Friday, December 17, 2010

Education Week: From the Wires

Education Week: From the Wires

FROM THE WIRES

Florida School Board Shooting Puts Emphasis on Security
Shocking video of a gunman opening fire during a school board meeting in Florida has Pennsylvania school officials thinking about safety at their own meetings.
December 17, 2010 - McClatchy-Tribune
Oklahoma Board to Make Retirement System Payment
December 17, 2010 - AP
Report: Christie to nominate NJ education chief
December 17, 2010 - AP
HOPE book allowance cut in half
December 17, 2010 - AP
Del. dropout rate declines
December 17, 2010 - AP
NASCAR champ Johnson awards education grants
December 16, 2010 - AP
City Hall wants new science school in NYC
December 16, 2010 - AP
Appeals court allows NCA Bible lawsuit
December 16, 2010 - AP
Calif. Board Calls for Probe of First Parent-Trigger Campaign
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.
December 16, 2010 - McClatchy-Tribune

POLITICS K-12 BLOG

Senate Pulls Spending Bill With Money for Early Ed, i3

The move could leave funding for almost every K-12 program flat until at least late winter. (December 17, 2010)

Genetic Trait Linked to Young Athletes' Deaths

Athletic trainers are warning schools about complications of sickle cell trait, a genetic characteristic that has played a role in the deaths of nine young athletes in recent years. (December 16, 2010)

Florida School Board Shooting Puts Emphasis on Security

(December 17, 2010) | Comments (1)

Michelle Rhee Details Plans for Spreading Education Reform

(December 17, 2010)

California Board Calls for Probe of First Parent-Trigger Campaign

(December 16, 2010)

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COLLEGE AND CAREER TRANSITIONS

Cardozo High School seniors Ingrid Lopez, 17, and Andre Monroe, 18, tour the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial site in Washington on Dec. 16. The students are part of the ACE Mentor Program, a nationwide program that provides early career exposure, mentoring, and scholarships to students interested in architecture, construction, and engineering.
—Christopher Powers/Education Week

Mentor Program Encourages
Students to Explore STEM

The ACE program provides early career exposure and scholarships to attract students to jobs in architecture, construction, and engineering. (December 17, 2010)

COLLEGE BOUND BLOG

Getting K-12 Into the Discussion of College Completion

(December 16, 2010)

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Parent Leader to School Board: Oh No You Didn’t - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

Parent Leader to School Board: Oh No You Didn’t - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog
16Dec
Parent Leader to School Board: Oh No You Didn’tComments (4) | 11:32 am

A parent leader is calling on the school board to reverse course after it decided to pull federal funding from schools with lower poverty rates to concentrate the money on the poorest schools.

David Page leads a school district advisory committee that weighs in on funding for disadvantaged schools. He argues the school board violated its own policies by not properly consulting his group on the plan and "acted in bad faith towards parents."

Page is filing an official complaint that calls on the school district attorney to tell the board to cancel its vote immediately so it can get more parent input and response before making its decision.

Read the rest of this article
Comments (4)
15Dec
Few California Districts Appoint School BoardsComments (2) | 2:42 pm

If San Diego voters opt to remake the local school board and add four appointed members, they will be embarking on something very unusual — at least in California.

While there are appointed school boards in other big cities across the country, such as New York and Washington D.C., the California School Boards Association says there is only one other appointed school board in the state, the Los Angeles County school board, which is chosen by the county board of supervisors.

There was at least one other school board with appointees in the past: Oakland briefly allowed Jerry Brown, then the mayor, to appoint a few members and expand its elected board, but later stopped. California Watch does a nice job explaining how it played out, quoting a 2001 report that said the board ended up being split between Brown's supporters and older holdovers.

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Is this what the Trib means by merit pay? « Fred Klonsky's blog

Is this what the Trib means by merit pay? « Fred Klonsky's blog

Is this what the Trib means by merit pay?

by Fred Klonsky

The Reader’s Michael Minor got a hold of the bonuses Trib execs paid themselves after driving the company into the ditch. Is this what they mean by merit pay?

In the past few days I’ve twice been forwarded a document that my Tribunesources find pretty astonishing. It’s a list of 209 Tribune Company managers and former managers who came into quite a bit of money when Sam Zell took the company private back in December of 2007. Most of the checks were written

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DREAM Act Senate Updates « Student Activism

DREAM Act Senate Updates « Student Activism

DREAM Act Senate Updates

by Angus Johnston

The Senate will be holding a crucial procedural vote on the DREAM Act tomorrow (Saturday) morning. Most observers expect it to fail, but the list of who stands where is still pretty murky.

Two Senators — Kay Bailey Hutchison and John McCain — have come out against it in the last couple of weeks, while one supporter — Dick Lugar — wavered briefly before re-affirming his vote. But none of these announcements were at all surprising, and none changed the underlying dynamics of the vote.

I’m not going to try to do a full count just yet, because too much is still in play, but I will use this post to pass along what I know and what I learn over the course of today. Check back in for updates.

  • DreamActivist released a new target list this morning, with just eight Senators on it — Democrats Kent
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Chipping away at Rhee in D.C. - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

Chipping away at Rhee in D.C. - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

Chipping away at Rhee in D.C.

A Washington Post story yesterday about the rollback of Michelle Rhee's decision to turn a troubled high school over to a private operator suggests that the next year may put some tarnish on her local legacy.

Rhee is clearly trying to move on. Her spokeswoman, Emily Lenzner, declined to respond to the Post story when I e-mailed her yesterday, and instead suggested writing about the 100,000 people who had already signed up for her new website. But whether this is the entrenched system dismantling her positive legacy, or exposing her real mistakes, there's likely more to come.

Post parent blogger Valerie Strauss writes today:

Anyone who thinks that Michelle Rhee was a whiz as chancellor of D.C. public schools and should be heading a national "reform" movement ought to read about a high school she attempted to “transform” in the nation’s

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California Eyes Doomsday Budget - Bond Buyer Article

California Eyes Doomsday Budget - Bond Buyer Article

California Eyes Doomsday Budget

Brown Sees Cuts And More Cuts

Friday, December 17, 2010

By Rich Saskal

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ALAMEDA, Calif. — California’s governor-elect, Jerry Brown, has to deliver a budget proposal on Jan. 10.

He won’t be sworn in until Jan. 3, but he’s already been busy over the last two weeks preparing people for how unhappy that budget is likely to make them.

The incoming governor held two forums on the budget — an event for state lawmakers Dec. 8 in Sacramento, followed by an education-focused forum Tuesday in Los Angeles.

The key takeaway from those sessions is that his budget is likely to include a lot of cuts.

At the Los Angeles forum, heavily populated with education administrators, teachers, and school board members, Brown warned his audience to be sitting down when he releases his budget Jan. 10.

“If you’re in a car, fasten your seat belt,” he said. “It’s going to be a rough ride, but we’ll get through it.”

Education spending accounts for the largest share of the state budget, and represents a potent source of political funding for the state Legislature’s Democratic majority. Brown

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Calaveras News - Gov. Schwarzenegger Applauds CORE’s Commitment to Advance Digital Education

Calaveras News - Breaking News for Calaveras County & Beyond!- The Pine Tree .net
Gov. Schwarzenegger Applauds CORE’s Commitment to Advance Digital Education

Sacramento, CA...Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today applauded the California Office to Reform Education’s (CORE) commitment to advance his ground-breaking free Digital Textbook and Technology Initiative to help ensure a technologically advanced education system for California’s students. CORE is the non-profit organization established to carry out bold education reforms under the state’s Race to the Top application. The Governor also announced that the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will provide funding to CORE to launch a digital academic assessment pilot program in participating school districts....

“I am so proud that California is leading the way in digital textbooks and using technology to transform public education,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I applaud our visionary school district leaders in CORE who have committed to meet the changing needs of California’s students in the 21st Century.”

To advance the Governor’s Digital Textbook and Technology Initiative, CORE will partner with top education technology leaders, leading publishers, philanthropic foundations and reform-minded school districts across the state. School districts and teachers will be invited to join this partnership to expand the use of education technology by developing and adopting digital
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