The Opening Bell

Education Week (11/3, Hoff, Klein) reported, “At the end of a presidential campaign in which education received some attention but never emerged as a top-tier issue, analysts were trying to look beyond this week’s election to the K-12 issues awaiting the next president and gauge where they might fit as a new administration prepares to grapple with a global economic crisis.” Some “suggest that education’s low standing as an issue in the latest election cycle foreshadows four years in which the next president won’t make it a high priority.” According to Education Week, “If nothing else…the new president and the 111th Congress will work to decide the future of the” federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), which “is generally seen as one of President Bush’s biggest domestic accomplishments.” NCLB “was scheduled to be reauthorized in 2007, but the current Congress never got very far on a bill to amend and renew the law.”

The Washington Post (11/4, B1, Hernandez) reports, “As schools push to raise graduation rates, many educators are homing in on ninth grade as a moment of high academic risk.” For instance, Maryland reported last week “that one of every six seniors statewide is at risk of not receiving a diploma in spring because they have not reached minimum scores on four basic tests in algebra, biology, government, and English. … But for many of those students, troubles began in their freshmen year.” Schools throughout the country face the challenge of “acclimating ninth-graders to new academic demands.” Some have implemented special programs to help ninth-graders “catch up with reading and math skills they didn’t master in middle school.” The Post details other programs that are being used in schools in Prince George, Md.

According to Iowa’s Daily Reporter (11/4), “The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation in collaboration with area high school Industrial Technology programs is working to connect students with local business and industry.” Spencer high school, in particular has “made huge investments in the Industrial Technology programs in the past year.” The school has “completed huge renovations to their buildings and added new equipment for the students.” With help from the Spencer Community School Foundation, Spencer High School’s “Metal Technology Program went through huge renovations last year.” Several local businesses and industry “donated money, materials, time, and tours for the shop.” The Daily Reporter adds that classes in the Metal Technology Program “are designed for the students who desire to make use of the skills needed to enter the machinist, welding, fabrication, sheet metal, or engineering fields.”

The Washington Post (11/3, B2, Glod) reported, “In classrooms locally and nationwide, students have been staging debates and casting ballots in mock elections.” Meanwhile, “more than 125,000 Weekly Reader fans across the country, from kindergartners to high-schoolers, cast ballots” for their favored presidential candidate. “Obama captured 54.7 percent of the votes compared with McCain’s 42.9 percent. Obama was the choice of students in the District, Maryland, and Virginia.”

        Special education students at Florida elementary school teach student body about elections. The Tampa Tribune (11/3) reports, “Special education students at Cotee River Elementary took the lead role recently in teaching the rest of the student body about the presidential election.” Teachers helped the students as “they operated a taped multimedia presentation that included a review of the presidential election process and a reading of a book titled ‘Duck for President.’”

The Riverside Press Enterprise (11/3, Johnson, Parsavand) reported that most of California’s “Inland-area school districts rely on combination classes when they have an excess number of students in a grade, but not enough for a full class.” For instance, “San Bernardino City Unified School District has about 34 combination classrooms this year, a typical number, said spokeswoman Linda Bardere.” Some “researchers who have looked at combination classrooms say strong, experienced teachers can make the classes work, but the teachers should have special training and need to spend more time planning.” One challenge that teachers in multi-grade classrooms face is teaching “two different sets of standards, which can mean two textbooks each for as many as six subjects.” But Jim Davidson, director of curriculum for the Rialto Unified School District, pointed out that combination classes also can enhance learning because they “allow the older students to mentor the younger ones.”

Massachusetts’s South Coast Today (11/4) reports, “Late last month, 20 teachers from four high schools in Southeastern Massachusetts became the first in the state to get special training in how to teach life sciences” through the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation’s (MassBioEd) Biotechnology Teacher Professional Development project. The purpose of the project is to “ensure that teachers have the tools and their students are exposed to the wonder of science,” according to state Rep. Michael Rodrigues (D). “The MassBioEd program will provide training to faculty at each of the four participating schools to develop a professional team of educators able to sustain each other’s skills and enthusiasm.” In addition, teachers “will receive training in accessing and using biotechnology curricula in the classroom and exposure to the career diversity available within the life sciences industry.”

Education Week (11/3, Sawchuk) reported, “Like professionals in other fields, teachers appear to be dipping into their sick time in order to take care of errands, do the holiday shopping, or extend a weekend, a new analysis of a district’s teacher-absence pattern suggests.” An analysis, released Oct. 24 by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank, shows that “teachers in the unnamed, large urban district studied were more likely to take ‘discretionary absences’ — either personal days off or sick days attributed to short-term illnesses — right before winter and summer vacations, and on Mondays and Fridays.” It also indicated that “discretionary absences made up 56 percent of all teacher absences.” According to Education week, “changing those dynamics can be difficult, given the complex mix of policies that govern leave issues.” Often, “state laws…guarantee teachers a set number of days they can take off.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/4, Giordano) reports, “Sixty-six fewer New Jersey public schools met federal school-progress standards this year, according to testing results that state Education Department officials said would be released next month.” Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy “said 70.8 percent of the state’s 2,210 schools made “adequate yearly progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).” She “also announced that the federal Education Department had given the state approval to use lower student proficiency targets and assessment standards for grades five through eight.” The accommodations “were allowed because the tests given in the spring were considered longer and more rigorous than the tests given in the previous year.”

        According to New Jersey’s Press of Atlantic City (11/4), Davy said, “We thought it would be wrong to penalize schools that were making progress just because we changed the (minimum) cut scores for proficiency.”

South Carolina’s The State (11/4) reports, “State and federal laws mandate that school districts provide special homebound instruction to students who cannot attend public school because of an acute or chronic medical condition or disability.” But, “Districts vary on how they obtain teachers for the program.” While “Some employ full-time educators, others use a pool of teachers who have indicated they want to participate, and still others rely on volunteers on a case-by-case basis.” Instructors are paid about $25 an hour to teach students who are “out of school for illnesses, accidents or pregnancy.” Lisa Foster, who leads the Lexington 2 school district’s regular education medical homebound program, said that “homebound teachers have to be flexible, patient and encouraging. They’re the kind who already ‘go that extra mile’ in their classrooms,” he added. Lexington 2 has about “46 students…this school year in regular and special education homebound programs.”

KIDK-TV Blackfoot, ID (11/4), reports, “Fifty-nine of the thirty-five voting precincts in Bonneville County are at a school. Districts 91 and 93 are taking all kinds of precautions for the big day.” But, “with huge numbers expected to vote tomorrow…both school districts are conflicted when it comes to free access to polling places and safety for students.” Some schools “are tweaking the way they do things to avoid public interaction with students.” For instance, Terry Miller, principal of Westside Elementary School, said that instead of having voters enter the school through the front door, they will be directed to enter through the gym door. That, Miller says, may “minimize disruptions in…learning and then also provide a more efficient voting process.”

The Houston Chronicle (11/4, George) reports, “Twelve Revere Middle School students and nine staff members are being given preventive antibiotics for meningitis today as a precaution after the death Friday of a 13-year-old student.” The student’s death “is the first in Houston attributed to meningitis this year.” Still, “Houston health officials remain unsure whether the girl had the viral form of the infection, or the more deadly bacterial form.” The Chronicle points out that the “disease is associated with close contact with infected persons, such as coughing, kissing or sharing utensils. Symptoms mimic the flu and include fever, headache, lethargy and stiff back and neck, as well as nausea.” However, “no one else in close contact with” the deceased student “has exhibited the symptoms” of meningitis, so far, according to Kathy Barton, a city health department spokeswoman.

The Christian Science Monitor (11/4, Parrack) reports, “Earlier this year, the Pleasanton Unified School District in California became one of the first and largest school districts to ‘go solar.’” The district’s “move toward solar energy began in 2004 when Walnut Grove Elementary School in Pleasanton was awarded a grant from a utility company for a 1-kilowatt solar cell,” referred to as “the PV on a stick.” Every “spring, the first-grade students at Walnut Grove plant sunflower seeds next to the PV. They measure and record the seedlings as they grow. The sunflower heads follow the sun’s movement across the sky mirroring the PV’s movements, both chasing sunbeams and converting them into energy.” Currently, “Pleasanton schools…produce enough solar energy to power 1,000 classrooms, and solar power meets 20 percent of the district’s energy needs.”

The St. Petersburg Times (11/4, Stein) reports, “The East Hillsborough strawberry industry has entered into the fray over the naming rights to a new high school opening there in the fall, and no one is laughing.” Over “700 people are petitioning for” the school to be named Strawberry Crest High, according to School Board member Joe Newsome. Newsome points out that strawberries are a big part of the county’s identity. “We’re known as the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World,” he contended. But some, including Fran Costantino, president of the East Ybor Historic and Civic Association, say that the school should be named after an historic figure. Constantino said that she “would like to see a school named after John J. Iorio, a revered professor at the University of South Florida and the late father of Tampa mayor Pam Iorio.”

The AP (11/4, Word) reports, “A Florida school board has voted 5-2 to keep the name of…Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader” Nathan Bedford Forrest “at a majority black high school.” The two dissenting votes were cast by the Duval County School Board’s “two black members.” The AP added that the issue of changing the school’s name “had come up several times during the past half-century after the school opened in the 1950s as an all-white high school.”

The AP (11/4) reports, “A library book checked out from a Tulsa high school in 1947 has been returned — with a $250 check to cover overdue fees.” The book, New Word Analysis: Or School Etymology of English Derivative Words “was mailed to the school by Martha McCabe Jarrett,” who, as a sophomore at the then Holland Hall School for Girls, checked the book out 61 years ago. Jarrett “recently found it while cleaning out her other home in Rome, Ohio.” Meanwhile, “school officials said they were not sure what they will do with the $250 because there is no specific overdue book fund. It might be put toward student scholarships.”

West Virginia’s Intelligencer (11/4, Romanek) reports, “Wheeling Park High School (WPHS) will welcome six veterans for a special program recognizing their service and dedication to America.” WPHS is “one of 12 high schools in the state to host ‘Take a Veteran to School Day.’” For the event, “veterans will share their stories, and patriotic songs will be performed by the WPHS choral department.” Take a Veteran to School Day “was launched by the U.S. Congress in 2000 and allows for participating West Virginia veterans to share their firsthand military accounts, which will then be archived in the collections in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.” According to WPHS principal Bernie Dolan, “West Virginia has 178,000 veterans, but only 383 have their stories recorded and archived in the Library of Congress.”