Earlier today, newly-elected Michigan Governor Rick Snyder released his “Citizens’ Guide to Michigan’s Economic Health.” The general purpose was to provide an easy-to-understand presentation of the state’s finances, and to encourage local governments to do the same. These are of course laudable goals, but one of the report’s major findings, also mentioned in the governor’s press release, was a familiar one:
Average annual compensation of state employees (including salary, wages, and benefits) was over twice the average annual compensation of private sector workers in 2009.
As might be expected, many reporters and editors dutifully ran this outrage-inspiring finding as a headline (alsohere and here), even before the report was officially released: State workers make twice as much as private sector workers. Governor Snyder rolled out the report as part of his presentation to the Business Leaders for
This is a lot to digest, but Leonie Haimson, executive director of the nonprofit Class Size Matters, does a great job of picking apart the myths that seek to belittle smaller class sizes for a guest column in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet.
Haimson knows her stuff and the basis for her myth busting is well documented. Not to mention she has a knack for pointing out the absurdity of class-size detractors:
…Justin Snider, who teaches an introductory writing class at Columbia University…claimed that class-size reduction programs in California and Florida now “look foolish” and are a “luxury ….we can no longer afford.”
Interestingly, Mr. Snider failed to mention that the writing class he teaches at Columbia is capped at no more than 15 students. Harvard College
United Teachers Los Angeles has abandoned its support of two candidates in the March school board election, throwing the union's political strategy into disarray.
Jesus Escandon has withdrawn from the race and John Fernandez has lost the endorsement of UTLA because of "serious concerns about Mr. Fernandez's truthfulness in the interview process and his qualifications and integrity to be a member of the school board," union President A.J. Duffy wrote in a Monday statement that was apparently faxed to union chapter chairs at schools in the L.A. Unified School District.
Escandon had filed to run in District 7, which covers the harbor area and portions of South Los
From Chicago Examiner, 1.31.2011
CHICAGO -- Miguel Del Valle is a modest man. Born and raised in Chicago, Del Valle grew up in the city’s near north and northwest sides working class neighborhoods. He’s got a certain salt-of-the-earth charisma that goes with the City of Big Shoulders upbringing.
Of Puerto Rican descent, Del Valle knows the city, county and state governments inside and out. Currently the city clerk, Del Valle was the first Latino to be elected to the Illinois Senate (he said he immediately joined the Black Caucus) and served for 20 years.
Before that he was a community organizer, education and health advocate at Association House, one of the original settlement houses, which provides services in English and Spanish to Chicago’s Humboldt Park and
If the intention was to frighten people it didn’t work, nobody moved – and in fact most people ignored them – because they were too busy being amazing. Small groups have formed all over the square, some people have erected tents, some are standing on top of street signs waving flags, at night there are small fires around which people sit and discuss events. Waves of chants come from all directions and a sense of freedom and possibility pervades everything.
From Huffington Post, 1.31.2011
By William Guzzardi
Relative to his opponents in the Chicago mayoral race, Miguel del Valle is shy on cash, lacking in clout and clearly the underdog. But that's never stopped him before.
In 1986, he ran against incumbent State Senator Edward Nedza, who had the money and the organization and the powerful backers, including the 31st Ward organization and legendary congressman Dan Rostenkowski.
"They just didn't take my candidacy very seriously," del Valle remembers with a chuckle. "I started out with $350 out of my own pocket, but we won."
Four years later, such heavy hitters as Joe Berrios, Richard Mell and Luis Gutierrez lined up to back his primary opponent. Del Valle won again. For twenty years, he served as a voice of the working class in Springfield -- and as the first Latino state senator in Illinois history.
His transition from state to city politics happened through a move that he readily admits was fueled by ambition.
A coalition of groups announced today the publication of new national standards for charter schools. Here’s the lead of the press release:
“A coalition of leaders in the national charter movement is today announcing the culmination of a four-year, federally-funded project titled Building Charter School Quality (BCSQ) that has resulted in the development of national standards on charter school quality, and nationwide progress based on those standards.”
Already, charters are supposed to live up to the same standards as traditional public schools, but be subject to more stringent accountability. That is, they live and die by state standardized test scores. (For an interesting look at charters that have shut down, check out this study by the pro-charter
Leaked memos, recent government report point to flaws in City’s “phase-out” decisions; protesters question admin’s motives
Leading advocates, lawmakers join call to hold PEP members responsible for final vote this week on 26 school closings
New York City public school parents and students will be joined by leading advocates and lawmakers Monday outside Department of Education (DOE) headquarters to demand the City “fix schools, not just close them” as the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) prepares to vote this week on whether or not to close 26 schools. The rally is organized by the Coalition for Educational Justice and the Urban Youth Collaborative.
The protesters are angry with the DOE after it sought to close a number of schools under questionable circumstances – with no transparency in how and why they chose particular schools and not others – and
Patrick St. John of the For Student Power blog has a good post up on how the demography and contemporary culture of Egypt is shaping the role of Egyptian youth and students in the current popular uprising. Among other things, he notes that nearly two thirds of the Egyptian population is under 30, and that one in four young adults in Egypt is unemployed.
Egypt’s colleges and universities are large and growing, but as St. John notes, the student role in this revolt can be hard to disentangle — with the country’s population so young, and the student body relatively representative of the country as a whole, the “demographic overlap” between students and revolutionaries makes distinctions difficult to draw.
Meanwhile, the New York Times this morning has a fascinating look at the strategists behind Egypt’s uprising,
My son is only 6 but I tell him all the time what my father used to tell me: if you want to succeed you have to “pay attention” and the inverse, problems will come your way if you don’t pay attention. You didn’t know your spelling test was on Friday? Well, you weren’t paying attention. Got hit in the head with the basketball? Again, not paying attention. Signed up on time, aced the exam, got a lower interest rate= I can channel my father saying to me well done, must have been paying attention.
Now to teachers. How do we know a good teacher? Based on whether the teacher’s students do well. What “do well” means matters, of course, but not so much that it should distract us from the most pressing problem in teaching: that education, as a field, hasn’t been paying attention to whether any particular teachers’ students do well on any measure, or combination of measures. Why the lack of attention to student outcomes? A couple of reasons. First, for a long time we have assumed that teachers are not responsible for their students’ success, that they couldn’t possibly change or alter the predetermined pathways of children. Now we know that’s not true, that teachers do matter and they matter a lot. Which brings us to the second reason for ignoring how well
When the candidates were asked about the city’s revenue collection, del Valle busted out with a rant that connected with every Chicagoan who’s ever gotten a $100 ticket for making a rolling right turn on red.
“There’s been an oppressive climate created in the city of Chicago, the result of all these fees and tickets and red-light cameras and the parking meter deal,” del Valle burst out near the beginning of the debate. “We give people the boot for two tickets. Two tickets. It means that they can’t get to work sometimes, it creates hardship for families. We want to collect our revenue. But it’s time to be sensitive to what’s happening out in the neighborhoods in the city of Chicago.”
And just like that, the fourth-place candidate in the race, the man who’s only raised $110,000 and never polled higher than single digits, started getting some attention. The “phone started ringing off the hook” at campaign
Senate Bill 5399 proposes that when there are teacher layoffs, referred to as rif’s (reductions in force), that teachers should be laid off, fired basically, based on the performance of their students.
There is a four-tiered teacher evaluation system that the teacher’s union in Seattle, the Seattle Education Association (SEA) as part of WEA, the Washington Education Association, the superintendent of our schools in Seattle, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and Randy Dorn, the Superintendent of Education for the state of Washington, have agreed to. This system is going through a two-year pilot program to ensure that this evaluation system works and is fair to all parties, including our children.
In the meantime, a bill was introduced by a Representative in the House and a Senator in the Senate last week that would circumvent the agreement that has been put into place by the teachers and Randy Dorn.
The bill proposed is in anticipation of layoff’s that might take place this year and next due to even tighter budget
