Monday, March 29, 2010

Register Today for Veggie Chase 2010 — The Rancho Cordova Post

Register Today for Veggie Chase 2010

by MICHELLE VENTRESS on MARCH 29, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS

If the phrase “Veggie Chase” makes you think of cartoon carrots chasing crowns of broccoli, you’re probably not alone. If instead, you think of an annual family running event, you’d be closer to the truth. In fact, the Veggie Chase will be held on Sunday, May 23rd in Hagan Park, Rancho Cordova. Everyone in the family is invited to attend and participate in the event appropriate for their age and fitness level.

Early registration for all Veggie Chase races ends on April 7th. Make sure you fill out all of your registration paperwork as early as possible because the Veggie Chase is likely to sell out. Registering before April 7 not only costs less (generally about half of what you’d pay on the day of the races), but it also gives you a much better chance of insuring your space in the race. There are a few different options to make registering as simple as possible. You can register online, in person, or by mail. For more information on registration for the Chase, please see the official website.

The Veggie Chase includes events for the entire family. Youngsters who are

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

New York loses in first round of Race to the Top; will reapply

by Maura Walz

New York State lost out on $700 million in federal Race to the Top money today, placing second to last and beating only the District of Columbia among the 16 finalists. Only two states, Delaware and Tennessee, won in the initial phase of competition for the coveted federal grants.

New York was not widely expected to be a first-round winner; even its advance to the final round of competition caught many observers by surprise. Today’s announcement will send state education officials back to the drafting table to refine their plan — and will likely re-ignite a legislative battle over the state’s teacher evaluation laws and cap on charter schools — before the June 1 deadline for the next round of competition.

In the 500-point scoring rubric federal officials used to judge applications, New York lost the greatest sha

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

The Everything-BUT-Race-to-the-Top Edition:

What’s for lunch? The School Lunch bill gets slimmed down in the Senate. (New York Times)

Should school leaders use social media to listen—even to people who AREN’T USING THEIR INSIDE VOICES? (AASA)

In tough budget times, is there a better way to lay off teachers? (The New Teacher Project)

Could these “power subs” come off the bench and, as Dickie Vee would say, turn into PTPers (prime time players)? (h/t SmartBrief)

Science ed. conference wrap-up and thoughts | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Science ed. conference wrap-up and thoughts

by Timothy Boyle on Mar 29 2010 Posted in Boyle's law

Tags:

science

I very much appreciated the opportunity to attend this year's National Science Teachers Association Conference. Meeting people from across the country facing the same challenges, while being innovative, was a good kick start in the midst of the long slog to the PSSA. Between the conference and reading Education Week's Technology Counts, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the state of my teaching, and the state of science teaching around me.

Some ideas I took away:

We as teachers (science and otherwise) have the expertise to give children a 21st century education right now. Connecting knowledgeable people is the obstacle.
Science educators want the measurement of our student's knowledge to matter as much as literacy or mathematics knowledge, but disagree on the worth of current assessment practices.
The skills the next and current generation of teachers will need to have are the ability to collaborate and the ability to facilitate student-led learning.
The concern over content knowledge of teachers should be secondary to

U.S. Names Education Grant Winners - NYTimes.com

U.S. Names Education Grant Winners

By SAM DILLON

Published: March 29, 2010

REPRINTS

Delaware and Tennessee beat out 38 other states and the District of Columbia to win a share of $4 billion in federal education grants, convincing the Obama administration that they have bold plans for overhauling their public school systems, an administration official said Monday.

The Department of Education said that Delaware would be awarded about $100 million and Tennessee about $500 million.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that both Delaware and Tennessee had won because they had gotten overwhelming statewide support from teachers, school districts and business leaders for comprehensive school improvement plans, and had written new laws to support their policies.

By announcing only two winners in the first round, Mr. Duncan held to his vow that only a small number of states with extremely bold plans would receive money in the Race to the Top competition, which aims to promote educational innovation by rewarding a few states for exemplary progress in areas President Obama considers crucial to education reform.

Georgia and Florida came in third and fourth in the competition, officials said.

The president’s goals include expanding the number and quality of charter schools, reworking outdated teacher evaluation systems, improving the sophistication of states’ student-data tracking systems and turning around thousands of the lowest-performing schools.

One highlight of Delaware’s proposal was a new state law that allows teachers rated as “ineffective for three years to be removed from the classroom, even if they have tenure, the department said.

Tennessee passed a new state law that will allow the state to intervene in failing schools

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Applauds U.S. Department of Education on Selection of Race to... -- WASHINGTON, March 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Applauds U.S. Department of Education on Selection of Race to the Top Winners

Delaware and Tennessee win Round One; both took steps to increase charter schools in their states

WASHINGTON, March 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools is pleased to seeDelaware and Tennessee named as the two states awarded funding in Round One of the Race to the Top competition. Both have taken steps to remove barriers to charter school expansion, allowing families to have additional choices in public education.

"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has kept his word about setting a 'very high bar' for the competition and sent a strong signal to every state hoping for success in Round Two," said Nelson Smith, president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. "The message is clear: States that increase support for high-quality public charter schools have an important advantage in the competition."

Both of today's winning states have acted to expand charter schooling as a key component of systemic reform. However, Smith stressed, "Despite their progress, both states have some work to do if public charter schools are to fulfill their potential."

Delaware, which produced the strongest application in Round One, allowed the state's moratorium on the opening of any new charter schools to lapse in June 2009. It is now critical that Delaware make further improvements to its charter law, including creating additional authorizing options, ensuring equitable operational funding and providing equitable access to capital funding and facilities.

Tennessee enacted several improvements to its law in 2009. Among other enhancements, the state partially lifted its cap on charters and now allows low-income students to attend charter schools -- in addition to the original five categories of

The Best Sites For Creating Sentence Scrambles | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Larry Ferlazzo

The Best Sites For Creating Sentence Scrambles

Filed under best of the year, reading, teacher resources

Sentence scrambles — taking a sentence and mixing up the word order — are great activities for English Language Learners and native-English speakers alike. They’re good for regular practice, and also nice for competitive games. In the classroom, students can create their own, too. I’ve often had students pick several sentences from the book they’re reading, make up cards with all the words and punctuation marks, paper-clip each sentence together (not in order), and collect them. Then, I divide students in small groups, and each group gets ten or so of them to compete to see who can complete them all first correctly.

I’ve also used them one at a time for just a break from routine, and I’ve also created some for tests. It’s easy, though, to miss including a word

Delaware and Tennessee Get Round 1 Financial Bonus - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Delaware and Tennessee Get Round 1 Financial Bonus
By Michele McNeil on March 29, 2010 3:48 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
The Education Department has made an important change to Round 2 of the Race to the Top competition that has big—and not necessarily positive—implications for the remaining 47 states and D.C. if they plan to seek a share of the $3 billion or so still left.
In Round 2, Race to the Top awards will be capped at levels outlined in what originally were the Education Department's original nonbinding estimates. Those estimates will now be binding.
That means Round 1 winning states Delaware and Tennessee, in addition to bragging rights, got a financial bonus, too: Their grants are larger than they would have been under the new rules for Round 2. And they'll also be worth more per student than any state that wins in Round 2. In the first go-round, the department suggested that a state of Delaware's size could win up to $75 million, but it turns out the state is getting an additional $25 million. Tennessee's top-line budget estimate was $250 million, and the state is getting twice that

4-Day School Weeks: Headed to Your District?

(based on 1 rating)

by Bob Ross
Topics: Education Issues Today

Peach County, Georgia, located in south-central Georgia, near Interstate 75 and Highway 49, was the last of 161 counties created in the state of Georgia in 1924. The county has a population of just under 24,000 people, a trifling amount compared to the 8.2 million in all of Georgia, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

Yet an interesting thing is happening in this small county that could affect the rest of Georgia, and perhaps other parts of the country: it switched to a four-day school week in response to a nearly $900,000 loss from the county's school budget.

The school system in Peach County is one of about 100 districts out of more than 15,000 throughout the country using a 4-day school week. Many of the rest of the schools on 4-day school weeks are in the rural West, but Peach County sits just a couple of hours south of Atlanta, a test case of sorts for Georgia, during a time when more and more school budgets are getting slashed throughout the country.

The idea of 4-day school weeks is not new. In fact, they have been around for decades, mostly in Western states like Wyoming and Idaho, as a way to fight rising energy prices. More recently, 4-day weeks are a growing trend in states like Colorado and Minnesota, and are being tested elsewhere in a handful of other states. Like Georgia.

Not many education experts think much of the idea of 4-day school weeks. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest school

Wow. Seriously … Wow. � Student Activism

Wow. Seriously … Wow.

March 29, 2010 in Students

It’s not often that I come across a student protest action that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard of before, but this is one of those days.

Last Wednesday student activists and others at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, a Canadian university some seventy miles northwest of Seattle, held a teach-out on “food democracy” and sustainability issues. There was music, a slate of speakers, pamphlets to read, and tea. At the end of the event the group planted a garden.

On the lawn.

In front of the library.

They ripped up the sod, built some raised beds, and planted a variety of vegetables and other native plants. They planted, they mulched, they

Thousands offer opinions on education reforms

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-30 01:05

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BEIJING - Thousands of Chinese have submitted opinions and recommendations on a draft government blueprint for education reform and development since it was published on February 28.

When the document on medium and long-term national educational reform and development was closed to public submissions on Sunday, the Ministry of Education had received 27,855 items, said a statement on the ministry's website.

Of the total, 8,317 came in the form of e-mails, 1,064 in letters, and the remainder in posts on the message board on the website.

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In addition, the work office in charge of the blueprint itself collected 2.49 million recommendations and opinions from media reports and the Internet.

The message board listed 23 areas for public comment, but the two topics of pre-primary education and nine-year compulsory education attracted the most posts, each topping 3,000.

The comments covered a variety of concerns, such as a standard curriculum, lack of funding for rural schools and when to start teaching English.

The work office was still processing the su

Schools Matter: Cliffside, NJ Students Walk Out to Protest Teacher Cuts

Cliffside, NJ Students Walk Out to Protest Teacher Cuts

by Jim Horn

From NorthJersey.com:

The 45-minute protest by hundreds of students included some stinging criticism of Governor Christie’s plan to slash state education aid as part of his attempt to balance the upcoming state budget.
“Right now, he’s creating a fence around our future,” said 17-year-old senior Barbara Hernandez of Fairview, who called the aid cuts misguided.
The governor said later Friday that he believed the teacher’s union had orchestrated the walkout.
“They’re being used,” Christie said, when asked if students should face consequences for the protest. “I don’t blame the kids at all. Those kids are victims. They’re pawns, unfortunately for them.”
Student organizers and a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said teachers pleaded with the students over the school's loudspeaker not to walk out.
“Our members didn't encourage this, they didn't plan this, they had nothing to do with it," said NJEA spokesman Steve Baker. "This is just another example of the governor tying to play politics with education.
Cliffside Park school officials are considering layoffs of 45 staff, including about 20 support staff and custodians,

Local News | 9 Wash. districts get school improvement grants | Seattle Times Newspaper

9 Wash. districts get school improvement grants

State officials say nine school districts are getting federal grants to help improve student performance. The grants total about $17 million

By The Associated Press

OLYMPIA — State officials say nine school districts are getting federal grants to help improve student performance.

The grants total about $17 million. Each of the school districts will work with Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn to decide which schools will be helped, and how much money they'll each get.

The nine districts receiving grants are: Seattle, Tacoma, Marysville, Yakima, Wellpinit, Sunnyside, Highline, Grandview and Longview.

To see the list:

http://www.k12.wa.us/improvement/federalgrants.aspx

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Monday, March 29, 2010