Monday, June 28, 2010

Oregon schools consider eliminating programs and restructuring to cover state funding shortfall | OregonLive.com

Oregon schools consider eliminating programs and restructuring to cover state funding shortfall

Published: Sunday, June 27, 2010, 7:35 PM Updated: Sunday, June 27, 2010, 9:45 PM

Kimberly Melton, The Oregonian
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RANDY L. RASMUSSEN / The OregonianPortland Schools superintendent Carole Smith (right), here listening to public testimony in May, has proposed cutting the equivalent of 178 teachers, mostly through reducing high school faculty by 10 percent and eliminating elementary and middle school physical education.

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Skip textbook purchases. Dip into reserves. Keep vacant jobs open. Those are among the first ways that school districts try to trim budgets. But for most Oregon districts, those options have been exhausted.

Now, many school leaders face a third consecutive year of reductions and are planning cuts that will hit the core of Oregon's K-12 education system -- school days, teachers and programs.

The North Clackamas School Districtis lopping 10 days from the 2010-11 school year, and Hillsboro, Forest Grove and Lake Oswego are planning to cut four. Portland Public Schools has proposed program cuts that would eliminate physical education in elementary and middle schools.

From Beaverton and West Linn to Gresham and Oregon City, nearly all Portland metro area districts expect to eliminate staff positions, ranging from 15 in some areas to as many as 180 in others.

Oregon's trends mimic those in about 45 other states, says Mike Griffith, a senior policy analyst at the Education Commission of the States. Nationally, school districts are making deeper cuts

Spirit Mountain Community Fund awards Friends of the Cornelius Public Library grant to promote children's reading programs

Law will protect students from sexual misconduct by school staff

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

School districts cut summertime free lunch programs

By Diana Lambert - Updated: 12:26 am

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? There is. But it's becoming more of a rarity.

Free summer lunch cutbacks list

Engineering students to aid Alcatraz restoration effort

Published: 12:00 am

Five students from California State University, Chico, are spending the summer on Alcatraz Island helping to preserve and repair deteriorated concrete structures, some dating from the 1850s.

Pre-kindergarten camps get Sacramento-area kids ready for school

By Melody Gutierrez - Updated: 2:14 pm

Child development experts say parents should begin preparing their children as early as possible for kindergarten.

UC fumes at publisher over $1 million in extra fees

By Lulu Liu - Published: Sunday, June 27 2010 - 12:00 am

The University of California, long beleaguered by financial woes, has finally lost it over what it calls a 400 percent increase in subscription costs for 2011.

Education Research Report: Healthier Cafeteria Food, More Intense Gym Classes Lower Students' Obesity

Healthier Cafeteria Food, More Intense Gym Classes Lower Students' Obesity

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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Healthier cafeteria choices, longer and more intense periods of physical activity and robust in-school education programs can lower rates of obesity and other risk factors for type 2 diabetes, according to a national study called HEALTHY.

UC Irvine was among eight academic medical centers nationwide chosen to participate in the three-year effort, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, and the American Diabetes Association.

"This is the first-ever study to show you can reduce obesity and other risks for type 2 diabetes in kids and do it in schools with at-risk, high-ethnic-minority populations," said pediatrics professor Dr. Dan M. Cooper, UCI's principal investigator for HEALTHY. "It emphasizes that schools can have a tremendous positive impact on a

First ever Parent University graduates celebrate a year of hard work | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

First ever Parent University graduates celebrate a year of hard work

by Brad Gibson on Jun 27 2010

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“When you have an opportunity to better yourself and your children, take it,” said Nicola Byfield, as she spoke to her fellow graduates of Parent University.

Byfield was one of dozens of parents who attended the first ever graduation ceremony of the Parent University held at District headquarters Thursday night.

The ceremony honored parents who attended and completed courses throughout the past year with a certificate of completion and a dinner for them to enjoy with their families. Some of the graduates donned white caps and gowns for the occasion, which for many of them was their first graduation experience.

The Parent University is a District initiative that offers free day and evening workshops and classes to parents in subjects ranging from basic math and literacy to parenting seminars on character development and health and wellness.

“Parents are the first and most important teachers for their children,” said Karren Dunkley, deputy chief of the District’s Office of Parent, Family, Community Engagement, and Faith-Based Partnerships.

Dunkley has been in charge of implementing Superintendent Ackerman’s vision for a program that would facilitate greater parental involvement with the educational

Rise & Shine: Some families are abstaining from school’s last day | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Some families are abstaining from school’s last day

by Philissa Cramer

Some parents aren’t bothering to send their children to school for today’s half day. (Times)
It’s not clear what effect the impending increase in Regents exam standards could have. (Times)
An AP at Kennedy HS, where staff stole student money, had been censured before. (Daily News)
The year-old ban on outside hires is crunching principals’ ability to fill positions. (Times)
Lawmakers jousted all weekend over proposals for how to balance the state’s budget. (Times)
The city revealed plans to revamp 34 low-performing schools. (GothamSchools, Daily News, WNYC, NY1)
Long Island police have opened a criminal investigation into Nicole Suriel’s field trip death. (Post)
Anger at Suriel’s principal and school accompanied sadness at her funeral Friday. (Post, Daily News)
The flamboyant principal of MS 391 in the South Bronx tries to make school a special place. (Times)
A Brooklyn school whose prom got out of hand last year didn’t have a prom this year. (Post)
A Brooklyn student who did homework by candlelight won a scholarship to Wheaton. (Daily News)
A slew of rappers taught city students in end-of-year mini-courses. (Daily News)
Hackers exposed students’ personal information from Brooklyn Tech’s website. (Daily News)
The Post and Daily News say recent charter school news proves the schools are working.
Some suburban school districts are naming far more than one student as valedictorian. (Times)
Schools are increasingly playing police in conflicts that students have online. (Times)
A Chicago high school for boys held an emotion-filled first graduation last week. (AP)
Alternative schools are top on the chopping block for budget-strapped Los Angeles. (L.A. Times)
Rural and tribal areas are hoping to replicate Harlem Children’s Zone. (NPR)

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

The real cost of war

IT BELONGS to every citizen to have in mind what the nation’s present wars are doing — not only to US troops, Iraqis and Afghans, and the faceless enemy, but to the American character. We have come to understand that the brutalities of combat can shatter participants psychologically as well as physically. (James Carroll, Boston Globe)

Race to top forces firing of top principal

“There is no one in the federal government that knows what kind of leadership De Ann Currin is

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Julia Steiny: Loss of a common standard affects education and the republic | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal

Julia Steiny: Loss of a common standard affects education and the republic

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, June 27, 2010

America was founded as a nation of different peoples held together by the idea of Democracy and the primacy of the Common Good.

In an age when Congress itself is paralyzed by partisan interests, let us celebrate the Fourth of July by revisiting the democratic ideals on which the country was founded. And let’s remember that our Founding Fathers believed that the only force that would maintain their intrinsically precarious democracy was education — common knowledge and skills taught in Common Schools.

Toward the beginning of his latest book, “The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools,” E.D. Hirsch Jr. recounts the famous story of Benjamin Franklin leaving the Constitutional Convention of 1787. A woman asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got?” Franklin replied, “A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.”

Even in the 18th century, immigrants poured into our then-new nation, so the Founders’ challenge was to design and teach a practical, community-first faith that could encompass all of what Hirsch calls the “tribes,” separated by religion, language, cultural habits or nations of origin. Tribes are naturally self-interested. S

Yo All My SCUSD Face book friends: Parents 4 Democratic Schools

Parents 4 Democratic Schools

Yo All My SCUSD Face book friends:

Schools Matter: Cuts Coming to Portland (OR) Schools

Cuts Coming to Portland (OR) Schools

by Kenneth Libby

From Carole Smith, Superintendent of the Portland Public Schools (OR):

Central support and operations: $3.1 million
PPS central services and operations — including administration, finance and payroll, transportation, building maintenance and more — will cut spending on materials and services, as well as reduce staff by the equivalent of 25 full-time positions (or FTE).
Special education and English as a Second Language: $4.6 million
Reductions to these services, staffed centrally but touching all schools and programs, include elimination of the equivalent of 52 full-time teaching positions through shifts in

Rotten to the Common Core: When Will Parents and Teachers Revolt?

by Jim Horn

Below is a letter from Georgia teacher, Cindy Lutenbacher, reprinted from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Business Roundtable's national standards movement is on Go, and coming along with it is the national testing movement, as announced last week, with two groups of corporate interests vying for control by leading two groups of governors by the nose to the $160 million that will pay the corporations to develop the national tests from which they will then profit mightily: "Two big coalitions of states are competing for federal dollars to create a series of new national academic tests to replace the current patchwork system."

So please read Cindy's letter and take action through your PTA, your church, your PAC, or individually by calling

Free Technology for Teachers: Fighting the Locked Net Monster

Fighting the Locked Net Monster

by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)

Today, during Mario Armstrong's presentation at ISTE 2010 he introduced four challenges facing teachers and their use of technology in the classroom. One of those challenges is the "Locked Net Monster." The "Locked Net Monster" refers to school administrators and IT administrators who lock down teachers' and students' access to the web and the wonderful tools it offers. In the last year I've written a couple of posts addressing the challenge of dealing with the "Locked Net Monster." You can read one of them here and the other below.

What follows is a repost of my Least Restrictive Environment for Educators post.

In my work with special education students over the last six years, I have consistently heard from special education teachers and administrators the refrain of "creating a least restrictive environment for students." The idea being that in a least restrictive environment students have the most opportunities to experience new things, explore their creativity, and grow personally and academically. I completely agree with these ideas.

The irony I see in school leadership with regards to technology in the classroom is that often, by imposing strict internet filters, school leaders don't create a least restrictive environment for their faculty. Some of the most restrictive environments that I've heard of include the blocking of wiki services, gmail, and Google image search

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Monday, June 28, 2010