All Articles Tagged "educations"
Do Schools' Rules Push Black Boys Toward Prison?
(NNPA) — A Chicago mother recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education alleging a Chicago Public School security guard handcuffed her young son while he was a student at George Washington Carver Primary School on the city’s far south side. In the lawsuit, filed Aug. 29, LaShanda Smith says the guard handcuffed her son March 17, 2010 which resulted in “sustained injuries of a permanent, personal and pecuniary nature.” According to media reports, Michael A. Carin, the attorney representing Smith says the youngster was among several six and seven year olds that were handcuffed by the guard for allegedly “talking in class”. The students were also allegedly told they would never see their parents again and were going to prison.
Rescuing D.C.’s Middle Schools
(Washington Examiner) — Middle schools. They’re among the hottest topics in the District — and for good reason. Continued growth in traditional public schools depends largely on their swift and comprehensive reform. But many parents aren’t happy with middle-grade opportunities. Some decry the absence of any middle school in their ward. Others lament the lack of rigorous, academic programs that will ensure their children are accepted at top-notch high schools. Daniel Holt’s daughter is in the fourth grade. Already he’s scouting middle schools. “She needs a school that offers high math and world language,” said the Ward 6 resident and former president of Brent Elementary PTA. “Eliot-Hine doesn’t offer that. Deal is not an option, and Hardy took a step backward.”
D.C. Schools Plans to Cut 660 Jobs
(Washington Informer) — D.C. school officials told 660 teachers and school staffers that their jobs have been scrapped for the upcoming school year, blaming fluctuations in enrollment and school finances. ”Given reductions in many local school budgets for 2011-12, approximately 660 employees across the school system received excess notices this week, effective at the end of the school year,” said Fred Lewis, a spokesman for Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson. D.C. Public Schools, which has about 4,000 teachers and 2,300 support staff, declined to release a breakdown of positions cut at each school.
The Mismanaged State of California Wants To Charge Students Extra For Attending Top Schools
by R. Asmerom
Everyone knows that California has been experiencing a colossal financial crisis but are things so bad that the public university system needs to go hierarchal?
Amid budget cuts and staff layoffs, some are advocating that each of the 10 University of California schools determine its tuition rate. This would most certainly result in schools like UC Berkeley and UCLA charging more tuition than less competitive counterparts like Santa Cruz. This plan would align with the supply and demand principles, advocates say, but how does supply and demand enter the equation when it comes to public education?
Critics of the proposal worry that it could create disunity within the UC system and create an elitist environment, as obviously the more pricey, and more competitive, schools would become less accessible to students needing financial aid.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the idea of price differentials in public universities is nothing new. University of Texas at Austin and University of Wisconsin at Madison are allowed to charge higher tuition than the other state schools in their respective networks.
At a recent Regents meeting, UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George R. Blumenthal expressed grave concern over the idea.
If different rates were allowed, he predicted that UC Berkeley would raise tuition the full 25% in “a micro second” and others would quickly follow, not wanting to be left behind in money or reputation. “I think once we go down that road, it could mean that some campuses may not be accessible to large segments of California students,” he said. (Source: LA Times)
New York Tests Curriculum Coming to School Near You
(New York Times) — A math teacher, José Rios, used to take a day or two on probabilities, drawing bell-shaped curves on the blackboard to illustrate the pattern known as normal distribution. This year, he stretched the lesson by a day and had students work in groups to try to draw the same type of graphic using the heights of the 15 boys in the class. “Eventually, they figured out they couldn’t because the sample was too small,” Mr. Rios said. “They learned that the size of the sample matters, and I didn’t have to tell them.”
In three years, instruction in most of the country could look a lot like what is going on at Hillcrest, one of 100 schools in New York City experimenting with new curriculum standards known as the common core. Forty-two states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands have signed on to the new standards, an ambitious set of goals that go beyond reading lists and math formulas to try to raise the bar not only on what students in every grade are expected to learn, but also on how teachers are expected to teach. The standards, to go into effect in 2014, will replace a hodgepodge of state guidelines that have become the Achilles’ heel of the No Child Left Behind law.
Teachers Plan to Protest Washington Post
(Washington Examiner) — D.C. teachers are planning a rally outside the Washington Post on Friday to protest the newspaper’s link to a for-profit college and testing enterprise. With posters and megaphones in hand, the Washington Teachers’ Union says it will tell the Post that its relationship with Kaplan Inc. — the major revenue source of the Washington Post Co. — creates a conflict of interest that has slanted the newspaper’s coverage of D.C. education reform. Kaplan’s for-profit colleges, test preparation programs and other offerings account for 62 percent of the Post Co.’s revenue. Union President Nathan Saunders said teachers have been concerned for years that the newspaper’s editorial board exhibits a bias toward testing consistent with the goals of Kaplan, which runs test readiness programs and tutoring. This has caused the newspaper to “dismiss” the side of the teachers, who Saunders said prefer non-test-reliant reforms.
Quinn’s School District Mergers Could Hike Salaries, Wipe out Cost Savings
(AP) — Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to merge Illinois school districts would trigger a sudden increase in teacher salaries that could reduce or even erase any administrative savings, according to labor and education experts. That’s because when two districts consolidate in Illinois, teachers in the lower-paying district are allowed to switch to the higher pay offered by the other. Quinn has discussed trimming Illinois’ 868 districts to just 300, saving money by eliminating some superintendents and other administrative personnel. His administration estimates that could save $100 million or more. But it would also mean teachers in hundreds of districts get raises and pension increases — with state government potentially paying the bill.
