Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Evening Posts 2-10 #ows #edreform

Another PTA Issues an Anti-Charter School Resolution | Seattle Education

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

Another PTA Issues an Anti-Charter School Resolution | Seattle Education:Another PTA Issues an Anti-Charter School Resolutionby seattleducation2011ResolutionWHEREAS the Olympic View community believes that a vibrant, fully funded and supported, public education is fundamental to the survival of our democracy, a thriving economy, and our shared well-being.WHEREAS public schools in Washington State are suffering from underfunding, resulting in cutbacks of teaching and support staff, and increasingly inadequate instructional materials.WHEREAS the Olympic View community has done what it... more »

Education fixes, straight from the students - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

Education fixes, straight from the students - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:Education fixes, straight from the studentsThursday, February 9th, 2012 at 10:59 pm in high schoolsNo Commentsimage from alyssalaurel’s site at flickr.com/creativecommonsEarlier this week, as many of you have been discussing, Michelle Rhee presented her ideas for improving public education in the United States.Tonight, two high school debaters had their chance.In a fancy office building in downtown Oakland, Bay Area Urban Debate League members Kwodwo ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top 2-10 Mid Morning Posts #ows #edreform

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

I want everyone to read this message regarding #rhee and #studentsfirst, the nerve, right @rheefirst? « At the Chalk FaceBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-4 minutes agoI want everyone to read this message regarding #rhee and #studentsfirst, the nerve, right @rheefirst? « At the Chalk Face:I want everyone to read this message regarding #rhee and #studentsfirst, the nerve, right @rheefirst?February 9, 2012I got this little note in an email about Rhee’s crony organization, filling parents’ heads with drivel, getting ... more »

Why Obama’s NCLB waivers aren’t what he says they are - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

Why Obama’s NCLB waivers aren’t what he says they are - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:Why Obama’s NCLB waivers aren’t what he says they areby Valerie StraussPresident Obama sounded like the king of flexibility when he announced that his administration was granting 10 states the right to ignore the most onerous requirements of No Child Left Behind. “Sounded” is the key word in that sentence.Read full article The loss of solitude in schoolsby Valerie StraussThis was written by ... more »

First round of NCLB waivers | Thoughts on Public Education

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

First round of NCLB waivers | Thoughts on Public Education:First round of NCLB waivers - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guessby John Fensterwald - Educated GuessIn early March, the State Board of Education will decide whether California will apply for the waiver from the No Child Left Behind law that the federal Department of Education awarded to an initial 10 states on Thursday. While not ruling out that possibility, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson hinted strongly Thursday that he ... more »

Better Test Scores Lead to Better Lives and Strong Economy: Fact or Hunch? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

Better Test Scores Lead to Better Lives and Strong Economy: Fact or Hunch? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:Better Test Scores Lead to Better Lives and Strong Economy: Fact or Hunch?by larrycubanIt is rare that a pundit (and ardent reformer) lays out clearly and crisply the core assumption driving the past thirty years of school reform. It is not only rare but startling when that insider then questions the assumption, suggesting that it is a hunch, not ...more »

KUDOS TO UTLA PRESIDENT WARREN FLETCHER, SHAME ON LAUSD'S JOHN DEASY - Perdaily.com

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

KUDOS TO UTLA PRESIDENT WARREN FLETCHER, SHAME ON LAUSD'S JOHN DEASY (FELICITACIONES A UTLA PRESIDENTE WARREN FLETCHER, LA CULPA A JOHN DEASY DE LAUSD) - Perdaily.com:KUDOS TO UTLA PRESIDENT WARREN FLETCHER, SHAME ON LAUSD'S JOHN DEASY (FELICITACIONES A UTLA PRESIDENTE WARREN FLETCHER, LA CULPA A JOHN DEASY DE LAUSD)by Leonard Isenberg(Mensaje se repite en Español)(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)It is important for the credibility of this blog to recognize when ... more »

The Educated Reporter: Which States Got Waivers From NCLB?

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 45 minutes ago

The Educated Reporter: Which States Got Waivers From NCLB?:Which States Got Waivers From NCLB?by Emily RichmondPresident Obama announced Thursday that 10 states will receive waivers from some of the tougher provisions of No Child Left Behind – including the requirement that all students demonstrate proficiency in reading and math by 2014 – in exchange for implementing specific accountability reforms.The states receiving the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. In exchange for being ... more »

Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Show - NYTimes.com

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Show - NYTimes.com:Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies SayBy SABRINA TAVERNISEPublished: February 9, 2012RECOMMENDTWITTERLINKEDINE-MAILPRINTSINGLE PAGEREPRINTSSHAREWASHINGTON — Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s ... more »

What This Teacher Means By Whole Child Education | The Jose Vilson

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

What This Teacher Means By Whole Child Education | The Jose Vilson:What This Teacher Means By Whole Child Educationby JoseOn Monday, I finally handed in my second quarter grades, still dizzy from the desultory amounts of sleep I got the night before. Gasses in a baby don’t have an appointment, so I spend nights either patting my baby’s back or listening to my fiancee do this. As I start looking at my online gradebook, I put in my grades on ...more »

NYC Public School Parents: Thursday night massacre

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

NYC Public School Parents: Thursday night massacre:Thursday night massacrePanel for Education Policy votes to close all 23 schools despite thousands of protesters.photo: Ben Chapman, Daily News

School Tech Connect: The Time Is Now For Crane

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

School Tech Connect: The Time Is Now For Crane:The Time Is Now For Cranenoreply@blogger.com (Tim) Feb 9, 2012 7:40 PM - Show original item...to hit the phones.1-713-553-1500Ask for Jean Claude Brizard. Tell him to read the hearing officer's report, and keep Crane open. And get over to the feeder schools as well, because Crane belongs to them, too.Don't forget Ayodeji Griffin's words at the community hearing:A couple of years ago, I questioned an elementary counselor who attended our articulation breakfast ... more »

Daily Kos: Applying the Success of NCLB to the Improvement of Interscholastic Football

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

Daily Kos: Applying the Success of NCLB to the Improvement of Interscholastic Football:Applying the Success of NCLB to the Improvement of Interscholastic Footballby rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)NCLB: The Football Version1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship, their footballs and equipment will ... more »

Asthma and Indoor Air Quality in Schools - Letters (CA Dept of Education)

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

Asthma and Indoor Air Quality in Schools - Letters (CA Dept of Education):Asthma and Indoor Air Quality in SchoolsJoint letter from the California Department of Education and the California Department of Public Health regarding asthma and indoor air quality in California schools.CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONTOM TORLAKSON, State Superintendent of Public Instruction1430 N Street, Sacramento, CA, 95814-5901916-319-0800CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTHRON CHAPMAN, MD, MPH, Director1615 Capitol Avenue, Sacramento, CA, 95814916-558-1700February 9, 2012Dear County and District Su... more »

Modern School: Tech Giants Take On Publishers for Control of Education

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

Modern School: Tech Giants Take On Publishers for Control of Education:Tech Giants Take On Publishers for Control of Educationby Michael DunnCollage by Modern School (with Images from Flickr, sucello and mikebaird)In a rare moment of lucidity and honesty, the Los Angeles Times published a piece last week criticizing tech giants’ play for billions of federal and state K-12 public education tax dollars. Reporting for the Times, Michael Hiltzik attended a Digital Learning Day Town Hall meeting sponsored by Google, Comcast, ... more »

Arne Duncan Supports Using Student Portfolios To Evaluate Teachers? | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

Arne Duncan Supports Using Student Portfolios To Evaluate Teachers? | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:Arne Duncan Supports Using Student Portfolios To Evaluate Teachers?February 9, 2012 by Larry Ferlazzo | 0 comments2I support using alternative methods to student performance on standardized tests to evaluate teachers. In fact, I have a long list of “tried and true” alternatives at The Best Articles Describing Alternatives To High-Stakes Testing.One of those alternative measures worth considering, I believe, are student portfolios.Well, this week, Arne ... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Pioneer Institute Asks "Is the US Department of Education Violating Federal Law by Directing Standards, Tests, and Curricula?"

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

Missouri Education Watchdog: Pioneer Institute Asks "Is the US Department of Education Violating Federal Law by Directing Standards, Tests, and Curricula?":Pioneer Institute Asks "Is the US Department of Education Violating Federal Law by Directing Standards, Tests, and Curricula?"by stlgretchenIs the Federal Government breaking the law with Race to the Top? Various organizations have come to the conclusion that it indeed is acting unconstitutionally. Reprinted with permission from The Pioneer Institute:Contact Jamie Gass, 617-723-2277, ext. 210 or jgass@pioneerinstitute.orgIS THE U... more »

I want everyone to read this message regarding #rhee and #studentsfirst, the nerve, right @rheefirst? « At the Chalk Face

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

I want everyone to read this message regarding #rhee and #studentsfirst, the nerve, right @rheefirst? « At the Chalk Face:I want everyone to read this message regarding #rhee and #studentsfirst, the nerve, right @rheefirst?February 9, 2012I got this little note in an email about Rhee’s crony organization, filling parents’ heads with drivel, getting everyone all ginned up, and shuffling them to some room to email elected officials. Check it:Our school board president, who is out of office in April, has ... more »

More Anti-Charter School Resolutions in Washington State | Seattle Education

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

More Anti-Charter School Resolutions in Washington State | Seattle Education:More Anti-Charter School Resolutions in Washington Stateby seattleducation2011From the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle:Resolution for Continued Prohibition of Charter Schools in Washington StateWhereas the platforms of the King County Democrats and the Washington State Democrats specifically oppose publicly funded charter schools and vouchers; andWhereas the voters of Washington State have defeated charter measures three times1; andWhereas peer-reviewed research shows that 83% of charter schools per... more »

NYC Public School Parents: Mayor's poor showing in Quinnipiac poll, and vote in our poll now!

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

NYC Public School Parents: Mayor's poor showing in Quinnipiac poll, and vote in our poll now!:Mayor's poor showing in Quinnipiac poll, and vote in our poll now!by Leonie Haimson1. A new Quinnipiac poll came out yesterday, showing that only 26% of New Yorkers approve of the way Bloomberg is handling our schools; 61% disapprove. 57 57% think he has failed to improve our schools, and only 13% think the next mayor should retain mayoral control. The mayor blamed his poor ... more »

Improving Access to Summer Meals - Letters (CA Dept of Education)

Improving Access to Summer Meals - Letters (CA Dept of Education):

February 10, 2012

Dear County and District Superintendents and Direct-Funded Charter School Administrators:

IMPROVING ACCESS TO SUMMER MEALS

I am asking you to take a few small steps to ensure that your students have access to nutritious meals during the summer. More and more children go hungry every day, and I encourage all of you to help ensure that hungry children are fed when school is out for summer break.

As a longtime advocate for students’ health, I am committed to helping California students make healthy choices. I launched the Team California for Healthy Kids campaign to focus on making healthy eating and physical activity accessible throughout the day in schools, before and after school, in early childhood programs, and in communities. The goals of the Team California campaign are to increase physical activity and improve access to water, fresh foods, and salad bars. One of the three core values of the campaign is local participation in all federal child nutrition programs, including the summer meal program. Please help me support the campaign and its core values by ensuring that students have access to summer meal programs in your community.

Research indicates that children’s mental alertness and cognitive development improve when they consume nutritious meals. Research also suggests that hunger during the summer is increasing, thus interfering with students’ development. Children who eat nutritious meals and participate in safe activities during the summer are more creative and productive in school and at home. Summer meal programs enhance these enrichment activities, which improve student attendance and engagement and help combat childhood obesity.

Summer Meal Programs

The California Department of Education (CDE) administers two summer meal programs that provide nutritious meals for disadvantaged children: the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and the Seamless Summer Feeding Option (SSFO). Despite rigorous outreach efforts, we saw a reduction in summer feeding sites throughout California school districts last year. We need your help to turn this around! It is extremely important that these programs become more accessible to our students, and I strongly encourage schools to participate in one of these summer meal programs.

What Can You Do?

• Make your schools (that are not hosting summer school) SFSP sites to help needy and potentially hungry children in your community.
  
  
• Locate your summer school sessions at sites where at least 50 percent of students enrolled are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. By establishing summer schools at these sites, you will be able to provide meals to students who are attending summer school as well as children in the surrounding community.
  
  
• Expand access to summer meal programs by supporting operators at sites throughout the community as either a program sponsor or a meal vendor. Many schools coordinate with recreation districts and community organizations to provide their students with summer meals in safe settings when local schools close for the summer.
  
  
• Share information with students and parents in June about where and when summer meal sites will operate nearby. Recently enacted federal law (the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010) requires that school food authorities participating in the National School Lunch Program distribute information to parents regarding the availability and location of summer food service program meals.

CDE Resources

The CDE has created an interactive Web page with a map of California that lists these sites. You can find links to information about summer meal service sites, including the interactive map, on the CDE Food Programs Web page at
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sh/sn/index.asp#summer.

Still not sure which summer option is best for your district or school? Please visit the CDE Summer Food Service Web page http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/sf/ for general information about our summer programs.

Other Support

For additional information, success stories, and tools for running a successful summer program, please visit our partners from the California Summer Meal Program Coalition at the California Center for Research on Women and Families Web site at http://www.ccrwf.org (Outside source).

Thank you in advance for considering what you can do to increase the number of California’s children receiving healthy, nutritious meals during the summer months. If you have questions regarding the Summer Food Service Program, please contact one of the Summer Food Specialists in the Nutrition Services Division:

Summer Food Specialist	Phone Number	Toll-Free Phone Number	E-mail
Melissa Garza	916-322-5885	800-952-5609	mgarza@cde.ca.gov
Dennis Arena	916-324-9073	800-952-5609	darena@cde.ca.gov
Mary Thomas	916-327-2220	800-952-5609	mthomas@cde.ca.gov
Janeen Dodson	916-327-5865	800-952-5609	jdodson@cde.ca.gov

If you have any questions regarding the SSFO or the State Meal Mandate, please contact Donna Reedy, School Nutrition Program Unit Specialist, Nutrition Services Division, by phone at 916-327-5866 or 800-952-5609, or by e-mail atdreedy@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Tom Torlakson

TT:jd

Welcome to Teachbad’s Book Club | Mr. Teachbad

Welcome to Teachbad’s Book Club | Mr. Teachbad:

Welcome to Teachbad’s Book Club

ANNOUNCING!!!!

Mr. Teachbad’s Offi­cial Teach­bad Book Club Even­tac­u­lar Dis­cus­sion Series (MTOTbBCEDS). Here’s what we’ll do in MTOTbBCEDS.

1) I pick a book.
2) I encour­age peo­ple to buy it and read it.
3) About a month later I post a lit­tle review and we chat; if the author wishes, he or she may write some­thing to begin the dis­cus­sion and/or respond directly to ques­tions and com­ments from readers.

Yes? OK. Let’s begin.

We will start with Why Great Teach­ers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exo­dus by Katy Far­ber. Buy it. Then read it.

The title sort of speaks for itself; def­i­nitely in line with the Teach­bad Mis­sion. It’s short and no heavy lift­ing. So, like I said, go buy it. Then read it. And come pre­pared. I don’t want to hear any shit about how your ordered it and it got lost in the mail or any­thing like that.

(Par­en­thet­i­cally, another place you can see the cover of this book is over my right shoul­der in the wildly unpop­u­lar

Diane Ravitch Obama Grants Waivers to NCLB and Makes a Bad Situation Worse - The Daily Beast

Obama Grants Waivers to NCLB and Makes a Bad Situation Worse - The Daily Beast:


Content Section

Obama Grants Waivers to NCLB and Makes a Bad Situation Worse

Feb 10, 2012 12:00 AM EST

The president correctly sees that No Child Left Behind forces teaching to the test. But so do his solutions to that problem.

• Print
• Email
• Comments (49)

Secretary Arne Duncan is right about the No Child Left Behind law: It is an unmitigated disaster. Signed into law a decade ago by President George W. Bush, NCLB is widely despised for turning schools into testing factories. By mandating that every student in the nation would be “proficient” by 2014, as judged by state tests, it set a goal that no nation in the world has ever met, and that no state in this nation is close to meeting. The goal is laudable but out of reach. It’s comparable to Congress mandating that every city, town, and village in the nation must be crime-free by 2014 ... or their police departments would be severely punished.

NCLB is the worst federal education law ever passed. About half of all public schools in the nation have been stigmatized as “failing” because they couldn’t meet its utopian mandates, and the proportion is certain to grow every year. In Massachusetts, the nation’s highest performing state, 81 percent of the state’s schools are officially “failing” by the standards of NCLB. No national legislature

Elimination of Adult Education Opportunities - Letters (CA Dept of Education)

Elimination of Adult Education Opportunities - Letters (CA Dept of Education):

February 10, 2012

Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

ELIMINATION OF ADULT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

The economic and educational success of all Californians in the 21st century is a goal stated succinctly within the California Department of Education’s (CDE) newly crafted mission statement:

California will provide a world-class education for all students, from early childhood to adulthood. The Department of Education serves our state by innovating and collaborating with educators, schools, parents, and community partners. Together, as a team, we prepare students to live, work, and thrive in a highly connected world.

It is our goal at the CDE to consider the “whole student” in our daily work of providing technical assistance and oversight of the multitude of state and federal programs we are responsible to administer. As such, we consider adult education a vital and integral part of the entire educational spectrum.

It is through adult education that the parents of the students within our kindergarten through grade twelve (K–12) schools can gain the education and literacy skills necessary to better their personal situations, thus benefiting all of California. It is here that they can advance in their own careers, obtain the skills for gainful employment, and become better parents and more active participants in our communities.

Documentation shows that with minimal fiscal resources, adult education still produces long term and far reaching benefits. Research has proven over and over again that children of educated and active adults are more successful and more engaged in their education. The benefits of a strong and dynamic adult education program are a priceless asset for all the districts that have built and supported it over the 155 years of its existence.

In these tight fiscal times, I urge all superintendents and district boards of education to consider this invaluable asset. Look hard at the benefits in adult education’s high school recovery programs, teaching English literacy to the 26 percent foreign-born Californians that presently make up our population, and the opportunities and tax dollars that could be generated if the 5.4 million adults without a diploma or GED were able to advance in their employment.

We hope that you execute deep research and evaluation of the benefits of adult education before you consider eliminating opportunities for students by sweeping up the adult education funds. Once a program such as this is dismantled, the extensive infrastructure and work that has gone into building this program cannot be readily recovered.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Patricia Terry, Education Administrator I, Adult Education Office, by phone at 916-322-2175 or by e-mail at PTerry@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Tom Torlakson

TT:gj

cc: Vernon M. Billy, Executive Director, California School Boards Association

Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

PRETEEN VACCINE WEEK—FEBRUARY 12–18, 2012

I am writing to inform you of Preteen Vaccine Week, a statewide immunization campaign spearheaded by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Immunization Branch that promotes adolescent health check-ups and immunizations for children eleven and twelve years old.

As part of this effort, the CDPH Immunization Branch releases an annual Preteen Vaccine Week Campaign Kit. The kit contains sample messages and templates in the first two sections and features educational materials for schools in the third section.

These educational activities are designed so anyone, even people with little to no immunization background, can successfully conduct them. Teachers interested in preventing diseases can easily incorporate these engaging activities into their lesson plans. This year’s kit is available on the CDPH Preteen Vaccine Week Web page at
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Pages/PreteenVaccineWeek.aspx (Outside Source). It is customized for the promotion of Assembly Bill 354, a new school law that requires all incoming seventh graders to meet the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination requirement before starting the 2012–13 school year and all future school years. Additional resources related to AB 354 can be found on the Shots for School Web site at http://www.shotsforschool.org/ (Outside Source).

I urge you to take advantage of these resources and encourage your schools to utilize them.

Preteen Vaccine Week serves as an opportune reminder that adolescents need to be immunized, not only to meet the new whooping cough vaccination requirement, but also to protect them against the ongoing threat of disease in our schools.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Rebeca Boyte, Health Educator, CDPH, by phone at 510-620-3762 or by e-mail at Rebeca.Boyte@cdph.ca.gov; or Linda Davis-Alldritt, School Nurse Consultant, CDE Coordinated School Health and Safety Office, by phone at 916-319-0284 or by e-mail at ldavisal@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

Tom Torlakson

TT:lda

RheeFirst! » Michelle Rhee: the company she keeps

RheeFirst! » Michelle Rhee: the company she keeps:

Michelle Rhee: the company she keeps

by admin

Guns, Rick Santorum, the Koch brothers, Islamophobia and Michelle Rhee

by admin

(Photo credit: Joe Foss Institute)

Written by GottaLaff for The Political Carnival. Read the entire post here.
“Remember Michelle Rhee? She has stripped Tennessee teachers of their collective bargaining rights. She likes to pretend that she’s a moderate, but, her record proves otherwise. She played a role in passing an anti-union bill and even co-authored an op-ed with Former Republican Senate Leader Bill Frist.

Rhee recently attended a ceremony MC’d by Foster Friess, who just happens to be the bag of cash man bankrolling the Rick Santorum SuperPAC. She and her husband accepted an award at the Joe Foss Institute, an organization that has very close ties to the NRA and some other lovely right wing groups.“

ASCD Inservice: Tell Washington That Education is More Than Test Scores

ASCD Inservice: Tell Washington That Education is More Than Test Scores:

Tell Washington That Education is More Than Test Scores

We need your help. Congress is on the verge of making the same mistakes they made in NCLB: a narrow focus on reading and math at the expense of other subjects, relying on standardized state test scores as the measure of a student's abilities, and paying lip service to the importance of classroom teachers while providing them little support.

The Obama administration's Let's Move campaign and efforts to expand the concept of the Harlem's Children Zone to a dozen or so other cities are steps in the right direction but, unfortunately, Secretary Arne Duncan equates "college and career readiness" with new reading and math standards and wants to judge teachers' effectiveness primarily based on test scores.

Once again, the Beltway crowd just doesn't get it. They're failing to recognize how hard teaching is, the importance of a

District eating millions in facilities costs at Audenried, other Renaissance charters | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

District eating millions in facilities costs at Audenried, other Renaissance charters | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

District eating millions in facilities costs at Audenried, other Renaissance charters

by Benjamin Herold

by Benjamin Herold
for the Notebook and WHYY/NewsWorks

Even while slashing staff, programs, and hours at schools across the city in an effort to close an enormousbudget gap, the School District has been swallowing millions of dollars in facilities-related expenses at its 13Renaissance Schools now run by outside charter operators.

Nowhere is the situation more pronounced than at Audenried High in South Philadelphia. There, the District has allowed Universal Companies to operate cost-free in a new, $55 million District-owned building since July because the parties have yet to come to terms on a facility license agreement.

Featured Title:

Universal is getting free use of Audenried and Vare buildings

read more

District provides update on finances; audit expected today

by Erika Owens

The District says the budget shortfall for the current fiscal year now stands at $38.8 million. According to a press release, "as a result of ongoing analysis," the District found that the remaining budget gap at midyear was actually $70.8 million, not the previously reported $61 million. Cost savings of $32 million have been achieved, which leaves a gap of $38.8 million.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz is planning to release an audit of the District's finances today. Last month, he warned that he was unsure if the District will be able to continue as a "going concern."

read more

Missouri Education Watchdog: Parents - Are You Really Expecting This?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Parents - Are You Really Expecting This?:

Parents - Are You Really Expecting This?

by Anngie

You know the analogy about battles and the war? It's true. Though we may win battles, the war is far from over.

The federal government is determined to get into the lives of the private citizen. Michelle Obama recently told a cafeteria full of airmen that she was proud of them for eating their veggies. Her visit, as the federal face of healthy eating, was meant to promote the military's new campaign to get more fruits and "veggies", leaner meats and low-fat dairy products into dining halls, snack bars and school cafeterias on military bases. Little Rock Air Force base's pilot program is just the start. It is a much easier start because the military is actually under the federal government's control. And have no fear, this program will be a success there; not because the healthy foods have winnowed down the weight of the average airman, but because the average airman must meet certain physical metrics in order to be accepted into the program and fit in the tiny cockpit. It seems the