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Friday, April 23, 2010

Charter school system under investigation by TEA : News : KGBT 4

Charter school system under investigation by TEA : News : KGBT 4: "Charter school system under investigation by TEA"

Charter school system under investigation by TEA

Read more: Local, Education, IRRA Charter School,Aguie Pena, Texas Education Agency, TEA, Edinburg,Hidalgo County, Rio Grande Valley, Texas


The IRRA Charter School system is under investigation by the Texas Education Agency.
The system has schools in Edinburg, Mission, Weslaco, Rio Grande City, Raymondville and Brownsville.
Interim Superintendent Aguie Peña told Action 4 News that it's an annual process to ensure schools are meeting the needs of students.
"We're not experiencing anything out of the ordinary that could make us lose our accreditation,” Peña said.
Peña told Action 4 News that any parent worried that IRRA will be shut down, shouldn't be worried.
Action 4 News also learned that the Santa Maria ISD is not sitting well with TEA.
Peña said that once the TEA investigation is over, IRRA will be able t
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Expanded Learning Time by the Numbers

Expanded Learning Time by the Numbers

Expanded Learning Time by the Numbers

The Traditional School Calendar Is Failing to Meet Many Students’ Needs

SOURCE: AP/Chris O'Meara
Some schools serving large concentrations of low-income and minority students have dramatically improved student achievement by increasing instructional time.
April 22, 2010
Expanding learning time, or ELT, in schools is a core strategy on the national education reform agenda as policymakers and educators recognize that the standard school calendar does not fit many students’ needs. Most U.S. students attend school for an average of 6.5 hours a day, for 180 days a year. This is not nearly enough time for many students, particularly those who are English language learners and those who start the school year learning below their grade level.
Some schools serving large concentrations of low-income and minority students have dramatically improved student achievement by increasing instructional time in the form of a longer school day, week, or year for all students. Schools that expand learning time formally incorporate traditional out-of-school activities such as the arts and service opportunities into the official school calendar so all students, including those living in the highest poverty, have access to them.
ELT schools allow community-based organizations such as arts and cultural institutions to take on more collaborative roles within the school than is typically the case in a conventional school calendar. It is not uncommon in ELT schools for these organizations to co-teach classes with regular classroom teachers and provide professional development for teachers, and mental and physical health services to students. And they play a key role in
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This Week In Education

This Week In Education

Thompson: Roland Fryer's Learning Process

by john thompson
Paygrades"’To my surprise, incentive programs that rewarded process seemed to be more effective than those that rewarded outcomes,’" said Roland Fryer, regarding his latest experiment. Fryer belatedly recognized something that had long been the centerpiece of educational wisdom. Teachers have long been taught to concentrate on their students’ "observable behaviors." We have always been taught to jealously guard time on "task on task." Teachers have always urged kids to focus on what they can control, and not get carried away with the issues of others. "Sweat the details," we have hoped, and learning will follow.
Fryer also concluded "it might be less effective to give teachers incentive pay (test scores of their students) relative to inputs (staying after school to tutor students).
Fryer thus rejected the "do what I say, not what I do" fetish of "outcomes based accountability." Being held
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In case you missed . . . � The Quick and the Ed

In case you missed . . . � The Quick and the Ed

In case you missed . . .

April 23rd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized


yesterday’s ES event, “What the Higher Education Community Can Learn From Minority-Serving Institutions,” there’s good coverage here,here, and here.
And watch for the Podcast of the entire event later today.
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voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - A Largely Somali School Is Pushed -- Again -- to Diversify

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - A Largely Somali School Is Pushed -- Again -- to Diversify

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Posted: Thursday, April 22, 2010 10:34 am
For the second time in as many years, a largely Somali charter school is being pushed to diversify.
School leaders have tried to draw new students in with advertisements and brochures. Despite those efforts, San Diego Unified staffers say Iftin Charter School is still 96 percent African American -- a much higher share than the population in its City Heights neighborhood and San Diego Unified at large. It was formed by parents, many of them Somali refugees who were unhappy with local schools.
Charter schools, which are independently run and publicly funded, must get approval from school districts to start up and continue to operate. California law requires charters to meet a long list of conditions, including having a racial makeup that reflects their neighborhoods.
That's why San Diego Unified has warned Iftin that it needs to diversify. School district staff wrote that Iftin needs a plan to recruit students from other racial and ethnic groups -- and it needs to put money behind that plan. Failing to do that could put its existence in jeopardy.
This isn't the first time Iftin has faced questions about its diversity: When the school sought to expand into a high school, San Diego Unified staff said the school board should turn it downbecause in its four years of existence, it had failed to diversify, with a vast majority of Somali
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NorthJersey.com: 200 Teaneck HS students attend council meeting to discuss failed school budget

NorthJersey.com: 200 Teaneck HS students attend council meeting to discuss failed school budget

200 Teaneck HS students attend council meeting to discuss failed school budget
Friday, April 23, 2010
LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY APRIL 23, 2010, 11:33 AM
BY JOSEPH AX
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
TEANECK — As many as 300 people – including more than 200 high school students – flooded Town Hall on Thursday night as the Township Council met to discuss the failed school budget for the first time.
The students, who staged a walkout Wednesday morning to protest the budget’s defeat, hoped their presence would pressure the council to limit its cuts.
“We’re asking the community to invest in our futures,” said junior Rivka Rappaport. “And maybe I have a slanted opinion, but I think we’re worth it.”
Not every voice spoke in favor of the budget, however. A number of residents said the recession had made voting for an 8 percent tax hike impossible.
Resident Keith Kaplan pointed out that many Bergen County districts proposed smaller tax increases, and criticized the school board for delivering a budget that was sure to fail.
“They knew this was going to happen,” he said. “They were putting it on your shoulders. The cycle has to stop.”
The council chambers quickly filled to the limit before the meeting began, leaving scores of students standing outside the building for hours, watching through the windows and occasionally cheering after one of their classmates spoke.
The council has until May 19 to make its decision. The meeting was largely focused on logistics, with
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This Week In Education USDE: Teachers Of The Year (Should) Heckle Duncan

This Week In Education

USDE: Teachers Of The Year (Should) Heckle Duncan

by Alexander Russo
Picture 25Nothing much to get excited about in Duncan's weekly media schedule for next week, though there's always hope that the teachers of the year will get brave and and heckle him. One year not too long ago the teachers got together and weighed in with policy recommendations, which was pretty cool. But mostly they just act meek and obedient, which is a shame. Maybe a couple will Twitter heckle him during the event, at least?

MONDAY, APRIL 26
3:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Secretary Duncan will participate in a Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship, Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.
TUESDAY, APRIL 27
10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Secretary Duncan will hold a press conference with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund & Ad Council to announce their parental engagement national media campaign. Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

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Frederick M. Hess Why Tony Bennett Is a Stud

Frederick M. Hess

Latest Articles and Blog Posts

Why Tony Bennett Is a Stud

April 23, 2010 at 9:38 am

Even as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan shills for Senator Tom Harkin's pander-ific, NEA-endorsed $23 billion "Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010," the costs of his earlier efforts to curry NEA support are accumulating. His support for Harkin's no-strings-attached cash shower is trivializing the relatively puny $3.4 billion he's got left to dole out in round two of Race to the Top (RTT). Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that his earlier efforts to cultivate union support by spotlighting his commitment to buy-in have emboldened state and local unions.

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Why Santa Claus Isn't a School Reform Icon

April 22, 2010 at 9:27 am

Even as our earnest Secretary of Education Arne Duncan enthusiastically embraces Senator Tom Harkin's pander-refic $23 billion "Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010" (don't worry, the 2011 version is sure to visit a theater near you in due course), he's insisting that this development won't compromise his credibility or effectiveness as a reformer.

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The Value of Value-Added

April 21, 2010 at 9:52 am

I've been meaning to do a longer postmortem on Florida's Senate Bill 6. As I've noted before, I enthusiastically supported it even though I thought it a deeply flawed bill. The flaw? Its ham-fisted attempt to strip out one set of anachronistic strictures (governing tenure and step-and-lane pay scales) only to replace it with a set of test-driven processes that were almost equally troubling.

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Big Week for the NEA

April 20, 2010 • National Review Online

Last week had two red-letter days for the National Education Association, as Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan opted, at crucial moments, to forsake reform and preen for easy applause from the cheap seats.

The result: two substantial setbacks for those who believe we need to rethink teacher tenure, evaluation, and pay, and who believe K–12 schooling needs to stop mortgaging the future of the kids it's supposed to serve.

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