Thursday, June 10, 2010

NY school crowns gay friends prom king and queen - Boston.com

NY school crowns gay friends prom king and queen - Boston.com

GLOBE EDUCATION NEWS

College program for Randolph high school students offers credits, low fees

Just a few years ago, Randolph was considered a town in decline: School programs were being cut, MCAS scores were low, political controversies plagued Town Hall, and a series of homicides made the headlines. (By Wendy Chow, Globe Staff)

Walpole students petition homeowner flying Confederate flag

A group of Walpole High School students have been gathering the signatures of their fellow classmates, hoping to use them to persuade the homeowner who displays the Confederate flag next to the field where they play football games that it’s time to take it down. (By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent)

Quincy to lay off 75 teachers if budget is approved in vote

As the city’s School Committee finalized a budget last night that would lay off about 118 people, including approximately 75 teachers, Mayor Thomas P. Koch said residents could be hit with an incremental tax increase next year. (By Molly A.K. Connors, Globe Correspondent)

Asking more of preschool

Once considered just places to play, preschools now sandwich science and math lessons in between naps and recess. To help teachers meet the new academic rigor and to reduce socioeconomic achievement gaps that start before kindergarten, the state wants more teachers to earn bachelor’s degrees. (By James Vaznis, Globe Staff)

Peabody teacher makes a Revolutionary discovery

As she leafed through stacks of papers and other material that had accumulated over the years on her classroom’s bookshelf, fourth-grade social studies teacher Michelle Eugenio found several sheets of faux parchment paper, designed to have the look and feel of a Colonial period document. (By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff)

LATEST EDUCATION NEWS WIRE UPDATES

LATEST K-12 EDUCATION NEWS

LATEST HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS

Rise & Shine: Schools with needy students got less stimulus $ | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Schools with needy students got less stimulus $ | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Schools with needy students got less stimulus $

  • Many schools with poor students got less stimulus money, but still had bigger budgets. (WNYC)
  • A few politicians are pushing for charter schools to be required to pay union wages. (Post)
  • A school custodian leads a program at PS 14 to give bikes to needy children. (Bronx Times-Reporter)
  • With a local TV station’s help, Lehman HS students produced anti-bullying ads. (Bronx Times-Reporter)
  • A new private school’s principal left last week and never came back, and parents are angry. (Times)
  • Too few families signed up for gifted classes on Roosevelt Island to keep the program there open. (WSJ)
  • The Daily News lauds a 6-year-old East Harlem Catholic school for sending all its graduates to college.
  • And happy Brooklyn-Queens/Chancellor’s Conference Day! (GothamSchools)

Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

American Public Education, which operates two Web-based universities, got a big boost in profile and share price after agreeing to a deal with Wal-Mart.

Leader Abruptly Leaves a For-Profit Prep School

A message sent to parents of Claremont Preparatory School did not say why the headmaster would not be returning.
NATIONAL BRIEFING | NEW ENGLAND

Massachusetts: Fraud Trail Grows

A Delaware man charged with lying about his credentials to get into Harvard and to secure financial aid and prizes, was later admitted to Stanford, prosecutors said in court documents released Wednesday.
President Obama congratulated a student from Kalamazoo Central High School in Michigan on Monday after delivering the commencement address.

Obama Conveys Principle to Students

Speaking at Kalamazoo Central High School, President Obama offered a theme of personal responsibility.
CITY ROOM

New Medical School for Hofstra

The state's first new medical school in nearly 50 years is about to begin accepting applications.

CSU trustees to consider five percent fee hike for fall | California Watch

CSU trustees to consider five percent fee hike for fall | California Watch

CSU trustees to consider five percent fee hike for fall

California State University students could see a five percent fee increase for fall 2010 under a proposal up for discussion next week, and fees could climb higher after the state budget gets hammered out.
Flickr photo by Art Pets Photography
A staff analysis released this week says the proposed five percent increase – up for approval at the June 18 CSU Board of Trustees meeting – would be the minimum necessary, even under the most optimistic state budget scenario.
The increase would amount to $204 per year for full-time undergraduates, bringing the total annual fee to about $5,097 including average campus-based fees. Last year, the CSU increased fees by a whopping 32 percent in light of a major reduction in state funding and a budget deficit.
The report states that trustees may consider at their November meeting additional fee increases for winter and spring terms, after the final budget package becomes clear.
The governor's proposed budget – considered an optimistic possible outcome – would restore more than $350 million in state support for the system, assuming the CSU would increase fees by 10 percent.
A proposal advanced by the Assembly budget committee would give $75 million to the CSU

Teachers get schooled - News - Local Stories - June 10, 2010 - Sacramento News & Review

Teachers get schooled - News - Local Stories - June 10, 2010 - Sacramento News & Review

Teachers get schooled

Sacramento city superintendent gives the union a hard lesson in media management

By Cosmo Garvin
cosmog@newsreview.com
More stories by this author...

This article was published on 06.10.10.


New Superintendent Jonathan Raymond (right) was lauded by the Sacramento County grand jury. But the jury didn’t contact anyone from the SCTA for the union’s side of the story.
PHOTO BY LILLY FUENTES-JOY

Note to Sacramento labor leaders: If you want to badly lose a public-relations battle, just follow the Sacramento City Teachers Association’s example. The teachers union has been hammered by local media for refusing to give up pay and benefits in order to save teacher jobs.
Sacramento City Unified School District’s Jonathan Raymond, in his first job as school superintendent, has worked press and public opinion like a pro. He says that 250 district teachers will lose their jobs if the union doesn’t make concessions. He’s hired a new “chief communications officer” to help get his point across, to the media and to district employees. And the local press, The Sacramento Bee in particular, has helped Raymond amplify the message that any layoffs will be laid at SCTA’s feet. One Bee cartoon even portrayed a union official driving a bus over a group of young teachers. Ouch.
The SCTA’s rep was further damaged when a Sacramento County grand jury last month blasted the union and praised Raymond. “Superintendent Raymond has an excellent plan to resolve longstanding educational problems in the district and needs the support of the community to accomplish his goals,” the report reads. It goes on to say, “It is time for unions to become more of an advocate for children.”
Meanwhile, SCTA President Linda Tuttle is rarely quoted in stories, either because she couldn’t be reached or didn’t return calls. Perhaps she’d forgotten PR rule No. 1: If you want to look really bad in the press, don’t talk to the press.
She did agree to talk to SN&R however, perhaps feeling that the local alternative-weekly would be more labor-friendly. And it turns out that the SCTA actually does have an alternative plan—which the union claims will save $4.3 million and help prevent teacher layoffs.
State budget cuts, along with declining enrollment in the district, have produced a $31 million budget shortfall this year. The SCUSD board of trustees is expected to vote on its budget June

School staff can't give students insulin shots, court says - Medical News - sacbee.com

School staff can't give students insulin shots, court says - Medical News - sacbee.com

California State University trustees are scheduled to vote next week on a proposal to raise student fees in the fall.
A Sacramento-based appeals court has struck down a California education regulation that allowed trained school staff members to give insulin shots to students.
The Elk Grove Unified School District will receive $459,310 in federal stimulus funds to develop programs to train low-income, unemployed and underskilled residents for jobs in health care, information technology and alternative energy.
California State University trustees are scheduled to vote next week on a proposal to raise student fees in the fall.


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/education/#ixzz0qSAVxjN9

Phila. teacher reassignment put on hold | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/09/2010

Phila. teacher reassignment put on hold | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/09/2010

Local News | Seattle University freshman class to be record size | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Seattle University freshman class to be record size | Seattle Times Newspaper

Next week: charter renewals, not expansions | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Next week: charter renewals, not expansions | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Wal-Mart’s Partner in Education Earns High Profile - NYTimes.com

Wal-Mart’s Partner in Education Earns High Profile - NYTimes.com

Wal-Mart Finds Ally in Education




What promises to be a lucrative arrangement between the country’s largest retailer and an education company based in West Virginia started with an unsolicited e-mail message in October.
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Wallace Boston, of American Public University, spoke in New York on Wednesday.
The retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, was looking for a partner to offer online college courses to its work force in the United States. Might American Public Education — which runs two Web-based universities — be interested?
By January, American Public put together a team devoted to landing the Wal-Mart contract, and last week, the two companies announced an agreement. Wal-Mart committed to spending $50 million over the next three years in tuition and other assistance for employees who enroll.
Since then, shares in the $850 million education company, which started 19 years ago as a provider of classes to military personnel and now offers degrees in 76 fields, have risen 11 percent, and its profile in the for-profit education field has soared.
“It puts them on the map in a way they haven’t been,” said Trace A. Urdan, senior analyst in San Francisco with Signal Hill, an investment bank.
And the partnership, in Wal-Mart’s eyes, could be a tool to improve American competitiveness, American Public’s chief executive, Wallace E. Boston Jr., said on Wednesday at a conference sponsored by UBS in New York.
But the choice of American Public, which has about 70,000 students in 100 countries, was




Claremont Prep School Leadership Changes Hands

A message sent to parents of Claremont Preparatory School did not say why the headmaster would not be returning.

A Child’s View of the Oil Spill � Tangerine, Florida

A Child’s View of the Oil Spill � Tangerine, Florida

A Child’s View of the Oil Spill

Pufferfish

Pufferfish Struggling in the Oil Spill

Great Deal Offered By Edublogs! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Great Deal Offered By Edublogs! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Great Deal Offered By Edublogs!

Alice Mercer and I have been able to use an Edublogs Campus account for free this year, and it’s been great. Our classes have been able to use a ton of excellent features.
Now, you too can use Edublogs Campus….for free!
You can read more at Sue Waters’ post, Try a free Edublogs Campus for your class.
(Note: I’d be writing this post even if I hadn’t gotten a free Campus account this year)


Today’s World Cup Update

Is “Complicated” To “Complex” As “Puzzle” Is To “Mystery”?

I’ve posted previously applying Malcolm Gladwell’s frame of “puzzles versus mysteries” to present-day school

My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday

Lewisville schools proposal on Web conduct raises free speech concerns | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Lewisville schools proposal on Web conduct raises free speech concerns | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Lewisville schools proposal on Web conduct raises free speech concerns



09:32 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 9, 2010

By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News
whundley@dallasnews.com

Angela Armstrong is proud to be a teacher and never thought twice about making references to her profession on her Facebook page.
But those online remarks could get her into trouble under a recent proposal presented to the Lewisville school district. It would prohibit employees from criticizing the district or even affiliating themselves with the school on social networking sites.
"What a disappointment to read that I can no longer affiliate myself with a district I'm proud to work for," Armstrong told the Lewisville school board at its May 17 meeting.
The second-grade teacher at Camey Elementary School said the proposed rules restrict her right to free speech and could invite a lawsuit.
"Are you really willing to take on the First Amendment of the United States Constitution?" she asked.
With the growing popularity of blogs, podcasts, Twitter and other online social media, school districts are beginning to develop policies that govern the use of these emerging technologies.
The Texas Association of School Boards is drafting new policy language that addresses how employees should use social networking sites, even on their own time and on their own computers.
"For several years, districts have been wanting specific statements about social media in their policies," said Carolyn Counce, the association's director of policy service. "They're trying to keep their policies updated with the technology."
While the model policy isn't expected to be finalized until the fall, she said it will address what's expected of employees when they're posting information that could be accessed by students.
"We've all heard about teachers putting up something inappropriate," she said.
A New Hampshire English teacher was accused this year of sending naked photos of herself and sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old student. Melinda Dennehy has been charged with indecent exposure.
Dennis Connor, a 27-year-old aide at Garland's Naaman Forest High