Thursday, February 10, 2011

Rhee Challenges 'Criminal Standard' of Teacher Tenure | Sunshine State News

Rhee Challenges 'Criminal Standard' of Teacher Tenure

Former D.C. schools chief tells Senate panel that 'the system' fails instructors

BY: KENRIC WARD | POSTED: FEBRUARY 10, 2011 3:55 AM

TAGS:

CHARLIE CRIST, CHARTER SCHOOLS, FLORIDA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, MICHELL RHEE, NEWS,PRINCIPALS, RICK SCOTT, SENATE COMMITTEE ON PREK-12 EDUCATION, STEPHEN WISE, STUDENTSFIRST, TEACHER TENURE, VOUCHERS, POLITICS

Michelle Rhee | Photo Gray RohrerHide

Tackling the politically charged subject of tenure, school reformer Michelle Rhee told a Florida Senate committee Wednesday that teacher-protection rules undermine quality education.

"It's not due process. In practice, the problem with tenure is that it makes it impossible to remove bad teachers," said Rhee, the former chancellor of schools in Washington, D.C.

"We have created these bureaucracies to the point that you must meet a criminal standard to fire a teacher," Rhee told the Senate Committee on Education PreK-12, chaired by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville.

Teacher tenure remains a lightning rod at the Legislature, which last year passed a bill abolishing it in Florida's K-12 system. After then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the measure at the urging of the Florida

Para las Personas Bilingües, Aprender un Tercer Idioma es Más Fácil - Hispanically Speaking News

Para las Personas Bilingües, Aprender un Tercer Idioma es Más Fácil

Un estudio israelí encontró que los niños de sexto grado que hablaban ruso y hebreo aprendían inglés más fácilmente.

A los niños que saben dos idiomas se les hace más fácil aprender un tercero que a aquellos que sólo saben uno, según un estudio reciente.

En la investigación participaron dos grupos de niños de sexto grado en Israel que aprendían inglés. En un grupo había 40 estudiantes de la ex Unión Soviética cuya lengua materna era el ruso y que hablaban hebreo fluido como segundo idioma. El otro grupo incluyó a 42 hablantes nativos de hebreo que no hablaban otro lenguaje con fluidez.

Los investigadores de la Universidad de Haifa evaluaron las capacidades lingüísticas de los estudiantes, y encontraron que los que hablaban ruso y hebreo eran mejores tanto en inglés como en hebreo que los estudiantes que sólo hablaban hebreo.

Los autores del estudio dijeron que sus hallazgos muestran que preservar la lengua materna en un ambiente

Guardian Teacher Network | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Guardian Teacher Network The Guardian Teacher Network, from the British newspaper, has thousands of resources that can be printed out and used in the classroom. I was quite impressed with the high quality of the materials that I saw, and many can be used with English ...

The Best Sites For Learning About Volcanoes I’m being a little lazy and cheating a bit with this “The Best…” list. I have a few “The Best…” lists relating specifically to volcanoes that have erupted over the years. Within those lists, especially the one on the Iceland volcano, I have many ...

“Amazing Photos Of The Sun” Amazing Photos Of The Sun is a slideshow from TIME Magazine. I’m adding the link to The Best Images Taken In Space.

“The ultimate guide to getting started with blogging!” Ronnie Burt at Edublogs has just published what might be the very best guide for helping teachers begin to blog (and for helping veterans get even better) — The ultimate guide to getting started with blogging! Here’s how the post begins: *In case ...

Additional Resources On Egypt Protests Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Egypt: Photos From the Protests in Egypt is a very impressive NY Times slideshow. Three Weeks in Egypt is a series of photos from The Atlantic. Egypt unrest: ...

“Freedom Share” Is A Winner! Freedom Share is a super, super-easy way to paste and post text, and use it to create a webpage. Making it even better, you can copy and paste images there, too. You can even create a password to make it editable in the future. It makes things very ...

More Temporary Email Services Here are the newest additions to The Best Temporary Email Address Sites For Students (Or Anyone), which are ideal for registering for Web 2.0 apps: Trashmail Postacin

“5 Animals Closest to Extinction” 5 Animals Closest to Extinction is a short and simple article with images. I’m adding the link to The Best Resources For World Biodiversity Day (& Endangered Species Day).

I am working with Mayor Bloomberg on teacher layoffs, Gov. Cuomo says

Parents back first lady's Facebook ban First Lady Michelle Obama found plenty of non-Facebook friends hailing her choice to keep daughters Malia and Sasha off the social network.

Workin' with Bloomy on teachers: Cuomo Gov. Cuomo revealed Wednesday that he's deep in talks with Mayor Bloomberg about potential changes to the last in, first out law dictating city teacher layoffs.

It's round two for ESL charter in Qns. The educators behind a proposed charter school for Hispanic students in Queens are taking to heart the old adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Teachers, local officials may lose ability to negotiate work contracts under bill

By William Hershey, Columbus BureauUpdated 11:21 PM Wednesday, February 9, 2011

COLUMBUS — Teachers and local government employees would lose the ability to negotiate pay, benefits and working conditions under sweeping legislation that would also prohibit collective bargaining for some 40,000 state employees introduced by Republican lawmakers Wednesday.

Senate Bill 5 also would basically end binding arbitration in stalled labor negotiations for police and firefighters, who are not permitted to strike. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., and has support from Gov. John

This Week In Education: AM News: State Board Move To Slow CA "Parent Trigger"

AM News: State Board Move To Slow CA "Parent Trigger"

by Alexander Russo

State Board of Education delays move to implement parent-trigger law LAT: A group will be appointed to study how to implement the measure, which lets parents petition for sweeping reforms at low-performing schools... More Students Fail Advanced Placement Tests WSJ: As record numbers of high-school students are taking and passing Advanced Placement exams, a rising percentage are scoring at the lowest level possible, according to national data on 2010 graduates released Wednesday... Minority Students and A.P. Program, a Mixed Report Card NYT: More than 853,000 public high school seniors in last May’s graduating class, or 28 percent of the class, took at least one A.P. exam. Some 59 percent of those who took the tests earned a grade of 3, 4 or 5, which are required for college credit... Md. ranks No. 1 in Advanced Placement scoring Baltimore Sun: Baltimore City had the lowest scores, with an average pass rate of 3.5 percent. Even the best schools in the city had rates far below most other schools around the region..Many high schools had no students passing any AP exams... Bucks Schoolteacher Suspended Over Blog About Students CBS: Phrases on the blog include; “Frightfully dim,” “Rat-like,” “Am concerned your kid is going to open fire on the school,” “I hate your kid,” and “Seems smarter than she actually is.”Snow days virtually eliminated with Web tools USA Today: Despite winter storms that forced schools and colleges to cancel classes, tech-savvy educators are turning to Web tools to keep students on.. More Textbooks: N.Y. High School Goes Digital AOL: Anastacia Brie, a science teacher at New York City's Hudson High School of Learning Technologies, recently realized why she wasn't tripping over backpacks in her classroom anymore. Her students' bags no longer hold textbooks...

ASCD Inservice: What Role Should Administrators Play in Teacher Collaboration?

What Role Should Administrators Play in Teacher Collaboration?

Formerly a teacher, now an administrator-in-training, Chris Canter blogs about his yearlong assistant principal internship at Fulton County Public Schools in Atlanta, Ga.

Snow days, testing preparation, and lack of sleep all point to one thing: second semester is upon us! For me that means a third school placement, with an opportunity to learn even more about the role of an assistant principal.

In January, I came to Dunwoody Springs Elementary School in Sandy Springs, Ga., where I will spend 9 weeks. There are so many interesting dynamics to the school, but one thing I have noticed stands apart--the exciting, collaborative atmosphere.

I have observed the Curriculum Support Teacher in action, helping identify areas of development and support for teachers, and providing them with resources to more effectively reach students. I have also observed several grade level

Candidates to use Mayor’s Office to Promote Diversity, Immigration Reform, Bilingual Education - Hispanically Speaking News

Candidates to use Mayor’s Office to Promote Diversity, Immigration Reform, Bilingual Education

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February 9, 2011 | by Latin Policy Forum | Chicago Metro

Six candidates for Chicago’s next mayor—Gery Chico, Miguel del Valle, Rahm Emanuel, Carol Moseley Braun, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins, and William Walls, III—have shared their plans to tackle tough issues affecting Chicago Latinos, a community that represents 27 percent of the City’s population, and an estimated 320,000 members of its electorate. Candidates’ complete, unedited responses will be available on the Latino Policy Forum website homepage,www.latinopolicyforum.org, at 10am on Thursday, February 10.

“Latino voters will play an important role in this historic mayoral race—and these voters must understand candidates’ plans for their community to make a well-informed decision at the ballot box,” said Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Latino Policy Forum and co-convener of the Agenda. “But beyond the Latino voters, it behooves all Chicagoans to understand how each candidate is prepared to invest in such a large portion of the City’s residents.”

Parent Revolution’s Gabe Rose suspects trouble for Parent Trigger | Thoughts on Public Education

Parent Revolution’s Gabe Rose suspects trouble for Parent Trigger - by admin

Parents: Don’t weaken ‘parent trigger’ - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess Five dozen parents from Compton and all corners of Los Angeles drove all night in a packed school bus to deliver their message, in impassioned one-minute speeches in Spanish and English, to the State Board of Education: Don’t undermine the year-old ...

Analysis of LA Times series shows pitfalls of using test scores to evaluate teachers - by Charles Taylor Kerchner Nearly half the rankings handed out to L.A. Unified teachers by the Los Angeles Times may be wrong. This is one of the conclusions reached by Derek Briggs and Ben Domingue of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who conducted a reanalysis of the data ...

The Answer Sheet - Principal: Congress gets it wrong again

Principal: Congress gets it wrong again

My guest is George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio, and executive director of the non-profit Forum for Education and Democracy, a collaboration of educators from around the country. In this post, Wood writes about a hearing scheduled today by the U.S. House Education & Workforce Committee entitled "Education in the Nation: Examining the Challenges and Opportunities Facing America's Classrooms." By George Wood A while ago I wrote that I was disappointed that no one in Washington was interested in the wisdom to be found in our successful public schools. I put it this way, “Would somebody please explain to me how the success of my staff, and many schools just like ours, is no longer of value to a nation that seems to still want a good public education system?” Today it feels like déjà vu all over again.

When should kids be able to read?

It used to be that kids in the early elementary school grades were allowed to learn how to read at their own speed. Today test-obsessed public schools don’t offer that luxury; if youngsters aren’t starting to learn to read in kindergarten, and can’t read by the end of first grade, they are already behind. The new Common Core standards, which have been adopted by most states, say, for example, that first graders should be able to, “With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1.” The second grade standard: “By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.” This flies in the face of research that shows that some students need more time to learn how to read, and that boys

Find your school’s new “on-time” grad rate | EdNewsColorado

Find your school’s new “on-time” grad rate State officials this week released new four-year graduation rates for Colorado high schools, using a formula now required under federal law. The new “on-time” graduation rate for the state’s spring 2010 high school graduates is 72.4 percent, ...

State board hikes license fees The State Board of Education Wednesday voted unanimously to increase educator license fees, in some cases by more than 30 percent. The hikes include: - A jump of $10 for a one-year substitute authorization, taking the fee to $40. - A hike ...

Tax credit bill back in the shop The House Finance Committee spent 3½ hours Wednesday taking testimony on a bill that would allow tax credits for private school tuition before chair Rep. Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, took it off the table so that sponsor Rep. Spencer Swalm, ..

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: TSJ supports Del Valle for mayor

TSJ supports Del Valle for mayor

by Mike Klonsky

I received this statement of support for MdV from Teachers for Social Justice, in this morning's mail:

TSJ has decided to endorse Miguel Del Valle for mayor. We believe Del Valle is the candidate most likely to be responsive to the educational concerns of teachers, families, students and communities in Chicago. We know that real change in public education in Chicago will depend on all of us organizing and working together for the changes we need. But a mayor who listens to the

NYC Educator: No One Man Should Have All That Power

No One Man Should Have All That Power

by Miss Eyre

Who's sick of talking about Cathie Black? Me, that's who. I'm solidly convinced that the woman has, at least for now, no business being schools chancellor. We're all in agreement, so I'm officially over the topic for the moment.

Let's switch. Click with caution, the link below is NSFW (although, since it's YouTube, it won't work on DOE computers anyway):

This is maybe a bit of a Jose Vilson-style blog, so I hope that Jose will forgive me in advance for taking a stylistic

Study shows Texas teacher merit pay helps keep staff, slightly helps test scores | The Transformation Times

Study shows Texas teacher merit pay helps keep staff, slightly helps test scores Money seems to motivate folks. Texas’ first merit pay system, which was focused on paying teachers for teaching at low performing schools, was unsuccessful. The current merit-pay system, called DATE, is better – the study noted below found that ...

Teacher pensions underfunded by half a trillion nationwide Want to take a spin and hope we can afford this? Governments have a nasty habit of providing their employees with huge pension packages that then tend to grow as successive elected legislatures add to those pensions without apparent regard for the ...

Daily Kos: "Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it."

“Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it.”

by teacherken

CAIRO — The sea of people pulsated with energy, galvanized by the words of Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive who got the Mubarak treatment — 12-day disappearance, blindfolding, interrogation — before a tweet that will one day be etched in some granite memorial: "Freedom is a bless that deserves fighting for it."

So begins Wael Ghonim's Egypt, this morning's fantastic NY Times column by Roger Cohen. Read it.

Let me repeat myself. Read Cohen. Also, read Nicholas Kristof, in Obama and Egypt’s Future. These are two journalists who know Egypt.

But I want to focus on Cohen, in part because he is lesser to known to Americans (Kristof does have 2 Pulitzers), but also because people should remember this - he is a Jew writing about Arab Muslims who trust him.

Notes from the Field « City School Stories

Notes from the Field

by fmurphy

Vouchers Are Not an Economic Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged

Submitted by Frank Murphy, February 10, 2011

Martin Luther King was deep in the midst of organizing the Poor Peoples’ Campaign when he was assassinated in 1968. The objective of this ambitious endeavor was to press for the passage of an Economic Bill of Rights for the disadvantaged. King was determined to seek economic freedom for all Americans regardless of race. He envisioned a great society. It would be one where all citizens would be fully employed. In the country he dreamed of, there would be affordable housing and equal educational opportunities for all poor people. His dream was large and it contained multitudes.

When King and the other leaders of the Southern Leadership Conference committed to organizing the Poor People’s March on Washington, a second phase of the Civil Rights movement was initiated. These famous

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Schools Matter: Michelle Rhee's Miracle Teaching Turns Out to Another Enron Education Story

Michelle Rhee's Miracle Teaching Turns Out to Another Enron Education Story

by Jim Horn

It is customary in this era of education reform fashioned on the Enron model to find impressive miracles quickly turning to disappointing mirages upon closer examination. From Houston to New York City to Boston and Chicago, from L.A. to Atlanta, we find that test scores that sound too good to be true, are.

As Michelle Rhee's resume indicates, she has been claiming miracles from her TFA stint in Baltimore for a long time. She actually used her tales of miracle test score gains at the Edison/EAI school where she worked to leverage a position in New York prior to coming to DC. What's amazing is that no one ever

Shanker Blog » Are Public Employee Unions To Blame For States' Budget Crises?

Are Public Employee Unions To Blame For States’ Budget Crises?

by Matthew Di Carlo

A disturbing number of people are blaming public sector unions for states’ current budget crises (also here, hereand here). Their basic argument is that unions have seriously exacerbated budget shortfalls because a significant proportion of state spending is tied up in employee compensation, and unions, via collective bargaining, increase salaries and benefits. As a result, so the line goes, unions have created unsustainable expenses for state governments in a time of declining or still-recovering revenues.

Needless to say, the relationship between unions and state revenue/spending is complex. The claim that unions are responsible for state budget gaps (or at least for larger gaps) is therefore extremely difficult to examine, especially during a fiscal crisis. Nevertheless, we can take a quick, modestly rigorous look.

Parent Empowerment Law AKA Parent Trigger - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education)

Parent Empowerment Law - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education)

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Issues
Statement on Parent Empowerment Law

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson issued the following statement after hearing testimony from parents about the Parent Empowerment Law during today's State Board of Education meeting. The statute has been incorrectly identified as the "parent trigger" law.

"I'm pleased that so many parents took the time and made the significant effort to come to Sacramento to address the State Board of Education regarding the Parent Empowerment Law," said Torlakson. "Parent involvement is essential to the success of our students. While no action was taken today, I look forward to the Board's future discussion about the current emergency regulations in place and to the formation of a working group to craft long-term regulations that treat all parties fairly and provide a transparent, informative, and workable process."

The Parent Empowerment law (SBX5 4) was part of legislation passed last year to help California pursue Race to the Top federal funding.

For information on the emergency regulations on the Parent Empowerment law, please visit Parent Empowerment Emergency Regulations - Proposed Rulemaking & Regulations.

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Thursday, February 10, 2011