Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, October 20, 2012

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 10-20-12



4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit

TAILORING THE TESTS TO SPECIAL NEEDS: QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT ADAPTIVE ASSESSMENTS …and feedback from an LAUSD special needs parent

By Michelle R. Davis, EdWeek Vol. 06, Issue 01, Pages 14-15 | http://bit.ly/TyZS44 October 17, 2012  ::   Computer-adaptive testing, in theory, should allow educators to pinpoint more accurately the achievement levels of students with disabilities, to focus on areas where those students need help. Designed to provide each student with an individualized test, computer-adaptive testing gives

Where’s Monica? SUCCESSFUL 1st CANDIDATE FORUM IN LINCOLN HEIGHTS

District 2 Neighborhood Coalition | http://bit.ly/Wtng9s October 17, 2012  ::  Great turn out and excellent questions by the audience made for an extraordinary first Candidate Forum tonight at El Arca in Lincoln Heights!  All the candidates attended, with the exception of LAUSD President Monica Garcia who did not respond to the invitation.  [more photos soon!] Categories

Common Core (sub)Standards: FICTION vs. FICTION SMACKDOWN

  Jay Mathews: Columnist, The Washington Post | http://wapo.st/Ua4z9S October 17, 2012  ::  There is no more troubling fact about U.S. education than this: The reading scores of 17-year-olds have shown no significant improvement since 1980. The new Common Core State Standards in 46 states and the District are designed to solve that problem. Among other things, students are being

Here they go again: L.A. TIMES SUES LAUSD FOR INFO ON TEACHERS

smf’s 2¢: The Times’ previous “Value Addled” efforts have been as close to Abuse-of-Freedom-of-the-Press as it gets! By MATT REYNOLDS , Courthouse News Service | http://bit.ly/T1yIC4 Thursday, October 18, 2012L | ast Update: 9:04 AM PT | LOS ANGELES (CN)  ::  The Los Angeles Times claims Los Angeles Unified School District is violating public records law by refusing to release records tying

TONIGHT: LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD SEAT 2 CANDIDATE FORUM

Wed, Oct 17, 6:00pm - 8:30pm El ARCA - 3839 Selig Place Lincoln Heights  [map] DISTRICT 2 NEIGHBORHOOD COALITION CANDIDATE FORUM http://www.district2neighborhoodcoalition.com/

Data or Reason?: THE POLITICS OF COMMON SENSE

In evaluating the candidates' (…or  Fox News’ …or MSNBC’s …or the Center for Boring Statistics’) claims, you can trust your own sweet reason. Op-Ed in the LA Times By Michael Kinsley  |  http://lat.ms/QLUKtV President Obama, right, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney shake hands following their first debate at the University of Denver in Colo. on Oct. 3. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/ Getty Images)

REPUBLICANS FOR ‘SESAME STREET’: It's possible to support Mitt Romney and Big Bird too.

Op-Ed in the LA Times by By Jo Ellen Chatham | http://lat.ms/T6Ro9T The "Sesame Street" character Big Bird is seen arriving to the Daytime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in 2009. According to Nielsen, 82% of children ages 2 to 11 watch PBS, and 10 million children access pbskids.org every month. It is free for all who use it. (Matt Sayles / Associated Press) October 16, 2012   ::   I am a

U P D A T E D: 320 STUDENTS ABSENT AMID NOROVIRUS OUTBREAK AT CALIF. SCHOOL [in Thousand Oaks]

Students at Medea Creek Middle School began calling out last week after norovirus began spreading quickly. By Lolita Lopez and Samantha Tata | KNBC  News | http://bit.ly/V4qGdM |  Lolita Lopez Tuesday, Oct 16, 2012  |  Updated 6:52 AM PDT  “::  More than 90 students were absent on Monday from Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park after an outbreak of Norovirus, a fast-spreading

OMG! How do I Vote on Proposition B?: A PROPOSITION PARTY

Not THAT Proposition B!  So smf is driving through the SFV late at night last night, past the auto parts shops and the garish purple building with the bright green neon: Girls! Girls! Girls! - minding his own business – (for once) and he sees a Billboard for Proposition B – the sex actors must wear condoms law . It is a big black billboard with big white scary type: PORNOGRAPHERS SAY VOTE

LAUSD Inspector General’s Audit Report: PROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF PARENT CENTERS

to be presented and discussed at the Bond Oversight Committee Wednesday 17 October at noon. [ agenda | agenda item #4 ] from the office of the inspector general from the report: STATUS OF LAUSD PARENT CENTERS: In support of the District’s commitment to increasing parent and family and community engagement and the implementation of the Board adopted resolution, Parents as Equal Partners in

SUPPORT SLIPS FOR TAX MEASURES; SEPTEMBER REVENUES MIXED: State PTA president suggests that the governor and Munger sit down this week to look for ways to “de-escalate the recent situation”

By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/RZII2f Monday, October 15, 2012  ::  Thanks to a vigorous rivalry campaign, both tax measures on the November ballot are losing support among voters with the likelihood for passage quickly fading even as some stakeholders try to arbitrate a cease fire. And while there has been some good economic news of late – especially the national

DISPROPORTIONALITY IN SPECIAL ED POSES NEW FEDERAL HAZARD TO DISTRICTS

By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/RM3VLe Monday, October 15, 2012  ::  More aggressive federal attention to schools potentially mislabeling minority children as disabled has created an operational headache this fall for nearly 50 California districts, with another big cohort targeted for sanctioning next year. In fact, the push from the U.S. Department of Education’s special

CONTRARY TO COMMON WISDOM, NOTHING IS ‘AWAY’ FROM THE CLASSROOM

By Seth Rosenblatt | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/RZGMqy October 14th, 2012 | Readers of my posts know that I often challenge the conventional wisdom within public education circles – a public sector “mythbuster” if you will – whether it be the myth of furlough days or the hollow critique of “waste, fraud, and abuse.”  Another of my favorite examples is the all too often stated “truism” that

ADVICE FOR PARENTS WHO WANT TO BE PARTNERS IN THEIR KID’S EDUCATION

By Sam Macer, Special to CNN | http://bit.ly/Tn7bf6 CNN Editor’s Note: Sam Macer is a PTA dad and foster parent. As the immediate past president of the Maryland PTA and the current president of the Maryland Foster Parent Association, he uses his 30 years of PTA experience to support Maryland’s foster parents as they strive to provide the youth in their care with safety, permanency, wellbeing and

This year’s Nobel Prize in Economics: STABLE ALLOCATION, MARKET DESIGN AND ‘SCHOOL CHOICE’ + smf’s 2¢

by smf/4LAKidsNews Jacob Goldstein, in Nobel Goes To Economists Who Actually Solved Problems In The Real World in NPR’s Planet Money blog writes this morning: For economists, prices are like magic. They send all kinds of signals about who wants what, and how badly they want it. Prices are what makes markets work so well in so many settings. But there are some things we don't want

TRANSFORMING OUR SCHOOLS + WANT TO RUIN TEACHING? GIVE RATINGS

Transforming our Schools: Readers react to a student’s ideas for a learning ‘revolution.’ Letters to the New York Times/Sunday Dialogue | http://nyti.ms/V0Xjc0 ART: Till Hafenbrak Published: October 13, 2012 To the Editor: When President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind into law, few would have predicted that the next decade of education policy would unfold into a disaster of

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LOSING RELEVANCY?

By FERMIN LEAL / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |http://bit.ly/Wb2J9p Published: Oct. 10, 2012 Updated: Oct. 11, 2012 12:43 p.m.  ::  For the past decade, "test score day" has been one of the most nervously anticipated events on the school calendar. Each year, principals and teachers anxiously gather around their computers, waiting to learn if their school met enough testing goals required by the

Prop 39 Co-location Ruling by Court of Appeals: CHARTER SCHOOL NOT ENTITLED TO CHOOOSE ITS LOCATION + smf’s 2¢

Court Says LAUSD Offer of Facilities at Belmont H.S. Was Adequate By a MetNews Staff Writer, Metropolitan News-Enterprise | http://bit.ly/RqdM8C Friday, October 12, 2012  ::  The Los Angeles Unified School District did not violate the charter schools initiative by offering to locate a charter school in adjoining classrooms at Belmont High School, contrary to the wishes of the charter school

KIDS NEED MORE CALORIES IN THEIR SCHOOL LUNCHES, SOME LAWMAKERS SAY

By Richard Simon, LA Times | http://lat.ms/Qni6pG Fifth-graders walk through the lunch line at Laird School in Tempe, Ariz. (Tim Hacker / East Valley Tribune / September 13, 2012) October 11, 2012, 12:08 p.m.  ::  WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers and government officials are again engaged in a food fight, this time with Republican lawmakers hungry to lift new federal limits on the calories of school

Obama+Romney: WITH VARIED APPROACH, BOTH CANDIDATES PUSH SCHOOL CHOICE

Despite some backlash from their political parties, both President Obama and Mitt Romney have made school choice a cornerstone of their efforts for education reform. To school choice advocates, it won't matter who wins in November — either candidate will be a friend in the White House. by Claudio Sanchez | National Public Radio | http://n.pr/P0q77P Enlarge iStockphoto.com October 13,

Obama+Romney: THE PREP SCHOOL YEARS

smf: At the  at KPCC Presidential Debate Screening Wednesday Oct 3rd evening  Ann – a teacher from Hollywood, stood up to say how disgusted she was with how out-of-touch both candidates were with public education. She suggested that rather than weeks of debate prep they spend a week in a public school. All of Mitt and Ann Romney's five boys

CHICAGO SCHOOLS CHIEF STEPS DOWN AFTER 17 MONTHS THAT ENDED WITH TEACHER STRIKE

    ALSO SEE: Another Broadie Fails+Falls: BRIZARD OUT IN CHICAGO |http://bit.ly/WYNePM By STEVEN YACCINO, New York Times |http://nyti.ms/RE8xms October 13, 2012  | CHICAGO::  Just three weeks after a teacher strike here that kept 350,000 children from their classrooms, the head of the city’s public schools system has chosen to step down, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a news conference on Friday