The in box. “What a screw job!” | Fred Klonsky

The in box. “What a screw job!” | Fred Klonsky:

The in box. “What a screw job!”

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
Excellent work Fred! I questioned the same remark but fell asleep before pursuing it.
I was at an IFT sponsored healthcare meeting Thursday with reps from TRS and Central Management Services. CMS stated that our total premium for TCHP Is about $1,000.00 per month. currently the state pays half and we pay half. This would make SB 2404 a cost of $12,000 a year 

Question to the IEA Board of Directors this morning: Did you know about cutting off the subsidy to TRIP?

by Fred Klonsky

Now that it has been revealed that part of the deal that it appears the We Are One coalition agreed to with Senate President John Cullerton includes an end to any subsidy towards the Teacher Retirement Insurance Program (TRIP), what will the IEA leadership say?
The IEA Board of Directors meets this weekend. The BOD includes Region Chairs from around the state.
Did THEY know?
I assure you that active teachers did not know.
Retirees did not know.
Read Glen Brown‘s post this morning. And mine from last night.
SB2404 is now clearly an unconstitutional bill, cleverly designed to

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-18-13

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT

LA TIMES & ED WEEK ON THE MAY REVISE; Capitol Dems, Sacramento Bee and Center for Oral Health weigh-in …+ John Deasy tweets on the wonderfulness thereof

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 2 days ago

Read the Governor’s May Revision proposal at www.ebudget.ca.gov. Even with added revenue revised plan for all spending is $1.2 billion less than the one he put forward in January If they can get out the votes, Legislative Democrats theoretically have both a Republican-proof and Governor's-veto-proof supermajority. L.A. TIMES: Gov. Jerry Brown unveils cautious budget for deficit-free

Los Angeles City Elections 2013: A CITY AGENDA FOR L.A. SCHOOLS?

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 2 days ago

If public officials in the more than two dozen cities served by L.A. Unified want to do something to help kids succeed, there are plenty of things within their purview. OpEd in the LA Times By Bennett Kayser | http://lat.ms/142Ykas Mayoral candidates Wendy Gruel, left, and Eric Garcetti , right, following their candidates forum at Macedonia Baptist Church. (Los Angeles Times / May 13,

L.A. UNIFIED BANS SUSPENSION FOR ‘WILLFUL DEFIANCE’

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 2 days ago

Zero tolerance policies adopted after Columbine lower achievement and disproportionately affect African Americans, supporters say. By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/18L4sHf Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, right, gets a high-five from Community Coalition member Jorge Hernandez after voicing her support of the proposal to make L.A. Unified the first

PARENT TRIGGER GROUP GETS ‘THUMBS-UP’ FROM LAUSD

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 2 days ago

"Someone on our staff is talking to Parent Revolution, and we need to know who it is," Boardmember Lamotte said.  4LAKid’s nominee for ‘someone’; is Superintendent Deasy. By Beau Yarbrough, LA Newspaper Group from the San Bernardino County Sun | http://bit.ly/YJjYPN 5/14/2013 06:36:57 PM PDT  ::  LOS ANGELES -- A group of Watts parents have successfully ousted an

‘Working Hard, Left Behind’: CLOSING CALIFORNIA’S EDUCATION GAP

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 4 days ago

As the overall education level declines, the state faces not only social ills but also major economic problems. OP-ed By Michele Siqueiros in the LA Times |http://lat.ms/13f6sBR Students wait in a line for financial aid on the Santa Monica College campus. (Los Angeles Times / September 11, 2012) May 13, 2013  ::  California has proved to be a land of opportunity where hard work delivers

BROWN SET TO RELEASE “MAY REVISE” BUDGET PROPOSAL

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 4 days ago

  Some Democrats and interest groups call for some of the deepest budget cuts in recent years to be restored.  But H.D. Palmer with the governor's Department of Finance says that won't happen. "The governor's budget assumes that the spending reductions that we've made over the last several years are ongoing in nature - that they will continue," he says.

U P D A T E D: LAUSD BOARD COULD BAN SUSPENSIONS FOR ‘WILLFUL DEFIANCE’ + smf’s 2¢

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 4 days ago

Backers of the resolution say 'zero tolerance' is harming kids. 'Instead of punishing students, we're going to engage them,' says one supporter. By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/ZUKoeQ David Chinchilla, 15, of Augustus Hawkins High School in South L.A., was suspended for interrupting and cursing at a teacher. But he and the teacher also engaged in a "restorative

A MESSAGE FROM DIANE RAVITCH :|: A MESSAGE FROM MONICA RATLIFF

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 5 days ago

By Diane Ravitch from her blog | http://bit.ly/11wgwMp May 12, 2013  ::  Here we go again. Another local school board race where the a billionaire a boys Club and Michelle Rhee create a massive war chest to beat an underfunded candidate. Monica Ratliff is a fifth-grade teacher. Please help her. Monica Ratliff for Board of Education 2013 –       The first official endorsement by

AN OPEN LETTER FROM ONE UTLA TEACHER TO THE UTLA BOARD OF DIRECTORS: “I am totally befuddled by your school board endorsements”

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 5 days ago

AN UTLA Teacher/4LAKids reader wrote the UTLA Board – and asked 4LAKids to publish the concerns. The letter included the sender’s  name and return address (they know whom he or she is)  but asked that it be deleted from publication Sat, May 11, 2013 5:32 pm Subject: Your School Board Endorsements Dear UTLA Board of Directors (and other UTLA officers), I have been a teacher (and UTLA member)

CA TAX COLLECTIONS OFFICIALLY UP $4.6 BILLION, MAKING NEXT WEEK’S MAY REVISE MUCH ROSIER

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 5 days ago

  By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/13qSMak Friday, May 10, 2013  ::  It’s official. State Controller John Chiang confirmed earlier this week projections that other agencies were making about the significant increase in tax collections so far this spring, reporting gains that outpaced projections by $4.6 billion. Led by a jump in personal income taxes, the state’s revenue

STATE BOARD OF ED CHALLENGES SCHOOL ACCOUNTABILITY MESAUREMENT, LOOKS FOR OPTIONS

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 5 days ago

By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/13baET8 Thursday, May 09, 2013  ::  California’s State Board of Education raised some major red flags Wednesday over changes being considered to the state’s K-12 school accountability system, leaving in question the next steps for updating the system. Mike Kirst, board president, even questioned whether a revised API could continue to

LAUSD FIGHTING FOR ZERO-TOLERANCE ON TEACHER CHEATING

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 5 days ago

The school district says a decision by a state panel — determining there was test-score cheating but the teacher shouldn't be fired — sends the wrong message. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times |http://lat.ms/YONCFG "The panel found the person guilty of cheating," L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy says, "and found it appropriate to put the person back in the classroom. It's completely beyond my

SIR KEN ROBINSON FROM TED TALKS EDUCATION

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 5 days ago

“It’s a short plane ride from Los Angeles to America.” “The real role of (educational) leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility. And if you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate and couldn't have expected.” aired on PBS May 7, 2013 |  http://bit.ly/YOEMHX Transcript: Thank you very much. I moved to

PRINCIPAL TAKES FIFTH, ATTORNEY ACCUSES 11-YEAR-OLD OF TESTIFYING FOR MONEY AT DE LA TORRE MOLESTATION HEARING

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 6 days ago

Principal takes Fifth in teacher molestation case By Brian Charles, Staff Writer, Daily Breeze/L.A. Newspaper Group | http://bit.ly/12okcet 5/10/2013 08:08:39 PM PDT  ::  A retired Wilmington elementary school principal invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Friday at a court hearing for a former teacher accused of molesting children at the school. Irene Hinojosa, who

Breakfast in the Classroom: HUNGER IS NOT AN OPTION

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 1 week ago

by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/14crq6G 5-03-2013   ::  The United States has a staggeringly high rate of child poverty. It should come as no surprise, then, that many thousands of children are hungry as they try to focus on lessons. School-based breakfast programs meet some of that food need, but it’s not easy. Consider what’s taking place in Los Angeles Unified School District. Until recently,

U P D A T E D: MATH BY WAY OF ART + PASADENA CENTER AT FOREFRONT OF EARLY MATH PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 1 week ago

MATH BY WAY OF ART: For Pasadena school, arts plus math is really adding up S.T.E.A.M. – Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics by Mary Plummer | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/11qXPcT Slideshow/1 of 5 Mary Plummer/KPCC - Third grade student Eder counts the amount he'll need to purchase art supplies to create a sculpture. The project is

Parent trigger: WHO’S FOR IT AND WHO’S AGAINST IT TELLS THE STORY

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 1 week ago

By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post Answer Sheet |  http://wapo.st/13nHpQh April 23, 2013 at 5:00 am  ::  You can learn pretty much everything you need to know about the controversial  “parent trigger” legislation now before the Florida Legislature by looking at who is for it and who is against it. Parent trigger legislation is intended to give parents with children at low-performing

HOUSE GOP LAWMAKERS WANT MORE INFORMATION ON NCLB WAIVERS

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 1 week ago

By Alyson Klein, Politics K-12 - Education Week |  http://bit.ly/10hoENn  April 22, 2013 2:04 PM  ::  So far, 34 states and the District of Columbia have been approved for flexibility from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, with only a smattering of formal oversight from Congress (mostly in the form of this bipartisan hearing in the Senate education committee and this letter from House

MATH BY WAY OF ART: For Pasadena school, arts plus math is really adding up

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 1 week ago

S.T.E.A.M. – Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics by Mary Plummer | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/11qXPcT Slideshow/1 of 5 Mary Plummer/KPCC - Third grade student Eder counts the amount he'll need to purchase art supplies to create a sculpture. The project is part of a grant funded endeavor that places teaching artists from the Pasadena

What do Enron, Dot-Com and The Housing Bust have in common with Online Learning, Charter+Choice Schools and The Common Core Standards?: SPECULATIVE BUBBLES IN EDUCATION

smf at 4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit - 1 week ago

by Julian Vasquez Heilig |  Cloaking Inequity Blog - Endeavoring to reform Reformers' reforms since 2012 | http://bit.ly/10gGj7V May 9, 2013  ::  At the recent AERA [American Educational Research Association] conference in San Francisco, I was having a conversation with a local San Franciscan. He we mentioning that he was disappointed that he had not been able to take financial advantage of

This Week's Education Research Report 5-18-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research Report

THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

Investigating the Effects of Teacher Characteristics and Student Teaching

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 hour ago

Some believe the solution to improving instructional quality in K-12 schools lies in identifying and recruiting certain kinds of individuals to the profession (e.g., academically talented, stronger commitment). Others believe that talented or committed individuals cannot become effective or enduring teachers without adequate preparation. Most prior literature examines either recruitment or preparation, rather than weighing evidence for both simultaneously. In addition, most prior research investigates the effects of either approach on only a single outcome, rather than considering... more »

CDC issues first comprehensive report on children’s mental health in the United States

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

R Children’s mental disorders affect boys and girls of all ages, ethnic/racial backgrounds, and regions of the United States. Previous studies estimate up to 1 in 5 children have mental disorder and a new CDC MMWR Supplement finds that millions of American children live with depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, Tourette syndrome or a host of other mental health issues. The MMWR Supplement titled, “Mental Health Surveillance Among Children in the United States, 2005-2011,” is the first-ever report to describe federal efforts on monitoring mental disorders, and prese... more »

Colleges Using Financial Aid to Woo Wealthy Students Rather Than Help Low-Income Students Afford Tuition

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

In their relentless pursuit of prestige and revenue, American private and public four-year colleges and universities are increasingly using financial aid to attract the best and most affluent students rather than to help low-income and working-class families pay for college, according to a *new report* released by the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program. The report presents a brand new analysis of little-examined U.S. Department of Education data showing the “net price” the lowest-income students pay after all grant aid has been exhausted. *The analysis shows that hund... more »

Pre-K Assessments Fall Short on Teacher Performance

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Student achievement is playing an increasing role in teacher evaluations, even in the earliest years of school when children do not participate in state standardized testing. As a result, states and school districts are struggling to find sound methods to measure young students’ achievement and rushing to implement evaluation systems without thinking through the risks, according to a *new report* released today by the New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative. As of 2012, 20 states and D.C. require student learning to play a significant role in evaluating all teachers' pe... more »

Most Math Being Taught in Kindergarten Is Old News to Students

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Kindergarten teachers report spending much of their math instructional time teaching students basic counting skills and how to recognize geometric shapes—skills the students have already mastered before ever setting foot in the kindergarten classroom, new research finds. The findings reveal a misalignment between what the students are being taught and what they already know. “This study is one of the first to raise the question: Is the content that teachers report teaching in kindergarten meeting the needs of the majority of their students?” Mimi Engel, assistant professor of publi... more »

Playworks recess program reduced bullying, enhanced feelings of safety at school, increased vigorous physical activity during recess, and provided more time for classroom teaching

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

A new study from Mathematica Policy Research and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University suggests that there may be more to recess than just a break in the school day. The randomized controlled trial of Playworks, a nonprofit organization that delivers a safe, healthy recess in low-income elementary schools in 22 U.S. cities, found that the program reduced bullying, enhanced feelings of safety at school, increased vigorous physical activity during recess, and provided more time for classroom teaching. The research raises the possibility tha...more »

Hispanics Pass Whites in Rate of College Enrollment

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

[image: PHC-2013-05-college-enrollment-01] A record seven-in-ten (69%) Hispanic high school graduates in the class of 2012 enrolled in college that fall, two percentage points higher than the rate (67%) among their white counterparts,1 according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.2 This milestone is the result of a long-term increase in Hispanic college-going that accelerated with the onset of the recession in 2008 (Fry and Lopez, 2012). The rate among white high school graduates, by contrast, has declined slightly since 2008. The positive t... more »

ALEC ‘Report Card’ Gets ‘A’ for Ideological Fealty, Fails on Research Quality

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The recent education “report card” on the states put out by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) claims to rely on “high quality research” but gets a failing grade in a new review. Professor Christopher Lubienski and doctoral candidate T. Jameson Brewer, both of the University of Illinois, reviewed ALEC’s 18th Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress, and Reformfor the Think Twice think tank review project. The review is published today by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Educa... more »

Some Textbook Visuals Can Hurt Learning

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Adding captivating visuals to a textbook lesson to attract children’s interest may sometimes make it harder for them to learn, a new study suggests. Researchers found that 6- to 8-year-old children best learned how to read simple bar graphs when the graphs were plain and a single color. Children who were taught using graphs with images (like shoes or flowers) on the bars didn’t learn the lesson as well and sometimes tried counting the images rather than relying on the height of the bars. “Graphs with pictures may be more visually appealing and engaging to children than those witho... more »

Early Math and Reading Ability Linked to Job and Income in Adulthood

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Math and reading ability at age 7 may be linked with socioeconomic status several decades later, according to new research published in *Psychological Science*, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The childhood abilities predict socioeconomic status in adulthood over and above associations with intelligence, education, and socioeconomic status in childhood. In light of ongoing debates about the impact that education standards have on children’s lives, psychological scientists Stuart Ritchie and Timothy Bates of the University of Edinburgh wanted to investigate ... more »

Dyslexia is not the same in men and women, boys and girls

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Using MRI, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center found significant differences in brain anatomy when comparing men and women with dyslexia to their non-dyslexic control groups, suggesting that the disorder may have a different brain-based manifestation based on sex. Their study, investigating dyslexia in both males and females, is the first to directly compare brain anatomy of females with and without dyslexia (in children and adults). Their findings were published online in the journal Brain Structure and Function. Because dyslexia is two to three times more prev... more »

The Recession's Impact on Teacher Salaries

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Teacher salary growth took a hit post-recession, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality's new report The Recession's Impact on Teacher Salaries. The report finds that teacher raises for experience and market forces like inflation were one-third to one-half of what they were at the beginning of the recession. While this slow-down in teacher salary growth was on par with that of comparable professions, some districts were hit particularly hard. Eighty percent of the school districts in our 41-district sample had a total pay freeze or pay cut in at least one school year... more »

Geographic Knowledge and Values Survey: Report of Results for the United States

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The American Geographical Society (AGS) conducted a nationwide survey of public attitudes toward and knowledge about geography. The survey ran online from December 12, 2011 through March 31, 2012 with volunteers constantly soliciting adult U.S. residents to participate. The AGS Geographic Knowledge and Values Survey received 4,021 valid responses from people throughout the United States. While not a true random sample, the results are indicative of a sizable segment of the U. S. population: more educated, more female, and less ethnically and racially diverse than the general popula... more »

Camaraderie of sports teams may deter bullying, violence

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

As schools around the country look for ways to reduce violence and bullying, they may want to consider encouraging students to participate in team sports, according to a study presented Sunday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC. Researchers analyzed data from the 2011 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey to see if athletic participation was associated with violence-related behaviors, including fighting, carrying a weapon and being bullied. A representative sample of 1,820 high school students in the state completed the survey, wh... more »

Schools may help close gap to mental health services for adolescents with mental disorders

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

A study published in the May 2013 issue of the *Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry* found that mental health resources provided by schools are significantly associated with whether adolescents with mental disorders receive needed mental health services. In particular, adolescents with disorders attending schools that engage in early identification of emotional problems, are significantly more likely to receive mental health services. Using data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a group of researchers led... more »

Poll of 800 Teachers Finds Strong Support for Common Core Standards and a Moratorium on Stakes for New Assessments Until Everything Is Aligned

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Three-quarters of public school teachers surveyed support the Common Core State Standards, yet just 27 percent said their district has provided them with the tools and resources necessary to teach the standards, according to the results of a poll released by the American Federation of Teachers today. The AFT surveyed 800 kindergarten- through 12th-grade teachers on the Common Core State Standards for math and English language arts, which 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted. At least two states—Kentucky and New York—already have given Common Core-aligned assessments ...more »

Cyberbullying rampant among high school students

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

* Nearly one-third of youths also report playing video/computer games for more than 3 hours a day* Step into a class of 30 high school students and look around. Five of them have been victims of electronic bullying in the past year. What's more, 10 of those students spend three or more hours on an average school day playing video games or using a computer for something other than school work, according to a study to be presented Sunday, May 5, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Washington, DC. "Electronic bullying of high school students threatens the self-e... more »

Preventing Youth Violence and Dropout: A Randomized Field Experiment

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Improving the long-term life outcomes of disadvantaged youth remains a top policy priority in the United States, although identifying successful interventions for adolescents - particularly males - has proven challenging. This paper reports results from a large randomized controlled trial of an intervention for disadvantaged male youth grades 7-10 from high-crime Chicago neighborhoods. The intervention was delivered by two local non-profits and included regular interactions with a pro-social adult, after-school programming, and - perhaps the most novel ingredient - in-school programming d... more »

Idiosyncrasies and Discrepancies in States' Implementation of NCLB

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The No Child Left Behind (NLCB) Act required states to adopt accountability systems measuring student proficiency on state administered exams. Based on student test score performance in 2002, states developed initial proficiency rate targets and future annual benchmarks designed to lead students to 100% proficiency on state exams by 2014. Any year a school fails to meet these targets, either across all students or by various subgroups of students, the school does not make Adequate Yearly Progress. While the federal government's legislation provided a framework for NCLB implementation, it...