Lure of 'Race to Top' Splits California Lawmakers

Education Week: Lure of 'Race to Top' Splits California Lawmakers

Leaders in California are still at odds over what new policies and school improvement efforts they must embrace to make the state a strong contender for some of the $4 billion being offered in federal Race to the Top Fund grants as the deadline to apply closes in.

With up to $700 million in economic-stimulus money on the line in the cash-starved state, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers are pushing to lift California’s cap on charter schools and to make it easier for parents to move their children out of low-performing schools, among other measures.

But some Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly, who are the majority in that house of the legislature, along with the two state teachers’ unions and organizations that represent school board members and administrators, have so far declined to...

Va. yoga regulation a stretch for teachers

Va. yoga instructors sue state on plan to regulate training - washingtonpost.com

Three yoga instructors on Tuesday asked a federal judge to halt a state plan to regulate yoga instructor training. The Old Dominion, they say, has stretched too far into an ancient, spiritual practice.

"Yoga is the study of the self through direct experience," Suzanne Leitner-Wise, a plaintiff and president of U.S. 1 Yoga Teacher Training said outside federal court in Alexandria, where the lawsuit was filed. "You simply can't put regulations on that. It's just dumb."

Yoga enthusiasts were knocked off balance late last year when Virginia announced that yoga teacher training programs, which officials consider vocational classes that prepare students for a job, must be certified by the state. Officials say it will protect students who invest a few thousand dollars in the training.

LETTER - Legislature must make education the state’s No. 1 priority

LETTER - Legislature must make education the state’s No. 1 priority - Holland, MI - The Holland Sentinel

Saugatuck, MI —

For 10-plus years, the Michigan Legislature has failed to address structural budget problems, and we can’t afford another lost decade. The 1.6 million kids in our great state deserve a high-quality, 21st century education.

Proposal A does not work. This was a school-funding system built mainly on property tax and sales tax revenues. Both sources have collapsed in the past couple of years.

Lansing is using schools for party-line rhetoric. This is unacceptable. Education must be a priority. How can Michigan attract new businesses and new employees if we destroy our public schools? More money is spent on prisons than education — what message does this send?

Mr. President: Be the bad guy, start closing schools.

Class Struggle - Mr. President: Be the bad guy, start closing schools.

Many fine people, including President Obama, are trying to make public schools better, but I don't see much progress. Cities like New York, reporting impressive achievement gains, seem to have trouble with their data. The results from great charter schools are neutralized by the results from bad ones. New ideas are everywhere, but most are bloodless, hard to understand, difficult to visualize.
Here is one idea that is starkly different: Mr. President, you have to be the Grim Reaper, the Terminator. Get out there and start closing schools that don't work. I know a way you can do it that will win applause from everybody.

The trick here is that I do NOT want you to close regular public schools. There are plenty of them that are doing a terrible job -- too many, actually, for even a president to tackle. As a constitutional scholar, you know you don't have the power to shut them down anyway. That's the job of the states and cities.

But there is now this peculiar kind of public school called a charter school. It uses tax dollars, but is independent of school district rules. There are only 5,000 of them in the country, compared to more than 90,000 regular public schools.

PTA Launches Campaign Backing Common Standards

Education Week: PTA Launches Campaign Backing Common Standards

A national organization, with philanthropic backing, is launching a campaign to build support for common academic standards among a potentially influential constituency: parents.

The National Parent Teacher Association has received a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to begin organizing parental support for setting more uniform academic expectations in four states: Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and North Carolina.

The undertaking is one of the most visible examples to date of how backers of the standards endeavor, known as the Common Core State Standards Initiative, are trying to lay a foundation for those documents’ adoption—and their eventual use—in school districts and individual classrooms.

The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess:

"Posted in Common Core standards, Teacher Development

Jumping ahead of the expected release today of the Assembly’s version of Race to the Top legislation, Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande of Palm Desert has introduced three bills of his own.

Two deal with alternative ways to bring teachers into the profession. The third would make it slightly easier to get rid of those who end up performing badly.

(Read more and comment on this post)"

In haste, charter school bill slips

Nasty change puts a snag in charter schools bill - The Boston Globe

As the state Senate rushed last month to pass a bill that would expand the number of charter schools in certain districts, it added an amendment that would probably prevent them from opening in Boston, Lawrence, and several other cities where the quality of education has long been a concern.

The amendment, added in the final hours of debate without any analysis of its impact, creates a second set of criteria to determine which school districts would be eligible for new charter schools. Instead of basing eligibility purely on low MCAS scores, as originally proposed, the amendment would also require the district to show that it is among those slowest to improve their scores.

The effect of the amendment is to dramatically shrink the number of districts eligible for new charter schools, from the projected 33 districts to about four, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association.

No charter school bill has been enacted; the House has yet to take up the measure.

The Mayor, the Teachers and the Tests

Letters - The Mayor, the Teachers and the Tests - NYTimes.com

Re “Mayor to Link Teacher Tenure to Test Scores” (front page, Nov. 26):

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to include test scores in the teacher tenure decision is ill conceived. The teacher’s effectiveness is only one component of what goes into a student’s test score. Teachers cannot select their students, but most do their best with whomever they are given to work with.

The mayor’s plan will result in teachers’ doing whatever they can to avoid teaching high-risk students, like those with poor attendance, poor reading and math scores, and poor work habits, attitudes or discipline. The incentive to influence scores in unprofessional ways will only increase, as will a lack of collegiality among teachers.

Healthy, organic and cheap school lunches? Order up

Healthy, organic and cheap school lunches? Order up - USATODAY.com

OAKLAND — On the combination plate of problems plaguing the USA's public schools, few are as intractable as this: Can you serve fresh, healthful meals each day to millions of kids without breaking the bank, or must you resort to serving up deep-fried, processed, less expensive junk?

For more than a decade, big food thinkers have chewed on this, making it a cause célèbre. But most often they find that feeding kids well requires one simple thing: more money.

Islanders rap the knuckles of schools boss

Islanders rap the knuckles of schools boss - SILive.com

Two hundred bring grievances and suggestions to Klein's town hall meeting

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Frustrated educators, parents and community leaders presented a laundry list of needs for Staten Island's school district at a town hall-style meeting with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday evening.

The nearly 200 who packed the room at the Michael J. Petrides Educational Complex, Sunnyside, said their children were being shortchanged, and they were angry that they were being stonewalled and lied to by the Department of Education.

Education Department gives $500k to three brand-new '21st century' schools, despite budget cuts

Education Department gives $500k to three brand-new '21st century' schools, despite budget cuts

The Education Department quietly forked over $500,000 to three pet schools, even as most schools lost tens of thousands of dollars in budget cuts.

The three brand-new "21st century" schools got the extra funds outside the normal budgeting process after private donations that the schools had been hoping for did not materialize, sources told the Daily News.

The schools can use the extra cash to hire consultants, buy computer equipment, pay teachers to work more hours - anything that helps them "align" with the Education Department's "21st century vision."

Green Dot charter schools founder repays group $50,866 -- latimes.com

Green Dot charter schools founder repays group $50,866 -- latimes.com:

"Local charter school founder Steve Barr, a national figure in school reform, has repaid his organization more than $50,000 after an internal review determined that expenses he had charged were undocumented or unjustified.

The repayment was disclosed in a tax return filed this year by Green Dot Public Schools, which Barr launched in 1999.

Barr stepped aside this fall as board chairman of Green Dot but remains on the board and on staff. The expense problem had nothing to do with Barr's change of role, said Shane Martin, who replaced Barr as chairman."

Efforts under way to stem U.S. school dropout problem

Efforts under way to stem U.S. school dropout problem - Yahoo! News

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Jesus Garcia dropped out of high school and figured he was destined for prison or a life shortened by violence -- until he found an alternative school that became the family he never felt he had.

"Without this school, kids would be dealing drugs, dying, gang-banging, all of it. Without this school there would be no leaders, no mentors," Garcia, an aspiring chef, told a group of former dropouts who have re-enrolled in alternative schools.

Some 30 percent of Americans drop out before finishing high school. They are more likely to be unemployed, receive public assistance, commit crimes and go to jail than those who graduate. They also are less healthy and have a lower life expectancy, according to research presented at a Columbia University conference

How to raise minority participation in Advanced Placement

Class Struggle - How to raise minority participation in Advanced Placement

My colleague Nelson Hernandez reports on the extraordinary progress Montgomery County has made raising both participation and success in college-level courses in high school. Black and Hispanic students in the county are also doing significantly better on AP tests than minority students in the rest of the state

High Court Weighs Student Loan Case

High Court Weighs Student Loan Case : NPR

The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the case of a young man who — finding himself in dire economic straits — declared bankruptcy on his debts, which included a student loan. Then, 17 years after a court first approved his bankruptcy, the lender contacted him and said that he still owed them money.

College grads' average debt exceeds $23,000

College grads' average debt exceeds $23,000

A group that tracks college loan debt yesterday served up some sobering news for students on two fronts.

The average debt nationally among graduating seniors with loans reached $23,200 last year, a sum that has grown by about 6 percent annually since 2004, according to The Project on Student Debt based in Berkeley, Calif.

And graduates saddled with those loans likely are having a harder time finding a job to pay them off, given a third-quarter 2009 unemployment rate of 10.6 percent for graduates 20 to 24 years old That's the highest national rate for that group in the 10 years data has been available.
Pennsylvanians at least can take comfort knowing their state does not carry the biggest average campus debt. That distinction fell on the District of Columbia, according to the Project's study of debt released yesterday.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09336/1017694-298.stm#ixzz0YXSJc2RW

Stymied by Stimulus?

Stymied by Stimulus? | The Texas Tribune

As the first version of the state budget circulated at the beginning of the 2009 session, school advocates had a reason to get excited. The budget included $1.9 billion in new education funds, most of it going directly to schools via weighted formulas for distribution. There was only one problem.

The money didn’t exist.

“It was a deficit budget as written,” said Scott Hochberg (D-Houston), who chaired the Appropriations subcommittee on Education.

How the economy is failing students

How the economy is failing students - Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 | 2 a.m. - Las Vegas Sun

The Clark County School District has always struggled with its sky-high population of poor children. The number of homeless students is expected to reach 8,000 by the end of the academic year, a 30 percent increase. And a full 44 percent of the district’s students receive free or reduced-price lunches, a commonly used indicator of childhood poverty.

Family poverty, in turn, is correlated with lagging student achievement.

California to Use Deflation in Assessing Property Taxes

California to Use Deflation in Assessing Property Taxes - NYTimes.com

LOS ANGELES — Long used to manageable property tax bills, California homeowners have been lamenting over the last few years that their assessments did not reflect the enormous slide in the value of so many homes here.

Now, for the first time in more than 30 years — since a law was enacted limiting the amount property taxes could rise — property tax bills will reflect negative price inflation, reducing most homeowners’ tax bills come January.

Opponents sue to stop strong mayor plan. KJ probably thrilled.

Sacramento News & Review > Blogs > SNOG > Opponents sue to stop strong mayor plan. KJ probably thrilled. > December 1, 2009

If Kevin Johnson wins his strong mayor campaign, he may look back and say that today was pivotal.

This morning KJ’s opponents filed a lawsuit against the city to try and get Johnson’s strong mayor initiative (SMI) taken off of the ballot. In the process, they may be giving up some of the moral (and political) high ground they had.

Lawsuit challenges Sacramento's strong-mayor initiative

Lawsuit challenges Sacramento's strong-mayor initiative - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor proposal should be removed from the June 2010 ballot because it violates the state constitution, a lawsuit filed Tuesday states.

Opponents of the proposal said it calls for sweeping revisions of the city charter. According to the lawsuit, revisions can be proposed to voters only by a governing body such as a City Council or elected charter commission – not through the initiative process.

Marcos Breton: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is his own worst enemy

Marcos Breton: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is his own worst enemy - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

If Kevin Johnson could have avoided serious injuries as an NBA player, who knows where he would be now?

The fiery point guard for the Phoenix Suns might have made the Basketball Hall of Fame, led a different life and never become mayor of Sacramento.

Salida Union scrambling after $760,000 error found - Local - Modbee.com

Salida Union scrambling after $760,000 error found - Local - Modbee.com:

"SALIDA -- A $760,000 miscalculation could lead to a deeper round of budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.

Officials at the 2,900-student Salida Union School District recently stumbled across a budget gap of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

The error presents a daunting task for district officials, who estimated the need to trim $1.3 million from next year's budget before the additional shortfall."

WE’RE MAD AS HELL AND WE’RE FIGHTING BACK!

WE’RE MAD AS HELL AND WE’RE FIGHTING BACK!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

FIGHT FOR YOUR STUDENTS. FIGHT FOR YOUR PROFESSION.

LAUSD IS TRYING TO:

•  give away our schools to outside operators

•  force “furlough” days and 12% salary cuts on employees

Giving away schools to outside operators will hurt students by closing the doorsto many students and handing sites over to unaccountable outside operators.

Furlough days and salary cuts will hurt students by driving teachers out of LAUSD and further deprofessionalizing teaching.

WHO WILL BE HURT MOST BY THESE ACTIONS? Our students.

WE’RE MAD AS HELL AND WE’RE FIGHTING BACK!

OUR STUDENTS CAN’T TAKE ANY MORE CUTS

On December 8, the LAUSD School Board will be voting on the District budget for 2010-2011 and beyond. UTLA will be out in force to protest the giveaway of schools and any more cuts to the classroom. Be there!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Picketing and rally after school

In front of LAUSD Headquarters

333 S. Beaudry, Los Angeles, 90017

Please remember: Don’t schedule parent conferences on December 8. Your School Leadership

Council has the contractual right to set the schedule for parent conferences.

LGBT Bigotry Through Academic Intolerance | NEWS JUNKIE POST

LGBT Bigotry Through Academic Intolerance NEWS JUNKIE POST:

"This is the story of Dan DeLong, an honors English teacher in Piasa, Illinois. Last month, Mr. DeLong gave his students an assignment that asked them to read a paper on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. His quick suspension brought the issues of LGBT bigotry and academic freedom to the forefront.

The paper titled “The effeminate sheep and other problems with Darwinian sexual selection” was written by a professor at Stanford University, published in a popular science magazine, and readily available in most public libraries. The article is an interesting analysis of the evolutionary ramifications of homosexuality in the animal kingdom."

Capitol Alert: Assembly plans session on 'Race to the Top' bill

Capitol Alert: Assembly plans session on 'Race to the Top' bill:

"The Assembly is set to take another step toward taking up 'Race to the Top' legislation tomorrow, when it will convene for the first reading of its version of legislation aimed at ensuring California schools are eligible for the federal competitive grants.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass informed lower house offices yesterday that a check-in session was scheduled for Wednesday.

The Assembly is set to introduce at the session its version of the 'Race to the Top' legislation, spokespersons for Bass and Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, said Monday."

Sacramento Press / Unique elementary school in South Sacramento to celebrate the winter season

Sacramento Press / Unique elementary school in South Sacramento to celebrate the winter season:

"One of the best kept secrets of the South Sacramento area is a small, private school tucked away in the Lanai Shopping Center on Freeport Boulevard, neighboring the Sacramento Executive Airport, where it has existed in rented space for 21 years.

Over the years, most of the shopping center tenants have moved away. Meanwhile, countless hours of parent, teacher and student work have gone into transforming a run-down property into a school with colorful classrooms and playgrounds.

It has an understated entrance, but Camellia Waldorf School is an oasis for children."

Is College Only for the Rich? Student Organizing for College Affordability

Is College Only for the Rich? Student Organizing for College Affordability

Is College Only for the Rich? Student Organizing for College Affordability

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Center for American Progress
1333 H Street NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

With fees increasing 32% for University of California students, amid passionate protests, college affordability is making headlines once again, at a time when college affordability reform legislation awaits action in the Senate.

This panel will examine the implications of the tuition debate in California, and look ahead at efforts to make college more affordable and accessible on the institutional, state, and federal levels.Speakers for this event include Victor Sanchez, president of the University of California Student Association; Bruce Cain, executive director of the University of California, Washington Center; Angus Johnston, a historian of student social movements, and blogger at http://www.studentactivism.net/; and Campus Progress's Pedro de la Torre, a policy expert on student financial aid.

The panel will be moderated by Erica Williams, deputy director of Campus Progress. Aren't in the area? View the livestream here.You must RSVP to attend. This event is free and open to the public.Food and Refreshments will be served.Sponsored by Campus Progress and the United States Student Association, and US PIRG.For more information, please email speakers@campusprogress.org.

The Perimeter Primate: A Real Crisis

The Perimeter Primate: A Real Crisis

A Real Crisis

As Richard Rothstein, David Berliner and Bruce Biddle, and others have reported, schools have been steadily providing an ever-increasing level of education to American students, despite all the constant haranguing we hear about about an education “crisis” today.

Crisis: 1a. A crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point. b. An unstable condition, as in political, social, or economic affairs, involving an impending abrupt or decisive change (American Heritage Dictionary)

There was never a golden age of education prior to this era, unless it was the time when public schools and their teachers were not under this current aggressive and vicious attack, which was initiated and is being sustained by the corporate class. It is they, using political puppets, who have actually now created a true crisis in public education, by invading school districts to implement their chaotic transformation!

The war against public schools, and the teachers who work in them, is serving two purposes. One, in the true neo-liberal fashion, it is paving the way to the privatization of public education. Secondly, the constant chatter and bickering is serving as a distraction from more important issues and crises which the corporate/political leadership refuses to address.

The Edurati Review: Why Instructional Time Matters

The Edurati Review: Why Instructional Time Matters

Why Instructional Time Matters

But time keeps flowing like a river (on and on)
To the sea, to the sea
’til it's gone forever…At least that’s what the Alan Parsons Project suggested in their hit song. But poets and songwriters aren’t the only ones seemingly consumed by the passage of time. Educators frequently talk about the concept, discussing “time-on-task,” school start and end times, and the length of the school year. What’s behind this preoccupation with instructional time? Does it matter if the school day is interrupted for pep rallies, award assemblies, announcements from the office, and the like? Isn’t the school calendar that revolves around the needs of an agrarian culture adequate for today’s students? Why does nearly every conversation with teachers end up being a discussion of time and the lack of it in classrooms?

Teachers have sound reasons for being concerned about time. More than 100 years of research suggests a significant correlation between time spent learning and the amount of learning that results. As memory expert Alan Baddeley describes it, “In short, as far as learning is concerned, you get what you pay for.”1 The relationship between this research finding and teaching may seem obvious, but let’s dive deeper into the research and its implications.Researchers originally connected expertise in playing the violin with the amount of time spent in individual practice. They found that experts spent more than 10,000 hours practicing, while lesser experts spent about 7500 hours practicing, accomplished experts spent around 5000 hours practicing, and committed amateurs spent around 1500 hours practicing. While the numbers fluctuate slightly, the general range has remained surprisingly consistent as researchers examined expertise levels in other disciplines.2

GoToServiceLearning :: Service-Learning Lesson Plans for Teachers

GoToServiceLearning :: Service-Learning Lesson Plans for Teachers:

"Our Mission.

how can this website help your students?

GoToServiceLearning presents teachers with best-practice service-learning experiences meeting state-mandated academic standards - each uploaded onto the site according to an easy to use searchable template. For our launch, which coincides with the 2009 National Middle School Association Conference, we are pleased to feature outstanding lesson plans used in middle schools from across the country.

More than half of these initial entries incorporate a STEM subject (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and combined, they incorporate a wide variety of service themes. We invite you to search this site and explore the plans, all submitted by teachers just like you!"