Tuesday, July 6, 2010

N.J. audit finds Lakewood school district kept poor records, routinely overspent | NJ.com

N.J. audit finds Lakewood school district kept poor records, routinely overspent | NJ.com:

N.J. audit finds Lakewood school district kept poor records, routinely overspent

Published: Tuesday, July 06, 2010, 10:15 AM Updated: Tuesday, July 06, 2010, 10:16 AM

The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk
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LAKEWOOD — A state audit found that the Lakewood school district kept poor records between 2006 and 2008 and had shoddy oversight of officials, resulting in routine overspending of accounts, under-budgeting, and other examples of wasted spending, a report on APP.com said.

The audit found that the district spent $2.5 million more on salaries than what was budgeted, and $1.2 million in health benefits were under-reported in 2007, according to the report. The audit highlighted $3,900 spent to sen

N.J. school districts avoid cuts in special education in budget crisis

By Dan Goldberg/For The Star-Ledger

July 06, 2010, 6:02AM

Officials say growing demands of programs force slicing into general education Full story »

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Diminishing state aid prompts Glen Ridge officials to consider converting schools to private, charter

By Philip Read/The Star-Ledger

July 04, 2010, 8:30AM

GLEN RIDGE — Faced with burdensome mandates and diminishing returns from Trenton, one of the state’s top public school districts is considering a path that could make it the first to effectively secede from New Jersey’s public education system. The Glen Ridge school board will enter largely uncharted waters when it gathers at a retreat this month to discuss... Full story »

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Missed meetings could mean jail time for parents - Boston.com

Missed meetings could mean jail time for parents

In this photo made June 23, 2010, an instructor teaching Detroit Public Schools parents skills to help their children in school looks through her notes during a parent class in Detroit. Wayne County Prosecutor Kim Worthy says the lack of making parents accountable for their children partly is blamed on elevated truancy and dropout rates. Worthy's solution: Jail parents for up to three days for repeatedly missing scheduled parent-teaher conferences. (AP Photo/Corey Willams)

By Corey Williams

Associated Press Writer / July 6, 2010

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DETROIT—The night Demarco Harris shot and killed a woman during a robbery on a Detroit street, his parents told police knocking on their door at 2 a.m. they didn't know where their 12-year-old was.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that's indicative of a larger issue in Detroit, where the lack of making parents accountable for their children partly is blamed on elevated truancy and dropout rates, as well as a recent rash of violent crimes involving teens.

Worthy has a new idea she hopes will fix the problem: Jail parents for up to three days for repeatedly missing scheduled parent-teacher conferences.

"I have seen that younger and younger children are committing more violent acts and we need to look at different approaches," Worthy told reporters. "I know

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Education Week: Missed School Meetings Could Mean Jail Time for Detroit Parents

Missed School Meetings Could Mean Jail Time for Detroit Parents

An instructor teaching Detroit Public Schools parents skills to better help their children manage school looks through her notes during a class last month in Detroit.

—Corey Willams/AP

By The Associated Press

Detroit

The night Demarco Harris shot and killed a woman during a robbery on a Detroit street, his parents told police knocking on their door at 2 a.m. they didn't know where their 12-year-old was.

Worthy has a new idea she hopes will fix the problem: Jail parents for up to three days

Linguists Debate: Does Obama Talk Like a Girl? | The Atlantic Wire

Linguists Debate: Does Obama Talk Like a Girl?

By MAX FISHER on July 06, 2010 10:12am

Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker caused a stir last week by stating, "If Bill Clinton was our first black president, as Toni Morrison once proclaimed, then Barack Obama may be our first woman president." Kathleen specifically cited Obama's recent speech on the oil spill, where she said Obama's use of passive voice demonstrated his femininity, for better or worse. But what makes a writing and speaking style gendered anyway? And what does that really tell us about the writer? Two academic linguists have weighed in. Here's what Parker and the linguists have to say.

Obama's Feminine Writing The Washington Post's Kathleen Parker argues that Obama has "assume[d] feminine communication styles" in his writings and speeches. "Generally speaking, men and women communicate differently. Women tend to be coalition builders rather than mavericks (with the occasional rogue exception). While men seek ways to measure themselves against others, for reasons requiring no elaboration, women form circles and talk it out. ... When he finally addressed the nation on day 56 (!) of the crisis, Obama's speech featured 13 percent passive-voice constructions, the highest level measured in any major presidential address this century, according to the Global Language Monitor, which tracks and analyzes language."

Obama's Heavy Passive Usage The Global Language Monitor study, cited by Parker, finds: "With some 13% passive constructions, the highest level measured in any major presidential address this century. In political speaking, the passive voice is generally used to either deflect responsibility, or to have no particular 'doer' of an action, at least when speaking about himself or his Administration. Otherwise, BP was the clear 'doer.'"

Who Said Passive Voice was Feminine? University of Pennsylvania linguistics professorMark Liberman finds that Obama's speech was only 11.1 percent passive, and that Bush used more passive voice anyway. Liberman finds that Bush's Katrina speech was 17.6 percent

Free Technology for Teachers: EdTech Open Mic Night

EdTech Open Mic Night

Shelly Blake-Plock and Will Richardson are hosting an online open mic night on Wednesday, July 14 at 7pm EST. They'll be facilitating discussions about all things ed tech and education. Currently, Shelly is looking for topic suggestions. You can leave your suggestions here. Check it out, I think there will be some great conversations emerging from this open mic night.

Eduflack: A Texas-Sized Workaround?

A Texas-Sized Workaround?

by Eduflack

How do you solve a problem like Rick Perry?

As we all know, last year Congress made $787 billion available to the states, in the name of economic stimulus, to help unstick many of the funding streams that states were stuck on. Chief among these streams is K-12 education, as states were handed buckets of cash to jumpstart education spending, fill funding gaps, and ensure that school budgets did not face measureable cuts in the name of the economic downturn.

Most states put the money to use as intended (though Eduflack still offers that the original intent of ARRA was NOT to spend stimulus dollars on one or two years' of teachers' salaries, but I've clearly lost that argument). But a few, including Texas, didn't quite do as they were told. Just as Texas refused to apply for a Race to the Top grant citing its independence and general superiority to every other state in the union, the state's governor, Rick Perry, chose to violate the strings attached to those original stimulus checks.

When dollars were electronically transferred to the states in 2009, each state had to pledge that, when it came to K-12 education, the money was to boost education funding. States were not to take the federal handout and then cut the state's own contribution to education, essentially playing a short-term funding shell game. The worry, of course, is if the states cut their share this year, and there is no federal support in the following year,

D.C. principal's hands-on tack transforms Sousa Middle but also ruffles feathers

GALLERY

Raising scores and expectations at D.C.'s Sousa Middle School

Sousa, one of a few middle schools in Washington to substantially improve students' test scores, used to have some of the lowest results in the city. Now, it's a model for others.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Stephanie McCrummen

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 6, 2010

It was 8 a.m., and 21 teachers had gathered in the library of Sousa Middle School for the meeting that Principal Dwan Jordon has convened nearly every morning for two years, part of his crusade to improve one of the District's worst public schools.

They pulled out laptops, set down their coffee and, in the language of education reform, began assessing where the quest stood:
"Reading was 61, 62 and 65, and we did it with Test B and C," began Ronda Robinson, an instructional coach,

Fenty outlines plans to cut special-ed costs

Fenty said his office will study ways integrate special education students into public schools.

Rhee should get out of the mayor's race

Saying she would leave if Gray is elected is good news to those people who want Rhee gone. It is bad for the principals she has appointed, the teachers who share her commitment to raising achievement and the parents who are beginning to see the same teamwork, creativity and persistence in regular city public schools that they have found in many charter schools.

Continue reading this post »

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (TWP)

Quick Takes: July 6, 2010 - Inside Higher Ed

New Effort to Save Dana College Dana College's board members -- backed by Nebraska leaders -- are trying to keep the college alive by finding a way to get its accreditor to let the accreditation transfer if private investors buy the institution, *The Omaha World-Herald* reported. ...

Softball Upgrade Settles Title IX Complaint at Lincoln Land Lincoln Land Community College has agreed to upgrade its softball facilities to settle a complaint filed with the U.S. Education Department under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars discrimination based on sex,* **The State ...

Positive Signs for New Public Law School The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth faced considerable skepticism when it agreed to take over a private law school -- the Southern New England School of Law -- with many questioning why a state with no obvious shortage of law schools needed ...

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Tuesday, July 6, 2010