Friday EduGaggle

'Tis the season for EduDecision '08. As such, see what candidate Barack Obama has to say about education in his own words.

Check out what this New York classroom teacher has to say about linking test scores to job security.

Writing to his great-grand daughter and her seventh grade history teacher, Michigan sports writer Suds Sumney gives an engrossing eye-witness testimony concerning his tenth (and final) mission as a Flying Fortress tail-gunner in World War II. (And yes, there was a crash-landing...)

Thursday EduGaggle

Should a Texas student who takes a cell-phone call from his dad (who is serving in Iraq) while said student is in class be suspended because taking that call broke the rules? A lot of issues to chew-over on this one. Enjoy your meal. More tidbits here and there.

Our Department of Religious Affairs has been monitoring the interesting case of the public school teacher who is in heaps of trouble for having a Bible on his classroom desk in plain view.

Wanna find out how much your state is spending on education vis-a-vis the other 49 states? Then you need to go here.

Hillary Rodham-Clinton and Barack Obama debated last night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Get your Hillary's Times New York Times "coverage" right here. Little was said regarding education policy other than Hillary's remark about the need to revamp NCLB.

No surprise here: Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings continues her defense of the federally-mandated No Child Left Behind Act. (Unlike today's "Republicans," I can clearly remember when the G.O.P. stood four-square against further concentration of power by the Central Government in Washington... Where have all the Republicans gone???)

From Wall Street, we have the news that for-profit education companies are taking it on the chin as inflation picks up steam and the recession deepens.

From our International Desk we have this first hand report concerning the challenges faced by Canada's Inuit people in that country's Far North.

For it's $100 million dollar donation to help keep kids from dropping out of school, AT&T has certainly earned our Red Apple Salute!

They're looking to recognise a few great History teachers up in Michigan. (As of this writing, we don't know if that award includes a Florida vacation next winter. We do know that it includes $500 dollars and a plaque...)

From The Office of the Queen of All Media our Entertainment Desk we have this bulletin regarding the death of Martha Stewart's best friend.

Wednesday EduGaggle

Special for all you classroom teachers out there: even though our paychecks may not be going up, the prices of just about everything is skyrocketing. (Oh yes, what is being expected of us is going up too...)

Ewww! A Pennsylvania elementary school has had a close encounter of the Mold Kind.

Did you know that this is Teach For America Week? We didn't either... See some related pics of First Lady Laura Bush and Our Heartthrob, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, right here.

'Tis the season for high school senior class pranks. 'Tis also the season for high school senior class dumbassedry and related arrests.

When it comes to organizing protests against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget cuts, California school administrators and union officials can't get their act together.

Friday EduGaggle

And now from San Antonio, Texas we have this sorry tale of a high school fight club.

Hearthrob Angelina Jolie has issued a call for more and better educational opportunities... for Iraqi kids. (Disc. There's something about that dress she's wearing in the photo that we find uplifting.)

In another entry from our International Desk, we have this story that disproves the notion that high school students behave better in the Land Down Under. On point of fact, the Australian Army had to pull those battling teenagers apart.

A Muslim public school? Here in America? It's true!

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI is planning to visit New York City later this month. He'll be here just in time to get a first-hand look at a probable teachers strike.... in that city's Catholic school system.

First-year public school teachers in this place earn a starting salary of only $24,000 per year. And they're not going to get any raise this year. All that and ever-increasing performance expectations-- thanks to NCLB. Ouch.

Memorial Day EduGaggle

Would you believe a U.S. public school that is in session on Memorial Day? Believe it!

Today's Knuckleheads must certainly be those teenagers who decided to put photos of their high school classmates getting drunk and smoking pot in their yearbook. More here.

Ward Churchill, Colorado university professor and fake indian, compared the victims of 9/11 to Nazis. It looks as though it was cheating, rather than running his mouth his controversial statements, which will be the cause of his suspension or firing.

Today's non sequitur: Check out the elephant that has learned to commit highway robbery. --------------------------------------See our latest entries.

Today's EduGaggle

As of 2005, the United States is now spending an average of $8,701 per pupil to educate its children. (New York was the biggest spender on education, at $14,119.) Where is all that money going? (Since the teachers of our California school district now earn less in take home pay than we did in 2002, we know that cash isn't going into our pockets...) And, more importantly, why aren't the taxpayers getting a better-grade of education for their money?

We were somewhat surprised to learn that deadly gun violence has come to Canada's schools. (Update here.)

Now that Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has sufficient spare time on her hands to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, maybe she'll find some time to visit a few classrooms that haven't been hand-picked for their propaganda value simply to showcase some perceived triumph of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The chief of Chicago's teachers union is beginning to make some noises about a possible strike at the start of next year if the district doesn't offer a high enough pay raise. (Too bad he can't "make some noise" about Chicago's kids getting high enough test scores...)

Fun With EduStatistics: Of the 1,400,000 bachelor’s degrees conferred in 2003–04, the largest numbers of degrees were conferred in the fields of business (307,000), social sciences and history (150,000), and education (106,000). At the master’s degree level, the largest fields were education (162,000) and business (139,000). The largest fields at the doctor’s degree level were education (7,100), engineering (5,900), biological and biomedical sciences (5,200), psychology (4,800), and health professions and related clinical sciences (4,400).

Today's non sequitur: We have to agree with those that thought the latest incarnation of American Idol was more than a little flat. ----------------------------------------See our latest entries.

Thursday EduGaggle

Let's all salute 14-year-old Caitlin Snaring , the second girl to win the national geography bee!

New York City is closing its schools for pregnant girls. Low test scores are among the reasons cited.

In Alaska, students from the city and the Outback are trading places.

The Wanker of The Day is the well-respected Oregon teacher who, after 31 years in the classroom, tossed-away his reputation by indecently "hitting-on" a male police officer in a public park.

The junior Wanker of the Day Award goes to 17-year-old Marco Castro, who has been convicted and fined for inserting a Certain Male Bodily Fluid into the salad dressing of his high school cafeteria last December.

Today's non-sequitur: The title of this (amusing? irritating?) post by Rachel Lucas says it all: Rachel's Helpful Guide to Online Dating: For Men. -------------------------------
See our latest entries.

Today's EduGaggle

EduBlogger California Teacher Guy has gotten the type of awful news that almost all teachers have dreaded at one time or another. Read the sequence: part I, part II, part III and part IV.

Today's school prank report: Seems as though one Tennessee high school is suffering the effects from an unexpected infestation of white mice...

Don't forget to visit today's midway of The Carnival of Education! (Publication is due momentarily, check back.)

What type of masochist sadist would ever require each and every public school student to view Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth?" each and every school year? Ewww!

Internet Roulette: Ever sat in front of a computer monitor and wondered about what was on the other side of an interesting-sounding internet address? Ready? Set? Here we go: www.principalsoffice.com

Margaret Spellings, The Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary, has now declared the federal No Child Left Behind Act to be.... a civil rights law!

The Wanker of the Day Award has got to go to this New York guy:

NEWS10 has uncovered that the Columbia High teacher, arrested on sex charges, had an eye-opening online profile, where he said he was 15-years-old!

Kirk Hellwig is actually 37. His arrest Monday sent shock waves through the East Greenbush community. Allegations arising that he had sexual contact with a then-16-year-old student on school grounds during school hours.

Now, NEWS10 has learned that in addition to the classroom, Hellwig was also active in chat rooms on the social networking site MySpace. And it is on that site we found Hellwig claiming to be a teen himself!

Read the whole thing.

Today's non sequitur: Check out the beautiful women and the ugly men (according to the women) that they love! ----------------------------See our latest entries.

Morning EduGaggle

There's an ambitious project afoot to provide every child in the world's developing countries with an inexpensive but highly efficient laptop computer. This plan has now begun to turn into reality and get more about the machine here. (Interestingly, their are no plans to provide millions of American school children with any sort of computer...)

School Prank Season is now in full gear: Couldn't these knuckleheads find something a little more original than the ole "putting super-glue in the keyholes routine?"

The State of Wisconsin has some news about their standardized test results: scores are mostly steady in reading, science, and social studies while math scores have improved. Sadly, the performance gap between poor students and their better-off classmates remains.

The Wankers of the Day are most certainly the mother and son combination of Rosie and Pete Costello. These two specimens have been tried and found guilty of faking the son's mental retardation for years in order to collect government benefits.

Fun with EduStatistics: Here's a comprehensive table of the percentage and number of high school dropouts for the years 1972 through 2003.

Entries for this week's Carnival of Education are now due. Meanwhile, check out what the homies are up to over at the latest midway of the Carnival of Homeschooling, hosted this week by The Lilting House.

Today's non sequitur: Can you imagine the type of things that college students leave behind when they abandon their dorm rooms? (And what was up with that Boa constrictor???) ---------------------------
See our latest entries.

Monday EduGaggle

Twin Trouble: A mom is upset that the school system assigned her twin sons to separate first-grade classes without consulting her first.

Historical tragedy in England: The world's only surviving clipper ship, the Cutty Sark, has been extensively damaged by fire. Police are calling the fire "suspicious." We call it a crime against World Heritage.

Have you heard the one about the knuckle head elementary school principal who excluded portraits of special education students from her school's yearbook?

Today's non sequitur: gasoline has hit a record high but isn't it ironic that one of the Left's loudest environmentalists won't give up her private jet? -----------------------------See our latest entries.

Morning EduGaggle

The ACLU is extorting suing one Louisiana school district for allowing the Gideons to distribute Bibles to students. This is what the ACLU is so rabid concerned about:

The lawsuit details an instance in which the girl's class was told by their teacher to pick up their New Testament Bibles in front of the school office. The girl ended up in a line with the entire fifth grade, while two men handed each student a Bible and said, "God bless you."

EduBlogger and published author Joanne Jacobs has now written a paper for the Lexington Institute -- on what works in moving English Learners to proficiency and why so many don't make it. (Lotsa food for EduThought there...)

It's the 50th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock's Central High School and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has shown up for the party while the U.S. Mint has struck a commemorative coin ('nuthin but feet!) that you'll never see in your change.

Today's non sequitur: The enormous costs in lives notwithstanding, check-out how much the "war" in Iraq is costing the American taxpayer right here. (Consider following some of the links and take a look at what all that money could have bought instead.) -------------------------------See our latest entries.

Friday EduGaggle

Florida Governor Charlie Crist, has just signed into law a statute requiring a minimum of 2 1/2 hours of physical eduction each week for students between kindergarten and fifth grade. Middle and high schools are encouraged to provide up to 3 3/4 hours of gym class weekly.

A just released study reports that students aren't forgetting as much history as they used to. Or are they? Meanwhile, over at the U.S. Department of Education, Queen of All Testing Secretary Margaret Spellings is attributing what progress there is to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

This story about one New Orleans elementary school is truly heart wrenching. (Be sure to check-out what the teacher had written on the classroom chalkboard on August 29, 2005.)

The ACLU is suing the Odessa, Texas school district in order to stop the district from offering elective courses in Bible study.

No surprise here: when it comes to emergency preparedness, our nation's public schools are seriously under prepared.

Here's one more classroom teacher who has tried to have high academic standards only to be overruled by mouth-breathing oxygen-wasting EduCrats from some Downtown office.

We certainly agree with Mike Antonucci on this one: School does not have to be a drag.

Today's non sequiturs: Think animated movies are just for kids? Think again! EduBlogger Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly is suffering from a severe case of Weedeater Rage. From our Political Bureau we have this unlikely tale of cigar-chomping law-breaking blowhard radio commentator Rush Limbaugh's social encounter with cigar-chomping law-breaking blowhard former president Bill Clinton.
-------------------------See our latest entries.

Monday Morning EduGaggle

California high school math teacher Darren gives a thrashing to President Barbara "Boss" Kerr of The California Teachers Association and wonders why the union is so afraid of testing.

Yep. We think that it's a safe bet that nearly all of us can agree that our inner-city schools are a mess, but what's to be done about it? Town Hall's Donald Lambro has some ideas, but they don't involve simply throwing more money at the problem or holding teachers 100% accountable for student progress while giving parents and the students themselves a free pass....

Who would have ever guessed that in England, the study of Latin is making a comeback? Meanwhile, school student discipline within government schools has gotten so bad that the traditionally left-leaning BBC has taken upon itself the task of publishing a series of "how to" guide for parents who wish to appeal their child's exclusion from school due to violent other illegal behavior.

With federally-mandated Testing Season in full swing, it's no surprise that there's a bumper crop of teacher cheating out in the field awaiting the media's scythe.

Today's Non Sequiturs: The people of Farmer's Branch, Texas, have voted overwhelmingly to require folks who want to rent houses or apartments in their town to verify residency eligibility while the idiots people of the ACLU will doubtless soon be shopping for of an appointed federal autocrat-for-life judge to subvert the democratic process overturn the people's decision. (We wonder why the ACLU doesn't seem to have a problem with people being "carded" being required to show "eligibility" for the purchase of alcohol or firearms?)

It appears as though $4.00 per gallon may finally be here in Taxifornia the Golden State. (Ed's Request: Would somebody please finally pass a law requiring pump prices to be in whole cents? The 9/10 of-a-cent that's always tacked on to the price may have made some sense back in the '50-'60s when gas was 30 cents per gallon but nowadays it just serves no purpose!)
-----------------------------See our latest entries.

Sunday EduGaggle

Here's a public middle school that gets it right. (But then again, with the advantages that are enjoyed by that particular campus, why shouldn't they succeed?)

The Reading First scandal deepens:

Officials who gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy under a federal reading program had deep financial ties to publishers, according to a congressional report Wednesday.

While many American public school children continue to be relegated to attending classes in poorly-maintained buildings and using outdated texts, the U.S. taxpayer is about to foot the bill for the establishment of religiously-oriented "super madrassas" for the instruction of Afghanistan's future terrorists boys. (Girls are not allowed.)

Accused of possessing child pornography, Pennsylvania teacher Edward Lee Springer went on the lam in order to avoid his day in court. But as Springer soon learned, even the moon wasn't far enough from the long-arm of the law.

The L.A. Times' edublog School Me! has their weekend roundup of EduStories. ----------------------------See our latest entries.

Morning EduGaggle

Students and staff at one northern California primary school are being stalked by... an attack squirrel. Two parents and an 11-year-old girl have already felt the squirrel's wrath... Meanwhile, the four-legged fur-bearing assailant is still at large.

In today's story from the Odd Side of the Tracks, we have several college girls who are accused of stealing about 1000 copies of their college newspaper because "they thought they looked fat."

The Wanker of the Day Award goes to Australian elementary school janitor Adrian Alan Mayne. This specimen was arrested and jailed after allegedly drilling holes in a restroom ceiling in order to spy on young girls and female teachers....

The U.S. House of Representatives has finally gotten around to outlawing payola from student loan companies to college financial aide officers. (Now if they could do-away with payola for themselves, that would be progress.)

Today's non sequitur: If one enjoys this show, it must mean something. We're just not sure what... ----------------------------See our latest entries.

Morning EduGaggle

This is what happens when a large school district doesn't pay its teachers competitive salaries.

When an Arizona college professor is threatened with dismissal because he emailed George Washington's "Thanksgiving Proclamation" to colleagues, something is seriously wrong in the Land of Barry Goldwater.

Shouldn't a fifth-grader know better than to bring a pistol to school?

Ricardo Montalban never said, "I'm Mr. Roarke, your host. Welcome to Study Island!" (This actually looks pretty good...)

Students in Paris, France are on strike to protest the election of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy to that country's presidency.

Today's non sequitur: Did you remember that today is Mother's Day? Well... its no problem unless you're Mexican. ---------------------------See our latest entries.

Today's EduGaggle

Students in one California College have found a new way to raise their G.P.A.'s: they pay for 'em!

Here's something for those of us who like History and Things Historical: The lost site of Jamestown is lost no longer. (Traveler's advisory: the ghosts of Pocahontas and John Smith may very well be lurking nearby...)

Follow me to this week's midway of The Carnival of Education! Complete your Educational Experience with a visit to the Carnival of Homeschooling.

We love a good high school prank as much as anyone else, but a prank stops being funny when animals get hurt. Scroll down for more here.

Know any great teachers in need of a little recognition? Wal-Mart is about to surprise some 4000 of the most deserving. (Check-out the uncanny resemblance between Iowa honoree Gwen Busch and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.)

Another female teacher has been arrested and accused of having sex with a minor.... but this time there are some very bizarre circumstances surrounding the case.

Somebody over at USA Today likes giving random drug tests to high school students while somebody else doesn't. Meanwhile, one high school principal first said "yes" to drug tests but has now changed his mind.

Like many, we continue to lament the mysterious disappearance of New York City's irascible irresistibly-candid Mr. Babylon. Does anybody out there in EduLand know what happened?

Here's an idea that we like: tax-free college textbooks.

Today's non sequitur: McDonalds is putting Shrek on a diet! ---------------------------See our latest entries.

Morning EduGaggle

New York City school administrator Michael Levy is in need of some serious spelling and grammar lessons.

Paul Vallas, 53, an administrator with a reputation for "shaping up" big-city schools, has been hired to take-over the beleaguered New Orleans public school system. Vallas has guaranteed that he would succeed in a city that has had three school superintendents since 1998. (One word: goodluckheisgonnaneedit.)

Fun with statistics: It was only a short time ago that the number of children who are being homeschooled exceeded 1,000,000, which is some 2.2% of all students in the United States.

Yet another married female high school teacher has lost her job and been sent to the pokey for allegedly sleeping with her students.

Over at P.B.S., EduBlogger Dan McDowell has written a nice introductory primer for those who are venturing into the world of blogging and EduTechnology.

And now for something completetly different: some hammerheads folks are trying to convince us that children are "bad" for the planet...

Teachers in one Ohio school district have been on strike since last Wednesday. They want a two-year contract with a 3% pay raise for each year. (One word: subinflationary.)

One California elementary school is getting students fired-up about science with everything from fingerprinting to fossils.
----------------------------------See our latest entries.

Morning EduGaggle

English schools are facing an examination meltdown.

The Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has taken so many EduJunkets fact-finding tours that she is now kinda-sorta blogging about it.

In Canada, 500,000 students and teachers across the country will be singing the same song at the exact same time in what they're calling "Music Monday." The purpose? To save Music Education... (Hope everyone's On Key....)

Michael Smart, who teaches Japanese to high school students, has been named Minnesota's "Teacher of the Year."
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