Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, April 27, 2012

Cheating feared after photos of school tests leaked - latimes.com

Cheating feared after photos of school tests leaked - latimes.com:


Cheating feared after photos of school tests leaked

Hundreds of photos of standardized tests have begun to appear on student social-networking sites in California, raising concerns about cheating and test security that could create thorny problems for schools and school districts.
In the worst-case scenario, the photos could lead to invalidation of test scores for entire schools or prevent the state from using certain tests. For the moment, state officials have warned school districts to heighten test security and investigate breaches. Students are not supposed to have access to cellphones or any other device that can take pictures when taking the tests.
“Test security was compromised when students posted images of actual test questions, answer documents, and


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National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing

Cal State students announce hunger strike at six campuses

Students at six Cal State University campuses have vowed to fast until university leaders agree to freeze tuition, roll back administrative and executive salaries and meet other demands.
Members of Students for Quality Education said Friday that the hunger strike will begin Wednesday and involve 13 students at the Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge, Sacramento and San Bernardino campuses.
In addition to a five-year tuition freeze and administrative pay cuts, students are calling for more free speech rights on campus and the elimination of housing and car allowances for the system’s 23 campus presidents.
Speaking during a telephone news conference, several of the students said they decided on the fast after Chancellor Charles Reed and Board of Trustees Chairman A. Robert Linscheid failed to meet with them or adequately respond to their concerns.
“We’ve tried pretty much everything, and they just ignore us,” said Donnie Bessom, 27, a student at Cal State Long Beach. “We’ve talked to state legislators, written petitions, mobilized people on campus. The next step for us is in the tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience. They keep raising salaries and have those other luxuries, 

Major Bill Actions in Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:


Bill Introduced: H.R.4628 Interest Rate Reduction Act

To extend student loan interest rates for undergraduate Federal Direct Stafford Loans.

Bill Introduced: S.2366 A bill to extend student loan interest rates for undergraduate Federal Direct Stafford Loans.

A bill to extend student loan interest rates for undergraduate Federal Direct Stafford Loans.

Bill Introduced: S.2343 Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of2012

A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the reduced interest rate for Federal Direct Stafford Loans, and for other purposes.

Bill Introduced: S.2296 Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act

A bill to amend the Higher Education Opportunity Act to restrict institutions of higher education from using revenues derived from Federal educational assistance funds for advertising, marketing, or recruiting purposes.

Bill Introduced: H.R.4390 To amend the Higher Education Opportunity Act to restrict institutions of higher education from using revenues derived from Federal educational assistance funds for advertising, marketing, or recruiting purposes.

To amend the Higher Education Opportunity Act to restrict institutions of higher education from using revenues derived from Federal educational assistance funds for advertising, marketing, or recruiting purposes.

Bill Introduced: H.Res.626 Expressing support for designation of the week of April 16 through April 20, 2012, as National Assistant Principals Week.

Expressing support for designation of the week of April 16 through April 20, 2012, as National Assistant Principals Week.

Bill Introduced: H.R.4366 Project Ready STEM Act

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to award grants for science, technology, engineering, and math education programs.

Bill Introduced: S.2285 Michael Pohle Jr. Campus Emergency Alert Act

A bill to increase civil penalties for institutions of higher education that fail to comply with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.

Bill Introduced: S.2280 Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act of 2012

A bill to amend the Truth in Lending Act and the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require certain creditors to obtain certifications from institutions of higher education, and for other purposes.

Bill Introduced: H.R.4286 Student Loan Grace Period Extension Act

To restore and extend the grace period before repayment begins on Federal Direct Stafford loans and Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans.

Bill Introduced: S.Res.411 A resolution congratulating the Pennsylvania State University IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon on its continued success in support of the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.

A resolution congratulating the Pennsylvania State University IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon on its continued success in support of the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.

Bill Introduced: H.R.4261 Revamping the Education of our Veterans to Align Manufacturing through Partnerships with Community Colleges Act of 2012

To direct the Secretary of Labor to establish a competitive grant program for community colleges to train veterans for local jobs.

Bill Introduced: H.R.4207 American Dream Accounts Act of 2012

To award grants in order to establish longitudinal personal college readiness and savings online platforms for low-income students.

Bill Introduced: H.R.4170 Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012

To increase purchasing power, strengthen economic recovery, and restore fairness in financing higher education in the United States through student loan forgiveness, caps on interest rates on Federal student loans, and refinancing opportunities for private borrowers, and for other purposes.

Appeals, Manifestos, and Statements by Bernardine Dohrn « Bill Ayers

Appeals, Manifestos, and Statements by Bernardine Dohrn « Bill Ayers:


Appeals, Manifestos, and Statements by Bernardine Dohrn


This article is part of The Port Huron Statement at 50, a forum on the document that sparked a generation of activism. From the Boston Review
As the 1960s dawned, appeals, manifestos, and statements poured from the pens and typewriters of a new generation burning with the need to trumpet a new morning. These writings have in common a wild impatience, a brassiness required to speak out and act up, a fierce vision of human dignity, the daring to address the nation and world with the language of human rights, and the willingness to tear away blindfolds. The Port Huron Statement was neither the first nor the last such declaration, but echoing from and through David Walker’sAppeal, Walt Whitman and Seneca Falls, Ginsberg and Fannie Lou Hamer, it became, in many respects, a keystone of this pamphleteering era.
When four black, adolescent college students sat down at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina on February 1, 1960, their defiance ignited similar actions across the South. Their confrontational acts, flouting immoral laws through non-violent direct action, served as a catalyst for similar group rebelliousness in city after city, and spread campus to campus. Just five weeks later, students at Atlanta’s six historically Black


Comics Conversation

Rita, Blocker, Vogel criticism: Orange Superintendent Ron Blocker and Seminole Superintendent Bill Vogel criticize Florida's school accountability. - Orlando Sentinel

Blocker, Vogel criticism: Orange Superintendent Ron Blocker and Seminole Superintendent Bill Vogel criticize Florida's school accountability. - Orlando Sentinel:


Vogel, Blocker: Florida's school accountability system will fail

By Dave Weber, Orlando Sentinel

3:14 p.m. EST, April 27, 2012
Florida's runaway school accountability system is destined to fail and take with it the positive goals it was intended to accomplish, the superintendents of Orange and Seminole county schools agreed Friday.
Orange Superintendent Ron Blocker and Bill Vogel, superintendent of Seminole schools, said the state's school districts are being overwhelmed by demands of the continually expanding accountability system. Teacher evaluations based in large part on student test scores — the latest requirement imposed by the Legislature — are unworkable and may be the tipping point, they said.
"We have an accountability system that is going to fall apart like a house of cards," said Vogel, criticizing state leaders for "making up the rules as they go along" without listening to educators.
Comments by Vogel and Blocker came during a "Two Chiefs, Two Decades" program in the Orlando Sentinel's "Florida Forward: Conversations about the Future" series. Blocker and Vogel, both retiring in June, commented on issues the schools will continue to face.
Blocker characterized former Gov. Jeb Bush as a "change agent" in bringing accountability