Thursday, April 15, 2010

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Big victory in Florida

Big victory in Florida

by Mike Klonsky

Teachers got the Gov's attention

Florida Republican Gov. Crist has vetoed the anti-teacher SB6 bill passed by a Republican legislature. Crist acted in response to massive and militant student/teacher protests. Lots of lessons here for us.#1 If you don't hit it, it won't fall.

Check out the Sun-Sentinel poll and you'll get an idea

Put that census money to better use, in the Philly schools | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Put that census money to better use, in the Philly schools

by Guest blogger on Apr 15 2010 Posted in Community voices

Another guest blog this week. This is from the April 14 SRC meeting where Shaquille McKnightof E. Washington Rhodes High School spoke about the census. She was the second place winner in the Citywide Student Government Census Oratorical Contest. Here's her speech:

The United States Government census will take place this year. A census counts the current population in each state to determine how much government funding each state will receive. The 2010 census money will go to jobs, schools, health, buildings, transportation, and education.

Schools are one of my city’s biggest problems. Students attending school in the School District of Philadelphia have limited opportunities because of poverty in our neighborhoods. Many schools lack supplies of books, qualified teachers and enough space for the many students that attend, and the quality and quantity of the food is a disgrace.

Without enough books students are unable to learn the necessary concepts. We cannot practice skills at home because there are not enough books to take home and we have to sometimes share books in class. Because our education is not equal we are not getting the same opportunities as students in other schools and our performance in the world may not be as good as possible if this problem is not fixed.

We also have a problem with teachers. We do not have enough teachers and

Israel Divestment Clash In Berkeley Student Govt � Student Activism

Israel Divestment Clash In Berkeley Student Govt

by Angus Johnston

A marathon meeting of the UC Berkeley student senate has ended without taking final action on an Israeli divestment bill.
The resolution, which calls on Berkeley to divest from two corporations that do business with the Israeli military, was passed by the ASUC senate a month ago by a wide margin, but vetoed by president Will Smelko a week later.
Today’s meeting began last night and continued for more than twelve hours. The resolution was brought to a vote just before dawn, at which time the override effort failed, but supporters quickly passed a motion to reconsider and resumed debate. A few minutes after seven this morning senators voted to table the discussion until the senate’s next meeting.
The tally of the override vote, as reported on Twitter, was 12 in favor, seven opposed, with one abstention. Fourteen votes are needed for passage.
It appears that one of the bill’s supporters voted “no” in order to set up the motion to reconsider, suggesting that override proponents fell just one vote short.
The resolution became the focus of intense international attention in the weeks since it was approved by a 16-4

In Their Own Words: Revised Draft of Texas Standards Online - Curriculum Matters - Education Week

In Their Own Words: Revised Draft of Texas Standards Online

By Erik Robelen on April 15, 2010 1:03 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The wait is over. A month after the Texas State Board of Education finished up Round Two of its deliberations over rewriting the state's social studies standards, the Texas Education Agency today finally posted the latest draft, which includes many amendments (some rather controversial) from the March meeting. The board tentatively approved the standards March 12 on a party line vote of 10 to 5, with all Democrats opposed.

Those even vaguely familiar with what's going on know the Texas debate has proven "lively," you might say, and has attracted widespread coverage well beyond the Texas border. I've blogged about developments a few times—here,here, and here for example—and we ran a larger story about Texas as well as several other states working to revise their social studies standards.

While a relatively small number of amendments have attracted the most attention, the standards documents cover a lot of terrain and I encourage you to check them out for yourself.

Here are links to the proposed standards for elementary, middle, and high school students. There's also a separate document for economics (with, and I'm

Giving Back to Students – ED.gov Blog

Giving Back to Students

Today, as hardworking Americans across the country file their taxes or await their return, middle class families and students paying for college loans will find a larger refund coming their way. The American Opportunity Tax Credit alleviates up to $2,500 of federal income tax owed for individuals paying for college loans and making up to $90,000 a year or for couples making up to $180,000.
This is just one of the many ways this Administration is giving back to students. When President Obama signed into law historic healthcare legislation, he not only improved the availability and quality of health care services for thousands of uninsured and under-insured Americans, he made a tremendous investment in our nation’s students. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 ended wasteful subsidies to banks and freed up nearly $68 billion dollars for college affordability and deficit reduction. Over the next 10 years, the Act will make important investments in higher education, help make college more affordable for hardworking Americans and give back to the American tax payer by:

Expanding the Pell Grant program by $36 billion.
Investing $2 billion in community colleges.
Increasing support for minority servicing institutions by $2.55 billion.
Investing $750 million to bolster college access for students over the next 5 years.
Reducing monthly payments under the Income-Based Repayment Program—capping monthly student loan payments to 10 percent of the borrower’s discretionary income. For graduates entering public service (such as teachers), remaining loans will be forgiven after 10 years.

Without this legislation, as many as eight million students could have seen their current aid cut by 50 percent. That would’ve been absolutely devastating, especially at a time of economic rebuilding when education can mean better jobs and a better future for families and the nation. By making college more accessible and affordable, we can educate our way to a better economy.
I encourage you to take full advantage of these opportunities for higher education and career training. For more information on these programs, go tohttp://studentaid.ed.gov and http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=211309,00.html.
Secretary Arne Duncan

The Education Report “Emerging Oakland businesses” to get a larger piece of school construction funds

The Education Report

“Emerging Oakland businesses” to get a larger piece of school construction funds

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 8:41 pm in finances
No Comments

The Oakland school board just approved a new (renegotiated) Project Labor Agreement for its Measure A and B-funded construction bond projects, a move that should give more jobs and apprenticeships to Oakland residents and businesses.

Under the old PLA, the school district was only able to earmark $400,000 of bond proceeds for small, local businesses, and contractors were allowed to use 10 of their own employees before hiring locally, General Counsel Jackie Minor said.

The new PLA increases the “carve-out” — bond money the school district can direct

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

Duncan Urges New Aid to Save Education Jobs

The education secretary testifies that Congress should act to help states and districts avoid massive layoffs. (April 14, 2010)

Advocates Push New Definition of Career Readiness

The Association for Career and Technical Education says policymakers need to focus on career readiness as well as readiness for college. (April 15, 2010)

Early-Reading Expert Laments RTI's Unmet Promise

Early-reading expert Richard Allington believes response to intervention is possibly "our last, best hope" for achieving full literacy in the United States. So why does he sound so unhopeful?

• Focus on RTI: Teacher PD Sourcebook

The California Majority Report // Valero (VLO) Causing Problems in Texas Too -- For Schools and Local Governments

The California Majority Report // Welcome

STEVEN MAVIGLIO

Valero (VLO) Causing Problems in Texas Too -- For Schools and Local Governments

April 15, 2010 @ 10:32 AM

Here's another reason to boycott Valero, the Texas oil company banking the dirty energy proposition. The company is a bad corporate citizen in its home state too.

According to a Houston Chronicle article today, the company is seeking to rob millions from school districts and local governments by claiming tax credits for equipment http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6959428.html. Staff at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are fighting the company, saying it doesn't deserve the credits. But Valero has given thousands of dollars to conservative Republican Governor Rick Perry, and is appointees on the Commission appear to be bucking the recommendation of staff.

If Valero gets the credits, it could wreck local school districts and municipal governments in the communities where its refineries are located. According to the newspaper, In Texas City, where Valero operates a refinery, the school district receives 95 percent of its

Schools Matter: SB 6 Vetoed

SB 6 Vetoed

by Jim Horn

The Rovian strategy of the neocons is to move policy talk so far right that Bush policies begin to appear mainstream. This is what happened in Florida with SB 6. When corporatists regroup to offer their version of SB 7 for destroying public education and the teaching profession, it will be something that only Margaret Spellings could love, but it will be hailed as a liberal victory and celebrated by Randi Weingarten. From Tampa Bay Online:

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Charlie Crist has just vetoed SB 6, ending a week of suspense and protests against the controversial teacher tenure bill sponsored by the chairman of Crist's own political party.
Crist's action goes against conservative leaders, including former Gov. Jeb Bush, and will likely spur more speculation that he plans to break from the party and run as an independent for U.S.

NYC to close 'rubber rooms' for teachers - NYPOST.com

NYC to close 'rubber rooms' for teachers

By YOAV GONAN

Mayor Bloomberg and the city's teachers' union are set to announce today an agreement that will shutter the controversial teacher reassignment centers known as "rubber rooms," The Post has learned.

The centers won't close until the fall under the deal, sources said.

The centers house more than 600 teachers accused of misbehavior -- ranging from educational incompetence to sexual abuse -- who wait for hearings for months and years on end while doing nothing at full salary.

The Post has campaigned against rubber rooms for months. Columnist Andrea Peyser wrote in February, "Rubber rooms have become the symbol of everything in city government that makes one's head want to explode. These oases of waste and neglect exist in all five boroughs, playing host to a whopping 660 educators who've been accused of everything from sexual abuse and stealing to incompetence."

Under the deal, teachers accused of lesser charges will now report to Department of Education administrative offices or schools to perform clerical duties, sources said.

The city will also hire more arbitrators and set a strict time limit on the length of investigations in order clear up the logjam in disciplinary hearings.

The city's eight rubber rooms cost the city $40 million in salaries alone last year, according to the Department of Education.

Crist Vetoes SB 6, Takes Bold Stand for Florida Schools NEA Today

NEA Today

Today is the birthday of A. Philip Randolph, the civil rights champion and labor leader. | A Long Train Ride by Amy Goodman | ZNet Article

ZCommunications | A Long Train Ride by Amy Goodman | ZNet Article

A Long Train Ride

By Amy Goodman

Source: SF Gate

Amy Goodman's ZSpace Page
Join ZSpace

It started with a train ride. Barack Obama rode to Washington for his presidential inauguration on a whistle-stop tour. "To the children who hear the whistle of the train and dream of a better life - that's who we're fighting for," Obama said along the tour, which was compared to the train ride taken by Abraham Lincoln from Springfield, Ill., to Washington in February 1861, en route to his first inauguration. The comparisons between Obama and Lincoln abound, describing the arc between the abolition of slavery in the United States and the election of the first African American president.

The train holds a deeper symbolism, though, that undergirds Obama's historic ascension to the White House, harking back to the civil rights struggle, reflecting the unprecedented grassroots activism that formed the core of the Obama campaign and laying out where the nation under the Obama administration might go.

A. Philip Randolph was a legendary labor organizer and civil rights leader. He organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the men who tended to the overnight guests on the sleeper cars that Pullman built. While the porter positions were better-paying than many jobs available to African Americans at the time, there were still injustices and indignities. The common practice, for example, was to call the porters "George," regardless of their real name, after the owner of the company, George Pullman. Thousands of porters sought improvements through collective bargaining. (Ironically, after Pullman's death in 1897, the Pullman Co. was run by Abe Lincoln's only surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, until the mid-1920s.) Randolph's organizing struggle took 12 years, starting in 1925 and going through the economic collapse of 1929 and into the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration.

Harry Belafonte recalled in an interview with Tavis Smiley recently a story he was told by Eleanor Roosevelt. She related a public event when her husband, FDR, introduced Randolph and asked him, Belafonte recalled, "what he thought of the nation, what he thought of the plight of the Negro people and what did he think ... where the nation was headed." Continuing the story, Belafonte recounted what FDR replied upon hearingRandolph's remarks: "You know, Mr. Randolph, I've heard everything you've said tonight, and I couldn't agree with you more. I agree with everything that you've said, including my capacity to be able to right many of these

Mass., Colo. Teachers' Union Out of Race to Top - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Mass., Colo. Teachers' Union Out of Race to Top

by Stephen Sawchuk

So reports the Boston Globe and this Denver blog.
Interesting politics going on here. Perhaps the American Federation of Teachers Massachussetts feels emboldened by the fact that the two winning RTTT applications both won support from teachers' unions. But on the other hand, it may cost them some political clout: The story quotes one of the legislature's education committee co-chairs, and a Democrat at that, as being very disappointed in the move.
In the first round, Massachusetts had an unusual requirement that all districts get a union signature in order to participate. State leaders are rethinking that requirement this time around, but they're still worried that the lack of union support will scuttle the state's chances. They are apparently going to move forward with an application with

Even Cows Need Care and Feeding :: Frederick M. Hess

Frederick M. Hess's Blog

Even Cows Need Care and Feeding

by Frederick M. Hess • Apr 15, 2010 at 9:23 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

Send

RSS

ShareThis

As I noted yesterday, I think my good friend Kevin Carey is mistaken in arguing that vouchers in and of themselves are a recipe for dramatically changing the incentives in education. Look, to take just one example, recognize that non-profits unable to offer discounts to families really have little or no cause to focus on squeezing down the cost of their services. Choice-based reform (vouchers, charters, what-have-you) certainlycan help to profoundly change the incentives in schooling, but that depends entirely upon questions of program design, regulation, and context.

It's a mistake to imagine that choice creates a self-executing change in conditions. Even if one graduated from Milwaukee's "half-measure" program to "full-on" vouchers, it's hardly a given that the ecosystem and scaffolding that underlies dynamic sectors would spring into place. When it comes to innovation and dynamism, the differences between Silicon Valley and Spring Valley, U.S.A., aren't that Silicon Valley is "freer," but that it (like Boston or Austin) has acquired over the decades an ecosystem of researchers, investors, social capital, networks, expertise, and the rest that can help surface, fuel, and sustain high-quality ventures. Experience with school choice (or, say, the AT&T divestiture back in the 1980s) has made clear that these ecosystems and

R.I.P. Rubber Rooms | Intercepts

R.I.P. Rubber Rooms

by Mike Antonucci

It’s the end of an era in public education (and end to my hopes to profit from a new TV reality competition show).

The city and the teachers union have come to an agreement to close the so-called “rubber rooms” by the end of the year, the Daily News has learned.
About 550 teachers and 630 school employees report to reassignment centers after being accused

voiceofsandiego.org | Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.

Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

I was all over the city checking out schools yesterday. Got something interesting to tell me about? Don't be shy -- e-mail me at emily.alpert@voiceofsandiego.org with your tips. Now for the newsblitz:

San Diego has earthquake on the mind lately. And, as we report, not all local schools are covered by an earthquake safety law that is seen as the gold standard -- including the planned downtown schoobrary. But there are some who are now wondering whether the strict law is really necessary as city codes evolve.
Del Mar parents who are upset about the ouster of their superintendent say they'll target the school board members in November, the Union-Tribune reports.
The North County Times reports that an Escondido school on the state list of persistently failing schools will replace its principal to meet state rules and be eligible for grants. Further north, California Watch writes that Santa Ana schools will vie for the money, too.
San Diego Unified, in contrast, is making changes that the state may or may not like at its failing schools. Check ou

Don’t “Race to the Test” Without College Outcome Data � The Quick and the Ed

Don’t “Race to the Test” Without College Outcome Data

by Bill Tucker

One of the best things states can do to improve their measures of high school effectiveness–and importantly, provide valuable information to educators–has nothing to do with a test. Feedback reports for high schools, containing information on students’ actual college and career outcomes, can reduce the huge burden on assessment systems to accurately measure all of the qualities that go into “college readiness.” That’s a win-win. We get much better information for high schools and at the same time, set much more realistic and attainable goals for high school assessments.
Why does this matter? Think about the variety of things that research shows are necessary for “college-readiness.” And, consider this partial list of what the administration requires from the assessment systems

Foreigners Pay More

by Chad Aldeman

How is the University of California-Berkeley solving its budget crisis? By increasing the percentage of out-of-state students, who pay more in tuition than their in-state California peers, from 14 to 27 in the course of a single year.

Latest News and Comment from Education