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Friday, May 7, 2010

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

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

Suzanne Maxey named principal of T.C. Williams


T. C. Williams was targeted by the federal government this spring as among the weakest in the nation, given a "persistently lowest achieving school" label. (Lois Raimondo/TWP)














VALERIE STRAUSS
The Answer Sheet
A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)

Posted at 6:30 AM ET, 05/ 7/2010

Ethics expert to head Harvard Business School

With the image of America's corporate world bruised, Harvard names an ethics expert as dean of its influential business school.
Posted by Valerie Strauss | Permalink | Comments (0)
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JAY MATHEWS
Class Struggle
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 5:30 AM ET, 05/ 7/2010

How change can poison schools

We see a bad school. We pray that it change. It is an understandable reaction. But an acidic little paper by two researchers in Oregon raises the possibility that sometimes change is the worst thing that can happen to hard-working teachers trying to get their school on its feet.
Posted by Jay Mathews | Permalink | Comments (3)
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Ed Buzz: The Nation
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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

Recess coaches help kids play, and that helps them to learn

Fourth-graders at the William Dick School, in North Philly, listened intently yesterday as they learned the rules of dodgeball. "If someone taps you with the ball, you're out," said "recess coach" Joe Cokes, demonstrating by touching a ball to a student's chest. "If you don't catch the ball, you're out."
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Big banks making a bundle on new school construction

Wealthy investors and major banks have been making windfall profits by using a little-known federal tax break to finance new charter-school construction. ...
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Teachers union OKs one-year freeze on pay increases

5.7.10 - The teachers union tentatively agreed Thursday to a one-year freeze on pay increases based on experience, a move that will help the Clark County School District close the remaining $28 million in its budget gap. ...
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School District bears financial weight of partially shelved software upgrade

In 2008, the budget crisis forced the Clark County School District to abandon plans to finish installation of a complex computer system that had consumed four years and $35 million. ...
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Fight over future of DPS isn't over yet, camps dig in

The two camps fighting for control over academic programs in Detroit Public Schools have each won a round in court -- and the fight is far from over. ...
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Trustee says Hinojosa bypassed board with grant partnership

Trustee Carla Ranger proved to be the Lone Ranger on Thursday in her strong criticism of Superintendent Michael Hinojosa for not seeking board approval to partner with a charter school operator in a $5 million federal grant application ...
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Leftists Demand to (re)Write Social Studies Standards

5.7.10 - Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. - Distortions and blatant lies have been written by liberal “experts” who are ready to tar and feather the SBOE for “revising our American history”, leaving Thomas Jefferson out, and “bringing religion back into the schools”. It’s doubtful whether these self proclaimed experts have read the curriculum standards, which are available online to the public. ...
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HPV shot marketed toward boys

The vaccine recommended for girls to protect against cervical cancer has also been linked to rare types of cancers in males. Most men who carry the virus never have symptoms, which is why advocates of the vaccine say they should be vaccinated is to protect their female partners...
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Students without a school, again

Kanu Aja, Travis Jones and Denzel Varner were students at Towson Catholic High School when it closed. ...
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Strauss: Race to Top winner failed on standards

5.7.10 - 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.’...
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Private School Screening Test Loses Some Clout

For legions of 4- and 5-year-olds and their parents, the test known as the E.R.B. is the entree into the world of private schooling, its pressure and price a taste of the expensive years to come. ...
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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. ...
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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. ...
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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....
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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 ...
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Portland Public Schools: Might more high schools than Marshall close? | OregonLive.com

Portland Public Schools: Might more high schools than Marshall close? | OregonLive.com

Portland Public Schools: Might more high schools than Marshall close?

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

May 06, 2010, 7:50PM


Read the Portland school district's full plan for reorganizing high schools, and readprevious stories on the plan.
Portland school board members are by no means sold on Superintendent Carole Smith's plan to close just one neighborhood high school, Marshall, as the city moves to create larger, more equitable high schools.

So far, they aren't saying they want to close even more of the district's nine neighborhood high schools -- but they at least want to talk about it.

Primarily due to concerns about the ongoing costs of operating eight comprehensive high schools, board members pushed Smith and her staff this afternoon to provide more information about the advantages or tradeoffs of closing more high schools in order to cut back to seven or even six comprehensive high schools.

"I think it's really important to make sure the eight-school model doesn't break if you have to cut a certain amount out of school staffing," said board member David Wynde, who chairs the budget committee and is keenly aware the district will spend about $15 million more than it will take in next year in order to operate at current levels.

Thursday's two-hour work session on the high school redesign plan was the first opportunity for the full school board to ask questions aboutSmith's plan, which she unveiled last week. She recommended a plan that would close Marshall, remake vocationally oriented Benson High into a part-time two-year tech skills center and reconfigure the eight remaining


Portland Mayor Sam Adams rolls out his 2010-11 budget today

by Janie Har, The Oregonian
Portland Mayor Sam Adams releases his eagerly anticipated -- or perhaps keenly dreaded -- budget today. It contains no COLA increases for city workers and keeps the city's reserves whole. But he finds money for projects important to fellow commissioners -- and a $500,000 community college scholarship fund that keeps a promise he made at his State of the City speech.
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Schools Matter: Break Up Too Big to Fail Banksters? NAY, Say 61 Senate Prostisuits

Schools Matter: Break Up Too Big to Fail Banksters? NAY, Say 61 Senate Prostisuits

Break Up Too Big to Fail Banksters? NAY, Say 61 Senate Prostisuits

by Jim Horn
From the U. S. Senate:
XMLU.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 2nd Session
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary
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Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

Private School Screening Test Loses Some Clout

By JENNY ANDERSON
A school coalition says that pretest preparation casts doubt on the value of the exam known as the E.R.B.

    Marquette Rescinds Offer to Sociologist

    By SAM DILLON
    Critics say officials at the Roman Catholic university changed their mind about a deanship after reading the works of a lesbian professor who writes about sexuality.
    CAIRO JOURNAL

    A Campus Where Unlearning Is First

    By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
    At American University in Cairo, students are taught to analyze and hypothesize, a method at odds with the country’s traditional method of rote learning.

    Teenage Insults, Scrawled on Web, Not on Walls

    By TAMAR LEWIN
    A relatively new social networking site has become a magnet for comments, many of them nasty and sexual.
    OUR TOWNS
    Students head to class at New York Military Academy. It will close its doors at the end of this school year, barring some unexpected financial rescue.

    Changing Times and Money Woes Doom a Military School

    By PETER APPLEBOME
    Decades ago, there were dozens of military academies in New York State, but one by one they have shut their doors.

    Bold Brass and Glass, and the World Inside on Display

    By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
    The New School’s new University Center on Fifth Avenue is intended to encourage student interaction, but may be a bit much for some in the Village.

    Michigan High School Snags Obama as Speaker

    By JACKIE CALMES
    President Obama will speak at the Kalamazoo Central High School graduation. The school won a Race to the Top competition.
    Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan in 1989 demonstrated his teaching methods with a mother and her son.

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

    By DAVID CORCORAN
    Dr. Greenspan was a psychiatrist who encouraged parents, teachers and therapists to participate in playtime as a gateway to learning for some children.
    Arne Duncan has been called the most assertive secretary of education ever, breaking sharply from the less-visible role of his predecessors. Mr. Duncan visited recently with Nakiyah Rowe, left, and Lois Appiah-Agyeman at their charter school in Brooklyn.

    Education Chief Vies to Expand U.S. Role as Partner on Local Schools

    By SAM DILLON and TAMAR LEWIN
    Arne Duncan has been called the most assertive secretary of education ever. He is a highly visible proponent of increasing the federal government’s role in how the nation’s schools are run.
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    “More Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

    “More Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

    “More Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology”

    by Larry Ferlazzo
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    Secretary Duncan Visits Houston, Texas A&M – ED.gov Blog

    Secretary Duncan Visits Houston, Texas A&M – ED.gov Blog

    Secretary Duncan Visits Houston, Texas A&M

    Last week Secretary Arne Duncan visited Houston and Texas A&M.
    At a community education forum in Houston, he discussed what’s working in education and what needs to be fixed with U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Harris County School Superintendent John Sawyer, North Forest ISD Superintendent Adrain Johnson, Aldine ISD Assistant Superintendent Priscilla Ridgway, and others.
    At Rice University, he attended at YES College Prep event where more than 100 high school students announced the colleges they plan to attend.
    At Sam Houston High School, he took part in a discussion about turning around low-performing schools with business leaders and Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier.
    He stopped by Jack Yates High School to shoot hoops with the 2010 national champions in high school basketball, the Yates Lions.
    At Texas A&M, he participated in a roundtable discussion with representatives from nearby Blinn Community College on the needs and potential of community colleges. He also talked with Texas A&M leaders about effective programs for preparing science, technology, engineering, and math teachers.
    ED Staff
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    Questions remain over state's second attempt in Race to the Top | California Watch

    New CSU transparency websites list contracts, audits, financials | California Watch

    Questions remain over state's second attempt in Race to the Top

    by Corey G. Johnson
    Still smoldering over a disappointing showing in round one, California has decided to take one more stab at the hundreds of millions of dollars offered in the federal Race to the Top contest.
    The state's new strategy involves showcasing school districts in LA, San Francisco, Long Beach, Sanger, Clovis and Fresno. But is that the right approach to overcome the doubts of the judges?
    To be sure, there is political pressure for the state to continue to vie for the money. After appearing ambivalentover reapplying, federal officials lobbied state officials to continue. That included, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who, according to the LA Times, assured Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that the state's new strategy would get "due consideration". But to rise from its 27th out of 40 showing, massive improvements must be made.
    Reviewers expressed serious doubts about the state's ability to implement the reforms. Tied to those


    New CSU transparency websites list contracts, audits, financials

    by Erica Perez
    Several of the 23 California State University campuses have started posting information about their contracts with vendors, external audits and financial statements as part of an effort to comply with the governor's executive order on transparency.
    But critics charge that the disclosures don't go far enough to open the universities' books to public scrutiny. Sen. Leland Yee, who together with other groups is suing CSU Stanislaus for details on Sarah Palin's speaking fee, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat the reports were a far cry from transparency.
    "Posting a few tax returns and other information that was already public is hardly complying with the Governor's

    Prospect of comic on water board worries environmentalists

    by Lance Williams
    Born in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles, comic Paul Rodriguez emerged in the 1980s as an appealing crossover star, IMBd.com says.
    “Sticking close to his Latino roots as the basis for his comedy,” as the entertainment website puts it, Rodriguezhas been featured in big-screen stand-up (“Original Latin Kings of Comedy”) and big-screen comedy (“Born in East L.A.,” “A Million to Juan”).
    “Latinos are black, white, brown, beige – what does that say about our ancestors?” Rodriguez jokes. “We’ll sleep with anybody.”
    But to some environmentalists, Rodriguez’s more recent role as front man for the “California Latino Water
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