Tuesday, October 12, 2010

N.J. school funding scores high marks, but does not account for Christie's $820B budget cuts | NJ.com

N.J. school funding scores high marks, but does not account for Christie's $820B budget cuts

Published: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 7:24 PM Updated: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 7:24 PM

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Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerN.J. Gov. Chris Christie glares at Marie Corfield, an art teacher from Robert Hunter Elementary School in Raritan Twp., as she speaks with the governor about school cuts at a town hall meeting in September.

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TRENTON — New Jersey distributes a greater share of its education funding to school districts with low-income students enrolled, an effort for which the state received high marks on a national analysis of school funding systems released today by the Education Law Center.

But the data evaluated for the center’s first annual funding formula report card do not reflect the $820 billion cut Gov. Chris Christie made to education spending this spring, raising questions of whether the cuts will erode the state’s funding fairness in the future.

"This is a report that should make New Jersey taxpayers, legislators, parents and citizens proud," said Education Law Center Executive Director David Sciarra. "We are one of a few states in the nation that provide sufficient funding for all of our students by allocating additional resources for students with the greatest

Fair funding report raises question about NY’s school spending | GothamSchools

Fair funding report raises question about NY’s school spending

by Maura Walz

The Rutgers University report on equitable school funding released today highlights that how a state distributes its education funds could matter as much as how much it spends.

The report ranked New York close to the bottom among states in terms of how much it spends on impoverished students compared to students in low-poverty districts. (The full report is below.)

The top-ranked state, Utah, spends one and a half times more per student in needy districts than in districts with no impoverished students. By contrast, in New York, districts with high concentrations of students in poverty spend just over 80 percent of what the wealthiest districts spend.

Geri Palast, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, said the analysis pointed to the need to re-work how the state doles out money among school districts.

“In an era where we continue to impose ever greater standards on school kids, the fact that funding inequality

My Big Picture for Seeing School Reform Policies and Classroom Practice � Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

My Big Picture for Seeing School Reform Policies and Classroom Practice

by larrycuban

Historians of education interpret the past. The key word is “interpret” since few historians believe that facts ever speak for themselves. Using frameworks they have built brick-by-brick from their experiences and scholarly work, historians sift facts and create a credible story to answer questions. They have a Big Picture in their heads, one that may change as facts, ideas, and personal experiences accumulate and interact. What is the Big Picture for school reform that I, as a teacher and scholar, have built over the years?

The short version is that political, socioeconomic, and organizational contexts of schooling influence, but not determine, reform-driven policies and classroom practice. Local conditions add further wrinkles. Teachers,

The Supposed Trouble With Helping Poor Students Learn

by Kevin Carey

In the course of stridently critiquing the education manifesto recently put forth by the superintendants of the New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Denver, Philadelphia, Kansas City, New Orleans, Charlotte, and Indianapolis schools systems, among others, University of Colorado education school professor Kevin Welner says:

It is disgraceful for these leaders who are in charge of 2.5 million students – disproportionately students in impoverished, urban areas – to act as enablers for those who dismiss the need to address issues of concentrated poverty.

How "Progressive" Is Your State's School Funding? - State EdWatch - Education Week

How "Progressive" Is Your State's School Funding?

by Sean Cavanagh

An advocacy group in New Jersey has released an intriguing study that judges states on how much money they direct to their neediest schools.

The authors, from the Education Law Center, use statistical modeling techniques to shine a spotlight on individual states' funding systems. One especially revealing piece of their analysis looks at per-pupil spending, broken down by the amount that goes to each state's wealthiest and poorest school districts. States that are devoting more money to poor districts, as opposed to better-off ones, have "progressive" funding systems, as the study puts it, while those that don't are labeled "regressive." (Memories of Econ 101 are returning to you as read

Shanker Blog � Narratives to Nowhere

NARRATIVES TO NOWHERE

by Arch Puddington

Our guest author today is Arch Puddington, director of research at Freedom House.

I once appeared on a panel on the state of press freedom with a man who had been a reporter with one of America’s prestigious news weeklies. He told of having been on assignment in the Middle East during an especially bloody terrorist atrocity, carried out by Hezbollah, that had killed a number of Americans. When the journalist asked a Hezbollah contact why his group had committed the atrocity, the response was: “You ignored us before we were terrorists; now, after this act, you take us seriously.”

The message that the reporter took from these chilling words was not that the men who made the decisions for Hezbollah were ruthless murderers. Instead, he discovered a measure of wisdom in the terrorist’s rationalization: The Western democracies, and especially the United States, had for too long held sway over how events were

Schools Matter: A suggestion for Geoffrey Canada

A suggestion for Geoffrey Canada

by skrashen

A suggestion for Geoffry Canada
Sent to the NY Times, October 12

Geoffrey Canada is doing in Harlem should be done in all schools: Give all children the advantages middle-class children have ("Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Problems," October 12).
Mr. Canada recognizes that poverty is the problem, a view supported by studies showing that American children from middle-class homes attending well-funded schools have among the highest test scores in the world.

Mr. Canada has identified some crucial factors: health care and safety. Here is another: Children of poverty have

The Answer Sheet - Study shows deep disparities in funding for schools

Study shows deep disparities in funding for schools

A new study starkly shows deep disparities in the way school districts across the country are funded, a reality that raises big questions about how effective “reforms” can be if they don’t deal with the issue of equity. The analysis rates the 50 states on funding level, funding distribution, state fiscal effort, and public school coverage. It concludes that only six states are positioned relatively well on all four measures to provide equality of educational opportunity for all children regardless of background, family income, where they live or where they go to school.

Don’t wait for Superman — focus on teachers - The Boston Globe

Don’t wait for Superman — focus on teachers

East Boston teacher Amanda Sequin won a national award in 2006. (File 2006/ The Boston Globe)

By Caitlin Hollister and Wendy Soref

October 12, 2010

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IN THE new documentary “Waiting For Superman,’’ we see an old “Superman’’ film clip that shows our hero rescuing a school bus full of children from near disaster. Too many schoolchildren, director Davis Guggenheim reminds us, are waiting for such a savior to swoop in and give them a better shot at success. The voices in the film — parents, policy leaders, and philanthropists — highlight an undeniable crisis in public education and offer their recipes for change. But a critical voice is absent from the film — the voice of teachers.

As public school teachers in Boston, we recognized familiar frustrations with a dysfunctional system. Still, the policy solutions implied in the film — getting rid of bad teachers and expanding charter schools — will not go far

U.S. House Races to Watch for Edu-ramifications - Politics K-12 - Education Week

U.S. House Races to Watch for Edu-ramifications

by Alyson Klein

Come election night, most folks watching federal races will be paying attention to the big questions (Does the House of Representatives flip to Republican control? What about the Senate?)

But there are some individual races that could also matter. A handful of Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee are on the endangered list, or at least may have a tough fight ahead of them.

While education may not be a signature issue in these members' races, their losses could alter the makeup of the panel, no matter who retains control of Congress. That could impact the issues they care about or have

Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Difficulties - NYTimes.com

Lauded Harlem Schools Have Their Own Difficulties

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Promise Academy II is an elementary school run by the Harlem Children’s Zone in public school space.

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: October 12, 2010

REPRINTS

President Obama created a grant program to copy his block-by-block approach to ending poverty. The British government praised hischarter schools as a model. And a new documentary opening across the country revolves around him: Geoffrey Canada, the magneticHarlem Children’s Zone leader with strong ideas about how American education should be fixed.

Movie Review | 'Waiting for ‘Superman': Students Caught in the School Squeeze (September 24, 2010)

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Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Julio Rodriguez, standing, teaches physics and earth science at Promise Academy. Donielle Richards, foreground, worked on a physics problem.

Last week, Mr. Canada was in Birmingham, England, addressing Prime Minister David Cameron and members of his Conservative Party about improving schools.

But back home and out of the spotlight, Mr. Canada and his charter schools have struggled with the same difficulties faced by other urban schools, even as they outspend them. After a rocky start earlier this decade typical of many new schools, Mr. Canada’s two charter schools, featured as

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010