Press
November 4, 2009
Is There More To Obama's State Visit?
(From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 3, 2009)
By ERIN RICHARDS
On the anniversary of his election, President Barack Obama will visit Madison on Wednesday to talk about the progress states are making on education reforms he's championed since taking office and the imminent competition that will have many of those states vying for extra federal stimulus funds for schools.
According to the White House, Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will visit James C. Wright Middle School in Madison to praise Wisconsin for coming up with innovative ways to improve education in the state and for using the federal government's $4.35 billion Race to the Top initiative as a way to prompt those changes.
But is that it?
Or is there more to the president's visit than just a pat on the back for Wisconsin?
Many suspect the latter for a number of reasons:
Continue reading "Is There More To Obama's State Visit?"....
Race To The Top Education Grant Propels Reforms
(From USA Today, November 4, 2009)
By GREG TOPPO
Tucked into the $110 billion federal stimulus slated for education, a comparatively tiny grant known as the Race to the Top requires that states that want the money must commit to closing historic achievement gaps and getting more kids into college - but they also must show that they're attending to a few nitty-gritty details that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan believe are important, including:
•Tying teacher and principal pay - and school assignments - to student test scores.
•Adopting internationally benchmarked academic standards.
•Turning around their lowest-performing schools.
•Building long-term student tracking systems.
•Loosening legal caps on the number of charter schools that states allow each year.
Continue reading "Race To The Top Education Grant Propels Reforms"....
Mulgrew Tells Assem. Hoyt To Go Back To School On Edu Reforms
(From Gotham Schools, November 2, 2009)
By MAURA WALZ
Teachers union president Michael Mulgrew dismissed proposed legislation that would overhaul New York State's teacher tenure and charter cap laws.
Mulgrew criticized Assemblyman Sam Hoyt's bill in an interview with GothamSchools on Saturday, after delivering an address to approximately 3,000 parents assembled for the United Federation of Teachers' annual parent outreach conference.
Proposed to make New York State's bid for Race to the Top money more competitive, Hoyt's bill contains a variety of measures, almost all of which the union has opposed. In addition to abolishing the state's charter cap, the bill would increase the number of years a teacher must work before being considered for tenure and would lift the ban on using students' test scores as a factor in tenure decisions.
"I think Mr. Hoyt should spend some time with people who understand education," Mulgrew said. "I am always leery of those who propose education reforms who have never spent time in a classroom."
Continue reading "Mulgrew Tells Assem. Hoyt To Go Back To School On Edu Reforms"....
October 30, 2009
With Teachers' Contract Set To End, Talks Are Quiet
(From The New York Times, October 29, 2009)
By JENNIFER MEDINA
With two days left on the New York City teachers' contract, it would be reasonable to expect a thunder-and-lightning storm of fists pounding on tables and accusations flying in the press.
But this is no ordinary year for the United Federation of Teachers, the city's teachers' union, or for City Hall.
Instead, there is near silence. While the union and city officials are indeed negotiating, few expect any agreement before Tuesday, which is Election Day. The union is all but certain to stay neutral in the mayoral race -- a boon for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has been widely criticized among the rank and file. And despite nearly constant calls for changes by the schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, observers are doubtful that the new contract will contain radical changes in the way teachers are employed and paid.
Almost since the day he took over the school system in 2002, Mr. Klein has railed against what he calls the three roadblocks to creating a meritocracy among schoolteachers: seniority rights, tenure and stringent pay scales.
Continue reading "With Teachers' Contract Set To End, Talks Are Quiet"....
October 27, 2009
Joel Klein: Lessons Learned In NYC
(From In Denver Times, October 27, 2009)
By NANCY MITCHELL
Joel Klein led the government's antitrust prosecution of Microsoft before he took over the nation's largest school district. Fighting Bill Gates, he said in Denver on Monday, was easier than trying to move public education.
"The one thing we've got to understand if we're really going to transform public education is the education system, by and large, doesn't want to change," the New York City schools chancellor said at a gathering of the Colorado branch of Democrats for Education Reform.
"Sure it wants to get better, sure it wants to do a better job," he said. "But it doesn't want to do the tough transformative work. Because the system serves lots of needs quite effectively -- it just doesn't serve the needs of our children."
Seven years into running the district of more than 1 million students, Klein is "revered" by some and "reviled" by others for his reform efforts, according to a New York Times profile. Next week, on Election Day, he'll learn whether the mayor who appointed him, Michael Bloomberg, keeps his job.
But in his talk about lessons learned since his 2002 appointment, Klein seemed optimistic as he described the efforts undertaken in NYC's 1,400 schools and his belief that public education can transform children's lives.
Continue reading "Joel Klein: Lessons Learned In NYC"....
Gov's Charter Shock
(From The New York Post, October 27, 2009)
By BRENDAN SCOTT and YOAV GONEN
In a surprise move, Gov. Paterson said yesterday he doesn't plan to push for changes to state laws that experts have warned could jeopardize New York's chances of raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education aid.
Federal officials have highlighted two state laws in particular -- one limiting the number of charter schools to 200 and another prohibiting the use of student test scores in determining whether a teacher deserves tenure -- as potential barriers to the state's bid for a share of the $4.3 billion competitive pot, known as Race to the Top.
While legislation was introduced last week to enhance New York's standing by scrapping those laws, a spokeswoman for Paterson -- who has supported charter schools in the past -- said the governor would not be among its boosters.
"At this time, we believe New York state is eligible for Race to the Top funds and that legislative changes are currently not needed," said the spokeswoman, Marissa Shorenstein.
Continue reading "Gov's Charter Shock"....
October 22, 2009
Paterson Punts
(From The New York Post, October 22, 2009)
By THOMAS W. CARROLL
GOV. Paterson's plan to close the state's budget gap in cludes $686 million in mid- year cuts in state aid to public schools. Yet even as he asks for these steep cuts, Paterson has done nothing to help New York get hundreds of millions of federal education dollars from the highly competitive $4 billion Race to the Top program.
Stepping into the void, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt this week offered a package of education reforms that, in Hoyt's words, would move New York "to the very top of the charts" in education reform and thus position the state to receive much-needed Race to the Top dollars.
Two top Hoyt proposals:
* Lift the current cap on the number of authorized charter schools.
* Eliminate a statutory "firewall" that now prohibits districts from considering how well a teacher's students actually are learning before granting a teacher lifetime tenure.
Hoyt claims that he discussed his package with Paterson, who privately encouraged him to press forward. Yet, once the proposal became public, the governor's staff said that Paterson had "no position" on Hoyt's plan, The Post reported.
Paterson's unwillingness to take a stand on Hoyt's plan to eliminate the charter cap was especially noteworthy because Paterson himself had called in the past for lifting it. In other words, Paterson now has "no position" on his own position.
When Paterson became governor in March 2008, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform captured the optimism of the moment: "As longtime fans of David Paterson, we are extremely confident that the hard work of providing a quality education for every child in the state will not only continue, but will take on a whole new sense of appropriate urgency."
Now, 19 months later, I'm not sure Paterson's "no position" quite reflects a sense of "appropriate urgency."
Continue reading "Paterson Punts"....
