voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

Here's hoping that everyone had a reflective Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- and survived the strange incident of water falling from the sky. Your newsblitz today is loaded with articles and opinions on a little thing that Obama calls Race to the Top:

We profile an unusual man with an unusual job: Phil Stover, who is at the helm as San Diego Unified tries out a new way of budgeting. As a longtime consultant, he's credited with sparing millions from its operational departments, but his new role as interim chief special projects officer has raised questions for critics who wonder whether he's qualified. He's also just a really interesting character, a consultant who's lived in a Mission Valley hotel room for the last three years as his role here as steadily expanded.

And in case you missed it this weekend, we chatted with Pam Hosmer, who oversees programs for runaways, hospitalized students and other kids with rare needs in San Diego Unified, aboutthe unique challenges for homeless students.

EdFund President Receives CCCSFAAA Lifetime Membership Award — The Rancho Cordova Post

EdFund President Receives CCCSFAAA Lifetime Membership Award — The Rancho Cordova Post:

"The California Community Colleges Student Financial Aid Administrators Association (CCCSFAAA) awarded EdFund President Sam Kipp the group’s prestigious Lifetime Membership Award at the annual CCCSFAAA Conference in December.

The award is presented to individuals with a long history of service to the association and to the financial aid community as a whole. EdFund’s president since 2005 and an executive director of the California Student Aid Commission from 1986-1995, Dr. Kipp was praised for his enduring commitment to educational opportunity, meeting students’ needs, providing essential support services, and working with the financial aid community.

“Not only does Sam have a thorough knowledge of federal and state aid programs, their history and intent, but he has a thorough knowledge of the student loan industry in this country and the important and changing role of guaranty agencies. He understands, and more importantly cares about, the needs of community college students in this state,” says CCCSFAAA President Brad Hardison."

Elk Grove Citizen : News

Elk Grove Citizen : News:

"Summer school will not be offered at local high schools this year due to budget cuts, but seniors who lack the credits to graduate this year could join an experiment.

The Elk Grove Unified School District staff wants to offer these students a chance to make up their classes via the Internet. They could retake their needed courses on their home computers and submit their schoolwork to teachers.

If all goes according to district plan, online education could be offered to credit-deficient high school students this month.

Several trustees praised the online education plan during their Jan. 5 meeting.

“I think this is certainly the way to go,” said Trustee William Lugg whose grandson takes high school online courses at home in Colorado.

There are also district plans to launch a full-time, “virtual school” or online education program for grades kindergarten through 12 this summer where students can take online courses at home anytime in the day or night, while regularly working with a teacher through cyberspace."

This Week In Education: Media: Washington Post's "Best Blog 2010" Hits & Misses

This Week In Education: Media: Washington Post's "Best Blog 2010" Hits & Misses:

Media: Washington Post's "Best Blog 2010" Hits & Misses

Thanks to Jay and Valerie for including This Week In Education in their best blogs of 2010 list. Great choices, you two; you're not half bad yourselves.  Now let me return the favor by correcting and criticizing all your picks: 
I liked the inclusion of Public School Insights (led by "Baron" Claus von Zastrow) but I'd add the EdNews Colorado, Voice of San Diego (Emily Alpert), Philly Notebook, and GothamSchools as particularly promising beat / theme blogs (with real reporters and everything). 

I'd also add Politics K12 at EdWeek for its coverage of all things Duncan (though I worry about them getting cozy with their sources).  Other current favorites:  Larry Ferlazzo, the Knowledgeable Sourcerer, Perimeter Primate.   I do a roundup of best blog posts every day.  You know who you are.

I don't think Linda Perlstein's been at it long enough to call her Educated Reporter a best blog -- and I wonder about journalist types who blog without reading (and linking to) other education blogs (though I do like that she reads Gawker). Other promising but largely untested entrants include GOOD's new education page (led by former TWIE contributor Amanda Millner-Fairbanks).  We shall see.

Things on this topic I've said before:  Blogs are dead in the age of

District secondary schools open enrollment till Feb. 11 - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

District secondary schools open enrollment till Feb. 11 - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

"Elk Grove Unified School District officials have opened enrollment at seven district middle schools and seven high schools.

Sixth- and seventh-grade students in the district have until Feb. 11 to apply for enrollment at Harriet Eddy, Edward Harris, Samuel Jackman, Joseph Kerr, Elizabeth Pinkerton, James Rutter or T.R. Smedberg middle schools.

District students in eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th grade can apply for enrollment at Cosumnes Oaks, Elk Grove, Florin, Laguna Creek, Monterey Trail, Sheldon and Valley high schools."

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Will AFT Teacher Evaluation Effort Succeed?

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Will AFT Teacher Evaluation Effort Succeed?

Will AFT Teacher Evaluation Effort Succeed?

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten stirred education circles with a recent speech in which she called for a new template for evaluating public school teachers, including changes to the procedures for dismissal, formally known as due process. "Too often due process becomes glacial process," Weingarten acknowledged. "We intend to change that." The AFT tapped a top-notch attorney, Kenneth Feinberg, to oversee the effort to revise due process. In addition, Weingarten has reached out to key groups -- including the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the American Association of School Administrators, among others -- to create a forum for improving relationships between labor and management.

What did you think of the proposed teacher evaluation model? If the AFT succeeds at generating consensus among the relevant national players, can it effect change at the local level? What is the significance of the fact that the National Education Association has remained silent in the wake of this announcement?

-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com

Should Parents Dictate School Reforms?

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed education reform legislation on Jan. 7 that will give unprecedented power to parents whose children attend the worst-performing public schools. Under a provision known as the "parent trigger," if 50 percent of parents at a given school sign a petition, the school board must choose among several options, including closing the campus, converting to a charter, or replacing the principal and other administrators. Advocates of the controversial measure hope that it will make the state more competitive for Race to the Top money, in addition to improving education; opponents, such as the California Teachers Association, are concerned that the approach is too punitive.

Is the parent trigger a good idea? Did California make the right choice by adopting it, or should the state rely on other school improvement strategies?

-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com

A Waldorf-inspired public charter school in Oakland? Not likely. | The Education Report

A Waldorf-inspired public charter school in Oakland? Not likely. | The Education Report

A group of educators says if the Oakland school district permits them to open a charter school in East Oakland’s San Antonio neighborhood this fall, they will blend the unorthodox pedagogy of a traditionally private Waldorf School with methods used in public schools for low-income children and English learners.

It’s unlikely to happen, at least this year. Oakland Unified’s charter schools office is recommending against the opening of the Community School for Creative Education (for the second time). The reasons behind the denial are outlined in a 50-page report posted on a committee agenda for tomorrow night.

The Community School for Creative Education wouldn’t be the first public school built upon the Waldorf model, an approach to learning developed by Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in 1919 that places much emphasis on the child’s imagination and overall development (and which doesn’t require children to read until the end of third grade, the same year OUSD officials say they expect all kids to be able to read).

Still, the model doesn’t have much of a history in low-income communities with large numbers of English-language learners – a fact that seemed to worry Oakland’s charter schools coordinator, David Montes de Oca and others on the panel who reviewed the charter proposal.

The Educated Guess: LA Unified to pilot 2-year kindergarten

The Educated Guess:

LA Unified to pilot 2-year kindergarten

"In most states, children must turn five by June 1 or Sept. 1 to enter kindergarten in the fall. To its disadvantage – and against the advice of many educators – California has a late starting date of Dec. 1, with kids as young as four years and nine months starting kindergarten.

Recognizing that many children that young are not developmentally and emotionally ready for elementary school, Los Angeles Unified will start a two-year kindergarten next fall on a limited basis. There will be one program in each of the district’s eight districts.That’s a sound idea, but it’s also a more expensive alternative to what others have proposed for years: pushing up the cutoff date to Sept. 1 and plowing the initial cost savings into pre-school for low-income children.

The current s"

Marchers demand end to Philadelphia school violence | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/19/2010

Marchers demand end to Philadelphia school violence | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/19/2010:

"About 250 people staged a loud, traffic-stopping march through Center City yesterday, demanding an end to violence in Philadelphia schools.

Old and young, male and female, black, white, brown, and Asian, the demonstrators sought to celebrate and emulate the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday was observed in Philadelphia and across the nation yesterday.

'If Dr. King had a choice of where he would be, he would be right here with you,' the Rev. LeRoi Simmons said as people gathered outside the School District offices on North Broad Street, preparing to march to the Arch Street Methodist Church."

Education | Gregoire proposes enhanced preschool | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | Gregoire proposes enhanced preschool | Seattle Times Newspaper:

"OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday that she wants all preschools for children ages 3 and 4 to be certified by the state.

Gregoire said that under her proposed 'All Start' preschool program, certification would ensure that all preschools would operate under the same standards set by the Department of Early Learning.

'It's important to note that today, we have no standards for preschool programs,' Gregoire said at a new conference, joined by Bette Hyde, director of the state Department of Early Learning.

Also, Gregoire added, preschool teachers are not required to undergo background checks."

The education gap hits home - NYPOST.com

The education gap hits home - NYPOST.com:

"A single mother living in Harlem knows the plusses and minuses of charter schools firsthand -- because she has one son in a public school and another in a charter school.

'I love both my sons equally and think they deserve the same opportunity for a good education,' Quintasha Bullock said. 'So I'm disappointed that [lawmakers in Albany] will only let one of my boys go to charter school.'

Her 7-year-old, Quinzaire, 'was lucky enough' to get into Promise Academy 1, a charter school, this year, she said.

But her other son, Nashon, 11, attends PS 46 in Harlem."

Patrick trumpets sweeping bill to overhaul education - The Boston Globe

Patrick trumpets sweeping bill to overhaul education - The Boston Globe

Sitting on a child’s stool at the Children’s Museum, Governor Deval Patrick signed a sweeping education bill yesterday that will greatly increase the number of charter schools, grant superintendents the power to overhaul failing districts, and make the state eligible for up to $250 million in federal stimulus money.

“We are standing up for children,’’ Patrick said before an upbeat gathering of educators, politicians, pupils, and parents. “We are showing those hungry minds in our classrooms that we believe in them.’’

The governor trumpeted the bill as a once-in-a-generation achievement designed to narrow the performance gaps that still plague many pupils from poorer households, despite the state’s stellar showing on standardized tests. “We can tolerate it no longer,’’ Patrick said.

The legislation, which required compromise with a passionate array of entrenched interest groups, should serve as a template for debate on other major issues, the governor said. Now, he added, the responsibility for reform shifts from Beacon Hill to the communities and classrooms where the day-to-day business of teaching occurs.

Report: Education system in Arizona rates C-

Report: Education system in Arizona rates C-:

"We're not last, but we're close.

Arizona has received a C- for the overall quality of its K-12 education system based on national comparisons of factors such as school spending, academic standards and teacher training, according to the annual 'Quality Counts' report card released this month.

Arizona was short of the national average, a C, and dropped from 43rd to 46th place among all 50 states in the national report by Editorial Projects in Education, the non-profit group that publishes 'Education Week.'"

Unjustified press exaltation of a mediocre San Francisco charter school

Unjustified press exaltation of a mediocre San Francisco charter school:

"If only charter operator Envision Schools were half as successful at educating students at is it at persuading the press to print flattering articles about its schools, our education challenges would be solved.

Today's San Francisco Chronicle Insight section carries a pair of puff pieces praising Envision's City Arts and Technology (CAT) for its 'remarkable results.'

Dose of reality: While I'm not blasting CAT as a failure, its achievement ranks 12th out of the 17 general- education (non-continuation) high schools in the San Francisco Unified School District. Below are the spring 2009 achievement results for San Francisco high schools, from California's Academic Performance Index reporting system, ranked in descending performance order. All schools not otherwise designated are non-charter schools with entrollment by lottery:"

Roundtable looks at racial, ethnic disparities in education | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal

Roundtable looks at racial, ethnic disparities in education | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal:

"PROVIDENCE — When Jim E. Albert visits other schools for sports meets or academic competitions, he can see the difference between the haves and the have-nots.

In inner-city schools, he said, he sees few if any computers in classrooms, students use outdated books, and buildings are old and musty.

But in the suburbs, said Albert, a 17-year-old senior at North Providence High School, he sees schools that look more like his own: televisions and computers in each classroom, well-lit corridors and clean locker rooms.

“This shouldn’t be happening in our schools,” Albert said. “We need to start with equality in our schools. When we have that, we can begin to build a more just and equal society.”"

Colorado scrambles for dollars with new school reform plan - The Denver Post

Colorado scrambles for dollars with new school reform plan - The Denver Post:

"Colorado education officials will unveil a reform proposal today that asks for $380 million in federal Race to the Top funding, but they are missing a key plank regarding teacher evaluations that will likely give other states a leg up in the contest.

Months of work have led to a nearly 150-page plan that touches on nearly everything, including incentives for top teachers, resources focused on failing schools and sharing data across the state.

But while Colorado's application vows to address such issues as teacher performance, tenure and dismissal through a commission born today of an executive order from Gov. Bill Ritter, other states with more advanced teacher-tracking systems have put their evaluation plans into law."

EducationNews.org - The source of the school budget quagmire

EducationNews.org - The source of the school budget quagmire:

"Scores of Michigan school districts are facing budget problems, and the blame is falling on this year’s “draconian” state school aid cuts and on Michigan’s “unpredictable” school funding system. Schools are now said to be underfunded

The source of the school budget quagmire

By Michael D. Van Beek
Of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy"

Scores of Michigan school districts are facing budget problems, and the blame is falling on this year’s “draconian” state school aid cuts and on Michigan’s “unpredictable” school funding system. Schools are now said to be underfunded.

But the record shows that Michigan’s schools have been generously financed for years. This suggests policymakers should stop focusing on school revenues and instead encourage schools to control their costs.

Michigan’s public school system has received increased revenues — even after adjusting for inflation — nearly every year since the state’s voters passed Proposal A, the constitutional amendment that guides Michigan’s school funding system. From 1995 until 2008, inflation-adjusted total revenue for Michigan schools grew by nearly one-third, according to data from the Center for Educational Performance and Information. With virtually the same number of pupils today as in 1995, per-pupil revenue rose accordingly. In constant 2008 dollars, Michigan schools on average received about $3,000 more per student in 2008 than they did in Proposal A’s first year.

Herein lies the lesson for policymakers and taxpayers: More revenue for schools won’t necessarily stabilize their budgets.

Still, some point to recent revenue declines in the state school aid fund — the schools’ primary source of income, and the repository of taxes from Proposal A — and call for an overhaul of Michigan’s school funding system. This argument, too, is questionable: The school aid fund has grown 18 percent above inflation since 1995.

The Answer Sheet - More to education than data

The Answer Sheet- More to education than data:

"Here’s Diane Ravitch’s response to a post I wrote last week about Teach for America. In that post, I had noted that “Teach For America” founder Wendy Kopp went to Capitol Hill to talk about new research on effective teachers.


Using test score data, the nonprofit organization--which recruits college graduates to teach in low-income schools for two years--has determined that effective teachers are those who employ the same strategies as successful leaders in any field.


I also pointed to a critique by educator Diana Senechal published on the Core Knowledge Blog, called “There Is No Such Thing as Teaching."

National ed reporting overrated

Those of us who write about schools were supposed to rise in anger and frustration when the Brookings Institution revealed that during the first nine months of 2009 “only 1.4 percent of national news coverage from television, newspapers, new Web sites and radio dealt with education.” A headline on the Brookings Web site said: “Invisible: 1.4 Percent Coverage for Education is Not Enough.”

I’m not feeling it. To begin with, the headline was misleading. Brookings probably learned that trick from us newspaper people, but still, get real. Maybe national education news is hard to find. Maybe it deserves to be, as boring and repetitive as it can be. But education reporting, at least the local kind that fills most of my days, is alive and well and provides more than 1.4 percent of what Americans read in their newspapers each day.

Continue reading this post »

Fixed schools fail :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education

Fixed schools fail :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education:

"Storied Phillips High -- where Nat 'King' Cole once walked the halls -- and basketball powerhouse Marshall High School are among 14 Chicago public schools expected to face massive shakeups, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.


Fewer than 4 percent of students at both schools passed their state exams last year, putting both Phillips and Marshall on the radar for a 'turnaround'' in which schools are re-staffed but kids stay in place."



Both predominately black schools have faced major overhauls in the past, with little academic success.
A third high school is facing a total shutdown, sources say. Officials contend the South Side building housing Las Casas Occupational High doesn't meet the needs of the 82 special education students it serves. Officials want to send those students to Montefiore, a public school for truants and troubled students; Banner Linc Alternative School and various private schools.
The shakeup plan under discussion Monday called for the closure of Las Casas and three other schools, whose children would be sent elsewhere. Four others would consolidate with other schools; one would stop accepting new kids and phase out over time, and five would experience staffing "turnarounds." However, the plan was still being tweaked late Monday, when four small high schools in one building were spared from turnaround.

EducationNews.org - Parents rage at Albany over charter-busting bill

EducationNews.org - Parents rage at Albany over charter-busting bill:

"1.19.10 - Angry parents yesterday ripped Albany for putting the teachers union before kids, as lawmakers moved to block the expansion of charter schools -- jeopardizing New York state's bid to win $700 million in federal education funds.

Parents rage at Albany over charter-busting bill

Angry parents yesterday ripped Albany for putting the teachers union before kids, as lawmakers moved to block the expansion of charter schools -- jeopardizing New York state's bid to win $700 million in federal education funds.

'They know better. My son be damned!' fumed Dan Clark, whose son, Dan Jr., is an eighth-grader at Democracy Prep Charter in Harlem.

'What this fight is really about is power and money,' Clark said. 'The legislators are afraid of the unions.'"