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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Chronic absenteeism in Oakland schools | The Education Report

Chronic absenteeism in Oakland schools

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 5:50 pm in achievement gap, elementary schools,enrollment, families, initiatives, students.

Last school year, 14.3 percent of Oakland’s public schoolchildren were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 18 days of school — excused or unexcused. As you can see from this map, created by (and posted with the permission of) the Oakland-based Urban Strategies Council, the most serious attendance problems are concentrated in West Oakland.

The Oakland school district recently began collecting data of all of its students who were absent — not just those with unexcused absences. Now, principals regularly

Catalyst Notebook :: Teachers conference focuses on strategies for more activism on education

Teachers conference focuses on strategies for more activism on educationPosted By Cassandra West On Wednesday, May 18, 2011
In Teachers

Sharkey and Weiner
Chicago Teachers Union Vice-President Jesse Sharkey and author and educator Lois Weiner of New Jersey City University talk at last weekend’s CTU school improvement conference.

Teacher activism, “reframing” the public debate on education and skepticism regarding teacher evaluation were among the topics at the recent Chicago Teachers Union’s annual School Improvement Conference.

“Education in Crisis: What YOU Can Do” offered a day-long series of speeches and workshops with advice on curriculum and teaching, but also strategies to help teachers organize for the expected battles with a new city administration and schools leadership.

The conference kicked off with a speech from Lois Weiner, a former New York City teacher and a leading scholar on urban education at New Jersey City

President Obama. Your Democrats are going after teacher pensions in Illinois. « Fred Klonsky's blog

President Obama. Your Democrats are going after teacher pensions in Illinois.

by Fred Klonsky

As NEA President Dennis Van Roekel prepares to get an endorsement for an Obama run for a second term, the leaders of Obama’s party in Illinois are ready to loot the state’s teacher pension system.

Democratic Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan has teamed with GOP leader Tom Cross. Their immediate goal is to pass a three-tier pension system that would break a decades old promise to teachers and violate the state Constitution.

Their ultimate aim is to end public pensions in the state.

Their ultimatum to the teachers? If you don’t like it, tough. We’ll see you in court.

The game plan was hatched by the corporate honchos in the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Arts+Music Education in LAUSD: WINNING THE FUTURE – LOSING THE PRESENT

Arts+Music Education in LAUSD: WINNING THE FUTURE – LOSING THE PRESENT

BY RUBI FREGOSO, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER, EDUCATION & OUTREACH AT KCET | DEPARTURES/YOUTH VOICES | HTTP://BIT.LY/KJMY65

DEPARTURES YOUTH VOICES IS A DIGITAL LITERACY PROGRAM THAT ENGAGES YOUTH TO USE MULTIMEDIA THEORY AND APPLICATION TO CONNECT WITH THEIR COMMUNITY AND BECOME STUDENT PRODUCERS FOR THE DEPARTURES PROJECT.

Franklin High School

May 17, 2011 4:05 PM - Last week I was caught up reading the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) report advocating for the preservation and expansion of arts curriculum in elementary and secondary schools. The report entitled "Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America's Future Through Creative Schools" (available on 4LAKids at http://bit.ly/iec1v4) offers model arts programs for local school districts to reference and highlights studies that indicate how arts education helps students succeed in other academic subjects. I was struck by two things as I read the report. The first was the similarities between the Departures Youth Voices program and the recommendations and models offered by the report. The second was the stark contrast between the reports findings and the reality of the severe budget cuts taking place in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

To characterize this dichotomy, On May 11th, the LA Times quoted the United Teachers of Los Angeles representative as saying, "the adopted district budget calls for slashing the arts instruction staff from 1,065 to 722 full- and part-time positions, a 32% reduction." Elementary school students would lose the most arts instructors at

Schools Matter: Hunger, Homelessness, Poverty Have Been Declared "No Excuse." How About Lead?

Hunger, Homelessness, Poverty Have Been Declared "No Excuse." How About Lead?

by Jim Horn

The unethical and self-serving hucksters of corporate ed reform have ignored every social factor that science and common sense have ever shown to contribute to and maintain the test score achievement gaps that are routinely blamed on teachers, parents, and public schools. The media, meanwhile, have remained faithful to the Business Roundtable's agenda for maintaining the status quo stupidity of impossible testing targets for the poor, even while the teaching profession and public school are dismantled in favor of corporate charter solutions that contain and segregate the poor and brown, while applying psychological and behavioral neutering techniques to our most vulnerable children.

Even our President has declared there are No Excuses. Not zip code, hunger, poverty, homelessness, sickness, fear, insecurity, or anything else. Nothing can stop the testing, the punishing, the shutting down of public schools, and the lifelong labeling of children as failures. What kind of country have we become? What happened to compassion, concern, care, and help. When did we stop being human?

One must wonder how the Oligarchs' teams of dissemblers and lawyers will choose to ignore or deny this latest

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