Monday, December 2, 2013

A photograph hanging in Cherry Farley’s home office in a neighborhood of big houses and big ambitions reminds her what it means to have no home at all.

The image is an aerial view of Saigon, taken by her father from a helicopter as the family was fleeing Vietnam in 1975, when Farley was 10.

The family wound up in North Carolina, where her parents found blue-collar jobs at a cotton mill. But they went to college at night and became engineers, an achievement that allowed Farley and her two siblings to grow up in a modest three-bedroom house with one bathroom.

Now Farley and her husband, Michael, who was raised on a farm and went to college on a ROTC scholarship, work for defense contractors. Their combined income affords them a spacious five-bedroom house with 3.5 baths. Two of their three daughters have left for college, so it’s just the three of them now.

“I’ve come a long way,” said Farley, 46, pondering her path from a refugee camp to one of the country’s most affluent and educated Zip codes. “This is a wonderful area. I’m not sure all the people who live [here] recognize that. If all you’ve ever known is an upper-middle-class life, it’s hard to see how nice we have it.”

Farley resides in Clarksville, Md., a bedroom community midway between Washington and Baltimore where the median household income tops $181,000, more than triple the national average.

An astonishing 98 percent of River Hill High School’s graduates head to college. Volvos, Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs are scattered throughout the student parking lot. Even pets get in on the refined tastes of their owners; in a small shopping center near the school, a shop specializing in organic dog

Tonight: The Power and Potential of Students Twitter Chat - Student Voice

Student Voice:

Tonight: The Power and Potential of Students Twitter Chat

This Monday at 8:30PM EST, the #StuVoice Twitter chat will be talking with special guest Sam Lerner to help identify the power and potential that students have. When students are given the opportunity to use their voice and their creativity to bring their wildest ideas to life, history is made. This week’s chat aims to help inspire and empower students to take initiative with their ideas.

- See more at: http://stuvoice.org/blog/2013/12/02/tonight-the-power-and-potential-of-students-twitter-chat/?utm_source=feedly#sthash.z97kxtVg.dpuf

NYC Public School Parents: The record of Joshua Starr, candidate for NYC Chancellor

NYC Public School Parents: The record of Joshua Starr, candidate for NYC Chancellor:

The record of Joshua Starr, candidate for NYC Chancellor

This is the third in a series examining the record of educators who have been mentioned as serious possiblities for NYC Chancellor. Previously we examined the records of Andres Alonsoand Kathleen Cashin. The following was compiled by Peter Dalmasy, Class Size Matters researcher.

Background

Joshua Starr grew up in Larchmont, New York and holds an undergraduate degree from University of Wisconsin, a Master’s in Special Education from Brooklyn College, and a Master’s and Doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Education in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1991, he moved to San Francisco where he worked at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed kids.

Starr began his career as an educator in 1993, first as a substitute English teacher and then in 1995 as a special education teacher at PS 753 in Fort Greene, Brooklyn where he taught until 1997. He then served as Director of Accountability for Plainfield (NJ) Public Schools while completing his graduate studies at Harvard, and later as the Executive Director for Operations in Freeport (LI) School District.

In 2003, he was hired by Andres Alonso to be a Deputy Senior Instructional Manager and then Director of School Performance and Accountability at the New York City DOE, where he helped design the initial stages of the school accountability and grading system.

Starr’s record as Stamford Superintendent

Starr was appointed the Superintendent of Stamford (CT) Public Schools in 2005 and served for seven years. The district has 15,000 students in 20 schools. Like Andres Alonso, he had never served as a principal before being hired as superintendent.

While in Stamford, he altered a program in the district’s middle schools that had grouped students by academic ability, known as ‘tracking’, by consolidating five tracks into two, despite facing opposition from some parents, who demanded multiple tracks.

In a December 2012 Washington Post Answer Sheet op-ed, Long Island principal Carol Burris explained, “In 1976, the Connecticut

New York City’s Next Schools Chancellor | JD2718

New York City’s Next Schools Chancellor | JD2718:

New York City’s Next Schools Chancellor

DECEMBER 2, 2013 PM31 4:04 PM

There’s been much discussion of who the next chancellor should be. I’m not going to name names. I don’t know that anyone would listen to me. And I don’t know that I really know enough.

Instead, I think I can describe things that would be good, and things that would be problems. And where someone who wanted to look for a candidate might find one.

Experienced educator. Some real time as a teacher. I’d like ten years, might settle for five without complaint, but five is pushing it. Would be nice if the person had some time with extra responsibility before becoming a principal, but that’s not necessary. Like being an AP, or playing some extra role(s) while still a teacher. Needs to have been a successful principal. I’d like ten years, might settle for five, but that’d be kind of weak. Might have gone on from there in any number of directions…

Experienced public school educator. And “privately-managed public school” is not a public school.

New Yorker. An out of towner is certainly not a huge problem, and there are plenty of icky New Yorkers, but all else being equal, a New Yorker is better.

TfAer? Absolutely not. Absolutely unqualified on the basis of career path alone. Let them run their anti-education think tanks, their testing companies. (quick nod to the TfAers who have turned on TfA. Like this good one. Or that brave one. Good people, not for Chancellor.)

No active “reformers.” The landscape is littered with anti-public education reformers, jumping from job to job, seeking new cities and communities to victimize. We don’t need one here.

No one who has personally done grave damage to NYC’s schools.

An experienced educator, taught ten years, principal ten, might have gone on to bigger and

12-2-13 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG Integrating Common Core and Character Education: Why It Is Essential and How It Can Be Done — Whole Child Education

Integrating Common Core and Character Education: Why It Is Essential and How It Can Be Done — Whole Child Education:

Integrating Common Core and Character Education: Why It Is Essential and How It Can Be Done

With more states adopting the Common Core State Standards, it can be overwhelming for U.S. schools and teachers to consider "adding" anything else. But character education isn't about adding, it's about integrating with all that you already do. In a new position paper from whole child partner Character Education Partnership, authors Kristin Fink and Karen Geller make the case that the C

by ASCD Whole Child ... / 11min

11-27-13 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG Education Selfies — Whole Child Education

Education Selfies — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGEducation SelfiesNovember 27, 2013 by Barry SaideA friend of mine's daughter took a picture of herself using his phone. She is 18 months old. He should be glad she didn't do something else with it. He captioned it, "Caden's first selfie." We call these pictures "selfies" because it's a picture taken of yourself, by

by mike simpson / 3h

Teachers' union: Tax cap widens spending inequity | Capital New York

Teachers' union: Tax cap widens spending inequity | Capital New York:

Teachers' union: Tax cap widens spending inequity

Teachers Union president Richard Iannuzzi. AP Photo/Mike Groll

BY JESSICA BAKEMAN

10:40 am Dec. 2, 2013

ALBANY—New York's largest teachers' union is connecting the statewide property-tax cap passed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to funding inequity among poor and affluent school districts, according to an analysis released Monday.
The wealthiest 10 percent of school districts spent 80 percent more per student than the poorest 10 percent last school year, New York State United Teachers found. The union argued that the gap is “aggravated” by the tax cap, which limits growth in property taxes by 2 percent, with some exceptions.
The richest districts spent an average of $35,690 per students in 2012-13, according to the union's study. Meanwhile, the poorest districts spend $19,823 per student.
While operating under the cap, the wealthiest schools raised an average of $704 per student by increasing property taxes, while poor schools raised an average of $114 per student through property-tax revenue.
Property taxes tend to be higher in high-wealth areas; Westchester County, for example, has some of the highest property taxes in the country. In some poor areas, such as Otsego County in the state's

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Washington: A world apart the country’s most affluent and educated Zip codes | The Washington Post