Monday, August 2, 2010

State releases performance rating for every Oregon public school | OregonLive.com

State releases performance rating for every Oregon public school

Published: Monday, August 02, 2010, 10:00 AM Updated: Monday, August 02, 2010, 10:02 AM

Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
Follow

Story tools

Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian

The state released federally mandated performance ratings for every Oregon public school this morning.

The ratings, required by the No Child Left Behind law, are based largely on how many students pass state reading and math tests. At first blush, this year's ratings suggest high schools made significant improvements during the past school year. That would be a welcome change after years of stagnant results in 10th-grade test scores.

A record number of high schools -- 45 percent -- met every performance target this year.

The surge in high school achievement was led by schools includingSouthridge High of Beaverton, which made dramatic gains in reading among its special education students, Hispanic students and those learning English as a second language, and Forest Grove High, where most students are poor and half are Latino and where students in every demographic group turned in strong reading and math performances this year.

Oregon school performance rates

» See performance ratings for every Oregon public school

Statewide, 78 schools face consequences such as having to offer students free tutoring or priority rights to transfer to another school because they have chronically fallen short of performance standards. That represents more Oregon schools under federal sanctions than ever before. Only schools that receive federal Title I funds to help disadvantaged students are hit with consequences for missing No Child Left Behind targets.

The largest of those are Salem's McKay High School and four Salem middle schools, most of which have fallen short of federal performance standards for five straight years.

In the Portland area, the biggest schools facing consequences for chronically failing to meet performance targets include Ron Russell Middle School in Southeast Portland, which must offer

This Week In Education: Thompson: Mr. President, Don't Sell Yourself Short

Thompson: Mr. President, Don't Sell Yourself Short

by john thompson

Surely President Obama doesn't believe what he told the Urban League last week -- that the Race to the Top is the single most important thing his administration has done to help schools. The RttT gamble could fail or succeed but it would have to be one of the great miracles of social innovation to compete with Michelle Obama's health and nutrition initiatives much less the Recovery Act, which saved districts from bankruptcy and more. Mr.

Senate: Offsets Problem In Murray-Harkin Amendment?

by Alexander Russo

CEF just put out a letter in support of the Murray-Harkin amendment that would give $10B to states to spend on education, but includes the following

National Journal Online -- Education Experts -- Do Competitive Grants Hurt Equal Opportunity?

Do Competitive Grants Hurt Equal Opportunity?

Last week, a coalition of prominent civil rights groups released a new framework for education reform that said the Obama administration is pushing policies that will exacerbate inequality. In particular, the coalition's framework takes issue with the administration's signature reform initiative -- the federal grant competition Race to the Top -- and the general emphasis on competitive-grant funding. In this troubled economic environment, most low-income and minority children will be left behind under "competitive incentive" federal policies, they argue.

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus asserted that civil rights groups were picking the wrong fight with President Obama and should be cheering his policies, not picking them apart. Obama, who spoke to the National Urban League, one of the member groups, later in the week, defended his education reform policies, calling Race to the Top the single most important thing his administration has done in education.

The coalition says that competitive grants will always benefit the better-off states and localities, which have more resources to innovate and to compete for grants. Are competitive-grant programs likely to exacerbate inequality in the American education system? Should the administration modify its proposals for education reform to adopt any of the ideas offered in the new framework?

-- Eliza Krigman, NationalJournal.com

Diane Ravitch responded to Do Competitive Grants Hurt Equal Opportunity? on August 2, 2010 11:53 AM

Competitions Favor the Strong Competitions are always won by the strong, never the weak. The civil rights coalition statement pointed out that millions of poor and minority children live in states that will lose the Race to the Top, as well as those that fail to win competitive grants under the Blueprint. Competition does not lead to

Tom Vander Ark responded to Do Competitive Grants Hurt Equal Opportunity? on August 2, 2010 10:23 AM

Reduce Barriers, Promote Incentives When a system is broken, dysfunctional, and inequitable, investors with a long term view--governments and foundations--needs to take strategic action to promote improvement. That's exactly what Ed.gov did with RttT and i3. Guidelines specifically focused on efforts that will benefit low income and minority students. Proposals and policy changes indicate that the concept worked even better than expected--most states now have a comprehensive strategy to raise standards, use data to drive improvement, intervene in low performing schools, expand options, and improve teacher effectiveness. The worst possible next step, as proposed by the Opportunity lobby,...

Chester E. Finn, Jr. responded to Do Competitive Grants Hurt Equal Opportunity? on August 2, 2010 09:42 AM

Failed Imagination--and Memory The Obama administration's education-reform agenda was already in trouble with the teacher unions. Now it's in trouble with the old-line civil rights community, too. I'm tempted to say this is clear proof of the agenda's wisdom and promise as well as the administration's pluck. But I won't. Instead, I'll mourn the inability of these groups to grasp what is really in the interests of poor and minority kids--and their failure, almost half a century after ESEA was first enacted (and the Coleman Report released), to see that the old input-centric approach to education reform doesn't work. To understand (and...

Cynthia Gilliam named third deputy superintendent of Portland Public Schools | OregonLive.com

Cynthia Gilliam named third deputy superintendent of Portland Public Schools

Published: Monday, August 02, 2010, 8:46 AM Updated: Monday, August 02, 2010, 9:01 AM

Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
Follow

Story tools

Cynthia Gilliam, former principal of Mount Tabor Middle School and a central office administrator for the past four years, has been tapped by Portland Superintendent Carole Smith to become one of three deputy superintendents.

Gilliam, who worked in the Hillsboro district before serving as principal at Mount Tabor from 1998 to 2006, will oversee schools and principals in the Cleveland, Roosevelt and Wilson high school zones.

Smith needed to pick a new deputy superintendent after two of her four deputies, Charles Hopson and Greg Baker, both were tapped to become superintendents in out-of-state school districts this spring. On Friday, she

Twenty years of Japanese American waterfront memorial to civil rights

By Carolina Hidalgo, The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:15AM

On the west bank of the Willamette River, between the Burnside and Steel bridges, stretches a 100-year story. Through poems engraved in granite stones, it chronicles decades of hard work, injustice, new beginnings and, finally, hope. Full story »

Comments (2) Recommend (0)

Inappropriate post? Alert us.

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

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

July 30, 2010, 11:00AM

At budget time, people want to know why school districts don't trim more from the top. Calendars of top schools officials show that they are busy. Full story »

There’s a Senate vote on school funding tonight. Where’s Arne? � Fred Klonsky's blog

There’s a Senate vote on school funding tonight. Where’s Arne?

by preaprez

There’s a Senate vote tonight on a bill that would supply states with $28 billion, including $10 billion for school aid. The school money is intended to help in rehiring laid off teachers and education staff.
If you haven’t called your Senator urging a yes vote yet, to still can and should.

Remembering Reagan | California Progress Report

Remembering Reagan

by kaldveer

By Peter Schrag
California Progress Report
Every now and then, the fractious California legislature can still achieve unanimity. It accomplished it again this summer in the name of Ronald Reagan, when both houses passed, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed, two bills to honor the late president and former governor.
With some effort, they provide a wonderful opportunity to rescue the man from the mythic fog in which some of his latter-day acolytes have shrouded him.
read more

Arnold Ignores Kennedy Legacy in Vetoing Farmworker Overtime

by kaldveer

By Randy Shaw
While it’s no longer news that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a fraud (which helps explains poll numbers that are lower than George W. Bush and the pre-recall Gray Davis), his veto this week of an overtime bill for California farmworkers is particularly disgraceful. Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver, is the daughter of Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver.
Her mother was Eunice Kennedy Shriver – sister of John, Robert and Ted Kennedy. Schwarzenegger likes to say how influenced he was by his father-in-law, but his record in office exposes that lie. No politician fought harder for farmworker rights than Robert Kennedy, and the Governor’s veto insults the Kennedy legacy.
read more

Patients Should Be First Priority

by kaldveer

By Anthony Wright
Health Access California
On Jan. 1, 2014, at least two million Californians will become newly eligible for Medi-Cal; but this is not to say that they will magically be enrolled when the ball drops in Times Square. Without carefully laying the proper groundwork, this and other provisions of health reform law won't have their full impact.
How to best make this transition for Medi-Cal, which currently serves more than seven million Californians -- including low-income children, parents, seniors and people with disabilities -- is just one of the key goals through the current negotiations between the state and federal governments over the program's next five years. The stakes are high on these and other issues, all considered as part of discussions around a new Medicaid waiver.
read more

Insurance Companies Find Way To Invest Benefit Money Even After Policyholders Die

by kaldveer

By JG Preston
Protect Consumer Justice
Here’s how I thought life insurance worked:
1) I buy a life insurance policy.
2) I pay my premiums under the terms of the policy.
3) I die.
4) My beneficiary receives a check for the benefit amount specified in the policy.
Silly me. I forgot the insurance company’s purpose is to make money, even if it means my beneficiary doesn’t receive the benefit right away.
read more

Mayor Daley rules out several options to close Chicago's record $654 million budget gap Tribune: Aldermen have talked about declaring surpluses in the city's tax increment finance districts... but Daley warned such a move is shortsighted, because the city would also then have to give back $560 million to other taxing districts, such as Chicago Public Schools... Chicago Expected to Face Record Budget Deficit CNC: Mayor Daley's administration is predicting the biggest budget deficit in Chicago's history next year, and aides said today the mayor is mulling all options except a property tax hike to close the expected shortfall of $654.7 million...Chicago Public Schools hosts back-to-school festivals at Chicago parks ABC7: Schools operating on a traditional schedule are back in session on Tuesday, September 7. Students who attend school year-round go back to class Monday, August 9...

Monday, August 2, 2010