Spike in anti-school closure protests begins to heat up the winter | GothamSchools

Spike in anti-school closure protests begins to heat up the winter | GothamSchools

Tis the season to light candles, exchange gifts, visit family — and protest school closures?

Last week marked the beginning of what promises to be an unusually heated season of rallies organized by opponents of the city’s plan to close 20 schools.

Some activists point to a heightened sensitivity around this year’s school closings. But the spike in public demonstrations may also be due to changes in school governance law that has required DOE officials to explain and defend their closure proposals in public, where those decisions were once made behind closed doors.

“I think the amount of activity this year is definitely unusual,” said parent activist Leonie Haimson. “Among people who pay attention to these things, I think there’s an overwhelming sense of enough is enough and an attitude that we’re going to fight back.”

This afternoon, teachers union head Michael Mulgrew will join parents and City Council members to protest school closings on the steps of Tweed Courthouse.

Last week, hundreds of students, parents and teachers rallied against the closure of Jamaica High School in Queens. Smaller protest gatherings were also held at Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan, Metropolitan Corporate Academy and Maxwell High School in Brooklyn. Much of last week’s four-hour-long citywide school board meeting was spent in public comment session as students and teachers vented

Education Week: States Struggle to Stitch Together Pre-K-20 Data

Education Week: States Struggle to Stitch Together Pre-K-20 Data:

"Spurred by the prospect of grant funding from the federal Race to the Top competition, as well as money made available from other parts of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more states are taking strides to link K-12 data systems with postsecondary agencies to develop a more holistic picture of each student.

But despite the emphasis among policy leaders on K-20 data systems, the progress that states have made toward that goal varies greatly, and many challenges—both technical and political—remain.

Although the idea of linking precollegiate data with postsecondary databases has been around for years, the difference is “it is no longer something that seems to be a good idea to people just in education,” says Ben Passmore, the director of policy research for the Adelphi, Md.-based University System of Maryland, which represents 11 universities, two research institutions, and two regional higher education centers in that state."

Deloitte 2009 Education Survey | Barry Salzberg | Secondary Education Reform

Deloitte 2009 Education Survey | Barry Salzberg | Secondary Education Reform

The competitiveness of the U.S. economy in part depends on increasing the college-educated workforce, but too few low-income students are attending college.

It is with this reality in mind that Deloitte LLP CEO Barry Salzberg commissioned the 2009 Education Survey to explore attitudes among teachers, low-income parents and low-income students about college, student preparedness, and creating a college-going culture.

The results revealed a major disconnect on the role of high school and that the current education system does not do enough to encourage teachers and administrators to take a long-term view of student achievement.

When asked to identify the most important mission of high school, only nine percent of teachers chose preparing students for college. But low-income parents and students overwhelmingly rank preparing students for college as the most important purpose of high school.

With regard to long-term success, the results also show a gap between student aspiration and actual preparedness. While 70 percent of students indicated that they “definitely” plan to attend college, only 22 percent of students said their high school has done an “excellent” job in preparing them for college.

So what must be done? By redefining the mission of high school to become a launch pad rather than the last stop and instilling a college-going culture in our high schools, the U.S. can build a 21st Century workforce.

Standing up for victimized students | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/20/2009

Standing up for victimized students Philadelphia Inquirer 12/20/2009:

"The day after 30 Asian students were attacked by a group of mostly African American classmates at South Philadelphia High School, senior Wei Chen stood surrounded by a swarm of TV cameras.

Amid the glare and tussle, Chen assuredly answered reporters' questions, pointing out that many black youths had befriended Asian students, and saying it was school supervisors who had failed. Then he handed out something most teenagers don't carry: his business card.

People wondered: Who is this kid?

The answer: He's a whole lot of things.

Chen, 18, is articulate, smart, and frighteningly organized. He's never on time for meetings - he's there early, to help set up."

N.J. eyes expanded school choice | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/20/2009

N.J. eyes expanded school choice | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/20/2009:

"The program allows children to attend schools outside their home districts. In South Jersey, 5 districts take part.

By Rita Giordano
Inquirer Staff Writer

With a governor-elect who has vowed to support more educational options, attention has turned toward a little-known program that lets families send their children to schools outside their home district.

Known as the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, it started in 2000 as a five-year pilot. The state Board of Education readopted the program's regulations Wednesday to keep it operating in its current form. It is in 15 districts statewide, including five in South Jersey, and last school year served a little more than 900 students.

Those numbers could grow substantially if the Legislature embraces a proposal to expand the program and make it permanent.

'This program has proven to be successful,' said Sen. Shirley Turner (D., Mercer), cosponsor of the Senate version of the bill, along with Sen. Thomas Kean Jr. (R., Union). Their bill was approved by the Senate Education Committee last month and has moved to the budget committee. An Assembly version is pending."

The Educated Guess � Leaky pipeline to college graduation

The Educated Guess � Leaky pipeline to college graduation:

"Measuring Success, Making Progress is a new site that pulls together data on student outcomes in one of the clearest presentations I’ve seen. It includes: current data on high school graduation rates, college readiness, college enrollment, community college progress and college completion rates. It makes the first stab at a six-year dropout rate, tracking students form seventh grade on.

The effort was led by MPR Associates of Berkeley and its senior researcher Jay Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer is nationally recognized for creating Florida’s longitudinal student data system and is the first to acknowledge that the new site will have more complete and accurate data once CALPADS, California’s new student"

Detroit Schools Push for Change - WSJ.com

Detroit Schools Push for Change - WSJ.com:

"Detroit's public schools took a step closer to financial stability over the weekend when the 7,000-member teachers' union ratified an innovative contract that will save the district $63 million over the next three years.

Under the deal, teachers, school counselors and other staff agreed to defer $10,000 each in pay over the next two years to help the district pay its bills.

In addition, union pay raises will be more closely tied to the district's financial health. In the third year of the contract, for example, teachers will receive a guaranteed 1% pay increase, but they will get a further 2% raise if districtwide enrollment increases and the district draws more state funding."

City Schools’ New Criteria for Diversity Raise Fears - NYTimes.com

City Schools’ New Criteria for Diversity Raise Fears - NYTimes.com:

"The Chicago public schools’ response to a recent court desegregation ruling — a plan to use students’ social and economic profiles instead of race to achieve classroom diversity — is raising fears that it will undermine the district’s slow and incremental progress on racial diversity."

Chicago schools, like the city itself, are hardly a model of racial integration. But a Chicago News Cooperativeanalysis of school data shows the district has made modest gains in the magnet, gifted, classical and selective-enrollment schools, where, for nearly 30 years, race has been used as an admission criterion. Those advances may be imperiled in the wake of court rulings that have prompted Chicago Public Schools to look for factors other than race when assigning students to such schools.

Nationwide, court rulings have prompted school districts to seek creative ways to diversify classrooms without using a student’s race as a factor. In Chicago, school officials last week moved ahead with their own experiment.
Instead of race as an admissions factor, they now will use socioeconomic data from the student’s neighborhood — income, education levels, single-parent households, owner-occupied homes and the use of language other than English as the primary tongue — in placing children in selective-enrollment schools.
A 1980 federal consent decree had, for nearly three decades, made the use of race a factor in admission to Chicago’s magnet and selective-enrollment schools. In September, a federal district court judge in Chicago vacated that decree. In the district’s neighborhood schools, race was not considered in assigning

Beverly Hills Schools to Cut Nonresidents - NYTimes.com

Beverly Hills Schools to Cut Nonresidents - NYTimes.com:

"BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Daniel Kahn has never lived in this city, but he has attended its legendary public schools since the fourth grade. Now in eighth grade, he is vice president of the student council, plays in two school bands and is an A student who has been preparing to tread in his sister’s footsteps at Beverly Hills High School"

But Daniel will almost certainly be looking for a new place to hang his backpack next fall. The school board here intends to do away with hundreds of slots reserved for nonresident children, most of whom live in nearby neighborhoods of Los Angeles where the homes are nice but the city’s public school system is deeply distressed.
The students used to be a financial boon for Beverly Hills, bringing millions of dollars in state aid with them. But California’s budget crisis is changing the way schools are financed in many wealthy cities, suddenly turning the out-of-towners into money losers.
The result has been raucous school board sessions,Facebook pages devoted to each side of the debate, severed friendships and an unflattering snapshot of the social dynamic between Beverly Hills — an incorporated city of “much-haves” that needs no introduction — and the often faceless Los Angeles neighborhoods of simply “haves” that surround it.
“Membership has its privileges,” said Lisa Korbatov, vice president of the Beverly Hills school board. “But anyone can be a member. I made a choice to spend more to live in a home here when I could have spent less on a bigger home in another area. But I made a choice and sacrificed.”
Children like Daniel and his parents say the board’s impending decision — which has so riled the community that the police will be called to watch over next month’s board meeting when a formal vote will be taken — is callous toward the many children who have spent years in

Class Struggle - When teachers reject the Internet

Class Struggle- When teachers reject the Internet:

"My former Post colleague Tracy Thompson has two daughters in a Washington area school district. I promised not to say which one. It doesn’t matter since the issue she raises involves all high-tech schools, of which we have many.

People aren’t using the new web features designed to help families. Is it because parents like me are techno-phobs? Not entirely. The reluctant participants that concern her are teachers.

Both of Thompson’s kids have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. They have trouble getting their work done. Her school district, like several in this area, has web sites where parents can see what assignments their children have. That way they cannot be fooled by sly evasions when they ask their children, sitting in front of the TV, if they have any homework."

NY1 | 24 Hour Local News | Politics | Schools Chancellor Announces Pay Raises, Layoffs For DOE

NY1 | 24 Hour Local News | Politics | Schools Chancellor Announces Pay Raises, Layoffs For DOE:

"Department of Education employees learned today that they are getting a raise, but state and city budget cuts could put many of the same employees' jobs at risk.
All of the more than 1,000 non-unionized DOE employees given raises by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein are central employees, instead of unionized teachers or principals.

The raises are also lower than those for other city employees. While Mayor Michael Bloomberg approved a 4-percent pay raise for city employees for both 2008 and 2009, Klein has decided to give DOE employees a 2-percent raise for this year and last year if they make less than $70,000 or a $2,800 raise if they make more than $70,000."

DOE to award $12 million in raises to central office employees | GothamSchools

DOE to award $12 million in raises to central office employees | GothamSchools:

"At the same time city schools are poised to suffer mid-year budget cuts, the Department of Education is awarding $12 million in pay raises over the next two years to non-union department employees, Chancellor Joel Klein announced this afternoon.

Central office employees have gone two years without raises and are getting less than the city set aside for them. Under the original plan, they would have received two four percent pay raises over two years, at a cost of $30 million total. DOE officials said today the $18 million savings would be used to soften budget cuts’ blow to schools.

In a memo this afternoon, Klein told employees they deserve raises, but following significant budget cuts to schools and the layoffs of hundreds of other central employees and school-based staff, he could not justify granting the full four percent raise.

“[A]t a time when the Department and our schools will have no choice but to make further large reductions, I cannot in good conscience fully fund raises, especially for people who are already earning substantial salaries,” Klein wrote. “We are in this together, and our schools in particular must be spared to the extent realistically possible.”"

Fix, don't close, 'failing' schools: Union head says Bloomberg and Klein have the wrong approach

Fix, don't close, 'failing' schools: Union head says Bloomberg and Klein have the wrong approach

The Department of Education recently announced the closing of 21 schools - most of them large high schools - in a stated attempt to provide better services to students. The truth is that the students in these schools are poised to become the latest victims of a failed educational strategy - one that ignores the possibility of strengthening schools, closes them on the basis of mysterious and ever-changing criteria and shuffles thousands of our neediest students from one struggling institution to another.

The first problem is how the schools were chosen. According to Mayor Bloomberg, the aim of the latest round of closings is to shut down the system's lowest-performing schools. While it is true that some of the high schools identified for closure have problems that require drastic action, the list also includes schools that have made progress on every measure. It includes schools where teachers and administrators have gotten bonuses for improving scores. And it includes schools that have never received a progress grade lower than C.

Meanwhile, schools with worse records are permitted to remain open.

What's more, some of the schools identified for closure are institutions that were functioning well until the DOE accelerated the process of closing large high schools. The plan was to replace the large high schools with smaller ones - but the DOE never created enough seats in the small schools to accommodate all the students who were displaced.

Columbus High School in the Bronx is a perfect example. For years, Columbus was a successful school with a widely diverse student body in terms of student ability and success. Then, DOE policy created a group of small academies that siphoned off many of the highest-achieving pupils - and closed nearby high schools likeAdlai Stevenson and Evander Childs. The result was an influx to Columbus of non-English speaking recent immigrants, disabled and special needs students, along with students

Read more:http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/20/2009-12-20_fix_dont_close_failing_schools.html#ixzz0aKtJp3Q3

Can she bring Bronx success to L.A. schools? - LA Daily News

Can she bring Bronx success to L.A. schools? - LA Daily News:

"Leaving New York will not be easy for Joan Sullivan.

Working in the South Bronx … the country's poorest congressional district … for the last 13 years as a teacher, principal and education reformer, Sullivan has established her dream school and been part of a revolution that's largely turned around the country's largest school district.

In three short weeks though, Sullivan will leave that work behind to embark on a whole new challenge as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's deputy mayor of education.

She starts Jan. 19 with an annual salary of $149,000.

The exit is bittersweet. Just this week Sullivan learned that one of the students at her campus … the Bronx Academy of Letters … earned a $56,000 scholarship to Columbia University."

Teachers' unions balk at Florida's bid for federal education reform money - St. Petersburg Times

Teachers' unions balk at Florida's bid for federal education reform money - St. Petersburg Times:

"Florida is suddenly in danger of stumbling in its quest for a share of $4.5 billion in federal education money aimed at school reform.

Teachers union officials on Thursday called the state's bid 'fatally flawed' and said there isn't a local union that can support it.

That could mean trouble for Florida, which stands to lose up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top funds to improve teacher evaluations, tie teacher pay to student performance and turn around struggling schools. Union partnerships are a requirement, as many of the reforms need contract negotiations."

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Rhee passes on bonus

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Rhee passes on bonus:

"Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's name surfaced in this week's Examiner story about the $15 million in bonuses awarded since Mayor Adrian M. Fenty took office in Jan. 2007. The paper reported that Rhee received $41,250 in 2007 'after barely two months on the job.' In fact, the sum wasn't for stellar performance during her first weeks in town, but a signing bonus paid under the terms of her contract with the city.

The agreement says she's also eligible for an annual 'performance incentive bonus' of up to ten percent of her $275,000 base salary. Existing contracts are not covered by the October law the council passed to curb the bonus spree, so Rhee remains eligible. But, for the second year in a row, she says she's passed on the extra dough.

'I don't think it's right to take a bonus when the city and district are in the financial situation we face,' Rhee said in an e-mail."

O'Malley wants to apply in Jan. for U.S. education grants -- baltimoresun.com

O'Malley wants to apply in Jan. for U.S. education grants -- baltimoresun.com:

"Gov. Martin O'Malley criticized state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick's decision to delay a request for federal stimulus money for education, saying Friday that he wants Maryland to go after the $150 million next month.

'I find it very unusual that in the area where we're recognized as the best in the nation, that this is the one department that's not applying as aggressively as every other department has for these things,' O'Malley said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun.

Maryland has been awarded more than $4 billion in stimulus money this year, making it among the most competitive in the nation, O'Malley said."

 

Detroit teachers' union OKs contract | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Detroit teachers' union OKs contract | detnews.com | The Detroit News:

"The Detroit Federation of Teachers approved a new 3-year contract early this morning that calls for salaried teachers to loan $10,000 to the district over a period of 40 paychecks, no pay increases until 2011, and nearly $28 million in savings on health care costs'.

By a 3,578 to 2,031 vote, teachers ratified the new agreement which goes into effect immediately and contains new academic reforms such as a comprehensive teacher evaluation system and school-based performance bonuses and a system of priority schools. It affects 7,000 union members.

'This was a contract that had to be negotiated under the most difficult of circumstances so it's not happiness on my part but relief that the membership paid more attention to our truth than the lies and rhetoric of the dissidents,' said Union President Keith Johnson."

Backgrounds of 3 MPS superintendent finalists detailed - JSOnline

Backgrounds of 3 MPS superintendent finalists detailed - JSOnline:

"The remaining candidates to be chief of Milwaukee Public Schools are two African-American men and one Hispanic man, all with experience in big-city school districts.

Philadelphia native Gregory Thornton, superintendent of the 7,800-student Chester Upland Public Schools in southeastern Pennsylvania, previously was in the No. 2 job for the Philadelphia School District.

Robert Alfaro is one of four regional superintendents for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, one of the nation's largest districts with more than 300,000 students, though his responsibility is for a suburban region. He earlier had a post with the San Antonio school district.

Stacy Scott, one of six associate superintendents with Montgomery County, Md., schools outside Washington, D.C., has spent years as an education consultant, including for Milwaukee Public Schools, he said.

Those were some of the details available Friday about the three finalists to replace Superintendent William Andrekopoulos, who plans to retire in the summer."

Mayor, universities to address tuition tax at press conference

Mayor, universities to address tuition tax at press conference:

"Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has scheduled a news conference at 9:30 a.m. with city council members and local university officials to discuss his efforts to enact a first-of-its-kind tax on student tuition.

Council is scheduled to vote today on the 1 percent tax, but the news conference suggests that may not be necessary.

Mr. Ravenstahl wanted the tax to generate about $16 million a year to help pay for pensions of retired city employees, but council last week delayed voting on the tax after Ravenstahl says he was making progress in talks with officials from universities and other nonprofits about contributing money to the city instead of taxes."

As California crumbles, so do other states | delawareonline.com | The News Journal

As California crumbles, so do other states | delawareonline.com | The News Journal:

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State Treasurer Bill Lockyer is playing Scrooge, admonishing Capitol politicians that they can’t have everything they want — or even think they need."

It’s a sound message not just for the politicians but also for the California public.

The state’s credit card is about maxed out, the veteran Democratic warns. Payments on bond borrowing are becoming uncomfortably high, crowding out funds for universities, health care, parks — and all the other government services being slashed these days.

Or, as Assembly budget chairwoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, told a committee hearing Monday, bond payments are “the Pac-Man eating up the general fund” — the state’s main checking account that again is running a deficit. The latest projection is a $21 billion hole for the next 18 months.

Lockyer’s lecture has broad implications for rebuilding California’s crumbling infrastructure.

One example: It could give many voters pause about an $11.1 billion water bond issue that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature recently placed on November’s ballot — especially if the politicians don’t strip out the pork, such as bike trails and “watershed education centers.”

Some of the bond’s goodies “seem only remotely water-related,” notes Lockyer, who hasn’t taken a position on the measure.

But the treasurer’s biggest concern about the water bond is that much of it would be financed by taxpayers. He would rather that more of it be paid off by water users through higher fees, as the original state water project was financed. Then the bond wouldn’t be gnawing away so much at the general fund.

Should California tax college tuition? - College Life OC : The Orange County Register

Should California tax college tuition? - College Life OC : The Orange County Register:

"There’s an uproar going on in Pittsburgh, where the city council is considering whether to assess a one percent tax on the tuition paid by students who attend college in that city. The idea was proposed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who says the $16 million or so the tax would raise could help underwrite the pensions of city employees who’ve retired. Local college students, and their parents hate the idea."

But is this the sort of levy that could — or should — be assessed in California, where the state budget deficit exceeds $21 billion, partly because of the need to pay retirement benefits of government workers? We put the question to you in a the poll below. We’re also interested in your comments.

A giant of California history returns to Sacramento -- latimes.com

A giant of California history returns to Sacramento -- latimes.com:

"Thomas Starr King was not a big man, standing just 5 feet 2 and weighing about 120 pounds. But his admirers say the 19th-century Unitarian minister and California transplant left an outsize legacy in his adopted state.

King, whose eloquent oratory is often credited with having helped keep California in the Union during the Civil War, was later honored in bronze as one of the state's two representatives in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall. The state's other representative there is Father Junipero Serra, the founder of California's missions.

But in June, King lost his place in the hall when his statue was removed, replaced by a likeness of a better-known Californian, President Reagan."

New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs - NYTimes.com

New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs - NYTimes.com:

"“I was constantly being called a geek or a nerd,” he recalled, chuckling.

Dr. Halamka grew up to be something of a cool nerd, with a career that combines his deep interests in medicine and computing, and downtime that involves rock climbing and kayaking.

Now 47, Dr. Halamka is the chief information officer at the Harvard Medical School, a practicing emergency-ward physician and an adviser to the Obama administration on electronic health records.

Hybrid careers like Dr. Halamka’s that combine computing with other fields will increasingly be the new American jobs of the future, labor experts say. In other words, the nation’s economy is going to need more cool nerds. But not enough young people are embracing computing — often because they are leery of being branded nerds."

Reports show California schools skimping on breakfast - Times-Standard Online

Reports show California schools skimping on breakfast - Times-Standard Online:

"Breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, but many students in California schools aren't getting their fill, according to a recent report.

California ranked 33rd for low-income student participation in school breakfast programs for this school year, with more than 1 million qualifying children not eating the early meal, according to reports from the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington-based group. The state also dropped five ratings to 40th in terms of the number of schools offering the program, but most schools in Humboldt County do offer breakfast to their students to help start the day, said Linda Prescott, dietitian for Humboldt County Office of Education.

”Breakfast plays a really important role in that so they can be alert and pay attention,” she said."

Arne Duncan’s Two-by-Four: Is It Big Enough? | California Progress Report

Arne Duncan’s Two-by-Four: Is It Big Enough? | California Progress Report:

"There was a lot of scolding these last two weeks, both from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and much of the California press, about the state Assembly’s rejection of SB 5X 1, the Senate’s bi-partisan bill to conform California education policies to the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top school reform program.

This is not a tempest in a teapot. It reflects fundamental disagreements, some philosophical, some political, some mere turf fights, over the future of the state’s K-12 schools. Either the Senate bill, by Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, or the Assembly substitute by Julia Brownley of Woodland Hills, also a Democrat, which the governor threatened to veto, would have been likely to produce significant changes in the state’s school standards, in its testing program, in school transfer rules and parental rights, and in the reconstitution of failing schools."

Cal Poly president meets with local legislators - DailyBulletin.com

Cal Poly president meets with local legislators - DailyBulletin.com:

"POMONA - For the past year, students, faculty and staff at California's public universities have protested massive budget cuts, but most of their demands have fallen upon deaf ears.
But at Cal Poly Pomona, where a 21 percent budget reduction is threatening dozens of programs and departments, the school president is meeting with legislators to drum up support for higher education.

Cal Poly Pomona President J. Michael Ortiz spent time this month with local legislators to try to persuade them to become 'champions' for higher education. He also invited the campus community to join him.

'No one is really coming out in strong support of higher education,' Ortiz said. 'We would like legislators from this region to say higher education has already suffered enough, and we cannot continue to cut higher education and expect the state to come out of this economic downturn.'"

Parental power | Editorials | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Parental power | Editorials | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California:

"The political fight over a pot of federal school funding illustrates the Legislature's halfhearted interest in education reform: The dispute turns on whether parents should have an alternative to keeping their children in substandard schools.

There should be no debate. The Legislature should approve changes to state law that give parents tools to spur school improvements. That approach offers the promise of better education and greater accountability for school districts.

The state wants a share of the $4.3 billion in federal 'Race to the Top' school money. The program requires California to alter state law to match the federal criteria for collecting the money, but the legislation to make the revisions has become a battleground. And the disagreement is more about who controls the schools and the funding that comes with students than it is about the best way to improve education."

CITIZEN JOURNALISM: FYI - Washington Times

CITIZEN JOURNALISM: FYI - Washington Times:

"The D.C. schools chief and the mayor of Sacramento have more in common than being engaged to each other.

Standing up for school choice

Michelle A. Rhee and Kevin Johnson now share ties with the Broad family, whose coast-to-coast philanthropic efforts are rooted in education. Mrs. Rhee is a member of the board of the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, and Mr. Johnson last week announced a new partnership with the Broad Foundation, which supports charter schools.

The foundation is providing $500,000 in seed money for Stand Up for Sacramento Schools, a nonprofit charged with raising academic achievement and college-completion rates. The initiative will focus on five key areas -- accountability, parent engagement, human capital, school choice and external resources."

Actor Glover, ex-King Jackson hand out Christmas turkeys - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Actor Glover, ex-King Jackson hand out Christmas turkeys - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

"Kim George, 40, and her son Tyriq George, 12, of south Sacramento were first in line Sunday. The single mother and her son walked away with a frozen turkey and a bag containing stuffing mix, cans of vegetables and cranberry sauce.

George said she had been laid off in June by the Sacramento City Unified School District, where she worked as a clerk. 'We're just needing a lot of help right now,' she said. 'This will save me from having to find Christmas dinner.'

Sitting on a bench outside the mall, Sharia Bishop was all smiles after meeting Jackson, who retired in October, and getting a bird with all the trimmings.

'He actually handed me the turkey,' Bishop said."

Culture & Society Articles | Miller-McCune Research Essay — Handwriting Is History | Miller-McCune Online Magazine

Culture & Society Articles | Miller-McCune Research Essay — Handwriting Is History | Miller-McCune Online Magazine:

"Writing words by hand is a technology that's just too slow for our times, and our minds."

At 11 p.m. on Dec. 27, I checked my inbox out of habit. I had 581 new e-mails. All had been sent between 8 and 11 p.m. The days between Christmas and New Year's are not usually a busy time for e-mailing. What was going on?

It turns out that the home page for msn.com had linked to a short article I had published a year earlier. In the article, I argue that we should stop teaching cursive in primary schools and provide some background on the history of handwriting to back up my claims.

The comments on my piece were hostile, insulting and vehemently opposed to my argument. The onslaught continued for a few more days: Some 2,000 comments were submitted, and editors took down about 700 of the worst. If you check this article online today, you will find more than 1,300 comments. For some reason, people are very invested in handwriting.

If we define writing as a system of marks to record information (and discount petroglyphs, say), handwriting has been around for just 6,000 of humanity's some 200,000 years. Its effects have been enormous, of course: It alters the brain, 

Kevin Carey for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

Kevin Carey for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas:

That Old College Lie

by Kevin Carey

"Claiborne Pell died at age 90 on January 1, 2009. In the weeks that followed, the former Democratic senator from Rhode Island was lauded for his many achievements, but one stood out: The first sentence of Pell’s obituary in The New York Times cited 'the college grant program that bears his name.' Pell Grants are the quintessential progressive policy, dedicated to helping low-income students cross into the promised land of opportunity and higher education. 'That is a legacy,' said Joe Biden, 'that will live on for generations to come.'

What the encomiums to Pell failed to mention is that his grants have been, in all the ways that matter most, a failure. As any parent can tell you, colleges are increasingly unaffordable. Students are borrowing at record levels and loan default rates are rising. More and more"

Winter Solstice 2009: Today is the Celebration of Winter Solstice Traditions | Daily World Buzz

Winter Solstice 2009: Today is the Celebration of Winter Solstice Traditions | Daily World Buzz

Today is the Celebration of Winter Solstice Traditions – Monday, December 21, 2009 marks the Winter Solstice traditions, and this is the announcement of the official start of the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter Solstice is also known as Yule.

More precisely, winter solstice will take place at 12:47 pm EST (1747 GMT) on Dec. 21. It is a date that will also mark the shortest day and longest night.

Winter solstice falls every year around Dec. 21. It is because of the earth’s axial tilt, which is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26′. At this time of the year, the sun is closer to the horizon, thus giving out least amount of daylight therefore shortening the day and lengthening the night.

But there is a bright side to it. Starting Tuesday, the days will start getting longer, leading to summer solstice, which in 2010 will fall on June 21. At that time, the day will be the longest with the daytime lasting for about 15 hours compared to 9 hours on Monday.

Now, what are the traditional celebrations during the Winter Solstice? 
Throughout the history, solstices have been accompanied with the countless cultural and religious traditions.

Our ancestors lived in a world where everyone believed in mystery and magic. Every year, they gathered together to celebrate the seemingly miraculous return of the light after the longest night of the year and that’s how Winter Solstice festivals were born. To this day, people all over the world celebrate Winter Solstice as a time of rebirth, a new beginning and a chance to marvel at the power of transition from darkness into light.
Source: Winter Solstice 2009: Today is the Celebration of Winter Solstice Traditions | Daily World Buzz http://www.dailyworldbuzz.com/winter-solstice-2009-today-is-the-celebration-of-winter-solstice-traditions/7748/#ixzz0aHH0IkTD
Via: Daily World Buzz

Giving to Our Kids: What Little House on the Prairie Taught Me about Christmas |

Giving to Our Kids: What Little House on the Prairie Taught Me about Christmas

"We creatively work to give our children good holiday memories, sometimes calling in favors, maybe working an extra job, trading our time for someone else’s talents, blatantly robbing Peter to pay Paul and making New Year’s resolutions all about balancing the checkbook and learning to simplify.

For now, we will live in the moment and try to buy some time for our children so they can remain innocent and unaware of the grown up stuff, all the unforeseen challenges that they will have to deal with all too soon.

Moms and Dads shelter them for a little while longer, taking seriously the job of protecting the wonder of the season, this granting of tangible wishes,  this material miracle-making, hoping to never be asked to put in a pretty box the things parents cannot procure in a midnight run to Walmart."

Annita Woz is the mother of three, writer and Parent Blogger for Empowering Parents.

This Week In Education: Millot: Legal But Questionable Stategies to Control Charter Boards

This Week In Education: Millot: Legal But Questionable Stategies to Control Charter Boards
Millot: Legal But Questionable Stategies to Control Charter Boards

Sometimes you can protect yourself from board members that you chose, by getting undated letters of resignation from the start that can be acted on by us at any time.... Probably the most important concept that needs to be grasped by potential and sitting board members for our new schools going forward is that Imagine owns the school, not just the building.

Denis Bakke, President, to Imagine Schools developers, directors and principals (Sep. 4, 2008)
The slippery slope towards a captive charter school board begins with two moves entirely within the law. The first is to recruit and develop boards rather than approach ones that arise independently from their communities. The second involves facility financing.

It should be obvious that a board recruited and developed by an MO employee is a very different negotiating partner than one sparked by a group of committed citizens or a local nonprofit service organization. It certainly reduces the MO's client acquisition costs. It may be noteworthy that Alternative Public Schools (APS), the predecessor of the "Beacon" in Chancellor Beacon Academies - the EMO Bakke bought in 2004 for CMO Imagine - pioneered the practice.