Monday, June 21, 2010

Remainders: Bloomberg and Mulgrew to lobby for edujobs | GothamSchools

Remainders: Bloomberg and Mulgrew to lobby for federal edujobs bill

by Maura Walz

Mayor Bloomberg and UFT chief Michael Mulgrew plan to lobby in D.C. for the teacher job bill. (WSJ)
Four teacher-bloggers will discuss teacher evaluation and professional development. (Quick and the Ed)
Nineteen states are still waiting for the feds to greenlight their turnaround plans. (State EdWatch)
Study: Middle school music classes also help boost algebra scores. (Curriculum Matters)
How can districts get more creative about summer school? Here are some ideas. (Hechinger Report)
How much does RTTT include teachers’ voices? More than you think, a professor argues. (Rick Hess)
After teaching the “Not-So-Magnificent Seven,” Miss Brave is headed to a new school. (Miss Brave)
A charter school will share space with Horace Mann — a public school in California. (Mission Local)

City family engagement office rolling out new website for parents

by Maura Walz

While the city is busy looking for a replacement for its Chief Family Engagement Officer Martine Guerrier, one of her initiatives is just getting off the ground.

SchoolSource NYC is a website intended to be a repository for fact-sheets and instructional podcasts and videos parents can use to navigate the school system. The site was quietly launched last summer, but the city is now trying to draw parents’ attention to it.

The Department of Education is paying for the site and they’ve contracted out its production to WNET/Channel Thirteen and the consulting firm RMC Research Corporation. Emily Zyko, the website’s director, told me that

HISD's high school chief resigns | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD's high school chief resigns

David Simmons, Houston ISD's chief officer over high schools, officially has resigned, citing "unforeseen personal circumstances," four months after Superintendent Terry Grier hired him for the $165,000-a-year job. Here's the catch: Simmons' official resignation date isn't until Sept. 24, though he's not expected to work through then.

HISD spokesman Norm Uhl explains that Simmons has accrued leave time from working in other Texas school districts — he abruptly resigned as superintendent of Richardson ISD in August. Uhl wasn't sure whether HISD or the state has to foot the bill for Simmons' salary for the next three months. When former HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra left, HISD taxpayers were on the hook for half-a-million dollars in unused time off.

Uhl asked that I submit a formal open records request to find out how much, if any, HISD will have to pay for Simmons' second abrupt resignation. We hope to get the information soon (hint, hint, HISD).

Simmons submitted a four-sentence resignation letter to Grier dated June 17:

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Texas/Southwest

Demographer says Texas must do more pre-K prep

06/21/2010

Associated Press

A former head of the U.S. Census Bureau said Texas must do more to prepare preschool-age children before they enter kindergarten so they won't drop out later.

Steve Murdock, the former state demographer, also said Texas needs to boost its grant program for college students. Murdock realized current trends show that by 2040, three of every 10 workers may not have a high school education.

"Clearly, with the dismal levels that we have in terms of education right now, that's clearly where we're headed," Murdock said.

Murdock also said the trend of higher dropout rates in the state's public schools with more low-income students could also mean more Texans will depend on food stamps, Medicaid and CHIP as well as higher incarceration rates.

"It frightens me because it makes it difficult for Texas to achieve the things that all Texans want to achieve that is, to be very competitive, to be an economic leader in the country and world," Murdock said.

The San Antonio Express-News reported Monday that if nothing changes, average Texas household incomes will be about $6,500 lower

School Tech Connect: Bullying in Higher Ed

Bullying in Higher Ed

by Tim

East-West University goes to the mattresses. This is from their online welcome page...

ISTE Choices

by Tim

Well, this is what I have for ISTE 2010 so far. Yes, I realize there's a lot of overlap. You can't expect me to finalize a decision until 30 seconds before the deadline, can you?

A Tale of Two Memos

by Tim

These 45 million people? Heck with 'em.

Memo From Rahm to Arne:
The important thing, the expedient thing, is to embrace a totally market-based, profit-driven, competition-charged model of public education policy because then and only then,

A) our political adversaries will begin to support us and not filibuster every single thing on our agenda, and

NorthJersey.com: Catholic Church and Paterson discuss converting parochial school into public academy

Catholic Church and Paterson discuss converting parochial school into public academy

Friday, June 18, 2010

BY PATRICIA ALEX

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

display story on 1 pagePage 1 2 >>

Church and Paterson school officials are collaborating on a deal that could transform Paterson Catholic High School into a public charter school.
The deal, confirmed by participants on Friday, could ease the space crunch in the public schools, provide lease money to the debt-burdened Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson and allow for many of PC’s students to stay put.
But because it calls for a measure of church involvement in what would be a tax-supported school, city educators said they were still reviewing whether the arrangement would fit under constitutional separation of church and state.
“There are some positives for us to consider,” said Paterson schools Superintendent Donnie Evans. “But there are long-term, short-term and church-state issues to consider.”
The charter plan was outlined in an announcement posted on the diocesan website. It said there was a Memorandum of Agreement with the city district to collaborate

NorthJersey.com: Lifting pupils with needs

Come September, a section of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fort Lee will be occupied by 3- and 4-year-old special-needs students attending a new district preschool.

Monday, June 21, 2010

BY MERRY FIRSCHEIN

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

FORT LEE — Come September, a section of the Church of the Good Shepherd will be occupied by 3- and 4-year-old special-needs students attending a new district preschool.
The district currently has a half-day program for special-needs preschoolers, with morning and afternoon sessions, held in one classroom in School 2. The church's space will allow the district to bring back some of its special-needs students from other districts.
Ann Marie Bruder, district director of special services, said she saw a need for the school when she arrived in Fort Lee two years ago.
"The hope is that the earlier children receive the support, the more progress they can make when they are younger," she said.
The new school, called the Fort Lee Early Education Center, will consist of one full-day class for autistic preschoolers, one class of two half-day sessions for other

Education Research Report: Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores

Children with home computers likely to have lower test scores

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

Around the country and throughout the world, politicians and education activists have sought to eliminate the "digital divide" by guaranteeing universal access to home computers, and in some cases to high-speed Internet service.

However, according to a new study by scholars at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, these efforts would actually widen the achievement gap in math and reading scores. Students in grades five through eight, particularly those from disadvantaged families, tend to post lower scores once these technologies arrive in their home.

National School Lunch Program Increases Educational Achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

A new article from the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management is the first to evaluate the long-term health and educational effects of participation in the National School Lunch Program. The study finds that the program leads to a significant increase in educational opportunity and attainment, but an insignificant increase in health levels from childhood to adulthood.

The Congress-led program, which first began in 1946 under President Harry S. Truman, built off the existing New Deal food subsidy programs, first started under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The program was largely inspired by the disqualification of sixteen percent of eligible soldiers from serving in World War II, due to malnutrition or underfeeding causes, and was originally perceived as a “measure of national security.”

Are school wellness policies stuck in the Ice Age?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

Researchers recommend involving teachers in nutrition education policy making

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, 2004, requires that all school districts have a Wellness Policy if they participate in federal school meal programs. As part of the Wellness Policy, schools are mandated to include nutrition education activities which promote student wellness. A study in the July/August issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior evaluates elementary teachers' overall acceptance and implementation of nutrition competencies in the classroom as part of their School Wellness Policy.

Earlier studies have reported that the majority of school wellness policies include written goals for nutrition education. In the new study, researchers at The University of Mississippi begin development of an instrument to

Officials debate the good and bad of school choice at hearing | GothamSchools

Officials debate the good and bad of school choice at hearing

by Anna Phillips

A City Council hearing today on public school admissions policies became a debate on school choice as teachers union and city officials clashed on whether more choice had really helped more students.
Defending the current system, which was put in place seven years ago, Deputy Chancellor Marc Sternberg pulled from his own experience of starting the Bronx Lab School, one of several small schools that replaced a Evander Childs High School, a large neighborhood school. Sternberg argued that because students can now apply to high schools all over the city, the fate of their education isn’t tied to the quality of a zoned high school. In his testimony he argued that having school choice is working for most students.

And for the coming year, 52 percent of rising ninth-graders were matched to their first-choice school, and 77 percent were matched to one of their top-three choices-more than triple the figure just six years ago. At the end of the main round, 86 percent of students had been matched to one of their top five choices. And while there is always room for progress, this represents a completely

Coverage of NEA Representative Assembly Begins July 2 | Intercepts

Coverage of NEA Representative Assembly Begins July 2

by Mike Antonucci

Click here to read:
1) Coverage of NEA Representative Assembly Begins July 2
2) Lobby for a Bailout, Win an iPod Nano!
3) Last Week’s Intercepts
4) Quote of the Week

Eduflack: Around the Edu-Horn, June 21, 2010

Around the Edu-Horn, June 21, 2010

by Eduflack

House, Senate Dems call for GAO review of quality, biz model of for-profit colleges -- http://tinyurl.com/2u56dyr

RT @D_Aarons The agony of a girl who just wanted to fit in 1st in series on bullying by The Boston Globehttp://bit.ly/d2GcH8

EdTrust on delivering statewide data systems to Cali -- http://tinyurl.com/262mfhk

Mathews: Should Hispanic students be allowed to take AP Spanish? http://tinyurl.com/247urb3

Attending college full time while in HS in GA -- http://www.ajc.com/news/ga-program-lets-high-551454.html

Chart of the Day: Athletics vs. Academics � The Quick and the Ed

Chart of the Day: Athletics vs. Academics

by Chad Aldeman

The Knight Commission has a new report comparing spending on athletics and academics. In only the four year period from 2005 to 2008, the ratio between what schools spend on academics and athletics increased nearly 15 percent. In 2008, schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) spent more than six times as much per athlete as they did per student. In the Southeastern Conference (home to sports powerhouses like Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana State, and Georgia), the ratio was almost 11 to

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.

Can one teacher make a difference? (The Line)
Haven’t had enough of the World Cup? Then check out this US-vs-the-world infographic. (h/t LearnBoost Education News)
7 ways that private student loans are getting better? (U.S. News & World Report)
Are professors just too intellectual for Facebook? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Hechinger Report | A new vision: Students actually want to attend summer school

A new vision: Students actually want to attend summer school

By Ron Fairchild

Ron Fairchild is the chief executive officer of the National Summer Learning Association in Baltimore

When it comes to closing academic achievement gaps, summer has been the season of lost opportunities.

Mention the words “summer school” to a young person and you’re likely to hear a painful groan. That’s because summer school typically means sitting indoors doing remedial work and feeling punished. Forced to make tough decisions to balance increasingly tight budgets, school districts are no more enthusiastic. A recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that 34 percent of respondents are considering eliminating summer school for the 2010‐11 school year – if they haven’t already.

But this summer school malaise obscures an important truth: High-quality summer learning is perhaps the most powerful yet underutilized opportunity to raise achievement in our nation’s education toolkit. When done right – and with the right mix of incentives to ensure attendance – summer learning can help students from low-income families gain ground academically and get on a path to success in school and beyond.

Such programs are more important than ever. Research shows that low-income students lose more than two months in reading achievement each summer while their middle-class peers make slight

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: 7 Ways to SuperCharge Your Blog or News Out to Your Friends and Followers

7 Ways to SuperCharge Your Blog or News Out to Your Friends and Followers

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

Sharing the news from your organization, classroom, or just your personal writing is easier than ever using RSS(Really Simply Syndication.)

There are some very easy tips to make sharing easy.

Remember, in many ways the web is distributed and people are sharing in a wide variety of places everywhere. Many organizations make the mistake of marketing to the principal or the board or the most vocal. Just because your leaders are there doesn't mean everyone else is. It is all about who you're linking with and you should go where they are. That is what these strategies help you do.

1) Set up a Blog
This is the backbone of your sharing strategy and with most blogs like blogger (which I use), wordpress,edublogs, typepad comes RSS. It is an automatically generated "feed" that allows you to send your blog just about everywhere and make your life simple.

More Bush BS - Sponsored by Waltons

Plug your nose before reading this recent Jeb Bush verbal excretion. From 2TheAdvocate:

Wednesday’s talk by the former Florida governor was organized by Baton Rouge Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister and sponsored by the Bentonville, Ark.-based Walton Family Foundation.
After leaving office in 2007, Jeb Bush launched his own education organization in Florida, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, on which he serves as president and chairman. From that platform, Bush has continued to advocate across the country for the conservative “free market” education reforms he promoted in Florida.
Bush said changes in public education undertaken by Florida since 1999 have been successful and should serve

Newark Mayor Booker endorses N.J. Gov. Christie's property tax cap

Monday, June 21, 2010

BY CLAIRE HEININGER

State House Bureau

STATE HOUSE BUREAU

NEWARK -- Mayor Cory Booker Monday endorsed Governor Christie's proposed constitutional amendment limiting annual property tax increases to 2.5 percent.
Booker, a Democrat, said he is backing the Republican governor's plan -- along with the rest of Christie's 33-bill "toolkit" to assist local governments -- because "the moment for true reform has finally come."
"We have a historic opportunity here," Booker said, praising Christie's "guts and focus" on New Jersey's persistent struggle with high property taxes.
Christie and Booker rejected a competing proposal being introduced Monday by the Legislature's top Democrat, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester). Sweeney's plan would cap annual increases at 2.9 percent and do it by law, not through constitutional amendment.
Sweeney says his plan would improve on the state's current 4 percent cap law, passed in 2007 under Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, without crippling towns and schools through constitutional change. Sweeney would also provide exceptions for some of local governments' most trying costs, including health care, pension payments and energy.
Christie dismissed those as "Corzine Swiss cheese holes" that render the cap ineffective. The governor's cap could only be exceeded for towns' debt payments or if local voters choose to override it.
He also insisted that a statutory fix isn't lasting reform and a constitutional amendment must be put to voters.
"We can no longer count on the politicians to fix the problem," the governor said.
Christie said he is prepared to force action on his plan, which would have to clear legislative committees by July 6 or 7 in time to go on the November ballot. But Sweeney plans to send his proposal to the governor by July 1. Democrats have majorities in both houses of the Legislature, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) backs Sweeney's plan.

BP Spills Coffee

UCBComedy — June 09, 2010 — This is what happens when BP spills coffee. More comedy videos: http://www.UCBComedy.com Like UCB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCBcome...Follow UCB: http://www.twitter.com/UCBcomedy

Get Schooled | ajc.com

Birthplace of charter schools tightens controls and increases accountability of sponsors

2:20 pm June 21, 2010, by Maureen Downey

One thing that remains murky to me is how accountable the state Charter Schools Commission – which a Fulton County judge recently ruled is constitutional – is for the schools that it approves over the objections of local boards of education. The commission is here in Atlanta, but it is approving schools across the state.

As the authorizer of the schools, how is the commission held accountable if one goes bad or if parents are unhappy and can’t go to the local school board to complain since the local folks had nothing to do with the school’s approval?

At a media briefing earlier this year, Charter Schools Commission member Jennifer Rippner surprised me when I asked whether parents of students in a commission charter school could ultimately turn to the charter commission with complaints that they felt were not being dealt with by the school itself or its board of directors.

Her answer was “yes,” raising the possibility of unhappy parents trying to track down the seven commissioners – most of whom have full-time, high-profile careers — and get them to delve into a problem their child was having in a school in south Georgia. Frankly, I just couldn’t see it happening.

Now comes an interesting development in Minnesota, the birthing ground of the charter school movement.

According to the Star Tribune :

The Education Report New language immersion school, a year later

The Education Report

New language immersion school, a year later

By Katy Murphy
Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 9:08 am in English learners, elementary schools,families, small schools, students
1 Comment

MELROSE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY KINDERGARTEN. Photo by Jim Stevens, Bay Area News Group

Last fall I visited Oakland’s Melrose Leadership Academy, which had just begun a new Spanish-English immersion program, starting with a kindergarten class of about 35 students. When the teacher said “stand up” in Spanish (90 percent of kindergarten instruction is in Spanish), at least a third of the children — most of the native English-speakers — sat on the rug, looking around in