Big Education Ape

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Confident state ed officials press forward on Race to the Top | GothamSchools

Confident state ed officials press forward on Race to the Top GothamSchools:

"Brushing aside criticism that current state laws could jeopardize New York’s chances at Race to the Top Funds, state officials say they will enter the contest in round one.
On Monday, the State Education Department will release a comprehensive plan to overhaul teacher training, Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said today. Tisch called the proposal a “very aggressive package” that will be a major element of New York’s Race to the Top application."

Austin News: Del Valle ISD: We don't need no stinkin' PTAs - AustinChronicle.com

Austin News: Del Valle ISD: We don't need no stinkin' PTAs - AustinChronicle.com:

"On its website, the Del Valle Independent School District says it 'values ALL forms of parent involvement.' Yet parents are finding there is one form that the district administration doesn't value highly enough to allow on campus: parent-teacher associations. After being rebuffed in her efforts to establish PTAs to assist staff and students, Del Valle Elementary School parent Liliana Orozco said: 'Why don't they want us to get organized on our own? I just don't understand, and the other parents are baffled.'"

Covering much of southeast Travis County, Del Valle ISD faces complex challenges. Even though it achieved "recognized" status in the state's latest accountability ratings, 27.5% of its 2008-09 enrollment of 9,555 students were classified by the Texas Education Agency as having limited English proficiency and 79.2% were classified as economically disadvantaged.

Determined to help out on campus, Orozco tried to join her local PTA but found there wasn't one at any of the district's 12 schools. Convinced that she could find the 20 parents required to form a PTA and that additional parents would pay the required $4 annual fee, she tried to get the administration to assist this new parent initiative.

Yet at successive meetings with Del Valle Elementary School Principal Bertha Hernandez, the board of trustees, and Superintendent Bernard Blanchard, parents got the same message: The district doesn't have PTAs and so far has rejected all requests to formally discuss the matter at the board level. Orozco said, "They don't seem to be interested in finding out what good a PTA can do for the district."

Texas PTA Executive Director Kyle Ward called the administration's push-back "stronger than anything I have seen in my three-and-a-half years here." He said Blanchard had told him that here had been independent parent-teacher organizations, but they had fallen apart over funding and nonprofit tax status issues – two decades ago. Now each campus has a parent-involvement committee, operated by the administration. Del Valle ISD Communications and Community Relations Director Celina Bley explained, "Each campus meets with parents and talks with parents about different upcoming events and volunteer opportunities."

VegCooking > Celebrate a Vegan Holiday!

VegCooking > Celebrate a Vegan Holiday!:

"These delicious recipes will please every palate and make it easier to give up the giblets, giving everyone—including animals—something to be thankful for this holiday season.
Make the center of your holiday feast the new Garden Protein Vegan Turkey Breast With Wild Rice and Cranberry Stuffing. Available at select Whole Foods nationwide, this tasty vegan turkey will delight all your guests. And don’t forget to check out our helpful holiday guide for tips on how to prepare a vegan feast."

Sacramento Press / Cohn, Hammond, Fong say they didn't know about permit program

Sacramento Press / Cohn, Hammond, Fong say they didn't know about permit program

Some members of the City Council said Wednesday they were unaware of the permitting program that played a key role in the recent controversy over the Nestlé company’s efforts to set up a water bottling plant in Sacramento.

The city closed down its Facilities Permit Program Oct. 27 during the public debate over Nestlé’s plans. Nestlé’s project was greenlighted through the FPP.

With the FPP, businesses that work with the city on an ongoing basis can receive quick approval for tenant improvements or remodeling of commercial and industrial buildings, said David Kwong, the city’s planning division director.

In the case of Nestlé, the company and its contractors received verbal approval from the city to start construction work. But the company and its contractors did not have a city building permit or “start-work authorization.”

Nestlé has said it followed city laws.

The city attorney’s office recently declared that it is illegal for the city to approve the start of construction for projects that do not have building permits, Kwong said.

The High Cost of Higher Education | NBC Bay Area

The High Cost of Higher Education NBC Bay Area

The High Cost of Higher Education

An NBC Bay Area Editorial and Your Feedback

Please register now and let us know what you think in the comments section below

The state's massive cuts to the University of California budget have impacted the lives of students, faculty and staff systemwide.

Teachers are facing furloughs and paycuts, and students are set to face their 9th tuition increase in 8 years. Over 225,000 students, and 19,000 faculty call the UC system home.

In this editorial, we discuss the real cost facing us in the future, if we don't act today.

Original Editorial - The High Cost of Higher Education

Teacher has a gift for making math add up - washingtonpost.com

Teacher has a gift for making math add up - washingtonpost.com:

"Woodbridge Senior High School freshman Tina Warner said math never came easily to her, until a unique teacher sent her in a new direction.

After failing the math Standards of Learning test last year and seeing her grades slip, Tina said it took educator Sharon Dravvorn and her somewhat unusual teaching techniques to help her turn things around."

"I was so surprised when I had an A in this class at first and now a B," the 14-year-old said. "This has never happened before in a math class. She is easier to understand because of the way she teaches, and her attitude is different. Some teachers are here just to get through the day, but she really cares."

Tina, along with some of her classmates, said Dravvorn's teaching methods include quirky sound effects and classical music. Dravvorn thinks outside the box, they said, and that is why it came as no surprise when the 19-year educator received a $25,000 award from the Milken Family Foundation during a school assembly last week.

Center for American Progress Today's Cartoon

Center for American Progress Today's Cartoon

Support the Center for American Progress

Sacramento City Unified School District

Sacramento City Unified School District

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To submit your comment, click on an item below:

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Thank you for taking the time to share your comments.

Poll: Flunking Grades for Governor, Legislature on Higher Education | California Progress Report

Poll: Flunking Grades for Governor, Legislature on Higher Education California Progress Report:

"A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California gave the governor and state lawmakers low grades for their handling of higher education.

The poll comes as California State University announces drastic plans to reduce enrollment by 40,000 students and in the wake of record tuition hikes and enrollment cuts at the University of California.

California’s Community Colleges are reeling under the double whammy of state funding cuts and increasing enrollment demand as students crowded out of UC and CSU attempt, with diminishing success, to find space in courses at local community colleges."

AB540 conference- fall '09 - R.I.S.E. at Cal

AB540 conference- fall '09 - R.I.S.E. at Cal

R.I.S.E. at Cal

Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education (R.IS.E.) at UC Berkeley presents:
APPLYING TOWARDS SUCCESS
AB540 CONFERENCE

RSVP now!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JXs_2bkbFL03k4JfndaecnZA_3d_3d

Saturday November 14, 2009

9:00AM to 4:30 PM

@ West Pauley Ballroom at UC Berkeley

The purpose of the conference is to spread awareness about the application process to the University of California system. In doing so, we hope to increase the representation of undocumented students in higher education.

Come learn about:

admissions

scholarships

fill out mock UC application

personal statement

ab540 student panel

parent workshops

Sponsored by ASUC, Ethnic Studies Fifth Account ADA accessible

For directions, go to: http://tinyurl.com/d9dyod click on

Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union UC Berkeley

a bubble will appear asking you to "Get Directions" then click "To Here"

and type your start address of where you'll start your trip.

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Bright and Early

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Bright and Early

One thing I left out of my story about calculus at Crawford High is that every now and then, Jonathan Winn sings. (The song is addressed to his classroom volunteer, Becky Breedlove, who is nicknamed B squared.) That and other, somewhat less musical tidbits in your daily newsblitz:

It's a calculus class so crazy, it just might work. Seventy-odd teens are packing an early morning class at Crawford High to learn calculus with a guy who resembles Jim Carrey with a mathematics degree. Advanced Placement classes like this are commonplace in La Jolla and Scripps Ranch, but are historically less common at disadvantaged schools such as Crawford, which threw the class open to anyone.

Free speech advocates are challenging Southwestern College on how it handled a campus protest, particularly putting four professors on leave, the Union-Tribune reports.

Race to the Top Fund

Race to the Top Fund

Race to the Top Fund

Purpose Funding Status Eligibility Laws, Regs, & Guidance Applicant Info Resources Performance Contacts

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Home
Purpose

What's New

More Resources Race to the Top Assessment Program

The rules for the Race to the Top competition have now been finalized!

Thank you to the 1,161 people and organizations who sent us comments on our draft rules—your collective outpouring of thoughtful input prompted us to make numerous changes and improvements to the final application. But just as important, the overwhelming volume of comments demonstrates the potential for Race to the Top to propel the transformational changes that students and teachers need.

You can now find:

The Press Release announcing the final application -->

The Race to the Top Application MSWord (784K)

The key policy details, summarized in the Executive Summary PDF (288K)

A Summary of the Major Changes we made based on the comments we received PDF (376K)

More details for applicants in the Notice Inviting Applications PDF

The full details on Race to the Top, including our responses to comments, in the Notice of Final Priorities PDF (1.3M)

Upcoming Events

We intend to host two Technical Assistance Planning Workshops this December for States who are considering applying. The first will be in Denver, Colorado on December 3, 2009. The second will be in the Washington, D.C. area on December 10, 2009. We recommend that applicants attend one of these two workshops. For those who cannot attend, transcripts of the meetings will be available on our website.

Watch here for more details regarding the workshops.

Program Description

Program Office: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE)
CFDA Number: 84.395 Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants

Through Race to the Top, we are asking States to advance reforms around four specific areas:
Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;

Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;

Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and

Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.

Awards in Race to the Top will go to States that are leading the way with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform. Race to the Top winners will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for States and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades to come.

Cutting sports and opportunity at Hartford Public - Rick Green | CT Confidential

Cutting sports and opportunity at Hartford Public - Rick Green CT Confidential:

"This is education reform that makes no sense: eliminating high school sports for city kids.

Is there a population of young males and females more in need of the discipline and motivation that high school athletics can bring?

We've got gangs and shootings while a city council member and staff spend thousands of dollars on travel junkets. There are bonuses for aides to the mayor and raises all around for teachers and administrators. There's just not enough money for high school athletics.

As my colleague Lori Riley wrote this past Sunday, it's over for the 16 boys who hoped to wrestle at Hartford Public High School this year. Tennis, golf, freshman volleyball and JV soccer were also cut."

Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com » Liberals refuse to admit Obama’s policies look a lot like Bush’s

Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com » Liberals refuse to admit Obama’s policies look a lot like Bush’s:

"During last year’s Republican National Convention, South Carolina GOP leaders were regularly calling in to talk radio station WTMA to provide event coverage. On the day they were supposed to talk to me, I was informed that Republican Party officials did not wish to speak to Jack Hunter. A denouncer of big government and all its works, I never saw any reason to make special exceptions for Republicans, and for my anti-GOP sins I had become persona non grata.

Today, everyone is denouncing big government. Since Obama’s election, tea party protests have sprung up across the country and conservatives are now rallying loud and clear against Washington’s spending. But liberal politicians and pundits who are calling conservative activists “crazy” — or to borrow MSNBC host Chris Matthew’s phrase, “wing nuts” — have it exactly backwards. It was crazy that anyone who might claim the label “conservative” would also claim to be a part of George W. Bush’s GOP. Today’s conservatives haven’t lost their sanity — they’ve regained it."

Views: A New Manhattan Project - Inside Higher Ed

Views: A New Manhattan Project - Inside Higher Ed:

"The seemingly endless debates about the pros and cons of race-based affirmative action point to two essential conclusions. First, without denying the relevance of moral or philosophical arguments and legal principles, it is important to confront claims with empirical evidence. This is what we do in our new book, No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal — a study of how students’ racial and social class backgrounds are intimately intertwined with the selective college experience. We find, for instance, that:"

Compared to white applicants at selective private colleges and universities, black applicants receive an admission boost that is equivalent to 310 SAT points, measured on an all-other-things-equal basis. The boost for Hispanic candidates is equal on average to 130 SAT points. Asian applicants face a 140 point SAT disadvantage.

"Descendant" black applicants (those who are in the fourth-or-higher immigrant generation and single race — to a first approximation, the descendants of the American slave population) are admitted to selective colleges at significantly higher rates than "vanguard" black candidates (students who are multiracial and/or first- or second-generation immigrants). Even so, vanguards make up close to 60 percent of all black students on private college campuses and nearly 25 percent at public universities. Vanguards represent even larger shares of black applicant pools.

We find evidence for and against a "mismatch" hypothesis. Students who are the beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action are more likely to graduate, more likely to enroll in professional or graduate schools, and more likely to have higher lifetime incomes if they attend a more selective college. However, class rank at college graduation for a given student is likely to decline as college selectivity goes up.

No boys left behind at Detroit public school | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

No boys left behind at Detroit public school freep.com Detroit Free Press:

"The school-to-prison pipeline, especially in poverty-plagued cities like Detroit, has become a national disgrace. Nearly eight in 10 African-American males drop out of Detroit public schools."

As someone who spends a lot of time in Michigan's prisons, I see where too many of them wind up. Black men make up more than half of the nearly 50,000 people locked up in Michigan, and a similar slice of the more than 2 million people imprisoned in America.

Nationwide, more than half of high school dropouts, ages 16 to 24, are jobless, and an estimated one in 10 male dropouts are in jail. It's no accident that prisoners typically read at a sixth-grade level.

Community leaders, including Mayor Dave Bing and Bishop Edgar L. Vann II, will seek some solutions to this local and national tsunami during the "Boys to Men" education forum on Saturday. I'd suggest they also spend some time at Detroit's Frederick Douglass Academy, an all-male middle and high school that's changing lives and switching the statistics.

Formerly an alternative school for bad boys, Frederick Douglass has become, over the last five years, a high-achieving college preparatory academy. All 32 of this year's graduating class were accepted to college, clocking $1.2 million in scholarships and financial aid. It was one of only a handful of Detroit public high schools to make adequate progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Education Week: Peer Review Undergoing Revitalization

Education Week: Peer Review Undergoing Revitalization:

"Around a conference table, six people finger binders stuffed with teaching standards, sheets on which to record teachers’ practices, and handbooks outlining when materials need to be submitted. For good reason: They are now immersed in the intensive period of documenting in writing whether the teachers they counsel have improved over the course of the year. Ultimately, their findings will help determine whether their teacher “clients” remain employed.

The job’s downside—lots of paperwork—contrasts with its high point: helping teachers reach their potential.

“The best part is when you get thankful e-mails and phone calls, when they are just so happy that they’ve tried something new out and seen that it works,” said Greg Barnes, one of..."

Mayor Cory Booker to speak at Pioneer Institute dinner - BostonHerald.com

Mayor Cory Booker to speak at Pioneer Institute dinner - BostonHerald.com:

"The Newark, N.J. mayor who carried on a facetious feud with “Tonight Show” host and Brookline native Conan O’Brien is in Boston tonight to discuss the more sober topic of urban school choice and reform.

Mayor Cory Booker is the keynote speaker at the Lovett C. Peters Lecture and Dinner sponsored by the Pioneer Institute.

Booker, a rising figure in national Democratic politics, proved he could pursue a second career in comedy after carrying on a frivolous spat with O’Brien."

Valdosta State University > International Education Week Nov. 16-20

Valdosta State University International Education Week Nov. 16-20

International Education Week Nov. 16-20

VALDOSTA -- The Center for International Programs will host International Education Week Nov. 16-19 to celebrate the benefits of worldwide education and exchange. Various activities will take place throughout the week to inform the public about different countries, cultures and points of view.

In mid-November, VSU President Patrick J. Schloss signed a university proclamation recognizing the 10th year of this joint effort between the U.S. Departments of State and Education to promote international awareness and exchange worldwide.

View the president’s commitment to international education at http://www.valdosta.edu/news/media/2009/11/proclamation.pdf

The following International Education Week events are free and open to the public:

Monday, Nov. 16 7 p.m. “Parade of the Nations: Breaking Stereotypes” in Powell Hall Auditorium. International students will talk about various stereotypes associated with their countries and dispel myths and misconceptions. An informal question and answer session will follow the various presentations.

Tuesday, Nov. 17 11 a.m-2 p.m. Study Abroad Fair on the Palms Quad Come learn about the latest study abroad and exchange opportunities. 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Parade of the Nations: International Talent Show on the Palms Quad. International students will showcase traditional outfits, perform cultural dances and engage in other native demonstrations. Come enjoy the sights and sounds of the world.

Wednesday, Nov. 18 7:30 p.m. International Movie Night: “Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey” Bailey Science Center Auditorium, Room 1101. The Center for International Programs will present the full-length film, “Pulse: a STOMP Odyssey,” a celebration of global beats from the creators of the acclaimed stage production, “STOMP.”

Friday, Nov. 20 2:30 p.m. Society for International Students Cookout at the Center for International Programs, 204 Georgia Avenue. Enjoy free food and fellowship with people of all nations at this tasty event.

Go to http://iew.state.gov/ to learn more about International Education Week and ways you can get involved in the global movement. Call VSU’s Center for International Programs at (229) 333-7410 for more information about the week’s events as well as other study abroad opportunities.

Education reform package produces odd alliances

Education reform package produces odd alliances:

"The package of education reform bills just signed by Gov. Jim Doyle featured an unusual lineup of friends and foes, with politics making some strange bedfellows.

The state’s largest teachers union, Wisconsin Education Association Council, reversed its long-standing opposition to using student test scores to evaluate teacher performance.

The Wisconsin Association of School Boards switched positions, too. In the past, the school board association supported the use of student test data in doing teacher evaluations; this time the group was opposed."

The Milwaukee Association of Commerce, not usually an ally of WEAC, was on record in favor of the legislation. Madison Teachers Inc. did not formally oppose the bills, but executive director John Matthews distanced himself from WEAC’s position, bluntly cautioning against hasty lawmaking in an effort to chase down federal funding.

“We should be careful to change laws based on what’s best in the long run for Wisconsin,” he says.

The new federal funding causing all the fuss is associated with President Barack Obama’s “Race to the Top” program, which allows states to compete for $4.3 billion in stimulus funds aimed at education reform. Obama touted the program last week in Madison at Wright Middle School.

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