Study Finds Most Tenured Teachers In Some Districts Receive Favorable Evaluations.
Education Week (6/2, Sawchuk) reports, “In many school districts, nearly all tenured teachers…are deemed above average, concludes a study released today” by the New York City-based New Teacher Project. “The report analyzes the results of a survey of more than 15,000 teachers and 1,300 administrators across four states and 12 districts” and concluded that “more than nine in 10 tenured teachers in those districts met local standards in recent evaluation cycles.” New Teacher Project president Timothy Daly said that even though “survey results don’t make up a representative national sampling of districts,” they do have implications in “other policy areas. … Because distinctions in effectiveness aren’t formally documented, districts are missing out on opportunities to link the evaluation systems to professional-development tools, to decisions for granting tenure to novices, and to bonuses or career-ladder initiatives.”

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In the Classroom
New York City Students Improve Math Scores.
On its front page, the New York Times (6/2, A1, Hernandez) reports, “New York City’s public school students showed large gains on state math tests this year, particularly in the middle school grades, and black and Hispanic students continued to edge closer to their white counterparts,” according to “the city and state education departments.” Eighty-two percent of New York City “students in Grades 3 through 8 passed the test, compared with 74 percent last year.” Meanwhile, the achievement gap between black and white students narrowed to “17 percentage points this year, on average, compared with 31 points in 2006.” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “trumpeted the results as evidence that mayoral control had produced revolutionary improvements and brought city students within spitting distance of state averages after years of mediocrity.”

Elementary Students Receive Lesson In Baking, Charity.
The Springfield (OH) News Sun (6/2, Sanctis) reports, “Just a few days after they learned to bake their first loaf of bread, several Mechanicsburg Elementary School students also spent Monday, June 1, learning about community service.” At an assembly last Friday, “a representative from the King Arthur Flour Co. spent about two hours…teaching the students the basics of baking. At the end of the assembly…students were sent home with enough ingredients to bake two loaves of bread.” They were “asked to keep one loaf, and the others would be donated to the apartment complex, as well as the Caring Kitchen in Urbana.” Over 50 loaves of bread were delivered on Monday.

On the Job
Pinellas County, Florida, School Board Chair Suggests Extended Workday For Teachers.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/2) reports, “Pinellas [FL] School Board chairwoman Peggy O’Shea said Monday she will float an alternative at today’s board workshop to the controversial plan to release students early every Wednesday starting in the fall.” Last week, the school board approved a teacher contract that included an “early release” day clause that “has prompted a flurry of e-mails from parents…worried about having to arrange for additional after-school care.” O’Shea will suggest that instead of “shortening the students’ day to give teachers planning time…teachers stay an hour longer on Wednesdays.” She explained that “since they must be at school longer than students, teachers could leave 15 minutes early the other four days of the week without affecting children.” The teachers’ union president “she would be willing to take O’Shea’s proposal back to union reps, but indicated that no changes are likely at this point for the coming school year.”

Law & Policy
Duncan Wants To Close, Reconstitute 250 Schools Next Year.
The New York Times (6/2, A15, Dillon) reports, “As chief executive of the Chicago public schools, Arne Duncan closed more than a dozen of the city’s worst schools, reopening them with new principals and teachers.” Now, those “who worked with him, and some who fought him, say those school turnarounds were worth the effort, but all aroused intense opposition.” As education secretary, Duncan now “wants to take school turnaround efforts nationwide on a scale never tried before.” He “wants to see 250 schools closed and reconstituted next year,” which “would mean dismissing thousands of teachers next spring, hiring replacements and opening newly reconstituted schools in fall 2010.” According to Duncan, closing and then reopening the schools would “reset the learning environment more dramatically than simply tweaking the curriculum and retraining the old staff.” The Times points out some challenges such schools might face such as “recruiting the high-quality educators” and “union contracts.”

South Carolina Governor Blocks State Participation In Common Core Standards Initiative.
USA Today (6/2, King) reports that while “46 states have agreed in principle to develop a set of rigorous criteria — Common Core State Standards Initiative — designed to prepare high school graduates for college and the workforce,” Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas have “yet to sign up.” WCBD-TV Charleston (6/1, Murray) reported that South Carolina “State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said that South Carolina hopes to participate ‘to whatever extent possible’ in [the] national effort” aimed at “common academic standards in mathematics and English language arts.” However, “the state cannot officially join the Common Core State Standards Initiative…because Gov. Mark Sanford (R) refused to co-sign South Carolina’s application with Rex.”

School Finance
South Carolina Supreme Court To Hear Federal Stimulus Cases.
The New York Times (6/2, A16, Dewan) reports, “Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who has refused to accept $700 million in federal stimulus money, was dealt a major blow on Monday when a federal judge said two lawsuits seeking to require him to take the money should be heard in state court.” Sanford acknowledged after the ruling “that he faced long odds in a state with…several previous court rulings that favor the legislature’s authority over the governor’s.” The governor has said that “his refusal to take the money has more to do with his desire to strengthen the state executive branch” than to “boost his national profile for a presidential run,” as some critics have said.

According to the AP (6/2, Davenport), “The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday in lawsuits filed by two students and the South Carolina Association of School Administrators that seek to force Sanford to take the cash.” School districts throughout the state stand to gain a total of $185 million from South Carolina’s share of the federal stimulus package. “Kershaw County Schools Superintendent Frank Morgan said” that news that the cases will be heard “brought an ‘overwhelming feeling of relief. This has been such a long, long, long process. … I think we’ve put a lot of good people through a lot of stress and anxiety that I’m not sure was necessary,’” Morgan added.

Nevada Lawmaker Commits To Helping Schools Qualify For Maximum Stimulus Funds.
The Las Vegas Sun (6/1, Richmond) reported that “during a visit to Centennial High School [last week], Rep. Dina Titus [D] said she’s committed to helping agencies in Nevada qualify for as many federal stimulus dollars as possible, particularly public schools.” Speaking mainly of the “$1 billion allocated for dropout prevention programs at Title I schools,” Titus said “that her staff will help them navigate the application process, rather than wait for larger grants to flow through the Nevada Education Department.”

Also in the News
Research Links Math Gender Gap To Gender Equality.
Jeannine Stein wrote in the Los Angeles Times’ (6/1) Booster Shots blog, “Math hasn’t always been thought of as a girl thing. For decades, boys in the U.S. were considered the brainiacs when it came to mathematics, with many believing that their gender predisposed them to better understanding it.” But a study by researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, “published in the June 2 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” concludes that “the gap is more a cultural issue than a gender-based one.” Researchers “sought to answer three questions: Do gender differences in math performance exist in the general population, do gender differences exist among the mathematically talented, and do females exist who possess profound mathematical talent?” They “found that the way women are treated overall in various cultures has an impact on their math performance. Countries with obvious gender inequality found a similar disparity in math skills, and vice versa.”

In Newsweek’s (6/1) The Human Condition blog, Sharon Begley added that according to Janet Mertz, professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (UW), and UW psychology professor Janet Hyde, “countries with as many or more girls at the upper extreme” in terms of math skill “tend to be those with the greatest gender equality, such as Germany and the Netherlands.” Meanwhile, Hyde pointed out in the paper, “On average, girls have reached parity with boys in the United States and some other countries, and the gender gap at the high end is closing.”

The Madison (WI) Capital Times (6/2) notes that “The report builds on a study led by Hyde that was published last July in the journal Science” which “examined SAT results and math scores from 7 million students who were tested in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act and showed girls measured up to boys in each grade, from second through 11th.”

Frequent Family Moves Said To Affect Quality Of Education.
The AP (6/2, Allen) reports that the current economic downturn is beginning to take its toll on children, who “children are grappling with more stress at home, and low-income families,” who “are being forced to pull up stakes and move more often.” These “frequent moves can lower school performance and increase chances that students will drop out of school.” Furthermore, they make it harder for schools “to provide appropriate resources to children who have learning disabilities and behavioral issues.” The AP notes that “despite all the bad news, many children said they’ve hardly noticed the recession. Others said it’s affecting their parents, but not them.” Meanwhile, educators caution parents “to be careful about discussing personal financial or job-related struggles with younger children.”

NEA in the News
Alaska To Monitor Nationwide Education Standards Effort.
The Anchorage (AK) Daily News (6/2, Holland) reports that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) “decision to opt out of an effort to write nationwide education standards in reading and math has some Alaska educators cheering and others dismayed.” Palin said on Sunday that Alaska will “‘monitor but not yet actively participate’ in the process of standardizing K-12 education.” Anchorage School District Superintendent Carol Comeau “said she was disappointed with the governor’s decision.” Meanwhile, “Barb Angaiak, president of the teacher’s union, the National Education Association-Alaska,” agreed with Palin’s decision, saying, “It’s a good idea to proceed with caution before we blindly sign on to something.” And “John Pile, executive director of the Alaska Association of Elementary School Principals,” says he “supports the governor’s choice,” but he also acknowledges that “national tests would help teachers with kids who move into Alaska from other states.”

Five Utah Schools Chosen For Pilot Merit Pay Program.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/3, Schencker) reports that education officials in Utah “have chosen” three elementary schools and two charter schools “to divvy up a state allocation of $300,000 a year for two years to create performance pay pilot programs for elementary school teachers and classroom-related staff.” Teachers at those schools will receive bonuses “based on quality of instruction, students’ academic progress, and parent, student, or community satisfaction.” Next year, the schools will “work with their faculties to develop plans and ways to measure success.” The Salt Lake Tribune points out that “despite opposition from the Utah Education Association (UEA),” the pilot program “was one of the only new education programs to gain approval in a session where lawmakers cut school funding by a net 5.2 percent.”

North Carolina District Considers Applying For Grant To Expand Merit Pay Program. The Raleigh News & Observer (6/3, Hui) reports that “Wake County [NC] school administrators warned today that offering merit pay to teachers at high-poverty schools could lead to fairness and equity issues.” Currently, only one school “offers merit pay.” But “the school board is considering whether to apply for a federal grant that would allow it to expand a pilot program to lure high-quality teachers to schools that have many low-income students.” Wake schools’ Chief Business Officer David Neter said that “if more schools offered merit pay…they’d have to answer questions from teachers who weren’t getting the additional money.” But “board member Lori Millberg argued that wasn’t a problem at all. She said the whole point is to encourage teachers to work at schools that have more challenges.”

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In the Classroom
Dropping Out Of School Seen As Result Of “Long Process Of Disengagement.”
The AP (6/2, Harpaz) reported that “One out of every four students fails to graduate from high school in four years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.” And, Lynne Strathman, director of the Lydia Urban Academy in Rockford, Ill, said “one thing that she consistently finds is that ‘the last time these students felt successful was the fourth grade.’” Furthermore, Stuart Udell, chairman of the National Dropout Prevention Center, noted, “Dropping out of school is often the result of a long process of disengagement.” According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Risk factors for dropping out include low academic achievement, mental health problems, truancy, poverty and teen pregnancy.”

Oregon District Makes Special Effort To Keep Students Engaged Through End Of School.
Oregon’s Statesman Journal (6/2, Ryan) reported on efforts in the Salem-Keizer school district to keep students coming at the end of the year with three make-up days added resulting in the last day of school being a Monday. Schools are said to be particularly worried about attendance on the final day “because schools can fail to meet adequate progress under the No Child Left Behind law if attendance is not high enough.” So “Sixth-grade teacher Jana Avison saved one of her most engaging projects, in which students create blogs about ancient cultures.” The schools have also delayed special events including overnight trips to the end of the year. “Teachers and principals said they plan on having students learning right up to the special field days or assemblies planned for the last day of school.”

Actor’s Civics Curriculum Focuses On Origins Of U.S.
The AP (6/3, Szkotak) reports on The Dreyfuss Initiative, a civics curriculum that “would use scholarly presentations in videos and the Oscar-winning actor” Richard Dreyfuss “as a storyteller, to engage, enlighten, and empower students of all ages in an entertaining way.” The curriculum was developed by Dreyfuss during his recent studies “at St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.” Dreyfuss is currently engaged in “a fundraising campaign to produce videos and the curriculum.” During “public appearances,” he addresses “the origins of our nation and…a citizenry that he believes has lost its way.” He “blames a lack of civil discourse, the din of television and any number of distractions for moving us away from understanding our origins as a nation,” and he is concerned “that future generations will view our freedoms as a fairy tale.” The AP also notes that with The Dreyfuss Initiative, the actor also seeks to be rewarded with a Nobel peace prize.

California District Increases Summer Enrichment Programs.
The Sacramento Bee (6/3, Gutierrez) reports that California’s “Twin Rivers Unified is one of the only school districts in” Sacramento County “adding enrichment programs to their summer lineup this year.” District “officials say the need for summertime programs – school or otherwise – in their area will increase this year because a local nonprofit had to cut a kids’ summer camp that served district students.” The programs are being made possible, in part, by “A $14,000 donation from district cabinet members and $5,000 from a nonprofit education foundation called Project DREAM.” Meanwhile, most other districts in the region “will offer only remedial classes.”

On the Job
Effectiveness Rarely A Factor in Teacher Retention Decisions, Study Says.
The Denver Post (6/3, Meyer) reports, “Excellent teaching goes unrecognized and poor teaching is ignored across the country and in Denver, according to a” study released on Monday by the New Teacher Project called The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness. Based on the examination of “12 school districts” nationwide, “including those in Denver and Pueblo,” the study concluded “that teacher effectiveness rarely factors into decisions, such as how teachers are hired, fired, or promoted.” It “recommends [that] districts adopt fair evaluation systems; train administrators to conduct the evaluations; tie evaluations to compensation and dismissal; and give poorly performing teachers a dignified way out.” The Denver Post lists several other findings in the report as they pertain to Denver Public Schools.

Potential Teachers Vie For Fewer Positions At South Carolina Job Fair.
The AP (6/2) reported that “hundreds of people packed into South Carolina’s annual teachers’ job fair Monday as laid-off teachers, recent college graduates, and others trying to relocate from across the nation competed for limited classroom openings.” The 2,000 pre-registration applications were “nearly double” the number from last year. Participants “were vying for a shrinking number of positions as districts struggling with budget cuts have laid off teachers and halted hiring.” Some “stood in lines for an hour or more,” only to find that “open positions were filled before they reached the booth.” Statewide, “as of last week, there were 300 teacher jobs listed,” but “fewer were available Monday, with just 40 percent of the state’s 85 school districts attending,” down from last year’s 75 percent of districts attending with 900 openings.

Survey Said To Show Baltimore County, Maryland, Teachers Are Happy In Schools.
The Baltimore Sun (6/2, Gencer) reported, “Results from a state survey indicate that a considerable majority of Baltimore County teachers are happy where they are, in what one school official described as a ‘ringing endorsement’ of the district.” The survey, which was conducted online, “had a more than 50 percent participation rate” among “certified school employees” in Baltimore County schools. “Nearly 90 percent” of respondents “said they want to stay in the county, and about 75 percent indicated that they think their respective schools are ‘a good place to work and learn.’” Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said the survey “reinforces the fact that people aren’t running away to another school district in droves.” Meanwhile, teachers’ union President Cheryl Bost insists that “the school district needs to work on retaining teachers, developing a long-term plan to hold onto the experienced ones — and to keep beginners beyond their first few years.”

Law & Policy
California Budget Expected To Include More Cuts To Education.
The Los Angeles Times (6/2, Mehta, Holland) reported, “As the state weighs cutting about $8.1 billion from public schools, colleges and universities, scores of educators, parents, students and others told lawmakers Monday that such reductions would jeopardize student success and safety in the short term and California’s prosperity in the long term.” The “$1.6 billion in spending” cuts are seen as a threat to small class sizes. Furthermore, in response to earlier proposals, school districts throughout “the state announced last week that they were eliminating or reducing summer school sessions to save money.” In a separate story, the Los Angeles Times (6/3, Rothfeld, Goldmacher) reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “told lawmakers” yesterday that “he would not agree to any budget deal that would take money from schools or healthcare without first eliminating the high-paying posts on the state Integrated Waste Management Board and other panels laden with former legislators.”

Most Districts Reduce Summer School. California’s Mercury News (6/3, Noguchi) reports, “From Los Altos to San Jose, school districts caught in the state’s budget vise have cut back severely on summer school.” For example, “the Franklin-McKinley School District in San Jose has pared back from 1,000 to 300 students this summer.” Other districts have limited enrollment “to only those students lagging furthest behind” or “trimmed summer school from five hours to three” or to students from a few key grades. The Mercury News explains that “while many people regard summer school as an extra, it actually serves an important part of the curriculum, especially as California and the federal government demand that schools and students meet rigorous standards.” And according to most educators, “keeping slower students on track throughout the year is essential.”

Facilities
Beach Towns In Pinellas County, Florida, Lose Schools.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/3) reports on schools closing in Pinellas County, FL, with a focus on Gulf Beaches, as “fewer families are moving into pricey beach homes, and more are moving out. … Gulf Beaches is one of eight Pinellas schools shutting their doors because of declining enrollment and tighter budgets.” But “Gulf Beaches didn’t go down quietly. Everyone from parents to grandparents to local politicians raised hell with the Pinellas County School Board when rumors arose last year.” Yet “the efforts failed. Mayor Mike Finnerty called the closing devastating, saying the beach town may never be the same.”

Also in the News
Parents Offer Teachers Creative Gifts Of Appreciation Amid Recession.
The Baltimore Sun (6/2, Burris) reported that the current end-of-the-year teacher “gift season comes amid a national recession and hard economic choices for Maryland families. … So creative giving is in.” Parents in the Baltimore area are “are giving lottery tickets; others, at a teacher’s request, have donated money to underwrite an arts performance or brighten up the set of the school play.” In Carroll County, Hampstead Elementary School PTA members “will give individual and group gifts” after having provided “gift cards, ice cream sundaes, and lunch during Teacher Appreciation Week.” Meanwhile, “Heather Boos of Pikesville, who has two children at Fort Garrison Elementary, said the school’s PTA has been mindful of choosing creativity over cost. By getting students involved and allowing parents to offer services instead of money, gifts have included everything from massages to gourmet omelets (one parent is a chef) to paper quilts made by students.”

NEA in the News

SNEA Sues Springfield, Missouri, Public Schools.
Missouri’s News-Leader (6/2, Livengood) reported that “the Springfield National Education Association (SNEA) teachers union sued Springfield Public Schools” on Tuesday, “seeking exclusive representation rights for the district’s 1,747 teachers.” The suit “seeks a vote of the teachers to decide whether they all want to be represented by NEA or the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA).” The SNEA currently represents about 1,000 of the teachers, while the MSTA represents “the rest.” The Springfield school board decided last week to “let teachers” vote on “whether they want single representation. If teachers approved that question, then a vote would be held to decide” between the two unions.” But “in its lawsuit, SNEA seeks to bypass the first election in favor of an up or down vote for the competing groups or no representation at all.”

US Education Department Investigates Special Education Programs In Florida.
WPBF-TV Palm Beach (6/3) reported that “nearly every school district in Florida…has recently come under the microscope of the U.S. Department of Education” regarding “how students with disabilities are taught and disciplined.” Officials from “the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights” are looking into “whether or not the rights of children with disabilities are [being] upheld” at 64 of Florida’s 67 school districts.

WPTV-TV West Palm Beach (6/3) added that the investigation has come as the result of a lawsuit filed by a Florida advocacy group which alleges that “dozens of districts don’t make the grade.” According to WPTV, “the investigation is the largest of its kind and is only the beginning of what parents hope will be a major overhaul of the state’s special needs education.” Some parents of children with special needs say “one of the major problems is that there is not a uniform policy for all districts to follow.”

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In the Classroom
Schools Use Pen Pal Program, Fishing Trip To Help English Learners.
The Washington Post (6/4, Pearson) reports that nearly 35 English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students from Montgomery County, MD’s, “Bethesda and Chevy Chase elementary schools met at Rockville’s Lake Needwood last Thursday to” fish and learn “about one another’s backgrounds.” The fishing field trip “is a culmination of a school year’s worth of pen pal letter-writing among students from each of the schools, an exercise designed to improve each child’s English skills.” Debbie Birgfeld, an ESOL teacher at Bethesda Elementary School, said that “most of the students have little to no fishing experience.” However, “the field trip is as much about interacting with one another and learning English as it is about catching something.” With ESOL students representing 19 percent of Montgomery County’s student population, the program aims to “teach students how to function linguistically and culturally within schools and U.S. society.”

Arizona Elementary School To Offer Both Traditional, Classical Curriculums.
The Arizona Republic (6/4, Fehr-Snyder) reports that Patterson Elementary School in Gilbert, AZ, will offer a “back-to-basics curriculum” in addition to its classical curriculum next school year, which begins July 27. “The decision to add a second curriculum track upsets some parents who don’t like the non-classical curriculum” because, they say, “the homework demands are unrealistic for young children and that the atmosphere is too rigid and fosters rote memorization, not independent thinking.” District officials, meanwhile, argue “that the dual-track offers parents the best of both worlds. Students who chose the traditional track won’t wear uniforms like children at the district’s four other traditional elementary schools,” but they will “receive direct teacher instruction, work independently rather than collaboratively and follow more regimented learning methods of Spalding, a phonics-based reading program, and the Saxon math model.”

Virginia Elementary School To Use Onsite Greenhouse, Pond Habitat In Curriculum.
WDBJ-TV Roanoke (6/3) reported that Fishburn Park Elementary School in Roanoke, VA, “has about ten acres of land to develop, and in doing so teachers hope to develop young minds.” Beginning “next school year, Fishburn will be dubbed as an environmentally focused school, meaning students won’t just be reading about science, they’ll be helping to create it.” The campus contains a greenhouse, a “pond habitat,” and “different butterfly and bird habitats.” School administrators hope that Fishburn’s environmentally friendly status will help attract more students. Currently, they are recruiting “students who don’t live in the area, though they’ll have to apply to get in.”

Volunteers Teach Elementary Students How To Cook.
The Miami Herald (6/4, Kanner) reports that for ten weeks, “chef Michelle Bernstein and a group of volunteers” taught “16 youngsters from North Miami’s William Jennings Bryan Elementary School how to cook” through “a national nonprofit program” called Common Threads. The goal of the program is to teach “the importance of nutrition and physical well-being” and foster “an appreciation of cultural diversity through cooking.” On the first day of the program, “the students, ages 9 to 13,” prepared “grilled flank steak and sautéed corn.” In addition, they “learned about everything from table manners to tahini, all by making — and eating — food from a different country each week.” The program was made possible by monetary and supply donations from the Children’s Trust, Johnson & Wales University, William Jennings Bryan Elementary School, and individuals.

Gifted Program Offers Residential College Education To Students After Middle School.
Education Week (6/4, Cavanagh) reports on the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG) at Mary Baldwin College, which is “one of several around the country that cater to students with superior talents and achievement who are seeking a different, and more academically challenging environment than they would likely encounter even at a specialized academy or magnet program.” Such programs “allow students to work alongside peers with similar gifts and, supporters say, nurture their talents in ways that generally aren’t available in traditional American schools.” At PEG students enroll “at age 13 or 14″ and graduate “with other Mary Baldwin undergraduates four years later.” The students are housed in a separate dorm and “follow a fairly strict schedule, which eases a bit as they get older.” The school recruits students identified through the Duke University Talent Identification Program as having standardized test scores similar to those of normal college freshman age on ACT or SAT exams.

On the Job
Dallas School Officials Will Not Fire Teachers Based On Classroom Effective Index Scores.
The Dallas Morning News (6/4, Hacker) reports, “Teachers cannot lose their jobs solely because of low scores calculated by a controversial ratings system, officials from the Dallas Independent School District have decided.” After DISD officials “told more than 200 teachers” in April “that they had to improve their scores by next year or look for a new job,” NEA Dallas “protested the…decision to measure teacher performance with the Classroom Effective Index (CEI).” According to critics, “teachers do not understand how the CEIs are calculated and they haven’t been told how to improve them.” Furthermore, “the CEIs are based on student test scores from 2007-08, not the school year that just ended.” DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said that “the district is reviewing how CEIs are used to evaluate teachers.”

Stimulus Dollars Allow District To Rescind Teacher Layoffs.
California’s Contra Costa Times (6/4, Lockett) reports, “On the heels of learning money had been raised to save its newest elementary school, Knightsen School District has rescinded all teacher layoff notices passed out earlier this year, and brought back the music program part time.” Superintendent Vickey Rinehart said that “a combination of federal stimulus money along with the laying off of part-time classroom aides and reducing hours of some other business and custodial employees,” has allowed the district to rescind the layoffs. And “counselor hours that were cut were also recovered, and the school board also voted to bring back the music teacher part time.”

Special Needs
Special Education Student In Wisconsin Leads High School’s Car Show Committee.
Wisconsin’s Journal Times (6/4, Fiori) reports on Chris Roberts, a “16-year-old Walden III High School special education student who has difficulty with organization and memory.” Roberts is the chairperson this year for “the school’s annual car show” Walden Wheels. In that position, he is responsible for keeping “the committee on track…telling them what needs to be done and” leading meetings. Julie Fornary, “special education teacher and car show advisor,” said that “while most special education students tend to steer clear of areas they struggle with, Chris is drawn to them and that seems to be helping him improve his skills.” Prior to heading the car show committee, Roberts would “forget math formulas and couldn’t remember what teachers said to take notes in class.” Fornary noted, “Three years ago he couldn’t keep track of his books. Now he’s running one of the longest-running events at our school. He’s proven labels mean nothing.”

School Finance
Michigan Eligible For $1 Billion In Education Stimulus Funding.
The Detroit Free Press (6/4, Spangler) reports that “Michigan can collect more than $1 billion in federal funding to help save teachers’ jobs and turn around schools, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced today.” In the fall, “Michigan will be eligible for another $525 million” from the $787-billion federal stimulus bill’s State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. “The state…has already received $421 million” from the fund, “much of it committed to help school districts improve education for disabled and low-income students.” To receive the aid, states must agree to “report on teacher performance, student improvement, college readiness, and the success of turning around underperforming schools.”

Also in the News
Overexposure To Technology Seen As Distorting Kids’ Perception Of “The World.”
USA Today (6/4, Thompson) reports that Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein says in his book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30), that because “Generation Y, ages 16-29, has been shaped by exposure to computer technology since elementary school,” they may have “a distorted understanding of how the world works.” Even as kids write “more than ever online or in text messages,” they are not developing “the kind of narrative skill needed as adults. … ‘Those forms groove bad habits, so when it comes time to produce an academic paper…or when they enter the workplace, their capacity breaks down,’” Bauerlein says. He suggests that parents “do more to pull their teens away from technology, including being role models in developing intellectual pursuits.”

Wisconsin District Considers Eliminating Class Rank.
The Wisconsin State Journal (6/4, Kittner) reports, “The fight to be head of the class could be replaced with a less competitive, but some say more fair, system as the Waunakee School District — like others in Dane County — considers doing away with class rank.” Those who oppose “the ranking system say it forces unneeded competition and stress on students, while encouraging others to take less-challenging classes for the easy A.” Waunakee “has studied the issue for much of the school year — surveying high school students, teachers and some parents.” Waunakee High School principal Brian Kersten said that if the elimination of class rank is approved by the school board on Monday, rankings could be replaced “with another form of recognition” such as “a ‘laude’ system” in under which high performing “students [could] earn the distinction of summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude.”

Firm Ships Laboratory Experiments Complete In Box.
The Denver Post (6/4, Plaven) reports Hands-On Labs Inc. of Englewood, CO, “is helping to bridge the gap between home-based education and laboratory experience.” The firm “through a product line called LabPaqs, has adapted laboratory experiments to a smaller scale that fits in a cardboard box and can be mailed to students.” LabPaqs was created by Peter and Linda Jeschofnig who said that the firm offers “more than 80 course-specific LabPaqs…in subjects that include chemistry, anatomy and geology,” and “20,000 LabPaqs will be shipped this year.”

NEA in the News
Indiana State Teachers Association Seeks To End Long-Term Disability Insurance Program.
The AP (6/4, Martin) reports that the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), “Indiana’s largest teachers union wants to stop offering school districts its own health and long-term disability insurance in July after the state found that questionable investments landed its insurance trust in financial trouble.” The ISTA’s “Insurance Trust has a net worth of negative $67 million, according to a state Department of Insurance order issued earlier this month.” Insurance Commissioner Jim Atterholt said that a consultant hired by the department “found so many red flags that it contacted state and federal regulatory agencies to investigate.” For instance “some trust investments had ‘disturbingly low liquidity’ and…too much was put in private investments that are not publicly traded.” Currently, “ISTA is working with [a] company it hopes will take over its long-term disability insurance, which is used by about a third of the state’s nearly 300 school districts.”

By ending its “troubled long-term disability program next month,” the Indiana State Teachers Union could leave “about one-third of the state’s school districts on the hook to pay benefits to 650 former school employees,” The Indianapolis Star (6/4, Ruthhart) adds. However, “it is unclear whether districts would have to pay those disability claims.”

Some School Districts Declare Financial Emergencies.
The AP (6/4, Armario) reports on school districts that have declared financial emergencies and their efforts to respond by cutting budgets, pay and staff. Yet “the designations are rare, even in a poor economy, said Mike Griffith, senior finance analyst with the Education Commission of the States in Denver.” Griffith attributes such emergencies to failures by the finance staff or political leadership not “paying attention” or “making the cuts they should have.” The districts affected are said to number “as many as two dozen of the more than 15,000 districts nationwide.” Meanwhile, “the National Education Association…said it’s concerned about districts targeting teacher salaries to balance their books.”

Public Military School Network Expanding Nationwide.
The AP (6/5) reports that “the US Marine Corps is wooing public school districts across the country, expanding a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it’s a recruiting ploy.” Now, “more than a dozen public military academies” are open nationwide.” And, according to “Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines,” six other districts are considering “opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes.” The efforts are encouraged by “a defense policy bill” passed by Congress last year “that included a call for increasing the number of Junior ROTC units across the country from 3,400 to 3,700 in the next 11 years.” McHenry noted that “the process will go faster by opening military academies, which count as four or more units.” Meanwhile, critics argue that “the schools are breeding grounds for the military.”

In the Classroom
Elementary Students Learn History, Math Concepts By Geocaching.
Virginia’s News & Advance (6/5, Desrets) reports that on Thursday, “Forest Elementary School fifth-grade students” participated “in what could be equated to an electronic scavenger hunt.” Debbie Newman is “one of 11 Instructional Technology Resource Teachers in the county who arranged the project,” which required students to use “satellite coordinates to find a container that someone else has hidden.” The container is “called a geocache.” According to the News & Advance, “More than 810,000 caches are active around the world.” The project falls in line with the Virginia Standards of Learning that focus on “latitude and longitude in…history class, and” on “using coordinate grids in math.” Furthermore Bedford County “elementary schools have used geocaching as a way to link their classes with a lesson in technology” throughout the school year.

Utah Districts Report Adaptive Testing Pilot Is Successful.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/5, Schencker) reports on a pilot testing program offered in the Sevier and Juab school districts in which “the districts dropped the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Utah Basic Skills Competency Test and instead gave computerized, adaptive tests to students several times a year and college preparation tests to students in some grades.” The initial results reported are that “students are learning more, teachers are providing better instruction and parents have a deeper understanding of their children’s academic progress.” Principals in the districts are cited having “told State Board of Education members on Thursday that the tests…allow teachers to adjust instruction based on each student’s skills,” and “teachers also use the results to show parents graphs that chart their children’s progress compared with students in other districts and nationwide.” Though, “the federal government…denied Utah’s request last year to use adaptive tests to fulfill the requirements of No Child Left Behind,” some “state leaders say they’re optimistic about the future of adaptive testing in Utah.”

Law & Policy
South Carolina Supreme Court Orders Governor To Request Federal Stimulus Funds.
The AP (6/5, Davenport) reports, “South Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered Gov. Mark Sanford (R) on Thursday to request $700 million in federal stimulus money aimed primarily at struggling schools, ending months of wrangling with legislators who accused him of playing politics with people’s lives.” Without the money, educators “had predicted hundreds of teachers would lose jobs.” Sanford had “objected to the stimulus money on several levels that were consistent with his small government, anti-spending stances.” But after the ruling, the governor said that “he [would] not appeal the Supreme Court ruling and plans to sign paperwork to request the money Monday.”

Special Needs
Study Finds Many Retained Elementary Students Do Not Receive Special Education Plans.
Health Day (6/4) reported that “many elementary school students who are held back don’t receive a plan for special education services, according to a” report “published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.” For the study, Dr. Michael Silverstein, of Boston Medical Center, and colleagues, “looked at 380 kindergarten, grade 1 and grade 3 students who had to repeat a grade.” They found that “among the 300 kindergarten and grade 1 students, only 12.9 percent had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) on record during the year they were held back and 18.2 percent received an IEP in the next one to five years.” Furthermore, 18.9 percent of third-graders “had an IEP during or before the year they were held back, 8.8 percent received one within the next one to two years, and 72.3 percent never received an IEP, the study found.”

Student “Turnaround” Attributed To Wisconsin District’s Special Education Restructuring.
The Beloit (WI) Daily News (6/5, Rhodebeck) reports that according to educators in the School District of Beloit, “restructuring the special education program and providing more learning alternatives…has contributed to the recent turnaround among students with special needs.” The Hendricks Charter School, for example, “offers character education classes and job skills training that address struggles…special ed students often face.” Another example is Beloit Memorial High School, which “is moving away from teaching students” in classes “that move at a slower pace and have fewer students. Instead, the school next year will offer co-teaching in its required math courses and most of its English classes. The concept pairs a special ed teacher with non-special ed teacher.” Furthermore, staff relocations throughout the district have allowed “the special ed department increased teachers in the elementary and high schools. The department has 127 employees, including coordinators and speech therapists.”

Safety & Security
Florida Schools Urged To Review Supervision Policies To Prevent Crimes.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/5) asks in an editorial regarding allegations that “four Tampa teenagers…repeatedly raped a 13-year-old schoolmate on campus grounds … Where were the adults at Walker Middle School?” At a hearing on Wednesday, “prosecutors said…the victim endured months of abuse and intimidation — all apparently in silence.” Hillsborough County School District is said to have “anti-bullying policies in place,” but “those policies are not good enough,” the St. Petersburg Times stresses. “Staff should reasonably monitor every facility on campuses that holds large groups of students,” because “common sense says locker rooms and the like are easy places for students to gang up on others.” It concludes that the allegations “should be a warning to Hillsborough and other school districts to review their supervision policies and make sure their campuses are well-monitored.”

Results Of EPA Study Of Safety Of Synthetic Fields Expected “Within Weeks.”
USA Today /AP (6/5, Beamish) reports that “for years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has endorsed the use of ground-up tires to cushion the surfaces of children’s playgrounds and sports fields — a decision now being reconsidered because of concerns among the agency’s own scientists about possible health threats.” Currently, “the EPA is conducting” a study “of air and surface samples at four fields and playgrounds that use recycled tires.” Internal documents show that “doubts were raised by research suggesting potential hazards from repeated exposure to bits of shredded tire that can contain carcinogens and other chemicals.” USA Today points out that last year, a study by “the Consumer Product Safety Commission concluded…that synthetic fields pose no lead hazard for kids.” EPA study results “are expected within weeks.”

School Finance
Police Investigate Pennsylvania District’s Missing Construction Funds.
Pennsylvania’s Tribune-Review (6/5, Lowe, Hasch) reports that “Baldwin-Whitehall school officials have asked police to find out what happened to money that is missing from the district’s construction fund.” On Thursday, Superintendent Lawrence Kolchak said that he did not “know how much money is missing from the fund that was used to pay for the recently completed $64 million high school renovation project, which came in about $1 million under budget.” Whitehall police were called to investigate after questions were raised “about a check drawn from the construction fund.” The Tribune-Review adds that on Wednesday, “the school board…unanimously agreed to terminate the contract of business manager Jennifer Pesanka.” Pesanka called the termination “a personnel matter,” and said that he could not discuss it.

Also in the News
Teachers To Earn $125,000 Annually At New York City’s Equity Project.
On its front page, the New York Times (6/5, A1, Gootman) reports on the Equity Project, “an innovative charter school that will open in Washington Heights in September.” The school “is premised on the theory that excellent teachers — and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size — are the critical ingredient for success.” It “will open with 120 fifth graders chosen this spring in a lottery that gave preference to children from the neighborhood and to low academic performers.” The Equity Project’s eight teachers will earn a $125,000 annual salary, “nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, and about two and a half times as much as the national average for teacher salaries.” In addition to their teaching responsibilities, teachers will also “hold responsibilities usually shouldered by other staff members, like assistant principals.” They will also have “about 6 [students] more than the typical New York City fifth-grade class.”

Teachers At Boys School In New York City Accuse Principal Of Mandating Grade Inflation.
The New York Daily News (6/4, Kolodner) reported, “Educators at the celebrated Eagle Academy for Young Men in the Bronx have accused the principal of ordering them to inflate grades of special-needs students.” Some of the students, teachers say, “did not even attend class” or submit work. In response to the allegations, Eagle Academy Principal Osei Owusu-Afriye, “who is in his first year on the job, accused the teachers of being ‘disgruntled.’” While “he didn’t dispute that some grades were changed,” Owusu-Afriye “said the students in question had not received instruction that fit their individual education plans.” The Daily News notes that the teachers’ claims were “referred…to the Special Commissioner of Investigation Wednesday.”

Massachusetts District Switches To 1, 2, 3 Report Card Grade Format.
The East Bay (RI) Newspapers (6/4, Morse) reported that “a new standards based report card system will replace the traditional A,B,C format” for kindergartners, first- and second-graders in Seekonk [MA] public schools next year. “In September 2010, this format will be applied to all other elementary students up to fifth grade.” The East bay Newspapers explains that with the new report card system, “each number will indicate how well a student is meeting a grade level standard.” The “one” indicates that students are “beginning to develop a standard but are not yet able to produce required grade level work.” A “two” means that “they are approaching the grade level standard, and a ‘three” shows that “they are meeting or exceeding the grade level standard. In grades two through five, the scores will go from ‘one’ to ‘four.’”

NEA in the News
Teachers In Colorado District Seek Permanent Base Pay Increase.
The Denver Post (6/5, Meyer) reports that even though the Boulder Valley School District and the Boulder Valley Education Association “have reached a tentative contract agreement,” the conflict between the two groups is not necessarily over. “The union is recommending teachers vote against the agreement Aug. 17-18, because the proposed one percent increase will be for one year only and will not become part of their permanent base pay.” District leaders contend that “Boulder Valley cannot afford to build in a permanent pay increase because of looming financial problems. The state is withholding $110 million from school districts until Jan. 29, 2010, when state officials will determine whether they need the money.” But teachers argue that the district will receive “4.9 percent more” from the state “for 2009-10 compared with the previous year, or about $250 more for every student.”

Connecticut District’s Teachers Revamp Math Curriculum, Cut Topics Covered In Half.
The New York Times (6/8, A15, Hu) reports that teachers in the Westport, CT, school district rewrote “the algebra curriculum, limiting it to about half of the 90 concepts typically covered in a high school course in hopes of developing a deeper understanding of key topics.” The teachers began “replacing…math textbooks with their own custom-designed online curriculum” last year. “The lessons are typically written in Westport and then sent to a program in India, called HeyMath!, to jazz up the algorithms and problem sets with animation and sounds.” The new math curriculum scales “exercises like long formal proofs in geometry, revising lessons and homework assignments to teach students to defend their answers to math problems as a matter of routine rather than repeatedly writing them out.” According to Westport school officials, the changes have led to “less review in math classes, higher standardized test scores and more students taking advanced math classes”

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In the Classroom
Increasing Numbers Of Portfolio Tests Being Submitted In Virginia.
The Washington Post (6/8, Chandler) reports, “The District and many states, including Maryland and Virginia, use portfolios for students with serious cognitive disabilities.” Virginia, however, “has gone much further, expanding their use for students with learning disabilities or beginning English skills.” Throughout the state, “the number of math and reading portfolios submitted for such students” increased from “15,400 in 2006-07 to more than 30,000 in 2007-08, and state officials predict another jump this school year.” Pass rates for portfolio tests are also increasing in some districts. “Statewide, 87 percent of” students who submitted the portfolios “passed in reading and math last school year, up from 81 percent and 84 percent the year before. But because “pass rates for portfolio tests are relatively high,” some question their “value in rating schools.”

Standardized Tests Should Not Undercut Effective Teaching, Superintendent Says.
In an opinion piece for the Daily Press (6/7), York County School Division Superintendent Eric Williams wrote, “Students throughout Virginia have been taking the Standards of Learning (SOL) exams.” But even though “the SOLs provide focus, state assessment tests should not be emphasized in a way that leads educators to make decisions that undercut effective teaching and learning.” Williams contends that “this emphasis throughout the nation on just covering content, of exposing students to content, can come at the expense of true learning.” In order to “promote the joy of learning,” he suggests that teachers “focus not just on the SOLs, but also on…truly engaging students.” Williams concludes, “It is almost as if we need permission to have fun again as educators and students. Let’s give ourselves that permission.”

Floating Classroom Aimed At Increasing Students’ Interest In Science.
The Seattle Times (6/8, Guerrero) reports that “during the Puget Sound Student Science Symposium Friday at the REI store in Seattle,” High School senior Krystal Stewart “presented the results of a three-day research project she conducted with her class through Salish Sea Expeditions, a local nonprofit that tries to interest fifth- through 12th-grade students in science while aboard a floating classroom in Puget Sound-area waters.” Through Salish Sea Expeditions, students “are taught the scientific method. They pinpoint what they’re curious about, form a hypothesis, and then hop aboard a 61-foot sailing research vessel, where they learn to sail and camp for three to five days while collecting data.” Students pay “about $90 per day on the boat,” with some paying “on a sliding scale.”

Utah Board Of Education Adds STD Testing To Health Curriculum.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/8, Schencker) reports, “Utah schools should teach students about the importance of getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases, according to an updated state health curriculum approved Friday by the State Board of Education.” The guidance regarding “the importance of early detection” of STDs was added “at the urging of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Planned Parenthood, and about a dozen high school students who spoke at the board’s meeting.” Prior to the addition, “teachers were allowed to talk about testing…but it wasn’t an explicit part of the curriculum,” according to Frank Wojtech, “health and physical education specialist at the State Office of Education.”

Wake County, North Carolina, Group Calls For Expanded Cultural Studies.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (6/6, Hui) reported on a study by the Wake Education Partnership faulting the curriculum in Wake County because it “teaches more about North Carolina history than world history and doesn’t require learning another language.” Partnership president Ann Denlinger “warned that failing to adopt a system of ‘world-class education’ will leave Wake County and America behind the rest of the world.” The report calls for greater attention to world history and says “students should be required to learn one [foreign language] starting in kindergarten.” The report also calls for “changing the testing system to measure performance against that in other nations; and greater study of science, math, engineering and technology.”

More Schools Adopt Service Requirement.
The New York Daily News (6/7, Tewa) reported, “In April, Mayor Bloomberg launched the NYC Service Initiative, a wide-ranging program that includes requiring city schools to provide students access to service and volunteer programs by September. The move follows the federal Serve America Act and President Obama’s call for volunteerism amid these tough times.” Now “an increasing number of city high schools — public and private — are including volunteerism in the curriculum.” A Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement study found that “students who participated in community service for school were 22 percent more likely to graduate than those who didn’t,” thought it “also found that a majority of young people oppose community service as a requirement for high school graduation.”

Law & Policy
Doctors Dispute Over Proper Care For Athletes With Concussions.
The New York Times (6/8, D5, Schwarz) reports, “New guidelines for the care of youth athletes who sustain concussions are causing controversy among brain-injury experts, reigniting the debate over whether strict rules regarding concussions can actually leave athletes at greater risk for injury. An international panel of neurologists, updating their recommendations on concussion care in the May issue of The British Journal of Sports Medicine, said that any athlete 18 or younger who was believed to have sustained a concussion during a game or practice should never be allowed to return to the playing field the same day.” Yet “other doctors, many of whom work the sidelines of high school athletic events, said they feared the effects of such strictness. They predicted that athletes would respond by hiding their injuries from coaches and trainers even more than they are already known to do, leaving them at risk for a second and more dangerous concussion.”

California Abstinence Education Group At Center Of Argument Over Curriculum.
California’s Press Democrat (6/7, Benefield) reported, “A battle over sex education is under way in Sonoma County, pitting a longtime abstinence-only group against California Department of Education officials who say the group breaks state law when it teaches in the classroom.” The ACLU of Northern California “has worked for months to keep Free to Be from giving presentations in public schools.” Yet many “schools and districts…have hosted Free to Be speakers, including teens, to talk to students about the benefits of abstaining from sex until they are married.” The group “has received annual federal funding for its abstinence program” since at least 2000, and “in 2007, the group received approximately $540,000 in federal funding from the Community-Based Abstinence Education Program under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

San Francisco School Board Urged To Approve ROTC Physical Education Credit.
In the San Francisco Chronicle (6/8, H6, Saunders), Debra J. Saunders writes, “When the San Francisco school board voted last month to restore the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, it seemed that sanity had prevailed — three years after the board voted to kill the popular program.” But, she pointed out, it the board does not vote “to recognize that JROTC fulfills students’ high school physical education requirements,” its “vote to keep JROTC could be viewed as a conniving stunt and a cruel hoax.” That is because “many students will not be able to fit [JROTC] into their schedules” unless it is counted as a PE credit. On “Tuesday, the board will vote on a measure to allow RO students to get their gym credits through independent study — but that’s onerous and unnecessary,” according to Saunders. She adds that “unless the board quickly makes up for its folly, there will be fewer such students graduating San Francisco schools.”

Education Cases Said To Offer Clues To Sotomayor’s Stance On School Matters.
Education Week (6/5, Robelen) reported that “during her 17 years on the federal bench, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has handled a relatively small number of cases dealing directly with K-12 education.” However, “those disputes…offer clues to the direction she might take on school matters if she joins the U.S. Supreme Court.” Education Week details Sotomayor’s opinions regarding some of those cases. According to Perry A. Zirkel, “a professor of education and law at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, PA,” in a sampling of these cases, Sotomayor “appears to exhibit ‘moderation, rather than radical revisionism,’ in her approach to the law, at least in school cases.” Furthermore, “Of 13 cases on special education, she ruled in favor of districts 58 percent of the time.” Still, “Mr. Zirkel and others have been quick to note that she doesn’t always — or in any automatic way — side with school districts.”

Special Needs
Arizona English-Immersion Program Shows Early Positive Results.
The Arizona Republic (6/8, Kossan) reports, “The U.S. Supreme Court this month will determine if Arizona has satisfied a federal court order to spend enough money to help English-language learners succeed in school. But no matter what the court decides in Flores vs. Arizona, one thing is not likely to change: the type of program — a unique, four-hour-a-day English-immersion course — that every English learner from kindergarten to high school must take.” The course is said to be showing positive results as “many schools report that a record number of students tested proficient in English at the end of this school year and will enter mainstream classes.” Yet “many educators maintain that the four-hour immersion course is expensive and difficult to implement and has no underlying research that proves it works.” Still, Arizona superintendent of public instruction Tom Horne said, “I’m hearing positive things, and enthusiastically positive things.”

California District’s Disagreements Over Special Education Often Lead To Legal Hearings.
The Fresno (CA) Bee (6/8, Kohlruss) reports that “parents and Clovis Unified School District officials are butting heads over how to teach special-needs children — and their disagreements are resulting in drawn-out, costly legal hearings.” Most of the “disagreements…stem from the district’s individual education plan, a teaching guide that is designed for each child. The plan is based on district assessments that may include other professional opinions.” If “a parent won’t accept what the district says it can provide, and mediation fails to find common ground, a hearing is the next step.” According to the Fresno Bee, “there were 38 requests for hearings at Clovis Unified since September 2005 — more than double the number filed for Fresno Unified, which is twice the size of the Clovis district.” A spokesperson for Clovis said that the district “is more willing to fight than other districts — even when it means racking up more than $100,000 in costs for a case.”

School Finance
Teacher Layoffs Expected In South Carolina Despite Federal Aid.
The AP (6/5, Adox) reported that even though federal “money will flow to South Carolina” after the state “Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Gov. Mark Sanford (R) to seek $700 million in federal stimulus money,” there will still be holes in the state budget, resulting in the loss of “hundreds of teachers’ jobs.” But “without the stimulus, kindergarten-through-12th-grade education would be starting the 2009-10 school year with about $500 million less than approved in budgets last summer.” The AP notes that “the state’s 85 public school districts will share the largest chunk of the cash: $185 million, with the amounts varying widely based on districts’ property values.”

Also in the News
Texas All Girls School Graduates First Class.
The Dallas Morning News (6/6, Fox) reported that “the Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, a college preparatory magnet near Fair Park” graduated its first class last week. The school opened in 2004 “with only 124 students, a dozen teachers and one committed group of parents. Today, several of the girls say they are deeply grateful for the confidence, opportunity and rigor the school provided them.” Some in the graduating class said that they “initially balked at the same-sex environment and mandatory uniforms. But they said the school leaders put college in the front of their minds and removed ‘distractions’ that exist at coed schools.” At Irma Rangel, “the overall TAKS passing rates in all grades and all subjects” have been “near or at 100 percent” during “the school’s first five years.” Still, school officials say that “the real success of the school…will be measured over time, as Irma Rangel turns out more graduates and more grade levels take standardized tests

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