Researchers: One out of every 68 U.S. children has autism | The Raw Story

Researchers: One out of every 68 U.S. children has autism | The Raw Story:

Researchers: One out of every 68 U.S. children has autism

By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, March 27, 2014 18:26 EDT

 One in 68 U.S. children has autism, a 30 percent rise over the last estimate released in 2012, health authorities said Thursday.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised concern and sparked calls for early screening, as well as more research and investment.

Autism is a developmental disorder that has no known cause or cure. It affects people of all races with a range of difficulties in social, emotional and communication skills.

Recent research suggests the disorder may originate in the womb, and could be linked to defects that arise during prenatal brain growth.

The “proportion of children with autism and higher IQ (is) on the rise,” the CDC said in a statement.

Previously, as many as one in 88 US children were known to have autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.

The findings were based on diagnoses of eight-year-olds at 11 U.S. sites in 2010.

The prevalence of autism varied widely, from one in 175 children in Alabama to one in 45 children in New Jersey.

The data continued to show that autism is five times more common in boys than in girls. In the 

Media blocked from public 'strong mayor' forum - City Beat - The Sacramento Bee

Media blocked from public 'strong mayor' forum - City Beat - The Sacramento Bee:

Media blocked from public 'strong mayor' forum

By Ryan Lillis
rlillis@sacbee.com

Published: Thursday, Mar. 27, 2014 - 12:23 pm

Last Modified: Thursday, Mar. 27, 2014 - 12:42 pm

KJ Sez: No News for You

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson squaring off in a debate against former Mayor Heather Fargo, the woman he defeated to take office in 2008?

An appearance by the president of the embattled state Senate?

A "strong mayor" debate in a room filled with members of a union representing thousands of state workers who live in the city?

Sounds pretty newsworthy. Too bad the news was shut out.

The media was banned from attending a strong mayor town hall at the local headquarters of SEIU 1000 in downtown Sacramento on Wednesday. The union had said earlier in the week that the event would not be open to the media, saying it was a private event being held on union property.

That explanation was fine, until chaperones at the door began letting in members of the public

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/27/6273356/media-blocked-from-public-strong.html#storylink=cpy

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Next frontier for the charter school hustlers, 'Inner Ring' Suburbs

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Next frontier for the charter school hustlers, 'Inner Ring' Suburbs:

Next frontier for the charter school hustlers, 'Inner Ring' Suburbs

For those of you who aren't fluent in post-racial-era reform/speak, inner-ringis code for black and Latino suburbs. As the inner cities become whitenized, with hundreds of thousands of African-Americans being pushed out because of lack of jobs, limited access to social services, and unaffordable housing costs, these suburban districts are growing rapidly and are now being targeted for takeover by competing charter companies.

Local school districts, like Dist. 149 in south-suburban Dolton/Calumet City, IL are facing an all-out assault by the big charter chains. So far they've beaten back the attack but only by diverting much of their energies away from educating children to defending themselves Schooling in the Ownership Society: Next frontier for the charter school hustlers, 'Inner Ring' Suburbs:

Green Schools Recognized - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

Green Schools Recognized - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces California's First "Green Ribbon" Recognition of Schools and Districts

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today named two schools and two school districts as California's inaugural "Green Ribbon Schools" (CA-GRS). The Superintendent's new initiative complements the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) recognition program, which California has participated in since its inception.

"We all look forward to the day when every school is a green school," Torlakson said. "California Green Ribbon Schools recognizes and encourages the efforts of schools and districts to make a comprehensive environmental and sustainability education available to all students in healthy and efficient facilities."

Selected schools and districts were designated based on their applications to ED-GRS, which are managed by the California Department of Education and scored by an interagency stakeholder group. Each applicant demonstrated substantial achievement in the three pillars of ED-GRS: Pillar I: Reduce environmental impact and costs; Pillar II: Improve the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff; and Pillar III: Provide effective environmental and sustainability literacy, incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM), civic skills, and green career pathways.

Awardees will be recognized in June at the regional ceremonies for California Distinguished Schools.

The creation of a California Green Ribbon Schools program was contained in Torlakson's Schools of the Future Report(PDF; 1MB), which recommended that the state recognize exemplary environmentally sustainable schools.

Details on the selected schools and districts are below. For more information, please visit the California Department of Education's California Green Ribbon Schools Web page.

Green Achievers

Encinitas Union Elementary School District , San Diego County
A regional model for sustainability and wellness

EUSD serves 5,400 K-6 students in nine elementary schools, all of which have been recognized as California Distinguished Schools. The district is home to one National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Eco-School (bronze level), four NWF Certified Habitats, and two Alliance for a Healthier Generation Schools (bronze level). Two large-scale organic, sustainable farming efforts are blossoming within the district: a 10-acre Agroecology Learning Center (opening this year), and the one-acre Ocean Knoll Educational Farm. Both facilities leverage public and private partnerships and provide food for the Farm to Cafeteria program. The district has reduced lunchtime waste by 85 percent using its award-winning SCRAP carts for recycling and composting.

Lowell Elementary School , Long Beach, Los Angeles County
Growing, conserving, and learning by doing

Every child participates in the Learning Garden, totaling 8,000 instructional hours per year. Student Green Team members divert more than 28,000 gallons of classroom recyclables annually from the trash. Car Free Fridays, promoted and measured by the Student Council, eliminate more than 150 pounds of carbon dioxide per week and encourage exercise. Fifty-five percent of students walk or bike to school, and students take more than 15 walking field trips each year. Lowell received ENERGY STAR certification in 2012 with a score of 98.

Twain Elementary School , Long Beach, Los Angeles County
Robust recycling programs advance sustainability and wellness

Parents and Green Team students volunteer daily to help divert trash, reducing lunchtime waste by 85 percent. The Green Team engages 35 percent of eligible students (grades two-five) as active members, but reaches the entire school community. A monthly "Bottles & Cans Day" earns the school $2,500 annually in recycling income. Twain is an American Heart Association (AHA) Teaching Gardens School. Twain received ENERGY STAR certification in 2011 with a score of 97.

Bronze Level

Santa Cruz City Schools , Santa Cruz County
Environmental stewardship for schools and community

Santa Cruz City Schools serves 7,000 K-12 students on 10 campuses, two of which are certified as green businesses by the Monterey Bay Green Business Program. District-wide, 31 percent of students walk or bike to school. The incentive-based Boltage pilot program tracks student trips and demonstrates miles traveled, calories burned, greenhouse gases reduced, and gasoline unused each day, week, and month. Every school participates in a Farm to School program to use local, fresh food. The high school agricultural program is supported by a two-acre facility including vegetable and flower gardens, a fruit orchard, landscape displays, commercial greenhouses, a retail landscape plant nursery and retail flower shop, a domestic animal grooming shop, and livestock production areas.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Beware: A Hostile Takeover of ALL Dallas Public Schools is Underway | Cloaking Inequity

Beware: A Hostile Takeover of ALL Dallas Public Schools is Underway | Cloaking Inequity:

Beware: A Hostile Takeover of ALL Dallas Public Schools is Underway

Home Rule is an emerging story currently flying under the radar in the national and statewide Texas media. Millionaires and billionaire(s) are quietly funding a “Home Rule” hostile takeover attempt of all public schools in Dallas, Texas. Yes, that’s right… ALL OF THEM.

For those of you who are just now encountering Home Rule, the newest neoliberal assault on democratically-controlled public education…Here is an introduction to the story…

At the end of February 2014, Support Our Public Schools (SOPS), a small group of prominent Dallas area citizens funded by wealthy individuals, revealed their support for a “Home Rule” scheme to take over Dallas ISD. Many community members, educators, policymakers and other stakeholders were surprised by the sudden promotion of the Home Rule takeover and questions about the group and the scheme have arisen rapidly.

Tonight I am in Dallas for two meetings with community stakeholders. First, I will join a meeting convened by the Dallas NAACP and then attend a second event with the Dallas School Administrators Association (DSAA). The purpose of the visit is the public release of a new Texas Center for Education Policy (TCEP) policy brief entitledDallas Home Rule Takeover Q&A. Click on the brief below to see the final version.

Citation: Vasquez Heilig, J. & Riley, J. C. (2014). Dallas Home Rule Takeover Austin, TX: Texas Center for Education Policy, University of Texas at Austin.

The TCEP Home Rule policy brief seeks to answer some of the most prominent questions related to the Home  Beware: A Hostile Takeover of ALL Dallas Public Schools is Underway | Cloaking Inequity:

solidaridad: Mother, Teacher, Coach. Sounds like the perfect candidate to steward our LAUSD school board

solidaridad: Mother, Teacher, Coach. Sounds like the perfect candidate to steward our LAUSD school board:

Mother, Teacher, Coach. Sounds like the perfect candidate to steward our LAUSD school board

Sherlett Hendy Newbill for LAUSD District 1 | Teacher Mother Coach

Creole food and courage: come to the Parents 4 Teachers fundraiser 4-9-14 Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Creole food and courage: come to the Parents4Teachers fundraiser 4-9-14:

Creole food and courage: come to the Parents4Teachers fundraiser 4-9-14

Please join Parents4 Teachers (I plan to!). You might consider paying for an extra ticket for one of the parents, students or teachers as well. Share the flyer, too!

Celebration to Honor and Defend the ISAT Boycott Teachers and Families

Join us for a dinner celebration to honor the brave teachers, families and students who boycotted, opted out and refused this year’s ISAT.

Teachers could face retaliation from the mayor’s hand-picked board of education, and families and their children were intimidated and lied to for their decision not to sit for the exam.

We need to make a strong stand in support of these courageous teachers and families. Boycotting teachers should face no disciplinary action.  Let our teachers teach! Let our kids learn!



Honor and Defend the ISAT Boycott
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
5:30 to 8:30pm

Wishbone Restaurant
3300 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL

doors open 5:30 | dinner 6:00 | program 7:00
Live Latin Jazz by Maestroson
dinner | drinks| childcare





Hear from teachers and parents who boycotted the ISAT

General Admission: $25 (includes a free drink ticket)
Students:  $10
Children under 5 free

Purchase tickets on-line here.

Limited tickets available at the door.  No one will be turned away.

Any funds raised will be used to support Chicago’s anti-testing resistance movement.

Contact info@parents4teachers.net for paper tickets or more information.

- See more at: http://pureparents.org/?p=21203#sthash.zeMQ71r1.dpuf

Teacher Describes How She Has Been Warned by School District Not to Speak Out Against Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog

Teacher Describes How She Has Been Warned by School District Not to Speak Out Against Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Teacher Describes How She Has Been Warned by School District Not to Speak Out Against Common Core

inShare

Thanks to Duane Lester from The Missouri Torch for bringing you a teacher’s Senate testimony in support of Missouri SB514 and 798.  Susan Kimball, a kindergarten teacher from Sikeston, Missouri describes how she has been bullied and intimated by her school district and school board about speaking out against Common Core.  Much of what she said echoes the story of the Massachusetts kindergarten teacher who quit due to the excessive amount of standardized testing:

“I have been strongly discouraged from saying anything negative about Common Core by my administration and some school board members,” Kimball said, her voice shaking.

Kimball described different instances where she, and others, were warned about speaking out.

“In a professional development meeting, um, inservice in November, and at a faculty meeting in January, we were told in my building, and I quote, ‘Be careful about what you post on Facebook, or talk about in the public regarding Common Core.  Don’t say anything negative.  It could affect your job.’”

For more on yesterday’s Senate hearing, visit The Missouri Torch to view Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder’s reaction. He is not happy with her treatment by education bureaucrats.

For more on yesterday’s Senate hearing, visit The Missouri Torch to view Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder’s reaction. He is not happy with her treatment by education bureaucrats.

And many, many thanks to those of you who donated on the Missouri Education Watchdog site for Duane’s gasoline fund.  Your donations made it possible for Duane to make the 8 hour round trip journey to the Capitol and back.  He will have many more videos to review in the next day or two.

Another year scraping together bare essentials | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Another year scraping together bare essentials | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Another year scraping together bare essentials

The District needs $200 million just to avoid a new round of cuts for 2014-15. It is unclear where the funds might be found.

by Dale Mezzacappa

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Photo: Harvey Finkle

At a February meeting, parents, teachers and students urged the School Reform Commission to lobby for more funding.

With the new budget season gearing up, the School District is facing another year of instability and scraping together bare essentials while city and state officials argue over how – or , in the case of the state, whether – to provide stable, recurring funding sources. 

“It’s dire, dire,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth. “We have 116 nurses, 200 counselors, fewer than 400 art and music teachers [less than one of each per school] for a district with 130,000 kids. This is not an acceptable academic experience.”

As of March, Chief Financial Officer Matthew Stanski could point to only $66 million in additional city and state revenue for fiscal 2015. Officials say they need $200 million simply to maintain this year’s skeletal level of services. Superintendent William Hite would like $240 million beyond that for his reform agenda, but financial support of that magnitude seems improbable. 

The District is counting on but hasn’t secured $120 million from an extension of a 1 percent sales tax surcharge authorized by the state but not enacted by the city. Council President Darrell Clarke, with reluctant support from Mayor Nutter, remains 

Change the Stakes | Because a Good Education Can’t Be Measured By a Test Score

Change the Stakes | Because a Good Education Can’t Be Measured By a Test Score:

REFUSE THE TESTS!

Number of NYC Parents Refusing State Tests Expected to Triple in 2014

What began two years ago as a small pocket of resistance has burgeoned into a full-blown protest movement: public school parents are demanding an end to the excessive use of standardized tests and top-down, corporate-backed reforms.  Change the Stakes estimates that three times as many NYC school children as last year – perhaps exceeding 1,000 – will refuse to take the annual English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams that begin next week. FULL STORY HERE

12 Reasons to Opt Out (pdf)

How to Opt-Out

Sample Opt-Out Letters

English: .html | .docSpanish: .html | .doc

Will My School Lose Funding?

See NYSAPE: The 95% Participation Rate and How Schools Do NOT Lose Funding

From the NYC Department of Education

For the official take, see the NYCDOE’s Student Participation in Grades 3-8 New York State Tests Parent Guide (pdf)

3-27-14 The Whole Child Blog — The Grand Unifying Theory of Education — Whole Child Education

A Whole Child Education for Every Child: The Grand Unifying Theory of Education — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

A Whole Child Education for Every Child: The Grand Unifying Theory of Education

March 27, 2014 by Whole Child Symposium

If our goal is a "whole child" education for every child, here are some essential questions: How should a modern school be managed and led in a world where the ground keeps constantly shifting? How can a single educator piece together a coherent vision of "school today:" management, leadership, curriculum, teaching, tools? Does "21st-century learning" have any real and special meaning? What's certain is that the schools we're striving to create today are not your father's (or your mother's) schools.

I am not a huge fan of posts that start with a number and proceed to a command: "83 Things You Must Do To Be The Teacher You Want to Be;" "Thirteen Cs Your School Can't Survive Without." In general I find these overwhelming, dispiriting, and ultimately pointless; add them all together and you wind up with an infinitude of impossibility and a guilt-trip headache. I have used this pitch a few times, and I'm rather sorry I did.

I find my thinking on education and learning fragmented enough without reducing its elements to lists. When I've actually tried to do this, I wind up with a mental construct that looks like the Strategic Directions to Hell, a road paved in bullet-points of noble intention.

A whole bunch of things in the world of education interest me, deeply these days, and I've written about them all on my blog—in scattershot ways, no doubt, bringing me up against a stricture laid out the other day by 

 

3-26-14 The Whole Child Blog — Don't Settle for the Okey-Doke in a Third Narrative of American Education — Whole Child Education

Don't Settle for the Okey-Doke in a Third Narrative of American Education — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGDon’t Settle for the Okey-Doke in a Third Narrative of American EducationMarch 26, 2014 by Whole Child SymposiumAn independent school leader and public school parent, Chris Thinnes (@CurtisCFEE) is the head of the Upper Elementary School and academic dean at the Curtis School in L

by mike simpson / 15h 

Where will the Progressive Democrats Stand? tomhayden com - The Peace Exchange Bulletin

tomhayden.com - The Peace Exchange Bulletin - Where will the Progressive Democrats Stand?:

WHERE WILL THE PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS STAND?

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014 AT 10:16AM | EMAIL ARTICLE | SHARE ARTICLE | PRINT ARTICLE

David Graeber's “The Democracy Project” and Thomas Piketty's “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, two standout books for recommended commentary. (Covers by Harvard University Press and Spiegel & Grau, respectively.)Let's at least agree that "Happy Days Are Here Again" cannot be the Democratic theme song between now and 2016. We are beyond the brink, in the danger zone, in many ways.

There are some who say I am "negative" for predicting Democratic defeats in 2014. But my role is not to be a cheerleader but a reality checker. Too many people burn out if we raise their expectations while we know they will crash in November. The best Democrats can do in the House of Representatives is narrow the margin. As for the Senate, we're in danger of losing that chamber, which would give Republicans, and their ideological vanguard, monopoly power over all branches of government. Unless the Republicans implode, the best the Democrats can hope for is a 51 or 52 Senate majority, and that's crucial even that majority includes conservatives. That's how much the Supreme Court means. 

We on the democratic left have raised a ruckus, from Occupy to the Elizabeth Warren campaign. But "changing the conversation" is different than changing the numbers in our stacked and tomhayden.com - The Peace Exchange Bulletin - Where will the Progressive Democrats Stand?:

New York City Parents Union Statement On City Schools Being The Most Segregated In The Country: “We Must End Education Apartheid In New York City”:

New York City Parents Union Statement On City Schools Being The Most Segregated In The Country: “We Must End Education Apartheid In New York City”

admin March 27, 2014 News, Press Releases

Yesterday, the Civil Rights Project at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) released areport proving what parents already know, that “education apartheid” is alive and well in New York City.

The report concludes that City schools are the most segregated public schools in the United States, with many Black and Latino students attending schools with virtually no white classmates.  Surprised?  We are not. We’ve known it.

Professor Gary Orfield, co-director of UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles and a faculty member at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education, stated the following:

“The children who most depend on the public schools for any chance in life are concentrated in schools struggling with all the dimensions of family and neighborhood poverty and isolation”.  Surprised?  We are not.  We’ve experienced it.

The report also states that segregation in City schools is largely due to housing patterns, because housing and school segregation are correlated.  Surprised?  We are not.  We’ve lived it.

Not only are our City’s schools segregated, but the quality of education received by students in schools located in communities of color is poor compared to what White students receive in 

Prescribed Format for 2014-15 Proposed BD - Correspondence (CA Dept of Education)

Prescribed Format for 2014-15 Proposed BD - Correspondence (CA Dept of Education):

Dear County and District Superintendents, County and District Chief Business Officials, and Charter School Administrators:

PRESCRIBED FORMAT FOR 2014–15 PROPOSED BUDGETS IN THE STANDARDIZED ACCOUNT CODE STRUCTURE

Education Code (EC) Section 52060(b)(2) requires that the public meeting at which a school district governing board adopts a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) and adopts a budget must be held after, but not on the same day as, the public meeting at which the governing board holds the required public hearings on the LCAP and the proposed budget. EC Section 52068(b)(2) imposes a similar requirement for county boards of education. This new requirement, which takes effect for budget year 2014–15, effectively eliminates a governing board’s previous prerogative to adopt a budget at the same public meeting at which the public hearing on the proposed budget is held, as was historically allowed by EC sections 42127(a)(1) and 42127(a)(2) (for districts) and sections 1620 and 1622 (for county offices of education).

Historically, many local educational agency (LEA) governing boards have met only monthly. In order to meet the new requirement this year, many LEAs must hold the public hearing on the 2014–15 proposed budget at the May 2014 meeting of the governing board because it may not be feasible, this late in the year, for some LEAs to schedule an additional meeting in advance of the June 2014 meeting at which the budget will be adopted.

EC sections 42103 and 42123 require that the proposed budget be on the forms prescribed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI). The prescribed forms for district and county offices of education budgets are normally those contained in the standardized account code structure (SACS) financial data collection software supplied by my division. There are no prescribed forms for charter school budgets.

The SACS forms become available each year in early May. This leaves those LEAs that must hold their public hearings in May this year little time to prepare their 2014–15 proposed budgets in the prescribed format. Accordingly, the format prescribed by the SPI for district and county office of education proposed budgets for 2014–15 shall be either the SACS forms, or a format that the district or county office of education produces, as long as that format:

• Includes expenditures, cash balances, and all revenues, and an estimate of those figures, unaudited, for the preceding fiscal year in accordance with EC Section 42103.

• Is itemized to set forth the necessary revenues and expenditures in each fund to operate the public schools as authorized by law in accordance with EC Section 42123.

The prescribed format for district and county office of education adopted budgets for 2014–15 shall be the SACS forms as usual.

To the extent practicable, the format used by LEAs that do not use the SACS forms for the 2014–15 proposed budget should resemble the format and level of detail of the SACS forms on which the LEA will present the 2014–15 budget for adoption, to ensure budget transparency at the public hearing and to minimize changes between the proposed budget and the adopted budget arising only from differences in format.

I encourage all districts and county offices of education to give careful consideration to the new public hearing requirements ofEC sections 52060(b)(2) and 52068(b)(2) when establishing their governing board meeting schedules for 2014–15 and future years. It may be necessary to schedule more meetings in June than historically have been necessary in order to comply with the new requirements in the future.

If you have questions regarding this subject, please contact the Office of Financial Accountability and Information Services by phone at 916-322-1770 or by e-mail at sacsinfo@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,



Peter Foggiato, Director
School Fiscal Services Division