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Saturday, May 1, 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 7:00 AM ET, 05/ 1/2010

Should high schools eliminate honors at graduation?

A high school student writes that high school graduations should honor all students equally, and that icons on programs and honor cords should be eliminated.
Posted by Valerie Strauss | Permalink | Comments (4)
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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

SATs pressure turns children off reading, say authors

Almost 100 children's authors and illustrators have signed a letter supporting heads and teachers in their campaign to get rid of national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds.
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Big crowd likely at Phila. teacher-hiring fair

Philadelphia School District officials expect a heavy turnout at a Saturday teacher-recruitment fair. About 1,200 people turned up for a similar event earlier this month, and Estelle Matthews, district human resources chief, said she expected a large crowd. ...
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Charter school advocates hope for bill to lift charter cap to get Race to the Top grants

As the state moves toward competing for round two of the federal Race to the Top grants, charter school advocates are hoping a compromise bill to lift the cap will sail through Albany....
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Rally held to combat increase in school violence

Hundreds of Miami-Dade middle school students were challenged to spread kindness at an anti-violence rally at University of Miami in Coral Gables. ...
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LAUSD parcel tax measure drive gets a slow start

Just five weeks before the June 8 election, backers of a parcel tax to support Los Angeles Unified schools have only raised $100,000 and acknowledge they face a tough fight persuading voters to support the measure amid a weak economy....
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These grads beat the odds

In every graduating class, there are tales of inspiration -- people who overcome incredible odds or tackle big dreams in their quest to earn a degree....
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The secret to stopping a bully?

After decades of research, no one has yet found a way to reduce bullying in US schools. But in the shadows, you just might find the solution....
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Cuts precede tax attempts

Twenty-two area school districts are on Tuesday's ballot asking voters for money during one of the roughest economic times in decades. ...
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Arizona bill targets ban on ethnic studies

5.1.10 - The bill applies to all public and charter schools, from kindergarten through high school. It would ban classes that: Promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, Promote resentment toward a race or class of people....
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Delaware schools: Chess rookies

Kindergartners joined students hunched over chessboards after school this week at Pope John Paul II Elementary School near Penny Hill, but three of the little ones weren't merely learning the game ...
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Heavily accented teachers removed from Arizona classrooms

School districts in Arizona are under orders from the state's Department of Education to remove from classrooms teachers who speak English with a very heavy accent or whose speech is ungrammatical....
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School crackdown on dirty dancing prompts alternate prom in Ohio

NEWARK, Ohio (AP) — Students say scores of people have bought tickets for an alternate prom they organized after an Ohio school said it wouldn't allow suggestive dancing at the real prom....
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More Pre-K Pupils Qualify for Gifted Programs

The minimum score for the most competitive of the programs, which have 300 slots, was achieved by 1,788 students....
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Bill Gates visits Science Leadership Academy

Inside the science lab, the visitor leaned forward, listening to teenagers describe their work - a biodiesel project, a windmill, distillation systems that may be used to purify water in Sierra Leone someday. ...
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Schools slowly break from cookie-cutter image of families

In a Northwest Washington school last weekend, I listened as about 150 people came to the Rainbow Families conference to navigate the tricky but swiftly changing waters of parenting in a nontraditional family. ...
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The Perimeter Primate: Grannan: On eliminating "bad" workers

The Perimeter Primate: Grannan: On eliminating "bad" workers

Grannan: On eliminating "bad" workers

by The Perimeter Primate
Blaming teachers is the current hottest fad in “education reform,” and the sub-fad is pronouncing that getting rid of “bad teachers” would magically solve all our problems.
Of course there are some truly problematic teachers who shouldn’t be teaching at all, so let’s note that right off the bat. But what I’m addressing here is the frequently repeated claim that the private sector just efficiently gets rid of the bad and rewards the good and doesn’t have these problems. A parent posted the comment below on one of our local education listserves in response to one of those claims. I’m reposting it anonymously with her permission.
“I have to chime in about the supposed efficiencies of the private sector. My husband works for a large corporation that, like so many, first underwent "extreme hiring" during the boom and then underwent massive layoffs.

“If the private sector was so good at weeding those who perform poorly from those who do well, you'd think only the best and the brightest would be left, but that isn't true. Certainly he works with a lot of great people, but there is still dead wood, including a couple in management. Usually these
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Schools Matter: Hedge Fund-Backed Reformers Dumping $50k into Buffalo Race

Schools Matter: Hedge Fund-Backed Reformers Dumping $50k into Buffalo Race

Hedge Fund-Backed Reformers Dumping $50k into Buffalo Race

by Kenneth Libby
It's hardly a secret that Democrats for Education Reform, which is closely tied to Education Reform Now, is funded largely by hedge fund millionaires looking to eliminate teacher unions and expand the pay-for-test-score penal pedagogy while privatizing education via charter schools. They've pushed the merit-pay bill in Colorado, lamented the defeat of SB6 in Florida, and are not training their sights on a closer-to-home target, the Buffalo public schools. From The Buffalo News:


Reformers pumping money into school board race

New York City group backs charter schools

By Mary B. Pasciak
NEWS EDUCATION REPORTE
A national education reform group based in New York City is pouring more than $50,000

Deputy Undersecretary Compares For-Profit (Higher) Ed. to Wall Street Firms

by Kenneth Libby
On Thursday, the Department of Education criticized for-profit higher education providers. The profiteer's stocks tumbled. According to Inside Higher Ed, Deputy Undersecretary of Education Robert Shireman compared the institutions to the Wall Street firms whose behavior led to the economic collapse and even named names of predatory companies.

However, it's not just the higher education sector at-risk because of the Wall Street-esque practices: public K-12 education, too, is one of the emerging playing fields for the casino capitalists and non-educators looking to turn a quick buck (often at the expense of the most vulnerable and least financially stable).

Case in point would be the Academy for Recording Arts in California, which recently was ripped off by a subsidiary of the corporate hucksters slanging their education "goods" for DeVry. Here's a bit from theDaily Breeze:
Half of the teachers at a financially beleaguered Hawthorne charter school were terminated
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The Educated Guess 6 districts to steer Race to the Top

The Educated Guess

6 districts to steer Race to the Top

Posted in Common Core standards, Race to the Top
A half-dozen school districts , including Los Angeles Unified, will direct California’s second-round application to the federal Race to the Top competition. They must not only fight a tight deadline – June 1 for submission – but also the low odds of moving from 27th among states in the first round to the top 12 or 15 to get a piece of the remaining $3 billion.
On Friday, Gov. Schwarzenegger gave the go-ahead for Race to the Top, after weeks of vacillation and a personal pitch from Education Secretary Arne Duncan not to drop out. In moving ahead, administration officials also signaled a different approach. They recognized that writing a plan to appeal to as many risk-averse districts and local unions as possible is a losing strategy. Instead, they’ll hand the reins to a urban few districts that are comfortable with the reforms that Duncan is requiring. (Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on April 30th, 2010

Court slaps state board’s wrist in algebra case

Posted in Common Core standards, STEM, State Board of Education
The state school boards’ and administrators’ associations have won a two-year old suit against the State School Board over a controversy involving eighth-grade algebra. The impact of the decision will be minor, though the decision does serve as a warning to the State Board to follow the state’s open-meeting law.
At issue was the State School Board’s decision to require school districts to start testing students in Algebra I as the state’s sole eighth-grade assessment.
The California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators opposed making algebra universal for eighth graders, as did the California Teachers Association and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who also joined the suit. They sued not over the decision but over the process, arguing that the State Board failed to give the public adequate notice of its impending action to decide the issue, as required by the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. The associations wanted an opportunity to explore the full implications of the decision on students and school districts.
(Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on April 30th, 2010

Math training’s low numbers

Posted in Research, STEM, Teacher Development
Leaders in math education in Silicon Valley are concerned that school boards and the public will dismiss the importance of teacher training as a result the dismal results from a much publicized study whose findings were released earlier this month.
“It is ludicrous to conclude that professional development is not important,” said David Foster, executive director of the Noyce Foundation-backed Silicon Valley Math Initiative.
Data is overwhelming showing that effective teaching produces student achievement, he said. “I am worried that parents will see professional development as expensive and not worth it.”
(Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on April 30th, 2010
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Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Critics: Art-exhibit plan 'egregious' while budget cuts imperil Sacramento County kids
By Marjie Lundstrom - Published: 12:00 am
A proposal to spend more than $500,000 in public money on art exhibits for children is being condemned by some Sacramento leaders and child advocates, who consider the plan an outrage while life-and-death social services programs falter.
San Juan keeps 23-1 ratio of pupils to teacher in K-3
Published: 12:00 am
San Juan Unified School District will preserve class sizes at 23 students to one teacher in kindergarten through third grades for the next school year.
California to apply for education funds through Race to the Top
By Laurel Rosenhall - Published: 9:48 am
California will once again try to get federal education money through the so-called "Race to the Top" competition among states, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced this morning.
California mayors gather to discuss student dropout rate
By Melody Gutierrez - Published: Friday, April 30 2010 - 12:00 am
Mayors from across California met in Sacramento on Thursday to discuss strategies for addressing the state's high public school dropout rates.
UC Center Sacramento will reopen
By Laurel Rosenhall - Published: Friday, April 30 2010 - 12:00 am
The University of California's center in downtown Sacramento is reopening to students this summer after budget cuts prompted the university to suspend the program last fall.
Cordova High School wins $1,500 online prize
Published: Friday, April 30 2010 - 12:00 am
Another Sacramento- region school has won the grand prize in an online voting competition.

5M30VO
Bee readers pledge $21,000 to help woman fulfill college dream
By Melody Gutierrez - Updated: 6:29 am
The donations allow West Campus High School student Kiki Vo, who was injured in a house fire and has lost both her parents, to commit to attending UC Berkeley.
School secretary honored with annual worker award
Published: Friday, April 30 2010 - 12:00 am
School secretary Cindy Mangan received a tiara and sash from co-workers Wednesday after she was named a 2010 Classified School Employee of the Year by the California Department of Education.


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/education/#ixzz0mh06JiDi
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