Monday, June 14, 2010

Chantal Sicile-Kira: Autism and Education in France

Chantal Sicile-Kira: Autism and Education in France

Chantal Sicile-Kira

Chantal Sicile-Kira

Chantal Sicile-Kira new book: 41 Things To Know About Autism. www.chantalsicile-kira.com.
Posted: June 14, 2010 02:03 PM
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Autism and Education in France

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Read More: Autism , Autism Education , Autism Parenting , Autism Symptoms , Treatment For Autism , Living News
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Recently I was invited to Paris to present at a prestigious international colloquium on autism and education, which was organized by the INS HEA, the French Ministry of Education's training institute for special education teachers. Seventeen years earlier, I had left France because in those days, children with autism did not have the right to an education, and my son, Jeremy, was severely impacted by autism.
It was an emotional moment for me, standing there, addressing 500 attendees in a lecture hall of the Universite Paris Descatres in Bolulogne - Billancourt, explaining my son's educational experience in the United States, where all children have the right to a free and appropriate education under IDEA.
In 1993, my family left France, where we had been living since 1981. Both Jeremy and his sister, Rebecca (who is neurotypical), were born in Paris at the time when children with autism were considered mentally ill, not developmentally disabled. They had no right to an education. Instead, they were enrolled in day programs on hospital sites, where they were treated with psychoanalysis. Parents had no right to visit the day program, nor did they receive any communication about what went on during the hours their child spent there.
When Jeremy showed autistic tendencies, I was told by the powers that be to take him to see a psychoanalyst. The psychoanalyst concluded that Jeremy was autistic because he suffered separation issues from breast-feeding. This the analyst gleaned from watching him spin round objects (which reminded him of his mother's breasts) and chase after one that he had "lost" when it fell and rolled under a piece of furniture.
The French genetic specialist who handed me my son's diagnosis, also handed me some advice. She told me to look for and find a good institution for Jeremy. I have -- it's called public school. On June 18th, both Jeremy and Rebecca will be graduating from high school. Jeremy will have taken seven years to do so, in comparison to Rebecca's four. I am equally proud of both of them.
I am not sharing this information to knock the French; I have heard similar stories in the UK and in the US: Parents seeking help were often blamed for their child's autism and were given no hope and no answers. The big difference however, is that back then there were no French laws allowing
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Should CA keep 4-year-olds out of kindergarten? | The Education Report

Should CA keep 4-year-olds out of kindergarten? | The Education Report

Should CA keep 4-year-olds out of kindergarten?

By Katy Murphy
Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 9:16 am in budget, elementary schools, enrollment,families.
Kindergarten. Image from woodleywonderworks' photostream on flickr.com/creativecommons
Senate Bill 1381 would phase in a Sept. 1 birthday cutoff date for kindergarteners, making sure the students are 5 when they start school. (The cutoff would be Nov. 1 in 2012; Oct. 1 in 2013; and Sept. 1 in 2014)
Proponents say many 4-year-olds can’t compete with children who are up to a year older, and that they have a hard time keeping up with the new rigors of kindergarten, reports Jill Tucker of the Chronicle, who visited Oakland’s Thornhill Elementary School for the story.
The other advantage for the state is the estimated annual savings — about $700 million a year until the first group graduates from high school, Tucker reports. Half of the savings would be redirected to the state’s preschool program (though this might refer to the 3-hour preschool, rather than the full-day program that’s under threat).
What do you think?
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It's Not Ok to Hate Teachers

It's Not Ok to Hate Teachers

It’s Not OK to Hate Teachers

A recent action alert from the United Church of Christ reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is predicting that up to 300,000 jobs in public schools may be lost due to the recession. In cities like Chicago and Cleveland school officials are predicting class sizes of 35 to 45 for next fall. Meanwhile, as high school seniors plan for their graduation ceremonies, a new round of “blame the victim” seems to be in vogue. In this case it is the vulnerable teaching profession that seems to be under siege.

Earlier this year Arne Duncan and Barack Obama publicly affirmed the decision of a Rhode Island school district to fire every teacher at a failing public high school. Do we really think every teacher at that high school deserved to be fired? Subsequent negotiations between the district and the school board have led to the rehiring of many of those teachers, but under enforced new work rules. This spring the governor of New Jersey, angry at the pace of negotiations with teachers’ unions, publicly urged citizens to vote down their school levies knowing full well what kind of devastating impact that would have on public school classrooms in his state. This Sunday The Cleveland Plain Dealer published a front page report on teachers in the Cleveland Public Schools that, at least to me, seemed designed to paint teachers in the worst possible light as overpaid, underworked, intransigent about reform, and not overly competent.

What’s going on here? No one can deny that there is a desperate financial crisis hitting our schools this year. The inadequacy of a school funding system that relies heavily on property taxes privileges suburban school districts at the expense of rural and urban districts. Year by year its flaws grow more apparent, yet year by year we steadfastly refuse to reform it. State budgets are in freefall in an environment where few are willing to consider any rise in income taxes to maintain even the most essential public services. No can deny that there are some mediocre teachers protected by employment rules that need reform. But there are also plenty of mediocre doctors, lawyers, and clergy around; no one hears them pilloried as a class in quite the same way teachers are being viewed today. The fascination with testing, ushered in by the “No Child Left Behind” law, has made it easy to point fingers at failing schools and

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Newsweek ranks Houston ISD's Lee among nation's elite | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Newsweek ranks Houston ISD's Lee among nation's elite | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Newsweek ranks Houston ISD's Lee among nation's elite

Well, here's a head-scratcher.
Two of the Houston ISD high schools that Superintendent Terry Grier says are in dire need of major overhauls to rescue kids from almost certain failure are ranked among the nation's elite on Newsweek magazine's latest list of America's Best High Schools.
Lee High School, the magazine says, is the 151st-best high school in America and among the nation's top 1 percent. That's just below HISD's prestigious Bellaire High School and YES Prep Southeast, the Houston charter school that's widely considered one of the best charter schools in America. Lee, according to Newsweek, is beating KIPP Houston High School (No. 176), Spring Branch Memorial (No. 220) and HISD Westside (No. 312).
HISD's Sharpstown is ranked No. 556, better than any campus in the more highly regarded Cypress-Fairbanks school district.
Only the top 6 percent high schools in America -- about 1,600 campuses -- appear on the magazine's list.
The news comes just days after HISD confirmed more than 160 teachers at Lee, Sharpstown and a handful of other schools have been given their walking papers because they aren't getting the job done. Here's what our Ericka Mellon reported Friday. Lee, you might recall, is about to get its third principal since Grier arrived in Houston last fall.
So, what gives?
For starters, Newsweek's rankings are freakishly simplistic. All they do is divide the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge exams attempted at the entire campus in a given year by the number of graduating seniors. It makes no difference how many of those students earned passing grades on the tests. Here's a detailed
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CA Academic Content Standards Commission Meeting Agenda - June 17-18, 2010 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

CA Academic Content Standards Commission - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

CA Academic Content Standards Commission

California Academic Content Standards Commission Meeting Announcement and Agendas.
Senate Bill X5 1 (Steinberg) called for the establishment of California's Academic Content Standards Commission. As required by law, the Governor and the legislature have completed the selection of the members of the Commission.
The following are the announcement and agenda for the Commission's first meeting on June 17 and 18, 2010. Please contact Project Director Sue Stickel at castandards@scoe.net or 916-228-2402 with questions.
California Academic Content Standards Commission Meeting Agenda - June 17-18, 2010
(Posted 07-Jun-2010)

CALIFORNIA ACADEMIC CONTENT STANDARDS COMMISSION

AGENDA

Public Session
June 17 - 18 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010 12:00 - 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time ±Sacramento County Office of Education
10474 Mather Blvd.
Mather, CA  95655
Call to Order
Salute to Flag
AGENDA ITEMS
Item 1
Subject:  Welcome and Introductory Remarks by:
Secretary of Education, Bonnie Reiss (invited)
President of State Board of Education, Ted Mitchell (invited)
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell (invited)
Type of Action:  Information
Item 2
Subject:  Election of Chairperson
Type of Action:  Action
Item 3
Subject:  Introduction of Commission Members
Type of Action:  Information
Item 4
Subject:  Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act Overview
Type of Action:  Information
Item 5
Subject:  Ethics Training and Form 700 Completion
Type of Action:  Information
Item 6
Subject:  Reimbursement of Travel
Type of Action:  Information
Item 7
Subject:  Overview of Senate Bill x5 1 (Steinberg)
Type of Action:  Information
Item 8
Subject:  Overview of Common Core Standards Initiative Document
  • English-Language Arts
  • Mathematics
Type of Action:  Information
Item 9
Subject:  Overview of California Content Standards
  • English-Language Arts
  • Mathematics
Type of Action:  Information
Item 10
Subject:  Public Comment
Type of Action:  Information
Day 2:  Friday, June 18, 2010 8:00-3:00 p.m. Pacific Time ±
Item 11
Subject:  Review from June 14 Meeting, Including Public Comment
Type of Action:  Information
Item 12
Subject:  Review of Fundamental Questions
  1. Do California’s existing standards:
  • match the Common Core Standards Initiative in rigor?
  • have international benchmarking?
  • have applicability to college and career readiness?
  1. Which of California’s Standards:
  • incorporate the substance of the Common Core Initiative’s content?
  • exceed in substance the Common Core Standards Initiative’s content, are internationally benchmarked, and build toward college and career readiness?
  1. What changes to California’s standards are necessary to incorporate or exceed the substance of the Common Core Initiative’s content at the 85 percent level?
Type of Action:  Information
Item 13
Subject:  Convene English Language Arts and Mathematics Workgroup
Type of Action:  Information
Item 14
Subject:  Report of Progress and Future Work of Workgroups
Type of Action:  Information
Item 15
Subject:  Review of Members’ Homework for Next Session
Type of Action:  Information
Item 16
Subject:  Public Comment
Type of Action:  Information
For more information concerning this agenda, please contact the Sacramento County Office of Education at PO Box 269003, Sacramento, CA 95826-9003; telephone 916-228-2402; fax 916-228-2630; e-mail castandards@scoe.net. To be added to the speaker’s list, please fax or mail your written request to the above-referenced address/fax number.This agenda is also posted on the Sacramento County Office of Education’s web site (Outside Source).
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    Editorial: Big step for level school standards - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

    Editorial: Big step for level school standards - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

    Editorial: Big step for level school standards

    Published: Monday, Jun. 14, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 15A
    Americans moving from state to state face a patchwork of 50 sets of English and math standards for K-12 schools, of widely varying quality. So, more than a year ago, 48 states (including California) took it upon themselves to draft a common set of standards.
    Skeptics rightly worried that this might result in a "lowest common denominator" approach. Amazingly, this hasn't occurred and skeptics should be pleasantly surprised by the elegant clarity of the final product. After a March draft and 10,000 comments, revised Common Core State Standards were released June 2 (see www.corestandards.org).
    Now California and other states will decide whether to adopt them. Certainly, after 13 years in place, California's existing standards deserve a new look.
    Under a law passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in January, a 21-member Academic Content Standards Commission will study the Common Core State Standards and make a recommendation to the state Board of Education by July 15. The state board, in turn, will take an up or down vote by Aug. 2.
    The fundamental question for the commission has to be: Do the Common Core State Standards match or exceed California's existing standards in rigor?
    The Sacramento region is well-placed on the commission to answer that question. It includes Greg Geeting, currently on the Sacramento County Board of Education; Mark Freathy, math teacher in Elk Grove Unified; Deborah Keys, former principal in Natomas Unified; Matt Perry, principal at Sacramento's Health Professions High School; Scott Farrand, math professor at Sacramento State; and Jim Lanich, executive director of the Center to Close the Achievement Gap at Sacramento State.
    With some exceptions, the Common Core State Standards have been well-received nationally.
    For example, E.D. Hirsch, well-known author of "Cultural Literacy," "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them" and "The Knowledge Deficit" concludes that they mark "a real advance on even the best of existing state language-arts standards."
    In math, the Common Core State Standards address two interconnected issues: The states, including California, cover too many topics in the early grades in too little depth, and achievement drops off in late middle school, where algebra begins.
    This bears out in California, where the success rate of students taking algebra has been disappointingly low – only 28 percent test proficient or above. The Common Core streamlines topics to build a foundation for algebra, relying on the work of the American Institutes for Research and the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. A main focus, rightly, is fractions.


    Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/14/2819828/big-step-for-level-school-standards.html#ixzz0qqohjRjO
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    Social justice slate sweeps to victory in the Chicago Teachers Union | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

    Social justice slate sweeps to victory in the Chicago Teachers Union | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

    Social justice slate sweeps to victory in the Chicago Teachers Union

    by Ron Whitehorne on Jun 14 2010 Posted in Social justice unionism

    Tags:

    Chicago teachers last week elected CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators), a group that has worked along side the community to fight school closings, teacher firings, and privatization over the past two years, to head the 30,000 member Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
    In a five-way race this Spring CORE finished second to the incumbent slate headed by current CTU president Marilyn Stewart by a handful of votes. But in the two-way runoff CORE won by a landslide, winng nearly 60% of the votes cast and sweeping all nine citywide offices and all of the 23 vice presidencies for elementary and high schools.
    The United Progressive Caucus headed by Stewart used all the advantages of incumbency, out spending the opposition by a huge margin. But the tide of anger at Stewart's failure to defend teachers from the corporate inspired Duncan school reform known as Renaissance 2010 swept all before it
    Pauline Lipman from Teachers for Social Justice describes CORE as " an explicitly anti-neoliberal, social justice union and a key member of the Grassroots Education Movement in Chicago, a coalition of teachers, parents, students, and
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    Terri Horman | Lifedork Kyron Horman Search

    Terri Horman | Lifedork

    Google search result:


    Kyron Horman Search Wraps Up As Disappearance Case Now Moves To

    From Left Stepfather Tony Young And Kyrons Mother Desiree Young Stepmother Terri Horman And Kyrons Father Kaine Horman This Was The Familys Second Public Appearance Since Kyron Disappeared June 4
    From oregonlive.com

    Kyron Horman Tshirts Available To Get Word Out OregonLivecom

    View Full SizeAndrew BurtonThe OregonianAt A News Conference Today Desiere Young Kyron Hormans Mother Her Husband Tony Young Stepmother Terri Horman And Kyrons Father Kaine Horman All Wear The Tshirt Now Available To The
    From oregonlive.com

    Crime Scene KC

    Behind Him At Left Are Kyrons Stepfather Tony Young His Mother Desiree Young And Stepmother Terri Horman AP PhotoGreg WahlStephens Posted By James Hart On Monday June 14 2010 At 0952 AM In Missing Persons Permalink
    From kansascity.com

    Kyron Horman Timeline Of Events Since Boy39s Disappearance

    Terri Moulton Horman Arrives Shortly Afterward With Her Stepson Kyron 815 Am Gina Zimmerman President Of The School PTA Arrives And Sees Kyron With His Stepmother In Front Of His Exhibit 845 Am Terri Horman Leaves After Watching
    From blogspot.com

    The Oregonian39s Timeline For Events Since Kyron Disappeared

    858 Am Terri Moulton Horman Posts On Facebook To Say She Has Ordered Missingperson Fliers I Ordered 1000 Fliers They Will Be Coming To Our House I Will Let People Know When They Are Here And We Can Go From There
    From typepad.com

    Disappearance Of Oregon Boy Classified As Criminal

    The Family Of Missing 7yearold Kyron Horman From Left Tony Young His Mother Desiree Young Terri Horman And His Father Kaine Horman Stand Together At A Press Conference At Brooks Hill Historical Church Across From Skyline
    From abilitiesnetworks.org

    After A Week Of Searching No Sign Of Skyline Student Kyron Horman

    On The Morning Of June 4 7yearold Kyron Horman Attended A Science Fair With His Stepmother At Skyline School In Portland Kyron Had Created A Presentation On The Redeyed Tree Frog At 845 Am Terri Horman Said Goodbye And
    From oregonlive.com

    Kyron Horman Day 10 Case Is Now A Criminal Investigation

    Kyrons Stepmother Terri Horman Who Was The Last Family Member To See Him On June 4 Gripped The Arm Of The Boys Mother Desiree Young Staton Said He Spent A A Great Deal Of Time With The Families On Saturday And They Understood
    From oregonlive.com

    Kyron Horman39s Family Makes Emotional Appeal To Keep Up Search

    His Wife Desiree Young Kyrons Mother Stood Arm And Arm With His Stepmother Terri Horman As Kyrons Father Kaine Horman Embraced Tony Young Before Stepping In Front Of The Cameras Desiree Young Clutched At Her Stomach
    From oregonlive.com

    Kyron Horman Case Update Where Is Kyron Photos Videos Prime

    Does The Fact That Terri Horman Took Photos Of Kyron And Posted Them On Her Facebook Page Justify Speculation Is A Segement Of The Public Simply Becoming Hardened To These Stories Due To Past Experience Is It Fair To Case Speculation
    From primewriter.com

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