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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

‘Investing in Innovation’ Creates STEM Awards | ED.gov Blog

‘Investing in Innovation’ Creates STEM Awards | ED.gov Blog:


‘Investing in Innovation’ Creates STEM Awards

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Guest Blogger
Cross-posted from the White House Blog.
The Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) competition provides funding to school districts and non-profit organizations around the country to develop new approaches to longstanding challenges in education.  Today, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the 23 applicants who will receive grants from the 2011 i3 competition. For the first time, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education was a priority of the competition.  Five of the 23 awards will address that critical area and include programs devoted to:
Other areas that i3 grants will address include teacher and principal effectiveness; high-quality standards and assessments; turning around low-performing schools; and improving rural achievement. Some of the projects in these areas will:
In addition to the $148 million in funding provided by the Department of Education, the applicants raised $18 million in private-sector commitments from a wide range of philanthropic organizations, local businesses, and individuals.
More information about all of the 2011 grantees is available on the i3 website. Information about all applicants is available at data.ed.gov.
Jefferson Pestronk is Special Assistant in the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the Department of Education
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WHO’S BEHIND ALL THOSE SMILING FACES ? « Teachers Fight Back

WHO’S BEHIND ALL THOSE SMILING FACES ? « Teachers Fight Back:


WHO’S BEHIND ALL THOSE SMILING FACES ?

by alkleen
Who are all those adults you see that are acting like giddy little children now that school is out for Christmas break ?  Why that would be all the teachers out there. Look at their smiling faces, they look like people who have just had the weight of the world lifted off of their shoulders. And for good reason, they have a two-week break from quite possibly the most demanding and pressure filled job on the face of the earth.
It’s difficult for nonteachers to understand what it is like to try to control, motivate, inspire, organize, plan, and get a classroom of thirty youngsters to achieve all that they are supposed to. I would compare the pressures of teaching to those of an air traffic controller. Instead of trying to get thirty planes to all do what they are supposed to in a matter of minutes, you have to get thirty kids to do that. At least planes and pilots are doing what they can to help the controllers, that’s not always the case with children.
I would also compare teaching to the job of an overworked intern at a public hospital who is trying to juggle 
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Vallas, the master of disaster, takes interim job in Bridgeport

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Vallas, the master of disaster, takes interim job in Bridgeport:


Vallas, the master of disaster, takes interim job in Bridgeport

by Mike Klonsky
"I am used to taking on great challenges and going into crisis situations," he said. "Our plan is to move fast." --Paul Vallas
I guess his consulting business in Haiti and Chile must have bottomed out. In any event, Vallas has taken a job, offered by his buddy Stefan Pryor in Bridgeport, as the interim superintendent. Look for him to make the best 
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Deregulating Education « The Core Knowledge Blog

Deregulating Education « The Core Knowledge Blog:


Deregulating Education

by Robert Pondiscio

“From space travel to health care to clean energy, the federal government has a successful track record of partnering with the private sector,” writes John Bailey at The Atlantic, so why not education?  Bailey, the director of Whiteboard Advisors, points out the most federal agencies “in some way engage the private sector in addressing their priorities.”
“When it comes to education, however, Uncle Sam’s handshake with entrepreneurs clenches into a fist. Instead of involving the private sector, education policymakers have actually created policy and funding barriers that skew support to nonprofits and prevent for-profits from fully participating in programs aimed at improving teaching or learning. These barriers exist at nearly every level of government — local, state, and federal — further isolating education from potential innovations that could help children and discouraging entrepreneurship.”
It’s an interesting argument.  Privatization and profiteering, however, are among the most 
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Chris Turney’s last letter to me. « Fred Klonsky

Chris Turney’s last letter to me. « Fred Klonsky:


Chris Turney’s last letter to me.

by Fred Klonsky
Back in the Fall when we were in the thick of the fight against the attack on pensions, Chris Turney invited me to speak to the Dupage County chapter of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association of which she was chairperson.
I received a warm reception from the 100 or so retired teachers as we discussed the history of both Senate Bill 7 and Senate Bill 512. I received a free lunch at the Greek restaurant where the monthly meeting took place. I even won a bottle of wine in the raffle. And, most importantly, I made new friends among the retired teachers who filled the room.
Last October Chris sent the following report to me on the state convention of the IRTA which she had just 
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RheeFirst! » Fighting back against mandatory school testing– Mother Courage vs corporate reformers

RheeFirst! » Fighting back against mandatory school testing– Mother Courage vs corporate reformers:


Fighting back against mandatory school testing– Mother Courage vs corporate reformers

by admin
Written by Aaryn Befler for the San Diego City Beat.  Read the entire article here.
“I’m angry that my kid is being held hostage to tests by a system that threatens to take away her school’s funding if she and her schoolmates don’t perform well. I’m angry that my child’s class spent an hour, during the math benchmark test in October, transcribing their answers from the test sheet to the Scantron sheet. I’m angry that whatever changes are coming to this system will not be soon enough—or even the right ones—to change 
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Morning Report: Getting Closer to Solving a Schools Mystery - voiceofsandiego.org: Morning Report

Morning Report: Getting Closer to Solving a Schools Mystery - voiceofsandiego.org: Morning Report:


Four Revealing Charts on School FinancesComments (7) | 11:00 am

Earlier this month, we surprised two San Diego Unified school board members with a couple of eye-popping charts that we produced in an effort to understand the district's financial crisis.
The school board and district officials have been saying for months that the district has been repeatedly underfunded by the state and federal governments. But our analysis showed that while the district has, indeed, suffered significant cuts in the last few years, those cuts just offset an equally significant ramping up of education funding during the first half of the decade.
This chart shows how the district's funding has been cut since the 2006-07 school year:
Read the rest of this article
 

Morning Report: Getting Closer to Solving a Schools Mystery

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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:43 am |Updated: 7:44 am, Wed Dec 21, 2011.

We're digging deeper into explanations for the financial crisis facing San Diego schools. District leaders have blamed the crisis on a drop in funding from the state, but we've shown that they're only getting a bit less than they did a decade ago. What gives?
We've got four revealing graphics that put us on the road towards solving the mystery we've been pursuing for months.
Health care costs are up. That's not exactly surprising, but it has contributed signficantly 
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