Tuesday, November 16, 2010

"Parent Trigger": School Reform or Mob Rule? (VIDEO) | TakePart - Inspiration to Action

"Parent Trigger": School Reform or Mob Rule? (VIDEO)

Max Follmer | 13 hours ago | Comments (0) |

'You can send me to detention, but my mom will close you down!' (Photo: Reuters Pictures).

The Wall Street Journal called it "The Radical School Reform You've Never Heard Of." California's teachers' unioncalled it a "lynch mob provision."

The Journal and the teachers are talking about "parent trigger," the next political hand grenade in the battle to reform our nation's public schools.

In January, California became the first state in the nation with a "parent trigger" law. Under the provision, if 51 percent of parents at any given school sign a petition, they can trigger a transformation of the school: inviting in a charter operator, forcing administrative changes, or shuttering the school altogether.

To qualify for a parent trigger petition, a California school must have failed to make "Adequate Yearly Progress" toward improving test scores for four consecutive years.

The Journal reports that 1,300 schools in California fit that criteria.

Parent trigger is the brainchild of a California group called "Parent Revolution" that "aims to transform public education rooted in what’s good for kids—not grown-ups—by empowering

The corporate takeover of American schools | Paul Thomas | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The corporate takeover of American schools

The trend for appointing CEOs to the top jobs is symptomatic of a declining commitment to public education and social justice

- Paul Thomas
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 November 2010 13.00 GMT
- Article history

Joel Klein, former chief of New York schools, now of New Corp — Joel Klein, the outgoing chancellor of New York schools. He is joining News Corp as a vice-president and adviser to Rupert Murdoch; his successor, Cathie Black, is chair of Hearst Magazines. Photograph: Lisa Carpenter for the Guardian

The top positions in state education across the US – for example, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, recent chancellors Joel Klein (New York) and Michelle Rhee (Washington, DC), and incoming Chancellor Cathleen P Black (New York) – reflect a trust in CEO-style leadership for education management and reform. Along with these new leaders in education, billionaire entrepreneurs have also assumed roles as education saviours: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Geoffrey Canada.

Gates, Canada, Duncan, Klein and Rhee have capitalised on their positions in education to rise to the status of celebrities, as well – praised in the misleading documentary feature Waiting for Superman, on Oprah, and even on Bill Maher's Real Time.

What do all these professional managers and entrepreneurs have in common?

Little or no experience or expertise in education. (Instead, they have degrees in government and law, along with nontraditional entries into education and strong ties to alternative certification, such as Teach for America). Further, they all represent and promote a cultural faith in the

California out of sync with Common Core | Thoughts on Public Education

California out of sync with Common Core
Share

Will the state have tests years before textbooks?

Posted on 11/15/10 • Categorized as Common Core standards, State Board of Education

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

In July 2009, the Legislature suspended the work of the Curriculum Commission, which screens textbooks and course materials, for four years. It may have been out of spite – a slap at the State Board of Education, to which the Commission reports. It may have been to save money for the state and school districts, which could use textbook money for other purposes. It may have been both.

Whatever the motivation, that decision is jeopardizing the state’s ability to prepare students and teachers for Common Core standards in math and language arts, which the State Board adopted in August. If the timeline isn’t changed, the state will have tests in Common Core subjects two years before it has approved the textbooks that students need to learn those

Win for illegal immigrants and state - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

In 2001, the Legislature agreed that undocumented immigrants who completed three years of high school in California, got their high school diplomas, and applied for citizenship would be entitled to in-state tuition at state colleges. HB 540 was a reward to students who persevered against the odds. It was also a smart investment for a [...]

Stile: Christie can be a bit sloppy with scapegoats - NorthJersey.com

Stile: Christie can be a bit sloppy with scapegoats

Tuesday, November 16, 2010
LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2010, 7:23 AM

By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST

display story on 1 pagePage 1 2 >>

Governor Christie has built the most formidable stable of scapegoats and political piñatas in New Jersey history.

FILE PHOTO

It's a lonely and unforgiving place for late-career patronage hires, late-career school officials and a former governor who spent $100 million sorting out a mid-life career crisis. He has branded them as selfish or cowardly caretakers of the public weal. They are beyond redemption.

Trotting them out for a news-cycle slam has its pitfalls. Christie can be sloppy, diving into diatribes without always having his facts in order, as we learned in the "Race to the Top" fiasco in August. And some targets are singled out more for being Democrats, while Republican offenders are treated with kid gloves.

Here is a look at three Christie piñatas and how the attack narrative is often an incomplete, inconsistent story.

Leroy Seitz, Parsippany-Troy Hills superintendent of schools.

Seitz earned entry into Christie's Land of the Unforgiven last week after neg

North Jersey students develop interest in foodie culture

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

BY SACHI FUJIMORI

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

On a recent afternoon Jonathan Caflun, a sophomore at Ridgewood High School, raced home after school with two friends, not to play video games, but to make vanilla crepes.

The teens had recently learned in their family and consumer sciences course (once known as home economics) how to make the delicate French pancakes and were excited to test the recipe at home. "We were hungry and said, 'Let's do it tonight,' " said Caflun, a strawberry blond, shaggy-haired teen who is vice president of his school's food club.

Growing up on a steady diet of Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis, and generous portions of nail-biting cooking competitions, kids are becoming more and more passionate about food. The mass popularization of food culture has trickled down to these impressionable junior foodies, who are increasingly interested in cooking, nutrition and understanding how the food system fits into their communities.

Strict rules at Crown Heights charter school put 16% of students in detention every day

BY BEN CHAPMAN

Tuesday, November 16th 2010, 4:00 AM

$Wanda Boone stands with her daughter, Gianna, who serves detention nearly every day for such infractions as failing to look at teacher in the eye or address her as 'ma'am.'$

Lanzilote/News

Wanda Boone stands with her daughter, Gianna, who serves detention nearly every day for such infractions as failing to look at teacher in the eye or address her as 'ma'am.'

RELATED NEWS

She has served detention for slouching, humming and failing to look her teachers in the eye.

It's no surprise that former honors student Gianna Boone hates going to Achievement First Crown Heights Middle School.

The East New York Ave. charter school's strict rules have landed the 13-year-old girl in detention nearly every day this year. And her grades have dropped from an A average to a C.

"I get into trouble every time I turn around," said Gianna, an eighth-grader who has served detention at least four times every week since school began in August for humming, talking loudly in the bathroom and using a pen during math class. "It's killing me."

The five-year-old middle school hands out detention based on a system of demerits - which students earn for infractions such as putting their heads on their desks, not facing forward while walking in the hallway or going to the bathroom during class.

With every three demerits, a student must serve 45 minutes of detention.

Some behaviors are considered so bad - rolling their eyes, sucking their teeth or complaining after getting a demerit - students get an immediate 45-minute detention fo

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More reasons to dump mayoral control

More reasons to dump mayoral control

by Mike Klonsky

Need a couple of good reasons to get rid of mayoral control of urban schools? How about Bloomberg and Daley? Narrow, self-serving political agendas have left both of their autocratically-run school systems in chaos.

With a week to go before Chicago schools chief Ron Huberman flees the coop, there is still no official word on his replacement. It's been 5 months since the system had a chief education officer. And even machine guy and front-running mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel has to preface his education platform with a slam on the current Daley-run system.

"Chicago's public schools are on a precipice. Testing indicates that 86% of our elementary-school graduates won't be ready for college. Nearly half of high-school entrants will not graduate. Teachers and students aren't learning the skills they need, and too many parents are on the sidelines." (Crain's)

Ouch!

The problem for Rahm is that all this comes after 15 years of mayoral control, including 7 years with Rahm's

Rise & Shine: Even Bloomberg’s allies are skeptical of Black | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Even Bloomberg’s allies are skeptical of Black

by Philissa Cramer

Skepticism about Cathie Black’s qualifications is even coming from the mayor’s closest allies. (Times)
Patrick Sullivan says the city school board, on which he sits, must request Black’s waiver. (NY1)
The state has toughened requirements for superintendent certification since Joel Klein took office. (Post)
Arguments in the suit about releasing teachers’ value-added scores have been moved to Dec. 8. (NY1)
Four newspapers are taking the city’s side in the value-added scores lawsuit. (GothamSchools)
Paul Goldhaber, the first teacher at Manhattan’s Harvey Milk High School, has died. (Times)
N.J. Gov. Chris Christie has frozen superintendents’ salaries and contracts. (WSJ)
Students protested against Martin Van Buren HS’s new no-gym-use policy. (Post)

A different kind of voucher plan | EdNewsColorado

A different kind of voucher plan

by Nancy Mitchell

A pastoral scene in suburban Douglas County.

Parents in Douglas County get their chance tonight to weigh in on the state’s first serious voucher proposal since the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a 2003 law.

Details of the “option certificates” proposal are still in flux and, because of that, so are the legal risks.

“We have not explored what we might do and we don’t have any immediate plans,” said Jeanne Beyer, spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association, which did much of the legal heavy-lifting to defeat the earlier plan. “But we are saying officially that we are opposing what they are considering doing.”

Discussion by Douglas County school board members during a weekend retreat sparked key questions about

Study: Turn teacher prep “upside down”

by Todd Engdahl

A report released today calls for converting teacher preparation to a more “clinical” model and making educator training a shared responsibility of higher education and P-12 schools.

Those conclusions are part of a report by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning, a project of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

The report repeatedly invokes the example of medical education in urging change in the way the nation’s education students are prepared for the classroom.

“To prepare effective teachers for 21st century classrooms, teacher education must shift away from a norm which emphasizes academic preparation and course work loosely linked to school-based experiences. … Candidates will blend practitioner knowledge with academic knowledge as they learn by doing.

“Teacher education has too often been segmented with subject-matter preparation, theory, and pedagogy taught

Schools Matter: Andre Agassi's double fault

Andre Agassi's double fault

by skrashen

Andre Agassi's double fault

Sent to Time Magazine, November 15

Andre Agassi used his "person of the year" nomination to launch an unfounded attack on American teacher education and teacher evaluation. All the available data shows that in general American teachers are pretty good: The only serious problem in American education is the fact that we have such a large percentage of children living in poverty (20%, compared to Sweden's 3%): Middle class children who attend well-funded schools rank at the top of the world on international tests.

Mr. Agassi, founder of the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, asks us all to "lay aside your agendas"

University of Sussex Occupied « occupy california

University of Sussex Occupied

by *

BRIGHTON, England – The University of Sussex is occupied as of Monday, November 15.

from DefendSussex:

This afternoon, over 170 students occupied the lecture theatre in the Fulton building at the University of Sussex in protest of the trebling of tuition fees and the attack on our education system.

In light of Wednesday’s demonstration, which saw 52,000 people come out in opposition to the government’s proposed cuts to education and raising of fees, we feel it is necessary for further action to consolidate the efforts made so far and push on in the opposition to these ideologically motivated cuts to both education specifically and public services as a whole.

We reject the notion that these cuts are necessary or for the benefit of society. There are viable alternatives which are not being explored. While the government has suggested that ‘we are all in this together’, we

Monday, November 15, 2010

NEA Asks Education Department for Regulatory Relief - Politics K-12 - Education Week

NEA Asks Education Department for Regulatory Relief

By Alyson Klein on November 16, 2010 12:45 PM | No comments |

The Obama administration has said it wants lawmakers to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education next year, but with a new Congress coming in, it's tough to tell whether or not that will actually happen.

So now a bunch of education organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association, are asking the U.S. Department of Education for regulatory relief from parts of the No Child Left Behind Act (the current version of ESEA) so that schools don't have to wait until Congress renews the law to get some of the changes they're looking for.

The nation's largest union, the National Education Association, is also part of the push. The union sent a letter Nov. 15 to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asking him for flexibility in some key areas.

The wish list is long—and goes deep into the weeds of the law. It includes:

*Leeway for districts on the highly qualified teacher part of the law. The NEA

Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, November 16, 2010