Sunday, August 8, 2010

Literacy nonprofit for poor children closes

Sunday, August 08, 2010

By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Beginning with Books, a pioneering early-intervention literacy program that for 26 years brought the joy, power and opportunity of reading to thousands of poor Pittsburgh children, ceased operation Friday, a nonprofit victim of tough economic times.
The organization, headquartered in East Liberty, told its paid staff of 17 on Wednesday that it no longer could run numerous literacy programs it operated with them and hundreds of volunteers. Programs included teaching parents and day-care workers how to read to children, providing high-quality,

Little as They Try, Students Can't Get a D Here

MOUNT OLIVE, N.J. -- Who wants to pay for "D"-quality plumbing? Fly the skies with a "D"-rated pilot? Settle for a "D" restaurant? (Today)

Scandal Haunts Atlanta's School Chief

ATLANTA -- Early on in Beverly L. Hall's 11-year tenure as superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, she figured that the academic gains she intended to make with the city's mostly poor, black students would face skepticism. (Today)

Pitt plans for $17.6m housing expansion by fall 2011

The University of Pittsburgh plans to open a 155-bed expansion of its Bouquet Gardens student apartment complex by fall 2011 now that a trustees panel has approved it and tens of millions of dollars in other construction and renovation work. (Yesterday)

Kaplan Suspends Enrollment at 2 Campuses

The Washington Post Company's Kaplan Inc. unit suspended enrollment on Friday at its campuses in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Riverside, Calif., where undercover investigators for the Government Accountability Office found deceptive practices by admissions officials. (Yesterday)

NorthJersey.com: Lautenberg to push for teacher funding bill today at Paramus appearance

Lautenberg to push for teacher funding bill today at Paramus appearance

Friday, August 6, 2010

STAFF REPORT

NORTHJERSEY.COM

Sen. Frank Launtenberg is scheduled to appear at Paramus High School to push for passage of the teacher funding bill in the House of Representatives.

AP FILE PHOTO

Sen. Frank Lautenberg will appear in Paramus today to push for a teacher-funding bill.

The $26 billion bill was passed by the Senate Thursday, and is designed to prevent layoffs of teachers and provide aid to schools. It passed by a vote of 61 to 39.
The bill provides $10 billio

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Nun's death rallies anti-immigration forces - Boston.com

Nun's death rallies anti-immigration forces

This undated handout photo provided by Benedictine Sisters of Virginia shows Sister Denise Mosier who was killed in a car crash. Prince William County, Va. Police say Carlos Martinelly Montano, the man charged with drunken driving in a crash that killed a nun was in the United States illegally. (AP Photo/Benedictine Sisters of Virginia)

By Suzanne Gamboa and Kathleen Miller

Associated Press Writers / August 8, 2010

Text size – +

WASHINGTON—In Arizona, the shooting death of a rancher blew the lid off simmering anger over border security and helped solidify support for a tough new immigration law. A similar eruption threatens in Virginia following the

“9 condiments that are good for you” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“9 condiments that are good for you” 9 condiments that are good for you is an MSNBC slideshow that would be accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Nutrition & Food Safety.

The Best Sites For Learning About The Northern Lights A massive solar flare caused an especially spectacular light show — The Northern Lights — this past week. I don’t really understand how it all works, but there certainly some great pictures of it [image: :)] Here are my choices for The Best Sites ...

“18 formats for handmade thinking in the classroom” This great Slideshare presentation on students using simple drawings in class has been making the rounds in the education blogosphere lately –first at Free Technology for Teachers and then at Langwitches. It’s worth reading both of their posts. I ...

Cheating Scandal Haunts Atlanta School Superintendent - NYTimes.com

Scandal Haunts Atlanta’s School Chief

Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Superintendent Beverly L. Hall interacting with kindergarteners last week at Centennial Place Elementary School in Atlanta.

By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: August 7, 2010

RelatedATLANTA — Early on in Beverly L. Hall’s 11-year tenure as superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, she figured that the academic gains she intended to make with the city’s mostly poor, black students would face skepticism.

Cheating Inquiry in Atlanta Largely Vindicates Schools(August 3, 2010)

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Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Superintendent Beverly L. Hall’s success in Atlanta has not insulated her from a scandal of widespread cheating at 12 schools.

“I knew the day would come when people would question, was the progress real?” she said in an interview last week.

So Dr. Hall took a risk, signing up for a trial program to track and compare urban school districts. Since then, Atlanta has made the highest gains in the program in reading and among the highest in math, making it a national model and Dr. Hall a star in the education field.

But that has not insulated her from a cheating scandal that initially threatened to engulf two-thirds of the district’s

Little as They Try, Students Can’t Get a D Here

By WINNIE HU

Michael Appleton for The New York Times

The no-D policy has prompted debate among students and concern among teachers, but parents have applauded it.

Officials in the Mount Olive, N.J., school district adopted a standard allowing only A’s, B’s, C’s and F’s for students.

Superintendent Beverly L. Hall’s success in Atlanta has not insulated her from a scandal of widespread cheating at 12 schools.

Scandal Haunts Atlanta’s School Chief

By SHAILA DEWAN

Beverly L. Hall has become a star in the education field, but that has not insulated her from a scandal that threatened to engulf two-thirds of the district’s schools.

William Zeman (shown in May), an American student studying in Cairo, also worked at the Daily News Egypt, an English-language newspaper.

For American Students, Life Lessons in the Mideast

By JENNIFER CONLIN

More college students are choosing Arabic-speaking countries for study-abroad programs, to experience the Mideast beyond America’s viewpoints.

Slide Show: New Paths in the Mideast | Post a Comment

PAYBACK TIME

DEFENDER OF THE DEAL Senator Michael F. Bennet of Colorado, above, who as superintendent of schools in 2008 recommended the financing, said no one could have predicted the financial crisis that caused it to go sour.

Exotic Deals Put Denver Schools Deeper in Debt

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

Denver’s budgetary woes were made worse by a complex transaction that went sour in the financial crisis.

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School Tech Connect: Command and Control

Command and Control

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Nut graf from the past few chapters in Yong Zhao's Catching Up or Leading The Way:

While the United States is investing in resources to ensure that all students take the same courses and pass the same tests, the Asian countries are advocating for more individualization and attending to emotions, creativity, and other skills. While the United States is raising the stakes on testing, the Asian countries are exerting great efforts to reduce the power and pressure of testing.

I'd like to be more specific about which chapters I've been reading, but with the Kindle, I haven't figured out how

How Did I Miss This Book?

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

What could possibly go wrong?

"In the meantime, the U.S. has been trying hard to implement what China has been trying to be rid of. An increasing number of states and the federal government have begun to dictate what students should learn, when they should learn it, and how their learning is measured through state-mandated curriculum satandards, high school exit exams, and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)."

We're A Mean, Mean Country

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Is there anything more emblematic of the kind of nation we're becoming than this nonstop drumbeat forvengeance layoffs? There's a whole army of people out there that want to use the recession to fire veteran teachers. They're under the impression that there's this horrifically lazy, ineffective veteran teaching force out there that should just be let go based on some formula for determining effectiveness.

Some refugees don't want to transfer to new overage school in Dallas ISD | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Some refugees don't want to transfer to new overage school in Dallas ISD

11:16 PM CDT on Saturday, August 7, 2010

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning News
tdhobbs@dallasnews.com

Nirmala Dangal has spent two years adapting to American ways after spending most of her life in a refugee camp in Nepal. Enrolled in a Dallas public school and now proficient in English, she'll be a senior this fall.

But now she's worried about returning for her final year and says she may drop out.Dangal is among about 500 students in the Dallas Independent School District who are slated to attend a new school for overage students.

The school was created to educate older high school students apart