of children and are usually set to keep staff and students safe at school," she

Ex-teacher in sex case married former Kentlake student

A former Garfield High School teacher charged with having sex with a student last year married a man who was a student at Kentlake High School while she taught there.

Former Garfield High teacher charged with having sex with student

Thursday, July 15

House bill would make school lunches healthier

Snack attack: Schools try to get the junk out

Tuesday, July 13

Former Garfield High teacher charged with having sex with student

What UW means to the state? $9.1 billion

King outlines plans for $48M expansion of troubled data system | GothamSchools

King outlines plans for $48M expansion of troubled data system

by Maura Walz

The state education department will spend nearly $48 million over the next three years completing a database that will track students’ test scores, courses and teachers from the beginning of their schooling to the end.
The database system has been hailed by state education officials as a key tool in their reform efforts. It’s intended to help the state use student test scores and grades to judge not only schools and teachers but also the programs that trained the teachers, for example. Education officials also say the system will be instrumental in helping identify students at risk of dropping out of school early on.
The state already tracks some information about students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The data system launched in the 2006-07 school year with an expected cost of $39.4 million over six years. The systemgot off to a rocky start, plagued by delays in reporting data.
In a memo to the Board of Regents in advance of their Monday meeting, State Education Department Deputy

Remainders: Bloomberg suggests parents get “an education”

by Elizabeth Green

Bloomberg: If you send your kid to a once-closing school, you need “an education.” (Daily News)
More concerns e-mailed in about the principal at Columbia Prep. (CityRoom)
Teachers, mark Staples’ teacher-discount-day on your calendars. (NYSUT)
Edward Cullen did pass the twelfth grade, and beyond, thank you very much. (Answer Sheet)
New Orleans is trying to rebuild its education system — and its school buildings. (Good)
One-time Race to the Top enemy Obey now favors spending more on it. (EdWeek)
A Wisconsin court finds that teacher e-mails are private. (Milwaukee J-S)
What it looks like inside the Gates Foundation’s Seattle headquarters. (The Guardian)
College students say they didn’t learn to write papers in high school. (Class Struggle)

In California, a University Tries to Enroll Students that Reflect a Diverse State - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com

July 15, 2010, 5:00 PM

In California, a University Tries to Enroll Students that Reflect a Diverse State

By RACHEL GROSS

Which college in the United States gets the most applicants? It’s not Harvard or Yale; it’s the University of California, Los Angeles.

The urban campus, the most selective in the 10-campus system, received 57,578 freshman applications for fall 2010, though less than a quarter of those got in. Systemwide, a record 100,000 students applied as freshmen this year, according to a new admissions report presented by the university this week.

But for a public school in a state that faces significant challenges in financing higher education, numbers like

At School in Harlem, Resentment Over Girl’s Drowning on a Field Trip

By JENNIFER MEDINA

After a teacher was fired and administrators were disciplined at Columbia Secondary School, some staff members are unhappy.

Teacher Fired Over Field-Trip Drowning of Girl, 12

By JENNIFER MEDINA

An investigation found the trip was poorly planned and said a chaperon should have noticed there were no lifeguards on the beach.

Document: Special Commissioner's Letter (pdf)

Darci Hemleb Thompson, 49, reconnected with a former teacher from Long Island, Alice D'Addario, through Facebook.

On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant

By SUSAN FEINSTEIN

People who have been out of school for decades are expressing sentiments they dared not express in their youth.

Overhaul or cosmetic makeover? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Overhaul or cosmetic makeover?

by Benjamin Herold on Jul 16 2010

With $3 million in privately donated funds at its disposal, Mastery Charter hoped to dramatically upgrade the facilities in each of its threeRenaissance schools before the start of the new school year.

But with some of the Renaissance school buildings needing major overhauls in order to address decades of neglect, even Mastery’s $1 million per school might not be enough to create the dramatic new beginnings that have been promised to students and parents.

And with only six weeks until the start of school, the District and its four Renaissance providers, which will convert seven District schools to charters in September, are still negotiating contractual details. So far, there are few firm answers to the most important questions about when and how the most challenging facilities issues at the Renaissance schools will be addressed.

Despite the confusion and the rapidly tightening timeline, Mastery CEO Scott Gordon is adamant that Harrity, Mann and Smedley Elementary Schools will feel different in September.

“We will get this job done. We’ll find a way,” said Gordon. “We made a commitment to parents that we will improve all of those schools to the tune of about $1 million

Enrollment grows at saved high schools, but not by much | GothamSchools

Enrollment grows at saved high schools, but not by much

by Anna Phillips

Enrollment numbers at high schools that the city had targeted for closure are on the rise, but still far below past years’ levels.
After a judge’s ruling postponed closures at 19 schools — 14 of them high schools — many of the schools began reporting that they were severely under-enrolled. Metropolitan Corporate Academy had eight incoming ninth graders and Jamaica High School in Queens had 23 — a number so low the school’s principal doubted he’d be able to have a freshman class. Now that the city has completed its second round of high school placements, more students are set to enter these schools next year.
But the numbers are still extremely low. While there are now 23 students enrolled at Metropolitan Corporate Academy, the school traditionally saw an incoming freshman class of between 70 and 100 students. Many of these schools still have enrollments too low for them to support a ninth grade program. If the city does not assign them more students, they could be forced to phase out their ninth grades, skirting the court’s ruling that the schools should remain intact.
A spokesman for the Department of Education said the city expects the enrollment numbers to climb.
Roughly 500 students who were given a choice between a saved school and another school have yet to inform

QUICK Hits: Earthquake! Edition � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits: Earthquake! Edition

by Forrest Hinton

This morning, a 3.6 magnitude earthquake—the largest in the area since geophysicists began tracking recordings in the 1970s—shook Washington, D.C. awake. Today’s special edition of QUICK Hits reflects this rare shake-up.

Image from BBC

When Harvard decides to make finals optional, will the reactions hit 5.6 on the Richter scale? (Flypaper)
What’s that rumbling in the distance? Could it be the sound of university teachers complaining that their students don’t know how to write? (Community College Spotlight)
Could the tectonic plates be shifting as Georgia voters say they’ll support higher taxes for better schools? (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Should politicians who oppose ed reform be quaking? A new poll shows some revealing results. (Alliance for Excellent Education)

Blair Levin and J. Erik Garr - A new America through broadband #education

Blair Levin and J. Erik Garr - A new America through broadband

A new America through broadband

Students use laptops at the School of the Future, created by Microsoft and the Philadelphia school district. (Matt Rourke/associated Press)

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By Blair Levin and J. Erik Garr

Friday, July 16, 2010

The Texas State Board of Education voted in May to adopt a controversial set of guidelines for social studies and history textbooks. Countless hours of debate and indignation -- and countless words in newspapers and on blogs -- were dedicated to such questions as whether Texas schools should teach about theContract With America and John Calvin.

These issues are important to get right. But the debate misses a more important question: Why are we still using ink-on-paper textbooks, when digital technology offers a much better way?
Today, Johnny opens his math textbook and reads a chapter. He understands parts of it, but not all. He does the 10-question homework on paper and hands it in. Later, he gets the homework back and sees that he answered seven questions correctly.
Envision this: Johnny pulls up a math chapter on his e-reader. When he doesn't understand something, he clicks a link and watches a video of a great teacher presenting the concept, perhaps using a cool simulation. If Johnny still doesn't understand, he can chat online with a tutor familiar with the material. When Johnny does his homework on his e-reader, he immediately learns what he got wrong and sees an explanation based on his particular mistake. Johnny's parents receive a text or e-mail saying that he finished his math homework. The teacher receives a report that evening outlining what the class found straightforward and which problems puzzled students, along with suggestions on how to address the inadequacies. The school board receives data that lead to constant improvement in the effectiveness of course material.
Replacing textbooks with e-readers would create a platform that lets students learn as much as they can, as fast as they can. The teacher is freed from drudgery, such as correcting homework, and given the tools to teach more effectively. Parents and school

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Friday, July 16, 2010

College orientation is emphasized more and even involves some parents

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FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2010

EdFund’s Fund Your Future® Wins Award for Best Public Service Series

Parents of Bonner County autistic girl say they weren't consulted on education plan

In California, a University Tries to Enroll Students that Reflect a Diverse State

By JENNIFER MEDINA

By JENNIFER MEDINA

By SUSAN FEINSTEIN

Overhaul or cosmetic makeover?

by Benjamin Herold on Jul 16 2010

A new America through broadband

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