Weekend Reading: That Long Summer Vacation

Catching up on magazines and articles from the weekend and the week behind (image via):

Cameron Diaz and Other Reasons People Hate Chicago Teachers The White Rhino:  We're not going back to medieval teaching conditions and women will not be prevented from taking maternity leave.

Numbers that private schools fear Jay Mathews:  As they have in the past, spokespersons for the Sidwell Friends School and St. Albans School declined to tell me how many Advanced Placement exams they gave in 2010.

Teach for America and Me Mark Naison (Fordham): Something was really wrong here if an organization who wanted to serve low income communities rejected every applicant who came from those communities.

The Food-Stamp Crime Wave James Brovard (WSJ): The number of food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007. 

Unions Work to Turn the Tide In These Times: Taking direct action and staking out an independence from the Democratic Party while also working to transform it. 

Locke High's slow and steady turnaround LAT (editorial page):  Green Dot did not pull off quick academic miracles, but these are all signs of long-overdue hope for students who have had too little.

How a yearbook became child porn Salon:  The photo wasn't spread by text message but rather a school yearbook in San Bernardino County, Calif. 

What's on the School Chopping Block? TIME:  Schools should be about learning for kids not jobs for grown-ups so if performance isn't being factored in, why not?

Teachers' Hero or Education Hypocrite? Megan McCardle: As much of a Ravitch critic as I may be, like Goldstein, I believe that there are some coherent ties that bind old and young Diane, and perhaps surprisingly, one of them is Friedrich Hayek.

Why do schoolchildren get a three-month summer vacation? Slate: For one thing, it's expensive to keep schools open, just like it was in the late 1800s.