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Thursday, May 13, 2010

UC Berkeley ends hunger strike over immigration

UC Berkeley ends hunger strike over immigration

UC Berkeley ends hunger strike over immigration

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, May 13, 2010

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Michael Macor / The Chronicle

UC Berkeley students Ismael Armendariz (left) and Nestor Espinoza pass the time playing chess as they join 22 other hunger strikers camped out in front of California Hall on the UC Berkeley campus Thursday, demanding that UC President Mark Yudof and UC chancellors denounce the Arizona legislation which gives law enforcement broad powers to detain people they suspect of being in the country illegally.

(05-12) 21:23 PDT BERKELEY -- With the blessings of ceremonial dancers, a group of UC Berkeley students ended a 10-day hunger strike Wednesday while negotiators met with the chancellor over the status of illegal immigrants and student demonstrators.

Soon afterward, students and Chancellor Robert Birgenau announced some modest agreements on undocumented university employees and student discipline.

About 20 hunger strikers, mostly students, had camped out in front of the school's administration building since May 3. Their initial protest target was Arizona's new immigration law, which requires police to stop and question anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Birgenau quickly complied with the protesters' first demand - to denounce the law. But he balked at their proposals to declare the campus a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, rehire laid-off janitors and drop disciplinary charges against students who occupied or vandalized buildings last fall to protest rising fees.

Campus officials had met with strikers four times, without results. Birgenau agreed to an in-person meeting Wednesday if the students would call off the strike. They agreed out



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/13/BACU1DDV28.DTL#ixzz0noQYjffV
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Taking back school reform

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Taking back school reform

Taking back school reform

by Mike Klonsky
Ravitch & Rose via email

Mike Rose and Diane Ravitch connected in L.A. during her book tour and continued their discussion of school reform issues via email.

Rose: I think a good place to start is with NCLB. That law was driven by a masterful rhetoric that casted dissent from its agenda as “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” There can be “no excuses” for the low performance of poor, immigrant, and racial and ethnic minority kids, as measured by the tests NCLB supported. Currently, some other school reform advocates, including
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The Educated Guess Nonstop work on Race to the Top

The Educated Guess

Nonstop work on Race to the Top

Posted in Race to the Top
California’s forthcoming second-round application for Race to the Top may be a long-shot, but the half-dozen districts behind the effort sure aren’t treating it as such.
Staffers in the districts and consultants writing the application are working round the clock in shifts to get the document ready for submission in late May, Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson told a legislative hearing on Wednesday. And he expressed confidence that additional districts will sign a memorandum of understanding, committing them to the plan that is now in the works.
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By John Fensterwald on May 13th, 2010
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Should breathalyzers be used at proms? Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

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

Should breathalyzers be used at proms?


Some schools around the nation are trying it, but it remains controversial
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VALERIE STRAUSS
The Answer Sheet
A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)
Posted at 6:30 AM ET, 05/13/2010

Getting real about super-selective colleges

Bruce Vinik, a college admissions counselor, writes about why students who seem to be perfect in every way don't get into the school of their dreams.
Posted by Valerie Strauss | Permalink | Comments (0)
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JAY MATHEWS
Class Struggle
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools
Posted at 10:00 PM ET, 05/12/2010

AP vs. IB--choosing sides

Which program, AP or IB, is better? Many parents ask me this each May. I try to dodge the question. Both programs are top-notch. They offer teenagers a true college experience in high school, taking courses and exams that in many cases are more demanding that the introductory courses in state universities they are designed to mimic.

District regains control of special ed transport

After seven years of court supervision, a federal judge has agreed to return to the District the responsibility of busing its special education students. An order signed by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman sets the stage for the city to exit the Petties case, a 1995 class action brought by parents of special needs children because the District couldn't get them to class on time.
In 2003, Friedman appointed a transportation administrator, David Gilmore, to oversee the system, which spends about $80 million a year carrying 4,000 special-needs students across the region, some of them to private institutions as far as 75 miles outside the city. The order, signed by Friedman a week ago, says Gilmore reports that the District is now providing "safe, timely and appropriate transportation services," and that it is time to begin a transition back to full city control.
Gilmore is scheduled to join Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and other District officials at a Thursday mid-morning press conference to discuss the transition. It was billed by Fenty's office in a Wednesday evening press 
(AP)
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EducationNews.org Edutopia: Inside George Lucas’ Quixotic Plan to Save America’s Schools

EducationNews.org

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Edutopia: Inside George Lucas’ Quixotic Plan to Save America’s Schools

5.13.10 - Robert Pondiscio - If there’s anything in education that raises my eyebrows (and occasionally
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Educators decry Arizona's ethnic studies ban as an outrage

5.13.10 - Local school and college officials Wednesday blasted the passage of a new Arizona law that bans ethnic studies in public schools, calling it an attack on freedom of...
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Climbing trees and snowball fights 'should be encouraged by schools'

5.13.10 - Children’s confidence and independence is being eroded by the health and safety culture in schools, according to a leading headmaster. ...
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Few States Meet NCLB Goals for English-Learners

5.13.10 - Even among the 11 states that do, researchers and experts say, it’s not possible to conclude that ELL achievement is improving ...
Full
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Rise & Shine: School building contractor allegedly stole $2 mil. | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: School building contractor allegedly stole $2 mil. | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: School building contractor allegedly stole $2 mil.

by Maura Walz
  • An SCA contractor is accused of stealing $2 million by failing to pay his workers properly. (Daily News)
  • A new website matches local science teachers to scientists who want to volunteer. (NY1)
  • Tribeca’s P.S. 234 halved its kindergarten wait list by adding a sixth class. (Tribeca Trib)
  • The Daily News: Tuesday’s plan should just be the first step in overhauling teacher evaluations.
  • Letter-writers to the Post argue in favor of the city’s seniority-based layoff system.
  • A Washington Post columnist argues the federal government should offer buyouts to senior teachers.
  • The city’s high school baseball league is posting the number of pitches students throw per game. (Times)
  • Social networking sites are helping teens make sure they don’t wear the same dresses to prom. (Times)
  • Eight upstate school districts earned a national distinction for music education. (Democrat & Chronicle)
  • A court barred Los Angeles from laying off teachers at three low-performing middle schools. (L.A. Times)
  • Selective colleges aren’t seeing a decline in the number of students accepting offers of admission. (Times)
  • Two Queens schools were the sites of cases of alleged sexual abuse. (Daily News)
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Schools move to educate staff, students on response to bullying - The Boston Globe

Schools move to educate staff, students on response to bullying - The Boston Globe

Pushing back

Bolstered by a new state law addressing bullying, schools move to educate staff, students on responding to aggression

Olavio Bisneto, of Everett, interacts during exercises at a seminar in BridgewaterOlavio Bisneto, of Everett, interacts during exercises at a seminar in Bridgewater
By Christine Legere
Globe Correspondent / May 13, 2010
For the longest time, bullying has fallen into the “kids will be kids’’ category, a negative yet somewhat unavoidable part of growing up. But following the suicides of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, a Springfield 11-year-old who took his own life last year after being bullied, and Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Irish immigrant in South Hadley who hanged herself in January after weeks of harassment by fellow students, educators, parents, and lawmakers are finally saying “No more.’’
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Bullying in school
College students surveyed last year were asked whether they had ever been bullied in high school.
32% said they were frequently bullied
43% said they had been bullied sometimes
60% said they had been bullied via instant messaging, social networking sites, text messages, or other electronic means
40% knew of students who were bullied
so severely they left school
80% said they were not aware of any anti-bullying program in their school districts
SOURCE: Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center
Last week, Governor Deval Patrick signed one of the strongest legislative measures in the country against bullying behavior in schools, mandating training for faculty and students, and requiring that parents be informed of incidents. School employees must report suspected bullying to principals for investigation, whether it occurs on school grounds, bus rides, or at school-sponsored events. And school officials must also take action against student bullying via e-mail or through social networking sites like Facebook, since conflicts on the Internet can create a hostile environment at school.
Although bullying is still not categorized as a criminal act, aggressive bullying can now be dealt with legally under laws against stalking and harassment.
According to data gathered by Bridgewater State College professor Elizabeth Englander, founder of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center,



Minority student activists protest education cuts

by Eric Gorski, AP Education Writer
If campus activism still brings to mind peace signs, a sea of white faces and liberal strongholds like Berkeley, meet Jesse Cheng.

Md. bars release of tests to military

by Kathleen Miller, Associated Press
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A first-of-its-kind law bars public high schools in Maryland from automatically sending student scores on a widely used military aptitude test to recruiters, a practice that critics say was giving the armed forces backdoor access to young people without their parents’ consent.

Never too late to swoon

by Beth Teitell, Globe Correspondent
Like many mothers and daughters, Mary Irizarry and her 12-year-old argue sometimes. But their disputes aren’t over texting or clothing. They disagree about which male “Twilight’’ star is cuter.
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Local News | UW researcher's 7-year misconduct battle | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | UW researcher's 7-year misconduct battle | Seattle Times Newspaper

UW researcher's 7-year misconduct battle

An assistant research professor at the University of Washington has fought allegations of academic misconduct for seven years and is now asking a judge to stop the UW from firing him Friday.
By Nick Perry
Seattle Times higher education reporter
An assistant research professor at the University of Washington has fought allegations of academic misconduct for seven years and is now asking a judge to stop the UW from firing him Friday.
The case of Andrew Aprikyan, who is also the UW's table tennis coach, shows just how difficult it can be for a university to determine whether a researcher made honest mistakes or fabricated results. At times, the case has pitted the UW's administration against some faculty, who've supported Aprikyan.
It also raises questions about how the UW could let an academic-misconduct investigation drag on for so long, all the while allowing a medical researcher it suspects of wrongdoing to draw a salary, collect grants and travel the globe presenting his findings.
This year, UW President Mark Emmert intervened. He concluded that Aprikyan had committed research misconduct in his published work on blood disorders and should be fired.
Aprikyan, who doesn't have tenure, responded by filing suit in King County Superior Court.
There are some eye-opening revelations in the court documents — including Aprikyan's own account that a
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