Monday, February 7, 2011

Editorial: Natomas needs to focus on its own schools - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Editorial: Natomas needs to focus on its own schools

Published: Monday, Feb. 7, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 13A

Trustees at the Sacramento County Board of Education heard a lot of whining Tuesday about charter schools.

The grumbling was most apparent among the Natomas Unified contingent, which asserted – without evidence – that if trustees approved a network of five K-8 charter schools in the county their district finances would collapse immediately, guaranteeing a state takeover.

The president of the teachers union said a balanced budget would be "impossible." School board member Lisa Kaplan said, "If you approve this, you might as well rubber-stamp taking us over."

This shifting of blame is irresponsible and does nothing to solve the very real issues Natomas Unified faces. If these folks devoted just a little more energy to providing a quality education program, and a little less to grousing about charter schools, perhaps they would be able to attrac

Braun: Vouchers hearing is latest political gimmick masquerading as school reform | NJ.com

Braun: Vouchers hearing is latest political gimmick masquerading as school reform

Published: Monday, February 07, 2011, 7:30 AM

By Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist
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Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerStudents in 13 failing districts would apply for scholarship vouchers to offset the costs of attending private or parochial school. An Assembly panel will consider the measure.

TRENTON — A man shouted, "Our children are dying" and, after accusing the public schools of "killing" children by contributing to the crime rate in his city, he demanded the state enact a school voucher law. Angel Cordero of Camden said poor minorities had waited long enough.

Cordero, an employee of an organization lobbying for vouchers, was only slightly more emotional than those of Newark Mayor Cory Booker who accused public school supporters of "infantilizing" minorities and no fewer than three times paraphrased Rev. Martin Luther King’s "fierce urgency of now" remark.

A lot of high drama at last week’s hearing on school vouchers. Not just shouts and tears, but also

Part Fifty-Nine Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

On Storytelling… Here’s a video from the organizer of Ignite presentations (which are somewhat similar to TED Talks) giving advice on how to present at those conferences. It, too, provides good advice on giving public presentations. Anecdote shares some additional ...

Part Fifty-Nine Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly The first part of this post is my usual introduction to this series. If you’re familiar with it already, just skip down to the listing of new sites… Here’s the latest installment in my series on The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & ...

“40 Spectacular images of the Stellar Universe and beyond” 40 Spectacular images of the Stellar Universe and beyond, from NASA is a series of pretty nifty photos. I’m adding it to The Best Images Taken In Space.

Schools Chancellor Cathie Black spills on boos, boredom and her BlackBerry in New York mag interview

BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, February 7th 2011, 4:00 AM

Mecea for News

Schools Chancellor Cathie Black has been provoked by crowds early in her tenure.

RELATED NEWS

The Ed Department's rowdy meetings have taught Schools Chancellor Cathie Black a lesson in why her predecessor, Joel Klein, spent time on his BlackBerry, she told New York magazine.

Instead of emailing or playing BrickBreaker, Black paid attention at her first boisterous Panel for Educational Policy meeting last month, she said.

"You sit there and you just listen, you don

Katz: Cathie Black faces tough exam

by Celeste Katz

Mayor Bloomberg goes to Albany to fight for more money, but what will be more interesting to watch in the coming weeks is when his new schools chancellor, Cathie Black, faces lawmakers.

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: NY GOV CUOMO, PUSHING SCHOOL CUTS, OFFERS A TARGET: SUPERINTENDENT SALARIES

NY GOV CUOMO, PUSHING SCHOOL CUTS, OFFERS A TARGET: SUPERINTENDENT SALARIES By THOMAS KAPLAN | NY Times | http://nyti.ms/fUAaUL Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo suggested that school superintendent salaries were too high. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has proposed cuts in school aid, suggested that ...

DESPITE OBAMA’S URGING, POLICY STYMIES SCIENCE STUDENTS, TEACHERS SAY: It May Be a Sputnik Moment, but Science Fairs Are Lagging By AMY HARMON | NY Times | http://nyti.ms/hE5pjZ Jennifer Silverberg for The New York Times Melissa Rey, 17, setting up her entry for a science fair Saturday in St. Louis. The fair was in danger of folding after losing a sponsor. Published: ...

Time for the CSU's Top Brass to Look in the Mirror | California Progress Report

Time for the CSU's Top Brass to Look in the Mirror

by megan

By Lillian Taiz
California Faculty Association

As soon as he took office, Gov. Brown set a new standard for a more frugal and more focused model of state government. Even as he tackled a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall he demonstrated, by eliminating cell phones and state cars, that priorities matter, in small ways as well as large.

The Governor wants to ensure that California’s public institutions live up to the mission for which they were created.

It is in that spirit that the California Faculty Association launched a CSU Waste Whistleblower web page (http://www.calfac.org/form/report-waste-csu) where people can log on and anonymously submit tips about state funding that is being wasted, misspent or improperly used on the California State University's 23 campuses or in its offices in Long Beach or Sacramento.

Pepperdine’s Soggy Waffle

by kaldveer

By Peter Schrag

Education research, someone famously said many years ago, “is a soggy waffle.” Nothing demonstrates that better than the latest version of a Pepperdine University report purporting to show that, as one headline summarized it, since 2003 “California schools spent less in the classroom as budgets increased.”

Politically, especially for tax cutting conservatives these days, it’s a great weapon. But as research, it’s hard to imagine a soggier waffle.

School districts, the report suggests, don’t need more money. If they just devoted enough to the classroom and cut out the waste, especially the money spent on bureaucrats, they could hire thousands of additional teachers, give every student a computer and still have money left over. In just one year, the report says, the state could have captured an additional $1.7 billion for the classroom, good for 21,000 more teachers.

Spanish Speakers Can Now Easily Build Their Own FREE Websites with Website Builder Wix.com - Hispanically Speaking News

Spanish Speakers Can Now Easily Build Their Own FREE Websites with Website Builder Wix.com

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Published at 2:00 am, February 7, 2011

Photo Credits: Spanish Wix.com

It is now easy for Spanish speakers to design their own free websites, thanks to Wix.com. The smooth drag & drop work flow that makes Wix a favorite among 6 million users worldwide can now be experienced by Spanish speakers at the same level of fluidity. Everything from choosing a site name to customizing design elements to adding pages to publishing is done with intuitive, Spanish-based prompts.

Wix Founder & CEO Avishai Abrahami comments, “This is the perfect way to start a new year, and a whole new direction for the Wix Community. Thanks to an incredible effort by an extraordinary team across all departments of Wix.com - Wix

Manufactured Consent: Pushing Past the Propaganda « Failing Schools

Manufactured Consent: Pushing Past the Propaganda

by markfriedman1

I recently wrote about and detailed the growing momentum, as the Rochester Teachers Association (RTA) moved ahead with a vote of no confidence in Rochester Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard. The rank-and-file secret ballot vote will occur throughout each RCSD school circa February 10th. The totals will be tallied and then brought back to the RTA representative assembly. Needless to say, [...]

Categorical spending questioned | Thoughts on Public Education

Categorical spending questioned - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess Gov. Jerry Brown generally favors giving school districts more control to spend state dollars as they choose – the same position as his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. In his new state budget, Brown is proposing to extend temporary control that the ...

CalSTRS is not in crisis; do not begrudge the teacher’s pension that I earned - by Dana Dillon As a public school teacher, I am often gratified by the show of support that parents and others throughout California show for members of my profession. Everyone I talk with says they value education and the need to inspire and engage our youth to lead ...

The Answer Sheet - Taming teacher turnover: A lesson from Oakland

Best college essay ever? Over the years that I have covered education, I’ve repeatedly been sent the following college essay with different stories about its origin. It was said to be a real essay, a fake, a contest submission. After receiving it again recently, I found the ...

Taming teacher turnover: A lesson from Oakland This was written by educator Anthony Cody, who taught science for 18 years in inner-city Oakland and 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 ...

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Cheney, Mubarak BFF

'I think President Mubarak needs to be treated as he deserved over the years, because he has been a good friend." -- Former V.P. Dick Cheneyat event commemorating the Reagan centennial.

Re-segregating Wake County schools

"We used to be held up as a national model," resident Jamie Dunston said. "Now we're being held up … as objects of ridicule and disgust,

Rise & Shine: Profile paints Black as relentless self-promoter | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Profile paints Black as relentless self-promoter

by Philissa Cramer

News from New York City:

A profile of Cathie Black paints her as a self-promoter with a big mouth and a deep Rolodex. (NY Mag)
The profile reveals that Black tried and failed not to use her Blackberry at PEP meetings. (Daily News)
A big test for Black will be whether she is taken seriously when she lobbies in Albany. (Daily News)
A legal pathway out of “last in, first out” seniority layoff rules has precedent in California. (Post)
The principal of PS 272 worries that her progress will be undone if young teachers are laid off. (Post)
The number of city schools not meeting federal performance guidelines could double this week. (Post)
A city teacher successfully sued so her learning disabled son can attend private school. (Daily News)
Riker’s Island’s juvenile unit seems to be increasingly violent and run by guards. (NY Mag)
A Queens lawmaker is again calling on the city to close schools on the Lunar New Year. (Daily News)
Mayor Bloomberg defended Black by belittling those who protested against her. (NY1, Daily News, Post)
The Post says Bloomberg was right to criticize the protestors, especially Michael Mulgrew.
Parents and teachers at PS 114 are relieved that the school hasn’t been closed — yet. (NY1)
The Brooklyn principal who let teachers drink at a school event is quitting in June. (Post)
The Post says some city students deserve to be waterboarded, and the NYCLU shouldn’t help them.
The Daily News says a UFT map of school closures doesn’t represent the issue accurately.

And beyond:

The State Board of Regents is set to take steps to change the law to charge GED test-takers a fee. (Post)
Gov. Cuomo says any school budget cuts should include superintendent salary caps. (Times)
Wealthy donors are saving Catholic schools, and specifying how they change. (Times)
Eight teachers have thrown their hats in the ring for the presidency of Los Angeles’s union. (L.A. Times)
Richard Whitmire says D.C.’s example shows that firing-rule changes are necessary but messy. (Post)
The Obama Administration is pushing science, but nationwide science fairs are on the wane. (Times)
In Boston, charter schools are opening at a rapid clip. (Boston Globe)
D.C.’s neighborhood and selective schools are found to be funded unequally. (Washington Post)
New Jersey officials are moving quickly to pick Newark’s next superintendent. (N.J. Spotlight)

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Monday, February 7, 2011