NEA Updates and Information
Students In “Post-Racial” Era Seen As Being Challenged By Some Historical Subjects.
The Washington Post (1/21, B1, Shapira) reports that Advanced Placement English students at Cardozo High School in Northwest Washington were “among the first in the nation — perhaps the first — to study” the novel A Mercy by Toni Morrison. “With the nation’s first African American president set to take office and the term ‘post-racial’ moving into cultural currency, major questions hovered within the purple walls of Room 115: Would the teens connect with Morrison’s rendering of America’s racial past? Could the advanced class comprehend her complex style?” Based on the class discussion, the Post notes, “the book’s treatment of race was somewhat disconcerting for this generation of students, and its prose style was challenging.” According to Howard University Professor Eleanor Taylor, “young students tend to read Morrison from a less overtly racial perspective and might not be drawn instinctively to literature about historical subjects such as slavery or segregation.”
In the Classroom
Detroit School Sees Success With NCLB Tutoring.
The Detroit Free Press (1/20, Walsh-Sarnecki) reported Detroit’s Harding Elementary School “was a dismally low-performing school” with Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) scores that “failed to beat the Detroit Public Schools average in every category. But just two years later, Harding’s MEAP scores exceeded the district’s average in everything but fifth-grade science and Harding would have made Adequate Yearly Progress if math scores for fourth-grade special-education students were higher.” Although, No Child Left Behind’s tutoring program is given partial credit for student’s progress, the Free Press adds that “Harding also goes beyond the federal requirements, giving parents their choice of five tutoring programs,” with all tutors being certified teachers, and “school staff members actively recruit students for tutoring.”
Students At Florida Elementary School Go On Field Trip To Bookstore.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/21, Travis) reports that on Tuesday, a fifth-grade class from Rodney B. Cox Elementary School went on a field trip to Barnes and Noble. Only about half of the students “raised their hands when asked if they had ever visited a bookstore before.” According to Brandon Maldonado, a technology specialist at Cox who helped organize the event, most of the students at Cox would not “have the opportunity” to go to a bookstore. “Coming from low-income families, a simple trip from Dade City to Wesley Chapel is not something they could easily do,” he said. At the bookstore, “representatives from East Pasco Democrats, Barnes & Noble and Toys for Tots talked to the students about Barack Obama, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the importance of reading.” And “each student received a biography on the new commander in chief, courtesy of the East Pasco Democrats.”
Robotics Club At Nebraska School Creates Environmentally Responsive Robots.
KETV-TV Omaha (1/20) reported that The Lego Robotics Club at Roosevelt Elementary School “used Legos in an unconventional way, creating a product that has taught them more than just the sum of its parts.” The students created “a robot that responds to cues from the environment” by combining the Legos with some “engineering and computer technology” skills. According to KETV, in addition to science and technology, the Robotics club “also teaches the kids about math, public speaking, and teamwork.”
High School In Cleveland Overwhelmed By English-Learners.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer (1/21, Ott) reports, “Principal Edward Muffet calls Lincoln-West High School a little United Nations,” with students “from more than 30 countries…speak[ing] more than two dozen languages.” In addition, “nearly a third of the 1,500-plus students speak limited or no English,” and some “arrive illiterate in their own languages.” Meanwhile, “the school has only 10 teachers at the school certified for bilingual classes in the standardized-test subjects.”
Students Watch Obama Inauguration In Classrooms Throughout US.
The Riverside Press Enterprise (1/21, Parsavand) reports that “students at schools around the Inland area watched history in the making in their classrooms and auditoriums Tuesday, as the nation’s first African-American president took office.” Students at some schools watched the inauguration as “part of a series of lessons tied to the election and the presidency this school year.” Some teachers tied the inauguration into their lesson plans by having students critique the President’s speech. And at Victoria Elementary School in San Bernardino students in Jean King’s second-grade class “colored pictures of the new president and King stapled them to the walls.” Meanwhile, other “Inland high schools [held] final exams Tuesday, preventing students in many classes from watching the ceremony as it happened.”
The Long Island (NY) Newsday (1/21, Kelleher) reports that at “the nation’s first school named after Barack Obama” in Hempstead, “about 100 [students] sat on the floor of the school’s gymnasium to watch the inauguration ceremony on a giant screen.” Others at Barack Obama elementary school “watched from televisions in classrooms.” According to Principal Jean Bligen, “In the weeks leading up to the ceremony, lessons have revolved around past inauguration ceremonies.”
Schools Throughout Hawaii Tie Inauguration Into Core-Subject Activities. The Honolulu Advertiser (1/21) reports that “at dozens of schools around the Islands, teachers” on Tuesday tied the inaugural events and Barack Obama’s “address into all sorts of lessons and events.” For example, “at Punahou School, the inauguration [was] folded into seventh- and eighth-grade math, science, social studies and English lessons. In math classes, students” analyzed “the deficit Obama is facing, while English classes” analyzed the inaugural address. And students in Dawn Kadota’s third-grade class at Pearl Harbour Elementary School went “on a ‘virtual trip to the inauguration,’” which involved “planning out an itinerary, working out the cost of travel, and figuring out which inaugural ball to attend.”
Baltimore School System Provided At-Home Lesson Ideas For Inauguration. The Baltimore Sun (1/21, Neufeld) reports that in many Baltimore-area classrooms, “Tuesday’s inauguration of Barack Obama provided boundless learning opportunities for students in area classrooms – assuming they were in school.” Baltimore Public Schools “were closed Tuesday amid predictions of high student and teacher absenteeism. But Baltimore Freedom Academy and Robert W. Coleman Elementary organized field trips to Washington for students.” In Anne Arundel County, about 73 percent of all high school “students attended class, compared with about 90 percent normally.” A district spokesman “said that if parents write a note explaining that they watched the inauguration with their children, the schools will excuse the absence.” According to the Sun, “whether they were in session Tuesday or not, schools spent weeks preparing for the inauguration.” For example, “the Baltimore school system developed lessons for classrooms and also sent home a list of suggested activities for kids and parents to do together.”
On the Job
Teachers In Arkansas District Approve Performance Pay Plan.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette (1/21, Blad) reports, “Siloam Springs school faculty and staff overwhelmingly approved a performance pay plan in a districtwide election held last week. Now the district needs the money to pay for it. Of 476 employees surveyed, eight voted against the plan, with the rest approving it.” The plan “will provide bonuses of up to $7,500 for employees based on supervisor evaluations and students’ test results.” It “could cost $2.5 million if every employee qualifies for a full bonus, Superintendent Ken Ramey said.”
Law & Policy
Teachers In Pinellas County, Florida File Suit Over Seven-Period Middle School Schedule.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/21, Marshall) reports that “the Pinellas teachers union filed a lawsuit Tuesday hoping to force the School District to abandon a seven-period middle school schedule that the union claims violates the teachers’ contract.” The teachers are asking “the court to uphold an arbitrator’s order that the district return to the old six-period day this semester.” Meanwhile, district officials maintain “that reverting to the old schedule would be too disruptive for about 22,000 middle school students and that some would be forced to drop electives they need to get into special high school programs.” Karen Black, the teachers’ union president, said, “This is definitely something that could have been negotiated and worked through. … We have had ongoing discussions, but the options they presented to us traded one contract violation for another.”
Utah Lawmakers May Cut Funding For Autism Preschool Program.
The Salt Lake Tribune (1/21, May) reports that Utah’s $1.9 million preschool program for autistic children, along with other programs “that help Utah’s autistic children — have been targeted for cuts, as lawmakers try to slice $400 million from this year’s state budget and $800 million from next year’s figures.” The state’s autistic-education preschools “provide mental-health services to students and train families.” And “students gain an average of 16 months of language, cognition and social skills in nine months of school.” According to the state, after participating in the special preschool program, “about half the children are able to enroll in traditional classrooms by first grade.” The “other services at risk include private school scholarships and a state autism registry.” The Salt Lake Tribune notes that even if the preschool program is eliminated, “autistic youngsters would still get services through special-education preschools at public schools, which cannot turn children away.” But some “say those schools, with more students and fewer instructors, aren’t as good.”
Safety & Security
Officials In Florida District “Secretly” Installing Surveillance Cameras In Schools.
Florida Weekly (1/21, Williams) reports that “Lee County Schools officials have been” secretly “installing cameras in high schools, middle schools and elementary schools since 2005.” According to school officials, “the cameras have already proven effective in recording incidents of vandalism,” and the district is close to having every school equipped with the cameras. Joe Donzelli, the district’s director of communications, said that “the cameras provide ‘a deterrent that may stop individuals from engaging in certain activities and they serve as ‘eyes’ that see and record activities on…campuses.” They “record events in public areas both inside and outside the schools, such as exits, entrances and main hallways, but not in private areas such as locker rooms or bathrooms.” The district will not “say how much money the security system has cost, or what kind of cameras they’ve purchased.”
Also in the News
President Obama Mentions Education In Inaugural Address.
Education Week (1/21, Klein) reports, “President Barack Obama [on Tuesday] cited the shortcomings of the nation’s schools as one part of the broader economic crisis and called on Americans to come together to tackle the country’s challenges in a spirit of public service and personal accountability.” The President said, “Everywhere we look, there is work to be done. …We will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” Although he “did not offer details…the fact that schools made such an early appearance in the speech suggests that he sees education as a policy priority,” according to Paul Manna, “a professor at the College of William and Mary who has studied the role of politics in education.” Educators, meanwhile continue to emphasize “the need for lawmakers and organizations along the policy spectrum to work collaboratively on the issues facing America’s schools, particularly the achievement gaps between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers.”
Most New Hampshire Students Show Gains In Math, Reading, Writing.
The AP (1/22) reports, “New Hampshire students are showing steady improvement in the three Rs, according to new standardized test scores, but most high school juniors still are not proficient in reading or arithmetic.”
According to the Nashua Telegraph (1/22), test results show that “75 percent of students” who took the New England Common Assessment were proficient or better in reading, compared to 72 percent last year; 64 percent in math, compared to 61 percent last year; and 50 percent in writing, compared to 43 percent last year.” Still, high school math and reading scores, “although improved from last year, continued to be a problem.” In math, “only 32 percent of high schools students in the state were proficient or better” this year, “and in writing, only 39 percent were at that level.” Meanwhile, “in reading, scores were much higher, with 72 percent of students scored proficient.” The Concord (NH) Monitor (1/22, Heckman) and New Hampshire’s Union Leader (1/22, Brooks, et al.) also cover the story.
In the Classroom
BioBridge Brings Students, Teachers Together As Lab Partners.
Education Week (1/21, Cavanagh) reported on the BioBridge program, “which trains teachers and students together and has them work side by side in the classroom on science labs.” After completing the program, students “are expected to serve as leaders…helping their classmates make sense of the lab activity.” Although “Schools often use students as ‘peer tutors’ in science and other classes,” many “observers say it is far less common for a professional-development program to have educators work so closely with their young charges in the hope of bringing about classroom improvement.” Education Week notes that “BioBridge was created in the 2006-07 academic year by faculty and staff members at the University of California, San Diego, who were interested in improving the quality of high school lab teaching.”
Independent Reading Program Seen As Helping Baltimore Students Improve Skills.
The Baltimore Sun (1/22, Gencer) reports on Baltimore County’s “100 Book Challenge, one of three programs the school system is using to incorporate independent reading…into elementary and middle schools and, ultimately, create self-motivated readers.” According to school officials, the challenge has helped student improve their reading skills. An evaluation of the 2006-2007 school year says that “reading independently for an hour each day throughout the school year – with proper instruction – can translate into a growth rate of about 2.5 years of improvement for 100 Book Challenge participants.” And “among the six pilot schools in the report, students on average saw eight months’ growth over the course of 4 1/2 to six months.” This year, in addition to the Challenge, “the county has also launched what are called ‘reading research labs’ in nearly 40 elementaries, as well as a Web reading pilot, TeenBiz3000, in 10 middle schools.”
Maryland District Still Undecided About Removing Gifted Label.
According to the Washington Post (1/22, GZ3, De Vise), “a Dec. 16 article in The Washington Post reported that the Montgomery County school system might end the longtime practice of labeling students as gifted or not in the second grade.” After a poll associated with the article drew over 9,000 responses, with over half of respondents in favor of keeping the label, “the school system went to the unusual length of responding publicly to the article, clarifying that although the idea was under study, no decision had been made.” Still, “within the school system, the gifted label is” mainly seen as inequitable, because “white and Asian American students are twice as likely to be labeled gifted as Hispanic and black students.” But some parents “suspect the proposed elimination of the label is part of a broader retreat from gifted education.” Montgomery county school board members “expect to take up the future of the label sometime this year.”
Students At Kansas Elementary School Explore Trunks To Learn About Native American History.
The De Soto (KS) Explorer (1/22, Kieler) reports that “four fourth-grade classes at Mize [Elementary School] are exploring real Indian artifacts thanks to the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka.” Mize “borrowed two trunks from the museum for the unit on Native Americans.” Each trunk holds artifacts from the lives of “Native Americans in the region. One trunk, ‘Indian Homes in Kansas,’ shows students the different homes used, such as the tipi, grass house and earth lodge. The other trunk, ‘People of the Plains: Native Americans in Kansas,’ gives students a closer look at what Native Americans used in day-to-day life, such as tools and food.” The Museum allows schools to “check out trunks for free for up to a month. … The only cost is for shipping, or teachers can arrange to pick the trunks up in Topeka.”
Teachers Serve As Project Facilitators At Louisiana Tech School.
Louisiana’s News-Star (1/22, Leader) reports that Ruston High School “is in the early stages of creating a New Tech High School — a school within a school — which uses technology, the community, and a workplace model to help students excel.” For the program, students “will work in groups on real-world projects often provided by business or industry in the community where the school is located. Teachers serve as project facilitators and offer assistance as requested by students.” The goal of New Tech High School is “to teach students in a way that will translate into any career and prepare them for post-secondary opportunities.” Participants will be “enrolled in the traditional high school curriculum required for graduation, but the methods of teaching incorporate all subject areas into each of the real world projects.”
School-Based Exercise Programs Do Not Influence Leisure Time Physical Activity, Study Shows.
On the Los Angeles Times’ (1/21) Booster Shots blog, Jeannine Stein wrote that “school-based programs have had some success” in helping kids and teens stay physically fit, “according to a new study that examined previous research on interventions offering education and exercise. But the programs aren’t the total solution, since they fall short in some areas, including increasing leisure time activity, and decreasing body mass index.” Researchers with the Cochran Library “examined 26 studies of school-based plans to determine what worked and what didn’t.” They found that “generally, the interventions provided information on the benefits of exercise and nutrition, and explained the disadvantages of eating junk food and maintaining a sedentary lifestyle.” Furthermore, the programs “increased the students’ physical activity during school, ensuring that they were burning more calories during that time.” But, “they were not influential in increasing leisure time physical activity, or in decreasing blood pressure or body mass index.”
Tutoring Most Popular Intervention For Students In Low-Performing Schools, Report Shows.
According to Education Week (1/21), The U.S. Department of Education last week “published three new evaluations of separate portions of the seven-year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.” The portions of NCLB the reports analyze include “the implementation of school choice and tutoring for children in low-performing schools… the targeting of federal funds toward high-poverty schools; and” the utilization “of alternative tests for special education students.” According to the reports, “Students were more likely to sign up for free tutoring available under the law. In the 2005-06 school year, 449,000 used that option.” But “participation rates stalled at 17 percent…from 2003-04 to 2005-06.”
On the Job
“Grow Your Own Substitute” Program Aimed At Attracting New Substitutes.
The Casper (WY) Star Tribune (1/22, Santos) reports on the “Grow Your Own Substitute” program that was developed by the Natrona County school “district to draw people into becoming substitutes.” Program “participants complete six classes before applying for a substitute teaching permit from the Wyoming Professional Standards Teaching Board. The training also requires 30 hours of observation time in elementary, middle and high schools.” In addition, “potential substitutes must meet certain qualifications before earning a permit, including having an associate’s degree or 65 hours of college credit.” According to the Casper Star Tribune, the district has “received approval from the professional standards board to expand eligibility requirements to anyone with a high school diploma or a GED.”
Pinellas County Superintendent Should Not Have Violated Teachers’ Contract, Columnist Says.
In an opinion piece for the St. Petersburg Times (1/22) columnist Howard Troxler writes his “three conclusions about the fight between the Pinellas School Board and its middle school teachers.” First, he says, “The School Board violated the teachers’ contract by requiring them, without their consent, to teach a new schedule with more classes this year.” Still, “an immediate return to the old schedule would now be impractical if not catastrophic.” But even though the “problem is ‘too late to fix’ precisely because of the School Board’s bad acts,” school officials “shouldn’t get off scot-free.” In response to Superintendent Julie Janssen’s claim that changing the schedule back to six periods would “disrupt the educational programs for middle school students” and displace teachers, Troxler responds, “I believe her. But it is too bad that Janssen’s good conscience didn’t prevent a violation of the teachers’ contract last summer in the first place.”
Law & Policy
Judge Rules Illinois “Student Prayer Act” Unconstitutional.
The New York Times /AP (1/22, A19) reports, “A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the state law requiring a moment of silence in public schools across Illinois is unconstitutional, saying it crosses the line separating church and state.” In response to a lawsuit “filed by a talk show host, Rob Sherman, an outspoken atheist,” that was “designed to bar schools from enforcing…the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act,” Judge Robert W. Gettleman said, “The statute is a subtle effort to force students at impressionable ages to contemplate religion.” Even though “the law allows students to reflect on the day’s activities rather than pray if that is their choice,” Gettleman and “critics like the American Civil Liberties Union…say the law is a thinly disguised effort to bring religion into the schools.”
Texas BOE Hears Testimony In Battle Over Evolution Instruction.
The New York Times (1/22, A17, Mckinley) reports that “the latest round in a long-running battle over how evolution should be taught in Texas schools began in earnest Wednesday as the State Board of Education (BOE) heard impassioned testimony from scientists and social conservatives on revising the science curriculum.” According to the AP, “On the surface, the debate centers on a passage in the state’s curriculum that requires students to critique all scientific theories, exploring ‘the strengths and weaknesses’ of each.” But “This year, however, a panel of teachers assigned to revise the curriculum proposed dropping those words, urging students instead to ‘analyze and evaluate scientific explanations using empirical evidence.’” Stephen C. Meyer, “an expert on the history of science and a director at the Discovery Institute,” which advocates “intelligent-design,” told the board that the language of Texas’s curriculum standards “is really important for protecting teachers who want to address this subject with integrity in the sense of allowing students to hear about dissenting opinions.”
According to the San Antonio Express News (1/22, Scharrer), “The argument hinges on a single word: weaknesses.” Instead of requiring teachers to “present the ‘strengths and weaknesses’ of various theories, including evolution,” some science experts have proposed that the “science curriculum standards…encourage students to use critical thinking, scientific reasoning and problem solving to analyze and evaluate scientific explanations.”
Safety & Security
Cookie Dough Sold During Fundraisers At Three California Schools Recalled.
NBC Los Angeles (1/22) reports that “peanut butter cookie dough distributed as part of a fundraising activity at three Southern California schools, including two in Los Angeles County, may be tainted with salmonella and is being recalled, it was announced Tuesday.” According to a spokeswoman for cookie dough distributor Sweet Success Fundraising, of Ontario, “170 of the three-pound tubs of frozen cookie dough, which sell for $14 apiece, are affected.” The California Department of Public Health says that the dough “may have been made with peanut butter that was voluntarily recalled by the Peanut Corporation of America.”
According to the Los Angeles Times (1/21, Mehta), the recalled cookie dough “was distributed to schools between Dec. 8 and Jan. 8.” Meanwhile, according to the Ventura County Star (1/21), “California Department of Public Health officials said Tuesday they were investigating possible salmonella-tainted peanut butter cookie dough sold during fundraisers at 13 schools, including three in Ventura County.” Sweet Success Fundraising officials maintain that “only three schools…received the batch in question.”
Many Connecticut Districts Remove Peanut Products From School Cafeterias. Newsday (1/22) reports that after the peanut butter recall was announced, “many school districts in Connecticut…removed peanut products from their cafeterias and vending machines as a precaution.” Connecticut State Department of Consumer Protection officials “say nine people in Connecticut who got sick” from eating tainted peanut butter “have recovered.”
Students Practice Using “Real World” Skills With Project-Based Curriculum.
The Coloradoan (1/22, Woods) reported, “Olander Elementary School will change its name to Olander School for Project Based Learning pending the Poudre School District Board of Education’s approval.” The school has been using “a project-based learning curriculum” for nearly three years. Project Based Learning is rooted “in the educational philosophy that students learn best through experiential, hands-on and student-directed learning experiences.” Projects typically take several weeks to complete. The curriculum “allows students to learn a combination of classroom subjects with real-world skills.” For example, one project requires that students “read a book, write and edit a review, and then create” a website to post the information. Students “ran the project as a publishing company, Books ‘R’ Us where they followed schedules and met deadlines.”
In the Classroom
Student Objects To Asian Stereotype, Says Academic Pressure Is Mostly Self-Induced.
Rebecca Gao, a junior at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, wrote in the San Jose Mercury News (1/23) in response to an earlier front-page article (‘High expectations and high stress for Asian students,’ Jan. 4) which, she argues, “incorrectly attributed the relatively high stress levels primarily to Asian parental pressure.” Gao writes, “We aim for our definition of success not because our parents expect us to excel, but rather because we know what we are capable of. We are driven by our own ambitions. … The pressure is mostly self-induced.” So “if our parents suddenly stopped caring about grades at all, we would still be working at the same level as before.” Gao also criticizes the focus on the students Asian background, concluding, “It is our character which defines us, not our race. Our high Asian demographic shouldn’t cause us to be ostracized or make us a target of racial stereotyping.”
Second Graders In Missouri School Make Instruments As Part Of Unit On Sound.
The Joplin (MO) Globe (1/23, Hadsall) reports, “Second-graders Levi Hendrix and Nathan Epps and the rest of Annie O’Toole’s class at Duquesne Elementary School couldn’t wait to make some sounds,” with their “homemade instruments.” O’Toole said, “They have been studying pitch, volume and how vocal cords work to make sound … Then they put what they learned into practice by making their own instruments from household items.” Instruments made included a bass with a bucket and broomstick and a xylophone made of string and bamboo.
Wittenberg University Offers Monthly Science Program For High School Students.
The Springfield (OH) News Sun (1/23, Mori) reports, “Area high school students can get some face time with Wittenberg University faculty and students while getting hands-on experience with the math and sciences during Wittenberg’s Saturday Science Program.” The program “is free and open to area high school and home school students.” Each monthly session “will feature a faculty-led presentation followed by a continental breakfast and a hands-on lab to illustrate concepts in astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental science, geography, geology, mathematics, physics or psychology.”
Fairfax County, Virginia, Board Votes To Abandon Tougher Grading Scale.
The Washington Post (1/23, B1, Chandler) reports, “The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously late last night to abandon a strict grading policy it has long upheld as a hallmark of high standards, after a year of intense pressure from parents who have argued that the policy hurts students’ chances for college admission or scholarships.” Instead, “the School Board decided to move toward a more commonly used grading scale that parents have championed.” Moving from a requirement that “students must score 94 percent to earn an A and 64 percent to pass,” to a policy under which “90 percent is an A and 60 percent is a passing grade.” The Post notes that “an online petition garnered more than 10,000 signatures, and hundreds of supporters have turned out for board meetings.” Supt. Jack Dale “recommended in early January that the board maintain the current tougher scale and the rigor he said it represents.”
On the Job
Seventy-One Educators In Danbury, Connecticut Apply For Retirement Incentive.
Connecticut’s The News-Times (1/23) reports that “a retirement incentive offered to Danbury teachers will touch every corner of the 10,000 student district.” Seventy-one educators, including teachers in all grades and subject areas as well as “Danbury High School’s new principal and several other administrators,” have applied for the incentive. “The retirement incentive payout gives [retirees] money they can choose to use for a health savings account or pay for medical insurance until they are eligible for Medicare.” Also “under the plan, participants would be paid incentive compensation equal to a percentage of their salary rate for the current school year. It would be paid in five annual installments, beginning Sept. 1, 2009. Those with 35 or more years of service would receive 75 percent of this year’s pay over five years, those with 30 to 34 years of service would receive 50 percent, and those with 25 to 29 years of service would receive 25 percent.”
Baltimore Schools Chief Urges Some Students At Struggling School To Transfer Midyear.
The Baltimore Sun (1/23, Neufeld) reports, “City schools chief Andrés Alonso is urging underclassmen at a struggling West Baltimore high school to transfer to other schools midyear — a highly unusual step in keeping with his pledge to hold all schools to high standards.” Although the district cannot legally close Homeland Security Academy “in the middle of the academic year…Alonso is strongly encouraging students to choose to leave and asking the school board to close it this summer.” According to the Sun, “problems at Homeland Security” range “from high staff turnover to low student performance” mentioning “a slew of fights and bathroom fires.”
North Carolina District Will Permit Some Siblings To Transfer To Avoid Reassignment.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (1/23, Hui) reports, “The Wake County school board preliminarily agreed today to expand the ‘grandfathering’ policy that will” permit a student “to attend the same school as an older brother or sister who receives a ‘transfer’ to avoid reassignment.” The policy inclusion will mostly “benefit families assigned…two new schools opening in 2010. Rising juniors and seniors won’t go to” the schools “because they won’t open with upperclassmen. Now their siblings who are rising sophomores are eligible for transfers to remain at their current schools as well.”
Officials In North Carolina District Seek To Reduce Number Of Low-Income Students At Elementary School. In a separate story, North Carolina’s News & Observer (1/23, Hui) reports that under Wake County’s “proposed reassignment plan,” children in Beteena Person’s “neighborhood would be transferred to a school 15 miles from…home. That’s 2 1/2 times the distance to its current school, and the new school operates on a different schedule — a year-round calendar.” The move would “reduce the percentage of low-income students at Smith Elementary School in Garner.” The goal is to replace the lower-income students “with more-affluent students who might apply for Smith’s new magnet program.” School officials “point to research showing that academic performance suffers at schools that have too many low-income students. They try to ensure that no school is overwhelmed by students from poor families or those with limited skill in English or with other special needs.” But Person disagrees. “I don’t believe whether a child receives free and reduced lunch makes them less intelligent,” she said.
Law & Policy
Texas BOE Votes To Accept Science Standards That Drop Criticism Of Evolution.
The Dallas Morning News (1/23, Stutz) reports, “In a major defeat for social conservatives, a sharply divided State Board of Education voted Thursday to abandon a longtime state requirement that high school science teachers cover what some critics consider to be ‘weaknesses’ in the theory of evolution. Under the science curriculum standards recommended by a panel of science educators and tentatively adopted by the board, biology teachers and biology textbooks would no longer have to cover the ‘strengths and weaknesses’ of Charles Darwin’s theory that man evolved from lower forms of life.” The requirement that teachers cover “the so-called strengths and weaknesses” of the theory was adopted “in the 1980s.” The board voted 7-7 to amend the proposed standards to keep the existing requirement. The standards if accepted in a final vote to be held today “will remain in place for the next decade, although the process for approving new textbooks won’t start until 2011.”
The AP (1/23, Castro) reports, “The crowd — as well as the review panel — was sharply split on the proposal to drop language in the current curriculum that requires teachers to address ‘strengths and weaknesses’ of scientific theory.” And “much of Wednesday’s testimony focused on the scientific evidence of evolution.”
Safety & Security
California County Expected To Relocate Students From “Seismically Challenged” Schools.
The San Jose Mercury News (1/23, Wetzel) reports, “Citing concerns about earthquake safety, the West Contra Costa school district board is moving forward with a plan to relocate students at two seismically challenged middle schools. The board unanimously agreed Wednesday to ask staff to compile detailed cost estimates, a timeline and other information on moving students who attend Portola Middle in El Cerrito and Adams Middle in Richmond to temporary campuses.” The action is in response to studies and a statement by “the Division of the State Architect…that the ‘safety of students is at risk and must be corrected’ at Portola, where the campus – atop a steep hill at Navellier Street and Moeser Lane – rests on a landslide.”
Facilities
Missouri District Considers Swapping Buildings With Local University.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1/23, Gillerman) reports, “Washington University and the Clayton School District are considering a potential land swap in which Washington U. would trade its old Christian Brothers College (CBC) High School site for the school district’s Wydown Middle School and two other properties.” In addition to the CBC building, “the university also would give an undisclosed amount of money to Clayton schools.” Clayton’s decision hinges on “whether to build a new middle school on the CBC property or renovate and add to Wydown Middle School, which was built in 1965 and has been renovated twice.” Many residents oppose the swap, as do members of the Clayton National Education Association.
Also in the News
Study Credits “Obama Effect” With Erasing Testing Gap Between Blacks, Whites.
The New York Times (1/23, A15, Dillon) reports, “Educators and policy makers, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, have said in recent days that they hope President Obama’s example as a model student could inspire millions of American students, especially blacks, to higher academic performance.” A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University, San Diego State University, and Northwestern University, say they “have documented what they call an Obama effect, showing that a performance gap between” a sampling of 84 “African-Americans and” 388 “whites on a 20-question test administered before Mr. Obama’s nomination all but disappeared when the exam was administered after his acceptance speech and again after the presidential election.” The Times notes that “the study has not yet undergone peer review, and two academics who read it on Thursday said they would be interested to see if other researchers would be able to replicate its results.”
Middle School In New Mexico Sees Spike In Violent Incidents.
New Mexico’s Rio Grande Sun (1/23) reports that “a steady stream of Española Middle School students milled in and out of Assistant Principal Theresa Flores’ office Tuesday morning, and a handful more waited outside, some with dread written on their faces, others talking tough, apparently used to routine visits with the school’s head disciplinarian.” Española has experienced a sharp spike in the number of violent incidents on campus and in “all-around misbehavior” by students. “The number of disciplinary infractions has increased by almost 50 percent at the middle school and more than tripled at the high school since the first month of class, according to statistics provided by ProSec, the District’s private security contractor.” Nearly one third of the incidents that occurred in November “were classified as ‘major’ — such as fights, vandalism and possession of drugs or weapons, all incidents that usually require police action.” According to the Rio Grande Sun, “The worsening conditions come even as the…middle school increased its [security] force from four guards to six.”