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Friday, May 7, 2010

Schools Matter: "To Create Value"

Schools Matter: "To Create Value"

"To Create Value"

by Jim Horn
With the fetid stench from Wall Street keeping sane investors as far away as they can get, Harvard has decided to appoint an "ethicist" dean for the Harvard Business School in hopes, perhaps, of restoring "faith" that the new crops of cologned, voracious buzz cut entrepreneurs will enter the world with a commitment to do something besides rape and pillage among taxpayers and consumers.

HBS has even offered an oath (optional) for its future cash hounds, whose alumni range from Jeff Skilling ('79) to Geo. W. Bush ('75). No I Q tests allowed, obviously.

The new MBA Oath has been so purelled that it translates "to make money" into the more wholesome and
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ED to investigate the impact of transfers � The Quick and the Ed

ED to investigate the impact of transfers � The Quick and the Ed

ED to investigate the impact of transfers

by Kris Amundson
Recently, Education Sector joined with a number of other organizations to request that Education Secretary Arne Duncan look at the problems created when students transfer to another university–but their credits don’t necessarily follow.
Secretary Duncan agrees. In a letter dated April 30, he writes:
“[T]here are financial and human costs associated with restrictive college credit transfer policies. We share your interest in learning more about the extent of the problem and identifying conditions and interventions that advance student success.”
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The Educated Guess Governor, State Board to ACLU: We’re on your side

The Educated Guess

Governor, State Board to ACLU: We’re on your side

Posted in Adequacy suit, Equity issues, Tenure
The lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified and the state over seniority-based teacher layoffs and massive cuts to state education funding has taken some strange twists.
Both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Board of Education – defendants in the case – are taking the position that they agree with the plaintiffs. Their message: Don’t sue us. We’re on the side of kids in low-income schools whose teachers have been handed pink slips in disproportionate numbers.
The latest jockeying – unusual but not unprecedented – may be a sign that an initial settlement is near. A court hearing into a preliminary injunction has been pushed back a week, until Tuesday, at the request of plaintiffs attorneys, in order to conduct negotiations with the defendants.
(Read more and comment on this post)
By John Fensterwald on May 7th, 2010

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
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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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