The AFL-CIO and the rest of organized labor is working hard to save the Democrats’ butts this election. In These Times asks if there will be a return on the investment or just more attacks on us whiners?
Delaware senate teabagger candidate Christine O’Donnell is surprised to hear that the first amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state. She is so loony you have to figure the
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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Los Angeles CA (PRWEB) October 19, 2010
Today, BAM Radio Network, the education station online, announced that is has begun airing a special program titled "Waiting for Superman: Fact or Fiction?" The segment features Former U.S. Assistant Secretary, Diane Ravitch; Valerie Strauss, education writer at The Washington Post; Debra Viadero, associate editor atEducation Week; Justin Snider, a contributing editor at The Hechinger Report; and Jay Mathews, education columnist at The Washington Post, who also appeared in the movie. The panel discusses the diverse responses the controversial movie is eliciting among audiences outside, inside and across the education field.
"The important point that we should take away from this discussion is the link between
September 20, 2010
Andrea “Andie” Corso Endorsed by Democrats for Education Reform
SACRAMENTO, CA- With six weeks left in the Sacramento City Unified School District Board race, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) endorse Andie Corso for Sacramento School Board, District 2.
DFER, a nationally recognized political action committee, aimed at returning the Democratic Party to its place as a champion of children in America’s public education system. Andie Corso is the only school
After being tardy by a staggering 100 days, the governor and legislators on Oct. 8 passed the 2010-2011 budget bill. After suffering $17 billion in cuts over the past two years, public education is still being decimated. This budget includes the suspension of the voter-approved minimum funding guarantee Proposition 98, which defers hundreds of millions in funding that our schools desperately need now. This will be especially hard felt in the classrooms as it is the life-line for basic education funding. However, while this budget is devastating, schools are targeted to get more than what was originally proposed in the governor's May Revision by about $300 per student, and schools will eventually get the deferred dollars back.
I joined a group of Baltimore City teachers and educators from around the region Monday at the Landmark Theatre to view the controversial new documentary, "Waiting for Superman," a film whose exposure of longstanding failures in public education has recently spurred a negative discourse in the district.
Last week, Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teachers Union, cited the documentary, in part, for the defeat of a radical, reform-centric contract that teachers voted to reject. She said the contract was proposed at a time when "fear, frustration and distrust are at an all-time high," adding that "the situation has not been helped by the movie 'Waiting for Superman' and the teacher bashing that has occurred since its release."
In his first public statements about the movie since its release, city schools CEO Andres Alonso said the movie's "fundamental truth is effectively right" in that poor, black and Hispanic children should not be prisoners of their ZIP codes when it comes to access to education. He said that fundamental truth
Last week the Corporate Model School Reformers issued a manifesto. Like most manifestos, it’s simple and slick … and wrong.
And like most of what we get from Madison Avenue, let the buyer beware. Look past the platitudes and read the fine print. (User Guide: Platitudes underlined; fine print Translations in italics; followed by Reality Check):
My first year teaching was probably my least effective year. HARTFORD, Conn.—Members of a Yale fraternity that counts both Bush presidents among its famous alumni and whose pledges were ordered to chant obscenities against women are getting a visit from concerned officials of the national organization.
Delta Kappa Epsilon, which was founded at Yale in 1855, has been under fire since amateur video appeared online of pledges marching through the New Haven campus on Oct. 13, chanting about women in the context of necrophilia and a specific sexual act.
Some students and members of the Yale Women's Center board complained, and Delta Kappa Epsilon International Fraternity ordered the chapter to stop all pledge activities until further notice.
Although chapter leaders have apologized, the national organization said in a written statement that it is sending its director to New Haven this weekend to
Georgia, as a second-round winner in President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top competition, was already getting some attention for its ideas on education reform. For one thing, it’s among the few states that participated in the competition that plans to use some of its funding to pay for early education initiatives.
Today, the state is getting more attention with the announcement that Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta, has won the $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, which funds college scholarships for high school students. The county has outperformed similar districts in the state and also has one of the smallest achievement gaps. It was a finalist for the prize last year.
This year’s four finalists, each of which will receive $250,000 for college scholarships, are the Charlotte-
Sent to the Washington Post, October 19, 2010
There is overwhelming evidence that poverty is indeed the problem in education: Studies show that middle-class American children attending well-funded schools are among the highest achievers in the world. The best way to raise school achievement is to protect children from the disadvantages of poverty, through health care, nutrition, and access to books.
The D.C. schools dinner program (October 19) is a strong step in this direction: "Food insecurity" is related to lower reading ability, slower language development, behavior problems, and missing school. Improving nutrition and preventing childhood hunger will
Bill Maher presents viewers of his HBO series, Real Time, with a mix of satire and serious considerations of topics and ideas often ignored in our wider public discourse. During his 15 October 2010 episode—with panelists John Legend, Markos Moulitsas, Dana Loesch, and Dan Neil—Maher shifted the discussion to education after identifying the documentary Waiting for Superman a great film.
After praising the documentary, which has received unmatched media support including a week-long focus on education by NBC and an episode of Oprah dedicated to the film, Maher offered facts he had learned from the film. While Maher at first appeared to have accepted the film uncritically, he did turn on the basic argument of the documentary—that the teaching profession is bloated with bad teachers who need to be weeded out in order to save our schools and those children trapped in bad schools—and raised the possibility that educational
