$500 million question: What to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s gift? | EdSource Today

$500 million question: What to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s gift? | EdSource Today:

$500 million question: What to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s gift?

January 16th, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By Contributors

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In December, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated $500 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for projects related to health and education. Zuckerberg and the Community Foundation haven’t announced yet what they have in mind, so that got us thinking:  why not pass along some ideas?

We asked some educators and EdSource Today contributors from Silicon Valley what they would do if they had $500 million to give away. For the purpose of this exercise, we assumed the interest from the money (roughly $25 million annually) would go to schools in Silicon Valley – Santa Clara and San Mateo counties – for education, broadly defined to include health and wellness from preschool through high school.

Their suggestions are below. We hope you’ll join the conversation by posting comments with your ideas as well.

Xavier De La Torre: Invest in a virtual K-16 school  

Xavier De La Torre

Mr. Zuckerberg’s generosity should be invested in developing a county-sponsored, virtual K-16 charter school complete with comprehensive, Common-Core-standards based, teacher-led, online courses that meet California’s A-G requirements and college/university courses required to earn a baccalaureate degree. Using the economics of the Internet, we can connect some of the greatest teachers to thousands of students who need credit recovery; who wish to accelerate their learning; whose lives and realities require greater flexibility than we can offer in our brick-and-mortar schools; who are not being engaged or challenged in their current classes; who want to complete college courses while still in middle or high school; and who have dropped out of school but have an interest in returning. Colleges and universities are already recognizing 

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: 2011-2012 Gulen charter school enrollment = 51,950 students

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: 2011-2012 Gulen charter school enrollment = 51,950 students:

2011-2012 Gulen charter school enrollment = 51,950 students

To date, a total of 140 U.S. charter schools have been established which can be associated with the secretive and controversial Gulen Movement. This school year (2012-2013), 136 of the 140 are still active. Two of the four which are no longer active as Gulen charter schools have been converted into private schools and are taking advantage of tax credit scholarship (in GA) or school voucher (in WI) programs.

For the 2011-2012 school year, Gulen charter schools enrolled 51,950 students. The calculation for the 2010-2011 school year was 44,727. The 7,223 student increase is because ten new schools were opened in the fall of 2011, plus a large number of the existing charter schools are still in the process of adding the grade levels granted by their charters.

Opening year	State	School	Enrollment 2011-2012*
1999 (2)	OH	Horizon Science Academy Cleveland	479
	OH	Horizon Science Academy Columbus	377
2000 (5)	NV	Coral Academy of Science - Reno Elementary	436
	NV	Coral Academy of Science - Reno Middle/High School	445
	OK	Dove Science Academy - Tulsa

UPDATE: Parents Across America Seattle supports Garfield High School teachers’ principled opposition to the costly and inaccurate MAP test | Parents Across America

Parents Across America Seattle supports Garfield High School teachers’ principled opposition to the costly and inaccurate MAP test | Parents Across America:

Why parents support teachers

by pagrundy

Parents Across America is pleased to stand with our nation’s schoolteachers in efforts to improve education for all children – efforts that range from the issues raised in the Chicago teachers’ strike to the Seattle teachers’ boycott of wasteful standardized tests. We are proud to be part of a long tradition of parent support for public schoolteachers. Parents voice support Although this nation has been through three decades of hand-wringing over a “crisis in American education,” throughout that entire period … →

Parents Across America Seattle supports Garfield High School teachers’ principled opposition to the costly and inaccurate MAP test

by pureparents

Parents Across America is pleased to endorse the position statement of Parents Across America-Seattle in support of the Garfield High School teachers’ principled opposition to the costly and inaccurate MAP® test.

Here’s PAA-Seattle’s statement:

Parents Across America, Seattle, fully support and applaud the Garfield High School teaching staff in their refusal to administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP)  test to their students.

The teachers at Garfield, one of the district’s most respected high schools, have taken a thoughtful, principled stand against an expensive, time-consuming and inaccurate assessment product mandated by the Seattle Public School District.

National education historian, Diane Ravitch, has also applauded the action of Garfield teachers, sending the teachers a letter of support and dedicating a statement on her blog to their announcement. Writes Ravitch: “For their courage, their integrity, and their intelligence, I add the faculty of Garfield High School to the honor 

The Washington Teacher: DC's Ward 8 Parents Tell Mayor "Enough is Enough" !

The Washington Teacher: DC's Ward 8 Parents Tell Mayor "Enough is Enough" !:

DC's Ward 8 Parents Tell Mayor "Enough is Enough" !

by noreply@blogger.com (Candi Peterson)

By Candi Peterson

On a cold, rainy night (January 15)  an estimated 300 parents, students and concerned citizens took a page from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s social action playbook on his official birthday and took direct action by holding a vigil at the home of Mayor Vincent Gray, who chose to work late rather than meet with his neighbors.

Led by Ward 8 State Board of Education representative Trayon White, the animated group of parents and children pleaded for the opportunity to keep their neighborhood schools open. “Enough is enough! Instead of giving our children less in Ward 8 we should be giving our children more.”

Parents say it’s more than an inconvenience it’s a threat to their children’s future.

Chanting “Save Our Schools”, parents and activists were joined by a number of enthusiastic children from schools such as Malcolm X elementary as one particularly angry mother stated, “A lot of people don’t 

School Tech Connect: Come Out And Meet Your Neighbors!

School Tech Connect: Come Out And Meet Your Neighbors!:

Come Out And Meet Your Neighbors!

I'm on the road, but here are a couple reminders.

January 19, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM: Community Task Force For Gale. Meeting at Gale in the social room. Organizing the resistance to Gale's incorrect "underutilized" label.

January 31, 6:00 PM-8:00 PM: The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting For Superman, Sullivan High School Auditorium, co-hosted by RPNPF and Parents 4 Teachers. Popcorn and panel discussion. Everyone is welcome.

And this, which I just heard about.

Equity, Schmequity | EduShyster

Equity, Schmequity | EduShyster:

Equity, Schmequity

by edushyster2012

Elitism and the education reform movement

Like many of your fine states, Massachusetts is now home to a veritable alphabet-soup of education reform groups, albeit a can in which the letters FER seem to be somewhat overrepresented. Just yesterday, for example, a reader sent me a notice from a new chapter of a student reform group at Tufts University, headed up by a young equestrienne whose own secondary education came courtesy of a $33,000 private school. She is helping to mobilize the next generation of education reform leaders by reaching out to fellow students who “[h]ad a bad public school experience” and are interested in help[ing] out in charter school events around in the Boston area.“
When the members of this next generation of reformers graduate and become the current generation of reformers, they will have plenty of reform-minded organizations to add to their LinkedIn profiles. There is DFER, for example, which, in Massachusetts, is headed by a pedigreed young gentleman who spends his days penning passionate op-eds about choice, excellence and innovation. I will not dwell on his biography here, as I have 

How Social Studies Should Be Taught Student Voice

Student Voice:

Justin Strudler – How Social Studies Should Be Taught

by admin

Originally posted at: http://justinstrudler.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/how-social-studies-should-be-taught/
I love social studies. I love tracing the realities of now to the events of then. I love thinkin about what my ancestors were likely doing at each period of history. I love looking at todays problems and finding the causes or even the solutions in history. History can teach us so much about the world we in and the people we live in, but when If I were to step into the average Social Studies class in my school I wouldn’t see anything like that (some classes are exceptions I will admit). For the most part kids are forced to outline textbook chapters. Memorizing facts about dates and turning points, wars and treaties, dynasties and kings. . . Learning formats for DBQs, learning tricks to answer the multiple choice questions. . . I don’t think any of that accomplishes the goals that learning history is supposed to achieve.
I think the goals of learning history are broad and connected to everything we do in life. Making good citizens, 

The Quick and the Ed » Common Core: What’s Educational Justice Got to Do With It?

The Quick and the Ed » Common Core: What’s Educational Justice Got to Do With It?:

Common Core: What’s Educational Justice Got to Do With It?

by Peter Cookson Jr.

Last spring I completed a study of American high schools; I looked at five schools serving very different economic and social communities. Here is the headline: If a student is not lucky enough to attend a high school located in an upper-middle or middle-class neighborhood, he or she is likely to get a watered down, uninspiring and inadequate set of academic choices  — often taught in a hit-or-miss manner. If a student attends a school in an area of concentrated poverty his or her course of study often consists of work sheets, out-of-date textbooks and more work sheets.
While the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in 2014-15 will not solve the problem of providing equality of educational opportunities to all students, it is part of the solution. Without a robust, demanding curriculum, education flounders. This is not new news. I think Socrates mentioned it early and often.
High standards would seem to be an educational reform that would unite educators and the public. After all, we consistently find ourselves in the middle of the pack in international testing. Many of our kids are being frozen out of the emerging job market. Lack of verbal and math skills is essential for success in our dynamic and 

Great Expectations: Transforming Practice Through Common Core Implementation — Whole Child Education

Great Expectations: Transforming Practice Through Common Core Implementation — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Great Expectations: Transforming Practice Through Common Core Implementation

January 17, 2013 by Whole Child Podcast

Download Podcast Now [Right-Click to Save]

We as educators have a unique opportunity to reset the playing field and make the Common Core State Standards work for us. We can implement the standards, align them to a whole child approach to education, and ensure that both support and enhance each other to prepare students for college, career, and citizenship success. The Common Core standards and a whole child approach are not opposites, and they do not and should not have to be in opposition. In fact, they're interdependent. So much so, that they require each other in order to be successful.

Now is the time for us to take control and become empowered in the process. The outcomes will depend onwhat we decide to do for the Common Core standards within a whole child approach and how we decide to do it. In this episode, host Molly McCloskey and our guests discuss how our schools are working to better and more comprehensively support student learning so that they meet these enhanced expectations. You'll hear from

• Arnold Fege, president of Public Advocacy for Kids and, recently, director of public engagement and 

UPDATE: Seattle Schools Community Forum: In Advance of Today's Operations Committee Meeting

Seattle Schools Community Forum: In Advance of Today's Operations Committee Meeting:

Sanislo Supports Garfield Teachers

by Melissa Westbrook

...but they are not boycotting the MAP test.   Their letter to the Superintendent is both alloquent and heartfelt.

From the West Seattle blog comes this report about a letter sent to Superintendent Banda from the teachers at Sanislo:

We the staff at Sanislo Elementary, by a unanimous vote, write to express our support for Garfield High School’s decision to not administer the MAP test. We share many of their same concerns, including the impact on a struggling student’s esteem and the lack of usability of the results when given the current text adoptions. We similarly decry the loss of instructional time, the loss of computer lab access and the loss of instructional assistants who are used as test proctors, in addition to the financial costs of the subscription itself and the tech support for implementing it.

Garfield and all high school teachers find themselves in a Kafkaesque situation in which their employment (including career ladder and termination) will be determined by a test which district officials told them is invalid, since the margin of error can exceed the expected growth score. The collective bargaining agreement allows teachers to be put on ‘improvement plans’ if their test 

Washington State Teacher of the Year Finalist for National Title

by Melissa Westbrook

I knew it.

I met the Washington State teacher of the year, Jeff Charbonneau, last week.  He was so impressive and I told him I wouldn't be surprised if he were one of the four national finalists.  And it was announced today that he is a finalist.   The National Teacher of the Year will be announced in April.

Jeff teaches physics, chemistry and engineering at Zillah High School in Zillah, Washington (outside of Yakima).   They have 400 students.

After years of perseverance,  he was able to offer college-level classes.  In his classroom alone, students can 

In Advance of Today's Operations Committee Meeting

by Melissa Westbrook

I am blessed to know people who also work hard to understand our district.  Many of these sources have analytic skills far beyond mine and I am so glad they are willing to share their knowledge and understanding with me.  What I put forth comes from conversations with a couple of these people.  (But we don't all agree.)

In terms of capacity management for 2013-2014, here are a few things to consider as the Board has its Operations Committee of the Whole meeting today where they will be discussing this issue.  (Also, keep in mind that as we have been discussing the NE middle school region a lot here, there will also be capacity management happening in West Seattle.  For some reason West Seattle folks haven't weighed in much on that and I would guess they feel what the district has put forth for their region is reasonable.)

Let's flesh out what is the cold, hard truth - big change is coming to enrollment patterns in the NE.   For elementary, for middle, for high school.  BEX IV already reflects that with the addition of the new middle school 

Michelle Rhee is coming to Seattle

by Charlie Mas

Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools from 2007 to 2010 and strident education reformer is coming to Seattle to speak at Town Hall and you can attend for free.

CityClub presents A Conversation with Michelle Rhee

Location:

Town Hall, Great Hall

1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101

Doors Open: 6:30 p.m.

Program: 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. including book signing

SI&A Cabinet Report – SBE moves one step closer to implementing common core math

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

SBE moves one step closer to implementing common core math 
By Tom Chorneau
Thursday, January 17, 2013

The California State Board of Education moved ahead Thursday on several fronts aimed at facilitating instruction in the common core math standards statewide within the next two years.

In addition to setting a schedule for evaluating new and supplemental instructional materials aligned to the nationalized curriculum goals, the board also formally wiped away confusing, dual standards tied to eighth grade math – a lasting imprint from the Schwarzenegger administration’s original adoption of the common core in 2010.

The development of the final standards was largely defined in legislation passed last summer, but carrying out the last steps has required significant refinement and analysis, much of it coming from work of the California Department of Education and advisory panels to the state board.

A key focus of that work surrounded the controversial question of eighth grade algebra.

Under the final standards adopted Thursday, local districts will continue to have a lot of latitude in deciding when 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Reformers' narrative about lagging U.S. schools covers up poverty

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Reformers' narrative about lagging U.S. schools covers up poverty:

Reformers' narrative about lagging U.S. schools covers up poverty

by Mike Klonsky

“The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are." -- Arne Duncan

"Our competitors understand that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow." -- Pres. Obama

The rationale behind corporate-style school reform begins and ends with this disturbing narrative that portrays U.S. schools as lagging behind in the global race to the top. This lag is supposedly to blame for the country's economic failures and the declining competitive position of American corporations in the global economy. This narrative also underlies current school reform efforts and  Duncan's Race To The Top initiative in particular. RTTT has forced the closing of thousands of schools and turning them over to privately-managed charter schools as well as the firing of thousands of teachers. None of this has improved the U.S. position in the global economy one iota. Nor has it done much to improve public education as a whole.

International reading scores by social class.

A new report released yesterday shows that in fact, shows that U.S. schools ARE NOT being outpaced by 

News Flash: Corporate Education Reformers Spend $563,000 and counting in Bridgeport loss - Wait, What?

News Flash: Corporate Education Reformers Spend $563,000 and counting in Bridgeport loss - Wait, What?:

News Flash: Corporate Education Reformers Spend $563,000 and counting in Bridgeport loss

by jonpelto

The final reports from Bridgeport’s November 2012 education reform referendum are in and it turns out that the corporate education reform industry and its supporters spent at least $562,955.16 in their effort to pass Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch’s anti-democracy initiative, a proposal that would have eliminated the City’s democratically elected board of education and replaced it with one appointed by the mayor.

In the end, Residents for a Better Bridgeport, the political action committee formed by Mayor Finch and his supporters, spent a total of $275,671.80 in the November 2012 referendum campaign that ended with Mayor Finch’s plan going down to defeat by a nearly 2 to 1 margin.

Excel Bridgeport, the corporate funded education reform group that has been lobbying for 

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Fensterwald: It’s final - State Board shifts policy on eighth grade Algebra

Education Headlines

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Board nixes legal fees for schools boss

Not only did the San Ysidro school board reject a plan Tuesday night to pay criminal defense fees for Superintendent Manuel Paul, the board also placed him on administrative leave for 45 days.

Alliance of big city school districts aims for more healthful meals

The Los Angeles Unified School District and five others are striving to make wholesome food a national standard. They're working on biodegradable trays and utensils as well. Each district has been assigned a specific project.

LAUSD looks to save on cost of food, but not on taste

Los Angeles Unified is joining with other large U.S. school districts in a "historic" alliance designed to drive food costs down and quality up as part of a growing movement to provide youngsters with tasty and healthful cafeteria meals.

Suspected norovirus outbreak hits Lafayette school

A suspected norovirus outbreak at a Lafayette elementary school this past week -- one of 10 active cases in Contra Costa County -- has health officials reminding residents to take precautions to avoid the contagious bug in the final months of the flu season.

Which reserve to fund help for schools?

Funding for after-school and summer-school programs to help make sure about 1,900 San Francisco juniors can graduate in 2014 is stuck in a political tussle not over whether schools should get the money, but where it should come from.

Brentwood superintendent says 'legal limitations' kept abusive teacher in district

The Brentwood special education teacher convicted of throwing a 5-year-old special needs student onto a classroom floor and kicking him was transferred to another class and not fired because of "legal limitations" on teacher personnel decisions, the district superintendent said Wednesday.

Baron: President says mental health key to school safety

President Obama wants to add up to 1,000 more mental health counselors and safety officers in the nation’s schools to improve safety.

$950,000 to be paid in Brentwood case

The Brentwood Unified School District has agreed to pay $950,000 to a Concord family whose 5-year-old special-needs son was hurled to the floor and kicked by his elementary-school teacher.

Fensterwald: It’s final - State Board shifts policy on eighth grade Algebra

The State Board of Education ended a decade-long controversial policy of pushing eighth graders to take Algebra I when members voted unanimously Wednesday to strip California’s Algebra I standards from the state’s eighth grade math standards.

Skelton: Help school districts by letting them raise their own tax revenue

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to help inner-city schools at the expense of suburbanites. But there must be a better way to assist the disadvantaged than to trigger class warfare. And there is. It is to give school districts a better opportunity to raise their own tax revenue.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Sadness, solidarity on display as classes resume at Taft Union High School

Sadness, anxiety and even some hope were evident Tuesday as Taft Union High School resumed classes for the first time since Thursday's shooting left a student in critical condition and another facing attempted murder charges.

Lodi Unified administrator's 'out-of-the-box' promotion saves $175,000

The Lodi Unified School District has made another reorganization among its top administrators, eliminating an assistant superintendent position.

Campus safety on Stockton USD hearts and minds

Given Stockton crime rates and the horrific school shootings last month in Connecticut, it was no surprise that security at district campuses was a prime topic at the board's first meeting of 2013.

Wayne Au on His Alma Mater Garfield High School | Seattle Education

Wayne Au on His Alma Mater Garfield High School | Seattle Education:

Wayne Au on His Alma Mater Garfield High School

by seattleducation2011

Wayne Au on His Alma Mater Garfield High School

Posted on January 17, 2013 by seattleducation2011 | Leave a comment

This article has been reposted in full with permission by the author.

Proud to be a Garfield Bulldog

The growing support for Garfield teachers’ resistance to the MAP test is a testament to just how much the collective action of teachers at one school means to the rest of the world.

On the afternoon of Thursday, January 10th, a group of about 15 teachers stood together in the front of room 206 at Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. News cameras and audio recorders from local media outlets crowded the podium as reporters, students, colleagues, and supporters listened closely. The teachers at Garfield High School were announcing that they had agreed, nearly unanimously, to resist giving the district-mandated computer test known as the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) to their students.

One by one, teachers explained why they had made this decision. Some talked