Protect Opportunity. Save Pell Grants. « MomsRising Blog

Protect Opportunity. Save Pell Grants. « MomsRising Blog

Protect Opportunity. Save Pell Grants.

by Aaron Smith

As students pack their bags and pick their college courses for the fall semester, a sense of uncertainty hangs in the air. Can students actually afford this?

In hacking away at the budget, Washington is debating drastic cuts to the Pell Grant program, which helps the nation’s lowest income students pay for college. Nearly 10 million students rely on Pell to help them finance their post-secondary education, and the program helps to eliminate ever-present inequalities in higher education and the economy. We cannot pretend that the cost of college is not prohibitive for many, especially minority students. Almost half of African-American students and 40% of Hispanic students rely on Pell Grants to help them finance their education. Still, low-income and minority students are the least likely to have a college degree. By the age of 24, children of the wealthy are 10 times more likely to have a college degree than children of the poor.

College tuition and fees have grown at more than four times the rate of inflation, and the lowest income students continue to bear the heaviest burden. The typical low-income college student must finance college costs

Cameron Diaz film insults teachers, school board member says - latimes.com #NEARA11

Cameron Diaz film insults teachers, school board member says - latimes.com

Cameron Diaz film insults teachers, school board member says

June 30, 2011 | 3:45 pm

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14

The Los Angeles School Board on Thursday was supposed to discuss whether teachers with special skills should be rehired after layoffs, but board member Richard Vladovic had another idea.

After apologizing in advance for veering off-topic, Vladovic launched into a lengthy complaint about the new Cameron Diaz movie "Bad Teacher."

The film, which finished second at the box office last weekend and brought in $31 million, focuses on a foul-mouthed teacher (Diaz) who berates her students, does drugs and throws balls at children. Billboards featuring Diaz apparently sleeping at a desk with an apple and an "Eat Me!" sticker are featured throughout town.

Vladovic, a former teacher and administrator who represents the San Pedro area, said the movie studio should remove the ads because they demean the teaching profession and could influence

Family Engagement: Four Great Ways to Get Involved | ED.gov Blog

Family Engagement: Four Great Ways to Get Involved | ED.gov Blog

Parent Involvement In Jamaica Improving Parental Involvement in Children’s Education is the title of a series of online presentations and discussions among Jamaican educators and parents. It seems pretty interesting, and you can see a list of the topics they’ve been covering on ...

Protesting Chicago Parents Meet With Superintendent The ongoing parent protest demanding a school library, which I’ve posted about several times previously, has resulted in a meeting with the new Chicago Superintendent. You can read a Chicago Tribune story about what happened here.

Family Engagement: Four Great Ways to Get Involved

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Guest Blogger

To ensure our nation’s students reach their full potential, parents must be fully engaged participants in their children’s education. Last week, ED held a family engagement forum that featured Michelle Kibbles a parent involvement coordinator who led effective family engagement efforts in the diverse Beaumont, Texas Independent School District. The forum also included Hillsborough County, Florida PTA President Melissa Erikson, as well as North Carolina PTA Parent Involvement Initiative administrators Debra Horton, Kim Shaffer, and Ashley Perkinson. These PTA leaders have fostered unprecedented growth in family involvement at both the local and state levels. Below are just a few of their successful strategies for parents and guardians.

1. Build meaningful and collaborative relationships with teachers and principals.
Many school districts hold special events to foster these relationships. If your child is having a problem in school, having a solid rapport with your child’s teacher may make it easier to work together on a solution.
2. Be a part of your child’s support system by extending his or her classroom experience to your home.
Ask teachers about your child’s course of study, the teacher’s expectations, and the school’s academic standards. By doing so, you will be prepared to help your child with his or her homework and ensure that your assistance supplements what your child learned at school.
3. Talk to or join your local PTA.
These organizations serve as a conduit between parents and teachers and have district-specific initiatives to improve communication. For example, the North Carolina PTA organized a home visit program in which PTA members organized and mediated meetings in parents’ homes that included parents, teachers, and students. Becoming active in your local PTA may help ensure your interests are represented at the district or state level.
4. Become a leader in your community.
Many school districts or PTAs offer leadership programs designed to prepare parents to be effective advocates for the community’s children. These programs also provide valuable resources for parents who foster communication between teachers, other parents, and public officials.

The next briefing in the family engagement series will be on September 29 at ED headquarters. The panel will be composed of a grandparent, a parent of a child with special health care needs, and a parent of an armed service member.

Ben Firke and Sam Barnett are interns in the Office of Communications and Outreach at the Department of Education

Pre-Convention: NEA Executives Amend Evaluation Proposal - Teacher Beat - #NEARA11

Pre-Convention: NEA Executives Amend Evaluation Proposal - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Pre-Convention: NEA Executives Amend Evaluation Proposal

by Stephen Sawchuk

Even before its delegates get a chance to vote on the measure, the National Education Association's board of directors has modified the union's teacher-evaluation policy proposal—qualifying what had been a seeming openness to the use of standardized-test scores as one possible gauge of teacher effectiveness.

The original statement said that high-quality standardized tests could be used as one of several indicators of a teacher's contribution to student learning. The amended statement keeps that language, but adds a new paragraph. It reads:

"Unless such tests are shown to be scientifically valid and reliable for the purpose of measuring both student learning and a teacher's performance, such tests may not be used to support any employment action against a

Back from the first day of the RA. Signs of resignation, opposition and goofiness. « Fred Klonsky's blog #NEARA11

Back from the first day of the RA. Signs of resignation, opposition and goofiness. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Back from the first day of the RA. Signs of resignation, opposition and goofiness.

by Fred Klonsky

I’m back from the first day of the NEA RA. For me it just consisted of a two-hour Illinois Caucus meeting.

There was nothing of substance done in the meeting. Just rules and protocols.

But the hallway discussion was full of resignation, opposition and just plain goofiness.

About the controversial Obama endorsement:

There will be no floor debate at the RA. There will be debate in the state caucus meetings and then a secret ballot vote. I can’t recall, but I’ve been told this is not new procedure. And somebody may challenge it from the floor of the RA. But I doubt that will get far.

Secret ballots votes can be tricky for leadership. Ten years ago NEA President Bob Chase thought he had the votes for the proposal to merge the NEA and the AFT. He barely got 30% in support of the merger in a secret ballot vote.

I’ve been told DVR needs 58% to endorse. I’m a betting man, but I wouldn’t bet on the outcome of that vote

EJ DIonne: Supreme Court and privilege, perfect together - NorthJersey.com

EJ DIonne: Supreme Court and privilege, perfect together - NorthJersey.com

EJ DIonne: Supreme Court and privilege, perfect together

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011

BY EJ DIONNE

THE WASHINGTON POST

THE RECORD

PAGES: 1 2 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE | PRINT | E-MAIL

THE UNITED STATES Supreme Court now sees its central task as comforting the already comfortable and afflicting those already afflicted.

If you are a large corporation or a political candidate backed by lots of private money, be assured that the court’s conservative majority will be there for you, solicitous of your needs and ready to swat away those pesky little people who dare to contest your power.

This court has created rules that will have the effect of declaring some corporations too big to be challenged through class actions, as AT&T consumers and female employees at Wal-Mart discovered.

And remember how sympathetic conservatives are supposed to be to the states as “laboratories of democracy,” pioneering solutions to hard problems?

Tell that to the people of Arizona.

They used a referendum to establish a highly practical system of financing political campaigns designed to reduce corruption and give a fighting chance to candidates who decide to forgo contributions from

Quest to build a better data system lands teacher in hot water | GothamSchools

Quest to build a better data system lands teacher in hot water | GothamSchools

Quest to build a better data system lands teacher in hot water

by Philissa Cramer

A teacher who left the system to peddle a program he created to make up for shortcomings in the education department’s data system was fined this month by the city’s ethics board.

In 2009, Jesse Olsen was a teacher at Validus Preparatory Academy in the Bronx when he realized the school wasn’t accurately recording students’ attendance patterns. Realizing that the city’s school data clearinghouse, ARIS, couldn’t help, Olsen created a data system of his own, called Impact Solutions. The data system was one of several created around the same time by educators who were frustrated with ARIS.

By September 2010, Impact Solutions had already been picked up for use in 21 city schools, which were paying between $10 and $25 per student per year for the program, and Teach for America had started using it

ASCD Inservice: Third State's a Trend

ASCD Inservice: Third State's a Trend

Third State's a Trend

Well that didn’t take long. A week after we noted here that Idaho was joining Montana in refusing to increase their AYP targets for next year as required by NCLB and wondered if a third state would do likewise to make the movement a trend, South Dakota state secretary of education Melody Schopp informed local superintendents throughout the state that she was doing just that. (Like their north central neighbors, South Dakota is also a Smarter Balanced state).

Schopp cited many of the same arguments as Denise Juneau and Tom Luna about the number of schools identified for

White House to Host Twitter @TOWNHALL | The White House

White House to Host Twitter @TOWNHALL | The White House

White House to Host Twitter @TOWNHALL

Today, the White House announced through its official Twitter account, @whitehouse, that it will host its first ever Twitter town hall on Wednesday, July 6 at 2PM ET in the East Room of the White House. Twitter co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey will moderate a conversation between President Obama and Americans across the country about the economy and jobs. Starting today, twitter users can submit questions using the hashtag #AskObama. More information from Twitter can be found at the event’s homepage:http://askobama.twitter.com .

Today, the White House also announced its first “Tweetup.” A portion of the Twitter town hall’s live audience will be drawn from people who follow @whitehouse and visit whitehouse.gov/tweetup to sign up. This “Tweetup” will be the first one the White House hosts; future Tweetups will provide @whitehouse followers with the opportunity to attend events, engage with Administration officials, and share their ideas with other @whitehouse followers.

The White House primarily uses its Twitter account, @whitehouse, to share breaking news and other updates with its 2.25 million followers. White House officials also use Twitter to engage with the American public and take questions directly from Twitter users on issues ranging from the economy and immigration to health care and the First Lady’s Let’s Move! @letsmove and Joining Forces @joiningforces initiatives. White House officials who use Twitter accounts include White House Communications Director, Dan Pfeiffer @pfeiffer44, White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney @PressSec, White House Director of Digital Strategy, Macon Phillips @macon44, Chief Official White House Photographer and Director of the White House Photography Office, Pete Souza @petesouza, and Director of Progressive Media & Online Response, Jesse Lee @jesseclee44.

Roger Ailes’ Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News- Gawker

Exclusive stories - Gawker

EXCLUSIVE

Roger Ailes’ Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News

John Cook — Republican media strategist Roger Ailes launched Fox News Channel in 1996, ostensibly as a "fair and balanced" counterpoint to what he regarded as the liberal establishment media. But according to a remarkable document buried deep within the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the intellectual forerunner for Fox News was a nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the "prejudices of network news" and deliver "pro-administration" stories to heartland television viewers.

The memo—called, simply enough, "A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News"— is included

Milwaukee Today: NAACP’s Report on the City’s African Americans « Larry Miller's Blog

Milwaukee Today: NAACP’s Report on the City’s African Americans « Larry Miller's Blog

Milwaukee Today: NAACP’s Report on the City’s African Americans

by millerlf

By Lisa Kaiser Express Milwaukee 5/29/2011

“Grim.”

That’s what R.L. McNeely called the findings of a new NAACP study on the status of African Americans in Milwaukee.

Take, for example, some of these facts presented in “Milwaukee Today: An Occasional Report of the NAACP” by McNeely with UW-Milwaukee’s David Pate and Lisa Ann Johnson:

• Milwaukee remains one of the most segregated cities in the nation and has lost 38% of its white population since 1985.

• “Milwaukee’s African-American married-couple family is an endangered institution,” the report states. Only 28% of Milwaukee’s black families had two parents in 2000, down from 64% in 1970.

• The median income of families headed by single mothers—regardless of race—is $18,800, about one-third of the $61,300 income earned by married-couple families in Milwaukee County. But, according to

Governor Signs Budget, Makes No Vetoes of Education Funding « State of Emergency

Governor Signs Budget, Makes No Vetoes of Education Funding « State of Emergency

Governor Signs Budget; Makes No Vetoes of Education Funding

by Leonard Feldman

(SACRAMENTO) 30 June 2011 — Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed the new 2011-2012 state budget, a day before the start of California’s new fiscal year.

In announcing the action, the governor’s office also released a list of the line item vetoes (reductions or cuts in appropriations) the governor made before penning the spending plan into law.

Below is the news release announcing the budget enactment. A link will take you to the list of the governor’s vetoes.

Governor Brown Signs Honest, Balanced and On-Time Budget

6-30-2011

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed the 2011-12 California State Budget (SB 87), dropping General Fund spending to the lowest level in decades, returning authority to local government and closing the state’s $26.6 billion deficit.

The budget makes substantial cuts to government programs and reduces state spending by $15 billion. As a

Rick Scott and Michelle Rhee praise charter that just got an 'F'

Rick Scott and Michelle Rhee praise charter that just got an 'F'

Rick Scott and Michelle Rhee praise charter that just got an 'F'

by admin

Photo Credit:AP Photo/Alan Diaz

Written by Kathleen McGrory, for the Miami Herald. Read the original here.

“When Gov. Rick Scott unveiled some of his education policy proposals with school-choice celeb Michelle Rhee this January, they paid a visit to a second-grade class at Florida International Academy in Opa-Locka to showcase the successes of school choice.

Oops.

The school rankings are out. And the academy’s new elementary school just got an F.

The middle school, though, earned a B. Last year the middle school was an A. Before then

Shanker Blog » What Do State And Local Governments Do?

Shanker Blog » What Do State And Local Governments Do?

What Do State And Local Governments Do?

Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on June 30, 2011

Those who wish to dismantle public services in the U.S. seem to share a general belief – accepted, to some extent, even by people who generally support public sector spending – that government is a massive, incompetent blob. At the federal level, I have always found this somewhat strange, since around two-thirds of federal spending goes towards Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and national defense, programs that are generally popular and widely regarded as successful.

Survey data indicate that people do trust state and local government more than they do federal government, but the level of confidence is still not particularly high. Americans also appear generally unwilling to pay higher taxes to preserve public services (except for education), and most accept that state and local government is too large and much of it is superfluous. But when people are asked about specific programs, they tend to

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: This is a stick-up. Your pension or your job.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: This is a stick-up. Your pension or your job.

This is a stick-up. Your pension or your job.

by Mike Klonsky

Mugging in Milwaukee

Supt. Thornton just fired 519 city teachers. Now he is threatening massive lay-offs unless the 5,600 members of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association would agree to pay $20 million more into their own pension fund. Of course there is no guarantee that a pension give-back, once surrendered, would prevent more firings.


MTEA President Bob Peterson released a statement Wednesday night defending the union's refusal to make pension concessions. He also criticized Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature's Republican leadership.

Instead of creating jobs, Peterson said,

"Gov. Walker and his Republican supporters have forced the

Secretary Duncan's Data Integrity Warning Misses the Point - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Secretary Duncan's Data Integrity Warning Misses the Point - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Secretary Duncan's Data Integrity Warning Misses the Point

By Anthony Cody on June 30, 2011 11:42 AM | No Comments | No Recommendations

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has issued a warning to state-level school leaders telling them:

I am writing to urge you to do everything you can to ensure the integrity of the data used to measure student achievement and ensure meaningful educational accountability in your State. As I'm sure you know, even the hint of testing irregularities and misconduct in the test administration process could call into question school reform efforts and undermine the State accountability systems that you have painstakingly built over the past decade.

He goes on to say,

The successful implementation of Title I and other key programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education (Department) relies heavily on using data that are valid, reliable, and consistent with professional and technical standards.

The letter then describes a series of steps the Department of Ed wishes states to take to ensure the integrity and security of test data.

Unfortunately, Mr. Duncan is missing the biggest threat to the validity of the data being secured. It is the very high stakes that his policies place on these