Monday, September 20, 2010
NJ Spotlight | Getting to the Bottom of the Race to the Top Fiasco
NJ Spotlight | Getting to the Bottom of the Race to the Top FiascoGetting to the Bottom of the Race to the Top Fiasco
Getting to the Bottom of the Race to the Top FiascoSenate oversight committee shows it’s willing to play the subpoena card
Another week, another legislative hearing on New Jersey’s infamous Race to the Top application.
And with it comes another pile of public documents -- and some new revelations concerning what almost certainly is the most scrutinized grant bid in New Jersey history.
Following up on the assembly hearings earlier this month, the Senate’s oversight committee on Thursday morning will dig into what went wrong with the state’s failed application for $400 million in federal funds.
Its chairman, Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), on Friday called for the right to subpoena key state officials and documents, after the state provided her office a box of records related to the application. It was apparently not enough, and she said her committee has been “left with no choice
D.C. presumptive Mayor Gray should keep Bedford team at Dunbar, Coolidge highs
D.C. presumptive Mayor Gray should keep Bedford team at Dunbar, Coolidge highs
D.C. presumptive Mayor Gray should keep Bedford team at Dunbar, Coolidge highs
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By Jay Mathews
Monday, September 20, 2010As prospective mayor Vincent C. Gray's education advisers begin to discuss changes in the way Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee ran the D.C. schools, it should quickly become apparent that they should keep their hands off one of Rhee's smartest moves -- handing management of Coolidge and Dunbar high schools to a sharp team of educators from New York.
Lost in all the primary election skirmishing over teacher dismissals and conflicting test score data was this encouraging statistic: Under the Friends of Bedford group, in just its first year here, the portion of students testing proficient or advanced in reading went from 38 to 53.6 percent at Coolidge and from 18.2 to 31.9 percent at Dunbar. No other high school in the city came close to making such gains in a subject in which improvement here has been rare.
The three Bedford partners I discussed this with at their office at Dunbar are a wily bunch. Their leader, George Leonard, has known his partners, Niaka (pronounced Na-KEE-ya) Gaston and Bevon
New Race to the Top charter school application rules ensnare Queens Phoenix Academy Charter School
New Race to the Top charter school application rules ensnare Queens Phoenix Academy Charter School
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/09/20/2010-09-20_hard_lesson_for_school_new_requirements_may_have_kept_charter_from_approval.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz104YF9s10
New Race to the Top charter school application rules ensnare Queens Phoenix Academy Charter School
Monday, September 20th 2010, 4:00 AM
Queens will have one less charter school next fall - and the culprit could be the same law designed to increase the number of the controversial institutions statewide.
Organizers of the Phoenix Academy Charter School submitted a 450-page proposal in July to the city to create a K-12 school in western Queens, school officials said. The facility was for foreign-born students struggling to learn English.
But last month, new state regulations kicked in. Suddenly, the city could no longer approve charter schools. And the state, which took over the city's applications, had a different set of guidelines.
Ellenmorris Tiegerman, who was to have been the school's executive director, discovered this the hard way when her application was rejected on Sept. 1.
"If the rules changed, then these applications should have been grandfathered [in]," she
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/09/20/2010-09-20_hard_lesson_for_school_new_requirements_may_have_kept_charter_from_approval.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz104YF9s10
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Fun and Friends: Meeting People Face to Face at ISTE
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Fun and Friends: Meeting People Face to Face at ISTE
Fun and Friends: Meeting People Face to Face at ISTE
These teachers are not just my colleagues, they are now my friends. I trust them. We go through quite an experience together as we merge our classrooms. There is a very special comraderie. Looking forward to "meeting" new friends in this year's Flat Classroom and Digiteen projects.
***** Something I meant to post this summer, but wanted to share now. ******
ISTE Fun and Friends
One of the highlights of ISTE is meeting the many teachers, judges, friends, college professors, and
***** Something I meant to post this summer, but wanted to share now. ******
ISTE Fun and Friends
One of the highlights of ISTE is meeting the many teachers, judges, friends, college professors, and
VIDEO: Teaching experience helped shape reporter’s perspective | California Watch
VIDEO: Teaching experience helped shape reporter’s perspective | California Watch
VIDEO: Teaching experience helped shape reporter’s perspective
Erica Perez went from teaching English at a high school to writing about the education system as an investigative reporter with California Watch.
Thousands of state inmates shut out of the classroom
Fewer than one in every ten California inmates are enrolled in an educational program, despite a pledge by state officials to enhance rehabilitation efforts in order to cut recidivism and relieve prison overcrowding.
An estimated 14,360 inmates were taking part in a variety of academic classes out of a total adult inmate population of 162,608, according to a report [PDF] released last week by the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board.
As part of its biannual report on the prison system, the board calculated enrollment in academic classes at 35.9
Cal Poly Pomona wants to raze iconic but seismically unstable building
The California State University Board of Trustees will consider a proposal this week that would allow Cal Poly Pomona to raze an iconic but seismically unsafe building on campus and build a new, $78 million replacement.
Anyone who has visited Cal Poly Pomona in the last decade has probably seen the Classroom Laboratory Administration building. Its triangular "skyroom" atop the eight-story tower is visible from the freeway, a sort of
Rise & Shine: A floor for sure-to-fall progress report scores | GothamSchools
Rise & Shine: A floor for sure-to-fall progress report scores | GothamSchools
Rise & Shine: A floor for sure-to-fall progress report scores
- The city is limiting how far schools’ progress report grades can fall this year. (Daily News)
- The city’s new Innovation Zone is being unsettled by a wave of changes. (Gotham Gazette)
- Classes at Quest to Learn, the city’s video game school, don’t always look like learning. (Times)
- A Queens charter school had its application rejected by the state after applying to the city. (Daily News)
- Nearly 200 students spent the first days of school at Bryant High School doing nothing. (Post)
- New poverty guidelines mean that Stuyvesant HS will receive federal aid for the first time. (Post)
- Unusually, federal immigration authorities have subpoenaed a city student’s school records. (Times)
- The city’s longest-running rubber room occupant is still waiting for his work assignment. (Post)
- One of Newark’s top teachers was among those laid off due to budget cuts. (WSJ)
- Details in “Waiting for ‘Superman’” are out of date, but its director says the point remains. (Times)
- The Post says the teachers union complains about class size only to boost itself.
- The Times says federal suspension data show that schools are abusing zero tolerance.
- Chancellor Klein says school reform is needed for international competitiveness. (Delaware Online)
- Ed Sec Arne Duncan says virtual teachers won’t replace in-the-flesh ones. (Times)
For-Profits Denounce Underestimation of their Students’ Indebtedness � The Quick and the Ed
For-Profits Denounce Underestimation of their Students’ Indebtedness � The Quick and the Ed
For-Profits Denounce Underestimation of their Students’ Indebtedness
It’s worth emphasizing a point Ben makes in his post below: the DC lobbying arm of the for-profit higher education industry released an official statement dismissing his analysis of the proposed gainful employment regulations as “flawed” because he assumed that students attending for-profit colleges will borrow the entire cost of their education, minus available federal grants. Their reasoning? They believe this underestimates how much those students will borrow. In reviewing drafts of the paper, I actually had the opposite concern: “Surely some students, somewhere, pay actual money out of their own pocket,” I suggested. But Ben noted that many for-profits get almost 90 percent of their revenue from federal
Charter schools and parents | THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | dallasnews.com
Charter schools and parents | THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | dallasnews.com
Charter schools and parents
Holly Hacker had an informative piece about charter schools in the Morning News yesterday. As the piece indicates, Texas has a two-tiered set of charter schools. We have some really high-achieving ones and some really under-performing ones. For that reason, I hope the Legislature finds a way next year to close down the chronically under-performing ones while making it easier for the high-achieving ones to expand.
One other point that struck me: Some of the top charters ask their parents to sign a pact. They commit
The Answer Sheet - Has education reform jumped the shark? A teacher says 'yes'
The Answer Sheet - Has education reform jumped the shark? A teacher says 'yes'
Has education reform jumped the shark? A teacher says 'yes'
This post was written by Anthony Cody, a science teacher in inner-city Oakland for 18 years who now works with a team of experienced science teacher-coaches who support the many novice teachers in his school district. It originally appeared on the Teacher Magazine’s website, here. Cody is a National Board-certified teacher and an active member of the Teacher Leaders Network. You can read more by Cody at his website, Teachers Lead.
By Anthony Cody
Education reformers have invested billions of dollars in numerous
A Letter to My California Senator � California Father
A Letter to My California Senator � California Father
A Letter to My California Senator
Dear Senator,
As a public school teacher of over 25 years and the father of a six-year-old autistic boy, I am very concerned about the destruction of public education under the banner of reform. Neither charter schools nor merit pay have proven records and I am afraid that teaching to the test will be the only outcome if the billionaires who support them have their way. I worry for my special education students as I do for my son. How can they learn when high-stakes testing is what drives education, when private corporations that
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