Friday, January 22, 2010

Principal no stranger to cheating scandals | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

The Houston school district is investigating the former Key Middle School principal and several other employees accused of helping students cheat on state exams, misusing funds and abusing federal lunch rules.

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier announced on Thursday that he has asked the Texas Education Agency to conduct its own investigation into possible cheating at Key last school year. He also plans to share evidence with the Harris County District Attorney's Office about the alleged misuse of district money.

Grier said the school district's probe centers on six to eight former and current Key employees and could expand. Mable Caleb, the former principal of Key who now runs Kashmere High School, is one of those under investigation, her attorney, Chris Tritico, confirmed.

Caleb was embroiled in a cheating scandal at Key five years ago and nearly lost her job. In June, she was promoted to Kashmere and given a $15,000 raise.

“We've already been through this once,” Tritico said. “The district knows good and well that Mable has other people that are involved in testing. She delegates that duty. Mable Caleb did not cheat on the TAKS test.”

In 2005, HISD's investigation yielded no proof that Caleb actively participated in cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, but then-Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra determined she should have known about wrongdoing. Several students who had previously struggled on the high-stakes

Missouri budget shortfall could prompt school cuts - Yahoo! News

Missouri budget shortfall could prompt school cuts - Yahoo! News:

"JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri's public schools may be forced to freeze salaries, expand classes, cut extracurricular activities or seek local tax increases to cope with a funding shortfall, education advocates warned Thursday.
K-12 schools — though spared from cuts in their basic state aid — still might have to scale back because of Gov. Jay Nixon's plan to provide barely one-sixth of the funding increase needed to meet the state's financing formula, said Brent Ghan, a spokesman for the Missouri School Boards' Association.
'This is a pretty dramatic shortfall,' said Ghan. 'The funding situation from the state is going to have an impact on schools statewide — there's no doubt about it.'"

Bill would require high school mascots to get Colorado OK - The Denver Post

A state lawmaker wants high schools with American Indian mascots to get approval to continue using them from a state board.

Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, who is one-quarter Comanche, said she doesn't want to ban team names. But she said she's concerned with American Indian mascots that are caricatures — "with a funny nose or something" — and wants communities to have a "healthy dialogue about their heritage."

Williams introduced a bill this week that would require all public and charter high schools with Indian mascots to "either cease using the American Indian mascot or obtain approval for the continued use of the American Indian mascot or another American Indian mascot from the Colorado Commission of

Ellington arts school staying put for now, Rhee says - washingtonpost.com

Ellington arts school staying put for now, Rhee says - washingtonpost.com:

"Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, moving Thursday to quell a storm of protest, said that the District has no immediate plans to move the Duke Ellington School of the Arts out of Georgetown but that it hopes to eventually build a new facility to replace the school's century-old home.

'Ellington will stay in Georgetown for the foreseeable future,' said Rhee, who is scheduled to meet with members of the school's governing board Friday.

Rhee has been inundated with calls and e-mails from the school community since The Washington Post reported Sunday that the District had studied the cost of moving Ellington to the former Logan Elementary School building on G Street NE, near Union Station."

DPS receives $10 million grant from Gates Foundation - The Denver Post

DPS receives $10 million grant from Gates Foundation - The Denver Post:

"Denver schools on Thursday received the largest grant in district history — $10 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will help develop a new teacher evaluation system.

The money is, in effect, a lucrative consolation prize for Denver Public Schools, which in November lost out on a share of $290 million in Gates money being offered to help schools develop systems to improve teaching.

Those grants went to districts in Pittsburgh; Hillsborough County, Fla.; Memphis, Tenn.; and a group of Los Angeles charter schools.

DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said that $10 million will help drive 'our work around recognizing, developing and rewarding excellent teaching, which is the single most important factor in improving our students' achievement.'

Now, Colorado school districts give teachers either 'satisfactory' or 'unsatisfactory' ratings on their evaluations, with an overwhelming number of teachers receiving the 'satisfactory' grade."

EducationNews.org - Robert Holland: Obama is bribing states to accept national curriculum

EducationNews.org - Robert Holland: Obama is bribing states to accept national curriculum

1.22.10 - Alongside the attempted federalization of health care in Washington, with details being hashed out behind closed doors, a parallel bid to nationalize K-12 education is going forward more subtly but just as surely.
Robert Holland: Obama is bribing states to accept national curriculum

Alongside the attempted federalization of health care in Washington, with details being hashed out behind closed doors, a parallel bid to nationalize K-12 education is going forward more subtly but just as surely.

“Sight unseen” is the mode of operation in both cases.
Members of Congress have had to vote on complex health-care-overhaul details they have not studied and sometimes not even seen. Similarly, states seeking to win juicy shares of the $4.35 billion in one-time education grants dangled before them by the Obama administration must agree to adopt a set of national education standards and a national test.
State and local school systems had until this past Tuesday to have their so-called Race to the Top (RttT) applications filed with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. His office has stated clearly, in writing, that states will have no real shot at this slush fund unless they have agreed to adopt “common standards” and “common assessments.”

Philadelphia teachers approve new contract | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/22/2010

Philadelphia teachers approve new contract | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/22/2010:

"The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers' rank and file last night approved a contract that includes pay raises and the district's most significant foray into the controversial issue of performance bonuses.

The vote, 1,831 to 885, came after a spirited closed-door meeting at the Liacouras Center, where some union members called for a postponement of balloting and expressed frustration about Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and working conditions in their schools.

At a news conference after the vote, PFT president Jerry Jordan said the contract 'goes a long way toward professionalizing the profession.'"

MPS finalists have checkered pasts - JSOnline

MPS finalists have checkered pasts - JSOnline:

"As the Milwaukee School Board prepares to vote on the next superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, records show that all three finalists have faced a variety of personal and professional struggles in their careers.

Candidates Gregory Thornton of Chester Upland Public Schools in Pennsylvania, Stacy Scott of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland and Robert Alfaro of Clark County Public Schools in Las Vegas have been connected with bankruptcy filings, tax liens and low performance ratings by subordinates, respectively.

The board has called a special session Friday evening to discuss the candidates and the potential terms of employment for the next superintendent, and there are hints that they will reconvene to open session to vote on the new schools chief."

The Answer Sheet - A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)

'Chasing' college acceptance

Many of you who have a child nearing college age (and even some of you with much younger kids) may already be anxious about the admissions process and may be wondering whether your child, who hasn’t cured cancer or started a successful business already, will get into a good school.

A new report, “Chasing the College Acceptance Letter,” gives some insight into what it calls “the college admissions game.” It focuses on the chances of the average student getting accepted to a competitive four-year college; according to the most recent national data available, the average applicant earned a 21 on the ACT, completed trigonometry and chemistry, and earned a 3.12 GPA. But it also looks at lower-achieving students and high-performing applicants seeking admission to elite schools.

Continue reading this post »

Elementary gifted ed made easy

Two weeks ago I explored the possibility that high schools could challenge all students, gifted or otherwise, without having gifted programs. Quaker Valley High School outside of Pittsburgh, for instance, seemed able to create new opportunities for a variety of kids by ignoring standard procedures that had outlived their usefulness, such as homework requirements or rules against taking more than one course in the same period.

One wise reader said, in effect: Yeah, but that will never work in elementary schools.

As if by fate, I received an email shortly after from Susan Ohanian, a delightful teacher, speaker, author and blogger whose work I love, even when she is portraying me as a test-addled idiot. We may disagree on policy issues, but we have shared tastes about what good teaching looks and sounds like. In her email, she described how she brought a free-form gifted non-program to an elementary school in Troy, N.Y.

Here is what she said. Don't forget to take a look at her blog atsusanohanian.org.

Continue reading this post »

YourNabe.com > Archives > Brooklyn Graphic > News > In defense of DOE school closings

YourNabe.com Archives Brooklyn Graphic News In defense of DOE school closings

On February 11, I will begin my 39th year with the New York City public schools. I started as a teacher, and have served as an assistant principal, principal, deputy superintendent, and district superintendent. I am currently the Chief Schools Officer, a position in which I support and evaluate the 1,600 schools overseen by the Department of Education. Over these four decades, I have watched schools rise to greatness and great schools fall. That’s the cycle of a school system as we work to ensure that our classrooms are fulfilling their most basic obligation to educate children and put them on the path to graduation. Closing schools is a difficult, but necessary, part of this cycle.

During the past six years, the Department of Education has closed more than 90 schools that were incapable of reversing years of low performance. This year, we’ve proposed phasing out another 20 schools where turnaround efforts have failed to improve student achievement. We don’t take these decisions lightly. In some cases, these schools have storied histories and large numbers of faithful alumni. All have students and staffs who work hard and still believe in the school’s potential. But despite past successes and recent efforts, these schools all share something in common — they are failing to educate most of their students.

We consider many factors when determining whether to phase out a school. We study its performance trends over time. Some of the schools proposed for closure this year have been struggling for more than a decade, showing little if any progress despite an array of interventions. These may range from creating an assortment of enrichment programs, mentoring and tutoring services, reconfiguring grades and classes, lowering enrollment, or changing principals.

Education should make us equal - SignOnSanDiego.com

In 2009, there were 2 million California school children attending failing public schools, including 13 elementary, middle and high schools in the San Diego Unified School District. Since 1999, we have provided extra money – $2.4 billion – to 2,240 of those schools.

Still, 924 of those schools failed for seven years or more. And, over the last decade, only eight of them have turned around.

These schools banish generations of students into lives of poverty, silencing their dreams.

Among these failing schools in California are six named after Martin Luther King, Jr., three named after Rosa Parks and five named after Cesar Chavez. Those revered leaders would not stand for their names affixed to schools that send more kids to prison than to college. I will not stand for it either.

Our goal should not be to take their names off those schools, but to transform the schools into opportunities for success. Dr. King’s fateful speech, as we all know, painted a picture of equality, a dream. His dream, and ours, was to abolish classrooms made up of children who are held hostage in failing schools simply because of their ZIP codes, or because of the mortgage or rent payment their parents can afford.

Obama Tells Mayors He Understands Tough Challenges of Their Jobs -- Politics Daily

Obama Tells Mayors He Understands Tough Challenges of Their Jobs -- Politics Daily:

"Vice President Biden quoted Walt Whitman's famous line about cities -- 'A great city is that which has the greatest men and women' -- as he greeted a delegation of the nation's mayors to the White House on Thursday for a session with President Obama.

They were in town for the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and, like officials all over, have been hurt by the recession. Biden reminded the group that this president is a man who understands their problems, 'who came from a big city himself,' as he acknowledged Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, sitting in the front.

Obama also gave a hat tip to Daley, after a salute to Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann 'because he was such a great host for me and my family when we were there in Honolulu. So thank you, Mufi,' said Obama, who spent the holidays in his native state."

Unofficial black school board seeks candidates - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

The Black Parallel School Board is seeking community members to serve on its executive council.

The Black Parallel School Board is a community organization that advocates for African American students in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Applications can be found atwww.blackparallelschoolboard.com/17.html. They are due by Jan. 31.

For more information, call (916) 484-372

State Of Education Address To Highlight Federal Reforms | KPBS.org

State Of Education Address To Highlight Federal Reforms | KPBS.org:

"O'Connell is expected to finish-out his term by wrangling with school districts over the federal Race To The Top movement."

Race To The Top is part of the Obama administration's federal education reform plan. States could get millions in federal stimulus grants if they accept a number of controversial changes.

O'Connell has thrown his support behind the plan, but some lawmakers are not convinced. State Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny from San Diego County voted against Race To The Top legislation in California. She says people underestimate the progress California schools are making.

“There is this ongoing perception that schools are just not accountable and that teachers are not accountable,” Ducheny said. “Yet, go to a local school and look at what they're doing. You'll see (at one school) they've improved 50 points. Another school has learned to teach English learners. Chula Vista is a good example. Chula Vista Elementary School District has done a great job.”

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Sacramento Press / Strong mayor: Hiltachk to appeal, read judge's final ruling

A defendant in the strong mayor lawsuit will appeal Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster's decision to strike down the initiative.

In his final ruling, McMaster decided that the strong mayor initiative should not be placed on the June ballot. He wrote that the initiative would not align with state law.

Defendants in the case are the city of Sacramento, the Sacramento City Council and Thomas Hiltachk, the attorney who wrote the strong mayor initiative. Bill Camp is the plaintiff.

In a press release issued this morning, Hiltachk said he will appeal McMaster's ruling to the Third District Court of Appeals. Hiltachk spoke on behalf of Sacramentans for Accountable Government, the group that campaigned for the strong mayor initiative.

“We will immediately appeal this unprecedented decision by Judge

Bankers share financial literacy lessons with Brooklyn students | GothamSchools

As banking executives prepared to offer a sorta-kinda-mea culpa to Congress last week, some bankers in New York gave back to society in a different way — by teaching schoolchildren about financial literacy.

Investment bankers from Barclays, the British bank that bought Lehman Brothers’ investment banking arm after Lehman collapsed in the fall of 2008, visited Brooklyn’s Community Partnership Charter School with a gift of 2,000 books for the school library. They also spent the morning reading aloud to students in Toti Little and Anna Plunkett’s second grade classroom and left each of the students with a book to take home.

The book? The Berenstain Bears’ Dollars and Sense, in which Mama Bear teaches her cubs how to manage their allowances using a checkbook. (Presumably it does not recommend investing their allowances in sub-prime mortgages.)

Charter schools in New York are a pet cause for

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Finally, A Real Debate On The Economics Of Taxation? | California Progress Report

Since a discussion of tax politics begins and ends quickly in the Capitol, let’s try talking economics instead. The Governor’s tax commission did the state the favor of opening the discussion of the economics of taxation, and Schwarzenegger called for “major, radical reform” in his State-of-the-State address. So perhaps an economics discussion will attract some real debate, instead of the “just say no” discussion which applies to all taxes, however rational they may be.

The Commission on the 21st Century Economy (COTCE) also did an inadvertent favor to the discussion through their proposal to tax the net receipts of all businesses, which the Governor called “great, great reform.”

One key point made by many analysts of this tax is that many businesses would be taxed heavily even if they incur significant losses, because major expenses — labor, interest on debt — would not be deductible from the tax. The result of the backlash to this proposal was, helpfully, to reinforce the concept that taxing profits through the corporation tax and the income tax makes economic sense, contrary to the misguided COTCE goal of eliminating the corporation tax and flattening the income tax for the wealthy.

Schools Matter: How Duncan's RTTT Became Your New NCLB

During the reign of Bush II, NCLB was typically underfunded by $6-8 billion per year while unfunded mandates piled up for states and municipalities, so much so that by the time of the Wall Street heist in 2008, public education coffers were hollow. Now they are bare. Taking advantage of the public funding crisis, then, will be the centerpiece of the new oligarch-inspired RTTT (Race to the Trough), which will pit states against one another in a contest to see how fast they will approve policies that are intended to hand over public education to corporate management by selling out public institutions.

For instance, states like Massachusetts have taken the Gates Foundation grantwriters' advice for getting some of the bribe money by passing a law to double the number of segregated charter school test camps, where collective bargaining will be replaced by CEO control and teacher standards will be further weakened and the curriculums will become a corporate script, all in the name of "innovation." In the meantime, the public schools will lose about

SCARBOROUGH & BRZEZINSKI ZERO IN ON EXCELLENCE - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Dr. Deborah Kenny and entertainer John Legends teamed up yesterday to share with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski some of the strategies and tactics that are bringing disadvantaged youth in Harlem to accomplish stellar results in math, science and reading,
even after entering the school with proficiency levels often a few grades behind.

The electricity in the conversation was more than apparent - 10 min. clip below - and is a must watch. The talk also included a heavy dose of Race to The Top and national issues, with Scarborough being very pro-active in this line of questioning.

The schools are Harlem Village Academies and are "Schools Designed for Teachers", according to Dr. Kenny, co-founder and CEO, who was greatly influenced by GE's Jack Welch and his philosophy of leadership, management and motivation.

If this schools are designed for teachers, then why are they proving to be great for students?

John Legends summed it up: It's about the kids. When teachers are passionate about teaching, ultimately the kids benefit. He talked about how charter schools can be great t "examples of excellence" and "examples of greatness" and how other schools other schools can try to "replicate" that behavior.

The Rancho Cordova Post — Bettencourt to Replace Godwin as FCUSD Superintendent;

The Rancho Cordova Post — Local News, Events, Things to Do

Bettencourt to Replace Godwin as FCUSD Superintendent; Cordova High Principal Replacement to be Determined

FCUSD board members decided to replace Superintendent Patrick Godwin with current deputy superintendent Debbie Bettencourt in a unanimous vote Thursday, while Cordova High school principal Jackie levy’s replacement has yet to be decided.

Godwin announced his retirement in November after holding two public forums regarding the closure of two Rancho Cordova elementary schools. His retirement will be effective June 30, and will mark the end of a 36-year career as an educator and a five-year run as superintendent of the Folsom Cordova unified school district.

Elk Grove Citizen : News Shiroma elected as SMUD Board president

Elk Grove Citizen : News

Shiroma elected as SMUD Board president

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Director Genevieve Shiroma was elected by the SMUD Board of Directors to serve as President of the SMUD Board for 2010. Shiroma previously served as president in 2006 and 2002 and as vice president in 2000, 2001 and 2005. Her term as president will run from January through December 2010.

Director Renee Taylor was elected as Vice President. Taylor serves as the Ward 1 representative on the SMUD Board.

Shiroma was first elected to the SMUD Board in November 1998 and reelected in 2002 and 2006. She represents Ward 4, which includes the neighborhoods of Curtis Park, Land Park, Greenhaven, Pocket and the communities of Laguna, Elk Grove and Walnut Grove.

Shiroma serves on the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The governor of the state of California first appointed Shiroma to the Board in May 1999. Prior to her appointment, she worked for the California Air Resources Board for more than 20 years as chief of the Air Quality Measures Branch.

A native of Lodi, Shiroma is married and lives in Curtis Park. Genevieve volunteers in the community and serves on the boards of the United Way California Capital Region and the Capital Unity Council.

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.

Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

I repent. I've been making fun of San Diegans' inability to cope with rain, but this actually is a real storm. Please be careful. You could always just stay in and read the newsblitz:

We report on a nagging problem that some schools took a debated step to solve: Kids normally have little reason to try hard on state tests, which don't impact their grades. That changed last year at a handful of Grossmont high schools, when teachers began offering to boost students' grades if they did well on the tests. Proponents say teens finally gave their all, but some parents call it grade inflation or worse.

We also blogged on your ideas on how schools can measure creativity and critical thinking. Keep them coming!

Lots of news about colleges today in the Union-Tribune: A Southwestern College police academy has been suspended in the wake of an unhappy state audit. Bonuses for UC medical executives are causing a stir. And Cuyamaca College is getting spiffed up.

Also in the UT: Food helps bridge the cultural divide at Crawford High. And what a delicious cultural divide it is.

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