NEA Joins Push For $23 Billion Teacher Jobs Bill.
Education Week (5/26, Klein) reported that the NEA, along with the AFT, has joined the push “to drum up support for legislation that would provide $23 billion to help school districts” avert “a looming tidal wave of layoffs.” The unions are “working on a media blitz called ‘Speak Up for Education and Kids’” that “includes an NEA commercial in which children dressed in suits and carrying briefcases ask whether Congress would be more willing to save their teachers’ jobs or keep their classes small if the children were Wall Street bankers.” In addition, the NEA has “established a hotline to help supporters of the bill reach their representatives in Congress.”
The Washington Post (5/27, Anderson) reports that the House Appropriations Committee may take up the bill “as early as Thursday.” Yesterday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan told lawmakers, “We desperately need Congress to act — to recognize the emergency for what it is. … We have to keep hundreds of thousands of teachers teaching.” Meanwhile, some lawmakers from both parties “say the government can’t afford an extension of last year’s economic stimulus that would add to the federal deficit.” According to Duncan, if the measure does not pass, “100,000 to 300,000 education jobs” would be “at risk, including support staff.” The Post also notes that the NEA’s television ads will be shown “in markets that are home to potential swing votes among House Democrats.” The Politico (5/27, Rogers) also covers the story.
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In the Classroom
Florida Student Wins National Geographic Bee.
USA Today (5/27, Steinberg) reports that 13-year-old Aadith Moorthy of Palm Harbor, Florida, won “the 22nd annual National Geographic Bee Wednesday morning” after he correctly answered “that Cap-Haitien is the largest city in northern Haiti that was renamed following Haiti’s independence from France.” Moorthy earned “a $25,000 college scholarship, free trip to the Galapagos Islands, and lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society.” USA Today notes that at the final round of the competition, held Wednesday in Washington, DC, “ten competitors ages 10 to 14 answered dozens of difficult geography questions.”
The AP (5/27) adds that in the four months leading up to the competition, Moorthy “collected 20 facts a day based on advice from a coach and then reviewed them all.” Still, he “spent most of the bee…on the edge of defeat. He was the only contestant to answer incorrectly in the first round and would have been eliminated if he was wrong again.” The St. Petersburg Times (5/27, Aggeles) also covers this story.
New Japanese Culture Program In Eight West Virginia Elementary Schools.
WSAZ-TV Huntington, West Virginia (5/27, Meyers) reports that students at Hurricane Town Elementary School in Putnam County, West Virginia “are bridging the gap when it comes to the cultural barrier” between them and students across the globe. “Hurricane Town Elementary is just one of eight schools across West Virginia selected to participate” in a new program that teaches Japanese culture. WSAZ notes, “One of the big aspects of Japanese culture that the teachers picked up on was recycling, and conserving as much as possible.” Executives from Toyota visited the school “to help plant a Japanese cherry tree” and to help students “understand the importance of recycling and taking care of the environment.”
Maryland Education Officials Find Widespread Cheating At Elementary School In Baltimore.
The Baltimore Sun (5/27, Bowie) reports, “City and state education officials have uncovered widespread cheating on state tests at” George Washington Elementary School in Southwest Baltimore, a campus once regarded “as an example of against-the-odds achievement.” After the discovery, officials “revoked the professional license of the principal,” Susan Burgess, “who they are holding responsible.” After reviewing “hundreds of Maryland State Assessment booklets at George Washington Elementary,” investigators “found thousands of erasure marks. In nearly all instances, the answers were changed from wrong to right.” Still, none of the staff have admitted to “taking part in or witnessing any cheating.” Burgess also “did not provide an explanation” for the findings.
Analysis Shows 32 Struggling Minnesota Schools Have Poor Leadership, Parental Involvement.
The AP (5/27, Williams) reports that 32 schools in Minnesota that are “struggling because of low standardized test scores or poor graduation rates generally suffer from poor leadership and a lack of parental involvement, according to a consulting firm’s findings released Wednesday.” The report from Cambridge Consultants was commissioned by “the Minnesota Department of Education as part of the federal School Improvement Grant program, which seeks to turn around the nation’s struggling schools.” The schools could receive a portion of the money if they “apply to the state by July 1. … As part of the application, school leaders must choose one of four reform blueprints established by the US Department of Education.”
Texas High School Students Build Backyard Roller Coaster For Mentorship Class.
The Dallas Morning News (5/27, Meyers) reports that two high school senior in Texas Frisco Independent School District (ISD) collaborated on an independent study project that had them build a roller coaster. “The project came out of an unusual class” called Independent Study and Mentorship (ISM) “at Frisco ISD that aims to teach students how to interact with the professional world as they inch toward careers of their own.” For their project, 18-year-olds Nathan Rubin and Ian Mair worked with “mentors from Six Flags, technology powerhouse Raytheon, and Omni Pro Electronics” and received “more than $1,000 in donations” from local businesses. “Five hundred hours, several scratched chins and numerous equations later,” they finished constructing the “functioning roller coaster.” The Dallas Morning News notes that both Rubin and Mair “credit ISM for fast-tracking [their] college careers.”
Pittsburgh Approves New Plan For Regional CTE Clusters.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (5/27, Rujumba) reports that under a plan approved by the Pittsburgh school board, “the district would be divided into three regional clusters to ensure that all students have access to three programs: health careers; information technology, business and finance; and culinary arts.” In addition, “some high schools also will have ‘signature programs’ like robotics or auto body repair.” The Post-Gazette notes, “Students participating in the signature programming will have to attend a high school within the same region, but a process may be created to permit transfers.”
Taking On Educator, Administrator Positions Gives Students A Chance To Apply Soft Skills.
California’s Press Enterprise (5/27, Klampe) reports on the “more than 100 seniors who took over the jobs of administrators, teachers and campus security workers Wednesday during the…first Senior Take-over Day” at Temecula Valley High School. “Job shadowing is a common device for students to learn about prospective careers, but Temecula’s event was unusual because of its depth, said Kevin Fairman, area coordinator for the California Association of Directors of Activities.” Leading up to the event, “students applied for the job they wanted,” and “if they wanted to teach classes, they had to create a lesson plan and outline learning objectives.” Principal Rani Goyal said “the event gives students a chance to apply leadership, organization, speaking and other skills.”
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On the Job
Los Angeles District Rescinds 522 Teacher Layoff Notices.
The AP (5/27) reports, “The Los Angeles school board has rescinded 522 layoffs of elementary school teachers,” decreasing “the number of expected layoffs to about 1,000 for the next school year. The school board approved the move Tuesday after the teachers union agreed to 12 furlough days over the next two years to save jobs.”
Law & Policy
O’Connor Blames No Child Left Behind For Decline In Civics Knowledge.
The AP (5/27, Harpaz) reports, “An ‘unintended consequence’ of the No Child Left Behind initiative has been a decrease in civics knowledge, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said Wednesday, promoting computer games that try to put a fun spin on learning about government.” O’Connor “made the remarks at a conference where she was promoting iCivics.org, a website designed to remedy civics ignorance among middle-school students. … The iCivics program is based at Georgetown University Law School” and O’Connor “is the project founder and leads the board of the nonprofit iCivics Inc., iCivics spokesman Jeffrey Curley said.”
Deal Reached To End Hawaii Teacher Furloughs.
The AP (5/26) reported that Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle (R) and Hawaii’s “political leaders ended the state’s infamous school furloughs Tuesday, grabbing hold of a serendipitous deal that involves a $10 million bank loan and forces no one to give ground. The accord eliminates 17 furlough days that were scheduled for the school year that begins in September.” The Honolulu Advertiser (5/26, Moreno) reported that “with $57 million from the [state's] hurricane relief fund and a $10 million, interest-free line of credit from local banks, Lingle said teachers and other school workers will be back on the job five days a week next school year.”
Safety & Security
Chicago Schools Chief Delivers Progress Report On Youth Violence Prevention Effort.
The Chicago Tribune (5/27, Ahmed) reports that on Wednesday, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) chief Ron Huberman gave a presentation on the school system’s progress on developing its $60 million school safety initiative. “So far this school year, Huberman said, CPS has paired about 200 at-risk students with so-called advocates, who act as part mentor, part truant officer and part role model to the youths. Another 50 have yet to be signed on.” He pointed out that “at six district schools where officials launched a pilot program…serious violent behavior dropped by 77 percent, attendance rose by 7 percent and the number of students shot dropped by 46 percent.”
Also in the News
First Lady Encourages Detroit Youth To Stay In School, Push Towards Goals.
The Washington Post (5/27, Givhan) reports, “First lady Michelle Obama brought her passion for mentoring” to Detroit, “urging a crowd of some 5,000 high school students — and an equal number of grown-ups — to ‘fight for every inch of your future.’” In her “no-nonsense, motivational message,” Mrs. Obama urges students “to take responsibility for their own lives as well as the welfare of their community.” The Detroit News (5/27, Kozlowski, Olander) adds that Mrs. Obama also “called on adults to reach out to young people as mentors” during the speech, delivered at Wayne State University. According to the Detroit Free Press (5/27, Sarnecki), Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) was also “among the state leaders who spoke” Wednesday “to 5,000 students bused in from Detroit Public Schools.”
NEA in the News
More Districts, Unions Signing On To Florida’s Second Race To The Top Application.
The Miami Herald (5/27, Sampson) reports, “In its second effort to snag $700 million in federal grants, Florida has something it didn’t have before: support from teachers unions and the state’s second-largest school district.” In the state’s round one bid for the federal Race To The Top competition garnered the support of “only five local unions,” compared to 54 unions who are backing “the state’s new application. Of the state’s 67 school districts, 65 signaled their support, including Broward, which did not get behind the first try.” The Miami Herald points out that “after vetoing a controversial teacher pay and tenure bill in April, Gov. Charlie Crist (R) assembled a group to put together a new application for the competition with more community support.” The new plan, giving “more decision-making power to local districts and unions,” and it has “earned support from the Florida Education Association.”
Oakland School Officials, Teachers Reach Impasse In Contract Negotiations.
The San Francisco Chronicle (5/27, Tucker) reports that teachers in Oakland, California, “walked away from the bargaining table this week, leaving little hope that they could broker a deal with the district by summer break and drawing out the threat of a long-term strike.” Talks began between the school district and Oakland Education Association “this month after a one-day teacher walkout on April 29.” But, “after four bargaining sessions, the teachers called off” on Monday, due to conflicts “over teacher pay, class sizes and staffing for adult education.” District officials “offered teachers a two percent raise,” while teachers asked for “an 8 percent raise over a three-year contract.” Oakland Education Association President Betty Olson-Jones said that “a strike before the last day of school” is unlikely, but one may take place “when students head back to school in August.”
Texas Education Board Approves New Social Studies Standards.
The AP (5/22, Castro) reported that the Texas State Board of Education “adopted a social studies and history curriculum Friday that amends or waters down the teaching of religious freedoms, America’s relationship with the UN and hundreds of other items.” The new standards were adopted “after a final showdown by two 9-5 votes along party lines, after Democrats’ and moderate Republicans’ efforts to delay a final vote failed.” In one of the “most significant” changes, the board “dilutes the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, noting that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring students to compare and contrast the judicial language with the First Amendment’s wording.” The Washington Post (5/22, Birnbaum) reported that the board also “removed references to capitalism and replaced them with the term ‘free-enterprise system.’”
The Houston Chronicle (5/22, Scharrer) noted that “angry minority members of the board reacted harshly against the standards, which they claim glorify white America’s role in history while avoiding the issues of racial discrimination.” But board member Terri Leo rejected the claims, saying, “We have put in many more minority figures than ever before, more minority events than ever before.” Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News (5/22, Stutz) noted that according to board member Don McLeroy, with the new standards, “the panel was trying to make up for the liberal-slanted curriculum now being used in schools.”
Bill Aims To Prevent Texas Curriculum Changes From Affecting California Textbooks. Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (5/22), “A bill introduced in California seeks to protect the country’s largest school system from the Texas Board of Education. … A new bill introduced in the state Senate by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) seeks to ensure that none of the Texas standards are allowed to be used in California in any fashion.” According to Strauss, “Under Yee’s bill, SB1451, the California Board of Education would be required to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks.”
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In the Classroom
Teachers In Florida District Incorporating Gulf Oil Spill Into Lessons.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/24) reports, “As the Deepwater Horizon oil slick continues to spread across the Gulf of Mexico, teachers in Pinellas County are trying to turn the disaster into a teaching moment with experiments and other classroom activities.” While “some schools are encouraging hands-on experiments,” others have sponsored supply drives for which “students have collected detergents, towels and linens to be donated to wildlife sanctuaries.” Chemistry teacher Les Gatechair said of his oil-spill inspired lessons, “We live here in a community where the quality of the beach and quality of the environment is a major part of life. For me, it’s an opportunity to link some of the different concepts we have done experiments in earlier in the semester.” Gatechair’s students spent a week doing “mock calculations of how fast the oil would get to Tampa Bay at its previously reported spill rate of 5,000 barrels a day.”
Student-Built Coal-Fired Forge Adds “New Level” To Curriculum.
The Livingston County (MI) Daily Press & Argus (5/23, Konkel) reported on Pinckney Community High School senior Geoff Rhodes, who has made two coal-fired forges — “the second of which he spent the better part of this school year creating for Mark Stein’s Machine Technology II class at the high school.” Stein originally “helped Rhodes build a personal coal-fired forge,” after which “Rhodes returned the favor tenfold, upgrading his first creation in every conceivable way, so it could be used as an example in Stein’s future machine technology classes.” Stein said, “It adds a whole other level to our curriculum. … In shop classes, you have different machines for different applications, and students learn different skills. This forge opens up a whole new avenue and component, and adds depth and enrichment to what our kids can learn.” The article explains how the forge works, and notes some of the projects students have engaged in.
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On the Job
Proposal To End Academic Coaching Supplement Draws Ire From Teachers In Florida District.
The St. Petersburg Times (5/24, Matus, Catalanello) reports that 27 years after it was first implemented, the “academic coaching salary supplement” provided by International Baccalaureate teachers is still a part of the union contract with the Pinellas County, Florida, school district. But, the St. Petersburg Times adds, the supplement is “on life support,” as Pinellas tries “to whack another $26 million from its budget.” This year, the supplement cost the district $650,749 to give the supplement to 93 teachers. But, “after the district proposed killing it last week, some teachers threatened to retire while hundreds of their students joined Facebook pages to register opposition.”
Law & Policy
Colorado Teacher Merit Pay Law Could Serve As National Model.
The Los Angeles Times (5/23, Krigman) reported, “A landmark Colorado law that ties teacher evaluations to the progress of their students on achievement tests could help build momentum for a national movement that seeks to overhaul how instructors’ tenure and pay is earned, education leaders say.” According to the Times, “Colorado’s law will hold teachers accountable for whether their students are learning, with 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation based on students’ academic growth as measured partially by test scores. … Similar legislation emphasizing teacher performance over job security is pending in Louisiana and Minnesota, and bills overhauling tenure protections and/or evaluation systems have already passed in Maryland, Connecticut, Washington, Tennessee and Michigan.”
Special Needs
Bully Behavior Motivated By Desire For Acceptance, Study Finds.
The New York Times (5/23, ST7, Paul) reported, “Two studies out this spring look at bullies’ motivations, inner workings and…feelings. The first, ‘The Darker Side of Social Anxiety: When Aggressive Impulsivity Prevails Over Shy Inhibition,’ finds bullies in a surprisingly sympathetic place.” The Times adds that according “to the paper, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, ‘For people with social anxiety, it may seem like a reasonable strategy to attack and reject other people before those people get a chance to do the same to them.’”
School Finance
Economists Say Michigan Districts Likely To Avoid Budget Cuts Next Year.
The Battle Creek (MI) Enquirer (5/22, Martin) reported, “Michigan school districts are safe from further cuts this school year and likely will escape budget cuts next year as well, state economists said Friday.” According to state officials, “school aid revenue is $292 million above January estimates.” According to the Enquirer, “many local officials said they were expecting to receive about $265 less per-pupil for the 2010-2011 budget year than they did this year, in addition to increasing retirement and health insurance costs.” The Enquirer notes, however, that “the picture isn’t as optimistic for the general fund revenue, which is down nearly $244 million below estimates because income and business tax revenue has come in lower than expected.”
Cash-Strapped Districts Cutting Summer School.
The AP (5/24, Hollingsworth) reports, “Across the country, districts are cutting summer school because it’s just too expensive to keep” amid a recession. The AP adds, “An American Association of School Administrators survey found that 34 percent of respondents are considering eliminating summer school for the 2010-11 school year. That’s a rate that has roughly doubled each year, from 8 percent in 2008-09 to 14 percent in 2009-10.”
Also in the News
Some Utah Students Bypass Nutritious School Menu Selections.
Utah’s Deseret Morning News (5/24, Jarvik, Collins) reports that “like many districts in Utah, Canyons School District is trying to teach children about nutrition and is making its lunches more healthful.” The school menu contains some “good food choices, and there were children making them,” according to the Morning News. However, some children forgo “the fresh fruit and vegetable station and” head for the less nutritious foods, such as chips and sweets. The Morning News asserts, “School lunch is the moment where what the experts know about fueling young brains and bodies meets reality.” Where “‘fresh food is better than processed’ smacks up against ‘it’s too expensive.’” For that reason, it adds, “school lunchrooms in Utah” are both encouraging and dismaying. While the state “is not in the vanguard of school lunch reform,” yet, “the National Survey of Children’s Health data shows Utah’s children are the least overweight in the nation: 23.1 percent, compared to 31.6 nationwide.”
Texas High School Students Must Pass TAKS To Graduate.
The Dallas Morning News (5/22, Holloway) reports, “Since 1987, Texas students have had to pass a state test to graduate. … Students begin taking the four parts of the” Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills “in their junior year. If they fail any portion, they can take retake it, several times if necessary.” According to the Morning News, “Schools offer TAKS tutoring and special classes for juniors and seniors who still must pass.”
NEA in the News
Up to 300,000 Teachers Nationwide May Lose Jobs.
Indiana’s Journal Gazette (5/23, Haynie) reported that throughout Indiana, school districts “are gutting extracurricular staff, trimming summer school, or telling teachers they might not have a job this fall” after the state cut $300 million from K-12 education due to “dwindling tax revenues.” Cuts to teaching staff “are in line with national and state trends.” According to the NEA, “between 150,000 and 300,000 teachers across the US could lose their jobs.”
Florida Education Association Endorses Two Senate Candidates.
The Lakeland (FL) Ledger (5/23, Royse) reported, “In a stunning thank you for a veto of teacher merit pay — and perhaps a bow to political reality — the” Florida Education Association “on Saturday said that while it is backing Democratic US candidate Kendrick Meek as expected, it also would be fine with no-party Charlie Crist and co-endorsed them.” According to the Ledger, backing Crist “is a bold move for the Florida Education Association, which was practically at war with the previous Republican administration of Gov. Jeb Bush, and has long fought Republican leaders of the state.” In his announcement, FEA President Andy Ford noted that Meek, who still must defeat Jeff Greene in the Democratic Party’s primary, “has always been a strong backer of public education and” the NEA’s goals. Ford also noted that Crist “took bold action…when he vetoed Senate Bill 6,” that would have imposed merit pay for teachers and changed tenure rules.
Alabama Education Association A “Hot Issue” In Gubernatorial Race.
The AP (5/24) reports that the Alabama Education Association, “headed by two Democratic Party officials, has become the hot issue in the Republican race for governor, with Bradley Byrne accusing Tim James of being an AEA crony and James calling Byrne a Democrat posing as a Republican.” Meanwhile, two other candidates, physician Robert Bentley and “former state agency director Bill Johnson have taken a friendlier attitude toward AEA.” The AP notes that “Bentley recently worked with the teachers’ organization to pass legislation providing a tax break to Alabama businesses that hire the unemployed,” and “Johnson received campaign contributions from a group largely funded by AEA.”
Teachers Throughout Michigan Rally Against School Budget Cuts.
The Grand Rapids Press (5/25, Wilson) reports that on Monday, “hundreds of teachers from across Kent County” rallied against school budget cuts. Jim Ward, “political action committee chairman for the Kent County Education Association, joined others hoping to send a message to state legislators that they must find a way to stabilize funding for public education.” The Grand Rapids Press notes, “Monday’s event was one of more than 40 across the state where the Michigan Education Association rallied its members and hopefully the public to support an expansion of the state sales tax to stabilize public school funding.”
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In the Classroom
Expert Suggests New Method For Teaching CPR In Toronto Schools.
The Toronto Star (5/24, Daubs) reported that according to Dr. Laurie Morrison, a clinician scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, the CPR “methods taught in Toronto’s high schools needs a breath of fresh air.” Specifically, she notes that the current methods taught are “too time and labor intensive for the schools.” The Star added that “a survey of 268 Catholic, public and private high schools” showed that “only half of the schools in Toronto taught the CPR protocol mandated in the province’s physical health curriculum.” Morrison is suggesting that schools use a CPR kit, “endorsed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada,”that “includes a 22 minute instructional DVD, a blow up mannequin, and does not require separate teacher certification.”
All Students At Texas Elementary School Pass TAKS.
KAVU-TV Victoria, TX (5/24, Castoreno) reported now that Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills “testing is over many schools are now awaiting the results of how students performed for this year.” And in Bloomington (TX) Independent School District “some of their scores have already been received….with one school receiving results that were far from average.” According to KAVU, “Hard work” by Bloomington Elementary School “third graders has proved successful as results of their TAKS scores came back as 100% in both Reading and Math tests for the second year in a row.”
Middle Schoolers Design, Build And Install Wind Turbine Atop School.
Pennsylvania’s Centre Daily Times (5/24, Mahon) reported on a group of students at Park Forest Middle School who recently installed “a wind turbine system that they spent months designing and building — and that other students will spend all next year tinkering with.” Bill Hughes, a technology education teacher with the State College Area School District, said, “Those kids made the fins out of plastic pipe. … We’ve got some people from Penn State helping us make them out of carbon fiber. The plan is we’re going to be swapping those things out, trying different things, seeing how much electricity we can make.” He added, “It’s not so much that we’re going to try to power the school up. It’s going to be an ongoing experiment.” The article notes, “The wind turbine project, as well as a solar energy system,” are a few of “many new projects” the district is experimenting with as part of a larger STEM initiative.
Georgia Teacher May Lose Job Over Ku Klux Klan-Themed Class Project.
The AP (5/25, Walker) reports that a high school teacher in North Georgia’s Lumpkin County School District “is on administrative leave and could lose her job after she allowed four students to don mock Ku Klux Klan outfits” in class “for a final project…Thursday, administrators said.” According to the AP, Catherine Ariemma, “who teaches the advanced placement course combining US history with film education, could face punishment ranging from suspension to termination.”
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Law & Policy
Columnist Says Texas Curriculum Changes Allow Honest Reading Of History.
Columnist DeWayne Wickham writes in USA Today (5/25) that Texas history curriculum changes have drawn criticism from many educators, parents, and lawmakers. He adds, however, that where they see “catastrophe”, he finds “opportunity.” For instance he says, the standard calling for a comparison between “the inaugural addresses” of “US President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis” before the Civil War “unwittingly gives teachers an opening to prove that the Civil War’s root cause was slavery.”
Texas Lawmakers Urged To Revisit Curriculum Standards Development Process. Texas’ Star-Telegram (5/24) editorializes, “Where you stand on the new social studies standards adopted by the State Board of Education might depend on where you sit on the political spectrum: Did board members stand up for truth, justice and historical accuracy — or so shamefully botch the revisions as to endanger the minds of almost 5 million impressionable Texas schoolchildren?” According to the Star-Telegram, “Neither extreme is quite accurate” though the “volatile debate has been less about academic accuracy than about agendas. … Instead of relying on the educator panels that initially undertook the standards update, board members appointed a panel that included historical revisionists who proposed changes that weren’t academically well-grounded.”
Special Needs
Utah District To Cut Special Education Teachers, Aides.
The Salt Lake Tribune (5/25, Winters) reports that due to a $6.5 million special education budget shortfall, Utah’s Jordan School District plans to cut “19 teachers and 69 full-time classroom assistants. Thirty-four of the assistant jobs will be filled with two part-timers to save on paying benefits.” According to Beth Usui, the director of special education, Jordan will try to move the teachers and aides “to other jobs within the district.”
School Finance
New Jersey Districts Could Receive $100,000 For Signing On To State’s Race To The Top Bid.
The Press of Atlantic City (5/25, Damico) reports that today is the deadline for a New jersey program that give “school districts…a $100,000 incentive to join the state’s application for $400 million in federal funds — but the strings attached could include linking teacher evaluations and merit pay to how well students perform.” Under the initiative announced by Deputy Commissioner Willa Spicer “of the state Department of Education…in a May 20 memo,” districts that sign onto the state’s application will each receive $100,000 “in addition to any other funds they might receive,” if New Jersey wins money. “DOE spokesman Alan Guenther said the incentive was offered because some district officials still had questions about just how much money they would get from the grant.” The Press of Atlantic City notes that “As of 2 p.m. Monday, 171 districts and charter schools had signed on…according to a list posted on the DOE website.”
Wisconsin Reaches Deal With Milwaukee District Not To Withhold Funding.
The AP (5/25) reports, “Wisconsin state superintendent Tony Evers says the state has reached a deal with Milwaukee Public Schools that will not result in withholding any funding. In February, Evers had threatened to withhold $175 million in federal money that goes to low income schools because Milwaukee had failed to meet requirements under” NCLB. However, “under the agreement announced Monday, Evers says the state is giving the district a one-year grace period to allow the district’s new superintendent time to settle in.”
Chicago Students Study In Daley Plaza To Protest Budget Cuts.
The Chicago Tribune (5/25, Malone) reports, “Bearing books and band instruments and wearing sports uniforms, more than 250 Chicago high school students on Monday afternoon protested sweeping cuts to public education by” holding study and rehearsal sessions in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. According to the Tribune, “Event organizers said they hoped to send a message to state lawmakers, who returned to Springfield on Monday to try again to hammer out a state budget plan. With the state behind more than $1 billion in payments to local schools and threatening deep cuts for next year, area schools laid off hundreds of teachers, trimmed programs and boosted class sizes.”
Also in the News
National Geography Bee Begins This Week.
USA Today (5/25, Steinberg) reports that 54 “fifth- through eighth-graders will compete…in the 22nd annual National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., this week. Finalists beat nearly 5 million students in qualifying bees across the country.” According to USA Today, “The winner of the national competition, sponsored by Google, will receive a $25,000 college scholarship and free trip to the Galapagos Islands” and second- “and third-place contestants will receive college scholarships of $15,000 and $10,000.”
Washington Teen Wins $50,000 From Intel Science, Engineering Fair.
The Clark County (WA) Columbian (5/24, Buck) profiled 18-year-old Kevin Ellis of Vancouver, Washington, who won “a $50,000 all-around excellence award after earning top computer science honors at the Intel Corp.’s 14th International Science and Engineering Fair.” He was “among 1,611 high school competitors, from 59 countries and territories.” The Columbian notes that “Kevin’s knack is to create new software that figures an ever more efficient division of labor” and that generates “instant feedback to help microprocessors learn on their own how to best assign tasks.”
NEA in the News
NEA Of Rhode Island Has Not Decided To Endorse State’s Race To The Top Bid.
The Providence Journal (5/25, Jordan) reports, “With a tentative agreement reached over the weekend on a new teachers’ contract in East Providence, the National Education Association of Rhode Island was coy Monday about whether it would sign off on the state’s bid to win $75 million in federal education aid.” Said NEARI president, Larry Purtill, in an email on Monday, “We are discussing Race to the Top with our local presidents and will most likely be meeting with them at some point” Tuesday. Moreover, Purtill said that “he is carefully monitoring the…situation in East Providence.”
The AP (5/25, Smith) reports that “the union support for” Rhode Island’s Race To The Top round two application “is significantly lower in than it was” for Delaware and Tennessee, the “two states that won grants in the first round.” But, considering “the examples set by those states,” both of which “had aggressive plans as well as strong support by school districts and teachers unions,” Education Commissioner Deborah Gist said that she does not think the lack of union support will hear the state’s chances of winning.
Oklahoma Teacher Receives NEA Award For “Teaching Excellence.”
The Oklahoman (5/25) reports that “Lake Park Elementary School special education teacher Kathryn Bishop is one of four teachers in the nation to be named by the National Education Association Foundation as a recipient of the 2010 Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence.” According to the NEA website, Bishop was chosen for “the award because she ‘created a classroom rich in technology to celebrate her students’ abilities while honoring their differences.’” The Oklahoman notes that the 18-year teaching veteran “serves on the National Education Association IDEA Resource Cadre.”
Officials Finalize Plan To Rehire Teachers At Central Falls High School.
The Providence Journal (5/26, Jordan) reports, “Eighty-seven teachers…who were to be fired this summer” from Central Falls High School in Rhode Island “will keep their jobs once they write an essay, conduct a five-minute lesson and interview with the school leadership team.” The Central Falls Board of Trustees “voted Tuesday night to rescind the terminations once the teachers complete the process in an agreement with the Central Falls Teachers’ Union that was reached last week.” The Journal notes that “the agreement ended four months of turmoil at the struggling school, which has been targeted for improvement by state and federal education officials because of its low performance over many years.” The AP (5/26, Smith) notes that “the teachers’ union and administration last week agreed to a deal that requires teachers to work a longer day and tutor students.”
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In the Classroom
About 5,000 High School Seniors In Minnesota Have Not Passed Mandatory Reading Tests.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (5/26, Johns, Draper) reports that on Tuesday, “the Minnesota Department of Education released figures…showing that about 1,800 seniors have yet to pass the” state-mandated GRAD “writing test, and about 5,000 seniors have yet to pass the reading test.” This year, for the first time, students who do not pass both tests will not be allowed to get their diplomas. However, some “special education students and students who have lived in the United States less than four years are exempt” from the tests. The Star-Tribune adds that “last spring…the Legislature threw out the requirement that students pass the GRAD math test, saying it was too hard. Now, students can graduate if they’ve passed that test once or failed it three times.”
Underperforming High School In San Antonio Expected To Meet Texas Standards For 2010.
The San Antonio Express-News (5/25, Kastner) reported that after failing “to meet state standards all but two years since” 2004, San Antonio’s Sam Houston High School “will be rated academically acceptable by the state for 2010, preliminary test results show.” The school “was threatened with closure” last year due to its low achievement, and “Children at Risk, a Houston nonprofit organization, ranked the…campus 1,012 out of 1,018 high schools across Texas.”
On the Job
Data May Help Denver District Address Enrollment Inconsistencies.
The Denver Post (5/25, Meyer) reported, “School officials are parsing data to try to figure out why educational outcomes for Denver Public Schools students are inconsistent from region to region. Using data collected in the annual Strategic Regional Analysis, leaders see why students leave their home schools, where the weakest schools are located, and how to address overcrowding and high vacancies.” According to the Post, “The goal of the analysis is not to nitpick the numbers but to make every school perform at a high level and to ensure that all students graduate ready for college and careers, said Superintendent Tom Boasberg.”
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Law & Policy
Education Department To Investigate Harassment, Discrimination In Minnesota Schools.
Minnesota’s Star-Tribune (5/26, Lemagie) reports that “the federal Department of Education has opened an investigation into claims that Somali students have faced racial discrimination and harassment at schools in St. Cloud and Owatonna” in Minnesota. The investigation was called for by the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “The probe will include incidents reported this school year involving high school students in Owatonna, and over the past two years at St. Cloud’s Apollo Senior High School and Technical Senior High School. CAIR claims that Somali students were harassed by fellow students because of their race or religion and that both districts failed to stop the behavior,” the Star-Tribune adds.
Virginia Will Expand Student Tracking System To Include College, Workforce Data.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (5/25) reported that “Virginia education officials” plan to broaden “the state’s student tracking system to follow graduates after high school.” Already, “the state’s massive data system…assigns every public school student in Virginia an identifier to track them through their school career.” But, “through a $17.5 million federal stimulus grant,” the state will expand the system to add “college and workforce data.” The grant will also “pay for additional staff, a Web portal to search the data, and a mechanism for three state universities and the community colleges to electronically receive school transcripts.”
Impetus For Arizona Ethnic Studies Bill Explained.
Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (5/25) that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has “signed into law” a bill targeting ethic studies that “had been pushed” by Tom Horne, Arizona’s longtime secretary of education, “who took a disliking” to an ethnic studies program in the Tucson Unified School District several years ago. According to Strauss, “Historians and educators can argue the importance or lack thereof of such studies, and the merits and demerits of particular programs. … I find [Horne's] motivations revealing, and read into” an “open letter that Horne wrote in 2007 explaining why he decided to target the program” a “personal dislike that he turned into a political crusade and selectively chose and wrongly interpreted some material to make his case.” Strauss goes on to post the letter from Horne, dated June 11, 2007.
Special Needs
Leadership Class At Washington High School Hosts Prom For Special Needs Students.
The Tacoma (WA) News Tribune (5/26, Cafazzo) reports on “the inaugural prom for a group of 10…special-education students, hosted by the Associated Student Body leadership class” at River View High School. The event took place on “Tuesday morning at the school.” Students in the leadership class “came up with the idea to help the special-education students — most of them nonverbal wheelchair users — join in their high school’s end-of-the-year tradition.”
Safety & Security
Cartoon Network To Launch Anti-Bullying Campaign.
The AP (5/26, Crary) reports, “Next fall, when millions of kids tune into Cartoon Network to watch Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and other favorites, they’ll encounter something new – an ambitious campaign to enlist them as foot soldiers in the fight against bullying. Unlike many bullying programs, this one is geared toward middle school, where experts say bullying is most common.” The program “also targets not bullies nor the bullied, but kids who witness bullying, giving them appropriate techniques to intervene.”
Facilities
PCBs Found At Connecticut School Delay Renovation.
The Connecticut Post (5/26, Lambeck) reports that “school building officials who have been working for two years to update and renovate” Columbus School in Bridgeport, Connecticut “recently discovered the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, an organic compound and probable carcinogen, in the caulk that insulates the windows.” Ray Wiley, the city’s school building projects manager, said that the discovery is “a pretty serious problem,” pointing out that “unlike asbestos, which can be easily removed, PCBs can seep into porous materials like concrete, making cleanup harder.” Columbus students will have to wait another year to return to the school building, the Connecticut Post adds.
School Finance
Washington Offers Grants To Help Districts Pilot Teacher, Administrator Measurement Systems.
The Seattle Times (5/26) reports that Washington state’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is offering a $100,000-$200,000 annual iGrant to school districts throughout the state “to pay for testing new ways of measuring teachers and principals. The eventual goal should be a well-tested model that can be implemented statewide.” The Seattle Times notes that “A binary system based on satisfactory and unsatisfactory ratings, most agree, offers skewed and incomplete pictures of teaching and learning.” Instead, “a multilayered and textured system is” sought. Districts have until Friday to submit an online application for the grant.
Virginia School System Finds $15 Million End-Of-Year Surplus.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (5/26, Gormus) reports, “Chesterfield County schools Superintendent Marcus Newsome announced” Tuesday “that the school district will end the current fiscal year with a $15 million surplus.” He said that the “savings from the school system’s $572 million budget for fiscal 2010 came from conserving fuel and other utilities, leaving positions vacant and participating in a one-time holiday provided by the Virginia Retirement System.” The Times-Dispatch adds that Newsome wants about $6.5 million of that surplus to go toward “a one-time bonus” for district employees “equal to two percent of their base salary. The remainder of the savings — about $9 million — must be returned to the Board of Supervisors based on Virginia law.”
Voters In Alameda, California To Decide On Parcel Tax For Schools, Libraries.
The San Francisco Chronicle (5/26, Jones) reports that “a month-long” began Tuesday in Alameda, California, “to decide whether taxes will be raised to support public schools.” The Chronicle explains that under Measure E, “homeowners would pay” a $659 annual parcel tax “and business owners would owe up to $9,500 annually per parcel.” If the measure passes, “many small business owners, already struggling with the recession, say they’ll be forced to close.” However, “‘If this doesn’t pass, all bets are off in Alameda,’ said Encinal High School Principal Mike Cooper.” The Chronicle notes that “Measure E would raise $14 million annually for eight years to keep libraries open and staffed, maintain small class sizes, and pay for music, arts and athletic programs as well as advanced placement courses.”
Also in the News
Connecticut District Official Defends Holding School Graduations In Church.
The AP (5/25) reported that Enfield, CT school officials “decided to hold two high school graduations at a megachurch because the building had enough space at the right cost,” Enfield Board of Education Chairman Gregory Stokes “told a federal judge during a hearing Monday on whether the arrangement was an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. But attorneys suing him tried to show the decision stemmed from intense lobbying by a religious organization.” According to the AP, “Two students represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are suing Enfield schools, saying it’s illegal to hold the ceremonies at The First Cathedral in Bloomfield.”
NEA in the News
New Jersey NEA In Talks With Governor’s Office About State’s Race To The Top Bid.
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (5/26, Rundquist) reports, “New Jersey’s second attempt to win up to $400 million for education reform through the federal Race to the Top competition will have the support of at least 290″ of about 600 “school districts, but it remains unclear if the state’s largest teachers unions will sign on.” In the first round of Race To The top, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) “recommended local unions not” sign on to the state’s application, the Star Ledger notes. According to NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer, “the union is still talking with” Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) “administration about this application.” Meanwhile, the state education chief is giving districts more time to make their decisions. “Officials were originally told signed memorandums of understanding were due” Tuesday, but that deadline has been pushed up to Thursday.
Staff At San Diego Schools Face Mandatory Furloughs, Increased Co-Pays With New Contract.
The San Diego Union-Tribune (5/26, Magee) reports that “campus police officers and instructional assistants in the San Diego school district will be subject to the same mandatory furloughs and increased medical co-payments that teachers will endure under contracts approved Tuesday the board of education.” Those contracts fall “in line with the teachers contract approved by the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) and the school board in March.” Meanwhile “three unions representing administrators; office clerks and technical support staff; and custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers” are still negotiating with the school system. The Union-Tribune notes that “under a ‘me too clause,’” the SDEA “sets the tone for all other labor groups in the district,” though “the contracts must be ratified by each labor organization and the board.”