Hidden Motives: the elite nature of school reform in the Houston Independent School District - Houston Education reform | Examiner.com

Hidden Motives: the elite nature of school reform in the Houston Independent School District - Houston Education reform | Examiner.com

Hidden Motives: the elite nature of school reform in the Houston Independent School District

• October 24th, 2010 10:55 am CT

The best study of school reform in Houston is Donald R. McAdams' Fighting to Save our Schools…and winning: Lessons from Houston about the decade of the 1990's. McAdams and Dr. Rod Paige were the leading reformers and their base of support was the corporate community. Together, these folks represented a Republican takeover of a big city school district.

The main objectives of the nineties reformers were decentralizing management and contacting out-policies that sound good on paper but make little impact in schools and classrooms.

While businessmen, particularly the Texas types, pretend to be down to earth and practical, the reforms they pursued in the nineties were as pie in the sky, and as removed from classroom realities, as anything college professors could have produced.

Baltimore Teachers Union releases new contract - baltimoresun.com

Baltimore Teachers Union releases new contract - baltimoresun.com

Baltimore Teachers Union releases new contract

District, union leaders continue negotiations for new agreement

The Baltimore Teachers Union released Tuesday night a second tentative agreement of a landmark contract that, though fairly unchanged, offers more details about how initiatives that teachers have opposed would be implemented.

The new contract, obtained by The Baltimore Sun shortly after it was released to union members, highlights minor language changes from the original agreement, with the most substantial revisions addressing specifically how teachers would climb a new

80% Georgia grad rate disputed- EducationNews.org

Web's #1 Source for K12 and Higher Education News and Commentary - EducationNews.org

We'll sue city if 'harmful' evaluations are released: teachers 10.27.10 - The city could face even more legal trouble from teachers over the controversial effectiveness ratings, union officials told the Daily News. Generation with 'no hope' will turn to crime and gangs as jobs become scarce, warns police chief 10.27.10 - Top police officer Peter Fahy has warned that rising unemployment and lack of opportunity could lead to an increase in crime as thousands of police jobs face the axe. ... 80% Georgia grad rate disputed 10.27.10 - Georgia's high school graduation rate rose 2 percentage points this year, bringing it to a record 80. ... 7 Class size myths -- and the truth 10.27.10 - Leonie Haimson - Across the country, class sizes are increasing at unprecedented rates. Budget pressures are weighing on school districts, but there has also been a fierce attack on the value of class size reduction. Here are the most common myths about class size (No 1: It is an unproven, ineffective reform) along with the facts. ... Needing Students, Maine School Hunts in China 10.27.10 - MILLINOCKET, Me. - Faced with dropping enrollment and revenue, the high school in this remote Maine town has fixed on an unlikely source of salvation: Chinese teenagers. ...

Commentaries

An Interview with Kris Ellington: Racing to Fill in the Bubbles ? 10.27.10 - Michael F. Shaughnessy - Some states require that tests are translated into other languages while other states, including Florida, provide tests only in English (as it is the language of instruction and therefore should be how students demonstrate they have learned our standards). Bullying -- an Agenda 10.27.10 - Donna Garner - For some time, many of us have been warning America about Kevin Jennings who was Obama and Arne Duncan's choice at the U. S. Department of Education for the position of Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Teachers Unions and Shifting Winds 10.27.10 - Bob Bowdon - Since the theatrical release of The Cartel, I've hosted countless director Q & A's about public education policy and become quite familiar with the establishment's talking points. ... An Interview with Renee Mosiman and Mike Mosiman: The Smarter Preschooler 10.27.10 - Michael F. Shaughnessy - Researchers agree that play is critical for a child's development and learning. For example, pretend play not only fosters a child's creativity but also helps develop abstract thinking because a youngster must use his or her imagination to create a scene or an object that is not there.

Alternative proposals, impassioned pleas | EdNewsColorado

Alternative proposals, impassioned pleas | EdNewsColorado

Alternative proposals, impassioned pleas

by Nancy Mitchell

A Montbello High School student was among those lining up to ask questions about reform plans in Far Northeast Denver at Tuesday's crowded community meeting.

A second meeting in as many weeks in a crowded school cafeteria in Far Northeast Denver produced two alternate proposals to a district plan to improve its struggling schools there.

But there was no consensus on any one plan from the 40-member community committee that’s been meeting since April to advise Denver Public Schools on how to reform Montbello High School and five feeder schools.

Study: Half of teens admit bullying in last year - Boston.com

Study: Half of teens admit bullying in last year - Boston.com

Study: Half of teens admit bullying in last year

By Andrew Dalton

Associated Press / October 26, 2010

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LOS ANGELES—Half of high school students say they've bullied someone in the past year, and nearly half say they've been the victim of bullying, according to a national study released Tuesday.

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The survey by the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics asked more than 43,000 high school students whether they'd been physically abused, teased or taunted in a way that seriously upset them. Forty-three percent said yes, and 50 percent admitted to being the bully.

The institute's president, Michael Josephson, said the study shows more bullying goes on at later ages than previously thought, and remains extremely prevalent through high school.

"Previous to this, the evidence was bullying really peaks in middle school,"

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LATEST HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS

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Teachers' warning that they'll sue city if 'harmful' evaluations are released

Teachers' warning that they'll sue city if 'harmful' evaluations are released

BY MEREDITH KOLODNER AND RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, October 27th 2010, 4:00 AM

RELATED NEWS

• City bungled bid to lower class sizes - suit
• Deal between city, teachers union, will delay release of teacher ratings
• Teachers, principals forced to ditch raises to save 4,400 other teachers' jobs
• State exam results to help determine whether 700 teachers win tenure
• UFT President to fight attacks on tenure and seniority

The city could face even more legal trouble from teachers over the controversial effectiveness ratings, union officials told the Daily News.

If the ratings are released to the public despite a pending teachers union lawsuit, the city could get slapped with suits by hundreds of teachers who have called a union hotline to report errors, the officials said.

"If members are harmed or defamed because the Department of Education was not managing the data inside of the system, then we will help them take legal action," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Teachers charge there are simple mistakes in the Teacher Data Reports, which use a complex formula to rate teachers on how well their students did on state exams.

Mistakes - like the wrong number of students or counting the wrong kids - could mean the ratings are way off, teachers said.

English teacher Kevin Trustey of Queens Junior High School 189 said he had earned the lowest rating in 2008-09 after receiving the highest the prior year because, he said, the

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/27/2010-10-27_teachers_warning_well_sue_city_if_harmful_evaluations_are_released.html?r=ny_local/education#ixzz13YnoYFK5

Comparing Brown’s, Whitman’s ed platforms | Thoughts on Public Education

Comparing Brown’s, Whitman’s ed platforms | Thoughts on Public Education

Comparing Brown’s, Whitman’s ed platforms - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Few voters, other than fighting-mad members of the CTA, will likely cast their ballots for governor based on Meg Whitman’s or Jerry Brown’s views on K-12 education. Education has been mostly a campaign sideshow – even though districts are struggling amid crippling budget cuts. California ranks abysmally low in national tests, and the state serves larger [...]

Brown’s comprehensive education plan tackles tough issues - by Thomas Timar

by Thomas Timar

By just about any measure, California’s education system is in bad shape. Both higher and K-12 education have been battered by huge budget reductions. State support for higher education is about half of what it was in 1980. Funding for K-12 is close to the bottom nationally. And as funding for education lags the nation, [...]

The Answer Sheet - 7 Class size myths -- and the truth

The Answer Sheet - 7 Class size myths -- and the truth

7 Class size myths -- and the truth

This was written by Leonie Haimson, executive director of the nonprofit Class Size Matters, and founder of the NYC Public School Parent blog. By Leonie Haimson Across the country, class sizes are increasing at unprecedented rates. An estimated 58,000 teachers were laid off in September, at the same time as enrollment was increasing in much of the country. In California, two thirds of the districts have seen jumps in class size, with many early grade classes rising from 20 to 30 students, after rules first established in 1996 governing the state’s class size reduction program were loosened. As Don Iglesias, superintendent of public schools in San Jose was quoted as saying, "This is not a choice that anybody is making because we think increasing class size is a wonderful thing for our schools. It's a choice because there's ineptitude in terms of our elected officials in Sacramento and their unwillingness

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Hanging with the wrong crowd

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Hanging with the wrong crowd

Hanging with the wrong crowd

by Mike Klonsky

If Rahm Emanuel were to become Chicago's next mayor, expect more of the same--more school closings, more teacher firings, more privatization. Why?


Emanuel is talking to all the wrong Chicago people about education. It's the same old Ownership Society crowd that dreamed up Renaissance 2010 (I know. We're not supposed to mention that word any more). Even the Civic Committee called the results, "abysmal."

They're the Pritzkers; they're Mayor Daley's patronage boys, like Juan

When schools have money… � School Finance 101

When schools have money… � School Finance 101

When schools have money…

by schoolfinance101

When schools and school districts have more money and spend more money, what do they spend it on?

We are now told to believe that everything we thought about the virtues of small class size back in the 1990s was misguided. That improving teacher quality trumps reducing class size any day when it comes to efficiently improving student outcomes. We are told to believe that teacher quality can be improved at nominal cost, whereas achieving similar gains via class size reduction would be absurdly inefficient and very costly. Yet to date, we have little evidence that we can actually achieve the same measured outcome gains achieved by reducing class size in the 1990s by instead improving teacher quality… and that this can easily be done at lower cost. In fact, many go so far as to argue that we can take the same average teacher wage, and instead of paying older teachers more and younger teachers less, we just have to pay better teachers more and worse ones less

An Argument for 21st Century Skills � InterACT

An Argument for 21st Century Skills � InterACT

An Argument for 21st Century Skills

by David B. Cohen

This post follows up on my prior one, which began…

When teachers are “off for the summer” we find all sorts of wonderful ways to work on our own learning and practices. This past summer I had the chance to read the book 21st Century Skills, and even a chance to talk with one of the authors, Bernie Trilling (who co-authored the book with Charles Fadel). The results of my reading and our conversation were put into an article in the Education Week Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: “Adapting Teaching to a New Era.” However, within the constraints of that article, I couldn’t quite incorporate all of thought-provoking ideas and valuable information that Trilling shared with me, so I’m using this blog post to pass along a few more pieces of our conversation from this summer.

“If you’re not engaged and motivated, you won’t learn. Boredom is the enemy.” – The statement sounds obvious, and for skilled teachers, engagement is more than a pat word and an item on a performance

NYC Public School Parents: Tony Avella for State Senate

NYC Public School Parents: Tony Avella for State Senate

Tony Avella for State Senate

by Gary Babad

I usually write parody for the NYC Parent Blog, but this is not parody. I usually don’t make political endorsements on the blog, but this is a political endorsement. Why? Because so much hangs in the balance in NY State Senate District 11 (Northeast Queens), and Tony Avella warrants the support of parents, teachers, and anyone else who values public education in NY State.

Tony’s positions on education are long standing and unequivocal. He has been a fierce critic of Chancellor Klein’s and Mayor Bloomberg’s dictatorial control. He has called for the firing of the Chancellor, the hiring of a real educator for the position, and for the re-establishment true parent involvement in the schools.

Tony’s opponent, incumbent Senator Frank Padavan, was instrumental in the renewal of Mayoral control. And lest anyone wonder about Padavan’s relationship with the Mayor and Chancellor, during a hotly contested 2008 race, the DOE renamed the Glen Oaks school campus for Mr. Padavan – jumping the gun by a good number of