At the college level, Compton Community College has become a part of El Camino Community College and, although the Compton Community College District remains a legal entity, sources close to the board and community activists privately express doubts that the college will ever be accredited and returned to the district.

Officials at El Camino College District have repeatedly assured the community that the exacting process for accreditation has begun and that the process is determined solely by the Accrediting Committee for Community and Junior Colleges, or ACCJC. They admit the process will take time, but they are confident that the end result will be accreditation and return of the college to local control.

Nonetheless, unease about the outcome still exists, say a variety of sources who asked to remain anonymous.

The college’s enrollment is up dramatically in the last two years, an encouraging sign for the school. But the much needed

NYC Educator: Suspensions: What Are They Good For?, Part 2

Suspensions: What Are They Good For?, Part 2

by Miss Eyre

Miss Eyre continues to fight the good fight on behalf of suspended students. This may make no sense. Students who have already proven that they lack good judgment and impulse control by virtue of having gotten themselves suspended multiple times might not be the best test cases for my professionalism and work ethic, but still, something about this situation has got me bothered.

I had a student this past week, for example, who was suspended for five days for fighting. During that time, no other teacher of his sent any of his work to the suspension room. This kid is now a week behind in his classes with no motivation to make up the work. He basically had a five-day vacation from which he learned nothing--nothing academically and clearly nothing personally, since he

NJ Spotlight | Chris Cerf: In His Own Words

Chris Cerf: In His Own Words
The commissioner-designate takes a stand on school reform, accountability, economically disadvantaged students, teachers unions and more

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By John Mooney, December 21 in Education |Post a Comment

Chris Cerf (left), Governor Chris Christie's pick for NJ Commissioner of Education.

He said he wouldn’t go into specific policy, but Chris Cerf is still a talker.

So, in his introduction at a Statehouse press conference yesterday as New Jersey’s next education commissioner, Cerf provided plenty of clues as to what he finds important in education and what specific issues he may pursue.

Some answers were terse, and Gov. Chris Christie was never too far away to expand. But on school choice, teacher tenure and a few other topics, Cerf certainly wasn’t shy in sharing his thoughts. How that plays out on specific proposals in New Jersey is yet to be seen.

What Makes Chris Cerf Tick?

In some of his first expansive comments since being tapped for the job, Cerf listed five central principles to school reform: people, accountability, competition, empowerment and innovation.

In his own words:

"People are at the heart of it. The last frontier of school reform is finding the very, very best teachers and school leaders and making sure they are the ones who are there, and we have
Video Spotlight: The State of Education
Five former education commissioners discuss the past, present and future of education in the Garden State.

Springfield Sprint: Countdown To January 11 - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Springfield Sprint: Countdown To January 11

by Alexander Russo

By now you know that there were some hearings in Aurora last week and that the legislature is in a mad rush to pass some reformy legislation to go along with its tax increases etc. [If not, click here to read a bunch of recent Jim Broadway updates.] Here's where we try and figure out what happens between now and then -- what parts of the legislation get changed -- some of it seems pretty unlikely -- who comes out for and against the proposals -- including the mayoral candidates -- what else the proposal should include that is being left out, and -- I guess the whole point -- whether the reforms will actually make things better for Chicago schoolchildren. Remember that this is the legislature's second recent bite at the school reform apple, having gone through a previous round of changes in hopes of winning Race To The Top funding. Kicking things off is mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle (see below), whose thoughtful opposition to the proposals all but guarantees their passage, right? (Sorry, Miguel, but it's true.)

Statement: Miguel del Valle on 'Performance Counts Act' of 2010
Del Valle Calls for Thorough Examination and Discussion of Bill, Rejection of Measures to Limit Collective Bargaining

Video: Making CPS Butter Cookies
by Alexander Russo
More than 16,000 folks have viewed this video during the last year:
Popout
I'm assuming they're no longer offered but could be wrong.

CHICAGO (December 20, 2010)--Mayoral candidate and Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle made the following statement on Monday in response to the proposed Performance Counts Act of 2010, a

This Week In Education: Video: Duncan's Broken Nose

Video: Duncan's Broken Nose

by Alexander Russo

This is from a little while back but seems a propos given news of Duncan's recent cheek injury:

"I hurt it playing basketball and it wasn't the President" (Secretary Duncan speaking to SETDA ED Forum). Thanks, Doug!

Who's the next state school board chief? | California Watch

Who's the next school board chief?

by Louis Freedberg

Louis Freedberg

Michael Kirst, a Stanford emeritus professor and a confidant of Jerry Brown for more than thirty years, is the leading candidate to become president of the State Board of Education, according to education sources.

It would be the same position Kirst occupied 35 years ago during the first Brown administration.

Kirst was president of the State Board of Education between 1975 and 1982. When Brown first appointed him, he was a 35-year-old assistant professor of education and business administration at Stanford – just a year

Congress may legitimize intern teachers | Thoughts on Public Education

Congress may legitimize intern teachers - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Teach for America and allies of alternative teacher certification programs may be about to persuade Congress to define non-credentialed beginning teachers as “highly qualified.” Public Advocates, along with other groups representing low-income California families that had successfully sued to prevent California and the federal Department of Education from circumventing federal law, are crying foul. As of [...]

The Answer Sheet - How a teachers' union actually helped kids (not just adults)

How a teachers' union actually helped kids (not just adults)

This was written by educator Anthony Cody, who taught science for 18 years in inner-city Oakland and who now works with a team of science teacher-coaches that supports novice teachers. He is a National Board-certified teacher and an active member of the Teacher Leaders Network. This post appeared on his Teachers Magazine blog, Living in Dialogue. Cody is a dues-paying member of the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association, a disclosure relevant to this post. By Anthony Cody If you listen to mainstream media, you will hear the message repeated daily that our schools are in crisis, and that teachers' unions exist to serve the interests of adults and are obstacles to meaningful school reforms. You probably have NOT heard about a remarkable success story in California. In 2006, the California Teachers Association, the legislative arm of the National Education Association, sponsored a law called the Quality Education

So you want to be a teacher?

Here’s a video -- with some of my favorite dialogue below -- guaranteed to make you laugh and cry. This is about an aspiring teacher talking to a veteran and was created by David Kazzie, whose mother and sister are both teachers. Earlier videos in the laugh/cry series are: on collaborative planning, on becoming a professor, and on going to law school (which was also created by Kazzie). Here’s some of my favorite dialogue from the teacher video:

Arrests and Injuries As University of Puerto Rico Strike Intensifies « Student Activism

Arrests and Injuries As University of Puerto Rico Strike Intensifies

by Angus Johnston

This winter’s student strike against tuition hikes at the University of Puerto Rico saw new levels of violence yesterday, as protesters claimed that students were viciously beaten by police and cops claimed eight police officers were left injured.

Police have been stationed on UPR campuses this month for the first time in more than three decades — a

Queens Teacher: Gates Wants Revolving Door of Educators

Gates Wants Revolving Door of Educators

by Queens Teacher

Found a great comment that summarizes how Gates' ideas are negatively affecting our educators.

As long as mega wealthy business folk like Gates, Bloomberg, Broad... try to "dictate" education policy, there are very few principals or teachers who are going to stay in education whether in charters or public schools!

The very reasons that administrators and teachers get into the profession and stay in it is being taken away by those in the business world who are arrogant, power hungry and feel that THEY KNOW IT ALL. If they DID KNOW IT ALL, principals and teachers would now be delighting at success.

This collecting of tomes and tomes of data on students (and now teachers too) is nothing short of "theater of the

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Horray for the ASA!

Horray for the ASA!

by Mike Klonsky

The American Sociological Assoc. (ASA) has moved its annual conference out of Chicago's Hilton Palmer House. Good. Now I can attend.

“A very protracted labor dispute between the service workers of UNITE HERE Local 1 and Chicago

We Live and Breathe Testing « InterACT

We Live and Breathe Testing

by David B. Cohen

What follows in this blog post is a series of emails I exchanged with a friend who teaches in Los Angeles. I’ve edited the content to eliminate extraneous material, and to protect this person’s identity, for reasons my correspondent mentions in one of the messages. This teacher has not always taught in Los Angeles, and so I asked for some observations about the differences. My messages are in plain text, and the responses are italicized. (These emails were not originally written for publication, and so they retain a certain informality in diction and style).

Dear [Friend],

Do you keep up with the politics and policy in LAUSD and other local districts? Charter schools, magnets,

What I Learned in 2010 - Bridging Differences - Education Week

What I Learned in 2010

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

As 2010 draws to a close, I must tell you that this was probably the most amazing and wonderful year of my life. I spent the previous three years writing a book, and I had no idea how it would turn out. One never knows, do one (to quote the eminent jazz philosopher Fats Waller, and to note also that Billie Holiday sang the grammatically correct "One Never Knows, Does One")? But I digress.

When I finished the book in 2009, my agent sent it to every major trade publisher; 15 of them turned it down. They said it had no audience. They said I had to either write a policy book (which they would not publish) or a personal memoir (which they would not publish), but it couldn't be a mixture of the two. So, I eventually had the good fortune to land at Basic Books, which had published my very first book (The Great School Wars) in 1974; the new book appeared in March of this year, and it reached The New York Times bestseller list. He who laughs last, etc.

So, I have spent this year on a thrilling, grueling, exciting lecture tour. At first, I was invited to talk about the

Monday, December 20, 2010

Union requests formal investigation of data reports’ accuracy | GothamSchools

Union requests formal investigation of data reports’ accuracy

by Maura Walz

The city teachers union today formally asked the comptroller and special commissioner of investigation to examine the accuracy of the Department of Education’s teacher ratings.

The move comes after an ongoing back-and-forth between the union and the city over how city officials ensure the accuracy of the data that determine the ratings. Yesterday, the union called a press conference to share stories of teachers who discovered that their data reports rate their effectiveness based on students and subjects they had never taught.

The feud over the ratings began in October, when city officials announced that they intended to release the teacher rankings to reporters. Union officials began collecting examples of errors on the reports, and then sued to block the release, arguing that the reports were too riddled with inaccurate information to be released.

Teachers union President Michael Mulgrew said Sunday that his staff has documented at least 200 cases in which teachers’ reports include errors. In its court filings, the union gave nearly 20 examples of reports, with teachers’ names redacted, that the union claims reflect errors.

But city officials countered today in a letter to Mulgrew that they have not yet seen the details of the flawed

UPR Students Arrested and Injured « occupy california

UPR Students Arrested and Injured

by *

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – [BREAKING] 15 or more students were arrested, at least 2 hospitalized, and around 8 police injured today in clashes related to the student strike at the University of Puerto Rico. Although still unclear, it appears students attempted to shutdown business as usual at the natural sciences building at the Río Piedras campus, but were instead met with a violent police response.

For the past few weeks students have been in an uproar over a fee increase intended to begin in January. This is the same fee increase students fought to prevent last Spring, where students effectively shut down the 10 of 11

The Educated Reporter: Startling mobility statistics.

Startling mobility statistics.

by Linda Perlstein

Did you know that 13 percent of all students in kindergarten through eighth grade change schools four or more times? That is a lot of kids, and a lot of moves. (And we’re not talking about progressing from elementary to middle school.)

If you are interesting in writing about mobility, check out

Christie to sign police, firefighter salary cap bill - NorthJersey.com

Christie to sign police, firefighter salary cap bill

Monday, December 20, 2010

BY GINGER GIBSON

STATE HOUSE BUREAU

TRENTON -- Governor Christie on Tuesday will sign legislation instituting a 2 percent cap on salary increases for police and fire fighters if their union can't come to an agreement during contract negotiations.

The biggest pieces of the "tool kit" Christie proposed to help municipalities deal with the impending 2 percent cap on property tax collections, the bill was heralded by both the governor and Democratic leadership in the Legislature.

The 2 percent limit will affect contracts that come to an impasse and seek a third-party arbitrator to resolve the differences. If a contract goes into arbitration, the

Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Charter schools, a 5-part series

08:08 AM CST on Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Education in crisis in Hub City

Chris Cerf: In His Own WordsThe commissioner-designate takes a stand on school reform, accountability, economically disadvantaged students, teachers unions and more

What Makes Chris Cerf Tick?

Monday, December 20, 2010

Chris Cerf: In His Own Words
The commissioner-designate takes a stand on school reform, accountability, economically disadvantaged students, teachers unions and more