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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

New Immigrant Rights Campaign to Mount Largest March of Obama Era | California Progress Report

New Immigrant Rights Campaign to Mount Largest March of Obama Era | California Progress Report

New Immigrant Rights Campaign to Mount Largest March of Obama Era

Posted on 15 March 2010
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By Randy Shaw

“I cannot underscore strongly enough how pissed off the base is over the lack of action” -- Gabe Gonzalez, Center for Community Change
Last week, immigrant rights groups became the first major progressive constituency to issue a release publicly denouncing the Obama Administration. Blasting the White House for “escalating deportations and detentions” while taking no action toward enacting comprehensive immigration reform, national immigrant rights leaders are escalating a pressure campaign that will feature the largest march of the Obama presidency in Washington DC on March 21. The march comes amidst growing frustration over the President’s failure to advance an issue that galvanized enough Latinos to the polls in 2006 to give Democrats control of the House, and which helped elect Obama president in November 2008.
Within days of the public criticism, the President met with activists to frankly discuss the political realities of moving forward. Having used massive marches in cities across the nation to put immigration reform in the national spotlight in 2006, activists are now returning to this tactic as part of new campaign to escalate pressure on Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders. The goal is to finally pass comprehensive reform this year.
After activists came close to winning comprehensive immigration reform in 2006 and 2007, the election of Barack Obama and Democratic control of Congress seemingly made enactment a certainty in either 2009 or early 2010. Given the steep political cost of inaction — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and dozens of Democratic

The Death and Life of the Great American School System / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

The Death and Life of the Great American School System / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

The Death and Life of the Great American School System


Noted policymaker Diane Ravitch says she was wrong to jump on the No Child Left Behind bandwagon.

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education By Diane Ravitch Basic Books 283 pp., $26.95
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By Bob Blaisdell / March 16, 2010
Teaching school is as humbling as parenting and equally dependent on careful human adjustments. Politicians and policymakers, on the other hand, at work far from the actual difficulties, are able to take reckless action and ignore the squawks of the affected communities. Education problems are so very specific that they are rarely remedied by on-high administrative shufflings and sudden and short-term financial redistributions. That’s why so many teachers and students directly involved in teaching or learning in public schools, for instance, fail to believe in the long-term educational benefits of the high-stakes testing mandated by America’s No Child Left Behind education law.
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Diane Ravitch, the renowned education historian who once served in the first President Bush’s Education secretary’s office, remembers back in the 1980s when she “began ‘seeing like a state,’ looking at schools and teachers and students from an altitude of 20,000 feet and seeing them as objects to be moved around by big ideas and great plans,” she writes in her new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. She recalls how more recently, “there were periodic outbursts by parents and activists against excessive testing and even some organized protests against mandatory state tests. I was not sympathetic to the anti-testing movement. I didn’t see why anyone would object to an annual test of reading and mathematics.”
Ravitch’s book should be called “Confessions of an Ex-Policymaker,” rather than to try to evoke

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Notes from the news, Mar. 16 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Mar. 16 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Mar. 16

'Well-intentioned laws can end up hurting...' Daily News
State Sen. Anthony Williams got a lot of feedback at a hearing to discuss his proposed bill to punish parents if their kids are repeatedly in the court system.
See also: Panel is told parents are key to stopping violence The Inquirer
West Philly HS - Dissing the community The Notebook blog
The community came out to support West's new principal, but her team was not picked to lead West if it becomes a Renaissance School.
Editorial: Teach tolerance The Inquirer
A reflection on race, violence, and South Philly High.
Pennsylvania Officials to Make Case for Federal 'Race to the Top' Education Reform Funding PRNewsWire via Earth Times
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Quote: Massive Manipulation Eclipses Minor Cheating This Week In Education

This Week In Education

Quote: Massive Manipulation Eclipses Minor Cheating

"[Cheating] scandals are minor compared to the ways in which states have manipulated the scoring of tests to produce inflated results."
-- Diane Ravitch in The New Republic

Schools Matter: Privatatizers Seek to Breathe Life into Dead DC Voucher Program

Schools Matter: Privatatizers Seek to Breathe Life into Dead DC Voucher Program

Privatatizers Seek to Breathe Life into Dead DC Voucher Program

With the bloom off the segregated corporate charter schools as the ultimate tool for crushing public education, the privatizers are ginning up the old standby option, school vouchers. Right-wing princess, Betsy Devos, daughter of the Amway fortune and sister of Eric Prince (of Blackwater Christian Crusader fame), has launched a new website, the American Federation of Children (get it?), in an effort to breathe life once more into corporate vouchers in DC (again), a program that would give corporations a dollar tax write-off for every dollar given for a voucher.

A clip from the AFC's latest press release aimed to garner support for Lieberman's amendment to a Senate Bill to reauthorize the FAA (you may ignore the Press Release's claim that Lieberman is offering an amendment to an entirely unrelated House Bill):

The Obama Administration’s own “What Works Clearinghouse” has validated the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) research on the OSP. The evaluation of the program shows that students who were offered vouchers to attend private schools scored higher on reading tests compared to students who were not offered vouchers. These gains were equal to three months of additional learning.
And on cue, too, is the Editorial Board of the Washington Post,

SMUD.org | English | Community and Environment | mow-down-event

SMUD.org | English | Community and Environment | mow-down-event

Trade in your gas mower and go electric

Want to do your part for a cleaner Sacramento? You can help by going electric when mowing your lawn, with a new, cordless electric mower.
In cooperation with the Sacramento Air Quality Management District, the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District, Placer County Air Pollution Control District, El Dorado County Air Quality Management District, SMUD is again helping Sacramento-area residents trade in their gas-powered lawn mowers for a discounted electric rechargeable model.
This year, the first-come, first served registration for the limited supplies of new Neuton cordless mowers takes place on Wednesday, March 17, beginning at 11 a.m. You can register by calling 1-888-742-SMUD (7683) or by entering your information here on smud.org (registration day only).
lawn mowerThe popular annual event is part of a community-wide effort to remove old mowers and the pollution they produce and replace them with electric models that help to keep the air cleaner in the Sacramento area.
Those who register will be given specific times to exchange their mower on Saturday, March 27, at California State University, Sacramento Parking Lot #10. The appointment-system will minimize waiting in line and will guarantee all registered customers will be able to purchase a new lawn mower. Customers who register successfully for the event will receive e-mail or mail confirmations with complete instructions.
The lawn mower exchange will take place rain or shine. Customers will be able to drop off their old gas mower and purchase a new electric mower without leaving their cars. The event will be set up for customers to drive through each step of the exchange process.
lady holding mowerWith the trade-in of an old gasoline-powered mower (which must be drained of fluids prior to being accepted), the price for the new rechargeable mower is $169 (tax included) for the 14" mower and $269 (tax included) for the larger 19" model. These prices reflect a savings of over $220 off the regular retail price. For information on the mowers technical specifications, visitwww.neutonpower.com/smud.
If you live in Sacramento, Yolo, Solano, El Dorado or Placer counties, you are eligible to register for this event. For more information on the Mow Down event call (916) 732-6227.