Monday, June 7, 2010

The Lottery The Lottery uncovers a ferocious debate surrounding the education reform movement

The Lottery

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Geoffrey Canada is the President and CEO of Harlem Children's Zone, which The New York Times Magazine called "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time." In 2005, he was named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report.

Cory Booker is the mayor of Newark, New Jersey. He is a member of numerous boards and advisory committees that are committed to education including: Democrats for Education Reform, Columbia University Teachers' College Board of Trustees, and the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

Candice Fryer is a teacher at Harlem Success Academy 2.

Betsy Gotbaum was New York City's Public Advocate from 2001 to 2009.

Meredith Gotlin is the principal of PS29 in the Bronx.

Joel Klein has been the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education since 2002. As Chancellor, he oversees 1.1 million students, the largest public school system in the country.

Jim Manly is the principal of Harlem Success Academy 2.

Eva Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Success Charter Network, which runs the Harlem Success Academies. She served as the Chair of the Education Committee for New York's City Council from 2002 to 2005.

Jessica Reid is a teacher at Harlem Success Academy 2.

Susan Taylor was editor-in-chief of Essence Magazine from 1981 to 2000. Ms. Taylor was called “the most influential black woman in journalism today” by American Libraries in 1994. She founded the National CARES Mentoring Movement, whose goal is to recruit one million adult mentors.

Dacia Toll is the President and co-CEO of Achievement First, which runs seventeen charter schools in Connecticut and New York.

Paul Tough is a former editor at New York Times Magazine. He has written extensively on poverty, education, and the achievement gap. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America.

In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lotteryuncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future.

Directed by Madeleine Sackler and shot by award-winning cinematographer Wolfgang Held,The Lottery uncovers a ferocious debate surrounding the education reform movement. Interviews with politicians and educators explain not only the crisis in public education, but also why it is fixable. A call to action to avert a catastrophe in the education of American children, The Lottery makes the case that any child can succeed.

Speaker Pelosi Voices Prop 16 Opposition, Fiorina and Whitman Break Away in Polling | California Progress Report

Speaker Pelosi Voices Prop 16 Opposition, Fiorina and Whitman Break Away in Polling

by christine

By Dan Aiello
California Progress Report
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced her opposition to state ballot proposition 16 on Sunday, as many consumer rights advocates worried PG&E's last minute spending would be enough to pass the anti-consumer measure.
Prop 16 is the ballot initiative that would limit the ability of cities and counties to go into the public power business, while preventing existing public utility providers, like Sacramento Municipal Utility District from either expanding services or service area.
PG&E has used legitimate voter concern over the state's fiscal woes to offer its unrelated and self-serving prop 16 as the solution.
read more

Journalism in action | CODYK.net � Blog Archive � Do citizen journalism websites provide a service or content?

Do citizen journalism websites provide a service or content?Posted by Cody Kitaura on June 5th, 2010

Earlier this week, local community-based journalism site Sacramento Press learned of campaign fliers that cited an opinion piece appearing on its site. The fliers, which slam a Sacramento City Council candidate, simply quote “Sacramento Press” as saying local residents are “being hoodwinked, bamboozeled, led astray, run amok as it appears District One candidate, Angelique Ashby, goes with the Hustle and Flow of dirty politics.”

Sacramento Press staff members were quick to distance themselves from the fliers, writing in a prominently featured post, entitled “Political campaign fliers NOT from The Sacramento Press,”

The Sacramento Press had no part in it. We did not print the mailers. We did not write those words.

The post, written by managing editor Colleen Belcher, goes on to stress that the Sacramento Press “did not write or solicit the article.”

Now, a step back for those not familiar with Sacramento Press. The site has several editorial interns and paid staffers, which it identifies with small icons next to the poster’s name. But the site is based largely on community contributions. That is, anyone can post almost anything on the site – like the opinion piece quoted by the fliers. It’s a bold concept, and the site has received agood deal of attention. In a comment responding to discussion (including comments I posted) on the campaign fliers story, co-founder Ben Ilfield had this to say about the site’s policies:

Sounds nice, but this use makes it seem like this was an editorial or perhaps reporting. It was neither.
This kind of misleading tactic could be used for anyone who supports anything to simply write an opinion piece on the site and then produce a flier that

Inspiration: My grandpa’s vintage press passes

by Cody Kitaura

It’s easy to focus on how much journalism has changed in the past decade or so, and it’s a topic I love discussing. But I sometimes find myself forgetting the long history that a lot of publications and organizations have. For instance, I work for a paper that has published for more than 100 years.
My grandfather, who passed a couple years ago (while I was still in j-school), was a former cameraman for NBC. He worked in New York state, Chicago and Burbank, but I don’t know a lot of details about what he did. I was cleaning out a few things at my parents’ house over the weekend and found a big bag with a bunch of random press passes.

DC Teachers Contract: Probably Good for DC, Probably Meaningless Elsewhere | Intercepts

DC Teachers Contract: Probably Good for DC, Probably Meaningless Elsewhere

by Mike Antonucci

Having been an historian I’m inclined to take the long view. While I think the new DC teachers contract is a positive development, it’s being way oversold in the press (how soon they forget Cincinnati).
I wrote the following for the National Journal blog:
The DC public school system has been a train wreck for many years, but the district hasn’t lacked for attempts to remedy the situation. I remember the efforts of the DC Financial Control Board and its appointment of General Julius W. Becton to run the schools in 1996. The city has maximum class sizes of 25, boasts a thriving charter school network, instituted a short-lived private school voucher program, and still has mayoral control. It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see an experiment with performance-based teacher pay and retention in DC.
As Bill Turque of the Washington Post reported, the teacher contract that expired in 2007 contained a host of measures designed to improve collaboration, mentoring and school turnarounds. So while the new contract has received an extraordinary amount of media exposure, little context has been provided about what preceded it.
The press showered most of its attention on the proposed voluntary performance pay program for teachers, but the contract offers almost no specifics, other than the promise that teachers in the program will rank “among the

The next DAC meeting is Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Education News & Comment

Education News & Comment

2010 Elections

Make Parent Voices Heard VOTE!

Go to the SCUSD DAC Executive Board Election Web Page (story below)

Go to the DAC SCUSD Board of Education Web Page

Go to the Parent Political Picks by the Big Education Ape Web Page

The next DAC meeting is Tuesday, June 8, 2010

at the Serna Center, Community Room, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

Free dinner and daycare is provided for your convenience.

Dear District Advisory Committee Members and Interested Parties:

This is our last meeting for this school year. We have officer elections, bylaw revision vote and Superintendent Raymond has our guest speaker to discuss his strategic plan and future plans.

DAC Officer Election:

If anyone is still interested in running for the DAC Board, you still have that opportunity as a write-in. Please read the election rules, each school gets one vote. Two changes to the elections noted below. Please note a quorum shall be a minimum of one-third Representatives in attendance providing the majority are parents.

1. Candidates must be present on date of election. Write-ins may be nominated at this time. (added)

4. DAC representatives from each school, district department, public organization or community agency will receive one paper ballot per represented group. (Change from “DAC representatives who are recorded on this year’s attendance signups and present will receive one paper ballot per represented group.”)

Bylaw Revision:

The attachment for the bylaws contains the following edits to the May 11 presentation. These changes were suggested by members and the legal review and help with clarity. They have been reviewed by the Executive Board and do not represent substantive changes. It is proposed that suggestions for substantive change to either the revised or certified bylaws be addressed by the amendment process next year.

Article II (Purpose) "Board of Trustees" is changed to "Board of Education".

Article III, Section B, 2 (Members) has "Members may not vote." added.

Article IV, Section G, 1 (Officers, President) is reworded to read: "The president shall serve on the Bylaws Committee." with the "and" deleted.

Article V, Section B (Conference Items) is reworded to change "conference" to "discussion" and has "to allow further discussion by SSCs as desired" added to the first sentence. An “s” is deleted from “meetings”.

Article IX (Amendments) has “of authority” deleted.

Announcements: (See attachments for details)

Refugee Provider Symposium

Breaking Gang Ties

Understanding Sex Culture

Next DAC meeting:

September 21, 2010 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm at the Serna Center, Community Rooms.

Wanda Yañez

Chairperson

District Advisory Committee (DAC)

Sacramento City Unified School District

Work: (916) 654-7729

Website: http://sacdac.org/Dacupdate.aspx

44 - Gibbs: Helen Thomas remarks 'offensive and reprehensible'

Gibbs: Helen Thomas remarks 'offensive and reprehensible'

By Anne E. Kornblut
With Helen Thomas's seat conspicuously empty at the Monday briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs assailed the veteran reporter for her remark that Jews should return to Germany and Eastern Europe.

"Those remarks were offensive and reprehensible," Gibbs said, noting that Thomas has apologized. Her sentiments "do not reflect certainly most of the people here and certainly not those of the administration."

Thomas, 89, who has covered the White House for decades, canceled a speech over the weekend and was dropped by a speakers' bureau that represented her after her comment that Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine." The controversy comes at a precarious moment in the Middle East following an Israeli assault on an aid flotilla that left 11 dead and prompted an international outcry.

Background on the President's Event Today in Michigan | The White House

Background on the President's Event Today in Michigan

by The White House

KALAMAZOO CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY ARENA

The President will travel to Michigan to deliver the commencement address to the Kalamazoo Central High School Class of 2010, this year’s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge winner. The audience will be composed of approximately 5,000 people, including 280 graduating seniors, family members, faculty and invited guests. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will accompany the President.
Additional background on the Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge as well as the Kalamazoo Central High School application essay and video can be viewed HERE.
ELECTED OFFICIALS EXPECTED TO ATTEND
Governor Jennifer Granholm
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Rep. Fred Upton
Mayor Bobby Hopewell
PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS
Mr. Von Washington, Jr., Principal of Kalamazoo Central High School, will welcome attendees and introduce the President.
Mr. Washington has been the principal at Kalamazoo Central for the past three years. Prior to that, for four years, he was the principal of the Alternative High School at West Ottawa Public Schools in Holland, Michigan.
Dr. Michael F. Rice, Superintendent of Kalamazoo Public Schools, will deliver brief remarks.
Dr. Rice was appointed superintendent of the Kalamazoo Public Schools in June 2007 and began work in Kalamazoo in August 2007. Prior to his appointment, Rice served for five years as superintendent of Clifton Public Schools in Clifton, New Jersey.
Cindy Lee, Kalamazoo Central Class of 2010 Valedictorian, will deliver brief remarks.
Simon Bohme, Kalamazoo Central Class of 2010 Salutatorian and student senate president, will deliver brief remarks.
Ms. Lisa VanLoo will present the Class of 2010.
Mr. Michael Hopson and Mrs. Joyce Ryskamp, Kalamazoo Central High Guidance Counselors, will announce graduates.
Ms. Monique Gardner and Mr. Raj Brueggemann will lead the transfer of leadership.
KALAMAZOO CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL FACTS
Provided by Kalmazoo Central
Kalamazoo Central High School was constructed in 1980. It houses 1,700 students in grades 9-12. K-Central is the Michigan Class A boy’s basketball champion 2010 and finished second in the state in this year’s Mock Trial Championship.
Additional Facts
KCHS is a diverse community in its socio-economic and racial composite. Students reside in urban and suburban settings. 50% of the student population self-identify as black/African-American, 39.8% as white/Caucasian and 10.2% as Native American, Hispanic, Asian, Indian and other.

Any KC student, who has attended since the beginning of 9th grade qualifies for 65% tuition payment through the Kalamazoo Promise. The majority of KC students qualify for full tuition payment at Michigan public colleges and universities. Fifty-five percent of our 2009 graduates plan to attend a 4-year college or university and 42.5% plan to attend a 2-year institution.

Graduation Requirements
Students in the 2010 graduating class are required to earn 28 credits in a 4x4 block schedule, including the following core requirements:

4 credits in English
4 credits in Social Studies
3 courses in Mathematics
3 credits in Science
1 credit in Fine Arts
1 credit in Computers
½ credit in Health Ed
½ credit in Physical Ed

Special Course Offerings
Approximately 3% of KC students participate in advanced math, science, and computer courses offered at the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center (KAMSC) and in math or English through the Academically Talented Youth Program (ATYP) taught on the WMU campus.
Other KC students participate in intensive course study in Education for Employment and Education for the Arts opportunities offered on-site and off-site. Off-site courses are taught in other high schools, college settings, community businesses, and agencies.
Several juniors and seniors participate in dual enrollment courses offered at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Western Michigan University or Kalamazoo College.

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