New York City Schools Chief Moves To Give Principals More Power Over Curriculum.
The New York Times (4/27, Medina) reports that New York City schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein “said Monday that he was reshuffling the top jobs at city’s Education Department headquarters and eliminating the division that oversees school curriculum and teacher training programs.” His aim is “to give principals more power to determine what kind of instruction they use at individual schools, rather than using only suggestions developed in central offices.” According to the Times, “The changes underscore a substantial shift that the department has made under Mr. Klein, who early in his tenure focused on centralizing control of the system and developing a uniform citywide curriculum.”

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In the Classroom
E-Curriculums Offer Schools Customized Solutions.
Education Week (4/23, Davis) reported, “With a wealth of online courses for school districts to choose from, plus an abundance of interactive activities, videos, and digital information to sift through to design such courses,” many “school leaders are” purchasing “online classes from nonprofit and for-profit providers, making their own from scratch, accessing open-source options, or combining all three approaches.” Education Week details the trends in individualized instructional programs, project-based courses, and custom-built programs created by individual schools.

Florida Virtual School, DOE To Host Virtual STEM Career Fair For Middle, High School Students.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/26) “The Gradebook” blog reported that in hopes of luring “more Florida students into the so-called STEM fields…the Department of Education is joining with Florida Virtual School on Wednesday for a virtual career fair.” The fair will allow “middle and high school students from across the state” the opportunity “to ask questions about STEM-related jobs and learn more about what it takes to get them.” Experts answering questions at the fair will include “a cybercrime cop, a composer, and a video game developer, as well as a biomedical researcher, a marine scientist, and a biochemist.”

Soldier Visits Student Pen-Pals At Middle School In Arizona.
The Yuma Sun (4/27, Gilbert) reports that “a Yuma soldier serving in the National Guard stopped by Centennial Middle School Monday afternoon to thank the students for all the cards and letters they have been sending while his unit has been deployed to Iraq.” Sgt. Allen Ienn “of the 855th Military Police Company” is back in his hometown of Yuma “on two weeks of leave.” He asked “the seventh and eighth grade students” to continue sending the letters. “We get the biggest kick out of them. … Some of the cards you guys are writing we read over and over again,” Ienn said. Teacher Vicky Farland “said the students have been writing the cards and sending care packages since the 855th deployed back in September.” In Iraq, “the unit’s mission has been to train” local “police on military law enforcement operations and techniques and conduct convoy security, as well as other military police operations as needed.”

Detroit Public Schools Launches Effort To Reduce Truancy.
WWJ-TV Detroit (4/27) reports that Monday, April 26, was “Attendance is Everyone’s Business Day” in the Detroit public school district (DPS). The campaign is part of a larger effort “to reduce the drop-out rate and poor academic performance that stem from truancy by partnering with parents and other stakeholders to ensure students’ success.” DPS “will host several citywide parent meetings and rallies in coming weeks to develop strategies to help parents and students understand how being ‘on time and on task’ at school has a direct benefit to their lives and the community at large.”

“Opportunity Program” Credited With Grade, Attendance Boost At Middle School In California.
The San Jose Mercury News (4/27, Gomez) reports on the Opportunity Program at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose, California. The program, which “began in the 2008-09 academic year, provides a comprehensive curriculum for freshmen and sophomores, including community service, family participation, academic support and self-esteem and life-building skills.” Each “student who participates in the program had a history of failing academically, often because of issues they were dealing with outside the classroom.” The Opportunity Program has been credited with an increase in grades and attendance at Mount Pleasant, and that success led the East Side Union High School District to incorporate the program “in 11 of its 12 schools.”

Four Utah Schools Launch First Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs.
The Salt Lake Tribune (4/27, Winters) reports that “with a little nudge from the American Civil Liberties Union, four St. George [Utah] high schools have approved Gay-Straight Alliance clubs for the first time.” The after-school clubs at “Desert Hills, Dixie, Pine View and Snow Canyon high schools” will begin this fall. When “a small group of St. George students launched an effort to form a GSA at every high school in the Washington County School District” last fall, they were “met with resistance from some school principals who denied their applications or insisted the clubs meet requirements that the ACLU” said were more strict than district policy. “Alerted by the ACLU, the Washington County School District required all the high schools to adopt its content-neutral application, which seeks only the approval of a school principal.”

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On the Job
Teacher Pay Cut Is Latest In Series Of Unpopular Moves By Officials In California District.
The Los Angeles Times (4/27, Rathi) reports that “Discontent in [California's] 52,000-student” Capistrano Unified School District “began to surface about five years ago with…the threatened closure of three elementary schools, construction of San Juan Hills High School in San Juan Capistrano, and a $35-million administration building.” Now, contention between the Capistrano Unified Education Association and the school board has led to a union strike. “The main reason the union voted for the strike,” according to the Times, “is that contract negotiations with the district are at an impasse,” as the district seeks to close “a $34-million budget shortfall for the 2010-11 school year.” The union has asked for “a smaller pay cut, furlough days, and modified health benefits” — a plan that was supported recently by an “independent fact-finding report.” However, the school board voted to “impose [a] 10 percent pay cut, with much of it remaining permanent.”

Carla Rivera wrote in a blog for the Los Angeles Times (4/26), “Thousands of Capistrano Unified School District teachers resumed picketing Monday as a strike over pay and benefits entered its third day. Schools in Orange County’s second-largest school district were open and staffed with more than 600 substitutes and some regular classroom teachers.” Rivera added that the “two sides met for more than 12 hours in weekend bargaining sessions but failed to resolve the dispute” and talks “were scheduled to resume Monday.”

Law & Policy
Hawaii Lawmakers Approve Funding To Restore School Days.
The AP (4/26) reported, “Hawaii lawmakers” decided unanimously last week “to set aside enough money to reopen schools on all of next year’s scheduled furlough days.” Under the measure, Hawaii would “spend $67 million from a hurricane relief fund – the first time money has been allocated to stop the teacher furlough days that have already kept students out of class for 14 days this school year.” According to The AP, the measure “puts pressure on Gov. Linda Lingle (R) to agree to spend the money and send more than 170,000 public school students back to class on 17 planned teacher furlough days next school year.”

New Jersey Governor’s Plan To Help Schools Through State Aid Cuts To Be Released In May.
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (4/27, Fleisher) reports that New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler said Monday that Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) proposal “to help schools overcome state aid cuts” will “be ready in early May.” The proposed legislation, he said, may “include requiring teachers to pay for health care into retirement, not just while working, cutting back the way pensions are calculated, and shackling contracts by banning salary and benefit increases of more than 2.5 percent.” The governor’s budget proposal decreases education funding to $10.3 billion from $11.1 billion last year, which was supplemented by “more than $1 billion in federal stimulus funds that are unavailable this year.”

Florida Schools Must Meet Class-Size Mandate By October, Despite Budget Struggles.
The Orlando Sentinel (4/27, Postal, Weber) reports that by this October, Florida school districts “must shrink all ‘core’ classes to meet required sizes even as they continue to struggle with anemic budgets.” According to the Sentinel, the mandate has been “estimated to cost $350 million statewide, and about $62 million in Central Florida’s five counties.” However, “there is no new money available for class-size reduction for the coming school year.” This means many districts will struggle to pay for “additional teachers needed to shrink core classes in math, reading, science and social studies.”

Facilities
Virginia Middle School Named A Top Sustainable Building By The American Institute of Architects.
Wendy Koch wrote in the USA Today (4/26) “Green House” blog that the American Institute of Architects has picked 10 of the nation’s “best sustainable buildings” this year. These buildings “show how design can reduce environmental impacts by reusing materials, connecting to public transit, conserving water and energy, and improving indoor air quality.” Included on the list “is the new Manassas Park Elementary School in Virginia, completed last April. AIA says” the school building “offers ‘intimate views of the neighboring mixed oak forest, while elementary classrooms face shady moss- and fern-covered learning courtyards.’” In addition, “the school has signs everywhere to teach students about sustainability.”

School Finance
State Budgets Will Take Several Years To Increase To Prerecession Levels, Report Says.
Education Week (4/26, Maxwell) reported, “The steep, recession-driven slide in state revenues-a crucial piece of the education funding infrastructure-is showing signs of easing slightly, though fiscal experts warn it will still be several years before most state budgets return to their prerecession health.” Most states are “projecting that revenues — generated mostly from personal-income and general sales-tax collections — will exceed current-year levels” in the upcoming fiscal year. However, “the increases in many states will be” slight, “according to a new report that examines fiscal conditions in the states.” And, with “mounting spending pressures, along with the tapering-off of federal economic-stimulus aid…most states are likely to be grappling with budget shortfalls for at least the next two or three years, warns the report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.”

NEA in the News
Vermont Opts Out Of Race To The Top.
The AP (4/26) reported, “Vermont will not seek millions of dollars in a federal grant program aimed at improving failing schools, joining a handful of states in dropping out of the ‘Race to the Top’ program despite strapped budgets.” Vermont’s Commissioner Armando Vilaseca said Monday, “When we look at it realistically with limited resources we have to make sure we put our energies and our efforts into places that we know we can be successful in and that fit what the direction of Vermont education is moving in.” He added that “the program is better suited to urban, underperforming schools.” The Vermont NEA chapter agreed with the decision.

Blue Valley, Kansas, District Approves Temporary Contract With Local NEA Chapter.
The Kansas City Star (4/27, Sullinger) reports that on Monday, Blue Valley School District’s “board unanimously approved…a temporary contract with the Blue Valley chapter of the National Education Association that didn’t include any salary increase for most of the 1,678 teachers who make up the bargaining unit.” Under the contract, administrators also will not receive a raise, but teachers with advanced degrees will. No teachers will see an “increase in their share of the cost of medical benefits, which is expected to go up 1.6 percent next year.” The plan was approved by “more than 80 percent of the teachers in the bargaining unit.”

South Carolina May Create Adjunct K-12 Teaching Certification.
The Charleston (SC) Post and Courier (4/26, Courrégé) reports, “The state prohibits the vast majority of the state’s K-12 public schools from hiring anyone — even if they’re an expert in their field — without a teaching certificate to teach a class solo, but that likely will change this year.” South Carolina’s Board of Education recently “approved a new adjunct teaching certificate that would enable community members to work in schools part-time as certified teachers.” If approved by the legislature, which is said to be likely, “the adjunct teaching certificate would be available to those who have demonstrated mastery of their content area with either a degree or by passing an exam. They also must have experience in their field for five of the past 10 years.”

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In the Classroom
Brooklyn School Reaches High Scores Despite Poverty.
The New York Times (4/26, A18, Otterman) reports that Public School 172 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, “topped the city with its fourth-grade math scores,” and in fourth-grade English it is among the city’s top dozen schools, “even though 80 percent of its students are poor enough to qualify for free lunch, nearly a quarter receive special education services, and many among its predominately Hispanic population do not speak English at home.” To do this, the school hires coaches in writing, reading, and math; a speech therapist; a psychologist; and found dental care for its students. “Teachers keep detailed notes on each child.” The money comes from “careful budgeting and fighting for every dollar from the Department of Education.”

Student Achievement Coaches Help Teachers Improve Instruction.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/26, Solochek) reports that Pasco school district officials “created dozens of student achievement coach positions this year, using millions of dollars from the federal stimulus package, aiming to improve student outcomes in new ways.” The coaches specialize “in special education and reading literacy,” helping “teachers use data to identify areas where they might improve instruction.” They also guide teachers on how to implement “teaching strategies that might get better results, modeling as needed.”

Ohio Eliminates Social Studies, Writing Standardized Tests.
The Sandusky (OH) Register (4/25, Mcmillan) reports, “Social studies and writing have been cut from the Ohio Achievement Assessment, formerly known as the Ohio Achievement Test,” for students in grades three through eight. “The change was made as part of the two-year state budget approved in July.” According to Scott Blake, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education, the department could save up to $30 million “by not designing, producing, administering and scoring social studies and writing tests this year and next.” Blake noted, “There are no federal requirements to test in those areas.” Nevertheless, he added, “the department is hopeful that the tests will be restored in the next budget.”

“Check In, Check Out” System, Helps Lower Suspensions In Milwaukee Public Schools.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (4/25, Richards) reported, “As part of a new approach to behavior management in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) — and one that’s being used increasingly across the state and country,” administrators at the Lincoln Center of the Arts and 30 other MPS schools are following a “check in, check out” system. Administrators run “through a daily checklist of self-management points, jotting notes on a scorecard for” students’ behavior. So far, “the behavior management system known as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports” has led to “fewer suspensions at many of the pilot schools this year, as well as improvements in attendance, according to district data.” Next year, MPS plans to expand the program to include a total of 55 schools.

High School Ecology Club Opens Pond Exploration Habitat.
The Washington Post (4/25, Mackey) reported that the Ecology Club at Stonewall Jackson High School, in Prince William County, Virginia, “unveiled its year-long project, a sparkling pond exploration habitat behind the school.” Under teachers Jessica Hruska, Rich Smith, and Carey Shenal, the club “envisions the area not only as a supplement to what’s taught in science class but as something that all instructors can benefit from, eventually, they hope, creating an outdoor classroom.”

International High School Students In Salt Lake City Share Experiences Through Art, Literature.
The Salt Lake Tribune (4/23, Winters) reports that last week, 90 international students from East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, “shared their experiences with discrimination and their struggles to succeed in the United States” for “a performance called ‘Voices.’” The “students crafted poems, collages, drawings and short stories about their journeys as immigrants and refugees.” The works were displayed “throughout the performance hall.” Voices is “a collaboration between East High’s English Language Learners’ program and the University of Utah’s Family School Partnership, which seeks to empower culturally diverse students.”

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On the Job
With Upcoming Lay Offs, New York City Schools Chancellor Seeks To End Seniority Rules.
In a front-page article, the New York Times (4/25, A1, Medina) reported that with New York City schools planning to lay off up to 8,500 teachers, schools chancellor Joel I. Klein is in “a high-stakes battle with the teachers’ union to overturn seniority rules that have been in place for decades.” He and like-minded reformers say such “rules will upend their efforts of the last few years to recruit new teachers, improve teacher performance and reward those who do best.” However, unions believe that administrators want to “get rid of older teachers, who are more expensive,” argue “that without seniority safeguards, principals could act on personal grudges, and that while keeping the best teachers is a laudable goal, no one has figured out an accurate way to determine who those teachers are.”

Teachers In California Continue Strike In Pay Dispute.
The Orange County (CA) Register (4/26, Martindale) reports, “Teachers across the Capistrano Unified School District will return to the picket lines Monday morning for a third day of striking, after district officials and teachers union leaders failed to reach a settlement Sunday in a bitter pay cut dispute.” According to the teacher’s union, the district “has failed to make a ‘clear, unambiguous offer’ to settle some final terms of a 10.1 percent pay cut imposed on teachers last month.” The union isn’t fighting the pay but insists “that it have an automatic expiration date and that it be restored if the district receives additional, “unforeseen” funding over the next 15 months.”

Another article in the Orange County (CA) Register (4/26, Leal, Martindale) reports, “Education communities across the state have watched closely” the strike, but experts say it “”was largely the product of years of aggressive politicking unmatched by most districts.” Still, experts say the strike’s resolution “could significantly sway negotiations between unions and districts statewide or even lead the way to more strikes.” The “LA Now” blog of the Los Angeles Times (4/24, Tran) also covered this story.

Law & Policy
Colorado Education Reform Bill Stirs Controversy.
The Denver Post (4/25, Meyer) reported that Colorado Senate Bill 191, which would tie teachers’ pay to students’ performance, change the way teachers achieve tenure, and make it easier to lose it, “has pitted teachers against each other, teachers against superintendents, and the state teachers union against Capitol reformers.” Proponents argue “that the bill could help Colorado fix some of its most vexing education problems: the yawning achievement gap and endemic dropout and dismal graduation rates.” However, opponents say it is “an unfunded mandate that places too much financial burden on cash-strapped school districts,” will “create a school system where educators ‘teach to the test’ to save their jobs and one where longtime teachers are picked off without due process.”

The Colorado Statesman (4/24, Bowe) reports that the Colorado Senate Education Committee voted 7-1 to send the bill to the floor, even as hundreds of teachers were gathered by the Colorado Education Association “outside the Capitol for a rally against the measure.”

Forum Held On North Texas Zero-Tolerance Policies.
The Dallas Morning News (4/25, Horner) reported that at the Symposium on Zero Tolerance at the African American Museum in Fair Park, Texas, experts said that “North Texas schools continue to unfairly punish children under zero-tolerance disciplinary policies despite changes in state law that took effect last fall” that allow “factors as self-defense, intent, disciplinary histories and disabilities” to be considered. Concerned raised include “that the policies often leave parents out of the process” until after police are called, and “that punishments such as suspension often put the child further behind in school.” The forum’s organizers hope “to draft a plan with solutions to circulate among local community, religious and political leaders before school begins next year.”

States Focusing On Teachers’ Union Buy-Ins For Race To The Top.
Education Week (4/23, McNeil) reported that states “are tangling with their teachers’ unions as they test how far they can go to meet federal officials’ demands that they be aggressive, yet inclusive.” However, “some observers worry that all the attention to union buy-in may be skewing the focus of the Race to the Top competition.” While Education Secretary Arne Duncan “pointed to considerable district and union buy-in” in announcing the first-round winners, he “also highlighted other features in those states’ applications, in each of the four key reform areas” of “standards and assessments, data systems, teacher and principal effectiveness, and turning around the lowest-achieving schools.”

Wake County, North Carolina, Board Member Unveils Vision For Community Schools.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (4/24, HUI) reported, “With lots of promises but few details, Wake County school board member” and chairman of the student assignment committee John Tedesco “unveiled his vision Friday to send students to schools near their homes, provide family choice and still create economic and cultural diversity.” Tedesco’s vision involves “dividing the school system into five regions and 18 assignment zones” that would include both low-income and high-income families. “Families would be able to choose from a variety of schools in their zones.” Tedesco said that “the key to [his] concept is the development of a new formula, which he called an assignment algorithm, that would weigh various factors to determine where each child would be assigned.”

School Finance
Some Texas School Districts Considering Lawsuit Over Distribution Of State Funds.
The Dallas Morning News (4/25, Holloway) reported that Texas “school administrators and some lawmakers say the system that determines the amount school districts get for each student is not fair, but few see the Legislature making major changes when it meets in January.” However, “as the budgets have gotten tighter, the disparities have weighed more and more on school administrators’ minds.” With the end of federal funding, prospects for the 2011-12 school year “are looking so bad that a few school districts are talking about filing a lawsuit against the state, charging that the system violates the state constitution because it does not provide adequate or equal funding.”

Kentucky To Receive Additional $176 Million In Federal Funds.
The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal (4/25, Smith) reported that “the US Department of Education has approved an additional $176 million in federal stimulus funds that will help Kentucky save jobs of teachers in the coming year.” In all, Kentucky has “been allocated more than $1 billion in education funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” The latest funding installment will go “toward fiscal stabilization, a category that has enabled school districts to preserve teacher jobs.” The Courier-Journal adds that other areas for which the state has used Recovery Act funding include “high-poverty schools ($155 million), students with disabilities ($174 million),” and “Pell grants for college students ($133 million).”

Also in the News
Former “F” School Earns Florida’s Top Reading Leadership Honor.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/24, Marshall, Wilmath) reports that on Friday, Sulphur Springs Elementary School in Tampa, Florida, “was named the state’s top reading leadership team.” The St. Petersburg Times points out that the school, where “99.6 percent of students qualify for reduced-price lunches,” at one time received two straight F’s from the state’s school rating system. In 2009, the school improved to receive a B. Said Principal Christi Bell, “You have to celebrate any successes, even the small ones.” The St. Petersburg Times lists several lessons that have helped Sulphur Springs improve.

Study Suggests Teachers, After Genetics, Help Kids Learn To Read Faster.
The AP (4/23) reports that a twin study paid for by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that “genetics play the biggest role in determining how fast a child learns to read, but a good teacher can make a measurable difference as well.” When a pair of twins “showed significant differences in reading improvement,” their “teachers also had significantly different quality scores. Twins with similarly good teachers got similar scores.” The study also found that “genetic differences between students seemed to disappear in classrooms taught by less effective teachers, because children don’t reach their potential.” Tim Shanahan, professor of urban education at the University of Illinois, noted that students’ “scores could have been influenced by the other students in the room, what administrative support the teacher was getting or what materials and curriculum she has, as well as the teacher’s education, training and skill at keeping kids on task.”

Education Week (4/22, Viadero) reported that lead author Jeanette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at FSU, “said the teachers’ effect sizes did not appear to be as large, however, as some of those reported for the studies relying only on value-added analyses of students’ test scores.”

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In the Classroom
Virginia Rolls Out Computer-Scored Standardized Test For Students With Disabilities.
The Virginian-Pilot (4/23) reports that Virginia “is rolling out a new standardized test for students with disabilities to replace the troubled Virginia Grade-Level Alternative (VGLA) assessment starting in the 2011-2012 school year.” Unlike VGLA, which was a multiple choice test, the Virginia Modified Achievement Standard Test “scores students with disabilities on their body of work collected throughout the school year.” Moreover, VMAST will be a computer-scored test, while the VGLA is “scored locally by school officials.”

Arizona Elementary School Adopts Core Knowledge Program.
Arizona’s East Valley Tribune (4/23, Reese) reports that Humphrey Elementary School in Chandler, Arizona, “is adopting a nationally known” Core Knowledge program that uses “a set of concepts educators can build upon to teach history, geography, mathematics, language and more.” Under the program, “teachers – using their own individual ways of teaching – present all students in the same grade the same material at the same time.” As students are promoted, the material they learn builds on what was taught the previous year. Core Knowledge does not require that the school “purchase new textbooks.” Instead, “educators can use what they have and follow the sequence of steps in the teacher’s handbook to present the material.”

Educators Call For Kids To Attend School On Take-Your-Kid-To-Work Day.
The AP (4/23, Babwiny) reports, “Some school districts sent strongly worded letters or e-mails to parents explaining that” participating in take-your-kid-to-work day “would put the youngster’s education at risk.” The event “has drawn complaints from school administrators for well over a decade, especially because many standardized tests fall on or near the same day.” While the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation won’t move the day, some employers move the event to other days.

Increasing Use Of Digital Materials May Diminish Texas’ Influence Over Textbooks.
Education Week (4/22, Robelen) reported, “With the Texas board of education expected to adopt controversial new standards for social studies next month, many observers and news outlets have emphasized that the action may have ripple effects that reach classrooms far beyond the Lone Star State.” However, “recent legislation opens up new sources of digital learning materials for the state’s school districts,” which “seems likely to loosen the hold of the polarized state board on the market even within its own borders.” According to Observers “a driving force behind the legislation to promote electronic materials is concern about the growing expense of textbooks.”

On the Job
Dallas School Attributes Improved Test Results To Teacher Advancement Program.
The Dallas Morning News (4/22, Weiss) reported that over five years, Richardson ISD’s Audelia Creek Elementary School went from having “test scores…among the worst in the district” and high staff turnover to producing “some of the district’s highest test scores, and retention levels show that teachers want to teach” there. District and school officials attribute the change partly to the “Teacher Advancement Program,” or TAP, “an unusual national teacher evaluation and training system that includes annual cash bonuses for high-performing teachers.” However, the program costs money, and there is no data on “what happens to a student who moves from the high-intensity teaching style of a TAP school to a school that uses other teacher training and evaluation methods.”

Law & Policy
Indiana Will Not Seek Race To The Top Funds.
The New Albany Tribune (4/22, Hettinger) reports that Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett won’t pursue phase two Race to the Top funds. He said this is because “the Indiana State Teachers Association is unwilling to join me for an open and transparent discussion regarding union support for vital components of Indiana’s Race to the Top application,” so “our application will not be competitively positioned.”

The Indianapolis Star (4/23, Gammill) reports, “Union leaders shot back that Indiana’s original application had fallen so far below the scoring threshold in the first round that their support alone would not be enough to salvage the state’s plan.” Even without the money, Bennett “vowed” to move forward with his proposed “ambitious series of reforms,” which “include creating new pathways into teaching, assigning letter grades to schools, starting a school leadership academy, and implementing systems that would evaluate teachers and schools based on students’ standardized test scores.”

Florida Governor Signs Legislation Expanding School Vouchers.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/23, Matus) reports, “With bipartisan backing, Gov. Charlie Crist ushered in the most sweeping expansion of private school vouchers in Florida history on Thursday.” Under Senate Bill 2126, the number of students using tax credit vouchers is expected to increase to about 70,000 by 2015 from 27,700 now, based on “current growth trends.” The legislation “increases the value of a tax-credit voucher” each year, “years until it reaches 80 percent of the state’s per-pupil funding.” from Opponents of the bill “fear that the day lawmakers propose vouchers for all is closer than ever.” But, “supporters of Florida’s two voucher programs, which are limited to disabled and high-poverty students, say that isn’t likely,” because “it would jeopardize what has become an increasingly bipartisan effort.” Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow “said the group is ‘very concerned’ about the ‘expansion of vouchers,’” but it “has not committed to filing suit.”

The Miami Herald (4/23, Matus, Solochek, Bousquet) reports, “Tax-credit vouchers are available to low-income students and funded by corporations that get dollar-for-dollar tax credits in return for contributing to them.” The vouchers are currently worth $3,950 each. Under SB2126, “at the current per-pupil rate of $6,866, the voucher amount would grow to $5,492, putting the cost of private school in reach for even more low-income families.”

Utah District Must Consider Total District Seniority, Not School Seniority, In Teacher Layoffs.
The Salt Lake Tribune (4/23, Winters) reports that a Utah judge has ruled that if the Jordan School District “goes ahead with plans to ax 250 to 300 jobs this summer, it will have to consider employees’ total district seniority — not district seniority within a school.” The ruling came after “Jordan asked Utah’s 3rd District for clarification on its ‘reverse seniority’ policy last month to avoid potential lawsuits from the Jordan Education Association (JEA) and the Jordan Education Support Professional Association (JESPA).” A spokesperson for the district said that the judge’s decision favors “the unions’ interpretation of the policy.” JEA President Robin Frodge asserted, “Districtwide seniority is a way to treat all employees fairly and to value the investment that employees have made by spending their career in the Jordan School District.”

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Special Needs
Universities In Indiana Received Funds To Help Schools With Special Education Support.
The AP (4/22) reported, “The Indiana Department of Education says schools and students with special needs will benefit from about $5.6 million in federal funds awarded to” Indiana University and Indiana State University. The programs “will provide professional development and other support for special education to schools across the state.”

Safety & Security
In Wake Of Abuse Case, California County Reviewing Complaint Procedures.
The Los Angeles Times (4/22, Chawkins) reports, “Ventura County supervisors have ordered a review of the county’s procedures for dealing with child abuse complaints,” as a young girl’s sexual abuse by Ventura County’s Rio School District board member Brian E. Martin continued for years, even though she “told classmates, who told school employees, who told county social workers.” Officials “say county social workers did not investigate thoroughly even after receiving reports at least six times over two years.”

Schools, Prosecutors Struggle In Dealing With Sexting.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (4/22, Scott) reported that sexting “has infiltrated school systems and involved law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in Georgia and across the nation, and left them unsure yet how to stop and how to punish the behavior.” Both “schools and prosecutors have struggled in how to deal with sexting,” which statutes often treat as child pornography, but some argue is “no more of a crime than streaking was three decades ago when college students ran naked across campuses and through towns and were seldom arrested or prosecuted.” Currently, at least 14 state “legislatures are considering rewriting sex laws to update them and separate sexting from child pornography, and make punishments less severe.”

Facilities
Federal Government May Provide Funding For Green School Construction.
On the “Live Shots” blog of FOX News (4/22), William La Jeunesse writes, “the federal government is considering a big increase in its spending on school construction — with your money.” Congress is considering the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act. The bill’s sponsors “say it would create a ‘healthier, safer and more energy-efficient teaching environment by requiring schools to use green materials.’ Some studies, however, say ‘green’ schools are notoriously over budget and consistenly [sic] fail to save the energy they promise.”

School Finance

School Board In California Ends Negotiations, Imposes No-Raise Teacher Contracts.
The San Francisco Chronicle (4/23, Asimov) reports that the Oakland Board of Education “has quit labor negotiations and imposed a no-raise contract that will free the district to increase class size and save up to $3 million.” Following the decision, “hundreds of teachers stormed out of” the “meeting in which the school board unanimously approved the one-sided contract.” Superintendent Tony Smith explained that “the district has to cut $85 million – about a quarter of its budget — but will not cut salaries or health benefits. Instead, dozens of teachers will be laid off, elementary class sizes will grow, and schools and programs will close.” The labor negotiations, which began two years ago, “were at an impasse,” he added.

Also in the News
California Senate Committee Approves Bill That Would Increase Some Districts’ Flexibility Over State Funding.
California’s Contra Costa Times (4/23, Butler) reports, “A bill that could give” California public school districts “more freedom in” spending “state money cleared a legislative hurdle this week.” SB 1396, “which would relax spending restrictions on state funds for up to three eligible California districts as part of a pilot program,” was unanimously approved by the “state Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.” Selected districts would be able “to direct the money to improve student achievement and save jobs” under the bill. “In return for the extra flexibility, [they] would have to agree to accountability measures during the pilot program,” to include “showing significant academic progress, submitting reports to state authorities, and linking the superintendent’s evaluation to student performance goals.”

NEA in the News
Schools Celebrate Earth Day.
On the “Inside Ed” blog of the Baltimore Sun (4/22) Liz Bowie writes, “Maryland Public Television is airing a documentary, ‘Growing Greener Schools,’ at 4:30 p.m. today,” which “looks at how environmentally oriented curriculums and green buildings are changing students, families and communities.” Additionally, Baltimore County’s Pinewood Elementary “is being honored by the National Education Association for its Earth friendly efforts.”

The Dothan (AL) Eagle (4/22, Cook) reports that stunts at Cloverdale Elementary School planted “bulbs on Thursday” in honor do Earth Day. Cloverdale “teachers hope the seeds they planted in the minds of their students will blossom into an appreciation of the planet, and a desire to protect it,” according to the Dothan Eagle. Throughout the week, students also engaged in several other activities to learn “about Earth Day and environmental responsibility.”

New Jersey Voters Reject Majority Of School Budgets.
The New York Times (4/22, Hu) reports, “School officials across New Jersey said on Wednesday that they would most likely have to lay off hundreds of teachers, increase class sizes, eliminate sports teams and Advanced Placement classes, cut kindergarten hours and take other radical steps to reduce spending after 58 percent of districts’ budgets were rejected by voters on Tuesday.” According to the Times New Jersey voters “were angered by higher property taxes that were sought to make up for unusually large state aid reductions proposed by Gov. Christopher J. Christie, along with resentment toward teachers’ unions for not agreeing to wage freezes or concessions.” The Star-Ledger (NJ) (4/21, Rundquist) reported that according to a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, “property taxes, not Gov. Chris Christie’s attempt to force teachers to accept salary freezes, led to the downfall of more than half of the state’s school budgets.”

New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (4/22, Peet, Heininger) reports, “Claiming the school budget defeat as a validation of his shrinking government plan, Gov. Chris Christie today pushed the next reforms on his agenda: A 2.5 percent constitutional cap on property taxes, and reforms to public worker pensions, benefits, and the collective bargaining process.” Meanwhile, he “urged municipal governing bodies, school boards and local teachers’ unions to work together to implement a one-year wage freeze.”

The AP (4/22, Mulvihill) reports that New Jersey “voters rejected 59 percent of school budget proposals…sending them to municipal governing bodies for cuts. It was the first time in 34 years that the majority of budget proposals have been nixed.” The Star-Ledger (NJ) (4/22, Shahid) reports that “municipal governing bodies have until May 19 to review the budgets and leave the plans intact or make cuts.” Education Week (4/21, Gewertz) and the USA Today (4/21) “On Deadline” blog also covered the story.

High School Students Stage Walkout To Protest Defeated School Budget. New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (4/22) reports that “students at Teaneck High School staged a walkout” Wednesday “morning protesting the defeat of the school’s budget, a report on NorthJersey.com said.” The protest began with “about two dozen” students and by 8:20 am, swelled “to almost the entire school, according to the report.”

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In the Classroom
Elementary School Honor Societies Receive Mixed Support from Educators.
The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot (4/22, Armstrong) reports that “in 2008, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) decided to create a National Honor Society for elementary schools.” Currently, more than 1,000 elementary schools throughout the US participate in the society. But, some educators day that “an honor society at this level” may force “students to think too much about grades and academic perfection.” According to education activist and author Alfie Kohn, “honor societies focus more on grades and tests than critical thinking skills.” Said Kohn, “In a classroom where grades are emphasized, students will ask, ‘Do we have to know this? Will it be on the test?’” He added, “In a classroom that’s about learning — and grades are absent — kids will ask, ‘But how do we know that’s true?’ or ‘Why does it matter?’” But, David Cordts, “the associate director of NASSP,” contends that “mostly about leadership and community service.”

As Schools Eliminate Field Trips, Some Museums Offer “Traveling Programs”.
The New York Times (4/22, Lewin) reports that “over the last few years, many schools have eliminated or cut back on museum trips, partly because of tight budgets that make it hard to pay for a bus and museum admission, and partly because of the growing emphasis on ‘seat time’ to cover all the material on state tests.” In an effort “to make up for the decline in visits, many museums are taking their lessons to the classroom, through traveling programs, videoconferencing, or computer-based lessons that use their collections as a teaching tool.” At Massachusetts’ Museum of Science, for instance, “school visits have dropped about 30 percent since 2007.” However, the demand has increased for the museum’s “14 school travel programs,” which range in price form $280 to just under $500.

On the Job
New Legislation Would Help Space Workers Become Teachers.
The Orlando Sentinel (4/22, Block) “Write Stuff” blog reports Rep. Suzanne Kosmas “on Monday moved to lessen the impact of the retirement of the space shuttle on the Florida workforce with a bill that would make it possible for space workers to teach science, math, engineering and technology to kids.” The Space to Schools Act was “modeled on the successful Troops to Teachers program. … The goal is to give former NASA workers the chance to inspire children with their first-hand experience in the space program.” Applicants would receive $5000 for training, with a bonus after teaching in high schools for three years. “An Advisory Board will be created under the direction of the Secretary of Education to collect, consider and disseminate feedback on the success of the program.” clickorlando.com (4/22) also covers the story.

Utah District Seeks Consultant To Help Improve High School On-Site Child Care Program.
The Salt Lake Tribune (4/22, Winters) reports that Utah’s “Granite School District has dropped a proposal to eliminate on-site child care for teen moms enrolled in its young parent program.” The BOE will, instead, “use an independent consultant to study” ways to improve “the popular high school program” that “serves 125 students and provides on-site care for 56 infants and toddlers.” Although “students pay $200 per child a year…the service costs Granite $3,117 per child.” Board members have “a ‘temporary placement’ model that would allow students to stay in the program, taking their babies to class with them, until the infants are 5 months old.” After five months, “, students would…return to a regular high school or complete independent study at home.”

Seattle Public School Officials Predict Fewer Teacher Layoffs This Year.
The Seattle Times (4/22) reports that “The number of teacher layoffs in Seattle looks like it will be much lower this year than last.” Seattle Public Schools “is estimating it may send just 30-50 pinks slips to teachers, counselors, librarians and other certificated employees” this year, compared to 172 such notices last year. Meanwhile, officials are “working to determine how to cut an additional $6 million” and “raise about $1 million in new revenue.”

Facilities
Utah District To Ask Voters For $250 Million Bond For School Repairs, New Building.
The Salt Lake Tribune (4/22, Winters) reports that “on June 22, voters in Draper, Sandy, Midvale, Cottonwood Heights and Alta will be asked whether they are willing to chip in $250 million to replace or repair a dozen aging school houses and build a new, $50 million high school in Draper.” The “list of construction projects” drafted by the Canyons Board of Education “could be completed with the bond.” The district, however, “has $650 million worth of needed building repairs or replacements, according to an architectural survey by MHTN Architects.” BOE President Tracy Cowdell said the “$250 million bond is a good start toward modernizing…facilities so teachers can teach in the 21st century.” She “expects ‘overwhelming’ approval of the bond once voters understand the need for facilities and the impact on their pocket books.”

School Finance
Grand Rapids Press: Michigan Should Not Penalize School Systems For Saving Money.
The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (4/22) editorializes that a bill currently in the Michigan Legislature “would deny some state funds to local school districts and intermediate school districts that have reserves of 15 percent or more of their annual budgets.” The Grand Rapids Press asserts, “The bill punishes rational, responsible behavior and sends entirely the wrong message to school boards and administrators.” Instead, it suggests, the state Legislature should consider “better solutions to the school funding crunch, including a modernized tax system, adjustments to teacher benefits, and a state budget process that doesn’t leave districts guessing about how much money they’ll be getting from the Legislature.”

Indiana Far Short In Funding Teacher Pensions, Study Funds.
The AP (4/22) reports, “A new report by school choice advocates and policy researchers says Indiana is among nation’s five most underfunded teacher retirement pension programs. The report released this month says Indiana has assets to cover only about a third of the benefits it owes to retired schoolteachers.” According to the AP, “Report co-author Josh Barro says Indiana is an ‘unusual’ case in the study because it was one of the most recent to switch from a pay-as-you-go system to a funded system that sets aside money for teacher retirement benefits.”

Protesters Rally At Illinois Capitol In Favor Of Tax Increase To Close Deficit.
The AP (4/22, O’Connor) reports, “Crying ‘Raise our taxes!’ and ‘Show some guts!’, thousands of people rallied at the state Capitol on Wednesday to protest lawmakers’ inaction on a tax hike to fix a $13 billion deficit. The secretary of state’s police estimated 15,000 people showed up, making it one of the largest rallies in Illinois Statehouse history.” According to the AP, “Most of those participating in the ‘Save Our State’ rally, organized by a coalition of more than 200 public-service organizations, marched in the streets around the Statehouse,” calling “for an income-tax increase to avoid deep budget cuts that would hit education, law enforcement and services for young children, the elderly, the handicapped and the homeless.”

Also in the News
Students Submitting Applications To An Increasing Number Of Colleges.
The Washington Post (4/22, De Vise) reports, “Spooked by single-digit admission rates at the top private schools, students sweeten the odds by applying to more of them,” and this has created a swollen applicant pool for schools. “One-fifth of college applicants nationwide apply to seven or more schools, twice the rate of a decade ago, according to data from the National Association for College Admission Counseling.” Part of the increase is also attributed to the increased ease of submitting applications electronically. However, “the biggest surge has come at the most selective schools, where fewer than half of applicants gain admission.” The Post notes that “counselors and deans are divided” over the trend. While it can raise a student’s chances of admission, it “also can be expensive,” and students who “apply scattershot to top schools” may find themselves in an academic situation that is not a good “fit” or “match.”

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NEA in the News
Florida Education Association Thanks Crist For Teacher Tenure Legislation Veto.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/22) reports that while teachers unions in Florida “have stopped short of endorsing” Gov. Charlie Crist “in his bid for the US Senate,” many “state and local teachers unions are urging members to send their thanks to Gov. Charlie Crist for vetoing the controversial teacher pay and tenure bill.” A message on the Florida Education Association website urges visitors to “Join the tens of thousands of Floridians who are sending a Thank You to Governor Crist for the SB6 Veto. … Pledge Your Support.” In addition, “the FEA, the state’s largest teachers union, is running a 30-second television ad in Tallahassee today thanking Crist and pushing for collaboration on future education reform efforts.” The St. Petersburg Times adds that since last Friday’s veto, the governor “has received more than 15,000 thank-you messages.”

Online Technology Helps Connect Classes Across The US.
Education Week (4/21, Quillen) reports, that “with the advent of programs like Gmail and Skype, the increased prevalence of webcams and laptops in schools, and the freedom to teach multiple subjects at once, elementary school may be the ideal place to use Web conferencing in a way that has an impact, experts say.” Fourth-grade teacher Terry Smith, for instance “has done Web-conferencing projects for nearly a decade…at Eugene Field Elementary School in Hannibal, Missouri.” According to Smith, “vocabulary-building, pre-algebra riddles, and trivia games carried out through Web conferencing all boost his students’ understanding.” He captivates his students’ attention through “regular Web conferences with a class from Washington State…and less frequent, shorter calls to other classrooms across the country, in the United Kingdom, and in Southeast Asia.”

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In the Classroom
Dual-Immersion Program Credited For Elementary School’s Improved Test Scores.
The San Francisco Chronicle (4/21, Tucker) reports that according to “parents, teachers and administrators” at San Francisco’s Marshall Elementary School, the “recipe” for turning around a struggling school includes “quality teachers, involved parents and a supportive principal mixed perhaps with a new dual-immersion language program. Time must be allowed to let it all take hold.” Test scores at Marshall Elementary “have been improving as has the school’s popularity since the” dual immersion “program started six years ago.” It “combines English learners and native speakers with the goal that all students will obtain grade-level literacy and proficiency in both English and Spanish by the time they move on to middle school.” On Monday, US Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller visited the school to learn about the effort Marshall has made to improve test scores.

Virginia Board of Education To Develop Course Material For Elementary Students.
The Washington Post (4/21, Helderman) reports, “The Virginia General Assembly has directed the state’s Board of Education to develop course materials for teaching gun safety to elementary school children that incorporate the guidelines of a National Rifle Association program.” According to the Post, “A leading Democrat in the state Senate had amended the bill to allow the state board to also incorporate materials from a second group, the National Crime Prevention Center,” yet Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) “has proposed stripping the amendment from the bill, leaving the reference only to NRA material.” Also, a “group called Virginians for Public Safety, which works closely with pro-gun-control family members of victims of the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, is calling on the legislature to reject McDonnell’s change in the gun education bill.”

On the Job
Maryland District To Weigh Student Performance As One Third Of Teachers’ Reviews.
The Washington Post (4/21, De Vise) reports that Montgomery County, MD “teachers and school system leaders signed an agreement Tuesday that calls for test scores and other student performance data to ‘factor strongly’ in one-third of every teacher’s evaluation, saying theirs is the first school system in Maryland to specify how much that data will count as a factor in teacher ratings. The teachers and administrators acted in response to a new state law that allows student test scores to be used as a ‘significant’ component of teacher evaluations.” The Post notes that the “law is part of Maryland’s proposal for federal education aid under President Obama’s $4 billion ‘Race to the Top’ competition.”

“Achievement Information Management-Hernando Initiative” Expands Availability Of Test Data.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/21, Marrero) reports that in addition to its “Edline system, which offers a Web portal for a student’s daily assignments and grade reports,” the Hernando County school district is now “lifting the curtain on an in-house data management system to give parents access to a half-dozen years of Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores and other assessment data.” Parents have been able to see “some of their children’s data, such as FCAT scores, piecemeal over the course of the year, said Linda Peirce, the district’s testing specialist.” But with the Achievement Information Management-Hernando Initiative (AIM-HI) software, they will also be able to see “other assessment tools the district uses, such as the ThinkLink diagnostic tests given twice a year.”

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Law & Policy
Report Criticizes Race To The Top Winner Selection Criteria.
Valerie Strauss wrote in an “Answer Sheet” blog for the Washington Post (4/20), “Tennessee and Delaware, the first two states to win education funding through President Obama’s $3 billion Race To the Top competition, were chosen through ‘arbitrary criteria’ rather than through a scientific process, according to a new report by a non-partisan research institute. The report called, ‘Let’s Do the Numbers,’ by William Peterson and Richard of the nonprofit, independent Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, says that the 500-point system created to decide the ‘best’ proposals for education reform is based on false precision.” According to Strauss, the “report even questions whether Duncan and his team chose the indicators for the competition carefully enough.”

New Law Increases Course, Testing Requirements Needed To Complete High School In Florida.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/21, Silva, Catalanello, Solochek) reports that “in a dramatic education shift, Gov. Charlie Crist (R) signed into law tougher graduation requirements Tuesday for public high school students that will eventually replace the math and science Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.” Beginning in fall of 2010, “ninth-graders will no longer have to take the math FCAT,” and “the 10th-grade math FCAT and 11th-grade science FCAT will be eliminated by the 2011-12.” However, the changes will require that students “take geometry, Algebra II, biology, chemistry or physics, plus one equally rigorous science course and pass standardized exams in those subjects to graduate.”

The AP (4/21, Kaczor) reports that the bill, SB 4, “received nearly unanimous support in the [state] Legislature.” House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands pointed out the difference between SB 4 and SB6, the “hotly debated measure…that would have made it easier to fire teachers and linked their pay to student test scores.” Said Sands, “Senate Bill 4 includes bipartisan solutions for education reform and, as a result, enjoyed broad support.”

Georgia Teacher’s Unions Want Say On Merit Pay Legislation.
Maureen Downey wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (4/20) “Get Schooled” blog that Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) has “successfully and deftly attached a merit pay framework to another bill passed” this week “by a House Education subcommittee and then the full committee.” Both “of the state’s two largest teacher organizations…said they were unaware that the amendment was coming and that teachers will be angered over the political maneuvering.” While the Georgia Association of Educators and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators seek “teacher input” on the bill, House Education vice-chair Fran Millar noted the state’s deadline for “reapplication for a federal Race to the Top grant in which performance pay is a key component to land the prize.”

Florida Senate Committee Approves Measure Allowing Teachers To Pray With Students.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/21) reports, “Beset by tales of sectarian conflict and censored teachers,” some Florida “legislators are behind several efforts to expand religion’s role in the education system.” Sen. Stephen Wise (R) has proposed a measure that would allow teachers “to pray with children. … The legislation passed unanimously Tuesday in the Senate’s Education PreK-12 Committee, with proponents defending it as a necessary protection of free speech.” Another measure “would repeal the state’s century-old ban on funneling public dollars toward religious groups” and “could greatly expand Florida’s controversial private school voucher program.” Meanwhile, “opponents of the legislation who cite the First Amendment argue that using state dollars to fund religious activity is a violation of constitutional protections that prohibit state-sponsored religion.”

Illinois Districts Issue Warning Over Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day.
The Chicago Tribune (4/21, Malone) reports, “Many students will tag along when Mom or Dad heads to the office Thursday, skipping class to shadow their parents in a nearly two-decades-old national tradition. But several local school districts are issuing warnings to parents in advance of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day: Students will be marked absent and held responsible for missed work.” According to the Tribune, “School officials say they are done turning a blind eye to a practice that could be shifted to the summer, when kids are not in school.”

Safety & Security
School District Captured 56,000 Images From Student Laptops.
AP (4/20) reports that a ” suburban Philadelphia school district says it secretly captured 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students. Lower Merion School District lawyer Henry Hockeimer says an internal investigation shows students likely were photographed inside their homes.” According to the AP, “Sophomore Blake Robbins is suing the district,” alleging “wiretap and privacy violations.”

School Finance

School Districts Poised To Take “Drastic” Measures Due To Budget Shortfalls.
The New York Times (4/21, Lewin, Dillon) reports, “School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June. The districts have no choice, they say, because their usual sources of revenue – state money and local property taxes – have been hit hard by the recession” and “federal stimulus money earmarked for education has been mostly used up this year.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “estimated that state budget cuts imperiled 100,000 to 300,000 public school jobs,” and in “an interview on Monday, he said the nation was flirting with ‘education catastrophe,’ and urged Congress to approve additional stimulus funds to save school jobs.”

The Washington Post (4/21, Anderson) reports, “From coast to coast, public schools face the threat of tens of thousands of layoffs this year in a fiscal crunch likely to result in larger class sizes and fewer programs to help students in need. Reports of deep staffing and service cuts are emerging in several states, including California, Illinois and New Jersey, as school officials say that finances have been stretched to the breaking point.” According to the Post, “‘It is brutal out there, really scary,’” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “told reporters on Capitol Hill. ‘What we’re trying to avert is an education catastrophe.’”

Applicants Preparing Proposals For $650 Million ‘i3′ Aid Competition.
Education Week (4/21, McNeil) reports, “Nearly 2,500 districts, schools, and nonprofits representing every state have indicated they plan to compete for an Investing in Innovation grant, setting up a furious fight over $650 million in federal economic-stimulus money that’s designed to scale up creative solutions to education’s most vexing problems. The large group of prospective applicants, which notified the Education Department by April 1 that they planned to apply, foreshadows where the stiffest competition will be: for ‘scale-up’ grants of up to $50 million, the largest slices of ‘i3′ aid.” According to Education Week, “The likely applicants say they are more inclined to focus their innovative proposals on standards and assessments and low-performing schools-two of the four categories, which reflect priorities of the Obama administration.”

Arizona District Needs $3 Million For All-Day Kindergarten After State Cuts Funding.
The Arizona Republic (4/21, Fehr-Snyder) reports that after “state lawmakers yanked their support for” all-day kindergarten last month “by cutting $218million from the state budget for next year,” Arizona districts were forced “to decide whether” to “foot the bill…begin charging parents tuition, or cut the program altogether.” The “Chandler Unified School District has chosen to offer all-day K at no extra cost to parents.” The decision “will cost the district’s taxpayers about $3 million a year.” Meanwhile, other “districts, such as Gilbert Public Schools, will begin charging tuition for the program.”

Battle Between New Jersey Teachers, Governor Over School Funding Grows More Intense.
The AP (4/20, Mulvihill) reports that the battle between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and state teachers over Christie’s proposed “salary freezes and” school funding cuts “has become ever more heated as residents of most of the state’s school districts get ready to vote Tuesday on property tax levies that support district budgets.” Christie is urging “voters to reject the proposals in districts where educators won’t agree to salary freezes for the coming school year.” He also has “proposed cutting state and federal aid to districts by 11 percent, calling it a way to share sacrifice as the state tries to rein in spending.” Many opponents have posted their disdain for the measures on the Facebook page, “New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie’s Pay Freeze.” And, “Christie’s supporters have responded with a Facebook page of their own.”

WCBS-TV New York (4/19, Sloan) reported on its Website that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “is escalating his war of words” with the New Jersey Education Association, as he is “accusing the union of ‘using students like drug mules,’ a day ahead of the hottest school budget votes in the history of The Garden State. Debates are happening between taxpayers across New Jersey as school budgets go to voters on Tuesday.” The “contentious discussions were stirred up by Christie, who has been on a relentless mission to stop teachers from getting negotiated raises in the next budget.”

Proposed Tax Hikes, School Cuts In New Jersey Spark Intense Debate. The New York Times (4/20, Hu) reports, “School budget talks have become so contentious” in Edison, NJ “that 700 people recently packed a school board meeting – and 100 of them stayed more than nine hours, until 4 a.m. At stake is Edison’s $204.8 million school budget for next year, which calls for increasing the local property tax levy by 8.6 percent.” According to the Times, “Even with such an increase,” the Edison district “plans to lay off 92 teachers, cancel summer school, cut kindergarten to a half day and eliminate middle school athletic teams,” yet voters first must “approve the budget, which is on the ballot Tuesday, as are budgets in most of New Jersey’s 600 school districts.”

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In the Classroom
Los Angeles Study Documents Benefits Of Preschool.
The Los Angeles Times (4/20, Rivera) reports, “Children enrolled in Los Angeles Universal Preschool programs made significant improvements in the social and emotional skills needed to do well in kindergarten, according to a study released Monday.” According to the Times, “The findings confirmed observations of preschool teachers that children attending high-quality programs are better prepared for kindergarten. For the first time, the study provided data to back up those observations, officials with the nonprofit preschool organization said.”

California District Approves Anti-Bullying Texts That Address Sexual Orientation, Religion.
The Oakland (CA) Tribune (4/19, Hegarty) reports, “Alameda school district leaders approved a list of books aimed at preventing bullying among elementary school students, including some that deal with sexual orientation that critics say are inappropriate for children.” The 21 books proposed by “teachers and others” also include “themes around disability, race and religion, to help students learn about people who may be vulnerable to stereotyping or harassment.” Last week, “some parents urged the school board to reject the selections dealing with sexual orientation, such as ‘Heather Has Two Mommies,’ which is for second-graders, and ‘The Harvey Milk Story,’ which is for fifth-graders.” Meanwhile Alameda Education Association president Patricia Sanders wants the books to “be given the green light.”

Critics Say “Starbase” Science Program At Military Base Violates Anti-Recruitment Policy.
The Oregonian (4/20, Melton) reports that “a science program takes hundreds of Portland” fourth and fifth-graders “each year to study on a military base, drawing complaints from parents that it violates a district policy against military recruiting.” The program, called Starbase, aims “to introduce at-risk youths to science careers.” The Oregonian points out that “no official recruiting takes place, and many kids don’t even realize they’re on a military base.” Still, critics “argue that just being there constitutes recruiting.” The school board renewed its “17-year-old annual contract with the Starbase program, funded with $320,000 from the US Defense Department,” last month. “But three of seven members voted” against the contract.

Student Pay-For-Performance Trial Results Analyzed.
University of Virginia Psychology Professor Daniel Willingham wrote in an “Answer Sheet” blog for the Washington Post (4/19), “Roland Fryer is an economist at Harvard University who had an idea for a straightforward method of getting kids at urban schools more engaged: Pay ‘em. Four reward schemes were tried in four different cities, each in a randomized control trial lasting one year.” Fryer “was surprised that the most direct reward scheme–pay for higher test scores–didn’t work, but the results were predictable. Incentives must have two characteristics to be powerful” as they “must be certain, and they must be immediate.”

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On the Job
Some Texas Districts Experiencing Decline In Student Enrollment, State Funding.
The Dallas Morning News (4/19, Unmuth) reported, “In these tough economic times when many school districts are tightening their belts, every student enrolled represents much-needed state funding. Most districts are seeing increasing or flat enrollments, but there are some” Texas districts “with fewer students,” including Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Grapevine-Colleyville and Carroll, along with the Dallas district. According to the Morning News, “In Carrollton-Farmers Branch, the loss this year of 337 students represented about $2 million in state funding, according to district officials.”

Federal Audit Finds Undercounts In Dropouts, Discipline In Georgia District.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (4/18, Vogell) reported that an audit by a federal inspector general “found undercounts of dropouts and violent disciplinary incidents in data that Clayton County [GA] reported to the state, as well as in data the state reported to federal authorities.” According to the Journal-Constitution, “While the inspector general urged the state to bolster its monitoring of schools’ data, state education officials said in a statement Friday that their procedures are adequate and consistent with ‘best practices.’” The Education Department “plans to review the recommendations and decide what action to take, spokesman Jim Bradshaw said in an e-mail.”

Law & Policy
Some School Districts Moving Towards De-Facto Segregation.
The Washington Post (4/20, McCrummen) reports, “Last week, a federal judge ruled that a school board policy” in Walthall County, MS “has had the effect of creating ‘racially identifiable’ schools in violation of a 1970 federal desegregation order. Although the case is unique in some ways, it fits a broader trend towards racial isolation that has been underway for years in American schools and has undermined the historic school integration efforts of the civil rights era.” According to the Post, “More than half a century after courts dismantled the legal framework that enforced segregation, Obama administration officials are investigating an array of practices across the country that contribute to a present-day version that they say is no less insidious.”

Commissioners In Wake County, North Carolina, Warn Against Resegregation Of Public Schools. North Carolina’s News & Observer (4/20, Goldsmith) reports that the “Democratic majority of the Wake County Board of Commissioners has just approved a measure expressing ‘deep concern over any attempt to resegregate Wake’s public schools by either race or socioeconomic status.’” The measure refers to “the county school board’s move toward community-based schools. … Democratic commissioners said they have been approached recently by people appalled that” the county “school board had cast aside Wake County’s practice of striving for socio-economic diversity by busing and other means.”

Education Bills Would Significantly Change School Voucher, Graduation Policies In Florida.
The Miami Herald (4/20, Sampson) reports that while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R) veto of “a bill that would have upended the current system of paying and firing teachers” received major media attention last week, several other bills “that could change the state’s education landscape significantly moved forward without nearly the same level of public attention.” Among such legislation is a bill that would expand “the state’s voucher program for low-income kids so private schools could eventually collect as much as 80 percent of the per-student money given to public schools by the state.” Another would add “more rigorous math and science classes to graduation requirements.” The Miami Herald provides details about the bills and whether or not they are expected to become law.

West Virginia State Superintendent Presents Education Reform Ideas.
WSAZ-TV Charleston, WV (4/20, Jarosz) reports that West Virginia’s Board of Education “is pulling ideas together and finalizing plans to improve the quality of education in” the state. “On Monday, State Superintendent Steven Paine presented a plan called, ‘It’s All About the Kids,’” that outlines 28 different ideas, including “expanding the Global 21 program with K-through-12 students; developing a digital portfolio accessible by students, parents and teachers; performance pay for students as a reward for good behavior or academic success…and incentives for educator excellence by rewarding teachers with salary increases.”

Special Needs
Influx Of Non-English Speaking Students With Special Needs Strains Vancouver Schools.
The Vancouver (BC) Sun (4/19, Steffenhagen) reported that “a growing number of foreign families are bringing special-needs children to Metro Vancouver so they can attend regular classrooms with other same-age students rather than being segregated or denied education altogether in their homelands, according to longtime educators with ESL expertise.” In some cases, “parents refuse to reveal their” children’s “special learning needs” to school officials, placing “additional pressures on school districts.” After these “children are placed in classrooms, their learning struggles may become obvious, but their teachers probably won’t know the cause, especially if the students don’t speak English.” Meanwhile, families that “arrive with psycho-educational assessments” to “identify the child’s special needs” allow “educators to begin assistance immediately.”

School Finance
Federal School Turnaround Funds Flowing To States.
Education Week (4/20, Maxwell) reports, “Since last month, the Education Department has been sending states their shares of $3.5 billion in Title I School Improvement Grants, money provided mostly by last year’s economic-stimulus package, as well as from $546 million in regular fiscal 2009 appropriations.” According to Education Week, “Less than six months from now, selected schools that rank among the bottom 5 percent in their states-the priority under the grant program-will be required to launch one of four ‘turnaround’ strategies outlined by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. It’s a daunting timeline for some district leaders, who are eager for the windfall of support for struggling schools but may have qualms about the strict conditions for receiving the federal aid.”

Also in the News
State Data System Glitch Led To Mistaken Blue Ribbon Nomination For Texas Elementary School.
News 8-TV Austin, TX (4/20) reports that “after receiving news that it had been nominated for a US Blue Ribbon by the Texas Education Agency, Linder Elementary School learned it has not been nominated.” Last week, Linder Elementary “was on the nomination list.” But, on Friday, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott “notified Austin Independent School District…of the confusion, saying it was a programming error in a TEA automated data system that caused the mistake.” Although the school “met the academic growth criteria,” it did not meet “the student score criteria needed for the ‘dramatically improved’ category.”

Student Charged With Abducting Teacher In DC.
The Washington Post (4/20, Weil, Birnbaum) reports, “A teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School” in D.C. “was abducted over the weekend by a Wilson student and forced to withdraw money from her bank account, sources said. In a startling incident with little if any precedent in the Washington area, the teacher, who had been forced into her own car, eventually managed to escape from the student and a second abductor,” and a “juvenile was later taken into custody.”

NEA in the News
NEA Endorses National TV Turnoff Week.
The Midland (TX) Reporter-Telegram (4/20, Thurber) reports that this week is recognized “by more than 65 organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Education Association” as National TV Turnoff Week. In observance, “bookstores and teachers are working to encourage reading and active play rather than the sedentary state most students fall into when they plop in front of their favorite programs.” The initiative, which began in 1994 due to “concerns about the impact television was having on kids’ health, social development and overall education,” takes “place in both the spring and fall.”

Education Department Seeks To Expand Alternative Teacher Training Programs.
The New York Times (4/19, Foderaro) reports on its front page, “Officials in Washington, D.C., and New York State, where some of the best-known education schools are located, have stepped up criticisms that the schools are still too focused on theory and not enough on the craft of effective teaching. Though alternative teacher-training programs “now operate in most states, only a few, including Rhode Island and Louisiana, allow these programs to effectively certify their own teachers,” yet Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is “trying to expand these programs,” as Race to the Top “points are given to states that provide ‘high-quality pathways for aspiring teachers and principals’ including ‘allowing alternative routes to certification.’”

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In the Classroom
Students Interview Local Residents To Learn History Of Chesterfield County, Virginia.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (4/18, Lizama) reported that “with a grant from the Chesterfield Public Education Foundation,” Dawn Henderson, “a parent liaison at Bensley Elementary School in Chesterfield County,” Virginia, “started an after-school enrichment program in which 14 fourth-graders are participating.” The students are interviewing local residents to learn first-hand the area’s history. So far, they have interviewed 70 residents. “Henderson said that by the end of April, students plan to finish a video of the project and later they’ll write a book.”

“Digispired ii” Will Teach Engineering Principals Through Video Game Creation.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (4/18, Slayton) reported that “a program funded by the National Science Foundation is now taking students inside the world of gaming.” Called Digispired ii, the program allows student to “explore science and engineering principles behind game controllers while learning programming tools to help create their own video games.” The program is being made possible through a partnership between “Longwood University, Virginia State University, and the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center.” The partnership needs “about 20 current ninth-graders to participate in Digispired ii,” which “consists of two weeks during the summer and eight to 10 Saturdays during the school year. The National Science Foundation awarded a $1 million grant to fund the program.”

Law & Policy
DC Area Vies For Round 2 Of Race To The Top.
The Washington Post (4/19, Anderson) reports, “With a proposed teacher contract that includes performance pay,” D.C. “aims to strengthen its case for a share of $4 billion in President Obama’s Race to the Top school reform program. Maryland hopes to become competitive through a plan to link student achievement growth to teacher evaluations,” yet Virginia “is considering whether to pull out after a weak showing in the first round.” DC-area “competitors, like states elsewhere, are poring over contest entries, voluminous written comments from judges, videotaped interviews and other records compiled in the round won last month by Delaware and Tennessee.”

Florida Lawmakers Continue To Seek Ways To Change Teaching Profession.
The St. Petersburg Times (4/19, Matus, Solochek) reports, “Gov. Charlie Crist (R) killed Senate Bill 6. But the battle over the teaching profession in Florida is just getting started.” According to some research, “teachers are the biggest variable” within schools “in how students perform. So policymakers in Florida and elsewhere will keep trying to change the profession in ways that may…more quickly boot bad teachers and amplify the power of good ones.” Still, the St. Petersburg Times adds, “SB 6 probably won’t be resurrected by the end of the legislative session April 30.”

The Miami Herald (4/16, Sampson, Herald) reports that SB6 “would have positioned Florida as a leader in education reform statewide, with a more sweeping pay-for-performance plan that any state has managed to enact.” Yet, “even supporters of merit pay said the measure was doomed because the process lacked collaboration and transparency.” Florida state Rep. John Legg (R), “who sponsored the bill in the House,” wants “to find ways to toughen existing laws that require using student performance to evaluate teachers and that require schools to have an ‘evaluation mechanism’ for every course.”

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Hawaii Parent Groups Propose Compromise On School Furloughs.
The Honolulu Advertiser (4/17) reported, “Two grassroots parent organizations yesterday released their own plan to reduce Hawai’i's public school furloughs, saying it represents a compromise between Gov. Linda Lingle’s [R] proposal and a supplemental agreement already reached between the state Board of Education and the teachers union. The parents’ plan would eliminate 15 of the remaining 21 furlough days through a combination of money from the Hurricane Relief Fund or some other emergency funds and teachers giving up planning days. The plan would leave six days unresolved.” Lingle “said yesterday the plan misses the mark by leaving six furlough days unresolved.”

KITV-TV Honolulu, HI (4/16) reported on its Website, “Parents and community members determined not to give up on ending school furlough days presented a $55 million plan Friday that the governor said falls short. ‘The People’s Plan’ eliminates nine furlough days and would start as soon as next Friday,” and the “plan would also require converting six teacher planning days to instructional days, for a total of 15 furlough days.”

Parents End Weeklong School Furlough Sit-In. The AP (4/16) reported, “Parents who have been protesting Hawaii’s shortest-in-the-nation school year have ended a sit-in that lasted several days at Gov. Linda Lingle’s office. Their decision came Wednesday night after state sheriff’s deputies arrested two more protesters, raising the total to four.” The “parents and other adults camped in the office lobby for five of the last eight days, hoping to prod the governor into taking action to end the furloughs.”

Oklahoma Teacher Jobs Bill Would Affect School’s Turnaround Effort.
The Oklahoman (4/17, Rolland) reported, “Teachers removed from US Grant High School in an effort to reform the struggling school would be moved to other jobs in the district or become full-time substitutes under a reform plan the Oklahoma City School Board will consider Monday night. Even if the board approves the plan, it hangs on a proposed change in state law backed by Sen. John Ford, R-Bartlesville.” Ford is quoted saying, “‘Right now there is no position as a full-time substitute, so we created that position,’ Ford said, of his Senate Bill 509, which is in a House committee.”

San Francisco Court For Parents Of Truant Middle, Elementary Schoolers Gets Positive Results.
The San Francisco Chronicle (4/17, Kuruvila) reports on Alameda County (CA) Superior Court Judge Cecilia Castellanos’ court room, “where, every Friday, parents from cities throughout Alameda County are prosecuted for failing to get their children to elementary school and sometimes middle school.” Her “court generally sees parents whose kids have missed 20 or more days. Older children who miss school face truancy charges in Juvenile Court.” The Chronicle points out that “truancy is gaining greater attention locally and around the state as cities and counties find ways to get kids back in the classroom.” It notes that “more than 85 percent of the parents” who attend the Alameda County truancy court “reduced their children’s truancy by 75 percent or more.”

New Initiative Would Prosecute “Chronically Truant” Teenagers In San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle (4/17, Gordon) reports that in a new initiative to set to start in May, “older teens who are chronically truant from San Francisco public schools may be prosecuted if they don’t return to the classroom, officials announced.” Truant students “could be hit with an infraction that carries a $100 fine, forced community service and the possibility of temporarily having their driving privileges revoked.” But, said Assistant District Attorney Katherine Miller, “the district attorney would dismiss the cases of students who dramatically cut down their unexcused absences.”

Special Needs
Connecticut District Seeks Input From Superintendents-In-Training On Special Education Cases.
The Greenwich (CT) Time (4/18, Gustafson) reports that the Greenwich school district “has asked a group of superintendents-in-training to cast a critical eye on how it deals with parents who are ready to take legal action over their children’s special education program.” The purpose “is to get an outside perspective on ways to improve the system to avoid litigation by parents unhappy about the district’s efforts to address their children’s learning needs.” Greenwich is currently dealing “with one of the heaviest case loads in the state when it comes to parents invoking their due process rights in disagreements over special education.”

Safety & Security
Chicago Schools, Police Step Up Security Measures In Wake Of Student’s Beating Death.
The Chicago Tribune (4/18, Sweeney, Ahmed, Mack) reported, “In the seven months since Fenger High School honors-student Derrion Albert was beaten to death after school, police and school officials have refocused efforts to keep a closer watch on violence at and around city schools and to share information. Chicago police have just launched a computer database that tracks daily incidents, from curfew violations to violent crimes around high schools.” Also, “the Chicago Public Schools system has redesigned its safety and security center, moved it to headquarters and added more access to city cameras.”

Facilities
Baltimore Parents Fight School Health Center Closures.
The Baltimore Sun (4/16, Green) reports, “Dozens of parents filed through City Springs Elementary/Middle School” in Baltimore “on Friday morning to sign a petition to protest proposed funding cuts to the school’s health center, a resource they say is vital to their children’s well-being. The charter school, which serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, is one of six that might have their school-based health centers cut next year to help close a $121 million deficit in the Baltimore budget.” Also, in “addition to the health centers, the city also proposed cutting its support for crossing guards and eliminating its funding of free bus passes for students.”

School Finance
New York City School Officials Stop Buying From Small Book Vendors.
The New York Times (4/19, McGinty) reports, “Even as recently as last year, the process by which books ended up in New York classrooms bore more resemblance to Avon than Amazon,” as numerous “salespeople traversed the city, going from school to school, peddling so-called trade books: the novels, works of nonfiction, test guides and other publications that teachers use to supplement textbooks.” However, New York City “has transformed the way it buys these books, abandoning the decades-old process in which numerous vendors competed in door-to-door or bazaar-like settings, to one in which nearly all such books – literally millions of volumes – are purchased via computer from two large discount wholesalers that have promised savings of at least 30 percent.”

Also in the News
College Educators Debate Designation Of American Sign Language As A Foreign Language.
The Chicago Tribune (4/18, Lourgos) reported, “Twenty students are holding several animated small-group discussions, but no one in this Northern Illinois University classroom utters a word,” as their “fingers weave in complex patterns as they converse in American Sign Language, which the university has declared an official foreign language.” Though the students say the “new label is fitting,” the “practice of awarding foreign language credit for American Sign Language coursework has been fiercely debated at universities across the country” as some “educators argue an indigenous language by definition can’t be considered foreign.”

NEA in the News
Fact-Finding Report Shows Validity Of California District, Teachers Union Budget Claims.
The San Francisco Chronicle (4/16, C5, Tucker) reported, “With a one-day teacher strike looming in Oakland, a fact-finding report released Thursday gave both the district and the teachers union some ammunition in the bitter battle over a new labor contract.” According to “the report, a required step following failed contract negotiations…district’s claims of financial desperation” were true. However, the report “also gave a nod to the Oakland Education Association’s claims of relatively low teacher pay and need for small class sizes.” The Chronicle notes that “release of the fact-finding report clears the way for” a “teacher strike, scheduled for April 29.”

Crist Vetoes Florida Teacher Tenure, Merit Pay Legislation.
The AP (4/15, Kaczor) reports Florida Gov. Charlie Crist “vetoed the most far-reaching education bill of its kind in the nation, legislation that would have made it easier to fire teachers and linked their pay to student test scores.” The veto “put him at odds with Republican legislative leaders and former Gov. Jeb Bush, who worked hard for the bill’s passage and touted it in national media interviews.” Crist, who “badly trails in the polls” in his bid for the Republican US Senate nomination, “said the veto was not about politics but about the state’s children though he acknowledged an outpouring of opposition by teachers, parents and local school officials around the state” had an impact. Phone calls and emails “ran 65,259 against to 3,090 for the bill.” Crist “once favored the legislation and said he still supports the concept of pay for performance and holding teachers accountable.”

The St. Petersburg Times (4/16, Sampson, Silva, Marshall) reports Crist “killed the bill that prompted sick-outs, sit-ins, street protests and a flood of opposition throughout the state as Republican lawmakers vowed to try again next year — if not sooner.” Crist criticized the bill, “which would link teacher pay to student test scores and eliminate tenure for all new hires, as both overreaching and too vague.” Its main sponsor “said he did not think the bill would see a resurrection this spring.”

The New York Times (4/16, Gabriel, Cave) reports Crist “has been jawboned and buttonholed as he has traveled around the state in recent days” over the bill, and he said “passions have not run so high” in the state “since the controversy over ending the life of Terry Schiavo in 2005.” The bill “was supported by the Florida Department of Education and statewide business groups, which expressed disappointment in the governor’s decision, saying that teachers should be held more accountable.”

The Christian Science Monitor (4/15, Khadaroo) says “teachers’ unions and school boards mounted a vigorous campaign to stop the bill, alarmed at how it would have removed tenure possibilities for new teachers and based evaluations largely on student academic gains.” With the veto, “they won the day. But many education reformers see the veto as just a temporary setback in a march toward breaking down the status quo and ultimately improving the teaching profession.”

Teacher “Shout Out” Rally Turns Into Celebration After Veto Announcement. The St. Petersburg Times (4/16, Solochek) reports that after Crist announced his veto decision on Thursday, teachers rallying near the state house “hastily altered their ‘Veto SB 6′ signs to thank Crist after his announcement,” turning “their ‘shout out’ rally, which drew more than 100 teachers in three locations, into a celebration of sorts — one that received lots of honks and waves of support from passersby.” The St. Petersburg Times adds that State Sen. Mike Fasano (R), “a Crist supporter who voted for SB 6, called Crist ‘courageous’ for his veto.” Said Fasano, “I think after today people realize they have a governor that watches out for them. … He did exactly what people asked him to do, and he did it because he thought it was the right thing to do.” He also acknowledged that problems with the bill cited by constituents “could be fixed in a next attempt to implement education reform.”

Legislation Compared To Race To The Top. Valerie Strauss writes in the Washington Post (4/15) “Answer Sheet” blog, “Teachers in Florida can breathe a temporary sigh of relief” now that Crist has vetoed the bill. The legislation “would have stripped teachers of tenure, linked teacher pay to student standardized test scores, eliminated experience and advanced degrees as part of a teacher’s evaluation, and required the creation of a slew of new standardized tests for Florida’s already over-tested kids to take.” The “big winners…would have been folks in the test creation and test preparation business.” Strauss says the bill “took to extremes some of the initiatives supported by” Education Secretary Duncan, whose Race To The Top program “promotes some initiatives, such as linking teacher pay to standardized test scores, that experts say will do nothing to improve education but help drive good teachers out of the profession.”

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In the Classroom
American Indian, Refugee High School Students Participate In Culture Exchange.
The Salt Lake Tribune (4/16, Winters) reports that “on Thursday…students from a dozen nations brought their cultures to their peers at Uintah River High School and got a taste of the Utes’ own heritage” through the Granite School District’s Newcomer Academy.” The academy is “a high school program in Salt Lake County that serves refugees and immigrants from 17 countries.” Some “60 Newcomers and 26 Uintah River students participated” in the cultural exchange. Chris Mockli, “a Newcomer Academy counselor,” said that both groups of students “are working to preserve their unique cultures even as they strive to succeed in mainstream American society.” The Tribune notes that Uintah River “emphasizes American Indian history and culture. Students take classes in Ute language and learn traditional arts such as beading and cradle-board making.”

On the Job
New York City To Shut Down Reassignment “Rubber Rooms.”
The AP (4/15, Matthews) reports New York City “will end the practice of paying teachers to play Scrabble, read or surf the Internet in reassignment centers nicknamed ‘rubber rooms’ as they await disciplinary hearings,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the local teachers union announced Thursday.” The agreement “will close the centers, where hundreds of educators spend months or years in bureaucratic limbo, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.” Most of the teachers “will be given administrative or nonclassroom work while their cases are pending,” while “teachers accused of serious charges including violent felonies will be suspended without pay.” Officials said “about 650 educators, more than 500 of them teachers, are in the rubber rooms earning some $30 million in salaries.”

Toronto’s Globe and Mail (4/16, Slater) writes, “As a source of tabloid fodder, the rubber rooms are almost peerless. In one notorious case, a teacher charged with lewd behaviour toward students spent nine years in a rubber room. By this past January, he was collecting a salary of more than $100,000 a year and accruing a considerable pension while also managing millions in real-estate investments on the side.”

Placement Firm Must Repay Filipino Teachers Brought To Louisiana.
USA Today (4/16, Toppo) reports Los Angeles-based Universal Placement International, which “brought more than 350 Filipino teachers to Louisiana to teach in public schools,” must refund “as much as $1.8 million in ‘marketing fees’ after a judge’s ruling that the fees are prohibited. The firm’s president could also face criminal charges the judge says.” In return for the teaching jobs in the US, teachers say the company “charged them thousands of dollars up front, demanded 10% of their salaries up front in their first year of teaching — and 20% in their second year — and held on to their US work visas if they refused to pay, among other allegations.”

Law & Policy
West Virginia BOE Increases Proficiency Levels For Standardized Tests.
The AP (4/16) reports that “the West Virginia Board of Education has raised the bar for mastering proficiency on the state’s standardized achievement test.” This week, “board members…increased the scores students must achieve to master the WESTEST 2′s proficiency levels for math and other core subjects.” Now, fifth-graders have to “score at least 611 to achieve math mastery. The previous minimum score was 591. The changes are effective for the 2010-2014 academic years.”

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School Lunches Undergo Changes Due To Obesity Issue.
In its upcoming edition, Time (4/26, McGray) reports that “school lunch is facing new scrutiny” as the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act looms “at a time of unprecedented attention to childhood obesity.” Time observes that there is “even a prime-time network reality show (Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution) that takes place in school cafeterias and has stars bickering about chicken nuggets and federally mandated grain servings.” The Institute of Medicine “has found that a typical high school lunch contains more than twice the recommended limit for sodium intake, too many calories from sugar and saturated fat and too few fruits and vegetables. Congress seems likely to raise federal reimbursements by a few cents — which is more than it sounds but still less than the White House requested — and tie the increase to more thorough health standards.” School kitchens will face “really hard work,” since “they’ll be asked to serve wholesome meals at fast-food prices. And not just that: kids have to like them.”

Seattle Times: School Lunch Program Needs Better Funding, Healthier Food. The Seattle Times (4/16) editorializes, “As Congress takes up reauthorization of the National School Lunch Program, funding must be more realistic about the daily cost of feeding 31 million children.” Although the President “proposes spending an extra $1 billion each year on child-nutrition programs including school lunch,” in reality, “funding…must be lower. But not by much,” the Times asserts. The US Senate’s ten-year, $4.5 billion bill, it adds, is “workable,” but needs more money. “In addition to standard changes such as improved training for food workers and quicker alerts to schools about contaminated food recalls, the Senate bill would set new nutrition standards for all school food, from lunchrooms to vending machines.” The Times concludes, “Better funding and healthier food should guide the school-lunch program.”

Safety & Security
San Francisco Public Schools Emphasize Safety During “Bike To School” Day.
Michael Rhodes wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle (4/15, Rhodes) Bay Area Transit blog, “At Sunset Elementary School, one of dozens of schools in San Francisco to participate in Bike to School Day” Thursday, “and one of just five to receive a Safe Routes to School grant, many of the children seemed eager to make it more than a one-time event.” More than “120 kids — at least a full third of the school — biked to Sunset Elementary…doubling the number that participated in Bike to School Day last year.” According to principal Sophie Lee, “the Safe Routes to School grant allowed the school to teach all fourth graders about bicycling safety, which helped turn out even more kids this year than last.”

School Finance
Virginia To Receive $59.8 Million In School Improvement Grants.
The AP (4/15, Sampson) reports Virginia “will receive $59.8 million” from the federal in federal School Improvement Grants program “to overhaul its lowest-performing schools, and state education officials plan to give greater weight in disbursing the funds to districts that hire designated outside providers as their ‘turnaround partners.’” The Education Department said the grants “will be available this spring to help what it characterizes as the ‘persistently lowest-achieving schools.’” Virginia’s award “is part of a $3.5 billion federal initiative to raise high school graduation rates, slash dropout rates and improve teacher quality nationwide.”

Utah Districts Must Implement “Serious” Changes To Receive Portion Of Federal Grant. The Salt Lake Tribune (4/16, Schencker) reports that Utah school districts that receive a portion of the $17.4 million the state is getting from the US Department of Education “to turn around the state’s persistently lowest achieving schools” will be required to either replace principals and half of all teachers, “convert to charter schools,” close down, or “replace the principal and improve the school through curriculum reform, training for educators, extending learning time and other strategies.” The Tribune adds that “it’s unclear how many Utah districts will apply given the serious set of strings attached. Districts have about a month to decide.”

District Of Columbia CFO Says Schools Surplus Does Not Exist.
The Washington Post (4/16, Turque) reports District of Columbia Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi said that a “$34 million surplus in the school system’s budget, cited by Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee as a major source of funding for raises promised to teachers in a proposed labor contract, does not exist.”Gandhi’s analysis, “outlined in a stinging letter to Rhee, is likely to raise new questions about the prospects for an agreement between the city and the Washington Teachers’ Union.” In the letter, “Gandhi takes Rhee to task for what he describes as a failure to adequately consult his office before mentioning the surplus at a meeting with D.C. Council members.”

Also in the News
Oregon Teacher Suspended Over Anti-Tea Party Website.
The AP (4/15) reports Oregon middle school teacher Jason Levin, “whose ‘Crash the Tea Party’ Internet campaign drew national attention,” has been “put on paid leave while school officials investigate whether he used school equipment or time to work on his Web site.” On the site, Levin “encouraged people to infiltrate the tea party movement to discredit the conservative activists.”

NEA in the News
Rhode Island Seeks Union Input, Support For Second Round Of Race To The Top.
The Providence Journal (4/16, Jordan) reports, “A lack of trust and understanding between teachers unions and state education officials hampered Rhode Island’s quest to secure millions of dollars in federal education aid last month, state education officials acknowledge.” Now, State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist “says she is committed to reaching out to teachers,” and “wants to win the support of all the state’s 37 teachers union locals.” In the first round, “just two” local unions “signed on.” National Education Association of Rhode Island President Larry Purtill said, “I think teachers need to feel more included. If that happens, we’re hoping we can sign off.” The State Education Department “will hold a series of public meetings with various groups – including teachers – to address their concerns and make adjustments to the application over the next two weeks.”

Special Education, ESOL Are “Most Marketable” Fields For Teachers.
The U.S. News and World Report (4/16) provides some “pointers and nuggets of data to consider when considering a master’s degree in education.” Among the pointers, US News & World Reports notes that “for those seeking a post-license master’s degree, special education and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) are two of the most marketable fields available.” It also says that according to NEA estimates, “there were 1.9 million elementary school teachers and 1.4 million secondary school teachers in the United States during the 2009-2010 school year. … The total number of teachers has risen nearly 14 percent in the past 10 years.”

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