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| RPR in Blue and Red |
PHILADELPHIA—A judge has overturned a kindergartner's expulsion from a Philadelphia charter school for touching his teacher's thighs after she complained that her legs hurt.
The 6-year-old, who had three earlier suspensions, was merely trying to comfort his teacher, the judge concluded.
"I want to make them feel better," the boy told his teacher, according to a May 23 ruling by Common Pleas Judge Paul P. Panepinto, first reported on by The Legal Intelligencer.
The case, involving the First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, hints at a larger question that looms as the number of charter schools explodes across the country.
The Philadelphia-based Education Law Center argued that charter schools sometimes seek more leeway in disciplining students under the theory they can always return to a traditional public school.
"This `double-standard' view is legally flawed," staff attorney Paul Lapp wrote in a brief filed on behalf of the boy's family. "Charter schools are public schools and
It has been a year and a half since I wrote an open letter to President Obama, and started a project called Teachers' Letters to Obama. Back in December of 2009, I sent a package of 107 letters to the President and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (downloadable here).
Sadly, there has been no change in education policies, and the administration seems more determined than ever to enforce policies that attach ever higher stakes to standardized test scores.
On March 28 of this year, as President Obama began looking towards his reelection in 2012, he held a town hall meeting at a high school. A student named Luis Zelaya asked him if he could help reduce the many tests students were forced to take. The President responded with words that reminded us why teachers had supported him so actively back in 2008. But the words did not correspond with his policies, so the organizers of the Save Our Schools March created a petition, which states:
Our public schools need support. President Obama understands what his daughters need -- occasional low stakes tests used to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and a rich learning
Did Education Department officials leak market-sensitive info to stock traders?" That's the provocative headline from Project on Government Oversight reporting on a probe by the agency's inspector general into controversial claims that may implicate Education Secretary Arne Duncan.The Daily Caller reports:
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn blasted the Education Department Wednesday for what he called “very significant inappropriate behavior in tipping hedge funds on short selling private education” and called on a key Senate panel to investigate the matter. Coburn was referring to
With all the talk today about waivers that Secretary Duncan might be issuing later this year, it's helpful to look at the most recent data available about waivers he's already granted. According to this December 2010 report to Congress, Duncan granted 351 waivers in 2009 under his NCLB authority.
196 of the waivers were related to accounting for stimulus funds and how much districts needed to spend on supplemental service providers and school choice transportation for schools in corrective action. More than 50 other waivers had to do with uses of funds or time limits for expending federal dollars, and another 53 related to supplemental education services (SES) providers.
There were four waivers to allow the use of growth model accountability as part of a Department-sponsored pilot project
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is providing $9.7 million to help Colorado school districts implement and integrate key education reforms.
Part of the three-year grant will be used in four selected school districts to help them implement new content standards, new tests and new educator evaluation systems, all mandated by state laws passed from 2008 to 2010. Another part of the grant will be used to support the work of the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Legacy Foundation in implementing those laws.
Education Commissioner Robert Hammond (left), Legacy Foundation President Helayne Jones and Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia spoke at the June 13, 2011, news conference.
The grant was announced Monday during a news conference at CDE. Helayne Jones, president of the Colorado
Anyone who has read this blog over time knows that my librul heart bleeds for school integration, and particularly socio-economic mixing of student populations. Other bloggers and commenters here have pointed out that economically integrating schools is a sweet and quaint notion, entirely impractical in an environment where neighborhoods are segregated and local control rules the day.
And, some argue, since “no excuses” schools are proving that high-poverty student bodies can succeed under the right conditions, why batter one’s head against the brick wall of integration?
That all may be so. I believe in multiple strategies, though, so while letting a thousand “no excuses” flowers bloom, I also hope communities keep looking for creative ways to foster integration.
A new article in The American Prospect highlights one community’s push to socio-economically integrate its schools. Omaha might not seem the likeliest place to push an aggressive integration agenda, but the Learning
Prayer vigils urge state leaders to “Stand Up for California” by maintaining existing revenues
The evening before the California legislature’s constitutional deadline to pass a balanced budget, leaders of all faiths will gather in cities across California to pray that legislators have the strength and vision to “Stand up for California” and our seniors, children and struggling communities.
In prayer vigils held simultaneously in five California cities, the interfaith leaders will remember the children, families, seniors, people with disabilities and other Californians who have suffered harm because of budget cuts already made. To avoid another $9.6 billion in devastating cuts to families, the clergymen and women will pray that legislators have the strength to maintain existing revenues.
WHO: Interfaith Leaders
WHAT: Hold vigil, pray that legislators have strength to “Stand Up for California”
WHEN: Tuesday, June 14 @ 5:00 PM
WHERE:
Central Valley:
Senator Anthony Cannella’s Office
918 15th Street
Modesto, CA 95354
Senator Tom Berryhill’s Office*
6215 N. Fresno Street, Suite 104
Fresno, CA 93710
Central Coast:
Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian’s Office
1150 Osos Street, Suite 207 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Southern California:
Assemblyman Cameron Smyth’s Office
23732 Valencia Blvd, Suite 303
Santa Clarita, CA
Assemblyman Tom Harman Office
950 South Coast Drive, Suite 240
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Will Arne call out his troops? With Rahm call out the cops? Photo: Progress Illinois
I was brushing my teeth this morning when I glanced over at the bottle of mouthwash sitting on the bathroom counter.
“Helps you get better dental checkups,” the bottle boasted, linking itself to recent commercials that explain how a given oral health product helps you improve the areas of your mouth “that dentists check the most.”
That’s weird to me. My goal isn’t to have better checkups; I’d like strong, healthy teeth! Obviously, there’s some connection between the two, but when– and why– did marketers decide that successful checkups is the more compelling point to make?
It reminded me of all the times I’ve heard students ask, “Will this be on the test?” when
In the intensifying debate over the future of education, two camps seem to be emerging. On one side, there are people like New York University professor/former Deputy U.S. Education Secretary Diane Ravitch who argue that larger social ills such as poverty, joblessness, economic despair and lack of health coverage negatively affect educational achievement, and that until those problems are addressed, schools will never be able to produce the results we want. On the other side, there are so-called "reformers" who want to radically change (read: charterize
Another school year is coming to a close, and schools across the country are still operating under the restrictive rules of No Child Left Behind. Unless the law is changed, an overwhelming number of schools in the country may soon be mislabeled as failing. This will trigger impractical and ineffective sanctions. It’s confusing to students and parents and demoralizing for teachers and principals.
The Obama Administration continues to work closely with Congress to reauthorize NCLB, but with the new school year just months away, ED is beginning to investigate how to address NCLB’s problems through regulatory flexibility, if necessary.
Secretary Duncan said that regulatory flexibility will not replace comprehensive reform, or give states and districts a pass from accountability.
Based on my school and district experiences and research into urban reform strategies over the past quarter-century to improve schools, I have concluded the following:
*Most urban districts, either with or without mayoral control, have centralized control of schools through state standards and testing, offered parents a portfolio of choices in elementary and secondary schools, and intensified traditional ways of schooling children.
*While some national leaders call for overhauling the existing system reform most reformers have sought incremental changes in existing school structures. In fact, acclaimed entrepreneurial ventures such as Teach For America, New Leaders for New Schools, and Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) use the rhetoric of fundamental reform but choose to work within district structures while pressing for small, important policy changes. [i]
The good news is that some top-down strategies have worked in some districts for a while. Many urban districts,
The Pentagon Papers, officially titled "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force", was commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1967. In June of 1971, small portions of the report were leaked to the press and widely distributed. However, the publications of the report that resulted from these leaks were incomplete and suffered from many quality issues.
On the 40th anniversary of the leak to the press, the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon Presidential Libraries, has released the complete report. There are 48 boxes and approximately 7,000 declassified pages. Approximately 34% of the report is available for the first time.
What is unique about this, compared to other versions, is that:
