Results of Reading First analysis unclear.
Education Week (6/3) reported, “With the end of the six-year period of Reading First on the horizon, no clear empirical picture has emerged of how well the federal program is doing at a national level in bringing struggling readers to proficiency.” Initial data from the Reading First Impact Study has been used by both proponents and critics of the federal program “to claim, alternately, that Reading First is a wholesale failure and a qualified success.” While the study itself indicates that Reading First “has had no impact on students’ reading comprehension,” advocates of the program argue that “[f]laws in the research design…may skew the findings against the program.” And, Education Week noted, the study’s “findings did not answer many of the research questions that lawmakers required the evaluation of the program to address. … Those questions…include whether the program and the research base undergirding it have been effective, and which approaches, programs, and assessments for teaching struggling readers are the most promising.”
In the Classroom
D.C.-area schools accelerating math studies.
In a front-page story, the Washington Post (6/4, A1, de Vise) reports that while “[p]ublic schools nationwide are working to increase the number of students who study Algebra I…in eighth grade,” a large number of Washington, D.C.-area “schools have gone further, pushing large numbers of students two or three years ahead of the grade-level curriculum.” The Post notes that “at least two-fifths of students complete algebra in middle school in most…Washington area systems,” and in some areas the “[a]cceleration…begins in kindergarten.” Parents in these areas have generally supported the accelerated courses, and “[a]dvocates for gifted education point to the initiative as the best example of a separate course of study for advanced students at most schools.” Further, a larger number of “low-income and minority students are engaged in advanced math than ever before.” A backlash has developed among some educators and parents, particularly when a “district creates a quota for [a] school,” but “[o]fficials predict that parents and teachers will grow more comfortable over time with the accelerated approach.”
Growing number of schools use experimental therapies to retrain students’ vision.
USA Today (6/4, 7D, Toppo) reports that a “growing number of schools are using experimental therapies to retrain students’…vision” in a “bid to reverse problems with the ability to focus and learn brought on by years of excessive TV, poor nutrition and, for some, in vitro drug exposure.” For example, “[a]t Gordon Parks Elementary School…in Kansas City, Mo., 60 percent of kindergartners in 2004 failed a visual-skills test,” even though most of the children had “20/20 vision.” The youngsters “struggled to focus on moving objects, track lines of print, and refocus from near to far.” That autumn, the school “began regular lessons in visual skills” to make up for the fact that many children no longer partake in activities “that help develop visual and motor skills,” including “climbing trees, jumping, and running.” Michael Flynn, executive director of Learning Insights, said that nearly “42 percent of Missouri kindergartners have inadequate vision.” To address this problem, schools in “27 districts in Missouri” have adopted similar vision retraining programs.
Report suggests U.S. technical colleges favored over community colleges.
According to results of a public-opinion poll “to be released [Friday] by” the Career College Association, “[m]any Americans believe that career and technical colleges are better than community colleges at preparing students for a competitive workforce,” the Chronicle of Higher Education (6/4, Moser) reports. “More than 40 percent of the 830 survey respondents chose career or technical colleges as the best alternatives to four-year universities, compared with 17 percent who favored community colleges.” The report also found that “[c]ommunity colleges ‘go somewhat further’ than four-year universities to provide skill training, but…are ‘hampered by state funding cuts, waiting lists for popular programs, lack of equipment, and limited support services.’” The Chronicle noted that “[c]ommunity college leaders strongly disagreed with the findings.”
Law & Policy
D.C. council members propose charter school regulation changes.
The Washington Post (6/4, B2, Turque) reports, “Two D.C. Council members proposed significant changes yesterday in how public charter schools are established and regulated.” The changes include “a 15-month planning period before newly approved schools can open and a District residency requirement for appointees to the Public Charter School Board.” Chairman Vincent C. Gray and council member Tommy Wells’s proposal would also require that a new school operate on one campus during its first year. Currently, “the city’s 55 charter schools are…spread over 82 locations.” The Post notes that charters “were envisioned as an alternative to poor-performing District schools but have not fared much better in improving student achievement. Only 10 public charter schools made adequate yearly progress last year in reading and math scores, as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind law.”
New York governor calls for school property tax cap.
New York’s Newsday (6/4, Madore) reports, “Gov. David A. Paterson (D) plans this week to send a bill to the Legislature capping at four percent yearly increases in school property taxes but maintaining school budget votes.” Paterson asked lawmakers to pass the bill quickly, “saying [that] soaring tax bills were driving homeowners and businesses from the state.” The bill “would require districts wanting to exceed the cap to win approval from at least 55 percent of voters. And if a district received an increase in state aid of five percent or more and still wanted to override the 4 percent threshold, 60 percent of voters would have to agree.” Also, “[d]istricts that don’t exceed the cap and increase taxes by less than 4 percent per year would be able to ‘bank’ the percentage between their levy and 4 percent for use in future years — with limits.”
According to New York’s Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (6/3, Spector, Basler), New York’s “property taxes…are the highest of any large state in the country and 79 percent above the national average.” The state Commission on Property Tax Relief this week recommended that “school districts that do not exceed the cap” not be “required to submit their budgets for a vote.” Gannett noted that “[t]he teachers union has opposed the cap.”
Safety & Security
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Chicago uses multiple approaches to increase student safety.
The Christian Science Monitor (6/3, Paulson) reported that “parents and volunteers, wearing bright yellow shirts and neon jerseys,” have “join[ed] with police to accompany” Chicago students to and from their schools. So far this year, “24 public school students in Chicago have been killed,” largely as a result of gang violence. Although “the numbers don’t represent a big rise from the past few years, the violence is worse than a decade ago, and” the situation has “grabbed the city’s attention.” In addition to the parent and volunteer escorts, “[r]allies have been held downtown, ministers have taken up the cause, and Mayor Richard Daley (D) has pushed gun-control legislation, summer jobs, and new research on preventing youth violence.” Officials note that the attitude of some students, “in which an argument…or an insult can quickly escalate to guns and killings, is at the heart of the issue,…and any solutions need to try to address it.”
Maryland holds summit on school violence.
The Washington Post (6/4, B5, Hernandez) reports on “a conference on school violence” held in Maryland, where a group of “public officials…reviewed a variety of measures to curb violence, including additional training for teachers and positive reinforcement for students moving from middle school to high school.” During the summit, Maryland schools chief Nancy S. Grasmick introduced “plans to impose new standards for how schools report violence and disciplinary incidents, seeking to improve the accuracy and consistency of data used to rate campus safety.” Her plan includes providing “additional training for teachers and positive reinforcement for students moving from middle school to high school,” and would “tighten definitions of offenses to help make the suspension numbers easier to interpret.” Grasmick added that a new safety reporting plan “could affect a provision of the federal No Child Left Behind law that requires identification of ‘persistently dangerous’ schools,” of which Maryland had five in 2006-2007. The AP (6/3) also reported the story.
Facilities
Arkansas district considers outsourcing bus transportation service.
Arkansas’s Daily Record (6/3, Butler) reported, “Transportation is under consideration to become a contracted service in the Bentonville School District following school-board approval of a custodial-services contract and positive feedback about a food-services contract.” The Record noted that “benefits of contracted transportation services…included more route efficiency, better supervision, specialized training, maintenance scheduling and lower insurance.” In addition, “Bentonville’s 120-bus fleet would be revamped to include cameras and GPS systems on every bus.” According to Budget and Finance Executive Director Sterling Ming, the district would pay less to contract transportation services than it currently spends on its own transportation system.
Connecticut school will contain commercial rental space.
Connecticut’s New Haven Independent (6/3, Appel) reported that New Haven Public Schools’ “new Coop High School — bemoaned for occupying downtown space for potential stores — may end up as the city’s first to house…retail space.” School construction coordinator Sue Weisselberg said that Coop would be the first NHPS school to “contain retail space, making the Board of Ed a commercial landlord. Up for rent, according to Weisselberg, will be approximately 2,900 square feet of the new building.” The district is working with Yale Properties to find arts-related renters for the rental space. “Obviously a tattoo parlor is not good, whereas a store that repairs musical instruments would be perfect,” said Weisselberg. However, she added that if the school does not find suitable tenants by next December, when classes in the new building are expected to commence, “then the spaces will just be vacant for as long as it takes to get the right tenants.” Revenue generated by the venture “would go to[ward] underwrit[ing] projects right at the school.”
School Finance
Hawaiian schools avoid raising student fees.
The AP (6/4) reports that the Hawaiian Department of Education “does not plan to pass along a $10 million cut in its budget to students and their families.” Instead of “rais[ing] the price of after-school programs, bus fares and lunch,” the schools “plan to cut administrative spending…to make up for the shortfall.” However, “school board member Breene Harimoto says any future budget reductions created by the state’s slowing economy would likely affect student programs.”
State asks Arizona district to repay teacher incentive program overpayments.
The AP (6/3) reported Arizona’s “Department of Education wants a Mesa school district to return $1 million it received for teacher incentive pay after an audit found too many teachers were being counted as program participants.” Several teachers at the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT), which serves students at 10 eastern Maricopa County school districts, participated in the Career Ladder performance-based financial incentive system. According to the audit, “the state had been overpaying” the EVIT “for teachers who were not participating in the Career Ladder program,” and has “asked for a refund of $1,049,830 the district received in 2005 and 2006.”
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Georgia district’s “leadership crisis” serves as warning to other districts.
Education Week (6/3, Jacobson) reported that the leadership crisis and possible loss of accreditation in Georgia’s Clayton County School District (CCSD) “serves as a warning to elected school board members nationwide that their behavior in office can have severe consequences for their districts in an era of increased accountability.” CCSD’s leadership troubles “include charges of ethics violations and procedural infractions, against a backdrop of board infighting.” Earlier this year, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) “cited instances of improper procedure and unethical behavior on the part of board members.” Violations included “a vote by one member to give a raise to his wife, a teacher in the district; a vote by another to give her husband a job; and a member’s vote on pay and benefit issues affecting the for-profit teachers’ union to which he belongs.” Education Week noted that in April, Gov. Sonny Perdue (D) signed legislation “that creates a still-to-be set up local ethics panel to monitor actions of the board and hear ethics complaints.”