L.A. Unified magnet school application deadline is Dec. 18 -- latimes.com

L.A. Unified magnet school application deadline is Dec. 18 -- latimes.com:

"The application deadline for the popular local magnet-school program is three weeks earlier this school year. Parents will have until Dec. 18 to turn in applications for their choice among 173 magnet programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Magnets were established in the late 1970s to promote voluntary integration -- and in that aspect they have achieved limited success. But many have become wildly popular academic showcases for the nation's second-largest school system. And they attract far more applicants than can be accommodated.

Not long ago, the deadline for applications was in late January. Last year, it was Jan. 9, said Almarie Polk, an administrative assistant with the magnet division. The earlier deadline means parents will find out sooner, probably in April, about whether their child gets into a requested magnet, Polk added."

AdelaideNow... True school performance levels at last

AdelaideNow... True school performance levels at last:

"BY promising basic information on the performance of our schools, Education Minister, Julia Gillard has landed a blow for common sense and for parents.

For too long, the argument about whether national testing on literacy and numeracy should even be done, let alone published, has been deadlocked.

Education experts, state education departments, teachers and their professional bodies, have long resisted the move arguing that such comparisons were worse than meaningless, they would be misleading."

Less than 'courage' in New Haven - washingtonpost.com

Less than 'courage' in New Haven - washingtonpost.com:

"EDUCATION Secretary Arne Duncan is a big advocate of the need for educators to set high expectations. So when he singled out the recently ratified teacher contract in New Haven, Conn., as a model for the nation, we assumed it contained bold reforms. In fact, there's little that's remarkable about the contract. We hope that's not a sign Mr. Duncan is getting timid in bringing about the real changes needed in teacher labor agreements.

Praise of the New Haven contract has been effusive. Mr. Duncan told the Wall Street Journal that it is 'a really important progressive labor agreement' that showed 'real courage on the union's part.' American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, who helped broker the deal, said: 'I rarely say that something is a model or a template for something else, but this is both.' Even President Obama got in on the act as he complimented New Haven for 'coming together' to find smarter ways to improve learning."

Statement from president of Wausau Education Association - WAOW - Newsline 9, Wausau News, Weather, Sports

Statement from president of Wausau Education Association - WAOW - Newsline 9, Wausau News, Weather, Sports:

"This is a statement from Wausau Education Association President Mary Jarvis:

'Thank you to the members of the board, Board President, and Superintendent (Steve) Murley.
I am the president of the Wausau Education Association.

The teachers of the Wausau School District have carefully followed the budget situation in this district.
We are very alarmed and concerned by the lack of planning for the educational impact on our students."

Bad eighth grade math placements--an update - Class Struggle - Jay Mathews on Education

Bad eighth grade math placements--an update - Class Struggle - Jay Mathews on Education:

"A thoughtful reader who signs on as 'raging moderate' (my own self-concept too) asked two good questions about my recent Local Living column on bad timing in placing students in Algebra 1. Here is raging moderate's query, followed by the answer from Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless, who supplied me the data.

[Raging moderate first quoted my piece:] 'But Loveless showed that we are also missing students ready for algebra. Among the top 10 percent of eighth-graders, 18 percent are not in algebra or above, and that percentage is 24.6 for top black, Hispanic and low-income students.'

I have two questions, Jay:"

The Tipping Point: Texas Textbook Politics Meets the Digital Revolution | The Texas Tribune

The Tipping Point: Texas Textbook Politics Meets the Digital Revolution The Texas Tribune:

"Under new legislation, school districts for the first time can spend a portion of state “book” money on computer hardware and digital content. And the state can stockpile and open-source electronic material, made available free to all schools. Some, including State Board of Education members, fear the explosion of choice will produce an erosion of quality content.

AUSTIN – In a historic shift, Texas public schools will soon start tapping the state’s multi-billion-dollar textbook fund for laptops and e-readers. A “book,” meanwhile, could become a living reservoir of content, freely edited and updated by educators and beamed to the classrooms, homes and handhelds of students statewide."

Rather than replacing untold thousands of dead-tree editions every two years — for hundreds of millions of dollars — the state could own libraries of electronic content, some of which it might even get for free. Students could carry all that material on a laptop or an e-reader, amassing an on-demand virtual library over multiple years in school.

That scenario represents the ideal — to some, at least — and may yet be years away. The changes thus far have come slowly, navigating a thicket of big-money politics and curriculum wars surrounding the nation’s second biggest textbook market. At the core of the new order, resulting from new legislation, lie three fundamental transfers of power and money:

From 19th-Century View, Desegregation Is a Test

From 19th-Century View, Desegregation Is a Test

If there is a topic Justice Antonin Scalia does not relish discussing, it is how he would have voted in Brown v. Board of Education had he been on the Supreme Court when it was decided in 1954.

The question came up last month at the University of Arizona in what was billed as a conversation between Justice Scalia and Justice Stephen G. Breyer. The discussion, between the court’s two primary intellectual antagonists, bore the relationship to a conversation that a fistfight does to a handshake. The justices know how to get under each other’s skin, and they punctuated their debate with exasperation, eye-rolling and venomous sarcasm.

The Brown decision, which said the 14th Amendment prohibited segregation in public schools, is hard to square with Justice Scalia’s commitment to originalism, the theory of constitutional interpretation that says judges must apply the original understanding of the constitutional text.

Brown presents originalists with a problem. The weight of the historical evidence is that the people who drafted, proposed and ratified the 14th Amendment from 1866 to 1868 did not believe themselves to be doing away with segregated schools.

Blame parents, not SATs, for inequities#ixzz0WS0f3YHN#ixzz0WS0f3YHN

Blame parents, not SATs, for inequities#ixzz0WS0f3YHN#ixzz0WS0f3YHN:

"Yes, Virginia, the colleges do prefer knowledgeable students who are already fluent in trigonometry and calculus, who have a reasonably rich lexicon and who can convey their thoughts in the form of an essay. Otherwise, the students will have to spend two out of four college years taking remedial classes. Our society does not need engineers who study engineering subjects proper for only the two remaining years.

The same applies to any field of endeavor: baseball, skating, saxophone playing or journalism. A baseball coach might feel sorry for an unskillful candidate who just has not had a chance to play the game with his parents. But usually a coach simply cannot afford to take such candidates in the hope that they might catch up later."

Digital School Library Leaves Book Stacks Behind : NPR

Digital School Library Leaves Book Stacks Behind : NPR:

"An elite boarding school in Ashburnham, Mass., just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renovating its library. But Cushing Academy wasn't just redoing its walls and carpets. The school is getting rid of the actual, physical books in favor of going digital.

And the move — thought to be the first of its kind in the country — is worrying some librarians and book lovers."

Bill on mayoral control could affect hiring of MPS superintendent - JSOnline

Bill on mayoral control could affect hiring of MPS superintendent - JSOnline:

"The search for the next superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools is about to collide with the fight over mayoral governance, now that lawmakers are putting the final touches on legislation that would allow Milwaukee's mayor to lead the system and appoint the superintendent.

The application deadline for would-be superintendents is Nov. 19, and School Board members aren't slowing down their search.

'We're taking the search day by day and proceeding until we get notice to do otherwise,' School Board President Michael Bonds said last week. 'We're still in charge.'"

The Signal - Santa Clarita Valley News - Public education is a liberal value

The Signal - Santa Clarita Valley News - Public education is a liberal value:

"'Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. ... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.'
-Thomas Jefferson

Now that our local elections are over for school and water board races, I believe it is prudent to reflect on how these races are conducted in our valley. They, like City Council races, are supposed to be non-partisan but clearly they are not."

As Tim Myers noted recently, there is a "Republican Machine" ("Is Boydston a game-changer?" Nov. 1) that controls the politics here. We even have our own "Karl Rove" in Santa Clarita Valley, master of dirty politics who orchestrates hit mailers, telephone smear campaigns and other tricks and ploys to make sure only those in the Machine are elected.

Lynn Vakay wrote before the election in "Right Here Right Now" who the Republican school board candidates were, strongly intimating that people should vote only for them because they espoused the Republican education platform which I read as a thinly disguised call for privatization, dismantling the public school system through systematic starvation, not educating "them" (immigrants) and vilifying public school unions. Vakay's attack on our public school system strikes me as odd since she is a public school teacher and enjoys a living wage, health care benefits and retirement because of her public school union. She clearly unveiled any attempt by the Machine to pretend these elections are "non-partisan."

Denver Daily - Colorado’s economy: We are not California

Denver Daily - Colorado’s economy: We are not California:

"For some reason I am on the mailing lists for some of the GOP candidates. (Of course after this column, I may get purged). It makes for interesting reading as you watch the contortions of truth and ideology.

For example, a recent essay written by a GOP gubernatorial candidate compared Colorado to California in terms of budgets and spending. His sniping remarks continue to remind us that he is young and relatively inexperienced in governance.

The economy is an issue in this country as we fight ourselves out of the cumulative mess of years of mismanagement. As I talk with my counterparts across the country, I know that Colorado has suffered far less than other states. But tell that to my neighbor who works at the Albertson’s in Lafayette. The store is closing. The same store we have been using for 15 years. And the grocery workers are looking for jobs."

Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger Takes Action to Secure Available Recovery Act Funds for Early Childhood Education : Mon, 09 Nov 2009 : California Newswire™

Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger Takes Action to Secure Available Recovery Act Funds for Early Childhood Education : Mon, 09 Nov 2009 : California Newswire™:

"SACRAMENTO /California Newswire/ — Building on his commitment to both high-quality early childhood education and bringing available American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funding to California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued Executive Order S-23-09 establishing the California State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care. This is the first step in making California eligible to compete for a share of $100 million in federal Head Start funds available through President Obama’s Recovery Act."

“A high-quality early childhood education is a critical building block in a student’s social and educational foundation,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “This action will help bring California funding to support our state’s high-quality preschool programs and help ensure our state’s neediest children will be prepared for success on their very first day of elementary school.”
The federal Improving Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007 requires that states establish State Advisory Councils in order to receive Head Start grants designed to increase collaboration among early childhood education providers. The Recovery Act provides grants of at least $500,000 to support states in establishing these councils and in developing statewide early childhood education plans. Following the Governor’s action today, California is expected to receive as much as $10.7 million over three years.

Funding applications must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by August 1, 2010, and must include an explanation of California’s strategy to improve coordination and collaboration among California’s Head Start agencies, preschool programs and other early childhood education providers. This enhanced coordination will help California expand access so that early childhood education providers can serve more needy children. The California State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care established today will plan-for and ensure California’s application process meets federal requirements and make the state competitive for the funds.

San Mateo Daily Journal

San Mateo Daily Journal:

"Halloween is a generally accepted idea in America including dressing in costumes.

But Lillian Meng and Caroline Zheng were a bit uncomfortable donning a Cat in the Hat and a chicken outfit respectively. The elementary school principals visiting from Shanghai were unsure of the reaction others would give, but were pleasantly surprised to see the outfits were commonplace on All Hallow’s Eve.

The experience is one of many the two women will have while working through Nov. 23 at College Park Elementary School in San Mateo as part of the Shanghai-California Principal Exchange Program. The program is put together through the partnership of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and the California School Boards Association. During that time, Meng and Zheng will work and live along side College Park Principal Diana Hallock while observing the way things run at the school, which offers a Mandarin immersion program"

Junk food is your responsibility. – A Quick Bite - The Lakeland Ledger - Lakeland, FL - Archive

Junk food is your responsibility. – A Quick Bite - The Lakeland Ledger - Lakeland, FL - Archive:

"A new study has found that advertising on childrens’ TV networks is far higher on ads for high-fat, high-sugar foods than on other networks.

The study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, put the figure at 76 percent.

Researchers at University of California Davis dissected ads on Saturday mornings and after-school hours on English and Spanish programs.

“Study after study has documented the adverse health effects of food advertising targeting children and adolscents,” they wrote."

English teacher at Bronx School of Law and Finance, Van Voorhis, suspended for assigning material to students about masturbation

English teacher at Bronx School of Law and Finance, Van Voorhis, suspended for assigning material to students about masturbation:

"The first rule about having an edgy English teacher is don't talk about your edgy English teacher.

A beloved city schoolteacher has been suspended by the Department of Education after giving his 11th-grade students a copy of a graphic short story about masturbation written by 'Fight Club' author Chuck Palahniuk.

Greg Van Voorhis, 30, handed out copies of Palahniuk's 'Guts' late last month to about 100 students studying for the English Regents exam at The Bronx School of Law and Finance in Marble Hill."

"While Van Voorhis took the copies back at the end of class, students blabbed about the ribald tale, and school officials soon caught wind of the lesson in self-love. "

"Schwartz stopped short of calling the story inappropriate but said he was required to act."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/teacher_suspended_for_giving_self_nV6xCRYzrjDVUIZFbdXD2L#ixzz0WPtlh8HO

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Real Oklahoma Students Ace Citizenship Exam; Strategic Vision Survey Was Likely Fabricated

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Real Oklahoma Students Ace Citizenship Exam; Strategic Vision Survey Was Likely Fabricated:

"In detailing some of the evidence against Strategic Vision LLC, a pollster I am now almost certain is disreputable and fraudulent, I pointed in particular to a poll that they conducted on behalf of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, an conservative-leaning educational thinktank. The poll purported to show that Oklahoma's high school citizens were deficient in some of the most basic aspects of citizenship. Only 23 percent of them knew that George Washington was the first president, the poll claimed! Just 43 percent knew that the Democrats and Republicans are the two major political parties!"

These conclusions seemed dubious to me on their face. Several years ago, at my old consulting job, I participated in a project for the State of Ohio's public schools which involved sitting down in a third or fifth grade classroom for the better part of a day and seeing how the students were learning. Most of these observations took place in poor, post-industrial towns, which were still suffering the effects of the steel mill or the axle plant that had long ago left town. What struck me, most of all, was how smart the kids were, relative to my expectations. These kids might not have been the highest achievers -- but I'm pretty sure that more than 90 percent of them would have known who George Washington was. And these were third and fifth graders.

A Study on Parenting Beliefs and Behaviors

A Study on Parenting Beliefs and Behaviors

Harvard Dept. of Psychology Survey

Thanks for your interest in this online study of parenting beliefs and behaviors. NOTE: This study is for parents who have at least one child who is between the ages of 3 and 10 years of age. If you do not have a child in this age range, any responses you provide will not be analyzed. Please read the following page carefully so that you understand your rights. If you wish to proceed, you can do so by indicating that you consent to participate in this study (see bottom of page).

Survey Information

Purpose of the research: To understand the choices parents make about how to handle children's wrongdoings (e.g., behaviors like grabbing, pushing, and teasing).

What you will do in this research: If you decide to participate, you will complete this one survey. It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete the survey.

Risks: There are no anticipated risks associated with participating in this study.

Benefits: There are no direct benefits, but we hope that you will find it interesting to think about the questions in the survey.

Also, we will make the results of this study available to those who are interested.

Compensation: No pay is offered. However, later you will be given the chance to enter a drawing for one of four $50 Target gift cards. The gift card drawing will take place after 250 parents have participated in the survey.

Confidentiality: Your responses will be kept confidential. Your name will not be requested, your IP address will not be tracked, and it will be impossible to learn your identity with the data that are collected in this study. When research results are reported, responses will be described in summary. Again, the data collected for this study will not include any identifying information from you. Still, in order to ensure a respect for privacy, all data collected with this survey will be erased five years after data collection is complete.

Participation and withdrawal: Your participation is completely voluntary. You may skip questions that you prefer not to answer.

You may quit at any time during the survey by simply closing your web browser. If you decide to quit early, you may still enter the drawing for one of four Target gift cards.

The link for the drawing is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=v_2bjEYAXIyCUQ1TUXIV_2bzsg_3d_3d

Contact: If you have questions or concerns about this research, please contact:

Craig Smith, Ed.D.

Phone: (617) 875-9469

33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Email: cesmith@fas.harvard.edu

You may also contact the Harvard faculty member supervising this work: Paul L. Harris, harrispa@gse.harvard.edu

Whom to contact about your rights in this research, for questions, concerns, suggestions, or complaints that are not being addressed by the researcher, or research-related harm:

Jane Calhoun Harvard University Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research

1414 Massachusetts Avenue, Second Floor Cambridge, MA 02138

617-495-5459

jcalhoun@fas.harvard.edu

We suggest that you print or save a copy of the survey page for your records

http://harvard.psr.keysurvey.com/survey/276769/17b2/

Community Continues to Grapple With Rape - NYTimes.com

Community Continues to Grapple With Rape - NYTimes.com:

"As Richmond High School tried to absorb the wrenching reality of a gang rape of a student on school grounds, the predominant reactions — horror or sympathy or even fear — were understood by the school’s principal, Julio Franco."

But there was another reaction that Mr. Franco has difficulty processing: sentiments like those voiced by Fonz Leon, a junior, as he stood in the school parking lot one recent afternoon: “She got drunk one time and messed with the wrong crowd and provoked some dude and got raped, that’s it.”

Mr. Franco said: “Even girls said this was O.K. because she went on her own. I tell them, ‘What if this was your sister? What if this was your mom?’ Then they realize, ‘Oh.’ ”
It has been two weeks since a 16-year-old girl was raped after a homecoming dance by at least six young men in front of a group of onlookers. Yet reactions like Fonz’s linger. It is as if some of the virulent culture that gave rise to the attack itself, with all its cruelty and degradation, is defiantly asserting itself, despite efforts to contain it.

District Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting, November 10, 2009 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the Serna Center.

Hello DAC Members & Interested Parties:

This is your friendly reminder that tomorrow is the District Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting, November 10, 2009 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the Serna Center.

Dinner and childcare will be provided. Dinner will begin at 6:15pm.

Please read the minutes and check the spelling of your name. I was difficult to make out the handwriting. Also check if we missed anyone.

Wanda Yañez Chairperson
District Advisory Committee (DAC)
Sacramento City Unified School District
Work: (916) 654-7729