Saturday, August 11, 2007

Issue of Aug 12: The news that didn't fit

DEATH OF A NEIGHBORHOOD: hyperbole with hyperlinks LA Times Opinion Online - In Echo Park issues over the building of a new elementary school, the NIMBY contingent of whom Mr. Welsh is an unrepentant advocate here - contested the issue every step of the way and lost. smf notes: I've been accused of overstatement at times – but Times editorial writer Welsh outdoes me here! "LAUSD's $19-billion construction spree" – is as over-the-top a snippet of florid prose as I've seen …but it gets better!

IG REPORT QUESTIONS NCLB'S UNSAFE SCHOOLS OPTION by Lesli A. Maxwell – Education Week - The inspector general's office in the Department of Education is the latest in a steady line of critics to conclude that a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act meant to identify dangerous schools and allow students to transfer out of them is ineffective and needs an overhaul.

CIVIL RIGHTS, DISABILITY ORGS. CALL FOR "MULTIPLE MEASURES" IN "NO CHILD" OVERHAUL LEGISLATION - nearly two dozen major civil rights and disability advocacy groups today called on Congress to include "multiple forms of assessment" and "multiple measures or indicators of student progress" in legislation currently being drafted to overhaul the controversial "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) federal education law.

Update/Backdate: More about NCLB George Miller and other's weigh in!

GRADING MAYORAL CONTROL Lauded in the press, New York Mayor Bloomberg’s education reforms are proving more spin than substance. Parents are losing patience.

43 Days w/o a budget: STALEMATE APPEARS TO HARDEN by Dan Walters - It's been six weeks since the 2007-08 fiscal year began and three weeks since the Assembly passed a state budget. If anything, however, the stalemate in the Senate appears to be hardening and could set a record.

HIGH SCHOOL READING LISTS GET A MODERN MAKEOVER from The Christian Science Monitor. Precious summer minutes spent poring over Shakespeare or Nathaniel Hawthorne may seem less than appealing to teens, but some experts say there is a slowly growing trend to infuse more modern literature into summer reading.

DAILY SHUTTLES TO CARRY WESTLAKE KIDS TO CITY POOLS Los Angeles Garment & Citizen - The city will provide a free daily shuttle service between the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex at 3rd and Bixel streets in the Westlake district west of Downtown and municipal swimming pools in the Glassell Park district and Griffith Park to the north. This article contains a number of factual inaccuracies …but the spin from the mayor's office and the activists makes one feel that good things may be happening.

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