Good Morning Susana:
I believe we should reschedule for the following week at your convenience (except Tuesday) given the current weather forecast. We will attempt to bend our schedules to accommodate accordingly. Please advise of your thoughts and/or alternatives.
Batten down the hatches!
Ernst Community Classroom located @ 1580 Scott Lake Rd in Waterford, MI 48328
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Review Meeting: January 26, 2011 (Plan Our Work, Work Our Plan, Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail)
MEETING VIDEO: (To be "posted")
OUR 21st CENTURY EDUCATION FUTURES: THE WINNING the FUTURE FUNDAMENTAL INGREDIENT! (We're In It to Win It!)
(Just Follow the Easy Step by Step Directions)
City Makes Food A Basic Right and Ends Hunger
Brazilian City Makes Food A Basic Right And Ends Hunger
by Jeff Nield, Vancouver, British Columbia 
on 03.14.09
Restaurant Popular (People's Restaurant) by Bruno Spada/MDS
Back in 1993, the newly elected city government of Belo Horizonte, Brazil declared that food was a right of citizenship. At that time, the city of 2.5 million had 275,000 people living in absolute poverty, and close to 20 percent of its children were going hungry. Since the declaration the city has all but wiped out hunger and only spends 2% of the city budget to do so.
So how did they make it happen?
Writing in the Spring edition of Yes! Magazine Frances Moore Lappé, author of the classic book Diet For A Small Planet, digs into how Belo Horizonte residents and government officials keep their city food secure.
The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce-which often reached 100 percent-to consumers and the farmers. Farmers' profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.Once the concept of food as a right took hold a variety of different methods for getting healthy food to the people emerged. Entrepreneurs are given the chance to bid on high-traffic plots of land to sell produce. In return they agree to sell 20 or so fresh produce items at 3/4 of the going market price, and the rest of their produce can be sold at the market price. Three large scale "People's Restaurants" serve healthy meals to 12,000 people a day for the equivalent of $0.50, and innovative school programs ensure that students are well fed.
Belo’s food security initiatives also include extensive community and school gardens as well as nutrition classes. Plus, money the federal government contributes toward school lunches, once spent on processed, corporate food, now buys whole food mostly from local growers. In just a decade Belo Horizonte cut its infant death rate—widely used as evidence of hunger—by more than half, and today these initiatives benefit almost 40 percent of the city’s 2.5 million population. One six-month period in 1999 saw infant malnutrition in a sample group reduced by 50 percent. And between 1993 and 2002 Belo Horizonte was the only locality in which consumption of fruits and vegetables went up.If you want to learn more, Ryerson University in Toronto is offering a Summer course that includes a week long field trip to Belo Horizonte to meet with key stakeholders that keep the city food secure.
The last word goes to Lappé who says, "Hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food but a scarcity of democracy."
Thursday, January 27, 2011
EDUCATION 101: RACE to the TOP (In It, to Win It!)
State of the Union mystery: What do Obama's Race to the Top plans mean?
Obama called education key to 'winning the future' and wants to replace No Child Left Behind with a plan based on his Race to the Top initiative. But that left some experts scratching their heads.
President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 25. In his speech, he challenged Congress to invest in new research and education to meet 'our generation's Sputnik moment.' He proposed replacing No Child Left Behind, which is due for an overhaul, with a plan modeled after his Race to the Top program.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Education held a prominent place in President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, as he called for a re-commitment to "investing in better research and education" to meet “our generation’s Sputnik moment.”
Obama declared, "To win the future ... we also have to win the race to educate our kids." His words deliberately echoed his administration's Race to the Top program, even as he sounded some familiar themes, including the responsibility of parents and communities, the need for higher expectations in schools, and the importance of excellent teachers.
And he also put forth a few more specific proposals:
- Prepare 100,000 more science, technology, engineering, and math teachers by the end of the decade.
- Make permanent the tuition tax credit – worth $10,000 for four years of college – and expand the Pell Grant program.
- Replace No Child Left Behind with a new, more flexible law, that he said should be modeled after his competitive Race to the Top grant program.
That last point had a few education experts scratching their heads, since Race to the Top is a totally different animal from the broader Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the formal name for No Child Left Behind. The ESEA is the means by which the federal government delivers most of its money to schools and states – more than $100 billion, mostly determined by certain formulas, compared with the $4 billion of competitive grants that made up Race to the Top.
“He’s putting his chips on something that has limited usefulness, but it’s not a broad usefulness, and we don’t even know yet how well states will spend the money from Race to the Top,” says Jack Jennings, executive director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, who otherwise liked the education themes Obama sounded in his speech. “With No Child Left Behind, he should have talked about [the need for] broader reforms and improvements and raising standards, rather than making the theme of competitiveness the main thing.”
Race to the Top was widely seen as spurring big legislative changes in states, particularly around more accountability for teachers, as they vied for the pools of money. But it was also criticized by many who felt the priorities it emphasized were wrong, were disappointed in the selection of winners, or felt that a competition – that by definition left many states and districts out of the grants – was the wrong way to go.
“I think he’s trying to say Race to the Top … is the way to get consensus between Republicans and Democrats for the reauthorization of the ESEA, and I don’t think it will play out that way,” says Grover “Russ” Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center of Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Mr. Whitehurst also says he would have liked to have seen a more coherent, comprehensive education agenda laid out rather than a few pet proposals, and wonders what the federal role will be in goals like increasing the numbers of math and science teachers.
“The devil will be in the details here, and we’ll need to see them in the budget proposal,” he says.
Still, many education reformers were gratified to see education accorded such a prominent place in the speech and in Obama’s agenda, particularly at a time of economic hardship.
“The themes were clichéd, but they were good clichés,” says Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, who says he’s happy that Obama continued to emphasize the role of parents, the need for better teachers, and the need for funding to be attached to school performance.
“If we take these steps – if we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they’re born until the last job they take – we will reach the goal I set two years ago: by the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” Obama said.
“These were strongly phrased sentiments, and something that would have been startling to hear a national Democrat say even four or five years ago,” says Mr. Hess. “Even as we’ve been wrestling with foreign challenges and economic difficulties, to his credit, he and his administration have continually tried to put education forward."
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
"Out-Innovate, Out-Educate, Out-build the rest of the World," as opposed to OUT-Source....
OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION
‘Future is ours to win,’ with tough cuts, new jobs
HE ENVISIONS A MORE COMPETITIVE AMERICA
WASHINGTON — In his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, President Barack Obama challenged a divided Congress to work together to reform government, cut spending and invest in infrastructure to win a global competition for jobs.
The speech came amid a call for comity after the Tucson, Ariz., shootings this month. Many lawmakers — Michigan Reps. John Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat, and Fred Upton, a St. Joseph Republican, were an example — showed it by sitting with members of the opposite party in a slap at the tradition of Democrats and Republicans sitting on opposite sides of the aisle.
Obama called for a more austere government, arguing for a five-year freeze on discretionary spending that is not security-related, and he called for tax reform, saying a 35% corporate tax rate should be slashed — along with tax loopholes. But he also said the nation needs better roads, bridges, high-speed rail and faster Internet access. And he recommitted his administration to putting more alternative-fuel vehicles on the roads.
“None of this is easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because we will argue about everything,” Obama said in the hour-long address to a joint session of Congress. “And yet, as contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth.” Robert and Gary Allen — whose business is in Rochester Hills — were on hand, with the president noting how a government loan helped them turn their business around into one making solar shingles. Republicans still are against new spending, raising concerns that they will press Obama to cut even deeper than he is willing. “No economy can sustain such high levels of debt and taxation,” said Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee.
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday night. In his speech, Obama said the country needs to win global competition for jobs. “We need to out-innovate, out-educate and outbuild the rest of the world,” he said.
Nation's and Michigan's current measurements for the OUTrageous Challenge and work at hand of "Winning the Future."
State’s test scores beat U.S. average
Michigan’s fourth- and eighth-graders fared slightly better than their public-school peers across the U.S. on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress science exam. But the results themselves were dismal and show large percentages of students failing to pass the exam.
Nationwide, 29% of eighth-graders were considered proficient or above. In Michigan, it was 35%. The percentage of fourth-graders nationwide proficient or above was 32%. In Michigan, it was 34%. Nationwide, 21% of 12thgraders were proficient or above. Individual state results for 12th grade weren’t released. The results, released Tuesday, reflect how well students did on the exam that assessed their abilities in physical, life, Earth and space sciences. The results have the National Science Teachers Association concerned. “Far too many of the students tested fell below the proficiency level. … Our nation cannot afford to have a scientifically illiterate work force,” Dr. Francis Eberle, executive director of the association, said in a news release. The scores on this exam can’t be compared with previous science assessments because substantial changes were made to the test. The NAEP is the same exam in which Detroit Public Schools has posted the worst scores in the nation in reading and math.
'Report card' on science: Most US students aren't 'proficient'
Just 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders performed at or above 'proficient' in a national science assessment, according to a NAEP report card.
Just 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders are performing at or above 'proficient,' according to a NAEP report card.
(Koen Suyk/ANP/Newscom)
On Tuesday night, President Obama is expected to emphasize education – and particularly America’s need to catch up in math and science – in his State of the Union address.
But one national "report card" on test scores, released Tuesday morning, paints a dismal picture of how well the country’s students have mastered science.
Just 34 percent of fourth-graders, 30 percent of eighth-graders, and 21 percent of 12th-graders are performing at or above “proficient” in the most recent snapshot from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which gives science scores from 2009. A very small number – just 1 or 2 percent at each grade level – scored at the “advanced” level, and relatively large numbers of students didn’t even meet the most basic level.
“The results released today show that our nation's students aren't learning at a rate that will maintain America's role as an international leader in the sciences,” said Arne Duncan, the US secretary of Education, in a statement. “When only 1 or 2 percent of children score at the advanced levels on NAEP, the next generation will not be ready to be world-class inventors, doctors, and engineers.”
The NAEP science test was revised considerably since the last time students were tested, and the results can’t be compared with previous years. The new framework takes into account scientific advances, science educators say, and does a better job of measuring higher-level scientific thinking. Many questions are open-ended and ask students to design or evaluate experiments, for instance.
“The good news is that this is a really great test,” says Alan Friedman, a member of the National Assessment Governing Board and a former director of the New York Hall of Science. But Dr. Friedman says he is especially concerned by the results at the two extremes: the tiny number of students who score at the advanced level and the large number scoring below basic. In fourth grade, 28 percent of students failed to meet the basic level. In eighth grade, the number rose to 37 percent, and at 12th grade, a whopping 47 percent of students didn’t meet the basic score.
“That is distressing,” Friedman says. “These challenges are very serious for all of us who are into science education and who want our kids to be prepared for living a full life.”
The NAEP results also showed big achievement gaps between races, income levels, public- and private-school students, and gender.
In fourth grade, for example, there was a 36-point achievement gap (on a 300-point scale) between blacks and whites, as well as a 32-point gap between Hispanic and white students. Boys performed two points better than girls, and private-school students outperformed public-school students by 14 points. Strong correlations were evident between better scores and students whose parents had more education.
“The overall performance is bleak, and the gaps are devastating,” says Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs at Education Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on narrowing the achievement gap. “Tonight the president is going to talk about the need for innovation to spur us out of these economic doldrums, and it looks like we haven’t given our kids the skills to do that. Science has always been the springboard of American innovation,... and it looks like we’re losing that.”
Also striking are the state-level results – available at the two lower grade levels for all but four states and the District of Columbia. Virtually across the board, the only states that performed better than the national average were located in the northern half of the country, and the states that performed worse than the national average were located in the southern half. A smattering of states all over had scores that were not significantly different from the rest of the nation.
At the fourth-grade level, the top-scoring states were New Hampshire, North Dakota, Virginia, and Kentucky, while Mississippi and California posted the lowest average scores. In Mississippi, 46 percent of fourth-graders failed to score at the basic level.
Those administering the NAEP project are always careful to shy away from drawing conclusions about the cause of achievement. But Friedman says he worries that the low scores may be partly due to an unintended consequence of No Child Left Behind, which led schools to focus almost exclusively on math and reading. He noted correlations between students who score better and factors such as whether their science classes regularly do hands-on activities or whether older students participate in science activities outside school.
He and others discount the idea that science is important only to a small handful of students who go on to a career in science or engineering.
“We want to enable every child to have the problem-solving, thinking, and communicating skills in the sciences so that they can be productive in whatever they choose to do for their field of work,” says Bruce Alberts, editor in chief of Science magazine and former president of the National Academy of Sciences.
In particular, Dr. Alberts says, it’s important that educators and students stop defining science as simply memorizing words that scientists use. Instead, the focus should be on higher-level thinking and scientific inquiry: “It’s learning how to do science and think like a scientist,” Alberts says.
The NAEP results should underscore how important it is to get qualified science teachers in the classroom, says Ms. Wilkins of Education Trust. “We know that at high-poverty, high-minority schools, kids are much more likely to be taking classes like science and math from out-of-field teachers,” she says.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Possibilities-Thinking: Solar Roof Demonstration Site (South-facing Garage Roof as previously discussed)
Green power gets Obama’s interest
Metro Detroit brothers granted trip to D.C. for State of the Union
Green energy is earning Gary and Robert Allen a trip to Washington and a coveted spot at the State of the Union speech tonight. The brothers — Gary is the CEO and Robert is the president of Luma Resources in Rochester Hills — will get a moment in the spotlight, sitting with first lady Michelle Obama to hear President Barack Obama’s annual address to the country. “When the White House called on Friday, I first thought it was a prank call,” Robert Allen said. “It must be somebody who’s looking for money.” The speech, which begins at 9 tonight, is expected to highlight the economy and the need to ramp up efforts to help create jobs. In a video message to supporters previewing the speech, Obama said, “My principal focus is going to be making sure we’re competitive, that we’re growing and that we’re creating jobs.” Luma Resources is a good example of creating jobs in one of Obama’s favorite sectors: green energy. The company received $750,000 in grants and low-interest loans from the federal recovery act to convert half of the Allen family’s residential roofing business into a facility to make solar shingles for new homes. After product testing was completed, Luma hired 20 employees and started selling the shingles last fall. “We’re harvesting energy from the sun, which doesn’t charge us a nickel to come up every morning,” Robert Allen said. In addition to residential applications, the company installed a panel of the solar shingles on a fire station in Rochester in December. “We’re there not because of who we are; we’re just guys,” Robert Allen said. “But we’re going because of the fact that we represent so many others that really have the chance to reinvent themselves and move forward.” • CONTACT KATHLEEN GRAY: 313-223-4407 OR KGRAY99@FREEPRESS.COM 
Monday, January 24, 2011
Economic Gardening 101 (Gaining State-wide Traction and Capacity)
Homegrown groceries get a boost
Snyder looking to build agribusiness
How big a driver — for the economy and jobs — can agriculture be in Michigan?
Gov. Rick Snyder bowed to Michigan’s No. 2 industry in his State of the State speech Wednesday, as he skimmed over the No.1 industry, autos. Building on the popular Buy Local campaigns, Snyder also advocated investing locally and growing local to boost all of Michigan’s bounty: cherries, peaches, pickles, soybeans, cheese, milk, meat, sod and other products produced here. “We must better recognize agriculture’s importance to our economy,” Snyder said. Michigan’s $71.3-billion agriculture industry employs more than 1 million residents, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. It is the second-most agriculturally diverse state, producing more than 200 commodities. Snyder wants to expand two programs to benefit agriculture but was slim on details. Farmers said they see big opportunities to expand the processing of Michigan’s crops here — instead of shipping them to other states — and to expand research and agri-tourism of Michigan’s more than 10 million acres of farmland. “My wife and I were going, ‘Woo hoo!’” Ken Prielipp, owner of Hilltop Greenhouse and Farms in Washtenaw County, said of Synder’s speech. “Finally, someone’s recognizing what agriculture does for the state of Michigan and how important it is for the country and world.”
Julianna Schlemmer of Ypsilanti gets Michigan-made items from Sarah Lee of Farmington at Busch’s Fresh Food Market in West Bloomfield. Gov. Rick Snyder has addressed the importance of agriculture.
Snyder gives farmers hope
He looks to get aid from jobs fund to help industry
Ken Prielipp, 47, of Lima Township has been farming his whole life, but he knows not everyone wants to talk about agriculture. So when the owner of Hilltop Greenhouse and Farms, which grows flowers, corn, soybeans, wheat and hay in Washtenaw County, heard Gov. Rick Snyder emphasize the importance of that industry in his first major address to Michigan residents, he was pleased. Snyder discussed the changes he wants the state Legislature to make to help the industry. They include making agricultural processors eligible for the 21st Century Jobs Fund, which would provide funds to create and retain jobs as well as more commercial lending, and strengthening the state’s Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program; that would help farms of all sizes prevent or minimize environmental problems. “The mere fact he talked about agriculture, that was tremendous in our eyes that someone, the governor’s finally recognizing that agriculture is important” to Michigan, Prielipp said. Michigan is the second-most agriculturally diverse state in the U.S. and is first in U.S. production of 18 commodities, such as blueberries, tart cherries, geraniums and pickle cucumbers. Food processing Michigan also ranks 19th in the country for food processing, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Keith Creagh, director of that department, explained that the jobs fund — currently for life sciences, alternative energy, automotive, and homeland security and defense — will help the high-tech sector of the agriculture industry, too. “What the governor is saying is the food and agriculture industry can be part of the economic recovery and invention for the state,” Creagh said. Doug Buhler, interim dean of Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, liked Snyder’s embrace of ag-processing. “One thing that limits our potential is processing capacity,” he said. “So if we can put a system in place that allows for more processing in the state, the more the value added from our products can remain” here in Michigan. Added Wayne Wood, president of the Michigan Farm Bureau and a Marlette dairy farmer: “We have a lot of agriculture production in the state that’s transported out of this state and is then transported back into the state as a food product. … That only adds to the cost of food for our residents in Michigan, but it also takes the jobs out of Michigan that should” stay in the state. Michigan has 1,588 licensed food processors, which employ more than 130,000 residents in the close to $25-billion industry. The Michigan Department of Agriculture said the state is No. 19 in the country in food processing. A proactive program Synder also said he wants to strengthen the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program. That comprehensive, voluntary program is designed to reduce farmers’ legal and environmental risks through a three-phase process using education, farm-specific risk assessment and a verification system that ensures the farmer has implemented environmentally sound practices. Snyder’s point man, Creagh, said his boss believes that “if you have a proactive program, then that negates the need for additional regulations.” Environmentalists are happy about the program that teaches farmers to be environmentally friendly. However, Gayle Miller, legislative director of the Sierra Club’s Michigan chapter, doesn’t want to see any changes to the eco-friendly agriculture regulations and worries about waste discharge by animal processors. She also questioned the governor’s reference to “frivolous lawsuits” against farmers as relates to environmental protections. Norman DeBuck, 60, owner of New Lawn Sod Farm and DeBuck’s Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch in Belleville, also applauded the governor’s agriculture efforts, especially promoting more Michigan exports to Canada, including Michigan-grown and processed foods. He said he would have liked the governor to have spoken more precisely about what he plans to do. Some in the agriculture world had suggestions about what Snyder should add to his agriculture to-do list. Matt Germane, an agricultural engineer and owner of Hickory Hill Farm in Hartland Township, Livingston County, which grows hay for the equine industry, suggested Michigan officials work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the state’s exports. Buhler from MSU wants more emphasis on agriculture research and agri-tourism. And Wood of the farm bureau said he sees a need to up Michigan’s ag-processing sector and for more infrastructures for the agriculture industry, such as roads, energy sources and railroads. • CONTACT ZLATI MEYER: ZMEYER@FREEPRESS.COM FARMERS MARKET A TURNAROUND SUCCESS
Manager of Royal Oak site is now looking to retire
The boss of the Royal Oak Farmers Market is retiring after 11 years of helping to turn an aging structure slated for demolition into a regional hit. Gwen Ross, who spent years restoring the building, said she’d like to leave by April 24. “I want to see my grandchildren,” said Ross, 69. “Gwen’s going to be a tough act to follow,” Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison said. “She’s been a true advocate of the market and the merchants of the market, and she’s done a very good job of diversifying this as an asset of the city. It’s much more than a farmers market now,” Ellison said. In February, city officials plan to post a Request for Proposals for individuals or management teams to bid on the market master job Ross does for $62,000 a year — rising at 3 a.m. to greet farmers and working 60-hour weeks, she said. The market building, erected in 1927, was owned 60% by Oakland County and 40% by the city when county officials suggested razing it in the mid-1990s, records at the Royal Oak Public Library show. But preservation buffs prevailed, and Royal Oak bought out the county in 1997 — the year Ross, a part-time antiques vender at the farmers market, quit her General Motors insurance job to run the place. Through grants and revenues from rentals, she and city officials spent the next dozen years restoring the building, ultimately gaining building-code approvals to host fund-raisers and weddings. “We’ve started having Chamber of Commerce expos and big dinners for various service organizations,” said Greg Rassel, Royal Oak director of Recreation and Public Service. Although the recession dented revenues, the city hopes the market someday will turn a profit, Rassel said. The farmers market roughly breaks even each year after reinvesting revenues in improvements. In 2010, after installing a gleaming new commercial kitchen for $125,000, the market lost $7,600 on revenues of nearly $350,000, City Manager Don Johnson said. The market hosts farmers year-round selling Michigan produce each Saturday. The building’s restoration came just in time for the blooming locavore movement, in which city dwellers strive to get close to food sources. In 2010, U.S. farmers markets grew in number by 16%, with Michigan in the top five states for growth, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Where else can you meet the person who grew the tomato you’re buying?” City Commissioner Patricia Capello said. “You see a lot of people bringing their children and teaching them about food. It’s a place that harkens back to a more gentle time.” • CONTACT BILL LAITNER: 586-826-7264 OR BLAITNER@FREEPRESS.COM
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