Chicago School Reform Model Could Provide National Template.
The Washington Post (12/30, A1, Glod) reports on its front page that Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan, “President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for education secretary,” has implemented a student “performance-pay plan and a host of other innovations to transform a school system once regarded as one of the country’s worst. As Duncan heads to Washington, the lessons of Chicago could provide a model for fixing America’s schools.” The Post adds, “With a 408,000-student system, smaller than only New York’s and Los Angeles’s public schools, Chicago has become a laboratory for reform in Duncan’s seven-year tenure. Officials here court new charter schools, teacher training is being reinvented, and some low-performing schools have been shuttered and reopened with new staff. … For the most part, the changes came with little organized opposition, except for some skirmishes with the teachers union.”
In the Classroom
Florida Schools Failing To Meet Federal Standards.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (12/30, Weber, Postal) reports, “More than 1,000 Florida public schools do not meet federal academic standards and are drifting toward failure. Although some of these schools earn A’s and B’s under the state grading system, they cannot show success on the long checklist required under the federal government’s controversial No Child Left Behind law.” According to the Sun-Sentinel, “More than 70 percent of Florida’s eligible schools are not on track to satisfy the 7-year-old law, which demands that campuses receiving federal money meet tough academic standards.”
Massachusetts Music Program Teaches Students How To Play For Audience.
The Christian Science Monitor (12/30, Farnsworth) reports, “While many kids play sports or join the school newspaper, some kids simply prefer to amp up the volume. In Watertown, Mass., every week after school, 67 kids head to a practice space covered in hip posters of the Who, the Beatles, and the Doors to practice tunes such as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” The Monitor adds, “At the Paul Green School of Rock Music, students ages 7 to 18 learn basic music skills and theory, but they also learn how to play for an audience. Becoming more comfortable on stage is an important part of the program, and while most music schools often focus on classical theory and scales, this school takes things one step further.”
San Diego Coalition Says All Students Should Enroll In College-Prep Classes.
The San Diego Union-Tribune (12/30, Moran) reports that a coalition of business and civil rights organizations “is pushing for all local high school students to enroll in college-prep classes – even if they don’t plan to attend college.” According to the Union-Tribune, less than “4 in 10 high school graduates in San Diego County complete the courses necessary for admission to the University of California or California State University systems.” But Andrea Guerrero, chair the Education Consortium of San Diego County, a “group of 30 organizations pushing for more” college prep, said that “is not enough to supply the local biotech industry with trained workers.” She added that when schools “have limited (college-prep) offerings… then we’re creating opportunities for some and not for all.”
Colorado Discusses Meaning Of College Readiness.
The Denver Post (12/30, Sherry) reports that one-third of Colorado high school graduates “need remedial classes when they start college every year,” and that “everyone from principals to state bureaucrats is pressing to get higher education and school districts to work together to move kids toward degrees faster.” According to the Post, the Colorado Department of Higher Education “is having conversations across the state to define what it means to be ready for college.” And there “is a chronic disconnect of expectations on two fronts: School districts think that a diploma should mean students can pass entry-level math and reading in college.” Meanwhile, colleges “think middle and high school teachers should know how to prepare students for tougher course work.”
On the Job
Federal Judge Says West Virginia County BOE’s Drug Test “Unconstitutional.”
The West Virginia Record (12/30, Holleran) reports that a “preliminary motion” granted Monday by the US District Joseph Goodwin will bar the Kanawha County Board of Education from “randomly” drug-testing for drugs. According to the West Virginia Record, the judge’s decision came after the American Federation of Teachers, WV, “filed a suit Nov. 26 in Kanawha Circuit Court asking for the court to end the board’s plan to randomly test employees beginning in January.” The school board moved the case to federal court Dec. 9.” But Goodwin said teachers “were forced to submit to an unconstitutional and unjustified search.”
Incident Ignites Debate Of Teachers’ Use Of Social-Networking Sites.
The AP (12/29) reports that social –networking sites pose a “prickly question for teachers who want to connect with their tech-savvy students yet maintain professional boundaries: Should teachers become virtual ‘friends’ with their students?” According to the AP, answers are “mixed.” While opponents “fear innocent educators will be branded sexual predators for chatting with students online,” backers “caution against overreacting to a powerful communication tool.” The AP says that the topic “made headlines this month in Houston after police accused a 42-year-old former high school aide of having sexual exchanges with a 16-year-old former student whom he had contacted via Facebook.” Melissa Pierson, professor of instructional technology at the University of Houston, said such “rare stories can alarm a community,” but educators “shouldn’t be afraid to use social-networking sites.”
Pittsburg School District Programs Help Teachers Keep Up With Technology.
The Joplin (MO) Globe (12/30, Stefanoni) reports that the Pittsburg, Kansas School District this year “has put into place several initiatives to help teachers keep up” with technological changes.” Noah Grotheer, district technology coordinator, said that Pittsburg “has seen a great deal of expansion, with more than 200 digital projectors as well as numerous document cameras, digital whiteboards and classroom audio systems.” For instance, Pat Walker, the District’s technology facilitator, “created ‘Mondays @ 4,’ a professional development program open to teachers every other week.” He said the program “gives them a chance to delve into technology they need to learn more about while he provides tips and guidance.” Furthermore, “Dragon Tube – similar to YouTube – allows teachers to post videos and have an instant means of networking at their disposal.”
Law & Policy
Wisconsin Anti-Bullying Bill May Pass As Democrats Take Control Of Assembly.
The AP (12/29, Bauer) reported that a “anti-bullying proposal that failed twice” in the Wisconsin Legislature “has newfound support and a better chance at being passed next year. A special committee of state lawmakers, school district employees, police and others wants to see the law enacted. The group studied school safety for five months this year and recommended that schools either follow state anti-bullying guidelines or come up with their own.”
Wisconsin’s New Richmond News /Wheeler News Service (12/29) added, “It failed twice, but an anti-bullying bill may have a better chance of being passed next year. A survey taken last year showed nearly one-third of Wisconsin public high school students say violence is a problem at their school.” The Richmond News added, “One in five students says he or she has been picked on, harassed or bullied so much that they felt unsafe in the previous year. … Democrats take control of the Assembly in the next session starting in January. That, along with the governor’s support, is expected to make passage more likely.”
Missouri Anti-Bullying Bill Aims To Protect Homosexual Students.
The Springfield (MO) News-Leader (12/29, Trotter) reported, “Many of Springfield’s homosexual teens are pulling for Rep. Sara Lampe, D-Springfield, as she plans to refile an anti-bullying bill she has pursued in previous years. The bill has a provision that would create a list of protected categories from bullying — including those who are bullied for their sexual orientation.” The News-Leader added, “The list is intended to provide a more specific framework to protect all students, said Lampe. But she acknowledged the inclusion of sexual orientation on the list makes it more controversial among her more conservative peers.”
Safety & Security
New California Law Aims To Curb Cyber Bullying.
KCBS-TV San Francisco, CA (12/29, Filippi) reported on its Web site, “In just a few days California’s public schools will have a new tool to target the online harassment of students, as a new law will crackdown on what some say is a growing trend of cyber-bullying. … The new law will allow the state’s public schools, as of January first, to suspend or expel students who are cyber bullies.” KCBS added, “Vallejo City Unified is among the school districts in California that have already approved policies that ban online harassment.”
Facilities
Budget Crunches Could Force Relocation Of Students In DC-Area Schools.
The Washington Post (12/30, B1, Birnbaum) reports, “As the economic outlook grows increasingly bleak, school systems in the Washington region are delaying construction and even considering shuttering schools, moves that could force wide-scale shuffling of students among campuses and disrupt deep connections that students and families have to neighborhood schools.” According to the Post, “The budget crunch is hitting schools in many ways, forcing increases in class size and cutbacks in staff and programs, but the possibility of uprooting students could be among the most painful for students and their families. Boundary changes can cause heartache and outrage as students are plucked out of one school and dropped in another, separating them from their friends, teachers, sports teams and clubs.”
New York District Officials Urged To Maintain Tight Control Of School Modernization Project.
The Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle (12/29) said, “Now that a panel appointed to oversee Rochester’s $1.2 billion school modernization project is finally getting organized, it must get off to a good start. After all, the last thing this community needs is the kind of lax and questionable management practices that wracked similar school rebuilding projects early on in Buffalo and Syracuse.” The Democrat & Chronicle added, “To the credit of Superintendent Jean Claude Brizard and Mayor Robert Duffy, after months of delay, for the most part, they appointed a solid group of individuals in accordance with state legislation considered a model for such huge construction projects. Now it’s essential that members of the Rochester Joint School Construction Board follow closely the dictates of the state law signed by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.”
School Finance
Northern Virginia Districts Bracing For “Substantial Losses” In State Funding.
The Washington Post (12/30, B4, Birnbaum) reports, “Northern Virginia school systems are expected to lose tens of millions of dollars in state aid in the coming year because of slumping tax receipts and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s (D) proposal to cut education funding. Local officials are still sifting through Kaine’s proposed $425 million cut, which would be a 7 percent reduction in state K-12 funding.” However, “a Washington Post “review of data from the Virginia Department of Education shows that, for the fiscal year that begins in July, Fairfax County schools could receive $48 million less than the system had been due from the state’s approved budget. For Prince William County, the cut could amount to $40 million; for Loudoun County, $15 million. Those would be substantial losses for schools to absorb as they prepare fiscal 2010 budgets.”
New Jersey Seeks More Federal Funds To Meet NCLB Mandates.
New Jersey’s Daily Record (12/29, Chebium) reported, “New Jersey politicians and educators have differing suggestions for President-elect Barack Obama, Education Secretary-designate Arne Duncan and the incoming Congress about how the federal government could help improve the state’s K-12 school system. One item on all their wish lists is money. They all want Congress to adequately fund No Child Left Behind so states can meet the law’s myriad mandates.” Though few “object to [NCLB's] key goal of boosting accountability by ensuring all children receive a good education, regardless of their race or economic status,” critics “say the problem lies in President George W. Bush’s failure to seek — and Congress’ failure to provide — enough funding for states to meet the goal of ensuring all students have grade-level proficiency in core subjects by 2014.”
New York Districts Facing State Funding Cuts.
New York’s DeWitt Times (12/29, Zimmerman) reported that when New York Gov. David Paterson (D) “released his budget earlier this week, public schools cringed at the proposed 3.3 percent education funding cuts. Cutbacks would hit schools hardest in the form of reduced software, library and textbook aid, according to the New York State Department of Education executive budget proposals.”
Also in the News
New Coke Plant Could Impact Health Of Students At Ohio School.
USA Today (12/30, Heath, Morrison, Reed) reports that the students at Amanda Elementary School in Middletown, Ohio “already breathe what appears to be some of the most polluted air in the nation. Now, a plant that makes coke – the coal-based fuel that melts iron ore for steel mills – is scheduled to be built behind the school, just past the ball fields.” USA Today adds, “Middletown, a steel town of 51,000, is struggling to survive. The new $340 million coke plant, run by SunCoke Energy, will bring 75 jobs and help secure the future of a steel mill that has operated here for 108 years.” However, “The coke plant, fought by local activists since it was announced in March, illustrates how the proximity of schools to factories seldom is considered when authorities grant operating permits for new or expanding industrial plants.”
NEA in the News
NEA Survey Shows Wisconsin Teachers’ Salaries Increased By 2.4%.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (12/30, Hetzner) reports that according to a new survey by the National Education Association, the average salary for Wisconsin public school teachers jumped 2.4% last school year, “capping a decade in which teachers in only seven other states saw their pay increase” by less. The Sentinel says that while surveys by the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers “are considered to be among the best gauges of salary trends” in the industry, the salary increase “hasn’t been true of their benefit packages.” Reports from the U.S. Census “show that Wisconsin has some of the highest per-pupil costs for benefits paid to teachers, ranking third in the nation for 2006, the most recent year for which information was available.” Dustin Beilke, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Education Association Council, said health care “is eating up a lot of what would be salary increases just because the cost of health care is so high in Wisconsin.”
2008 A “Frustrating Year For Schools.”
USA Today (12/31, Toppo) reports, “In many respects, 2008 was a frustrating year for schools. The K-12 system felt the economic downturn, with states and school districts cutting budgets and preparing to cut more next fall.” Also, education “didn’t quite make it to center stage of the 2008 presidential election, despite a $60 million investment from the Gates and Broad foundations to push educational issues during the campaign.” In addition, a “long-anticipated government study found that the federally funded, $1-billion-a-year Reading First program, a pillar of the education reform law No Child Left Behind, doesn’t necessarily have an impact on young people’s long-term ability to read.” Also, “2008 may best be remembered as the year that education snuck into the popular culture. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings appeared last March on the NPR program “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me,” and in July she sparred with Stephen Colbert on “The Colbert Report”- one of at least three education-related Colbert guests in 2008.”
In the Classroom
Secretary Of Education Nominee Seen As Collaborator In Chicago.
Education Week (12/30, Aarons) reported that Secretary of Education-designate Arne Duncan’s “seven-year tenure as the head of the 408,000-student Chicago school district has been marked by innovations to improve the quality of teachers and principals and a focus on basic reading and math skills. His low-key, collaborative style was a key to his success in Chicago, observers say, and should suit him well as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for U.S. secretary of education.” Education Week notes that Duncan “was virtually unknown when Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed him in 2001 to follow Paul G. Vallas as the second chief executive officer of the schools under the system of mayoral control that started in 1995. … But he’d already made a mark behind the scenes, Mr. Vallas said in an interview, with his work to triple the number of students taking Advanced Placement courses and expand the district’s International Baccalaureate program.”
Despite Some Experience Gaps, Obama Expresses Confidence In Duncan’s Abilities. Education Week (12/30, Hoff) reported that Secretary of Education-designate Arne Duncan “faces a long list of difficult and complex tasks, some of which he has no background in handling. The current chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools, if confirmed by the Senate, will be the point person for Barack Obama’s expansive K-12 agenda, which includes efforts to recruit large numbers of new teachers and ensure that they are highly qualified to work in the schools that need them the most.” Duncan “will also need to decide how to use temporary executive powers designed to ensure that banks have enough cash to make tuition loans to college students for the 2009-10 school year-a task unrelated to his seven years of experience as the leader of the nation’s third-largest school system. But President-elect Obama appears to have confidence that the 44-year-old Chicago native has the management skills and programmatic approach to handle those tasks and lead the 4,200-employee bureaucracy at the federal Department of Education.”
Chicago Schools Consistently Fail To Meet NCLB Standards.
CNS News (12/31, Hadro) reports that the “Chicago Public Schools, whose superintendent, Arne Duncan, has been tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next education secretary, failed to meet the Illinois state standards set under the No Child Left Behind Act every single year the standards have been in force.” According to CNS, “For the last five school years…the Chicago district…failed to make “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) in key areas, according to the district’s progress report on the Illinois State Board of Education Web site.” CNS notes that the Chicago school district “is currently on ‘Academic Watch’ status, based on its failure to make adequate progress for four consecutive years — and in year two of academic watch for failure to make required improvements.”
Collection Of Student Data Viewed As “Crucial” To Alabama’s Education Progress.
The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser (12/30) editorialized, “While it doesn’t sound very exciting, it is still important that Alabama is among just six states that have met all of the goals in a national push to collect data on student achievement and progress. By itself, collecting such data doesn’t necessarily mean that a single Alabama student will learn more, or get into a better college, or find a better job when he or she graduates.” However, collecting the data “is a crucial first step toward improving the state’s education system.” The Advertiser noted that the Associated Press “quoted U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings as saying the data will help states recognize and correct weaknesses, identify programs that work and ones that don’t, identify high-and low-performing schools, and reverse declines in graduation rates. That is extremely important in today’s tight economic climate.”
Editorial: Don’t Trash Value Of Florida High School Diploma Just To “Look Good.”
Florida’s Palm Beach News And Press Journal (12/30) editorialized, “Determined to raise graduation rates, state and federal education officials are giving school systems new ways to gin up the numbers. The U.S. Department of Education recently unveiled an extended calendar that gives high-school students up to six years to earn their diplomas. This looser standard would, of course, enable school districts to goose their graduation rates and appear more successful.” Fact is, “the state already is lowering its bar for graduation. The number of Treasure Coast students who fail to pass the FCAT exit exam and still graduate has risen exponentially in the past five years – from 135 in 2002-’03 to 6,545 in 2007-’08.”
On the Job
Teachers Spar With School Board In Louisiana District Over Drug Testing.
The AP (12/30) reported that the East Baton Rouge (LA) Parish School Board “says a lawsuit over drug testing of teachers should be moot because of changes to the policy. But the board, in a recent court filing, doesn’t specify what changes have been made.” According to the AP, the “policy is the center of a case filed by the local teachers union, which claims teachers injured on the job are subject to drug tests. The plaintiffs believe testing without suspicion of drug use amounts to an unconstitutional search.”
Law & Policy
Legislature To Weigh Bills That Address Tuition, Accountability, Cafeteria Food.
The Houston Chronicle (12/31, Mellon) reported Texas lawmakers “plan to tackle a range of education issues when they convene next month, from slashing the fat in cafeteria food to overhauling the school accountability system.” While rising college tuition “is likely to dominate much of the conversation in the upcoming Legislative session, school districts are lobbying for an overhaul of the K-12 funding system as well. Lawmakers aren’t making any promises.” Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, who chairs the House Public Education Committee, said, “Are we going to start school finance from the ground up? I don’t think so. But we’ll certainly look for a way to be more effective.”" In 2006, the Legislature “revamped the school funding system when it ordered districts to lower their property tax rates. While the move granted relief to some homeowners, school officials complain they are strapped for cash since the state essentially capped their funding.”
Special Needs
Rhode Island Prosecutors Will Not Charge District Officials Over “Isolation Room.”
The AP (12/30) reported, “Prosecutors will not seek criminal charges against school officials on Block Island (RI) over the use of a so-called isolation room. The small, bare room in the school’s basement had no inside door knobs and double-bolt locks.” According to the AP, Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch’s office “began investigating the room after prosecutors and local media outlets received anonymous letters and DVDs depicting the facility. … School officials say they are revamping their education plans for students with special needs.”
Also in the News
SAT “Score Choice” Program Draws Ire Of Colleges.
The New York Times (12/31, A14, Rimer) reports, “This March, high school juniors taking the SAT will have the option of choosing which scores to send to colleges while hiding those they do not want admissions officials to see. The new policy is called Score Choice, and the College Board hopes it will reduce student stress around the SAT and college admissions.” However, “when it comes to college admissions, few things are ever simple. Some highly selective colleges have already said that they will not go along with Score Choice, and the policy is stirring heated debate among high school counselors and college admissions officials.”
Iowa Considers Ban On Junk Food In Schools.
The AP (12/30) reported from Des Moines that Iowa education officials “want to ban junk food from the state’s schools, and give students a nudge when it comes to nutrition.” The Iowa Board of Education “is considering new rules that target the vending machine and snack bars that have become popular options to traditional school lunches.” They also “have become money makers, accounting for about half of food sales in schools. Some students oppose the changes.” Critics say the plan to eliminate junk food “will do little but drive up school lunch prices.”
Some Charter Schools Helping Jail Inmates Graduate.
The AP (12/30) reported that the Gordon Bernell Charter School at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque, NM is “one of a handful of charter schools nationwide serving current and former jail inmates the public school system failed to reach.” According to the AP, schools like the Five Keys Charter School in San Francisco “have turned their state laws on charter schools into opportunities to grant high school diplomas – rather than GEDs – to jail inmates regardless of their age.” At the Gordon Bernell school, classes “are fast-paced and allow students to earn high school credit as quickly as they can master each New Mexico curriculum standard. But they must score 80 percent or better to get credit.”
Troublesome Student Makes Good, and Honors Disciplinarian.
The New York Times (12/30, Peter Wynn Thompson) reports from Elgin, Ill, “In the early 1980s, James J. Liautaud was a trouble-making student at Elgin Academy who ranked near the bottom of his high school class.” Teachers at the private prep school “grew so exasperated with his antics that they finally voted to expel him. But the mischievous student had an unlikely defender. Dean of Discipline James Lyons, “recognized the rebellion as insecurity, and saw what others did not — a student from a financially struggling family, trying to fit in at a prestigious school among wealthier, more polished peers. The dean, who had a working-class upbringing himself, put his job on the line. ‘If he goes’ he told the faculty, ‘I go.’” Liautaud — better known as Jimmy John, the founder of a sandwich shop empire with some 800 restaurants — “came back to the Academy this semester for the opening of a building that bears his name. He gave the school $1 million, with one condition: the building also had to bear the name of Mr. Lyons.” Liautaud said, “It’s a real simple deal. Jim Lyons believed in me.”
Obama Weighs Large-Scale School Improvements As Part Of Stimulus Package.
The AP (1/1, Quaid) reported though President-elect Barack Obama “probably cannot fix every leaky roof and busted boiler in the nation’s schools,” educators “say his sweeping school modernization program – if he spends enough – could jump-start student achievement. More kids than ever are crammed into aging, run-down schools that need an estimated $255 billion in repairs, renovations or construction.” Though Obama “is likely to ask Congress for only a fraction of that, education experts say it still could make a big difference.” Also, educators “caution that throwing huge sums of money at programs that haven’t proven effective, such as the federal ‘E-Rate’ program that gives technology discounts to schools, won’t help student achievement or the economy. Obama is promising to give every student access to the Internet – the federal ‘E-Rate’ program.” However, outgoing Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings “pointed out that billions already has been spent through the ‘E-Rate’ program. ‘It’s made very little difference in enhancing student achievement,’” Spellings said, adding, “‘I commend him (Obama) for taking that on. That’s another very ripe area. But not unless it’s moving the needle for kids.’”
In the Classroom
Educators Are Discovering Benefits Of Different Learning Styles.
The Greenville (SC) News (1/1, Burns) runs a story on the way students learn and how teachers deal with different learning patterns. Susan Hill, the principal of Duncan Elementary School, said, “You’ve got to really know your learner. “You’ve got content and standards you’ve got to teach, but unless you know your learner and how they learn best, it’s not going to make much of a difference. At our school and in our district we really want to become expert kid-watchers to kind of watch to see when they’re doing certain things and what they do.” Hill added what students “do and when they do it tells teachers something about the students’ natural preferences for learning.” But Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia who’s researched learning styles, said “it may benefit students to try to impart information repeatedly and in different ways, but he said there’s no reason to believe that’s because some students need to take in information differently.” He said, “There’s just no credible scientific evidence to support it. Good teaching is good teaching, and teachers don’t need to adjust their teaching to individual students’ learning styles. Learning styles could be one basis on which to differentiate instruction, but there are many others.”
Massachusetts Governor’s Education Goals May Have To Be Delayed, Report Finds.
The Boston Globe (1/1, Vaznis) reported, “Given the state’s poor financial health,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s (D) “ambitious education overhaul proposal will have to be scaled back for now to instead find ways to maintain the current level of quality in the state’s schools, according to a report released yesterday by a special gubernatorial commission. The Readiness Finance Commission said the economic downturn, which has already prompted $1.4 billion in state cuts, prevented it from pursuing an initial goal of finding new revenue sources to pay for Patrick’s Readiness Project, which aims to provide a free public education from preschool through the initial years of college.” However, the committee “urged the adoption of several cost-saving measures, which would help school districts to stave off budget cuts that threaten programs.”
On the Job
Mentors Help New Teachers Make The Grade.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (1/2, Lizama) runs a story on the Center for Teacher Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University which “received a five-year federal grant to field test” a beginning-teacher program, “a two-year full-time mentoring model in the greater Richmond area. Two groups of 12 teachers were selected as mentors for beginning teachers in high-need schools in Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.” Serving for two years, “the mentors supported more than 300 new teachers. The program will end in June.” Jan Tusing, teacher leader-in-residence at the Center for Teacher Leadership, said, “Preliminary data from the first cohort showed that teacher retention and Standards of Learning scores improved in schools with beginning-teacher advisers, especially in the second year. Superintendents from the four participating districts are interested in finding creative ways to use existing funds to sustain the program in high-need schools.” VCU’s program “is different from the traditional beginning-teacher mentoring programs in that mentors work full time with teachers.”
MVHS Teachers Earn National Recognition.
The Los Altos (CA) Town Crier (12/31, Tricamo) reports the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards “honored Mountain View High School teachers Cecilia Quiñones and Steven Kahl Dec. 9 for achieving National Board Certification.” National Board Certification “is a voluntary program designed to develop, recognize and retain accomplished teachers who have successfully demonstrated advanced teaching knowledge, skills and practices.” Certification “is achieved through a performance-based assessment that typically takes one to three years to complete. It is considered the most prestigious credential a teacher can earn.” Board-certified teachers in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District include “Barbara Kaufman at Mountain View High and Carl Babb, Tiffany Karow, JoAnne Miyahara, Dee Dee Pearce, Keren Robertson, Galen Rosenberg and Terri Salsman de Rodriguex at Los Altos High.”
Class A Plus For Math Teachers.
The Detroit Free Press (12/31, Higgins) reports, “Edith Hightower was a bit skeptical when she heard a new math professional development program would require her to be away from her middle school classroom one day a month. She thought it would be hypocritical to expect her kids to be in school every day, but then miss so much time herself.” But that program, now credited with helping improve math achievement in the Highland Park and Hamtramck school districts by helping teachers grasp a more in-depth understanding of the subject, quickly won her over as she saw her own teaching skills improving.” The 4-year-old program created by the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) “is getting national attention now that it has trained dozens of teachers in the two districts.” The success “has allowed the agency to expand it this year to include the Ecorse, Melvindale-Northern Allen Park, River Rouge and Westwood school districts.”
Law & Policy
North Dakota Gov. Hoeven’s Plan Would Shift School Funding To State.
The Minot (ND) Daily News (1/1, Schramm) reported that as “the 2009 state legislative session nears, area school officials are both hopeful and leery of political promises for education funding and property-tax relief.” One of the Legislature’s actions will be dissecting Gov. John Hoeven’s plan “for increasing the state’s share of education costs to 72 percent by 2011. Under the plan, per pupil payments would rise from the current $3,325 to $4,690 in 2009-2010 and $5,827 in 2010-2011.” However, much of the additional money “is a shift in funding rather than new dollars,” as part of an effort to “better equalize levies among districts by buying down their general, tuition and transportation funds to 100 mills.” Dan Larson, superintendent at Sawyer Public School, “said his district would welcome tax relief, but it also needs new money.” Maxed out at the state limit with its general-fund levy, “the district struggles to keep up with inflation and offer pay raises through property taxes alone.”
Education Issues Seen As Key In ’09 Legislature.
The San Antonio Express-News (1/2, Mellon) reports “Texas lawmakers plan to tackle a range of education issues when they convene this month, from slashing the fat in cafeteria food to overhauling the school accountability system.” While “rising college tuition is likely to dominate much of the conversation in the upcoming legislative session, school districts are lobbying for an overhaul of the K-12 funding system as well. Lawmakers aren’t making any promises.” In 2006, the Legislature “revamped the school funding system when it ordered districts to lower their property tax rates. While the move granted relief to some homeowners, school officials complain they are strapped for cash since the state essentially capped their funding.” Rep. Dan Branch, a primary author of the 2006 legislation, “said he has several bills in the works that would bring more money to school districts. One proposal, which he has yet to file, would raise the minimum level of per-student funding that districts receive. Under the current system, some districts end up with around $12,000 per student while others get closer to $3,000.” Branch, who chairs a special committee that has spent the last year studying school finance, “said his per-student funding change would affect between 200 and 250 of the state’s 1,000-plus school districts.
Special Needs
Rising Autism Rates Challenge Schools.
South Carolina’s The State (1/2, Woodson) reports the number of students “diagnosed with autism in South Carolina’s public schools has more than doubled in the past five years, creating more challenges in programming and staffing for education officials.” The state Department of Education “counted 2,685 students in 2007, up from 1,283 students in 2003, with autism as their leading disorder.” Official data for 2008 “was not completed by mid-December, when school districts are required to update their totals. But Susan Durant, the retiring director in the office of exceptional children at the education department, said the numbers are clear. And, the toll it takes on parents and the children can’t be overstated.” Midlands school districts “are also seeing a higher incidence of children enrolling with autism.” In 2003, there were about 300 students diagnosed with autism primarily. By, 2007 there were more than 500.” The local trend “mirrors national data that show the prevalence has risen to 1 in every 150 American children, and almost 1 in 94 boys, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control in 2007.”
Safety & Security
More States Enacting Laws Aimed At Curbing Bullying.
The Washington Post (1/1, A3, Surdin) reported that due to the “anguished stories of cyber-bullying that are increasingly cropping up around the country,” a push is on in many states “to pass laws aimed at clamping down on the student-spun harassment, intimidation and threats coursing through the Web. Most of the laws are aimed at school districts, requiring them to develop policies on cyber-bullying — for example, how to train school staff members or discipline students.” The Post noted that at “least 13 states have passed such laws,” and “starting today, California schools may suspend or expel students who commit cyber-bullying. The law also singles out such harassment as a subject to be addressed by school officials.”
Potential Tragedy Averted At Virginia School.
The Waynesboro News Virginian (1/1, Gonzalez) reported, “More than ever, schools respond to the threat of violence with urgency – taking all tips seriously – a protocol that safety experts say might have prevented tragedy at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton. State police have charged two teenagers in a plot to kill students and faculty at the school.” According to the News Virginian, after police were tipped by administrators Sept. 24, they “responded by working through the night and in following weeks, aided by school staff, said Lt. Joe Rader, investigations supervisor for the state police central division. … Rader said the unnamed teens, from Augusta County and Arlington, planned to attack a dorm in late October and that police were able to identify some potential victims.”
Facilities
Load Limits Delay Construction.
East Liverpool, Ohio’s The Review (12/31) reported “After a two-day delay in the LaCroft Elementary School construction project, the situation has been resolved. However, the school board president expressed his dissatisfaction.” School board President Gary Bonnell said, “‘If there was any kind of problem up there, they could have called me up on the phone or talked to the project manager.” Bonnell “said the Liverpool Township Trustees ordered signs be placed along the roadways leading to the school indicating load restrictions.” He added, “It shut us down all yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday). We had a crane that was scheduled to go back there, a concrete delivery was canceled and steel trusses were supposed to go there. People lost wages and I’m concerned and disappointed.” Bonnell said, “They [the trustees] knew, absolutely, what was going to happen when they put up those signs. Time is money on a job like this and it’s taxpayers’ money they are playing with.” He said after a meeting with the trustees, the signs were removed.
Maine School Consolidation Law Said To Hit Local Districts.
Maine’s Seacoast Online (1/1, Dolce) reported, “It was an active year for area school districts as they raced to comply with the state-mandated school consolidation law.” The Wells-Ogunquit Community School District “struggled to even find a consolidation partner, while Kennebunk and Kennebukport’s MSAD 71 agreed to pull the Arundel School District into it’s fold.” There “has been debate, however, about whether the consolidation arrangement will save local taxpayers any money. New cuts to education funding has caused further upheaval.” By year’s end, the Wells-Ogunquit Consolidated School District “was in negotiations with the Acton School District after requests made to Education Commissioner Susan Gendron to remain a stand-alone district were denied. The districts remain under pressure to find consolidation partners by July 1, 2009, or lose substantial state funding.”
School Finance
Maryland County’s Schools Lose $24 Million Due To State Budgeting Error.
The Washington Post (1/2, B1, De Vise) reports, “An accounting error in Maryland’s budgeting process cost the Montgomery County school system $24 million in lost revenue in the current fiscal year, and some of the money was mistakenly distributed among the state’s 23 other school systems, officials said yesterday. Some Montgomery leaders are vexed about the mistake, which they found out about just before Christmas.” Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) “said that he would give the funds back to the county and that school systems that were overpaid can keep the money. … O’Malley said state officials didn’t immediately discover the underpayment to Montgomery because they had more pressing concerns: correcting their math to forecast property tax revenue in a dire budget cycle.”
Major School Funding Repairs Seen As Unlikely This Session.
The Austin American-Statesman (1/2, Alexander) runs an analysis which says, “How Texas divvies up money for public schools has created confusion among taxpayers and frustration for school officials who say the system is unfair and inflexible. But lawmakers are unlikely to change the school finance system substantially in the 2009 session, despite warnings that a legal challenge could be on the horizon.” Instead, “key lawmakers want to continue with the current system, which was enacted in 2006 as a short-term fix, and tackle the issue in the 2011 session, when they plan comprehensive reforms.” Maintaining “the status quo will probably mean that more school districts, which have been digging into their reserves to pay for rising costs, will be asking voters to approve higher property tax rates.” Sixty percent of the 116 tax rate referendums “held in 2008 passed, including Austin’s, according to TexasISD.com. But some taxpayers expressed consternation about why districts need more money when tax bills are rising along with property values.”
School Districts Face Tough Financial Issues, Choices This Year.
The Newark (OH) Advocate (1/2, Roy) reports the coming year “could be as tough as 2008 — or tougher — for school districts in Licking County.” The year will include districts working “to slash their budgets to avoid deficits in 2011, the closing of an elementary in Newark and continued construction projects.” Newark, Northridge and Johnstown-Monroe “still face their same deficits and likely will be on the ballot at least once in this year.” The Lakewood district “could join them on the ballot, as well as the Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County. Most districts in the county are looking at deficits in fiscal year 2011.” During January, Newark, Northridge and Johnstown-Monroe “each will discuss cuts to the 2009-10 school year budget in order to save money for 2011.”
Virginia District Grapples With Steep State Funding Cuts.
The Northern Virginia Daily (1/1, Knight) reported “As the Shenandoah County School Board embarks on its next round of number crunching, it will have to get creative, Superintendent Keith Rowland said Tuesday. School officials were able to conclude how much a loss in state funding — $2.6 million, Rowland said — the county would absorb when Gov. Timothy M. Kaine presented his proposed budget amendments two weeks ago. With another $200,000 to be lost in regional special education funding, the county schools will likely need to find a way to cut $2.8 million, Rowland said.” According to the Daily, “There are a couple of things bringing good news for the county’s bottom line, however. Rowland said the drop in fuel prices — as long as they stay at their current level — has helped save money. Also, a countywide energy conservation program implemented this year, in which schools get money back if they save money, has yielded positive results, he said.”