Friday, February 26, 2010

ED Releases Teacher Incentive Fund Regs - Teacher Beat - Education Week

ED Releases Teacher Incentive Fund Regs

By Stephen Sawchuk on February 26, 2010 3:16 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The much-awaited—by Teacher Beat anyway—proposed regulations for the Teacher Incentive Fund grant have finally been released by the Education Department.

They are much more newsworthy for what's NOT explicitly stated than what they actually lay out.

The teachers' unions have said that any federal performance-pay program should require grantees to collectively bargain the terms of the grant with the local union, or to use another adoption mechanism, such as a teacher vote.

The notice dodges that issue almost entirely. Although the regulations would require all applications to engage stakeholders, per this addition in last year's budget bill, there is barely any mention about collective bargaining. Here's the extent of the language. Applications must demonstrate that their plan:

"Has the involvement and support of teachers, principals, and other certified personnel (including input from teachers and principals in the schools and [districts] to be served by the grant) and the involvement and support of unions in participating [districts] where they are the designated exclusive representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining that is needed to carry out the grant."

There are a few additions to the program, such as a requirement that grantees update their teacher evaluations, that would probably require bargaining. But this is still a far cry from giving teachers a formal vetting process over the grants.

To be funded, applications must meet three "absolute" priorities. All grantees must explore either individual or group-based awards or some combination of the two and measure teachers on both student growth and on observations; that they show evidence of fiscal sustainability; and that they show "programmatic" sustainability by being aligned with other strategies for increasing teacher effectiveness.

Youth Services, Employment & Training Administration (ETA) - U.S. Department of Labor

UNITED STATESDEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration

Youth Services, Employment & Training Administration (ETA) - U.S. Department of Labor

To prepare youth for the 21st century workforce, the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce Investment, Division of Youth Services coordinates youth workforce development investments.

WIA Youth Formula-Funded Grants
The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 enacted a formula-funded youth program serving eligible low-income youth, ages 14-21, who face barriers to employment. Funds for youth services are allocated to state and local areas based on a formula distribution. Service strategies, developed by workforce providers, prepare youth for employment and/or post-secondary education through strong linkages between academic and occupational learning. Local communities provide youth activities and services in partnership with the WIA One-Stop Career Center System and under the direction of local Workforce Investment Boards. To find the nearest One-Stop Career Center, visit: http://www.servicelocator.org/.

For information about statewide cross agency collaboration visit the Solutions Desk.

Youth Discretionary Grants
Discretionary grants are aimed at specific populations of at-risk youth, such as young offenders, and youth living in high-poverty areas. To view the list of youth discretionary grants click here.

News and Updates

U.S. Department of Labor Awards Approximately $114 Million in Grants for YouthBuild Projects

News and Updates Archive

Most Observers Embrace “Anti-Crap Doctrine” in L.A. | Intercepts

Most Observers Embrace “Anti-Crap Doctrine” in L.A.

The education reform crowd and many in the charter school movement were understandably disappointed that the Los Angeles Board of Education decided to turn over 22 of 30 campuses to teachers (read: UTLA) instead of outside organizations.

“We think it’s a victory for students and the collaboration between teachers and parents and administrators,” said A.J. Duffy, president of UTLA. “The world is going to see what we’ve been saying all along: Give the authority to teachers and we will create quality schools.”

As in the case of the UFT Charter School, Duffy will find it isn’t all cakes and ale being the boss, but I believe most of us would really like to see the schools succeed.

Joe Williams, executive director of the Democrats for Education Reform, is the creator of the “Anti-Crap Doctrine.” The text has been lost, but it states that despite our differences, we can all agree that crappy schools are crappy, it’s unacceptable to allow them to continue to be crappy, and something must be done to make them less crappy. Whatever works is to be applauded.

It doesn’t mean anyone involved must abandon his or her general principles. The political and policy battles will continue. The white hats will still blame the black hats. But if some kids in New York City and Los Angeles end up getting a better education in a union-run school than they otherwise would have, that’s a good thing for them and ultimately, for us.

Obama: Controversial Statue Moved To Alma Mater This Week In Education

This Week In Education

Obama: Controversial Statue Moved To Alma Mater

"The 110-centimeter (3 foot, 6 inch) high statue, depicting a 10-year old Obama in T-shirt and shorts, wearing a Hawaiian ethnic necklace and standing with a butterfly perching on his hand, was first unveiled in December at Menteng Park by Central Jakarta mayor Sylviana Murni." (Obama statue moved to old school after Facebook complaints Bloomberg News)

Thompson: Autonomy for Change.

If there is any organization that should understand the need for holistic, systemic reforms, it is Mass Insight, the organization responsible for the brilliant The Turnaround Challenge. If one ingredient is left out, it is nearly impossible to turnaround the "complex ecosystems" of persistently failing schools.

As Mass Insight seeks to "give school level leaders the freedom to make staffing, scheduling, curriculum and related decisions, in return for being held accountable for dramatic student achievement gains within two years," we should ask, however, whether they have neglected the single most important factor in their otherwise outstanding model. Their turnaround project rightly promised balanced autonomy to school leaders. But what about the professional autonomy of teachers?

Continue reading "Thompson: Autonomy for Change." »

Quote: Lessons From LA?

by Alexander Russo

“We think it’s a victory for students and the collaboration between teachers and parents and administrators. The world is going to see what we’ve been saying all along: Give the authority to teachers and we will create quality schools.”-- UTLA president AJ Duffy about the LAUSD Board vote earlier this week.

EdSource | Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better

Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better

Also of Interest

Educators widely recognize that the quality of preparation in middle school often determines whether our young people will succeed in high school and beyond. This is a particularly important challenge in California—the nation’s largest and most diverse state—which educates one out of eight middle grades students in the United States.

What district and school policies and practices are linked to higher student performance in the middle grades? To find out, a research team led by EdSource spent 18 months conducting the most extensive study ever of middle grades.

Besides EdSource, the team included professors Michael Kirst (as principal investigator) and Edward Haertel (as technical director) of Stanford University; senior research scientist Jesse Levin (as principal data analyst) at American Institutes for Research, and special consultant William Padia (retired) deputy superintendent of Assessment and Accountability, California Department of Education. In addition, Robert Balfanz, principal research scientist, Everyone Graduates Center, Johns Hopkins University, served as an advising consultant. (bios for full team below)

The study surveyed more than 4,000 California teachers, principals, and superintendents about a wide range of middle grades practices. To see what higher-performing schools did, the responses were then analyzed against school-level student outcomes on standards-based state tests in English language arts and math, controlling for student background.

The major contribution of this study is the set of inter-related, actionable practices that middle grades educators and leaders can implement now by making smart, strategic choices.

EdSource thanks Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, for his generous support of this study.

What Can a Policymaker Do? � The Quick and the Ed

What Can a Policymaker Do? This is the last post in a week of blogging about ES’s recent report on student loan default rates. Previous posts have talked about what the Texas I-20 corridor can teach us about loan defaults, what the numbers say about why institutions matter in ...

On the Likelihood of NCLB Reauthorization The National Journal took the pulse of congressional insiders asking them how likely certain pieces of legislation were to pass. Democrats put the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind at a 5.0 on a 10-point scale (10 being guaranteed to pass this ...

Congress: Where Presidential Budgets Go to Die Each year the President submits a budget proposal to Congress. The presentation of the presidential budget is normally the most honest and sane time in the entire budgetary process, because it presents the complete picture, addresses how to close ...

State delays list of lowest performers The Educated Guess

The Educated Guess

State delays list of lowest performers

Posted in Race to the Top

State and federal education officials are continuing to haggle over which low-performing schools should be restructured, leading to yet another delay in releasing a much-anticipated list of schools that makes superintendents shudder.
The state Department of Education had planned to release the list of 187 schools when the state submitted its Race to the Top application in January. Then Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced it would be today and sent out a letter this week to superintendents whose schools made the list explaining the process. But the feds still disagree on which schools made it, so everything is on hold.
(Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 25th, 2010

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)

This Week In Education: Trends: Charter Schools For Rich Kids, Part 2

This Week In Education: Trends: Charter Schools For Rich Kids, Part 2
Trends: Charter Schools For Rich Kids, Part 2

What to make of the fact that there are 79 low-poverty charter schools spread out among the 2800 "private" public schools cited in a recent Fordham Foundation report (here)?

The Fordham report makes the point that a small but substantial number of public schools serve a narrow, well-off slice of the public -- as exclusive if not more so than many private schools and almost all charter schools.

The existence of a small number of low-poverty / high wealth charter schools doesn't really undercut that observation. And as Fordham's Mike Petrilli pointed out to me, many of these schools are located in states that were early entrants to charter schooling and may be remnants from the days when the focus wasn't on poor and/or academically disadvantaged children.

The number may be growing, however, and in my mind that's not necessarily a bad thing. Charter

Schools Matter: Rhee Uses DCPS Employees to Recruit Friendly Testimony

When you are as popular as the Wicked Witch of the West, it makes a village, or at least a central office, to lasso any support among teachers, staff, or the general public. Now Rhee is using public dollars in an effort to garner enough support to save her own wickedness. From Bill Turque:

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

Schools Matter: Driving Schools into the Ground, One Charter at a Time

Driving Schools into the Ground, One Charter at a Time

Despite all the talk about accountability and the relentless assault of the public school system by charter advocates and their wealthy funders, real oversight of charter schools is 1) severely lacking and 2) doesn't have any real power to regulate these private versions of public schools.

Let me introduce you to Chase Academy for Communication Arts, which, despite it's name, is not affiliated with the banking giant. That didn't keep the head of the school, Celia Jones, from treating the school's budget like a credit card: in April of 2007, she wassuspended for an assortment of violations related to shoddy finances. But the most egregious abuse was charging students that qualified for reduced lunch prices almost double the amount they should have paid ($1 instead of $.60 - the charter folks sure know how to treat the poor well, don't they!).

This Week In Education

News: Lawmakers Push Back Against Duncan Focus On Competitive Grants

by Alexander Russo

Duncan questioned on move to cut funding for Teach for America Washington Post: Education Secretary Arne Duncan faced unusually sharp questioning from House Democrats Thursday over the Obama administration's proposals to eliminate a grant for the Teach for America program and hold the line on new funding for many other education programs [Title I, IDEA, TRIO].

Teachers to appeal mass firings at RI high school AP: The entire staff of teachers fired in a radical attempt to improve one of the worst performing high schools in Rhode Island will appeal their dismissals to school authorities, the head of the teachers union said Thursday.
PLUS:Mass firings at R.I. school may signal a trend USA Today.
Chicago Schools CEO Projects $1 Billion Deficit WBBM: Increasing class size would not be enough to close the budget gap. Boosting classes from 28 to 31 students would save $40 million, which is a fraction of what is needed, and would require layoffs of up to 600 teachers.
The charter school test case that didn't happen LA Times: No charter received a high school and only one, Magnolia Science Academy, will run a middle school -- on a campus it will share with a separate teacher-run school. Functioning as a neighborhood school remains beyond the experience of nearly all charters except Green Dot, which broke ground by taking over low-performing Locke High in July 2008.

Expansions of State Voucher Programs Gain Momentum EdWeek: Bipartisan support for Florida’s tax-credit voucher program and efforts in other states cheer choice advocates.

The California Majority Report // Mayor Kevin Johnson Launches "Emerald Valley" Initiative for Green Jobs in Sacramento

February 25, 2010 @ 8:40 PM

In his State of the City speech on Thursday, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson proposed a new initiative to spur the development of "green" businesses in Sacramento. Here's the Mayor's remarks:

"Across the country, from the White House down to states and cities, there is a buzz around all things “green.” I believe strongly that Sacramento can become a national leader in the green movement. Think about it: if you want to get into finance, you go to New York. If you want to go into politics, you go to Washington, DC. If you want to get into entertainment, you move to Los Angeles. If you want to get into high tech, you go to Silicon Valley.

My vision is to turn Sacramento into the “Emerald Valley” – the national hub for green business and innovation – where people from across the country come to be at the forefront of the green movement.

We’ll start in the next few months, when I will be launching my only new initiative of the year – a Green Initiative. This will be one of my top priorities. It will also be an initiative that our entire Council can participate in. I’ve reached out to my Council colleagues and hope to engage all of us in this effort.

The initiative is still in development, but there are several areas we will focus on.

We have significant potential to build a thriving green economy. It starts with jobs. Let’s put our citizens back to work by creating more green collar jobs. We’ve had an 87 percent growth in Green Jobs over the past 13 years – number one in California. And, our region has received $220MM in stimulus funding for energy efficiency programs and green job training. We can create both high wage jobs in research and technology, and middle and low wage jobs in industries like weatherization and retrofitting.

Meeting To Address School Cuts Draws Huge Crowd - News Story - KTVU San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- A crowd of more than a thousand concerned parents, teachers and administrators turned out Thursday night in at a town hall meeting in San Francisco to discuss ways to stop budget cuts from crippling the city's school district.

The hall meeting at Marina Middle School focused on coming up with solutions the day after the San Francisco Unified School District voted to send lay-off notices to almost than 900 employees, many of them teachers and principals.

Parents and teachers carried the same message: They are tired of a lack of funding and need to do something about it.

"I think it's time for parents and teachers to feel really empowered," said teacher Kat Klein. Klein said she encouraged parents to organize when the district announced it had a shortfall of more than $100 million.

What came of that was the formation of a group of mothers called by some the "San Francisco Six."

Parent Crystal Brown was one of those leading the charge.

"We've heard from principals [that] we're cutting summer school," said Brown."We're putting them into a war zone. These kids have no where to go and are not going to get lunch that day."

Brown and others involved said the town hall was no chit chat forum; it was aimed at finding immediate solutions to close the budget gap.

School administrators said the cash crunch was backing them into a corner.

"It's not having enough to fund my teachers, you know? Do I want a computer teacher or 22 kids in the classroom?"

EducationNews.org - A Global Leading News Source

Gov. Jennifer Granholm says she will shut down government to preserve school funding GRAND RAPIDS -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm drew an early line in the sand with state legislators Wednesday, saying she is willing to shut down the state government this fall before agreeing to cuts in education.

Many schools won't issue Web-cam laptops When he heard about alleged spying on school-issued laptops in Lower Merion, Benedict Tantillo quickly checked with technicians in his Bergen County, N.J., school system.

Okla School funds to be short despite plan, official says State schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett emphasized to the state Board of Education on Thursday that the education budget will fall about $50 million short, despite $172 million in emergency funding aimed at "keeping education whole.”

Rise & Shine: Schools closed for snow — and Eva Moskowitz? | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Schools closed for snow — and Eva Moskowitz?

by Philissa Cramer

City schools are closed today because of snow, for the second time this month. (Daily News, Times,NY1)
The record shows Joel Klein closes schools just for Eva Moskowitz, Juan Gonzalez says. (Daily News)
For the first time ever, the PEP voted down a proposal, stopping a home for Eagle Academy. (Daily News)
The PEP also passed new rules banning homemade treats in school bake sales this week. (Times)
Demand appears to be down at city private schools. (Bloomberg)
Readers weigh in on Bob Herbert’s column extolling the Harlem Village Academy. (Times)

Charter schools take PEP meeting as chance to launch PR blitz

by Maura Walz

Charter school parents packed into last night's Panel for Educational Policy meeting to call for more city building space for charter schools.

Last night’s Panel for Educational Policy meeting was the second in as many months to be packed to the gills with parents and teachers passionately pleading their case.
But this time it was charter school parents, not teachers and parents at closing district schools, who drove to the meeting in busloads.
“What we are pleading for this evening is space,” Trevor Alfred, a parent at Explore Empower Charter School, told the panel. “We deserve it.”
At first blush, the level of passion, and sometimes anger, directed towards the panel could seem odd. Although 16 school space proposals were up for a vote, the board had never voted down a city proposal, and none of the charter school proposals on the agenda yesterday was defeated.
But charter school advocates, stung by what they felt was a bruise at last month’s PEP meeting on school closures, which was dominated by charter school opponents, decided to take the opportunity to launch a new

Thursday, February 25, 2010

March 4 Stand Up for Schools Sacramento City Teachers Association

Sacramento City Teachers Association Meet at Pacific Elementary School at 8:30am on March 4 to "Start the Day for Students!" There will be a leaflet of the community and good NRG to join urgent action acorss the state for our students and our future.

KIPP Works The Quick and the Ed

The Quick and the Ed

KIPP Works

It’s relatively obvious to anyone who looks that the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), the nation’s largest charter management organization, produces results. Just by seeing its classrooms you start to figure this out: the students are in matching uniforms, they chant and seem energized about learning, and, other than the chants, they’re orderly and respectful. To prove that KIPP works mathematically, up until now we’ve had to rely on pretty low-level analyses that show very high numbers of their students pass state accountability exams.

A new, rigorous analysis for the National Bureau of Economic Research changes that. Using a quasi-experimental research design that capitalizes on the large number of students applying to get into but ultimately rejected from one KIPP school in Lynn, Massachusetts, the researchers were able to compare students who entered the school with those who wanted to attend but were rejected due to space restrictions. This design helps the researchers isolate KIPP attendance from motivation, parental education, environmental factors, or any other variable that might be difficult to detect.

After these controls, KIPP attendees gained .35 of a standard deviation every year in math and .12 standard deviations each year in English. Results were even more positive for Limited English Proficiency and special education students (the demographics of KIPP Lynn lottery winners matched lottery losers and the district as a whole).

These demographic factors are important. KIPP is often accused of “skimming” the most talented or motivated public school students. Under that theory, which the paper debunks, KIPP could have a high percentage of low-income and minority students but attract the best of these groups. The research design of this paper allows the authors to conclude that’s not happening, at least in KIPP Lynn.

Friday, February 26, 2010