The Associated Press: Duncan: Congress needs to act now on school money

The Associated Press: Duncan: Congress needs to act now on school money

Duncan: Congress needs to act now on school money

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP (AP) – 2 hours ago

DES MOINES, Wash. — U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged Congress on Friday to act soon to increase education funding because cash-strapped states can't wait until the fall to determine if they must lay off thousands of teachers.

Duncan made his remarks at a forum on innovation in education at Aviation High School in Des Moines, a small college prep school that focuses on science, technology and mathematics.

At the forum, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said she hopes fellow lawmakers spent their Fourth of July break hearing from parents and teachers, like she did. Murray said if they got the message about how urgent the school budget crisis is, they will return to Washington, D.C., with the drive to find more money for schools.

A proposal to send billions more to the states has hit a number of roadblocks.

The U.S. House has proposed cutting money from Race to the Top and other Duncan initiatives in order to send $10 billion to the states to keep 140,000 teachers in the classroom, and about $5 billion to shore up the Pell Grant program, which helps low-income students pay for college.

Murray and Duncan both said many different proposals to pay for the emergency dollars are on the table.

"He and I have to go back to Washington and make this work," the senator said.

Some Thoughts on “Acting White”and the film 'Waiting for Superman | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

Some Thoughts on “Acting White”and the film 'Waiting for Superman | Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

SOME THOUGHTS ON “ACTING WHITE”

by Latoya Peterson

Over at Slate, Richard Thompson Ford promises to teach the readership “How To Understand “Acting White,” which immediately prompted an eyeroll from me. The article opens:

Some black students in the 1990s had a derisive name for their peers who spent a lot of time studying in the library: incog-negro. The larger phenomenon is all too well-known. Many blacks—especially black young men—have come to the ruinous conclusion that academic excellence is somehow inconsistent with their racial identities, and they ridicule peers for “acting white” if they hit the books instead of the streets after school. The usual explanations for this self-destructive attitude focus on the influence of dysfunctional cultural norms in poor minority neighborhoods: macho and “cool” posturing and gangster rap. The usual prescriptions emphasize exposing poor black kids to better peer influences in integrated schools. Indeed, the implicit promise of improved attitudes through peer association accounts for much of the allure of public-school integration.

(Side bar: has anyone else heard incognegro applied in that way? I haven’t, but maybe I’m missing something…)

AFT - A Union of Professionals - #AFTConvention 2010 Videos #education

AFT - A Union of Professionals - AFT Convention 2010 Videos

Schools Matter: Randi Wins Best Non-Supportive Acting Role as Teacher Unionist President

Schools Matter: Randi Wins Best Non-Supportive Acting Role as Teacher Unionist President

Randi Wins Best Non-Supportive Acting Role as Teacher Unionist President

by Jim Horn

Thanks, Jack Gerson, for handing out this distinguished award. See Randi tsk, see Randi cluck, see Randi shocked! Really.


Weingarten has been in on every sleazy corporate-sponsored deal crafted during the past 3 years to eviscerate the teaching profession and due process, and now she is shocked Obama and Duncan are doing the same.


Her invited guest this week? Bill Gates, who had this to say last year at a TED talk where he discussed

In case you missed it: Funding, study time, internships, dropout rates | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

In case you missed it: Funding, study time, internships, dropout rates | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

In case you missed it: Funding, study time, internships, dropout rates

by Jamie Raver on Jul 09 2010 Posted in In case you missed it

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Obama's edcucation program faces $500M cut despite veto threat The Washington Post
House Democrats passed the bill to cut funding to Obama's "Race to the Top" program last Thursday. Despite a veto threat from the White House, the representatives believe the bill will preserve education jobs in areas where budgets are floundering.

See also: Edujobs: Three Card Monte Eduwonk
Edujobs or Race to Top: What's Worth More to States? Education Week
Teachers' jobs vs. Race to the Top? The Notebook blog

What happened to studying? The Boston Globe
Studies reveal that college students are studying significantly less than they did 50 years ago. But instead of pointing fingers at the Internet and technology, University of California professors Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks suggest that students arrive with underprepared study skills and anticipate entering a job market that is

The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments

by Larry Ferlazzo

As I’ve mentioned, I’m part of a group of teachers working with The Center For Teaching Quality that’s preparing a policy report on Teacher Working Conditions and how they relate to student learning.
I’ve previously shared some of the materials I’ve found useful in my research — see The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.
I thought I’d share some more resources in this new list. My hope is that not only will readers find them useful, but that you’ll be able to suggest more. I’ll be working on a report covering this topic next week, so thanks in advance for your recommendations.
Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments:

Two Very Fun World Cup Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve just added two very fun resources to The Best Sites For Learning About The World Cup:
Psychic octopus Paul predicts Spain to beat Holland in World Cup final is an article and video from The

Interactive: Abandoned Oil Wells In The Gulf

Contribute A Post To The Next ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival

The Answer Sheet - The story behind ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

The Answer Sheet - The story behind ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

The story behind ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

For those who somehow missed it, Sunday is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and dozens of events -- readings, mock trials, silent auctions, birthday parties -- are being held across the country to celebrate. In a country with an attention span of about 10 seconds, this is quite an achievement. And for those who somehow never read it, or who never watched the great movie adaptation with Gregory Peck, or who never listened to a discussion in English class, or who never listened to Sissy Spacek’s pleasurable reading on tape (or CD), Mockingbird is a novel of racism and redemption. It tells the story of a Southern lawyer, Atticus Finch, who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the related tale of his young children -- Scout and Jem -- and their fascination with a

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: King/Chavez Arts Academy

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: King/Chavez Arts Academy

King/Chavez Arts Academy CHARTER TEACHERS, FEARFUL OF FIRINGS, PUSH TO UNIONIZE A SHAKEN SCHOOL, March 13, 2009, Voice of San Diego (CA) Less than a year after a Barrio Logan charter school discarded its director and cut loose nearly all of its teachers with little warning, ...

Urban Prep Academy Charter High School IT'S A MIRACLE! URBAN PREP LOSES MORE STUDENTS, STILL HAS 100% COLLEGE-GOING RATE!, July 9, 2010, Chicago K-12 Examiner Today's Sun-Times print edition reports on what must now be called the Miracle in Englewood. Urban Prep Charter School still has a ...

Progressive education’s vibrant past and uncertain future | GothamSchools

Progressive education’s vibrant past and uncertain future | GothamSchools

Progressive education’s vibrant past and uncertain future

by Philissa Cramer

The city is full of teachers and principals who consider themselves progressive educators. But their unorthodox ideas are constrained by policies that put test scores first.
That’s the conclusion that Jessica Siegel, a former high school teacher who now teaches journalism and education at Brooklyn College, made after attending a 600-attendee-strong conference about progressive education in April. In the GothamSchools community section, Siegel writes about encountering intrepid educators who try, with mixed success, to blend the alternative approaches for which New York City schools were once famous with the accountability-oriented policies that are currently in vogue.

Schools Matter: Another Texas "Miracle!"

Schools Matter: Another Texas "Miracle!"

Another Texas "Miracle!"

by Kenneth Libby

Here's what happens when you let Pearson come up with growth models to evaluate schools:

How schools get credit for a TAKS zero

By RICK CASEY
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

July 6, 2010, 10:54PM

Houston state Rep. Scott Hochberg isn't your normal glad-handing politician.

Known as perhaps the only elected official in Texas who really understands the state's byzantine

Adulation Not Unanimous, Ravitch Attacks Ed Week Reporter | Intercepts

Adulation Not Unanimous, Ravitch Attacks Ed Week Reporter | Intercepts

Adulation Not Unanimous, Ravitch Attacks Ed Week Reporter

by Mike Antonucci

Apparently a best-selling book, the NEA Friend of Education award and the fawning acclaim of 8,174 delegates weren’t enough for Diane Ravitch. Today Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post handed her column over to Ravitch so she could take potshots at Stephen Sawchuk of Education Week for daring to write that some “contend that Ravitch is selective in the research she cites to support her views.”
I would have added, ”sometimes she’s just wrong.”
I don’t blame Ravitch for taking the opportunity to again pitch her views and her book in one of America’s most prestigious daily newspapers. I blame Strauss and the Post for using that prestige to undermine a reporter from

Where to Go for AFT Convention Coverage

by Mike Antonucci

I’m not at the AFT Convention. Why not? A lot of reasons. But you needn’t miss out. Ed Week‘s Stephen Sawchuk has got the news covered, and Norm Scott of Education Notes Online ably fills the smart-ass commentary gap. He’s already got a couple of gems:
* “This is going to be pretty funny considering how just about everyone you talk to in Unity trashes Randi as they gush, ‘Mulgrew is so different. He is a real teacher.’ Sure. A year ago they would be telling you how smart Randi was. If Jack the Ripper ran the union they would talk about how clean and shiny he keeps his knives.”

Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools #education

Parents 4 democratic Schools

Today's Big Education Ape Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Recent Post

• Teaching For Students. Sounds Obvious. Not. – THE DAILY RIFF – Be Smarter. About #Education #edu
• THE BROAD REPORT: Robert Bobb, Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2005 #edu
• City reopens hiring for ESL, science, Latin, Chinese teachers | GothamSchools #edu
• A Broken Window, That’s Not a Human Life, That’s Not Violence” Youth Media International | Youth Radio #edu
• Sacramento Bee Editorials Continue to Attack Teacher Unions in Support of SB 1285 | California Progress Report #edu
• This Week In #Education: Schedule: Duncan Ducks Seattle Teachers Convention #edu
• Es el momento – Educacion, Becas, Universidades, Aprendizaje #edu #parents
• National teachers union brings ideas to Seattle – Boston.com #edu #AFTConvention
• What Do School Board Candidates Think About the Parcel Tax? voiceofsandiego.org #Education #edu
• NCSE | National Center for Science #Education – Defending the Teaching of Evolution in Public Schools. #edu
• School Tech Connect: It’s Gettin’ Hot In Here #edu
• This Week In #Education: Obama: Not A Magic President
• Notes from the news, July 9 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook #edu
• Truth in transcript « SCUSD Observer #edu #parents
• Education Research Report: Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2008-09 – First Look

'Truth' Oscar winner takes on public schools

'Truth' Oscar winner takes on public schools Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Print E-mail Share Comments Font | Size: 0 0 0 Lacy Atkins / The Chronicle Davis Guggenheim tries to address the factors keeping public schools down in his documentary "Waiting for Superman." View Larger Image MORE EDUCATION Sacramento student who died had head trauma 07.09.10 Transparency a must for state's university systems 07.07.10 Program gives kids a peek at life as a cop 07.05.10 The last time documentary film director Davis Guggenheim was in the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton, he was asking Al Gore to be in his new movie about global warming. "An Inconvenient Truth" won Guggenheim an Academy Award and put Gore on the fast track for the Nobel Peace Prize. Guggenheim, 46, now had the Hollywood clout to pursue any project he wanted. He chose to take on the country's public school system. Back at the Ritz-Carlton, the director was just starting the promotional tour of his new film, "Waiting for Superman," a documentary that follows five families who reject the assigned path into an inferior public school and embark on a quest to gain admission into quality public schools - all public charter schools, including Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City. Guggenheim, who sends his own children to private school, takes on the teachers unions,

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/06/BALF1E6NJ7.DTL&type=education#ixzz0tCKHpHXP

Sacramento student who died had head trauma

A Sacramento State University student found mortally wounded near the UC Berkeley campus suffered head...

• Photos

Transparency a must for state's university systems

University of California and California State University administrators have taken strong positions on...

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NEA and AFT leaders walk a tightrope. � Fred Klonsky's blog #aftconvention #edu

NEA and AFT leaders walk a tightrope. � Fred Klonsky's blog

NEA and AFT leaders walk a tightrope.

by preaprez

In a weird way, it was so much easier when W was President and Rod Paige and then Margaret Spellings ran the Department of Education. While many Democrats supported NCLB, the two teacher unions were in opposition. And said so.
But an historic electoral victory in 2008, Democratic Party control of the White House and Congress and control of the USDE ironically made things, not easier, but more complicated.
It can’t have been an easy two years for AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. Although many progressive critics think they were silent too long, negotiating through the land mines of