School Systems Throughout Texas Temporarily Shut Down Due To Swine Flu.
CNN (4/30) reports, “The closures of public and private schools across eight states affect about 56,000 students out of an estimated 55 million students attending the nation’s 100,000 kindergarten through 12th grade schools,” according to Department of Education spokesperson Massie Ritsch. Among the “closures announced earlier Wednesday, the Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas said it will temporarily close all of its schools until further notice, affecting roughly 80,000 students, according to its Web site.” That decision was made after district officials received “official confirmation of one case of swine flu at one campus and news of three other probable cases at three more schools.”
In addition to the cases found in Forth Worth, “three suburban San Antonio high school students were among the state’s…confirmed cases as of early Wednesday morning,” the AP (4/30) adds. “Those cases prompted campus shutdowns in both locales, as well as in one district 50 miles north of Dallas and one in and around Rio Grande City, which sits on the eastern portion of Texas’ border with Mexico.” And, “a charter school in Dallas was also temporarily closed after learning one of its students probably had the infection.”
“With 16 confirmed cases of swine flue in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R) announced a disaster declaration Wednesday for the entire state,” the AP (4/30) notes in a separate story. Also on Wednesday, “Texas officials postponed all public high school athletic and academic competitions…until May 11 because of the” outbreak. Charles Breithaupt, executive director of the University Interscholastic League, said that his organization “acted on the recommendation of public health officials.”
Health Officials Recommend That Schools With Confirmed Swine Flu Cases Cancel Class. “President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that school closings may be necessary, in an escalating global health emergency that claimed the first death in the United States” this week, the AP (4/30) reports in another story. “The president said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu ‘should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible.’” He also urged that parents should plan for child care in case their children’s schools are temporarily shut down. “Just sending children from schools to day care centers in infected areas ‘is not a good solution,’ he said.”
In the Classroom
Number Of Discharged New York City High-Schoolers Increases.
The New York Times (4/30, A22, Medina) reports that nearly “six years after a lawsuit forced” New York City “to pledge to keep better track of students who leave public schools without graduating, the number leaving high schools has continued to climb, according to a report to be released Thursday by the public advocate’s office.” In 2007, more “than 20 percent of students from the class of 2007 were discharged — the term for students who leave the school system without graduating” — and 7.5 percent of those students were ninth-graders.” Comparatively, “17.5 percent from the class of 2000″ were discharged, with 3.5 percent of those being ninth-graders. The Times notes that “students can be classified as discharged for a number of benign reasons, including a transfer to a private school or a move out of the city.”
“Trust Cards” Give Special Privileges To Students At High School In Dallas.
The Dallas Morning News (4/30, Unmuth) reports, “Education fads come and go, but New Tech High School” in the Dallas Independent School District “attempts to rebuild how high schools are structured.” Students at the school “carry ‘trust cards’ that give them privileges not allowed in typical high schools, including carrying cellphones, but the privileges can be revoked.” Lessons are often interactive and involve working in groups, and students can “fire” group members “who aren’t meeting the requirements outlined in ‘contracts.’” If a student is fired from a team, he or she “must complete the work alone.”
Florida High School To Offer Sports-Themed Career Track.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/30, Marshall) reports, “The Hillsborough County School Board may not have realized the potency of naming a new school after the owner of the New York Yankees.” But it’s becoming clear that George Steinbrenner High School will be far more than a mere namesake.” The school will “offer a sports-themed career track this fall for every student who wants it,” including “sports medicine, marketing, turf management,” and just about anything connected to the behind-the-scenes world of professional sports.” According to Assistant principal Kelly King, “Steinbrenner High won’t just be for jocks,” it will offer “all the usual academic and career options. But it will be a particularly good fit for kids who could use a dose of sports with their studies, or perhaps a viable Plan B in case their dreams don’t pan out.”
High-Schoolers In California Lead Arts Workshops For Younger Students.
The Pasadena (CA) Star News (4/30, An) reports that this week, Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Los Angeles hosted three-day-long arts workshops. For the workshops, “a group of students from Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena is leading three 90-minute classes in dance, theater and music.” Because “funding is tight…the few programs at the school” are “provided by volunteers.” The Pasadena Star News notes that “at the first workshop earlier this week, the Mayfield students lead about 60″ Guadalupe “fourth- through sixth-graders in dance steps.”
“Minutemen” Teach Elementary Students About Life During Revolutionary War.
The Taunton (MA) Daily Gazette (4/30, Sardinha) reports that “lessons from the Revolutionary War were taken out of the classroom and brought to life Wedesday for third graders at” Dighton Elementary School. “Each class spent an hour outside in the field behind the school where” the Rehoboth Minutemen explained to them “what life was life on the battlefield, including what kinds of food they ate, how bullets were made, where they slept and how a doctor would have taken care of the soldiers after battle.” In addition, they learned “how to make candles and musket balls,” and “some students got to try their hand at dipping their own candles.”
Students Learn About Longevity Through Blue Zones Website.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/30, Solochek) reports that some classes at Longleaf Elementary School have been following “a 10-day lesson plan on bluezones.com about life on the Greek island of Ikaria, one of the places in the world where people live the longest.” For the lesson, teachers show “a short video and reads a daily dispatch from the research team in Ikaria. The students look at photos from the island and vote on the Web site’s daily poll.” One student pointed out that his class looks forward to the lessons “because if you really pay attention and listen to the stuff they’re saying and follow the steps, it can change your life.” Fifth grade teacher Mary Keane said that “about half of” her students “visit the Web site while at home…and several have made conscious choices to change their lives because of what they’ve learned.”
On the Job
Education Industry Job Market Said To Be Growing.
CNN (4/30) reports that “it’s important to realize…that while the recession undoubtedly has a negative effect on the job market, it also provides a few select industries with opportunities for growth. One of these industries is education.” For instance, in January 2009, “there were 75,000 job openings” in the field of education, “compared to 65,000 in January 2008,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. CNN claims that the job outlook is increasing for education because “enrollment is on the rise for grades K-12;” and because “many job seekers…are going back to school to gain experience in other arenas.” Furthermore, “the majority of workers in” education-related occupations “are over the age of 45, which means job openings will continue to increase as those workers retire.” And, “President Obama’s new stimulus plan allocates $53 billion to education and training.” CNN lists the top ten education jobs that career switchers and students should consider.
Law & Policy
Colorado Senator Promises To Push Reform Of Teacher Pay.
The AP (4/30) reports that Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D) “aims to push through a national education reform” that would restructure “outdated” teacher pay models. According to Bennet, “teachers should be paid more when their students do well.” The AP notes that “Bennet was superintendent of Denver Public Schools before being appointed to fill a Senate vacancy earlier this year. In Denver, Bennet pushed through changes to a teacher merit-pay plan to boost performance incentives.”
School Finance
South Carolina, Alaska Holdout On Education Stimulus Funds.
Education Week (4/29, Robelen) reported, “Even as the U.S. Department of Education announced the first states approved to tap federal aid under a $48.5 billion economic-stimulus fund designed to help them deal with budget cuts, questions remained last week about whether the governors of at least two states would try to claim their share.” South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) “has said he would forgo some $700 million in federal aid from the state fiscal-stabilization fund mostly designated for education, unless he could use it to pay down state debt.” But the White House has rejected that proposal. Meanwhile, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has informed the White House “that she may not seek all the aid the state is entitled to under the stimulus plan, including some education dollars.” However, Alaska lawmakers “recently passed a budget that incorporates virtually all the federal stimulus money available to” the state.
South Carolina Lawmakers Seek To Force Sanford To Request $350 Million In Stimulus Funds. The AP (4/30, Davenport) reports, “South Carolina legislators on Wednesday voted to force the governor to take $350 million in federal stimulus cash that he has refused to request unless it is used to pare down state debt.” The amendment states that Sanford “shall take all action necessary and required by the ARRA and the U.S. Secretary of Education in order to secure the receipt of the funds recognized and authorized for appropriation pursuant to this section.” South Carolina could “see $2.8 billion from the stimulus law during the next two years, mostly for schools.” Of that, “the Senate plans to put $185 million of…into public schools to help spare teacher jobs.”
Also in the News
Eleven-Year-Old Student Serves As Band Director At New York Elementary School.
The New York Daily News (4/29, Melago) reported that “for more than a year,” Public School 37 in Jamaica, NY, “went without a music program after its band teacher left and the school couldn’t afford a replacement.” Although “staff reached out to parents, asking for a volunteer,” no one in the community “came forward.” The now-thriving Cynthia Jenkins School Band, “comprised of a piano, drums, trumpet, sax and other instruments,” is being led by PS 37 student Paul Sheriff, “an 11-year-old pianist and saxophone player who knew his classmates needed music in their lives.” Band members, “meet at lunch and after school to practice a variety of songs,” including “R. Kelly’s ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ [and] Kevin Rudolf and Lil Wayne’s ‘Let It Rock.’” So far, they have “performed at a districtwide concert at nearby PS 147 and the school’s multicultural festival. Next up is career day and graduation.”
School Alliance Wins FIRST Robotics Competition.
USA Today (4/30, Bedrosian) reports on the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competition held April 16-18 in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. Over 10,000 students from across the country participated in the competition. “The winning team was an alliance of ‘The HOT Team’ from Huron Valley Schools in Milford, Mich.; ‘Wildstang’ of Rolling Meadows High School and Wheeling High School in Schaumburg, Ill.; and ‘Spartan Robotics’ of Mountain View High School in Mountain View, Calif.”
NEA in the News
NEA Adds $2 Million To California’s Proposition 1B Campaign.
The San Francisco Chronicle (4/29, Wildermuth) reported, “It’s desperation time for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other backers of Propositions 1A to 1E on the May 19 ballot.” The latest field poll “shows all the budget-reform measures getting slammed by voters.” Republican Party officials have already “opposed the package even though Prop. 1A continues the spending cap that’s long been the holy grail of state GOP legislators.” And, “state Democratic Party liberals blocked endorsement of three ballot measures at the party’s convention.” Meanwhile, the National Education Association added another $2 million to “the Prop. 1B campaign Tuesday, and there will be a well-financed pitch for both measures because state schools get $9.3 billion in new money if 1A also passes.”
Washington State Education Funding Cuts Expected To Impact New Teachers Most.
The Seattle Times (4/29, Long) reported, “Thousands of Washington’s newest teachers will soon be told they may lose their jobs this fall, the result of deep cuts made to the state education budget.” Although most school districts do not “yet know how many jobs may be lost,” it is clear that the “axing of $800 million from public-school funding will have the biggest impact on teachers with the least experience, at a time when jobs are scarce around the state.” According to “the state Superintendent of Public Instruction’s office…3,000 to 5,000 teachers could lose their jobs.” Meanwhile, “the Washington Education Association (WEA), the state teachers union, predicts 6,000 in public schools and higher education could be notified of layoffs.”
Swine Flu Outbreak Prompts Closing Of Nearly 300 US Schools On Thursday.
The Washington Post (5/1, A6, Glod, De Vise) reports, “Nearly 300 schools nationwide were closed” on Thursday “to avoid the spread of swine flu, and education and health officials in the Washington area and elsewhere were working in tandem to reassure worried parents and weigh whether more campuses should be shuttered.” Meanwhile, school officials in Montgomery County, MD, “decided…to close Rockville High School” on Friday, “after a probable flu case was reported.” But two schools “with probable flu cases” in two other Maryland districts “have remained open under advice from health officials.” According to state health officials and Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), “there was no need to cancel” classes at the Anne Arundel and Baltimore County schools “because the infected students had not been in school since last Friday — a span of time beyond the suspected incubation period.”
In Illinois, seven schools have been closed this week due to the outbreak, the AP (5/1) reports. Public health officials in Cook County have recommended that Ridge Circle Elementary School also “close because of a probable case involving an 11-year-old boy.”
The Los Angeles Times (5/1, Maugh) reports that “although several modeling studies by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and the University of Washington have shown that school closings can be effective, some experts questioned how they are being done.” Dr. Michael T. Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, said that “the idea of closing all schools in a district when suspected cases have been found in only a couple is probably not productive.” Dr. Christian Sandrock, “a deputy health officer in Yolo County” and disaster preparedness expert, agreed. But, he noted that “school closures can work if they are targeted — if, for example, there is a known case.”
Texas, Alabama Postpone High School Athletics. The AP (5/1) reports that “concern about swine flu has forced a major change in the high school sports calendar in at least two Southern states.” High school athletic events have been postponed in Texas until May 11, and a “group of 18 private schools in Texas and Oklahoma, the Southwest Preparatory Conference, canceled all events for Thursday and Friday.” In Alabama, Athletic events have been shut down until further notice “because of possible swine flu in the Huntsville area.” The AP (5/1) covers the postponement of Alabama’s high school athletics in a separate story.
In the Classroom
Curriculum At New Technology Foundation Schools Taught Through Project Learning.
Edutopia (5/1, Yeung) reports, “At Sacramento New Tech, as well as the other 42 mostly public” New Technology Foundation schools around the country, “educators teach the entire curriculum through project learning, and every project uses a similar document…as one of the starting points for each unit” and “also as a tool for creating accountability and managing group dynamics.” The document “describes the project basics, followed by a project charter and a project-management plan.” At the beginning of each project, team members can “establish agreed-on group norms for decision making and communicating with one another, and the consequences of violating those norms.” Because many freshmen come to the school with limited cooperative learning experience, all Sacramento Tech freshmen take an English-geography class. In that class, teachers Peter Newman and Christine Coit “instill in them…power skills: the abilities, such as communication, collaboration, time management, and organization, students need in order to participate effectively in a project-learning environment.”
Middle- High Schoolers Participate In University Of Chicago’s Autopsy Lab.
The Chicago Tribune (5/1, Jasinski) reports that on Tuesday, a class of seventh-graders “from Paul Revere Elementary School…on Chicago’s South Side” participated in the University of Chicago Medical Center’s “autopsy lab…as part of the hospital’s ‘Best of the Best’ program.” Since 2003, the program has taught “South Side students in Grades 6-12 about the effects of drugs and alcohol on the body.” Students “also learn about the different kinds of jobs in the medical field and ones that don’t require several years of education and training.” Paul Revere Math and Science Coach Jill Kittinger noted the importance of exposing students “to all of the different jobs at hospitals, where ‘even though you may not love things like blood and guts, or not particularly loving science, you can still pursue a career in the medical field.’”
Peer-To-Peer Tutoring Program Seen As Success At California High School.
California’s Union-Tribune (5/1, Magee) reports on Scripps Ranch High School’s Falcon Incentive Program, which pairs struggling underclassmen “with top-performing upperclassmen for after-school tutorials” between two and four days a week. On tutoring days, program students, “all of whom were failing at least three core classes, stay after school to go over homework with their older peers.” In addition, the students “meet weekly with the vice principal and counselors, who closely track their attendance and grades, and help the students with everything from study skills to maintaining a weekly assignment planner.” The program “has started to reverse a chronic problem at the school — the failure of many poor and minority freshmen students who bus in from other neighborhoods.” Scripps Vice Principal Abram Jimenez, who established the program, attributes its success to “several key factors,” including student rewards, and participation from Scripps faculty and parents.
Florida Fourth- Eighth Graders Show Most Improvement On State Writing Tests.
The Miami Herald (5/1) reports, “Florida’s youngest writers showed the most improvement statewide on the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), while high schoolers struggled, according to results released Thursday morning.” This year, 89 percent of fourth graders in Broward County and 84 percent in Miami-Dade County “earned passing scores on the writing test,” compared to 87 percent in Broward and 84 percent in Miami-Dade last year. “Broward had 92 percent of eighth-graders pass the test last year; the number went up to 94 percent this year. In Miami-Dade, 88 percent of eighth-graders passed the test this year and last.” Meanwhile, 84 percent of tenth-graders in Broward County and 77 percent in Miami-Dade passed the writing assessment last year. This year, “that number decreased by one percentage point” in both districts.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/1, Solochek) reports that on this year’s FCAT writing test, students at “the perennially struggling” Cox Elementary School “topped the performance of all other Pasco County elementary schools.” The school’s “average score rose more than half a point, to 4.2 — that’s above grade level — with just seven of the school’s fourth-graders logging in below a 3.5 on the six-point scale.” Cox, a “high-poverty, D-rated school,” shared the honor with Richey Elementary — “another school serving a predominantly low-income population.” The St. Petersburg Times notes that “four years ago, Richey had the second-worst performance on FCAT Writing among the county’s elementary schools.” Now both schools have “exceeded the state average score.”
Virginia Middle School Expands Physical Education With Fitness Lab.
Virginia’s Daily Press (5/1, Vaughn) reports on the fitness lab at Toano Middle School in Toano, VA. The lab “opened last fall” and “is the latest addition to the middle school’s physical education program.” It “is located in a renovated athletic closet,’ and “is equipped with cardio equipment such as exercise bikes, rowing machines and elliptical machines, in addition to the video games. There are also small weights and weighted balls for students to use.” The Daily Press notes that Toano Middle School’s athletic director, Norm Brungot, and “Health and Physical Education Curriculum leader Ron Trainum secured $15,000 from the school’s principal and was awarded a $17,000 grant from the Riverside Health System Foundation last summer to complete the $32,000 project.” Throughout the school year, “students rotate between health class, regular physical education activity, and the fitness lab.”
Law & Policy
President’s Education Agenda Said To Be Mostly Talk So Far.
NPR (4/30, Sanchez) reported, “In his first 100 days as president, Barack Obama has proposed a more expansive federal role in education from cradle to college.” He has proposed “uniform standards for preschool programs; rigorous tests and academic standards for public schools; merit pay for classroom teachers; a longer school day and school year; and a national strategy to address the high school dropout crisis,” among other ideas. Although his stance on education reform “has earned Obama support from conservatives and liberals alike,” NPR points out that “most of Obama’s education agenda in the first 100 days has been talk, with a couple of exceptions: He has increased funding for Pell Grants for college students and has begun overhauling the federal student loan program.” NPR predicts that “the loan question” may “become the first big fight over education policy that the president will face beyond his first 100 days in office.”
Safety & Security
CDC, ED Give Recommendations For Swine Flu-Related School Closings.
The AP (4/30) listed several recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Education Department for school officials should “any students have confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu.” The agencies recommend that schools close if they have “a confirmed case of swine flu or a suspected case that is linked to a confirmed case.” Additionally, “all school-related gatherings should be canceled, and parents and students should avoid gatherings outside of school.” Before reopening and resuming activities, school officials “should consult with local and state health departments,” and “may consider reopening if no additional confirmed or suspected cases are found within seven days.” Furthermore, the agencies advise that schools with or without confirmed or suspected swine flu cases “inform students, parents, and staff about the symptoms;” urge “preventive measures such as washing hands frequently;” and refer students “with flu-like symptoms…to a health care provider.”
Also in the News
Nevada District Investigating Irregularities In Some High School Seniors’ Academic Records.
The Las Vegas Sun (4/30, Richmond) reported that the Clark County School District “is investigating irregularities in the academic records of 32 Western High School seniors to determine whether they were given credit for classes they didn’t take.” District officials are “trying to determine whether the problems are the result of human error, incompetence, or fraud.” In the investigation, “academic records of Western’s freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are also being scrutinized.” Superintendent Walt Ruffles said that the 32 seniors whose records are in question “were unaware they lacked the requisite academic credits until the investigation was launched.” The Las Vegas Sun notes, “About 25 of the students are making up missing classes through the district’s individualized study program and might graduate with their classmates in June.”
NEA in the News
Virginia Teachers Respond To Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates’ Views On Education.
The Washington Post (4/30, Helderman) reported, “Teachers, nationally and in Virginia, have long been a core constituency of the Democratic Party.” The Virginia Education Association’s (VEA) political action committee has given 74 percent of its contributions since 1996 to Democratic candidates. At the VEA’s Democratic gubernatorial debate last Thursday, “The 700 teachers at the Hampton convention center, delegates to the organization’s annual conference, clapped each time the three” candidates “offered their unified support on bread-and-butter education topics” such as “creative teaching over test-driven memorization” and “better pay for state educators, whose compensation is below the national average.” The Post notes the several educators’ reactions to the debates. English teacher James Blackburn, who is undecided about who he will vote for, said, “I’ve been coming 40 years to this event. … Every candidate comes here. When they first come and start talking, they’re all pro-education. But it’s the results that count.”
Many School Administrators Reconsidering Student Use Of Web Tools For Learning.
Education Week (5/1, Manzo) reported, “Just as more students are becoming adept at using social networking tools for school and in their personal lives, a majority of school administrators are debating the role of the popular Web tools for learning and are working to control or limit their use in classrooms, according to a survey by the Consortium for School Networking.” While “seven in 10 school districts…prohibit students from accessing social networking and chat rooms in school,” they also “allow blogging, file sharing, interactive games, and online forums as part of lessons.” But, the survey also shows that as “more and more educators see the practical benefits many tech tools have for student learning, administrators are working to recast their policies.”
Administrators Investigate Using Technology To Deliver Lessons During School Closings. Education Week (5/1, Ash, Davis) reported that “as a growing number of schools temporarily close their doors in an effort to prevent the spread of swine flu, administrators are taking a closer look at the role of technology in delivering education during school closures.” According to Thomas E. Chandler, “the manager of technology and educational applications for the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University,” delivering online instruction is being made easier by “new technologies, such as podcasting, and Web sites like YouTube.” Still, “many schools would face major hurdles reaching all students through such methods because of a lack of infrastructure and resources.” Other resources, including the “so-called Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis — which can be accessed by users regardless of what operating system or platform they are using — could be helpful in fostering communication between teachers and students during extended school closures.”
In the Classroom
Students Write Rap Lyrics To Help Them Memorize Key Academic Concepts.
The AP (5/3, Pinchot) reported that Marcia Grim, music teacher at Hermitage Elementary School in hermitage, PA, is collaborating with her students on test-themed rap lyrics as “part of a strategy to pump up students for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests, by pumping up the volume.” Hermitage principal Eric Trosch said that “using the exercise of writing lyrics, key concepts from reading, math and English were ‘embedded’ in the music program. … Once the songs were written, 18 students performed them at an assembly in March, a few days before the PSSA tests were given.” The AP notes that “the music project was part of an overall effort to prepare students for the tests so they can meet the adequate yearly progress benchmark required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.”
On the Job
Los Angeles Times Notes Difficulty In Firing Tenured Teachers.
The Los Angeles Times (5/3, Song) reported in a story titled, “Firing Tenured Teachers Can Be A Costly And Tortuous Task,” that “a Times investigation finds the process so arduous that many principals don’t even try, except in the very worst cases.” Sometimes, the process involves “years of investigation, union grievances, administrative appeals, court challenges, and re-hearings.” And “some districts are particularly unsuccessful in navigating” the system. For instance, “the Los Angeles Unified School District sees the majority of its appealed dismissals overturned.” After reviewing “every case on record in the last 15 years in which a tenured employee was fired by a California school district and formally contested the decision before a review commission,” the Times found that most of the “firings stem from blatant misconduct, including sexual abuse, other immoral or illegal behavior, insubordination, or repeated violation of rules such as showing up on time.”
Los Angeles School Officials Call For Legislation To Make Firing Tenured Teachers Easier. In a separate story, the Los Angeles Times (5/4, Song) reports that “top Los Angeles school officials, acknowledging that they have teachers in classrooms who should be fired, called Sunday for new state legislation that would make it easier to dismiss tenured instructors.” Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines “said the system is a sacred cow, and I do think it should be overhauled.” Meanwhile, A.J. Duffy, president of the Los Angeles teachers union, “said the union would oppose any reform efforts unless union officials are included in the process.”
Teachers Union, Administrators In Florida District Developing New Teacher Evaluation Plan.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/4) reports that with uncertain state funding, a call by the teachers union to fire the superintendent “over the manner of his cost-cutting and staff reductions,” and the district’s budget in disarray, “things could hardly have been worse for the Hernando County schools” two weeks ago. “But over the past week, the district and the” teachers union “have forged new ground. Officials on both sides say they’re working to secure jobs for teachers who had been nonrenewed last month, provided they are qualified.” Additionally, the two sides “they are making progress on developing a new system to evaluate nontenured teachers and, if necessary, fire them.” The new system would replace one “that had allowed highly rated teachers to be dismissed for reasons that seemed arbitrary, subjective, or politically motivated.”
Law & Policy
Spellings Stresses Need To Turn Around Schools Failing To Meet Minimum Standards.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post (5/4), former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings writes, “Student achievement results from the ‘nation’s report card’ published last week show that we are on the right track.” According to Spellings, “since enactment of the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act, students…have been making progress in reading and math in elementary and middle school,” with African-American and Hispanic students posting the highest gains. Meanwhile, NAEP scores for high schoolers “tell a troubling story, especially in light of our need to compete in a global knowledge economy.” Despite this, lawmakers “have not had the courage to use the real accountability that is working in our elementary and middle schools in our high schools.” Spellings urges, “As we focus on raising the bar, we must work urgently to turn around the schools that don’t even meet minimal standards.” But, she concludes, “Turning our attention away from the problem…will only slow down or stop the gains we are seeing across the country.”
Report Calls For More Focus On Reading Comprehension At Middle, High School Level.
Education Week (5/1, Zehr) reported that “the Southern Regional Education Board is advising its 16 member states to devise a comprehensive set of policies to improve reading for middle and high school students.” The report, A Critical Mission: Making Adolescent Reading an Immediate Priority in SREB States, “advises states to identify reading skills that apply to different subject areas, craft curricula, establish reading-intervention programs, and prepare teachers of adolescents to teach reading along with academic content.”
“Reading may be an elementary skill, but mastery of the written word should be pursued throughout a student’s career, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) said yesterday as he released” the study at an annual Education Writers Association meeting on Friday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch (5/2, Reid) reported. The study by the Southern Regional Education Board “calls reading woes on the middle and high school levels an epidemic.” The report also “calls for across-the-board reading initiatives that would instill a reading component in most core classes through 12th grade. But instead of relying on reading specialists, as is done in elementary school, this program would call on subject teachers to increase their focus on reading skills,” with an emphasis on comprehension.
South Carolina Legislators Willing To Risk Lawsuit To Secure Stimulus Funds.
The AP (5/1) reported that “South Carolina agencies and programs stand to see $2.8 billion during the next two years from the $787 billion federal stimulus law.” Gov. Mark Sanford (R), “controls about $700 million of that, or $350 million yearly.” Sanford “has spent months railing against the stimulus law,” but a Senate budget “sent to the House on Thursday” would require the governor “to ‘take all action necessary and required by’ the stimulus law to secure funds legislators included in their spending plan.” The budget proposal has “raised questions about too much power being concentrated in the Legislature’s hands and creating tyranny” according to Sen. Tom Davis (R). But “Legislators are willing to risk lawsuits, saying they’re confronted with Sanford’s unyielding position on using stimulus cash for debt and the need to blunt $1 billion in budget cuts…for public schools, colleges, law enforcement and health care during the past year.”
Special Needs
Nursing Home Visits Teach Social Skills To Special Needs Students At Florida School.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/4, Schulte) reports that due “a $582 Teach for Excellence grant…from the Pinellas Education Foundation,” Liza Johnson, a second grade teacher at the Calvin Hunsinger Exceptional Center is able to send her students on a “a public bus 2 miles from their school twice a month to interact with” senior citizens at Mease Manor. The purpose of the field trip is for the students “to practice social skills while learning to appreciate and respect older members of the community.” In addition, Johnson wants the “experiment [to] help kids learn to ride a bus by themselves and increase their reading scores.” Johnson “conceived the idea…after spending time with her mother, who had been confined to a nursing home in the months before her death. Looking around, she realized the patients got almost no visitors and it made her sad.”
Safety & Security
More Than 400 US Schools Closed Friday Due To Swine Flu.
The AP (5/1, Werner) reported, “President Barack Obama voiced hope Friday that the swine flu virus will run its course ‘like ordinary flus’ as officials reported more than two dozen new cases and scores more schools shut down.” The number of confirmed swine flu cases rose “from 109 Thursday to 161 Friday, the CDC said, with the flu now reported in 23 states, up from 11.” Also as of Friday, “more than 400 schools” throughout the US had closed, according to the Education Department. Education Secretary Arne Duncan noted “that the closures” represented “a tiny fraction of the almost 100,000 schools in the country.” Still, he told “teachers, parents, and students to be prepared if their school does close. To teachers, Duncan said: ‘Think about reworking upcoming lesson plans so students can do their schoolwork at home if necessary.’”
The Chicago Tribune (5/2, Bowean, Malone) reported that “as of Friday afternoon, 18 area schools canceled classes because of the flu.” According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, “there had been three confirmed cases and 51 probable cases.” While “there were no statistics on how many suspected cases stemmed from school…the scare prompted some to cancel the school day as a precaution.”
The Dallas Morning News (5/3, Weiss) reported, “A day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that schools affected by swine flu stay shuttered up to 14 days, North Texas districts struggled with how to respond.” The CDC revised its recommendation for school closures from one week to two weeks “based on what scientists are learning about [the] new form of influenza,” according to Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Immunization Respiratory and Disease Center. “Historical data and computer modeling of how infections spread suggest that isolating students for a longer time should be a particularly effective way to slow the spread of the flu, she said.” Some North Texas districts have already pushed back their school reopening dates. Others, such as Dallas and Forth Worth, will wait until next week to reconsider when to reopen schools.
Wisconsin’s Journal Sentinel (5/3, Herzog) reported, “City officials on Sunday closed several more Milwaukee public schools for this week because of probable swine flu cases, bringing the city’s total closings to 22 schools.” The decision was made based on a recommendation by the CDC “that schools with probable cases close over a 14-day period to reduce the spread of the new flu strain.”
Chicago Public Schools Will Send Students With Cough, Fever Home For Seven Days. The AP (5/4) reports that in response to an increasing number of “reported cases of swine flu,” Chicago Public Schools “officials say students who come to school with a cough and fever starting Monday will be sent home and required to stay there for at least seven days.” In addition, CPS “is…giving out hand sanitizers to all its 200,000 classrooms.”
Also in the News
Los Angeles Teachers Plan One-Day Strike To Protest Layoffs, Larger Class Sizes.
The Los Angeles Times (5/2, Blume) reported, “The union representing Los Angeles teachers announced Friday that its members have voted to endorse plans for a one-day strike this month to protest looming teacher layoffs and larger class sizes.” The Los Angeles Times explains that the Los Angeles school board voted last month “to cut $596.1 million to help balance a nearly $6 billion general fund. Some 5,400 employees could lose jobs, including 3,500 less-experienced teachers who lack tenure.” While acknowledging that the strike “would sacrifice instruction and complicate student testing,” the “union leaders called on parents to join them.”
Information On Swine Flu Available For Schools Online.
Education Week (5/4, Lambert) reported that “a growing number of resources are available online for information on schools and swine flu.” The US Department of Education is now “posting relevant information for educators” on a Website it has set up about influenza. Posted on the site is “a recording of a recent conference call between school leaders and federal officials.” In addition, “the department is offering a guide for planning for pandemic flu in a school setting, and has set up an email address, osdfs
safeschl
edgov, for education leaders and school staff to ask questions and report any closings because of swine flu.” The Center for Disease Control and Prevention Website, meanwhile, has a page dedicated to swine flu information. It “includes guidance for K-12 school dismissal, the use of face masks in schools, and resources for community mitigation of the flu.”
In the Classroom
Teachers In Utah District Assign Work Online During School Closure.
The Salt Lake Tribune (5/5, Schencker) reports that Park City school officials “decided Saturday to close the district’s eight schools through at least May 10 after the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that at least one student had been infected with the new H1N1 swine flu. But Park City students aren’t off the hook.” The district is “using the Internet to hold live test reviews, send home assignments and make sure students don’t go academically AWOL.” Teachers at Treasure Mountain High School, for instance, are encouraged to “give students educational Websites to work on or assignments,” because the school “was in the middle of state testing when the flu shuttered it.” Meanwhile, Paula Baltzan, a teacher at Park City High School, “is holding daily reviews for the AP world history test over Skype, a free Internet calling service.”
Homework Said To Benefit Older Students More Than Younger Ones.
The Toronto Star (5/5, Rushowy) reports, “Homework is of little benefit to elementary school students but can be useful for older students as long as it is not simply rote learning, says a report examining 18 studies on the issue.” According to the report by the nonprofit Canadian Council on Learning, “older students — from Grade 8 and up — seem ‘most likely to benefit from doing homework’” that consists “of ‘clear, purposeful and engaging activities.’” The council also recommends “that a one-hour maximum be implement[ed] for Grades 7 and 8 students, and two hours for high schoolers; and that teachers assign homework in blocks so students can plan ahead.” The Toronto Star notes that the report includes “14 US studies and four German ones between 2003 and 2007.”
On the Job
Klein Says “Culture Of Excuse” Must Change In Order To Improve Urban Schools.
In an opinion piece for US News and World Report (5/4) Joel I. Klein, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, wrote, “No single impediment to closing the nation’s shameful achievement gap looms larger than the culture of excuse that now permeates our schools.” According to Klein, “Too many educators today excuse teachers, principals, and school superintendents who fail to substantially raise the performance of low-income minority students by claiming that schools cannot really be held accountable for student achievement because disadvantaged students bear multiple burdens of poverty.” But, he added that poverty in America will never improve until urban schools improve, and, “a new generation of ambitious charter school networks…has succeeded in raising achievement levels among low-income minority students to those of white middle-class students.” They prove that “effective principals and talented teachers can create a school culture of accountability to dramatically boost minority performance.”
Law & Policy
Education Secretary Embarks On 15-State NCLB Opinion Tour.
The AP (5/5) reports, “Education Secretary Arne Duncan is a man on a mission: to hear what teachers, students and parents in at least 15 states think about No Child Left Behind.” Today, Duncan will visit West Virginia schools. Duncan has credited the law with “shining a spotlight on kids who need the most help,” and challenging “schools to boost the performance of low-achieving students.” Duncan has also said that “the federal government should be ‘tight’ on the goals, insisting on more rigorous academic standards that are uniform across the states,” but “‘much looser’ in terms of how states meet the goals.” He also called the name of the law “absolutely toxic,” and said that “he would like to hold a contest for school kids to come up with a new name.”
Special Needs
More Children Qualify For New York City Gifted Kindergarten Programs.
The New York Times (5/5, A23, Gootman) reports, “The number of children qualifying for gifted kindergarten programs in New York City public schools rose by 45 percent this year, the schools chancellor announced on Monday.” The increase “was fueled by a 19 percent rise in the number of children who took the tests.” The Times points out that “the Bloomberg administration has been trying to equalize access to the city’s array of gifted programs” in response to critics, who “have said that the programs were too often bastions of white privilege.” And “this year, the districts with some of the most noteworthy jumps in children qualifying for the exams include some of the city’s richest as well as some of its poorest.” A spokesperson for the Education Department “credited improvements to the city’s prekindergarten programs and families’ increasing familiarity with the new admissions process, but said that officials did not yet have a ‘definitive explanation.’”
Safety & Security
Federal Health Officials Reconsider Advice On Swine Flu-Related School Closings.
The AP (5/5, Franklin) reports, “Federal health officials said Monday they were rethinking their advice that schools consider closing for as long as two weeks because of swine flu.” Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that “shutting down schools is intended to keep infections from spreading between students and then out into the community. … But in the cases of swine flu in schools, the virus was apparently already circulating in the community.” He added that the CDC is considering pushing for more personal responsibility, instead. An example of this would be in Seattle, “where health officials” are not routinely recommending “that schools close if there’s a suspected case of swine flu. Instead, they want students with flu-like symptoms to stay home for seven days.”
CDC May Recommend Schools Teach Students To Wash Hands, Cover Coughs. The San Antonio Express News (5/5, Finley) reports that “as a new wave of South Texas schools closed their doors this week in response to swine flu cases, federal health officials are starting to conclude that it may no longer be the best approach at this point in the outbreak.” The Express News notes that “The CDC has recommended that communities close a school if a student or staff member has a probable or confirmed case — and those recommendations stand for now.” But “Besser said the CDC might recommend a strategy that includes using schools to teach students to wash their hands and cover their coughs, as well as getting parents and teachers to identify children who are sick and keep them at home.” Meanwhile, experts at the Metropolitan Health District in San Antonio are advising school officials to wait “until 12 percent of a school’s students are sick for two consecutive days” before closing the school.
Study Shows Many High School Athletes Resume Play Too Soon After Suffering Concussions.
USA Today (5/5, Lloyd) reports that according to a “study from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio,” up to 40.5 percent of “high school athletes [who] suffer concussions…return to action prematurely and set themselves up for more severe injuries.” Furthermore, “16 percent of football players reported returning to play the same day they lost consciousness,” said Dawn Comstock, the study’s director of research. Athletes are “advised not to return to play the same day after losing consciousness in guidelines created by an international panel of experts in 2004.” USA Today notes that “Young athletes, whose brains and skulls are immature, risk death or additional concussions by going back too soon.”
Facilities
Businessman Donates $250,000 In Furniture To South Carolina Middle School.
The AP (5/5, Adcox) reports, “Students who had grown resigned to old, ‘nasty’ furnishings at their dilapidated middle school in rural South Carolina were elated Monday to find new furniture and a freshly painted cafeteria, thanks to a student’s plea, a president’s speech, and a businessman’s response.” After “President Barack Obama brought national attention to the school…in his first address to Congress” in February, Darryl Rosser, “CEO of classroom furniture supplier Sagus International,” responded by donating “nearly 2,000 pieces of furniture,” worth about $250,000, including setup and shipping. In addition to setting up the furniture, volunteers also painted throughout the building, including the school cafeteria.
School Finance
Some Say Two Years Not Enough Time To See Large Improvements In Education.
USA Today (5/5, Toppo) reports that “school districts across the USA are gearing up to receive the first payments under the federal economic stimulus.” The funding, which will be distributed over two years is mainly aimed at saving educators’ jobs. Still, some “observers say they’re concerned that a two-year span is not — and has never been — enough time to generate big gains.” And “by 2011, they say, critics of greater education spending will undoubtedly cite the dearth of results to push for less education spending — perhaps even an end to federal funding.” But the Education Trust’s Amy Wilkins said that “even if schools can’t produce better academic results in two years, they can show ‘that we’ve broken the habit of ‘business as usual’ by killing ineffective or unproven programs.’”
Also in the News
Swine Flu, No Child Left Behind Said To Suffer From “Image Issues.”
The New York Times (5/5, A21, Haberman) asks: What do “A.I.G. and the [swine] flu share with global warming and No Child Left Behind?” According to the Times, “All of them have what a shrink might describe as image issues. And in each instance, a favored solution seems to be to give the problem a new name, and just hope for the best.” The World Health Organization prefers that the swine flu be called “by its scientific name: A(H1N1).” A spokeswoman for the organization has acknowledged that A(H1N1) is not easy to say, and suggested that “we all try to come up with a more ‘user friendly’ name.” Likewise, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has mentioned that “the No Child Left Behind law could do with a new name.” Although “no change has been announced,” the Times suggests, “something along the lines of…the We’re So Desperate In Our Schools That We’ll Do Anything Act.”
CDC Recommends Schools Affected By Swine Flu Reopen, Sick Students Stay Home.
ABC World News (5/5, lead story, 2:55, Gibson) reported, “What a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control issued an advisory to local communities, urging them to consider cancelling school if a case of swine flu was confirmed or even suspected.” But by Tuesday “afternoon, federal officials reversed themselves, saying the outbreak is not as severe as once feared, and canceling school is no long longer necessary.”
The Los Angeles Times (5/6, Maugh, Wilkinson) adds that “instead, they urged parents whose children exhibited symptoms of influenza to keep them home for at least a week.” The health officials said that “the decision about schools does not represent a major policy shift but rather a recognition that the virus is not proving to be especially threatening.” According to Richard Besser, the acting head of the CDC, swine flu symptoms have proven to be “usually no more severe than seasonal flu,” Bloomberg (5/6, Randall, Staley) reports. He also said that “because the illness is so widespread, some containment efforts cost more than they’re worth.”
Besser is quoted in the Washington Post (5/6, Stein, de Vise) as saying, “When you hear of the difficulties involved — of children dropped at libraries because there’s nowhere for home care…these factors are really real, and we need to really feel that the public health benefit of that makes it warranted.” As such, the CDC is recommending “that schools…only consider closing if a large cluster of infections affects attendance and hampers a school’s ability to operate,” the Chicago Tribune (5/6) reports. The change “places more responsibility on parents to keep their children home from school for seven days if they appear to have flu-like symptoms, and for teachers and school administrators to identify sick children and dismiss them from school.”
In the Classroom
Study Shows That Group Structures Can Affect How Students Perform In Class.
Education Week (5/5, Viadero) reported, “White and African-American students can perform dramatically differently in the classroom, depending on how their teachers structure their learning groups,” according to a study reviewed last month in the journal Cognition and Instruction. For the study, lead author Eric A. Hurley, “an assistant professor of psychology and black studies at Pomona College in Claremont, CA,” and colleagues, split “132 fourth and fifth graders from an urban Northeastern school into racially homogeneous groups that were given lessons on math estimation under three conditions.” The first group focused on community, the second was promised a group reward, and the third was encouraged to work hard to earn an individual reward. “The black students scored highest — getting 9.63 out of 15 questions correct — after having taken part in the ‘communal’ group lessons.” Meanwhile, white students scored highest in the individual rewards group, “getting 10.19 of those questions correct.”
Farm Project Will Teach Baltimore Students About Plant Growth, Outdoor Careers.
The Washington Post (5/6, Black) reports on Baltimore City Public Schools Food Service Director Tony Geraci’s Great Kids Farm project. After “asbestos removal…and some bathroom renovations,” the 33-acre farm “will [become] an alternative school that teaches the idea and premises of sustainability,” said Geraci. According to the Post, “the farm, which began welcoming students this past winter, will serve as an incubator for school gardens throughout the city. The Post adds that “students who work on the farm will learn how to landscape, a potentially lucrative job, and will see how easy it is to grow, say, micro-greens, which the farm began selling this spring to local restaurants.” Additionally, produce from the farm will be served this summer at “three student-run restaurants.”
Some Reading Programs Have No Positive Impact On Comprehension, Study Shows.
Education Week (5/5, Zehr) reported that a study “conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc., of Princeton, N.J., for the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences” that “intended to provide insight on the effectiveness of programs for reading comprehension has found that three such programs had no positive impact, while a fourth had a negative effect on student achievement.” The study looked at over 6,000 fifth-graders at 89 schools who were “randomly assigned to either a group of schools using one of the reading curricula being studied or to a control group.” Researchers found that Project CRISS, Read About, and Read for Real “had no effect on reading comprehension. In addition, they found that Reading for Knowledge, created by the Success for All Foundation, had a negative impact on the composite test scores and the science-comprehension test scores for students using that curriculum.”
In-School Field Trip Exposes Elementary Students To Environmental Science.
Maryland’s Gazette (5/6, Whitney) reports that students at Beltsville Elementary in Beltsville, MD, “were treated to an ‘in-school field trip’ April 28-30 when a group of scientists used games and hands-on exhibits to teach them the importance of chemistry.” The program began in 2004, and “this year’s theme was ‘Exploring Environmental Science.’” For three days, “scientists taught one-hour lessons to first- through sixth-graders. Each class spent 20 minutes at three stations, each with its own distinctive lesson.” The stations focused on nutrition, insects, and chemical science.
High School Dropout Rate A “Persistent” Crisis, Report Says.
CNN (5/6) reports on its website that “Nearly 6.2 million students in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24 in 2007 dropped out of high school, fueling what a report released Tuesday called ‘a persistent high school dropout crisis.’” The majority “of the dropouts were Latino or black, according to a report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, Illinois.” The report says that a lack “of new funding at the federal and state level since the 1980s has led to decades of disinvestment in re-enrollment programs across the country.” For the study, researchers analyzed the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Surveys, household data from the Current Population Survey, national data on GED certificate awards and other official sources to examine the problem at the national level and in the nation’s 12 largest states.”
On the Job
Los Angeles Spends Nearly $10 Million Annually On Teachers Not In the Classroom.
The Los Angeles Times (5/6, Song) reports, “About 160 instructors and others get salaries for doing nothing while their job fitness is reviewed. They collect roughly $10 million a year, even as layoffs are considered because of a budget gap.” These teachers have been “accused, among other things, of sexual contact with students, harassment, theft or drug possession. Nearly all are being paid.” The Times points out that “the problem of what to do with teachers in trouble extends well beyond Los Angeles Unified. But not every district in California, or the country, handles it the same way.” In New York City such teachers are placed in “rubber rooms” where they “spend school hours ‘literally just doing crossword puzzles, waiting for the end of the day’ until their cases are resolved.” However, in Chicago, “the dismissal process moves faster and the 30 teachers waiting for their cases to be resolved are assigned clerical tasks.”
Law & Policy
Teacher’s Comment About Creationism Violated First Amendments, Federal Judge Rules.
The AP (5/5) reported that “a federal judge ruled that a public high school history teacher violated the First Amendment when he called creationism ‘superstitious nonsense’ during a classroom lecture.” A lawsuit filed by Chad Farnan, a student in James Corbett’s high school history class, alleged that Corbett “violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by making repeated comments in class that were hostile to Christian beliefs.” It cited over “20 statements made by Corbett during one day of class, which Farnan recorded.” US District Judge James Selna “found that most of the statements cited in the court papers did not violate the First Amendment because they did not refer directly to religion or were appropriate in the context of the classroom lecture.” However, Selna also found “that one comment, where Corbett referred to creationism as ‘religious, superstitious nonsense,’ did violate Farnan’s constitutional rights.”
Bill That Would Require Texas Districts To Teach About Contraceptives Stalls.
The San Antonio Express News (5/6, De La Rosa) reports, “Legislation that would have required Texas public schools to include information about contraceptives in their sex education curriculum is all but dead, the bill’s author acknowledged Tuesday.” The legislation from State Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) “would have emphasized abstinence but also would make information about contraceptives mandatory, though parents could choose to pull their children from the lessons.” Castro “said he had lined up the Republican votes he needed to get House Bill 741 out of committee and onto the House floor, but support fell through in recent weeks.” Texas law currently does not prohibit schools “from teaching about contraceptives, but they must devote more time to abstinence from sex than any other behavior.”
Special Needs
Massachusetts School To Prioritize Evaluations For Students With Special Needs.
Massachusetts’ The Republican (5/6, DeForge) reports that “a new alternative school and modifications made in the way learning plans for special education students are written is helping the” Holyoke school system “save money and manage programs for learning disabled students.” Holyoke “has one of the largest populations of learning-disabled students statewide.” Almost “25 percent of its students” are in need of special education services. The average for schools throughout the state is 16 percent. Due to “the large numbers of students,” education officials struggle “to complete three-year reviews of Individual Education Plans needed for every disabled student and meet requests for new evaluations of students in the required 45-day time limit set by the state.” As such, “officials are selecting the students whose plans need to be updated the most.” In addition, the district has created “the Center for Excellence for children in grades kindergarten through 12 who have behavior problems or emotional or psychological needs.”
Also in the News
Semi-Retired Lawyer Has Donated 10,000 Dictionaries To Third-Graders In Illinois.
The Chicago Tribune (5/6, Rado) reports that “Theodore Utchen has given 10,000 dictionaries, plus instructions, to” third graders “in Wheaton and Glen Ellyn school districts.” In 2003, Utchen donated his first set of dictionaries to the Wheaton-based Community Unit School District 200, and “this spring, he did 30-minute presentations in 3rd-grade classrooms at 21 elementary schools in” two other districts. Utchen, a semi-retired lawyer and “arbitrator in Cook and DuPage Counties,” said that “his interest in providing dictionaries to children developed” after reading a Wall Street Journal article in 2002 about “Mary French, a woman in South Carolina who had launched a non-profit in the mid-1990s with the intent to distribute free dictionaries to students in her state.” French’s Dictionary Project now distributes to schools in all 50 states through contributions from donors like Utchen, though most of the sponsors are groups “such as the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs.”
New York City School Officials’ Plan To Displace Pre-K Students Enrages Parents.
The New York Times (5/6, A22, Gootman) reports, “With outraged parents planning to take to the steps of City Hall on Wednesday to protest the placement of hundreds of children on waiting lists for their neighborhood kindergartens, New York City Education Department officials scrambled on Tuesday for a solution.” The leading solution was to move “prekindergarten classes out of Public Schools 41 and 3 in Greenwich Village, and replacing them with extra kindergartens,” but that plan only further inflamed parents. But “officials said they hoped much of the problem would be solved after students accept placements in gifted and talented programs and private schools, freeing up slots at neighborhood schools.”