Saturday, December 25, 2010

Fed Up With Failing School, Parents Take Over - CBS Evening News - CBS News

Fed Up With Failing School, Parents Take Over

New California "Parent Trigger Law" Allows Majority of Parents to Demand a School Shut Down, Change Staff or Become a Charter

(CBS) A new state law in California allows a majority of parents to essentially take over a failing school. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy continues the series "Reading, Writing and Reform."

Some parents of students at McKinley elementary in Compton, Calif., are fed up It's a tough town and the school is one of the worst in the state - ranked in the bottom 10 percent.

Shemika Murphy says her 2nd grader is still reading at a 1st grade level. She signed the petition along with 62 percent of McKinley parents, forcing the school district to make it a charter school - publicly funded but privately run.

It's the first use of California's so-called "Parent Trigger Law" where a majority of parents can demand a school shut down, change staff, or become a charter.

"We want it to be peaceful," Murphy said. "We're not trying to start a

Creekview Superintendent says No Child Left Behind a success theteachingwhore | or Slut at the Podium

theteachingwhore | or Slut at the Podium

Creekview Superintendent says No Child Left Behind a success

Creekview, NEVADA (TWP)

While school districts across the nation continue to struggle to meet the No Child Left Behind mandates, Creekview School Superintendent Manny Rothchild says his school has perfected the act’s mandates.

“We have never left a child behind in the nine years that the NCLB act has been in effect,” said Rothchild. “We care about the health, well-being, and schooling of every individual child in our school.”

Continue reading →

How One Illinois Researcher Hopes to Stop the Cycle of Bullying | Gay Rights | Change.org

How One Illinois Researcher Hopes to Stop the Cycle of Bullying

by Brandon Miller

A University of Illinois at Chicago researcher has received a major grant from the Ford Foundation for a four-year study on anti-gay bullying. The $730,000 study will look at youth's reasoning about bullying on the basis of sexuality and gender. The research will also focus on bullying as a means of social control.

Stacey Horn, an associate professor of educational psychology, is the one running the study. According to Horn, a growing body of research shows the prevalence of sexuality-related bullying, but she has identified few studies that have looked at how adolescents actually view such behavior. She also sees a lack of understanding about how age, culture, social groups, and school context influence the views of youth.

"Do young people view all forms of sexuality-based exclusion or bullying as harassment? Or do they see some

Teacher salaries issue sharpens across Philly area - State | Centre Daily Times - State College, PA | Penn State, Nittany Lions, weather, news, jobs, homes, apartments, real estate

Teacher salaries issue sharpens across Philly area

By KATHY BOCCELLA

- The Philadelphia Inquirer

December 25, 2010 12:08am EST

PHILADELPHIA — When Neshaminy High School biology teacher Louise Boyd looks at her paycheck with yearly pay of $97,652 and fully provided health insurance - she sees the fruits of a long campaign to pay educators what they believe they're worth.

http://www.philly.com

"We had to fight, claw, scratch, and beg," said Boyd, president of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers, "and now we do make a professional salary."

But when Levittown parent Susan Porreca looks at Neshaminy teachers' pay and perks, she sees red. A 47-year-old office manager who was unemployed or underemployed for most of 2009 while her welder husband spent three months out of work, Porreca has joined a local taxpayers' group because she's furious at the union's tough tactics in fighting to keep those gains.

"I've taken a lot of time, read their collective-bargaining agreement - none of it has to do with the education of our kids," said Porreca, whose daughter is a sophomore at Neshaminy High. "It's a gimme, gimme, gimme - all the things they have and things they want to keep. And they don't wan

Oklahoma’s new education chief says classes are too easy | NewsOK.com

Oklahoma’s new education chief says classes are too easy

When state schools Superintendent-elect Janet Barresi takes office, her first priority is going to be stepping up the difficulty and rigor in schools so that more kids are ready for college when they graduate.

BY MEGAN ROLLAND Comment on this article

Published: December 25, 2010

Only 2.4 percent of students in Oklahoma’s graduating class of 2009 scored in the upper tiers of national math exams, a ratio that places the state among recently industrialized nations such as Bulgaria, Uruguay and Serbia, according to a study released this month.

State schools Superintendent-elect Janet Barresi said the study, which also ranks Oklahoma among the worst 10 states in producing top-achieving math students, should be a wake-up call against the status quo.

“Let’s quit making excuses,” she said. “Let’s accept it, and use it as a challenge,

Local leaders question governor-elect's school-voucher reform plan - News

Ideas

Some of the recommendations by Gov.-elect Rick Scott's education transition team:

· Implementation of a new teacher-evaluation system, based partly on student progress

· Elimination of tenure for new K-12 teachers

· "Education savings accounts" would give public-school parents control over 85% of funding used to put their children through public school; could be used for virtual school, private school, private tutoring, college expenses

DAYTONA BEACH -- Vouchers for all students. Merit pay for teachers, but no tenure for new hires.

Those are just a few of the wide-ranging recommendations for reforming Florida's education system released this week by an 18-member panel advising Gov.-elect Rick Scott on his transition to becoming the state's chief executive officer on Jan. 4.

Some recommendations like merit pay for teachers have been hotly debated in Florida and across the nation in recent years while others -- like the all-inclusive voucher proposal -- take the debate to a new level.

The 20-page report, which Scott is still reviewing to decide which ideas he might adopt, is drawing mixed reactions from local school

State is not backing away from teacher evaluation rule - baltimoresun.com

State is not backing away from teacher evaluation rule

Teachers have opposed having 50 percent of their evaluations tied to student achievement, but regulation is in Race to the Top application

Gov. Martin O'Malley has indicated that he will stand firm on the state's commitment to require student achievement to be 50 percent of principal and teacher evaluations despite significant opposition from teachers unions.

After meetings last week with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, an O'Malley spokesman said the state will have to fulfill the promise it made to the agency about the evaluations in order to receive $250 million in Race to the Top funding it won in a national grant competition last summer.

The Maryland State Board of Education had backed up the promise by proposing a regulation that would have made the 50 percent requirement a rule, but a legislative review panel voted it down in

Daily Kos: America's shame - children in poverty

America's shame - children in poverty

by teacherken

Sat Dec 25, 2010 at 04:19:55 AM PST

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 42 percent of American childrenlive in low-income homes and about a fifth live in poverty. It gets worse. The number of children living in poverty has risen 33 percent since 2000. For perspective, the child population of the country over all increased by only about 3 percent over that time. And, according to a 2007 Unicef report on child poverty, the U.S. ranked last among 24 wealthy countries.

That is the 2nd paragraph of a powerful - and important - column by Charles Blow in today's New York Times, Suffer the Little Children.

The last sentence of that paragraph, that we are last among 24 wealthy countries, should embarrass

Venezuelan University Law Creates Student Bill of Rights, “Democratizes” Higher Education | venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan University Law Creates Student Bill of Rights, “Democratizes” Higher Education

By JAMES SUGGETT - VENEZUELANALYSIS.COM

Waiting for Superrich-Man

“So who’s the greedy one here? The unemployed, who have not failed to notice their unemployment check is larger than the paycheck they would get if they took a job? Or the rich, who want to take the money the government does not seize and put it into the economy where it will magically produce a job, for someone who will get off the couch and take it?”

Fox News commentator John Gibson, in the passage taken from his blog above, frames billionaires as superheroes, as those who will save us from this recession, who will – as we heard repeated ad nasuem in the last few weeks – create jobs for the unemployed, and kick start our economy by investing in America. They are the ones who take the risks, who have the insight, ingenuity, talent and discipline to make America exceptional, and thus, the billionaires will lead us to a better, more prosperous country for

Hallelujah — Joanne Jacobs

Hallelujah

by Joanne

Elementary students and adults in Quinhagak, Alaska “perform” the Hallelujah Chorus.

Prayer for a New Mother « Student Activism

Prayer for a New Mother

by Angus Johnston

The things she knew, let her forget again –
The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold,
The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men
Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold.

Let her have laughter with her little one;
Teach her the needless, tuneless songs to sing;
Grant her her right to whisper to her son
The foolish names one dare not call a king.

Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd,
The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red,
The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud
That wraps the strange new body of the dead.

Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go
And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan
The proud and happy years that they shall know
Together, when her son is grown a man.

–Dorothy Parker, 1928

Friday, December 24, 2010

WPIX Yule Log

Former D.C. official Robert Bobb making waves in troubled Detroit school system

GALLERY

Making an impression in Detroit

Since March 2009, Robert C. Bobb, a former top D.C. official, has served as emergency financial manager of the fiscally and academically troubled Detroit school system. Because of his work there, he is viewed as a potential candidate to head the D.C. schools if the interim chancellor doesn't work out.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

By Nick Anderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 24, 2010; 8:10 PM

DETROIT - The bearded man in the pinstripe suit and cowboy boots strode to the lectern in a midtown hotel ballroom as a video projector flashed images of real estate for sale. These buildings, many dating to the early 20th century, once embodied Detroit's dreams. They were schools. One was named for the poet Langston Hughes, another for an icon of motoring luxury: Cadillac.

But Robert C. Bobb was unsentimental. The school system

Seeing the Forest: Education For We, The People Or For Private Profit?

Education For We, The People Or For Private Profit?

-- by Dave Johnson

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

In his press conference today President Obama said the economic focus is no longer saving the economy from crisis, but "jumpstarting" it to make a dent in unemployment. He listed education as one of the pillars of that effort. Later in the press conference he talked about making colleges and universities being open not just to people who are well-to-do, but to all of us.

Progressives For A We, The People Economy

Progressives believe that a We, the People economy works best when we act as a community where "we are all in this together," and watch out and take care of each other. We mutually benefit from this approach: the better off we all are, the better off we all are. Conservatives, on the other hand, believe we should all be on our own, looking out for only ourselves and our families, and it is up to each of us, alone, to take "personal responsibility" for our own success.

Our differing approaches to education reflect these different philosophies.

Mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle says the City of Chicago At Issue « CBS Chicago o

At Issue « CBS Chicago – Breaking News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and the Best of Chicago

AT ISSUE 12-19-10: Miguel del Valle

December 19, 2010

Mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle says the City of Chicago must find the resources to ensure that every public schools is a good one. Mayoral hopeful Miguel del Valle is this weeks guest on At Issue with Newsradio 780's Political Editor Craig Dellimore.

OSU Scandal: Professional Football Players Get Paid

by KEVIN CAREY on DECEMBER 24, 2010

in UNCATEGORIZED

I spent two years at Ohio State in the mid-1990’s getting a master’s degree and being duly initiated into the cult of Big Ten football, so I was disturbed to glance up from the treadmill in the gym yesterday afternoon and see ESPN report that OSU quarterback Terrelle Pryor and four teammates had been caught selling things they owned to other people, for money.

Pryor is a 6-6″ 240-lb professional football player who was hired by Ohio State in 2008 on a four-year contract to be their quarterback. He works for head football coach Jim Tressel, who earns $3.5 million per year. Tressel reports to Athletic Director Gene Smith, who earns $1.2 million per year. Smith reports to President E. Gordon Gee, who earns $1.5 million per year.

Pryor was the most heavily recruited young professional football player in the country when he signed his four-year contract in 2008, the equivalent of Bryce Harper, the #1 draft pick baseball phenom who signed a $9.9 million contract with the Washington Nationals earlier this year. But because Pryor has the misfortune

After hearing lawyers optimistic Cathie Black’s waiver to be overturned - New York Government | Examiner.com

After hearing lawyers optimistic Cathie Black's waiver to be overturned

A lawyer for parents challenging the appointment ofCathleen P. Black to be the next city schools chancellorsays he’s optimistic his client’s will emerge victorious.

Lawyers for the parents appeared in court in an Albany court room yesterday arguing that Black lacks the required educational experience or academic credentials to serve as head of the nation’s largest schools system.

Judge Gerald Connolly did not immediately indicate when the court might rule, but Attorney Norman Siegel said he and other attorneys received an E-mail from the judge last night asking for cell phone numbers where they could be reached over the holidays. He said that makes him think that a ruling is likely to come next week, before January 3, when Black is scheduled to take over the reins.

Under state law and related regulations, school superintendents have to have a master's degree or higher, 60 hours of graduate work, a professional

Sacramento schools to share in $25 million - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento schools to share in $25 million

By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, Dec. 24, 2010 - 12:27 pm

Schools that serve large numbers of poor children are getting new money to pay for technology as the state releases $25 million through the second phase of a legal settlement with Microsoft, the California Department of Education announced today.

More than 7,400 schools statewide -- including 293 in Sacramento -- are getting the funds. The money comes from a 2006 class-action lawsuit against Microsoft, in which 27 California consumers and businesses sued the company, alleging unfair competition in the sale of some operational and software systems. Microsoft settled for $1.1 billion, with an agreement that any money that was not claimed by individual consumers would go into a fund to benefit the state's poorest schools.

"This funding to help school districts purchase technology comes at a critical time when schools continue to struggle because of severe budget cuts," said state Superintendent Jack O'Connell.

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