Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Rhee criticizes teacher tenure, unions in nonprofit agenda - Washington Metro, DC Local News - Fwix

Rhee criticizes teacher tenure, unions in nonprofit agenda

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Lisa Gartner

By: Lisa Gartner 01/10/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Staff Writer

Michelle Rhee, left, speaks to staff and guests as Gov. Rick Scott looks on during a visit to a South Florida charter school in Opa-locka, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. Rhee was on Scott's education transition team, and the new governor said she would continue to serve Florida as an informal education adviser. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Former D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee released a policy agenda for nationwide education reform Monday that criticizes tenure and teachers' unions while lauding Rhee hallmarks like merit pay and Teach for America.

Although no one is particularly surprised about Rhee's agenda, plenty of education traditionalists are already fuming over the document from StudentsFirst, the nonprofit education-reform advocacy group Rhee founded last month.

Rhee's 24-page agenda includes 35 policy recommendations for state and local officials. Chiefly, she recommends that teachers' evaluations be based at least 50 percent on student test scores and that these evaluations should drive staffing decisions; that states should relax laws that cap charter schools and alternative-certificate teachin

Quality Counts 2011 Press Release (PDF) Education Week: January 13, 2011

Education Week: January 13, 2011

JANUARY 13, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOR THE MEDIA

Quality Counts 2011 Press Release (PDF)

WEB EXTRAS

State Report Cards Map

This interactive map offers a quick way to examine state-by-state grades and summary data.

State Highlights Reports

Looking for detailed state data? The State Highlights Reportsassemble findings on each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and compare individual state data to national data.

Grading Calculator: Calculate Your Own Grade

Your turn. Manipulate grades for states based on weighting schemes of your choice.

Trending Charts

This interactive chart tracks stimulus funding and key economic indicators—the Dow Jones industrial average, housing sales, and the unemployment rate.

Economic Snapshots

These slideshows and accompanying statistics offer a visual glimpse of the nation's economic pulse.

FROM PRINT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Holding Steady in a Stiff Wind

This year's Quality Counts report arrives at a time of continued fiscal anxiety and education policy ferment in the wake of what has been widely described as the "Great Recession" of 2007-09.

OVERVIEW

Educators Regroup in Recession's Aftermath

Cuts to programs and personnel add stress for

U.S. education chief endorses Henderson in D.C.

By Nick Anderson and Bill Turque

Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 11, 2011

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday that he hopes interim D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson stays in the position "for the long haul," endorsing her strongly while Mayor Vincent C. Gray deliberates on his permanent choice for a new schools leader.

Duncan's praise of Henderson, in an interview with The Washington Post, injected the Obama administration into one of the new mayor's most critical appointments.

"I think Kaya's the right leader," Duncan said. "And I hope she sticks with it for the next 10 years."

In October, Gray (D) and then-mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) chose Henderson to fill in at

This Week In Education: AM News: Teachers Vow To Appeal NYC Value-Added Ruling

AM News: Teachers Vow To Appeal NYC Value-Added Ruling

by Alexander Russo

New York City schools can release ratings of 12,000 teachers, judge rules NYT: The New York City school system can publicly release performance ratings for more than 12,000 teachers based on their students' test scores, in what would be the largest such disclosure in the country... Mo. officials dissuade funding requests Boston Globe: For the 2011-2012 academic year, the $3 billion school formula would need to be increased by $230 million to $255 million to fulfill the law... Budget to put Texan self-sufficiency to the test AP: Texans have consistently elected lawmakers who will add to the public safety net only when threatened with a federal lawsuit... Publisher to replace faulted textbooks at no cost to Va. schools Washington Post: The publisher of textbooks found to contain dozens of errors has announced that it will replace thousands of copies of the texts in Virginia elementary and middle schools at no cost to the districts... MORE BELOW

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks up on D.C. schools leadership Washington Post: Duncan said Monday that he hopes interim D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson stays in the position "for the long haul," endorsing her strongly while Mayor Vincent C. Gray deliberates on his permanent choice for a new schools leader... Maryland tops Education Week's rankings; Virginia is fourth Washington Post: For the third straight year, Maryland's public education system is ranked the nation's best overall in an assessment of state policies and student performance to be published Tuesday... 60 First Graders, 4 Teachers, One Loud New Way to Learn NYT: An audacious educational experiment is taking place in Brooklyn, one that its founder hopes will revolutionize both how students learn and how teachers are trained... California Board of Education: Nominee withdraws from consideration LA Times: Honig said there were "some complications" with his nomination, but he refused to elaborate.

NYC Educator: Thoughts on Class Size

Thoughts on Class Size

by Miss Eyre

As high schools prepare to reorganize for the spring semester* in the next few weeks, I'm thinking about class size, andso are some other folks. Large class sizes are, as a rule, problematic here in NYC. It's not so much the size of the class itself; rather, it's the ever-widening scope of what teachers are asked to do, multiplied exponentially as classes grow larger and therefore ever more demanding on the time of teachers. It's also the wide range of students that can be found in the now-typical heterogeneous classroom.

My class sizes tend toward the small size--mid- to upper-20s--for high school classes, and yet I yearn for their being smaller. I am asked to tutor students individually and in small groups; offer multiple opportunities for make-up work; contact parents frequently about grades and behavior; tailor lessons to multiple skill levels (more on this later); assist students with staying organized; and, at the same time, deliver rigorous, complex lessons that will help students to be prepared for the upper echelons of high school and

Modern School: Poverty Diminishes Vocabulary

Poverty Diminishes Vocabulary

by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Dunn)

Image by Shanelkalicharan

A common theme in my writing is how much poverty impacts our students and their academic success. On average, middle class and higher income kids simply do better in school and on standardized exams than lower income kids. The reasons for this are complex and have not been fully explored. However, we do know that wealth affects health and cognitive development, social development and language acquisition,

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: UNIONS DECRY LACK OF SEARCH FOR L.A. SCHOOLS CHIEF

UNIONS DECRY LACK OF SEARCH FOR L.A. SCHOOLS CHIEF

by smf

By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press – from San Francisco Chronicle | http://bit.ly/e4oRE3Monday, January 10, 2011 (01-10) 15:40 PST Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- When the Los Angeles school board appointed a deputy superintendent last summer, it was widely expected he would be first in line to replace retiring Superintendent Ramon Cortines. Turns out, there is no line. The board is expected to

The Answer Sheet - Joel Klein's snow job

Joel Klein's snow job This was written by Marc Epstein, a history teacher at Jamaica High School in Queens, N.Y., for the past 15 years, and a former dean of students. His articles on school violence, curriculum, and testing, have appeared in numerous magazines and ...

Auburn football team champs on field but not in graduation rates Auburn University’s football team won the national collegiate football championship, but the Tigers aren’t exactly champs when it comes to graduation rates. According to the Academic Progress Rate, a four-year assessment by the NCAA of the movement ..

Monday, January 10, 2011

Schools Matter: Little John Tedesco Is A Big Liar

Little John Tedesco Is A Big Liar

by Jim Horn

The Koch Brothers, the John Birchers, and the segregationists of the John Locke Society will not be satisfied until American society returns to apartheid schooling and segregated living. Toward that end, they have dispatched Little John Tedesco, mouthpiece for Wake County's Gang of Five, to other states to spread poisonous lies about Wake County, specifically, and socioeconomic integration, generally.

Below is a proper smackdown by Patty Williams:

Patty Williams is the coordinator for Great Schools in Wake, a coalition of WakeUp Wake County.
John Adams famously wrote, "Facts are stubborn things," and indeed they are for Wake County School Board member John Tedesco, who is now spreading his false conclusions about Wake County schools on a national scale.

In an OpEd column by conservative Minnesota Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten, Tedesco

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011