Saturday, August 27, 2011

Big Education Ape - PostRank Today's 10



Sign up for text alerts on your cell phoneSac City supt. offers insight on coming school year | news10.net Sac City supt. offers insight on coming school year | news10.net: Sac City supt. offers insight on coming school year1:15 PM, Aug 26, 2011 | comments - Twitter - Facebook - Share - Email - Print - - - A - *A* - A - + ...

Modern School: Arlene Ackerman: Serial Golden Paratrooper

Modern School: Arlene Ackerman: Serial Golden Paratrooper:

Arlene Ackerman: Serial Golden Paratrooper


If memory serves, Arlene Ackerman was chased out of San Francisco Unified with her tail between her legs, but also with a hefty golden parachute. Now Philly is set to do the same. This week the Philadelphia School Reform Commission unanimously approved a buyout for former Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman worth nearly $1 million, according to Philly.com.

In order to get rid of their excess baggage, Philadelphia will have to pay Ackerman $500,000 in district funds. She will also get health and life insurance through June 2013 and a check for her unused sick and vacation time. The value of the insurance and unpaid leave has not been disclosed. However, she will also receive $405,000 in private, anonymous donations funneled through a nonprofit with ties to the Philadelphia School District. The Kansas City Star reported this week that Pennsylvania State Auditor General Jack Wagner plans to investigate the unusual arrangement. Could Ackerman have a secret admirer in the Billionaire Boys Club?

Her supporters are calling her ousting a “lynching,” blaming it on racism because she gave a

Today in Labor History—August 27


August 27, 1917 -- The IWW was made illegal in Australia and their membership rolls were made available to employers, leading to widespread repression. Despite all this, the IWW helped lead the General Strike of 1917.(From the Daily Bleed)

August 27, 1934 – Filipino lettuce cutters and mainly white packing shed workers struck the powerful Salinas Valley growers and shippers, demanding union recognition & improved conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

Before and After a Hurricane « Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:

Before and After a Hurricane

The East Coast is busy preparing for this weekend’s hurricane, effects of which are starting to be felt in the Carolinas. With widespread power outages, downed trees, flooding, and evacuations expected, Hurricane Irene has the makings of an economic and social as well as natural disaster. Ready.govand the NOAA National Hurricane Center offer steps you can take to prepare, resources, and updated storm information.

Sesame Street offers a hurricane tool kit for parents, families, and caregivers to help young children feel safe and cope with their emotions. You’ll find videos sharing how Big Bird and other characters prepare for the storm, clean up afterward, deal with being displaced from homes, and work together as a community to support each other. There are links to activities, resources, and these quick tips:

  • Give children the facts
  • Comfort your children
  • Listen and talk to your children
  • Try to keep a normal routine
  • Spend time with your children
  • Pay attention to signs of stress
  • Monitor children’s TV viewing
  • Empower your children
  • Take care of yourself
  • Inspire a sense of hope

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s FEMA for Kids website recommends putting together anactivity survival kit to take with you if evacuation does become necessary. Suggested items include:

  • A few favorite books
  • Crayons, pencils, or marking pens and plenty of paper
  • A deck of cards
  • Small people figures and toy vehicles to play out what is happening
  • A favorite blanket or pillow
  • Pictures of the family and pet

After the storm, Weather Wiz Kids, National Geographic, and Discovery Education offer lesson plans (and science fair project ideas!) on hurricanes to help explain what happened and engage students in learning more.

If the damage in your area is severe or you would like to learn more about preparing responses to future unplanned events, ASCD has a series of workshops that focus on helping educators meet displaced

Daily Kos: Teach For America goes after teachers unions - in a new way

Daily Kos: Teach For America goes after teachers unions - in a new way:

Teach For America goes after teachers unions - in a new way

A TFA alum who has stayed in public school teaching and gotten increasingly turned off to TFA, and who follows my work, forwarded to me an email that demonstrates a new tactic by TFA, perhaps as s/he notes, in response to the criticisms of TFA this past summer by the National Education Association, the larger of the two main teachers unions.

I offer this for informational purposes only, but have made sure that BOTH NEA and AFT are aware of this new tactic.

Peace.

From: Arroyo, Tamara
Date: Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 8:30 PM
Subject: Back to school webinar on union leadership

As you head back to the classroom this year, we’d like to invite you to join our partner, Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE) and other Teach For America alumni teachers and LEE members on September 8 from 8-9 pm ET/5-6 pm PT for a special webinar to help you consider new leadership opportunities as a teacher in your classroom and community.

This webinar is specifically designed for you - TFA alumni teachers - to explore and reflect on ways

Diane Ravitch on Democracy Now: “Poverty is the Problem” | Seattle Education

Diane Ravitch on Democracy Now: “Poverty is the Problem” | Seattle Education:

Diane Ravitch on Democracy Now: “Poverty is the Problem”

“Poverty is the Problem”

Check out Diane Ravitch and Brian Jones, narrator of the movie The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman, on Democracy Now.

The following is the introduction to this interview:

As millions of students prepare to go back to school, budget cuts are resulting in teacher layoffs and larger classes across the country. This comes as the drive toward more standardized testing increases despite a string of cheating scandals in New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and other

Friday, August 26, 2011

Modern School: Striking Teachers Could Lose Residence or Citizenship

Modern School: Striking Teachers Could Lose Residence or Citizenship:

Striking Teachers Could Lose Residence or Citizenship


It is pretty obvious why legislators and bosses want to make public sector strikes illegal: it reduces the chances that union bureaucrats will support a strike, thus weakening workers’ power. Fortunately, this is not always sufficient to stop workers from walking off the job in a wildcat action, particularly when conditions become unbearable.

However, another goal of anti-strike clauses is to appeal to individual workers’ fear of the legal system and the potential consequences if they are caught. This is particularly effective for immigrant employees, even when they are legally working in the country on green cards, since breaking the law is grounds for deportation and denial of

Rahm vs. The Chicago Teachers « Edumacation Archive

Rahm vs. The Chicago Teachers « Edumacation Archive:

Rahm vs. The Chicago Teachers

It’s been nearly a year since I posted to this blog. I frankly considered it done. I continued to leave it up for those who found previous postings useful while I used satire to comment on education elsewhere. Satire is something I’m good at, but it doesn’t do a great job of encapsulating all my feelings at this particular moment.

What I really want to do is teach. I got into education after working nearly 10 years in the private sector. I got a bachelor’s degree in history and made the rather unusual jump to broadcasting. I got into teaching just before programs like Teach for America hit, so I moved back home for 2 years and took classes in education while taking a huge pay cut to work at a comic book store because the hours worked around my schedule. It also gave me the opportunity to look after my dad as he suffered through the Alzheimer’s Disease that finally took his

After Cheating Scandals Hit Several States, Anti-Teacher Union "Reformers" Are Getting a Reality Check

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org:


After Cheating Scandals Hit Several States, Anti-Teacher Union "Reformers" Are Getting a Reality Check
Recent data shows anti-union school “reformers” hoisted on their own petard. After insisting that test scores should be the chief measure of schools, a flurry of recent test results has refuted claims that non-union charter schools exceed unionized public ones

Michelle Rhee and Mayor Villaraigosa
Michelle Rhee & Antonio Villaraigosa
Anti-Teacher Union “Reformers” Hoisted on Own Petard
by Randy Shaw‚ Aug. 23‚ 2011
LINK

Recent data shows anti-union school “reformers” hoisted on their own petard. After insisting that test scores should be the chief measure of schools, a flurry of recent test results has refuted claims that non-union charter schools exceed unionized public ones. First, last July saw the Atlanta schools testing scandal explode, over five years after the local teachers union raised alarm bells the district ignored. Second, a Los Angeles Times analysis revealed last week that “struggling schools under district control saw test scores rise more than most operated by

Lobato 8/26: Moloney opines | EdNewsColorado

Lobato 8/26: Moloney opines | EdNewsColorado:

Lobato 8/26: Moloney opines

William Moloney has penchant for making sweepong statements that get under lots of people’s skins, and that’s what he did over a long Friday afternoon at the Lobato v. State school finance trial.

Moloney, Colorado education commissioner for a decade until 2007, was a key witness for lawyers from the attorney general’s office, who are in the middle of presenting their defense against the plaintiffs’ claim that the state’s school finance system is unconstitutional.

Lobato v. State illustrationNow affiliated with a conservative think tank at Colorado Christian University, Moloney is known for his views on class size (bigger is better and cheaper), standard

SBE Agenda for September 2011 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

SBE Agenda for September 2011 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

SBE Agenda for September 2011

Agenda for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting to be held on September 7 and 8, 2011.

State Board Members

Michael W. Kirst, President
Trish Williams, Vice President

James Aschwanden
Yvonne Chan
Carl Cohn
Aida Molina
James C. Ramos
Patricia A. Rucker
Ilene W. Straus
Caitlin Snell, Student Member

Secretary & Executive Officer

Hon. Tom Torlakson

Executive Director

Susan K. Burr

Schedule of Meeting

Location

Wednesday, September 7, 2011
9:00 a.m. Pacific Time +

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Closed Session – IF NECESSARY
(The public may not attend.)

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814
916-319-0827

The Closed Session (1) may commence earlier than 9:00 a.m.; (2) may begin at or before 9:00 a.m., be recessed, and then be reconvened later in the day; or (3) may commence later than 9:00 a.m.

CLOSED SESSION AGENDA

Conference with Legal Counsel – Existing Litigation: Under Government Code sections 11126(e)(1) and (e)(2)(A), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that some or all of the pending litigation which follows will be considered and acted upon in closed session:

  • Alejo, et al. v. Jack O’Connell, State Board of Education, et al., San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CPF-09-50968
  • California School Boards Association, et al. v. California State Board of Education and Aspire Public Schools, Inc.Alameda Superior Court, Case No. 07353566
  • California School Boards Association and its Education Legal Alliance, et al., v. The California State Board of Education, et al., Sacramento County Superior Court, Case No. 34-200800021188-CU-MC-GDS
  • Doe, Jane, and Jason Roe v. State of California, Tom Torlakson, The California Department of Education, The State Board of Education, Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. BC445151
  • Emma C., et al. v. Delaine Eastin, et al., United States District Court, Northern District of California, Case No. C 96 4179
  • EMS-BP, LLC, Options for Youth Burbank, Inc. et al. v. California Department of Education, et al., Sacramento County Superior Court, Case No. 03CS01078 / 03CS01079 and related appeal
  • K.C. et al. v. Jack O’Connell, et al., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Case No. C 05 4077 MMC
  • Opportunity for Learning – PB, LLC; Opportunities for Learning – C, LLC, and Opportunities for Learning WSH, LLCNotice of Appeal Before the Education Audit Appeals Panel
  • Options for Youth, et al., v. California Department of Education, et al., Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC 347454
  • Options of Youth, - Burbank, Inc., San Gabriel, Inc., Upland, Inc., and Victor Valley Notice of Appeal Before the Education Audit Appeals Panel, OAH #2006100966
  • Perris Union High School District v. California State Board of Education, California Department of Education, et al.,Riverside Superior Court Case No. RIC520862
  • Porter, et al., v. Manhattan Beach Unified School District, et al., United States District Court, Central District, Case No. CV-00-08402
  • Reed v. State of California, Los Angeles Unified School District, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, California Department of Education, and State Board of Education, et al., Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. BC432420
  • Today’s Fresh Start, Inc., v. Los Angeles County Office of Education, et al., Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BS112656
  • Case Name Unspecified: Disclosure of case names would jeopardize existing settlement negotiations

Conference with Legal Counsel – Anticipated Litigation: Under Government Code sections 11126(e)(1) and (e)(2)(B), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in closed session to decide whether there is a significant exposure to litigation, and to consider and act in connection with matters for which there is a significant exposure to litigation. Under Government Code sections 11126(e)(1) and (e)(2)(C), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in closed session to decide to initiate litigation and to consider and act in connection with litigation it has decided to initiate.

Under Government Code section 11126(c)(14), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in closed session to review and discuss the actual content of pupil achievement tests (including, but not limited to, the High School Exit Exam) that have been submitted for State Board approval and/or approved by the State Board.

Under Government Code section 11126(a), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in closed session regarding the appointment, employment, evaluation of performance, or dismissal, discipline, or release of public employees, or a complaint or charge against public employees. Public employees include persons exempt from civil service under Article VII, Section 4(e) of the California Constitution.

Schedule of Meeting

Location

Wednesday, September 7, 2011
9:00 a.m. Pacific Time +
(Upon Adjournment of Closed Session, if held.)

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Public Session

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814
916-319-0827

Please see the detailed agenda for more information about the items to be considered and acted upon. The public is welcome.

Schedule of Meeting

Location

Thursday, September 8, 2011
9:00 a.m. Pacific Time +

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Closed Session – IF NECESSARY
(The public may not attend.)

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814
916-319-0827

The Closed Session (1) may commence earlier than 9:00 a.m.; (2) may begin at or before 9:00 a.m., be recessed, and then be reconvened later in the day; or (3) may commence later than 9:00 a.m.

Schedule of Meeting

Location

Thursday, September 8, 2011
9:00 a.m. Pacific Time +
(Upon Adjournment of Closed Session, if held.)

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Public Session

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814
916-319-0827

Please see the detailed agenda for more information about the items to be considered and acted upon. The public is welcome.


ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND ARE PROVIDED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLY

ALL ITEMS MAY BE RE-ORDERED TO BE HEARD ON ANY DAY OF THE NOTICED MEETING

THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE

Persons wishing to address the State Board of Education on a subject to be considered at this meeting, including any matter that may be designated for public hearing, are asked, but not required, to notify the State Board of Education Office (see telephone/fax numbers below) by noon of the third working day before the scheduled meeting/hearing, stating the subject they wish to address, the organization they represent (if any), and the nature of their testimony. Time is set aside for individuals so desiring to speak on any topic not otherwise on the agenda (please see the detailed agenda for the Public Session). In all cases, the presiding officer reserves the right to impose time limits on presentations as may be necessary to ensure that the agenda is completed.


REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the California State Board of Education (SBE), may request assistance by contacting the SBE Office, 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone, 916-319-0827; fax, 916- 319-0175.


CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

FULL BOARD AGENDA
Public Session

September 7, 2011

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 – 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time +
(Upon adjournment of Closed Session if held)

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814

Call to Order

Salute to the Flag

Closed Session

Communications

Announcements

REPORT OF THE STATE SUPERINTENDENT

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Public notice is hereby given that special presentations for informational purposes may take place during this session.

AGENDA ITEMS

Item 1 (DOC; 83KB; 5pp.)

Subject: Parent Empowerment - Adopt Proposed Changes to the California Code of Regulations, Title5, Sections 4800–4808.

Type of Action: Action, Information


Item 2 (DOC; 176KB; 14pp.)

Subject: Update on the Activities of the California Department of Education and State Board of Education Regarding Implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the Developments of the New Assessment System.

Type of Action: Action, Information


***PUBLIC HEARING***

A Public Hearing on the following agenda item will commence no earlier than 10:00a.m. on Wednesday, September 7, 2011. The Public Hearing will be held as close to 10:00 a.m. as the business of the State Board permits.

Item 3 (DOC; 83KB; 5pp.)

Subject: California College, Career, and Technical Education Center: Consider Issuing a Notice of Intent to Revoke Pursuant

Schools Matter: Occupation of Logan Street School Rooms by a Corporate Charter Continues

Schools Matter: Occupation of Logan Street School Rooms by a Corporate Charter Continues:

Occupation of Logan Street School Rooms by a Corporate Charter Continues

"[C]reating a 'separate and unequal' education system through the co-locations of charter schools in public school buildings." — NYC Parents' Lawsuit

Gabriella Charter Corporation dumped the contents Logan Street Public Elementary School's room 32 into room 31 without asking or notifying anyone.
Gabriella Charter Corporation dumped the contents Logan Street Public Elementary School's room 32 into room 31 without asking or notifying anyone. Then they moved their office from the auditorium into room 32. Some of the furniture should be recognizable
Photos by Lisa Baca-Sigala
A day after the Echo Parque community learned that Gabriella Charter Corporation had ended their week long occupation of Logan Street Elementary School's auditorium, evidence that Gabriella had merely taken over another room and moved their furniture into the room they had emptied.

Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council's (GEPENC) CIO Lisa Baca-Sigala took photographs and notified the Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Office of the General Counsel that Gabriella Charter