Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Keep Michelle Rhee in D.C.'s schools idsnews.com | Indiana Daily Student |

Keep Michelle Rhee in D.C.'s schools

By STAFF EDITORIAL IDS

WE SAY D.C. should keep Chancellor Rhee at all costs or risk further downturns

After Michelle Rhee was named the Chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools by Mayor Adrian Fenty in 2007, she began a complete overhaul of D.C.’s educational system.

Rhee began this task with the full backing of Fenty, and her vision could not have come sooner to a school district that is one of the nation’s worst.

In just over three years, Rhee has managed to close schools that weren’t performing well, expand charter schools that were, raise students’ test scores, breathe new life into special

News: False Ideal? - Inside Higher Ed

False Ideal?

Virginia's "restructured" universities are billed as examples of autonomous public colleges, but some say state has broken pledges and raided their funds in budget crunch.

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Libraries Make it Personal

Some colleges look to put a face on the library by assigning undergraduates "personal librarians."

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Around Washington: College Prices, Student Data

President Obama signals concern about rapidly rising tuitions; GAO reports on state records systems and student privacy.

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'College Admissions for the 21st Century'

Robert Sternberg, a testing expert and reformer, discusses his new book about his experiment looking at applicants' non-cognitive skills.

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Completion Targets for Cities

As immigrant ranks grow, Texas school districts teach moms and dads, too | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

As immigrant ranks grow, Texas school districts teach moms and dads, too

07:11 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 28, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

More than two decades after leaving Mexico, Maria Valdez was working long hours most nights as a cook and still didn't speak English. So last year Valdez, a single mother, signed up for English classes offered for free through the Irving school district. Her 10-year-old son often helps her. "I want him to be proud of me," she said. "I don't want to depend on anyone. I need English."

As the number of children of immigrants attending Texas schools increases, school districts are increasingly taking up the role of educating their parents.

Also Online

Link: Newsweek list of America's best high schools

Interactive map: Find enrollment changes by race at your school

Blog: Education Front

Blog: Dallas ISD

D-FW area school district Web sites

Texas Charter Schools

Newspapers in Education

More Education news

Databases:
• TAKS scores 2005-2009
• Class of 2007 first-year university grades
• AP classes at D-FW schools
• U.S. income and poverty estimates by school district and county, 2008
• Dallas 5th-graders on track for middle school
• North Texas school rankings 2009
• Texas schools accountability ratings 2009

School districts not only are taking

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Tips to Overcome Conversation Malfunction

Tips to Overcome Conversation Malfunction

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

Image via Wikipedia

mostly written Saturday, Sept 25
Conversation Malfunction
Boy, I'm shocked and upset. Not really sure how this happened, but one reason I love disqus is that it sends comments to my email box and I reply to the comment and it approves the comment and the posts my response. It makes conversation easy!

Well, I've had a little trouble signing into disqus and this morning as I sit here in the lobby of the Hampton Inn

Bloomberg vows to tenure only good teachers; boot bad ones - Web's #1 Source for K12 and Higher Education News and Commentary - EducationNews.org ��

Bloomberg vows to tenure only good teachers; boot bad ones 9.28.10 - Mayor Bloomberg vowed Monday to keep tenure only for the best city teachers and allow the worst ones to be laid off.

A Variety of...Minds? One Student Gets Diversity Right 9.28.10 - Jason Fertig - An unorthodox response to the essay question "What is the definition of diversity?"

Test score analysis shows state's students moving too slowly toward goals 9.28.10 - Kentucky's public schools — particularly middle and high schools — are moving too slowly in the race to reach proficiency by 2014, according to an analysis of recent statewide student test results.

Attendance resource centers try to rehabilitate truant Sacramento-area students - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Attendance resource centers try to rehabilitate truant Sacramento-area students

By Queenie Wong - Published: 12:00 am

While most youngsters spend their weekdays in class, some students skip school and roam the streets.

Judges say interns aren't 'highly qualified' teachers

By Laurel Rosenhall - Published: 2:46 pm

Teaching interns can no longer be counted as "highly qualified" teachers under the No Child Left Behind law, a federal court ruled today.

CSU opens spring admissions

By Laurel Rosenhall - Updated: 11:09 pm

California State University will admit up to 30,000 new students this spring, the university announced this morning, reversing last year's policy of halting mid-year enrollments.

Sacramento High School class of '60 gathers, remembers, laughs and ponders

By Hudson Sangree - Published: Monday, September 27 2010 - 12:00 am

Friends from the Sacramento High School class of 1960 gathered Sunday at McKinley Park to reflect on their lives and remember a time of teenage crushes, school dances and growing up.

Teaching interns illegally rated as qualified

California has violated federal law by classifying thousands of inexperienced, noncredentialed teachers...

Gates foundation grant goes to S.F. schools

While about 60 percent of jobs in California require a college degree, only about a quarter of those who...

Photos

Latest AP Education Headlines

Nigeria kidnappers seize school bus full of kids 3:54 AM
LA teacher suicide sparks test-score pushback 1:48 AM
Calls for longer school years face budget reality 1:05 AM
Chavez: Venezuela studying nuclear energy program 10:46 PM
Enbridge gradually restarts Michigan oil pipeline 4:46 PM

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Charter schools defy recession - 89 set to open

Public charter schools in California are skirting the worst impact of the state's budget crisis while traditional public schools...

Chronicle 9.27.10 4:00 AM

Lots of acronyms, no vision guiding K-12 schools | Thoughts on Public Education

Lots of acronyms, no vision guiding K-12 schools

Posted on 9/27/10 • Categorized as Uncategorized

By Michael Matsuda

The iconic Helen Keller once famously stated, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.” Today we are awash with political leaders who can’t see past their own focus groups. With respect to solving our education crisis, politicians and policy experts call for all sorts of accountability measures and rating metrics. But no one is asking the really big question: “What is our mission?”

Aren’t we supposed to begin with the end in mind? The main problem quite simply is that we have no vision, no guiding blueprint for education. We are completely in the dark compared with Keller, a suffragist and social activist.

Quick, ask anyone in the system from the superintendent to a principal to a teacher, “What is

This Week In Education: Funders: Educator Wins MacArthur "Genius" Grant

Funders: Educator Wins MacArthur "Genius" Grant

by Alexander Russo

Amir Abo-Shaeeer, director of the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy in California, is one of the MaCarthur Foundation "genius" grantees for this year - the first educator that I can recall since the founder of Posse won a few years ago.

D.C. Public Schools' Head Start program has problems, federal report says

by Bill Turque

A federal audit turns up financial and governance problems with D.C. schools Head Start program. But District officials say the report is outdated and that they've already addressed the issues.

Politics makes changing bedfellows | EdNewsColorado

Politics makes changing bedfellows

by Todd Engdahl

The Colorado Education Association may be the 800-pound education group in Colorado politics, but that doesn’t mean other interest groups aren’t trying to weigh in on 2010 legislative races.

District-by-district lists

See the bottom of this article for charts listing education group endorsements in House and Senate districts.

To get a sense for who’s supporting whom, Education News Colorado reviewed legislative candidate contributions by the CEA-affiliated Public Education Committee and the AFT Colorado Federation of Teachers, School, Health and Public Employees Small Donor Committee, along with endorsements or contributions by three other groups.

Those are the Colorado Association of School Executives, a federation of school administrator groups, which

Tuesday, September 28, 2010