Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Race to the Top - Driving a Race to Reform? | Connect for Kids / Child Advocacy 360 / Youth Policy Action Center

Money makes a lot of things happen, but can it drive more states to tackle comprehensive school reform?

States have been working hard to put in place the changes required to apply for the first set of $4.35 billion federal Race to the Top funds that were included in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) or stimulus bill. The Race to the Top program funds states (and in 2011, may fund individual districts) to take on system-wide school improvements that focus on four areas: common, internationally benchmarked standards; effective teachers and principals; data to inform decisions; and turnaround of struggling schools.

The deadline for the first round of funding ("Phase 1") was January 19, 2010 -- and 40 states and the District of Columbia submitted applications, more than the Administration expected. Winners will be announced in April. A second round of state applications is due in June, with winners announced in September. Ten states – Alaska, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Washington – did not apply for Phase 1.

In a January 19 conference call with reporters, Education Secretary said the program was already helping to “drive significant change” around the country. “Forty-eight states are working together to develop common college-ready ... standards. A dozen states have amended or protected their charter laws,” he said. “Best of all, at the local and state levels, stakeholders are working together in collaboration to develop comprehensive reform plans. Superintendents, unions, elected officials, governors, and administrators—everyone is stepping up and taking responsibility.”

GUEST OPINION: Let me stay in prison - and teach | PressDemocrat.com

GUEST OPINION: Let me stay in prison - and teach | PressDemocrat.com:

"Seven hundred prison teachers are being laid off due to state budget cuts in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Prison educational and rehabilitative programs are being gutted in the name of “streamlining” and efficiency. The 2 percent of the department's budget dedicated to education and rehabilitation has been cut to 1 percent.

I am one of those teachers. We have been declared “surplus” state workers, and our last day of work will be at the end of this month.

Yes, I'm concerned about losing my job and income. I've worked at San Quentin State Prison for two years and nine months. I was planning do it for another 15 or 20 years. Now I'll be collecting unemployment and seeking a teaching job in this economy."

MJC community education keeps some classes alive - Local - Modbee.com

MJC community education keeps some classes alive - Local - Modbee.com:

"People who want to take hobby-type classes at Modesto Junior College, such as cooking or aerobics, increasingly are signing up through the community education program, paying a little extra money to keep classes that otherwise might fall to budget cuts.

As the state's financial crisis squeezes community colleges' course offerings, many are eliminating classes that are not required for students to transfer to a four-year university or earn a certificate.

To save such classes as exercise, music, photography and sewing, community colleges are restructuring and moving them to community education programs."

Rising book prices weigh heavily on student budgets on CollegiateTimes.com

Rising book prices weigh heavily on student budgets on CollegiateTimes.com:

"Textbooks are not included in the sticker price of a college education, but they cost the average student at a four-year public institution more than $1,000 a year.

Rising textbook prices have inspired University Bookstore and Tech Bookstore to search for new ways of lowering students’ financial burden.

According to the College Board’s 2009 report on Trends in College Pricing, books and supplies cost students at four-year public schools $1,122 per year on average, or $561 per semester.

The Southern Regional Education Board, which is the accrediting body for Virginia universities, published an article on rising textbook prices titled, “Focus on Rising College Textbook Prices.”"

Lynn Jacobs and Jeremy Hyman: No Room at College: What to do When You're Closed Out of Your Courses

Lynn Jacobs and Jeremy Hyman: No Room at College: What to do When You're Closed Out of Your Courses:

"Yesterday, the New York Times ran a piece, 'Students Face a Class Struggle at State Colleges,' describing the dramatic shortage of places in classes at California state colleges. The crisis is nationwide: Public universities in economically-distressed states (not only California, but Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio come to mind) simply don't have enough available spots in many classes to accommodate a student population growing at 4 1/2 percent each year. What should students do? Here are our ten best tips for finding places in closed courses:"

1. Try an off-peak time. Consider taking the sections that meet at times students find most undesirable. Think late afternoons and evenings, 7 A.M, and Fridays. You know, the times that your cohorts would rather be doing anything else than going to class.

2. Come up with a really good reason you need the course. Hoof on over to the professor's office - during posted office hours - and explain your reasons for needing in to the course. Focus on academic reasons: You're a graduating senior, the course is a pre-requisite for something you want to take next semester, your transfer from community college to state university would be held up without this course, or your senior thesis would benefit, immeasurably, from this course.

SFGate: Politics Blog : Boxer, pushing bigger child-care tax credit, gets boost from Obama

SFGate: Politics Blog : Boxer, pushing bigger child-care tax credit, gets boost from Obama
President Obama today called for a more generous child-care tax credit for middle class American families, giving new hope to a proposal being pushed by Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talk to Kamora Bull at the Community Centers Inc. child care center in LA on Jan. 13. (AP photo)

Obama today proposed nearly doubling the federal child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000 and increasing it for families making less than $115,000.
The president's plan is likely to jump-start legislation authored by the Democratic senators called "the Right Start Child Care and Education Act."
Raising the child-care credit would provide "much-needed tax relief for working families," said Boxer. "This is particularly important in this tough economy, where child-care costs are rising twice as fast as household incomes."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=55974#ixzz0dix9DYNo

At Marin forum, state budget expert calls for revenue increases - ContraCostaTimes.com

At Marin forum, state budget expert calls for revenue increases - ContraCostaTimes.com:

"Rather than slash spending on education and health care further to balance the state budget, legislators should consider boosting revenue by closing corporate loopholes and collecting additional taxes.

That was the message that Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the Sacramento-based California Tax Reform Association, delivered Monday night during a forum on the state's budget woes. Goldberg shared the podium with Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Norman Solomon, a West Marin author and progressive political activist.

The meeting, which was attended by more than 50 people, was sponsored by the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition at the First United Methodist Church in San Rafael."

Senate Bill 6358 another jab at already reeling four-year university students | Peter Callaghan - The News Tribune | Seattle-Tacoma News, Weather, Sports, Jobs, Homes and Cars | South Puget Sound's Destination

Senate Bill 6358 another jab at already reeling four-year university students | Peter Callaghan - The News Tribune | Seattle-Tacoma News, Weather, Sports, Jobs, Homes and Cars | South Puget Sound's Destination:

"This week, the Senate has scheduled a hearing on a bill to crack down on what some see as a big problem in higher education – students who hang around too long.

Senate Bill 6358 would force students who take too long to graduate to start paying the unsubsidized tuition out-of-state students pay.

It’s not that “professional” students who take space that other students could use aren’t an irritation. But it seems like a minor one compared with a historic disinvestment in public higher education by Washington."

UCR Newsroom: No Child Left Behind

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Highly accomplished teachers assessing the merits of the No Child Left Behind Act give the federal legislation a mixed report card, according to a study by University of California, Riverside researchers that appears today inPolicy Matters, a quarterly journal published by UCR.

Researchers Patrick Guggino, who earned his Ph.D. in education from UCR in 2008, and Steven Brint, professor of sociology, surveyed more than 740 of California’s most accomplished teachers to assess the effectiveness and unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act. Congress approved the legislation in 2001, increasing federal funding for education while at the same time tying continued support to improvements in individual student outcomes.

The legislation fundamentally changed teaching and education in U.S. schools by requiring annual testing of school children and “adequate yearly progress” for every subgroup of students. The act also requires schools to provide after-school tutoring and other services for poor-performing students and mandates that schools hire only “highly qualified” teachers.

The researchers conducted an online survey in 2007 of educators who are National Board Certified Teachers, a rigorous certification process that requires candidates to demonstrate high levels of subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and classroom effectiveness through performance-based assessment. Guggino and Brint asked these teachers to assess the impact of No Child Left Behind in three areas of professionalism – technical areas of practice, the service ethic of teaching and professional commitment.

Oral Sex and Dictionaries: Not In California - GOOD Blog - GOOD

Oral Sex and Dictionaries: Not In California - GOOD Blog - GOOD:

"The paranoid style of American politics is at work again—this time in Riverside County, California, which recently banned Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition, from its districts' school libraries because of the entry 'oral sex' and its accompanying definition.

Menifee Union School District's spokeswoman, Betti Cadmus, called it 'sexually graphic,' and said that while 'it's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature.'

The definition at issue: Main Entry: oral sex Function: noun Date: 1973 : oral stimulation of the genital. It should be noted that in the online version of things, genitals are plural.

Already, the response has gotten pretty heated, both at�Witness LA and at the Los Angeles Times blog, which features�reader feedback. Even The Guardian has weighed in."

Google negotiating ways to keep presence in China

Google negotiating ways to keep presence in China:

"BEIJING (AP) — Even if Google's stand against censorship leads it to close its search engine in China, the company still hopes to maintain other key operations in the world's most populous Internet market.

Google Inc. is in delicate negotiations with the Chinese government to keep its research center in China, an advertising sales team that generates most of the company's revenue in the country and a fledgling mobile phone business."

On Campus, Female Majority Levels Off - CBS News

On Campus, Female Majority Levels Off - CBS News:

"AP) More men are attending college and graduating with a bachelor's degree, reversing the tendency of female undergraduates to outnumber men and outperform them academically, according to a new report out Tuesday.

One notable exception is young Hispanic men - especially new immigrants - who are falling further behind Hispanic women.

Men account for 43 percent of overall college enrollment and earn 43 percent of bachelor's degrees - figures that have remained consistent since the early 2000s."

Governor looks south of the border for prisons

Governor looks south of the border for prisons:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that the state could save $1 billion by building and operating prisons in Mexico to house undocumented felons who are currently imprisoned in California."

The governor floated the idea during an appearance at the Sacramento Press Club in response to a question about controlling state spending. His speech came on the same day that changes in prisoner parole and credits for time served took effect.
"We pay them to build the prisons down in Mexico and then we have those undocumented immigrants be down there in a prison. ... And all this, it would be half the cost to build the prisons and half the cost to run the prisons," Schwarzenegger said, predicting it would save the state $1 billion that could be spent on higher education.
About 19,000 of the state's 171,000 prisoners are illegal immigrants, according to the most recent statistics available online. The state spends more than $8 billion a year on the prison system.
Aaron McLear, spokesman for the governor, said later that Schwarzenegger's comments did not represent a concrete proposal, but "a concept somebody mentioned to him" and he could not say where the governor came up with the $1 billion figure.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/01/26/MNV11BND6M.DTL#ixzz0ditWNi3G

Monday, January 25, 2010

Act Now! Apply for the Citizens Redistricting Commission‏

Act Now!

Apply for the Citizens Redistricting Commission

Dear Friend,

There's still time to apply to the Citizens Redistricting Commission! You -- yes you -- could play a leading role in the 2011 electoral line-drawing process. Fill out your initial application online by February 12, 2010 at www.WeDrawTheLines.ca.gov . If you've already thrown your hat into the ring, California Forward encourages you to spread the word to your friends and colleagues.

Information on the Citizens Redistricting Commission and how to apply is available here and also on California Forward's website (scroll down the right hand side of www.caforward.org for the link). If you are interested in receiving future communications from us regarding redistricting, or are interested in getting involved in CF generally, please reply to this email. California Forward urges you to get involved in this once-in-a-decade opportunity to help map California's political future.

Thanks, and please stay in touch!

The California Forward Team

First Juvenile Hall Open House to be Held Jan. 30 — The Rancho Cordova Post

If you’re looking for a weekend trip that can also teach children about consequences, then Sacramento County’s first-ever juvenile hall open house on Saturday, Jan. 30 might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Visitors to the open house can see first-hand how juvenile detainees spend their incarceration. Though visitors will not be able to see or visit with juvenile detainees, the open house will give an inside look at three housing units that have recently been upgraded and renovated.

“Information about Juvenile Hall is largely anecdotal and not always based on facts,” said Chief Probation Officer Don Meyer. “This Open House will allow members of the community to see, first hand, the facility and its structure. It’s an opportunity seldom offered due to the security needs of the facility.”

Approximately 2,911 juveniles age 13-18 spent at least one day at the facility in 2009, and all juveniles who are arrested, booked and considered a “risk to the community” are housed there, a media release from Sacramento County said. Juveniles in detention are supervised through a program that promotes behavior modification, education, recreation and counseling. El Centro Junior and Senior High is an educational program run year-round at the facility, and detainees can earn high school credits while in detention.

STILL WAITING FOR SUPERMAN?

Waiting for Superman - Patti Hartigan - No Child Left - True/Slant

Waiting for Superman

Can documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim do for education what he did for global warming? The director of “An Inconvenient Truth” unveiled “Waiting for Superman” at Sundance on Friday, and the documentary was picked up by Paramount Vantage. That means it will be seen on more screens than other earnest, but little known education docs like “Children Left Behind.” Will the message get out to the popcorn crowd that the richest nation in the world is systematically failing its children, year after year after year?

I haven’t seen it (stuck here in the blue purple state of Massachusetts), but the word out of Sundance looks positive. Variety describes it as “”Exhilarating, heartbreaking and righteous,” continuing,

“Waiting for Superman” is also a kind of high-minded thriller: Can the American education system be cured? Can it be made globally competitive? Can it, at least, be made educational?

I’m not so sure about the thriller part — kinda hard to have a thriller without a resolution — but the film is sure to draw attention to our struggling schools. The doc follows several families who are trying to work their way through the system; the title comes from a girl’s dream that someone will magically appear to rescue her.

Talking heads include college dropout and education philanthropist Bill Gates, the visionary Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone, and controversial DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee. From what I’ve read, the documentary is particularly tough on teacher unions and gonzo on charter schools, both of which are hot points of contention in any discussion of what’s failing education.

Urbanski may stop mayor's plan for Rochester schools | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Urbanski may stop mayor's plan for Rochester schools | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle:

"As a teenage immigrant at Franklin High School in the 1960s, Adam Urbanski was so ashamed of his dense Polish accent that he spoke with a hand covering his mouth."

A dose of confidence from a girl's whispered compliment changed that, and today, as he approaches his 30th year as president of the Rochester Teachers Association and vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, people listen when Urbanski speaks.

While Mayor Robert Duffy seeks to assume control of the Rochester School District, Urbanski's voice — and the influence he wields as one of the nation's most powerful teachers union leaders — might represent the best chance opponents have of thwarting the plan.

"I don't like systems that are built for one person," Urbanski, 63, said in an interview shortly after Duffy made his intentions clear. "What are these new ideas that Duffy would bring? Why haven't we heard any of them until now?"

Because Duffy's request for control of schools requires the approval of the state Legislature and the governor, Urbanski's sway and that of the state teachers union — which Urbanski said will support his opposition — will help decide the plan's fate.

"Adam Urbanski is there to serve the teachers and the members of his union," said Duffy, who met with Urbanski recently to discuss his proposal. "He is a very tough, experienced, successful union leader. In the current system, he has as much influence in Albany as anyone here."

How UFT torpedoed NY's shot at $700m - NYPOST.com

The city teachers union did its best to scuttle the state's application for $700 million in federal school aid by refusing to embrace reform measures required to compete for the funds, education authorities told The Post.

State officials confirmed that the United Federation of Teachers refused to sign a memo supporting the state's Race to the Top application because it would have allowed student test-score data to be used in the evaluation of the union's members.

The UFT also refused to agree to paying the best teachers extra to work in high-poverty schools, arguing that such a move smacked of merit pay. And it sought to add obstacles for bouncing the lowest-performing teachers from the system, city officials said.

PAUL MARTINKA

PUTTING TEACHERS TO TEST: Principal Julie Kennedy leads a class at the Williamsburg Collegiate Charter School in Brooklyn. The Race to the Top contest pushes schools to evaluate teachers based on student scores.

"What the union was proposing on issues of teacher evaluation and teacher compensation not only was not in accordance with the mandates of Race to the Top but would have damaged the state and the city's ability to win the $700 million award," Deputy Schools Chancellor John White said.

"Any statement that the teachers union was trying to satisfy the requirements of Race to the Top through an agreement with the state and the [city] Department of Education is a lie."

UFT President Michael Mulgrew countered that the union had been looking to negotiate a memo with the city for weeks but that education officials waited until the 11th hour to tackle the tough issues.

He said many of the items in a separate memo the UFT signed and sent to the state demonstrated it was a ready partner.

"It clearly says that we are willing to sit and work with the state on coming up with some sort of [teacher-evaluation] system," he said. "The Department of Education is once again spinning and misrepresenting . . . If they're saying we're lying, then I'll tell you they're lying, and I can prove it."

Without Paul Robeson, Many Students Will Have Their Needs Unmet - NY1.com

All this week, NY1 has taken a unique, behind-the-scenes look at one of the major schools the city wants to close. The city says shutting down Paul Robeson is the best solution to the many problems plaguing the Brooklyn high school. But as NY1's Education reporter Lindsey Christ shows in her final report, the city still has no answer to the fundamental question -- who is ready to do a better job for Robeson's struggling students?

Education Meeting On NY1

The Panel for Educational Policy's vote on Tuesday to close Paul Robeson High School and 20 other schools in September will be seen LIVE on NY1.

If the Department of Education has its way, the Panel for Educational Policy will vote Tuesday to begin closing Paul Robeson High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn this September. But unlike most of the other 20 schools the city wants to close, there is no immediate plan to replace Robeson.

"If students make that choice to cut class or stay home when their school is a few blocks away, I don't understand the reasoning of sending on them on a train further to get them to go to school," said Robeson student Victor Rodriquez.

There are more than 1,000 students at Robeson, and while the city says there are other Brooklyn high schools with space, teachers wonder if those schools will be willing to take all the students with special needs who now go to Robeson.

Education officials say they eventually plan to replace the school but they are not going to rush.

"We want to take the coming year to work with the community here to create a new school that gives all of our children great opportunities," said Deputy School Chancellor Kathleen Grimm.

Meanwhile, a block away, other children will be getting a great opportunity right away at a brand new high school building that will be ready in September. It's just for charter schools and will only be open to students who were in charter middle schools.

The construction project is being overseen by a team that includes Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s daughter, Emma, whose employer, the Robin Hood Foundation, split the cost of the multi-million dollar building with the city.

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