KIPP Teachers in Bid to Expel Union

This from the New York Post:

Charter-school teachers to their union: Butt out.

The educators, at two city charter schools, have filed for permission from the state to cut their ties with the United Federation of Teachers.

The action, at KIPP Academy in The Bronx and KIPP Infinity in Manhattan, came after the UFT recently tried to meddle in the schools' business without consulting the staff first, teachers at both schools told The Post.

"The union was interested in a more active part of the way our school operates, and at KIPP Infinity we unanimously believe that what works for us best is 100 percent open communication lines between staff, administration, parents and students," said Rachel Heuisler, 30, who has taught at the school for three years.

KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program network, operates 66 charter schools nationally, including four in New York City...

The ultimate student meal

I've never been to England, but I'm yet to hear anyone brag about British cooking. Is this what they're talking about?

This from the London Daily Mail:

Introducing the doner kebab

flavoured Pot Noodle

Bring together two of the most reviled food creations of Britain's culinary history and here you have it - the Kebab Pot Noodle.

Undaunted by the warnings about kebabs being high in fat and calories, the makers of the Pot Noodle have decided to harness its appeal to Britain's student population.

Family wants tougher laws

This from the Enquirer:

Jessica Logan's nude cell-phone photo - meant for her boyfriend's eyes only - was sent to hundreds of teenagers last year in at least seven Greater Cincinnati high schools.

The 18-year-old Sycamore High School senior was then bombarded with taunts: slut, porn queen, whore.

On July 3, Jessie hanged herself in her bedroom.

She was Albert and Cynthia Logan's only child.

"My only baby that I will never be able to touch again," Cynthia Logan said through tears. "I will never have grandchildren. I will never be able to hand down my heirlooms. I'm just devastated by these parents that allow their children to do and say anything they want."

Now, Jessie's parents are attempting to launch a national campaign seeking laws to address "sexting" - the practice of forwarding and posting sexually explicit cell-phone photos online. The Logans also want to warn teens of the harassment, humiliation and bullying that can occur when that photo gets forwarded.

Cynthia Logan and Parry Aftab, an attorney and one of the leading authorities on Internet security and cyberbullying, plan to attach Jessie's name to a national campaign to educate teens about the dangers of sexting.

Aftab, based in New York, is the catalyst for a network of volunteers working to stop cyberbullying. She operates two Web sites: wiredsafety.org, the world's largest and oldest cyber safety organization, and stopcyberbullying.org.

"Schools need to understand our kids are targeting each other and how technology is being used as a weapon," Aftab said. "None of them (the schools) know what to do. Many of them ... think it's not their problem. They want to close their eyes and put fingers in their ears, saying it's a home issue."

Quick Hits

Empower teachers to deal with unruly students - Don't spare the rod: Overwork, large classes and poor pay are issues that worry new teachers. But according to a recent Australian Education Union survey of teachers across Australia, the other issue at the forefront of their minds is classroom behaviour. (The Age -Australia)

Autistic boy's arrest at Oregon school fuels debate on discipline for disabled: Cindy Gaspard knew something was different about her son, Dylan, when he was 6 months old. Dylan, a sixth-grader enrolled in a special-needs program in Sumner County schools, was recently handcuffed, arrested and put in juvenile detention after an outburst in school. He was charged with two counts of assault for biting and scratching teachers. (The Tennessean)

Notre Dame sticking with Obama for commencement: The University of Notre Dame is sticking with its invitation to President Obama to speak at its May 17 commencement despite criticism from some Roman Catholics that his views on abortion and stem cell research run counter to Catholic teachings. (Chicago Tribune)

Transparency Time For Vouchers?: Aiming to "restart" the dialogue on accountability for publicly funded voucher programs, a Washington think tank argues in a new report that voucher proponents need to “wake up—and catch up to the educational demands and expectations of the 21st century.” (Ed Week)

California College students get $2-a-day lesson in poverty: A group of students at Point Loma Nazarene University is learning firsthand what Third World poverty can feel like – at least for a few days. From Wednesday through today, about 25 students are living on $2 a day: sleeping in a shanty village outside the campus gym, boiling their drinking water and eating only what their pooled dollars can buy. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Historian John Hope Franklin Dies: John Hope Franklin, who was a pioneer in chronicling African-American history and worked on the nation's landmark school desegregation case, died March 24 in Durham, N.C., of congestive heart failure. He was 94. In 1947, the historian wrote From Slavery to Freedom, which is considered a seminal text on the black experience in the United States. (Ed Week)

200 educators meet, discuss cyberbullying: A Chula Vista principal is falsely portrayed as a racist on a phony MySpace page created by a disgruntled student. A Carlsbad girl is forced to switch schools after a falling out with friends prompts threatening text messages and harassing phone calls. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

State Consortium to Update Standards for New Teachers: The Council of Chief State School Officers announced last week that its Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium will convene a committee to revise its core standards for what teachers should know and be able to do. The rewritten guidelines are expected to reflect new information about how students learn, media and technology literacy, the greater diversity in the student population, the growth of testing, and "21st-century skills," the Washington-based organization said. (Ed Week)

Colorado professor wins wrongful-firing suit: A jury ruled Thursday that the University of Colorado wrongly fired the professor who compared some 9/11 victims to a Nazi, a verdict that gives the professor $1 and a chance to get his job back. (Herald-Leader)

K-12 Taking Primacy in States' Targeting of Stimulus Dollars: Many states are targeting the new education aid at elementary and secondary schools, rather than toward higher education. (Ed Week)

Campus security bills for speakers challenged: When a UC Berkeley student group invited a speaker known for his hard-line pro-Israel stance, the university feared clashes with Palestinian supporters and billed the group more than $3,000 for police protection. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Stimulus Providing Big Funding Boost For Early Childhood: Advocates are betting that the billions of dollars for programs like Head Start are just a “down payment” on future expansion. (Ed Week)

Many college students face mountain of debt once they graduate: College costs are rising and students are borrowing heavily. And after they graduate, they're saddled with loan payments imposing a significant impact on their lives for many years. (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Study questions use of drugs on children with A D D: Provoking a heated debate, data indicate drug treatment of children's hyperactivity doesn't help as much as once believed. (Miami Herald)

Arizona Voucher Programs Lose in State's High Court: Programs for students with disabilities and those in foster care violate a state ban on aid to private schools, the Arizona Supreme Court said. (Ed Week)

Dispute over state funds leads to closure of voucher school: A Milwaukee military-style academy could become prominent in a debate on rules that have allowed participants in Milwaukee's school voucher program to avoid making any kind of public report on student performance or academic activity. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Portland School Board denies renewal of popular charter school: The Portland School Board didn't renew the contract of three-year-old Leadership and Entrepreneurship (LEP) Charter High School on Monday night. But, after hours of discussion, board members encouraged officials at the popular school to file an appeal and keep strengthening the school's budget. (The Oregonian)

Schools Take Steps to Defuse Anti-Gay Group's Protests: Faced with demonstrations by anti-gay extremists, administrators at schools in the Baltimore and Washington areas worked with law-enforcement officials and took other steps in advance to maintain a peaceful environment for students and faculty members last week. Members of Westboro Baptist Church, classified as a hate group by the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, picketed on roads near but not on school property at Fairfax High School in Fairfax County, Va., as well as on roads near Towson High School in Towson, Md., on March 30, denouncing those schools’ gay-straight alliances and diversity groups. (Ed Week)

Connecticut School Bans Physical Contact: East Shore M.S. Outlaws "High-Fives," "Hugging" And Horseplay Of Any Kind; Violators May Face ExpulsionMILFORD, Conn. A Connecticut middle school principal has laid down the law: You put your hands on someone -- anyone -- in any way, you're going to pay. A violent incident that put one student in the hospital has officials at the Milford school implementing a "no touching" policy, according to a letter written by the school's principal. (CBS News)

Court Upholds Little Rock Desegregation Order: A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a judge's ruling that the Little Rock School District has met terms of a long-standing desegregation order. "The judgment declaring the Little Rock School District to be completely unitary is affirmed," the court wrote. (Ed Week)

Deasy's former district Board Votes to Close 8 Schools: Eight Prince George's County schools, most of them inside the Capital Beltway or in the southern part of the county, will close next year under a revised plan the Board of Education approved last night, saving the school system nearly $6 million in a tight budget year. (Washington Post)

Parents lobby to spare gifted program: They were promised local control and better schools. But the new district's plans to pare down an Accelerated Learning Program (ALPS) for gifted elementary students has parents feeling blindsided and questioning the administration's commitment to excellence. (Salt Lake Tribune)

Private schools scramble to help families pay tuition: School administrators say everybody’s working overtime to keep children in school. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Admitting Top 10% to college has proved solid public policy: As they've done since 1996, when Texas' Top 10 percent rule became law, there is a drive in the Legislature to undermine the automatic admission to any public university for the top 10th of each high school graduating class. (San Antonio Express-News)

New ethics code would cover charter schools: Charter-school administrators would be barred from using school funds, school credit cards, or lines of credit for personal gain under a new ethics code being released today. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Behind the boom in AP courses: Participation in AP courses has skyrocketed in recent years as many school districts have adopted open-enrollment policies, allowing any student willing to take on the work a chance to try the college-level courses. (San Antonio Express-News)

Public money for private schools?: “You're damn right I'm hurting public education, because public education is hurting our kids,” S.C. State Sen. Robert Ford said. Ford is putting a new face on the long-running fight over whether to spend public education dollars to pay for private schools. To the dismay of his African American colleagues, the Charleston Democrat is hawking a bill that would give students a publicly paid scholarship or tuition grant to go to a private school. (Charlotte Observer)

More students get subsidized lunches: The number of Massachusetts families seeking free and reduced-price meals for schoolchildren is rising as economic hardships extend to school lunchrooms. (Boston Globe)

NYC Teachers Misbehaved in Record Numbers in '08: They watched porn on work computers, falsified records to pad their pockets, faked doctors' notes to go on vacations abroad. And they all worked for New York City schools. Misconduct accusations against teachers and other Department of Education employees hit a record high of 2,886 last year, according to a Special Commissioner of Investigation. (New York Post)

Education's Ground Zero by Nicholas Kristof : Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of schools, has high aims in Washington, D.C., including setting an example for education reform across the country. Education reform could be the most potent antipoverty program in the country, and Ms. Rhee represents the vanguard in this struggle to try new tools to revive American schools. Unless we succeed in that effort and get more students through high school and into college, no bank bailout or stimulus package will be enough to preserve America’s global leadership in the long run. (Washington Post)

Texas Education board's vote a mixed bag for evolution

This from Breitbart:

Texas science teachers will no longer be required to teach weaknesses of scientific theory, including evolution, under new curriculum standards tentatively adopted by the State Board of Education on Thursday.

Supporters of evolution hailed the vote but were critical of amendments adopted by the board that they said could create new paths to teaching creationism and the similar theory of intelligent design in public schools.

If given final approval in a vote expected Friday, the new standards will drop a 20-year-old rule that requires both "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories to be taught. Critics say the requirement is used to undermine the theory of evolution in favor of religious teachings.

The new standards, which would be in place for the next decade, govern what appears on standardized tests and material published in textbooks. As one of the
largest textbook purchasers in the nation, Texas has significant influence over the content of books marketed across the country...

Disputed article, editorial printed in school paper

This from the San Diego Union-Tribune:


Ban on writings had spurred suit

FALLBROOK — A special edition of Fallbrook High School's student newspaper has published an article and an editorial that the principal and school district had killed, resulting in a lawsuit.

The two pieces were killed by Fallbrook High principal Rod King, who had concerns about possible inaccuracies and the tone of the editorial. Scheduled for publication in May 2008, the editorial criticized abstinence-only sex education. The news story, written in late 2007, was critical of former Superintendent Tom Anthony.

In November, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Fallbrook Union High School District for violating the free speech of students. The lawsuit has not been resolved.

Superintendent Dale Mitchell said the two pieces were printed last week in The Tomahawk because of new articles that ran with them that explained the controversy. He said the district is interested in resolving the lawsuit without going to court.

“It's a victory for free speech that the district finally lifted the ban on publishing the article and the editorial,” said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties. “It should not have had to take a lawsuit and motion to do it.”

The article alleged that Anthony, whose contract the district bought out in early 2008, was slow to evacuate the high school during the October 2007 wildfires. It said Anthony had met with fire and law enforcement officials and was advised to immediately declare an evacuation. The article didn't give the source of the information or include any comments from the people who were allegedly in the meeting. The district said no such meeting occurred.

King said he doubted the editorial was written only by students, and said it lacked pertinent information. A fact box in last week's edition notes that Fallbrook High teaches about contraceptives and abstinence.

The writers of the disputed pieces have since graduated, and the school is no longer offering journalism as a class..

This from the Student Press Law Center:

Adviser removed at Calif. high school

after challenging principal's censorship

CALIFORNIA — Administrators removed a journalism adviser from his position at Fallbrook High School after he defended students against two instances of censorship.
The Tomahawk, the student newspaper at the Fallbrook, Calif., high school, was first censored in November when it was covering the removal of former superintendent Tom Anthony by the Board of Trustees. Principal Rod King required the paper to remove the story, said David Evans, the adviser.

The paper was again censored in May, while it was preparing its final issue of the year. A student wrote an editorial that was critical of federal support of abstinence-only education. In an e-mail to Evans, King said he was "not at all comfortable" with the editorial, saying it was "one-sided" and controversial.

"You have done such a great job with the paper this year, to end it with such a one sided controversial piece would not do justice to all the great accomplishments," King wrote.

But both instances of censorship were in violation of the California Education Code, which states that censorship is legal only if the content is "obscene, libelous, or slanderous" or incites danger or a substantial disruption of the school, wrote Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center, in a letter to Evans.

Goldstein wrote that the justifications given for censorship of the editorial by the principal don't meet applicable legal standards.

"Nothing in the law cares about the principal's comfort level or permits censorship of controversial topics," Goldstein wrote...

Black Texas principal singles out black students to improve test scores

This from the Dallas Morning News:

...Grand Prairie High School principal Joseph Showell took a calculated risk. He called 60 black students into a meeting and challenged them to do better on their TAKS tests.

All of them were on the bubble. They had either narrowly failed or barely passed the exam last year.

Showell theorized that he could motivate the students to do better this year by explaining that their performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills is important to the school's overall academic rating and reputation.

Such is the high-pressure world of TAKS testing, which plays out in March and April. Bad scores in a single subject by just one student subgroup – blacks, Hispanics, whites and the economically disadvantaged – can torpedo a school's academic ranking or sink a principal's career.

Some students appreciated his candor. Others were offended and felt singled out for criticism because they are black.

"I said [to the principal], 'How can you call us stupid and not expect us to get mad," said Ashanti Rose, one of the black students called into the meeting last month.

At Grand Prairie High School, the black student subgroup had dragged the school's rating down in 2006 and 2007. Showell, who is black, decided in 2008 that it was time for a straight talk with the black students. He says he never called them stupid or demeaned them.

"It's not about being mean with the kids. That's not what I do," he said. "But you want to have the kids understand exactly where they are academically, because for a lot of them, this is the first time this information has been explained to them this way."

No one really knows, but the talks may have worked. In 2008, black student scores improved and the school moved from academically unacceptable to acceptable.

To some, a principal talking to students about racial subgroups in the TAKS system seemed unorthodox. But Showell believes his detailed explanation of the testing system could mean the difference between passing and failing.

"These are students that are not achieving, but they have the ability," Showell said. "These are not students that necessarily need remediation ... but just more motivation." ...

Quick Hits

NKU sorority suspended for hazing: Northern Kentucky University administrators have suspended the school's chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. for hazing its pledges.
Three students were subjected to "repeated and severe paddling," school officials said in a statement released Friday. They sought medical treatment for injuries including blistering, infections and fractures. The alleged incidents happened over several days in the first week of March at an off-campus house. (H-L)

KCTCS College faculty gives no confidence vote to regents: The faculty at Southeast Community and Technical College voted overwhelmingly to give the system's board of regents a vote of no confidence Friday in light of the regents' move to eliminate tenure for future hires.Instructors at the three campuses of that branch of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System voted 68-30 with seven abstentions, said Roy Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast's Cumberland campus. (H-L)

UK, state colleges try to absorb cuts while bracing for more: At this week's town-hall style meeting with students, University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. told the 25 coeds gathered in the Cats Den that the university would have needed a 6.5 percent tuition increase next year just to keep up with rising costs. Instead, UK kept to the Council on Postsecondary Education's 5 percent tuition increase cap for the 2009-2010 year.Todd said UK officials hope to shield cash-strapped families as well as academic programs from as much of the financial burden as possible in tuition, room and board. "But the budget and the national situation is really ugly," he told them. Todd followed that up with an e-mail to faculty, students and staff alerting them that UK employees won't get raises for the second consecutive year. (H-L)

Catching Up on Robert Felner

I'm a few stories behind on the Robert Felner scandal at UofL, so to catch up...

In March, UofL released its audit of the College of Education and Human Development in the wake of the Robert Felner saga.

PageOne Kentucky reported UofL failed to follow its own internal processes regarding a personal service contract involving grant funds suggesting that the university can't effectively audit itself. The university's audit disagreed.

By the end of the month the court held a hearing to determine if comments Felner made during the interview preceeding his arrest could be used against him in a criminal trial.

This from C-J:

During a six-hour-plus interview with federal investigators last summer, former University of Louisville education dean Robert Felner went from being described as confident by investigators and a colleague to saying he was "freaked" and asking if he could go to jail.

"I'm starting to feel like I'm getting thrown under the bus," Felner said in a tape-recorded conversation with investigators that was played in court today during a hearing to decide if comments he made during the interview can be used against him in a criminal trial...

UofL Police Sgt. Jeffrey Jewell and U.S. Postal Inspector Jason Tatum... maintained ... that Felner did not invoke his right to a lawyer.

Recordings of the interview include Felner asking the investigators on several occasions whether he needed an attorney. At one point, Jewell responded: "That's your decision ... I won't talk you into it and I won't talk you out of it."

Cox also asked Jewell and Tatum if they told Felner that he could leave the interview at any time and had the right not to answer their questions. Both men said they did not tell Felner that, but Jewell said he repeatedly told Felner he was not under arrest.

During questioning by Cox, Jewell said he felt that Felner was "being deceptive in his responses."The tape includes segments where Jewell appears to put pressure on Felner to talk. Jewell tells Felner he plans on getting his IRS files, and that he knows Felner has "criminal problems."

"I don't want you to get caught up in lying to me OK?" Jewell said. "I can help you."

Cox has argued that Felner did not know he was free to leave because he was escorted to and from the bathroom and his car, and in at least two instances during the interview was asked to sit down.

In a tape-recorded exchange with Jewell at the end of the interview, Felner acknowledged he knew he was not under arrest, but said he did not know he had the option of leaving or not talking to the agents.

"I felt like I was escorted everywhere. I couldn't go anywhere. If I made a move to get up and leave, then I was in trouble," he said to Jewell. "... I didn't feel like I could leave the premises."

Finally, in an apparent abundance of support, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Edward C. Halperin, dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Louisville equated the Felner affair to the Duke Lacrosse scandal warning in C-J:

In view of the controversy swirling around former Dean Robert Felner and Thomas Schroeder, their recent indictments on mail fraud, money laundering conspiracy and income tax evasion, and the collateral accusations made regarding oversight procedures at the University of Louisville, I would like to offer some lessons I learned during the Duke lacrosse episode that might be of use to others:

Don't rush to judgment...no one has been convicted of anything. All citizens are innocent until proven guilty. We have no idea whether, in reference to the grant money in question, there is a "scandal of substantial depth and magnitude" until all the facts are made available and the matter has been addressed in the courts...

Fair enough. We look forward to reading his next letter to the editor when the court has ruled.

Hat tip to PageOne.

A Day at the Races

Max Gilpin was in distress at practice, father says

This from the Courier-Journal:

Max Gilpin had heat stroke, died

Five to eight minutes after Pleasure Ridge Park High School senior Antonio Calloway collapsed while running drills during an Aug. 20 football practice, someone pointed out to Jeff Gilpin that his 15-year-old son, Max, appeared to be cramping as the team continued to run, according to court documents filed this week.

In written answers to questions from lawyers for former PRP football coach David Jason Stinson, Jeff Gilpin said his son was in distress but kept running, trying to finish drills Stinson was using to punish the team, telling them "we are going to run until someone quits."

Max, a sophomore lineman on the varsity team, collapsed of heat stroke at the practice and died three days later at Kosair Children's Hospital, after his body temperature had reached 107 degrees.

Gilpin said Max never moved and was not conscious when the ambulance arrived at the practice field....

Massillon Alexander Cassidy

In Judge Charles Kerr's 1922 History of Kentucky, Massillon Alexander Cassidy's leadership in the Lexington schools is described as comparing favorably "with those of any other city in the country" and his innovations were frequently replicated "in various other sections of the country which have realized the value of elevated educational standards."

Cassidy was born August 22, 1856 at Morristown Tennessee the son of Martha Matilda (Jackson) Cassidy and Jeremiah Alexander Cassidy. Cassidy's father was an educator of some note from Virginia.

The descendants of M A Cassidy tell a story from his youth that they say shaped his character and influenced his later life as one of Kentucky's most influential educators during the progressive era.

During the Civil War, when Cassidy was still very young, he served as a Confederate soldier. One day he came home to see his mother. Union soldiers were patrolling in the area and came to her home in an attempt to find him. His mother, Martha Matilda, saw them coming and had Massillon climb down into the family's well with the cedar wooden bucket and windlass to hide. When they had finished searching, the Union Captain asked Martha for a drink of water.

Massillon's mother said, "On one condition. Provided that I can have the first bucket load."

When they drew the first bucket up with Massillon in it, the Captain said, "Madam, I am a man of my word. You can keep the first bucket load."

Cassidy was spared by kindness and the meaning of a man's word.

Cassidy gained his primary education in private schools and graduated from the Reagan High School for Boys in Morristown and later received a Master's Degree from UK. He taught briefly in Tennessee, studied law in Knoxville, passed the bar and practiced for two years before becoming a journalist.

He was elected Superintendent in Fayette County in 1885. Cassidy was "so popular and successful" that he was reelected to five successive four-year terms, and for four of those years, he held joint superintendency of the county and city schools.

On June 4, 1899, the Lexington Leader reported that a "Cassidy Club" was formed to advance his candidacy for Superintendent.

The friends of the candidacy of Mr. M A Cassidy for the Democratic nomination of State superintendent of Public Instruction met last night in the Circuit Court room and organized a Cassidy Club, having for its object the furtherance of his interests regardless of the governor's race.

In 1901, Cassidy resigned from the county position and remained superintendent of the city schools. During his tenure, he increased enrollment "from a few hundred pupils to about 7,000." Kerr writes,

"The City of Lexington has long enjoyed the reputation of having one of the best administared and most up-to-date systems of schools found anywhere in the country ... and was one of the first cities in the United States to reorganize its schools on the 6-3-3- plan."

Cassidy also implemented:

• "open air schools"
• the penny lunch
• a community center with a swimming pool and auditorium
• manual training
• "domestic economy"
• restrooms,
• "opportunity classes ... for irregular children"
• junior high schools
• "kindergarten in all white schools adn some of the negro schools"
• laundries in the basements of schools for both children and parents"
• "moving picture apparatus"
• opened building for community use
• clean and well-kept buildings

Cassidy

• condemned nearly every school in the county as his first act as superintendent
• held the first county graduation ceremonies in Kentucky
• employed teachers who were college graduates
• authored Golden Deeds which served as the text for a character education program in Lexington
• formed the Fayette County teachers' Normal Institute in 1887
• was described in the Lexington Leader as "familiar to every teacher n Kentucky"
• appointed a Catholic school trustee in 1896
• formed the Fayette County Colored Teachers' Institute in 1901 with Prof J H Johnson.
• removed the colored board of trustees for not reporting school census
• was regarded as the father of Kentucky's progressive school laws form 1993 - 1905.
• served as President of the Kentucky Education Association and was active with the NEA.
• served as President of the Southern Association
• authored numerous articles and was recognized by the American School Board Journal and St Nicholas Magazine
• was a member of the Democratic Party, the Masons and the Presbyterian church
• Called for tax increases to better suport the schools on several occasions
• died December 22, 1928.

A memorial in tribute to Cassidy was erected at the Lexington Cemetry in October, 1930.

Cassidy School Gets a Face Lift

The Herald-Leader ran a short piece this morning on the renovation of my old stomping ground, M A Cassidy School in Lexington. Renovation of the building had been on the planning board for about a decade without sufficient funding to get the job done. That changed last year when Stu Silberman pushed through a local "nickle" tax to allow for better care of facilities in Fayette County.

An $11 million renovation and expansion has begun at Lexington's M.A. Cassidy Elementary School. Four portable classrooms are being used right now, and additional portables are being placed near the rear of the building for use next fall.

The school was built in 1935 and named for Massilon Alexander Cassidy, who was superintendent of Lexington Schools from 1885 to 1928 and was among the most prominent educators in the state.

Cassidy circa 1949.

In 1956 Cassidy School underwent a major expansion project with the addition of ten classrooms, a gymnasium and cafeteria.

In 1976, Cassidy students were briefly moved to the Old Picadome School while the building was remodeled.

In 1988, four more classrooms were added.

Cassidy circa 1991.

Duncan: Mayors Need Control of Urban Schools

This from the Chicago Tribune:

WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Tuesday that mayors should take control of big-city school districts where academic performance is suffering. Duncan said mayoral control provides the strong leadership and stability needed to overhaul urban schools. Mayors run the schools in fewer than a dozen big cities; only seven have full control over management and operations. That includes Chicago, where Duncan headed the school system until joining the Obama administration. Speaking at a forum with mayors and superintendents, Duncan promised to help more mayors take over.

"At the end of my tenure, if only seven mayors are in control, I think I will have failed," Duncan said...

Citing that Baltimore had seven different superintendents iun the past decade, Duncan asked,

And you wonder why school systems are struggling," Duncan said. "What business would run that way?"

Duncan told the Associated Press that urban schools need someone who is accountable to voters and driving all of a city's resources behind children.

"Part of the reason urban education has struggled historically is you haven't had that leadership from the top," he said. "That lack of stability, that lack of leadership is a huge part of the reason you don't see sustained progress and growth," Duncan said.

It is unusual for a Cabinet secretary to weigh in on local matters. Yet Duncan has been emphatic on the subject, calling for mayoral takeover of Detroit public schools and for New York lawmakers to renew the law giving Mayor Michael Bloomberg control over his city's schools.

Duncan said it's impossible to have a great city without great schools that provide a skilled work force to bring and keep jobs.

It remains to be seen how Duncan's message will be received this weekend when he is scheduled to address the National School Boards Association, which represents local school boards that control districts across the country and opposes mayoral control.

Mayoral control is worth considering in about 400 of the biggest school districts, said Kenneth Wong, a Brown University professor who studies the issue. Those districts enroll about a third of the nation's 50 million school children.

Minorities, mostly Hispanics, flock to suburban schools

This from USA Today:

Minority enrollment in suburban school districts has exploded since the early 1990s, and Hispanic students account for most of that growth, a report released Tuesday finds.

But the data show that while districts outside urban and rural areas have seen remarkable gains in black, Hispanic and Asian students from 1993 to 2007, schools within some of those districts have grown more segregated.

"In spite of the rapid demographic changes at the level of the school district, when you actually look at the schools kids attend, there still might be issues of racial and ethnic balance," says Richard Fry, a senior research associate for the Pew Hispanic Center and author of the report.

The findings come as enrollment in suburban schools has increased by 3.4 million during the past decade and a half. Meanwhile, the number of white suburban students slipped by 1%, reflecting a shift in the once largely white enclaves that defined suburban schools...

New Search Firm Twice as Expensive ...as that Bad One

The Kentucky Board of Education spent $60,000 searching for Commissioners in 2007. Ray & Associates was hired for the ill-fated search that produced Barbara Erwin and the board conducted its own search before hiring Jon Draud.

Now the board will pay Greenwood/Asher & Associates Inc., a Florida-based consulting firm, $120,000 to guide a new search for another education commissioner, the third since Gene Wilhoit resigned in November 2006. Greenwood/Ashher is the same firm that placed President Lee Todd at UK in 2001, and President Jim Votruba at NKU in 1997. The CPE paid them $130,000 to help search for its new president, Robert King, who was hired in December.

Board of Education chair, Joe Brothers told C-J's Toni Konz he's not frustrated about having to pay more for a new search.

"No, it's not really a frustration," he said. "It's a disappointment in some ways … but that is par for the course."

Greenwood/Asher's President and CEO Jan Greenwood told C-J her firm will recruit potential candidates and place advertisements in statewide and national publications, perform background checks, interview references and help the board conduct interviews.

This is all well and good. But it is no substitute for the board doing some extra digging on their own when it reaches the finalist stage.

KSN&C has had a couple of off-the-record conversations that convince us that board members are plenty sensitive to the errors of the past and are dedicated to a better process this time around. But just in case, and assuming finalists will be named (as we hear they will be) KSN&C will be doing some of its own vetting as well.

This from the State Journal:

Kentucky Board of Education members plan to put an education commissioner in place by Aug. 1, Chairman Joe Brothers said after meeting with the group’s search firm Wednesday.

According to a tentative search schedule, the board could review potential candidates in early June, followed by two rounds of interviews on June 23 and 24, and July 8, 9 or 10....

After the meeting, Brothers told reporters the board doesn’t have a preference for an in-state or out-of-state candidate.

“There’s a preference to get the very best for Kentucky’s kids,” he said.

He said the recent passage of Senate Bill 1, which does away with the state’s Commonwealth Accountability Testing System, shows Kentucky is “stepping up” and could present a good opportunity for the right candidate.

Board members had suggestions Wednesday for what that candidate would look like. Several said they hope he or she has experience in the classroom, but members agreed that the next commissioner could come from outside the education field.

Board member Billy Harper, a western Kentucky businessman, said he hopes to hire an “innovator” like University of Kentucky President Lee Todd.

“He came - not out of the education world - having that dream for UK, willing to do what it takes to move the university forward,” he said. ...

Kentucky's Math and Science Initiative Expands

AdvanceKentucky Announces 15 New High Schools
to Participate in the National Math and Science Initiative

AP Teacher Training and Incentive Program

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fifteen (15) new high schools are joining AdvanceKentucky, bringing to 27 schools that are implementing the AP Teacher Training and Incentive Program. AdvanceKY is funded by a $13.2 million grant from the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), which is supported by ExxonMobil, Dell and Gates Foundations. The NMSI model has over a decade of data from Texas schools demonstrating its proven ability to dramatically accelerate success in rigorous math, science and English (MSE) courses and on Advanced Placement exams, particularly among underrepresented student populations. AdvanceKY is replicating this model involving content-rich teacher training and incentives for teachers and students who achieve qualifying scores on MSE AP exams.

Fifteen (15) new high schools in Cohort 2 are: Bellevue, Bowling Green, Bryan Station, East Jessamine, Franklin-Simpson, Graves County, Highlands, Hopkins County Central, Johnson Central, Madisonville North Hopkins, Montgomery County, Paintsville, Powell County, Warren Central, and West Jessamine.

Twelve (12) other high schools in Cohort 1 already implementing the program are: Anderson County, Barren County, Corbin, Henderson County, Lone Oak, Marion County, North Laurel, Reidland, Scott County, Shelby County, South Laurel, and Warren East.

On average, 41 percent of the 27 high schools’ total enrollments are eligible for free or reduced lunch; 11 percent are minority students. In Cohort 1 schools, enrollments have increase by107 percent in numbers of students eligible for free or reduced lunch by 81 percent in numbers of minority students.

Projected 09/10 MSE enrollments across these 27 schools will exceed 5,100, which represents 39 percent of their total number of juniors and seniors, who typically take these rigorous MSE courses.

Growth goals in qualifying scores on 2010 MSE AP exams among these schools reach 1,976 -- compared to 904 earned in 2008 -- which may earn college credit for these high school students.

Using Cohort 1 schools for context, their collective 2009 exam qualifying score goal is 702, up from a baseline of 320. These initial 12 schools are projecting to dramatically exceed their Year 1 goals and are poised to prove that the success of model in Kentucky.

A total of 181 MSE AP courses are planned for the 09/10 school year, which includes 40 new AP course offerings above the current year. This will involve training for 176 AP teachers and a projected 250 Pre-AP teachers this summer.

SOURCE: KDE press release

KBE Discusses Commish Search, School Assistance

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – At its regular meeting Wednesday and Thursday, the Kentucky Board of Education heard presentations, had in-depth discussions and made decisions on a number of items.

The board had a lengthy discussion with Greenwood/Asher & Associates, Inc., the firm hired to conduct the search for a new commissioner of education. Representatives from the Florida-based firm outlined a timeline that would culminate with the hiring of a new commissioner in August. The board has entered into a contract that would pay the firm a maximum of $120,000 for its work.

The board heard a presentation on the state’s student information system, which is provided through Infinite Campus. All of Kentucky’s 174 public school districts have implemented the core components of the system.

Staff from the Department of Education’s Office of Leadership and School Improvement and Office of Special Instructional Services provided an update on the Assist and Support School Improvement Success Team (ASSIST) initiative, which is designed to provide support and resources to schools and districts in need of improvement based on state and federal academic accountability measures.

The board took the following actions:

• approved the appointment of Catherine Fernandez, a teacher in the Henderson County school district, and David McFadden, a teacher in the Laurel County school district, to the State Textbook Commission
• approved the district facility plan for Bell County
• approved a district facility plan amendment for Ballard County
• appointed board members Dorie Combs, Doug Hubbard and Austin Moss to a work group that will study sports safety as mandated by House Bill 383
• accepted the report of the Audit Committee

Other reports and presentations included:

• an update from AdvanceKentucky on Advanced Placement courses and resources
• a review of legislation passed in the 2009 session of the General Assembly
• discussion about the requirements of Senate Bill 1, which revamped the state’s public school assessment and accountability system
• information about safety training for coaches and other staff related to high school athletics
• an update from the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development and Kentucky Center for Mathematics on statewide coaching initiatives

The board will hold its annual retreat on May 12 and 13 in Frankfort. The board’s next regular meeting will be June 10 and 11 in Frankfort.

SOURCE: KDE press release

Charter Schools Coming Soon to Kentucky

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan yesterday announced that $44 billion for states and schools is now available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 and it's time for states to come to Jesus.

One of the provisions is likely to expand the charter school discussions in Kentucky into the historically resistant mainstream.

As Politics K-12 reports:

States must report whether they allow charter schools and whether there is a cap restricting the number of such schools, the number of charter schools currently operating in the state, and the number of charter schools closed within the last three years for academic reasons. (President Obama just called for states to lift caps on charter school capacity and expansion.)

The current answer to these financially rewarding questions in Kentucky is:
No;
Yes, Zero;
Zero (unless you count the two stealth semi-charters in Bowling Green and Louisville); and
Zero.

The White House Stimulus funding is intended to lay the foundation for a generation of education reform and help save hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts.

"Given our economic circumstances, it's critical that money go out quickly but
it's even more important that it be spent wisely," said Duncan.

The announcement includes the application and guidelines for $32.6 billion under the State Stabilization Fund, representing two-thirds of the total dollars in the Fund. This includes $26.6 billion to save jobs and improve K-12 and higher education and a separate $6 billion in a Government Services Fund to pay for education, public safety or other government services.

Funds in the first round will be released within two weeks of an application's approval. A second round of stabilization funds will be released later in the year. A third round of funding, the Race to the Top competitive grant program will reward states that have made the most progress on reforms.

In addition,

*States must collect data on the number and percentage of teachers and principals rated at each performance level in each district's teacher-evaluation system, and on the number and percentage of teacher and principal evaluation systems that require evidence of student-achievement outcomes. (A signal that the department is serious about boosting teacher effectiveness.)

*States must report the number and percentage of students by school who graduate high school and go on to complete at least one year’s worth of college credit (as applicable to a degree) within two years.

(Do all states have this capability?)

Attention: Shelly & Stu - or is it Jerry & Jim?

Arne Duncan Advocates Mayoral Takeover of Big-City Districts

This from Politics K-12:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan grew up in a school system dominated by mayoral control. He's said he loses sleep at night over Detroit Public Schools.

And he's weighed in on New York City's governance structure, declaring that the city's public schools are best left in the mayor's hands. Now, as if the education secretary doesn't have enough going on, he's wading even further—and more dramatically—into the thorny issue of local control and school governance by declaring that more big-city mayors need to take over school districts. And if the numbers don't rise, he said according to Libby Quaid's Associated Press story, he will have failed as secretary." ...

"Best left in the hands of mayors" is not much of an argument. Duncan will have to do better than that. Kentucky has avoided this circumstance largely, I suppose, because there has yet to be any push for it.