Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Educated Reporter: Low-performing school, high-performning accomplishment.

Low-performing school, high-performning accomplishment.

by Linda Perlstein

If you are a Chicago reporter and free on Friday, June 11, you should head to Marquette Park to see a group of students from Gage Park High School—a place that is typically in the news either for murdered students or horrid test scores—launch a different kind of memorial, a high-tech kiosk commemorating the housing rights marches of 1966. Civil rights leaders, including Jesse Jackson Sr., will be on hand for the dedication.

Speaking of dedication, this was truly a student-driven project (nothing “low-performing” about what it took for the kids to make it possible and create the content). But above all they benefited from the energy, determination and

Bruce Maiman: Truancy bill can't make better parents - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Bruce Maiman: Truancy bill can't make better parents

By Bruce Maiman
Special to The Bee

Published: Saturday, Jun. 5, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 11A

With little fanfare, the California state Senate passed a bill last month that would criminalize chronic truancy and hold parents responsible.

Senate Bill 1317 picks up where San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris led off. In three years, Harris (currently a candidate for state attorney general) used her office to reduce truancy in the San Francisco Unified School District by 23 percent among elementary school children.

That was good for the students and the district, which saw an additional $372,862 tied to the increased attendance last year alone.

Efforts included better identification of chronic truants, meetings with families (which the district did), and in 30 cases taking parents to court (which the D.A. did). That last part is where SB 1317 comes in. Sponsored by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, the bill would let prosecutors charge parents (or guardians) with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if

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

Lincoln student exits spelling bee in semifinal round

By Maggie Bridgeman - Published: 12:00 am

WASHINGTON – Anvita Mishra's brother buried his face in his father's shirt, hiding the tears of disappointment that glistened on his cheeks after her elimination from the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Los Rios to open community college center at UC Davis

By Robert D. Dávila - Published: 12:00 am

The Los Rios Community College District is set to raise its profile in Davis with plans to open the first community college center on a University of California campus.

Modlin will be honored as teacher of the year

Published: 12:00 am

Community schoolteacher Barbara Modlin has been named Sacramento County Office of Education Teacher of the Year.

Los Rios to open center on UCD campus

By Robert D. Dávila - Published: 2:13 pm

The Los Rios Community College District is set to raise its profile in Davis with plans to open the first community college center on a University of California campus.

Barbara Modlin wins Sacramento County Teacher of the Year honors

By Melody Gutierrez - Published: 9:53 am

Community school teacher Barbara Modlin has been named Sacramento County Office of Education Teacher of the Year.

With Diplomas in Hand, but Without Legal Status Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Gladys Veronica Juca, an illegal immigrant from Ecuador, at graduation on Friday from Queensborough Community College.

With Diplomas in Hand, but Without Legal Status

By FERNANDA SANTOS

The many members of the Queensborough Community College Class of 2010 who are living in the United States illegally have concerns over their prospects.

Paul Garabedian, Mathematician at N.Y.U., Dies at 82

By KENNETH CHANG

Computer computations by Dr. Garabedian, a longtime New York University professor, helped lead to fuel-efficient wings for modern jetliners.

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.

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The Education Report Barbara Lee tours Claremont Middle School

The Education Report

Barbara Lee tours Claremont Middle School

By Katy Murphy
Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 6:06 pm in budget, middle schools, politics
1 Comment

Rep. Barbara Lee visits Oakland's Claremont Middle School. Courtesy photo.

I wasn’t there for Rep. Barbara Lee’s visit to Claremont Middle School in Rockridge, but it sounded from the CTA press release like a chance to promote the benefits of Quality Education Investment Act funding for struggling schools. (And, maybe, a plug for the author of the bill, state Assemblymember Tom Torlakson, who’s running for state superintendent for public instruction with the CTA’s endorsement.)

QEIA (pronounced QUEE-a) money comes from the 2006 settlement of a school funding lawsuit the CTA filed against Gov. Schwarzenegger. Read the rest of this entry »

Science in OUSD: No longer optional

By Katy Murphy
Friday, June 4th, 2010 at 5:07 pm in elementary schools, science, students,teachers
3 Comments »

Angie Cedillo looks at a yellow swallowtail butterfly. By D. Ross Cameron/Oakland Tribune

Finally, something the school district administration and teachers union can agree on!

Last week, the Oakland school board unanimously approved a proposal to require 60 minutes of science instruction each week in kindergarten through third grade, and 90 minutes in fourth and fifth grade, beginning in the fall of 2011. (If you follow me on Twitter, you might already know this. If you don’t, you should! Just go here to find my profile.)

I wrote a story about this development. It will be in tomorrow’s paper, but it’s up online, here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, June 4, 2010

Oregon University System raises tuition 6.2 percent | OregonLive.com

Oregon University System raises tuition 6.2 percent

By Bill Graves, The Oregonian

June 04, 2010, 5:31PM

Tuition will climb an average 6.2 percent for Oregon undergraduate students in the state’s seven public universities next fall, raising average annual tuition and fees to $7,082.
Combine that with room, board, books, supplies and personal expenses and students will be looking at a price tag of about $20,000 a year to attend college in the Oregon University System.
The State Board of Higher Education on Friday approved tuition increases for undergraduate Oregon students that range from 2.6 percent at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande to 6.2 percent at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls. Tuition climbed an average 6 percent at the three largest universities and 4.4 percent at the four smaller campuses.
Oregon University System 2010 Tuition.jpg

Oregon University System 2010 Tuition.jpg

Dan Aguayo, The Oregonian Students were pleased to see the big three universities back off on charging the maximum 8 percent allowed by the Legislature, said Emily McLain, legislative director for the Oregon Student Association.
Still, even a 6 percent increase means hundreds of dollars to students at a time when Oregon families are not seeing their incomes climb at that pace, she said.
Jay Kenton, the Oregon University System’s vice chancellor for finance and administration, said the tuition increase is among the lowest in the nation. He said it is far below a 14 percent increase next fall for Washington State University students following a 14 percent increase this year and a 32 percent increase in tuition and fees pending for California public university students next fall.
The state now provides about 32 percent of the higher education

Race to Top Side Deals: Ed. Dept. Reacts - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Race to Top Side Deals: Ed. Dept. Reacts

by Michele McNeil

Florida's Race to the Top application and the so-called side deals that districts and unions are entering into on their own—outside of the official application—are raising some eyebrows among education policy wonks. It's really unclear just how problematic these side deals might be to the spirit of the Race to the Top competition in Florida, but they sure do raise a lot of questions. Eduwonk, Sherman Dorn, State EdWatch, The Washington Post's Answer Sheet, and this blog have all explored the ramifications of these side deals.
Now, the U.S. Department of Education is weighing in late Friday on such deals. They would not talk about Florida, specifically, because of the ongoing competition, but my guess is some high-level conversations went on to discuss the matter. After all, the last thing the department wants is a bunch of copycat side deals across the

Devil in the Details: An Analysis of State Teacher Dismissal Laws

Devil in the Details

An Analysis of State Teacher Dismissal Laws

SOURCE: iStockphoto

Districts recognize that an inability to dismiss poor-performing teachers undermines efforts to ensure that every student is taught by a highly effective instructor. As districts begin implementing more effective evaluation systems that better identify both low- and high-performing teachers, changes will have to be made to dismissal processes to exit those teachers in a fair and efficient manner.

By Saba Bireda | June 3, 2010

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Read the full report (pdf)

Download the executive summary (pdf)

Download the report to mobile devices and e-readers on Scribd

Comprehensive listing of state dismissal policies (pdf)

The teacher dismissal process, once largely unexamined, is quickly becoming a hotly debated area of education policy. Newspapers across the country regularly publish reports on the expense and time associated with dismissing teachers. Steven Brill’s “The Rubber Room,” an exposé on the seemingly neverending process of terminating teachers in New York City, brought the topic onto the national stage.

Federal and state policymakers have also begun calling for reform. Both President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have discussed the need to make dismissal a more efficient process. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has also acknowledged the “glacial” speed of the dismissal process in many

New testing schedule complicates NYC’s summer school plans | GothamSchools

New testing schedule complicates NYC’s summer school plans

by Anna Phillips

When the state announced plans to push back the date of the annual tests, some teachers and administrators bristled. But now the change is complicating a rite of passage: figuring out which students are promoted to the next grade and which are going to summer school.
This year’s delayed testing schedule puts New York City in the awkward position of choosing which students to send to summer school without knowing whether they passed the state’s annual math and English exams. Currently, schools have their students’ raw test scores,but they don’t know whether the scale score passes the official state cut-off for passing, because the state hasn’t set cut-off scores yet.
In response, the city is working with the state to set their own cutoff scores months before the official results come out in August.

In order to qualify for summer school, students have to score very low on the tests — getting a one or a two out of a possible four.
“We will determine based on prior years’ data what we believe a two, three, or four would equate to this year,” said a spokesman for the city’s Department of Education, Daniel Kanner, adding that the cutoffs will be set

Remainders: Mulgrew’s love-hate relationship with the Post

by Elizabeth Green

Michael Mulgrew tells City Hall that he credits the New York Post with his big 91% election win.
The DOE is sending out gifted and talented placements today, Insideschools reports.
This profile of Eric Nadelstern calls him a “possible Klein successor,” but says little else.
What does it mean for a fist bump to fall out of consuetude? Spelling bee semifinalists found out.
Twenty-three states changed their laws to win the hearts of RTTT judges, says USDOE, in a memo.
A new finding from Chicago shows a federally funded merit pay project produced no learning gains.
Aldeman reviews two new merit-pay studies: So far Denver’s is helping students, Chicago’s isn’t.
What would happen if really bad teachers got fired more often? North Carolina researchers imagine.
A South Bronx teacher explains the “intervisitation club ” and “learning walks” his school is trying.
And how to build a garden at your school, from our Community contributors.

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