Monday, January 3, 2011

Congress Passing a New 'No Child Left Behind' Is a No Brainer - Kevin Huffman (usnews.com)

Congress Passing a New 'No Child Left Behind' Is a No Brainer

Posted: January 3, 2011

Education Secretary Arne Duncan kicked off the new year with an op-ed in the Washington Post today, calling for a bipartisan commitment to education reform. The Secretary wantsCongress to pass a new version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (“No Child Left Behind”), accurately noting that “few areas are more suited for bipartisan action than education reform.” Indeed, the administration’s legislative blueprint in this area runs right down the political center and would likely be supported broadly by voters.

And yet, conventional wisdom in education circles is that political forces will prevent Congressional action.

Here’s how the thinking goes: Republicans don’t want to hand the Obama administration a legislative win--particularly one that can be sold as a pragmatic, moderate accomplishment. Furthermore, on the right, the Tea Party will push a firmer states’ rights agenda that is

Update: New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Parents 4 democratic Schools

Then There’s the Folks Who Like Their Schools – Lily's Blackboard

Then There’s the Folks Who Like Their Schools

Jan 3rd, 2011

by Lily.

The friends of my friends down the street are from Norway. She works for the Norwegian embassy. He owns an accounting business. They lived in Maryland for a while before moving back to Norway with their two sons and, thanks to my friends, I met this very nice couple and got to make polite conversation and ask them if they had liked living in the United States. They did. I got to ask them what they missed about the United States after moving back to Norway.

“Well,” they said, as if it would be obvious and didn’t really need to be mentioned. “Of course, you have such excellent schools.”

I blinked. They did not know I was a

Are you wearing red Tuesday? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Are you wearing red Tuesday?

by Erika Owens

Tuesday, January 2 is "Wear Red for Public Ed" day, sponsored by the SOS Million Teacher March. The PSEA is promoting the event on its homepage and on Facebook more than 3,200 people like the march's page andnearly as many have said they will attend the event Tuesday.

To succeed in the classroom, teachers look for supports both in and outside the District.

by Margaret Ernst and Wendy Harris

Photo: Patrick Gailey

Brendon Jobs of Girls’ High said the District’s induction program offered little value, but that a professional development program on American history “changed my life as a teacher.”

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While many new teachers find it difficult to take on more than the daily rigors of the classroom, Girls' High history teacher Brendon Jobs signed on to be the sophomore class advisor in his second year of teaching. He promised to stick with that class until they graduated.

I like being able to be that stable figure who sees them through their high school career," said Jobs, now in his fourth year. In his advisor role, Jobs meets regularly with a group of student council

Hechinger Report | Minorities are now the majority at UT-Austin

Minorities are now the majority at UT-Austin

by Jon Marcus

The University of Texas at Austin (photo by Reid Sullivan)

AUSTIN, Texas—The West Mall of the University of Texas at Austin, just outside the student union, looks like any other college campus. Students rush to grab lunch, scurry to class or man recruiting tables for the country-dance and sailing clubs. A few relax, listening to music or talking on the phone with family and friends.

But there’s something different here. Past the antebellum-style fraternity houses, the statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and the pickup trucks in the parking lots, there’s much more color.

Whites are in the minority this year for the first time in the history of the flagship Texas school, which was

This Week In Education: Events: Union Summit Set For Mid-February

Events: Union Summit Set For Mid-February

by Alexander Russo

The USDE just announced it's going to hold its union-management summit in mid-February, in Denver -- supported by the Ford Foundation rather than Gates or Broad, you may be happy to hear. Details from the release are below. Readers will recall that the event was first announced during the weeks leading up to the midterm elections when it seemed like things were really falling apart in terms of Obama- union relations (Are They Stepping Back From The Brink?, Labor Summit In Early 2011). What do you think -- will anyone go, will any good come of it?

Conference on Labor-Management Collaboration Set for Denver

School Board Presidents, Superintendents and Union Leaders Invited

School districts and labor leaders from across the country have been invited to attend a federally sponsored conference in Denver on Feb. 15 and 16 to identify ways that collaborative labor-management relationships, policies and agreements can more directly drive student achievement.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “We have seen how good labor-management relations can create the

The Answer Sheet - America’s disdain for its children

America’s disdain for its children

By Valerie Strauss

Americans don’t really think very much of their children. Not really.

Yes, we love our own children, and sometimes the kid next door. But a look at the education world as we enter 2011 reveals how little we really care about childhood and the importance of creating the conditions in which young people can grow and learn in safe and secure and smart environments.

If we did actually give a hoot about kids:

*We would never tolerate a poverty rate among children of 21 percent.

That’s one in five kids who live in poverty, or nearly 15 million children in the United States who live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, currently pegged at $22,050 a year for a family of four.

And that, of course, doesn’t include the kids who live in families of four

Band-Aids That Will Not Stick: Why Charter Schools Are Not the Answer

JANUARY 3, 2011 12:51 PM
ROSS BARKAN
0 COMMENTS

(DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht)

Like the caffeine-charged salesmen who insist that this latest gadget in the palm of your hand will actually deliver eternal happiness and assuage your inner discontent for good, the knights of the charter school movement have a lot of promises and a lot of answers. They have big names (President Barack Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, billionaire Bill Gates) and big publicity (Davis Guggenheim’s film Waiting for “Superman” earned many stellar reviews and a place in the public consciousness) on their side. Unlike virtually every other political issue in America, conservatives and liberals appear to be coming to the consensus that American education is failing and charter schools, publically-funded private schools, are the anodyne that will save American children and return our educational system to its supreme perch.

“I really think that charters have the potential to revolutionize the way students are educated,” Gates has said.

What exactly are charter schools, trumpeted as the Great Hope of twenty-first century education? The simple

Unpacking HB 2281, Arizona’s New Ethnic Studies Law « Student Activism

Unpacking HB 2281, Arizona’s New Ethnic Studies Law

by Angus Johnston

Arizona’s new ethnic studies law, House Bill 2281, takes effect this week, and the internets are full of chatter.

The law, the brainchild of outgoing AZ Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, has gotten a huge amount of attention, but its actual effect is still very much in doubt. We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this law in the coming months, so here’s a quick primer.

Let’s start with what the law doesn’t do. First, it doesn’t have any effect on college or university teaching — it’s aimed solely at K-12 education.

Second, despite the claims of folks ranging from Jezebel to Mother Jones, it’s not an “ethnic studies ban.” Instead, it’s a ban on four kinds of teaching — programs that “promote the overthrow of the United States government,” those that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people,” those that “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,” and those that “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the

Terms end without renewal for one third of N.J. county education chiefs - NorthJersey.com

Terms end without renewal for one third of N.J. county education chiefs

Monday, January 3, 2011

BY LESLIE BRODY

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

Gov. Chris Christie has told seven of the 21 county education chiefs – including the acting leader in Bergen - to clean out their desks, an education department official confirmed Monday.

The executive county superintendents, whose three-year terms expired today, were notified Thursday they were not getting renewed. That includes Patrick Piegari, who was appointed last month to serve as acting executive county superintendent in Bergen, replacing Aaron Graham, who retired. Piegari, who is also chief in Middlesex, could not be reached for comment.

No replacements were named. The governor’s office could not be reached

Does the education industrial complex want teaching to be a trade or a profession? « Official Reuven Carlyle Blog

Does the education industrial complex want teaching to be a trade or a profession?

JANUARY 2, 2011

tags: are teachers professionals or tradesmen and women, New York Times article about public employee benefits, Publicola, systems change, teachers, The Ave, transformation and reform

by Reuven Carlyle

My great hope for our city, state and nation is that we can embrace the courageous honesty to radically transform how we tackle real deal ‘systems issues.’ Sometimes bold change comes through elected officials willing to raise tough issues and sometimes through direct civic engagement among people with knowledge of the issues on the ground.

In education, some argue we’ve had too much of the former and not enough of the latter. In education, we all know that the push for bold systems change must ultimately come from within. We want teachers to lead the education reform movement, to challenge the status quo, to question old models and push for academic rigor, high expectations as well as resources.

As a part of that hope, it’s also fair to acknowledge that for many of us much of the perceived and real tension between the education reform community and opponents–unfairly categorized

Horne: Tucson Unified School District is violating new law banning ethnic studies | Fox 11 | KMSB Tucson - News

Horne: Tucson Unified School District is violating new law banning ethnic studies

by Catherine Holland

Fox 11

Posted on January 3, 2011 at 9:36 AM

PHOENIX -- Just hours before leaving office, outgoing Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is telling the Tucson Unified School District to make some changes or risk losing millions of dollars in funding.

Horne says the district is violating a new law that bans certain ethnic studies programs.

The law went into effect on Jan. 1, and prohibits classes that promote resentment against a race or class of people, advocate ethnic solidarity or promote the overthrow of the U.S. government. It bans programs that are essentially designed for students who belong to a particular ethnic group

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Monday, January 3, 2011