Budget Cuts Funding For Abstinence-Only Education.
The AP (5/8) reports that “President Barack Obama wants to eliminate more than $100 million in spending on abstinence-only education, directing the money instead to teen pregnancy-reduction programs that don’t take the no-sex approach.” According to the budget documents, “the most positive results” would “come from programs that ‘provide a range of services in addition to comprehensive sex education, such as after school activities, academic support, or service learning.’”
Swampland columnist Amy Sullivan wrote in the Time (5/7) blog that “abstinence-only programs have not proven nearly as successful as approaches that combine the message that abstinence is a good goal for teenagers with comprehensive and accurate education about contraception, disease prevention, and decision-making skills.” She argued that “with teen pregnancy rates inching up again after a nearly 15-year drop and the vast majority of parents in favor of comprehensive sex education…it’s long past time to develop sex ed programs that work.”
Meanwhile, On Women columnist Deborah Kotz pointed out in the US News & World Report (5/7) blog that “what’s not clear…is which comprehensive sex education programs will be funded. There’s quite a bit of difference among them, with some far better than others.” Kotz added that it is also unclear “how ‘evidence-based’ will be defined. Just how many studies are needed to determine if a program is effective,” she asked. “And how few are needed to deem a program ‘promising’?” Reuters (5/8) and the New Mexico Independent (5/8, Doland) also cover the story.
In the Classroom
Sixth Graders Attend Classes In Semi-Darkness For Energy Conservation.
The Washington Post (5/7, Bahrampour) reported that “over the past week, sixth-graders at Seneca Ridge Middle School in Sterling have roamed the halls in semi-darkness” for “an experiment designed by their science teacher, Rick Peck, to teach them how they can help reduce their carbon footprint by conserving energy.” The experiment took place “focuses on the school’s C wing, which houses the sixth grade.” Fifty-six of the wing’s 750 lights “were disabled,” for the project, reducing “energy use by about 4 percent,” the students calculated. To enable students to monitor the number of “kilowatts…being used at [any] given time,” electrical workers “tapped into the wing’s transformer and put a doughnut-shaped meter around the wires.” The project was made possible through a “$5,000 grant from Dominion Virginia Power…as well as $500 grants from the Chamberlain and Hrdlicka law firm and the Loudoun Educational Association.”
Sixth Graders, Teacher Embark On 27-Hour Simulated Space Mission.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (5/8, Blatt) reports, “six fifth-graders and a teacher” from Russell Elementary School in Smyrna, GA, are simulating a space shuttle mission for 27 hours this week. “While inside the shuttle (a portable classroom), the astronauts, along with teacher Michaela D’Aquanni-Swift, do routine tests, perform medical checks, conduct experiments, and handle in-flight simulation problems.” They also ate, slept, and used the restroom “aboard the makeshift shuttle.” During the mission, “closed-circuit televisions monitor their activities and broadcast them schoolwide. A mission control center also keeps a close eye on the shuttle.” The Journal-Constitution notes that the space mission is the culmination of “an eight-month program” at Russell Elementary “in which students — 39 this year — study and train for a…flight around the earth.”
Crash Simulation Shows Prom-Bound Students Dangers Of Drunk Driving.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/8, Lee) reports, “With its evening of enchantment scheduled for Saturday, Tarpon Springs High spent Thursday morning demonstrating the realities of driving while impaired to its juniors and seniors.” The demonstration included a “simulated car crash with a passenger being killed, one transported by helicopter, and another arrested for drinking while driving.” In addition, “There were the heart-tugging stories by teacher Jerry Woodka, who lost a brother to a drunken driver, and Renee Napier, who lost a daughter. There were a hearse and caskets.” According to high school senior Luis De La Espriella, the presentation did have an effect. “I looked over, and there were girls crying. It worked,” he said.
Creative Thinking, Mastering Skills Go Hand-In-Hand, Educator Says.
In the Las Vegas Sun’s (5/8) Teacher’s View column, fourth and fifth grade teacher Cathy Estes writes, “As education in the United States moves more and more toward a uniform curricula and as we rely more heavily on standardized test scores to judge or students and schools, I worry about how education is moving away from fostering original thinking and creativity in our students today.” While “young children are naturally curious about almost everything,” a person’s “imagination seems to decrease as he or she grows older.” Estes ponders whether “our overemphasis on standardized testing has discouraged divergent thinking and problem solving.” Thinking creatively, she adds, goes hand-in-hand with mastering skills. “The trick is to continue to foster creativity in our students as the curriculum is being mastered.” Estes concludes that “the thing to keep in mind is that ultimately our job is not to impart knowledge on others, but to empower others to seek knowledge.”
Florida High School Seniors Score Better In Reading, Worse On Math Retests.
The AP (5/8) reports that “twelfth-grade students retaking Florida’s standardized test performed slightly better in reading but worse in math, and a majority still failed, according to figures released Thursday by the state education department.” This year, “26 percent of the 8,540 students retaking the math section passed, down from 32 percent last year.” The AP notes that “Students must pass both parts of the 10th grade FCAT to receive a standard diploma, or achieve certain levels on SAT or ACT college entrance tests. They are given up to five opportunities before graduation to pass the test.” Students “who do not pass both FCAT sections will get a certificate of completion.” The St. Petersburg Times (5/8, Solochek) also covers this story.
Increased Exercise At School Found Not To Help Obese Students.
The AP (5/8) reports, “The problem of overweight children won’t be solved by piling on exercise in school, according to new research presented Thursday” to the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam. Lead researcher Terry Wilkin, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at Peninsula Medical School in the British city of Plymouth, and colleagues, found that children “who have a lot of physical activity during school hours tend to wilt when they get home,” and “children who have less action in school are more active after the final bell rings.” The study included followed “206 children aged 8-10 over two years beginning in 2003.” The subjects came from three different schools in Plymouth and “had widely different activity levels.” Each student wore an accelerometer “all day for one week during four consecutive school terms. In addition, blood samples and measurements of their weight and body mass were repeatedly taken.”
Law & Policy
Obama Budget Cuts Back On Education Technology Funding.
The T.H.E. Journal (5/8, Nagel) reports that “for the first time in two years,” the No child Left Behind Act initiative Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) “isn’t on the chopping block in a Presidential budget proposal.” However, “it is on the proverbial shawarma spit, as the budget proposed for 2010 by the Obama administration seeks to shave off $169 million from the 2009 figure, bringing it down to $100 million.” According to T.H.E. Journal, after the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was passed, adding $650 million to the existing $269.9 million funding for EETT, “it seemed…that [the program] would be fairly safe under the Obama administration’s patronage.” As a result, some were surprised by the reduction in the education budget proposal. On Thursday, “several education technology advocacy groups released a joint statement…on the budget proposal” in which they “expressed dismay at the proposed cuts and urged Congress to reject them.”
Maryland Set To Implement Battery Of High School Exit Exams.
The Washington Post (5/7, Hernandez) reported, “After many twists, turns and brushes with oblivion, Maryland’s system of requiring students to pass four tests to graduate from high school is finally going to take effect in just over a month. As of March, about 4,000 seniors statewide had not met the requirements for the High School Assessments, a set of exams in algebra, English, biology and government.” However, Maryland “officials predict the vast majority of the state’s 54,000 seniors will graduate on time, and those who don’t might be able to meet the testing requirement during the summer.” The Post notes that for “the past few years, it looked like the tests would never see the light of day. … It is a victory for an accountability movement that has gained strength across a country anxious to stay competitive in the global market.”
Also in the News
Federal Study Examines Factors In Adult Reading, Writing Difficulties.
The Christian Science Monitor (5/8, Khadaroo) reports that a new government study explores the factors seen as contributing to the difficulties some teens and adults have with learning “basic reading and writing.” These factors “include poverty, ethnicity, native language background, and disabilities.” According to the Christian Science Monitor, “about 30 million people — 14 percent of the US population 16 and older — either cannot read or write, or have limited reading and writing ability. The report “presents new analyses from a nationally representative survey conducted in 2003 by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).” It “looks at specific skills such as oral fluency (the ability to read out loud quickly and accurately) and decoding (the ability to break apart unfamiliar words and sound them out).”
Teacher Criticized For Berating Student Found Surfing Fox News Site.
Marybeth Hicks wrote in a column in the Washington Times (5/7), “Last week in the computer lab,” of a northern Michigan school, “a student who completed his video production assignment killed time by surfing the Internet on a school computer.” A teacher caught a glimpse of the Foxnews.com screen the student was looking at and “publicly berated and belittled him for reading the ‘wrong’ news. … That a teacher would discourage such an activity in any way, shape or form is beyond disconcerting – it’s truly incompetent. According to a recent survey of 65,000 teens by USA Weekend magazine, only 18 percent of teens read newspapers.” Thus, “getting teens to pay attention to the news in any format is a crucial educational goal.”
Facebook Use Found More Common Among Students With Higher Grades.
USA Today (5/8, Marklein) reports, “A small study presented at an education conference last month showed a link between Facebook use and lower grades — but stressed that the findings don’t prove that one leads to the other.” A new study “published this week in an online journal First Monday” says that “the two variables are ‘likely unrelated.’” For the new study, researchers Eszter Hargittai, a Northwestern University professor, a researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, and “Stanford doctoral candidate Josh Pasek… analyzed three existing data sets, including a sample of more than 1,000 undergraduates from the University of Illinois-Chicago and other data involving teens and young adults.” They “found no ‘robust negative relationship between Facebook use and grades,’” and concluded, “If anything, Facebook use is more common among individuals with higher grades.”
NEA in the News
Proposed Budget Designates Over $500 Million For Performance Pay.
The Washington Post (5/8, Glod) reports, “President Obama is seeking to add hundreds of millions for teacher merit pay programs, an investment in a reform that has often drawn criticism from teachers unions.” Obama’s $47 billion spending plan, includes “$517 million for performance pay grants, up from $97 million in last year’s budget. In addition, the stimulus law included an additional $200 million for such programs.” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that “he envisions performance pay programs that will give a boost to the best teachers and encourage them to work in struggling schools in high-poverty neighborhoods.” The Post notes that even though “he position of teachers unions on performance pay has softened in recent years,” their remains some skepticism “about systems that tie bonuses to test scores.” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said “that the “money should be tied to quality professional development” and to reward national board certification
California Dropout Rate Improved By One Percent.
In the Los Angeles Times’ (5/13) LA Now blog, Mitchell Landsberg reported, “The high school dropout rate improved slightly in California last year but rose in Los Angeles, where more than one-third of students are officially classified as dropouts, state officials said Tuesday.” The statewide dropout rate was 20.1 percent, one percentage point less than last year, “according to data released by the state Department of Education. For the Los Angeles Unified School District, the dropout rate was 34.9 percent,” an increase of three percentage points from last year. “Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said that although he was encouraged by the slight progress statewide, the dropout rate remained ‘unacceptably high’ and was ‘alarmingly high’ among African American and Latino students.”
The San Francisco Chronicle (5/13, B5, Asimov) added that according to analysts, “more than 6,800 quit school after satisfying all but one requirement: the exit exam.” Meanwhile, “black students quit school far more often than other groups, about 35 percent. … Latinos are next, at 26 percent. About 12 percent of white students drop out, and about 8 percent of Asian Americans do.”
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In the Classroom
Hong Kong’s Third-Grade Assessments Seen As More Difficult Than Massachusetts’.
Education Week (5/13, Cavanagh) reported, “A host of recent studies have examined how U.S. students’ mathematics skills compare against those of their foreign peers.” But a study released on Wednesday by the American Institutes for Research “finds that elementary students in Hong Kong are exposed to more difficult and complex math than pupils in Massachusetts, an elite scorer on national and international exams.” The report “examines the math content of Hong Kong and Massachusetts by comparing the two jurisdictions’ standardized tests in 3rd grade math.” Researchers found that “Hong Kong’s test includes a higher percentage of number and measurement concepts than Massachusetts’ exam does.” Furthermore, Hong Kong’s exam incorporated “much broader use of questions requiring students to construct responses to math questions, rather than simply check boxes through multiple choice.” Moreover, 55 percent of “Hong Kong’s test questions…were deemed to have moderate or high ‘cognitive complexity,’ compared with just 34 percent of Massachusetts’ questions.”
DC Program Gets Students Involved In Schoolwide Energy Conservation Efforts.
The Washington Post (5/14, Wilson) reports, “With the increasing cost of and demand for energy, many D.C. schools are taking suggestions on how to conserve from some unlikely consultants: their students.” The Saving Energy in DC Schools program is “an initiative by the Alliance to Save Energy and the D.C. Department of the Environment to promote better energy use at schools.” In their first year of the program, “some schools have reduced energy use by 5 to 15 percent.” Students got involved by forming “green teams,” and measuring “energy usage with tools provided through funding from the D.C. Public Service Commission’s Natural Gas Trust Fund.”
Arizona District Cuts Back On Art, Music, Physical Education For Kindergartners.
Arizona’s East Valley Tribune (5/14, Ringle) reports, “Next year’s Gilbert district kindergartners will have less art, music, and P.E. instruction, and their teachers will have less time with help from instructional assistants.” The change comes about as the Gilbert Unified School District tries to “cut costs during the budget crisis.” Under the new schedule, “physical education and music teachers will only give their classes to kindergartners on early-release days, which is about an average of once a month.” Furthermore, “kindergarten instructional aides are also getting their hours reduced next school year.” Instead of working 5.5 hour days, full-day instructional aides will work 4 hours, and “Aides for the half-day kindergarten will work two hours, which is a half-hour less than what they work now.”
Maryland High School Students Build Four-Bedroom House.
The Washington Post (5/14, Holzheimer) reports that “this year as part of the annual Student House Project, coordinated by” the Prince George’s County [MD] “Career and Technical Education program and its Foundation of Automotive & Construction Technology for Students,” high school students built “a two-story, four-bedroom house.” The Post notes that “more than 24 groups took part in the student project, including realty companies, banks and construction contractors, who supervised the students.” Each year, “the foundation sells the finished homes and uses the profits to pay for next year’s project, scholarships, and other expenses, said Pat Belser, the group’s director.” This year’s house is on the market for $359,000, “slightly lower than planned due to the housing market.”
Graduation Rate Decrease An Inevitable Consequence Of Exit Exams, Teacher Says.
In the Las Vegas Sun’s (5/14) Teacher’s View column, Rene Hill writes, “A new study conducted by the Center for Education Policy has shown that exit exams impact some groups of students more than others.” Although some see “exit exams…as a way to motivate students to higher levels of achievement, critics are concerned that these exams come down harder on students from poor families and minority groups or under-resourced schools.” Hill points out, “There are several explanations as to why certain groups tend to fail the test,” one of which “is called a ‘stereotype effect.’” This “refers to the tendency of people to fare less well on tests when they fear their efforts will confirm a negative stereotype about their group.” She concludes that “as long as an exit exam is required of our graduating high school students, graduation rates will drop.” Nevertheless, “a diploma must have requirements in order to mean something, and some students will not be up to those standards.”
On the Job
Merit Pay Can Bring About Unintended Negative Consequences, Report Says.
Education Week (5/14, Viadero) reports, “Merit-pay plans for teachers may be growing more popular with politicians, but a report released [Thursday] argues that such compensation plans are rarely used in the private sector and can sometimes bring about unintended negative consequences.” According to the Teachers, Performance Pay, and Accountability report by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, “only one in seven workers in the private sector is covered by bonus or merit-pay plans, and most of those workers are in the real estate, finance, and insurance fields.” Although some workers may earn bonuses, “compensation plans that use formulas or indicators to reward employees on the basis of their productivity — which are among the kinds of programs that growing numbers of policymakers have in mind for teachers — are less common.” Furthermore, the report says that “research on the private sectors’ experiences with pay-for-performance schemes suggests that they sometimes yield unproductive results.”
Law & Policy
Texas Leads In Education Reform, Spellings Says.
In an opinion piece for the Dallas Morning News (5/14), former US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings writes, “As Texas goes, so goes the nation. That’s especially true when it comes to education reform.” During her tenure as Education Secretary, Spellings “was surprised by the large number of states that, unlike Texas, shied away from confronting the huge achievement gap between advantaged and low-income and minority students in their states.” Still, she points out, “The Texas approach has worked. Because of” the state’s “policies, [its] students perform better than their peers across the country.” And, “because of these policies now being put in place across the nation, thanks to No Child Left Behind, students all over the country are doing better.” While “Texans should be proud of [their] work,” Spellings points out, “we cannot be satisfied with where we are. Our achievement gap is still large, our standards are too low, and our work is unfinished.”
Louisiana Senate Approves “Nonacademic” High School Curriculum.
The AP (5/13) reported that Louisiana State Sen. Robert Kostelka (R) “won unanimous Senate approval for his plan to allow high school students to follow a nonacademic curriculum if they’re not on course to graduate.” The bill “would expand the state’s existing programs that allow some students to get credit for studying trades if they don’t want to go to a four-year college after graduation.” According to Kostelka, the legislation is aimed at lowering the state’s dropout rate. The AP notes Kostelka’s “bill moves to the House, where Rep. Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, is sponsoring identical legislation.” Louisiana’s News Star (5/13) also covered the story.
Bill Would Loosen New York City Mayor’s Control Over Education Policy Panel.
The New York Daily News (5/13, Lovett) reported that “the battle for control over” New York City “schools is heating up with a bill quietly being floated in the Legislature that would weaken the mayor’s tight grip on education.” The Campaign For Better Schools backs the legislation that “would take control of the city education policy panel and its chairman away from the mayor.” According to “Billy Easton, an organizer of the Campaign for Better Schools…the proposal provides more checks and balances, transparency, and parental involvement.” It calls for the addition of 4 members to the current 13-member education policy panel. And “the mayor would have eight appointments, one less than the majority. He now has the majority of appointments.” A spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) said, “This is an outline for ending mayoral control. … The return to an unaccountable board would leave no one…held responsible for failed policies and poor performing schools — except the students.”
Missouri Lawmakers Reject Comprehensive Education Bill.
The AP (5/14, Logan) reports, “The Missouri House on Tuesday rejected a wide-ranging education bill that some members considered too bloated and too expensive.” Included in the bill were “an expansion of a college scholarship program,” an increase in teachers’ minimum pay, a restriction on state college enrollment for illegal immigrants, and creation of “a five-star rating system for preschools.” Although the measure was defeated “on a 116-43 vote,” the House also “voted to send the measure to the Rules Committee, where it was expected to be rewritten and returned to the House floor for another try before the session ends at 6 p.m. Friday.”
Also in the News
Study On Physical Education In School Highlights Importance Of Healthy Eating.
Time (5/13, Cloud) reported that “in 2006, a blue-ribbon commission released a worried report about the precipitous decline of physical education in schools since the early ’90s, coinciding with a ballooning rate of obesity in kids.” Since then, “both Democrats and Republicans have” criticized “school districts for eliminating P.E. in order to spend more” time preparing for standardized tests. But “last week at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam, a team of researchers from Peninsula Medical School in the U.K. presented findings from a painstaking study of physical activity in 206 children ages 7 to 11 from three schools in and around Plymouth,” England. They found that “no matter how much P.E. they got during school hours, by the end of the day, the kids from the three schools had moved around about the same amount, at about the same intensity.” This “research comports with a growing body of data saying that” exercise alone cannot increase one’s health. Eating “better, or less” is also important.
NEA in the News
Senate To Consider Bill Offering Matching Funds For High School Business Classes.
The Charleston (WV) Gazette (5/14, Nyden) reports that a new bill that was introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va) on Wednesday “is designed to provide matching federal funds to states that offer students new content in their core high school courses, content including financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy, and civic literacy, and health awareness.” The legislation “would give the U.S. Department of Education $100 million annually to administer matching grants in states where schools integrate teaching these special skills into existing courses.” Rockefeller’s bill is supported by the National Education Association, the Charleston Gazette notes.
House Of Representatives Approves $6.4 Billion “Green” School Construction Bill.
CNN (5/15, Hornick) reports, “The House on Thursday passed a $6.4 billion school modernization bill that would commit funds for the construction and update of more energy-efficient school buildings.” The AP (5/15, Abrams) adds that the “multiyear school construction bill” is aimed at “producing hundreds of thousands of jobs, reducing energy consumption, and creating healthier, cleaner environments for the nation’s schoolchildren.” The legislation “would provide states with money to make grants and low interest loans so school districts could build, modernize, and repair facilities to make them healthier, safer, and more energy-efficient.” It would also guarantee “that every district that receives federal money for low-income students will get at least $5,000.” Most of “the funds — rising to 100 percent by 2015 — would have to be used for projects that meet green standards for construction materials and energy sources. Those include the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System and Energy Star.” CQ (5/15) also covers the story, and the Houston Chronicle (5/15) emphasizes how the bill would affect Texas schools.
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In the Classroom
Most Educators Do Not Understand Importance Of Critical Thinking, Author Says.
The Des Moines Register (5/15) features an interview with Tony Wagner, the co-director of the Change in Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of the book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need – And What We Can Do About It. In the book, Wagner asserts that “the seven survival skills…all students should master are critical thinking and problem solving; collaboration across networks and leading by influence; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurship; effective oral and written communication; accessing and analyzing information; and curiosity and imagination.” Those skills, he says will help teach “students how to think.” When asked why the push to teach critical-thinking skills has not “taken hold” in schools, Wagner said, that “most teachers, parents, and employers don’t understand the importance of critical thinking.” Some contend “that critical thinking is too fuzzy. Therefore, it’s not tested. If it’s not tested, it’s not going to be taught.”
Elementary Students Learn About Matter By Experimentation At School Museum.
Wisconsin’s Herald-Times Reporter (5/14, Millard) spotlighted Stangel Elementary School’s Magic of Matter Museum, which displayed science-themed objects such as “a sticky solution demonstrating the difference between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures,” the elements “mercury and neon,” and “acid and alkaline chemical reactions in test tubes.” The museum encouraged hands-on experimentation for the students. For instance, one “group of students mixed Alka-Seltzer tablets with water inside a film canister and then placed the cap on the canister.” In another experiment “showed the effects of mixing certain solids with liquids,” producing carbon dioxide. According to sixth-grade teacher Andrew Best, who came up with the idea for the museum, “as students worked on their project, they became experts on the display. Their knowledge spilled to other classmates as they began talking about what they learned.”
Nevada District Offers Program To Help Parents Improve English Alongside Students.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal (5/14, Haug) reported on the family literacy program being “offered at three Clark County School District campuses” to help “Spanish-speaking adults improve their English alongside their children.” The program “is funded with a $600,000 grant from Toyota” awarded through the Kentucky-based National Center for Family Literacy. In Clark county’s program, “parents attend two classes a week with their children. They also take nine hours of English instruction for adults. An additional two hours are devoted to learning about opportunities in the school system and parenting tips.” The program is geared toward Spanish speakers, and “each of the three participating schools have enrollments that are about 78 percent Hispanic,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted.
Students At Elementary School In Oregon Learn How To Compost Food Scraps.
Oregon’s News-Review (5/14, Loznak) reported on “an environmental education program” at McGovern Elementary School that teaches students how “to compost food scraps.” During the presentations, which began in April, Sarah Davis, a project coordinator at Umpqua Community Action Network, “explained [that] compost is made by layering ‘brown stuff,’ like dead leaves, with ‘green stuff,’ such as food scraps, and then watering each layer, kind of like making a messy lasagna.” In addition to learning how to compost, students also “learned about recycling and how to save electricity by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs.” According to the News-Review, “Some of the program’s lessons have already taken hold. Recycling stations have been set up around the school.” In addition, students “have persuaded teachers to turn off one of three rows of lights in school classrooms,” and “students and teachers are talking about setting up a school garden.”
Reading Buddy Program Said To Help Fifth Graders Learn To Read With Expression.
Michigan’s Tri County Times (5/14, McKay) reported on the “reading buddy ” program taking place at Central Elementary School in Linden, MI, this year. For the program, “second-graders from Ted Allessie’s class” team up with “fifth-graders from Elise Sulick’s class to share stories and read to each other. Sometimes the students share original stories, as well.” They “meet once every two weeks, generally on Tuesday mornings.” Sulick said that “being a reading buddy to the second-graders helps the fifth-graders read with expression and” boosts their self-esteem.
Elementary Students Learn About Dinosaurs From Milwaukee Museum Webcast.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (5/15, Crompton) reports, “A group of second-grade students at Pleasant Valley Elementary School [PA] got the chance to travel back 65 million years, courtesy of 21st century innovation.” The students were able to visit “the Milwaukee Public Museum’s dinosaur collection via live webcast May 1″ as part of the museum’s “‘Dinosaurs: Unearthing the Facts’ interactive distance learning program and other virtual curriculum.” During the presentation, students viewed “up-close views of paleontologists’ tools and fossils, including the bottom jaw of a tyrannosaurus rex.” Furthermore, “the hour-long presentation also focused on unique characteristics of dinosaurs, their relationship to modern birds and reptiles, and theories about their extinction.”
On the Job
North Carolina District To Replace Some Experienced Teachers With TFA Recruits.
The Charlotte (NC) Observer (5/14, Helms) reported that “Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will bring in 100 new Teach For America (TFA) cadets, who lack teaching experience and credentials, as the district lays off experienced teachers next school year.” Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, said, “I think it is a slap in the faces of the ones who are going to be losing their jobs. It’s more or less telling them, ‘We don’t give a flip about you.” But Superintendent Peter Gorman contends that the Teach for America teachers “would be bumping a teacher who’s below standard.” He said that “job performance will be the biggest factor in deciding which teachers will be cut,” but experience will also be taken into consideration.
Florida District Considers Offering Benefits To Persuade Employees To Retire.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/15, Solochek) reports that “layoffs remain a last resort for Pasco County school district leaders as they look for ways to slash spending by as much as $45 million.” So the school board is looking into ways to encourage school employees to leave voluntarily. “Board members reviewed…possible offers that they might put forth as a way to draw some people into retirement who otherwise might wait for their full state pension to kick in.” One plan “focused on employees between 62 and 65 who are mainly keeping their jobs for health insurance: Offer them $425 a month toward health benefits until they qualify for Medicare.” A second “idea targeted workers who have yet to qualify for full state retirement benefits: Pay them the difference until they can get their full amount.” The St. Petersburg Times notes that “the concepts…could save a projected $970,000 to $10 million, depending on how they play out once offered.”
Law & Policy
Missouri Increases Age Requirement For Students To Drop Out.
The AP (5/15) reports, “Missouri students would have to stay in school longer or complete a minimum number of credits before they can drop out under legislation sent to Gov. Jay Nixon (D).” Current law allows “students [to] quit school when they turn 16.” But “a bill given final approval by the House and Senate on Thursday would let students drop out when they turn 17 or complete at least 16 credits.” Next year, Missouri “students will need at least 24 credits to graduate instead of the current 22.” And “because a student usually can earn up to eight credits per year, the practical effect of the Missouri legislation is that most students would be required to stay in school through their junior year,” the AP points out.
School Finance
School Fundraisers Said To Be Exploitative, Economically Discriminating.
In a commentary for Education Week (5/14) freelance writer and parent Elly Schull Meeks wrote, “U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently told the nation that education ‘is the civil rights issue of our generation, and it is the one sure path to a more equal, fair, and just society.’” This statement made Meeks wonder how Duncan feels about the “practice of fundraising during the school day, with the students recruited as salespeople.” Meeks called the practice “coercive, exploitative, and economically discriminating” and “blatantly commercial.” Through fundraising activities such as magazine sales and book fairs, “the only lesson kids are guaranteed to learn is how to become cogs in the $4 billion-a-year commercial school-fundraising industry.” Meeks concludes that although “parochial interests seem unwilling or unable to confront the problem,” Secretary Duncan “might just be the player to take a shot at the issue.”
Also in the News
College Board Postpones Release Of Eighth Grade Exams.
The New York Times (5/15, A16, Steinberg) reports, “The College Board said Thursday that it was putting off the unveiling of a new standardized test intended to help eighth graders prepare for rigorous high school courses and college. It cited school districts’ tight finances as the cause of the delay.” Last fall, the College Board announced “that it would begin offering the test, known as ReadiStep, this fall. It had described it as being for assessment and instructional purposes only, and not for any college admissions purpose.” But in an email this week, a spokesperson for the College Board wrote, “With the unforeseen challenge of the current economic situation, many states, districts and schools simply don’t have the resources to spend on new programs. … When a large enough group of states, districts, and schools have the resources that will enable them to launch ReadiStep, we will launch it.” The Los Angeles Times (5/15, Holland) also covers the story.
Scholastic Chess Becoming More Popular In Schools.
USA Today (5/15, Berman) reports that “over the past few years scholastic chess, or chess for educational purposes, has taken U.S. schools by storm.” According to USA Today, “This increased interest can be seen in the number of young people competing in chess at high levels. This week the nation’s top chess players are gathering in St. Louis to compete in the “Super Bowl” of chess — the U.S. Chess Championship.” This year, four of the “24 players vying for the $200,000 prize…are under the age of 21.” According to “Wendi Fischer, executive director of America’s Foundation for Chess…she’s seen a “huge increase” in the number of schools and students interested in chess.” USA Today adds that “when the program started in 2003 it was in one state, serving about 1,500 kids, but by 2008 First Move expanded to 26 states, to serve about 50,000 kids.”
NEA in the News
Iowa District, Teachers Union Reach Agreement On Pay, Benefits.
The Des Moines Register (5/15, Ryan) reports that “teachers and staff in the Johnston school district will receive a total compensation increase of four percent each of the next two years under an agreement between the district and the Johnston Education Association, its teachers union.” The raise “will not be a straight salary increase but will include all related tax-benefit and insurance costs as well.” Specifically, “the package includes additional benefit costs such as a health-insurance premium increase and Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System contributions paid by the district.,” according to Don Miller, a spokesman for the Johnston Education Association. “It also includes, for the first time, contributions by the district to employees’ 403(b), or tax-sheltered annuity accounts.”