Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Blog U.: College Try - Alma Mater - Inside Higher Ed

BlogU

College Try
By Jeff Abernathy September 21, 2010 4:15 pm
One doesn't grow up wanting to be a college president. Firefighter, yes. Doctor, certainly. But college president? Even the principal's kid wouldn't have thought of it.
But here I am, starting out my first academic year at Alma College, a liberal arts college I've known and admired for years.
For colleges and universities, presidential transitions offer a great opportunity to answer lingering questions about identity, to determine aspirations, to recall core values.
For the new president -- just another freshman, I've been saying on campus as students have returned--the aspiration is to listen and learn from the traditions of the place, even as I prepare for a plan that will inevitably involve change.
Every day, I have the opportunity to model the sort of president everyone wants: collegial, ready with a joke, reflective, strategic, transparent.
Of course, I also have the opportunity to model the kind of president no one wants: dull, overly cautious, mushy, living at 5,000 feet, top-down thinker.

Harlem, Sunset Park groups win promise neighborhood grants | GothamSchools

Harlem, Sunset Park groups win promise neighborhood grants

by Anna Phillips

The Abyssinian Development Corporation's promise neighborhood would sit right on the boarder of the Harlem Children's Zone (marked in blue).

Two New York City groups won federal grants today that will give them one year to figure out how to recreate the Harlem Children’s Zone in other corners of the city.

One winner, the Abyssinian Development Corporation, plans to duplicate the Zone’s work practically next-door to the iconic organization in central Harlem. Another, the Lutheran Family Health Centers would focus on Sunset

The Essence of Excellence – ED.gov Blog

The Essence of Excellence

Every day, teachers work to motivate students, increase achievement and create an environment where students take ownership of their learning. As Fellows, we have been fortunate to speak with teachers across the country, and concerns around capturing student growth through standardized testing continue to persist across our schools and communities. Teachers’ concerns run a wide gamut, ranging from the need for assessment that engages multiple intelligences to frustration around the stress that high-stakes testing can create for many students.

In light of ongoing conversations about linking test scores to teacher evaluation, we want to hear more about how teachers measure their own effectiveness. We are thinking a lot about how to best reflect on and learn from our practice, so that we as teachers can actively shape current discussions about what true excellence looks like in the classroom.

In the first few weeks of school, how do you know if you are successful in beginning to impact student learning? Please share with us a personal glimpse of your excellence in the classroom from the start of the school year!

For opportunities to help identify and solve other challenges related to teaching and learning in the classroom, check out the new Challenge to Innovate (C2i) initiative at http://challenge.gov/ED/60-challenge-to-innovate-c2i

Leah Raphael
Teaching Ambassador Fellow

This entry was written by jreeves, posted on September 21, 2010 at 3:30 pm, filed under Headlines, News. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Education | Study: Teacher bonuses fail to boost test scores | Seattle Times Newspaper

Study: Teacher bonuses fail to boost test scores

Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students' test scores in a three-year study released Tuesday that calls into question the Obama administration's push for merit pay to improve education.

By DORIE TURNER

Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA —

The study, conducted in the metropolitan Nashville school system by Vanderbilt University's National Center on Performance Incentives, was described by the researchers as the nation's first scientifically rigorous look at merit pay for teachers.

It found that students whose teachers were offered bonuses of up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores registered the same gains on standardized exams as those whose teachers were given no such incentives.

Rights Groups Oppose Obama’s Agenda Education Week: Blogs of the Week

Education Week: Blogs of the Week

Blogs of the Week

Printer-Friendly
Email Article
Reprints
Comments
ARTICLE TOOLS SPONSORED BY:

| VIEWS | BRIDGING DIFFERENCES

Rights Groups Oppose Obama’s Agenda

In late July, the nation’s leading civil rights organizations issued a withering critique of the Obama administration’s education policies.

I hope that our readers will forget the invective directed against the authors of that report, “Framework for Providing All Students an Opportunity to Learn.” Read it. It contains wisdom and good sense, both as a warning about the errors of current and proposed policies and as a roadmap for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

If you believe that education is a civil right, or that education is of paramount importance

RICK HESS STRAIGHT UP

‘Leading Educators’ In the Big Easy

Word on the street is that a cool new venture is rising in New Orleans, which is well on its way to becoming the Silicon Valley of American education. The newest effort involves taking the Big Easy’s “Leading Educators” program national.

Leading Educators is intended to address the problem of high-energy, entrepreneurial teachers who tend to leave teaching after two to four years. The goal is to create a

TEACHER BEAT

The Elephant in the (Rubber) Room

For years, New York City’s so-called “rubber rooms”—temporary reassignment centers for teachers awaiting disciplinary hearings—were an embarrassment for both the teachers’ union and for the district. Teachers essentially reported to the rooms during contractual work hours and were paid during that time.

Back in April, the United Federation of Teachers and the school district reached an agreement to shutter the rooms. Teachers were to report for clerical duty or assignments

Democurmudgeon: Teacher Incentive Pay Doesn't Work. Unions and Teachers-"We Told You So."

Teacher Incentive Pay Doesn't Work. Unions and Teachers-"We Told You So."

by Democurmudgeon

We've watched the clever cartoon evaluating incentive pay on YouTube and found performance improved for manual labor, and not creative or intellectual work.

Popout

That left many wondering why the Bush and Obama administrations want to persue a system that included merit pay. Now, a new study drives a stake through the heart of the whole teacher incentive pay idea.
Education Week: The most rigorous study of performance-based teacher compensation ever

Davis Guggenheim, Looking For A Hero At Your House : NPR

Davis Guggenheim, Looking For A Hero At Your House

Consider Daisy. She's a fifth-grader who lives in East L.A., and she's got both a tough background and some big dreams.

"She says it right out," says filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, who follows Daisy and other at-risk kids in his new documentary Waiting for Superman. "I say, 'What do you want to do for a living?' and she says, 'I want to be doctor.'"

And here's the thing, Guggenheim tells NPR's Melissa Block: "You actually think Daisy couldbe a doctor. She's already written her [target] college to say, 'Remember me, because I'm going to be applying.' Her father drives a truck, and her mother cleans hospital rooms, but they all believe that with hard work and studying, she can be a doctor."

So in Waiting for Superman — designed to spark debate and spur action around the U.S. educational system the way Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth got people talking about climate

This Week In Education: Rebuttal: Quality Education Still Unavailable To Too Many Kids

Rebuttal: Quality Education Still Unavailable To Too Many Kids

by Alexander Russo

Here's a great response to Nick Lemann's New Yorker piece from charter schools guru Greg Richmond originally posted on my Facebook page (why aren't we friends yet?):

"This essay is pretty weak. When half of children in urban high schools drop out and many of the graduate have grade-school skill levels, this author wants us to take comfort in the fact that public education didn't really exist

Michelle Rhee

Full slate of education issues on tap in D.C. - Washington Times

Full slate of education issues on tap in D.C.

Return of ombudsman sought; parental involvement 'important'

By Deborah Simmons

The Washington Times

6:32 p.m., Monday, September 20, 2010

Rhee

The fate of D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee dominated last week's post-mayoral primary debate, but her position isn't the only issue facing city and school officials as voters head back to the polls in November.

Four Board of Education races will be on the ballot, and funding for the lucrative merit-pay deal and other reforms could be in jeopardy.

School officials and activists say that funding is crucial to reform implementation, but that progress can only be sustained by engaging parents. For many, the key to that is reinstating the Office of the Ombudsman, which the Fenty administration created in 2007 but dismantled in 2009.

"We need to bring back the office of the schools ombudsman," said Ward 5 board member Mark Jones.

Is 'Waiting For Superman' An Inspiring Call To Arms -- Or A Convenient Cover For Privatizing Schools? | Crooks and Liars

Is 'Waiting For Superman' An Inspiring Call To Arms -- Or A Convenient Cover For Privatizing Schools?

By Susie Madrak

"I don't know whether to vote for Fenty or Gray," a D.C. friend confided to me last week.

"Which candidate is backed by the white progressives?" I said.

"Fenty."

"Then vote for Gray."

"Why?"

I told him that contrary to what he'd heard, Michelle Rhee wasn't the savior of D.C. schools and it was nothing more than the corporatization of public education. ("If you don't trust Bill Gates to sell you an operating

The Great Giveaway

Want to be a special guest at The Women’s Conference 2010?

It’s our last Great Giveaway before The Women’s Conference 2010 - and it’s our biggest Giveaway yet! This month, we're giving away prizes to three people - one grand prize winner and two runner-ups!

Post to Facebook Post to Twitter Send to a Friend

THE GREAT SEPTEMBER GIVEAWAY:

THE GRAND PRIZE: WHAT YOU WIN

2 complimentary Special Guest Passes to The Women's Conference 2010Main Event & The Grand Finale featuring the Minerva Awards and two Breakout Conversations on October 26, 2010. You also win 2 tickets to A Day of Health, Wellness & Transformation and Night at The Village on October 25. (Transportation, meals and hotel not included. Passes are nontransferable.)

An opportunity to interview actress and activist Sally Field - and have your interview video featured as part of our special online conference coverage

A meet-and-greet and photograph taken with Maria Shriver

A KODAK ESP All-in-One Printer package. (Learn more on the right sidebar of this page.)

TWO RUNNER-UPS: WHAT YOU WIN

The first and second runner-up will each receive a KODAK ESP All-in-One Printer package. (Learn more on the right sidebar of this page.)

HOW YOU WIN

This month, in partnership with Kodak, a Presenting Sponsor of The Women’s Conference 2010, we’re inviting you to share a photograph of your favorite summer moment. Here’s how it works:

First, if you’re not already registered on our site, you must click Join Our Community to register. Only those registered on our site will be eligible.
Go to our special Great Kodak Moments Giveaway atwww.KodakMoments.com/womensconference.
Click ‘Share Your Summer Moment’ & follow the simple instructions to post your photo of your favorite summer moment & a brief message* about why this is your favorite moment. (Messages are limited to 1000 characters.) *PLEASE NOTE: You MUST include your Women’s Conference username at the beginning of your message. (Please be aware, it may take a while for your photo to appear).

The conference team will choose the most interesting and inspiring photo and two runner-up photos posted on www.KodakMoments.com/womensconference between September 9 (9am PST) through September 30 (11:59pm PST). On October 8th, we’ll announce the winners.

Be sure to share this opportunity with your friends and family because the real KODAK MOMENT happens when you share.

Click here for Official Rules for The Great Giveaway.

To find out everything you need to know about The Women’s Conference 2010, visit ourWelcome to The Women’s Conference 2010 page.

Good luck! Our 2010 conference will be the biggest and best one yet!

Latest News and Comment from Education