Monday, March 15, 2010

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks' - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks'

The Lone Star State mandates the teaching of patriotism—and promotes ignorance in the process.

Here is a newsflash from Texas: The conservative majority of the Texas State Board of Education adopted new guidelines for social-studies textbooks that reflect their conservative political views. The new guidelines will emphasize the Christian beliefs of the Founding Fathers. Students in Texas will be expected to learn about the emergence of the conservative movement in the 1980s and 1990s. The new textbooks are supposed to promote patriotism and respect for the “free-enterprise system.”

“Having a public agency decide which textbooks are right and what facts should be added or deleted is nonsensical. It is equivalent to having a public agency review movies and tell us which we will be allowed to see at taxpayer expense.”

No surprise here. For many years, the Texas state board has been telling textbook publishers what should appear in the books that the state will buy for its students. Nineteen other states decide which textbooks will qualify for “adoption” in their public schools. Books that are not approved by the state board cannot be purchased with state funds. This is a very powerful lever to bring about revisions in the textbooks. The two most consequential of the so-called adoption states are Texas and California, because they have the largest number of students and therefore the most clout with publishers. When Texas or California speak, publishers listen and change their textbooks to comply.

Typically, the Texas board demands that the textbooks, especially in history and science, toe the conservative line, while California insists that the textbooks it buys for grades K-8 comply with its “social content” guidelines, which require positive representations of all groups in society. Unlike California, which buys textbooks statewide for grades K-8, Texas buys textbooks en masse for all grades, so it has a lot of influence on high-school textbooks.

Given the strong conservative hold on the elected state board in Texas, it is not surprising that the board demands that its textbooks are patriotic and respectful of religion. Given the strong liberal character of California politics, it is not surprising that its state guidelines demand equal time and respectful representation of gender groups, ethnic and racial groups, and all minorities.

In 2003, I described the absurdities of the textbook adoption process in a book titledThe Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Children Learn. I showed how all sorts of groups from different ends of the political spectrum have used the textbook adoptions to impose their agenda. Feminists went before state boards to demand the excision of all words, phrases, and images that were offensive to them; consequently, textbook publishers gathered long lists of words that were banned from textbooks (and tests, as well). Thus, children are spared ever having to see the

Media-Newswire.com - Press Release Distribution - PR Agency

UC Berkeley professor to speak on public university funding crisis

Ananya Roy, a University of California at Berkeley professor who has worked to fight higher education budget cuts in her state, will speak at 4 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Ananya Roy, a University of California at Berkeley professor who has worked to fight higher education budget cuts in her state, will speak at 4 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium.

The University Lecture Committee is presenting the lecture, "The Crisis of the Public Universities: Old and New Struggles and Solidarities." It is free and open to the public.

Roy is a member of SAVE the University, a faculty group formed at UC Berkeley in response to the budget cuts and fee hikes, and of Solidarity Alliance, a collaboration between the faculty, student and worker movements at UC Berkeley.

She will be speaking about the current plight of the public university given the present economic climate. Roy teaches at UC Berkeley, which is in a sense the front line in the battle to keep public universities intact, said Lecture Committee member Kathryn Lavezzo, associate professor in the UI Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Roy is a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, where she teaches in the fields of comparative urban studies and international development. She also serves as education director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies and as co-director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Center.

In 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor UC Berkeley bestows on its faculty. Also in 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentors award, a recognition bestowed by the Graduate Assembly of UC Berkeley. In 2008, Roy was the recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching award, the only teaching award given by the student body. Most recently, Roy was named 2009 California Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie

News: The Shrunken Student Aid Bill - Inside Higher Ed

The Shrunken Student Aid Bill

March 15, 2010

WASHINGTON -- As Congressional Democrats and the White House begin a last-ditch push to pass legislation to overhaul health care this week, it remains far from certain that a plan to revamp the student loan programs will be merged into the health legislation. While the odds of that happening are better than not, it is still possible that Democrat leaders will decide to ditch or postpone action on the student aid measure if they conclude that it could discourage even a few key lawmakers from supporting the health care bill.

But after several intense days of behind-the-scenes negotiations, a few things have become clear(er) about the stripped-down student aid bill that Congress may consider in the coming days:

The measure will fall well short of the Obama administration's original proposal to transform the student aid programs, giving President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan few of the policy changes and accountability tools they'd hoped for.
Pell Grants would remain the legislation's top priority, although because of the program's rapidly escalating costs, the value of the maximum grant would rise less than originally planned.
Community colleges will get little or none of nearly $10 billion they'd been slated to receive.
Historically black, Hispanic and other colleges could benefit because Democratic leaders are afraid of angering small but powerful blocs of minority members of Congress.
Some of the savings from the loan overhaul may be used to help pay for health care reform.

As of late Sunday, the situation surrounding the health/financial aid

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March | OregonLive.com

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March

By David Sarasohn, The Oregonian

March 14, 2010, 1:43PM

This week marks the kickoff of the NCAA college basketball playoffs, perhaps the last remaining occasion when Americans use "college" and "revenue increase" in the same sentence. But this month, higher education started March Madness a little early.Higher ed

March 4, college students demonstrated in Oregon and throughout the country to point out they're being charged considerably more and getting less and less, and that the basic quality of the country's higher education system is starting to wobble.

"It's addressing a growing trend and an economic crisis facing students across the nation," explained Stephanie Rio Collier, a Portland State junior and part of a demonstration by several hundred PSU students. They were especially concerned, said Collier, about possible Oregon University System reorganizations that might produce sharply higher tuition and even more student debt.

There are two clear points to make about this:

1. The PSU students, and the ones across the country, are absolutely right.

2. They haven't seen anything yet.

The next legislative sessions around the country, when state budgets will be far from recovering and when federal stimulus money will be gone --at this point, states will be mostly on their own facing combined deficits that could top $200 billion --could be the worst moment for higher education since the end of mandatory Latin.

Warned state Rep. Chip Limehouse, chairman of the higher education subcommittee in the South Carolina House of Representatives, "Next year is going to be an iceberg looming for higher education."

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises

12:17 AM CDT on Monday, March 15, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

The number of illegal immigrant college students paying in-state tuition and receiving financial aid at Texas' public colleges and universities continues to climb, according to state higher education records.

During the fall semester, 12,138 students – about 1 percent of all Texascollege students – benefited from the state law granting in-state tuition, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Most of the immigrants among those students are illegal, and some others are not legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens.

Texas awarded about $33.6 million in state and institutional financial aid to those students between fall 2004 and summer 2008.

In 2001, Texas became the first state in the country to pass an in-state tuition law. The law created a national movement. Many private universities also now award aid to illegal immigrant students.

Now some of the students are graduating but unable to work legally as professionals. Julie, 29, who moved from Mexico to Austin at age 12, earned a degree in nursing from the University of Texas. She is unable to work, so instead she volunteers in Dallas.

"You have people here, and they're trained," said Julie, who did not want her last name used because of her immigration status. "The state has invested in us, so why not let us be contributing members of society and our community?"

But immigration reform has stalled. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass the Dream Act, a proposal that would put the students on a path to citizenship.

Critics question how much tuition discounts and state financial aid cost

A District at Risk The Desert Independent

The Desert Independent

A District at Risk

By ROBERT E. JENSEN
The Desert Independent

March 14, 2010

BLYTHE, Calif – Back in 1983, the Department of Education under then-Secretary Terrell H. Bell published a study of the educational morass in the United States entitled “A Nation at Risk.” Its headline-grabbing prologue stated that:

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.

Couple this observation from 27 years ago with the current state of education in California and, especially, in the Palo Verde Unified School District and read on.

The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise printed an article on Saturday in which it declared numerous schools in the Inland Empire to be among the “worst in California.” To wit:

Sixteen Inland schools made a list of the lowest performing campuses in the state, but officials said Monday they are working to reverse the trends.
The schools are on the preliminary list of the bottom 5 percent in academic performance. The California Department of Education released the first-ever list on Monday. Each campus must choose one of four school improvement models required by state and federal law. Most of the schools are listed because of low test scores, but five were identified for low graduation rates.

These schools were mainly located in San Bernardino with mentions of Alvord, Coachella, Moreno Valley and Perris as far as Riverside County goes, but there was no mention of the Palo Verde Unified School District. To read the entire article, click HERE.

Why no mention of the schools in PVUSD? Well, as observers of this newspaper would report, over the past 15 years the Press-Enterprise has concluded that Blythe is apparently not located in

The Daily Aztec - FREEDOM HAWK: Protesters do not recognize fiscal reality

FREEDOM HAWK: Protesters do not recognize fiscal reality

By Patrick Walsh, Staff Columnist

Published: Sunday, March 14, 2010

Updated: Monday, March 15, 2010

Last week many students, faculty and staff from the 10 campuses in the University of California system walked out of class for a demonstration billed “Day of Action to Defend Education.” The march was in protest of the so-called “tax” — as professors and members of the UC and California State University system have labeled it — according towww.wsj.com. This was quite odd; during most large and unfair tax increases in our state, you generally don’t see an uproar from America’s most progressive public university system. But this tuition increase, which has been presented by the UC system as a $662 tax hike for college students according to www.wsj.com, has gotten their attention.

Apparently professors and students can’t understand the difference between a reduction in a state subsidy and an increase in taxes. Our state’s school system is one of the most heavily tax-payer funded systems in America. To put it another way, the tax-paying residents of California pay more for our public education than the residents of any other state.

When speaking about the university budget shortfalls, UC president Mark Yudof said, “You can protest. You can put up signs – at Berkeley they like to occupy the trees and run nude – but the answer is ‘I still don’t have the money,’” according to www.wsj.com.

This is a fair assessment by Yudof, who has tried to push the protest attention off himself and project it on the state legislature. But in reality, Sacramento doesn’t have the money either. Our state is facing a $20 billion budget shortfall. Unlike the federal government, which can keep printing more and more money as the value of the dollar continues to crumble, states must work with the budgets they have, or face cuts.

I do think there is something for UC and CSU students to learn from this; it might be what President Barack Obama

Obama Wants 'No Child Left Behind' Law Overhauled : NPR

Obama Wants 'No Child Left Behind' Law Overhauled

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

text sizeA A A

March 14, 2010

President Barack Obama is promising parents and their kids that with his administration's help they will have better teachers in improved schools so U.S. students can make up for academic ground lost against youngsters in other countries.

Education Secretary Addresses Rising College Costs

[7 min 15 sec]

A plan to overhaul the 2002 education law championed by President George W. Bush was unveiled by the Obama administration Saturday in hopes of replacing a system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states.

"Unless we take action — unless we step up — there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential," Obama said during a video address on Saturday. "I don't accept that future for them. And I don't accept that future for the United States of America."

In the proposed dismantling of the No Child Left Behind law, education officials would move away from punishing schools that don't meet benchmarks and focus on rewarding schools for progress, particularly with poor and minority students. Obama intends to send a rewrite to Congress on Monday of the law.

Unless we take action -- unless we step up -- there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential.

- President Obama

The proposed changes call for states to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency — the focus of the current law.

The blueprint also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and mathematics as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups that have said No Child Left Behind encouraged teachers not to focus on history, art, science, social studies and other important subjects.

And, for the first time in 45 years, the White House is proposing a $4 billion increase in federal education spending, most of which would go to increase the competition among states for grant money and move away from formula-based funding.

Education: The Travesty of Education Budget Cuts | Psychology Today

Education: The Travesty of Education Budget Cuts

Are public education budget cuts a travesty?

Published on March 14, 2010

I've been hearing so much about budget cuts to public education in the news lately. Last week, there were demonstrations all over the Bay Area protesting the massive budget cuts to public colleges, and secondary and elementary schools throughout California. And these protests weren't just on the college campuses of Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Davis, but also at elementary and high schools with kids and parents expressing their outrage. It's particularly unsettling for me because our eldest daughter will be going to kindergarten next year and we've been touring the local schools. The constant drumbeat we hear from administrators, teachers, and parents is how painful it is to have to fire teachers, reduce or eliminate teachers' aides and specialists, scrap arts, language, and physical education programs, and increase class sizes.

Public education used to be the foundation of our country and a model for education all over the world. It was responsible for upward mobility, the establishment of the middle class, and the basis for financial security for the vast majority of our citizens. It was also the springboard to higher education, providing students with the information and skill sets they needed to succeed in college and beyond. In other words, it was the basis for the American Dream.

The dreaded March 15 puts teachers on notice

“The Ides of March is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term ides was used for the 15^th day of the months of March, May, July and October. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed.”

Caesar was famously warned in William Shakespeare’s play to “beware the Ides of March.”

Two thousand years later, the 15^th of March has similar connotations for modern-day teachers who dread the day for its association with layoff notices, a death of sorts – an annual exercise that saps enthusiasm, kills motivation and inspires dread and gloom.

Certainly the Roman God of War, Mars, is an apt symbol for the date, with picketing protesters and chanting demonstrators substituting for military parades.

With California’s education budget in tatters, it is any wonder that a nearly visible pall hangs over schools these days? You can feel the despair in the air if you visit classrooms, talk to educators or listen to administrators.

San Diego Unified school board member Katherine Nakamura painted the picture vividly when she told me the need for funding is so desperate that she feels like she’s standing on a street corner rattling a tin cup, begging for money for kids any way she can.

The deplorable state of the education budget has extended all the way through college, affecting higher education as well as students in kindergarten through 12^th grade, the public has been led to believe.

But despite the attention on University of California and California State University funding woes – underscored by all the reports of demonstrating college students opposing tuition hikes – the numbers tell a different story.

Superintendent's Corner: State puts education on the back burner - Whittier Daily News

Superintendent's Corner: State puts education on the back burner

By Edward Velasquez

Posted: 03/14/2010 10:51:56 PM PDT

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

I read these words on the back of hundreds of Montebello Unified School District teachers' T-shirts recently. They wore them on March 4 as they organized and rallied against state budget cuts to public education.

They were not alone. A day of passionate protest against these cuts attracted thousands of demonstrators from across the state and nation. They held rallies, walkouts, teach-ins and even funeral demonstrations to mourn the death of public education.

All of it was done in an effort to spark a movement to take us back to a time when education was not only valued, but was considered far more a right than a privilege.

With more than 30 years of experience in education, it is hard to pinpoint when the state's priorities shifted and when education was placed on the back burner.

Yet, $17 billion has already been taken away from California schools over the last two years, and it appears our state's leaders will not stop cutting unless more of us stand up and demand the state's budget no longer be balanced on the backs of our students.

MUSD is currently facing more than $50 million in budget cuts over the next three years. With nearly 90 percent of the district's budget being personnel, it is no secret that the district will be forced to make difficult decisions in order to remain fiscally solvent.

The message from the state is simple: Do more with less.

For two years, MUSD and other school districts from around the state have heard this message loud and clear.

Unfortunately "keeping cuts away from the classroom" is not realistic when more than 16,000 teachers

Obama's Education Reform Push is Bad Education Policy | CommonDreams.org

Obama's Education Reform Push is Bad Education Policy

One simple solution for our schools? A captivating promise, but a false one.

by Diane Ravitch

There have been two features that regularly mark the history of U.S. public schools. Over the last century, our education system has been regularly captivated by a Big Idea -- a savant or an organization that promised a simple solution to the problems of our schools. The second is that there are no simple solutions, no miracle cures to those problems.

Education is a slow, arduous process that requires the work of willing students, dedicated teachers and supportive families, as well as a coherent curriculum.

As an education historian, I have often warned against the seductive lure of grand ideas to reform education. Our national infatuation with education fads and reforms distracts us from the steady work that must be done.

Our era is no different. We now face a wave of education reforms based on the belief that school choice, test-driven accountability and the resulting competition will dramatically improve student achievement.

Once again, I find myself sounding the alarm that the latest vision of education reform is deeply flawed. But this time my warning carries a personal rebuke. For much of the last two decades, I was among those who jumped aboard the choice and accountability bandwagon. Choice and accountability, I believed, would offer a chance for poor children to escape failing schools. Testing and accountability, I thought, would cast sunshine on low-performing schools and lead to improvement. It all seemed to make sense, even if there was little empirical evidence, just promise and hope.

Today there is empirical evidence, and it shows clearly that choice, competition and accountability as education reform levers are not working. But with confidence bordering

National Day of Action to Defend Public Education a Major Success

National Day of Action to Defend Public Education a Major Success		Printer-Friendly E-Mail This

Mar 14, 2010 By Jesse Lessinger

The nation-wide protests of students and education workers against budget cuts to schools on March 4 was the most significant day of resistance to the economic downturn since the crisis erupted in 2008. It is an important harbinger of bigger struggles to come. The recession may be officially over but the crisis facing working people and youth is only getting worse. The layoffs and home foreclosures continue, while crucial social services are put on the chopping block. States all across the country face unprecedented declines in revenue. Public education has become one of the biggest targets for vicious budget cuts. The most severe deficit is in California, which faces a$20 billion shortfall for the coming fiscal year. This is on top of the massive cuts enacted this fiscal year after the state had to issue IUO's last summer when it ran out of money scrambling to pass an austerity budget. The cuts to higher education led to a faculty and student walkout in the University of California (UC) system on September 24 of last year. A state-wide conference in October, which brought together over 700 students, teachers, faculty and other activists, called for a state-wide “strike and day of action” on March 4 to defend public education. This conference also endorsed actions in mid-November to demonstrate against the plan for a massive 32% tuition hike. Across the UC system there were rallies and on some campuses students occupied buildings to protest the Board of Regents' vote to raise tuition. The occupations where met by repression of the police and administration against both the occupiers and their supporters who rallied outside. But these actions also brought national attention to the issues of cuts and other attacks on education, as well as the anger and growing resistance to these policies. March 4 Inspired by the events in California, students across the country put out a call to make March 4 a national day of action to defend public education. On March 4, in over 30 states from California to New

States should adopt common education standards

States should adopt common education standards:

"As the world shrinks, few things have become more important than a flexible, portable education. Elementary school students in California may find themselves one day working in Rhode Island or Russia - and they'll need to start learning the skills that will take them anywhere right now."

That's the thinking behind the Common Core Standards for English and math, which were released in draft form last week. The standards, which were created by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association with encouragement from the Obama administration, may become national benchmarks for all K-12 students. The draft standards are the product of almost a year's worth of work, and they're open for public comment through April 2.
Most experts agree that the draft standards look pretty good. The standards are written in plain English, and the goals they set seem reasonable: For example, they say that kindergartners should learn to count, first-graders should be able to retell a story, and third-graders should learn fractions.
It's clear that the development team relied on outside research, state comparisons and the judgment of professionals; rather than a politically palatable race to the bottom, the standards aim for the top. Jack O'Connell, California's secretary of education, called the standards "rigorous." And it's worth nothing that they are internationally benchmarked - which will help American students fight for tomorrow's global, mobile jobs.
There's controversy surrounding the draft standards, of course. Teachers complain that

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/14/ED221CEVHA.DTL#ixzz0iFK0wc8I

Jobs in jeopardy for 11 SBCUSD principals - San Bernardino County Sun

Jobs in jeopardy for 11 SBCUSD principals

Josh Dulaney, Staff Writer

Posted: 03/14/2010 07:03:05 AM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO - Several schools here are likely to see new leadership next year under a state law requiring poor-performing campuses to close down or take one of three paths to improvement.

Superintendent Arturo Delgado of the San Bernardino City Unified School District is scheduled to meet with staff today to explore the ramifications of 11 schools landing on California's list of the worst 5 percent in the state.

The California Department of Education started compiling the list after lawmakers, in an effort to make the state more competitive for federal grant money, passed legislation requiring the lowest-performing schools in California to close or go through one of three processes aimed at boosting student achievement.

The options are:

"Restart": Turning the school into a charter.

"Turnaround": Replacing the principal and at least half the teaching staff.

"Transformation": Replacing the principal, providing staff with ongoing education and rewarding effective teachers.

The charter school option is off the table in San Bernardino. So is shutting down schools.

"We know for certain the district is only considering the turnaround model and the transformation model," said Linda Bardere, spokeswoman for the district. "No decision has been made regarding which model each (of the)

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Monday, March 15, 2010