Sunday, December 5, 2010

Last Updated: 10:24 AM, December 5, 2010

Posted: 12:12 AM, December 5, 2010

David Seifman

INSIDE CITY HALL

Mayor Bloomberg is privately expressing regrets at how his administration handled the appointment process of incoming Schools Chancellor Cathie Black, according to two sources.

"He's telling people in the educational community, 'We screwed it up,' " said one source.

A second source said the mayor has come to realize that the nuclear-level secrecy behind Black's selection -- in which even longtime allies were left in the dark -- backfired.

"He ended up alienating people who would have been on his side," the source explained.

Black, an accomplished publishing-industry executive who packed enough persuasive power to persuade Oprah Winfrey to launch a magazine of her own, was also muzzled by City Hall -- so she wasn't able to line up support in advance of her appointment.

NO WORRIES: Mayor Bloomberg shrugs off the controversy as he and new Schools Chancellor Cathie Black visit a Bronx school.

The sources said one of those who received a mea culpa call from Bloomberg -- who almost never admits mistakes -- was Mike Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.

Even though they're often in adversarial positions, Mulgrew has a good relationship with the mayor and the two men rarely clash in public.

Stu Loeser, the mayor's spokesman, denied Bloomberg had any second thoughts about the selection process and firmly refuted the accounts of the two sources.

"The conversation in which the mayor supposedly said this [to Mulgrew] never happened," insisted Loeser.

Bloomberg "also doesn't believe"

JULIE CAVANAGH @Deny Wavier.com Coalition

Recorded on December 2, 2010 "Ms. Black is not only unqualified, but Mr. Steiner and Mr. Bloomberg have usurped the law in order to push through a vision for our children and public education system that is contingent upon the leadership of business executives and the privileged few," said Julie Cavanagh, an educator in Brooklyn. Our children deserve one qualified Chancellor who will deal with the tough challenges our public school system faces; they deserve a Chancellor who has their interest at heart, not the interest of wealthy millionaires and billionaires."

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: LA Times’ ‘Grading the Teachers v. 2.0’: WHEN LAYOFFS COME TO L.A. SCHOOLS, PERFORMANCE DOESN’T COUNT

LA Times’ ‘Grading the Teachers v. 2.0’: WHEN LAYOFFS COME TO L.A. SCHOOLS, PERFORMANCE DOESN’T COUNT

After the budget ax fell, hundreds of the district's most promising new instructors were laid off. Campuses in poorer areas — such as Liechty Middle School in the Westlake neighborhood — were disproportionately hurt.

BY JASON FELCH, JASON SONG AND DOUG SMITH, LOS ANGELES TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/HWPSYX

December 04, 2010 | John H. Liechty Middle School opened in 2007 in Los Angeles' impoverished Westlake neighborhood with a seasoned principal, dozens of energetic young teachers and a mission to "reinvent education" in the nation's second-largest school district.

The students had come from some of the lowest-performing schools in the city. But by the end of the first year, their scores on standardized tests showed the most improvement in English among district middle schools and exceptional growth in math, according to a Times analysis.

“It wasn't just teaching. It was worrying about what was going to happen to me and my kids," said Arlen Vidal, a top-ranked math teacher who now teaches at a private school. - Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times

It was a dream job," said Monique Gascon, who taught English and history at Liechty during its first two years. "We had a lot of autonomy as teachers, we had a lot of

Back to blogging? « JD2718

Back to blogging?

by jd2718

Perhaps. We’ll see. I mean to be, but…

These things happen to some of us.

If I manage to get back in the swing, expect:

tales of my senior class
teaching for mastery (me? yes)
teaching math
puzzles
school closings
lous

BOE Member: Excitement Got Better of Me in Exchange with Governor - Chatham, NJ Patch

BOE Member: Excitement Got Better of Me in Exchange with Governor

Chatinover 'mortified' by his portrayal in the media following town hall meeting.

By Laura Silvius | Email the author | 12:43am

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Board of Education member Jonathan Chatinover admitted "my excitement may have gotten the better of me" when he addressed Gov. Chris Christie at a town hall meeting on Friday in Parsippany.

"I would not disagree with the characterization that I was antagonistic," Chatinover said Saturday. "Not to defend myself, but … Gov. Christie's approach is extremely antagonistic, and sometimes I think you need to not back down from that kind of antagonistic treatment."

Chatinover attended the meeting expecting a straightforward question-and-answer session. "Maybe I'm just a little naïve. I thought … he'd be there to answer questions," he said. "He did answer questions, but after a 45-minute speech

Marin Voice: Parents march on Sacramento to fight for child care - Marin Independent Journal

Marin Voice: Parents march on Sacramento to fight for child care

By Sheila Miller and Zoevina Pariani-Delgado

Posted: 12/05/2010 01:09:00 AM PST

PARENTS FROM Marin County are traveling to Sacramento on Monday to stand outside the State Capitol building and tell anyone who will listen: "Working parents cannot be reliable employees without reliable child care."

We are Parent Voices, a group of concerned parents who are learning to be active and vocal. Parent Voices is a parent-led, parent-run grassroots organization fighting to make quality child care accessible and affordable to all families.

There are chapters in 18 counties across California, and Parent Voices Marin has been particularly active in legislative advocacy for change.

On Monday, our message will be about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of CalWORKs Stage 3 Child Care.

When we arrive, we will gather on the steps of the Capitol as people walk by and ignore us. We

New round in school power struggle - The Daily Breeze

New round in school power struggle

By Rob Kuznia Staff Writer

Posted: 12/04/2010 11:14:26 PM PST

Updated: 12/04/2010 11:17:46 PM PST

Teacher Martha Barnes, who'd been at Hawthorne High seven years, said she was upset when the Centinela Valley district transferred her to Lawndale, but she's making the best of it. (Scott Varley Staff Photographer)

When Martha Barnes was told she'd be among about 45 teachers to be shuffled against their will to another school in the Centinela Valley Union High School District, she was furious.

But several months after her move to Lawndale High, she doesn't want to return to her alma mater Hawthorne High, where she taught for seven years.

"I hate the way the district handled that," she said of the transfers. "But now that I'm here, I don't have a choice. Since I have no choice, I choose to be happy where I am."

Barnes - who says she loves working with her new colleagues - is not alone in her unexpected contentment. Half a year after the controversial move - which triggered a spasm of public protests from teachers and students alike - two-thirds of the teachers who were plucked from one campus and sent to another don't want to move back, union and district officials say.

Detroit teachers union election fails to name president | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Detroit teachers union election fails to name president

Micki Steele / The Detroit News

Officials of the Detroit Federation of Teachers had hoped to announce election results today, but no single candidate for any of the six offices received a majority of the vote.

Runoff elections are planned in early January, said Cass Technical High School math teacher and union representative Steve Conn, who is running against Keith Johnson, the union's incumbent president. Results are expected to be announced Jan. 15.

Voting in the bi-annual fall election took place in Detroit public schools during the past two weeks and was meant to decide the fate of incumbent officers, Mark O'Keefe, the union's executive vice president, two vice presidents, the treasurer and the recording secretary, along with Johnson. But the vote count failed to yield a majority for any one of the four or five candidates running for each office, as required by union bylaws.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101204/SCHOOLS/12040395/Detroit-teachers-union-election-fails-to-name-president#ixzz17Fder63i

Charter schools set their own hiring rules - Hawaii News - Staradvertiser.com

Charter schools set their own hiring rules

By Susan Essoyan

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 05, 2010

0 Comments

Charter schools are often started by passionate leaders, and having a relative or two on staff is not uncommon in Hawaii.

"If the best person is hired for the position, then the school's children are well served," said Ruth Tschumy, chairwoman of the state Charter School Review Panel, which approves and revokes charters. "If the person is hired not on his or her merits or qualifications, but rather on kinship or affiliation with the hirer, then the school's children are not well served."

Unlike a family business, charter schools are publicly funded. But they enjoy greater freedom from state regulations than the typical public school. Each charter school reports to its own local school board, not to the state Board of Education. The charter school's board typically hires the principal, and the principal chooses the staff.

"Each local school board is in charge of the charter school's policies and their hiring practices," said Maunalei Love, executive director of the Charter School Administrative Office. "We do not have a policy on nepotism because we're not trying to tell them what to do."

After being contacted by the Star-Advertiser about the number of family members on the payroll at

An educated guess on Texas students in the U.S. illegally | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

An educated guess on Texas students in the U.S. illegally

11:31 PM CST on Saturday, December 4, 2010

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS, GARY JACOBSON and KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News

In Texas, nobody asks, nobody tells, but a whole lot of people would sure like to know.

How many illegal immigrants attend the state's public schools, supported by taxpayer money?

While the answer is unknown because schools do not track students' legal status, estimates from top researchers and a Dallas Morning News analysis of little-known state data provide a range that is lower than many people might expect.

Also Online

Search the database of Texas districts' alternative ID usage

More education news

Blog: Education Front

•At the lower end, researchers estimate between 125,000 and 150,000 illegal immigrants attended Texas public schools in 2009, making up 3 percent of Texas students and costing taxpayers more than $1 billion a year.

•At the top end, the analysis provides a solid ceiling. State records

Schools Matter: KIPP Segregation: A Single School Choice Without a Voice

KIPP Segregation: A Single School Choice Without a Voice

by Jim Horn

Mike Feinberg has a reputation as an impulsive brat and bully in a china shop (even as documented by the worshipful Jay Mathews), and the Feinberg op-ed in the Houston Chronicle today shows there is no reason to doubt it. Not only is he audaciously reckless in calling for public funding of property and buildings for all corporate charter schools in Texas, even as KIPP sits atop a pile of several hundred million dollars from thephilanthrocapitalists, but he also demands that all of Texas' "parental choice" charters, the ones with black and brown and poor kids anyway, be converted to the psychologically-sterilizing, apartheid KIPPs or KIPP knock-offs such as the YES College Preps.

The other segregated charters, the lily-white-flight ones with family incomes to match their soaring test scores, will be left untouched, except of course, their building will be paid for by the state and their ~~principals~~ CEOs will be given unconditional authority (like the rest of the charters in Feinberg's fantasy) to hire, fire, and promote

“Minority Teachers: Hard to Get and Hard to Keep” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Minority Teachers: Hard to Get and Hard to Keep” Minority Teachers: Hard to Get and Hard to Keep is the title of an article from Miller-McCune. It highlights recent statistics that show that even though more members of ethnic minorities are becoming teachers, an increasing percentage of them are ...

Voting Begins For Edublog Awards Voting has just begun for this year’s Edublog Awards. Voting ends on December 14th. Thanks to many who nominated me in five categories: Best Individual Edublog Best Resource Sharing Blog Best Individual Tweeter Best Educational Tech Support ...

Best “Tweets” Of 2010 Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I thought it might be useful for both readers of this blog and ...

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