Duncan: Katrina Was The "Best Thing" for New Orleans School System - Political Punch

Duncan: Katrina Was The "Best Thing" for New Orleans School System - Political Punch

ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that Hurricane Katrina was “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans” because it gave the city a chance to rebuild and improve its failing public schools.

In an interview to air this weekend on “Washington Watch with Roland Martin” Duncan said “that education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better. And the progress that it made in four years since the hurricane, is unbelievable.”

The Education Department confirmed the quote to ABC and Duncan released the following statement in response: “As I heard repeatedly during my visits to New Orleans, for whatever reason, it took the devastating tragedy of the hurricane to wake up the community to demand more and expect better for their children.”

Here is Duncan’s full exchange with Martin on Katrina:

Martin: I was talking to you on James Carville and Mary Matalin. They’re of course very involved in what’s happening in New Orleans. What’s amazing is New Orleans, is that everything was devastated because of Hurricane Katrina. But because everything was wiped out, in essence, you are building from ground zero to change the dynamic of education in that city.

Duncan: That’s a fascinating one. I’ve spent a lot of time in New Orleans and this is a tough thing to say but I’m going to be really honest. The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster. And it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that we have to do better. And the progress that it made in four years since the hurricane, is unbelievable. They have a chance to create a phenomenal school district. Long way to go, but that city was not serious about its education. Those children were being desperately underserved prior. And the amount of progress and the amount of reform we’re seeing in a short amount of time has been absolutely amazing. I have so much respect for the adults, the teachers, the principals that are working hard. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to students at John Mack high school there. Many who had missed school for six months, eight months, 13 months after the Hurricane and still came back to get an education. Children in our country, they want to learn. They’re resilient. They’re tough. We have to meet them half-way. We have to give them opportunity. And New Orleans is doing a phenomenal job of getting that system to an entirely different level.

Bush Institute programs begin soon | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | National Politics

Bush Institute programs begin soon | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| National Politics

The George W. Bush Institute is rolling out plans for several conferences this year, along with a half-hour television show that will begin broadcasting next week.

The first three conferences are invitation-only. It is unclear what role the former president will play during the conferences or future episodes of the TV show. Laura Bush will participate in a U.S.-Afghan Women's Literacy Conference in mid-March.

Bush TV

The TV show, Ideas in Action, will be hosted by Bush Institute executive director Jim Glassman.

The first episode, which will air Thursday on participating public television stations and noncommercial cable stations nationwide, focuses on "The Twitter Revolution." Glassman and a panel of experts will discuss the role social media, such as Twitter, played in last year's pro-democracy uprising in Iran.

Several episodes have been taped at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Some will be taped at Southern Methodist University later this year.

Glassman's guests next week are:

Goli Ameri, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for Education and Cultural Affairs and a former U.S. delegate to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.:

San Diego Unified will pay $25,200 to a company that installs audio and visual systems as part of a settlement over how it chose a company to install technology for its $2.1 billion school construction and renovation bond.

Audio Associates of San Diego sued after the school district picked two companies to installinteractive whiteboards without competitively bidding the work last June. Instead, San Diego Unified used a process that is commonly used for supplies that have already been competitively bid by the state of California, such as computer technology.

Attorney Kevin Carlin, who represented the company, said it was improper to use that process for construction services, rather than for getting goods. Audio Associates argued it had been unfairly prevented from vying for a chance to do the installation work.

New York City Plans to Change Methods for Grading Schools - NYTimes.com

New York City Plans to Change Methods for Grading Schools - NYTimes.com

Months after handing out A’s and B’s to 97 percent of New York City elementary schools, education officials plan to change their methods for grading the city’s public schools, making it harder to receive high marks.

Under the proposed changes, schools would be measured against one another, with those where students show the most significant improvements getting the top grades. There would be set grade-distribution guidelines, with 25 percent of schools receiving A’s, 30 percent B’s, 30 percent C’s, 10 percent D’s, and the bottom 5 percent of schools getting F’s.
Currently, the progress reports measure improvements, but an unlimited number of schools can receive high grades.
The Department of Education plans to hold several sessions with principals on the proposed changes to get their views. In a memo to principals, Shael Polakow-Suransky, the chief accountability officer, acknowledged Friday that the department’s “accountability tools aren’t perfect,” and said that it would continue to do more to improve them.
“We want to be able to really show how much value a school is actually adding,” he said in an interview.

SAC City DAC Education News & Comment

Education News & Comment

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Education News & Comment The Black Parallel School Board

Education News & Comment

Unofficial black school board seeks candidates 

Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

 

The Black Parallel School Board is seeking community members to serve on its executive council.

The Black Parallel School Board is a community organization that advocates for African American students

in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

Candidates for the council must be Sacramento residents of African descent and must commit to serving two years on the council, among other criteria, according to a news release from the organization.

Applications can be found at www.blackparallelschoolboard.com/17.html. They are due by Jan. 31.

For more information, call (916) 484-3729

Advice to the mayor: Pretend those schools you're closing are charters

Advice to the mayor: Pretend those schools you're closing are charters:

"A disclaimer: This post is about New York City schools. The chaos that's going on in New York is something all school advocates need to be following, because a lot of powerful forces would like it to be going on in our town too.

Or, to borrow a few lines: Start spreading the news. They want to be a part of it. If they can do it there, they 'll do it anywhere.

Anyway, the blogger NYC Educator posted an idea for Mayor Bloomberg, who is running New York schools with an 'I'm the decider' system and has closed 91 of them.

Pretend They're Charter Schools"

Scarborough and Bernstein In Heated Exchange With Teacher Union Head On "Morning Joe" - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Scarborough and Bernstein In Heated Exchange With Teacher Union Head On "Morning Joe" - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

The scene was Randi Weingarten, head of the AFT (teachers union), with Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe, journalist Carl Bernstein, and Willie Geist, host of Way Too Early.

You could sense the restraint used by everyone at the table but that couldn't hold back the sparks and impassioned quips that made their way to the camera.

It mainly seemed as if there were two different conversations going on at the same time, where the answers to questions never seemed to quite correspond.  Here are a few money quotes (taken out of order).  Still, quite the disconnect.  Or, cut to the chase and watch for yourself - video below:

Scarborough:  "Unions killed a bill that would have given NY kids (schools) $700 million".

Scarborough:  "Teacher unions have put job security ahead of students well-being."
Weingarten:  "We need to help all of us take more responsibility to help make sure all our kids get a decent education."

Weingarten:  "Teachers want to help kids succeed".

Bernstein:  "You've fought it all these years".

Scarborough:   Harlem Village Academies are at at 8th 100% proficiency level in Math after entering school a few grades behind.

Weingarten:  One charter school run by the union:  "95% did great in 5th Grade Social Studies".  

Watch for yourself in this 12 min.video Below (first 10 are the main event).

Click here for the story about Harlem Village Academies, as reported by The Daily Riff last 

CrisisMaven’s Economics Study Guide � CrisisMaven's Blog

CrisisMaven’s Economics Study Guide � CrisisMaven's Blog: "This blog has two main purposes:

It is meant to comment upon and elucidate matters of economic inquiry and economic policy, and it acts as a systematic study guide in economics meant to complement more traditional teaching approaches.

What CrisisMaven believes sets this collection of articles and overviews apart is that each single post or article attempts to look at a certain well-circumscribed subject within the vast field of economics for once through the collecting lens of some current event, as CrisisMaven believes it is only then that one’s mind will be receptive and interested in such subject, as well as each post tries to analyse the matter at hand in enough depth so that a reader, when finished, may with some confidence claim to have understood it thoroughly enough to follow any spirited discussion, be it with academics, researchers, practitioners in the field or other interested laymen (and women)."

The Way it Ought to Be �Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

The Way it Ought to Be �Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

The Way it Ought to Be

I'm at Educon.
If you're not familiar with Educon, it's a conference/conversation hosted by Chris Lehmann and the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA.

I was fortunate to be able to spend Thursday and Friday hanging around the school. Here's what I saw:

• Lots of smiles.
• Loud classrooms
• A principal's office that looked more like grand central with equal numbers of staff and students talking and working, coming and going
• Teachers who discussed personal issues with students
• A brief power outage that didn't paralyze learning despite them being a 1:1 school
• A lack of emphasis on technology
• Students occasionally off task
• Students excited to talk with adults

None of these things are particularly amazing and are all things you could find in many, if not all schools in North America.  I didn't see one thing that couldn't  be done almost anywhere. The teachers are good teachers but they aren't doing anything I haven't seen before. So what's the big deal?

There are many more observations and insights that one would make beyond the few I've listed but I'm not sure that any additions would tell us that "one thing".  It's obvious that leadership plays a significant role and that grows culture over time which is undeniably palpable.   While many will continue to deconstruct and analyze how, and if this type of place is replicable, Good teaching and caring adults can lead to a really wonderful place which Science Leadership Academy truly is. But maybe SLA isn't so unique after all? Maybe there are more schools and classrooms like this but we just aren't telling anyone? The level of connectedness among staff doesn't hurt their image but indeed follows closely with one of their guiding principles: Learning can – and must – be networked.  But behind that networked learning lurks teachers who know how to teach just like many of the teachers you work with or you already are.

Dallas ISD magnet schools' admissions policy waiver riles parents | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Dallas ISD magnet schools' admissions policy waiver riles parents | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News:

"Frustration, anger and even talk of a lawsuit have bubbled up following a Dallas school board decision to change the competitive admissions process at a handful of top magnet schools.

The board of trustees approved a waiver Thursday so that parents at four magnets will not have to reapply for admission as their children move from one grade span to another at their schools.

For example, a child admitted to the William B. Travis Talented and Gifted school for grades 4 and 5 would not have to reapply to get into Travis' gifted school for sixth- through eighth-graders.

The change takes effect Feb. 1 – just in time for this year's magnet application season – and affects Travis, George Bannerman Dealey Montessori Vanguard and International Academy; Harry Stone Montessori Academy; and Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School."

Rochester school forums delayed until bill is drafted | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Rochester school forums delayed until bill is drafted | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle:

"As protests against mayoral control of the City School District continued Friday, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy announced that the first two of the four public forums on school governance have been postponed.

The forums have been postponed, Duffy said, because Gov. David Paterson's staff has not completed writing the draft legislation.

'While they are working diligently on this, it is clearly not yet finished and we do not have a firm date when the draft legislation will be ready to take to the people,' Duffy said in a statement. 'I do not want to bring together gatherings of people and not have answers to their questions.'"

Organizing for America | BarackObama.com | Congress: Join the fight for the middle class

Organizing for America | BarackObama.com | Congress: Join the fight for the middle class

TO: Your Members of Congress (Look up your representatives) For the last decade, Americans have struggled under crushing debt, skyrocketing costs for health care and education, and falling wages. It's time to rescue the middle class, rebuild it, and restore it to greatness. I will stand with you as you fight for it. Sincerely, Your Signature

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EducationNews.org - “Cradle-to-Career Plan by Obama and Duncan”

EducationNews.org - “Cradle-to-Career Plan by Obama and Duncan”:

"1.29.10 - Donna Garner - As revealed in Arne Duncan’s letter today (posted below), the Obama administration is determined to take over each and every bit of family, local, and state control literally from cradle-to-career."

As revealed in Arne Duncan’s letter today (posted below), the Obama administration is determined to take over each and every bit of family, local, and state control literally from cradle-to-career.  

I sent the following message to my two Texas Senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison.  Please read this e-mail carefully and contact all Congressmen, state legislators, and policymakers whom you know.  We must not allow the federal government to control all children cradle-to-career.  
Even as we speak, legislation is pending in the Senate that would allow the U. S. Department of Education to control all federal student loans. Presently, students can choose between getting direct-lending loans or getting federal loans through private banks. These types of loans put students closer to the people making their loan decisions, and better communication and customer service occur.
Can you imagine the glut and the breakdowns in communication that would occur if all students needing federal loans had to go through impersonal loan officers in the U. S. Department of Education in Washington, D. C.?
As Sen. Lamar Alexander stated recently, "The Department of Education in Washington will not be able to serve students as well as 3,000 lending institutions."

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Where Duncan went wrong

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan never should have said, as he did on a TV interview to be aired Sunday and Monday, that Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans."

He was hurtful and insensitive. There were nearly 2,000 confirmed deaths from the storm and the floods.

Instead, he should have focused on why New Orleans schools attracted better resources, fresher ideas and a great influx of energetic teachers that they would not have gotten nearly as quickly if the disaster had not occurred.

Continue reading this post »

Duncan’s own Hurricane Katrina

When Education Secretary Arne Duncan said to a television reporter in an interview to air Sunday that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that happened to the New Orleans school system, I’m sure he wasn’t retroactively wishing a catastrophe to decimate the city and its school buildings.

But his statement concerns me nevertheless.

Here’s what he told Roland Martin for TV One’s “Washington Watch,” airing Sunday at 11 a.m. EST:

Continue reading this post »

No plan to move Ellington, until there is

The key players in the recent flap over the future of Duke Ellington School of the Arts have issued a joint communique, essentially reaffirming what Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said last week: there are no plans to move the school out of Georgetown until it gets its own state-of-the-art building.

The letter, dated Jan. 26 and addressed to Ellington students, parents and faculty, grew out of Rhee's meeting last Friday with members of the school's governing board, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Project (DESAP). It is signed by Rhee, outgoing DESAP president Michaele Christian, head of school Rory Pullens and co-founder Peggy Cooper Cafritz.

"Both the Chancellor and the mayor are committed in the long term to a state of the art facility for Ellington, as well as the full engagement of the Ellington community in a transparent planning process," the letter states. "The more immediate focus will be on a renovation of the school in 2012, though if major funds are identified for a new facility in the shorter term, the renovation effort may be modified."