Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Pa. Senate panel OKs charter-oversight bill - Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Education News and Colleges - Philadelphia Inquirer

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Pa. Senate panel OKs charter-oversight bill

The Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee responded Tuesday to disclosures of alleged financial mismanagement at Philadelphia charter schools by unanimously approving a sweeping bill that would increase oversight of the state's 135 charters.

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Report Card on the Schools

The Inquirer's annual survey of education in the region, with a searchable database of school and district information, and multimedia profiles of area students and high schools.

A Doorway Back

With the dropout problem in Philadelphia at crisis proportions, a chance-of-a-lifetime program offers 40 select students a shot at breaking the cycle of failure. But can they take advantage?

Commencement speakers to urge service: As talk of a sinking economy subsides, this year's soon-to-be college graduates are begging for instructions for success. Armed for the task, many commencement speakers are spreading the same secret: service work.
Benchmarks for Ackerman bonus withheld: Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has received a $65,000 performance bonus, but the Philadelphia School District said the detailed criteria under which she earned the money were not public information.
N.J. exit exam's high failure rate raises concern: The June graduation of thousands of students could be at risk after most who took New Jersey's retooled alternative exit exam during the winter failed to pass, according to data obtained by the Education Law Center.
Tax relief from gambling drops for most in Pa. suburbs: Homeowners in the Pennsylvania suburbs due property-tax relief provided by slot-machine revenue will get anywhere from $72 to $632 next school year, down slightly for most from last year, according to figures released Monday by the state.
Web cam report blasts Lower Merion school district: Inconsistent policies. Shoddy record-keeping. Misstep after misstep. "Overzealous" use of technology "without any apparent regard for privacy considerations." Those were the conclusions a team of attorneys and computer experts reached after a 10-week investigation into how, when, and why the Lower Merion School District turned on the Web cams and software that secretly snapped thousands of photos and screen shots from student's laptop computers.
Phila. school janitors ratify pact with raises: More than 200 Philadelphia School District janitors have a new contract with raises and better health care, union officials said Monday.
Ackerman gets $65,000 performance bonus: Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has been awarded a $65,000 performance bonus, an official confirmed Monday night. The bonus, awarded by the School Reform Commission, is on top of Ackerman's $325,000 salary. She became the head of the nation's eighth-largest school district in June 2008.
West Point official to lead Valley Forge Military: Valley Forge Military Academy and College announced Monday that a West Point administrator who is retiring after 30 years in the Army will become the Radnor institution's new president.
U.S. probe widens to 18 city charters: Details are sought on the use of public money.
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.

Judge: State can take local funds | mydesert.com | The Desert Sun

Judge: State can take local funds

K KAUFMANN • THE DESERT SUN • MAY 5, 2010

Coachella Valley Cities Will Have To Return $95 Million To Help Plug Budget Deficit

Cities across the Coachella Valley are reluctantly preparing to turn over more than $95 million in redevelopment funds to the state on Monday after a Sacramento court upheld the California Legislature's right to take the money.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd G. Connelly's decision Tuesday cleared the way for the state to take $2.05 billion in redevelopment funds from California cities over the next two years to help plug an estimated $18.6billion budget deficit.

“I'm just angry about the whole thing. It is shameful,” said City Manager Rick Daniels of Desert Hot Springs. “The court legitimizes thievery because the state can't manage its finances. It steals and bullies money from local governments.”

The $3.4 million in redevelopment funds Desert Hot Springs will give to the state this year means vital capital improvement projects — such as libraries, parks and street lights — will be put on hold, Daniels said.

Cities with more financial padding, such as Palm Desert, are taking a bigger hit, but it could have less of an immediate impact.

IT Summit 2010 in Review �Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

IT Summit 2010 in Review

by Dean Shareski

Two conferences at the same venue in two weeks. Last week’s conference focused on higher education and this week’s on K-12. There was somewhat of a different feel partly due to the crowd, there is a palpable difference between those in higher education and those in K-12.

One clear difference was the use of keynotes. Tlt 2010 had the keynote speakers offer one session then simply mingle and participate in the conference. While they obviously shared less and wer not the focal point, their presence was a great asset to the conversational nature of the conference. For IT Summit 2010, both Bernajean Porter and Will Richardson were worked pretty hard doing 2 and 3 sessions in addition to their keynotes.

Outside of my own session and one other, I spend my time in with the keynotes. Although my district only had between 15-20 participants, I’m curious to see who and how others respond to the messages that were shared. In general, questions focused more on “help me make this shift” as opposed to “I’m not sure I agree with where

Education - San Jose Mercury News

News > Education

Voters in 5 districts approve parcel taxes

Their schools battered by steep cuts forced by declining state revenues, voters in several South Bay communities agreed Tuesday to tax themselves more to support their schools, as at least five districts surpassed the two-thirds hurdle to approve parcel taxes.

Chegg's rent-don't-buy mantra takes hold at California schools

Four Bay Area teams advance to finals of National Science Bowl

Herhold: Principled San Jose teen stands up to principal

Stanford bioengineer explores own genome

Ground broken on Gilroy school that was burned by arson

New quake map sheds new light on Bay Area faults

Not all charter schools succeeding

Good goes viral: Stanford class focuses on social media for public good

Schwarzenegger promises more money for higher ed

San Jose: Program helps turn apathetic teens into motivated students

Mountain View High students return to school after being stranded in Paris

Education - The Denver Post Colorado's third-graders hover at 70 percent mark in reading proficiency

Education - The Denver Post

Colorado's third-graders hover at 70 percent mark in reading proficiency05/05/2010After a decade of testing, myriad school reforms and intense reading programs, 30 percent of Colorado's third-graders still are not reading at grade level.

3rd-grade CSAP scores show decline 3305/04/2010 - Statewide scores on this year's assessment of third-grade reading skills declined to 2008 levels.

Stapleton charter loses out in bid for Obama speech 2705/04/2010 - President Barack Obama today said he will give the commencement address at Kalamazoo Central High School, choosing the traditional Michigan high school over a charter school in Denver and a

McGlone Elementary in Montbello digs in on garden project that will feed minds, stomachs05/03/2010 - Forget May flowers. McGlone Elementary School kids are hoping April's showers bring a crop of carrots, or maybe potatoes. And they very well might — just not this year.

Partisan divide among U.S. Senate candidates in Colorado on illegal immigration05/03/2010 - Colorado's U.S. Senate candidates moved quickly to their partisan corners in the immigration debate, with the only doubts coming from critics questioning the ferocity of their various commitments.

After shred-a-thon, CSU Stanislaus admits it has Palin speech documents | California Watch

After shred-a-thon, CSU Stanislaus admits it has Palin speech documents

by Lance Williams

Lance Williams

Is the open government ruckus over Sarah Palin’s speaking fee in Turlock sputtering toward a conclusion?
Terry Francke of Californians Aware, the First Amendment group that is trying to pry loose a copy of Palin’s contract for a speech at CSU Stanislaus, says the university has admitted for the first time that it has “800 or 900” documents about the event in its possession.
He says that’s “utterly at odds” with the university’s initial response to queries that were filed under terms of the Public Records Act, the state’s open records law.
At first, Francke recalls, the university said it didn’t have a single piece of paper about Palin's June 25 speech on campus.
It referred queries to the CSU Stanislaus Foundation. The foundation, which booked Palin for the event, signed a

State's high court says CSU professor can sue over retaliation claims

by Erica Perez

Erica Perez

A California Supreme Court opinion issued this week clears the way for a CSU Long Beach professor to take the university to court for what he says was unlawful retaliation for whistleblowing.
Finance professor Lowell Runyon was demoted from his position as department chairman in 2004 by the then-dean of the College of Business Administration, Luis Calingo, according to court documents and a 2005 story in the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Runyon said the demotion was retaliation for the tenured professor's complaints about Calingo. Runyon had criticized the dean for commuting each week from his home in central California, traveling abroad extensively and granting tenure to a job candidate despite faculty concerns, the Press-Telegram reported.
The university maintained that Calingo had demoted Runyon purely for job performance-related reasons. Runyon's demotion meant a loss of about $13,000 per year in compensation, according to court documents.
In response to Runyon's retaliation claim, the university launched an internal investigation in 2005. The investigator dismissed Runyon's claim, saying his criticisms of Calingo did not qualify as "protected