Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

RF|Binder Partners NATIONAL Expert Available to Discuss how to reform and improve failing schools, provide intervention in the classroom #edu

RF|Binder Partners

NATIONAL Expert Available to DiscusS how to reform and improve failing schools, provide intervention in the classroom
Arthur Griffin, longtime educator and head of McGraw-Hill School Education Group’s
Urban Advisory Resource, available for print and broadcast interviews
TOPIC: With the Obama Administration’s fiscal stimulus package poised to provide the largest number of dollars ever allocated to public education, many school districts are adopting measures to help turn around failing or underperforming schools and help students with special learning needs realize their full academic potential.
Educators, school administrators, policymakers and parents are wondering what can be done to ensure intervention programs are developed and implemented in ways that provide effective and measurable results.
SOURCE: With more than 20 years in public education administration, Arthur Griffin leads McGraw-Hill’s Urban Advisory Resource team, which develops intervention-style teaching and learning materials for Pre-K through 12th grade and higher education. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Dropout Prevention Network. Specifically, Arthur can discuss these and other issues:
· How to transform failing or underperforming school districts
· Trends in and the unique needs of urban school districts
· How to identify struggling students and when and how to intervene

· How to monitor student performance and screen for academic and behavioral problems

· How teachers, schools and parents can work collaboratively to ensure student success

BIO: Arthur Griffin is senior vice president of Urban Advisory Resource for McGraw-Hill School Education Group’s Urban Advisory Resource. In this role, Arthur works closely with sales teams, school administrators and school board members in identifying solutions and strategies to achieve their number one priority: student achievement.
Arthur has more than 21 years experience in public education administration. Prior to joining McGraw-Hill Education, he served 17 years on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in North Carolina. Arthur distinguished himself as chair of the school board from 1997 to 2002. He recently received the Richard R. Green award as National Educator of the Year, sponsored by the Council of the Great City Schools. He earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from the University of the State of New York at Albany. He served as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army.
Arthur is also the author of the policy paper “Response to Intervention: High Standards for a New Level of Achievement,”which can be found here: http://www.mheducation.com/uar/RtI_White_Paperfinal.pdf.

Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools #education #edu

Parents 4 democratic Schools

Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Suit accuses state of unequal school funding

Suit accuses state of unequal school funding

Suit accuses state of unequal school funding

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Thirty people, including 8-year-old Jessie Moore, below, representing low-income students gathered at the Alameda County Courthouse to announce the suit accusing the state of funding schools unfairly.
A coalition of grassroots groups and families filed a lawsuit against the state Monday seeking to have California's educational system declared unconstitutional for failing to adequately and equally fund schools.
The suit filed in Alameda Superior Court is the second lawsuit filed this year over what plaintiffs say is a broken public school system - one that leaves too many children with less than a fair shot at a good education.
Plaintiff attorneys say they want the court to require the Legislature and the governor to address unequal and inadequate conditions within the schools, disparate conditions that more often affect low-income and


Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/12/BA4D1ED4IO.DTL#ixzz0tZ32u4qb

Review Criticizes Berkeley Athletic Spending Quick Takes: July 13, 2010 - Inside Higher Ed

Quick Takes: July 13, 2010 - Inside Higher Ed

Today’s Oil Spill Links | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Today’s Oil Spill Links | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

UC Berkeley urged to slash athletics subsidy

UC Berkeley urged to slash athletics subsidy

UC Berkeley urged to slash athletics subsidy

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
At UC Berkeley, where academic departments are not allowed to run deficits, cost-cutting looks like this: 63 chronic roof leaks around campus, once-a-month garbage collection, some staff paychecks hovering near the poverty line and faculty phone lines yanked.
Berkeley's athletic department has no such deficit prohibition. Even as its $70 million budget soared by 61 percent during the recession, it still managed to spend more than it had. Campus administrators helped out by handing the department $13.7 million last year. Such subsidies average $11 million per year, says a panel of eight faculty members and alumni donors whose report, released Monday, minced no words in describing the contrasting fortunes of Berkeley's athletic and academic sides.
The report found that the university's athletic subsidies are among the highest in the


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/13/MNED1ED854.DTL&type=education#ixzz0tZ0C6USh

Applicants sought to fill vacant school board seat - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Applicants sought to fill vacant school board seat - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

The Woodland Joint Unified school board is seeking applicants for the seat recently vacated by William Herms, trustee for Area 3.

2M13ZOO
Daisy, a 3-year-old red river hog, lay on the exam table at the Sacramento Zoo's veterinary hospital surrounded by a crowd of student vets.
In a Capitol hearing Monday, a state senator questioned the chancellor of the University of California, Davis, about a controversial decision earlier this year to eliminate the women's rowing team and three men's sports teams.

7M11SACCITY
Nearly a year into the job, Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond's vision is becoming more apparent: He wants a more corporate-like edu


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/education/#ixzz0tYzofjWK

UC considering online undergraduate degree program | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

UC considering online undergraduate degree program | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education


UC considering online undergraduate degree program

DAVIS, CA - At first, it'll just be a pilot program with just a few dozen credit-bearing courses offered online.
Then if successful, the University of California system could start offering some online undergraduate degrees.
The pitch will be made at this week's Board of Regents meeting.
"There are no prestigious, elite selective great universities offering online education," said UC Vice Provost Daniel Greenstein. "There's an opportunity to enhance the quality of the brand by demonstrating that we can do it not just right, but really well."
Some campuses, like UCLA and Berkeley, already offer online courses, but they're mostly through the extension arm.
In these tight budget times, online degrees could be a way to get serve more students who are already crammed in classrooms or completely shut out of classes.
The University of Massachusetts has one of the most successful online degree programs, reporting a 20 percent increase in revenue and 14 percent enrollment growth. But U-Mass is not UC.


Rise & Shine: City lets Regents pass sub for attendance, grades | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: City lets Regents pass sub for attendance, grades | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: City lets Regents pass sub for attendance, grades

  • A city policy means students who pass Regents exams aren’t penalized for excessive absences. (Post)
  • Dozens of city students are working in East Coast nature conservancies this summer. (NY1)
  • Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is sending millions of dollars to local schools. (Daily News)
  • To evade pension reductions, many more New Jersey teachers are retiring this year. (AP)
  • Upper West Side parents are pushing real estate developers to build more schools. (Times)
  • Parents and advocates say in a lawsuit that California’s school funding formula is unfair. (S.F. Chronicle)
  • Florida school chiefs want lower-than-usual test scores reviewed before they’re released. (Miami Herald)
  • Los Angeles schools patch their budget holes by opening their doors to big-budget films. (AP)

Schwarzenegger suggests abolishing superintendent of public instruction | California Watch

Schwarzenegger suggests abolishing superintendent of public instruction | California Watch

Schwarzenegger suggests abolishing superintendent of public instruction

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers his July 9 weekly address.
As if California doesn't have enough to deal with, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has opened up a new front in the education and political wars: He wants to abolish the office of the superintendent of public instruction.
In his radio address Friday, he berated the legislature's "inaction" for failing to pass a budget, saying they should not "even think about raising taxes or borrowing" before eliminating inefficiencies in government.
One of the principal inefficiencies Schwarzenegger suggests streamlining is one of the least prominent of statewide elected offices: the nonpartisan superintendent of public instruction. The current superintendent is Jack O'Connell, a former high school teacher and Democratic state legislator who will be termed out in November after eight years in office.
The only problem: The position is mandated by the California constitution. Eliminating it will