Monday, April 5, 2010

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Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

The kiddos will not be happy with me for saying this, but thank goodness spring break is winding down. There's no break for school reporting:

The Union-Tribune reports that a judge said that no, Helix High can't stop Grossmont schools from trying to revoke its charter -- at least, not yet. Grossmont is still weighing what to do after a Helix official violated its code of conduct.
Also in the UT: Efforts to curb bullying seem to be working. And an editorial argues that the Obama Administration should focus reforms on more than just the worst schools.
School board member John de Beck writes in SDNN that schools should start offering tangible rewards like cash for good behavior and grades.
Poway schools may stop running buses to save money, the North County Times reports.
The Los Angeles Times writes that Chinese government programs to help U.S. kids learn Mandarin have raised suspicions around Los Angeles, although there are a handful already operating in San Diego.

Time is Already Running Out for ESEA - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Time is Already Running Out for ESEA

By Alyson Klein on April 5, 2010 12:34 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

It's only early April, but time is already running very short if lawmakers are going to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act this year.

Lawmakers are back in their districts this week. When Congress returns later this month, they'll have less than four months of work time before the August recess. Not much, besides budget bills, happens in Washington after July, especially in an election year. Four months may seem like lots and lots of time to folks outside of Washington, but Congress tends to run on a very different schedule. You know that saying, " it would take an act of Congress... " Yeah, that's around for a reason.

Of course, congressional aides can and do spend their summer vacations working out the details of a bill, but that's only if their bosses have reached the broad outlines of an agreement. And it seems to me that folks have been very busy working on health care and student loans and haven't had a chance to think through some of the thornier issues in ESEA renewal.

Folks have said privately that if the House education committee can't get a bill together by the end of March, there isn't going to be a reauthorization this year. And we haven't yet seen legislation. Remember, the 2002 version of the law, the No Child Left Behind Act, was on the floor of the Senate for roughly a month and

Weaker Teachers Leave Tough Schools, Analysis Finds - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Weaker Teachers Leave Tough Schools, Analysis Finds

by Stephen Sawchuk

It's long been known that high-poverty, high-minority schools have higher rates of teacher turnover than other schools. But is turnover in such schools always a bad thing? In a new paper out from the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin take on the issue and provide some fresh food for thought.
The researchers looked at data from an urban district in Texas from 1995-96 and from 2000-2001 in grades 4 and 8, using a matched teacher-student data set. The district has a whopping 30 percent annual "exit rate" among new teachers and 18 percent among veterans.
The researchers found that, of the "exiting" teachers, those leaving Texas schools entirely and those that sought out another school in the district were on average less effective relative to teachers who stayed in their schools in raising mathematics scores.
But when they sliced and diced the data, they found a much more complex set of factors. When the data were correlated by school type, for instance, the researchers found that the teachers who left low-achieving schools and schools with a higher concentration of black students were less effective, compared with "stayers," than teachers who left higher-achieving schools or those with fewer black students.
The one exception seems to be for novices with but a year of experience under their belts. First-year teachers

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URGENT:: Oak Ridge Elementary School � jimae

URGENT:: Oak Ridge Elementary School

by jimae

Dear friends and family,

I haven’t yet had a chance to divulge just how much Oak Ridge Elementary School means to both my husband and I, but I will do so shortly. I want to introduce you to more of our beliefs with Equal Start and Be Change in a new post soon, and share my experiences with my sweet sixth grader, Julieanna. For today, as it is incredibly urgent, please take a moment to read this message from my good friend, Jason Haper. Nick and I will be at the meeting Monday night (cameras in hand …) – if you can join us, I promise you – you will not regret it!

Thank you for taking the time to support the families of Oak Park, and the plight of our inner-city children.

So much love,

Jimae

ALL EQUAL START AND BE CHANGE SUPPORTERS
A message from Equal Start’s Jason Harper

URGENT: UPDATE ON OAK RIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN OAK PARK

WE NEED YOUR VOICE OF INFLUENCE
Consider the inner-city child as your child. This injustice can’t be ignored. Recently, the Department of Education released a list of the lowest performing schools in California. None were surprised that Oak Ridge was on that list.

In 2005, “Low Performing” was the barometer that led former Sacramento City Board Member Rick Jennings to

Students plan tuition protest at State Board of Education meeting this morning | Politics | Idaho Statesman

Students plan tuition protest at State Board of Education meeting this morning

Idaho college students say they will protest rising fees and tuition on Monday with a sit-in at the State Board of Education meeting.

In a news release sent Sunday, Jason Denizac of the Idaho Student Association says the protest will begin at the Capitol at 8 a.m. The board is scheduled to convene at 8:30 a.m. to set fees and tuition for the 2010-11 academic year in a meeting in the House & Senate Auditorium in the building’s new garden level.

Denizac said students will protest proposed increases, including Boise State University’s asking request for an 8.9% increase in overall tuition and fees, including a 14.7% increase in general tuition. This will cost full-time resident undergraduates an additional $457.50 per year, Denizac said in the release. Idaho State University is asking for a 9.9% increase.

The sit-in is being organized by the Idaho Student Association, a new state-wide, student-run grassroots organization. The Idaho Student Association was started this year by students from BSU and ISU in reaction to record tuition increases.

"The decision to raise fees was made with a considerable lack of deference to student opinion. We need to make sure that student voice is loud and present from now on so such decisions will not be made again

Quote of the Day � Student Activism

Quote of the Day

by Angus Johnston

“The first demonstrations we had were just a handful of people. In fact when Dr. King himself went to jail, only fifty-five people would go with him. So, when young people today ask me, ‘When are we going to be able to get together like you all were in the sixties?’ — nobody was ‘together’ in the sixties! It was a small group of dedicated people who got it started…
“And then the kids took it over.”

–Andrew Young, interviewed by Spike Lee for the documentary 4 Little Girls, discussing the Birmingham campaign.

Turning a blind eye is costing our kids | California Progress Report

Turning a blind eye is costing our kids

Posted on 02 April 2010

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By Eric Wooten

Everyday, millions of responsible Americans sit down, log on and break the law.

Despite being banned by federal law, online poker is an immensely popular American pastime that shows no signs of waning. It is estimated that up to 15 million Americans play internet poker with some regularity.

Our country’s schizophrenic approach to online gaming has created a virtual Wild West boomtown, where a handful of crooks and thieves can easily hide among the many reputable gambling establishments.

Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) is carrying legislation that would heavily regulate and tax online gaming. But most importantly, his legislation would provide vital safeguards to prevent underage gambling and help those with self-destructive gambling habits.

With these regulations, each and every bet made online could be tracked and analyzed. That means federal authorities could shutdown online establishments catering to minors with a flick of a switch.

If you really want to stop stores from illegally selling cigarettes to kids, require the store owners to produce a valid name, address and credit card number for every pack of cigarettes they sold. That’s the level of scrutiny online poker establishments will be

Investing in Innovation (i3) Webinar Recordings Available – ED.gov Blog

Investing in Innovation (i3) Webinar Recordings Available

Webinar recordings of the Investing in Innovation (i3) program’s three pre-application workshops are now available. The slideshow from the workshops is also available.

The purpose of these workshops was to provide technical assistance to interested applicants for the scale-up, validation, and development grants. Over 1000 attendees participated in the workshops; over 2000 attendees participated remotely through the webinar.

i3 will support the development of path-breaking new ideas, the validation of approaches that have demonstrated promise, and the scale-up of the nation’s most successful and proven education innovations.

For additional information, see the i3 website.

This entry was written by kwinters, posted on April 5, 2010 at 9:16 am, filed under Headlines. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

If Parents Were Required To Come To Class, Behavior Would Get Better - Perdaily.com

If Parents Were Required To Come To Class, Behavior Would Get Better

by Leonard

One of the unintended negative byproducts of long failed public education is the fact that it is not just the students who are presently in the system that lack the academic background to ultimately become productive members of our society, it is also many of the people who are now trying to deal with the very complex set of problems that is now exacerbated by the worst economic downturn in the United States since the Great Depression of 1929 -- I thought I would give the date, since I have found that most of my students, their parents, and many of my teacher and administrator colleagues have no awareness of this period in recent American history.

It is important to define in very specific terms what is meant by academic background, or what it means to be an educated person. So let me take a crack at some of the factors that are clearly present when a person is educated:

1. An educated person tries in the present to consider what they have experienced and learned in the past in determining with great specificity what they will do in the future.
2. In trying to develop a model of analyzing an issue, they focus more on the ideas that disagree with their own position, since they realize that the more complete their model of analysis is, the higher the probability of their coming up with a viable solution.
3. They realize that all answers are tentative, because the nature of reality is something that is always changing, so that there is no guarantee that what works now will work in the future without continued modification based on

Schools Matter: Changing RTTT Rules in the Middle of the Race

Changing RTTT Rules in the Middle of the Race

by Jim Horn

At the beginning of the first leg of RTTT, there were forty state entrants. Some states had changed laws on charter schools and teacher evaluations and constant surveillance data systems in order to run with the elites. Entrants spent millions in staff time to put together race plans they thought would get them part of the booty piled at the finish line for all to see.

Well, the first heat is finished and there were only two qualifiers. Not only that, but now that the state laws have been altered to open the door to the school deformation that Gates and Broad demanded to be considered among the elites, the big pot of gold for the winners has

Notes from the news, Apr. 5 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Apr. 5

by Erika Owens

Report cites questionable charter-school practices The Inquirer
The draft report from City Controller Alan Butkovitz states "taxpayer money is at risk."
Marci Resnick Teacher Fund: Paying it forward The Notebook blog
The deadline for the fund's scholarships, in memory of longtime teacher and Philadelphia Writing Project administrator, is this Friday.
As Rachael Ray delivers a new kitchen, school culinary program shifts direction Daily News
Frankford High will see its new kitchen today, but school culinary programs are shifting focus from cooking to prep for better paying front of the house jobs.
See also: Food Star Rachael Ray Outfits Philly HS Culinary Class KYW
Personalized Learning Plans – The next big thing The Notebook blog
Some 9th grade classrooms are piloting plans for every student that is meant to encourage and document individualized instruction, but how can that be captured in the tiny boxes on the form?
Don't shortchange the students by cutting back on 180 school days The Inquirer (opinion)
State senators write in opposition of the state department of education's decision to waive makeup days for some of the snow days in February.
Germantown Settlement files for bankruptcy The Inquirer
Families Find Ways to Pay for College Philadelphia Neighborhoods
Philly kids get dental exams WHYY
"Beat China!" Schools and the Global Economy Philly Education Justice blog
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This Week In Education Video: Student Rejected On "Good Morning America" - Three Times

This Week In Education

Video: Student Rejected On "Good Morning America" - Three Times

From Gawker TV: High Schooler Gets Rejected From Three Colleges On National TV Christen Caval is a high school senior who, like many others, is receiving word from the colleges of her dreams. Unfortunately for her, most high schoolers don't have to endure three consecutive rejections on national television...Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution This week, Jamie moves his food train of redemption to a local high school. Wil

News: States Hesitate Over RTTT Participation

Education" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); ">States Skeptical About ‘Race to Top’ School Aid Contest NYT Sam Dillon: Besides Colorado, a string of other states — including Arizona, California, Nebraska, South Carolina and South Dakota — say they have not yet decided whether to keep participating. ...Union fails to restrict

The Educated Guess State’s STEM plan mediocre

The Educated Guess

State’s STEM plan mediocre

Tags: CSI Net, Ohio STEM Innovation Network
Posted in Race to the Top, STEM

Intel, Synopsis, HP, Apple, Adobe, Bechtel, Cisco, DreamWorks.
Irvine, Hewlett and Lukas foundations, Lawrence Hall of Science, Stanford, Cal, Caltech.
California is the source of America’s innovation in science and technology, and a slew of its companies, foundations, universities and non-profits are underwriting science and math education through science fairs, teacher training, new curriculums and all kinds of cool, interactive technologies. (That includes Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s Lessonopoly.)
If any state should get STEM education right, it’s California. But in its Race to the Top application, California was nearly skunked in the bonus section for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.
Four of five judges gave the state zero points, and one gave it the maximum 15, for an average of score of three. (Under the rules, each judge could give either all or no points for having a well-developed STEM education plan, and nothing in between.)
(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on April 5th, 2010

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