Thursday, February 3, 2011

School Report Cards Coming in Late Once Again - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

3Feb

School Report Cards Coming in Late Once AgainComments (2) | 9:35 am

Report cards that detail test scores, expulsion rates, teacher salaries and other information on San Diego Unified schools are tardy once again, making it harder for them to serve their supposed purpose.

Under state law, the reports are supposed to be done by February to help parents make decisions about where to send their children to school. Parents in San Diego Unified are supposed to submit applications soon if they want their child to go to another school, instead of just sticking with their neighborhood school.

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3Feb

Point Loma Talks Charter SchoolsComments (1) | 9:28 am

Hundreds of parents, teachers and principals packed the Barnes Tennis Center in Point Loma last night to hear a panel discuss a provocative question: Are charter schools a better way?

The Union-Tribune summed up the event well in its article. If you want more of the play-by-play on everything from tenure to how charters are funded, you can also read the tweets by me and others at the event, including Point Loma teacher Jennifer Roberts and parent blogger Paul Bowers, under the hashtag #plcs.

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Schools Matter: Join NAACP President Ben Jealous and Thousands of Marchers in Raleigh Feb. 12

Join NAACP President Ben Jealous and Thousands of Marchers in Raleigh Feb. 12

by Jim Horn

From IndyWeek.com:

National NAACP President Ben Jealous will be back in Raleigh a week from Saturday. His presence is meant to focus the 5th annual HK on J march on the issue of school resegregation, with the Wake County battle over

L.A. teachers union among groups seeking answers on running 13 schools | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

L.A. teachers union among groups seeking answers on running 13 schools

Several groups, including the Los Angeles public schools teachers union, are expressing concern that the L.A. Unified School District has postponed a decision on who will run three low-performing schools and 10 new campuses.

The Board of Education was originally supposed to decide in mid-February, but the nation’s second-largest school system announced this week that it has pushed back the deadline a month.

Groups competing to run the schools include local school district administrators, teams of district teachers and charter schools, which are independently run and usually nonunion.

Because of the delay, school board members will not have to vote on who gets to run the

Education Week: Judge Sides With Families in Parent-Trigger Case

Judge Sides With Families in Parent-Trigger Case

By The Associated Press

Compton, Calif.

A Los Angeles judge issued a temporary injunction Thursday against the Compton Unified School District after six parents and their children sued, alleging that district officials were illegally trying to obstruct an effort to convert a failing elementary school to a charter school.

The injunction blocks the district from implementing a complicated process to verify signatures on a petition submitted by parents, said Mark Holscher, a lawyer for the families. The next hearing is Feb. 24.

The lawsuit was sparked by the district's move to verify signatures on a petition submitted by 61 percent of parents at McKinley Elementary School in December, stating

Last Stand for Children First: Oh the Tests You Will Take

Oh the Tests You Will Take

by Last Stand for Children

Oh The Tests You Will Take
By Nate Peele

Congratulations!
Today is the best
You’re off now to School!
To take your first test!

You have your eraser.
You have your number twos.

Colorado\'s SB 126 Would Allow In-State Tuition of Undocumented - Hispanically Speaking News

Colorado’s SB 126 Would Allow In-State Tuition of Undocumented Students

On Wednesday, four Democratic state legislators from Colorado proposed a new bill that would allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

If certain criteria were met, SB 126 would allow for in-state tuition, said Rep. Joe Miklosi (Denver), one of the bill’s presenters. He explained that it would not create more expenses for the state, because the students would not be eligible for state education subsidies.

“Colorado does not have to invest a single cent,” he said.

According to the bill, once the undocumented students graduated high school, they would have to apply to

Michelle Rhee to meet with governor, lawmakers next week | Get Schooled

Michelle Rhee to meet with governor, lawmakers next week

11:14 am February 3, 2011, by Maureen Downey

Michelle Rhee

The House Education Committee and Gov. Nathan Deal will meet with former DC chancellor and education reformer of the moment Michelle Rhee next week.

Rhee now heads StudentsFirst, a group dedicated to education reform beginning with “evaluating teachers based on evidence of student results rather than arbitrary judgments.” With Georgia poised to reform its teacher evaluations as part of its Race to the Top commitment, Rhee will likely be talking about how best to do that with legislators.

Just received this formal announcement:

In lieu of our regular weekly meeting next week, the House Education Committee members

Court blocks Compton from checking parent petition - San Jose Mercury News

Court blocks Compton from checking parent petition

By CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press

Posted: 02/03/2011 11:03:43 AM PST

Updated: 02/03/2011 12:37:33 PM PST

COMPTON, Calif.—A Los Angeles judge has temporarily blocked the Compton Unified School District from implementing a complicated process to verify signatures on a petition submitted by parents to convert a failing elementary school to an independent charter.

Mark Holscher, lawyer for six parents and their children, says Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien granted the temporary injunction Thursday morning, after the parents filed a lawsuit against the district.

The next court hearing on the lawsuit will be Feb. 24.

The lawsuit was sparked by the district's move to verify signatures on a petition submitted by 61 percent of parents at McKinley Elementary School in December, stating they want the school to be turned over to an independent

Robert Reich (Why the Republican Budget Plan is a Hairball.)

Why the Republican Budget Plan is a Hairball.

The federal budget is $3.8 trillion.

The Republicans have just come up with their plan to cut the federal budget. They’ve found $32 billion of cuts.

Their fiery campaign rhetoric, fierce determination, righteous indignation, and bloviated anger have summoned forth a hairball.

What happened to John Boehner’s $100 billion budget-cutting commitment? What became of Paul Ryan’s big ideas? Where did all the roaring and raging on the right during the 2010 election go?

This is embarrassing.

I once had a dog who thought he was the fiercest thing in the county. He wasn’t the brightest dog in the world. I

Del Valle for Mayor | For All Chicago For Every Neighborhood: Web Video: Boost Neighborhood Schools--Progress Illinois

Web Video: Boost Neighborhood Schools--Progress Illinois

by Joanna2011

From Progress Illinois, 2.3.2011
by Micah Maidenberg

Miguel del Valle's mayoral campaign is highlighting an effective new web video that emphasizes a point so simple it seems to have been largely overlooked in the debate about education in Chicago's mayoral race: the vast, vast majority of Chicago Public School students don't attend selective enrollment schools. They don't attend charters. They attend neighborhood schools that need support.

Del Valle, throughout the course of the mayoral race, has been out front in talking about helping neighborhood schools. Mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel, meanwhile, is deeply invested in a particular kind of school reform (as is, in large part, Gery Chico), and hasn't discussed them as much. Emanuel has said he wants to ramp up the pace of "turnarounds" at CPS and keep rolling out charter schools. He backs the Performance Counts bill in Springfield, which would make it harder for teachers to strike (the Chicago Teachers Union hasn't walked out

solidaridad: It's Official, the LA Weekly is Ben Austin's personal public relations firm

It's Official, the LA Weekly is Ben Austin's personal public relations firm

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"There's nothing the matter with teachers that a little less unionization and more COMPETITION couldn't cure." — Ann Coulter (racist reactionary right wing pundit)

"It would force the district to learn how to run great schools by forcing them to COMPETE." — Ben Austin (Executive Director LAPU/PR)

Defend Public Schools from Corporate Charter-Voucher Charlatans

Defend Public Schools from Corporate Charter-Voucher Charlatans

Caroline Grannan's latest brilliant article exposing the nightmare caused by pariah Ben Austin and his band of paid organizers trying to establish corporate charters in Compton is Powerful "Parent" Trigger operators target vulnerable school; attack misfires. In it she links to yet another of right-wing reactionary journalist Patrick McDonald's cheerleading pieces for the Walton Foundation and Gates Foundation funded corporate charter front group

Tom King's Blog of De-Fog!: Sherpas and the Race to the Top of the Peak

Sherpas and the Race to the Top of the Peak

by Dr. Tom

In the words of Jerry Springer (remember him from the early days of TV mayhem?) "What is going on here?"

We've got the President and Ed Sec Duncan trying to get all the schools racing to the head of pinnacle. Never mind that you can fit many more angels on the head of a pin that you can schools. Anyone with commonsense knows there isn't room there for 16,000 school districts, 100,000 schools, let alone 50+ million students. Commonsense is very uncommon in DC these days.

Even if we could get all of K-12 education moving that upward direction, whatever that means, there's not enough sustaining funds to pay all the Sherpas of the world to get us or keep us there. And, if you look at the research, any school that makes it to, or even near, the top doesn't stay there very long.

The sherpas, in this analogy, are the 3 million teachers who labor incessantly to help learners learn and scale

'Parent-Trigger' Proponents Sue Compton's School District | Mother Jones

'Parent-Trigger' Proponents Sue Compton's School District

by Kristina Rizga

The "Parent-Trigger" saga at Compton's McKinley Elementary School continues with a new twist today. From Parent Revolution's press release:

"McKinley parents—along with pro bono lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis filed a lawsuit against Compton Unified School District for Compton Unified's illegal infringement upon the constitutional rights of McKinley parents and children.
The legal complaint against Compton Unified (Murphy et al v. Compton Unified) details not only violations of the Parent Trigger law itself, but violations of the constitutional rights of parents and children by the Compton Unified School District. Having already denied the children of McKinley

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CENSORSHIP LIFTED: Fifth-grader will be allowed to perform song mentioning Jesus at LA-area school

CENSORSHIP LIFTED: Fifth-grader will be allowed to perform song mentioning Jesus at LA-area school California Catholic Daily | News release from Alliance Defense Fund |http://bit.ly/fdV1Ie Feb. 2, 2011 - LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced Tuesday that they will no longer prohibit a 5th-grade student from performing ...

ARCHDIOCESE MAY BE BACKING OFF PLANS TO EXTEND SCHOOL YEAR: After complaints from parents, archdiocese officials say they are leaving the decision on extending elementary school schedules by 20 days to individual campuses. By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/fzaO8Z Ex-UCLA athlete Danny Farmer plays with Immaculate Conception School students. The archdiocese had wanted to extend the school year by 20 days. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / ...

INCOMING LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT PLEDGES TO WORK FOR ‘REBIRTH’ OF SCHOOLS By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze | http://bit.ly/fBRWF1 3 Feb 2011 - In his first public speech on his vision for the nation's second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified's incoming superintendent on Wednesday pledged to work rapidly ...

This Week In Education: Money: The Education Business Isn't That Easy

Money: The Education Business Isn't That Easy

by Alexander Russo

It's easy to think that there's lots of money to be made from K12 education, given the size of the market and the theoretically easy pickings. But from the business side it's not quite so simple. Take a look at this chart (the red line are K12 education companies) and the accompanying report from Baird (PDF) and see for yourself. Or, just imagine for a minute what it would be

To close schools or not to close, that is the question | EdNews Parent

Ask an Expert: My daughter hardly eats. What can I do? *Q. It seems like my daughter hardly eats anything. She isn’t underweight, but I worry about her getting the nutrition she needs. Could I be feeding her too much? I thought growing kids needed to eat a lot of food.* *A*. We often forget that our ...

To close school or not to close, that is the question Yippea! We’re all back at school and work today. Of course, this is old news to students in Denver Public Schools, the only major metro area district to send kids to school Wednesday, despite the chilly temps. We are curious what you have to think ...

This Week In Education: Sattler: The SIG Success Story -- So Far

Sattler: The SIG Success Story -- So Far [image: image from scholasticadministrator.typepad.com] The US Department of Education is some kinda happy about SIG. This week at the National Title I Conference in Tampa, Florida, Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education Thelma ...

Events: Don't Forget Tonight's Education Happy Hour [image: image from nwfilmforum.files.wordpress.com] It's sunny but cold in NYC and that's good enough reason for any and all of you who are in NYC today to head over to Stitch and join your colleagues and antagonists for a warming beverage today at ...

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