Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Duncan to 'i3' Losers: Don't Complain, Demand More Money - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Duncan to 'i3' Losers: Don't Complain, Demand More Money

by Michele McNeil

Today is the deadline for districts, schools, and nonprofits to apply for Investing in Innovation grants, and when U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the NewSchools Venture Fund Summit at noon, already 800 had flooded in.
More than 2,000 are expected by today's 4:30 p.m. deadline. (A quick side-note: The department has extended the i3 deadline to April 30 for applicants who were affected by the massive flooding in Tennessee earlier this month.)
With a mere $650 million available (which pales next to the $4 billion available for Race to the Top), it's fair to say tens of hundreds of applicants will go home empty-handed.
And Secretary Duncan, who is trying to convince Congress to extend the i3 competition as part of the department's fiscal 2011 budget, has a message for losers:
"I need you not to scream about the process" and the scoring system, Duncan told about 600 in attendance at

News: Education | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News

22 - 1: Should Texas change elementary class sizes?
	1:58 PM Wed, May 12, 2010 \| Permalink \| Yahoo! Buzz William McKenzie/Editorial Columnist Bio \| E-mail \| News tips

What do you think about lifting the limit the state has placed on K-4 classes? Schools are supposed to limit classes to 22 students per teacher. But state legislators are considering lifting that limit in order to help save money. In this editorial that ran today, we urged them not to go down that road.

I support that view, even though some reports say that class size is not really so determinative. It just seems logical that teachers will have more time for individual students if they have fewer kids to educate each day. That alone

Dallas ISD may cut some special ed teachers

There is some concern that the Dallas ISD may cut some special education teaching positions as school leaders grapple with next year's budget.

2ND CENTURY

UC Davis is launching one of its most sweeping experiments to date as it musters the environmental expertise, innovation and enthusiasm of an entire campus community to achieve a sustainable second century in the univerisity’s history. By dissolving boundaries between disciplines, UC Davis is transforming into a model of sustainability using research developed on campus and elsewhere. The efforts go far beyond recycling paper, bottles and cans as the campus seeks to become “zero-waste” by 2020.

MORE ABOUT OUR SUSTAINABLE SECOND CENTURY

Breaking Records at Age 75 Women's Conference

Breaking Records at Age 75

BREAKING RECORDS AT AGE 75My Quest to Ski Both Poles

Architects of Change

Barbara Hillary, Public Motivational Speaker

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An interview with Barbara Hillary

Need a little inspiration to help you achieve your goals? Look no further than Barbara Hillary. At age 75 she decided to ski to the North Pole -- setting the record as the first African American woman to do so. This January, she's planning to set another record by skiing to the South Pole. Find out what keeps her going -- and the advice she has for you.

What motivated you, at age 75 and as a lung cancer survivor, to ski to the North and South Poles?

When I retired I wanted to do something interesting. I looked around and saw that many retired people go on cruises, but I could think of nothing worse than being stuck on a ship with married people!

I saw an ad with a photograph of polar bears in Manitoba, Canada, and that sounded exciting. So I went up and photographed polar bears and fell in love with the beauty of the arctic. Then I learned “mushing” or dog sledding – then how to operate a snowmobile – and as a natural progression, I started to read about the North Pole. And lo and behold I discovered Matthew Henson, a black gentleman who went with Robert E. Peary on the first expedition to successfully reach the North Pole. I discovered that no black woman had ever gone to the pole. So I made it my personal mission to go.

Did your family and friends support you?

8 'Renaissance' provider matches announced | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

8 'Renaissance' provider matches announced

by Paul Socolar

UPDATED
District staff has proposed today a resolution that the SRC authorize these matches between Renaissance Schools and turnaround teams:

Bluford and Daroff: Universal Companies
Douglass: Young Scholars Charter School
Harrity, Mann, and Smedley: Mastery Charter
Stetson: ASPIRA of PA.
Potter-Thomas: Promise Academy (managed by the superintendent's office).

West Philadelphia was not assigned to a provider - more news on this to come.
Potter-Thomas was considering providers as a Renaissance School but has been designated a Promise

The Math on IBR � The Quick and the Ed

The Math on IBR

by Erin Dillon

Daniel Bennett from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity writes in an op-ed atForbes.com that income-based repayment is a “sweet deal for students”. Sure, IBR may sound like a great bargain for students–you pay less than you normally would each month and then taxpayers cover any remaining balance after 20 years. But the reality is a little different.
To demonstrate his point, Bennett includes a chart in the op-ed showing the monthly “savings” for students who enter IBR based on their income and debt levels. But what the chart doesn’t include is the cost of the extended repayment term (20 years, not 10 years) and assumptions about increases in salary over 20 years.
To get the IBR “sweet deal”, students need to maintain consistently low wages for 20 years. Getting a few thousand dollars in loan forgiveness is probably not worth a career of low wages for most people. And with the extended repayment term students actually end up paying more total because of accrued interest.
The math changes, of course, for students entering public service. For those borrowers, they simply need to maintain a low-enough paying job for 10 years to qualify for loan forgiveness. This increases the cost to taxpayers, but it also may prevent high debt levels from discouraging students from entering public service – a

Schools Matter: Charter School Student Beating by Teacher Captured on Camera Phone

Charter School Student Beating by Teacher Captured on Camera Phone

by Jim Horn

Reviewed by a Student on October 10, 2008
(Rating: 1 / 5) Report As Inappropriate
this is the worst school to regester at because their is nothing but fights all day every and 24/7

Are you fan like the President of the "No Excuses" charter schools with no oversight, except for what student camera phones can provide? Then you may enjoy Jamie's House Charter School, where a special education

Multiple Pathways Report - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Submits Report and Recommendations to Increase Number of College- and Career-Ready Students Recommends Expanding Linking Learning Approach to Transform High Schools

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today released a report and recommendations about expanding a high school transformation approach that links rigorous academic course work, career technical training, work-based learning opportunities and greater student supports. The approach, originally known as Multiple Pathways, is now referred to as Linked Learning.

"Linked Learning is a promising approach to transforming our high schools so students graduate career and college ready and ready to be successful in the global economy of the 21st Century," O'Connell said. "This report provides a roadmap for policymakers as they consider ways to systemically transform our high schools and significantly improve results for children."

The report, titled Multiple Pathways to Student Success, Envisioning the New California High School, was written in response to AB 2648 authored in 2008 by speaker-emeritus Karen Bass. The legislation required the California Department of Education (CDE) to explore the feasibility of establishing and expanding the Linked Learning approach in increasing success for California's high school students. Funding for the report came from the James Irvine Foundation and the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006.

"Multiple Pathways helps keep kids in school—keeps them in the game until they cross their own personal goal line – whether it's college, a profession, or a good job you can raise a family on," Bass said. "Multiple Pathways doesn't just prepare students, it empowers them."

Students enrolled in a pathways program are more likely to pass the California High School Exit Examination as sophomores, to graduate from high school, and to complete college entrance requirements. Students in these career-themed programs also get hands-on learning experience in real-world learning environments.

"Linked Learning is a way to remove what is now a false and faulty separation between academic rigor and career preparation. Our students need both if they are to succeed," O'Connell said.

Anne Stanton, Director of the James Irvine Foundation's Youth program said, "We applaud this report's bold vision for transforming high schools in California to promote increased student engagement and achievement. We look forward to working with the Department of Education and educators across the state to make high-quality Linked Learning programs available to all interested students."

L.A. Area Chamber Senior Vice President of Education & Workforce Development David Rattray said, "We support the bold and creative recommendations within this report, which answer the challenge of looking at a total transformation of California high schools through the Linked Learning approach. The business community has been and will continue to be engaged in driving reform at school sites helping to guide curriculum and projects and provide students with real-world examples of how they can use what they are learning in the workplace."

The report includes a number of key recommendations for policymakers and education advocates to consider, including:

Revising the California Education Code to state that the purpose of high school is to educate and prepare all students to be postsecondary and career ready upon high school graduation
Moving the high school system from a seat-time/course completion system to a system where students progress based upon mastery of identified standards
Augmenting the accountability system to foster college and career readiness, increasing of graduation rates, and decreasing the number of dropouts
Changing the financing of high schools to an enrollment-based system and tie a portion of the funding to student graduation and retaining students in school
Expanding curriculum and instruction options support rigor and relevance within the high school system
Consolidating Career Technical Education into a coherent system
Improving the conditions to establish and expand Linked Learning programs.

The AB 2648 Executive Summary and full report, Multiple Pathways to Student Success: Envisioning the New California High School, will be posted at 11:00 a.m. today at the CDE Web site: .Assembly Bill 2648 Multiple Pathways - High School.

“Wanted: Peer Reviewers for Promise Neighborhoods” | Engaging Parents In School...

“Wanted: Peer Reviewers for Promise Neighborhoods”

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve written about efforts by the Obama Administration to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone.
The Department of Education is now seeking peer reviewers for grant applications by groups who want to create these “Promise Neighborhoods.”

Maryland PIRC Website

This Week In Education Quote: Charter Groups "Attack Every Hint Of Criticism"

This Week In Education

Quote: Charter Groups "Attack Every Hint Of Criticism"

by Alexander Russo

"No one's saying there are not some very good charter schools out there, but this "attack every hint of criticism" stuff is like using a sledgehammer to swat a fly." - Charles Lussier, Baton Rouge Advocate (see CER email below)

Dear Friends:

The Center for Education Reform responded quickly and decisively after The New York Timespublished an article that maligned charter schools using faulty and discredited data.

We immediately issued a press statement clarifying the record, we placed a letter to the editorin The New York Times, and we're planning for a "Fight the Myths" campaign.

Now, as promised, we're sending along a Toolkit that will help each charter school advocate

Confirmed: NEA Active Membership Down 20,000 | Intercepts

Confirmed: NEA Active Membership Down 20,000

by Mike Antonucci

When NEA has good news to report, you never have a problem getting hold of it. I recall at one NEA convention I was handed membership figures that were about a week old. They showed substantial growth in all categories.
This year it hasn’t been so easy. NEA’s official numbers for 2009 seemed to contradict the internal reports delivered to the union’s board of directors. And while the latest numbers are much more realistic, they still leave some unanswered questions.
According to NEA sources, the union lost almost 25,000 active certificated members compared to last year at this time, but picked up an additional 4,000 education support employees as members. NEA also reported gains in students, retirees and higher education faculty. Unfortunately for NEA, the gains in those lower dues

Salazar to deliver commencement address at Denver school Education - The Denver Post

Education - The Denver Post

Salazar to deliver commencement address at Denver school 205/12/2010U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will deliver the commencement address at the Denver School of Science and Technology, a home-state consolation prize resulting from the President's High School Commencement Challenge.

Brain bank at CU aims to help find cause, cure of MS 305/12/2010 - With the recent relocation of the Rocky Mountain MS Center's brain bank, CU becomes home to the largest MS-exclusive collection of human brains in North America for the purpose of finding the cause and cure of the neurological disease.

Colorado House ready to vote on controversial teacher reform bill05/11/2010 - A controversial teacher bill took another step forward in its legislative journey Monday as it narrowly passed the House appropriations committee to set up a vote today on the House floor.

Teacher to Teacher: Teacher Effectiveness and ESEA – ED.gov Blog

Teacher to Teacher: Teacher Effectiveness and ESEA

Throughout the spring, the Department of Education’s Teaching Ambassador Fellows have been having conversations with teachers about a new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Our job is to listen and contribute our collective teacher voices to policy at the Department.
In our first blog, we asked about assessments. We heard from many teachers that you appreciate the focus on measuring growth over time. We also heard the desire to have authentic assessments that get at multiple points of view on student’s work, knowledge and even emotional development and provide more useful information for instruction. The Department hopes that work coming out of the Race to the Top Assessment Competition will help get us more useful assessments like this.
This blog entry is inspired by joining in the celebrations honoring this year’s State Teachers of the Year from all fifty states and territories and theNational Teacher of the Year in Washington, DC this week. We enjoyed hosting these representatives of great teachers across the country for a discussion of the blueprint for ESEA reauthorization.
One teacher raised concerns about the definition of an “effective teacher.” The blueprint would require that states create definitions of effectiveness developed in collaboration with teachers, principals, and other stakeholders. In Race to the Top, the Department says that student growth must be a significant factor, but that measurements of effectiveness must include other measures, such as multiple observation-based assessments on teacher performance or evidence of leadership roles that increase the effectiveness of other teachers.
What are your thoughts on defining teacher effectiveness? Should it be based in significant part on student growth? What other measures should be taken into account?
Teacher Ambassador Fellows

Education Week: Few States Meet NCLB Goals for English-Learners

Few States Meet NCLB Goals for English-Learners

By Mary Ann Zehr

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Duncan to 'i3' Losers: Don't Complain, Demand More Money - Politics K-12 - Education Week