Governor Announces Texas Will Not Participate In Race To The Top.
The AP (1/14) reports that Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said that the state will not “compete for up to $700 million in federal stimulus money for education because the program ‘smacks of a federal takeover of our public schools.’” Surrounded by “representatives of teachers’ unions” and Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, Perry said at a press conference Wednesday that “taking the money would force the state to adopt national education and testing standards and result in Texas losing its autonomy in educating children.” The governor also noted that “under state and local control,” schools in Texas are excelling: “standardized test scores are up, the dropout rate is down and Texas has been recognized as one of only four states that is closing the achievement gap in math.” Some lawmakers, however, “were quick to criticize Perry’s decision.”
The Houston Chronicle (1/14, Mellon) reports that Perry’s “decision to forgo the money available in the Race to the Top grant competition defied pleas from local school leaders who said their districts could use it.” Terry Grier, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, asked, “If our standards are that much better, why don’t we get in there and convince everyone else in the nation to rise to our level?” Meanwhile, many state teachers groups praised the decision. The Houston Chronicle adds that “as of last week, Texas Education Agency staff had spent 700 to 800 hours on the application in case the governor gave the green light.”
The San Antonio Express-News (1/14, LaCoste-Caputo) reports, “Perry’s objections seem to center on the fact that the grant rules give preference to states that sign on to a push for national curriculum standards.” The governor and education commissioner “have been critical of the Common Core Standards Initiative, a state-led effort” that aims to “create common standards for math and English in kindergarten through 12th grade across states.” Alicia Thomas, associate superintendent of Texas’ North East Independent School District, “where officials have declared a state of financial exigency,” spoke in favor of the standards, saying, “We are working to prepare our students to be ready to be part of a global economy. … It might be helpful to have some best practices established across the country. Texas has something to add to that conversation.”
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In the Classroom
Experts Push Introductory Science Education For Preschoolers.
Education Week (1/13, Viadero) reported, “Three years ago, when a task force of the congressionally chartered National Research Council issued influential recommendations for improving K-8 science education, it also made a pitch for introducing scientific study” to “children as young as 4.” This call has been highlighted in recent years by educators and policymakers concerned “about American students’ performance on international science tests and the supply of students pursuing” STEM careers. According to some experts, “decades of research in cognitive science and developmental psychology” dispute the idea that young children are “simplistic thinkers” and are unable to “make predictions” and understand science concepts. Still, a study by University of Miami researcher Daryl B. Greenfield concluded that “science is one of the areas in which children show the least learning growth during their preschool years.”
Minnesota Elementary School Piloting Junior FIRST Program.
The Austin (MN) Daily Herald (1/14, Drewelow) reports that Southgate Elementary “is piloting a Junior FIRST Lego League (FLL),” geared toward first- through fifth-graders. The local high school “has had a robotics team for two years, and Southgate is the only other school in the district that is now involved. The program will grow next school year when Southgate fifth graders graduate and move on to Ellis Middle School.” Students participating in the school’s Junior FIRST program “meet twice a month…to reflect on and meet a challenge,” which varies from year to year. “This year’s challenge is to find out what types of transportation are used to get products to Austin.”
Engineering Club Prepares For FIRST, Other Upcoming Competitions. The Frederick (MD) News Post (1/13, Leckie) reported on the Linganore High School engineering club’s preparation for this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition. Just prior to the announcement on this year’s game, the group “gathered for a pep talk from their adviser and mentors.” The News Post noted, “The club operates like a small business. Students set their goals and establish a budget. They obtain grants and sponsors through recruiting and advertising.” The article describes the club’s fundraising efforts, including a “$5,000 grant from NASA”, and notes that its “estimated budget for the 2009-10 school year of $24,500 represents competition fees, materials and travel expenses.” In addition to FIRST, the club’s members “participate in events such as rocketry challenges, electronics projects and robotics.”
On the Job
Education Week Releases Quality Counts Report.
The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot (1/14, Roth) reports that Virginia “has ranked fourth in the nation for the second year in Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report, behind Maryland, New York and Massachusetts.” The Education Week report “measures states in six areas: success factors outside school, such as parent income and education; standards, assessments and accountability; transitions between early-childhood, K-12 education, college and the workplace; teaching; school finance; and student achievement.” Virginia’s “lowest rankings were in assessments, college preparation and funding equity.”
Florida Schools Seen As Heading In Right Direction. Ron Matus writes in a column for the St. Petersburg (FL) Times (1/14) that Education Week researchers have ranked Florida schools No. 8 in the nation, cautioning that “it’s dicey to make year-to-year comparisons, because they look at slightly different indicators every year.” The researchers “also did not update what is arguably the most important piece of their analysis: the national test scores and graduation rates that gauge student progress.” However, “as a broad measure, they say their report shows Florida is headed in the right direction.”
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Law & Policy
Bipartisan Group Proposes Changes To Utah’s Sex Education Guidelines.
The Salt Lake Tribune (1/14, Schencker) reports that in Utah, “a Republican senator, a Democratic representative, the Planned Parenthood Action Council (PPAC), and the state PTA [are] working together” to get a sex education bill passed. Current “state law allows educators to teach students about contraceptives, but it prohibits ‘advocacy or encouragement’ of their use, leading some educators to avoid the topic out of fear of accidentally crossing the line.” The legislation proposed by Sen. Stephen Urquhart (R) “would remove that prohibition and instead require teachers to talk about the limitations and benefits of contraceptives and the importance of parental guidance in such matters.” In addition, it would “require the State Board of Education to select instructional materials about contraception for districts to use.”
Special Needs
New Jersey School Aims To Help Special Needs Students Reach Full Potential.
The Advertiser-News (NJ) (1/13, Wilinski) reported, “Unable to attend school in a traditional setting due to disability,” 19 students attend Special Children’s School in Sparta, NJ “to receive the academic, social, cognitive and physical education and therapy they need, according to their Individualized Educational Program, or IEP.” The Special Children’s School “seeks to provide all of its students with a well rounded education that will help each one reach his or her full potential, utilizing individual strengths.”
Missouri Education Department Holds Hearing On Proposed Special Ed Regulation Changes.
The Missourian (1/13, Ziemba) reported that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education “held a public hearing on proposed changes in state regulations for special education services in Missouri on Tuesday.” Missouri “is changing its state plan to comply with new federal guidelines that regulate federal funding for special education services, Jim Morris, the department’s spokesperson said. … Most of the changes are for clarification purposes, but there is a new federal regulation that will allow parents to withdraw their child from special education services with written consent, Jackie Bruner, special education services director, said.”
Facilities
Parents Pitch In To Update Elementary School.
The Agoura Hills (CA) Acorn (1/14, Fischer) reports that parents in the Oak Park school system spent time before and during winter break making improvements “to the aging multipurpose room, the central quad area and a prominent wall in the outdoor lunch area” of Brookside Elementary School. “Before the winter break, parents,” including PTA president Toni Caruso and her husband, “removed deteriorating and discolored ceiling tiles and cleaned and prepared the walls for painting.” The Carusos also “removed bulletin boards and an unused trophy case, fixed broken walls, installed new ceiling tiles and painted the entire room beige.” Then, during the break, they spent time “updating the multipurpose room.” Overall, the updates cost less than $40,000.
Also in the News
Group Releases List Of 10 Education Technology Issues Expected To Drive Policy Decisions.
Dave Nagel, “executive editor for 1105 Media’s online education publications,” asks in T.H.E. Journal (1/14, Nagel), “Which issues in education technology should drive policymaking in 2010?” The International Society for Technology in Education has “published a list of its top-10 priorities for decision makers for the coming year.” The list includes: “Increasing federal funding support for technology through Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT); Keeping educators up to date on the latest technologies to help them be more effective in their teaching environments;” and “Ensuring universal access to broadband services, which ISTE described as ‘critical so that students and parents have access to school assignments, grades, announcements and resources.’”
Denver Public Schools’ Attempt To Honor King Seen By Some As Insensitive.
The Denver Post reported that the Denver public school district’s attempt to “to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” was met with disdain from some who found the gesture insensitive. “Friday’s DPS lunch menu, headlined ‘In Honor Of M.L. King,’ offered students ‘Southern Style’ chicken and collard greens — a meal that some say is an offensive caricature of black culture.” On Tuesday, an apologetic statement was posted “on the district’s website,” saying “the meal was ‘highly insensitive in light of certain hurtful cultural stereotypes still harbored in parts of our society.’” The slight was brought to the attention of the school board by teacher Jennifer Holladay, who said “she was instantly upset” when she saw the menu entry. But, School Board President Nate Easley Jr. “said he thinks there are bigger problems facing DPS than what is on the lunch menu.”
NEA in the News
Minnesota School Districts Urged To Settle Teacher Contracts.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (1/14) editorializes, “The clock is ticking toward a Friday deadline, and dozens of Minnesota school districts have yet to settle teacher contracts.” According to the Star Tribune, the National Education Association “says nationwide teacher salary increases in the past year have averaged 1 to 3 percent. During the same period, teachers’ share of health insurance premiums have risen between 7 and 30 percent.” Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) “has said he’s rethinking his recent policy of protecting K-12 education from budget cuts because some districts have approved pay increases.” The Tribune asserts, “School boards know their local circumstances best, and they should continue to have flexibility to decide on where to make cuts and increases, and on borrowing.”
Michigan Teachers Union Declines To Endorse Race To The Top Plan.
The AP (1/13) reported that Michigan Education Association “won’t endorse the state’s efforts to win up to $400 million for schools through the federal Race to the Top competition.” MEA President Iris Salters “sent a memo to union members this week calling the state plan flawed and incomplete. … The MEA is concerned that collective bargaining rights could be jeopardized when the state takes over low-performing schools.”
Obama To Call For More Race To The Top Funding.
The Washington Post (1/19, Fletcher) reports that President Obama “plans to go to Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church [VA], which the White House calls a low-income but high-achieving school, to signal his intention to expand his Race to the Top program” via $1.35 billion in his next budget. According to the Post, though “money from the first year of funding is just now moving toward being awarded to states, Obama administration officials credit it with prompting education policy changes in many parts of the country.”
Race To The Top Competition Spurs Changes But Also Faces Opposition. The New York Times (1/19, A18, Dillon) reports that the Race to the Top education stimulus competition “has spurred education policy changes in states across the nation, but it is meeting with some last-minute resistance as the first deadline for applications arrives Tuesday.” According to the Times, “thousands of school districts in California, Ohio and other states have declined to participate, and teachers’ unions in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida have recommended that their local units not sign on to their states’ applications.” However, since the competition “got under way last summer, with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan bluntly criticizing school policies in many states, legislatures and officials from Rhode Island to California have reworked laws or policies in ways that have advanced President Obama’s vision: more charter schools, better-qualified teachers and a national effort to overhaul failing schools.”
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In the Classroom
New Hampshire High School Students’ Budget Proposal For District Touted As Model.
The Nashua Telegraph (1/19) editorializes that when school board members begin making cuts to the “school budget proposal for 2010-11,” they should “emulate the innovative and analytical approach taken by a group of Nashua High School South students who took on that challenge as part of a class project.” The “accounting and business law students” examined “the district’s financial problems and came up with suggested new revenue and budget cuts that resulted in between $3.3 million and $4 million in savings.” Cuts were made by “scrapping the Phoenix Program for at-risk students ($994,000) laying off five janitors each from the third shifts at the two high schools ($300,000)…and canceling some or all freshman sports ($16,000 to $33,000).” To generate revenue, the students suggested “soliciting gym and stadium advertising ($265,000)…and renting out space to a franchise such as Dunkin’ Donuts ($100,000).” The Nashua Telegraph provides details on the students’ methods for determining what to include in the proposal.
California District Pilots After-School Elementary Music Program.
The Orange County (CA) Register (1/19, James) reports that “when budget cuts forced the closure of the elementary school music programs,” the city of Tustin joined the Tustin Public Schools Foundation and Tustin Unified School District “to create an after-school music” pilot “program for fourth- and fifth-grade students.” The classes, offered through the city Parks and Recreation Department “cost $55 for 12 weeks, and scholarships are available.” One challenge facing the program is “finding transportation for the elementary students to get to the afternoon classes.” The program also needs “music teachers, volunteers, and donations.”
Some Students Honor King’s Memory By Volunteering.
The Chicago Tribune (1/19) reports that about 25 groups from Chicago and suburbs “participated in volunteer events for King Day, said Paula Phillips, civic engagement coordinator for City Year, an AmeriCorps program that works in inner-city public schools and enlists teens and young adults in 10 months of community service.” City Year “bused groups of students throughout the day to about seven locations to help refurbish schools, senior homes, public housing and community centers. At Wadsworth Elementary School, students marched up stairs and ladders to paint murals of King and President Barack Obama on the walls.
Students In Class On Martin Luther King Day Learn About Civil Rights Struggle. WHSV -TV Harrisburg, VA (1/18, Knight) reported on its Web site that Rockingham County, VA students “were some of the only ones who were in class on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Teachers say they’re using the day in school, along with much of this week, to talk about King and his message.” According to WHSV, “Students in elementary schools have been reading books, as well as coloring pictures and other activities, to help them understand the civil rights struggle.”
Astronaut Visits Middle School In Virginia.
The Washington Post (1/17, Williams) reported that astronaut Robert Satcher visited Potomac (VA) Middle School last week, speaking “to the eighth grade in the Dumfries school’s gymnasium Thursday before moving to the library for a 30-minute question-and-answer session with about 25 science students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades.” Satcher “showed a video” of a mission “and entertained the students with tales of playing weightless football and snoozing in a sleeping bag attached to a wall with Velcro. He compared launches to being on a roller coaster for 8 1/2 minutes.”
On the Job
Blogger Develops Performance-Pay Program For Physical Education Teachers.
Mike Thomas writes in his blog in the Orlando Sentinel (1/19) that he has “come up with a solution” for tying physical education teachers’ “raises to improvements in their students’ test scores.” Each fall, students would “be tested for their Body Mass Index, fat percentage, their time in a mile run, the number of push-ups and sit-ups performed in a two-minute period and, with parental consent, a lipids test.” Then the physical education teachers would develop “exercise programs for each at-risk student, and monitor improvement. … No more simply sending them out to play dodge ball and collecting a paycheck,” he adds. “If more than half the students do not show improvement in all areas, the teacher gets no raise. If more than half the students show regression, the teacher is replaced with a non-union trainer. Obese students will be given YMCA vouchers.”
Special Needs
Teacher Encourages Students With Disabilities To Evaluate Service.
The Whittier (CA) Daily News (1/17, Markus) reports, “Special education instructor Tammy Torres had enough of watching her transitional program students get treated with intolerance while out in their neighborhood.” Torres’s students have disabilities such as “Down syndrome, autism, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy.” Torres “developed a customer service survey” for her students to fill out when they “go out for training” to rate “their experience at local businesses.” Students mostly experience a “lack of communication or lack of eye contact,” said Torres. She added that the transitional program, which includes 18-22 year-olds, is new to the community, but, “as the group makes its way out in the neighborhoods, they will gain more acceptance and above all, respect.”
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Facilities
Texas District Considers Grants To Replace Aging Playground Equipment.
The Dallas Morning News (1/16, Unmuth) reports, “After the principal and parents expressed their concerns to the” Irving Independent School District school board about the poor playground equipment at Farine Elementary School, “the board directed district administrators to create a committee to examine ways to better fund playgrounds at the district’s schools.” The committee “found aging equipment was a problem at elementary and early-childhood schools throughout the district,” with safety a major concern. “Repairs and construction” have been estimated at “between $1.5 million and $3.9 million. Irving ISD plans to use its own funds but also is considering applying for grants and seeking community support.”
School Finance
Grants Will Help Three Schools In Michigan Build Schoolyard Habitats.
The AP (1/17) reported, “The nonprofit group Friends of the Rouge has awarded grants to three Michigan schools to build schoolyard habitats. Each school’s grant includes $500 to purchase native Michigan plants and another $500 in expert assistance with implementing the project. Each school also will get $400 for tools or other garden items.
Firm Aims to Help School Districts Generate Revenue Through Advertising.
The AP (1/19, Workman) reports, “Advertising within school districts has long been a controversial topic. … But a new revenue stream…that could save a few programs or even pay for bus transportation in difficult economic times can certainly look like an attractive option.” Sam Curcuru created the business plan for Alternative Revenue Development with school districts in mind. His “business includes four different media for advertising, none of which are within the classroom.” They include “direct-to-home mailings such as school newsletters;” use of “new media and technology” with tools “such as social networking sites,” and “cell phone texting;” banner ads on “district and school Web sites;” and “on-campus signage” for high schools. Said Curcuru, “We only want areas in the high school where the community comes and attends events, like athletic fields, performing arts centers, media centers and gyms.”
Also in the News
Opinion: Business Model Not Appropriate For Schools.
Former UCLA Graduate School of Education lecturer and 28-year teaching veteran Walt Gardner wrote in an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee (1/17), “If schools were allowed to be truly run like businesses, they (employers) would be able to deny enrollment (hiring) of students (workers) who have neither the ability nor desire (qualifications) to be there. But public schools, unlike private and religious schools, must accept virtually all who show up at the schoolhouse door.” According to Gardner, “This is the antithesis of how business operates. … If taxpayers were to spend time in the classroom, they might gain more respect for the work that public schools do in the face of daunting challenges. At the least, they’d come away realizing the futility of running schools like businesses.
NEA in the News
Repeal Of Gambling Loss Limit Brings Less Revenue Than Expected Into Missouri Districts.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1/19, Logan) reports, “When Missouri casinos asked voters to end the state’s one-of-a-kind gambling loss limit, they wrapped their appeal in education.” A year later, however, the loss-limit repeal “has generated less than a quarter of the school funding that was predicted.” Data from state gambling regulators show that “in 2009…Missouri’s 12 casinos won $1.73 billion from gamblers,” and “with a new, higher tax rate,” Missouri schools received “an additional $22 million…far less than even the lowest estimates that Proposition A’s supporters projected during their campaign.” According to Otto Fagen, legislative director for the Missouri National Education Association, “there are flaws in a system that ties school funding to such an unstable source of revenue.” Suggested Otto, “Maybe we should dictate school funding based on what schools need. … Not, he said, on how much people gamble.”
Rhode Island NEA Will Not Endorse State’s Race To The Top Application.
Jennifer Jordan wrote in the Providence Journal (1/19) Projo 7 to 7 News Blog that the National Education Association of Rhode Island, which represents most of the state’s suburban and rural districts, has declined to endorse” the state’s Race To The Top application. National Education Association of Rhode Island Executive Director Robert A. Walsh Jr. said, “At this time, we see no reason to send a letter and don’t think a letter would be helpful to the cause. … Our list of objections is quite extensive and has not been adequately addressed.” Jordan notes that support for states’ grant applications from teachers unions nationwide has been “mixed.” Meanwhile, “federal education officials [say] that signatures of teachers’ unions, while not required, greatly enhance a state’s competitiveness.”
Oregon Education Association President Explains Support For State’s Federal Grant Bid.
Betsy Hammond reports in The Oregonian (1/19, Hammond) Chalk It Up blog about the reasons why the Oregon Education Association is supporting the state’s Race To The Top application, which includes “a plan to tie student test scores back to the teachers responsible for those students.” Hammond summarizes a letter sent by Oregon Education Association President Gail Rasmussen supporting “Oregon’s application for $200 million of federal Race to the Top money.” Rasmussen points out that “leaders and members of OEA were included on the planning team, were listened to and many of their ideas are reflected in Oregon’s application.” She also notes that “Oregon did not bend to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s urgings that it promise to close down low-scoring schools or look to charter schools as a means of educational salvation.” Moreover, the state’s plan “doesn’t mention merit pay and speaks respectfully of collective bargaining.” It also supports “more mentoring, better on-the-job training…and better teacher evaluations.”
Obama Reveals Plan To Expand Race To The Top.
The Washington Post (1/20, Turque) reports that as 40 states and D.C. submitted “Race to the Top” applications by Tuesday’s deadline, President Obama visited Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, VA “to announce that he will seek an expansion of the $4.3 billion program that would allow individual school districts to compete for the money.” The Los Angeles Times (1/20, Silva) reports that the President “promised Tuesday to ‘raise the bar’ on what is expected of public school teachers and students.” He “plans to include the additional $1.35 billion for the program in the fiscal 2011 budget, which he is due to propose next month.” According to the White House, “the extra funding would enable more states, as well as individual school districts, to apply for some of the money.”
The AP (1/19, Superville) reported, “With the grant programs, Obama is trying to make federal education spending more of a competitive endeavor to encourage states and school districts to do better, rather than a solely formula-driven effort in which states and districts look forward to receiving a certain amount of money each school year, regardless of how good a job they do educating students.”
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In the Classroom
Study Shows Girls Less Engaged In Science Than Boys.
The AP (1/20, Sutschek) reports that according to “a study by two Northern Illinois University professors…high school girls are bored, disengaged, and stressed in science classes when compared with boys.” Co-principal investigators, Jennifer Schmidt and M. Cecil Smith “looked at 244 high school students and 13 science teachers.” Responding to a pager “students immediately reported what they were doing and thinking, rating their engagement, enjoyment, anxiety and concentration levels.” According to Schmidt, boys and girls put forth equal efforts into lessons, “but for whatever reason the engagement switch is not being flipped for the girls, in spite of the fact that they get similar grades,” said Schmidt. Smith added that girls often rated “lectures and completing work at their seats as the most engaging classroom activities.” The researchers cited “societal expectations and the role of the teacher” as possible “causes for the gender differences.”
Montgomery, Alabama Students Engage In Various Haiti Relief Efforts.
The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser (1/20) reports that since news broke of the destruction and need left by the earthquake in Haiti, student in the Montgomery, AL, Public School (MPS) District have “engaged in a number of relief efforts ranging from canned food and clothing drives, to selling items to purchase bottled water, first aid kits and flashlights.” Some “student groups are also collecting funds that will be given to support agencies like the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and the Yele Haiti Foundation.” At Goodwyn Jr. High, for instance, the “Student Council and ninth grade homeroom classes are collecting items” for earthquake survivors and “have issued a challenge to all other MPS middle and junior high schools to join their effort.” The Montgomery Advertiser lists various “Haiti relief efforts in MPS schools.”
Some Say New Math Curriculum In Seattle District Could Widen Achievement Gap.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer (1/20, Mongillo) reports, “Last May, the Seattle School Board approved implementing a district-wide high-school math curriculum called Discovering Math. … In June, two parents and a University of Washington professor went to King County Superior Court to overturn the School Board’s decision and force the district to consider other textbook options.” The plaintiffs “fear the new curriculum will only increase an already widening achievement gap between middle-class and disadvantaged students. … Edie Harding, executive director of the State Board of Education, said the board was asked by the state superintendent’s office to evaluate the Discovering Math series last winter and found it wanting.”
On the Job
Massachusetts Elementary School Staff Mistakenly Given Insulin Instead Of Vaccine.
The AP (1/20) reports that school officials in Wellesley, MA, said on Tuesday that “several staff members at” Schofield Elementary School “had to be taken to the hospital after being injected with insulin rather than the swine flu vaccine.” According to Superintendent Bella Wong, “the insulin belonged to students with diabetes and was provided by their parents.” She added that “no students were ever in danger…and all the people who got the wrong shot have recovered.” Meanwhile, “the school nurse who administered the insulin to staff has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.”
Law & Policy
Federal Complaint Filed Against Philadelphia School District.
The AP (1/20) reports that the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice “against the Philadelphia school district” on Tuesday. “The complaint says the district acted with “deliberate indifference” toward harassment of Asian students and failed to prevent attacks” at the school in December, “which hurt about 30 Asian students.” According to school officials, “10 students were suspended over the attacks.”
Oregon Education Reforms Viewed As Step In Right Direction.
The Oregonian (1/20) in an editorial writes, “For Oregon’s education leaders, especially its teacher unions, navigating the new politics of education is like walking blind into a room of rearranged furniture and sharp edges. Every move seems risky, every step forward dangerous.” According to the Oregonian, “Yes, Oregon is treading carefully. … But at least Oregon is finally moving forward on school reforms, including using test scores to better judge teacher performance.” Oregon’s education reforms are “surely not all that Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, hoped for when they launched the Race to the Top competition.” But they are “a meaningful step forward.”
Merit Pay Seen As Most Contentious Part Of Oregon’s Race To The Top Bid. Betsy Hammond wrote in a blog for the Oregonian (1/19), “I’ve been wondering what, exactly, would prove to be the most controversial part of Oregon’s mammoth plan to win federal Race to the Top money. … Bottom line: Merit pay — phrased in the application as ‘using evaluations to inform compensation, promotion and retention’ — is hands-down more controversial than any other element.” Only 65 percent of the Oregon school districts that signed on — and these are the districts that like the concepts in the application — checked the box saying they would be willing to use teacher and principal evaluations to help set pay.
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Safety & Security
New York City, EPA To Monitor Contaminated Caulk In Some Schools.
The AP (1/19, Matthews) reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “and New York City announced a pilot program Tuesday to address the problem of potentially hazardous PCBs in construction materials in some city schools.” According to the AP, “Under the agreement announced Tuesday, New York City will pick five public schools – one in each borough – to monitor for PCB-contaminated caulk. If the caulk is found to contain PCBs, the city will come up with a plan for removing it or covering it up to limit exposure.”
Facilities
Public School In Brooklyn Will Have Year-Round Edible Schoolyard.
The New York Times (1/20, D3, Severson) reports that PS 216 in Brooklyn, NY, is planning the first year-round Edible Schoolyard in the nation. “This summer, supporters will tear up a quarter-acre of asphalt parking lot behind PS 216…and start building the first New York affiliate of the Edible Schoolyard program, developed by the restaurateur Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.” The lot will contain “a kitchen classroom with communal tables where children can share meals they make from food they grow in the garden,” as well as “a chicken coop, a composting system, an outdoor pizza oven and a cistern to collect rainwater.” In addition, “a movable greenhouse will be rolled out each fall.” Students will be taught “lessons in subjects like art, math, history and science” in the $1.6 million schoolyard with a curriculum that “will be designed with help from Teachers College at Columbia and will meet New York State standards.”
School Finance
Most District Officials In Virginia Plan To Increase Student-Teacher Ratios, Survey Says.
The AP (1/20) reports that based on a survey of 133 school districts conducted this month, “Virginia’s public school superintendents are considering increasing class sizes, slashing teacher positions and cutting programs to deal with expected budget cuts.” Nearly 90 percent of responding districts are “considering increasing pupil-to-teacher ratios, 91 percent ” are “considering cutting teaching jobs and half” are “looking at cutting programs such as summer school.” Support Staff are being targeted for many cuts also. According to the AP, “Virginia’s public schools face hundreds of millions in budget cuts over the next two years.” Meanwhile, state lawmakers “have until March to reconcile a $4 billion budget deficit that threatens not only education funding, but money for public safety, health care and other core services.”
Also in the News
Ohio Town Divided Over Teacher Accused Of Teaching Creationism.
The New York Times (1/20, A11, Urbina) reports that in Mount Vernon, OH, eighth-grade public school science teacher John Freshwater “is accused of burning a cross onto the arms of at least two students and teaching creationism, charges he says have been fabricated because he refused an order by his principal to remove a Bible from his desk. After an investigation, school officials notified Mr. Freshwater in June 2008 of their intent to fire him, but he asked for a pre-termination hearing, which has lasted more than a year and cost the school board more than a half-million dollars.” Freshwater’s “hearing is finally scheduled to end Friday,” yet the “the town – home to about 15,000 people, more than 30 churches and an evangelical university – remains split.”
NEA in the News
One NEA Chapter In Rhode Island Supports Proposed School Reform Package.
The Providence Journal (1/20, Borg) reports that the Foster school district in Rhode Island — with just one school and 260 students — has the only local NEA chapter in the state “to support the school-reform package proposed by state Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist.” Before making the decision, Foster Superintendent Davida Irving “met frequently with small groups of teachers, and each time she stressed that change was coming and this was a great opportunity for Foster to show what it can do – and is already doing.” Said Irving, “It was a very, very difficult decision for the teachers, for myself and for the School Committee.” Still, she added, “Rather than sitting back and watching the larger districts working on reforms, we wanted a seat at the table.”
New Jersey Files Race To The Top Application Without Union Support.
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (1/20, Alloway, Rundquist) reports that New Jersey “completed its application…for a share of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top education funding with 378 of the state’s 591 school districts signing on to the bid – but without the support of most of the state’s teachers unions.” The New Jersey Education Association “had recommended its local unions not sign on, objecting to grant provisions that link teacher pay and evaluations to student performance” and questioning “how programs would be paid for when the grant money ends, as well as the emphasis on charter schools,” the Star Ledger noted.
Recent Graduates Mentor Students In Miami-Dade High-Need Schools.
The Miami Herald (1/22, McGrory) reports that eight schools in Miami-Dade County, FL, are hosting student mentors from City Year corps. The mentors are recruited “from across the country to serve…in high-need public schools. They “are recent high-school and college graduates who commit to serve full time for at least 10 months” and they “receive a stipend to help cover living expenses and basic health insurance during their time in the program.” Corps members are instantly recognizable in their red bomber jacket uniforms.” The mentors “work with students in small groups” during class “to help build their reading skills.” The Miami Herald notes that City Year “is part of AmeriCorps.”
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In the Classroom
Quality Of Common Tests Questioned.
Education Week (1/21, Sawchuk) reported, “Most experts in the testing community have presumed that the $350 million promised by the US Department of Education to support common assessments would promote those that made greater use of open-ended items capable of measuring higher-order critical-thinking skills.” However, as “measurement experts consider the multitude of possibilities for an assessment system based more heavily on such questions, they also are beginning to reflect on practical obstacles to doing so.” According to Education Week, “The issues now on the table include the added expense of those items, as well as sensitive questions about who should be charged with the task of scoring them and whether they will prove reliable enough for high-stakes decisions.”
Curriculum Seen As Having Broadened After Merger Of Pittsburgh-Area Districts.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1/21, David) reported, “When the merger of Center Area and Monaca school districts was being debated from 2005 until 2008, educators insisted that the consolidation would improve education.” Now, according to Mike Thomas, former Superintendent of Monaca and current superintendent of merger affairs, the school curriculum has broadened and has increased in depth. High school students now have the option of taking “two levels of British literature, speech and ‘Classics and Film,’” as well as “advanced placement calculus and statistics, finite math, logistics and a hands-on problem-solving track that includes forensics” and robotics. For middle schools, “the district is adopting a team-teaching approach that blends the nurturing environment of elementary school with the variety and challenges of high school.”
Middle School Students Design, Create Quilts For Children In Foster Care.
The Fairfax County Times (1/21, Schumitz) reported that Owlin Burke’s consumer sciences class at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church, VA, is sewing “child-sized quilts” that the class will donate “to children in Fairfax County’s foster care program.” Students in Longfellow’s geometry classes “design quilt patterns, and then students in each eighth-grade family and consumer sciences class pick a design with which they want to work. Each student makes a quilt square for a graded project. Students then volunteer their time after school to help assemble the quilts.”
First US Female Astronaut Addresses Efforts To Boost STEM Education.
Forbes (1/21, Dolan) ran a Q&A with Sally Ride, the first female astronaut from the U.S. Ride “retired from NASA and saw a great need to improve the science curriculum for elementary and middle school students. She started a company, Sally Ride Science, which develops programs for students and teachers.” Ride addressed the need to boost STEM education in the U.S. and is quoted saying, “In the days just following Sputnik, it was cool to be a scientist. It was nationally important that we have scientists and engineers. It was recognized that this was something we needed for the future of our country.” However, according to Ride, “In the last 20 years or so, we’ve lost that focus. Our culture doesn’t put a premium on science and technology. So the kids naturally go into other fields.”
Online Technology High School To Open In Washington State.
Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal (1/22) reports on the opening of Giant Campus of Washington by technology education program company Giant Campus, “an accredited, public and tuition-free online school that provides technology courses to Washington state high school students.” Students will be able to work from home as they “gain knowledge and skills in high tech career areas, like game design, flash animation, digital photography and graphics, and more.”
Texas District Showcases Career Technology Education Program.
The Midland (TX) Reporter-Telegram (1/22, Campbell) reports, “Trying to point up that career technology education isn’t just for shop class anymore, officials from Midland Independent School District and Midland College on Thursday gave members of Key Communicators a tour of the Advanced Technology Center.” Officials said that “at least 200 MISD students come through the ATC daily for courses ranging from certified nursing assistant, cosmetology to welding and automotive technology.” An MISD official “said the programs aren’t meant to pigeonhole kids but help them figure out what they might be interested in. They also won’t ‘wreck’ a student’s GPA.” The school also offers “the Bridges program, software that has kids pick a field they may want to pursue and has them answer questions about their interests. It then shows them the education they will need and possible salaries.”
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On the Job
Study Suggests Need For “More Nuanced” Understanding Of Student Engagement.
Inside Higher Ed (1/22, Lederman) reports on a study from the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning that offers “greatly varying portraits of how students ‘engage’ with their academic work and what happens to them as a result.” The researchers said that the findings “suggest the need for a far more nuanced understanding of the ‘student engagement’ theory of learning than has sometimes been the case.” The research also “suggests a ‘complex,’ and unclear, relationship between engagement and student grades, the researchers say,” noting that in some cases, “there appeared to be little or no connection between how enmeshed [students] felt in their work and their grades in those courses.”
AYP Ratings Don’t Tell Full Story About Schools, Some New Jersey Officials Say.
New Jersey’s Today’s Sunbeam (1/22, Davis) reports, “Every year, schools across the country are required to meet [AYP] standards set forth by” NCLB. However, “according to officials, it doesn’t paint a completely accurate picture to just say whether a school passed or failed.” According to Today’s Sunbeam, “If a school misses just one of the 41 indicators,” the New Jersey Department of Education “considers the school to have failed meeting AYP standards. While officials agree with the purpose of the AYP, to show how schools are progressing each year, some officials disagree with the way the criteria is calculated.”
Law & Policy
Missouri Budget Shortfall May Force Education Cuts.
The AP (1/21, Lieb) reported, “Missouri’s public schools may be forced to freeze salaries, expand classes, cut extracurricular activities or seek local tax increases to cope with a funding shortfall, education advocates warned Thursday. K-12 schools – though spared from cuts in their basic state aid – still might have to scale back because of Gov. Jay Nixon’s [D] plan to provide barely one-sixth of the funding increase needed to meet the state’s financing formula, said Brent Ghan, a spokesman for the Missouri School Boards’ Association.” According to the AP, “Until now, Missouri’s 523 public school districts have weathered the state budget woes remarkably well.” However, Nixon’s “budget office confirmed Wednesday that schools would not get the $43 million midyear increase called for under the school funding formula for the 2009-2010 academic year.”
Washington State Legislature Urged To Take Up Cyberbullying Issue.
The Seattle Times (1/22) editorializes, “Bravo to the principal at McClure Middle School in Seattle who suspended 28 students for bullying a classmate on the Internet. … The state Legislature has pondered anti-cyber bullying laws in the past. Online misdeeds from sex texting to harassing students via text messaging underscore the challenges of technology’s growing acceptance and use in and out of school.” According to the Times, “A legislative effort to require districts to collect data on these incidents could be useful in making informed policy down the road.”
Safety & Security
EPA Promises Vigorous Effort To Reduce Toxic Air At Schools Near Marietta, Ohio.
USA Today (1/22, Morrison, Heath) reports that on Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency said it would “‘use all the tools at our disposal’ to reduce high levels of a toxic chemical that continues to permeate the air outside an elementary school in Marietta, Ohio.” The EPA will “release data today that show high levels of manganese outside a cluster of schools in and near Marietta.” In October, the air samples taken from the schools showed “manganese levels that were” between five and 23 “times above what the EPA considers safe for long-term exposure.” The EPA will also “investigate the source of the manganese in Marietta. According to data” already collected by the agency, “several companies in Marietta reported releasing manganese into the air in 2008, the most recent year for which complete records were available.”
School Safety Progress In Mississippi Analyzed.
Mississippi’s Jackson Clarion Ledger (1/21, Fritscher) reported, “The high school shootings of the late 1990s…created the era of tighter security on campuses nationwide. The Mississippi Department of Education created a school safety division.” Also, schools “added safety personnel, and trained teachers about dealing with bullies and disruptive behavior, said Pete Smith, spokesperson for the Education Department.” However, numerous “factors play a role in whether a child will express violence at school, said Kevin Williams, a Mississippi State University assistant professor specializing in media and violence. Williams said parental attitudes are the No. 1 indicator of a potentially violent child”
School Finance
Denver Public Schools To Receive $10 Million Gates Grant For Teacher Effectiveness.
The Denver Business Journal (1/22, Harden) reports that the Gates Foundation will issue Denver Public Schools a $10 million grant “to support teacher-effectiveness initiatives.” The school district will “release details of the programs the grant will support” today.
Also in the News
Students Facing Hard Times At School, Poll Shows.
The Los Angeles Times (1/21, Blume) reported that California youth “found no escape from harder times last year whether at school, where they endured larger classes, unfamiliar teachers and scarce supplies — or at home, where they faced family stresses from emptier refrigerators, job losses and more frequent dislocation.” This “grim compilation comes in a report,” based on an anonymous poll of principals, from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity. According to the Times, some principals “reported collecting money to help families and told of teachers who bought food and clothes for students, and, in a few cases, took students into their homes.”
Teachers Trained To Help “Average” AP Students.
The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (1/23, Matus) reported that “the new reality facing Advanced Placement teachers” are classrooms of students at varied reading levels. To help AP teachers accommodate all students, the Pinellas school district last week offered “training workshops with a consultant” who preaches the message: “You can reach all kinds of AP kids in the same class.” The consultant, former AP teacher Robyn Jackson, “shared techniques aimed at boosting the ‘soft skills’ that many unprepared AP student don’t have — like how to closely read a text, or focus quickly, or think more critically.” She “outlined specific exercises — like ‘interrupted reading’ and ‘exam stacks’ — that can shore up soft skills in ‘average’ students but can challenge the brightest kids, too.”
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In the Classroom
More School Districts Requiring Public Finance Education.
The AP (1/23, Armario) reported, “The number of states requiring public high schools to offer a personal finance course rose from nine to 15 between 2007 and 2009, according to the Council for Economic Education.” And in some districts, the “lessons…start young.” For instance, in Miami-Dade County, FL, “social studies classes at every grade level have an economics component. … In kindergarten, that starts with discussing needs versus wants.” Because “squeezing a separate personal finance class into the curriculum can still be difficult as schools focus on state and federal testing standards while dealing with budget constraint,” the AP points out, many schools offer personal finance “as part of another subject rather than a separate course.”
Experts Note Resurgence Of Handwriting Lessons In Schools.
The Livingston (MI) Daily Press & Argus (1/24, Rose-Church) reported that the focus on handwriting in teacher training decreased significantly in the 1970s, and “ten years later, the number of students experiencing handwriting difficulties was on the rise.” Tara DiMilia of Handwriting Without Tears explained, “In general, what has happened over the last 25 to 30 years with handwriting, with the onset of computers and technology, is the mind-set we don’t need handwriting anymore.” But, she added, “We can’t eliminate (handwriting) completely — we need it for jobs, and its important to student success.” According to experts, handwriting is currently making a comeback, “but it still takes a backseat to the pressure to teach to tests.” The resurgence of handwriting in schools is due, in part, to standards set by states such as Michigan, which requires that students learn “how to form uppercase and lowercase manuscript letters in kindergarten and first grade” and learn “cursive writing in second grade.”
Students Create Public Blog In Lieu Of School Newspaper.
The Lancaster (OH) Eagle Gazette (1/24, George) reported that instead of resurrecting a school newspaper that “had lain dormant for 15 years,” students in Chad Sinnott’s journalism class at Lancaster High School created “a public blog featuring articles on news, school events, sports, features and opinion pieces”– all written by students — called “Eye of the Gale.” The blog features new articles each week. Said Sinnot of the blog, “We went from being a dinosaur without a newspaper to being one of the few schools in Ohio to deliver the news in a new and technologically advanced way.” Some students “say they like how the blog…makes it easy for them to deliver news to students and community members.” They do not have to “spend time laying out pages and editing stories to make them fit; instead, they write up the news and send it off to Sinnott, who can have it online within a matter of minutes.”
Students Challenged To Create Model For Earthquake-Resistant Buildings.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (1/24, Ranii) reported, “Months before Haiti was devastated by an earthquake, a Ligon Middle School class wrestled with the problem of engineering buildings to withstand seismic shifts.” The students participated in “the statewide Future City Competition on Saturday” at North Carolina State University that was “part of a national competition sponsored by a coalition of engineering groups.” The News & Observer lists some of the “innovations unveiled in Saturday’s competition.”
On the Job
Most North Texas Districts Have Not Developed Policies For Sale Of Lesson Plans.
The Dallas Morning News (1/24, Haag, 350K) reported that “online auction sites and marketplaces” for teachers to sell their lesson plans has allowed some teachers to boost “their incomes by selling thousands of dollars worth of lesson plans a year.” Still, some “legal and ethical questions remain” such as “who owns the education materials, and does a school district deserve all or a cut of the money a teacher makes?” According to the Morning News, there is no clear answer to these and other questions surrounding the practice. “Online lesson plan marketplaces…are so new that some North Texas school districts say they haven’t heard of them.” Consequently, the districts “have no policies or rules that directly apply to teachers buying or selling education materials.” Policies some districts state that “any materials created by employees while at school belong to the district.” However, the Morning News points out, “applying those policies, which likely predate the Internet, might be difficult.”
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Law & Policy
Report: Some Chicago Schools Make Readmission Difficult For “Troubled” Students.
The Chicago Tribune (1/25, Casillas, Mills, 534K) reports, “In spite of Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman’s pledge to help at-risk teenagers, in some instances school officials are undermining that effort, making it difficult for such troubled youths to return to school after they have been incarcerated, according to judges, attorneys, probation officials and others in the juvenile justice system.” According to the Tribune, “In some cases, officials refuse to re-admit students for fear they will disrupt classes or be violent but do not move to formally transfer or expel students as school rules and the law requires. In other cases, parents cannot navigate the school district’s bureaucracy to re-enroll their children after they have been in custody or suspended.”
No Child Left Behind Seen As Boon For Private Tutors.
The Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette (1/24, Soderlund) reported, “Not meeting federal accountability standards can mean a lot of hard work for school officials. But for private tutoring companies, it means big business.” According to the Journal-Gazette, “If a school fails to meet the standards under No Child Left Behind for two consecutive years, that school must pay for private tutors to help struggling students.” According to the Journal-Gazette, “Indiana public school districts spent more than $13.7 million on private tutoring services for low-income and low-performing students in the 2008-09 school year, according to the state Department of Education.” Before No Child Left Behind, districts “were not required to pay for private tutoring.”
School Finance
Wealthy New York Districts’ Reserves Seen As Buffer For Proposed Education Cuts.
New York Times (1/23, A18, Confessore, 1.09M) reported, “When Gov. David A. Paterson proposed this week cutting more than $1 billion in school aid to help address the state’s financial crisis, the critics quickly pounced.” But, according to the Times, “Mr. Paterson’s cuts…may not be quite as dire as some education advocates make them appear.” This may be especially true in many of “the state’s wealthier and more politically connected school districts…where suburban lawmakers have long flexed their muscle to ensure that their districts receive a disproportionate share of state money.” Moreover, “wealthy districts have also piled up significant cash reserves in so-called undesignated accounts, to be used for emergencies.” Statewide, the “50 richest districts have about $100 million in such reserves.”
Many Ohio Districts Diverting Money From Special Education To Stabilize Budgets.
The Columbus (OH) Dispatch (1/25, Richards) reports, “Ohio school districts are spending money meant for disabled students to stabilize their shaky budgets, and the state has made it easier for them to do so.” Many Ohio districts are receiving double the average amount for special education programs through a $438 million “federal stimulus” reserved for special education. “The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act says that, in years where districts receive more special-education funding, they can reduce their local spending by up to 50 percent of the increase.” Last year, however, “the Ohio Department of Education lowered the requirements,” allowing “99 percent of Ohio” districts and charter schools to redirect money. Critics say this provision cheats students with special needs.
Also in the News
Appeals Court Upholds Ruling That Illinois District Is Not Liable In Teacher Sex Abuse Case.
The AP (1/23) reported that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago has “has upheld a lower court’s ruling that a central Illinois school district can’t be held responsible for the behavior [of] a former teacher who was convicted of sexually abusing students.” The appeals court said the Normal, IL-based Unit 5 school district “could not be held liable for White’s behavior, including the injury of one of the students.”
NEA in the News
Reforms Reportedly Taken Out of Alabama’s Grant Application To Appease Teachers Union.
Rena Havner Philips wrote at Alabama’s Press-Register (1/24) Breaking News blog that while “Other states are promising sweeping reforms as they compete for a share of $4.35 billion worth of” race to the Top grants, “Alabama’s application for $181 million basically says that schools here would use the money to expand existing programs.” According to the Press-Register, “more extensive reforms” such as merit pay for teachers and “quarterly standardized tests for all students” were nixed after Deputy Superintendent Tommy Bice received a letter from Alabama Education Association President Paul Hubbert opposing the reforms. The deputy superintendent “said that he wanted many of AEA’s directors in each county to sign off on the” application, but added that “the fact that the items were taken out of the application doesn’t mean the state will stop pursuing them.”
Education Leader Says Additional Cuts To Schools Would Violate Federal Stimulus Rules.
The Arizona Republic (1/24, Gersema, Snyder, 393K) reported, “Child and education advocates are worried about Gov. Jan Brewer’s (R) new round of proposed cuts to Arizona’s education budget, including axing state financial support for all-day kindergarten.” Cuts to all day kindergarten “would save the state $218 million,” according to Brewer. In addition, her budget “calls for cutting $180 million in soft capital used for books, technology, and other teaching tools.” John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association, has cautioned that “if the state cuts any more money from the schools’ budget this fiscal year, Arizona is in jeopardy of violating a ‘maintenance of effort’ requirement for obtaining and retaining federal-stimulus funds.” Meanwhile, Chuck Essigs of the Arizona Association of School Business Officials said that it is not clear “whether the state can cut more money from education to offset the budget deficit for fiscal year 2011.”
Ames, Iowa, Education Association Seeks Collaborative Approach To District Budgeting.
The Ames (IA) Tribune (1/24, Hanson) reported, “When negotiations for teacher contracts begin Monday, Ames teachers said they want to be part of the solution to the problem of the shrinking school budget.” Ames Education Association chief negotiator Aileen Sullivan said “teachers know there’s a good chance schools will get no new money, and the district may be looking for ways to trim up to $3 million from its budget.” Sullivan “said in the past, the negotiators asked for raises in salary or benefits without knowing the impact on staff or programs. ‘This year, we want to negotiate our impact on the budget,’ she said.” Sullivan “said both sides are rising to the challenge, on the basis of good relationships and mutual goals.”
Girls May Learn Math Anxieties From Female Teachers, Study Finds.
The AP (1/26) reports that, according to a recent study, “female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach.” This insecurity, the researchers say, could be a factor in perpetuating the continuing gap between men and women “in some areas of math achievement.” Sian L. Beilock, a University of Chicago associate professor in psychology and one of the study’s authors, said that “young students tend to model themselves after adults of the same sex, and having a female teacher who is anxious about math may reinforce the stereotype that boys are better at math than girls.” Janet S. Hyde, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, praised the study. Hyde noted that “girls who grow up believing females lack math skills wind up avoiding harder math classes.”
The Los Angeles Times (1/26, Kaplan) reports, “First- and second-graders whose teachers were anxious about mathematics were more likely to believe that boys are hard-wired for math and that girls are better at reading,” according to the study’s findings. Further, “the girls who bought into that notion scored significantly lower on math tests than their peers who didn’t.” The researchers noted that “the gap in test scores was not apparent in the fall when the kids were first tested, but emerged after spending a school year in the classrooms of teachers with math anxiety. That detail convinced researchers that the teachers — all of them women — were the culprits.”
“Researchers said the next step is to determine what teachers did or said to transfer their anxieties,” the Chicago Tribune (1/26, Mack) reports. Beilock said, “There are lots of questions to be answered about what’s going on in the classroom.” Levine added that “the x-factor did not appear to be teachers’ knowledge of the subject, but rather ‘their feeling about the discipline.’” The study, “Female Teachers’ Math Anxiety Affects Girls’ Math Achievement,” appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers speculated that “increasing math requirements for elementary education programs could help alleviate math anxiety in elementary school teachers, thereby influencing girls’ math achievement,” the USA Today (1/25) “Science Fair” blog reports. The blog notes, “Women make up 90 percent of elementary school teachers in the United States.” HealthDay (12/25, Thomas) also reported the story.
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In the Classroom
Elementary School Pulls Dictionaries From Classrooms Over Sexually “Explicit” Entry.
The Los Angeles Times (1/26, Kelly) reports that after a parent “called the principal of Oak Meadows Elementary School” to complain that an entry in dictionaries available at the school was “too [sexually] explicit,” the dictionaries “were immediately pulled off the shelves and ‘temporarily housed off location’ until a committee could determine their suitability for children.” District Spokeswoman Betti Cadmus emphasized, “The dictionaries have not been banned.” Still, “a panel of parents, teachers and administrators will” determine if the dictionaries are appropriate for the school curriculum. The panel will “meet later this week to comb the dictionary for potentially graphic words or definitions and issue a report within a month.”
Memphis Schools Adding Earlier Introduction To Math, Science.
Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal (1/25, Roberts) reported that Memphis City Schools is increasing emphasis on math and science “in several elementary schools.” Linda Sklar, head of optional schools in the city system, said, “We’re encouraging students to understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world and making them critical, reflective thinkers.” There will be a STEM “optional [elementary] school” and a K-8 school with a focus on media arts and public service. The programs beginning this fall will begin in middle and high schools and will be open to all students who meet requirements. Meanwhile, the school system also plans to open “an International Baccalaureate program in schools that feed into the Ridgeway High IB program…as early as 2011.”
Colorado District To Open Science And Technology Institute.
The Denver Post (1/26, Nicholson) reports on The Institute of Science and Technology at Overland and Prairie being built by the Cherry Creek School District, which “serve 6th- through 12th-graders, offering them a curriculum in STEM subjects.” Students at the institute will be able to concentrate in engineering, computer science, technical communication, mathematics, and health sciences. “The institute will also offer introductory programs for kindergarten through 5th-grade students to encourage them to pursue STEM courses when they’re eligible to attend.” A ground-breaking event for the school featured Governor Bill Ritter, as well as “representatives from the City of Aurora, Arapahoe County, CH2M Hill, the Colorado School of Mines, DeVry University, and others.”
On the Job
Utah, France Sign Teacher Exchange Agreement.
The Salt Lake Tribune (1/26, Schencker) reports that France is paying three French teachers “to work in Utah schools as part of the state’s dual-immersion program this year.” On Monday, “Utah education leaders signed an agreement with French officials to continue the cooperation in hopes of bringing more French teachers…from France and eventually sending Utah teachers there to teach English.” Utah is the twelfth state to “to sign a memorandum of understanding with a French education system.” The state also has “agreements with Spain, Mexico and China, which help supply some of the state’s Spanish and Mandarin teachers.”
DC Schools Chancellor Expected Today To Explain Claims Against Fired Teachers.
The Washington Post (1/26, Turque) reports that a spokesperson for D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said that Rhee will make a statement Tuesday morning regarding comments she made “that appear in the February issue of ‘Fast Company’ magazine.” Rhee “faced mounting pressure Monday to explain her statement…that some of the 266 teachers laid off in last October’s budget cuts ‘had sex with children,’ hit them or were chronically absent without authorization.” D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said the claims were “alarming and deeply troubling.” He has “set a Wednesday deadline for Rhee to provide each instance since July 1, 2007 — the beginning of the chancellor’s tenure in the District — in which a teacher who sexually assaulted or hit a child was reported to the D.C. police department or Child and Family Services Agency, as required by law.” And, he wants “to know what actions were ultimately taken.”
In the Washington Post (1/25) the Answer Sheet blog, Valerie Strauss wrote, “What was she thinking,” regarding Rhee’s comments. According to Rhee, the statement she made to “Fast Company magazine was something she had already told the D.C. Council.” Strauss said, “I can’t figure out if Rhee actually likes stirring up controversy or just muddles her way into it — or both — but in this instance, whether it was a hasty remark she didn’t intend to make or an intentional bomb, I don’t see a good way out.”
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Law & Policy
Florida Governor Wants Voters To Reconsider Smaller Classes.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/26, Colavecchio, Solochek) reports that with Florida “having already spent $16 billion to reduce class sizes — and facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit,” Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is asking “voters to reconsider their 2002 vote in favor of smaller classes. Crist, who in the past has opposed tinkering with the class size amendment, on Monday said he now supports essentially freezing it where it is now — with mandated caps calculated as school-wide averages.” According to the Times, “Superintendents and others say going to the next phase — caps for every classroom, beginning next school year — would cost too much, create problems with student enrollment and do little to improve student achievement.”
The Tampa Tribune (1/25, Peterson) reports that Crist “said today he wants to ask Florida voters to freeze school class sizes where they are now without reducing them further. Voters in 2002 approved a constitutional amendment requiring that by fall 2010, each class be limited to a set number of pupils.” According to the Tribune, “Most schools already have met the schoolwide enrollment-reduction goals, after spending a total of nearly $16 billion on teachers and other resources. Officials feared they would have to spend billions more to meet more focused class-level requirements.”
New York City Steps Up Efforts To Close Underperforming Schools.
The New York Times (1/26, A17, Otterman) reports that in New York City, closing underperforming schools, “especially large high schools, has been one of the most controversial hallmarks of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s control of the school system. And it is taking on a new urgency, both in New York and around the country, with the Obama administration putting a premium on ‘school turnaround’ policies” as a part of the Race to the Top stimulus grant competition. The Times notes that since 2002, New York City “has closed or is in the process of closing 91 schools, replacing them with smaller schools and charter schools. … This year, the city has proposed phasing out 20 schools, the most in any year.”
Proposal Seeks To Address Program Equity, Enrollment Problems.
The Business Gazette (MD) (1/25, McKeever) reported on a proposal from Prince George’s County schools Superintendent William Hite Jr. that “seeks to provide equity in high school programs while addressing enrollment problems.” Under Hite’s proposal, “the county would be split into five areas, with each area offering International Baccalaureate, science and technology programs and career and technical education programs. … There would also be one visual and performing arts, world languages and non-traditional high school alternative program in the northern and southern part of the county.” Hite pointed out that “program availability is closely connected with enrollment at county high schools.” The response from school board members was positive, according to the article, although “they were concerned with the financial impact.”
Facilities
Georgia District Fined $30,000 by State EPA For Water Contamination.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1/26, Matteucci) reports, “DeKalb County schools have been fined $30,000″ by Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division “for draining muddy water into a Dunwoody stream and other environmental violations while building an elementary school.” The Journal-Constitution points out that “The fine comes as the school system is considering a decrease in teachers’ salaries, closing magnet schools and cutting other programs to meet a $56 million deficit.” According to a spokesman for the district, “the fine was paid by the contractor, the architectural firm and the geotechnical firm hired by the district” for the construction.
Also in the News
Study Links Students’ Scores On International Test To Nations’ GDPs.
Education Week (1/27, Robelen) reports that a new study by researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests that “modest gains in student achievement as measured by” the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) “could cumulatively boost the country’s gross domestic product by tens of trillions of dollars over the coming decades.” Researchers used “economic modeling to relate cognitive skills… to economic growth.” According to the report, “The international average on PISA is 500.” Researchers predicted that a “‘modest goal’ of having all 30 industrialized countries in the OECD raise their average scores on PISA by 25 points in the next 20 years would provide an aggregate gain of $115 trillion in GDP ‘over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010.’”
NEA in the News
Missouri Lawmakers Introduce Three Improvements To Education.
Missouri’s News Tribune (1/25, Watson) reported that Missouri lawmakers introduced a bill last week that seeks to improve public schools with three policy changes. The first would be to pay teachers on merit, schedule “classes on a year-round basis,” and authorize “kindergarten students to begin school twice a year.” Chris Guinther, president the Missouri National Education Association, said that teacher pay should be based on more than just students’ test scores.