Thursday, July 8, 2010

Ackerman, Nutter tout District gains | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Ackerman, Nutter tout District gains

by Dale Mezzacappa on Jul 08 2010 Posted in Latest news

Mayor Nutter and Superintendent Arlene Ackerman held a meeting with about 70 business, civic and political leaders Thursday morning to tout gains on the state PSSA and brag that the District is moving in the right direction under her Imagine 2014 reforms -- but that this progress is not being recognized by the public or in the media.

Officials are frustrated that no matter what improvements Philadelphia makes, it still has the reputation of being a sinkhole of state money and a chronically underachieving district. Especially by those in Harrisburg, gains are dismissed as temporary, not enough, or a fluke.

Lori Shorr, the Mayor's chief education advisor, was disappointed that the Inquirer buried inside the B section the news of what she considers a "tipping point:" that more than half the students are proficient in reading and math. The news was unexpectedly made public at a School Reform Commission meeting last month.

"We wanted to talk directly to opinion leaders," Shorr said in an interview after the

Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter - San Jose Mercury News

LOS ANGELES — Former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was found guilty Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter for killing Oscar Grant III early Jan. 1, 2009 and was immediately handcuffed and sent to jail.

Mehserle, 28, was also found guilty of a gun enhancement charge which could make him ineligible for probation, give him a strike under the state's "Three Strikes Law," and add additional years to his sentence which will be decided, next month, by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry.

Mehserle faces between five and 14 years in state prison — at least two, three or four years with the involuntary manslaughter charge plus three, four or 10 years on the gun enhancement charge. In addition,

Mehserle will also be forced to serve 85 percent of his eventual sentence, a much higher standard than most crimes.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said the jurors' findings showed they did not buy Mehserle's explanation that he meant to use his Taser. Nonetheless, she said, she was disappointed and frustrated by the verdict.

"As you are well aware, we believe that Johannes Mehserle was guilty of the crime of murder," she said. "We presented the case that way, we presented the evidence that way, and the jury found otherwise. But it is important to note that this jury did not relieve Johannes Mehserle of his criminal liability."

Mehserle remained unemotional as the jury's verdict was read but both his parents

THE BROAD REPORT: Jean-Claude Brizard, Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2007

Jean-Claude Brizard, Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2007

by The Perimeter Primate

EEOC FINDS BIAS IN OUSTER OF ROCHESTER SCHOOLS OFFICIAL, July 7, 2010, Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY)

A federal commission has determined that the Rochester School District discriminated against its former highest-ranking instructional official when it forced her out of her job earlier this year.
Acting on a complaint filed in January by the official, Marilynn Patterson-Grant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the district discharged her “because of her sex, her race and her age,” according to a letter issued by the commission last week.
The findings, which are nonbinding, are the basis for a federal discrimination lawsuit filed Tuesday by Patterson-Grant against the district and its superintendent, Jean-Claude Brizard.
Patterson-Grant, a 35-year veteran of the city school system, is of African-American descent and

Education Week: Scholars Target Arizona's Policies for ELL Students

Scholars Target Arizona's Policies for ELL Students

By Mary Ann Zehr

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

Can DCPS Teachers Still Grieve Dismissal for Poor Performance After All? :: Frederick M. Hess

Can DCPS Teachers Still Grieve Dismissal for Poor Performance After All?

by Frederick M. Hess • Jul 6, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Cross-posted from Education Week

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A few weeks ago, the Washington Teachers Union and hard-charging D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Michelle Rhee agreed to a dramatic new contract that was celebrated by reformers for giving the district much more freedom to reward effective teachers and dismiss ineffective ones. Attracting particular notice was the provision stipulating that a teacher fired for poor performance can protest only the review process itself--not the judgment.

In a New York Post op-ed, Rhee explained that this means, "The end of tenure as a 'job for life.' If a teacher is rated as 'ineffective,' she is immediately terminated from the system... Teachers cannot grieve their ratings,

Can DCPS Teachers Still Grieve Dismissal for Poor Performance After All? A few weeks ago, the Washington Teachers Union and hard-charging D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) Chancellor Michelle Rhee agreed to a dramatic new contract that was celebrated by reformers for giving the district much more freedom to reward effective ...

A Few More Thoughts on Georgian School Reform Today, I want to just offer a few more thoughts spurred by time in Georgia. First, the movers and shakers are young. Key ministry personnel are seemingly all twenty- and thirty-somethings. As one observer commented to me, "Anyone over fifty has a ...

Back from Georgia, Land of the Libertarians Hi all, I'm back. I'd like to thank Pat McGuinn and Paul Manna for two terrific weeks of guest blogging. If you've missed any of their posts, I'd encourage you to go back and check them out. They were terrific stuff.Meanwhile, I've just spent the ...

Sac State to trim enrollment this fall - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sac State to trim enrollment this fall

By Deia de Brito - Published: 3:09 pm

Sacramento State University must reduce its enrollment by 10.8 percent by fall 2011.

Sacramento County Board of Education elects Fong president

By Diana Lambert - Published: 9:51 am

The Sacramento County Board of Education has elected Harold Fong president.

San Juan school offices shift to closed campus

By Diana Lambert - Updated: 9:06 am

San Juan Central has moved into Garfield Elementary School, which was closed at the end of the school year.

Drexel plans seminar for potential students

By Laurel Rosenhall - Updated: 9:06 am

On July 17, Drexel University will hold an information session for people interested in its graduate programs from 10 a.m. until noon.

Keeping students in school helps the economy

By Melody Gutierrez - Updated: Wednesday, July 7 2010 - 2:13 pm

Lowering the dropout rates of minority students in Sacramento would drive $223 million into the local economy through increased spending and home and car purchases, a study released Wednesday found.

Oregon class sizes: Still 4th largest in the nation | OregonLive.com

Oregon class sizes: Still 4th largest in the nation

Published: Thursday, July 08, 2010, 4:41 PM Updated: Thursday, July 08, 2010, 4:43 PM

Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
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New figures just out today from the National Center for Education Statistics peg Oregon's public school class sizes as fourth-largest in the country.

Only Utah, California and Nevada packed more students per class during 2008-09, the new figures suggest.

Oregon had 19.2 students for every teacher -- 22 percent more students than the national average of 15.8 students per teacher.

And as The Oregonian reported Sunday,the state's high schools classrooms are even more crammed, with 19.9 students for every

Oregon City Service Learning Academy to add counselor, professional development with federal School Improvement Grant

By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian

July 08, 2010, 11:43AM

School officials sought community input this year on some of the changes that must be implemented for the federal grants. The school's principal, Melanie Marrone, will be replaced with Tim Graham, who served as principal of Holcomb Elementary School during the last school year. School officials proposed extending instructional time and professional development. They will also be adding a counselor, which Graham considered a big change: "That's going to be really key in improving graduation rates." Full story »

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Remainders: Randi Weingarten promises to “fight smart” | GothamSchools

Remainders: Randi Weingarten promises to “fight smart” - A breakdown of snarky coverage from the AFT’s national convention. ( Antonucci) - So far Randi Weingarten has promised to be the union of solutions. (Seattle PI) - She also promised to “fight smart.” Read a hilarious dispatch from ...

Charter schools see higher teacher turnover across the nation Teacher turnover rates at charter schools nationwide are more than double those of traditional public schools, according to a study done by the National Center on School Choice. Researchers found that charter schools lost 25 percent of their teachers ...

Average suspensions at charter and district schools about even [image: Gittleson compared the average suspension rates at district and charter schools in central Brooklyn, Harlem and the South Bronx.] Gittleson compared the average suspension rates at district and charter schools in central Brooklyn, Harlem and ...

Schools Matter: Rhee's Testing Factories Going on Overtime This Fall

Rhee's Testing Factories Going on Overtime This Fall

by Jim Horn

Despite the fact that the scientific community has been waving a red flag for months now about the use of test scores based on growth models to hire and fire teachers, Rhee and her posse of brazen and ignorant corporatists are hellbent to use tests to evaluate all forms of teaching, whether math, art, or PE. With non-stop testing coming this fall, Rhee has recruited a data chief who does not know the difference between testing and teaching. Soon no one else will, either. From Bill Turque:

. . . .The new performance pay system included in the recently ratified teachers' contract begins in the fall and also relies in part on test scores, with the biggest bonuses available to teachers who can show growth in student achievement.

Some parents and teachers say that the fixation on tests is sucking the oxygen from basic

Charter School CEO, Joel Pourier, Pleads Guilty to Stealing $1.4 Million

by Jim Horn

No oversight, no problem.

Another orange jumpsuit is reserved for the former Executive Director and Head Thief of Heart of the Earth Charter School:

MINNEAPOLIS--Heart of the Earth charter school had little chance

Schools Matter: Hampton: KIPP :: White Female Missionaries: ____

Schools Matter: Hampton: KIPP :: White Female Missionaries:

Hampton: KIPP :: White Female Missionaries:

by Jim Horn

Following the Civil War, white philanthropists and politicians from the North like Rockefeller, Eastman, and Carnegie were generous in their support for the industrial education model that developed at Hampton and Tuskegee to indoctrinate future black teachers in the value of hoeing, ditching, grubbing, ironing, plowing, cooking, and all the other “labors of dignity” that white America had waiting for a population recently freed to become “educated” into their continuing subjugation by white capitalists. These black teachers who had been schooled, then, in becoming complicit in their own subordination, would fan out across the South to “educate” an unsuspecting population of former slaves who identified education with the freedom struggle.

This permanent stain on our education policy past has been largely forgotten (see James Anderson’s book for an

Thursday, July 8, 2010