California Governor Proposes Cutting Five Days From School Calendar.
The Los Angeles Times (1/8, Mehta) reports that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) proposal “to shorten the school year by five days is” estimated to the state about $1.1 billion. State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said the proposal would be especially “devastating” for “‘low-income students and students of color’…because affluent districts are more likely to be able to pay for the five days themselves while poorer districts will be forced to eliminate those teaching days.” Many educators and parents also do not support the idea of eliminating instruction time. Teachers “say they barely have enough time to fit the state’s academic standards into the existing 180-day calendar.” Some parents, meanwhile, “said that it was an economic issue for them” because they would have to place their children in childcare for the eliminated five days.
In the Classroom
Program Teaches Florida Students Scientific Methods Through Environmental Exploration.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/8, Miller) reports that “the outdoor classroom offers a unique opportunity to learn — especially when it comes to subjects like science.” Chasco Middle School in Port Richey is piloting the Learning In Florida’s Environment (LIFE) “program that, depending on funding, will continue to be implemented for some Chasco Middle students over the next 3.5 years.” LIFE is “a collaboration between the Department of Environmental Protection and the Pasco County School District,” and is being administered in 12 “school districts throughout Florida.” It is geared toward “underprivileged or underserved schools.” Throughout the school year, students in the LIFE program attend “three field trips to conduct on-site experiments at Werner Boyce Park and the Pasco Schools’ Energy and Marine Center in Port Richey.” They “learn scientific methods and field skills while exploring.”
Educators Consider How Best To Teach Middle School-Aged Students.
Delaware’s The News Journal (1/7, Price) reported that “as graduation requirements continue to rise and test scores continue to plunge, educators across the country are rethinking middle school and how best to teach adolescents at a transitional and volatile age.” Ideas for reform include “reducing the number of teachers that each student has…adding special periods dedicated to organizational and study skill,” and “showing students the relevance of their education by connecting it to real-world situations.” Meanwhile, “some educators suggest middle school should be done away with altogether.” To that end, The Red Clay Consolidated School District in Delaware is expanding Brandywine Springs School both elementary and middle school grades. Brandywine principal William Cooke “said the model offers students nine years of continuity and a sense of community. ‘It’s the same building, the same program and many of the same staff,’ he said. ‘And those additional years help us get to know the students better.’”
Long-Term Substitutes In Ohio Must Meet Subject-Area Qualifications.
The Granville (OH) Sentinel (1/7, Peterson) reported that this year at Granville Middle School, “three teachers are approved for long-term leaves of absence of several weeks — an unusually high number.” School “administrators say they are addressing that challenge to ensure instruction quality does not decline.” The school has a designated mentor for long-term substitutes, and “other teachers and the staff members on leave all” cooperate to make sure that new long-term substitutes make a smooth transition into teaching. The substitutes “must have knowledge of the curriculum and the building Understanding by Design, a framework for improving student achievement by designing lessons with the end in mind.” In addition, state regulations require “that long-term subs have certain credentials, including qualification to teach in the absent teacher’s subject area.”
Students At High School In New Jersey Take Grandparents To Class.
The Holmdel (NJ) Independent (1/8) reports on Grandparents Day at Keyport High School last month. Grandparents Day is an annual event at the school that gives seniors “a chance to introduce their grandparents to the environment of their high school. They show them the technical programs and advanced academic classes.” This year, 30 grandparents took part in the occasion. In the morning, “grandparents ate breakfast with their grandchildren in the school cafeteria. Afterward, 12-graders gave their grandparents a tour of the school and took them to classes.”
On the Job
Elementary School In Maryland Relies On “Formula” To Boost Student Performance.
In the Washington Post’s (1/8, B1) Potomac Confidential column, Marc Fisher writes that eight years ago at Broad Acres Elementary School In Silver Spring, MD, “test scores were so low that the state threatened to take the place over.” In order to avoid a state takeover, Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry Weast and Principal Jody Leleck “negotiated with the teachers union to add extra hours to the workweek for extra pay.” Now, test results at Broad Acres show that educators’ efforts are paying off. Eighty-one percent of students at the school “met reading proficiency standards this year, up from 47 percent in 2003.” According to Fisher, the “formula” teachers and staff at Broad Acres use to boost student performance includes faculty meetings “every Wednesday for hours of mentoring and brainstorming, creating plans for each child who is falling behind,” and classrooms where “bilingual or special education teachers” work with small groups of students “on computation or reading aloud.” The school also has a mental health team that examines family situations “that may lie behind… classroom outburst[s].”
Fewer Educators In D.C. Teaching Out Of Licensed Area of Expertise. The Washington Post (1/8, B1, Turque) reports, “Nearly 800 D.C. public school instructors are teaching classes outside their licensed area of expertise.” While that number is less “than in previous years,” it is “still far more than in other school systems in the region, and a violation of the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires ‘highly qualified’ educators in each classroom.” Because the District faces “staffing shortages…and competition with wealthier school systems over hiring,” it sometimes uses “teachers outside their areas of certification.” And according to school officials, “the total also reflects the large number of new teachers who have a grace period to seek licenses.” Meanwhile, “school officials expect the number to continue to decline” as Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee seeks to get rid of “a significant portion of the District’s 4,000-member teaching corps.”
Head Of Maryland District Proposes Cutting School Fees, Virginia Districts Chief Seeks Increase.
The Washington Post (1/8, B1, De Vise, Birnbaum) reports, “Course fees charged for workbooks, art supplies, and other items would be cut by more than half in Montgomery County (MD) schools under a proposal Superintendent Jerry D. Weast announced yesterday to ease the burden on parents.” Last fall, “parents rebelled…against course fees.” According to Weast, “the new rules would eliminate 60 percent of middle school fees and 70 percent of high school fees.” Meanwhile, Loudoun County (VA) Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III is proposing “to raise fees for students to park cars and play sports to ease the burden on the school system’s $758 million budget.” Currently, Loudoun “is among a few in the region that charge few or no fees for courses,” but they do “charge for gym uniforms, and parking.” Hatrick proposes increasing the student parking fee from $25 per year to $150. And “for the first time, students would be charged $50 apiece to participate on sports teams” under the proposal.
College Board Will No Longer Offer AP Italian. The Washington Post (1/8, A3, De Vise) reports, “The College Board is planning to cut its Advanced Placement Italian program in the 2009-10 academic year, despite a yearlong effort by Italian American organizations to save the underfunded course.” The Italian Language Foundation, which “raised more than $650,000 in commitments…could not secure additional funds from the Italian government.” On Tuesday, “College Board officials confirmed…that the effort to save AP Italian had failed.” The Post points out, “About 2,000 students took the AP Italian test in May, ranking it among the least popular AP offerings.”
New Rules Will Require That Chicago Teachers Be Certified To Teach In Subject Area.
The Medill News (1/8, Dosemagen) reports, “A new Chicago schools initiative will not only send teachers back to class, it will make them pay-perhaps thousands of dollars.” Starting in 2010, “sixth- through eighth-grade teachers [must] be specialized in the courses they teach as a way to increase education standards in schools.” Teachers who teach in a subject area for which they are not qualified will have the option of either teaching “at a lower grade level where specialization is not required or” going “back to school.”
Special Needs
Forty Percent Of English Language Learners In Hawaii Fail To Gain English Proficiency, Report Shows.
The Honolulu Advertiser (1/8, Moreno) reports that according to the Quality Counts 2009 report by “the nonprofit Editorial Progress in Education, which publishes Education Week,” 40 percent of English language learners (ELL) in Hawaii “are failing to make progress toward English proficiency.” According to Andreas Wiegand, state specialist for the English Language Learner program, more than 75 languages are spoken by the roughly 17,000 students in Hawaii’s ELL program. “‘That makes providing bilingual support very difficult,’ he said.” The Honolulu Advertiser notes that “Ilocano and Tagalog are the most commonly spoken second languages in Hawai’i's schools.”
Safety & Security
Parents Protest Plans To Erect Cell Phone Tower At Middle School In Florida.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/8) reports that at several people attended a community meeting in Tampa on Wednesday to protest “the controversial plan to erect a 100-foot cell phone tower at” Coleman Middle School. Last year, “parents learned of the school’s” plan to bring in the tower, and “since then, they have circulated petitions and collected more than 900 signatures in opposition to.” Among parents’ chief concerns is that “the cellular phone industry is still too new to have sufficient epidemiological data to assure anyone of the safety of these towers,” according to Brenda Kocher, who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting. But engineer Charles Cooper countered that argument, saying, “The measurements at the proposed tower site were less than one percent of the (Federal Communications) Commission’s uncontrolled environment standards. There is no risk.” According to Coleman principal Michael Hoskinson, with the tower, “Coleman would stand to make $36,000 per year and a total of $432,000 over the course of a 10-year lease.”
Also in the News
UT President Suggests Changing “Top 10 Percent Rule” To Give University More Control Over Admissions.
The Dallas Morning News /AP (1/8) reports that William Powers, president of the University of Texas at Austin (UT), “said a record 81 percent of the Texas freshmen entering the university this fall gained admission through the so-called ‘top 10 percent rule.’” The rule guarantees UT admission “to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class.” Powers is concerned that if the state Legislature does not change the “top 10 percent rule” in “its upcoming 2009 session,” UT “soon would have no room to admit any Texas student who does not meet that standard.” He “suggested that one solution would be to adopt a more ‘aggressive’ program allowing students to transfer to the university from community colleges.”
D.C. Schools Chief Proposes Changes To Discipline Policy.
On its website, MSNBC (1/8) reports, “D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has scheduled a series of public meetings to discuss possible changes to student discipline policies.” Rhee, who “considers out-of-school suspensions to be ineffective,” proposes that students serve suspensions in school, instead. Rhee sent a letter home to parents recently, outlining “the general plan for changing the discipline policy.” The proposal emphasizes disciplinary actions that are “just and appropriate to students’ infractions,” that “minimize disruption to instruction,” and are “instruction-based.”
NEA in the News
Labor Union Leaders Seeking Unification.
The New York Times (1/8, A15, Greenhouse) reports that “the presidents of 12 of the nation’s largest labor unions called Wednesday for reuniting the American labor movement, which split apart three and a half years ago when seven unions left the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and formed a rival federation.” The announcement comes “after the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama signaled that it would prefer dealing with a united movement, rather than a fractured one that often had two competing voices.” Those who attended the meeting on Wednesday “included Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees union, who led the walkout in 2005.” The Times also pointed out, “One somewhat surprising attendee was Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association (NEA), which, with 3.2 million members, is the nation’s largest labor union, but has traditionally remained outside any larger labor federations.”
President Promotes NCLB In Final Policy Speech.
The Washington Post (1/9, A2, Eggen, Glod) reports that on Thursday, President Bush “devoted his final public policy address to” education, “traveling to [General Philip Kearny Elementary School] in Philadelphia…to claim success in education reform and to warn President-elect Barack Obama against major changes to the landmark federal testing program.” Bush said that Obama “should tread carefully before following through on promises of reform. ‘There is a growing consensus across the country that now is not the time to water down standards or to roll back accountability,’ Bush said.” According to the Post, “The Bush administration says” that improvements in education since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) went into effect in 2002 “have been widespread, including narrowed achievement gaps between black and white students; record high math scores among African American and Hispanic students; and significant increases in reading and math proficiency among many students.”
NCLB “remains one of Bush’s top domestic achievements, and he considers it vital to his legacy,” the AP (1/9, Quaid) reports. But “Critics say the law’s annual reading and math tests have forced other subjects like music and art from the classroom and that schools were promised billions of dollars that never showed up.”
According to Education Week (1/9, Klein), Bush on Thursday “acknowledged that critics have charged that the NCLB law focuses too heavily on standardized tests and sets unrealistic goals, but he called on lawmakers to reject those claims and continue to hold schools accountable for students’ progress.” Also During his visit to Kearny Elementary, “Mr. Bush, first lady Laura Bush,” and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings “toured the school, which is in a socioeconomically and racially diverse neighborhood near Philadelphia’s center city,” and “has met the goals of the No Child Left Behind law every year since 2003.” Mr. Bush “and Ms. Spellings also participated in a roundtable discussion on education.”
In the Classroom
Police Officer Introduces Students At Elementary School In Florida To Law In A Positive Way.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/9, Wiginton) reports that an officer from the Pasco County Sheriff’s office visited Lake Myrtle Elementary School on Thursday, “visiting all of the school’s kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes.” The purpose of Lt. Brian Prescott’s visit was to “introduce kindergartners and first graders to law enforcement” in a positive way. He read to the students and “talked to the [them] about how important it is for them to read.” He also spoke with the students “about being good and dealing with kids who are bad.” Then Prescott showed the students some of his weapons and “opened the floor for questions. The children had plenty.”
Foundation Grant Funds Biotechnology Equipment For High School In Massachusetts.
The Foxboro (MA) Reporter (1/8) reported that last month, students and teachers at Foxboro High School “conducted interactive experiments using the school’s new biotechnology equipment, purchased with a grant from the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation’s BioTeach program.” The grant helps biology teachers at the school to introduce “students to the field of biotechnology…one of the fastest growing sectors of the state’s economy.” Throughout the school year, Foxboro will be “visited by the BioTeach mobile lab, a partnership with Boston University’s CityLab MobileLab bus.” According to Foxboro biology teacher Paul Charpentier, the program may “expand next year.”
Minority Third-Graders In Florida Less Likely Than White Peers To Be Granted Exemption After Failing FCAT, Study Shows.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/9) reports, According to “a new research study,” black and Hispanic third-graders in Florida are more likely than their white peers to be held back after failing to pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). Under Florida’s policy, “third-graders who score at the lowest level on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in reading” must be “held back for another year — unless they can show through one of six ‘good cause exemptions’ that they deserve to go on to fourth grade.” According to “researchers Jay Greene and Marcus Winters…black and Hispanic third-graders are less likely to be promoted through those exemptions than white peers with similarly low scores. The reasons are unclear.” Specifically, “black students were four percent more likely to be held back,” and “Hispanic students were nine percent more likely.” However, Greene and Winters also found that two years later, retained students scored “about 6 percentile points higher” on the FCAT “than those who were promoted through exemptions.”
Louisiana Governor Announces High School Dropout Prevention Program.
Education Week /AP (1/8) reported that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) “announced a new dropout prevention pilot program Thursday that will begin in the spring, aiming to get skills training to teenagers to keep them in school.” Through the $2.6 million initiative, students who do not “finish traditional high school programs” will receive “high school equivalency training and work certificates.” And even though Jindal called on business and industry leaders to help the state “prevent children from dropping out,” the dropout program “will be funded with existing dollars in the state education department and federal dollars,” he said.
Early Literacy Report Contains Some Surprises For Educators.
The Christian Science Monitor (1/9, Khadaroo) reports that “some of the findings” of a National Early Literacy Panel report released yesterday “reinforce the value of common practices, such as teaching young children the alphabet. But ‘some of the patterns are different from what people predicted, and that’s going to change practice,’ says Timothy Shanahan, chairman of the National Early Literacy Panel.” According to the Monitor, Shanahan says, “Having kids memorize lists of words is ‘creeping into a lot of preschools,’” but “it turns out that it’s much better to also know word meanings and exhibit skills such as listening comprehension.” The Monitor adds that the National Institute for Literacy “funded the panel’s work, which examined patterns from about 500 research articles on the skills and teaching approaches that predict later success in reading, writing, and spelling.”
Law & Policy
Utah Rule Would Prohibit School Bus Drivers From Using Mobile Phones While Driving.
The Salt Lake Tribune (1/9, Schencker) reports, “A rule prohibiting drivers from talking on cell phones while driving gained preliminary approval from the Utah State Board of Education on Thursday.” Under the proposed new rule, school bus drivers would not be authorized to use “cell phones, wireless electronic devices, headsets, ear pieces, earphones, or any other equipment that ‘might distract a driver from his responsibilities’ while a bus is in motion.” They would, however, “be able to use cell phones and other devices for emergencies and other school-related issues when buses are parked. They would be able to use cell phones for personal reasons when buses are parked, off the road and emptied of passengers.” Board members are expected to “vote on the rule at their meeting next month.”
Safety & Security
Peaceful Playgrounds Aims To Eliminate Bullying By Keeping Students Occupied.
KOLD-TV Tucson, AZ (1/9, Grijalva) reports that during recess Twin Peaks School in Marana, students “are in training, learning to play new games, and getting valuable lessons including simple problem solving ideas.” The school’s Peaceful Playgrounds program was created “to eliminate…bullies.” All students participate in activities during recess to help them stay active, occupied, and out of trouble. Peaceful Playgrounds “includes game areas painted on the concrete, and plenty of play equipment.” Activities include hopscotch, jump rope, and beanbag toss. According to KOLD, “Peaceful Playgrounds is in about 7,000 schools across the country.” Twin Peaks Elementary School is relying on around $5,000 in federal aid and in aid raised by parents and students for the program.
School Finance
In Cost-Cutting Move, Florida District Eliminates Junior Varsity Sports.
The West Volusia (FL) Beacon (1/9, Everson) reports that due to “a statewide shortage of dollars for public schools,” the Volusia County School District has decided to eliminate “Junior Varsity spring sports and cheerleading” from the district’s budget. Superintendent Margaret Smith said that the district “has suffered the loss of more than $42 million in revenues in less than two years as the overall economy has slumped,” and “warned [that] local schools are facing another $13.7 million hit.” Smith projected that “if the cash shortage becomes more acute…schools may have to adopt a four-day school week, eliminate varsity sports and cheerleading, delete many elective courses, and end advanced academic programs like the International Baccalaureate program at DeLand High School.”
The Orlando Sentinel (1/8, Weber) also reported, “Facing huge revenue losses from the state, the Volusia school system Wednesday began taking a broad ax to its budget, with officials saying employee layoffs may come before the chopping is over.” In addition to this year’s immediate cuts, school officials warned of “the possibility of more layoffs, school closings, cuts in acceleration programs…and even a four-day school week” next year. According to the Sentinel, “Volusia…is paid less for each student than other Central Florida counties, under a controversial state funding system that says the cost of living in Volusia is less.”
Virginia Charity Has Raised Nearly $21 Million For Schools.
The Washington Post (1/8, PW12, Chandler) reported, “More than two decades ago, a group of business leaders decided that Fairfax County (VA) needed a school that would prepare students for jobs in high-tech industries. That vision…became embodied in the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.” According to the Post, “A quarter-century later, the Fairfax Education Foundation has raised and contributed nearly $21 million in cash and high-tech equipment for more than 30 projects in the Fairfax public school system. Grants have gone toward scholarships and mentoring programs for minority students entering college, assistive technologies for students with disabilities, laptops and computer training for low-income families, and competitions to promote math and science instruction.”
Also in the News
Thirty-Two Million American Adults Have Low Literacy Skills, Study Finds.
USA Today (1/9, Toppo) reports, “A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children’s picture book or to understand a medication’s side effects listed on a pill bottle.” The National Assessment of Adult Literacy surveyed “more than 19,000 Americans ages 16 and older” and “found that between 1992 and 2003, “the USA added about 23 million adults to its population; in that period, an estimated 3.6 million more joined the ranks of adults with low literacy skills.” The survey included a state-by-state literacy analysis as well. USA Today notes that while some states such as Mississippi “made sizable gains,” other states like “California, New York, [and] Florida” did not.
According to the AP (1/9), “The study was produced by combining data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy…with ‘predictor variables’ like education and income from the 2000 Census.” That “combination enabled the center to establish a model by which it estimated literacy rates in each county and state.” The Riverside (CA) Press Enterprise (1/9, Parsavand), the Connecticut Post (1/9, Chamoff), the Greenville (SC) News (1/8, Barnett), the Baton Rouge (LA) Advocate /AP (1/9) covered the national survey results for their respective states.
NEA in the News
Maryland Elections Board Seeks Advice On Elected Officials’ Campaign Fund Transfers.
Maryland’s The Gazette (1/9, Davis, Moore) reports that Maryland’s “State Board of Elections this week asked the state Attorney General’s Office for advice on whether elected officials can transfer funds from their campaign accounts to individuals running for union leadership.” According to the Gazette, “The request for clarification comes after Montgomery County teachers union President Bonnie Cullison asked several state lawmakers to contribute to her bid for an at-large seat on the National Education Association’s (NEA) Executive Committee.” Cullison said that money contributed to her campaign “would be used for airfare to attend the NEA’s regional conferences and to distribute literature to the 9,000 union delegates, who will vote in July on committee members.”