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RULES OR NOT, SOME SCHOOLS DON'T RESTRUCTURE
A 2007 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that many
schools mandated for restructuring under the No Child Left Behind
Act (NCLB) have avoided taking meaningful action, writes Robert
Tomsho in the Wall Street Journal. NCLB requires that schools
failing to make adequate yearly progress on state proficiency tests
in English and mathematics must submit to mandatory measures that
range from state takeover to replacement of teachers.
However, what the GAO found was that 40 percent of schools required
to restructure - 1,300 out of 99,000 U.S. public schools in 2006-07
- have taken no corrective action. Their principals reportedly felt
that in their interpretation of NCLB, restructuring wasn't
necessary, or that their school district had decided against it.
Another 40 percent elected to make "other" changes in school
governance, allowable but unspecified under NCLB. Critics have
called the "other change" option a loophole that facilitates
inaction. NCLB doesn't require states to report specific steps taken
by schools once they have fallen into the restructuring category.
THE NEXT SPUTNIK MOMENT: GETTING REAL ABOUT SCIENCE TEACHER PAY
In a commentary in Education Week, Gerald F. Wheeler, executive
director of the National Science Teachers Association, compares the
present moment in national science education to 1963, when he first
started teaching high school chemistry and physics. "Our second
'Sputnik moment' has arrived," he writes, "and we need to decide
just what our future science education workforce will look like."
Wheeler claims that the state of American science teaching today has
led to our "losing ground to our international competitors, and
science education is the basis for future scientific discoveries and
innovations." He points to low pay for science teachers in
comparison with pay for science and engineering bachelor's degree
recipients in the private sector, and reasons that the wage gap
dramatically impacts the ability of schools and districts to recruit
and retain capable science teachers.
LOUISIANA HOUSE WOULD INCREASE SUPPORT FOR PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITIONS IN NEW ORLEANS
A new bill passed by the Louisiana House of Representatives would
dispense $10 million to pay private school tuition costs for 1,500
low-income students in New Orleans, according to Bill Barrow in the
New Orleans Times-Picayune. The bill, which was strongly backed by
Governor Bobby Jindal (R), now goes to the Louisiana Senate, where
it is expected to pass.
The bill was hotly contested in the
Louisiana House, where it was opposed by public school advocates as
a measure that would take money from one of the nation's most
challenged public school systems and put it in the hands of private
institutions. Other critics feel that the measure would take money
from taxpayers statewide and put it to the benefit of a single
parish.
The bill would commence in 2008-09 and cover children from
kindergarten through third grade in households earning up to 2.5
percent of the current poverty level, with an income not to exceed
$53,000 for a family of four. The grants would be paid for from the
state's general fund.
Also:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/05/14/99845souxgrschoolmoney_ap.html
ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS REJECTS PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS
An Arizona state appellate court ruled unanimously that vouchers for
parents of disabled and foster children that help pay private school
tuition violate the Arizona state constitution, reports Pat Kossan
in the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press. The Court of
Appeals in Tucson said that the programs, each funded at $2.5
million annually, violate the state constitution's "aid clause,"
which prohibits the use of public funds for churches and private or
religious schools.
Supporters of the programs plan to appeal to the Arizona Supreme
Court, while backers of the ruling applaud the move, which they feel
returns badly needed public funding to the statewide public school
system.
Also:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/05/16/100820bczvoucherchallenge_ap.html
WINDOWS TO BE ON LAPTOPS FOR WORLD'S POOREST CHILDREN
Global software giant Microsoft and the computing/education project
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) have overcome a dispute about operating
systems that will allow Windows to run on the specially-designed
laptops that OLPC sells at greatly reduced prices to developing
nations, writes Steve Lohr in the New York Times. The XO laptops,
which are small, sturdy, and designed for children, originally ran
Linux, an open-source (i.e., free) operating system; Microsoft
opposed the Linux operation. However, OLPC found that government
officials from countries buying the laptops, including Peru, Mexico,
and Uruguay, preferred computers that run Windows. They see
Windows-based computing as a marketable skill that will improve the
lives of children in the long run.
UTAH ADDS A SECOND ONLINE HIGH SCHOOL
The Utah State Board of Education has approved the online charter
Open High School of Utah, the second such school in the state, the
Associated Press reports. It will matriculate 125 ninth graders
statewide in the fall of 2009 and expand in future years. Utah's
first online charter school, the Utah Virtual Academy, will open in
August of this year for kindergarten through 11th grade, and already
has a waitlist of 2,000 students.
Licensed teachers will be part of the school, and all materials and
curricula at the Open High School will be available on the Internet.
This will permit teachers in different states and even countries to
potentially use the school. The classes are expected to appeal to
rural students limited by offerings at their local school, as well
as to home-schooled students.
PAYING STUDENTS PAYS OFF IN ATLANTA
In Atlanta, 35 students have recently wrapped-up a privately-funded
pilot program in which they were paid $8 an hour to study, writes
Michelle Shaw in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Learn & Earn," a
15-week, $60,000 program underwritten by a private citizen and
spearheaded by the Learning Makes a Difference Foundation, targeted
students barely passing in school, especially those performing below
average in math and science.
Anecdotal evidence points to an improvement in the grades and study
habits of participating students. Jailyn Brown, who once was failing
both math and science, is now passing both subjects and has received
As and Bs in science, reports Shaw. Brown's mother, Alanna Taylor,
commented, "It was his success that really got him excited. He got
more benefit from his good grades than money."
85 PERCENT OF SCHOOLS IN MYANMAR'S CYCLONE-DAMAGED REGION DESTROYED
More than 2,700 of Myanmar's primary schools have been severely
damaged by Cyclone Nargis, affecting more than 350,000 students,
according to a report by Michael Casey for the Associated Press. An
unknown number of teachers have been killed, injured, or fallen sick
following the storm, and will need to be replaced. According to
UNICEF regional education adviser Cliff Meyers, "Research shows that
getting back into a normal pattern represented by attending schools
really helps [children] adjust to tragedy and overcome the horrors
they have been through." With the traditional school year beginning
June 1, this may not be possible.
Guy Cave, deputy country director for the humanitarian group Save
the Children, agrees with many aid officials that temporary schools
must be set up, but concedes it will be very difficult. Many
affected areas have "not been reached with food and water, let alone
school equipment," said Cave.
EVEN MORE WORK IN ALGEBRA NEEDED IN CALIFORNIA
Despite steps taken five years ago by California to shore up high
school math classes and raise student proficiency, especially in
algebra, community colleges in the state are seeing increased
numbers of entering students deficient in algebra and even basic
arithmetic, Deb Kollars of the Sacramento Bee reports. Algebra is
crucial because it trains students to think critically, a skill that
is the bedrock upon which many professions are built, including
nursing, architecture, and most sciences.
Kollars cites the example of Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.,
where 34 percent of the math classes taught are remedial-arithmetic,
pre-algebra, or beginning algebra. Five years ago, before
California's high school algebra graduating requirement was put into
place, remedial classes accounted for only 28 percent of all
classes. A similar trend is evident at Cosumnes River College, where
remedial classes accounted for 43 percent of classes in 2003, but
now total 52 percent of classes.
As a possible explanation, task forces have identified deficiencies
in the way that fifth- and sixth grade math is presently taught,
leading to holes in student mathematical competence and proving
shaky ground for advancement in student understanding in the later
grades. To help, California's community college system this year
also began a $33 million-a-year Basic Skills initiative in math and
English.
MORE AP CLASSES? WHAT ABOUT HONORS CLASSES?
Daniel de Vise of the Washington Post recently reported on a trend
in Washington, D.C.-area districts, where high schools are
eliminating honors classes in favor of Advanced Placement (AP)
courses or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes (which entail a
full two-year load of college-level work). He reports that the
rationale is twofold: honors classes now show little difference from
regular coursework, or honors classes are too similar to AP classes,
the only distinction being that students don't take the AP test at
the end. The trend has led to concern from students and parents that
kids who fall between AP and regular classes are being left in the
cold. "There's some students who are just honor students," said Lucy
Blauvelt, 16, of Rockville High School in Maryland. "They don't have
the ability to push themselves into AP. They're too smart to be in
regular classes."
A decade ago, the expectation was that college-bound students would
take one or two AP classes and the rest would be honors classes.
Now, the ratio has shifted. D.C.-area administrators say their
motivation has not been to elevate AP enrollment, but to streamline
high school study and provide the students with the best level of
college preparation.
STUDENTS WHO HAVE LEAST SYSTEMATICALLY GET THE LEAST
A study by the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing
Public Education finds that policies to distribute education funds
systematically give greater amounts to higher-income students and
wealthier schools. "School Funding's Tragic Flaw" contends that "At
every level of government-federal, state, and local-policymakers
give more resources to students who have more resources, and less to
those who have less. These funding disparities accumulate as they
cascade through multiple layers of government, with the end result
being massive disparities between otherwise similar schools."
The study outlines the ways that these inconsistencies pile up. At
the federal level, where Title I allocations are based on how much
states spend, poorer states that spend less receive less federal
aid. At the state level, laws allow local districts to supplement
state funding with local property levies. And locally, where
districts determine funding based on budgeting for teachers,
high-poverty schools typically have less experienced teachers and
higher turnover, leading to lower overall salary allocation and
significant funding disparities per student.
MINNESOTA'S BLACK STUDENTS SUSPENDED SIX TIMES AS OFTEN AS WHITE STUDENTS
Minnesota school districts suspend their black students at a rate
six times as high as that for white students, reports James Walsh in
the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. While a racial disparity in suspension
rates exists nationally, Minnesota's is twice the national average.
This is particularly salient given that Minnesota has one of the
nation's largest achievement gaps between black and white students
as measured by test scores and graduation rates. "I am of a mind
that if you separate a kid from the classroom, learning stops," said
Philip Miner, director of community initiatives for the Minnesota
Private College Council. "When we overlay that reality with the
demographic data that suggest too few students of color graduate
from high school, how do you reconcile the fact that we are bumping
so many kids out of class and breaking their link with academic
progress?"
Some students are sent home for serious reasons, such as bringing a
weapon or drugs to school, or fighting. Others are sent home for
more minor infractions, the most common being "disruptive behavior,"
which is subjective and gives teachers and principals broader
discretion. This may well point to cultural differences and the ways
that Minnesota's mostly white teaching corps connects with its black
pupils. It also may reflect added pressures on teachers with
enlarged classes and test score requirements, where sending a more
difficult student out of the classroom is often easier than managing
the student. Overall, it may point to a need for change in teacher
training and practice. "Discipline is a teaching moment," says Roger
Banks, a research analyst for the Council on Black Minnesotans.
"This is where your abilities as a teacher come into play."
PORTLAND EIGHTH GRADERS WILL TAKE A DEEPER LOOK AT OREGON'S RACIAL HISTORY
Portland Public Schools' eighth graders will take a more in-depth,
less-sanitized look at the state's racial history this fall,
according to the Associated Press. "Beyond the Oregon Trail:
Oregon's Untold History" is one of four books included in a new
curriculum that seeks to look at history at the same time that it
engages students in a dialogue about race, teaching Oregonian
history "beyond Lewis and Clark." Students will learn that three
exclusion laws banned blacks from the territory before statehood in
1859; that in 1866, the state rejected the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution granting citizenship to black Americans; and that
Oregon didn't ratify the 15th Amendment, which gave blacks the right
to vote, until 1959.
Joyce Harris, of the Maryland-based National
Association for Multicultural Education, said curricula such as
these help establish the notion that history does not come from any
one source. "If we think of truth as being the sum of multiple
perspectives, then we get a more accurate picture of history and a
more accurate, equitable and just picture of today."
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