The Baltimore Sun (10/29, Bowie) reported, “Maryland’s state school board made a final decision” this week “to hold firm and require this year’s high school seniors to pass four subject tests to graduate in June, although it left open the possibility of exemptions for special education students and those learning English.” As a result, 9,059 students throughout the state — “or about 17 percent of the Class of 2009 – [are] at risk of not getting a diploma, according to” state education data. “Despite the numbers of students who will struggle, Baltimore’s schools chief Andres Alonso urged the board to not back down. To do so would continue ‘a system that creates an urban underclass for African-American and Latino children,’ he said.” But state education officials argued “that few students who work hard, come to school, and do their homework will be denied diplomas. They expect additional students to pass the tests and others to complete projects that allow them to make up for failing scores.”

        In a separate article, the Baltimore Sun (10/30, Bowie) reports that some Maryland “educators fear that a large number of English-language learners…as well as a large population of special- education students, might be denied a diploma in June because they cannot pass the High School Assessments.” Even Board of Education (BOE) members and state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick have acknowledged “that they might need to create exemptions for some special-education students and those with limited English.” Grasmick said that in December, “she will present a plan allowing students to appeal the graduation requirement under specific conditions.” In the meantime, students who do not pass “all four tests can meet the requirements by getting a combined score of 1,602 on all the tests or by completing projects in the subjects in which they have failed tests.”

The Peoria (IL) Journal Star (10/30, Zwicky) reports on the intervention/enrichment program at Edison Junior High School in Pekin, IL, noting that the program, which is in its second year, “was initially started to address the fact that the school had not been meeting state and federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements based on Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores. … The school’s 2007-08 state report card shows that ISAT test scores were up nearly 6 percent across the board, with AYP being met.” Also, in the program’s first year, students “who didn’t need an intervention class were placed in an elective, but this year the students have been able to choose their favorites from among 45 possible classes.”

The St Petersburg (FL) Times (10/30) reports, “Fox Chapel Middle School [FL] sixth-graders recently got to help reproduce a half-size (about 2.5 feet) Tyrannosaurus rex skull and mandible.” Art teacher Philip Fader began the lesson “He began by discussing dinosaurs and reasons why early people seemed so interested in dragons. He had the students draw the T. rex, along with the Velociraptor.” Then Fader “fashioned the framework out of wire and screen.” Afterward, his 70 “students took turns slapping on the celluclay, a kind of papier-mâché product that is mixed with water to resemble recycled wet newsprint, Fader explained.” Fader chose “to blend a science lesson with art” because, he said, “This year the school is incorporating science into all subjects.”

The Selma (AL) Times-Journal (10/29, Jones) reported, “More than ever, teachers and students in the Dallas County Schools system have become tech savvy and are using computers as learning tools. The system has so many computers, as a matter of fact, it’s having trouble keeping up with them all.” According to the Times-Journal, school officials “reported at the system’s board meeting this week that the number of computers and the use they get are up over the past seven years. Unfortunately, the county hasn’t had the budget room to provide adequate tech support.”

The AP (10/29) reported, “The eighth graders at Promise Academy in Harlem (NY) are learning about changes in glacial ice by videoconference from Antarctica. Their science teacher, Shakira Petit, is spending two months with researchers there and teaching through a live video hookup.” According to the AP, students “from four other schools around the country were also part of the videoconference. … the program is sponsored by the New York-based nonprofit organization Global Nomads Group.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (10/29, Cook) reported that the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PTF) voted Wednesday night “for a one-year contract extension, giving them a four percent raise in March but leaving unchanged their work rules and most benefits.” The Inquirer noted that “vote comes two days before an extension of the current four-year bargaining agreement was due to expire.” And, even “though both sides expressed satisfaction that current talks were over, they said the difficult work of forging common ground for a longer bargaining agreement must now begin.” In a joint statement, the PTF and school officials said that discussion for a multiyear contract “will center on safety in schools, class size, improving teacher recruitment and support, how the work day is structured, and closing the achievement gap.”

The San Jose Mercury News /Santa Cruz Sentinel (10/29, Brown) reported, “Parents on Tuesday night questioned how the Scotts Valley school district (CA) could afford to offer a one-time bonus to employees with leftover cash in the special-education budget, as well as in other accounts, when special education is chronically under-funded.” According to the Mercury News, district Superintendent Susan Silver “said while there is an annual drain of more than $2 million to cover special-education costs mandated by the federal government, the district did not spend all the money it had budgeted in that category and others last year.”

The Moore (OK) American (10/30) reports that several Moore (OK) teachers “are better equipped to explain the oil and natural gas industry after attending a free energy education workshop hosted by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (OERB). The workshop offered educators the opportunity to enhance their understanding of the petroleum industry and to teach OERB’s Fossils to Fuel 2 curriculum in their classroom, said OERB Education Director Landi Thompson.” Fossils to Fuel 2 “is a hands-on six-week program that takes elementary school students through the basic concepts about energy.”

The Eagle Tribune (10/30, Bencks), of North Andover, Massachusetts, reports that Sanborn Regional School District’s (NH) elementary schools “will be reviewed for accreditation next week — and school officials are looking forward to the challenge. … Starting Sunday, a team from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges will visit Memorial and DJ Bakie Elementary schools to begin reviewing them for accreditation.” The schools “were last reviewed and approved for accreditation in 1998. All of the district’s schools, kindergarten through high school, are accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.”

The AP (10/30) reports that the Oregon Department of Education (DOE) “has placed 11 Oregon middle schools and high schools on a safety ‘watch list,’ citing concerns based on their expulsion rates. The schools are located in seven districts across Oregon, and the state says each of the schools expelled more than 1 percent of its students for committing a crime or violent act, or carrying a weapon during the 2007-2008 school year.”

        Salem high school labeled “persistently dangerous.” The Oregonian (10/30, Hammond) reports that McKay High in Salem (OR) is “persistently dangerous” because “it expelled more than one percent of its students for bringing a weapon to school or committing violent acts on campus in each of the past four years, the state announced today. Ten other Oregon schools, including Reynolds Middle School in Fairview, were put on a state watch list because of their high expulsions for weapons or violence in the past one or two years.”

        KTVL-TV Medford, OR (10/29) reported on its Web site, “Six Southern Oregon schools were placed on a safety ‘watch list’ by the state Department of Education today. … Schools that have safety issues for three consecutive years are defined as ‘persistently dangerous,’ but none of the Southern Oregon schools have received that designation.”

The Seminole Chronicle (10/29, Pardes), of Florida, reported, “After more than a year of pressure from Oviedo educators and the state of Florida, the Seminole County School Board voted to pass a new bullying and harassment policy, an action that school officials say is long overdue.” The board voted to adopt the policy “after a new law was passed by Florida legislature last spring requiring every school district to have a policy in place by Dec. 1. The law is called the Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up For All Students Act, named after a Cape Coral student who committed suicide in 2005 after being a victim of bullying for more than a year.”

California’s Record (10/30, Phillips) reports that Stockton Unified School District Superintendent Tony Amato “said he was ‘planting a seed’ Tuesday night in the minds of Stockton Unified trustees when he proposed the district open a high school next year that would teach students using the Montessori method of instruction. If the proposal comes to pass…Stockton Unified would become home to only the second public Montessori high school in the United States. The other is in Cincinnati.”

The New York Times (10/30, A29, Goodnough) reports, “In 2002, the last time Massachusetts residents voted on a measure to abolish the state income tax, opponents spent less than $5,000 fighting it and were shocked when it almost passed. But this year, a tightly organized coalition has raised more than $4.5 million to defeat a similar ballot question, vastly outspending the measure’s proponents on advertisements, mailings and phone banks.” According to the Times, The National Education Association “contributed $1.5 million through Oct. 15, according to state records, and its state affiliate, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, gave almost $1.6 million.”