Amid fee hikes, UC publicizes tax breaks - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Amid fee hikes, UC publicizes tax breaks - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"Lost amid the hubbub of campus protests last week was a message University of California leaders desperately want middle-class families to hear: Yes, the new fee hikes mean you'll have to come up with more money to pay for your child's education – but you'll get a lot of it back when you do your taxes.

The federal stimulus package included many changes to the tax credits that parents can claim for children in college. It upped the maximum credit from $1,800 to $2,500 per student, raised the household income ceiling for eligibility from $116,000 to $180,000 and increased the length of time parents can claim the credit from two years to four."

No Free Lunch | California Progress Report

No Free Lunch California Progress Report:

"Bond measures often succeed at the polls, and it’s easy to see why. They require only a simple majority vote; generally – but not always – pay for infrastructure, such as schools and highways; and appear to be “free money” since voters aren’t asked to raise taxes in order to repay the bondholders.

In reality, there’s no free lunch. Debt service (principal plus interest on bonds) becomes a new General Fund obligation paid out of the same limited revenues that also fund services that enhance the quality of life for all Californians – everything from K-12 and higher education to in-home care for low-income seniors and people with disabilities."

Susan Ohanian's Testing Outrages (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out)

Susan Ohanian's Testing Outrages (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out):

"The NCTE gives The Doublespeak Award annually to those 'who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered.' Previous winners include George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Exxon, the National Rifle Association, and the Tobacco Industry.

NCTE deserves the award for its document, 'The LEARN Act and NCTE,' signed by NCTE's Executive Director and the Director of the NCTE Office in Washington. The LEARN Act would spent 2.35 billion on literacy programs that spanning birth to grade 12. NCTE voiced its strong support of LEARN and urged NCTE members to support it as well. The article responded to criticism of NCTE's position and easily meets each of the requirements of Doublespeak:"

It is grossly deceptive: In response to the claim that the LEARN Act involves too much testing, the NCTE article points out that LEARN includes formative testing, but only mentions in passing that LEARN will also include all the other dreaded and unnecessary uses of testing. In other words, they argue that because one kind of testing is ok, all the others can be included as well. Nor is it clear that formative testing done by outsiders is a good idea; see comments by J. Lucido, following the prize-winning NCTE paper (sources below).

It is evasive: Critics have pointed out that LEARN assumes that direct instruction is the only path to literacy development. The NCTE paper asks us not to worry, there will be no phonics in high school, evading the question of whether intensive phonics should be included anywhere, whether direct instruction is the only path, and ignoring the evidence that shows that literacy competence is largely acquired through reading, not through direct instruction. It is also evades all research showing the powerful effect of libraries on children's reading ability and literacy development in general, noting only that the word "library" does in fact occur in the LEARN act.

California budget's going to be dreadful -- latimes.com

California budget's going to be dreadful -- latimes.com:

"The Capitol's budget oracle projects $20.7 billion in new red ink for the next 19 months. Here's my projection: More punting, 'kicking the can down the alley' and numbers-rigging.

Hope we're both wrong. Hope there's an economic miracle or political heroism, which would require sacrifice to the demagogues. But, based on history and facts, that's too much to hope for.

Here's how nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor gently put it last week in calculating the latest general fund deficit: 'Addressing this large shortfall will require painful choices, on top of the difficult choices the Legislature made earlier this year.'"

The Educated Guess » How LA charters will spend Gates’ $60 million

The Educated Guess » How LA charters will spend Gates’ $60 million:

"A one-year residency program for aspiring teachers;

A data warehouse of assessments to measure individual students’ growth;

A performance-based pay system that teacher help design.

A consortium of five charter school organizations operating in Los Angeles will make these innovations with a seven-year, $60 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,plus $16 million in matching money that they must raise.

They are also precisely the sorts of things that the state should be considering in its application for the Race to the Top competition. Improving teacher performance, including using data as a factor to set teachers’ pay, is a primary focus of the $4.35 billion federal program."

Data Quality Campaign | Home

Data Quality Campaign Home

2009 Survey Results by State

States have made remarkable progress in developing longitudinal data systems that can track student progress over time, from prekindergarten through 12th grade and into postsecondary education. This map shows how many of the 10 essential elements each state reports based on responses to the 2009 DQC survey of states about their current data collection systems. More About the 10 Essential Elements for States

The Education Optimists: Study Demonstrates Link Between Hunger and Children’s Ability to Learn

The Education Optimists: Study Demonstrates Link Between Hunger and Children’s Ability to Learn:

"On this Thanksgiving week, it is appropriate that we acknowledge the large numbers of America’s children who are too hungry to learn as indicated in a new public opinion survey commissioned by Share Our Strength. Teachers – as first responders – witness the toll hunger takes on students in their classrooms every day.

To be released later today, Hunger in America’s Classrooms: Share Our Strength’s Teacher Report, will share teachers’ firsthand accounts of hunger as well as a formal national survey of teachers. Share Our Strength commissioned Lake Research Partners to poll 747 elementary and middle school teachers from urban, suburban and rural communities across America, for the study, funded by C&S Wholesale Grocers. The most recent figures released by the USDA paint a dramatic picture of hunger in America: nearly 17 million U.S. children – nearly one in four kids – face hunger today."

Eduflack: Beginning of End for ESEA Reauth?

Eduflack: Beginning of End for ESEA Reauth?:

"If one talks to those on Maryland Avenue, there has been a relatively steadfast belief that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) would be coming in the first half of 2010. Staff have been busy at work on the planning pieces. Most have been assuming that the framework developed for Race to the Top, particularly the four key pillars, would stand as the foundations of ESEA. And they've even been talking about dropping legislation after the start of the new year, with a goal of completing reauthorization before the summer recess.

But then we ran into major public comment with RttT, delaying the release of the final RFP by a month or two. We're now facing a similar push on common core standards, with the full K-12 draft standards now expected by the end of 2009, and moving to the states for implementation by mid-2010. Layer onto that i3 and other such pieces, and one has to ask if we have the stomach for ESEA reauthorization, with everything else, ed reform wise, that is happening."

Education Week: Study Finds NCLB Law Lifted Math Scores

Education Week: Study Finds NCLB Law Lifted Math Scores:

"The No Child Left Behind Act has significantly boosted mathematics achievement, but no evidence exists that it has done the same for reading, concludes a study released yesterday.

Brian A. Jacob, a professor of economics and education policy at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, and Thomas Dee, a professor of economics at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa., examined the effects of the federal education legislation on scores for 4th and 8th graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. They found large increases in the math scores for 4th graders and moderate ones in that subject for 8th graders. The gains in math were concentrated among white and Hispanic students, students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches, and students at all levels of performance.
But the researchers did not find evidence of a similar impact on reading scores."

UCSC: Student protesters will be held accountable - Santa Cruz Sentinel

UCSC: Student protesters will be held accountable - Santa Cruz Sentinel:

"SANTA CRUZ -- The 70 UC Santa Cruz students who locked themselves inside Kerr Hall for three days left a 'huge mess' and will face possible criminal or campus sanctions, a campus spokesman said Sunday night.

The barricaded students were removed from the administration building early Sunday by 70 law enforcement officers, including UCSC police and officers from the Santa Cruz Police Department and the county Sheriff's Office.

The students' voluntary departure followed a demand by police that they immediately vacate or be arrested for unlawful assembly and trespass.

Damage to the building, particularly the second floor, involved trash and food left behind as well as electronic conference equipment ripped from tables, campus spokesman Jim Burns said Sunday. He estimated repairs and cleanup will cost 'thousands of dollars.'"

The Associated Press: More anti-gay, religious-motivated crimes reported

The Associated Press: More anti-gay, religious-motivated crimes reported:

"WASHINGTON — New FBI data show a sharp increase in hate crimes based on anti-gay or religious bias.

Overall, the number of reported hate crimes increased about 2 percent from last year. These same figures show a nearly 11 percent increase in hate crimes based on sexual orientation, and a nearly 9 percent increase in hate crimes based on religion. The largest category, racially-motivated hate crimes, fell less than 1 percent.

The increases may be party due to more law enforcement agencies reporting hate crimes data to the FBI: 2,145 agencies in 2008, compared to 2,025 agencies the year before. In total, there were 7,783 hate crimes reported to the FBI last year, and seven murders were categorized as hate crimes."

"Think B4 You Speak"

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled...

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled...

Bright and Early EMILY ALPERT


The almighty dollar strikes again in your morning newsblitz! It ain't pretty out there:

We blog on two clashing views on what it takes to do "zero-based budgeting" -- one way that San Diego Unified wants to revamp its financial planning -- and how the school board is nudging labor unions to look at ways to save money on health and welfare benefits.

The Union-Tribune does a Q & A with embattled Southwestern College President Raj Chopra. "I am being penalized for doing what the public expects a good public officer to do," he tells Tanya Sierra. In more controversial college news, there's a swirl of speculation over who will fill the spot after San Diego State's athletic director resigned, the Union-Tribune reports.

The University of California just hiked tuition by 32 percent, despite a storm of protests statewide. Here's the deets from the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

Google Apps for Education - Free email and apps for schools.

Google Apps for Education - Free email and apps for schools.:

"Free email and collaboration tools for your school

Get Apps for your school!

Ask questions and learn more in our online discussion group. Imagine how valuable it would be if your entire campus community — students, faculty, and staff — could share information and ideas more easily. With Google Apps Education Edition, you can start bringing that vision to life.

Google Apps Education Edition is a free suite of hosted communication & collaboration applications designed for schools and universities.

Top 10 reasons to use Google Apps

Get Apps for your school!

1. Students will love you for it

Schools tells us that when they ask their students what email they'd prefer, they overwhelmingly say Gmail.

"Our students approached us about a year ago, saying that we needed to improve our email and collaboration services. We actually had our student government tell us, 'we want you to implement Google Apps.'" - Wendy Woodward, Director of Technology Support Services, Northwestern University

2. Free up your IT

Focus your IT on activities that add value instead of worrying about the uptime of your email services.

"Google Apps has allowed us to get out of providing these commodity type services - such as maintaining an email and calendaring system - and focus on the things that we are uniquely equipped to do, like providing more resources to be able to better support teaching, learning and research." - Todd Sutton, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services, UNC Greensboro

3. Easy to deploy

No software to install, no hardware to buy, just validate your MX records and create your accounts to get started. To integrate with what you already have, we work with open standards, have created a multitude of APIs, can point you to open source solutions for common integrations, and have approved partners with experience deploying Apps in schools.

"After struggling for several months to try to implement an alternative web hosted e-mail solution, we eventually turned to Google Apps which we were able to get up and running within a matter of hours" - Jhonny Oliveira, IT Manager, University of Lisbon

4. Save money

Outsourcing the maintenance of servers to Google frees up resources that would have been spent on additional licenses and upgrades.

"This helped our IT staff understand that their focus should be on strategic enterprise solutions to help us reach our educational objectives, not just overseeing commodities like email. Had we not gone with the Google solution, we'd be looking at proposing a significant increase in student fees. " - Eric Hawley, Utah State University Associate Vice President for Technology

5. You're not alone

Thousands of Universities are using Google Apps and are happy to talk about it. Talk to other customers on our Google Apps Education Edition community group or read and watch our customer case studies.

6. Google protects your privacy

We take privacy very seriously. Our business is built on our users' trust: trust in our ability to properly secure your data and our commitment to respect the privacy of the information you place in our systems by not giving that information to others or using it inappropriately. More specifically, read our FAQ on privacy, visit our Privacy Center, and review how we've handled challenges to users' privacy in the past.

7. Security as powerful as... well, Google

The security that is provided to Google Apps customers is the same security that we rely on to protect www.google.com. In addition, we run our company on Google Apps
"We're confident that Apps can meet the needs of the most demanding enterprises, because we're one ourselves. Google is a complex, global company in a fast-moving and competitive industry, and everything we do is powered by Apps. To get that kind of adoption here, it means Apps has passed a daunting bar for Enterprise suitability. If it can work for us, surely it can work for you, too." - Ben Fried, CIO and Vice President of Engineering, Google.
8. Innovation in real-time
What better way to prepare your students for the newest technology in the workplace, than by giving it to them as a part of their education?

"The response from the university community has been extremely positive because we are now partnering with cutting-edge technologists who understand that we're trying to provide the latest, most innovative technologies available today." - Roy B. Roberti, Director of Information Technology Planning, Hofstra University

9. Collaborate globally

Google Docs, our word processing application, doesn't just give you access to the same document, it actually allow students to work on the same document at the same time from anywhere in the world.

"Collaborative projects really make for an excellent education experience not only because students bounce ideas off each other and improve each other's writing skills, but also because the process itself teaches them how to work well with others - a valuable skill for everyone." - Richard Ellwood, Technology Coordinator and Digital Arts Teacher, Columbia Secondary School

10. We've got your back

Need help? We're here to help you when you need it either through our Help Center, our Education Edition customer group, or directly through the phone and email contact information provided in your administrator dashboard.

Law changes way teachers contract with districts

Law changes way teachers contract with districts:

"The Arizona Legislature made sweeping changes to state teacher contracts earlier this year, removing seniority, salary and contract guarantees.

Changes under House Bill 2011 mean that school districts will be prohibited from using tenure or seniority as a factor in determining which teachers can be laid off. Additionally, school districts no longer have to honor seniority when they rehire.

Gone is an April 15 deadline that required school districts to notify teachers of their contract status for the following school year. The changes were signed into law Sept. 4 by Gov. Jan Brewer and take effect Tuesday.

Lawmakers entered murky waters with the changes, setting limitations on how public-school districts can negotiate with teachers. The restrictions and changes, such as removing protections and prohibiting factors for hiring, make Arizona one of the more-restrictive states for teachers."

Autism treatment: Science hijacked to support alternative therapies -- chicagotribune.com

Autism treatment: Science hijacked to support alternative therapies -- chicagotribune.com:

"The Johns Hopkins neurologist and his colleagues had autopsied the brains of people with autism who died in accidents and found evidence of neuroinflammation. This rare look inside the autistic brain had the potential to increase understanding of the mysterious disorder.

It also, he knew, could inspire doctors aiming to help children recover from autism to develop new experimental treatments -- even though the research was so preliminary the scientists did not know whether the inflammation was good or bad, or even how it might relate to autism."

The Associated Press: Report finds wide disparities in gifted education

The Associated Press: Report finds wide disparities in gifted education:

"ATLANTA — When Liz Fitzgerald realized her son and daughter were forced to read books in math class while the other children caught up, she had them moved into gifted classes at their suburban Atlanta elementary school.

Just 100 miles down the road in Taliaferro County, that wouldn't have been an option. All the gifted classes were canceled because of budget cuts.

'If they didn't have it, they would get bored and distracted easily,' said Fitzgerald, whose children are 14 and 12. 'It just wouldn't be challenging.'"

R.I. education commissioner unveils sweeping reform plan | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal

R.I. education commissioner unveils sweeping reform plan Rhode Island news projo.com The Providence Journal:

"PROVIDENCE — State education officials have unveiled an ambitious plan to increase student proficiency, revamp failing schools, improve teacher quality and shrink gaps between low-income and middle-income students, even as the state struggles to dedicate enough resources to public education.

State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist shared a draft of her strategic plan with the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday. The 20-page plan is the result of more than four months of work by Gist, who became the state’s top schools chief July 1, and her staff at the state Department of Education."

Shouldn't the evaluating get evaluated? - washingtonpost.com

Shouldn't the evaluating get evaluated? - washingtonpost.com:

"Dan Goldfarb, a 51-year-old history teacher at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, says his first encounter with an evaluator under the District's new IMPACT system for assessing teachers did not go well. Goldfarb does not claim to be an objective observer. He doesn't like the new system or how Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is implementing it.

He was willing to reveal what the evaluator said to him, give me a copy of his evaluation and expose himself to what I expect will be an unhappy reaction from his principal and other D.C. school officials. So here goes. Goldfarb hit some bumps that deserve attention."

White House Pushes Science and Math Education - NYTimes.com

White House Pushes Science and Math Education - NYTimes.com:

"President Obama will announce a campaign Monday to enlist companies and nonprofit groups to spend money, time and volunteer effort to encourage students, especially in middle and high school, to pursue science, technology, engineering and math, officials say.

The campaign, called Educate to Innovate, will focus mainly on activities outside the classroom. For example, Discovery Communications has promised to use two hours of the afternoon schedule on its Science Channel cable network for commercial-free programming geared toward middle school students."

Hate speech takes focus : The Collegian Online

Hate speech takes focus : The Collegian Online:

"This past weekend students and members from the Fresno community united for a similar cause, only this time they did not walk out, they stayed in. The group staged a study-in Friday at California State University, Fresno’s Henry Madden Library to extend the library’s hours, wanting more availability to services funded by increasing student tuition fees.As with the walkout, critics were fast to denounce the movement as news of the event became the top story on local news stations. The Collegian’s Web site provided breaking news updates and photographs to provide readers with inside coverage as the overnight event progressed. And what seems to be a continuing trend with the online comments this semester, The Collegian became a bulletin board for hate speech."