By Katy Murphy
Thursday, December 9th, 2010 at 5:15 pm in families, finances, lawsuits.
The most significant speech given by a California politician this year was LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's address to a PPIC conference in Sacramento on Tuesday.
Villaraigosa is a former employee of two giant California teachers' unions. He is one of the state most important Democratic politicians, and certainly its most prominent Latino one -- in a state that is Democratic politically and increasingly Latino. And despite all of that, he gave a speech calling out teachers' unions as the strongest obstacles to education reform.
This one is worth clipping and saving. It could be a career ender for Villaraigosa. Or it could launch him to statewide office later this decade. Either way, you'll be hearing about this speech again. The full text of Villaraigosa's speech is below.
Remarks as Prepared for Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa - PPIC "California's Future" Conference - Education Keynote, December 7, 2010
Thank you for that kind introduction. It is a true honor to address such an esteemed audience. I would like to thank the Public Policy Institute of California for organizing this conference and bringing us together. And I would like to congratulate Mark Baldassre and the entire staff at PPIC for the thoughtful and influential work they continue to produce every year.It is more than fitting that we begin the day on the topic of education reform, because there are few issues more pressing than ensuring that all Californians have equal access to a world-class education. When most of us went to school in the 1950s and 1960s, we were blessed that California public schools were synonymous with excellence. We were the gold standard, a national model that complemented our
Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone and a star of Waiting for Superman, turned down the job of running New York City schools, sources tell the New York Times. Mayor Michael Bloomberg then offered the job to Cathie Black, a publishing executive with no public-school experience.
Mr. Canada, by contrast, has gained international notice as the leader of the Harlem Children’s Zone, a network of charter schools renowned for its cradle-to-college approach. He grew up in the South Bronx and holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
High Test Rankings Mask Underlying Problems
Chinese students made international headlines this week when Shanghai high school kidsoutscored their counterparts on PISA, an international standardized test. China came out on top and the U.S. was buried somewhere in the middle -- but it was no surprise to education experts or even to people familiar with China's progress as a global presence.
"The entire system is geared toward that one goal -- taking [a] test," said Yasheng Huang, a
I don’t care where Rahmageddon lives.
And I really don’t care where Rahmageddon sends is little children to school. He can send them to Latin or Francis Parker or home school for all I care.
I care that he wants to “ramp up” school turn arounds.
Rahmageddon is calling for 35 more school turn arounds over the next few years.
Reaching 35 turnarounds over a four-year period would ramp up the pace of that policy at CPS. The first occurred in 2006, at Sherman Elementary School on the South Side, and since that time 11 other institutions have gone through the process, at an average of three per
Education officials across the country have replaced the principals and at least half of the staff in about 150 struggling schools to obtain federal aid, the Obama administration disclosed Thursday.
In several hundred other cases, principals have been replaced and other major steps taken as part of the administration's unprecedented $3.5 billion campaign to rejuvenate thousands of the nation's lowest-performing schools.
The initiative, which reflects President Obama's get-tough policy on school reform, is likely to be central to the coming debate in Congress over revision of the No Child Left Behind law.
Thursday's report on the school improvement grant program shows that despite protests this year over proposals to fire large numbers of
Some claimed he would be a so-called progressive on social issues.
That’s what our state IEA leadership always claimed when they endorsed Mark Kirk year after year for Congress, including this year in the Republican primary for Senate.
But today Senator Kirk’s office announced he would vote against the Dream Act, which would give legal status
Mitch Daniels signals that it'll be a top issue in Indiana in 2011:
INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mitch Daniels said Wednesday he will ask lawmakers to approve an education voucher system that would let low-income students use state money to help pay for private school tuition.
Daniels provided few details about his proposal — including income levels at which families would qualify or the amount they could receive — but said it will be part of his larger education agenda for the 2011 session. ...
“We must give all students — regardless of their zip code, regardless of how much money their parents make, regardless of their race —
By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 at 8:15 am in achievement gap, curriculum,dropouts, high schools
Hundreds of students at Murry Bergtraum High School rioted through the hallways today after the school’s principal told teachers not to give out bathroom passes.
Teachers at the lower Manhattan school said that the day began with a fight between two students on the building’s third floor. After the fight, Bergtraum principal Andrea Lewis reportedly announced over the school’s loud speaker that in the future, students who fought would be arrested. Lewis reportedly told students and staff that for the rest of the day, the school’s bathrooms would be closed and teachers should not issue bathroom passes.
In a school of over 2,600 students, this news did not sit well.
“She also said that in the case of emergency, kids could use the bathrooms in the nurse’s office, but by then,
It’s been a couple of nail biting days for theDREAM Act. Just after a prolonged session yesterday in the House of Representatives, thebill survived and was sent to the Senate where it remains right now despite several media reports that earlier indicated the DREAM Act was “likely dead.”
But, as blogger Michael E. Hill explains, Harry Reid played his cards so well today that a vote on the bill is still possible next week, which gives Democrats extra time to whip up enough votes to pass this 10-year-old proposal.
The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would give thousands of undocumented immigrants of good moral character; who were
In February 2009, almost two years ago, I submitted a FOIL request to DOE for a number of items related to these reports, including the
From OccupyUCI:
We have just learned that 19 students and supporters have been charged by the District Attorney of Orange County for participation in the February 24 sit in.
Each person is being charged on average with 3 misdemeanors, though 1 person each is being charged with 2 and 4 counts. The charges include: false imprisonment, obstruction of a public place, being a public nuisance, trespassing, disturbing the peace, and refusal to disperse. Arraignment will be December 29.
Pasi Sahlberg
Justin Snider of The Hechinger Report sat down today with Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. An edited version of their conversation follows.
Sahlberg, who has trained teachers, coached schools and advised policymakers in more than 40 countries, is also a former Washington-based World Bank education specialist. Earlier this week, Finland was once again
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined Mayor Bloomberg and outgoing Schools Chancellor Joel Klein this morning for a presser on the GED, and, of course, was asked about Klein's controversial replacement, former media exec Cathie Black, with whom he was slated to meet. Here's what Duncan had to say:
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan
Q: What do you think about Cathie Black?
Duncan: "I'm a huge fan of Joel Klein. He's done an amazing job. And her challenge and the opportunity is to take public education here to the next level. And I'm going to do whatever I can to be supportive of her in doing that, and I, there's a lot of easier things she could have chosen to do. For her to have the courage to step up and do this work, I think tells you something about her character."
Q: What about bringing in someone with such an unconventional background who hasn't worked in either the public sector or education? What are the challenges for them?
Duncan: "There are challenges whether you're conventional or unconventional. Anyone coming to this job has a huge learning curve. I will say in Chicago I worked for the previous superintendent before I got the job for 2-1/2 years. I sort of thought I knew it, and I got there, I had no idea how big my learning curve was. So she like anyone else has a, has a, you know, a learning curve. She's smart. She's committed. She's going to have a great team. And this is a, is not just about Cathie, it's about the entire city rallying to make this the best urban
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