New Content at SusanOhanian.Org!

[Susan Ohanian <susano@gmavt.net>]

I apologize for dumping so much on you at once. I urge you to skim it as there a number of significant items.

I'm still looking for a couple of volunteers to help with gathering the news. I need help!
Susan 

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The Business Model Provides Bottlenecks in Discipline Cases
David Herszenhorn and Elissa Gootman
New York Times
2003-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1491

In New York City, high school principals and deans say the city's system for suspending violent students is in disarray, sometimes resulting in three-week delays before dangerous students can be removed from the schools.



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Report Criticizes Texas Schools' History Curriculum
Brad Watson
WFAA-TV
2003-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1492

The Fordham Institute reports that the Texas state history curriculum has a political agenda putting too much emphasis on free enterprise and not enough on slavery and racial history. 



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Rising Violence, Deepening Deficit Plague D.C. Schools
Derrill Holly
Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer
2003-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1493

This article summarizes the many troubles plaguing D. C. schools.

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The Essential 55—You’re Kidding, Right?
Dennis Denenberg
The Education Gadfly
2003-12-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1494

An award-winning teacher wrote a bestselling book outling his rules for inflexibility in the classroom. Even with this warning, you may find his rules difficult to believe.

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Florida Voucher Control Assailed in Audit
Marc Caputo
Miami Herald
2003-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1495

Florida's chief financial officer issued a blistering report Thursday that criticized Gov. Jeb Bush's highly touted school voucher program for lacking basic accountability measures that might have prevented criminal activity.



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Give Me 15: Class Discipline, Military-Style
Dan Barry
New York Times
2003-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1496

One of New York City's city's junior high schools had been transformed into a military academy. It is now known as Renaissance Military and Leadership Academy.





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Give Me 15: Class Discipline, Military-Style
Dan Barry
New York Times
2003-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1497

One of New York City's city's junior high schools had been transformed into a military academy. It is now known as Renaissance Military and Leadership Academy.





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Online Charter School Probed
Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Akron Beacon Journal
2003-12-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1498

Ohio state authorities are taking another look at an online charter school's contract with two private schools following concerns raised by traditional public schools and religious groups.

"If if you try to weigh things philosophically instead of legally, you'll never get anything done," Virtual Community School Superintendent Don Musick said.





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Voucher Audit Triggers Crime Probes
S.V. Date
Palm Beach Post
2003-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1499

Florida's chief financial officer issued a blistering review of Gov. Jeb Bush's Department of Education Thursday for its failure to oversee the state's three school voucher programs, a review that has resulted in active criminal investigations.



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The Foolproof Umpire
Hugo Lindgren
New York Times
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1500

Major League Baseball is using the Umpire Information System to measure the overall reliability of its human umpires. The parallels with teaching is obvious.

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Loony FCAT Sample Test
Brenda Katz
Bradentown Herald
2003-12-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1501

The co-founder of Really Angry Teachers, Parents and Activists Coalition for Kids (RATPACK), a movement in opposition to high stakes testing, discusses an FCAT sample test item.

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U.S. Firm's Fix-up of Iraqi Schools Gets Poor Grades
Larry Kaplow
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1502

Baghdad, Iraq -- Bechtel Corp. built the Hoover Dam and the English Channel Tunnel, but Iraqi Principal Yakob Yusef al-Yakobi wonders why it can't keep the new fluorescent lights from falling off his high school's ceilings.



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Life in First Grade English Immersion
Monica Rhor
Boston Globe
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1503

Here's a slice of the life of a Spanish-speaking first grader in Boston--and of his mother who insists that he does his 12-page homework assignment.

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Homework: Does the Very Word Make you Gag?
Brian P. Gill and Steven L. Schlossman
Detroit News
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1504

Professors defend homework, but leading off their article are some delicious examples of eminent people who opposed it in past. I say: time for a homework rebellion.

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Here's an Item Screaming for Response
Nolan Finley, editorial page editor
Detroit News
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1505

Here's a puff piece on a Detroit Charter School--and an indictment of the teacher's union--that is begging for response. I have no intimate knowledge of this school. If someone getting this message does, please respond.

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Houston Wary in Deal with Bush Brother
Ron Nissimov
Houston Chronicle
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1506

Neil Bush is back in the news in Houston--with his education software company Ignite! If you like reading about sleaze, both personal and international, here's the piece for you. Actually there are two pieces. I dug up a related one from March 2001. Well worth reading. 

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Microsoft Does Hard Sell on Teachers Pushes To Make Gaming Part of School
Jacob Gershman
New York Sun
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1507

College students ought to be playing more video games--according to Microsoft Corporation. And they're spending big bucks to push the message.



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Florida Vouchers and Political Prisoners
S.V. Date
Palm Beach Post
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1508

Politicians and corporate backers are fighting over vouchers in Florida.

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School Bullies
Phil Katz

2003-12-12
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=189

The president of the Brookline Education Association identifies the real school bullies.

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To the editor
Robert E. Kay, MD
Philadelphia Inquirer
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_letters.html?id=217

This letter quotes former Supt. of The School District of Philadelphia who has been known to say, off-the-record, that, "The formal assessment and quizzing (sic) of elementary-school children is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of."



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To the editor
Stephen Krashen, Emeritus Professor, USC
Reading Today
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_letters.html?id=218

Stephen Krashen observes that California's low scores are due to the fact that California children have little access to books, 

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Teachers' Aides Face Tough Tests
Anand Vaishnav
Boston Herald and Boston Globe
2003-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=275

By 2006, 900,000-plus teachers' aides across the country will have to meet rigorous new national standards as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. They must earn an associate's degree or higher or pass a test assessing basic skills or complete two years of relevant coursework at an institution of higher education or in approved programs at the district level.



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Rod Paige Still Whining
Pam Easton
Houston Chronicle
2003-12-13
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=276

Those who want the No Child Left Behind law to fail are attacking Texas and the Houston Independent School District like a piñata, Education Secretary Rod Paige said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday. 


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Minority Students Trail in Suburbs
Connie Langland and Alletta Emeno
Philadelphia Inquirer
2003-12-14
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=277

Across the Pennsylvania suburbs, high-achieving and well-funded schools are facing sizeable gaps in achievement between white and minority students.