Monday, November 15, 2010

Administrator called out by NJ gov denied raise - Boston.com

Administrator called out by NJ gov denied raise

By Geoff Mulvihill

Associated Press / November 15, 2010

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WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.—A New Jersey school superintendent singled out by the governor as "the new poster boy for all that is wrong with the public school system that's being dictated by greed" was denied a raise Monday.

Gov. Chris Christie singled out Parsippany-Troy Hills Superintendent LeRoy Seitz after the school board awarded him a new contract with pay well above the limits Christie's administration put in place, but which don't take effect until Feb. 7.

Christie told a town hall meeting Monday that the Morris County executive schools superintendent was nixing the deal. His announcement got cheers from an audience that lives about 100 miles from Parsippany.

Seitz, the leader of a high-performing district in one of the nation's wealthiest counties, was renegotiating a contract even though his current deal wasn't to

NYC Public School Parents: Times says Cathie Black "Spectacle" Out of Control

Times says Cathie Black "Spectacle" Out of Control

by Patrick J. Sullivan

Javier Hernandez of the NY Times has some devastatingcoverage of the candidacy of Cathie Black for the position of chancellor:

Ms. Black has repeatedly declined interviews, allowing other voices to fill the void. Some have called her a second coming of Mr. Klein, often criticized as stubborn. Her harshest detractors have compared her to Sarah Palin for her lack of experience.
The uproar has frustrated City Hall aides, who feel as if they have lost control of the story line and who are looking for ways to beat back accusations that Ms. Black is unqualified, said an individual

Opposition to Cathleen Black as Schools Chancellor Grows - NYTimes.com

Opposition Growing to Bloomberg’s Pick for Schools Chief

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

Published: November 15, 2010

REPRINTS

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been frank about why he took pains to keep his search for a new schools chancellor secret, saying he wanted to avoid a public spectacle.

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Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

Robert Jackson, a City Council member, on Sunday with a copy of a letter he sent to the state education commissioner condemning the choice of Cathleen P. Black. Michael Meyers, director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, is at left.

City Room: In Search of the Chancellor-to-Be, Park Ave., 5 A.M. (November 15, 2010)

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But a spectacle is exactly what Mr. Bloomberg has unleashed, and one week after announcing his choice ofCathleen P. Black, a publishing executive, to succeed Joel I. Klein at the helm of the country’s largest school system, the mayor’s aides are trying to fend off mounting skepticism about her selection.

City Council members are asking the state to deny Ms. Black the waiver she would need to fill the post. Lawmakers and parents active in the schools are calling for public hearings. Even some of the mayor’s supporters are questioning his decision.

The leader of the city’s teachers’ union said the furor underscored how poorly he believed Mr. Bloomberg had

Queens Teacher: It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class

It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class

It’s Official: Rich Declare War on the Middle Class
by Robert Freeman

For the past thirty years the rich have been waging war on the middle class. It’s been astonishingly effective, partly because it has been undeclared. But even that pretense is now being abandoned. The President’s National Deficit Commission has effectively declared that the rich will now go after what is left of working and middle class wealth and will take whatever steps are

Berkeley and Santa Cruz Actions Tomorrow? « Student Activism

Berkeley and Santa Cruz Actions Tomorrow?

from Student Activism by Angus Johnston

I’m not sure exactly what’s on tap — I’m not sure if anyone knows — but the blog The University Belongs to Those Who Use It has posted a call for an action beginning at 6:30 Tuesday morning at California Hall at UC Berkeley. (The blog indicates that there’s an action planned at UC Santa Cruz too.)

On Wednesday the University of California Regents are scheduled to take up a proposed eight percent fee increase that would bring UC’s in-state tuition above $12,000. Mass protests are expected Wednesday at tha

Schools Matter: Are we bad in math? Probably not.

Are we bad in math? Probably not.

Sent to the San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 14

Is it true that "American math achievement trails most industrialized nations" (Nov. 11)?

Studies show that middle-class American children attending well-funded schools score near the top of the world in math. American average scores are unspectacular because a high percentage of American school children live in poverty (20%; Sweden has 3%).

Also, some countries inflate their scores by excluding many children of poverty from taking the test. This does not happen in the United States.

Finally, the "Stanford Study" only considered the percentage, not the number of students reaching the top level. Several countries that did better than the US have small populations (eg Switzerland,

Huffington Post Blog #4: About Joel Klein, Black Males, and Ridiculous Crises — The Jose Vilson

Huffington Post Blog #4: About Joel Klein, Black Males, and Ridiculous Crises

by JOSE on NOVEMBER 15, 2010

in LIFE

Check:

People’s reactions to this report tell me one thing that’s persisted for ages in this country: We’re selectively oblivious to the plight of those less fortunate than us. Thus, “crisis” is relative.
Every time a report comes out about an underprivileged group, we get the same surge of pseudo-interest: people make calls, the media channels put the numbers in a 3D graphic, people from that group are highlighted and interviewed, a “regular” person states their opinion via email, phone, or video, the government makes a statement about it and “assures” that they’re doing everything in their power to help the situation, someone alludes to an event from the past century that’s just like this event, a stated expert from that group gives their scholarly stern advise that they’ve been

Take action to support collaborative school reform! « Failing Schools

Take action to support collaborative school reform!

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

by Sabrina

In all the talk about reforming schools, most people never stop to question that they don’t actually know what’s going on in all those allegedly dreadful schools being considered for different turnarounds. Fed up with the slander against my friends and colleagues, I teamed up with a few to create a short video about what’s going right in this so-called “failing” school. I think it’s a shame to let their hard work go to waste…especially when the people proposing to waste it have no idea about what’s really going on inside the schools they run! Please watch the video, and then show your support for real school reform here.

Three in four Americans support extension of federal unemployment benefits | MLive.com

Three in four Americans support extension of federal unemployment benefits

Published: Monday, November 15, 2010, 5:30 PM Updated: Monday, November 15, 2010, 8:17 PM

Jackie Headapohl
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APA majority of American support an extension of federal unemployment benefits, according to a new poll.

A majority of Americans believe Congress should extend federal unemployment insurance benefits, a new poll by Hart Research Associates finds, and they reject the idea that deficit concerns should lead to cuts in support for the jobless when the unemployment rate remains so high.

The post-election survey, in which nearly three in four Americans say it is too early to cut jobless benefits, comes just days before the Nov. 30 expiration of the federal unemployment benefits program.

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"There is deep public support for continuing the federal unemployment programs at a time when unemployment is at 9.6 percent and millions are still out of work,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the

1979 Pink Floyd- Another Brick in the wall Song and lyrics

NYC Public School Parents: Troubling Comments on Cathie Black's Book from Amazon Reader Reviews

Troubling Comments on Cathie Black's Book from Amazon Reader Reviews

by Steve Koss

So much was made in the 2008 Presidential election cycle about Barack Obama’s two memoirs, how they spoke for who he was, where he came from (philosophically speaking), and what he believed. Many Americans used those books in part to assess Mr. Obama’s character and suitability for the nation’s highest office.

Cathleen Black has left a memoir-style book by which her character and intellectual heft might be judged as well: Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life). It was first published in 2007 and blurbed on Amazon by (among others) Donna Karan, Meg Whitman, and Gayle King (friend of Oprah). Perhaps it can stand as a measure of her fitness for the NYC schools chancellorship.

I haven’t read the book -- nor do I plan to -- but here are some telling excerpts (one block paragraph for each) from reviews posted on Amazon by her readers that suggest some rather troubling themes. Judge for yourself whether Ms. Black

Remainders: Staking out Cathie Black and her coaches | GothamSchools

Remainders: Staking out Cathie Black and her coaches

by Anna Phillips

Cathie Black’s prep team includes Micah Lasher, Howard Wolfson, and Dennis Walcott. (NYT)
Public advocate Bill de Blasio calls on Bloomberg to hold a public forum with Black. (State of Politics)
A long-time critic of Klein’s policies takes a look at how much they have in common. (Education Notes)
Black’s jump from media to the public schools is further proof that education is in. (The Atlantic)
The city’s teachers union is holding a series of workshops on charter schools. (Edwize)
Murdoch’s interest in online learning could make other investors less skittish. (Venture Beat)
One way to end kindergarten overcrowding: tell parents you’ve got bed bugs. (InsideSchools)
Rahm Emanuel says Chicago public schools should have their own Race to the Top. (Crain’s)
Florida’s governor-elect may be interested in making Michelle Rhee commissioner. (WaPo)

City newspapers join suit over teacher effectiveness scores | GothamSchools

City newspapers join suit over teacher effectiveness scores

by Anna Phillips

Four news organizations have joined the lawsuit over whether the city can release teachers’ effectiveness scores, arguing that they have a right to see the data.

Lawyers for the New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal have decided to intervene in the case, according to a spokeswoman for the city’s law department. They will file their own papers, but are taking the same position as the city’s lawyers, arguing that the data is not protected under the Freedom of Information law.

Reporters at each of the news organizations submitted requests for the data and the city planned to release the reports until last month when the teachers union sued to stop them.

In its lawsuit, the union’s lawyers wrote that the Department of Education should have denied reporters’ FOIL requests because the teachers’ ratings are exempt from disclosure. The suit also said that making the scores public would amount to an invasion of teachers’ privacy.

The release would cover all 12,000 city teachers who have value-added reports, which measure a teacher’s

Time to Look at Teaching at CUNY « EdVox

Time to Look at Teaching at CUNY

by edvoxny

By John Garvey

It is clear that many students entering CUNY are not sufficiently prepared. Hopefully, the efforts being made by CUNY and the Department of Education to enhance the readiness of students who graduate from high school, accompanied by the new clarity regarding college readiness from the New York State Education Department, will result in increased readiness of students entering CUNY in the future. At the same time, it is essential to recognize that what happens in the college classrooms is absolutely central to the possibility of improving college graduation rates.

Many CUNY students do not make it to graduation because they fail or earn low grades in too many of their courses. While it is tempting to explain those failures as simple reflections of students’ lack of skill and knowledge (and/or lack of effort), we must be prepared to examine the quality of typical classroom teaching practices as well.

I believe that many remedial and introductory courses are characterized by inadequate attention to a research-informed theory of learning (and, more specifically, inadequate attention to students’ prior knowledge and

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