ON EDUCATION
A Popular Principal, Wounded by Government’s Good Intentions
By MICHAEL WINERIP
At Wheeler Elementary in Burlington, Vt., a highly regarded principal has been removed so the district can qualify for millions in stimulus dollars.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
This Week In Education: Debate: What Is "Ghetto Parenting"?
Debate: What Is "Ghetto Parenting"?
Thompson: What Statisticians Whisper
State test scores improved becuase of easier tests, not more learning: study
State test scores improved becuase of easier tests, not more learning: study
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/20/2010-07-20_state_test_prob_solved_study_scores_up_cause_exams_got_easier.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz0uDzppKdg
State test scores improved becuase of easier tests, not more learning: study
Tuesday, July 20th 2010, 4:00 AM
Monaster/News
Scores on state exams skyrocketed from 2007 to 2009, but officals now say that it's not because kids are learning more. Rather, the exams have simply become easier to pass.State exams measuring how well New York students know English and math are getting much easier, a blockbuster new analysis reveals.
The revelation forced state officials to acknowledge yesterday what they've long denied: Skyrocketing test scores don't necessarily mean students are learning more.
"The bar was set too low," Deputy Education Commissioner John King said at a Board of Regents meeting. "But we are changing that now," he pledged.
The analysis was conducted at the state's request by Harvard testing expert Daniel Koretz, who concluded it became easier to pass the exams from 2007 to 2009.
State officials have admitted the exams have grown more predictable and tested
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/20/2010-07-20_state_test_prob_solved_study_scores_up_cause_exams_got_easier.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz0uDzppKdg
Government Cuts Thousands of College Work-Study Jobs - US News and World Report
Government Cuts Thousands of College Work-Study Jobs
End of stimulus funding makes work-study jobs harder to get for college students
By Kim Clark
Posted July 20, 2010
Students hoping to earn a little extra cash on campus this fall will have a tougher time as the number of federally funded work-study college jobs nationwide will drop by 162,000 to 768,000 for the 2010-2011 academic year.That's distressing news for students when the unemployment rate for young people continues to top 15 percent, and states have been cutting scholarship budgets, says Lindsay McCluskey, vice president of the United States Student Association. "It is a very serious issue," she says.
[Read 3 Pieces of Good News About Federal College Grants.]
A spokesman for the Department of Education said the number of subsidized campus jobs has simply dropped back to its historical norm after climbing because of a temporary influx of stimulus funding. "The recovery act provided a much-needed boost to work study programs and other federal student aid
Cash-starved schools turn to Hollywood for budget relief | California Watch
Cash-starved schools turn to Hollywood for budget relief
From Megan Fox to Owen Wilson, cash-strapped schools are increasingly getting moral and financial support from Hollywood.
According to USA Today, school districts from Lawndale to Glendale are drumming up extra money by renting their campuses as locations for movies, TV shows, commercials and even truck parking. FilmLA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group who helps filmmakers cut through red-tape to get access to film sites, say they have
AG audit questions college president's kitchen renovation
According to USA Today, school districts from Lawndale to Glendale are drumming up extra money by renting their campuses as locations for movies, TV shows, commercials and even truck parking. FilmLA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group who helps filmmakers cut through red-tape to get access to film sites, say they have
AG audit questions college president's kitchen renovation
Renovations made to CSU Sacramento President Alexander Gonzalez’s kitchen, paid for by the university’s charitable auxiliary organization, were made for the president's personal benefit and "created an appearance of impropriety," according to an audit by Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office.
The audit looked into three transactions by University Enterprises Inc., CSU Sacramento's nonprofit auxiliary
Are 10,000 kindergartners driving whooping cough epidemic?
The audit looked into three transactions by University Enterprises Inc., CSU Sacramento's nonprofit auxiliary
Are 10,000 kindergartners driving whooping cough epidemic?
Seven of the 12 California counties with the highest whooping cough rates also have above average rates of kindergarten students showing up to school with "personal-belief" vaccine waivers, a California Watch review of state data shows.
The state’s emerging whooping cough epidemic took center stage yesterday when a state public health officialcalled on those caring for infants to get vaccines and to immunize children.
Clearly, the ailment is reaching epidemic proportions not seen since the 1950s, according to state public health
The state’s emerging whooping cough epidemic took center stage yesterday when a state public health officialcalled on those caring for infants to get vaccines and to immunize children.
Clearly, the ailment is reaching epidemic proportions not seen since the 1950s, according to state public health
New York Will Make Standardized Exams Tougher - NYTimes.com
New York Will Make Standardized Exams Tougher
By JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: July 19, 2010
New York State education officials acknowledged on Monday that their standardized exams had become easier to pass over the last four years and said they would recalibrate the scoring for tests taken this spring, which is almost certain to mean thousands more students will fail.
While scores spiked significantly across the state at every grade level, there were no similar gains on other measurements, including national exams, they said.
“The only possible conclusion is that something strange has happened to our test,” David M. Steiner, the education commissioner, said during a Board of Regents meeting in Albany. “The word ‘proficient’ should tell you something, and right now that is not the case on our state tests.”
Large jumps in the passing rates, which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg trumpeted in his re-election campaign last year,
Standardized English Tests Are Halted in Iran
By YEGANEH JUNE TORBATI
Registration for tests given by the Educational Testing Service, including the Test of English as a Foreign Language, was suspended in what may be one of the first tangible effects of new sanctions.
N.F.L. Youth Clinics Link Football Skills and Citizenship
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A league official sees a direct connection between the N.F.L.’s efforts to clean up behavior and the more than 125 high school player development clinics the league is running around the country this summer.
School Tech Connect: Did That Just Happen?
Did That Just Happen?
Two very brief things have gotten by me in the past week or so, and I just haven't had time to ask if that really happened. Here they are:
Did He Really Say That?
In the story about the charter school in Flint, Michigan, this mother tells the board that at the last meeting, the president (of the charter school board?) told her this: "If you don't like it, just take your kids out." Watch:
Did He Really Say That?
In the story about the charter school in Flint, Michigan, this mother tells the board that at the last meeting, the president (of the charter school board?) told her this: "If you don't like it, just take your kids out." Watch:
Divide and Conquer
Peace and good luck to all those rallying for continued desegregation in Wake County tomorrow.
Whenever anybody ever trots out the old "bigotry of low expectations" chestnut from W, it's a good bet that that person wants black people back in their neighborhoods, in highly regimented schools, where the motivated families are encouraged to separate from unmotivated families, and the community schools left with the lowest
Whenever anybody ever trots out the old "bigotry of low expectations" chestnut from W, it's a good bet that that person wants black people back in their neighborhoods, in highly regimented schools, where the motivated families are encouraged to separate from unmotivated families, and the community schools left with the lowest
The Two Americas, Part Next
Somehow, somewhere, they'll figure out a way to blame this problem on the physicians who serve distressed communities.
Plaudits and fears at Phila. school | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/19/2010
Plaudits and fears at Phila. school
Pollock Elementary in the Northeast got a national honor, but some parents and staff say it isn't safe.
The federal government has honored Pollock Elementary, a public school in the Northeast, with a prestigious Blue Ribbon education award.
The Philadelphia School District recently named it to a short list of schools so successful that beginning this fall, it will have freedom in budgeting, curriculum, and testing.
But some parents and employees say that Pollock is no longer safe - fights are common; staff are attacked. Disruptions are underreported and students are rarely disciplined, they say.
A group of 12 parents wrote a letter to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, School Reform Commission Chair Robert L. Archie Jr., and other top officials demanding action.
"Many of us have had children at Pollock for years," the July 1 letter read. "It has become extremely unsafe for them, in school and outside . . . We have had students swing at us, curse us out, threaten us that they will get our kids during school when we are breaking up fights in the morning and after school."
District officials have spoken with the letter writers and are scheduling a meeting for this week with senior staff from the superintendent's office, a spokesman said.
The parents sent a copy of the letter to The Inquirer, but they could not be reached for comment. The Inquirer has
Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20100719_Plaudits_and_fears_at_Phila__school.html#ixzz0uDtRiewzThe Philadelphia School District recently named it to a short list of schools so successful that beginning this fall, it will have freedom in budgeting, curriculum, and testing.
But some parents and employees say that Pollock is no longer safe - fights are common; staff are attacked. Disruptions are underreported and students are rarely disciplined, they say.
A group of 12 parents wrote a letter to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, School Reform Commission Chair Robert L. Archie Jr., and other top officials demanding action.
"Many of us have had children at Pollock for years," the July 1 letter read. "It has become extremely unsafe for them, in school and outside . . . We have had students swing at us, curse us out, threaten us that they will get our kids during school when we are breaking up fights in the morning and after school."
District officials have spoken with the letter writers and are scheduling a meeting for this week with senior staff from the superintendent's office, a spokesman said.
The parents sent a copy of the letter to The Inquirer, but they could not be reached for comment. The Inquirer has
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Rise & Shine: City charter school chief leaving for charter chain | GothamSchools
Rise & Shine: City charter school chief leaving for charter chain
- The city’s charter school chief, Michael Duffy, is leaving to join the for-profit Victory Schools. (WSJ)
- Charter school advocates upped their lobbying, spending $600,000 in Albany this year. (WSJ)
- A state report shows test standards are low. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News, NY1, Post)
- The city dropped a proposal to let it evade some contracting requirements. (GothamSchools, NY1)
- City students work in biomedical research labs through a science mentoring program. (NY1)
- A Brooklyn movie theater that’s been unused since 1969 will soon house a charter school. (NY1)
- State officials are putting more energy into linking K-12 and higher education standards. (USA Today)
- Massachusetts wants to limit the growth of online schools. (Boston Globe)
- The Washington Post says all new evidence points to success for KIPP schools’ extended days.
Schools Matter: Victory Schools Hire; Converting to Non-Profit?
Victory Schools Hire; Converting to Non-Profit?
The for-profit Victory Schools just hired away one of NYC's top charter guys - and the CMO might try to convert to a non-profit. Victory currently runs 15 charters, which makes them one of the mid-sized operators out there.
It will be interesting to see how quickly they receive approval from the IRS - the Imagine Schools, another for-profit converting to a non-profit, has yet to receive 501c3 status despite applying for it years ago. A quick approval for Victory might get others asking questions about what is holding up Imagine's
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