Monday, March 15, 2010

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EducationNewsToday

Teachers OK contract with San Diego Unified

SAN DIEGO: Teachers have ratified a new labor contract with the San Diego Unified School District. With more than 45 percent of union members casting ballots, 3,062 members voted for the contract and 108 voted against the agreement, according to the San Diego Education Association’s Web site.

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Shakespeare teaching vital lessons on language

Even though William Shakespeare was born more than 400 years ago and wrote in an English we rarely use now, professor Jan Gist thinks there are still plenty of lessons to be learned from the playwright. ...

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Program tries to get students back on track

The Middle School Partners program provides students who are two or more years older than their academic peers with direct instruction in core eighth-grade subjects and self-paced lessons in ninth-grade classes. ...

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Back to school plan cuts opening week to 1 day

This is math kids will love and parents may hate: The first week of school in September will last only one day....

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Teacher's pay would depend on student performance, not tenure, if state bill passes

A proposed bill that would tie teachers' pay to student performance rather than years of experience has many educators worried. ...

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The Big Idea -- it's bad education policy

One simple solution for our schools? A captivating promise, but a false one. There have been two features that regularly mark the history of U.S. public schools. Over the last century, our education system has been regularly captivated by a Big Idea -- a savant or an organization that promised a sim ...

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Yearbooks No Longer 2 Good 2 Be 4-Gotten

The Internet has taken a toll on print media, from newspapers and magazines to the telephone book. Now university yearbooks are also taking a hit. A growing number of universities are no longer publishing the annual picture books....

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Governor’s Cup showcases finest in academics

The 25th anniversary of the Governor's Cup State Finals drew 2,600 Kentucky students in grades 6-12 to the Galt House Hotel & Suites on Saturday and Sunday to compete in areas such as math, writing, history and social studies at a time when many eyes are turning to college basketball....

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No Child Left Behind overhaul: five key things that would change

3,15,10 - On Saturday, the Obama administration released its blueprint for overhauling the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. US lawmakers are to consider the blueprint – and make their own revisions – as part of a reauthorization process for the education law....

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Blessing and Curse of Structured Recess: No Goofing Off

A Newark school is one of a growing number that use a recess coach to curb bullying and behavior problems....

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Cheaters never prosper when teachers get in the way

What should we do about the computer hackers at Winston Churchill High School in Montgomery County who changed dozens of grades? What is the solution to student cheating in general?...

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State firm on school quality

The Patrick administration will not adopt national academic standards if they are lower than those established in Massachusetts, long championed as having among the most rigorous expectations, according to the state’s education secretary. ...

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Common knowledge

WHEN 48 STATES launched an effort to formulate a set of standards for what children should learn in math and reading, there was a lot of skepticism. Considering that earlier efforts to establish national standards were doomed by resistance from the states...

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Jay Mathews: Obama plan flaw: achievement gap

I see a problem in the president using the achievement gap as a measure of schools in his suggested revisions. This could mean that a wonderfully diverse school like T.C. Williams High in Alexandria...

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Obama and NCLB: The good--and very bad--news

Today we learned the vision that President Obama has for the American public education system in the post-No Child Left Behind era. Unfortunately, it doesn't look different enough. George Bush probably never realized how much of a friend Obama would be to NCLB. ...

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New Jersey Schools Brace for Governor’s Next Round of Cuts

The governor will unveil his budget proposal on Tuesday, and is expected to decrease state aid to school districts by as much as 15 percent. ...

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Survey of sexual harassment and abuse of special education students in schools

3.15.10 - Mary Lou Bensy - The sexual abuse of individuals with disabilities is an extreme form of the dehumanization and humiliation to which individuals with disabilities are subjected. ...

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Gummy-bear fun offers a taste of science, engineering for girls

The conference at Seattle University encourages middle-school girls to explore science and engineering careers. ...

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Learning how not to be ‘pushover parents’

The Escondido high school district has launched a series of programs to show parents how to have a powerful role in their child’s education. ...

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Teachers’ pink slips painful but familiar

In her four years as a teacher, Linda Herschmiller has come to rely on the predictability of her profession. October means literacy assessments. December is marked by winter vacation. And March is synonymous with layoff notices. ...

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Rise & Shine: Obama releases plan to revise education law | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Obama releases plan to revise education law

from GothamSchools by Philissa Cramer

The Obama administration released its plan for reauthorizing the national education law. (Times)
The plan favors high expectations and college readiness. (Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg)
Various groups are already gearing up for a fight over the plan. (USA Today, Wall Street Journal)
Chancellor Klein said the plan is a good start but needs more specific school closure criteria. (Post)
Ed Sec Arne Duncan wants to replace NCLB’s pass-fail school criteria with three ratings. (USA Today)
The first week of school this fall will include only one day, Wednesday. (Daily News)
Students from 20 city schools competed in a math video game tournament at Columbia. (Post, NY1)
Three students were stabbed at city schools on Friday. (GothamSchools, Post)
Elected officials are asking why metal detectors didn’t prevent the stabbings. (Daily News, NY1)
The number of students trying to transfer to CUNY colleges this fall is up more than 75 percent. (Post)
One public schooler will help represent the city at the national spelling bee. (Daily News)
A panel said NYC discriminated against Khalil Gibran’s principal. (GothamSchools, Times, Daily News)
The Post says that while the test score audit underway might not be ideal, it’s long overdue.
The Daily News says potential cuts to GED programs are politically motivated.
The Post says the state should find ways to cut costs without eliminating Regents exams.
Stanley Crouch praises an after school and mentoring program in Harlem. (Daily News)
Students at Central Falls High School say their soon-to-fired teachers have helped them. (AP)
Diane Ravitch says history shows that there’s no single solution to improving schools. (L.A. Times)
Texas’s textbook panel voted to inject a conservative outlook into the state’s social studies books. (Times)
A school in Newark has hired a coach to teach students how to behave better at recess. (Times)
New Jersey’s massive school budget cuts will end a major after-school program this week. (Times)

Smarter Data Systems: The New York City Experience � The Quick and the Ed

Smarter Data Systems: The New York City Experience

Part VIII of the Five Principles for Smarter Data Systems series–a guest post from Arthur VanderVeen, Chief of Innovation, New York City Department of Education:

… it is astoundingly difficult to impact day-to-day classroom practices. And unless we design data systems with a primary goal of improving classroom teaching and learning, our investments will show little return.

This closing thought expressed in the Five Design Principles for Smarter Data Systems appropriately reminds us that unless we impact the instructional core that is at the heart of teaching learning we will never realize the benefits of our investments in instructional data systems.

In 2007 New York City launched an ambitious effort to develop an instructional data system, the Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), that integrates annual state test data with daily attendance, course grades, district interim assessments, past transcripts, credit accumulation, ELL status, IEP status, biographical data, and contact information–all into a single dashboard that gives every teacher and administrator in the city a comprehensive and real-time view of his or her students’ current and past achievement data.

The system includes a data analytics package that enables teachers and administrators to slice and dice the data in dozens of ways. Schools can identify students who are struggling as measured by any of these measures and target data-informed strategies and interventions to meet their needs. The system is now being extended to include tools to enable teachers to add classroom grades and quizzes and other local data that schools want to add to their profile of students’ performance and learning needs (e.g., behavioral incidents, club or sports participation).

An extension of the system, ARIS Parent Link, makes all of this same data available to parents, and teachers are now beginning to conduct parent-teacher conferences around a substantive discussion of each child’s current achievements and challenges.

Getting the right data to teachers and administrators as soon as it’s available is itself a real challenge–ARIS integrates data from nearly a dozen source systems, both internal and external to the NYC DOE. But the real challenge is helping

The Racial Caste System of America Schools Matter

Schools Matter

The Racial Caste System of America

From Democracy Now, Part I:

A new book by legal scholar and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander argues that although Jim Crow laws have been eliminated, the racial caste system it set up was not eradicated. It’s simply been redesigned, and now racial control functions through the criminal justice system.

Come to Raleigh March 20-23

Will young people of North Carolina organize and march to save diversity in North Carolina public schools and the rest of the country? One important event is already planned for Saturday, March 20 at NC State:

. . . .Great Schools in Wake is hosting a forum at N.C. State University's McKimmon Center focused on a quality education for every child. The event Saturday, March 20 will run from 9 a.m. into the afternoon.

Registration opens at 8 a.m.

Sacramento Press / Harvesting the 'City of (fruit) Trees'

Harvesting the 'City of (fruit) Trees'

Sacramento is nicknamed the "City of Trees" for a reason. Even in its most urban core, the city is filled with fruit trees.

So what happens when those trees produce more fruit than the owners can harvest, let alone eat? One option is to let Harvest Sacramento take care of it. This year alone, the group has collected more than 13,000 pounds of fruit from the Sacramento area, all of which goes to the Sacramento Food Bank.

Harvest Sacramento organized a Midtown Fruit Harvest on Saturday in which 25 community volunteers helped pick more than 1,300 pounds of citrus for the food bank. In just three hours, the group collected grapefruit, oranges, lemons and kumquats from nine houses in the grid.

The group was inspired by an East Sacramento couple, Mary McGrath and Robin Aurelius, who organized a grass-roots effort to harvest unwanted oranges from trees in the McKinley Park area. After that group delivered more than 3,000 pounds of citrus to the Sacramento Food Bank in early 2009, Soil Born Farms joined in and took a lead role in increasing community involvement.

"We have big white bins to put the fruit in, and the food bank picks them up and weighs them," said Randy Stannard, a food access coordinator at Soil Born Farms. "The giver gets a receipt and a tax write-off for about $1 per pound."

Jerry Large | What kids in poverty really need | Seattle Times Newspaper

What kids in poverty really need

People who wind up in Washington's child- welfare system are often beset by "profound deprivation."

Jerry Large

Seattle Times staff columnist

People who wind up in Washington's child- welfare system are often beset by "profound deprivation."

Mark Courtney, whose organization conducted a study of the system, told me the depth of poverty has been a surprise even to people who regularly deal with child welfare.

Data from a new study shows half of those families had problems securing housing, some were homeless, and two-thirds were so broke they needed food stamps.

The study is part of an effort to transform the way this state helps its most endangered children, and it underscores the need to address poverty as a core part of that effort.

The study was done for the Department of Health and Human Services, which usually makes news only when something has gone terribly wrong and the lawyers are circling.

But the people it serves and the rest of us desperately need for it to work well. That is especially true when children's futures and even their lives are at stake.

That is why the agency is in the midst of a transformation in its approach to the deep problems we ask it to solve.

I actually feel upbeat about the prospects after a conversation with Courtney, who holds the Ballmer Endowed

Students say assault report is lacking | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/14/2010

Students say assault report is lacking

By Jeff Gammage and Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writers

Duyngoc Truong is a lithe, 16-year-old junior who stands 5-foot-3 and weighs 108 pounds.

At dismissal Dec. 3, she was chased through the streets outside South Philadelphia High School until she ran out of room to run, pinned against a brick wall of the St. Agnes Continuing Care Center by a mob of a hundred, and pummeled about the face and head.

"I thought, 'Oh, my God, maybe I'm going to die,' " she said.

She told her story to an investigator who helped compile the official school-district report on the Dec. 3 violence. But in an interview, Truong disputed how the report describes a key part of the assault.

Interviews with six Asian students and a legal complaint obtained by the newspaper show:

The students say investigators ignored crucial portions of their accounts of the violence.

Youths insist that interviewers cut off their attempts to place the Dec. 3 violence in the context of years of assaults against Asian students.

At least 26 separate assaults against Asian students occurred during the 2008-09 school year alone, the complaint says.

Retired federal judge James Giles, who conducted the inquiry at the request of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, said his report was objective, balanced, and aimed at discovering the truth.

Neither he nor his staff blocked any student's attempt to describe earlier incidents at the school, he said, and all of the interviewed students were afforded full opportunity to tell all that they knew.

"The first question," Giles said, "was what do you know of your own personal knowledge? What have you heard, if anything, and is there anything that you'd like to say that we haven't asked you about?"

Anyone with additional information should report it to the district, he said. In fact, "if the school district wants me to do a further investigation, I'd be happy to," he said.

Among the incidents recounted in the Feb. 23 Giles report is the horrific dismissal-time attack on 10 Vietnamese students outside the school. The report says the students were assaulted after "something" - unknown and unidentified - caused them to run from their adult escorts and into danger.

Activists criticize Mass. anti-bullying bill :: EDGE Boston

Activists criticize Mass. anti-bullying bill
by Peter Cassels
EDGE Contributor
Monday Mar 15, 2010

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hanged himself last April after classmates harassed him because they thought he was gay. His death was one of two that motivated lawmakers to strengthen the Commonwealth’s anti-bullying law.

Activists continue to lament the fact Massachusetts legislators have not included LGBT-specific language in a bill that would strengthen a law against bullying and harassment in the classroom.

Activists lobbying to include what they call enumerative language to cover sexual orientation and gender identity and expression attribute the omission to the "Scott Brown effect" and the anti-incumbency mood among voters. Massachusetts voters elected Brown to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in January, but activists maintain lawmakers don’t want to give conservatives ammunition that would jeopardize their re-election chances in November.

The state Senate unanimously approved the anti-bullying bill on Thursday, March 11. It now moves to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat running for re-election in what recent polls show is a close race, has said he will sign it into law.

Activists maintain the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature is leery of giving opponents ammunition by conferring what conservatives call "special rights" for LGBTs.

"You have a toxic environment in both the Senate and the House in view of anti-incumbent, anti-legislative sentiment in the populace at the moment," Dee Dee Edmondson, political director for MassEquality, told EDGE in an interview before the Senate passed the proposed legislation. "Obviously that was shown in the Brown election. People are very nervous."

She explained not including enumerative language is part of a trickle-down effect.

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks' - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks'

by Diane Ravitch

The Lone Star State mandates the teaching of patriotism—and promotes ignorance in the process.

Here is a newsflash from Texas: The conservative majority of the Texas State Board of Education adopted new guidelines for social-studies textbooks that reflect their conservative political views. The new guidelines will emphasize the Christian beliefs of the Founding Fathers. Students in Texas will be expected to learn about the emergence of the conservative movement in the 1980s and 1990s. The new textbooks are supposed to promote patriotism and respect for the “free-enterprise system.”

“Having a public agency decide which textbooks are right and what facts should be added or deleted is nonsensical. It is equivalent to having a public agency review movies and tell us which we will be allowed to see at taxpayer expense.”

No surprise here. For many years, the Texas state board has been telling textbook publishers what should appear in the books that the state will buy for its students. Nineteen other states decide which textbooks will qualify for “adoption” in their public schools. Books that are not approved by the state board cannot be purchased with state funds. This is a very powerful lever to bring about revisions in the textbooks. The two most consequential of the so-called adoption states are Texas and California, because they have the largest number of students and therefore the most clout with publishers. When Texas or California speak, publishers listen and change their textbooks to comply.

Typically, the Texas board demands that the textbooks, especially in history and science, toe the conservative line, while California insists that the textbooks it buys for grades K-8 comply with its “social content” guidelines, which require positive representations of all groups in society. Unlike California, which buys textbooks statewide for grades K-8, Texas buys textbooks en masse for all grades, so it has a lot of influence on high-school textbooks.

Given the strong conservative hold on the elected state board in Texas, it is not surprising that the board demands that its textbooks are patriotic and respectful of religion. Given the strong liberal character of California politics, it is not surprising that its state guidelines demand equal time and respectful representation of gender groups, ethnic and racial groups, and all minorities.

In 2003, I described the absurdities of the textbook adoption process in a book titledThe Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Children Learn. I showed how all sorts of groups from different ends of the political spectrum have used the textbook adoptions to impose their agenda. Feminists went before state boards to demand the excision of all words, phrases, and images that were offensive to them; consequently, textbook publishers gathered long lists of words that were banned from textbooks (and tests, as well). Thus, children are spared ever having to see the

Media-Newswire.com - Press Release Distribution - PR Agency

UC Berkeley professor to speak on public university funding crisis

Ananya Roy, a University of California at Berkeley professor who has worked to fight higher education budget cuts in her state, will speak at 4 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Ananya Roy, a University of California at Berkeley professor who has worked to fight higher education budget cuts in her state, will speak at 4 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium.

The University Lecture Committee is presenting the lecture, "The Crisis of the Public Universities: Old and New Struggles and Solidarities." It is free and open to the public.

Roy is a member of SAVE the University, a faculty group formed at UC Berkeley in response to the budget cuts and fee hikes, and of Solidarity Alliance, a collaboration between the faculty, student and worker movements at UC Berkeley.

She will be speaking about the current plight of the public university given the present economic climate. Roy teaches at UC Berkeley, which is in a sense the front line in the battle to keep public universities intact, said Lecture Committee member Kathryn Lavezzo, associate professor in the UI Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Roy is a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, where she teaches in the fields of comparative urban studies and international development. She also serves as education director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies and as co-director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Center.

In 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor UC Berkeley bestows on its faculty. Also in 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentors award, a recognition bestowed by the Graduate Assembly of UC Berkeley. In 2008, Roy was the recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching award, the only teaching award given by the student body. Most recently, Roy was named 2009 California Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie

News: The Shrunken Student Aid Bill - Inside Higher Ed

The Shrunken Student Aid Bill

March 15, 2010

WASHINGTON -- As Congressional Democrats and the White House begin a last-ditch push to pass legislation to overhaul health care this week, it remains far from certain that a plan to revamp the student loan programs will be merged into the health legislation. While the odds of that happening are better than not, it is still possible that Democrat leaders will decide to ditch or postpone action on the student aid measure if they conclude that it could discourage even a few key lawmakers from supporting the health care bill.

But after several intense days of behind-the-scenes negotiations, a few things have become clear(er) about the stripped-down student aid bill that Congress may consider in the coming days:

The measure will fall well short of the Obama administration's original proposal to transform the student aid programs, giving President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan few of the policy changes and accountability tools they'd hoped for.
Pell Grants would remain the legislation's top priority, although because of the program's rapidly escalating costs, the value of the maximum grant would rise less than originally planned.
Community colleges will get little or none of nearly $10 billion they'd been slated to receive.
Historically black, Hispanic and other colleges could benefit because Democratic leaders are afraid of angering small but powerful blocs of minority members of Congress.
Some of the savings from the loan overhaul may be used to help pay for health care reform.

As of late Sunday, the situation surrounding the health/financial aid

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March | OregonLive.com

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March

By David Sarasohn, The Oregonian

March 14, 2010, 1:43PM

This week marks the kickoff of the NCAA college basketball playoffs, perhaps the last remaining occasion when Americans use "college" and "revenue increase" in the same sentence. But this month, higher education started March Madness a little early.Higher ed

March 4, college students demonstrated in Oregon and throughout the country to point out they're being charged considerably more and getting less and less, and that the basic quality of the country's higher education system is starting to wobble.

"It's addressing a growing trend and an economic crisis facing students across the nation," explained Stephanie Rio Collier, a Portland State junior and part of a demonstration by several hundred PSU students. They were especially concerned, said Collier, about possible Oregon University System reorganizations that might produce sharply higher tuition and even more student debt.

There are two clear points to make about this:

1. The PSU students, and the ones across the country, are absolutely right.

2. They haven't seen anything yet.

The next legislative sessions around the country, when state budgets will be far from recovering and when federal stimulus money will be gone --at this point, states will be mostly on their own facing combined deficits that could top $200 billion --could be the worst moment for higher education since the end of mandatory Latin.

Warned state Rep. Chip Limehouse, chairman of the higher education subcommittee in the South Carolina House of Representatives, "Next year is going to be an iceberg looming for higher education."

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises

12:17 AM CDT on Monday, March 15, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

The number of illegal immigrant college students paying in-state tuition and receiving financial aid at Texas' public colleges and universities continues to climb, according to state higher education records.

During the fall semester, 12,138 students – about 1 percent of all Texascollege students – benefited from the state law granting in-state tuition, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Most of the immigrants among those students are illegal, and some others are not legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens.

Texas awarded about $33.6 million in state and institutional financial aid to those students between fall 2004 and summer 2008.

In 2001, Texas became the first state in the country to pass an in-state tuition law. The law created a national movement. Many private universities also now award aid to illegal immigrant students.

Now some of the students are graduating but unable to work legally as professionals. Julie, 29, who moved from Mexico to Austin at age 12, earned a degree in nursing from the University of Texas. She is unable to work, so instead she volunteers in Dallas.

"You have people here, and they're trained," said Julie, who did not want her last name used because of her immigration status. "The state has invested in us, so why not let us be contributing members of society and our community?"

But immigration reform has stalled. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass the Dream Act, a proposal that would put the students on a path to citizenship.

Critics question how much tuition discounts and state financial aid cost

A District at Risk The Desert Independent

The Desert Independent

A District at Risk

By ROBERT E. JENSEN
The Desert Independent

March 14, 2010

BLYTHE, Calif – Back in 1983, the Department of Education under then-Secretary Terrell H. Bell published a study of the educational morass in the United States entitled “A Nation at Risk.” Its headline-grabbing prologue stated that:

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.

Couple this observation from 27 years ago with the current state of education in California and, especially, in the Palo Verde Unified School District and read on.

The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise printed an article on Saturday in which it declared numerous schools in the Inland Empire to be among the “worst in California.” To wit:

Sixteen Inland schools made a list of the lowest performing campuses in the state, but officials said Monday they are working to reverse the trends.
The schools are on the preliminary list of the bottom 5 percent in academic performance. The California Department of Education released the first-ever list on Monday. Each campus must choose one of four school improvement models required by state and federal law. Most of the schools are listed because of low test scores, but five were identified for low graduation rates.

These schools were mainly located in San Bernardino with mentions of Alvord, Coachella, Moreno Valley and Perris as far as Riverside County goes, but there was no mention of the Palo Verde Unified School District. To read the entire article, click HERE.

Why no mention of the schools in PVUSD? Well, as observers of this newspaper would report, over the past 15 years the Press-Enterprise has concluded that Blythe is apparently not located in

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, March 15, 2010

EducationNewsToday

Harvesting the 'City of (fruit) Trees'

What kids in poverty really need

Students say assault report is lacking

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks'

The Shrunken Student Aid Bill

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March

By David Sarasohn, The Oregonian

March 14, 2010, 1:43PM

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises

12:17 AM CDT on Monday, March 15, 2010