Friday, June 4, 2010

Secretary Duncan Visits Durham to Highlight Role of HBCUs, Reiterate Call to Save Education Jobs – ED.gov Blog

Secretary Duncan Visits Durham to Highlight Role of HBCUs, Reiterate Call to Save Education Jobs

Yesterday Secretary Duncan travelled to Durham, North Carolina, where he spoke at North Carolina Central University’s Setting the Agenda for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Symposium and visited Southern High School for a panel discussion on saving teachers jobs.
In his remarks, Secretary Duncan praised North Carolina’s HBCUs for their successful efforts to elevate access to higher education and raise academic standards, noting their study abroad programs, self-evaluative research, and smooth transition to Direct Lending. He also emphasized the need for stronger teacher preparation and a greater commitment to raising college completion rates, stressing the lack of black male teachers and the high dropout rate among minority students.

Dr. John Wilson, Jr., Executive Director for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, joined Secretary Duncan at the meeting with hundreds of representatives of HBCUs and affiliates at the Symposium.
Secretary Duncan then headed to Southern High School, where he talked with students, congratulating them on their upcoming graduation and encouraging them to pursue their personal passion. He participated in a panel discussion with Governor Bev Perdue, Congressman Bob Etheridge, and Durham County School Board Chairwoman Minnie Forte-Brown about the threat of education job losses and the negative impact on academic progress. Duncan called on Congress to act quickly on a $23 billion bill to prevent education job cuts, drawing attention to the potential 10,000 education jobs the bill could support in North Carolina.
“Without these funds, teachers could lose jobs, schools may have to cancel summer programs, end vital extracurricular courses like gym, art, drama and decrease the time our kids spend in school,” said Secretary Duncan. “We can’t afford to take a step back. This has to happen now.”

During the panel, Duncan also commended North Carolina for their efforts to raise their academic standards. Local morning headlines announced the State Board of Education’s Wednesday meeting where members planned to adopt common standards for math and English for public school children. The state’s adoption is part of an almost year-long initiative lead by the National Governors Association where 48 states came together to pursue high common education standards.
Liz Utrup
Office of Communications and Outreach

Secretary Duncan addresses the HBCU Symposium in Durham NC

Governor Bev Purdue greets Secretary Duncan at Southern High School in Durham, NC

Bill McNeal, executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators, asks questions at the Jobs Event at Southern High School in Durham, NC

ED Global Engagement Update

“All of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century.”
One year ago today, President Obama delivered a speech in Cairo titled “A New Beginning.” The President reminded us in his remarks that “change cannot happen overnight” and that while much anticipated, it was only a speech. But here at the Department of Education, the President’s words catalyzed much change in the past year.
Secretary Duncan has led ED in active engagement with the Muslim world at home and abroad. Senior ED officials have traveled to Morocco, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia this year. Secretary Duncan blogged at for the White House about a video conference he held with students from Washington DC and Jordan and led a panel on youth entrepreneurship with colleagues from Pakistan, Indonesia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. Secretary Duncan has met with Ministers of Education from around the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Last June, ED’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education joined the State Department and U.S. AID in hosting a conference on community and technical colleges in Amman, Jordan. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Pakistan, and Jordan are among the countries working with U.S. institutions to connect education and workforce development in high-tech, high-demand fields. ED collaborated with State to launch a small grants program to support institutional partnerships between US community colleges and technical colleges in the BMENA region, which was announced by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as part of a portfolio of programs designed to improve educational and economic opportunities in Muslim-majority nations.
The Cooperative Civic Education and Economic Education Exchange Program provides grants to improve the quality of civic and economic education through cooperative exchange programs with emerging democracies. Currently, there are CCEEEEP-funded projects in Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Uzbekistan.

ED has supported engagement with the Muslim world for many years and often decades through programs and exchanges. ED’s National Resource Centers, Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad, Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad, Centers for International Business Education, Foreign Language and Area Studies, Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, Americans Overseas Research Centers, Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program, Business and International Education and Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access are all opportunities for global engagement. These grants can support projects that develop, maintain, or enhance linkages with overseas institutions of higher education or other educational organizations in areas with substantial Muslim populations in order to improve understanding of these societies and provide for greater engagement with institutions in these areas. Or they send students, teachers and faculty overseas for language instruction, group research or study, and other purposes. These grants support foreign language instruction in the US and business education abroad. This year, these programs supported engagement with Muslim majority countries across the globe.
ED’s Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnership has reached out to Muslim communities in the U.S. in a variety of ways, including visits with Muslim students, parents and faith leaders from California to Illinois, Arkansas to Washington DC.
“We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning.”
Here at the Department of Education, we have tried to use the power that we have to make a new beginning for young people in the United States and across the world. This is the President’s challenge, and we will continue to work toward the vision he expressed in Cairo.
Lauren Lowenstein
Office of the Secretary

Op-Ed Columnist - Race to Sanity - NYTimes.com

Race to Sanity

By DAVID BROOKS

Published: June 3, 2010

REPRINTS

Sometimes it seems as if we’re doomed to fight a new culture war between orthodox liberals who have lavish faith in the power of government and orthodox conservatives who have almost no faith at all.

David Brooks

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But occasionally a politician comes along with a more measured vision of a limited but energetic government. Recently, for example, I read a speech by a politician who gave examples of both when government had failed (the old welfare system) and when it had succeeded (the railroad legislation under Lincoln, the bank reforms under F.D.R. and the highway system under Eisenhower). “Our government shouldn’t try to guarantee results,” this politician said, “but it should guarantee a shot at opportunity for every American who’s willing to work hard.”

That sentence struck me as a pretty good foundation for a political philosophy. It was delivered by President Obama at the University of Michigan commencement last month.

Obama administration policies haven’t always hewed to this limited but energetic approach. But there is one area where they sure have: education. The Obama approach to education could serve as a model for anybody who wants to build a center-out governing majority.

Over the past decades, federal education policy has veered between the incredibly intrusive to the appallingly supine. The Obama administration, however, has used federal power to incite reform, without dictating it from the top.

First, Obama and the education secretary, Arne Duncan, set up a contest. They put down $4.5 billion in Race to the Top money. They issued some general guidelines about what kind of reforms states would have to adopt to get the money. And then they fired the starting gun.

Reformers in at least 23 states have passed reform laws in hopes of getting some of the dough. Some of the state laws represent incremental progress and some represent

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Gulen Movement concerns

Sonoran Science Academy - Tucson

In December 2009, concerns arose about this charter school having possible links to Turkish nationalism and the Gülen Movement. The nearly 90 schools associated with this movement have appeared in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New , Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.

The Sonoran Science Academy (SSA) - Tucson is operated by the Daisy Educational Corporation, a non-profit which operates one daycare (Daisy Early Learning Academy in Tucson) and five other charter schools in Arizona: SSA-Phoenix, SSA-Broadway campus (Tucson), SSA-Ahwatukee (a Phoenix neighborhood), SSA-Davis Monthan, and Paragon Science Academy (Chandler, a Phoenix suburb).

The SSA-Davis Monthan school is the first charter school to be opened on a U.S. Air Force base and is on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near

Beehive Science & Technology Academy
Local concerns arose about this charter school having possible links to Turkish nationalism and the Gülen Movement. The nearly 90 schoolsassociated with this movement have appeared in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New , Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
UTAH CHARTER SCHOOL'S TIES TO TURKEY DRAW SCRUTINY: COMPLAINTS ABOUT BEEHIVE ACADEMY'S HIRING AND FINANCES PROMPT INVESTIGATION, first published July 17, 2009, updated November 12, 2009, The Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
When Principal Muhammet "Frank" Erdogan stocked the school library shelves, he agonized over whether to include the Koran alongside the Bible and other religious texts.
"I don't have the luxury to make a mistake here. I have to be careful all the time," Erdogan said of his by-the-book efforts to build Beehive

A generation of poorly prepared students? | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

A generation of poorly prepared students?

BY EARL C. RICKMAN III

Single-page view

Each year, thousands of bright-eyed kindergarteners enter our public schools in Michigan, eager to take on new experiences. It is my job as a school board member to see that their dreams and hopes are nurtured and cultivated and that their spirit for learning does not waver.

This year, I am more concerned than ever about their future.

My fellow board members and others across the nation are now in the final stages of crafting our budgets for 2010-11, and it’s been one of the toughest years I’ve seen in my more than 25 years as a school board member. It’s especially true in Michigan, where we’ve had years of trimming that has left us with no fat and mere bare-bones budgets. This year, any cuts we make will impact classroom instruction and, ultimately, academic achievement.

Over the past two years, about 6,500 teachers in Michigan schools have lost their jobs. This year more jobs are at risk. In a recent survey, 96% of Michigan school officials said they anticipated layoffs or job cuts. Nationally, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan estimates that 300,000 educators could lose their jobs.

Whether we ask our most experienced teachers to retire or let go of some of our young, bright, most enthusiastic teachers, our children will suffer. Their classes will become more crowded, and courses such as advanced placement, art, band, orchestra and vocational training are most likely to be eliminated.

The teachers who remain will have less time for individualized instruction and their own professional development – both of which are central to closing achievement gaps and preparing our students for college and careers. These severe budget cuts come at a time when our economy is demanding more 21st Century skills and a postsecondary education to achieve and sustain a globally competitive workforce and individuals’ quality of life.

Is this how we want to prepare our next generation?

Biggest US cloud deployment kills Google Apps for Education | ZDNet

Biggest US cloud deployment kills Google Apps for Education

By Zack Whittaker | June 4, 2010, 7:57am PDT

Summary

The state of Kentucky has rolled out Microsoft's Live@edu service across 700,000 staff and students in a single weekend, the quickest and largest cloud deployment in US history.

Topics

Education, Google Inc.,Google Apps, Microsoft Corp., Cloud Computing, Zack Whittaker

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Zack Whittaker

In what is expected to be the largest cloud deployment in the United States, Microsoft’s Live@edu service has been rolled out to over 700,000 students and staff in Kentucky, the state education department for education has confirmed via Microsoft.

This is the pinnacle point in a series of high profile anti-Google Apps moves which could be a turning point in the company’s offering of their Live@edu competing service.

The migration from their old Exchange 2003 on-site service to cloud-accessed Exchange 2010 has also been one of the quickest deployments ever seen, with over half a million accounts being migrated over in a single weekend. There is no doubt that the deployment was assisted by existing Microsoft technologies which would have made the transition smoother.

Live@edu now reaches over 11 million people worldwide in 10,000 schools, across 130 countries.

Google anounced recently that their instant-communication Twitter-like tool Wave was rolled out to Google Apps for Education users, as well as a highly anticipated migration tool to assist switching from Outlook to Gmail. However this does not seem to have had any immediate impact

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