Thursday, December 2, 2010

Bullying: Are you The One? – Lily's Blackboard

Bullying: Are you The One?

Dec 2nd, 2010

Children are dying. A bully is making their lives miserable. A bully is threatening them. Humiliating them. Being mean.

There’s research on the bullies. (No, they are not all troubled children who don’t know how to love. Some of them are just mean. Some of them just like to have power over someone weaker. They enjoy crushing souls.)

There’s research on the silent bystanders. (Yes, they have a share of blame. Their silence gives power to the bully. Some of them are cowards. Some of them, like the bully, believe the child being bullied deserves it because they are different. Their watching gives approval and encouragement.)

There’s research on why a child being bullied gives up and decides to die. There’s research on why another bullied child decides to live.

The research says it is all about the number One.

Children who decided to live had at least One caring adult to talk to. They had at least One adult who didn’t tell them they were imagining things. There

Child nutrition bill passes in the House – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

December 2nd, 2010

03:49 PM ET

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Child nutrition bill passes in the House

By: CNN Wire Staff

Washington (CNN) - The House of Representatives passed a sweeping child nutrition bill Thursday designed to promote better eating habits in part by giving the federal government more authority to set standards for food sold in vending machines and other venues on school grounds.

Among other things, the $4.5 billion measure provides more money to poor areas to subsidize free meals and requires schools to abide by health guidelines drafted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To help offset the higher cost of including more fruits and vegetables, the bill increases the reimbursement rate for school lunches.

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GOP candidate lands schools job vacated by Abercrombie nominee - Hawaii News - Staradvertiser.com

GOP candidate lands schools job vacated by Abercrombie nominee

By Derrick DePledge

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 02, 2010

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Former state House Minority Leader Lynn Finnegan, who was the Republican lieutenant governor nominee, is the new executive director of the Hawaii Charter Schools Network.

The private, nonprofit group advocates for the state's 31 public charter schools. Finnegan replaces Alapaki Nahale-a, who was nominated by Gov.-elect Neil Abercrombie as director of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Finnegan was an advocate for charter schools while in the House and during her campaign for lieutenant governor. Her daughter attended Voyager Charter School and her son is now in the sixth-grade at Voyager.

"My goal is to make sure the people of Hawaii understand the role that charter schools have in education," said Finnegan, who sees the experimental schools as offering parents choice.

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and Finnegan lost to Abercrombie and Brian Schatz by 17 percentage points in the governor's race in November.

Aiona has said he will decide after the 2012 elections whether to run for

Arizona Teachers Embark on "Save Ethnic Studies" Tour | Immigrant Rights | Change.org

Arizona Teachers Embark on "Save Ethnic Studies" Tour

by Gabriela Garcia

There’s that old cliché that you don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been. This wisdom proves particularly true in the case of ethnic studies programs. Just look at the facts in Tucson Unified, the largest school district in Arizona: While national Latino high school graduation rates are at 56%, students who participate in the ethnic studies program graduate at a rate of 97.5%. Two-thirds of students in the program go on to college, whereas only 24% of all high school students do so nationally. Students consistently score higher on the state’s standardized tests than those who are not enrolled in the program.

But you wouldn’t know this listening to politicians like Tom Horne, who successfully lobbied for the passage of HB 2281. This Arizona law banning ethnic studies programs for all K-12 schools is set to go into effect in 2011. To supporters of the ban, courses that teach history inclusive of groups who are often left out of the narrative are “divisive” — never mind that thinking critically about race, ethnicity, and identity, and the way such concepts shape our world is the only real path to breaking down discrimination. (Dr. Arnold Pan of Post Academic offers

The Answer Sheet - A system to tell how your kid is doing in school

A system to tell how your kid is doing in school

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Steve Peha, president of Teaching That Makes Sense, an education consultancy based in Carrboro, N.C. He writes regularly about education policy on the National Journal Education Experts Blog. He is the author of three books: Be a Writer, Be a Better Writer, and Reading Allowed.

By Steve Peha
When I began working in education as a tutor, I thought I’d be working just with kids. But tutoring is a family affair, and part of the work involves tutoring parents, too. Of all the questions they asked, the most common was, “How’s my kid doin’ in school?”

Isn’t this what report cards tell us? Apparently not. Even when kids’ grades improved, parents still wanted to know what their children had learned.

Then state testing began and we had volumes of data about student learning—volumes of data, but little information. We had numbers and

Alan Singer: Fight for NYC Schools Is Just Beginning

Fight for NYC Schools Is Just Beginning

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Now that the waiver has been granted that will allow Cathie Black to be Chancellor of New York City schools, there is a vacancy at the Hearst Corporation for a chairperson of the publishing giant. A group of teachers, retired teachers, and parents affiliated with the New York State Green Party thought it would be a good idea to apply. They did not think their lack of qualifications would be a drawback since the business community had rallied to support Clueless Cathie's appointment as school head.

The five Green Party members staged combined protest with theater at the Hearst headquarters in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday November 30. Gloria Mattera, a public school parent and former Green Party candidate for lieutenant governor told the assembled press "You will see if you review my resume that I am absolutely unqualified to run a publishing company, which is exactly what Cathie Black is to run the NYC Public School system." However, she was willing to work with a deputy chair appointed from within the Hearst Corporation who could assist her with on the job training. I know Mattera personally and I can

ASCD Inservice: Post-Election Analysis: Who's in Charge & What It Means for Ed. Policy

Post-Election Analysis: Who's in Charge & What It Means for Ed. Policy

Don't have time to view the ASCD public policy webinar on the 2010 midterm election results?

Whether you count yourself among the 38% of Americans who know Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) will be Speaker of the House in the 112th Congress, or are a policy new-comer, we've got the Cliffs Notes version of the recent seismic electoral shifts and the implications for education policy next year.

The House Switches Hands

Republicans picked up 64 seats in the House, giving them 242 total and control of the chamber next year (218 is a majority). The huge Republican win is more than they won in the last big wave election, 1994, when House Republicans won 52 seats, and also took control of the House. John Boehner (R-OH) will replace Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as Speaker of the House in January. Boehner was the chairman of the House Education Committee at the time of the No Child Left Behind Act.

No Easy Majority in Senate

In the Senate, Republicans also picked up a significant number of seats (6), though not enough to give them control of that chamber. Ironically, Tea Party supported candidates did very well in local congressional races but likely cost Republicans a Senate majority by defeating in the primary more heavily favored general election Republicans. This was the case in Delaware where Christine O’Donnell upset Rep. and former Governor Mike Castle. Democrats will retain a

ASCD Inservice: Call for EL Submissions: More Interventions That Work

Call for EL Submissions: More Interventions That Work

The response to our October 2010 issue "Interventions That Work" was so strong that we're revisiting the theme in Educational Leadership's summer online-only issue. We are looking for articles about specific programs and strategies that schools have used to catch students up before they fall too far behind, help marginalized students become more connected to school, and prevent behavior problems. How can schools identify individual students' needs and respond with the right supports? Articles about how you are implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) are welcome.

Deadline: February 14, 2011

See our Submission Guidelines for details on the article submission process.

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Thursday, December 2, 2010