Sunday, August 1, 2010

“Communities For Excellent Public Schools” | Engaging Parents In School...

“Communities For Excellent Public Schools”

by Larry Ferlazzo

“Communities For Excellent Public Schools” has just come out with a useful report. This is how they describe themselves:
Communities For Excellent Public Schools is a newly formed coalition supported by 24 local, state and national parent and community organizing groups across the country. CEPS has launched a national campaign calling for dramatic action to improve low performing schools by emphasizing parent, student and community engagement and research-based educational practices.
On July 28, 2010 CEPS issued a report, Our Communities Left Behind: An Analysis of the Administration’s

“Parent Involvement is Essential, but Should it be Mandatory?”

My Most Popular Blog Posts On Parent Engagement (Over The Past Year)

School Tech Connect: Did You See The UCC?

Did You See The UCC?

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Catching up on email here and I see that the UCC has a comprehensive statement on education reform online. I'm reposting it here and will probably comment on it later. UCC is part of the group that has just informed the

NYC Public School Parents: Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson on Democracy Now

Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson on Democracy Now

by Leonie Haimson

Popout

Interviewed by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez on June 30, we discuss NY State's admission of test score

Schools Matter: Children, Parents, and Teachers Pushed to the Bottom in "Race to the Top"

Children, Parents, and Teachers Pushed to the Bottom in "Race to the Top"

by Jim Horn

From Tennessee to New York: Welcome Back to School--You Fail!

Jim Horn

When Tennessee children left school in early June, the majority of them were proficient in reading and math. When they return to school later this month, most of that majority of children will not be proficient or even close to it. From Saturday's The Commercial Appeal:

Friday, the State Board of Education passed new "cut" scores for the state tests, retooled last

Criteria for Ackerman's bonus released | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Criteria for Ackerman's bonus released

by Erika Owens on Aug 01 2010

On Friday the District released the criteria used to evaluate Superintendent Ackerman for her $65,000 bonus after a judge granted theInquirer's open records request.

The documents released include:

The letter compares the bonus to compensation other urban superintendents

Queens Teacher: Klein Belongs in Jail

Klein Belongs in Jail

by Queens Teacher

Klein was hired for one reason: not to improve PUBLIC schools but to open as many CHARTER schools as possible. How else do you explain a noneducator who never had an ounce of interest in education being hired to be CHANCELLOR OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS??? Where else would this have been acceptable? Notice how he paid

NAACP needs to reset sights on education | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/01/2010

NAACP needs to reset sights on education

Anthony Williams
is a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia who ran for governor this year on a platform that included universal school choice
I was raised to revere the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As a child, I learned of its legendary achievements in fighting against the oppression of the human spirit and removing the barriers of segregation and racial discrimination. The organization's recent involvement in controversies surrounding Shirley Sherrod and the tea party, however, indicates a shift away from its core values. Today, the long-revered civil rights group seems more concerned about public relations, political positioning, and currying interest-group favor than providing a voice to the voiceless. Nowhere is this transformation more evident, or troubling, than in the area of education.
Whenever the NAACP is mentioned, one immediately thinks of Brown v. Board of Education, the historic civil rights case the NAACP argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. With Brown, the NAACP helped to end legally segregated public schools and overturned the racist policy of "separate but equal." Unfortunately, the mission of the NAACP to protect equal access to quality public education has changed. At least it seemed that way to me as I read the Wall Street Journal article "Failing Schools Can Stay Open" on July 1, which described the NAACP's lawsuit to force New York City to keep open 19 failing public schools.
As a Pennsylvania state senator representing a district with failing schools, I have seen thousands of children deprived of a quality education. Only 10 percent of the children who enter Philadelphia's ninth grade go on to graduate college. In this country an African American male who drops out of high school is more likely than not to

Vermont school district considers camera policy - Boston.com

Vermont school district considers camera policy

August 1, 2010

Text size – +

BURLINGTON, Vt.—The school board in Burlington, Vt., is looking at beefing up its policy on using surveillance cameras.

The Burlington Free Press reports many cameras have been installed in the schools with details of who can see the tapes and how long they would be kept.

The district installed 32 cameras in and around Burlington High School during the 2009-2010 school year. There are other

School Tech Connect: Sunday, A Day of Rest

Sunday, A Day of Rest

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Hugely busy Sunday here. My school year pretty much starts tomorrow so I've got about four million things to do for that, plus I'm filming another spot for Teachers Letters To Obama, and I wasted much of yesterday trying to find some appropriate music in the Creative Commons section of Jamendo for another little video I'm putting together.

By the way, if you're working with kids on technology, and there ever comes a day when there's nothing for them to do, send them to Jamendo, or some such place, to search for CC music that's appropriate for all the various

The promise and peril of Race to the Top - latimes.com

The promise and peril of Race to the Top

California is in the running for a grant from the federal Race to the Top program. That's the good news. The bad is that too-hasty reforms will prove to be no reform at all.

August 1, 2010

E-mail
Print
Share
Text Size

As encouraging as it is to see California in the running to win a Race to the Top grant for its schools, we can't help wondering how great a price the state will pay for the possibility of receiving as much as $700 million.

The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that California is one of 19 finalists in the second round of grant applications. Should it succeed — and the odds are decent, because officials say that more than half the finalists will receive grants — many of California's neediest schools will receive infusions of new money. Even so, we see this potential win as mixed news.

It's impossible not to celebrate the prospect of extra funding when the schools are in such bad straits. Only a third of students in California are represented by the state's application, but they are among the most disadvantaged — including those in the Los Angeles Unified School District — and thus the most in need of both reform initiatives and extra funding.

The worrisome part of the Race to the Top program is reflected in its very name — it is indeed a race to reform, quickly and dramatically, with inadequate attention to conducting pilot studies or discerning what research shows to work or not work in schools. California is among dozens of states that have scrambled to reinvent their education policies along the lines called for by Education

Eating away at education: Cuts widen the gap between the haves and have-nots - ContraCostaTimes.com

Eating away at education: Cuts widen the gap between the haves and have-nots

By Katy Murphy and Theresa Harrington
Bay Area News Group

Posted: 08/01/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT

Updated: 08/01/2010 12:07:48 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

El Monte Elementary School Principal Kim Chamberlain, right, talks to students as they work on a...

Eating away at education: Math doesn't add up when teacher salaries and budget cuts collide

Lamont Carter's family made a beeline for Alameda when they moved from New Jersey to the Bay Area five years ago. Carter said his parents liked the safe, small-town feel of the island city abutting Oakland, but one factor rose above all else: the fine reputation of its public schools.

Carter had a lot of catching up to do, and his teachers at Wood Middle School devoted extra time to help him. It wasn't just him. He remembers his algebra teacher hovering over each student's desk at the end of class to make sure everyone understood the work.

Now 16, the Alameda High School student is on the advanced placement track with plans to apply to top universities on the East Coast. But he believes it will soon be much

harder for kids — especially those who are behind, like he was — to succeed.

Carter is preparing for a senior year with bigger classes, fewer advanced placement slots, and one week chopped from the school calendar. Some of his favorite teachers will be gone; they left because they were laid off or thought they might be. To balance a shrinking budget, the district is considering a plan

Latest News and Comment from Education