Saturday, June 12, 2010

Tualatin Elementary students harvest produce from school garden, serve it in salads for lunch Education | Tualatin News - OregonLive.com

Education | Tualatin News - OregonLive.com

Foundation to hold weekend golf tournament fundraiser

By Special to The Oregonian

June 12, 2010, 6:00AM

Proceeds from the tournament will be used by the foundation for educational enrichment by funding programs to advance student achievement and success. Full story »

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Retiring Tualatin High School Principal Jeff Smith leaves a legacy of change

By Colleen Stewart, The Oregonian

June 12, 2010, 4:00AM

Smith has worked to increase technology education and to decrease the achievement gap between minority and other students. Full story »

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Multi-sport athlete wins athletic club's scholarship

By Special to The Oregonian

June 05, 2010, 6:00AM

A total of 27 metro-area sophomores were chosen by Multnomah Athletlic Club as scholarship recipients Full story »

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Tualatin High valedictorian Corey Cushing pays good deeds forward

By Melissa Navas, The Oregonian

June 05, 2010, 12:02AM

Cushing, who helped start a service-based club to aid community groups and has organized fundraisers for cancer research, plans to study accounting and finance. Full story »

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Cancer-fighting kids relay for $4,600 at Hopkins' Mini-Relay for Life

By Special to The Oregonian

May 22, 2010, 6:00AM

The event is designed to raise funds and awareness of cancer and to help the American Cancer Society Full story »

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Tualatin Elementary students harvest produce from school garden, serve it in salads for lunch

By Washington County Reader Contributor

May 18, 2010, 1:47PM

The school garden is the first for the Tigard-Tualatin School District Full story »

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Arabic Class Becomes a Popular Choice Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

BIG CITY

Arabic Class Becomes a Popular Choice

By SUSAN DOMINUS

The language course at Friends Seminary, a school in the East Village, is influencing students before and after graduation.

Columnist Page

CHEAT SHEET

Karren Bailey, center, and Joan Anderson, right, Norfolk, Va., school officials, discuss an inquiry.

Under Pressure, Teachers Tamper With Tests

By TRIP GABRIEL

Experts say cases of teachers altering test scores have risen along with the stakes involved in testing.

Read Comments (372)

Students to Protest Possible End of Free Rides

By SHARON OTTERMAN

The event will come one day after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the start of a task force to combat absenteeism and truancy.

Scoring Low, More Pupils Face School This Summer

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s policy, students at the lowest level on state English and math tests must take summer courses or be held back.

Wal-Mart Finds Ally in Education

By MICHELINE MAYNARD

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

By JENNY ANDERSON

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

By JACQUES STEINBERG and ABBY GOODNOUGH

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

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

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

Video of Speech via MSNBC | Post a Comment

CITY ROOM

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CORE TEAM WINS BIG IN CTU ELECTION

CORE TEAM WINS BIG IN CTU ELECTION

by Mike Klonsky

Congratulations to new Chicago Teachers Union president, Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) team for their remarkable landslide victory in yesterday's union election. CORE's victory represents much more than just a win over the United Progressive Caucus (UPC) and the six-year CTU president Marilyn Stewart. It is a sign that rank-and-file teachers are fed-up with the business-as-usual politics

Climate managers fired, deputy superintendent hired | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/11/2010

Climate managers fired, deputy superintendent hired

By Susan Snyder and Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writers

In a cost-cutting move, the Philadelphia School District this week laid off 33 managers whose primary responsibility was keeping order in schools and maintaining safety, eliciting criticism from teachers and union leaders.
The district also cut 17 nonteaching assistants who help maintain order and 11 other community-relations positions at schools throughout the city.
The climate managers, a relatively new response to persistent violence and disruption in the district, vary in effectiveness, and officials within the administration don't agree on the need to have them.
The cuts were made in the same week that Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman announced a new management position in naming Leroy Nunery to be her deputy superintendent. Nunery is paid $180,000 as the district's chief of institutional advancement and strategic partnerships; Ackerman said it had not been discussed whether his salary would change.
"I find it difficult to reconcile the hiring of a deputy superintendent at a time when 33 managers whose primary purpose in the schools was to establish a safe climate for the students and staff are being laid off," said Michael Lerner, president of the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators, the union that represents the managers and principals.
Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, also blasted the cuts.
"Kids need more adult attention and supervision now than ever," he said. "You're not going to be as successful in getting children to improve academically."
The climate manager position was established in 2006 under former schools chief Paul Vallas as a way to keep order in schools and help principals with other noninstructional concerns.
Of the 60, 33 were funded through the district's central budget; the other 27 were paid for through individual school

Graduating seniors face challenging job market - San Jose Mercury News

Graduating seniors face challenging job market

University career centers say the valley's employers may be finally kicking into hiring mode.

Delaware man accused of duping Harvard got into Stanford

Fee increase to be proposed by CSU

Autism linked to genetic glitches

Little-known San Jose educator lands atop heap in race for California schools chief

Education Research Report: Study: Seasoned profs prepare students for advanced learning

Study: Seasoned profs prepare students for advanced learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

But students' evaluations reward immediate gratification

Highly credentialed and experienced professors are better at preparing students for long-term academic success than their less-experienced counterparts, but that ability isn't necessarily reflected in their students' teaching evaluations. That's according to research by a pair of economists published in this month's Journal of Political Economy.

The study's authors, Scott Carrell of U.C. Davis and James West of the U.S. Air Force Academy, say their

Friday, June 11, 2010

HISD forces 162 teachers out of under-performing schools | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD forces 162 teachers out of under-performing schools

More than 160 teachers in Houston ISD's under-performing middle and high schools weren't offered jobs at those campuses next year, the district announced Friday evening. The decision affects staffing at nine schools targeted in Superintendent Terry Grier's "Apollo 20" reform plan.

Of the 600 teachers at those schools last year, 358 — or 60 percent — learned on Friday that the district wants them to return to help with the improvement efforts. But the district is forcing 162 teachers, or 27 percent of the staff, out of those schools. The administration made the decisions based on "an exhaustive data-driven evaluation" of the teachers, according to the news release, which didn't specify what data were used.

An additional 80 teachers at the targeted schools previously had decided to retire, resign or transfer to other campuses, according to HISD. "In some cases, teachers opted not to stay due to a personal conflict with the longer school year and longer school day schedules of the Apollo schools," the news release said.

The affected high schools are Jones, Kashmere, Lee and Sharpstown. The middle schools are Attucks, Dowling, Fondren, Key and Ryan. Most of the campuses also will be getting new principals.

The teachers forced out will be allowed to apply for other teaching jobs in the district, and

Schools Matter: Imagine and 501(c)(3) Status

Imagine and 501(c)(3) Status

by Kenneth Libby

The commentary below comes from Dean Marc Millot. Dean's experience setting up a complicated nonprofit corporation may help shed some light on why Imagine is still waiting for 501(c)(3) status. I've added a brief comment at the end.

Imagine Schools is as a nonprofit corporation under Virginia state law. That only exempts the organization from the state's income tax. Five years ago the national charter school operator applied for exemption from federal income taxes under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). They have yet to receive a determination. Why?

In "Failure of Imagination", Pittsburgh City Paper reporter Chris Young passes on Imagine executive vice president Sam Howard's explanation: "The IRS takes forever to do anything."

This issue has been bugging me for a long while. As it happens, circa 1999, leveraging the

Remainders: Look to Brooklyn for hot pre-k and gifted programs | GothamSchools

Last year’s cue-card incident cost UFT’s political chief his job | GothamSchools

Remainders: Look to Brooklyn for hot pre-k and gifted programs

by Maura Walz

About 600 students walked out of school today in support of continued free student Metrocards.
Open less than a year, the Brooklyn School of Inquiry is the city’s second most coveted gifted program.
And Park Slope’s P.S. 321 was the hardest pre-school to get into in the city.
Pissed Off Teacher has trouble mustering enthusiasm among her students for a diagnostic test.
Arthur Goldstein submits his remembrances of layoffs past.
A professional development skeptic confesses that he found yesterday’s PD useful.
A teacher in the Bronx questions why the state allows teachers to grade their own Regents exams.
The UFT’s Jackie Bennett has more analysis of data on charter schools retention and achievement.
To plug a budget gap, a NJ school asked parents to pay schools for their children’s housework.
Two Brooklyn Tech students discuss their “SAT hangovers.”
And P.S. 22’s choir wishes you a happy weekend with a nice cover of “I’ll Stand By You.”

Last year’s cue-card incident cost UFT’s political chief his job

by Elizabeth Green

Remember that time when we caught the teachers union prompting City Council members with cue cards? Barraged with criticism, then-union president Randi Weingarten said she regretted the lobbying tactic and pledged on television to “make some changes in the union.”
I never figured out what the changes were — until today. After the incident, Marvin Reiskin, the union’s political director, retired. He was due to leave at the end of the year, anyway, but the retirement happened a month or so

Details on city’s plans to improve failing schools delayed a week

by Maura Walz

More than thirty schools waiting to hear how they’ll have to change under a federal program targeting low-performing schools will have to wait longer.
The federal government is giving New York State $308 million to help fix its lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, 34 of which are in New York City. To receive the funds, school districts must explain to the state which of four pre-approved models of school improvement they plan to use. The city’s plans were originally due today, but they’ve been delayed as city and teachers union officials haggle.
“While we work to finalize labor issues, we’ve been granted a one week extension on our application,” Department of Education spokesman Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld said. “Given the wide variety of schools involved, we want to make sure we have as many options as possible to fix these struggling schools.”
One major issue is whether the union contract limits which of the four models can be applied to schools. City officials have argued that the only model that does not require that teachers lose their position — the so-called

Harvard Student Detained By Immigration : NPR

Harvard Student Detained By Immigration

Eric Balderas, an undocumented student who just completed his first year at Harvard, was detained by immigration authorities after he tried to board a plane from his hometown of San Antonio to Boston using a consulate card from Mexico and his student ID.

Free Technology for Teachers: Video - Oil Spill by the Numbers

Video - Oil Spill by the Numbers

by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more 50 days now. Time has produced a video documenting the events of the oil spill and the quantity of oil now in the Gulf of Mexico. The Oil Spill by the Numbers is embedded below.

H/T to Jeffery Hill's The English Blog.

Applications for Education
This video could be useful for showing students the breadth of the impact of the oil spill. After watching the video you could have students develop their own timelines related to the oil spill.

Oil Spill Poster # 2 � Tangerine, Florida

Oil Spill Poster # 2

by tangerineflorida

8th Grade Oil Spill Art Project

Spare the Rod… & other Inappropriate Conventional Wisdom Dealing with Youth | Lefty Parent

Spare the Rod… & other Inappropriate Conventional Wisdom Dealing with Youth

by Cooper Zale

Kids are obviously stakeholders in their own lives, and like most other stakeholders they generally want and deserve to have input into decisions made about the course of their lives, if not having the final say on those decisions. There seem to be a lot of adults, who play a stewardship role in kids’ lives as parents, teachers, etc. that don’t seem to get this. Or maybe relying on inappropriate myths or conventional cultural wisdom, they think their responsibility as stewards to these kids somehow trumps kids’ own right to self-direction.

We adults mostly understand this when dealing with other adults, and our society and most of its institutions basically “get it” that adult stakeholders should have input or even the final say in key decisions in their lives, unless they are say convicted criminals or judged mentally incompetent. This is a key element of the whole evolving concept of individualism over the past five centuries of human history and thought in the transition from feudal monarchies to citizen republics and free enterprise.

But when it comes to youth, our society and its institutions are often still inclined to use that older feudal model

Statement by the President on World Day Against Child Labor | The White House

Statement by the President on World Day Against Child Labor

by The White House

Childhood is a time that should be spent in classrooms and on playgrounds, but for 215 million children around the world, it is a time spent working, often in dangerous and deplorable conditions. And while reports indicate that child labor continues to decline, much work remains to be done.
I applaud my Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, who has helped increase our efforts to address child labor abroad and here at home. My Administration is committing $60 million this year to support efforts to reduce child labor around the world. The Department of Labor has also taken steps to improve protections for child workers in the United States, and we have dramatically increased our child labor law enforcement efforts. And this week the Department of State and the Department of Labor jointly hosted a conference on child labor that demonstrated our intention to take a whole of government approach to this issue. Participants from multiple federal agencies and the National Security Council, alongside NGOs and multilateral organizations, all reaffirmed a commitment to take action against child labor in the year ahead. We must address the root causes of child labor by ensuring access to education for all children and helping families to secure sustainable livelihoods and to overcome the poverty that contributes to child labor. On this World Day Against Child Labor, all of us must recommit ourselves to creating a world where our children have a brighter future, free of exploitive labor.

Sac City and teachers union reaches deal - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sac City and teachers union reaches deal

by mgutierrez@sacbee.com (Melody Gutierrez)

The Sacramento City Unified School District and the Sacramento City Teachers Association are expected to announce a two-year agreement Monday that preserves class sizes and saves pink slipped teachers and counselors.
District officials said details of the agreement will not be available until Monday, while specific impacts will be hammered out in the coming weeks. The deal still needs to be ratified by union members.
The district and teachers union hope to maintain 25 students per teacher in kindergarten through third grade classes, according to a press release. The agreement is also expected to save many middle and high school counselor positions.
"I am extremely proud of our entire district today," said district Superintendent Jonathan Raymond in a press release. "This announcement illustrates a commitment by both sides to stand together as we weather uncertain financial times, regardless of how long they may last."
Union members will vote on the agreement on Monday. It will then go to the school board for final approval later