Mass. teachers union issues blistering report on charter school enrollment trends - Essex, MA - Wicked Local Essex

Mass. teachers union issues blistering report on charter school enrollment trends - Essex, MA - Wicked Local Essex:

"“Fewer than half of the students enrolled in charter high schools as freshmen are still enrolled as seniors,” according to the 50-page report, released Wednesday morning by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “This attrition pattern can be captured by snapshot of any single year. In 2008, for example, there were only two seniors for every five freshmen in the charter schools, while there were four seniors for every five freshmen in the Boston Public Schools.”

Calling charter schools “dropout factories,” union president Anne Wass pointed to the report as proof that charter schools are “essentially a state-managed system of publicly funded private schools.”"

Read full report here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11431474/Report-CHARTER-SCHOOL-SUCCESS-OR-SELECTIVE-OUT-MIGRATION-OF-LOW-ACHIEVERS-Effects-of-Enrollment-Management-on-Student-Achievement

Ohio.com - Opponents transform ACORN into fuel

Ohio.com - Opponents transform ACORN into fuel:

"For months during last year's presidential race, conservatives sought to tar the Obama campaign with accusations of voter fraud and other transgressions by the national community organizing group ACORN, which had done some work for the campaign.

But it took amateur actors, posing as a prostitute and a pimp and recorded on hidden cameras in visits to ACORN offices, to send government officials scrambling in recent days to sever ties with the organization.

Conservative advocates and broadcasters were gleeful about the success of the tactics in exposing ACORN workers, who appeared to blithely encourage prostitution and tax evasion. It was, in effect, the latest scalp claimed by those on the right who have made no secret of their hope to weaken the Obama administration by attacking allies and appointees they view as leftist."

Where’s the Evidence? by Neal McCluskey on National Review Online

Where’s the Evidence? by Neal McCluskey on National Review Online:

"If you listen to advocates of national education standards — from the Obama administration to the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute — you’ll seldom hear anything about “evidence” or “research.” You’ll get plenty of assertions about the craziness of having 50 state standards, and how a modern nation must have one bar for all, but zilch about actual, empirical evidence.

So why are these folks — many of whom regularly decry the absence of “scientifically based” policymaking in almost every other facet of education — hawking national standards with nary a whisper about research showing that this monumental reform will actually work? Because there’s hardly any such research to cite. There are very few extant studies comparing educational outcomes in countries with and without national standards — in other words, studies with “treatment” and “control” groups — and what little research does exist is, at best, ambiguous."

Valley assemblyman vice-chair of education | MyDesert.com | The Desert Sun

Valley assemblyman vice-chair of education MyDesert.com The Desert Sun:

"California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, on Wednesday named Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, as vice-chair of the Fifth Extraordinary Session Education Committee, Nestande's office announced."

The committee will hold hearings through the end of the year to put California in a favorable position to compete for federal Race to the Top funds.
The U.S. Department of Education will be awarding $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds to states for programs aimed at improving educational quality and results.

Commentary: The Latino education challenge | McClatchy

Commentary: The Latino education challenge McClatchy:

"If we don't close that gap, America's workforce will lack the high-order skills the economy demands. There's no upside to allowing such a fast-growing demographic group trail behind, unless we prefer second-tier nation status.

Fortunately, the Obama administration gets the problem, as did the Bush administration. In fact, going back to the first Bush presidency, the White House has had an initiative to improve Latinos' educational progress.

Juan Sepuvelda now heads that effort, and the former San Antonio management consultant was in Dallas last week as part of a national listening tour. He's learning what communities are doing to improve Latino success in schools and what they must do to ramp it up."

UC president says CA is building 'toll road to higher education' | 89.3 KPCC

UC president says CA is building 'toll road to higher education' 89.3 KPCC:

"Mark Yudof: 'I’m sorry. I regret it, but the state has stopped building freeways to higher education and it has started building toll roads. That’s what you have. You have a toll road to higher education. I don’t like it but that’s what they’ve done.'"

Letters to the editor - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Letters to the editor - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial Sacramento Bee:

"While Obama is the consensus builder, trying to bring wolves to the table, expecting them to work in a polite and cooperative manner, Johnson is the wolf in Democratic clothing, allied with powerful corporate 'volunteers,' marching toward ever-greater power and demanding mindless servitude from others."

Massive fee hikes planned at University of California - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Massive fee hikes planned at University of California - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"University of California employees and students chanting 'Whose university? Our university!' express outrage over planned fee hikes at the regents' meeting Wednesday in San Francisco as a plainclothes police officer, right, watches over the proceedings."

University of California regents meeting Wednesday in San Francisco said they likely will approve a 32 percent hike in student fees.
The increase would push the price of a year at UC to $10,302 for undergraduates and comes on the heels of a 9.3 percent increase approved in May.

The Associated Press: Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary dead at 72

The Associated Press: Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary dead at 72:

"They were early champions of Bob Dylan and performed his 'Blowin' in the Wind' at the August 1963 March on Washington.

And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.
The group collected five Grammy Awards for their three-part harmony on enduring songs like 'Leaving on a Jet Plane,' 'Puff (The Magic Dragon)' and 'Blowin' in the Wind.'"

Education News & Comment

Education News & Comment:
"SCUSD District Advisory Committee (DAC)
Parent Involvement Committee

...is looking for PARENTS
who want to get INVOLVED!"

If you are interested, please join usat the Serna Center, Arizona Roomon September 16, 20095:00pm - 6:00pm

Impacts of cuts surfacing now school is under way; tattered English book with missing pages tells the story - Redwood Times

Impacts of cuts surfacing now school is under way; tattered English book with missing pages tells the story - Redwood Times:

"”We need this stuff. It’s hard to do our job without it,” she said. She said that the teachers feel awkward engaging in so much fundraising and the academic teachers worry about competing with the sports programs and campus clubs for the same community money. She asked the board to give direction to the teachers. “Do you expect us to be fundraisers?” she asked.

Teacher Melinda Bailey brought a tattered English textbook with missing pages to draw attention to the fact that English has not been included in the rotation schedule for the purchase of new textbooks for math, science and social studies. English textbooks have not been replaced since 1990, she said, and it was an embarrassment for the school."

Sacramento Press / Council unlikely to address "strong mayor" issues raised by city attorney

Sacramento Press / Council unlikely to address "strong mayor" issues raised by city attorney:

"Several legal issues in the “strong mayor” initiative that were raised by Sacramento’s city attorney will likely not be addressed by the City Council. After listening to a Tuesday night presentation by City Attorney Eileen Teichert, councilmembers did not suggest taking any future actions to resolve the issues.

Instead of taking action on the legal issues that were raised by Teichert, some councilmembers said they look forward to analyzing the Charter Review Committee’s upcoming recommendations on the strong mayor system of city government. The committee’s ideas may be placed on a future ballot for citizens to decide."

Education Week: Draft Unveiled on Technological Literacy for NAEP

Education Week: Draft Unveiled on Technological Literacy for NAEP:

"A discussion draft of the framework for the national assessment of technological literacy, the first to gauge students’ understanding of and skill in using a range of tools, has been presented to the board that oversees the testing program.

The computer-based National Assessment of Educational Progress in technological literacy, scheduled to be administered to a representative sample of the nation’s 4th, 8th, and 12th graders for the first time in 2012, will evaluate students’ understanding of technology tools and their design, the ways they can be used to gather information and communicate ideas, and their impact on society."

Click here to view this report http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11386736/Draft-Technological-Literacy-for-NAEP

Committee Meetings

Committee Meetings:

"Facilities Committee

The next meeting is:

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 Agenda/Handouts/Minutes
Time: 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Location: Serna Center - Michigan/Minnesota Rooms

Meeting Schedule January - June 2009

Board of Education Members:
Roy Grimes, MPA, MBA, Board President (Area 6)
Patrick Kennedy, Board 2nd Vice President and Committee Chairman (Area 7)

Donald Terry, Board Member (Area 3)"

Walkout called over UC budget cuts

Walkout called over UC budget cuts:

"Hundreds of faculty, students and staff from the University of California's 10 campuses are calling for a systemwide walkout Sept. 24 to protest UC's handling of its budget crisis."

The protest is intended to disrupt classes to call attention to the deep impact of millions of dollars of budget cuts on the quality of education throughout the UC system.
What began in recent weeks as a proposed faculty walkout coinciding with the first day of school next Thursday at some campuses - including UCSF, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz - has grown to include graduate and undergraduate student groups, and labor unions representing thousands of employees.


"We hope to accomplish a freeze on tuition increases, protection for the most vulnerable employees, and a return to respect for democratic process," said Joshua Clover, an associate professor of English at UC Davis who helped draft a petition urging the walkout that has been signed by 743 faculty members representing each campus.

City Council nixes companion measure to strong-mayor proposal - Latest News - sacbee.com

City Council nixes companion measure to strong-mayor proposal - Latest News - sacbee.com:

"The Sacramento City Council decided Tuesday not to draft a companion measure to Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor proposal that would address what City Attorney Eileen Teichert described as 'legal issues' with the proposal."

Ohio.com - Grading education isn't easy

Ohio.com - Grading education isn't easy:

"Accountability

In urban public schools, 54.3 percent exceeded the goals for value-added achievement, compared to 46.4 percent in charter schools.

''Everything we see so far by all the measurements is that traditional public schools outperform charter schools,'' said Barb Shaner, Ohio Association of School Business Officials associate executive director.

Shaner, a member of the Coalition for Public Education, is not calling for all charter schools to close, but her organization's members are correctly tired of being labeled failures in urban areas."

Teenage inmates earn high-school diplomas

Teenage inmates earn high-school diplomas:

"It was a ceremony full of contradictions: 'Pomp and Circumstance' blared from a little boom box but filled up the small room; the striped uniforms that are the trademark of many county inmates were visible underneath the gowns the graduates proudly wore; a string of handcuffs lay on the floor near a buffet table full of food to congratulate the teenagers.

Many of the students said if they'd stayed in school on the outside, they wouldn't have ended up in jail. But, by the same token, ending up in jail is the only thing that pushed them to complete their education."

D.C. to Ask Judge to Dismiss Special Education Court Order - washingtonpost.com

D.C. to Ask Judge to Dismiss Special Education Court Order - washingtonpost.com:

"The decree ordered the District to wipe out a backlog of more than 1,000 decisions by hearing officers that had yet to be implemented, which delayed placement of students in programs. It also requires that 80 percent of the decisions reached after July 1, 2008, be executed in timely fashion.

The latest District figures place its timeliness rate at 60 percent for the one-year period ending June 30. Ira Burnim, attorney for the Blackman plaintiffs, said Tuesday that is unacceptable."

State, U.S. disagree on progress at some L.A. schools -- latimes.com

State, U.S. disagree on progress at some L.A. schools -- latimes.com:

"Thirty-nine Los Angeles schools -- a group larger than the entire Glendale school system -- identified as 'failing' under federal standards became eligible Tuesday for takeover under a recent Board of Education policy.

These schools bring the number of Los Angeles Unified School District campuses eligible for takeover to 252. Bidders from inside or outside the nation's second-largest school system could submit proposals to run such schools. The bidding process also applies to 51 new schools set to open over the next four years."