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Friday, June 4, 2010

Chancellor: Community colleges turn away thousands

Chancellor: Community colleges turn away thousands

Chancellor: Community colleges turn away thousands

Thursday, June 3, 2010
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(06-03) 18:14 PDT Sacramento, Calif. (AP) --
The head of California Community Colleges says the state's two-year campuses are struggling to meet record demand for classes because of state budget cuts.
Chancellor Jack Scott, who heads the state's community college system, said Thursday that an estimated 140,000 students were turned away over the past academic year and thousands more are having trouble enrolling in summer classes.
He says community colleges have been forced to slash course offerings after the system sustained an 8 percent cut to its overall budget


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/03/state/n181407D84.DTL&type=education#ixzz0pszTZe9n
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Free Technology for Teachers: Biggest Stories of the Semester

Free Technology for Teachers: Biggest Stories of the Semester

Biggest Stories of the Semester

by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
Today, CNN Student News released their last episode until next fall. As a part of today's episode, CNN Student News takes a look back at some of the biggest stories of the semester. Watch the video below.


The Week in Rap is also wrapping-up for the school year. Instead of focusing on just the last semester, they're wrapping-up the last eighteen years. Watch the video below.
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Rise & Shine: Central DOE staff got raises before salary freeze | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Central DOE staff got raises before salary freeze | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Central DOE staff got raises before salary freeze

by Philissa Cramer
  • Principals are planning to cut after school offerings, aides, and supplies purchases. (Wall Street Journal)
  • Dozens of education department employees got $340,000 in raises in recent weeks. (Daily News)
  • A rise in applications has left more pre-K applicants without a spot for next year. (Post)
  • A thief hacked into the DOE’s coffers and stole more than $600,000. (Daily News, Wall Street Journal)
  • The Times says the only way to improve the salary freeze solution would have been to tell the union first.
  • Online charter schools enroll 200,000 students with very little oversight. (Times)
  • David Brooks says Race to the Top is good governance because it motivated without dictating. (Times)
  • Much of D.C.’s new teachers contract was in the last one but was never implemented. (Washington Post)
  • Small schools in Milwaukee are closing down after not delivering promised results. (Journal Sentinel)
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The Bay Citizen - Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

The Bay Citizen - Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

Justice Sonia Sotomayor is scheduled to deliver the commencement address on Friday at Hostos Community College in the Bronx
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is scheduled to deliver the commencement address on Friday at Hostos Community College in the Bronx

Sotomayor Making Good on a Commitment to a Scrappy College With a Family Tie

By LISA W. FODERARO
The justice was to have visited last year, but her nomination to the Supreme Court meant a change in plans.
Katie Brown, 11, and her mother, Linda, follow California Virtual Academy's online science curriculum at their home in San Jose.

Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools

By CAROL POGASH
Virtual charter schools are part of an expanding network but their rapid growth is accompanied by a number of unanswered questions.
A Wal-Mart store in Pompano Beach, Fla. The company’s college program will allow workers to accrue credits for training at work.

Wal-Mart to Offer Its Workers a College Program

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
The retailer is joining with a Web-based university to give employees tuition reductions and credits from work.

States Receive a Reading List: New Standards for Education

By SAM DILLON
The nation’s governors and state school chiefs released final recommendations for what students should master in English and math.
Denise Wadler, center, at Brooklyn Brownstone School, sent out nearly 50 résumés last week.

New N.Y. Schools Face Extra Pain From Layoffs

By JENNIFER MEDINA
Union contracts require layoffs to be by seniority, especially burdening the city’s new, small schools and their typically young, recently hired staffs.
At New York City schools for the gifted, like the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, 56 percent of kindergartners are girls.

Gender Gap for the Gifted in City Schools

By SHARON OTTERMAN
Though the school system over all is 51 percent male, its gifted classrooms generally have more girls.
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The California Majority Report // EDUCATION COALITION SUPPORTS ASSEMBLY BUDGET PROPOSAL, REJECTS GOVERNOR’S MAY REVISION BUDGET

The California Majority Report // EDUCATION COALITION SUPPORTS ASSEMBLY BUDGET PROPOSAL, REJECTS GOVERNOR’S MAY REVISION BUDGET

EDUCATION COALITION SUPPORTS ASSEMBLY BUDGET PROPOSAL, REJECTS GOVERNOR’S MAY REVISION BUDGET

June 03, 2010 @ 9:32 PM
Today the Education Coalition hosted a budget briefing to announce their support of the Assembly budget proposal and to oppose the Governor’s May Budget Revision, which cuts more than $4.1 billion from California’s schools and students according to the Legislative Analysts’ Office.
The Governor’s proposed budget would further reduce revenue limit funding, the general purpose support for schools, by $1.5 billion. This represents a cut of about $250 per student. The Governor also proposes cuts of $1.4 billion to child development programs, $28 million to county offices of education, $550 million from the K-3 Class Size Reduction program, and $206 million from virtually all K-12 programs to impose a negative cost-of-living adjustment.
The Assembly budget proposal honors the commitment made less than a year ago by the Governor and the Legislature to California’s
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West teachers must decide Friday; SAC chair calls probe a "travesty" | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

West teachers must decide Friday; SAC chair calls probe a "travesty" | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

West teachers must decide Friday; SAC chair calls probe a "travesty"

by Benjamin Herold on Jun 04 2010
Following the surprise announcement that West Philadelphia High School would not become a Renaissance School next year after all, School District officials told West’s 62 teachers Thursday that they had 24 hours to decide whether to stay or go.
At the same time, the District moved ahead with its formal investigation into allegations of a conflict of interest on the 15-member School Advisory Council that voted to recommend matching West with a team from Johns Hopkins/Diplomas Now as part of the Renaissance process.

Together, the developments set in motion yet another act of the increasingly surreal saga to 'turn around' the beleaguered neighborhood high school.

The teachers, whipsawed all spring by delays in the process and then the sudden
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Christie snubs union deal in Race to the Top bid | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/02/2010

Christie snubs union deal in Race to the Top bid | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/02/2010


8 local school districts getting federal construction bonds
Eight area school districts will get more than $83 million in low or no-interest federal bonds for dozens of construction and renovation projects, saving taxpayers tens of millions dollars, Gov. Rendell announced Thursday.
SPECIAL PROJECTS

Report Card on the Schools
The Inquirer's annual survey of education in the region, with a searchable database of school and district information, and multimedia profiles of area students and high schools.

A Doorway Back
With the dropout problem in Philadelphia at crisis proportions, a chance-of-a-lifetime program offers 40 select students a shot at breaking the cycle of failure. But can they take advantage?

RECENT STORIES

Selling rowing as an urban escape
Olympic gold-medal champion Dan Beery was nervous. There he was, 35 years old, 224 pounds, 6 feet, 7 inches of world-record-holding athlete. A man who had clobbered tough competition. But now he faced a classroom of skeptical, seen-it-all students.

District delays overhaul of West Phila. High
The planned September overhaul of West Philadelphia High School was abandoned Wednesday amid allegations that parents who had a say in selecting the company to run the school had a conflict of interest.

Pa. takes another shot at federal schools money
Pennsylvania is taking a second shot at winning up to $400 million from a federal grant program to help reinvent low-performing schools and fund other changes to its education system.

Christie snubs union deal in Race to the Top bid
The Christie administration submitted its application for federal Race to the Top aid Tuesday but - on the governor's orders - removed key compromises reached with the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.
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Secret to good grades lies with friend choice, study says | California Watch

Secret to good grades lies with friend choice, study says | California Watch

Secret to good grades lies with friend choice, study says

June 4, 2010 | Corey G. Johnson
Photo by Rodrigo Favera
The secret to getting great grades in high school may not longer hinge on getting the perfect tutor or enrolling in the best enrichment course.
Instead, try tweaking your child's peer pressure.
Research from UCLA professor of psychiatry Andrew J. Fuligni and Melissa R. Witkow suggests that children whose had more in-school friends than out-of-school friends had greater academic success and higher grade-point-averages. The reason?
Witkow says friends with common experience tend to push and support each other better.
We found that within an adolescent's friendship group, those with a higher proportion of friends who attended the same school received higher grades. This is partially because in-school friends are more likely to be achievement-oriented and share and support school-related activities, including studying, because they are all in the same environment."
This is not to dismiss or put a negative spin on a child's friends from outside school.
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The Education Report In Oakland schools, the bumping is about to begin


In Oakland schools, the bumping is about to begin

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 5:59 pm in OUSD central office, budget, elementary schools, high schools, middle schools
3 Comments »
Jan Seagren, secretary at Grass Valley Elementary
When it comes to school employees, most education coverage focuses on teachers, principals and superintendents. (Guilty!) In the last week, though, I’ve gained a renewed appreciation for the role of other school employees in making schools run smoothly.
Last month, 313 Oakland school secretaries, security officers, library clerks and other employees were told they’ll soon be laid off, demoted or reassigned to someone else’s job. It’s happening through a seniority-based “bumping” process that — because of its ripple effect — will affect most of the schools in the district in one way or another. No one I interviewed could remember this happening on such a large scale in Oakland.
I wrote a story about the people affected by the bumping process. It will be in tomorrow’s paper. You can find the online version here.
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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Blog U.: A Google / Microsoft Educational Content Platform? - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: A Google / Microsoft Educational Content Platform? - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed


  • A Google / Microsoft Educational Content Platform?

    By Joshua Kim June 3, 2010 9:49 pm
    The marvelous Barbara Fister writes in our discussion yesterday about my argument that Google should provide a syllabus platform:
    "…..I am bothered by the idea that Google should do it for us. We're getting awfully dependent on Uncle Google, and he's a little creepy. He goes through our pockets and looks at our e-mail so he can tell advertisers what we're interested in. It may be better than hiring Blackboard to be our expensive and bossy Jeeves, but it's not that hard to publish to the web."
    Barbara's feedback got me thinking about why I am so willing to turn over so much of our "academic" life to Google. And is it just Google? Would I respond equally positively if Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, or SunGard wanted to provide us with a platform to host, distribute, and discover educational materials such as syllabi? No doubt that this issue touches on much larger questions about the role of for-profit companies inserting themselves in the educational process, and the degree to which we have become dependent on these companies.
    Unlike Barbara, my gut seems to be fine with Google providing a platform for exchanging and sharing educational materials. Perhaps because I'm already using Google for my e-mail,
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East Side teachers agree to five furlough days - San Jose Mercury News

East Side teachers agree to five furlough days - San Jose Mercury News

East Side teachers agree to five furlough days
By agreeing to the furloughs and an increase in health-insurance copays, teachers hope to avert drastic budget cuts proposed for next year.
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