Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Portland school board reluctant to spend more from savings to prevent painful teacher cutbacks | OregonLive.com

Portland school board reluctant to spend more from savings to prevent painful teacher cutbacks

Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 10:33 PM Updated: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 11:05 PM

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Portland Public Schools should spend down its savings account rather than cut physical education teachers in the face of a $19 million cut in state spending, the school board was told repeatedly Tuesday during a packed budget hearing.

But board members, including David Wynde, the budget chairman, said the board must hold the line and not spend any more from savings given a looming $50 million shortfall for Portland schools in the next two school years, taking into account state revenue forecasts.

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"I reluctantly feel we have got to hold on to our reserves," and make permanent cuts to the staffing levels and operating costs of the school system, said board member Dilafruz Williams. "It's sobering, it's depressing, but it's the reality we are facing."

"No matter what we do there is going to be harm to our students," said board member Ruth Adkins. "There is just no way to avoid that."

Board member Pam Knowles said she might be willing to take some amount, but not the full $19 million, from savings to blunt the pain this fall, knowing there will be more pain ahead. "No matter how much we have in reserves,

olunteers needed to teach sustainable living projects to schools and clubs

By Washington County Reader Contributor

June 29, 2010, 6:42PM

4-H partners in this training are Oregon Farm to School and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Full story »

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Forest Grove School District administrators get cost of living raise

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

June 29, 2010, 4:01PM

Forest Grove principals, superintendent, directors and others will get a 1.75 cost of living raise, but six days of furlough will cut any salary gain Full story »

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'Save Portland PE' campaign makes a fast, well-funded splash

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

June 28, 2010, 6:32PM

Backed by hospitals, the Blazers, doctors and Nike, the coalition takes just days to commission a poll, place ads, jump on FaceBook and otherwise mobilize a full-blown media campaign to save gym class in Portland elementary and middle schools Full story »

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Small Philly schools with big hopes | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/30/2010

EDUCATION

DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer

Science Leadership Academy seniors await their graduation procession. Ninety-seven percent will attend college; 40 percent plan majors in science, technology, or math.

1 of 6

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Small Philly schools with big hopes

High School of the Future and Science Leadership Academy, four-year-old Phila. high schools just graduated their first classes. Their experiences differ greatly.

By Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writer

First of two parts
Small high schools came to Philadelphia in a big way four years ago, when four new ones opened their doors.
Less than three miles apart, High School of the Future in Parkside and Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Center City had vastly different beginnings.
Expectations for both were high. Both awarded their first diplomas this month.
But although leadership was identified as key to both, one had turmoil at the top and the other had a stable principal. Though both emphasized technology and were given freedom to innovate, one kept a close eye on district standards and the other initially veered from the path.
One accepted only top students, and its test scores were high. The other took mostly neighborhood students, including those who struggled, and its scores were low.
Jasmine Thomas picked SLA because she "thought it would be kind of cool to go to a place where you built it from the ground up," she said. Thomas, 18, just earned her diploma and said she is thrilled with her high school

Plan could reopen some L.A. County alternative school programs - latimes.com

Plan could keep some L.A. County alternative school programs open

By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times

Officials are looking at possible cost-sharing with school districts that could save some of the programs, set to close for budgetary reasons and displace hundreds of students.

More California school districts edging closer to insolvency, state says

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

An immediate effect has been increased teacher layoffs. Fourteen districts in the state are classified as in especially dire condition, including Lynwood Unified School District in Los Angeles County.

Cal State Stanislaus dinner patrons cheer Sarah Palin

By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times

Protesters chant outside before her arrival. In her speech, she chides Jerry Brown and jokes about the controversy surrounding her contract.

EDUCATION
Headlines from L.A. Now

Black freshmen numbers up at UC San Diego despite 'Compton Cookout' controversy06/29/2010, 6:24 p.m.
More California school districts on the financial brink06/29/2010, 5:02 p.m.
Former Newport Beach high school employee accused of stealing student body funds06/26/2010, 8:14 a.m.
Protesters, backers turn out in advance of Palin's talk06/25/2010, 8:34 p.m.
Parents brawl at kindergarten graduation; officials lock down campus06/24/2010, 7:24 a.m.
San Diego Unified chooses Kowba, a retired Navy admiral and insider, as superintendent06/22/2010, 8:58 p.m.

More ...

Rise & Shine: City weighing gifted screening for 3-year-olds | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: City weighing gifted screening for 3-year-olds

by Philissa Cramer

The top prospect for reforming gifted program screening would test children at age 3. (Times)
The Harbor School’s aquaculture program could renew oyster culture for the whole city. (Times)
A new study finds that charter and district schools are about even. (Christian Science Monitor)
Merrick Academy Charter School conducted its PTA elections in a weird way. (Daily News)
PEP member Patrick Sullivan wants to see reports about wrongdoing at JFK HS. (Daily News)
Blaming the UFT, the Daily News lambastes the outcome of the first-day-of-school fight.
Coaches help some Latino students enroll in colleges that offer them a challenge. (USA Today)

Democrats add teacher money to war spending bill | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Democrats add teacher money to war spending bill

C. Johnson

Last updated 6 hrs ago

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats who are trying to pass a long-stalled war funding bill are sweetening it with $10 billion to help local school districts avoid teacher layoffs when schools reopen.

The approximately $70 billion measure is anchored by President Obama's $30 billion request for the troop surge in Afghanistan and contains money for disaster aid accounts, foreign aid and disability benefits for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

The bill's release was the surest signal yet that House leaders are committed to passing it this week,

House Dems Trim Race to Top, TIF to Make Room for Edujobs - Politics K-12 - Education Week

House Dems Trim Race to Top, TIF to Make Room for Edujobs

by Alyson Klein

The $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund might be about to get a little smaller.
Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, just introduced the latest version of the edujobs bill, which would appear to skim some $500 million from the administration's signature education reform initiative in hopes of coming up with $10 billion to help stave off layoffs.
And that's not all. From my reading of the draft now up on the House Rules Committee website, it seems another $200 million would come out of the Teacher Incentive Fund, which helps districts create pay-for-performance programs. That program received $400 million in fiscal 2009, plus $200 million under the American

New study: Charters yield more satisfaction, but no better results than non-charters | The Education Report

New study: Charters yield more satisfaction, but no better results than non-charters

By Katy Murphy
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 10:20 am in charter schools
3 Comments »

A new, randomized study funded by the federal government compared the outcomes of students who won the admissions lottery at one of 36 popular charter middle schools in 15 states with those who entered the lottery and lost.

The findings? The lottery winners were no more likely to see improvements in grades, attendance, behavior or state reading and math test scores during the next two years than those who didn’t get into those charter schools (who, in many cases, attended the much larger, neighborhood middle schools).

With one caveat: Poor kids in urban areas did seem to get a leg up in math during the second year. Read the rest of this entry »

Schools Matter: Obama's Charter Policy Built on "Sketchy Evidence"

Obama's Charter Policy Built on "Sketchy Evidence"

by Jim Horn

Could it be more than coincidence that while Bill the Oligarch huddled with corporate charterites that a national study would be released showing the bankruptcy of the charter solution? The Christian Science Monitor's caption for the AP photo: "Bill Gates shakes hands with Nelson Smith, President and CEO of National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, at National Charter Schools Conference in Chicago Tuesday, the same day that a government study found that charter schools do no better than public schools in student outcomes."

Photo Kiichiro Sato/AP.

A clip from the Monitor article, which is the only newspaper so far to report the new study:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Testing kids at age 3 in N.Y.

Testing kids at age 3 in N.Y.

by Mike Klonsky

That's what Bloomber/Klein are doing in NY. Three & four-year-olds are being tested to see if they are "gifted."

But any new test is unlikely to alleviate what many parents consider the most anxiety-producing part of the process — sending 4-year-olds into an exam that could decide their schooling for the

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Safely Landed � InterACT

Safely Landed

by Kelly Kovacic

NOTE: This blog entry is cross-posted from a travel blog written by the 2010 California Teachers of the Year in their Journals From Japan. The five-teacher contingent includes InterACT blogger Kelly Kovacic and ACT member Valerie Ziegler. Please go to their blog to see pictures and read additional entries, and leave them some comments. (DC)
After a ten hour flight, we’ve arrived safely in Tokyo, Japan. The flight went smoothly with great service by JAL. Despite leaving late out of LAX, we arrived early. Our tour guide, Mitzi Katayama, met us at the airport and

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Wednesday, June 30, 2010