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Thursday, April 15, 2010

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

Senate effectively kills dropout age bill

FRANKFORT — The Senate dealt a fatal blow Wednesday night to a bill strongly backed by Gov. Steve Beshear and first lady Jane Beshear that would increase the state's dropout age from 16 to 18.
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Texas autism program cuts waiting, costs

Children suspected of having autism sometimes had to wait a year to get evaluated and to be able to afford the care they needed....
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Gorman expects worst-case; plan for 1,030 layoffs

The worst-case scenario for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools job cuts grew to 1,030 Tuesday, as Superintendent Peter Gorman presented his 2010-11 budget plan to the school board....
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In Hawaii, anger, arrests over shorter school year

Parents angry about Hawaii’s shortest-in-the-nation school year aren’t giving up on a sit-in at Governor Linda Lingle’s office despite two arrests and more than a dozen trespassing tickets. ...
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Does Rhee's $34 million surplus exist?

So does the $34 million surplus Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee described to the D.C. Council Tuesday actually exist?...
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Jay Mathews: Washington area's top education bloggers

Our favorites were a diverse bunch, with many witty teachers, incisive journalists and droll experts ...
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Fund Proposed to Prevent Some Teacher Firings

Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, introduced legislation on Wednesday to create a $23 billion jobs fund to prevent teachers from being fired because of budget shortfalls. ...
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SD school board may ease curbs on promotions

This year could mark then end of a policy that keeps failing students in San Diego from being promoted to the next grade level unless they complete summer intervention classes. ...
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Program that helps kids handle grief honored

An overcast sky underscored the solemnity of a ceremony Tuesday at Oak Crest Intermediate School in the East Central Independent School District, where school officials accepted the first Pacesetter Award from the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center. ...
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Utah students breathe life into resolution

An anti-idling campaign launched by sixth-graders at Morningside Elementary is reaping real-life lessons that extend far beyond the walls of the Millcreek classroom...
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Report: Teacher pension plans shaky

Pennsylvania and its school districts face a daunting enough task meeting significant hikes in teacher pension contributions....
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District chooses 6 nonprofits as potential Renaissance school operators

Six nonprofits have been selected to radically reform nine failing Philadelphia School District schools, officials announced Tuesday. Five organizations currently operate charters and are planning to turn district schools into charter schools. Another wants to take over schools but staff them with district teachers. ...
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Detroit Public Schools to end social promotion

As Detroit Public Schools prepares to end the decades-long practice of automatically passing underperforming students from one grade level to the next, officials may learn lessons from the past. ...
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Gifts of a great teacher

4.14.10 - Kathleen Parker - One of President Obama's consistent education themes has been the wish that every child cross paths with that one teacher who hits the light switch and changes one's ...
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GOP senator worries 'No Child' revamp won't work in rural districts

The Senate's ranking Republican on education policy said Tuesday he fears that the Obama administration's strategy for turning around struggling schools will backfire in rural America. ...
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Race to the Top should help desegregate schools

4.14.10 - President Obama recently promised to marshall more resources to drag into court school systems that have ignored civil rights laws and allowed schools to resegregate. ...
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Holding Prom on a School Night

To try to control after-prom excess this year, Pearl River High School in suburban New York will require next-day school attendance. ...
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Middlebury to Develop Online Language Venture

The Vermont college, known for its rigorous foreign-language programs, is teaming up with K12 Inc. to develop courses for precollege students. ...
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NEW BEDFORD new schools chief promises change

Newly appointed School Superintendent Mary Louise Francis ended the first day in her new role with a calm and orderly School Committee meeting, a sharp contrast to the public recriminations that marked the last week of outgoing... ...
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SD school board may ease curbs on promotions

This year could mark then end of a policy that keeps failing students in San Diego from being promoted to the next grade level unless they complete summer intervention classes. ...
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Switch College Admissions to a Single Lottery � The Quick and the Ed

Switch College Admissions to a Single Lottery � The Quick and the Ed

Switch College Admissions to a Single Lottery

by Chad Aldeman
About one out of every sixty students who will begin college next fall applied to Harvard (h/t). Stop and think for a second how crazy that is.
Here are the acceptance rates at various elite schools around the country:
Harvard: 6.9 percent
Stanford: 7.2 percent
Yale: 7.5 percent
Princeton: 8.2 percent
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Ben in the belly of the beast

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Ben in the belly of the beast

Ben in the belly of the beast

by Mike Klonsky
If you like good reporting, don't miss Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky's attempt to unravel the doublespeak and web of lies spun by the CPS disinformation team headed by Monique Bond. Joravsky is invited into the belly of the beast on Clark Street to get re-educated as to why the CEO's big p










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voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - How a Strict Earthquake Safety Law Doesn't Apply to All Schools

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - How a Strict Earthquake Safety Law Doesn't Apply to All Schools


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Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 7:54 pm | Updated: 8:01 pm, Wed Apr 14, 2010.
By EMILY ALPERT
San Diegans have earthquakes on the mind after a series of Baja temblors rattled homes and nerves here two weeks ago. They have less to worry about their children's schools: California public schools are seen nationally as the gold standard for seismic safety under an exacting law called the Field Act.
But not all schools are subject to the rules. Preschools aren't covered by them. Private schools are covered by a separate, slightly less demanding law, which doesn't apply at all to older private schools. And charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, don't fall under the Field Act unless they accept state facilities money -- something that is rare here -- or use district buildings.
That means that charter and private schools don't always have to occupy buildings that meet the same rigorous earthquake standards as public schools. If charters or private schools use older buildings, such as churches or offices, they may have passed muster under older, lesser codes.
When the San Diego Unified School District and the city tried to shave costs from the schoobrary -- a planned school in a future downtown library -- one reason they made it a charter was to dodge the stricter seismic rules and their added costs. A dated and still disputed state study
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Sacramento Press / Tim Wise Brings Racism Discussion to Sac State

Sacramento Press / Tim Wise Brings Racism Discussion to Sac State

Tim Wise Brings Racism Discussion to Sac State




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Prominent anti-racist author and speaker Tim Wise spoke about the continuing reality of racism in the United States to an audience of more than 700 students at Sacramento State University Wednesday.
Wise opened his lecture, "Colorblindness and its Consequences: How Ignoring Race Deepens the Racial Divide," with a personal story. He told the audience about when he lived with nine guys in Louisiana and one of his roommates made a pot of gumbo but never cleaned it up. Wise said the gumbo sat on the oven burner for more than a day and a half before the mess and smell compelled him to clean.
"It didn't matter that I didn't make the mess. The only thing that mattered was that I didn't want to live in that funk anymore," he said, using that example to tell students that even though they didn't help create the legacy of racism in society, it is their responsibility to help clean it up.
"This legacy lives today," Wise added. "It is one we must confront on a daily basis."
Wise pointed out, as an example, that the majority of CEOs of top
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UCD grad school rates highest in female profs - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee

UCD grad school rates highest in female profs - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee

What's the STAR test?

by dlambert@sacbee.com (Diana Lambert)
Tens of thousands of Sacramento-area students are sharpening their pencils and preparing to take multiple choice tests that will gauge how they measure up to state standards.
Testing, which generally takes place in April and May, has already started in some districts.
The tests tell the state how well the schools are teaching students and helps educators know if their teaching methods are working.

The results are important to schools, which can be sanctioned by the state for multiple years of low


UCD grad school rates highest in female profs

The University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management has the highest percentage of full-time female faculty among the world's top 100 business schools, according to new rankings compiled by the Financial Times of London.
At 42 percent, the UC Davis business school is the only one among the top 100 in the Financial Times' 2010 global MBA program rankings with women making up more than 40 percent of faculty.
"We are deeply committed to diversity among our faculty, staff and students, and we will continue to be a leader," said Steven C. Currall, dean of the UCD management school.

UC puts 10,000 applicants on waiting list

by lrosenhall@sacbee.com (Laurel Rosenhall)
For the state's high school seniors, this was the toughest year ever to get into the University of California, with seven of the nine undergraduate campuses reporting the lowest admission rates on record and – for the first time – more than 10,000 applicants being offered a spot on a waiting list.
A-plus students are now the average – not the exception – at most UCs, data released Wednesday show. At all but three UC campuses, the mean grade-point-average of admitted students is above 4.0.
Students must work harder and score higher to get into UC because more high schoolers are seeking a college education at the same time the state has cut funding to public universities. UC cut freshman enrollment for this

Sacramento City College lands FAA training program

by mglover@sacbee.com (Mark Glover)
Looking to fill an anticipated need for flight controllers, the Federal Aviation Administration has selected Sacramento City College as one of five new U.S. sites for air traffic control training programs.
The college expects to begin offering classes this fall.
"We are thrilled to have been chosen for this highly selective training program," said Brice Harris, chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District. "The credit goes to Sacramento City College's historic and outstanding aeronautics program as well as to the efforts of our business and community partners … ."
Harris said business and community leaders worked for three years through the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's "Cap to Cap" program to meet with FAA officials and lawmakers.
"Cap to Cap" began in 1970 as a public-private sector effort to prevent McClellan Air Force Base in North
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U.S. Falls Short in Measure of Future Math Teachers - NYTimes.com

U.S. Falls Short in Measure of Future Math Teachers - NYTimes.com

U.S. Falls Short in Measure of Future Math Teachers


By SAM DILLON

Published: April 14, 2010

Enlarge This ImageAmerica’s future math teachers, on average, earned a C on a new test comparing their skills with their counterparts in 15 other countries, significantly outscoring college students in the Philippines and Chile but placing far below those in educationally advanced nations like Singapore and Taiwan.
Answer: AB=2 cm; AM =square root of 3 cm; BM=1 cm
Testing the Prospective Testers A sample from the test given to future middle school math teachers.
The researchers who led the math study in this country, to be released in Washington on Thursday, judged the results acceptable if not encouraging for America’s future elementary teachers. But they called them disturbing for American students heading to careers in middle schools, who were outscored by students in Germany, Poland, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan.
On average, 80 percent to 100 percent of the future middle school teachers from the highest-achieving countries took advanced courses like linear algebra and calculus, while only 50 percent to 60 percent of their counterparts in the United States took those courses, the study said.
“The study reveals that America’s middle school mathematics teacher preparation is not

National Briefing | Washington: Fund Proposed to Prevent Some Teacher Firings

by By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, introduced legislation on Wednesday to create a $23 billion jobs fund to prevent teachers from being fired because of budget shortfalls.


N.Y.U. Expansion Plans Meet Neighborhood Critics

by By LISA W. FODERARO
As New York University formally unveiled its 25-year expansion plan, residents of Greenwich Village were among the chief critics.

National Briefing | Washington: Fund Proposed to Prevent Some Teacher Firings

by By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, introduced legislation on Wednesday to create a $23 billion jobs fund to prevent teachers from being fired because of budget shortfalls.

A Lesson Lovely as a Tree: Defining and Appreciating Trees

by By CATHERINE HUTCHINGS and KATHERINE SCHULTEN
Lesson Plan | Interdisciplinary ideas for considering the importance of trees and their real and symbolic role in the world and people's lives.
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Learning Idioms | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Learning Idioms | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
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Parents work to rejuvenate a public school | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/14/2010

Parents work to rejuvenate a public school | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/14/2010

Parents work to rejuvenate a public school

By Kristen A. Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
It was a two-page wish list, full of goals both lofty and practical: "reopen the school libary," "establish a language program," remove "bars/grates/fencing if possible."
A handful of playground moms brainstormed the plan and presented it to a Philadelphia School District official last fall as a blueprint for a vibrant neighborhood school.
The school, Andrew Jackson Elementary at 12th and Federal, has failed to meet state standards for several years running. Seventy-six percent of its students are poor. Student outcomes have caused the district to classify Jackson an "empowerment" school, among the lowest performers in the city.
Still, the moms want to send their children, now toddlers, there. With the encouragement of the district, the dozen core members of the Passyunk Square Civic Association's education committee - architects, stay-at-home moms, a lawyer, even two women who don't yet have children - plan to check off every item on that list, from installing a science lab to incorporating yoga programs into classroom routines.
All they've got to do, they figure, is reshape curriculum and teaching, lower class size, and sell Jackson to a neighborhood highly skeptical of city public schools.
The needs of the nondescript brick school building are big, but they will raise money, they swear. They will volunteer and scrub and recruit and work with officials and do whatever it takes to make Jackson a top public school.
"We can make the most impact at a school that's struggling," said Terry Jack, one of the moms. "We can



District chooses 6 nonprofits as potential Renaissance school operators

Six nonprofits have been selected to radically reform nine failing Philadelphia School District schools, officials announced Tuesday. Five organizations currently operate charters and are planning to turn district schools into charter schools. Another wants to take over schools but staff them with district teachers.

District support staff gets raise in new contract

More than 3,000 Philadelphia school aides, bus drivers, building engineers, cleaners, and maintenance workers have a new contract. The four-year pact between the Philadelphia School District and 32BJ Service Employees International Union District 1201 gives workers an 8 percent wage increase, employer-paid health care, and training.
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