Friday, October 14, 2011

On the Real Dangers of Marguerite Roza’s Fake Graph « School Finance 101

On the Real Dangers of Marguerite Roza’s Fake Graph « School Finance 101:

On the Real Dangers of Marguerite Roza’s Fake Graph

Posted on October 14, 2011 by schoolfinance101

1 Votes

In my last post, I ranted about this absurd graph presented by Marguerite Roza to a symposium of the New York Regents on September 13, 2011. Since that presentation (but before my post), that graph was also presented by the New York State Commissioner of Education to Superintendents of NY State School Districts (Sept. 26). The graph and the accompanying materials are now part of a statewide push in New York to promote an apparent policy agenda, though I lack some clarity on the specifics of that agenda at this point in time.

Because this graph is now part of an ongoing agenda in New York and because critiques by other credible, leading scholars similar to my own but less ranting in style, which were submitted to state officials following the symposium have seemingly been ignored (shelved, shredded, or whatever) I feel the need to take a little more time to explain my previous rant. Why is this graph so

2011 Round-Up of Notable Education Bills | Edvoice

Legislation | Edvoice:

2011 Round-Up of Notable Education Bills

Below find links to three lists of noteworthy legislation that was passed by the California Legislature this year or made into two-year bills. Bills are sorted into three categories: Bills Signed by the Governor, Bills Vetoed by the Governor, and Two-Year Bills. A two-year bill is a piece of legislation that was introduced this year that the Legislature has decided to take two years to consider.

To read full text and analyses of the bills, or to see how your legislators voted throughout the legislative process, visit http://leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html and type in the bill number.

The final version of each bill, as sent to the Governor, is titled “Enrolled.” You can see how legislators voted on the bill in various committees and on the floor of the Senate and Assembly under the “Votes” section that you will find by scrolling down on the page.

To find out who your representatives are, click here and enter your address.

Bills Signed by the Governor

Bills Vetoed by the Governor

Two-Year Bills

Schools Matter: Ending 99% Control of Schools by the 1% #OWS

Schools Matter: Ending 99% Control of Schools by the 1%:

Ending 99% Control of Schools by the 1%

by Jim Horn

'Nough's enough. No Mas. If the owners of our corporate government have their way, public schools will become just another corporate revenue stream that sucks up the half-trillion dollars that Americans spend every year on education to benefit the Oligarchy.

The Obama/Duncan education policies are simply a steroidal version of the policies from the Bush years, and time has come to end the nightmare of inhumane school environments, imploded curriculums, school privatization attempts, mind-killing high-stakes testing, resegregation efforts, businessmen as school administrators, and teacher de-professionalizing. Join the 99%. OCCUPY.

From United Opt Out National:

We, administrators of United Opt Out National (www.unitedoptout.com), wish to collaborate with the OccupyWall Street Movement and offer our vision for

The Path to Prosperity Lies in Investing in Education | ED.gov Blog

The Path to Prosperity Lies in Investing in Education | ED.gov Blog:

The Path to Prosperity Lies in Investing in Education

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Cameron Brenchley

Official Department of Education Photo by Paul Wood

“The path to prosperity lies in investing judiciously in education, [and] modernizing schools and crumbling infrastructure,” Secretary Duncan said yesterday in Portland, Ore., speaking at the Oregon Business Associations’ annual Statesman Dinner. Arne delivered the keynote address after holding a town hall with the Oregon Education Association earlier in the day.

During both stops in Portland, Duncan highlighted how the American Jobs Act will keep teachers in the classroom and help modernize and repair American’s aging public schools.

“The President’s bill includes two education components,” Duncan explained. “It would keep teachers in the classroom instead of on unemployment lines. And it would put construction workers back to work modernizing and repairing public schools and community colleges.”

Read more about how the American Jobs Act, and see how the President’s proposal willimpact your state.

: Official Department of Education Photo by Paul Wood

: Official Department of Education Photo by Paul Wood

: Official Department of Education Photo by Paul Wood

Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for American Revolution #EDREFORM

Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for American Revolution:

Parents bring Children to #ows tonight

Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 11:29 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Families are joining the movement to reclaim our future from Wall Street tonight by joining a child-friendly camp out at Liberty Square. The presence of children and youth in the occupation highlights the threat Wall Street's greed poses to future generations. Parents are bringing their sons and daughters to Occupy Wall Street to educate them about our broken economic system, and alternatives that could help save the planet and provide a future for the next generation.

Family Sleep Over @ Occupy Wall Street Press Conference When: Friday, Oct. 14, 8 p.m. Where: 60 Wall Street (public atrium)

Who should come? Families who are ready to join the 99% conversation Bloomberg's plans to remove protestors against their will from Zuccotti Park/Liberty Plaza for cleaning, have forced Parents for Occupy Wall Street to cancel our Friday night Family Sleep Out, but we will not be silenced.

We invite parents to come to 60 Wall Street, Friday night at 8 p.m. with their children to share the message that families are a central part of the Occupy Wall Street conversation. We welcome you to join the assembly, and bring your issues to light.

More and Better Choices in School Improvement

More and Better Choices in School Improvement:

More and Better Choices in School Improvement

by SARAH ROSENBERG on OCTOBER 14, 2011

in ACCOUNTABILITY

Photo from jasonthebaldguy.com

As my colleague Anne wrote in herearlier blog post on ESEA reauthorization, the Harkin-Enzi ESEA bill would require states to identify 5% of high schools and 5% of all other schools as Persistently Low-Achieving (PLA) Schools. This 5-year designation would target schools with low academic achievement or growth and low graduation rates. After conducting a needs analysis of each PLA school, the district would choose one of six school improvement strategies outlined in the Harkin-Enzi ESEA bill:

1. Transformation— Similar to the School Improvement Grant (SIG) model of the same name, the Transformation model requires the district to replace the principal if the principal has served in the role at the school for more than two years. However, the 2011 Transformation model has several new features. In theory, this model gives the principal complete hiring authority by requiring the current staff to

tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funds have been lost by start-up charter schools #edreform

Chief of state’s charter school division stepping down | EdSource Extra!:

Chief of state’s charter school division stepping down

At the last State Board of Education meeting, Richard Zeiger, the Department of Education’s chief deputy superintendent, announced that tens of millions of dollars in state and federal funds have been lost by start-up charter schools that either never opened or closed within a year or two of opening. At that meeting, Hunkapiller told the board that oversight procedures, especially of federal grants as high as $575,00 to beginning charter schools, should be stronger.

Hunkapiller said yesterday that now-closed charter schools have defaulted on $5.5 million from the state’s Charter School Revolving Loan Fund, which gives loans of up to $250,000 mainly to start-up charter schools. She said the defaults occurred primarily in the early years of the program, but have increased again ”in the last year or two.”

State law requires charters to pay off their loans over five years, but if a school closes before that time, collecting on the loan has turned out to be exceedingly difficult if not impossible.

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

MORE CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal

Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below

Modern School: Top 10 Censored Education Stories of the Decade (Again)

Modern School: Top 10 Censored Education Stories of the Decade (Again):

Final Thoughts on the Washington State PTA

by seattleducation2011

The motto of the PTA is “Every child, one voice”.

That sounds nice enough and I can understand the meaning that all children are represented by one organization but they are not. There is inequity and inequality. It also promotes the idea that the PTA stands for all children and parents but they do not yet it is an effective tool to use when these PTA representatives meet with our legislators. The meaning being that whatever the PTA promotes is what all parents and students want but again we know that’s not the case.

Let’s start at the beginning of the membership process. When contacting PTA’s in Seattle to promote my classes as part of the school’s enrichment program, I noticed that there were several schools that did not have PTA’s. These schools were in the financially depressed, mostly minority areas. If there was a PTA, there might

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Hip-Hop High

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Hip-Hop High:

Hip-Hop High

by Mike Klonsky

Hip-Hop High

Sam Seidel

There are lots of kids who can't or won't connect with the traditional high school setting. Many brilliant and talented among them drop out and wind up on the street. That's one of the reasons why we created the Small Schools Workshop 20 years ago, to help educators develop small, public, personalized, alternative models focused on areas of student interests, talents and passions. While many of the ideas of the early small schools movement were captured and distorted by the regressive currents of privately-managed charter schools, there

Schools Matter: Jerry Brown Rebukes Attempts at Another Generation of More Testing

Schools Matter: Jerry Brown Rebukes Attempts at Another Generation of More Testing:

Jerry Brown Rebukes Attempts at Another Generation of More Testing

by Jim Horn

Jerry Brown's rebuke of the testing industrial complex on October 8 has sent shockwaves through the boardrooms of Pearson and the other predatory corporations whose CEOs are poised to cash in on a whole new generation of education testing mania introduced by RTTT. Ostensibly as a way to get out from under the burden of testing, a state version of Arne Duncan's deal that Brown vetoed amounted to an extortion plot that holds a loaded testing gun to governors and superintendents with the promise of certain death if they refuse a waiver or, if they play the waiver game, then death by testing is exchanged for a life sentence of testing in every subject and at every grade level. Oh yes, if you accept this life sentence of testing, your food ration promises to be cut severely.

Meanwhile, any semblance of humane learning environments has been erased in U.S. urban schools, as children

Shanker Blog » An International Perspective On Corporate Pay

Shanker Blog » An International Perspective On Corporate Pay:

An International Perspective On Corporate Pay

by Michael Tims

Our guest author today is Michael Tims, associate professor of biology at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. Some of his writing can be found on his science blog, Bardo’s Calculus, as well as at the Hyattstown Mill Arts Project, where he is a board member.

The growing wealth gap in the United States has worried some commentators for years. The length and breadth of the economic crisis, and the suffering it has brought with it, have moved those concerns into the mainstream. One aspect of this development that warrants more attention is the connection between declining rates of unionization, and the incredible gap between the pay of workers and their bosses.

As corporate resistance to unions has increased and union density declined, the discrepancy in pay between management and worker has grown extreme. Since the mid 1970s, the average multiple of CEO pay to worker pay has increased from 28x in 1970 to 158x in 2005, to almost 400x in 2010. . Their average “total realized

Grumpy Educators: NCLB Reauthorization: Who gets control?

Grumpy Educators: NCLB Reauthorization: Who gets control?:

NCLB Reauthorization: Who gets control?

by Sandra

The U.S. Congress is showing mixed results in addressing the reauthorization of NCLB legislation in spite of broad consensus that it requires urgent attention. According to the NY Times, the U.S. House education committee leadership wishes to proceed in a "piecemeal" fashion; however, few pieces have been forthcoming. The New York Times sees the House actions this way:

"The House leadership has appeared unwilling to move toward a full rewriting of the law, which could give Mr. Obama a domestic policy triumph going into an election year."

The U.S. Senate has filed a comprehensive bill. According to Senate education

Friday, October 14, 2011