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

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

Cash for grades gets some results in D.C.

Some groups of middle schoolers raise performance in Harvard study

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D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee (Benjamin J. Myers).

Sorry Geoffrey Canada, but failure IS an option, a reality, and even a boon

My guest is Diana Senechal, who taught for four years in the New York City public schools and is writing a book about the loss of solitude in schools and culture.

By Diana Senechal
Calling for more school choice, Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, began his March 27 New York Daily News op-ed with the following:

"Visitors to my public charter school often ask how the students feel about the signs on the walls that say: ’Failure is not an option.’ They are surprised to hear that the signs are really for the staff." 

There are two ethical problems with declaring that failure is not an option. First of all, failure exists everywhere, chosen or not, and to deny it is to deny reality. Second, without the option of failure, we would have no freedom of will; we would have to succeed at everything, and the success would lose meaning. 

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JAY MATHEWS

Class Struggle

What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 5:30 AM ET, 04/ 9/2010

Principal keeps student in AP class she rejected

I can hear some of you mumbling: What is Mathews doing? His nutty campaign for AP and International Baccalaureate and his love of anything to which the word rigor can be attached is the reason why educators push this stuff too hard. Is he finally confessing his sins of overdoing challenging courses?

Continue reading this post »

Ed Buzz: The Nation

• Schools tackle teacher-on-teacher bullying (USA Today)
• English-language learners making gains (Education Week)
• Researchers argue over Head Start study (Education Week)
• States skeptical about Race to Top contest (New York Times)
• School law clinics face backlash (New York Times)
• L.A. allows students to stay in other districts (Los Angeles Times)

Ed Buzz: The Region

• Loudoun looking to slash positions, up fees (WTOP)
• Kids at Md. school get tainted milk (Fox 5)
• McDonnell signs college lab school legislation (Richmond Times Dispatch)
• Schools reduce police presence (The Examiner)
• Montgomery College, schools brace for cuts (The Gazette)
• P.G. County PTA reinstated (The Gazette)
• Md. GOP: Don't raise dropout age (The Gazette)
• Birth-control center finds home at T.C. Williams (Alexandria Gazette Packet)
• Fairfax teacher quits over embezzlement charges (Examiner)
• MoCo teachers say they are overwhelmed (Gazette)
• Alex. considers new school boundaries(Examiner)
• PG parents fear impact of school cuts(WJLA)
• Md. lawmakers favor ed cuts (Baltimore Sun)

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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

Working Financial Literacy in With the Three R’s

While more states are beginning to require personal finance instruction, there aren’t enough that do, experts say, and the quality is inconsistent.

Full story

Sorry Geoffrey Canada, but failure IS an option, a reality, and even a boon

Calling for more school choice, Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, began a recent newspaper op-ed with the following: "Visitors to my public charter school often...

Full story

Schmoke was key to D.C. teachers contract deal

Former Baltimore mayor brought feuding sides back together ...

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Gates grant and earlier changes put Hillsborough schools in sweet spot

Teachers all over Florida are watching in anger as state lawmakers upend their profession, but not teachers in Hillsborough County. They alone have been given an exception....

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New law planned to boost Pa. charter oversight

Leaders of the state Senate Education Committee said Friday that they would introduce a bill in Harrisburg to address the latest allegations of fiscal mismanagement that have rocked the Philadelphia charter school community...

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Harvard-based pay-for-study experiment shows students incentivized to actions, not results

The Harvard-based study led by former city Education Department consultant Roland Fryer examined the program he spearheaded, which poured $6.3 million in private funds into 261 schools in four cities....

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Panel hears ideas on next S.D. schools chief

Some parents, teachers and others who have been tapped to help craft a want ad of sorts for the next San Diego schools chief know what they don’t want more than anything else. ...

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Granite unveils teacher Web rules

Granite teachers soon could be required to give their students a cyber cold shoulder. The Salt Lake Valley school district is considering a new social-networking policy that would forbid employees from fraternizing with...

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Charter-school report puts blame on School District

City Controller Alan Butkovitz said Thursday that the Philadelphia School District had failed to monitor 67 charter schools, leaving both it and the taxpayers "extremely vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse." ...

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Butkovitz: Charter schools spending like it's their money

City Controller Alan Butkovitz yesterday blasted the Philadelphia School District's Charter School Office for failing "to monitor charter schools," which spend millions in taxpayers' dollars....

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Florida House passes landmark teacher merit-pay bill

The Florida House passed a landmark teacher merit-pay bill early this morning that aims to put the state at the forefront of a controversial national push to tie teacher compensation to student performance. ...

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Clark County teachers face peer pressure on furloughs

Clark County’s teachers, resisting calls for wage concessions, may now start feeling pressure to buckle from an unlikely source: their colleagues in Washoe County, home of the state’s second-largest teachers association. ...

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Districts Report Grim Outlook as Stimulus Fades

Layoffs, program cuts, and other drastic steps loom as economic-stimulus aid dries up, a survey of school administators finds. ...

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New program to recognize Online Teacher of the Year

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) have teamed up on a new awards program that will recognize an outstanding online teacher for his or her exceptional contributions to virtual... ...

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R.I. Ed. Chief: Failing Schools Need Sweeping Change

Failing schools are a drain on the state's already sluggish economy and require wholesale transformation, state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist told lawmakers. ...

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Ankeny students learn a different kind of writing

Ankeny students learn a different kind of writing First-grade students at Westwood Elementary School in Ankeny have been creating booklets together during a new program called ...

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Deputy uses Taser on students, apparently at their request

A Lake County sheriff's deputy used a Taser on about 30 high school students Thursday morning during a career fair on the playground of Lake County High School in Leadville. ...

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Fighting the corporate sludge

4.9.10 - You might remember ‘Jamal’ from my article on Detroit Public schools, “Corporate Barbarians at the Gate: Wal-Mart internships at Detroit Schools”...

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Jay Mathews: Principal keeps student in AP class she rejected

I can hear some of you mumbling: What is Mathews doing? His nutty campaign for AP and International Baccalaureate and his love of anything to which the word rigor can be attached is the reason why educators push this stuff too hard. Is he finally confessing his sins of overdoing challenging courses? ...

Full story

Teaching the Civil War: Debate still alive

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s apology for leaving slavery out of a proclamation declaring April as Confederate History Month cannot gloss over the fact that the issue is still alive....

Full story

Schools Matter: Oligarchs and Hedge Fund Managers Trying to Save Radioactive Rhee

Schools Matter: Oligarchs and Hedge Fund Managers Trying to Save Radioactive Rhee

Oligarchs and Hedge Fund Managers Trying to Save Radioactive Rhee

by Jim Horn

The top 25 hedge fund managers took home an average of $1 billion each last year, according to Les Leopold. What would that buy in terms of education?

In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people "earned," we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That's some value.

And so it is heartwarming to see the deep generosity of these grand thievers going to fund the pay-per-score plan that the Billionaire Boys Club has sold to DC teachers, who have not had a pay raise in 3 years. Of course, the IRS is paying them for their generosity. From Bill Turque:

A Houston foundation created by a billionaire hedge fund manager who began his career as a trader for Enron would finance part of the proposed contract between DCPS and the Washington Teachers' Union. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation would provide $10 million of the $64.5 million Rhee has assembled to pay for teacher raises and performance bonuses under the tentative agreement announced this week.
While a couple of the names in the private funding mix, Eli and Edythe Broad and the Walton Family Foundation, are highly recognizable brands in the world of educational philanthropy, the Arnolds are relatively new players. Their IRS Form 990 for 2008 lists a $5 million donation to Baylor 

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by Jim Horn

Click slide to enlarge.

The Stimulus Test and Title I � The Quick and the Ed

The Stimulus Test and Title I � The Quick and the Ed

The Stimulus Test and Title I

by Ben Miller

In the midst of an interesting memo defending President Obama’s decision to propose level funding Title I for next year, Raegan Miller of the Center for American Progress raises the point that many states and school districts don’t need increased Title I money because they are still receiving additional stimulus dollars. That’s a good point and makes a lot of sense–no need to spend more when there are already federal funds available.
But while the stimulus funds may be enough to justify flat-funding Title I for next year, it also hints at some important looming questions in all levels of federal education spending—what to do when the stimulus money expires.
As Miller notes, school districts and states still have some remaining funds from the $10 billion provided for Title I in the stimulus that would supplement the flat funded level of $14.49 billion for Title I. According to Jennifer Cohen, my former colleague at the New America Foundation, only about 24 percent of Title I stimulus funds had been disbursed by March 5. Coupled with the fact that up to 15 percent of the $10 billion can be reserved for the

Best Writing Sites | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Best Writing Sites | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Best Writing Sites

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here’s another review of some of my “The Best…” lists. Today, I’d like to share a recap of the ones related to writing. Again, I hope you find them helpful. Because of some technical issues that I’m too lazy to fix, these particular links might not work well if you’re subscribing to this blog via email, or viewing it on Facebook. RSS Readers feeds should be fine. If you go directly to my blog, though, they’ll all work fine.
They include:

“Slavery Museum”

by Larry Ferlazzo

The Slavery Museum is a pretty impressive multimedia site that appears to be designed by students.

“Pic Ghost”

by Larry Ferlazzo

1 person liked this

Pic Ghost is a new online photo editor that lets you upload up to twenty photos at a time. It’s editing functions

Cinco de Mayo

by Larry Ferlazzo

Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, commemorates the defeat of the French by the Mexican Army in 1862. It’s a national holiday in Mexico, and is celebrated by Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans in the United States

Intriguing New Reading Site For Beginners

by Larry Ferlazzo

Everyday Life is an extraordinary interactive site for ELL’s sponsored by a North Carolina-based organization called GCF Learn Free. It’s on several of my “The Best…” lists.

“On Music”

by Larry Ferlazzo

1 person liked this

“On Music” is a new simple application that lets you search for and play music online.

Environmental Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve just revised and updated:

Weekly Address: Recovery Act Benefiting American Families During Tax Season | The White House

Weekly Address: Recovery Act Benefiting American Families During Tax Season | The White House

Weekly Address: Recovery Act Benefiting American Families During Tax Season

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama spoke to the American people about how to take advantage of Recovery Act tax benefits ahead of Tax Day – April 15, 2010. Largely due to the Recovery Act, the average tax refund is up nearly 10 percent this year. One-third of the Recovery Act was made up of tax cuts – tax cuts that have already provided more than $160 billion in relief for families and businesses, and nearly $100 billion of that directly into the pockets of working Americans. To help taxpayers see for themselves exactly how they can benefit from Recovery Act tax credits and collect every dollar owed when they file this tax season, the White House launched a new interactive Tax Savings Tool available at www.WhiteHouse.gov/Recovery.

A fact sheet about the tax benefits in the Recovery Act is below the text.

The full audio of the address is HERE. The video can be viewed online at www.whitehouse.gov.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
April 10, 2010

All across America are good, decent folks who meet their obligations each and every day. They work hard. They support their families. They try to make an honest living the best they can. And this weekend, many are sitting down to pay the taxes they owe – not because it’s fun, but because it’s a fundamental responsibility of our citizenship.

But in tough times, when many families are having trouble just making it all work, Tax Day can seem even more daunting. This year, however, many Americans are seeing some welcome relief.

So far, Americans who have filed their taxes have discovered that the average refund is up nearly ten percent this year – to an all-time high of about $3,000. This is due in large part to the Recovery Act. In fact, one-third of the Recovery Act was made up of tax cuts – tax cuts that have already provided more than $160 billion in relief for

Eight Hillsboro School District schools will background check all volunteers under test program | OregonLive.com

Eight Hillsboro School District schools will background check all volunteers under test program | OregonLive.com

Eight Hillsboro School District schools will background check all volunteers under test program

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

April 10, 2010, 4:00AM

View full sizeBENJAMIN BRINK/The OregonianParent Robin Olafson is among the roughly dozen volunteers who help out daily Indian Hills Elementary in Hillsboro. Starting in mid-April, Hillsboro School District is testing a program that requires parent volunteers to have statewide criminal records checks. Olafson helps kindergartners Kylee Green (right) and Parker Kelson.HILLSBORO -- By the end of this school year, more volunteers will have passed through Hillsboro schools than employees.

The 2,400 teachers, secretaries, custodians and administrators have had their fingerprints taken and names checked for arrests and criminal convictions; most of the thousands of classroom volunteers and event chaperones have not.

They simply sign in at the main office, get a badge and visit a classroom to assist a teacher. Or they stop by after school to help load band instruments or hop on a bus to chaperone the drill team.

But that will change in mid-April at eight district schools, as they test a program to background check all volunteers -- from grandmas to Intel engineers.

The basic records check will not require fingerprints, but it will require a date of birth and either a Social Security number or an identification number. If it works, the district plans to expand the program to all 33 schools in the fall.

Schools are joining a growing number of organizations that check the backgrounds of their volunteers. Beaverton and Tigard-Tualatin school districts have had districtwide programs in place for at least two years.

Charter-school report puts blame on School District | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/09/2010

Charter-school report puts blame on School District | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/09/2010

Charter-school report puts blame on School District

By Martha Woodall

Inquirer Staff Writer

City Controller Alan Butkovitz said Thursday that the Philadelphia School District had failed to monitor 67 charter schools, leaving both it and the taxpayers "extremely vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse."
Releasing a long-awaited report that looks in depth at 13 charter schools and at the district's charter oversight office, Butkovitz also proposed amending state law to reduce opportunities for fraud.
"In spite of the numerous problems uncovered at individual charter schools, the biggest problem lay clearly with the school district's Charter Office," he said at a news conference. "There was a complete and total failure on the part of the Charter Office to monitor charter schools and hold them accountable for how they spend taxpayers' dollars. . . ."
Butkovitz said the report, based on a 14-month fraud investigation, disclosed "questionable practices, suspect relationships, and potential vulnerabilities." He called on the district to exercise the oversight called for by the 1997 state law that created charter schools.
As The Inquirer reported this week, investigators in Butkovitz's office found financial and ethical problems at all 13 schools they examined, including excessive salaries for chief executives, compliant boards whose members were handpicked by school chiefs, inflated rents, and rampant conflicts of interest.
Butkovitz said that except for when schools' operating charters were up for renewal every five years, the district provided only "minimal oversight" of ongoing school operations, which cost city taxpayers $300 million a year.
Benjamin W. Rayer, chief of the district's Charter Office, responded that Butkovitz's review began prior to his arrival

Christie seeks cap on N.J. public college tuition

TRENTON - Gov. Christie wants to cap tuition and fee increases at the state's four-year public colleges and universities at 4 percent, after proposing to cut the schools' state aid by nearly 18 percent.

L. Merion official acknowledges race factored in plan

Lower Merion's top school official on Thursday acknowledged instances in which racial factors figured in the sifting and ultimate selection of a controversial redistricting plan.

Annette John-Hall: Not a shortcut, 2 students find

As students at Widener University's School of Nursing, Barbara Prosser and Sabrina Whitaker were already on their way to fulfilling their dream of becoming registered nurses.

Grant to help Oakland's Fremont and Castlemont campuses - Inside Bay Area

Grant to help Oakland's Fremont and Castlemont campuses - Inside Bay Area

Grant to help Oakland's Fremont and Castlemont campuses By Kelly Rayburn and Katy Murphy Oakland Tribune Posted: 04/09/2010 06:34:41 PM PDT Updated: 04/10/2010 05:34:15 AM PDT OAKLAND — A $382,639 state grant recently awarded to the city will be used to tackle gang violence and boost graduation rates on two Oakland high school campuses, Mayor Ron Dellums' office said this week. The grant, which comes from the California Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program, is designed to help students on the Fremont and Castlemont campuses by putting them on a path to become teachers or social workers. "Too many of our young people are dying as a result of gang violence," Dellums said in a statement, adding that the effort "will allow us to wrap our arms around youth" by providing support and career opportunities and creating a caring environment at the two campuses. Specifically, the money will be used to create 70 part-time jobs for Oakland youths who will be placed in jobs in after-school programs or social service agencies as a possible first step toward becoming teachers or social workers, Dellums' office said. It also will establish facilities at the Fremont and Castlemont campuses to offer career advice to students and adults. And it will provide participating students the opportunity to enroll in a Summer Bridge program aimed at building math and literacy skills. Officials hope to reduce gang involvement by 75 percent among participating students and increase graduation rates so that 85 percent of those taking part go onto higher education. Paul Seave, director of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Office of Gang and Youth Violence Policy, said in a statement: "This project has the refreshingly high but reasonable