Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

















VALERIE STRAUSS
A School Survival Guide for Parents (And Everyone Else)

Posted at 8:00 AM ET, 04/29/2010

What does being “college and career ready” mean?

It is one of President Obama’s key education reform goals: Ensuring that all students who graduate high school are “college and career ready” by 2020 is one of President Obama's key education reform goals. But what does that mean?
Posted by Valerie Strauss | Permalink | Comments (0)
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JAY MATHEWS
What's Right and Wrong With Our Schools

Posted at 10:00 PM ET, 04/28/2010

Why high schools shun senior projects

If my campaign to require senior projects in Washington area public high schools was itself a senior project, I would be getting a C-minus. My inspiration, the long-standing senior project program at Wakefield High School in Arlington County, is still in good shape. But few other schools show any interest in trying it out, despite what seem to me obvious benefits.
Posted by Jay Mathews | Permalink | Comments (4)
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EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

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Lesbian Cut from High School Yearbook

Mississippi high school senior Ceara Sturgis opened her yearbook last Friday to find that her photo, in which she wears a tuxedo, was not included. In fact, the yearbook did not even mention her name.
Full story

Is Teacher Tenure Still Necessary?

4.29.10 - Tenure is under attack. The century-old system of protecting experienced teachers from arbitrary dismissal — long viewed as sacred — has triggered hot political debates in several states. ...
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Not all charter schools succeeding

The Obama administration has touted charter schools as a key education reform, based on the phenomenal success some have scored in educating hard-to-teach students....
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Student suspended over hair design

A Walzem Elementary School kindergartener was suspended this week because of a swirl design cut into his closely cropped hair....
Full story

Hundreds of RI teachers rally to protest policies of Commissioner Gist

PROVIDENCE — Fueled by teacher firings in Central Falls and slashed paychecks in East Providence, frustrations among many of the state’s 14,500 teachers with Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist boiled over Wednesday evening. ...
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Palm Beach County School Board faces $83 million gap in budget

Against a backdrop of negotiations over teacher raises for this year, Palm Beach County School Board members began today to consider how to plug an estimated $83 million hole in the coming year's ...
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Officials lie about admittance to woo 'UWS parents'

Officials hoping to woo "typical UWS parents" to the new Frank McCourt High School hid the fact that they would admit lower-performing students, the Daily News has learned....
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Las Vegas Schools will revert to nine-month calendars

For the first time in 37 years, the Clark County School District will be without any year-round schools when the new school year begins Aug. 30. School District officials announced Wednesday that all of its 76... ...
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Critics urge state board to delay new social studies curriculum

They also wanted a requirement to mention Barack Obama as the first black president. ...
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Classes of 35 may violate fire code

Plans to save money by raising Chicago class sizes to 35 students could violate fire codes established after the deadly 1958 Our Lady of Angels School fire, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union charged Wednesday. ...
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Yes and no on D.C. teachers contract funding

Yes, the contract that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee negotiated with the Washington Teachers Union should be approved. But no, the city should not allow itself to be beholden to private foundations who have offered to donate $64.5 million to help pay for teachers raises. ...
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D.C. teachers' contract needs public funding

Gandhi won't certify unless raises are paid for by public money, not private donations ...
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Found: Matching Funds for Federal Grants

A coalition of foundations is offering up to half a billion dollars to match federal grants meant to encourage education reform. ...
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City Pushes Shift for Special Education

In a shift, principals at 1,500 schools must enroll all but the most severely disabled students by fall 2011. ...
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City schools focus on anti-bullying efforts

Gilmor Elementary student was victim of repeated abuse, said she wanted to kill herself ...
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The Educated Guess Duncan wants California to resubmit

The Educated Guess

Duncan wants California to resubmit

Posted in Race to the Top, Uncategorized
A week ago, state officials were all set to abandon thoughts of re-applying to the Race to the Top. They’d been discouraged by California’s 27th place, out of 40 states, in the first round competition for federal dollars, and there’s not much time before the June 1 submission deadline.
But then, over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan personally called Gov. Schwarzenegger to ask California to stay in the running, according to two individuals in the know. And so top state officials – Education Secretary Bonnie Reiss, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and members of the state Board of Education – are once again thinking it through.
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Cuts to schools worry Californians

Posted in Revenue and taxes, State Budget
The budget cuts to California’s schools are hitting home.
Many more parents of public school children than a year ago say that their local schools are being greatly harmed by spending reductions. And significantly more Californians now say funding for public schools is inadequate.
What they haven’t agreed on is whether they’re willing to pay higher taxes to help schools.
These are the highlights of the annual survey of 2,504 adult Californians on education by the Public Policy Institute of California. It reveals growing concern about the state of education, along with variations by age, race and ethnicity.
(Read more and comment on this post)

Charter leader receives big award

Posted in Charters
A former Los Angeles Unified District B superintendent who has gone on to found and lead one of the state’s most successful group of charter schools will be one six Californians to receive this year’s James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award tomorrow in Sacramento.
Judy Burton, president and CEO of the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools,will receive the $125,000 award, and her charter organization will get additional support from the Irvine Foundation. Burton is the only public school educator among the recipients this year.
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Rise & Shine: City courted UWS parents with lie about new HS | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: City courted UWS parents with lie about new HS | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: City courted UWS parents with lie about new HS

  • Merryl Tisch wants her Board of Regents to have final say over charter schools’ authorization. (Post)
  • The city falsely told Upper West Siders that the new Frank McCourt HS would be selective. (Daily News)
  • The city is beginning to implement the special education reforms announced months ago. (Times)
  • The City Council heard concerns about the DOE’s space-allocation policies. (GothamSchools, NY1)
  • An eighth-grader and a teacher got into a physical fight at Brooklyn’s PS 335. (Post)
  • For the second time this week, a student died suddenly at school, this time at Brooklyn’s PS 396. (Post)
  • After a report substantiating harassment, teachers are calling for change at Bronx Science. (Daily News)
  • A coalition of foundations is adding $500 million to the federal government’s innovation funding. (AP)
  • The Daily News lambastes the state teachers union’s line that charter schools haven’t helped all schools.
  • Errol Louis: “The Lottery” shows that charter schools are improving education in Harlem. (Daily News)

Remainders: De-mystifying Department of Education data

Education - ContraCostaTimes.com West Contra Costa Ed Fund recognizes excellence in teaching

Education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Education - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

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California is a leader in dealing with the wildlife impacts of oil spills, which is why a UC Davis expert is headed to Louisiana to help prepare for potential contamination from the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
Drexel University has added another academic program to its Center for Graduate Studies in downtown Sacramento.
Oakland native Milton Bowens, who also is artist-in-residence at 40 Acres Art Gallery, will be the first artist to participate in "Any Given Child," a program that partners the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts with six Sacramento schools.
A student team that includes a UC Davis graduate student has won a national technology competition for inventing cell-phone software that will help people in developing countries identify vascular diseases in children.
The Sacramento City Unified School District will receive a $100,000 grant for a school fitness center after winning the 2010 Governor's Fitness Challenge.

Education News - The New York Times

Education News - The New York Times

Carol, Kenny, Martina and Ray Crouch considered going their separate ways for higher education, but in the end, they all liked what they saw at Yale.

City Pushes Shift for Special Education

In a shift, principals at 1,500 schools must enroll all but the most severely disabled students by fall 2011.

A Long Walk for a Cause

Four students arrived in Washington, having walked from Miami to support a bill that would give legal status to immigrants who arrived at age 15 or younger.

Found: Matching Funds for Federal Grants

A coalition of foundations is offering up to half a billion dollars to match federal grants meant to encourage education reform.
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.

In New Jersey, a Civics Lesson in the Internet Age

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

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

The teaching assistants hope to persuade the National Labor Relations Board to reverse a 2004 ruling and give them the right to organize.
ADVERTISING
An ad for a make-believe brand of jeans.

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

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

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

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.