'Race to the Top' won't get there | schools, school, student - Opinion - The Orange County Register

'Race to the Top' won't get there | schools, school, student - Opinion - The Orange County Register:

"As California and other states scramble for shares of Barack Obama's $4 billion pot of 'Race to the Top' education funds, it's easy to overlook the recent dagger to the heart dealt by the president and the Democratic-controlled Congress to the successful and popular Washington, D.C., school-choice voucher program. The voucher program's death sends a clear signal that Washington won't push states to increase competition in the education marketplace, ensuring that RTTT-funded 'reforms' will likely fail to produce dramatic improvements in student achievement.

RTTT funds are to be awarded to states that enact reforms, such as crafting data systems to measure and connect student achievement growth over time and the quality of individual classroom instruction; turning around low-performing schools; increasing the number of effective teachers and principals; and adopting common academic content standards and assessments agreed upon among the states. California has enacted laws designed to meet these requirements, which will allow the state to become eligible for up to $700 million in federal funds."

Who’s Getting Financial Aid? >>

Who’s Getting Financial Aid?:

"A revealing new study on financial aid at public research universities could cast a nasty shadow over school administrations nationwide. The study, “Opportunity Adrift,” from the non-profit research group, The Education Trust, finds that public universities, rather than award financial aid primarily to poor and/or minority students who could not otherwise afford college, actually give inordinate amounts of aid to students from wealthier families who could afford school anyway (and could likely afford to attend more expensive private schools).

Public universities, the study finds, have shifted their aid priorities from need-based aid to so-called “merit-based” financial aid. “So-called” because “merit” is defined in very narrow terms like performance on standardized tests and participation in advanced placement programs. That is, “merit” means attending a well-resourced school and being able to afford expensive SAT prep courses or tutors. Even then, though, merit-based aid is disproportionately denied to equally qualified poor and black or Hispanic students.� According to the study, the shift of priorities has taken place, to a large extent, at the level of individual school administrations, which decide what criteria are used for allocating financial aid."

The True State of the Union: A Politics Daily Sampler -- Politics Daily

The True State of the Union: A Politics Daily Sampler -- Politics Daily:

"It has evolved into a national exercise, one that invites participation from all Americans and not just the president of the United States. What is the state of our nation? Barack Obama will provide his vision Wednesday night in a stylized exercise known as the State of the Union address. If he follows the scripts of previous presidents, he will say it is 'strong.' And he will tell us how to make it stronger. He will be following a venerated pattern dating to the earliest days of the republic.

Section 3 of the Constitution is tucked unobtrusively into Article II, coming right after the Framers' brief and opaque language about impeachment, and right before the longer"

Pitt professor turns education executive | The Pitt News

Pitt professor turns education executive | The Pitt News:

"In late August 1961, Jerlean Daniel hopped on a plane in Sacramento, Calif., with nothing but a few suitcases of clothes and books. Four hours and 2,200 miles later, she arrived at the Pittsburgh International Airport, collected her bags and immediately boarded a bus bound for Oakland.

As the bus entered town, emerging from the semi-darkness of the Fort Pitt Tunnel, Daniel found herself assailed by doubt.

The sight of Pittsburgh, a city still dominated by steel mills and smog, shocked the California native, barely two months out of high school. She wondered whether she had made the right decision to attend Pitt and study political science."

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

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

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

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

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.

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