Education Week (10/13, Sawchuck) reported that last week, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings “turned her attention to teacher quality in an Oct. 8 roundtable discussion with about a dozen performance-pay experts at the Department of Education’s headquarters.” The purpose of the meeting “was to gain feedback on the federal role in supporting performance pay,” but “much of the conversation focused on issues that are typically decided locally.” One of the issues discussed was how to structure performance-pay “programs to bridge traditional salary schedules, which base teachers’ pay on a combination of their experience and the credentials they hold, with schedules that differentiate pay based on student outcomes.” Spellings pointed out that “federal officials ‘have not played a role in salary structures, and some…do not want to play a role’ in altering those structures.” Nevertheless, “she expressed a desire to keep the ball moving on performance pay after she leaves office.”
Connecticut school considers piloting Responsive Classroom next year.
Connecticut’s News-Times (10/14, Tuz) reports, “Developing children’s social and emotional skills along with their academic progress is the foundation of an elementary school teaching approach called Responsive Classroom. The Ridgefield Board of Education is considering having a Responsive Classroom pilot program at Branchville Elementary School next year.” The purpose of Responsive Classroom is “to make teaching engaging as well as educational,” said Branchville Principal Jason McKinnon. The Times-News notes, “The approach was developed in the 1980s by classroom teachers and the Northeast Foundation for Children in Massachusetts, and some 60,000 teachers around the country now use it.” According to research by Sara Rimm-Kaufman, of the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, “students showed improvement in their social and emotional development after only a year of Responsive Classroom teaching.” The approach is based on seven guiding principals, including the idea that “the social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.” The News-Times lists all seven principals.
California school tries to dissuade profanity by instructing students on words they should not use.
The Seattle Times (10/13, Lopez) reported, “With cursing becoming all too common at school, a Fresno, Calif., principal tried something unusual: He had teachers write obscene words on classroom white boards to let students know what they shouldn’t say. But some students though that the “lesson was just foul.” And even though “education experts agree the Tioga lesson plan was flawed from the start,” they also acknowledge that “it highlights a problem in schools nationwide: How to teach children appropriate behavior in an era when many children aren’t learning those lessons at home.” According to Jeanne Osgood, of the Chicago-based Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning, a nonprofit group, “Schools are expected to do more today than…in the past, because kids are under increasing pressure.” That pressure includes “a national push for higher test scores; more violence and profanity” in the media; “and a declining percentage of two-parent households.”
Educators must figure out ways to help all students succeed, author writes.
In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune (10/13) Peg Tyre, author of The Trouble With Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do, wrote, “The school year is under way and many parents of sons” face concerns “that their otherwise smart boy is either struggling in school or flying beneath the radar.” According to national data, “the malaise affecting [boys] is widespread. Poor African-American and Latino boys are most gravely affected, but in every demographic…boys are achieving less than girls.” The problem, according to Tyre, is that “the nature of school has changed.” In preschool, for instance, “children barely out of diapers are asked to” perform tasks that are above their intelligence level. Also, schools have “become test-prep factories — where…’teaching to the test’ is considered a virtue.” In order to find a solution, Tyre suggests that educators “figure out what” can be done “to create an educational system in which all…children can succeed.”
NCLB expectations increasing more quickly than performance levels, professor says.
UPI (10/13) reported, “A California professor says his state is one of many that have to make a giant leap in reading and math proficiency under the federal No Child Left Behind law.” Many of those states “set low rates of achievement for the first few years” after the law was enacted, “and steeper rates” for later years. Richard Cardullo, of the University of California, Riverside, said, “We’re hitting a balloon payment scenario, to use a housing analogy, where the expectations set forth in the federal law are far higher than recent performance levels.”
On the Job
Dallas district issuing pink slips to teachers this week.
The AP (10/13) reported, “Facing an $84 million shortfall this fiscal year, Dallas school district trustees have voted to lay off nearly 1,100 employees, including about 550 teachers.” The layoffs “are expected to save about $30 million, with an additional $38 million coming from budget cuts in other areas, officials said.” Last week, “non-contract employees were scheduled to receive notices. … Contract employees, including teachers, will be notified between Oct. 10-17.” Superintendent Michael Hinojosa “pledged a ‘deliberate and thoughtful’ process in determining which teachers would lose their jobs.” Aimee Bolender, a teachers’ union president, said that “teachers with low seniority and poor evaluations are the likeliest to get laid off.” And, according to the AP, “teachers in the core subject areas of mathematics, science, social studies, and English” are not exempt from the possibility of losing their jobs.
Teachers’ work environment must be preserved, author writes.
In an opinion piece for the Washington Times (10/14) Charles Murray, the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote, “It is a bad time to be a good public school teacher, as I had occasion to discover at a personal level when I recently wrote a book on education.” In his book, Murray criticized “the anemic curricula in history, science, and literature currently taught in too many elementary schools,” using “the curriculum of the public school system in Frederick County, Md.,” to illustrate his point. Murray “added…that most of the teachers had been dedicated and competent, several had been excellent, and…’three were the finest K-12 teachers, public or private, that’” he and his wife “had ever known.” But, because of “educational bureaucrats,” only one of the three teachers still works for the school district. Murray concludes, “Teaching is a vocation, and the attraction must be the work itself. Destroy the environment in which teachers can do what they love, and they disappear.”
Special Needs
Maryland school for special needs students sanctioned despite meeting reading, math goals.
In a front-page story, the Washington Post (10/14, A1, deVise) reports that the Stephen Knolls School in Montgomery County, Md., “suffered the ignominy of failure under federal law in 2006 and 2007 for low test scores. This year, the…school finally made the grade in reading and math — only to be sanctioned for poor attendance.” The school, which “serves medically fragile children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities,” will be listed on the “state watch list of underperforming schools” for the third consecutive year. Officials at the “state and federal [levels] say the Montgomery County school system could have exercised an option to exclude Stephen Knolls from the annual accountability exercise” by counting Knolls students at their neighborhood schools. But “Montgomery school officials say it would be disingenuous to pretend that Stephen Knolls students attended any other school.” According to Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, “the dispute offers ‘a classic case of how well-intentioned federal policy has gone awry.’”
Pennsylvania program aims to enhance learning skills of children with autism as young as three years-old.
Pennsylvania’s Wayne Independent (10/14, McConnell) reports, “At Robert D. Wilson Elementary School, children with autism take center stage as part of an early intervention program that sees immediate results.” The Verbal Behavior Project, sponsored by the state Department of Education, “aims to enhance the learning and language skills of autistic children through a non-traditional approach.” Beginning at age three, students with autism “receive intensive instruction — identifying objects, verbal, and motor skills training, among others — that is tailored to each student, said Dr. Lorna Johns, the district’s director of instructional services.” Instructors for the program undergo “extensive training to become ‘Board Certified Behavior Analysts.’” In the Wayne district, “two elementary school classrooms and one at the middle school are earmarked specifically for the program. The program also serves students from Wayne Highlands and Wallenpaupack school districts.”
Facilities
Utah’s largest school district struggles with increasing construction costs.
The AP (10/13) reported that Utah’s Jordan School District, the largest district in the state, “is struggling with increasing construction costs.” Construction Director Randy Haslam said that a building plan that cost the district $7 million in 2003 would now cost $15 million to build. Officials said that “the cost of materials has risen along with the cost of land. Increased copper prices have driven the cost of electrical systems up by at least 200 percent,” and “drywall costs” have risen by “up to 90 percent.”
“The increases began abruptly in 2004, the year after voters in the district approved a massive $196 million bond to fund school construction,” Utah’s Salt Lake Tribune (10/13, Fulton) noted. But “the bonding estimate was based on past costs, and resulted in the loss of two middle schools and an elementary school the district planned on building.” Meanwhile, Jordan school officials have turned to “creative approaches to building new schools.” For instance, “Using a multi-level design traditionally reserved for middle and high schools, the district decided to build its first two-story elementary school with South Jordan’s Eastlake Elementary in order to save on land costs. … The district is already in the process of completing its next two-story elementary school in the Herriman area.” Superintendent Barry Newbold said, “We’re considering more and more of those kinds of schools.”
School Finance
Six states propose gambling initiatives to increase school aid.
Education Week (10/13, McNeil) reported, “Amid tight budgets and shrinking revenue, states are wagering that voters in next month’s elections will agree to expand state-sanctioned gambling in exchange for increased school aid.” Six states — Arkansas, Missouri, Maryland, Colorado, Ohio, and Maine — have proposed initiatives that “involve gambling revenue intended to raise money for everything from community college funding and college scholarships to general K-12 operating aid.” But, “not every proposal promises to be lucrative for schools.” And, “even if money is earmarked for education, that doesn’t mean all of the gambling profits will make it there.” According to “a study published in the winter 2007 edition of the Education Finance and Policy journal that examined state lotteries…only 50 percent to 70 percent of the gambling revenue earmarked for education actually was spent on it.” Education Week also noted that “research shows that” during rough economic times, “the amount of money gambled can drop.”
Massachusetts district temporarily suspends plans to purchase new technology.
Massachusetts’s Daily News (10/13, Falla) reported that Mansfield Public Schools “are temporarily putting the brakes on buying new technology for the district” as officials “take a closer look at what is being purchased and how the technology meshes with existing equipment, as well as with future plans.” In May, $221,000 was approved “for the purchase of new technology for the schools.” School officials have already “approved a plan to purchase new equipment including computers, hardware and a new guidance/student work center in the high school guidance office that will give students access to college information online.” But, Superintendent John Moretti “wants to further discuss plans for the elementary schools and kindergarten with building officials to be certain the money goes where it’s needed most.” According to School Committee Chairman Paul Samargedlis, Mansfield’s “Technology Subcommittee plans to meet [on Tuesday] to discuss the overall plan.”
Also in the News
Chicago school officials recommend approval of “gay-friendly” school.
CNN (10/13, Simon) reported, “Public school officials in Chicago, Ill., are recommending approval of a ‘gay-friendly’ high school because harassment and violence are causing gay students to skip class and drop out at alarming rates.” According to Josh Edelman, executive officer in the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of New Schools, the new school would be open to all students “looking for another school option,” but “it is meant to target kids who feel they have been victims of bullying for their sexual orientation or perceived orientation.” The School for Social Justice Pride Campus’s “standards and curriculum…would be in line with other schools in the district. The school would also offer counseling for students, though because of federal laws, officials cannot ask students about their sexual orientation.” Also, “the curriculum would not rely on, but would incorporate lessons about, sexual identity in history and literature classes, officials said.”
More schools fail to meet NCLB requirements in 2008.
In a front-page story, the New York Times (10/13, A1, Dillon) reports that Prairie Elementary School in Sacramento, Calif., “had not missed a testing target since the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law took effect in 2002. Until now.” This year, “California schools were required to” increase “the students proficient in every group by 11 percentage points.” Prairie and “hundreds of other California schools fell short,” resulting “in probation and, unless reversed, federal sanctions within a year.” New data shows that nationwide, “far more schools failed to meet the federal law’s testing targets than in any previous year.” According to the Times, one reason for the trend is that in some states, “officials chose to require only minimal gains in the first years after the law passed and then very rapid annual gains later.” In addition, states with stringent exams, such as Hawaii and South Carolina, have reported lower compliance rates than states with easy exams.”
Connecticut schools struggle to keep up with NCLB goals. The New York Times (10/12, CT7, Hussey) reported that “since 2001, schools in Connecticut have scrambled to revamp curriculums, step up professional development for teachers, and continually assess students’ test scores to comply with” No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law requirements. Yet, “when results of the latest test scores were announced a few weeks ago, about 40 percent, or 408, of the public schools in Connecticut did not make the grade under the federal law, state officials said.” Several state education officials have voiced concerns about the law, including the Commissioner of Education Mark K. McQuillan, who “said he does not believe the federal goals are attainable for Connecticut schools.” Betty J. Sternberg, a former commissioner of education, added that “special education students should not be expected to perform at grade level.” Meanwhile, the “State Department of Education has introduced a new accountability system that assigns teams and support personnel to struggling districts, and helps districts put improvement plans into action.”
Virginia district sees achievement gains as number of students in reduced lunch program increases.
Virginia’s Daily Progress (10/12, Dixit) reported that as “poverty percentages have risen and free and reduced-price lunch numbers [hold] steady even as enrollment” declines, Charlottesville, Va.’s “public schools are bearing a growing burden to make sure poor students succeed academically.” Of the district’s nine schools, five “have school-wide Title I programs, which means they receive federal funds to help children in high-poverty areas who are behind academically or at risk of falling behind.” The district has increased its efforts to create “ties to the community through programs and activities will help fill the support void that often persists for low-income children,” and that “increased community collaboration has paid off in terms of student achievement.” According to school officials, “there have been sizeable increases in Charlottesville’s” state standardized test “pass rates across the board.” For instance, “In 2004-05, students identified as disadvantaged had a 50 percent pass rate in end-of-course reading exams,” but in 2007-08, that number increased 27 percentage points to 77 percent.
Some Mississippi educators challenged by growing Spanish-speaking population.
Mississippi’s Hattiesburg American (10/12, Brown) reported, “As school districts in Lamar and Forrest counties see a growing Spanish-speaking student population, educators are challenged with helping those students pass more rigorous state tests in English.” Since 2003, “the number of students in the district’s program has more than quadrupled…increasing from 41 to 200 students.” Peggy Williams, assistant superintendent for Lamar County schools, “said that No Child Left Behind requires English Language Learners (ELL) students to be tested exactly like English-speaking students.” In addition, “ELL students in high school must pass the state’s subject-area tests to graduate. To help students prepare for the rigorous exams” they are immersed in English. “The district spends about $300,000 per year on the program funded through a combination of district and federal grants.” Meanwhile, in Forrest County, “schools are incorporating more innovative classroom materials” in an effort to “help students become proficient in all subject areas.”
Arizona FFA participants focus on “future of agriculture.”
The AP (10/13) reports, “Future Farmers of America as it once was is gone. But the moniker — FFA — lives on as students in agriculture courses around Phoenix suburbs study biotechnology, veterinary sciences, business plans, horticulture, medicine creation, food science, and mechanics.” The program focuses on the “future of agriculture,” which is “only two percent” farming and 98 percent “support and resources, business and processes, and technologies,” according to Ray Gless, director of the program for the” Gilbert Unified School District. Students who participate in FFA “can still choose to raise livestock…but they also test theories and raise shrimp and tilapia to make better food sources for restaurants.” Some students in the district “also focus on greenhouse projects,” and are currently “working on a large-scale hydroponics project with tomatoes and growing annuals in hanging baskets to sell to the public.”
Chicago school, library partner to teach students media center skills.
Illinois’s Neighborhood Star (10/12, Metsch) reported on The Gateway Program, sponsored by the Chicago Heights Public Library and Chicago Heights School District 170, in which “groups of elementary school students” take field trips to the public library each Wednesday. According to Children’s librarian Norma Rubio, “The objective is to get every child into the library and expose them to the library and get them to have library cards.” During the visits, Rubio reads to students and give them a tour of the facility. Students also play games like “‘lingo,’ a takeoff on bingo; and a scavenger hunt in which students” must “find things in the library including periodicals and the card catalog.” Administrative librarian Michael Davis noted, “(It’s important for students) to know, generally, that we’re here to help them with their school work, and to boost their reading skills because everybody knows reading skills are very important for jobs later and for furthering your education which ultimately leads to jobs again.”
On the Job
Teacher training grants awarded to six California university-school district partnerships.
The Sacramento Bee (10/11, B2, Lindelof) reported, “Grants for more than $5.8 million have been awarded to California universities and school districts to address the achievement gap among students.” The six grants “awarded by the California Postsecondary Education Commission through the federal No Child Left Behind Act” are worth $1 million each, and will go “to six university-district partnerships…to improve instruction by teachers in low-performing schools.” The Sacramento Bee listed the award-winning partnerships.
Law & Policy
New York City teachers’ union sues DOE over political campaign pins.
The AP (10/10) reported, “The New York City teachers’ union says a city policy violates teachers’ First Amendment rights by banning them from wearing political campaign pins.” As a result, the union “filed a federal lawsuit” against the state Department of Education (DOE) last Friday, according to the New York Times (10/11, A18, Medina). The policy “requires that all school staff members show ‘complete neutrality’ while on duty,” and it “prohibits teachers from using school property to promote a candidate.” According to union president Randi Weingarten, “the policy has been on the books for more than two decades,” but “it has rarely been enforced, and…teachers have routinely worn political buttons as recently as this year’s presidential primaries.” More recently, however, a school principal “removed an Obama poster that a teacher placed on the union bulletin board, and…a teacher at another school who wore political buttons was warned against it.” Weingarten defended the teachers’ actions, saying, “Students can only benefit from being exposed to and engaged in a dialogue about current events.”
Special Needs
Number of New York special education students sent to out-of-state private schools decreasing.
The New York Times (10/13, A21, Hu) reports that, “after intense lobbying by parents,” the Westbrook Preparatory School will open next year as “New York State’s first residential school for students with high-functioning autism.” The school “is part of a statewide push to bring special education students back from out-of-state private schools by creating publicly financed alternatives closer to home.” Before 2005, “the price tag for out-of-state placements had reached roughly $200 million a year.” But after the state Legislature passed a law in 2005 that “requires school districts to exhaust all in-state options before considering an out-of-state placement,” the number of special education students sent out-of-state “by school districts and social service agencies…dropped to fewer than 650 from more than 1,200, even as the number of special education students” continued to increase. The Times notes, “To accommodate the returning students with disabilities, state officials have worked with existing residential schools to place them in about 250 beds that were once used for abused and neglected children referred by social service agencies.”
Also in the News
Virginia county proposes meal tax to pay for school construction.
The Washington Post (10/13, B5, Birnbaum) reports, “In what is probably the region’s most significant test this fall of public sentiment on taxes and school funding in the worsening economy, Loudoun County voters will decide Nov. 4 whether to endorse a meals tax to raise money for school construction.” The proposal “would grant county supervisors the power to tax meals in restaurants and prepared meals at grocery stores up to four percent. If passed, it would raise up to $13 million annually and shrink the $176 million budget gap county officials expect next year.” Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott K. York (I) said that one benefit of the tax is that non-residents who visit the county, such as travelers at Dulles International Airport, would leave “tax behind to help pay for school construction.” The Post notes that although “similar measures were defeated in 1992 and 1998…the tax was never explicitly tied to school funding.”
School district mergers produce marginal cost savings, former superintendent says.
In an interview with the Arizona Republic (10/12, Reid), Michael J. Osnato, a Seton Hall University professor and former Montclair Board of Education Superintendent, answers questions regarding district unification, a trend that has continued for “over 56 years.” According to Osnato, “a long-term cost analysis” is “important when discussing a merger of schools” because school officials need to be aware of all the factors that will be impacted by a merger, such as “tax rates, bonding, salaries,” and “indebtedness…payouts, and health insurance.” Osnato said that cost savings in a merger “are marginal. Some students could benefit, especially in rural area districts. There may be students in a tiny district who can’t participate in sports or certain programs a larger, neighboring district may have. Unification gives them the opportunity,” he said. However, one of the drawbacks for taxpayer is that “taxes may increase for residents in a wealthy district if it unifies with a district that has less.”
NEA in the News
NEA president discusses education reform, teacher compensation.
In an interview with the Tennessean (10/13, Sarrio) National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said that he favors NCLB reform. Van Roekel, “a former math teacher from Phoenix [who] took over as president in September,” also gave “his take on some of the popular reform efforts happening in Nashville.” Regarding the benefits of programs such as Teach for America and the New Teacher Project, Van Roekel said that Teach for America is a “way to supplement” education, but he does not “believe it is a substitute for the overall system of the teaching profession.” He added, “You cannot forget the basic foundation of teacher recruitment, preparation, the mentoring of new teachers and a compensation system that keeps them there.” When asked for his “answer to the demand for teachers,” Van Roekel responded, “We’re trying to compete with all the other professions that require college degrees. … We must increase the compensation for teachers.”
States’ flexibility seen as a key issue in NCLB reform. UPI (10/12) reported, “Education analysts say the renewal of the No Child Left Behind program will be among the early challenges to be tackled by the next U.S. president.” According to Patrick McGuinn, an assistant professor of political science at Drew University, “Everybody realizes changes need to be made, but the key question is how much flexibility will be given to states.”
Education Week (10/14, Manzo) reported on the Freedom School program, an after-school program in which students “tackle homework, challenge each other in educational games, and join in an extended literacy period that includes reading time and related discussions and activities.” The program is “sponsored by the Children’s Defense Fund, a prominent Washington-based advocacy group,” and is offered “in schools, churches, and public facilities in disadvantaged communities in six states.” Donna Gilmore, a Dayton, Ohio teacher and Freedom School site coordinator, said, “The purpose of the program is to boost reading, in particular, and to get [students] to enjoy reading and explore books.” Education Week noted that “a recent study on the Freedom Schools summer program in Kansas City, Mo.,” showed that “students who took part in the program over” a three-year “period improved their reading skills at a significantly greater rate than similar students in the district who did not attend Freedom Schools.”
Missouri district approves new math objectives.
The Missourian (10/15, Call) reports, “At a meeting Monday night, Columbia School Board members approved [new] math curriculum documents for kindergarten through fifth grade and sixth through eighth grades.” The new curriculum will include “additional emphasis on procedural fluency and the addition of the term ‘standard algorithm’ for clarity, said Sally Beth Lyon, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.”
“Columbia’s elementary schools use a curriculum known as Investigations into Numbers, Data and Space, and middle schools use another reformed program, Connected Math,” Missouri’s Daily Tribune (10/14, Heavin) added. “For more than a year, parents have publicly criticized those programs for not teaching children the computational skills needed for higher-level math courses.” In response, “Interim Superintendent Jim Ritter announced last month that the district will no longer consider those programs in the future and will, instead, return to a more traditional approach.” Teaching materials for next year will be selected by the curriculum committee this school year.
Minnesota, Wisconsin schools increasingly incorporating stand-up workstations in classrooms.
Wisconsin’s Pioneer Journal (10/14, Richards) reported, “As part of a small but growing movement in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota that many teachers say is bound to gain popularity elsewhere, several schools are experimenting with their physical learning environments by incorporating stand-up workstations in the classroom, or, in one school, stability balls instead of traditional school desk chairs.” For example, “fifth-grade reading teacher Pam Seekel” has incorporated into her classroom this year “adjustable-height stand-up desks produced by a Wisconsin company, as well as a big, tall table that lets students work in groups while standing and shifting their weight, leaning, stretching, wiggling and generally doing everything but sitting still.” Some “teachers have reported positive results after freeing their kids from the confines of” traditional desks, including “greater attentiveness, fewer behavioral problems, better posture, and more enthusiasm.” But, “the biggest impediment for schools wanting to experiment with stand-up desks is the cost, which is about twice as expensive as a traditional desk and chair set.”
New York City to open schools focused on 21st century career preparation.
The New York Times (10/15, A29, Hernandez) reports that the “conundrum facing city educators trying to update technical education for the 21st century [is] how to turn schools long seen…as places that offer easy paths to graduation into institutions renowned for academics and work force preparation.” Next year, New York City “plans to open a new kind of career-oriented school, integrating academic subjects with technical training at as many as four new schools with focuses like alternative energy, information technology, and healthcare.” Officials also “plan to petition the state for exemptions from rules that require students to spend a certain number of hours in the classroom and pass a set of exams to graduate.” Gregg B. Betheil, “who oversees career and technical education for the city schools,” said, “If you look at the financial crisis, the energy crisis, our positioning in the world, these are not problems that are going to be resolved with simple math or English.” Students “will…need skills far beyond those basic skills,” he added.
Florida high school prepares students for law enforcement, fire rescue careers.
The Miami Herald (10/14, McGrory) reported on Miami-Dade County, Fla.’s “Hialeah Educational Academy, a new charter school that prepares students for careers in police work and fire rescue.” The school “is one of about two dozen public high schools in Florida offering specialized training in law enforcement and fire and emergency response services.” At Hialeah, students complete public service work in addition to their “traditional high school classes. But even the typical classes aren’t so typical. In math, for example, word problems involve crime scenes and arson investigations.” According to education experts, “schools like Hialeah Educational Academy are an innovative approach to high school — one that will likely prevent kids from dropping out. Gene Bottoms, vice president of the nonpartisan Southern Regional Education Board, said the model encourages kids to stay in school by engaging their interests — and connecting the classroom to the world of work.”
On the Job
South Carolina education chief proposes relieving schools of 180-day mandate.
The AP (10/14) reported, “School districts want to handle state budget cuts on their own with freedom to do away with some mandates, including those that now bar use of a four-day school week, South Carolina Education Superintendent Jim Rex said Tuesday.” Public school districts face “cuts of at least $240 million in their $2.3 billion [state education] budget.” If schools were allowed “relief from the state’s requirement for 180 school days in a year,” they could then “choose to ‘operate a four-day school week…extend the length of days and have a shorter year, or some other combination…to save money.” According to Rex, a four-day schedule would save the Education Department about $300,000 on fuel for each fifth day of the week. The AP noted that “Rex’s proposals hadn’t reached Gov. Mark Sanford (R) yet.” Sanford’s “spokesman, Joel Sawyer, said he’d wait until reviewing them before commenting.”
Philadelphia school officials expect about 70 permanent teacher vacancies this year.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (10/14, Graham) reported that “a month into the new school year, Philadelphia’s public schools had 144 unfilled teaching jobs — down from a seven-year high a few weeks ago — and officials warn that about 70 positions will go unfilled all year, with those classrooms staffed by substitute teachers.” School officials point to “turnover in district brass and a resulting slowdown in this year’s hiring process” as reasons for “the current spike in vacancies.” Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said that “the current teacher contract…sets up a system where some teaching candidates cannot be interviewed until two weeks before school starts.” Some school officials stressed, however, that “the district [is] improving its hiring practices. Officials have begun a campaign to recruit more aggressively, including internationally; hire earlier; and reach out to more partners.”
Arkansas lawmakers back plan to increase fuel, teacher insurance funding.
The AP (10/14) reported that Arkansas “lawmakers on Tuesday backed a plan to give the state’s public schools $112 million over the next two-year budget cycle to address high fuel costs and teacher insurance.” The House and Senate “panels backed a proposal to provide $24.5 million each year of the biennium for ‘enhanced transportation funding’ to help districts struggling with high fuel costs. The extra funding will be in addition to the $286-per-student funding that school districts already receive from the state and will be distributed based on a formula designed by legislative researchers.” In addition, “the recommendations…included funding an additional $62.9 million — $15.8 million for the first year of the biennium and $47 million the following year — to help pay for teacher insurance. Sen. Jim Argue, the Senate panel’s chairman, said the boost would help teachers who are struggling with higher health-insurance premiums.”
Article highlights how teacher residency program prepares effective educators.
Education Week (10/15, Honawar) reports that the Boston Teacher Residency program is “a yearlong, selective preparation route that trains aspiring teachers…to take on jobs in some of the city’s highest-needs schools.” Program director Jesse Solomon explained that “the expertise needed to create excellent teachers already exists in the nation’s schools.” By combining “a rigorous, master’s-level grounding in teacher coursework, a yearlong clinical practicum designed to bridge theory and practice, mentoring support for first-year teachers, and preparation in self-reflection and collaborative teaching,” the program “is modeled along the lines of a medical residency that pairs classroom training with practical experience.” Specifically, “the program, which is run by many former teachers, recruits and trains teacher-residents on its own, but works closely with the district to place them during their practicums, and then as teachers in the city’s schools.” Education Week notes that “teacher education experts have” recently “turned the spotlight on teacher residencies as one of the most promising routes for preparing effective educators.”
Miami-Dade teachers seek greater transparency in the school’s budgeting process.
The Miami Herald (10/14, McGrory) reported, “Miami-Dade teachers are urging the school district to ‘come clean’ about its finances in a symbolic way — with bars of soap. Teachers are expected to present the soap to senior administrators at a School Board meeting on Wednesday.” Teachers intend for the gesture to encourage “greater transparency in the school’s budgeting process ” and “keep the pressure on administrators to fund the raises that were promised to teachers and other employees, but [were] withheld to save money,” said United Teachers of Dade President Karen Aronowitz. Officials in Miami-Dade, “the nation’s fourth largest” school system, “had to slash more than $280 million from the school system’s budget” over the past year. Included in the cuts was “$72 million in promised raises to teachers and other employees.” Next month, “A state-appointed special magistrate is expected to weigh in” on the issue, “but the decision of whether to pay the raises will rest with the School Board.”
Law & Policy
New York law requires year-long waiting period for state retirees seeking to re-gain jobs.
The New York Times (10/15, A30, Hu) reports, “A new state law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson (D) on Friday will tighten government oversight of a practice — called double-dipping” — which allows “retired educators [to] return to work in New York school districts” and still “collect paychecks and pensions.” Under the new law, “school districts and public agencies [must] wait a year before hiring a retired worker into the same or similar position. … In addition, school districts and agencies will now be required to show more extensive documentation that they tried to recruit non-retirees for the positions.” According to the Times, “investigations into pension fraud in school districts” by State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo “led to the new law.” Cuomo said that for many years, “school superintendents and others had routinely abused the pension system” by double-dipping, “and, in the process,” are taking “opportunities away from lower-level administrators to move up into those positions.”
Also in the News
Texas district wins award for excellence in urban education.
The New York Times (10/15, A17, Dillon) reports, “The Brownsville Independent School District in Texas won what may be the nation’s most important prize for excellence in urban education on Tuesday, the same day that Texas authorities announced that the district had failed to meet achievement targets for two years under the federal No Child Left Behind law.” The $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education was awarded to the Brownsville district “partly because its students outperformed those in other Texas districts with similar student populations on reading and math tests. The district is 98 percent Hispanic, and 95 percent of students are needy.” Superintendent Hector Gonzales said that the prize money “will finance college scholarships for many of Brownsville’s 2,800 graduating seniors. … Four finalist districts will each receive $250,000 awards: Aldine, north of Houston; Broward County and Miami-Dade County in Florida; and Long Beach, Calif.”
The Broad Prize “is given annually by the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to a city school district that has made notable strides in improving achievement, especially in closing gaps among students of different racial and ethnic groups,” Education Week (10/14, Aarons) noted. In a statement, Eli Broad wrote, “Brownsville is the best kept secret in America. … In the face of stark poverty, Brownsville is outpacing other large urban districts nationwide because it is smartly focusing all resources on directly supporting students and teachers. Other school districts can learn a great deal from Brownsville’s success.” The Houston Chronicle (10/15, Sherman) also covers the story.