Rise & Shine: Major math errors get partial credit on state tests | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Major math errors get partial credit on state tests | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Major math errors get partial credit on state tests

by Philissa Cramer

• Micah Lasher, Bloomberg’s chief negotiator, turned down his job three times to stay at the DOE. (Times)
• Grading guides for the state math test give partial credit for major arithmetic errors. (Post)
• Sentiment is growing for Orthodox Jewish schools to accept more children with special needs. (NY1)
• A $600 million federal health care budget cut could put teacher layoffs back on the table. (Daily News)
• Some of the politicians who oppose charter schools are trying to help a private school. (Post)
• Parents at three Manhattan schools aided by a space-sharing plan say fighting back works. (NY1)
• The Daily News is worried that despite legislative changes, New York still won’t win Race to the Top.
• The Post praises N.J. Gov. Chris Christie for reneging on the state’s deal with the its teachers union.
• High schools are suffering nationally as they eliminate many non-essential programs. (USA Today)
• Bay Area educators led the fight in California against the Race to the Top competition. (Times)
• Jay Mathews says D.C.’s new contract clears the way for teachers’s creativity. (Washington Post)

Still no trace of Kyron Horman as police, FBI conclude third day of search | OregonLive.com

Still no trace of Kyron Horman as police, FBI conclude third day of search | OregonLive.com

Still no trace of Kyron Horman as police, FBI conclude third day of search

By The Oregonian

June 06, 2010, 10:00PM

View full sizeANDREW BURTON/THE OREGONIANMike Allen of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team looks over a private property Sunday in the Cornelius Pass area northwest of Portland as part of the search for Kyron Horman, 7, a second-grader at Skyline School.
BY NOELLE CROMBIE, KIMBERLY A.C. WILSON and STUART TOMLINSON

The investigation into the disappearance of Kyron Horman, the bespectacled 7-year-old last seen inside Skyline School on Friday morning, stretches into a fourth day today with the boy's whereabouts still a mystery.

Sunday, as Kyron's family ordered fliers carrying the boy's description and smiling face, authorities continued investigating his disappearance, calling in more than 65 detectives from various police agencies and nearly 60 trained searchers.

"Our basic mission is to bring Kyron home," said Lt. Mary Lindstrand, a spokeswoman for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

Late Sunday, Multnomah County Sheriff Daniel Staton issued a status report and raised the case level to increase public interest and focus. He said additional searches and interviews are planned, but he declined to discuss strategy or specifics of the investigation.

“Given the passage of time and the weather, we are characterizing this case as a missing endangered child,” he said.

Hundreds of Skyline students and their parents streamed into the school throughout the day for interviews with investigators, who wanted to know whether students spotted anything unusual at school Friday.

Kyron Horman

The Oregonian's continuing coverage of missing second-grader Kyron Horman.

Police remain stymied as to what happened to the second-grader, described by his grandmother as dreamy, sweet and a bit timid. His stepmother said she last saw him at 8:45 a.m. Friday. She watched him walk toward his classroom after the pair toured the school's science fair.

During police interviews Sunday, a student said he last saw Kyron later that morning near the south entrance to the school. That was the last time the boy was seen, Staton said.

At some point that morning, Kyron's teacher, Kristina Porter, marked the

Colleges Extend the Welcome Mat to Students’ Pets Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

Colleges Extend the Welcome Mat to Students’ Pets

By JACQUES STEINBERG

In an increasingly competitive recruiting market for top students, becoming pet-friendly is another way for a college to differentiate itself.

• The Choice: Pets in Dorms Q & A

Facing Cuts in Federal Aid, For-Profit Colleges Are in a Fight

By TAMAR LEWIN

The U.S. will soon propose regulations that would cut off federal aid to for-profit colleges whose graduates cannot earn enough to repay their student loans.

Educators Are Opposed to Obama’s School Plan

By GERRY SHIH

Clashes over a new bid for millions of dollars in federal education money have resulted in a weakened bid that the government could well reject.

With Diplomas in Hand, but Without Legal Status

By FERNANDA SANTOS

The many members of the Queensborough Community College Class of 2010 who are living in the United States illegally have concerns over their prospects.

Paul Garabedian, Mathematician at N.Y.U., Dies at 82

By KENNETH CHANG

Computer computations by Dr. Garabedian, a longtime New York University professor, helped lead to fuel-efficient wings for modern jetliners.

Sotomayor Making Good on a Commitment to a Scrappy College With a Family Tie

By LISA W. FODERARO

The justice was to have visited last year, but her nomination to the Supreme Court meant a change in plans.

Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools

By CAROL POGASH

Virtual charter schools are part of an expanding network but their rapid growth is accompanied by a number of unanswered questions.

Wal-Mart to Offer Its Workers a College Program

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM

The retailer is joining with a Web-based university to give employees tuition reductions and credits from work.

• Read Comments (86)

States Receive a Reading List: New Standards for Education

By SAM DILLON

The nation’s governors and state school chiefs released final recommendations for what students should master in English and math.

New N.Y. Schools Face Extra Pain From Layoffs

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Union contracts require layoffs to be by seniority, especially burdening the city’s new, small schools and their typically young, recently hired staffs.

The Educated Guess Skeptics named to common-core commission

The Educated Guess

Skeptics named to common-core commission

Tags: Academic Content Standards Commission, Bill Evers, Greg Greeting, Ze'ev Wurman

Posted in Common Core standards

Two men who helped craft the state’s math standards in 1997 and have been critical of the effort to create national common-core standards in math and English language arts are among the 11 individuals named by Gov. Schwarzenegger to a commission to evaluate them.
With the nominations Friday of Ze’ev Wurman and Bill Evers, both of whom served in the Department of Education under President George W. Bush, and nine others, the roster of the 21-member Academic Content Standards Commission is complete. But by the time the commission holds its first meeting, on Thursday, June 17, it will have less than a month before it must report its findings to the State Board of Education. That’s little time in which to cram a lot of work, with little professional help to get it done.
(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on June 6th, 2010

Learning algebra on the fly

Posted in Uncategorized

The 20 sixth graders who are going to take pre-algebra summer school later this month discovered for themselves that solving algebraic equations in your head – specifically involving distance-rate-time variables – can mean the difference between life and death at 30,000 feet.
The students from the ACE Charter School in Alum Rock, a low-income neighborhood in San Jose, were at the helm last week of an FAA’s flight control simulator, guiding in planes on flight paths that put their sense of proportion to work.
(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on June 6th, 2010

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: U.S. “Fethullahci” charter schools

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: U.S. “Fethullahci” charter schools

U.S. “Fethullahci” charter schools

by The Perimeter Primate

This is a list of 97 publicly-funded charter schools which are likely to be missionary schools started by followers of Fetullah Gülen, a controversial Turkish imam currently living in Pennsylvania. The operation of these schools is discreet and amorphous. There is no formal, visible umbrella organization that officially links them together in the way that is typical with very large EMOs like Imagine, White Hat, or KIPP.

As you search through the content on the schools’ Web sites, you will notice there are extremely strong visual similarities with a subset of these supposedly-unrelated schools on their Web site designs and school logos (intersecting ellipses).Most importantly, the Gülen-connected schools always share the same following characteristics:

• Emphasis on math, science, computers and robotics

The Perimeter Primate: The U.S. “Fethullahci” schools, sometimes locally known as Turkish-run charter schools

The Perimeter Primate: The U.S. “Fethullahci” schools, sometimes locally known as Turkish-run charter schools

The U.S. “Fethullahci” schools, sometimes locally known as Turkish-run charter schools

by The Perimeter Primate

This is a list of 97 publicly-funded charter schools which are likely to be missionary schools started by followers of Fetullah Gülen, a controversial Turkish imam currently living in Pennsylvania. The operation of these schools is discreet and amorphous. There is no formal, visible umbrella organization that officially links them together in the way that is typical with very large EMOs like Imagine, White Hat, or KIPP.

As you search through the content on the schools’ Web sites, you will notice there are extremely strong visual similarities with a subset of these supposedly-unrelated schools on their Web site designs and school logos (intersecting ellipses).Most importantly, the Gülen-connected schools always share the same following

Blog U.: Wal-Mart University? Really? - Confessions of a Community College Dean - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: Wal-Mart University? Really? - Confessions of a Community College Dean - Inside Higher Ed

• 
• 
• 

• 
  

  Wal-Mart University? Really?

  By Dean Dad June 6, 2010 9:36 pm
  
  I take a week off from blogging, and Wal-Mart announces that it's entering higher education! I can't leave you people alone for one minute...
  Anyway, it appears that Wal-Mart is entering into an agreement with the American Public University system -- which is for-profit, not public -- to offer its employees a group rate on any of several online degrees. Wal-Mart has a history of hiring from within, but many of its front-line staff don't have the educational background to move up, so this is a way for the company to grow its own.
  A little quick research revealed that American Public University is an entirely online operation with a history of specializing in serving military personnel. (The system is comprised of American Military University and American Public University.) That may explain why its "arts and humanities" offerings include "air warfare" and "civil war studies" but not, say, poli sci. It's regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, which is the same agency that accredits the University of Michigan and Northwestern. (It's also the agency that accredits the University of Phoenix and DeVry.) As such, it's eligible for Federal financial aid, and its students will have a legitimate expectation of transfer credit, should they try.
  This is a bit of an inkblot test for commenters, so without tipping my hand overly much, a few opening thoughts.
  - Even with the discount, the cost to the student for an Associate's degree is still higher than

Portland Superintendent Carole Smith adds security, orders dialer for Skyline School | OregonLive.com

Portland Superintendent Carole Smith adds security, orders dialer for Skyline School | OregonLive.com

Portland Superintendent Carole Smith adds security, orders dialer for Skyline School

By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian

June 06, 2010, 6:24PM

Kyron Horman

The Oregonian's continuing coverage of missing second-grader Kyron Horman.

In response to Kyron Horman's Friday disappearance from Skyline School, all K-8 schools within Portland Public Schools will start using automated dialer systems to notify parents when students are absent without preapproval, Superintendent Carole Smith announced Sunday.

She also said two additional school resource officers would be assigned to help monitor Skyline's security starting today.

Until now, Skyline School officials did not generally call home concerning absences, said Portland schools spokesman Matt Shelby.

"It's a really small school," Shelby said. "They know their students and usually they know the reason for the absence."

Personal calls for parental notification will be used until the automated system is in place at Skyline, which will likely take about a week, Smith said.

Currently, 37 out of 57 elementary and K-8 schools in the district use the dialing system, which is already in use at all of the district's middle and high schools.

Shelby said the automated dialer system was first primarily used for truancy, which typically is not a significant problem at elementary and K-8 schools.

During a briefing across the road from Skyline School, which is in hilly, unincorporated Multnomah County about 16 miles west of downtown

Philanthrocapitalism: after the goldrush | openDemocracy

Philanthrocapitalism: after the goldrush | openDemocracy

Philanthrocapitalism: after the goldrush

Michael Edwards, 20 March 2008

Subjects:

• globalisation
• Philanthropy
• visions & reflections

The application of business principles to the world of civil society and social change has fashion, wealth, power and celebrity behind it. But where is the evidence that "philanthrocapitalism" works, and are there better ways to achieve urgently needed global social progress? It's time to end the hype and start the debate, says Michael Edwards

(This article was first published on 19 March 2008)

About the author

Michael Edwards is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, in New York, and the author of Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World. He was formerly a director at the Ford Foundation. His website is www.futurepositive.org

It's indisputable that something genuinely important is stirring in the world of philanthropy - a movement to harness the power of business and the market to the goals of social change, what Matthew Bishop calls "philanthrocapitalism".

There is justifiable excitement about the possibilities for progress in global health, agriculture and access to micro-credit among the poor that have been stimulated by huge investments from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative and others. Philanthrocapitalism should certainly help to extend access to useful goods and services, and it has a positive role to play in strengthening important areas of civil-society capacity. These are surely good things, so why have I written a book -Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism(Demos/Young Foundation, March 2008) - that challenges the increasing influence

Blog U.: Learning Technologists and Campus Conversations - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: Learning Technologists and Campus Conversations - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

• 
• 
• 

• 
  

  Learning Technologists and Campus Conversations

  By Joshua Kim June 6, 2010 8:52 pm
  
  '"The idea of a "senior learning technologist" telling faculty that their syllabi should be made freely available is laughable."
  --Posted by DrRingDing on June 3, 2010 at 11:30am EDT in a comment to my blog.
  On this point, DrRingDing and I are in full agreement. Nobody should "tell" faculty how to do anything. The vast majority of the faculty that I work with are incredibly dedicated and passionate about teaching and their discipline. One of the positives of the long academic apprenticeship is that most of the faculty colleagues that I work with have extraordinary teaching experience - they have their 10,000 hours. I always learn more from my faculty colleagues than I could possibly offer them about teaching.
  The idea that learning technologists "tell" faculty members anything completely mischaracterizes our relationship. Our goal is to find opportunities to have conversations with faculty to understand how we can work with them to solve their teaching needs. It is often the case that a specific methodology or technology can relieve a teaching pain point, allowing the faculty member more time and resources for their course design and teaching efforts.

Robert Healy, longtime Globe reporter, editor dies - Boston.com

Robert Healy, longtime Globe reporter, editor dies - Boston.com

Robert Healy, longtime Globe reporter, editor dies

June 6, 2010

• E-mail|
• Print|
• Yahoo! Buzz|
• ShareThis

Text size – +

BOSTON—The Boston Globe says Robert L. Healy, a longtime reporter and editor who is credited with kicking the gun from the hand of Sirhan Sirhan, Sen. Robert Kennedy's assassin, has died of a stroke at his home in Jupiter, Fla. He was 84.

	Discuss
	COMMENTS (0)

Healy, who died Saturday, was executive editor, the news operation's second-highest post, Washington bureau chief, political editor and columnist.

The Globe says Healy was the last reporter to speak to Kennedy the night of his death in June 1968 and that he kicked the gun from Sirhan after the assassin was wrestled to the floor of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

During World War II, Healy served in the Army Air Corps and flew in bombing missions over Germany.