Full-Day Preschool Found To Benefit Boys, Some Minorities In Maryland District.
The Washington Post (5/11, Birnbaum) reports that Montgomery County, Maryland, “boys as well as African Americans of both sexes benefit more from full-day pre-kindergarten programs, according to a study announced Monday by school officials. The findings come at a time when educators increasingly are using programs aimed at the youngest students as the surest way to close persistent gaps in performance between economic and racial groups.” According to the Post, “The study found that among African American students and boys in general, those who attended full-day pre-kindergarten classes outperformed their Head Start peers who had only half-day programs on reading benchmarks.”

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In the Classroom
The “Big Read” Aims To Revitalize Role Of Literature In Pop Culture.
The Washington Post (5/11, Brown) reports, “Officials at the D.C. Humanities Council and the D.C. Public Library system are participating in the ‘Big Read,’ a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts to ‘revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture,’ are hoping that everyone in the city can learn from reading the same book.” The novel “A Lesson Before Dying,” by Ernest J. Gaines is this year’s selection. The book is “about a black teenager living in segregated Louisiana, who is sentenced to death in the 1940s for murders he did not commit.” According to the Post, “The council and the library system distributed more than 2,500 copies of the book to programs for the homeless, juvenile correctional facilities and to schools, where questions raised by the story were explored.”

Miami Area Schools Increasingly Adopting International Baccalaureate Program.
The Miami Herald (5/11, Smiley) reports that “from Homestead to Plantation, schools both public and private are increasingly buying into the International Baccalaureate curriculum — often referred to as IB — as a way to boost education and reputation.” The IB curriculum encourages students to think critically to figure out “their own answers to the question: ‘What does this have anything to do with real life?’” In Miami-Dade and Broward County, about 40 schools have IB programs. “Maria Hersey, an IB program specialist based in the state, said elementary and middle schools in particular are turning to the curriculum after seeing the success IB diploma holders have had at the university level and beyond.”

Nonprofit Funds Marine Science Program For Elementary School In Rhode Island.
The Providence Journal (5/11, Polichetti) reports that the Defenders of Greenwich Bay, a nonprofit group that works to protect “the small inlet along the western shore of Narragansett Bay” has announced that it will “join Save The Bay to provide students at Robertson Elementary School with a five-year marine-science program.” Through a $100,000 contribution, Defenders of Greenwich Bay will help Save the Bay “provide a comprehensive program for all grades” at Robertson Elementary. The money will go toward “field trips, including ones on Save The Bay’s research ship,” and “to purchase equipment, including small video cameras for classes to document their maritime experiences.”

Students Aim To Solve Mystery Of Civil War Submarine Hunley.
USA Today (5/11, Klinck) reports though part of the story remains a mystery, what “is certain is that on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina to become the first submarine to sink a ship during combat. … But before the submarine sank, the story goes, it flashed a blue light to Confederate soldiers on the shore to signal success.” According to USA Today, “To try to answer the question of the mysterious blue signal, 12 students at Hamburg (Pa.) Area High School are building three replicas of the submarine’s lantern in the school’s metal shop.”

On the Job
Florida District Has Yet To Establish Evaluation Plan For Special Education, Arts Teachers.
The Tampa Tribune (5/10, Ackerman) reported, “Under a new system beginning this fall, student learning gains account for 40 percent of the annual evaluation of most of Hillsborough County’s 13,000 public school teachers.” But, “just under one fourth” of all educators in the district teach special education, “art, music and physical education” classes, which cannot “be measured with the precision of FCAT subjects,” according to the tribune. And, “how to evaluate them is a question that helped derail a fast-moving effort during this spring’s Florida legislative session to tie teachers’ futures to student achievement.” Next year, these “unique teachers” will be evaluated as they had been in previous year. But, by “2011-2012, the district expects a plan in place for them and all teachers.”

Colorado District Implements Teacher Pay-For-Performance System.
Education Week (5/10, Sawchuk) reported, “The much-lauded ProComp system in Denver is unquestionably Colorado’s most famous contribution to the intensifying dialogue about performance-based compensation, but it now has competition from a district just 60 miles to the south.” Beginning this fall, the Harrison School District Two “will be among the first in the nation to replace the traditional salary schedule with a pay system based entirely on observations of teacher practice and student-achievement results.” According to Education Week, “The ‘Effectiveness and Results’ pay plan is the capstone of an aggressive effort by Superintendent Mike Miles to improve educator effectiveness.”

Law & Policy
Agreement Reached On Overhaul Of New York Teacher Evaluations.
The New York Times (5/11, Medina) reports that the New York “State Education Department and New York’s teachers’ unions have reached a deal to overhaul teacher evaluations and tie them to student test scores, brokering a compromise on an issue the unions had bitterly opposed for years.” Under the agreement, teachers would no longer be “rated simply satisfactory or unsatisfactory.” Instead they would be rated either “highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective.” According to the Times, “the deal would not have any immediate effect on teacher pay,” but “it could make it easier for schools to fire teachers deemed subpar.”

DC Officials Announce Agreement On Financing Of New Teacher Contract.
The Washington Post (5/11, Turque) reports, “After nearly five weeks of interagency finger-pointing and discord, [DC] officials announced late Monday that they have found a way to finance the proposed teachers contract, paving the way for a vote by union rank-and-file on the $140 million pact.” Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and District Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi announced that “they had devised a $38.8 million package of budget cuts and reallocations to close the $10.7 million funding gap in the contract and $28 million in projected overspending in other parts of the school budget.” According to the Post, “The funding package delivers exactly what Gandhi had insisted upon in D.C. Council testimony and private deliberations with Rhee and Fenty before he would certify the pact as fiscally sound: a contract funded exclusively by public funds available without condition.” Bill Turque also covered this story in a blog for the Washington Post (5/10).

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Special Needs
San Antonio Area School Districts Seek Advocates For Special Needs Students In Residential Facilities.
The San Antonio Express-News (5/10, LaCoste-Caputo) reported that “school districts are looking for…volunteers who can advocate for special education students living in residential facilities.” The “surrogate parents” would “have full access to the child’s academic record.” About 105 of the 300 special needs students from residential facilities in the San Antonio Independent School District are in need of surrogates. Currently, only “two volunteers are covering all the children.” According to district officials “it’s been difficult to get the word out for volunteer recruitment,” and under Texas law, “district employees can’t act as surrogates.”

Facilities
Cincinnati Area District Trend Closes Neighborhood Schools In Favor Of District-Wide Facilities.
The Cincinnati Enquirer (5/11, Amos) reports that the Mt. Healthy school district “is transforming into a leaner and environmentally greener district, shuttering five neighborhood elementary schools and opening two, larger elementary schools.” The district expects to save “$1.5 million to $1.8 million a year from its $35 million annual budget by operating fewer, newer schools.” The Enquirer adds that the trend of “closing old, neighborhood elementary schools and opening newer district-wide buildings” has caught on in districts throughout the Cincinnati region. “School leaders hope that fewer, ‘greener’ schools will save millions of dollars in energy, staff and operational costs.”

School Finance
School Administrators Fear “Compassion Fatigue” Among Donors.
The Las Vegas Sun (5/10, Richmond) reported, “The Clark County School District is experiencing record levels of need, as students and their families struggle with the fallout of the prolonged recession.” Currently, some schools are able to offer service to students through generous donations from community groups and individuals. However, school leaders are concerned that “compassion fatigue” may set in and the funding will dry up. According to Stacy Palmer, editor for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, “charitable groups nationwide share” this concern. She noted that “community groups are…finding it advantageous to streamline their requests for assistance.” Instead of each group asking separately for assistance, the groups organize “under one umbrella” to request donations.

Analysis Shows North Carolina Lottery Money Increasing As Tax-Dollar Funding Decreases.
WRAL-TV Raleigh, North Carolina (5/11, Browder) reports that “when state lawmakers passed the lottery in 2005, they promised that the money would not replace tax dollars meant for education.” However, an analysis by N.C. Policy Watch, a government watchdog, shows that “while the lottery meets its revenue raising goals, cuts elsewhere in the state budget mean the stream of funding for education has continued a downward trend.” Since 2005, “the actual percentage of the general fund allotted to education has dropped,” even as spending gradually increased. Only four percent of the states “total public school spending” comes from lottery funds and just “35 cents of each dollar spent on tickets goes toward” education after administrative costs are factored in.

Parents Stepping In To Help Raise More Money For Schools.
USA Today (5/10, Bello) reports, “Bake sales to pay for field trips are giving way to online giving, fairs and businesses donating percentages of their sales as parents raise money to pay teacher salaries and save sports and art programs from budget cuts.” Though educators “applaud the efforts,” they “say fundraising to operate schools is not sustainable.” According to USA Today, “The National PTA discourages parents from raising money for school operations,” says PTA President Chuck Saylors, adding that “parents need to hold officials accountable.”

Also in the News
Chicago Public Schools To Replace 80 Principals In Chronically Under-Performing Schools.
The Chicago Sun-Times (5/10, Spielman) reported that on Monday, Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman said that “eighty principals — some of them only a year or two into their contracts — will be replaced to shape up chronically-under-performing” schools. The changes will be made “through a combination” of “retirements, disciplinary removal and voluntary resignations.” Said Huberman, “Many of these planned exits of principals we don’t believe are performing are folks who are one or two years into their contract. If a principal is not performing, simply the fact they have a contract is not something that prevents us from acting on that removal.”

NEA in the News
Supreme Court Pick Has Sparse K-12 Policy Record.
Education Week (5/10, Walsh) reported, “President Barack Obama’s choice for his second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court-current U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan-is a non-judge without the record of dealing with education law issues typical of nominees who have served on federal appeals courts.” However, she “had education as part of her portfolio when she served as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 1999.” Also, according to Education Week, “just days before President Obama introduced her as his nominee for the high court, Ms. Kagan filed an education-related brief with the justices, defending [NCLB] against teachers’-union objections that the law constitutes an unfunded federal mandate. … The brief comes in School District of the City of Pontiac v. Duncan (Case No. 09-852), which stems from a major challenge to the federal law organized by the National Education Association.”

Dallas District May Cut Some Special Ed Teachers.
The Dallas Morning News (5/11, Rado) reports, “There is some concern that the Dallas ISD may cut some special education teaching positions as school leaders grapple with next year’s budget. Rena Honea, AFT-Alliance association president, said a change in the way the district calculates how many special needs teachers are required could open the door for layoffs.” According to the Morning News, Dale Kaiser, president of the NEA-Dallas employees association, “said the 2010-11 proposed budget includes going to a staffing ratio formula for special education teachers whose students attend regular classes during the day, lessening the number of teachers needed.”

White House Task Force Outlines How Schools Can Help Fight Childhood Obesity.
The Washington Post (5/12, Givhan) reports, That on Tuesday, “Cabinet officials Tuesday stood shoulder to shoulder onstage with Michelle Obama to reveal” the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity’s “124-page report laying out 70 recommendations.” The task force was created as part of “the first lady’s ‘Let’s Move’ campaign, which launched in February.” The report focuses “on five areas,” including “getting healthier foods into schools” and “making sure that all kids are physically active.” Mrs. Obama highlighted “the importance of reauthorizing and expanding the Child Nutrition Act and getting more children enrolled in its summer meals programs so health gains made during the school year are not lost during vacation months.” Agriculture Department Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan reiterated that point, saying “that while 11 million children receive subsidized school breakfasts and lunches, only 2.4 million are part of the summer program. That gap, she said, represents missed opportunities for improved nutrition.”

Rachael Ray, New York Senator Lobby For School Lunch Reimbursement Increase. The New York Times (5/12, Barbaro) reports, “As New York’s junior senator, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, tries to squeeze billions of extra dollars for public school lunch programs into a pinched budget, she is relying on” celebrity chef and talk show host Rachael Ray to help get the word out. In Washington on Tuesday, Gillibrand “unleashed” Ray “to lobby lawmakers on the reauthorization of the nutrition act, which determines how much money schools are given for meals and how much control regulators can exercise over food outside of cafeterias, like the sugary snacks sold in vending machines.” They were pushing a 70-cent increase to the per-child reimbursement rate for schools. The Times notes, “The current bill would increase reimbursements by 6 cents to $2.74, from $2.68.”

The AP (5/12, Jalonick) reports that in addition to meeting “with several members of Congress,” Rachel Ray’s “whirlwind one-day tour included a visit to a Washington elementary school where she talked to kids about how they can make better food choices and.”

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In the Classroom
High School Seeks To Boost Graduation Rate By Expanding Technical Programs.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/12, Matus) reports that Dixie Hollins High School in Pinellas County, Florida, is increasing its “career and technical” class offerings to include subjects “like Web design and commercial arts.” Said Principal Michael Bohnet, “I want programs that make kids say, ‘I can’t wait to wake up and get to school.’” In addition to expanding “its career and technical programs,” Dixie is also boosting its AP offerings. “This year it offered 13,” compared to five last year. And, “five more are being considered for the fall.” The St. Petersburg Times adds that Dixie school will come “under more scrutiny” this fall by the Florida Department of Education because of its low literacy and graduation rates. The Education department will offer assistance focused improving instruction. It also will “bring $1.5 million over three years.”

Elementary School In Michigan Ends Program After Field Trip Complaints.
The AP (5/12) reports, “A program for African-American elementary students in Michigan has been disbanded after a field trip to meet a black rocket scientist that excluded children of other races. Ann Arbor Schools spokeswoman Liz Margolis tells AnnArbor.com that the ‘Lunch Bunch’ program at Dicken Elementary has ended.” According to the AP, “Officials have said the field trip by 30 African-American students was intended to inspire them as part of a bigger push to close a persistent gap in test scores between black and white children,” yet “when the students – mostly fifth-graders – returned, they were met with boos from some classmates who didn’t go.”

Law & Policy
Physical Education Bill Generating Mixed Reactions.
Education Week (5/12, Robelen) reports, “Physical education legislation approved last month by the US House has sparked mixed reactions, with champions, including the American Heart Association, hailing it as an important step toward combating childhood obesity and improving the health of young people, even as critics suggested that the measure’s new reporting requirements would burden local schools already struggling to meet a vast array of federal mandates.” According to Education Week, “The Fitness Integrated with Teaching, or FIT, Kids Act would impose a new set of reporting requirements on virtually all school districts to make it easier for members of the public to learn what physical activities and education schools offer.” According to analysts, the bill may “get bogged down” in the Senate’s “slow-moving efforts to reauthorize the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act.”

New Study Questions Bans On Seniority Teaching Rules.
Debra Viadero wrote in a blog for Education Week (5/11), “When it comes to staffing assignments, the tradition in education has always been clear: The senior-most teachers get the plum teaching jobs,” yet in “these tough budget times,” that tradition “is fast becoming a hot issue.” Viadero adds that “researchers at the Center for Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington analyzed seven years of data from an unnamed urban district that moved from a seniority-based hiring system to one that fills classroom slots based on ‘mutual consent’ between teachers and schools in the early 2000s. … ‘On balance,’ the researchers said, ‘we come away from this analysis with the impression that the elimination of seniority preferences did little to change the overall level of experience in the urban district’s schools and, moreover, did nothing to change the distribution of experience in disadvantaged schools.’”

First District Signs Onto Florida’s Race To The Top Application.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/12, Matus) reports that on Tuesday, Pinellas county became the first school district to sign onto Florida’s application for the second round of federal Race To The Top grants. “The Pinellas County School Board voted 5-1 Tuesday to support a new version of the…application, which was rejected by 62 of 67 local teachers unions in its first incarnation a few months ago.” The Times notes that “Florida’s first Race to the Top application would have prompted big changes in how Florida pays and evaluates teachers.” But, “the revised version offers a more flexible way of evaluating teachers, allows districts to target the mandated changes to the most struggling schools and better protects unions from having changes imposed by districts.” Other Florida districts have until May 25 “to sign the memorandum.”

Districts Have Until May 21 To Give Support For Michigan’s Race To The Top Bid.
The AP (5/12) reports that Michigan “school districts have until May 21 to send in their statements of support for” the state’s new Race To The Top application. The bid “has won broad support from labor unions and school administrator groups,” and it “was signed today by Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), state schools chief Mike Flanagan, and Board of Education President Kathleen Straus.” The state “is seeking up to $400 million.”

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Safety & Security
Increased Campus Searches Help Reduce Drug, Weapons Cases In Georgia District.
The Augusta (GA) Chronicle (5/11, Sparks) reports, “The number of drug and weapons cases headed to tribunal have decreased this year in Richmond County schools, and officials credit a team effort between safety officers and school administrators.” This year, the police department has conducted more on-campus searches, with administrators placing “greater emphasis on cracking down on violators.” So far this year, “63 drug cases have been sent to a tribunal,” compared to 94 total cases last year. Meanwhile, weapons cases have decreased from “114 in the 2006-07 school year to…53 this school year.”

Pennsylvania District Creates Task Force To Develop School Safety Recommendations.
Pennsylvania’s Morning Call (5/11, Martinez) reported that “the Allentown School District and city police” are “reaching out to community leaders to serve on a newly formed Joint Safety Task Force” targeting school safety. The role of the task force will be to develop “recommendations to best address school safety and look into measures that have been successful in other cities.” The force, made up of “some of the city’s and district’s highest-ranking officials” wad scheduled to “meet for the first time” Tuesday night.

Facilities
“Rain Garden” To Be Built On South Carolina Elementary School Campus.
WMBF-TV Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (5/12) reports, that “the Horry County Stormwater Department is helping to bring a unique rain garden” to the campus of Carolina Forest Elementary School. “The project will allow students to plant native, coastal South Carolina plants and spread mulch throughout the garden located in the front of the school.” It “is funded through regional Wal-Mart stores in conjunction with the Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium.”

School Finance
Analysis Says Most Sacramento County Districts Lack Funds For Future Retiree Health Benefits.
The Sacramento Bee (5/12, A1, Lambert) reports, “Twelve of Sacramento County’s 13 school districts don’t have enough money in their coffers to pay the health benefits promised future retirees and are not setting aside money to pay for them, according to a grand jury report released Monday.” Countywide, districts have a total “$1 billion in unfunded retiree health benefits.” The Sacramento City Unified district’s $560 million “unfunded liability for retiree health benefits” exceeds its “annual budget of $366 million. Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said the district is working on a solution.” Meanwhile, the analysis recommends that each County district begin “reducing unfunded liabilities for retiree health benefits” and “include a funding plan in its 2011-12 budget.” The Sacramento Bee notes that only the Office of Education has enough money to cover health benefits for future retirees.

Teachers In New York City Suburbs Facing Pay Cuts.
The New York Times (5/12, Hu) reports, “Teachers are giving up raises in at least five Long Island districts, including Brentwood, where the 1,400 teachers will also take individual pay cuts of $900 that will be repaid to them without interest when they leave or retire. Teachers are facing a wage freeze in 44 of the 69 Connecticut districts that reached new teacher contracts this year, something virtually unheard of in a state where the average raise has been about 2.5 percent.” According to the Times, “Such concessions come amid threats of widespread layoffs, state and local government budget cuts and insistent public calls that teachers make sacrifices in a tough economy.”

Also in the News
Many States Still Enforce Tight Restrictions On Charter Schools.
The AP (5/12, Bonner, Turner) reports, that Idaho “allows just six new charter schools a year” and many “other states also put strict limits on the number of new charter schools. Another 11 states don’t allow charters at all, even though the federal government has created a $4.35 billion competition to encourage charters and other educational innovations.” According to the AP, “Charter schools draw fire from teachers’ unions and other education groups, who say taxpayer money should be spent to fix traditional public education system rather than creating schools that have less oversight from state and local officials.”

Kellogg Foundation Awards $75 Million Anti-Racism Grant.
The AP (5/12) reports, “The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced Tuesday it is devoting $75 million over the next five years to efforts aimed at undoing the effects of racial inequalities on children in poor communities across the nation. About $14.6 million will go to 119 communities in at least 20 states and the District of Columbia in the first year of funding for the foundation’s ‘America Healing’ initiative.” According to the AP, “An example of a grant recipient is The People’s Grocery, a community organization in Oakland, Calif., that organizes low-income people from various racial groups to work together on establishing a system to improve local access to fresh produce and nutrition education.”

NEA in the News
Arizona Education Association Backs One-Cent Tax For Schools.
KTAR-TV Phoenix, Arizona, (5/11) reported, “Arizona voters have one more week to decide how they feel about Proposition 100, a temporary 1-cent increase in the state sales tax earmarked to finance education and public safety.” The tax increase is being backed by the Arizona Education Association (AEA). Andrew Morrill, Vice President of the AEA, said that it is needed because of “budget decisions” made by the state legislature. “There is no conceptual framework, there’s no vision for what public schools ought to look like and what they ought to do for students in this state,” he said. A study by the University of Arizona shows that about 22,000 teaching positions may be lost if Proposition 100 is not approved.

Arizona Charter Schools Would Suffer Most If Proposition 100 Fails. The Nogales (AZ) International (5/11, Holley) reports that according to charter school directors, “if voters reject Proposition 100 to raise the sales tax for three years, the ax will fall more heavily on charter schools than their public counterparts.” They say that is “because charter schools…receive fewer per-pupil dollars than public schools.” Patagonia Montessori School Administrator Sue Bass said that even though charter schools are tight on funds now, 2011 is expected to be “much worse,” she learned at a recent ASBO meeting.

Michigan Education Association Supports State’s Race To The Top Application.
The Michigan Messenger (5/11, Brayton) reported that last year, the Michigan Education Association (MEA) “had serious reservations about some…reforms” included I the state’s first Race To The Top application. Now, “the MEA is…supporting the state in its second round of applications for federal funding,” according to a press release issued by the union. MEA President Iris K. Salters said that the new application “reflects a much more collaborative, useful plan for schools to implement, should they so choose.” The Messenger added that the “MEA is recommending that its local units give careful consideration to supporting this application.”

National Lab Day Part Of Larger Movement For Hands-On Learning.
Education Week (5/12) reported on National Lab Day, “a public-private initiative…launched this school year to bring more ‘authentic, hands-on, discovery-based lab experiences to students,’” according to the initiative’s backers. As the movement for greater STEM learning gains momentum, “a number of recent efforts have emerged to address what’s seen as a critical component: helping students get access to high-quality laboratory experiences.” These efforts “range from the advent of National Lab Day to plans to rethink and enhance the lab component of Advanced Placement courses as part of an ongoing AP science redesign.” The article explains how National Lab Day aims to promote better lab experiences for students, and also details the specifics of the AP redesign. One expert said, “The goal is to get away from ‘cookbook’ labs and find ways to get these labs more deeply integrated in the curriculum.”

New York’s NY1 (5/12, Christ) reported on East Side Collaborative High School’s participation in National Lab Day, in which students experimented with “the chemical properties of water.” An National Science Foundation official Camsie Matis explained, “NationalLabDay.org works by teachers going online and posting a project and registering and then the website works to match them in sort of an e-Harmony…matching teachers with what they need and scientists with what expertise and volunteer they can offer.” NY1 noted, “The website is national but it may work best in places like New York where there are so many scientists, engineers and mathematicians to volunteer.”

Administration Officials Visit Classrooms As Part Of STEM Push. The AP (5/12) reported, “Obama administration officials are visiting classrooms in the Washington area this week” as part of National Lab Day. “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will help a third grade class build solar cars at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary,” while “other projects officials are participating in include investigating how projectiles cause craters and working with an all girls robotics club.” The AP notes that, earlier this week, “NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke to fifth graders about working in space.”

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In the Classroom
California District Wins Award For Using iPod Touch To Boost Test Scores.
KNSD-TV San Diego, CA (5/13, Fry) reports that the Escondido (CA) Union School District say “has won a prestigious award for its use of iPod Touches in a program credited with improving test scores.” According to KNSD, one study finds that “students using iPod Touches for math skills showed the equivalent of two years of growth in six months. On May 20, the county Office of Education is scheduled to present the district with the Impact Award from the Classroom of the Future Foundation for its commitment to technology.”

On the Job
Judge Blocks Layoffs At Three Los Angeles Schools.
The AP (5/13) reports, “A judge has issued an injunction blocking layoffs at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools where civil rights groups said job cuts would deprive inner-city children of their right to an education. The order Wednesday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger affects teachers and staff at Samuel Gompers, John Liechty and Edwin Markham middle schools.”

Miller: Veteran Teacher Buyouts Could Prevent Wave Of Layoffs.
Matt Miller writes in a column for the Washington Post (5/13), “The imminent layoff of as many as 275,000 of the nation’s roughly 3 million public school teachers has called forth the usual responses,” as Democrats “want to spend $23 billion to bail out recession-ravaged state budgets and keep teachers on the job,” and Republicans “say it’s time states got their spending under control without Uncle Sam’s help.” According to Miller, there is “a third way that can rejuvenate America’s teacher corps while charting a path toward fiscal sanity,” as the Federal government should provide funds enabling school districts “to offer buyouts to senior teachers.” He adds that a “20-year veteran can cost twice as much in salary as a newer teacher — and three or four times as much once retirement benefits and pensions are factored in.”

Law & Policy
Arizona Governor Signs Bill Targeting Ethnic Studies Programs.
The AP (5/12, Cooper) reported that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) “has signed a bill targeting a school district’s ethnic studies program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.” The bill has been urged for years by state schools chief Tom Horne, who “said he believes the Tucson school district’s Mexican-American studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people.” The new law “prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race, or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.”

The Los Angeles Times (5/12, Cruz) reported, “School districts that don’t comply with the new law could have as much as 10 percent of their state funds withheld each month. Districts have the right to appeal the mandate, which goes into effect Dec. 31.”

Nevada Legislative Committee Recommends Allowing Districts To Cut School Days.
The Las Vegas Sun (5/12, Ryan) reported, “A legislative study committee is recommending that school districts facing financial emergencies be able to reduce the required number of class days.” Currently, “180 days of school” are required. But, “under the suggestion adopted Wednesday by the Legislative Committee on Education, the state superintendent of public instruction could make a finding that a financial emergency existed.” Districts “would have to get the approval of the Legislative Interim Finance Committee after the superintendent makes his [or her] finding.”

Maryland Law Bars Schools From Automatically Sending ASVAB Test Results To Recruiters.
The AP (5/13, Miller) reports, “A first-of-its-kind law bars public high schools in Maryland from automatically sending student scores on” administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test to military recruiters. Critics said that sending the scores automatically “was giving the armed forces backdoor access to young people without their parents’ consent.” The AP adds that school districts nationwide can choose “whether to administer the [ASVAB], and ones that offer it typically pass the scores and students’ contact information directly to the military.”

Minnesota Districts Face Long, Costly Process For Firing Ineffective Teachers.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (5/13, Johns, Draper) reports, “As the debate about teacher quality intensifies in Minnesota, a Star Tribune investigation has found that bad teachers in the state hardly ever get fired.” Instead of firing teachers deemed ineffective, school districts “turn to a patchwork of other methods to try to remove low-performing teachers,” including “paying them off or” giving them counsel. The Star Tribune explains that in most Minnesota districts, “teachers can be fired at the end of the school year for ‘inefficiency,’ ‘neglect of duty,’” and a host of other reasons. However, “the dismissal process can take months, cost districts tens of thousands of dollars, and require countless hours to collect evidence to convince an arbitrator that the teacher can’t or won’t improve.” School administrators say that the result of this lengthy process “creates a culture of indifference and indulgence.”

Middle-Class Families Fleeing High-Poverty Schools In North Carolina District.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (5/13, Hui) reports, “Hundreds of middle-class Wake County families are leaving crowded, high-poverty schools for magnets and year-rounds thanks to the school board’s decision to quit using their relative wealth as a reason to deny their applications.” Prior to this year, magnet school selection “was designed to give priority to applicants who wanted to leave crowded schools in affluent areas. Applicants in schools with higher-than-average poverty levels were placed at the bottom of the selection process.” But this year, new guidelines give priority “to applicants leaving crowded schools regardless of poverty levels.” Critics say they fear the new rules may leave some schools with disproportionately high levels of poverty and that it will segregate schools.

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Special Needs
Few States Meet No Child Left Behind Goals For English-Language Learners.
Education Week (5/12, Zehr) reported, “Only 11 states met their accountability goals for English-language learners under” No Child Left Behind “in the 2007-08 school year,” according to “a study commissioned by the US Department of Education.” Also that year, “59 percent of school districts or district consortia that receive federal money for English-language-acquisition programs achieved all their goals for ELLs.” According to Education Week, “Those are some of the findings included in three research briefs released this month by the Washington-based American Institutes for Research,” which are “precursors to a much more comprehensive study evaluating implementation of Title III, the section of the NCLB law that authorizes aid for English-language-acquisition programs.”

School Finance
Rhode Island Urged To Update School Funding Formula.
Columnist Edward Fitzpatrick writes in the Providence Journal (5/13) that after 15 years, “Rhode Island is still distributing money for public schools without regard to how many kids are actually in those schools.” He asserts that the public has “every right to demand the General Assembly get its act together and end our sorry distinction of being the only state without a current school-funding formula.” Fitzpatrick notes that Woonsocket City Council President John F. Ward spoke at a “State House rally Tuesday” led by Rhode Island Is Ready, “a new statewide grass-roots campaign for education reform that is making a fair funding formula its first priority.” Concluding, he writes points out that “three funding formula bills are scheduled for public hearings before the House Finance Committee at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in State House Room 35. Make your voice heard.”

Also in the News
State, National PTAs Working To Recruit More Men.
The Salt Lake Tribune (5/13, Schencker) reports, “Men make up only about 10 percent of PTA members nationwide, up from about 2 percent 10 years ago.” And while more men are joining local chapters, “state and national PTA leaders…say there still aren’t enough.” According to James Martinez, “a spokesman for the national PTA,” a survey conducted by the group 10 years ago showed that “about 90 percent of the dads said the main reason they hadn’t joined was because no one had asked them.” In Utah, “the PTA…is working to spread the word to schools.” Throughout the state, “about one-third of the PTA’s 137,000 members are men.”

NEA in the News
Florida Education Association Gives State’s Race To The Top Plan A Positive Review.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/13, Marrero) reports that in January, when the Hernando School Board “reluctantly decided to” sign onto the state’s Race to the Top bid, the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association “declined to sign” the memo. The union was “concerned about the costs and the lack of flexibility in the grant requirements.” But, as the state goes after “a second round of funding,” officials hope “that a more specific agreement will bring unions on board.” So far, the new plan has garnered a more positive reaction form some unions. Florida Education Association President Andy Jones “said last week that the latest memo is ‘light years ahead’ of the first incarnation.” Still, an NEA spokesman said that “the cost of the changes” — which include teacher pay and low-performing school overhauls — “is a concern throughout the state.”

Survey Of West Virginia Teachers Shows Little Support For Test Score-Related Layoffs.
The Charleston (WV) Gazette (5/12, Knezevich) reported that on Wednesday, “West Virginia Education Association officials…held a press conference” during which they “released results of an online survey of 3,500 teachers conducted April 12-22.” Survey results showed that “93 percent of teachers disagreed with ‘creating charter schools with limited employee rights’” and “97 disagreed with ‘making it easier to dismiss employees using student performance.’” Meanwhile, “73 percent disagreed with removing the principal of a low-performing school.” Instead, the survey showed, “teachers want more alternative education; research-based curricula, teacher decision-making at the school level; meaningful staff development; smaller class sizes; and increased parental involvement.”

North Carolina District Passes Resolution To Seek Funding Restoration.
North Carolina’s Daily Advance (5/13, Pitts) reports that Nancy Lerf, president of the Currituck County Association of Educators Association this week presented a budget resolution that was passed unanimously by the Currituck County Board of Education. “The resolution specifically addresses Senate Bill 202,” which cut Currituck County schools by more than $4 million last year…led to a reduction in the district’s workforce,” and “calls for further cuts to the schools’ budget this year.” The resolution seeks an amendment to SB 202 that would “restore the cuts that the district had to make during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.”

Central Falls, Rhode Island, District To Rehire Fired Teachers.
The AP (5/17) reports that the Central Falls, Rhode Island, school district, which “gained the support of President Barack Obama for promoting accountability after it fired all its teachers from a struggling school, announced Sunday it reached an agreement with the” teachers union “to return all the current staffers to their jobs.” According to both sides, a “transformation plan for Central Falls High School for the coming school year would allow the 87 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and other staffers who were to lose their jobs at the end of this year to return without having to reapply.”

CNN (5/17) reports on its Website that “the agreement, which must still be ratified by teachers, includes measures to improve student achievement, including a longer school day, targeted professional development for teachers and more after-school tutoring,” according to a statement by the teachers union.

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In the Classroom
Data Show Link Between High Lead Levels, Student Achievement In Detroit Public Schools.
The Detroit Free Press (5/16, Lam, Tanner-White) reported, “More than half of the students tested in Detroit Public Schools (DPS) have a history of lead poisoning, which affects brain function for life…data compiled by city health and education officials” shows. In addition, the data link for the first time “higher lead levels and poor academic performance” within the school system. Roughly “60 percent of DPS students who performed below their grade level on 2008 standardized tests had elevated lead levels.” According to the Free Press, “The research — the result of an unusual collaboration between the city’s Department of Health & Wellness Promotion and DPS — also reveals that children receiving special education were more likely to have lead poisoning.”

Author Calls Smaller Class Sizes A “Waste of Money.”
The Toronto Star (5/14, Talaga) reported that Malcolm Gladwell, an author “whose books include ‘The Tipping Point,’ ‘Blink’ and ‘Outliers,’” told members of “the provincial Liberal party” at a conference last week that “smaller class sizes are ‘ludicrous’ and a waste of money.” Said Gladwell, “I know that from time to time there is a lot of interest in the power and importance of reducing class size but the data shows class size is the biggest dead end in the world.” Noting that “the quality of the teacher is the most important factor in a student’s success,” he added that “the performance of Ontario’s schoolchildren” would increase by only about 5 percent if classes were cut in half at all schools. Moreover, Gladwell pointed out that teachers are asked “to play six, seven, eight different roles in the classroom. The best thing we can do for teachers is to simply let them teach,” he said.

Minority Students Becoming Majority Within Many Texas School Systems.
The San Antonio Express-News (5/16, Scharrer, Lacoste-Caputo) reported that “in all but rural areas, Hispanic enrollments are rapidly surpassing that of whites” in Texas. This “transformation is especially visible in the suburbs, where school districts with a majority of white students a decade ago now have mostly minority student populations.” Meanwhile, “experts say the state isn’t adequately or intelligently funding education in ways that can teach a growing population that’s generally poorer and less proficient in English.” The Express News notes that “demographers long have projected dramatic population changes for Texas, and the state’s leaders have acknowledged the economic, social and political impact they will have — but hardly ever in the present tense.”

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On the Job
Indiana Official Says Teachers With Diverse Backgrounds Key To Closing Achievement Gap.
The AP (5/16) reported, “A new education official charged with closing the achievement gap between poor, minority students and their white peers says the key lies in finding good teachers from diverse backgrounds. Shanida Sharp-Byrnes is the new Diversity Coordinator for the Indiana Department of Education.” Sharp-Byrnes says Indiana “has to appeal to teachers’ values instead of relying on financial incentives at a time when Indiana has ordered $300 million cut from education funding.”

Hillsborough County, Florida, To Unveil New Educator Evaluation System Under Gates Grant.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/15, Marshall) reported that “during a workshop [today], members of the Hillsborough County School Board will get their first look at the evaluation system they hope will revolutionize the way teachers are hired — and fired — and set a new nationwide standard.” The new system “will be used to rate every teacher and principal as part of the district’s $202 million partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.” Some teachers will mentor and evaluate their peers and “every teacher in the district will also rate their principal.”

Law & Policy
New Jersey Governor Expected To Push Pay Freezes For School Administrators.
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (5/16, Fleisher, Heininger) reported, “During the angry debate over teacher pay,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has praised school administrators “for taking wage freezes while most teachers are refusing.” But, the Star-Ledger added, “Don’t expect that to last long.” It points out that “six-figure salaries are common among administrators, who include superintendents, assistant superintendents and principals.” According to state Department of Education data, “the median salary for full-time school administrators in New Jersey…was $113,083″ for the 2008-09 school year. Boonton superintendent Christine Johnson, who was “singled out by Christie for freezing her salary,” weighed in on the issue, saying, “I’m sure that at some point the governor is going to push obviously with administrators as well. … I would think that writing is on the wall.”

Analysis Shows Median Pay Of $57,467 For Teachers In New Jersey. The Star-Ledger (5/16, Fleisher, Heininger) reported, “In his quest to pressure teachers to accept a pay freeze, Gov. Chris Christie has portrayed them as a privileged class, untouched by the recession.” However, according to “a Star-Ledger analysis of the salaries of New Jersey’s nearly 113,000 public school teachers…more of them” struggle to make ends meet than thrive on their salaries. “The median pay among New Jersey’s public school classroom teachers is $57,467 a year” and “the average is $63,154, with more than half of the teachers earning from $40,000 to $60,000,” according to state Education Department data from 2008-09.

Kentucky Budget Shortage Delays Implementation Of New Student Testing System.
Kentucky’s Courier-Journal (5/14, Steitzer) reported, “Kentucky faces delays in implementing new education standards and a new statewide student testing program without millions of dollars from the state or the federal government, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said Friday.” The state “faces a $1.5 billion revenue shortfall the next two years.” Meanwhile, Senate Bill 1, passed in 2009, requires that the state “create new education standards and a new student-testing system.” The Courier-Journal added, “The legislature has not yet adopted a budget for the next biennium, which begins July 1. But,” according to Holliday, “neither the House nor the Senate included money in their version of the budget for SB 1′s implementation.”

Up To 28,000 Michigan Teachers May Retire This Summer Under New Reform Package.
The Detroit News (5/15, Bouffard) reported that school districts in Michigan have begun “tallying how many of their employees may retire under the reform package passed early this morning that lawmakers claim will save districts $680 million and more than offset a pending school aid cut that could cost $215 per student.” Under retirement package passed last week, “as many as 28,000 school employees could retire this summer.” Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) said that passage of the plan was “an important milestone in” resolving “the structural deficit in the School Aid fund by saving billions of dollars over the next 10 years.” But, on Thursday, the Michigan Education Association urged “members to call legislators to block the plan that would require teachers to contribute 3 percent of their pay to retiree healthcare while making no assurances they will get that benefit when they retire.”

Office Of Civil Rights Ends Monitoring Of Nashua, New Hampshire, Public Schools.
The Nashua (NH) Telegraph (5/16) reported, “After 13 years,” the Nashua public school district “is no longer being monitored by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).” The district was found to be “out of compliance with the requirements of the Civil Rights Act of 1964″ in 1997. But last month, the Board of Education received a letter from the OCR stating that the district “has met the requirements and” the OCR “will be ending its monitoring of the district. … Thomas Hibino, regional director of the OCR, said in his letter to the district that there have been improvements made in staffing, training and offering of ESL services to kindergarten students, among other things.”

USDA To Revamp School Meat Safety Program.
USA Today (5/15, Weise) reported that this fall, “the ground beef used in school lunches will be as safe as ground beef sold to the nation’s fast food chains.” Last week, the US Agriculture Department announced “that it will require all ground beef purchased for the National School Lunch Program to adhere to new safety standards after July 1.” According to USA Today, “The rules call for more stringent microbiological testing and say beef should be sampled every 15 minutes on production lines.”

School Finance

Pay Cut For Academic Coaches Proposed To Save Money, Promote Fairness In Florida District.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/14, Matus, Stanley) reported that “a proposed pay cut for magnet teachers at Pinellas County’s most distinguished high school programs sparked anger and dismay” last week “while raising divisive questions about whether some teachers deserve more money than others.” The St. Petersburg Times added that “as news about the” 14 percent pay cut for academic coaches “spread, teachers talked of retiring or cutting back their efforts.” The proposal “would affect about 100 teachers” and “save about $700,000″ next year. Superintendent Julie Janssen explained that in addition to saving money, the cuts “are a fairness issue” because “teachers at other magnet high school programs don’t get the supplement,” nor do “teachers who do extra work.”

Also in the News
Jonas Brother Promotes “Field Trips For All” Contest.
The Los Angeles Times (5/15, Stevens) reported that when Kevin Jonas of the Jonas Brothers is “not hobnobbing at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, prepping for his summer concert tour or plugging his upcoming…movie, he’s promoting a new Field Trips for All initiative to send 50 classrooms nationwide on free field trips to a destination of their choosing.” The “contest…lets parents, teachers, and kids nominate a 1st- through 8th-grade classroom to win a fully funded educational outing.” Nominations may be submitted at the lunchables.com website.

Report: Educational Attainment Rising Among Racial, Ethnic Groups In America.
Education Week (5/14, Robelen) reported, “Americans across major racial and ethnic groups became better educated over the past decade, though significant gaps remain in the rates at which blacks and Hispanics earn a high school diploma or college degree, a new analysis of US census data” by the Brookings Institution. The report said that “college-completion rates also climbed for blacks and Hispanics, though by far smaller amounts, about 2 to 3 percentage points.”

Conference Targets Achievement Gap By Exposing Boys To Positive Role Models.
The Toronto Star (5/14, Kennedy) reported that “a conference held earlier this month — the first of its kind in Toronto — hoped to” encourage “boys of color from seven different downtown public schools” to excel. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) sponsored “Stand Up: Redefining the color of success,” which was “aimed at empowering young men by exposing them to positive black role models from their communities.” Keynote speakers “ranged from filmmakers to investment bankers, dentists to DJs.” Conference organizer Gary Crossdale, “principal of Regent Park’s Lord Dufferin Public School” said that he was motivated by “an urgent need to combat the low achievement of young men of color” In Toronto, “Male students of color have higher dropout rates, are more likely to fail the Grade 10 literacy test and often score lower in standardized tests.” About 300 “mostly non-white” boys in grades 7 and 8 participated in the event.

NEA in the News
NEA Sponsored Parental Involvement Summit In Nebraska.
The AP (5/15) reported that “the Nebraska State Education Association, National Education Association and 22 other Nebraska organizations” held “a summit in eastern Nebraska” on Saturday “to urge parents and family members to become more involved in students’ education.” Attendees examined “the issues, concerns and barriers to participation by parents and caregivers in schools in hopes of offering useful recommendations for state and local agencies.”

Union Ratifies Agreement To Rehire Teachers At Rhode Island High School.
The New York Times (5/18, A16, Zezima) reports that on Monday, the teachers union for Central Falls, Rhode Island, schools “overwhelmingly approved” an accord that resolves “months of tension and negotiation between the union and the schools superintendent, Frances Gallo.” The agreement, which comes three months after all teachers and staff at Centrall Falls High School “were fired…as part of a turnaround plan for the chronically underperforming school,” will extend the school day and require “more in-depth teacher evaluations and mandatory after-school tutoring for each student.” The Christian Science Monitor (5/18, Paulson) reports that the agreement will not require that the “teachers, counselors, and other personnel…reapply” for their jobs. But, “they will need to interview with the new principal and recommit to their jobs.”

The Providence Journal (5/18, Jordan) reports, “Everyone from the school superintendent to President Obama wanted to fix Central Falls High School, where only seven percent of the students are competent in math and fewer than half graduate in four years.” The Journal also notes that “less than two hours after the vote, the accord drew praise from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the first federal official to support the mass firings of Feb. 23.”

Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (5/17), “Lo and behold, several months after every teacher at a low-performing Rhode Island high school was fired so the school could get a fresh start, and after Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised the firings as an act of ‘courage,’ and after President Obama declared that the firings showed a ‘sense of accountability,’ well, after all of that, the teachers have been rehired.” If Obama and Duncan “spend more than a few seconds thinking about the facts in the case, they may even see that this is a far better resolution for Central Falls. And if they are really introspective, they might conclude that perhaps they should have kept quiet after all and let the situation play out.”

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In the Classroom
Report Ties Early Literacy To Graduation Rates.
USA Today (5/18, Toppo) reports, “If educators want to shrink the number of students who drop out of high school each year, they must greatly increase the number who can read proficiently by the time they’re in fourth grade, a key non-profit children’s advocacy group says in a new report” by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Washington Post (5/18, Chandler) adds that the report, “Early Warning: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters,” focuses on “links between early literacy and high school graduation rates and future economic success.”

According to Education Week (5/18, Viadero), it says that 85 percent “of poor 4th graders in predominantly low-income schools are failing to reach ‘proficient’ levels in reading on federal tests.” Education Week also points out that the report “lays out the statistical case for the foundation’s soon-to-be-announced, 10-year initiative to ensure that more children become proficient readers by the time they leave 3rd grade. As part of the new campaign, the report says, the foundation plans to join with other philanthropies to finance reading-improvement efforts in a dozen states representing different geographic regions in the country

Elementary School To Participate In CyberKids Robotics Program.
The Charlotte (NC) Observer (5/17, Johnson) reported, “Cornelius Elementary is the first school in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools to participate in the CyberKids Robotics Competition Program.” The group of fourth graders from the school’s Academically Intelligently Gifted program “will learn to build and program robots and, hopefully, make it to the state competition in January.” In the competition, “the team will have to program to complete as many missions as possible while its robot travels around an 8-foot-by-4-foot vinyl “map” filled with various obstacles and landmarks,” and will have to complete missions that “range from picking up objects and bringing them back to the map’s home base to delivering objects to different sites on the map.” The Observer noted that the program is from non-profit CyberKids Robotics, which “is dedicated to improving the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education of students in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.”

On the Job
Maryland District Tracks Graduates’ Rate Of College Degrees.
The Washington Post (5/18, Birnbaum) reports, “Montgomery County (MD) public schools, one of the few systems in the country that tracks its students all the way through college graduation released a report Monday that details how many of its former students went on to receive bachelor’s degrees — and how they got there.” The new data show that “students who passed advanced math courses in middle school and high school and took at least one Advanced Placement test were much more likely to graduate from college.”

Law & Policy
California Bill Aimed At Protecting Content Of Textbooks Moves Forward.
The AP (5/18) reports, “A bill seeking to protect California social studies textbooks from revisions advocated in Texas has cleared a legislative hurdle.” The California Senate Appropriations Committee “on Monday voted 6-3 in favor of the legislation” which “would require the state Board of Education to examine new textbooks for curriculum revisions approved in March by the Texas school board.”

Provision In North Carolina’s Budget Plan Would Allow Districts To Impose Furloughs.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (5/18) reports that the North Carolina has proposed a budget that “includes a provision allowing school districts to impose their own furloughs.” The Charlotte (NC) Observer (5/18, Bonner, Johnson) adds that under the proposal, districts could “furlough employees for up to two days.” It notes that the provision is “part of a $19 billion budget…that includes cuts to deal with an expected $800 million gap between revenue and planned spending.”

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Facilities
Facilities Substandard At School For Gifted In Harlem.
The New York Times (5/18, Otterman) reports, “At TAG Young Scholars, a citywide school in East Harlem for the talented and gifted, what goes on inside the classroom is praised by parents, but the aesthetics and facilities are, in a word, challenging.” TAG “is the forgotten sibling of the two other citywide gifted schools in Manhattan,” which are “reserved for the 4- and 5-year-old children who score the highest on reasoning and ability tests.” According to the Times, “Change is slowly coming to TAG,” as a “new generation of TAG parents, who seem to be more diverse racially and economically, are arguing that their school deserves the same facilities and programs as the other gifted and talented schools.”

School Finance
Hillsborough County, Florida, Seeks To Fill $20 Million Gap Without Layoffs.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/18, Marshall) reports that even as the Hillsborough County, Florida, school district faces “a potential $20-million shortfall in next year’s $1.3-billion operating budget,” district officials “say they’re planning to close that gap without teacher layoffs, furloughs, or deep program cuts.” Hillsborough’s “budget hole persists,” despite “cutting back on cell phones, leasing photocopiers, and changing the middle school schedule.” Working against the budget is an enrollment increase of 711 students and a potential 20 percent increase in healthcare costs in January. “The district also expects higher bills for electricity, utilities and its contribution to the state retirement system.”

Knox County, Tennessee, Commissioners Seek “Safe” Way To Save School Jobs.
Tennessee’s News Sentinel (5/18, Donila) reports, “Knox County commissioners seem determined to save a number of teaching positions that the school board placed on the chopping block, but haven’t yet found a fail safe way to do it.” In an effort to “to keep 30 teachers and 10 teacher aide positions,” without raising taxes or taking from the reserves, commissioners have proposed charging “school officials…$30 a month to park in county facilities,” instead of “$10 a month, to save $28,000.” Another suggestion is for the school board to “re-evaluate ‘a thick central office’ where ‘one in eight administrators makes $90,000 or more,’” said Commissioner Brad Anders.

Also in the News
Some Districts Installing Wireless Internet On School Buses.
NPR (5/18) reports that some students in the Vail School District in southern Arizona “can easily spend more than 2 1/2 hours on a school bus every day.” To make the ride more productive, the district has since November provided wireless Internet access on its buses. “To pull this off, the district installed a wireless router just above the front windshield,” creating “an instant Internet hotspot.” According to Sterling Pratz, CEO of Autonet, “the company that makes the routers…the devices had been primarily for private vehicles. School bus connectivity wasn’t even on his radar a few months ago, he says.” Since then, however, “about 25 US school districts, both rural and urban, have signed up for the service.” The company has also “adapted the service for schools” by filtering out “adult content.”

Agreement Lets High Schoolers Earn Guaranteed Spot At Business School.
The Gloucester County (NJ) Times (5/18, Beym) reports, “Students who work hard during their four years at Washington Township High School can now earn a guaranteed spot at” Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, which has “one of the top three entrepreneurship programs in the country.” Under an agreement the high school signed with the university, “students who graduate in the top 20 percent of their class with a minimum of 1200 on their SATs, a score of at least 550 on the math section, and who have successfully completed three high school business courses will automatically be accepted into Drexel’s program. The arrangement will start with the class of 2011.” Washington Township High School offers programs in accounting and finance, marketing education, and business administration and business law

NEA in the News
Renowned West Virginia Teachers Suggest Education Reforms.
The Charleston (WV) Gazette (5/18, White) reports that according to “five decorated” West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) members said that “fewer students per classroom, more teacher involvement in leadership decisions, and better professional development efforts are needed right now in public schools.” The changes, they say, should be made in lieu of reforms proposed by state lawmakers regarding “annual teacher evaluations, charter schools and performance pay.” The Charleston Gazette notes that the group of educators was convened by WVEA President Dale Lee after Gov. Joe Manchin (D) “made some comments in a radio interview last week about teachers who participated in a statewide WVEA survey. According to Lee, Manchin said, ‘Why don’t they ask Milken Award winners? Why don’t they ask the National Merit teachers? Why don’t they ask the people who have excelled and see what they think?’”

West Virginia Teachers Groups, Governor Spar Over Education Reform Proposals. The AP (5/17) reported, “West Virginia’s teachers groups are on the defensive as lawmakers debate” Gov. Manchin’s “proposed changes to the state’s public schools.” According to the groups, Manchin “is blaming teachers for the state’s poor showing in several education categories” and is “pursuing federal funds at the expense of hiring protections and other rights.” While, Manchin contends that he is “not blaming anybody,” the AP notes that “he has expressed frustration with the state’s education rankings” and “questions why the groups are resisting annual evaluations and other proposals.”

GAO Report Reveals Head Start Fraud.
USA Today (5/19, Toppo) reports, “Undercover investigators trying to enroll a handful of fictitious children in federally funded Head Start child care centers found that in about half of the cases, workers fraudulently misrepresented parents’ incomes, addresses and other information to allow kids to qualify for a slot.” The Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation was “prompted by anonymous tips to a fraud hotline.” The agency “looked at centers in…California, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin” and DC. “In 13 of 15 cases, they tried to enroll children whose family incomes made them ineligible.”

The Washington Times (5/19, Wetzstein) reports that “at a hearing Tuesday, members of the House Education and Labor Committee heard dramatic audio clips of fraud being taken by Government Accountability Office (GAO) agents.”

The Washington Post (5/19, Anderson) notes that the GAO “The report does not identify centers by name, officials said, because the investigation is continuing.” In response to the findings, “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose department oversees the program, wrote” that the Obama “administration will take swift action to tighten enforcement.” Some “possible steps, she wrote, are terminating federal funding to organizations that run the Head Start centers and referring cases for criminal prosecution.”

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In the Classroom
Thousands Of Students Worldwide Participate In Virtual Field Trip To National Park In Utah.
The Salt Lake Tribune (5/19, Schencker) reports that “nearly 100,000 from around the world…journeyed to” Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park “via an electronic field trip Tuesday.” The excursion “was part of a series of such trips to national park sites across the US hosted by the National Park Foundation.” During the live journey, “park rangers explained Bryce’s features with help from area students” and “answered live questions from kids and teachers” while walking “students through interactive activities.”

High School In California Cancels “Stay-At-Home” Field Trip For Seniors.
Howard Blume wrote in the Los Angeles Times (5/19) “LA Now” blog that on Tuesday, Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga, California, “abruptly canceled a three-day ‘stay at home’ field trip for seniors after a parent and officials questioned it.” The purpose of the field trip “was to get seniors off campus during the three days of annual standardized testing of underclassmen.” The school is now “scrambling to arrange a daylong study hall in the auditorium for Wednesday and Thursday.” The Los Angeles Times notes that typically, area schools provide activities for seniors to do in school while underclassmen test. These activities include “prepping for graduation ceremonies, special assemblies, senior picnics, career days, class photos, movies, make-up work.”

Most Classes Online At Texas High School For At-Risk Students.
The Dallas Morning News (5/19, Holloway) reports, “Many school districts have programs to help at-risk students graduate” with a focus “on allowing students to work at their own pace, often at night.” However, at Garland Non-Traditional High School in Texas “most classes are taken online,” there “are no more than 15 students in a class, and each classroom has a teacher to explain concepts and answer questions.” Garland’s “success in increasing graduation rates led to recent recognition from the Texas Education Agency.”

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On the Job
Lifetime Educator Says Coaches Offer “Nonthreatening” Counsel On Improving Instruction.
Ellen Eisenberg, “executive director of the Pennsylvania Institute for Instructional Coaching,” writes in an opinion piece for Education Week (5/19) that “we clearly need to do a better job of helping teachers meet the classroom challenges of the 21st century.” In her many years in the education field, Eisenberg says that she has learned that for teachers, “one-on-one experiences provided the support that really made a difference: the nagging and nurturing from a highly skilled fellow teacher who observed and supported my efforts in a nonthreatening, nonevaluative way.” She explains that an instructional coach gives “advice and counsel designed to meet the needs of a specific teacher,” and notes that “an instructional coach providing real-time support” helped boost her “thinking and teaching” skills.

Law & Policy
Education Department Has Received More Than 1,600 i3 Applications.
Education Week (5/19, McNeil) reports that “More than 1,600 districts, schools, and nonprofits applied for a piece of the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund by last week’s deadline, even as US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned that the vast majority of them will end up losers.” At most, about 205 grants will be awarded. Education Week (subscription only) explains that, “unlike the Race to the Top Fund competition for states, which had two rounds, i3″ has only one round, which ends Sept. 30. “However, Mr. Duncan is urging Congress to continue i3 as part of his fiscal 2011 budget.”

School Board In Florida Votes Against Holding Classes On Good Friday.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/19, Marshall) reports, “School will not be held for students next year when Good Friday rolls around, the Hillsborough County School Board decided Tuesday.” In a 5-2 vote, school board members “took the advice of a calendar committee and district staff to cancel classes that day, following two years of high absences and controversy.” The committee said that “little learning took place on Good Friday” and recommended that students have off that day, while teachers must show up. Board chairwoman Susan Valdes said of the final decision, “To me it’s not a religious holiday issue. … It’s a safety issue, it’s a fiscal responsibility issue.”

High School In Illinois Embroiled In Debate Over New Arizona Immigration Law.
The AP (5/19, Babwin) reports, “The controversy at Highland Park [IL] High School over whether the varsity girls’ basketball team could travel to Arizona for a December tournament is one of the latest in response to the sweeping new immigration law that has sparked debate all over the United States.” The “debate at Highland Park began earlier this month when the district’s superintendent announced that the girls team could not travel to Arizona for the tournament because of the immigration law. … Though the district said its decision was out of concern for the safety of the students, the announcement quickly became part of the immigration debate, dividing the leafy suburb near Lake Michigan.”

Analysis Of Race To The Top Scoring Finds Some Inconsistencies.
Steven Brill, CEO of Journalism Online, wrote in a news analysis for Education Week (5/18), “When the federal government gives out billions of dollars in grants, it can’t be done based on the gut feel of some policy wonks, however honest and well-meaning, that this state deserves it and that one doesn’t.” With that in mind, former Education Department advisor “and Race to the Top architect Jon Schnur recruited Joanne Weiss…to create a rigorous process for giving out the money by using vetters who would be screened rigorously for conflicts of interest.” However, Brill says that a review of the Race to the Top “vetters’ score sheets and written comments…suggests that their standards were inconsistent, that some were naive about the difference between promises and the capacity to deliver, and that others fell victim to the propensity of many states to misstate the status of their programs and overstate the buy-in they had from key stakeholders, especially the teachers’ unions.”

School Finance

Facing Shortfall, Nevada District Sets Aside Plans For Gifted Academy.
The Las Vegas Sun (5/18, Richmond) reported that with the Clark County, Nevada, school system “cutting $145 million from next year’s budget, and the outlook even more grim for the next biennium, plans for” a $2.5 million gifted academy “are cooling on the back burner.” Last December, Clark County schools received “a $600,000 federal appropriation” to help with the project, then “the largest of its kind in the country.” Jane Clarenbach of the National Association for Gifted Children, said of the project, “There was a lot of excitement about that investment in bright kids — people are watching what’s happening in Clark County.” And, some “education experts say the district’s existing programs for gifted education, while better than what’s offered in much of the country, can’t replicate the potential benefits of a dedicated campus tailored specifically to the most advanced students’ needs.”

Also in the News
Duncan Reads To Children At DC School.
The Washington Times (3/19, Chenoweth) reports, “On Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan sat before 34″ students at DC’s Amidon-Bowen Elementary School “to read the children’s book ‘Reading Makes You Feel Good.’” According to the Times, the reading was part of a program held on Wednesdays — “called ‘power lunch’ …that brings adult volunteers into low-income elementary schools for one-on-one, read-aloud sessions with students, according to the sponsor, Everybody Wins.” Duncan “came to the school in part because students have increased their reading proficiency by 27 percent, according to recent testing.”

Princeton Review Shuts Down Free Tutoring Program.
The AP (5/19) reports, “Test prep and online learning company Princeton Review Inc. said Tuesday it will no longer offer its free after-school tutoring program after the current school year ends. The company will close certain program offices and offer severance to 60 full-time employees nationwide, a spokesman said.” According to the AP, Princeton Review “said ‘recent philosophical changes at the state and federal levels have significantly altered the landscape’ for such programs and hurt growth opportunities.” Reuters (5/19) also covers this story.

NEA in the News
Groups Call For Provision In Education Jobs Bill To Address Seniority-Based Layoffs.
Education Week (5/19, Sawchuck) reports, “With districts across the nation sending off thousands of pink slips, the issue of seniority-based layoffs has leapt front and center into the debate about changes to the teacher-quality continuum.” Now, some education groups, most of them “signatories of the Education Equality Project,” are calling for the “$23 billion education jobs bill up for consideration on Capitol Hill” to “be contingent on states abandoning seniority-based layoff policies.” Meanwhile, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel pointed out that “favoritism and ageism could enter into the layoff equation if principals alone get to determine who stays and who leaves.” Said Van Roekel, “I’m just not willing to put in the hands of one person all the biases that led to seniority in the first place.” Moreover, he added, “This idea that if you’re young you must be a good teacher and if you’re a veteran you must not be, that’s a very false assumption.”

Leading the News
Texas BOE Faces Continued Criticism Over Proposed Curriculum Changes.
The AP (5/20, Castro) reports, “Conservatives on the Texas State Board of Education were defiant Wednesday as a parade of critics came before them, most urging a fresh rewrite of new classroom social studies guidelines and a delay of a scheduled vote to adopt them. Critics, including the president of the NAACP,” former Secretary of Education Rod Paige, “and the committee that wrote the draft guidelines being edited by the board, complained that the proposal has become a vehicle for political ideology, has watered down the teaching of the civil rights movement and slavery and reveals a lack of historical knowledge from the board.”

The San Antonio (TX) Express-News (5/20, Scharrer) reports that at a hearing on Wednesday, “Democratic legislative leaders warned the State Board of Education…not to expect lawmakers to buy new school textbooks that shortchange minorities and paint an overly rosy picture of the history of Texas and the United States.” Meanwhile, outside the hearing, hundreds of observers “said the proposed standards ignore the country’s warts, such as the Ku Klux Klan era or skims the surface on issues such as slavery and the struggle for civil rights. The smear tactics of Sen. Joe McCarthy’s 1950s anti-communist crusade is closely framed by information about Soviet espionage in a bald attempt to vindicate it, they complained.”

The Christian Science Monitor (5/19, Paulson) noted that other changes would require students “to learn about the ‘unintended consequences’ of Title IX, affirmative action, and the Great Society, and” they would “study conservative icons like Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, and the Moral Majority.” In addition, “the slave trade would be renamed the ‘Atlantic triangular trade,’ American ‘imperialism’ changed to ‘expansionism,’ and all references to ‘capitalism’ have been replaced with ‘free enterprise.’”

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In the Classroom
Educators Focusing On Younger Students At Risk Of Becoming Dropouts.
USA Today (5/20, Toppo) reports, “For years, educators have tried – often in vain – to get more students to graduate from high school on time and boost college-going rates,” with few approaches having much success. Recently, however some educators have been “taking a hard look at what happens to kids years before they get to high school, where” they have found that “red flags appear with alarming regularity.” USA Today adds that the Diplomas Now program at Philadelphia’s Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences focuses on “students as early as the sixth grade” who are at-risk for failing or dropping out, “in the belief that by the time they’re in high school, it’s too late to intervene.” The programs’ results have been “so impressive that the program has spread to four more cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans and San Antonio.”

Elementary School In Arizona Provides Technology Instruction To All Students.
The Arizona Republic (5/20, Faller) reports that Navajo Elementary School is currently the only school in Arizona’s “Scottsdale Unified School District that’s designated as a STEM school and the district’s only elementary school that teaches science every day.” Navajo principal Shaun Holmes notes that “the focus on achieving good math and reading scores” is a major contributor to “the de-emphasis on science in elementary schools.” But at Navajo, “all students learn technology, starting with an introduction to programming in kindergarten.” Meanwhile, “older kids study software, three-dimensional animation, and robotics.” The Arizona Republic notes that several Arizona school systems “are working toward getting more schools designated as STEM.” And, “Congress this week is expected to vote on the America COMPETES Act, which authorizes $84 million in funding for STEM education as well as technology research and jobs.”

Wisconsin Districts Receive Technology Grants From Microsoft In Class Action Settlement.
The Jackson County (WI) Chronicle (5/19, Colson) reports that “the Black River Falls, Alma Center-Humbird-Merrillan and Melrose-Mindoro school districts received more than $503,000 in vouchers” recently, as part of “a settlement with Microsoft that distributed nearly $80 million in vouchers to Wisconsin schools.” Named “The Microsoft-Wisconsin Cy Pres Program,” the settlement came in response to “class action lawsuits about certain Microsoft software acquired by consumers, businesses and governments for use in Wisconsin.” A statement by State Superintendent Tony Evers said that the “cy pres technology vouchers will enable…schools to provide their students with the digital tools necessary for success in today’s world.”

High School Students Mail Erasers To White House For “Erase Genocide” Campaign.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/20, Ritchie) reports that international relations students at Nature Coast Technical High School in Brooksville, Florida, “are hoping to nudge” Presidents Obama “to make good on his campaign promise to eliminate genocide.” To that end, they “are collecting and mailing erasers for a project called Erase Genocide.” While “the students say they realize the president has a lot on his plate; they want to ‘just show him that there’s a following,’” said 17-year-old Samantha Rei. According to the St. Petersburg Times, “The biggest part of the students’ effort is to advertise what they are doing to multiply the number of erasers sent to Washington.” They also “are advertising on Facebook, Twitter, and their website, erasegenocide.org.”

School Beautification Project Teaches Importance Of Conservation.
The Salt Lake Tribune (5/20, Havnes) reports that “50 elementary students on Wednesday planted a garden of native plants along a bike path in Cedar City as part of a program to beautify the city and teach youngsters the importance of conservation and nature.” The beautification “project began in September with a $15,000 grant from the private National Park Foundation.” The Salt Lake Tribune adds that “Wednesday’s planting was also associated with the First Bloom program started by former first lady Lady Bird Johnson in the 1960s to encourage the nationwide planting of wild flowers.” Students who participated in the event this week “will receive scholarships to attend Southern Utah University’s overnight Mountain Science Camp.”

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On the Job
Recession Taking Heavy Toll On Teacher Jobs.
The New York Times (5/20, Hu) reports, “Superintendents, education professors and people seeking work say teachers are facing the worst job market since the Great Depression. Amid state and local budget cuts, cash-poor urban districts like New York City and Los Angeles, which once hired thousands of young people every spring, have taken down the help-wanted signs.” According to the Times, “school officials and union leaders estimate that more than 150,000 teachers nationwide could lose their jobs next year, far more than any other time, including the last major financial crisis of the 1970s.”

Special Needs
Student Drug Cases Rise In Hernando County, Florida, As Resource Funding Drops.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/20, Marrero) reports that the Hernando County, Florida, school district is facing “an increasing number of student drug cases, and the district now has a hard time keeping up with the demand for counseling services,” according to Janice Smith, the district’s Safe and Drug Free Schools coordinator. In addition to Smith, Hernando has “two drug counselors and a secretary,” but it “is about to lose $95,000 in federal funds that pay for one of its counselors, the secretary, and after-school drug and tobacco awareness programs for students and their parents.” This comes despite the school system securing “a $72,454 grant from the US Department of Justice” recently “to cover the cost of an additional counselor’s salary and benefits for the next year, along with materials for a drug-prevention program that will target middle school students.”

School Finance
New York Voters Passed 92 Percent Of School Budgets Tuesday.
The New York Times (5/20, A4, Hu) reports that “New York voters passed 92 percent of the school budgets across the state on Tuesday, stamping out any concerns of a backlash against districts that are seeking to raise property taxes and reduce their staffs and programs next year.” State Education Department data show “many of the defeated budgets…in districts that had sought large tax increases to help offset reductions in state aid.” The Times notes that the “election results were a striking contrast to last month’s vote in New Jersey, where residents rejected a record 58 percent of the school budgets.” Still, the approval rating of New York school budgets this year is a “decrease from a record 97 percent last year, when school districts were able to maintain their staffs and programs without large tax increases because of an infusion of nearly $2 billion in federal stimulus money.”

Texas District Budgets Will Be Bleak Next Year Without Stimulus Funds.
The Dallas Morning News (5/20, Weiss) reports, “Federal stimulus money intended for public education in Texas has been challenging to spend, time-consuming to keep track of — and will be very hard to replace,” according to Texas school officials. At a meeting on Wednesday, officials explained to state legislators the challenges their school systems face as they try to balance their budgets. Mike Morrissey, a senior advisor to Gov. Rick Perry (R), said at the meeting that “the governor is committed to funding education. … But he made no promises about how much money would be available for schools.”

NEA in the News
Arizona Voters Approve Proposition 100.
The AP (5/19) reported, “Arizona voters have overwhelmingly approved a temporary sales tax increase, rejecting the alternative of deeper budget cuts to education and other services provided by the financially struggled state.” Proposition 100 will increase sales tax by 1 cent for three years. The AP notes that the Arizona Education Association “was a major contributor to Proposition 100 supporters’ well-funded campaign,” and officials “warned that class sizes would grow, there would be less specialized instruction, and teachers and other school workers would face layoffs and furloughs if the tax failed.”

Rhode Island NEA “On The Fence” About Supporting State’s Race To The Top Application.
The Providence Journal (5/20, Jordan) reports on one Rhode Island teachers union’s decision this week “to endorse the state’s bid to win up to $75 million for education reforms in the highly competitive federal Race to the Top competition.” The Journal notes, however that the NEA “of Rhode Island, is still on the fence. President Larry Purtill says his union locals are waiting to see how Thursday’s negotiations” between the East Providence School Committee and the teachers union “go before they decide whether to sign on.” The Committee last year “unilaterally cut teacher salaries and forced teachers to pay more of their health insurance costs,” and said recently that it is “considering doing so again” this year.

Kansas NEA President Says Contract Reporting Deadline Is Disadvantage To Teachers.
KCTV Kansas City (5/20) reports that Friday is the deadline for Kansas districts “to renew teacher contracts,” an extension of the May 1 deadline in place during “a normal economic year.” According to KCTV, the Kansas National Education Association believes the deadline “puts educators at a disadvantage.” KNEA president Karen Godfrey pointed out that in the teaching profession, “There is a window of opportunity where there’s a job. So the later you wait, the fewer jobs are available.”

National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading Scores Released.
Education Week (5/20, Robelen) reported, “Eighth graders in large cities posted small gains in reading over the past two years, though urban 4th graders failed to show any improvement deemed statistically significant, according to” National Assessment of Educational Progress results released Thursday. The New York Times (5/21, Otterman) reports that according to the data, “New York City fourth graders have made progress in closing the gap between their scores and the state and national results in reading, despite the higher percentages of poor and minority students in the city. In particular, scores rose among low-achieving city students from 2007 to 2009.” However, “eighth graders have shown little improvement.”

The Washington Post (5/21, Anderson) notes that according to the study, of “11 major urban school systems…only one has made significant gains in reading achievement since 2007 in fourth and eighth grades: D.C. Public Schools.” However, “the study ranked Atlanta as the top-gaining urban school system of the past decade.” There, NAEP scores “rose steadily and significantly in fourth and eighth grades in the seven-year span after enactment of the No Child Left Behind law in 2002.”

The Baltimore Sun (5/21, Bowie) reports that the NAEP results show “Baltimore’s poor African-American students are reading on average as well as their peers, whether they are in a small town in North Carolina or a city such as Chicago.” But overall, most “fourth- and eighth-graders didn’t pass the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which doesn’t test just whether they can read, but whether they can comprehend a long passage and write a short response.” Nationwide, 65 percent of fourth-graders “are reading at a basic, proficient or advanced level,” compared to just 42 percent of fourth-graders in Baltimore. “In eighth grade, 54 percent of [Baltimore] students were at basic or above, compared with 73 percent in the nation.”

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On the Job
New Jersey Districts Recognized For Team Building, Professional Development Success.
New Jersey’s Courier News (5/20, Sadlouskos) reported, “Three Central Jersey school programs focusing on different forms of team-building and personal development were among a dozen from around the state honored Monday during the” New Jersey School Boards Association’s “eighth annual Innovations in Special Education program.” The Bonnie Brae School in Bernards was recognized for its Bonnie Brae Builders program, in which “students ages 16 to 19 pitch in to help construct homes for a family who can’t afford a house.” The Peer Groups program in Green Brook Township “pairs autistic children with students in regular education classes who share similar interests.” Meanwhile, the Midland School in North Branch received the award for its Super Senior Program, a two-year program that aims “to provide intense career preparation, and it includes instruction at the school and at worksites.”

Law & Policy
Colorado Governor Signs Teacher Tenure Bill.
The New York Times (5/21, Dillon) reports that on Thursday, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. “signed a law…that will make it more difficult for teachers to get tenure and will require that at least half of their annual evaluation be determined by the academic growth of their students.” The NEA opposed the measure, the Times notes.

The Denver Post (5/21, Bartels) reports that SB 191 “put many Democrats in a political bind. They feared the public’s wrath if they killed it. But many said it was poorly written, scapegoated teachers and was an affront to the educators-turned-lawmakers who opposed it.” For instance, Rep. Nancy Todd (D), “a retired social studies teacher,” was “uncomfortable with [the] proposal” because of “so much emphasis on using testing as the evaluating tool,” she said, adding, “I just do not believe in tests as being the logical, legitimate way to test a teacher’s skills.”

Lawsuit Seeks To Overhaul California School Finance System.
The AP (5/21, Chea) reports, “A coalition of students, school districts and education groups sued the state of California on Thursday, seeking to force the governor and Legislature to develop a new system to fund its cash-strapped public schools.” Education Week (5/20, Maxwell) reported that “the plaintiffs — including nine school districts and 60 students and their families — argue that although the state prescribes what teachers must teach and what students must learn, it does not provide the resources to deliver on those requirements.” The parties “are asking the courts to order” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “and the state legislature to scrap the current finance system and design a new one that is ‘sound, stable, and sufficient.’”

The New York Times (5/21, Mieszkowski) notes that when California’s per-pupil funding is “adjusted for regional cost differences in the price of educational services,” the state “spends $2,856 less per pupil than the national average, making it No. 47 on the state rankings, according to the National Education Association.” The Whittier (CA) Daily News (5/21, Garcia), KABC-TV Los Angeles (5/21, Miranda), and the Los Angeles Times (5/20) “LA Now” blog also covered the story.

Texas State Board of Education Set To Vote On Curriculum Changes.
USA Today (5/21, Toppo) reports that the Texas State Board of Education is “set to vote” today “on changes to social studies standards that have angered and, in some cases, baffled critics.” Proposed changes include “calling the USA’s slave trade the ‘Atlantic triangular trade’ and minimizing the role of Thomas Jefferson, who espoused a strict separation of church and state.”

The Washington Post (5/21, Birnbaum) reports that ahead of the vote this week, “the board has been meeting in Austin…to review the standards, which many historians, liberal activists and politicians on both sides of the aisle have condemned as giving a conservative twist to history.” However, the AP (5/21, Castro) reports that Don McLeroy, one “of the board’s most outspoken conservatives,” holds the view that “the Texas history curriculum has been unfairly skewed left” for years, and “sees his job…as bringing it back into balance.”

The New York Times (5/21, Brick) notes that due to the “sheer force of its population size, Texas has long held outsize influence on national textbook publishers, some of whom sent curriculum writers to take notes in the boardroom. That influence has waned somewhat in recent years, with the digital age allowing editors to tailor versions of their textbooks to individual states.” However, Texas “has only increased in stature as a symbolic battleground over the politicization of education, largely because of the emergence of a conservative voting bloc on the board.” The San Antonio Express-News (5/21, Scharrer) also covers this story.

LATimes: Teacher Jobs Bill Should Include Accountability Mandates For Districts.
The Los Angeles Times (5/21) editorializes that if “the country is going to continue to invest in jobs as part of the economic stimulus, it only makes sense for some of those to be the jobs of teachers.” The Times adds, “We have strong reservations about the $23-billion Keep Our Educators Working Act, expected to reach the Senate floor by the beginning of next week, but those are outweighed by the alternative scenario in which millions of students around the country would lose their teachers.” However, the “bill is poorly designed, a giveaway that demands nothing in return, including real accountability,” as a “district receiving money should be prohibited from laying off or rehiring teachers, or reassigning them to other schools, strictly on a seniority basis.”

Scholar Advocates “Careful Experimentation” Of Merit Pay Programs.
Dr. Dan Goldhaber, “an Affiliated Scholar at the Urban Institute,” wrote in an opinion piece for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (5/21) that “the weak relationship between teacher credentials and productivity…has prompted some to call for using more direct measures of performance to determine teacher pay.” He asserts that while “there certainly are good reasons to doubt the efficacy of the current compensation system…people’s views on the value of implementing “risky” teacher compensation reforms are likely to be shaped by their perspective on the current state of teacher quality and student achievement.” According to Goldhaber, “certain elements of teacher compensation reform” such as “eliminating the Masters pay premium and providing financial incentives to teach in disadvantaged schools…should have happened long ago.” But regarding performance pay, he would “argue for careful experimentation.”

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Safety & Security
Congress Calling Attention To Issue Of Concussion Risk For High School Athletes.
The AP (5/21, Abrams) reports, “Young people who suffer concussions are at greater risk of long-term physical and mental consequences, lawmakers were told Thursday at a” House Education and Labor Committee “hearing on head injuries to high school athletes. … The Government Accountability Office, which does investigative work for Congress, issued a report finding that it’s difficult to determine how many concussions occur at the high school level and that estimates may be too low.” According to the AP, “Athletes not wanting to be sidelined may be reluctant to report symptoms of a possible concussion and agencies that track head injuries have different standards such as only counting injuries treated in an emergency room.”

School Finance
Education Department To Award $437 Million In Grants To Teachers In High-Need Schools.
The AP (5/21) reports that through the Teacher Incentive Fund, the US Department of Education “will give $437 million in competitive grants to districts that reward teachers for improving student achievement in high-need schools.” According to the Times, the NEA “has opposed [the] initiative,” which was established in 2006. The NEA “generally argues against performance pay and for higher salaries for all teachers.” Education Week (5/20, Sawchuk) noted that the National Education Association, the American Association of School Administrators, and the National School Boards Association “have put forward a set of guidelines to aid members who choose to seek the funding.”

Tennessee District Approves Race To The Top Grant Four-Year Spending Plan.
Tennessee’s Chattanoogan (5/21) reports that this week, the Hamilton County School Board “approved the spending of $10.9 million in federal ‘Race To the Top’ funds over a four-year period.” Funding will “be spent on four key areas: Standards and Assessments, Use of Data, Improving Teacher Quality and Principal Leadership and Turning Around Low Performing Schools.” The Chattanoogan notes that Tennessee’s “roughly $500 million” grant “is being split in half: 50% for state-wide programs and 50 percent allocated to districts based on free and reduced lunch counts.”

Colorado District Will Contribute To School Funding Lawsuit Against State.
The Coloradoan (5/21, McCutchen) reports that the Thompson School District Board of Education “approved a resolution during Wednesday’s regular meeting that would offer financial assistance to the Colorado School Finance Litigation, better known as Lobato v. State of Colorado.” The “lawsuit filed in 2005 [alleges] that because of state tax laws, the state is seriously underfunding districts and is failing to disperse money equally.” Although it is not a plaintiff in the suit, the Thompson School District’s resolution “calls for supporting Lobato v. State with $15,000 over a span of two years, or what would amount to about $1 per student.” Board President Lucille Steiner said that the contribution is “an investment to alleviate this funding crisis. … It would be money well spent in terms of if it brings the issue to a head and some decisions can be made,” she added.

Also in the News

Florida District Considers Having Students Take On Painting Duties.
The Miami Herald (5/21, Mazzei) reports, “In a budget crunch, the Broward school district laid off dozens of painters last month.” School Board member Stephanie Kraft is suggesting that high school students fill in “and get service credit for it.” They “would have to wear protective gear and would not be allowed to climb ladders or scaffolding, according to the district.” Broward deputy superintendent Joanne Harrison said that while officials are considering if the plan could “fit under the definition of student service learning,” they have yet to authorize it.

NEA in the News
Kansas District Reaches Tentative Agreement With Local NEA Chapter.
The Kansas City Star (5/21, Sullinger) reports, “Shawnee Mission teachers won’t get a salary increase this fall under a tentative agreement reached between the school board and” the NEA Shawnee Mission. “Terms of the…agreement also include no increase due to experience and no increase in supplemental or hourly pay.” However, “there would be a salary increase for teachers that increase their education in 2010-2011 but not in 2011-2012.” NEA- Shawnee Mission president Sheryl Siegele said of the agreement, “Both sides worked to honor the fiscal constraints facing the board during this difficult financial time, yet honor the dedication of the professional employees.”

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