Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Thursday, May 6, 2010

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

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

Strauss: Race to Top winner failed on standards

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan (AP)













VALERIE STRAUSS
The Answer Sheet
A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)
Posted at 6:30 AM ET, 05/ 6/2010

Harvard study gives Race to Top winners bad grades on academic standards

One of the two states chosen by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a winner in the first round of the $4 billion Race to the Top competition has academic standards that earned the grade of ‘F’ in a new study by Harvard University researchers, while the other state got a ‘C minus.’
Posted by Valerie Strauss | Permalink | Comments (2)
RECENT POSTS
More from the Answer Sheet 
JAY MATHEWS
Class Struggle
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools
Posted at 12:45 PM ET, 05/ 5/2010

What happens to my high schools list if Newsweek is sold?

I can assure you that as long as I am alive and capable of carrying on the delightful work of keeping in touch with educators at our most challenging high schools every year, the Top High Schools list will be published.
Posted by Jay Mathews | Permalink | Comments (2)
RECENT POSTS
More from Jay Mathews

Ed Buzz: The Nation

Posted by at

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

School Committee OK’s student feedback on teachers

A measure that calls for students to provide “constructive feedback’’ to their teachers was approved by the Boston School Committee last night, after students had spent two years working for its passage.
Full story

Mystic Valley Charter School in Malden taps savings to buy vacant car lot for $4.4m

MALDEN — Chevy vans and trucks dotted the 4-acre car sales lot on Eastern Avenue for decades. But turf playing fields and a gymnasium are in its future as Mystic Valley Regional Charter School’s campus spreads to a new corner of Malden. ... 
Full story

Cheating probe results delayed

State officials granted a request Wednesday to extend by an extra month an investigation of 58 Atlanta schools for possible cheating on state tests A report was originally due to the state May 14.... 
Full story

The school recession

One of the precious few points of consensus in our polarized land is that we need to do a better job educating our kids. But consensus, apparently, gets you only so far. In red states and blue, in urban, suburban and rural districts ... 
Full story
image

Jay Mathews: What happens to my high schools list if Newsweek is sold?

I can assure you that as long as I am alive and capable of carrying on the delightful work of keeping in touch with educators at our most challenging high schools every year, the Top High Schools list will be published. ... 
Full story

D.C. students show gains in science and biology

D.C. school officials said Tuesday that they were encouraged by the growth students showed on the science and biology segments of last year's DC-CAS standardized tests. ... 
Full story

Saving the Teachers

Congress must act again to prevent a wave of teacher layoffs that could damage the fragile recovery and hobble the school reform effort for years to come.... 
Full story

On Formspring, an E-Vite to Teenage Insults

A relatively new social networking site has become a magnet for comments, many of them nasty and sexual. ... 
Full story
image

New Orleans charter schools will outnumber traditional schools 2 to 1 next year

Charter schools will outnumber traditional schools two to one in the Recovery School District next school year, in an effort to rapidly shrink the roster of schools under the state-run district's direct control.... 
Full story

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. ... 
Full story

Principals feeling pressure to get A's

Across the city, principals are under investigation for pressuring parents, students or teachers into giving them good reviews on the secret surveys that gauge school satisfaction... 
Full story
image

Blacks only school outing

A school trip for African-Americans pupils only at an Ann Arbor elementary school last week was meant to inspire them to greater achievement, but instead ignited protest from other children and their parents. ... 
Full story
image

Stanley I. Greenspan, Developer of ‘Floor Time’ Teaching, Dies at 68

Dr. Greenspan was a psychiatrist who encouraged parents, teachers and therapists to participate in playtime as a gateway to learning for some children. ...
Full story

Michigan High School Snags Obama as Speaker

President Obama will speak at the Kalamazoo Central High School graduation. The school won a Race to the Top competition. ... 
Full story

SJC backs dismissed Lowell teacher

A former Lowell teacher who was fired because she failed state-mandated English fluency tests may get her job back as a result of a decision yesterday by the Supreme Judicial Court. ... 
Full story
Posted by at

Rise & Shine: Bloomberg’s budget cuts 6,400 teacher positions | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Bloomberg’s budget cuts 6,400 teacher positions | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Bloomberg’s budget cuts 6,400 teacher positions

by Philissa Cramer
  • Without new funds, Mayor Bloomberg plans to cut 6,400 teachers. (Times, Post, NY1, Wall Street Journal)
  • The Times says the coming teacher layoffs show the country needs a second education stimulus.
  • The city is planning to spend $5 million a year on recruiting new teachers. (Daily News)
  • For the first time ever, CUNY has a waiting list, for students who apply after this week. (Daily News, NY1)
  • Political consultant Basil Smikle officially declared his plan to challenge State Sen. Bill Perkins. (Post)
  • The director of the Harlem Success lottery documentary said her funders include charter backers. (NY1)
  • The archbishop of New York outlines a strategic plan to boost Catholic elementary schools. (Post)
  • Readers weigh in on whether charter schools work, representing a wide range of views. (Times)
  • A TV documentary about for-profit education led to a selloff in for-profit schools stocks. (AP)
  • Oklahoma City schools will try NYC’s failed cell phone incentives experiment. (The Oklahoman)

Remainders: High school info sessions begin for seventh graders

by Maura Walz

Union contract limits options for school turnaround, city says

by Anna Phillips
In an attempt to improve some of the worst schools in the country, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is offering states four methods of turning around their lowest performers. But New York City officials say the union contract here rules out one of the three —  the so-called “transformation” model — even though it’s the only one that wouldn’t cause teachers to lose their jobs.
The other three methods either turn schools into charter schools, close them down, or force their principals and at least half of the staff to be fired. “Transformation” calls for the principal’s removal, but keeps the school’s staff in place.
Yet crucially, it also requires that schools use students’ test scores as a significant factor in evaluating teachers, that merit pay be put in place, and that teachers whose students don’t show enough improvement be fired. Since New York state law bars principals from using student data in teachers’ tenure decisions and the 
Posted by at

J.P. Morgan Chase Anounces Plans to Launder Tax Payer Money � Edumacation Archive

J.P. Morgan Chase Anounces Plans to Launder Tax Payer Money � Edumacation Archive

J.P. Morgan Chase Anounces Plans to Launder Tax Payer Money

by thatsrightnate
The Chicago Public Schools are facing a financial crisis.  Now, all the evidence points to this being a largely manufactured crisis to pry concessions from their employees and dollars from the state.  One thing is certain and that is that $250 million dollars that should be going to the Chicago Public Schools have been siphoned off this year from property taxes for Mayor Daley’s TIF fund.  This fund is basically his personal nest egg to spend where he sees fit.
One of the beneficiaries of this program is J.P. Morgan Chase.  Now, the use of the TIF fund is generally kept hush hush, but in December of last year, the developer of the $100 million Cabrini-Green redevelopment found himself unable to pay back a construction loan from J.P. Morgan Chase and the city came to the rescue so that 
Posted by at

Schools Matter: Whoops! Duncan's Public Opposition More Than Zero

Schools Matter: Whoops! Duncan's Public Opposition More Than Zero

Whoops! Duncan's Public Opposition More Than Zero

by Jim Horn
It may be fun to find out how big of a lie Arne Duncan told the Times yesterday when he described his public opposition as "Zero." Here is a good starter, a letter from 13 state education commissioners from around the nation in clear opposition to Duncan's RTTT (my bolds). If you have others, please send them along:

April 27, 2010
The Honorable Arne Duncan
Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-0008
Dear Secretary Duncan,
We wish to extend our sincere appreciation for the time you spent with us Monday, April 5 on the 

Seize the Initiative: Put the Heat on the White House and Your Congressman

by Jim Horn
From Beyond Chron:
Federal education policy is on the brink of change. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known in its current form as “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) is overdue for reauthorization. In response, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently released his Blueprint for the vision he and President Barak Obama share for our children’s education. Sadly the Blueprint carries on much of NCLB’s most destructive tactics and adds a few of its own.

High stakes testing, a narrowing of curriculum and a further imposition of a market-based framework are just a sampling of what is literally being sold to us. All this, despite the fact that 
Posted by at

The Educated Guess Digital textbooks coming, quickly and surely

The Educated Guess

Digital textbooks coming, quickly and surely

Posted in Program innovation
Few high schools have yet to put them to use, but free digital textbooks keep on coming.
There are now 27 textbooks, partly or completely aligned with state standards, with two more in the wings,  following  completion last week  of the second phase of textbook review by a state agency, the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN). (Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on May 6th, 2010

Cash-strapped districts shift their dollars

Posted in Education Excellence Committee, Equity issues, Program innovation
If triage is the new goal of K-12 education, then school districts can claim success.
A survey by the Legislative Analyst’s Office revealed that districts are cutting programs that the Legislature once considered essential in order to keep core classes going. Districts reported that the flexibility to spend “categorical” money as they choose helped them keep teachers on the job and make their budgets.
Impressed with the first year’s spending flexibility, the LAO is recommending lifting the restrictions on some of the remaining categorical programs, including class-size reduction, which the teachers’ unions will fight to preserve, and school transportation.
(Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on May 5th, 2010

Fact-checking Poizner and Whitman

Tags: , 
Posted in 2010 elections, Charters
Amid all of the arguing over immigration, Goldman Sachs and who’s the phonier conservative, GOP gubernatorial candidates Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman spent only a few minutes talking about education during their hour-long debate in San Jose on Sunday. That may be because both believe that local control and charter schools are the cure to much of what ails  public schools.
At least that’s the bumper sticker argument they make.
But their answers to the one question on K-12 schools got me scratching my head. So I did some fact-checking and here’s what I found.
(Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on May 4th, 2010
Posted by at

Education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Alamo students book tells story of search dog in Haiti earthquake
"A New Job for Pearl tells the true story of a search and rescue dog that assisted after the earthquake in Haiti. Illustrated by Rancho Romero Elementary students, it is a fundraiser for more search dog training. 
Posted by at

Education | Seattle schools, Eastside schools, Snohomish County schools, Seattle universities | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | Seattle schools, Eastside schools, Snohomish County schools, Seattle universities | Seattle Times Newspaper

Seattle school layoffs much less than in '09

Pink slips will go to 25 teachers and 11 elementary-school counselors in Seattle schools this week.
By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times education reporter
Pink slips will go to 25 teachers and 11 elementary-school counselors in Seattle schools this week.
Seattle Public Schools announced Wednesday that it will dismiss those employees effective next fall.
The numbers are smaller than last year, when the district laid off 161 teachers, counselors and other school personnel.
School officials say they are trying to minimize layoffs, and decided against sending pink slips to an additional 42 teachers without positions for the fall. That's because they think there is a good chance that jobs will open up through retirements and other departures.

New president of college named
Our annual guide includes advice on how to pick the right school, Q&As with experts on financing, resources and video tours of local universities.
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)