Duncan: “Emergency action” needed now to avoid teacher layoffs | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: State union seeking opponents for charter advocate | GothamSchools

Duncan: “Emergency action” needed now to avoid teacher layoffs

by Maura Walz

A first-grader at Brooklyn's P.S. 214 told U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan about the story of Rumplestiltskin today.

City, federal and union officials clash on the best way to lift the state’s charter school cap. They dispute the fairest way to lay off teachers. And they could barely agree on what school U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan should visit today.
But brought together for that visit, Duncan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and teachers union president Michael 

Rise & Shine: State union seeking opponents for charter advocate

by Maura Walz

• Ed Sec Arne Duncan visited three city schools. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, Wall Street Journal, NY1)
• Duncan said the state could up its Race to the Top chances by lifting the charter cap. (Albany Times Union)
• Gov. Paterson says he’s relying on “the power of persuasion” to get the charter cap lifted. (Daily News)
• The state teachers union is offering $200,000 to anyone who will run against Sen. Craig Johnson. (Post)
• Duncan’s visit shows that charter schools have won the choice wars, writes Errol Louis. (Daily News)
• The Post says Randi Weingarten’s input into Duncan’s school selection shows the union’s priorities.
• Post columnist Andrea Peyser says the union acted like children over the school visit dust-up.
• UFT President Michael Mulgrew says again that a retirement incentive would avert layoffs. (Daily News)
• The DOE mistakenly told UWS families they’d gotten into two hot schools. (Post, Wall Street Journal)
• An investigation found that many Head Start centers fraudulently enroll extra children. (Times)

Remainders: Kindergarten admissions letters sent by mistake

by Maura Walz

• The state education dept. pushed back the release date of test scores by a month, to July.
• More than 50 parents of wait-listed kindergartners were mistakenly told they were into P.S. 87.
• A group of charter and district school parents waited in vain in the rain to talk to Duncan.
• A charter school student told Duncan today he gets a lot of homework, but that’s “awesome.”
• UFT President Michael Mulgrew said it’s “no one’s fault” if the state loses Race to the Top.
• Peter Murphy argues Speaker Sheldon Silver now has political cover to support a charter cap lift.
• A new report by the Casey Foundation serves as a reminder that students’ poverty does matter.
• A high school slated to move into space at a closing school faces an uncertain future.
• The DOE posted openings for executive principals, the high-paid positions in troubled schools.
• The teachers unions are protesting five State Senators tomorrow for voting for school aid cuts.
• A group of testing companies formed a coalition to help states develop standard assessments.
• And here is a horrifying way to teach geometry.

Elk Grove teachers union agrees to concessions; members to vote Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Local high school seniors cast votes in mock election

By Melody Gutierrez - Published: 6:00 am

Hundreds of high school seniors in Sacramento will cast votes today in a mock election for the June 8 California primary ballot.

• Voter Guide

Elk Grove teachers union agrees to concessions; members to vote

By Diana Lambert - Updated: 12:10 am

A teachers union that has been reluctant to make concessions in the past gave big at the negotiating table this week – agreeing to pay cuts, higher medical co-pays, furlough days and the suspension of an annual bonus.

Sacramento school district to vote on Race to the Top submission

By Melody Gutierrez - Published: 9:55 am

The Sacramento City Unified School District school board will vote Thursday on whether they will participate in round two of Race to the Top funding.

Mabie family pledges $3 million to UCD equine health center

By Mark Glover - Updated: 8:12 am

The Center for Equine Health at the University of California, Davis, has received a $3 million pledge from the William and Inez Mabie Family Foundation.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/education/#ixzz0oNdzu3KD

O.C. schools target 1,714 job cuts | school, districts, teachers - News - The Orange County Register

O.C. schools target 1,714 job cuts | school, districts, teachers - News - The Orange County Register

O.C. schools finalize more than 1,500 teacher cuts

Orange County's public school districts will slash at least 1,546 jobs for teachers, counselors, administrators and other certificated employees.

That’s 17 percent less than the amount targeted in March, when districts issued preliminary layoff notices.

Teachers and students wore black and pink as they walked from Ocean View High School to Beach Blvd., in Huntington Beach to protest teacher layoffs in this file photo from March.

ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

DATABASES

Budget details: District-by-district details on budget and job cuts, teacher negotiations, furloughs and school year changes.

Layoff lists: See our list of teachers, staff and administrators facing layoffs, along with their job assignments and work locations.

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State law requires school districts to issue final notices by May 15 to teachers and other certificated staff.

Many districts have also issued preliminary notices to classified employees – secretaries, aides, bus drivers and other classified employees. Districts have targeted the elimination of least 388 classified jobs. All job cuts would become effective at the end of the current school year.

Educators blame the staff cuts on the state's ongoing budget crisis. The county's cash-strapped districts have cut $850 million from budgets over three years by eliminating hundreds of jobs, cutting music and arts, increasing class sizes, and imposing scores of other cuts to programs and services.

(Click here to see district-by-district budget details.)

Orange County's 28 school districts, with 500,000 students, employ more than 21,000 teachers and 22,000 support personnel.

The vast majority -- about 1,134 -- of the 1,546 certificated employees losing their jobs were teachers working on one-year contracts. These teachers were told their contracts would not be renewed for next year. The rest were permanent teachers and other full-time staff.

In March, school districts issued preliminary layoff notices to about 2,100 certificated employees. Four unified school districts, Orange, Santa Ana, Newport-Mesa and Tustin, received extensions until later this month to finalize certificated layoffs because of appeal hearings. Those districts issued a combined 377 layoff notices in March.

(Click here for our list of school employees who received layoff notices or had their contracts terminated.)

Districts typically overestimate preliminary notices to give themselves leeway while the state finalizes budget

Wow, that was close: Oregon school superintendent election at 51-49 Portland & Oregon Education - OregonLive.com

Portland & Oregon Education - OregonLive.com

Castillo narrowly wins third term as state schools chief

By The Oregonian

May 18, 2010, 10:25PM

State schools superintendent Susan Castillo barely defeats Ron Maurer, a two-term Republican state representative from Grants Pass in her bid for a third term. Full story »

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Wow, that was close: Oregon school superintendent election at 51-49

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

May 19, 2010, 1:41AM

A veteran education reporter and election watcher gets a surprise: What is your take on the narrow victory of incumbent state school superintendent Susan Castillo? Full story »

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Hundreds attend Portland Public Schools community meeting on high school redesign

By Tom Hallman Jr., The Oregonian

May 18, 2010, 8:36PM

Some parents at the Roosevelt High School gathering express frustration over proposals to transform or move Benson. Full story »

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Voters approve Measures 68 and 69

By The Oregonian

May 18, 2010, 8:35PM

Voters have approved a measure to allow the state to match capital bond funds raised by local school districts and a measure to expand what universities can do with bond money. Full story »

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Education Secretary Steps Into a Minefield in Brooklyn Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

Josh Reynolds/Associated Press

Adam Wheeler, 23, consulted his lawyer, Steven Sussman, during his arraignment on Tuesday in Woburn, Mass.

Campuses Ensnared by ‘Life of Deception’

By JACQUES STEINBERG and KATIE ZEZIMA

Adam Wheeler fabricated transcripts from Phillips Andover Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to gain admission to Harvard.

Education Secretary Steps Into a Minefield in Brooklyn

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Views about charter schools and federal money dominated the day as Secretary Arne Duncan visited New York.

College Bound, DNA Swab in Hand

By TAMAR LEWIN

Berkeley, aiming to encourage good health habits in its freshmen, is asking them to supply genetic samples.

Inspectors Find Fraud at Centers for Children

By SAM DILLON

In 8 of 15 tests, Head Start employees lied on federal forms about the applicants’ family income and other information to gain approval for ineligible children, a report said.

Education Official Departing

By TAMAR LEWIN

Robert Shireman, the deputy under secretary of the United States Department of Education, is leaving Washington in July.

The Children Are Bright; the Setting, Scruffy

By SHARON OTTERMAN

At TAG Young Scholars, a citywide school in East Harlem for the talented and gifted, what goes on inside the classroom is praised, but the aesthetics and facilities are, in a word, challenging.

Going Back to School: Fired Staff Is Rehired

By KATIE ZEZIMA

All the staff members of Central Falls High School, who were fired in February as part of a turnaround plan for the underperforming school, will be rehired.

A CONVERSATION WITH JEFFREY L. BADA

A Marine Chemist Studies How Life Began

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

Jeffrey L. Bada, a professor in San Diego, says scientists are “closing in” on determining how amino acids became life.

Massachusetts: Student Accused of Faking His Way Into Harvard

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Delaware man has been charged with faking his way into Harvard and duping the university out of $45,000 in financial aid, grants and scholarships.

40 Years Later, a Proper Graduation

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

About 300 members of Boston University’s class of 1970 attended a graduation ceremony on Sunday, four decades after the original was canceled amid political unrest.

• Video: 1970 Revisited (bu.edu)

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Oh, those Ohio charter management companies!

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Oh, those Ohio charter management companies!

Oh, those Ohio charter management companies!

by Mike Klonsky

Bad guys in white hats

A group of Cleveland and Akron charter schools is in open rebellion against the for-profit management firm that runs the schools. The governing boards say that White Hat's interest in making a profit conflicts with the schools' goal to educate. The suit, filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, says that the boards are "virtually impotent to

Stanford University prepares for an amazing 'bookless library' Education - San Jose Mercury News

Education - San Jose Mercury News

Stanford University prepares for an amazing 'bookless library'

Box by box, decades of past scholarship are being packed up and emptied from the school's Physics library to make way for the future: a smaller but more efficient and largely electronic library that can accommodate the vast and expanding literature of Physics, Computer Science and Engineering.

Stanford University prepares for the 'bookless library'

Delaware man charged with faking his way into Harvard

Santa Clara County: High school students say they're stressed, need help