Common Standards Judged Better Than Most States' #Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Common Standards Judged Better Than Most States'

A Fordham Institute review says that the common core standards are an improvement over teaching guidelines now used in 33 states. (July 21, 2010)

Reformers See Promise in Race to Top Momentum

If the grant program's extension makes it into the final spending bills for fiscal year 2011, advocates say, it could mean more states will take reform-minded steps to secure funding. (July 20, 2010) | Comments (5)

Mass. Democrat Joins GOP Against Common Standards Vote

(July 20, 2010) | Comments (1)

New R.I. School Funding Formula Aims at Equity

(July 19, 2010)

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE BLOG

The Feds Give an Update on ELL Demographics

(July 20, 2010)

FROM THE WIRES

• • Mass. Democrat Joins GOP Against Common Standards Vote
• • NC NAACP head arrested before school board meeting
• • Boys Trail Girls in Reading; Can Fart Jokes Help?

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North Carolina

—Shawn Rocco/The News & Observer/AP

Protesters March in N.C. Over School ‘Resegregation’ Fears

The NAACP and other activists staged a mass demonstration opposing a new school assignment policy in Raleigh, N.C. (July 20, 2010) | Comments (2)

Boys Trail Girls in Reading; Can Fart Jokes Help?

(July 20, 2010)

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Merrick Academy workers get boot via FedEx amid contract dispute between school, union

Merrick Academy workers get boot via FedEx amid contract dispute between school, union

BY CLARE TRAPASSO
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, July 21st 2010, 4:00 AM

Pace for News

Merrick Academy fires nine staffers amid bitter contract dispute.

RELATED NEWS

• Officials rush revote for troubled charter school's PTA, giving just 24 hours' notice
• Nepotism, conflict of interest find a home at charter schools

A scandal-plagued Queens charter school fired at least nine teachers Tuesday - via FedEx, union officials said.

Some of the Merrick Academy staffers who got the boot are chalking it up to a bitter contract dispute between the school and unionized teachers.

"If the board of the Merrick charter school is firing teachers because of union activity, then we're going to take all legal action against them," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Teachers at the Queens Village school voted to unionize in 2008 but they haven't reached

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/21/2010-07-21_disunion_as_9_teachers_fired.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz0uJqQxfiF

High School teacher, who led kids on field trip to Cuba, wanted to see Fidel Castro one more time

BY MEREDITH KOLODNER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

RELATED NEWS

• Fidel Castro makes first public appearance in four years, former Cuban leader healthy in new photos
• Inner-city students struggle to raise money for tour of Nazi death camps

The Upper West Side high school teacher who took students on an unauthorized trip to Cuba three years ago wanted to "see Castro one more time before he died," according to a new report.

The office of the commissioner of investigation for city schools concluded that Beacon School history teacher Nathan Turner should remain ineligible to work i

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/07/21/2010-07-21_please_let_me_see_fidel_hs_teach_who_led_trip_to_cuba_a_castro_fan.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz0uJqbMQU9

D.C. and Massachusetts to vote on national school standards

D.C. and Massachusetts to vote on national school standards

D.C. and Massachusetts to vote on national school standards

by Nick Anderson

School boards in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts are on the verge of adopting national standards for English and math, adding momentum to a movement that in a few months has swept Maryland and two dozen other states.

The board votes scheduled Wednesday come as a new report finds that the "common core" standards backed by governors and state schools chiefs are more rigorous than what most states have expected from their students.
The report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which advocates raising academic expectations, compared the proposal with the jumble of standards that have been in effect in 50 states and the District. It asserted that the proposed national standards are "clearly superior" to the math standards in 39 states -- including Virginia and Maryland -- and to the English-

Md. math, reading scores up, but unevenly

Test scores are up in Maryland schools, but not by much for those already doing poorly.

MORE ON EDUCATION

• D.C. elementary school scores dip
• WP Editorial: Learn from KIPP
• Kohn: are today's kids really spoiled?
• O'Malley proposes waiving AP fees
• D.C. elementary school scores dip
• Gates foundation plays key role
• Police: Huguely knew Love was injured
• Fairfax to close Clifton Elementary
• Camps serve kids with special needs
• Rhee to expand standardized testing
• Principal transforms Sousa Middle
• Landon shaken by bad behavior
• Military families want support for kids

JAY MATHEWS

Class Struggle

What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 12:00 AM ET, 07/20/2010

Rare attack on Harlem Children's Zone

President Obama has requested $210 million to create programs similar to the Harlem Children's Zone throughout the country. That’s a lot of money, but how can anyone oppose prenatal care, parenting classes, fitness and nutrition programs for poor families, as well as the thriving charter schools Geoffrey Canada and his team have created? So it is hard to believe what I am seeing---a short paper from the prestigious Brookings Institution taking a shot at the Harlem Children’s Zone and its premier charter school, the Promise Academy.

Continue reading this post »

State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick (Christopher T. Assaf -- AP)

One in three California teens can't get a job | California Watch

One in three California teens can't get a job | California Watch

One in three California teens can't get a job

by Joanna Lin

Joanna Lin

Legislation to extend unemployment benefits overcame a Republican filibuster in the Senate yesterday, putting more than 400,000 Californians a step closer to having their benefits checks reinstated.
But suspended checks are only part of the state's unemployment woes: 34.5 percent of teen workers in the state were out of a job in June. That's compared to 25.7 percent of teens nationwide and is nearly three times higher than the state's overall unemployment rate.
Workers 16 to 19 years old face the highest rates of unemployment of any age group. Teen unemployment in

New financial agency could become trove of open records

by Agustin Armendariz

Agustin Armendariz

With the financial reform bill out of Congress and ready for President Barack Obama's signature, data nerds and financial watchdogs can look forward to a new source of public financial information – the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The newly minted legislation established the bureau as an executive agency under the umbrella of the Federal

NASA scientists share analyses of watery moon - San Jose Mercury News

NASA scientists share analyses of watery moon - San Jose Mercury News

NASA scientists share analyses of watery moon

By Lisa M. Krieger

lkrieger@mercurynews.com

Posted: 07/20/2010 09:10:44 PM PDT

Updated: 07/20/2010 09:40:04 PM PDT

From last year's big kerplunk, scientists discovered water on the moon. Now nine months of analyses of our nearest celestial neighbor reveal new insights into where it may have come from — and where else it could be found.

It's in pockets, not vast oceans. It may have arrived via comets or asteroids, or it may have been created there.

At a technical gathering in Mountain View, NASA's LCROSS mission leader Anthony Colaprete and other scientists

UC's little-known Pavement Research Center results in smooth, safe and silent rides

UC's little-known Pavement Research Center results in smooth, safe and silent rides

Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider dies at 65

Almost half of San Jose Unified schools lack monitored fire alarms

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In my mailbox

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In my mailbox

In my mailbox

by Mike Klonsky

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

We need your help.

Today 20 courageous undocumented youth, including 9 from Chicago, are risking arrest and deportation to stage sit-ins at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington D.C. in order to urge congressional leadership to win a path to citizenship through the DREAM Act, and to push

When will they stop caving in?

by Mike Klonsky

Shirley Sherrod, civil rights hero

This time around, even the NAACP "got snookered" by the racist FOX T-baggers. They admittedly conceded too much too fast and denouncedShirley Sherrod, who turns out to be a civil rights hero. This should be a lesson for the Obama administration which seems to jump every time right-