Yorkshire RAMS

Preckwinkle, meanwhile, took a broad swipe last week at the mayor’s education agenda. She said 13 of the 54 schools marked for closure should stay open, and she said last year’s teachers’ strike provided an excuse for the school closures.

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Over 25 years as an elementary school principal my relationships with parents were good.  I was available, I listened, and when complaints or suggestions were reasonable, I acted.  But there was one area where I stubbornly held the line against the wishes of parents and that was the placement of students.  I made clear early on that I would not honor requests for children to be placed with a particular teacher, nor would I would I form ability-based classrooms.  My position was not a matter of showing who was “boss,” but of my unshakable conviction that mixed ability classrooms are the best places for children to learn and live.

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Race to the Top is the multi-billion-dollar program in which federal dollars were awarded to states and school districts that promised to make the reforms that Obama’s Education Department wanted. In a desperate attempt to win dollars during a time of shrinking resources, states changed their laws to try to get the money, not necessarily because they thought what they were doing was the right thing. Some won the cash and some didn’t.

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A group of parents have been campaigning to set up a free school for two years after discovering a lack of mixed, non-selective, non-denominational secondary schools in Finchley and Golders Green.

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The schools are Northoaks Primary in Sembawang, Alexandra Primary in Bukit Merah and West Spring Primary in Bukit Panjang.

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