This is a sampling of The Education Report, Katy Murphy's Oakland schools blog. Read more atIBAbuzz.com/education. Follow her at Twitter.com/KatyMurphy.
Sept. 16: A new California law known as the "Parent Trigger" could soon be taking shape in Oakland and other Bay Area cities. The first of its kind in the nation, the legislation allows parents to unionize -- and to effect major changes at some low-performing schools, such as a staffing shake-up or a conversion to an independently run charter school.
Parent Revolution, the Los Angeles-based group behind the law, stopped in Oakland this week on a promotional bus tour through California. Most of the people who came to Brookfield Elementary School to learn more about the trigger were either part of the bus tour or members of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP, invited by Oakland school board member Alice Spearman. I noticed that only a handful of current Oakland public school parents (maybe just two or three) were in the room to learn about a movement described by organizer Shirley Ford as "grass roots in every sense of the word."
That appears to have been by design. Spearman explained to the small group Wednesday that she wanted to start with "all the key players in Oakland" to decide whether to form a parent union chapter. If so, she said, she would then bring other groups and "the grass-roots
parents" into the discussion.Some critics of the Parent Trigger see it as a tactic by the charter school lobby to run more schools, especially since
Tacoma, Washington (CNN) -- A judge Friday said striking teachers were violating his earlier order to halt their protests, but he did not penalize the educators.
Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff said he could still decide to fine the union the striking teachers' belong to, and he ordered an attorney for the Tacoma School District to provide him the names of all the teachers who failed to show up for work after he ordered them Wednesday to return to the classroom.
"The order is legitimate, the question is, are we in compliance? It doesn't look like it," Chushcoff told an overflowing courtroom. He told attorneys for the teacher's union and school district to keep negotiating and said that if the strikes continue, he might take action during a hearing scheduled for September 27.
By Ray Glier | AFP – 17 hrs ago
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The sister of Troy Davis, Martina Correia, speaks next to Genevieve Garrigos (L), …
Amnesty International activists hold banners in support of Troy Davis in front of …
Some 300 protest rallies were held worldwide Friday ahead of a last-ditch parole board hearing for death row inmate Troy Davis, whose planned execution sparked an international movement.
Davis is set to be executed September 21 for the 1989 shooting death of a police officer in Savannah, Georgia, but his supporters say there is strong evidence supporting his claim of innocence.
On Thursday, petitions with 663,000 names were handed to th
WASHINGTON—In this week’s address, President Obama urged Congress to pass the American Jobs Act without delay so that businesses will be able to hire more workers and every American who wants a job will be able to find one. The President’s jobs bill keeps cops on the streets and teachers in the classrooms, cuts taxes for small businesses, and puts construction workers back to work without adding to the deficit. All Americans who agree with the President’s plan should call their elected officials and tell them that it’s time to pass the jobs bill, which will ensure that everyone pays their fair share and that we live within our means as we help the economy continue to grow.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
September 17, 2011
I’ve spent some time lately traveling the country and talking with folks outside of Washington. And the number one issue for the people I meet is how we can get back to a place where we’re creating good, middle-class jobs that pay well and offer some security.
That’s the idea behind the American Jobs Act. It’s a jobs bill that does two simple things: put more people back to work, and more money back in the pockets of people who are working.
This jobs bill puts construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges and modernizing our schools.
This jobs bill puts teachers back in the classroom, and keeps cops and firefighters on our streets.
This jobs bill gives tax credits to companies that hire our veterans, because if you sign up to fight for our country, the last thing you should have to do is fight for a job when you come home.
This jobs bill connects the long-term unemployed to temporary work to keep their skills sharp while they look for a job, and it gives hundreds of thousands of young people the hope of a job next summer.
This jobs bill cuts taxes for every small business owner in America. It cuts them even more for small business owners that hire new workers and raise workers’ salaries. And it cuts taxes for every working family in America so that you’ll have more money in your pockets, and businesses know they’ll have customers to buy what they sell.
That’s the American Jobs Act, and you can check it out for yourself on WhiteHouse.gov.
It will create new jobs. It will cut taxes for every worker and small business in the country. And it will not add to the deficit. It will be paid for.
On Monday, I’ll lay out my plan for how we’ll do that – how we’ll pay for this plan and pay down our debt by following some basic principles: making sure we live within our means and asking everyone to pay their fair share.
But right now, we’ve got to get Congress to pass this jobs bill. Everything in the American Jobs Act is the kind of idea that’s been supported by Democrats and Republicans before. And if they’re ideas you agree with, too, every one of you can help make it happen by telling your congressperson to pass this jobs bill right away.
I know some of them would rather wait another year to wage another election than work together right now. But most Americans don’t have the luxury of waiting. It was three years ago this week that a financial crisis on Wall Street made things much more difficult for working folks on Main Street. And too many are still hurting as a result.
So the time for action is now. No more games or gridlock. No more division or delay. It’s time for the people you sent to Washington to put country before party – to stop worrying so much about their jobs and start worrying more about yours.
It’s time to get to work and show the world once again why the United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth.
Thank you.
I have been receiving more complaints from teachers regarding ongoing negotiations between their unions and district administrations. The district administrators are insisting on either salary freezes or outright “give backs” by the teachers. It seems almost every district is using the current bleak financial climate as a bargaining chip and psychological ploy. Finally it seems teachers are getting tired of this tactic and beginning to show some outrage over what they perceive as a lack of respect.
I am more outraged about the hypocrisy of politicians and school administrators who make countless public statement about how nothing is more important than the education of our children. If it’s so important than FIND A WAY to reward hard-working teachers with pay raises and benefits that are commensurate with the importance of their jobs.
I am outraged that corporations in this country are sitting on two trillion dollars in cash and giving big bonuses to
I would highly recommend reading this article in full at Rethinking Schools.
For or Against Children?
The Problematic history of Stand for Children
By Ken Libby & Adam Sanchez
Last October, a friend called with a question: “What do you know about Stand for Children?” The advocacy organization, based in our hometown of Portland, Ore., was expanding into his state of Illinois, and he hoped to glean some insight into the kinds of reforms the group would support. Just two months later, Stand’s Illinois
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Harvard Public Affairs & Communications Office Vito Perrone Sr., in 1997 with students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he taught. He advocated for flexible teaching methods that did not rely on standardized testing. |
While the value of standards is reasonably debated within the education community, the scope and application of them is not. But perhaps it may be time to take a look at where apparently $900 million in federal grant money went and why. In a Florida Independent story, Marcos Restrepo adds this tidbit at the end of his story on Florida’s standards:
A Florida Department of Education timeline (.pdf) indicates that the state’s Common Core Standards will be fully implemented by the 2013-2014 school year. The timeline also shows that Florida has received almost $900 million in federal grants to develop the core standards in English/language arts and mathematics.
Doesn’t $900 million sound like an awful lot? Especially with all that hand wringing over all that money we’ve
I spent some time the other day, while out running, pondering the usefulness of student growth percentile estimates and value added estimates of teacher effectiveness for the average school or district level practitioner. How would they use them? What would they see in them? How might these performance snapshots inform practice?
Let’s just say I am skeptical that either VAMs (Value Added Models) or SGPs (Student Growth Percentiles) can provide useful insights to anyone who doesn’t not have a pretty good understanding of the nuances of these kinds of data/estimates & the underlying properties of the tests. If I was a principal, would I rather have the information than not? Perhaps. But I’m someone who’s primary collecting hobby is, well, collecting data. Th
On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown attended an event honoring the winners of the 2011 Governor’s Challenge, a statewide competition to determine which schools are doing the most to encourage their students to eat well and be physically fit.
But funding for the competition and Brown's support for the group that runs it, the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, is in doubt.
Although it is called "The Governor's Council" and uses the state flag in its logo, the group is not part of the state
We’re on the cusp of the 2012 election. What will it be about? It seems reasonably certain President Obama will be confronted by a putative Republican candidate who:
Believes corporations are people, wants to cut the top corporate rate to 25% (from the current 35%) and no longer require they pay tax on foreign income, who will eliminate capital gains and dividend taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year, raise the retirement age for Social Security and turn Medicaid into block grants to states, seek a balanced-budged amendment to the Constitution, require any regulatory agency issuing a new regulation repeal another regulation of equal cost (regardless of the benefits), and seek repeal of Obama’s healthcare plan.
Or one who:
Believes the Federal Reserve is treasonous when it expands the money supply, doubts human beings evolved
