POSTED: 5:55 pm PDT August 25, 2010
UPDATED: 6:13 pm PDT August 25, 2010
Click to enlargeJupiter Images
THERE’S NOT going to be a lot of money around during the next few years to pay for serious changes — such as a longer school day — in Boston’s teacher contract. Instead, someone is going to have to extract school improvements on the cheap out of the Boston Teachers Union.
Fortunately, a lot of people are lining up to do just that. During the last week, dozens of foundations and community groups in two coalitions have demonstrated their support for school administration proposals that are subject to collective bargaining. They include longer school days, stricter teacher evaluations, and greater management flexibility on classroom schedules and teacher placements. Basically, many Bostonians want the city’s 135 district schools to operate pretty much along the lines of the city’s 14 charter schools.
It would be nice if the school reformers could speak with one voice on behalf of the city’s students. But then this wouldn’t be Boston. Instead, two major
The MCAS is different from most other state tests. It is a high-stakes test for all students; its being a graduation requirement underscores the seriousness of purpose, and its being for all students meant that we would not allow a good system for some and a less good system for others. After all, that is what we had before 1993.
Success on the MCAS test correlates very well with success on national and international assessments. The better you do on MCAS, the better you are likely to do in college and in
The global-warming induced summer has been especially hot and bothersome for municipal kid wonder Mayor Cory Booker (D) of Newark.
Running New Jersey’s largest city of approximately 250,000 people is no easy task, yet there were high hopes when Booker hit the scene in 2006 promising to not only upstage the city’s disgraced and former forever-Mayor Sharpe James (D), but to usher in a renaissance, putting the Brick City on the national map. And Newark, with its less than favorable reputation, sorely needed it amid crumbling schools, decaying neighborhoods and incessant crime. For all its rich North Jersey character brought on by Sopranos revivalism, Newark still had trouble shedding its battered image. Not to mention that James – then earning keep as the state’s highest paid politician as both State
Public sector employees have unfairly become the focal point in an economic catastrophe not of their making. Even "Saturday Night Live" skewered public employees for a cheap laugh. But, while fans of late night television may chuckle, it's no joke that in California, the public sector is under a magnifying glass that ignores the big picture. But as Labor Day approaches, it is important to remember the important role that public sector employees play.
The "Great Recession" is hurting all of us, and the revenue crisis in state and local government
Saturday, September 4, 2010
(09-03) 17:58 PDT SACRAMENTO -- In a ruling by California's chief justice nominee, a state appeals court has barred a school district from drug testing all students in extracurricular activities such as choir, the school band and Future Farmers of America.
The Shasta Union High School District in Northern California began the testing in 2008, saying the prospect of being disqualified from a favorite after-school activity would discourage youths from using drugs or alcohol.
The district noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that random drug tests of all students in extracurricular programs did not violate the constitutional ban on
New Arizona law: Future 3rd-graders to have to read to pass grade |
| Commentaries |
Take Back the Classroom from PowerPoint
|
Email 
Print
Comments 
