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Friday, November 12, 2010

Outgoing NYC Chancellor Joel Klein Discusses Leaving, Education Reform (VIDEO)

Outgoing NYC Chancellor Joel Klein Discusses Leaving, Education Reform (VIDEO)

Outgoing NYC Chancellor Joel Klein Discusses Leaving, Education Reform (VIDEO)


Posted: 11-12-10 01:56 PM

What's Your Reaction:

Joel Klein sat down with Steve Perry Friday to discuss two controversial topics: Education reform, and the announcement Tuesday that he is stepping down as New York City schools chancellor, a position he's held since 2002.

Klein, who is leaving to become an executive vice president at News Corporation, will be replaced by Hearst Magazines chairwoman Cathie Black.

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Latinos majority of students in state schools | percent, students, state - News - The Orange County Register

Latinos majority of students in state schools | percent, students, state - News - The Orange County Register

Latinos now majority in state schools

By FERMIN LEAL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Latinos now make up the majority of students in California public schools, according to new figures released by the state Department of Education.

More than 50 percent of all 6.2 million students enrolled in the state's k-12 schools in 2009-10 were Latinos. It's the first time ever the group made up the majority of state public school enrollment.

Article Tab : Armando Gutierrez, assistant principal at Heninger Elementary School in Santa Ana, the district locally with the highest number of Latino students, looks over students as they stand in their lines before heading back to class after in this file photo. Latinos in the state now make up the majority of students in California.
Armando Gutierrez, assistant principal at Heninger Elementary School in Santa Ana, the district locally with the highest number of Latino students, looks over students as they stand in their lines before heading back to class after in this file photo. Latinos in the state now make up the majority of students in California.
MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

In Orange County, about 47 percent of 502,275 students were Latino, while 32 percent were white, 14 percent were Asian and 2 percent were black.

Statewide, 27 percent of students were identified as white, 9 percent were black and 6.9 percent were Asian.

Click here to see data on each O.C. school district, the county total and the state total.

In 2008-09, 49 percent of students statewide were Latino, 28 percent of students were white, 7 percent were black and 8 percent were Asian. Locally last year, 45 percent of students were

Education Week: Eliminating Recess Hurts Kids

Education Week: Eliminating Recess Hurts Kids

Eliminating Recess Hurts Kids

When Testing Pressure is Too Great, We All Lose

The suburban New England town in which I run a small elementary school has just been obliged to eliminate morning recess for its public school children. This has, as one can readily imagine, caused a lot of palaver, dissension, anger, anxiety, and finger-pointing. Our excellent superintendent had the unenviable task of moving from one acrimonious evening meeting to another in the opening weeks of our school year, trying to explain why, since standardized-test scores haven't met the designated benchmarks, the schools have been mandated to eliminate morning recess and force the children to spend their midmorning time swotting up on their academic skills.

This is the "trickle down" of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and a commonwealth that takes occasionally justifiable pride in its challenging standards for its public schools. The thinking is that more minutes in the classroom will enable the youngsters to sharpen their minds and raise their scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS tests.

This is not a new idea, but it's a patently boneheaded one—a virtually perfect example (like the recent anti-bullying legislation cobbled together by the Massachusetts

After A Sit-In, Chicago Moms Got A Library. Now What? | Education | Change.org

After A Sit-In, Chicago Moms Got A Library. Now What? | Education | Change.org

After A Sit-In, Chicago Moms Got A Library. Now What?

For six weeks, a group of Chicago moms sat down to stand up for their children. In Pilsen, a largely Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago's South Side, moms occupied for 43 days a rundown, one-story field house in their fight to have a library for the children of Whittier Elementary.

It was a David vs. Goliath story: A group of parents going to bat for their children against Chicago Public Schools, which had planned to destroy the field house and create a field, not a library. Despite intimidation by the police, fears about retaliation and frustration at bureaucratic inertia, the parents of Whittier prevailed: In late October, the head of CPS announced that Whittier students would get a library after all.

The moms' struggle -- they had been advocating for a library for seven years before they resorted to staging a sit-in -- captured attention nationwide as the group used Facebook and other social networking tools to spread the word. More than 500 Change.org members joined in, sending letters to Chicago officials expressing their support.

But is the story over? Not at all, say the moms in the group. In their meetings with Chicago Public Schools, no specific plans were made about where the library would go, when it would be built and what, exactly, the fate would be of the rundown field house where the sit-in took place. CPS will lease the field

Hip Hop & Radical Resistance | Dailycensored.com

Hip Hop & Radical Resistance | Dailycensored.com

Hip Hop & Radical Resistance

panther Hip Hop & Radical Resistance

Hip Hop: Radical Resistance, Mobilization and Empowerment

By: Solomon Comissiong

“I live, I die, I organize,

Everything I do – revolutionize,

I build what’s good for the whole damn hood,

Study G’s like these, really think you should,

I study Malcolm Garvey Huey, Malcolm Garvey Huey,

Malcolm Garvey Huey, Malcolm Garvey Huey…”

Don’t Get Stuck in the Middle « EdVox

Don’t Get Stuck in the Middle « EdVox

Don’t Get Stuck in the Middle

By Carol Boyd
A recent EdVox post, Knowing the Score, provided families with a few helpful tips for parent-teacher conferences. This week NYC middle schools will be hosting family conferences and it is essential that families not only know the score but also take affirmative action to avoid having their children stuck in the middle grades.
To realize a whopping savings of less than $3 per student, the Department of Education (DoE) shifted the onus of printing test score results to the individual schools. Regardless of who’s running the Xerox, by now you should have received your child’s test scores in both Math and English Language Arts (ELA). If you don’t have your child’s scores, call the school immediately. If that doesn’t work, then (as has been suggested by the DoE) call 3-1-1!
Test scores should not be the sole indicator of how your child is performing in school, but they do allow parents, students, and teachers to design academic intervention services (AIS) that are prescriptive rather than punitive. Currently, in NYC there are more than 239,000 children left behind by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein. Had NYSED involved parents and other school stakeholders in the front end planning of the test score recalibration process, there might be far less need for so much collateral damage and waiver granting.

Queens Teacher: Bloomberg Took Secret Path to a New Schools Chief

Queens Teacher: Bloomberg Took Secret Path to a New Schools Chief

Bloomberg Took Secret Path to a New Schools Chief

Bloomberg Took Secret Path to a New Schools Chief
By DAVID W. CHEN and MICHAEL BARBARO

Shortly after 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg circulated through his City Hall offices, introducing a tall, blond woman who looked slightly familiar to his top aides. A foreign dignitary, perhaps? Or maybe an ambitious out-of-state politician hoping to impress the mayor? Somebody’s wife whom they were supposed to recognize?

No, it was Cathleen P. Black, and in less than an hour, Mayor Bloomberg would stun New York’s political, business and education establishments by naming her as the city’s schools chancellor, replacing Joel I. Klein.

To a degree unusual even for an administration that relishes keeping its deliberations as private as possible, hardly anyone knew of Mr. Klein’s departure or Ms. Black’s arrival until minutes before the official announcement. While such posts are typically filled after highly publicized national searches that can last months or even a year, there is little evidence that anyone else was seriously vetted or considered — and few of the usual

The Answer Sheet - A narcissistic approach to education reform

The Answer Sheet - A narcissistic approach to education reform

A narcissistic approach to education reform

This post was written by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University and author of a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal. By Mark Phillips I haven’t read any Kafka in recent years, but I don’t really need to. I just pick up the newspaper or turn on CNN and catch up with the latest in the worlds of politics and education. The other day it was a scene in New York City with Mayor Michael Bloomberg announcing Joel Klein’s departure as chancellor of the city’s public schools and the appointment of Hearst Magazine Chairman Cathleen Black as his successor. As I listened, the soundtrack from The Twilight Zone emerged from my distant memory. The narrative was out of touch with reality. “It’s a chance to change the world,” said Bloomberg. Does he really believe that?

Pedro Noguera: “Demanding Education That Matters” (VIDEO) | Democratic, Community-Based Education

Pedro Noguera: “Demanding Education That Matters” (VIDEO) | Democratic, Community-Based Education

Pedro Noguera: “Demanding Education That Matters” (VIDEO)

"Demanding Education That Matters" Coalition of Essential Schools' Annual Fall Forum

Convened by the Coalition of Essential Schools as their annual “conversation among friends,” the annual Fall Forum provides the essential tools, knowledge, contacts, and vision to create and sustain personalized, equitable, academically challenging schools that prepare all students for successful lives. Fall Forum is the embodiment of more than 25 years of principled and proved educational practices that support all young people

Bloomberg defends his private search and choice for chancellor | GothamSchools

Bloomberg defends his private search and choice for chancellor | GothamSchools

Bloomberg defends his private search and choice for chancellor

Mayor Michael Bloomberg fought against growing opposition to his selection of magazine publisher Cathie Black this morning, saying that he and Chancellor Joel Klein had “spent a lot of time finding the right person.” Bloomberg said he had been discussing Klein’s departure with him “for months” and only began to search for a successor in earnest once he “slowly…became convinced” that Klein truly intended to leave.

His remarks, on the John Gambling radio show this morning, described the search process:

Anybody that comes in wants to have a chance to really get up to speed and make a difference and stick with that difference and implement it and show that it works earlier rather than later. And we’d been talking about it for months, and I’ve been looking — at the beginning I wasn’t sure he [Klein] was serious, but slowly as I became convinced he was, I started looking — and he and I

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Heading into the weekend...

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Heading into the weekend...

Heading into the weekend...

Think-tanker declares victory over unions


Right-wing think-tanker and professional union-basher (used up my Friday hyphen quota), Jay Greene has declared victory of the nation's teachers unions. Following last week's Republican election victories, Greene blogged, "We won! At least we've won the war of ideas."

The L.A. Times, as expected, took Greene's handoff and ran with it. But their declaration of victory over organized labor may prove to be premature reminiscent of George Bush's infamous aircraft carrier speech.


Yes, these are tough times for union teachers. But let's not forget how many of the important Democratic victories last week, in Illinois, Nevada, and California, to name but a few, couldn't have happened without strong

This Week In Education: People: Who's Next To Abandon Duncan?

This Week In Education: People: Who's Next To Abandon Duncan?

People: Who's Next To Abandon Duncan?

ScreenHunter_15 Jun. 02 17.58EdWeek's Alyson Klein raises the possibility that the USDE's Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana could leave the Obama administration to head back to California -- possibly even to head LAUSD, the nation's second largest school system (Dept. of Ed.'s Melendez to Los Angeles?). Melendez may well be leaving, and may well go back to California, but it won't be to run LAUSD. According to what I've been hearing she has struggled to find her footing in Duncan's education department, pushed to the side by other much more well-established and sharp-elbowed figures. But if Melendez wants the