Thursday, December 6, 2012

NAACP seeks to mount shakeup in US education - SFGate

NAACP seeks to mount shakeup in US education - SFGate:

NAACP seeks to mount shakeup in US education

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press

Updated 2:52 p.m., Thursday, December 6, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — The NAACP is going on the offensive on education, deploying volunteers across the country in its biggest push for a public education overhaul since the nation's classrooms were ordered desegregated in 1954, the civil rights group said Thursday.

The volunteers, who have been trained for the past two years, will lobby at the state and county levels for four educational priorities:

— Extended school hours and years in school

— Improved teacher training

— Improved preschool programs

— Better targeting of spending to the neediest of students

Such changes for all children, not just minorities, are the only way to ensure an educated American workforce and a thriving economy, said NAACP president and CEO Ben Jealous.

"We will always play defense on Brown (vs. Board of Education)," Jealous said, invoking the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ended legal school segregation and became a civil rights milestone. "We will always play defense when folks who are disproportionately disciplining

Court overturns ruling giving more space to charter schools - latimes.com

Court overturns ruling giving more space to charter schools - latimes.com:

Court overturns ruling giving more space to charter schools

Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

Los Angeles school district officials won a key legal battle with charter schools this week, when an appeals court struck down a ruling that could have opened up vast numbers of needed classrooms for charters, while also creating potential hardships for traditional neighborhood schools.
The decision means that charter schools will receive space in much the same way as traditional schools: If the Los Angeles Unified School District puts 26 students in a classroom, then charters will be given rooms based on the same assumption. The California Charter Schools Assn. had argued that its operators were entitled to more space because the district uses many rooms for purposes other than regular classroom instruction.
Charters are free, publicly funded schools that are independently operated. Under state law, school districts must offer space to charters that is “reasonably equivalent” to that provided for students in traditional schools.
The association had prevailed in Los Angeles Superior Court, but a three-judge appellate panel reversed that

LAUSD TO RECONSTITUTE CRENSHAW AND DORSEY HIGH- WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH - Perdaily.com

LAUSD TO RECONSTITUTE CRENSHAW AND DORSEY HIGH- WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD TO RECONSTITUTE CRENSHAW AND DORSEY HIGH- WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

Do African Americans and Latinos ever get tired of auditioning for human being status in a fundamentally racist and corrupt Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) non-public education system that clearly has no expectation that their children are educable? It is 58 years after Brown vs. Board of Education and de facto segregated LAUSD non-public education is more segregated today than it was pre-Brown and yet this depressing reality goes unaddressed in a community that continues to let LAUSD call the shots. Because public education remains one of the

A Progress Report on Teacher Evaluation — Whole Child Education

A Progress Report on Teacher Evaluation — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

A Progress Report on Teacher Evaluation

December 6, 2012 by Klea Scharberg

In the past three years, 36 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have changed their teacher evaluation policies, mainly to qualify for federal Race to the Top funds or No Child Left Behind waivers. States are drafting, implementing, and using new systems that incorporate measures of student achievement, levels of performance, classroom observations, and performance-based tenure decisions. All these elements must come together to produce results relevant to the improvement of teaching and the development of teachers themselves.

Is your state (and school) going through these changes? ASCD has been working with a coalition of organizations on a set of recommendations for federal policymakers on this issue. Use these recommendations as a checklist to ensure your teacher-evaluation system is on track for continued growth and learning for both teachers and students.

Do the teacher evaluations—either currently in place or being implemented—at your school

Include student achievement measures that are directly attributabl

This Week In Education: Charts: Teacher Pay, Teacher Prestige

This Week In Education: Charts: Teacher Pay, Teacher Prestige:

Charts: Teacher Pay, Teacher Prestige

by Alexander Russo

Everyone wants to pay teachers more, but no one's agreed how -- or whether higher pay or tougher qualifications and evaluations come first:

Ratio of average teacher salary at primary, lower and upper secondary levels over the average gross wage, selected countries, 2010 (Pearson)

If you are a public employee, active teacher or retiree in the Chicago north suburbs. « Fred Klonsky

If you are a public employee, active teacher or retiree in the Chicago north suburbs. « Fred Klonsky:

If you are a public employee, active teacher or retiree in the Chicago north suburbs.

by Fred Klonsky

Pension Rally

Springfield Legislators introduced HB 6258 this week.

If passed, this legislation will:

Increase your Retirement Age
Decrease your pay
Reduce your Cost of Living Adjustment

Join us in rallying at the Capitol on January 3, 2013.

A bus will be leaving from the Church Street side of Golf Mill Shopping Center (near JC Penney)- 239 Golf Mill Center, Niles, IL – promptly at 6:45 a.m. and will leave Springfield at 2:00 p.m. to return. Please plan to arrive at Golf Mill no later than 6:30 a.m.

Reserve your seat by emailing pat.church@ieanea.org by 12/17/12.

Members are encouraged to contact their legislators to schedule appointments.

A heated tent will be set up in the IEA Headquarters east parking lot.

Coffee/doughnuts will be available upon arrival.

A box lunch will be provided after the rally for the ride home.

Tentative Schedule:

9:30 – 11:00 Buses arrive at IEA Headquarters
10 a.m. – Noon Legislative Appointments (make an appt in advance of your arrival)
Noon-1pm We Are One rally in rotunda Due to space limits, some members might be asked to observe the rally from the 2nd or 3rd floors. IMPORTANT: If the Statehouse reaches maximum capacity, the state police might order that no one else be admitted. A crowd exceeding capacity sends the right message to lawmakers. Be sure to dress warmly, should you end up outside.
1p.m. – 4 p.m. Face-to-face lobbying opportunity (3rd floor of the Capitol on “The Rail”)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: BEX Work Session

Seattle Schools Community Forum: BEX Work Session:

BEX Work Session

by Melissa Westbrook

I will say at the outset that there has to be something the Board can do to make Work Sessions work better. Staff takes took much time explaining their lengthy presentations. President DeBell said at the beginning the Board should only ask clarifying questions during the presentation and leave big questions for the discussion at the end.

As usual, though, they ran out of time as the staff couldn't get to thru the presentation in the time allotted. 9I know staff wants to explain but they waste time at the beginning going over what the Board already knows. It's fine to have a longer written presentation but that doesn't mean going over every page during the presentation.) There was also this document, Service Area Analysis.

The community meeting next week on BEX/Capacity Management on Tuesday the 11th was noted. We were told there would be some way to listen to the meeting via computer but I'll have to get details on how that will work.

Diane in the Evening 12-6-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Michigan Now Talking about Right-to-Work Legislation

by dianerav

Michigan was once one of the nation’ s strongest union states. But with the decimation of the automobile industry and the recent takeover of state government by extremely conservative politicians, the union movement is on the defensive.
Unions in Michigan tried and failed to pass a constitutional amendment supporting their right to bargain

Legal Dictators in Michigan ?

by dianerav

This is a thought-provoking article in the conservative National Review about Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s campaign to install “legal dictators” in bankrupt cities. The larger issue, which the author does not address, is what happens to cities when their jobs are outsourced, when manufacturing leaves, when the economy has collapsed. Does the state then suspend all democratic rights and turtle city over to a dictator?

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-6-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Charlie Crist Renounces His Support for Vouchers by dianerav Charlie Crist, former governor of Florida, switched from Republican to independent to Democrat. It is rumored that he may run for governor as a Democrat. In an interview recently, he said he was wrong for supporting vouchers. Angry conservatives don’t like Indiana: “One Last Stab at Teachers” by dianerav Karen Francisco is an outstanding writer for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette in Indiana. For her fearless coverage of the right-wing attack on pub... more »

If money is the “mother's milk of politics”, Governor Malloy’s cup runneth over - Wait, What?

If money is the “mother's milk of politics”, Governor Malloy’s cup runneth over - Wait, What?:

If money is the “mother’s milk of politics”, Governor Malloy’s cup runneth over

by jonpelto

Happy Muthers Day

Later today, movers, shakers, lobbyists, the political elite, and anyone else ready to plunk down $750 a person can have a cocktail with Governor Malloy and a host of “featured guests” including Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Senator-elect Chris Murphy, Congressman John Larson, Congresswoman-elect Elizabeth Esty and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra.

The ticket price will also get you into the upscale home of Alan Lazowski, owner of LAZ Parking. Lazowski is also part of the investment team whose company just received a major contract from the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority to develop more housing and retail space in downtown Hartford.

And while handing over the check may not get you onto Santa’s “good” list, the proceeds go to Governor Malloy’s political action committee, called Prosperity for Connecticut.

Right-to-work legislation introduced in state House as protesters pack Capitol | Michigan news | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Right-to-work legislation introduced in state House as protesters pack Capitol | Michigan news | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:

Right-to-work legislation introduced in state House as protesters pack Capitol

3:49 PM, December 6, 2012 |
Comments

LANSING -- Right-to-work legislation was introduced in the state House just before 3 p.m., bringing loud protests from Democrats and protesters inside the Capitol building.

Backed by shouts from fellow Democrats, House Minority Floor Leader Kate Segal, D-Battle Creek, insisted that the bill be read aloud in its entirety.

The House clerk, Gary Randall, then read the bill aloud.

Right-to-work legislation makes it illegal to require financial support of a union as a condition of employment.

State Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills, who spoke against the bill to loud applause from the gallery, said it contains an appropriation of state funds designed to make it referendum-proof. Bills considered appropriation bills can not be repealed through a ballot measure, as happened with the toughened emergency manager law,

Promise of Things to Come to NYC: Florida botches release of new data on teacher evaluations Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública:

Promise of Things to Come to NYC: Florida botches release of new data on teacher evaluations

By Curtis Krueger, Marlene Sokol, Jeffrey S. Solochek and Danny Valentine, Times Staff Writers

Published Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Florida's Department of Education on Wednesday rolled out the results of a sweeping new teacher evaluation system that is designed to be a more accurate, helpful and data-driven measure of how well teachers actually get students to learn.

And then, within hours of releasing the data, the department pulled the numbers off its website and sheepishly admitted that much of it was wrong.

State officials late Wednesday said thousands of teachers were mistakenly double-counted because they had more than one "job code" in computerized records. That skewed the results.
Department spokeswoman Cynthia Sucher acknowledged it was "distressing" for the agency to learn that the information turned out to be incorrect.

The new evaluation system has been stressful for teachers. Even though it appears that the vast majority have been rated as "effective" or "highly effective," many have been downgraded. Critics of the new system said th

Ethics complaint questions legitimacy of BCG reform plan, school closures | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Ethics complaint questions legitimacy of BCG reform plan, school closures | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Ethics complaint questions legitimacy of BCG reform plan, school closures

by thenotebook on Dec 06 2012 Posted in Latest news

COMMENTS (0)EMAIL PRINT

Photo: Bill Hangley, Jr.

J. Whyatt Mondesire, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, explains the group's ethics complaint against the William Penn Foundation and the Boston Consulting Group.

by Bill Hangley, Jr.

With the shadow of dozens of possible school closures looming in the background, a group of public school advocates has formally filed an ethics complaint challenging the legitimacy of the dramatic reform plan developed for the School District of Philadelphia by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the William Penn Foundation.

The complaint was filed Wednesday with the Philadelphia Board of Ethics by members of Parents United for Public Education, the Philadelphia Home and School Council, and the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP.

The group alleges that because the William Penn Foundation contracted privately with BCG to develop a reform plan for the District, the two private organizations

Education Research Report: Among low-income schools, traditional public schools show higher achievement scores than charters

Education Research Report: Among low-income schools, traditional public schools show higher achievement scores than charters:

Among low-income schools, traditional public schools show higher achievement scores than charters

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently released Report Cards for a majority of public and charter schools in the state. Public schools comprise 95% (1,772 schools) of the total data set, charter schools comprise 5% (101) of the total.

The Report Cards represent a compilation of three years of data intended to provide a standard of measure for school, student, and teacher performance. Forward Institute is conducting an extensive study on the effects of Wisconsin 2011 Act 32 on high poverty vs. low poverty school students, to be completed in January 2013.

Forward Institute used the recent Report Cards to examine the correlations between poverty and educational outcome in Wisconsin charter and public schools. The Report Cards are an appropriate data source as they us

Was 'Brown v. Board' a Failure? - Sarah Garland - The Atlantic

Was 'Brown v. Board' a Failure? - Sarah Garland - The Atlantic:

Was 'Brown v. Board' a Failure?

A new study shows a steady but significant return of racial isolation to America's schools.

Students at Barnard Elementary School in Washington, D.C., one of the first schools to desegregate after Brown. (Library of Congress)

After half a century, America's efforts to end segregation seem to be winding down. In the years after Brown v. Board of Education, 755 school districts were under desegregation orders. A new Stanford study reports that as of 2009, that number had dropped to as few as 268.

The study is the first to take a comprehensive look at whether court-ordered busing successfully ended the legacy of Jim Crow in public education, and it suggests a mission that is far from accomplished. On average, those districts that stopped forcing schools to mix students by race have seen a gradual but steady--and significant--return of racial isolation, especially at the elementary level.

It's unclear what effect school "re-segregation" will have on minority achievement, though a large body of research suggests it certainly won't help efforts to improve test scores, graduation rates, and college entry levels for blacks and Hispanics, a growing share of the U.S. population. But the

Parents: We are losing control of our schools - theoaklandpress.com

Parents: We are losing control of our schools - theoaklandpress.com:

Parents: We are losing control of our schools

Published: Thursday, December 06, 2012

By DIANA DILLABER MURRAY
Of The Oakland Press
diana.dillaber@oakpress.com; Twitter: @DDillybar

Click to enlarge

Close to 2,000 parents and community members have attended meetings around Oakland County called by education leaders who are critical of legislation being pushed in the lame duck session.

Yet another meeting has been added to the series that started last week. A meeting is planned from 7 to 9 p.m. today at Coolidge Intermediate School., 2521 Bermuda, Ferndale.

Vickie Markavitch, Oakland Schools superintendent, said despite opposition, legislators still hope to pass the bills before the session ends.

Markavitch and other educators fear that current proposed

NAEP - The results of the national standardized vocabulary tests are in

NAEP - Overview:

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Learn more...

Vocabulary Results from the 2009 and 2011 NAEP Reading Assessment are here! Learn more about the release and how to view the live webinar.

Join the webinar of the 2011 Vocabulary Report.

In the Spotlight

Get NAEP Results!
Now available for download on mobile devices through Apple App Store and Google Play, the NAEP Results app delivers current results, comparative statistics, and real practice questions from the assessments. Test yourself, your students, or your kids! >>More info

Writing 2011 Tutorials
Writing 2011 was administered for the first time as a computer-based assessment. Explore the tutorials to find out how students at grades 8 and 12 took the test! >>More info
Test Yourself in WritingHow well do you write? Test yourself with questions released with the 2011 Writing results, and see how you fare! >>More info

Evaluation agreement clears union hurdle; teachers endorse Zimmer - latimes.com

Evaluation agreement clears union hurdle; teachers endorse Zimmer - latimes.com:

Evaluation agreement clears union hurdle; teachers endorse Zimmer

The governing body of the Los Angeles teachers union has endorsed a tentative agreement on teacher evaluations that incorporates the results of student standardized test scores. The approval was a key hurdle but rank-and-file members will have the final say when they vote at their schools in January.
The Wednesday evening vote took place at the Koreatown headquarters of United Teachers Los Angeles during a meeting of the union’s House of Representatives. The tally was 123 in support, 42 opposed and 12 abstentions, according to teachers at the meeting.
Proponents emphasized that the deal did not permit a “value-added” calculation for an individual teacher to be a specific part of that teacher’s job evaluation. Value-added formulas gauge a teacher’s role in student growth by attempting to account for past student performance and outside factors that affect test scores. Many teachers

Vote in the StopBullying.gov Video Challenge! | ED.gov Blog

Vote in the StopBullying.gov Video Challenge! | ED.gov Blog:

Vote in the StopBullying.gov Video Challenge!

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Guest Blogger

Youth from around the country and those overseas in U.S. Department of Defense schools, aged 13 to 18 years, took our challenge and submitted almost 900 entries for the 2012 StopBullying.gov Video Challenge!

The Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention have worked our way through all the creative videos and screened them for eligibility based on the challenge rules. We ranked each of the eligible videos according to the published criteria, and considered feedback from our technical advisors:

Filmmaker Lee Hirsch;
Alice Cahn from Cartoon Network’s Stop Bullying, Speak Up! Campaign;
Deborah Leiter from the Ad Council; and
Scott Hannah and Tyler Gregory, previous finalists of The Great American NO BULL Challenge.

We are ready to share the SEVEN finalists for YOU to vote on!

The theme of this year’s contest is “how youth can be more than a bystander and help kids who are involved in bullying.” Contestants were asked to integrate this idea into their entries and show how they are making a difference in their communities by taking action against bullying.

The goal of the contest is to create an impact through accepting videos that demonstrate:

Peer-to-peer communication
Positive messaging
Promotion of the http://www.stopbullying.gov website

These youth are competing for big cash prizes — $2,000 will be awarded to the winning video and $500 for each of the two runners up. Voting will continue until December 10^th.

We encourage you to look over the entries and vote for the video that does the best job of showing how youth can be more than a bystander and truly make a difference in their communities by standing up against bullying.

Vote in the video contest!

When you’re done, you can jump over to Twitter or Facebook and tell your friends to vote, too.

Join the conversation on the StopBullying.gov Facebook page

Kaitlyn Harrington, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This post originally appeared at StopBullying.gov.

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, December 6, 2012

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

So When are you going to fix California's Education Mess,
Like a little accountability for the disgusting Charter School Law ?

Education Headlines

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Eureka City Schools, teachers reach tentative contract settlement

The Eureka City Schools and its teachers have agreed on a contract for the 2012-2013 school year, after months of negotiations, Superintendent Fred Van Vleck said Wednesday.

Divided Fresno Unified board gives Hanson positive review

Fresno Unified School District trustees gave Superintendent Michael Hanson a positive end-of-the-year evaluation Wednesday evening, but not without a split vote.

O.C. charter school cleared in state-test misconduct probe

An independently run Capistrano Unified school being investigated for possible misconduct during state standardized testing in the spring has been exonerated of wrongdoing, the school district has announced.

Carlsbad rejects proposed charter school

Trustees in Carlsbad Unified School District unanimously rejected Oxford Preparatory Academy's proposal to start a charter school in the district Wednesday night.

Pop singer Angelina is now an East San Jose teacher after music stardom and tragedy

Angelina Camarillo Ramos, the unlikely pop singer from Union City and Santa Clara University, has come full circle. After a successful run in urban contemporary music and the tragic death of her brother, she's pursuing the teaching career she always wanted. But her students didn't buy it at first.

LAUSD faces 4 new lawsuits in Miramonte case

Attorneys representing victims of alleged lewd acts by a former Los Angeles third-grade teacher filed four lawsuits this week against the school district, after the lawyers refused to participate in negotiations to settle about 175 legal actions stemming from the same case.

Dublin bans new tobacco stores near schools, parks

Enacting one of the East Bay's strictest tobacco ordinances, the City Council gave final approval Tuesday to rules barring new tobacco sellers from opening near schools, parks or day care centers.

Ex-treasurer sentenced to jail, order to repay $37,346 to Sunnyvale PTA

Dawn Saugen, the former PTA treasurer convicted of embezzling more than $35,000 from the Vargas School Parent Teacher Association, was sentenced Wednesday to eight months in county jail and three years of probation.

Fensterwald: Many math students are flailing, repeating courses without success

A big reason California students are pushed to take higher math in high school is to see that they satisfy the admission requirements to a state four-year university. And yet 68 percent of students who haven’t passed one of the required courses, Algebra II, by the end of 11th grade don’t even enroll in math as seniors, giving up on the possibility of applying to a UC or CSU school.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

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