With school closures pitch, District needs to improve its art of persuasion | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

With school closures pitch, District needs to improve its art of persuasion | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

With school closures pitch, District needs to improve its art of persuasion

by Samuel Reed III on Jan 18 2013 Posted in Commentary

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Photo: Flickr/Brett Jordan

I have attended several of the community forums where the public has weighed in on the Philadelphia School District's facilities master plan. The comments and counterproposals regarding the closing of 37 schools and relocation of others have been passionate, provocative, and persuasive.

The District, on the other hand, needs to study up on the art of persuasion.

There's a language problem with the way the District discusses underutilized school buildings. The language of "empty seats" is just that -- empty.

Seats are inanimate objects, which mean nothing to affected parents and students. As this tweet from the Philadelphia Student Union noted, “Students aren't good seats or bad seats. They are people who have the right to a quality education.”

Philly Student Union@215studentunion

Students aren't good seats or bad seats. They are people who have the right to a quality education. #PCAPS #phillyeducation

18 Dec 12

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The language of empty seats is not persuading the public that the District's closings and relocation plan will improve the fiscal or educational outcomes for the district.

I teach my middle school students to read, write, and think critically. One of my 

Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and Women: Hope Over Fear | BlogHer

Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and Women: Hope Over Fear | BlogHer:

Maria Shriver on Alzheimer’s and Women: Hope Over Fear

October 20, 2010 8:32 am by Maria Shriver in Life

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• BLOGHER ORIGINAL POST

Try to remember what you were doing a minute ago.  Got it?  Now wrap your brains around this:  In the past minute, another American developed a fatal disease that will slowly erase the personality and a lifetime of memories.  That person will either die with that disease or from it, because there is no cure.  That disease is Alzheimer’s, and it’s a growing national epidemic. 

Right now, Alzheimer’s disease is like an earthquake rumbling deep in the core of our society, and women are at its epicenter.  Women are fully two-thirds of the people with Alzheimer’s.  They are also 60 percent of the unpaid caregivers of loved ones who have it.  In every way, Alzheimer’s is a mind-blowing disease -- not just for the people who get it, but for everyone around them.  

Believe me, I know.  When my father, Sargent Shriver, was diagnosed back in 2003, my mother, four brothers and I all felt we were entering a world that was confusing, dark and depressing.  People just didn’t talk about Alzheimer’s when it hit their families. It was a diagnosis shrouded in shame, and there was little information and even less hope. That’s why today, I’m passionate about defeating it.

So on October 15^th, I released The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Takes Alzheimer’s, a groundbreaking effort produced in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association.  It’s a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary snapshot of women as caregivers, breadwinners and people living with this disease. This is a follow-up to last year’s Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, which looked at the transformational change that has overtaken our country as women have become about half of all US workers, while still being our primary caregivers.  We found that the way we are in America has changed, now that two-thirds of mothers are primary or co-breadwinners.  Husbands and wives reported that they now regularly negotiate their schedules and their joint responsibilities.  We saw that attitudes and behaviors are evolving, but our institutions have not kept up.  

This year we’ve focused our Shriver Report on the Alzheimer’s epidemic as another tipping-point issue for 

SI&A Cabinet Report – Older school systems will support new computer-adaptive testing

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Older school systems will support new computer-adaptive testing
By Tom Chorneau
Friday, January 18, 2013

The national consortium developing new computer-adaptive assessments that California has a qualified commitment  to use, has released an analysis of the technology requirements districts will need to access the testing – and the results suggest many older computers will support the program.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is on schedule to produce testing for grades 3, 8 and 11 in new English and math standards aligned with common core curriculum standards for use in the 2014-15 school year.

There has been growing concern among officials in California – as well as other cash-strapped states – that the existing array of computers being used in districts may not have the hardware or operating systems to properly administer the sophisticated tests.
And the notion of buying tens of thousands of new computers given the state’s fiscal condition was ruled out long ago.

But officials at the Olympia, Washington-based education cooperative report that fairly modest system requirements will support the testing, including computers running Windows XP with just 128 megabytes of RAM and only 52 megabytes of free space on a hard drive.

For MAC users, the news is also good: OSX10.4.4 operating systems will support the new tests with 256 megabytes 

Aspire Charter Schools: Behind the Reversal - LA School Report

Aspire Charter Schools: Behind the Reversal - LA School Report:

Aspire Charter Schools: Behind the Reversal

by Hillel Aron

Changed votes by two Board members over the approval of two Aspire charter schools at this week’s Board meeting gave the public a glimpse at a much larger debate over whether charter schools based in Los Angeles should be allowed to operate their special education programs through a partnership with a far-off district that costs them less.
Initially, the Board deadlocked 3-3 over the proposed approval of Aspire, a highly rated charter operator founded by Don Shalvey (who’s now the Deputy Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).
Then, two Board members — Bennett Kayser and Steve Zimmer — changed their votes at the behest of Superintendent Deasy and others. However, Zimmer says he remains concerned about roughly 20 charter schools in LA whose special education programs are administered through a partnership located in El Dorado County — seven hours away.

Every school district in California must form a Special Education Local Plan Area, or a SELPA (see overview here), which oversees the administration of special education. Charter schools have to sign on to a 

America's oldest teacher turns 99

The oldest teacher in America celebrates her 99th birthday. Erin Burnett reports. For more CNN videos, check outhttp://www.youtube.com/cnn or visit our site athttp://www.cnn.com/video/

NYC Public School Parents: Autopsy of the failed teacher evaluation deal

NYC Public School Parents: Autopsy of the failed teacher evaluation deal:

Autopsy of the failed teacher evaluation deal

by Leonie Haimson

In all the conflicting accounts between the city and the UFT about the collapse of the teacher evaluation plan, there is one clear point of agreement:  the Mayor refused to accept a two year sunset for the deal. In this, he was deeply wrongheaded for disallowing the city to pilot what is essentially an experiment that could go hideously wrong, for both teachers and children.  Meanwhile, 90 percent of the districts in the rest of the state, appropriately, have a one year sunseton their teacher evaluation systems.  As I commented on theSchoolbook site, this insistence that the plan should be set in stone, with no sunset, shows Bloomberg as an arrogant wannabe Mayor-for-life. 

• On the UFT site, Edwize, Leo Casey posts what appears to be a DOE document, showing that the two year sunset had been accepted by the DOE before Mayor blew the deal out of the water.  This evidence further contradicts the mayor, who has claimed that it was the UFT that tried to slip the sunset in at the last minute. His claim is also inconsistent with what Ernie Logan has stated, that the DOE had agreed to an even shorter sunset of one year with the principals union, before Bloomberg blew up their evaluation deal as well.

•  Casey also reveals that towards the end, DOE tried to change “numerous scoring tables and conversion 

PAA to co-host Indiana 4-state action planning meeting | Parents Across America

PAA to co-host Indiana 4-state action planning meeting | Parents Across America:

PAA to co-host Indiana 4-state action planning meeting

by pureparents

Attention public education supporters in: 

OHIO    MICHIGAN    INDIANA    ILLINOIS

Would you like to join with others in our 4-state region in coordinated action to support our public schools?

Parents Across America, in cooperation with many local groups, invites you to “Public Schools Across America,” a 4-state Regional Action Planning Meeting.

Across the country, there is a rising chorus of protest against corporate-style school reform. Parents, teachers, students, principals, superintendents, scholars, school board members, civil rights lawyers and other concerned citizens are voicing opposition to the privatization of our schools which threatens the future of our children and the fundamental democratic principles upon which our system of public education is based.

With “Public Schools Across America,” we hope to create a model for coordinated regional action in support of public education which could be expanded and replicated across the U.S.

Who: You are invited! And please share this invitation with others interested in regional joint action in support of public education (even if they are not in our region – as long as they are able to get themselves to Ft Wayne).

What: The first “Public Schools Across America” Regional Action Planning Meeting.

Where: Ft Wayne, IN, chosen because it is located within a reasonable drive from all 4 states, and is FULL of public education activists!.

When: We’re proposing either Saturday Feb 23 or Saturday March 2 from 11 am to 5 pm.

Why: To share our concerns about attacks on public education and how we have addressed them locally, and to consider joint activities across our region and potentially across the U.S. to strengthen public education.

If you are interested, please go to the Doodle link here http://www.doodle.com/kbcrn5ayupk6frk2 and tell us which date
works best for you. Please respond by Tuesday, Jan 22.

Thank you for all you do in support of our public schools and our children. Final date and details on location will be coming soon !

Julie Woestehoff, executive director, Parents United for Responsible Education (Chicago) (www.pureparents.org) and co-founder of Parents Across America
(www.parentsacrossamerica.org). E-mail pure@pureparents.org

Maureen Reedy ~ Parent and 29-year public school teacher Ohio Teacher of the Year, 2002 Columbus, Ohio, E-mail maureen.reedy@gmail.com

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, January 18, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Charter schools see largest boom since their inception 20 years ago

Education Headlines

Friday, January 18, 2013

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San Leandro pulls back program cuts after passage of Prop. 30

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California schools asked to put moratorium on controversial bonds

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Parents demand charter in LAUSD’s first parent trigger campaign

A high-spirited group of nearly 100 parents descended on the Los Angeles Unified district office Thursday and turned in petitions demanding sweeping changes at their failing school in the first use of the controversial parent trigger law in the city.

Fensterwald: Legislative leaders assert role in shaping school finance plan

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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Monterey County school districts at work on safety plan updates, drills

Included in President Barack Obama's plan to curb gun violence are proposals to help schools develop and implement safety plans. Monterey County school districts — like many throughout California — were working on updates before the president's announcement.

Board nixes legal fees for schools boss

Not only did the San Ysidro school board reject a plan Tuesday night to pay criminal defense fees for Superintendent Manuel Paul, the board also placed him on administrative leave for 45 days.

Alliance of big city school districts aims for more healthful meals

The Los Angeles Unified School District and five others are striving to make wholesome food a national standard. They're working on biodegradable trays and utensils as well. Each district has been assigned a specific project.