Predicted Teacher Shortage Turning Into Teacher Surplus.
The AP (11/12, Hollingsworth) reported that across the U.S., “droves” of college graduates “are unable to find teaching jobs, in large part because the economy is forcing school systems to slash positions. The teacher shortage that many feared just a few years ago has turned into a teacher glut.” According to the AP, “Since last fall, school systems, state education agencies, technical schools and colleges have shed about 125,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Also, “many teachers who had planned to retire or switch jobs are staying on because of the recession.”

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In the Classroom
STEMfest Gives Kids Fun Introduction To Sciences.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (11/13, Miller) reports on STEMfest, “a one-day fair Saturday at Discovery World where visitors can enjoy the museum for free and get a fun introduction to the sciences that make their world go.” The fair is being funded by of Time Warner, which earlier this year “announced a nationwide effort to fund a five-year, $100 million philanthropic effort to address America’s decline in STEM.” The company’s Milwaukee office has “lined up several local partners to make their best pitch for youths to explore science, technology, engineering and math as interests and careers, including FIRST Robotics and the FIRST Lego League, Growing Power, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee.” In addition, “Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, the Great Lakes WATER Council, the Badger State Science & Engineering Fair, Marquette’s College of Engineering, Lakeshore State Park, WAUK-AM (540) ESPN radio and the Urban Ecology Center also will have exhibits, information and experts on hand.”

Study Of Harlem Children’s Zone Finds Achievement Gaps Closing.
Education Week (11/12, Robelen) reported that the Harlem Children’s Zone, “a high-profile New York City initiative that combines charter schools with wraparound community services for minority students and their low-income families,” is “showing dramatic academic gains that effectively close the black-white achievement gap in most categories examined, a new study finds.” However, the National Bureau of Economic Research study also finds that what it is “less clear” is “whether the improved student performance can be explained by the quality of the schools alone, or by the combination of the schooling with the web of community supports, such as early-childhood programs, parenting workshops, and asthma and anti-obesity initiatives.”

On the Job
Detroit Academy For Boys Held Up As National Model.
Editorialist Jeff Gerritt writes in the Detroit Free Press (11/13) that “the school-to-prison pipeline, especially in poverty-plagued cities like Detroit, has become a national disgrace.” Each year, “nearly eight in 10 African-American males drop out of Detroit public schools.” As community leaders search for a solution to the problem, Garrett suggests that they look to Detroit’s Frederick Douglass Academy, “an all-male middle and high school that’s changing lives and switching the statistics.” The academy was “formerly an alternative school for bad boys,” but in the last five years has transformed into “a high-achieving college preparatory academy. All 32 of this year’s graduating class were accepted to college, clocking $1.2 million in scholarships and financial aid.” Garrett profiles several students at the school. He concludes that “schools like Frederic Douglass Academy show how Detroit, and the nation,” can reverse the high school dropout trend.

Maryland District To Continue Use Of Troubled Computer System.
The Washington Post (11/13, Hernandez) reports that the Prince George’s County, MD school system “will continue using the $4.1 million computer system that left 8,000 high school students stranded without schedules at the start of the school year, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Thursday after an investigation of the debacle was completed.” Hite “said that many of the problems with SchoolMax, a new computer system chosen in 2005 to help Prince George’s comply with federal requirements for keeping track of data, had been ironed out and that it would be easier to get SchoolMax working correctly than to build a system from scratch.”

In Survey, DC Principals Report Having Improved Resources.
The Washington Post (11/13, Wilson) reports, “Five years ago, some principals from D.C. public schools took part in a survey that revealed their disappointment with the lack of support and resources they received from the school system. Some principals were so unprepared that they began the school year without adequate staffing, textbooks, supplies or security officers.” However, findings from the Ready Schools survey “show that principals are receiving more support and resources from the school system since the initial report in 2004.”

Law & Policy
Texas’ Failure To Adopt Education Reforms Could Cost State Millions.
The Houston Chronicle (11/13, Mellon) reports that Texas “is in the running for hundreds of millions of federal dollars to spur school improvement, but the state’s reluctance to embrace some of President Barack Obama’s education reform ideas could hurt its chances. Guidelines released Thursday show Texas is eligible for $350 million to $700 million, but it must beat out other states to get it.” Texas “could lose points in the grant contest because it is one of four states that has not joined an effort to develop national standards that spell out what all U.S. students should learn.”

Michigan Schools Chief Urges Education Stakeholders To Compromise.
The Detroit News (11/13, Bouffard) reports that on Thursday, Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan “urged lawmakers and the state’s largest teachers union to compromise on education reforms required within 60 days to qualify Michigan for up to $400 million through President Barak Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative.” The Detroit News notes that “the House and the Senate each have proposed their own package of education reform bills.” But Michigan Education Association “lobbyist Dave Stafford told the committee that some of the proposed reforms would hurt education in the state. He said if teachers are evaluated on the basis of their students scores, some teachers will be reluctant to take on hard-to-educate students.”

Bloomberg News (11/12, Peterson) reported that the Department of Education’s “final rules in a competition for $4.35 billion in education stimulus grants include union-backed changes to teacher- assessment requirements.” According to Bloomberg, the Obama administration “wants public schools to tie teacher evaluations and pay to student performance, and unions have sought to ensure that test scores aren’t the sole measure.” The AP (11/12, Martin) also covered this story.

Safety & Security
California District Revamping System To Alert Teachers Of Students With History Of Violence.
California’s Press Democrat (11/13, Benefield) reports that the Santa Rosa, CA, school district “is revamping its system for alerting teachers if a student with a history of violence is enrolled in their class.” The move is being made upon the insistence of “teachers after a string of assaults prompted the district to seek restraining orders against students in four incidents within four weeks this year.” Currently, schools keep “a binder in the main office in which student suspension notices for the current school year are kept. But teachers said that system is too passive and instructors aren’t alerted when a student with a violent history is on their roster.” At Santa Rosa High School “this year instituted an e-mail alert system that provides student information through the computerized attendance and grading system.” Now, “the district is trying to create a uniform policy.”

Georgia District Urged To Shift Resources To Ensure Safe School Environment.
Charles Richardson writes for the editorial board of the Macon (GA) Telegraph (11/13, Richardson) that this week, “Bibb County schools Superintendent Sharon Patterson told the Bibb County legislative delegation…that the school system didn’t have the resources to keep students, teachers and administrators safe, and that the state needed to provide those resources.” However, Richardson asserts, “Children with behavioral issues need to be taught in an environment where they can be successful.” The problem, she adds, is that “Bibb County hasn’t created that environment — and it can’t wait for the state to act.” Instead, “the Bibb system must shift resources to deal with children who cannot adapt to a normal school setting before somebody gets seriously injured.” And these steps, Richardson concludes, must be taken “now, not later.”

School Finance
Michigan School District Chief Seeks To Quell Rumors Surrounding Budget Shortfall.
The Kalamazoo Gazette (11/12, Haroldson) reported that Portage, MI Public Schools Superintendent Marsha Wells “on Wednesday said rumors are rife but facts are scarce about where the school district will make millions of dollars in budget cuts. Wells presented the district’s budget outlook to the Portage Rotary Club, saying rumors of privatizing bus transportation, massive layoffs and eliminating programs and services are just that — rumors.” Nevertheless, millions “will have to be cut from the school budget this year and next year because of losses in per-student funding. Portage schools is projecting a loss of $2.5 million to $3 million this year because of per-student funding cuts of $165 and $127 this year.”

New Jersey Governor-Elect Pledges To Maintain Support For K-12 Funding.
Education Week (11/12, Gewertz) reported that the “election of Republican Chris Christie as New Jersey’s next governor has drawn cheers from the state’s charter school and voucher advocates, even as it sparks worry that his promise to reduce taxes and spending in the face of a massive budget shortfall could result in cuts to precollegiate education.” Christie “wasted no time sending signals of support for urban education and for charter schools. … The day after his election, he visited a charter school in his hometown of Newark.” Also, five days later, Christie “appeared at a high school in suburban Hamilton, where he pledged to maintain support for K-12 education despite a looming $8 billion deficit in the state’s $29 billion budget.”

Also in the News
Former President George W. Bush Outlines Vision For His Institute.
The AP (11/12, Ball) reported that education “will be the first of four areas former President George W. Bush said his Dallas-based think tank will address. Global health, human freedom and economic growth are the other focus areas, Bush said during a Thursday speech at Southern Methodist University.” The George W. Bush Institute will also “include an ongoing women’s initiative that his wife” Laura will lead.

NEA in the News
Labor Union Membership In US Has Declined Since Early 1980’s.
The Salt Lake Tribune (11/13, Stewart) reports that “the Utah Education Association (UEA) won’t release membership data. But union spokesman Michael Kelley acknowledged numbers are down ’slightly.’” Kelly added that teachers have not been “dropping out,” but that the UEA “didn’t get as many new members this year, because fewer teachers were hired due to the economy.” Last year, however, the association saw a “considerable” increase in membership, Kelley confirmed. The Salt Lake Tribune points out that UEA membership “parallels a national trend. Union membership in the United States rose last year by the largest amount in a quarter-century, up 428,000 people, according to U.S. Census Data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Still, “the percentage of the labor force in unions” has declined “since the early ’80s.”

Former Television Actor Wins Florida Education Association Teaching Excellence Award.
The Miami Herald (11/13, McGrory) reports on Joe Underwood, a former television actor who appeared on the show Miami Vice. “But when the series went off the air, Underwood took on a new role: He became an educator.” Now, a 25-year teaching veteran, Underwood runs Miami High School’s “TV and film production academy — a program he created.” This year, Underwood “won the prestigious Award for Teaching Excellence from the Florida Education Association,” and “he will represent the Sunshine State in the National Education Association’s competition in February.”

Obama Administration Releases Final Race To The Top Guidelines.
Education Week (11/11, McNeil) reported that to win a portion of the $4 billion “in grants from the federal Race to the Top Fund, states will need to make a persuasive case for their education reform agenda, demonstrate significant buy-in from local school districts, and develop plans to evaluate teachers and principals based on student performance, according to final regulations set for release Thursday” by the US Department of Education.

The New York Times (11/12, A20, Dillon) reports, “Three months after provoking an outpouring of criticism with preliminary plans for” Race to the Top, “the nation’s largest competitive education grant program, the Obama administration has added flexibility in the program’s final rules, released Wednesday, drawing praise” from North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D), “who was initially critical and from leaders of the national teachers’ unions.” For instance, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel said that “the draft rules had seemed to encourage states to evaluate teachers and principals largely ‘based on a single standardized test score.’” The new rules, Van Roekel said, “put more emphasis on student growth, teacher practice and improving instruction. So I’m really pleased that they listened.”

The Washington Post (11/12, Anderson) adds that Race to the Top bids “will be rated on the point system,” with “improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance…worth more than any specific improvement: 58 points.” Other criteria include “making education funding a priority,” and “demonstrating significant progress in raising achievement and closing gaps.” The highest number of points possible — a perfect score — is 500 points. The Post adds that the “call to action on teacher-principal improvement, which means factoring student test score growth into job evaluations, is likely to draw intense scrutiny from unions.” Van Roekel “said…the continuing focus on tying test scores to job evaluations” is one area in which the administration “missed the mark.”

The AP (11/11, Quaid) reported that unions “had argued that student achievement is much more than a score on a standardized test, in part because only about one-third of teachers teach subjects and grades that are actually tested. In response, the Department of Education changed the rules to say that teachers and principals must be judged on several different measures of student achievement.” But even though some unions “feel better about the competition, plenty of criticism remains,” according to the AP. The Los Angeles Times (11/12, Song) reports that states “now have 60 days to apply for federal funding. … The deadline to apply for the first round of federal dollars is in mid-January.”

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In the Classroom
All-Girls Engineering Club Part Of Middle School’s STEM Initiative.
The Washington Post (11/12, Buck) reports on the “all-girls engineering club” at Calvert Middle School in Prince Frederick, Maryland, which was recently visited by Karin Hill, the director of education and public programs for the National Museum of the United States Navy, who taught the students “how to make a barometer out of a soup can, a balloon, a sewing needle and a straw.” The group is “part of a school system initiative to get students interested in careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” which “is in turn part of a national initiative launched by the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition.” Officials said they “try to have female engineers as weekly guests to show the girls ‘that they have families and that engineering can be a great career for a woman,’” and note that “so far the club, which has about 30 members, has been a success.”

On the Job
Teachers Younger Than 33 More Open To Merit Pay, Study Shows.
The Orlando Sentinel (11/12, Balona) reports that a study by “two nonprofit research groups called ‘Supporting Teacher Talent: The View from Generation Y’” shows that “younger teachers are open to the idea of merit pay. … According to a national survey of teachers ages 32 and younger, 71 percent think teachers who work harder and put in more time should be paid more. Sixty-three percent of older teachers felt the same.” Furthermore, 70 percent “of younger educators also think they should earn more if they receive a prestigious certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards,” while “only 58 percent of older teachers agreed.” Still, “few teachers from any of the age groups surveyed thought that tying teacher pay to student performance would be a ‘very effective’ way to improve teaching.”

North Carolina District Halts Middle School’s Grades-For-Cash Fundraiser.
The AP (11/12) reports that “Wayne County school administrators have halted” a fundraiser “at Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro,” NC, that offered “20 test points to students in exchange for a $20 donation.” North Carolina’s News & Observer (11/12, Bonner) reports that “the fundraiser came to an abrupt halt” Wednesday “after a story in The News & Observer raised concerns about the practice of selling grades.” On Wednesday morning the district said in a statement that administrators met with Rosewood principal Susie Shepherd “and directed the following actions be taken: (1) the fundraiser will be immediately stopped; (2) no extra grade credit will be issued that may have resulted from donations; and (3) beginning November 12, all donations will be returned.”

Audit Finds Lack Of Teacher-Union Leave Guidelines In Utah Districts.
The Salt Lake Tribune (11/12, Schencker) reports that some Utah school districts “need to better track how teachers on paid association leave spend their time, according to a legislative audit released Wednesday. In Utah and other states, school districts sometimes give teachers leave from their jobs when they’re elected to serve as local union leaders.” And some districts “pay part of those leaders’ salaries, even when they’re on leave from teaching, saying their work still benefits the district.” However, auditors “found that none of the six districts they examined had guidelines defining which activities benefit the district versus the union.”

Law & Policy
Hawaii’s Furlough Friday Policy Generates International Media Coverage.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (11/12, Essoyan) reports on the media coverage that has been generated by Hawaii’s “decision to shut public schools for 17 Furlough Fridays.” In addition to coverage by “national television networks” and periodicals, international media outlets such as The Guardian of London, the BBC, and Radio Australia have also covered the story. Comedian Frank De Lima has even written a song about Furlough Fridays, “written to the tune of Day-O (The Banana Boat Song),” with the refrain, “Friday come and we gotta stay home.” School Board Chairman Garrett Toguchi “said the news coverage tends to sensationalize the issue,” but added, “if the negative press encourages our leaders to put education at the top of our priority list, I’m more than happy to accept it.” The Star-Bulletin points out that “part of the reason for the widespread media coverage is that closing schools seems like a drastic measure compared with cutting salaries or laying off teachers and boosting classroom size.”

Furlough Fridays Jeopardize Hawaii’s Prospects For Additional Stimulus. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (11/11) reports that Hawaii “has prevailed in federal court in fighting off a challenge to school Furlough Fridays, but the system is far from stable. The schools desperately need federal assistance that they are not likely to receive without changing direction.” According to the Star-Bulletin, the court rulings follow “blistering criticism by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan warning that cutting the number of school days “‘is a step in the wrong direction.’” States “have received more than $67 billion in federal stimulus and an additional $11.5 billion soon will become available to those deserving of it.” Duncan’s “criticism is compounded by Hawaii’s poor grades in a new report by the Center for American Progress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Enterprise Institute.”

Baltimore School Board Approves Policy Allowing For Permanent Expulsions.
The Baltimore Sun (11/11, Bowie) reported that Baltimore’s school board “voted 5-2 Tuesday night to adopt a policy that allows students to be permanently expelled for setting fires or other violent acts that threaten the safety of staff and students.” The vote “came after months of public comment and haggling over the details of the policy. In the end, the board and schools CEO Andres Alonso compromised.” Alonso “retained his authority to permanently expel students, but under more narrow circumstances and with a greater weight given to the student’s home life and experiences, and right to due process.”

Special Needs
Children Seen As Being “Hidden Casualties” Of Economic Recession.
The New York Times (11/12, Luo) reports that for “many families across the country, the greatest damage inflicted by this recession has not necessarily been financial but emotional and psychological.” According to the Times, children “have become hidden casualties, often absorbing more than their parents are fully aware of. Several academic studies have linked parental job loss – especially that of fathers – to adverse impacts in areas like school performance and self-esteem.”

Facilities
Clark County School District’s Maintenance Backlog Nearly Triples From 2008.
The Las Vegas Sun (11/12, Richmond) reports that “as of July 31,” the Clark County school district’s “backlog of maintenance work orders had nearly tripled to 12,937 from 4,327 at the end of July 2008.” While the exteriors of district buildings “appear clean and crisp,” a report presented to the school board on Thursday shows that the “buildings generally are not in ’showpiece’ condition.” Moreover, the Nevada district’s “schools are at risk of looking downright shabby with building systems — heating, air conditioning, even fire alarms — in constant need of repair, according to the district staff’s assessment.” Paul Gerner, Clark County schools’ associate superintendent of facilities, said, “Current levels of maintenance services are unsustainable and not in the long-term interests of the district.” The Las Vegans Sun points out that “most campuses are not in obvious neglect. But some of the chores that were once part of the daily routine are being put off, increasing the risk for larger and more expensive problems.” The maintenance shortage stems from recent budget cuts to an already understaffed facilities division.

School Finance

Detroit District Cuts Budget Deficit By Nearly $87 Million.
The AP (11/11) reported that an audit “shows Detroit Public Schools has cut its budget deficit by nearly $87 million. The deficit was projected at $305.9 million.” The district’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and Annual Single Audit “reveal the accumulated general fund deficit was down to $219 million as of June 30. … Emergency financial manager Robert Bobb credits the decrease to personnel cuts, weeding out of fraud and waste, and cancellations of unnecessary and costly contracts.”

Also in the News
Chicago School Defends Student Arrests For Participation In Food Fight.
ABC News (11/12, Pinto, Dwyer) reports on its website on the arrest of “two dozen children” after a food fight last week at Chicago’s Perspectives Charter Middle School. The students, “ages 11 to 15, were rounded up by police, arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct. One 13-year-old student recalled, “[The police] took us to jail, fingerprinted us, mugshotted us, or whatever, all because of a food fight…I was arrested. Handcuffs on.” In a statement, the school defended the officers’ action, saying, “The Chicago police officers who help protect our school, concerned about potential injuries resulting from the fight, felt it was necessary to arrest those responsible.”

Children Seen As Being “Hidden Casualties” Of Economic Recession.
The New York Times (11/12, Luo) reports that for “many families across the country, the greatest damage inflicted by this recession has not necessarily been financial but emotional and psychological.” According to the Times, children “have become hidden casualties, often absorbing more than their parents are fully aware of. Several academic studies have linked parental job loss – especially that of fathers – to adverse impacts in areas like school performance and self-esteem

Students, Parents, School Officials In Michigan Rally Against State Budget Cuts.
The AP (11/11) reports that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) on Tuesday said that “school officials and parents must persuade lawmakers more needs to be done to shore up education funding in Michigan.” She “ordered a $127 per student cut in school funding to take effect in December unless the legislature votes for additional revenue within the next two weeks.”

The AP (11/11, Martin) reports in a separate story that “hundreds of students, parents and school officials rallied Tuesday at the state Capitol,” calling “on the Legislature to avoid budget cuts that could trim school programs across the state.” Seventeen-year-old Zane Thomas said that he participated in the rally to show lawmakers that the state budget cuts are “hurting [students] more than they think it is. … I don’t think they understand how deep these cuts really are,” he added. “Granholm called on the Senate to immediately act to avoid cuts that she recently ordered because of falling tax revenues” and suggested that lawmakers “avoid the cuts by eliminating a scheduled inflationary increase in the state income tax personal exemption or scaling back some exemptions on taxes affecting oil, gas and tobacco companies.” Meanwhile, “Republicans counter that Granholm is making unnecessary cuts to try and force them into approving a tax increase.”

Michigan Radio (11/10, Pluta) reported that according to Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, “Senate Republicans want to see cost-saving measures such as benefits pooling and bigger co-pays instead of more revenue. He also says the governor can reverse some of the cuts being made to schools.” The Lansing (MI) State Journal (11/11, Martin) and the Detroit News (11/11, Bouffard, Hornbeck) also cover the story.

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In the Classroom
High School Students In California Produce Solar Suitcases To Help Power Medical Clinics.
The Sacramento Bee (11/10, B1, Lambert) reported that “engineering students at Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove,” CA, “are producing solar suitcases that will help power medical clinics in impoverished villages around the world.” The suitcases contain “charging stations for police radios and electrical outlets for lights or medical equipment.” They “will be plugged into a large solar cell that will offer immediate power and charge a 12-volt battery that can offer power after dark.” So far, “students have completed two of the suitcases, with one bound for the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico at the end of this week.”

North Carolina Middle School Offers Students Test Points In Exchange For Donations.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (11/11, Bonner) reports that Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro, NC, “is selling grades” to raise funds. “A $20 donation…will get a student 20 test points — 10 extra points on two tests of the student’s choosing.” Principal Susie Shepherd said that “a parent advisory council came up with the idea” as a way to raise money. ‘Last year they did chocolates, and it didn’t generate anything,’ Shepherd said.” So far, “no donations have been collected.” But Shepherd “rejected the suggestion that the school is selling grades,” because, she said, “extra points on two tests won’t make a difference in a student’s final grade.” But Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction, said that “exchanging grades for money teaches children the wrong lessons. She also said it is bad testing practice and is unfair to students whose parents can’t pay.”

Museum Loans Teachers History Kits With Interactive Lessons About Florida.
The St. Petersburg Times (11/11, Miller) reports on History to Go, a program by the Tampa Bay History Center “that allows educators to bring” history kits “to their school for three weeks at no charge.” Each kit has “artifact reproductions and classroom activities concerning Tampa Bay area history such as the Rough Riders — the first American volunteer cavalry that camped in Tampa before heading to Cuba during the Spanish-American War.” They also include “reproductions of some handmade tools of the first Florida natives and the Seminole Indians.” Some teachers say that with little time to cover Florida history in class, the kits offer memorable, interactive lessons.

Elementary School Adds Engineering To Math, Science Curriculum.
The Lynchburg (VA) News and Advance (11/10, Pounds) reported that T.C. Miller Elementary School this year “added engineering to its science and math curriculum,” which “means a new emphasis on making, building and designing, whether it is kindergarteners engineering Big Bad Wolf-proof houses or fifth graders experimenting with electrical circuits.” The elementary school “became a School for Innovation in 1993, with a focus on math, science, technology and the performing arts,” and the “addition of engineering makes it one of two Science, Technology, Engineering and Math schools in Virginia.” Younger students craft “math tool boxes” while fifth-graders work on chemical engineering projects like making bouncy balls out of water and polymer. For teacher Tawanda Johnson, “it is supremely important that her students understand not just the lesson of the day, but also how the hands-on activities could relate to future careers,” and “she works to make sure” students understand what professions utilizing that day’s lessons entail.

Middle School Students Paint Periodic Table Of Elements On Teacher’s Car.
The Miami Herald (11/10, Pagliery) reported that Rohr Middle School science teacher Daniel Dreyfuss last week gave his students acrylic latex paint for them to “paint blue, green, yellow, orange and red squares all over his 1999 Plymouth Voyager.” The purpose of the exercise was to help them remember the periodic table of elements. The Miami Herald adds that “of the 117 elements that currently make up the periodic table,” Dreyfuss’ class “managed to squeeze in 75.”

On the Job
Killeen Schools Foster Atmosphere of Normalcy After Ft Hood Shootings.
The Dallas Morning News (11/10, Meyers) reported that “the shock and uncertainty caused by last week’s bloodshed” in Fort Hood, TX, “is giving way to a semblance of routine in Killeen classrooms.” Killeen Independent School District (KISD) “officials here are hoping to hasten the return to normalcy by sticking to regular lessons while encouraging students to seek support if they need it,” the Dallas Morning News added. The district’s guidance and counseling coordinator, Bob Criswell, said that “the district is emphasizing counselor services without peddling them. Teachers are told to monitor students’ attendance and outbursts but to discuss the shooting only if the subject arises.” KISD has readied “a 42-member crisis team” to help students cope, if needed. Meanwhile, “individual schools and teachers are responding differently. One teacher on the base wrote a letter to all her students’ parents. Another teacher pasted newspaper clippings from the Killeen Daily Herald onto a hallway bulletin board. They discussed community support.”

Opinion: Students Benefit When Teachers Shown Respect.
The Charleston (SC) Post Courier (11/10) editorialized that “when teachers have low morale, an entire school district feels the pain,” because “unhappy teachers with low energy can mean that scores drop.” According to “a new survey by the Charleston Teacher Alliance…60 percent of Charleston County teachers don’t feel valued by the district.” The majority of those surveyed also said that “district leaders aren’t responsive to them, haven’t treated them fairly regarding their pay, and waste money.” Superintendent Nancy McGinley “responded to the survey by reiterating that teachers are the most important people in the district and by vowing not to take the survey lightly.” McGinley plans “to make a video to outline for teachers her decisions and her reasons for making them.” The Post Courier concludes that “when teachers are shown that respect, students likely will benefit and teachers will be better able to soldier on in difficult times.”

Law & Policy
Report Recommends Multi-Tiered Teacher Licensing System For States.
Education Week (11/11, Maxwell) reports that a study by “a high-powered education task force called last week for states and school districts to overhaul how they recruit, prepare, evaluate, and compensate teachers.” The Consortium for Policy Research in Education released a “series of 20 policy recommendations for state and district policymakers” in its report Strategic Management of Human Capital. The recommendations are “aimed primarily at improving the teaching corps in the nation’s 100 largest school districts, although some recommendations are geared toward improving the effectiveness of principals.” The task force “recommends that states adopt a multi-tiered licensing system; require evidence of effectiveness before granting tenure; and use performance-based evaluation systems to drive professional development and help reset teachers’ salary schedules.” Its “final recommendation to states is to create performance-based evaluation and pay systems for principals.”

Colorado Seen As Mounting One Of The Most “Energetic” Race To The Top Campaigns.
The New York Times (11/11, A18, Dillon) reports that “Colorado’s lieutenant governor, Barbara O’Brien (D), has been parsing every public statement by Education Secretary Arne Duncan for nuances that could help her position the state as a winner in the $4 billion” Race To The Top competition for. And, according to Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, “officials in dozens of other states have been doing the same.” Wilhoit said, “Whenever we have a conversation about any issue these days, Race to the Top is the gorilla in the room.” Some experts compare the excitement over Washington’s largest ever school grant initiative to “watching dozens of states bid for the Olympics.” According to the Times, “Colorado has mounted one of the most energetic campaigns. Gov. Bill Ritter Jr., a Democrat, has directed $7 million in federal stimulus money to programs he hopes will improve Colorado’s chances.” And, according to Ms. O’Brien, “Colorado’s effort…has consumed 5,000 hours of staff and volunteer time.”

Hawaii’s Lt. Governor Suggests Teacher Pay Cuts In Lieu Of Furlough Fridays.
The AP (11/11, Sample) reports that in letters sent to on Monday, Hawaii Lt. Gov. James ‘Duke’ Aiona (R) asked “representatives of the parties involved in Hawaii’s controversial teacher furlough program to meet with him immediately to work out a settlement.” Aioa wants “to state Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto, Board of Education chairman Garrett Toguchi and Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe” to consider “amendments to a new teacher contract that would allow pay cuts or a shifting of some furlough days to existing non-instructional days.”

Also in the News
Middle School Students In Chicago Are Arrested After Food Fight.
The New York Times (11/11, A18, Saulny) reports that last Thursday at the Calumet middle-school campus of Perspectives Charter Schools in Chicago’s South Side, 25 students, “ages 11 to 15,” were “rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail” for engaging in a food fight in the school cafeteria. “A spokesman for the Chicago police said the charges were reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.” Experts said that “if the charges are not thrown out when the students go before a judge this month, criminal justice experts said, the accused will most likely be sentenced to community service or probation.” Parents are now “questioning what seem to them like the criminalization of age-old adolescent pranks, and the lasting legal and psychological impact of the arrests.” On Tuesday, “school officials met with parents…to explain the events from their point of view.”

NEA in the News
NEA Suggests NAEP Test Items Be Written In “Plain English” For Students With Disabilities.
Education Week (11/11, Zehr) reports, “Representatives of education organizations who appeared at a Nov. 9 public hearing” in DC “agreed with the governing board for the National Assessment of Educational Progress that the ‘nation’s report card” should be as inclusive as possible of English-language learners and students with disabilities.” However, they disagreed with all of the board’s proposals for how to do that.” One of the most contentious issues discussed “at the hearing was the board’s proposal that students with disabilities be permitted to receive only accommodations approved by NAGB and not all of those that may appear in their individual education programs, or IEPs.” NEA representatives said that “it would be frustrating for students with disabilities not to be able to use on NAEP the accommodations that they are normally permitted to use on state tests.” Patricia K. Ralabate, ‘a senior policy analyst for the NEA,” suggested that “the board should consider creating test items based on universal-design principles, such as using very straightforward language,” also called “Plain English.”

Educators In Springfield, Missouri, Choose Single-Union Representation.
The Springfield (MO) News Leader (11/11, Livengood) reports that “a majority of Springfield educators who voted Tuesday want a single labor union to represent them at the bargaining table.” The 574-404 vote “was seen as a major victory for the Springfield National Education Association (SNEA), which has been fighting for the right to be the sole labor union.” SNEA president Ray Smith called the outcome “a step in the right direction.” Currently, both the SNEA and the Missouri State Teachers Association “represent teachers, although their bargaining power is limited.” The News Leader adds that “second election will likely be held early next year in which teachers will officially choose between SNEA and MSTA for exclusive representation. The 574 votes were for exclusive or single union representation,” while “the 404 votes were cast for” representation by both unions.

Report Grades States On Educational Innovation.
Education Week (11/9, McNeil) reported that a “report card issued Monday on state-level innovation in education found what a trio of ideologically varied groups sees as deeply disturbing results, with most states earning C’s, D’s, or even F’s in such key areas as technology, high school quality, and removal of ineffective teachers.” The report, titled “Leaders and Laggards,” uses “state data and existing and original research to assign letter grades to states, based on seven indicators of innovation.” It was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Center for American Progress. Although Center for American Progress President/CEO John Podesta called the results “deeply disturbing,” there were some hopeful findings. For instance, “Massachusetts, Colorado, and Rhode Island got gold stars for their policies to promote extended learning time in schools, while” Hawaii was recognized “as the only state with a school-based funding policy.”

The Washington Post (11/10, Anderson) reports that the report card “contends that principals in Maryland and the District of Columbia face too many barriers to ousting bad teachers.” Barriers cited by principals in Maryland and DC included “personnel policies, paperwork and teachers unions.” Maryland state education spokesman William Reinhard points out that “teacher termination is primarily a function of locally negotiated contracts. He also noted that Maryland, like the District and Virginia, received a B for hiring and evaluation policies.”

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In the Classroom
Agricultural Science Thriving In City, Suburban Schools.
The Dallas Morning News (11/9, Peterson) reports, “Agricultural science education is thriving in unexpected places: the state’s urban and suburban school districts.” Gerald Young, executive director of the Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association of Texas said, “Our program is probably going stronger in the urban areas than it is in the rural areas,” explaining that “much of that trend marks a population shift from rural areas.” Yet “agricultural education has also broadened to encompass a wide range of city-based careers from veterinary science to biomedical research,” and officials say they are working to change students’ perceptions about the industry. Many of the classes feature applied learning, such as labs, which “is invaluable to students, and that’s why certification and licensure programs are being emphasized like never before, said Ron Whitson, director of agriculture, food and natural resources for the Texas Education Agency.”

Federal Grant Will Fund Arabic Program In Chicago Schools.
The Chicago Sun-Times (11/9, Spielman) reported that that the Chicago public schools system “will expand its Arabic-language program to three more high schools, thanks to a three-year, $888,000 federal grant announced this morning. Mayor Daley accepted the grant at Durkin Park Elementary School…as he rejected suggestions that the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre could lead to an outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment.” The “new federal grant, on top of $1.6 million in state and federal funds the schools already have gotten, will fund the expansion to three additional high schools that have yet to be identified.”

Elementary IB School In Texas Publishes Student-Written Book.
Texas’s News-Journal (11/9, Lane) reports, “Dozens of elementary school students became authors Monday as J.L. Everhart Magnet Academy of Cultural Studies released its first book written by kids, for kids.” Publication of the book, titled Who Cares? I Do!, “also made Longview the first school in the state’s International Baccalaureate program to publish an elementary-aged student-written book, according to Karen Phillips, executive director of Texas IB schools.” Students began writing the book a year ago.

New York City Students Get Elevator Safety Lesson.
The New York Times (11/10, A26, Fernandez) reports that following a presentation on elevator safety by New York City officials, students at Public School 19 in New York City “were given handouts to take home, reminding them to ring the alarm and wait for help if they get trapped in an elevator.” Elevators “are the real mass transit of New York City: There are 60,000 of them in residential and commercial buildings, giving millions of New Yorkers millions of rides each day at home and at work, and while the majority of these rides end uneventfully, a few occasionally end tragically.”

On the Job
Fitness Competition Motivates Compton, California Teachers To Focus On Health.
The Los Angeles Times (11/10, Kennedy) reports that “more than 300 staff members from the Compton Unified School District” are “competing to lose weight. Nearly $9,000 in cash prizes — provided by the district’s insurance broker — is at stake.” Sixty-one five-member teams throughout the district “have been attending weekly weigh-ins where they are given recipe cards and diet tips from the district’s nutritionist” since the competition began in October. For exercise, “most of them walk and do cardio at nearby El Camino College Compton Center.” The team that wins the competition, ending in early December, receives $4,000. The Times notes that “the competition is a local version of the 50 Million Pound Challenge, a nationwide initiative started by Dr. Ian Smith, known for his appearances on ‘Celebrity Fit Club.’”

Opinion: Georgia Public Schools Need Same Strong Support As Charters.
Maureen Downey wrote in a “Get Schooled” blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (11/9) that as she watched “at least 1,500 students, parents and politicians celebrate charter schools and demand more of them” at the Georgia Capitol on Friday,” her response to lawmakers at the rally was what are they “doing to improve the education of the 1.6 million Georgia children who are not in charter schools? Why aren’t we talking about improving teacher quality, expanding early childhood education and enhancing math and science performance for students, whether they attend charters or traditional schools?” Ultimately, top charter schools “succeed for the same reasons that top traditional public schools do: Visionary principals, committed and competent teachers, adequate funding, relevant curriculum and involved parents.”

Law & Policy
Louisiana Schools Turning To Career Diploma To Cut Dropout Rate.
The AP (11/10, Simpson) reports on the response among Louisiana’s public schools “to a 2009 law passed by the Legislature that encourages teaching skills that students will need in the work force.” Under the new law, the state will offer a “career diploma” that can be awarded “to students who opt for lower academic standards in math and English, while taking classes such as welding, woodworking and small engine repair.” The law, and the diploma, are part of “an effort to reduce the dropout rate” in Louisiana, where nearly a third of students “drop out or otherwise don’t graduate.” While “the new curriculum hasn’t been fully formed,” educators “expect skills classes will be popular with parents and students who aren’t academically inclined and expect to attend community or technical college after high school.” Critics, however, say the new curriculum and diploma are “it’s just a way to lower academic standards.”

Next Round Of Education Stimulus Will Come With Reform Mandate.
The AP (11/10, Quaid) reports that the Obama administration “is ready to hand out more stimulus dollars for schools, but this time, strings are attached.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “said another $11.5 billion is available to states, which have already received more than $67 billion.” Duncan “said the administration wanted to distribute most of the money quickly to bolster state budgets that have been ravaged by the recession. Now Duncan is making it tougher to get the rest of the dollars because the administration wants states to adopt” President Obama’s reform agenda. States “will have to fill out a far more detailed application that demands information on Obama’s broad goals – tougher academic standards, better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, a method of tracking student performance and a plan of action to turn around failing schools.”

Federal Judge Turns Down Motion For Injunction Against Hawaii’s Furlough Fridays.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (11/10, Essoyan) reports, “A federal judge turned down a request” on Monday “to reopen schools on Furlough Fridays, saying that although some students may be suffering ‘irreparable harm,’ he thought that the plaintiffs were not likely to succeed in their lawsuits.” The “three cases were filed against the state in US District Court in Honolulu on behalf of public school children.” But even though Judge Wallace Tashima, “of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, declined the motion for a preliminary injunction against the recently enacted plan,” that will not stop the plaintiff’s case from continuing. “Tashima urged the parties to continue to working with special master Judge David Ezra in trying to settle the case. Otherwise it will go to trial.”

Lawmaker Calls For Safeguards To Protect Schoolchildren From E Coli. Outbreak.
The AP (11/9) reported that House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller (D) “is worried about a recent outbreak that killed at least two people and sickened about two dozen others in 11 states. The E. coli outbreak was linked to ground beef produced by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y.” Though no schools “were involved in the outbreak,” Miller “said he’s worried that tainted food might be purchased for school meal programs. Miller asked the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to see whether there are adequate protections for school meals at the local, state and federal level.”

Safety & Security
Safety Expert Calls For Education About Consequences Of School Bomb Threats.
The New Haven (CT) Register (11/10, Smith) reports, “Thankfully, school bomb threats usually turn out to be hoaxes, but the mere possibility of deadly consequences force school administrators and police to treat each and every threat like the real thing.” Recently, West Haven High School in Connecticut “had two bomb threats in one week, and parents became upset when evacuated students were made to sit outside in the cold for several hours in response to the first threat.” A third bomb threat was received later. According to the New Haven Register, “administrators worry that the commonality of bomb threats might mislead students into underestimating the severity of punishment for the prank.” This concern is why “retired fire chief and former city emergency management director James T. Burns Jr. is calling for more education about the repercussions of making a bomb threat.” Burns stressed, “A class D felony doesn’t go away after 30 days. It stays with you.”

School Finance
Pinellas County, Florida, School District Decreases Administrative Spending By 40 Percent.
The St. Petersburg Times (11/10, Matus) reports that although “the Pinellas school district is no longer No. 1 when it comes to spending the most on administration,” it still, “despite a major effort to cut and reclassify costs…spends more per pupil on general administration than just about every other large district in Florida, according to a St. Petersburg Times analysis.” The district “ranked No. 2 or No. 3 among the 12 biggest districts” for expenditures during the 2008-09 school year, “depending on how broadly general administration costs are defined.” For its analysis, the St. Petersburg Times “focused most on general administration costs in the general fund, the primary pot of money for day-to-day operations.” Pinellas started “scrutinizing its administrative expenses last January, after an earlier Times analysis noted how top heavy Pinellas was compared to peer districts. By the end of the fiscal year in June, it had reduced spending in the main general administration category from $6.58 million to $3.94 million — a whopping 40 percent.”

Stimulus Helps Save Thousands Of Oregon Teaching Jobs.
The AP (11/9) reported that the “biggest share of spending from the federal economic stimulus package has gone to pay teachers, in Oregon and elsewhere.” Yet while “stabilization fund” stimulus spending “has kept a couple thousand Oregon teachers in the public elementary and secondary classrooms, it hasn’t brought stability to the school districts and probably couldn’t.” The “hit Oregon state government took in revenue during the Great Recession was, proportionally, one of the largest in the country, and the largest single part of the state government’s budget is school aid.”

Also in the News
PBS Teacherline Wins Grant To Develop Climate Change Curriculum.
T.H.E. Journal (11/10, Aronowitz) reports that “PBS Teacherline, the online preK-12 professional development resource of the Public Broadcasting Service, has announced it has received a NASA Global Climate Change Education (GCCE) Grant to provide professional development courses and teaching resources to encourage the teaching of climate change topics in conjunction with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.” The grant, worth $600,000, “is aimed at ensuring that teachers are adequately trained to educate students to the point at which they’ll understand the issues and dangers, ask the necessary questions, set realistic priorities, and possibly become either politically or occupationally active in dealing with the ongoing problem.”

Texas Districts Considering More Comprehensive Sex Education.
The Dallas Morning News (11/9, Meyers) reports that North Texas school “districts are rethinking what they can and should be teaching” in sex education classes “because of cuts in federal funding, a new state law that requires more parental involvement in sex-education decisions, and increasing reports about Texas’ high teenage pregnancy rate.” One idea is “‘abstinence-plus,’ a curriculum that warns of the perils of early sexual activity while also discussing more comprehensive methods of prevention.” A similar curriculum is Big Decisions, which “discusses birth control options.” The Dallas Morning News notes that “Texas is regularly singled out for its clashing statistics. More government money is spent on abstinence education here than any other state, but Texas leads the country in the percentage of teen mothers who’ve given birth more than once.” And, “it has the country’s third-highest teen birth rate.”

Report: Effectiveness Of Abstinence Teaching Unclear. The Washington Post (11/7, Stein) reported that sex-education programs “that encourage teens to delay sexual activity and teach them about contraception cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections, a panel of independent experts concluded in a report released Friday.” However, there “is insufficient evidence to know whether programs that focus on encouraging teens to remain sexually abstinent until marriage are effective, the panel concluded.” The “conclusions came after the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent 15-member panel that issues public-health recommendations, reviewed an analysis of 83 studies of sexual-education programs conducted between 1980 and 2007.”

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In the Classroom
Educators At Florida School Aim To Improve Math Scores By Increasing Classroom Interactivity.
The St. Petersburg Times (11/8, Solocheck) reported that at Bayonet Point Middle School in Bayonet Point, Florida, “math results on the latest” state “exam dropped dramatically from a year earlier, costing Bayonet Point Middle its A rating.” After that, school administrators and teachers “set a goal of improving the number of students achieving proficiency on the FCAT by 10 percent, and they were to do it through something other than the well-worn drill and kill.” To do this, educators aimed to “improve student interactivity in the classroom. … They got students to become peer tutors for classmates who are further behind” and “they added computer labs in some classrooms to give children more time for individualized skill building.” The St. Petersburg Times notes that “most of the activities have the kids racing to complete math problems in order to finish a puzzle. There are matching games, memory games and games that force students to work out word problems.”

Some School Leaders Say Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum Does Not Improve Test Scores.
The South Bend (IN) Tribune (11/9, Lowe) reports that “third-graders at Beiger Elementary School [have been] studying under an inquiry-based or project-based science curriculum,” which “means they do experiments themselves.” Many educators say that “students remember things better if they’re actually doing something rather than being talked to.” But even though local school administrators like the “inquiry-based curriculum,” they say that it “doesn’t always produce higher standardized test scores.” Such is the case at South Bend public schools, according to the curriculum facilitator, Jesse Warren, who added that “teachers are feeling pressure to have some sort of textbook work to supplement the inquiry-based curriculum.”

Grant Helping High School Participate In NASA Meteorite Program.
The Florence (AL) Times Daily (11/8, Singleton-Rickman) reported, “In January, earth science students at Muscle Shoals High School will have a new telescope to use for a special NASA-endorsed research project.” The school district is using a Science and Math Improvement Grant from the Toshiba America Foundation for a “major upgrade” to its telescope, allowing it to participate in a NASA program to study lunar meteorite impacts. “The project involves juniors and seniors who’ll be looking for strikes and determining their detriment to astronauts.” Teacher Kathy Eldridge “said the opportunity to conduct research on a NASA project is a wonderful opportunity for her students.”

On the Job
Few Elementary, Middle School Students In New York City Getting H1N1 From School Clinics.
The New York Times (11/9, A20, Konigsberg) reports that seven h1N1 clinics operating out of New York City schools “had the staff and enough vaccine to accommodate about 500 middle- and high-school students per clinic per hour — or as many as 31,500 vaccinations a day,” said “the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley.” However, on Saturday, only 1,701 vaccinations were administered, according to a spokesperson for the department. “So on Sunday, the clinics…began offering the vaccine to pregnant women and increased the age limit for others to 24 from high school age. Still, the turnout was low: 1,749.” Meanwhile, about 23 present of the consent forms sent out to elementary students for in-school H1N1 vaccines were returned.

Many Districts Coping With Conflict Between Gender Expression, Dress Codes.
The New York Times (11/8, ST1, Hoffman) reported that in “recent years, a growing number of teenagers have been dressing to articulate – or confound – gender identity and sexual orientation. … Last week, a cross-dressing Houston senior was sent home because his wig violated” his school’s dress code rule. In October, “officials at a high school in Cobb County, Ga., sent home a boy who favored wigs, makeup and skinny jeans. In August, a Mississippi student’s senior portrait was barred from her yearbook because she had posed in a tuxedo.” Yet, other schools “are more accepting of unconventional gender expression. … Dress code conflicts often reflect a generational divide, with students coming of age in a culture that is more accepting of ambiguity and difference than that of the adults who make the rules.”

Law & Policy
Texas Poised To Revamp College Of Education Standards.
The Houston Chronicle (11/7, Mellon) reported that Texas “is among the first states to toughen its standards for colleges of education and other teacher-training programs amid criticism that too many are ‘cash cows’ that produce weak instructors.” According to the Chronicle, “Under a proposed new rating system, the programs would be held accountable for their graduates’ effectiveness on the job especially regarding student achievement. Teacher programs that repeatedly fall short of the standards could lose their state accreditation.” The “changes to Texas’ accrediting system come as U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is reiterating long-standing criticisms of teacher training.”

School Finance
Stimulus Funds Speed Up Renovation Of Baltimore-Area Schools.
The Baltimore Sun (11/7, Bowie) reported that stimulus dollars are allowing school districts in Baltimore City and Baltimore County to speed up construction projects “that have been on hold for years for lack of funding, including the possible construction of the first new city school in a decade.” Though “most of the money – $300 million to be spent statewide over four years – will go toward essentials such as new boilers, chillers, roofs, doors and windows – the city hopes to use some of its dollars to build a new Lexington Terrace school on the west side and an athletic facility on the east side.” Also, dozens “of schools would get new media centers.”

Minnesota Poised To Receive Race To The Top Funds, Experts Say.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (11/9, Johns) reports that Minnesota educators “think the state has a good chance to receive a chunk of some $4.35 billion” in Race to the Top grants “the Obama administration plans to give to states to promote school innovation.” States “compete against each other for the money, and experts say Minnesota’s history as an education reformer that gets results means the state could win part of the pot of money.” Though ED “has not given any indication of how many states might receive the money, experts predict that anywhere from 10 to 15 might get funding.”

Also in the News

UK Lawmakers Plan Evolution Curriculum For Primary School Students.
The UK’s Guardian (11/9, Curtis) reports, “The government is ready to put evolution on the primary curriculum for the first time after years of lobbying by senior scientists.” According to schools minister, Diana Johnson, “the plans will be included in a blueprint for a new curriculum to be published in the next few weeks.” The Guardian notes that the action “follows a letter signed by scientists and science educators calling on the government to make the change after draft versions of the new curriculum failed to mention evolution explicitly.” In an “open letter sent in July to Ed Balls, the children’s secretary…25 leading figures from science and education” pressed “the government to rewrite the curriculum before it was finalized. Among the signatories were the Oxford University evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, three Nobel laureates, and Reverend Professor Michael Reiss, the professor of science education at the Institute of Education in London.”

Pension Checks Of Retired New York City Teachers Canceled.
The New York Times (11/7, A19, Lee) reported that the pension checks “of tens of thousands of retired New York City teachers and school staff members were electronically canceled as of Friday morning, just days after they had been deposited, according to city and union officials.” According to the Times, the officials “laid blame on the Bank of New York Mellon, which oversees electronic transfers for the Teachers Retirement System of the City of New York.” The “checks, totaling $185 million, were part of the monthly pension payments made by New York City through the city comptroller’s office.” Ron Gruendl, a spokesman for the bank said BNY Mellon “is taking a number of actions” to re-deposit the funds and compensate retirees for any overdraft fees resulting from the incident.

NEA in the News
Van Roekel Says Hawaii Politicians Need To Restore School Days.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel wrote in a letter to the editor of the New York Times (11/7) that “Hawaii’s Children, Left Behind,” a Times editorial published Oct. 31, “castigated the public school teachers in Hawaii for agreeing to statewide furloughs to help balance the state’s budget and implied that furlough days were in some way a desired outcome that Hawaii’s teachers actively sought.” However, according to Van Roekel, “the editorial did not mention the more draconian options Hawaii’s teachers were forced to consider and the personal and professional toll that these furloughs are taking on the state’s educators.” He adds that instead of using federal stimulus dollars to save public school jobs, “Hawaii’s politicians used the state’s stimulus dollars to offset general revenue shortfalls,” which is why they were “singled out by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.” Van Roekel concludes that Hawaii’s elected officials should “find the right mix of taxes and cuts to restore the schools to a full year of class days.”

Hawaii State Board Member Says State Shortchanges Education. Hawaii State Board of Education member, Kim Coco Iwamoto, also wrote in a letter to the editor of the New York Times (11/7) that “compared with the rest of the country, Hawaii does not tax enough, and with what little revenue it raises, it shortchanges public education.” Furthermore, she says that “almost 10 percent of Hawaii’s public school students are from migrant military families, most of whom do not remit income taxes to Hawaii.” And, “after deducting the nominal Department of Defense Impact Aid Funds, the uncompensated expenses to the Hawaii public school system remains in the hundreds of millions of dollars every year.” Iwamoto concludes that because public school system in one of the most expensive states in America” is inadequately financed, “it’s no accident when Hawaii’s children get left behind.”

Louisiana To Replace High School Exit Exam With End-Of-Course Tests.
Louisiana’s Advocate (11/6, A1, Sentell) reports on its front page that Louisiana “is about to replace its high school exit exam, which came under scrutiny today in a national report.” Current rules require that “high school student…pass the Graduation Exit Exam and meet other course requirements to earn a high school diploma.” The exit exam includes “tests on math, English,” science, and social studies. “But that system, which won praise for narrowing the achievement gap, is about to be scrapped in favor of end-of-course tests.” The Advocate notes that “about one in three ninth-graders failed the Algebra I end-of-course test in a trial run in May and December. One in four 10th-graders missed the mark on English 2.” Nevertheless, “state educators say they are confident the results will improve when students have to pass those and other tests to get a high school diploma.”

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In the Classroom
School Districts Nationwide Increasingly Going Paperless With Report Cards.
USA Today (11/6, Carey, Wallace) reports that “a growing number of districts nationwide are” going paperless with report cards, opting instead to deliver them to families online. “Districts in Louisiana, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas are among those that have gone paperless since 2008.” And, according to Ann Flynn, director of education technology with the National School Boards Association, districts “making the change ‘are no longer the exception. They are becoming the rule.’”

Dallas School Officials Propose Repealing Minimum Grade Rule.
The Dallas Morning News (11/6, Rado) reports that “In the latest flap over grades, Dallas school officials are proposing that teachers no longer be required to give students a grade of at least 50 on report cards.” However, the proposal would still allow teachers to “use their discretion to give higher grades than students actually earned.” But at a meeting on Thursday, “some school board members questioned whether it could violate a new state law on grades and create uneven grading practices across the district.” The Dallas Morning News notes that “no decisions on the proposal were made Thursday,” but “a vote could happen as early as the Nov. 19 board meeting.”

New Hampshire District To Fund Curriculum Development, Special Ed With Donation.
Seacoastonline (NH) (11/6, Feals) reports that the East Kingston (NH) Elementary School Board “has allocated $115,000 of a $300,000 donation earmarked to the town for education purposes. The money will be put towards curriculum development, special education and recreation initiatives.” Board members “decided to appropriate $80,000 from the donation over the next three years to further develop the school’s science curriculum. Principal Jim Eaves will organize a committee of science faculty and others to examine how to do so within the cost guidelines and report back to the board.” Also, $25,000 of the donation “will be placed into a special education trust fund to be used after the school’s budgeted special education funds are exhausted.”

NASA, PBS Helping Teachers With Climate Change Lessons.
School Library Journal (11/6) reports, “If you’re looking for a way to teach a lesson on climate change that includes science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts, you’re in luck. PBS TeacherLine has partnered with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create a series of professional development courses and teaching resources on the subject.” PBS TeacherLine will be using a $600,000 NASA Global Climate Change Education to “help pre-K-12 educators engage students in critical lessons on climate change, while also incorporating crucial STEM concepts.” The money will be used to develop courses for teachers and produce a series of “online self-paced lessons” using PBS and NASA resources. “The online professional development courses and resources will be available by the summer of 2012.”

On the Job
Alabama Education Officials Say Stimulus Saved More Jobs Than Shown In White House Report.
Alabama’s Press-Register (11/5, Philips) reported, “Though White House officials are boasting that the stimulus package has created or saved 325,000 education jobs nationwide, that only amounts to 841 in Alabama, according to a newly released report.” However, Alabama Department of Education spokesman, Michael Sibley, “said the state’s tally on the federal report is lower because officials have not finished the calculations,” adding that “the final number should ’show significant increases.’” According to Paul Hubbert, executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association, the final number will be “at least 4,000 jobs, about 2,500 of which are teaching positions.”

Hawaii Seen As Needing To “Rebound” From Furlough Friday Criticism.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (11/5) editorializes, “Embattled by Furlough Friday furor, a jab by the federal education secretary and national humiliation, Hawaii’s school system must find a way to rebound. More important, it should devise a method of keeping up with other schools across the country in the years ahead despite circumstances that will remain uniquely difficult.” Recently U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan “said that instructional time in public schools should increase, and he scolded Hawaii for its ’step in the wrong direction.’” According to the Star-Bulletin, “the right direction is demonstrated by the Boston-based National Center on Time & Learning, which has engaged in a pilot program that resulted in an addition of 300 hours to the curricula of 26 schools in Massachusetts.”

Law & Policy
Michigan Governor Says She Supports Measure To Use Stimulus Funds For Education.
The Detroit Free Press (11/6, Higgins) reports that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) “said she’ll support a measure passed by the [state] House today that would use remaining stimulus money to avoid deep cuts to school districts. But she said it’s only a temporary solution.” Signing the bill, she said, would help “avoid the nearly $300 per students school districts would absorb this school year.” At a “private meeting she held with Macomb parents and educators” on Thursday, however, Granholm likened the bill to “kicking the can down the road. … We will be back at it again in a couple more months,” she said. After the meeting, “she called on the Legislature to come up with a solution in the week that remains for them to act.”

ACLU Files Lawsuit Against Florida Over Palm Beach County Graduation Rates.
The AP (11/6, A17) reports that “the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing state officials in Florida of failing to ensure that students in Palm Beach County receive a high quality education, as evidenced by their poor graduation rates.” The lawsuit “filed in West Palm Beach names Gov. Charlie Crist, the Board of Education, and several political leaders,” saying that “they are violating a requirement in the Florida Constitution to provide a ‘uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality’ education.” Specifically, “The suit contends that one-third to one-half of the county’s students do not graduate on time with a regular diploma, well below state and national averages, and that graduation rates varied from 56 percent to 71 percent in 2006, depending on the method used to calculate them.”

Special Needs

Texas Report: Physical Restraint Used More Than 18,000 Times Last School Year.
The Texas Tribune (11/6, Ramshaw) reports that Texas educators “forcibly pinned down students with disabilities more than 18,000 times in the last school year, sometimes injuring them in the process.” A Texas Tribune “review of state data shows public school educators used so-called ‘physical restraints’ – a tool to control or discipline students with disabilities – roughly 100 times a day during the 2007-08 school year.” According to the Tribune, “Educators say restraints are sometimes the only way to prevent disasters. … But disability rights advocates say the numbers point to a crisis in Texas special education,” as teachers “are resorting to physical restraints because they aren’t properly trained to manage their students’ disabilities – posing a threat to vulnerable children and to themselves.”

Safety & Security
Report Says Safe Schools/Healthy Students Program Helps Improve School Safety.
Health Day (11/6) reports that “a program called Safe Schools/Healthy Students greatly increases the safety of students, says a U.S. government report.” School districts participating in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students program, according to the report, “had a 15 percent decrease in the number of students involved in violent incidents, from 17,800 to 15,163. … The number of students who reported experiencing or witnessing violence fell 12 percent.” Also, “among school staff, 84 percent said the program improved school safety, 77 percent said it reduced violence on campus, and 75 percent said it reduced violence in the community.” Health Day notes that the Safe Schools/Healthy Students program is “a comprehensive, community-wide plan that” offers mental health services, aims to improve “the safety of school environments and providing violence prevention activities,” implements “alcohol-, tobacco- and drug-prevention activities,” focuses “on student behavioral, social, and emotional supports,” and offers “more access to early childhood social and emotional learning programs.”

School Finance
Officials In Maryland County Threaten To Sue State Over School Funding Ruling.
The Washington Post (11/6, Hernandez) reports that “top Montgomery County officials threatened Thursday to sue the state and ‘aggressively pursue’ legislation that would change state law after Maryland’s attorney general found that the county had failed to meet the state’s minimum level of funding for education,” and opinion that renders the district “potentially liable for millions of dollars in penalties.” In a joint statement County Executive Isaiah Leggett (D) and County Council President Phil Andrews (D) said that the attorney general’s opinion “’second-guesses’ the efforts of county and school officials to balance their budgets during economically troubled times.”

Colorado Vigorously Plotting Strategy For Race To The Top Competition.
Education Week (11/6, Klein) reports, “If the competition for a slice of $4 billion in federal Race to the Top Fund money were a school class, Colorado would be one of the kids sitting up front, furiously taking notes, and leaping up to answer every one of the teacher’s questions.” The state “began plotting their strategy for receiving one of the coveted grants nearly as soon as the Race to the Top program was created in February.” Since then, “officials have been crisscrossing the state, letting district officials know how they will benefit if Colorado gets a grant.” Education Week points out that “the vigorous outreach campaign is partly to gain an advantage” in the competition, which will judge states, “in part, on the extent to which they have buy-in from various stakeholders for their proposals.” As such, “the meetings have also provided a forum for considerable state collaboration with” the Colorado Education Association,” which “is sending representatives to each of the working groups to make sure the union’s voice is heard.”

Los Angeles Public School Enrollment Decline Exacerbates Budget Crisis.
The Los Angeles Times (11/5, Blume) reported that “an apparent exodus of students to charter schools, combined with an overall enrollment decline, is disrupting Los Angeles-area schools and exacerbating an ongoing budget crisis.” This fall, “local independently run charter schools added more than 9,500 students…a surge of almost 19 percent to more than 60,000.” Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Unified School District has lost “more than 19,000 students, about 3 percent” of its previous enrollment. Because public school funding is “based on student attendance … schools simply cannot afford to employ more teachers than their student enrollment will pay for. The result is that many schools had to release teachers and distribute students into other classes a month or more into the school year.”

North Las Vegas Utilities Department Donates Sports Equipment To Elementary School.
The Las Vegas Sun (11/6, Gibson) reports that “the North Las Vegas Utilities Department refused to let money woes cripple Cahlan-Edison Elementary School’s physical education classes.” The department has, over the past two weeks, collected donations for “new sports equipment and two large bins” to give to Cahlan-Edison, an Edison Learning Institute school in North Las Vegas. “Amanda Dillard of the Utilities Department said employees set a goal to raise $1,000 worth of equipment but have exceeded that amount,” raising about $1,500.

Also in the News
Comedian Encourages Hispanic Students To Stay In School, Attend College.
The Washington Post (11/6, Chandler) reports that Los Angeles comedian Ernie G “is the spokesman for the Washington-based Hispanic College Fund.” He “is moving from the nightclub circuit to the high school circuit so he can encourage the country’s fastest-growing group of high school students to stay in school and go to college.” U.S. Education Department statistics show that “one in five Hispanic teens drops out of high school,” nearly “twice the rate for black students and more than three times the rate among white students.” Furthermore, “only 12 percent of Hispanics ages 25 to 29 have a bachelor’s degree or higher.” The Post adds that “as the compositions of the nation’s high schools change, educators have sought out Ernie G” because “he makes kids laugh while they hear an important message.”

NEA in the News
Union Representatives Say Teacher Improvement Report Disrespects Profession.
Education Week (11/5, Maxwell) reported that a member of NEA, along with 3 other teachers union representatives, was part of “the 30-member task force that helped shape a series of 20 policy recommendations to improve the teaching corps in the nation’s 100 largest school districts” that was included in a report released Tuesday by Strategic Management of Human Capital. Although “some recommendations are aimed at improving the effectiveness of principals…teachers are the overwhelming focus of the report.” According to Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, “who chaired the task force over the course of the past year…the panel had a ‘consensus on much of what’s in the report,’” but he “explained that there had been no formal vote of its members to endorse the report because of some disagreements.” But some teachers union representative are saying that the task force had too few members speaking on the behalf of teachers and that the report is “disrespectful of the [teaching] profession.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 10:06 pm and is filed under NEA Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.