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Thursday, July 29, 2010

Education Week: Obama Defends Race to Top

Education Week: Obama Defends Race to Top

Obama Defends Race to Top

President Barack Obama is forcefully defending his signature education initiative, the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, which has come under fire from civil rights groups that worry the competitive nature of the program creates a system of winners and losers that could hinder schools serving poor and minority students.
In a speech Thursday to the National Urban League in Washington, the president offered a rebuttal to such criticism, saying the steps the program encourages states to take, including lifting caps on charter schools and using student data to inform teacher

Politics K-12 Blog

07/29 10:49 am |Politics K-12
The president told members of the National Urban League that his signature education initiative holds particular promise for poor and minority students in low-performing ...

Commentaries

June 29, 2010 The Obama administration's chief education initiative has shown that states are more than willing to pursue school reform if there's something in it for them, policy analyst Chad Aldeman writes.
April 30, 2010 Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, states should favor boldness over buy-in in round two of the Race to the Top competition, Dan Weisberg writes.
April 27, 2010 Heather Zavadsky shows how Broad Prize-winning districts can teach other urban systems about using new federal funding well.
May 18, 2010Ronald E. Chennault writes that, sadly, the president's actions do not match his rhetoric.
January 11, 2010 U.S. Sen. Ted Kaufman, an engineer by training, says it is critical to graduate K-12 students aiming for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.
December 11, 2009 As states complete their applications for the federal program, Yong Zhao offers a tongue-in-cheek guide to winning strategies.
December 7, 2009 By focusing on the very worst schools, the initiative misses an opportunity to help good urban districts become great, writes Richard Whitmire.

More Stimulus Stories

May 19, 2010 Still competition looms for districts, schools, and nonprofits vying for innovation grants under the economic-stimulus program.
May 12, 2010 A new effort by 12 major education philanthropies aims to dovetail with the Education Department’s ‘i3’ agenda, raising complex issues.
May 7, 2010 A new effort by 12 major education philanthropies aims to dovetail with the Education Department’s ‘i3’ agenda, raising complex issues.
May 4, 2010 Applicants look for district and union support without diluting proposals and hurting their shot at the $3.4 billion still left.

Featured Blog Posts

Words of Caution on Race to Top Assessment
Curriculum Matters, June 23, 2010
Education Department Responds to State Waiver Story
On Special Education, June 15, 2010
Was Race to the Top Authorized?
Politics K-12, May 6, 2010

UPDATED: Follow the Stimulus Money

Follow the Stimulus Money

Is the Stimulus Meeting Its K-12 Goals?

Archived Webinar: Is the Stimulus Meeting Its K-12 Goals?

Race to the Top: Joanne Weiss & Running the Race


Race to the Top Director, Joanne Weiss, believes that win or lose, what really matters in this competition is how states play the game. This video is part of a Learning Matters series covering the Race to the Top. Watch all related videos and listen to more podcasts here. Produced by: Cat McGrath. Edited by: Edwin Clavijo.

Education and the Financial Crisis

07/27 11:07 pm Child advocates in Tennessee and Georgia say a recent ranking of states based on child well-being may be painting a too-rosy picture, as the ranking is based on data collected ...

Klein to principals: Failing students need “extra attention” in fall | GothamSchools

Klein to principals: Failing students need “extra attention” in fall | GothamSchools

Klein to principals: Failing students need “extra attention” in fall


Thousands of city students who failed their math and reading exams and should have been held back can expect “extra attention” from their schools in the fall, but no formal city-mandated assistance.
That’s the message of a memo Schools Chancellor Joel Klein sent principals this afternoon.
“I expect each of your teacher teams to continue to identify your students’ areas of strength and areas that require extra attention,” Klein wrote. “This is particularly critical for those students who received low scores

Number of teachers rated unsatisfactory rose again last year

u-ratings-super-for-real-this-timeMore teachers than ever received unsatisfactory ratings last year, suggesting that the city’s push to rid the school system of more struggling teachers is working.
Principals gave unsatisfactory ratings to 1,813 teachers, 17 percent more than in 2009, according to data the city released today. They also denied tenure to 234 teachers this year, 80 percent more than last year. And

Told they passed, thousands of students failed state exams

Thousands of students are moving up to the next grade this fall even though they failed last year’s state reading and math tests.
Caught between two sets of conflicting test standards — one produced by the city, one by the state — over 10,000 students were wrongly labeled as passing or failing.
Some of them, about 1,807, will get to skip the last week of the summer session, which they had attended unnecessarily. The new state standards show that these students passed their exams.
But the vast majority of them, about 8,500, were initially told they passed and will shortly learn that they actually failed. City education officials have decided to promote these students to the next grade level, though in a typical

State's first Hmong charter school open for parent meetings - Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee #EDU #Education

State's first Hmong charter school open for parent meetings - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

State's first Hmong charter school open for parent meetings

Published: Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 - 1:30 pm
California's first Hmong public charter school, Yav Pem Suab Academy - Preparing for the Future Charter School, will hold it's first parent-student-teacher meet and greet from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. tonight at 7555 S. Land Park Drive, Sacramento.
Families will get a chance to learn about their
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/29/2923902/states-first-hmong-charter-school.html#mi_rss=Education#ixzz0v6seD0YV


Drexel scholarships focus on Hispanic leadership

Members of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce can apply for a scholarship to get a master's degree at Drexel University's center in downtown Sacramento.

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

NH moving ahead with education reforms - Boston.com

NH moving ahead with education reforms - Boston.com

NH moving ahead with education reforms

By Norma Love
Associated Press Writer / July 29, 2010
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CONCORD, N.H.—New Hampshire has missed out on federal Race to the Top funding twice, but is moving ahead with some education reforms anyway -- especially new ways to evaluate teachers.
The Department of Education is working on a new system to determine what teachers should be doing to be effective and develop a model evaluation for the state's school districts.