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Saturday, June 19, 2010
Education - latimes.com
Schools Matter: Yatvin calls for nonviolent resistance on national scale to teach what is best for students, not waste time on test prep
Yatvin calls for nonviolent resistance on national scale to teach what is best for students, not waste time on test prep
Former NCTE President J. Yatvin calls for "nonviolent resistance on a national scale to teach what is best for their students and not waste time on test prep."
L. Haimson: " … once .. tests are linked to high-stakes consequences, like teacher pay, tenure or the closing of schools, the results are no longer dependable for diagnostic purposes, either for schools or individual students.
P. Brust: " … many of (my) teachers … instilled fear, not confidence and a love of learning. According to No Child Left Behind, they would have been the masters of the profession.
B. Gordon: "Schools obeying the governmental mandates that their students do well in their standardized tests regularly 'cheat' our children out of their education …"
L. Haimson: " … once .. tests are linked to high-stakes consequences, like teacher pay, tenure or the closing of schools, the results are no longer dependable for diagnostic purposes, either for schools or individual students.
P. Brust: " … many of (my) teachers … instilled fear, not confidence and a love of learning. According to No Child Left Behind, they would have been the masters of the profession.
B. Gordon: "Schools obeying the governmental mandates that their students do well in their standardized tests regularly 'cheat' our children out of their education …"
Former NCTE President calls for nonviolent resistence test prep
Former NCTE President J. Yatvin calls for "nonviolent resistance on a national scale to test what is best for their students and not waste time on test prep."
L. Haimson: " … once .. tests are linked to high-stakes consequences, like teacher pay, tenure or the closing of schools, the results are no longer dependable for diagnostic purposes, either for schools or individual students.
P. Brust: " … many of (my) teachers … instilled fear, not confidence and a love of learning. According to No Child Left Behind, they would have been the masters of the profession.
B. Gordon: "Schools obeying the governmental mandates that their students do well in their standardized tests regularly 'cheat' our children out of their education …"
J. Snider: Remember Campbell's Law: “the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision
L. Haimson: " … once .. tests are linked to high-stakes consequences, like teacher pay, tenure or the closing of schools, the results are no longer dependable for diagnostic purposes, either for schools or individual students.
P. Brust: " … many of (my) teachers … instilled fear, not confidence and a love of learning. According to No Child Left Behind, they would have been the masters of the profession.
B. Gordon: "Schools obeying the governmental mandates that their students do well in their standardized tests regularly 'cheat' our children out of their education …"
J. Snider: Remember Campbell's Law: “the more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision
Education News & Comment "Parents Debate Round III"
"Parents Debate Round III"
Parents Debate the Budget!
Good morning all,
Please bear with me one last time concerning the budget and its priorities :)
I have attached a corrected handout. The one I gave the board had an extra item (it did not change the totals). I have also attached a bit more of a review of district powerpoints (reasoning), another format to try to explain the restricted reserve (4390) and an unrestricted major funds table. I keep hoping to find a way to shed light on less than transparent process.
The last attachment compares this year and next to 2005 in the unrestricted funds. Management chooses to not include considerable unrestricted funds in their budget proposal which makes comparisons difficult. (Other districts do not do this.) Since the 2005-06 unrestricted income is close to the 2010-11 unrestricted I found it noteworthy that the funds for staff (salaries and benefits) are about 6 M less in 2010-11.
I have dealt with five budget directors during my involvement with public education. I found one of them to truly understand their district budget. The rest prudently conserved funds by limiting expenditures, underestimating income and delivering categorical resources to sites only as they arrived. At the end of the year, when things were quieter, they cleaned up the budget by moving funds to where they belonged.
In normal times most of the budget repeats from year to year and the categorical carryover provides a comfortable reserve that carries the cash flow until the end of the year when the accounts are settled. Everyone gets what they are use to and the status quo is maintained.
During a challenge the status quo is not maintained and unnecessary or unwise cuts are made. In my experience a simplified narrative is created to justify cuts to staff since that is the area that can most put a budget at risk when it is not understood.
The current district narrative that has been presented to the board is that we need to cut 22 M based on the use of ARRA money to balance the 2009-2010 budget. This money replaced a decrease in revenue limit funds. The fact that there were increases in other state revenue and local revenue is not mentioned (about 10 M). Nor is the fact that we still have not spent down the restricted reserves (23 M) that are held in 4390 highlighted.
For me the challenge is to get the board to consider a different narrative. We could project that state and local revenue will continue average amounts and we could use our categorical reserves to replaced Tier III funds.
The 15 M they are cutting in staff is not necessary for next year. Yes we need to go over the budget line by line, consider carefully our use of consultants and other nonclassroom expenditures and identify staff savings for 2011-12. But we do not need to slow the local recovery by adding more layoffs to the challenge.
Not to mention what we are doing to morale, again, in our learning communities.
Peace,
Leo
Colleges spending far more on student athletes — San Francisco Bay Area Schools, Performance, Profiles, News — SFGate
Colleges spending far more on student athletes
Friday, June 18, 2010
MORE EDUCATION
(06-18) 04:00 PDT Washington - --
Colleges have increased spending on athletes at almost twice the rate as on average students and the imbalance is pushing higher education in the U.S. toward "financial destabilization," the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics said Thursday.
The nonprofit group, which includes current and former university presidents and former athletes on its board, issued a 24-page report detailing steps schools should take to reduce sports expenses and realign the mission of athletics with that of the rest of the university.
Only seven U.S. sports programs generated enough revenue to have an operating profit in each of the past five years. At most schools, the growth in athletic spending has required greater subsidies from the university and state taxpayers and higher fees from the student body, the report said.
"The considerable financial pressures and ever-increasing spending in today's college sports system could lead to permanent and untenable competition between academics and athletics," the report said.
The report, produced after an 18-month-long study, is the third issued by the 20-year-old panel as it examines the business of college sports. While it carries no official weight, the commission's recommendations usually are considered seriously by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the main U.S. governing body of college sports.
The report shows that athletic department spending increased 37.5 percent to a median of $84,446 per athlete at 97 of 103 public schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision
Colleges have increased spending on athletes at almost twice the rate as on average students and the imbalance is pushing higher education in the U.S. toward "financial destabilization," the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics said Thursday.
The nonprofit group, which includes current and former university presidents and former athletes on its board, issued a 24-page report detailing steps schools should take to reduce sports expenses and realign the mission of athletics with that of the rest of the university.
Only seven U.S. sports programs generated enough revenue to have an operating profit in each of the past five years. At most schools, the growth in athletic spending has required greater subsidies from the university and state taxpayers and higher fees from the student body, the report said.
"The considerable financial pressures and ever-increasing spending in today's college sports system could lead to permanent and untenable competition between academics and athletics," the report said.
The report, produced after an 18-month-long study, is the third issued by the 20-year-old panel as it examines the business of college sports. While it carries no official weight, the commission's recommendations usually are considered seriously by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the main U.S. governing body of college sports.
The report shows that athletic department spending increased 37.5 percent to a median of $84,446 per athlete at 97 of 103 public schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/18/MN0D1E0SCG.DTL&type=education#ixzz0rJNqBKFj
School Tech Connect: Tolerance Can Actually Be A Virtue
Tolerance Can Actually Be A Virtue
I understand what he's saying, but the whole "zero tolerance" language leads to trouble.
If I were back in the classroom, I would think long and hard before committing to a tech-centric, web-energized, project-based approach unless I had a really good 1:1 laptop program, awesome connectivity at school and in the homes of my students, freedom from draconian filters, and permission to go off-script, as it were.
I think if I were in a school with, for example, a laptop cart that I had to check out and which sucked no matter how wonderful the tech director made it sound, or in a school where I had to ask for every little thing to be unfiltered, or if I were in an environment with little tolerance for anything less than perfect, polished final-draft quality work on display, then I would probably not do too much with technology because unless the deployment is rich and elegant, technology can be a hindrance.
Speaking as an English teacher, if I were in a school where I had to sign up for and trudge down to a computer lab, I would not bother. I've done writers' workshops both ways, and I'd rather have a good discussion of writing
Charter school relicensed amid rifts - News - ReviewJournal.com
Charter school relicensed amid rifts - News - ReviewJournal.com
Charter school relicensed amid rifts
Truck purchase called violation; board oversight called ineffective
Truck purchase called violation; board oversight called ineffective
A charter school in Carson City got its state sponsorship renewed for another six years Friday despite complaints that the online school bought a $28,000 pickup truck from the principal’s daughter-in-law.
Tom McCormack, the charter school consultant for the Nevada Department of Education, called the purchase “illegal and unethical” because of the conflict of interest as well as the Silver State Charter School’s failure to follow state purchasing guidelines for giving public notice and competitive bidding.
McCormack also charged the school’s governing board with failing to exercise its authority over the school, which serves about 500 students in grades 7-12.
Eugene Paslov, a former state superintendent and former board member of Silver State Charter School, said the “board is not as independent as it should be.”
Paslov praised the teachers who work at Silver State but said they were afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation. “They virtually have no protection from arbitrary school leadership,” Paslov said. “They have been threatened with firing for talking with board members. It is really a disturbing situation.”
Charter schools are considered to be part of the educational reform movement because they break from the model of a public school managed by a local school district. In theory, they are supposed to have more latitude to innovate.
Charter schools, like public schools, receive public funding, but are managed by private organizations as long they can maintain their “charter” with their sponsor, which could be a school district or the state Board o
Green Board of Education approves new school schedule - Akron, OH - The Suburbanite
Green, Ohio —
Superintendent Mike Nutter reviewed the new school schedule for the 2010-2011 school year during the Green Board of Education meeting. The new schedule will go from the current two-tier system to a three- tier system.
“We made these changes based on what was good for the students and save the district money,' Nutter said. “In addition we had safety concerns over the congestion at the middle and intermediate schools.”
Under the new system the high school and middle school will start at approximately the same time. The intermediate school will start with Kleckner. Green Primary and Greenwood will start together. This moves the starting times back for the Intermediate, Primary and Greenwood from the previous starting times.
To help parents with the adjustment of the new start and dismissal times, the school system has contracted for a latch key program with the YMCA for $20 per student per week. This service will be available starting at 6:30 a.m. before school and till 6:30 p.m. after school.
“We felt that if we were going to cause parents problems with changing starting times we should at least try to help them out,” Nutter said.
Two parents, Denise Martinez and Cheryl Merrick, voiced their concerns on the changes. These concerns focused on the lack of input on the changes that parents had.
“We were told three times about a spaghetti dinner on the school phone system,” Merrick said. “But never were we told that
R.I.'s new school aid formula: Some will win, some will lose | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
R.I.'s new school aid formula: Some will win, some will lose | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
R.I.'s new school aid formula: Some will win, some will lose
10:43 AM EDT on Thursday, June 17, 2010
After years of failed attempts, Rhode Island finally has a statewide school-financing formula, its first in two decades.
The complex formula, which was developed by the state Department of Education and researchers at Brown University, goes into effect for the 2011-12 school year and is intended to redistribute about $705 million a year in direct aid to school districts, charter and state-operated schools — without adding a lot of new money to the system.
Critics have been quick to point out that the formula creates a new system of winners and losers, giving more state aid to districts where student enrollments have increased or that serve high numbers of low-income students, while cutting districts that have lost students or serve fewer poor students.
Most urban districts benefit from the new formula. But so do Barrington and East Greenwich, two of the state’s wealthiest communities, largely because of increases in enrollments.
Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has dismissed complaints that the new approach unfairly penalizes some districts.
“The fact is, right now in our current approach, there are already
Seventh grader was punched, kicked and shoved ... but DOE slow to find student a new school
Seventh grader was punched, kicked and shoved ... but DOE slow to find student a new school
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/06/19/2010-06-19_get_me_outta_here_slow_safety_transfer_for_bullied_pupil_whos_had_glasses_busted.html#ixzz0rJG8cDP1
Seventh grader was punched, kicked and shoved ... but DOE slow to find student a new school
Saturday, June 19th 2010, 4:00 AM
Harbus for News
Bronx student Kimquan Green, 14, has been bullied and beaten at Middle School 142.All he wants is a new school.
A Bronx seventh-grader with special needs is desperate to leave Middle School 142 after having his glasses broken 16 times and enduring a beatdown that sent him to the hospital, his mother charges.
Two of the teens who hit, punched, shoved and kicked Kimquan Green, 14, on June 1 were arrested and have been suspended, but the boy still doesn't want to stay at the school.
"He's scared. He doesn't like to fight," said his mom, Roberta Green, 70. "The school is just no good. I can't send my children there."
Green requested to have her son moved to a different school under a safety transfer after her son was assaulted. School regulations say parents must be notified of their child's new school within 10 days of the school learning of a violent attack.
"I just want to get out of that school because it's not even safe," said Kimquan, who says he returned to school the day after the attack and was threatened by half a dozen kids who appeared at the door of his English class.
The Department of Education vigorously defended its response to Kimquan's case. Spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said Green informed the school of the bullying only on
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/06/19/2010-06-19_get_me_outta_here_slow_safety_transfer_for_bullied_pupil_whos_had_glasses_busted.html#ixzz0rJG8cDP1
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