Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What Really Annoyed the Race to Top Peer Reviewers - Politics K-12 - Education Week

What Really Annoyed the Race to Top Peer Reviewers

by Michele McNeil

At the conclusion of today's Race to the Top technical assistance seminar for state applicants in Minneapolis, Education Department officials gave some insight into what the peer reviewers really liked, and what they really didn't like, about states' first-round applications.
And, it's important to consider this feedback, since the vast majority of the round-one peer reviewers will return for round two.
First, let's start with the basics of document presentation and organization. The peer reviewers would really appreciate that applications have page numbers, a table-of-contents, and are legible. Sheessh. They're asking a lot. Sadly, this means some first-round applications had parts that weren't legible, and didn't have page numbers.
Now, about writing the document. The peer reviewers are clearly a bunch of professors. They would like a

University of Puerto Rico Closed by Student Protests � Student Activism

University of Puerto Rico Closed by Student Protests

by Angus Johnston

Students at the University of Puerto Rico staged massive protests this morning, at the start of a planned 48-hour student strike. The students are opposing budget cuts and program changes.
English-language news on the situation is scarce so far, but a brief Associated Press story reports that the university’s Rio Piedras campus has been closed “indefinitely” after clashes between protesters and security guards allegedly left nineteen guards injured.
There’s a Facebook page in solidarity with the occupation, and the website Emancipating Education for All is posting info as they get it. The Twitter feed for the protests is #ParoUPR, and some background on the strike

Most students got a top HS pick; for some, choices remain | GothamSchools

Most students got a top HS pick; for some, choices remain

by Philissa Cramer

In a year when legal wrangling complicated the high school admissions process, the city managed to place more than half of eighth-graders in their first-choice school, city officials said today.
Still, more than 6,500 eighth-graders didn’t get into any high school at all, according to the Department of Education’s annual press release touting admissions results. The city released the results today, nearly a month later than usual and more than two weeks after the department mailed out admissions decisions that had been delayed by a lawsuit over school closures.
The 80,412 students who submitted high school applications included 8,382 students who applied to one of the 14 high schools the city tried to close this year. Originally, the department planned to assign those students to another high school listed on their application. But after the city lost a lawsuit stopping the school closures, the department generated new matches for the students, giving 1,397 of them a choice between attending a school the city has deemed failing and another school the student ranked lower. (The other 7,000 students ranked the

How Much Could Your State Gain From Edujobs Bill? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

How Much Could Your State Gain From Edujobs Bill?

by Alyson Klein

Want to know how much money your state could get from the education jobs legislation introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, last week, or similar legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last year?
Check out this chart from the Education Commission of the States. Or this one from the National Education Association, which also compares the potential boost to the size of potential grants made available under Race

The Educated Reporter: If you like reading about politics, or Washington, or really quirky dudes...

If you like reading about politics, or Washington, or really quirky dudes...

by Linda Perlstein

... read this terrific profile in the upcoming New York Times Magazine about Mike Allen. I reside practically within watermelon-cannon distance from the nerve center of Washington and spent the most formative chunk of my professional life on the national desk of the Washington Post, during which time I was a recipient and observant of Mike’s generosities and curiosities. Still, I have no interest in the types of political minutiae Mike writes about in Politico’s Playbook. While my well-connected neighbors are reading it at 6:30 a.m., I am likely watching on-

On the creation of a Hobson’s choice | Reflections on Teaching

On the creation of a Hobson’s choice

by alicemercer

A Hobson’s choice is a free choice in which only one option is offered. As a person may refuse to take that option the choice is therefore between taking the option or not; “take it or leave it”. The phrase is said to originate from Thomas Hobson (1544–1631), a livery stable owner at Cambridge, England. To rotate the use of his horses he offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door or taking none at all.
from Wikipedia

Our governor, well known friend of the working man and public employees (for my out of state readers that’s sarcasm) has a new proposal, as the AP put it, to halt layoffs of junior teachers.
Because of the unequal distribution of high and low seniority teachers in many districts, poorer schools often have a very large number of low seniority teachers, and when there is a large number of pink slips given out, these schools can be devastated. I’ve worked in many schools that have had this problem. It was part of the

Education Research Report: Model that Effectively Engages Middle-Grade Youth in Quality After-School Programs

Model that Effectively Engages Middle-Grade Youth in Quality After-School Programs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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An innovative model in Providence, Rhode Island to coordinate after-school programs to attract middle-school youth through neighborhood hubs has succeeded in enrolling over 40 percent of the student population in the seven participating middle schools.

That is a key finding of a new evaluation, "AfterZones: Creating a Citywide System to Support and Sustain High-Quality After-School Programs," undertaken by Public/Private Ventures and commissioned by The Wallace Foundation.

The new report is the first in a series of two evaluations of the AfterZone model, which is operated by the Providence Afterschool Alliance (PASA).

"In the five years since its inception, PASA has built an accessible citywide system of after-school programs and installed a number of mechanisms to coordinate, manage and support this system," the report finds. "The

National school building group criticizes NYC charter space plan | GothamSchools

National school building group criticizes NYC charter space plan

by Maura Walz

The head of a national advocacy group for improving school facilities is warning that a Brooklyn school building cannot support a charter school expansion plan that the citywide school board approved last night.
Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century Schools Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that helps both district and charter schools plan their building space, composed a report on how space is used at Brooklyn’s P.S. 15. The elementary school shares space with PAVE Academy Charter School, which will expand in the building while it awaits construction of its own private building. Filardo’s report, prepared at the request of New York’s Campaign for Fiscal Equity, was submitted as testimony against the city’s plan at last night’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting.
“My overall impression is that even following the most optimal collaborative planning process and support from [the Department of Education], it will not be possible for PS 15 to support the continued expansion of PAVE per the DOE proposal,” Filardo writes.
At the most, Filardo estimates that P.S. 15 could give up one full classroom and one half-sized classroom without harm. But the city’s plan requires much more: it will allocate an additional five full-size classrooms and

Remarks by the First Lady at "Let's Move" School Visit with Olympians | The White House

Remarks by the First Lady at "Let's Move" School Visit with Olympians

by The White House

River Terrace Elementary School
Washington, D.C.
11:3 A.M. EDT
MRS. OBAMA: Well, this is pretty cool, don’t you think?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
MRS. OBAMA: I mean, right here in your school, in your Multipurpose Room, you’ve got Olympians and Paralympians and reporters and teachers. And everybody is here because of you. Isn’t that pretty nice?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
MRS. OBAMA: But, you know, one thing I want you all to know about these magnificent men and women that I’m standing up with is that, you know, if you heard in their story, each of them had to work hard and overcome something to get where they are. It wasn’t easy.
With Hannah, she fell the first time out, as she said; had a very -- finished almost last. Can you imagine that? Has anybody ever finished last in something and really felt like, “I just am not good at this and I never want to do it again”? Right? Well, just imagine, what if Hannah had said that after her first efforts at the Olympics? She wouldn’t be here today with a Gold Medal. But instead of feeling defeated by that, she just worked a little harder, and now she’s a Gold Medalist.
Alana was a skier before she lost the use of her legs, and lost the use of her legs while skiing, right? She had a bad accident and lost the use of her legs. Now, she could have just said, “You know what, I’m just done.” Right? But instead, she not only kept doing her sport, but she got so strong that she can compete and win a medal.
And Shani -- you know, Shani didn’t grow up in a neighborhood where anybody talked about speed skating, because we’re both South Side Chicago, right, Shani? (Laughter.) South Side, South Side. (Laughter.) But we didn’t grow up with speed skating. How did you even know about speed skating? We had ice, but we didn’t have speed skating. So there was nothing in his life’s path that would have predicted that he could take up a sport

How much is a buck worth? Why a District land deal needs more scrutiny | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

How much is a buck worth? Why a District land deal needs more scrutiny

by Helen Gym on Apr 20 2010

The background: The children from Duckrey Elementary School in North Philly practice band and play basketball on a sweet piece of land behind their school. Teachers had plans to grow a garden and beautify the space; the school’s principal hoped for a playground for the school’s 380-some children. However, others had their own plans – namely the board of a nonprofit development company called NewCourtland, which counts State Rep. Dwight Evans and School Reform Commission Chair Robert Archie among its former board members. NewCourtland is also represented by Archie's firm,Duane Morris.When is a dollar not worth a dollar? Take a look at last week’s media stories (Daily News andInquirer), which blew open a District land transfer deal for a politically connected development group. The story raises serious questions not only about the SRC’s secretive decisionmaking process, but also the wheeling and dealing behind the District’s new land management policy and its enormous – and almost entirely unscrutinized – capital budget.

Last September, the Mayor’s chief of staff, Clarence Armbrister, penned a letter to District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and the School Reform Commission requesting the land behind Duckrey for a NewCourtland housing project. Although

Desmond Tutu: Facing the Future: Global Education at the Crossroads

Desmond Tutu and Dennis Van Roekel

Posted: April 21, 2010 11:00 AM

Facing the Future: Global Education at the Crossroads

When we see the face of a child, we think of the future. We think of their dreams about what they might become, and what they might accomplish. But today, there are 72 million children in the world who have had at least part of their futures stolen from them. That's because they've been denied a basic education.

The international community promised to provide universal primary education at the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, where world leaders made commitments to education and our world's most valuable resource -- children. But a decade later the basic human right to education for all is still denied. Despite the countless summits, high-level meetings and high-blown rhetoric, progress toward the United Nations' Education for All goal of universal primary education by 2015 has been disappointing, and as the Global Monitoring Report ominously cites, "We are heading steadfastly for an avoidable failure."

We can no longer step lightly around this shame. It is our moral obligation to give every child the very best education possible. We must be willing to do more than talk and put universal education on the fast track to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty running rampant in regions around the world. Without free and compulsory schooling, the lives of these children are a nightmare of forced labor in factories, sweatshops, and fields.

Universal education is not only a moral imperative but an economic necessity, to pave the way toward making many more nations self-sufficient and self-sustaining. If you want to

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Scramble Begins for $650 Million in 'i3' Funding

Nearly 2,500 districts, schools, and nonprofits say they plan to vie for innovation grants to target education's most vexing problems.

• Politics K-12: Who Plans to Apply for i3? Look Online Now
• Complete coverage: Schools and the Stimulus

(April 20, 2010) | Comments (6)

Schwarzenegger Backs Law to Halt Layoffs of Junior Teachers

The proposed state law would prevent layoffs based on seniority, a stance teachers' unions oppose but civil rights activists applaud.

• Pressure Building for More Aid to Save Education Jobs

(April 21, 2010, AP) | Comments (2)

Web Conferencing Finds Elementary School Niche

Even teachers who aren't tech-savvy are learning to forge virtual links between their students and children in other states and countries. (April 20, 2010)

March for California's Future Sacramento Press / What's Happening at the Capitol: April 21

Sacramento Press / What's Happening at the Capitol: April 20 - 21

What's Happening at the Capitol: April 21

Wednesday, April 21
4-6 p.m.

The March for California's Future will be making its final stop on its 45-day march on the west steps of the Capitol. The organization will hold a rally, which will include music and speeches from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and California Federation of Teachers President Marty Hittelman.

The focus of the rally will be on restoring public services, including public education, public safety and public health. The rally marks the end of a march that started in Bakersfield on March 5. Thousands are expected to attend, and the event will continue as planned, rain or shine.

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