Monday, June 27, 2011

Sac City School Board to Evaluate Superintendent Tuesday - Rosemont, CA Patch

Sac City School Board to Evaluate Superintendent Tuesday

The school board will meet on Monday and Tuesday.

By Cody Kitaura | Email the author | 10:00am

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Jonathan Raymond, superintendent of schools in Rosemont and across the Sacramento City Unified School District, is about to get a report card of his own.

The district's board of education will evaluate Raymond's performance in a closed-session meeting Tuesday morning at the district's 47th Avenue headquarters.

The board will also meet Monday evening to discuss the costs of its agreements with two labor unions and to ask them to take three furlough days next school year. The board will also discuss its strategic plan.

Monday's open meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the Serna Center, 5735 47th Ave. Tuesday's closed meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m.

What grade would you give Superintendent Jonathan Raymond? Tell us in the comments.

Charter school advocates demand UFT apology but get debate | GothamSchools

Charter school advocates demand UFT apology but get debate

by Philissa Cramer

Charter school parents and advocates protest outside UFT headquarters today.

Charter school parents and teachers took their fight against the UFT and NAACP’s school closure and co-location lawsuit to the headquarters of the main group that filed it.

About 250 people gathered this morning outside the United Federation of Teachers’ Lower Manhattan offices to demand that the union drop the lawsuit, which would stop 16 charter schools from opening, moving, or expanding. They emphasized that some charter schools are set to start their school years in as few as six weeks but don’t yet know where or if they will be opening.

The protest was the first that specifically targeted the teachers union since the lawsuit was filed May 18. Last month, a much larger group of protesters rallied outside the Harlem headquarters of the NAACP, which joined the UFT in the suit.

Protesters chanted a series of slogans for nearly an hour, at one point shouting “UFT: Apologize” for more than

Schools Matter: "What Research Says About the Effect of Teachers" EWA

"What Research Says About the Effect of Teachers" EWA

by P. L. Thomas

Everyone should look closely at this new report from the Education Writers Association:

"What Research Says About the Effect of Teachers"

By Stephen Sawchuk

There key points based on solid research of the evidence:

"Are teachers the mostimportant factor affecting student achievement? It can be said:

Research has shownthat the variation in student achievement is predominantly a product ofindividual and family background characteristics. Of the school factors thathave been isolated for study, teachers are probably the most importantdeterminants of how students will perform on standardized tests."

"Are value-addedestimations reliable or stable?

It can be said:

Value-added modelsappear to pick up some differences in teacher quality, but they can beinfluenced by a number of factors, such as the statistical controls selected.They may also be affected by the characteristics of schools and peers. Theimpact of unmeasured factors in schools, such as principals and choice ofcurriculum, is less clear."

"What are thedifferences in achievement between students who have effective or ineffective teachersfor several years in a row?

It can be said:

Some teachers producestronger achievement gains among their students than others do. However,estimates of

Martha Woodall — 'What Happens When Charter Schools Fail' : NPR

What Happens When Charter Schools Fail?

by NPR STAFF

Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are overseen by their own independent boards. Because of their independence, they are allowed to do things that traditional public schools cannot do. School administrators can experiment with things like the length of the school day and the makeup of each school's curriculum.

With that freedom, charter schools have become academic beacons for parents looking to find the best and safest schooling options for their children. But the system's lack of oversight has also created problems. In recent years, there have been investigations in states, including California, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, which found charter school CEOs taking money from their own schools, putting unqualified relatives on their payrolls and engaging in other questionable activities.

On Monday's Fresh Air, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Martha Woodall details her ongoing investigation into Philadelphia's charter school system, where 19 of the 74 charter schools operating in the city are under investigation for fraud, financial mismanagement and conflicts of

Helping Black Men Raise Failing Grades

In this week's "Can I Just Tell You?" commentary, guest host Tony Cox reflects on teaching black young men as a communications professor at California State University. He remains convinced that education is an effective weapon to fight the poverty and hardship that many of these young men face.

9:34 AM (seconds ago)

DC Boasts US' Largest Exhibit On Blacks In Civil War

The African-American Civil War Museum in Washington has been going through a major revamping as 2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the north and south's bitter battle between 1861-1865. To learn about the museum's grand re-opening, which is scheduled for July, and the history of African-Americans in the Civil War, guest host Tony Cox speaks with the museum's founding director Frank Smith

Kasich thanks Americans for Prosperity for helping him bust teacher unions

by admin

This video, originally marked as “unlisted” on Governor Kasich’s youtube account, shows the Governor thanking Americans for Prosperity for helping him bring “government union reform to Ohio”:

Americans for Prosperity, is a Koch-funded front group pushing Ayn Rand-inspired policies in several states. In this video, the Americans for Prosperity Michigan director talks of wanting to “take the unions out at the knees”:

Besides Americans for Prosperity, Governor Kasich also has Michelle Rhee to thank for aiding him in destroying Ohio unions. Rhee has numerous ties to other Koch-funded groups, speaking at the Aspen Institute and being nominated for an award by the Sam Adams Alliance.

Massive FBI trove on Yippies released under FOIA - Boing Boing

Massive FBI trove on Yippies released under FOIA

Rob Beschizza at 7:00 AM Monday, Jun 27, 2011

Government Attic received, following a Freedom of Information Act request, 6,600 pages of FBI reports into the Youth International Party, or Yippies, famed for combining radical politics with humor. It's an epic mountain of material; I love the group's hand-drawn flyers and FBI bulletins such as this one.

5/9/68 PLAINTEXT TELETYPE / DEFERRED

Marhsall Vs. Austin: Who Covered It Better? - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Marhsall Vs. Austin: Who Covered It Better? [image: image from s.wsj.net]Stephanie Banchero's big story on the turnaround effort at Marshall High went live over the weekend (School Reform, Chicago Style) full of pics and graphs and charts as well as words. At roughly the same time, CNC's ...

AM News: You're Fired. [image: IL_CT (10)]1,000 Chicago teachers to be let go in annual layoff: The layoffs include the annual reduction in teaching staff because of school closings and enrollment declines, but they also include school-based... Emanuel announces expansion ...

ISATS: Why CPS Downplayed Higher Scores Believing that too much focus on test score increases might undercut claims for further changes (and wouldn't be credited to them, anyway), CPS and City Hall downplayed increases that in any other year would have been used as a moment for celebration: ...

Layoffs Hurt: Official NEA Membership Numbers for 2009-10 | Intercepts

Official NEA Membership Numbers for 2009-10 | Intercepts

Official NEA Membership Numbers for 2009-10

It took an extra few months, but here are NEA’s membership numbers for 2009-10. They don’t have a specific date, but traditionally they have been computed in May, in time for the end of the school year. Since most layoffs, retirements and “profession departures” occur during the summer, this represents a rosier picture than it would in September.

NEA’s retired membership is growing (up 9,200 in the last year) but it’s coming at the expense of active membership, that is, teachers and education support employees working in public school districts. NEA reports 3,204,185 total members, of whom 2,866,063 are active.

Here is the breakdown of each state’s active members, along with the percentage change from 2008-09.

ALABAMA – 75,590 (down 0.9%)

ALASKA – 11,567 (up 3.8%)

ARIZONA – 29,617 (down 5.2%)

ARKANSAS – 12,847 (down 4.4%)

Homework can only count for 10% of student's grade, new L.A. schools policy decrees - latimes.com

Homework can only count for 10% of student's grade, new L.A. schools policy decrees

On the value of homework

The Los Angeles Unified School District has enacted a new policy saying that homework can count for only 10% of a student's grade.

The policy is intended to account for the myriad urban problems facing the district's mostly low-income, minority population. It's also aimed at supporting L.A. Unified's increasing focus on boosting measureable academic achievement.

According to the new policy, "Varying degrees of access to academic support at home, for whatever reason, should not penalize a student so severely that it prevents the student from passing a class, nor should it inflate the grade." It was distributed to schools last month.

Critics -- mostly teachers -- worry that the policy will encourage students to slack off assigned work and even

NEA RA delegates. Welcome to Chicago. « Fred Klonsky's blog

NEA RA delegates. Welcome to Chicago.

by Fred Klonsky

Many of the 9,000 delegates to the NEA RA are arriving in town. Although the RA doesn’t begin until later this week, there are pre-convention meetings, including the NEA Retired meeting that starts today.

I’ll be heading over to the Palmer House on Thursday for the first session of the Illinois Caucus.

Greetings to all my NEA brothers and sisters.

For those of you visiting Chicago for the first time, this is a great city.

On the other hand, it also has Rahm Emanuel as mayor and JC Brizard as school CEO. They both plan to announce the firing of 1,000 teachers this week.

Rahm also had his hand-picked school board vote to rescind the 4% pay increase that was bargained in the last

John Thompson: Three Visions of Teaching in the 21st Century - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Three Visions of Teaching in the 21st Century

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by John Thompson

This is the second of two connected posts. Read the first here.

Richard Elmore and Elizabeth City have described three possible futures for public education. I see two of them as nightmares, but Elmore's and City's most hopeful scenario is one of schools that foster "controlled engagement," or the "frog gets a GPS." Under their model, "schools set the learning destinations and map out the best pathways to those destinations," and adults and students, together, create a broader learning environment.

Nancy Flanagan, a former Michigan Teacher of the Year and blogger, and Jal Mehta of the Harvard Futures of School Reform have also described likely paths for our schools. Flanagan and her teacher friends anticipated three scenarios:

1. "The Brilliant Temp model," where "teaching becomes a competitive short-term career for our best and

The last straw: A letter to the Wisconsin State Journal by Grant Petty |

The last straw: A letter to the Wisconsin State Journal by Grant Petty

I received permission to publish this letter from Grant. It was written Sunday, June 26 and is spreading rampantly on the net. From Grant, “I’m a bit stunned by the attention my open letter to the Wisconsin State Journal is generating. In addition to countless ordinary folks, I’ve heard from a state senator, a state legislator, and the former mayor of Fitchburg. And it’s still early Monday morning!”

Dear Wisconsin State Journal,

As non-union public sector workers (yes, we exist) who are about to be hit with an 8+% take-home pay cut, my wife and I have to decide what luxuries we’re going to cut out of our lives. She has been arguing for weeks that we should let our subscription to your paper expire. Despite my longstanding

voiceofsandiego.org: Education

Fact Check: Test Scores at San Diego SchoolsComments | 2:45 pm

Image: false Statement: "Although funding for San Diego's schools has steadily increased, the students' scores have not improved," David King, president and CEO of San Diego Newsroom, wrote in a column published June 19.

Determination: False

Analysis: For more than a year, a coalition of philanthropists, parents, academics and business leaders have advocated for adding four appointed members to the San Diego Unified school board, which currently has five elected members. The coalition, San Diegans 4 Great Schools, says the current system of government is failing students at a great cost to taxpayers.

Read the rest of this article

San Diego Schools' Mr. Nice GuyComments | 2:30 pm

Everyone likes Bill Kowba.

That seems to be one of the few things almost all in the fractured San Diego Unified school system agree on. The superintendent has a spotless reputation and a workhorse schedule. He answers almost every email and keeps his door open. He has earned trust from staff and the board.

The only worry is Kowba may be too nice for the job. He is so skilled at defusing tensions that some critics fear he has shied away from confronting or even defining some of the district's problems.

Read the rest of this article

Big Education Ape - Lost Weekend or Vacation?

Big Education Ape on vacation - coverage sporadic (more than normal). Check out these Twitter Newspapers from paper.li for the latest from some of the very Best Education Bloggers.

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Monday, June 27, 2011