Thursday, September 30, 2010

This Week In Education: Performance Pay: TAP FAIL In Chicago

Performance Pay: TAP FAIL In Chicago Here's a second study suggesting that the approach doesn't have any big effects on student achievement. This one is about Chicago's TAP program -- the program that was adopted a few years ago in the Windy City, expanded, then .... changed and ...

Video: National Journal Education Panel Click the link and you can watch or listen to the National Journal's education panel this AM -- sound's not great but Roberto is on (plus Ron Brownstein and others - who??): Or, scroll down a couple of posts below and check out the livetweeting ...

Sattler: Will Unions Make Or Break RTTT? [image: 340x_apple] Here's what I'm wondering: why do teachers have unions? No, seriously. In Florida, which is a right-to-work state, unions nonetheless have a lot of power (even in districts with few teachers as members). I don't know the history ...

High Schools, Civics, and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do :: Frederick M. Hess

High Schools, Civics, and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do

by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 30, 2010 at 9:28 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Remarkably little has been written about the state of citizenship education in our schools. One has to go back to the 1998 Public Agenda study A Lot To Be Thankful For to find a serious attempt to examine what parents think public schools should teach children about citizenship. The annual Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll on schooling has not asked questions about citizenship since 2000. When these questions were last addressed, respondents chose "prepar[ing] people to become responsible citizens" as the least important purpose of schooling from among those offered. And it's brutally hard to find much on what teachers think about the state of citizenship education.

Given those challenges, pollsters/analysts Steve Farkas and Ann Duffett have delivered an invaluable service in their new study "High Schools, Civics, and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do," released today (Full disclosure: The study was commissioned and published by my shop at AEI). Steve and Ann explore what our schools are teaching today about citizenship by interviewing and surveying those teachers most

New Rankings: College Economic Diversity - Morse Code: Inside the College Rankings (usnews.com)

New Rankings: College Economic Diversity

September 30, 2010 09:00 AM ET | Robert Morse | Permanent Link | Print

U.S. News has once again taken a look at economic diversity at colleges. Economic diversity is important to some prospective students who want to understand more about the socioeconomic composition of the student body. Economic diversity has recently been getting a great deal of consideration as an important issue in higher ed. Why? Many of the top ranked schools (see links below) within our Best Colleges rankings historically haven't enrolled large numbers of students from low-

A safer, greener place to play The Education Report

The Education Report

A safer, greener place to play

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 8:33 pm in athletics/physical education,community, health, initiatives, middle schools, students
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The playground at Roosevelt Middle School in East Oakland didn’t always have a smooth surface, planter boxes, a shiny new playing field or artwork. You can probably imagine what it looked like.

It was transformed by the Oakland Schoolyards Initiative, a partnership between the East Bay Asian Youth Center, The Unity Council and the Oakland school

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Don’t Friend Me On Facebook!

Don’t Friend Me On Facebook!

My Time.com column this week is five cautions for Mark Zuckerberg if he wants his Newark donation to leverage change.

Bill would water down high school foreign language requirement - San Jose Mercury News

Bill would water down high school foreign language requirement

By Sharon Noguchi snoguchi@mercurynews.com

Posted: 09/29/2010 05:56:51 PM PDT

For years, business and government leaders and education planners have argued for fortifying foreign-language training in public schools, both as a tool in a global economy and as a skill in a diverse society.

But a bill on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk would allow districts to water down the one provision California now has regarding second-language and art education.

Currently, in addition to courses in English, social studies, math, science and physical education, the state requires students to take one year of either foreign language or fine arts to graduate from high school. AB 2446 by Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-South Los Angeles County, would give students the choice to take a vocational-education class instead.

The governor has until the end of today to either sign it or veto the bill, and he hasn't indicated which way he'll

Teachers fight furlough days | www.theacorn.com | The Acorn

Teachers fight furlough days

2010-09-30 / Front Page

Union talks remain stalled

By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

NO CUTS—Oak Hills Elementary School teachers Melinda Deel, left, and Linda Mendivil participate in the Sept. 24 protest against teacher furlough days. Teacher union talks are at an impasse. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn NewspapersMore than 50 teachers came to last week’s Oak Park Unified School District Board of Education meeting dressed in black and protesting the stalled contract negotiations between administrators and the Oak Park Teachers Association, the union that represents the interests of local teachers.

Despite the influx of nearly $8 million of state money generated from out-of-district transfer students, OPUSD wants to impose six furlough days, or unpaid days off, to help ease budget concerns.

The furlough days would amount to a 3.24 percent, or $660,000 salary

D.C. charter school used to tout student-aid program - Washington Times

D.C. charter school used to tout student-aid program

Friendship one school involved

Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Friendship Collegiate Academy in Northeast on Wednesday to tout the federally funded Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. (Associated Press)

By Deborah Simmons

The Washington Times

8:47 p.m., Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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QUESTION OF THE DAY

Do you think Congress' failure to pass next year's spending bills will hurt incumbents in November's elections?

Two days after President Obama disparaged D.C. Public Schools on national television, Education Secretary Arne Duncan used a highly successful public charter school as a backdrop to publicize a federal college-access program.

Mr. Duncan and Rep. Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania Democrat, visitedFriendship Collegiate Academy in Northeast, There, via videoconference, he and other supporters kicked off National GEAR UP Day on Wednesday to highlight the federally funded Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, which serve

CMS considers making one school K-12 - WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC-

CMS considers making one school K-12

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - By next school year, one Charlotte-Mecklenburg school could have kids from age five all the way to 18.

The proposal is part of a massive overhaul the school board will vote on by early November. If approved the overhaul would lead to 12 schools being closed and affect 47 others in some form or fashion.

Marie G. Davis Military Academy is a magnet school that currently goes from 6th-12th grade. But CMS is proposing sending elementary kids from another magnet school there next year.

That magnet school is Winding Springs Elementary, which is in North Charlotte and over 11 miles away from Marie G. Davis's Southwest Charlotte location.

Winding Springs would become a neighborhood school instead of a

LA Teacher Suicide Sparks School Reform Pushback - COLORLINES

LA Teacher Suicide Sparks School Reform Pushback

In front of Miramonte Elementary School, where Rigaberto Ruelas used to teach. Photo: Ciro Cesar/La Opinion/Newscom

Wednesday, September 29 2010, 11:56 AM ESTTags: education reform, Los Angeles

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Is the education reform debate now costing teachers their lives? That’s the underlying question swirling around Los Angeles this week after a popular 39-year-old teacher was found dead from an apparent suicide after reportedly being distraught over his low performance ranking in the Los

District Residents Agree, Rhee Needs to Go

WRITTEN BY JAMES WRIGHT - WI STAFF WRITER

THURSDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2010 10:56

When D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray (D) won the Sept. 14 Democratic Party mayoral primary over incumbent Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Rhee said that the election results were "devastating for the children of Washington, D.C." Courtesy Photo

The head of the District’s Public School system has become an unpopular figure in the eyes of many Washingtonians and critics have started to urge the District’s presumptive mayor-elect Vincent Gray to fire her.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has alienated many residents, particularly Blacks, during her three-year term as the leader of the beleaguered system. One such person is Darlene Williams, a Northeast activist and grandparent of a former D.C. school student.

"Michelle Rhee needs to be gone," Williams, 51, and a resident of Northeast, said. "People want her out. She has done nothing good for Black kids."
Williams has received attention from national publications because her grandson, Tavon Wilson, is a

All Opinions Are Local - Michelle Rhee’s reforms have helped heal D.C. schools

Michelle Rhee’s reforms have helped heal D.C. schools

By Steve Holmer,
Washington

After reading Courtland Milloy’s Sept. 27 Metro column, “Quick to see others’ shortcomings, Rhee should concede her own,” I couldn’t help but wonder what city he’s talking about.

The incompetence and negligence that once characterized D.C. government had one holdout by 2005: the public school system. The main reform that was needed was to get rid of the administrators who couldn’t administer, the principals who couldn’t lead and the teachers who couldn’t teach. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee deserve credit for pushing for this overdue change. I hope the new mayor doesn’t try to bring those underperformers who were fired back into the school system.

We shouldn’t let Mr. Fenty and Ms. Rhee’s perceived shortcomings in communication and leadership style undercut what’s been

Shooting brings back memories of 1966 UT Tower killings for officer who stopped gunman | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Shooting brings back memories of 1966 UT Tower killings for officer who stopped gunman

06:55 AM CDT on Thursday, September 30, 2010

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
myoung@dallasnews.com

When Ramiro "Ray" Martinez heard news of Tuesday's shooting spree at the University of Texas in Austin, his mind snapped back 44 years to a far more tragic rampage on the campus.

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Complete coverage: UT shooting

Martinez was an Austin police officer then, making lunch before heading off to start his shift at 3 p.m., when he heard a news report about a gunman atop the University of Texas Tower firing at people below.

"I called the [police] station and they said they needed someone to direct traffic, to keep traffic out," said Martinez, now 73 and retired in New Braunfels. "But when I got there, I found everything was fine as

Cuts may hurt programs to keep troubled youths closer to home, juvenile advocates tell Texas panel

LA teacher’s suicide linked to ratings — Joanne Jacobs

LA teacher’s suicide linked to ratings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 BY JOANNE LEAVE A COMMENT

The apparent suicide of a Los Angeles teacher may be linked to the Los Angeles Times’ value-added ratings. Rigoberto Ruelas, 39, a fifth-grade teacher at Miramonte