Morning Bell by NEA
Green School In Brooklyn Emphasizes Civic Involvement.
The New York Times (1/11, A12, Navarro, Bhanoo) reports that throughout the US, a wide “range of green schools form a fledgling network, with some of them benefiting from state grants and mandates to incorporate environmental education into the curriculum.” At the Green School in Brooklyn, NY, for instance, places great “emphasis on civic involvement.” Also, “students are encouraged to delve into local issues that may affect them and their families” such as “water quality or the razing of low-scale housing.” Similar schools nationwide are partnering with “groups like the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, which provide lesson plans or money for field trips, and…private and government agencies that are making concerted environmental efforts in communities and cities.” An accurate count of the “private, and charter and traditional public schools nationwide” that “have adopted an environmental theme” is not yet available, the Times notes.
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In the Classroom
Aviation Class Structured To Promote 21st Century Skills.
The Bismarck (ND) Tribune (1/11, Kincaid) reports on the aviation II class at Bismarck High School, which will recreate a “1902 Wright glider” for a class project in the coming year. Students will be given only “a set of directions and about $4,000 worth of lumber and other materials to turn into the glider.” Such projects give students room “to express creativity in their solutions,” and “the way their teacher, Pat Phillips, structures the class incorporates” 21st century skills, or soft skills, that “employers want from potential employees.” Peter Magnuson, senior director of programs and communications with the Association for Career and Technical Education, said “the push to incorporate these skills in the classroom comes from the business community.” He explained, “Business is so streamlined now, that the more time it takes to ramp up an employee, the less time they are in a productive mode.”
More Suburban Districts Offering Dual Enrollment For High School Student.
The New York Times (1/10, MB1, Hu) reported that “dual-enrollment courses have long been used in urban schools to provide some higher education to poor and minority students and encourage them to go on to college. But now many top suburban high schools are embracing dual enrollment as a way to challenge their brightest students and ward off senioritis once college applications are done.” Some educators “say the college courses offer an alternative to the high-pressure AP program, in which students receive college credits or advanced placement based on their performance on an exam at the end of the year.”
Students Growing Up In “Time Of Renewed Interest” In STEM.
The Washington Post (1/11, Turque) reported on the FIRST Robotics Competition that took place at McKinley Technology High School recently, noting that participating students “are growing up in a time of renewed interest in science, technology engineering and math education.” The Post notes the Educate to Innovate Campaign recently launched by President Obama. Locally, meanwhile, “Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has designated six District public schools…as STEM ‘catalyst’ schools that will develop curricula that will weave science, math and technology through all major subjects.” The Post adds, “Corporate and government sponsors, including Boeing, NASA, Northrop Grumman and Booz Allen Hamilton, hope the focus will broaden the pool of potential employees.”
DC Graduation Rate Rising. The Washington Post (1/9, Turque) reported that D.C. officials “reported improved high school graduation rates Friday but acknowledged that the numbers could look less encouraging when a more stringent method of calculation is adopted next year. High school completion rates in the 2008-09 academic year increased by 2.6 points, to 72.3 percent, up from 69.7 percent in 2007-08.” District officials “attribute the rise to improved programs for struggling students and more careful tracking of transcripts to make sure students have the credits and courses needed to graduate.”
Third-Grade Class Raises Money To Provide Meals For Students In Ghana.
Massachusetts’ Republican (1/10, Graham) reported, “A math lesson for the third-graders in Andrea J. Boyko’s class at Dorman Elementary School is yielding school lunches for impoverished children halfway across the globe.” Boyko asked her students to collect 1,000 quarters as a class “to benefit the children in four schools in Ghana, West Africa.” As the “executive director of a nonprofit organization that works with those schools,” Boyko “knows firsthand the conditions that students in West Africa face.” She and “the director of [an] orphanage…for children orphaned by HIV and AIDS” founded the nonprofit Future Leaders of Ghana. “Since then, Boyko has spent much of her vacation time in Ghana striving to improve the lives of the children at four schools.” The donation from Boyko’s class at Dorman will “help provide school lunches to the students in Africa, who typically don’t get any lunch at all while they are in school.”
On the Job
Grant-Winning Florida District Rolling Out Peer Evaluation System For Teachers.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/11, Marshall) reports that Florida’s Hillsborough County school district “won a $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation” about two months ago, and has now begun “a major communications effort to rally teachers for big changes.” For the effort, “the district has pushed out e-mails, Webcasts, and podcasts. And on Wednesday…the first in a series of” informative forums for teachers is scheduled. Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said in a podcast, “This is not something we’re doing to teachers. … It’s something we’re doing with teachers, as full partners.” This spring, Hillsborough “will form a corps of 200 peer evaluators” and complete “a new evaluation system for teachers and principals.” Each teacher will be rated on a “five-point scale,” and “by 2013, that process will serve as the basis for performance pay as well as termination.” Elia acknowledged that “some teachers will struggle under the more intense evaluations.” Others, she said, will be able to earn more money.
Dallas District Participating In Gates Foundation Teaching Study. The Dallas Morning News (1/8, Rado) reported, “Dallas public schools have joined a national research project that will delve into what makes teachers good at what they do – a key ingredient in how students perform on high-stakes tests.” Dallas “will get $1.3 million” in Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation money as part of the foundation’s “Measures of Effective Teaching” initiative, a “two-year project that will review how 500 teachers are teaching, including videotaping their classroom performance. … Each teacher selected gets $1,500, and their schools collect $1,500 for being part of the project.”
Texas District Uses Bonus To Recruit Top Teachers For Struggling Schools.
In the second installment of a multipart series, the Houston Chronicle (1/11, Mellon) reports, “Cheryl Contreras, a seasoned English teacher, is trying hard to rally in her new job at Fondren Middle School, a southwest Houston campus with the state’s worst academic rating.” Contreras “was so successful at her old teaching job that the Houston Independent School District offered her a $20,000 bonus to transfer to Fondren for two years. The deal is part of a national study designed to lure talented teachers to struggling schools.”
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Law & Policy
Massachusetts Lawmakers Again Consider Extended School Hours.
The AP (1/9, Leblanc) reported that a new “bill working its way to” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s (D) “desk could bring longer hours to even more schools” and “would double the number of charter schools in the state’s worst performing districts.” The governor wanted to implement a similar plan “four years ago…but plummeting state revenues and dramatic budget cuts have made it hard to turn that vision into a reality.” Now, “Patrick hopes to extend the option of longer school days using part of an anticipated $250 million the state is eligible for through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative, designed to reward states that take innovative approaches to improve education.”
Milwaukee, WI Schools Could Lose Millions In Federal Grants Over Turnaround Plan Dispute.
The Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel (1/11, Hetzner) reports, “After missing several mid-December deadlines to comply with state directives, Milwaukee Public Schools could be in danger of losing out on millions of dollars in federal funds. Wisconsin’s schools chief has threatened to withhold as much as $166 million from Milwaukee Public Schools in a dispute over how to improve student achievement in the state’s largest school district.” The “dispute stems from a corrective action plan initiated by the state Department of Public Instruction after MPS missed progress targets under [NCLB] for five years in a row.”
Safety & Security
Chicago BOE Deciding New Policy For How Schools Handle Assault, Harassment Cases.
The Chicago Tribune (1/11, Twohey) reports that Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy “is one of many high schools in Illinois to come under fire for their handling of student sexual assaults and dating-related violence.” An investigation of one student’s assault by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found that Chicago Public Schools “failed to protect [the student] after the attack.” The Department also “said in its report last spring that Simeon Career Academy did not respond ‘promptly and effectively’ to the harassment” that followed the attack. Illinois does not have any “laws or policies governing how school districts should respond to these sensitive issues,” and school officials “must balance protecting alleged victims versus the rights of the accused.” Currently, a state task force is “is crafting recommended policy changes” for how schools should deal with assault and harassment cases, and the Chicago Board of Education has “strengthened its policy on sexual harassment, said schools spokeswoman Monique Bond, adding that victims now have a means of filing complaints more directly.”
School Finance
DC Schools Chief Says District Aid For Board Certification Is Not Justified.
The Washington Post (1/11, Turque) reports that with so few teachers earning National Board certification, DC schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee says that “the annual expenditure of about $600,000″ dedicated to helping board candidates is not justified in the current economy. The Post notes that “under former superintendent Clifford Janey, the D.C. school system supplied technical and financial support to board candidates, including video cameras to record classroom lessons and financial support to defray the $2,500 application fee.” Also, a $4,000 stipend was awarded to “those who won certification.” Rhee says that money would be better spent on “a more foundational level of professional development…before teachers reached for the national board certification.” The Post points out that DC’s “commitment contrasts sharply with that of other major school systems in the region.” Moreover, “teachers unions, which historically fight any form of differentiated pay for teachers, support board certification.”
NEA in the News
Rhode Island NEA Official Disapproves Of State’s Plan To Hire Temporary Workers.
The Providence Journal (1/11, Peoples, Gregg, Edgar, Marcelo) reports that despite a hiring freeze on state jobs, Rhode Island “held a public hearing last week on plans to hire 28 contract employees.” It was “the second such public hearing” since the freeze was enacted. The jobs will be “filled primarily through temporary employment firms” and most will be “financed through federal grants or restricted state accounts.” The Providence Journal adds that “labor unions aren’t pleased.” Patrick Crowley, assistant executive director for the National Education Association of Rhode Island, said, “I’d rather see the money go into the hands of working people instead of a temporary agency taking their cut out of the money.” He added, “It is also ironic that the governor is proposing to hire three temporary workers in his office to oversee the use of stimulus money when he questioned the use of the money from the start.”
School Support Staff Hit Hardest With State Funding Cuts.
The Arizona Republic (1/11, Rubiano) reports that education leaders throughout Arizona are encouraging the state Legislature “to protect education funding” when it meets on Monday. “In fiscal 2009, the state cut $123 million to K-12 education and” this year, “$144 million in cuts to K-12 funding loom.” The areas hit hardest have been support staff positions, including school librarians, art and music teachers, and custodial and lunchroom staff. John Wright, president of the Arizona Education Association and vice chairman of the Education Coalition, said that even though “none of these cuts have crippled schools” so far, he describes them as “devastating.” Said Wright, “I do not see how districts and schools can absorb further cuts without going into their personnel costs.” Currently, the Education Coalition is working to “increase awareness about the state of education funding by presenting a united front.”
Many States Lowering Standards For High School Exit Exams.
The New York Times (1/12, A1, Urbina) reports on its front page that a “law adopting statewide high school exams for graduation took effect in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with the goal of ensuring that students leaving high school are prepared for college and the workplace.” However, “critics say the requirement has been so watered down that it is unlikely to have major impact. The situation in Pennsylvania mirrors what has happened in many of the 26 states” that have “softened” standards as deadlines approached to implement exit exam requirements. However, “proponents say that with the decline in manufacturing and the growth of the information economy, higher educational standards are needed to reinforce the value of a high school diploma.”
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In the Classroom
Local School Invited To Compete In Student Launch Initiative.
The Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram (1/12, Brown) reports a team from Northwest High School “is among 37 groups from middle schools, high schools and colleges nationwide challenged to design, build, test, launch and recover a rocket capable of reaching an altitude of 5,280 feet.” The team was invited to participate in NASA’s Student Launch Initiative after its finish at the Team America Rocketry Challenge national finals. “NASA engineers approved the school’s preliminary rocket design, and the team is under a $3,700 contract with the federal agency, said Northwest teacher Wayne Day.” This April, the team will go to the Marshall Space Flight Center “for a design review with NASA engineers and launch their rockets at Bragg Farms in Toney, Ala.”
NASA-Funded Program Teaching Science On A Winnebago. The Courier-Post (NJ) (1/12, Comengo) reports Burlington County College’s “Science on Wheels program, financed by NASA, arrived in a motorized Winnebago trailer Monday. To promote more interest in science and technology, college instructors will use it to teach K-12 public school children, college officials said.” The program was made possible by a $1.43 million NASA II grant. “Five students can work on individual projects…at five computer-equipped work-stations inside the mobile classroom, while the rest of the class can sit outside…and watch NASA experiments and other lessons on an LCD screen on the side of the trailer.” The article notes that part of the money is also being used to set up a greenhouse. “Anthony DiLemme, the county college project director for NASA II, said the greenhouse will be used to start an agricultural and horticultural program that eventually could evolve into a curriculum in cooperation with Cook College.”
Program Uses Art To Teach All Subjects.
The AP (1/12, Miller) reports that 19 schools in Tucson, AZ “use the Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA) program to teach traditional subjects in non-traditional ways.” OMA “correlates its curriculum with the neurological development of children, kindergarten through eighth grade,” using “different fine-arts techniques.” For instance, “kindergarteners use instrumental music to develop auditory acuity; first-graders use opera to develop language acquisition;” and “second-graders use dance to develop kinesthetic awareness.”
NFL Pen Pal Program Promotes Diversity.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (1/11, Freeman) reported that seven South Florida schools are participating in the National Football League’s “One World: Connecting Communities, Cultures, and Classrooms” exercise. According to the Sun-Sentinel, “It’s an opportunity for children from various backgrounds to learn what they have in common with each other despite their differences, according to curriculum materials from the NFL.” Students in the program “were prompted to write four letters wrapped around diversity concepts, such as breaking down stereotypes” to pen pals in other participating schools.
On the Job
Indianapolis Public Schools Gives Weakest Teachers A Chance To Improve.
The Indianapolis Star (1/12, Gammill) reports that Indianapolis Public Schools “has removed 22 of its weakest teachers from their classrooms, the beginning of an effort to shore up teaching in the state’s largest district.” Included in the group are “teachers who failed to control the students in their classrooms” and some “who had not mastered the material they were teaching.” The teachers will receive extra “training this semester and then given a final chance next year to have a classroom while on probation.” The Indianapolis Star notes that the district’s move — and similar actions nationwide — is fueled by “research that shows that even one bad teacher can jeopardize a student’s academic career.” Said Superintendent Eugene White, “A poor teacher compromises the future and the education of a child.” The new IPS policy “represents a break from the struggling district’s past, when administrators sometimes failed to take action against bad teachers for years,” The Star adds.
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Law & Policy
Little Difference Seen In Lingle’s Plan To End Furlough Fridays.
The AP (1/12) reports that Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (R) has come up with a new plan to restore the state’s education calendar that is “similar to previous plans that the teachers union has rejected.” Lingle is proposing that “teachers…convert three fewer planning days to instructional days than she had previously sought, which would help regain 24 of the 27 remaining teacher furlough days scheduled to shutter schools statewide this school year and next.” Otherwise, the plan remains largely the same. “The teachers union,” meanwhile, “said it wasn’t invited to collaborate with Lingle on her newest offer after she turned down its last proposal.”
Some Teacher Unions Opposed To Race To The Top Reforms.
The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News (1/11, Murphy) reported that James Testerman, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, says “an argument could be made for Pennsylvania walking away from the chance to grab as much as $400 million” in Race to the Top funds. According to the Patriot-News, “State teacher unions in at least Minnesota, California and Florida are discouraging local union officials from signing agreements to commit their districts to implementing the reforms in the state plans if the proposals receive federal funding.” Pennsylvania’s “program calls for such mandatory changes as using a teacher evaluation system that factors in academic gains and such optional changes as implementing merit pay or firing half the staff in struggling schools.”
School Finance
Northern Virginia Districts Eligible For State Funding Increase, May Not Get It.
Washington Post (1/11, Chandler) reports that Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is proposing “a one-year delay in the regularly scheduled readjustment of the” state education funding formula, “a move that would prevent the influx of more than $120 million in additional state funds over the next year to…schools in” Northern Virginia. The Post explains that “Virginia’s funding formula is” set up for equitable distribution, “so poor districts get more school funding from Richmond and wealthy districts get less.” Currently, Fairfax County receives “less than 25 percent of” it’s funding from the state, while other districts get “closer to 80 percent.” This year, Northern Virginia districts are set to receive “significantly more in state funding, largely because of dramatic declines in the housing market.” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova argued, “We have played by the rules. … And it’s not fair to change the rules the very year that Fairfax would get some benefit from them.”
Schwarzenegger Budget Proposal Would Require Cuts To Education, Critics Say.
The Sacramento Bee (1/10) reports that some California state lawmakers say that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “vow to protect public education…would require deep cuts affecting students.” Schwarzenegger’s “spending plan would fund schools at about the same level this year and next – $7,444 then $7,486 per student,” but it would “require more than $2 billion in belt-tightening necessitated by rising costs.” Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D) said, “Despite scores of ‘maneuvers’ and the shells moving back and forth over the little ball, in fact, when you read the governor’s budget, he calls for cutting education $2.4 billion.” Those cuts include “$1.2 billion from school district central administration;” another “$550 million from the state’s class-size reduction program;” and taking “$45 million from county office of education administrative costs.” Moreover, Schwarzenegger proposes granting districts more “flexibility” to get rid of teachers through lay-off, transfer, rehire, or assign teachers “without regard to seniority.”
Teachers In Georgia District Protest Superintendent’s $15,000 Raise.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (1/12, Matteucci) reports, “Shouting in unison Monday night” outside a school board meeting, “more than 250 DeKalb County school workers protested their superintendent’s $15,000 pay raise.” The gathering included “teachers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians and” even some students. The Board voted last week “to raise Lewis’ pay from $240,000 to $255,000″ and to extend “his contract until January 2013.” The superintendent’s pay increase came “after teachers were required to take a furlough day and lost contributions to their tax-sheltered annuity.” School Board Chairwoman Zepora Roberts said that “the board would issue a statement” on the matter. Maureen Downey also covered this story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (1/7) Get Schooled blog. She included a letter from the Organization of DeKalb Educators to the school board in which ODE President David Schutten wrote of the sacrifices made by ODE members.
Also in the News
Teachers in Space Participant Also Selected For NASA Educator Program.
The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer (1/11, Kranz) reported, “Steve Heck, one of seven teachers who will travel in space as part of the Teachers in Space program, has been named one of 40 teachers nationwide to receive a NASA fellowship this year.” Heck was chosen for NASA’s Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project. Under the program, teachers will be “exposed to current NASA science and engineering, taking what they learn back to the classroom.” According to the article, the “goal of the project is to ensure that teachers across the country can use the discoveries that NASA makes on a daily basis.” Heck noted that he may be “the only teacher” participating in the Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate and the Teachers in Space program.
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Georgia Governor To Push For Adoption Of Teacher Merit Pay Measure.
The Florida Times-Union (1/13, Jones) reports, “Teachers can opt to have their pay raises based partly on how well their students perform if the General Assembly adopts legislation” Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) “said Tuesday he will introduce.” Perdue “gave the first hints at his legislative package during a speech to 2,700 people attending a breakfast sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. … Perdue said his proposal, to be enacted over several years, would be a way for good teachers to get a major boost in pay.” The Daily Citizen (GA) (1/13, Brown) reports that Perdue’s “plan calls for the state Board of Education to develop a common, statewide rubric to evaluate teachers’ and leaders’ effectiveness.”
Maureen Downey wrote in a “Get Schooled” blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1/12, Downey) that Gov. Perdue “made his pitch for performance pay, which is one of the criteria to quality for Race to the Top money from the feds. It would be an option for current teachers, but a way of life for new ones seeking salary enhancements. I have always thought this was a good idea, especially Perdue’s plan to end automatic pay increases for graduate degrees, no matter whether the degree had any bearing on what the teacher taught.”
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In the Classroom
Audit: One In Four West Virginia High School Students Drop Out.
West Virginia’s State Journal (1/13, Krivanek) reports, “A legislative audit out this week found one in four West Virginia high school students drop out without earning a diploma. The report showed the dropout rate is higher in larger high schools and larger school districts.” According to the Journal, teachers and principals in Mercer County “attribute the high rate to students losing of interest in the classroom.”
YMCA Program Aims To Reduce Dropout Rate. The Rocky Mount (NC) Telegram (1/13, Holt) reports, “Students lacking enough credits to graduate at Northern Nash and Nash Central high schools have the opportunity to make up those hours and move on with their respective classes thanks to a program offered by the Kate & Billy Harrison Family YMCA. WIRED, which stands for ‘Working to Integrate Resources in Education Development,’ is offered through the two high schools to students struggling to meet graduation requirements.” The program “has two core components. The Alternative Learning Program allows students to take the required courses at their high school and then meet with a certified teaching coach three times a week to make sure they’re meeting the core requirements necessary to graduate. The Credit Recovery Program is for students on the verge of dropping out.”
Wisconsin District Opening PLTW-Certified Engineering Academy.
The La Crosse (WI) Tribune (1/13, Grooms) reports on the Engineering Academy, the second academy for the La Crosse School District, which will open this fall. “About 26 to 28 students as a group will take a Project Lead the Way engineering class, as well as geometry and science,” officials said, adding that “offering the courses in succession also will allow teachers to plan extended field trips and welcome guest speakers.” The Tribune notes that the district had been “certified in Project Lead the Way this fall, and students who complete a test after their classes are able to earn college credit at several engineering schools.” The article also profiles the first La Crosse academy, which focuses on health sciences and has partnered with a group of medical centers, universities and technical colleges, and community health professionals.
On the Job
Dallas Public Schools Catching Up With State Average For “Highly-Qualified” Teachers.
Diane Rado writes in the Dallas Morning News (1/13) Dallas ISD blog that in accordance with federal law, “all teachers of core academic subjects” must be “‘highly-qualified,’” meaning they have at least a bachelor’s degree, full teacher certification and they know their subject matter.” But reports from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) show that the Dallas Independent School District trails “the state in making sure all teachers are highly qualified.” TEA data show that “97.94 percent of Dallas’ non-special ed elementary teachers are considered highly qualified, compared to 99.68 percent of elementary teachers statewide.” Moreover, 98.31 percent of teachers for “grades 7 to 12…are highly qualified, compared to 99.20 percent statewide.”
Law & Policy
Tennessee Governor Wants To Change The Way Teachers Are Fired.
The Tennessean (1/12, Sisk) reported, “Local school boards would no longer decide whether to remove tenured teachers from their jobs, as part of the education reform bill officially unveiled Monday” by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s (D) administration. According to the Tennessean, “Hearings on whether to fire veteran teachers who had earned job projection through the tenure system would be shifted from local school boards to third-party impartial officers, according to a provision of the bill.” The bill “that covers kindergarten through 12th grade is meant to improve Tennessee’s chances of winning as much as $500 million” in Race to the Top funds.
Indiana Lawmakers Will Consider Creating Group To Recommend School Discipline Guidelines.
The AP (1/13, Wilson) reports that on Tuesday, Steven C. Teske, “a juvenile court judge from Clayton County, GA,” testified before Indiana’s House Judiciary Committee “in support of a bill that would create a study group including police, judges, principals and others who work with children to recommend…methods for handling juveniles who get into trouble at school” other than arresting them. Teske told the committee, “When you slap the handcuffs on a kid, you increase the risk that they’re not going to graduate.” He added that “the introduction of police in local schools led to a dramatic increase in misdemeanor arrests in his Atlanta-area jurisdiction while more serious offenses didn’t decline.” In addition to creating a task force, the proposed legislation would also “require all police and security officers stationed in schools to be trained in interacting with youth, and schools would have to submit annual reports on student arrests.” The bill was unanimously approved by the committee, “sending it to the full House.”
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Facilities
Reduced Energy Rate Agreement Leaves Some Schools In Florida District Without Power For Hours.
The St. Petersburg Times (1/13, Solochek) reports that as part of an arrangement that saved the Pasco County (FL) school district $365,000 last year, “several Pasco schools shivered through their morning classes Monday without power” for as many as four hours. For the past 20 years, Pasco has volunteered to “have interrupted service if demand” for power “grew too high.” In exchange, the district receives “reduced rates from Progress Energy Florida.” Superintendent Heather Fiorentino “sent out a phone message Sunday” alerting families of the possibility that some schools may lose power on Monday. She urged “all students and employees to dress warmly for school. The Times adds that “Monday was the first time in 20 years that such a blackout interrupted classes.”
School Finance
Nevada Governor Denies His Plan Takes Money From Schools.
The Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal (1/12, Damon) reported that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) “equivocated Tuesday on whether his recently unveiled education reform plan would eliminate money for class-size reduction and full-day kindergarten. … Last week, Gibbons’ staff released his plan to eliminate mandates for full-day kindergarten and class-size reduction to save up to $145 million.” According to the Gazette-Journal, “Some of that money would be put back into basic school support to give districts more flexibility in how it is spent.”
Also in the News
Parents Will Continue To Fight Texas District Over Dress Code.
The Dallas Morning News (1/13, Holloway) reports that the Mesquite, TX, school district has allowed a compromise for a pre-kindergartner whose hair dies not meet the district’s dress policy. Taylor Pugh, aged four, “can return to class if his hair is braided close to his head, over his ears and is not gathered in a bun on his neck,” the board ruled. His parents agreed to “send him to class…with a ponytail,” but said they plan to “appeal to the state education commissioner.” The Dallas Morning News adds that Taylor “has lessons in the library with an aide because his hair doesn’t meet the district dress code. It covers his ears and collar and often falls into his eyes.” The New York Times (1/13, A19, McKinley) reports that “the boy’s parents…have argued that it is unfair to punish Taylor for his longish locks; it suggests, they say, that the district cares more about appearances than education.”
NEA in the News
NEA Official Says NEA Open To Some Test Score-Driven Teacher Evaluation Systems.
Jay Mathews writes in the Washington Post (1/13) Class Struggle blog, “My colleague Nick Anderson on the national education beat reports that the National Education Association shares many of the views American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten espoused this morning in a speech on teacher evaluation, test scores and discipline.” However, the NEA, he notes, is “a bit more cautious, rhetorically, and substantively” when is comes to those issues. According to NEA Director of Teacher Quality Segun Eubanks, “the NEA is open to discussing experiments in teacher evaluation systems that incorporate student test data as long as the data offer ‘authentic measures of student learning and student growth’ and complement other types of assessment.” Eubanks noted that “using state standardized test scores to make decisions regarding the effectiveness of teachers has yet to be proven effective. ‘We’re not going to embrace something for which there is so little evidence yet,’” he said.
Union Officials In Rhode Island To Decide Whether To Support State’s Race To The Top Bid.
The Providence (RI) Journal (1/13, Jordan) reports that the Rhode Island DOE may use the Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley mayoral academy as a model for training “teachers and principals to serve in both charter and regular public schools” as part of its Race To The Top competition bid. The five-month old school has 76 kindergartners enrolled. It was “started in 2009 by Cumberland Mayor Daniel J. McKee,” and already “state education officials” are calling it “a likely engine of growth for charter schools in Rhode Island.” The Providence Journal adds, “Union officials will decide Wednesday whether they will sign off on the application, which is due Jan. 19.” But getting union support will not be easy, as the NEA Rhode Island and “the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals have long opposed the expansion of charters, saying they siphon taxpayer money away from regular public schools.”