Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, December 27, 2010

Seattle Public Schools community blog

Seattle Public Schools community blog

So TFA Got Its Way

Apparently the appropriations bill made its way through the Congress with the "highly qualified teacher" part intact. Appalling. It is only good for two years but by then I'm sure Teach for America will have churned out even more minions (more on this at the end).

Here's what the bill says:

‘‘SEC. 163. (a) A ‘highly qualified teacher’ includes a teacher who meets the requirements in 34 C.F.R. 15 200.56(a)(2)(ii), as published in the Federal Register on 16 December 2, 2002.
‘‘(b) This provision is effective on the date of enactment of this provision through the end of the 2012–2013 academic year.


Here's 34 C.F.R. 15 200.56(a)(2)(ii): (This Rules/Regulations notice

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org

Wikimania and the First Amendment by Ralph Nader
The mad dog, homicidal demands to destroy the leaders of Wikileaks by self-styled liberal Democrat and Fox commentator, Bob Beckel, the radio and cable howlers and some members of Congress, may be creating an atmosphere of panic at the politically sensitive Justice Department. Attorney General Eric Holder has made very prejudicial comments pursuant to his assertion that his lawyers considering how they may prosecute Julian Assange, the Wikileaks leader. Mr. Holder declared that both "the national security of the United States" and "the American people have been put at risk."

Wikimania and The First Amendment
by Ralph Nader
LINK

Thomas Blanton, the esteemed director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University described Washington's hyper-reaction to Wikileaks' transmission of information to some major media in various countries as "Wikimania."

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last Thursday, Blanton urged the Justice Department

Real Estate Exec Disavows Shadowy Consortium Poised to Buy State Buildings - The Bay Citizen

Real Estate Exec Disavows Shadowy Consortium Poised to Buy State Buildings - The Bay Citizen

Real Estate Exec Disavows Shadowy Consortium Poised to Buy State Buildings

Former HUD secretary's firm was named in documents as an investor, but he denies any involvement

By ELIZABETH LESLY STEVENS on December 27, 2010 - 5:43 p.m. PST
Amy Graves/WireImage
Former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, left, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, center, and CityView Chairman Henry Cisneros attend a fund-raiser at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles Oct. 1, 2008

Henry Cisneros, the former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and current chairman of the commercial real estate firmCityView, on Monday disavowed his association with a mysterious consortium of investors who are poised to snap up 11 premier state office complexes, including San Francisco’s massive Civic Center.

The group, California First LLC, bid $2.33 billion for state office complexes that include the California Public Utilities Commission building

Queens Teacher: What Deformers Can Learn From Finland

Queens Teacher: What Deformers Can Learn From Finland

What Deformers Can Learn From Finland

Learning from Finland
How one of the world’s top educational performers turned around

By Pasi Sahlberg
December 27, 2010

IF AMERICANS harbored any doubts about their eroded global edge, the recent release of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s fourth international comparison of educational performance should rattle the nation from its “We’re No. 1’’ complacency. The latest Program for International Student Assessment study revealed that, although the United States made some modest gains, it is lagging behind many other developed nations in the ability of its 15-year-olds. The country isn’t flunking: like France, England, and Sweden, learning here has stagnated at below-average levels. That “gentleman’s C’’ should be a call to change course.

Take heart. Finland, one of the world’s top educational performers according to the last PISA study and

Quote of the Day: @DianeRavitch #parents

@DianeRavitch 
Technocratic solutions in education are nonsense. Education involves people: children, families, teachers, and solutions vary with needs. Diane Ravitch

Another Rhee hire to exit D.C. schools; COO Tata will run Wake County, N.C., system

Another Rhee hire to exit D.C. schools; COO Tata will run Wake County, N.C., system

Another Rhee hire to exit D.C. schools; COO Tata will run Wake County, N.C., system

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 27, 2010; 6:06 PM

Despite assurances from former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee that the senior management team she assembled during her 31/2-year tenure would remain intact until at least the end of the school year, the system's chief operating officer will leave next month.

Anthony J. Tata, who oversees food services, purchasing, technology and logistical tasks such as textbook delivery, will depart at the end of next monthto become superintendent of the Wake County, N.C., school system, which includes the state capital, Raleigh. He joins several other key school officials just below the senior level who have left in recent

College Graduation Rates – A Bigger Problem as College Access? — Open Education

College Graduation Rates – A Bigger Problem as College Access? — Open Education

College Graduation Rates – A Bigger Problem as College Access?

For the past 50 years we have seen a focus on the need to improve high school graduation rates. During the majority of that period, post-secondary education received a pass.

Simply stated, there was a perception that American higher education represented the best the world had to offer. That perception was greatly enhanced by the volume of foreign students seeking the opportunity to be educated here.

But over the last ten years we have seen a push towards holding higher education accountable for its product. In one of those areas, graduation rates, it is clear that American Universities are falling short, abysmally so.

College Graduation Rates

Here are the attention-getting numbers courtesy of the Department of Education (pdf) based on data collected

Catalyst Notebook :: In the News: Only one school district caught up on payments from state

Catalyst Notebook :: In the News: Only one school district caught up on payments from state
Catalyst Notebook Blog
Catalyst writers and editors share their perspectives, analyses and the news behind the news on improving Chicago area public schools. Our on-the-ground reports will tell you what’s happening in schools and education circles here and elsewhere. Our views will tell you what to make of it.

In the News: Only one school district caught up on payments from stateA Tribune review of state payments to schools shows that as of early this month, Beardstown School District 15 in west-central Illinois was the only school district in the state that was financially caught up, meaning it had no backlog in state payments for 2009-10 or for the current school year. Meanwhile, other districts were waiting for hundreds of millions in state payments for critical education expenses ranging from bus transportation to special-education costs, raising the specter that the process used to dole out money was unfair or tinged with political favoritism.

Continue Reading In the News: Only one school district caught up on payments from state »
In the News: School-based health centers on rise nationally, locallyThe Tribune reports that the number of school-based health centers is rising nationwide, with nine opening in Illinois during the 2009-10 academic year. Illinois has about 60 centers, half of which are in Chicago, according to the Illinois Coalition for School Health Centers, an advocacy group that is part the Illinois Maternal & Child Health Coalition. Located primarily in low-income areas with significant uninsured populations, school-based health centers provide relief for the nation's health care systems, help to reduce student absenteeism and improve health literacy in families, advocates say.

Continue Reading In the News: School-based health centers on rise nationally, locally »

Executive Order - Recruiting and Hiring Students and Recent Graduates | The White House

Executive Order - Recruiting and Hiring Students and Recent Graduates | The White House

Executive Order - Recruiting and Hiring Students and Recent Graduates

EXECUTIVE ORDER

RECRUITING AND HIRING STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 3301 and 3302 of title 5, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The Federal Government benefits from a diverse workforce that includes students and recent graduates, who infuse the workplace with their enthusiasm, talents, and unique perspectives. The existing competitive hiring process for the Federal civil service, however, is structured in a manner that, even at the entry level, favors job applicants who have significant previous work experience. This structure, along with the complexity of the rules governing admission to the career civil service, creates a barrier to recruiting and hiring students and recent graduates. It places the Federal Government at a competitive disadvantage compared to private-sector employers when it comes to hiring qualified applicants for entry-level positions.

To compete effectively for students and recent graduates, the Federal Government must improve its recruiting efforts; offer clear paths to Federal internships for students from high school through post-graduate school; offer clear paths to civil service careers for recent graduates; and provide meaningful training, mentoring, and career-development opportunities. Further, exposing students and recent graduates to Federal jobs through internships and similar programs attracts them to careers in the Federal Government and enables agency employers to evaluate them on the job to determine whether they are likely to have successful careers in Government.

Accordingly, pursuant to my authority under 5 U.S.C. 3302(1), and in order to achieve a workforce that represents all segments of society as provided in 5 U.S.C. 2301(b)(1), I find that conditions of good administration (specifically, the need to promote employment opportunities for students and recent graduates in the Federal workforce) make necessary an exception to the competitive hiring rules for certain positions in the Federal civil service.

Sec. 2. Establishment. There are hereby established the Internship Program and the Recent Graduates Program, which, along with the Presidential Management Fellows Program, as modified herein, shall collectively be known as the Pathways Programs. I therefore direct the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue regulations implementing the Pathways Programs consistent with this order, including:

(a) a description of the positions that executive departments and agencies (agencies) may fill through the Pathways Programs because conditions of good administration necessitate excepting those positions from the competitive hiring rules;

(b) rules governing whether, to what extent, and in what manner public notice should be provided of job opportunities in the Pathways Programs;

After Imprisonment for Blogging About Women's Rights, Iranian Teen Set Free | Women's Rights | Change.org

After Imprisonment for Blogging About Women's Rights, Iranian Teen Set Free | Women's Rights | Change.org

After Imprisonment for Blogging About Women's Rights, Iranian Teen Set Free

Bloggers are powerful people. Don't believe it? Iranian officials feared the power of a blogger so much, they had 18-year-old Navid Mohebbi arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for the desperate crime of keeping a blog supporting women's rights. If words on a blog didn't have great powers of change, why would they be so afraid of a teenager's musings?

Since we first covered Navid's imprisonment, hundreds of Change.org members signed on to a petition from A Safe World for Women, demanding the release of this admirable young defender of women's rights. On Christmas Day, that petition was successful.

Benjamin Joffe-Walt writes on the Human Rights cause that Navid received three years suspended sentence. "Suspended sentence" means unlock the cell doors, the boy's going free. Joffe-Walt refers to this as "likely a

What do they do, those that follow you?: Twitter Analyzer - Main Statistics Page

Twitter Analyzer - Main Statistics Page
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Author of the book, Slinging Stones when United States...; Parent/Education How-to Guides; Blogger; Book Reviewer
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