Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 1-3-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2


Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


Educators, politicians have stark reaction to Gov. Jerry Brown school funding revamp

School districts that have long struggled to educate large numbers of poor students or English learners could see a massive influx of cash under a new funding formula expected to be unveiled next week by Gov.





LA school police still ticketing thousands of young students

Tami Abdollah/KPCC L.A. city councilman Tony Cardenas and L.A. Unified board member Monica Garcia join students protesting citations in February. 
Even as Los Angeles authorities continue efforts to reform school-discipline standards, fresh data show that police from the city’s biggest school district are continuing to ticket thousands of young students, especially minorities, at disproportionate rates that critics charge are putting them on a track for dropping out.
Citation rates for last year are little changed from 2011 data. Disclosure of the 2011 data this past spring led 

REALITY TELEVISION

I’ve  never watched any reality t.v. programs.  I’ve seen snippets of them as I channel surf and I can’t believe their popularity.  It must be a generational thing. The content of the shows is what I feel the need to comment about.  I’ve previously written about how our school children are getting the exact education that they deserve. Very few families in this country have a true “culture of learning” and it’s reflected in the values and test scores of our students. The popularity of these reality t.v. shows should speak volumes about what young kids and young adults hold near and dear. When television shows such as Nova are as popular as reality t.v. shows, then I will listen to the critics that blame our schools and teachers for the failure of our students to achieve the desired standards. Our reality t.v. shows and our popular culture reflect our core values. Can anyone seriously say that a “culture of learning” has a high place in the average American family when people spend endless hours watching 

Please consider the following

Even the NRA agrees that a person with mental illness should not be able to purchase a gun.
But what if a person already has a gun and is diagnosed with a disqualifying mental condition?  Are we going to allow that person to continue to have access to guns?
CONSIDER THAT CAREFULLY.
Because if you agree that person should NOT have access to guns, then we would have to know that person has a gun.
Which means that every gun would have to be registered.
So let's acknowledge that we need to communicate appropriately when peopl

Sometimes They Need to Let Us Know, That They Know…

  Sometimes they need to know, that we know, that they are capable. Sometimes they need to know, that we know, that they are capable of so much more than what they might exhibit.   We switch classes for Literature Circles (Book Club), whatever you want to call it. I call it, “Let them read, [...]

Think tank to study privatizing most Postal Service operations

Source: [b]washington post[/b]

As members of Congress pledged Thursday to revive legislation to save the financially ailing U.S. Postal Service, a Washington think tank announced it will conduct an independent study of how the quasi-government agency could cede much of its operation to pr...

Despite ($1.04 billion) surplus, Michigan may need to cut school spending in 2013

Source: [b]Detroit News[/b]

January 3, 2013 at 5:00 pm
Despite surplus, Michigan may need to cut school spending in 2013
By Karen Bouffard
Detroit News Lansing Bureau


Lansing — Michigan will close the books on fiscal year 2011-12 with $1.04 billion more in general fund revenue tha...

NCAE Wins Challenge to Payroll Dues Ban

Source: [b]WRAL[/b]

[b]NCAE wins challenge to payroll dues ban[/b]

By Matthew Burns

Posted: 1:30 p.m. today

A Wake County judge has ruled a law prohibiting the North Carolina Association of Educators from using payroll deduction to collect dues from its members to be unconstituti...

For students' sake, Chicago must address poverty, violence

January 03, 2013
Recent tragedies related to gun violence have led to increased calls for more stringent gun control nationwide, but here in Chicago, atrocities occur daily. For some, it may be easier to obtain a gun than it is to get an education. More than 500 Chicagoans were killed due to gun violence in 2012. Of these deaths, 62 victims were children, and more than 440 children suffered gunshot wounds, according to various media outlets.
We are a city in crisis—because we are a city of poverty.





Your child’s future?

Do you want a monster corporation deciding what your child learns instead of your child’s teacher and school? Do you want a private company  to determine who gets certified as a teacher instead of a professional observation in the classroom? Do you want a for profit business to create the tools that evaluate your child’s [...]

Guest Post: Did the Tech fail or was there a failure to connect to the Tech?

I invited Myrdin Thompson to write a guest commentary on the article discussed in my last post, Tech May Have A Role, But Is Not Cure-All, For Parent Engagement.
Myrdin is Contributing Editor at MOMentumNation, Group Leader at RESULTSLouisville, Advocate for the UNF Shot@Life program, White House Champion of Change (Parents on Education), Regional Director at National Family Engagement Alliance, and public school parent of three students. She lives in Louisville, KY.
Our school district in Louisville, KY is similar in size and scope to the Dallas school district mentioned in a recent article about Parent Portal. We are a diverse, urban district, with a student population of just over 110,000, consisting of a large ESL (English as a second language) student population, and a robust magnet 


Making Parents Pay A School Anytime Their Child Is Given Detention Is Not A Wise Parent Engagement Strategy

The Noble Network has ten charter schools in Chicago. Parents are charged $5 everytime their child is given a detention:
In addition to receiving detention (and, thus, having to pay a fee) for violating rules like having their shoes untied and bringing potato chips to school, Noble Street students can rack up demerits for failing to sit up, make eye 

MLA Annual Convention Makes Faculty Diversity Issues a Priority

MLA ConventionMLA Convention
BOSTON — Nearly 8,000 literary scholars of all stripes braved sub-zero wind chills here to attend the 128th Modern Language Association Annual Convention which got underway Thursday. Among the hundreds of sessions covering a variety of topics related to American and European literature was one held yesterday titled, 


“Community School Model Seen as Valuable to Rural Areas”

Community School Model Seen as Valuable to Rural Areas is an interesting article over at Education Week.
I’ve written very positively about community schools in the past, as well as expressing my concerns about them.


Watching video of Bartow school board member, you have to wonder: How do these folks win elections?

Bartow County school board vice chair Angela Cornett made a smart decision in resigning her post after a troubling surveillance video captured her seemingly lurching into a teen attempting to hold a parking spot in a Walmart.
The video has now gone viral, and Cornett has been charged with reckless conduct.
The teen involved appeared on national TV to decry the incidentSeventeen-year-old Emily Gulledge is a Bartow County student. On the “Today” show, Emily said, “I was the child in the situation and she acted like the