Groups to Spread Word on Standards in States, Districts - Curriculum Matters - Education Week

Groups to Spread Word on Standards in States, Districts - Curriculum Matters - Education Week

I attended a forum on the common standards effort today in Washington. Originally it was supposed to be closed to the press, but the gates opened and journos were allowed in. The event drew people from across the DC education-policy circuit, but it was also attended by teachers, college faculty, and those otherwise curious about the progress of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

The event didn't yield much in the way of major revelations, though there were a few details worth noting:
—The American Federation of Teachers plans to partner with the Council of Great City Schools on a pilot project to examine how the standards can be implemented in schools. The project will focus on 10 districts, looking at issues such as aligning professional development with the standards that emerge, Patricia Sullivan of the AFT, told the audience at the forum.

—Along similar lines, the National Association of State Boards of Education is going to be staging four regional conferences that will focus on common standards sometime in early 2010. Brenda Wellburn, the executive director of the group, said the events will focus on helping their members understand the purpose of the state standards effort. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is providing some financial backing for those events, she said. State boards are a crucial audience for the common standards effort, because in most states those officials are expected to be the ones charged with deciding whether to adopt them.

—The organizers of the the standards effort originally predicted that a draft of the K-12 documents would be ready in mid-December. Now they're saying the release won't happen until early January. The draft K-12 document is already being reviewed by state officials, whose comments will be incorporated when the draft is unveiled, said Dane Linn, of the National Governors Association, who led the forum along with Gene Wilhoit of the Council of Chief State School Officers. Those two organizations, as most readers know, are guiding the standards effort.

Transcript: An Hour With Arne Duncan - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Transcript: An Hour With Arne Duncan - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

"Who said:

'If you're going to do something, do it.'

'I think there's a lot of scientific evidence that the status quo doesn't work.'

'I just want to make this clear. We've never said charter schools are the magic answer.'

'Frankly in education we're better at doing more things than we are stopping doing things.'

That would be U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in his hour-long interview with EdWeek reporters. The transcript is now online, so check it out.

If you just want the highlights, then read Alyson's story on the role incentives will play in No Child Left Behind Act reauthorization, the earlier blog entry, or watch the short video clip below. The Teacher Beat blog has a good perspective on Duncan's comments on teacher quality.

Education Week: Study Casts Doubt on Strength of Charter Managers

Education Week: Study Casts Doubt on Strength of Charter Managers:

"A report from Education Sector raises questions about the ability of charter schools and charter-management organizations to scale up as dramatically as their supporters might hope.

“The extraordinary demands of educating disadvantaged students to higher standards, the challenges of attracting the talent required to do that work, the burden of finding and financing facilities, and often aggressive opposition from the traditional public education system have made the trifecta of scale, quality, and financial sustainability hard to hit,” concludes the report, “Growing Pains: Scaling Up the Nation’s Best Charter Schools.”"

As hard-hitting as the findings seem to be, the report is at the center of a controversy over whether the final text—released by the Washington think tank on Nov. 24—was watered down.
The main author, Education Sector co-founder Thomas Toch, asked to have his name removed from the final product. It “didn’t fully reflect my sense of the current conditions or future prospects for CMOs,” he said in an interview. “Charter schools are an important addition to the public education landscape and the best CMOs have produced great results. ... But the CMO movement has created only a few hundred schools in a decade, and even with more funding it would be difficult for CMOs to expand much faster without compromising the quality of their schools.”

Under copyright rules, Mr. Toch is prohibited from publishing his earlier version of the two-year study, which draws on interviews with dozens of charter-network executives, visits to a dozen schools, charter-network business plans, and other documents. But Marc Dean Millot, an education industry observer and publisher, posted a June draft of the report online Nov. 30 in Alexander Russo’s This Week in Education blog.

Education Reform in the 21st Century

Education Reform in the 21st Century:

"Today in America, only half of students who enroll in college earn a degree and half of black and Latino teenagers drop out of high school. Where did we go wrong and what will it take to regain our global edge? To answer these questions, President Obama has put out the call to fix our nation's schools and he's linking billions of dollars in federal aid to states that meet criteria recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. Join three of the country's top education leaders for a frank discussion on this new opportunity to revitalize the country’s education system, and hear them talk about the state of our schools, barriers to reform, and what's at stake for our children and America's future."

Change in teacher's pensions unfair | mydesert.com | The Desert Sun

Change in teacher's pensions unfair mydesert.com The Desert Sun:

"A new ballot initiative has been certified by the state in order to gather signatures to place it on the June or November 2010 ballot. This initiative, sponsored by the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, will ask voters to approve severely reducing pensions for all retired public workers, including police, firefighters and teachers."

Teachers and administrators receive their pensions from the California State Teachers Retirement System or CalSTRS. This proposed ballot measure must first gather approximately 670,000 signatures to qualify for placement on the ballot. President Marcia Fritz of the foundation has titled this initiative, the New Public Employee Benefit Reform Act.

Nice and catchy, isn't it? Don't be misled.

Initiative would slash new retiree benefits

If passed, pension benefits of new public employee retirees will be significantly reduced.

The pension reductions for firefighters, police and other public workers would be different under the act, but all these reductions in my opinion would discourage individuals from seeking a career in these fields. For educators — teachers, counselors, nurses, librarians and administrators — the maximum benefit paid under CalSTRS would be 1.65 percent per year of employment of the average of the highest five consecutive years of base wages if they retire at age 67, a significant reduction.
Now it ranges from 2.4 percent at 65 and 2.0 percent at 60 for the average of the highest three years of employment.

This initiative undoubtedly will appeal to many who have seen recent media reports of public school retirees receiving more than $100,000 a year. Yes, there are a few who do receive this amount and probably most earned these high retirement benefits. These individual are mostly the higher paid superintendents, but compare them to private industry-wide chief executives and their salaries are not that high. But the facts are that only 1.6 percent of public school retirees receive pensions of more than $100,000. The average retired educator who paid into CalSTRS at 8 percent of the retiree's salary for more than 26 years receives $2,700 per month.

Seattle Moms Make School Lunches Greener | Mom Invented

Seattle Moms Make School Lunches Greener Mom Invented:

"As eco-conscious Seattle moms, Karen Whorton (left) and Becky Harper felt there was a better solution for their kids’ lunches than plastic bags. They were already using multi-use lunch boxes, cloth napkins and reusable water bottles, but they did not have a reusable bag for sandwiches and snacks -- and storage containers just seemed too difficult to use for their young children.

After about six months of creating prototypes and letting their children test their products, Karen and Becky launched ReUsies Snack and Sandwich Bags, two different sizes of cotton and nylon bags with Velcro closures. Though they initially started small last year, just selling to moms in their school, they’re now selling to local retail stores, in national school and nonprofit fundraisers and on their website."

Schools Matter: Charter School Magic Bullet Hits a Brick Wall

Schools Matter: Charter School Magic Bullet Hits a Brick Wall:

"The evidence grows each week that the Business Roundtable's latest magic bullet for killing off public schools has failed to fully penetrate its victims.

What has penetrated the thinking among states and municipalities is the realization that the corporate charter movement promises big tax saving for philanthrocapitalists like Gates and Broad, big profits for educational management organizations, total social control by corporations of the scary black people in the slums, and huge, huge losses to dollar-starved public coffers that must fund the charters AND the remaining public schools.

From Town Topics in Princeton, NJ:"

. . . .The board also unanimously approved a resolution to “direct and authorize the Superintendent of Schools to express the Board’s opposition and concerns regarding current application(s) and future applications made to the Commissioner of Education for the establishment of charter schools that target Princeton Borough and Princeton Township school-aged children.” The resolution noted that “the basis for this opposition is to protect the Princeton Regional School District’s fiscal ability and organizational capacity to maintain programs of excellence for all public school students in our community.” Ms. Wilson said that “we will be very specific in our opposition to charter school applications,” noting that “each differs in the target populations it proposes to serve.” There is currently an application for a Mandarin language, International Baccalaureate-granting charter school in the district.

. . .And from the Buffalo News:

Low Hanging Fruit in the Tax System: 10 Policies for $20 Billion | California Progress Report

Low Hanging Fruit in the Tax System: 10 Policies for $20 Billion California Progress Report:

"California Tax Reform Association

With the state facing a current deficit and on-going yearly deficits of $20 billion, the survival of basic services and a healthy public sector is at stake. The following summarizes 10 measures which will have the least impact on economic growth and recovery - the “low-hanging fruit” in the tax system. (For a more complete listing of tax options go to http://caltaxreform.org/?p=101.

Governor Schwarzenegger stated that all the “low-hanging fruit” in the budget - that is, the easy cuts -- had been removed. But loopholes, untaxed windfalls, tax breaks with no benefits, taxes on the very rich and sin taxes, the taxes with little or no impact on economic recovery, have not been cut at all. For broader-based taxes, the state can maintain some part of the previous increases."

voiceofsandiego.org: Bright and Early

Bright and Early

I've got a busy day ahead of me, what with parents pushing for California to go for more stimulus dollars and San Diego Unified fielding your suggestions at a budget town hall. If you want all the gory details, follow me on Twitter! If not, just hunker down with the newsblitz:

We blog that bond overseers are trying to safeguard the schoo' from the 'brary if the schoobrary comes to pass, by hammering out guidelines for the deal between San Diego Unified and the city for the library school lease.

Record numbers of students applied to the local California State universities, the Union-Tribune reports. KPBS provides the numbers too. Yet Capitol Weekly reports that California might still face a brain drain of college students.

Do You Want to Better The World? | SocialEarth

Do You Want to Better The World? SocialEarth:

"Similar to Everywun, points are earned by viewing ads and thus socially responsible companies advertise on the site.
Better The World currently has signed up nonprofits such as World Wildlife Fund, Trickle Up, Children’s Miracle Network, United Way and Habitat for Humanity. And they are looking for more.

Monthly contests are also held as a way to keep you earning points. This month’s contest is a drawing for an Apple Macbook and only the top 20 point-earners for the month get a chance to be in the drawing (they also will be drawing from all members for an Ipod Touch).
Convinced? Start Better(ing) The World today! Join now."

The Educated Guess » California’s Trot to the Top

The Educated Guess » California’s Trot to the Top:

"Forty-six days and counting, holidays included, before the state’s Race to the Top application is due in Arne Duncan’s hands. But if the state’s plan is any closer to completion than last week or last month, the state officials leading the effort aren’t saying.

At the last hearing on Race to the Top before the Assembly’s Education Committee on Wednesday, Deputy Superintendent Rick Miller and Kathryn Radtkey-Gaither, the governor’s undersecretary in his Office of Education, were mum on details. One got the distinct sense that they weren’t being cagey because they’re worried that Texas will steal their ideas. Its’ because the plan is still largely unformed."

Bill would expand who could grant a teaching credential

Jumping ahead of the expected release today of the Assembly’s version of Race to the Top legislation, Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande of Palm Desert has introduced three bills of his own.

Two deal with alternative ways to bring teachers into the profession. The third would make it slightly easier to get rid of those who end up performing badly.
At Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s urging, legislators are considering ways that might improve the state’s shot at a piece of the U.S. Department of Education’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition. Nestande’s bills would tangentially address what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has targeted as the biggest priority of Race to the Top funding: ways to improve teacher performance.

ABX5-5 would create the biggest change. It would enable non-traditional organizations – business groups or charter schools, perhaps – to begin awarding teacher credentials, just as California Start University campuses do.

University education departments have been broadly criticized for mediocre credentialing programs. So one can make a case for alternative programs for attracting candidates to teaching – especially those entering the profession mid-career. In additon, charter school organizations may want to train their own teachers with different values and skills. (High Tech High, a charter management organization in San Diego, already does run its own credentialing program.)

Sacramento Press / Another group of California's finest honored at the Hall of Fame

Sacramento Press / Another group of California's finest honored at the Hall of Fame:

"It must have been a surreal experience for those on the RT at 10th and O streets to spot the likes of John Madden, Carol Burnett and George Lucas walking down the red carpet in their awards-show best at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

Anyone who actually got off at the stop may have caught Burnett's signature Tarzan call or had a chance for Lucas to sign any surface capable to be written on. Dozens of others, however, thought ahead and brought glossy “Star Wars,” “Terminator” and sports stills for Lucas, Gov. Schwarzenegger and Madden to sign, respectively."

The occasion for this "who’s who" of California’s best, 13 in all, was their induction into the state’s Hall of Fame (Schwarzenegger and first lady Maria Shriver were hosting, not being inducted). Before the evening’s ceremony, the honorees received a justified red carpet treatment for their accomplishments.

Bestselling author Danielle Steel’s gold jewelry glowed in contrast to her simple, black outfit. Burnett was just as warm and funny off camera as she has been since the mid-1960s, even taking time to joke with a group of young girls carrying signs reading “I love Carol."

General Chuck Yeager, being one of the bravest American men in history, was remarkably down-to-Earth considering he’s spent so much of his life thousands of feet above it. Though Andy Grove looks like any other conservatively dressed businessman downtown, he is responsible for every major advancement in computing and technology in the past half century with his invention of the silicon-based chip.

Rafer Johnson could have easily beaten his fellow inductees down the carpet in a footrace, but instead chose to saunter along with the confidence

2theadvocate.com | Education | Pastorek: Data will let public see how schools are doing — Baton Rouge, LA

2theadvocate.com Education Pastorek: Data will let public see how schools are doing — Baton Rouge, LA:

"LAFAYETTE — Within the next 30 days, the Louisiana Department of Education will post “succinct” district-level data to better educate the public about the state of their schools, said state schools Superintendent Paul Pastorek on Tuesday.

While data is available on the state Web site, it’s not exactly user-friendly for the average parent or layperson.

The intention is to “create a guide for Joe Six-Pack to go to a school board and ask questions,” Pastorek said. “… You have to step up armed with information and change the dialogue.”"

Pastorek spoke Tuesday in Lafayette as part of The Independent Weekly’s lecture series. The majority in the audience of about 100 were either educators or members of the business community.

“What do you want for Lafayette? I promise you what you’re getting is what you want,” Pastorek said.

Communities across the state need to ask the tough questions of their board members if they want to see dramatic changes, Pastorek said.

He used N.P. Moss Middle School as an example. For the second year in a row, the school’s performance scores fell below 60 and earned it an academically unacceptable label.

WNYC - News - Brooklyn Principal Wonders What She'll Cut Next

WNYC - News - Brooklyn Principal Wonders What She'll Cut Next:

"NEW YORK, NY December 02, 2009 —City principals are gearing up for another round of budget cuts. The Education Department is preparing a 1.5 percent reduction to help the city close its mid-year deficit. That might not sound like a lot. But it follows a previous round of cuts that principals say has left the schools with no place left to trim. WNYC’s Beth Fertig visited an elementary school in East New York to see the impact.

AVERY: Ms Huger? Want to come next?"

It’s 9 a.m. and Principal Melessa Avery of P.S. 273 in Brooklyn is looking at a packed schedule. She has to observe a few classes, meet with her cabinet, and hold a fire safety meeting.

Administrative manager Janet Huger helps Avery plan her day. The safety meeting has to include a teacher who’s also the union rep. But Huger and Avery say there’s no one to cover for him if he leaves the classroom.

HUGER: Normally we would have people to do coverages for that. We don’t have that anymore. That was a luxury last year. That’s gone. AVERY: Because of budget cuts we don’t have like the extra staff.

Principal Avery had to let go of five of her 27 teachers, because the school’s budget was reduced by half a million dollars. To avoid a big increase in class sizes she made science and social studies teachers into classroom teachers. Kindergarten enrollment grew, however, and she was forced to hire another teacher recently.

If the 1.5 percent budget cut is applied equally to all schools, P.S. 273 will lose $63,000. Principal Avery is stumped when asked what she’ll cut next.

Fenty names school official as D.C. parks chief - washingtonpost.com

Fenty names school official as D.C. parks chief - washingtonpost.com:

"Mayor Adrian M. Fenty tapped a District public school administrator Wednesday to head the Department of Parks and Recreation after the rocky six-month tenure of an acting director who was ultimately rejected by the D.C. Council."

As interim director, Jesús Aguirre will be in place for six months without having to go before the council for confirmation. Fenty (D) said he would decide after that period whether he would nominate Aguirre to be Ximena Hartsock's permanent replacement.

Hartsock, who conducted exit interviews with council members Tuesday, will stay in the Fenty administration as an analyst in the office of City Administrator Neil O. Albert. The council voted 7 to 5 in October not to confirm her as parks chief.

Aguirre's appointment ends one of several feuds between the council and Fenty over what council members see as the mayor's ongoing lack of respect for their authority. After the council rejected Hartsock's nomination, Fenty named her interim director, a move council members considered a backhanded way to override the vote.

Education Notes Online: New Action Supported UFT Charter Schools

Education Notes Online: New Action Supported UFT Charter Schools:

"This comment

Thank God for New Action. The UFT needs change. The UFT needs to start to fight for its members who are fighting with all their might, all on their own against charter schools. It is terrible the UFT, the teachers unions, is sitting back and doing NOTHING! That is what teachers pay for and the UFT does absolutely NOTHING!

at the Gotham Schools posting that made it seem New Action was an opposition caucus led to my response below:

New Action at one time used to be for change, but as partners with the UFT leadership for the past 7 years that is all over. They used to actually have a decent platform calling the UFT leadership undemocratic and calling for democratization of the union. Now that they got theirs, all that has disappeared."

How can the UFT fight charter schools when they have two of their own? And occupying space in public schools. And New Action supported them all the way, with some New Action members volunteering in the charters. ICE and TJC were opposed to the establishment of the charters because it was clear what was coming down the line and having their own charters would make a fight impossible. The UFT strategy was to "show them we can do it with a union contract," which New Action has supported. Then they sign a contract with Green Dot charter, also not opposed by New Action. Now their strategy is not to oppose charters but to try to organize them. Sort of like going back to the 1950's. The charters will remove public schools and the UFT will try to sell charter school teachers on the concept of "look how incompetent we have been in defending NYC teachers, now give us a chance to screw you too."

Class Struggle - Teacher incentive watch: why Prince George's County matters

Class Struggle - Teacher incentive watch: why Prince George's County matters:

"I'm not used to seeing good ideas coming out of Prince George's County, Md., the most troublesome of the Washington area's suburban school districts. When superintendent John Deasy, a very creative educator, left Prince George's last year for the big bucks and power of the Gates Foundation, the district's reputation took another blow. But my colleague Nelson Hernandez reveals that Deasy left behind him a remarkably clever plan for teacher and principal bonuses, something those of us uncertain about this latest hot fad should be watching carefully for the next few years.

Deasy's chosen successor, Bill Hite, has preserved the FIRST (Financial Incentive Rewards for Supervisors and Teachers) plan and announced the initial round of $1.1 million in bonuses. The money went to 279 employees in 12 schools, the teacher bonuses averaging around $5,000 each."


Would suburban parents send their kids to D.C. schools?

[This is my Local Living section column for Dec. 3, 2009]

A leader in the national effort to raise the achievement of low-income children once told me how she became, to her amused surprise, one of those rare suburban Washington parents who pay tuition to send their children to D.C. public schools.

She grew up in a white, blue-collar family far from Washington. Her children attended economically diverse schools, but when she got a big job in D.C. the people at her new office, despite their shared commitment to improving urban education, told her she would be nuts to put her kids in the D.C. system. Uncertain what to do in a strange new city, she bowed to this unanimous view and bought a house in Montgomery County, never anticipating what happened next.

One of her children didn’t like the Maryland schools. She dreamed of life on the stage and wanted to attend the Duke Ellington School of the Arts on R Street NW. This parent had raised her children to care about the nation’s ethnic and social divisions. She couldn’t say no to her daughter attending a well-regarded public school that happened to have a large number of disadvantaged students, even if it was going to cost her $10,000 a year.

Insideschools.org » Principal’s Perspective: Ted Sizer’s legacy

Insideschools.org » Principal’s Perspective: Ted Sizer’s legacy:

"“Inspiration, hunger: these are the qualities that drive good schools. The best we [educators] can do is to create the most likely conditions for them to flourish, and then get out of their way.” — Ted Sizer, Founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools

Several weeks ago, I attended the Fall Forum of the Coalition of Essential Schools,an organization started 25 years ago by Ted Sizer, a great man who passed away in October. I was both inspired and saddened.

Saddened because I see the ways in which movements to create and sustain innovative places of learning can be marginalized due to the intense testing pressure that school leaders face. It takes much longer, and is much harder, to create a nurturing community of learners, and to change the beliefs and values of adults to create that culture, than it is to look at and analyze test scores."

New York Legislature Passes Bills on Budget and Pensions - NYTimes.com

New York Legislature Passes Bills on Budget and Pensions - NYTimes.com:

"ALBANY — Lawmakers took baby steps toward bringing spending restraint and more-rigorous government oversight to the capital on Wednesday by closing most of a $3.2 billion state budget deficit, scaling back pension benefits for new government employees and overhauling the public authority system."

But the measures were greeted coolly by financial watchdogs, who said that lawmakers had made so many concessions that they had done little to change the fundamental problems that state government has faced.

Still, the developments were largely good news for Gov. David A. Paterson on a day when legalizing same-sex marriage, arguably his signature issue, was handily defeated in the Senate. And they were also a rare sign of functionality from the narrowly divided Senate, which has often struggled to vote on any subject.

For several months, the governor has pushed lawmakers to pass the pension legislation. The agreement offers new employees less-generous pension benefits, raising the retirement age of many new government workers to 62 from 55 and increasing their required contributions into the pension system, the first such scaling back of benefits in more than 25 years.

Education Week: U.S. Solicits Input for New Ed-Tech Plan

Education Week: U.S. Solicits Input for New Ed-Tech Plan:

"Federal education officials are soliciting input for a new plan for educational technology that would put student learning at the center of the nation’s strategy for transforming schooling in the digital age.

But even though today’s Web 2.0 tools can spread information broadly and quickly and foster collaboration on such projects, the effort has apparently been slow in attracting recommendations from educators and ed-tech experts that could help guide its development, some people in the field say."

“The new plan is a critical component to moving education forward in the digital age,” said Donald G. Knezek, the executive director of the International Society for Technology in Education, or ISTE, based in Washington. “The draft is shaping up to have all the right placeholders focused on learning and effective and competent teaching.
“But the important thing now is to put the meat on those placeholders,” he said, “so they have got to have educators and sophisticated education leadership to get their ideas in there.”
So far, those voices are scarce among the comments highlighted on the Web site set up to collect input on the plan.