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Friday, January 14, 2011

This Week In Education: Turnarounds: Green Dot Gets Part Of Another High School

This Week In Education: Turnarounds: Green Dot Gets Part Of Another High School

Turnarounds: Green Dot Gets Part Of Another High School

by Alexander Russo

image from www.latimes.comFour long years after Locke High School teachers signed petitions to convert their school (and three years into the Locke turnaround effort), charter operator Green Dot Public Schools is finally moving to expand its efforts on the turnaround front. This time around, however, it's not a teacher petition or even parent signatures that are triggering the process but rather an abbreviated district-level decision process. On Wednesday the district approved a plan for Green Dot and a second charter operator (Alliance for College Ready Public Schools) and Mayor Villaraigosa's Partnership for LA Schools to break Jordan up into three different schools. Read below for more details and links and commentary.

Teachers will have to reapply for their jobs (Los Angeles Times). Less than half of the teachers are expected to
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The Answer Sheet - The biggest flaw in Gates value-added study

The Answer Sheet - The biggest flaw in Gates value-added study

The biggest flaw in Gates value-added study

The following was written by Matthew Di Carlo, senior fellow at the non-profit Albert Shanker Institute, located in Washington, D.C. This post originally appeared on the institute’s blog. By Matthew Di Carlo The National Education Policy Center just released a scathing review of last month’s preliminary report from the Gates Foundation-funded Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project. The critique was written by Jesse Rothstein, a highly respected Berkeley economist and author of an elegant and oft-cited paper demonstrating how non-random classroom assignment biases value-added estimates (also see the follow-up analysis).
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The Latest from Tunisia’s Student Revolt « Student Activism

The Latest from Tunisia’s Student Revolt « Student Activism

The Latest from Tunisia’s Student Revolt

by Angus Johnston

Dozens of protesters have been killed and untold thousands have taken to the streets as Tunisia’s young people have begun to stand up to their government in recent weeks. Protests began in December after the suicide by self-immolation of a young college graduate, and have swelled to envelope the entire North African nation.

Here’s the latest:

Tunisia’s president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, declared in a speech yesterday that he would step down at the end of his current term in 2014. He also announced new constraints on police action and new internet freedoms while promising lower food prices, but his words were greeted by a deeply skeptical public and had little effect on

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Parents not laughing at Schools Chancellor Cathie Black's 'birth control' overcrowding joke

Parents not laughing at Schools Chancellor Cathie Black's 'birth control' overcrowding joke

Parents not laughing at Schools Chancellor Cathie Black's 'birth control' overcrowding joke

BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, January 14th 2011, 11:51 AM

Cathie Black, the future chancellor of the New York City public school system speaking during a NY Daily News Editorial meeting on the 3rd floor of 450 West 33rd Street.
Xanthos/News
Cathie Black, the future chancellor of the New York City public school system speaking during a NY Daily News Editorial meeting on the 3rd floor of 450 West 33rd Street.

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Schools Chancellor Cathie Black joked that there's a simple solution to overcrowding in lower Manhattan - birth control.

"Could we just have some birth control for a while?" Black said Thursday night. "It would really help us."

Black earned chuckles for the joke at an overcrowding task force meeting, but downtown parents say the growing population of youngsters is no laughing matter.

"I always cringe when I hear that. Joel Klein said it a couple of years ago as well," said Public School 234 parent Tricia Joyce. "I understand the temptation to joke about it. But our situation isn't funny any more."

The problem, parents and advocates charge, is that the city offered incentives to developers to build without also increasing school seats.

Joyce was also upset that Black compared weighing the needs of different



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2011/01/14/2011-01-14_parents_not_laughing_at_schools_chancellor_cathie_blacks_birth_control_overcrowd.html#ixzz1B1xhWm7a
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NYC Teachers, United Federation Of Teachers Union Frustrated With Ruling, Department of Education Orders CBS New York – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of NY

NYC Teachers, United Federation Of Teachers Union Frustrated With Ruling, Department of Education Orders CBS New York – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of NY

NYC Teachers, Union Frustrated With Ruling, DOE Orders

January 14, 2011 11:49 AM

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(Clipart Photo)

(Clipart Photo)

NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Following a controversial ruling Monday which allowed performance ratings for 12,000 New York City school teachers to be released, the United Federation of Teachers sent a memo to members Thursday expressing disagreement and frustration with the decision.

The memo states that the performance ratings, which are based on statistical analysis of student test scores, are “fundamentally flawed” and the Department of Education will “do nothing” to fix the reports.

Instead, the DOE is asking teachers who have taught English or math in grades

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The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part Three « EdVox

The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part Three « EdVox

The Legacy of Joel Klein: Part Three

by edvoxny

Public Participation

“I probably could have spent more time, or should have spent more time really engaging people so they really understand the things that drive me.” (Joel Klein, interview with New York Times reporter Javier Hernandez, December 24, 2010.)

In the many interviews he’s conducted since he announced his resignation, Joel Klein has given himself high marks for his eight-year reign as the city’s Schools Chancellor. One of the few performance areas Klein has criticized is his ability to effectively communicate with the city’s public schooling’s constituencies. But as the above quote indicates, Klein seems to think communication is the same as one-way transmission, and that efforts at persuasion are the same as dialogue. Klein and his patron, Mayor Bloomberg, seemed so committed

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New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools 1-14-11 Get Involved- Read Education News

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools
Get Involved- Read Education News


Parents 4 democratic Schools

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Schools Matter: Will Wake County Citizens Allow the Koch Brothers and the John Birch Society Run Their Schools?

Schools Matter: Will Wake County Citizens Allow the Koch Brothers and the John Birch Society Run Their Schools?

Will Wake County Citizens Allow the Koch Brothers and the John Birch Society Run Their Schools?

by Jim Horn
From Think Progress:
Today in the Washington Post, reporter Stephanie McCrummen detailed how a right-wing campaign in the Wake County area of North Carolina has taken over the school board with a pledge to end a very successful socio-economic integration plan. The integration plan, which created thriving schools in poor African-American parts of the school district along with achieving diversity in schools located in wealthy white enclaves, was a model for the nation.

However, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Tea Party group founded and funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, worked with local right-wing financier (and AFP board member) Art Pope to fundamentally change Wake County’s school board:
“I don’t want us to go back to racially isolated schools,” said Shila Nordone,
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4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: REPORT SEES DISCONNECT BETWEEN NAEP, COMMON STANDARDS + Report

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: REPORT SEES DISCONNECT BETWEEN NAEP, COMMON STANDARDS + Report

REPORT SEES DISCONNECT BETWEEN NAEP, COMMON STANDARDS + Report

BY ERIK ROBELEN | EDWEEK EDUCATION MATTERS BLOG| HTTP://BIT.LY/FNFCU9

  • [Correction: This blog post should have said that the NAEP math items examined in the Brookings Institution study were, on average, two to three years below the 8th grade math recommended by the common-core standards. The algebra items were at about the 6th grade level. The items from the "numbers" strand were at about the 5th grade level.]

January 11, 2011 8:37 AM | A new analysis from the Brookings Institution raises questions anew about what the advent of common standards—and the development of common assessments to complement them—means for the future of NAEP, often called "America's report card." Overall, the report suggests that the coming common exams mean "a new era is dawning for NAEP," though what that future will look like remains murky.

The analysis by Brookings senior fellow Tom Loveless seeks to match up the common standards in mathematics with publicly released test items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In algebra, it found that the NAEP items were, on average, two to three years below the 8th grade math recommended by the common-core standards. The study examines NAEP math items from the 8th grade assessment,

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#UCDavis Prof Has Students Vote on Pregnant Student’s Grade « Student Activism

UC Davis Prof Has Students Vote on Pregnant Student’s Grade « Student Activism

UC Davis Prof Has Students Vote on Pregnant Student’s Grade

by Angus Johnston

This one is so messed up in so many ways.

A student in a veterinary medicine class at UC Davis recently gave birth. Her delivery came near the beginning of the semester, and it was unclear how many classes — and quizzes — she would miss. Her professor wasn’t sure how to deal with this situation…

So he asked her fellow students to vote on what her grade should be.

Yep. He instructed the student “presidents” of the class to send around an email proposing six possible approaches to the problem, and announcing that the class would be conducting an online vote on which one to adopt. The choices were these:

a) automatic A final grade
b) automatic B final grade
c) automatic C final grade
d) graded the same as everyone else: best 6 quiz scores out of a possible 7 quiz scores (each quiz only

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This Week In Education: AM News: Could Tucson College Have Done More?

This Week In Education: AM News: Could Tucson College Have Done More?

AM News: Could Tucson College Have Done More?

by Alexander Russo

image from scholasticadministrator.typepad.com

College’s Policy on Troubled Students Raises Questions NYT: Some experts say the community college that suspended Jared L. Loughner could have done more to help him... State failed to oversee schools’ policies against hazing Boston Globe: For years, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education failed to monitor school districts’ compliance with Massachusetts’ antihazing laws, resulting in a checkered enforcement system across the state, according to a review by the state auditor’s office... Writing exercise said to prevent test anxiety Associated Press: A simple writing exercise can relieve students of test anxiety and may help them get better scores than their less anxious classmates, a study has found... Middle-School Friends Are Critical For Future Success Huffington Post: University of Oregon psychologists say the new friendships may directly influence a teenager's potential academic success or future challenges in high school and beyond...

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The Power of Dr. King and Christina Green – Lily's Blackboard

The Power of Dr. King and Christina Green – Lily's Blackboard

The Power of Dr. King and Christina Green

Jan 13th, 2011
by Lily.

Christina Green was nine years old. She was born on a hateful day, September 11, 2001, the day the Twin Towers fell. She died on a hateful day when a man opened fire at a crowd gathered in a Tucson parking lot to meet their Congresswoman.

I just attended a program to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that the National Education Association has held for our staff in our auditorium in the basement each year for over twenty years.

Nine year old children danced and played the drums and recited stirring, inspirational words for us. And we applauded and cried and laughed and encouraged.

We are an education union, and we like having children remind us who’s ultimately counting on us to do the right thing.

Dr. King was killed by hate on a hateful day. And yet in that hour’s

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