Saturday, October 9, 2010

Ross Global Charter in world of trouble, makes effort to boost falling enrollment

BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, October 9th 2010, 4:00 AM

Hermann for News

Third graders at the Ross Global Academy, watch President Obama's inauguration. Now, the school is facing a decreasing enrollment.

This is one high-profile charter school that parents aren't desperate to get their children into.

Ross Global Academy, which originally opened its doors in the city Education Department's headquarters, is taking to the streets to recruit more kids.

Enrollment at Ross is down nearly 9% from last year, the latest city Education Department figures show. So unlike charter schools that send dozens of tearful kids home from their lotteries, the East Village school has been handing out flyers in a desperate attempt to increase enrollment.

"Full classes mean more funds for the school, which means more resources for your

Is Sac City candidate Woo a 'classroom teacher'? - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

Is Sac City candidate Woo a 'classroom teacher'?

By Melody Gutierrez - Published: 12:00 am

What is the definition of a classroom teacher?

New digs add luster to New San Juan High's career programs

By Queenie Wong - Published: 12:00 am

Low enrollment, out-of-date facilities and sagging test scores are remnants of what school officials say was part of New San Juan High school's old reputation.

San Juan High School's new learning facilities

Teen health education program fosters cultural awareness

By Queenie Wong - Published: Friday, October 8 2010 - 12:00 am

Every month, a handful of Kaiser Permanente doctors hang up their white coats and drive to Valley High School to conduct an educational checkup.

Dropout rate at issue in California school superintendent's race

By Susan Ferriss - Updated: Friday, October 8 2010 - 12:17 am

By the time Californians elect the next superintendent of public instruction in November, the state Department of Education's latest estimate on high school dropouts might finally be released – but it will be tardy.

Want to get married by 30? College might pay off

By Niesha Lofing - Published: Thursday, October 7 2010 - 10:57 am

In a reversal of the country's longstanding marital patterns, college-educated adults are more likely to be married by age 30 than their peers without bachelor's degrees, the Pew Research Center reported today.

Schools Matter: The Manifesto got it all wrong

The Manifesto got it all wrong

by skrashen

The Manifesto got it all wrong
Sent to the Washington Post, October 8, 2010

The Manifesto ("How to fix our schools," October 8) presents proposals that have no support from the research: Studies indicate that performance-based teacher evaluation based on test scores is inaccurate, that financial incentives and restructuring do not work, that charters are no more effective than non-charters, and that technological innovations, despite the hype, typically do not live up to their promise.

The Manifesto ignores the real problem: Poverty. The best teaching cannot overcome the enormous negative influence of malnutrition and hunger, lack of health care, environmental toxins, and lack of access to books.

Talking About 'Waiting for Superman' - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

Talking About 'Waiting for Superman'

Education is hitting the silver screen this weekend, as a new film, Waiting for Superman, opens up in local theaters.

The controversial new documentary looks at the state of public schools through the eyes of five students. As Waiting for Superman has been screened across the country, the film has been feted for putting the shortcomings of the public school system in the spotlight. Critics complain it oversimplifies the issues.

What do you think? I'll be facilitating a discussion among parents at Clairemont High School about the

Barrera: Tighten Rules on Travel

A newly proposed rule would force San Diego Unified school board members to get approval from the rest of the school board before taking trips or attending conferences that cost the school district.

Currently, school board members ask for school district approval for trips and conferences, and are ultimately approved or denied by the deputy superintendent who oversees academics. She scrutinizes whether the conferences relate to school district business and whether they fit in the budget. Under the new policy, the school board would publicly discuss and decide whether to allow such travel.

"We should be holding ourselves accountable," said school board President Richard Barrera, who proposed the new policy. "When board members just decide to travel on the district's dime, that's not consistent with a spending freeze."

Even small spending is under the microscope now, as the school district faces an estimated

Union voices new concerns over city’s school closure rules | GothamSchools

Union voices new concerns over city’s school closure rules

by Anna Phillips

After successfully suing to stop the city from closing schools last year, the city’s teachers union is raising a new set of concerns that could pave the way for another legal battle.

At last night’s meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, a United Federation of Teachers official outlined a dozen issues the union has with the city’s new rules governing the kinds of information released about the schools it wants to close. Last year, the union sued the city for writing barebones education impact statements that didn’t include enough data to comply with the state law governing how schools are closed.

Rise & Shine: Union gets one-year waiver from health care rules

by Maura Walz

The city teachers union got a one-year exemption from new federal health-care rules. (Post)
P.S. 282’s principal banned some teachers from an award ceremony held there this week. (Daily News)
Members of Congress asked for the city to speed up clean-up of 700 contaminated schools. (Daily News)
Some parents want the city to fire a Brooklyn teacher with a history of shoving students. (Daily News)
Joel Klein, plus 15 other district heads, lay out their formula for school reform. (Washington Post)
New Jersey’s fired ed commissioner blamed Gov. Christie for the states Race to the Top loss. (Times)
Federal grants are helping Chicago charter groups expand despite state budget cuts. (Times)
Michelle Rhee could be offered several top ed posts, but she may not want them. (Washington Post)

School Tech Connect: Because We Said So

Because We Said So

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

These people just make shit up. Read this:

So, where do we start? With the basics. As President Obama has emphasized, the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their ZIP code or even their parents' income -- it is the quality of their teacher.

That's in ideological position based on a willful disregard for the entire history of research on academic achievement, which clearly shows that the most enduring, persistent, and reliable predictor of achievement is socioeconomic status. Krashen's been compiling these research summaries for decades.

Dad at the Chalkboard: Fifth Grader One, High Schoolers ZERO.

Fifth Grader One, High Schoolers ZERO.

by Brian H

I had one of those "so proud of my student" moments that teachers live for.

We took a trip today. Climbed aboard the shuddering yellow school buses and took the thirty minute drive up I-95 to tour the Constitution Center and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was a cloudless, seventy degree journey back in time to the founding of our nation.

One of the highlights of our annual trip is the twenty minute tour of the room where both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were drafted and signed. There is something profoundly moving about standing in the same room as the men who took a stand against King George and then created a framework

The Chalkboard Dad is the Mentally Sexiest Dad in America!

by Brian H

Awoke this morning to an email from the one and only Joe Schatz from Dad-Blogs.

Dad-Blogs has been running a great contest called The Mentally Sexiest Dad Competition. I loved the idea and thought 'what the hell?' and I decided to enter.

I wrote my entry, enlisted the help of the cutest little girl on the planet for the photo, and submitted.

La educaci�n con el apoyo de padres, escuela y comunidad - Doctora Isabel

Todos por la educación
La comunidad, los padres y las escuelas

Getty Images

Lisa E. Pérez Fournier,Univision.com

Para que un estudiante obtenga los mejores resultados académicos, sociales y emocionales, es muy importante que tanto los padres, la comunidad y la escuela formen parte del proceso educativo, así lo aseguró el invitado de hoy del programa de la doctora

Sit-in at Blum Poverty Center � occupy california

Sit-in at Blum Poverty Center

by *

BERKELEY, California – Today, October 8th, is the opening day of the UC Berkeley Blum Poverty Center.Richard Blum, husband of US Senator Dianne Feinstein, is a current UC Regent who donated $15 million to help start this anti-poverty center in order to, “[create] innovative solutions to global poverty”. Richard Blum is the founder of Blum Capital, an investment firm with $4.5 billion in total assets. Although not the only UC Regent surrounded in controversy, Blum was the chair of the regents until last year and held stakes in several businesses that suggest he has a conflict of interest, including a construction firm involved in several UC building projects and private educational companies.

Around 12:15pm, some demonstrators began a sit-in at the poverty center. This action follows yesterday’s

Hechinger Report | Community college students mired in basic-skills classes

Community college students mired in basic-skills classes

by Jennifer Oldham

Karina Carrillo, Marina Casillas and Sonia Ortega (l to r) relax during a recent misty morning on the Los Angeles Valley College campus. Like many of their peers, they must all take multiple basic-skills courses

Los Angeles — The three petite, soft-spoken Latinas are all friends. They graduated from Grant High School here, are on one another’s speed dial and share a preference for electric blue. And all three are stuck in basic-skills courses at Los Angeles Valley College after bombing their college placement exams, in part because they

Interview with Bill Ayers: “Education is like love.” � Fred Klonsky's blog

Interview with Bill Ayers: “Education is like love.”

by preaprez

Last month the Trustees of the University of Illinois voted to deny Bill Ayers emeritus status following his recent retirement. A few days ago students and faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago where Bill was a professor for twenty years threatened to appeal the decision of the Trustees.

Not only was I an undergraduate and graduate student of Bill’s, we have been pals most of our adult lives.

In an interview with Bill published in Truthout, Bill talks about the subjects he cares about: children, learning, teaching and schools.

Education is like love. You can give it all away and still have plenty. You can

Liberty and Real Learning | Lefty Parent

Liberty and Real Learning

by Cooper Zale

Saw a piece today in Education Week magazine, “Panel Says Ed. Schools Overlook Developmental Science”, commenting on a report released this morning by a panel convened by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. As the title suggests, the panel calls out a disconnect between educational practice and what we have learned about the nature of how human beings develop.

In typical Education Week fashion, the article is very much inside the box of the conventional instructional school model and top-down control, rather than questioning any of the assumptions of that instructional approach. Excerpting from the article…

“There’s just been an explosion of knowledge in development science over the last 10 to 14 years,”

The research question that wasn’t asked � School Finance 101

The research question that wasn’t asked

by schoolfinance101

1 person liked this

Recent discussions of the Vanderbilt University study on the effect of merit pay in Nashville raised a common and important issue pertaining to education policy research – or any research for that matter – What about the question that wasn’t asked? Or how important really is the question that was asked?

In the case of the Vanderbilt merit pay study, the researchers essentially asked whether providing sizable financial bonuses to randomly selected teachers could motivate those teachers to try harder and ultimately

Oct 8, 2010 (14 hours ago)

Video Blog: School Finance & The Courts

by schoolfinance101

This week, Bruce Baker from Rutgers University discusses his paper co-authored with Kevin Welner regarding research on school finance reform litigation. For more video, visit

What Does a Good School Look Like? – Lily's Blackboard

What Does a Good School Look Like?

Oct 8th, 2010

by LilysBlackboard.

A conversation about schools, educators and tests. Education should be a priority, and we need to talk about it!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Respect My Vote! Hip Hop Caucus and Women of Labor United for the Vot Hip Hop Caucus

Hip Hop Caucus

Respect My Vote! Hip Hop Caucus and Women of Labor United for the Vote

October 8th, 2010

by admin

This November 2nd, we as young people, workers, and communities of color have the power to help define the direction of our nation with our votes. That's why we re-launched the Respect My Vote! campaign. Diverse communities are standing with us to ensure that the voices of our nation's young people are seen and heard.

The Hip Hop Caucus recently teamed with American Rights at Work, who has organized prominent women of color in the labor movement to show their support for young people's participation in these 2010 mid-term elections. These powerful and awesome women leaders have something important to say about the importance of standing up and speaking out in political process, and in the workplace.

Check out this video highlighting some of the leading voices in the labor movement!

Nation & World | 1 Ohio school, 4 bullied teens dead by suicide | Seattle Times Newspaper

1 Ohio school, 4 bullied teens dead by suicide

Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window.

By MEGHAN BARR

Associated Press Writer

MENTOR, Ohio —

The 16-year-old's last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor High School, where students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like "Slutty Jana" and threw food at her.

It was the fourth time in little more than two years that a bullied high school student in this small Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie died by his or her own hand - three suicides, one overdose of antidepressants. One was bullied for being gay, another for having a learning disability, another for being a boy who happened to like wearing pink.

Now two families - including the Vidovics - are suing the school district, claiming their children were bullied to death and the school did nothing to stop it. The lawsuits come after a national spate of high-profile suicide

School Beat: Forget Superman | California Progress Report

School Beat: Forget Superman

by christine

By Lisa Schiff

I haven’t seen the movie “Waiting for Superman” and I may never. Universal high student achievement and quality public education should be shared goals throughout our society and something that we discuss and work at constantly. But, it’s questionable how the particular viewpoint of skilled filmmakers really advances a deep, rich discussion on those topics, a discussion that should be grounded in rigorous analysis and solid, reliable, transparently produced data.

Certainly the film has raised the profile of a corner of the education reform debate. Interestingly, that attention seems to have amplified the attitudes and approaches embedded in No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which is still our current though very worn-out federal education policy. Strategies like a steady increase in privatization, the longing and praise for individual heroes, and an incessant Taylorization of all aspects of education are still where we’re at years later.

Latest News and Comment from Education