Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, March 30, 2012

Ellen Holmes: NEA's Priority Schools Focus on Teacher Expertise, Parent and Community Involvement - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Ellen Holmes: NEA's Priority Schools Focus on Teacher Expertise, Parent and Community Involvement - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:


Living in Dialogue

Anthony Cody spent 24 years working in Oakland schools, 18 of them as a science teacher at a high needs middle school. He is National Board certified, and now leads workshops with teachers focused on Project Based Learning. With education at a crossroads, he invites you to join him in a dialogue on education reform and teaching for change and deep learning. For additional information on Cody's work, visit his Web site, Teachers Lead. Or follow him on Twitter.


















Ellen Holmes: NEA's Priority Schools Focus on Teacher Expertise, Parent and Community Involvement

This week I have been looking at the issue of Turnarounds and the Department of Education's School Improvement Grants, drawing from a conference I attended sponsored by the Education Writers Association. One of the speakers there was a former teacher named Ellen Holmes, who now leads the National Education Association's Priority Schools Campaign. I asked her to explain more about their work in this area.

Anthony: What is the NEA's Priority Schools project?
Ellen Holmes: 
The Priority Schools Campaign is the NEA's commitment to struggling schools. The Campaign was born at the 2009 NEA Representative Assembly, an annual democratic meeting of 10,000 members, who decided that supporting students in struggling schools was a priority for the nation's largest teachers union. Priority Schools are any schools that received School Improvement Grants. All of them are Title 1 or Title 1 eligible - serving poor students - and most of them serve large numbers of minority and English language learners. Most of these schools had only a few short months -weeks in some cases- to apply for, plan and begin implementing sweeping school based reforms. Because of this challenge the Priority Schools Campaign has committed resources (people, technical assistance, grants, media and 

One City Council debate in the books | Davis Enterprise

One City Council debate in the books | Davis Enterprise:


“I think in terms of the city budget, there needs to be a comprehensive top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, wherever you want to start, line-by-line look at the city’s budget and prioritization of where we want to spend our dollars, our precious sales tax dollars, that fund city programs,” Frerichs said.



One City Council debate in the books

Five candidates for three seats on the Davis City Council were on the hot seat Thursday evening at the first campaign debate of the season. They fielded questions from the Davis Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee about water, budgets, housing needs and downtown density.
Lucas Frerichs, 32, chairman of the Planning Commission, was randomly selected to answer the first question during each round. First up: budget reform, specifically in reference to labor negotiations and how he would handle them, if elected.
“I think in terms of the city budget, there needs to be a comprehensive top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, wherever you want to start, line-by-line look at the city’s budget and prioritization of where we want to spend our dollars, our precious sales tax dollars, that fund city programs,” Frerichs said.
Moderator Kemble Pope, the Chamber’s executive director, also Frerichs his 

CPS forces new evaluation procedures on teachers. CTU asks, “What’s the rush? Where’s the money coming from?” « Fred Klonsky

CPS forces new evaluation procedures on teachers. CTU asks, “What’s the rush? Where’s the money coming from?” « Fred Klonsky:


CPS forces new evaluation procedures on teachers. CTU asks, “What’s the rush? Where’s the money coming from?”

It all goes back to PERA.
The Performance Evaluation Reform Act, passed by the Illinois General Assembly two years ago.
One of the requirements of PERA was that the CPS and the CTU were given a very narrow window to bargain a new evaluation plan with a teacher-value-added component. If both the CPS board and the CTU could not agree within that narrow time slot, the board could impose its “last best offer.”
The CTU is asking, “What’s the rush.”
There is plenty of evidence that VAM (value-added-measurement) is a flawed system. It’s ranking provision 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In D.C. with an eye on Chicago

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In D.C. with an eye on Chicago:


In D.C. with an eye on Chicago

I'm in D.C. for the Occupy the DOE events. I don't speak until Monday so I'm taking in the other presentations and will be reporting on some of them as time allows.

Occupiers should find strength and solidarity vibes floating in from Spain where there's a general strike and where nearly a million protesters are demanding an end to austerity and budget cuts from Madrid to the Basque country.

Meanwhile back in Chicago, I see that the mayor persists in his denial of First Amendment rights to those who want to demonstrate their opposition to NATO's war machine next month. He continues to defend his refusal to allow a march in the Loop on the first day of the NATO Summit, claiming police will be too busy with all the motorcades for visiting delegates.  Of course there's noting in the Constitution 

CTA attorney sends 'cease and desist' letter to school district on teacher layoffs - The Willits News

CTA attorney sends 'cease and desist' letter to school district on teacher layoffs - The Willits News:


CTA attorney sends 'cease and desist' letter to school district on teacher layoffs

By Jennifer Poole/TWN Willits News

The California Teachers Association's legal director has sent a "cease and desist" letter to the Willits school district regarding what CTA calls "unlawfully imposed" five-day layoffs for all teachers. The letter asks the district to rescind all the layoff notices.
Willits Teachers Association president Brian Bowles told school board members Tuesday night these layoffs violate the Educational Employment Relations Act.
"I know this is not your focus tonight,' Bowles said, "but I wanted to give you a bigger idea of the picture we're looking at. It's not just little old Willits. This could potentially set precedents."
Bowles mentioned the next negotiating session between the union and the district, on Monday, April 2. "I hope we can 

50 students at Douglass Academy high school suspended after protesting lack of teachers | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Dozens of Douglass Academy high schoolers suspended after protesting lack of teachers | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: "Dozens of Douglass Academy high schoolers suspended after protesting lack of teachers"


Dozens of Douglass Academy high schoolers suspended after protesting lack of teachers


Seniors from Frederick Douglass Academy gather on 14th Street in Detroit on Thursday, March 29, 2012, after staging a walkout to protest administrative problems.
Seniors from Frederick Douglass Academy gather on 14th Street in Detroit on Thursday, March 29, 2012, after staging a walkout to protest administrative problems. / Andre J. Jackson/ Detroit Free Press
About 50 high school students at Frederick Douglass Academy in Detroit were suspended today after walking out of classes to protest a lack of consistent teachers, the removal of the principal and a host of other administrative problems at the all-boys school. 
The students were chanting "We want education!"
Parents organized the walkout because they fear for the school’s future. This year, as recently as last month, students spent weeks passing time in the gym due to a lack of teachers, parents said. 
Worries escalated after district offices moved into part of the building in January and the school was not listed as an application school
 

WALMART WAGES WAR! - Jonathan Kantrowitz - Connecticut News

“Collective Bargaining Makes Boosting Student Performance Impossible” - Jonathan Kantrowitz - Connecticut News:


“Collective Bargaining Makes Boosting Student Performance Impossible”

by Jon Pelto from Wait, What
ConnCAN, the Connecticut charter school lobby group, has a new flyer (see link below) claiming that collective bargaining and unions “will not only make it impossible to enact reforms necessary to boost student performance, but it will likely prevent the most promising local and national leaders from choosing to run a [Commissioner’s] Network school.”
This week ConnCAN has eliminated any and all doubts about their real intentions.
Last year, the Wal-Mart’s “Walton Foundation” gave ConnCAN $1.3 million dollars to run a public relations campaign to promote “education reform.” With a new CEO in place, ConnCAN has become the number one cheerleader for Governor Malloy’s “reform” bill.
The Commissioner’s Network is about getting public schools out of public hands and over to private 

Shanker Blog » Pay Equity In Higher Education

Shanker Blog » Pay Equity In Higher Education:


Pay Equity In Higher Education

Blatant forms of discrimination against women in academia have diminished since the Equal Pay Act and Title IX became law in 1964 and 1972, respectively. Yet gender differences in salary, tenure status, and leadership roles still persist among men and women in higher education. In particular, wage differences among male and female professors have not been fully explained, even when productivity, teaching experience, institutional size and prestige, disciplinary fields, type of appointment, and family-related responsibilities are controlled for statistically (see here).
Scholars have argued that the “unexplained” gender wage gap is a function of less easily quantifiable (supply-type) factors, such as preferences and career aspirationsprofessional networks, etc. In fact, there is extensive evidence that both supply-side (e.g., career choices) and demand-side factors (e.g., employer discrimination) are 

More lasts. « Fred Klonsky

More lasts. « Fred Klonsky:


More lasts.

I’m having my morning coffee far from my Logan Square home on the last Friday of my last Spring break.
Brooklyn.
I checked the Internet for how things are going with my brothers and sisters in Rockford who walked out yesterday after trying to bargain for a year with their board of education.
It looks like they are still out today. I read that a couple of Tea Baggers tried to crash the picket line yesterday, but that the 2,000 members of the REA gave them a time out.
Take a minute and go to www.reaiea.org and send a message of support.
A few hundred miles south of Brooklyn teachers and parents are gathering in DC to Occupy the Department of Education.
Occupy the DOE are representing those that are fed up with the Duncan and Obama policies of too much 

Modern School: Weed Workers Unite!

Modern School: Weed Workers Unite!:


Weed Workers Unite!


Weed Workers Woof! (Image by Chris Yarzab, from Flickr)
Marijuana workers at 14 dispensaries in Los Angeles have formed the “medical cannabis and hemp division” of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770, the Insurance Journalwrote this week. UFCW also represents grocery clerks, pharmacists and health care workers.

Local 770 President, Rick Icaza, said the union would use its political weight to pressure officials to find an alternative to a total ban on dispensaries. Los Angeles currently has a cap on the total number of dispensaries and, despite a state law legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, the dispensaries are still considered illegal under federal law. Roughly 140 dispensaries in more than 20 Southern California cities have been threatened by federal authorities since 

Schools Matter: Eli Broad's Jim McIntyre Goes After More Tax Dollars to Fund Broad Initiatives

Schools Matter: Eli Broad's Jim McIntyre Goes After More Tax Dollars to Fund Broad Initiatives:


Eli Broad's Jim McIntyre Goes After More Tax Dollars to Fund Broad Initiatives

Knoxville's Branch Office of the Billionaire Boys Club has a new campaign to come up with $35,000,000 over the next five years to push forward the corporate reform agenda in East Tennessee.  Local Broadie, Supt. Jim McIntyre, has placed the first bug in the ear of Knox County taxpayers at a televised meeting at Fulton High School:
"You get that raise one time, but (it) continues in your base salary," he said during a community forum held at Fulton High School. "Knox County Schools is asking for a raise of $35 million and that's probably the simplest way to put this."  
So if Knox County children and parents are the recipients of this $35,000,000 raise, they, too, are also the ones to pay for that raise. Simple, indeed.  Or simple-minded? 

What is Slim Jim planning to do this "raise?"  Well, the biggest chunk and the largest increase by far will go to 

Charter Schools Exempted from Key Parts of NYS Anti-Bullying Law

Gay City News > Archives > Gay City News > News > Charter Schools Exempted from Key Parts of NYS Anti-Bullying Law:


Charter Schools Exempted from Key Parts of NYS Anti-Bullying Law

Assemblyman O’Donnell, advocates vow to “fix it”

Published: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 3:01 PM CDT
BY ANDY HUMM 
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The 2010 New York State anti-bullying law that is finally due to go into effect this July 1 will exempt charter schools from several of its key provisions under a regulation approved by the Board of Regents on March 19.

That has left advocates feeling sideswiped, angry, and determined to get the state to reverse course. They also feel that the State Education Department, which was given two years to implement the law, has been slow to develop the necessary regulations to enable the law to go into effect on time — though the SED insists it will be ready.

Most advocates were not even aware of the state action exempting charter schools until it was brought to their attention by Gay City News, which learned of it from a March 9 press release from Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, an out gay West Side Democrat who was the chief sponsor of the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA).

The regulation published on January 25 says that while DASA mandated “instruction on ‘tolerance,’ ‘respect for others,’ and ‘dignity’ shall include awareness and sensitivity to discrimination or 

FIX THE SES MESS! Lawmakers, education leaders spar over embattled tutoring program - baltimoresun.com

Lawmakers, education leaders spar over embattled tutoring program - baltimoresun.com:


Lawmakers, education leaders spar over embattled tutoring program

Legislation proposed in Annapolis could hurt state's NCLB waiver application, education leaders say

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State education leaders say proposed legislation that would force local school systems to continue funding a federal tutoring program could derail their efforts to gain relief from the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Lawmakers are debating two bills introduced in the House of Delegates and the Senate dealing with Supplemental Educational Services, a federally mandated program that provides thousands of the state's poorest and lowest-performing students with free tutoring services by nonprofit and private vendors.
The program came under fire recently after an Abell Foundation report that found the companies operated with little scrutiny and accountability and used questionable practices in recruiting parents to sign up their children.
The companies set their rates and are paid based on how many children are enrolled in their programs. A Baltimore Sun article last year noted that in one instance, a provider offered a laptop to a city parent if she signed up her five students.

With the support of every district in the state, the Maryland State