Mayor Daley's Last "Principal For A Day" - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Mayor Daley's Last "Principal For A Day" - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Mayor Daley's Last "Principal For A Day"

by Alexander Russo

It's the best or worst day of the year, depending on your perspective -- the annual "Principal For A Day" program coming up in a couple of weeks (October 21). This is Mayor Daley's last of these (as mayor, at least) so CPS is pulling out all the stops.

See below then tell us who's coming to your school, or the best and worst PFAD you've ever had, or what it's like to BE a PFAD, or how to get to be one if you really are into that kind of thing.

Annual Principal for a Day at Chicago Public Schools Nears;

Tribute to Mayor Planned as Part of Festivities

Chicago Public Schools is gearing up for the 13^th year of Principal for a Day (PFAD), which will take place on Thursday, October 21, 2010. PFAD is the annual program that encourages

Inequality � The Quick and the Ed

Inequality � The Quick and the Ed

Inequality

by Chad Aldeman

A recent study tested whether showing University of California employees where they could access a database with the salaries of their co-workers would change how they felt about their own job. It did, but it an asymmetric way. Workers discovering that they earned more than their peers experienced no gains in job satisfaction, while those discovering they earned less than their co-workers had a noticeable decline in job satisfaction and were more likely to indicate they’d be looking for a new job in the next year.

In K-12 education, teachers already know, or easily could find out, the salary of their co-worker down the hall.

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Finland’s approach to education & the corporate ed reformers

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Finland’s approach to education & the corporate ed reformers

Finland’s approach to education & the corporate ed reformers

by The Perimeter Primate

It’s now become commonplace to hear glowing mention of Finland’s student test scores and international rankings, and about their fabulous educational system which was reinvented a generation ago. However, there

NYC Public School Parents: Sign our petition against any more charters that will take space from our public schools!

NYC Public School Parents: Sign our petition against any more charters that will take space from our public schools!

Sign our petition against any more charters that will take space from our public schools!

by Leonie Haimson

In NYC, our public schools are increasingly overcrowded, a crisis made worse by the insistence of the NYC Department of Education to continue placing charter schools in our district school buildings. This has led to class size increases, the loss of art rooms, science labs, libraries, and preK programs, as well as special needs children receiving their services in hallways and in closets in our district schools.

NY charter authorizers will be voting in the next few weeks on several charter schools, whose founders have stated that they intend to be located inside our already overcrowded public schools.

Please sign our petition to urge the the SUNY board of trustees, the State Education Department, and the Board of Regents, along with their advisers, not to approve any more charter schools in NYC, unless they have a plan to be located in their own space, separate from our existing infrastructure.

The petition is here, and when you sign it, it automatically sends an email to the above decisionmakers. Please also feel free to adapt the message however you like. Thanks!

The Problems With Value-Added Assessment * - Bridging Differences - Education Week

The Problems With Value-Added Assessment * - Bridging Differences - Education Week

The Problems With Value-Added Assessment *

By Diane Ravitch on October 5, 2010 9:02 AM | 2 Comments | Recommend

Dear Deborah,

You asked what keeps me running, which I assume means how I find the energy to stay on the road week after week, speaking to teachers, parents, school board members, and concerned citizens. These days, I am running because of an inner rage at the attacks on teachers and public education. I see one of our most important public institutions under siege by people who want to privatize it, turn it into profit centers, and treat children as data points on a chart. This is wrong, and it will end badly. Critics say I defend the status quo, but nothing could be further from the truth. The status quo is awful, but the demonizing of teachers and the vilification of public education are even worse.

Last week, I was in Los Angeles. I spoke to L.A. teachers, who were shamed by the Los Angeles Times' disgraceful release of test-score data and ratings of 6,000 elementary teachers as more or less effective. I had previously believed that such ratings (value-added assessment) might be used cautiously by

In The Pink Activities October 4-11 Komen Sacramento Valley Homepage

Komen Sacramento Valley Homepage

In The Pink Activities October 4-11 October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and through the month we'll be checking in to tell you about local "In The Pink" events that benefit the Sacramento Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Some of Sacramento's finest restaurants, artists and galleries are participating in "In The Pink" events, and we hope you'll join us for many of them! The Purple Place Tuesday, October 5 Visit The Purple Place (363 Green Valley Road, El Dorado Hills) anytime on Tuesday, October 5 and mention "Susan G. Komen". The Purple Place will donate 20% of the check to Komen Sacramento for each person who says these magic words! Skinner Howard Gallery Thursday, October 7 Visit the Skinner Howard Gallery (723 S Street, Sacramento) on October 7, at 5:00 for a special premier event. The gallery is donating 35% to Komen Sacramento from the sales of many of their pieces. Barton Gallery Thursday, October 7 Visit the Barton Gallery (1723 I Street, Sacramento) on October 7, at 6:00 for a premier event showcasing works to benefit Komen Sacramento. Cafe New Orleans Sunday, October 10 Cafe New Orleans (117 J Street, Sacramento) will have an evening of live music on October 10 to benefit the Sacramento Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Featured will be a special desert and cocktail pairing, which will also be available through the month of October. For information about In The Pink events thoughout October including Dine Out for the Cure, Create for the Cure and Bid for the Cure, visit our website. Go to komensacramento.org

San Jose Inside - Public Schools Need Teachers Unions to Think Creatively

San Jose Inside - Public Schools Need Teachers Unions to Think Creatively

Public Schools Need Teachers Unions to Think Creatively

Posted by Joseph DiSalvo on Tuesday, October 05, 2010

More: Politics, charter schools, Education, unions

The unionized education hourglass has a few minutes of sand left before its upper glass chamber loses its last speck. Race to the Top and the Charter School movement have quickened the pace of the draining granules of sand. Unions can flip the hourglass to gain some time for dialogue, but only if they heed some advice.

If the union leadership continues business as usual I am worried about the integrity of our public school system. We need the union teacher movement now more than ever. I urge NEA/CTA and AFT/CFT leaders to act with foresight. The reality is the education game has changed forever.

One Nation Working Together - Mark Thompson, Randi Weingarten, Frederick...

Queens Teacher: A Charter Teacher Speaks!

Queens Teacher: A Charter Teacher Speaks!

A Charter Teacher Speaks!

by Queens Teacher

Waiting for a Fair Shake: The One Sidedness of 'Waiting for Superman'

Last week, I went to a pre-screening of "Waiting for 'Superman' ", the new documentary about urban education by Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of "An Inconvenient Truth". As a charter school teacher, and Teach for America corps member to boot, I figured it'd be nearly impossible for me to dislike the movie.

But I found something strange happening to me as the film progressed. At the start, I felt moved by the vivid portrayal of the horror of inner city public schools. I grew slightly uneasy, though, as the movie slid into casual union bashing, a feeling that only intensified with the depiction of all tenured teachers as hacks like Lisa Simpson's incompetent teacher, Ms. Hoover. By the time I left, the film's one-sidedness had galled me to the point that I was ready to break into "Solidarity Forever," the old trade union anthem.

This Week In Education: Reform: The Return Of The "Thin" Contract?

This Week In Education: Reform: The Return Of The "Thin" Contract?

Reform: The Return Of The "Thin" Contract?

by Alexander Russo

Maybe it's just because I'm writing about a book about them but Steve Barr and Green Dot schools (and "thin" or reform labor contracts in general) seem like they're turning out to be one of the unexpected (momentary?) beneficiaries of the post-WFS search for more promising approaches than nonunion charters featured in the movie. The thin contract and other variants

Congress: Strong Labor Backing In The House

by Alexander Russo

Here's a chart illustrating why education gets so much money (stimulus, edujobs) with so few strings attached during the nominally reformy Obama era: The House is still full of labor-backed lawmakers (Obey, etc). It's a lot different in the Senate, of course, and labor's certainly on the decline. But anyone who wants to revamp education policy and needs to go through

People: Journo Joins Edutopia

by Alexander Russo

Longtime KQED education reporter Kathy Baron has moved over to Edutopia, where she's in charge of features and research (Kathy Baron). Congrats, condolences. It's a

Building Skills for America’s Future – ED.gov Blog

Building Skills for America’s Future – ED.gov Blog

Building Skills for America’s Future

Cross-posted from the White House blog.

Today, President Obama announced the launch of a new initiative Skills for America’s Future – an effort to improve industry partnerships with community colleges to ensure that America’s community college students are gaining the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in the workforce.
In his remarks before the start of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) meeting today, President Obama laid the vision for Skills for America’s Future program:

The idea here is simple: we want to make it easier to connect students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire. We want to help community colleges and employers create programs that match curricula in the classroom with the needs of the boardroom.
We’ve already seen cases where this can work. Cisco, for example, has been working directly with community colleges to prepare students and workers for jobs ranging from work in broadband to health IT. And all over the country, we know that the most successful community colleges are those that partner with the private sector. So Skills for America’s Future would help build on these success stories by connecting more employers, schools, and other job training providers, and helping them share knowledge about what practices work best. The goal is to ensure that every state in the country has at least one strong partnership between a growing industry and a community college. Already, companies from UTC to Accenture to the GAP have announced their support for this initiative, as well as business leaders like my friend Penny Pritzker and the Aspen Institute’s Walter Isaacson. I hope other business leaders will follow suit, and I’m also setting up a taskforce to work directly with the business community on this effort.

The President also emphasized the importance investing in education as a means of investing in our long-term economic growth.

But what I won’t do is cut back on investments like education that are directly related to our long term economic performance. Now is not the time to sacrifice our competitive edge in the global economy. And that’s why I disagree so strongly with the proposal from some on the other side of the aisle to cut education by 20% in next year’s budget. It’s a cut that would eliminate 200,000 children from Head Start programs; a cut that would reduce financial aid for eight million college students; a cut that would leave community colleges without the resources they need to meet the goals we’ve talked about today. That just doesn’t make sense to me.

President Obama understands that the education and skills of the American workforce is crucial to our ability to compete in the global economy. That’s why the President has set a goal of having an additional 5 million community college degrees and certificates by 2020, and called on PERAB to develop new steps to ensure that those degrees and certificates will provide graduates with the skills they need to get ahead in their careers.
To respond to the President’s call, PERAB reached out to private sector employers, labor leaders, philanthropy organizations, and policy leaders within the Administration solicit their views on the workplace development challenges of the 21^st century. Many employers identified public-private partnerships as one of the most effective ways to ensure that college graduates and certificate earners have the skills they need to be successful in the workforce.
The Skills for America’s Future initiative will match up the employers like PG&E, United Technologies, McDonald’s, Accenture and Gap Inc. with community colleges in every state to develop curricula and programs that will prepare graduates to excel in the workforce. To learn more about this initiative visitwww.SkillsForAmerica.org.
Tomorrow, Dr. Jill Biden will host the first ever White House Summit on Community Colleges, an effort to bring together bring together community colleges, business, philanthropy, federal and state policy leaders, faculty and students to discuss how community colleges can help meet the job training and education needs of the nation’s evolving workforce. Leaders from the Skills for America’s Future will be leading a breakout session during the summit to discuss best practices for building robust, successful partnerships.
You can join the conversation as well, by submitting your ideas and comments in our online dialogue on community colleges. VisitWhiteHouse.gov/CommunityCollege to get started.

U.S. Department of Education Awards $38.8 Million in Safe and Supportive School Grants | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Awards $38.8 Million in Safe and Supportive School Grants | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Awards $38.8 Million in Safe and Supportive School Grants

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Contact:

Jo Ann Webb, (202) 401-1576

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded $38.8 million in Safe and Supportive School (S3) grants to 11 states to measure school safety at the building level and to help intervene in those schools with the greatest safety needs. The goal of the grants is create and support safe and drug-free learning environments and to increase academic success for students in these high-risk schools.

“It’s important that we be able to measure school safety,” Secretary Duncan said. “These grants will allow states to do that by surveying the real experts—students themselves.”

Funds may be used by state education agencies to develop measurement systems to assess conditions for learning within individual schools, including school safety, and to make this information publicly available. Using this data, the grant recipients will work in collaboration with participating local educational agencies to improve the learning environment within schools facing the biggest challenges.

The grant program is managed by the Department’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, which supports efforts to create safe schools, ensure the health and well being of students, teach students good citizenship and character, respond to crisis, and prevent drug and alcohol abuse. The office also coordinates the Department’s efforts in these areas with other federal agencies.

A complete list of the 11 grant awards follows:

“Chekhov for Children” Film and Discussion: NYC, October 21 � Student Activism

“Chekhov for Children” Film and Discussion: NYC, October 21 � Student Activism

“Chekhov for Children” Film and Discussion: NYC, October 21

by Angus Johnston

When I was in fifth grade, I was part of something truly bizarre — a totally serious elementary school production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

The play is a melancholic 19th century Russian drama about middle age, inappropriate infatuations, and the sacrifices and disappointments of aging. Because it was the seventies, writer Phillip Lopate decided that this would be a perfect project for a mixed-race group of urban public school kids to take on. And so we did, and it was weirdly amazing. (I played Vanya, the 47-year-old title character.)

One of the other kids who was involved with the play is now a documentary filmmaker, and she’s made

World Teachers' Day 2010 Thanks!

World Teachers' Day 2010

World Teachers' Day 2010

Recovery begins with teachers On World Teachers’ Day 2010 hundreds of thousands of students, parents and activists around the world will pay homage to all teachers who have been directly or indirectly affected by a major crisis. Be it a humanitarian crisis, such as the earthquake in Haiti and China, or the global economic crisis that has devastated many developed economies over the past year, the role of teachers and other education personnel is vital to social, economic and intellectual rebuilding. All those who are fighting to provide quality education to children of the world can join teachers and their representative organisations to celebrate the profession and show them their support!

Ilsley: A message about education - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

Ilsley: A message about education - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily News

Ilsley: A message about education

Posted Oct 05, 2010 @ 08:13 AM

ASHLAND —

TIME TO SEND A MESSAGE

I've written numerous letters over the years about our schools, the curriculum and how it's being taught just to pass certain test and the controls the Teacher's union have of protecting bad teachers with tenure. In almost every case I wrote how America was dropping down in the worldwide education rankings and this has continued to happen. I had recommended looking at Charter schools as a way of changing the direction education was going. It's well known that a bad teacher in a child's formative years in classes K-4 can ruin that child for life. Teacher's unions have fought the testing of teachers and in many cases children have gone on to fail because of this. The dropout rate in this country is 25 percent and much of this is in urban areas. What chance does a child have to succeed in life if they drop out of school.

This week a new movie premiered called "Waiting For Superman," a documentary by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim that explores the tragic ways in which the American public education system is failing our nation's children, and explores the roles that charter schools and education reformers could play in offering hope for the future. This film talks about how bad teachers can affect children and how parents role in being part of the process of their children education is another key that is missing today. This movie is opening the eyes of people who can see this country losing the battle to be anywhere near the

NOT Waiting for Superman: What Kind of Education Reform Model Is Rhee? -- Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)

NOT Waiting for Superman: What Kind of Education Reform Model Is Rhee? -- Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)

NOT Waiting for Superman: What Kind of Education Reform Model Is Rhee?

October 5, 2010

Email to a Friend Print Friendly Version

LEIGH DINGERSON
Dingerson said today: "While [Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor] Michelle Rhee enjoys the media spotlight as 'Waiting for Superman' opens across the country, voters in the District of Columbia had a different message on her education reform agenda. On September 14, Rhee's boss, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, was sent packing, after staking his re-election bid on his chancellor and her reform agenda. Rhee’s popularity in the District has plummeted over the last year, as her 'reform agenda' proved to consist of little more than teacher-bashing and firings. Parents and teachers know the difference between reform that supports schools and students, and reform that destabilizes schools, humiliates teachers and shuts parents out of the process."

"Proving Grounds: School 'Rheeform' in Washington, D.C." is a piece Dingerson recently wrote for Rethinking Schools. It states: "There’s nothing remarkably visionary going on in Washington. The model of school reform tha