Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Pasadena schools remove campaign signs amidst controversy - Pasadena Star-News

Pasadena schools remove campaign signs amidst controversy

By Brian Charles Staff Writer

Posted: 04/06/2010 10:37:22 PM PDT

One week after signs supporting a parcel tax were vandalized at Webster Elementary School, Pasadena Unified School District has told its PTAs and principals that school buildings are no place for campaign signs.

Signs supporting Measure CC, which would levy a $120-a-year parcel tax in the district, were posted at several PUSD schools.

On Monday, Superintendent Edwin Diaz sent an e-mail asking the signs be removed from all campuses.

"Because of the controversy about their posting and them being vandalized, I decided we're detracting from what we need to be doing, which is getting the information out to the people in the public," Diaz said.

His move came less than 24 hours before a visit by State

Possible election violation at PUSD has experts divided

By Brian Charles, Staff Writer

Posted: 04/06/2010 12:15:21 PM PDT

Public policy experts are split on whether pro-parcel tax signs at Pasadena cchools are a violation of state and local election laws.

Signs supporting Measure CC, the district's $120 annual parcel tax are posted at several schools within the Pasadena Unified School District. The signs have been posted by pro-parcel tax groups including local Parent and Teacher Associations.

After an incident where one of the signs at Webster Elementary was vandalized some in the community questioned whether the pro-parcel tax signs should be displayed at district schools.

Two California government watchdog groups said the signs at worst are a minor election law infraction, and at best represent poor public policy on the part of the school district.

"It's highly inappropriate," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a non profit policy think tank. "The school district should not use its property to promote a ballot initiative or a candidate unless they give the opposition the same opportunity."

Stern was unsure whether the school district's actions were legal, but said if the school district broke the law by allowing the pro-parcel tax signs "it's a minor offense and nothing that would send anyone to jail."

Kathy Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, a non profit public policy lobbying group, said

Jack O'Connell visits Muir and warns of future crisis - Pasadena Star-News

Jack O'Connell visits Muir and warns of future crisis

By Brian Charles Staff Writer

Posted: 04/06/2010 05:19:43 PM PDT

A gloomy future looms for California schools if the state doesn't find a way to increase the number of teachers it employs, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said Tuesday.
Photo Gallery: Jack O'Connell speaks at John Muir High School
Speaking before an audience of educators, students and Pasadena Unified School District officials assembled at John Muir High School, O'Connell said that without a pipeline for new teachers, classrooms will swell and education in the state will suffer.
"During the past several years there has been unrelenting devastation to education," O'Connell said pointing to $17 billion cut from the state's education budget in the past five years.
O'Connell's plan is to support a bill in Sacramento to lower the threshold for passing a parcel tax from two-thirds to 55 percent.
The stance comes as Pasadena Unified supporters hope voters approve a district-wide a $120 annual parcel tax. The parcel tax mail-in ballots are due May 4.
Supporters say that money from the parcel tax would help close the district's

The Orion - California teachers not making it to ‘Top’

California teachers not making it to ‘Top’

By Patty Conover

Updated: Monday, April 5, 2010

Illustration by Robert Vargas

California is trailing behind in the Race to the Top.

President Barack Obama’s plan for nationalizing public education standards calls for states to compete against each other for more than $4 billion of federal funding, according to the U.S. Department of Education Web site. Currently, 16 states have met the criteria and will receive a portion of the money. California is not one of them.

While the plan is aimed at improving education, some people, like Dr. Al Schademan, a professor in the education department, say theRace to the Top plan may cause harm. The basis for funding is predominantly centered on test scores, which puts teachers in the dangerous position of either raising students’ test scores or being out of a job.

One of the biggest components of the Race to the Top is making sure only quality teachers are up in front of the classrooms, Schademan said. One concern professors have is that since students’ test scores are linked to the teacher, the quality of the teacher can be traced to the college that trained them.

Following graduates and their students’ test scores will probably become the next step in insuring that California employs quality teachers, he said. Chico State has a relatively high graduation rate for the credential program.

The university started as a normal school to train teachers, so students in the credential program come from a school with a long-standing reputation of credibility, Schademan said.

In October 2009, Chico State was awarded $7.3 million in federal Teacher Quality Partnership grants, which were given to 28 universities nationwide to improve teacher preparation in instructing students at high-need schools,

Golden Gate [X]press : Education left behind

Education left behind by [X]press Staff APRIL 6, 2010 10:34 AM
Great in theory, but a failure in practice. That is what education reform in California has turned into. As students and members of a public school institution, we are the products of the No Child Left Behind Act. Enacted in 2001, this program was started by President Bush with the hopes of making sure that all children in the public education system were able to graduate by giving them more funds and programs and by keeping a close eye on them. But as Big Brother usually does, he turned a blind eye to the younger siblings in elementary schools. In California, these programs that were put into place were merely just to pass children through different grades, making sure that everyone gets a diploma come senior year of high school. Students in more affluent communities were able to sore while students in poor communities were able to slip through the cracks year after year. After eight years of this program, the flaws are starting to show. In 2009, the California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) for San Francisco Unified District results showed that there were less than 40 percent of students from grades 2 to 11 who tested at the advanced level for English skills. Only third and fourth graders ranked in the 40th percentile in math scores. The first act made the state and government responsible for the efforts and achievements of the students. President Obama's recent call for overhauling No Child Left Behind will put more pressure will be put on teachers, who are already underpaid and stretched to the maximum with classroom sizes growing every year. This reform also plans to give more

Editorial and Dissent: Unpaid internship programs - The Daily Princetonian

Editorial and Dissent: Unpaid internship programs

By DAILY PRINCETONIAN EDITORIAL BOARD

Published: Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Work experience, which for undergraduates usually comes in the form of internships, has increasingly become a prerequisite for securing a job after graduation. Many of these internships, including some of those at for-profit companies, are unpaid. A recent article in The New York Times discussed how unpaid internships at for-profit companies must meet six criteria — which are often difficult to fulfill — in order to be legal, noting that regulators in some states are now cracking down on the proliferation of illegal unpaid internships despite students’ interest in them. The U.S. Department of Labor’s six criteria should be changed so that companies can continue to offer unpaid internships without facing a significant burden.

Internships are designed to be a form of educational work experience. Thus, the best internships are those in which students learn about an industry or type of job by engaging in the kind of work they would do as an employee. One of the requirements for unpaid internships, however, is that the work not be of any immediate benefit to the employer, essentially making the position of little

California's school woes hit home - Capitol and California - fresnobee.com

Dan Walters: California's school funding woes hit home

Posted at 12:07 AM on Wednesday, Apr. 07, 2010

By Dan Walters - dwalters@sacbee.com

Comments (0)

Recommend (0)

The depth of California's educational crisis was underscored a few weeks ago when new nationwide test results placed the state's fourth- and eighth-graders at or near the bottom in basic academic skills.

The dismal academic rankings were released just after California failed to qualify for one of the Obama administration's Race to the Top education improvement grants even though it had hurriedly made school governance changes, albeit after some nasty political infighting.

The political climate was so divisive that California could not muster the required level of support for Obama-style reform from school districts, teachers and unions to qualify for a grant. And the atmosphere remains so toxic that California may not even apply in subsequent rounds.

After its brief foray into the quicksand of pedagogic policy, the Capitol is returning to a more familiar political battleground – money.

Unions and other elements of the education establishment that were hostile to the reforms pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with White House support are again chanting their fundamental mantra – that real improvement in California's sorry academic performance

Twin Rivers Unified's lawsuit at a glance - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Twin Rivers Unified's lawsuit at a glance

Published: Wednesday, Apr. 7, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 14A

Last Modified: Wednesday, Apr. 7, 2010 - 12:08 a
m

The Twin Rivers Unified School District has filed a $95 million suit against California Financial Services, the investment company that advised the Grant Joint Union High School District, which Twin Rivers absorbed in 2008. The lawsuit says CFS defrauded Grant, leaving Twin Rivers with a perilous financial future. CFS denies the claims. Other allegations:

• CFS advised Grant from 1999 to 2008, during which CFS billed for $2 million in fees "by using false information to induce Grant to overburden itself with debt in the form of general obligation bonds and certificates of participation that were not justified."

• CFS misled Grant about its need for a $158 million complex in Natomas called the East Natomas Education Complex and unfunded debt obligations of $97 million. Twin Rivers says it can't demonstrate a need for the complex to qualify for state matching funds.

• CFS advised the purchase of 69 acres for the Natomas project in 2004 for $13 million, 7.4 acres

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Schools Matter: ...and Where's Joanne's Ethics Waiver?

...and Where's Joanne's Ethics Waiver?

by Kenneth Libby

Duncan's Chief of Staff Margot Rogers (previously employed by the Gates Foundation) and OII Director Jim Shelton (also previously employed by the Gates Foundation; also previously employed by NSVF and McKinsey & Co.) both filed ethics waivers that allows them unlimited contact with their former employer (Rogers is here, Shelton's is here).

From what I can tell, former NewSchools Venture Fund COO Joanne Weiss - now leading the Race

Mosaica Education, Inc. and the Lack of Parent/Local Control

by Kenneth Libby

Here's a classic example of the kind of corporate-driven charter chain that is neither educationally innovative nor locally controlled: the Math & Science Preparatory Academy of South Fulton. The charter schools proposal - developed by the for-profit Mosaica Education, Inc. - illustrates just how much the charter movement has evolved (err, been bastardized) by entrepreneurs, profiteers, and corporate hucksters looking to turn a buck. Local control? Nah. Teachers permitted to experiment with new teaching techniques and approaches? Nope, not here. This is all about profit, baby, and expanding the privatized version of public education.

From D. Aileen Dodd at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Mosaica Education is not your typical school district. It runs a global empire like

This Week In Education Classrooms: Kids Provide Real-Time Teacher Feedback Via Text

This Week In Education

Classrooms: Kids Provide Real-Time Teacher Feedback Via Text

by Alexander Russo

A school in England reportedly gave students cell phones and encouraged them totext the principal about how their teachers were doing, according to an article in the Independent.
Brilliant! It's all part of the UK's controversial "pupil power" initiative to give students greater role in their education, including a role

Sacramento Press / Local students participate in Mayoral Fellows Program

Local students participate in Mayoral Fellows Program

The spring 2010 Mayoral Fellows Program will feature local students for the first time. In its inaugural session, Mayor Kevin Johnson worked closely with students from Harvard Business School for a five-week period. This time, however, the mayor hopes to foster local talent by teaming with California State University, Sacramento, and the University of California, Davis.
Johnson talked about the importance of being creative in tough times and cultivating young talent. "To create opportunity and give practical field experience," Johnson said, "Get them involved with the public sector and retain them."
Dean Steven Currall of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management spoke of his university's desire to become a global business school while Charles Gossett, the dean of social sciences and interdisciplinary studies at CSUS, said the program was "open to all students" as a means to "provide opportunity."
The Sacramento State students include Hafiza Arikat, working closely with Johnson on the education initiative

University of Washington study: Transition out of foster care needs support | OregonLive.com

University of Washington study: Transition out of foster care needs support

By The Associated Press

April 06, 2010, 9:01PM

CHICAGO -- Tasha Collett spent most of her teen years shuffling between so many different foster families that she's lost count of just how many there were. By the time she aged out of the Iowa system at age 18, she ended up living in homeless shelters, on and off.

Not exactly a foundation for success. But Collett, now 21, still managed to land an apartment and a part-time job at a drug store. She's also studying to become a registered nurse at a medical college in Des Moines.

"I'm very blessed," Collett says, making a statement that's confirmed when you look at the often grim findings from a long-term study on older youth who've been in foster care.

According to the study, released Wednesday, a quarter of the youth didn't have a high school diploma or GED. Only about half were working, compared with 72 percent of their peers who weren't in foster care.

And almost half reported at least one hardship during the study, such as an

D.C. Schools Insider - DC Teachers contract settled

DC Teachers contract settled

Update, 8:47 p.m.:
For details, see the union's Q&A here and highlights here. (Both are pdfs.)

Original post:
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and the Washington Teachers' Union have reached tentative agreement on a new contract, ending more than two years of closely watched and often-rancorous negotiations, union and District officials said Tuesday.

The proposed pact, which must be ratified by union members and approved by the D.C. Council, provides teacher salary increases of more than a 20 percent over five years, with much of it to be paid for through an unusual arrangement with a group of private foundations that have pledged to donate $65 million.

The deal gives Rhee some of the tools she said she needed to raise the quality of teaching and learning in schools long ranked as among the nation's worst, but perhaps more importantly it brings her labor peace as Mayor Adrian M. Fenty he heads into an election-year battle with Council Chairman Vincent Gray and perhaps another candidate. The negotiations also have been viewed as a test of the strength of both union forces and reform advocates pushing for aggressive revamping of the nation's schools.

"It took a lot of courage to get here," Rhee said in an interview. "We really have done something that frames evertything around performance for kids and making that the really core tenet of the agreement."

The changes in the contract include a merit-pay program that will allow teachers to earn annual bonuses for the improvement of student performance on standardized tests and other measures of academic success. The pact, if approved, will also afford Rhee and her school principals more latitude in deciding which teachers to retain in the event that budget cuts or enrollment declines force the closure of some schools.

But the 103-page agreement is significantly different from Rhee's original vision for a collective bargaining agreement, which she promised would "revolutionize education as we know it" when she first developed it in 2008.

"We really hit on something that can move kids forward," said teacher's union President George Parker.

The deal first was reported by the City Paper's Web site.

Rhee garnered national attention from school reform advocates with a two-tiered salary proposal that offered experienced educators a chance to make as much as $130,000 annually in salary and performance bonuses. The plan required teachers who aspired to the top pay range to give up tenure protections for a year, essentially exposing them to dismissal without appeal.

Rhee's effort to weaken tenure protections, which she called the "holy grail" of teachers unions, won her rock stardom from segments of the educational reform commnity that regard teachers' unions as the main impediment to improving public education.

It also helped win her what she said was $200 million in funding

Remainders: D.C. teachers contract funds raises with private cash | GothamSchools

Remainders: D.C. teachers contract funds raises with private cash

by Maura Walz

The New Teacher Project released its thoughts (pdf) on the lessons of Race to the Top’s first round.
Here’s USDOE’s own analysis of why Delaware and Tennessee walked away Race to the Top winners.
David Steiner says he plans to spend the next two months building union support for New York’s RttT app.
D.C.’s new teachers contract will debut soon; $65 million in funds from Broad, Walton are paying for raises.
Obama’s new budget trades guaranteed Reading is Fundamental funding with a contest for literacy dollars.
The next round of Race to the Top will include a new “Race to the Common Test” subsection.
Mr. Talk argues that if seniority-based layoffs disappear, fewer people will want to become teachers.
For-profit charter manager Victory Schools charges schools twice as much per pupil as non-profit CMOs.
Chicago is launching a standardized test to gauge preschoolers’ readiness for kindergarten.
In a new study, economist Eric Hanushek argues high turnover in tough schools may not be so bad.
And on this Tuesday before the end of spring break, one teacher has the Sundays.

Thousands of aspiring teachers encounter few job offers at Oregon job fair | OregonLive.com

Thousands of aspiring teachers encounter few job offers at Oregon job fair

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

April 06, 2010, 6:09PM

Doug Beghtel, The OregonianChristy Dunn, left, and Stephanie Ostlund were among the hundreds of aspiring teachers flocking to the job fair at the Oregon Convention Center, which continues Wednesday.

Christy Dunn, who earned a master's degree in teaching math last year, and Stephanie Ostlund, who got her master's in teaching English in 2008, stood together in a long, slow line Tuesday morning at the West Coast's biggest teacher job fair.

The two women, both with degrees from Portland State and the University of Portland, held a stack of resumes and thick portfolios packed with evidence of their teaching skills -- and tried to hold fast to their dreams of becoming teachers.

They were among 3,000 aspiring educators, most of them recent or soon-to-be graduates from Oregon colleges of education, vying for what

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Should Undocumented Students Get Federal Support?

Should Undocumented Students Get Federal Support?

Thousands rallied on the National Mall on March 21 in support of comprehensive immigration reform, including the DREAM Act. Formally known as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, the measure would allow undocumented student immigrants who meet certain conditions to receive federal assistance to attend college and a possible pathway to citizenship. The College Board estimates that 65,000 undocumented

Schools Matter: Race to the Top and the Politics of Corruption

Race to the Top and the Politics of Corruption

Arne Duncan became Secretary of Education because of his fealty to the corporate education reform agenda that he nurtured and learned under in Chicago. When it was time for Arne, as Secretary, to announce the leader for the $4.35 billion bribery fund known as Race to the Top, the Oligarchs chose Joanne Weiss, COO and Partner of the New Schools Venture Fund--a vast web of corporate and corporate foundation cash strategically invested in the cause of privatizing education, all the while collecting huge tax credits for all that generosity by these vulture philanthropists.Duncan said:

"Joanne will help us push a strong reform agenda that is entrepreneurial in spirit, providing carrots and sticks, to change the way we do business, and fundamentally turn around underperforming schools in ways that last for decades," Duncan said.

Now when tiny Delaware submitted its RTTT grant application, a

Teachers union election: results in tomorrow | GothamSchools

Teachers union election: results in tomorrow

by Anna Phillips

In part three of a rough guide to the upcoming teachers union elections, here’s a look at what happens tomorrow when the ballots are counted.

The ballots — or at least those belonging to the minority of teachers who vote in union elections — are in.

Due today to the American Arbitration Association, which oversees the city’s teachers union election, the ballots will be counted tomorrow and results should be in by the end of the day. The counting is set to take place in a unlikely setting: the Manhattan Skyline room at the Park Central Hotel.

Every election cycle, the AAA rents a hotel room and fills it with employees who run the thousands of ballots through scanners to count them. Hundreds of those votes are rejected for reasons that include casting

Latest News and Comment from Education