Thursday, August 12, 2010

61 special ed school heads make more than NJ gov - Boston.com

61 special ed school heads make more than NJ gov

By Beth DeFalco

Associated Press Writer / August 12, 2010

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TRENTON, N.J.—It's not clear whether salary caps that Gov. Chris Christie wants for New Jersey's school superintendents would apply to private schools funded with tax dollars.

An analysis by The Record newspaper found more than 60 administrators for the state's 152 private special education schools earn more than the $175,000 cap.

None of the state's special education private schools had more than 460 students last year.

Education Department spokesman Alan Guenther said the rules still are being drafted and will be presented in September, but the governor's spokesman

HISD bond program is $39 million over budget | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD bond program is $39 million over budget

Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier told the school board this week that an initial review shows the district's $805 million bond program is $39 million over budget. He said it appears that the initial budget for the 2007 bond did not include funding for land and portable buildings — those expensive trailers used to house students during the construction process — and that the scope of some projects has grown without board approval.

"I'm sitting here stunned," board member Larry Marshall said.

Grier's new chief business officer, Leo Bobadilla, said he is reviewing documents for each school project to find out the initial scope and cost estimate, what changed, and whether the budget is in the black or the red. Bobadilla, who used to work with Grier in Guilford County Schools in North Carolina, replaced Dick Lindsay.

Who is the architect of modern education law and policy? Hint: Not Horace Mann or Bill Gates, according to Jim Ryan.QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading or viewing each day.

Who is the architect of modern education law and policy? Hint: Not Horace Mann or Bill Gates, according to Jim Ryan. (Eduwonk)
Not a typo the English Department would approve? (Yahoo News)
Hess ponders: Are local school boards the real culprits blocking education reform? Or is the problem the geographic district monopoly instead? (Rick Hess Straight Up)
Michelle Rhee’s advice for new DCPS teachers? (The Washington Post)
Will a new student loan rule proposed by the Education Department ensure that colleges—especially those in the for-profit sector—provide students with an education that pays? (The San Francisco Chronicle)

Illinois NEA Director Jim Grimes found my blog and found me “pithy.” � Fred Klonsky's blog

Illinois NEA Director Jim Grimes found my blog and found me “pithy.”

by preaprez

Jim Grimes, a member of the NEA Board of Directors from Illinois, just discovered my blog and says he found me pithy.

Fred,
Found your blog, looks good and it’s provocative.
I caught your comments on the “good Jim” and the “bad Jim” on RTTT,

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Edujobs!

Edujobs!

by smead

No, I’m not talking about the legislation the president signed yesterday. I’m talking about a rare opportunity to become part of the Bellwether Education team!
Bellwether is currently hiring for an Associate Partner to work with our Strategy Consulting team and an Analyst. If you’re a self starter committed to expanding educational opportunity for low-income kids, this could be just the opportunity you’ve been looking for. Love of fish porn is an asset but in no way a requirement for the job.

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � National Standards and School Finance Litigation

National Standards and School Finance Litigation

by smead

Guest post by Jim Ryan
Ok, I’m done plugging my book; that’s as much marketing as I can stomach. Back to some questions that have puzzled me for a while and that might be of some interest to the rest of you. This is a long post, for which I apologize in advance.
The question for today is what might national standards mean for school finance litigation and vice-versa? I’m not tackling here whether school finance litigation is a good or a bad thing, or whether more money is the answer for some schools. Instead, I want to focus on the impact that national standards might have on the litigation and the impact that the litigation might have on the standards. I’ll leave it to you to judge whether these potential

Meteor shower August 2010: how you can get the best view - CSMonitor.com

Meteor shower August 2010: how you can get the best view

Meteor shower August 2010 peak comes early Friday. Emanating from the constellation Perseid, the meteor shower could yield sightings in some locations of up to 75 meteors an hour.

The Perseid Meteor Shower viewed from the Laguna Mountains in San Diego County in California on August, 12, 2004. The meteor shower is caused as the Earth enters a debris field left over from the Comet Swift-Tuttle that occurred in 1862. The comet gets its name from the constellation Perseus since the meteors usually radiate from that location in the sky.
Newscom

The annual Perseid meteor shower, one of the finest shows in August's night sky, is set to dazzle the bleary-eyed in the wee hours of Friday.
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Photo Gallery
Meteor showers

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Heavy showers forecast for Perseid meteors
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Get ready for the Perseids, a summer shower of a different sort

Watching you watch the Perseid meteor shower

If you live under very dark skies or can travel beyond the sky glow of urban America, you can expect to see up to 75 meteors an hour, astronomers suggest. If you're hardy enough to be on a mountaintop, the number could reach 108 meteors an hour.
The best viewing locations will be in the Northern Hemisphere, with Southern Hemisphere sky-watchers limited to perhaps 30 or 40 events an hour at the shower's peak.
IN PICTURES: Meteor showers

Obama signs state aid bill, PA prepares to adjust budget | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Obama signs state aid bill, PA prepares to adjust budget

by Rajiv Venkataramanan on Aug 12 2010

Tags:

Just hours after the House of Representativespassed the state fiscal aid bill on Tuesday,President Obama signed it into law sending $26.1 billion to recession-battered states. $16.1 billion is allocated to support state Medicaid programs and $10 billion is earmarked to avert layoffs in public schools across the country.

About the emergency teachers' aid, Pres. Obama commented:

TEA must "restore meaning to school rating labels" | THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | dallasnews.com

TEA must "restore meaning to school rating labels"

by Holly Hacker/Reporter

So says the Austin Chamber of Commerce in a provocative new blog post. The group takes aim at the Texas Projection Measure, the controversial tool that boosts school ratings by counting students who failed the TAKS as passing if they're predicted to pass a future exam.
Of particular concern: How the TPM allows schools that fail to meet minimum TAKS standards to escape the "academically unacceptable" label and the related state interventions. The chamber suggests:

A campus rating of Acceptable or higher should mean that a minimum percentage of students have

Santa Paula school merger proposal moves ahead � Ventura County Star

Santa Paula school merger proposal moves ahead

By Cheri Carlson

A proposed merger of Santa Paula school districts moved a step closer to a local vote Wednesday night, after a Ventura County committee signed off on the plan.

The Ventura County Committee on School District Organization hired a consultant to study the merger and held several public hearings over the past six months before voting on the issue Wednesday. The plan now goes to the state Board of Education, which, too, must rule on the merger.

If approved in Sacramento, voters in the Santa Paula Union High School District would get to decide whether to actually merge the districts.

“I am one of the members of the unification committee in Santa Paula that started this whole ball rolling,” said Rob Corley, the only public

Transparency Watch: What the Heck Is in the House Education Spending Bill? - Politics K-12 - #Education Week

Transparency Watch: What the Heck Is in the House Education Spending Bill? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Transparency Watch: What the Heck Is in the House Education Spending Bill?

by Alyson Klein

Want to know whether the House Appropriations subcommittee that deals with K-12 spending decided to zero-out funding for your education program?
Or whether it wants to extend Race to the Top to school districts, not just states? Or whether there are changes to the Teacher Incentive Fund program? Or just how much money the School Improvement Grants are slated to get under a fiscal year 2011 spending bill that was approved by the subcommittee more than seven weeks ago?
Well, don't expect to get an answer any time soon.
Back on July 15, when the subcommittee approved the bill, its staff released a summary table and gave reporters

EducationNews.org - Red tape on school expulsions 'to be axed'

Daily EducationNews

Red tape on school expulsions 'to be axed'
8.12.10 - Rules forcing schools to share badly behaved pupils could be scrapped, it emerged today. The Coalition said the requirement for schools to admit an unruly pupil for every one expelled would be reviewed amid fears it eroded head teachers' powers to maintain discipline.

School bullying summit's big hope: an anti-bullying tipping point
8.12.10 - The Department of Education convened its first summit on school bullying Wednesday. It comes as state lawmakers nationwide step up their efforts to pass anti-bullying laws. ...

Estimate: 1 US kid in 15 born to an illegal immigrant
8.12.10 - PHOENIX - About one out of every 15 children in the United States was born to a family in which at least one parent is in this country illegally, according to a new report issued today. And 80 percent of those 5.1 million children - including 340,000 born in just 2008 - are citizens because they were born in the United States, the Pew Hispanic Center concluded. According to some, that makes them "anchor babies" for their illegal parents. ...

Sleep affects kids in school; how much do yours need?
8.12.10 - Oh, to be the Bildens. Their three kids go to bed at a decent hour - around 9 - and sleep through the night. No little ones tiptoeing out of the bedroom for a third glass of water or fifth bathroom trip. "The embarrassing part is, I go to sleep shortly after them. I raise the white flag and crawl into bed. I get up early, by 5," says Kristin Bilden of Durham, N.C., whose three children range in age from 6 to 13. ...

Commentaries

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble
8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

EdNews Reports

15-minute brain scan developed by British scientists could spot child autism earlier
8.12.10 - Children with autism could soon be diagnosed using a 15-minute brain scan developed by British scientists. Tests on adults show an accuracy rate of 90 per cent, which paves the way for detecting the condition at an earlier stage when treatment may be more effective.

Ohio Education Association Staff Authorize Strike | Intercepts

Ohio Education Association Staff Authorize Strike

by Mike Antonucci

In what is becoming a perennial event, the professional employees of the Ohio Education Association authorized a strike if a contract settlement is not reached prior to September 1.
Bargaining between OEA employees and managers has been contentious for many years, resulting in a strike in 1997, and last-minute

Clearing the record on Ackerman's raise | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Clearing the record on Ackerman's raise

by Paul Socolar on Aug 11 2010 Posted in Latest news

Despite the recent flurry of coverage of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's $338,000 salary and her receipt of a $65,000 performance bonus, some of the facts of the situation are still muddy.

For instance, last Friday's Inquirer editorial stated, "Some superintendents have agreed to forgo raises - as Ackerman did last year."

Not an entirely accurate statement, according to District spokesperson Fernando Gallard, who says he told the newspaper only that the superintendent did not receive a raise in 2009.

But Ackerman in fact did receive a raise in 2010 that was retroactive to July 1, 2009.

The superindent had decided, according to Gallard, "not to take a raise or bonus until the SRC did the review of her performance." Ackerman, who started in June

Notes from the news, Aug. 12

Submitted by Erika Owens on Thu, 08/12/2010 - 09:48 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink

It's time for the Philadelphia School Reform Commission to step up on accountability Daily News (opinion)
Phil Goldsmith writes that the responsibility rests with the SRC to take the lead on setting "high standards for transparency to build public trust" for the District.

Access to District payroll records restored for some The Notebook blog
City Controller Alan Butkovitz' office again has access to the records, but District staffers will need to explain why they need global access to salary and other "sensitive" data.

Onorato supports school vouchers for low-income families The Inquirer
Onorato's support for vouchers earned him the endorsement of school choice supporter State Sen. Anthony Williams, who ran against Onorato for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Editorial: Feeding their brains The Inquirer
The Senate passed a childhood nutrition bill that includes a provision to continue the Universal Feeding Program in Philadelphia.

Charter battles Philly district over its expansion The Inquirer
Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School did not get official SRC approval for additional seats or to permanently expand to serve high school grades, and now it is urging the SRC to act so that hundreds of students won't have to find new schools for the fall.

Diplomas Now Wins $30 Million Education Department Grant PR Canada

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

61 special ed school heads make more than NJ gov

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HISD bond program is $39 million over budget

Meteor shower August 2010: how you can get the best view

Related Stories

Obama signs state aid bill, PA prepares to adjust budget

by Rajiv Venkataramanan on Aug 12 2010

Tags:

Santa Paula school merger proposal moves ahead

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble 8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble 8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble 8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble 8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

Clearing the record on Ackerman's raise

by Paul Socolar on Aug 11 2010 Posted in Latest news

Submitted by Erika Owens on Thu, 08/12/2010 - 09:48 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble
8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble
8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble
8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.

$830 Billion in Student Loans: The New Mortgage Bubble
8.12.10 - Anya Kamenetz - From where I'm sitting, the buildup of the national student loan balance looks like a massive betrayal of trust. People have been told for decades that this is "good" debt. In fact it's really, really bad debt.