Sacramento Press / Welcome to The Sacramento Press Journalism Open!

Sacramento Press / Welcome to The Sacramento Press Journalism Open!:

"We're so glad you're interested in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open! Not only can you win some great prizes, you can also have an effect on your community and gain some skills in the bargain! Contributing to our site is quick and easy - we can show you everything you need to know to take the act of making journalism into your own hands!

I'm David Watts Barton, the managing editor of The Sacramento Press, our area's top hyper-local, citizen-written news website, where we focus on up-close, in-depth coverage of neighborhoods like yours. We aim to spread the traditional habits of good journalism - accuracy, fairness and a diversity of opinion - across the Web. We do it with a mix of professional and amateur writing from around the community."

Ed Week: What Works for Rich Kids Works for All Kids

"What Works for Rich Kids Works for All Kids"

Dear Diane,

We've got to stop agreeing so much! I can't wait to read your new book so I can go into "attack mode" again. I always wonder, however, whether our disagreements are "fundamental" or based on our very different entries into the world of schooling. I think it's a bit of both. Your view that progressive education ideas became dominant at any time defied what I witnessed in schools I subbed in, sent my kids to, etc. (Even as it may well have swept the elite schools of education.) Your belief that there can be a curriculum that all could follow seems puzzling to me given what I also know about the kind of teachers and teaching you sought for your own kids, and even your reaction to CPESS. I just don't believe that if you were a classroom teacher you'd agree to follow someone's curriculum if you didn't agree with it. I'd rather impose a pedagogy than a curriculum, and you the other way around. But I suspect we both have in our head versions of each other's ideas that are not quite what the other means. We'll see.

Imagine Schools' View of Charter Boards Draws Fire

Imagine Schools

The chief of national charter-school operator Imagine Schools advocates controlling school boards and limiting their authority in an e-mail obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Dennis Bakke, who is CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based company, told his employees in the September 2008 missive that they should select board members who will "go along with Imagine." He also recommends in the three-page e-mail that employees obtain undated letters of resignation from school board members "that can be acted on by us at any time." (Read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story.)

The e-mail from Bakke appears to violate a primary tenet of the charter school movement, which is that schools should be independently governed by local leaders. It also appears to run afoul of nonprofit law and state charter school statutes.

"That is appalling. I am appalled," Jocelyn Strand, Missouri's state director of charter schools, said after reading the memo.

Bakke notes in the e-mail that it is just his "thoughts, observations and suggestions," not "an announcement of official policy" for the national company. It says on its Web site that it runs 74 public charter schools in 12 states, including Missouri, as well as the District of Columbia.

His executives said the company followed the law in each state and that the memo was nothing more than a discussion item.

Education Week: Education Issues Bidding for Voters' Attention

Education Week: Education Issues Bidding for Voters' Attention:

"In a relatively quiet electoral season, education is making some noise in a number of campaigns around the country, from the New York City mayoral race and New Jersey governor’s contest to ballot measures in Washington state and Maine.

Voters in Maine, for instance, will consider measures with big implications for public schools, including a proposal to repeal a 2007 law requiring consolidation of many small school districts and an initiative designed to rein in state and local spending that could constrain education aid."

Group: Baby Einstein video refunds prove point

Group: Baby Einstein video refunds prove point:

"Parent alert: The Walt Disney Co. is now offering refunds for all those 'Baby Einstein' videos that did not make children into geniuses."

They may have been a great electronic babysitter, but the unusual refunds appear to be a tacit admission that they did not increase infant intellect.

"We see it as an acknowledgment by the leading baby video company that baby videos are not educational, and we hope other baby media companies will follow suit by offering refunds," said Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which has been pushing the issue for years.

Baby Einstein, founded in 1997, was one of the earliest players in what became a huge electronic media market for babies and toddlers. Acquired by Disney in 2001, the company expanded to a full line of books, toys, flashcards and apparel, along with DVDs including "Baby Mozart," "Baby Shakespeare" and "Baby Galileo.

"Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/24/MN7O1AA5E0.DTL&type=education#ixzz0V3fKWiSZ

Southwestern College instructors suspended following rally - SignOnSanDiego.com

Southwestern College instructors suspended following rally - SignOnSanDiego.com:

"CHULA VISTA — At least four Southwestern College instructors have been suspended following a recent campus rally to protest plans to eliminate more than 400 course offerings and to demonstrate growing dissatisfaction with the administration.

A crowd of about 300 assembled on the Chula Vista campus Thursday to demonstrate against the cuts. The group of mostly students walked across campus and circled the president's office before breaking up.

It wasn't until 25 students showed up for their 9 a.m. creative writing class Friday that they realized instructors – including their own – had been suspended. When the students walked toward the president's office, they said campus police intervened and accused them of participating in an unlawful assembly."

College president Raj Chopra is on vacation. His executive assistant, Mary Ganio, released a statement saying Southwestern is investigating a personnel matter that is unrelated to Thursday's protest.

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

Fun and Facts About America, John Sutherland Productions. Creative Commons license: Public Domain. This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism. For more great vintage animation check out www.animationstation.info and subscribe to our podcast.

David Ellison: Education secretary may be giving up on school reform - San Jose Mercury News

David Ellison: Education secretary may be giving up on school reform - San Jose Mercury News:

"TO CHARTER OR not to charter? That is the question.

Hamlet pondered whether to battle 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' or to just give up. My fear is that, in pushing for more charter schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has given up.

Charters never really became laboratories for innovation.

They simply adopted the 'new ideas' all public schools would if they had the freedom and the funds: longer school days and years, smaller schools and class sizes, careful selection of motivated, gifted teachers, strict accountability for both students and their parents, site-based management. '..."

They simply adopted the "new ideas" all public schools would if they had the freedom and the funds: longer school days and years, smaller schools and class sizes, careful selection of motivated, gifted teachers, strict accountability for both students and their parents, site-based management. "...

Charters have such freedom. But their claims to operate with less state funds than most public schools are spurious.

For one, charters usually receive substantial outside support. Even more significant, since salaries account for more than 90 percent of most schools' budgets, charters typically employ younger, far-less expensive faculty, and turn them over after only four years, thus keeping expenses artificially low.

In other words, charters attract our best new teachers but quickly burn them out.

This is reform?

Gingrich Must Sever Ties With Sharpton | National Legal and Policy Center

Gingrich Must Sever Ties With Sharpton National Legal and Policy Center:

"It is time for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to end his association with Al Sharpton. The two have been appearing together around the country as part of something called the Education Equality Project.

As Dr. Carl Horowitz of our staff has documented in a Special Report released earlier this year, Sharpton has promoted fake hate crimes against blacks, and has inspired racial antagonism against whites and Jews. Indeed, this long-established pattern of behavior continues to the present.

Just last week, the purported victim of a 2007 racially-motivated attack in West Virginia recanted her story that she had been kidnapped and raped in a backwoods trailer by white men. Sharpton had championed her plight, descending on Charleston to lead an anti-hate rally, much as he rallied to the side of the accuser of the Duke lacrosse players in 2006."

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Should Private Money Fund Public Schools?

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Should Private Money Fund Public Schools?:

"Hard economic times have prompted public schools to look for or accept private financial support. Education Week reported that private donations are covering $18,000 of the $225,000 annual salary paid to a school superintendent in Indiana. In Boston, public schools worked with corporations, along with pro and collegiate sports teams, to boost school athletic budgets by more than 60 percent over the next three years ($4 million to $6.5 million).

Even with federal stimulus dollars, which won't last forever, many schools are struggling financially and must seek alternative solutions. Should public-private partnerships be formed to shore up gaps in school budgets? Does this pose ethical concerns?

-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com"

Laughed Out of the Room | GothamSchools

Laughed Out of the Room GothamSchools:

"I missed Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s speech at Teachers College on Thursday because I was working on his behalf in Washington. I was one of about 17 researchers on a panel evaluating a batch of research proposals on school reform for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the federal Department of Education. IES seeks to identify malleable factors (e.g., education programs, policies and practices) that can improve education outcomes. To do so, IES has developed a progressive goal structure for research projects.

Goal One projects are exploratory, and intended to inform the development of interventions by examining existing relationships between policies and practices and educational outcomes.

Goal Two projects are intended to develop innovative educational interventions that can be implemented in school settings, and to collect some preliminary data on the educational outcomes observed in a pilot implementation of the intervention"

Its record mixed, DPS pulled both ways on reform | INDenverTimes

Its record mixed, DPS pulled both ways on reform INDenverTimes:

"Denver Public Schools’ record of dramatic changes to improve its lowest-performing schools has produced mixed results, though district leaders report hundreds of students are scoring higher on state tests.

Since 2005, DPS has closed nine schools, sending students to what district leaders promised would be better schools, and redesigned ten more, typically replacing the principal and most teachers. Another two schools are being phased out.

Friday, DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said one in five of the students who had attended the nine closed schools did not return to a district school the following year.
Of the 79 percent who did, however, their overall average state reading, writing and math exam results were better.

“We did see striking improvement,” Boasberg told members of the A+ Denver citizens’ advisory panel."

Ten Facts About California

Ten Facts About California:

"(1) Family of four median income in California ranks 15th among the states. Regardless of how income is measured, in California it is somewhat above average, but not extraordinarily so.

(2) Among the 50 states, California ranks 4th in per capita spending; add DC, and it ranks 5th.

(3) Per capita spending on K-12 education is about average.

(4) California’s high school graduation rate is 10th from the bottom.

(5) This can be explained partially by the fact that California leads the nation in foreign born population.

(6) But even after controlling for foreign born population, educational attainment in California is average.

(7) California’s incarceration rate is a bit above average, but not extraordinary by US standards.

(8) California relies less on property tax revenue to finance its government than the average state. Economists generally find the property tax to be less distortionary and unstable than other types of taxes.

(9) in 2005-06 (the last year for which I have data), California had more net business creation than any other state. After scaling for size, California’s business creation was comparable to Texas’.

(10) California relies disproportionately on Information Technology and Professional and Technical Services for employment. These are high paying jobs that require a well educated labor force."

SFSU holds first general assembly | SocialistWorker.org

SFSU holds first general assembly SocialistWorker.org:

"SAN FRANCISCO--On October 21, San Francisco State University (SFSU) held its first General Assembly as a way to endorse a call for a statewide conference following a September walkout at University of California (UC) campuses, and to discuss ways of advancing the fight against budget cuts affecting public education.

More than 8,000 students, professors and workers across the UC system delivered the opening blow in the struggle for the state's future on September 24, with a one-day walkout at UC campuses. The success necessitated the call for a statewide conference, aimed at coalescing the different sectors of public education in hopes of coordinating a sustained response.

Modeled after the successful assemblies held at UC-Berkeley prior to the walkout, the Assembly saw over 100 students, faculty, and staff participate in a way that SFSU hasn't experienced in decades. Organizing the assembly brought together the main forces of the campus left, who for the first time, have come together in a meaningful way in response to the severity of the crisis."

How to Fix Our Education System - WSJ.com

How to Fix Our Education System - WSJ.com:

"The problem is well-known: The U.S. lags far behind other developed countries at the K-12 level in terms of measured performance in math and science courses."

What can be done to change that? The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray posed that question to three experts: Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania; and Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the law school at the University of California at Berkeley, who was also a member of the Obama administration transition team working on education issues.

Here are edited excerpts of their discussion:

It's the Teachers

A Fundamental Reworking

The Federal Role

Signed, sealed and delivered to state Senate - News

Signed, sealed and delivered to state Senate - News:

"Students gathered in the Campus Village quad Thursday evening to write letters for a campaign designed to address California State University budget cuts and fee increases.

'We're trying to get students to write to their senators about their own experiences,' said Julian Rosenberg, a senior political science major and president of Students for Quality Education. 'This way the people who are making the decisions know who it is affecting.'

The group organized the event, along with the Resident Hall Association, said Quacy Superville, a junior business marketing major and vice president of the Resident Hall Association."

California Legislators Got Drunk on Stock Market Gains -- Seeking Alpha

California Legislators Got Drunk on Stock Market Gains -- Seeking Alpha:

"I've been studying California's budget. From 1998 to 2009, California added over 80,000 full-time government employees. That means future taxpayers must pay for an additional 80,000+ pensions, lifetime medical benefits, and annual salaries. However, adding 80,000 more government employees is not the major problem, as long as we reform their generous long-term benefits.

The biggest problem is that starting in 1999, California's legislators assumed revenue/tax numbers based on stock market gains/sales and spent accordingly. From 1998 to 2000, spending jumped dramatically, but from 1999 to 2008, expenditures declined only once--when the tech bubble popped, in 2003/2004. Basically, it seems our legislators banked on an ever-increasing stock market to finance spending. Oops."

The Badger Herald: News: Illegal immigrants offered tuition

The Badger Herald: News: Illegal immigrants offered tuition:

For the first time, tuition this fall is being offered and accepted by undocumented residents within the University of Wisconsin System after Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed into effect a change of law that allows undocumented residents to receive in-state tuition, making Wisconsin one of 11 states that support this.

The other 10 states that give illegal immigrants in-state tuition are California, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington."

Currently, the federal government has the right to punish states that provide in-state tuition to undocumented students by obligating those states to provide the same benefits as undocumented students to those who don’t live in the state, according to the terms of the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

However, the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act is currently before Congress, which would revoke that section of the law.

California Sales Tax Bonds May Yield Less Than 5% This Week - Bloomberg.com

California Sales Tax Bonds May Yield Less Than 5% This Week - Bloomberg.com:

"Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The state of California, returning to the bond market for the third time in a month, may pay yields of less than 5 percent this week to sell revenue bonds backed by sales taxes.

The most populous U.S. state, whose general pledge to repay debt carries the lowest credit rankings among its peers, is refinancing $3 billion in tax-exempt bonds issued in 2004 and 2008 to patch budget deficits. An 11 percent annual drop in sales-tax collections through June led to this deal, intended to smooth out repayment for the next 14 years.

California is facing resurgent fiscal strains brought on by the worst recession since World War II. Since February, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have cut $32 billion from spending, raised taxes by $12.5 billion and covered $6 billion more with accounting maneuvers. State officials predict a total of $38 billion in deficits in the next three fiscal years."

Daily 49er - Students must be involved speaking out for higher education

Daily 49er - Students must be involved speaking out for higher education:

"As students of the higher education system in California, we have rights and responsibilities, but we have given our silent consent to others. We are not taking the initiative to become active in determining our future.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard students say, “All I want is a C because C’s get degrees.” In my opinion, this is pathetic. This is an example of students not wanting to make an effort to distinguish themselves.

To parallel this argument, I want to connect the lack of effort and complacency with the financial crisis we’re experiencing. Many people think we can sit on our hands and allow others to make decisions for us because it’s easier to blame them for their misdeeds than it is to blame ourselves for not taking action.

I never imagined myself writing or saying anything like this in public; I am terrified of speaking out to the public for fear of rejection, but I find this problem worth the effort and criticism."