Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Ex-N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says Gov. Christie 'defamed' him | NJ.com

Ex-N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says Gov. Christie 'defamed' him

Published: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 3:09 PM Updated: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 3:09 PM

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Adena Stevens/For The Star-LedgerFormer education chief Bret Schundler at his home in Jersey City Friday, Aug. 27, 2010 .

TRENTON — New Jersey's former education commissioner, still stinging from his firing last week, says Gov. Chris Christie has "defamed" him.

Christie fired Bret Schundler last week after the discovery of a mistake on an application that may have cost the state a $400 million federal education grant.

Schundler says he did make the mistake and can accept being fired for that.

But Christie says Schundler was dismissed for not telling the governor the truth about what happened.

In a letter sent to reporters today, Schundler says it was the governor who misled the public.

He writes: "I will not accept being defamed by the governor for something he knows I did not do."

Schundler: Christie Calling Me A Liar Is 'The Last Straw' | TPMMuckraker

Schundler: Christie Calling Me A Liar Is 'The Last Straw'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 1, 2010, 2:47PM

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Bret Schundler, Chris Christie

In an e-mail and statement provided to reporters this afternoon, former New Jersey Education Commission Bret Schundler (R) defended himself against charges by Gov. Chris Christie (R) that Schundler deliberately misled the governor over the events leading up to the state's loss of a $400 million grant. Although he would have been able to accept being fired over the error that cost the state money, Schundler said he was unwilling to accept any further character assassination.

"I will not accept being defamed by the Governor for something he knows I did not do," he wrote. "The Governor called me a liar this week. That was the last straw."

In the statement, along with copies of emails provided to TPMmuckraker last night, Schundler says that shortly after New Jersey officials learned they lost out on $400 million in federal education funding last Tuesday, Star-Ledgerreporter Lisa Fleisher e-mailed Gov. Chris Christie's director of communications, Maria Comella. Fleisher wanted to know if New Jersey officials had tried to supply the federal reviewers with information that was missing from their

Courage in the Classroom 2010 - Portland ME

Effects of 'Mutual Consent' on Teacher Turnover, Distribution Probed - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Effects of 'Mutual Consent' on Teacher Turnover, Distribution Probed

by Stephen Sawchuk

Over the long haul, mutual-consent teacher policies don't appear to improve the distribution of inexperienced teachers—or the levels of turnover in high-minority schools.

That's the conclusion of a recent analysis by researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington.

If you're new to this wonky area of school hiring, mutual consent is a policy in which both the teacher seeking a placement and the receiving school's principal (and sometimes other staff) must agree to the placement. It differs from voluntary transfers or forced placements that are based on seniority.

D.C., Rhode Island; Colorado; Austin, Texas; Chicago; and Milwaukee are some of the places that have either partly or totally done away with forced placements.

One of the perceived benefits of mutual-consent policies, as the New Teacher Project has shown in several

Education Research Report: Middle schools do a worse job than K- 8 schools

Middle schools do a worse job than K- 8 schools

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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The disparity stems from the toll that changing to a new school takes on adolescents and differences in the sizes of grades

New York City's standalone middle schools do a worse job educating students than schools that offer kindergarten through eighth grade under one roof, according to a new study to be released Wednesday by

Value-added and the non-random sorting of kids who don’t give a sh^%t � School Finance 101

Value-added and the non-random sorting of kids who don’t give a sh^%t

by schoolfinance101

Last week, this video from The Onion (asking whether tests are biased against kids who don’t give a sh^%t) was going viral among the education social networking geeks like me. At the same time, the conversations continued on the Los Angeles Times Value-Added story, with LAT releasing the scores for individual teachers.

I’ve written many blog posts in recent weeks on this topic. Lately, it seems that the emphasis on the conversation has turned toward finding a middle ground – discussing the appropriate role for VAM (Value Added Modeling) – if any, in teacher evaluation. But also, there is renewed rhetoric defending VAM. Most of that rhetoric seems to take on most directly the concern over the error rates in VAM – and lack of strong year to year correlation between which teachers are rated high or low.

The new rhetoric points out that we’re only having this conversation about VAM error rates because we can

Catalyst Notebook :: In the News: Limited success with turnarounds; value-added evaluation model exploding

Catalyst writers and editors share their perspectives, analyses and the news behind the news on improving Chicago area public schools. Our on-the-ground reports will tell you what’s happening in schools and education circles here and elsewhere. Our views will tell you what to make of it.

In the News: Limited success with turnarounds; value-added evaluation model explodingA survey released by the Washington-based Center on Education Policy finds that few school districts are familiar with the four federal models for turning around low-performing schools and even fewer have implemented them.
More than a third of school districts reported they had no familiarity with the models that are part of the $3.5 billion Title 1 School Improvement Grants heading to school districts this fall, according to the report.

Continue Reading In the News: Limited success with turnarounds; value-added evaluation model exploding »

Posted By: Cassandra West On Wed Sep 1, 2010 In In the News
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Four Chicago neighborhoods to give input on school improvementTo try and get community buy-in for school closings and new school openings, CPS has chosen four neighborhoods in which officials plan to develop a school improvement plan. The communities--Englewood, Grand Boulevard, Humboldt Park and Austin—all have struggling schools that are prime targets for some type of action from the district.

Continue Reading Four Chicago neighborhoods to give input on school improvement »

Bill raising age limit for kindergarten passes

Wyatt Buchanan,Justin Ho, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

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UC sees money in out-of-state students 09.01.10
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(09-01) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - --

The California Legislature approved a bill Tuesday that will require children to reach their fifth birthday by Sept. 1 to enroll in kindergarten.

The passage came on the last night for lawmakers to pass bills to send to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor has until Sept. 30 to act on the bills.

Lawmakers were working on other high-profile measures, including a ban on single-use plastic bags, late into the night Tuesday.

Passage of the kindergarten bill, SB1381 by Sen Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, moves the

Hundreds of N.J. students who can't do simple math are credited with passing calculus, report says | NJ.com

N.J. Board of Education vows to continue reform after Race to the Top loss Acting commissioner Rochelle Hendricks (second from left), who replaced Bret Schundler (center), says "our resolve is strong" despite not winning federal funding

Hundreds of N.J. students who can't do simple math are credited with passing calculus, report says Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerFile photo of math books at a middle school in Morristown. Hundreds of N.J. students who can't do simple math were credited with passing calculus, according to a report on APP.com. According to a Department of Education ...

This Week In Education: Quote: Meaningful Disclosure Hard To Come By

Quote: Meaningful Disclosure Hard To Come By *"This newspaper would not be here if not for LSAT prep courses and proprietary schools, but trust our reporting anyway!” *- Columbia Journalism Review Q and A about WaPo conflict of interest disclosure

Books: "Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors" [image: ScreenHunter_36 Aug. 30 12.46]My book about the effort to revamp Locke High School is now slated to come out next spring, published by the good folks at Jossey-Bass. The book, currently titled Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors, describes how ...

Edumoney Shell Games Again? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Edumoney Shell Games Again?

by Alyson Klein

Fresh off his state's Race to the Top win, Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri has plans to use his state's share of the $10 billion in education jobs funding to help plug budget holes in other areas, not to save education jobs, according to this Providence Journal story.

Does this sound familiar? It should ... states diverted much of the education funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to other purposes.

In Rhode Island, the state's chief, Deborah A. Gist, is none too happy with the plan, telling the Providence Journal that she, for one, argued that the money should be used "for its intended purpose," which is to prevent teacher layoffs.

So is this allowable? Well, technically, it would appear to be. The education jobs legislation says the money

The Struggle To Save [Fix?] Smyth Elementary - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

The Struggle To Save [Fix?] Smyth Elementary

by Alexander Russo

It's a story we've heard a thousand times -- a low performing neighborhood school pressured as new families move in and want more options for their kids. Last year it was Pulaski. The year before it was... I forget. The Chicago Journal has the latest version of the story, involving Smyth Elementary

Secret Hiring Process & Payroll Cost Question

by Alexander Russo

How do top schools fill openings without listing job availabilities and getting swamped with candidates? I'm not sure. But it seems to happen all the time, based on comments and emails like this one from a reader: "I interviewed yesterday for an English opening at Payton (didn't get it) and also was tipped off about an opening at Lincoln Park HS (which the department chair said they just filled). Neither of these jobs was posted on the district website, yet others are. I was under the impression that schools have to post the openings." Also, while

Secretary Duncan’s Reflections About the Bus Tour – ED.gov Blog

Secretary Duncan’s Reflections About the Bus Tour

Secretary Arne Duncan reflects on what he learned during the “Courage in the Classroom” bus tour.

Schools’ Financial Cushion Could Get Thinner voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog:

Schools’ Financial Cushion Could Get Thinner

The San Diego Unified school board is likely to dip deeper into its reserves if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't sign a bill to restore state funding for students with disabilities. Doing so would leave it with a thin financial cushion as the school system faces more budget cuts.

The board met tonight to go over their options after the County Office of Education put conditions on approving the San Diego Unified budget, partly because it didn't include the last minute cut to special education funds.

While state lawmakers have given the thumbs up to a bill that would reverse that cut, Gov. Schwarzenegger has yet to sign it. Phil Stover, the deputy superintendent who oversees business operations, said the bill could be signed as early as tomorrow.

If that bill passes, the school district doesn't have to dip into its reserves or find any other cuts for this coming school year. If it doesn't, the school board would have to decide

LA Times Series on Teacher Evaluations Provokes Boycott - uprisingradio.org

LA Times Series on Teacher Evaluations Provokes Boycott

Published 31 Aug 2010, 10:13 am - No Comments -
Filed under Feature Stories

Listen to this segment | the entire program

LA Times In a controversial new series of articles, the Los Angeles Times has begun evaluating Los Angeles Unified School District teachers using a new grading system. This so-called “value-added” analysis attempts to explain student test scores by comparing the student with him or herself as opposed to the presently used Academic Progress Index (API) which compares students to their peers. The Times and proponents of this system claim that it mitigates many of the socio-economic discrepancies that have dogged the accuracy of standardized testing since its genesis. Value-added analysis

bit stumps (private notes): Response to Rick Hess

Response to Rick Hess

Rick, I've looked at the ABC "This Week" transcript, and it's indeed very discouraging to see what is going on. Duncan has indeed mastered the art of speaking much and not saying anything. Although deep down if you do some archeological work to cut through, he's still persuaded that American schools would soar if only we fired 10% of the teachers.

What is disheartening is to see how the value-added is playing out in the media. Amanpour mentioned the poll saying that 'amongst parents, 72 percent say, yes, the teachers should be paid based on the quality of their work, and 28 percent say, no, they should be paid standard scale'. Why don't we just put it on the ballot question then?

CSU Faculty Voice: CSU featured again

CSU featured again

From "diploma mill" to "dropout factory"?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/college_dropout_factories.php?page=all&print=true

Washington Monthly -Sept. 1, 2010
College Guide
Feature
College Dropout Factories
by Ben Miller and Phuong Ly

It was money—or the lack of it—that determined where Nestor Curiel chose to go to college. The third of six children in an immigrant Mexican family, Nestor grew up in Blue Island, a gritty working-class suburb near Chicago’s South Side. His father worked, and still works, two jobs—machine operator and restaurant dishwasher—and his mother makes and sells crocheted gifts. Nestor, a polite twenty-one

This Week In Education: USDE: Secretary Rhee?

USDE: Secretary Rhee?

If as expected Michelle Rhee is soon out of a job in Washington DC then where will she go? Sacramento is the conventional wisdom -- after all she's getting married to Sacto Mayor Kevin Johnson this weekend. Another possibility that's fun to think about is that she'd replace Arne Duncan, the current education secretary, after the midterms or as part of a second Obama administration (assuming he gets one). Once a darling of the Obama campaign -- remember the debate fight over who liked her more? -- she's not anyone's favorite in the current Obama

Your Favorite Teacher Bloggers � The Quick and the Ed

Your Favorite Teacher Bloggers

by Kris Amundson

Earlier this summer, we invited four great teacher bloggers to be part of our Finding the Link event. They added real depth to that conversation.

The bloggers continue to offer great insights into teaching. Today on Organized Chaos, you can find a reflection on iPhones, doctors, and the future of elementary education. On ABCDE, you’ll read abou

Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Ex-N.J. education chief Bret Schundler says Gov. Christie 'defamed' him

Published: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 3:09 PM Updated: Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 3:09 PM

Schundler: Christie Calling Me A Liar Is 'The Last Straw'

Ryan J. Reilly | September 1, 2010, 2:47PM

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Bill raising age limit for kindergarten passes

MORE EDUCATION

Secretary Duncan’s Reflections About the Bus Tour

LA Times Series on Teacher Evaluations Provokes Boycott

USDE: Secretary Rhee?