Wednesday, May 5, 2010

30 percent of Colorado 3rd-graders not reading at their level, CSAP finds - The Denver Post

30 percent of Colorado 3rd-graders not reading at their level, CSAP finds

By Jeremy P. Meyer and Burt Hubbard
The Denver Post

POSTED: 05/05/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

UPDATED: 05/05/2010 08:51:45 AM MDT

Student Jaela Manzanares, 8, gets reading help from substitute teacher Colleen Rys in her third-grade class at Beach Court Elementary School in Denver. (Andy Cross | The Denver Post)

After a decade of testing, myriad school reforms and intense reading programs, 30 percent of Colorado's third-graders still are not reading at grade level.

Year after year, the number of proficient third-grade readers in Colorado stays mostly the same — hovering around the 70 percent mark — mirroring a trend occurring nationally.

On Tuesday, the state released unofficial and preliminary results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program third-grade reading test, showing 70 percent of the students proficient or advanced in reading, 3 points lower than in 2009.

Colorado tests its third-graders in reading weeks before any other test and delivers data to teachers early, hoping it can be used to help students

Search CSAP results dating back to 2002

struggling with literacy — seen as the cornerstone of learning.

The rest of the CSAP scores for third through 10th grades will be

30 percent of Colorado 3rd-graders not reading at their level, CSAP finds 2005/05/2010After a decade of testing, myriad school reforms and intense reading programs, 30 percent of Colorado's third-graders still are not reading at grade level.

3rd-grade CSAP scores show decline 3405/04/2010 - Statewide scores on this year's assessment of third-grade reading skills declined to 2008 levels.

Stapleton charter loses out in bid for Obama speech 2705/04/2010 - President Barack Obama today said he will give the commencement address at Kalamazoo Central High School, choosing the traditional Michigan high school over a charter school in Denver and a

McGlone Elementary in Montbello digs in on garden project that will feed minds, stomachs05/03/2010 - Forget May flowers. McGlone Elementary School kids are hoping April's showers bring a crop of carrots, or maybe potatoes. And they very well might — just not this year.

Partisan divide among U.S. Senate candidates in Colorado on illegal immigration05/03/2010 - Colorado's U.S. Senate candidates moved quickly to their partisan corners in the immigration debate, with the only doubts coming from critics questioning the ferocity of their various commitments.

NorthJersey.com: Christie administration: Teacher merit pay bill will be introduced for NJ schools

NorthJersey.com: Christie administration: Teacher merit pay bill will be introduced for NJ schools:

Christie administration: Teacher merit pay bill will be introduced for NJ schools

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

BY LESLIE BRODY

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

1 Comment

The Christie administration on Wednesday said it will introduce a measure to bring merit pay, which ties teacher evaluations to student performance, to New Jersey’s public schools.
Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said he hoped a merit pay bill could pass the legislature by June 1 so that it would bolster the state’s application for more than $200 million in federal education dollars available through the Race to the Top program.
“If we do, it will make ours an extremely competitive grant submission,” said Schundler, after speaking at a conference in Princeton. The commissioner said merit pay could help the state win the money.
The proposal is sure to get push-back in the legislature and from the state’s powerful teachers union, which has opposed merit pay measures. Teachers now get contracted raises regardless of student scores on

Daroff council: Promise Academy model 'lacks promise' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Daroff council: Promise Academy model 'lacks promise'

by Benjamin Herold on May 05 2010 Posted in Latest news

Daroff School Advisory Council (SAC)unanimously rejected on Monday the District’s invitation to submit a revised application to become a Promise Academy, opting instead to focus on its deliberations to select an outside turnaround team to assume management of the troubled K-8 school as part of the District’sRenaissance Schools initiative.

Daroff was one of 10 Renaissance Eligible schools that submitted an applicationthis winter to become a Promise Academy under the direct supervision of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, but was not one of the five schools originally selected.

That application was developed by the school leadership team without input from the just-formed SAC, however.

Citing concerns about equitable opportunities for parent and community involvement in the Promise Academy application process, the District last Thursday invited Daroff, Bluford, and Harrity to re-apply with input from their SACs and broader school communities if they are unable to find a suitable provider match. Ackerman had previously invited Potter-Thomas to be reconsidered as a Promise Academy.

The opening for additional schools to become Promise Academies also could be intended to address complaints from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers that most of the 14 Renaissance schools are on a track to be converted to non-union charter schools.

On Monday evening, Daroff’s active and organized SAC met to consider the

Rep. Obey, a Key Duncan-Dissing Dem, to Retire - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Rep. Obey, a Key Duncan-Dissing Dem, to Retire

by Alyson Klein

So a number of outlets are reporting that Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and also the subcommittee on education spending, is not going to run for re-election. Obey is expected to make a "major" announcement later today.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan & Co. are probably greeting the news with (silent) cheers of joy and (discreetly) breaking open the champagne.
Obey has been super skeptical of Duncan's reform agenda almost from the get-go, saying, for instance, that the department is setting cash-strapped school districts up for failure by expecting them to make progress on the four assurances (teacher quality, standards and assessments, data systems, school improvement).
And he was not at all a fan of the department's strategy of funding incentive programs like Race to the Top, saying he'd much rather see the money slated for Title I grants to districts. He also had little love for the Teacher

This Week In Education Media: EdWeek Touts Inflated Layoff Number

This Week In Education

Media: EdWeek Touts Inflated Layoff Number

by Alexander Russo

Wag of my finger to EdWeek for touting AASA's made up layoff report (275,000 School Jobs on Chopping Block, Survey Says). Noting where the number comes from doesn't get them off the hook. Leaving out the fact that many state legislatures are still in session only makes things worse. It helps somewhat that the piece reminds readers that the AASA is releasing the report to build support for another federal bailout. But I still wish media

Independent Investigation Turned Out to Be Not So Independent | Intercepts

Independent Investigation Turned Out to Be Not So Independent

by Mike Antonucci

Joan M. Morin told her supervisor she was experiencing a hostile and discriminatory work environment. Her employer assigned someone to conduct an independent investigation. This is not an unusual situation. Except Morin worked for the Maine Education Association (MEA) as a UniServ director and the union hired the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser to investigate. An attorney from the firm interviewed Morin about her allegations.
When internal remedies failed, Morin filed a discrimination suit against the union. In response, the union hired… Bredhoff & Kaiser as its defense team.
Morin successfully petitioned a superior court to have the firm removed, but the Maine Supreme Judicial Court

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Race to Top Hopefuls Seek to Crack 'Buy-In' Puzzle

Applicants look for district and union support without diluting proposals and hurting their shot at the $3.4 billion still left.(May 4, 2010) | Comments (1)

Educators Eye Ning's Move to Pay Model

Although the popular social-networking platform Ning will start charging to maintain sites, certain education networks may remain free. (May 4, 2010)

Coaching of Teachers Found to Boost Student Reading

A study of the Literacy Collaborative approach to instruction finds that putting reading coaches in schools can yield strong gains. (May 4, 2010) | Comments (2)

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Wisconsin Law Targets Race-Based Mascots : NPR

Wisconsin Law Targets Race-Based Mascots

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May 4, 2010

The governor of Wisconsin plans to soon sign into law a bill that could ban the use of race-based school mascots or logos. The law would permit a person who is offended by a school mascot in the school district that he lives in to request a hearing overseen by the state schools superintendent. The law could affect 36 Wisconsin schools that currently have Native American-based mascots or logos. Robert Siegel talks to Dale Henry, who is principal of Mukwonago High School. The school's sports logo is an American Indian.

Two teens charged in death of D.C. principal

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Frances Howard of Northwest Washington lives next door to the mother of one of the men charged in the slaying of D.C. principal Brian Betts. The woman, Artura Otey Williams, faces credit card charges but is not charged in the homicide. (Linda Davidson/the Washington Post)

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By Maria Glod and Dan Morse

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Two teenagers were charged Monday in the slaying of well-known D.C. principal Brian Betts, and Montgomery County police said Betts met the suspects on a phone-sex chat line in the hours before he was killed.

Sharif Tau Lancaster and Alante Saunders, both 18, were charged with murder, robbery and a handgun violation. Police said that a third 18-year-old man was being held and that they expected that he would also be charged in the killing.
D.C. officials said Lancaster and Saunders had recently escaped from the custody of a D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services home, but it was not clear whether they were considered escapees at the time of Betts's killing.
Montgomery Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said that there was no indication the teens had any relationship with Betts before the educator arranged a meeting with one or more of them on the phone line. Officers said they think the trio used the chat line to find a target to rob.
"We believe the motive for this crime was most likely robbery," Manger said. Officers offered no details about how the robbery went wrong or why Betts was shot.
Betts, 42, principal at Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson and one of the public faces of education reform efforts in the District, was found dead in his Silver Spring home April 15 by colleagues worried after he failed to show up for work.
At first, the case was a mystery. No one could imagine who would want to harm an educator who knew many of his students by name, greeted them and parents outside the school in the mornings and, to many, became a

This Week In Education AM News: How CA Districts Got Back Into RTTT

This Week In Education

AM News: How CA Districts Got Back Into RTTT

by Alexander Russo

California rejoins Race to the Top race, sort of LA Times: The Obama administration badly wanted California to apply, in order to avoid the embarrassment of having the biggest state with the most children rejecting its signature Race to the Top initiative... Report: No spying in Pa. school laptops case AP: There's no evidence a suburban school district used school-issued laptops to spy on students according to a report issued Monday by attorneys hired by the district... Education" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/us/politics/05schools.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 68, 187); ">Michigan High School Wins Obama as Graduation Speaker NYT: President Obama will speak at the Kalamazoo Central High School graduation. The school won a Race to the Top competition...Two teens charged in death of D.C. principal Washington Post: Montgomery County police said Betts met the suspects on a phone-sex chat line in the hours before he was killed...Wisconsin Law Targets Race-Based Mascots NPR: The law could affect 36 Wisconsin schools that currently have Native American-based mascots or logos. Robert Siegel talks to Dale Henry, who is principal of Mukwonago High School. The school's sports logo is an American Indian.

LAUSD: The Original LOST - Perdaily.com

LAUSD: The Original LOST

by Leonard

I am seriously considering writing a daytime soap about LAUSD called, "As The Stomach Turns." Given the 7 hours a day that I have to write which have pretty much been taken up the last four months with doing posts for perdaily, I am starting to get a little more free time in the afternoons as the teacher munchkins finally start to conquer their fear and cynicism and start talking about the high crimes and misdemeanors that they witness and suffer on a daily basis at the diabolical hands of the career education criminals that continue to run LAUSD.

Given the surreal aspect of LAUSD reality that I was finally able to substantiate during my trial yesterday on the 25th floor of edspeak central, I immediately thought of the 1967 popular British television series with Patrick McGoohan called The Prisoner, and with misguided egocentricity and a touch of feeling sorry for myself, I planned on making myself the hero of this bizarre daytime soap that teachers might crowd around to watch in the faculty lounge at nutrition or lunch. The folks at the studios in Hollywood always like to greenlight projects with a built in audience and what could have a higher TV quotient than the neverending story that is LAUSD -- the original Lost.

Just when I thought I had the idea squared away to a indispensable one-sentence pitch, "Teacher held captive in Miracle Mile resort-like house from 8am to 3pm, Monday through Friday, which is run by Stepford Wives like LAUSD administrators who are always "directing" him to do something with a smile on their faces that makes absolutely no sense," I sat down this afternoon to get it all down on my computer when the phone rang and everything changed.

It was Superintendent Ramon Cortines on the other end of the line. I must confess that I initially thought that he was calling to apologize for the hell his subordinates have been putting me through for the last nine months, which I have been religiously cc:ing him copies of the latest atrocity as it transpired, always hoping that Ray would somehow come galloping down my street on a white horse and rescue me from the evil doers at LAUSD,

Cities face big losses A judge ruled Tuesday that California can order redevelopment agencies to give money to public schools DailyBulletin.com

Cities face big losses - DailyBulletin.com

Cities face big losses

Judge: State can take redevelopment funds

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer

Created: 05/04/2010 06:29:25 PM PDT

Local redevelopment agencies will have to cough up millions of dollars next week, delaying or scrapping redevelopment projects across the region.
A judge ruled Tuesday that California can order redevelopment agencies to give money to public schools in a complex scheme that aims to boost the state's bank account by $2.1billion over the next two years.
"It's tragic irresponsibility on the part of the state," said Rancho Cucamonga Mayor Don Kurth. "The state has been irresponsible in balancing its own budget and instead of solving the problems that the state has had, it reaches into the cities and takes our funding."
As part of the 2009-10 budget package, state lawmakers called for taking $1.7 billion from redevelopment

agencies - city and county agencies that use a portion of property taxes to clean up blight and bring business to specific areas - to help balance the state general fund. The California Redevelopment Association filed a lawsuit, saying the California Constitution prohibits using redevelopment money for other purposes.
But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly ruled Tuesday that the state raid is legal, given that redevelopment money technically goes to schools in redevelopment areas.
In his ruling, Connelly said the benefits of redevelopment "depend upon the existence of adequately maintained and financially solvent schools."
But the money going to schools is only the first step in what some see as a shell game that ends with $1.7 billion in state coffers.
"It just moves it around," said Don Gee of the San Bernardino Economic Development Authority. "It takes money from local agencies and gives it to the state. They've said it's for the schools, but it's not really."
The redevelopment money will go to schools in redevelopment areas, where it will replace property tax money. The property tax money will then go to a special state fund and then to county offices of education. From there, the money will go back to schools, which will allow the state to pull back other funds, or to county offices of education, which will repay it to the state.
"I just can't believe these people," said Fontana Councilwoman Acquanetta Warren. "Education is important, but this is coming at the expense of communities that are trying to make it. When (students) get out of school, where do they work? Has anybody thought about that lately?"
Local city and redevelopment officials say the funds the state is taking are used for economic development and to help create jobs - something the state desperately needs.
"How do you attract businesses that bring jobs in this kind of atmosphere?" Warren asked.
The California Redevelopment Association plans to appeal Tuesday's ruling and will ask the appellate court to allow agencies to hold onto their money while the appeal is being heard.
If the court denies that request, redevelopment agencies must pay by Monday. On that day, redevelopment agencies in San Bernardino County will owe $176 million; agencies in Los Angeles County will owe $418 million.
Local redevelopment agencies owe amounts ranging from $33.5 million to a few hundred thousand. Losing that money will mean delaying or scrapping projects, officials said.
In Redlands, Community Development Director Oscar Orci said the city would likely have to scale back on a program aimed at bringing new businesses to town.
Gee said the San Bernardino EDA might have to give up its plan to create a business center that would help process development proposals in the city.
And in Rancho Cucamonga, Deputy City Manager Linda Daniels said the city will have to shelve a plan to build a new interchange

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010