« August 28, 2007 | Main | August 30, 2007 »
August 29, 2007
August 29, 2007
Los Angeles school closer to becoming Green Dot, hot debate brewing over inner-city educators, outrage over Utah's voucher showdown ...
Grassroots Action in the news ...
Los Angeles Times: Plan to convert Locke High to a charter school clears hurdle - The Los Angeles Board of Education signaled its intent Tuesday to enter an agreement that would make Locke High School the first Los Angeles campus managed by an outside charter-school organization, Green Dot.
WSAW 7, WI: Virtual Students Get to Know Each Other in Person - Some critics of virtual schools say they don't have a major characteristic students need - a social atmosphere. But a meet and greet in Stevens Point Tuesday for the Wisconsin Connections Academy is proving otherwise. More than 35 families, whose kindergarten through eighth grade students attend the academy, got together to have their pictures taken, get school supplies and have a picnic.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, NY: Lafayette Retooled by Mayor’s Education Reform - The mayor closed off several larger institutions and replaced them with a melange of smaller, more finely tuned schools in an effort to improve the city’s graduation rate. The Lafayette High School Education Complex will be another of the city’s testing grounds for this initiative, called the “campus movement.” As Lafayette High School is phased out, three newcomers — the Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders, the Life Academy High School for Film and Music, and the High School for Sports Management — are expected to take off.
Huffington Post, NY: Join a Hot Education Debate! - I believe it's illuminating and important to have back-and-forths between people whose opinions differ. Take a glance at the NCLB and inner-city educator conversation between Dan Brown and "Cultural Strategist."
Washington Post: Three Reasons to Cheer for Rhee's Fast Start - 1 - Rhee is telling it straight: This system is broken, 2 - She's exposing the system's flaws every day, 3 - She's getting concrete stuff done. That's where Rhee shows the most potential: She is trying to give everyone in the system -- administrators, teachers, parents and I don't know about kids (that part remains to be seen) -- permission to break the rules.
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Wall Street Journal: Voucher Showdown - The Utah legislature passed one of the nation's most far-sighted voucher laws in February, and the state teachers union is calling in the national cavalry to help repeal it in a November 6 referendum. At the Philadelphia NEA conference last month, Kim Campbell, the head of the Utah Education Association, promised that her campaign to defeat it "will be ugly, mean and expensive," and she needs the outside cash to overwhelm pro-voucher supporters in the state.
Washington Examiner: Board of Education unveils alternative to state tests - In Maryland, high school seniors might soon be able to do a project to graduate instead of passing state tests.
On Milwaukee, WI: School Makes the Grade - The state Department of Public Instruction banned 10 schools from participating in the school choice voucher program, but will still allow one school in the program that hadn't paid it back taxes. The schools were banned for such reasons as failing to prove occupancy, lack of insurance or for not complying with orders for audits.
AS Star Net.com, AZ: TUSD adopts open-enrollment policy - Since 1969, the student transfers and placements policy only allows students to transfer if it improves ethnic balances of receiving schools and doesn't imbalance the makeups of home schools. It was designed to support desegregation, but the policy has, over time, limited school choice for minorities who make up the majority of the district's roughly 57,000 students. Last week, a US District judge ruled the policy unconstitutional; however, board members do not want to abandon the policy without something to replace it.
School Choice in the news ...
Los Angeles Daily News, CA: Time for Action - Superintendent David Brewer says, "Failure will no longer be an option at LAUSD," and we can only hope he means it. Brewer is not the first to promise the dawn of a new era at the Los Angeles Unified School District, but if he delivers one, he will be the first to actually make good on his lofty promises.
Los Angeles Times: Deal would give L.A. mayor say on some schools - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his former adversaries from the Los Angeles Unified School District are expected to announce a partnership today that will provide the mayor with a scaled-back version of the authority he has sought over city schools. But Villaraigosa must first win over skeptical teachers and community organizers. The president of LA teachers union is calling for two-thirds of the teachers at any school under consideration to agree before joining the mayor's partnership -- a higher threshold than the simple majority required to convert to a charter school, which operates free from many rules.
Center for American Progress: Choosing More Time for Students - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings believes that the expansion of learning time will be the next major push in school reform. The reason: our nation’s public school students need to meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century but they simply cannot in public school systems that remain much the same as they were 50 years ago.
CampusTechnology.com: Teaching with Technology: Facilitating the Process - It is not a matter of "if" P-12 schools teach the nation's students to use technology but "when," and the time is sooner than later.
News Leader, MO: School district must focus on closing widening gaps - No matter what one thinks of NCLB, and most people agree that it has serious flaws, it has helped make some things crystal clear. The answer to the question, "How have they fared in meeting the measures of success" is a simple and resounding "not met."
YourHub.com, CO: Ryan Stuart wants our schools to be envy of nation - Study after study confirms the surprising truth that overall fiscal spending has no direct correlation to student test scores. The only factor shown to directly impact student achievement is the quality of the teacher at the front of the classroom. Stuart is proposing a high quality teacher recruitment and retention program.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.edspresso.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/1632
