Read Across America: Oh, the Places You'll Go... - Lily's Blackboard

Read Across America: Oh, the Places You'll Go... - Lily's Blackboard:

Read Across America: Oh, the Places You'll Go...



 It is here! It is here! Let’s give a cheer! It is finally here!

With apologies to Dr. Seuss (and to those who aren’t fans of exclamation points), I had to go there. It’s time for one of our most beloved events of the year: NEA’s Read Across America, our celebration of reading and the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

Our featured Dr. Seuss book this year is What Pet Should I Get? But you can focus on whatever book(s) you’d like, as long as our students get excited about reading.

From February 26 through March 4, NEA leaders will travel to schools in six cities, providing resources to schools in need and honoring Dr. Seuss. This is the 19th year of what I think of as our “literacy party.”

NEA's Read Across AmericaFollow On

What Pet is based on a manuscript discovered among Geisel’s belongings in 2013, more than 20 years after his death. The manuscript was painstakingly reconstructed by his longtime designer and art director, and the original illustrations and text are believed to date to at least 1962. 

The story is about two kids searching for the perfect pet on a deadline. As with all Dr. Seuss books, the rhymes and simple language help get across complex notions in a fun way. In this case, it’s the challenge of making a decision when there are lots of options and not much time:

 Oh, boy!

It is something

to make a mind up.

Dr. Seuss offers a treasure trove of books for students of all ages – from beginners who love his playful rhymes and fantastical drawings, to older readers who gain insights on such subjects as environmental stewardship. But as we know, there are lots of good reads out there that will inspire and enrich our students. NEA’s website can help you find them. 

To help spread the joy of reading, NEA’s Read Across America and the NEA Foundation are making 100 $1,000 awards to public schools serving economically disadvantaged students.  The grants were made possible by a contribution from The Weinstein Company and Walden Media. You can apply for a grant until April 29 to purchase a variety of diverse books and reading materials for your school’s library. Recipients will be announced by June 15 on the foundation’s website. 

But on March 2, we’re taking some time to celebrate the wonderful world created by Geisel. The NEA Read Across America website offers plenty of planning tips, downloadable materials, and other resources.

Some educators will be wearing Cat in the Hat suits to mark the occasion. But if costumes aren’t your thing, not to worry. There are many ways to celebrate Read Across America Day on March 2, and countless ways to share the fun and joy of reading every single day. Please share your celebration on social media by tagging photos and updates with the hashtag #readacrossamerica. Happy reading!Read Across America: Oh, the Places You'll Go... - Lily's Blackboard:

Roberts: Why does the Arizona Legislature hate public schools?

Roberts: Why does the Arizona Legislature hate public schools?:

Why does the Arizona Legislature hate public schools?

The Arizona Legislature marched forth Monday in its ongoing, unending quest to dismantle Arizona's public schools.

The Senate voted 17-13 to approve a bill that would dramatically expand the number of students eligible to get taxpayer funding to go to private schools.

Senate Bill 1279 phases in vouchers for all students over the next few years until 2020, when every one of Arizona’s 1.1 million public school students could get state funding to attend private school.

Those hallelujahs you hear? Those are the parents in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley who've been planning to send their kids to schools like Phoenix Country Day or Rancho Solano, learning now that taxpayers will now pick up a portion of the tab.

VALDEZ: Get the pitchforks - vouchers are coming

ROBB: Expand vouchers, nix the tax credits

The Republican-led Legislature has long schemed for ways to divert money to private schools in the name of parental choice. But our leaders  ran into a bit of trouble in 2009 when the state Supreme Court declared Arizona's voucher program an unconstitutional use of public funds on private or religious schools.

Thus was born the Empowerment Scholarship Account. Basically, the state loads tax money onto a debit card and hands it to you, the parent, to spend as you wish provided it's used to educate or get therapy for your child, either now or post high school.

ESAs began in 2011 as a narrowly-focused program, allowing children with serious disabilities to attend private school using public funds. It was a decent thing to do for a small group of children whose needs the public schools couldn't or wouldn't meet.

Then, the program was expanded to the children of active-duty military members and to children in foster care. Then to certain kindergartners and to children attending public schools that received a D or an F rating from the state – because heaven forbid we actually fix our failing schools. Then to Native American students who live on reservations.

Currently, about 2,200 children have ESAs.

Should taxpayers fund private education?

Republicans want to expand the program so that every Arizona child is eligible for a taxpayer-supplied private-school education. Assuming, that is, that every Arizona child’s parents could afford to pay the difference between what the state would provide and the actual cost of a private-school education. Assuming, too, that they are the sort of kid a private school would want.

Arizona taxpayers still will have to provide public schools for the have-nots – the kids whose parents are too poor to send them elsewhere or too otherwise occupied to worry overmuch about where and whether their kids are getting an education.

The suckers, we'll call them.

For years, the Legislature has been sucking money out of the public schools. Arizona public education has endured some of the nation’s deepest cuts to public education.

Total spending on K-12 education was $412 less per student in 2014 than it was in 2009, according to a report last year by the Arizona auditor general. And that's in a state where our $7,500 in per-student operational spending already trails the national average by about 42 percent – or more than $3,000 per student.

That’s not counting the money they siphon away via tuition tax credits for private schools and now by approval of a full-blown voucher program.

Supporters of the expansion plan say current limits on ESAs make it too difficult to score a voucher.

Opponents say expansion would decimate the public school system, robbing an already starved system of badly needed funds.

Which is, of course, the point.Roberts: Why does the Arizona Legislature hate public schools?:

Market "Reform" Is Destroying Public Education - Linkis.com

Market "Reform" Is Destroying Public Education - Linkis.com:

Market "Reform" Is Destroying Public Education

Latoya and Jalesa, both 26, grew up on the west side of Chicago, attending Calhoun Public School during the day and stepping across the street to Marillac Social Center for after-school programs. They lived in a tough neighborhood. Latoya said the summer gunshots came as often as the sound of ice-cream truck bells in the suburbs. But everyone knew each other on those two blocks; kids walked together, to and from school and in the evenings. Parents -- most of whom had gone to Calhoun -- also knew each other, often through volunteer work at the social center.

In 2013 Calhoun was one of 50 schools closed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It was shut down despite a committee recommendation that it remain open. Jalesa and Latoya, who still work at the center as they pursue other career interests, said the children are scattered now. Most of them take buses to a variety of public and charter schools outside the once-intimate neighborhood. Some have to walk a few blocks, some have to cross busy streets. None of them gather together before and after school, as they used to do on the grounds of Calhoun.

K-12 Education is Getting Worse

A shocking new OECD report says that among developed countries the U.S. has the highest percentage of youths ages 16-19 with low numeric skills, and the 3rd-highest percentage with low literacy skills.

SAT scores in 2015 were the lowest since the test was revised in 2005. Math scores for fourth-graders and eighth-graders dropped for the first time since the tests were first administered in 1990.

It takes less than a minute to sign up to keep Truthout and BuzzFlash strong by making a monthly donation, in any amount you choose. Help sustain grassroots, groundbreaking journalism!

Market "Reform" Isn't Working

The unsatisfactory results, according to the Washington Post, "reflect a troubling shortcoming of education-reform efforts."

Technology-based instruction is apparently doing more harm than good. An analysis of "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) scores led to the conclusion that "While PISA results suggest that limited use of computers at school may be better than not using computers at all, using them more intensively than the current OECD average tends to be associated with significantly poorer student performance." The American Statistical Association cautioned against the use of standardized student test scores for teacher evaluations. Online instruction, not surprisingly, is likely the worst form of schooling, as suggested by Stanford's CREDOresearchers: "Innovative new research suggests that students of online charter schools had significantly weaker academic performance in math and reading, compared with their counterparts in conventional schools."

The Three Big Sins of Charter Schools

Charter schools generally perform no better than public schools, as summarized by the nonpartisan Spencer Foundation and Public Agenda: "There is very little evidence that charter and traditional public schools differ meaningfully in their average impact on students' standardized test performance." Yet in at least three ways Market "Reform" Is Destroying Public Education - Linkis.com:Market "Reform" Is Destroying Public Education - Linkis.com:

.@DavidCBerliner hosts 2015 Bunkum Award – Cloaking Inequity

.@DavidCBerliner hosts 2015 Bunkum Award – Cloaking Inequity:

.@DavidCBerliner hosts 2015 Bunkum Award

 I am honored to be a National Education Policy Center fellow. One of the most exciting and incredible things that they do is the Bunkum Awards! It’s the annual salute to the worst education think tank work in the United States. They write:

With the Oscar celebration next week, and the Emmys and Pulitzers on the way, the National Education Policy Center announces this year’s winner of its Bunkum Award. We invite you to enjoy our 10^th annual tongue-in-cheek salute to the most egregiously shoddy think tank reports.

It’s not easy to laugh when data are manipulated and made to fit foregone conclusions or when the research literature is misrepresented or ignored and low-quality or dishonest “evidence” has real impact on policy and on children. As best they can tell, polar bears aren’t laughing at reports from the American Petroleum Institute.

Yet “humor is one of the best ingredients of survival,” according to Aung San Suu Kyi—whose travails have been far weightier than ours. So we will persevere in our commitment to having a bit of fun each year with the evidentiary farce-lympics.

The Think Twice Think Tank Review Project arose as a response to the often-outsized policy influence of glossy, well-publicized reports that have not been vetted by peer-review. These reports regularly wrap themselves in the veneer of research, but we are frequently little more than propaganda masquerading as social science.

This year’s awards announcement, available on the NEPC website, is hosted by Dr. David Berliner, the Regents’ Professor Emeritus and former dean of the College of Education at Arizona State University. Berliner is a member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a past president of the .@DavidCBerliner hosts 2015 Bunkum Award – Cloaking Inequity:

Annual Financial Data - Financial (CA Dept of Education)

Annual Financial Data - Financial (CA Dept of Education):

Annual Financial Data

Unaudited year-end data in downloadable, self-extracting files (i.e., SACS, J-200).

 Each year, California's kindergarten through grade twelve (K–12) school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and joint powers agencies, all commonly known as local educational agencies (LEAs), submit annual financial reports to the California Department of Education (CDE). The Financial Accountability and Information Services (FAIS) Office, within the CDE, is responsible for annually collecting, reviewing, and preparing these financial data for dissemination.

The prior year's data are usually available around March of each year. Please be sure to read the readme.txt and/or documentation.doc files associated with the file type and year you are downloading. They contain detailed information about that year's data. Due to the size of the files, these data sets are processed using the Microsoft Access database application.

If you would like to be notified when these data sets are available for a future year, please send a blank message to join-school-district-financial-data@mlist.cde.ca.gov to subscribe to our mailing list.

Also, selected information from these data sets is available at the Ed-Data Web site .

LEA Revenue and Expenditure Report SACS Data

In 1997–98, some LEAs began reporting their financial data in the new standardized account code structure (SACS) format using CDE's SACS Financial Reporting Software. Each year, more LEAs converted their financial systems to report in SACS. In order to have consistent statewide data during the transition, the CDE converted the SACS data back to a J-200/400/600 (J-200) equivalent format to produce a statewide set of data. In 2003–04, for the first time all LEAs reported in SACS. For comparison purposes, the CDE converted the 2003–04 statewide data to J-200 and posted both sets of data. However, beginning with 2004–05, only the SACS format is available.

SACS Unaudited Actual Data Sets

The following database(s) contains data for county offices of education, school districts, joint powers agencies, and those charter schools that filed year-end unaudited actual (UA) data in the SACS format.

2014–15 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 35MB)
2013–14 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 43MB)
2012–13 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 47MB)
2011–12 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 43MB)
2010–11 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 43MB)
Note: The 2010-11 database was re-released May 4, 2012 to reflect a minor update to the Charters table.
2009–10 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 53MB)
2008–09 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 46MB)
2007–08 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 48MB)
2006–07 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 41MB)
2005–06 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 35MB)
2004–05 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 30MB)
2003–04 SACS Unaudited Actual Data (EXE; 26MB)

Charter School Alternative Form Data

Beginning with fiscal year 2003–04, charter school financial reporting was required by Education Code sections 1628  and42100  (as amended by Assembly Bill 1994, Chapter 1058, Statutes of 2002). The following data sets contain data for the charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form. The data sets also include information indicating how the remaining charter schools reported their year-end unaudited actual financial data.

Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data Sets

2014–15 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE: 1MB)
For fiscal year 2014–15, out of an anticipated 1,189 charter school unaudited actual reports, 1,175 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 481 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2013–14 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE: 1MB)
For fiscal year 2013–14, out of an anticipated 1,133 charter school unaudited actual reports, 1,125 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 452 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2012–13 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE)
For fiscal year 2012–13, out of an anticipated 1,096 charter school unaudited actual reports, 1,070 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 431 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2011–12 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE)
For fiscal year 2011–12, out of an anticipated 1,001 charter school unaudited actual reports, 991 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 392 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2010–11 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE)
Note: This database was re-released May 4, 2012 to reflect a minor update to the Charters table.
For fiscal year 2010–11, out of an anticipated 914 charter school unaudited actual reports, 909 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 346 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2009–10 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE)
For fiscal year 2009–10, out of an anticipated 829 charter school unaudited actual reports, 814 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 318 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2008–09 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE) 
For fiscal year 2008–09, out of an anticipated 770 charter school unaudited actual reports, 743 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 290 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2007–08 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE) 
For fiscal year 2007–08, out of an anticipated 738 charter school unaudited actual reports, 688 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 258 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2006–07 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE) 
For fiscal year 2006–07, out of an anticipated 630 charter school unaudited actual reports, 617 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 232 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2005–06 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE)
For fiscal year 2005–06, out of an anticipated 598 charter school unaudited actual reports, 569 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 213 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2004–05 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (EXE)
For fiscal year 2004–05, out of an anticipated 591 charter school unaudited actual reports, 509 reports were received. This data set contains data for the 164 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

2003–04 Charter School Alternative Form Unaudited Actual Data (MDB; 2MB) 
For fiscal year 2003–04, a total of 447 charter schools reported unaudited actual financial data. This data set contains data for the 148 charter schools that used the Charter School Alternative Form.

LEA Revenue and Expenditure Report J-200 Data

Until fiscal year 2003–04, the J-200 Unaudited Actual Financial Reports were used by some LEAs to report their balance sheet accounts, revenues by sources, and expenditures by types. Gradually, more and more LEAs reported using SACS. In 2003–04, all LEAs reported in SACS for the first time. For fiscal year 2003–04, the CDE converted the SACS data into the old J-200 format for comparison purposes. However, beginning with fiscal year 2004–05 data, only the SACS format is available. The SACS data are no longer converted to the J-200 format as included in the following data sets.

J-200 Unaudited Actual Data Sets

2003–04 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data 
2002–03 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
2001–02 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
2000–01 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
1999–00 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
1998–99 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
1997–98 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
1996–97 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data
1995–96 J-200 Unaudited Actual Data

Program Cost Accounting Report (J-380) Data

Beginning with fiscal year 2003–04 data, the Annual Program Cost Data Report (J-380) is no longer collected as a separate report. Please refer to the SACS unaudited actual data sets above for files that include program cost data in the SACS format.

Prior to fiscal year 2003–04, as included in the following data sets, the J-380/580/780 (J-380) Annual Program Cost Data Reports were used by LEAs to report their unaudited actual expenditure information by program. As conversion to SACS progressed, fewer and fewer LEAs submitted J-380 data.

Program Cost Report Data Sets

2002–03 Program Cost Report Data
2001–02 Program Cost Report Data
2000–01 Program Cost Report Data

Questions:   Financial Accountability & Information Services | sacsinfo@cde.ca.gov | 916-322-1770

Senate Will Consider Confirming John King, but He’s Unlikely to Repair Arne Duncan’s Damage | janresseger

Senate Will Consider Confirming John King, but He’s Unlikely to Repair Arne Duncan’s Damage | janresseger:

Senate Will Consider Confirming John King, but He’s Unlikely to Repair Arne Duncan’s Damage

The word was that John King would remain an acting U.S. Secretary of Education for the remainder of President Barack Obama’s administration.  In January, Lyndsey Layton reported for the Washington Post, “King… will retain the ‘acting’ modifier for the rest of President Obama’s time in office.  He has not been nominated by the president, and he will not undergo the confirmation process required of Cabinet-level officers under the Constitution.”  But just over a week ago, another report in the Washington Post announced, “President Obama has nominated John B. King Jr. to officially lead the Department of Education, where he has served as acting secretary since the start of the year.  Officials at the White House had said before the announcement that the president was encouraged by the bipartisan support King has received in Congress, especially the commitment Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has made for a speedy consideration of his nomination.”

It will be surprising if John B. King, Jr.—whether confirmed as secretary or continuing to serve as a mere acting secretary— accomplishes earth-shaking policy while he serves for the next few months.  The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act was reauthorized late in 2015 while Arne Duncan remained the Secretary of Education, and the new Every Student Succeeds Act is significant for unbuckling—at the federal level—teachers’ evaluations from their students’ test scores.  This is a significant correction by Congress, whose members reached bipartisan agreement to reduce Duncan’s overt attack on school teachers, and John King has said he will try further to repair that breach that attacked the millions of professionals we count on to fill our nation’s classrooms.  It’s unlikely, however, that King will further reduce test-and-punish, and he won’t have the power to undo the teacher blaming across the statehouses that Arne Duncan set in motion when his Department of Education conditioned the receipt of federal waivers on states’ passing their own laws to tie teachers’ evaluations to students’ test scores.  Pushing back that wave of legislation will require months and years of effort by advocates across the states.

But John King’s confirmation hearing has now been scheduled in the Senate on this coming Senate Will Consider Confirming John King, but He’s Unlikely to Repair Arne Duncan’s Damage | janresseger:

Superintendent got A Piece of the Action Charter School Kick Back| SanDiegoUnionTribune.com

Superintendent got charter commission | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

Superintendent got portion of charter revenue
Steve Van Zant’s contract included charter stipend

 he charter schools that Steve Van Zant ushered in while at the helm of the Mountain Empire Unified School District paid off in multiple ways to the former superintendent, while setting the stage for animosity and litigation that would linger for years throughout San Diego County.

Written into Van Zant’s contract was a stipulation that he personally receive 5 percent of the revenue brought in from every charter authorized by the school board, according to documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

On top of his $130,000 salary running a district with barely 2,800 students at the time, Van Zant earned between $19,000 and $25,000 a year from what amounted to a charter school commission, according to Mountain Empire financial records. Van Zant profited yet again when some of the charters went on to hire his EdHive consulting firm, which charged as much as $100,000 to provide back-office services among other billable offerings.

Van Zant’s financial interests in growing charters has raised new questions about the arrangements amid a countywide charter school growth spurt. How charter schools are authorized has drawn scrutiny across California, with legislators and state officials considering ways to restrict the process.

The 13 independent-study charters authorized under Van Zant from 2008 through 2013 helped the superintendent professionally by delivering revenue to the cash-strapped district that was still recovering from the state’s fiscal crisis. By approving charters to operate in other districts, Mountain Empire could claim a percentage of the charter’s revenue for oversight and other services without any significant threat to its enrollment or state attendance funds.

Under Van Zant, the district earned as much as $500,000 a year from charter schools.

PREVIOUS

• Charter school growth spurs division among educators
• Charter school king hit with felony
• Charter schools' growth questioned
• Charter schools take "Excellence Pledge."

Van Zant, 53, has declined repeated requests for an interview through his attorney Garland Peed. Mountain Empire’s seven school board members have been unavailable for comment.

Kathy Granger, who replaced Van Zant as superintendent of Mountain Empire, said there are no plans to approve new charters.

“What's going on with charters now, I would say the board is probably more aware now because of my leadership style,” Granger said. “Certainly as I’ve learned new things, I’ve been surprised about the way things were rolled out or created here.”

Van Zant is due in Superior Court on Thursday for a readiness hearing related to a felony conflict-of-interest Superintendent got charter commission | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

More Than 200 Compton School Teachers Call in Sick | NBC Southern California

More Than 200 Compton School Teachers Call in Sick | NBC Southern California:

More Than 200 Compton School Teachers Call in Sick

Some 200 Compton Unified School District teachers called in sick as contract negotiations continued between the teachers and the district. John Cádiz Klemack reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22, 2016. (Published Monday, Feb. 22, 2016)

More than 200 Compton Unified School District teachers called in sick Monday as contract negotiations continued between the teachers and the district.

School Board Vice-President Micah Ali said 207 teachers, including 44 who teach at Compton High, called in sick. The other schools included Bursch Elementary, Kelly Elementary and Centennial High.

• Updates: Download the FREE NBCLA App

"It is unfortunate that these teachers chose to miss work today in relation to what appears to be their dissatisfaction with negotiations between the District and Compton Educators Association," said Superintendent Darin Brawley in a statement.

Brawley said the district had anticipated the alleged sick-out and prepared to send more staff to the schools. The district called in substitutes and administrators from different departments to keep an eye on students.

207 Compton Teachers Call in Sick

More than 200 teachers in Compton called in sick. John Cádiz Klemack (Published Monday, Feb. 22, 2016)

Ali said the district would go bankrupt if the district went along with a proposal to increase teachers' wages.

Monday marks the third time in the last two years that Compton's teachers have been accused of calling a sick-out - a day when workers agree to call out sick as a form of protest.

Dozens of Teachers Purposely Call in Sick

Teachers in Compton Unified School District staged at sick-out Wednesday in protest of a school bond ballot measure passed the day before. Kathy Vara reports for the NBC4 News at 5 & 6. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015)

"It's not a coincidence," said one parent on Monday. "The first time I came to enroll my daughter there was no teachers, there was almost all substitutes. My daughter has been here for three months. The school is not organized and teachers seem like they don't care about the students."

The teachers' union has not returned messages seeking comment.More Than 200 Compton School Teachers Call in Sick | NBC Southern California: