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CORPORATE ED REFORM
What to do with Chicago's Abandonned Schools
Assuming that CPS goes ahead with their planned school actions, there will be nearly 60 abandoned schools located mostly in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. In previous mass closings, the cities wound up losing a lot of money on the schools, which soon became abandoned and derelict. Even The Chicago Tribune has called for the city to sell these buildings to charter schools, but the city has so far refused. Fortunately, there is a way for the city to re-purpose these buildings.
Let's face it, research shows that students who are involved in actions like these have a much higher rate of dropping out and that is only going to give them a higher rate of incarceration as adults. Since many of these kids are already growing up in a high crime neighborhood, most of them are probably going to wind up in prison.
Chicago has the chance here to become to incarceration what Silicon Valley is to micro chips. Best of all, the private prison industry is growing almost as fast as the charter school movement hence our politicians will still have a steady source of campaign dollars.
Now don't get me wrong, there is going to be some initial costs. Unlike Chicago Public Schools, prisons need
Group Discusses Solutions for Raising the Number of Hispanic Teachers
A student at Texas State University-San Marcos approached Dr. Jaime Chahin about 20 years ago and asked to borrow 20 dollars. Chahin offered directions to his house and instructed the young man to arrive early one Saturday morning. “I had him pick weeds from my yard and I paid him,” said Chahin, currently dean of the school’s College of Applied Arts. “I figured it was better than just giving him the money.”
Besides teaching a lesson on working for wants and needs, Chahin inspired the student to think beyond an undergraduate degree. The young man continued his studies at Michigan State and eventually earned a Ph.D.
California’s two largest public school teachers unions file to become defendants on a pending lawsuit that would radically change the teaching
Lawyers for California’s two largest teachers unions filed a motion in L.A. County Superior Court on Wednesday to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit that would radically alter tenure for public school teachers.
The lawsuit, known as Vergara vs. California, was filed in May, 2012 by Students Matter and a top constitutional law firm. The suit seeks to change five laws governing the teaching profession, namely the tenure provisions that give teachers wide job protections after 18 months on the job.
The California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers argued in the filing that existing defendants, including California’s Governor and State Superintendent of Public Instruction and others will not adequately represent teachers interests in the case.
California Federation of Teachers President Joshua Pechthalt does not want to to do away with teacher
N.C. Faculty, Graduate Students Criticize New Laws
DURHAM N.C. — A newly formed group of faculty and graduate students from several North Carolina universities is speaking out about new laws that the members believe will harm the state for years to come.
The group will meet Thursday at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Its members are from Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University, N.C. Central University, UNC Greensboro, and several other colleges and universities.
The members say the GOP-majority Legislature has already passed laws and has others planned that will impede economic recovery, restrict democracy and undercut reforms that promoted the common good.
UNC-Chapel Hill professor Hodding Carter III says participants will outline a better course for the state.
New Report Emphasizes Accountability from Secondary Schools
In order to bring about greater postsecondary opportunities and success for students from families of lesser economic means, more time and money should be directed toward high-achieving students who attend high-poverty schools.
That is one of the key points made in a new report titled “A Level Playing Field: How College Readiness Standards Change the Accountability Game.”
“These high-performing kids, particularly in high-poverty settings, are a really important group for us to take care of,” said John Cronin, director of the Kingsbury Center at the Northwest Evaluation Association, or NWEA, the organization that produced the report. “And schools should start thinking about this group as a group they need
The Frustrated Substitute Teacher
My friend The Frustrated Teacher wrote a quite funny, yet sad, FB the other night about a foray of his into substitute teaching. It really hits home at what is happening to our society and to our educational values.
With his permission, I am sharing it here.
Putting the 28 most dysfunctional kids in the same split 4th/5th class is a bad idea.
Today's experience marks the first time I have left a classroom because I couldn't handle the kids. Admittedly, they were running around with scissors threatening to kill each other, and there were 2 fistfights in the room, and 2 kids called their moms on banned cell phones, who then showed up at the door demanding I release their kids, or else....
Split the kids up. Move them to other rooms. Stop giving them boring worksheets (which were my sub plans for the day, and obviously what goes on most days, as the regular teacher can't handle them either, I hear). Stop coming in the class, Principal and her henchmen to tell them it's the African American kids who are shaming the AA adults, and that's why they should behave.
Clean the room; I saw a custodian.
When a parent shows up to pick up their kid, who called them from a phone they weren't supposed to have, only to complain that the sub is trying to teach and in the
With his permission, I am sharing it here.
Putting the 28 most dysfunctional kids in the same split 4th/5th class is a bad idea.Today's experience marks the first time I have left a classroom because I couldn't handle the kids. Admittedly, they were running around with scissors threatening to kill each other, and there were 2 fistfights in the room, and 2 kids called their moms on banned cell phones, who then showed up at the door demanding I release their kids, or else....
Split the kids up. Move them to other rooms. Stop giving them boring worksheets (which were my sub plans for the day, and obviously what goes on most days, as the regular teacher can't handle them either, I hear). Stop coming in the class, Principal and her henchmen to tell them it's the African American kids who are shaming the AA adults, and that's why they should behave.
Clean the room; I saw a custodian.
When a parent shows up to pick up their kid, who called them from a phone they weren't supposed to have, only to complain that the sub is trying to teach and in the
Finch aide drops title of Deputy Mayor for Education
Earlier this month, if you had visited the Council of Urban Professionals’ website you would have read that, “Joshua Thompson is the Director of Education and Youth Policy and the Deputy Mayor for Education for the city of Bridgeport, CT. Prior to this position, he was the Program Analyst and Projects Manager for the Deputy Mayor [...]
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Legislators lower bar to earn HOPE Grant for technical colleges
More technical college students will now receive the HOPE Grant.
The General Assembly passed a bill tonight that lowers the GPA necessary to win the lottery-funded grant, which applies to technical colleges.
House Bill 372 qualifies students for the grant if they maintain a 2.0 grade-point average. The current mandate is 3.0, but the change would reinstate the rule that existed before lawmakers overhauled HOPE two years ago.
The General Assembly passed a bill tonight that lowers the GPA necessary to win the lottery-funded grant, which applies to technical colleges.
House Bill 372 qualifies students for the grant if they maintain a 2.0 grade-point average. The current mandate is 3.0, but the change would reinstate the rule that existed before lawmakers overhauled HOPE two years ago.
Does a parent have a choice when the school tolerates bullying? Was this protective mama bear out of line?
I’ve been watching a subtitled Swedish mystery series, “Annika Bengtzon: Crime Reporter,” in which the feisty protagonist is a crime reporter for a major newspaper. In the episode I watched last night, Annika is upset because her sweet 8-year-old son is being bullied and the school refuses to act even after the bully pushes her son off the monkey bars and seriously injures him.So, Annika strides onto the school playground, confronts the bully as he terrorizes another child and warns him
Netfix Boss Pushes Anti-Teacher Union Theme in House of Cards
Reed Hastings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_HastingsJump to California State Board of Education: He became interested in educational reform in ... State Board of Education, and in 2001, Hastings became its ...Reed Hastings On How To Build A $20 Billion Education Juggernaut ...
www.forbes.com/.../reed-hastings-on-what-it-takes-to-grow-a-20-billi...May 11, 2012 – REED HASTINGS: About half my work in education is US political reform around school
Idaho state House OKs plan to give school districts more leverage in labor negotiations
Another bill would require the teachers union to prove it represents a majority of a district’s educators before it can bargain for them.
Running on Empty? 25 Tricks to Jumpstart Routine Lessons
This also holds true in a classroom. Students may be working quietly and the teacher might be content but one question or comment from a student or the teacher can turn that quiet into bubbling sea of chatter.
Beyond textbooks and worksheets, at the core of every basic lesson lies the key to teaching students anything
Why Immigration Is A Women’s Matter
(Photo: In a packed Presbyterian church in D.C., the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health brought down the house with chants for dignity and respect of all immigrant women. The event, held on March 18, 2013, brought out 500 people, including NLIRH members, Congressional leaders, partner organizations and the media.)
Last week, I had the honor of partaking in a series of events in D.C. to advocate for immigrant women. I attended a rally put on by the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. As part of the We Belong Togetherwomen’s coalition, I attended a reception and workshops, listened to the personal stories of immigrant women and visited Congressional offices to ask that they include the needs of immigrant women in any comprehensive