Sunday, June 13, 2010

Reactions to possible Jefferson High School closure as diverse as the residents in its attendance zone | OregonLive.com

Reactions to possible Jefferson High School closure as diverse as the residents in its attendance zone

Published: Sunday, June 13, 2010, 4:41 PM Updated: Sunday, June 13, 2010, 4:42 PM

Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
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Faith Cathcart/The OregonianMarlon Miles (left), a 2009 graduate of Jefferson High School, and 2008 graduates Wayne Forthan (middle) and Jonathan Hall said the school has a family feel. All have relatives who attended or hoped to attend the North Portland school, now threatened with closure.

The Portland School Board's plan to close Jefferson High and disperse students in its zone to four other high schools has elicited diverse reactions, much in keeping with the diversity of the families who live in that gentrified swath of inner North and Northeast Portland.

No community ever wants to lose its high school. But in the case of Jefferson, issues of race, class and history mean the reaction is even more ferocious and complex.

"When you look at the decision to close Jefferson in light of the district's undeniable history of continually giving Jefferson short shrift, one can only surmise this was the intention all along," Eric Van Der Wolf, parent of a 2010 Jefferson graduate and vice chairman of the site council, said Friday.

Read previous stories about the Portland high school reorganization.

African American leaders say closing the school is a racist blow, unfairly striking students and neighborhoods in the heart of the city's historic African American population center. Dismantling Jefferson on the grounds that it is small and low-achieving would be a final insult, they say, given that the district has systematically undermined the school, helping cause those very problems.

But among the legions of families who live in the Jefferson zone but have chosen or made plans to send their children to other schools, many are breathing sighs of relief that their child can now attend Benson, Grant, Madison or Lincoln.

Among parents, attitudes are split largely, but not exclusively, along racial lines, with white parents most in favor of closing Jefferson. But it's not that cut and dried. Some African American parents from the Jefferson neighborhood have testified passionately about their desire to preserve Benson High as the best place for their child. Some white people testified passionately about the need to keep, and rebuild, Jefferson.

Currently, Jefferson has only 430 students, about 330 of them from the neighborhood. The school is 60 percent African American, 17 percent Latino and 13 percent white, making it the only

Teacher-in-the-Box: Available In Your Neighborhood Sooner Than You Think

For more information about a Charter School in your area visit:

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Blog U.: Jing For Student Authoring - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Jing For Student Authoring
By Joshua Kim June 13, 2010 6:47 pm

Have you thought about having your students create voice-over presentations to share with your class? Instead of (or in addition to) having your students give live class presentations, a voice-over PowerPoint can be easily recorded and shared through the LMS.
The 5 best things about using Jing, PowerPoint and the Discussion Board:
1. Free:Jing is free for your students. As long as they have PowerPoint, they (or your institution) will not need to pay for any new software. (If they don't have PowerPoint, they could always get the free OpenOffice or use Google Presentation). A free voice-over authoring tool is compelling, as one of the main inhibitors to having students create voice-over presentations has been the cost of the applications. Jing is also cross-platform.
2. Easy: Check out this screencast I made for my students on how to record a voice-over
- The Good Old Summertime
  By Susan O'Doherty June 13, 2010 3:40 pm
  
  The New York City public schools are officially open until June 28, but my son is off as of last week. The next two weeks are dedicated to preparing for and taking New York State Regents’ Exams, and he has taken and passed all of his state exams already. He’s going to baseball camp for a week in July, he plays first base for a competitive team with an intensive summer schedule, and he plans to take weekly sitar lessons, but otherwise he’s a free agent until Labor Day.
  On the one hand, this is great. He needs unstructured time, and he makes good use of it — he rides his bike, plays his guitar, writes songs and sometimes just lies in bed with his laptop, catching up on missed episodes of House and Lie to Me. He and some friends have chipped in on cricket equipment and are teaching themselves to play. He and I have been working on some duets; he’s a terrific accompanist and we harmonize well together. If all goes according to plan, this will be a wonderful summer.
  I remember how important these free days were from my own adolescence. During the school year, there was always something I was supposed to be doing — homework, a paper that was coming due, lines to learn for a school play, and so on. Life was sometimes hectic and fun, sometimes full of scary drudgery (chemistry and calculus come to mind), but always tightly scheduled and often exhausting and overwhelming. I loved going to, and then working

Greenfield school district, others look to solar power to cut ... - Bakersfield.com

Greenfield school district, others look to solar power to cut costs

BY JORGE BARRIENTOS, Californian staff writer
jbarrientos@bakersfield.com | Sunday, Jun 13 2010 12:00 PM

Last Updated Sunday, Jun 13 2010 12:00 PM

School districts throughout Kern County are hoping to save thousands of dollars a year on energy costs by contracting with companies offering solar power.

The latest plan is coming out of Greenfield Union School District in south Bakersfield. The district hopes to have companies install solar panels on top of roofs of nearly all 11 campuses (Ollivier Middle School is excluded because of efficiency concerns).

Instead of paying PG&E for power, as it does now, the district would pay the solar power provider installing the panels directly under the plan. The move could save the district more than $50,000 a year, and $4.6 million after 20 years, Superintendent Chris Crawford said.

"We are really excited about this," Crawford said. "There are the savings, and it allows us to budget our power costs."

Greenfield trustees earlier in the week heard a presentation from Enfinity, a solar energy company of investors, and Garland Energy Systems, a solar panel provider and consulting resource.

Trustees have given Crawford the OK to draw up an action item school board members could vote on later this month. If approved, the panels would be installed at no cost to the district under the contract.

At the meeting, trustees asked how the panels would look, whether they would affect roof warranties and most importantly, how much the district could save. The district paid PG&E about $800,000 for

Schools Matter: Eli Broad's Bonus Boob, Robert Bobb, Gets Grilled in Court about Ties to Billionaire Boys Club

Eli Broad's Bonus Boob, Robert Bobb, Gets Grilled in Court about Ties to Billionaire Boys Club

by Jim Horn

Broad Superintendent Academy alum, ~~Bob~~ Robert Bobb (Class of '05) was brought to Detroit to convert the public schools to a charter system built to segregate, contain, and psychologically modify the children of the poor. In so doing, Bobb has become the Idi Amin of the BBC's hired guns, scheming to push aside a referendum that ended mayoral control of schools and making himself the Decider on which textbooks to buy.

The story from Michigan Public Radio:

DETROIT, MI (Michigan Radio) - Lawyers for the school board say Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb overstepped his authority when he waded into decisions about things like which textbooks to purchase, and which tests to administer.

School board attorney George Washington says Bobb cooperated with private foundations and charter school backers to draft a plan that calls for a mayoral takeover, and for replacing traditional schools with charter schools.

"Somebody who comes in as an emergency financial manager should not be scheming behind the back of the people to overturn a referendum that the people spoke on only two years ago," said Washington.

That referendum put an elected school board back in charge of Detroit Public Schools following a

Famous Failures - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Famous Failures

Michael Jordan, Walt Disney and More Who "Didn't Make The Grade"
See Video Below

"Why Is School Set Up To Promote One Type Of Achievement, One Type Of Child, And One Type Of Assessment?"

" In our expanded conception of giftedness, we raise questions about the 'gifted child' label . . .

Much modern research has been concerned with how gifted kids look, sound, think, and act, largely in an effort to help educators better meet their needs in school and in supplemental programs. The conclusion: There is no one absolute profile.

. . . .research findings lend credence to our theories about the distinction
between schoolhouse learners and creative-productive learners."

---- "Light Up Your Child's Mind"
Chapter 2: Dreamers, Challengers & One Track Minds

Over the last few weeks, in our conversations with parents, we've noticed something that went

Secretary of Education asks men to "step up"

June 13, 8:49 AM

Chicago Working Dads Examiner

Randy Craig

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

U.S. Department of Education

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MEMPHIS - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, spoke to PTA members and parents at the annual Convention of the Chicago-based National Parent Teacher Association.

Duncan emphasized the importance of parent involvement in student academic achievement. He said his department is asking Congress to double the amount of funding for parent engagement programs. He urged men to step up and "engage (children) every step of the way." Parents can use their skills and talents to become involved. (Read some summer learning tips for ways to get involved over the summer.)

"Nothing is more important than parent engagement," he said. "Parents need to be full and equal partners with teachers."

Engagement is a two-way street, he added. Schools must be welcoming to parents.

Many changes need to occur for schools to improve. He put the Department of education at the top of the list. He said he wants the department to focus more on achievement rather than compliance and on innovation more than bureaucracy.

Duncan supported a $23 billion education jobs legislation designed to save up to 300,000 jobs for

Schools Matter: Arizona's Next Target: "Anchor Babies"

Arizona's Next Target: "Anchor Babies"

by Kenneth Libby

Something new cooking in Arizona? From TIME magazine:

Arizona's Next Immigration Target: Children of Illegals
By Adam Klawonn / Phoenix
"Anchor babies" isn't a very endearing term, but in Arizona those are the words being used to tag children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. While not new, the term is increasingly part of the local vernacular because the primary authors of the nation's toughest and most controversial immigration law are targeting these tots — the legal weights that anchor many undocumented aliens in the U.S. — for their next move.
Buoyed by recent public opinion polls suggesting they're on the right track with illegal immigration, Arizona Republicans will likely introduce legislation this fall that would deny birth certificates to children born in Arizona — and thus American citizens according to the U.S. Constitution — to parents who are not legal U.S. citizens. The law largely is the brainchild of

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Academy at the Farm

Academy at the Farm

by The Perimeter Primate

MOM SUSPECTS COMPLAINT ABOUT SCHOOL LED TO DISABLED CHILD'S OUSTER, June 11, 2010, The Tampa Tribune (FL)

For three years, Shelby Hines was the face of Academy at the Farm's Make-A-Difference Walk, an event that raises money to help offset the cost of therapy for the charter school's special-needs children.
As the walk's honorary chairwoman, Shelby, a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy, was featured in newspaper articles and mentioned in Dade City Commission proclamations.
Her connection to the school is ending, though, under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Shelby's mother, Susan Hines, said she was told last week that Shelby can't return to Academy at the Farm in the fall. Hines suspects that's because she complained to the state and the Pasco County School District over the way Academy at the Farm hired its new director.
"They've always said she can stay as long as we want to leave her," Hines said. "Then I started causing problems."
Mike Rom, the school's outgoing director, said Hines' complaints about the selection of his

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dan Wasserman: Readin,' Writin' and Rich guys

Dan Wasserman: Readin,' Writin' and Rich guys

by Mike Klonsky

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Sunday, June 13, 2010