4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: The A-plus Act: LAWMAKERS REINTRODUCE BILL ALLOWING STATES TO OPT OUT OF NCLB

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: The A-plus Act: LAWMAKERS REINTRODUCE BILL ALLOWING STATES TO OPT OUT OF NCLB

The A-plus Act: LAWMAKERS REINTRODUCE BILL ALLOWING STATES TO OPT OUT OF NCLB

BY ALYSON KLEIN, EDWEEK | HTTP://BIT.LY/JOCLDW

April 28, 2011 5:14 PM |So now there is a go-to piece of legislation for the "get the feds out of the business of K-12 education" crowd: The A-Plus Act.

Introduced in the Senate last week by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., the measure would give states way more leeway in using federal funding and building systems for holding schools accountable for student achievement.

In a nutshell, the bill would give states the option of setting their own targets for student performance. The states' plans would have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Then states could pool money from a few, or all, federal ed programs and spend the funds

A Letter to Arne Duncan « Failing Schools

A Letter to Arne Duncan « Failing Schools

A Letter to Arne Duncan

MAY 2, 2011

by Sabrina

This morning, I read Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s Open Letter to America’s Teachers. There’s a part of me that would like to take his words at face value, and another part that is quite excited over the fact that us teacher-agitators have forced a shift in the conversation about education reform, such that he has at least acknowledged (if not acted upon) many of our concerns. But the gap between his words and his actions is too large to ignore. I’ve written him a letter in response.

Dear Secretary Duncan,

Actions speak louder than words. Though you often have nice words to say about teachers, what you do is more important, and your actions thus far do not indicate that you respect, value, or support teachers and our profession as much as you claim. Among other things, you have:

Open Occupation of UAW Statewide Office « occupy california

Open Occupation of UAW Statewide Office « occupy california

Open Occupation of UAW Statewide Office

by *

from ReclaimUC:

There are currently about 15 union members in the UAW statewide office, located at 2070 Allston way, suite 205 in Berkeley. A rally is scheduled for 11:30 on Sproul Plaza, and will turn into a march over to the union office to support and/or join the occupation. We will continue to provide updates as the day goes on.

Here’s an email from Mandy Cohen, current head steward for UAW 2865 and running for recording secretary on the AWDU slate, announcing and explaining the action:

This weekend I witnessed one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in my life. On Friday the counting of votes in our union leadership election began in LA. I drove down with other Berkeley and Santa Cruz AWDU members when we heard that all of Berkeley’s votes had been challenged (meaning they might be invalidated). We arrived in the early hours Saturday morning and were able to help count the votes for Santa Cruz, Davis, Irvine, San Diego, Riverside and Santa Barbara. by 5pm all of those campuses were almost complete–and AWDU actually seemed to be breaking even.

The elections committee called an hour recess–and three hours later came back to say that the

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS (so many I lost count even with my shoes off)

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A COMPILATION OF NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT CHARTER SCHOOLS WHICH HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH, OR ARE HIGHLY SUSPECTED OF, TAMPERING WITH ADMISSIONS, GRADES, ATTENDANCE AND TESTING; MISUSE OF FUNDS AND EMBEZZLEMENT; ENGAGING IN NEPOTISM AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST; ENGAGING IN COMPLICATED AND SHADY REAL ESTATE DEALS; AND/OR HAVE BEEN ENGAGING IN OTHER QUESTIONABLE, UNETHICAL, BORDERLINE-LEGAL, OR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES. THIS IS ALSO A RECORD OF CHARTER SCHOOL INSTABILITY AND OTHER UNSAVORY TIDBITS.

Academica Schools / Florida politician (ethics complaint) *ETHICS COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST STATE REP. FRESEN; / An ethics complaintwas filed against a Miami lawmaker over his connection to a charter schoolscompany;* April 29, 2011; Miami Herald (FL) A Tallahassee mother of three said she filed an ethics ...

Ohio charter schools (inadequate oversight) *CHARTER BACKER SAYS HOUSE PROPOSAL WEAKENS OVERSIGHT*; April 30, 2011; Columbus Dispatch (OH) A leading school-choice supporter says the sweeping changes proposed by House Republicans would weaken oversight of charter schools severely and ...

Florida charter schools (segregation concerns) *FLORIDA CHARTERS LESS DIVERSE THAN OTHER PUBLIC SCHOOLS /Sentinelanalysis shows growth in charters with concentrations of single race orethnicity*; April 30, 2011; Orlando Sentinel (FL) Segregation is making a comeback in Florida's public schools ...

LISA Academy *SCHOOLS HAVE FISCAL WOES;* April 12, 2011; Arkansas News Bureau …The board also denied a request from LISA Academy, an open-enrollment charter school in Little Rock, to raise its student cap from 600 to 800 and allow it to add grades 4 and 5. The ...

Indiana charter schools (low teacher salaries) *CHARTER SCHOOL SALARIES LOWER / For some, appeal of mission compensatesfor discrepancy;* April 24, 2011; Journal Gazette (Ft. Wayne, IN) Allen County charter school teachers made $21,000 less on average than their regular public school ...

Fahari Academy Charter School *CHARTERS 'NIX 23%' OF KIDS / Boys will be boys, but nonpublic schoolsare quick to expel average little rascals;* April 24, 2011; New York Post He called a classmate a "spaghetti noodle" because she was skinny. And he led the "Rubberband Gang" that ...

Reach Academy for Girls *DELAWARE SCHOOLS: BOARD'S DISPUTE PUTS REACH ACADEMY'S FUTURE IN LIMBO /Takeover, closure possible for Claymont schools; *April 7, 2011; The News Journal/delawareonline.com (DE) Two factions of a Claymont charter school's board are fighting for ...

Pencader Business and Finance Charter High School *STATE PUTS PENCADER CHARTER ON REVIEW; *April 24, 2011; The News Journal/delawareonline.com (DE) The Delaware Board of Education voted to place Pencader Business and Finance Charter High School on formal review, making it the second charter this ...

New Village Charter School *OAKLAND CHARTER SCHOOL MUST CLOSE ITS DOORS / Eighty students displacedfor next school year; *April 27, 2000; San Francisco Chronicle (CA) OAKLAND -- After limping along for three years with seesaw enrollment and 100 percent teacher turnover, the ...

Theresa B. Lee Academy *FW CHARTER SCHOOL GETS CHEATING PENALTY / State officials will overseeTAKS testing on three campuses; *September 12, 2007; Dallas Morning News (TX) State officials announced punishments for three schools Tuesday, including a Fort Worth charter ...

Skills for Tomorrow *LOW ENROLLMENT TO CLOSE DOORS OF ST. PAUL CHARTER SCHOOL / Skills forTomorrow, a St. Paul school dedicated to teaching job skills, will shut downnext month;* November 25, 2009; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) A small St. Paul charter high school ...

Texas Academy of Excellence *CHARTER SCHOOL CHIEF GETS PROBATION FOR MISUSING SCHOOL FUNDS; *June 3, 2008; Austin Legal (TX) State District Judge Melissa Goodwin today accepted a plea bargain in the case of former charter school chief Dolores Hillyer and sentenced her to 10 ...

Harlem Children's Zone charter schools *The Harlem Children's Zone program is often highly praised. Less publicized are the concerns which have been raised about some of the practices at its charter schools. Articles about those concerns will be posted here.* *HARLEM CHARTER SCHOOL'S ...

Twin Cities (MN) region charter schools (poor performance, segregation issues) *FAILED PROMISES: ASSESSING CHARTER SCHOOLS IN THE TWIN CITIES; *November 2008; Institute on Race and Poverty, University of Minnesota Law School SECTION IV: CONCLUSION This report finds that charter schools in the Twin Cities metro have not served ...

NYC charter schools (low ELL enrollment) *CITY CHARTERS DON'T TAKE ENOUGH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS, STUDY SHOWS;*April 25, 2011; WNYC News (NY) For years, education advocates have been complaining that charter schools aren't serving all children equally because they take a ...

Indiana charter schools (real estate profiteering concerns) *CHARTER SCHOOLS AND VULTURES*; April 18, 2011; The Journal Gazette When the Texas Board of Education reviewed the application for a charter school to be operated by Imagine Schools Inc., board member David Bradley had a question for company CFO ...

Pennsylvania's online charter schools (poor performance) *POOR RESULTS FOR PENNSYLVANIA ONLINE CHARTER SCHOOLS; *April 18, 2011; Education Sector Quick & the Ed blog Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) report on Pennsylvania charter schools continued many themes from its national ...

Des Moines Public Charter School *DES MOINES PARENTSQUESTION CHARTERSCHOOL'S FOCUS;* April 27, 2011; Des Moines Register A new Des Moines charter school created for students who seem destined to drop out is recruiting middle-schoolers from across the district — including high ...

KIPP Endeavor Academy (Kansas City, MO) *SPONSOR TO TAKE CLOSE LOOK AT KIPP CHARTER SCHOOL*; April 29, 2011; Kansas City Star (MO) One of the nation’s fastest-growing charter-school models may be stumbling in Kansas City. Concerns over the local management of the KIPP Endeavor Academy ...

Life Force Arts and Technology Academy *CLEARWATER CHARTER SCHOOL IS TOLD IT MUST FIX ITS FINANCES OR CLOSE; *April 29, 2011; St. Petersburg Times (FL) Pinellas County school officials issued an ultimatum Thursday to the operators of the Life Force Arts and Technology Academy charter ...

Lake Havasu Charter School ***LAKE HAVASU CHARTER SCHOOL TO CLOSE* */ Officials failed to meet state deadline for renewal papers*; April 27, 2011; News-Herald (CO) Lake Havasu Charter School is closing after 16 years because officials failed to submit paperwork by the ...

Edison Charter Academy *SAN FRANCISCO CHARTER SCHOOL RENEWAL RUNNING INTO RESISTANCE;* April 27, 2011; San Francisco Examiner (CA) A San Francisco charter school that has broken ties with a controversial national company is making its third try this school year to win ...

California charter schools (segregation concerns) *CHARTER SCHOOLS RAISE QUESTION OF NEW SEGREGATION;* Feb. 17, 2011; The Sacramento Bee (CA) For more than 50 years, the notion that racially mixed schools are in the best interests of all students has been a basic underpinning of America's ...

Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow *STATE QUESTIONS ATTENDANCE RATES AT INTERNET CHARTER SCHOOLS*; Sept. 23, 2006; Associated Press, via Akron Beacon Journal (OH) COLUMBUS, Ohio - Attendance has been so good at some of Ohio's Internet charter schools that the state is wondering if ...

Skills for Tomorrow *FINANCIAL TROUBLES FORCE CLOSING OF ST. PAUL CHARTER SCHOOL*; November 25, 2009; Minnesota Public Radio St. Paul, Minn. — A charter school in St. Paul plans to close next month because of financial problems. Skills for Tomorrow school has ...

Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences *AUDIT** RAISES QUESTIONS OVER CHARTER SCHOOL; SARASOTA SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES OVERSPENT BY $560,000 AND MUST COVER A $300,000 DEFICIT;* February 13, 2001; Sarasota Herald Tribune The Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences overspent by about ...

Gateway Charter School (Arkansas) *FIRST CHARTER SCHOOL FAILED, BUT OTHERS HAVE HIGH HOPES*; September 17, 2001; Arkansas Business Gateway Charter School in Ponca knew it was in financial trouble the first day of school in September 2000. The first open-enrollment charter school in ...

Franklin High & Franklin Arts Academy *EX-SCHOOL WORKER TO REPAY $50K*; February 8, 2007; The Arizona Republic A former employee of Franklin High in Mesa has agreed to repay nearly $50,000 for office supplies that were purchased with school funds but never arrived on campus, according ...

School of Excellence *STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION VOTES TO SHUTTER CHARTER SCHOOL AT HUMPHREY;*APRIL 13, 2010; The Daily World (AR) School of Excellence students will have to finish up the remainder of the year elsewhere after the state Board of Education unanimously voted ...

Espiritu Community Development Corporation's K-12 school *NFL GIVES SCHOOL ANOTHER $1 MIL;* January 26, 2008; The Arizona Republic The National Football League is showering a small Phoenix charter school with gifts and money, including a check for $1 million… The school doesn't have such a sunny record ...

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal

Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

If you don't find yours today

Keep checking

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Be sure to check out two other Great blogs:

-THE BROAD REPORT (as in Eli)
-THE PERIMETER PRIMATE

The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System

by E.D. Kain

The Finland Phenomenon, from documentary filmmaker, Bob Compton, follows Dr. Tony Wagner through Finland’s extraordinary school system. It’s a short, to-the-point documentary, but it had quite an effect on me, if only because it illustrates so succinctly why our recent approach to education reform is so wrong-headed.

In Finland there are no standardized tests. In fact, there is really very little testing at all. Finnish teachers are not monitored or rated based on test scores, and teachers (as well as their students) have a great deal of autonomy. It is a system built on trust, and the film really drives home the notion that trust – rather than faux accountability – leads to real results, leads to teachers and students and members of government all wanting to live up to the trust given to them rather than simply scraping by.

But trust is something that a society has to work at, and that is tied inextricably to demographics, population size, and history. And the United States simply doesn’t compare to Finland on the trust scale:

Here’s to the Teachers! :: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

Here’s to the Teachers! :: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

Here’s to the Teachers!

by NancyFlanagan

by Anthony Cody

We celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week with the release of a video we created to honor teachers.

It has been almost two months since I reported on a project we started, to create a series of short videos that would celebrate teachers, students, parents and public schools, and encourage viewers to stand together for them at the Save Our Schools March this summer in Washington, DC.

We got a great response from many of you, who sent in photographs and Flickr feeds. Tom and Amy Valens, the talented film makers who created the movie August to June, have been hard at work, drawing on the material that was contributed, and a variety of video sources as well. The very first of the four videos is now ready, and we present it here (click link to view video):

Here\’s to the Teachers! Save Our Schools March and National Days of Action

And here is the script:

Here’s to the teachers.
The ones who taught us to d

I’m not feeling safer. I’m not feeling appreciated. But we flew some kites and that made me feel good. « Fred Klonsky's blog

I’m not feeling safer. I’m not feeling appreciated. But we flew some kites and that made me feel good. « Fred Klonsky's blog

I’m not feeling safer. I’m not feeling appreciated. But we flew some kites and that made me feel good.

by Fred Klonsky

We have had a very wet April. It has rained twenty days out of the month.

April is when I make kites with my kindergarten and first grade classes. And part of the deal is that we go outside and fly them. Which we can’t do if it is raining. Or if there is a threat of a thunderstorm.

My Monday classes finished making their kites weeks ago. They are filled with drawings of rocket ships and monsters, rainbows and princesses.

But we didn’t get to fly them until today. A sunny, blustery, tear-the-kite-into-shreds kind of day.

They loved it. And so did I.