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Friday, April 23, 2010

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

Klein claims victory on rubber rooms

Chancellor Joel Klein took a victory lap Friday to celebrate a deal to close the "rubber rooms," but skeptics question whether the city can transform teacher discipline.
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Governor Christie of New Jersey has won an important victory against unions and for fiscal sanity

4.23.10 - Just a few months into his term, Christie has taken the fight to the blood-engorged leech of a public sector so quickly and so hard that one teacher-union apparatchik sent an e-mail to thousands praying for his untimely demise....
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Alabama school official says evaluation proposal would change tenure

A proposal to change the way teachers are evaluated in Alabama would tie teacher effectiveness to student achievement and could make it harder for educators to obtain tenure....
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Teachers strike in Capistrano school district

Hundreds of teachers walk picket lines in a labor dispute. Few incidents were reported; about 39% of students attended class. ...
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Kids at work: Schools urge skipping of annual event

CHICAGO (AP) — Many U.S. school districts urged parents to keep their kids in class and not take them to work Thursday for an annual event they say disrupts learning at an increasingly critical time of year. ...
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Texas' Clout Over Textbooks Could Shift With Market

Regardless of the degree of influence Texas wields on texts nationally, recent state laws on digital materials could force change. ...
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Lawmakers OK bigger class sizes

Lawmakers gave Georgia school systems breathing room this week by allowing them to expand class sizes to save money. ...
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Lesbian student sues over prom flap

ABERDEEN, Miss. -- The lesbian teenager from Mississippi who challenged her school district's ban on same-sex prom dates is seeking unspecified monetary damages, claiming she was publicly humiliated. ...
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Even more education trouble in Florida

4.23.10 - The Florida Legislature doesn't give up trying to drastically change the public education system:...
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Nepotism, conflict of interest find a home at charter schools

A Daily News investigation has found some charters hiring wives, husbands and children of school officials and board trustees as vendors, teachers aides and consultants....
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Unions don't learn: Teachers' role in education

Teachers unions need a hug. After all, they're having a really bad year. So bad that their members are... ...
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Local school districts dismiss class-size reductions

Remember class-size reduction – the push for classes of no more than 20 students per teacher that swept California public schools in the 1990s?...
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Settlement near in Web cam suit?

Attorneys for the Lower Merion School District spent more than four hours Wednesday discussing a possible financial settlement with the Penn Valley parents whose son sued the district over its secret laptop tracking program...
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Phila. School District proposes $3.2B budget

Bucking a national trend of layoffs and deep cuts, the School District of Philadelphia on Wednesday introduced a $3.2 billion 2010-11 budget that contains money for new classroom initiatives. ...
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Union: 95 percent of teachers voting have 'no confidence' in Johnson

If a single moment could capture the drama of the past year in the Palm Beach County School District, it might be this: Union president Robert Dow, resplendent in red and backed by...
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Rise & Shine: Could charter stance push Perkins out of office? | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Could charter stance push Perkins out of office? | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Could charter stance push Perkins out of office?

by Philissa Cramer
  • Shouting ruled at the charter school hearing held by State Sen. Bill Perkins. (Daily News, NY1, Post)
  • A minute-by-minute account of the all-day hearing contains all of the highlights. (GothamSchools)
  • The state teachers unions charges against the schools focused on financial improprieties. (Times)
  • Two pro-charter politicians took the hearing as an opportunity to challenge the teachers union. (Post)
  • A columnist writes that Perkins’ anti-charter school stance makes him politically vulnerable. (Post)
  • The Post says Perkins has “no legitimate place in public life” and should be voted out of office.
  • The Daily News says the hearing was “an attempt to create public policy by raging non sequiturs.”
  • In letters to the editor, Post readers weigh in on the most recent union-charter schools dust-up.
  • A Queens teacher accused of molesting students has been investigated before. (Daily News, NY1)
  • Parents in the East Village used Earth Day to campaign against schools’ use of styrofoam trays. (NY1)
  • The city school board voted to let PAVE Academy stay in PS 15 for three more years. (Courier-Life)
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Education - NorthJersey.com

Education - NorthJersey.com:
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The Fundamental Flaw In Education Policy - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

The Fundamental Flaw In Education Policy - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

The Fundamental Flaw In Education Policy

"Truly effective teaching meets each student at his or her own level and
raises that individual to a higher level."


The Fundamental Flaw in Education Policy

By Joseph Ganem, Ph.D.

Education policy in the United States is built on a fundamentally flawed chain of reasoning. The underlying assumption is that student achievement depends on the abilities of the teachers, and that achievement is measurable with standardized tests. Therefore test scores identify successful teachers. High test scores result from high-quality teaching that should be rewarded and emulated. Low test scores mean that the teachers are incompetent. Schools with consistently low scores are failed institutions that should replace their teachers or be closed.

The flaw in this reasoning is so glaring that I am amazed that these assumptions drive national education policy. A simple thought experiment exposes the fault. Imagine two schools at opposite ends of the test-score spectrum. For example, in Baltimore where I live, there are private college-prep schools filled with students who score in the 95th percentile and above on standardized tests. There are also public schools filled with students who cannot read at grade level, and that have graduation rates less than 50%. Many of the public schools are labeled as failures because of their low test scores. Imagine the following experiment: move all the students from one of the private schools to one of the failed public schools, and all the students from the failed school to the private school. Do not change the teachers, administrators, or 
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New CSU system reality: Class load limits - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

New CSU system reality: Class load limits - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

New CSU system reality: Class load limits

by lrosenhall@sacbee.com (Laurel Rosenhall)
It's the latest sign that things aren't what they used to be on California's college campuses.
Students are signing up for fall classes, and on many California State University campuses they're bumping into new, tighter limits on the number of classes they can take.
The policy change is more fallout from last year's state budget cuts, a 20 percent hit for California's public universities that prompted CSU to slash course offerings and left students at some schools piled up in hallways unable to find a seat.
Heading into the fall, CSU is trying to smooth the course registration process and give students of all grade levels a better shot at getting the classes they need. Campuses are limiting the number of courses students can register for in advance, hoping the restrictions will leave fewer students scrambling at the start of next semester.
It is an efficiency spurred by crisis: At many CSU campuses, students registered early for many more classes
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Notes from the news, Apr. 23 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Apr. 23 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Apr. 23

by Erika Owens
Immigrant students find school system didn't have them in mind The Notebook
Immigrant students often " often wind up in inappropriate settings, receiving inappropriate instruction."
Charter school spared a move to avoid chemicals The Inquirer
Discovery Charter's neighbor was found to have hazardous chemicals on site, but since it promises to clean them up within 48 the school will not have to move.
Beeber: An ArtsZone hub The Notebook blog
The ArtsRising collaboration is starting out in five schools, including Beeber. Eighth grader Precious Lee wrote about what art and this new arts program mean to her.
A Radical Notion Practical Theory blog
That notion is that national standards "be written by successful people not of that field. Poets writing math standards, etc..."
Floating Biology and Blueberries blog
A District science teacher wrote about her experience convincing a student who nearly dropped out to come back to school.
ASD chooses Zahorchak, state education secretary, as its new superintendent The Morning Call
SRC contrató a nuevo asesor de educación Al Día
Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.
Click here to get Notes from the news in your inbox every day.
Notes from the news
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Charter Schools and Teachers’ Union at Odds - NYTimes.com

Charter Schools and Teachers’ Union at Odds - NYTimes.com

State Teachers’ Union Urges More Oversight of Charters


By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: April 22, 2010

RelatedA Buffalo charter school, run by a for-profit company, received $7.2 million in taxpayer money last year to educate about 500 elementary and middle school students. But at the end of the year, the audit it submitted to the state listed its expenses only in broad brushstrokes, including $1.3 million in rent for a building the company owned, $976,000 for executive administration and $361,000 in professional fees.
Officials from the New York State teachers’ union, testifying at a crowded State Senate hearing on Thursday, raised the case of the school, Buffalo United, as an example of what it said was wrong with the oversight of charter schools throughout the state. The union said the case supported its view that no new charter schools should be authorized unless oversight is strengthened.
“How much is profit?” asked Andrew Pallotta, the executive vice president of New York State United Teachers. “There is truly too much we don’t know and can’t know.”
The union’s concerns fell on mostly friendly ears at the all-day hearing, which had been called by Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, an outspoken critic of the charter school movement. Teachers’ unions have generally opposed charter schools, which tend not to be unionized. On Thursday, the state union listed allegations against charter schools that included conflict of interest and outright theft. Brooklyn Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, it said, had acquired, as a subsidiary, a bridal shop linked to the president of the school’s board. A state comptroller’s audit of a second Buffalo charter school, Western
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Updated Social Studies “The Best…” Lists | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Updated Social Studies “The Best…” Lists | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Updated Social Studies “The Best…” Lists

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve just updated the following “The Best…” lists:

“King Tut In New York”









Recording Of Last Night’s Interview With Me

by Larry Ferlazzo

I had a fun interview and discussion with Steve Hargadon and many others last night in his Future of Educationevent.

If you’re interested in hearing/watching it, which was focused on my book and teaching English Language Learners, the recording can be watched/listened to here.


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Class Size Matters � InterACT

Class Size Matters � InterACT

Class Size Matters

by Martha Infante
Petra* was a Straight A student with the highest test scores in school. When in class, she answered every question correctly, was polite and participatory, and was what can be described as a dream student. She was only in class, however, about three times a week. In an overcrowded classroom, this event might go unnoticed, or perhaps even be welcomed, a relief of moving towards a more manageable load of students. Still, Petra’s absences were a concern.
Helen* had a propensity to look at the right hand corner of my room for long stretches of time, and every now and then her eyes would bulge. Since she sat close to the front, this unnerved me, and led me to wonder what she might be thinking about to cause such reactions.
Robert* refused to make eye contact with me, spoke no words, and quickly entered my room and sped directly to his seat every day, all semester long. He spoke in a flat, monotone voice (when he spoke at all), and his writings seemed to always find a way to be centered around the video game Halo.
In an overcrowded classroom, students like these may not appear on an overburdened, harried educator’s radar. Yet like all students, they deserve an accomplished teacher to identify, understand, and meet their unique learning needs. In some cases, the teacher is the final fail safe mechanism that will catch them before they are lost to the nether world of crime, abuse, or mental illness.
I kept Petra in at nutrition one day and asked why she missed so much school. She looked me straight in the eye and said, “sometimes I feel sick and can’t get up in the morning.” Perhaps it is the sixth sense most
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Christie claims a win on school budget defeats | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/22/2010

Christie claims a win on school budget defeats | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/22/2010

Christie claims a win on school budget defeats

By Cynthia Burton
Inquirer Staff Writer
From his Statehouse reception room yesterday, Gov. Christie surveyed New Jersey's overwhelming rejection of school budgets and declared the results a "referendum on taxes and spending in New Jersey."
But the defeat of 315 of 537 budgets was much more than that, and the governor's office seemed to know it.
Administration officials launched the next barrage in Christie's tax war, pressing his wish for a statewide referendum on limiting school property-tax hikes to 2.5 percent a year.
The governor was building on his own momentum.
Christie stoked voter anger by using his uncommon ability to leap over the heads of the political establishment - as well as the teachers' union, the students' parents, and the school boards - and take a message directly to the broader electorate, said Thomas O'Neill, a political analyst, a lobbyist, and an official in the Brendan T. Byrne administration.
For weeks, Christie used his bully pulpit to stir up voters typically absent from the mid-April school elections. His message was clear: If school districts didn't cut spending, voters should reject their budgets.
"If you don't see shared sacrifice, I think that's a problem. I think you should vote no," he said.
In the end, voter turnout was higher than normal.
"I don't recall a governor being as active in any type of


Now, towns have 4 weeks to decide school budgets

After the biggest school budget defeat in at least three decades, town councils and commissions statewide have just four weeks to figure out what to do with the hundreds of district spending plans rejected by voters Tuesday.

Phila. School District proposes $3.2B budget

Bucking a national trend of layoffs and deep cuts, the School District of Philadelphia on Wednesday introduced a $3.2 billion 2010-11 budget that contains money for new classroom initiatives.

Supporters of charter criticize Butkovitz report

Supporters defended the People for People Charter School at Wednesday's School Reform Commission meeting and lambasted a city controller's report that raised questions about its financial management.

Settlement near in Web cam suit?

Attorneys for the Lower Merion School District spent more than four hours Wednesday discussing a possible financial settlement with the Penn Valley parents whose son sued the district over its secret laptop tracking program, according to two people with knowledge of the talks.


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Sacramento's Fremont closure plan puts adult education on the chopping block | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Sacramento's Fremont closure plan puts adult education on the chopping block | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education


Sacramento's Fremont closure plan puts adult education on the chopping block

John Larimore Last updated 12 hrs ago

SACRAMENTO, CA - Teachers and students at Fremont Adult School were dismayed to learn Thursday that due to proposed budget cuts, this will probably be the last semester they will be able to take classes at their beloved school.
The Sacramento Unified School District is planning to cut Adult Education by 35 percent, or nearly $5,000,000. That means the 90-year-old school is slated for closure by this summer.
The school provides English as a second language (ESL) programs and classes to help students obtain their high school diploma (GED).
Teachers say students from all over the world have attended Fremont School to pursue their American dream, mastering English and earning high school diplomas with many going on to college.
Some Fremont students said the school is the first place where they are introduced to the American way of life.
"I like the teachers," said Luisa Lozano, an immigrant from Colombia. "The teachers are wonderful teachers. The teachers are the most dedicated teachers. They teach us not just English, they teach us about the life."
District officials said they are planning to move the ESL programs to their other sites, like the Florin Technology Education Center. However, the GED program's future still has not been decided
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L.A. NOW | Education | Hundreds of Orange County teachers strike over pay and benefits cuts

L.A. NOW | Education | Los Angeles Times

Hundreds of Orange County teachers strike over pay and benefits cuts

April 22, 2010 | 10:20 am

Capostrike
Hundreds of Orange County teachers were walking picket lines Thursday, the first day of a strike protesting pay and benefits cuts in the Capistrano Unified School District.

Schools in the 51,000-student district remained open, but most after-school activities and sports events were canceled.

Scores of substitute teachers were hurriedly brought in to preside over classrooms with lesson plans that included enrichment activities in line with state education standards. But there were reports that some students were leaving campuses because there were too few substitutes.

The Capistrano Unified Teachers Assn., which represents the district’s 2,200 teachers, called the strike after negotiations over wage and benefits cuts broke down. The district last month imposed a

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Why Santa Claus Isn't a School Reform Icon :: Frederick M. Hess

Why Santa Claus Isn't a School Reform Icon :: Frederick M. Hess

Frederick M. Hess's Blog

Why Santa Claus Isn't a School Reform Icon

by Frederick M. Hess • Apr 22, 2010 at 9:27 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Even as our earnest Secretary of Education Arne Duncan enthusiastically embraces Senator Tom Harkin's pander-refic $23 billion "Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010" (don't worry, the 2011 version is sure to visit a theater near you in due course), he's insisting that this development won't compromise his credibility or effectiveness as a reformer.

Me, I'm skeptical. There's a reason that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren't usually regarded as reform-minded icons. The crux of reform is the insistence on changing the way business is done. That's much harder to do when one is proffering gifts with no strings attached, and especially when those gifts dwarf the meager allowance that parents are urging children to earn. Necessity is a crucial driver of change. Making it easier for states and districts to kick the can down the road on addressing unaffordable benefits, inefficient outlays, and

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