West Salem High School wins state band championship | OregonLive.com

West Salem High School wins state band championship | OregonLive.com

West Salem High School wins state band championship

By James Mayer, The Oregonian

May 15, 2010, 10:34PM

West Salem High School took first place for 6A schools in the band division in the Oregon State School Activities Association / U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires Band/Orchestra State Championships this weekend at Oregon State University.

South Salem High School took second place; Southridge High School in Beaverton, third place; Sprague High School in Salem, fourth place; and David Douglas, fifth place.

Students representing 65 high schools performed Wednesday through Saturday

In the 5A Band Division, West Albany High School won first place; Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, second; Summit High School in Bend, third; Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, fourth; and Corvallis High School, fifth.

In the 4A Band Division, Douglas High School in Winston, won first place; Philomath High School, second; Cascade High School in Turner, third; La Grande High School, fourth; and Sisters High School, fifth. , second; In

“All 23 of the “Interesting Ways” presentations in one place” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“All 23 of the “Interesting Ways” presentations in one place” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“All 23 of the “Interesting Ways” presentations in one place”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling.
He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmar

Tons Of New Resources On Street Gangs

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve just added about twenty additional resources to

More Oil Spill Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here are the newest additions t

My Students Reflect On Standardized Tests

by Larry Ferlazzo

1 person liked this

Thankfully, we completed the annual regimen of state tests this week. I’ve written quite a bit on these kinds of standardized tests — se

S. Phila. principal's lack of credential was known | Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/15/2010

S. Phila. principal's lack of credential was known | Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/15/2010

S. Phila. principal's lack of credential was known

By Kristen A. Graham and Jeff Gammage

Inquirer Staff Writers

When they hired LaGreta Brown as the new principal of South Philadelphia High School last summer, officials knew she did not have an active Pennsylvania principal's certification, they said.
Brown was supposed to get emergency certification but never did. She served as principal for eight months anyway and resigned Thursday after The Inquirer raised questions about her credentials.
Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman acknowledged Friday that there could be others in the district with similar problems. "This may be an issue for more than just LaGreta," she said.
Brown was not certified to work as a high school principal in Pennsylvania, state records show. In 2000, she was issued a certificate to work as an elementary school principal. But that certificate became inactive in 2005 after she failed to complete continuing-education requirements, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education said.
The Philadelphia School District Office of Certification should have checked to make sure Brown's paperwork was in order, but her case slipped through the cracks, human resources chief Estelle Matthews said Friday.
"There was no follow-through," Matthews said.
A new policy will require teachers and principals to provide paperwork proving emergency certification within 30 days, Matthews said.
"We're not going to take their word for it," she said. "We didn't have a clear process in place, but we will."
Brown came to Philadelphia from Atlantic City, where teachers said she had created "a hostile work environment." Brown resigned from that district in advance of a school board vote on her termination.
Her tenure at South Philadelphia High also was tumultuous. On Dec. 3, the school was rocked by racial violence when 30 Asian students were attacked by groups of mostly African American students. Seven Asian students required hospital treatment, and a federal civil rights inquiry and state Human Rights Commission investigation are pending.
Ackerman said she had known about Brown's time in Atlantic City when she was hired and insisted that Brown received no preferential treatment.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20100515_S__Phila__principal_s_lack_of_credential_was_known.html#ixzz0o67vIUxb
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Dallas ISD under Hinojosa: academic progress, fiscal crisis | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Dallas ISD under Hinojosa: academic progress, fiscal crisis | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News

Dallas ISD under Hinojosa: academic progress, fiscal crisis

11:42 PM CDT on Saturday, May 15, 2010

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS and DIANE RADO / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa uses a spreadsheet to track his tenure on the job, just as a statistician follows trends.

The self-professed lover of data boasted one recent afternoon that he's outlasted all but two other big-city school chiefs, in Atlanta and New York City.

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Graphic: progress, disappointments

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Blog: Dallas ISD

"I sort of beat the odds," he said incredulously. "I've been here five years."

Resiliency and tenacity are key ingredients for survival for an urban school superintendent – among the toughest jobs in public education. And Hinojosa has held on during a roller coaster ride of triumphs and scandals in the Dallas Independent School District.

Since he took the helm of the second-largest school district in Texas five years ago this month, his supporters and critics alike say that he has jump-started academic improvements that have garnered national

Rise in cases leaves Dallas area abused kids waiting for help

NorthJersey.com: A hot spot for higher teacher earnings

NorthJersey.com: A hot spot for higher teacher earnings

Half of the teachers in New Jersey who earned more than $100,000 work in Bergen and Passaic counties.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

BY PATRICIA ALEX AND DAVE SHEINGOLD

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITERS

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More than 1,800 New Jersey public school teachers have broken the six-figure salary barrier, and half of them work in schools in Bergen and Passaic counties.
A quarter of teachers in Hackensack, Teaneck and Carlstadt and a third of those at the regional high school in East Rutherford earned six figures for the 2008-09 school year, according to data provided by the state.
The city of Passaic had 115 teachers with salaries above $100,000, the highest number of any district in the state. Hackensack had 98, Teaneck 93, Wayne 81, and in Ridgewood, 71 teachers were above the $100,000 mark.
Overall, the 1,847 teachers whose salaries were above $100,000 made up just 1.6 percent of the state's 116,000 public school teachers. The majority of teachers earned between $40,000 and $60,000, according to the data, the most recent available.
The median salary for teachers across the state was $57,467; it was higher in Bergen County, at $61,096, and lower in Passaic County, at $56,350.
Those are reasonable wages that you can try to support a family on, but they are not exorbitant wages," said Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association.

Schools Matter: Saving 300,000 Teaching Jobs Equal to 2 Months of War Expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan

Schools Matter: Saving 300,000 Teaching Jobs Equal to 2 Months of War Expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan

Saving 300,000 Teaching Jobs Equal to 2 Months of War Expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Jim Horn

(Slide from National Priorities Project) Click to enlarge.

When the Wall Street bankster scheme was finally discovered in late 2008, the Feds under Bush rushed in $700 billion to rescue the the same fraudulent banks, insurance companies, and "lenders" that stole the money.

Since 2001, the U. S. has averaged wasting $111 billion per year in Iraq and Afghanistan. The peak war spending year was FY 08, when $184.5 billion was spent on both war fronts. That's over $15 billion per month.

ABG � Don't Blame The Governor… Yet. | Educational New York

ABG � Don't Blame The Governor… Yet. | Educational New York

ABG » Don't Blame The Governor… Yet.

by Educational America

The two categories compared in this analysis are the economic and budget issues as well educational policies including pre- and post- secondary education and what impact one plays upon the other. Education policies, since the start of the …. New York : Teachers College Press.

Read more

HLOVE: New Collaborative BIP Event

by Educational America

Harrison Macdonald Love was born, in Bedford New York , in 1985. He began his art education at an early age under the tutelage of his family who have a long standing connection to the arts. When he was seven, the Love family moved to ..

Originally posted here:

Midwives-An Old Profession, A New Alternative | Education School …

by Educational America

Midwives New York Co-Editor-in-Chief, histrion E. Austin, MD Thursday, Jan 21, 2010 – 07:01 PM.

Read more

Is College for Everyone? – The Choice Blog – NYTimes.com

by Educational America

There must be social graduations, today, similar to primary education in the past. Nothing else would explain college graduates with no ability to think analytically and act rationally.

More here:

The Green Changemakers: Higher Education

by Educational America

Gatto was a New York State Teacher of the Year. An advocate for school reform, his books also include Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling.

Read the rest here:

Month-long student strike at the University of Puerto Rico. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Month-long student strike at the University of Puerto Rico. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Month-long student strike at the University of Puerto Rico.

by preaprez

Little reported in the North American media, students at the University of Puerto Rico have been on strike for over 25 days.
The issue is budget cuts.
Puerto Rico Daily Sun:

An extraordinary assembly in which about 2,000 people participated on Thursday approved continuing the student strike that has paralyzed the Universidad de Puerto Rico for more than three weeks.
The strike was launched to protest a cut of $100 million in the university’s budget.
The assembly, convened by the General Council of Students to demand from the Negotiating Committee information about the status of the talks, voted to maintain the protest for an indefinite period despite the fear expressed by some participants about the possible loss of the school year.

More on University of Puerto Rico student strike.

by preaprez

In response to the previous post, I received the following:

[The following message from San Juan was sent late Friday by José A. Laguarta Ramírez, a former CUNY Grad Center student and presently member of the Puerto Rican Association of University Professors (APPU). Note: A number of important Puerto Rican unions have called a major workers' strike in support of the UPR strike this coming Tuesday. A solidarity rally has been called here in New York for Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.at the Puerto Rican government office at 135 West 50th Street (between 6th & 7th Aves.) in Manhattan.]
Subject: UPR UNDER SIEGE: SOLIDARITY WITH STRIKING STUDENTS URGENTLY NEEDED!!!
Yesterday, a massive student assembly ratified, with near unanimity, the ongoing 24-day system-wide strike at the University of Puerto Rico.
Events, however, took an ugly turn this morning, when riot police surrounded the breadth and width

Hopes for budget compromise dim amid Calif deficit - Boston.com

Hopes for budget compromise dim amid Calif deficit - Boston.com

Hopes for budget compromise dim amid Calif deficit

By Judy Lin

Associated Press Writer / May 15, 2010

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SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Having already cut billions from state programs and tried tax increases, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders from both parties say they are in no mood to compromise as they face California's latest summer of fiscal gloom.

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Schwarzenegger on Friday released his revised spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July, forcing state leaders to tackle another massive shortfall -- this one estimated at $19.1 billion -- and consider deep cuts. The financial distress has been brought on by a recession that has seen jobs evaporate and tax revenue to state and local governments plunge.

At times somber, the Republican governor called for his deepest cuts to date on social welfare and health programs for the needy. He even proposed eliminating the state's main welfare program, which would affect 1.4 million people.

NH high school to students: Turn in cell phones

A New Hampshire high school is taking away students' cell phones during class time in an effort to improve test scores.

Mass. Ph.D. program explores genocide psychology

by Bob Salsberg, Associated Press Writer

As a clinical psychologist, Cristina Andriani counseled victims of physical and sexual abuse, Vietnam War veterans and cult survivors. As a doctoral candidate, her understanding of trauma is expanding globally as she tries to unravel the psychological underpinnings of genocide.

Book Review - The Death and Life of the Great American School System - By Diane Ravitch - NYTimes.com

Book Review - The Death and Life of the Great American School System - By Diane Ravitch - NYTimes.com

The Education of Diane Ravitch

Will and Deni McIntyre/Corbis

By ALAN WOLFE

Published: May 6, 2010

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEMAttending high school in Houston in the 1950s, Diane Ravitch came into contact with a teacher named Ruby Ratliff. A passionate lover of literature and a fierce editor of homework, Ratliff, following Tennyson, told Ravitch “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” The student evidently followed the teacher’s advice. Ravitch, a historian of American education and assistant secretary of education under the first George Bush, has long sought to find out what makes schools work. She has now found what that is, or at least what it isn’t: choice and testing. Her case against both is unyielding.

How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education

By Diane Ravitch

283 pp. Basic Books. $26.95

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  Scholar’s School Reform U-Turn Shakes Up Debate (March 3, 2010)

Ravitch was lucky to have Ratliff as her teacher — and we are lucky to have Ravitch as ours. Education was once considered purely a state and local matter. In the past 30 or so years it has become a national political football, with left and right fighting over various proposals, while nothing ever seems to get fixed. Meanwhile, many schools remain essentially segregated; how much you earn has a great deal to do with where you were educated; and even the best and brightest seem to know less geography and grapple with less history than when Ruby Ratliff discussed “Ozymandias” with her Houston class.

Ravitch’s offer to guide us through this mess comes with a catch: she has changed her mind. Once an advocate of choice and testing, in “The Death and Life of the Great

Local Nonprofit Joins Facebook to Boost Awareness of College Affordability — The Rancho Cordova Post

Local Nonprofit Joins Facebook to Boost Awareness of College Affordability — The Rancho Cordova Post

Local Nonprofit Joins Facebook to Boost Awareness of College Affordability

by MARYANNE KELLY on MAY 15, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS

in VIEWPOINTS

With more than 400 million active users and growing daily, Facebook® is today’s most popular social networking site. Because so many high school and college students are there, Fund Your Future: Planning and Paying for College is now there, too, as a resource on all the ways to pay for college.

Fund Your Future is EdFund’s award-winning workbook providing comprehensive information on how to get financial aid for college — including details on California-specific and federal aid programs. This same great content is

Sacramento Press / Complete Guide to Harvey Milk Day Events in Sacramento

Sacramento Press / Complete Guide to Harvey Milk Day Events in Sacramento

Complete Guide to Harvey Milk Day Events in Sacramento

by Ken Pierce

Background Notes
Harvey Milk was a leader in the gay rights movement who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. This made him the nation’s first openly gay man elected to public office in a major U.S. city.

It was on November 27, 1978 when San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death by a former city supervisor, Dan White, who had just recently resigned but changed his mind and wanted his seat back. This sent a shockwave throughout San Francisco, California, and throughout the nation when the major networks carried the story during the evening newscasts.

On October 12, 2009, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the highly controversial bill (S.B. 572) establishing “Harvey Milk Day” to take place each May 22nd, Milk’s birthday. This makes the slain gay civil rights activist only the second person in state history – in addition to conservationist John Muir – to gain such a designation. The signing came on the heals of President Obama awarding Harvey Milk posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom last August.