Monday, June 21, 2010

American Indian Students The Country's Least Served, Officials Say

ILEANA MORALES | 06/17/10 08:27 PM |

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WASHINGTON � Indian students face fewer chances for academic success under education standards that don't embrace their traditional cultures, lawmakers and witnesses said Thursday during a Senate hearing considering revisions to the No Child Left Behind Act.

In 2001 Congress passed the law, a hallmark of the Bush administration, requiring states to test students yearly in reading and math from grades three through eight, and once in high school. Scores are tied to school and district evaluations. Teachers widely criticize the law for its funding being disproportionate to its standards.

Federal education standards complicated by varying state tests do not recognize tribal culture, which unfairly challenges Indian students, according to testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Among statistics cited at the hearing: About 50 percent of Indian students graduate from high school, compared to more than three-fourths of white students.

Mariah Bowers, a Southern Oregon University sophomore from the Yurok Tribe, said she struggled in public schools with standardized testing. Isolation and misunderstanding of the material grew worse with time, she said, and she nearly

The HIGHEST-PAID Professors By Subject Area (PHOTOS)

First Posted: 06-16-10 11:52 AM | Updated: 06-16-10 10:24 PM

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Ever wonder how much your professors make, or which subject fields pay the big bucks? Ponder no more. The Chronicle of Higher Education mapped out which professors rake in the dough -- relatively speaking -- using data from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. See the full chart, including average salaries for associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers, here.

What do you think? Are you surprised by any of these averages? Leave a comment with your opinion.

Law $134,146

Alan Dershowitz has been a professor of law at Harvard since 1967.

Report: Poverty, dropout rates threaten Texas' future | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Poverty, dropout rates bode grim future for state

Forecast shows incomes plunging if nothing is done

By GARY SCHARRER
AUSTIN BUREAU

June 20, 2010, 11:44PM

AUSTIN — The demographer who warned a decade ago about Texas' unhappy mix of dismal education achievement and high poverty is more concerned than ever. Actually, he's frightened.

Also getting restless are growing numbers of Texas business executives. Some don't see much leadership from politicians or the private sector in attacking the trend line that demographer Steve Murdock says will result in three of every 10 workers not having a high school education by 2040.

"I don't see business rearing up, and I sure don't see the state Legislature, with an $18 billion problem, saying, 'Man, we really need to muscle this thing up.' I think the thing that's going to change it is going to be another lawsuit," said Jack Lowe, chairman of Dallas-based TDI Industries and a board member of the Texas Business and Education Coalition.

The state's public schools have more and more low-income kids and persistently high dropout rates - and unless that changes, the future of Texas will contain more long-term unemployment and poverty - and more folks depending on food stamps, Medicaid and CHIP, Murdock said. Higher incarceration rates also can be expected.

"Clearly, with the dismal levels that we have in terms of education right now, that's clearly where we're headed," Murdock said.

The trend line also is clear: School districts with large numbers of low-income students have higher dropout rates.

Slowing graduation rate growing problem in state

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The San Francisco school board will face the unsavory task Tuesday of approving a budget that cuts...

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Colorful parade celebrates Juneteenth

Slavery in America was supposed to have ended 147 years ago, when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But...

Chronicle 6.20.10 4:00 AM

University of Anarchy and No Consequences

This Week In Education AM News: Boston Agrees On Underperforming Schools

This Week In Education

AM News: Boston Agrees On Underperforming Schools

by Alexander Russo

Teachers, city reach extra-hour agreement Boston Globe: Boston school officials announced yesterday that they had reached a tentative agreement with the teachers’ union on a plan to overhaul the city’s 12 underperforming schools, in a new state negotiating process that attempted to resolve a divisive battle over compensating teachers for working extra hours... Schools Struggle Over How to Teach Severely Disabled People NYT: There are 132,000 such students in the United States, out of more than 6.5 million now receiving some kind of special education service at an estimated cost of $74 billion a year... Schools struggle to meet new race labeling rules AP: Washington school districts are struggling with a new federal requirement to gather more specific information on the ethnicity of their students, a policy that encourages officials to guess when parents don't supply race information. MORE BELOW

Prince George's bans student cellphone use during school day Washington Post: That silent, studious classroom? Looks can deceive, say Prince George's County educators, who have fired the latest volley in a technological arms race that pits student against teacher... Schools merger rebuffed Boston Globe: Cohasset has rejected Hull’s proposal for a marriage between the two towns’ school systems, but has left open the possibility for a less binding relationship — such as combining some of their purchasing power... Detroit school board chief resigns amid complaint AP: Detroit's school board is refusing to reinstate its former president after he was accused of fondling himself in front of the district's superintendent.... 'Hip Hop High' charter school in its closing days LA Times: Hawthorne's Academy for Recording Arts, known for giving troubled students access to a recording studio, shuts Thursday. Neither its online curriculum nor its teacher-led classes could save it...Microsoft 'School of the Future' in Philly finally in a groove? USA Today: When the Microsoft-designed School of the Future opened, the facility was a paragon of contemporary architecture, with a green roof, light-filled ...

The Answer Sheet - Christian churches oppose Race to the Top, Obama blueprint

Christian churches oppose Race to the Top, Obama blueprint

Here is an extraordinary letter that should erase any doubt thatopposition to the Obama administration's $4 billion Race to the Top is wide and deep.

Sent recently to President Obama and U.S. lawmakers by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, a community of 36 communions with a combined membership of 45 million people, this letter expresses deep concern about the education priorities of Race to the Top and of Obama's “blueprint” for education reform.

It criticizes the administration's effort to push states to increase the number of charter schools, its plan to turn some of the federal money used to help poor children into competitive grants, its punitive approach to dealing with low-performing schools, and the "ugly" demonization of public school teachers.

The letter says:

*“We are concerned today when we hear the civil right to education being re-defined as the right to school choice.”

*“While competitive, market based “reforms” may increase educational opportunity for a few children, or even for some groups of children, do they introduce more equity or more inequity into the system itself? We reject the language of business for discussing public education.”

Text messages become a growing weapon in dating violence Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

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

Text messages become a growing weapon in dating violence

The parents of Siobhan Russell, slain by an ex-boyfriend, found alarming text messages.(Family Photo - Family Photo)

By Donna St. George

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 21, 2010

The text messages to the 22-year-old Virginia woman arrived during the day and night, sometimes 20 or 30 at once. Her ex-boyfriend wanted her back. He would not be refused. He texted and called 758 times.

In New York, a 17-year-old trying to break up with her boyfriend got fewer messages, but they were menacing. "You don't need nobody else but me," read one. Another threatened to kill her.
It is all part of what is increasingly called "textual harassment," a growing aspect of dating violence at a time when cellphones and unlimited texting plans are ubiquitous among the young. It can be insidious, because messages pop up at the sender's will: Where r u? Who r u with? Why didnt u answer me?
"It's gotten astonishingly worse in the last two years," says Jill Murray, who has written several books on dating violence and speaks on the topic nationally. Especially for those who have grown up in digital

T.C. Williams hustles to get off urgent-reform list

After landing on the government's in-need-of urgent-reform list, T.C. Williams High struggles to find the prescription for smaller achievement gaps and higher graduation rates.

Hispanic students taking AP Spanish: a scam?

Two of my children, whose parents can’t speak Spanish and didn’t take it in school, worked hard to learn that language and now use it in their jobs. They are truly bilingual. This impresses people. So why are we not similarly gratified when Hispanic students with fewer advantages than my kids work just as hard to master the same two important languages?

Continue reading this post »

Alexandria educators try to reform (TWP)

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- For-Profits And New Regulations

For-Profits And New Regulations

New regulations formally proposed by the Education Department last week intend to crack down on higher education institutions. The two most controversial provisions, known as "incentive pay" and "gainful employment," predominantly affect for-profit schools. The proposed regulations will reinforce a ban on compensating admissions recruiters based solely on success in securing student enrollment, i.e. incentive pay. An earlier draft of the gainful employment rule would cut federal aid to some for-profits whose graduates paid more than 8 percent of their salary to service their student-loan debt. Details on the final metric for gainful employment are forthcoming: The Education Department decided to work on it further to "get it right," after receiving a lot of industry pushback.
"This is about accountability and protecting students," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.
Are the proposed rules in the best interests of students? Should the Education Department stick with an income-to-debt-service ratio for the gainful employment provision?

RESPONDED ON JUNE 21, 2010 7:35 AM

Rules Necessary -- But Just A First Step

Michael L. Lomax

President and CEO, UNCF

The proposed rules couldn’t be more timely and they couldn’t be more necessary.

It is sad that there are those for whom national needs are nothing more than opportunities to exploit and victimize the people whose need and vulnerability are the greatest. Unfortunately, that is the case with the bundle of predatory practices targeted by the proposed regulations the Department of Education issued last Friday and the Senate HELP Committee’s hearings that Sen. Tom Harkin has called for later this week.

UNCF feels a special responsibility toward the students and families who are being victimized by the fast-buck proprietary schools at which the

Rise & Shine: Potential budget deal would reduce city school cuts | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Potential budget deal would reduce city school cuts

by Philissa Cramer

A potential state budget deal would reduce New York City’s cuts from $500 to $350 million. (WSJ)
In addition to social studies tests, the Regents could axe foreign language exams to save money. (WNYC)
The company that engraves diplomas says city schools are placing larger orders every year. (Times)
Educating the most severely disabled students confounds schools in the city and nationally. (Times)
Students cheered a legislative deal to save free student Metrocards. (Post)
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s brother leads teachers from his Bronx Science classroom. (Times)
A seventh-grader who was assaulted at MS 142 in the Bronx can’t get a safety transfer. (Daily News)
A new school on the Upper East Side was free as part of a deal with a developer. (Post, Times, NY1)
Speakers at city high school graduations this week include celebrities. (Daily News)
PS 178 in Washington Heights was vandalized over the weekend. (Post)
Boston has reached an agreement to add an hour daily at its 12 turnaround schools. (Boston Globe)
A bill that would fund school vouchers with corporate donations is foundering in New Jersey. (WSJ)

Last Catholic school in New Brunswick is closing Education | New Jersey Real-Time News - - NJ.com

Education | New Jersey Real-Time News - - NJ.com

Last Catholic school in New Brunswick is closing

st.mary.st.peter.catholic.new.brunswick.jpg

By The Associated Press

June 21, 2010, 7:02AM

NEW BRUNSWICK — The last Catholic school here is closing. Officials said only about 60 students had signed up for classes at St. Mary and St. Peter Catholic Academy for the upcoming school year. Monsignor Michael Corona said the demographics and finances are changing. Corona said the diocese spent about $1.25 million to combine St. Mary of Mount Virgin... Full story »

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Sussex County teacher is one of 12 chosen for special archeological dig in Siberia

By Joe Moszczynski/The Star-Ledger

June 20, 2010, 9:00AM

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP — Claude Larson won’t be going on a typical summer vacation this year. Instead, the eighth-grade science teacher at the Jefferson Township Middle School will be embarking on a journey of a lifetime as she travels to Siberia in search of artifacts left by a civilization affected by climate warming 6,000 years ago. "I’ll be living in... Full story »

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N.J. School Boards Association to spend millions on renovations despite cutbacks at schools

By Elise Young/Statehouse Bureau

June 20, 2010, 6:30AM

TRENTON — The publicly financed lobby for New Jersey’s school boards is spending millions to renovate its headquarters, even as local districts face massive state aid cuts, defeated budgets and construction proposals, and pending teacher layoffs. The New Jersey School Boards Association collects more than $7 million a year from 588 member districts, which are legally required to join.... Full story »

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