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Monday, May 3, 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)
JAY MATHEWS
Class Struggle
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 10:00 PM ET, 05/ 2/2010

Urban school sheds crime scene label

Has Wilson High School become too good to worry about bad news in the paper? It would seem so. The school still struggles with the effects of poverty on student performance. But the number of tardy students has dropped, attendance is up to a school record 86 percent, the percentage of black and Hispanic students on the honor roll is rising and on some academic measures, Wilson is leaving even affluent suburban schools behind.
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Ed Buzz: The Nation

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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

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Education Department changes the music

Callers to the department who are put on hold will now hear “Conjunction Junction,” a little ditty on, you guessed it, conjunctions, one of the songs that make up the “Grammar Rock” section of Schoolhouse Rock!
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Jay Mathews: Urban school sheds crime scene label

Has Wilson High School become too good to worry about bad news in the paper? It would seem so. The school still struggles with the effects of poverty on student performance. But the number of tardy students has dropped...
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Dirty secret of black-on-Asian violence is out

San Francisco's hidden truth is out. That's what community organizer Carol Mo calls the realization that Asian residents are being targeted for robberies, burglaries and intimidation by young black men....
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Sacramento area high schools OK with same-sex prom companions

A high school prom is a rite of passage that should be a source of joy, not worry, anxiety or fear, regardless of the student's relationship status or sexual orientation, say local school administrators. ...
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U.S. probe widens to 18 city charters

What began as a federal probe of a single charter school in Northeast Philadelphia two years ago has spread to at least 18 schools and may be the largest federal charter investigation in the country, experts say. ...
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Students travel to Kenya to trace Obama's roots

During the two-week Kenya trip, the class of 13 students met Obama's grandmother and donated hundreds of pens, notebooks and other supplies and games for students at the Barack Obama Secondary School in Kogelo in western Kenya. ...
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Idaho school districts study emergency cutbacks

Deep cuts in this year's education budget came with a statewide declaration of financial emergency. Now districts throughout Idaho are deciding whether to opt in....
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Publishers vie to update Texas pre-K classroom materials

Nearly a dozen publishers are trying to win the state's approval to offer updated classroom materials for pre-kindergartners — another effort to increase the quality of education for Texas' youngest students....
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Healthy meals turn school lunch into a money-loser

The french fries offered separately from the main meal for $1.50 went quickly during a recent lunch period at Wakefield High. The $2 meal designed to meet nutrition standards did not. ...
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Bobb to restore teaching program

Speaking at the University of Michigan on Saturday night, Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb announced that he will sign a contract next week to bring the well-known Teach for America program back to the city in the fall. ...
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Hoosier educators say school grading plan is unfair

Dozens of teachers and school administrators showed up at the Indiana Department of Education to offer their evaluation of a new plan to issue letter grades for their schools....
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Columnist works on furthering China connection, encouraging global economy

Tom Watkins believes U.S. students should learn Chinese rather than some of the other languages taught....
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Ms. Rhee makes the honor roll

IN THE RECENT tumult over a proposed contract for District schoolteachers, the key question has been ignored: Why is everyone in the city not working together to make sure that Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee sticks around? ...
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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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Rise & Shine: Debate on new charter school bill starts today | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Debate on new charter school bill starts today | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Debate on new charter school bill starts today

by Philissa Cramer
  • Despite the buzz around charter schools, nationally many of them aren’t that good. (Times)
  • State Senate Dems proposed a bill that would raise the charter cap. (GothamSchools, Post, Daily News)
  • Senators will begin debating the proposed bill in earnest today. (Post)
  • The Post says the bill’s measures to constrain charter schools do not amount to “poison pills.”
  • The Daily News says there should be more charter schools because teachers want to work in them.
  • The UFT’s 630 paid employees include three whose salaries top $200,000. (Post)
  • UFT President Michael Mulgrew appears to have taken to calling Joel Klein Chancellor Numbnuts. (Post)
  • LaGuardia High School could soon get metal detectors after student work was vandalized. (Post)
  • The founding principal of Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School died at 76. (Wall Street Journal)
  • More children qualified for gifted classes even as fewer applied. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, NY1)
  • Six low-income districts had so few children qualify that they won’t open gifted classes. (Daily News)
  • A disabled teacher at a Bronx school perseveres despite health problems and a broken elevator. (Times)
  • Colorado politicians are weighing a bill that would curb teacher tenure protections. (Wall Street Journal)
  • The Times says New Haven’s teacher evaluation plan shows unions and districts can work together.
  • In letters to the editor, Times readers weigh in on how school districts should evaluate teachers.
  • A New Jersey principal is asking parents to get their kids off of social networking websites. (CNN)
  • The Catholic school model of urban education is underappreciated, Joseph Berger writes. (Times)
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Republican battle cry
"Drill, baby, drill" is now, "Hush, baby, hush." (Greenwire)

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony at L.A. May Day rally
“Everyone in God’s eyes is legal...Every time we have an economic downturn, there is a new attack on immigrants.' (NYT)
McCain's bashing of immigrants
What a difference the Tea Party makes. This time McCain endorsed his state’s new immigration law as “a good tool” and “a very important step forward,” and propagandized in favor of it with his widely ridiculed televised canard that illegal immigrants were “intentionally causing accidents on the freeway.” (Frank Rich)
Report from the Venture Fund meet
Charters have also become a pet cause of what one education historian calls a billionaires’ club of

Condo in Florida still for sale

by Mike Klonsky
"Model" D.C. contract is a sham 

Back in August, 2008 I wrote about "Rhee's cynical tenure-for-pay swap." 
But the problem is, technocrat Rhee and Mayor Fenty are in league with Ownership Society privatizers bent on replacing public with privately managed (non-union) charter schools and vouchers for Catholic (non-union) schools. That means that the pay provisions of any new contract won’t be worth the paper they’re written on...

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…And What Is Your Solution? � InterACT

…And What Is Your Solution? � InterACT

…And What Is Your Solution?

by Kelly Kovacic
It is a warm and somewhat balmy evening in our nation’s capital. The standard “teacher uniform” of comfortable pants and sensible shoes is replaced with classy gowns, high heels, and pressed tuxedoes. Tonight is a celebration of some extraordinary teachers from across our country and an opportunity to hear from some folks who are working hard to influence education policy at the national level.
After some mingling, appetizers, and customary introductions, the program begins. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan speaks first about the “Blueprint for Reform” and the reauthorization of the “Elementary and Secondary Education Act” (in upcoming posts, I will speak more about this speech as well as additional meetings with the Department of Education). He emphasizes the need for each student to have access to a quality education with a quality teacher, reiterating the Department’s commitment to supporting states and districts that define, measure, and develop “effective teachers” and “effective leaders.” He also addresses the limitations of No Child Left Behind, pointing specifically to the importance of a more well-rounded curriculum that “strengthens the
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Education - NorthJersey.com Teenagers learn about Holocaust from its survivors

Education - NorthJersey.com



Teenagers learn about Holocaust from its survivors
Monday, May 3, 2010
BY ASHLEY KINDERGAN
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
NEW YORK — A group of teenagers and parents from a Franklin Lakes temple toured a Holocaust exhibit Sunday at the Jewish Heritage Museum with a group of survivors for whom the photographs and documents were memories – not historical artifacts.
Michael Zicherman of Wyckoff and son Ryan at the Jewish Heritage Museum. Holocaust survivors joined the Barnert Temple field trip.
AMY NEWMAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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Michael Zicherman of Wyckoff and son Ryan at the Jewish Heritage Museum. Holocaust survivors joined the Barnert Temple field trip.
The field trip was the culmination of an oral history project begun in March. About 35 seventh- and eighth-grade members of Barnert Temple interviewed 17 survivors, recording their stories on audiotape and in their own personal essays.
"The survivors feel really good about the fact that this is their legacy, and the new generation is going to be able to take it with them," said Leah Kaufman, executive director of Jewish Family Services of North Jersey. "On the students' side, they learned so much about the history of that time. The history books don't even cover half the stuff they learned from the survivors"
Kaufman and Sara Losch, director of lifelong learning at Barnert, developed the oral history program at the temple.
For the survivors, the museum exhibits were vivid reminders of their own histories.
"Memories were coming back from childhood," said Olga Jaeger, 80, of Fair Lawn. She added later, "There are days when I feel

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• Going Paperless THE PARENT PAPER
EARLY CHILDHOOD

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