Friday, December 2, 2011

by Nancy Mitchell and Charlie Brennan

Money apparently mattered in recent school board campaigns in the state’s largest school districts, with the top fundraisers winning in seven of eight elections in Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties.

Final campaign finance reports filed Thursday for school board candidates show Denver’s citywide at-large race may rank as the most expensive in the city’s history, with five candidates raising more than $267,111.

But Allegra “Happy” Haynes, who raised $234,972 of that amount, did not set an individual record, failing to beat the record $240,605 set by at-large candidate Mary Seawell, the board’s current president, in 2009.

One development in the 2011 elections is how advocacy groups are directing their dollars. In 2009, for example, Seawell received just $310.15 in non-monetary or “in-kind” donations. This year, Haynes received $56,397 in non-

Friday churn: Data report card

by EdNews staff

What’s churning:

The Data Quality Campaign issued its seventh annual analysis Thursday, and the bottom line is states are doing a better job at gathering education data but the information is not yet making a difference in the effort to boost student achievement. The group has spelled out “10 Essential Elements of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems” as well as “10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use.”

The new analysis found that states have done a good job putting the systems together — 36 states have implemented all of the “elements.” But not one state has implemented all of the “actions.” It’s these actions, the DQC argues, that will create a “culture” in which educators, parents and stakeholders make better decisions

Fewer schools keep librarians on staff | California Watch

Fewer schools keep librarians on staff | California Watch:

Fewer schools keep librarians on staff

Eleanor Yang Su

kali9/istockphoto.com

Fewer than 1 out of 4 schools in California is staffed with a credentialed librarian, according to the state Department of Education.
Recent figures compiled by the department show there are about 900 school librarians in the state – that’s down from more than 1,100 two years ago.
From Los Angeles to San Mateo and Fullerton, school districts have cut librarian positions this year to cope with state budget cuts. Increasing numbers of schools are splitting one librarian between multiple campuses or

Community college task force amends disputed student success plan

Erica Perez

alejandrophotography/istockphoto.com

A task force that has been selling a sweeping package of reforms aimed at increasing student success in the California Community Colleges has removed several proposed changes from the plan in an attempt to assuage concerns about cuts to special services and negative consequences for some students.
The plan’s 22 recommendations [PDF] focus on improving the rates at which community college students earn degrees or certificates, transfer to a four-year university or achieve their job-training goals.
The 20-member task force – which includes trustees, campus presidents, business representatives, faculty and

Stand for Children? Following Costly Misstep, Education Group Tries to Rebound - Chicago News Cooperative

Following Costly Misstep, Education Group Tries to Rebound - Chicago News Cooperative:

Following Costly Misstep, Education Group Tries to Rebound

by KRISTEN McQUEARY

An Oregon-based education group, whose deep pockets and skillful maneuvering made it a surprising powerhouse player in Springfield earlier this year, is regrouping after an embarrassing outburst by its founder forced a leadership shuffle within the organization.

The Illinois chapter of Stand for Children raised more money than any other major lobbying interest in the capital last fall. But it has not raised a penny in the current election cycle and has spent only $2,500 on two candidates so far, according to the most recent campaign disclosure reports filed with the state Board of Elections.

At this time last year, the group had collected more than $3.4 million and had given $610,000 to favored candidates, making it one of the most generous, and clandestine, political action committees in Springfield. Chicago’s elite — including the Crown and Pritzker families, along with the Citadel Group’s founder, Kenneth

Viewpoints: Our struggling schools need a long-term fix - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Our struggling schools need a long-term fix - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee:

Viewpoints: Our struggling schools need a long-term fix

By Jonathan Raymond
Special to The Bee

Published: Friday, Dec. 2, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 17A

The nonprofit group Advancement Project plans to gather signatures for a November 2012 ballot initiative that would raise money for schools, The Bee reported Wednesday. This is in addition to the 2012 Kids Education Plan, also aiming for the November ballot, which would also raise revenue for schools. And Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown released a plan for yet another November ballot initiative to fund schools.

It is heartening that concerned Californians want an alternative to the state's current plan for funding education, which seems to involve prayers, "hail Mary" passes, magical math, cuts, hand-wringing and more cuts.

So a year from now, there may be new proposals for funding schools on the ballot, depending on

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:

What is the Mayor of Wall Street smoking?

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 5 minutes ago

*He looked like he was from another planet when he dressed as a hippie for a political show, but the mayor’s blueprint for fixing city schools have some asking “what was he smoking?”* -- CBS News In a speech at MIT, Bloomberg said Thursday he would accomplish more with less by slashing the teaching staff in half and doubling class sizes.

Michigan's 'nonpartisan' union busters caught in scandal

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 1 day ago

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan, calls itself a "nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to improving the quality of life." But recently this far-right, free-market think tank has been exposed for its shady, very partisan, and possibly illegal lobbying of state politicians, aimed at nothing less than breaking the back of the state's teachers union and outlawing collective-bargaining in the state of Michigan. According to *Dave Murray*, writing in the Grand Rapids Free Press, the Mackinac Center's true purposes were revealed in secret email commun... more »

For-profit teacher certification is booming

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 4 days ago

This, according to a Nov. 26 New York Times report. As you might expect, Texas leads the way in for-profit teacher certifications. More than 110 alternative certification programs — including iteachTexas, and nonprofits like Teach for America — produce 40 percent of all new teachers in Texas, according to an analysis of Texas Education Agency data by Ed Fuller, a Penn State University education professor and former University of Texas researcher. For-profit programs dominate that market: in each year since 2007, the two largest companies, A+ Texas Teachers and iteachTexas, have pro... more »

Power philanthropy: 'Influence peddling writ large'

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 4 days ago

Political reporter *Nicholas Confessore* has an important piece in today's Times, "Policy Making Billionaires" which reveals the disproportional power over public policy and institutions held by and handful of the world's richest men. *“It’s sort of influence-peddling writ large,” said Richard L. Brodsky, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning research organization Demos and a former New York State assemblyman. “The notion that the society is better served by the super-rich exercising their charitable instincts is in the end anti-democratic.”*

'Virtual' schools

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 6 days ago

The Nation reports: *If the national movement to “reform” public education through vouchers, charters and privatization has a laboratory, it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of “virtual schools”—charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet—as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.* *From Idaho to Indiana to Florida, recently passed laws will radically reshape the face of education in America, shifting the responsibility of teaching generations of Ame... more »

THANKSGIVING ON WALL STREET

Mike Klonsky at Schooling in the Ownership Society - 6 days ago

Transparent moments

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 1 minute ago

Every once in a while, a bit of truth comes seeping through the pores of the corporate media. Corporate moguls, media tycoons or politicians become a little remorseful or a little drunk and let us know what they really think. N.Y. *Mayor Bloomberg* let the cat out of the bag in a recent speech at MIT, admitting that if he were king (isn't he?) he'd fire half the teachers and double class size. *He looked like he was from another planet when he dressed as a hippie for a political show, but the mayor’s blueprint for fixing city schools have some asking “what was he smoking?”* -- CBS ... more »

Michigan's union-busters caught sending secret emails to pols

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 1 day ago

Uncapping and de-regulating charter schools

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 1 day ago

Spurred on by Race To The Top While public education budgets are being slashed, federal support for privately-managed charter schools has increased to new heights including a $52 million increase in charter school funding last year. Since 2009, with $100 billion in stimulus funding for education, including $4.35 billion in the competitive Race to the Top fund behind him, *Arne Duncan* has offered a stern warning to states: *"Embrace charters or risk losing stimulus dollars."* But while Duncan claims it's all about "quality, not quantity" when it comes to charter school expansion a... more »

Questions for Jean-Claude Brizard

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 2 days ago

*“We have to take immediate action this year. . . . Too many of our students are in what I call an educational emergency room.’’* -- J.C. Brizard With today's announcement by Brizard, that 10 more Chicago schools were being "turned around," complete with mass firings of faculty and staff and the contracting of new management groups to take them over, a few questions come to mind. 1. In your telephone interview with reporters you say: “We can no longer defend a Chicago Public School system that fails our students year after year.’’ If that's true, exactly how many years-after-yea... more »

Principals revolt against the testing madness

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 4 days ago

NYT's Mike Winerip gives credit to Obama along with J*ohn B. King Jr*., the New York State commissioner of education, for spurring what is believed to be the first principals’ revolt in history. As of last night, 658 principals around the state had signed a letter — 488 of them from Long Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance. *It is hard to overstate how angry the principals who signed are. Mario Fernandez, principal of Stillwater High School near Saratoga, called the evaluation proces... more »

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 4 days ago

Students from Cleveland High visit the Occupy L.A. site at City Hall to ask questions for their civics class. Occupy L.A. *"It fits in with everything we're doing," said Rebecca Williams, an English literature teacher at the Reseda school. "It's a real-life movement — history in the making."* --L.A. Times Education lagging for Mexican students in N.Y. *“We are stanching an educational hemorrhage, but only partially,” said Robert C. Smith, a sociology professor at the City University of New York who studies the local Mexican population. “The worst outcomes are still possible."* --... more »

Resistance building to Rahm's school closings.

Mike Klonsky at Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog - 6 days ago

** * "CPS policies have destabilized schools in our community," said Jeanette Taylor, a parent leader with the Kenwood group whose children attend Mollison and Robinson schools, both of which have been on academic probation for several years. "We're all fighting together. They aren't closing any more schools until they do right by us."* -- Chicago Tribune Resistance is building to *Rahm Emanuel's *latest school-closing plan. The plan -- which in effect is a school privatization plan -- calls for the closing of neighborhood schools and replacing many of them with privately-manage... more »

Big choices for LA teachers | Thoughts on Public Education

Big choices for LA teachers | Thoughts on Public Education:

Big choices for LA teachers - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Teachers and principals in the state’s largest school district will be able to free themselves from a range of district policies and restrictions of the union contract – if they choose to. In a break from their ongoing battle over teacher evaluations, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy and United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher [...]

Low-income schools shortchanged - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

Being proven right is usually a cause for some self-satisfaction, but U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was troubled Wednesday when he announced results of a new Department of Education study on Title I and other high-poverty schools. “Today, we’re releasing key findings that confirm an unfortunate reality in our nation’s education system,” said Duncan during a [...]

California steps forward & back on school data - by Kathryn Baron