Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

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

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













Concern over accented teachers not original to Arizona

The state of Arizona has gotten a lot of attention lately for its decision to remove teachers who speak with pronounced foreign accent and/or whose speech is ungrammatical from classrooms with students learning to speak English. But the idea wasn’t original to the Arizona Board of Education.

Why transparency in college admissions is bad

Impose transparency on the holistic system used by selective colleges--a subjective judgment based on several factors--and the result is no less maddening. The admissions office would have to issue statements like "the candidate's extracurricular involvements were not as intense and her teacher recommendations not as impressive as those of candidates we accepted."

Pink slip season for principals


May is the dangerous month for DCPS principals, when Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee sends letters informing them whether or not they will be renewed for another academic year. Spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said the District will be ready "in the coming weeks" to announce which schools will have new leaders, but word of the turnover is already starting to circulate.
According to Candi Peterson's "The Washington Teacher" blog, Cathy Crocker of Kelly Miller Middle School and Donald Presswood of Stanton Elementary have not been asked back. Crocker, who has been at Kelly Miller for just one year, said in a phone interview Monday morning that her departure was a planned retirement after 36 years as an educator, including posts in Fairfax County and at American University. "I'm going to enjoy life," she said. Presswood did not return a phone message as of early Monday afternoon.

Calloway said in an e-mail: "All DC Public School principals, by law,

EducationNews.org Elmer Smith: Someday, kids will say 'thanks for nothing' if we keep slashing education

EducationNews.org


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Holistic Cultural Competence Assessment Model

Why transparency in college admissions is bad

5.24.10 - Impose transparency on the holistic system used by selective colleges--a subjective judgment

Elmer Smith: Someday, kids will say 'thanks for nothing' if we keep slashing education

5.25.10 - Who will today's children thank a generation from now when they consider the 2010 national debate on education spending? . ...
Full story

Data shows kids shouldn't multitask

5.25.10 - How often have you heard someone say “kids today learn differently—they multitask constantly.” The implication often drawn is that kids "need" to multitask in order to be engaged, or perhaps we...
Full story

Private-school money to get high-court look

5.25.10 - The nation's high court will decide whether Arizonans can divert tax money they owe the state to help students attend private and parochial schools....
Full story

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

Rise & Shine: No charter cap progress made in late-night talks


  • Chancellor Klein outlined a slate of “horrid” budget cuts before the City Council yesterday. (Post, WNYC)
  • Among the cuts: High school principals can choose to fire parent coordinators. (GothamSchools, NY1)
  • Legislators didn’t meet yesterday to hash out a possible charter cap compromise. (GothamSchools)
  • But in late-night talks, anti-charter sentiment dominated and some are saying a deal is unlikely. (Post)
  • The Post calls on Regents head Merryl Tisch to throw her support behind SUNY as charter authorizer.
  • Detroit is grappling with whether kids should be paid for their school successes. (Detroit Free Press)

The Educated Guess � Unions again balk at Race to the Top

The Educated Guess � Unions again balk at Race to the Top

Unions again balk at Race to the Top

Posted in Race to the Top
The six districts leading the state’s second round Race to the Top application were able to recruit nearly 100 other districts and 200 charter schools to the cause. They failed, however, to persuade their own teachers unions to sign the application. And that lack of union participation will likely doom the state’s already iffy odds of winning a piece of the $3.4 billion that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has dangled for states in exchange for committing to an agenda of school reforms.
Friday was the last day for districts and unions to sign a memorandum of understanding. Of the half-dozen unified districts that formed the working group for Race to the Top, only unions in Fresno and Sanger, a small rural district, signed on. The big ones – in Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Clovis – in the end said no. Of the 43 unions that signed, about half represented teachers in charter schools.
(Read more and comment on this post)

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)

Quick Takes: Student Affairs Group Moves Meeting From Arizona - Inside Higher Ed

Quick Takes: Student Affairs Group Moves Meeting From Arizona - Inside Higher Ed

Student Affairs Group Moves Meeting From Arizona

Many higher education groups have been condemning the new Arizona immigration law and vowing to boycott the state. But many of those associations don't have anything currently scheduled in Arizona. One group that does is ACPA -- College Student Educators International. It announced Monday that it is moving a January meeting for mid-level managers, currently slated to be in Tucson, to a yet-to-be-determined location outside the state. Holding a meeting in a state "that could potentially create an atmosphere of exclusion, harassment, or an unwelcome environment for an ACPA member ... is problematic and goes against our fundamental values of inclusion," said a statement from the association.

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Dual Immersion Academy

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Dual Immersion Academy

Dual Immersion Academy

Parents protest at Salt Lake charter school: Academy's board stands behind administrator, despite parents' allegations. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 7, 2010)


Dual Immersion Academy's board has thrown its support behind a beleaguered administrator who resigned earlier this week amid parents' financial mismanagement allegations.
At a meeting Friday evening, board members voted to reject DIA director Laurencio Peña's Wednesday resignation, saying his contract expires June 30 and they will renegotiate his employment then.
The board passed a resolution expressing support for Peña, who denied he has mismanaged the public charter school's budget.
Parents' statements about the school's budget are "exaggeration


Village Learning Center Public Charter School


Quincy teachers vote to defer 4 percent raise till next ye Education news - Boston Globe - MCAS results - latest education news - Boston.com

Education news - Boston Globe - MCAS results - latest education news - Boston.com

GLOBE EDUCATION NEWS

GE chief tells BC graduates ethics, innovation, collaboration count

Boston College graduates got a dose of reality with a hint of promise from General Electric chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt yesterday. (By John M. Guilfoil, Globe Staff)

Neighbors fight school over bid to move church

Neighbors of a historic church in Cambridge are suing Lesley University and the City of Cambridge over new zoning laws that could enable the school to relocate the Art Institute of Boston to the church’s lot in Porter Square. (By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent)

In Walpole, Rebels’ pride still sparks a fight

WALPOLE — Past clapboard houses with white fences, in a tree-filled yard next to the local high school is an unusual sight: a large sign painted to look like a Confederate flag. (By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff)

Quincy teachers vote to defer 4 percent raise till next year

DORCHESTER — Facing the elimination of as many as 200 positions and cuts to programs such as all-day kindergarten and foreign-language instruction, members of the Quincy teachers union voted yesterday evening to defer their 4 percent pay raises until next year. (By Molly A. K. Connors, Globe Correspondent)

Educational publishers take on role as guides to federal grant process

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — If you’re applying for a grant from the Obama administration, be sure to use this phrase,’’ Nancy Updegraff said authoritatively. (By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff)

LATEST EDUCATION NEWS WIRE UPDATES

LATEST K-12 EDUCATION NEWS

Sacramento Press / Mayor wants council to discuss new strong mayor plan in early June

Sacramento Press / Mayor wants council to discuss new strong mayor plan in early June

Mayor wants council to discuss new strong mayor plan in early June



A new "strong mayor" discussion at Sacramento City Hall may be just around the corner.
Mayor Kevin Johnson’s office wants to present the draft of a new strong mayor proposal to the City Council in early June, Johnson staffer Kunal Merchant said Monday night.
Johnson’s office is aiming for a City Council vote on the proposal in mid-July, Merchant said at a town hall meeting on the proposal.
The proposal’s backers hope to gain City Council approval in mid-July in order to place the plan on the November ballot.
A draft of the proposal has not been completed. At this point, the plan is an outline which can be read at the campaign’s new website.

Rhee urges top school officials to get political, find supporters

School district superintendents should find ways to gain political support from community members, according to Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
At a Sacramento Press Club luncheon Monday, Rhee urged the city’s businesspeople, media professionals and politicians to back Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond in his efforts.
These groups should “give this man some cover,” Rhee said.
Superintendents are not elected to their positions, but they can benefit from making alliances with groups, she said.
“When you are a superintendent and you want to do bold things that might not be popular, you have to have some political capital," she said.
Rhee, who is engaged to Mayor Kevin Johnson, gave the example of layoffs she made last fall. She said that because of a budget crunch, she laid off 266 teachers.

Small Stockton teachers college is all about education innov Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

A small college in Stockton is an unlikely hotbed of education reform, teaching educators the latest skills promoted by President Barack Obama and national experts. In little more than a year, the school's master's program has grown from 64 to 100.
College presidents from the 23 campuses in the California State University system were at the Capitol on Monday, lobbying for their share of the state budget.

MIchelle Rhee speaks at Press Club event.
Controversial education reformer Michelle Rhee spoke at a Sacramento Press Club event Monday, where she said California schools face an uphill battle without mayoral control.
College presidents from the 23 campuses in the California State University system are in the Capitol today, lobbying for their share of the state budget.

1W24MAYOR
Before he was mayor of Sacramento, former NBA player Kevin Johnson was a star in the national charter school movement.

7M23GRADS
Graduation day tends to be a family affair, and Saturday's ceremony at Arco Arena for California State University, Sacramento, was no exception.


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/education/#ixzz0owV9ISm2