Friday, July 30, 2010

School district administrators: Just what do they do to earn their pay anyway? | OregonLive.com

School district administrators: Just what do they do to earn their pay anyway?

Published: Friday, July 30, 2010, 11:00 AM

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HILLSBORO -- As Hillsboro School District cuts $8.3 million from its budget, slicing four instruction days from the school calendar, reducing two elementary principals to half time and curtailing sports field maintenance, residents want to know why more hasn't come from the top.

The district of 20,700 students has 24 administrators in its central office, ranging in pay from $83,000 to $175,000. Because their jobs are not as visible as those of teachers or counselors, few people know what they do on a daily basis.

To find out, The Oregonian asked for their schedules from the waning months of the school year.

Assistant Superintendent of Support Services Gus Balderas, who makes $126,500, oversees everything physical in the district from buildings to transportation and technology. He coordinates graduations and school attendance boundaries and ensures the safety of students.

Top 12 administrative salaries for 5 Oregon school districts

By The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:00AM

How the top 12 administrative salaries in the Hillsboro School District compares with others in Washington County and others of like size. Full story »

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Forest Grove School District to hold bond information meeting for families near Joseph Gale Elementary

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

July 29, 2010, 11:57AM

Forest Grove School District will explain the demolition and construction procedures for Joseph Gale Elementary should voters pass a construction bond Full story »

Bridge for students marks big gains - SignOnSanDiego.com

Bridge for students marks big gains

BY BY CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO STAFF WRITER

FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2010 AT 12:01 A.M.

MISSION VALLEY — Gerardo Romo was changing out of his gym clothes when he heard a group of teenagers shuffling toward him. The high school freshman remembered feeling like a circus act.

“ ‘Are you gay?’ one of them asked,” said Romo, 18. “I hesitated, but I finally told them I was. One yelled out sexual vulgarities. All the others roared with laughter.”

Romo fought back tears on the ride home, his self-described bubble of blissful ignorance torn open by homophobia. “Gayardo Homosexual,” the students called him. The taunts made him start to lose sight of what he thought really defined him: academic achievement.

That changed after a teacher suggested he become part of AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, a homegrown program that has spread to 45 states and 16 countries and territories. On Thursday, Romo and hundreds of others gathered for a ceremony at the Town and Country Resort in Mission Valley to mark the program’s 30th year.

Mary Catherine Swanson started AVID in her classroom at Clairemont High School with 32 students. At the

http://www.avid.org/abo_mission.html

Mission

AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society.

AVID's new mission statement succinctly reflects the expansion of AVID to include our AVID Elementary and AVID Postsecondary initiatives, enabling even more students to achieve their dreams of earning a college degree and/or becoming productive members of our global society.

The recently updated mission statement still reflects AVID's core purpose, and our focus remains the same – ensuring college readiness for all students.

AVID's mission is...

Our mission is student-focused, but our work transforms the behaviors and expectations of the teachers who support the AVID student. Our mission centers on the goals our students set out to achieve.

...to close the achievement gap

At AVID, we seek to close the achievement gap by improving the performance of all students, especially those who have not traditionally succeeded in completing college entrance requirements: students who are underrepresented in four-year colleges and universities, students in the academic middle, students who are the first in their family to go to college.

...by preparing all students

A common misconception about AVID is that we focus solely on minority and low-income students. Not at all! AVID is a college readiness system that starts in elementary school. We have a schoolwide approach for elementary grades where AVID is available to ALL students. In middle and high school, we target a core population of students who enroll in an AVID elective class. As the system takes root in secondary schools, AVID gradually expands schoolwide to serve all students. AVID Postsecondary continues to support students in their efforts to earn a college degree by developing the skills needed to persist in college.

...for college readiness

Because AVID provides students with a clearly defined and delineated road map, they gain the confidence needed to pursue their dreams of college. AVID prepares students for the rigors of college, and provides them with academic skills, content knowledge, and social adaptability needed for college success.

...and success in a global society.

The AVID system empowers students by instilling in them the academic and social skills needed to successfully complete college and become responsible participants and leaders in our global society.

Are three principals better than one? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Are three principals better than one?

by Benjamin Herold

West Philadelphia High School will have two co-principals and the support of a “turnaround principal specialist” this year, according to District officials.
LaVerne Wiley will join Ozzie Wright as co-principal, said District spokesperson Fernando Gallard. Wiley most recently held the job of regional superintendent in the Southwest Region after serving as principal at the John Welsh School and a brief stint as the chief learner/principal at School of the Future.
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THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Grannan: D'oh! College Board report shows apples inferior to oranges

Grannan: D'oh! College Board report shows apples inferior to oranges

by The Perimeter Primate

[Guest post by Caroline Grannan – P.P.]

A caveat before you read this post. I am not saying that the dread Frumious Status Quo is a good thing, that improvement isn't needed, that everything is hunky-dory. I am saying that the U.S. educational system is being unfairly blasted based on comparisons that are unsound and invalid.
Alarms are being raised about a new report from the College Board.
Take NPR's coverage as a typical example:

“A new report warns that the United States is falling farther and farther behind other countries in the proportion of adults with a college education. Researchers say the decline could have devastating

School Tech Connect: Recapping The President's Education Priorities

Recapping The President's Education Priorities

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

When you come right down to it, it's about this: the currently in-power reform people want to spend less money on education. As for President Obama's recent comment that he wants to give more money to teachers (for test scores), well, that's not really what his coalition is about. You cannot be in a coalition with people whose domestic policy starts and ends with tax cuts for the wealthy and expect to give more money to public school teachers. It's a self-delusion that he's under, this President.

Anyway, here's the heart of the pension reform published by Education Sector:

ASCD Inservice: Educators Advise Fed's Role in Well-Rounded Education

Educators Advise Fed's Role in Well-Rounded Education

"We should be promoting collaboration among the disciplines, not competition," advised Bronx Prep Arts educator Kate Quarfordt at today's Capitol Hill briefing on consensus recommendations for how the federal government can better support all the disciplines, not just math and language arts.

Although Obama's FY11 budget request includes a $38.9 million (or 17%) increase in funding to support teaching and learning in the arts, history, civics, foreign languages, geography, and economics, the administration proposes to combine eight subject-specific grant programs into a single competitive grant program.

Disciplines would compete against each other to receive funds from the $265 million pot of money allocated under "A Well-Rounded Education" on the proposed FY11 budget.

In response to this, and opportunities to reinvent ESEA post-NCLB, more than 20 major organizations, from across disciplines have offered consensus

Turnaround Program Races Ahead Of "Race To The Top" - District 299: Chicago Public Schools Blog

Turnaround Program Races Ahead Of "Race To The Top"

by Alexander Russo

Flip to page 22 of this report (PDF) to see the list of Illinois schools eligible for turnaround under the federal School Improvement Grant program. These schools are supposed to be educating 117,000 students but they're apparently not doing such a great job. The report, done by an outside group, criticizes the initiative for being harsh and prescriptive. It's just as big -- $3.5 billion -- as Race To The Top, and goes to all 50 states rather than

AM News: iPads For CSU Frosh (Seriously?)

by Alexander Russo

62 Legislators Violated the Legislative Scholarship Program ChicagoTalks: Sixty-two members of the Illinois General Assembly broke the law over the course of six years by awarding free tuition to the state's public universities to 122 college students who didn't live in the right legislative district...

New 'Sexting' Law Grants Minors Leniency WBEZ: Psychologist Patrick Tolan tells us how texting sexually implicit material affects children's sexual development... 13-year-old boy shot again and again Sun Times: He attended Oglesby Elementary School, but when his family moved he transferred him out of the Chicago school system in May...Chicago Community College Budget Calls for Hundreds of Layoffs WBEZ: Hundreds of non-teaching staff members could be laid off under the new budget proposal for Chicago's community college system...CSU Considers IPads for Freshmen Fox: Chicago State University is considering whether to give free iPads to all full-time freshmen and the faculty who teach them...More college students are homeless and hungryReporter: To help combat the problem, UCLA keeps a covert food closet and formed an Economic Crisis Response Team to identify those young adults and make sure they can stay in school.

Parents: End The War On Drugs – For Your KidsCalifornia Progress Report

California Progress Report

Parents: End The War On Drugs – For Your Kids

by kaldveer

By Julia Negron
Moms United to End the War on Drugs
As a person in long-term recovery and a drug treatment professional, I know a thing or two about drugs, addiction and the drug war. As a mother and a grandmother, I know more than I care to about how all of those things affect families – including my own. Addiction is a particularly painful health issue for any family to struggle with.
Like most other chronic health conditions, like cancer and diabetes, it can be treated and managed. But unlike other chronic health conditions, our government is at war with it.
The sad truth is that the war on drugs is a war on people, and they can be people you love.
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A Lame Duck Governor Fabricates A Hoped-For Legacy

by kaldveer

By Sheila Kuel
After more than six years of carving up and flushing what used to be referred to as the California Dream, the Governor has looked around at the wreckage and decided to float the story that it wasn't his doing. Many have obediently picked up the narrative and amplified it through the press and online. The story, as set out, for instance, in the New York Times, goes: the Governor is a real independent, neither a rabid left-wing Democrat nor a salivating Tea Partier and, therefore, no one loves him any more. Somehow, even as he stands in the rubble of California, Arnold has spun this to be a good thing, when, instead, he is an embodiment of what Texas gadfly Jim Hightower meant when he said, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos."
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Oklahoma: Where the News Is Makin’ Lazy Circles in the Sky | Intercepts

Oklahoma: Where the News Is Makin’ Lazy Circles in the Sky

by Mike Antonucci

On June 30, the National Education Association decided to send $3 million to Oklahoma to support SQ 744, the school funding initiative.
I spent a good part of the next three weeks trying to get confirmation of that information, finally succeeded, andpublished the story on July 26.
Four days later, the Tulsa World files a story with the headline, “NEA gave $3 million for Yes on 744 ballot

Road Show for School District Critics Continues #edu #education

Education

Road Show for School District Critics Continues

San Diegans 4 Great Schools, a newly formed group that is seeking changes to how San Diego Unified is governed, brought its message to a tough crowd at the Ocean Beach Town Council Wednesday night.

A retired teacher called it an overly vague "dog and pony show" that didn't address real problems in schools. "Governance is a minor issue," said Mike Berrill, who used to teach in East County. "You've got a problem that's way bigger than how many board members are squabbling."

Scott Himelstein, who organizes the group of philanthropists, business leaders, parents and other community members, said he respectfully disagreed. "Governance plays a big role," Himelstein said. In light of those other problems, he said, "What have we been doing all these years?"

The meeting is part of a longer road show as the group airs its concerns about the schools and shares findings from a University of San Diego report on school finances and achievement.

Himelstein has repeatedly said the group has no specific plan yet, but it has already been

NCSE | National Center for Science Education - Defending the Teaching of Evolution in Public Schools.

Creationist rumblings in Louisiana

July 26th, 2010

Creationism is stirring in Louisiana, with a proposal to teach creationism in Livingston Parish and a call for creationists to scrutinize textbooks proposed for adoption by the state in the headlines.

Reflections on the Scopes trial from HNN

July 26th, 2010

The History News Network commemorated the eighty-fifth anniversary of the Scopes trial — which ended on July 21, 1925 — by commissioning two essays to mark the occasion.

American Academy of Religion on teaching creationism

July 23rd, 2010

It is wrong to teach creation science or intelligent design in the science classroom, according to the American Academy of Religion.

Forrest blasts the LSEA

July 19th, 2010

Barbara Forrest

Writing in the Shreveport Times (July 18, 2010), Barbara Forrest blasted the Louisiana Science Education Act, which opened the door for creationism to be taught in the state's public schools.

What's new on NCSE's YouTube channel

July 16th, 2010

Eugenie C. Scott

NCSE is pleased to announce that a further batch of videos featuring NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott is now available at NCSE's YouTube channel.

Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Tomorrow’s Today’s Problem Today

Tomorrow’s Today’s Problem Today" style="color: rgb(88, 123, 123); text-decoration: none; ">Tomorrow’s Today’s Problem Today

August beach reading for you: In a new paper from ES Chad Aldeman and Itake a look at the teacher pension issue (pdf). Punchlines: Big fiscal problems with a few culprits (and you can’t just lay this one at the feet of the unions), the current system out of alignment with the emerging workforce and efforts to improve human capital in education, but all the reform options

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