—Andrew A. Nelles/The Courier-News/AP
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Education Week American Education News Site of Record
State Board of Education plans to declare emergency in 1,000 schools | California Watch
State Board of Education plans to declare emergency in 1,000 schools
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/ag/ag/sbelivestream.aspPresident Ted Mitchell leads the State Board of Education meeting Wednesday.The California State Board of Education is expected to declare an emergency today in 1,000 public schools the state has designated as among the "lowest performing" in the state.
The emergency declaration, which is Item 32on the board's agenda today in Sacramento,suggests that students in those schools are at risk of "serious harm," and that their health, safety and "general welfare" may be threatened by remaining in those schools.
The emergency declaration is necessary because the board, whose members are all appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, wants to accelerate implementation oflegislation (SBX5 4) approved earlier this year.
The law, titled the Open Enrollment Act, will allow students in the 1,000 schools to transfer to any other higher-performing school, even to schools in other districts, something that has not been readily available to many students in California until now.
The California State PTA will challenge the board's finding of an emergency at the meeting today. "We are very concerned about the workability of the findings, the alarmist nature of the findings, without giving parents time to understand what it means, what their options are, and find an alternative for their child," said Patty Scripter, an education advocate for the state PTA.
Once the board votes, its resolution declaring an emergency goes to the Office of Administrative Law for review, a process which includes a five day public comment period (from July 15 to July 20) before the emergency goes into effect.
The law sets out a timeline allowing parents to apply to transfer their children to schools in other districts by Jan. 1 preceding the school year they wish to transfer. But the state
Smelly chemical identified in contaminated Kellogg's cereal
The chemical that caused a massive recall of Kellogg’s cereals in June has been identified: It’s a petroleum byproduct known as methylnaphthalene.
On June 25, Kellogg Co. recalled 28 million boxes of Corn Pops, Honey Smacks, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. The move was in response to several customer complaints indicating the cereals were smelly and causing nausea and diarrhea in some people.
The cereal company issued a statement warning people to avoid eating the cereals because they didn’t “meet
State restores Medi-Cal optometry benefits
On June 25, Kellogg Co. recalled 28 million boxes of Corn Pops, Honey Smacks, Froot Loops and Apple Jacks. The move was in response to several customer complaints indicating the cereals were smelly and causing nausea and diarrhea in some people.
The cereal company issued a statement warning people to avoid eating the cereals because they didn’t “meet
State restores Medi-Cal optometry benefits
A year after dropping several Medi-Cal benefits, the state Department of Health Care Services has reinstated one – optometry services – upon realizing that eliminating it violated federal law.
By law, the state cannot eliminate optometry services if physicians can still provide them and if they were
Video maps five decades of nuclear explosions
By law, the state cannot eliminate optometry services if physicians can still provide them and if they were
Video maps five decades of nuclear explosions
An interactive by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto shows the location of 2,053 nuclear explosions from the birth of the bomb in 1945 through 1998. The map first zooms in on the Trinity site in the New Mexico desert where the first successful atomic detonation ushered in the nuclear age. Then it pans over to Japan, showing the location of
Counties try - and fail - to keep pension payouts secret
Counties try - and fail - to keep pension payouts secret
To conceal the fearsome prospective impact of California’s pension bomb from the taxpayers, bureaucrats sometimes play hide the ball.
When they do, it’s up to open-government advocates to drag them into court and make them do the right thing.
That was the dynamic recently in Sacramento Superior Court, where the California First Amendment Coalition
When they do, it’s up to open-government advocates to drag them into court and make them do the right thing.
That was the dynamic recently in Sacramento Superior Court, where the California First Amendment Coalition
UC regents endorse test of online instruction
UC regents endorse test of online instruction
The University of California Board of Regents reacted enthusiastically Wednesday to developing a fully online undergraduate degree program at the top-tier research institution they oversee, and endorsed a pilot program to test it.
"We have the opportunity to show everyone else how to do it," said Regent Sherry Lansing. "This should be one of our highest priorities. We cannot wait."
Despite earlier warnings from professors and instructors that taking UC online would destroy the university's good name and quality, several regents said they were convinced of just the opposite: that UC has the brainpower - and the motives - to develop the nation's first highly selective, Web-based degree program for undergraduates.
They largely agreed with the plan's leader, UC Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher Edley, that an online degree program could save UC money while expanding access to far-flung, tuition-paying students "from Kentucky to Kuala Lumpur."
"We are in a position to lead," said Regents Chairman Russell Gould, who created the UC Commission on the Future, which developed the online concept as one of many ways UC might thrive in an era of shrinking financial support from the state.
Edley sits on Gould's commission and expects to raise $6 million in private donations so faculty can begin designing dozens of rigorous online classes this fall. First up would be
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/15/BAC61EEDI4.DTL&type=education#ixzz0tkjxI7OQ
Summer students learn to Aim High
With state budget cuts turning summer school into the educational equivalent of the eight-track tape...
Photos
Public sector workers paying more of their health care costs - Medical News - sacbee.com
Public sector workers paying more of their health care costs
Published: Thursday, Jul. 15, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Workers in private industry have felt the sting of rising health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for decades. Now, as government budgets bleed, public employees are starting to share the pain.
In the past year, Sacramento's largest school districts have trimmed health care coverage. Local and state government officials also are looking for ways to save.
And while public employee unions have made preserving health benefits a priority, they have been pressed to give ground or face more layoffs.
"We can't afford to continue to pay double-digit inflation on health care costs," said Steven Ladd, superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District. "We must manage this because it's a huge portion of our expenditures."
Last year, the district spent $57 million on health coverage for its employees – more than twice the $28 million it cost five years ago.
To help save jobs, Elk Grove Unified's key unions this year agreed to double employee co-pays for prescriptions and doctors visits. The concessions will save the district millions of dollars and help its classrooms "get through these very dark fiscal times," Ladd said.
At the Sacramento City Unified School District, teachers last month agreed to a pay cut and trims in health benefits. The union initially refused to negotiate, but the district threatened to lay off 238 teachers, counselors and other employees.
Under the new agreement, SCUSD teachers enrolled in a Kaiser Permanente health plan will see
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/15/2891358/public-sector-workers-paying-more.html#ixzz0tkhav2fu
Module 8 Reflection | Reflections on Teaching
Module 8 Reflection
Student Data Systems are the new black…
Everyone is looking at the numbers, but what do they mean? There is a huge push for data with reforms being proposed by the current administration in RttT. States are scrambling to keep up. It’s caused my own state to “pervert” the intent of the last round of EETT with ARRA. There are a number of programs to try to help states improve their data warehouse systems (ISO from IES: State Applications for Data-System Grants – Inside School Research).
Students Discuss How to Create College-bound Cultures – ED.gov Blog
Students Discuss How to Create College-bound Cultures
Information about higher education needs to be more candid, accessible and fun to build a college-bound culture.
That’s what teenagers told Alberto Retana, ED director of community outreach, at two forums in Chicago on July 8 and 9.
“We meet with all kinds of groups—educators, parents, government officials—to hear their ideas on how we can best meet the President’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020,” said Retana. “Too often, we don’t listen to the people who may have the most valuable input of all—the youth themselves.”
To get that input, the Department partnered with two community-based organizations in Chicago to develop the forums—Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) and the Federation for Community Schools. They attracted more than 100 high school and college students who represented diverse cultures and backgrounds. While most participants either plan to go to college or are already enrolled, many will be the first in their families to earn college degrees and live in neighborhoods where it is not commonly expected.
Students described experiences that helped shape their college-going decisions. They shared ideas about how to overcome the barriers that deter other teens from pursuing higher education.
One participant described how his mother’s decision to go back to school influenced him. He encouraged parents to understand that “when you’re inspired to do better for yourself, your kids get inspired and do better, too.”
Another said that college preparatory programs should “be interesting and provide information that we really need.” That would make higher education appealing and relevant to more students.
A student suggested that high schools with limited or no college and career centers form partnerships with other schools or organizations that have resources to help youth plan their futures.
Retana will lead similar sessions in other cities throughout the United States over the next few months in a National Youth Listening Tour. The tour is designed to promote the President’s goal that America once again will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Students’ ideas from these sessions will be incorporated into a final report to be presented to ED leaders. The Department is also developing a Facebook page to continue dialogue with youth leaders who participate in the forums.
Schools Matter: Problem is not TV but access to books
Problem is not TV but access to books
Problem is not TV but access to reading material
Sent to the Kansas City Star, July 14
In his speech to the NAACP, Education Secretary Duncan challenged parents to "turn off TVs and video games and make children read" (Education is 'civil-rights issue of our generation,' Cabinet official tells NAACP, July 14)
TV is not the problem. Studies consistently find little relationship between TV watching and how well children do on a variety of school-related tests, unless TV watching is excessive (more than four hours a day).
There is no question that wide reading is the key to academic success. The research tells us that those who do more recreational reading do better on tests of reading, vocabulary, writing and grammar, and also know more in general. But is impossible for parents to "make children read" if they have little or no access to books. Studies also show that children of poverty have very little access to interesting reading material: They have few books in
Sent to the Kansas City Star, July 14
In his speech to the NAACP, Education Secretary Duncan challenged parents to "turn off TVs and video games and make children read" (Education is 'civil-rights issue of our generation,' Cabinet official tells NAACP, July 14)
TV is not the problem. Studies consistently find little relationship between TV watching and how well children do on a variety of school-related tests, unless TV watching is excessive (more than four hours a day).
There is no question that wide reading is the key to academic success. The research tells us that those who do more recreational reading do better on tests of reading, vocabulary, writing and grammar, and also know more in general. But is impossible for parents to "make children read" if they have little or no access to books. Studies also show that children of poverty have very little access to interesting reading material: They have few books in
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Lodi students must pay $360 to ride the school bus | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education
Lodi students must pay $360 to ride the school bus
Jennifer Smith 
Last updated 2 hrs ago
Last updated 2 hrs ago
LODI, CA - School starts July 27 in the Lodi Unified School District and this year students will have to pay $360 a year to ride the school bus.
Faced with a big budget deficit, the district's transportation department was forced to trim $2 million, and along with charging to ride the bus, the district is consolidating bus routes to save on gas and mileage.
"In the rural areas, we used to pick up children at their homes," said transportation director Carlos Garcia. "This year we've created what is called a hub stop which is one mass stop where we would cover and pick up most of the kids."
Dawn Carvalho, who has three children attending Lodi schools, is concerned about coming up with $1,000 by the end of the month to pay for bus service for her children. She's also worried about the hub stops.
"Who's going to be here at 6:15 or 6:30 in the morning to supervise this group of kids that are going to be meeting here in the morning? It's a safety issue," Carvalho said.
She is considering pulling her children from the Lodi schools.
"If I'm going to pay for them to ride the bus, I'm going to choose where they go to school," Carvalho said
My Thieving Student Loan Company � The Quick and the Ed
My Thieving Student Loan Company
It turns out that Northstar was returning money it had stolen from us a couple of years ago. When we were choosing a lender all the way back in 2001, Northstar made a big deal out of it’s “Bonus Program” whereby we would pay a lower interest rate if we made our monthly loan payments on time. This seemed like a good deal, so we picked Northstar, and proceeded to make all of our loan payments on time.
Then, in 2008, Northstar decided to suspend the “Bonus Program” on the grounds that it would rather keep the bonus money for itself. It announced this via a confusingly written letter which strongly implied that, while
Indians barred from taking test for US practice - India - The Times of India
Indians barred from taking test for US practice - India - The Times of India
Indians barred from taking test for US practice
MUMBAI: Tens of thousands of Indians who went to the United States to cash in on the health industry boom have been served a blow as the federal government has decided against allowing Indians to sit for the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE), a licentiate test without which students cannot practice in the US.
The decision was taken by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, a national body, reasoning that it found "systematic and methodical sharing and distribution of recalled questions by significant numbers of graduates of programmes in the affected countries as well as several exam preparation companies specifically targeted to these graduates". Apart from Indians, students from Pakistan, the Philippines and Egypt have also been barred from taking the exam.
"The federation recognizes the significant consequences of this policy decision but feels that it needs to be made clear to all candidates that the federation will not tolerate security breaches," it stated in a notice sent out to all the candidates who had registered to take the NPTE. Candidates will now have to wait for a year, which is when the federation is likely to introduce a more secured version of the test.
A parent from Mumbai whose daughter is enrolled with the University of Pittsburg said the US government's decision was not fair as they had found no evidence against Indian students
sharing the questions with their friends.
Even in the communication released to students, the federation stated, "Evidence was obtained through extensive forensic analyses of exam performances as well as a variety of legal actions
The decision was taken by the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, a national body, reasoning that it found "systematic and methodical sharing and distribution of recalled questions by significant numbers of graduates of programmes in the affected countries as well as several exam preparation companies specifically targeted to these graduates". Apart from Indians, students from Pakistan, the Philippines and Egypt have also been barred from taking the exam.
"The federation recognizes the significant consequences of this policy decision but feels that it needs to be made clear to all candidates that the federation will not tolerate security breaches," it stated in a notice sent out to all the candidates who had registered to take the NPTE. Candidates will now have to wait for a year, which is when the federation is likely to introduce a more secured version of the test.
A parent from Mumbai whose daughter is enrolled with the University of Pittsburg said the US government's decision was not fair as they had found no evidence against Indian students
sharing the questions with their friends.
Even in the communication released to students, the federation stated, "Evidence was obtained through extensive forensic analyses of exam performances as well as a variety of legal actions
Schools Matter: More on Gates
More on Gates
From Sharon Higgins at Perimeter Primate:
Newsflash! Bill Gates has now been publicly heckled. Watch the July 9 video here.
And just three days after being subjected to that humiliation in his hometown of Seattle, the Washington Post rushed in to his defense. Bright and early on the morning of Monday, July 12, WaPo readers opened their papers to find the following: “Gates Foundation playing pivotal role in changes for education system.”
Of course, it is especially important to note that both Melinda Gates and Warren E. Buffett, who is
One School, One ID � The Quick and the Ed
One School, One ID
The U.S. Department of Education uses two main ways to identify colleges and universities–a six digit identification number that is used for the IPEDS data system and an eight digit number used by the Office of Postsecondary Education known as an OPEID. Each number is used to obtain different kinds of data. IPEDS includes information on enrollment, graduation rates, finances, and most everything else that shows up oncollege navigator. The OPEID meanwhile, is used for all the borrowing data and default rates on the Federal Student Aid Data Center.
Unfortunately, the OPEID and IPEDS numbers are different, so any attempt to analyze borrowing data and other school information requires matching the two figures. That’s doable, but here’s where the fun begins—a single
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