Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Vote Now: Winning High School Hosts Obama for Graduation - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Vote Now: Winning High School Hosts Obama for Graduation

By Michele McNeil on April 26, 2011 10:19 AM | No comments |

The second annual Race to the Top commencement challenge, which did not create quite the frenzy this year that the White House may have wanted, is in the final stretches. Six finalist high schools have been named, and now you can vote for your favorite online after watching their videos and reading their essays. The deadline to vote is Friday, and the top three vote-getters will be named May 2. President Obama, who will give a graduation speech at the winning school, will pick among the three.

The six finalists are: Bridgeport High School in Bridgeport, Wash., Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis, High Tech High International in San Diego, Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12, School for Creative and Performing Arts,Science Park High School in Newark, N.J., and Wayne Early Middle College High School in Goldsboro, N.C.

Last year, more than 1,000 schools applied as part of this competition. This year, even after the deadline was extended and the applications made a little bit easier, the number of schools vying for a presidential visit fell to about 400.According to Politico, Education Secretary Arne Duncan attributed the lackluster response to a lack of promotion by the White House.

Here's a highlight video about the six finalists:

Right-wing darling Michelle Rhee launches Ohio beachhead and partners with Kasich

from RheeFirst! by admin

Originally posted March 14, 2011, on the Columbus Examiner. Written by John Michael Spinelli.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) – Michelle A. Rhee, the outspoken and controversial education advocate who closed schools, fired teachers and took on administrators in an unprecedented way as the former Chancellor of schools for Washington D.C., has launched a call to “Save Great Teachers” in Ohio in advance of her appearance Thursday at the City Club of Cleveland.

Rhee in Cleveland Thursday

Rhee, who resigned her D.C. schools Chancellor position last year when Mayor Adrian Fenty, who appointed her to lead what some said was the worst school system in the nation at the time, lost his bid for reelection, became the founder and CEO of Studentsfirst.org, an advocacy group whose mission to transform public

4LAKids : Saving our Kids: SCHOOLS ARE EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Saving our Kids: SCHOOLS ARE EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

NEW STUDY SHOWS SEVERE CUTS TO STATE PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS - MORE EXPECTED: Recession Forces Severe Cuts to Some State Preschool Programs Annual survey labels impact ‘a depression for many young children’. press release | Executive summary | California Highlights National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) @ the Graduate school of Education, Rutgers University | http://www.nieer.org 26 April 2011 – Washington, D.C. — For the second year in a ...

Saving our Kids: SCHOOLS ARE EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS Annette Mercer – L.A. CityWatch | http://bit.ly/hVn8O4 26 April 2011 - What do a T-Shirt, a Music Video, and Several Rallies have in Common? You might be surprised to find out that the answer is LAUSD kids and teens wanting to save their schools. Yes ...

This Week In Education: AM News: Early Childhood Can't Catch A Break

AM News: Early Childhood Can't Catch A Break

by Alexander Russo

Funds Down for Pre-K Programs NYT: The recession took its toll on the nation’s early childhood programs in the 2009-10 school year, with total spending by states decreasing for the first time since experts began keeping track... California's preschool spending holds steady in 2009-10, report says LAT: Only about 17% of the state's 4-year-olds attend state-funded schools, a national report says, and budget cuts could weaken programs... Decline In Minority Teachers, But An Increase In Minority Students? Denver Post: As the number of minority students has grown in Colorado schools, the number of minority teachers has declined — spurring districts to address the disparity... High School Classes May Be Advanced in Name Only NYT: Courses may sound more rigorous, but standardized test scores have not risen accordingly, researchers say... For New Jersey School Budget Votes, Tempers and Tax Rises Ease AP: As state finances rebounded, Gov. Chris Christie restored some aid to local districts that he had cut last year... Duncan Issues Far More NCLB Waivers Than Predecessors EdWeek: Mr. Duncanhas embraced his waiver authority in his current role. The majority of the 315 NCLB-related waivers granted in 2009 were ... Rahm Emanuel defends his schools chief on federal discrimination lawsuits Sun-Times: Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said Monday he’s not troubled by a federal discrimination lawsuit filed against his new schools CEO because similar charges were made against U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan when he ran Chicago schools... Trump: Obama wasn't qualified for Ivy League AP: Trump, who is mulling a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the matter as ...

What The Hell Has Happened To Americans? | Dailycensored.com

What The Hell Has Happened To Americans?

Written by Ken_SayersDaily Journal (Opinion)Apr 26, 2011

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Homophobes in D.C. are eager to spend $550/hour for an attorney to defend DOMA while 15,000 3- to 4- year olds in Ohio were dropped from Early Childhood Education, as ECE programs across the nation took a big hit. I was going to cite some examples, but there are just too many big cuts to education, you can Google it yourself. It doesn’t matter anyway.

If the GOP was about eliminating the deficit, they would demand rescinding all the Bush era tax cuts. All I see, across the nation, is the GOP cutting corporate and elite income taxes, as they seek to eliminate any programs that would enrich this nation in any and every way.

They are gutting education, the environment, and even transportation. They are slashing $318 billion from the DOT while leaving all the “subsidies” to the oil companies in place. At $4/gallon, racing to over $5/

Reading Aloud to Children is Good for Parents, Too «

Reading Aloud to Children is Good for Parents, Too

April 26, 2011 by Irene Sege

Photo courtesy of Reach Out and Read

The more we learn about the development of the young child’s brain, the more we understand the importance of reading aloud to children, from infancy, and engaging them in playful conversation. It builds oral language and lays the groundwork for future literacy. At a recent conference in Worcester, Dr. Perri Klass, a pediatrician, said reading aloud to children is good for parents, too. Even – and maybe particularly – for parents who are under stress. Reading aloud to children, she said, promotes

Social Norms Beat Market Norms - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Social Norms Beat Market Norms

by Diane Ravitch

Dear Deborah,

One of the most interesting books I have read in recent months is Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. I was particularly interested in Chapter 5, where he explains the difference between social norms—where people act because they are motivated by a sense of idealism or purpose, and market norms—where people act because they are motivated by a desire for more money.

As I read his words, I realized that the goal of the corporate education reform movement is to push market norms into education. The corporate reformers assume that teachers aren't working hard enough and will work harder if they have the lure of more money and if they compete with one another. Ariely's studies say this is wrong, and it won't work. Last fall, the POINT study from the National Center for Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University also showed that merit pay based on test scores did not produce higher test scores.

Curiously, the corporate reform movement likes to talk about data-driven decisions, but they ignore any data that

A Portrait of School Improvement Grantees

by guest blogger

After years of identifying America’s failing schools through the No Child Left Behind Act (and perhaps,overidentifying them as suggested by President Obama and Secretary Duncan) little progress has been made in turning these low-performing schools around. The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program is the Obama administration’s efforts to change this by targeting the lowest-performing schools with dramatic interventions—a test run for Obama’s Blueprint for ESEA. For the first time, the Department of Education is going after our nation’s lowest-performing schools with prescriptive intervention models: school closure, restart as a charter school, turnaround through replacing the principal and 50% of the instructional staff or transformation, which requires the school to implement numerous research-based reforms.

But we don’t know much about where these schools are, who they are, the models chosen, and what they’re promising to do—until now. Our new Charts You Can Trust presents an early snapshot of the first cycle of SIG

Amazon.com: Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors: Fighting for the Soul of America's Toughest High School (9781118001752): Alexander Russo: Books

Green Dot Charter Leadership Changes - NYTimes.com

Ed Next Book Club: Alexander Russo's Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors

Alexander Russo's New Book | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Green Dot — Joanne Jacobs

Ohio Law Forces Statewide Merit Pay - High School Notes (usnews.com)

Ohio Law Forces Statewide Merit Pay

By JASON KOEBLER

Posted: April 26, 2011

A new law that limits collective bargaining for public workers in Ohio will fundamentally change the way teachers are paid in that state.

Senate Bill 5, signed into law by Ohio Gov. John Kasich March 31, limits collective bargaining for teachers, police officers, firefighters, and thousands of other public employees. This means that automatic pay raises for public school teachers would be illegal, effectively creating the first statewide merit-pay system in the country. The law is scheduled to go into effect by July 1, 2013.

While the law is expected to save the cash-strapped state millions of dollars, teachers aren't happy. Thousands of public employees, including many teachers, protested outside the

Home-schooling virtually unregulated in California | The Desert Sun | MyDesert.com

Home-schooling virtually unregulated in California

ZOOM

Children play a tag-like game during a physical education for home schooled children session in Palm Desert. There are 48 students enrolled. Last year there were 22. / Jay Calderon The Desert Sun

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Amelia Hadley
Special to The Desert Sun

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ASCD Inservice: Myth of Bell-to-Bell Instruction Vs. "Golden Rule of 15 Minutes"

Myth of Bell-to-Bell Instruction Vs. "Golden Rule of 15 Minutes"

Many teachers have been told to teach from bell to bell. Unfortunately, some teachers believe this means they must stand and deliver in front of the board for fifty minutes. Big mistake! In traditional urban schools, it is hard to keep students' attention for even five minutes without them taking out their phone or simply daydreaming while acting like they are paying attention.

I teach urban high school students with a history of failure, helping them succeed in mathematics, as well as close achievement gaps across content areas. I credit my success to the CREATE instructional model—a style of teaching that is strongly against bell-to-bell teaching. In fact, I'm never up in front of the board "teaching" the class for more than fifteen minutes at a time. Let me explain:

A typical class starts with a ten minute warm up exercise where students refresh what they learned the previous day. Then come the "golden fifteen minutes of teaching" which I call "interactive teach-back." During the interactive teach-b

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011