Thursday, October 14, 2010

For-profit college stocks tumble on Apollo warning - Boston.com

For-profit college stocks tumble on Apollo warning

By Tali Arbel and Janna Herron

AP Business Writers / October 14, 2010

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NEW YORK—Investors fled for-profit college stocks on Thursday after the sector's bellwether predicted a 40-percent drop in student enrollment next quarter and withdrew its forecast for next year. The news chilled an industry facing increased government scrutiny over concerns about soaring student loan defaults.

Enrollments at for-profit schools surged during the recession. Big advertising budgets drew students trying to bolster their resumes as a hedge against high unemployment. But critics claim the schools are not helping students find better jobs and say enrollment counselors sign up many students who are unprepared for higher education. When they drop out, they are still stuck paying back their student loans.

Apollo Group Inc., which runs the University of Phoenix, attributes its expected enrollment decline to changing practices aimed at satisfying new government

“Performance vs. Popularity” � Failing Schools

“Performance vs. Popularity”

OCTOBER 14, 2010

by Sabrina

This short piece comes from a friend and Colorado teacher Veronica. She asks a great question about the role of popularity in evaluations– for too long, favoritism has influenced the kinds of ratings teachers get. Others have been dismissed despite having high ratings. And as Dr. Bruce Baker points out, value-added assessment offers a rather golden opportunity for sneaky school leaders to stack the deck against teachers they’d like to get rid of. I think one way to blunt the influence of popularity over performance would be to require several different people to be part of the evaluation process (peer teachers, an administrator, a trained outside observer, students, and parents). What do you think? How can we improve this situation?

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Performance vs. Popularity

The age-old issue of popularity – we see it in high school, middle school and even elementary school. It is not the “smart” kids, but the popular kids everyone wants to

University of California Budget Director Floats Possibility of System’s Largest-Ever Fee Hike � Student Activism

University of California Budget Director Floats Possibility of System’s Largest-Ever Fee Hike

by Angus Johnston

My Twitter feed has been buzzing this week with rumors that the University of California Regents may consider a fee hike of as much as 20 percent at their November meeting. No formal announcement of such a proposal has yet been made, but the story does have some meat to it.

As Tess Townsend of the Bay Citizen reports, the 20 percent figure had its origins in a weekend meeting of the University of California Students Association board of directors, where UC Budget Director Patrick Lenz told UCSA that fee hikes on the table in November could “range anywhere from zero to 20 percent.” Asked by

Shanker Blog � Privatization's Dark Side

PRIVATIZATION’S DARK SIDE

by Randall Garton

Privatization advocates argue that private sector workers deliver comparable services more cheaply than their public sector counterparts. The truth is that sometimes they can, but very often they can’t. And, as documented by a recently-released General Accountability Office (GAO) study on federal outsourcing, the savings can sometimes come at a very high price, including employees’ lives.

The GAO reports that contractors have been awarded billions of dollars in federal contracts, despite having histories of federal safety, health and labor law violations. Some of violations have been extensive and serious. One food supplier was cited more than 100 times for health and safety infractions, including one instance in which a worker was “asphyxiated after falling into a pit containing poultry debris.” This same employer was later ordered by a federal court to “properly compensate” more than 3,000 workers.

Another contractor violated fair labor laws when it “coerced employees” and in another incident refused to rehire a

Diane Ravitch Unlikely bedfellows at education speech tonight | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Unlikely bedfellows at education speech tonight | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Unlikely bedfellows at education speech tonight

Rice University might want to set up a wrestling ring for an on-campus lecture tonight. Diane Ravitch, a New York University education professor who has flip-flopped her views on the public school reform movement, is speaking at 7 p.m. today in a lecture series sponsored by Teach for America and the KIPP charter network — two entities she doesn't support.

Ravitch

Ravitch, a native Houstonian, worked as an assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush and was a strong proponent of the mandatory testing put in place by the second President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. But these days, Ravitch has a new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, in which she rejects the concepts she used to laud.

Don't worry — Ravitch is aware of the sponsors of her speech, said Andrea Hodge, the director of the Rice Education Entrepreneurship

A Letter makes a day. � Fred Klonsky's blog

A Letter makes a day.

by preaprez

Mr. Klonsky,

I know this is pretty random but my name is T, I was an art student of yours at Field Elementary from 1990-1996. I wanted to contact you because I’d like to thank you.

The other night I was talking to my husband about you and how there was a single moment in first grade that you gave me the reassurance that I was already an artist. I realized that those words and that moment have stuck with me through out my life. Although I’m not as much of a practicing artist as I’d like to be (I took the

Schools Matter: The problem is poverty: Evidence from Gerald Bracey

The problem is poverty: Evidence from Gerald Bracey

by skrashen

The problem is poverty: Evidence from Gerald Bracey
Stephen Krashen

The entire basis for the national standards/testing movement is our low scores on international tests when compared to other countries. Our scores, however, are only low because we have such a high percentage of children in poverty, compared to other countries that participate in international tests. When we consider only middle-class children who attend well-funded schools, our math scores are near the top of the world (Payne and Biddle, 1999).

Here is another analysis, using reading test scores, that comes to the same conclusion. The PIRLS test was

Guggenheim and Baldwin Learn an Inconvenient Truth | Intercepts

Guggenheim and Baldwin Learn an Inconvenient Truth

by Mike Antonucci

Davis Guggenheim, director of Waiting for Superman, was interviewed by A.V. Club (h/t: Russo) and was asked, “How does it feel to have teachers’ unions attack the film?” He replied:

“It sucks. I mean, when you make An Inconvenient Truth, it’s not difficult to have your enemy be Exxon Mobil or the dirty coal company. In this case, I’m a Democrat, and I believe, I really believe in unions, I’m a member of a good union. So that was an uncomfortable truth for me to have to talk about, but I’ve tried to make a reasonable film. I don’t know where it’s written, but somehow it’s written that you can’t criticize the unions. Otherwise, you hate teachers.”

And we’re hearing the same lament from noted lefty actor Alec Baldwin in his Huffington Post column headlined

Education Secretary Duncan and teachers unions announce summit

By Nick Anderson

Thursday, October 14, 2010; 2:20 PM

Conventional wisdom holds that teachers unions are stuck in the status quo and that there are few examples of labor-management teamwork on education reform.

On Thursday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and leaders of the two largest teachers unions called for an education summit early next year to disprove those notions.

The announcement highlighted several initiatives across the country, including a teacher peer-review program in Montgomery County and a new labor deal in Baltimore that allows teachers to be get raises based on student performance and other factors, not just

Local Company Praises Huber’s Efforts to Stop Job Killing Regulations Alyson Huber For California State Assembly 2010 - 10th Assembly District

Alyson Huber For California State Assembly 2010 - 10th Assembly District

NEW HUBER TV AD HIGHLIGHTS WORK TO SAVE JOBS IN DISTRICT

Local Company Praises Huber’s Efforts to Stop Job Killing Regulations

The Alyson Huber for Assembly campaign has released a 30-second TV ad highlighting Huber’s work to cut through politics to save jobs in her district. The ad features employees from the DART Container Company in Lodi, including a manager who talks about Huber’s efforts to respond to concerns brought to her about proposed state regulations that would have put the company out of business.

In early 2009, DART employees attended a local townhall Assemblymember Huber was holding to hear about issues from constituents. Employees approached her about a proposed law (AB 1358) that would have banned the types of products they make in the DART plant. She listened to their concerns and met with team members to learn about their products. To better educate other members of the legislature on the products, including efforts to recycle, she organized a tour of the facility. After the tour, the bill did not move forward and hundreds of jobs were saved.

The ad begins airing today, October 11, 2010.

The Answer Sheet - What's wrong with the ‘manifesto’ -- point by point

What's wrong with the ‘manifesto’ -- point by point

This was written by Anne Geiger, who served on the Orange County School Board in Orlando, Fl., from 2004-2008. A native of Virginia, she lives in Arlington and blogs at www.publicpolicyblogger.com, where this appeared. In this piece, Geiger analyzes the school reform "manifesto" signed by 16 big city schools superintendents and chancellors, including Michelle Rhee of Washington D.C., and Joel Klein of New York City, and published this week in The Washinton Post. I have posted this week a few pieces critical of the manifesto’s agenda, but this one looks at it point by point and offers an alternative vision of real school reform. 1) "Manifesto." A curious, full-throated choice when it's really more of an op-ed written in real time, more disjointed than coherent, more hyperbole than fact. So, what is a manifesto? A document that lays out a catechism, a body of fundamental principles or beliefs to be

Duncan, AFT & NEA Call for National Education Reform Conference on Labor-Management Collaboration | U.S. Department of Education

Duncan, AFT & NEA Call for National Education Reform Conference on Labor-Management Collaboration

OCTOBER 14, 2010

Contact:

Public Affairs, (202) 401-1576

TAMPA, Fla. -- At an event to celebrate labor-management collaboration and resulting education reforms in Hillsborough County, Fla., U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association, announced plans to convene a national education reform conference on labor-management collaboration early next year to highlight examples of progressive collective bargaining agreements across the country and promote opportunities for management and labor to forge reforms at the state and district level.

“In dozens of districts around the country -- from Tampa to Pittsburgh to Denver -- union leaders and administrators are moving beyond the battles of the past and finding new ways to work together to focus on student success,” Secretary Duncan said. “These districts show us what is possible when adults come together, particularly in tough times, to do the right thing for kids. We need to learn from these successful collaborative efforts and build upon them across the country.”

The conference will include the participation of national, state, and local union leadership as well as school superintendants and school boards from across the country. Additional details to come. The call for a national conference on labor-management collaboration comes on the heels of several progressive labor-management agreements across the country. Including:

In BALTIMORE, the district and the teachers union have tentatively agreed to a new contract that revolutionizes the teacher salary schedule, paying teachers not just for step increases but for learning and doing the things necessary to achieve great outcomes for their students. It also creates a mechanism for school based decision making involving labor and management
In DELAWARE, Diane Donohue, president of the Delaware Education Association, played a pivotal leadership role in the state’s winning Race to the Top application, which included: 100 percent participation of the state’s unions; a new state law on teacher/principal effectiveness based in part on student growth; financial incentives help more equitably distribute effective teaching talent; and greater union collaboration and involvement in school turnaround efforts.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., ratified a new four-year contract that stresses labor-management collaboration. It provides for a new teacher evaluation system that considers student-learning gains along with other measures in assessing and informing teacher performance, identifies and provides interventions for struggling teachers through a peer-assistance and review program and brings labor and management together to make school-based decisions.
In DENVER, the Math and Science Leadership Academy, designed and run by teachers, uses collaborative peer planning time to analyze data and figure out how to better meet the academic needs of students. Sixty percent of MSLA students are English language learners and close to 90 percent receive free or reduced-price lunches. The school aims to attract and retain accomplished teachers in math and science, and so far, the strategy appears to be working. MSLA has been receiving 30 applications for each teaching position.
In PITTSBURGH, Pittsburgh Public Schools’ new five-year teacher contract includes Empowering Effective Teachers, a pay-for-performance program that could earn teachers up to $8,000 extra a year. The performance pay program is voluntary for existing teachers, but creates a separate pay scale based on performance for new teachers. The contract also includes bonuses for schools that reach certain benchmarks, bonuses for district achievement and extra money for teachers who enter career ladder positions that include additional responsibilities.
In EVANSVILLE, IND., educators concluded that low-performing schools needed a different approach. In partnership with the school district, the union developed the Evansville Equity Schools Project. The project includes a professional development academy that provides top-notch training for teachers in the three lowest-performing schools. Teachers can’t teach at the schools unless they attend the academy, take 40 hours of training on Saturdays and pass an examination.
In DETROIT, the school district and union have forged an agreement that establishes a model for teacher compensation that rewards successful school-wide performance and identifies and turns around struggling schools.
In MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD., district and union leaders have developed evaluation systems that incorporate evidence of student learning, including student test scores and peer reviews. Under the system, highly effective teachers help other teachers improve their practice.

Google Apps for Education hits 10 million user milestone | ZDNet

Google Apps for Education hits 10 million user milestone

By Christopher Dawson | October 14, 2010, 9:00am PDT

Summary

10 million active users: That’s a lot of future Google Apps customers.

Topics

Education, Google Inc.,Google Apps, Cloud Computing, Christopher Dawson

Blogger Info

Google is announcing at EDUCAUSE today that, four years after introducing Google Apps for Education, it now has 10 million active users at universities and K-12 schools worldwide. Active users are people within Google Apps domains who have signed on within the last 7 days and include students, staff, alumni, and even parents (in some K-12 settings), depending upon how the schools have rolled out the services.

In a blog post this morning, Google noted,

In the last four years we’ve seen a lot of changes, both to our tools and the general landscape of cloud computing in higher education.

NYC Public School Parents: NBC's New Education Show: Is It Charity Porn?

NBC's New Education Show: Is It Charity Porn?

by Steve Koss

“[We] crisscrossed the country this past summer and team[ed] with local communities to renovate seven rundown schools in Los Angeles and rural Needles, California; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Nashville and Detroit. Some of these schools hadn’t been maintained for decades, and lacked even basic needs like toilets and working lights….[We] were humbled by the overwhelming community support we found throughout our journey as we poured millions of dollars into new school facilities. With the help of our sponsors…we helped these seven worn-out schools once again stand tall.”

Sounds like a great story, a program reminiscent of President Carter’s Habitat for Humanity. Who wouldn’t want to see charitable efforts like this going to help out communities and their schools during tough economic times?

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Thursday, October 14, 2010