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Friday, July 2, 2010

School Tech Connect: BREAKING: Memo Leaked From DOE

School Tech Connect: BREAKING: Memo Leaked From DOE

BREAKING: Memo Leaked From DOE

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
Hmm... looks like Secretary Duncan's office is playing hardball with Congressman Obey and other critics..
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NorthJersey.com: New Teaneck schools superintendent quits five days before start date

NorthJersey.com: New Teaneck schools superintendent quits five days before start date

New Teaneck schools superintendent quits five days before start date
Friday, July 2, 2010
LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY JULY 2, 2010, 1:34 PM
BY JOSEPH AX
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
TEANECK — Dr. Constance Clark-Snead has told the school board she will not be taking the position of superintendent of schools, five days before what was to be her first day in the district.
Constance Clark-Snead during a visit to Teaneck in March, when she was hired.
FILE PHOTO
Constance Clark-Snead during a visit to Teaneck in March, when she was hired.
Clark-Snead, who was hired in March at an annual salary of $230,000, told board President Ardie Walser that she had chosen to remain in Westbury, N.Y., Walser said this morning.
Walser acknowledged that he was “disappointed” by her decision but said the board would begin searching for a replacement as soon as possible.
For now, Assistant Superintendent Barbara Pinsak will be the district’s top administrator. The school board will meet Tuesday and discuss its options.
The district has been without a permanent superintendent since January 2009, when John Czeterko died after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.






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Civil Service rules leave their mark on the Dept of Education | GothamSchools

Civil Service rules leave their mark on the Dept of Education | GothamSchools


Civil Service rules leave their mark on the Dept of Education

by Anna Phillips
Chancellor Joel Klein often trumpets the importance of giving principals the power to hire the teachers they want. But Klein’s own ability to select his staff could soon be compromised.
A court case decided in 2007, known as the Long Beach decision, requires New York City (and municipalities throughout the state) to fill certain positions by hiring off of lists of people who’ve passed Civil Service exams. Most of these jobs are administrative or clerical — they include secretaries and associate supervisors of school security — but some are also held by high level managers, chiefs of staff, and some of the department’s press team.
Currently, many of these jobs are held by people classified as provisional employees, meaning they never took the exams because the exams didn’t exist or were given too infrequently. Over the next several years, all city agencies will have to significantly cut down on the number of provisional workers, either by laying them off or


New database puts education spending at your fingertips

by Maura Walz
Source: Checkbook NYCSource: Checkbook NYC
The Department of Education has spent more money this calendar year than any other city agency, racking up enough expenses to account for about a quarter of total city dollars.
That’s one nugget from of a host of financial information now available through a database Comptroller John Liu’s office launched yesterday that gives real-time updates to city expenses.
The database, called “Checkbook NYC,” currently reports around $40 billion in spending across city agencies since January 1. During that time, the Department of Education spent more than $10 billion.
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Summer Plans � A Year in the Life of a Teacher #education

A Year in the Life of a Teacher

Life behind the chalk



Summer Plans � A Year in the Life of a Teacher

Summer Plans

June 28, 2010 by institutrice
The Big Fresh Newsletter from Choice Literacy
Set aside what you must do this summer for a moment, and think about what you are most looking forward to - is it a family vacation, the birth of a grandchild, finally getting the yard landscaped, a class reunion? Is there any way you can set aside some more reading and writing to learn about whatever it is you’re anticipating joyfully in the coming months? It’s reading and writing you’ll be passionate about, and literacy that starts with love is sure to include some unexpected learning about how to ignite passion for reading and
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Education Week: Jobs Bill Collides With Obama Education Agenda

Education Week: Jobs Bill Collides With Obama Education Agenda

Jobs Bill Collides With Obama Education Agenda

By Alyson Klein
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.
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The sharp division between the Obama administration and key congressional Democrats over education policy and priorities may never have been more clear than it was Thursday night when the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut $800 million from key administration initiatives to help pay for an effort to avert teacher layoffs.
The legislation—which the White House has threatened to veto—takes aim at three of the administration’s most-prized education priorities. Most notably, it would cut $500 million from the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, which rewards states for making progress on certain education redesign initiatives.
It also would cut $200 million from the Teacher Incentive Fund, which doles out grants to support pay-for-performance programs, and $100 million intended to help start new



Rewarding Good Teachers Teaching may be more a calling than a profession, but it shouldn’t be a sacrifice, writes Brian Crosby, a bestselling author, syndicated radio host, and 21-year-veteran teacher.
Arizona's Anti-Immigrant School Policy Civil rights lawyer Khin Mai Aung writes on Arizona's less-publicized spring controversy: the state education department’s citations to districts that hired English-language-learning teachers with Spanish accents.
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Elk Grove Citizen : Happy birthday to Elk Grove

Elk Grove Citizen : Lifestyle

Happy birthday to Elk Grove



Published: Friday, July 2, 2010 9:20 AM PDT
On July 1, 2000, Elk Grove became the first new city in California and perhaps in the U. S. as well. A flag flew over the U. S. Capitol to commemorate Elk Grove’s cityhood, thanks to the late Robert Matsui. Our city flag will remind us forever that Elk Grove is connected to our state and national capitals, Sacramento and Washington D. C.

Ten years later, we continue to recognize the importance of preserving our history and the roots of our existence that brought us to where we are today. Elk Grove became a city because of the vision, determination, and hard work of south Sacramento County residents that culminated in our historical vote for independence. The stories of our past are important links to the great history of our state. Knowledge of what happened in our own back yards helps us make good decisions as we plan for the future of Elk Grove and the south county area.

The following is a summary of ten magical moments in our history when people led the way and made significant changes that affect how we live in the city of Elk Grove and the area around us.

Magic Moment ONE - In the Beginning, the Miwok People… Long before James Hall placed the name of Elk Grove forever in our California geography books, the tule elk made their home along the delta waters and the river known as ko’sum by the Miwok Indians. The mighty oak trees along the Cosumnes River brought forth an ample supply of acorns, a staple of the Miwok diet. These first Americans also came here for salmon, ko’sum, which is how the Cosumnes River got its name. There were villages all across what we now know of as Elk



Magic Moment SIX, 1893 - The Elk Grove Union High School, the First Union Free High School in California. From the days of the California gold rush in the late 1840s until 1893, the young people of Elk Grove families had to be content with the education that was provided for them in their one-room country schools. If their parents wanted them to go on to higher education, the students had to go somewhere else because there was no high school in the south county area. In 1891, the California legislature passed a law that allowed the formation of a high school district if the majority of the heads of households voted for it. Six active citizens of Elk Grove, Dr. James McKee, Joseph Kerr, Joseph Hasman, Julius Everson, James T. Chinnick, and Alfred Coffman, decided that Elk Grove needed a high school. They held community meetings in all 18 grammar school districts, and 16 of the districts voted to form the Elk Grove Union High School District. This was the first unification of elementary school districts with a high school district in the state of California.
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Hechinger Report | Common standards: Necessary but not sufficient

Hechinger Report | Common standards: Necessary but not sufficient

Common standards: Necessary but not sufficient

by Justin Snider
Should every student in this country be able to name the president? If so, by what age? Should every child know how to tell time to the nearest minute? By first grade, or by fifth grade?
Surprisingly, only 26 states have learning standards that say students should be able to name the president. Iowa is not among them. Students in Arizona and Arkansas are expected to know who the president is by kindergarten, whereas students in Maine don’t need to know until eighth grade.
Thirty-three states expect students to learn how to tell time to the nearest minute. Once again, Iowa is not among them. Students in South Dakota and Tennessee are supposed to master this skill by second grade, but in Alaska there’s no such expectation until fifth grade.

Interactive

Want to see how different state standards measure up? Check out our map showing when students have to learn
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NEA Convention 2010: Internal vs. External Math | Intercepts #neara10

NEA Convention 2010: Internal vs. External Math | Intercepts

NEA Convention 2010: Internal vs. External Math

by Mike Antonucci
Greetings from New Orleans, where the 2010 National Education Association Representative Assembly begins tomorrow morning. There have been committee and caucus meetings all week, and today’s highlight was the open hearing on NEA’s strategic plan and budget.
It has been almost 30 years since NEA has had to budget for a loss in membership, and the figures displayed by the union’s budget committee form an interesting contrast to those surrounding the edujobs bill. The House passed the Obey amendment, which will provide $10 billion to school districts to save the jobs of education employees (if it passes the Senate and avoids a threatened Presidential veto). NEA estimates the amendment will save 138,000 jobs.
But those 138,000 jobs must be overhelmingly in AFT districts, or states with independent teacher groups, or charter schools, since NEA budgeted for a loss of only 35,000 active members (working teachers and support employees). NEA Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle called this “a conservative estimate,” which in context meant it might not be that many. She specifically stated the budget did not assume the jobs bill would pass.
If NEA itself isn’t budgeting on the belief that 300,000 education employees will lose their jobs - or 200,000 - or
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School Tech Connect: Let Freedom Ring

School Tech Connect: Let Freedom Ring

Let Freedom Ring

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
This is what happens when a nation's ed policies place extremely high stakes on reading sub-skill tests and math tests.

I jest, of course. I hate when people make sweeping statements from really focused data points. Poll data is like Wikipedia; you have to triangulate it against other sources to mine its value. Even the best polls are really just snapshots, and they record only the responses of a relatively filtered segment of the population: the peoplewho still answer the phone to strangers.
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Nobody Changes Their Vote for No Reason � Tangerine, Florida

Nobody Changes Their Vote for No Reason � Tangerine, Florida

Nobody Changes Their Vote for No Reason

by tangerineflorida

Novelist Carl Hiaason discusses county commissions in Florida vote on land use amendments and how Amendment 4 will change the process if passed.

Via Examiner.com

Outside the clouds of doubt about the Gulf oil spill, there is a ray of hope in Florida’s future. On the November ballot, voters will be given an opportunity to decide if they want to take the power of land development out of the hands of local governments, and put it in their own hands instead.

It’s called the Florida Hometown Democracy Land Use Initiative and will appear on the ballot as Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution.

The concept is a simple one; if the amendment passes, developers will no longer be able to get permission to build or develop land from local planning boards for major projects. Their new ‘bosses’ will be the people.
For example; if a developer wants to change the zoning on agricultural land to build a residential subdivision, it will have to be approved with a majority vote by the people.

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Senators Announce Opposition to Race to the Top Cut - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Senators Announce Opposition to Race to the Top Cut - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Senators Announce Opposition to Race to the Top Cut

by Alyson Klein
Thirteen senators are urging their colleagues to spare Race to the Top and other administration K-12 prioritiesand come up with another way to help finance aid to states to prevent teacher layoffs
"The proposed education cuts are unacceptable," the group wrote in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman. "Choosing between preserving teacher jobs and supporting vital education reforms is a false choice and would set a dangerous precedent. By reducing promised funding for these important reforms, Congress would be pulling the rug out from under the efforts of thousands of communities around the country working to improve their schools."
Their letter comes on the heels of a threat by the Obama administration to veto the entire bill if the cuts remain.
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Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Today's  Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools 




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