Van Jones and the Boycott of Glenn Beck | CommonDreams.org

Van Jones and the Boycott of Glenn Beck CommonDreams.org:

"Glenn Beck was mad. He’s the right-wing talk radio host who has a television program on the Fox News Channel. Advertisers were fleeing his Fox program en masse after the civil rights group Color of Change mounted a campaign urging advertisers to boycott Beck, who labeled President Barack Obama a “racist.” As the campaign progressed, Beck began his attacks against Van Jones. Jones was appointed by Obama in March to be special adviser for green jobs. He co-founded Color of Change four years ago. After weeks of attacks from Beck, Jones resigned his position at the White House last Sunday."

Elk Grove Citizen : News

Elk Grove Citizen : News:

"Joe and Lynda Tallerico are examples of community volunteerism, and this is how they explain the work that they do:

“We were both raised in small communities in northern California, Joe in McCloud, and Lynda in Mount Shasta. In a small town, you know everyone and everyone knows you.

We both had careers in education, Joe as a teacher and administrator in Sacramento City Unified, and Lynda with the California School Boards Association.

We have met so many wonderful and committed people by being involved in SPOTLIGHT. The work of the Elk Grove Community Foundation is something that we truly believe in, and we thank everyone who has made our volunteer time such a wonderful experience.

We are proud to be part of Elk Grove.”"

THE OAKBOOK - Not So Fast

THE OAKBOOK - Not So Fast:

"Oakland Unified School District’s Governing Board will hear a charter petition Wednesday evening for California Connections Academy @ VIMS, a proposed online “learning community” that’s similar to a petition Sacramento’s Board of Education nixed earlier this year."

Sacramento Schools Chief: Test Scores Only One Measure | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News

Sacramento Schools Chief: Test Scores Only One Measure News10.net Sacramento, California News:

"SACRAMENTO, CA - The new superintendent for the Sacramento City Unified School District said test scores will be only one measure of student achievement.

Jonathan Raymond appeared on Wednesday's Live_Online with News10's Sharon Ito as part of our forum with local superintendents. He told viewers he will also be looking at qualitative measures, such as a school's culture and whether the public feels welcome on campus."

http://www.news10.net/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=articleplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=playlist&maven_referralObject=1247788483

GUIDANCE Using Title I, Part A ARRA Funds for Grants to Local Educational Agencies

GUIDANCE Using Title I, Part A ARRA Funds for Grants to Local Educational Agencies:

"GUIDANCE Using Title I, Part A ARRA Funds for Grants to Local Educational Agencies

PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDANCE

The purpose of this document is to provide assistance to State educational agencies (SEAs), local
educational agencies (LEAs), and schools in determining how to identify, create, and structure
opportunities and strategies to strengthen education, drive school reform, and improve the
academic achievement of at-risk students using funds under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) made available through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)."

SFGate: Politics Blog : Schwarzenegger's government transparency Web site - Take 2!

SFGate: Politics Blog : Schwarzenegger's government transparency Web site - Take 2!:

"State Inspector General Laura Chick today asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to expand his government transparency Web site to include more internal audits of state and local agencies, and to overhaul the Web site to make it more user-friendly.

The governor responded quickly, announcing an executive order that requires state agencies and departments to post 'all program reviews, monitoring and accountability reports, evaluations, inspections, assessments and studies of audits' for public viewing on the transparency site.

Schwarzenegger initially ordered state agencies to post all external and internal audits, as well as government contracts totaling more than $5,000 to be posted on www.reportingtransparency.ca.gov ."

Curriculum Matters: As the World Economy Slumps, Ed Investment Brings a Payoff, OECD Says

Curriculum Matters: As the World Economy Slumps, Ed Investment Brings a Payoff, OECD Says:


As nations around the globe, including the United States, attempt to crawl out of a deep recession, the evidence suggests they would be wise to invest in education because of the strong economic payoff it brings across their societies and to individual workers, a new report says.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, makes that case in a new report, 'Education at a Glance,” which offers comparisons across countries in various educational and economic indicators.

Part of the reason that encouraging students to stick with K-12 education"

On Special Education: Ed. Dept. Gives Guidance on Providing Special Education During a Swine Flu Outbreak

On Special Education: Ed. Dept. Gives Guidance on Providing Special Education During a Swine Flu Outbreak:


"The U.S. Department of Education has offered some legal guidance to schools about their requirements to educate special education students in times of a swine flu outbreak.
Some schools closed their doors after cases of swine flu first appeared last spring. Not much was known about how schools would handle educating students with disabilities if there were ever long school closures or long absences by students because of the H1N1 virus. With a new school year under way, the U.S. Department of Education released legal guidelines Sept. 1."

First thoughts: Obama's three audiences - First Read - msnbc.com

First thoughts: Obama's three audiences - First Read - msnbc.com:

"Obama's three audiences: Perhaps the best way to view (and also judge) President Obama's health-care address tonight is to consider that he's speaking to three audiences. The first is ordinary American voters -- call them Joe and Jane from Kansas City. What we've picked up from the White House is that the president isn’t expected to get into the legislative weeds in tonight’s speech, but instead hopes to explain to Joe and Jane that his health-care reform will 1) cover nearly everyone and 2) cut costs in the long run. If that message isn’t hammered home to Joe and Jane, then the White House will consider tonight’s speech a failure. By the way, Joe and Jane in Kansas City live in the geographic AND political middle."

Sacramento News & Review > Blogs > SNOG > KJ vs City Attorney flap gets nastier > September 8, 2009

Sacramento News & Review > Blogs > SNOG > KJ vs City Attorney flap gets nastier > September 8, 2009:

"KJ vs City Attorney flap gets nastier

So the Fair Political Practices Commission today said that mayor Kevin Johnson is off the hook for any legal conflict of interest regarding an upcoming council vote to help along his strong mayor initiative. As I reported last week (and in tomorrow’s Bites column, the wonders of weekly journalism), City Attorney Eileen Teichert figured that KJ had a conflict because he loaned $25,000 to Sacramentans for Accountable Government, the committee running his strong mayor campaign. And, as reported, Johnson got around the problem, at least in part, by forgiving the loan and making it a gift."

Local News | Kent teachers defy court order, still on strike | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News Kent teachers defy court order, still on strike Seattle Times Newspaper:

"Kent teachers were supposed to be in school Tuesday, preparing for the first day of class Wednesday, but instead were still on the picket line in defiance of a court order.

Denisha Saucedo, a sixth-grade teacher at Kent Elementary, said it was a difficult decision between continuing to fight for smaller class sizes and defying the judge who ruled the strike that began Aug. 31 was illegal.

'I became a teacher to try to make a difference,' Saucedo said. After growing up in the same school district and learning in a classroom with as many as 40 students, she said she didn't want to see her students have the same experience."

Education Week: Calif. Budget Troubles Fuel Curriculum Crisis

Education Week: Calif. Budget Troubles Fuel Curriculum Crisis:

"School administrators in California are getting greater flexibility in how they spend more than $300 million dollars intended for instructional materials, along with encouragement to use some free digital textbooks for high school courses, as a result of cost-cutting measures brought on by the state’s budget crisis.

But extensive changes to the state’s curriculum policies have raised concerns among many educators that they will not have the guidance or resources they need to choose the best textbooks and teaching strategies for their students."

LAUSD schools open under $140M budget cloud - The Daily Breeze

LAUSD schools open under $140M budget cloud - The Daily Breeze:

"Hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles Unified students Wednesday head back to school, where they'll find crowded classrooms, fewer teachers and limited services thanks to a year of tough budget cuts.

And the students won't be the only ones with a homework assignment.

District officials say state lawmakers have given them a vexing math problem to start the year: Subtract about $140 million - the equivalent of closing down seven high schools - from this year's budget.

The hit, which looks certain unless emergency legislation proposed this week passes, comes as the district is still smarting from $869 million in cuts over the past year."

Obama addresses public school students

Obama addresses public school students:

"Obama addresses public school students
By Jerry White

As most public schools in the US opened for the first day of classes Tuesday, President Obama delivered a speech at a high school in Arlington, Virginia, which was broadcast to public school students around the country.

The event had been the subject of a hysterical campaign by right-wing talk show hosts and Republican politicians who warned that the president would use it to indoctrinate children in his “socialistic” agenda. The news media gave wide coverage to these semi-fascistic elements demanding that schools prohibit the airing of the president’s remarks and exaggerated the impact of their campaign. In the end, only a small number of districts, primarily Republican-voting regions in the South and West, did not show the speech or left the decision up to teachers."

The Answer Sheet - Teach Your Child to Be Their Own Advocate

The Answer Sheet - Teach Your Child to Be Their Own Advocate:

"There are many things that experts tell parents they ought to do for their child at the start of the school year:

*Help kids create a schedule to do homework and outside activities.

*Create a quiet work space for them to do homework.

*Make sure they get enough sleep each night.

*Insist they eat a healthy breakfast—even if they don’t want to-- because they won’t do their best work without it.

But one stands out as having especially far-reaching consequences: Teach your child how to advocate for themselves--starting with their teachers.
This may sound painfully obvious (the right thing to do often is but we still don’t do it)."

2theadvocate.com | News | ACLU sues middle school — Baton Rouge, LA

2theadvocate.com News ACLU sues middle school — Baton Rouge, LA:

"The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new same-sex classroom plan at a Vermilion Parish middle school.

The suit was filed on behalf of an unnamed parent and her two children, whom attend Rene A. Rost Middle School. The suit alleges the students were placed in sex-segregated classrooms without being offered equal co-educational options as required by law.

“Everyone has the right to the same quality education,” Marjorie Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said Tuesday in a statement. “Opportunities must be available to all students based on their abilities, rather than their gender.”"

Complications With New York Teacher Report Cards - NYTimes.com

Complications With New York Teacher Report Cards - NYTimes.com:

"During the last school year, education officials distributed some 12,000 reports that considered how well teachers did in educating students, producing a report for any teacher who taught fourth through eighth grade for the last two years. The reports put New York at the center of a national debate over ways to measure the effectiveness of individual teachers and the role that test scores should play in the evaluations."

The school on the old Ambassador Hotel site offers an education in L.A. sociopolitics -- latimes.com

The school on the old Ambassador Hotel site offers an education in L.A. sociopolitics -- latimes.com:

"Like a kindergarten teacher kneeling down to meet her 3-foot-tall charges at eye level, the new elementary school at the Ambassador Hotel site, set to open today, is impeccably attuned to the importance of a first impression.

Designed by the Pasadena firm Gonzalez Goodale Architects, the school extends a friendly, crisply proportioned façade along 8th Street, on the southern edge of the sprawling 76-acre site over which the hotel long presided. Inside, the two-story school wraps 46 classrooms around a pair of generously sized courtyards. It accents its combination of zinc panels and expanses of glass with a number of walls painted Creamsicle orange."

Paul Peterson: What the Public Thinks of Public Schools - WSJ.com

Paul Peterson: What the Public Thinks of Public Schools - WSJ.com:

"Yesterday President Barack Obama delivered a pep talk to America's schoolchildren. The president owes a separate speech to America's parents. They deserve some straight talk on the state of our public schools.

According to the just released Education Next poll put out by the Hoover Institution, public assessment of schools has fallen to the lowest level recorded since Americans were first asked to grade schools in 1981. Just 18% of those surveyed gave schools a grade of an A or a B, down from 30% reported by a Gallup poll as recently as 2005.

No less than 25% of those polled by Education Next gave the schools either an F or a D. (In 2005, only 20% gave schools such low marks.)"

Milwaukee Democrats speak out against mayoral takeover of MPS - JSOnline

Milwaukee Democrats speak out against mayoral takeover of MPS - JSOnline:

"U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, state Democratic lawmakers from Milwaukee and a host of labor and civil rights leaders joined forces Tuesday to speak out against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's proposal for the mayor to control the Milwaukee Public Schools system.

But because there's no proposed legislation yet in Madison to change state law and transfer power over MPS from the School Board to the mayor, critics such as Moore and several state legislators - Sen. Spencer Coggs, Rep. Fred Kessler, Rep. Barbara Toles and Rep. Annette Polly Williams - were left with few new arguments to make against the plan."