Tuesday, March 23, 2010

2nd Banana MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

Budget Cuts Could Mean Teacher Layoffs|NewsChannel 8

Budget Cuts Could Mean Teacher Layoffs

Tulsa - Big changes could be coming to Tulsa classrooms.

Budget cuts are forcing administrators to make-do with 200 less teachers, meaning bigger classes in the fall.

Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard addressed a room full of teachers at a meeting Monday night. They sat listening to his every word as he talked of their futures in the Tulsa school district.

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"It is my absolute goal that no one loose their job on an involuntary basis," Ballard said.

So far, roughly 100 teachers are expected to retire or leave voluntarily, leaving another 120 positions to vacate.

"We may find other ways to reduce the budget to make up for most of those. We will most certainly have more through attrition."

The loss of teachers would translate to a larger classroom, to the tune of two or three students.

"You cant say, 'Oh, you are only going to have two or three more in your class."

President of the Tulsa Classroom Association Lynn Stockley says that the numbers may seem small, but the impact is anything but.

"One of my big concerns is class size. I can tell you already that it's a little misleading, the figures in the paper, when we say the class size is going to go up from 24 to 27 in a high school. I can assure you that we already have a lot of high school teachers that are already sitting there with 27

Local News | Seattle schools won't charge PTAs a fee on donations | Seattle Times Newspaper

Seattle schools won't charge PTAs a fee on donations

A few days after Seattle Public Schools told parent groups they would be charged for giving money to schools, district officials said Monday that won't happen after all.

By Linda Shaw

Seattle Times education reporter

A few days after Seattle Public Schools told parent groups they would be charged for giving money to schools, district officials said that won't happen after all.

In an e-mail sent Monday to PTA leaders, district officials said they have tabled a proposal to impose a 3.3 percent processing fee on some donations because it was "not a productive suggestion."

That decision came after PTA leaders at a number of schools reacted with anger and distress when they heard that an administrative charge would be assessed on many donations.

At Salmon Bay School, for example, the parent group is planning to give about $86,000 in the fall to help keep a school librarian for four days a week and to cover part of the costs of its middle-school music teacher, its physical-education teacher and two part-time volunteer coordinators.

The proposed fee would have added $2,800 to the total.

The fees would not have applied to all parent donations. PTAs still could have made donations without a charge but wouldn't have any guarantee in how those dollars were spent.

Biases said to hinder women in math, sciences

A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released today, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success

The report, "Why So Few?" supported by the National Science Foundation, examined decades of research to gather recommendations for drawing more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM fields.

"We scanned the literature for research with immediate applicability," said Catherine Hill, the university women's research director and lead author of the report. "We found a lot of small things can make a difference, like a course in spatial skills for women going into engineering, or teaching children that math ability is not fixed, but grows with effort."
The report treads lightly on the hot-button question of whether innate differences between the sexes account for the paucity of women at the highest levels of science and math.
Five years ago, Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard, sparked a firestorm when he suggested that "there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude" reinforced by "lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination."
The association's report acknowledges differences in male and female brains. But, Hill said, "none of the research convincingly links those differences to specific skills, so we don't know what they mean in terms of mathematical abilities."
At the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented, the report found that the gender gap is rapidly shrinking. Among mathematically precocious youth - sixth and

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/22/MNPN1CJD07.DTL#ixzz0iy5UZNnk

Richmond considers school-time curfew for minors - San Jose Mercury News

Richmond considers school-time curfew for minors

By Karl Fischer
Contra Costa Times

Posted: 03/22/2010 05:34:23 PM PDT

Updated: 03/22/2010 05:34:24 PM PDT

Any students caught wandering Richmond streets during class could soon face a Juvenile Court judge to explain their truancy if the City Council approves a school-day curfew proposed by the Police Department.

The plan, intended to curb the city's truancy problem and street violence that disproportionately affects the young, heads to the council Tuesday. If approved, minors found out of school during school hours would get a ticket.

"There are so many young people just hanging out in the streets of this city on a daily basis. I think people are really frustrated, and there's also a fair amount of concern for their welfare," police Chief Chris Magnus said. "Unfortunately, we're a long way from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'"

The proposed ordinance is one piece of a larger plan to better coordinate anti-violence efforts in Richmond. The

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

San Ysidro Schools in Immediate Financial Danger

San Ysidro School District is warning the state that it may not be able to cover its costs over the next two years as the state slashes its funding.

While all school districts are grappling with cuts, it is the only school district in San Diego County that indicated to the state that it is in immediate financial danger in the coming years. Tom Silva, its interim assistant superintendent of business services, said that the school system is most worried about the 2011-2012 school year.

Part of the problem, Silva said, is that San Ysidro had to reverse several teacher layoffs it had planned last summer to balance its budget. That's because doing so would inflate class sizes beyond the limits in its teachers contract.

"The bottom line is we're not really willing to

It's a Business Students protest planned closure of Green Dot charter school | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

Students protest planned closure of Green Dot charter school | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

Students protest planned closure of Green Dot charter school

March 22, 2010 | 5:01 pm

About 400 students took part Monday in a peaceful sit-in and walkout to protest the scheduled closure of their South Los Angeles charter school at the end of the academic year.
The school, Animo Justice Charter High School, is operated by Green Dot Public Schools, one of the city’s best-known charter operators.
Green Dot officials said the school was losing too much money because of under-enrollment and said students would be able to enroll at other Green Dot schools in the area. They also said Green Dot teachers in good standing would still have jobs.
Animo Justice would be the first Green Dot school closed by the rapidly growing nonprofit, which runs 19 schools in the L.A. area and one in New York City.

-- Howard Blume

National Health Insurance Debate Under Nixon

In 1971, President Nixon proposed a national health insurance plan built on heavily employer private coverage. Senator Ted Kennedy proposed what would today be called a single-payer plan. In 1974, the debate had morphed into Nixon vs. Kennedy-Mills vs. Organized labor. Despite the prediction in the second clip shown, the result was stalemate rather than passage in 1974 or 1975.

Remainders: Duncan hears RttT skepticism in the House | GothamSchools

Remainders: Duncan hears RttT skepticism in the House

by Maura Walz

Some Democratic House members are pushing back on Duncan’s plan to expand Race to the Top.
Mrs. Mimi argues that it’s not the fault of teachers that their evaluations need fixing.
NYC Educator says 50 years is too long for a single party to control the UFT.
Jay Mathews thinks the recent boom in the number of high school kids might explain all the NCAA upsets.
Nearly 60 percent of respondents to an InsideSchools poll rated the DOE’s school surveys as important.
The TNR debate between Ravitch, Smith and Carey continues.
Pedro Espada proposed, somewhat ironically, to toll East River bridges to pay for student Metrocards.
Have Obama’s grand plans to expand early childhood ed been lost in the shuffle? Liz Willen wonders.
Willen also dissects the pros and cons of moving high school start times later in the day.
Draft common core standards have elicited more than 2,000 comments, but they’re not being published.
And The Open Planning Project, home of GothamSchools, has a new executive director.

Schools Matter: Open Letter to Wake County Community

Open Letter to Wake County Community

Below is a letter by Dr. Barber that should be inspiration to thousands of North Carolinians to meet in the streets outside the Wake County School Board tomorrow evening. Let history be a witness.

In the meantime, you may send your message to the segregationist Board members who are the pawns of the Tea Party in this national campaign to return to separate and unequal schools.

Monday, March 22nd, 2010
By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Open Letter
to the Community
The new and narrow majority of the Wake County School Board has made at least five tragic decisions already that

NY State Senators pass school cuts to doomsday warnings | GothamSchools

NY State Senators pass school cuts to doomsday warnings

by Anna Phillips

New York’s State Senate voted this afternoon to make deep cuts to public school funding, eliciting immediate protest from teachers unions, school boards, and New York City’s mayor.

The $1.1 billion in cuts, proposed by Governor Paterson, passed the Senate today by a vote of 32-29, with Republicans voting against it. Even before senators took the vote, rumor that they would pass the governor’s proposed budget filled the state capital, causing education groups to forecast disaster in the coming years. The cuts are far from finalized — the State Assembly still has to come up with its own budget proposal.

President of New York City’s teachers union, Michael Mulgrew, released a statement saying that as a result of the cuts, class sizes for first graders would rise to 28 students, after-school programs would disappear, and summer school would become unaffordable.

Mulgrew, who has proposed retirement incentives as a way of avoiding deep budget cuts, said the city was looking at “a return to conditions after the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, as schools put off necessary maintenance and buildings get dirtier and more dilapidated.”

Ernie Logan, president of the union for principals and school administrators, said the cuts would create a “permanent achievement gap.”

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

2nd Banana MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2010

Monday, March 22, 2010

Budget Cuts Could Mean Teacher Layoffs|NewsChannel 8

Local News | Seattle schools won't charge PTAs a fee on donations | Seattle Times Newspaper

Seattle schools won't charge PTAs a fee on donations

Biases said to hinder women in math, sciences

Biases said to hinder women in math, sciences

Richmond considers school-time curfew for minors - San Jose Mercury News

Richmond considers school-time curfew for minors

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

It's a Business Students protest planned closure of Green Dot charter school | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

Students protest planned closure of Green Dot charter school

National Health Insurance Debate Under Nixon

Remainders: Duncan hears RttT skepticism in the House | GothamSchools

Remainders: Duncan hears RttT skepticism in the House

Schools Matter: Open Letter to Wake County Community

Open Letter to Wake County Community

NY State Senators pass school cuts to doomsday warnings | GothamSchools

NY State Senators pass school cuts to doomsday warnings

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