Sunday, November 21, 2010

Tenure reform: Union says it's open to streamlining process for firing educators | MLive.com

Tenure reform: Union says it's open to streamlining process for firing educators

Published: Sunday, November 21, 2010, 7:02 AM

Julie Mack | Kalamazoo Gazette
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Photospin photo illustrationScroll down for poll: Do you feel reforms to teacher tenure law are needed?

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KALAMAZOO — After Timothy Grider was arrested for picking up a prostitute in 2009, Byron Center Public Schools suspended the special-education teacher.

They also searched his classroom and found a half-empty bottle of vodka — a violation of school policy.

Grider didn’t get fired. Instead, the 19-year veteran teacher agreed to resign for a year’s salary and benefits, a settlement worth $106,307.

Public school teachers in Michigan and throughout the country are covered by tenure, a set of legal protections that makes their dismissal for incompetence or malfeasance a complicated and expensive process.

As a result, tenured teachers are rarely fired. Michigan has more than 100,000 public school

Ted Kinnaman: Education research counts more than movie

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Ted Kinnaman, Janesville | No Comments Posted | Posted: Sunday, November 21, 2010 4:00 am

With regard to school reform, refer to he writings of Diane Ravitch, an education historian and research professor of education at New York University and an old-fashioned conservative who still has respect for facts.

Ravitch was an early advocate of charter schools who has since read the statistics regarding their success or lack thereof. She is now a critic of charters and of the movie "Waiting for Superman."

The most important statistic she quotes is that only one in five charter schools were able to achieve the results promised by those promoting them. Furthermore, 37 percent were worse than public schools and

University World News - US: Re-imagining California higher education

US: Re-imagining California higher education

Sarah King Head
21 November 2010
Issue: 148

A report from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, has analysed the challenges faced by tertiary education in California and its relationship to economic growth - and proposes some radical solutions for rejuvenating a faltering public higher education system that was once the envy of the world.

California now ranks among the bottom 10 states in the US for access to higher education and in degree completion rates.

Struggling to respond to its current status, public higher education in the state is facing off against other highly publicised challenges, including the impact of the current economic crisis and the increasingly predatory recruitment strategies of the for-profit sector.

CSHE senior research associate and author of Re-imagining California Higher Education John Aubrey Douglass attempts to re-imagine a network of state-funded colleges and universities.

The report also provides a plan for so-called 'smart growth', which Douglass says can help the system recapture its vanguard position in supporting and innovating top-notch developments for mass higher education.

In addition to offering greater institutional diversity and mission differentiation to the state-wide University of California (UC), regionally-oriented California State University (CSU) and local California Community College (CCC) systems, the report encourages the state t

Federal education policy is failing | MailTribune.com

Federal education policy is failing

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November 21, 2010

By Betty R. Kazmin

Iwas privileged to teach in a National Blue Ribbon School in Los Angeles during the 1990s. What is now being done to the Medford School District (reported in "Does this add up?" Nov. 11) is an abuse of the federal government's power to encourage and recognize educational excellence. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 punishes public schools for the diversity of their students' achievements.

Your lead paragraph says it well: "Students who failed state math tests at four schools have tipped the Medford School District into a punitive status known as a district 'in need of improvement' under the No Child Left Behind Act." The article explains that every subgroup of students within every Medford school must meet grade-level standards in math. Otherwise the school is labeled a failure in that subject.

If at least one elementary, one middle and one high school in the district earns that label, the entire district is put on the "needs improvement" list, and punished accordingly. In Medford's case, the issue was a handful of special needs students — some with disabilities or limited English proficiency — who did not perform at grade level in math at one elementary school. Those few students pushed the whole school district into its current negative designation, despite all its students' achievements.

I taught pre-algebra and algebra 1 at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies — or LACES — a public magnet

Mayor Bloomberg must get Cathie Black as schools chancellor if mayoral control means anything

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Sunday, November 21st 2010, 4:00 AM

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Mayor Bloomberg has determined to place the futures of the city's 1.1 million public school kids in the hands of publishing executive Cathie Black. He made the call. Let's go with it.

Barring the unlikely emergence of a disqualifying disclosure, state Education Commissioner David Steiner should sanction Black's appointment as schools chancellor, and do so as quickly as possible.

While Black is highly accomplished, her selection by Bloomberg has generated predictable opposition from those who disagree with his school policies and, more widely, a sense of puzzlement.

The Daily News front page that reported the Black pick summed up the response with the word, "HUH?" over the question, "No education experience, kids went to private school - she's perfect to run our struggling schools! Right?"

Bloomberg is convinced she is. His opinion demands respect, given his track record in

Threats of student walkout, recall follow DPS approval of Montbello High turnaround - The Denver Post

Threats of student walkout, recall follow DPS approval of Montbello High turnaround 3011/19/2010Tears fell down the faces of Montbello High students in the early morning hours Friday after the Denver school board voted 4-3 to approve a plan to reconfigure their school and its feeder schools.

Denver school board OKs Montbello restructuring plan11/19/2010 - Fiery speeches, impassioned pleas and heartfelt statements were aired for hours Thursday night before the Denver school board approved the largest school turnaround plan in district history.

Montbello school-reform plan expected to be approved Thursday11/18/2010 - The largest school reform plan in Denver's history will come down to a contentious vote tonight at a school board meeting that is expected to be preceded by emotional pleas from supporters and foes.

DPS board gives superintendent positive review despite standing criticisms11/17/2010 - A majority on Denver's seven-member school board penned a mostly positive evaluation for embattled Superintendent Tom Boasberg, who is likely one vote away from losing his job.

Douglas County school board hears from public on vouchers11/17/2010 - An overflow crowd Tuesday filled hallways, sat against the walls and occupied every seat in the Douglas County School District's boardroom to voice opinions about a possible school voucher plan.

Tensions with Mayor Bloomberg caused schools Chancellor Joel Klein's surprise exit, sources say

BY RACHEL MONAHAN AND MEREDITH KOLODNER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Sunday, November 21st 2010, 4:00 AM

Harbus for News

Mayor Bloomberg has publicly stood behind schools boss Joel Klein (r.) but unhappiness in private pushed Klein out, sources say.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's exit may have been unexpected - but insiders say he was ready to go, partly because of escalating tension between him and Mayor Bloomberg.

The mayor, an unwavering public supporter of Klein through eight bruising years, had begun to grow disenchanted with his education chief, six sources with knowledge of the relationship told the Daily News.

"It wasn't as simple as him being pushed. Joel is very astute when it comes to relationships. He saw what was happening," said one source familiar with the inner workings of the Department of Education. "He wants to make some money and take on a new challenge. It made sense for him to go when he did."

Since Klein's announcement, Bloomberg has said unequivocally he wanted Klein to stay.

Still, the results-oriented mayor always made education his signature issue. In what is presumably his last term, he's mindful of his legacy, sources said.

Klein has long been a polarizing figure - accused of being a tone-deaf autocrat who

Can differentiation work? — Joanne Jacobs

Can differentiation work?

by Joanne

With the demise of tracking, teachers are supposed to “differentiate instruction,” tailoring instruction to advanced, average and struggling students in the same class. It’s not easy, writes Mike Petrilli in Ed Next.

The idea, according to Carol Tomlinson of the University of Virginia (UVA), is to “shake up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.” Ideally, instruction is customized at the individual student level.

Holly Hertberg-Davis, also at UVA worked with Tomlinson on a large study of differentiated instruction which included teacher training and ongoing coaching.

Three years later the researchers wanted to know if the program had an impact on student

Queens Teacher: DOE Continues Neglect of Northeast Queens

DOE Continues Neglect of Northeast Queens

by Queens Teacher

District 26 Schools Not Tapped to Get New Seats Community Leaders Say Classrooms Overcrowded in Northeast Queens

By Nathan Duke and Paul Leonard |

Northeast Queens leaders said they were frustrated to read in a recently-released amendment to the city's five-year capital plan that there will are no new classrooms in the works for District 26 schools.

In a Nov. 12 letter, Deputy Schools Chancellor Kathleen Grimm recommended a 50,000-seat increase for city schools. To pay for it, she wants an increase in the $11. 7 billion funding level agreed to in February by $4.4

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Blogging Makes Better Teachers

Writing your own blog, as well as reading the blogs of others will make you a better teacher. To an experienced teacher/blogger this is self-evident. However, to so many others, this is a call to take ownership of your professional development and growth as an educator.

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Sunday, November 21, 2010