Cathie Black’s school visits take her to the good, skip the bad | GothamSchools

Cathie Black’s school visits take her to the good, skip the bad | GothamSchools

Cathie Black’s school visits take her to the good, skip the bad

by Anna Phillips

Chancellor-designate Cathie Black visited Medgar Evers College Preparatory School today.

More than a month after being named the next schools chancellor, Cathie Black has yet to see the system at its most troubled.

Black has been to 13 schools, making stops in each of the five boroughs and in schools at each grade level. The majority of schools she’s visited have earned either an A or a B on their annual progress report, meaning they are in no danger of being closed for poor performance. She has been to three “C” schools, none of which are on

The Answer Sheet - What Rhee wrought

The Answer Sheet - What Rhee wrought

What Rhee wrought

Anyone who thinks that Michelle Rhee was a whiz as chancellor of D.C. public schools and should be heading a national "reform" movement ought to read about a high school she attempted to “transform” in the nation’s capital. Rhee recently announced that she is heading a new organization, created around her celebrity, called Students First, that is aiming to raise $1 billion to effectively lobby against teachers unions and in support of business-driven reforms.

Rahm Emmanuel spells out his plan to destroy public education in his bid to become Mayor of Chicago | Dailycensored.com

Rahm Emmanuel spells out his plan to destroy public education in his bid to become Mayor of Chicago | Dailycensored.com

Rahm Emmanuel spells out his plan to destroy public education in his bid to become Mayor of Chicago

by Danny Weil

In his bid to become the next mayor of Chicago, former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is attempting to get voters to focus on his education agenda instead of his lingering residency woes. Changing the subject is good for politics and Emmanuel’s support for vicious education policies mirror that of Arne Duncan, which is no surprise. Emmanuel is a fixer who has steered the liberal Democratic Party towards the right.

According to the newly released policy brief on his campaign website, Emanuel is, “guided by a single mission: to ensure that every child—in every school and every neighborhood—has access to a world-class learning experience from birth.” This is the same old rhetoric that is bandied about by those millionaire politicians who send their kids to private schools, attack teacher unions and look to pull the public carpet from under universal education in favor of privatization and points to the fact that Rahm Emmanuel is little more than a surrogate for his campaign contributors the majority of which are millionaires.

Take for example, Emmanuel’s call for teachers to be fired if they if they do not achieve academic performance

SF DA springs battery charges on Regents’ meeting protesters « occupy california

SF DA springs battery charges on Regents’ meeting protesters « occupy california

SF DA springs battery charges on Regents’ meeting protesters

by *

from ThoseWhoUseIt:

As our comrades at Mobilize Berkeley have already publicized, a UC Berkeley undergrad was taken into custody today and remains locked up in a San Francisco jail.

This morning, the 13 protesters who were arrested at November’s UC Regents’ meeting had their day in court. Initial reports were optimistic, as the majority of the arrestees had no charges filed against them. Note that this is not the same as having their charges dropped; until next November 17, the DA has the option of filing these charges at any time.

Then came the bad news. Three current and former UC Berkeley students were charged with assault on an officer. This came as an utter shock, as none of the 13 people arrested on Nov. 17 were arrested on such charges. One of the three has since had her charges dropped, and a second has posted bail. However, a UC

Hometown Station AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio - O'Connell Responds To Education Trends Report

Hometown Station AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio - O'Connell Responds To Education Trends Report

O'Connell Responds To Education Trends Report

Wednesday, 15 December 2010 09:00

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell released the following statement in response to the 12th annual report issued Tuesday by The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning: California’s Teaching Force 2010: Key Issues and Trends. The report will be posted on the CFTL Web site at http://www.cftl.org/. KHTS News Brought To You By: “I am pleased that the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning has delved into some of the most urgent issues facing education today, especially the pressure teachers are under to produce student achievement gains without adequate funding or classroom support. It has been extremely difficult for educators to survive these bleak economic times when thousands of teaching jobs didn’t. Don't miss a thing. Get breaking news alerts delivered right to your inbox “Reductions in funding have touched every aspect of education: from teacher morale to enticing new teachers into the classroom to increased class sizes to reductions in subjects. To prepare all students for success in the global economy and to close the achievement gap, we need effective, well-trained teachers in every classroom. “Unfortunately, as the report points out, the state budget crisis is ratcheting down the pipeline of prospective new teachers as just as we face the need to replace nearly a third of our teaching force

Maritza Stanchich, Ph.D.: Puerto Rico Student Strike Intensifies, Public Education and Civil Rights at Stake

Maritza Stanchich, Ph.D.: Puerto Rico Student Strike Intensifies, Public Education and Civil Rights at Stake

Puerto Rico Student Strike Intensifies, Public Education and Civil Rights at Stake

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Read More: Higher Education , Privatization , Puerto Rico , Student Activism , College News

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Coincident with massive, at times explosive, student protests in Rome and London, University of Puerto Rico has again become a flashpoint with a student strike beginning Tuesday that turned the main campus into a militarized zone of police, riot squad, and SWAT teams, complete with low-flying helicopters and snipers. What began as a conflict over a steep student fee hike is now seen as a larger struggle to preserve public education against privatization.

Resistance to the imposed $800 student fee has triggered repressive state measures: police have occupied the main campus for the first time in 31 years and Monday the local Supreme Court, recently stacked by the pro-Statehood political party in power, outlawed student strikes and campus protests. More than 500 students defied the ruling by demonstrating on campus Tuesday, brandishing the slogan "They fear us because we don't fear them" ("Nos tienen miedo porque no

The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part One « EdVox

The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part One « EdVox

The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part One

by edvoxny

A Four-part Series Assessing His Accomplishments: PART ONE

by Norm Fruchter

“We played big and we got big results,” Joel Klein told the NYC Education Reform Retrospective conference on November 10^th, in a talk summing up his administration’s accomplishments after 8 1/2 years as Schools Chancellor. During those years he radically transformed the city school system. The 40-year-old foundations of decentralization, the citywide school board and the 32 elected community school boards and their appointed superintendents, are gone. The privileges of teacher seniority are much reduced; teacher hiring decisions (when not restricted by a hiring freeze) are now primarily a free-market school-level function. The high school landscape has been radically altered.

Since 2002, some 20 large, poorly performing high schools have been closed, some 200 new small high schools have been created, and the high school admissions/assignment process has been revised to expand student choice. More than 100 charter schools are currently operating in the city, and 100 more are being planned. The teaching force has been bolstered by a significant percentage of new teachers from non-traditional sources, and

The Answer Sheet - Joel Klein's business model and the drowning of Nicole Suriel

The Answer Sheet - Joel Klein's business model and the drowning of Nicole Suriel

Joel Klein's business model and the drowning of Nicole Suriel

This was written by Marc Epstein, a history teacher at Jamaica High School in Queens, N.Y., for the past 15 years, and a former dean of students. His articles on school violence, curriculum, and testing, have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers and he blogs for the Huffington Post. He also contributed to A Consumer's Guide To High School History Textbooks, edited by Diane Ravitch. Epstein earned a PhD in Japanese - American Diplomatic history. By Marc Epstein With New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein out the door of the Tweed Courthouse, having deployed his golden parachute successfully over Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation headquarters, a little bomblet was dropped by the Department of Education. For those of you with short memories, the news release resurrected the tragic drowning of sixth grader Nicole Suriel that occurred during the last week of school this past June. It seems that the principal

Governor-elect Brown’s Budgetary Shock Doctrine Blows Up School Board Planning

Governor-elect Brown’s Budgetary Shock Doctrine Blows Up School Board Planning

by DOUG PORTER on DECEMBER 15, 2010

in: COLUMNS, ECONOMY, EDUCATION, ELECTION, SAN DIEGO, THE CHRONICLES OF EDUMACATION

Over the past few weeks education advocates have been getting some unexpected signals coming out of Sacramento. The word “No” is being bandied about in ways that could result in shocking cuts to education State-wide for the next school year.

Faced with yet another budget shortfall—this one to the tune of $28 billion over the next eighteen months—it’s common knowledge that the California legislature will have to make additional cuts to the state budget. A special legislative session called by Gov. Schwarzenegger to make immediate cuts a few days back passed the buck, making the funding crisis a top priority for incoming Gov. Jerry Brown. Education advocates knew this was likely, and the plan has been to focus lobbying and other resources on the next administration, hoping for a more favorable reception.

That hasn’t been the case. The incoming administration has apparently decided to immediately confront the State’s structural deficit head-on, rather than trying to patch shortfalls up with

At Agassiz School, progress and a sense of betrayal - The Boston Globe

At Agassiz School, progress and a sense of betrayal - The Boston Globe

At Agassiz, progress and a sense of betrayal

Parents staged a demonstration in Jamaica Plain this month to protest plans to close the Agassiz School in a budget squeeze. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

By James Vaznis

Globe Staff / December 15, 2010

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By many accounts, the Agassiz Elementary School, one of 12 underperforming schools in Boston, appeared to be showing glimmers of a rebound.

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Math scores on the MCAS exam shot up this past spring after the school offered more intensive tutoring. Student attendance rates improved as the school cracked down on tardiness and absenteeism.

And the school district spent about $900,000 last year to replace dozens of grimy, leaky windows, allowing sunlight once again to filter into this Jamaica Plain building where air quality and mold has long been a concern.

Yet instead of optimism brimming from every nook and cranny, a sense of

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