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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Behind-The-Scenes Video: President Obama Meets With “Waiting for Superman” Students ED.gov Blog

ED.gov Blog


Behind-The-Scenes Video: President Obama Meets With “Waiting for Superman” Students

Cross-posted from the White House blog.
Watch a behind-the-scenes video with President Obama and students from the film Waiting for Superman. Yesterday, the children, their families and others that worked on the movie met with President Obama in the Oval Office and watched him depart in helicopter Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House.


That’s NFTE: Award-Winning Teen Entrepreneurs Visit Oval Office

Cross-posted from the White House blog.
That’s NFTE: Award-Winning Teen Entrepreneurs Visit Oval Office
President Barack Obama meets with the student finalists of the NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in the Oval Office. These students – four of who are still in high school – have all started new businesses and competed against 24,000 other young people in the competition.
President Obama is the first to recognize that not all good ideas come from adults, and that’s why for the second year in a row he offered his personal congratulations to the winners of a challenge organized by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).
NFTE organizes the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge and has for years helped young individuals from low-income communities unlock their potential for entrepreneurial creativity. In a show of his support for the youthful innovators of our Nation, President Obama—as he did for last year’s NFTE winners—welcomed the five young winners of this year’s competition to the White House for a meeting with him, where he not only congratulated them but also picked their innovative brains. View the full press release from NFTE here (pdf).
The five winners of the Challenge are:
  • Nia Froome, a 17-year-old student from Valley Stream, NY, who won the grand prize for her business, Mamma Nia’s Vegan Bakery. Inspired by her mother’s battle with breast cancer, she says she plans to donate a portion of her winnings to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in addition to investing in her business and education.
  • Bosnian immigrants Zermina Velic and Belma Ahmetovic, from Hartford, CT, who took First Runner-Up for their computer services company, Beta Bytes.
  • Crystal Vo of San Jose, CA, who won Second Runner-Up for her cake ball company, Sweet Tooth Bites,
  • Steven Gordon of Brooklyn, NY, who won NFTE’s first Online Elevator Pitch Challenge for his business, TattooID.
Since NFTE began in 1987, more than 330,000 people have been part of the program, which has activities going on in 21 states and ten countries.
Kudos to this year’s winners!

How Technology Can Transform Education

At New Salem-Altmont High School, Secretary Duncan and Representative Earl Pomeroy watched as students attended an anatomy class where a lead instructor teaches students in five schools at once through satellite television. It is one way the school is using technology to overcome distance and increase access to quality instruction. The video technology empowers the different classrooms to see and hear one another, and students can interact with the teacher and one another.
The program is available to even more communities, preparing students for college and careers in places where certain courses may not be available otherwise, given the struggle to find science teachers in North Dakota as it is nationwide. This distance learning classroom is one of many innovative approaches rural schools are using to boost learning and accelerate achievement.
Secretary Duncan recognizes that small towns and rural schools face unique challenges and unique opportunities. They may have difficulty recruiting and retaining great teachers and offering a diverse array of courses, but the close-knit nature of their communities enables them to adopt changes quicker, get speedy approval to expand or replicate successful programs, and deliver more personalized instruction than in most urban districts.
The Obama administration’s proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act would reauthorize the Rural Education Achievement Program and other programs that support reform in rural schools. Representative Pomeroy has introduced a bill to reauthorize REAP. The Department makes sure the federal government better supports schools in rural areas by promoting the use of technology to deliver content, giving schools and communities support for programs that meet their specific local needs, and improving technical assistance to ensure that rural districts aren’t disadvantaged in competitive programs.
Secretary Duncan challenged his audience at New Salem-Altmont High School to be a part of the solution. “I want to challenge you to think about what else can be done at the local level to prepare all students to be career-and college ready, to prepare all students to have the skills necessary to succeed in the global economy of the 21st century. … The challenges facing our small-town districts and schools are considerable, but so is the opportunity to reshape the status quo for the better for our children.”

Wednesday Churn: Bye Rhee, hi Superman | EdNewsColorado

Wednesday Churn: Bye Rhee, hi Superman | EdNewsColorado

Wednesday Churn: Bye Rhee, hi Superman

Daily Churn logoWhat’s churning:

Some may see irony in the timing: The morning after school reform documentary “Waiting for Superman” debuted in private screenings across Colorado, one of the people the film portrays as a hero of the reform movement is announcing her resignation. Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington D.C. Public Schools since 2007, will announce her resignation, effective at month’s end, during a press conference this morning, theWashington Post reports in today’s edition. Rhee became the target of ire from people skeptical about or opposed to the menu of school reforms pushed by President Obama and Arne Duncan, his education secretary.

Her blunt, at times undiplomatic style and take-no-prisoners approach to overhauling one of the nation’s most

Schools Matter: Trading a Snarling TFA Know-Nothing Alum for a Smiling TFA Know-Nothing Alum

Schools Matter: Trading a Snarling TFA Know-Nothing Alum for a Smiling TFA Know-Nothing Alum

Trading a Snarling TFA Know-Nothing Alum for a Smiling TFA Know-Nothing Alum

Looks as though Rhee's lieutenant, Kaya Henderson, could the interim pick to replace the poisonous Michelle Rhee, who is revving up her broom this morning for a quick departure following a news conference in DC.

Having been assimilated through the same portal as her Corps member sister and boss, Henderson will no doubt pursue the same failed corporate policies for which they were both chosen to cram into the DC schools--thus demonstrating a perfect transition from blind hubris to willful ignorance. Emerson's truth is worth recalling: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds . . ."

From WaPo:
. . . .In Henderson, Gray inherits someone in tune with Rhee on the fundamentals of education

Wall Street Lays an Egg. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Wall Street Lays an Egg. � Fred Klonsky's blog

Wall Street Lays an Egg.

“Wall Street Lays an Egg.

That was the famous Variety headline from Black Thursday of 1929, the day the stock market crashed.

It could be used again to describe the success of Waiting for Superman. The anti-union faux doc is a favorite of hedge fund managers, Wall Street investors, NBC, pundits and Reformers, Oprah and John Legend. But it isn’t

State Supreme Court hears case over charter school funding �| ajc.com

State Supreme Court hears case over charter school funding �| ajc.com

State Supreme Court hears case over charter school funding

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The future of independent charter schools in Georgia rests in the hands of the state Supreme Court as it considers a case that could affect choice for parents and unravel a network of schools.

The case pits seven local school districts against the state in a showdown over money and power in public education. A Supreme Court decision, which could take up to six months to reach, will determine whether a state board authorizing and funding charter schools is acting legally or outside the law. It would also determine whether local school districts

Landlords of charter schools on the hook for property taxes | Columbus Dispatch Politics

Landlords of charter schools on the hook for property taxes | Columbus Dispatch Politics

Landlords of charter schools on the hook for property taxes

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2010 02:53 AM

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

andlords who rent commercial buildings to Ohio charter schools are not exempt from paying property taxes, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a 7-0 vote.

"This is not just another hit for charters, this is a bomb," said Bill Sims, who heads the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools. He said the ruling could put many charter schools in "serious peril."

Many schools or their for-profit management companies across the state will owe years of back taxes, Sims said. Some will be unable to pay because they are prohibited from using their state financial aid to pay taxes.

The court's decision overturned a ruling by the state

Mike DeBonis on Local Politics - What Michelle Rhee did and didn't do for D.C.

Mike DeBonis on Local Politics - What Michelle Rhee did and didn't do for D.C.

What Michelle Rhee did and didn't do for D.C.

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Michelle Rhee is expected to announce her exit from the D.C. Public Schools this morning -- alongside her patron, Mayor Adrian Fenty, and the man she could not come to terms with, Mayor-to-Be Vincent Gray.

She will be remembered for bringing unprecedented national attention to the city schools -- attention that cut both ways. Without the string of national press she garnered and the high-flying company she kept -- Sun Valley, Aspen Institute and such -- there is little chance private foundations would have given the $65 million that made possible the landmark teacher contract that went into effect Oct. 1.

But the national attention, by and large, did not help her at hom