‘Fairness’ in Education - Thomas Sowell - National Review Online

‘Fairness’ in Education - Thomas Sowell - National Review Online

‘Fairness’ in Education
At a Berkeley high school, “equality” means fewer science teachers.

A recent flap in a Berkeley high school reveals what a farce “fairness” can be. Because this is ultra-liberal Berkeley, perhaps we should not be surprised that a proposal has been made to eliminate four jobs as science teachers and use the money saved for programs to help low achievers.

In Berkeley, as in many other communities across the country, black and Latino students are not performing as well as Asian and white students. In fact, the racial gap in academic achievement at Berkeley High School is the highest in California — no doubt a special source of embarrassment in politically correct Berkeley.

Oregon civil rights group offers scholarships to white students - Yahoo! News

Oregon civil rights group offers scholarships to white students - Yahoo! News

San Francisco – In a unique twist to the notion of using educational scholarships to improve minority representation, an Oregon civil rights group says it will offer a $2,000 scholarship to encourage white college students to pursue studies in race relations.

The initiative by the Oregon League of Minority Voters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group based in Portland, Ore., may well be the first of its kind. College scholarships have long been seen as a vehicle – albeit a controversial one – for improving the condition of minorities, but this appears to be the first time that white students have been singled out for assistance in the name of promoting civil rights.

“We lack white participation in the racial conversation in this state, so we are trying to do something about it,” says Promise King, executive director of the Oregon group. “When we talk about race relations, most of the time in Oregon, most white people are not at the table.”

The focus of his organization remains on empowering minorities, but the group also feels it’s important to have non-minority allies in a state where about 90 percent of the population is white, Mr. King says.

“I’m trying to push for solutions. And that’s what is driving this vision, to really seek out white students who will in the future be at the forefront of civil rights,” he says.

Nevada Goes Nuts, Cutting Spending On Education, Adult Care, Hearing Aids, Speech Therapy, Adult Diapers

Nevada Goes Nuts, Cutting Spending On Education, Adult Care, Hearing Aids, Speech Therapy, Adult Diapers

If the US has its equivalent to the Greeceproblem, it's definitely the state budgets (rather than the Federal one) that we have to worry about.

Here's what it looks like when a state has to make the hard choices, in this case Nevada.

Yesterday the state announced deep cuts in education and health and human services, eliminating hearing aids, adult care, and speech therapy, just to name a few things.Dentures and adult diapers are gone too.

Just like in Greece, there was a strike (among UNLV students, so we doubt it had a huge impact). Of course this is just one such situation.

Los Angeles votes on school restructuring initiatives

Los Angeles votes on school restructuring initiatives
The crisis of public education in California

Los Angeles votes on school restructuring initiatives

By Dan Conway 
10 February 2010

Schools throughout Los Angeles held community elections last week to decide whether or not to restructure public schools in accordance with provisions of the city’s recently drafted Public School Choice initiative. The vote—which was non-binding and thus does not force the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to actually heed the expressed sentiments of parents, teachers, and students—took place on Tuesday and Saturday of last week. While the district initially promised that results would be announced on Saturday afternoon, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines has delayed their posting until February 12.

The Public School Choice initiative was drafted in response to recent legislation passed by state government that is intended to make California eligible for up to $700 million in awards under the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” education program. The passage of the legislature—which allows the state to close public schools and convert them to charter schools—links teacher and administrator work evaluations to student test performance, gives parents greater freedom to take their children out of supposedly poorly-performing public schools and transfer them to newly created charters, and permits parents to petition for the replacement and firing administrators and teachers—does not guarantee that California will actually receive any of the “Race to the Top” money, only that it will be in competition with various other near-bankrupt states for the funds.

Three days before signing the bill, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a budget for the state that included more than $2.4 billion in cuts to K-12 education. If passed, these will follow on the heels of upwards of $20 billion in cuts to the school system in 2009.

At the school polls in Los Angeles last week, voters were asked to indicate which private or semi-private charter school company should be awar

Ending Poverty through Education, By Michelle Rhee, Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools - Spotlight On Poverty

Ending Poverty through Education, By Michelle Rhee, Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools - Spotlight On Poverty

“I remember in elementary school – did you guys do this? – switching clothes every other morning with my best friends. That way nobody could tell we each only had one pair of jeans and a t-shirt.” Heads nodded in recognition at this meeting of DC public school seniors reflecting on their early years.


Students in our public schools are my best sources on what it is like to strive in a school system that has not given them an equal shot in life. With 70 percent of them receiving a free or reduced-price lunch and with DC’s child poverty rate well above the national average, poverty is a mountain that children in our nation’s capital climb daily.


This particular group of students had beaten the odds, and they were advancing to college. But they worried that they were unprepared. With only 9 percent of our entering high school freshmen graduating from college within 5 years of high school, and an unemployment rate that has more than doubled with the recession, they were right to be concerned.


I believe we can solve the problems of urban education in our lifetimes and actualize education’s power to reverse generational poverty. But I am learning that it is a radical concept to even suggest this. Warren Buffett framed the problem for me once in a way that clarified how basic our most stubborn obstacles are. He said it would be easy to solve today’s problems in urban education.


“Make private schools illegal,” he said, “and assign every child to a public school by random lottery.” Think about what this would mean. CEOs’ children, diplomats’ children, many would be going to schools in Anacostia and east of the river, where most of our schools are. I guarantee we would never see a faster moving of resources from one end of the city to the other. I also guarantee we would soon have a system of high-quality schools.


Read more:

Ending Poverty through Education, By Michelle Rhee, Chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools

Sacramento Press / Feb. 17 Intro to Journalism workshop

Sacramento Press / Feb. 17 Intro to Journalism workshop:

"It's very exciting to see the number of our community contributors continue to grow. We now have close to 800. With so many new writers, we want to make sure we offer you the tools and resources to improve your writing and help you feel more confident posting on our site.

We've held many journalism-related workshops in 2009 ranging from Interviewing Techniques, Bias in Media, Journalism Ethics, among others.

We're happy to announce another Intro to Journalism workshop this month, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 17 6:30 - 8 p.m."

Complimentary E-copy: Teaching as an Act of Love:Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher, Principal and Kid > Richard Lakin's Thanks2Teachers.com - A Wellspring of Teacher Appreciation and Teacher Inspiration > Inspiration for Teachers and Parents

Complimentary E-copy: Teaching as an Act of Love:Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher, Principal and Kid > Richard Lakin's Thanks2Teachers.com - A Wellspring of Teacher Appreciation and Teacher Inspiration > Inspiration for Teachers and Parents



Inspiration for Teachers and Parents

Complimentary E-copy: Teaching as an Act of Love:Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher, Principal and Kid Here's your complimentary e-copy of my book! Click on the title below: Teaching as an Act of Love: Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher, Principal and Kid  This is copyrighted material, but you are free to and encouraged to FORWARD it to anyone you wish--teachers, parents, colleagues, students, friends--as long as you don't make any changes or profit from its use. If you prefer a paperback edition or to give it as a gift to a teacher or a friend, you can purchase it online at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble Thanks, Richard

Presidential Memorandum -- Establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity | The White House

Presidential Memorandum -- Establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity | The White House

Establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity

 Across our country, childhood obesity has reached epidemic rates and, as a result, our children may live shorter lives than their parents. Obesity has been recognized as a problem for decades, but efforts to address this crisis to date have been insufficient. My Administration is committed to redoubling our efforts to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation through a comprehensive approach that builds on effective strategies, engages families and communities, and mobilizes both public and private sector resources.

Nearly one third of children in America are overweight or obese -- a rate that has tripled in adolescents and more than doubled in younger children since 1980.  One third of all individuals born in the year 2000 or later will eventually suffer from diabetes over the course of their lifetime, while too many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.  Without effective intervention, many more children will endure serious illnesses that will put a strain on our health-care system. We must act now to improve the health of our Nation's children and avoid spending billions of dollars treating preventable disease.

Therefore, I have set a goal to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight. The First Lady will lead a national public awareness effort to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity.  She will encourage involvement by actors from every sector -- the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, as well as parents and youth -- to help support and amplify the work of the Federal Government in improving the health of our children.  But to meet our goal, we must accelerate implementation of successful strategies that will prevent and combat obesity. Such strategies include updating child nutrition policies in a way that addresses the best available scientific information, ensuring access to healthy, affordable food in schools and communities, as well as increasing physical activity and empowering parents and caregivers with the information and tools they need to make good choices for themselves and their families. To succeed, these efforts must be strategically targeted, and accountability should be clear. They will help our children develop lifelong healthy habits, ensuring they reach their greatest potential toward building a healthier and more prosperous America.  To these ends, I hereby direct the following:

Schools Matter: Michelle Rhee Is A Liar, Period

Schools Matter: Michelle Rhee Is A Liar, Period:

Michelle Rhee Is A Liar, Period

From today's Bill Turque piece in WaPo:

. . . .Rhee told Fast Company magazine that some of the 266teachers laid off in October's budget crunch were educators "who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school."

The comment alarmed parents and teachers and District officials because of its implication that a significant portion of the instructors had committed such offenses. When Rhee finally offered numbers to support the claim, they were relatively small: Six of the 266 teachers had been suspended for corporal punishment at some point in their careers, she 

Georgia's Private White Academies Now to Be Financed with Tax Dollars

My first year of teaching was 1971 in Sandersville, Georgia, during the second year of school integration in that part of the apartheid South. Those white children whose parents could afford it had been placed in the private academies that had sprung up around the region like mushrooms in a cow pasture after a spring rain. Now almost 40 years later, we can now see the return of segregation and apartheid, this time taking hold at public expense in the corporate charter schools like Pataula Charter Academy that hoped to be the solution to race mixing. From the Journal-Constitution:

By Maureen Downey

9:12 a.m. Monday, February 8, 2010

In fighting approval of a regional charter school, southwest Georgia superintendents allege that the Pataula Charter Academy would signal a return to the era in Georgia when blacks and whites attended different schools.

Teachers Get National Certification - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

Teachers Get National Certification - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Congratulates California Teachers Who Received Prestigious National Certification

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced 349 California teachers became National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT®s) in November 2009.

The prestigious award of achievement was granted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS®).

"Congratulations to these educators who have demonstrated their passion and skill for teaching by earning this prestigious distinction," said O'Connell. "NBCTs are leading the way to prepare students for success in the competitive global economy."

National Board Certification is a voluntary assessment program designed to recognize great teachers, reward them, and increase their skills. While state licensing systems set basic requirements to teach in each state, NBCTs have successfully demonstrated advanced teaching knowledge, skills, and practices. The certification process typically takes between one and three years to complete. As part of the process, teachers build a portfolio that includes student work samples, assignments, videotapes, and a thorough analysis of their classroom teaching, including evidence of fairness, equity, and access in meeting student needs. Teachers are also assessed on their knowledge of the subjects they teach.

In California, 63.7 percent of NBCTs teach in Title I eligible schools. Title I schools mean they receive federal funding to help socioeconomically disadvantaged students. This compares to more than half of NBCTs teaching in Title I schools nationwide.

NBCTs comprise about 3 percent of the national teaching force yet have won more than a fourth of the 2008 and 2009 State Teacher of the Year Awards and a third of the 2008 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Examples of awards earned by California NBCTs are:

• Brian Jeffrey, an English teacher at Los Osos High School in Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County, won the 2009 Characters Unite Award from the USA Network.
• Jose Navarro, a social studies and U.S. history teacher at Sylmar Senior High School in Los Angeles County, was a 2009 California Teacher of the Year.
• Brooke Nicolls, a writing teacher at Grant High School in Sacramento County, won the 2009 Outstanding Teacher of America Award from the Carlston Family Foundation.
• Lewis Chappelear, an engineering teacher at James Monroe High School in Los Angeles County, was a 2008 California Teacher of the Year and was nominated to compete for the prestigious National Teacher of the Year honor.
• Shannon Garrison, a general elementary teacher at Solano Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles County, was a 2008 Milken Educator Award winner.
• Three California NBCTs serve on the NBPTS Board of Directors: Liane Cismowski from the Mount Diablo Unified School District, Michael de la Torre from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Haydee Rodriguez from the Central Union High School District.

California's 349 newly certified teachers bring the statewide total of NBCTs to 4,581. There are more than 82,000 NBCTs nationwide with California ranking fourth in total number of these accomplished teachers. The top five California school districts with newly named NBCTs are:

School District	Number of New NBCTs in 2009	Total NBCTs
Los Angeles Unified	142	1,357
San Diego Unified	20	167
San Francisco Unified	11	163
Long Beach Unified	21	147
Poway Unified	5	116

California's new NBCTs are helping to further the state's education reform efforts under the federal Race to the Top competition that is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. To help create great teachers and leaders, O'Connell is asking participating local educational agencies to partner with the state to strengthen supports for teachers and school leaders, including deepening teacher and principal evaluations to both strengthen instruction and manage talent.

"We have long known that a key to student success is a great teacher," added O'Connell. "A fundamental step for closing the achievement gap in California is ensuring our most challenged schools are staffed with effective teachers and school leaders. National Board Certified Teachers often serve as leaders and mentors. This program is a great example of effective professional development that will help our teaching force meet and overcome the academic challenges students face in low-achieving schools."

For more information about National Board Certification for Teachers and Principals, please visit National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (Outside Source).

Related Content

• National Board Cert Incentive Program - Information on National Board Certification Incentive Program for California tea

Education Research Report: New Report Explains that Charter Schools' Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure

Education Research Report: New Report Explains that Charter Schools' Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure

New Report Explains that Charter Schools' Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA has issued "Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards," a nationwide report based on an analysis of Federal government data and an examination of charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia, along with several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charters. The report found that charter schools continue to stratify students by race, class, and possibly language, and are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the country.

The study's key findings suggest that charter schools, particularly those in the western United States are havens for white re-segregation from public schools; requirements for providing essential equity data to the federal government go unmet across the nation; and magnet schools are overlooked, in spite of showing greater levels of integration and academic achievement than charters.

The study offers several recommendations for restoring equity provisions and integration in charter schools, including establishing new guidance and reporting requirements by the Federal government; federal funding opportunities for magnet schools, which have a documented legacy of reducing racial isolation and improving student outcomes; and incorporating some features of magnet schools into charter schools. The report also recommends heightened enforcement of existing state-level legislation with specific provisions regarding diversity in charter schools, and monitoring patterns of charter school enrollment and attrition, focusing particularly on reporting the demographic information of charter school students on low-income and ELL characteristics.

It's Not An Education Problem, Says Rhee THISWEEKINEDUCATION.COM

THISWEEKINEDUCATION.COM

Blogs: It's Not An Education Problem, Says Rhee

Ending Poverty through Education Michelle Rhee
The obstacle is not one of knowledge but of social and political will, with education as the lynchpin.

Struggles at School of the Future Phila Notebook
I think this story has important lessons for “turnaround,” even though SOF is a start-up school. Microsoft is not a “school manager,” but instead a partner in an effort to create an engaging and progressive curriculum that takes advantage of the latest technology.

DPS tackling forced placement of teachers EdNews Colorado
Boasberg, in an email to principals Friday afternoon, said “it is our intention” not to place any unassigned teachers at year’s end into schools now on probation under the district’s school rating system.

More time in school not for all kids Denver Post (editorial)

Many high school students are completing college level classes — AP, IB, and dual-credit — as early as their junior year. These students challenge the need for a longer school day, not to mention the necessity of senior year.

The Little Picture: Rosa Parks via The American Prospect

Break out the hot cocoa. City says tomorrow is a snow day | GothamSchools

Break out the hot cocoa. City says tomorrow is a snow day | GothamSchools

No news travels faster than word of a snow day. It’s on the radio, on teacher blogs, and in a notice sent by the Department of Education this morning: There is no school tomorrow.

The Department of Education sent out a notice at 11:10 am to say that regular school as well as all after school activities and sports are canceled. The Panel for Educational Policy meeting, which was scheduled for tomorrow night, has also been canceled and the proposals moved to the March meeting.

Last March, Chancellor Klein waited until 20 minutes before 6 am to declare a snow day, angering teachers who’d already begun their commutes and parents who had to find childcare.

The chancellor’s notice this year reads:

Due to anticipated inclement weather conditions, all New York City public schools will be closed tomorrow, February 10, 2010. All after-school activities and PSAL events will also be cancelled. While travel conditions to school in the morning may not be difficult, the weather is expected to worsen as the day progresses, complicating dismissal. We are making this decision today to give parents as much time as possible to make alternative plans for tomorrow.

EdWeek Update: States Rethink Policies on National-Board Teachers

EdWeek Update: States Rethink Policies on National-Board Teachers

States Rethink Policies on National-Board Teachers Both the economy and a push to measure teacher effectiveness in new ways have led states to revamp funding for the certification. • Related story: Stimulus Reflects Push for Teacher Effectiveness

For more stories, visit Education Week's homepage.

	CURRICULUM AND LEARNING

Work Begins on 'Next Generation' of Science Standards A panel led by the National Research Council is trying to identify "core ideas" in each of the major science disciplines. • Curriculum Matters Blog: Is Race to Top Fueling Skepticism of Common Standards?

View more Curriculum and Learning stories from Education Week.

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	MORE HEADLINES

Private Sector Competes for Share of Stimulus Pie(February 5, 2010, Education Week)

Two Types of Superintendent (February 9, 2010, Bridging Differences Blog)

Is Stimulus Money Being Spent Equitably? (February 9, 2010, Politics K-12 Blog)

The Politics of a Snow Day (February 8, 2010, Web Watch Blog)

The Department's Budget 'Plan B' (February 8, 2010, Politics K-12 Blog)

Whither Professional Development in the Budget? (February 8, 2010, Teacher Beat Blog)

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	HOT TOPICS

Colleges & Careers A collection of the most recent articles on news and issues related to graduation rates, college access, and career training.

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Education Week Articles Available to Subscribers

Study Finds Wide Achievement Gaps for Top Students An analysis of NAEP scores suggests policymakers should consider the needs of gifted students to address a persistent “excellence gap.”(February 5, 2010)

Debate Heats Up Over Replacing AYP Metric in ESEA The Obama administration calls for a shift toward measuring college and career readiness as it prepares proposals for revamping the law.(February 5, 2010)

Commentary The Case for Literature Common standards should not take the joy and power of book reading away from students, Nancie Atwell writes. (February 8, 2010)

When Policy Becomes Ideology � The Quick and the Ed

When Policy Becomes Ideology � The Quick and the Ed

When Policy Becomes Ideology

February 9th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized

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Last week Andy and I offered some ideas on the best way to characterize the theoretical and ideological divisions in education policy. Justin Cohen followed up:

I like Andy’s “Choice/Accountability” matrix, it’s far superior to the dichotomy that both of their posts reject. I worry, though, that it conflates “choice” and school-based “autonomy.” Right now, most state laws are structured such that charter schools – which are almost always schools of choice – have more autonomy than other actors in the public system. This doesn’t have to be the case. There’s no theoretical fiat preventing all other public schools from having higher levels of school-based autonomy, it’s just that the bureaucratic, policy, and collectively-bargained constraints of most traditional systems create (surmountable!) obstacles to school-based autonomy…Kevin’s point – that KIPP’s existence is a more powerful reason for chartering than any pure market teleology – illustrates a pretty important, yet nascent, debate: is choice in public education a means or an end? If choice is an end, the pure market version of ed reform settles for a reality wherein there are winners and losers when scarce resources are allocated – that’s literally what markets do. If choice is a means, it is one part of a substantial toolkit for ensuring a higher quality education for all children. It’s a really important distinction that doesn’t get talked about enough.

I think that’s right. For example, I know a woman who founded a charter school here in DC. She has a graduate degree in management from an Ivy League university, which she could have used for all manner of self-enriching purposes. Instead, she decided to devote every waking hour to education. But going to work for the DC Public Schools wasn’t a viable option. Educating disadvantaged urban schoolchildren is difficult in the best of circumstances and DC’s circumstances were, at the time, among the worst: dysfunctional and fractured governance, crumbling facilities, a broken special education system, a bloated and 

The Educated Reporter: Charters: open to whom?

The Educated Reporter: Charters: open to whom?

Charters: open to whom?

A new study from the Civil Rights Project has gotten people talking—or should I say snickering? At National Journal, the analysts pile on, criticizing (fairly so) that the report’s main point is a heaping helping of No Duh: Schools designed as alternatives for children in overwhelmingly minority areas have student populations that are—get this!—overwhelmingly minority. How much you care depends, as Mass Insight’s Justin Cohenpoints out, on what you see as a more important end: better student outcomes or integration.

I think integration is a worthy goal in and of itself. But the resegregation the Civil Rights Project has for years been so effective in illuminating is a problem more than anything because minority children have been isolated in bad schools. Is it a problem if a good school is all-black or all-Hispanic? Interesting question—but not what concerns me the most about charter populations. I am more concerned about how many of the best charters have disproportionately low numbers of special education students and English language learners. This has been analyzed a small bit but not much, and it is not enough to say this happens; journalists need to figure out to what degree, why and so what?

Are parents of special needs children not choosing charters because they don’t offer the kind of services traditional schools do? Do charters have any incentive to take special