Schools Matter: The New NCLB's Demand for Highly Unqualified Teachers

Schools Matter: The New NCLB's Demand for Highly Unqualified Teachers

Sam Dillon has a big story on the Oligarch-Obama Plan to make Race to the Trough the new No Child Left Behind. Instead of federal education support based on funding formulas, the Oligarchs are envisioning a system of permanent competition based on the production of test scores as the chief criterion for states and localities to get federal assistance:

“They want to recast the law so that it is as close to Race to the Top as they can get it, making the money conditional on districts’ taking action to improve schools,” said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, who attended a recent meeting at which administration officials outlined their plans in broad strokes. “Right now most federal money goes out in formulas, so schools know how much they’ll get, and then use it to provide services for poor children. The department thinks that’s become too much of an entitlement. They want to upend that scheme by making states and districts pledge to take actions the administration considers reform, before they get the money.”

One section of the current Bush-era law has required states to certify that all teachers are highly qualified, based on their college coursework and state-issued credentials. In the Race to the Top competition, the administration has required participating states to develop the capability to evaluate teachers based on student test data, at least in part, and on 

As New York’s Charter Schools Gain Students, Future Growth Is Unclear - NYTimes.com

As New York’s Charter Schools Gain Students, Future Growth Is Unclear - NYTimes.com:

Next year will be the biggest year of growth yet for New York’scharter schools, with 29 due to open in New York City alone. But Seth Andrew, the founder of Democracy Prep, a successful charter middle school in Harlem, is already starting to turn his focus to another state. The political environment in New York, he fears, is shifting.



This month, a bill to double the number of charter schools ended in deadlock in Albany. Political opposition is nothing new for such schools, but this defeat was particularly jarring, coming even as other states have loosened restrictions on charter schools to improve their chances for a share of $4 billion in federal grant funds in the competition known as the Race to the Top. As the Race to the Top deadline came and went, New York did not act.
Mr. Andrew, 31, wants to open five charter schools in the city; his second will open next year. But the current state law limits the number of charter schools to 200, and 182 are already running or have been given permission to open. While Mr. Andrew said he would not abandon his New York schools, he now plans to open three in Rhode Island, which offered him free facilities, and pledged to let him expand without limit as long as his schools show results.
“I was born and raised in New York, so I wanted to commit to New York,” said Mr. Andrew, who graduated from Bronx Science High School before getting degrees from Brown and Harvard.

United Federation of Teachers sues in effort to block closure of 19 city schools

United Federation of Teachers sues in effort to block closure of 19 city schools:

"The city's teachers union will file a lawsuit Monday in a bid to block the closure of 19 schools - ramping up its already antagonistic relationship with City Hall.

The United Federation of Teachers lawsuit accuses the city of violating the state mayoral control law by failing to account for the impact of the shutdowns on the community.

Advocates complained last week that the Education Department did not give proper notice about replacement schools before the Panel for Educational Policy voted Wednesday to approve the closures.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was in talks about joining the lawsuit, sources said. NAACP officials refused to comment yesterday.

A UFT lawsuit last year over the proposed closure of three other schools led the city to abandon its plans. None of those schools is on the closure list this year, having all"

City schools to be graded on a curve for next year’s report cards | GothamSchools

City schools to be graded on a curve for next year’s report cards | GothamSchools

City schools to be graded on a curve for next year’s report cards

by Maura Walz

Many of the city elementary and middle schools who received A’s on last year’s report cards are likely to see their grades drop under a new scoring system for next year, Department of Education officials told principals today.

Next year, only the top-scoring 25 percent of schools will receive A’s, with just under a third of schools each getting B’s and C’s. A tenth of schools will be handed D’s, and 5 percent will receive failing grades, according to the plan outlined today by the city’s accountability chief Shael Polakow-Suransky.

(More than 80 percent of elementary and middle schools took home A’s on their progress reports for last school year.)

The change comes as part of the first step of a gradual recalibration of the way schools are rated in the city’s progress reports system and is also a by-product of the wider state effort to overhaul tests given to New York’s third through eighth graders.

State education officials are redesigning tests this year, both to make them more difficult and to judge a wider set of skills. Students are also taking state test in May this year for the first time, where in the past they’ve sat for exams in January.

Administration Proposals Seek Broad Changes to ‘No Child Left Behind’ - NYTimes.com

Administration Proposals Seek Broad Changes to ‘No Child Left Behind’ - NYTimes.com:

"Now the administration hopes to apply similar conditions to the distribution of the billions of dollars that the Department of Education hands out to states and districts as part of its annual budget."


“They want to recast the law so that it is as close to Race to the Top as they can get it, making the money conditional on districts’ taking action to improve schools,” said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, who attended a recent meeting at which administration officials outlined their plans in broad strokes. “Right now most federal money goes out in formulas, so schools know how much they’ll get, and then use it to provide services for poor children. The department thinks that’s become too much of an entitlement. They want to upend that scheme by making states and districts pledge to take actions the administration considers reform, before they get the money.”
One section of the current Bush-era law has required states to certify that all teachers are highly qualified, based on their college coursework and state-issued credentials. In the Race to the Top competition, the administration has required participating states to develop the capability to evaluate teachers based on student test data, at least in part, and on whether teachers are successful in raising student achievement.

Survey: School lunches, full of processed foods, still fail health test

Survey: School lunches, full of processed foods, still fail health test

The health-crazed Bloomberg administration often touts how it has overhauled school lunches and slashed calories - but critics charge the standard cafeteria fare is still far from healthy.

A Daily News survey found lunchrooms routinely serve highly processed foods such as mozzarella sticks and pizza, which critics charge are loaded with preservatives and other unhealthy ingredients.

"It's more window dressing than real change," said nutritionistSusan Rubin, founder of the Westchester-based advocacy group Better School Food. "Just cutting the calories and fat doesn't make this processed food healthy."

The simple-sounding toasted cheese sandwich on oat bread is a case in point: Ingredient lists obtained by The News show the frozen sandwich contains more than 30 ingredients - including high-fructose corn syrup, which officials have vowed to cut out.

"It just looks so greasy, you can tell it's unhealthy," said Schnedie Dorizan, 16, a junior at Clara Barton High School inBrooklyn.

Nutritionists said processing foods, such as turning chicken into nuggets, removes nutrients while adding possibly unhealthy preservatives and fillers. Processed foods also pack more sugar, fat and salt to make up for flavors lost in processing.

Pizza is served regularly in city schools. Bronx high schools were scheduled to offer pizza at least nine times this month.

Read more:http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/01/2010-02-01_untitled__lunch01m.html#ixzz0eI9o0BHu

School creep's detention haul - NYPOST.com

School creep's detention haul - NYPOST.com

A Queens teacher who collects a $100,000 salary for doing nothing spends time in a Department of Education "rubber room" working on his law practice and managing 12 real-estate properties worth an estimated $7.8 million, The Post found.

Alan Rosenfeld hasn't set foot in a classroom for nearly a decade since he was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to junior-high girls and "staring at their butts," yet the department still pays him handsomely for sitting on his own butt seven hours a day.

In 2001, six eighth-graders at IS 347 in Queens accused Rosenfeld, a typing teacher who filled in for an absent dean, of making comments like "You have a sexy body," asking one whether she had a boyfriend and making others feel uncomfortable with creepy leers.

J.C. RICE

BIZMAN ON CAMPUS: Typing teacher Alan Rosenfeld outside the Brooklyn “rubber room” where he clocks in every morning with fellow classroom exiles and manages a law practice and real-estate fortune.

TEACHERS GONE WILD!: 'LOVE BOAT' PROM SCANDAL

Because the Department of Education could not produce all the students as witnesses, he was found guilty in only one case. A girl testified that Rosenfeld stopped at her locker, where she was standing with a friend, and "said I love him because I talk to him so much."

A DOE hearing officer gave him a slap on the wrist -- a week off without pay -- for "conduct unbecoming a teacher." He was cleared to return to teaching.

Instead, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has kept the scruffy 64-year-old in a Brooklyn rubber room, deeming him too dangerous to be near kids, officials said.

The DOE can't fire him.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/school_creep_bQL5kouK80obW5MhZRyq7J#ixzz0eI9KZucc

D.C. Schools Chancellor Rhee's approval rating in deep slide - washingtonpost.com

D.C. Schools Chancellor Rhee's approval rating in deep slide - washingtonpost.com:

"D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's job approval rating has dropped precipitously over the past two years, alongside Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's, despite sentiment among District residents that conditions in the city's long-troubled public education system are starting to improve, according to a new Washington Post poll.

Rhee's performance was viewed favorably by 59 percent of residents in January 2008, with 29 percent disapproving. Now, there is a near-even split: 43 percent approve of what she's doing, and 44 percent are dissatisfied. Those with children in D.C. public schools have nearly reversed their opinion of Rhee. Two years ago, 54 percent of those parents approved of her; now, 54 percent disapprove."

AP: States struggle to keep top teachers - USATODAY.com

AP: States struggle to keep top teachers - USATODAY.com:

"ATLANTA — Most states are holding tight to policies that protect incompetent teachers and poor training programs, shortchanging educators and their students before new teachers even step into the classroom, according to a new national report card.

The study from the National Council on Teacher Quality— being released Friday — paints a grim picture of how states handle everything from pay to discipline for public school teachers. States are using 'broken, outdated and inflexible' policies that ultimately hurt how children learn, according to the report."

Obama’s State of the University >>

Obama’s State of the University :

"President Obama’s plan to cap student loans could substantially lower payments for thousands of UC Irvine graduates and provide a powerful incentive to students considering a job in public service.

If Congress responds to Obama’s push in last night’s State of the Union address, the new rules could dramatically reduce monthly loan payments as early as next year for millions of former students across the country.

A graduate owing $30,000 and earning $25,000 a year, who might otherwise owe $345 a month, would see their monthly payment capped at $73. And if they worked in government or for a non-profit organization, whatever portion of the loan that remained unpaid after ten years would be forgiven."

The WIP Contributors: India Sets Its Sights on Higher Education

The WIP Contributors: India Sets Its Sights on Higher Education
India Sets Its Sights on Higher Education

by Priyanka Bhardwaj
- India -

• India's new education reforms could keep more bright minds from leaving home to pursue higher education. Photograph by flickr user Universidad de Navarra used under Creative Commons licenses. •

Education remains an emotional subject in a poor and developing country like India, where it is seen as the primary means for social and economic mobility. Indian families are known to sell land and spend their life’s savings to educate their children, especially males. Such desperation means that any change in the sector is a highly debated subject.

Meena, a resident of Gurgaon, has been making the rounds at banks, in the hopes of getting an educational loan for her son Rahul.

“We have decided to send our son abroad for higher education, preferably an MBA,” she explains, “as this will make him more globally competitive and it will stay with him for a lifetime. After all, he is our only son among three children and as responsible parents we feel obliged to think of the best for his welfare.”

The Daily Aztec - FLAMING LIBERAL: Transparency needed for CSU system now

The Daily Aztec - FLAMING LIBERAL: Transparency needed for CSU system now

As the winter draws to an end, it’s not just time for sunshine in the sky, but also sunshine for the way that our state university system is run. Senator Leland Yee is calling on the California State University system and all branches of higher education, to open up their books when it comes to the auxiliary organizations on their campuses.

Yee’s reintroduced legislation is similar to SB 218, which would have updated the California Public Records Act to include those auxiliaries that perform government functions. This shows his commitment to making sure our higher education system is working for students, and not executive donors or special interests within the university system.

Yee’s new bill, SB 330 passed through the senate floor last Thursday and will be seen in the state assembly shortly.

This level of transparency is necessary for students, faculty and community members to have the knowledge and power to serve as a check on how their university operates. For the CSU system alone, Chancellor Charles B. Reed has admitted that 20 percent of the system’s operating budget is funded by budgets which are kept secret from the public, within the myriad campus and system auxiliaries.

Organic garden blooms at Billy Mitchell Elementary - The Daily Breeze

Organic garden blooms at Billy Mitchell Elementary - The Daily Breeze

Second-grade students at Billy Mitchell Elementary School spent a recent afternoon getting their hands dirty - all in the name of education.
This is the first year the Lawndale school has implemented a gardening program in which students learn about healthful diets, nature and sustainability by getting hands-on experience working in a small organic garden during their lunch recess.
On Wednesday, with the help of parent volunteers and teachers, students harvested vegetables they planted months ago, learning the joys of spending time outside.
"This may be the only place they can have access to nature," said volunteer gardener Kris Lauritson, who is overseeing the garden project through the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Program. "It's an outdoor classroom."
The school serves primarily Latino students from urban neighborhoods. About 80 percent of Billy Mitchell students qualify for free and reduced lunches.

San Diego summit for March 4 | SocialistWorker.org

San Diego summit for March 4 | SocialistWorker.org

San Diego summit for March 4

By Marcos Perez | February 1, 2010

SAN DIEGO--More than 80 people representing various student, parent and faculty organizations and unions from all public education sectors met at the United Labor Center building January 23 to plan a collective action for March 4 in San Diego.

Present were representatives from San Diego Sate University, University of California (UC)-San Diego, California State University (CSU) San Marcos, San Diego City College and Grossmont College.

The summit was called by the Education For All Coalition after 800 students, workers and teachers from across the state converged at the October 24 Conference to Save Public Education at UC-Berkeley.

The attendees voted overwhelmingly for a statewide strike and day of action on March 4, with each campus, local union and organization to decide on what type of action to organize. Since then, the call has been taken up at a national level.

Calif. community colleges aim to honor Japanese-American internees - Local - Fresnobee.com

Calif. community colleges aim to honor Japanese-American internees Local- Fresnobee.com:

"California's community colleges have joined the movement to award honorary degrees to Japanese-American students forced into internment camps during World War II.

Locally, officials are searching for students who attended Fresno City College or Reedley College in 1941 or 1942. About 30 students of Japanese ancestry were enrolled at Reedley College at the time; the number at City College is unknown.

Deborah Ikeda, vice president of instruction and student services at the State Center Community College District, said officials haven't been able to find City College records before 1948. But they have a list of names from Reedley College."

UC Budget Update >>

UC Budget Update

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently introduced a very optimistic budget proposal along with a legislative initiative that would prioritize higher education. Upon closer examination, however, there are still many flaws and it is needless to say that an optimistic budget is not always realistic.
The proposed budget for 2010-11 falls short of the $913 million requested by the Board of Regents of the University of California by nearly $631.5 million.  The proposal includes $305 million in restoration of the temporary cuts from 2009-10, $51.3 million to fund 5,100 of the 14,000 under-funded seats contingent on the Regents not increasing fees further for 2010-11, and $14.1 million to fund required contributions to retiree health benefits.
The Governor also promised to increase need-based Cal Grant (also known as competitive Cal Grant) to cover the already approved fee increases for 2010-11. But this increase, as well as enrollment growth, is contingent on the federal government granting the State of California $6.9 billion in bailout funds.
In spite of the positive news, the governor did cut funding for competitive Cal Grants and academic preparation, which hurts middle-income students and access to higher education. Access and affordability are part of the University of California mission statement, but in a deep economic crisis these two have been repeatedly impaired. He also failed to provide $95.7 million for the State’s contribution to the UC Retirement Plan, and any funding for capital projects, amounting to $631.5 million. Many of the proposed capital projects include safety and seismic improvements.
The Governor has also proposed a state constitutional amendment to increase funding for the UC andCSU systems to ten percent of the state’s budget and limiting state funding for prisons to seven percent by 2014-15. While this at first appears to be a win for higher education, it raises a number of human rights concerns, as the plan to reduce state funding for prisons would require the privatization of some prisons. In many cases, privatizing the prison system has led to quality concerns.  The increase in higher education funding also assumes further cuts to other social welfare departments. In addition, this amendment has been highly criticized by the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office, which suggests that many legislators are unlikely to support it.

Rising Aid Follows Fees - Daily Nexus

Rising Aid Follows Fees - Daily Nexus:

"As University of California annual student fees exceed the $10,000 mark, the UC Office of the President is attempting to offer aid to more low-income families than ever before.

The UC Board of Regents voted unanimously last year to modify the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan — a system-wide financial aid plan that fully covers the tuition fees of California residents whose families earn less than $60,000 — to include households that earn up to $70,000, accounting for almost half of families in the state. Under the improved plan, undergraduates who are enrolled at the University during their first four years, or transfer students who are registered for two years, will have their fees covered by scholarships and/or grants."

Debating SD Unified’s decrease in Class Size Reduction funding

Debating SD Unified’s decrease in Class Size Reduction funding:

"School board president Richard Barrera called it a tax at the Jan. 26 San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education meeting. SDUSD chief district relations officer Bernie Rhinerson called it a penalty. And Channel 10 News in a report on Jan. 28 called it a “hefty fine.”

But is the district’s $13.5 million loss for increasing class sizes over the 20-student cap in the lower grades really any of those things?

Before San Diegans become too outraged, the school district should make sure everyone understands that this “tax” or “hefty fine” is really a funding reduction in a statewide incentive program, not a payment the district must make to the state. The distinction is important."

School Matters: Students' 'Core Needs' Not Being Met - NAM

School Matters: Students' 'Core Needs' Not Being Met - NAM:

"Editor's Note: This week, school districts throughout California began laying out the severe budget cuts they will have to make next school year, the cumulative affect of state education cuts made over the past few years combined with additional reductions proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his proposed budget for 2010-2011.

John Rogers, associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and director of UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA), spoke to NAM editor Carolyn Goossen about the impact of the recession and continuing budget cuts on low-income students.

According to your recent report titled, “Educational Opportunities in Hard Times: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Public Schools and Working Families,” the recession and budget cuts have disproportionately affected educational opportunities for the poorest kids in the state. Why are they hit the hardest?"

Administration Proposals Seek Broad Changes to ‘No Child Left Behind’ - NYTimes.com

Administration Proposals Seek Broad Changes to ‘No Child Left Behind’ - NYTimes.com:

"The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency."


Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable.
Yet the administration is not planning to abandon the law’s commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.
Significantly, said those who have been briefed, the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation’s 14,000 school districts.