California’s Budget Deficit Expected To Force Deep Cuts In Education.
The AP (5/16, Chea, Young) reports, “California’s public schools already trail most states in academic performance, suffer from high dropout rates and struggle to improve the performance of black and Hispanic students.” Compounding the situation, is “a historic state budget deficit that is expected to force deep cuts in education funding that will lead to thousands of teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, school closures, and a shortened school year.” According to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, additional cuts would mean schools would “lose counselors, nurses, and librarians. They are also likely to cut athletic programs as well as classes in art, music, and career technical education.” So far, “30,000 of the state’s roughly 310,000 public school teachers have already received pink slips this year, and school districts could be forced to lay off more before classes begin in the fall.”
Hundreds Of Los Angeles Unified Teachers, Students Stage Protests Over Budget Cuts. The Los Angeles Times (5/16, Song, Blume) reports, “The head of the Los Angeles teachers union was among 39 people arrested Friday during a sit-in outside the school district headquarters, one among dozens of peaceful protests around the city by teachers and students outraged by plans for deep cuts in education spending.” The protest was fueled “by plans for layoffs of as many as 2,500 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, the consequence of billions of dollars in statewide cuts to education.” Meanwhile, “hundreds of teachers called in sick and hundreds of high school students walked out of classrooms” in protest. After the demonstration, Superintendent Ramon Cortines said that he was open to a compromise in which “the district would spend more of its federal stimulus money than planned in the coming year, forestalling the need for any teacher layoffs, and the union would agree to concessions, such as a wage freeze or unpaid furloughs.”
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In the Classroom
Educators, Corporations Aim To Heighten Students’ Interest In Mathematics.
The Washington Post (5/16, Chandler) reported that in an effort “to counter the notion that mathematics ability is inscribed in DNA, school officials and corporate executives are waging a public relations campaign for the hearts and minds of the average math student.” Their ultimate “goal is to immerse more middle school students in algebra and toughen high school math requirements so graduates can compete for increasingly technical jobs.” For instance, the defense contractor Raytheon “is designing a math-oriented attraction at Disney World’s Epcot. It also has brought professional football players to school rallies to talk about math in sports, tackling a stereotype that math is for nerds.” There are also math-themed contests, like those that “offer rewards for students who design robots.”
Students Compete In Physics, Engineering Challenges At Utah Theme Park.
The Salt Lake Tribune (5/18, Schencker) reports on the “the annual Utah State University (USU) Physics Day at Lagoon, now in its 20th year,” where “more than 6,500 students from across Utah and neighboring states” on Friday “competed in physics and engineering challenges amid — and often while riding — the park’s attractions.” This year was the first in which “elementary school students were invited to participate.” Activities for middle and high school students included dropping “eggs — in specially built containers — from the park’s Sky Ride, 60 feet above the ground” and wearing “homemade accelerometers to measure G-forces” on “the park’s Colossus roller coaster.” Elementary students, meanwhile, participated in robot races. In preparation for the race, “teams spent months meeting after school with Boeing workers to build and program their Lego Mindstorms robots, using computer software, typical Lego parts, ultrasonic sensors and motors.”
First-Graders Learn About Pollution Through Stage Play.
The North County (CA) Times (5/18, Kelly) reports that “in a homicide investigation like no other, a classroom of Butterfield Elementary School first-graders recently staged a play called ‘Who Killed Phinneas Frog?’” Through the play, students “investigated how pollution from cow and horse droppings, fertilizer, pesticides and litter can harm animals that live in streams. Teacher Vikky Pickett said she wrote the children’s version for her students, and made the costumes, after starring in the play at a national conference.”
High School Students In California Create Underwater Robots For Regional Competition.
The Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel (5/18, Wilson) reports that “students in the Aptos High Robotics Club practiced the mock mission in preparation for the 2009 Math Advanced Technology Education Center’s Regional Robotics Competition today.” Three groups of students each “created underwater remotely operated vehicles with flotation and steady movement capabilities using plastic pipe, motors, cameras and claws.” Their goal was to “maneuver their ROVs to accomplish specific challenges centered on the rescue of a mock submarine sitting at the bottom of the pool.” At the regional competition held on Saturday, the teams from Aptos went “head to head with more than 20 teams from all over the West Coast. The winners will go to an international competition on June 24-26 at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.”
On the Job
Massachusetts To Require Math Test For Elementary Teaching Licensure.
Education Week (5/15, Cavanagh) reported that “Massachusetts is preparing to require all elementary educators to pass a math-specific test for state licensure, as opposed to simply mandating that they notch a general passing score across all subjects.” The proposal intends to address the concern that some elementary teachers “have been able to do poorly on the math” portion of the general licensure test and still pass, according to Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Mitchell D. Chester. “The requirement would apply to teachers in grades 1-6, and special education teachers of children with moderate disabilities in pre-K-8.” Chester is also planning to “recommend a three-year grace period for teacher-candidates who struggle to pass the math test.”
Law & Policy
New York Times Urges Focus On Most Troubled Schools To Reduce Dropout Rate.
The New York Times (5/18, A22) editorializes, “About one in five American students drops out of high school today, and there are some schools where students have only a 50-50 chance of getting a diploma.” In order to solve this problem, “federal, state and local governments will all need to focus intensely on the relatively small number of troubled schools that produce a majority of the nation’s dropouts,” the Times argues. “According to Robert Balfanz, of Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center, just 12 percent of the nation’s 20,000 high schools account for half of the country’s dropouts.” If lawmakers and educators focus “on these high schools — and the lower schools that feed them — the country stands a good chance of keeping in school millions of students who would otherwise drop out.” This will require “putting public money into prevention programs that have been shown to keep children in school,” the Times concludes.
Arizona Schools, Parents Said To Face Choice Between Class Size, Teacher Pay.
The Arizona Republic (5/18, Kossan) reports that “a recession forced the” Arizona “Legislature this year to cut money for K-12 education, school-tax revenues are falling, and enrollment is declining, which means less per-student state funds but often consolidated classes.” And because “federal stimulus dollars are seen as a short-term patch by many schools,” the problems are expected to persist next year. The dilemma schools and parents will face is whether to support “larger classes, taught by high-quality teachers who earn better pay, or smaller classes.” Due to “limited funds, Arizona schools must find a balance among the number of teachers hired, the number of students each teacher will have, and how much each teacher will be paid.”
Special Needs
Special Needs Students Produce Film About Bullying.
The AP (5/18, Slagter) reports that Since January, students in “Robbie Svegel’s special education class” in Michigan’s Reed City Area public school district have been working on a film about bullying. They brainstormed “ideas for characters and wrote the entire script themselves.” It tells the story of “a student who is being picked on at recess.” Although the subject matter is serious, “the film remains light-hearted and full of action. The moral of the story, Svegel said, is that good defeats evil. Two aliens appear to help spice up the plot.” Independent Film Director Jeni Decker-Lopez has been volunteering time to the project to make “sure that students write interesting dialogue, tell a compelling story, and operate all of the camera and media equipment.” Through the project, “students have learned how to properly frame shots, match sound to film and cooperate throughout the filming process.”
Safety & Security
Some Studies Show That Artificial Turf Use Unlikely To Pose Health Risks.
The AP (5/18) reports that “some health experts, activists and parents from Seattle to Chicago to Stamford, Mass.” are worried that “tiny bits of the ground-up rubber tires that are used as filler between the blades of artificial grass” may expose children “to chemicals if they inhale or swallow the rubber granules, known as crumb rubber. Some are calling for a moratorium until the issue is more fully studied.” Due to “potential health concerns,” Connecticut and California have conducted “their own studies on the health effects of turf. New York City health officials recently commissioned a study to evaluate air quality above synthetic turf and found it didn’t show appreciable effects from contaminants in the rubber.” Furthermore, “some studies in the U.S. and Europe have assessed potential exposure and health risks for people using turf and concluded that health effects are unlikely.”
School Finance
Per-Pupil Funding For Most Florida Public Schools Will Increase By $28.
Education Week (5/15, Robelen) reported, “Despite fears that school funding would be cut amid a continued fiscal squeeze, the $66.5 billion budget approved by Florida lawmakers this month for fiscal 2010 keeps overall K-12 spending at roughly the current level, with extra aid from the federal stimulus package playing a big role.” Under the budget, “the average per-pupil funding amount across school districts would rise by about $28, to $6,873.” Still, “some categories of funding did see reductions, including the nationally known Florida Virtual School. Its per-pupil allocation was reduced by about 10 percent.”
Also in the News
Education Secretary Hears School Reform Ideas From Detroit Public School Students.
The Washington Post (5/16, A2, Glod) reported that last week, US Education Secretary Arne Duncan heard tips from Detroit students “on how to fix America’s schools during the second stop of [his] 15-state tour to seek — and pitch — ideas for school reform.” The Cody High School Students “asked for more hands-on lessons. They want more career and technical classes to help prepare them for jobs. They want guidance counselors and teachers to push them.” Also during the 45-minute meeting, the high schoolers talked about “the successful debate and robotics programs, and lamented that the band program was canceled when money got tight.” Duncan is pushing for “new Mayor Dave Bing to take control of” Detroit Public Schools “in a massive overhaul.” Only 38 “percent of Detroit’s ninth-graders get a high school diploma within four years, according to one estimate.”
Maryland District Implements “Seven Keys To College Readiness” Campaign.
The Washington Post (5/18, De Vise) reports that educators in Montgomery County, MD, “are blitzing parents and students with information on what they call ‘Seven Keys to College Readiness.’” The brochures and a website dedicated to the initiative spell “out in detail the courses and tests that officials say point toward academic prosperity.” The information explains to parents “how their children should score on each test, and which courses they should take — and when — if they wish to earn a college degree.” Although some of the information is common knowledge, the “campaign also suggests that a child can be deemed college-bound from a first-grade reading score or a fifth-grade math course.” Meanwhile, “some parents say the campaign is costly and unnecessary.”
Incorporating Digital Capabilities Said To Aid Yearbook Sales.
The Dallas Morning News (5/18, Meyers) reports that “the traditional yearbook is no more.” Two of the nation’s “largest yearbook companies…Dallas’ Taylor Publishing Company and Minneapolis’ Jostens Yearbooks, won’t report exact figures but admit to a slight decline in sales.” According to Linda Drake, the Journalism Education Association’s yearbook adviser of the year, “this disconnect is most prevalent” in “poor towns and inner cities where school affinity wanes and some families can’t afford $60 mementos.” A lack of attachment students feel toward their high school “is the yearbook’s greatest challenge,” said James Anderson, a North Texas representative for Taylor Publishing Company. Anderson points out that “successful sales come from” incorporating “newer digital capabilities, like DVD enhancements and links that allow students to create their own page.” At McKinney High School, for instance, “students can add quotes and pictures to the yearbook via the yearbook’s Facebook page, which can be included in print.”
NEA in the News
Washington State Aims To Overhaul Education System, Cut Back On Funding.
Education Week (5/15, Ash) reported, “Lawmakers in Washington state recently passed a bill designed to overhaul the public education system by 2018 and redefine ‘basic education’ for the first time in the state since 1979.” Meanwhile, they also “voted to cut close to $1 billion in education funding for fiscal 2009.” Beginning in 2011, the state plans to “increase the number of high school credits needed to graduate from 19 to 24; provide all-day kindergarten for all children; extend the school year by 80 hours for grades 7-12; increase the number of teacher professional-development days;” and “establish a new data system to track student and teacher performance,” among other things. Although it “received widespread support from” most in “the education community,” HB 2261 “was opposed by the…82,000-member Washington Education Association (WEA).” WEA President Mary K. Lindquist said, “[Legislators] passed this bill with some broad general direction about how to overhaul K-12 education…and they came up with absolutely no funding.”
Restraints For Students With Disabilities Sometimes Lead To Harm, Death, GAO Says.
USA Today (5/19, Toppo) reports that according to a report being released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), “children with disabilities are being secluded from classmates and restrained against their will to control their behavior…interventions that have led to harm and, in rare cases, deaths.” Although the report does not attach “a hard number to how many children are subjected to the practices…investigators say they found ‘hundreds of allegations’ of abuse involving restraint or seclusion at schools from 1990 to 2009; in Texas and California.” The GAO points out that “there’s no federal system to regulate such practices in schools — and teachers are often inadequately trained.”
“The GAO report was prepared for the House Education and Labor Committee, which is considering new laws governing what actions teachers can take to rein in disruptive special-needs students,” CNN (5/19, Boudreau, Turnham) adds. Currently, “only five states keep track of incidents where special-needs students are separated or restrained.” Although experts recommend “that children should only be isolated when they posed an immediate threat to themselves or others,” CNN was told by some parents “that when they got into a dispute with the teacher, their child was made to suffer as retribution.” USA Today (5/19, Toppo) also covers this story in a separate article.
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In the Classroom
Report Shows Disparity Among States In Student Performance In Biosciences.
The AP (5/19, Majors) reports, “Middle and high school students across the country are generally falling behind in life sciences, and the nation is at risk of producing a dearth of qualified workers for the fast-growing bioscience industry, according to a report released Monday” by Battelle, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Biotechnology Institute. The report indicates that “high schools are doing a poor job of preparing students for college-level science,” and there is “a wide disparity among the states in student performance in biosciences and science.” For the study, “researchers evaluated student performance using four…measuring tools,” including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test and “average math scores on the SAT and ACT.” The report suggests that “to improve U.S. competitiveness in the biosciences industry…states incorporate biotechnology into their science standards.”
International Student Comparisons Said To Be Misleading. The AP (5/19, Quaid) reports, “While they’re not in first place, U.S. students generally hold their own on international tests.” Furthermore, “they spend more time in school than the Obama administration would have you believe. And their college graduation rates stack up better than reported.” According to the AP, “international comparisons…tend to be misleading and at worst are deeply flawed.” The tests do not take into account the fact that “the United States has a much bigger and faster-growing population than the other countries that participate in global assessments” or that “unlike many global competitors, the U.S. is growing ever more diverse, with a large share of children who are learning English.” The AP compares several “recent statements” from the Obama Administration “about the standing of the U.S. educational system” with “the facts.”
Lunar Electric Rover Visits Texas School For Earth Day.
KTRK-TV Houston (5/18) reported that on Monday, “students at Robinson Elementary School in Seabrook celebrated Space Day with a visit from the Lunar Electric Rover (LER).” The rover “was led by police escort from Johnson Space Center to the elementary school.” After it arrived at the school, students watched “the Lunar Rover in action” and “got to look inside the vehicle and ask a few questions. NASA aerospace engineers were on hand to speak to the students about the technology used for the rover and to answer questions about the space program.”
On the Job
Teachers In Colorado District Stage “Sick Out” Amid Contract Negotiations.
The Denver Post (5/19) reports that the administrators of six schools in Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District had to “scramble to find substitute teachers [Monday] after 342 teachers called in sick.” Because “they were unable to find substitutes for 118 of the vacancies,” administrators “combined some classes and used…administrators with classroom experience to fill the void.” According to the Denver Post, “The ‘sickout’ came amid contract negotiations between the teachers and the” school system.
Education Experts Urged To Find Common Ground On Teacher Recruitment.
In an opinion piece for Education Week (5/18) Barnett Berry, “the founder and president of the Center for Teaching Quality,” wrote, “Over the past two decades, researchers of all ideological stripes and methodological perspectives have converged around a view that teachers are the key to whether or not students achieve.” Meanwhile, they disagree “on how best to recruit and reward teachers, how much preparation talented candidates need, how to use test-score data in assessing teachers, or how long we should expect to retain recruits in teaching careers.” One side sees “teachers as the problem,” while the other side sees “them as the solution.” Barnett, however, pointed out that neither side “seems to have all the answers.” Therefore, he suggests that they try to find some common ground, and offers several points on which the two sides may agree. Barnett concludes that “researchers and policy wonks need to end the bickering and listen carefully to…young professionals eager to make change.”
Indiana To Reward Schools That Achieve Largest Graduation Rate Gains.
The AP (5/19, Callahan) reports, Indiana “high schools that achieve the biggest graduation rate increases between now and next spring could receive up to $20,000.” The incentive aims to encourage “public high schools to find the most innovative ways to graduate more students by encouraging would-be dropouts to stick with their studies and get their diplomas.” It would reward “10 high schools with at least 300 students…$20,000 each. Two other schools with enrollments under 300 will receive $10,000 each.” Five thousand dollars would go to the school’s principal “for his or her personal use. The remainder will be split up among those teachers, counselors or others determined to have played the biggest role in boosting graduations.” The AP notes that “The $220,000 for the program is coming from savings the state Department of Education has realized through cost controls and efficiency efforts” implemented by state Superintendent Tony Bennett.
Law & Policy
Illinois Joins Movement For Common Learning Guidelines Among States.
The Chicago Tribune (5/19, Malone) reports, “Illinois has joined a growing list of states that favor common learning guidelines for math and English, a movement that could lead to national testing.” State “officials hope to move quickly and have set December as a target for mapping out grade-by-grade standards from kindergarten through senior year.” The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association, who organized the initiative, “plan to start by deciding what skills every high school graduate needs to succeed in college or the workplace and then backtrack to create ‘fewer, clearer, and higher’ expectations for what’s taught in each grade level, high school through elementary school.” Still, “the details of what a common test might involve remain unclear.”
Texas House Approves Bills To Make Information In Teachers’ Records Private.
The Dallas Morning News (5/18, McNeill) reported that on Friday, Texas House members “quickly approved” bills by Rep. Diane Patrick (R) and Sen. Royce West (D) that “would make moot a 2008 Texas attorney general’s opinion and an Austin district court’s January decision that some information on school-district employees is public.” The Dallas Morning News pointed out that “much of the language in the bills was drafted by the…state’s largest teachers’ union, which sued to overturn the attorney general’s opinion.” Those who support the bills “say school employees face unfair scrutiny and embarrassment if criminal information is public.”
Call For Innovation In Schools May Lead To Another Era Of Fads, Expert Says.
Education Week (5/18, Gewertz) reported, “School leaders are under increasing pressure to ‘innovate.’” The Obama administration’s “call for innovation to improve the nation’s schools strikes a chord with many in policy circles.” However, “some experts are pointing out that significant barriers inhibit real innovation in education. And others question whether ‘innovation’ is really what schools need.” Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, “the director of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy,” pointed out in his paper Innovation, Motherhood, and Apple Pie, that “there are effective and ineffective innovations.” He cautioned, “Unless effectiveness is thought of as a central dimension of innovation, the current innovation zeitgeist will subject the nation to yet another era of fad and fancy in education, rather than continuous improvement.” Whitehurst also “expressed concern…that new federal innovation grants will be biased toward those who propose innovations in ‘product’” instead of through “‘process’ innovations that improve education’s efficiency, functionality, productivity, or customer satisfaction.”
Schwarzenegger Proposes Digitizing High School Textbooks.
Education Week (5/18) reported, “California will offer free, open-source digital textbooks in mathematics and science for high school students, under a plan unveiled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [R].” The governor said that digitizing textbooks “and other resources” would “relieve costs and encourage collaboration between school districts. He wants to have a set of approved digital math and science textbooks ready for the coming fall of 2009.”
Alabama BOE Approves Changes To Teacher Evaluation Process.
Education Week (5/18) reported, “Members of the Alabama board of education have voted to make the process of evaluating the state’s teachers more streamlined.” School administrators will have more time “to spend talking with their teachers instead of doing paperwork and tedious observations.” Under the previous system, administrators had to “record verbatim what teachers said and did” during observations.
Safety & Security
Experts Weigh In On Stopping Spread Of Swine Flu At Schools.
On its front page, the New York Times (5/19, A1, McNeil) reports, “As schools shut down because of the flu…health officials are asking a question for which there is little guidance, even in pandemic plans: what is the best way to stop an epidemic that spreads mostly in schools rather than in nursing homes?” Infection control experts say that “disinfecting closed schools is pointless. Flu viruses are believed to live on objects for perhaps two to eight hours, so a week’s closing will kill them.” However, if a few sick children “return…every cafeteria table, desk, lab beaker, doorknob, bathroom tap and basketball will soon be recontaminated.” According to Dr. Yoko Furuya, an infection control specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital, “keeping sick students out of school is the most crucial step.”
School Finance
Elementary Schools In Florida District May “Add Back” One Teaching Position.
The Florida Times-Union (5/19, Cravey) reports, “Because of improved education funding levels, Clay County elementary schools may get back one of the three 2009-10 teaching positions each of them lost to budget cuts.” If approved by the School board on Thursday, “one basic education position” would be restored “at each elementary school, according to Deputy Superintendent Denise Adams.” The Times-Union explains that “earlier this year,” Clay county “Elementary schools each lost three teaching positions — two basic education teachers and a media specialist or resource teacher who taught music, art or technology” — due to the school system’s “projected $43 million shortfall for 2009-10.” The “add backs” would be made possible through “an infusion of federal stimulus money to Florida, as well as budget tweaking by the Legislature,” which “recently improved the district’s financial picture, reducing the likely shortfall to about $25 million.”
Also in the News
Researchers Studying How Arts Training Affects Students’ Thinking Ability.
The Baltimore Sun (5/18, Bowie) reported that “a growing body of brain research suggests that teaching the arts may be good for students across all disciplines.” Over “the past several years,” brain research has begun “to uncover some startling ideas about how students learn. … Now neuroscientists are investigating how training students in the arts may change the structure of their brains and the way they think.” And while “there aren’t many conclusions yet that can be translated into the classroom…there is an emerging interdisciplinary field between education and neuroscience.” For instance, one study “has shown that children who receive a small amount of training — as little as half an hour of lessons a week and 10 minutes of practice a day — do have structural changes in their brains that can be measured.” Those students have also shown to perform “better [on] tests that required them to use their fingers with dexterity.”
NEA in the News
California Teachers Association, NEA Contribute $12.2 Million To Support Ballot Measures.
The AP (5/18) reported, “The battle over six budget-related measures on Tuesday’s special election ballot has generated more than $31.5 million in campaign spending, split the state’s labor community and created strange bedfellows on both sides.” Over $27.6 million has been raised in support of Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F from “business allies” of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and organizations such as the California Teachers Association. Specifically, “The California Teachers Association [CTA] and its national affiliate, the National Education Association, have spent $12.2 million, mostly in support of propositions 1A and 1B. But the CTA also has given nearly $2 million to a campaign committee backing all six measures.” Meanwhile, opponents of the measures, “a collection of unions, anti-tax groups and supporters of children’s and mental health programs, have raised $3.8 million.”