Monday, April 26, 2010

Schools try fundraisers to save music, sports, small classes - San Jose Mercury News

Schools try fundraisers to save music, sports, small classes

Posted: 04/25/2010 07:43:12 PM PDT

Updated: 04/25/2010 10:24:59 PM PDT

The turnout was small but the enthusiasm huge as musicians — young and younger — put out their collective hats to raise money Sunday for music and other programs in the Alum Rock Union School District.

The sparse attendance at the fundraiser, which featured the Alum Rock Jazz Band and the Funk Train Xpress, a rhythm-and-blues/soul group that includes Alum Rock band alumni, illustrated the challenges facing schools, especially those serving Silicon Valley's poor.

Although several dozen people showed up, the $20 requested donation deterred many low-income parents in East Side communities served by Alum Rock, sponsors said. And other events on a busy weekend competed for the residents' time.

From PTAs to school district foundations, groups are staging fundraisers to try to stave off the wolf at schoolhouse doors, as California schools draw up their 2010-11 budgets and face the deepest cuts in decades.

Also on the East Side on Sunday, more than 1,000 people walked and ran a 5K course to raise funds for sports in

News > Education

Schools try fundraisers to save music, sports, small classes

School furloughs leave parents in the lurch

Learning to read: Genes play biggest role but teachers matter, study says

Fisher: Reading for those who can't

Late SJSU prof's 'greenhouse' to go on sale

National Hispanic University in E. San Jose sold to for-profit college chain

Volcanic fallout: Dozens of Los Gatos High School musicians stranded in Germany

Psychedelics conference describes the long strange trip to the lab

California's university system: What went wrong?

Forty wild horses and burros gallop into the big city to be auctioned off to the public

San Jose State to lay off 76 staff and eliminate 49 positions in budget crunch

To cut costs, SJSU to lay off 76 staff and eliminate 49 positions

Oakland teachers to stage one-day strike over contract dispute | California Watch

Oakland teachers to stage one-day strike over contract dispute

April 26, 2010 | Corey G. Johnson

Teachers in Oakland have announced they will go on strike this week, becoming the second group of instructors to walk out of classrooms in protest to budget cuts.

The strike at the Oakland Unified School District is slated for Thursday and will last for one day, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The teachers' protest follows a controversial school board vote last week. Without teacher input, the board approved new contracts for the district's teachers that stripped instructors of salary raises.

District officials said the vote was necessary because of a $85 million budget shortfall. The ban on raises could save the district about $3 million, according to the Chronicle.

Tony Smith, superintendent of Oakland Unified, said he was committed to keeping salaries and benefits at current levels, but would seek to make up the other $82 million by instituting layoffs, cutting programs and possibly closing several schools.

The local teachers' union, Oakland Education Association, had been negotiating with the district for roughly two years over the contracts before last week's sudden turn of events.

The union accused the district of wasting millions and charged it with violating a state law

Most "Distinguished Schools" centered near Bay Area, Southern California

by Mark S. Luckie

Which California counties have the most schools designated as Distinguished Schools? Find out with our infographic.

Government questions legality of unpaid internships | The Pitt News

Government questions legality of unpaid internships

|More

By Mollie Durkin / Staff Writer

published: Sun, 25 Apr, 2010

Attention, interns: Not getting paid for routine coffee runs and copy making might not just be a pain. It might also be illegal.

State labor officials in Oregon, California and other states are cracking down on unpaid internships. Some employers have even been fined for violating minimum wage laws for the unethical treatment of interns, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, sparking a nationwide discussion about how much unpaid work is too much.

Interns are often afraid to file complaints because they don’t want to cause trouble, Ben Bratman, an associate professor of legal writing at Pitt’s law school, said. They might also fear that getting ahead without the internship will be impossible.

“This is the reality that always exists with issues in the employment setting,” Bratman said. “Whether it’s an intern, a trainee or an applicant, employees are unlikely to complain about potential violations because they fear retaliation from superiors, or developing a reputation that isn’t going to help their long-term advancement.”

Bratman said it is important for interns to know what is legal and what is not, so they can distinguish if they are treated fairly — and legally. He said there are many gray areas when it comes to unpaid internships, but there are still a few rules for interns to keep in mind.

“If someone is labeled as an employee, then they have to be paid at least minimum wage,” Bratman said.

He added that employers can classify interns as “trainees,” and if they do, they don’t have to pay them.

To clarify the issue, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division created a set of six criteria under the Fair

Local teacher unions criticize good teacher/bad teacher legislation - DailyBulletin.com

Local teacher unions criticize good teacher/bad teacher legislation

By James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer

Created: 04/25/2010 09:11:45 PM PDT

To Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some education leaders, a bill by state Sen. Bob Huff, R-Walnut, is a common-sense measure aimed at helping school districts keep good teachers and more easily remove bad ones.

But teachers unions see the bill, which was approved last week by the state Senate Education Committee, as an attack on the protections that shield teachers from age discrimination and retaliation.

"We see it as an attack on due process," said Tyra Weis, president of Associated Pomona Teachers.

"It takes objectivity out of the process," said Rebecca Harper, president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association.

The most contentious parts of Huff's bill, Senate Bill 955, would make it easier for districts to fire teachers and allow districts to consider teacher effectiveness and other factors when deciding which teachers to lay off during difficult times.

Under current state law, with a few exceptions, districts must hand out layoffs based solely on seniority - that is, the most recently hired teachers would be the first to be laid off.

"It's not a good way to make a decision about who is teaching our kids," Huff said.

Schwarzenegger has touted the bill, saying current law "takes away the flexibility that school districts have" and "tells them that even if a teacher is effective and even if a teacher is fantastic ... none of that matters when it comes to layoffs."

But Harper said seniority should remain the chief criterion when deciding who gets

Courtney Cox-Arquette, Chris Klein rally to support art education | OnTheRedCarpet.com

Courtney Cox-Arquette, Chris Klein rally to support art education

Monday, April 26, 2010

Posted by Jacob Burch at 12:37:47 AM

Share4 |

Buzz up! |

ShareThis |

| Comments (0)

Courtney Cox, Chris Klein, and others rally to support arts education in California schools.

Celebrities know how to put their star power behind a cause they believe in, and that was certainly the case this month at the Los Angeles Antique Show benefitting P.S. Arts.

Courtney Cox-Arquette, Chris Klein, Dita Von Teese, Abigail Spencer, Steven Weber, Kate Linder, and Marcia Cross all came out to support the program, which focuses on restoring arts education to public schools in California.

“As an artist, I want to help children be inspired the way I was inspired,” said Klein. “This something that kids need. This is something that kids deserve. This is something that kids want.”

“Art is everything. I think. It’s just really important for kids to have outlets,” said Cox-Arquette.

For more information on the program, and how you can give back, just check out the P.S. Arts website athttp://www.psarts.org/.

Teachers consider year-round education | The Valley Vanguard

Teachers consider year-round education

by Noah Essenmacher

Vanguard Copy Editor

April 26, 2010 —

Graduates in education are unlikely to find themselves working in year-round school environments — unless they plan on working in other states.

According to the National Association for Year-Round Education (NAYRE), a year-round curriculum reorganizes the traditional calendar by redistributing some summer vacation days. This results in “shorter, more frequent vacation throughout the year.”

The association lists only five Michigan schools going year-round. The balanced calendar is more common in states such as California, which has about 270 listed schools, and Arizona, which has about 80.

So why are so few Michigan schools in session year-round compared to the number on the traditional calendar? In a special report for The Center for Michigan, Chris Andrews suggests that Michigan law discourages year-round education.

“The Legislature enacted a law several years ago that bans schools from starting before Labor Day, a response to tourism industry complaints that earlier starts were costing them business,” he writes. “Yearround schools must get a waiver from the Department of Education to open sooner.”

The city of Jackson’s Hunt Elementary School could be joining the ranks of balanced calendar

Polarizing educator talks education : The Collegian Online

Polarizing educator talks education

By Thaddeus Miller | April 26, 2010 (3 hours ago)

ShareThis

Post classifieds

An elementary education theorist from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Bill Ayers, visited Fresno State Friday as a guest of one of the school’s clubs.

The controversial figure spoke to an audience in the Satellite Student Union (SSU), where the event was moved to accommodate a larger crowd. Ayers challenged the educators and education students in attendance to meet their students’ individual needs, and not just see them as their grade level.

Outside of the SSU, about 12 protestors stood holding signs that said things like, “Support our constitution, not communism.”

Ayers was a member of an anti-war group called Weather Underground in the early 1970s, which took responsibility for bombings around the country during the Vietnam War.

After his speech and book signing, Ayers presented a film called “Central Station” to the Cineculture class and club, which sponsored his visit.

It was reported that his visit to Fresno’s Tower District on Thursday was also met with some protest.

Ayers sat down with The Collegian for a five-minute interview.

Q: Are you familiar with the student activism surrounding budget cuts in California?

A: My younger brother is a doctoral student at Cal [University of California, Berkeley], and he’s been part of it.

OC teacher strike continues as weekend talks end - San Jose Mercury News

OC teacher strike continues as weekend talks end

The Associated Press

Posted: 04/25/2010 09:41:07 PM PDT

Updated: 04/25/2010 09:41:07 PM PDT

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO—A teacher's strike at Orange County's second-largest school district will spill into another school week.

California Teachers Association spokesman Bill Guy says after negotiating into the night Sunday, officials from the Capistrano Unified school district and the union representing its 2,200 teachers failed to reach a consensus and picket lines will continue.

Union spokesman Bill Guy says some progress was made over the weekend, and talks are set to resume at 11 a.m. Monday.

Almost three-quarters of the 52,000 students in the South Orange County district stayed home from school Friday after nearly 90 percent of the district's teachers went on strike.

They walked out of classrooms Thursday because of a 10.1 percent pay cut.

The union has said it will accept the cut, but only if it is temporary.

Linda Chavez: California dumbs down tests | stude - Featured Columnists - Appeal-Democrat

Linda Chavez: California dumbs down tests | stude - Featured Columnists - Appeal-Democrat:

Linda Chavez: California dumbs down tests

Comments | Recommend

April 26, 2010 12:01:00 AM

When it comes to education trends, as California goes, so goes the nation. Which is all the more reason to be concerned about the latest effort in California to dumb down standards. The University of California's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) has launched another salvo in its long-running war against the SAT, the test used by many colleges and universities to assess academic achievement among high school seniors. This is only the latest in a series of moves by BOARS against the SAT, but this one may be a stalking horse to eliminate standardized tests in general, especially if they conflict with the goal of promoting racial and ethnic diversity.

BOARS has already eliminated a requirement that University of California applicants take at least two subject-matter tests in addition to the SAT Reasoning Test. Now BOARS is taking aim at the SAT directly. What makes the action more suspicious is that BOARS' own report notes that the SAT-R was developed specifically in response to testing principles it promulgated and that the new test "adds significant gains in predictive power of first year grades at UC." Nonetheless, BOARS is now recommending that students forgo the SAT in favor of the less-

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, April 26, 2010