Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity

By Nancy Flanagan on April 21, 2014 1:46 PM

Let me be clear here, right from the beginning: I know, I know. It's physical education, not "gym class." And physical education is essential for all children, across the K-12 spectrum. Some of my best friends are gym--uh, physical education--teachers, and I have been, over three decades in the classroom, thoroughly schooled in what vibrant physical education programs look like, and their tangible benefits for children.

I'm certainly down with P.E., and want all children in America to have lots of exercise and fresh air. We could start by looking at the way Finland postholes regular periods of recess between short bursts of in-your-seat academic lessons. What I don't want is another legislated fiat, pushed through by a commission, that further ties the hands of school districts. Like this proposal, from Michigan, that legislatively require 90 minutes of P.E. weekly for  grades K-5, plus an additional 60 minutes of "recess and other physical activity." In grades 6-8, schools would be ordered to provide a semester of daily physical education for each child.

Pretty reasonable, right? Just mandate these changes, and --boom!--we're on our way to healthier kids, who will  "show greater attention, have faster cognitive processing speed and perform better on standardized tests than children who are not as active." Except that we leave thousands of elementary and middle schools (who, trust me, want very much to provide physical education for their students) stuck with another well-meant set of demands to fit into the limited parameters of Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

4-21-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Former Teacher Describes KIPP's Special Ed Program as "a lawsuit waiting to happen"

The following excerpt is from another interview with a former KIPP teacher who was hired to solve the special education problem at one KIPP school.  This teacher served for two years at KIPP, and it was the day she ran into another car as she went to sleep on the way home after another 12 hour day that she finally decided to leave KIPP.  She offers many details about life at KIPP, including the cu

by Jim Horn / 7min 

Will Harry Be Held Back in Kindergarten?

Back in December I reported on Harry, a little boy I have come to know who goes to kindergarten in the leafy suburbs of Germantown, TN.  I talked with Harry's dad yesterday and got an update on how school is going, with only 4 weeks left in the year. Harry's dexterity has improved since December, so that now he is not being downgraded for not clicking in the answers on the computerized bubble shee

by Jim Horn / 11min  

4-20-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Newark Citizens United Against CorpEd Miseducation PlanSigned by 77 local ministers:by Jim Horn / 0min 4-19-14 Schools Matter All WeekSchools Matter:  Schools Matter All WeekCitizen Jack's analysis of Michelle Rhee's recent mendaciousness"In an even more disturbing revelation heard on the tape Rhee laughs about when the tape was removed hurting the children and some even start

by mike simpson / 23h 

4-21-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

CHAMPS in jeopardy of losing charter over credit card theft

The Charter High School of Arts – Multimedia and Performing, better known as CHAMPS, is at risk of losing its charter after school administrators failed to act aggressively last year when learning that an employee used a school credit card for her personal use. As a result, the LA Unified School Board has put the Van Nuys school on notice that if could lose its charter if school administrators hav

by Vanessa Romo / 1min 

Analysis: Just what does Caputo-Pearl’s first-round victory mean?

Caputo-Pearl at the podium; Fletcher, on the right The first round of the UTLA elections produced two stunning results. One: For the first time in recent memory, a political faction within the union — Union Power – has gained near total control of the union. In a field of 10 candidates for president, Alex Caputo-Pearl out-polled his nearest competitor, incumbent Warren Fletcher, by a 2-to-1 margin

by Michael Janofsky / 0min 

Morning Read: Counties going easy on spending plans

County offices to cut districts some slack for now on their LCAPs State and county education officials are seeking to reassure school districts that might be worried that county superintendents will reject the new accountability plans they’ll submit by July 1 for the 2014-15 year. Tighter scrutiny will come, just not for the initial plan. EdSource Mentoring group gives L.A. Unified students an ex

by Aaron Stella / 11min 

4-19-14 This Week in LA - School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):Tutoring center busted for scamming millions in fed dollarsA tutoring company billing itself as “The trusted name for specialized tutoring” may not be so trustworthy after all. Unless, that specialty is in defrauding the federal government. The Academic Advantage, whose website is endorsed by The Governato

by mike simpson / 17min

TALLAHASSEE: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com

TALLAHASSEE: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com:

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny

 

BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY

HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

TALLAHASSEE -- The state’s largest charter school management company has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education for potential conflicts of interests in its business practices, federal authorities have confirmed.

The Education Department’s Inspector General Office is auditing the South Miami-based Academica Corp. as part of a broader examination of school management companies nationwide. The audit will be complete this summer, department spokeswoman Catherine Grant said.

A preliminary audit report obtained by the Herald/Times identified potential conflicts of interest between the for-profit company Academica and the Mater Academy charter schools it manages. One example the auditors cited was the transfer of money from Mater Academy to its private support organization, which shares the same board of directors.

When asked about the potential conflicts of interest raised in the report, Academica attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez, in an email to the Herald/Times, touted the charter school network's academic record and commitment to its students.

Jiménez also said Academica had sent a response letter to the U.S. Department of Education correcting what he called “inaccuracies and false statements” contained in the preliminary report. But Academica declined the Herald/Times request to be provided the response, saying the Education Department considered the report and the response from Academica to be confidential.

The Education Department’s findings come as the Florida Legislature considers a bill that could weaken TALLAHASSEE: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com:

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/20/4070016/florida-charter-school-management.html#storylink=cpy

Interview with Michelle Gunderson co-founder of the Network for Social Justice Unionism

Network for Social Justice Unionism:

Network for Social Justice Unionism

By Roshan Bliss

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Michelle Gunderson

Interview with Michelle Gunderson co-founder of the Network for Social Justice Unionism

Earlier this month at the Labor Notes Conference, rank and file labor leaders announced for the first time the creation of the Network for Social Justice Unionism (NSJU), a new infrastructure that unionists concerned with advancing social justice beyond the workplace hope to use to organize for a shift in the way the labor movement operates.

The NSJU seeks to encourage the creation of social justice caucuses in union locals across the nation and to establish working relationships between those caucuses to be able to support each other’s struggles. Together, these caucuses hope to create an movement inside of organized labor that pushes union leaders across the country to do more to see that union power benefits not just workers themselves, but also the communities that unions are embedded in and rely upon.

Plans for the NSJU have been in the works for over a year, and NSJU members are optimistic that their work will not only be enthusiastically received by workers and social justice activists, but that it could eventually transform and revitalize an aging labor movement. The NSJU effort has its roots in recent struggles for change led by teachers, but seeks to encourage workers of all kinds to commit to lending their knowledge, resources, and influence to other ongoing struggles for justice beyond their workplaces.

NSJU co-founder Michelle Gunderson is a member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) who helped start the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE). She sat down to talk about creation and purpose of Network for Social Justice Unionism and the potential of it work.

Roshan Bliss: Talk about the Network for Social Justice Unionism. Where did it come from?

Michelle Gunderson: It came from a definition. What does it mean to be a social justice unionist? What that means, in my mind, is that we hold workers’ rights in the same plane and in the same balance as students’ rights and community rights. We don’t hold our needs above students’. I will fight to the death for the right of Network for Social Justice Unionism:

Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms | News OK

Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms | News OK:

Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms

Efforts result in rolling back of educational reforms from previous years.

By Nate Robson, Oklahoma Watch • Published: April 19, 2014

One by one, K-12 education reforms passed in previous years by Oklahoma lawmakers are being targeted for weakening or repeal.

Among them: Common Core State Standards, the Reading Sufficiency Act, A-F school grades for districts, and middle school end-of-instruction exams for history and social studies. These all could be scaled back or revoked by various legislative bills that have passed in both the House and Senate.

It is Republicans, who have driven the accountability and testing movement statewide and nationally, who are voting in sometimes large majorities to roll back reforms.

It’s too early to tell how far the retrenchment will go, and whether it’s a temporary shift driven by cautionary election-year strategies that will abate after the primary in June and general election in November. But so far, the fallback does not appear to be letting up, in Oklahoma or nationally.

Education officials and advocates cite various reasons for the tempering of reforms, but one of the most frequent is a pushback from parents, teachers and other voters.

“I think their constituents are getting engaged and involved,” said Meredith Exline, president of the Oklahoma Central Parent Legislative Action Committee. “They are paying attention to the issues, and they will look at their options when it’s time to vote.”

One of the biggest changes in the making is the relaxing of the mandatory retention of third-graders who fail the state’s reading assessment administered under the Reading Sufficiency Act. On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill, 43-1, and it now heads back to the House for final consideration.

The House passed its version of the bill, 84-6, on March 4. Among other things, the bill would allow a panel of parents, teachers and school leaders to let a student who failed the test advance to fourth grade and receive intervention.

Many parents and teachers have spoken out against mandatory retention tied to the Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms | News OK:

Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that? | Hechinger Report

Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that? | Hechinger Report:

Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that?

By Alexandra Hootnick

This story also appeared at:

For the second week in a row in his new home, Kenneth Maldonado’s evening ritual began with lumping sweaters and sleeping bags into the shape of a mattress in his otherwise empty bedroom. It was late September of 2011, the end of his first month as a Teach for America instructor. Having been only recently approved to teach in the Seattle school district, he was broke. But Maldonado and his two roommates — also TFA teachers — were among the lucky ones. Just a few weeks earlier, a half-dozen of their fellow recruits had been camped out on the hardwood floor of the unfurnished common area, homeless and unemployed.

The Teach for America program, now 24 years old, selects and sends young college graduates (referred to as “corps members”) to teach in schools serving primarily disadvantaged children of color, after giving its recruits five intensive weeks of training over the summer. Like the Peace Corps, TFA is a résumé booster, and its alumni have gone on to successful careers from the White House to Wall Street.

The 2011–12 school year was the organization’s fledgling year in Seattle, and Maldonado, then 24, initially felt excited to be one of the first 38 recruits. His family didn’t have much when he was growing up in Los Angeles — his father, a former teacher in Guatemala, took on maintenance jobs after fleeing to the United States to escape the country’s civil war. But Maldonado excelled in school, graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz, with a theater major and an education minor. He soon got a job with a San Jose–based nonprofit that helps people find low-income housing.

Kenneth Maldonado joined Teach for America in 2011 in Seattle, where the organization’s expansion efforts led to a controversial contract with Seattle Public Schools. Maldonado said that while he is supportive of TFA and its mission, its early missteps in Seattle were part of what he saw as the organization’s “misjudged optimism.” (Photo: Alexandra Hootnick

Although TFA requires only a two-year commitment, Maldonado was serious about a teaching career, and he saw the program as a guaranteed way into the profession without the time and expense of grad school. He especially appreciated its focus on disadvantaged schools. So when he learned of his acceptance into the program, he quit his job in California and prepared to move to the Pacific Northwest. “I wasn’t stressed out, I wasn’t worried,” he said. “I fully trusted Teach for America had everything figured out.”

It hadn’t. In 2009, the Seattle school district was hardly in the grip of a teacher shortage: 13,800 teachers had applied for just 352 full- and part-time positions. But the schools were facing a $25 million deficit, and TFA was asking for a $4,000 annual fee per recruit (area philanthropists would later cover it; on average, schools contracting with the organization pay $5,000 a year for Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that? | Hechinger Report:

This Common Core Critic Is Still Charged Up | Truth in American Education

This Common Core Critic Is Still Charged Up | Truth in American Education:

This Common Core Critic Is Still Charged Up

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Sandra Stotsky on April 21, 2014 • 0 Comments

On April 14, American Enterprise Institute’s Rick Hess and Mike McShane charged me in a blog on National Review Online with not coming up with “next steps” to “repeal and replace” for states that want to restore academic integrity to their K-12 curriculum in English language arts and mathematics. I’m almost but not quite exhausted from all the next steps I’ve taken, especially in Indiana.

Two years ago I crafted an updated set of English language arts standards based on the set I helped develop in Massachusetts in 1997. This set of standards, copyright-free and cost-free, has been available for districts and states to use in place of Common Core’s standards since May 2013. The document is on the website of the Association for Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers.

(http://alscw.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/2013_ELA_Curriculum_Framework.pdf).

Here’s how they are described in an introduction to the document by John Briggs, an English professor at the University of California, Riverside and current ALSCW president: “The role of literature and the literary imagination in K-12 education is of particular concern to the ALSCW. The … carefully articulated and detailed set of English Language Arts standards prepared by Sandra Stotsky… will contribute to the national conversation by emphasizing the importance of literary study in the education of the young.”

Far from being so obscure that few know about this document, it was listed in the recently released Indiana standards document as one of the resources the standards-drafting committee 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Monday, April 21, 2014

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Fensterwald: County offices to cut districts some slack for now on their LCAPs

Education Headlines

Monday, April 21, 2014

FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.

Shoreline superintendent dismissal unpopular among parents, school employees

The Shoreline School District Board of Trustees has opted to move on from first-year Superintendent Tom Stubbs, upsetting many of the district's parents and employees who want him to stay.

Three new high schools in the works in Long Beach Unified

Plans are underway to open three new high schools in Long Beach Unified — two small public schools and a charter school.

High-paid Centinela Valley school chief can cash in lucrative whole-life insurance policies

The embattled superintendent of the Centinela Valley school district — who is under investigation for his massive pay — took out a $750,000 life insurance policy before securing approval from the school board to do so, the Daily Breeze has learned.

Former Woodside principal won't face charges in molestation-by-teacher case

Contra Costa prosecutors said Friday they will not file criminal charges against a former Woodside Elementary School principal for how she responded to the conduct of teacher Joseph Martin, who faces 150 child molestation counts involving 14 Woodside students.

Republican congressmen join legal flap over Cinco de Mayo incident at South Bay high school

Several conservative groups and 20 Republican members of Congress have jumped into the legal fray over a South Bay high school's decision to order a group of students wearing American-flag adorned shirts to turn them inside out during a 2010 Cinco de Mayo celebration.

How can a teacher fired for molestation allegations get another job in East Bay classroom?

The news both shocked and outraged: How did a suspected child molester land a job teaching children after being fired by a different school two months earlier?

Probes target Centinela Valley school district superintendent's pay

County, state and federal authorities are investigating the compensation of a South Bay school district superintendent who received nearly $675,000 last year, far more than the leaders of much larger systems.

California fails to adequately educate youth inmates, report says

California and other states are largely failing to adequately educate most of the 70,000 youth locked up at any given time in juvenile detention facilities, according to a national report released Thursday.

Charter school bill stirs debate over autonomy

Charter school advocates from the county and state rallied Wednesday in San Diego against legislation they believe would chip away at the autonomy that’s crucial to their brand of education.

Santa Monica teacher who scuffled with student to be reinstated

Santa Monica school district officials will reinstate a teacher who was placed on paid administrative leave after video clips showed him locked in a tussle with a student in a classroom.

Republicans see political wedge in Common Core

The health care law may be Republicans’ favorite weapon against Democrats this year, but there is another issue roiling their party and shaping the establishment-versus-grass-roots divide ahead of the 2016 presidential primaries: the Common Core.

Two more managers in Centinela Valley school district put on paid leave

The scandal in the Centinela Valley school district is widening, with two mid-level managers being placed on paid leave as several investigations continue into the excessive compensation of Superintendent Jose Fernandez.

Oceanside Unified adopts ‘zero waste’ goal

The 23 schools in the Oceanside Unified School District are the first in California to adopt a zero waste program. The commitment pushes the district to reduce waste at all school sites and the district office by 75 percent by 2020.

Mentoring group gives L.A. Unified students an extra way to connect

Los Angeles Unified School District teachers say extra support by City Year volunteers in the classroom is instrumental to helping struggling students

Fensterwald: County offices to cut districts some slack for now on their LCAPs

State and county education officials are seeking to reassure school districts that might be worried that county superintendents will reject the new accountability plans they’ll submit by July 1 for the 2014-15 year. Tighter scrutiny will come, just not for the initial plan.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

County board of ed approves Sweetwater maps

The county board, acting as a committee on school district organization, on April 9 voted 3-1 for a map that divides the school district into five zones of nearly equal population.

Fresno teachers union opposes extension of No Child Left Behind waiver

Officials with the Fresno teachers union are urging district administrators to follow the lead of another California school district in opting not to seek renewal of a waiver from federal accountability rules.

Revised SAT won't include obscure vocabulary words

The College Board released the sample test questions on Wednesday, offering clues to how the revised college entrance exam, taken last year by 1.7 million students, will look when it rolls out in 2016.

State panel grapples with defining 'college and career ready'

The committee is working on incorporating measures of career and college readiness into the Academic Performance Index, the primary measure of school effectiveness.

Probes target Centinela Valley school district superintendent's pay

County, state and federal authorities are investigating the compensation of a South Bay school district superintendent who received nearly $675,000 last year, far more than the leaders of much larger systems.