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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Teen Driver Safety targeted in driving safety campaign




What: Teen Driver Safety

When: Thursday, 4/15/2010 5:00pm

Where: Sacramento Native American Health Center, Inc.
2020 J Street Sacramento, CA 95811 2nd Floor
Facilitated by: Jasper Begay, California Highway Patrol

Please no youth under the age of 13 due to the graphic nature of the film “Red Asphalt V”




High school sophomores targeted in driving safety campaign
April 7, 2008
Gearing up for Teen Driving Safety Week, state officials today will announce the start of a public awareness campaign to reduce the number of California teenagers killed in car accidents every year.
A program called Impact Teen Drivers will begin targeting sophomores at public high schools with information and materials to influence driving habits and cut down on the rate of teen driver accidents, the leading cause of death for youths, according to a press release from Impact Teen Drivers organizers.
Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of schools, CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow, a member of the California Teachers Association and the mother of an accident victim are scheduled to announce the program at 10 a.m. in Room 1190 at the Capitol.
Teen Driving Safety Week begins the week of April 14.
According to a recently released study from the American Automobile Association, crashes in California involving drivers 15 to 17 years old cost $2.8 billion, including medical expenses, loss of life and other damages. The study, based on 2006 figures, reported that teenagers in this group were involved in 66,785 crashes that resulted in 177 fatalities and 27,869 injuries.
Sacto 9-1-1: High school sophomores targeted in driving safety campaign

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2008/04/high-school-sop.html#ixzz0kKbAzyJ7

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Op-Ed Contributors - The Myth of Mean Girls - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributors - The Myth of Mean Girls - NYTimes.com

The Myth of Mean Girls


By MIKE MALES and MEDA-CHESNEY LIND

Published: April 1, 2010

IF nine South Hadley, Mass., high school students — seven of them girls — are proved to have criminally bullied another girl who then committed suicide, as prosecutors have charged, they deserve serious legal and community condemnation.
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Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch

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Times Topics: Bullies


However, many of the news reports and inflamed commentaries have gone beyond expressing outrage at the teenagers involved and instead invoked such cases as evidence of a modern epidemic of “mean girls” that adults simply fail to comprehend. Elizabeth Scheibel, the district attorney in the South Hadley case, declined to charge school officials who she said were aware of the bullying because of their “lack of understanding of harassment associated with teen dating relationships.” A People magazine article headlined “Mean Girls” suggested that a similar case two years ago raised “troubling questions” about “teen violence” and “cyberspace wars.” Again and again, we hear of girls hitting, brawling and harassing.
But this panic is a hoax. We have examined every major index of crime on which the authorities rely. None show a recent increase in girls’ violence; in fact, every reliable measure shows that violence by girls has been plummeting for years. Major offenses like murder and robbery by girls are at their lowest levels in four decades. Fights, weapons possession, assaults and violent injuries by and toward girls have been plunging for at least a decade.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports, based on reports from more than 10,000 police agencies, is the most reliable source on arrests by sex and age.
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Latest from the Ownership Society

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Latest from the Ownership Society

Latest from the Ownership Society

by Mike Klonsky
The greed mongers

"In K-12 education, we submit, greed can be good, albeit ugly." --Fordham's Finn & Hess

Conservative think-tankers like Rick Hess are critical of Arne Duncan's i3reform plan because, they complain, there's not enough room for for-profit companies to feed their bottom lines in the ed reform biz.

According to Hess:
Their selfish pursuit of profit gives them cause to be more aggressive about expansion, more

How they do it in Philly

by Mike Klonsky
People often ask me how how, or if, you can make any money as a charter school operator? Here's how they do it in Philly.
Over half a million bucks in undocumented expenses, and the school's board votes to approve them? Hey, can I get a job there?

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Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Apr. 6

by Erika Owens
Correcting the Corrective Math problem The Notebook blog
This is the first in a three-part series about Corrective Math by guest blogger Caroline Ebby. Part one explains how Corrective Math fits with the District's other math curricula.
Ronnie Polaneczky: A fed probe and a suddenly shy Veronica Joyner Daily News
Joyner founded the Mathematics, Civics, and Sciences Charter School and her school is now facing questions about its finances.
Editorial: Fighting failure The Inquirer
Cautions Superintendent Ackerman not to rely too heavily on charters for her Renaissance Schools turnaround program.
Penn neighborhood blooms around a top school The Inquirer
Penn Alexander Elementary School is luring Center City families west.
Letters: Flash-mob students need something to lose The Inquirer
The Times Are A-Changing Philly Teacher blog
Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.
Click here to get Notes from the news in your inbox every day.
Notes from the news
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Correcting the Corrective Math problem

by Guest blogger
This week's guest blog is from Caroline Ebby, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. This is the first in a series of three guest blog posts by Dr. Ebby about Corrective Math. This post will give you a little background on the District's current math curriculum and how Corrective Math fits in with that. The second will analyze Corrective Math specifically, and the final post will describe alternatives to the Corrective Math program.
As a mathematics educator and consultant for two Empowerment schools in Philadelphia, I am acutely aware of and concerned about the effects of the Corrective Math program on the achievement gap and students' access to higher-level mathematics. While the need for intervention in mathematics is paramount, the fact remains thatCorrective Math reflects an instructional model that is outdated, overly simplistic, and counterproductive.
read more
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This Week In Education News: States Try Taking On Tenure

This Week In Education

News: States Try Taking On Tenure

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Obama faces challenges to get rest of plans approved Journal Sentinel: Political observers, analysts and even some lawmakers say the chances are slim that the president will get much of his domestic agenda through Congress in the months leading up to the November elections...States Strive to Overhaul Teacher Tenure EdWeek: While Ohio has delayed the time it takes to earn due process, Delaware will tie the right to student achievement, and Florida has abolished it....Angry Fla teachers line up to testify against bill Martin Merzer, Associated Press: They arrived early, found strength in numbers but shared a sense of futility, their legislative battle almost assuredly lost even before they awakened Monday...Federal funds for drug-free school programs running out Journal Sentinel: A small pool of federal funds that Wisconsin school officials say helps pay for everything from safety officers to anti-bullying efforts is drying up this year, leaving local districts scrambling for alternative revenue sources....Three To Be Arraigned In High School Bullying Case NPR: Three classmates of a 15-year old high school freshman who committed suicide in January are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday for behavior prosecutors believe led to her death.
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A student's challenges parallel his school's - Los Angeles Times

A chance at redemption - Los Angeles Times

A chance at redemption

Jefferson High hopes to turn things around. So does one of its students.

April 05, 2010|Howard Blume
Jorge Garcia represents the past, the present and, potentially, the future of long-struggling Jefferson High School.
As a freshman in 2006 at the South Los Angeles school, he failed all his classes and was kicked out after starting two fights, one of them especially violent. Since then, he's survived five bullet wounds, dealt with his father's fatal illness and become a parent himself.
This year Jorge, 17, returned to Jefferson -- to set an example for his son.
Like the school itself, Jorge wants to turn things around. And like Jorge, Jefferson suddenly has a chance at redemption.
Last month, the Los Angeles Board of Education could have turned over the job of improving Jefferson to an outside operator. Instead, it chose a plan created by Jefferson's teachers.
With new authority, staffers at Jefferson have taken on the crucial test of whether they can fix one of the most historically troubled, low-achieving campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
For decades, Jefferson, with its iconic 1930s Art Deco architecture, served a predominantly African American community and produced such figures as diplomat Ralph Bunche, dancer Alvin Ailey and football standout Woody Strode.
The school, like the area around it, has become a hub for working-class Latino immigrants.
Neighborhood tensions spilled onto the Jefferson campus in 2005, through racially tinged campuswide fights. That year, its test scores were second lowest among L.A. Unified's high schools. The dropout rate jumped to 58% in 2007, according to district records.
Juan Flecha was named principal after the unrest. He restored order, raised test scores somewhat and made key
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The Educated Guess Report: correct Race to Top ’scoring deficiences’

The Educated Guess

Report: correct Race to Top ’scoring deficiences’

Posted in Race to the Top
On a day when two California education officials and governors from other states were grousing to The New York Times about the scoring in the first round of Race to the Top, the New York City-based The New Teacher Project released an analysis of the winning first-round applications while also suggesting changes to “scoring deficiencies” that might lead to less-qualified states winning the second round.
Despite the criticisms, The New Teacher Project encouraged states to improve their applications, not back out, to take advantage of “unprecedented window of opportunity for education.”
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Silicon Valley Foundation rescues summer school

Tags:
Posted in Achievement Gap, STEM, Teacher Development
In a destructive year in which districts everywhere in California are eliminating summer school and cutting way back on training for teachers, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is stepping into the breach. It has awarded nearly $2 million in grants for summer and after-school programs and year-long professional development for middle school teachers in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
The target is smart and strategic: The money will go toward improving algebra instruction and substantially increasing the numbers of students, particularly from low-income minority districts, who are proficient in algebra by the time they enter high school. This will put them on track toward meeting the math and science courses required for admission to a four-year college.
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State’s STEM plan mediocre

Tags: ,
Posted in Race to the Top, STEM
Intel, Synopsys, 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)
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Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

It's a win-win for seniors who tutor kids


Experience Corps tutor Barbara Johnson helps out in a kindergarten class at Belmont Elementary in Baltimore. Experience Corps, a program operating in 22 cities nationwide, trains volunteers over 55 to tutor and mentor elementary school students. (Rob Carr - AP)















E.D. Hirsch Jr.: Common Core Standards could revolutionize reading instruction

My guest is E.D. Hirsch Jr., founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several acclaimed books on education issues, including the best-seller "Cultural Literacy."
By E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
The results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progressrecently released were as predictable as they were dispiriting. Reading scores for the nation’s 4th graders are unchanged since 2007. Eighth graders showed a one point uptick, but scores remained essentially flat.
Facts must be faced. We are making no progress at all in teaching children to read in the United States. Our massive and well-intentioned national effort to focus the work of our schools on improving reading instruction has failed. But our failure is less one of education policy, than the simple fact that we are wedded to a demonstrably flawed model of how to teach children to read.

There is a way we can sail out of the reading doldrums.
Continue reading this post »

How real student in the Escalante movie turned out

Those of you who saw the film, Stand and Deliver, might enjoy this pieceI did for the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, about the only real student portrayed in the movie, and her unusual path to success. I will be away for a couple of weeks, but I have all the columns done and scheduled, so there should be something new here nearly every day.
Read Jay's blog every day at http://washingtonpost.com/class-struggle.
Follow all the Post's Education coverage on Twitter, Facebook and our Education web page, http://washingtonpost.com/education.
Ed Buzz: The Nation




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