Rise & Shine: Charter schools’ political entanglements deepen | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Charter schools’ political entanglements deepen | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Charter schools’ political entanglements deepen

by Philissa Cramer

• The documentary about the rubber rooms for reassigned teachers comes out next month. (Post)
• The fight over charter schools is heating up, and political money is playing a big role. (Crain’s NY)
• The charter school State Sen. Malcolm Smith founded moved onto a donor’s land. (Daily News)
• Conditions at the school, Peninsula Prep, are subpar, without plans for improvement. (Daily News)
• A student who says the principal at NEST+m tried to have him arrested wrongfully is suing. (Post)
• More minorities were accepted to the city’s gifted kindergartens. (GothamSchools, Post, Daily News)
• Translators are key at parent conferences at Stuyvesant, where most students are Asian. (Times)
• Students at Brooklyn’s PS 269 forwent a bake sale to run laps for Haiti relief. (Daily News, NY1)
• Conservative columnist Andrea Peyser: New bake sale rules were devised by “demonic nannies.” (Post)
• A psychologist at Staten Island’s IS 72 was arrested for inappropriate sexual behavior. (Daily News)
• The Times says charter schools’ teacher evaluation systems are worth emulating.
• Nonprofits, including those working on education, are expecting a bad budget year. (Times)
• With budgets declining, states are having trouble coming through on their education vows. (NPR)
• Albany is cutting teachers after losing enrollment to charter schools. (Albany Times Union)
• D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee has hired a Democratic party image consultant. (Washington Post)
• Rhee isn’t rebuilding several decrepit schools as promised because of money woes. (Washington Post)
• The Wall Street Journal says choice and accountability, not standards, are the best education tools.
• In letters to the editor, readers tell the Times their thoughts on the push toward national standards.
• Chester Finn argues that American kids should go to school on Saturdays, too. (Wall Street Journal)

Jerry Large | Minding the young brain | Seattle Times Newspaper

Jerry Large | Minding the young brain | Seattle Times Newspaper

Minding the young brain

The title of a talk John Medina is giving Wednesday caught my attention: "Brain Rules for Parents. " Would he be talking about how to preserve one's own mind, while rearing children?

The title of a talk John Medina is giving Wednesday caught my attention: "Brain Rules for Parents."

Would he be talking about how to preserve one's own mind, while rearing children?

Hmm ... why was that the first thought that flashed through my brain?

Actually, Medina will talk about helping children develop and grow.

Medina is a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. He is an affiliate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine and director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University.

I wrote about his book "Brain Rules" last year. He's always fun to talk with, so I called and gave him a break from grading papers.

"The question I get asked all the time," he told me is, "how do I get my kid into Harvard?"

He's too polite to roll his eyes, and besides, he understands this is a very competitive society. So he tries to answer.

"If you want to get your kid into Harvard, go home and love your wife, love your husband, love your partner," he said.

Rewriting history to support our beliefs - Heber Springs, AR - The Sun-Times

Rewriting history to support our beliefs - Heber Springs, AR - The Sun-Times

Rewriting history to support our beliefs

Let us assume that you wanted to write a book about the history of the United States.
How would you go about it? Would you conduct years of research into how our country came into existence and to grow, and each major event that molded us into what we are? Would you be painstaking to record everything as accurately and objectively as possible, and to avoid injecting your biases and prejudices into your writing? Or, would you write it in the way that you would have liked for it to have been?
Unfortunately, the exposure of most people to history is limited to what is taught to them in high school, and maybe even college. After that, most people are more concerned about what happened yesterday than what happened during the days of the Roman Empire or the American Revolution. But, because of the history to which we were exposed in school, we have perceptions of how and why our country was born, the principles upon which it is founded, and how our government works.
Those perceptions are important because, even though we learned them when we were young, they continue to shape our views of what our nation is about and how it should work today and in the future. Consequently, we like to believe that the history lessons that we studied in school that form the basis of our current beliefs were factual, accurate and objective. We do not want to believe that our young minds were subconsciously indoctrinated toward the personal political, social and religious viewpoints of the writers of the history books.
If we believe that our country’s history is important, and further, that it is important to describe that history accurately in textbooks, then Americans should be concerned about the actions last Friday of the Texas Board of Education, when a majority of that Board overruled curriculum standards recommended by a panel of teachers and inserted their own personal political, social and religious views into what should be contained in history, economics and sociology

PR-USA.net - Students Seek Affordable Alternatives in Wake of Education Budget Cuts

PR-USA.net - Students Seek Affordable Alternatives in Wake of Education Budget Cuts

STUDENTS SEEK AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVES IN WAKE OF EDUCATION BUDGET CUTS

As a result of the current recession, over 39 states have cut or are proposing to cut their education budgets or face massive deficits. Unlike the federal government, most states are required to balance their general fund budgets. Since education is the largest component of state budgets, averaging around 46%, it is typically the first area legislators look to cut during a budget crisis. Cuts have been especially deep in the higher education sector. To address the budget shortfall, states have been forced to lay off teachers, reduce course offerings and further increase skyrocketing tuition. For instance, the University of California will increase tuition by 32% in 2010. Nationwide, college tuition and fees have increased 439% from 1982-2007 according to the National Center for Public Policy. Families who were already struggling to pay college bills will now have to find a way to pay even more in a climate where many have lost their jobs and seen their investments decline in value. "Unfortunately, our income could not keep up with our daughter's rising tuition costs, so we had to bring her home," stated a distraught parent. This stressful situation is causing parents and students to seek out more affordable online education alternatives to costly four-year schools. Online Education to the Rescue The good news is there are ways to obtain a college education without spending a lot of money. Online education schools such as Ashworth College offer accredited degrees for less than 50% of the cost of traditional campus based institutions. The curriculum is of comparable quality and is often developed in partnership with leading professional associations, which ensures that graduates have the job skills that matter to employers. "At $80 per credit hour, including textbooks, tuition at Ashworth College is considerably less than four-year public or private institutions. We are an incredible value, and more and more students are recognizing this," said Gary Keisling, Ashworth President and CEO. "For added peace of mind, we guarantee students that the tuition price that is in place on the day they enroll is the same price they will pay all the way through graduation." Not only is tuition at online colleges less than traditional institutions, but the

School districts looking at asking voters for cash - ContraCostaTimes.com

School districts looking at asking voters for cash - ContraCostaTimes.com

As state budget cuts continue to threaten education programs and force layoffs, three school districts in northern Solano County are thinking about asking voters for money. Talk of parcel taxes and general obligation bonds is picking up in California school districts as educators try to deal with massive state cuts to education. At their regularly scheduled board meeting Thursday night, trustees in the Dixon Unified School District were to receive results of a local voter survey about a tax to support education. Superintendent Roger Halberg said trustees tabled the report until their next meeting, April 1, to allow more time to get responses. The Dixon board is contemplating whether to go with a parcel tax or general obligation bond to help sustain educational programs and jobs. Halberg said Dixon voters passed a 30-year general obligation bond in 2002 to help build the new high school and pay for other construction projects in the district. One option for Dixon Unified would be to put another bond on the ballot that would essentially extend the length of the previous bond. A new bond would free up money from the general fund that is now going toward payments on the certificates of participation for previous construction projects. Those payments are roughly $750,000 a year. During a board workshop Thursday, trustees in the Vacaville Unified School District also learned about parcel tax

California vs. home schools

California vs. home schools

March 21, 8:54 AMWayne County Conservative ExaminerCharles Martin Cosgriff

So, the State of California does not think (we should stop right there) that non-credentialed parents have the right to home school their children. If there ever was an example of the pure, unadulterated arrogance of government minions and public school employees (just more minions, as it were), this is it.

Why do teachers believe that they are the only ones who can teach? They have no copyright on knowledge. Indeed, from what can be garnered from many schools, they don't even have a toehold on knowing much of anything. As to the government, much of which knows (we use the term quite loosely) even less about education except to grant power over it to those who claim on their own authority to be educators, we see only so much more evidence that it is the last place we should want to go for advice on child rearing.

Home schooled children regularly out perform public schoolchildren. But even that does not really address the true issue at stake in matters such as this. What we have here is yet another example of the erosion of parental rights over their progeny. That itself is simply another link in the chain being drawn around us to tie us down to government will. The government, through its sponsored agencies in the courts and the schools, agencies which rely on the government recognition of their power in order to thrive, is simply bent on taking the control of children from their moms and dads because they

New Canby High program lets students borrow laptops for home Internet access | OregonLive.com

New Canby High program lets students borrow laptops for home Internet access | OregonLive.com

New Canby High program lets students borrow laptops for home Internet access

By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian

March 21, 2010, 6:00PM

MICHAEL LLOYD/THE OREGONIANDavid Orozco, 17, uses a computer and wireless modem he borrowed through Canby High School’s “Check It Out” program, which launched last month. After his family gave up Internet access as a way to save money, the Canby High senior has borrowed the laptops several times for research projects and studying.CANBY -- Just as finals approached, David Orozco's family decided to drop Internet access to save money. The Canby High School senior had a group project on Bosnia and Herzegovina due in Economics class, and he needed to look up music on YouTube for choir practice.

But Orozco, 17, understood.

"With the economy, not everyone can afford everything," Orozco said. "This is just another so-called luxury."

Last month, Canby High administrators presented their own solution to Orozco's problem -- the school launched "Check It Out," a program that allows students to borrow laptops and wireless modems for free Internet access at home.

The program sheds light on a predicament facing families as they search for ways to trim budgets. Although many now consider online access essential for academic success, nearly one-third of U.S. households have no Internet connection, according to data from a 2009 Census Bureau survey.

At Canby High School, where a striking one in 17 students is considered homeless, there's often a waiting list for the laptops and wireless modems, especially on weekends.

"We definitely know there's a need for the program," said principal Pat Johnson. Each night, students can check out one of 10 laptops bought by the school and one of 20 wireless modules, which were provided free of charge by Cricket Wireless.

Though the school's computer lab has 40 computers, it closes at 5 p.m., h

Law professor Goodwin Liu may be test case for Obama judicial picks - washingtonpost.com

Law professor Goodwin Liu may be test case for Obama judicial picks - washingtonpost.com

Law professor Goodwin Liu may be test case for Obama judicial picks

By Robert Barnes

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 22, 2010

Liberal legal activists came away from last summer'sconfirmation hearings on Sonia Sotomayor with an empty feeling. It's not so much that they had a beef with Sotomayor, whom they supported. But her pragmatic discourses on judging and her vague remarks on constitutional interpretation were far from the soaring progressive vision of the Constitution that they had waited for years to hear from a Democratic nominee.

The activists are likely to get the debate they were looking for soon enough. President Obama's nomination of Goodwin Liu, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, to a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has energized the left and outraged the right. His hearing and the battle over his nomination could tell much about the Obama administration's willingness to appoint controversial nominees to the bench, including the Supreme Court.
"I think people are viewing this as a test for the Supreme Court nomination that will be coming up" if Justice John Paul Stevens steps down at the end of this term, said Curt Levey, executive director of the conservative Committee for Justice.
It also might be the beginning of an examination of Liu's eventual fitness for a place on the high court. The Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, might serve "as an initial referendum on Goodwin Liu as a Supreme Court nominee," said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor who advised committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) during the Sotomayor hearings.

Ravaged by cuts, school libraries fight to stay alive - ContraCostaTimes.com

Ravaged by cuts, school libraries fight to stay alive - ContraCostaTimes.com

Ravaged by cuts, school libraries fight to stay alive

Almost every afternoon, librarian Linda Kenton helps students from San Rafael's Bahia Vista Elementary School find the books, Web pages and other materials they need to complete their assignments.

"They come after school and use the library for homework help," Kenton said. "They use it for doing projects on our computers, and for our reading material."

There's just one problem: Kenton, who works at the Pickleweed branch of the San Rafael Public Library, isn't a school librarian. And while she's willing to go to almost any length to help the children who visit her library, Kenton isn't a credentialed teacher, and her library wasn't designed with an elementary school curriculum in mind.

The informal arrangement between Bahia Vista and the Pickleweed library could be a preview of what's to come in San Rafael and in much of Marin County, where school libraries have been ravaged by state budget cuts. Novato has one certified teacher-librarian for all 14 of its schools, while the Ross Valley School District, Sausalito Marin City School District and all of West Marin's schools have none at all.

"People say they want cuts to come away from the classroom," said Linda Bennett, a former librarian with the Kentfield School District who now works as a consultant. "What they don't understand is that a school library is a classroom. It's not a branch of the public library. It's where kids learn to use the tools for research in a research-based world."

Bennett and other library

supporters point to dozens of studies that show a strong positive correlation between staffing levels at school libraries and student performance on state tests.

"It is more than ironic that school districts are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on reading programs and staff development which have had limited success in boosting test scores, but are unwilling to invest in school library programs that show such direct correlations to student success," researcher Douglas Achterman wrote in a 2008 study of California school libraries.

Libraries, supporters say, don't just provide students with information. They teach them how to distinguish useful information from the flood of available resources, as well as how to organize and present that information - an

CalSTRS funding gap looms - ContraCostaTimes.com

CalSTRS funding gap looms - ContraCostaTimes.com

CalSTRS funding gap looms

The second-largest public pension fund in the nation dropped in value by 25 percent in 2009.

That has fanned the flames for reformers who say the California State Teachers' Retirement System is unsustainable.

CalSTRS, which funds pensions for teachers and classified employees throughout the state, saw a decline of $68 billion in its investment portfolio when the economy took a nose dive at the end of 2008.

It has since regained $23 billion, but still faces $22.5 billion in unfunded liabilities, according to a recent report from the Pew Center.

Furthermore, the report said, that shortfall will grow if the state does not make changes.

CalSTRS administers retirement, disability and survivor benefits for California's public school educators and their families in the state's 1,400 school districts, county offices of education and community college districts.

"Our members' benefits are secure, yet the current economic picture clearly illustrates investments alone cannot meet pension obligations in the long term," said CalSTRS Chief Executive Officer Jack Ehnes in a statement.

"We are not in a crisis to resolve the contribution gap, but the sooner a solution is found, the lower the cost."

CalSTRS members currently pay 8 percent of their payroll into the fund.

School and community college districts pay 8.25 percent of payroll into the fund, while the state contributes 2.017 percent of payroll into the fund.

But school districts are also mandated to pay 9.7 percent of payroll into the California Public Employees' Retirement System for classified employees. Those employees contribute 7 percent of their pay into CalPERS.

2009 Brown Center Report And Education In America | Gov Monitor

2009 Brown Center Report And Education In America | Gov Monitor

2009 Brown Center Report And Education In America

This year’s Brown Center Report contains studies taking a long view.
Part I examines national test data going back to 1971 from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
The study in Part II compares the 1989 test scores of more than 1,000 schools to the same schools’ scores in 2009. Part III compares the test scores of conversion charter schools from 1986, when they operated as traditional public schools, to those from 2008, when they operated as charter schools.
The studies tackle perennial questions that, as often happens in education, manifest themselves as controversial topics on the contemporary scene: how to interpret trends in test scores, the distribution of achievement, school turnarounds, and charter schools.
Part I rejects the conventional reaction to the 2009 NAEP scores. Scores in fourth-grade math were unchanged from 2007 to 2009. Eighth-grade scores were up a little. Press articles featured expressions of disappointment and concern, primarily from protagonists who used the flat scores to support policy arguments.
Part I places the 2009 scores in the context of the 19-year history of the main NAEP, and after comparing the latest scores with results from other equally trustworthy tests of U.S. math achievement, concludes that the hand-wringing is unwarranted.
So when is a purported NAEP trend really a trend? Part I continues by examining achievement gaps, not between two racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups, but between the nation’s highest- and lowest-achieving students. It focuses on the distribution of academic achievement instead of the direction of average achievement. The study is a follow-up to a 2009 Fordham Institute paper documenting that the gap between high- and low-achieving students has been shrinking in recent years. The data in Part I show that the trend, which began sometime around 1998 or 1999, is historically unprecedented and extends across subjects (reading and math), grades (fourth and eighth), and tests (long-

School Budget Cuts: No End In Sight - AOL News

School Budget Cuts: No End In Sight - AOL News

No End in Sight for School Budget Cuts

Updated: 14 hours 43 minutes ago

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Dana ChivvisContributor

(March 21) -- Last year was not a good year for anyone's wallet. But the recession is taking an extraordinary toll on school systems, as sweeping budgets cuts are enacted in cities and states nationwide. Experts say the budget crisis will be felt acutely this year and that it might only be the beginning.


Education budgets are closely tied to property taxes, leading some to predict more of the same in the years ahead.


"Education is accustomed to growing every year. Even leveling off is seen as a kind of death threat," Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute educational think-tank, told AOL News. "What's going on now is unprecedented in the last few decades."


Many states and cities have already made drastic changes. California's education budget was cut by $17 billion over the past two years and will be cut another $2.4 billion this year. As of Thursday, more than 23,500 pink slips had been handed out to school employees.


In November, the California regents voted to increase tuition at the state's universities by 32 percent, leading to student protests on campuses across the state. Similar hikes under consideration in several other states led to a nationwide day of student protest March 4. In Georgia, the regents first considered a 77 percent tuition increase but dropped the proposed hike to 35 percent in early March.


In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie announced this week that next year's budget would reduce total

PR-CANADA.net - McGraw-Hill Education Meets California's Requirement for Postsecondary Digital Textbooks Ten Years A

PR-CANADA.net - McGraw-Hill Education Meets California's Requirement for Postsecondary Digital Textbooks Ten Years A

Posted by marin2008

Sunday, 21 March 2010

In the wake of enormous economic challenges, many of our nation's educational institutions are turning toward digital solutions to provide flexible learning options. Some states have gone a step further by setting a deadline for a complete digital transition - a new California state law requires that all textbooks used in public and private postsecondary institutions be made available digitally by the year 2020. While the deadline is nearly 10 years away, McGraw-Hill already is meeting California's standard by offering digital versions of 95 percent of its current higher education titles. All of McGraw-Hill Education's content for elementary school and secondary school is available in digital form. "McGraw-Hill enthusiastically embraces the digital revolution, and believes that the creation and delivery of digital content is integral to the future of education," said Peter C. Davis, president, McGraw-Hill Education. "We are committed to providing the content and digital technology that facilitate teaching and drive student achievement in California and nationwide." McGraw-Hill's growing line of digital, interactive programs for the higher education market includes McGraw-Hill Connect - a revolutionary assignment and assessment platform that individualizes lesson plans for students while incorporating material found outside conventional textbooks. By pioneering these new capabilities today, McGraw-Hill is helping to expand the possibilities for

AB 656 gaining grounds in colleges, universities

AB 656 gaining grounds in colleges, universities

San Jose, CA (March 21) -- From San Jose and San Francisco colleges and universities, Majority Leader Alberto Torrico took his campaign trail for higher education funding to Contra Costa Colleges through his Assembly Bill (AB) 656.

AB 656, otherwise known as the oil severance tax bill was introduced by Torrico in Congress, to generate about $2 billion oil tax money earmarked for California's public higher education system.

He joined the students in a rally at the Contra Costa College's Amphitheater to amplify their issues on budget education cuts.

According to Torrico, California is the only major oil-producing state that does not charge the tax on oil companies.

"At a time when our state is spending more money on prisons than we do on all three higher education systems combined, California must boost its funding to keep the doors to our colleges and universities open to students," Majority Leader Torrico said.

He added that, "Studies show there will be an even large wave of students seeking a higher education in the near future, but we currently don't have sufficient funds to handle the enrollment growth, let alone the students we have now. We have to stop the record student fee hikes, staff furloughs, admission caps and canceled courses or fewer students will be able to make their

The Standards Distraction - WSJ.com

The Standards Distraction - WSJ.com

The National Standards Distraction

Accountability and choice remain the best drivers of reform.

The Obama Administration wants to standardize what is taught in American public schools, and there's nothing wrong in principle with setting benchmarks for what the average child should know by a certain grade. But national standards are no substitute for school choice and accountability, which are proving to be the most effective drivers of academic improvement.

With the Administration's blessing, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have proposed a set of uniform K-12 math and reading standards for all states. Compliance will supposedly be voluntary, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan said states that support the effort will have a better chance of receiving Race to the Top money. And President Obama suggested that states that opt out risk losing millions of dollars in Title I grants for low-income students.

Not surprisingly, all but two states—Texas and Alaska—quickly expressed support for uniform standards. But over the past week, a half dozen or so others—as varied as California, Massachusetts, Virginia and Minnesota—have had second thoughts. Governor Rick Perry said Texans should determine what's taught in their state, while Massachusetts and California rightly say their standards are superior to what's been proposed.

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Associated Press

The biggest challenge may be reaching agreement on what a national curriculum should include. In the 1990s, the Bush and Clinton Administrations advocated national history standards. But the process became dominated by educators with a multicultural agenda preoccupied with political correctness and America's failings. The Senate censured the history standards by a vote of 99 to 1. The recent brawl over the Texas social sciences curriculum suggests that what works in Nacogdoches isn't going to fly in