Pittsburgh schools criticized over charters

Pittsburgh schools criticized over charters:

"Before giving up his seat on the Pittsburgh school board last month, Randall Taylor pledged to remain active in education issues.

He wasted little time making good on the promise.

Charter school proponents are circulating an e-mail from Mr. Taylor in which he blasts the Pittsburgh Public Schools' handling of a charter school application, claiming the school board rejected it for fear of competition.

'I believe decision-makers have come to the conclusion that the Pittsburgh Public Schools cannot compete with or against public charter schools, and that numerous students in some communities would enroll in a charter, if given that opportunity,' he said."

Teachers seek control at up-for-bid L.A. Unified schools - latimes.com

Teachers seek control at up-for-bid L.A. Unified schools - latimes.com:

"A plan to let outside groups bid for control of dozens of long-struggling and new local campuses has unleashed a formidable competitor: Groups of teachers from inside the Los Angeles Unified School District are vying to take charge of their schools.

At every location up for bid -- 12 existing schools and 18 new campuses -- teams of teachers and the L.A. teachers union are working nights and weekends to decide what to offer students and parents and what they would require of them and of themselves.

They are trying to take advantage of a reform strategy, approved in August, that envisioned bringing in privately operated charter schools to set the standard for a school system widely seen as dysfunctional.

The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, also is trying to block charter takeovers through litigation. But rank-and-file teachers, with backing from the union and, in some cases, from the school district, are planning to compete with the charters, and they plan to win."

Mayor Robert Duffy plants flag on Rochester schools takeover | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Mayor Robert Duffy plants flag on Rochester schools takeover | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Mayor Robert J. Duffy kicked off his second term on Friday by vowing to take that hill.

The mayor, after being sworn in, said the city would try to take over the City School District, and he cast aside any doubt that he would let potential political skirmishes dissuade him from that 2010 goal.

"There is a saying: 'Pick the hill you want to die on,'" Duffy said. "Well, I have, and education is that hill."

The assembled crowd of more than 200 people at City Hall applauded. The mayor made it clear in an inaugural speech that he has chosen a new major issue to tackle in the new year, and he seemed to revel in knowing his goal.

But it is not the only issue on Duffy's large 2010 plate.

Duffy has set an aggressive agenda for his second term, most notably his goal of full consolidation and oversight of the school district. Other priorities include the redevelopment of Midtown, targeted investment and restructuring of challenged neighborhoods and improved public safety.

Duffy said the homicide rate and violent-crime rate had dropped in 2009, and he credited improved policing. He singled out the city's fire and policedepartments for their recent public safety efforts.

The mayor pledged to tackle controversial topics directly, and not busy himself with concern about managing relationships and egos.

He has called the city and schools consolidation a "political fireball," but added: "I've stood by for four years on this and, while I've talked behind the scenes, I'm committed now to go in a different direction."

The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools by Peter Schrag Redux

The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools by Peter Schrag

Redux

Ideologically inspired lamentations about the parlous state of American education mask the much more complex truth 
by Peter Schrag
N the spring of 1991, as warnings accumulated that America's second-rate schools were dooming the nation to permanent failure in the global economy, systems analysts at Sandia National Laboratories, a federal institution of generally impeccable reputation, compiled a lengthy report showing that the picture in American education was far more complex -- and in many respects a great deal less gloomy -- than the rhetoric of alarm allowed. But for two years the report -- a collection of tables and statistics on everything from dropout rates and SAT scores to college degrees awarded in engineering and other technical fields -- was buried by the Department of Energy, which had commissioned it. The document, said James Watkins, George Bush's Secretary of Energy, was "dead wrong," and would be regarded as "a call for complacency at a time when just the opposite is required." It had a small underground circulation, but even after the Clinton Administration finally released it, in 1993, neither the Sandia data nor similar findings from other sources got much attention. Mixed reports don't make for good headlines, and qualified good news undermines the sense of crisis essential both to liberal demands for more money and to conservative arguments that only vouchers and other radical solutions will do. Good news, even qualified good news, runs counter to the conventional wisdom and undermines almost everybody's agenda of reform.
It was always thus: in the late 1950s, after the launching of Sputnik; in the early 1980s, after publication of the federal report A Nation at Risk, which warned that the failures of the nation's schools were about to undermine America's ability to compete economically; in 1989, when President George Bush and the nation's governors initiated what came to be called Goals 2000, pledging to make this country the world leader in education by the year 2000; in 1993, when President Bill Clinton and a Democratic Congress followed that up with legislation to develop voluntary national standards in English, history, science, and other fields; and in 1995-1996, when that same effort collapsed in controversy and dispute over the standards that were produced.

Now, as President Clinton is calling yet again for higher school standards, and for a program of national testing in reading and math, the same assumptions of crisis and failure that have fueled every other recent reform debate are being invoked. The debate is driven once again by our favorite myths: that there was once a golden age, an era when schools maintained rigorous academic standards, when all children learned, when few dropped out and most graduated on time; that sometime in the past generation or so (most commonly pegged to the 1960s) the system began to fall apart under a siege of social promotion, grade inflation, and progressive mush that is leaving America helpless against superior foreign education; and that the large amounts of new money that have gone to the schools in the past generation have largely been wasted. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the University of California regent Ward Connerly, who spearheaded California's drive against race-based affirmative action, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece,

The education bureaucracy won't concede that, despite spending trillions of dollars on education over the past 30 years, American children are further behind today. It doesn't want to admit that the S.A.T. scores of African-American children, which average 100 points less than the scores of white children, are the direct result of the current [Great Society] policies.

In some places, circumstances, and contexts, some of those criticisms are correct. Many schools are academically flabby, mindless, and laced with an anti-intellectualism sometimes bordering on outright sabotage; some are wastelands of crime, drugs, and despair; many are afflicted by multicultural fashion and politically correct clichés. Some are run by arrogant, rigid bureaucracies or crippled by unions that make it impossible to move any teacher with seniority, let alone fire the bad ones, and classrooms are often without a regular teacher for the first month of school while the seniority system slowly determines who may be assigned where. Many schools don't demand nearly as much as they should. But many others suffer from few of those things, and without a more realistic sense of what is going on -- a better understanding of the myths -- the country will never get beyond the horror stories and ideological set pieces that seem endlessly to dominate the education debate.


Misleading Statistics and Comparisons

State tightens the reins on failing schools - STLtoday.com

State tightens the reins on failing schools - STLtoday.com

State tightens the reins on failing schools

BY VALERIE SCHREMP HAHN

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

01/01/2010

A new law that goes into effect today seeks to prevent school districts in Missouri from bouncing back and forth between barely meeting and not meeting state standards, giving the state more power to take over a struggling district.

Under previous law, a district that lost accreditation had two full years to improve and regain accredited status.

If the district failed to make sufficient progress, it could face sanctions as severe as a state takeover. But if districts made enough improvements to regain partial accreditation, but then lost accreditation again, they would be entitled to yet another two-year grace period.

Critics called it the "yo-yo effect," with school districts being able to dodge tough state penalties by making modest but fleeting improvements. That had happened for years with the 

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Presenattion before The 2007 Senate Enquiry into the Quality of School Education (Australia)

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Presenattion before The 2007 Senate Enquiry into the Quality of School Education (Australia)

Jimmy Kilpatrick Editor, EducationNews.org


Presenattion before The 2007 Senate Enquiry into the Quality of School Education (Australia)

Inquiry into the Academic Standards of School Education

I am former teacher and educational psychologist within the Victorian state school system (20 years), who has been, for the past 15 years, training educational psychologists at RMIT University - with a particular emphasis on literacy development, instruction, and remediation. I am committed to promoting educational research as an under-used, but valuable, informant of educational policy, and am attuned to the findings of the literacy research around the world through assiduous reading. I also consult in the RMIT Clinic with individuals with literacy problems, and this work along with my previous experience, has confirmed for me a number of disquieting conclusions about the education system.



We have an unnecessarily high proportion of students who cannot achieve their potential because of their low literacy skills. Literacy is pivotal to every aspect of our life, yet we have made little inroad into providing an effective educational environment that alters the trajectory of the unacceptably high number of students failed by that system. This has occurred despite the well-intentioned attempts to redress educational disadvantage. The failure of the system to draw inspiration from empirical research is puzzling, given its positive impact on other professions such as medicine, psychology, technology, and agriculture.



There are a number of reasons why this has occurred, among them a science-aversive culture endemic among education policymakers and teacher education faculties. Education has a history of regularly adopting new ideas, but it has done so without the wide-scale assessment and scientific research that is necessary to distinguish effective from ineffective reforms. This absence of a scientific perspective has precluded systematic improvement in the education system, and it has impeded growth in the teaching profession for a long time.

As an example, consider these practices

Sacramento Press / Parents, Is Your Child Struggling?

Sacramento Press / Parents, Is Your Child Struggling?

Parents, a chronic struggle with reading, writing or math may indicate a learning challenge or learning style that requires us to go Beyond Tutoring. Resentment, frustration, avoidance and anger may be your child’s attempt to communicate an inability to successfully perform the various tasks being asked of him—possibly struggles that are the result of a specific learning challenge that is beyond the control of the student. Even poor classroom participation or constant battles over homework may be more than a matter of improving attitude or self-motivation.

More and more, many intelligent students simply do not respond to the standard teaching model. Children exhibiting symptoms of Dyslexia, ADHD and other learning challenges often experience significant difficulties with standard teaching methods. Even with one-on-one tutoring, special education (resource) classes, a 504 or IEP, and other remedial measures, too many children fail to thrive in school today.

Our educational system, our culture and our environment have all undergone tremendous change in recent years. Life in the 21st Century seems to be placing more and more demands on adults and children to adapt and change.

America: Land of the free?

America: Land of the free?


I always thought America was a great place. During World War II and after it, we opened our doors to refugees, and with a little help and work on their part, they had a new home. They were free to live as they liked as long as they had a job.

America became the mixing pot of all sorts of different people. That`s what makes her so unique and great. The diversity has become one of her strengths.

But things have changed immensely. We now have what we call "the border war" with Mexico. They risk life and limb to come to America, for it is a much better place. And we track them down so we can send them back. All of the ones that make it are now the backbone of America. And Americans know they are here illegally and exploit them because they will work for less than an American will. And we make it really hard for them to become a citizen of America. And here is what really happened.

A scant 150 years ago, approximately 50% of what was then Mexico was appropriated by the US as spoils of war, and in a series of land "sales" that were coerced capitalizing on the US victory in that war and Mexico`s weak political and economic status.

 A sizable number of Mexican citizens became citizens of the United States from one day to the next as a result, and the treaty declaring the peace between the two countries recognized the rights of such people to their private properties (as deeded by Mexican or Spanish colonial authorities), their own religion (Roman Catholicism) and the right to speak and receive education in their own tongue (for the majority, Spanish). Therefore, the descendants of this population continue to press for such rights, and many hold that theirs is a colonized land and people in view of the fact that their territory and population was taken over by military force.

Program growth needs priority | NewsOK.com

Program growth needs priority | NewsOK.com:

"Shortfall

It’s easy to see why some Oklahoma teachers might be upset over news that funding is short for bonuses promised when they received national certification. Education officials put the shortfall at about $4.7 million.

The only good news is that the budget may have overestimated how many teachers qualify for the bonuses this fiscal year. Teachers who earn National Board Certification qualify for an annual $5,000 bonus for 10 years as long as they stay in teaching. The state program also helps pay for the certification process.

Ted Gillespie, head of the Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation, suggested reducing the bonus rather than suspending or ending it. That’s an idea worth considering. So, too, are cost-control measures for the next few years as the state’s budget recovers. That might mean suspending the bonus opportunity for teachers not already in the certification process pipeline or rethinking the bonus amount for new participants with a focus on high-need teaching areas."

The Canadian Press: Google exec in race for Vt. governor promising 'flat, fast and innovative' state government

The Canadian Press: Google exec in race for Vt. governor promising 'flat, fast and innovative' state government:

"WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. — Internet search giant Google is based in Silicon Valley, yet it runs its community affairs operation out of a former bread factory in an old New England railroad town, hard by the confluence of the White and Connecticut rivers.

Matt Dunne, 40, the man in charge of Google's worldwide efforts to burnish its image in the places where it has offices, keeps up with corporate headquarters through a broadband link from two video screens in the bakery's former walk-in cooler.

Dunne's use of that technology - and the broadband Internet connection supporting it - is an example of what he touts as the key to Vermont's economic future as he campaigns for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor.

'We need to, and I believe have an opportunity to, go from one of the lowest broadband penetration states in the country to the first state that brings fiber-optic high-speed Internet to every home in the state,' Dunne said in an interview. 'And that's an incredible opportunity for us to move from a state that's not thought of as being a technological centre to being a technological centre.'"

The States and the Stimulus - WSJ.com

The States and the Stimulus - WSJ.com:

"Remember how $200 billion in federal stimulus cash was supposed to save the states from fiscal calamity? Well, hold on to your paychecks, because a big story of 2010 will be how all that free money has set the states up for an even bigger mess this year and into the future.

The combined deficits of the states for 2010 and 2011 could hit $260 billion, according to a survey by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Ten states have a deficit, relative to the size of their expenditures, as bleak as that of near-bankrupt California. The Golden State starts the year another $6 billion in arrears despite a large income and sales tax hike last year. New York is literally down to its last dollar. Revenues are down, to be sure, but in several ways the stimulus has also made things worse."

El Monte City school board member slain in Mexican massacre - Whittier Daily News

El Monte City school board member slain in Mexican massacre - Whittier Daily News:

"Armed gunmen abducted and killed a local school board member while he visited family in Mexico for the holidays, his brother said Thursday.

Agustin 'Bobby' Salcedo, 33, the vice president of the El Monte City School District, was found dead Thursday morning by Mexican authorities, Carlos Salcedo said.

'It's a tremendous loss,' said Carlos, himself a member of the El Monte Union High School District Board. 'I'm still in shock and I can't believe it happened.'"

Jaime Richards: Accidental education - Inside Bay Area

Jaime Richards: Accidental education - Inside Bay Area

Jaime Richards: Accidental education

By Jaime Richards
Oakland Tribune

Posted: 01/02/2010 12:00:00 AM PST

IN A PERFECT world, school curriculum would include interesting, relevant and useful lessons that would inspire students to learn, develop and seek more education.

But, alas, we live on Earth, where perfection exists only in our imagination. As anyone who has ever been to school knows, a lot of what's taught there is boring, irrelevant and useless.

The result? Kids hate school. They hate it so much they quit.

In the United States, 7,000 kids drop out of school each day. That's one every 9 seconds. One out of four American high school freshmen won't graduate with his or her class.

When you consider their frustration with our flawed educational system, it's understandable.

Understandable but still regrettable. Because as twisted and irrational as school can be, it's still good. It's still important. It's still valuable. Getting a diploma and getting a degree always will be better than not getting it.

The reason, although easy to understand, is just not communicated to kids as much as it should be — that battling their way through our imperfect schools inadvertently prepares them to battle their way around our imperfect planet.

Obviously, schools won't promote this. "As bad as we may be, stick it out because we're preparing you for reality." Yet it's true.

KFGO News Story: For young homeless, many challenges, few resources

KFGO News Story For young homeless, many challenges, few resources

For young homeless, many challenges, few resources

2010-01-02 04:32:02

Bobby Stenberg has been on his own since he was 15, but five years of bouncing from shelters to friends' couches to the streets hasn't been enough to make him want to live with his family again.


"All my family smokes crack and meth and I know if I stayed with them I'd be in and out of jail all the time," said the soft-spoken 20-year-old, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled tightly over his head.


For the last two months, Stenberg has been staying at Hope Street Shelter, operated by Catholic Charities for homeless people between the ages of 16 and 21. He has his own bed and a closet with a padlock. He's one of the lucky ones.


Social service agencies estimate that every night in the Twin Cities, 1,500 people between 16 and 21 are homeless, while fewer than 50 shelter beds are set aside to serve that population. With many states reporting increases in the number of homeless youth amid a still-struggling economy, advocates are asking why such a vulnerable population seems to be perpetually overlooked.


"Adult shelters are generally not safe places for young people who are just coming on the streets," said Hope Street's director, Andrea Simonett. "They can be taken advantage of very easily."
Hope Street has 16 "emergency beds" for 16- to 21-year-olds, with no time limit on how long they can stay. Simonett said most stay about 25 days _ long enough to force shelter workers to turn away dozens more.


In fiscal year 2009, the shelter turned down lodging requests from 1,078 kids. Simonett said that's much higher than in 2007 or 2008, and in general, shelter workers and advocates for homeless youth said the problem seems to be getting worse.


"For sure, the recession is having a big impact _ the job losses, the home foreclosures," said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the Washington-based National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. "What we are hearing anecdotally is that when families can't take care of all their kids, the oldest kid is the first to get squeezed out."
Advocates said the best measure of homeless youth nationwide is an annual U.S. Department of Education tally of homeless public school students. In the 2007-08 school year, districts reported 794,617 homeless students, up 17 percent from the year before.


Duffield said she's started to see 2008-09 numbers for specific states, and so far the increases have been even larger: 28 percent in California and Colorado, 21 percent in Florida. "I expected increases, but the numbers coming in so far, I was shocked," she said.


While the economy is a likely factor in the increase, many homeless young people end up that way for traditional reasons _ family discord often fueled by alcohol and drugs, or physical or sexual abuse. Kenesha Hughes, a 19-year-old who's been living at Hope Street for the last three months, said she left home after her mother stole money from her that had been earmarked for college.


"I don't want to go back there," Hughes said.


As residents at Hope Street, Stenberg and Hughes are assigned case managers who ensure they are applying for jobs and looking for a more permanent living situation. Residents are not allowed to be at the shelter from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, a requirement intended to motivate them to get out and improve their lives.


People who work with homeless youth said younger people often get lost in the shuffle at adult shelters. At youth shelters, they get the benefit of efforts to steer them away from chronic homelessness.

Teacher in a Strange Land: Best of Times, Worst of Times, and so on...

Teacher in a Strange Land: Best of Times, Worst of Times, and so on...

Best of Times, Worst of Times, and so on...

I get a real kick out the best-of  lists that pop up at the end of the year. This year, of course there's an extra bit of puffery: the First Decade of the New Millennium has passed into ignominy, so what is the great cosmic takeaway for educators?

Really? While there are transformative events and legislation, most real change in education feels sluggish, rather random and exceedingly difficult to analyze. Education policy thinkers tend to be Covey-esque in the upbeat, step-wise way they approach change: anticipate, arrange, administer and assess. That's the way we got No Child Left Behind, which was supposed to be the Grand Plan to identify inequities, raise and equalize standards (a word meaning different things to different stakeholders), harass teachers into somehow teaching better, and then test diligently to ensure accountability.

But-- no plan on such a scale succeeds unquestionably. NCLB may have changed the tenor of the conversation, but the Decade of No Child has now ended and--aside from Margaret Spellings--who wants to keep arguing about whether the results are marginally data-positive or proof that you can spend billions and not improve the worst troubles in any 

CALPIRG Scorecard - How Did Your Representative Vote? | California Progress Report

CALPIRG Scorecard - How Did Your Representative Vote? | California Progress Report


CALPIRG compiles an annual legislative scorecard for all members of the California legislature, to educate the public about their representatives' voting records and hold elected officials accountable.

Our 2009 scorecard focuses on key consumer votes in the legislature.

Find out how your State Assemblymember voted here.

Find out how your State Senator voted here. 

Thirteen state Senators and twenty-five state Assemblymembers received 100 percent scores for their strong record of voting to protect consumers, rather than special interests.

The average score in the Assembly is 66 percent. The average score in the Senate is 65 percent.

Most of the bills scored here faced tough opposition from insurance companies, banks and/or mortgage brokers, the chemical industry or other powerful interests. Several of the bills succeeded and were signed into law. Unfortunately, many good consumer laws did not make it through the legislature, or were vetoed by the governor.

Successful new laws that we scored include:

AB 260: A new law protecting consumers from

Charter school focusing on Hmong children proposed in Sacramento - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Charter school focusing on Hmong children proposed in Sacramento - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

"A group of Sacramento parents, educators and business professionals wants to open a charter school that will focus on teaching Hmong children, who have largely fallen through the cracks at regular public schools.

Hmong students in the Sacramento City Unified School District had the lowest scores – collectively – of all the district's ethnic groups on the English language arts section of standardized tests last year and the year before."

Judge rules Schwarzenegger can't furlough 3 unions - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Judge rules Schwarzenegger can't furlough 3 unions - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

"An Alameda Superior Court judge has ordered the Schwarzenegger administration to stop furloughing thousands of state workers who are members of three big public sector unions, including Service Employees International Union Local 1000, offering them a huge legal victory as 2010 begins.

In three rulings released late Thursday, Judge Frank Roesch said the governor's reliance on the state's Emergency Services Act to order three furlough days a month, triggering pays cuts of almost 15 percent, was flawed and illegal"

Sacramento Press / Old Sac welcomes New Year

Sacramento Press / Old Sac welcomes New Year:

"Spectacular fireworks, entertainment and large crowd (as well as the blue moon), bring the New Year in during Old Sacramento's festivities.
Here's some moments:"

Local News | 20 years ago elementary teacher, students set a date to meet | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | 20 years ago elementary teacher, students set a date to meet | Seattle Times Newspaper:

"BREMERTON — Twenty years ago, a class of 20 Armin Jahr Elementary students made a pact with their fourth-grade teacher: they would meet at the school's flagpole on Jan. 1, 2010, at noon.

The date, displayed on the classroom white board through the school year in 1990, served as a reminder of the promise the 8- and 9-year-olds made.

They couldn't fathom then what they might be doing when they were almost 30. Would they be married? Probably, said teacher Richard Lewis."