Teachers at Some Low-Performing Schools Get Bonuses

W.H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School

Teachers at Some Low-Performing Schools Get Bonuses

Teachers at W.H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn were among those at 23 high schools citywide awarded a total of $3.5 million in performance bonuses on Thursday, even though the school received a D on its progress report earlier this week.

The Jane Addams High School for Academic Careers in the Bronx and three other schools earned C’s on their report cards, and their teachers will be getting bonuses, too.
The reason for the discrepancy between the two measures of progress, school officials said, is that the teacher bonuses — awarded by the Department of Education — are determined by individual targets set for each school, and the bonus-eligible schools serve students starting from a very low threshold. It may also be rewarding improvement within each letter grade.

“Maybe a school didn’t go from a D to a C, or stayed at a C, but it’s still making progress,” said Ann Forte, a department spokeswoman, defending both the report cards and the awards program.

Michael Mulgrew, the head of the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, disagreed, saying that the difference underscored that the report cards are a flawed measurement. “The D.O.E. tools really don’t capture a lot of the challenges that the teachers and students face. There are teachers in the A schools doing a great job, and teachers in the D schools doing a great job,” he said.

School Committee faces angry parents - Littleton, MA - Littleton Independent

School Committee faces angry parents - Littleton, MA - Littleton Independent:

"Littleton - The School Committee faced an angry, cynical but mostly respectful crowd of parents and students Thursday night all of whom object to the decision by Superintendent Diane Bemis not to renew the contract of middle school Principal Kevin Moran.

The schools are still negotiating a new contract with the teachers’ association, or union. But when the news of Moran’s dismissal leaked out, the reaction was immediate and vociferous. Parents pleaded for a reason as to why Bemis would ax a beloved principal, but they got no response.

The committee and Bemis sat in silence in the high school library, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters and the state law.

A petition signed by more than 300 parents asking for reconsideration was presented to School Committee Chairman Charlie Ellis by Rose Wing, who read passages from letters that came in from current and former students at the middle school supporting Moran."

Gov. Deval Patrick to Legislature: Get back to work - BostonHerald.com

Gov. Deval Patrick to Legislature: Get back to work - BostonHerald.com:

"A steamed Gov. Deval Patrick slammed lawmakers yesterday for abruptly clocking out and taking an early holiday break as pending education and crime reforms along with budget cuts hang in the balance.

“The Legislature ought to get back in here and finish this work before they go off for six weeks,” Patrick said at a hastily called afternoon news conference. “Whatever they have to do, it’s my understanding they can get it done in plenty of time and still enjoy their holidays.”

Patrick called both House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) and Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) and asked them to come back and vote on key legislation, including education reform and additional cuts to the budget."

Choosing the public they school | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/20/2009

Choosing the public they school Philadelphia Inquirer 11/20/2009:

"Advocates of charter schools claim they can offer something traditional public schools cannot. Each charter school touts its own special conditions for success: longer hours, better approaches, less bureaucracy, etc. Even though six charter schools in Philadelphia are being investigated for irregularities, their improved achievement scores - as well as fewer discipline problems in some cases - seem to be convincing arguments for dismantling traditional schools in favor of charters.

However, as much as we all yearn for a neat answer to our educational problems, the current charter school model is not it. Despite constant claims that charter schools do much more with exactly the same students, they don't.

Recently, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited and praised two Philadelphia public schools. They found that the traditional McDaniel Elementary School had made admirable progress. But Mastery Charter Schools' Shoemaker Campus, which was a traditional high school until 2006, had made giant leaps in social and academic progress - all while purportedly educating the same students in the same building."

State rates teacher prep programs - St. Petersburg Times

State rates teacher prep programs - St. Petersburg Times:

"Out of the blue, the FCAT has a new job: measuring the programs across the state that produce teachers.
And it is already waving a red flag at the University of South Florida.

For the first time, the state Department of Education has examined the effectiveness of rookie teachers from a wide variety of teacher preparation programs, using their students' scores on the math and reading portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in 2008. It determined what percentage of graduates from each program had 50 percent or more of their students make a year's worth of progress."

Gates to spend $365m on helping teachers

Gates to spend $365m on helping teachers:

"WASHINGTON: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a $US335 million ($365 million) investment in teacher effectiveness in three large US school systems and some public charter schools.

The grants, which amount to one of the largest privately sponsored school-improvement initiatives in recent years, will focus on experiments in tenure, evaluation, compensation, training and mentoring.

The foundation aims to reshape how policymakers approach teaching, and its goal is to focus on performance rather than qualifications."

VOVNEWS.VN | Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations - Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations

VOVNEWS.VN Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations - Success of “Meet Vietnam” in US beyond expectations:

"The recent “Meet Vietnam 2009' programme in the US has attracted due attention and won great applause from international friends.

Vietnam recently held an exchange programme entitled “Meet Vietnam in San Francisco, California, the US. The event was raised by the Overseas Vietnamese community in the US and by foreign friends. A VOV correspondent in the US interviewed Le Quoc Hung, Vietnam’s Counsellor General in San Francisco, about the event’s outcomes."

Reporter: What is your assessment of the “Meet Vietnam 2009" programme, which was held in California for the first time?

Le Quoc Hung: The event was more successful than we expected. The programme was of great political significance and received due attention from Overseas Vietnamese people in the US. During the event, we also held two seminars on trade promotion and education, which drew a large number of people. This has demonstrated that many foreigners have an interest in Vietnam’s investment environment and education sector. Many of the participants were also keen to invest in building universities in Vietnam to the standard of developed countries. In addition, we also held a concert and an exhibition to present Vietnam’s traditional culture.

SDUSD Adopts New Guidelines For School Fees - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego

SDUSD Adopts New Guidelines For School Fees - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego:

"SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Unified School District has adopted new guidelines after a 10News story in September questioned the legality of fees for specialized classes and activities."

Teachers now have strict rules to follow when it comes to requiring students to buy supplies, 10News learned.

"It's a matter of the state constitution; if you got a class then, you provide the materials," said school board member John DeBeck.

On Thursday, SD Unified distributed new guidelines regarding student fees after 10News exposed possible violations by the school district.

The California Constitution mandates public education be provided free of charge, which means no parent or student should be required to pay for supplies to join a class or activity like cheerleading, music or a photography class.

Deficit only real issue in guv race | San Francisco Examiner

Deficit only real issue in guv race San Francisco Examiner:

"As much as voters may want to hear candidates for governor wax rhapsodic on the intricacies of prison overcrowding, global warming and pension reform, only one subject will dominate the race — that is, if anybody’s paying attention.

It’s the economy, stupid, and it will be until 2014 and beyond.

A new legislative analyst report released this week paints a picture for California that definitely does the word “grim” justice. Next year, the state faces a $21 billion budget deficit, $23 billion after that, to be followed by fiscal shortfalls of $20 billion and $18.4 billion. For those keeping score at home, that’s nearly $83 billion during the next four years."

State of the Schools event addresses financial woes

State of the Schools event addresses financial woes:

"OCEAN PARK BLVD. — First the bad news about the local public schools.

A financial predicament is about to become even more problematic for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, which is projecting an operating deficit of $10 million this year and is sure to feel a big hit from an estimated $21 billion state budget shortfall.

The good news is despite the fiscal woes of the district, students are continuing to show improvement in academic achievement, scoring high marks on advanced placement and mandatory state tests."

MexEd Brings Hope Across Educational Borders

MexEd Brings Hope Across Educational Borders:

"Five months ago, students Micaela Lara and Silvia Leon traveled from their home at the University of California, Santa Cruz to help New York immigrant students graduate from high school and go on to college.

Lara and Leon, seniors majoring in community studies and education, came to the Big Apple to intern and work at The Mexican Educational Foundation of New York, or MexEd, which is a non-profit organization devoted to providing academic support with their after school programs and personal support through their mentoring program to Mexican and other immigrant students. The program is small and works out of a cramped office at Baruch Collge but in the last nine years their impact has been strong in young immigrant's lives, they said."

Assemblyman seeks support for Bill 656 : The Collegian Online

Assemblyman seeks support for Bill 656 : The Collegian Online:

"The majority leader of the California State Assembly spoke Wednesday in a meeting open to the public at California State University, Fresno.

Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, is the author of the recently debated Assembly Bill 656. He is making the rounds to colleges in California to drum up support for his bill. Fresno State is the 10th college campus he has visited in the past two weeks.

Torrico said he wants to gather 100,000 signatures to take to Sacramento to show support for the bill."

Assembly Bill 656 would tax oil companies that extract oil from the state. Torrico said that the bill would specifically prohibit oil companies from passing that cost onto consumers.

“Not only does it prohibit it in the bill, the bill sets up a commission,” Torrico said. “For the first time in California, we’re going to oversee the ongoing operations of oil companies.”

Torrico said California is an anomaly among oil-producing states. He said that a similar bill in Texas raises $400 million per year that funds higher education. He also said that Alaska has a 25 percent tax on companies that extract oil from the state.

KCBS - Teachers Sound the Alarm Over CA Budget

KCBS - Teachers Sound the Alarm Over CA Budget:

"SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS) -- The latest bad budget news out of Sacramento has teachers concerned about even deeper cuts to education. To say that California educators are concerned about next year's budget would be an understatement."

”Once again, we are starting to hear that the budget deficit for the State of California is going to impact our schools,” said Rudy Herrera with the Franklyn McKinley School District in San Jose.

He joined other educators to basically sound the alarm early about the more than $20 billion budget deficit projected for fiscal 2010.

Teacher Scott Schulimson says they are still reeling from earlier cuts to education.

”I don’t know how our district will bridge that gap,” said Schulimson. “I don’t know what’s left that can be cut.”

The legislative analysis has estimated the state will face $20 billion deficits through 2015 unless permanent fixes are made.

Don Dawson, California Teachers Association board member says one solution is to tax the wealthy.

”Everyone needs to pay their fair share, and what has happened is that those who have been paying proportionally less as time has gone by, and that’s not right,” said Dawson.
Governor Schwarzenegger has said he will not support any new tax increases.

Elk Grove Citizen : Archives > News > Sen. Steinberg says water package is good for Nor Cal, pledges support for EGUSD

Elk Grove Citizen : Archives & News Sen. Steinberg says water package is good for Nor Cal, pledges support for EGUSD:

"Although the Elk Grove City Council voted last month to oppose the water legislation package championed by State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), the legislator said he doesn’t have any hard feelings toward Elk Grove or any of the other cities that joined together to oppose the bills.

“Now that the laws are passed, it’s incumbent on us to make (them) work,” he said after a town hall meeting held Nov. 17 at the Valley Hi North Laguna Library in Sacramento.

A few dozen people attended the meeting, and Steinberg led with the topic he thought everyone would want to talk about – the package of five water bills that was passed by the state legislature on Nov. 4."

Glendale News Press > Columns

Glendale News Press > Columns:

"Before launching into this week’s topic, I want to tie up a few loose ends from last week’s. Part of what I wrote got lopped off due to space limitations, so I’ll just tack it on here. I don’t want to belabor the point, but I would like to finish a point only partially made last Friday.

Just to recap, the state of California and our school district are telling me that my 35 years of service will count for nothing and I will be terminated if I do not acquire a supplementary credential for teaching limited English speakers in my class (which last year amounted to three such students)."

The CLAD (Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development) program offers some good suggestions, but unfortunately they come in the form of mandates, and that will inevitably engender resentment among some of us who have spent the greater part of our lives teaching.

By all means, some of us would ask in our ongoing quest to become better teachers, give us more arrows for our quivers, but let each of us who call ourselves teachers choose which arrows we will use. Like the students we serve, we are individuals, and there is a tendency for some of us to resist being lumped together with all others, as if we were all common dispensaries of information.

The state should have offered, and school districts throughout the state should have demanded, that there be a grandfather clause in this whole thing for those of us who, for whatever the reason, have not found the need to supplement our teaching with “new methodologies.”

13-year-old Oroville girl presents students' school discipline proposal to California Board of Education - Chico Enterprise Record

13-year-old Oroville girl presents students' school discipline proposal to California Board of Education - Chico Enterprise Record:

"OROVILLE -- Tatum Duckett may or may not realize her dream of becoming an astronaut, but she is carving a niche for herself as a budding leader.

Duckett, 13, is student council president at Central Middle School in Oroville. She was one of five teens selected by peers at a conference to speak Wednesday before the California Board of Education in Sacramento.

Addressing the board was the culmination of a five-day conference hosted by the California Association of Student Councils in Sacramento."

Duckett was chosen to represent Central at the conference after speaking with an adviser, filling out an application and submitting an essay.

Duckett was the only student from north of Sacramento who went to the conference, and only one of 12 from a middle school.

Once at the conference, the students were divided into five groups, each with a proposal topic to make to the board.

Duckett's group's topic was discipline and policy. They researched the problem, came up with a solution and drafted a proposal. The long hours each day -- until midnight -- was exhausting, she said, but well worth it.

Schwarzenegger after-school program ties up budget - San Jose Mercury News

Schwarzenegger after-school program ties up budget - San Jose Mercury News:

"SACRAMENTO, Calif.—With California facing another mammoth budget deficit, the state's nonpartisan legislative analyst says voters should reconsider some of the billions of dollars tied up in ballot measures they have approved in recent years.

Among the suggestions from Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor is an after-school measure that costs $550 million a year and helped launch Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political career. It is one of many programs contributing to the 'autopilot spending' that the Republican governor and fiscal watchdogs often complain about because the plans were approved by voters without specific funding sources."

Taylor's office this week said California will face a $21 billion deficit over the next year and a half, and $20 billion budget shortfalls each of the next several years.

The office has repeatedly recommended scaling back or repealing Schwarzenegger's after-school initiative, Proposition 49, as the state's fiscal crisis has deepened.

The governor so far has not supported a repeal. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have placed a measure on the ballot allowing lawmakers to adjust funding for the program, which provides students in kindergarten through ninth grade with after-school tutoring, music, art and physical education. Instead, Schwarzenegger included in his budget proposal an offer to ask voters to cut it by 10 percent.

La Opinión - noticias locales, nacionales e internacionales desde Los Ángeles - impre.com - A blow to students

La Opinión - noticias locales, nacionales e internacionales desde Los Ángeles - impre.com - A blow to students:

"Higher education is an investment in an individual’s professional and personal development and in the human infrastructure necessary to keep California’s economy competitive. The University of California system’s 30% fee hike is a threat to these goals.

The Board of Regents’ decision is easy to understand given the state’s financial position, but it remains hard to accept due to its impact on students aspiring to a college education.

It can’t be ignored that California has had one of the least expensive public higher education systems in the country. In an effort to close the budget gap, and leading up to this hike, there have been layoffs, furloughs and program and course cancellations to save the system money, but this was not enough. The new analysis of the state deficit, at least $20 billion deeper in the red, is a bad omen for the future"

University of California, Crown Jewel of Education, Struggles With Cuts - NYTimes.com

University of California, Crown Jewel of Education, Struggles With Cuts - NYTimes.com:

"BERKELEY, Calif. — As the University of California struggles to absorb its sharpest drop in state financing since the Great Depression, every professor, administrator and clerical worker has been put on furlough amounting to an average pay cut of 8 percent."

In chemistry laboratories that have produced Nobel Prize-winning research, wastebaskets are stuffed to the brim on the new reduced cleaning schedule. Many students are frozen out of required classes as course sections are trimmed.

And on Thursday, to top it all off, the Board of Regents voted to increase undergraduate fees — the equivalent of tuition — by 32 percent next fall, to more than $10,000. The university will cost about three times as much as it did a decade ago, and what was once an educational bargain will be one of the nation’s higher-priced public universities.

Editorial: Educational exchanges can help Michigan grow | Muskegon Opinion - - MLive.com

Editorial: Educational exchanges can help Michigan grow Muskegon Opinion - - MLive.com:

"A lot of phrases come to mind when you think about Michigan these days, but leader in international education probably isn’t at the top of the list.

A new report, released during International Education Week, says the University of Michigan and Michigan State University are among the national leaders for educational exchange."

The Institute of International Education report, “Open Doors 2009,” listed the University of Michigan as sixth in the nation in the number of international students attending the university in 2008-09. U-M had 5,790 foreign students. The University of Southern California led with 7,482. MSU was 10th with 4,757 foreign students.The state is ranked eighth in the nation with 23,617 foreign students studying at our colleges and universities, an increase of 3.3 percent. Joining U-M and MSU as leading host campuses are Wayne State, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan universities.

The foreign students spent about $592.4 million in Michigan on tuition and living expenses in 2008-09 — a half-billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at.Overall, 671,616 international students attended U.S. colleges, up 8 percent from a year ago. The foreign students mainly chose business and engineering courses and California and New York City were their top destinations.

Students get real-life banking skills at McClatchy High's Golden 1 branch - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Students get real-life banking skills at McClatchy High's Golden 1 branch - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"Coming soon to a high school near you: the local bank.

It's still rare, but a number of high schools – from Sacramento to Milwaukee – are opening their doors to financial institutions. Tucked behind the cafeteria or squeezed into former offices and storage rooms, these mini-branches are aimed at instilling real-world job skills in students, as well as promoting financial literacy – and a bank's brand – among teens and their families."

Gov. Schwarzenegger taps new source of funding for education

Gov. Schwarzenegger explores new source of funding for education

shame on us california

UC Regents OK Student Fee Increase - Education News Story - KCRA Sacramento

UC Regents OK Student Fee Increase - Education News Story - KCRA Sacramento:

"LOS ANGELES -- University of California students will get a much larger tuition bill next year.

The Board of Regents on Thursday approved a 32 percent increase in undergraduate student fees, despite protests by hundreds of demonstrators outside the regents' meeting at UCLA.

By next fall, undergraduate fees will be boosted by $2,500, sending the average annual education cost at a UC campus to more than $10,000. That's triple the amount from a decade ago."

Regents said they had to raise fees because the cash-strapped state government can't meet the university's funding needs.

The decision came as hundreds of students chanted and marched outside the meeting hall to protest the measure. Some students also took over another UCLA building and chained the doors shut.

Police in riot gear kept an eye on the protesters.

Davis, UCLA Students Protest UC Fee Hikes, Vote Expected Today | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News

Davis, UCLA Students Protest UC Fee Hikes, Vote Expected Today News10.net Sacramento, California News:

"DAVIS, CA - UC Davis students angry over a UC Regents plan to raise tuition fees by 32 percent staged a loud protest Thursday, railing against university administration.
Nearly 100 protesters chanted and carried signs inside UCD's Olson Hall around 11 a.m. Thursday.

Despite complaints about the noise, the demonstration was mostly peaceful and no arrests were made.

Under the proposed hike, undergraduate student tuition will cost more than $10,000, not including room, board and books. Some students at UC Davis said they won't be able to afford to return next semester if the fees increase.

'I feel like some people will actually go back to community college to get rid of all their general education,' said UC Davis sophomore Alison More."

The DC VOICE Ostrich

The DC VOICE Ostrich:


"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s Listening Tour makes a stop at DC VOICE’s final meeting as part of the Ready Schools Project District-Wide

Washington, DC— In Ward 5, Luke C. Moore Academy Senior High School will be the setting for DC VOICE’s final town hall meeting of the November Ready Schools Project Town Hall Series, with the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joining the conversation. The Secretary has been touring the nation on a Listening and Learning tour to meet with members of various communities, and has chosen DC VOICE’s Ward 5 town hall as a way to engage D.C. community members’ thoughts and concerns regarding public education in the District."

The Ready Schools Project Town Hall Series kicked off in Ward 4 on November 9th with Councilmember Bowser and State Board member Sekou Biddle. The Ward 6 town hall on November 10th included Councilmember Tommy Wells and State Board President Lisa Raymond.

And this past Saturday, November 14th, Councilmember Yvette Alexander and State Board member Dorothy Douglas joined us for our Ward 7 and 8 town hall. During her remarks at the Ward 7 and 8 town hall, Councilmember Alexander proclaimed, “I take the information DC VOICE provides seriously…[w]hen I hear from DC VOICE, it truly is the voice of the residents in D.C.”

These town hall meetings allow community members to learn current school data collected through DC VOICE’s 6th Annual Ready Schools Project where over 100 school principals were interviewed by almost 200 trained community members. Secretary Duncan will be on hand to discuss federal education initiatives, and will join the smaller breakout table discussions during the town hall meeting.

He will also be joined by Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., the Ward 5 Council on Education, as well as other education groups in the District as co-hosts for this meeting.

Palo Alto Struggles After Rash of Teen Train Suicides - ABC News

Palo Alto Struggles After Rash of Teen Train Suicides - ABC News

A cluster of violent teen suicides in an affluent California town has officials scrambling to figure out why four kids from the same high school took their own lives and how to prevent others from doing the same.

The town of Palo Alto, Calif., is struggling to help it's children after four Gunn High School teens in the last six months have comitted suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming train.(ABC News)

The death of a 16-year-old boy Monday night in Palo Alto was believed to be the fourth suicide of a Gunn High School student since May. In all four cases, the teenagers jumped into the path of an oncoming commuter train operated by Caltrain.

"Parents are eager for information," said Joan Baran, clinical services director of the Children's Health Council in Palo Alto. "I think parents are wanting to know what they can do."

Information about the teenagers and the particulars of their deaths are being closely guarded by school and police officials who fear a public spectacle will only encourage more unstable students to take their lives.

"It's very difficult and it's very sensitive," Caltrain spokeswoman Tasha Bartholomew said today.

The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture | Race to Nowhere

The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture Race to Nowhere

Sacramento Press / Good Advice for Young Women

Sacramento Press / Good Advice for Young Women:

"The California Governor and First Lady's Conference on Women, now known simply as The Women's Conference, is the nation's premier forum for women.
The goal of the Women's Conference is to transform women inside and out - and then empower them to help transform our world as Architects of Change.

I attended the Women's Conference, spoke with Leaders, and asked them what advice they have for young Women to be successful in life. Check out my video."

Folsom Cordova Unified Prepares for School Closures | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Local News

Folsom Cordova Unified Prepares for School Closures News10.net Sacramento, California Local News:

"RANCHO CORDOVA, CA - To help deal with a 10-million-dollar budget shortfall next year, the Folsom Cordova Unified School District says it needs to close schools.
Monday night was the last of 2 school closure forums.

Parents, students, and staff packed into a school auditorium to listen to the different proposals. The most prominent recommendation so far, to close two schools in Rancho Cordova-- Cordova Lane and Riverview Elementary schools. Another school was also discussed-- Williamson Elementary School.

The district says the school closures are in the Rancho Cordova area this year because that's where the most significant decline in enrollment is. The district will also be looking at the Folsom area schools next year."

State Budget Deficit Now Projected at $21 Billion | California Progress Report

State Budget Deficit Now Projected at $21 Billion California Progress Report:

"Despite massive permanent spending cuts and some temporary tax increases made this past year, California’s budget shortfall is projected to swell to $21 billion by June 30, 2011, the end of the 2010-2011 State Budget year in a new report issued this morning by the Legislative Analyst Office – the non-partisan agency that reviews and monitors budget issues for the Legislature.

Adding to the bad news, the report also projects continued budget shortfalls of billions of dollars for the next several years especially when federal stimulus dollars and revenues from the temporary tax increases end."

The Educated Guess » Career academies, where a-g and job training meet

The Educated Guess » Career academies, where a-g and job training meet

Career academies, where a-g and job training meet

Posted in A to G Curriculum

The polarized arguments were familiar this week at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation forum in San Jose on a-g, the set of 15 courses required for admission to a four-year state school.

The establishment of a-g as a district’s default curriculum has opened up opportunities for students who never imagined themselves college-capable. If instituted with academic supports for struggling students, an a-g curriculum will not lead to a higher dropout rate but will offer more students, especially minority children, higher level courses. That’s been the San Jose Unified experience, Linda Murray, the former superintendent who instituted a-g, said. Making a-g standard could avoid what Neal Finkelstein, a senior researcher at WestEd, described as the “heartbreak” of many seniors who discover they’re a few credits short of being eligible to go to college.

The spread of a-g has narrowed the academic curriculum, San Jose State engineering professor Seth Bates said, and all but destroyed once-thriving career technical education programs that gave students hard skills for real jobs in electronics, construction and manufacturing. A-g has not contributed to a higher rate of college attendance and graduation. It has led to more than half of high school students entering the workforce unprepared, without skills.

But Finkelstein and other speakers also agreed it’s a false dichotomy.

Phantom districts in Texas receive millions in 'stimulus' | Texas on the Potomac | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Phantom districts in Texas receive millions in 'stimulus' Texas on the Potomac Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"According to the Obama administration's latest count, the President's economic stimulus package has created 45 jobs in Texas' 58th congressional district and 30 jobs in the state's 91st district.

The White House's recovery.gov web site declares that Texas' 52nd district received exactly $8,937,289 in stimulus funds, while the 68th district has had precisely $310,963 funneled into it.

Trouble is, none of these congressional districts exist."

In its latest computer glitch, the Obama administration's much-ballyhooed accounting system for the $1.2 trillion stimulus law detailed government spending in 39 congressional districts in Texas -- a state that, in reality, has 32 congressional districts. More than $14 million in mystery money is attributed to seven phantom congressional districts, including the mysterious and fictional District 00.

Nationally, the recovery.gov site has mistakenly attributed $6.4 billion in stimulus spending to 440 non-existent districts in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and even four American territories, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan government oversight group watchdog.org.

What Made Michelle Obama Anxious and Nervous -- Politics Daily

What Made Michelle Obama Anxious and Nervous -- Politics Daily:

"First Lady Michelle Obama revisited a stressful period of her youth on Monday, opening up to teen girls at a Denver mentoring event when asked about her views of standardized testing.

Mrs. Obama used the question to talk about her own insecurities and anxieties about taking tests, focusing on her time as a high school student in Chicago.

It's well known that Mrs. Obama was a high achiever. She went to a top public high school with selective enrollment, then to Princeton, and then to Harvard Law School. However, a continuing theme when she talks about her life is how she had her own struggles to achieve success."

Accountable Talk: Randi Reduhhhhx

Accountable Talk: Randi Reduhhhhx:

"In a stunning move that shows how much Michael Mulgrew learned from Randi Weingarten, the UFT delegate assembly today authorized the union to file for an impasse. That means, of course, that the union can send the matter to PERB to try to hammer out a settlement.

This is the same process by which, if you recall, we worked out the wonderful 2005 contract, where we gave away just about all our hard earned contractual rights in order to have a longer school day. It wasn't all a disaster, however. In exchange for 6% more time, we got a 6% raise. Yessir, those Unity types are really on the ball."

NYC Public School Parents: Is an Ill Wind Blowing Through NYC Public High Schools?

NYC Public School Parents: Is an Ill Wind Blowing Through NYC Public High Schools?:

"Even as the recent round of DOE Progress Reports has generated another wave of criticisms over Lake Wobegon-style grade inflation (with only one school in the city getting an F and over three-quarters grabbing A's), the just-released high school report cards contain some serious, and considerably more negative, news.

As Jennifer Medina and Robert Gebeloff reported in their Monday (11/16) New York Times article, 'More New York High Schools Get A's:'"

The school environment grades, which are based on attendance and results of student, parent and teacher surveys, and make up 15 percent of the grade, showed the steepest decline. This year, 55 high schools received a D or an F in school environment, compared with 12 last year.

Thus, in the one area where students vote with their feet (attendance) and the public -- parents, teachers, and students -- have some direct input via surveys tailored to each of those constituencies, the feedback from high schools is not happy news for Chancellor Klein. And the picture is actually far worse than the Times reported. As is too often the case, their "analysis" picked a piece of easy, low-hanging fruit while eschewing a more substantive and informative presentation.

Flypaper: Education reform ideas Duncan’s Maryland mistake

Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute:

"Late last week, Secretary Duncan (and his able team) acted on what I have every reason to believe were noble intentions. Unfortunately, the secretary missed a golden opportunity and possibly did more harm than good for reform in my beloved Maryland.

On Friday, Duncan, with Rev. Al Sharpton and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, visited Baltimore’s superb KIPP Ujima Village charter school, consistently one of the state’s highest-scoring schools despite its inner-city location. Because of union attacks, Ujima was recently forced to cut several teaching positions and end Saturday school. So egregious were its actions that numerous national outlets admonished the union, including the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and CNN."

Local News | Seattle Schools return to neighborhood-based system | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News Seattle Schools return to neighborhood-based system Seattle Times Newspaper:

"Seattle Public Schools has officially returned to a neighborhood-based system of assigning students to schools, similar to one it abandoned about 30 years ago in the name of racial integration.

With unanimous vote at 11 p.m. Wednesday, the School Board approved a new set of boundaries for most of the district's schools that will determine where students will be guaranteed a spot. The boundaries will be phased in starting next fall with students in kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades."

Eduwonk » Blog Archive » Racing To The Top

Eduwonk » Blog Archive » Racing To The Top:

"Race to the Top final regulations are on the way Thursday [You can read them here]. Ed Week writes them up. To some extent they do reinforce the view that the tragedy of

Race to the Top is that the Department of Ed has to spend this money at all – the anticipation may well have leveraged more state-level change than the actual program will.
The punchline is that the readers/reviewers for the state applications are now the entire ballgame. If they’re not strong and keenly attuned to change and reform then this initiative won’t suceed. I’m not as glum as some of the voices in the Ed Week story, but the regs have changed (and not in a reformist direction) so without a strong process to really evaluate state plans it is possible that some weak plans could slip through this scoring metric. In the Department’s defense, they are planning a creative qualitative process to vet the applications after the initial scoring is done. That’s crucial for quality."

Few things that are getting attention: It’s easy to see why the Department wanted to create a more comprehensive state capacity rubric, but it could also open the door to a lot of fuzziness. Again, the expertise of the readers matter a lot. I’m not freaked out (although some are) by the minimizing of common standards or new assessments, that’s a nod political and capacity realities. It would have been nice to see high-quality charters weighted more…and they could have been more aggressive on the human capital front. It’s still a lot of points but could have included more teeth to really delineate states.*

Bouncing ball to keep your eye on: New York. A strict reading of this means the state shouldn’t be eligible, but will be interesting to see how that plays out…the argument is being made that because the NY teacher data ban only applies to tenure it’s not really a ban on evaluation at all. Of course, a reasonable person might conclude that if a tenure decision isn’t an evaluation then exactly what is? Then again, a reasonable person would have no place in New York education policymaking. Update: More from Tom Carroll on that.

Urbanite Duncan Continues Rural Outreach - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Urbanite Duncan Continues Rural Outreach - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

"Education Secretary Arne Duncan, whose education experience is firmly planted in urban ground, is continuing to reach out to rural folks to figure out how the reforms he's pushing will play out in the farther reaches of the country.

Nine rural superintendents, from Michigan, Texas, West Virginia, California, Mississippi, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Arizona, gave him an earful during a more than hour-long chat with him yesterday.

The Rural Nine, first and foremost, said they were thrilled to get to hear straight from department officials about plans for turnaround schools and for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. And, they were pleased they got to help educate Duncan on how schools work, and how reform might play out, in rural America."

Parent-Teacher Conference and Report Cards for G&T | GothamSchools

Parent-Teacher Conference and Report Cards for G&T GothamSchools:

"Last week our child’s G&T kindergarten class at PS 33 Chelsea Prep held parent-teacher conferences. Our conference went well though it was short — just 10 minutes — so the teacher could meet with every child’s parents. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a detailed report card for our child.

Below is a copy of the actual report card we received for our child (sorry for the poor quality!). I whited out the grades for obvious reasons and I’m not sure if all schools use the same report card, but this will give you an idea of how children in a G&T kindergarten class are evaluated. The grading scale is 1 to 4, with 4 being “exceeds grade-level standards” and 1 being “far below grade-level standards.”"

Teachable Moment: Ups and Downs

Teachable Moment: Ups and Downs:

"Arizona, when its elected officials aren't saying moronic things, is the undisputed charter school leader of our country. The state boasts 500 charter schools, which account for 25% of the public schools in the state and 10% of the student population (class size comparisons, anyone?). Seems like this should have rocketed Arizona to the top of the state rankings, right? Well, the only problem is that the state's charter schools don't show as much academic progress as the state's traditional public schools. At least, that's what a study out of Stanford University found."

Now, in fairness, apparently the charter supporters are saying that the methodology of the report is flawed.

So let's mark the findings with an asterisk for now. But what the sides both seem to agree on is that the quality of charter schools varies widely. No kidding.For some reason, the real diehard charter supporters seem to think that all charters are always better than all traditional public schools. Even in the face of evidence that it simply isn't true. And it's obviously not true. It doesn't even make sense. Rather, there are some charters that are excellent schools. Just as there are some traditional public schools that are excellent. Likewise, both have their duds. What makes a school good is not that it has a charter label affixed to it. That's ultimately just a label. As I've said before, we should stop focusing on the labels and start focusing on what actually makes schools good and successful and replicate that in as many schools as we can so that all schools can be good schools.

Charters can certainly be part of that picture, but they are not a complete answer in themselves.

Tough job for Detroit's academic czar | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Tough job for Detroit's academic czar detnews.com The Detroit News:

"It's 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, and Barbara Byrd-Bennett is e-mailing Detroit Public Schools' Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb one more thing to add to their to-do list.

She e-mails him at 4 a.m., when she cannot sleep. She e-mails him at 11 p.m., before she goes to bed. She e-mails him at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays from Cleveland, where she lives some weekends with her husband, Bruce, before returning to Detroit to do one of America's toughest big city jobs.

Byrd-Bennett is Bobb's academic czar and more: She is his co-chief."

When Byrd-Bennett told Bobb he was proposing budget cuts that would hurt children's learning, he backed off. When she recommended they negotiate a dramatically different teachers' contract, he followed. When she said Detroit had to radically change to compete with charter schools, Bobb agreed.

While Bobb is the school district's showman who woos the public with his no-nonsense message and anti-corruption results, Byrd-Bennett is the behind-the-scenes policy strategist charged with the arguably tougher job: dramatically improving student achievement in the country's most troubled urban school district.

"What is important to her is not the glory; it's the students and what's best for them," says Sharif Shakrani, co-director of Michigan State University's Education Policy Center, who worked with Byrd-Bennett in Washington, D.C.

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools:

"Parents at Lower East Side schools that may soon be asked to share building space told DOE officials last night that a charter school expansion could not come at the expense of successful district schools.

Hundreds of parents packed into the auditorium of P.S. 20 last night to protest three proposed scenarios that would allow Girls Prep Charter School to grow its middle school program by re-arranging building space at neighboring district schools."

All of the proposals would require district school students to give up resource rooms like art and music rooms or science and computer labs, parents told DOE officials and members of the District 1 Community Education Council.
Parents speaking at the meeting repeatedly characterized that loss as a civil rights issue, charging the DOE with removing resources from predominantly poor and immigrant students. (more…)

Trying to Eliminate Auditors Who Aren't There

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Trying to Eliminate Auditors Who Aren't There

Auditors say there's one small problem with the idea of San Diego Unified saving money by cutting auditors who look at issues other than finances: It doesn’t have any.

Eliminating those employees was one recommendation from the BRACE Team, which scrubbed the school district budget for savings that will impact the fewest number of children possible. It also recommended ending the fraud hotline, which allows anonymous callers to report financial waste and abuse. Cuts to the audits and investigations department would save the district $448,000, according to the report.

Academic Researchers’ Conflicts of Interest Go Unreported

Researchers’ Financial Interests Often Not Reported to U.S. - NYTimes.com

Few universities make required reports to the government about the financial conflicts of their researchers, and even when such conflicts are reported, university administrators rarely require those researchers to eliminate or reduce these conflicts, government investigators found.

In a report expected to be made public on Thursday, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, said 90 percent of universities relied solely on the researchers themselves to decide whether the money they made in consulting and other relationships with drug and device makers was relevant to their government-financed research.

Board of Education members want to fine parents for kids' detention

Nutley Board of Education members want to fine parents for kids' detention | New Jersey Real-Time News - - NJ.com

NUTLEY -- To save money in the district’s $59 million budget, two Nutley board of education members want to pin some parents with the detention bills.

The board members, Steven Rogers and Walter Sautter, say they are hoping to adopt a policy by next school year that would charge parents for detention, which they estimate costs the district $10,000 a year in overtime and maintenance fees.

"It may not seem like a lot of money, but it adds up over time," Rogers said. "Parents need to step up to the plate and to be held responsible and accountable for their children’s habitual actions."

During a board meeting last month, Rogers, who also works as a police officer in town, and Sautter, a former science teacher at Nutley High School, outlined a proposal to fine parents whose children are consistently sent to after-school detention. Rogers and Sautter have not determined the size of the fines or how to define a student who is habitually in detention.

The proposal, which is being reviewed by the school board’s attorney, would be the first of its kind in the state, said Frank Bellusciop, spokesman for the New Jersey School Board Association.

The idea has drawn opposition from other board members and residents who say detention is an integral part of a public education.

"I understand what they’re trying to do, because we’re very conscious of the budget, and there’s going to be a tremendous amount that we’re going to have to cut in the upcoming year," said board member Kenneth Reilly. "But I don’t think it’s legal, because we’re responsible for detention."

Belluscio said although districts may charge for some extracurricular activities and field trips, charging for detention may be in violation of the state Constitution.

"Discipline is part of a public education," he said. "Since detention would have to be used to enforce discipline, it is doubtful that you could charge for that, the same way you can’t charge for someone taking a history class or math class."