Thursday, December 9, 2010

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: The Arts Academy

The Arts Academy *6 CHARTER SCHOOLS SPONSORED BY ASHE CULTURE CENTER DECLARED UNAUDITABLE*; November 24, 2010; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) The financial records of six Cleveland-area charter schools are in such bad shape that the Ohio auditor's office says they ...

Marcus Garvey Academy *6 CHARTER SCHOOLS SPONSORED BY ASHE CULTURE CENTER DECLARED UNAUDITABLE*; November 24, 2010; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) The financial records of six Cleveland-area charter schools are in such bad shape that the Ohio auditor's office says they ...

Lion of Judah Academy *6 CHARTER SCHOOLS SPONSORED BY ASHE CULTURE CENTER DECLARED UNAUDITABLE*; November 24, 2010; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) The financial records of six Cleveland-area charter schools are in such bad shape that the Ohio auditor's office says they ...

Elite Academy of the Arts *6 CHARTER SCHOOLS SPONSORED BY ASHE CULTURE CENTER DECLARED UNAUDITABLE*; November 24, 2010; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) The financial records of six Cleveland-area charter schools are in such bad shape that the Ohio auditor's office says they ...

Arts Academy West *6 CHARTER SCHOOLS SPONSORED BY ASHE CULTURE CENTER DECLARED UNAUDITABLE*; November 24, 2010; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) The financial records of six Cleveland-area charter schools are in such bad shape that the Ohio auditor's office says they ...

Greater Heights Academy *CLEVELAND CHARTER SCHOOL GREATER HEIGHTS ACADEMY ABRUPTLY CLOSES*; November 17, 2008; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) CLEVELAND -- About 750 students were left scrambling on Monday after money troubles -- including a lawsuit over payments owed to a ...

Central PA Digital Learning Foundation Charter School *U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TAKES A DIM VIEW OF CYBERSCHOOL DIPLOMAS*; November 28, 2010; The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA) All diplomas awarded to Pennsylvania public school students are not equal in the eyes of the military. Students attending any ...

Arizona charter schools (attendance tracking problems) *AZ’S CHARTER SCHOOLS OVERSTATE ENROLLMENT*; September 4, 2007; The Arizona Republic Steve Chavez tried for four years to get an accurate count of the 250 or so students attending his five small charter schools in northern Arizona. He can’t say ...

Minnesota charter schools (authorizers getting out of business) *ONE-THIRD OF STATE'S AUTHORIZERS ARE GETTING OUT OF CHARTER SCHOOL BUSINESS *; December 1, 2010; Minnesota Public Radio St. Paul, Minn. — Dozens of charter schools in Minnesota are looking for new homes. Not physical homes, but homes with an ...

Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley *5 TEACHERS AT CUMBERLAND CHARTER SCHOOL NEED EMERGENCY CERTIFICATION*; November 26, 2010; Providence Journal (RI) Five teachers at Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley, a public charter school in Cumberland, have received “emergency” teaching permits ...

BlueSky Charter School *STATE THREATENS SANCTIONS AGAINST CHARTER SCHOOL*; November 2, 2010; Minnesota Public Radio St. Paul, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Education is threatening significant fines against an online charter school if it doesn't fix problems with its ...

Harlem Village Academies *CATHIE BLACK CLAIMS TO HAVE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE WITH CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD POST, BUT IT'S MOOT*; November 28, 2010; NY Daily City schools chancellor nominee Cathie Black insists she's connected to public education via a highly touted charter ...

West Houston Charter School *PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO MOUNT FOR BELEAGUERED WEST HOUSTON CHARTER SCHOOL, HEADMASTER CALLED ‘PUPPET’* ; June 23, 2010; Instant News Katy (Houston, TX) First of a Two-Part Series Problems for the beleaguered West Houston Charter School continue to ...

School of Tomorrow *WITHOUT WARNING, CHARTER SCHOOL SUDDENLY CLOSES; PARENTS, KIDS, TEACHERS SAY IT BREAKS THEIR HEART; TEACHERS WHO LOST JOBS LEFT STUNNED*, October 8, 2010, WEWS5 (Cleveland, OH) Parents, teachers and students were left stunned and searching for a ...

CARE Charter School of Excellence *CHARTER SCHOOL APPEAL SHOT DOWN BY STATE COMMISSION,* November 4, 2010, WCTV News (Tallahassee, FL) A Jefferson County charter school is fighting to stay open, but today they experienced a setback when a state commission shot down their request ...

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: ICEF: L.A. charter school group secures $10.5-million bailout

ICEF: L.A. charter school group secures $10.5-million bailout -- Howard Blume – LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/ewmwIu December 9, 2010 | 8:05 am -- A struggling nonprofit that runs 15 Los Angeles charter schools announced Thursday it had secured $10.5 million in donations that will enable it to remain open. ICEF ...

JUDGE TENTATIVELY OK’s LAUSD LAYOFF CHANGES The Associated Press | http://bit.ly/ic8VWF Posted: 12/09/2010 08:09:30 AM PST - (AP) - A judge has tentatively approved changes to a layoff policy that forced young teachers out of inner-city schools in Los Angeles. A Superior Court judge this week ...

This Week In Education: Reform: Rhee, Dunbar High, & California's Parent Trigger

Teachers: "Glee", "Mad Men" Names Soon To Be In Kindergarten [image: ScreenHunter_12 Dec. 08 12.54] In five years, every kindergarten classroom will have at least two Sophias, probably an Isabella, and perhaps four boys whose name rhymes with the Gulf of Aden. BabyCenter reports that 2010's most popular names ...

Reform: Rhee, Dunbar High, & California's Parent Trigger [image: 2hrpldy] What a strange week it's been for education -- from the announcement of Michelle Rhee's new advocacy organization (joining SFC and DFER among others), the first use of California's parent trigger at a Compton elementary school, and ...

Thompson: The "Earned Autonomy" Fallacy [image: Respect] The original sin of data-driven "reform" was the concept of earned respect "earned autonomy." In New York City, for instance, an "inspectorate" determined which schools had earned the right to provide holistic, respectful, and ...

Shanker Blog » Lyndon Johnson: Education Reformer

Lyndon Johnson: Education Reformer

by Matthew Di Carlo

Underlying virtually all contemporary education policy debates is the question of poverty. Certainly, high poverty and inequality do not mean we shouldn’t improve schools. On the other hand, the standpoint of some in the debate today evolved from an inarguable, commendable notion (poor kids can learn too) to an ideological brick wall, behind which those who dare speak poverty’s name are accused of “making excuses.”

Anyone who reads history (or who has lived through it) knows that the tension between poverty and equality of educational opportunity is nothing new, nor is the debate about how to address them. For example, these same issues arose during the campaign to pass the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965, as President Lyndon Johnson cajoled everyone he could to push the bill through Congress.

Unlike most of the political leaders who are the self-proclaimed education reformers of today, Johnson had been a teacher. His teaching experience, at a small segregated school for Mexican Americans in the impoverished town of Cotulla, Texas, convinced him that poverty and educational inequality must be tackled in tandem.

Full disclosure: I have a minor obsession with Lyndon Johnson (it feels good to say that out loud), and I have read all of the released transcripts of the phone calls and White House meetings that LBJ recorded. In one of

The Answer Sheet - How poverty affected U.S. PISA scores

How poverty affected U.S. PISA scores

Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, wrote the following, which was posted on the Schools Matter blog. The results of the 2009 administration of the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, were released this week, and showed American 15-year-olds doing generally average in reading, science and math as compared to 65 other countries [including members and non-members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, which puts out PISA] and other education systems. There was angst in education circles, with calls for even more of the same kind of reforms that we've been implementing for nearly a decade (which haven't done anything to help U.S. PISA scores). Krashen takes a different look at the numbers. By Stephen Krashen “Two countries with similar levels of prosperity can produce very different results,” Ángel Gurría, the O.E.C.D. secretary general, said in a statement on Tuesday. “This shows

Immigrant dreams. Give Mark Kirk a call. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Immigrant dreams. Give Mark Kirk a call.

by Fred Klonsky

Anne was working late last night. I got home. I ordered some sushi delivered and went upstairs to put on CSpan.

Wednesday night TV is not usually engrossing. But I wanted to catch the House vote on the Dream Act.

In case you have not been paying attention, the Dream Act will give legal status to those immigrants who were kids when they came to the US and who may be undocumented. There are a bunch of requirements. You can look them up. But the essence of the law is fairness.

I was finishing my sushi when Anne came home. She walked into the room, and asked what was going on?

Dictators are bold, all right… « Failing Schools

Dictators are bold, all right…

DECEMBER 9, 2010

by Sabrina

Yesterday, Van Schoales of Education Reform Now published a piece in EdNews Colorado imploring local candidates for mayor to consider “bold” ideas like mayoral control of DPS.

Mayoral control is particularly challenging for Denver because of the Colorado constitution but it seems worth more of a public discussion given the increasing dysfunction of the Denver school board, which is likely to get worse, and the ever-increasing need for more quality public education in Denver…
One possible step for the next Denver mayor to consider, short of controlling DPS,

School Tech Connect: In Which Gary Stager Confirms My Genius

In Which Gary Stager Confirms My Genius

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Yes, I stole this image.

Part of what I do in my 9-5 gig is worry about how to develop training that addresses curriculum concerns in every discipline while also addressing the NETS for Students. I always struggle with this--- much as I struggled throughout the 90's with Illinois learning standards in language arts, which I found vapid, technocratic, and basically pointless. (Apologies to the standard-writers.) Nobody who every became a passionate reader or an effective writer ever consulted a list similar to the Illinois Learning Standards.

In an excellent, funny post, Gary Stager puts into so many words the idea that I've been trying to formulate around the NETS:

Well done, Rumproast. I couldn't have said it better myself. The NETS does nothing for me-- I can't backward design from these standards; I can only design activities that teach the things I think are important, and then play shoehorn-the-standard so that my i's are dotted. Does anyone else feel this way?

It's Probably "Not The Right Time..."

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Kirk's senate office apparently isn't set up yet; nobody's answering the phones and the voice mail is full. If I could have made contact today, this is what I would have said:

Dear Senator Kirk:

I am one of your constituents in Illinois. I'm calling today to ask you to vote for the Dream Act. I support this legislation; it's the right thing to do for young people who want to contribute to our country. If you choose to vote against the Dream Act, please let me know why--- and if your reason is that "now is not the right time" for the Dream Act, then will you please explain

Report Picks Apart Race to Top Scoring - State EdWatch - Education Week

Report Picks Apart Race to Top Scoring

by Sean Cavanagh

A new analysis argues the Race to the Top competition used flawed and inconsistent scoring, and that federal reviewers should have applied more uniform standards in judging the applications for federal cash.

The review by The New Teacher Project also argues that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan should have intervened to look at and possibly overrule individual states' scores from independent reviewers—even though the organization acknowledges such a move might have led to charges of political favoritism.

The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit that works to improve instruction among disadvantaged students, advised both winning and losing states in the $4 billion competition. A number of advocates were surprised to see states such as Louisiana and Colorado among the losers (both of which were helped by the TNTP) despite those states going further than many of their rivals in approving new laws aimed at improving teacher evaluation, a priority in

Tense Mood At U of Puerto Rico As Police Occupy Campus for First Time in Three Decades « Student Activism

Tense Mood At U of Puerto Rico As Police Occupy Campus for First Time in Three Decades

by Angus Johnston

Last night, just before midnight, riot police occupied the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras. Studentsprotesting a major tuition increase had ended a 48-hour strike shortly before. According to one source liveblogging events as they occur [Original|Translation], police “seized control” of the university early this morning. Ten of the university’s eleven campuses were shuttered for two months earlier this year by a student strike.

This is the first time in nearly thirty years that state police have been brought onto the grounds of a University of Puerto Rico campus. As one columnist [Original|Translation] writes this morning,

The university administration has thrown in the towel regarding the possibility of achieving a mediated solution to the conflict. … For decades, there has been a consensus in the country, which no one had

California at a crossroads - SignOnSanDiego.com

California at a crossroads

BY CHARLES B. REED,

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010 AT MIDNIGHT

When you begin to assess our state’s economic and educational landscape, you will survey a scene that is bleak at best. You may find yourself asking: What happened to the golden age ofCalifornia, a time when our state’s higher education system held promise for every student, and the middle class flourished? Aside from the intractable budget problems that plague our capital, our higher education priorities have become inexcusably twisted, offering a more predictable future for an inmate behind bars than for a high school senior.

This transition to a new governor and Legislature puts California at a crossroads. They must now decide if we will continue on the same path to throw good money after bad or if we will establish new priorities that direct us toward a more successful future. The voters were clear this year; we don’t need new taxes, we need common-sense allocation of our existing resources.

Over the past 10 years, the state Health and Human Services Agency has seen its budget grow by 41 percent and corrections has grown by 72 percent, but higher education’s share – California State University and the University of California – has grown by a meager 0.8

Senate Education Committee to hold tenure hearing - NorthJersey.com

Senate Education Committee to hold tenure hearing

Thursday, December 9, 2010
LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY DECEMBER 9, 2010, 7:54 AM

BY LESLIE BRODY

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

Charges to revoke tenure were filed against 35 of the 231,000 New Jersey school district employees for inefficiency, incapacity or misconduct in 2008, according to the state Department of Education.

The result: Four teachers and one custodian were fired, 16 kept their jobs and 14 agreed to resign or retire.

Figures like this will form the backdrop of a hearing on tenure held today by the

Here's why China is beating the U.S. in education – amFIX - CNN.com Blogs

Here's why China is beating the U.S. in education

Posted: 09:18 AM ET

Elizabeth Mayo - elizabethmayo
Filed under: Education

According to the latest Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, a ranking of 15-year-old students from around the world found that students in Shanghai outscored kids from across the world in reading, science and math.

Students in the U.S. came in 14th in reading, 17th place in science and 25th for math.

Why are the U.S.'s efforts at reforming education failing, and what are Chinese students doing to succeed?

Oakland's Immigrant Youth Pay $80/Month to Get to School | Immigrant Rights | Change.org

Oakland's Immigrant Youth Pay $80/Month to Get to School

by Lauren Markham

Oakland International High School in Oakland, California, serves recently-arrived immigrant students who need to learn English and prepare for college. It has become a central source of support for Oakland's immigrant community and will, this year, graduate its first full senior class. But of the approximately 300 students at OIHS, 75 are seriously sweating it this year. Not because of their grades, or the high school exit exam, or their final projects, though — instead, these kids are wondering how they'll pay for

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: L.A. UNIFIED, CHARTERS SIGN COMPACT: One benefit is access to low-interest loans

L.A. UNIFIED, CHARTERS SIGN COMPACT: One benefit is access to low-interest loans By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/e9AB92 Posted on 12/08/10 - Los Angeles Unified and charter schools continue to fight in court over access to district buildings, but on Tuesday, they hit the reset button on other areas of their ...

TEACHERS IN LA HABRA HIT THE PICKET LINE + LA HABRA TEACHERS STRIKE OVER PAY, BENEFITS CUTS + more from the LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/fkyTuD December 8, 2010 | 9:39 am - La Habra City School District teachers went on strike Wednesday and picket in front of Walnut Elementary School in La Habra. The teachers are protesting a 2% pay reduction and ...

Accuracy of new dropout rate in question | Thoughts on Public Education

Accuracy of new dropout rate in question - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

The state Department of Education reported a sizable uptick in the dropout rate this week, leading to speculation that school budget cuts, the high school exit exam, or – choose your speculation – was to blame. But there was enough noise in the data to call into question the validity of the increase, let alone [...]

PACE’s David Plank on how new assessments will measure and shape learning - by admin

by admin

Pop

The Answer Sheet - Kohn: Remember when we had higher standards? Neither do I

Kohn: Remember when we had higher standards? Neither do I

This was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including "The Schools Our Children Deserve," "The Homework Myth," and the forthcoming "Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling." He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn. This post appeared on Kohn's Huffington Post page. By Alfie Kohn "In recent years, parents have cried in dismay that their children could not read out loud, could not spell, could not write clearly,” while “employers have said that mechanics could not read simple directions. Many a college has blamed high schools for passing on students . . . who could not read adequately to study college subjects; high schools have had to give remedial reading instruction to boys and girls who did not learn to read properly in elementary schools…" On and on goes the devastating indictment

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dream Act passes in the House

Dream Act passes in the House

by Mike Klonsky

"Oh, my God, I don't know if I'm going to sleep tonight!" said Francisco Curiel, 18, an undocumented high school senior who left Mexico to join his mom in N.Y. three years ago.

It was the first time in the 10-year legislative history

Student tuition protests rock Europe

by Mike Klonsky

As parliament votes on higher tuition fees thousands of students, part of the National Campaign Against Fees and

DREAM Needs a Miracle « Student Activism

DREAM Needs a Miracle

by Angus Johnston

Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was always going to be a tough get for the DREAMers. Though she voted for the bill three years ago she’s up for re-election in 2012, her home state just elected a Republican governor, and she’s worried about a possible Tea Party primary challenge. Add to all that the fact that she’s made something of a career of raising and then dashing Dems’ hopes on close votes, and it wasn’t hard to predict what was likely to happen.

Last night, according to a statement published on the conservative National Review website, Snowe made it official.

“Millions of illegal immigrants could attempt to become legal residents as a result of this proposal, according to

5:05 AM (1 hour ago)

British Parliament to Vote Today On Huge Tuition Fee Hike

by Angus Johnston

It’s one o’clock in the afternooon in London as I write this — eight in the morning in New York — and a parliamentary vote is expected within hours on the British government’s unprecedented proposal to raise tuition fees at UK universities to as high as £9000 (more than $14000) a year.

The plan has drawn massive protests throughout Britain over the last month, and more are already underway today. The country’s governing coalition, led by the Conservative Party and joined by the Liberal Democrats, has an 80-vote majority in the House of Commons, but announced defections and abstentions have already considerably reduced that margin on this vote.

Schools Matter: Tainted Paint in the PISA Picture?

Tainted Paint in the PISA Picture?

by Jim Horn

If you thought that Bloomberg was the favorite to win the latest Totalitarian Capitalist Award for test score engineering, you would be wrong. This year it must go to China, whose preposterously amazing first year test scores on PISA demonstrates, hands down, that the Chinese government's totalitarian capitalists are light years ahead in test cheating:

. . . .The scores are based on a scale, with 500 as the average. Two-thirds of the students score between 400 and 600. In math, for example, students from Shanghai scored an average of 600. . . .

Hmm. Of course, China has an insurmountable advantage based on a 1,200 year history of perfecting cheating on civil service exams, which guaranteed throughout history as PISA scores do now whether your family

Democratic Education for Social Justice, a talk by William Ayers (VIDEO) | Democratic, Community-Based Education

Democratic Education for Social Justice, a talk by William Ayers (VIDEO)

by Democratic Education

William (Bill) Ayers & Dana Bennis at 2003 International Democratic Education Conference

William (Bill) Ayers is a school reform activist and Distinguished Professor and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired). His latest books (just released!) are To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher (3rd edition) and To Teach: The Journey in Comics with Ryan Alexander-Tanner.

Bill spoke at the 2003 International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC), Thursday, July 17 at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY. The topic for his speech was “Democratic Education For Social Justice.”

You can download the audio version of this talk and sixteen others from the conference atwww.democraticeducation.com/idec2003

Trusting Democracy at the School Board Level - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Trusting Democracy at the School Board Level

by Deborah Meier

Dear Diane,

Your blog on Tuesday is a powerful statement. We are, I do believe, in a fight over the most fundamental building blocks of democracy.

Alas, many of my best friends are wary about democracy when it gets local. But as someone (Thomas Jefferson, in fact) once said—to paraphrase: The only protection a democracy has against ignorance is education itself. Knowledge shall set us free and all that. But it gets hard when it becomes difficult to trust any of the sources of information to which we have access. Democracy requires a full range of sources, so that it's hard to fool all the people all the time. It needs adults who were educated themselves in decision-making, not bubbling in the "proper" answer. I get overwhelmed by clichés when I start down this path of argument. Forgive me!

It's hard these days to draw out from friends what forms of democracy they are willing to "trust"—not to make the right decision, but to make legitimate decisions. All the smart people seem to agree: not school boards!

Why not school boards? And, I literally mean boards that oversee particular schools or a small cluster of schools.

Not enough people vote in them is one excuse. We could decide on a quorum? Or we could accept responsibility for bringing those numbers up. Or we could agree that those sufficiently interested constitute the

The State of Pre-K in the States «

The State of Pre-K in the States

December 9, 2010 by Irene Sege

Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

Yesterday Pre-K Now, a campaign of the Pew Center on the States, released “Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2011,” its annual report on the status of pre-kindergarten in the 50 states. “Despite widespread fiscal distress,” Pew’s news release stated, “leaders of both parties in a majority of states supported high-quality pre-kindergarten investments in FY11, increasing total funding slightly, by just over 1 percent, to $5.4 billion.”

A total of 26 states and the District of Columbia protected pre-kindergarten from budget cuts, Pre-K Now found. Of these, 15 states and the District of Columbia