Monday, August 2, 2010

Cynthia Gilliam named third deputy superintendent of Portland Public Schools | OregonLive.com

Cynthia Gilliam named third deputy superintendent of Portland Public Schools

Published: Monday, August 02, 2010, 8:46 AM Updated: Monday, August 02, 2010, 9:01 AM

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Cynthia Gilliam, former principal of Mount Tabor Middle School and a central office administrator for the past four years, has been tapped by Portland Superintendent Carole Smith to become one of three deputy superintendents.

Gilliam, who worked in the Hillsboro district before serving as principal at Mount Tabor from 1998 to 2006, will oversee schools and principals in the Cleveland, Roosevelt and Wilson high school zones.

Smith needed to pick a new deputy superintendent after two of her four deputies, Charles Hopson and Greg Baker, both were tapped to become superintendents in out-of-state school districts this spring. On Friday, she

Twenty years of Japanese American waterfront memorial to civil rights

By Carolina Hidalgo, The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:15AM

On the west bank of the Willamette River, between the Burnside and Steel bridges, stretches a 100-year story. Through poems engraved in granite stones, it chronicles decades of hard work, injustice, new beginnings and, finally, hope. Full story »

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School district administrators: Just what do they do to earn their pay anyway?

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:00AM

At budget time, people want to know why school districts don't trim more from the top. Calendars of top schools officials show that they are busy. Full story »

There’s a Senate vote on school funding tonight. Where’s Arne? � Fred Klonsky's blog

There’s a Senate vote on school funding tonight. Where’s Arne?

by preaprez

There’s a Senate vote tonight on a bill that would supply states with $28 billion, including $10 billion for school aid. The school money is intended to help in rehiring laid off teachers and education staff.
If you haven’t called your Senator urging a yes vote yet, to still can and should.

Remembering Reagan | California Progress Report

Remembering Reagan

by kaldveer

By Peter Schrag
California Progress Report
Every now and then, the fractious California legislature can still achieve unanimity. It accomplished it again this summer in the name of Ronald Reagan, when both houses passed, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed, two bills to honor the late president and former governor.
With some effort, they provide a wonderful opportunity to rescue the man from the mythic fog in which some of his latter-day acolytes have shrouded him.
read more

Arnold Ignores Kennedy Legacy in Vetoing Farmworker Overtime

by kaldveer

By Randy Shaw
While it’s no longer news that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a fraud (which helps explains poll numbers that are lower than George W. Bush and the pre-recall Gray Davis), his veto this week of an overtime bill for California farmworkers is particularly disgraceful. Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, is the daughter of Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver.
Her mother was Eunice Kennedy Shriver – sister of John, Robert and Ted Kennedy. Schwarzenegger likes to say how influenced he was by his father-in-law, but his record in office exposes that lie. No politician fought harder for farmworker rights than Robert Kennedy, and the Governor’s veto insults the Kennedy legacy.
read more

Patients Should Be First Priority

by kaldveer

By Anthony Wright
Health Access California
On Jan. 1, 2014, at least two million Californians will become newly eligible for Medi-Cal; but this is not to say that they will magically be enrolled when the ball drops in Times Square. Without carefully laying the proper groundwork, this and other provisions of health reform law won't have their full impact.
How to best make this transition for Medi-Cal, which currently serves more than seven million Californians -- including low-income children, parents, seniors and people with disabilities -- is just one of the key goals through the current negotiations between the state and federal governments over the program's next five years. The stakes are high on these and other issues, all considered as part of discussions around a new Medicaid waiver.
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Insurance Companies Find Way To Invest Benefit Money Even After Policyholders Die

by kaldveer

By JG Preston
Protect Consumer Justice
Here’s how I thought life insurance worked:
1) I buy a life insurance policy.
2) I pay my premiums under the terms of the policy.
3) I die.
4) My beneficiary receives a check for the benefit amount specified in the policy.
Silly me. I forgot the insurance company’s purpose is to make money, even if it means my beneficiary doesn’t receive the benefit right away.
read more

Renaissance Fund Member Named To Convention Bureau - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Renaissance Fund Member Named To Convention Bureau

by Alexander Russo

The Mayor has named another political ally, Bruce Rauner, to a top city spot (Chicago convention bureau chairman named). Rauner heads the Civic Committee's education committee and is on the board of the

AM News: Daley Won't Give TIF Funding Back To CPS

by Alexander Russo

Mayor Daley rules out several options to close Chicago's record $654 million budget gap Tribune: Aldermen have talked about declaring surpluses in the city's tax increment finance districts... but Daley warned such a move is shortsighted, because the city would also then have to give back $560 million to other taxing districts, such as Chicago Public Schools... Chicago Expected to Face Record Budget Deficit CNC: Mayor Daley's administration is predicting the biggest budget deficit in Chicago's history next year, and aides said today the mayor is mulling all options except a property tax hike to close the expected shortfall of $654.7 million...Chicago Public Schools hosts back-to-school festivals at Chicago parks ABC7: Schools operating on a traditional schedule are back in session on Tuesday, September 7. Students who attend school year-round go back to class Monday, August 9...

Eduflack: Testing Throwdown in NYC

Testing Throwdown in NYC

by Eduflack

When are lower student achievement scores a good thing? That seems to be the question thrown about up in New York City this past week, where Big Apple officials have been grappling with the reality that city students' performance on the state's math and reading proficiency tests fell after a newer (and harder) exam was put into place.

As always, it is most fun to read the evolution of such stories in the New York Post, which first reported on theplunge, and then editotrialized on the issue twice -- first on Thursday praising the new "truth-telling" and then again today, condemning the United Federation of Teachers for jumping on the test score drop to "discredit alleducation standards."

It should be no secret that state standards -- and the tests that measure those standards -- have been a problem

Today’s Edujobs Marching Orders from NEA | Intercepts

Today’s Edujobs Marching Orders from NEA

by Mike Antonucci

The following was sent this morning from NEA headquarters in Washington, DC:

Subject: URGENT REQUEST FOR MEMBER MOBILIZATION TODAY
Message from John Stocks
Deputy Executive Director
National Education Association
Senator Harry Reid has filed for a cloture vote on the Reid / Murray amendment to H.R. 1586 scheduled for today @ 5:30pm. This amendment contains the Ed Jobs and Federal Medical

Lunch ladies going gourmet as food gets new look

By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press Writer

Monday, August 2, 2010

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Barry Gutierrez / AP

A photo taken Monday, July 19, 2010 at the Bruce Randolph School In Denver, shows Chef Daniel Young choosing winner fruit salad tray made by Denver Public School food service personnel during a half day of instruction on how to make healthier options with fresher foods for students. The instruction culminated with a competition and feast of what they had made.

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(08-02) 04:50 PDT DENVER (AP) --
They still wear sensible shoes, but the nation's lunch ladies are trading in their hair nets for chef toques as they undergo a gourmet makeover.
With the childhood obesity rates creating demand for healthier foods in schools, more attention is being placed on the culinary skills of those charged with preparing it. What good are fresh local produce and grass-fed beef, for example, if the lunchroom employees know how to make only canned vegetables and frozen fish sticks?
"It's more work to cook from scratch, no doubt," said Dawn Cordova, a longtime school cafeteria worker attending Denver Public Schools' first "scratch

Education Week: Clock Ticking on School Lunch Legislation

Clock Ticking on School Lunch Legislation

By Rebecca Jones, Education News Colorado

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

Commentary: D.C. has stood strong despite the downturn, and education reform is key to meeting future challenges

N

By Adrian M. Fenty

Monday, August 2, 2010

Four years ago, I ran for mayor on a promise to transform the District of Columbia into a world-class city. An exceptional public education system and a skilled workforce are critical to that vision. We've made incredible strides during the last four years, and we are going to double down on those efforts during the next term.

Despite the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, we've created thousands of jobs, financed 11,000 units of affordable housing and spent more than $1 billion rebuilding our schools, community centers, parks and waterfronts. Ten thousand new residents moved to the District last year, the largest one-year population gain since World War II. We are ranked the top real estate market in the country for foreign investment and top destination for talented young professionals. Investors from Helsinki to Abu Dhabi are lining up to inject capital into our premier development projects.
My job is to ensure this prosperity continues and see that it is shared by residents in every corner of the cit

The Bellingham Herald / columns_northwest_view / Lesson should be learned from consensus Race to the Top bill

Lesson should be learned from consensus Race to the Top bill

PETER CALLAGHAN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

A wise man who bore many scars from his battles over school reform gently disagreed.

I had suggested to him in March that the state was better off with no Race to the Top bill than with the tepid version presented to the state House and Senate.

The bill, the result of a deal between Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Washington Education Association, was likely not enough to serve its stated purpose: to show the federal government that the state was serious about changing its public schools.

He agreed it was too weak to win a chunk of the competitive Race to the Top sweepstakes created by the Obama Administration.

But it had to pass, he said. If it failed, leaders like Gregoire, WEA President Mary Lindquist and legislative Democrats could assert that the bill would have been enough.

Therefore, only by passing the bill and being slapped down by U.S. Education Secretary

School of Shock #Education News.org

EducationNews.org

Daily EducationNews

School of Shock
8.2.10 - Jennifer Gonnerman - Eight states are sending autistic, mentally retarded, and emotionally troubled kids to a facility that punishes them with painful electric

Finding a path out of the fields
8.2.10 - Agricultural changes, income limits are causing some headaches at Head Start for migrant families. Every summer, migrant and seasonal workers trek to Illinois. As parents take to the fields, the state's migrant Head Start centers embark on the tough task of enrolling the young children in education programs that could lead to a future away from the fields.

One-third of teens with ADHD delay high school degree or drop out
8.2.10 - Teens with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to drop out of high school or delay completing high school than other kids, a new study has found. Researchers analyzed U.S. data and found that nearly one-third of students with the most common type of ADHD either drop out or delay high school graduation. That rate is twice that of students with no psychiatric disorder. ...

Sally Ride Science Academy aims to make kids starry-eyed
8.2.10 - Ask a third-grader to draw a scientist, and you'll probably get a white-haired man dressed in a lab coat. But Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, would like to change that. Once teachers attend her Sally Ride Science Academy, she hopes those third-graders will show men and women hiking, exploring the oceans and flying in space. And maybe the scientists will resemble the young artists themselves. ...

A School District That Takes the Isolation Out of Autism
8.2.10 - MADISON, Wis. - Garner Moss has autism and when he was finishing fifth grade, his classmates made a video about him, so the new students he would meet in the bigger middle school would know what to expect. His friend Sef Vankan summed up Garner this way: "He puts a little twist in our lives we don't usually have without him." The public schools in Madison, Wis., are nationally known for including children with disabilities in regular classes. ...

Commentaries

Why Desegregation Must Be Secondary to Systemic Reform
8.2.10 - RiShawn Biddle - Among the dominant themes in education this year is the debate over the importance of integration and desegregation in school reform. From the Gary Orfield-Richard Kahlenberg crowd launching rhetorical volleys against

"On The Horizon" - Is D.C. Imposing on Texas' Schools?
8.1.10 - AUSTIN, Texas - There is justified outrage sweeping Texas over an attempted Washington, D.C. Power Grab that would give the federal government significant control of Texas' education dollars & school children. Ironically, the move was the initiative of Texas' own Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett. ...

Are we losing the magic; Do we really need highly motivated, innovative and resourceful teachers in today's classroom?
8.1.10 - Charles P. Brickman, NBCT - In the not too distant past highly motivated, innovative and resourceful teachers were especially appreciated and valued for their ability to bring the "magic" to the classroom. The "magic" of course, was the ability to motivate students to learn through innovative and resourceful applications of curriculum and subject matter that met the academic and learner readiness needs of their students.

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � NOLA: Charter Issues 2.0

NOLA: Charter Issues 2.0

by smead

Guest Post by Sarah Newell Usdin and Neerav Kingsland, New Schools New Orleans
Five years ago, New Orleans was perhaps America’s worst schools system. The FBI convicted over twenty district officials for stealing from kids. A valedictorian of a local high school failed the high school exit exam. Five times. Her school had failed her. Her district had failed her. Her school board had failed her. At every level, the system was broken.
Five years later and the results in NOLA are incredible:

We’ve out paced the state’s growth by nearly a factor of 4 over the past four (growth of about 12 pts. vs. 3 pts)
We’ve halved the percentage of failing schools (about 60% to 30%)
Our highest-performing open-enrollment schools are out-performing selective-admission magnet schools.

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, August 2, 2010

Cynthia Gilliam named third deputy superintendent of Portland Public Schools

Published: Monday, August 02, 2010, 8:46 AM Updated: Monday, August 02, 2010, 9:01 AM

By Carolina Hidalgo, The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:15AM

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:00AM

Lunch ladies going gourmet as food gets new look

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Clock Ticking on School Lunch Legislation

Commentary: D.C. has stood strong despite the downturn, and education reform is key to meeting future challenges

N

Lesson should be learned from consensus Race to the Top bill