New York Education Officials Say State Tests Have Become Easier In Past Four Years. The New York Times (7/20, A18, Medina) reports that education officials in New York say that the state’s standardized tests have “become easier to pass over the last four years.” They plan to “recalibrate the scoring for tests taken this spring.” Researchers from Harvard analyzed the scores and compared “them with results on national exams and” high school graduation exams. They found that students who passed the state exams had less than 50 percent chance of passing the graduation exams. They also found that “the New York state exams have become even easier in comparison with the national exams.” In 2007, for instance, “students who received the minimum score to pass the state math tests…were in the 36th percentile of all students nationally, but in 2009 they had dropped to the 19th percentile.”

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In the Classroom
New Calculation Shows Improving Graduation Rate In Maine. The Kennebec (ME) Journal (7/20, Stone) reports, “Newly released data” from the Maine DOE show that the state’s “high school graduation rate dipped” by about three percentage points “between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years.” But, “the 2007-08 rate was calculated using a formula that takes into account those who took more than four years to graduate but still received conventional diplomas.” The newer formula used to calculate the 2008-09 graduation rate, however, “highlights only the percentage of students who graduated in four years or fewer, or who completed their coursework during a summer session after their fourth year.” School officials say that because of the difference in calculation, “it’s unclear whether fewer students are graduating.”

Critics Say Texas’ Dropout Data Is Inaccurate.

Leaders Of Five Florida Districts Cast Doubt On Accuracy Of State Test Results. The St. Petersburg Times (7/13, Stein) reports that “the superintendents of Hillsborough County [Florida] and four other large school districts said Monday they have doubts about the accuracy of this year’s FCAT results and want a state investigation.” Their main concern is “a sharp drop in the number of students making learning gains, especially on the reading test” and at the elementary level. Even though Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith “said Monday afternoon that he stood by the results,” he still “has asked another examiner to look at the” districts’ concerns. Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia has “called for the state to hold off on releasing school grades” until the issue is resolved.

The Miami Herald (7/12, McGrory, Tepoff) reported that Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said on Monday that “if the scores stand as they are, dozens of high-performing South Florida elementary schools will likely see their letter grade drop.” The Herald adds that “if there are errors in the FCAT data, the consequences could be serious,” because “school grades determine if a school receives money from the state or federal government, and if students can transfer out.”

The Tampa Tribune (7/13, Ackerman) notes, “FCAT scores were late this year because of computer glitches with NCS Pearson, a testing contractor hired by the state. The company and Smith assured school districts that the scores, while late, would be accurate.”

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Gates Foundation Playing Key Role In Education Reform Movement. The Washington Post (7/12, A1, Anderson) reports on its front page, “Across the country, public education is in the midst of a quiet revolution” as states “are embracing voluntary national standards for English and math, while schools are paying teachers based on student performance. It’s an agenda propelled in part by a flood of money from a billionaire prep-school graduate best known for his software empire: Bill Gates.” According to the Post, “It is unclear whether philanthropy…can find large-scale solutions to problems that have beset schools for generations” yet “what is certain is that Gates grants have become a leading currency for a particular kind of education reform” that has “won praise from the Obama administration and others, while prompting questions from some about the foundation’s pervasive presence and its emphasis on performance measures.”

Gates Hears Cheers, Jeers At Teachers Convention. The Seattle Times (7/11, Thompson) reported that “Rowdy delegates to a national teachers convention Saturday gave several standing ovations to Bill Gates, whose billions in foundation grants for experimental-education-overhaul efforts over more than a decade have sparked widespread controversy and debate.” But some attendees booed the Microsoft founder, while others walked out on his speech “and led chants afterward of ‘Hey, hey, ho, ho, Bill Gates has got to go.’” The Seattle Times points out that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “has led efforts to improve education, including charter schools, which while public are largely nonunion and run by autonomous management organizations.” Gates has also supported “linking teacher pay to classroom performance.” In his speech, Gates said that “his foundation is working with teachers to develop a teacher-evaluation system that is fair and will help teachers improve.”

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The annual Asbury Park 4th of JUly Parade is this Sunday. It starts on Cookman Ave., goes down Main Street, and ends at the beach. The APEA will be marching in the parade and giving out water bottles. If you have some time, join in the fun and help us out by giving away these great water bottles to the residents of Asbury Park.

Study Shows New And Veteran Teachers Use Technology Equally. eSchool News (6/30) reports that a study conducted by Walden University’s Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership found “newer teachers aren’t any more likely to use technology in their lessons than veteran teachers, and a lack of access to technology does not appear to be the main reason why teachers do not use it.”

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In the Classroom
Federal Grant Provides Chicago Teaches With Cultural Awareness Training. The Chicago Tribune (6/30, Pevtzow) reports that a cultural awareness program funded by a federal grant allowed 24 Chicago Public Schools teacher to “take a whirlwind tour of multicultural Chicago, listening intently as members of different ethnic groups talked of their history, language and culture through the lens of their own experience.”

On the Job
Virginia Making Strides In Reducing Racial Achievement Gap. The Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance-Star (6/30, Sampson) reports the Southern Regional Education Board released a study showing “Virginia’s public school students are making some progress in closing wide racial gaps in academic performance, and the state compares well to southern states on other measures, including high school and college graduation rates.” However, the same study found “the achievement gap for students with disabilities has increased in recent years and the state’s academic standards for eighth-graders appear low and potentially could leave students unprepared for the next grade level.” Also, the report found “Virginia’s public four-year colleges and universities reported that two-thirds of students who entered as first-time, full-time freshmen in 2002 graduated within six years from the institution they first attended” compared to 53% regionally.

NEA Turns To Congress To Address Concerns About NCLB Unfunded Mandates. Education Week (6/10) reports, “Fresh from a snub by the US Supreme Court, the National Education Association is turning to Congress to address its concerns that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) — in the form of the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act — is an unfunded mandate.” Congress may consider the issue with “other questions in considering the renewal of the ESEA,” according to “Martha Derthink…who has written about court challenges to NCLB.” When considering ESEA reauthorization, said NEA’s general counsel, Alice O’Brien, “lawmakers ‘need to think through that issue very clearly, and NEA will encourage them to do so.” Meanwhile, the Obama “Administration, which earlier this year unveiled a blueprint for renewing the ESEA, has indicated it doesn’t agree with the [NEA's] arguments.”

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In the Classroom
Distance Learning Network Brings Lessons From NASA To Fifth-Graders. The St. Petersburg Times (6/10, Ritchie) reports that recently, students in Juretta Carr’s science classes at Moton Elementary School in Brooksville, Florida, “took advantage of special equipment and a distance learning network…to bring Damon Talley, the Digital Learning Network coordinator at NASA, to the classroom.” The fifth-graders “talked and interacted with Talley just as if he were right in the room with them.” He demonstrated several science experiments for them “for about 45 minutes…asking students what they thought would happen.” Talley’s “lesson reinforced what the students had learned in class and was so new and interesting that everyone was engaged,” the St.

Common Core State Standards Released For Math, English. The New York Times (6/3, Dillon) reports, “The nation’s governors and state school chiefs released on Wednesday a new set of academic standards, their final recommendations for what students should master in English and math as they move from the primary grades through high school graduation.” According to the Times, “The new standards were written by English and math experts convened last year by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers” and “are laid out in two documents: Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, and Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects.”

The AP (6/3, Turner) reports that under the new standards, “third-graders should understand subject-verb agreement, fifth-graders need to know about metaphors and similes and seventh-graders must understand how to calculate surface area.” States that opt-in “are supposed to use the standards as a base on which to build their curricula and testing, but they can make their benchmarks tougher than Common Core.” The AP (6/3) adds in a separate story that Wisconsin state superintendent Tony Evers “immediately adopted” the standards.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/3, Torres) reports, “Georgia is poised to become one of the first states to heed a call Wednesday by states’ governors and school leaders to voluntarily adopt common national standards in English, language arts and mathematics.” The standards “have the support from a who’s who of education experts and organizations, including the College Board, the National School Boards Association, the National Education Association, the National Parent-Teacher Association and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.”

The Washington Post (6/3, Anderson), Wall Street Journal (6/3, Banchero) and Christian Science Monitor (6/3, Paulson) also cover this story.

Number Of High-Poverty Schools On The Rise, Federal Report Finds. The AP (5/28, Armario) reports that according to the 2010 Condition of Education study released by the US Department of Education, “the percentage of public schools where more than three quarters of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch – a key indicator of poverty – has increased in the past decade.” The report rleased Thursday also said that children at high-poverty “schools are less likely to attend college or be taught by teachers with advanced degrees.”

The Christian Science Monitor (5/28, Khadaroo) notes that “economic segregation is on the rise in American schools.” According to Richard Kahlenberg of The Century Foundation, “a public policy research group in Washington,” the “separation of rich and poor is the fountainhead of inequality.” He said that high-poverty schools “get worse teachers … are more chaotic … [have] lower levels of parental involvement … and lower expectations than at middle-class schools — all of which translate into lower levels of achievement.” But, the Monitor points out, “cities aren’t the only places facing this challenge.” While 40 “percent of urban elementary schools have high poverty rates…13 percent of suburban and 10 percent of rural elementary schools do as well.”

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NEA Joins Push For $23 Billion Teacher Jobs Bill. Education Week (5/26, Klein) reported that the NEA, along with the AFT, has joined the push “to drum up support for legislation that would provide $23 billion to help school districts” avert “a looming tidal wave of layoffs.” The unions are “working on a media blitz called ‘Speak Up for Education and Kids’” that “includes an NEA commercial in which children dressed in suits and carrying briefcases ask whether Congress would be more willing to save their teachers’ jobs or keep their classes small if the children were Wall Street bankers.” In addition, the NEA has “established a hotline to help supporters of the bill reach their representatives in Congress.”

The Washington Post (5/27, Anderson) reports that the House Appropriations Committee may take up the bill “as early as Thursday.” Yesterday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told lawmakers, “We desperately need Congress to act — to recognize the emergency for what it is. … We have to keep hundreds of thousands of teachers teaching.” Meanwhile, some lawmakers from both parties “say the government can’t afford an extension of last year’s economic stimulus that would add to the federal deficit.” According to Duncan, if the measure does not pass, “100,000 to 300,000 education jobs” would be “at risk, including support staff.” The Post also notes that the NEA’s television ads will be shown “in markets that are home to potential swing votes among House Democrats.” The Politico (5/27, Rogers) also covers the story.

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Full-Day Preschool Found To Benefit Boys, Some Minorities In Maryland District. The Washington Post (5/11, Birnbaum) reports that Montgomery County, Maryland, “boys as well as African Americans of both sexes benefit more from full-day pre-kindergarten programs, according to a study announced Monday by school officials. The findings come at a time when educators increasingly are using programs aimed at the youngest students as the surest way to close persistent gaps in performance between economic and racial groups.” According to the Post, “The study found that among African American students and boys in general, those who attended full-day pre-kindergarten classes outperformed their Head Start peers who had only half-day programs on reading benchmarks.”

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In the Classroom
The “Big Read” Aims To Revitalize Role Of Literature In Pop Culture. The Washington Post (5/11, Brown) reports, “Officials at the D.C. Humanities Council and the D.C. Public Library system are participating in the ‘Big Read,’ a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts to ‘revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture,’ are hoping that everyone in the city can learn from reading the same book.” The novel “A Lesson Before Dying,” by Ernest J. Gaines is this year’s selection.