Embattled Department of Education is fired and replacement gets a raise

Embattled Department of Education is fired and replacement gets a raise

BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, July 27th 2011, 4:00 AM

Enid Alvarez/News/New York Daily News

Incoming head of the Office of Family Information and Action, Jesse Mojica, will be paid $23,000 more than his predecessor, Odeja Hall.

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The head of the city Education Department's Office of Family Information and Action has been ousted - and her successor is getting a salary boost.

Since Odeja Hall arrived at the Department of Education last August, she has overseen a string of missteps.

Her office, charged with involving parents in schools and in education policy, was caught trying to draft city employees into the political fight over teacher layoffs.

This spring's election for parent leaders also proved embarrassing - with record-low turnout. Just 2,876 parents voted compared with 25,002 in 2009.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott called criticisms of the Bloomberg administration's efforts with parents "a bum rap."

"When I took the job as chancellor, I made it clear that one of my priorities was to change the tone of the conversation and do a better job bringing families into the educational

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2011/07/27/2011-07-27_embattled_educrat.html#ixzz1TJ8397ex

Gonzalez: Success for Eva, not PS

by Juan Gonzalez - News

Talk about inflating demand for your product.

Parents angry over hot classrooms

by BEN CHAPMAN, DAILY NEWS WRITER

Summer school classrooms have been roasting hot as record-breaking temperatures scorch the city, parents of public school students charged yesterday.

Pa. ethics panel says it didn't have evidence to prove violations by former charter school head - Philly.com

Pa. ethics panel says it didn't have evidence to prove violations by former charter school head - Philly.com

Pa. ethics panel says it didn't have evidence to prove violations by former charter school head

July 26, 2011|By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer

• 

Vuong Thuy. Charter school chief faced allegations.

The State Ethics Commission did not have the evidence to prove that the former head of the Multi-Cultural Academy Charter School in North Philadelphia violated state ethics laws, according to an investigative report that nevertheless describes Vuong Thuy's business dealings as "disturbing."

After a two-year investigation into allegations of conflicts of interest, the commission said it lacked "clear and convincing proof" that Thuy, Multi-Cultural's founder and former chief executive officer, broke the law when the charter school rented properties owned by him, his wife, Maria, and a nonprofit organization he cofounded.

Thuy and his wife received a "substantial" financial benefit from the lease arrangement, concluded the Ethics Commission's 42-page report, obtained by The Inquirer.

Recent controversy over Thuy's management has cast a cloud over the charter high school, which

Reflections on the Iowa Education Summit | Dangerously Irrelevant | Big Think

Reflections on the Iowa Education Summit | Dangerously Irrelevant | Big Think

Reflections on the Iowa Education Summit

by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

I’ve spent the last two days at the Iowa Education Summit. Now that it’s over, I have a multitude of thoughts and observations swirling around in my head. Here are eight…

1. Politics over substance?

From the anti-Governor Christie flyers distributed at the entrances to the invited guests who appeared to be there for political reasons rather than their possible contributions to Iowa education, there was a great deal of political theater at the Summit. I’ll leave it at that. You can decide for yourself who was invited for what reasons.

On a related note, many participants left the Summit saying that they didn’t learn much that was new and that they wished that there was more discussion about solutions rather than repeated reminders of how much Iowa education sucks. Personally, I enjoyed hearing from the various experts that were invited. There was a lot of brainpower at the Summit and I enjoyed hearing perspectives from other places during our two days together.

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: LAUSD REACHES OUT TO THE MIDDLE CLASS

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: LAUSD REACHES OUT TO THE MIDDLE CLASS

LAUSD REACHES OUT TO THE MIDDLE CLASS

BY BILL BOYARSKY | THE JEWISH JOURNAL OF GREATER LOS ANGELES | HTTP://BIT.LY/OQ5Z8I

July 26, 2011 | Los Angeles’ new school superintendent, John Deasy, says one of his top goals is to persuade middle-class families, including Jewish parents, to return to the Los Angeles public schools. “It’s one of the major projects I have to deliver,” he said.

<<New LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. Photo courtesy LAUSD

I interviewed Deasy last week in his office on the 24th floor of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) headquarters, just west of downtown Los Angeles.

Deasy has been superintendent since January. Before taking the LAUSD job, he was deputy director of education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major supporter of charter schools. Charters are publicly funded but are run with considerable independence; they also often receive substantial private funds and operate outside of union

All Education Matters: Clearing The Air: Student Loan Debt and Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories

All Education Matters: Clearing The Air: Student Loan Debt and Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories:

"Clearing The Air: Student Loan Debt and Ridiculous Conspiracy Theories

Copyright Notice: If you are not reading this at All Education Matters, and unless I've explicitly given an individual or entity permission to publish my work, this post has been illegally appropriated. Please read original content here.

If you have heard problematic claims made about my character, please feel free to email me about it (ccrynjohannnsen AT gmail DOT com) and avoid feeding the trolls. (Please also see - To The Mule Who Keeps Suggesting I Work For The Banks).


While I think it is important to be critical of our political leaders - especially when"

Ex-education chief signals improved outlook for schools | California Watch

Ex-education chief signals improved outlook for schools | California Watch

Ex-education chief signals improved outlook for schools

July 27, 2011 | Corey G. Johnson

U.S. Census Bureau

Former State Superintendent for Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said yesterday that this year's budget, coupled with strong job growth, has convinced him that schools won't be forced into crippling service cuts.

Speaking to about 60 area school officials at the Sacramento County Office of Education, O'Connell dished a gumbo of advice about the new budget and its potential impact on schools. O'Connell was recently hired to become education chief at School Innovations & Advocacy, an education lobbying firm based in Rancho Cordova.

He was joined by School Innovations & Advocacy advocate Barrett Snider and Kevin Gordon, the group's

Principal: Why I’m marching to ‘save our schools’ - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Principal: Why I’m marching to ‘save our schools’ - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Principal: Why I’m marching to ‘save our schools’

by Valerie Strauss

--

This was written by Carol Corbett Burris, the principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.

Read full article >>

Was a NAEP geography test question poorly constructed?

by Valerie Strauss

Last week I wrote about the newly released 2010 geography scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which showed that students in fourth, eighth and twelfth grades don’t know a whole lot about the subject.

The post (which was excerpted in The Washington Post on Monday) included an eighth-grade question about the American Southwest that had been on the exam. Now, Candace Matthews, who has worked in the field of education and training for 35 years, has raised concerns about just how well drawn the test question actually was and what this may mean for other questions. Matthews now works for the federal government in the field of training.

Read full article >>

$5 million to dissect district reforms | Thoughts on Public Education

$5 million to dissect district reforms | Thoughts on Public Education

$5 million to dissect district reforms - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Whether it’s an inspiring principal, teacher collaboration, curriculum changes, or parental involvement, it’s often clear why one school stands out above others. But why districts in California excel is a tougher question. The Stuart Foundation will spend $5.2 million over the next two years to seek answers and to encourage districts to share what they [...]

High schools are failing to educate our students for college and careers - by Linda Murray

by Linda Murray

The debate around the mission of our nation’s high schools runs hot. Should all students take a core curriculum that prepares them to go to college if they choose? Or should some students take a lighter academic load and be trained in workforce readiness skills that will lead directly to jobs or some further post-secondary [...]

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Save Our Schools March: Sacramento

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Save Our Schools March: Sacramento

Save Our Schools March: Sacramento

by Duane Campbell

Monty Neil:My organization, FairTest, also endorsed Save Our Schools. True, in time more specifics are needed, but the most fundamental task is to save our schools from the education ‘deformers’ who have decided that tests (the standards don’t really matter except for the tests) and punishments are the core of a ‘solution’ to the very real problem that too many students do leave school not having learned enough to be effective citizens. It is a destructive ‘solution.’

California Rally and March
Saturday, July 30, 11am-3pm
State Capitol Building
1315 10th Street, SacramentoJoin other Californians on the Capitol steps to support public education. Sponsored by California supporters of the Save Our Schools March, National Call to Action .

Finland, by contrast, decided to build a system based on having high-quality teachers who would be prepared well (not a BA and short training course, a la TFA), engage in ongoing shared professional learning, and be largely in charge of the shape of schooling. They have brief national standards, but those are not imposed through tests. Finland does far better than the US, which chose a disastrous detour through testland. Finland also has a child poverty rate under 5% while the US is now well over 20%. Finland is more homogeneous, but has growing numbers of immigrant students (15% if memory serves) with 43 different languages. But of course US poverty is an ‘excuse’ to the deformers, who have managed to simultaneously promote damaging education ideas while deflecting attention from massive poverty.

There are many reasons why the basic framework, the paradigm, of federal and state laws and policies must be changed – I use the US failures and Finnish success simply to highlight how a different approach has produced markedly different results, though the underlying social structures and poverty also matter.

Still, schools should do as well as they can with the resources they have. Which raises the issue of those specifics you asked for, John. The Forum on Educational Accountability (www.edaccountability.org), which I chair, has developed many specifics, from a 2-page summary for ESEA reauthorization to detailed legislative language. The Forum for Education and Democracy has a rich range of good ideas. And that’s just for federal policy – there are many more applicable to curriculum, instruction, assessment, public reporting and accountability, as well as good ideas addressing the well-being of the whole child.

The problem is not an absence of concrete ideas, it is that the dominance of test-and-punish either makes the good ideas impossible to implement or turns them into their opposite (e.g., ‘formative assessment’ becomes an endless array of centrally-controlled mini-tests). So, the frame must change for real positive practices to flourish, while pointing to good practices, in the US and internationally, should help us with the re-framing as well as provide benefits to students lucky enough to be in a school or program that manages to do well — despite the so-called “accountability” system.

NYC Educator: Bedbugs, Roaches, Etc., Better Yourselves

NYC Educator: Bedbugs, Roaches, Etc., Better Yourselves

Bedbugs, Roaches, Etc., Better Yourselves

by Miss Eyre

So some of the city schools have bedbugs. Not bad enough that we have mice, rats, and roaches; no, we have to have bedbugs too, now. I'll be fair and state that most of the bedbug cases are not what you would call "infestations," but rather incidents of one or two bugs that schools by law must report. Still, though, schools do need to be better about pest control in general, particularly during these warm months when the bugs tend to be worse.

Schools in particular that are not vigilant about food and drink stand at worse risk for pest problems. It bothers me a lot that not all teachers in my school, for example,

School Tech Connect: Don't Blame Me...

School Tech Connect: Don't Blame Me...

Don't Blame Me...

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

I voted for Hillary.

I was so thinking this. Evidently the Nobel could just have well gone to me. Anyway, since I didn't call dibs on the idea, it's all Krugman's. But whatever he writes next, I totally have dibs on that.

I don't have a tv, so I can only imagine the coverage of this debt ceiling false crisis. I'm sure they have Eric Cantor looking like an adult and everything. I'm old enough to remember when Newt Gingrich was thought of as a bizarre, silly anomaly. Which, thankfully, he's devolved back into.

I felt so down-in-the-dumps all day today--- I kept seeing Twitter traffic about how the President had asked people

Love, Love, Love

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Enough with the negative posts! Here are some random pictures from my life. I'm going to go figure out what to pack for DC.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Pew Study: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Pew Study: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs

Pew Study: Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs

A third of black & Latino families have no wealth

Hispanic families accounted for the largest single decline in wealth of any ethnic and racial group in the country during the recession, according to a study published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, about a third of black (35%) and Hispanic (31%) households had zero or