Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Rancho Cordova Post — Local News, Events, Things to Do

Rancho Cordova City Staff Wins Prestigious Volunteer Award

by HELEN BREWER on APRIL 28, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS

Photo Courtesy of the City of Rancho Cordova

Rancho Cordova city staff were the honored with the “Hands on Sacramento Award for Encouraging Year-Round Employee Volunteerism” at the recent People Helping People Awards Luncheon in Sacramento. They were nominated for their volunteer efforts which included a list of 66 projects and activities on the nomination form and involved 100% of City staff.

If there is a community venture or need, City staff members help out in a variety of ways. Staffers have mentored students, participated in Rancho Cordova’s Relay for Life, staffed booths at community events, helped at e-waste clean-ups, donated socks and shoes for homeless students, and funded scholarships; they’ve donated blood, gotten muddy at the Mather Mud Run, and built floats for parades. Some activities take place during the noon

The California Majority Report // Ex-Phoenix Sun, Sacramento Mayor Urges Arizona Boycott over Immigration Law

Ex-Phoenix Sun, Sacramento Mayor Urges Arizona Boycott over Immigration Law

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson today will move to sever the city's economic ties with Arizona in the wake of the state's new immigration law. Johnson wrote a personal note on his blog today: It's here in the entirety:

I've never said much about this, but there was deep personal sadness when I was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Phoenix Suns in February 1988. 

The trouble had no connection with basketball. I was ashamed of my new state for another reason: A year before

The Quick and the Ed QUICK Hits

The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day. The content of these Hits is not necessarily endorsed by the organization or any particular team member.

Riding the bus to and from school can be a noisy, chaotic, and sometimes dangerous trek. But what if the school bus transformed into a library? (MSNBC)

Will generous donors “pay it forward” when scholarships and financial aid run out for needy college students? (CO-Fund)

Are some charter schools really “apartheid schools,” like the authors of a UCLA Civil Rights Project report claim? Jay Greene exposes the flaws of this argument. (Jay P. Greene)

By The Numbers: What impact are hiring freezes having on alternative teaching certification programs in NYC? (Gotham Schools)

If you can’t beat ‘em, Tweet ‘em? (NPR)

Leaders, Teachers and Turnarounds A new synthesis of research on school principals by CALDER (pdf) is a timely reminder of the importance of good leadership. A few key takeaways: How important is the quality of a principal? Very. Principals affect a range of outcomes, including ...

The California Master Plan: Transfer Students and Community Colleges *50 years ago Monday the California Legislature signed into law the 1960 California Master Plan for Higher Education. Read a brief history of the Plan and how it intersects with the SAT and affirmative action.* The California Master Plan is best ...

voiceofsandiego.org | Ne'A White Elephant Wanted by a Few Select Interests'

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

'A White Elephant Wanted by a Few Select Interests'

A candidate who wants to unseat Katherine Nakamura on the San Diego Unified school board is taking aim at her decision to support the schoobrary, a charter school located in the planned downtown library.

Business owner and school board candidate Steve Rosen sent out a press release last night calling the move "foolish" and arguing that it wasn't what voters had in mind when they approved $2.1 billion in bond funding to renovate schools:

This is a classic case of "bait and switch" and is unfair to students, teachers and taxpayers. ... We need to fix the roofs, repair classrooms and attend to the needs of students, not waste scarce funding on unrealistic plans for a white elephant wanted by a few select interests.

Nakamura, who represents the northeastern areas of San Diego Unified, has been one of the strongest backers of the idea of placing a charter school in the library. She voted last night to approve leasing two floors of the library for the school, praising it as a valuable partnership with the city and a new resource for kids.

Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

If you want to get the gory details on what happened at the school board meeting last night, you can always check out my Twitter feed. Now for the newsblitz:

We blogged about the latest news from the San Diego Unified school board: Studentswon't have to take an Advanced Placement test to get a higher grade in AP classes. And the schoobrary took another key step forward when the school board approved a lease with the city.
Marsha Sutton at SDNN writes that the AP decision puts San Diego Unified in line with other districts.
Two Escondido school districts are weighing whether to unify, the North County Times reports.
California lost out on the first round of Race to the Top, a competition between states for more school money. Now it has a new strategy for the second round, the Los Angeles Times reports: Only having three large districts apply. San Diego Unified, which has sat out on Race to the Top, isn't one of them.
Educated Guess blogs about how a radio show, This American Life, challenged the way that California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner portrayed a San Jose high school. I just listened to the show last night and it is fascinating stuff.
The new No Child Left Behind could focus more on student health and other needs outside the classroom, Education Week writes.

Malcolm X’s Killer Released after 44 Years? Sorry But the Real Killers Never Went to Jail � Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner-(The Blog)

Malcolm X’s Killer Released after 44 Years? Sorry But the Real Killers Never Went to Jail

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Davey D

2 Votes

Sure today a bunch of people are gonna be up in arms and have been up in arms when it was announced thatThomas Hagan the only man who admitted his role in the 1965 killing of Malcolm X was paroled yesterday. He had been in jail 44 years… As far as I’m concerned homeboy has gotten what he fully deserved-44 years is a lifetime. However, before folks start picketing the parole board and start sending petitions to some how reverse this decision, I suggest we fall back and go after the real killers-The CIA, FBI and high-ranking members of the United States government.

Sure Hagan played a role. He’s admitted to that but at the end of the day he’s small fry, the proverbial street dealer that existed within the larger machinery and movement that working overtime to slay Malcolm X. In pursuing the real killers of Malcolm, we can start by demanding an official apology from the government for the implementation of Cointel-Pro. We can also demand that any building with the nameJ Edgar Hoover be stripped of his name and when his name pops up in our history books we don’t want it removed. In fact we want it highlighted. People need to know his name for the next 400 years. We just need to put his name right up there with Adolf Hitler and tell future generations Hoover was piece of shit who ruined lives, destroyed communities, was the architect to assassination and incarceration of those who tried to do good. We need to be taught guys like Hoover and his actions were a detriment to

Sac City Unified gets fitness center for exercise contest win - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee

Sac City Unified gets fitness center for exercise contest win

by mgutierrez@sacbee.comcomcom (Melody Gutierrez)

Sacramento City Unified School District will receive a $100,000 fitness center after winning the 2010 Governor's Fitness Challenge.
Eight California schools will receive the fitness centers from Coca-Cola Company after winning the challenge, a contest among state schools to encourage students, parents and teachers to lead active, healthy lives.
District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond was in Los Angeles this morning accepting the award from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"We are thrilled to be recognized," Raymond said in a press release. "Healthy kids achieve more academically and miss fewer days of school, which is important in these challenging fiscal times."
Participants registered with the program and recorded the number of days they exercise for at least 30 minutes. Statewide, more than 1 million students signed up for this year's challenge.
Sacramento City Unified had 40,402 students registe

Local News | UW Provost Wise says she won't seek president's job | Seattle Times Newspaper

UW Provost Wise says she won't seek president's job

University of Washington Provost Phyllis Wise said Wednesday she won't be a candidate to replace UW President Mark Emmert, who is leaving to take the top job with the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

By Nick Perry

Seattle Times higher education reporter

However, Wise, the No. 2 administration under Emmert at the university, said she would be "ready to serve" if asked by the Board of Regents to be interim president while the Regents search for Emmert's permanent replacement.

Wise joined the UW as provost in 2005, after being dean of the division of biological sciences at the

Disparate Reactions to the Stanford New School and Milwaukee Vouchers :: Frederick M. Hess

Disparate Reactions to the Stanford New School and Milwaukee Vouchers

by Frederick M. Hess • Apr 28, 2010 at 9:37 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Some readers challenged me last week on an intriguing question: Why did I react so differently to the underwhelming findings on the performance of Milwaukee voucher students and to the Ravenswood City school board's effort to shutter the Stanford Graduate School of Education's charter school for mediocre performance? As you may recall, I casually brushed off the Milwaukee voucher results as telling us nothing important butsuggested that the performance of Stanford New School raises real questions about the "expertise" of Stanford's big-name pedagogues.

A few eagle-eyed commenters asked if this isn't a case of double standards or even blatant hypocrisy (see, for

What Does Personalized Customized Learning Look Like? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

What Does Personalized Customized Learning Look Like?

by CJW

One Of The Greatest Challenges Teachers Face Is How To Differentiate Learning Tailored To Each Student's Pace & Needs - Watch How It Is Done With Tech : Video
Continue Reading at The Daily Riff

Citrus Heights PTA Mom to Represent California at National Event — Citrus Heights Herald

Citrus Heights PTA Mom to Represent California at National Event

by EMILY CARDIFF on APRIL 28, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS

in SCHOOLS

Post image for Citrus Heights PTA Mom to Represent California at National Event

Lichen K-8 School mom, Laura Taylor, is an active participant in her community who knows the importance of education for young children. Laura takes her involvement in education to the next level by spending some of her time volunteering for her local elementary school’s PTA group. She is so dedicated that she’s not only a member and supporter of the school, but she’s also the president of the Lichen PTA Board in Citrus Heights.

Her significant contributions and devotion for improving local schools have not gone unnoticed by her friends, family and peers. Not too long ago, Laura was nominated as a possible representative for the state of California at the first annual inaugural Mom Congress on Education and Learning Conference.

The conference will take place at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is scheduled to speak

South Carolina Becomes Second State Affiliate Placed Under NEA Trusteeship | Intercepts

South Carolina Becomes Second State Affiliate Placed Under NEA Trusteeship

by Mike Antonucci

The South Carolina Education Association (SCEA), long plagued by membership losses and management turnover, has been placed under the trusteeship of its parent affiliate, the National Education Association, according to sources within the union. SCEA joins the Indiana State Teachers Association, suffering under debt due to its failed insurance trust, as NEA state affiliates now under the direct jurisdiction of a nationally appointed administrator.
NEA refused to confirm or deny the existence of the trusteeship.
Robert Bonazzi, the former executive director of the New Jersey Education Association, is SCEA’s trustee.

LAUSD Taskforce On Teacher Policy Reform - Perdaily.com

LAUSD Taskforce On Teacher Policy Reform

by Leonard

The most alarming aspect of virtually all discussion of public education reform that goes on between all school stakeholders whose ideas and solutions are covered by the mainstream media is the incredibly superficial and sanitized discussion that continues to misrepresent -- by omission -- the problems we face in reforming public education. These failures necessarily make subsequent proposals incomplete with superficial solutions that clearly have no chance of success, because they do not address many of the real problems we face in public education. There is a depressing irony to the fact that all those who are involved in this discussion are supposed to be practitioners and products of good public education. Regrettably, they seem to lack the facility of expression either verbally or in their written ideas to clearly define the specific problems or solutions we face. The rigorous English or Social Studies class that were required of me to graduate high school in my generation of LAUSD, made mastery of these basic skills mandatory. The fact that 60% of students now arriving at LACC are not ready for college is not just indicative of LAUSD's failure with the present generation of students, but also a clear indication that many of the educators who are now attempting to fix the system do so with something less than the English language skills they need to succeed in this task.

On Tuesday, April 27, 2010, the report of a 50 person task force of "local teachers, administrators, parents,

Non-English languages 'part of the national fabric' | California Watch

Non-English languages 'part of the national fabric'

by Agustin Armendariz

Flickr photo by Justin Taylor"I Voted" stickers in English, Tagalog and Vietnamese

Agustin Armendariz

Amid the current immigration debate, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report on Tuesday analyzing the different languages spoken in the country.
The Bureau's findings provide "illustrative evidence of the continuing and growing role of non-English languages as part of the national fabric," says the report. "Fueled by both long-term historic immigration patterns and more recent ones, the language diversity of the country has increased over the past few decades."
Based on the U.S.'s current immgration trends, the "pattern of language diversity will also likely continue," the report concludes.
Among the more than 55 million Americans who speak a language other than English at home, roughly 34.5

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Accountability dept.

Accountability dept.

Western Michigan charter school board: "We didn't fire popular principal. It was our private management company."

Accountability Dept. #2

by Mike Klonsky

McCain, Palin, Jindal and now Obama: "Drill baby, drill!" 42K gals. of crude/day heading for Louisiana coast. Spill bigger than state of Rhode Island. May be worst eco-disaster in U.S. history. Obama now wants to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the

In New Jersey, a Civics Lesson in the Internet Age Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

In New Jersey, a Civics Lesson in the Internet Age

By WINNIE HU

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

In Newark, students took their protest to City Hall, but the real target of their message was Gov. Christopher J. Christie, who has cut state aid to schools.

Inspired by a Facebook message, thousands of students walked out of class Tuesday to protest cuts in school aid.

At Attendance Court, Judge Eileen Koretz, left; Susanna Osorno-Crandall, program coordinator; and Trayvon Johnson, 13.

Lessons in Tough Love at a Court for Truants

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

The court has no power to punish, but students and their parents get helpful advice and offers of counseling and other services.

Graduate Students Ask N.Y.U. to Recognize Union

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

The teaching assistants hope to persuade the National Labor Relations Board to reverse a 2004 ruling and give them the right to organize.

ADVERTISING

In a World of Ads, Teaching the Young How to Read Them

By STUART ELLIOTT

A government campaign will try to teach children from the fourth to the sixth grades how to think critically about ads.

Reed College’s President Is Told to Crack Down on Campus Drug Use

By TAMAR LEWIN

Two overdose deaths in two years at the small liberal arts college in Oregon have drawn the attention of law enforcement authorities.

In Shake-Up, Principals May Get More Say Over What Is Taught

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Chancellor Joel I. Klein said he was reshuffling the top jobs at the Education Department headquarters and eliminating the division that oversees curriculum and teacher training.

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Rancho Cordova City Staff Wins Prestigious Volunteer Award

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson today will move to sever the city's economic ties with Arizona in the wake of the state's new immigration law. Johnson wrote a personal note on his blog today: It's here in the entirety:

I've never said much about this, but there was deep personal sadness when I was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Phoenix Suns in February 1988.

UW Provost Wise says she won't seek president's job

Disparate Reactions to the Stanford New School and Milwaukee Vouchers

Citrus Heights PTA Mom to Represent California at National Event

By WINNIE HU

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

ADVERTISING

By STUART ELLIOTT

By TAMAR LEWIN

By JENNIFER MEDINA

I've never said much about this, but there was deep personal sadness when I was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Phoenix Suns in February 1988. 