Sunday, October 10, 2010

School system to get Muslim holiday - The Boston Globe

School system to get Muslim holiday

Cambridge to start observance in 2011-12

Globe Correspondent / October 10, 2010

Text size – +

As a Muslim and a high school senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 17-year-old Dunia Kassay faces a tough choice every year on Islamic holy days: go to school or stay home to be with family and friends.

If she stays home, Kassay says, she will be forced to play catch-up and make up her school assignments. But if she goes to school, she will be neglecting what she feels is her religious obligation on holidays such as Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting.

“It’s really conflicting,’’ Kassay said. “Instead of fasting for a month and enjoying

Former St. HOPE leader starts push for 10 charter schools in Sacramento County - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com

Former St. HOPE leader starts push for 10 charter schools in Sacramento County

By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1B

Margaret Fortune, who spearheaded the controversial drive to remake Sacramento High School into a charter school, is planning to open 10 charter schools in Sacramento County aimed at improving the academic achievement of African American students.

"We have to do something dramatic to close the African American achievement gap in this county," said Fortune, who is a former education adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. "If we do that, we will have a statewide impact because

Is Sac City candidate Woo a 'classroom teacher'?

By Melody Gutierrez - Published: Saturday, October 9 2010 - 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: Saturday, October 9 2010 - 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Low enrollment, out-of-date facilities and sagging test scores are remnants of what school officials say was part of New San Juan High school's old reputation.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.

NYC Public School Parents: The Blind Side

The Blind Side

by Leonie Haimson

In a recent opinion piece, Brent Staples, editorial writer on education for the NY Times, praised the "Green Dot" chain of charters that began in Los Angeles. Staples writes:

"Green Dot is one of the stars of this [charter] movement. Despite the fact that many of its 17 schools serve desperately poor, minority neighborhoods, its students significantly outperform their traditional school counterparts, on just about every academic measure, including the percentage of children who go on to four-year colleges. "

Green Dot currently operates 18 schools in Los Angeles and one in the Bronx, according to its website. Yet Green Dot has already had to close one of the first five charters it started, due to poor performance. According to the LA Times, the achievement results at another of its schools, Locke high school, have been "lackluster",

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Daily Kos: Education: Manifesto versus Manifesto

Education: Manifesto versus Manifesto

by teacherken

Sat Oct 09, 2010 at 04:49:36 PM PDT

Sunday's Washington Post features How to fix our schools: A manifesto by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and other education leaders. I will be blunt. It is anti-teacher, anti-teacher union. My good friend Anthony Cody rightly calls it A Manifesto of Error Consider only this:

The glacial process for removing an incompetent teacher -- and our discomfort as a society with criticizing anyone who chooses this noble and difficult profession -- has left our school districts impotent and, worse, has robbed millions of children of a real future.

That is baloney. Any administration doing its job can move incompetent teachers, (a) would not hire them or (b) allow them to get tenure in the first place.

I refuse to quote more. Instead let me offer a different and better vision, written 20 years ago by Ken Goodman, and titled A Declaration of Professional Conscience for Teachers.

PLEASE - keep reading

teacherken's diary :: ::

This link, identical to that above the fold, will take

Catalyst Notebook :: State issues draft of new rules for principal preparation programs

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.

State issues draft of new rules for principal preparation programs

In late September, the Illinois State Board of Education released draft rules raising the standards for principal and assistant principal preparation. Now, the rules face public comment, and some universities have pledged to oppose them.

Continue Reading State issues draft of new rules for principal preparation programs »

Posted By: Rebecca Harris On Fri Oct 8, 2010 In Principals
Permalink | (0) Comments digg

Digg |

Del.icio.us | Facebook |

Mail

In the News: S&P downgrades CPS bonds; Justice Dept. targets racial disparities in disciplineThe outlook for the Chicago Board of Education has turned negative, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said on Thursday, citing the state's financial woes and the district's "limited ability" to raise more funds.

Continue Reading In the News: S&P downgrades CPS bonds; Justice Dept. targets racial disparities in discipline »

Posted By: Cassandra West On Fri Oct 8, 2010 In In the News
Permalink | (2) Comments digg

Digg |

Del.icio.us | Facebook |

Mail

In the News: City Council orders CPS to put off Whittier demolitionThe City Council on Wednesday "ordered" Chicago Public Schools to postpone demolition of the Whittier School field house and restore heat cut off on protesting Pilsen parents.

Continue Reading In the News: City Council orders CPS to put off Whittier demolition »

“The bankrupt ’school reform manifesto’ of Rhee, Klein, etc.” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“The bankrupt ’school reform manifesto’ of Rhee, Klein, etc.” Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has just published “The bankrupt ’school reform manifesto’ of Rhee, Klein, etc.” It’s her commentary on the recent appalling piece authored by several School Superintendents published by the Post (see What Are ...

Interested In Hosting An Upcoming Edition Of The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival? The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival has been going on for over three years. You can see all of them here. Every other month, blog posts from English teachers all around the world are combined into one post hosted by a teacher. Leave a comment on this post ...

Suicide surge: Schools confront anti-gay bullying - Boston.com

Suicide surge: Schools confront anti-gay bullying

By David Crary

AP National Writer / October 9, 2010

Text size – +

NEW YORK—A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay harassment is prompting school officials nationwide to rethink their efforts against bullying -- and in the process, risk entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.

The conflict: Gay-rights supporters insist that any effective anti-bullying program must include specific components addressing harassment of gay youth. But religious conservatives condemn that approach as an unnecessary and manipulative tactic to sway young people's views of homosexuality.

It's a highly emotional topic. Witness the hate mail -- from the left and right -- directed at Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District while it reviews its anti-

LATEST EDUCATION NEWS WIRE UPDATES

Suicide surge: Schools confront anti-gay bullying (AP, 1:30 p.m.)
Dying communities see salvation in new prisons (AP, 2:30 p.m.)
Conn. educator attends White House summit (AP, 12:38 p.m.)
New laws address concussion dangers among youths(AP, 12:38 p.m.)
Jerry Brown reinvents himself as elder statesman (AP, 12:20 p.m.)

LATEST K-12 EDUCATION NEWS

Workers, neighbors stop SD-area school shooter (AP, 1:10 p.m.)
NJ gov. agrees to reconsider tunnel cancellation (AP, 10/8/10)
Vt. school cancels dance over raunchy moves, drugs(AP, 10/8/10)
Catholic school minister accused of misconduct (AP, 10/8/10)
Newark high school students protest conditions (AP, 10/8/10)

LATEST HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS

BRAINIAC The chimera problem (Boston Globe, 10/8/10)
UMass conference looks at the power of microbes (AP, 10:48 a.m.)
WPI president builds bonds in China (AP, 9:38 a.m.)
Left click: NC broadband expansion project begins (AP, 10/8/10)
Tax-slashing proposals scare GOP, Democrats (AP, 10/8/10)

Saturday Solutions: Humanize Schools � Failing Schools

Saturday Solutions: Humanize Schools

OCTOBER 9, 2010

by Sabrina

One main reason I stopped believing in the dominant narrative about school reform is because I experienced firsthand how top-down policy churn impacts teachers’ ability to focus on our actual work. When people who are too far removed from the classroom attempt to control what’s happening there, problems arise. Standardization becomes virtually irresistible, because it makes it so much easier to perform “quality control” (which then ends up being more about conformity than actual quality). And of course, there has to be some way of tracking what’s going on, so documenting and reporting on your work becomes an urgent responsibility. This documentation has to be friendly to the non-educators who increasingly run schools, too, which means it will most likely be reductive in nature.

That, of course, has the unfortunate consequence of turning principals and district personnel into

The Answer Sheet - The bankrupt 'school reform manifesto' of Rhee, Klein, etc.

The bankrupt 'school reform manifesto' of Rhee, Klein, etc.

There are so many things wrong with the new “school reform manifesto” signed by 16 school district chiefs -- including New York’s Joel Klein and Washington’s Michelle Rhee -- and published in The Washington Post that it is hard to know where to start. There’s the intellectual dishonesty and scapegoating: It starts by saying that everybody is responsible for improving schools but then proceeds to bash teachers, and doesn’t say a single thing about the responsibility of superintendents. After eight years as the czar of New York City’s public schools, Klein might want to stop blaming other people for his failures.

Old school. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Old school.

by preaprez

Happy 70th birthday.

Saturday coffee.

by preaprez

Anne and I took a break from our diet regimen of coffee and oat meal for Saturday breakfast. It such a beautiful Chicago Fall morning. We put the top down on the Mini and went off to Peat’s. We had the bagel, but skipped the toppings.

My colleagues and friends, Harley and Matthew. are running in the Chicago Marathon tomorrow. Like last year, Anne and I will go cheer them on at the twenty-mile mark. Anne has some friends from work running as well. Good luck to everyone who is running. It will be a warm day for marathoning.

Monday night I will head up to the Heartland Restaurant in Rodgers Park. Mike

Suicide surge: schools confront anti-gay bullying - NorthJersey.com

Suicide surge: schools confront anti-gay bullying

Saturday, October 9, 2010

THE RECORD

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

display story on 1 pagePage 1 2 3 >>

NEW YORK — A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay harassment is prompting school officials nationwide to rethink their efforts against bullying — and in the process, risk entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.

AP PHOTO/THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN, HENRY A. BARRIOS

This Oct. 1 photo shows a message written on a vehicle window at Seth Walsh's memorial service at the First Baptist Church in Tehachapi, Calif. The gay teen, who police determined was bullied for at least the past two years, was found Sept. 19 by his family, unconscious after he hanged himself from a tree in their back yard, according to police reports. He died the next day.

It's a highly emotional topic. Witness the hate mail — from the left and right — directed at Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District while it reviews its anti-bullying strategies in the aftermath of a gay student's suicide.

The invective is "some of the worst I've ever seen," Superintendent Dennis

Please, Don’t Hype Teacher-run Schools � Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Please, Don’t Hype Teacher-run Schools

by larrycuban

In 1990, Terry Moe and John Chubb published Politics, Markets and American Schools. The book was a hit among business and civic leaders, policy wonks, parents, school board members, superintendents, teachers. The authors argued that the 1980s reforms–teacher empowerment, school-site management, and restructuring–would disappoint advocates because political compromises with unions and foot-dragging school bureaucracies would suck the blood out of the reforms. Rather than sizzling reforms, they would slowly fizzle. What needs to be done to make schools effective, they argued, is completely change the governance and organization of the school by giving parents the right to choose schools. If parents, particularly low-income ones, could receive government vouchers that they could take to any school they thought would be best for their children, their sons’

Schools Matter: Georgia Charter Authorizers - Shades of FL

Georgia Charter Authorizers - Shades of FL

by Kenneth Libby

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A pivotal case over money and power could chart the future for charter school approvals and unravel a network of state campuses.

The second round in a case over the local control of public education will be heard Tuesday. Lawyers for seven metro districts head to the Georgia Supreme Court to argue that a state board is illegally opening and funding charter schools.

Lawyers for Gwinnett County Public Schools and several other districts will ask the State Supreme Court to overturn a Fulton County Superior Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, and its authority to approve and fund charter schools

Simple vs. Complex In Improving Education / Chicago News Cooperative

Simple vs. Complex In Improving Education

by JAMES WARREN

It’s neat to see my son, a first grader, get off his Chicago Public Schools bus when it drops him back home. It also reminds me of what’s wrong with our education system.

Mayoral candidates should join me as the bus arrives about 2:45 p.m. That means he has been in school for, at most, five and a half hours. Chicago has the shortest school day of the 50 largest districts in the United States.

Ron Huberman, head of Chicago Public Schools, confirmed to me once that our school year is about seven weeks shorter than New York’s.

The length of the school day is one of many topics being faced as education experiences another paroxysm of interest. It’s partly due to “Waiting for Superman,” a documentary about our flagging schools. Oprah Winfre

Who puts the "J" in Mayor KJ

Jay Schenirer, Mayor Johnson's "Shill" to promote "strong Mayor" initiative

and he is pushing privatization too!

Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, October 10, 2010

School system to get Muslim holiday