Friday, December 10, 2010

Gov Can Sell State Buildings, Court Rules - The Bay Citizen

Gov Can Sell State Buildings, Court Rules

A San Francisco judge refused to block the sale of 11 state buildings, with $2.3 billion price tag

By BAY CITY NEWS SERVICE on December 10, 2010 - 3:41 p.m. PST

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California Supreme Court

A San Francisco Superior Court judge today refused to block the planned $2.3 billion sale of 11 state buildings to a group of private investors.

Judge Charlotte Woolard said she was standing by a tentative ruling issued Thursday in which she said the sale did not violate state law and was not an illegal waste or gift of public funds.

The sale, due to be completed on Dec. 15, would contribute $1.3 billion to closing the state's budget gap after $1 million in bonds on the 11 buildings is paid off.

But Woolard, referring to appeals, told lawyers for three former state officials, said, "I encourage you to seek any remedies you want to seek."

Attorney Joseph Cotchett, representing two of the plaintiffs, said they will ask the state Court of

New evaluation for untenured teachers calls for greater detail | GothamSchools

New evaluation for untenured teachers calls for greater detail

by Anna Phillips

City officials are planning to unveil a new evaluation system for un-tenured teachers and have enlisted the help of a prominent educator.

The Danielson Group — run by Charlotte Danielson, the creator of a widely-used taxonomy of teaching called the Framework for Teaching — is consulting with the Department of Education to create measures of good teaching tailored for the city.

Sources said the new evaluation system will be used for probationary teachers — those who typically have fewer than three years experience — and will guide principals in making tenure decisions. The new evaluation system has yet to be unveiled to teachers and principals, but DOE officials have shown it to network leaders, who will be charged with training principals in its use.

Meant to be in place by the time tenure decisions are made this spring, the new framework is part of Mayor

After rioting, students reflect on changes at Murry Bergtraum | GothamSchools

After rioting, students reflect on changes at Murry Bergtraum

by Kate Schimel

Yesterday’s riot at Murry Bergtraum High School was the culmination of tensions that have simmered in the school since the arrival of a new principal this year, students said today.

Teachers said hundreds of students began running through the hallways, screaming and pushing each other, after new executive principal Andrea Lewis told students that the schools’ bathrooms would be closed for the day. But students said the incident was fueled by frustration over changes Lewis has made since she became principal at the beginning of this year.

City officials placed Lewis in Bergtraum in July as a “superprincipal” charged with improving the struggling school. Lewis will receive a $25,000 bonus for agreeing to lead the lower Manhattan school for three years.

Bergtraum has struggled with safety and overcrowding issues and received a D on last year’s progress report. Lewis’ previous school, ACORN Community High School, repeatedly received high grades on DOE-

The New Civil Rights Movement Fighting Academic Tracking of Black Students | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog

The New Civil Rights Movement Fighting Academic Tracking of Black Students

by The Editors

By Tarice L.S. Gray
Tracking in public schools began innocently enough in the 1920s in this country, an era when many high school students took jobs right after graduating and relatively few went to college. Education experts and school officials reasoned it was more practical to establish different curricula, or “tracks” that would prepare students for their likely future. But in the decades since, including those since the Brown decision, tracking too often morphed from scholastic sorting to racial discrimination.

Robert Bobb must resign! Detroit Schools | Dailycensored.com

Robert Bobb must resign! Detroit Schools

by Danny Weil

We Celebrate Our Huge Victory in Court, and Demand that Bobb Resign Now!

Submitted to the December 9th DFT General Membership Meeting

Whereas:

1. In a huge victory this week for the people of Detroit, most especially our city’s students and teachers, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter issued a permanent injunction barring Robert Bobb from controlling DPS academics or educational policy.

2. Judge Baxter found that there was no absolutely legal basis for THE emergency financial manager to control academics or educational policy.

3. Judge Baxter further said that Robert Bobb had no experience or educational training that made him fit to control academics. She said that Bobb’s market-driven academic plans ran contrary to the findings and

» Teachers: Professionals or ‘Education Workers?’ - Big Government

Teachers: Professionals or ‘Education Workers?’

by Kyle Olson

There’s a weird thing happening in public education. Hardcore unions are attempting to rebrand themselves as “professional organizations.” In fact, the American Federation of Teachers bills itself as “A union of professionals.”

Both the AFT and the larger National Education Association attempt to portray themselves as associations yet negotiate collective bargaining agreements and oftentimes act like their brethren in the industrial unions – hardly white-collar professionals.

So with the increasing call for more professionalism in the teaching ranks – and less of a collectivist

“Speak Truth To Power” Curriculum | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Speak Truth To Power” Curriculum

by Larry Ferlazzo

Speak Truth To Power is a project of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights that includes a curriculum of seventeen lessons. The lessons include ones on genocide and human trafficking.

They would have to be modified for English Language Learners, but they look useful. They include videos but, unfortunately, they’re all on YouTube, which make them inaccessible (online, at least) for most

Senator from Vermont. “Somebody will listen…” « Fred Klonsky's blog

Senator from Vermont. “Somebody will listen…”

by Fred Klonsky

Charter transparency: KIPP Open Book | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Charter transparency: KIPP Open Book

by Guest blogger on Dec 10 2010 Posted in Community voices

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This week's guest blog is from Marc Manella, CEO of KIPP Philadelphia Schools.

As a former teacher, School Leader, and now CEO of KIPP Philadelphia Schools, I have become deeply convinced that there is no magic bullet to transform the entire public education system. High-performing charter schools like KIPP are not the solution, but we think they are a part of the solution.

At KIPP, we believe in the principles of transparency and accountability. We want to be leaders in embracing the charter school movement’s original promise of receiving more autonomy in exchange for more accountability.

As an initial step, KIPP Philadelphia has launched KIPP Open Book, our

Schools Matter: Corporate Media (and Clinton) Lock Arms in Hopes of Saving Obama

Corporate Media (and Clinton) Lock Arms in Hopes of Saving Obama

by Jim Horn

Whether you're watching Microsoft-NBC, Fox, or CNN this afternoon, it's an echo chamber love fest for the Oligarchs' economic deal that will define "bipartisanship" or post-partisanship in Washington during the next two years. The Coalition of the Corporate has coalesced to say, Enough.

After calling up the corrupt dinosaur, Larry Summers, to make his economic mushroom cloud statement threat yesterday, which got hooted off the Hill by everyone except Fox News, today it is the great Triangulator's turn:

Hypocrisy from the Dept of Education

by skrashen

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-welner/duncan-from-the-pisa-hole_b_793576.html

Foundation: Growth in test scores is sign of good teacher

By Nick Anderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 10, 2010; 2:58 PM

While debate rages in the education world about how to measure effective teaching - or whether it is even possible to do so - research funded by a prominent advocate of data-driven analysis has found that growth in annual student test scores is a reliable sign of a good teacher.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation reported that and other preliminary findings Friday from a $45 million study of teacher effectiveness in several cities.

"In every grade and subject we studied, a teacher's past success in raising student achievement on state tests was one of the strongest predictors of his or her ability to do it again," said Vicki Phillips, who oversees elementary and secondary education grants for the foundation.

The findings arrive as state and local officials across the country are retooling teacher evaluation in an effort to make the annual ratings of teachers more objective than

Schools Matter: Children of poverty and access to books

Children of poverty and access to books

by skrashen

Children of poverty and access to books

Sent to the Guardian, UK, Dec. 10, 2010

American scores on an international test of reading (the PISA) show exactly the same thing that UK scores show: Children of poverty don't read very well ("Half of pupils on free school meals can't read," Dec. 10).American students in schools with few children of poverty scored near the top of the world, those in schools with mostly high poverty children scored near the bottom of all countries tested.

Similar to the UK results, our research also shows that middle class English language learners often do better

Still searching for that pot of gold « School Finance 101

Still searching for that pot of gold

by schoolfinance101

The rhetoric about our decades-long drunken spending spree just won’t stop, nor will the rhetoric that the money is all gone. All of it. Nothin’ left. We spent it all. We taxed ourselves to the limit and those damn teachers unions and public schools just took it all and left us with the bill. It’s gone! all gone!

Here are some recent quotes/comments from pundits who’ve done little analytically but to offer a few absurd back of the napkin explanations for why they believe that a) we’ve been on a drunken spending spree and b) it’s all gone!

Andy Rotherham in Time:

the golden age of school spending

Sam Chaltain: Is Michelle Rhee Putting Students First?

Is Michelle Rhee Putting Students First?

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Like everyone else who does education for a living, I read that Michelle Rhee is launching a new national advocacy organization, Students First. And after checking out the site and hearing how she articulates its purpose, I see some reasons to feel hopeful -- and many more reasons to feel deeply concerned.

First, the good news: It's hard to argue with Rhee's four "we believe" statements for the organization. Who doesn't believe all children deserve great teachers? Who would argue with the idea that students should not need luck to get a good education? Why not start allocating public dollars where they can make the biggest difference? And who would deny the need for more parental involvement and increased efforts to engage the entire community? So let's all hop on the Rhee express, right? Well, maybe.

It's also clear Ms. Rhee understands which advocacy efforts have been most successful and what sort of work we might therefore expect from Students First: "From the National Rifle Association to

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Friday, December 10, 2010