The 2012 Nation Student Writing Contest | The Nation

The 2012 Nation Student Writing Contest | The Nation:

We've extended the deadline for our Student Writing Contest to June 29!

The 2012 Nation Student Writing Contest

The Nation on April 10, 2012 - 4:57 PM ET

REUTERS/Larry Downing

The deadline has been extended until June 29!

Seven years ago, The Nation launched an annual Student Writing Contest to identify, support and reward some of the many smart, progressive student journalists writing, reporting and blogging today.

This year, we're looking for original, thoughtful, provocative student voices to answer this question in 800 words: What do you think is the most important issue of Election 2012?

Essays should not exceed 800 words and should be original, unpublished work that demonstrates fresh, clear thinking and superior quality of expression and craftsmanship. We’ll select five finalists and two winners–one from college, one from high school. Each winner will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize and aNation subscription. The winning essays will be published and/or excerpted in the magazine and featured on our website. The five finalists will be awarded $200 each and subscriptions, and their entries will be published online. Entries will be accepted through June 29, 2012. A winner will be announced by September 15.

The contest is open to all matriculating high school students and undergraduates at American schools, colleges and universities as well as those receiving either high school or college degrees in 2012. Submissions must be original, unpublished work (the writing can have been published in a student publication). Each entrant is limited to one submission.

Submissions and questions can be e-mailed to studentprize@thenation.com. Please include the essay in the body of the e-mail. All e-mailed submissions will be acknowledged. Each entry must include author’s name, address, phone number, e-mail and short biography and school affiliation – and say “student essay” in the subject line.

Read last year's winners and please help spread the word.

Hechinger Report | At 150, land-grant public universities struggle to return to roots

Hechinger Report | At 150, land-grant public universities struggle to return to roots:

At 150, land-grant public universities struggle to return to roots

by Jon Marcus

A hopelessly divided country with huge military obligations. A need for more educated workers at a time when only the privileged could afford the full price of college.
These circumstances may evoke the present day, but they were actually the backdrop to the little-known but hugely influential innovation 150 years ago that gave rise to dozens of America’s best-known public universities as a way of expanding higher education to the working class.
The anniversary of the Morrill Act, establishing more than 70 so-called “land-grant” universities—including some of America’s biggest and best known—comes just as advocates are warning that cuts in support, and resulting tuition increases, threaten the ideal of broad access to U.S. public universities.
“We’re in danger of chipping away at the effectiveness of the commitment to access and affordability to higher 

Missouri Education Watchdog: MISIP 5 Formally Approved for Implementation This Fall

Missouri Education Watchdog: MISIP 5 Formally Approved for Implementation This Fall:

MISIP 5 Formally Approved for Implementation This Fall

by Anngie

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) gave their final presentation to the State Board of Education regarding the Missouri School Improvement Program (MISIP) this week. The plan includes all of the tools for measuring school and teacher performance to help each district prepare their Annual Performance Report (APR) which is a tool used by the state to determine a school district's accreditation.

"Schools will have multiple ways of achieving the standards including showing student progress and/or evidence of student growth. Because accreditation is based on multiple years of data, MSIP 5 will be used for accreditation purposes beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. School and district APRs generated during the transition from MSIP 4 to MSIP 5 will be used to inform each school and district of its progress toward meeting or exceeding the state targets."

The main stream press has provided few details on the program, so we are providing more detail here from the 

Does Imagine Prep at Superstition really spend $20,000 per student? - Blog For Arizona

Does Imagine Prep at Superstition really spend $20,000 per student? - Blog For Arizona:

Does Imagine Prep at Superstition really spend $20,000 per student?

by David Safier

NOTE: Since Imagine School at Superstition made news by firing 11 of its 14 teachers, I've been writing about it, reading up on Imagine Schools and talking to people who know more than I do. This is the third in a series of posts trying to make sense of the nation's largest charter school corporation which has drawn more controversy for its practices and low student achievement scores than any other (Here are the first, second and third posts). What I write may be incomplete or incorrect in places. If you have information to add, please leave comments or email me at safier@schooltales.net. I keep all email correspondence confidential.

In 2011, Imagine Prep at Superstition had about 135 students. The Annual Financial Report it filed with the Arizona Department of Education lists its total expenses as $2,613,219, or $19,357 per student.

That doesn't make sense. Charter schools get about $7,000 per student from the state. Where did the other $12,357 per student come from, and where did it go? The answers to those questions raise a number of other questions about the way Imagine Schools are run and the honesty of their financial reporting.

As you can see in the graphic below taken from its 2011 Annual Financial Report, Imagine Prep at Superstition received $932,819 in revenues from the state in 2011. That comes to a little under $7,000 per student, which makes sense. But it also received $2,075,105 as "Other Revenue," which are itemized as "Contracted Revenue, Facilities, Gain."

(The graphic only shows the two items from the Revenue page. There are a number of smaller items. These two add up to more than the total listed 

Harlem parents protest against Success Academy co-locations | GothamSchools

Harlem parents protest against Success Academy co-locations | GothamSchools:

Harlem parents protest against Success Academy co-locations

by Rose D'souza

Protesters rally in Harlem against Success Academy, the controversial charter network.

Parents and community activists protested in Harlem yesterday, taking turns to give speeches and heed warnings to schools that will soon share space with a controversial charter network.
But unlike previous protests against the Success Charter network, the rally was significantly smaller. Noticeably missing were the politicians who came out to support a protest against the plan to bring a new Success Academy to the building where Wadleigh Secondary School of Performing Arts operates.
Organizers said they didn’t expect politicians or union to attend because they were busy dealing with last-minute 

Pension news. « Fred Klonsky

Pension news. « Fred Klonsky:

Pension news.

by Fred Klonsky

A whole lot of nothing. And who is to say that’s not good?
The Springfield Journal Register reports:

Madigan says, “the key issue was ending what he called a ‘free lunch’ for school districts. Currently, the state pays the employer’s portion of pension costs for downstate and suburban Chicago schools. Chicago Public Schools, the state’s largest district, pays its own.”

“Local officials are making spending decisions but they’re not paying the bill. 

A whole generation gained an education:

A whole generation gained an education

Title IX opened doors and leveled the playing field for women through 40 years.

NANCY ARMOUR, AP National Writer

9:58 pm

Photos

In a May 22, 2012 photo, Aly Marzonie, right, and Rachel Shellenback, second from right, team captains of the New Trier High School girls’ soccer team, kick a ball with teammates as they prepare for a game in the Illinois High School Association girls’ soccer tournament in Skokie, Ill.

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NORTHFIELD, Ill. — Emily Miller remembers learning about Title IX during history class, probably sometime in junior high. She’s a little fuzzy on the details, including how and why it came about.

Every time she steps on the soccer field, though, she feels its effect.

At 16, Miller can’t even imagine who she’d be without the game she’s played since kindergarten, and credits soccer for her independence and self-confidence. Now a starter on the varsity team at New Trier High School in suburban Chicago, she’s proud when someone describes her as “the athlete” or “the soccer player.”

“Soccer,” she said, “is what makes me Emily Miller.”

As Title IX celebrates its 40th anniversary Saturday, the WNBA is in its 16th season, Hope Solo and Natalie Coughlin will be two of the biggest names at the

Read More http://timesleader.com/stories/A-whole-generation-gained-an-education,166657#ixzz1yXYBkjjD

HechingerEd Blog | Ed in the Election: Agreement on vouchers and stalemate over student loans

HechingerEd Blog | Ed in the Election: Agreement on vouchers and stalemate over student loans:

Ed in the Election: Agreement on vouchers and stalemate over student loans

by Sarah Butrymowicz

College Board, the group best known for administering the SAT, this week launched “Don’t Forget Ed,” an effort to make presidential candidates pay more attention to education, by setting up 857 empty school desks on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The desks represent the number of students who drop out of high school each hour of each school day, according to a 2007 Education Week statistic. (Although, as the Associated Press reports, that figure may be off.)
The organization also gathered signatures in an online petition directed at the presidential candidates. The petition reads, “If you want my support, I need to hear more from you about how you plan to fix the problems with education. And not just the same old platitudes. I want to know that you have real, tangible solutions, and that once in office, you’re ready to take serious action. I’ll be watching your acceptance speech at your party’s convention.” Over 22,000 people have signed so far.
It was still a quiet week for education on the campaign trail, though, with most of the action happening at Capitol Hill. President Obama and his administration struck a deal with Congress to keep a Washington, D.C., school 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, June 22, 2012

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Education Headlines

Friday, June 22, 2012

Rowland superintendent leaves legacy at district; Ott takes job at USC

Maria Ott's 41-year career as an educator has taken her from the classroom to the chief administrator's office. And it is the former that she says has shaped her.

Inspire charter school to get more space on Chico High campus

Inspire School of Arts and Sciences won't be getting a new home this year, but it will be getting more space, based on a decision made Wednesday.

Class sizes are likely to increase

Sonora Elementary School District’s Board of Trustees discussed a dour financial forecast at Wednesday’s meeting, confronting the possibility that the district will need to increase class size in coming years to survive.

Student faces charges for spitting from bus

A Chula Vista middle school student whose spit sailed out a school bus window and into a nearby sunroof says the landing was inadvertent. The recipient of the saliva was so incensed by the act that he chased down the bus and pressed criminal charges.

Examining San Diego Unified's tentative jobs pact

It’s being hailed as a sign of new collaboration between labor and management in the San Diego Unified School District: a plan to save nearly 1,500 teaching jobs and keep class sizes from ballooning next year.

Some school districts try to fill growing summer nutrition gap

When districts throughout California cut back or eliminated summer school in 2009 because of state budget cutbacks, many children no longer could rely on a healthy lunch when school was not in session. But some districts like Riverside have found ways to offer meals, even if they no longer provide summer school.

Census Bureau says California school spending 35th in US

Just as two rival tax measures, both purporting to help struggling schools, qualified for the state's November ballot, the Census Bureau today released its annual report on school finance, revealing that California ranks 35th in per-pupil spending, more than $1,200 per year under the national average. Furthermore, the Census Bureau report said, California ranks even lower - 42nd - in school spending vis-à-vis personal income.

Budget deal would reinstate $50 million for charter school growth

Less than a week after going public with the fact that $50 million in extra funding had been stripped from their budget by the Democratic majority of the Legislature, charter school advocates were pleased to learn Thursday that the money had been restored in a deal worked out between lawmakers and the governor.

Baron: Some cuts, some cash in budget deal

Legislative leaders protected most student financial aid in the Cal Grants program and preserved status quo funding for charter schools in the budget deal announced yesterday between Democrats and Gov. Jerry Brown.

Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic leaders agree on welfare changes in California budget

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic lawmakers announced a budget deal Thursday that imposes harsher consequences on welfare parents who cannot find work after two years and moves 880,000 low-income children into a cheaper state health care program.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Desert Sands Unified School District Superintendent plans to retire

Desert Sands Unified School District Superintendent Sharon McGehee will retire next year. McGehee will leave the district Jan. 31, she said Tuesday during the district's Board of Education meeting.

Fresno Unified approves hiring of consultants to track absenteeism

Fresno Unified trustees on Wednesday approved a contract with a Northern California consulting firm to track student absences and analyze chronic absenteeism.

Chico school board to discuss budgt; additional facilities for Inspire tonight

Tonight, the Chico Unified School District board will be asked to approve a nearly $100 million budget for the coming year, and to approve an effort to provide Inspire School of Arts and Sciences with a nicer temporary home.

LAUSD administrators union OK's tentative 10-day furlough deal

The union representing Los Angeles Unified's principals and other non-school administrators became the latest to reach a tentative agreement to take up to 10 unpaid days as a way to save jobs, officials announced today.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Trib writers shine another light on Rahm's anti-union attack ads

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Trib writers shine another light on Rahm's anti-union attack ads:

Trib writers shine another light on Rahm's anti-union attack ads

by Mike Klonsky

AKPD's John Kupper

Thanks to  reporters Jeff Coen and Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah for their excellent piece in Today's Trib, "Emanuel allies press attack in teachers union battle." It confirms everything I wrote Monday about David Axelrod's old firm AKPD being the architect of the lying anti-union ad campaign now being played on local radio in Chicago.

According to the Trib report, the big money behind the attacks on Chicago teachers and their union is the group Democrats For Education Reform (DFER), run by NewYork hedge-funders Whitney Tilson and Ravenel Boykin Curry IV. The group continues to be a big player in the Obama election campaign and is the main force for school privatization, vouchers and privately-run charter schools, within the Democratic Party. They are also major supporters of Rahm's longer-school-day-with-no-pay-for-teachers initiative

More importantly, the Trib report shows that despite denials and evasions, the mayor has knowingly and 

D.C. School Cheating Report Finds 3 of Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's Schools Tampered With 2011 Tests

D.C. School Cheating Report Finds 3 Schools Tampered With 2011 Tests:

D.C. School Cheating Report Finds 3 Schools Tampered With 2011 Tests

by Joy Resmovits

Three Washington, D.C., schools cheated on 2011 standardized tests, according to a forensic report the district will release today.

Of the 38 Washington, D.C., schools flagged for further investigation for cheating, 23 were found to have some degree of test violations. D.C. flagged classrooms for further investigation only if they met two of three criteria: the number of answers erased from wrong to right as compared to the state average; unusual gains in test scores; and scores within a classroom that don't fit on a bell curve. It also flagged schools that had more than one consecutive year of high erasure rates. In 2011, 70 of 5,089 tested classrooms were flagged for further investigation, including 36 public schools and 34 charter schools out of 208 tested schools in D.C.

In other cheating cases cases, statisticians say, classrooms that have had a right-to-wrong erasure ratio more than two standard deviations from the average are so irregular that they warrant a further look on their own -- 

Projections. « Fred Klonsky

Projections. « Fred Klonsky:

Projections.

by Fred Klonsky

Over my career as a union activist, union president and participant in collective bargaining over many contracts I know this: Figures lie and budget projections are the biggest lies of all.
Every collective bargaining I have ever been involved in starts with the board’s bar graphs showing that five years out, if they give the teachers a raise, the district will be in deficit. And then they hand out the graph that looks 

Geaux Teacher!: JINDAL SACRIFICES CHILDREN AT HIS ALTER OF PERSONAL POLITICS

Geaux Teacher!: JINDAL SACRIFICES CHILDREN AT HIS ALTER OF PERSONAL POLITICS:

JINDAL SACRIFICES CHILDREN AT HIS ALTER OF PERSONAL POLITICS

by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT)

Dr. Ravitch busts up Governor Jindal and his sacrificial destruction of Louisiana's public school system to further his own political agenda.

Just another union busting scheme designed to plummet Jindal to the upper echelons of the ultra conservative, free enterprise, competition-is-the-answer Republican party factions.

His ego and penchant for revenge have gone too far this time though – his own kind are rebelling against him and asking to sign the Recall Bobby Jindal Campaign Petition. Just ask Jeff Crouere, the conservative political radio commentator from New Orleans and former Deputy Chairman and Executive Direcetor of the Louisiana Republican Party who hosts WGSO’s Ringside Politics who said, “If department heads or undersecretaries cannot candidly testify before Senate and House committees without the threat of reprisal from the governor, the 

School Tech Connect: Data That Doesn't Matter

School Tech Connect: Data That Doesn't Matter:

Data That Doesn't Matter

Because narrative trumps data.
National Education Policy Center:  VAM is bullshit.


Michelle Rhee: No it isn't because I said so. And everyone I look at is now a member of StudentsFirst, so there!


Arne Duncan: Raise the bar, raise the bar. B'kaw!


Rb Latimesii


For intelligent discussion of the issue, see Dr. Thomas.  And while you're reading, I'll count the number of private schools that have adopted VAM around the world. Let's see, zero..... zero..... zero.......

Teachers are Job Creators

Teachers are Job Creators:

Teachers are our job creators. They give students the skills they need to grow into productive, skilled citizens in a global economy. Students become mechanics, doctors, farmers, manufacturers, and educators when teachers help them realize their full potential. Where teachers have the resources they need, high quality of life for families attracts businesses and new residents. Communities see excellent returns on investment in education.
Michelle Rhee and her hedge fund manager friends want to privatize our public education system to profit Wall Street instead of our communities. They see education as an individual commodity. Their programs will lead to sweatshop schools where teachers are paid and valued less, and the focus is on lowering costs and not improving quality. They hire more administrators while firing the teachers and aides who work with students every day. Join me in telling Michelle Rhee and the hedge fund managers that teachers are our job creators, and that investment in educators is investment in our collective future.

SIGN THE PETITION

Jersey Jazzman: NJ Tenure Update

Jersey Jazzman: NJ Tenure Update:

NJ Tenure Update

by Duke

For my national readers: tenure in New Jersey is largely a parochial issue, but it does have national implications. Chris Christie is a darling of the Republican party and has been put on the short list for Romney's VP candidates for some time (although it will be considerably harder for him to stay there after this). The majority of Christie's schtick has been his war with the teachers unions; specifically, the NJEA. He has very specifically cited tenure "reform" as one of his signature issues.

So it's not far-fetched to say that Christie's battle against tenure has been a proxy for the national battle against teacher workplace protections (in fairness, that's a battle being waged against teachers and their unions by both political parties). Furhter: NJEA is one of the strongest teacher unions in the country, and New Jersey is 

School Tech Connect: Burn The Books!

School Tech Connect: Burn The Books!:

Burn The Books!

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

This is the library video to which Diane referred recently. I'm just posting it because I've decided to post more of other people's videos--- that's why they give you an embed code!

Popout

Schools Matter: Corporate Ed Reformers After Katrina Illegally Fired 7,500 Educators

Schools Matter: Corporate Ed Reformers After Katrina Illegally Fired 7,500 Educators:

Corporate Ed Reformers After Katrina Illegally Fired 7,500 Educators

by Jim Horn

Almost 7 years later, a federal judge rules.  From Campbell Robertson for the NYTimes:

NEW ORLEANS — As much as some may wish otherwise, there is no starting from scratch when rebuilding a city, or a school system.

A judge confirmed that here on Wednesday, ruling that the Orleans Parish School Board and the Louisiana Department of Education, in laying the groundwork for a school reform movement that has become nationally recognized, illegally fired 7,500 school employees.

The decision by Ethel S. Julien, a federal District Court judge, backed by 45 pages of reasoning 

Celebrity Policymaking « Diane Ravitch's blog

Celebrity Policymaking « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Celebrity Policymaking

by dianerav

This morning I posted a blog about Governor Kasich appointing a former football star to the Ohio state board of education.
I got this response from a reader in Michigan:
This is part of a trend I’ve seen here in Michigan – celebrity policy-making. It’s an extension of the traveling shows of Michelle Rhee and Jeb Bush. When Rhee talked to the Michigan legislature last year many legislators seemed in awe. The same thing happened when Jalen Rose, a former University of Michigan basketball star, talked to them about education and the need for more charter schools. He was an expert, I guess, being about to open a charter school in Detrot. His qualifications, other than as a basketball star, we’re that he had attended Detroit Public Schools and he had lots of money.Legislators were posing for pictures with him and getting his autograph. Celebrity policy-making in action.
This comment set me to wondering. Our policymakers say we should be competitive with the nation’s highest-

Thinking About Charters | Taking Note

Thinking About Charters | Taking Note:

Thinking About Charters

by John Merrow

John's thoughts off the NCSC in Minneapolis.

I have been hanging around charter school operators for the past few days, and the experience has left me with some complicated — and perhaps contradictory — thoughts about a movement that I have been following since 1988.

I love the energy, intelligence and dedication of the people I spent time with, but I left the annual meeting of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Minneapolis with some concerns. I think they need to do a better job of choosing their friends and of refining their message, among other issues.

For what it’s worth, here’s my thinking.

Remember: the “charter movement’ is a still blip on the screen. It consists of 5,000 charter schools and