Test scores spur state to consider new standards | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Test scores spur state to consider new standards | freep.com | Detroit Free Press:

"Education expert Sharif Shakrani says he'd give Michigan a C for its education system.

Many others would agree.

The state has been lauded for its strong standards and the tough graduation requirements it enacted in 2006. But there is growing concern about student achievement.

Experts say wide differences in test scores across the state are the result of a shocking disparity in how the state's standards are taught from district to district and classroom to classroom -- even in the same building. Some say grade inflation -- giving students a higher grade than their work merits -- is rampant, meaning many graduate high school without being prepared for the rigors of college. School funding cuts have led to larger class sizes, school closures and layoffs, all affecting student achievement, particularly in urban districts such as Detroit."

Orlando breaks lease with nonprofit group so charter school can have building - OrlandoSentinel.com

Orlando breaks lease with nonprofit group so charter school can have building - OrlandoSentinel.com:

"With no public discussion, Orlando has booted a nonprofit driving school from a city-owned building near downtown so it could turn the property over to a new charter school being launched by a high-ranking city official.

It cost the cash-strapped city more than $200,000 to get out of its lease with the Florida Safety Council eight years early, an expense the City Council wasn't told about. At the same time, commissioners voted two weeks ago to lease the building to the fledgling Central Florida Leadership Academy rent-free for its first three years.

At the time the city began discussing terminating the Safety Council's lease, it was wrestling with how to make up a $41 million deficit. And while backers of the charter school say it will eventually repay the city for its short-term losses, they acknowledge there's no guarantee that will happen."

Day cares, parents use kids for profit - JSOnline

Day cares, parents use kids for profit - JSOnline:

"Not in school, children pay price with lack of learning"

Thousands of children from low-income families in Wisconsin are being kept out of kindergarten every year, and the state's subsidized child-care program is a driving factor, turning kids into valuable commodities, an investigation by the Journal Sentinel has found.

The $350 million Wisconsin Shares program lets parents keep their 4-, 5- and even some 6-year-olds in day care centers all day - at taxpayer expense - rather than enroll them in accredited kindergarten programs.

In some cases, unscrupulous parents are participating in an easy scam. They sign up their children with friends or relatives who provide child care. The state then pays the providers roughly $200 a week, and providers give parents a kickback.

In other cases, child-care providers offer free gas, free rent, vacation getaways, $1,000 rebates and other incentives to encourage parents to enroll their children in day care rather than school.

The lax rules are not only a blow to taxpayers, but to the state's neediest children who often wind up in loosely regulated environments where little learning takes place. Day care providers aren't required to meet the standards of teachers, nor are they accountable for what children learn.

Indeed, some children show up for first grade not even knowing their full names or how to hold a pencil, said Ann Terrell, director of curriculum and instruction for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade with Milwaukee Public Schools. Clearly, they have not attended a 

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News:

"Last week a national report gave Texas a D for its school funding system. Today, Texas lawmakers said they'll study ways to improve school finance.

Granted, it's just a coincidence. But it's another reminder that like most states, Texas' method of funding public education is far from perfect. (For another local, recent reminder, check out Diane Rado's story about Dallas ISD having to share property tax money with other districts.)

Debates over school finance usually focus on two core issues: Adequacy (How much money is spent overall, and is it enough to achieve our state's educational goals?) and Equity (no matter the size of the financial pie, is it split fairly among school districts?). Judging by the following comments, not to mention the current economy, I bet Texas lawmakers will concentrate more on the latter."

Key to student achievement? ASPIRE to it | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Key to student achievement? ASPIRE to it | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"It is common knowledge that across the nation, students are struggling. Public-school reform has become so commonplace it barely has meaning anymore. What school system is not in the process of trying to improve? To say that technology has improved the way we communicate and do business is an understatement, when in fact technology has transformed our personal lives and created a global economy. Therefore, if the entire world is undergoing a technological transformation, why are we still talking about education reform? Now is the time to stop thinking about how to improve the old ways of providing education and start thinking about transforming public education into something new.
The Houston Independent School District is doing just that. We have been calling it a reform effort, but what we are doing is transforming public education. According to legislators in Washington, D.C., and national organizations that advocate for public schools, Houston is leading the way."

EducationNews.org - Are the Right People Becoming Teachers? The Implications of Teacher Surveys

EducationNews.org - Are the Right People Becoming Teachers? The Implications of Teacher Surveys

2.5.10 - Martin Haberman - The criteria for deciding whether a job of work is a profession are not all met by every profession, however, most of them must be operative before the term "profession"

Are the Right People Becoming Teachers? The Implications of Teacher Surveys

Martin Haberman
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

What Makes A Job of Work A Profession?
The criteria for deciding whether a job of work is a profession are not all met by every profession, however, most of them must be operative before the term "profession" can be applied to a particular job. Following are the critical criteria, which determine whether a job is a profession.

1. The practitioners know and can do things the public in general cannot do. They have a specialized body of knowledge.

2. The specialized body of knowledge practitioners have takes an extended period of time to learn. 

The Coming Civil War: Public vs. Private | The North Star National

The Coming Civil War: Public vs. Private | The North Star National:

"In the last 18 months, the number of federal government employees making $100,000 a year or more has exploded, despite the economic downturn that has seen private-sector unemployment reach double-digit figures. Per the USA Today, the Department of Transportation alone has gone from one six-figure salary to a staggering 1,690!"

Per the New York Times, state and local governments have added 110,000 jobs while the private sector has lost nearly 7 million. And again per USA Today, benefit packages for government employees at all levels grew at triple the rate of private sector workers.

In the states most on the brink of fiscal disaster, California and New York, government employee unions are the unelected fourth branch of government. They use the money they get to bribe politicians with campaign donations so as to keep the gravy train running on time, and should any dare to suggest that multi-billion (or at the federal level, multi-trillion) dollar deficits are a reason to cut back and stop this fiscally destructive incestuous relationship, they instantly scream like Chicken Little that the sky is falling and if that’s not enough, start threatening to take Louisville Sluggers to kneecaps.

In my home state of Minnesota, which is closely following in their footsteps, you have the laughable display of trying to close a $2 billion plus shortfall while declaring as a prerequisite that 75% of the budget is instantly sacrosanct and untouchable. What eats up that 75%? As you might have guessed: welfare, health care, and education. Or, more accurately described: Democratic (and some Republican) politicians buying lifetime re-election by stealing from the productive to bribe the votes of the parasitic by paying their bills for them.

It matters not which area of the budget that’s larded with waste, from lavish pension plans to luxury benefit plans that dwarf the private sector: the instant the recipients sniff the the tiniest possibility that their cushy living might be reduced in the slightest, they show up at a capitol building shrieking at how evil and cruel those are who would dare to suggest a thing, and promising retribution should it happen. (And in the case of education, unions eagerly and despicably using kids as political human shields.)

In this, they sound like nothing more than hardcore drug addicts who have just been cut off from their stash and begun experiencing the first pangs 

Marquette honors Little Rock 9 - JSOnline

Marquette honors Little Rock 9 - JSOnline:

"Award cites group for desegregating Arkansas high school
By Tom Tolan of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 6, 2010

Jefferson Thomas' memories of the segregated schools of Little Rock, Ark., in the years before he helped integrate Central High School with an escort from the 101st Airborne Division, are not entirely negative.

Thomas was the youngest of eight children, and when he was little, his older sisters would read to him from their schoolbooks, teaching him to read and write.

'When I got into the first grade, they thought I was a genius,' says Thomas, a member of the famed Little Rock Nine, who will receive Marquette University's fifth Pere Marquette Discovery Award on Tuesday.

Through his years at the segregated Gibbs Elementary School and Dunbar Junior High School, he had teachers who had affection for him, who encouraged him to perform, who knew his whole family.

But in 1957, when the Little Rock school district was recruiting black students to help carry out the U.S. Supreme Court's decision outlawing school segregation throughout the country and across the South, he jumped at the chance."

$630M to teach English to immigrant adults - Redlands Daily Facts

$630M to teach English to immigrant adults - Redlands Daily Facts:

"California taxpayers have shelled out about $630million over the past 13 years to provide English classes to immigrant adults.
The money was required as part of Proposition 227, an anti-bilingual education initiative passed by voters in 1998.

The measure, approved by 61percent of the voters, said public school kids should learn English as quickly and effectively as possible. It was intended to move students with limited English skills into mainstream classes within one year.

To help accomplish that goal, the state spent $50million annually over 10 years to provide free English classes to immigrant parents and others who pledged to tutor kids with limited English proficiency.

The state Legislature reauthorized the program in 2006. About $130million was allocated in the following three fiscal years. The program is slated to receive about $40million in the 2010-2011 budget."

How to create great schools - Press-Telegram

How to create great schools - Press-Telegram:

"In a meeting recently in Northern California, an educator grumbled that it didn't do any good to make a field trip to Long Beach to try to copy the local school district's successes in raising student scores. And he was right.

But here's what would do some good. Take a close look at what is working there and elsewhere, and you'll find the secret of success. It's surprisingly simple, but it's also hard work.

Long Beach Unified has its problems, but it also is has won the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education and has been a finalist for the prize five times. It is doing many things right, and although an educator can't copy them with one field trip, the techniques can be learned.

As Amanda Ripley has written in a recent edition of the Atlantic magazine, people tend to ascribe great teachers' gifts to some mystical quality that we can recognize and revere, but not replicate. But at last, research about teachers' impact is too overwhelming to ignore."

CSUS seeing quick growth in demand for Net classes - Local - Modbee.com

CSUS seeing quick growth in demand for Net classes - Local - Modbee.com:

"TURLOCK — Between her job at Victoria's Secret and pitching for the California State University, Stanislaus, softball team, Stacy Hains doesn't have a lot of time during the day or evening to attend classes.
The senior education major found that taking some of her courses online solved her time crunch.
'There's a lot of versatility of when I have time to sit down and do my work,' Hains said. 'I can go on at 11 o'clock at night.'
Demand from students such as Hains has driven rapid growth in the university's online classes in the four years since CSU, Stanislaus, started offering them.
In the fall, 1,400 students took 42 online classes. In spring, the university will offer 61 online or hybrid (with online and traditional components) classes, said Brian Duggan, director of learning services at CSU, Stanislaus."

Dallasblog.com, the Dallas, Texas news blog and Dallas, Texas information source for the DFW Metroplex. - DALLAS BLOG - Interview: Higher Education Commissioner Paredes

Dallasblog.com, the Dallas, Texas news blog and Dallas, Texas information source for the DFW Metroplex. - DALLAS BLOG - Interview: Higher Education Commissioner Paredes:

"Lawmakers these past few years have emphasized structuring the higher education system to ensure that a higher percentage of students earn degrees or certificates in a more timely manner.
Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes spoke last week to the Texas Association of Business and detailed his proposal to include a merit component to the awarding of previously need-only TEXAS [Toward Excellence, Access, and Success] Grant scholarships to state universities. In a conversation with Will Lutz, Paredes elaborated on his ideas.
LUTZ: Tell us how a merit component to the TEXAS Grant Program would look."

Students, teachers rallying behind AB 656 - Torrico

Students, teachers rallying behind AB 656 - Torrico:

"San Jose, CA (February 5) -- Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, author of the Assembly Bill (AB) 656, claimed lately that about 50,000 Californians, mostly college students and teachers, are rallying for the passage of the bill that hopes to raise over $2 billion to fund higher education out of oil 'extraction' tax.
The 50,000 supporters were gathered through grassroots signature and online petition by his staff.
'I was the first person in the family to go to college. And I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the UC System. I believe, passionately, that no student should ever be turned away because they cannot afford higher education. And now, with the help of over 50,000 people... we will increase access to quality and affordable higher education for all,' Torrico said."

Parents, students on edge over soaring tuition

Parents, students on edge over soaring tuition:

"SEATTLE — As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities.

Florida college students could face yearly 15 percent tuition increases for years, and University of Illinois students will pay at least 9 percent more. The University of Washington will charge 14 percent more at its flagship campus. And in California, tuition increases of more than 30 percent have sparked protests reminiscent of the 1960s.
Tuition has been trending upward for years, but debate in statehouses and trustee meeting rooms has been more urgent this year as most states struggle their way out of the economic meltdown.
The College Board says families are paying about $172 to $1,096 more in tuition and fees this school year. The national average for 2009-2010 is about $7,020, not including room and board, according to the nonprofit association of colleges that oversees the SATs and Advanced Placement tests."

Occupy Everything Fight Everywhere Strike March 4 - Infoshop News

Occupy Everything Fight Everywhere Strike March 4 - Infoshop News:

"The call has gone out. On March 4th, students, workers and teachers throughout the nation and across the globe will strike. Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges, and state-funded universities will come together in an international Strike and Day of Action to resist the neoliberal destruction of public education in California and beyond. We stand beside all who wish to transform public education, and we seek to advance the struggle by generalizing the tactic that has, by far, been the strength of the movement: direct action. In keeping with the spirit of March 4th, we call upon everyone, everywhere, to occupy everything—from collapsing public universities and closed high schools to millions of foreclosed homes. We call on all concerned students and workers to escalate the fight against privatization where they are, in solidarity with the California statewide actions. We envision a network of occupied campuses in multiple states across the nation."

Pressing for changes to charter school law - baltimoresun.com

Pressing for changes to charter school law - baltimoresun.com:

"Advocates for Maryland's charter schools are gearing up for what they hope will be a watershed year for reform of the state's charter school law, as state officials plan to seek millions in federal funding contingent upon changes in education policies.

Maryland could stand to gain as much as $250 million in Race to the Top funds from the U.S. Department of Education, which this year is awarding money to states with what it considers the most forward-thinking policies. With legislation an essential tool in winning the federal money, advocates for charter schools see the current General Assembly session as the time to push for reform of the state charter school law, widely viewed as weak and in need of an overhaul."

Politics - A Practiced Politician Who Doesn’t Look It - NYTimes.com

Politics - A Practiced Politician Who Doesn’t Look It - NYTimes.com:

"Joe Simitian has spent nearly half his life in elective office, having served on the Palo Alto school board, the City Council, as mayor, on the County Board of Supervisors and in the State Assembly. Now he is in his second and final term in the State Senate. He is married to his political consultant."


On paper, Mr. Simitian seems like the very definition of a career politician.
But sit down with him and you come away with a different impression. Riffing comfortably on topics from education reform to highway safety, from environmental policy to infrastructure, Mr. Simitian sounds more like a wonk than a wannabe.

The truth is that he is a little bit of both. Educated as a city planner and trained as a lawyer, Mr. Simitian is serious about public policy and is something of a maverick. He is willing, on occasion, to offend powerful interest groups.

He is also as ambitious as any politician, practiced in the art of getting his name on important legislation and in the newspaper. Even now he is plotting a possible run for Congress should Representative Jackie Speier run for attorney general, though Ms. Speier’s district covers large portions of

Building the movement | San Francisco Bay Guardian

Building the movement | San Francisco Bay Guardian:

 "UC student organizers work to broaden support for the March 4 Strike and Day of Action"

Frustrated by deep cuts to education spending and quality, momentum is building across California in support of the "Strike and Day of Action to Defend Public Education" on March 4.

Students, laborers, and faculty throughout the University of California system are trying to expand on last semester's organizing efforts by strengthening ties to groups from all tiers of the public education system. But questions linger about the best way to proceed and what exactly the event should look like.

"I think that the regents and [UC President Mark] Yudof are very fearful of what would happen if the students and workers united. They could be unstoppable," said Bob Samuels, president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT).

That collaboration is exactly what many grassroots organizers are hoping to achieve, although their central message is not limited to participants in the UC system alone. They argue that fee increases and cutbacks at the universities are symptomatic of a greater problem, namely the denigration of free and low-cost public education.

"This emerged as a movement of students and workers at the university level. What we're doing now is going beyond the UCs," said Blanca Misse, a graduate student and member of the Student Worker Action Team (SWAT).

By reaching out to members of preschool, K-12 public school, community college, and California State University communities, organizers hope to turn March 4 into a rallying moment for the entire public education system in the state. Organizers also want to ensure that the UC system isn't funded at the expense of other institutions of public learning.

In cash-strapped state, how will we pay for public higher education? - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

In cash-strapped state, how will we pay for public higher education? - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

On a mild, overcast day in October 2007, aUniversity of California graduate lobbed a rhetorical bomb at his alma mater: What if the public university went private?

"Suppose," mused state Treasurer Bill Lockyer in a widely distributed report on California's fiscal future, that "the state eliminated all its direct general fund support from the UC system,allowing it to set its own budget and raise revenues to replace the state's share."

Lockyer's supposition, which he was quick to point out he wasn't advocating, sparked an uproar among academic leaders and editorial writers, then slipped back into the Capitol's sea of partisan squabbling and budget crises.

But the issue has never really stopped making waves. As California's iconic Master Plan for Higher Education marks its 50th anniversary this year, and the state struggles to balance its books, variations of Lockyer's "privatization" question are being posed more frequently.

"Should higher education be treated as a public 

Local News | Rigorous college-prep classes skyrocketing in Washington state | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Rigorous college-prep classes skyrocketing in Washington state | Seattle Times Newspaper:

"A decade ago, most Seattle-area high schools offered just a handful of rigorous classes that provided a way to earn college credit while supercharging a transcript. And only students with top grades were allowed to sign up. But in 10 years, the intensive, fast-paced Advanced Placement (AP) classes have skyrocketed in this state."

A decade ago, most Seattle-area high schools offered just a handful of rigorous classes that provided a way to earn college credit while supercharging a transcript. And only students with top grades were allowed to sign up.

But in 10 years, the intensive, fast-paced Advanced Placement (AP) classes have skyrocketed in this state.

In 2008, fully one-quarter of Washington public-school seniors took at least one AP test during their high-school years, compared with 10 percent in 1997. In some schools, almost every student takes an AP class in junior or senior year.

And other schools around the state are moving fast to add AP classes and expand participation, in part because college admissions officials say the demanding classes do a good job of preparing students for higher