Saturday, October 16, 2010

Education Research Report: Deliberate Practice Spells Success: Why Grittier Competitors Triumph at the National Spelling Bee

Deliberate Practice Spells Success: Why Grittier Competitors Triumph at the National Spelling Bee Ω The expert performance framework distinguishes between deliberate practice and less effective practice activities. This longitudinal study is the first to use this framework to understand how children improve in an academic skill. Specifically, the ...

Cutting to the bone: How the economic crisis affects schools Ω Although the recession technically ended in 2009, district budgets are not expected to regain their pre-recession (2008) funding levels until late in the decade, for a number of reasons: - Reduced local revenues from real estate taxes. Home prices ...

Far Too Many States Are Allowing High School Science Teachers To Teach Subjects They May Know Very Little About Ω National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released a report, THE ALL-PURPOSE SCIENCE TEACHER, revealing a little-known aspect of “the STEM crisis,” usually recognized as a shortage of publicschool teachers in the areas of science, technology, ...

BUMPING HR: GIVING PRINCIPALS MORE SAY OVER STAFFING Ω The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released a policy brief, BUMPING HR: GIVING PRINCIPALS MORE SAY OVER STAFFING that identifies the contractual and institutional obstacles that stand in the way of principals having the authority to ...

Literary Study in Grades 9, 10, And 11: A National Survey, Ω A newly released study by the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW) strongly suggests that two factors—a fragmented English curriculum and a neglect of close reading—may explain why the reading skills of American high school ...

Marchers drop roses in Hudson for Tyler Clementi - NorthJersey.com

Marchers drop roses in Hudson for Tyler Clementi

Saturday, October 16, 2010
LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY OCTOBER 16, 2010, 1:34 PM

BY MATTHEW VAN DUSEN

NORTHJERSEY.COM

STAFF WRITER

A clutch of marchers stopped halfway across the George Washington Bridge this morning and showered roses on the river below for Tyler Clementi, who took his life there after his gay encounter was broadcast on the Web.

The march drew about 75 people, including gay men from Manhattan and suburban mothers alike, most of whom had never met the Rutgers freshman from Ridgewood. The organizers did not explicitly mention Clementi’s sexuality, instead calling for an end to bullying for any reason.

“A small prank can be a monumental tragedy,” said Sommer Sheikh, the Franklin Lakes native organized the event through social networking websites with friend

Another small sign of a shift � JD2718

Another small sign of a shift

by jd2718

In the war against public education, some hesitation.

Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent of Philadelphia schools, removed her name from the Klein/Rhee anti-education manifesto. See here and here.

We are still on the defensive, no doubt about it. But between the primary election defeats of charter champions in New York, the voters tossing out Rhee in DC, the testing fiasco in New York State, the pounding on “not the change we voted for” and the voices joining Ravitch on questioning the whole thing, there’s a little counter-

Board Update from the desk of Superintendent Jonathan P Raymond

October 8, 2010

Teaching and Learning

 Collaborative Leadership: Professional development at the Serna Center this week focused on building effective teamwork and cultivating a culture of shared leadership focused on student learning. Led by Mike Mattos, author of The Collaborative Administrator: Working Together as a Professional Learning Community, sessions were held for school-based and central office leaders.

 College Fair: Hundreds of students and their parents –estimates put the number of attendants at 1,500 – learned about a vast array of post-secondary options at the district’s annual _ollege Fair, held last Sunday at C.K. McClatchy High School. Students waited in lines to ask questions of representatives of such institutions as Stanford, UCLA, CSU Sacramento, Sacramento City College, ITT Tech and Penn State.

 Common Planning Time: School-based leaders also attended a workshop on the productive use of Common Planning Time. Teachers this year will be meeting for a total of 20 hours, where they will work together to focus on three areas: What they want students to know and be able to learn; which student artifacts they will look at to analyze learning; and what next steps they will implement to increase mastery of standards.

 Achievement Recognized: Joseph Bonnheim Elementary School will hold its second annual Academic Celebration on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Students who achieved “proficient” and/or “advanced” on the STAR-CST in English Language Arts, Mathematics and Science during the 2009-10 school year will be recognized with a medallion and a certificate. Additionally, three girls will receive special recognition for achieving perfect scores on the mathematics portion of the CST. In September, students who made improvement were recognized with a wristband that read “CST Bandjumper.”

Operations

 Projects Approved: At its October 6 meeting, the State Allocation Board gave unfunded approval to five SCUSD projects totaling $676,690. The projects include shelving for Alice Birney Waldorf-Inspired K-8 School; repairs to ceilings at Fruit Ridge Elementary School; a new dishwasher at Fern Bacon Middle School; flooring at Rosa Parks Middle School; and asphalt repairs to Sacramento Charter High.

Community Engagement

 Family Reading: Ethel I. Baker Elementary School held its Annual Family Reading Night on Wednesday. The turnout was great: 197 participants enjoyed the interactive evening, engaging in Reader's Corner, Story Quilt Making, Word Bingo and other literacy related activities.

 Walk and Roll to School Week: To celebrate both healthy living and International Walk to School Week, Sutterville Elementary School students walked and rolled to school this week, culminating with 377 students participating on Thursday. For students who live too far from school to participate, teachers and Principal Lori !oun met students and parents at “park and walk” sites. Parent volunteers also led “walking school buses” or groups of students on bicycles. The event dramatically reduced traffic congestion around Sutterville, and benefitted the environment by decreasing pollution. See photos below:

 Snacks for Kids: Edward Kemble Elementary School has formed a partnership with Foodlink, a service of the Food Bank. Starting last Friday, Foodlink is providing weekend “snack packs” to every student at Kemble.

 Engagement Increased: About 300 people attended Fern Bacon Middle School’s _ack to School Night on Tuesday, a huge increase over last year’s turnout. The evening included hot dogs and chips, entertainment by the Phoenix Park _oncert _hoir, a principal’s welcome and classroom visits according to the bell schedule. On a related note, the Phoenix Park _oncert _hoir director will be directing the school’s newly formed chorus after school two days a week.

 Full House: Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary School had a full house at its Back to School/Community meeting Wednesday evening. The event opened with piano selections played by the school’s music specialist, the introduction of staff, and a presentation about the school in the multi-purpose room. Next, FKBK guests were treated to refreshments and a drawing for books before visiting classrooms. A librarian from the Sacramento Public Library also attended the event to give parents the opportunity to sign their children up for library cards.

 OfficeMax Honors Teacher: Golden Empire’s October Fire Drill was a little more celebratory this month. Office Max, the sponsor of the “Day Made _etter” program, honored sixth grade teacher, Kim Engstrom, with more than $1,000 worth of classroom supplies. Kim was acknowledged at the school-wide assembly following their monthly fire drill. Congratulations Kim!

 Generating Learning: The Physics Department and students at George Washington Carver School of Arts and Science are now the proud owners of a Van de Graaf Generator. The $700 generator was donated to the school through the Donors Choose program. The Van de Graaf is an electrostatic generator which uses a moving belt to accumulate very high electrostatically stable voltages on a hollow metal globe on the top of the stand. Donors Choose is an online nonprofit organization that allows teachers to post requests for supplies or other aid. For more information, watch this CNN report:

http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2009/11/23/pf_charity_donors_choose.moneymag

Upcoming Events

 Rosemont Homecoming Tonight, October 8 – 5 p.m. The second annual homecoming parade, themed “Rhythms of the Word,” begins at 5 p.m. and goes from Kiefer Boulevard at South Port Drive to Rosemont High's administration building. The varsity football game against McClatchy is at 7 p.m. Participants in the parade include elementary and middle schools, various youth organizations, Rosemont Community Association, as well as student and teacher groups of Rosemont High School.

 Community Challenge Saturday, October 9 – 8 a.m. The Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators is sponsoring a Community Challenge Weekend beautification day at Camellia Basic Elementary School. The association is donating lumber, plants and volunteer labor to spruce up the campus and create shelving in a P.E. equipment storage area.

 Hmong Conference Saturday, October 9 – 9 a.m. The 11^thAnnual Hmong Educational Conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Genesis High School, 5601 47^thAve. Students from throughout SCUSD will gather to share ideas about ways to succeed in school and life. The event is free and will feature entertainment by two B-Boy groups and a keynote address by motivational speaker Tou Saiko Lee.

The Answer Sheet - Supt. Ackerman's critique of 'manifesto'

Supt. Ackerman's critique of 'manifesto'

This was written by Philadelphia Schools Supt. Arlene Ackerman. She was one of 16 big-city school district chiefs who signed onto a reform “manifesto” published in the Washington Post this week that was long on rhetoric and short on substance. It was initiated by New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and signed by D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who has since resigned, and 14 others. Yesterday Ackerman told me that she had not seen the final version of the manifesto -- which views charter schools as a big answer to urban school failure, bashes teachers unions and supports market-driven “fixes” to schools -- and though an aide gave permission for her name to be added to it, she does not agree with it. Here is her statement. By Arlene Ackerman Some may feverishly await the arrival of Superman to resolve the problems that overwhelm our public education system, while

It’s Dictionary Day! Learn some weird words

Noah Webster, considered the father of the American dictionary, was born 252 years ago today, so it seems an appropriate occasion to pay extra attention to the glory of words and maybe learn a few new ones. Dictionary Day is one of those “holidays” that doesn’t seem to have any official sponsor or accompanying celebration. But it does serve to highlight the importance of dictionaries and vocabulary, and any excuse to do that seems like a good thing. Webster was a lexicographer, journalist and author who was descended from Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth. He published his first dictionary of the English language in 1806, and a dozen years later, the first edition of his “An American Dictionary of the English Language,” with 12,000 words that had not appeared in any earlier dictionary. He published a second edition in 1840.

Money and the Market for High Quality Schools � School Finance 101

Money and the Market for High Quality Schools

by schoolfinance101

This post is a revised version of my previous post – If money doesn’t matter…

Here is a draft set of slides to accompany this post: Resource Heterogeneity across Sectors

The theme du jour is that reform (very narrowly defined reform), not money will fix our schools. We’re already spending a lot, the pundits say. Too much in fact, for what we’re getting. We need more charter schools – which obviously do more with less – we need to treat teachers like workers in the private sector (?) by publicly ranking them based on their students’ test scores – and in general, we need to adopt “market” oriented strategies. But…

If money doesn’t matter then why do private independent schools (market driven schools?) spend, on average, so much more per child than nearby public schools?

First off, I am a supporter of private independent schools and former teacher in a private independent school in New York City – An exceptional school where tuition is now about $35,000 per child (where tuition covers only a portion of expense) in a city where the public system is being chastised by politicians and the popular media for

Elect Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler TDSB Trustee, St. Paul's – Ward 11

Education Research Report: Economic Housing Integration Promotes Academic Achievement

Economic Housing Integration Promotes Academic Achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

The education reform debate is dominated by efforts to make high-poverty schools work better, but a new report released by The Century Foundation suggests that a more promising strategy involves providing low-income families a chance to live in more-advantaged neighborhoods, where their children can attend low-poverty public schools.

The Century Foundation study, Housing Policy Is School Policy, conducted by Heather Schwartz of the RAND Corporation, compares two strategies being used by Montgomery County, Maryland, that have shown promising results for their public schools, a highly acclaimed system that is a finalist for the prestigious Broad Prize in education. On the one hand, Montgomery County school officials have poured extra resources into about half of the district's higher-poverty elementary schools designated as being part of the "red zone." The extra resources allow for specialized instruction, reduced class sizes in grades K-3, and intensive teacher development. On the other hand, the county's "inclusionary zoning" housing policy, dating back to the mid-1970s, creates an opportunity for the children of low-income families in public housing to attend more-affluent "green zone" schools in the county (which spend less per student than red zone schools). Under the housing policy, developers of

NPR poll: Republican midterm tide has crested - 2010 Elections News | Midterm Elections: Senators, Governors - Salon.com

NPR poll: Republican midterm tide has crested

A new national survey of battleground districts strongly suggests that the Democrats aren't quite dead just yet

BY JOE CONASON

NPR poll: Republican midterm tide has crested

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Va., speaks at a lumber yard in Sterling, Va., in September.

While Democrats must still expect to lose dozens of House seats and several Senate seats on November 2, the earlier trend toward a massive Republican landslide may have been arrested, according to the latest NPR Battleground Poll released today. Conducted jointly by Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies, the NPR survey of voters in 96 most hotly contested districts indicates significant narrowing of the Republican lead since the public radio network’s last midterm survey in June.

Daily Bruin :: Thousands of students attend Democratic rally where Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom speak about importance of education

Thousands of students attend Democratic rally where Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom speak about importance of education

By DANIEL SCHONHAUT
NICHOLAS GREITZER

Updated: 10:33 PM

Tools

Former President Bill Clinton, along with Jerry Brown, candidate for governor, and Gavin Newson, candidate for lieutenant governor, lead the Vote 2010 Rally hosted by the California Democratic Party at UCLA on Friday, Oct. 15.

Multimedia

Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown addresses a crowd of about 4,000

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown speaks on his stance at Dickson Court to UCLA students.

RAW FOOTAGE: Students stand in long lines for Bill Clinton

Long lines form as students wait to enter Friday's Democratic Rally at Dickson Court. Many students' reasons for attending to catch a glimpse of Former President Bill Clinton.

RAW FOOTAGE: Jerry Brown supporters chant during rally

Jerry Brown's supporters gather on podium to show their enthusiasm.

Galleries

Democratic rally at UCLA

Former President Bill Clinton, along with Jerry Brown, candidate for governor, and Gavin Newsom, candidate for lieutenant governor, lead the Vote 2010 Rally hosted by the California Democratic Party at UCLA on Friday, Oct. 15, 2010.

Possibly Related

[UPDATED at 9:24 p.m.: After 40 minutes of speeches by Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, about 4,000 attendees of the California Democratic Party’s Vote 2010 rally at UCLA filed out of Dickson Court.

All three speakers, introduced by Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa, emphasized the Democratic campaign’s focus on the importance of education in California, which they said differs from Republican goals.

Newsom, a candidate for lieutenant governor, took the podium first, lauded Brown as an experienced candidate with common sense who made the residents of Oakland believe in the political system.

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