Big Education Ape

Monday, February 22, 2010

Editorial - Failing Grade - NYTimes.com

At least one in five adult workers in New York City lacks a high school diploma. New York State has the highest failure rate for adults who want to get an equivalent credential by taking the General Educational Development Test, or G.E.D. For the sake of these workers — and New York’s economy — the city and state need to work together to rebuild the failing system that is supposed to prepare people for the G.E.D.
In her State of the City speech last week, Speaker Christine Quinn said the City Council is committed to fixing the system and outlined several new ideas. To fully rebuild the G.E.D. system, the State Legislature will also need to put a lot more money into the program.
New York would do well to emulate Iowa’s highly successful preparation program. In 2008, 99 percent of test takers there passed the arduous exam.
The secret is this: People in Iowa are given adequate preparation. First they are required to take a diagnostic test. Depending on how they do, they are offered literacy courses or other instruction and given official practice tests before they take the exam.
New Yorkers generally find it difficult to find adequate information about the test and

Metro - It’s a nightmare to apply for high schools in city

The admissions process — a complicated algorithm used to “match” students and schools — is akin to what medical school grads go through when applying to residency programs. The system may be designed to give more choice, so students aren’t tethered to poorly performing neighborhood schools, but it’s incredibly stressful for families.

“I spent hours and hours researching schools,” said Leah Archibald, of Park Slope, who wants her daughter at a small school. “It’s intellectually and emotionally draining and extraordinarily time-consuming.”

She was one of several parents surprised and disappointed when only two Brooklynites matched during this month’s specialized round at Millennium High School, a small Lower Manhattan school whose current student body is one-third Brooklyn. Department of Education officials said there were more qualified Manhattan students, who get first priority.
“It feels pretty random,” Archibald said.

“It’s intentionally opaque because they don’t want people to game the system,” said Brooklyn College education professor and former president of the

5 questions for Eva Moskowitz | INDenverTimes.com

Eva Moskowitz runs four campuses of theHarlem Success Academy in New York City and talks about growing the charter school network to 40.

She is a former New York City councilwoman who infuriated both the city Department of Education and the teachers’ union with her questioning as chair of the council’s education committee.

Supporters point to some of the state’s highest test scores at her first Harlem campus, opened in 2006, and its emphasis on science, the arts and chess.

Critics say she’s a politician at heart and she’s been dinged for making too much money.

In Denver on Friday, Moskowitz sat down with Ed News Colorado to talk about the challenges ahead for the nation’s charter schools, the controversy over co-location or putting charter programs in district buildings and recent studies describing segregation in charter schools.

Ed News: Charter schools seem to be as controversial today as they were when they were created more than a decade ago in many states. In Denver, a school board member announced Thursday that he planned to seek a moratorium on any new schools. Board member Arturo Jimenez says he is not anti-charter but his move, if successful, could hurt charters more as they have made up most of the city’s new schools. Why do you think charters are still so hotly debated?

L. Merion webcam issue is new legal territory | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/21/2010

Even today, relatively few students can imagine their schools giving them a computer to take home.

Fewer still can envision their schools using those devices to spy on them.

Yet that was the charge leveled in an explosive federal lawsuit filed last week against the Lower Merion School District in its use of remote-control cameras on those laptop computers.
Now federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the district, The Inquirer has learned. The grand-jury subpoena, delivered Friday, sought records related to the cameras and the system that district officials used to activate them, said a person who had been briefed about the matter. He spoke on the condition of anonymity.

School district spokesman Douglas Young, while declining to say if a subpoena was received, said yesterday that the district would cooperate with any investigation.

U.S. Attorney Michael Levy, who previously headed the office's computer crimes unit, declined to comment. But one federal official offered a rough outline of what investigators might be looking for.

"Among the allegations we would look at are whether any wiretap or computer intrusion laws were broken," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We're just getting started. And at the end of the day, we may not find any federal violations."

The wiretap law applies to audio, not video or still images. The intrusion law bars unauthorized access to a computer with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or invade privacy.
The case has riveted not only students and parents, but also privacy

N.J. schools brace for possible aid cuts | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/21/2010

Lay off teachers and staff and increase class sizes. Ax sports programs and clubs. Scrap class trips and keep the school band home. Eliminate programs, put off repairs, scuttle faculty training, and raise taxes - if possible.

Those are some of the scenarios New Jersey school district officials are considering as they await word on whether Gov. Christie will cut education funding in next year's budget, which he will propose March 16.

Faced with a $2.2 billion deficit in the current budget, Christie on Feb. 11 issued an executive order that slashes $475 million in aid to schools and will force districts to spend their surpluses and reserve funds to make up the shortfall.

Christie vowed the cuts would have no ill effect on education this school year. But school administrators say they had planned to use the surpluses to offset anticipated flat or reduced state aid in the next budget. They are being punished for being fiscally prudent, they said.
Then last week, the governor and acting Education Commissioner Bret Schundler repeated advice issued by the Corzine administration: Districts should prepare for possible aid cuts next school year - even 15 percent.

Given the lack of aid specifics and the tight time frame for school boards to approve tentative budgets once figures are released, district officials are creating various scenarios, including the doomsday variety.

"We're scrambling right now, and things are changing rapidly," said Gary Dentino, Waterford School District superintendent. "We don't see light coming through to us. We only see dark."

Recession, Immigration And Migration In America | Gov Monitor

The old saying that Americans have been moving from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt fails to capture either what has been happening from 1990 to the onset of the current recession in 2007 or what is happening today.
Demography is destiny, or at least a significant part of it, and America’s changing demography has had enormous consequences in every realm of life. Americans historically have been a mobile people.
But the old saying that Americans have been moving from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt fails to capture what has been happening from 1990 to the onset of the current recession in 2007. And there are entirely new realities due to the recession that are remaking states and regions in important ways.
First, let’s consider the period from 1990 to 2007. In some states—notably New York, New Jersey, and California—immigrants poured in and Americans left. Some states had robust growth both from immigration and internal migration—the megastates of Texas and Florida and also the “sand states” of Nevada and Arizona which, during most of this period, had the nation’s highest percentage of

Reactions: Is Tenure a Matter of Life or Death? - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The shootings on February 12 at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, which left three faculty members dead and two more professors and a department assistant wounded, have sparked a good deal of soul-searching within higher education. Amy Bishop, an assistant professor of biology at the university who was recently denied tenure, was arrested at the scene and has been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Bishop's tenure denial may or may not be relevant to the shootings, but some scholars are asking what role, if any, the stresses of academic life played in the tragedy. What are the psychological effects of academic culture, particularly on rising scholars? Can or should something be done to change that culture?

The Chronicle asked a group of scholars and experts what they thought.

Cristina Nehring, writer and Ph.D. candidate in English literature at the University of California at Los Angeles:

Amy Bishop is nobody's poster girl—not even for the tragic perversity of the tenure process.

This, after all, is the woman who reportedly listed three of her children as co-authors to the most

Evan Young: Colleg Debt: Losing Faith in the Golden State

Currently in my second year of my Masters program at San Francisco State University (SFSU), I'm finding it very hard, if not impossible, to finish my degree without drowning in debt. Being a San Francisco Bay Area native, I take great pride in California's state public university system; however, I am quickly losing faith in the Golden State.

In 2006, I graduated from SFSU with a B.A. in English Literature and soon after I was lucky enough to get hired at a startup internet advertising firm. Racking up around $5k in credit card debt and about $10k in student loan debt from my undergrad education, my goal was to get it paid off as soon as possible. Luckily, because my first job out of college paid me well, I was able to pay off the credit cards within two years and start to pay off my student loan. That all changed when I decided to go back to school to get my M.A. in Environmental Communication at the beginning of 2009 - just as the recession was beginning to take hold. With my little savings, and deciding to take out student loans for the duration of my M.A. degree, I again enrolled at SFSU to pursue a career in public service.

Jump ahead to now, and I am again swimming in debt. Along with the student loans from my undergrad, the credit cards that I have run up buying books and supplies, and the student

Tens of thousands apply for state redistricting panel - ContraCostaTimes.com

Call it an energetic first step toward giving politics back to the people.

More than 30,000 people applied by last Tuesday's deadline for the 14 seats on a citizen commission that will redo the state's allegedly gerrymandered district lines in time for the 2012 elections.

The commission is a key step toward making good on Proposition 11, the 2008 ballot measure that requires California to clean up the way legislative districts are mapped, a change supporters think will lead to less political partisanship.

Proponents of taking line-drawing duty away from officeholders said the sheer number of applicants was a pleasant surprise, considering that the process known as redistricting is inherently unsexy, the commission's task appears dizzying, and a new ballot effort by Democrats could keep the panel from ever serving.

"I'm thrilled that that many people said, 'Yes, devoting that much of my life to drawing Assembly and state Senate lines is something I want to do'," said Jessica Levinson, director of political reform for the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. "It may show that citizens are really eager to take back some power from the politicians."

If all goes as backers envision, the 30,720 applicants will be winnowed down to the 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission. Then the commission will take state population information from the 2010 federal census and draw 80 Assembly, 40 state Senate and four Board of Equalization

districts that ensure fair representation for voters and competitive campaigns for candida

Budget ax poised over Catalina Island's one-room schoolhouse - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Budget ax poised over Catalina Island's one-room schoolhouse - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

"TWO HARBORS, Santa Catalina Island – One of California's last one-room public schoolhouses will soon close in this sleepy town, the latest victim of state education cuts.

While residents of the island about 25 miles off the Southern California coast understand the math, life will change dramatically for the town's population of 150. Starting this fall, children as young as 5 will be bused more than three hours round trip over mountainous dirt roads to reach the island's only other school, in Avalon.

'It's a really long day for the kids, and my granddaughter Coral Rose, who just turned 7 today, would need to leave at 6:30 in the morning and not get home till 5 o'clock,' said Pam Deinlein, manager of the General Store and the first of three generations living in the remote town."

San Gabriel Valley's political odd couple unite for education - Pasadena Star-News

San Gabriel Valley's political odd couple unite for education - Pasadena Star-News

Maybe it's their roots in hardscrabble desert towns. But two San Gabriel Valley state senators from opposite ends of the political spectrum have found common ground when it comes to education.

Senators Bob Huff, R-Glendora and Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, have introduced laws aimed at giving parents far more say over their children's schools.

Romero, a Barstow native, is the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee and was arrested in 2000 while supporting demonstrating janitors.

Huff, raised in the Imperial Valley, is the vice-chairman and thinks its best to apply Ronald Reagan-style market economics to the education system.

With some urban districts reporting dropout rates of 50 percent, Huff and Romero each said it's time to turn up the heat on schools, even if it means some districts lose children and funding.

"The children do not belong to them. Children are not debit cards," Romero said. "Parents should have the choice to make the decision for the best interest of their children. This is a whole new era where choice and competition matter."

She and Huff co-authored Senate Bill 680, known as District Of Choice, which made permanent a program that lets schools enroll out-of-district

Arts lose out in Metro school cuts | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Kids bob like small boats around Carrie Fonder as she tries to navigate the halls of Detroit's Edison Elementary School. "Miss Carrie!" they call, tugging on her sleeve. "Are we coming to art class today?" Fonder isn't a Detroit Public Schools teacher. She's a visiting artist whose salary is paid by a nonprofit group.

In that regard, Edison's 375 children are luckier than they know. Only 40 percent, or 69, of the 172 DPS schools have an art teacher, down from 80 percent 10 years ago. And just 30 percent of Detroit schools -- the engines that powered Motown -- offer music instruction.

Detroit's public schools have been in crisis mode for far more than a decade. But suburban schools may not be far behind. In October, all public schools suffered a $165 per pupil cut in state aid -- some suburbs lost even more -- leaving even wealthy-by-comparison systems contemplating cuts to programs once regarded as indispensable.

Student achievement in core subjects like English and math gets tested yearly under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and Michigan Educational Assessment Program exams, to which state aid is tied. So when budgets shrink, art or music -- which are not tested -- are often the easiest to drop.

"The pressure to improve math and reading scores is so great that the fear response has been to get rid of everything else," said Ana Luisa Cardona, a fine arts curriculum consultant at the Michigan Department of Education. "So administrators eliminate the arts, even though research tells us they help engage a student and turn an entire school around."

Fine arts decimated

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100222/SCHOOLS/2220332/1026/Arts-lose-out-in-Metro-school-cuts#ixzz0gGr84gI9

Stimulating the government plantation

Living in California is a challenge to rationality. Essentially, living in California makes it hard to maintain sanity.

In other words, this place can drive you crazy!

Clearly a state run and controlled by Democrats/liberals/ progressives/socialists/communists/Marxists – take your pick – with as iron a fist as they're able to muster, what's going on now is enough to spin your brain. And it doesn't help when activists and bureaucrats from Washington get involved.

Would it surprise anyone that the powers that be in the state would favor affirmative action? Would it be a surprise to know that those same people and agencies would do all they can to promote "a level playing field" and "fairness" for anyone they deem underprivileged, under-served victims.

Of course not!

Look at these headlines from just last week.

A federal lawsuit was filed to overturn California's ban on affirmative action in public university admissions and hiring.

At issue is Proposition 209, approved by 55 percent of the voters in November 1996. The proposition is a constitutional amendment that prohibits public institutions from considering race or sex or ethnicity in hiring or school admissions.

From the beginni

Daily 49er - Our View - Affirmative action not defendable policy

This country is built on foundations absent of entitlement. The meritocracy built on these foundations has developed a society unlike any other. We are not judged by the color of our skin; and the proper noun that follows our first name has no bearing on our future.

It wouldn’t be wrong to describe this understanding as idealistic but to say that it is not something we strive for, well, that’s where one would be wrong. In other words, “unamerican” would be the one who fights for anything different.

In steps that contradict the very foundations of this country, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) announced last Tuesday, that they will file suit on behalf of California students, in order to overturn voter-approved Proposition 209.

As a reflection of language already found in our Constitution, this proposition was passed, with 54 percent of the vote on Nov. 5, 1996. Opposition was concentrated in Los Angeles County as well as the Bay Area. The proposition prohibits state institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity.

Proposition 209’s biggest role has, undoubtedly, been in higher education. After its passage in 1996, public universities in California were barred from admitting students based on race, sex or ethnicity. This

Maldonado needs bipartisan boost for confirmation - SignOnSanDiego.com

The confirmation battle over state Sen. Abel Maldonado’s nomination to be lieutenant governor goes into Round 2. But is there any reason to believe that the Santa Maria Republican won’t be rejected again?

“It’s certainly not likely there’ll be a different outcome,” said AssemblymanMarty Block, D-San Diego. “My read on the Democratic caucus in the Assembly is that people are pretty dug in with their votes.”

Assembly Minority Leader Martin Garrick, R-Solana Beach, said he thinks there’s a chance Maldonado will be confirmed the second time around.

“There is the potential for those individuals that were undecided or indifferent at the time to give it additional consideration and move it forward,” Garrick said.

Latino Democrats who voted against

Has the Golden State gone bust?

Has the Golden State gone bust?:

"California's dire and ongoing budget predicament is raising a tough - and touchy - question about the state's finances, one that some at the Capitol do not want discussed: Is California bankrupt?"

Leaders and would-be leaders from both major parties have raised the b-word in the past weeks, and the Golden State is frequently labeled as bankrupt by people nationwide.
Federal law prohibits states from declaring bankruptcy and without a legal framework, assertions about California's solvency are left to interpretation. But persistent multibillion-dollar budget deficits, cash crises, tens of billions of dollars in debt and other obligations have blurred the legal distinction.
"California is deeply in debt. You could say that it's bankrupt," Attorney General - and presumptive Democratic gubernatorial candidate - Jerry Brown told a group of young Democrats earlier this month.
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina raised the specter of bankruptcy in a discussion with Southern California business owners. And Republican Assemblywoman and retired banker Diane Harkey of Dana Point (Orange County) said the state is "literally bankrupt."

Protecting state's reputation

She compared the state's situation to a family with a mortgaged house, maxed out credit cards and zero savings. She said her outspokenness on the topic at public meetings and

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/21/MNJ71BUILC.DTL#ixzz0gGp3rRaS

Members of public education system organize statewide protest of budget cuts�|�Daily Titan

Members of public education system organize statewide protest of budget cuts Daily Titan:

"Banners posted throughout CSUF's campus advertise the statewide rally against budget cuts to be held on March 4. Photo by Christa Connelly/Daily Titan Photo Editor
Students and faculty from Cal State Fullerton and over 100 different schools, unions and organizations will meet at Los Angeles’ Pershing Square March 4 to march to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office for a rally to protest budget cuts, which continue to affect California’s public education system.

The march is sponsored by the Southern California Public Education Coalition and will include participants from all 23 Cal State University campuses.

The march is just one of many statewide “Mobilization for Education” planned events that will occur on the same day at or around all 23 CSU campuses, according to the California Faculty Association (CFA). Other planned events include sit-ins, rallies and demonstrations.

In addition to the events planned for California on March 4, groups from 17 other states will be holding demonstrations, including New York, Alabama and Michigan."

The Daily Aztec - LOYAL DISSENTER: Budget reform threatens Teach for America

The Daily Aztec - LOYAL DISSENTER: Budget reform threatens Teach for America:

"President Barack Obama has recently proposed to include his Race to the Top program in the 2011 education budget, in which states can apply to compete for a portion of a proposed $4 billion. It’s one of the largest education investments in history. States that choose to apply are judged by how they meet the new high education standards laid out by the Obama administration. Forty states, including California, applied during the first phase.

Unfortunately, many states that have applied for the Race to the Top program are struggling to keep their basic education programs running. These states, are already struggling, are going to have a hard time taking on the new reforms and projects that are required to be considered for Race to the Top funds. Some teachers also claim that these new projects might fade away if the funding is not consistently re-awarded.

In his announcement of Race to the Top, Obama said, “Not every state will win and not every school district will be happy with the results.” That’s an understatement."

No (Tenured) Teacher Left Behind - WSJ.com

School reformers generally agree that the most important education resource is the teacher. But one of the biggest obstacles to putting a good instructor in every classroom is a tenure system that forces principals to hire and retain teachers based on seniority instead of performance.

California grants tenure to teachers after merely two years in the classroom. New York, like most other states, makes teachers wait a grand total of three years before giving them a job for life. In most cases tenure is granted automatically unless administrators object, which is rare.

A recent report in the Los Angeles Times revealed that the LA school district, the nation's second-largest after New York City's, "routinely grants tenure to new teachers after cursory reviews—and sometimes none at all." According to the Times, "the district's evaluation of teachers does not take into account whether students are learning. Principals are not required to consider testing data, student work or grades."

This means that large numbers of ineffective teachers wind up with ironclad job protection. When low-performing teachers can't be fired, it's the students who suffer. A New Teacher Project study last year looked at tenure evaluations in multiple states and found that "less than 1% of teachers receive unsatisfactory ratings, even in schools where students fail to meet basic academic standards, year after year." Less than 2% of teachers are denied tenure in LA,

Tuition-free, online education? Try University of the People - USATODAY.com

Tuition-free, online education? Try University of the People - USATODAY.com:

"It is a grand vision: a global college with no tuition, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
When higher education entrepreneur Shai Reshef laid out his ambitious plan to build a free university that would use modern technology to spread the promise of a college degree to all corners of the earth, he got an enthusiastic reaction from some high-profile institutions. The United Nations has backed the venture. So has Yale Law School's Information Society Project. Reshef and his lieutenants also like to mention the many letters of support and offers to pitch in from professors worldwide.

But the project drew skepticism as well. Higher education has seen more than one ambitious distance education efforts fail in recent years, including the internationally focused U21 Global, and those projects had the benefit of tuition revenue.

Hybrid education 2.0: Can open learning programs work?"

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