Friday, June 11, 2010

The Washington Teacher: The Washington Teacher Appears On WPFW 89.3 FM Radio Tonight

The Washington Teacher: The Washington Teacher Appears On WPFW 89.3 FM Radio Tonight

The Washington Teacher Appears On WPFW 89.3 FM Radio Tonight

by The Wash. Teacher

Hope you can join us FRIDAY ON SPECTRUM TODAY WPFW 89.3 FM 6:00-7:00 PM (streaming at wpfw.org)

** Peter Tucker will be hosting the full hour tonight. **

Angela Rice taught English for 33 years in DCPS. When Michelle Rhee became Chancellor, the experienced English teacher was told that she was now to teach "Reading." Rather than teach to a test, Angela Rice retired. Despite having worked into 2009, she has been left out of the retroactive pay raises that Chancellor Rhee has implemented. Additionally, she is concerned that teachers have bargained away significant rights in the new teachers' contract and asks what the private interests are getting in return for the unprecedented amount of money they are contributing to the teachers' contract. Of the $64.5 million in private donations, $25 million comes from the Walton Family Foundation. The Waltons are
Posted by at

Alabama Education Department to go after BP | Dothan Eagle

Alabama Education Department to go after BP | Dothan Eagle

Alabama Education Department to go after BP

By JIM COOK
Published: June 10, 2010
» 2 Comments | Post a Comment
vote
nowBuzz up!
The Alabama Department of Education is joining the legion of organizations and individuals asking BP to cover losses that occurred as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and leak.
State School Superintendent Joe Morton announced Thursday that the education department will file claims with BP for lost tax revenue resulting from the leak.
Alabama is heavily dependent on sales tax revenue to fund education. Morton said in a press release that sales tax revenues from the fishing, shrimping and tourist industries are likely to suffer because of the leak.
“If people are unemployed, they can’t pay taxes or buy things,” said Anne Graham, an education department spokeswoman.
The state intends to file claims in the next 30 to 45 days, as soon as it gets recent sales tax collection numbers and calculates estimated losses. No estimate of how badly tax revenues will be hurt exists yet.
If BP doesn’t pay up, Morton intends to take the company to court.
The Alabama Education Association released a statement Wednesday backing Morton’s plan and offering its support.
“There is no doubt that the BP disaster will cost Alabama schools tens of millions of dollars, just like they have cost the Alabama tourism and seafood industry millions already, and millions more before this is done,” AEA Executive Secretary Paul Hubbert said in the release. “They must pay every dime that is owed. We have suffered two years of proration because of the malfeasance of Wall Street firms, we will not allow going into proration again because a giant oil company’s negligence and its
Posted by at

Kaplan Launches Venture Arm To Invest In Education Start-Ups - WSJ.com

Kaplan Launches Venture Arm To Invest In Education Start-Ups - WSJ.com


Kaplan Launches Venture Arm To Invest In Education Start-Ups

By Ty McMahan    Of DOW JONES VENTUREWIRE
As venture capitalists turn more attention to education innovation, Kaplan Inc. has launched its own venture arm to look at student-serving start-ups.
Kaplan VC LLC is a subsidiary designed to identify and develop innovative learning strategies, technologies and products with the power to transform education world-wide. The investment group will look to invest between $500,000 and $10 million in companies focused on education technology and student outcomes, Kaplan Chief Executive Andrew Rosen said.
The new group will be led by Jason Palmer, who assumes the position of senior vice president, Kaplan Ventures.
Investment in education companies is growing steadily as new Internet technologies and devices allow for new ways to educate. Venture capitalists have poured money into textbook, language learning and learning collaboration companies, betting that adoption across the tens of thousands of school districts in the U.S. alone could create the next wave of billion-dollar companies.
Eight companies providing education training, software and services were funded by venture capitalists in the first quarter for a total of about $57 million, according to VentureSource, an industry tracker owned, like this newsletter, by Dow Jones & Co. That was about $14 million more than was invested in the same number of companies in the first quarter a year ago. Fourth-quarter investment was also strong, with $53 million invested in 11 companies.
Palmer said Kaplan has not dedicated a specific amount for its fund and plans to be opportunistic, investing in companies that not only are core to Kaplan's mission, but also nontraditional businesses that could become platforms for education technologies. For example, Kaplan is incubating Colloquy, a company that helps design and build online education programs for universities.
Kaplan VC is a part of Kaplan Ventures, a subsidiary that incubates a portfolio of medium-sized businesses offering education programs. The portfolio currently

Posted by at

Movie Review - 'The Lottery' - Documentary About the Harlem Success Academy - NYTimes.com

Movie Review - 'The Lottery' - Documentary About the Harlem Success Academy - NYTimes.com

Education by Chance


By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Published: June 11, 2010

With a little tweaking “The Lottery” would fit nicely into the marketing materials for the Harlem Success Academy, a publiccharter school founded by Eva Moskowitz, a former New York City councilwoman. On one level, this heart-tugging documentary recounts the experiences of four children competing in the academy’s annual intake lottery. On another, it’s a passionate positioning of charter schools as the saviors of public education.
Enlarge This Image

Wolfgang Held
Christian and Emil Yoanson await results in “The Lottery.”

Though infinitely classier — and easier on the eyes — than“Cartel,” the recent documentary exploring public education, this latest charter-school commercial is no less one-sided. Virtually relinquishing the floor to Ms. Moskowitz (who delights in vilifying the “thuggish” tactics of the United Federation of Teachers) and her supporters, the director, Madeleine Sackler, captures a smidgen of naysayers in mostly unflattering lights. Ignoring critical issues like financial transparency, Ms. Sackler sells her viewpoint with four admirable, striving families, each of whose tots could charm the fleas off a junkyard dog.
But as an avowed marketing tool for a product that depends on public money and good will, the lottery itself, with its publicly dashed dreams, may have backfired. As we see during a vitriolic public hearing on Ms. Moskowitz’s bid to open a second facility in an unused public school, pitting neighbor against neighbor for the future of their children can be a dangerous strategy.
“I don’t even go to lotteries anymore, because they break my heart,” says Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark. So does
Posted by at

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Montgomery Co. schools to become global brand


School system will be paid $2.25 million to develop an elementary school curriculum.
MORE ON EDUCATION


VALERIE STRAUSS
The Answer Sheet



New controversy at Rhode Island school

One of the two newly named principals at the Rhode Island school were all the teachers were fired and then rehired had on his resumรฉ a serious exaggeration of student achievement in math at his former school.
JAY MATHEWS
Class Struggle
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 1:00 AM ET, 06/10/2010

Must-read new report on high school dropouts

Swanson discovered, for instance, that just 25 of the 11,000 U.S. school districts with high schools accounted for one out of every five students who failed to graduate in 2007, the most recent year with relevant data. Those 25 districts at the top of the dropout scale had a quarter million non-graduates, as many as were counted in the lowest ranked 8,400 districts.

On the road to a deal: Potholes and gridlock

In mid-June 2009, it looked like the District and the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) were finally close to a contract. Mediator Kurt Schmoke had every reason to believe he was done. After two months of mediating the stalemated talks that began in November 2007, there were agreements on the biggest, most problematic matters, dubbed "tier three" issues. These included a new performance pay system and "performance-based excessing," contractual jargon for trimming teachers from under-enrolled or reorganizing schools on basis of quality, not seniority.
The remaining items, relegated to tiers one and twos, were regarded as "low-hanging fruit," expected to move quickly to resolution without his prodding. These were items such as pay for coaches, contract language on teacher professional development and grievance procedures. On June 17, the former three-term mayor of Baltimore attended his final bargaining session and returned to his day job as dean of the Howard University School of Law.
But, like Michael Corleone in "Godfather III," just when he thought he was out, he got pulled back in. In mid-July, he received a call from AFT president Randi Weingarten and deputy chancellor Kaya Henderson, the District's lead negotiator, asking if he was available to return. The problem: what was agreed to in principle had proven impossible to commit to paper; and the low-hanging fruit was actually on branches
Montgomery Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast. (TWP)
Posted by at

EducationNews.org New Teacher Distribution Methods Hold Promise

EducationNews.org

image
University Fat Cat

Universities Make Millions Selling Access, Addresses To Bank Of America

6.8.10 - Some of the nation's largest and most elite universities stand to gain millions of dollars from selling
Full story
image

New Teacher Distribution Methods Hold Promise

6.11.10 - With effective teaching a top policy priority, certain school districts, the federal government, and nonprofit groups are renewing efforts to pilot and study strategies for pairing...
Full story
image

Reformers: Stop doing these 4 things

6.11.10 - John L. O’Connor - In fact, many of the activities that we are leading actually contribute toward less effective classroom teaching. Countless hours are spent completing activities that steal effort and energy away from...
Full story
image

Under Pressure, Teachers Tamper With Test Scores

6.11.10 - The staff of Normandy Crossing Elementary School outside Houston eagerly awaited the results of state achievement tests this
Posted by at

A Connected Teacher: Priceless - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

A Connected Teacher: Priceless - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.





A Connected Teacher: Priceless


Ideas For Bringing A Global Perspective
Into Your School's Classrooms

Video Below

Via Langwitches, some more great ideas for teaching geography, foreign language and
other topics with a real-time global context. Related link here on tele-conferencing tips.

3 min. video below:


Posted by at

Two Excellent Infographics | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Two Excellent Infographics | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Two Excellent Infographics

by Larry Ferlazzo
1 person liked this
I’ve recently learned about two excellent infographics that are very accessible to English Language Learners.
The first is called Africa In Perspective. It very vividly compares the size of Africa with the size of a number of other areas on the earth.
The second is Our Amazing Planet: Top To Bottom. You just have to see it to believe it. Thanks to Cool Infographics for the tip.

New York City Webquests





Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)