UFT, city agree to court date; two charter schools jump in fray | GothamSchools

UFT, city agree to court date; two charter schools jump in fray | GothamSchools

UFT, city agree to court date; two charter schools jump in fray

by Geoffrey Decker

The city and teachers union have two weeks to prepare arguments in their battle over school closures and charter school co-locations, according to an agreement hammered out today between both sides and the state judge who will preside over the case, a union official said.

That means that school officials will have to wait to learn whether the judge, Paul Feinman of the state supreme court, will grant the teachers union the temporary restraining order it requested. The order would immediately halt school closure and co-location plans even before the court decides whether they are ultimately illegal, as the UFT and NAACP charged in a lawsuit last month.

Lawyers for the education department did not immediately respond to confirm the details, but UFT spokesman Dick Riley said both sides are due back in court on June 21, when Feinman is expected to hear their arguments.

In the meantime, the sides agreed on basic terms similar to what the plaintiffs seek out of the restraining order.

The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

Connecting with the Community OR Empowering the Community

June 6th, 2011 by Sean Slade

During the inaugural Healthy School Communities Virtual Conference held May 10–13, what came across loud and clear by each of our mentor sites was the need to connect with their communities. However as the week drew on, what became even clearer was that these sites didn’t just connect with their communities; rather they sought to empower their communities. They brought them in, asked advice, listened, and distributed leadership and ownership, and were able to engage their community stakeholders in meaningful, purposeful activities. These sites were demonstrating how they were in fact moving along a continuum from community connection to community empowerment.

Iroquois Ridge High School

Parents are a vital part of this Iroquois Ridge school community … absolutely vital for a thriving community.

It’s not only a learning community for our children, but for our staff, our

SCUSD Launches Survey on Need for New Neighborhood High School | | East Sacramento News

SCUSD Launches Survey on Need for New Neighborhood High School | | East Sacramento News

SCUSD Launches Survey on Need for New Neighborhood High School

Submitted by Michelle Ponto, News10 Journalist

Monday, June 6th, 1:52 pm

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East Sacramento, Midtown and Oak Park do not have a traditional neighborhood high school to serve their children, and the Sacramento City Unified School District is asking community members to take part in an important survey to help deal with the issue.

The online survey is available for community members, including teachers, staff, students and parents, to participate in at the district website -- www.scusd.edu.

“This community has for many years debated what types of high school offerings should be available in the East Sacramento, Midtown and Oak Park neighborhoods,” SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond said. “We’re going to aggressively seek out the opinions of the entire community through our survey, and then we’re going to use the information from the survey to work with these neighborhoods to make sure we have the kinds of schools we need in the area to serve the needs of our children.”

The 15-question survey offers community members a chance to give their opinions on the needs and benefits of different types of high schools.

The survey asks parents to rank courses and programs that they think are important for a high school to offer. The survey asks parents to contrast their interest in a comprehensive high school

Click Here to take Survey on East/Central Area High School

We Get To Say We Do | The Jose Vilson

We Get To Say We Do | The Jose Vilson

We Get To Say We Do

by Jose

Steve Jobs

Today, Steve Jobs and Co. blew the roof off the house with his WWDC conference today, where he introduced some mega-updates to his software on all current Apple devices. For those of us who have been buying any new devices made for mass consumption, our jaw continues to drop that Moore’s Law (the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years) has yet to fail, which is why cameras get sharper, TVs get flatter, and our phones become more feature-filled. This is all great

School Tech Connect: School Policy Roadkill

School Tech Connect: School Policy Roadkill

School Policy Roadkill

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

I keep meaning to write something about this beautiful post written from the trenches of a school that's about to be "turned around" because it is at the end of the line, according to NCLB. You just have to go read it for yourself. There's a description of a data meeting that I guarantee you will recognize from your own experience.

It's Here!

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

I've been waiting for single definable moment when the 21st century skills movement jumps the shark. I believe it has arrived. And yes, I realize that the phrase "jump the shark" has long since jumped the shark.

This Week In Education: Five Best Blogs: Pro / Con On Ravitch, NYC NAACP

This Week In Education: Five Best Blogs: Pro / Con On Ravitch, NYC NAACP

Five Best Blogs: Pro / Con On Ravitch, NYC NAACP

by Alexander Russo

Duncan's Alter boy spearheads personal assault on Ravitch Mike Klonsky: What an upside-down picture of the ed-world Duncan and his apparatchiks have created, a world where liberals and pro-union activists are the enemy and teacher-bashing T-baggers like Daniels are warmly embraced... An off-base critique of Ravitch Education Next: Ravitch has recently insinuated her name into the papers in part by using fiery, scornful language to argue that education “reformers,” with their penchant for testing, are obliterating America’s system of public schools, which, she always misleadingly implies and occasionally incorrectly adduces, were previously wonderful, enlightening places... The NAACP enters an unholy alliance Stanley Crouch: At no point in the past would one have expected the NAACP to try to halt the creation of schools that have helped so many black children succeed. As Canada

Protesters, reporters arrested at the Capitol today - blue cheddar blog

Protesters, reporters arrested at the Capitol today - blue cheddar blog

Protesters, reporters arrested at the Capitol today

by bluecheddar

Reporters Arrested

Two female reporters were arrested today at the Capitol. One is named Sam Bayfield, per the audio you’ll hear in this video.

I called WORT FM assuming that they would get more on their 6:30PM local news show, and I was told by Joanne Powers that Sam was giving details to WORT at that very moment.

Students First campaign seeks to put pressure on pols | GothamSchools

Students First campaign seeks to put pressure on pols | GothamSchools

Students First campaign seeks to put pressure on pols

by Geoffrey Decker

Screenshot of the campaign page against the UFT/NAACP lawsuit (click to enlarge)

Michelle Rhee’s new advocacy organization is jumping into the fight between the NAACP and charter school families with a new email campaign that has been flooding elected officials’ inboxes since Friday.

The campaign targets elected officials who co-signed a lawsuit, along with the teachers union and the NAACP, demanding that the Bloomberg administration halt its plans to close struggling district schools and replace them with charters.

Students First, which Rhee founded last year, sponsored the campaign, titled “Tell NYC Officials: Don’t Decrease Charter School Space.”

“Remove Your Name from the Charter School Lawsuit,” reads the subject line in the identical emails, which has been sent to the dozen officials listed as plaintiffs in the suit. In four days, more than 550 emails have been sent

Too slow. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Too slow. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Too slow.

by Fred Klonsky

A memo from HR brought back a memory from 9 years ago.

I was on our Local’s negotiating team, sitting at the table with representatives of the board and their lawyer.

We have language in our contract about leave for family illness and bereavement and we wanted the language to include domestic partners.

The board side took the language proposal and we sat there waiting for hours. When they came back, they said that they didn’t feel comfortable making that change.

One of our negotiators said, “You mean to say that if one of our teachers had a same sex partner for twenty years and that partner died, you think the teacher shouldn’t be able to get time off for the funeral.”

I couldn’t really tell if what I was seeing was a look of shame on the board members part or not. But they went

Judge stops teacher layoffs | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Judge stops teacher layoffs | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Judge stops teacher layoffs

by thenotebook on Jun 06 2011

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By Dale Mezzacappa and Benjamin Herold

Common Pleas Court Judge Idee C. Fox granteda temporary restraining order Monday sought by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers that stops any layoffs at least until a hearing on June 14.

The PFT went to court while principals were distributing notices in their schools to more than teachers.

The union argued that the District wasn't following the contract because it was exempting teachers working in Promise Academies, which are turnaround schools run by the District and largely staffed by young teachers. The contract calls for layoffs to proceed according to seniority.

"Close to 200 teachers who received layoff notices today should not had been laid off had the Promise Academy teachers been treated the same way all other

Swanson turns positively Clintonian. Could Bill parse his words any better than this? « Fred Klonsky's blog

Swanson turns positively Clintonian. Could Bill parse his words any better than this? « Fred Klonsky's blog

Swanson turns positively Clintonian. Could Bill parse his words any better than this?

by Fred Klonsky

Nobody is more famous than Bill Clinton for parsing his words.
But the very lame duck Ken Swanson does a mighty fine job of parsing when he answered my friend Jerry’s email about his statement in the Sun-Times about the willingness of the IEA membership to consider benefit or cost changes in our TRS plan.
Where President Ken got that message from membership is anybody’s guess.
But here’s Jerry’s email to Ken.

Ken,
On Friday, I called in to the IEA offices and sent you an email
requesting an explanation for the sudden change in the IEA policy on

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: HALF PINT HEALTH: The Death Of School Cafeteria Chocolate Milk?

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: HALF PINT HEALTH: The Death Of School Cafeteria Chocolate Milk?

HALF PINT HEALTH: The Death Of School Cafeteria Chocolate Milk?

BY LISA BRENNER FROM LAIST.COM | HTTP://BIT.LY/LXAJ0U

June 5, 2011 3:00 PM - When the Los Angeles Unified School District's dairy contract expires on June 30, superintendent John Deasy plans to recommend spilling flavored milk -- chocolate and strawberry -- off the menus of 650,000 meals served daily by LAUSD. Currently, 60% of the milk consumed by L.A. Unified students is flavored, according to the LA Times.

"Youth health has been an issue that has been very present to me — the epidemic of obesity, the epidemic of childhood diabetes, access to locally grown organic foods. The issue of getting the best quality of nutrition," Deasy said in a telephone interview.

"We have to come together as a community and say 'There are fat kids here and we all have to support the fat kids,'" said Jennie Cook, a Los

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Plagiarism in the charter school world

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Plagiarism in the charter school world

Plagiarism in the charter school world

by The Perimeter Primate

Merriam-Webster’s definition of PLAGIARIZE

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
• use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Multiple connections between schools can be found by scanning web pages and documents of charter schools for likely phrasing, and then inserting the phrases into Google’s Search bar. It was this technique which uncovered how a group of supposedly-unconnected charter schools (Gulen movement-operated) repeatedly make use of text written by other schools in their underground network, as well as that of other charter schools and private schools.*

The exercise is time consuming, but nearly always fruitful. Here are just a few outstanding examples of copying

The Kids Are Alright « Cooperative Catalyst

The Kids Are Alright « Cooperative Catalyst

The Kids Are Alright

by Kirsten Olson

Lily and Sam shoot the gap.

Yesterday my two youngest children graduated from high school.

Unlike many of the parents cheering and hollering on the lawn on that beautiful June day, I was not deeply grateful to the institution that had just processed them through four years of standardized testing, sorted and tracked them, assessed their “readiness” for honors and AP courses, carefully measured them in relation to their peers and recommended them to colleges and universities. I was not moved to tears by the speeches of various deans, assistant headmasters and superintendents, who in applauding graduates on a job “well done”

School Tech Connect: To Endorse Or Not Endorse

School Tech Connect: To Endorse Or Not Endorse

To Endorse Or Not Endorse

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

As we lurch closer to July, I see more people are taking up the question of whether or not the NEA will vote to endorse President Obama at its Representative Assembly here in bucolic Chicago. I certainly have my opinion, but I haven't been a member of the NEA for four years, and I haven't served as a delegate in ages.

However, it isn't at all clear to me that President Obama is seeking or even gives a fig about who the NEA endorses. As is clear in Valerie's column today, his education agenda is designed to appeal to Republicans and Blue Dogs, and any time someone in the President's own political base raises an objection, they're pooh-poohed. They're just resistant to change, is all. When the President criticizes polarization and partisanship, he's talking to the NEA, to the Urban League, the NAACP, Rainbow Push, and all of the people that he's a little bit embarrassed by. He'd probably rather be endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce than the NEA.

Certainly wiser people than I have already dissected this endorsement question, and I can only add two things. First, yes, the NEA is a democratic organization, and it will arrive at its decision through a fair process-- but it's also my recollection that a lot of the delegates I've met over time were elected on non-political platforms. It's usually more of a "please vote for me because I really want to be involved and I've gone before" type of thing. I

A Glut of New Reports Raise Doubts About Obama's Teacher Agenda - Dana Goldstein

A Glut of New Reports Raise Doubts About Obama's Teacher Agenda - Dana Goldstein

A Glut of New Reports Raise Doubts About Obama's Teacher Agenda

Although much of the Obama administration's education reform agenda promotes test score-based teacher evaluation and pay, the tide seems to be significantly turning against such policies, at least among wonks and academics.

Last week the National Academies of Science published a synthesis of 10 years worth of research on 15 American test-based incentive programs, finding they demonstrated few good results and a lot of negative unintended consequences.

Meanwhile, the National Center on Education and the Economy reported that high-achieving nations have focused on reforming their teacher education and professional development pipelines, not on efforts to measure student "growth" and tie such numbers to individual teachers.

Today, a paper coauthored by the Asia Society and the Department of Education itself calls Singapore a model for teacher evaluation. That nation's teachers are assessed on four "holistic" qualities, including the "character development of their students" and "their relationship to community organizations and to parents." There is no attempt to create a mathematical formula to tie student test scores to teacher evaluation or pay.

Lastly, even the free-market American Enterprise Institute has a new paper, by Fairfax County,

Michelle Rhee hires Democrat, continues working with Republicans - Education - Salon.com

Michelle Rhee hires Democrat, continues working with Republicans - Education - Salon.com

Michelle Rhee hires Democrat, continues working with Republicans

BY ALEX PAREENE

AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee has a very well-connected and talented new employee: Hari Sevugan, formerly the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, is now the top flack for Students First, the school reform nonprofit founded and run by the former Washington DC schools chancellor. This, Ben Smith reported over the weekend, will help Rhee remind everyone that she is a Democrat:

But while Sevugan's role includes setting up a rapid response operation and press shop for a group that didn't have a full-fledged communications operation, the move also sends a political signal: Michelle Rhee's push to weaken the hold of teachers unions has won her enemies in the labor movement and among some Democrats, and allies on the Republican right, and Sevugan will aim to clarify her attempt to establish a bipartisan profile, the source said; he has already begun to reach out to some of the group's progressive critics.

Strategic communications operations are what the powerful turn to