Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Special Olympics: 2010 Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act

2010 EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER ACT

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U.S. House, Senate File Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act
On April 29, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate filed identical versions of the 2010 Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act, a renewal of the 2004 Sport and Empowerment Act which authorized five years of funding for numerous Special Olympics programs.

The new bill also includes authorization for grants for Best Buddies International. The bill will now need to be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by President Obama.

“Eunice Kennedy Shriver was a tireless advocate for millions of people worldwide with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), one of the bill’s sponsors. “This legislation honors Mrs. Shriver’s legacy and reaffirms Congress’s commitment to ensuring that everyone – including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities – has an opportunity to live full, successful lives. I want to thank Rep. Roy Blunt for his hard work on this legislation, and my colleagues in the House and Senate for their unwavering commitment to this cause.”

Read the complete press release issued jointly from a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

Special Olympics is an international organization that changes lives by encouraging and empowering people with intellectual disabilities, promoting acceptance for all, and fostering communities of understanding and respect worldwide. Best Buddies International is dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The introduction of this legislation is the culmination of months of work by multiple members of Congress and supporters of both Special Olympics and Best Buddies. In January, Special Olympics athletes and Best Buddies participants, along with coaches, program leaders and family members from 43 states participated in Capitol Hill Day 2010 to ask leaders to support the legislation. More than 275 meetings were held in one day with Members of Congress and their staff. See photos from Capitol Hill Day.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act authorizes critical funding for Special Olympics sports, education and health programs through the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education and State. Special Olympics relies on this funding to provide vital services to athletes and families, including the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes® program and several educational programs. Healthy Athletes was launched in 1997 to provide health screenings for athletes at the local, national and international level who otherwise may go without any medical care.

Already, authorized funds have made possible:

More than 1,000,000 free health screenings for Special Olympics athletes
Training for more than 90,000 health care professionals on treating people with intellectual disabilities
Exposure to 667,000 young people to programs organized by Project Unify
Participation of 1,700 schools across the U.S. in Project Unify

Special Olympics also hosts a number of educational programs that are supported through funds from the Sport and Empowerment Act. These programs reach more than 3 million young people with and without intellectual disability and include the newest Special Olympics educational initiative, Project UNIFY. Project UNIFY, launched in June 2008, is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Its goal is to activate young people across the United States in an effort to develop school communities where all young people are agents of change - fostering respect, dignity and advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities by utilizing the programs and initiatives of Special Olympics.

QUICK Hits: Teacher Appreciation Day Edition � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits: Teacher Appreciation Day Edition

by Forrest Hinton

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day. The content of these Hits is not necessarily endorsed by the organization or any particular team member.

NorthJersey.com: Gov. Chris Christie plans to expand number of public charter schools

Gov. Chris Christie plans to expand number of public charter schools

Monday, May 3, 2010
LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY MAY 4, 2010, 1:32 PM

BY HERB JACKSON

THE RECORD

WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

50 Comments

A voucher system that lets any child in New Jersey go to any school, public or private, is the "final solution" to an overly expensive system that continues to fail too many children, Governor Christie said Monday.

ANDREW MILLS/THE STAR-LEDGER

Christie tolld the group New Jersey could be a national bellwether.

Christie told an enthusiastic school choice advocacy group in Washington that he will expand the number of public charter schools and supports a bipartisan bill to provide thousands of public scholarships so children in failing districts may attend private or parochial schools.
"They are trapped by a self-interested, greedy schoolteachers union that cares more about putting money in their own pockets and pockets of members than they care about educating the most vulnerable and needy children," Christie said.
But Christie said he was committed to going further. He said he saw families in Newark agonize over children losing a lottery to get into a successful charter school, while his income gave him the ability to choose to send his children to Catholic school.
"A single mother in Newark working two jobs to keep a roof over her child’s head should have no less ability to make that choice than my wife and I had," he said.

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AASA :: May 2010(2)

The School Administrator

May 2010 Number 5, Vol. 67ConsolidationBenefits, costs and the mascot factor in district mergersSchool District Consolidation:The Benefits and Costs

by WILLIAM D. DUNCOMBE AND JOHN M. YINGER

A pair of Syracuse University professors summarize what recent research reveals about expected financial savings when small districts merge. They lay out the policy implications, too.

read more | purchase issue
School District Consolidation:The Benefits and Costs

by WILLIAM D. DUNCOMBE AND JOHN M. YINGER

A pair of Syracuse University professors summarize what recent research reveals about expected financial savings when small districts merge. They lay out the policy implications, too.

read more | purchase issue
A Case Study of School District Consolidation

by JOSEPH M. CRONIN

The author of a state-funded case study of century-old governance in western Massachusetts’ Franklin County details a series of options for the public school districts. At issue is how to introduce a sensible economic structure while preserving the community character of the schools.

read more | purchase issue
The Collision of Athletics and Consolidation

by BILL GRAVES

Fearing the loss of their identity, small communities often resist consolidation to protect their schools’ interscholastic sports teams. For the adults involved, the emotional tussles are inextricably entangled with Friday night fervor, team colors and mascots.

Similar Reading: Resisting Consolidation in Michigan

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Two world views

Two world views

by Mike Klonsky

Speech by ~~Afghani shop keeper~~ President Obama

Around the world and here at home, there are those who would attack our citizens and who would slaughter innocent men, women and children in pursuit of their murderous agenda. They will stop at nothing to kill and disrupt our way

This Week In Education Weighing The Education Writers Assoc. Under Lisa Walker

This Week In Education

Weighing The Education Writers Assoc. Under Lisa Walker

by Alexander Russo

I had the chance to talk with outgoing Education Writers Association executive director Lisa Walker the other day and was reminded how much I liked her and, to an extent, what she’d done with the little organization that I have both loved and loathed these past ten years.
Maybe like they say you only appreciate things once they're ending. Or maybe the organization's current directional changes, however belated, are such a relief after years in which freelance and online writers like me, nontraditional types who didn't buy into conventions like objectivity and anecdotal ledes, were mostly ignored.
It’s hard not to like the EWA organizational backstory, which includes Walker starting as a part time staffer and an annual conference that had 70 or 80 people.I wish I could go to the 2010 conference in San Francisco next week.
And Walker doesn’t disagree with me that the EWA email listserve begun in 1995 is one of the organization’s main features, a “landmark service” as she described it. Listserves are horribly retro now, and EWA didn’t

Two area students winning Kaiser's anti-tobacco contest - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Two area students winning Kaiser's anti-tobacco contest

by dlambert@sacbee.com (Diana Lambert)

Marina Gamez, 13, a seventh-grade student at Folsom Middle School, and Nicolas Tom, 17, a junior at John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento are the winners of Kaiser Permanente's annual "Don't Buy the Lie Contest."
The students each created a billboard encouraging other teens to avoid using tobacco. Their messages will be displayed on billboards throughout the region.
Gamez and Tom will be honored at a reception May 12 in Sacramento, where they each will be presented with a $1,000 gift card.
The annual contest invites middle and high school students from Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties to design an anti-tobacco advertising message. More than 8,000 entries from 80 schools were submitted this year.
The "Don't Buy the Lie" program also offers schools health education materials and workshops aimed at preventing youth tobacco use.

Teacher Appreciation Week continues with more favorite teacher stories | OregonLive.com

Teacher Appreciation Week continues with more favorite teacher stories

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

May 04, 2010, 10:05AM

In celebration of all the teachers who work long hours, take on after-school clubs and still find the time to make every student feel special, The Oregonian's five education reporters decided to share stories of our favorite teachers.

We'll run one every day during Teacher Appreciation Week, and we invite readers to tell us their stories as well.

The following contribution comes from reporter Bill Graves.

One educator who had a big impact in my life was an English teacher at South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard, Wash., a small town on the Puget Sound where I grew up.

Harry Oldenburger was a gifted, effective, popular teacher, but I only had him for one class, Bible as Literature. While I enjoyed his class and still remember much of what I learned, Mr. Oldenburger, whom students called Mr. O, influenced me more with the attention he gave me outside of class. The energetic, upbeat teacher encouraged me in writing, in aspiring for college and would sometimes take time to have a cup of coffee with me at a local cafe. One day he even dropped by my home on his bicycle for a visit.

I think he knew I was growing up with a single mom and could use a little guidance now and then, and he showed similar interest in other students. He persuaded me to take money I earned commercial fishing one summer in Alaska to spend another summer with him and a group of students studying abroad at the University of Wales in Bangor.

That trip opened up the world to me in profound ways and helped cement my determination to become first in my family to earn a college degree. I think I probably majored in English and went into teaching at least in part because of how much I appreciated what Mr. O had done for me. But I soon

Education Remarks by the President to the Business Council | The White House

Remarks by the President to the Business Council | The White House

And that’s why as part of this new foundation that we seek to build, we’re investing in education, because our economic success depends on making sure people have the skills to match their talents. So we launched a national competition last year to improve our schools based on a simple idea: Instead of funding the status quo, we’ll only invest in reform. We’ve recently announced the first winners in what we’re calling this Race to the Top. And across America, it’s making a difference, as states are implementing reforms to raise student achievement, to improve education in math and science, and to turn around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans.
As part of this effort, I’ve promised to speak at a high school commencement every year, to highlight schools that are encouraging excellence and preparing their students for college and careers. And today, in fact, after a vote to narrow down the finalists on our Web site whitehouse.gov, we announced that I’m going to be speaking to graduates of Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. So, those of you based in Michigan, you should be pleased. Go, Giants! We’re looking forward to talking to those young people.
We’ve also set this goal: America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. And we’re making progress towards meeting that. Congress passed legislation that will make college more affordable by ending unnecessary taxpayer subsidies that go to financial intermediaries for student loans. The bill also includes one of the most significant investments in community college in history, because community colleges are a career pathway for the children of so many working families. And last night during our discussion, one of the things -- a theme that continually came up was the fact that there are a lot of skilled jobs out there that don’t necessarily require a four-year college degree, but they’re not being filled, because we haven’t done a good enough job on just basic math -- high school math skills, for example. We see our investment in the community colleges as a potential way to bridge that, even as we’re working on improving K-12 outcomes.
We are seeing rising enrollment in both two- and four-year schools across America. We want to make sure that those folks who are enrolling are getting the best education possible so they can serve effectively as part of your workforce.

Scenes from the Renaissance process: Smedley's school council hits the road | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Scenes from the Renaissance process: Smedley's school council hits the road

by Bill Hangley Jr. on May 04 2010

“More controlled classrooms,” she said. “More organization, more respect for the teachers, more respect for each other inside the school.”Charlene Young, a parent at Smedley Elementary in Frankford, doesn’t want much for her daughter’s school – just an end to the chaos.

Jana Wilcox, development director at the Young Scholars Charter School, promised that her team could deliver.

“It’s all about creating structure and order,” she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. But what is going to happen overnight is a dramatic change in expectations – and consistency among the adults. A real no-excuses policy.”

Last Thursday, Young and five other members of Smedley’s School Advisory Council visited Young Scholars, one of five providers that the District has declared qualified to run Smedley as a Renaissance School next fall. The Smedley delegates learned that Young Scholars has great confidence in its academic model. They also learned that the school, founded in 1999, has had its share of growing pains.

“Young Scholars three years ago was not the school you see today,” said Wilcox. “We had average, at best, academic performance, very poor school culture. We had a lot of behavior issues…. We had fights in the parking lot and fights in the

And the winner is… – ED.gov Blog

And the winner is…

Cross posted from the White House blog.
The applications are in. The public ratings have been tallied.
Now it’s time to announce which school will have President Obama as its graduation speaker.

The President launched the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge back in February to give the nation’s public high schools a chance to demonstrate their commitment to academic excellence, personal responsibility, and ability to prepare students to graduate ready for college and a career. The response was overwhelming. Over 1,000 schools submitted outstanding applications, and more than 170,000 people weighed in on the six finalists.
I couldn’t be prouder of these schools. Each of the finalists represents the best that American public education has to offer and has demonstrated tremendous dedication and grace throughout the competition. Thank you for all of you hard work.
This was a tough competition. The six finalists – Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, KS, Clark Montessori in Cincinnati, OH, Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver, Colorado, Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, CA, Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, MI and MAST Academy in Miami, FL- are extraordinary schools, and each has done a tremendous job over the past few months to demonstrate the unique aspects of their school.
In recognition of their extraordinary achievements, we will work to provide a Cabinet secretary or senior administration official to deliver the commencement address at each of the five schools not selected as the national winner.
Ultimately, there could only be one winner, and I’m thrilled about the President’s final choice.
Getting a good education is critical to each student’s future and to the future of the country. That’s why President Obama has made unprecedented investments in education reform through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Race to the Top.
These investments are designed to raise the bar and spur innovative techniques to help schools and students achieve success. The winner of the Commencement Challenge and all of the finalists are excellent examples of these kinds of innovations and creative problem solving.
Thank you to all of the schools who participated in the first annual Commencement Challenge and congratulations to our winner!
Melody Barnes is Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

This entry was written by jjohnson, posted on May 4, 2010 at 11:27 am, filed under Headlines, News. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

Latinos and Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

On Wednesday, May 5, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis will host a panel discussion exploring the special challenges Latinos face in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations.
The program will run from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EDT and will be streamed live via the web. The discussion will feature a panel of science and math professionals, including the Mexican American NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez. Middle and high school students will be encouraged to email questions for the panel.
For more information, go to http://www.dol.gov/dol/55.htm. (When the webcast begins, this page will include a video window and an e-mail link that people can use to send questions during the live event.)
ED Staff

This entry was written by jjohnson, posted on May 4, 2010 at 12:18 pm, filed under News. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with theRSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

The Grown-Up Brain: Better Than The Younger Version? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

The Grown-Up Brain: Better Than The Younger Version?

Whew, dodged another bullet with good news for the over-40 set. Our brains don't lose 30% of their mass and are surprisingly similar to teenage brains in that they are still developing. Yes, that's right, unlike the mythology floating around out there, middle age brains are not stagnating in formaldehyde. In fact, "on the whole, they are better (than in our 20's)".

Or, as Barbara Stauch puts it, when referring to the middle-aged brain (modern middle age as defined by ages 40-65) in a The New York Times interview today: "It's not some static blob that is going inexorably downhill." I think we all know this instinctively when we compare an older dynamic person who is involved and sharp as a tack, compared to a much younger counterpart who by juxtaposition, appears like a slug, which is counter-intuitive. So what are some of the key things that make the difference?

Stauch, author of teenage brain development book,"The Primal Teen," has many surprising revelations in her new book we've been anticipating, "The Secret Life Of The Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents Of The Middle Aged Mind" (click this link to go to Amazon). As advocates of life-long learning
and development outside of formal classroom
studies, we are happy to
see research supporting the necessity
of creating a culture of learning and growth, at
all times in one's life.
stauchbook.brain

The bad news? Well, there are issues with short-term memory processing speed in middle aged brains . . . so we are little slower in that department.

Excerpts from interview:

Q. So what kinds of things does a middle-aged brain do better than a younger brain?

A. Inductive reasoning and problem solving - the logical use of your brain and actually getting to solutions. We get the gist of an argument better. We're better at sizing up a situation and reaching a

Can I Get A Witness??? - Perdaily.com

Can I Get A Witness???

by Leonard

Today I had the long rescheduled appeal hearing on the two Notices of Unsatisfactory Acts and the two Suspensions of 8 and 11 days respectively. While I am not permitted to talk about the substance of the charges against me, which was cause for dismissal if I had done so up until June of 2009, I am now at least permitted to mention the existence of the case without going into the details of the case, which now can only be used by LAUSD to find against me, if it is not for the specific purpose of trying to find witnesses to help me defend myself.

So let me start by saying that I am writing this post to see if there are any witnesses out there. It is my belief that some of my fellow teachers might be willing to come forward and share what they know, when they hear the reality of what I found out today at the appeal hearing of the charges against me.

Not that it will make a whole lot of difference in the long run, but I decided to present my own case. Instead of just answering the bogus charges against me, I would preface my responses with some questions of my own, while relegating my UTLA Representative to the task of taking copious notes of the responses that were made by my Principal Janet Seary's immediate supervisor Janet Davis and a representative from LAUSD Staff

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