Despite solid evidence that it matters, preschool is still a privilege, one many families have to fight to prove they're poor enough for.
Another school year, another set of writing assignments: Students of all ages will soon be composing papers on summer vacations, the Chinese economy, or the heroines of Henry James. And beginners or veterans, these student writers all risk exposure to usage myths — bogus rules of English they may hear, or read, or suddenly discover (via a teacher’s red pen) that they’ve violated.
Fake language rules can come from respected sources, but that’s no reason to believe them. As Kathryn Schulz explains in her new book, “Being Wrong,” people don’t know that they’re misinformed: Being wrong, after all, feels just like being right. But learning to write is hard enough without the burden of following non-rules. So let’s lighten the load a bit, starting with 10 usage topics that deserve a good leaving alone.
Fifty-seven struggling Pennsylvania schools - most of them in Philadelphia - will share $101 million in federal grants over three years to boost student achievement.
In the region, 33 schools will split $58.7 million.
But the money comes with strings attached.
The schools must adopt one of four reform models that trigger changes such as replacing principals or at least half of their teaching forces, bringing in outside management, or closing schools and transferring students to higher-performing ones.
Schools in the Philadelphia, William Penn, and Southeast Delco districts, plus the Philadelphia Montessori Charter School and the West Philadelphia Achievement Charter School learned Thursday that they would receive between $679,200 (Park Lane Elementary in Darby) and $4.2 million (Lincoln High in Philadelphia).
The Chester Upland School District, which applied for $6 million in grants for
Saturday, August 28th 2010, 4:00 AM
They're cracking down on school crime, too.
After raising the bar for passing standardized tests, state education officials Friday ramped up efforts to keep students safer, releasing a longer list of schools labeled "persistently dangerous."
The state also created tougher requirements for schools seeking to be removed from the most-violent list this year. Schools had to demonstrate two years of improved crime statistics instead of just one.
The number of city schools on the dreaded list rose to
1500 just a few years ago, 5000 last year. And what follow-up questions should we have?
At Gotham Schools, they had none. I have previously complained about the bias embedded in their reporting. But this was just lousy journalism. (I explain more in the third comment some of which is copied below the fold)
1. You’ve provided no source for your data. (I assume these are regurgitated NYCDOE numbers?)
2. You’ve failed to define NYC student. (I want to assume these are public school students? Did you include charters? Private schools? Parochial? Hunter?)
3. You’ve compared 1500 students five years ago with 5000 this year. Are they comparable? From
As I enter my 16th year of teaching I am quietly anticipating a new cadre of students who will undoubtedly surprise, test, challenge, and inspire me. It happens every year; you get your roster of students and at that moment, you have no attachments. But soon I will re-enter the world of Middle School Land, a place that can be very bizarre, hilarious, and humbling.
Preparation begins before Day 1, and in reality, it never stops. During the summer I read several Young Adult Literature books recommended by the school librarian; these will be made visible on the chalk tray in the front of the classroom, for students to check out at any time. This weekend I will rush to finish Mockingjay, the third
In the largest public school walkout since 2008 Puerto Rican teachers hit the bricks in a one day strike over wages and working conditions.
Teachers walked off their jobs Thursday in a one-day strike over staff and funding levels in Puerto Rican schools, giving students an unplanned day off
MOBILE, Ala.—Of all the strategies we’ve heard for turning low-performing schools into high-performing schools, we had never heard this one: become a mind-reader.
Extrasensory perception—or at least a staff with a shared vision and the ability to anticipate each other’s needs—has apparently been key to the transformation at George C. Hall Elementary School.
“We’ve come to read each other’s minds at this point,” Principal Terri Tomlinson said today when the Courage in the Classroom bus pulled up at Hall. “We’re just a solid team.”
Earlier this year the Department profiled the school’s success in a series of videos on school turnaroundsabout the federal School Improvement Grant program. It was good to meet the administrators, teachers, parents and partners from that video in person and to hear from the larger team and community.
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
The community’s role in this turnaround was key, especially the support of the Mobile Area Education Foundation. For hard work like this, everyone has a role to play.
Massie Ritsch
Office of Communications & Outreach
COLUMBIA, S.C.—State investigators have identified nearly three dozen illegal immigrants working at school construction sites in one South Carolina county, and fined a company, officials announced Friday.
The state agency overseeing South Carolina's illegal immigration law reported that five subcontractors have been cited for employing 35 illegal workers -- 32 of them identified since the 2008 law began applying to all businesses July 1.
The investigation at public school construction sites in Pickens County began in November, following complaints from residents and contractors not hired for the jobs. But the scope was initially limited, since the law applied then only to employers with more than 100 workers, said Jim Knight, head of the
JACKSON, Miss.—At the Kids Kollege Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School, the children aren’t called students; they’re called scholars. And the adults aren’t teachers; they’re servant leaders.
That’s how this after-school program serving disadvantaged children in Mississippi’s capital sets high expectations for everyone.
The program is a partnership between Jackson State University, a historically black college, and Children’s Defense Fund. CDF’s founder, Marian Wright Edelman, joined the Courage in the Classroom Tour this morning in Jackson. There, Secretary Duncan listened to a group of Kids Kollege interns talk about why they are drawn to the field of education.
Watch video from this morning’s visit to Jackson State University:Click here for an accessible version of the video.
And in other news:
We’ve been fortunate on the Courage in the Classroom tour to have a number of state-level leaders join us along the way. On Thursday the state education commissioner of Arkansas, Dr. Tom Kimbrell, and the state superintendent in Louisiana, Paul Pastorek, both hopped on the bus and joined us at the day’s events. On Friday we welcomed aboard Dr. Tom Burnham, Mississippi’s superintendent of education, for stops in Jackson and Hattiesburg.
“I believe very strongly as educational leaders that one of our challenges is to stay connected with the teachers, and stay connected with the classrooms,” he said of the tour’s value.
Dr. Burnham assumed his position in January. It’s his second tour of duty as head of Mississippi’s K-12 public education system. In between stints he has served as the dean of the School of Education at the University of Mississippi and as a district superintendent in Biloxi, Miss., and in Henderson County, N.C. He began his career as a classroom teacher and coach.
Mississippi teachers, he said, “are working each day with a great deal of passion, they’re working each day with a great deal of professionalism, and in most cases a pretty significant level of preparation to be successful”—but, all too often, inadequate resources.
“At the end of the day, each day, many of these people go home very, very tired from having attempted to achieve success,” he said.
Here’s video of our conversation with Dr. Burnham aboard the bus:
Click here for an accessible version of the video.
At least, the first I’m aware of.
Student activists at UC Berkeley floated budget stats and contact info into some of the campus’s largest lecture halls on the first day of class this week. Have I missed something, or was this the country’s first student protest of 2010-11?
