NYC Public School Parents: Joyce and Megan's story with a (somewhat) happy ending for this holiday season

NYC Public School Parents: Joyce and Megan's story with a (somewhat) happy ending for this holiday season:

Joyce and Megan's story with a (somewhat) happy ending for this holiday season

by Leonie Haimson

Megan Marrera credit: NY Post

Here is the story of a Queens parent, Joyce Caba, who refused to allow her honor-roll daughter, Megan, to be denied her chance to graduate from middle school after the DOE claimed she had flunked her 8th grade English Language Arts exam.  

We first found out about Megan’s plight from a comment Joyce left on our NYC Public School Parents blog after the state ELA exams were held last spring, an exam which many parents, students, and teachers found to be flawed and confusing --and which included the now-infamousPineapple question, on the very same 8^thgrade exam which Megan supposedly failed.

Everything that follows is just as Joyce wrote it, with a few typos corrected and edited for length, along with the NY Post articles which resulted from her emails to me.  Megan's story, as well as the thousands of other students who were unjustly prevented from graduating with their class, underscores how the fate of no child should ever be decided on a single exam--and the city’s policy to hold back students  on the basis of unreliable test scores is not unfair but contrary to research.  In a holiday spirit, I thought I would recount Megan's story, as her mom told it to me, because there is a partially happy ending, as 

Throughout December and January: Whole Child and Common Core — Whole Child Education

Throughout December and January: Whole Child and Common Core — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Throughout December and January: Whole Child and Common Core

December 13, 2012 by Klea Scharberg

Educators have a unique opportunity to reset the playing field and to make the Common Core State Standards work for them. We can implement the standards, align them to a whole child approach to education, and ensure that both support and enhance each other. The Common Core and a whole child approach are not opposites, rather they do not and should not have to be in opposition.

Join us throughout December and January as we investigate how the standards integrate and align within a whole child approach and how a strong framework can support a well-rounded education that prepares students for college, career, and citizenship success. Overall, we will highlight how now is the time for educators to take control and become empowered in the process. The outcomes will depend upon what you decide to do around the Common Core within a whole child approach and how you decide to do it.

The Whole Child Blog

Check out the Whole Child Blog for contributions from experts and practitioners in the field, whole child partners, and ASCD staff who will share free resources, provide examples of integrating and aligning the Common Core and a whole child approach, and answer your questions. Be sure to leave your questions, ideas, and stories in the comments.

What Works in Common Core

Visit the What Works section for a one-stop (free!) shop to explore issues that must be transformed for us to successfully educate the whole child. Our topic pages are a collection of resources on the topics we address each month. This month, we'll add resources to the Common Core topic page. Tell us what has worked in your school and with your students. E-mail us and share resources, research, and examples.

Social Networking

Connect (if you haven't already) with the Whole Child Initiative on Facebook and Twitter to be part of changing the conversation about the importance of a whole child approach to education with more than 15,000 people from around the globe.

Standing up for middle class families in Michigan - Lily's Blackboard | Lily's Blackboard

Standing up for middle class families in Michigan - Lily's Blackboard | Lily's Blackboard:

Standing up for middle class families in Michigan

by LilysBlackboard

Standing up for middle class families in Michigan

Dec 13th, 2012 

by LilysBlackboard.

Strong unions in Michigan have been a force in strengthening the middle class by bringing back more than 20,000 jobs while helping rescue the then-collapsing auto industry. In states with these so-called “right-to-work” laws, workers make an average of $1,500 less per year, 21 percent more people lack health insurance and workplace deaths are 51 percent higher than states without the law.

Read more here

Check out our very own Lily Eskelsen at a rally to protest Michigan’s attack on working families.

WHY TEACHERS SHOULD VOTE NO ON THE LAUSD-UTLA DECEMBER 2012 EVALUATION PROCEDURES SUPPLEMENT By Dr. John Fernandez - Perdaily.com

WHY TEACHERS SHOULD VOTE NO ON THE LAUSD-UTLA DECEMBER 2012 EVALUATION PROCEDURES SUPPLEMENT By Dr. John Fernandez - Perdaily.com:

WHY TEACHERS SHOULD VOTE NO ON THE LAUSD-UTLA DECEMBER 2012 EVALUATION PROCEDURES SUPPLEMENT By Dr. John Fernandez

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español) 

Dr. John Fernandez submitted the following to Perdaily as reasons to not vote for the Tentative Agreement on teacher assessment. Perdaily thinks there are already several more basic reasons to vote against the TA:

1. The TA tacitly presupposes that students are at grade level and capable of being educated at grade level by any teacher, when the vast majority of students have been socially promoted without basic prior grade-level standards that are a prerequisite for a single-subject credentialed secondary teacher without remedial skills to be 

This Week In Education: Update: Reviewing StudentsFirst's Union Positions

This Week In Education: Update: Reviewing StudentsFirst's Union Positions:

Update: Reviewing StudentsFirst's Union Positions

by Alexander Russo

Having watched the official comments, updates, and Twitter back and forth on where Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst organization stands on the "right-to-work" law that just passed in Michigan, a friendly tipster from the AFT gathered up some clips from the past couple of years that  includes "every collective bargaining fight over the last couple of years and the role StudentsFirst played in each one as reference."
Yesterday, StudentsFirst gave a long statement that confused many readers as to its bottom-line position, then provided a couple of clarifications that it doesn't have a position on RTW but supports the right of workers to collectively bargain.
As you'll see, the (unverified) collected items below suggest that StudentsFirst has been active on restricting collective bargaining in Michigan as well as in Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, and Wisconsin.
I'm sure StudentsFirst will have some thoughts on this, and will be sure to share their response as soon as I get it.
FROM AFT TIPSTER:

• StudentsFirst hired a longtime Kasich all to  lobby on behalf of SB 5 in Ohio.   
• StudentsFirst contributed half a million dollars to undermine a ballot initiative in Michigan that would have 

UPDATE: The Quick and the Ed » Don’t Kick This Pension Can Down the Road

The Quick and the Ed » Don’t Kick This Pension Can Down the Road:

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Don’tKickThisPensionCanDowntheRoad

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13 Dec 2012

by Kris Amundson

Categories: Education Finance, K-12 Education

In FY 2010, the state of New Jersey, facing a $2.2 billion budget shortfall, adopted a series of measures to close the gap. The budget delayed $940 million worth of pension fund contributions for FY 2010. It also allowed towns and localities to defer their pension payments.

New Jersey was not alone. For years, state legislatures closed budget gaps by delaying payments to the state pension plan for teachers and other state employees. As state legislators, we had a technical, legislative name for this tactic: “kicking the can down the road.”

As today’s report from the National Council on Teacher Quality shows, the bill is now coming due. The report notes that although 22 states have made some changes to their pension plans, the problem of a pension shortfall is still looming on the horizon. “The

InTeacherPensions,EventheFixesAreMovingintheWrongDirection

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13 Dec 2012

by Chad Aldeman

Categories: Education Finance, K-12 Education

NCTQ’s new report on the state of state teacher pension plans is well worth your time. If you’re new to the pension issue, it does a great job of breaking down the issues in simple and clear language. If you know your way around defined benefit plans, there’s still lots of good resources on, for example, the number of states that made changes to their pension formulas over the last four years. And, if you only care about a particular state, it has lots of tables where you can find exactly how your home state is doing.

So go read it all and save it as a resource. For this blog, I want to pull out one of its main findings and show why it matters. Since 2009, 13 states have changed their vesting requirements, and 11 of those 13 made this period longer. The vesting period is amount of time a teacher must be employed before becoming eligible for pension benefits. If they meet the minimum vesting requirement, they’re eligible for a pension. If they don’t, they typically can get their own contributions back and some interest on those contributions, but they forfeit the contributions their employer made on their behalf.

The graph below shows the distribution of state vesting requirements. In 2012, 25 states required teachers to stay in the state pension plan for at least five years before vesting, and 15 required them to stay 10 years.

With today’s increasingly mobile workforce, five or 10 years is a relatively long time to stay 

Ignorance is Bliss and Expensive | Truth in American Education

Ignorance is Bliss and Expensive | Truth in American Education:

Ignorance is Bliss and Expensive

by Shane Vander Hart

We keep hearing the beating drum of more money for education, and apparently it works because people are not well informed.  Check out the following two graphs from Education Next-PEPG Survey, published in Education Next‘s Winter issue.

The first is related to school spending.

The next graph is related t

Sun-Times editorial gets it right Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Sun-Times editorial gets it right:

Sun-Times editorial gets it right

by admin

In something of a breakthrough, the Sun-Times editorial board today came out against CPS’s plan to open 13 new charter schools this year. Echoing my comments in the Tribune earlier this week, today’s S-T editorial agreed that opening new, unproven schools while claiming a need to close as many as 100 existing schools doesn’t make sense, especially given the fact that overall charters are no better than regular schools.
“How exactly can CPS square that circle? We aren’t convinced it can….Charters are like regular schools – some great, some mediocre, some lousy.”
This published opinion comes on the heels of a critical piece by the local public radio station WBEZ, “Charter schools with failing grades still featured at quality schools fair”:  “A high-profile Chicago schools fair today is supposed to show off quality new schools, many of them charters….But a WBEZ analysis of the more than 100 new schools featured at the expo this year shows 34 percent of them are rated Level 3 by the district, the lowest 

SI&A Cabinet Report – New CTE standards reflect fast-moving tech changes, higher academic goals

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

New CTE standards reflect fast-moving tech changes, higher academic goals
By Tom Chorneau
Thursday, December 13, 2012

After almost two years of work, state officials have completed proposed revisions of the Career Technical Education curriculum standards encompassing the addition of several new pathways including game design and integration.

The state’s existing career tech standards were adopted by the California State Board of Education in May, 2005. Among the many changes that have taken place since then is the national embrace of the common core standards in English language arts and math.

Officials said the new standards reflect not only changes that have occurred in business and industry but also the state’s new academic goals.

“The revised draft standards not only build on career–related skills and knowledge but also demand a higher level of academic achievement to help prepare students to be both career and college ready,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in a memo to the state board released this week.

The draft standards are expected to come to the state board for approval at its January meeting.

The current standards are organized around 15 industry sectors and provide 58 career pathways to graduation. The 

Last of the school construction money going out

The board that approves state construction funding for California schools on Wednesday issued the bulk of its remaining cash to 90 districts, effectively ending for now the pool of money set aside to match local contributions.

Private academies keep students separate and unequal 40 years later | Hechinger Report

Private academies keep students separate and unequal 40 years later | Hechinger Report:

Private academies keep students separate and unequal 40 years later

by Sarah Carr

Indianola, Miss – It took LaToysha Brown 13 years to see the elephant in the room, and another few years to decide that it did not belong there.
When she was in the seventh grade, she began studying the civil rights movement at an after-school program called the Sunflower County Freedom Project. Only then did the 13-year-old become conscious of how little interaction she had with her white peers in this Mississippi Delta town: not at church, not at school, not anywhere.
It didn’t bother her at first. By high school, however, Brown had started to wonder if separate could ever be equal. She attended a nearly all-black high school with dangerous sinkholes in the courtyard, spotty Internet access in the classrooms, and a shortage of textbooks all around. Brown had never been inside Indianola Academy, the private school most of the town’s white teenagers attend. But she sensed that the students there had books they could take home and walkways free of sinkholes.

For decades, Indianola Academy has used a football field adjacent to public school property. A barbed wire fence aims to keep trespassers out. (Photo by Sarah Carr)

“The schools would achieve so much more if they would combine,” said Brown, now age 17 and a junior.
More than four decades after the creation of a network of “segregation academies” in Mississippi Delta towns like Indianola, however, the secretive schools continue to define nearly every aspect of community life.
A Hechinger Report analysis of private school demographics (using data compiled on the National Center for Education Statistics website)  found that more than 35 such academies survive in Mississippi, many of them in 

RheeFirst! » StudentsFirst: “Teaching is not a profession”

RheeFirst! » StudentsFirst: “Teaching is not a profession”:

StudentsFirst: “Teaching is not a profession”

by admin

After StudentsFirst’s GOP-heavy endorsements in 2012 (see “Michelle Rhee’s right turn”), it’s not surprising that the Republican majority in the Ohio legislature invited StudentsFirst to testify about school funding. As expected, Rhee’s surrogate spouted GOP talking points about school funding, class size and teacher pay.
Not everyone in Ohio is buying it, though. Teacher of the Year Maureen Reedy, in a post on Plunderbund, shreds the school privatization pitch, making her case using research findings and facts like these:
• “77% of our public schools are receiving A, B and C ratings while 77% of Ohio’s charter schools are receiving D and F ratings.”
• “Ohio’s top two charter school CEOs, David Brennan of White Hat Charters and William Lager of ECOT charters are earning multi-million dollar salaries while graduating only 30 – 40 % of their students, an ‘F’ average 

Schools Matter: KIPP, Chemical Reactions, and Character: Mapping Out the New Eugenics Agenda

Schools Matter: KIPP, Chemical Reactions, and Character: Mapping Out the New Eugenics Agenda:

KIPP, Chemical Reactions, and Character: Mapping Out the New Eugenics Agenda

by Jim Horn

A slightly different version of this review was published yesterday at Substance News.

Paul Tough, KIPP, and the Character Con: A Review of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Jim Horn  

When we look a these kids and their behavior, it can all seem so mysterious….But at some point, what you’re seeing is just a complex series of chemical reactions.  It’s the folding of a protein or the activation of a neuron. And what’s exciting about that is that those things are treatable.  When you get down to the molecules, you realize, that’s where the healing is.  That’s where you’re discovering a solution” (p. 26).  Paul Tough quoting Nadine Burke Harris

Two days before the 2012 presidential election, Rachel Maddow ran a clip from an interview with uber-

Funding for School Projects - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education)

Funding for School Projects - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces Funding
for School Construction and Modernization Projects

SACRAMENTO—The State Allocation Board  (SAB) today disbursed $383.8 million for new school construction and modernization projects across 110 school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools statewide, announced State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

"Our schools play a key role in California's future," said Torlakson. "These new funds provide vital assistance to local districts in the construction and rebuilding of schools, creating jobs in the community, and providing better opportunities to students for a successful future."

Commissioned by Torlakson's administration in 2011, the Schools of the Future (PDF; 1MB) Initiative underscores the importance of modernizing school facilities via the use of new technologies, energy efficient upgrades and the establishment of science and career technology education to guide the establishment of a 21st century learning environment for students.

The SAB meets monthly to allocate state matching funds for the construction of new classrooms and the modernization of existing schools and to consider policies and regulations regarding SAB programs. The funds allocated by the SAB are from voter-approved general obligation bonds that cannot be used for school operational expenses.

The State Allocation Board's online agenda  , keyword "07 Action Items.pdf," provides a complete list of the allocations.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

PressTV - US Census: School-age poverty up

PressTV - US Census: School-age poverty up:

US Census: School-age poverty up

Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:8AM

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The percentage of school-age children living in poverty grew between 2007 and 2011 in one quarter of U.S. counties, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The bureau said 832 counties had a statistically significant increase in the school-age poverty rate.

The bureau released its Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, which are among the factors used to determine federal aid to local schools. The estimates combine information from the bureau's American Community Survey, the 2000 and 2010 censuses, federal income tax filings and applications for federal nutrition assistance.

The bureau said there was a significant increase in poverty among children aged 5 to 17 in 26 percent of the counties. The bureau compared 2011 with 2007, the last year before the recession began.  UPI

FACTS & FIGURES

One of the consequences of the U.S. recession is the record number of children descending 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, December 13, 2012

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

LAUSD board narrowly OKs new parent policy at low-income schools

Education Headlines

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Columbia El stands by bonuses

Columbia Union School District trustees and administrators addressed bonuses paid to school staff at a board meeting Tuesday, contending that the expenditure of more than $100,000 in public funds for the payments was appropriate.

Alisal officials mum on school name

For a second day, officials with the Alisal Union School District have refused to comment on the selection of outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez as the name for the new school scheduled to open in August 2013.

McKinleyville Union School District trustees talk refinancing of high-interest bonds

Tensions ran high Wednesday as the McKinleyville Union School District trustees met to hear what options are available for refinancing the district's bonds -- which could eventually cost taxpayers $72 million for school projects that originally costed just $7 million.

Upland Unified School District superintendent leaving for Desert Sands

Gary Rutherford, who has been superintendent of the Upland Unified School District since 2005, will be leaving his position for one in the desert.

Union City schools win Race to Top grant

Schools Superintendent Kari McVeigh screamed when she saw the e-mail pop on her screen at 8:19 a.m. announcing her East Bay district had just won more than $29 million in federal funding.

LAUSD board narrowly OKs new parent policy at low-income schools

A long-simmering controversy about which parents can have a voice at Los Angeles Unified's Title I schools erupted Tuesday, with boisterous critics accusing a district administrator of bullying and discriminatory tactics.

Santa Clara County School Board sues ex-superintendent over condo loan

Seeking to recoup almost $1 million in taxpayer funds, the Santa Clara County Board of Education has sued ex-Superintendent Charles Weis, who walked away from the luxury San Jose condo he bought with a loan from the board.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Alisal school district names school after outlaw

Tiburcio Vasquez, born in Monterey on April 10, 1835, and hung for a conviction of murder on March 19, 1875, will be memorialized for his contribution and life in early California by adding his name to the list of schools in the community.

Monterey Peninsula USD Superintendent Marilyn Shepherd to retire after school year

Marilyn Shepherd has announced her intention to retire as superintendent of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District at the end of the school year.

Kentfield school board discusses volunteer-run school lunch program

It'll remain business as usual for the Kentfield School District's volunteer-run school lunch program until it receives word back from the state.