Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Unions, Green School on CUSD agenda - Chico Enterprise Record

Unions, Green School on CUSD agenda

By ROGER H. AYLWORTH - Staff Writer

Posted: 09/13/2010 10:43:28 PM PDT

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Members of the Chico Unified Teachers Association marched around City Plaza in downtown Chico...

CHICO — Contract negotiations and alleged problems with one of the newest charter schools should be big topics at Wednesday's meeting of the Chico Unified School District board of trustees.

During their regular meeting, the CUSD trustees will hear reports from representatives of the Chico Unified Teachers Association, California School Employees Association and the Chico Unified Management Association.

Negotiations between the school district and CUTA — which represents most teachers and certificated staff — have not been amicable for the last year.

Monday afternoon CUTA members, dressed in orange union T-shirts and carrying signs, rallied outside of the Chico City Council Chambers, the location of Wednesday's board meeting.

The union and the district are in the last stages of the "fact finding" process, a state-mandated procedure that began last December when the California Public Employment Relations Board declared an impasse in talks. That led to mediation, where both sides met with a state-appointed mediator in an effort to find common ground.

In August the mediator declared the effort a failure and the two sides were ordered into "fact finding."

The fact-finding program is a state-mandated step in the effort to achieve a new contract

Teachers union makes deal to end 10-day strike by its own staff | The Columbus Dispatch

Teachers union makes deal to end 10-day strike by its own staff

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 02:50 AM

BY CATHERINE CANDISKY

The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio's largest teachers union reached a tentative agreement this past weekend with its labor-relations consultants and other employees to end a 10-day strike.

The 110 members of the Professional Staff Union returned to work yesterday at the Ohio Education Association.

Union spokesman Michael Mahoney said neither party is authorized to release details about the agreement. The union's board of directors will meet Sept. 25 to vote on ratifying the contract.

Union members met Sunday to vote to return to work. They have not yet set a date for a vote on accepting the contract, said Amber Kirkwood, vice president of communications for professional staff workers.

The workers went on strike when their contract expired Sept. 1, and dozens protested daily in front of OEA's Downtown headquarters on E. Broad

Illinois to require bilingual preschool programs for students who don't speak English - chicagotribune.com

In Illinois, bilingual learning for non-English speakers now starts in preschool

Illinois is 1st state to require bilingual preschool programs

By Tara Malone, Tribune reporter

8:55 p.m. CDT, September 13, 2010

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With his navy slacks and dress shirt still creased from his mother's iron, 4-year-old Edenzoe Diaz reported for his first day of preschool to learn his letters in English and Spanish.

He got his first lesson as he stepped into the classroom. Teacher Tania Miranda asked her newest student to copy the letters of his name onto an attendance sheet.

"Primero, esta letra," Miranda said, pointing to the "E" on his nametag.

Edenzoe speaks no English, his mother said. But in this bilingual classroom at Chicago's Edwards Center for Young Learners — a public school in the shadow of Midway Airport — he will receive the same support that for years has been offered starting in kindergarten.

As the school year begins, Illinois becomes the first state to mandate that public schools with preschool programs offer a bilingual education to 3- and 4-year-olds who don't speak English.

NJ Spotlight | NJ’s College-Bound Seniors, 2000 vs. 2010

NJ’s College-Bound Seniors, 2000 vs. 2010
What's changed in 10 years? The College Board’s report sheds light not just on SAT scores, but on a range of data points

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By John Mooney, September 14 in Education |Post a Comment

With all the attention on the SATs and test-taking over the last decade, what’s with the spike in the number of New Jersey high school seniors taking Italian?

Those are just some of the data points worth weighing in the College Board’s annual report on America’s college-bound high school seniors. Aside from test results and foreign language enrollment, the report touches on everything from grade-point averages to the top intended college majors. And now that we’re at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it seems like a good time to see what’s changed since the turn of the millennium.

Granted, direct comparisons can be tricky. But some trends are apparent -- not only the increased popularity of Italian as a foreign language (which tracks generally, if

Teacher says system failed his students

BY ROB SGOBBO

Tuesday, September 14th 2010, 9:20 AM

Eight years ago, former Bronx teacher Robert Pondiscio met his first class of students.

And last summer, he wanted to know what happened to the 40 fifth-graders he first taught in 2002 - who, if they weren't held back or dropped out - would have graduated from high school last June.

Pondiscio, who at 39 had traded in his public relations job at BusinessWeek magazine to become a teacher, worked at Public School 277, a high-poverty elementary school in Mott Haven.

With the help of his old class rosters and Facebook, he tracked down 20 of his alums.

"I didn't know what to expect, but I knew there would be some surprises, good and bad," the Manhattan resident said.

Through his research, he learned most of his former students had dropped out of high school and were thinking about getting their GEDs. One young woman already has two kids and a "husband" who's incarcerated at Rikers Island.

There were some success stories. Three of his students were accepted into four-year colleges.

But later he learned they had all declined their offers - saying there's "too much going on right now" at home.

"It was disappointing, and it shows the system is not working for our kids," Pondiscio

Poverty and Education � Larry Miller's Blog

Poverty and Education

by millerlf

August 25, 2010

It’s the Poverty, Stupid

The education reform debate is misdirected.

By Roger Bybee InTheseTimes

A young girl receives a backpack during a giveaway at St. Anthony Foundation August 27, 2009, in San Francisco. St. Anthony Foundation gave away hundreds of backpacks filled with back-to-school supplies to needy children in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The close attention, even obsession, with teacher performance distracts from socio-economic obstacles to education.

With America’s public schools struggling to survive slashed budgets and unequal funding, school reform is back on the national agenda—but will the new model of market-based “reform” promote greater educational quality?

Already, schools in low-income areas see abysmally low achievement levels. In many cities, less than half of

President Obama's 2010 Back to School Speech | The White House

President Obama's 2010 Back to School Speech

Read the President's remarks as prepared for delivery.

Watch the Speech Live at 1 PM

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/themes/whitehouse/img/facebook_b...) no-repeat; float: left; height: 30px; padding-top: 13px">JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

As students begin their school year, President Barack Obama will deliver his second annual Back to School speech on Tuesday, September 14 at Julia R Masterman Middle-High School in Philadelphia, PA at 1:00 PM ET. The President’s Back to School Speech is an opportunity to speak directly to students across the country. Last year, President Obama encouraged students to study hard, stay in school, and take responsibility for their education.

“Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide,” President Obama said to students last year.

How to Watch the Speech

President Obama’s Back to School will be streamed live on this page and onWhiteHouse.gov/live on September 14, 2010. Embed code for the live stream is posted below. Schools can also view the speech on CNN which has said it plans to take the event live.

Breaking News: "Leading Educators" in the Big Easy :: Frederick M. Hess

Breaking News: "Leading Educators" in the Big Easy

by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 14, 2010 at 9:08 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Word on the street is that a cool new venture is rising in New Orleans, which is well on its way to becoming the Silicon Valley of American education (see its top finish in my recent study of America's Best & Worst Cities for School Reform). The newest effort involves taking the Big Easy's "Leading Educators" program national. To take the reins, they've recruited Jonas Chartock, executive director of the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, my fellow NACSA board member, former executive director of TFA Houston, and all-around good guy.

Leading Educators is intended to address the problem of high-energy, entrepreneurial teachers who tend to leave teaching after two to four years. That exit is creating a headache for organizations, like New Leaders for New Schools, which have trouble finding as many great candidates as they're seeking. The goal is for Leading Educators to create a competitive program to identify promising candidates in their third through eighth years,

Loan Repayment Rates Among Large Online Universities - US News and World Report

Loan Repayment Rates Among Large Online Universities

Considering an online university? Use these rates to help determine their value.

By Brian Burnsed

Posted September 14, 2010

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For-profit universities, many of which have heavy online course offerings, have come under great scrutiny from legislators and regulators in recent months. Given that a vast majority of online students are funded by federal loans, the chief concern of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is to ensure that students educated online are able to secure stable jobs with their degrees and can repay those student loans funded by American taxpayers. Federal loan repayment rates, released by the Department of Education, are indicative of a school's ability to prepare students for their

Racial Disparity in School Suspensions � Larry Miller's Blog

Racial Disparity in School Suspensions

by millerlf

By SAM DILLON Published: September 13, 2010

nation’s middle schools, black boys were nearly three times as likely to be suspended as white boys, according to a new study, which also found that black girls were suspended at four times the rate of white girls.

School authorities also suspended Hispanic and American Indian middle school students at higher rates than white students, though not at such disproportionate rates as for black children, the study found. Asian students were less likely to be suspended than whites.

The study analyzed four decades of federal Department of Education data on suspensions, with a special focus

Dallas-area schools' policies vary on President Obama's speech to students today | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Dallas-area schools' policies vary on President Obama's speech to students today News for Dallas, Texas Dallas Morning News Latest News

Dallas-area schools' policies vary on President Obama's speech to students today

01:35 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 14, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH and EMILY FOX / The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com
efox@dallasnews.com

Many area school districts are taking a careful approach to showing President Barack Obama's annual back-to-school speech live today, though it hasn't stirred up the same controversy as last year.

Also Online

Richardson blog: Obama's prepared remarks

09/09/2009: Dallas students ignore controversy, applaud Obama speech

Blog: The Education Front

More education news

Some local schools are showing the address live at noon. Some plan to use the speech delayed or taped when it pertains to lessons. Still others are asking parents to send notes to indicate whether they want their children to participate .
The varied approaches comes a year after some conservatives raised concerns that Obama was trying to spread a political agenda through the address, saying the speech would be socialist in nature and take away from class time.
They also were upset his office provided teachers a lesson plan tied to

Web's #1 Source for K12 and Higher Education News and Commentary - EducationNews.org - Parents and students again in kindergarten limbo as kids turned away from overcrowded schools

Parents and students again in kindergarten limbo as kids turned away from overcrowded schools 9.14.10 - It was the first day of school - take two - and this time, lots more students made it to class. But not all of them got a seat.

Most classrooms not tuning in for Obama’s speech 9.14.10 - Most classrooms in Galveston County are opting to record President Barack Obama’s back-to-school speech today for later instructional purposes.

Five lessons from the nation’s best online teacher 9.14.10 - Educators who teach in an online setting should foster strong relationships with their students' parents and should offer plenty of positive feedback, says the nation's first-ever K-12 Online Teacher of the Year....

“Exploring A Path To A Profession” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Exploring A Path To A Profession” “Exploring A Path To A Profession” is a simple Wall Street Journal interactive that guides users through a process of investigating possible careers. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Students Exploring Jobs & Careers.

Transcript Of President Obama’s Speech To Students Today The White House has released the transcript of the speech the President will make to students today. It seems fine — nothing earthshaking. I think these passages might be useful a useful addition to a lesson I do on the importance of effort, as ...

Snappy Words Snappy Words is a visual dictionary and synonym-finder. It seems very similar to Lexipedia and Visuwords. It’s joining those sites on The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners list. Thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip.

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010