Monday, May 24, 2010

Mayor Johnson seeks more clout in Sacramento education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Mayor Johnson seeks more clout in Sacramento education

By Melody Gutierrez and Ryan Lillis
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

Published: Monday, May. 24, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

Before he was mayor of Sacramento, former NBA player Kevin Johnson was a star in the national charter school movement.

Now, he's jumping back into the education arena. He says he'll review candidates for school boards in the November elections in the five districts serving the city. If he doesn't approve, he says, he'll recruit his own.

Johnson, 44, continues to court the spotlight on education. He recently was named to two national education committees, including an appointment by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Johnson's relationship with fiancée Michelle Rhee, who is chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school system, enhances his connection to elite education circles.

Today, he and Rhee plan to meet with Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond before Rhee appears at the Sacramento Press Club.

Some speculate the mayor is setting himself up for a national education post.

"There are a variety of jobs (in Washington, D.C.) I can see him in," said Michael Kirst, a

Education News - The New York Times

College Offers Quirky Shirts Designed by Students

By TAMAR LEWIN

David Maxwell for The New York Times

From left, Margot Hanley, Karl Orozco and Justin Halliwill with newly designed T-shirts meant to capture the Oberlin College sensibility.

An entrepreneurship project at Oberlin College in Ohio let students express their own distinctive views of campus life.

THE SEARCH

Graduates’ First Job: Marketing Themselves

By PHYLLIS KORKKI

In a job market that has improved but is still bleak, a top notch résumé and cover letter, and strong interviewing skills are essential.

Goalie Kevin Friedenberg was turned down by Haverford. But he went to nearby Swarthmore and was a two-time all-conference player.

Unexpected Turns Mark Athletes’ Journey

By BILL PENNINGTON

The New York Times traced the careers of athletes at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, from a demanding recruitment until graduation.

Colleges’ Search for Athletes Continues to Change

STUDIED

Maybe Bullies Just Want to Be Loved

By PAMELA PAUL

Bullies are “looking for attention and affection from their own peer group,” a recent report says.

Texas Approves Textbook Changes

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The State Board of Education on Friday adopted new social studies and history guidelines with a conservative bent for Texas primary school classrooms.

As the revisions to Texas textbooks on American history were debated on Wednesday, protesters gathered to oppose the changes.

Texas School Board Set to Vote Textbook Revisions

By MICHAEL BRICK

The conservative majority of the Texas School Board cast its eye on the teaching of American history, looking to emphasize the roles of capitalism, Christianity and G.O.P. political figures.

Students protesting budget cuts at the University of Puerto Rico sat in the road in front of the San Juan campus last week as riot police officers stood guard.

Student Protests Tie Up Campuses in Puerto Rico

By OMAYA SOSA-PASCUAL and EMMA GRAVES FITZSIMMONS

Most of the University of Puerto Rico system has been shut down by students seeking greater transparency.

On Reading Test, Mixed Results Under Bloomberg

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Fourth graders’ scores have improved significantly during his term, but eighth graders’ scores have not.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Stewart vs. Lewis in run-off for CTU president

"You don't make radical changes in times of trouble," Stewart told theChicago Sun-Times on Saturday.
But Lewis posed this question: "And exactly what has this experience gotten us?"

Does free speech stop when the bell rings?

"When you teach young people who are very close to voting age that the government gets to

Moving Beyond “Adultism” & Disrespect of Youth | Lefty Parent

Moving Beyond “Adultism” & Disrespect of Youth

by Cooper Zale

It is stunning to me the “adultism” demonstrated by the disrespectful ways many adults still treat children and youth, particularly their own kids. I think it is one of the last vestiges in our society of pure patriarchal “power-over” protocol that is still considered acceptable by many adults in dealing with their children and youth. That protocol involves the assumption that the “superior” adult/parent has the absolute command and control over the “inferior” young person/child, such that any inappropriate behavior by the “inferior” reflects on and is highly disrespectful to the reputation of their “superior” and must be forcibly modified to save face.

My daughter Emma shared an incident with us yesterday that occurred at a family gathering of one of her friends that Emma had attended. One of her friend’s young cousins was bored and began literally climbing the wall by where Emma was seated. Emma told the young boy politely that he really shouldn’t be doing that, concerned

Vacaville music students play 8 hours straight to save their teachers | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Vacaville music students play 8 hours straight to save their teachers

Nick Monacelli

Last updated 10 hrs ago

MORE EDUCATION NEWS:

PHOTOS & INTERVIEWS:

SLIDESHOW: Music Mania plays to save Vacaville music programs, jobs

VACAVILLE, CA - It's a crunch that's felt in almost every school district across California, but when parents and students in the Vacaville Unified School District heard their music programs were facing elimination, they jumped at the opportunity to help.

Due to a lack of state funding, two high school music directors now have pink slips and the elementary music program could be slashed in half.

So the Nut Tree Plaza off Interstate 80 in Vacaville played host to an eight hour music marathon Saturday as students from almost every school in the district came to perform, a

Flush with $2.2 million success, Cupertino parents share secrets Education - San Jose Mercury News

Education - San Jose Mercury News

Flush with $2.2 million success, Cupertino parents share secrets

In eight weeks, group brought in
$2 million to prevent school layoffs

Legal challenge between Palo Alto company, Orange County hospital halts stem cell research

San Jose-based community college promises greater oversight after chancellor probe

Document: Probe into allegations about Rosa Pérez

UC Berkeley plan test student DNA raises alarms

Document: Complaint against California over education funding

Schools, PTA sue California over education funding

Stanford University prepares for the 'bookless library'

Delaware man charged with faking his way into Harvard

Mr. Secretary, listen to us teachers The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess

Mr. Secretary, listen to us teachers

Posted in Teacher Development

Today, an Oakland Unified science teacher-coach and 11 other teachers will get what they’ve been seeking for six months: the ear of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
The dozen teachers will have a 30-minute teleconference with Duncan to state some of the views they’ve been making on the Facebook page Teachers’ Letters to Obama, which Anthony Cody of Oakland started six months ago out of frustration with the directions that Duncan and President Obama were taking in education. Cody’s hoping this will be the first of a series of dialogues with Duncan, whom he says needs to hear more from teachers in the field.
(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on May 24th, 2010

Education groups urge regulation of for-profit colleges | California Watch

Education groups urge regulation of for-profit colleges

by Erica Perez

Erica Perez

A coalition of higher-education groups and advocacy organizations is urging the federal government to stick to its guns in its efforts to more tightly regulate the for-profit education industry.
Educators, advocates and industry analysts are waiting for the U.S. Department of Education to issue regulations that, among other things, would withhold federal funding from institutions whose graduates' debt-to-income ratio is too high.
The regulations are aimed at vocational or job-training programs, many of which are offered in the for-profit career

State again denied education stimulus funds

by Louis Freedberg

Louis Freedberg

It was bad enough that California, with a population of 36.9 million, was rejected by the Obama administration in its request for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education Race to the Top funds.
In that grant competition, Delaware and Tennessee, with populations of only 885,000 and 6.2 million respectively, were the winners, walking away with $600 million between the two of them.
Now, California's application for improving its longitudinal data system to track students from pre-kindergarten through high school, college and into the workplace has also been given the cold shoulder. The system would

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Put the Parent Voice back in Public Education! | Change.org

Put the Parent Voice back in Public Education!

Targeting: The President of the United States, The U.S. Senate and The U.S. House of Representatives

Started by: Leonie Haimson

Secretary of Education Duncan's proposals to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) would take the parent voice out of public education, would encourage more test prep and narrowing of the curriculum, would lead to more privatization and inequities in funding, and would further undermine the quality of our public schools.

Parent leaders from across America have written a letter to the President and the US Congress, asking them to listen to parents, and enact real education reforms that have been proven to work, including requiring more parent involvement in decision-making and reducing class size.

We insist that the next version of the ESEA formally incorporates the views of public school parents. As highly knowledgeable primary stakeholders, we must be permitted to have a seat at the decision-making table.

The original letter is posted here. Please join us by signing the letter below! You can also personalize it, adding details about your own school or community. And then join our facebook page, Parents Across America.

Questions Over Children Fundraising In SF - cbs5.com

Questions Over Children Fundraising In SF

Reporting
Anna Werner
E-mail

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: A child selling snacks in downtown San Francisco.
CBS

The Wrong Stuff : Diane Ravitch on Being Wrong

Diane Ravitch on Being Wrong

Posted Monday, May 17, 2010 12:53 AM | By Kathryn Schulz

"We are in the grips of a kind of national madness," Diane Ravitch told me, "closing schools, firing teachers, shutting down public education." What makes this statement interesting is that, for many years, Ravitch was a powerful voice within the national education reform movement she now rejects as faddish, empirically unfounded, and bad for America's kids.

As assistant secretary of education under George H.W. Bush, Ravitch became an outspoken supporter of educational testing, school choice, charter schools, and No Child Left Behind. Later, she championed those positions as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board (the entity that oversees education testing in the United States) and through her involvement with two prominent conservative think tanks, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Koret Task Force.

Today, Ravitch refers to the reforms she once championed as "deforms." Her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, documents her own reversal and the impact of current education policy on communities, schools, families, teachers, and students. When I spoke with her, she was frank and thoughtful about the experience of coming to reject what were once some of her most deeply held beliefs. "For years," she told me, "people would say to me, ‘Well, I don't agree with everything you write,' and I would think, 'Thanks a lot, that's some compliment.' But now I say, ‘Well, I don't agree with everything I write, so why should you?' "

Thanks for agreeing to meet with me. Not everyone relishes talking about their mistakes.

This is something that I haven't really put into words, so I don't know if I'm going to get it

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