Saturday, April 13, 2013

Addressing the Out-of-School Suspension Crisis

Addressing the Out-of-School Suspension Crisis:

http://www.otlcampaign.org/

Addressing the Out-of-School Suspension Crisis

While overly harsh school discipline policies can affect all students, they have disproportionately impacted students of color. In the past few years, numerous reports and studies have highlighted the racial disparities in school suspension and expulsion as well as their negative impact on student achievement.

One of the main contributors to the increase in student out-of-school time and decreased learning time is often state and district approaches to discipline. Local policymakers have a critical role to play in reshaping classroom, district and community discipline practices and policies to create safe and supportive learning environments that (1) reduce out-of-school time, (2) provide better supports to teachers and administrators to address disciplinary challenges, and (3) engage parents, students, and community-based organizations in the development and implementation of more educationally sound and equitable policies and practices.

NSBA, in collaboration with the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign, has created a policy guide for school board members that will help them develop positive alternatives to out-of-school suspension. This policy guide provides information on the adverse impact that out of school suspension has on academic achievement, especially as it relates to students of color and those with disabilities. In addition, the guide provides examples of strategies that school boards have used to promote student growth through positive school discipline reform models.

Participating Organizations
Council of Urban Boards of Education
National Black Caucus of School Board Members
National Caucus of American Indian/Alaska Native School Board Members
National Hispanic Caucus of School Board Members
National Opportunity to Learn Campaign
National School Boards Association
Opportunity Action
Solutions Not Suspensions

http://www.otlcampaign.org/

Out of School and Off Track – The Overuse of Suspensions in Schools

A new report from UCLA's Civil Right Project is a one stop shop for all the school discipline data advocates or organizers needto fight the overuse of out-of-school suspensions. Out of School & Off Track uses data from over 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools for the 2009-2010 academic year and breaks it down by district, race, gender, elementary/secondary school level, English language learners, and disability status.

In an article published in Phi Delta Kappan, Dan Chu from the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) details BSAC's long and ultimately successful campaign to develop a tool for students to give constructive feedback to their teachers.

OTL ally Linda Darling-Hammond was recently on the Melissa Harris-Perry to talk about the dangers of high-stakes testing and the threat they pose to public schools.

Read more >

ABFE Conference Features OTL Allies

OTL allies are participating in a summit this weekend at the Association for Black Foundation Executives 2013 Annual Conference in Chicago. They will be discussing how policies and practices in Chicago public schools are creating systemic inequities for communities of color – and what foundations and advocates can do to address those inequities.

In the past five years, Arkansas has been deliberately and successfully moving toward a juvenile justice system that relies less on confinement and more on holistic, community-based approaches that effectively engage youth in constructive life choices. A new report from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (a member of the Arkansas OTL Campaign) describes the state's success in juvenile justice reform to date and summarizes the steps still needed to best serve Arkansas youth and their communities.

In a school discipline discussion that's focused primarily on the plight of young men of color, girls are being overlooked and officials aren't developing the types of gender-specific policy supports that would prevent young women from being pushed down the school-to-prison pipeline.

Read more >

WARNING!!! All Those Seeking Open Market Transfer, Stay Away From PS 154 in the Bronx!!!!.southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

WARNING!!! All Those Seeking Open Market Transfer, Stay Away From PS 154 in the Bronx!!!!

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

Pennywise is alive and still at work in the South Bronx. Only this time, Pennywise is not only destroying the lives of children, but of teachers as well.

Pennywise in and of itself has a benign appearance to children and adults, but the true form of

Pennywise, the IT entity, resides in PS 154 in the Bronx. With Open Market season soon upon us, this is an open warning to all teachers interested in a transfer to PS 154. Stay away.

PS 154 should be seen by anyone seeking to use the Open Market to transfer (That is if transfers are not hidden again like they were last year) to 154 as the Starfleet's General Order 7 used to for Talos in the year 2264.

As the Talosians destroyed and toyed with the lives of the crew of the USS Enterprise, so does the IT entity destroy and toy with the lives of the staff of PS 154.

IT demands only perfection from staff, those that are imperfect are dealt with in much the same way that Nomad dealt with

California Father | Educating Sullivan

California Father | Educating Sullivan:

Deborah Meier

by California Father

Popout

October 2012: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s @StudentsFirst Threw a Party in NY. Were You Invited? – @ the chalk face

October 2012: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s @StudentsFirst Threw a Party in NY. Were You Invited? – @ the chalk face:

October 2012: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s @StudentsFirst Threw a Party in NY. Were You Invited?

by Kris Nielsen

Since our friend, Michelle Rhee, is finally (maybe) getting her comeuppance, this seemed to be a timely topic to bring up.

Last October, New York Governor Cuomo’s Education Reform Commission visited Long Island for an event, where citizens could listen to speakers and ask questions about how to go forward with the future of New York’s public education. An invitation was sent out with the following encouraging message:

You don’t want to miss this chance to personally impact the future of education in New York State. At the end of the year, the commission will submit policy recommendations to the Governor, and many of those proposals are expected to be signed into law.

There were two ways to sign up to provide written testimony or to speak at the event. The first was to RSVP to the personal invitation sent by StudentsFirst, which was sent out to targeted location. If you were invited, it was easy to submit testimony.

The second way was to respond to the email address provided on this flyer — through the state. NY principal

#msnbc Chris Hayes talks to Merrow: Twitter bomb @chrislhayes – @ the chalk face

#msnbc Chris Hayes talks to Merrow: Twitter bomb @chrislhayes – @ the chalk face:

#msnbc Chris Hayes talks to Merrow: Twitter bomb @chrislhayes

by Timothy D. Slekar

I’m sure by now most of you know the pressure is on Queen Rhee after the memo concerning cheating in D.C. was leaked to John Merrow. In case you didn’t get a chance to see it, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes interviewed John about Rhee, the memo, the cheating, and the disastrous statistics that plaque the D.C. district.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/51523921?ocid=twitter#51523921
The interview was a great first step at exposing Rhee. But we know Rhee is just one of the many players in education reform. Journalists must continue to shine the spotlight on D.C. and Rhee, but WE need to help the media and Chris Hayes understand that education reform is more than just a story about cheating. Here are a series of tweets I sent to Chris Hayes. Please feel free to copy, paste, and tweet. Add your own too.
@chrislhayes thanks for taking the time to look where others refuse. So called education reform is the story of the century.
@chrislhayes the cheating on tests is just a small glimpse of a massive and coordinated attack on public schools.
@chrislhayes we are not conspiracy theorists. We have the evidence. Please talk to more of us.
@chrislhayes start looking at the true academic and intellectual damage that has been visited on a generation

NYC Educator: Advice from UFT

NYC Educator: Advice from UFT:

Advice from UFT

by NYC Educator

All chapter leaders should engage principals on all aspects of a new teacher evaluation system. You should focus on the fact that visits by the talent coaches should be supportive, not intimidating for teachers, and you should establish the ground rules and advocate for comprehensive professional development so our members will be ready when the new system is implemented in September.

Well, that's something to think about. Problematic is the fact that the system does not actually exist.

Of course no teacher wants a "gotcha" system. Many feel that's what we have now. And the UFT has stood in the forefront with those who wish to "reform" it, like Bill Gates. We worked on the MET study. We participated in the project that led to teachers being publicly vilified in the pages of the Post. This was but one by-product of our much-vaunted "seat at the table." Who could've anticipated that Joel Klein would break his word and urge news

Diane in the Evening 4-13-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Teacher Ken Shows Creativity

by dianerav

Please check out Teacher Ken’s post on the Daily Kos.
Scroll down through the comments and you will see some creative reworking of the covers of Time and Newsweek, as well as the “Waiting for Superman” poster, now renamed “Waiting for Eraserhead.”

Jersey Youth Will Run NYC School System

by dianerav

Dennis Walcott, the chancellor of the Néw York City Department of Education, has announced the selection of Andrew Buher, age 27, to be Chief Operating Officer of the 1.1 million student school system.
Buher graduated from college in 2007. He came to wirk for the DOE in 2010. He started at $75,000 but soon

Daily Howler on “Cherry-Pick Hall of Fame”

by dianerav

The Daily Howler has a few choice words for today’s opinion piece about how to reform teaching, by a Harvard professor.
The writer of the Daily Howler happens to be a former teacher and cares a lot about education.
Today he begins to dissect the NY Times article that I described as one of the dum

One of the Dumbest NY Times’ Opinion Pieces Ever

by dianerav

Today, the New York Times gave a lot of column inches to an article by a Harvard professor who claims to know how to fix the teaching profession.
He begins with the assertion that despite the many reforms of the past 30 years, the performance of our K-12 education system “remains stubbornly mediocre.”
His “evidence” is the test scores on the 2009 PISA in which the US scored about average.
Wouldn’t you expect a Harvard professor to check out the socioeconomic breakdown of the PISA scores which

Why the Tennessee Bill to Punish Welfare Families for Low Test Scores Was Wrong

by dianerav

Kay McSpadden writes frequently about education issues in North Carolina. Here she explains why the Tennessee bill to cut welfare benefits to families if their children didn’t get high test scores was a disaster. Fortunately, key Republican legislators put a halt to it and it never came to a vote.
I try not to read comments on blogs, other than this one, where I read them all.
But I couldn’t help read the ones that followed Kay’s compassionate post and was appalled by several,

A Reformer’s Dilemma

by dianerav

EduShyster ponders the plight of a reformer trying to figure how to pay for an elite private school.
What to do?
The tuition is just the beginning.
All those fancy clothes and vacations and SAT prep.
Could she use an Opportunity Scholarship?
Not likely. The school won’t take them.
She how she solves her problem.

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-13-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] This Rhee Scandal Can’t Be Silenced with Spin by dianerav John Merrow’s bombshell investigation of cheating in DC is seeping into the mainstream media. There is no way that polished statements and well-honed rhetoric will stop the suspicions and speculation. It’s time for a thorough and professional investigation. Here is a blogger for Esquire magazine, who goes to the heart of the matter. What did Rhee know and when did she know it and what did she do in resp... more »

Turnaround Arts Initiative artist, Sarah Jessica Parker, visits King School (photos) | OregonLive.com

Turnaround Arts Initiative artist, Sarah Jessica Parker, visits King School (photos) | OregonLive.com:

Turnaround Arts Initiative artist, Sarah Jessica Parker, visits King School (photos)

by Faith Cathcart, The Oregonian

Turnaround Arts initiative artist , Sarah Jessica Parker, visits King School students for the first time. As part of the program, Parker is mentoring King School students for two years. The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities supports the program as an example of using the arts to help close achievement gaps.

(14 total photos)

Is Reince Priebus after my demographic??? Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Is Reince Priebus after my demographic???:

Is Reince Priebus after my demographic???

by admin

From the Illinois Review:
The concerns about the federal Common Core curriculum and the national standards it would impose on local schools reached the level of the Republican National Committee Friday and was passed unanimously. Illinois RNC National Committeewoman Demetra DeMonte said she was happy to co-sponsor the resolution and encourage others to support the effort.
The RNC resolution reads in part:

… RESOLVED, the Republican National Committee recognizes the CCSS for what it is– an inappropriate overreach to standardize and control the education of our children so they will conform to a preconceived “normal,” and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee rejects the collection of personal student data for any non-educational purpose without the prior written consent of an adult student or a child student’s parent and that it rejects the sharing of such personal data, without the prior written consent of an adult student or a child student’s parent, with any person or entity other than

Denver schools to pay millions to reverse controversial 2008 bond deal - The Denver Post

Denver schools to pay millions to reverse controversial 2008 bond deal - The Denver Post:

Denver schools to pay millions to reverse controversial 2008 bond deal

POSTED: 04/13/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT
UPDATED: 04/13/2013 12:37:50 AM MDT

By Kevin Simpson
The Denver Post

Blog: Colorado Classroom

Colorado Classroom covers local and state

education issues affecting K-12 and higher

education students in the state of Colorado.

Denver Public Schools, which entered a risky and controversial variable-rate pension bond deal a few years ago, next week plans to finish converting those bonds to safer fixed-rate instruments — a reversal that will cost more than $120 million and put a dent in the district's budget for years to come.

In the proposed transaction, DPS will issue about $525 million in fixed-rate bonds to refund about $396 million in previous bonds with termination fees and other costs rolled into the total, said David Suppes, the district's chief operating officer.

"It will cost us some additional money," he said, "but it will give people comfort in that some outstanding risk is not there anymore."

Suppes estimated that the new deal will cost about $2 million per year in increased interest for the term of the bonds — another 25 years. But he adds that the original deal saved DPS about

Read more:Denver schools to pay millions to reverse controversial 2008 bond deal - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_23016666/denver-schools-pay-millions-reverse-controversial-2008-bond#ixzz2QN6MG8fO
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New Jersey native, 27, named chief operating officer of NYC's Department of Education | NJ.com

New Jersey native, 27, named chief operating officer of NYC's Department of Education | NJ.com:

New Jersey native, 27, named chief operating officer of NYC's Department of Education

by Julia Terruso/The Star-Ledger

A 27-year-old New Jersey native who has sprinted up the ladder of success has been named chief operating officer of New York City's Department of Education, the New York Post reports.

Lawrence native Andrew Buher, a 2007 graduate of Rider
University, has been named chief operating
officer of the New York City Department of Education
.Rider University website

Andrew Buher, a Lawrence native, graduated from Rider in 2007, then received his master's degree from Columbia University in 2010. He started at the department in 2010 as a "special assistant" and in his 30 months on the job has more than doubled his salary and received three promotions, the Post reported.

The New York City school system is the nation's largest.

Buher's predecessor, Veronica Conforme, earned an annual salary of $202,000 as COO, though the department said Buher's salary was still being determined, according to the Post report.

The political science and public policy major briefly attended Tulane University in New Orleans before returning home after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

As a senior at Rider, Buher became the first student from the college to receive a

Saturday, April 13, 2013