Friday, January 21, 2011

Big setback in Robles-Wong lawsuit | Thoughts on Public Education

Big setback in Robles-Wong lawsuit
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Judge rejects constitutional claims for adequate funding

Posted on 1/21/11 • Categorized as Uncategorized

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

An Alameda County Superior Court judge has rejected the main claims in two lawsuits charging that the state’s “insufficient, irrational and unstable” school funding system violated children’s fundamental right to an education.

The ruling strongly restricts whether and how the case might go to trial. It is a setback to a coalition of powerful education groups – the California School Boards Association, the California Teachers Association, the state PTA and the Association of California School Administrators – and attorneys for disadvantaged children. They had hoped the court would

Bronx principal keeps her job after imperiling the jobs of others | GothamSchools

Bronx principal keeps her job after imperiling the jobs of others

by Anna Phillips

The city is keeping the principal of a Bronx high school in place, despite a report’s conclusion that she instructed her assistant principals to give teachers unsatisfactory ratings without ever watching them teach.

For public school teachers, an unsatisfactory rating on their annual observation can mean the beginning of the termination process. For Iris Blige, the principal of the Fordham High School of the Arts, “U” ratings were to be handed out to teachers she wanted to get rid of, regardless of how good they were in their classrooms.

A report by the Office of Special Investigations found that from 2007 to 2009, Blige told several of her assistant principals to give unsatisfactory ratings to half a dozen teachers before those teachers were formally observed.

All eyes on Hillsborough schools

Updated: Wednesday, 19 Jan 2011, 7:40 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 19 Jan 2011, 7:40 PM EST

TAMPA - All eyes are on Hillsborough County as educators from across the state gather for a two-day conference on how to make students more successful.

Superintendents are sitting next to teacher union representatives to tackle education reform.

"Everybody gets that our schools have to do a better job. None of us are going to be satisfied unless 100 percent of the kids are able to fulfill their God-given potential," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Weingarten says education is taking on a new form: collaboration from administrators and teachers—groups that might have been on opposite sides in the past.

"We can't get into our little sand box corners and say 'you do it, no you do it.' This is about joint and mutual

Afternoon Update: New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools 1-21-11 Get Involved- Read Education News

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Get Involved- Read Education News

Parents 4 democratic Schools

Afternoon Update: Education Week: From the Wires

ASCD Inservice: In Case You Missed It

Lesson Ideas on Being a Parent – NYTimes.com

President Honors Outstanding Science, Math, Engineering Mentors | The White House

California school eyes report of sex by 2nd-graders – LA Daily News

Friday churn: Jeffco puts closures on hold | EdNewsColorado

This week’s safe schools snippets | EdNews Parent

Support and accountability offices merge after top official leaves | GothamSchools

Unions Facing Tough Outlook in State Capitals – State EdWatch – Education Week

In case you missed it: Truancy, NCLB, tiger moms | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg Town Hall

Chinese President Visits School During Chicago Stopover – NYTimes.com

Extra News – On the Campaign Trail with Miguel del Valle

Wyo. Senate panel hears testimony on ending tenure – Boston.com

It’s Just A Conversation | Connected Principals

ASCD Inservice: Opportunities and Expectations for Parents in Finland

Pic Hits (1.21.2011)

Officials to Discuss Initiatives to Spur Education Innovation at National Science Foundation’s Math and Science Partnership Learning Network Conference | U.S. Department of Education

Friday Reading List: Teacher Ed. Reviews, National Board Support – Teacher Beat – Education Week

The Organic School Project: Our Purpose

Will NYC’s Schools Use Local, Seasonal Ingredients? | Sustainable Food | Change.org

Mamitis and Marriage « Being Latino Online Magazine

Seattle Public Schools community blog: Chinese Tiger Mother

Are Chinese mothers superior? | EdNews Parent

Education Research Report: Science learning easier when students put down textbooks and actively recall information

Hechinger Report | Rethinking special education in the U.S.

Rethinking special education in the U.S.

by Carol Kinlan

Carol Kinlan

In “Learning from Finland,” Pasi Sahlberg highlights reasons for the success of Finland’s educational system – noting, in particular, that Finns highly regard and strongly support their teachers, and that local schools are given great independence.

It turns out that there are additional lessons to be learned from Finland when it comes to special education.

In a 2010 paper comparing special education in Finland and the U.S., Tiina Itkonen and Markku Jahnukainen

More on Rhee’s Move To Sacramento — We’re “Behind The Curve” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

More on Rhee’s Move To Sacramento — “We’re Behind The Curve”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Today, the Sacramento Bee ran a fairly extensive front page story on Michelle Rhee’s move here. Headlined Former D.C. schools chief to headquarter new education advocacy lobby in Sacramento, it also discusses her local plans:

Rhee said there are “many local organizations we have talked about working in concert with” and that StudentsFirst likely would partner with Stand Up, another education nonprofit started by Johnson.

As far as Rhee is concerned, there is much work to be done. “Sacramento is probably behind the curve in terms of some of the progressive work being done around the country,” Rhee said.

Rahm is the bought and paid for anti-teacher candidate. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Rahm is the bought and paid for anti-teacher candidate.

by Fred Klonsky

While the teacher union-bashing Oregon-based Stand for Children outfit isn’t officially endorsing anyone for mayor of Chicago, their financial angels overlap.

Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller points out that 20% of Chicago millionaires for Rahm are also big contributors to SFC.

Who are they?

Elizabeth Crown, a member of the Henry Crown family, gave Stand for Children $500K and Emanuel $114K.

Mark Kirk likes state default plan. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Mark Kirk likes state default plan.

by Fred Klonsky

Illinois GOP Senator Mark Kirk has joined in the chorus of those who would change the law to allow states to go into default. It would, among a number of things, result in public employee pensions being put at greater risk.

CBS:

Freshman U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) says bankruptcy should be considered as an option for some states – such as Illinois – looking to get out from under

Conservative group questions whether SBOE member can serve | The Education Front Blog | dallasnews.com

Conservative group questions whether SBOE member can serve

by Terrence Stutz/Reporter

State Board of Education Chairwoman Gail Lowe said Friday she will seek an opinion from the attorney general on whether a new board member meets statutory requirements to serve. Lowe announced the action after a social conservative group questioned whether board member Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant (right), is eligible to serve because he is a lobbyist. The question was raised by the Texas Eagle Forum, which supported Ratliff's opponent - Don McLeroy - in the GOP primary last year.

Texas Eagle Forum President Pat Carlson said a provision in the 1995 Texas Education Code prohibits anyone from serving on the board who is registered as a lobbyist for a business or association that does business with the Texas Education Agency. "Concerns have been raised...that all SBOE members are not in compliance with this statute," she said. "My question today is who would I ask for an investigation of this matter?" She never mentioned Ratliff by named in addressing

The Answer Sheet - Say it isn’t so on IMPACT, Mayor Gray

Say it isn’t so on IMPACT, Mayor Gray

By Valerie Strauss

Here’s why I was so disappointed to read my colleague Bill Turque’s report on a plan by D.C. schools officials to have the flawed IMPACT teacher evaluation system reviewed by a Harvard think tank:

1) I was optimistic that new Mayor Vincent Gray was serious about fixing the problem when he said at a recent public forum that the evaluation system --instituted under former Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee -- was unfair to teachers. In his own words:

"I guess I would say at this stage... it’s a step in the right direction, but it’s got a long way to go to be a fair evaluation of our teachers. And frankly any system that isn’t sensitive to the differences in challenges of the kids in the schools only encourages teachers to teach in one

Shanker Blog » The “Jobless” Recovery: Implications For Education?

The “Jobless” Recovery: Implications For Education?

by James R. Stone

Our guest author today is James R. Stone, professor and director of the National Research Center for Career & Technical Education at the University of Louisville.

The headline of the USA Today article reads: “Tense Time for Workers, As Career Paths Fade Away” (January 13, 2011). The article notes that while most key economic indicators have improved over the past two years, the unemployment rate has remained persistently high. This is a jobless recovery.

Is this a time for pessimism or a time for a reality check?

This is not the first jobless recovery. The recession of the early 1990s spawned books with titles such as The Jobless Future (1994), A Future of Lousy Jobs (1990), The End of Work (1995), The End of Affluence (1995), and When Work Disappears (1996). Any one of those, and many other, similarly-titled books and articles could

Schools Matter: Will a Koch Brothers Handout Save John Tedesco's House?

Will a Koch Brothers Handout Save John Tedesco's House?

by Jim Horn

It's been quite a week for Little John. On MLK Day, the same day Raleigh's mayor and North Carolina's governor were attending a Martin Luther King Prayer breakfast and calling out Tedesco and the Gang of Five as "way off track," Tedesco was appearing on Fox Business Network, where he defended the re-segregation school policy as good business.

. . . Tedesco told Gerri Willis of the Willis Report that the decision is primarily a "money-saving issue."

"We spend $72 million a year on a fleet of 925 buses for transportation... We spend a lot of time getting 5 and 6-year-old kids on bus stops at 5:30, 6:30 in the morning on one side of the county to commute an hour to the other side of the county with 10 kids on a bus here and 10 kids on a

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: PARENTS IRATE OVER LAUSD LOCKDOWNS: Police and school officials trade blame over the lack of services for students during search for a suspect in the Woodland Hills area.

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: PARENTS IRATE OVER LAUSD LOCKDOWNS: Police and school officials trade blame over the lack of services for students during search for a suspect in the Woodland Hills area.

PARENTS IRATE OVER LAUSD LOCKDOWNS: Police and school officials trade blame over the lack of services for students during search for a suspect in the Woodland Hills area.

BY HOWARD BLUME AND ANDREW BLANKSTEIN, LOS ANGELES TIMES | HTTP://LAT.MS/FKNUZI

Extra security

Police officers keep an eye on things outside El Camino Real High School as students arrive for class a day after the Woodland Hills campus was locked down when a school police officer was shot nearby. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / January 20, 2011)

January 21, 2011 - Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district's police chief acknowledged, as officials coped with complaints from parents frustrated once more with the district's handling of an emergency situation.

Students from nine San Fernando Valley schools were in lockdown for as long as five hours as officers combed campuses and neighborhoods for

National strike ‘not off the table’ if states reverse teacher tenure - Yahoo! News

National strike ‘not off the table’ if states reverse teacher tenure

By Liz Goodwin

0 votes

Will education reformers seize upon states' economic insecurity to end teacher tenure?

Such a plan has won backing from former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who writes in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that the opportunity to ditch tenure and other bulwarks of the present education system represents a "bright side" of crippling state budget deficits in 2011.

"Public support is building for a frontal attack on the educational status quo," she writes. "And policy makers are rising to the challenge, not only because their budgets are tighter than ever, but also because they see an opportunity to reverse the current trend of discouraging academic results for our children."

Rhee singles out teacher tenure for elimination. In most states, tenure guarantees teachers extra job security after they are rated satisfactory for a probationary period of two to seven years. After that point, administrators cannot fire a teacher unless they can prove in a hearing that he or she is incompetent or has committed a

ASCD Inservice: What's Wrong With Madeline Hunter? (1985)

What's Wrong With Madeline Hunter? (1985)

The backlash against Madeline Hunter reached the pages of Educational Leadership in the form of"What's Wrong with Madeline Hunter?" a stinging rebuke penned by . . . Madeline Hunter. Of course this was no takedown, but a defense of her methods through a diligent debunking of what Hunter saw as myths about it.

Read the article: "What's Wrong With Madeline Hunter?" (PDF)

It's a measure of the impact of Hunter that she writes of herself in the third person: "Madeline Hunter" was both her name and a teaching method and philosophy whose ubiquity in the world of education inevitably drew a good deal of criticism. Perhaps the most fundamental criticism—or myth, according to Hunter—is that "the model is rigid and stifles creativity."

In fact, she insists the model is merely a solid foundation on which teachers can be creative and improvisational: "The Taj

Viewpoints: Brown sours on rigid reforms for schools - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Brown sours on rigid reforms for schools

By Peter Schrag
Special to The Bee

Published: Friday, Jan. 21, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 13A

Peter Schrag

When Gov. Jerry Brown replaced seven members of the State Board of Education earlier this month with seven appointees of his own, the overnight response could have been predicted: This was political payback to the unions, especially to the California Teachers Association, which had spent big bucks to get him elected.

That may have been one-third correct. The unions had never been happy with the Schwarzenegger board, and especially the tilt of some of its members toward charter schools and test-based evaluations of teachers. Brown's appointment of Pat Rucker, CTA's hard-nosed lobbyist, seemed to confirm the payback theory.

But the real significance of the school board changes – both for California and maybe for national education policy – may be more far-reaching.

Both the new members and Brown's own ideas about education – the other day he called himself a

IndyStar.com | Don’t mix private and public | The Session | The Indianapolis Star

Don’t mix private and public

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma’s proposed bill to expand charter schools (HB 1002) would allow three new groups to authorize public charter schools, one of which is private colleges and universities. That should not happen.

Private college boards are privately appointed, are not accountable to the public and should not be given authority to commit public tax dollars to K-12 public charter schools. Many private colleges are sectarian while charter schools are to be non-sectarian. Mixing

Parents graded on school prep

American Thinker: Is Michelle Rhee Good for Students?

Is Michelle Rhee Good for Students?

By M. Catharine Evans and Ann Kane

Recently appearing with Bill Gates on the Oprah show, Michelle Rhee, former DC Public Schools Chancellor, has been traveling the PR circuit to promote her new program StudentsFirst.org. She has waged war against status quo public education and teachers' unions, and declares public education in this country has been "a bureaucracy about adults. We absolutely must look at education through a new prism. We must put students first."

Her words sound good, but after looking into her three year teaching stint as a Teach for America recruit at Harlem Park Elementary in Baltimore, her claim that "students performing far below grade level quickly achieve at the highest levels -- if they're exposed to a quality programs," left us wondering how well she did there. One chronicler of Rhee's term as a "miracle worker" in Baltimore

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