Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Down payment on new school era - Times Union

Down payment on new school era

By RICK KARLIN Capitol Bureau

Published: 12:27 a.m., Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Richard C. Iannuzzi, left, New York State United Teachers president, and Arne Duncan, U.S. Education Secretary, head a roundtable with teams of teachers about reform and pilot program on teacher evaluations at NYSUT headquarters in Latham on Monday, August 30, 2010. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

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COLONIE -- The nearly $700 million that New York state will receive as part of the federal Race to the Top innovation program will help revamp the way teachers are trained and evaluated in future years.

One effect of that change: The lowest-performing teachers will likely be let go or denied tenure in light of more expansive future evaluations that will include a look at their students' test scores.

"There is a reality at some point that some are going to have to be counseled out of the profession," said Richard Iannuzzi, president of the state's largest teachers union

Illinois Mandates Bilingual Preschool - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Illinois Mandates Bilingual Preschool

by Alexander Russo

Illinois recently became the first state in the nation to mandate preschool bilingual education screening(EdWeek) -- even as suburban communities propose English only legislation and the nation debates so-called anchor babies. All that and more will be discussed at the November 16 conference sponsored by the New

The HFT Is All About Professional Growth… Not :: Frederick M. Hess

The HFT Is All About Professional Growth… Not

by Frederick M. Hess • Aug 31, 2010 at 9:28 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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I'm always surprised at how often teacher unions claiming to be agents of professionalism reflexively slash at measures (like responsibility for results and differentiated pay) that are part and parcel of most professions. Even so, it's not every day that you see a union savaging an effort to promote professional growth as an anti-teacher conspiracy. Welcome to Houston Independent School District, where HISD superintendent Terry Grier is being mauled by the Houston Federation of Teachers... for proposing that principals work with all of their teachers to craft professional growth plans.

Yeah, I'm scratching my head too. What's got the HFT really worked up is Grier's proposal for "individual

Donors send Haiti earthquake survivor to St. Benedict's Prep in Newark | NJ.com

Donors send Haiti earthquake survivor to St. Benedict's Prep in Newark

Published: Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 9:00 AM

Victoria St. Martin/The Star-Ledger
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Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerWith the Newark skyline behind him, 20 year old Ralph Alphoncio Jean pauses and looks back at his teammates during track team practice on the St. Benedict's campus. Ralph is a survivor of the earthquakes in Haiti and served as an interpreter for American doctors in Haiti. He has entered St. Benedict's as a sophomore.

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NEWARK -- Scribbled in blue ink across his left hand were the words, "keep ur eyes on me."

He says it’s not a prayer, but a request to God.

But when Ralph Alphoncio Jean’s house in Haiti started shaking, he prayed. He prayed God would keep his family safe as he walked his mother and pregnant sister out of devastated Port-au-Prince.

And he prayed he would one day visit America.

Jean, 20, doesn’t like to talk about the earthquake that ruined his home, or the man he knew who died in an aftershock while protecting his son, or the woman he saw outside whose foot nearly fell from her leg. Instead he prefers to quickly rattle off the classes he’ll be

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � A Hessian Matrix

A Hessian Matrix

by arotherham

The town vandals now what to know what’s up with all these broken windows?

Over at the AEI blog my friend Rick Hess, who like a few others spent much of the spring in a effort to undermine trust and confidence around ‘Race to the Top’ (in Rick’s case while earnestly bleating that competitive grant programs need trust to work), wants those of us asking questions now to vindicate him for his earlier comments. But he overlooks a key distinction: Hess wasn’t just arguing that the initiative might have programmatic issues of the kind many are now discussing (and discussed after Round 1.) Rather, he was also implying the strong

Race to the Top in New York – ED.gov Blog

Race to the Top in New York

John King, New York’s deputy commissioner of education, led the state’s team in applying for Race to Top. He talks about how New York will use its grant to advance reform.

Click here for an accessible version of the video.

“Let Me See Your ID”: Now Coming to a Lecture Hall Near You. � Student Activism

“Let Me See Your ID”: Now Coming to a Lecture Hall Near You.

by Angus Johnston

NPR is reporting that Northern Arizona University has installed ID card scanners at some lecture halls so that student attendance in large classes can be taken automatically. Apparently NAU is the first college in the country to do this.

I’m no opponent, in principle, of taking attendance in college, though I know many student activists are. In my view, class participation can be a legitimate component of a student’s grade, and you can’t participate if you’re not present. (Beyond that, I do think that it’s a professor’s prerogative to discourage absenteeism by taking attendance, even if it’s only to save some students from themselves.)

But I’ve got a few concerns about this scheme.

First, it seems to me that college attendance is nowhere less important than in huge lecture classes. A lecture

KC district sees a good start to its new era in education - KansasCity.com

KC district sees a good start to its new era in education

By JOE ROBERTSON

The Kansas City Star

Diedre Stratton, the librarian at B. Bannekar Elementary School in Kansas City, Mo., right, attached a wrist bus tag onto the wrist of Danaja Riggins, 5, center, a kindergarten student, at the beginning of Monday's first day of school for the Kansas City School District. The bus tags let teachers know which students arrived on which bus for their return trip home. At left is physical education teacher Carri King.

Day one of the reorganized Kansas City School District was off and running — not without some confusion in bus routes, or some parents arriving with their children at the wrong school.

Some classrooms were low on students, while other places, like Southwest Early College Campus, seemed overwhelmed with them.

But volunteers at the doors and teachers in the halls had shepherded enough kids safely into schools — decorated, pristine and cool — to set off relieved cheers throughout most of the district Monday.

Superintendent John Covington, who has launched a year of dramatic changes, was seeing for himself, coffee cup in hand, as he walked by anxious parents and teachers in the halls at Carver Elementary.

“It’s going good!” a teacher called out from her doorway

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan credits NY's 'breathtaking courage' in Race to the Top effort

BY GLENN BLAIN
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

Tuesday, August 31st 2010, 4:00 AM

Adams IV for News

U.S. Education Secretary Arnie Duncan praises New York school leaders and government for working together in the Race to the Top effort.

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ALBANY - U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday it was New York's "breathtaking courage" that won it nearly $700 million in Race to the Top dollars.

Duncan praised government, school and union leaders for working together to create a plan with several reforms, including beefed-up teacher evaluations and more charter schools.

"This is something New York has absolutely earned," Duncan said at a press conference with Gov. Paterson and other officials.

"This is an investment of scarce taxpayer dollars in your ability, your collective

Newspaper's teacher ratings stir up controversy EducationNews.org

EducationNews.org

Newspaper's teacher ratings stir up controversy
8.31.10 - In a move that has many local educators seething, the Los Angeles Times has published an online database comparing more than 6,000 elementary school teachers based on a controversial statistical method that relies on test-score data to determine...

UC retirement funds face a shortfall of more than $20 billion, report says
8.31.10 - A panel recommends increasing contributions by employees, raising the retirement age for new hires and reducing some benefits.

Education secretary Arne Duncan: headmaster of US school reform
8.31.10 - As students head back to school, educators nationwide are implementing controversial school reform wrought by Arne Duncan. Pushing competitive market approaches and armed with unprecedented funding and support from the president, he is possibly the most powerful education secretary ever. ...

The surprising thing teachers want from parents
8.31.10 - Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham asked teachers: "If you could magically make parents do ONE thing this coming school year to support their child, what would it be?" Here's the surprising answer. ...

Who's 'Really Ready' for college? Retired Marquette dean gives advice
8.31.10 - Robert Neuman says he has seen "every student problem imaginable" in his 25 years as an associate dean of academic advising at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Now retired, he shares strategies to help middle school and high school students avoid common problems in Are You Really Ready for College? One secret, he tells USA TODAY's Mary Beth Marklein, is to start early....

Commentaries

The New and Old of Digital Learning
8.31.10 - Mark Bauerlein - What stands out in a rendition of recent digital breakthroughs in learning is that it relies on some of the most routine progressivist assumptions about learning.

Barack Obama's $4.35 Billion "Race to the Trough": School year 2010-2011
8.31.10 - Beverly K. Eakman - California may be broke, and politicians in the nation's capital may be drowning in trillion-dollar deficits, but none of that has turned off the spending spigot in every level of government: county, city, state and federal.

CEA’s Capitol Connection blog The Daily Churn: Tuesday | EdNewsColorado

The Daily Churn: Tuesday | EdNewsColorado

The Daily Churn: Tuesday

by EdNews staff

What’s churning:

The Colorado Education Association is striking back at the state’s largest newspaper for slamming its lack of participation in Race to the Top. A Monday post on the CEA’s Capitol Connection blog says “the Denver Postresumed its unwarranted criticism of CEA for not signing on to the application” in an editorial on Aug. 25, the day after state leaders learned they’d lost their bid for $175 million in federal funds. “We believe it’s shameful for thePost to react as it did,” reads the unsigned entry, describing the editorial as “an unfounded rant.” Other factors

Tuesday, August 31, 2010