Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sacramento City Educational Foundation (SCEF)

Sacramento City Educational Foundation (SCEF)
Sacramento City Educational Foundation (SCEF)

 
Our Mission: The Sacramento City Educational Foundation (SCEF) is an independent, non-profit organization founded to raise financial and other resources for the benefit of students and classrooms in the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD). 



Donations
Staffing & Organization		 
Donating & getting funds for classrooms!
New Money for Teachers!
Ms. Roberts teaches at Woodbine Elementary School in Sacramento, where 92% of the students qualify for free and reduced price lunches. Despite the challenges, she is determined to bring the best educational experience possible to her second graders, including teaching these eager young minds about the importance of taking care of the environment. So, Ms. Roberts turned to DonorsChoose.org and requested a worm farm to help foster the students’ love of gardening, science and helping the earth.
Donors pitched in and funded her project and, if you are a public school teacher, they can help fund your project too. By submitting projects on DonorsChoose.org, Ms. Roberts has since been able to add whiteboards and math manipulatives to her classroom, thanks to the individuals who chose to bring these projects to life for her students! The teacher noted that the donors “have given [her students] an opportunity to actively participate in lessons and be creative. These materials will be used for many years in my classroom.”
Now is the perfect time to request resources for your classroom, as DonorsChoose.org is working with the Sacramento City Educational Foundation (SCEF) to support teachers and students in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Just in time for the back to school season, SCEF will match donations from the public for selected classroom projects in the district, meaning that your classroom needs are that much more likely to be met!
SCEF is a volunteer-led, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing resources for students in the Sacramento City Unified School District. The purpose of these grants is to enhance student achievement and educational opportunities in innovative ways. If you are a public school teacher, visitwww.donorschoose.org/teachers to get started! 


It’s easy to support your local schools!
DonorsChoose.org makes it really simple and fun to help classrooms right in your own backyard. Through this person to person philanthropy website, individuals can check out teachers’ wish lists – from calculators to classic novels – and choose which classroom project they want to support. Donors can contribute as little as $1 to help bring dedicated and innovative teachers’ ideas to life. After completing a project, you will hear back from the classroom you supported with photographs and thank you notes.
This back to school season, DonorsChoose.org is partnering with the Sacramento City Educational Foundation (SCEF) to support schools right in your neighborhood. SCEF will provide 50% of the funding for selected classroom projects in SCUSD, making it even easier for you to make a difference in your community. The support of the SCEF comes at a critical time, when Sacramento teachers and students are lacking essential classroom supplies due to severe budget constraints. You can make a huge difference for teachers and students without having to break your own budget.
To date, over 100,000 public and charter school teachers have used the site to secure funding for more than $35 million in books, supplies, technology, and other resources that their students need to learn. Through www.DonorsChoose.org, individuals from all walks of life have helped over 2 million students from low-income families. To support teachers and students in the Sacramento City Unified School District, visitwww.donorschoose.org.
DonorsChoose.org contact:Candice Chesson, West Region Associate Director, candice@donorschoose.org 
Sacramento City Educational Foundation contact:Alice Levine, harroun53@aol.com
 -or-  Larkin Penrose, LJPenrose@att.net
Posted by at

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Feb. 25

Submitted by Erika Owens on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 08:38 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink
Phila. schools chief vows action against violenceThe Inquirer The police chief, DA, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and others supported Superintendent Ackerman as she described what the District will do about school violence.
See also: Teens on school violence: 'Everybody's dying young' Daily News
Ackerman, others vow action on youth violence Philly.com
Mob Mentality City Paper
No resolution on violence at South Philly The Notebook blog
Helen Gym wrote about the "frightening analysis" in the investigation of events in South Philly.
SRC modifies its charter-school policy The Inquirer
The policy allows successful charters to apply to add grades in year three of the five-year charter term, rather than only at renewal.
See also: SRC: Change for charters Daily News
Phila. School District Extends School Year KYW
The last day of school is one day later and two days were removed from spring break.
See also: A snow day [today] — yippee Philly.com
How Do We Best Teach Technology? Philly Teacher blog
A technology teacher reflects on how to teach a subject that should not be taught in isolation.
Why Don't Liberals Really Like Poor Children? A Good Day Teaching blog
A response to the liberal hand-wringing about sending kids to public schools.
Philly Teachers Need Anger Management? Philly School Search blog
Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.
Posted by at

Students Urged to Apply for CalGrants by March 2nd Deadline — The Rancho Cordova Post

Students Urged to Apply for CalGrants by March 2nd Deadline — The Rancho Cordova Post


Students Urged to Apply for CalGrants by March 2nd Deadline

by ASSEMBLYMEMBER HUBER on FEBRUARY 23, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS
in VIEWPOINTS
Assemblymember Alyson Huber, a past Cal Grant recipient, wants to remind students and parents that March 2nd is the deadline to apply for CalGrants. Cal Grants, a need-based financial aid program, has been a big part of making college affordable for many California families.
“Paying for school is tough. I know because I was the first in my family to graduate from college and financial aid helped make it possible for me to succeed,” said Assemblymember Alyson Huber. “Today, every low- or moderate-income student who meets the academic standards is guaranteed a Cal Grant award and we must do everything we can to ensure that every eligible student takes advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.”Eligible students receive grants for tuition and fees at the California State University or the University of California. Awards are also given to community college students and students entering private California colleges, including technical education programs.
Students must apply for a Cal Grant by submitting a Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Form and a Cal Grant Grade Point Average Verification Form. Changes in the law guarantee that every eligible student will get a Cal Grant award of up to $9,708 a year, depending on the cost of their college or university, their financial need and the type of grant. One of the most important things to note, Cal Grants do not have to be repaid.
Assemblymember Huber noted that despite the financial turmoil with the recent state budget 
Posted by at

The Answer Sheet - A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)

The Answer Sheet - A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)
Posted by at

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Teacher apologizing to student in pledge flap

High school students recite the Pledge of Allegiance last year. (TWP)

















Should 9th graders take AP?

[This is my column for the Local Living section of Feb. 25, 2010.]
My wife and I sometimes got emotionally involved with high school issues when our children attended. High school counts. Parents can get upset. So I paid close attention when two Arlington County mothers contacted me, separately, about a flap over Advanced Placement World History in ninth grade.
“Two Arlington high schools are offering AP World History to freshmen, and one [Yorktown] is refusing to do so, saying freshmen shouldn’t take AP,” one said. The other said, “I’ve gotten mixed responses from teachers, counselors and other parents. Some feel it’s unnecessary pressure at too early an age.” They asked that I not use their names because one works in intelligence and the other is a PTA officer who wants to remain neutral in public.
Being sophisticated Arlingtonians, they understand the puzzling socioeconomic subtext. Yorktown (15 percent of students are low-income) is the high school for the affluent northern part of the county. Washington-Lee (34 percent low-income students) in the middle and Wakefield (48 percent low-income students) in the south have more economically diverse enrollments. You would expect Yorktown to be the most in love with starting college-level AP courses early because of its many families obsessed with getting their children into the likes of Dartmouth, Vanderbilt or U-Va., but no.
Continue reading this post »

College application videos: Good or bad idea?

Underscoring the fine line between art and reality, the movie “Legally Blonde” seems to have foretold the newest innovation in college admissions: YouTube videos.
In the movie, the rich sorority girl Elle played by Reese Witherspoon submits a video, supposedly directed by Francis Ford Coppola, to Harvard Law School and winds up being accepted.
Continue reading this post »

DCPS lining up support for Council hearing

School officials are working to make sure they have plenty of friendly voices at the D.C. Council's annual performance oversight hearing on March 15. Testimony at these events tends to become an open-ended infomercial for those unhappy with Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. So Peggy O'Brien, Rhee's family and public engagement chief, is reaching out to those who have had kind words for DCPS and have asked what they can do to help.
"The District of Columbia deserves a more complete picture of the school reform efforts underway," O'Brien writes.
She's even provided talking points: "Test scores and graduation rates are up, facilities have been modernized, our teachers are more qualified, more effective, and better supported, access to technology is system wide, early education is expanding and improving, and programs to address reading and learning problems are proliferating."
And for those who don't have eight or nine hours to spare waiting for a shot at the mike, O'Brien says DCPS will be happy to call with a heads up about an hour in advance of when their turn is likely to come up.

Here's the e-mail in its entirety:
Continue reading this post »


Posted by at

Lawsuit: Layoffs hurt minority kids The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess

Lawsuit: Layoffs hurt minority kids

Posted in Achievement Gap, Adequacy suit
Regulations for teacher layoffs are a prime example of how interests of adults are put ahead of those of children, especially minority children. Now, that system, along with state budget cuts that set it in motion, will face a court challenge.
In a case with statewide implications, the ACLU of Southern California and other public interest and pro bono attorneys are suing the state and Los Angeles Unified, charging that teacher layoffs have savaged three low-performing, low-income middle schools. All three have been thrown into turmoil since between half and nearly three quarters of their teachers got layoff notices last year.  Most eventually did lose their jobs because of  rules that dictate that less experienced teachers must be the first to go, regardless of how good they are with students and how well they fit in the school.
(Read more and comment on this post)
Posted by at

Schools Matter: Duncan Advocates Segregated Total Compliance While Giving Lip Service to Control "Restraint and Seclusion"

Schools Matter: Duncan Advocates Segregated Total Compliance While Giving Lip Service to Control "Restraint and Seclusion":

"Duncan Advocates Segregated Total Compliance While Giving Lip Service to Control 'Restraint and Seclusion'

The hundreds of millions of vulture capital dollars that have gone into the development of the KIPP empire have yielded a much more substantial result than just the few dozen total compliance cults spread across the wide span of U.S. media markets. These segregated cadillacs of child penal pedagogy have inspired a near universal acceptance among urban public schools and urban charter chain gangs of a virulent form of total-control, no excuses regimentation that extends all the way down into urban kindergartens.

Closing the achievement gap without doing anything about socioeconomic disadvantage remains the pipe dream the modern day eugenicists at the Gates Foundation, and it will require a whole new regimen of mind management and behavior buttressing among the children of the poor: KIPP's kiddie-corporate model of shot-gunned happiness treatments through the use of Seligman's positive psychology dog-training tricks is now seen as the intervention to imitate across urban America."
Posted by at

Rise & Shine: PEP approves charter school co-location plans | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: PEP approves charter school co-location plans | GothamSchools


Rise & Shine: PEP approves charter school co-location plans

by Philissa Cramer
  • Mayor Bloomberg said the city’s teacher contract “demands” weren’t really demands at all. (Times)
  • Juan Gonzalez: Eva Moskowitz enjoys an unusual level of support from Chancellor Klein. (Daily News)
  • Parents at Achievement First Endeavor Charter School say discipline is too strict. (Post, Daily News)
  • The Panel for Educational Policy voted to approve 16 school co-location plans. (Daily News, NY1)
  • A review found that city charter schools get less money than district schools. (GothamSchools)
  • City schools have enrolled more than 200 students from Haiti since the earthquake. (Queens Courier)
  • The Post questions Chancellor Klein’s priorities in revising bake sale rules before firing more teachers.
  • Kennedy HS saw a 50 percent drop in crime and is off the most dangerous schools list. (Riverdale Press)
Posted by at

LA Teacher’s Union Wins the Day � The Quick and the Ed

LA Teacher’s Union Wins the Day � The Quick and the Ed
LA Teacher’s Union Wins the Day

February 25th, 2010 | Category: Educational Choice

When it was adopted last summer by the Los Angeles School Board, the Public School Choice resolution has heralded as a huge victory for education reformers in California. Under this resolution, charter schools, Mayor Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS), the teacher union and the district itself would compete to operate not only a set of new schools just coming on line but also compete to run a set of the district’s lowest performing schools. In the first round, the future of 18 new schools and 12 existing low performing schools were up. To the great disappointment of the charter school community, yesterday the school board made its decision, and 22 of the 30 schools were turned over to teacher lead efforts. Three schools will be run by the mayor’s partnership and four will run by charter schools ( By my math that is only 29 and I don’t know what happened to the 30th, and some of the schools divided up to become schools within schools). In total these schools will educate 40,000 students (a large school district in themselves). Given the stakes and the number of teacher jobs involved, it is not surprising that the teachers union was highly motivated to put together proposals to run the schools, and to advocate hard for the schools to continue to be run by United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) teachers. Left out of the running was Green Dot Schools run by education reform rock star, Steve Barr and several other charter school groups including the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools.
There was a complex review process that lead to the final board vote. First an internal review team and a superintendent’s panel made recommendations. These reviews lead to the superintendent’s recommendations and then the board’s actions. The board generally went with the superintendent’s recommendation, but did opt for the teacher’s union alternative on occasion. In fact at each stage of the process, there seemed to be a transition from a technical process to a political one, and a few charter school proposals fell off the table to be replaced by the teacher union alternative. Strongly influencing this decision was a non-binding vote of teachers, parents, and community members. The LA Times documents the debacle of this voting process which sounded more like what you would expect out of third world country that as a way to run a school system. But, what was clear from the community voting process is that teachers and their union are really good and well organized when it comes to getting out the vote.
While I am sorry to see that more of the schools did not go to the charter 

Step One: Make a Plan

by Erin Dillon
This week I’ve been blogging about ES’s recent report on student loan default rates and the report’s big message–that institutions matter in preventing loan defaults.
But what steps, exactly, can a college or university take to reduce loan defaults? I encourage anyone who wants to answer that question to read the whole report for its many, brilliant insights on default aversion. In the meantime, though, here are a few of the strategies we found at institutions that were successful in lowering loan defaults:


Posted by at

Reform: First, Fire All The Teachers This Week In Education

This Week In Education

Quote: Highways Without Safety Rails

“It’s as if the federal government had spent billions for new highway construction, butnothing to put up guardrails along the sides of those highways.”
-- Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, at a House education hearing on Wednesday



Reform: First, Fire All The Teachers

A roundup of news coverage about the Central Falls HS turnaround story and other related conflicts:
Plan to fire all its teachers roils poor RI city Washington Post: The blue-and-white banner exclaiming "anticipation" on the front of Central Falls High School seems like a cruel joke for an institution so chronically troubled that its leaders decided to fire every teacher by year's end.340x_easybakesmall22310
A Jumble of Strong Feelings After Vote on a Troubled SchoolNYT:  In hopes of a “turnaround,” all the faculty members at an underperforming high school in Rhode Island are fired.
L.A. Unified is sued over teacher layoffs at 3 low-performing schools LA TImes:  Suit seeks to prevent further teacher cuts at the campuses, already hard hit by budget-related layoffs, saying the students are not being well served.
Chicago Teachers Union sues Board of Ed over possible reassignments/layoffs Chicago Now:  The Chicago Teachers Union is suing the Chicago Board of Education to stop it from designating certain schools for "turnaround" and "consolidation" which the union argues would effectively lead to layoffs and be a violation of the TAP (Teacher Advancement) programs.
It's not a joke when reform reaches peoples' jobs, especially during tough economic times.  Failure to resolve any one of these high-profile cases would affect school reform efforts nationally.

News: LAUSD Board Snubs Charters, Cortines

by Alexander Russo
L.A. School Board Snubs Charter School Operators Associated Press:  The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday voted to reject a number of applications from charter school operators, choosing instead to hand control of nearly 30 schools to nonprofit educational groups formed by teachers and administrators already employed by the district.11111111111news
As U.S. Aid Grows, Oversight Is Urged for Charter Schools NYT: The president of one influential charter group told the House Education and Labor Committee that the federal government had spent $2 billion since the mid-1990s to finance new charter schools but less than $2 million, about one-tenth of 1 percent, to ensure that they were held to high standards.

School Laptop Spying Allegations Raise Privacy Questions NPR:  A high school student in suburban Philadelphia is suing his school district for allegedly spying on him through the webcam of a school-issued laptop. Are such practices are widespread in schools and corporations? (Plus:  Pa. educator says she didn't watch student webcams)
Obama Official Applauds Rhode Island Teacher Firings CBS News:  "This is hard work and these are tough decisions, but students only have one chance for an education," Duncan said, adding that "when schools continue to struggle we have a collective obligation to take action." [see next post above for more]
Posted by at

Local News | Levy results show schools matter to voters, officials say | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Levy results show schools matter to voters, officials say | Seattle Times Newspaper:

"Levy results show schools matter to voters, officials say

Area school officials say that final results from the Feb. 9 special election show voters made school issues a priority despite a tough economy."


Area school officials say that final results from the Feb. 9 special election show voters made school issues a priority despite a tough economy.
Voters approved all of the school levies for districts in King and Snohomish counties, according to the official results released Wednesday. Two large bonds also won approval, while two others, in Lake Washington School District and Marysville School District, fell short.
"In these tough times, voters want to see their schools supported and strengthened," said Lisa Macfarlane, of the League of Education Voters. "This was obviously a big win for school kids all across the state."
Two Seattle Public Schools levies easily passed.

A nice way to learn about life

Civil rights is about people being nice to each other. Grown-ups can get caught up in wrangling over laws and statistics, but that simple...
Jerry Large
Seattle Times staff columnist





Civil rights is about people being nice to each other.
Grown-ups can get caught up in wrangling over laws and statistics, but that simple definition from an attorney was prompted by a middle-school boy.
Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, visited Seattle's Washington Middle School on Wednesday to watch students participate in an anti-bullying program.
Perez asked one class what it had learned and a boy said, be nice to people, which prompted Perez's definition of the field he has worked in for most of his career.
His current job is to enforce the country's civil-rights laws, and he is traveling to let people know "the civil-rights division is open for business again" after several low-profile years.
He visited Washington Middle School because he wants to spotlight the role schools play in crafting a more civil society.
Perez told students that too often, "today's bullies become tomorrow's defendants in civil-rights cases."
He said Washington's program could serve as a model for other schools.

All teachers fired at troubled school as talks fall apart

The blue-and-white banner exclaiming "anticipation" on the front of Central Falls High School seems like a cruel joke for an institution...



Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)