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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Danville student chooses online college classes

Danville student chooses online college classes

Danville student chooses online college classes

Sunday, August 29, 2010

18-year-old, Katrina Howell, on Wednesday August 25, 2010, is working towards an online college degree from her home in Danville, Calif.18-year-old, Katrina Howell, on Wednesday August 25, 2010, is working towards an online college degree from her home in Danville, Calif.

With the Internetemerging as the world's largest classroom, debate over the value of an online university education has never run hotter. The University of California hopes to develop a top-tier cyber bachelor's degree program, while some faculty worry that doing that would diminish UC's quality. Some schools, like the University of Massachusetts, offer some degree courses online. Others, like the for-profit University of Phoenix, offer all degree courses online.

Katrina Howell, 18, graduated from high school in June and will study psychology this fall at the University of Phoenix. Her classroom will be her bedroom at home in Danville. She spoke recently to reporter Nanette Asimov.

Q: Will you miss campus life?



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/29/BAQ91F0TFS.DTL&type=education#ixzz0y21ZJqdW

Sec. Duncan to visit Mass. to tout school grants - Boston.com

Sec. Duncan to visit Mass. to tout school grants - Boston.com

Sec. Duncan to visit Mass. to tout school grants

August 29, 2010
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BOSTON—U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is planning to visit Springfield to highlight the state's recent award of $250 million in federal education grants.

Massachusetts won the funding boost as part of the Obama administration's Race to the Top program.

Duncan is planning to visit the High School of Commerce in Springfield on Monday to participate in an education forum with Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray.

Under the funding program, states were rewarded for reforms intended to turn around low-performing schools through better student testing and teacher

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National Education Association leader opposes more Texas money for charter schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Politics | The Dallas Morning News

National Education Association leader opposes more Texas money for charter schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Texas Politics | The Dallas Morning News

National Education Association leader opposes more Texas money for charter schools

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, August 28, 2010

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
tstutz@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – Texas will be headed down the wrong path if it invests more money in its network of independent charter schools, the president of the National Education Association said Friday, citing mixed student achievement results in those schools.

NEA president Dennis Van Roekel said efforts to expand the charter school program in Texas and other states ignore the track record of those schools and their lack of success with many students.

"If you look at the research for charters, the results are not there. You cannot make a case that we ought to invest more money in charter schools based on the research," said Van Roekel, a former math teacher from Arizona who heads the 3.2 million-member teacher union. He visited schools in Austin and San Antonio on Friday as part

Teachers strike remains possible; Harmony-Emge leaders, union still have no deal - From the online desk - bnd.com

Teachers strike remains possible; Harmony-Emge leaders, union still have no deal - From the online desk - bnd.com

Teachers strike remains possible; Harmony-Emge leaders, union still have no deal

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BELLEVILLE -- A teachers strike looms on the horizon for the Harmony-Emge School District 175 after negotiators for the district and its teachers union met for five hours Saturday without a breakthrough.

Both sides have agreed not disclose the status of negotiations until after a meeting of the Illinois Federation of Teachers bargaining unit for District 175, said Christi Flaherty, the lawyer representing the school district.

Flaherty noted that District 175 school board is set



Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/08/29/1380211/teachers-strike-remains-possible.html#ixzz0y1F6ydDa

Schundler’s blunder - NYPOST.com

Schundler’s blunder - NYPOST.com

Schundler’s blunder

Last Updated: 5:13 AM, August 29, 2010

Posted: August 29, 2010

Comments: 3

Just two days after promising not to scapegoat anyone over the bureaucratic bungle that cost New Jersey federal Race to the Top money, Gov. Christie last week jettisoned Education Commissioner Bret Schundler.

Sad to say, he had no choice.

The problem wasn’t the initial foul-up, in which Schundler’s department included the wrong year’s budget figures on a single page of Jersey’s 10,000-page submission. That mistake put Trenton just behind the lowest state qualifier.

It was that Schundler lied to Christie, claiming he’d tried to give the feds the correct information and was rebuffed — though a video clearly showed otherwise.

Bret Schundler
ANNIE MCCORMICK
Bret Schundler

“I never promised the people of New Jersey that this would be a mistake-free administration,” said Christie. “However, I did promise that the people in my administration would be held accountable.”

Unfortunately, the fiasco will only further embolden Christie’s enemies — and particularly the teachers union.

From the moment it was learned that New Jersey had lost out on Race to the Top, union officials gleefully noted that the state had also been penalized because the union — the New Jersey Education Association — didn’t back its reforms.

That cost Trenton 14 points on its



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/schundler_blunder_tA8BCWPQWjTRsKEKv3heNP#ixzz0y1EaybhF

“The Power Of Positive Relationships” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“The Power Of Positive Relationships” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

This Week In Education: Value-Added: LA Times Releases List of Teachers And Schools

This Week In Education: Value-Added: LA Times Releases List of Teachers And Schools

Value-Added: LA Times Releases List of Teachers And Schools

6a00d8341cce2453ef01287674a957970c-800wiThe LA Times' much-debated list of teachers and schools is now finally online -- you can check it out here. Will this ultimately serve the greater good and push districts and schools to do a better job evaluating, supporting, and screening teachers? I hope so. Will it earn the LA Times some sort of notoriety and recognition on the journalism front? Probably. (That's what happened in Season Five of The Wire, as you may recall.) In the short run, however, it's going to raise a LOT of questions about the whole standardized

Schools Matter: More Evidence Against Using Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers

Schools Matter: More Evidence Against Using Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers

More Evidence Against Using Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers

Last year it was the Division of Behavioral and Social Science from the National Academies of Science that wrote Arne Duncan a long, long letter waving the red flag on the Oligarchs' idea of using test score gains to make high stakes judgments on teacher hiring and firing. (Look to the top right on this page for the link).

Now another prestigious group of scholars has weighed in, offering another warning message with some increased urgency built in. Here is the list of scholars:
EVA L. BAKER is professor of education at UCLA, co-director of the National Center for Evaluation Standards and Student Testing (CRESST), and co-chaired the committee to revise testing standards of the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education.
PAUL E. BARTON is the former director of the Policy Information Center of the Educational Testing

Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers

Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers


Standardized test

Test failure

A new paper finds broad consensus that standardized tests – even with the addition of value-added modeling -- fail to accurately measure both student and teacher performance.



Problems with the Use ofStudent Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers



Economic Policy Institute

Aug 27, 2010 ... A nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy.
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