Monday, April 12, 2010

Rise & Shine: Much-hyped MS science funding cut after 2 years | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Much-hyped MS science funding cut after 2 years

by Philissa Cramer

The city spiked a 2-year-old middle school science program, saying it can’t be replicated. (Daily News)
Thousands of immigrant students aren’t getting the language help they’re legally entitled to. (Post)
More than 40 percent of Manhattan schools are highly overcrowded, a new survey argues. (Daily News)
Topping the list of overcrowded schools is PS 3 in Greenwich Village. (Daily News)
A student at Paul Robeson HS says she wishes the city could just close the school already. (Post)
SUNY’s Charter Schools Institute should be protected from budget cuts, its head argues. (Daily News)
Crain’s NY says teachers unions can work out the details later on Race to the Top-induced changes.
An economist says teachers’ in New York receive salaries and benefits that are crippling the state. (Post)
An assistant principal at Brooklyn’s Clara Barton HS was arrested on animal cruelty charges. (Post)
The city will open a new elementary school in Queens early to beat overcrowding. (Daily News)
A student stabbed at his Bronx school is suing, saying a security guard didn’t protect him. (Daily News)
Three city music teachers who met at Teachers College are striking out as an act of their own. (NY1)
The Wall Street Journal ask why school districts, including in NY, keep hiring when enrollments fall.
The Daily News says New York City should adopt elements of D.C.’s new teachers contract.
D.C. officials say they’re pleased by the cash-for-grades experiment results there. (Washington Post)
Australian teachers are refusing to administer tests that will be used to rank schools. (The Australian)

Local News | Book fuels debate over 'objectionable' content in Richland schools | Seattle Times Newspaper

Book fuels debate over 'objectionable' content in Richland schools

A novel about a 9-year-old boy dealing with the death of his father on Sept. 11 has sparked a months-long discussion in the Richland School District about how far teachers need to go to inform parents about a book's content.

RICHLAND — A novel about a 9-year-old boy dealing with the death of his father on Sept. 11 has sparked a months-long discussion in the Richland School District about how far teachers need to go to inform parents about a book's content.

School Board members already have reshaped policy dealing with the way novels are approved for classroom use. Tuesday, they're poised to consider how to notify parents of "objectionable" content, such as profanity, sex and violence.

The options range from including a short statement in course syllabi to instituting a ratings system. The latter has some worried it could lead to censorship and questioning how such a system — which would be subjective by nature — would even work.

Others say the bottom line is current practice isn't good enough and needs to be changed.

School Board President Rick Jansons said the board's goal has been to find the best path when it comes to

Study Finds Slight Increase in Pay for Faculty Members - NYTimes.com

Study Finds a 1.2 Percent Increase in Faculty Pay, the Smallest in 50 Years

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: April 11, 2010

Academic pay has been squeezed by the recession, according to the annual salary survey by the American Association of University Professors.

Over all, salaries for this academic year are 1.2 percent higher than last year, the smallest increase recorded in the survey’s 50 years — and well below the 2.7 percent inflation rate from December 2008 to December 2009.

The survey found that average salary levels actually decreased this academic year at a third of colleges and universities, compared with 9 percent that reported lower average salaries in the previous two surveys. Private and church-related universities reported shrinking average salaries more often than public institutions.

And the academic pay situation may be even worse than the survey indicates, according to John Curtis, the association’s director of research and policy.

“A lot of faculty are losing ground, and the data probably underestimate the seriousness of the problems with faculty salary this year, because we’re only looking at full-time faculty

Excellent Resource For Teaching English To Young Learners | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Excellent Resource For Teaching English To Young Learners

by Larry Ferlazzo

Best Multilingual Sites

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here’s another review of some of my “The Best…” lists.As I’ve mentioned before, the links to these list might not work if you’re subscribing to this blog via email, or if you’re reading it on Facebook. There won’t be any problems if you’re reading it off an RSS Reader. And if you go directly to the blog post you’ll be able to access them, too.

ClassChats

by Larry Ferlazzo

Numbeo

by Larry Ferlazzo

The Best Sites For Creating Personalized “Newspapers” Online

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve spent years trying to find a good application that would let students create their own individual online “newspapers” with personalized content.
Finally, over the past two months, four excellent ones have opened for business.
I found another excellent one today, which is why I’m writing this post.
In order to make it on this list, the application must be free; make the content available in an attractive and accessible way for English Language Learners; and make it very easy to sign-up and add new preferences.

Why a Teacher Turned to Blogging � InterACT

Why a Teacher Turned to Blogging

by Martha Infante

As a person from Generation X, it was only a few years after my college graduation that the internet became a part of daily life. But as a teacher, it seems that once you enter the classroom, the years almost pass in a blur as you focus on your lessons, your students, your school community.

We encourage our students to continue to be lifelong learners, yet sometimes we teachers are reluctant to embrace new ideas and techniques. The battle of control in the classroom is one hard-fought and hard-won. Sometimes letting go of a sure thing that is working reasonably well does not make sense, and so years pass with minimal change, the same lesson plans recycled again and again, in spite of new technology that might make their implementation easier.

This sensei got her first experience in pre-blogging while on a study tour to Japan. Feeling guilty about leaving my family for 10 days, but excited to be able to share my adventures with students, I wrote daily email dispatches to my contact at the National Council for the Social Studies, the organization managing the tour. I wrote about the schools I visited, how students in Japan could be so different yet so similar to my own students in South Central Los Angeles, and how I felt as a visitor to this beautiful, foreign land. These dispatches were

Monica Yant Kinney: Not the lesson charters were supposed to teach | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/11/2010

Monica Yant Kinney: Not the lesson charters were supposed to teach

By Monica Yant Kinney

Inquirer Columnist

My dad taught high school for 30 years, and my mom still works as a district secretary in my Hoosier hometown. Devoting their lives to public education meant they'd always get Presidents' Day off, but would never get rich.
If only my parents ran a charter school in Pennsylvania.
They could have charged granite countertops to taxpayers and been reimbursed for family trips to Disney. Had the Yants been "reformers," they could have hired their only child as a consultant, paying me $100,000 to read Dr. Seuss.
Charters, you might recall, were supposed to rescue children trapped in struggling schools.
Some city charter schools - think Mastery, KIPP, Independence, Young Scholars - are soaring. But if you follow the remarkable reporting of my colleague Martha Woodall (http://go.philly.com/charter), you'll see greedy grown-ups pilfering public gold under the guise of enriching children's lives.
At last count, at least six of the city's 67 charter schools are under federal investigation.
In an audit released last week, City Controller Alan Butkovitz found 13 of 13 charters engaging in financial mismanagement and questionable business practices. Charter administrators paid themselves $150,000 to $200,000 to supervise a single school, well beyond what assistant superintendents earn in the Philadelphia School District.
"Complete and total failure" is how Butkovitz describes efforts to monitor and hold city charters accountable for the

'I will fight,' says girl, but denies report

For six weeks, since the release of the official Philadelphia School District report on the Dec. 3 violence, she has been the mystery girl of South Philadelphia High

Science is gaining momentum in American schools

It has taken prodding by industry, business, and government leaders - alarms going off, even - but science education is getting an upgrade in many classrooms across the region

On the record � SCUSD Observer

On the record

by scusdobserver

Today, we mark the beginning of our third year online. The SCUSD Observer is honored to introduce a company of education writers who are adopting this blog. These writers are interested in the truth, in sharing, in accountability and in remaining positive.
It’s time for some new voices that don’t only offer criticism of the mayor, the administration, the teachers, and the parents, but also offer solutions to our collective problem of no money and a broken-down system.
Our time has arrived. All of our public schools – the jewels of our city – belong to all of us. It is time to stop complaining, and to start helping. It is time to restore every neighborhood school to its neighborhood, no excuses.
You don’t need a newspaper or a blog to tell you what’s black and white.
Learn more about our blogging team. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to reader

For-profit Kaplan using state budget crisis in PR campaign | California Watch

For-profit Kaplan using state budget crisis in PR campaign

by Erica Perez

Erica Perez

When Kaplan University announced a partnership with California community colleges to offer Kaplan courses at a discounted rate, the for-profit college giant made no reference to the state's fiscal crisis in its carefully wordedpress release.

Flickr photo by Konstantin Sutyagin

You had to read between the lines to get the message that Kaplan was capitalizing on the state's inability to offer public college students some of the courses they needed, when they needed them.
Under that deal, students got the chance to take a Kaplan class for about 10 times the price of a community college class, instead of the full cost of 18 times the price of a community college class.

FPPC says bond campaigns can't use taxpayer money

by Chase Davis

Chase Davis

The Fair Political Practices Commission last week denied a petition filed by a coalition of local government groups challenging the commission's authority to prohibit them from using tax money to persuade voters to support local bond measures.

Photo by David Siqueira
The LA Times sums up the meeting here.
Last week, we reported that at least one of the groups petitioning the FPPC, the California League of Cities, said that filing a lawsuit to challenge the regulation wasn't out of the question. If the petitions were denied, the organization's general counsel, Patrick Whitnell, said the League and its co-petitioners will consider new strategies, "which could include the filing of a lawsuit," he wrote.

First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd

By Lance Izumi | Published: 04/12/10 at 12:00 AM | Updated: 04/12/10 at 7:52 AM

President Obama has extended federal control over health care and is now trying to centralize education policy by imposing Washington’s dictates on states and local jurisdictions. Though aimed at improvement, the president’s agenda will weaken strong state standards, set in motion a domino effect of education nationalization, and marginalize ordinary Americans.

Obama-ed started with the president’s $4 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive funding program, which required states to commit to adopt common, i.e. national, standards in core subjects. Next, Mr. Obama informed the nation’s governors that, if he has his way, states would have to adopt national standards to receive federal Title I funds for disadvantaged students.

Finally, in the president’s recently released “blueprint” for education reform, a new national target of getting all students “college and career ready” by 2020 would be based, in one likely favored option, on national college-and-career-readiness standards.

The president’s national approach, however, spawns an array of problems.

First, despite claims about their rigor, the draft national standards crafted by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which are supported by the Obama administration, aren’t as challenging as the top standards in California, Massachusetts and a number of other states.

A new joint study by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute (PI) and the San Francisco/Sacramento-based Pacific Research Institute (PRI) reveals serious shortcomings in the standards. According to the study, authored by Stanford University mathematician James Milgram and University of Arkansas education

Taipei Times - Political row in US over Goodwin Liu

Taipei Times - archives

Political row in US over Goodwin Liu

SHORTLIST: If confirmed over the objections of Republicans, Goodwin Liu could potentially become the first Asian-American US Supreme Court judge
By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER , WASHINGTON
Monday, Apr 12, 2010, Page 3

A major political row is brewing over US President Barack Obama’s nomination of law professor Goodwin Liu (劉弘威) — the son of Taiwanese immigrants — to be a judge at the powerful San Francisco-based appeals court.

The nomination must be approved by the US Senate and conservative Republicans — the politicians who are generally most friendly toward Taiwan — are dead set against him as they see the 39-year-old Liu, the assistant dean and law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, as an extreme liberal who would move the US toward the political left.

“He is far outside the mainstream of American jurisprudence,” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

San Francisco State ethnic studies offer for 9th graders is pulled before it could begin

April 10, 11:51 PM

SF Education Examiner

Melanie Graysmith

At a meeting back in February where San Francisco school board members considered and approved a plan to increase ethnic studies courses in schools, the dean of the ethnic studies program at San Francisco State University made an offer that seemingly no one could refuse. He stated that any ninth grader who took one of the new courses would receive six university credits. It sounded good but there was a problem. As reported in The San Francisco Chronicle (Wed, April 7), the university's president knew nothing about the offer, and on top of that lack of communication, the president along with many others on the SFSU campus did not think highly of the premature proposal, considering it inappropriate.

The original intention was to offer course credit through a California State University program namedStep to College which helps underrepresented gain access to a college education. But as it turns out, only 11th and 12th graders are eligible for that program. The offer of university credit has now been set on hold as details of any formal arrangement with the SF school district regarding ethnic studies in

L.A. County to launch scaled-down effort to combat gang violence - latimes.com

L.A. County to launch scaled-down effort to combat gang violence

The 15-month pilot program will target 100 youths under the custody of the Probation Department. It will attempt to prevent them from sliding into gangs once they return home.

RELATED
Peace leads this procession

By Rong-Gong Lin II

April 12, 2010

A long-delayed Los Angeles County effort to combat gang violence is set to begin in May, officials said.

The $1.1-million initiative is much smaller than what was initially envisioned in 2007 -- a Marshall Plan-style effort to tackle Southern California's persistent gang problems through a multi-agency approach, focusing not only on law enforcement, but also child development, job creation, education and public health programs in areas dominated by gangs.

In its place is a limited, 15-month pilot program targeting 100 youths under the custody of the county's troubled Probation Department. The program was approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

The Regional Gang Violence Reduction Initiative calls for programs to be set up in four neighborhoods -- the Florence-Firestone and Harbor Gateway neighborhoods in the South Los Angeles area, Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley and the Monrovia-Duarte area in the San Gabriel

Blacks fare worse in study | Recordnet.com

Blacks fare worse in study

UC Davis explores breast cancer survival rates

By The Record

April 12, 2010 12:00 AM

SACRAMENTO - Black women have lower survival rates of breast cancer than their white and Latina counterparts regardless of radiation therapy following lumpectomy or mastectomy, University of California, Davis, researchers have found.

Steve Martinez, assistant professor of surgery at UC Davis Cancer Center, determined that while Latina and blacks with an advanced stage are less likely to receive radiation therapy than whites, only blacks have poorer outcomes than white patients with the same-stage disease.

The findings, presented Tuesday in Washington at an Association for Clinical Research Training and the Society for Clinical and Translational Science meeting, suggest the lack of radiation-therapy treatment is not responsible for the poorer survival noted among black patients.

"Is this a biological difference? Do black patients benefit from post-surgery radiation therapy to the degree that Hispanics and whites benefit?" Martinez asked.

These questions are part of Martinez's ongoing exploration of cancer health disparities as they affect patients' response to

State System of Higher Education refuses talks over retiree buyouts | - PennLive.com

State System of Higher Education refuses talks over retiree buyouts

By JAN MURPHY, The Patriot-News

April 11, 2010, 9:33PM

View full sizeJohn C. Whitehead, The Patriot-News, 2007Ken Jarin, chairman of the State System of Higher Education’s board of directorsSeeking to cut costs, the State System of Higher Education is offering its unions financial incentives for some members to retire, and all but one union has accepted.

Five labor unions at the 14 state universities have accepted the offer that pays those who qualify as much $30,000 to leave this summer.

However, the leader of the faculty union has rejected the incentive. Steve Hicks, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, said he wants to pursue talks with system officials in hopes of finding a deal both can accept.

Ken Jarin, chairman of the state system’s board of directors, said he had no interest in discussing the matter with the faculty union.

“We made our proposal and every other union agreed to it and APSCUF chose not to. We’re disappointed by that,” Jarin said after Thursday’s meeting of the state system’s board.

The system, which serves 117,000 students, faces serious financial

American Chronicle | Cal State Northridge Awarded Federal Grant to Strengthen Special Education Programs

Cal State Northridge Awarded Federal Grant to Strengthen Special Education Programs

Congressional Desk

April 11, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) announced that California State University, Northridge (CSUN) was awarded nearly $8.5 million in federal funding over five years to improve the teacher quality and student achievement for students with disabilities in high-need schools. The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Teacher Quality Partnership program.

This project addresses the critical shortage of qualified special education teachers who are prepared to serve in high-need schools. The project is a partnership between the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the Colleges of Education and Humanities at California State University, Northridge. The program will recruit a total of 150 special education teachers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, prepare them to serve children with disabilities in high-need schools, and evaluate the impact of the project on new teachers and their students. The program will offer an 18-month

Pink Slips Discourage Potential Educators - KCBS

Pink Slips Discourage Potential Educators

Some say there's a connection between layoffs and fewer potential educators, and that state budget cuts to education now could mean a teacher shortage in California later.

Margaret Gaston, president of the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, said when teachers get laid off, California's education system feels the effects for years to come.

KCBS' Melissa Culross reports

"History tells us when pink slips are issued there's a concurrent decline in the number of individuals preparing to become teachers,"she said.

Gaston says that the number of first and second year teachers dropped twenty percent between the 2007-2008 school year and the 2008-2009 school year.

She adds that more teachers will be retiring over the next several years and student enrolment is rising, making the prospect of fewer future teachers more worrisome.

COLUMN — Holland Pubic Schools bond vote is a vote on our future - Holland, MI - The Holland Sentinel

Holland Pubic Schools bond vote is a vote on our future

Holland, MI —

In three weeks, we head for the polls. The school election in Holland is enough to give every city voter a toothache, but especially we senior citizens.

If you’re at all like me, you simply can’t comprehend what $73,000,000 feels like, looks like, or buys. If you’re like me, you also recall supporting millages a couple of decades back for major expansion of facilities, only to watch enrollment decline and schools sold off or mothballed.

You may question the wisdom of past choices, ranging from the tacky Ding Dong School entrance slapped onto the old Apple Avenue School to the California campus style chosen for our high school in Michigan‘s snowbelt. You may also be weary of a trait endemic to the public sector of building facilities hailed as state-of-the art, only to find 40 or 50 years later that they are functionally obsolete and cheaper to demolish and replace than to alter or expand.

You probably mourn also the disappearance of neighborhood schools that served our city and nation for generations. And you might look

State looking to rate California's preschools - Pasadena Star-News

State looking to rate California's preschools

By Maritza Velazquez, Staff Writer

Posted: 04/11/2010 07:02:57 AM PDT

Pre-Kindergarten teacher Saharai Alvarez reads a story while Guilermina Buio and her twin 4-year old daughters Barenas and Stephanie Barenas enjoying the storytelling Thursday April 8, 2010. The Mother's Club located at 980 North Fair Oaks in Northwest Pasadena has a high rating in an existing program will not use the Step Rating System proposed by the state. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Walt Mancini)

The state may implement a new preschool rating system that would boost accountability, encourage higher quality programs and help parents make more informed decisions.

A 13-member advisory committee aimed at improving early childhood learning programs in California is currently collecting data to create a fair, accurate scale that would hold preschools accountable and be understandable for parents.

Officials will make recommendations for a grading system by the end of the year. The system could start as soon as July 2011.

"This would have a tremendous impact on outcomes for children as they move through the K-16 world," said Nancy Remley, administrator of the policy office for child development division of the California Department of Education.

Local preschool administrators said the county's Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) organization, which has programs across the county and in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier areas, may be used as a template for a statewide system.

"We are being looked at as a potential model to look at lessons learned and how we can scale this up to the entire state of California," said Cecilia Ayala, LAUP's chief operating officer, who was appointed to the advisory

Our view on education: Texas school board seeks to rewrite your kids' textbooks - USATODAY.com

Our view on education: Texas school board seeks to rewrite your kids' textbooks - USATODAY.com:

Our view on education: Texas school board seeks to rewrite your kids' textbooks

"Jefferson Davis — Mississippi cotton planter, president of the Confederacy and stout defender of slavery — might be a historical footnote to most Americans, but he's about to get a politically inspired boost. A determined majority of the Texas Board of Education is preparing to require that Texas students be taught about Davis, and his discredited view of states' rights, alongside Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator.
OPPOSING VIEW: Teach founding principles
Within a few days, that and hundreds of other proposed changes in standards for teaching social studies in Texas schools, many with a similar ideological bent, are to be formally posted in Austin for public comment. With a 2-1 board majority already behind the changes, most if not all are expected to be adopted at its next meeting, in May.

Because of Texas' massive presence in the textbook market nationwide, the state board's idiosyncratic view of history is likely to show up in what's taught in schools across the USA for the next decade.

Among the other changes in the current draft: Downgrading the place of Thomas Jefferson among the Founders because of board members' dislike of his support for separation of church"

Chevron Invests $1M in California Schools

Chevron Invests $1M in California Schools

April 11, 2010 - EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Chevron Products Company will distribute a series of "Energy for Learning" grants totaling $1 million among 15 South Bay schools, signifying the largest science, technology, engineering and math-related (STEM) donation ever made by Chevron's El Segundo Refinery in support of local educational programs. As part of the announcement activities, and in recognition of Mathematics Awareness Month, some of the area's top-performing students demonstrated their most recent STEM projects for local educators, civic leaders, business partners and Chevron employees at the Chevron Employee Park.

The $1 million contribution is a reflection of the Chevron El Segundo Refinery's ongoing investment in the region and its nearly 100-year history as a member of the community. It is also part of Chevron's California Partnership, an ongoing initiative to invest in education and economic development in California, its home state

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, April 12, 2010

Book fuels debate over 'objectionable' content in Richland schools

Study Finds a 1.2 Percent Increase in Faculty Pay, the Smallest in 50 Years

By TAMAR LEWIN

Published: April 11, 2010

Monica Yant Kinney: Not the lesson charters were supposed to teach

First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd

San Francisco State ethnic studies offer for 9th graders is pulled before it could begin

L.A. County to launch scaled-down effort to combat gang violence

The 15-month pilot program will target 100 youths under the custody of the Probation Department. It will attempt to prevent them from sliding into gangs once they return home.

Blacks fare worse in study

State System of Higher Education refuses talks over retiree buyouts

By JAN MURPHY, The Patriot-News

April 11, 2010, 9:33PM

Cal State Northridge Awarded Federal Grant to Strengthen Special Education Programs

Pink Slips Discourage Potential Educators

State looking to rate California's preschools