New York State Teacher Salary Report

Teachers are central to the success of any education system and the salaries paid to teachers are among the most important issues for both school districts and the unions that represent teachers. For school districts, teacher salaries are a major com- ponent of district budgets. Teacher salary levels are also a crucial factor in attracting and retaining quality educators. This report presents data on teacher salary levels based on teacher contracts throughout New York State. In addition to reporting overall statewide salary levels, it also documents the wide variation in teacher salary levels across New York State. This New York State Teacher Salary Report was prepared by the Bargaining for Better Schools (BBS) project, which is an initiative of the ILR School at Cornell University through the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution and the Worker Institute. The data provided in this report comes from an analysis of the teacher contracts from every school district in the State of New York. The database of information came from two sources, both of which are publicly available on websites: DigitalCommons at ILR and SeeThroughNY, each of which contain the full text of teacher contracts, i.e. collective bargaining agreements and asso- ciated memoranda of understanding. The most recent contract from either website was selected for inclusion in this data

Middle Level Education Aims for Equity and Inclusion, but Do Our School Websites Meet ADA Compliance?

An often-overlooked component of a middle school website is the necessity for that website to be accessible to those with disabilities, while following the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act. In support of the belief that support the belief that inclusive education and respect for diversity should be integrated throughout the school, this study investigated the accessibility of middle school websites in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio by selecting a random sample of 150 schools and analyzing their homepages using WAVE (Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator), which reports accessibility violations by annotating a copy of the page that was evaluated and presenting embedded icons and indicators to disclose breaches with ADA. Out of 150 districts, 54% had errors that need immediate attention and all 150 schools had alerts of likely violations that ranged from alt-text omissions and empty or confusing links to issues with color contrast and keyboard-only navigation. The article proceeds to give practical suggestions for eliminating many of the errors, even for those shareholders with less than sophisticated technological expertise

Student experiences of technology integration in school subjects: A comparison across four middle schools

This research examined student perspectives on their in-school, subject specific, technology use in four U.S. public schools. Considering students’ perspectives may provide a significant reframing of adult-created rhetoric of the utopian power of digital technologies for changing teaching and learning. A survey and focus group interviews were administered to 6th and 7th students (n=1,544) in four public middle schools, with varying demographics, that rely on local funding. These four schools revealed moderate use of many well-established digital technologies, such as word processing, presentation software, and quiz games. Students voiced outright hatred for teacher-directed PowerPoint-supported lectures, the most prominent technology activity students experienced, yet reported enjoying creation activities. The students in the rural school with a Hispanic-majority and high economically disadvantaged population reported much lower technology use. Discussion frame the digital inequities in the four schools and emphasizes the need for awareness and inclusion of students’ digital experiences to form any trajectory toward establishing digital equity and learning in schools

The Internet and the Threat It Poses to Local Media: Lessons From News in the Schools

Based on a survey of teachers and Newspapers-in-Education program directors, examines the use of Internet news in classroom instruction, implications for the economic viability of local news and community as locations of self-government, and challenges

California Voter Consumption of Media on Government and Politics

The results of our recent survey of California voters shows that they maintain a robust interest in getting the information they need to make decisions about elections and public policy issues. The data show an electorate that remains an avid consumer of news about government and politics -- and is largely satisfied with the news it receives. Californians say that the news sources they use most often cover the issues that matter to them the most; are fair; are comprehensive; and reflect their views. And in the face of declining use of print media, the survey shows that voters in California are adopting digital media at a rapid pace -- with voters who use digital news saying that it is easier than ever to get news about government and politics at the state level. In addition, the survey paints a more detailed picture of the news habits of voters of color in California than has previously been obtained. Though California's communities of color largely use the same sources of news about government as do white voters -- primarily television and mainstream media journalism -- there are substantial subgroups that also get some of their news from ethnic media outlets. The emergence of younger voters of color as frequent digital media users indicates further potential for change in how news will be delivered to these constituencies. And even though California's voters of color express high levels of satisfaction in the news they consume, many have mixed feelings on whether their own community's views are well-represented in the media at large. In particular, African American and non-Chinese Asian American/Pacific Islander voters are the most likely to say that the views of their respective ethnic groups are not well represented in the media. The data also show that interest in news about government and politics and greater civic involvement go hand-in-hand; a majority of California voters reports active engagement in some facet of their community's civic life, with engagement concentrated among the most avid consumers of the news. While it is not surprising that these civically-engaged voters are also more likely follow the news, the survey also makes clear that voters see the news media they use as facilitating their participation. More than two-thirds of California voters report that the news source they use most often informs them about ways they can get involved

Competing for School Improvement Dollars: State Grant-Making Strategies

Outlines early findings about the the revamped School Improvement Grant program's impact on states and three approaches to evaluating district and school grant applications, including the use of external reviewers and cutoff scores. Makes recommendations

Family Engagement and Education: A Research Scan and Recommendations

In September 2012, The Heinz Endowments asked the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) at Brown University to conduct a research scan of family engagement, leadership, and organizing work related to education happening in Pittsburgh, as a part of the Endowments' larger work in supporting families as important stakeholders in their children's education. Annenberg's goal was to produce a well-researched scan and analysis of the family engagement and organizing for school reform landscape in Pittsburgh and to provide recommendations for viable funding strategies to support family engagement and organizing capacity building. Research questions for the scan included:1. Given the overall context of school reform efforts in Pittsburgh, what are the opportunities and challenges for influence from community-based parent leadership and organizing?2. What community-based organizations with a current or potential focus on equitable education reform exist in Pittsburgh?3. What is the capacity of each organization to engage in parent/family leadership and organizing work to influence school reform?All of the work completed for this report was done from September 2012 through April 2013. More specifically, data was collected from November 2012 through February 2013. Thus, new developments and changes related to what is reported here that have occurred since the spring of 2013 are not reflected in our data, findings, analysis, or recommendations.What follows is an overview of the methodology and conceptual framework driving the design and analysis of our scan research, a detailed summary of what we learned about the landscape for family engagement and leadership in Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS), a scan of current community-based organizations' (CBOs) work and capacity for supporting family engagement and leadership, and recommendations of potential strategies for cultivating family engagement and education organizing in Pittsburgh

Understanding the Legal Landscape of Discrimination Against Muslim Students in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Guide for Lawyers

Intermediary organisations constructed as a link between public service providers and business entrepreneurs is a phenomena which we know very little of. Given the difficulty of relating concrete effects to investments made in business support ventures, we need to know more about the specific arguments behind this organisational construction. When deconstructing the arguments behind one particular venture, several lines of reasoning unfold, revealing motives founded on miscellaneous legitimating elements. The analysis reveals a situation where striving for legitimacy is sometimes more important than actual results and where the private entrepreneur is both the target and the role model

Privacy and Cloud Computing in Public Schools

Today, data driven decision-making is at the center of educational policy debates in the United States. School districts are increasingly turning to rapidly evolving technologies and cloud computing to satisfy their educational objectives and take advantage of new opportunities for cost savings, flexibility, and always-available service among others. As public schools in the United States rapidly adopt cloud-computing services, and consequently transfer increasing quantities of student information to third-party providers, privacy issues become more salient and contentious. The protection of student privacy in the context of cloud computing is generally unknown both to the public and to policy-makers. This study thus focuses on K-12 public education and examines how school districts address privacy when they transfer student information to cloud computing service providers. The goals of the study are threefold: first, to provide a national picture of cloud computing in public schools; second, to assess how public schools address their statutory obligations as well as generally accepted privacy principles in their cloud service agreements; and, third, to make recommendations based on the findings to improve the protection of student privacy in the context of cloud computing. Fordham CLIP selected a national sample of school districts including large, medium and small school systems from every geographic region of the country. Using state open public record laws, Fordham CLIP requested from each selected district all of the district’s cloud service agreements, notices to parents, and computer use policies for teachers. All of the materials were then coded against a checklist of legal obligations and privacy norms. The purpose for this coding was to enable a general assessment and was not designed to provide a compliance audit of any school district nor of any particular vendor.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/clip/1001/thumbnail.jp

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: The Role of Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Programs in Massachusetts

Over the past decade, alternative teacher preparation programs have proliferated across the nation -- and in Massachusetts -- in response to projected teacher shortages and in an effort to better prepare teachers for the challenges of today's classrooms. While the vast majority of Massachusetts teachers are trained through traditional teacher preparation programs, both the number of alternative route programs and the number of teachers completing them has grown significantly.National research comparing alternative and traditional routes to teaching offers little empirical evidence to guide policy changes. Yet there has been a shift in teacher preparation programs toward: longer and more intense field-based experiences; closing the gap between theory and practice; partnerships between preparation programs and local school districts; and accountability in teacher preparation. It is within this context that the Rennie Center embarked upon a project to examine the role of alternative routes to teaching in Massachusetts. As part of this project, the Rennie Center convened a diverse working group, which examined the characteristics of alternative teacher preparation programs in the Commonwealth, including the type of candidates they attract, and examined issues associated with the expansion and sustainability of these programs. This report is the culmination of the Rennie Center's year-long project.Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: The Role of Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Programs in Massachusetts highlights gaps in knowledge and areas for improvement, and lays the groundwork necessary for a deeper look at issues associated with drawing exceptional candidates into the teaching profession; filling vacant positions; measuring teacher quality; and holding teacher preparation programs accountable.The final section of the report puts forth considerations for policymakers, K-12 school and district leaders, and institutions of higher education. The report encourages the state to facilitate and encourage communication and collaboration between those that train teachers and those that hire them, and provide teacher preparation programs with access to the state data system so they may more easily evaluate their programs. The report also encourages K-12 district leaders and deans of college and university departments of education to create lend-lease programs that would allow expert teachers to work as adjunct professors in schools of education without forfeiting their role as K-12 teachers as a way to bring both the clinical and contextualized knowledge of schools and districts into teacher training.The report was the subject of discussion at a public event on November 19, 2009