The technology legend and his wife Betty Moore donated $250,000 to the school’s foundation, charter-school supporters announced Saturday during a casino-night fundraiser held at the Fremont Hills Country Club.
Gordon Moore, who is famous for predicting that a computer chip’s power would double every two years, stated in the charter-school foundation’s press release that “Betty and I feel very strongly that competition in educational opportunities results in innovation and significant improvements for all participants.” From Tim Oren

The Washington Post Magazine Features a series of articles on integration.

• Barbara Rose Johns is remembered not only as a soldier of civil rights, but also as a role model for her family.
• Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring shows what happens when everyone in the school is a minority.
• In the early 20th century, African American students learned the hard way that seperate was nowhere near equal.
• In 1954, Josie Davenport, Paul Bergeron and their McKinley High School classmates were on the unnerving front line of integration.
• The landmark decision in Brown v. Board is an appropriate moment to consider the implications of low expectations when it comes to African American and Hispanic students.

Sarah Carr writes:

Many researchers see the root causes of this gap in the early years. There is a growing conviction that even good schools cannot do enough for students who start far behind.
“If we send kids to kindergarten with this big gap, we can be pretty sure that as things stand, the gap is not only going to remain, but will get bigger,” said Deborah Stipek, the dean of Stanford University’s School of Education.
Increasingly, educators are focusing on preschool programs as a critical step in making up the deficit, and they are developing – or being pushed to develop – programs that are more overtly academic than ever. Nationally, some programs are cutting nap time; others have instituted more formal assessments. Literacy blocks – the jargon for early language and reading programs – are becoming as common as wood blocks.

– UW-Madison Math & Computer Science Professor Jin-Yi Cai in Lee Sensenbrenner’s article on the Madison School District’s Connected Math controversy.

Board of Education candidate Melania Alvarez has made curriculum (esp math) a centerpiece of her campaign. Melania’s interview transcript has quite a few useful links on this subject.
Connected Math Links: Teoma | Alltheweb | Yahoo | Google

Two interesting items related to the April 6, 2004 Madison School Board Election:

• Doug Erickson writes that Madison Teachers, Inc. filed a request with the UW Madison for all records pertaining to Ruth Robarts salary & compensation. (Robarts is an assistant law school dean)
• This Week’s Isthmus has a fascinating set of letters regarding their recent article on the School District’s math curriculum. Unfortunately, not online.