Friday, March 12, 2010

It’s Obvious, but Only If You See It. � Chalkdust101

It’s Obvious, but Only If You See It.

In change on March 12, 2010 at 9:42 am

Not so anymore, and I am hopefully optimistic about this.

Yesterday, I met with the district professional development committee, a committee that meets annually to discuss the plan that has to be submitted to our county and state for approval. That statement, in and of itself, is inherently backwards, but I’ll get to that. This year, the design of professional development is much more formalized in that each school must have its own individual plan, the ideas of which must find their way into the overall district plan. Previously, the district plan was all most districts had, and all that was counted in the end.

See, I am a big believer in having a stake in the direction of your place of employment. If you work somewhere, your voice should matter in the governance of that place, and your actions should be allowed to contribute to the betterment of that organization. I don’t see that much in the schools I either work in, or visit, but I’d like to. What I see and hear is a lot of the mentality whereby there is little control of the direction of schools and school philosophy by teachers and administrators–things being “done” to them, rather than them “doing” things to contribute to the greater cause of student achievement.

I plan on changing that.

Committees are funny things; they have life for the short time they are together, and high ideas are exchanged if the right people are in the room. For example, we were critiquing our professional development programs from the previous years, and we came up with this list:

lack of follow through or follow-up from the initial class or by the presenter
not tied directly to student achievement
notification and publication of classes and sessions to staff

But what next? We sketched out our direction for next year after synthesizing the

Sacramento Press / Sacramento’s Jewish Heritage Festival— Celebrating kibbutzim, schwarmas, and Jewish American Heritage Month

Looking for Israeli dancing? A piece of Judaica? A falafel, perhaps?

You can find all that and more on May 2, 2010 when the West Steps of the state’s Capitol are transformed into an Israeli shuk during the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region’s Jewish Heritage Festival.

Coinciding with Lag B’Omer and in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, this annual event kicks off with an Israel Unity Walk and the release of dozens of doves, the universal symbol of peace.

“As American Jews we get the best of both worlds,” said Festival Project Manager Caren Zorman. “We get to openly celebrate and embrace our Judaism, while also participating in a public celebration of Israel’s independence and statehood.”

In honor of this year’s theme, “The Centennial of the Kibbutz Movement,” Sacramento-area religious schools are creating displays that highlight different kibbutz industries, such as drip irrigation, flower production, and spas/retreats, and educating the public about what each industry does while offering hands-on activities.

“We want to show everything about kibbutzim,” Zorman said. “How they started, how they have grown, what they are today, and their value to the Israeli economy.”

Master of Ceremony Sen. Darrell Steinberg will address the crowd as will Congressman Dan Lungren. Invited guests include Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Congresswoman Doris Matsui, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinberg, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, and Councilman

Group sues Tulare County Board of Supervisors over lunch meetings | visaliatimesdelta.com | Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register

Group sues Tulare County Board of Supervisors over lunch meetings

BY VALERIE GIBBONS • VGIBBONS@VISALIA.GANNETT.COM • MARCH 12, 2010

An open-meeting watchdog has filed a lawsuit against the Tulare County Board of Supervisors in an effort to end supervisors' practice of sharing meals when a voting majority is present.

Richard McKee, from the Southern California city of La Verne, is asking a Tulare County judge to order the board to conform to the Brown Act whenever a majority of the members congregates to "hear, discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item that is within its subject matter jurisdiction."

The lawsuit was sent for filing in Tulare County court Wednesday afternoon, according to McKee's attorney, Kelly Aviles.

Jean Rousseau, the county's administrative officer, said he could not comment on the matter because he had not seen the lawsuit. Kathleen Bales-Lange, Tulare County counsel, did not return a call seeking comment.

McKee sent supervisors a "Demand for Correction" in late February, asking the board to end its practice of meeting for meals.

A January investigation by the Times-Delta found 30 instances where a majority of supervisors — known as a quorum — met for a meal during the first seven months of 2009.

All five board members met for a meal at least 11 times during the first half of 2009. A series of state laws, known as the Brown Act, makes it illegal for the board to discuss business outside a publicly announced meeting when a quorum is present.

The county suspended the practice Tuesday until a new meal reimbursement policy could be developed.

But board chairman Steve Worthley blasted the watchdog group in a letter March 5, saying that the board never violated the Brown Act and that allegations to the contrary are "offensive."

Florida Advances Bill on Tenure and Pay Reform - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Florida Advances Bill on Tenure and Pay Reform

By Stephen Sawchuk on March 12, 2010 8:49 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Legislators in Florida have advanced a bill that, if passed, would make aggressive changes to tenure law and would shift the entire state away from teacher pay based on credentials and longevity.

Rather than a formal tenure law, the state has a rather odd distinction between annual contracts that must be renewed every year and continuing contracts for teachers after year three, at which point it's harder to dismiss them. The bill would push back the granting of continuing contracts until a teacher had been with the district for five years, and even then only those teachers in the top performance tiers would receive them.

It would also require all districts to set up performance-pay plans by 2014, prohibit them from compensating teachers using longevity and advanced degrees, and would dock the state aid of districts that failed to set up such plans, forcing them to make up the difference through local tax levies. The bill would require new tests for students to be developed in subjects not covered by the state's current assessment programs.

The Florida Education Association, a merged AFT/NEA affiliate, is preparing to fight the proposal tooth and nail, and it's really no wonder: This bill has practically all of NEA's least favorite elements in it, including differential pay for math and science teachers, pay based largely on student scores, and much-weakened teacher protections.

Interestingly, there are certainly some good reasons to be wary of the focus on

A Quick Word On School (Fore)closures - Perdaily.com

A Quick Word On School (Fore)closures

As a moderately well-educated remnant of the bygone LAUSD era of the 1950s and 60s, I always try to rationalize what I read in the news to see if I can make sense of what initially appears to be a contradictory 2010 American reality. In reading an article yesterday morning in the Los Angeles Times in which a Kansas City superintendent says closing half its schools is painful but the 'right thing to do' I immediately tried to put this event in a global and historical context that might allow us to make the best of what initially seems to be a bad situation.

Let me paint a picture...

The attack on the World Trade Center by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001 destroyed three buildings -- the two towers by airplanes and Building 7-- and in addition over 3000 human lives were lost. In reading about "the Kansas City school board [having] voted 5-4 Wednesday night to close 29 of the district's 61 schools in an effort to stave off bankruptcy," I wondered whether we might have a better solution to this problem right in front of our faces.

It seems to me in addressing this issue, only two questions needed to be asked and answered:

1. If Al Qaeda -- over winter or summer break when schools are empty -- blew up 29 of the 61 schools in Kansas City, what would our reaction be? Would we tolerate such an attack?

2. If it had been a demolition company from Kansas City, would we have more readily accepted this radical form of urban renewal?

While it might be okay for Americans to blow up our own buildings (or close them indefinitely), letting foreigners do it seems like just another case of outsourcing American jobs. We already have enough problems with using Latinos to pick our food, take care of our children, bus our dishes, build our buildings, and mow our lawns without allowing uneducated members of Al Qaeda take yet another plum opportunity away from our own ignorant population. Americans can surely do a better job of destroying this country's infrastructure than foreigners can!

If Kansas City and other besieged urban school districts could just reopen a few magnet schools, pilot schools, or charters that could teach demolition skills to some "of [the] fewer than 18,000 students, [which] is about half of what the schools [Kansas City] had a decade ago and just a quarter of its peak in the late 1960s," these students might be able to blow up the 50% of the schools that Kansas City no longer feels that it needs -- Americans doing an American job. In using NYC as a model, maybe they could also build a new sports stadium at great public cost that would create good low paying part-time work that some of the "700 employees, including about 285 teachers" who are being fired might apply for.

When one sees the activities of all the large corporations that are jumping on the bandwagon to privatize the $250 billion a year ed biz in this country, one cannot help but sit in awe of how good old fashion Yankee know how -- no offense to you Southerns out there -- can continue to make lemonade out of lemons. While most school districts around the country are closing just one or two schools, Kansas City -- and maybe LAUSD in the not too distant future -- can really clear the way to profit upon the lives of its young people.

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Bellevue schools panel gives nod to traditional math text

A Bellevue School District math-textbook committee has recommended that the district adopt Holt Mathematics, a more traditional textbook series than the district currently uses

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Friday, March 12, 2010

It’s Obvious, but Only If You See It.

Group sues Tulare County Board of Supervisors over lunch meetings

Florida Advances Bill on Tenure and Pay Reform

EducationNewsToday