Tuesday, October 5, 2010

NJ Spotlight | The Newark Challenge: Solve for Per-Pupil Costs

The Newark Challenge: Solve for Per-Pupil Costs
Determining what Newark spends each year on its students can depend on what’s being counted -- and who’s doing the counting

By John Mooney, October 6 in Education |Post a Comment

Need proof that the debate over how to improve Newark public schools is going to be hard-fought and contentious? Just look at the dispute over what New Jersey’s largest school system spends on each child’s education.

Gov. Chris Christie has crisscrossed the state quoting a $24,000 per-student figure as he promotes his education reform proposals, led by his plans for overhauling Newark schools with the help of a $100 million gift from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“How can you fail at $24,000 per student?” Christie said, disparaging the district at an Old Bridge appearance last week. “Go to Newark and see what’s happening, and see

“What I Learned at NBC’s Education Nation Summit” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“What I Learned at NBC’s Education Nation Summit” What I Learned at NBC’s Education Nation Summit is a must-read post by teacher Brian Jones. He participated in one of the panels of NBC’s Education Nation. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Teacher-Bashing “Waiting For Superman” ...

“Teach!” “Teach!” is a slideshow from Slate showing educators from throughout the world. It’s in honor of today being World Teacher’s Day. I’m adding the link to The Best Resources To Learn About World Teachers Day.

“Emperor penguins in Antarctica: a gallery of pictures” Emperor penguins in Antarctica: a gallery of pictures is a slideshow from The Telegraph. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Penguins.

N.J. law may bar Gov. Christie, Mayor Booker from taking active role in $100M Newark schools grant | NJ.com

N.J. law may bar Gov. Christie, Mayor Booker from taking active role in $100M Newark schools grant

Published: Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 9:45 PM

Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger
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Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerState law does not allow Newark Mayor Cory Booker, left, and Gov. Chris Christie, right, to make decisions on behalf of the Newark school district, which is under state control.

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TRENTON — Two weeks ago, Gov. Chris Christie and Mayor Cory Booker appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and began a media blitz, proclaiming their pledge to jointly transform Newark’s failing public school system. One problem: State law does not allow for such an effort.

Acting Commissioner of Education Rochelle Hendricks testified today before a joint legislative committee that the state’s school takeover statute — the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) — does not authorize gubernatorial or mayoral participation in efforts to reform a district under state control. That responsibility rests squarely on the commissioner of education’s shoulders, the law says.

"No, the state is not relinquishing its authority in the Newark schools," Hendricks said. "The governor is looking for the mayor to do what he said, which is be a mayor

Lesson Plan: Discussing Bullying and Antigay Attitudes - NYTimes.com

A Troubling Trend: Discussing Bullying and Antigay Attitudes

By SARAH KAVANAGH AND HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO

Tyler Clementi.Go to related article »

SOCIAL STUDIES

Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.

Overview | What is the societal climate for antigay bullying in schools and a recent rash of related student suicides? What, if anything, can be done to make schools safer and more inclusive? In this lesson, students examine and discuss responses to the recent suicides that have occurred amid antigay bullying and complete an optional campaign to foster safety and acceptance at their own school.

Materials | Copies of handouts, including the Bullying in Our School Communityquestionnaire (PDF); resources for creating optional campaigns as described in the Going Further section below

Note to Teacher | This lesson raises sensitive issues regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teenagers, and the article is about the suicides of several young people. As always, please

Jealous of College Courses

by By CAREN OSTEN GERSZBERG

The modern college course guide -- including those on "Harry Potter" and "Star Trek'' -- as seen through a mother's eyes.

This Week In Education: Thompson: Slow Down and Teach for Understanding

Thompson: Slow Down and Teach for Understanding

The recent NYT story about the spread of "Singapore Math" explains why its slower pacing gives students the foundation for building complex skills, and provides a corrective to the "in one ear and out of the other" dynamic that has been the achilles heel of America's test-driven schooling. My secondary school experience also says that we need to slo

Quote: Union Superpowers Fading * [image: Quotes2] The teachers unions continue to wield enough power to deny choices to these students, but their days as political supermen are numbered. *-- WSJ editorial page

Video Interlude: The Levitating Frog NPR tells me that the guy who won the Nobel prize for physics this year is the same guy who won an Ignoble prize in 2004 for a classroom demonstration showing a frog being levitated by magnets (the video of which you will now watch despite all the ...

The Answer Sheet - Report: Schools, teacher ed programs ignore how kids really learn

Report: Schools, teacher ed programs ignore how kids really learn

This post was written by James P. Comer, associate dean of medicine at Yale University and co-founder of the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program, and Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. At the request of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, with funding from a partnership between the Foundation for Child Development and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Comer and Pianta co-chaired a panel on developmental science issues for the national organization responsible for assuring the quality of programs that educate the nation’s teachers and school leaders. The panel produced a report, "The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Help Educators Improve Student Achievement: Policy Recommendations," summarizing the panel’s two reports, all of which can be found here. It was released today. By James Comer and Robert Pianta Good teachers have always understood that students

Pa auditor wants moratorium on new charter schools | AP | 10/05/2010

Pa auditor wants moratorium on new charter schools

PETER JACKSON

The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner on Tuesday called for a moratorium on new charter and cyber-charter schools, pending an overhaul of a funding system that he said has resulted in serious inequities in what taxpayers pay to finance these public school alternatives.

At a Capitol news conference, Wagner released a "special report" based on a review of 18 charter schools and information from the state Department of Education.

He said the root of the problem is a state law that requires individual school districts to pay a charter-school tuition rate per pupil based on a district's own costs. That results in different

ASCD Inservice: Exploring Social Entrepreneurship

Exploring Social Entrepreneurship

Business theory without real-life applications bored Bijal Damani's 11th and 12th grade students. Looking to deliver content in an engaging way, she had her students identify, acquire, market, and sell products at a school-based social entrepreneurship event. The experience tested students' conceptual knowledge and also "soft" skills like salesmanship.

By tying the entrepreneurial activity to a social cause

Students vs. The Tests � Failing Schools

Students vs. The Tests

OCTOBER 5, 2010

by Sabrina

Sylvie Baldwin has chosen to skip the SAT and the ACT because she feels those numbers can’t represent who she is. Instead, she’s choosing to use the time she’d spend preparing for and taking those exams to lobby legislators to include environmental education in driver’s ed programs. Go Sylvie!

The Bartleby Project is also encouraging students to peacefully opt out of the tests required under NCLB. (Note: The audio in this video is done by robot voices. They’re not super harsh, but

Equal time for AFT's Randi Weingarten | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Equal time for AFT's Randi Weingarten

by Paul Socolar

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, is a central figure in a segment of the new film "Waiting for 'Superman'" that describes teacher unions as a "menace" - a major obstacle to improving schools that are performing poorly.

Given the film's unflattering portrayal of Weingarten, whose union represents Philadelphia teachers, it was good to get to see her and hear her message unedited at Saturday's One Nation Working Together rally in Washington that aimed to shift national priorities toward education, jobs, and peace.

Albany high schoolers told: Watch your mouth or watch the suspensions pile up | OregonLive.com

Albany high schoolers told: Watch your mouth or watch the suspensions pile up

Published: Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 11:06 AM Updated: Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 11:21 AM

The Associated Press
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ALBANY -- South Albany High School to students: Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will get you suspended.

South is cracking down on cursing this year, to the tune of suspending students any time their, um, stuff hits the fan.

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Principal Brent Belveal, now one month into his first year at South Albany, said staff members told him shortly after he joined the administration that profanity was a campus concern.

The new policy: Mention a potentially off-color word -- that one that rhymes with "witch," say -- and you'll probably get a warning. Stronger language means stronger measures.

"If they drop an "F-bomb," which is one people really get offended by, that's going to be a

Mayor Daley's Last "Principal For A Day" - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Mayor Daley's Last "Principal For A Day"

by Alexander Russo

It's the best or worst day of the year, depending on your perspective -- the annual "Principal For A Day" program coming up in a couple of weeks (October 21). This is Mayor Daley's last of these (as mayor, at least) so CPS is pulling out all the stops.

See below then tell us who's coming to your school, or the best and worst PFAD you've ever had, or what it's like to BE a PFAD, or how to get to be one if you really are into that kind of thing.

Annual Principal for a Day at Chicago Public Schools Nears;

Tribute to Mayor Planned as Part of Festivities

Chicago Public Schools is gearing up for the 13^th year of Principal for a Day (PFAD), which will take place on Thursday, October 21, 2010. PFAD is the annual program that encourages

Inequality � The Quick and the Ed

Inequality

by Chad Aldeman

A recent study tested whether showing University of California employees where they could access a database with the salaries of their co-workers would change how they felt about their own job. It did, but it an asymmetric way. Workers discovering that they earned more than their peers experienced no gains in job satisfaction, while those discovering they earned less than their co-workers had a noticeable decline in job satisfaction and were more likely to indicate they’d be looking for a new job in the next year.

In K-12 education, teachers already know, or easily could find out, the salary of their co-worker down the hall.