Assigned Reading

Education Sector’s Kevin Carey has an excellent piece on the current state of educational reform.

Teachers unions, meanwhile, also miscalculated on charters. They largely got away with opposing NCLB by positioning themselves against business interests and a Republican president. Fighting the heroic personae of the Dave Levins and Mike Feinbergs of the world was much harder, because it meant being against the great charter schools that people knew in their bones were making the world a better place. The parallel rise of mayoral reform efforts in heavily Democratic cities like New York and D.C. meant the unions had to engage simultaneously on two rhetorical and policy fronts. Over time, the mayoral control people and the New Schools people got to know one another and figured out that even if their respective approaches to education reform sat at opposite ends of the centralized / decentralized spectrum, they had many common convictions–and enemies. It was only a matter of time before, in the form of people like Michelle Rhee, the two groups would converge.

The Growing Readers Initiative is an excellent example of the positive impact charters can have on public schools. This program is a collaborative effort between The Learning Community and Central Falls Public Schools.

The Growing Readers Initiative is a professional development partnership between an urban school district and a charter school – one of the few examples nationally of such collaboration. The Learning Community, a K–8 charter school founded in 2004, has developed a coordinated program to build strong readers in the early grades. Through the Growing Readers Initiative, teachers, coaches, specialists, and administrators from the charter school are working alongside their 
colleagues in the neighboring Central Falls School District to share best 
practices teacher-to-teacher, share 
systems of support and data analysis, and encourage a team approach to 
student achievement.

The collaborative approach, and its initial results, are shared in the current issue of Voices in Urban Education, published by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown.

News: A DC Superior Court judge has ruled that Chancellor Michelle Rhee was within her rights when she laid off 266 teachers last month to help balance the education budget. The teachers union had argued unsuccessfully that the budget concerns were contrived, and that Rhee used this excuse to conduct an illegal mass firing.

Opinion: The Post editorializes about the case outlined above, including these strong words:

Finally, we hope there is some soul-searching on the part of D.C. Council members who wrongly assailed Ms. Rhee’s integrity. They would serve the city better if they joined with her in trying to improve the schools.

Opinion: Former congressman and current Democratic National Leadership Council chairman Harold Ford, Jr. advocates for President Obama’s Race to the Top plan for education reform.

Opinion: An interesting message to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, from CA Attorney General and former Oakland mayor Jerry Brown. Brown plans to run for governor next year, a position he held for two terms in the 70s and 80s.

Blog: In what must be a new low, a teachers union official in Chicago is blaming school reform for the beating death of a 16-year-old honor student. She called the replacement of poor teachers “the deadliest reform of all”.

News: Funding schools in Hawaii has become increasingly difficult. The teachers union solution: teach less. Hawaii schools will be closed on 17 Fridays this year as teachers get the time off, unpaid, to save cash.

Blog: Clever. Teachers that voted to unionize at one KIPP school in NY are pressuring administrators with an ad campaign to recognize the union, titled “Be Nice.” “Be Nice” is part of the motto guiding students at all KIPP schools. edspresso blog reminds the unionists of the first part of the motto: “Work Hard”.

Opinion: writing in EdWeek, Kirsten Olsen believes an addiction to “busyness is the enemy of change” in our schools.

News – The union that represents NY lifeguards has voted to affiliate with the state’s teachers union, AFT. What? Lifeguards are unionized? Yes, and according to the NYTimes, the union president wears “trademark pink polo shirts” and drives a white Mercedes.

Blog:  Joanne Jacobs calls it the insulin monopoly.  A nursing association sued, demanding that only nurses be allowed to administer insulin injections to students.  A judge ruled in the nurses’ favor.  In California, most schools don’t have school nurses, at least not yet.

Opinion:  Whether teachers are paid fairly is subjective.  But Julia Steiny points to one report that shows, compared to other professions requiring equal education, RI teachers are paid quite well.

News:  Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book is the winner of the 2009 Newbery Award.

Blog  Joanne  Jacobs wonders if we still need to teach cursive.  Be sure to read the more interesting discussion in the comments section that follows the post.

Opinion.  Linda Chavez writes: “Democrats have been perfectly happy to force police departments, businesses and colleges to select applicants by color, but they seem less happy to apply those same standards to themselves when it comes to joining the [Senate].”

News.  Edweek article shares a study by the National Institute for Literacy that found code-related instruction crucial in preschool years. 

Rhode Island.  Governor’s cuts cause panic among municipal leaders