Saturday, April 30, 2011

Charter school segregation Florida - OrlandoSentinel.com

Florida charters less diverse than other public schools

Sentinel analysis shows growth in charters with concentrations of single race or ethnicity

Kindergarten teacher Stefanie Miller works with Theodore Lewis, 5, at Nap Ford Charter School. (George Skene/Orlando Sentinel / April 30, 2011)

By Dave Weber, Orlando Sentinel

6:17 p.m. EDT, April 30, 2011

First of two parts

Segregation is making a comeback in Florida's public schools with the new wave of charter schools springing up across the state.

One out of eight charter schools has a student body with 90 percent or more of a single race or ethnicity, an Orlando Sentinel analysis of the state's 456 taxpayer-financed charters shows. That compares with one out of 12 traditional public schools.

Those top heavy charters are adding to the list of out-of-balance public schools that have perplexed educators since integration 40 years ago. Educators have worked for decades to reduce the imbalance through rezoning, school-transfer options, magnet schools and other devices to shift students and make schools more diverse.

But the charter trend is toward segregation, and more of the charters with skewed enrollments may be on the way.

Database: Racial and ethnic makeup of Florida's charter schools

Search the database for racial or ethnic makeup of Florida's charter schools.

Democurmudgeon: Republicans Tearing Down Reality: Down the Rabbit Hole Logic, and “Muddying the Waters” on Big Oil Subsidies.

Only Republicans would Exploit the Massive Power of State Government like Snyder, Walker, Kassich, Scott, Christie...I've been amazed at the lack of analysis over Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's policy of economic martial law. Here's the first and only look at it's constitutionality that I've run across: *Slate: Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, according to his critics, ...

Republicans Tearing Down Reality: Down the Rabbit Hole Logic, and “Muddying the Waters” on Big Oil Subsidies. I don’t even know where to start on this one: *WKOW: Republicans are calling President Barack Obama's call to end tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies a ploy to introduce a tax increase that they say would end up costing jobs.* Huh? The tax ...

The Media Enablers: Why the “right” is never quite wrong. The Party of Economic Martial Law Advances. Here are a few examples, just today, that prove my point; this is why really bad government policy favoring wealthy business interests continues to win favor among voters. *Wsj: “He deserves credit for the courage he has shown on the budget,” said ...

Did Two Billion People Watch the Royal Wedding? « Student Activism

Did Two Billion People Watch the Royal Wedding?

by Angus Johnston

Last post on the royal wedding, I promise. But I gotta get this off my chest.
By now, if you’ve read or seen any media coverage of the royal wedding at all, you know that two billion people watched it. Two billion people — thirty percent of the world’s population — stayed up late (California), got up early (Brazil), skipped lunch (Turkmenistan), or rushed home from work (Palau) to watch those two crazy kids get hitched. The spectacle united the world like few other events in history ever have.
Except there’s no reason to believe it’s true, and plenty of reason to doubt it.
The “stat” has been floating around the internet for weeks, ever since it appeared in a press release from Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s culture secretary. He didn’t say how he arrived at it, and as far as I’ve been able to tell nobody’s

Progressives and the Royal Wedding

by Angus Johnston

“Can’t I just calm down and enjoy the day? On a day when friends and fellow travellers have been beaten and arrested, no, I can’t. Sorry.”

–Laurie Penny, British journalist, gives her 140-character take.

There’s been a bit of a tussle in certain corners of the American progressive blogosphere over yesterday’s royal wedding.
I totally get the argument that everyone’s entitled to a bit of mindless cheesy celeb-gawking fun every once in a while. I totally get pomp. The wedding itself isn’t to my taste, but given my own pop culture preferences, I don’t really have any esthetic grounds for looking down my nose at it.
But here’s the thing. The British royal family has a long and sordid tradition of ethnic nastiness, a tradition that

NYC Educator: Leonie at Lewis

Leonie at Lewis

by NYC Educator

Saturday coffee. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Saturday coffee.

by Fred Klonsky

Haymarket Square, Chicago. 1886.

As we get ready to celebrate May Day tomorrow at the rededication of the monument to the Haymarket martyrs at Jewish Waldheim Cemetery, the pension of every public school teacher in Illinois outside of Chicago is at risk.

When we sat around the table with Park Ridge state Senator Dan Kotowski last week, my friend and colleague Mark said it best: This threat to our pension is not just (just!) an attack on the Constitution of the state of Illinois.

Old school.

by Fred Klonsky

Nina Simone.

Beware of Astroturf! :: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

Beware of Astroturf!

by TeacherSabrina

The following piece comes to us from Illinois teacher, writer, and musician Glen Brown. He writes in response to the recent increase in groups, funded largely by corporate interests, that are springing up to “organize” communities around their agenda. Like the Parent Trigger and Students First, these are groups and initiatives that capitalize on public outrage over schools– and a small group of parents’ legitimate grievances with underfunded and unsupported school systems– to mobilize under-informed communities to promote an agenda that often undermines the best interests of the whole community. Instead of offering tools to really empower parents and communities to create original solutions for their school communities, they incite people to support

Wisconsin Activist Ben Masel Has Died, RIP To A Great Activist | MyFDL

Wisconsin Activist Ben Masel Has Died, RIP To A Great Activist
By: Bill Egnor Saturday April 30, 2011 7:57 am	Tweet29

Ben In Madison

Ben Masel has died. You may or may not have known him but he was an activists activist. When I think about what it means to be out there fighting the good fight I think about Ben.

He had run for office several times in Wisconsin and was going to be mounting another independent Senate campaign this cycle. Unfortunately lung cancer claimed his life yesterday.

He was a believer in direct action and never was one to be shut up for one second. I knew Ben through Daily Kos and got to meet him at the ’08 Democratic National Convention. He was steadfast in his beliefs and was active in the protests in Wisconsin, even though he was dying of cancer at the time.

If you did not know Ben, it was your loss. If you did it is now your loss too. He was too good for this world, too soon gone. But he does not have to be gone completely. If each of you who would class yourself an activist takes Ben’s lesson to heart, gets out there and performs some kind of direct political action, just once a year then he will never be truly lost.

I have many people in whose name I fight for economic, political and social justice. My Father, my cousin Ryan who died to young to be a force in politics, my Uncles Kenny and Otho along with my

Debunking Myths: Characteristics of Stayers & Leavers in New Jersey « School Finance 101

Debunking Myths: Characteristics of Stayers & Leavers in New Jersey

by schoolfinance101

For this one, the graphs pretty much tell the story. I’ve had these data sitting around for a while and just never got around to making the graphs. I’ve used data on migration patterns across cities and states from the American Community Survey in the past. The American Community Survey data are annual survey data which, among other things, include information on employment status, place of residence, place of work, wage income, household income and a bunch of other useful stuff. Since 2000, ACS has been doing annual data collection and has increased sample sizes from 2005 to 2009, increasing the questions that can be addressed with the data. The ACS data also include questions regarding whether the respondent lived in a different location the previous year. Since you have the current year location, whether an individual lived elsewhere the previous year, and

A tenure extension incident « JD2718

A tenure extension incident

by jd2718

A young friend, third year teacher, brought his portfolio in this week, so the administrators in his school could review it in making their tenure determination. He got the answer the same day – the same answer over a dozen colleagues, all who were up for tenure, got – extended. They did not review the portfolio. They did not come up with a real reason. “You will better next year.” “There are just a few things you could work on.” “…classroom environment…” (peers consider that one of this teacher’s greatest strengths) “TDR well above average, but inconsistent…” (75th percentile with one group, 60th with another). More than a dozen teachers got the same. You see these people? They cheat. They lie.

How common has this become?

We suspect that principals are under orders to deny tenure more frequently. We believe that they have specific

Oh, New Yorker Magazine, How Could You? | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Oh, New Yorker Magazine, How Could You?

by Larry Ferlazzo

The New Yorker Magazine is one of my favorites, and I have been a faithful subscriber for at least twenty years, and probably longer.

I could not believe what I saw when I opened the latest issue — an advertising supplement from The University of Phoenix reporting on a recent New Yorker panel on “American Education In The 21st Century.” The “highlights” in the magazine were absolutely awful, and I certainly couldn’t bring my self to go tosee the video of the panel online.

Of course, the panel did not have any teachers on it, or anyone who even works anywhere near a school.

Here are some of the quotes:

“We need good teachers, high expectations, and an effective feedback loop to measure success. By and large, we fail at all three,” said a retired CEO of Intel. Note to Mr. Barrett — how about if we don’t critique you on how

Congratulations, Graduates, Or Should I Say Condolences? | Firedoglake

Congratulations, Graduates, Or Should I Say Condolences?

by Peterr

Recessionary Job Losses in Post-WWII Downturns, click to embiggen (image: Calculated Risk)

Tomorrow is May 1, and college graduation season is almost upon us. Seniors everywhere are writing their last papers, taking their last exams, and preparing for the end of their college careers.

And probably crying about the employment situation. College placement officers might as well be grief counselors.

For the last three years, the unemployment picture has been Ugly with a capital U. Those who doubt this need

We Are Wisconsin birth of a movement

Uploaded by WEACvideo on Apr 30, 2011

Touching recollection of the birth of a movement supporting all educators and other public workers in Wisconsin and throughout the nation.

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