Thursday, January 28, 2010

Education Reform: Teachers' Unions Failing U.S. Schools - TIME

Education Reform: Teachers' Unions Failing U.S. Schools - TIME:

"A remarkable thing happened in New York recently: the state legislature, in effect, turned down the chance to win $700 million in federal money. No one does that, except extremely conservative Southern governors (who inevitably relent and take the money) — oh, and occasionally teachers' unions. A few years ago, I wrote here about the Detroit union that forced the local government to reject a $200 million philanthropic gift to build 15 charter schools using a model that was already succeeding in the city. And now we have New York's United Federation of Teachers (UFT), a storied"

The Educated Guess � Charter summit Saturday in San Jose

If you’re within 50 miles of San Jose on Saturday, consider attending the Charter Summit at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Along with fostering frank dialogue between charter leaders and district officials on the issues that divide and could potentially unify them, the summit will include a return to California appearance by keynote speaker Russlynn Ali, President Obama’s assistant secretary of education for civil rights and former director of Education Trust-West, along with remarks by Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and state Secretary of Education Glen Thomas.
County school trustees have organized the event, which will include panel discussion and breakout sessions on charter school facilities and finances, the role of competition and flexibility in public education and best practices that district and charter schools can share.
The goal is a better understanding and collaboration between what’s often viewed as rivals. More than 200 people are expected to attend.
The summit will run from 8:30 to 4 p.m. at the county office, 1290 Ridder Park Drive, in San Jose (right off Interstate 880 in North San Jose).
The cost is $40. Go here for a schedule and details. You can register online or at the door. I’ll be moderating one of the panel discussions.

By John Fensterwald on January 28th, 2010

Head of charter school set to close fires back at teachers, DOE | GothamSchools

The head of the Brooklyn charter school whose charter could be revoked is firing back at the Department of Education and the former teachers who reported her.

In a letter sent to parents on Tuesday, Sheila Joseph, superintendent of the East New York Preparatory school, called the DOE’s allegations that she artificially inflated her salary, violated its charter by shortening the school year and expelled nearly 50 low-performing students before they took state tests “unfounded and untrue.” Joseph also argued in the letter that the school’s high faculty turnover rate was necessary to preserve high standards for the students.

“No one enjoys faculty turnover, but just as we have high and uncompromising standards for our students we also will not compromise on faculty performance,” she wrote. Between the end of last school year and the beginning of this one, the school lost every teacher it had.

“Some of our best teachers are now here because others had to be let go,” Joseph continued. “I don’t take lightly the fact that there has been turnover. However, I will never allow your children to have anything less than the absolute best.”

Former teachers at the school reacted angrily to Joseph’s explanation to parents.

“She’s lying,” said one former teacher who was

Oregon Voters Deliver Game-Changing Victory | California Progress Report

Oregon Voters Deliver Game-Changing Victory | California Progress Report:

"Pundits like to claim California voters are anti-tax. Of course, we've raised various kinds of taxes at the state level, including the Prop 10 cigarette taxes in 1998, and the Prop 63 millionaire's tax for mental health programs passed in 2004. Still, even though our reputation remains, we've got nothing on Oregon, where no tax has been approved by statewide voters since 1930.

Until now.

Yesterday Oregon voters delivered a huge victory for progressives by approving Measures 66 and 67, raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 and large corporations to generate $733 million to close the state's budget deficit. The Oregon legislature had approved the taxes last summer, but a corporate/teabagger alliance organized to put it to voters in a referendum."

Cut Prison Spending, Spare Schools, Worried Californians Say | California Progress Report

Cut Prison Spending, Spare Schools, Worried Californians Say | California Progress Report:

"Public Policy Institute of California

Most Californians would be willing to pay higher taxes to maintain current funding for public schools and most favor spending cuts in prisons and corrections, according to a survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) with funding from The James Irvine Foundation.

But while majorities want to protect K–12 schools and cut spending on prisons, Californians are as divided as their leaders on the overall strategy to deal with the state’s $20 billion budget deficit: 41 percent favor a mix of spending cuts and tax increases and 37 percent favor mostly spending cuts (9% favor mostly tax increases). They are in more agreement when it comes to asking the federal"

Education Research Report: Effects of Bullying on Depression in African American Youth

Education Research Report: Effects of Bullying on Depression in African American Youth:

"In one of the few studies to examine bullying among African American youth, Kevin Fitzpatrick and colleagues identify risk and protective factors associated with symptoms of depression and point the way to further study.

“By removing race/ethnicity from the current analysis, we examined intra-racial behavior among youth in a way unlike the majority of bullying research has over the past several decades,” the researchers wrote.

Furthermore, they concluded that the study “has clearly helped to disentangle the effects of bullying behavior on the mental health of an understudied population.”

In an article in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Fitzpatrick and colleagues Akilah Dulin and Bettina Piko examined the relationship between symptoms of depression, group membership and risk and protection among African American youth. Their data came from surveys of 1,542 low-income African American youth from a heavily African American urban school district in Alabama."

L.A. groups bid to run 30 schools - latimes.com

L.A. groups bid to run 30 schools - latimes.com:

"Groups from inside and outside L.A. Unified have been making presentations on how they would operate 12 low-performing and 18 new campuses. The school board will decide before March."

So you think you can run a Los Angeles school? Make your case. You've got 10 minutes.

Would-be school operators are taking part in a kind of Los Angeles Unified School District reality contest, presenting proposals this month at forums on campuses across the district.

It's the next step in an unfolding process through which groups inside and outside the system are bidding to operate 12 low-performing schools and 18 new campuses, serving some 40,000 students.

The Board of Education approved the strategy in August, and the winners for each school will be chosen before March.

Amid intense competition, the bidders are determined to add popular support to their portfolios. Parents will vote for their favorite bidders, although their choices won't be binding on district officials.

At Jefferson High south of downtown, at least 400 people braved last week's storms to hear staff members offer their plans for revamping the campus. They are competing against L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's team.

And at Strathern Street Elementary in North Hollywood, five groups jousted before a standing-room-only crowd of 200 over the $62-million Julie Korenstein Elementary School, scheduled to open next fall in Sun Valley.

Three bidders want to run it as a charter school -- an irony, considering that retired school board member Korenstein was a critic of charters. Charters are independently managed and free from many of the restrictions that govern traditional schools, including union contracts.

Aprende Team Executive Director Rebeca Rodriguez presented her charter group as already expert in teaching the low-income minority students who will attend the school. She heads nearby Montague Charter Academy, a converted traditional school in Pacoima where teachers remain affiliated with the L.A. teachers union.

Magnolia Science brought a founder

Washington Post Blog Post Critical of Washington Post Disappears from Web Site - City Desk - Washington City Paper

The Washington Post on Wednesday evening deleted from its Web site a sizzling and brilliantly constructed blog post that criticized the paper's editorial board. Metro education reporter Bill Turque, in a Wednesday afternoon item on washingtonpost.com, explained to readers why they might have noticed an anomaly in the paper's coverage of a high-profile hubbub centering on D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

Rhee, as the entire city knows, got herself in big trouble last week when comments she'd made to Fast Company magazine surfaced on the Web. Among other things, Rhee stated that a round of controversial layoffs last October had dumped teachers who had had sex with DCPS children.

It was an unsubstantiated charge that demanded elaboration, and that's where the local media comes in. Turque pushed as hard as anyone for details, badgering Rhee and her lieutenants for specifics on the abusive teachers. But in the end, he got scooped---not by theExaminer or Washington City Paper, but an in-house competitor:Jo-Ann Armao, another bulldog reporter and a member of the paper's editorial board.

Education Research Report National Assessment of Educational Progress Resources

Education Research Report

National Assessment of Educational Progress Resources

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2010 assessments are now being administered to students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in public and private schools across the country. From January 25 through March 5, students will take NAEP assessments in civics, geography, and U.S. history, and the NAEP website has a wealth of resources to help those selected students, parents, teachers and schools who are participating.

Are you participating in NAEP this year? The NAEP website offers a broad range of resources:

* The new Student pages have answers to frequently asked questions, student videos, games, study tools, and more for students of all ages!

* The Parents' page offers a broad range of resources designed specifically for families of NAEP students:

* Usted también puede visitar la página para familias en español:

* The Selected Schools pages feature

An 'Alliance' on ESEA Reauthorization? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Good news for fans of overhauling high schools: Two veterans of the Alliance for Excellent Education, whose signature issues include boosting graduation rates and high school quality, are likely to play key roles in helping lawmakers craft the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Bethany Little already serves as the top education adviser on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Now, Jamie Fasteau has been hired by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, as a senior education policy adviser. The position was left vacant when Alice Johnson Cain left the committee to work on teacher quality issues for the Hope Street Group.

Most recently Fasteau, whose bio you can find here, served as a vice president at the alliance. Before that, she worked for Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., focusing on legislation affecting children and families. And she was a senior lobbyist for the National PTA, as well as a government-relations manager for the American Association of University Women.

The alliance, which is headed by former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, a Democrat, has been instrumental in shining a spotlight on schools with very high dropout rates, and in helping to champion legislative remedies such as these bills. Having Little and Fasteau in such important staff positions could give a boost to those efforts.

Can ESEA Renewal Be Bipartisan? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Yesterday, Obama administration officials made it clear that a) they want reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to happen this year and b) they want it to be bipartisan.

So do key Republicans on the House Education and Labor Committee think that's possible? Back in 2007, the panel attempted to reauthorize the ESEA, whose current version is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, but never gained much traction.

Sounds like the picture is mixed this time around. Here's a snippet from a statement that Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the top Republican on the House education committee put out right after the speech:

There is no doubt we need to reform our federal education laws, and Republicans are anxious to enact policies that empower parents, teachers, and communities to provide a quality education for all our nation's students. The President and Education Secretary Duncan have indicated a surprising willingness to take on the education special interests. For too long, unions and advocacy groups have stood in the way of meaningful reform. I am ready to stand alongside this Administration in their efforts to loosen the grip of special interests on our schools and put parents and communities back in control of education.

The statement goes on to chide the administration for its student-loan proposal, which was generally a partisan issue in the House.

And last night, after the speech, I caught up with Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., the top Republican on the subcommittee that oversees K-12 eduction policy. (Along with Kline, he's one of the "Big 8" the administration is meeting with about the bill. Also, he's running for the Senate.)

CBC News - Books - Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger dies

American author J.D. Salinger, long acclaimed for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, has died at 91 in New Hampshire.
Salinger, who celebrated his birthday on Jan. 1, died of natural causes at his home, according to a statement from his literary representatives, citing the author's son.
The reclusive writer had not published a new work since 1965. But his coming-of-age fiction influenced generations of young men and women, and is now hailed as a classic of postwar American literature.
Jerome David Salinger was born in New York in 1919, and raised in an affluent Manhattan neighbourhood. He began writing short stories in high school and had several stories published before he served with the U.S. army in the Second World War.
Drafted into the infantry, he took part in the invasion of Normandy and was involved in one of the bloodiest episodes of the war, the Battle of Hurtgen Forest in Germany.
Salinger's first and only published novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was an immediate success upon publication in 1951. The story of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, who runs away from his school to New York to find himself, gave voice to a generation of frustrated youth who longed to escape the strictures of postwar U.S. society.

Classic of adolescence

Natomas district sets forum on picking school for closure - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

The Natomas Unified School District will hold a public forum on closing a school at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Natomas High School theater, 3301 Fong Ranch Road.

The school board voted last year to close a school after the 2009-10 school year. District officials then appointed a School Closure Criteria Evaluation Committee, which will present its recommendations to the school board Feb. 10, said Heidi Van Zant, district spokeswoman.

The closure is being initiated to help balance the district's budget. The board has made $17.9 million in cuts since 2008-09, including cuts to the 2010-11 school year.

Closing a school is estimated to save the district $400,000 annually.

Because of financial problems, the district's budget continues to be supervised

Welcome to the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee Website!

Welcome to the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee Website!
Welcome to the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee Website!

Next Meeting:

Bond Oversight Committee Agendas & Minutes
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Serna Center Community Room
5735 47th Avenue

2008 Meeting Schedule

Regent SES Report - Bond Oversight Report
Bond Funds Update

BOC Bond Funds Report

Bond Oversight Committee Bylaws

Annual Report

Bylaws Workshop 1/16/07 - Agenda Minutes

Would you like to become a member? Click here for application
Questions regarding the application can be directed to Chris Marshall at (916) 643-9227

The Bond Oversight Committee (BOC) would like to thank the voters within the Sacramento City Unified School District for supporting the $195 million Measure E in 1999 and the $225 million Measure I in 2002. The funds generated by both of these measures have gone into school construction, modernization, portable classroom replacement, technology upgrades, and heating and air conditioning installation. Formed in 1999 as a citizens oversight committee, the BOC is comprised of community members who care deeply about the school facilities in which our children learn and the district's fiscal responsibility to the voters. Committee members applied and were appointed by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce and Sacramento Area Congregations Together to serve two year staggered terms.
The BOC serves the taxpaying voters within the district to ensure that bond funds are being spent responsibly on school and classroom improvements and for no other purposes.

To guarantee this, the committee works with an independent auditor and conducts research, surveys and site visits at the district and school site level. The BOC has formed subcommittees on Preventive and Deferred Maintenance, State Matching Funds, Communications, Site Visits, and Audits to gather information which is compiled into anannual report submitted to the Sacramento City Unified School District's Board of Education. The report contains summaries of achievements, planning priorities, subcommittee briefs, recommendations for improvement and success, and BOC member descriptions.

To date, the BOC has overseen and/or verified the expenditure of $142.5 million dollars worth of Measure E and $7.1 million dollars worth of Measure I bond funds in addition to $50.3 million worth of state matching funds. $158.3 million has been spent on renovation/modernization, $35.4 million on Rosemont High School and $6.2 million on new “small learning environment” high schools including New Technology, Genesis and America’s Choice.

Under the renovation/modernization category, which includes alarms, fire systems, data cabling, electrical upgrades, air conditioning and heating systems, and Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) compliance, 28 schools have been completed, 9 schools are in the final phase, and 35 schools are in the design phase.

Schools Matter: The Obama Education Agenda Is the Corporate Education Agenda: The War Against the Weak, Cont'd

If politics makes strange bedfellows, then enough money makes all strange bedfellows whores. Such is the reality in Washington today, where the US Department of Education cannot speak without sloshing cash from their philanthrocapitalist sugar daddies.

In a summary of a radio interview with Richard Rothstein and Duncan's Communications guy, Peter Cunninghem, Caroline Grannan notes that ED spokesperson Cunningham conceded every major point made by Rothstein, whose research to back up his arguments is impeccable: 1) high-stakes testing has caused great harm to children, with a disproportionate amount of the harm done to disadvantaged children in the form of stress, reduced quality of teaching, and shrunken curriculums; 2) charter schools (National Charter School Study Full Report) are more often than not worse than the public schools they replace; and 3) standardized tests are not good measures of teacher quality.

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - The Advisory Committee That Didn't Advise

Nellie Meyer looked over the charts loaded with numbers on San Diego State's enrollment and admissions, trying to understand what they meant for the teens in San Diego classrooms.

It was September 2009. San Diego State was abruptly changing its admissions rules and Meyer was supposed to weigh in as part of a special committee. Under a longstanding policy, the university had to consult with the group if it wanted to roll out the changes on short notice.

But Meyer, who represented San Diego Unified schools, wasn't sure what the changes would mean. She had never seen the numbers before. And it was almost too late for Meyer to make any suggestions. The changes were going into effect the next day. By the time the San Diego Unified school board weighed in two weeks later, condemning the changes as unfair to local students, they were already done.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. After a similar San Diego State controversy

Elk Grove Citizen : Students rebuilding Haiti through donations

Elk Grove Citizen : Feature Story

Students rebuilding Haiti through donations

Donations pour out from the pockets of generous students

By Katie Freeman - Lifestyle & Arts Reporter

Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 4:06 PM PST

Plink, plink, plink. The sound of coins dropping into collection jars at district schools equals more funds being sent to victims of the earthquake that struck Haiti this month.

Students at 12 schools within the Elk Grove Unified School District participated in coin drives to raise money for the millions of people in Haiti whose homes and lives were destroyed by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12.

Schools include: Maeola Beitzel Elementary School, Raymond Case Elementary School, Helen Carr Castello Elementary School, John Ehrhardt Elementary School, Elk Grove Elementary School, Prairie Elementary School, Sunrise Elementary School, Katherine L. Albiani Middle School, Harriet Eddy Middle School, Elizabeth Pinkerton Middle School, T.R. Smedberg Middle School, and Franklin High School.

Jessica Dalhaus, a sixth-grade student at Beitzel Elementary, opened up her colorful macramé coin pouch to pull out a handful of change and some dollar bills for her school’s donation drive.

Matsui Announces Sacramento Region to Receive $5 Million Towards Green Innovations — The Rancho Cordova Post

ast week, Congresswoman Doris Matsui announced that Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and local partners will receive $5 million in federal grant funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) for the installation of California’s first ‘Solar Highway,’ a co-digestion facility, and three anaerobic digesters. This funding was authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“Today’s project announcement serves as a milestone for those in the Sacramento community who have strived to push our city forward as a clean-tech capital,” said Rep. Matsui. “With the added aid of these federal dollars, local stakeholders are able to progress further in spurring the local economy through investments in clean, green energy alternatives. This is an excellent example of a partnership that will benefit generations of Sacramentans, and Americans, for years to come.”

SMUD is already a leader in renewable energy. The funding will be applied to developing four renewable technologies that push the envelope and provide affordable energy solutions for customers. “The grant allows SMUD to demonstrate the nexus between the efforts of a public power utility and its program partners, to bring vision to reality and value to customers,” said SMUD General Manager & CEO John DiStasio.

The technology of collecting energy from solar panels within the vicinity of the public

Teacher Magazine: Report: Teachers and Policymakers Differ on Effectiveness Measures

Teachers’ views on how instructional effectiveness should be measured, as well as how it could be improved, are not well-aligned with current education policy initiatives, according to a new survey report.

The survey, conducted by Learning Point Associatesand Public Agenda, found that the most popular indicator of instructional effectiveness among classroom educators is student engagement in coursework, with 92 percent of public school teachers surveyed rating it as a “good” or “excellent” measure.

By contrast, only 56 percent of teachers rated student performance on standardized tests as a good or excellent teacher-effectiveness indicator, making it the least popular option. Teachers with less than five years experience were more likely than experienced teachers to be opposed to this approach.

Other indicator options included how much students are learning in comparison with students in other schools (with 72 percent good or excellent rating) and feedback from principals or administrators (71 percent). No single indicator was rated as “excellent” by a majority of the teachers surveyed.

Race to Top fails students | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Race to Top fails students

Funding smaller class sizes improves achievement more than federal program

In the days following Michigan's submission of its Race to the Top application for federal school money, many have been quick to point a finger of blame at the Michigan Education Association for recommending that our locals not sign on to the state's plan.

To be sure, we were as interested as the next in any extra funding our schools could receive. But in the end, the price was just too great -- we could not support a plan that is not in the best interest of our students, especially one crafted with political objectives instead of educational goals and without regard for strategies proven to help struggling schools.

The future of Michigan's students is more important than any negative press.

The real regret, though, is that Race to the Top could have been so much more.

If the program -- and Michigan's part in it -- were truly about raising the achievement of our state's students, it could have done some real good. We could have taken what has already been shown to work and used the federal money to help fund it here. If Michigan were serious about "Racing to the Top," our plan would have looked much different -- and been much more effective.

First, school districts would have been required to reduce class sizes and would have received the funding to support them.

This is no secret -- smaller class size leads to higher student achievement. Major research studies in Tennessee and Wisconsin have shown that not only do students in classrooms with fewer than 18 students outpace their peers in performance, but the results last, with continued benefits throughout their academic careers.

And yet, many students here in Michigan sit in classrooms nearing 40 students, more than double the amount that research has shown to be optimal.

The second key component of a real "Race to the Top" is:

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100127/OPINION03/1270316/1008/opinion01/Race-to-Top-fails-students#ixzz0dvEGjj4c

Op-Ed Columnist - Kids in Crisis (Behind Bars) - NYTimes.com

We all have blind spots, and I think one of mine — shared by many other Americans, perhaps including you — has to do with prisons.

Over the years, I’ve written many columns about Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and torture, not to mention the abuses that go on in Chinese and North Korean prisons. But I’ve never written about the horrors that unfold in American prisons — especially juvenile correctional facilities — on a far larger scale than at Guantánamo.
Consider Rodney Hulin Jr., who was a 16-year-old when he was convicted of arson. A first-time offender and a slight figure at 5 feet 2 inches tall and some 125 pounds, he was sent to a men’s prison. There, he was the smallest person around. Within a week, he was raped, according to an account by Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group. The prison doctor ordered an H.I.V. test, since up to one-third of the inmates were H.I.V.-positive.
Rodney asked to be placed in protective custody, but he was denied. His father, Rodney Hulin Sr., picks up the story: “For the next several months, my son was repeatedly beaten by the older inmates, forced to perform oral sex, robbed, and beaten again. ... He could no longer stand to

POLITICO Interview: Arne Duncan - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

“Inside Obama’s Washington”

A POLITICO Video Series

January 27, 2010

(Recorded January 26, 2010)

Interviewer: MIKE ALLEN, Chief White House Correspondent, POLITICO

Guest: ARNE DUNCAN, United States Secretary of Education

CHAPTER 1

MR. ALLEN: Welcome to POLITICO's video series: "Inside Obama's Washington." I'm Mike Allen, Chief White House Correspondent, and we're here at the Education Department with its leader, Arne Duncan. Mr. Secretary, thank you for having us in.

SECRETARY DUNCAN: Well, thanks for the opportunity. Good to see you.

MR. ALLEN: The President has announced a freeze for a big slice of spending. How's that going to affect education?

SECRETARY DUNCAN: Well, education's always been a priority for the President, so we feel very, very good about where we're going to net out. We're always going to make tough choices, and things that aren't working, we're going to stop investing in. But things that are working, we want to continue to push very hard.

MR. ALLEN: And what's an example of something where you believe you can pull back, something that's not working?

SECRETARY DUNCAN: Well, the budget will be forthcoming next week, but there will be a number of things where if we're not seeing the results we want for children, we think we have a moral obligation not to just perpetuate the status quo, but to invest scarce, scarce dollars in those priorities that are really making a difference in students' lives.

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