Monday, January 11, 2010

Education | Barnes & Noble launches text rental service | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | Barnes & Noble launches text rental service
| Seattle Times Newspaper: "Barnes & Noble Inc. said Monday that it's launching a textbook rental program for college students.

The new program, available though campus bookstores or the stores' Web sites managed by the world's largest bookseller, is designed to cut textbook costs by as much as 50 percent for some titles.

Textbooks rented online will be shipped to a campus bookstore.

The effort, operated through the New York company's subsidiary Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC., is already in place in about 25 campus bookstores nationwide.

Barnes & Noble operates bookstores at nearly 640 colleges across the country."

The Educated Guess � Governor targets seniority protections

The Educated Guess � Governor targets seniority protections

Four years ago, Gov. Schwarzenegger failed to persuade voters to change the tenure laws for teachers. But that hasn’t deterred him from pushing again in his final year in office.

In his budget message, the governor said he’d propose eliminating the law requiring that teacher layoffs and reassignments be done strictly on the basis of seniority. He also wants school boards, not the Commission on Professional Competence, to have the final say on teacher firings. In a study last year, the Los Angeles Times determined that the commission overturns school boards’ decisions about a third of the time – one more factor discouraging administrators from seeking to get rid of incompetent teachers.

You can bet the California Teachers Assn. will fight both bills.

In many districts, principals do have the ability to hire whom they want and to reject veteran teachers who they determine won’t fit in. But rules change with a reduction in force.

I’ve talked with principals who complain bitterly that they no choice but to let go among their best, young teachers with the rapport and expertise they needed; they were bumped by veteran teachers and sometimes administrators who have

Sacramento Press / Democratic Party of Sacramento County Responds to Governor’s State of the State and Budget

The six years of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration have not treated California well. We have lost our jobs, lost our houses and lost the services that were supposed to protect us and build a stronger state. While Governor Schwarzenegger has read a well-written script about post partisanship and teamwork, he has consistently failed to deliver on these promises – siding time and again with conservative interest groups that do not represent California’s values and proposing quick fix paper solutions instead of doing the hard work and showing the real leadership that is necessary to achieve real progress.

While it is laudable that after years of cutting education budgets and increasing prison populations, the Governor has come to realize this is not a sustainable, wise or just course of action, we need to see actual leadership to reverse the course the Governor has set and to overcome the numerous shortcomings of years one through six of his administration. There are hard decisions that need to be made and important values that need to be protected. To date, Schwarzenegger has not shown the ability or desire to fight for Californians.

We are particularly concerned with the Governor’s proposals for closing the budget gap. Funding he has predicted from the federal government is

Ax falls on two District PR staffers | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

At the end of a difficult news week for Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, two veteran media relations specialists in the District'scommunications office were abruptly terminated Friday, effective immediately.

Vincent Thompson and Felecia Ward, the District's two media managers, "were laid off due to a reorganization of the department based on the needs and the strategic plan of the School District of Philadelphia," said Evelyn Sample-Oates, chief communications officer, in a one-sentence email to the Notebookcommenting on the terminations.

Both Thompson and Ward had joined the communications office during the Paul Vallas administration, when it was headed by Cecilia Cummings. Thompson served two separate stints beginning in 2002, while Ward joined the office in 2005. Along with Fernando Gallard, who continues as director of media relations, Thompson and Ward had handled most media inquiries to the District.

Ackerman has also been drawing on outside public relations firms for her media strategy, including Cárdenas-Grant Communications and Ross Associates.

The terminations come days after a critical story about the superintendent

Class Struggle - Study shows how dumb we can be

Class Struggle- Study shows how dumb we can be:

"A little-noticed but unusually detailed study of teaching practices, reported by Robert Rothman in the November/December issue of the Harvard Education Letter, delivers a depressing message you should keep in mind whenever you read anything about raising school achievement. I don’t care if it’s by an education school dean, or a state governor, or the U.S. secretary of education, or even me. If this new study is true then none of us really knows what we are talking about.

Consider all the ink and electrons my Post colleagues and I, plus the leaders of our local schools and commentators far and wide, expend on how each of our public schools have performed on the annual tests. These assessments are required under No Child Left Behind. They are wired into the culture now. They will continue in some form no matter how Congress changes that law."

Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman has not one, but two cars paid for by you - chicagotribune.com

Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman has not one, but two cars paid for by you - chicagotribune.com:

"In mid-October, Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman made a special trip to Springfield to implore legislators to restore funding cuts that were aggravating an already painful budget season.

What he didn't mention to legislators was how he got there, in the literal sense. The schools chief drove himself in a 2009 Ford Escape hybrid that costs taxpayers more than $800 a month. That vehicle is in addition to the Crown Victoria that Huberman rides around in while in Chicago; the school district leases it for about $1,000 a month, not including the driver's pay. Huberman, who was appointed a year ago, makes $230,000 a year.

While previous school chiefs Paul Vallas and Arne Duncan both had a car and driver, neither had an additional vehicle leased for them by the nation's third-largest school system. For that matter, the leaders of the nation's two largest school districts don't have that perquisite either.

In a tough year for the city's schools, with nearly a thousand layoffs expected and millions of dollars in program cuts, some are questioning the necessity of two cars for a CEO who"

7 charter schools to get OK as state nears limit of 200 - NYPOST.com

The state Board of Regents is expected to approve seven new city charter schools at its monthly meeting Tuesday -- slicing to 23 the number of charters that can be issued statewide.

The move comes as lawmakers work feverishly under Gov. Paterson's deadline of Thursday for passing legislation to eliminate -- or at least raise -- the state's cap of 200 charter schools.

Lifting or removing the cap would boost the state's odds of snaring as much as $700 million in federal education-reform aid, for which the application due date is Jan. 19.

The charter schools set for approval early next week include the fifth clone of the successful Icahn Charter School in The Bronx, as well as replacements for two shuttering Catholic schools.

If approved, Riverton Street Charter School will open in September in the former home of St. Catherine of Sienna in Queens, and Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School will open in the closing St. John the Baptist School in Brooklyn.

The Regents are expected to return two other charter-school applications approved by SUNY for revision.

Later this month, the city's Department of Education is planning to put out its first-ever parent guide to charter schools, with details on the 99 schools already operating as well as the 26 expected to open this fall.

Critics see a lose-lose situation with 15 city high schools on closure list

They saw it coming.

Officials at Norman Thomas High School warned the Education Department in 2004 that a spike in enrollment after other nearby schools were shuttered had created "an overcrowding situation that dooms us to failure."

Last month, their fears came true. It's now among 15 high schools slated for closure.

"Are they trying to fix the schools or ... trying to destroy them?" asked Nick Licari, a social studies teacher at the midtownManhattan school.

The Bloomberg administration has closed 21 large high schools since 2002. Critics say those left standing have been flooded with students, causing enrollment to balloon, attendance to drop and crime to spike.

At Norman Thomas - where officials will hold a hearing about the closure tonight - a building meant for 2,000 students saw enrollment jump to 3,000 in 2005 after three large Manhattan high schools were closed.

"I think there was collateral damage to the remaining large schools," said Clara Hemphill, author of the "The New Marketplace" study for

Editorial - Promises and Facts on Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

Editorial - Promises and Facts on Charter Schools - NYTimes.com:

"Charter schools — which are run with public money but subject to fewer state regulations — have a lot of supporters in Washington. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants states to close some chronically failing schools and turn them into charters. Congress is so enthusiastic that it has created a $50 million fund and given Mr. Duncan the authority to directly finance charter school operators who want to replicate or expand successful programs."

Proponents initially argued that charter schools could provide a better education because they were allowed to operate independently. But the research has turned up mixed results. To ensure that this new money goes only to operators with proven records of success, Mr. Duncan will need to be guided by well-designed studies like the one being carried out by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes.
The center startled many education specialists last summer with a report that showed that a large number of charter schools are failing to deliver on their promises. It compared the performance of charter schools and traditional schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia and found that only about 17 percent of charters offered students a better education than traditional schools — and that 37 percent were worse.
A new study from the center has turned up a brighter picture in New York City, where students at more than half of the charter schools are showing more academic improvement in math than their traditional-school counterparts. The reading numbers were not as strong, but still nearly 30 percent of charters outperformed traditional schools.

Un-chartered waters, unaccountable schools - NYPOST.com

* The real "UFT Charter Chicanery" (Editorial, Jan. 5) is that charter schools are just another way for fat cats to channel public money into their own pockets.

Charters pay teachers less than the public-school system pays while making them work longer hours and more days.

Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, the charters get free space in public-school buildings, which saves them a bundle of money. Then the charter schools can pay exorbitant fees to their "management groups," a k a the fat cats.

If New York drops the cap on charter schools and gets the $700 million, where will it go? Into the fat cats' pockets.

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind - washingtonpost.com

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind - washingtonpost.com:

"Eight years after President George W. Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform, the education world is wondering when President Obama will seek to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law.

Obama officials, who for months have been on a 'listening and learning' tour, are expected to propose a framework for the successor to a law that is two years overdue for reauthorization. Time is growing short if Obama aims for action before midterm elections, which could weaken Democratic majorities in Congress."

Teacher certification prestigious but too costly, Rhee says - washingtonpost.com

Teacher certification prestigious but too costly, Rhee says - washingtonpost.com:

"Judy Leak-Bowers has 18 fidgety third-graders arrayed in a circle on the carpet of her classroom at Watkins Elementary in Southeast Washington, but each seems to have her undivided attention.

No one escapes her stream of questions about temperature on the Celsius scale or a recent class visit to Ben's Chili Bowl. The queries are all open-ended, requiring a thoughtful answer, not just a 'Yes' or 'No.'

'Why is it a big deal about the president ordering a half-smoke?' she asks when someone mentions President Obama's visit to the landmark U Street eater"

In Suburban Schools, an Alternative to A.P. - NYTimes.com

In Suburban Schools, an Alternative to A.P. - NYTimes.com:

"JERICHO, N.Y. — In a St. John’s University English class the other day, 10 students tackled George Orwell’s “1984” like generations of collegians before them. But while there was plenty of higher-order thinking, the class — and the students — were technically still in high school."

The college class is one of 16 being taught at Jericho High School here on Long Island, half of them added in the past two years through new partnerships with St. John’s in Queens, Molloy College in Rockville Centre and the Rochester Institute of Technology. The Jericho students simultaneously fulfill their high school graduation requirements and, for a reduced fee, earn college credit.
These so-called dual-enrollment courses have long been used in urban schools to provide some higher education to poor and minority students and encourage them to go on to college. But now many top suburban high schools are embracing dual enrollment as a way to challenge their brightest students and ward off senioritis once college applications are done. They say the college

Governor seeks to ease rules on firing weak teachers - latimes.com

Governor seeks to ease rules on firing weak teachers

Schwarzenegger calls for other criteria besides seniority in dismissals and advocates reducing power of state panel that can overturn decisions.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed on Friday to make it easier for school districts to fire weak teachers by changing a law that mandates instructors be laid off only according to seniority. He also recommended reducing the role of a state commission that has the power to overturn teachers' dismissals.

The move to take away final say over teachers' dismissals from the Commission on Professional Competence was spurred by a Times investigation last spring, according to the governor's staff. The investigation found that the commission overturned nearly a third of teachers' dismissals statewide over the last 15 years.

The Times also found that the process of firing a tenured teacher is so difficult that districts typically try to remove only instructors accused of egregious acts and that poor teaching is rarely a factor in dismissals.

New rules on tap for charter schools - ContraCostaTimes.com

New rules on tap for charter schools - ContraCostaTimes.com:

"With charter school enrollment at an all-time high locally, Los Angeles Unified officials are expected to set tougher standards this week for the publicly funded and independently run campuses.

The new rules come as the district is expected to add even more charters under a reform plan that allows outside operators to run new and failing campuses.

But charter school advocates and other critics say the district's new rules will drown the innovative schools in paperwork, defeating the purpose of having campuses that are supposed to operate outside of normal red tape restrictions.

District officials who see the growth of charter schools as healthy argue that nonetheless much of the accountability and oversight has been lax and inconsistent."

Charter school debate | Augusta Free Press

Among the topics that are likely to be fiercely debated this legislative session are revisions to Virginia’s charter-school law. The Center for Education Reform, advocates for expanding charter schools, recently gave Virginia a failing grade on its charter school law (www.charterschoolresearch.com). An idea of what the Center feels is appropriate charter school legislation can be gleaned from the fact that it gave the District of Columbia along with Minnesota and California an “A” grade.

The debate on charter schools should not be partisan. Both Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell and President Barack Obama support charter schools. According to a Richmond Times Dispatch editorial of Dec. 9, 2009, Virginia currently has only three of the nearly 5,000 charter schools in the nation. President Obama supports financial incentives to states to increase the number of charter schools. In his career as a legislator, Gov.-elect McDonnell was a supporter of charter schools, tuition tax credits, and vouchers. With the pressures on the budget and the inevitable reduction in funding for public schools, it is hard to see where the money for charter schools would come from unless the federal government comes through with some assistance. Already the Virginia School Boards Association has started to campaign against charter schools as “a program that will take existing school funds from your budgets to spend on establishing charter schools.”

The conservative Virginia think tank, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, supports an expansion of charter schools. It has called for an appropriate debate on the issue. “It would be nice, as Virginians look for educational opportunities that will help children, if all the parties concerned offered constructive new solutions instead of resistance and protectionism. We’ll accomplish a lot more for kids if we work together on their behalf,” the Institute wrote recently (www.thomasjeffersoninst.org).

Bringing Democracy Back >>

Bringing Democracy Back >>:

"“Do you support Democratizing Education?” Various forms of this phrase were scrawled across the ground in chalk and on posters along Ring Road early last Monday morning on the first day of winter quarter. By noon, some of the posters had disappeared and footsteps had carried away most of the chalk. But by then this didn’t matter because the rally had already begun. Students from a disenchanted student body vocalized this message of frustration. Diverse student groups joined together under the single cause of “de-privatizing” the public university. The rally expressed student outrage against the recent 32 percent fee increase, violations of campus workers’ rights, growing layoffs, furloughs and cuts in services that are leaving students paying more for substantially less. The rally also called on the UCI campus community to participate in the upcoming “Open Forum” with Chancellor Drake on Wednesday January 13 from 5-6 p.m. in HIB 100."

Perry lacks trust in Texas voters | Rick Casey | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Perry lacks trust in Texas voters | Rick Casey | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"Gov. Rick Perry must be worried that the citizens of Texas are going to lose their minds and turn state government over to the Democrats.

This week on the campaign stump, he proposed two state constitutional amendments based on the notion that we can't afford democracy.

One is that any state tax increase would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Functionally this is already the case in the Senate, where everything but voter ID bills needs a two-thirds majority, but apparently Perry is concerned because Texas two years ago elected an uncomfortable number of Democrats and tossed autocratic Speaker Tom Craddick in favor of a speaker who will actually work with said Democrats.

Maybe Perry has become a great admirer of California, where a two-thirds requirement for passing a budget led to the state paying its bills with IOUs while the Legislature bickered and showboated."

A new role for community colleges? - SignOnSanDiego.com

A new role for community colleges? - SignOnSanDiego.com:Publish Post

"High school graduates who are shut out of California’s public universities by enrollment caps or escalating tuition could one day earn a bachelor’s degree at a community college near them.

Powerful higher-education interests dismiss the idea as “mission creep,” but the state’s budget crisis is testing California’s long-standing ideals for education.

Across the country, the movement to allow community colleges to offer four-year degrees has gained ground as state universities struggle with increased demand for limited slots."

Lawmakers to boost bid for U.S. school funds :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Politics

Lawmakers to boost bid for U.S. school funds :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Politics:

"SPRINGFIELD -- When lawmakers return to Springfield this week, the General Assembly is expected to act swiftly on a bid to improve Illinois' chances of getting up to $400 million in federal funds that could prop up the state's cash-strapped education budget.

Gov. Quinn's office is working to meet a Jan. 19 deadline to apply for an initiative by President Obama's administration to award $4.35 billion to a few states for their attempts to improve education.

That still-evolving state push represents one of the likely highlights of a two-day legislative session that starts Tuesday and concludes Wednesday with Quinn's State of the State speech."

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