Thursday, December 16, 2010

California Board of Education seeks investigation of Compton charter campaign - latimes.com

California Board of Education seeks probe of Compton charter campaign

The board will ask the state attorney general to examine charges of misconduct in a petition drive to convert McKinley Elementary into a charter school.

By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times

December 16, 2010

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The state Board of Education will ask the attorney general to investigate complaints of misconduct surrounding a parent petition drive to turn over a struggling Compton elementary school to a charter school operation, the board president said Wednesday.

The petition drive at McKinley Elementary School, the state's first test of a new law that empowers parents to make sweeping changes at low-performing schools, has been mired in charges and countercharges of deceit and intimidation since signatures, said to represent 62% of the school's

NJ Spotlight | Ethics Commission Chastises Charter School Trustees

Ethics Commission Chastises Charter School Trustees
Reprimands for not meeting training requirements based at least in part on miscommunications

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By John Mooney, December 16 in Education |Post a Comment

The School Ethics Commission’s annual review of local school board members to see if they've met their required training usually doesn't draw much notice. Typically, it's just a handful of reprimands for the tardy or recalcitrant.

But the release of the decisions from the commission’s November meeting drew a little more attention. There were considerably more reprimands, with the vast majority this year against charter school trustees.

In fact, 15 of the 19 rulings issued overall were to those serving on charter school boards, including four whom the commission recommended be suspended or removed if not meeting the requirements by January.

A Slap on the Wrist

The rest were official reprimands after the trustees eventually met the requirements, little more than

BeyondChron: San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News » School Beat: No Holiday Joy for Schools

School Beat: No Holiday Joy for Schools
by Lisa Schiff‚ Dec. 16‚ 2010
0digg Review it on NewsTrust

The holidays will bring no welcome surprises for public education this year. With the economy still in reverse-gear and priorities shifting from the public to private, funding and commitment for schools continue to slip away at the highest levels of power. Elected leaders and limelight seekers simultaneously warn us about further cuts and use that weakened foundation as stepping stones for their own political ambitions.

Anti-hero Michelle Rhee, the former Washington D.C. chancellor of schools who resigned in the midst of electoral fallout has now liberated herself from political, bureaucratic and legal confines. With her new organization Students First, Rhee is attempting to take her brand of top-down, statistically defined education nation-wide. No doubt some will join her, but Rhee’s record in D.C. is similar to Duncan’s

Teachers union officials say they are not 'villains of education' - LA Daily News

Teachers union officials say they are not 'villains of education'

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer

Posted: 12/15/2010 07:04:04 PM PST

Updated: 12/15/2010 07:06:48 PM PST

After receiving several public bashings amid unprecedented political and community pressure for school reform, leaders of the Los Angeles teacher's union said Wednesday that they are not "the villains of education."

Union leaders also laid out their plan to push for teacher-led reforms, as they prepare for a new round of salary negotiations with school district officials.

The teachers union has faced growing criticism in recent months from Los Angeles Unified officials, community groups and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for opposing key proposals for school improvement, including key changes to teacher evaluations and the hiring and firing process of educators.

At a news conference Wednesday, labor leaders denounced the idea that they are "defenders of the status quo."

"Too often we are painted as greedy and uncaring, well today, we are setting the record straight

Head of Pa. House panel lambastes Ackerman for suspensions and contracts | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/15/2010

Head of Pa. House panel lambastes Ackerman for suspensions and contracts

By William K. Marimow and Martha Woodall

Inquirer Staff Writers

A day after the Philadelphia School District suspended several senior managers, the chairman of the state House Education Committee on Tuesday assailed the decision to remove them and criticized School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's administration for "making up the rules and regulations" on awarding contracts.

"That is absolutely wrong," said State Rep. Paul Clymer (R., Bucks), who has the power to conduct hearings on school operations. "These deals made behind closed doors are going to be history."

Clymer's blistering comments were in response to Ackerman's decision to push aside a Newtown company that had been selected to work on a $7.5 million project to install surveillance cameras at 19 persistently

Seattle Public Schools community blog: No One Could Have Seen This Coming

Michael DeBell has to cancel his community meeting this week Michael DeBell has to cancel his community meeting this week. He asked me to post it on the blog.

District Fined by Labor and Industries Seattle Public Schools was fined $6,000 for a persistent unsafe condition in the food prep area of the John Stanford Center. Ice built up on the floor of the freezer creating a serious risk for people to slip and fall. They should have fixed it, but ...

No One Could Have Seen This Coming Okay, so we have the Parent Revolution. This is a group grown out passage of a law called the Parent Trigger in California that allows 51% of parents at a school (that is under certain criteria) to force a district to transform a school under a ...

AG asked to pursue ‘trigger’ complaints | Thoughts on Public Education

AG asked to pursue ‘trigger’ complaints - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

State School Board President Ted Mitchell intends to ask the state Attorney General’s Office to investigate charges of harassment and intimidation of Compton Unified parents who have petitioned to turn their low-performing elementary school into a charter school. “What I have been hearing is there has been rampant abuse and rampant lying, and trying to intimidate [...]

The Answer Sheet - If D.C. region really is the nation's most educated, then...

If D.C. region really is the nation's most educated, then...

If the Washington area really is the most educated (and wealthiest) region in the country, as new Census Bureau figures confirm, then.... *Why can’t we figure out how to use the self-checkout machines in food and drug stores without begging for help from a salesperson? *Why does a dusting of snow turn us into quivering idiots? *Why does rain do the same thing?

Chicago Hyatt convention losses mount. Solution? A contract! « Fred Klonsky's blog

Chicago Hyatt convention losses mount. Solution? A contract!

by Fred Klonsky

Several months ago the IEA ended years of annual convention business with the Hyatt Rosemont O’Hare. Following a personal letter from the leadership of Unite Here to IEA President Ken Swanson, the IEA pulled the 1,000 delegate Representative Assembly from that location.

Unite Here has been without a Chicago contract since 2009.

Rise & Shine: Black’s school visits are too short, principal says | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Black’s school visits are too short, principal says

by Philissa Cramer

Cathie Black’s tour took her to Medgar Evers College Prep yesterday. (NY1, WNYC)
But Medgar Evers’ principal said Black’s visit was too short for Black to have learned much. (Daily News)
Teachers are fleeing troubled — and on the chopping block — John F. Kennedy HS. (Riverdale Press)
Advocates of the yet-unpassed Student Safety Act released data about in-school arrests. (Daily News)
Staten Island parents are upset Black didn’t ask about school buses when she visited. (S.I. Advance)
Robert Hughes and James Merriman advocate small school-charter school collaboration. (Daily News)
The Post says the city’s move toward toughening tenure is good, but ending it would be better.
Los Angeles is seeking corporate sponsors for its school buildings. (L.A. Times, Times)
The high school in Central Falls, R.I., where a mass firing was averted, is still struggling. (NPR)

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: OWNERSHIP SOCIETY NEWS

OWNERSHIP SOCIETY NEWS

by Mike Klonsky

Rhee's "turnaround" contractor gets the boot

More than two years after Friends of Bedford, a N.Y.-based private operator was hired by Michelle Rhee to run one of the city's most venerable schools, her replacement under new mayor Vincent Gray, has given them the boot.

D.C. officials said Tuesday that Dunbar High remains plagued by a litany of troubles: Nearly half the senior class is not on track to graduate, more than 100 students are taking courses they've already passed and the campus is growing increasingly unsafe. (Bill Turque at WaPo)

New Chancellor Kaya Henderson said the school's record, as well as classroom observations and complaints from teachers and parents, led her to conclude that the environment at Dunbar had "deteriorated significantly" under Rhee's turnaround plan. Henderson, who was a top deputy under Rhee, said that because Bedford was

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago candidates forum #2 on education

Chicago candidates forum #2 on education

by Mike Klonsky

"Mayor Richard M. Daley should hang his head in shame," writesCatalyst's Sara Karp. On Wednesday night, the candidates who want to replace him gave the school system he spent 20 years reforming somewhere between a C-minus and a D. "But that's politics, right?"

Rahm Emanuel was a no-show once again at this, the second candidates forum in two days. Ironically even candidate Gery Chico, who served as Daley's hand picked school board prez, joined in the searing condemnation, giving the system under Daley low marks.

I’m English, so I don’t know all the finer details. There are six of them, and I want to say 4 (?) Mac labs that roll from room to room that they share. The kids have access to an electronic form of the textbook—either at school or home—and they do have classroom sets. I don’t know how much those are used. I know they write a lot of their own curriculum, and I’m not sure what framework/guidelines/standards they use. The short version I got was “the state realized social studies textbooks were awful and gave us the go ahead to go bookless if we qualified for this grant.” In Indiana, all courses required for graduation have to have a state-approved textbook—oh, and in Indiana, kids pay rental fees. (I’m THAT teacher who uses her book twice, and then the kids never see it again. Speech textbooks for high school SUCK.) Anyway, if you’d like the department chair’s name/e-mail I can give it to you. They’ve made presentations at tech conferences in Indiana and Colorado on this, so I’m certain he won’t have a problem talking to you.

I’m English, so I don’t know all the finer details. There are six of them, and I want to say 4 (?) Mac labs that roll from room to room that they share. The kids have access to an electronic form of the textbook—either at school or home—and they do have classroom sets. I don’t know how much those are used. I know they write a lot of their own curriculum, and I’m not sure what framework/guidelines/standards they use. The short version I got was “the state realized social studies textbooks

solidaridad: Astroturf Spawns Ever More Astroturf, Plus Parent Revolution Lies about Celerity Special Education Again!

Astroturf Spawns Ever More Astroturf, Plus Parent Revolution Lies about Celerity Special Education Again!

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"The idea of the parent revolution is to say fuck you." — Ben Austin [1] (Executive Director Parent Revolution)

A 'revolution' funded by Wal-Mart and Microsoft.

A 'revolution' funded by Wal-Mart and Microsoft.

The phonies, fakes, and frauds running the pernicious asto-turf Parent Revolution, which sprang fully formed from Green Dot Public [sic] Schools Los Angeles Parents Union, has spawned yet another "parent" group. The name of the new group? McKinley Parents for Change, a group whose authenticity and grassroots credibility is best summed up by Caroline Grannan's descriptive passage:

an organizing drive from within a school community does not require paid organizers to cold-call all over town, asking strangers if their children attend the school.

So what does a newly formed, pro-charter-voucher "parent" group, supposedly wholly unrelated to the highly paid staff at the billionaire financed Parent Revolution do first in the midst of the scandal Parent Revolution managed

Whose Standards for Judging Reform Success Are in Play? Part 3 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Whose Standards for Judging Reform Success Are in Play? Part 3

by larrycuban

Mean SAT Score for reading and math tests, by year

Image via Wikipedia

Although policymakers, researchers, practitioners have vied for attention in judging the success of school reforms, policy elites, including civic and business leaders and their accompanying foundation- and corporate-supported analysts and evaluators, dominate the game of judging reform success.

Sometimes called a “growth coalition,” they see districts and schools as goal-driven organizations with leaders exerting top-down authority through structures. They juggle highly prized values of equity, efficiency, excellence, and getting reelected. They are also especially sensitive to public expectations for school accountability and test scores. Hence, these policy making elites favor standards of effectiveness, fidelity, and popularity—even when they conflict with one another. Because the world they inhabit is one of running organizations, their authority and access to the media give them the leverage to spread their views about what constitutes success.

Special Ed Gets Framed

by admin

What is the best way to prevent the wholesale murder of innocent puppies? Are puppies being murdered? Is that a question we should be asking? Or is it more important for us to react to a situation because somewhere, somehow, it might be happening?

What is the best way to repair our broken schools? Are our public schools actually broken? Is that a question we should be asking? Or is it more important for us to rescue schools because their failure is a possibility?

Now the question is, Why should we pay for special ed when the rich are the only ones who benefit from it? Is

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Arrogance and Education Reform | Mr. Teachbad's Blog of Teacher Disgruntlement

Arrogance and Education Reform

by mrteachbad

Here is what bugs me about education reform. It is arrogant, ahistorical, and willfully dishonest.

Arrogant:

Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and any number of millionaires, billionaires, short-time former-teacher-reformers and really just about anybody at all now feels free to opine about what is wrong with American education and how to fix it. (Surprise! Turns out the problem is teachers in districts where hardly anybody knows who their dad is. Just by chance.)

The arrogance of the movement is they a bunch of people who do not work in classrooms somehow know exactly what teachers need to do in order for students to be successful. (And by “successful” we mean performing well on standardized tests. Make no mistake.)

The arrogance manifests itself in many ways. In my school, teachers are told:

1) What their professional goals are;
2) What must hang in their rooms;
3) How many parent contacts must be made per advisory;
4) How, exactly, an objective must be written;

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Compton Trigger/Takeover: McKINLEY PARENTS ALLEGE INTIMIDATION, MICHELLE RHEE COMES TO TOWN

Compton Trigger/Takeover: McKINLEY PARENTS ALLEGE INTIMIDATION, MICHELLE RHEE COMES TO TOWN

SANDRA POINDEXTER, BEN WELSH LOS ANGELES TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/I8COB7

December 14, 2010 | 7:39 pm | Several parents who are working to have a charter company take over a low-performing Compton elementary school alleged Tuesday that they and their children are being threatened and intimidated by teachers and other school personnel.

McKinley Elementary

14431 Stanford Ave., Compton, 90220

Public school in the Compton Unified district.
Grades K-3
517 students
26 faculty members

Source: California Department of Education

The allegations come in the wake of an effort organized by the nonprofit reform group Parent Revolution to force the Compton Unified School District to bring in a charter operator to run McKinley Elementary School, which has struggled for years to raise student test scores.

Charters are independently run, publicly financed schools that are mostly non-unionized.

Last week, supporters presented the district with a petition signed by 62% of McKinley parents in the first use of

The 2010 Edublog Awards Winners Announced! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The 2010 Edublog Awards Winners Announced!

by Larry Ferlazzo

The awards ceremony was just completed for the 2010 Edublog Awards Winners.

You can see the winners here, and it’s quite an impressive group. It’s a gold mine for learning about top-notch blogs, twitterers, and other social media resources.

I was honored to be named Second Runner-Up for Best Individual Blog. Thanks for your support!

Union may take effort to stop school closures to Albany | GothamSchools

Union may take effort to stop school closures to Albany

by Maura Walz

UFT President Michael Mulgrew speaks to teachers gathered outside DOE headquarters at Tweed Courthouse to protest the city's plan to close 26 schools.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew speaks to teachers gathered outside DOE headquarters at Tweed Courthouse to protest the city's plans to close 26 schools.

In the opening shot of this year’s battle over the city’s plan to close 26 schools, teachers union chief Michael Mulgrew vowed to take the fight all the way to Albany.

State law gives the city ample leeway to close schools, and the union’s successful lawsuit that last year blocked the city from closing 19 schools was based primarily on process questions rather than a policy

District settles with feds on South Philly HS | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

District settles with feds on South Philly HS

by Dale Mezzacappa on Dec 15 2010 Posted in Latest news

Tags:

The School Reform Commission today approvedsettlement agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission agreeing to take steps to correct “severe and pervasive” racial harassment and bias against Asian students at South Philadelphia High School.

The Department of Justice agreement states that the District violated the equal protection rights of Asian students “by remaining deliberately indifferent to known instances of severe and pervasive student-on-student harassment of Asian students based on their race, color and/or national origin.”

On Dec., 3, 2009, more than 30 Asian students were attacked in a series of attacks inside and outside the school by mostly African American schoolmates. Thirteen were hospitalized. The incident led to state and federal investigations andnational and international publicity.

Asian leaders had complained about harassment in the school since 2007, but the District took little action. After the incident Superintendent Arlene Ackerman

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