Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Avoid costly colleges to graduate debt-free - Boston.com

Avoid costly colleges to graduate debt-free

By Erin Conroy

AP Business Writer / July 21, 2010

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STUDY HALL: Sure, your kid is gonna rack up an enormous amount of debt over the next four years. But isn't that just the price your coed, or maybe you, has to pay for a good college education these days?

Not so, says Zac Bissonnette, a student at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, blogger and author of the recently published book "Debt-Free U." Having a prestigious university's name on a diploma or sweatshirt will never outweigh the burden of student loans, he said.

"If you look at sending your kid to an expensive elite school in terms of an investment, it just doesn't make sense," said Bissonnette, who writes regularly for AOL Money & Finance. "It's simply an emotional appeal, and looking at the

Remainders: New York signs on to common standards | GothamSchools

Remainders: New York signs on to common standards

by Elizabeth Green

New York has quietly adopted “common core” aka national standards. (Curriculum Matters)
New research finds black males are more likely to get a rookie high school teacher. (EdWeek)
Voices against national standards worry about routinization, lack of rigor. (Room for Debate)
Those in favor say debate can lead to consensus and poor kids will win. (Room for Debate)
Al Shanker is no longer with us, but now his namesake institute has a blog. (Shanker Blog)
Shifting leadership helped a “principal from hell” go unnoticed. (GothamSchools)
The new leader at the Chicago teachers union is cleaning house — and hiring up. (District 299)
The teachers’ contract isn’t the problem; state legislation is. (Education Next via Rick Hess)
The school that canceled prom when a same-sex couple tried to go lost its court case. (Daily News)
The “Drunken Pirate” case of a teaching license denied due to Facebook is historic. (New York T imes)

Schools Matter: Expanding to Scale: Part II of the Series

Expanding to Scale: Part II of the Series

by Kenneth Libby

Yesterday I asked readers to imagine a scenario where they had billions of dollars to give away and a keen interest in charter schools. We put the "charter schools: good or bad" debate to the side and looked at the options available for expanding charters: the EMO (for-profit), the CMO (nonprofit version of EMO), and the stand alone version.

Philanthropy largely went with option #2, the CMO approach. They dropped $500 million on CMO expansion between 1999 and 2009. The Gates Foundation also invested in the small schools model (breaking up large high

FOXNews.com - Massachusetts Raises Concerns by Swapping State Curriculum for National Standards

Massachusetts Raises Concerns by Swapping State Curriculum for National Standards

Published July 21, 2010

| FoxNews.com

Massachusetts approved a plan Wednesday to scrap its state curriculum standards for national ones amid fierce opposition from critics who say the new guidelines will “erode” student achievement in a state that already churns out some of nation’s highest test scores.

The state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 9-0 to adopt the new federal Common Core Standards -- promoted by the Obama administration – as part of its application to qualify for a portion of the government’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top funding.

Massachusetts is one of several states submitting applications for Round 2 of the program’s grants. The billion-dollar education initiative, funded by Education Department as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was announced last summer and seeks to strengthen the nation’s education system through a number of so-called reforms – including the establishment of a national curriculum.

But the new guidelines, which specify what is taught in math and English classes at each grade

How History Is Taught in Schools � Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

How History Is Taught in Schools

by larrycuban

Scholar Suzanne Wilson paints a familiar picture of teacher-centered instruction dominating history classrooms. Often called dismissively by critics as “traditional teaching,” it is a mode of instruction that is recognizable to most readers above the age of 18 who have ever taken high school history courses. In one study, for example, 97 percent of students in history courses reported that their teachers lectured some of the time, they memorized information (83 percent), and used the textbook weekly (89 percent). Other classroom studies between the 1920s and now have found similar outcomes.

Yet the consistent portrayal that researchers and reform-minded historians have constructed of secondary school classrooms is hardly monolithic. In my research on how teachers taught between the 1890s and the

School Tech Connect: "Almost Irrelevant"

"Almost Irrelevant"

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

--William J. Mathis, on the adoption of national standards.

Chester Finn is going to spend the rest of his career bemoaning how incompetently the standards are implemented by the states. And in the states that put on the best dog and pony, he's going to bemoan the way teachers are teaching the new curriculum in areas of high concentrations of

Judging The Kids

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

The one thing that has never been clear to me is whether or not Randi Weingarten gets it. Here she is in theTimes piece, apparently fretting over the recent Obey proposal:

Game Changer

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

I've decided that, moving forward, anyone who uses the phrase "game-changer" is a dunce.

The California Majority Report // Laird Turns Up the Heat on Blakeslee on Education, Launches Video

Laird Turns Up the Heat on Blakeslee on Education, Launches Video

At a press conference today at Chris Jesperson School with San Luis Obispo County education leaders, Senate Candidate John Lairdtoday called for an end to state budget cuts that have resulted in the layoff of respected teachers, increases in class sizes, school closures, California's per pupil funding level slipping to 47th in the nation and a grade of "F" from Education Week.

Laird was joined by San Luis Obispo County Superintendent Julian Crocker, California Teachers Association

City principals say they can address bad teachers already | GothamSchools

City principals say they can address bad teachers already

by Maura Walz

City principals say they’re pretty darn happy with their jobs, according to the results of the city’s annual survey for principals. They gave high marks in virtually every area, including the one the city might have wanted them to endorse less enthusiastically — their ability to root out and deal with poor teachers.
The city’s current teacher tenure policy is a pet peeve of Chancellor Joel Klein, who argues that student performance, not just years in the classroom, should determine whether a teacher gets and maintains tenure. And Deputy Chancellor Eric Nadelstern has said that two-thirds of the city’s teachers may need improvement.
But principals said they already have the tools they need to help

State’s low test standards misled thousands of city students

Thousands of city students who passed their high school completion exams last year will receive a rude awakening once they get to college: They’ll have to retake high school math — if they get into college at all.
New analysis of students’ scores by Harvard testing expert Daniel Koretz shows that many students who passed these exams have essentially been lied to about their skill level. While a score of 65 on a Regents exam

Report: Principal foundered for years before being removed

by Philissa Cramer

When Maria Penaherrera was removed as principal of Brooklyn’s PS 114 in February 2009, the communitybreathed a sigh of relief. Her leadership had drawn protests from teachers and parents, and it was well known that the school was in bad shape financially.
But according to a report released today by Special Commissioner of Education Richard Condon, none of those problems caused the city to remove Pena-Herrera. Instead, it was failing to follow proper procedure during an evacuation that cost Pena-Herrera her job.
The report paints a picture of an uncommonly bad principal whose obvious shortcomings went unaddressed

This Week In Education: Deseg: Income-Based Magnet Plan "Lost Ground" In Chicago

Deseg: Income-Based Magnet Plan "Lost Ground" In Chicago

by Alexander Russo

A windfall for the white and the wealthy, just as many worried it would be. Here's a roundup of the coverage of the new SES-based deseg plan Rick Kahlenberg cooked up for Chicago's magnet and selective schools, which seems to have failed to maintain diversity at the district's most coveted sites, according to numbers released yesterday - even with the last minute addition of 100 additional spots using race: Plan maintains diversity but increases individual segregation Tribune: For instance, at Northside College Prep,

Reform: Debunking The HCZ "Conveyor Belt"

by Alexander Russo

First, check out contributor John Thompson's defense of the Zone (below). Then check out my commentary on the issue at Valerie Strauss's Answer Sheet. One of the biggest myths surrounding the Harlem Children's Zone is that the kids who get early childhood and after school services are the same ones who go to Zone middle

Thompson: A Cheap Shot at the Harlem Children's Zone

by john thompson

Grover Whitehurst of the Brookings Institution attacked the Harlem Children’s Zone based on the test scores of nine successful schools. I do not doubt Whitehurst's claim that three "school-centric" KIPP schools may produce

Schools Matter: Clueless in Seattle

Clueless in Seattle

by Jim Horn

Posted at Common Dreams:

by Jesse Hagopian

"Hi, Arne. My name is Jesse Hagopian."

As I locked eyes and firmly shook hands, I wondered if my years of teaching would be enough to help the freshman Secretary of Education gain the knowledge and skills he would need.

Arne Duncan had come to the Seattle area on July 9 to address Aviation High School, and his visit happened to coincide with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention taking place in Seattle. I joined the

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

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.

Shanker lives on—in the blogosphere? (Shanker Blog)
There’s never enough time—but how can teachers use the time they have for the best instruction? Teacher-blogger Dina Strasser weighs in. (ASCD Community Blog)
What do you get when you mix Education Pioneers and Joanne Weiss? (Education Pioneers)
What is the value of college? It’s a popular question these days. (College Guide)

This Week In Education: Reform: Debunking The HCZ "Conveyor Belt"

Reform: Debunking The HCZ "Conveyor Belt"

by Alexander Russo

“Wow! What A Study On School Leadership…” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Wow! What A Study On School Leadership…”

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve just written a post in my other blog, Engaging Parents in School, about a huge study that was released today on school leadership.
You might find it useful — “Wow! What A Study On School Leadership…”
Though that post focuses on what it says about parent engagement, it also talks a lot about collaborative

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010