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Friday, April 6, 2012

S.2280: Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

S.2280: Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:


S.2280 - Know Before You Owe Private Student Loan Act of 2012

A bill to amend the Truth in Lending Act and the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require certain creditors to obtain certifications from institutions of higher education, and for other purposes. view all titles (2)

Bill's Views

  • Today:4
  • Past Seven Days:34
  • All-Time:34
Introduced
Senate
Passes
House
Passes
President
Signs

03/28/12
Official Bill TextComment on about 9 Pages

Sponsor


Senator
Richard Durbin
D-IL
View Co-Sponsors (1)
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When it Comes to Educating Black Students, Some Believe Black Teachers an Important Part of a Successful Formula | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog

When it Comes to Educating Black Students, Some Believe Black Teachers an Important Part of a Successful Formula | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog:


When it Comes to Educating Black Students, Some Believe Black Teachers an Important Part of a Successful Formula

Posted By  | April 6th, 2012 (3 minutes ago) | Category: Education | No Comments » Print This Post Print This Post
by Tarice L.S. Gray
For decades now, some of the nation’s leading educators and politicians have tried to solve the much-publicized riddle known as the achievement gap between black and white elementary and secondary school pupils.
Part of the reason is simple math. The most recent federal nationwide tests in reading and mathematics, theNational Assessment of Educational Progress program, found that black and Latino students in the fourth and eighth grades fell behind their white peers by an average of more than 20 points – or about two grade levels.
Those gaps, all agree, contribute mightily to the subsequent disproportionate drop-out rates of black and Latino high school students.
Jada WilliamsThe discussion about the numbers is driven by the significant social and economic difficulties many black and Latino students face outside the classroom – such as the impoverished families and neighborhoods they come from. Some observers also contend that students are hurt by a cultural disconnect between them and many of the white teachers on their schools’ faculties, a distance caused by teachers’ inability to understand, literally, where the students are coming from. Others also tie the cause of the achievement gap to many whit
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Geaux Teacher! SB 650 - REAL TEACHER EVALUATION

Geaux Teacher!:

SB 650 - REAL TEACHER EVALUATION

by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT)


SOS Save Our Schools

The dust hasn't settled yet in the aftermath of the scramble of Jindal's minions in the legislature to dismantle public education and to discredit and decertify the teaching profession. . .

But next to be heard in the Senate Education Committee is SB 650 offered by Senator Ben Nevers. Read the bill then dust yourselves off and begin contacting members of the Senate Education Committee RIGHT AWAYasking them to support this bill. Here are the Digest and full versions of the bill for you to digest:

http://legis.la.gov/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=787035 DIGEST

http://legis.la.gov/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=787031 FULL VERSION

In addition to eliminating the guarantee of lawsuits that the value-added feature of HB 974 will bring, this bill actually provides what any good teacher evaluation methodology should offer - improvement to the quality and effectiveness of the teacher and improved learning opportunities for the student. HB 974 is purely punitive in nature and obviously designed to devalue certification and remove the highly qualified status from the Profession of Teaching.

Here is contact information for the members of the Senate Education Committee. Take a minute to thank Senator Nevers and offer your support to him as he presents this bill in committee. Also thank Senator LaFleur who was the only member of this committee to vote AGAINST HB 974 and HB 976 on final passage. I will post the hearing date and time as soon as it is announced.

Committee Members


Senator Conrad Appel (Chairman)
721 Papworth Avenue
Suite 102A
Metairie, LA 70005
(866) 946-3133
appelc@legis.la.gov

Senator Eric LaFleur (Vice-Chairman)
P.O. Box 617
Ville Platte, LA 70586
(337) 363-5019
lafleure@legis.la.gov

Senator Dan Claitor
7520 Perkins Road
Suite 160
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
(225) 765-0206
claitord@legis.la.gov

Senator Jack Donahue
3030 East Causeway Approach
Mandeville, LA 70448
(985) 727-7949
donahuej@legis.la.gov

Senator Elbert L. Guillory
633 East Landry Street
Opelousas, LA 70570
(337) 943-2457
guillorye@legis.la.gov

Senator Mike Walsworth
4007 White's Ferry Rd
Suite A
West Monroe, LA 71291
(318) 340-6453
walsworthm@legis.la.gov

Senator Mack "Bodi" White
808 O'Neal Lane
Baton Rouge, LA 70816
(225) 272-1324
whitem@legis.la.gov

LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN !!

noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) at Geaux Teacher! - 12 hours ago
I join the thousands of teachers statewide who are very disappointed that due to factors beyond our control we were unable to join the rally on the Capitol steps yesterday. I propose that we "rally" via a letter writing campaign that will afford each and every one of us the opportunity for a strong personal voice in this one-way conversation with legislators. There seems to be not much left but to HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE to us and to the public. I am suggesting to all my contacts (educators, parents, students and their neighbors, friends, relatives) that they write a short (or long) ... more »
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Educator Musing: State Senator Gloria Romero Addresses School Board - Parent Trigger Law Petition

Educator Musing: State Senator Gloria Romero Addresses School Board - Parent Trigger Law Petition:


Parent Empowerment

Parent empowerment is a good idea.  Our public school system was founded on local control - the original old G of parent empowerment.  The concept of a public school system was centered on community-based run education.  The system allowed for local people to be elected by the community to be trustees of their school district.  It evolved to allow parent involvement as volunteers, members of the school site councils, members of district committees, PTA, Boosters, and members of interview panels for teachers, principals, and superintendents.  


Unfortunately, the public school system is no longer centered on community-based run education.  Local control has been drained from public schools.  What we now have is only a facade of local control.  Education is now being run by politicians in state capitols and from Washington D.C.. The politicians, in turn, are influenced by the deep pocket affluence of nonprofit and for-profit organizations pushing their agenda on education.  


No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top grants are federal laws that are pushing states to adopt laws and policies that have been narrowing the curriculum and forcing our schools to be test prep institutions at the expense of science, social studies, and the arts.  The "essential standards" taught now are only the ones that appear on state tests.  Fear of punishment by the state and federal government agencies is forcing all other subjects out of the curriculum.   Even U.S. Education Secretary Duncan has conceded this point.


Every dollar received in grants by schools from the state and federal government have strings attached to them that specifically directs how they should be spent.  They are called restricted funds - restricted because they can only be spent to satisfy a particular state or federal policy.  Local school districts only have real say on unrestricted funds that are almost all for employee salaries and benefits.  It is sad that local control now means that districts can cut the salaries and benefits of employees during the tough times, but have little say on how to spend other monies for education.


The California parent trigger law doesn't empower parents to fix any of these problems.  The parent trigger law is limited to imposing Race To The Top policies on local school districts.  The parent trigger law is a vehicle to obligate school districts to enforce one out of five Race To The Top intervention models on a failing school.  A real parent empowerment law would give parents the power to provide their school districts relief from onerous policies limiting our ability to provide a complete and better quality education for students. 


Charter schools, for example, are considered to be superior to traditional public schools because they are free from regulations and policies that hamper traditional public schools.  Well, then why not just provide similar freedom to school districts without the involvement of outside nonprofit or for-profit charter school organizations?


Aside from that thought, some parent empowerment is better than none.  The California parent trigger law allows for a petition of parent signatures representing 50% plus one of a failing school population to impose one of five Race To The Top intervention models on that school.


The intervention models are as followed:
1. Transformation - Replace the principal.
2. Turnaround - Replace the principal and 50% of all staff.
3. Restart - Convert the school into a charter.
4. Closure - Close the school.
5. Alternative Governance - Any other major restructuring of the school's governance.
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WBAI’s “Joy of Resistance” Features Feminist Teacher and Students « Feminist Teacher

WBAI’s “Joy of Resistance” Features Feminist Teacher and Students « Feminist Teacher:


WBAI’s “Joy of Resistance” Features Feminist Teacher and Students

by feministteacher
My student Carina Cruz shares her experience learning about feminism in high school. (photo, Ileana Jiménez).
Earlier this week, my students and I were guests on the radio show, Joy of Resistance, a feminist, multicultural radio show on WBAI hosted by Fran Luck and Jasmine Burnett (@blkfeminst). My students and I spoke on the importance of learning and teaching feminist theory and activism in high school classrooms.
Each of the students who joined me have done important feminist work both in the high school women’s studies class I teach as well as outside of the classroom. Carina Cruz, junior, is a SPARK blogger—Sexualization, Protest, Action, Resistance, Knowledge—for a youth-led movement to stop the sexualization of girls and women 
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Follow up on Reformy Logic in Connecticut « School Finance 101

Follow up on Reformy Logic in Connecticut « School Finance 101:


Follow up on Reformy Logic in Connecticut

by schoolfinance101
A few days ago, I responded to an utterly silly CT Ed Reform op-ed which argued that poverty doesn’t really matter so much, nor does funding (by omission), and that Massachusetts and New Jersey do better than Connecticut on behalf low income kids because they’ve adopted accountability and teacher evaluation reforms in the past few years. Thus, the answer is for Connecticut to follow suit by adopting SB 24 in its original form. To be clear, NJ has absolutely not adopted anything like SB 24.  Here’s a key section of that op-ed:
We think folks would be hard-pressed to argue that low-income students right over the border in Massachusetts or New Jersey face very different circumstances at home than the low-income students in Connecticut.  So, what actions have our neighboring states taken to address their achievement gaps that Connecticut hasn’t?  Put bluntly, they have adopted education reform 
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Jersey Jazzman: A Real Victory For Parents Against Reforminess!

Jersey Jazzman: A Real Victory For Parents Against Reforminess!:


A Real Victory For Parents Against Reforminess!

by Duke
I can't let this pass without noting that parents in New Jersey gained a major victory this week in the battle to reclaim public education:
 The founders of Tikun Olam, a proposed Hebrew-language high school, and the founders of Hua Mei, a Mandarin Chinese language high school, both bowed out of this application cycle after multiple attempts to earn state approval. 
"We are happy," said Highland Park Superintendent Fran Wood, who has been a staunch opponent of charter school growth in the small town. "We feel there is not a need for the charter in this or surrounding communities." 
Wood and a group of vigilant parents and teachers from the affected communities argued charter schools would steer money away from the high quality public schools already in operation.
The story is much bigger than that: the parents of students affected by this charter banded together, put together 
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