Wednesday, March 13, 2013

by John Fensterwald

To a person, every Assemblymember at a committee hearing Tuesday and the six superintendents who testified at it praised the principles behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed school finance reforms: simplicity, clarity and equity – more money for the state’s neediest children.

But there were also sharp disagreements over the components of Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula that would determine how much money districts would get were the new finance system phased in over the next seven years, as Brown hopes. At its core, the division was between those favoring the formula as proposed and those arguing that it would give too many extra dollars for English learners and low-income children relative to a base funding amount for all children.

Long Beach Unified Superintendent Chris Steinhauser encouraged approval of Brown’s funding formula as “the right thing to do.”

Christopher Steinhauser, superintendent of Long Beach Unified, an urban district with mostly high-needs students favored by the formula, and John Nickerson, superintendent of Acalanes Union High School District, a 6,000-student district in Contra Costa County with few disadvantaged students, epitomized the different outlooks.

“The governor’s proposal is a great, bold step to bring

No pay to play or learn at public schools - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

Public schools must provide the clay used in art class, but they can charge a student for taking home his or her finished sculpture. Playing sports is considered part of the educational mission, so schools have to cover all the costs – including uniforms – but attending a game is just for fun so students can pay admission. And schools can ask – even plead – for donations, but can’t require them...

Try a different tack: Hold teachers responsible for education quality - by Charles Taylor Kerchner / commentary

by Charles Taylor Kerchner / commentary

The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed piece I wrote about last week’s school board election, where a coalition of deep-pockets givers spurred by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spent over $63 per vote. It was not only big money but also money badly spent. One point I raised was the crafting of a Democratic alternative to the Republican position on teachers unions, which is largely that they should be...

All Education Matters: Moral Fables: Free Will Vs. Destiny

All Education Matters: Moral Fables: Free Will Vs. Destiny:

Moral Fables: Free Will Vs. Destiny

by Cryn Johannsen

These pieces are not related to student loan debt, but I still wanted to share them with my readers here. While I am working on my book, Higher Ed, Great Debt, which I just sold to Seven Stories Press, I have begun to explore, in writing, bigger philosophical and religious topics that I've discussed and contemplated for years.

Here is the first of a new series on important, life themes, such as lies and truth, love and hate, forgiveness and revenge, etc.

Below is a snippet. The piece can be read in its entirety here.

The following series of essays have been written while teaching ESL (English as a second Language) classes to adult students from all corners of the world (this writing exercise began last month, and continues to be a part of my classes). Each morning, the first class – that began this project – was required to answer one of two questions. At first, I was the one to ask the questions, but I quickly turned it over to the students. Their questions ranged from simple, everyday life things, like, “Why are you studying English?,” to complex, philosophical questions, such as, “What are the limits to freedom?” The class would write for an hour, and I would join them. We would

NYC Educator: Should Retirees Vote?

NYC Educator: Should Retirees Vote?:

Should Retirees Vote?

by NYC Educator

There's a very thoughtful piece at Gotham Schools discussing the power of retired UFT teachers. It notes that most unions do not allow their retirees to vote. Now I hope to be a retiree one of these days, and I personally vote every chance I get.

But I wonder whether or not this is a good idea. For one thing, as crazy as I am now, by the time I retire I might be crazier still. Of course, given American politics, being crazy is no obstacle to anyone's vote anyway.

I remember vividly the 2005 contract, the thing that got me to be active in union matters. I had just started the blog, and I was excited that the UFT was starting one. I thought we'd finally have a big voice standing against the nonsense perpetrated by Mayor Bloomberg and his minions. I thought we'd finally have a platform to address the nonsense appearing on the editorial pages.

What I got, though, was strong and steadfast support for the ATR brigade, passionate interest in curtailing

Daily Kos: Above the law

Daily Kos: Above the law:

Above the law

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

The laws, Cicero wrote in the days of the Roman Republic, “are silent in time of war.” But what if the war has no end, no defined enemy, no defined territory? How can markets work if the financial behemoths are too big to fail and too big to jail?If the national security state has the power of life or death above the law, and Wall Street has the power to plunder beyond the law, in what way does this remain a nation of laws?

Those are the final two paragraphs of Above the law, an op ed in today's Washington POst by Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation.For those who are movie buffs, that title might seem familiar, as it is also the title of a Steven Seagal movie where what is above the law is the CIA.
At one point this nation had decided that the intelligence apparatus should not be above the law - we had hearings in both the U. S. Senate led by Frank Church and the U. S. House led by Otis Pike which exposed the abuses of agencies like the CIA and FBI among others, and led to the establishment of ongoing committees in both chambers of Congress to oversee intelligence operations by the US Government.

NYC Public School Parents: Ignoring the Voices of a Community, a Mayor Seeks to Destroy an Iconic Public School

NYC Public School Parents: Ignoring the Voices of a Community, a Mayor Seeks to Destroy an Iconic Public School:

Ignoring the Voices of a Community, a Mayor Seeks to Destroy an Iconic Public School

by Leonie Haimson

The following is by Tony Kelso, a parent and a member of Community Education Council in District 6, Upper Manhattan.

So this is the way education works under mayoral control.

At what was billed as a public hearing to determine the fate of P.S. 132, an elementary school in New York City’s Washington Heights, speaker after speaker rose up and passionately voiced opposition to the Department of Education (DOE)’s plan to force the school to share its building with another school that would be created from scratch and opened in the fall. Not a single teacher, community leader, or parent who took the microphone was in favor of the proposal. But it won’t matter. Indeed, there was nobody even there to listen to and address the crowd’s concerns because the DOE had not bothered to send a representative to stand before the assembly and run the meeting. Instead, seated in the first row of the auditorium with their backs to the audience, two young women—one wearing a shiny silver skirt, as though

UPDATE: The day some Seattle teachers said ‘no’ to standardized tests + Lawsuit charges Ed Department with violating student privacy rights

Lawsuit charges Ed Department with violating student privacy rights:

The day some Seattle teachers said ‘no’ to standardized tests

by Valerie Strauss

It all started with one teacher who got fed up. Teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle recently banded together to boycott mandated standardized district tests called the Measures of Academic Progress because, they say, the exams are bad measures … Continue reading →

Lawsuit charges Ed Department with violating student privacy rights

Posted by Valerie Strauss on March 13, 2013 at 4:00 am

Comments

(shutterstock)

The U.S. Education Department is being sued by a nonprofit organization for promoting regulations that are alleged to undercut student privacy and parental consent. The rules allow third parties, including private companies and foundations promoting school reform, to get access to private student information.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has been fighting for the department over 2011 regulations involving the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, also known as FERPA, a law that is supposed to protect the privacy of student education records at all schools that receive federal education funds. FERPA was passed to give parents specific rights in regard to their children’s education records, rights which transfer to the student he/she becomes 18 or goes to a school beyond the high school level.

But in 2011, regulations issued by the department changed FERPA to allow the release to third parties of student information for non-academic purposes. The rules also broaden the exceptions under which schools can release student records to non-governmental

The problem with high-tech ‘personalized’ learning tools

by Valerie Strauss

SWSXedu was a big hit in Texas last week, where technology companies (such as Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify Education) hawked their new education gadgets that they promised would help kids learning by providing “individualized” instruction. Really? Here’s a skeptical view on … Continue reading →

Court Ruling Puts Part of Parent Trigger at Risk | Scathing Purple Musings

Court Ruling Puts Part of Parent Trigger at Risk | Scathing Purple Musings:

Court Ruling Puts Part of Parent Trigger at Risk

by Bob Sikes

Within current parent trigger legislation is a provision which requires parents be notified if their child’s teacher has been rated as “ineffective” for two straight years. But a Tallahassee circuit court judge’s ruling yesterday raised doubts about using the value-added data which would make such determinations. Florida Times-Unionreporter Topher Sanders has this:

A circuit judge in Tallahassee has ruled that Florida’s value-added teacher data is not a public record, but the Times-Union plans to appeal his decision in its lawsuit against the state.
Judge John Cooper on Monday signed the order presented by the Department of Education and the Florida Education Association, which had successfully argued that all materials that make up an evaluation are exempt for a year.
“We’re disappointed in the judge’s ruling, but not surprised,” Times-Union Editor Frank Denton said

UPDATE: Schools Matter: Third Graders Face Retention in 13 States for Failing a Test

Schools Matter: Time for Weingarten to Go:

Third Graders Face Retention in 13 States for Failing a Test

by Jim Horn

In 2000, Louisiana became the first state in the Nation to require elementary school children (4th graders), to pass a test to move on to 5th grade. Since then hundreds of thousands of poor children have learned failure at an early age, with many of them now entering the "correctional" system of Louisiana, which is a major employer in the state.

Research shows that failing a grade is as traumatic to 3rd graders as losing a parent, but with the help of Jeb Bush's team and the lawyers from ALEC, we now have this bare-knuckled legislation to mandate 3rd grade retention in 13 states, as reported in this story at WaPo by Lyndsey Layton.

Where are the pediatricians, the child psychologists, the educational researchers who publish their important

Time for Weingarten to Go

by Judy Rabin

Too bad it took Randi Weingarten 10 years to "get arrested" when the writing was on the blackboard with the obviously insane, destructive and impossible goals of NCLB calling for 100% proficiency by 2014. The noose around the teachers' necks has been getting tighter and tighter and now the ones in the most vulnerable communities are gasping for air and about to expire. The stories form Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle and New York about what's happening to these communities barely made news at all. Does anyone even care that the head of the AFT was arrested?

The public schools, the unions and the freedom to teach and to learn have been under attack for three decades and today the results are playing out all across the

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning - It's Time for Change

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Advanced Learning - It's Time for Change:

Advanced Learning - It's Time for Change

by Melissa Westbrook

Do you hear that Superintendent Banda and members of the School Board?

Enough well-meaning talk. I myself have been through this now, with two children, and I truly despair (and that's the right word) that this district will ever get it right. What's most distressing is that there has been a lot of talk and hand-wringing and paper shuffling and yet, the program is confusing, uneven and frankly, something of a joke.

First, the director of the program, Bob Vaughan, has got to go.

I rarely advocate for anyone to go but honestly, this has gotten to the point of being ridiculous. He is not sustaining this program in any real way and consistently passes the buck or obfuscates over the stagnation of the program. The program has made some progress but overall, does not well-serve the majority of students in it.

Let's start with the Curriculum & Instruction meeting yesterday where, ostensibly, they were discussing

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Riot When You’re Black, Angry Need Not Apply | The Jose Vilson

Riot When You’re Black, Angry Need Not Apply | The Jose Vilson:

Riot When You’re Black, Angry Need Not Apply

by Jose Vilson

Riot

The newest truism goes:

If you’re a group of color, you’re rioting. If you’re White, you’re protesting. If you’re multicultural, you’re marching.

The recent so-called riots in Brooklyn serve as yet another example. For those of you unacquainted, concerned Brooklyn residents of all ages held a vigil and demonstration to protest the treatment of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, a gun-toting teen who the police filled with 11 rounds of bullets in short succession. The volume of bullets disturbs even the steel stomachs, but the historical treatment of youth of color in this country should put any young man from age 8 to 30 on high alert if and when they encounter the NYPD.
In no way do I excuse Kimani for having a gun, either. A big part of me wonders why a child (!) has a gun to begin with, and how he found himself in this predicament. I’m also fully aware of the lack of training (and pay) some police officers have been given, thus adding even more stress to an already tense job. Police officers barely have time to think, and asking them to make snap decisions isn’t a science for many of them. Yet, it’s

Charter school conference opens in San Diego | Keynote from Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, CEO and founder of StudentsFirst

Charter school conference opens in San Diego | UTSanDiego.com:

Charter school conference opens in San Diego

Educators from across the state are in San Diego this week for the 20th annual California Charter School Conference.

The four-day event runs through Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center and includes a keynote address from Michelle Rhee, CEO and founder of StudentsFirst and former chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, and Geoffrey Canada, founder and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone.

Both speakers were prominently featured in the documentary “Waiting for Superman.”

Workshops and breakout sessions begin Tuesday, with many part of the

“They didn’t come in and try to say that we needed to do everything differently” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

“They didn’t come in and try to say that we needed to do everything differently” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

“They didn’t come in and try to say that we needed to do everything differently”

March 12, 2013 by Larry Ferlazzo | 0 comments

I, and many others, have been critical of the strategies demanded by federal School Improvement Grants (see The Best Resources For Learning About The Four School Improvement Grant Models). These kinds of sweeping changes are seldom the most constructive ways to move a school community forward.

I was reminded of this last night when the PBS News Hour showed an encore presentationabout changes in a Louisiana school. I don’t know much about the program “Diplomas Now” out of John Hopkins University, but I do like how the principal described their intervention:

DENISE CHARBONNET [Principal]: Johns Hopkins came, and what I really, really liked about them is that they didn’t come in and try to say that we needed to do everything differently. They came to say, what can we do to enhance what you are doing here? How can we make it better?

Latino students attending increasingly segregated schools in Virginia - The Washington Post

Latino students attending increasingly segregated schools in Virginia - The Washington Post:

KIPP DC proposes new high school in Southwest D.C.

(KIPP DC / KIPP DC)

Emma Brown

The proposal has drawn mixed reviews from politicians, neighbors and commercial developers.

The Answer Sheet

Class Struggle

Report: Latino students attending increasingly segregated schools in Va.

Michael Alison Chandler 5:44 PM ET

Civil Rights Project report says nearly four out of five Latino students are in predominantly minority schools.

In Montgomery schools, achievement gap widens in some measures

Donna St. George 5:10 PM ET

Report shows gap widening between races in certain academic indicators, points to improvements in others.

THE ANSWER SHEET

School Custodian wins award for helping kids

Valerie Strauss

Sometimes a nice little story is just the ticket, and here's one: A custodian at a Texas high school won the national LifeChanger of the Year award for his efforts to help and mentor students.

THE ANSWER SHEET

What is 'The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013'?

Valerie Strauss

You won't believe what a bill called "The Reasonable School Discipline Act of 2013" and introduced in the Maryland legislature is intended to accomplish. Think Pop-Tarts and guns.

CAMPUS OVERLOAD

Dept. of Ed rules on U-Va. sanctions

Jenna Johnson

Officials conclude U-Va.’s accreditor did not break any laws in issuing a warning. Activist group appeals.

THE ANSWER SHEET

Study: Home-schooled kids get more sleep

Valerie Strauss

A new study of a few thousand students found that homeschoolers get more sleep than students at traditional public and private schools. What are the consequences?

Parents launch ‘Real Food for Kids Montgomery’ to overhaul school lunch

Lynh Bui

Grassroots parent group seeks to remove added dyes, sugar from Montgomery school lunches

THE ANSWER SHEET

Real consequences of 'school choice'

Valerie Strauss

Here's an argument about why the school choice movement has failed to provide real choice for families.

LAUSD charters would lose funding under Gov. Jerry Brown's budget - LA Daily News

LAUSD charters would lose funding under Gov. Jerry Brown's budget - LA Daily News:

LAUSD charters would lose funding under Gov. Jerry Brown's budget

by By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer

Wilbur Elementary got $230,000 in state grants when it converted to a charter last fall, a windfall that allowed the Tarzana campus to keep class sizes small and provide personalized help to struggling students.

Now, administrators at Wilbur and other affiliated charters, nearly all of them in the San Fernando Valley, are struggling with the news that they stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants if lawmakers approve Gov. Jerry Brown's new formula for funding public education.

"It's a nice chunk of money," said Principal Deborah Plat who worked with parents and staff on the 100-page charter petition approved last year. "It let us go on a shopping spree, if you will, but one that let us figure out how to do best by our students. "

Brown's proposal would eliminate funding for charter grants and nearly every other program that serve a specific purpose. Instead, that money would be reallocated to districts, which would receive a base amount of roughly $6,800 per pupil and an extra 35 percent for each English learner and low-income student. Campuses with

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Charter school conference opens in San Diego