Tuesday, June 15, 2010

DPS petition tactics decried | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

DPS petition tactics decried | freep.com | Detroit Free Press:

DPS petition tactics decried

Bid for Bing control called misleading

BY LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER

Groups opposed to an attempt to allow the mayor of Detroit to oversee Detroit PublicSchools said Monday that those gathering petitions in favor of the effort are being misleading in their approach.

"This whole endeavor has been a fraud from start to finish," said Shanta Driver, national chairwoman of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), an activist group.

It is unclear who is heading the petition drive to allow Detroit residents to vote on the issue this year. But Driver said residents are being coerced into signing the petitions by people telling them that the effort will keep Detroit schools open or that the move is supported by a school board member.

BAMN; AFSCME Local 207; Defend Public Education/Save our Students, a caucus of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, and the Detroit Board of Education held a news conference Monday in which Driver pledged to combat the alleged deceptive practices by challenging the petitions and ensuring that people who believe they were misled can have their names removed from the petitions.

Driver said the petition seekers are lying to Detroit residents because they know Detroit

Database: Top to Bottom School Rankings

BY KRISTI TANNER-WHITE AND PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Search this database to find statewide achievement and academic growth rankings among Michigan schools. Rankings are based on test results for math and English language arts on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) for elementary/middle school students and the Michigan Merit Examination (MME) for high school students 2007-2009. The ranking gives the percentage of schools in the state that had lower achievement/improvement.

Among the 108 schools eligible to apply for federal School Improvement grants, rankings ranged from the bottom 0.1% - 12.9%, with two exceptions. Kettering West Wing and Cooley North Wing, high schools in the Detroit Public Schools district, had rankings of 99.9%. A graduation rate of less than 60% for three years running qualified them as grant eligible schools.

The state Department of Education will have a revised list out in September, based on 2008-2010 data, of the lowest performing 5% of schools.

More teachers could be cut without "BP bill" | NBC13.com

More teachers could be cut without “BP bill”

Jefferson County, Ala.(WVTM)—-Last week, State Superintendent Dr. Joseph Morton made that pronouncement and this week he is taking that message to national audiences on national networks.

If BP doesn’t reimburse the State Education Department for lost revenues, more cuts may be on the horizon. That’s according to the head of the largest school district in Central Alabama.

Jefferson County School Superintendent, Dr. Phil Hammonds said, “As bad as things have been, this was the last thing we needed.“

Dr. Hammonds reference to “this” - is the oil spill off the gulf coast. It’s having a negative effect on tourism, sending sales tax collections way down for the state. That bottom line will hurt school districts, due to the way public education is funded in Alabama.

Dr. Hammonds said, “If people are going to not be employed because of people not spending money that then that hurts two of our major sources of funding for public education.“

Ten different taxes support the Education Trust Fund or ETF. Sales and income taxes are the two main sources. With just 3-1/2 months left in this fiscal year, if there aren’t enough taxes collected to fund education that poses the risk of further across the board budget cuts or what’s called

Christie's school-aid freeze was legal, court says | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/15/2010

Christie's school-aid freeze was legal, court says

By Adrienne Lu

Inquirer Trenton Bureau

TRENTON - Gov. Christie acted within his authority when he froze $475 million in state aid to schools to close a $2.2 billion budget deficit, a state appellate court ruled Monday.
The Perth Amboy Board of Education lost more than $15 million as a result of Christie's order to withhold state funding for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Christie directed the state to withhold an amount equal to the "excess surplus" for each school district.
Excess surplus is defined as surplus exceeding 2 percent of a district's operating budget; by law, districts are supposed to use their excess surplus to provide tax relief.
Christie said that because he cut aid the way he did, no programs would have to be cut in the current fiscal year.
Perth Amboy officials argued that Christie violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers because under the state statutes, excess surplus is to be appropriated to the school district's subsequent fiscal year's budget.
The three-judge panel ruled that under state law, the state education commissioner "is granted broad powers to direct expenditures to meet [thorough and efficient] requirements as well as to address emergency circumstances."
"The Legislature clearly contemplated that situations may arise whereby a district will need to use its excess surplus for matters other than the next year's operating budget," the opinion continues. "In such cases . . . the commissioner has the power to approve the transfer of those funds to operating costs for the current school year to ensure that a school district provides a [thorough and efficient] education."

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100615_Christie_s_school-aid_freeze_was_legal__court_says.html#ixzz0qvM2pRpx
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The Associated Press: Microsoft's Philly high school traveled rocky road

Microsoft's Philly high school traveled rocky road

By KATHY MATHESON (AP) – 1 hour ago

PHILADELPHIA — When the Microsoft-designed School of the Future opened, the facility was a paragon of contemporary architecture, with a green roof, light-filled corridors and the latest classroom technology, all housed in a dazzling white modern building.

It might as well have been a fishbowl: Educators and the media from around the world watched to see whether Microsoft could reform public education through innovation in technology.

Although the school's creative ambitions have been frustrated by high principal turnover, curriculum tensions and a student body unfamiliar with laptop computer culture, the school graduates its first senior class Tuesday with every graduate headed for an institution of higher learning.

"The first three years were definitely a challenge," said Mary Cullinane, Microsoft's liaison to the school. "They're hitting they're groove now. I'm excited to see what's in store."

From the beginning, everything about the $63 million School of the Future was designed to be different.

Built in the city's rough Parkside section with district money, the school partnered with Microsoft on new approaches to curriculum, instruction and hiring. It attracted reform-minded teachers and students bent on avoiding older high schools.

The vision was for a paperless, textbook-less school that embodied the motto "Continuous,

PhillyInc: Study: More jobs will require higher education | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/15/2010

PhillyInc: Study: More jobs will require higher education

By Mike Armstrong

Between 2008 and 2018, employment is expected to increase by 15.3 million, according to projections by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Coming after a recession that destroyed 8 million jobs, that sounds encouraging.
But a different forecast being released Tuesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that there is a growing disconnect between the types of jobs that employers must fill and the number of Americans with the education and training to do them.
Georgetown researchers project that 63 percent of all jobs will require at least some postsecondary education. In all, employers will need 22 million new workers with associate's degrees or higher. Unfortunately, that's about 3 million more than the report indicates the United States is expected to produce.
In an interview, Jeff Strohl, director of research at the Center on Education and the Workforce, said the new analysis confirms that "we're moving away from our grandfather's high school-

“Top 10 Places To Find Alien Life” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Top 10 Places To Find Alien Life” “Top 10 Places To Find Alien Life” is a slideshow from Discovery News. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Possible Life On Other Planets.

Excellent Video On Making & Using Word Clouds Russell Stannard from Teacher Training Videos has just made a “how to” video on creating and using different Word Cloud generators. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About “Word Clouds.”

More On The World Cup Here are the latest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The World Cup: Breaking News English has new daily lessons on the World Cup. Castrol has a pretty wild-looking site on the World Cup. Check it out. The Denver Post is posting a ...

The Educated Guess � No relief for CSU students: higher fees coming

No relief for CSU students: higher fees coming

Posted in Advocacy organizations, UC and CSU

California State University fees are about to increase again. On Friday, CSU trustees will decide whether it’s 10 percent or only 5 percent now with the possibility of at least another 5 percent in November.
False optimism may steer trustees toward the easier-to-swallow 5 percent increase. But prudence calls for 10 percent, however upsetting that will be for students and their families. And many will be angry.

The 23-campus system has been reeling as a result of budget cuts of $625 million – 21 percent – over the past three years. Despite a 32 percent increase in fees, course sections have been eliminated, class sizes expanded, and faculty members were forced to take 18 furlough days.
Without a 10 percent fee increase now, there will be more of the same – or worse next year.
Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing to restore $305 million, but his overall budget assumes the 10 percent CSU fee increase, no other taxes and painful cuts to social services. The Senate budget plan assumes the 10 percent fee increase and higher taxes without naming them.
That leaves the Assembly Democrats’ budget plan, which would match a 5 percent fee increase with additional state money. That’s appealing, but dicey. First, it’s

Foster Kids Find Success At Philly Charter School : NPR

Foster Kids Find Success At Philly Charter School

by ELIZABETH FIEDLER

Listen to the Story

Morning Edition

[3 min 29 sec]

text size A A A

June 15, 2010 from WHYY

In Philadelphia Tuesday, ten students will graduate from the nation's only charter high school designed specifically to serve children in foster care. All of this year's graduates at Arise Academy will go on to college.

Federal Reminder on File Sharing Quick Takes: June 15, 2010 - Inside Higher Ed

Quick Takes: June 15, 2010 - Inside Higher Ed:

Federal Reminder on File Sharing

The U.S. Department of Education has written a letter notifying colleges that the copyright provisions attached last fall to the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 will take effect in July. The provisions, meant to help curb illegal sharing of copyrighted material such as music files on campus networks, require institutions to educate their students on what constitutes illegal sharing; deter them from engaging in such sharing; and develop plans to “offer alternatives to illegal downloading.”

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Daily Spotlight on Education 06/15/2010

Daily Spotlight on Education 06/15/2010

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

Collaborative Research Project
Online collaborative research project by Dr. Leigh Zeitz with his masters students. Great sample for those looking for examples of this type of project at the masters level.
tags: education, web2.0, worldonline
flatclassroom10-2 - Rubrics
These are the revised wiki rubrics that I highly recommend using. They are on Flat Classroom 10-2.

Catholic University names BC law dean as president 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

Catholic University names BC law dean as president

WASHINGTON — John H. Garvey, a Boston College Law School dean with a long record of scholarship on some of the most divisive issues in the Catholic Church, will be named president of the Catholic University of America today. . (By Daniel de Vise, Washington Post)

Cherie Jimenez has turned her life around from drugs, prostitution, and abusive relationships and is helping other women to do it, too.

A lot of people knew Cherie Jimenez in the 1970s. They just didn’t all know about each other. (By Linda Matchan, Globe Staff)

Students at Flag Day celebration reflect on meaning of Stars & Stripes

While political pundits speculate whether the country seems more divided than ever these days, Isabel Basow answers this seemingly complicated question with a simple metaphor. (By Alex Katz, Globe Correspondent)

Salem plans Horace Mann charter high school

Salem is preparing to seek state approval to open its own charter school even as organizers of the Road to Success Charter High School ready a revised plan for a charter school serving Lynn and Salem. (By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent)

Metco students, parents upset by school cutbacks

School officials in Lincoln and Sudbury voted last week to merge two of their three Metco programs, a cost-saving measure that has angered Boston students and parents who say they were excluded from the process and are worried about the future of the program. (By James O’Brien, Globe Correspondent)

LATEST EDUCATION NEWS WIRE UPDATES

APME president to join Memphis university faculty (AP, 6/14/10)
Court will wait to hear Conn. graduation appeal (AP, 6/14/10)
Conn. graduation appeal won't be heard beforehand(AP, 6/14/10)
William Mitchell, former MIT dean, dies at 65 (AP, 6/14/10)
Court upholds NJ governor's 2010 school cuts (AP, 6/14/10)

LATEST K-12 EDUCATION NEWS

Conn. teachers honored with presidential award (AP, 6/13/10)
One-time flagship Philly Catholic school closing (AP, 6/12/10)
In bold move, Colorado alters teacher tenure rules (AP, 6/12/10)
Educator honored for teaching language, confidence(Boston Globe, 6/11/10)
Harvard student says he faces deportation from US (AP, 6/11/10)

Schools Matter: Real Reform

Real Reform

by skrashen

Sent to the Christian Science Monitor, June 14, 2010
Real Reform in Education

The Monitor thinks that our problem in education is not money, because we spend more on education than other industrialized countries ("Teacher Bailout, Teacher Reform," 6/14). (Not quite: According to UNESCO, Norway, France and South Africa spend more per capita than we do).
Not mentioned is the fact that the US has a higher percentage of children in poverty than other industrialized countries (25%, Denmark has 3%). American children from high-income families score at the top of the world on

Rise & Shine: Disproportionately few Hispanics at city charters | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Disproportionately few Hispanics at city charters

by Philissa Cramer

Hispanic students are severely underrepresented at city charter schools. (Times)
Local students sometimes videotape their fistfights and post them on YouTube. (Daily News)
Scholars to Work, a year-old city program, sets students at vocational schools up with real jobs. (NY1)
Guardians aren’t happy that some students at In-Tech Academy were made to clean toilets. (Daily News)
All over the country, schools are cutting the programs that helped them improve. (Wall Street Journal)
Budget cuts and politics don’t bode well for Newark’s teachers union’s negotiations. (Wall Street Journal)
Some New Jersey school districts are having to charge tuition for summer school this year. (AP)
A Philadelphia school designed by Microsoft has taken a while to hit its stride. (AP)

Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, June 15, 2010