Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Rise & Shine: Even Bloomberg’s allies are skeptical of Black | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Even Bloomberg’s allies are skeptical of Black

by Philissa Cramer

Skepticism about Cathie Black’s qualifications is even coming from the mayor’s closest allies. (Times)
Patrick Sullivan says the city school board, on which he sits, must request Black’s waiver. (NY1)
The state has toughened requirements for superintendent certification since Joel Klein took office. (Post)
Arguments in the suit about releasing teachers’ value-added scores have been moved to Dec. 8. (NY1)
Four newspapers are taking the city’s side in the value-added scores lawsuit. (GothamSchools)
Paul Goldhaber, the first teacher at Manhattan’s Harvey Milk High School, has died. (Times)
N.J. Gov. Chris Christie has frozen superintendents’ salaries and contracts. (WSJ)
Students protested against Martin Van Buren HS’s new no-gym-use policy. (Post)

A different kind of voucher plan | EdNewsColorado

A different kind of voucher plan

by Nancy Mitchell

A pastoral scene in suburban Douglas County.

Parents in Douglas County get their chance tonight to weigh in on the state’s first serious voucher proposal since the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a 2003 law.

Details of the “option certificates” proposal are still in flux and, because of that, so are the legal risks.

“We have not explored what we might do and we don’t have any immediate plans,” said Jeanne Beyer, spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association, which did much of the legal heavy-lifting to defeat the earlier plan. “But we are saying officially that we are opposing what they are considering doing.”

Discussion by Douglas County school board members during a weekend retreat sparked key questions about

Study: Turn teacher prep “upside down”

by Todd Engdahl

A report released today calls for converting teacher preparation to a more “clinical” model and making educator training a shared responsibility of higher education and P-12 schools.

Those conclusions are part of a report by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning, a project of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

The report repeatedly invokes the example of medical education in urging change in the way the nation’s education students are prepared for the classroom.

“To prepare effective teachers for 21st century classrooms, teacher education must shift away from a norm which emphasizes academic preparation and course work loosely linked to school-based experiences. … Candidates will blend practitioner knowledge with academic knowledge as they learn by doing.

“Teacher education has too often been segmented with subject-matter preparation, theory, and pedagogy taught

Schools Matter: Andre Agassi's double fault

Andre Agassi's double fault

by skrashen

Andre Agassi's double fault

Sent to Time Magazine, November 15

Andre Agassi used his "person of the year" nomination to launch an unfounded attack on American teacher education and teacher evaluation. All the available data shows that in general American teachers are pretty good: The only serious problem in American education is the fact that we have such a large percentage of children living in poverty (20%, compared to Sweden's 3%): Middle class children who attend well-funded schools rank at the top of the world on international tests.

Mr. Agassi, founder of the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, asks us all to "lay aside your agendas"

University of Sussex Occupied « occupy california

University of Sussex Occupied

by *

BRIGHTON, England – The University of Sussex is occupied as of Monday, November 15.

from DefendSussex:

This afternoon, over 170 students occupied the lecture theatre in the Fulton building at the University of Sussex in protest of the trebling of tuition fees and the attack on our education system.

In light of Wednesday’s demonstration, which saw 52,000 people come out in opposition to the government’s proposed cuts to education and raising of fees, we feel it is necessary for further action to consolidate the efforts made so far and push on in the opposition to these ideologically motivated cuts to both education specifically and public services as a whole.

We reject the notion that these cuts are necessary or for the benefit of society. There are viable alternatives which are not being explored. While the government has suggested that ‘we are all in this together’, we

Monday, November 15, 2010

NEA Asks Education Department for Regulatory Relief - Politics K-12 - Education Week

NEA Asks Education Department for Regulatory Relief

By Alyson Klein on November 16, 2010 12:45 PM | No comments |

The Obama administration has said it wants lawmakers to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education next year, but with a new Congress coming in, it's tough to tell whether or not that will actually happen.

So now a bunch of education organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association, are asking the U.S. Department of Education for regulatory relief from parts of the No Child Left Behind Act (the current version of ESEA) so that schools don't have to wait until Congress renews the law to get some of the changes they're looking for.

The nation's largest union, the National Education Association, is also part of the push. The union sent a letter Nov. 15 to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking him for flexibility in some key areas.

The wish list is long—and goes deep into the weeds of the law. It includes:

*Leeway for districts on the highly qualified teacher part of the law. The NEA

Administrator called out by NJ gov denied raise - Boston.com

Administrator called out by NJ gov denied raise

By Geoff Mulvihill

Associated Press / November 15, 2010

Text size – +

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.—A New Jersey school superintendent singled out by the governor as "the new poster boy for all that is wrong with the public school system that's being dictated by greed" was denied a raise Monday.

Gov. Chris Christie singled out Parsippany-Troy Hills Superintendent LeRoy Seitz after the school board awarded him a new contract with pay well above the limits Christie's administration put in place, but which don't take effect until Feb. 7.

Christie told a town hall meeting Monday that the Morris County executive schools superintendent was nixing the deal. His announcement got cheers from an audience that lives about 100 miles from Parsippany.

Seitz, the leader of a high-performing district in one of the nation's wealthiest counties, was renegotiating a contract even though his current deal wasn't to

NYC Public School Parents: Times says Cathie Black "Spectacle" Out of Control

Times says Cathie Black "Spectacle" Out of Control

by Patrick J. Sullivan

Javier Hernandez of the NY Times has some devastatingcoverage of the candidacy of Cathie Black for the position of chancellor:

Ms. Black has repeatedly declined interviews, allowing other voices to fill the void. Some have called her a second coming of Mr. Klein, often criticized as stubborn. Her harshest detractors have compared her to Sarah Palin for her lack of experience.
The uproar has frustrated City Hall aides, who feel as if they have lost control of the story line and who are looking for ways to beat back accusations that Ms. Black is unqualified, said an individual

Opposition to Cathleen Black as Schools Chancellor Grows - NYTimes.com

Opposition Growing to Bloomberg’s Pick for Schools Chief

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

Published: November 15, 2010

REPRINTS

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been frank about why he took pains to keep his search for a new schools chancellor secret, saying he wanted to avoid a public spectacle.

Enlarge This Image

Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

Robert Jackson, a City Council member, on Sunday with a copy of a letter he sent to the state education commissioner condemning the choice of Cathleen P. Black. Michael Meyers, director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, is at left.

City Room: In Search of the Chancellor-to-Be, Park Ave., 5 A.M. (November 15, 2010)

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But a spectacle is exactly what Mr. Bloomberg has unleashed, and one week after announcing his choice ofCathleen P. Black, a publishing executive, to succeed Joel I. Klein at the helm of the country’s largest school system, the mayor’s aides are trying to fend off mounting skepticism about her selection.

City Council members are asking the state to deny Ms. Black the waiver she would need to fill the post. Lawmakers and parents active in the schools are calling for public hearings. Even some of the mayor’s supporters are questioning his decision.

The leader of the city’s teachers’ union said the furor underscored how poorly he believed Mr. Bloomberg had

Queens Teacher: It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class

It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class

It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class
by Robert Freeman

For the past thirty years the rich have been waging war on the middle class. It’s been astonishingly effective, partly because it has been undeclared. But even that pretense is now being abandoned. The President’s National Deficit Commission has effectively declared that the rich will now go after what is left of working and middle class wealth and will take whatever steps are

Berkeley and Santa Cruz Actions Tomorrow? « Student Activism

Berkeley and Santa Cruz Actions Tomorrow?

from Student Activism by Angus Johnston

I’m not sure exactly what’s on tap — I’m not sure if anyone knows — but the blog The University Belongs to Those Who Use It has posted a call for an action beginning at 6:30 Tuesday morning at California Hall at UC Berkeley. (The blog indicates that there’s an action planned at UC Santa Cruz too.)

On Wednesday the University of California Regents are scheduled to take up a proposed eight percent fee increase that would bring UC’s in-state tuition above $12,000. Mass protests are expected Wednesday at tha

Schools Matter: Are we bad in math? Probably not.

Are we bad in math? Probably not.

Sent to the San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 14

Is it true that "American math achievement trails most industrialized nations" (Nov. 11)?

Studies show that middle-class American children attending well-funded schools score near the top of the world in math. American average scores are unspectacular because a high percentage of American school children live in poverty (20%; Sweden has 3%).

Also, some countries inflate their scores by excluding many children of poverty from taking the test. This does not happen in the United States.

Finally, the "Stanford Study" only considered the percentage, not the number of students reaching the top level. Several countries that did better than the US have small populations (eg Switzerland,

Huffington Post Blog #4: About Joel Klein, Black Males, and Ridiculous Crises — The Jose Vilson

Huffington Post Blog #4: About Joel Klein, Black Males, and Ridiculous Crises

by JOSE on NOVEMBER 15, 2010

in LIFE

Check:

People’s reactions to this report tell me one thing that’s persisted for ages in this country: We’re selectively oblivious to the plight of those less fortunate than us. Thus, “crisis” is relative.
Every time a report comes out about an underprivileged group, we get the same surge of pseudo-interest: people make calls, the media channels put the numbers in a 3D graphic, people from that group are highlighted and interviewed, a “regular” person states their opinion via email, phone, or video, the government makes a statement about it and “assures” that they’re doing everything in their power to help the situation, someone alludes to an event from the past century that’s just like this event, a stated expert from that group gives their scholarly stern advise that they’ve been

Take action to support collaborative school reform! « Failing Schools

Take action to support collaborative school reform!

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

by Sabrina

In all the talk about reforming schools, most people never stop to question that they don’t actually know what’s going on in all those allegedly dreadful schools being considered for different turnarounds. Fed up with the slander against my friends and colleagues, I teamed up with a few to create a short video about what’s going right in this so-called “failing” school. I think it’s a shame to let their hard work go to waste…especially when the people proposing to waste it have no idea about what’s really going on inside the schools they run! Please watch the video, and then show your support for real school reform here.

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