Spin is all the rage these days, in education and pretty much everywhere else (yes, including the media). The funny thing about spin is how obvious it is. As a reporter or a private citizen, it can make you crazy if you don’t find a way to call it for what it is.

That’s what a blogger for The Dallas Morning News did after spotting an article in the August issue of The School Administrator magazine titled, “Eliminate Bad News by Eradicating Negative Language.”

No more straight talk. Euphemisms, all the way.

In response, blogger Tawnell Hobbs, gives some advice of his own: “THIS DOESN’T WORK.”

You can read the blog post here. Read the rest of this entry »

Hopefully next week will be as slow of a news week as this one was, because I won’t be here to write about it.

I’m taking a summer vacation before it’s too late. But, as Jesse mentioned, a few guest bloggers are lined up to keep the discussions going in my place.

I’ll be back Aug. 4, but I’m sure I’ll be checking in with you while I’m gone. Take care, and be good!

image from Because Of’s site at flickr.com/creativecommons

Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Rigoberta Menchu, Susan B. Anthony, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Winston Churchill will be cast in stone, side by side, in a new bronze sculpture, “Remember Them,” to be installed in downtown Oakland. 

And, as soon as it’s completed, every Oakland high school student will study the “lives and lessons” of  these human rights leaders in a mandatory curriculum designed by the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

Mario Chiodo, an Oakland artist, chose 25 people to feature in the installment. He is donating his time for the Oakland Chamber of Commerce Foundation project and some art students will have a chance to work with him on the piece, according to the ”Remember Them” Web site.

Tomorrow, the Oakland Rotary is donating $40,000 to the educational aspect.  

Which major historical figures are typically studied in Oakland schools? Read the rest of this entry »

It seems the school board is trying to mend its loquacious ways; there are actual times posted next to certain agenda items for Wednesday’s regularly scheduled meeting. I’ll be there with my stopwatch. See full agenda here.

Come at 6 p.m. if you want to catch the performances of the Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Festival winners. Right afterward, while some of the feel-good sentiment still lingers in the air, the board is scheduled to discuss and vote on the new admissions priorities and middle school “megaboundaries” for elementary school kids who are redirected from their home schools.

The public comment session is scheduled for 7 p.m. (After just 30-40 minutes on the enrollment discussion? We’ll see…) At 7:30 p.m., a detailed presentation of the 2008-09 budget is supposed to begin.

Below are the responses I received today from the enrollment and admissions crew, based on questions some of you all have asked me about the proposed policy changes. Read the rest of this entry »

BEST, one of two small high schools on West Oakland’s McClymonds campus, has had two principals (at least) since it opened in 2005.

This spring, families learned that Principal James Gray would be sent packing at the end of the school year, and that the school would not have an incoming ninth-grade class this fall.

Those changes, combined with the low enrollment at the schools, seem to indicate the possibility of a merger of BEST and EXCEL. There are strong feelings on both sides of that debate. (Kizmet, a middle school once housed on Mack’s campus, closed in 2007, less than two years after it opened.)

I don’t know if the district has chosen a new leader Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: A week later, Caltrans changed its tune. On June 26, the agency wrote another letter stating that it no longer supports the proposed federal restrictions.

Remember the proposed change in federal transportation rules that could make it illegal for AC Transit and other bus agencies to provide special routes to schools? A change apparently designed to benefit private, “yellow school bus” companies?

Our transportation reporter, Erik Nelson, has learned that the California Department of Transportation thinks it’s a good idea. Caltrans submitted this comment yesterday, to the dismay of local public transit and school officials.

Why would Caltrans take such a position, when so many school districts rely on public transit agencies to schlep their students to and from school? Read the rest of this entry »

Finding a summer job stocking shelves, serving root beer floats — or even Filet-O-Fish — might not be as easy as it used to be, if you’re a high school kid looking for some pocket money.

I’ve read that youth employment is the lowest it’s been for decades — partly because of college application-padding experiences (for those who can afford a summer without a paycheck), but also because adults have been taking a lot of the unskilled, minimum wage jobs.

Have you found that to be true, here in the East Bay?

Below is a resource list for summer jobs. I’m not sure if all of these organizations are still hiring, but it’s probably information worth having in your back pocket if you’re a student or if you have a teenager in the house.

If anyone else is hiring, let us know! Read the rest of this entry »

I love getting e-mails from my 11-year-old cousin. They’re never written in plain old black ink, or standard font. They’re usually only a few sentences long, sometimes just a couple of words, but they give me a little glimpse into her world.

But that world, this week, on summer vacation, is not as fun and carefree as it might seem, she tells me:

Guess what? I have to go to my stupid dumb softball game with my stupid dumb softball coach yelling the whole game. You are actually lucky, even though you have to work. You don’t have to play softball. And to top that off, I don’t have any good books to read AT ALL. Wish me luck in life.

My first thought: She’s signing off as `someone’ now. This is serious.

Second thought: What did I read when I was her age, other than the Nancy Drew Files? Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to filling teaching vacancies, the Oakland school district relies heavily on “interns,” college graduates who are still working to complete their certification. About 40 percent of new OUSD hires in recent years fall into this category; they come through “alternate route” programs such as Teach for America and Oakland Teaching Fellows.

Andy Kwok, the teacher we’ve been following at EXCEL High School, is one of them. He majored in biology, the subject he teaches, but jumped straight into the classroom after a short summer preparation program. He took education classes at night.

Kwok and other intern teachers are considered “highly qualified” by the U.S. Department of Education. But Public Advocates, a civil rights law firm, challenged that definition in a lawsuit last year. They argued it violates the spirit of the No Child Left Behind law, and that it lets school systems get away with hiring less experienced teachers. Read the rest of this entry »

A law that would protect high school and college journalism teachers from being reassigned, fired or otherwise retaliated against because of student speech has passed the Assembly.

This reminds me of one of my first blog posts, last June.

Anyway, here’s the release, sent out Monday:

SACRAMENTO – On a bipartisan 66-5 vote, the California State Assembly today approved legislation to protect high school and college teachers and other employees from retaliation by administrators as a result of student speech, which most often happens when a journalism advisor or professor is disciplined for content in a student newspaper. The bill, which was approved by the Senate in April on a 35-2 vote, only requires a procedural concurrence vote in the Senate before consideration by the Governor.

Senate Bill 1370 by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) follows a 2006 law also authored by Yee which prohibits censorship of student press by administrators and protects students from being disciplined for engaging in speech or press activities.

There have been a number of documented cases throughout the state of journalism advisors being dismissed or reassigned due to student speech. In fact, Senator Yee’s office has learned of cases in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Claremont, Fremont, Novato, Oxnard, Rialto, and Garden Grove. Read the rest of this entry »