Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Friday, February 19, 2010

NEA - Priority Schools

NEA - Priority Schools
NEA Priority Schools Campaign: Disrupting the Status Quo
Turning around lower-performing schools is a high priority for the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association. By leading permanent changes in these Priority Schools, we will transform the lives of tens of thousands of students by significantly raising academic achievement.
Our commitment includes a vow to work side-by-side with communities and with policymakers in state capitals, in Congress and the Obama administration; to partner in pursuit of innovative programs to measure student success and teacher quality; and to fight to attract and keep the best educators and necessary resources for the schools of greatest need.
Click the video screen below to learn more about why turning around low-performing schools is a high priority.


“Plain and simple, the status quo is not acceptable. We cannot continue to do in America what weve been doing to students for the last 20, 30, 50 years. The world has changed and we need a different system.”
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel

Posted by at

Meet the Flintstones | The Texas Tribune

Meet the Flintstones | The Texas Tribune:

"Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God:

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.'"
Posted by at

Beware of Myths About Common Standards, Organizers Say - Curriculum Matters - Education Week

Beware of Myths About Common Standards, Organizers Say - Curriculum Matters - Education Week

One of the guys leading the common-standards initiative sat down in front of a roomful of state board of education members in Philadelphia yesterday and said, "I'm not from the federal government." A wave of chuckles rippled through the room. But he was getting at something serious.
The quip by Chris Minnich, who is overseeing the common-standards work for the Council of Chief State School Officers, was intended to ease some of the skepticism about the initiative being led by CCSSO and the National Governors Association. He was appearing with the NGA's David Wakelyn at the third in a series of regional meetings the National Association of State Boards of Education has been hosting to inform its members about the Common Core Standards Initiative.
Minnich was responding to grumbles that emerged at an earlier NASBE meeting that the common-standards initiative is an unwelcome federal intrusion into states' education business. (See here for a story I wrote from that meeting, and two blog items, here and here.)
Minnich clarified that the initiative originated with states, not the federal government. And while the feds are certainly ardent supporters of the common-standards work—even offering Race to the Top incentives to states that support it—the initiative is not, not, not a federal initiative, he said.
Posted by at

Keep best parts of No Child law - The Denver Post

Keep best parts of No Child law - The Denver Post



After watching health care reform fall apart, it is encouraging to see a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers joining forces to rewrite No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal education law that jolted states into focusing on student achievement.
The ambitious measure is far from perfect, and there is certainly room for improvement. We have criticized it on several counts, including its harsh punishment of struggling schools that are making progress, yet still not measuring up.
However, we hope that those involved in the NCLB overhaul push back against the powerful interests, such as teachers unions and states, that may try to take advantage of the overhaul to weaken some of the better parts of the law.
Lawmakers must make certain schools remain accountable for student achievement, and ensure that it's a priority to have quality teachers in every classroom. Great teachers are the most important factor in improving student achievement, along with interested parents.
Those parts of NCLB must be retained, strengthened and backstopped with other metrics. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have emphasized the need to tie progress in student achievement to a teacher's evaluation, and we couldn't agree more. The development of these types of measures is part of the administration's Race to the Top grant program, in which states are competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in grants.

Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14429720#comments#ixzz0g0AWp3Kn
Posted by at

A Sequel to the Charter School Research Wars - Inside School Research - Education Week

A Sequel to the Charter School Research Wars - Inside School Research - Education Week

A Sequel to the Charter School Research Wars

By Debra Viadero on February 18, 2010 3:35 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
There has been no shortage of newsmaking charter school studies over the last year. The biggest of the bunch was a national study of charter schools by Margaret Raymond and her colleagues at the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University. It compared learning gains over the course of a school year for charter school students in 16 states to those of demographically similar students in nearby traditional schools. The bottom line: Although there was huge variation among the charter schools studied, the traditional school students, on the whole, appeared to learn slightly more than their charter school counterparts.
The study came in for some heavy criticism, though, in October from Caroline Hoxby, another Stanford researcher, after she conducted her own study of charter schools in New York City and reached the opposite conclusion. She said the CREDO study suffered from "a serious mathematical mistake" that may have biased the results in a downward direction.
Now the federal What Works Clearinghouse has waded into the debate. In itslatest "quick review," the research agency concludes that the CREDO study was "consistent with WWC standards with reservations." It also adds a word of caution, though:
"Although the study matched charter school students to traditional public school students based on demographic characteristics and test scores, it is 
Posted by at

Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge | The White House

Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge | The White House

Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge

February 18, 2010 | 1:24
President Obama announces a new Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge and invites public schools across the country to compete to have him speak at their graduation. Visit WhiteHouse.gov/Commencement to apply.
Posted by at

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Feb. 19

Submitted by Erika Owens on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 09:27 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink
Fairhill pupils await Michelle Obama The Inquirer
Mrs. Obama is visiting the elementary school Friday to talk about her campaign against childhood obesity.
See also: First Lady Speaks Out Against Childhood Obesity in Phila. KYW
Ackerman: Youth violence a public health issue The Inquirer
Superintendent Ackerman explained that the 15,000 violent and nonviolent incidents are far too many.
See also: Jackson: prevent flash mobs with better schools Philly.com
Why can't they just teach their kids English? The Notebook blog
Len Rieser wrote in response to a recent Inquirer op-ed that questioned spending District dollars to teach immigrant kids English.
Gubernatorial candidates debate in Center City Philly.com
PSU and YUC students spoke at the forum. The discussion of education referenced the costing-out study and importance of early childhood ed.
Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.
Posted by at

Discussion with Author Dympna Ugwu-Oju at Folsom Lake College on Feb. 24 — The Rancho Cordova Post

Discussion with Author Dympna Ugwu-Oju at Folsom Lake College on Feb. 24 — The Rancho Cordova Post


he community is invited to a discussion with author Dympna Ugwu-Oju entitled “A Woman in Tribal Africa, a Black in White America” on Wednesday, February 24, at 7pm at Folsom Lake College, 10 College Parkway in Folsom. The event will take place in the college’s Community Room (Aspen Hall room FL1-20) and is sponsored by Folsom Lake College’s Multicultural Sub-Committee as part of African American History Month.
Dympna Ugwu-Oju was born in Nsukka, Nigeria. She has been published extensively in national newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek and the New York Times. Her first book, What Will My Mother Say (A Tribal African Girl Comes of Age in America), describes her childhood in the traditional Ibo culture of Nigeria where a woman’s value is determined by factors she does not control and chronicles her war-torn childhood.
Her second book, In the Eyes of God (A Biafran story) is awaiting publication. Dympna holds her Bachelor’s Degree (English, minor in Magazine Journalism) from Briarcliff College, a Master’s of Science (Print Journalism) from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, and a Doctorate Degree (Educational Leadership) from California State University, Fresno, and University of California, Davis. She is currently an instructor of Journalism at Fresno City College and previously taught at Middlesex County College in New Jersey and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Admission to the event is free (a daily parking pass can be purchased for $1). For a map with 
Posted by at

Elk Grove Citizen : 10 percent layoffs loom for school district

Elk Grove Citizen : News

10 percent layoffs loom for school district


By Citizen staff
Published: Thursday, February 18, 2010 9:11 AM PST
Last year, the Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) sent out 220 full-time employee  (FTE) pink slips on March 3. Many employees, however, kept their positions as funds came from the state and other sources.

This year, with the district’s $42 million budget shortfall, 600 FTE pink slips will be sent out on March 15.

EGUSD Superintendent Dr. Steven Ladd’s staff and cabinet adjourned Friday afternoon after three days of meetings to cope with the ongoing financial crisis of their district.

The EGUSD administration had expected to make more adjustments in expenditures from another shortfall of $13 million from the state for the school year 2010-11. But last week it was announced there may be an additional  $5 million funding loss.

How many more FTE pink slips will be issued is unknown.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal includes a negative .38-percent Cost Of Living Adjustment.  That equates to another budget cut of about $24 per student for EGUSD for the 2010-2011 school year. The district has 60,000 students.

In addition, the governor’s budget further proposes a $1.5 billion cut to K-12.  While his proposal indicates that the $1.5 billion would come out of school district administrative costs, financial experts agree that after years of budget reductions, the target of the cut will likely change.

In addition, the governor also proposed eliminating the sales tax on gasoline, and changing it 
Posted by at

Schools Matter: The Wrong Cuts

Schools Matter: The Wrong Cuts
The wrong cuts
Published in the Herald Times (Bloomington, Indiana)
Feb. 19, 2010
To the editor:
The proposed budget cuts in education (“MCCSC: Teaching, librarian and coaching jobs cut, no summer school, Aurora to be moved,” Feb. 12) are typical of what is going on nationwide, and are a tragedy that need not happen.
In order to save $4.5 million, MCCSC is eliminating crucial and important programs, while the state continues to spend education dollars on expenditures that harm students.
For example: The plans include eliminating librarians while research shows that the presence of credentialed school librarians is related to increased reading scores.
At the same time, Indiana has a high school exit exam that costs the state about $450 million per year, over $400 per student. 
Posted by at

Consultant: shut down CALPADS now The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess
Consultant: shut down CALPADS now

Posted in CALPADS
CALPADS, the new comprehensive student data system on which huge hopes for school and student improvement are riding, is hobbled by serious problems.
Acting on a consultant’s report bluntly critical of state managers and of IBM, the system vendor, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has shut CALPADS down for two months and ordered all efforts focused on fixing it. The hiatus will put data collection from the state’s 1,000 districts months, if not a year, behind schedule. O’Connell had little choice but to act quickly. After studying the system for a month, Sabot Technologies of Folsom predicted a  “high probability of system failure should the project continue on the current path”  as a result of  “anomalies, errors and defects throughout” the system.
(Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on February 18th, 2010

Full Circle Fund’s Rx for schools

Posted in Education Excellence Committee, Revenue and taxes, Student spending, Teacher Development
Members of the Full Circle Fund, a Bay Area philanthropy made up of socially active leaders and entrepreneurs, has joined the call for giving school districts more autonomy and taxing authority.
Granting local voters the power to pass a limited surcharge of the property tax rate  is one policy recommendation of “EACH: A Vision for California’s Future.”The 11-page policy platform is the product of nine months of work by the 60-member Education Circle, one of four study groups within the Full Circle Fund.
A property surcharge would directly challenge of the limits imposed by Proposition 13.  It also could create equity problems – and likely lead to a lawsuit – since rich communities would more readily pass such a measure. So the Education Circle also urges establishing a state matching fund as an incentive for  low-wealth communities to raise revenue. The platform also urges bringing up California’s level of funding to the “national norm” and includes a useful graph  that compares states’  per student spending relative to its teachers’ salaries.
(Read more and comment on this post)
Posted by at

U.S. education chief praises Georgia inquiry �| ajc.com

U.S. education chief praises Georgia inquiry �| ajc.com:

"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday for taking a tough stance on cheating and said the federal government is offering to help, if asked."


But Duncan gave no indication federal education officials would punish Georgia if some test scores turn out to be fraudulent. States report tests results as part of legal requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act, which governs some federal funding.



The test score scandal also isn’t likely to affect the state’s chance at a lucrative federal Race to the Top grant, he said.
“I think the governor has really stepped up proactively to get to the bottom of this,” Duncan said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I wish more states would look at this kind of thing.”
Duncan’s comments came a week after state officials announced an analysis of erasure marks on student answer sheets implicated one in five schools statewide in potential test tampering.
The state school board ordered local officials to investigate 191 schools with the most classrooms exhibiting suspicious erasures.
Another 178 schools with fewer classrooms in question must adopt new test security measures, such as increasing monitoring or rotating teachers during this spring’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. Students in grades one through eight take the yearly exam.
The Atlanta district has the most schools under scrutiny, 58. That is 69 percent of elementary and middle schools.
The district is unusual in Georgia for using a complex reward syste
Posted by at

Pennsylvania School Accused of Spying on Students at Home

Pennsylvania School Accused of Spying on Students at Home:

"If accusations made by a suit filed against Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District on behalf of Harriton High School student Blake Robbins are true, we can't imagine a single valid defense for the school system's actions. According to the court documents, Robbins was disciplined last November by assistant principle Lindy Matsko for 'improper behavior in the home.' As evidence of this misconduct, Matsko produced a photo, secretly taken by the webcam on Robbins's laptop, which had been -- like those of all other Harriton High students -- issued to him by the school.

Let's ignore the fact that the student was disciplined for extracurricular actions, already a rather absurd concept. (Imagine if your child was given detention for failing to eat her vegetables and talking back to you.) The school is not accused of tracking student's"
Posted by at

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.



Bipartisan move to rewrite No Child Left Behind

President Obama. (AP).
YOUR TURN
quotation mark
Those aren't just cuts. They are mutilations to core services that Virginia is well renown for."
TwoSons, 2:05 P.M. » In private, Virginia governor pushes deep budget cuts | Weigh in












The six standards of school quality

My guest is George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio, and executive director of The Forum for Education and Democracy, a nonprofit organization ithat s a collaboration of educators from around the country

By George Wood
Years ago, I learned that if you want to communicate with people, it’s best to avoid jargon.

It was my fourth year as principal, and I’d decided to add a portfolio requirement for graduation. After two years of study, meetings, and hearings, we were ready to move forward and decided to share the plan with the entire community. Feeling creative, we decided to put the entire proposal in a booklet and mail it to every district resident.

Then, mistakenly, we decided I would write the booklet.
Continue reading this post »

Down with parent power

I have been exchanging emails with Gabe Rose, communications director of something called the Parent Revolution in my home state, California. Rose and his organization are part of a movement that has, to my open-mouthed amazement, persuaded the state government to give parents the power to close or change the leadership of low-performing public schools.
It sounds great. It has many parents excited. It could shake up the state educational establishment, including the education department, school boards and teacher unions. They could use some shaking up.
Yet I can't shake my feeling it is a bad idea, a confusing distraction that will bring parents more frustration, not less, and do little to improve their children's educations.
Continue reading this post »


Capitol Hill neighbors wary of proposed charter

One of the 13 groups seeking to open a new public charter school in the fall of 2011 is drawing questions from its prospective Capitol Hill neighbors--both for a lack of candor and the financial backing it is receiving from the International Graduate University (IGU), which has had its license revoked by the District.
University High Public Charter School wants to lease space at IGU, on D Street SE, for a college preparatory program targeted to at-risk youth. It proposes partnering with the Community College of the District of Columbia to give students exposure to college-level courses by their junior year. The D.C. Public Charter School Board, which authorizes the publicly-funded, independently operated schools, will review all the applications at public hearings on March 15 and 16.
Capitol Hill residents have been frustrated by their inability to get information from University High's executive director, Terry Shelton, a former treatment team coordinator at Oak Hill Youth Center and probation officer for D.C. Superior Court.
During a bizarre two-hour meeting at IGU Wednesday evening, Shelton would not disclose the members of the group's founding board, although they are listed in the application on file with the charter board. The founding group includes Virginia Elizabeth Hayes Williams, mother of former mayor Anthony Williams, and William Stancil, managing attorney for Neighbohrood Legal Services.
The application also names Wilma Gaines, a former DCPS principal, as interim principal.
Continue reading this post »
Posted by at

Delaware schools: Moyer Academy loses charter | delawareonline.com | The News Journal

Delaware schools: Moyer Academy loses charter | delawareonline.com | The News Journal:

"DOVER -- The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to close Maurice J. Moyer Academy charter school in Wilmington.

State education officials said the school, which opened in September 2006, failed to meet three of the 14 criteria necessary for charter renewal: student performance goals, hiring of enough highly qualified teachers and development of a curriculum that met state standards. Nor was Moyer's leadership able to provide a clear plan to improve performance going forward, Dan Cruce, Delaware's deputy education secretary, told the board.

Moyer currently has 484 students enrolled in grades six through 12. It will lose its charter at the end of this school year.

'I'm devastated,' Theo Gregory, Moyer's director, said just after the meeting. 'I can't believe this.'

Moyer is only the second charter school to be denied renewal since the General Assembly approved Delaware's charter law in 1995. Marion T. Academy Charter School was denied in 2008 after state officials cited poor student performance at the Wilmington K-8 school. Two others have relinquished their charters, Richard Milburn Academy in July of 2000 and Georgetown Charter School in March of 2002."
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)