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Sunday, April 25, 2010

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

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














VALERIE STRAUSS
The Answer Sheet
A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)

Posted at 1:00 PM ET, 04/24/2010

Senior slump: A cautionary tale

College admissions consultant Bruce Vinik writes about how hard it is for many 12th graders to focus on their school work. As May approaches, even high achieving students give serious consideration to skipping their Advanced Placement exams and heading to the beach. But senior slump is serious business to colleges. Here's a cautionary tale.
Posted by Valerie Strauss | Permalink | Comments (4)
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JAY MATHEWS
Class Struggle
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 5:30 AM ET, 04/23/2010

The irksome myth about Garfield after Escalante

There is a widespread myth that Garfield High School in East Los Angeles went downhill academically after its superstar math teacher Jaime Escalante left the school in 1991. It is important to understand why this is false. Galvanizing school cultures are maintained by many people, not just hero teachers. Great teachers like Escalante can create such cultures, but the test of their validity is what happens after that teacher leaves.
Posted by Jay Mathews | Permalink | Comments (15)
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Ed Buzz: The Nation



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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

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Ravenswood to close Stanford charter school Trustees cite poor academics, but other factors come into play

In a stunning rebuke to Stanford University, the Ravenswood City School District Board of Trustees Thursday voted to shut down a Stanford-run charter elementary school at the end of the school year, citing poor academic performance.
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Music lessons build brainpower

School districts cutting arts programs should first consider that playing an instrument activates neuro-pathways to facilitate learning. ...
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UK recognizes teachers who made a difference

Nadine Siler started her career in a one-room school in Whitley County during World War II and spent the next three decades teaching second graders. ...
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Study says number of Idaho dropouts is double what the state is reporting

The study by the United Way of Treasure Valley is designed to give the community a baseline for discussing improvements in high school graduation and college-enrollment rates over time, said Derick O'Neill, United Way president and CEO. Already it's highlighted areas that need work. ...
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The new fight club: Teens bashing teens

They are all over the Internet, short video clips with titles out of a boxing poster. "Raul vs. Pedro." "Red vs. Robert." "Twinkie vs. Saylor." ...
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Rochester school modernization plan doesn't include oldest buildings

In the most recent draft of a billion-dollar facilities modernization plan for the Rochester School District, many of the city's oldest and most dilapidated schools have been removed from the project's first phase in favor of younger buildings that require less work. ...
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CMS gives $2.7M in bonuses as its work force shrinks

Almost 900 teachers, principals and other school staff collected more than $2.7 million in bonuses during the past year, even as top administrators forfeited theirs....
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Foreigners fill ranks of local charter- school chain

Tucson's Sonoran Science Academy and its sister schools import an unusually large proportion of their staff from foreign countries, especially Turkey, in a practice that parallels the custo…...
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Teachers to appeal mass firings

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The entire staff of teachers fired in a radical attempt to improve one of the worst performing high schools in Rhode Island will appeal their dismissals to school authorities, the head of the teachers union said ...
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School for Hope

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF - Southern Sudan is one of the most impoverished places on earth, and this remote town lacks electricity and running water and is 150 miles from the nearest paved road. Yet, thanks to a remarkable young American who grew up here...
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Judge questions legitimacy of teacher layoffs

A D.C. Superior Court judge raised questions Friday about Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's justification for laying off 266 teachers in October and refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Washington Teachers' Union that is challenging the job cuts. ...
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Selective schools top survey; some other campuses beat odds

A few state-approved charter schools stood out among the best. KIPP, YES Prep and Harmony Science Academy ranked among Houston's top 10 high schools....
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Race for Reform

4.25.10 - Grier already has begun to change the interview process for hiring all staff members, using a model based on the research of Martin Haberman. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor emeritus has spent three decades studying the qualities of educators who best serve disadvantaged students...
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'Show Me the Money' -- for Special Education!

4.25.10 - GREG GROOGAN - A sizable chunk was set aside for Houston schools, within that chunk a $43 million one-time, windfall specifically for special education. That equates to almost $2,600 for each of the district's roughly 16,000 challenged students. ...
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Further pay cuts looming for teachers

EAST PROVIDENCE — On the heels of major unilateral cuts in teacher pay and benefits last year, the School Committee intends to reduce teachers’ salaries by another 3 percent to help close an anticipated $2.5-million budget gap for the current fiscal year. ...
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NorthJersey.com: While Christie battles NJEA, candidates look for cover

NorthJersey.com: While Christie battles NJEA, candidates look for cover

Stile: While Christie battles NJEA, candidates look for cover
Sunday, April 25, 2010
By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST
The Bergen County GOP freeholder candidates are less-than-enthusiastic foot soldiers in Governor Christie's war with the New Jersey Education Association.
In fact, they are doing their best to steer clear of it.
The candidates — Maura DeNicola of Franklin Lakes, Frank Valenzuela of Rochelle Park and John Felice of River Edge — are not marching in lock step with Christie's battle plans.
Christie, for example, refuses to negotiate with union leaders until Bergen Education Association President Joseph Coppola is fired or resigns over the now infamous "prayer" wishing for the governor's death.
While Christie called for Coppola's head on a platter, the freeholders chose instead to slap him on the wrist in a statement. Yes, the statement read, Coppola's e-mail was "out of the bounds of decent political discourse" and set a bad example for kids, but it was time to "move past the furor" so that everybody can begin "focusing on education issues." There is no call for his resignation.
Christie delivers red-meat rhetoric, portraying the union leaders as "bullies" and "thugs" who wield power from their "palace on State Street." The freeholders offer good-government milquetoast and avoid slamming the NJEA. And instead of depicting teachers as overpaid and over-pampered drains on property tax payers, the freeholders tout them as valuable watchdogs.
"The teachers know where the waste is in their school districts," DeNicola said. "The teachers were instrumental in uncovering the waste in the Bergen County Vocational High School, and I am sure there are
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Schools Matter: Submitted to Science

Schools Matter: Submitted to Science

Submitted to Science

by skrashen
Submitted to Science
Taylor et. al. (Science vol 328, April 23) compared identical twins in different classes in grades 1 and 2. The twin in a class that made better gains on a reading test made better gains than the co-twin in the other class. This shows, the researchers claim, that instruction is a stronger force than genetics for learning to read.
The reading test asked children to pronounce texts rapidly and accurately, without necessarily understanding them. Reading is about comprehension, not pronunciation. Prof. Elaine Garan (2001, Phi Delta Kappan 82(7),

Reading is about understanding, not pronouncing

by skrashen
Sent to the New York Times, April 24
Reading is about understanding, not pronouncing

A Florida State study of twins in grades 1 and 2 claimed that "Better Teachers Help Children Read Faster" (April 22).

"Better teachers" were those whose students gained more on a test of pronouncing texts rapidly and accurately, without necessarily understanding them. Instruction that prepares students for these kinds of tests consists largely of intensive, heavy phonics. Prof. Elaine Garan of California State University Fresno has shown that heavy
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April’s “The Best…” Lists | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

April’s “The Best…” Lists | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

April’s “The Best…” Lists

Filed under monthly best lists
Here’s my monthly round-up of “The Best…” lists I’ve posted in April (along with a couple I wrote in late March after I had published the January “round-up”):

Adaptions And Survival






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Rendell campaigns in area for more school aid | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/24/2010

Rendell campaigns in area for more school aid | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/24/2010

Rendell campaigns in area for more school aid

By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
As New Jersey and other states make drastic cuts in education programs and staff, Gov. Rendell stopped by several schools in the Philadelphia suburbs on Friday to rally support for continued increases in state school spending.
In Kennett Square, Hatboro, and Doylestown, he asked school officials, students, and residents to "e-mail, fax or write a letter or make a phone call" in support of his proposed 6.4 percent increase in the state's main subsidy for local schools.
When he first took office, Rendell said, "I pledged that I would be the lobbyist for the children of Pennsylvania, and . . . that's what I've been." He has been making similar pitches in other parts of the state.
"I believe with all my heart and soul that it is our moral obligation to provide an educational system that will allow each and every child to reach his or her potential," he added.
Largely at Rendell's insistence, lawmakers passed a budget last year that increased education spending, with the help of federal economic stimulus money. Rendell wants to increase funding by $355 million this year, using state money and the final part of the stimulus funds. That would lead to education gains and help districts largely avoid the kind of meltdowns seen in other states, he said.
The Democratic-controlled House has passed a budget with the education spending Rendell wants. The GOP-led Senate has not set a time frame for consideration. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
The governor told school audiences that the state might have enough money this year to fund the budget without new revenues.
But to make sure, he called on the legislature to enact new taxes on the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, and on cigars and smokeless tobacco.
Rendell's proposed budget would fund the third year of a six-year plan to increase basic education spending by


L. Merion school official to turn over computer

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Steve Lopez: Cutting music and arts instruction to save money is shortsighted - latimes.com

Steve Lopez: Cutting music and arts instruction to save money is shortsighted - latimes.com

Music lessons build brainpower

School districts cutting arts programs should first consider that playing an instrument activates neuro-pathways to facilitate learning.

To those who suggest, as many do, that my brain doesn't seem to function very effectively at times, I know exactly what's wrong with me.

And I blame my parents.

Never during my upbringing did I hear the words that so many millions of children dread:

"You're going to take piano lessons, and you're going to like them."

My parents never played any instruments, and the only music in my house was TV-show theme songs. Sure, there were music classes in my Northern California schools, but with no encouragement or curiosity, I missed the boat.

So what does any of that have to do with my limited brainpower?

A lot, judging by a growing body of research, and by some conversations I had recently at Santa Monica High. All of which I bring up in connection with layoff notices received by 10 music teachers in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

Measure A on the May ballot would add $198 per parcel each year to local property taxes to make up for state funding cuts, which have cost the district $10 million in each of the last two years. In the short run, the money would be used to save 70 teaching jobs district-wide, including the 10 music positions. It would also keep class sizes from shooting up. But it needs two-thirds support for passage, which will be no cinch in tough times.

All of which takes me back to April 14, when David Robertson, a Santa Monica High alum (1976), returned to campus, made a pitch for Measure A and was treated like a returning hero.

Robertson, one of the brightest conductors in the world of classical music, was in town to lead his St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a Disney Hall performance that night. But he stopped by SaMo High first to hang with members of the school's premier orchestra and hear them play Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and Bernstein's Overture to "Candide."

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