Monday, August 30, 2010

The Los Angeles Times evaluates every L.A. teacher | THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | dallasnews.com

The Los Angeles Times evaluates every L.A. teacher

by William McKenzie/ Editorial Columnist

The Obama administration wants to create a more direct link between teacher evaluations and the progress their students make in the classroom. I can understand why some teachers don't like this angle, but it sure makes sense from the perspective of students and parents.

Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times is looking at how much value each teacher in the Los Angeles school district adds to their students. As explained in this piece, the TImes is using a methodology to reach its

Leslie Jacobs: After the Deluge, A New Education System - WSJ.com

After the Deluge, A New Education System

Today close to 70% of New Orleans children attend charter schools.

BY LESLIE JACOBS

New Orleans

Five years ago yesterday, the levees broke. Hurricane Katrina flooded roughly 80% of this city, causing nearly $100 billion in damage. The storm forced us to rebuild our homes, workplaces and many of our institutions—including our failing public education system.

But from the flood waters, the most market-driven public school system in the country has emerged. Education reformers across America should tak

NorthJersey.com: Doblin: Bret Schundler has left the building

Doblin: Bret Schundler has left the building

Monday, August 30, 2010
LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY AUGUST 27, 2010, 5:32 PM

By ALFRED P. DOBLIN
RECORD EDITORIAL COLUMNIST

ON FRIDAY, two birds, perhaps hawks, circled near my office window. I looked down at the dense shrubbery that grows near the south side of I-80 in Woodland Park. For a moment, I thought someone might have thrown Bret Schundler from a moving vehicle and the birds sensed easy prey. But that was not the case. Schundler was still under a bus.

The political demise, at least for now, of the former state education commissioner, is a sad story because Schundler was victimized by his boss, Democrats and parts of the media. New Jersey lost out in its bid for Race to the Top dollars. It’s a $400 million federal grant. But it’s much more than that.

If the Christie administration had been victorious, it would have been a political windfall for the governor. He tossed out an earlier state application when he

D.C. Mayoral Primary Looking Grim for Fenty: Edu-Implications :: Frederick M. Hess

Frederick M. Hess's Blog

D.C. Mayoral Primary Looking Grim for Fenty: Edu-Implications

by Frederick M. Hess • Aug 30, 2010 at 9:50 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is trailing City Council President Vincent Gray by 17% among likely voters in the city's Democratic primary. The primary will be held September 14 and, in almost entirely Democratic D.C., is tantamount to election. The WaPo results reflect survey numbers reported earlier by the Washington Examiner, and follow several weeks of straw polls suggesting trouble for Fenty. Fenty, who swept to a massive citywide victory in 2006, has held his support among D.C.'s white voters but has cratered among black voters--he's trailing Gray 64-19 among registered black Democrats. The deep-pocketed Fenty effort has floundered even though 67% of registered Dems say the mayor "has brought needed change" to the city.

Hard-charging D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Michelle Rhee has made it clear that she regards Fenty as a stalwart champion and is skeptical that Gray would provide the same support. For his part, Gray has equivocated about whether he would seek to keep Rhee, just as he has on the contentious particulars of her

Colorado schools fail inspection mandate | EdNewsColorado

Colorado schools fail inspection mandate

by Rebecca Jones

Students eat lunch at a Denver elementary school on Aug. 23. Virtually every Denver school cafeteria was inspected at least once in 2009-10 but federal rules say it should have been twice.

Federal regulations require school lunchrooms be inspected at least twice a year by local health authorities but more than half of all Colorado schools fail to meet that mandate. Many aren’t inspected even once a year.

It’s a record that put Colorado in the bottom five of all states in 2008-09, the most recent year available, when an average 29.5 percent of schools nationwide fell short of the required number of inspections.

The reason so many schools lag: While the 2004 School Lunch Reauthorization Act requires schools to obtain

Award-winning teachers dole out advice on fixing public schools - CNN.com

Award-winning teachers dole out advice on fixing public schools

By Stephanie Chen, CNN

August 30, 2010 8:16 a.m. EDT

Bryon Ernest, who received the Indiana Teacher of the Year award, says schools should take risks to become better.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Award-winning teachers suggest ideas on improving America's public schools:
Some say schools should invest more in quality teachers and technology
More teacher collaboration, such as conferences or online programs, encouraged
Science teacher suggests less emphasis on student testing, more on overall performance

RELATED TOPICS

Editor's note: Watch CNN's "Fix Our Schools" coverage all this week, offering concrete, unique solutions to the U.S. education crisis.

(CNN) -- What if students attended school all year? One Wisconsin teacher thinks that could be a way to improve student grades and fix the nation's public school system.

Almost every teacher has thoughts on how to improve schools. So this month, as students began to trickle into classrooms, CNN listened to the ideas of award-winning teachers at public schools across the country.

From encouraging more investment in quality teachers to improving student access to technology, these passionate teachers had plenty to say, despite the difficulties of budget reductions and teacher cuts.

Share your thoughts about making schools better

Almost all the teachers warned that there is no quick fix. But for now,

This Week In Education: Video: Campaign Ad Capitalizes On "School Saving" Democrat

Video: Campaign Ad Capitalizes On "School Saving" Democrat

by Alexander Russo

An earnest and potentially inaccurate ad from Orlando Congressman Alay Grayson (D):

Alan Grayson Apparently Saved These Kids' Schools! (Gawker)

N.J. financial aid program slashes assistance to college students | NJ.com

N.J. financial aid program slashes assistance to college students

Published: Monday, August 30, 2010, 6:51 AM Updated: Monday, August 30, 2010, 7:16 AM

Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
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Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerRutgers University sign in New Brunswick in a 2002 photo. The maximum Tuition Aid Grant awards at the institution will go down $714 as tuition and fees go up an average of $673.

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Low-income college students who rely on New Jersey’s popular Tuition Aid Grant program to help pay their tuition bills will see their aid checks slashed by nearly 8 percent as they return to campus for the new school year, state officials said.

The cuts — which will affect nearly a third of New Jersey’s full-time college students — mean the state’s neediest students will see their annual grants cut by between $192 and $872 as tuition rates continue to rise.

State funding for the Tuition Aid Grant, or TAG, program increased by 18 percent this year. But the number of New Jersey students qualifying for the the need-based grants surged by nearly 1,800 thanks to the lingering economic downturn.

So, state officials said they were forced to cut the awards for everyone.

"To remain within available resources and to fund all eligible students, it was the necessary to reduce awards for 2010-11," said AnnMarie Bouse,spokeswoman for the Higher Education Student

School Tech Connect: Speaker Boehner

Speaker Boehner

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Yup.

In case you hadn't noticed, I myself am a bit of a partisan. Unlike California's Meg Whitman, I haven't missed a vote since I was 18, with the exception of one, when I neglected to register in time after one of my many moves.

I love going to the polls. I love being the first person in line, casting my vote, and saying thanks to all the poll

The Educated Guess � Steinberg bill on teacher layoffs in jeopardy

Steinberg bill on teacher layoffs in jeopardy

Posted in Achievement Gap, Equity issues, Tenure

A bill that would end the disparity in teacher layoffs in low-income, low-performing schools and resolve a lawsuit against the state and Los Angeles Unified is stuck in an Assembly committee with two days left to act on legislation.

SB 1285 is a priority of Senate pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, its sponsor. The stalemate puts him at odds with Assembly Speaker John Perez, who controls which bills exit the Rules Committee. The outcome will be a gauge of Perez’s loyalty to the California Teachers Association, which opposes the bill as an infringement of seniority-based layoffs.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on August 29th, 2010

Teachers to survey students – if they choose

Posted in Teacher Development

With the governor’s signature of SB 1422, students have won the right to express views of their teachers. It will take another bill, however, to win the right to actually be listened to.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles, is a victory of sorts for the California Assn. of Student Councils and a civics lesson in sausage making.

The bill allows high school student governments to work with teachers on creating a student opinion survey on various aspects of the classes they take and their teachers’ effectiveness. The surveys will be distributed to teachers annually.

Here’s where the “buts” start. Teachers wouldn’t have to distribute them if they didn’t want to. The answers would be kept confidential. Only the teachers would have access to the answers; administrators wouldn’t have a right to see the responses. The survey could not be used as part of a teacher evaluation or be entered in a teacher’s personnel file.

(Read more and comment on this post)

By admin on August 27th, 2010

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Audience Trumps Structure Every Time � Chalkdust101

Audience Trumps Structure Every Time

by pjhiggins

Last week, in my reading of Kate Glass’ article at ASCD Express “ReThinking Five Paragraphs,” I related to much of what Kate portrayed in her writing. The staid structure of writing that we’ve all been exposed to as students, and perhaps perpetuated as teachers needs some close scrutiny. When, other than on standardized tests, do we read arguments that wrap up neatly in five formulaic paragraphs? This is, as Dan Meyer put it in his 2010 TEDxNYED talk, akin to an impatience with irresolution. And Glass notes that:

Freedom can be a little scary. Kids sometimes even panic when they are told they can decide how

Schools Matter: NOLA Regular Public Schools Outgain NOLA Charters Two to One

NOLA Regular Public Schools Outgain NOLA Charters Two to One

by Jim Horn

The corporate charter school movement in New Orleans has cooked up a great deal of PR to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Katrina, and much of it has been swallowed and regurgitated by newspapers, blogs, and television news stories, all looking for something positive to write about in the continuing, sad saga of the Big Uneasy. NBC’s Nightly News, for instance, has gushed in at least two separate pieces this week about the

Floor Vote On Brownley Bag Ban Expected Monday | California Progress Report

Alan Simpson: Not a Gentleman or a Scholar
by christine
By Anthony Wright
Health Access
Some of the most outrageous remarks in recent memory were made yesterday by former Senator Alan Simpson to the national leader of the Older Women's League (OWL) regarding entitlement to Social Security. Specifically, Mr. Simpson took it upon himself to respond to OWL in a very insulting and derogatory manner that 350 million women were in essence "sponging off" Social Security.
We took more attention than most because we value the membership of OWL of California as a Health Access California member, and active participant on our board. The great Betty Perry of OWL is the immediate past president of our board, and a longtime friend and ally of our organization. An insult to her is an insult to us. But even if we look beyond Senator Simpson's sexist and shameful language, was he right?
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Floor Vote On Brownley Bag Ban Expected Monday

by kaldveer

By Dan Aiello
California Progress Report

In what may turn out to be this year's most memorable legislative fight in Sacramento, Assembly Bill 1998, the single-use plastic bag ban introduced by Democrat Julia Brownley of Santa Monica, is scheduled for a Senate floor vote Monday, just one day before the legislature wraps up.

If a legislator managed to miss the huge statewide ad buy of AB 1998's opposition, a coalition led by the American Chemistry Council representing plastic bag manufacturers, there was no missing the giant blow-up turtle exhibit on the West Steps of the Capitol Friday, part of the bill sponsor, Heal the Bay's, last minute efforts to garner the two-thirds Senate vote required to pass the legislation.

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