Common Core State Standards Released For Math, English.
The New York Times (6/3, Dillon) reports, “The nation’s governors and state school chiefs released on Wednesday a new set of academic standards, their final recommendations for what students should master in English and math as they move from the primary grades through high school graduation.” According to the Times, “The new standards were written by English and math experts convened last year by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers” and “are laid out in two documents: Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, and Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects.”
The AP (6/3, Turner) reports that under the new standards, “third-graders should understand subject-verb agreement, fifth-graders need to know about metaphors and similes and seventh-graders must understand how to calculate surface area.” States that opt-in “are supposed to use the standards as a base on which to build their curricula and testing, but they can make their benchmarks tougher than Common Core.” The AP (6/3) adds in a separate story that Wisconsin state superintendent Tony Evers “immediately adopted” the standards.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/3, Torres) reports, “Georgia is poised to become one of the first states to heed a call Wednesday by states’ governors and school leaders to voluntarily adopt common national standards in English, language arts and mathematics.” The standards “have the support from a who’s who of education experts and organizations, including the College Board, the National School Boards Association, the National Education Association, the National Parent-Teacher Association and the State Higher Education Executive Officers.”
The Washington Post (6/3, Anderson), Wall Street Journal (6/3, Banchero) and Christian Science Monitor (6/3, Paulson) also cover this story.
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In the Classroom
“Mad Scientist Day” Aims To Make Science Less Intimidating For Students.
Maryland’s Business Gazette (6/3, Hill) reports that Hollywood Elementary School in College Park, Maryland, “school held its fourth-annual Mad Scientist Day and Night” last week. The event — aimed at making “science more exciting and less intimidating for students” — was a full day “of interactive science experiments, followed by more activities for parents and children that night.” Activities stations “where participants could build molecules from gum drops and toothpicks, plant grass seeds in foam cups, connect circuits to power light bulbs or test the aerodynamics of paper airplanes.”
Students At California Elementary School Produce Books For Young Authors’ Event.
California’s Contra Costa Times (6/3, Harrington) reports that students at Silverwood Elementary in Concord, California, “have spent months writing and illustrating books,” which they will “unveil…for their families Thursday during a Young Authors’ reception at the school.” In second grade teacher Eva Stoltz’s class, for instance, “students brainstormed fiction ideas and worked with parent volunteer Robert Lang to refine their stories. … Lang typed up the stories for students and glued a few sentences onto each page.” Students also wrote an “About the Author” blurb for the end of the book, and attached a school photo. According to Stolz, the project “is valuable to students because they learn what it’s like to publish a book.”
Study Shows Private Competition Helps Increase Public School Student Achievement.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/3, Matus) reports that a new study “to be released next week by the National Bureau of Economic Research” shows that “competition from private-school vouchers has led to small academic improvements in Florida’s public schools.” In 2001, “the state began offering tax-credit vouchers to low-income students in 2001.” Since then, “students in public schools with a greater and more diverse array of private schools around them showed greater gains in standardized test scores than students in other public schools, found David Figlio and Cassandra Hart at Northwestern University.” But, according to “Stanford labor economist Martin Carnoy, who has studied the impact of vouchers and reviewed the latest study,” noted that while the researchers “did ‘an honest job with the data,’” the gains they found were “so small that even small downside effects would nullify them, leaving vouchers as mainly an ideological exercise.”
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On the Job
New York Mayor To Withhold Teacher Pay Raises In Effort To Save Jobs.
The New York Times (6/3, Medina) reports that New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) “said Wednesday that the city would withhold across-the-board pay increases for public school teachers and principals for the next two years to ‘save the jobs of some 4,400 teachers.’” The decision “could put pressure on lawmakers to allocate more money for schools,” which “would most likely have to be offset by spending cuts elsewhere or by higher taxes.” The Wall Street Journal (6/3, Martinez) adds that teachers will still receive pay increases based on time in service, even as they lose cost-of-living increases.
School Board In Georgia May Change Teacher Training Requirement To Save Money.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/3, Matteucci) reports that “the DeKalb County school board is looking to cut mandatory training hours for teachers in half because of the district’s budget problems.” Teachers currently must take “20 hours of professional development a year. On Wednesday, the board’s instruction committee discussed cutting training time to 10 hours a year.” The school board last month approved $104 million worth of budget cuts, “including seven furlough days for teachers.” One proposal “calls for three of those furlough days to be designated teacher professional development days.”
Law & Policy
New Child Nutrition Act Could Promote Healthier School Lunches.
The Sun Journal (ME) (6/2, Washuk) reported, “Almost every school in the nation would serve” lunches containing health-conscious ingredients that are “less processed, more nutritious” and contain “less fat, sugar and sodium” under “a proposal in Congress to boost school lunch spending,” says US Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. WCSH-TV Portland, Maine (6/3) reports, “President Obama is proposing spending an additional billion dollars per year when the Child Nutrition Act comes up for reauthorization later this year.” The money would be used “to bring locally grown and more nutritious food to our nation’s school lunch programs.”
Measure Would Bring Stricter Health Guidelines To Ohio Schools.
Ohio’s Plain Dealer (6/3, Marshall) reports that on Wednesday Ohio House members “passed a measure aimed at getting kids eating healthier and exercising more.” Specifically, the bill “pushes out…candy machines and soda pop in favor of lowfat milk, fruit juices, water and healthier fare in Ohio’s school lunchrooms by 2014.” In addition, it calls for 30 minutes of exercise in school, and it would require that Ohio schools to “measure kids’ body mass index, a measure of height and weight, in kindergarten, third, fifth, and ninth grades.”
Special Needs
Los Angeles District To Cut 200 Classes, Campus For Disabled Students.
The Los Angeles Times (6/3, Blume) reports that Los Angeles Unified School District “officials plan to spend much less on the disabled” by shutting down 200 classes and one “specialized campus, the West Valley Special Education Center.” The cuts are needed, say district officials, in order to make up for “multimillion-dollar deficit” that will also result in larger “class sizes, decimated art and music programs, closed libraries, and an expected 1,000-plus layoffs.” Still, officials insist that even with the changes, disabled students will still receive services “as the law requires,” with some improvements.
School Finance
DC Teachers Ratify New Contract.
The Washington Post (6/3, Turque) reports that DC “teachers ratified a new contract Wednesday that dramatically expands Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s ability to remove poor educators and places Washington on a growing list of cities and states that have established classroom results, not seniority, as the standard by which teachers are paid.” The contract comes after “nearly 2.5 years of contentious negotiations.” It “combines a rich traditional financial package with unorthodox initiatives historically resisted by unionized teachers” including a performance pay program and the “weakening of seniority and tenure.” The Washington Times (6/3, Simmons) reports that the “merit-pay component” is provisional “and limits the power of tenure in giving the schools chancellor more power to assign and fire teachers.” The Washington Post (6/3) runs a brief synopsis of the new contract’s main provisions and the Washington Times (6/3, Simmons) also covers this story in a separate report.
WPost Applauds New DC Teacher Labor Pact. The Washington Post (6/3) editorializes, “Overwhelming approval by D.C. teachers of a new contract caps nearly three years of high drama marked by bitter negotiations, political recriminations and budget uncertainty. But rather than an ending, the labor pact — which still must be approved by the D.C. Council — represents what could be a beginning in building and retaining a more effective teaching force.” The Post adds, “That’s a credit to the tenacity of Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and also to the willingness of the union’s rank and file to embrace her aggressive but common-sense reforms,” as seniority and tenure “would no longer protect bad teachers.”
ACLU Report Says More Equitable School Construction Funding Needed In Baltimore.
The Baltimore Sun (6/3, Bowie) reports that the ACLU “is calling on state and city leaders to address a $2.8 billion need for renovations to Baltimore schools by developing a more creative and equitable way to fund school construction across Maryland.” On Wednesday, the ACLU released a report saying that “despite state increases in school construction dollars in recent years, many city schools are still deteriorating and at current funding levels it would take 50 years for them to be in good condition.” It also asserts that “because the state does not take into account each district’s needs and ability to fund projects locally, school construction funding lacks equity.” For solutions to this problem, “the ACLU points out several innovative funding models used in other cities and states across the nation that have successfully helped provide an infusion of cash to get aging schools up to par and to build new ones.”
Colorado District Considers Charging Students $10 Per Month For School Bus Service.
KUSA-TV Denver (6/3, Nelson) reports that Colorado’s Adams 12 Five Star School District is considering charging students “$10 a month to ride the bus, for a total of $100 for a school year.” Currently, $8.1 million of the district’s budget is for transportation. Meanwhile, Adams 12 faces a $20 million budget cut. The bus fee would generate about $380,000, projections show. “Families that qualify for the free and reduce lunch program at school would be exempt from the bus fee.” KUSA adds that “Fees for buses may become the norm for districts across the state as they are forced to look at all sorts of budget fixes, including charging more for athletics or technology.”
Also in the News
“Phantom Of The Opera” Now Available For School Theatres.
The Wall Street Journal (6/3, Orden) reports that today, R&H Theatricals will begin accepting applications from high schools and colleges interested in putting on performances of the Broadway musical “The Phantom of the Opera.” With rights, schools may begin the performances starting September 1.
Pass Rate For Texas High School Exit Exam Improves.
The Dallas Morning News (6/4, Stutz) reports, “There will be no diplomas this spring for about one in 10 high school seniors from the Class of 2010 who failed one or more sections of [Texas'] high school graduation test, the Texas Education Agency reported Thursday.” The roughly 28,592 seniors statewide “who failed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and didn’t graduate with their classmates represented an improvement over last year, when about 14 percent of seniors were denied diplomas.” However, the TAKS results also showed that “minority students were most” negatively “affected by the graduation requirement as, 17 percent of black students and 14 percent of Hispanics were unable to pass all four sections of the exam, measuring skills in English, math, science and social studies.”
The AP (6/4) reports that students in “third through fifth grades and the seventh through 11th grades who took the state’s standardized test” Showed improvement, as did “high school juniors…according to a TEA statement.”
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In the Classroom
Some Elementary Schools To Begin Basing Student Placement On Achievement Data.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/4) reports that this fall, students at 21 elementary schools in Hillsborough County, Florida, will be placed in classes based on “test data and other measures of student achievement.” This system will place students “strategically with [peers] from several achievement levels. The goal is to reduce the range of levels in any classroom so teachers can reach students more effectively.” The St. Petersburg Times adds that the system is being implemented “in more than 50 schools in eight states…backed by a $448,052 grant from the federal Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program.”
Missouri High Schools Become First To Earn Certification For PLTW Biomedical Program.
The Kansas City infoZine (6/3) reports that seven high schools in Missouri have become “the first in the country to earn national certification for their Project Lead The Way Biomedical Science programs.” The first Missouri schools begin piloting the program in 2007-08, and now thirteen in the state and “nearly 300″ nationwide are “using the PLTW Biomedical Science program and curriculum.” The article notes, “PLTW, originally known for its pre-engineering curriculum, began the Biomedical Sciences program in response to an expected shortage of qualified science and health professionals.”
On the Job
Language Of New DC Teacher Contract Mirrors That Of Expired Pact.
The Washington Post (6/4, Turque) reports, “On Wednesday, D.C. teachers ratified a new deal with provisions that include performance pay, new school turnaround models and improved mentoring.” According to the Post, the new contract’s provisions mirror many features of the contract “that expired Sept. 30, 2007, with many of its promises left unrealized.” Nevertheless, “both sides agree that the accord, which awaits final approval by the D.C. Council, will mean something only if both parties are serious about fulfilling its terms.”
New York City Mayor Urged To Negotiate Fairly With Teacher’s Union.
The New York Times (6/4) editorializes that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) “made the sensible choice this week when he opted to freeze teachers’ salaries instead of laying off teachers.” However, Bloomberg’s decision would have been “even better” if he “had decided to give the president of the teachers’ union, Michael Mulgrew, some early warning.” The Times adds that regarding the “reserve pool” of teachers being paid up to $100,000 annually yet are displaced from permanent posts, the “two sides must negotiate a fair and equitable system under which capable teachers find jobs quickly and teachers who cannot do the job are shown the door.”
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Law & Policy
Florida Education Officials Consider Ending Chocolate Milk Sales In Schools.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/4, Catalanello) reports that Florida’s Board of Education is “entertaining a policy that would end the sale of flavored milk in schools.” The idea is opposed by “Florida’s milk farmers and school nutrition directors” who say that “if chocolate is removed, kids will give up on the calcium-rich beverage altogether.” According to The Dairy Council of Florida, “a study of milk purchased in an affluent, suburban Connecticut town…in 2008″ shows “that in a three-month period after flavored milk stopped being offered, overall milk purchases declined 67 percent in grades 3 to 8.” But Dr. David Katz, “director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Yale University,” also weighed in, arguing, “If the only beverage available were water, the kids would be just fine.”
Rendell Asks Pennsylvania Lawmakers To Boost Education Funding By $354 Million.
Pennsylvania’s Patriot-News (6/4, Andren) reports that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) “and lawmakers agreed Thursday after their first official budget negotiation that a willingness to compromise exists in order to finish next year’s budget by the June 30 deadline.” Still, the governor hinted “at a news conference Thursday afternoon…that he would be willing to blow past that deadline to fight for funding public education, one of the priorities of his two-term tenure.” Despite the state’s “$1.2 billion budget deficit,” he “is asking lawmakers to approve a $354 million increase in basic-education funding.” Of education Rendell stated that “there’s nothing more important to the commonwealth’s future –nothing.”
Court Weighs School Discipline For Web Posts.
The AP (6/4, Dale) reports that the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals “heard arguments Thursday over whether school officials can discipline students for making lewd, harassing or juvenile Internet postings from off-campus computers. Two students from two different Pennsylvania school districts are fighting suspensions they received for posting derisive profiles of their principals on MySpace from home computers.” According to the AP, “The American Civil Liberties Union argued that school officials infringe on student’s free speech rights when they reach beyond school grounds in such cases to impose discipline.”
Special Needs
Chicago Public Schools Taps Principal To Overhaul Special Education.
The Chicago Tribune (6/3, Huppke, Ahmed) reports, “Longtime Chicago school principal Dick Smith has been given a mandate: take Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) special education program, long subjected to withering criticism, and change it into a system focused on education…that responds rapidly and effectively to the needs of students and the concerns of parents.” As “head of CPS’ Office of Specialized Services, Smith “plans to create a system that would allow the district to spot any school that was having repeated problems with special needs students.” He hopes “to create a culture of ownership at local schools, where principals and staff are held accountable for the education of children with special needs.” The Tribune notes that Smith’s “appointment came two months after the district promised a systemwide revamp in response to a series of Tribune stories highlighting widespread failures in the special education program.”
Safety & Security
Impact Of Chicago Public Schools Anti-Violence Program Still Unclear.
The Chicago Tribune (6/4, Ahmed) reports that in September, the Chicago Public Schools “district announced [an] unprecedented two-year, $60 million initiative to keep kids safe in and out of school. But despite the promise of isolated pieces of the program, its larger impact is impossible to tally as it nears the halfway mark.” According to the Tribune, “Youth homicides and shootings have dipped this year, but it’s difficult to credit the anti-violence initiative because so much of it is still in the planning stages.”
School Finance
Education Stakeholders Concerned About Recession’s Toll On High Schools.
The AP (6/4, Chea, Armario) reports, “Students graduating from high school this spring may be collecting their diplomas just in time, leaving institutions that are being badly weakened by the nation’s economic downturn. Across the country, mass layoffs of teachers, counselors and other staff members – caused in part by the drying up of federal stimulus dollars – are leading to larger classes and reductions in everything that is not a core subject, including music, art, clubs, sports and other after-school activities.” According to the AP, “Educators and others worry the cuts could lead to higher dropout rates and lower college attendance as students receive less guidance and become less engaged in school.”
Some Boston-Area Districts Resort To Layoffs Due To Rising Costs.
The Boston Globe (6/3, Rosenberg) reports, “With the economic turndown showing few signs of letting up, more than 100 educators are expected to receive pink slips from school districts” throughout Massachusetts “in the coming weeks.” Beverly Superintendent James Hayes Jr. said that “rising health insurance premiums, teacher salary raises, and special education costs have added millions annually to school budgets.” The Boston Globe provides examples of the budget decisions being made in Massachusetts districts facing layoffs.
Las Vegas Chamber Of Commerce Issuing Series Of Reports On Local Education.
The Las Vegas Sun (6/3, Richmond) reported that “with the Clark County School District as the state’s largest employer,” the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce’s new president and CEO, Matt Crosson, has been taking a close look at public education over the past month. “One of his first tasks as chief of the Las Vegas Chamber is to explore better partnerships with the School District.” In May, the chamber began launching “of a series of reports on” education. The first report “concluded that at certain grade levels, socioeconomic factors were a more significant influence on student achievement than funding levels.” Crosson said that does not “mean schools that are reeling from steep budget cuts don’t need more money.” Instead, he asserted, “the real issue should be figuring out what are the most effective ways to spend the education money.”
Also in the News
CDC Study: 1 In 5 High School Students Taking Medicines Without Prescriptions.
The AP (6/3) reported that a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “report shows one in five high school students have taken a prescription drug that they didn’t get from a doctor. The abused drugs include pain pills and attention deficit drugs used as study aids.” The CDC “study found that the drug use was most common among 12th graders” and “white students took the drugs more than blacks or Hispanics.”
Apple Issues Free iPads To Fifth-Graders At School In Florida.
The Apple Insider (6/4, Lane) reports, “Thirteen fifth-grade students” from Watergrass Elementary School in Wesley Chapel, Florida, “were given free iPads by Apple, and could appear in a forthcoming advertising campaign after they were photographed excitedly eyeing the company’s new hardware.” Apple’s Andrea Barr said that her “heart melted” after receiving the photos from “the school’s instructional technology specialist.” Apple’s vice president of education, John Barr, is now interested “in potentially using the photos for” advertising. And, he “decided to reward the 13 children seen in the photos with iPads.”
Special Needs Students At Florida School Perform Romeo & Juliet.
The Miami Herald (6/4, Morel) reports on “the spring performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, presented by 25 students…from The Learning Experience School” for “students with special needs.” Drama teacher Rebecca Cartaya condensed “the original five-act play…down to a 90-minute performance.” The Herald notes that at first, the school’s executive director, Cristina Cartaya, thought that “the thys and thees throughout the dialogue seemed intimidating. But when students began memorizing their lines and parts, she changed her mind.” Said Cristina Cartaya, “We set the limit on people. That’s something that we don’t do at this school. … [The students] surprise us every single day.”
NEA in the News
Efforts To Ban Ethnic Studies Viewed As Misguided.
Attorney Raul A. Reyes writes in an op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor (6/4) though he avoided taking a` Chicano studies class as a youth, in “hindsight” he sees that “a Chicano studies course” could “have filled in some critical” knowledge gaps and given him “a better context for understanding American history.” He adds that while Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a “law banning ethnic studies,” Arizona “is not the only state whitewashing its public education.” The Texas State Board of Education “recently approved textbook guidelines that give short shrift to minorities in favor of a conservative ideology.” In light of NEA data that shows “Arizona ranks 50th in expenditure per pupil in grades K-12,” Reyes asks, “Doesn’t Brewer have more important things to do besides ensuring that Arizona’s schoolchildren do not learn about the Aztecs in a state that is one-third Latino?”
NEA Backs House Members’ Push For Teacher Jobs Bill.
The Hill (6/7, Alarkon) reports, “Soon after Congress returns from the Memorial Day recess…House Democrats and teacher unions will make one last push to pass a $23 billion fund to prevent teacher layoffs.” A letter written by “Democratic Reps. Maurice Hinchey (NY), Phil Hare (IL) and Bob Etheridge (NC)” and signed by “104 other House Democrats,” the NEA, and other teachers unions, says, “states are still facing bleak budgetary outlooks and may very well have to cut funding for education in order to balance budgets. … If Congress does not pass additional funding for education jobs soon, many of the jobs that have been supported by [the stimulus] will be lost.”
The Miami Herald (6/6, Goldstein, Sampson) reported that “the layoffs already have begun,” and “advocates for teachers are calling them catastrophic.” For example, “large, populous states such as California and Texas…are each expected to absorb the loss of more than 30,000 teachers and other personnel, according to White House estimates.” The Herald notes that while some “in the House of Representatives had hoped to pass the $23 billion emergency bailout as part of a spending bill for the war in Afghanistan that was slated for passage…fiscally conservative members from tough districts” did not want to “defend another vote that would increase the deficit.”
Duncan Says He Has No “Plan B” For Saving Jobs, Urges Congress To Approve Teacher Fund. The AP (6/4, Dalesio) reported Education Secretary Arne Duncan also “warned Thursday that without federal funds, thousands of teachers would be laid off in the coming weeks.” While visiting Southern High School in Durham, North Carolina with Gov. Beverly Perdue and US Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC), Duncan said, “We are strongly urging Congress to take action and take action this month. … I don’t have a Plan B. Plan B is children around the country are going to get hurt.”
Congress Urged To Pass Teacher Jobs Bill. The Oregonian (6/5) editorialized, “Over the past 18 months the federal government has hurled hundreds of billions of dollars at Wall Street bankers, Main Street businesses and virtually every public or private program that might protect or create jobs. But now that it’s public education — and teachers — feeling the brunt of the recession, there’s a new message from Washington: You’re on your own.” The Oregonian added, “As members of Congress return to work this week from their Memorial Day break, they must look with fresh eyes at legislation that would send $23 billion to the states to prevent mass teacher layoffs, early school closures and other deep budget cuts throughout the nation’s school systems.”
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In the Classroom
Hands On Activities Help Students Learn, Hone Handwriting Skills.
The Arizona Republic (6/7, Javier) reports that some Arizona schools “are getting their students to develop proper handwriting skills early using unique techniques to help them succeed later in school.” Some techniques include “using Play-Doh to shape letters and learning to form a letter always starting from the top.” They “are part of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, designed for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.” Handwriting Without Tears “incorporates songs and hands-on activities to help children learn how to form and identify letters and to remember the correct way to write them.” For instance, students use “straight and curved wood pieces” to “form letters.”
Number Of School Suspensions In Delaware Nearly Double National Average.
The Wilmington (DE) News Journal (6/7, Dobo) reports that the number of suspensions in Delaware schools is “nearly double the national average.” Throughout the state, “22,828 of the 125,430 students in public schools” — or about one in five students — “were suspended or expelled, missing tens of thousands of school days.” Nearly 80 percent of those students “were sent home for non-criminal offenses, infractions ranging from breaking the dress code to cutting class.” While “state officials agree Delaware’s rate is too high” they say that “local school leaders [have] autonomy to decide what punishments are warranted.” Meanwhile, “school and district leaders…argue that sometimes suspension of a child disrupting the entire class is the best option for the remaining students.”
Black, Special Needs Students Disproportionately Suspended In Delaware Schools. The Wilmington News Journal (6/7, Dobo) reports, “Educators in Delaware’s public schools disproportionately punish boys, black children and special education students, a News Journal analysis of state school suspension and expulsion data shows.” For instance, “black students made up about 32 percent of the public school population last year, but they accounted for about 55 percent of the students who were suspended or expelled.” According to experts, this “pattern mirrors a national trend.” Although “state and school district officials acknowledge the discrepancy in all of the state’s school districts…some do not believe it points to unfair discipline.” Russ Skiba, director the Indiana-based Equity Project, said that “to assume the disproportionate punishments are caused by racism would be too simplistic,” because other factors such as “the attitudes and training of the staff and the policies in place to deal with disruptive youth” also contribute to the rates.
Black Student Population In Dallas Schools Down Sharply.
The Dallas Morning News (6/7, Hacker, Hobbs) reports in the first of a two-part series, “Black students formed a majority in Dallas schools through the 1980s and ’90s” yet in the “last 10 years, though, the number of black children has fallen by nearly 20,000, or about a third. Meanwhile, Hispanic children have filled their seats as the district’s overall enrollment remains fairly flat at about 157,000.” According to the Morning News, “the trend seen in Dallas schools is part of a larger national move away from inner cities for many black families, but the plunge is steeper in Dallas ISD than other urban districts in Texas and is among the biggest declines nationally.”
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On the Job
Online Curriculum System Helps Enhance Collaboration Among Teachers.
The Bakersfield Californian (6/5, Barrientos) reports on the “new Bakersfield City School District (BCSD) online curriculum system called Learning Village.” The system, launched this year in BCSD, will cost the district “$500,000 for three years,” and “is the first of its kind implemented districtwide in California.” It “holds digitized textbooks” and allows educators to “create lesson plans online, from anywhere, and share them with others.” In addition, it “allows teachers to connect their lesson plans to SMART boards.” The Bakersfield Californian explains how teachers throughout BCSD are utilizing the new system to enhance collaboration among peers and classroom instruction.
Districts With Four-Day Schedules See Improvements, Drawbacks.
The AP (6/6) reported that in “more than 120 school districts across the country…students attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet.” Some of these districts “say they’ve seen students who are less tired and more focused, which has helped raise test scores and attendance.” Meanwhile, “others say that not only did they not save a substantial amount of money by being off an extra day, they also saw students struggle because they weren’t in class enough and didn’t have enough contact with teachers.”
Facilities
Elementary School In Arizona To Get Energy-Efficient Renovations This Summer.
The Arizona Republic (6/5, Yara) reported on the $9 million renovation of Aguilar Elementary School that will begin in July. “The plans include construction of a new 65,300-square foot, two-story building that will house classrooms and offices, and the remodeling of the multipurpose building.” The renovations “will include energy efficient cooling and electrical systems” and “classrooms…built to take advantage of natural light.” The construction is expected to continue through July 2011. Classes will be held at the school throughout the renovation. The Arizona Republic adds that “Feedback on design and practical needs from parents and teachers will be considered during the construction process, with certain touches added specifically to meet the Aguilar community’s requests.”
New High School In Florida District Incorporates Suggestions For Avoiding Future Expenses.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/6, Solochek) reported that the new Fivay High School in Pasco County, Florida, “which has about four times more indoor space than a Publix grocery store, takes the best of past designs…along with the lessons learned from other recent new high schools.” Built at a cost of $49 million, the school “features many of the improvements that several principals recommended as necessary to avoid known future expenses.” For example, “the bus loop, student/staff parking and visitor lots don’t share common entrances…in an effort to avoid the traffic entanglements that snarl other high schools.” In addition, “the hallway double doors have removable center bars to make it easier to move furniture around.” And, “the cafeteria has six serving lines instead of four, as most other high schools have.”
Denver School District Restricts Public’s Access To New School Workout Centers.
The Denver Post (6/6, Robles) reported, “Just as Denver’s public schools convert their old tracks into gleaming modern workout centers, the school district is cutting off public access to prevent vandalism.” Already, “fields at four schools…have been completed, and fields at five other schools are under construction this summer.” When “the projects are completed, the tracks –many of which allowed public access before the renovations — are fenced off and locked down.” District facilities director, Trena Deane, said that “anyone interested in using the fields can do so by following a process.”
School Finance
Reaction To Race To The Top Mixed In California.
The New York Times /Bay Citizen (CA) (6/6, Shih) reported, “Over the past few months,” California “educators, the teachers unions and lawmakers have clashed so bitterly regarding the changes tied to Race to the Top that state officials privately say the weakened bid stands at best a 50-50 chance of gaining approval – and a sorely needed $700 million – from Washington.” According to the Times, the “Bay Area has been at the center of this fight” as San Francisco schools chief Carlos A. Garcia “had to be prodded into joining the bid by Ramon C. Cortines, the Los Angeles schools superintendent, and even now he continues to openly criticize a federal program that he hopes will send $20 million to the San Francisco Unified School District, which is facing a $113 million deficit.”
Also in the News
Elementary Principal To Hold Assemblies Via Skype While Deployed With Navy Reserves.
The Oklahoman (6/7, Painter) reports that Carol Perry, “principal at Stonegate Elementary School in northwest Oklahoma City,” has been deployed with the Navy reserve twice between 2002 and 2007. Those deployments took her to Kuwait, Iraq, and the UAE. Last October, “Perry learned she would be back in active service, going first to training and then Afghanistan in a joint mission with the Army.” Although she won’t be at the school next year, “the school district will use Skype video to allow Perry to speak to her students during assemblies on Fridays.” Said Perry of her reserve duties. “I’ve had many experiences other people haven’t. … I can share these with my students. It gives me a sense of pride in my country, and I want my kids to have that sense of pride.”
NEA in the News
Tampa Tribune Remembers Former NEA President.
The Tampa Tribune (6/7) eulogizes former NEA president Braulio Alonso. “Alonso graduated from Hillsborough High School, the University of Tampa and University of Florida and started his career in education as a chemistry and physics teacher at Plant High School.” During World War II, he was drafted into the military, where he “was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. After the war, Alonso headed a program to provide on-the-job training to returning veterans and helped establish the Veterans Institute for returning GIs to get high school diplomas,” which later became the Adult Education High School. Later, Alonso served as principal at three different schools in Florida, as president of the Hillsborough County Education Association, and as “president of the National Education Association,” where he “helped engineer its merger with the African-American Teachers Association.”
Supreme Court Will Not Hear No Child Left Behind “Unfunded Mandates” Case.
The AP (6/8) reports that “the Supreme Court has turned away a challenge by school districts and teacher unions to the federal No Child Left Behind law.” The lawsuit, School District of Pontiac, Mich. v. Duncan, “questioned whether public schools have to comply with requirements of the law if the federal government doesn’t pay for them. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit and a federal appeals court split 8-8, leaving the judge’s ruling in place.”
Mark Walsh wrote in the Education Week (6/7) “School Law” blog, “It’s the end of the line for the National Education Association-backed legal challenge to the No Child Left Behind Act.” The lawsuit was backed by “the NEA and nine school districts in Michigan, Texas, and Vermont.” Walsh added that “the justices issued no comment in declining the appeal.” He notes, however, that seven of the judges from the “US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati” who heard “the case last October” accepted “the NEA’s view about the law’s ‘unfunded mandates’ language, giving the union hope that the” Supreme Court “might be interested in taking up the case.” Walsh noted that “in a brief filed in May by US Solicitor General Elena Kagan on behalf of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Kagan urged the justices not to hear the union’s appeal.”
Bloomberg News (6/7, Stohr) reported that “the suit aimed to enforce a provision in the 2001 measure that says states and school districts can’t be forced to spend their own money implementing the law’s testing requirements and other rules.” Bacckers of the suit “contended that Congress underfunded” No Child Left Behind “by more than $30 billion from 2002 to 2006.”
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In the Classroom
Some Physical Education Classes In Nevada District Are Double Recommended Size.
The Las Vegas Sun (6/8, Richmond) reports that in Nevada’s Clark County school system, “there are no district regulations mandating class sizes for physical education.” According to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, elementary P.E. classes should be capped at 25 students, “middle school classes at 30 and high school classes at 35.” But, P.E. classes twice the recommended size are not uncommon in Clark County, “and will become increasingly commonplace in August, because of budget cuts.” Joe Migoni, “a district elementary P.E. teacher who also is chairman of the professional association’s Southern Nevada chapter,” said that “with the proper equipment and instructional strategies, ‘it’s possible to conduct activities where large numbers of students have a high level of involvement.’” But, he added, “The bigger concern is whether those students are going to have the proper level of supervision for that to happen.”
Testing Company Faces Fine Over Delayed Release Of Florida Standardized Test Scores.
The Miami Herald (6/6, McGrory, Sampson) reported, “Within months of receiving a $254 million contract from the Florida Department of Education, a testing company with a troubled history ran into problems administering and scoring the state exams, records show.” NCS Pearson ha, in some past cases “delayed releasing some student scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests more than six weeks.” Last week, “a top state education official announced that the state will not release the bulk of the scores until the end of June — a full month later than in years past.”
The St. Petersburg Times (6/8, Matus) reports that NCS Pearson “may be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages for this year’s scoring delays.” A “2009 contract between” the testing company “and the Florida Department of Education requires the company to pay escalating penalties for” the delayed release of test “results deemed ‘extremely critical,’ including the results of” state standardized “reading and math tests in grades 4-10 and the science tests given to grades 5, 8 and 11.” The St. Petersburg Times notes that “some of those results were due May 19, according to the contract.”
On the Job
Idaho Law Allows Districts To Negotiate Lower Pay, Benefits For Teacher Contracts.
The AP (6/8, Bonner) reports, “Some teachers have fared better than others in the months since Idaho lawmakers opened the door for school districts to negotiate lower employee pay and benefits to help balance the books.” Though state law guarantees that teachers will receive “at least as much money as they earned in the previous year,” contracts “hammered out during salary talks this spring range from deals that force employees to take a handful of unpaid days off, to contracts with lower salaries across-the-board next year.” The AP notes that the “the legislation also declared a financial emergency for all Idaho schools, even if their districts aren’t close to exhausting their funds, which was required by a 2009 law before they could declare an emergency.”
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Law & Policy
Effort Launched To Encourage “College-Going Culture” In Texas.
The San Antonio Express-News (6/8) reports that “the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Monday announced the rollout of a $3 million grass-roots movement and marketing campaign to create a college-going culture throughout Texas, starting with San Antonio and Fort Worth.” The Generation TX initiative “aims to build support for the idea that every student, regardless of income or background, should pursue education beyond high school.” Coordinating Board official Judith Loredo explained, “We are not trying to say that every student has to have a four-year degree.” Instead the campaign encourages students to seek education beyond a high school diploma. The San Antonio Express News notes that the campaign is being funded through “a $3 million federal College Access Challenge Grant,” with much of the money going “to a marketing contract with Milkshake Media in Austin, which created Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong brand.”
Facilities
Detroit District To Shut Down 32 Schools This Month.
The Detroit News (6/8, Schultz) reports, “Eighteen Detroit Public Schools won’t be shutting after this year while several others were added to the district’s school closure list.” Now, “32 schools and one support building” are “slated to be closed this month.” Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb made the announcement Monday. The Detroit News notes that the 32 closures announced “are fewer in number than the original proposal by Bobb in March to close 41 school facilities. … Community feedback and further planning for the school construction bond program helped shape the final decisions.” In addition to “the closures this month, nine more schools will shut next year and four more in 2012 for a total of 45 schools over three years as part of Bobb’s master facilities plan.” The closures come as district enrollment shrinks. They will “save the…district $28 million annually for three years.”
Some Arizona Districts Taking On Fewer Construction Projects This Summer.
Arizona’s East Valley Tribune (6/8, Reese) reports that “while summers past have brought about construction and major remodeling projects,” in East Valley school districts, just two new buildings will be going up this year: “a 30,000-square foot classroom building” at Skyline High School in Mesa and “a new aquatic center the city is building on land donated by the district.” In addition, there will be some “typical summertime maintenance and smaller projects, such as flooring replacement, energy upgrades and kitchen cleaning.” The East Valley Tribune attributes the lag in school construction to a lack of funding. “The state’s School Facilities Board has provided funds to districts in the past to conduct building repairs and maintenance, but with the state’s fiscal crisis, those funds have dried up, putting the bulk of the burden back on districts through either their maintenance and operations budgets or bond funds approved by voters.”
School Finance
Grand Rapids BOE Approves $212.7 Million Budget That Could Move More Instruction Online.
The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (6/8, Reinstadler) reports, “The Grand Rapids Board of Education approved a $212.7 million budget, which includes changes in how students are instructed, including a controversial move to more online education.” The new budget calls for “moving more high school instruction online, offering hands-on electives city wide, and eliminating half of art and music instruction in elementaries and K-8 schools.”
Critic Files Complaint Against DC Schools Chief Over Fundraising Efforts.
The Washington Post (6/8, Turque) reports that DC’s Office of Campaign Finance “will investigate a complaint, filed” against Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee by critic Robert V. Brannum. The complaint alleges “that Rhee violated the law by soliciting donations from private foundations that reserved the right to pull their funding if there was a change in the school system’s leadership.” Cecily E. Collier-Montgomery, the office’s director, said Friday “that there was ‘reasonable cause to believe that a violation has occurred’ and that ‘a full investigation is warranted in this matter.’”
Also in the News
Obama Urges Graduating Students To Take Responsibility For Their Lives.
The AP (6/8, Superville, Martin) reports that in his commencement speech at Kalamazoo Central High School in Michigan, President Barack Obama told students to “work hard and think of others.” He also encouraged them “to veer from the path of those who make excuses for their problems and blame others for their failures.”
The Christian Science Monitor (6/8, Turner) reports that not “too long ago, crime-related stories seemed to grab as many headlines as those about learning achievements and sports victories” at Kalamazoo Central High school. But, the school has seen improved academic achievement in recent years. According to the Monitor, the “key to that achievement has been” a program in which anonymous donors pledge “scholarship money to” Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates to attend “in-state colleges and universities.”
High School Junior From Baltimore Wins $50,000 Scholarship From Intel Competition.
The Baltimore Sun (6/8, Williams) reports on Eon Duzant a junior at W.E.B. DuBois High School in Baltimore who was awarded a $50,000 college scholarship to the Florida Institute of Technology “last month at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in San Jose,” California. The award “was presented in recognition of his outstanding scientific ability and academic curiosity.” Duzant’s project focused “on the center of gravity of robots equipped with mechanical arms.” Ultimately, he “hopes that his work can carry over to preventing automobiles from tipping over and planes and helicopters from spiraling out of control.” According to his mentor, Marvin Martin, Duzant “didn’t have access to state-of-the-art equipment or the financial backing of colleges or countries” as did “a number of international students” in the competition. The Baltimore Sun notes that with his scholarship, “Duzant will be the first person in his family to go to college.”
NEA in the News
Utah District, Teachers Reach Impasse Over Proposed Salary Freeze.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/8, Winters) reports that the Jordan School District “has reached an impasse with the Jordan Education Association (JEA) on teacher contract negotiations for 2010-11 over the district’s plan to freeze teachers’ salaries next year.” JEA President Robin Frodge pointed out, “If all the surrounding districts get steps and lanes and we don’t, that will hurt our ability to be competitive with those districts in hiring [and retaining] the best teachers.” The two sides “will meet with a third-party mediator” to resolve the issue. The Salt Lake Tribune notes that other area districts plan “to fund step and lane increases,” despite budget gaps. A spokesperson for Jordan said that step increases would cost the district “$4.25 million and lane changes would run $900,000.”
First Lady Helps Launch New Childhood Health Initiative.
The Christian Science Monitor (6/9, Paulson) reports, “School is out for much of the country, and kids everywhere are looking forward to a few months off” yet “nutrition and education experts warn that for too many kids, summer break is also a time when they backslide educationally and fall into bad eating habits.” First lady Michelle Obama “helped launch another component to her campaign to tackle childhood obesity” on Tuesday, “this time targeting summer vacation.” The Obama “administration’s new ‘Let’s Read. Let’s Move’ campaign” aims to promote “exercise, healthy eating, and reading among kids on break from school.”
The Chicago Tribune (6/9, Katz) reports, “In the last month, the first lady announced that she was creating the Chefs Move to Schools program as part of her national Let’s Move campaign, which is designed to ‘solve the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation.’” The “The event was a launch pad for Department of Agriculture efforts, as the program arm for the first lady’s initiatives, to bring chefs and schools together.”
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In the Classroom
Students Launching Science Experiments To Edge Of Space For Summer Program.
MinnPost.com (6/8, Schmickle) reports on “Reach for the Sky,” a summer program on the White Earth Indian Reservation for 4th through 8th grade students, during which they will “launch science experiments to the edge of outer space,” and “test science theories and apply hands-on science and math to their world.” The program is sponsored by the University of Minnesota. Earlier this week, the students began building “eight miniature spacecraft, with about 5 science sensors plus a camera in each one, as well as tracking radios.” This morning, the students will begin preparations to launch their projects, and “students from the University of Minnesota’s High Altitude Balloon Team will help the Reach for the Sky kids analyze the data to address questions.”
Students Explore Ecological Challenges, Produce Documentary.
The Calgary Herald (6/8, Gravenor) reported on a group of students at John Paul I High School, who earlier this year “explored the environmental challenges facing” Canada and came up “with real-life solutions and produced a video documentary that proposes ways to improve the environment.” The students researched and gave three-minute talks about topics such as conservation and renewable energy. “The half-hour video included 10 sections that were produced by the students, along with Alessandra Di Viccaro, a teacher of history and geography in the IB section at John Paul I,” and “a copy of the video was later presented to” a lawmaker who “came to speak at the school and hear the students out on important environmental and social issues.”
Eighty-Nine Wisconsin Schools Miss NCLB Mark.
The AP (6/9, Bauer) reports, “Eighty-nine Wisconsin schools along with the Milwaukee and Beloit districts are on a state list released Tuesday for repeatedly failing to meet” NCLB standards. The “individual schools and the districts made the list under the more serious ranking of ‘schools identified for improvement’ for failing to make adequate progress in the same category for two consecutive years. Also, 145 schools and the Milwaukee, Madison, Racine and Green Bay districts were identified for missing at least one of the standards for the first time.”
The WUWM-FM Milwaukee, WI (6/8, Dennis) reported on its Website, “Eighty-nine Wisconsin schools along with the Milwaukee and Beloit districts have failed to make progress in problem areas under [NCLB]. According to the Department of Public Instruction, 71 percent of those schools receive federal funding for students in poverty.”
On the Job
New Jersey School System Will No Longer Pay For Out-Of-District Training For Teachers.
Mike Pigantaro wrote in The Caldwells (NJ) Patch (6/8) blog that the Caldwell-West Caldwell School District will not “pay for its teachers to attend out-of-district workshops next year due to budget cutbacks.” School board members speculated Monday night as to whether the change would result in fewer teachers attending out-of-district workshops. “According to Barry Bachenheimer, the district’s director of instructional services, the answer isn’t clear.” But he said, “Knowing the professionalism of our staff and knowing that they pay money out of their own pockets to buy supplies…I wouldn’t be surprised if they still attend a fair amount of workshops out of their own pocket.” Bachenheimer also pointed out that even though “the district will no longer pay for the workshops…teachers will be” granted the “time and substitutes” in order “to attend these programs.”
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Law & Policy
Ohio Becomes Seventh State To Adopt Common Math, English Standards.
The Columbus Dispatch (6/8, Candisky) reports, “Ohio has become the seventh state to adopt common academic standards spelling out what students should know in mathematics and English-language arts to ensure they are ready for college and a career” after the state Board of Education voted unanimously in favor of the standards. “Ohio was among 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia working together for the past year to develop Common Core State Standards.” The Dispatch notes, “The state board also voted 16 to 1 to approve new science and social-studies standards developed by the Department of Education despite complaints that the science guidelines are weaker than the ones they will replace.”
Connecticut Law Increases Penalties For Falsifying School Bus Safety Records.
School Transportation News (6/9, Babcock) reports that on Sunday, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) “signed a bill into law that will increase penalties for falsifying school bus safety records or transporting students on out-of-service buses.” The new “law comes on the heels of recently signed legislation that will help bus companies pay for new school buses equipped with three-point seat belts by covering a portion of the sales tax.”
Safety & Security
Search For Missing Child In Oregon Highlights School Safety Procedures.
KDRV-TV Medford, Oregon (6/8, Sandberg) reported that “the search for a seven-year-old Portland boy who was last seen at his school last Friday is bringing school safety procedures to the forefront” in southern Oregon schools. “Elementary school methods for keeping track of students include checking attendance and calling the homes of absent students to find out where they were last seen.” At other schools, teachers monitor “kids outside when they come and go from school.” According to some school administrators, “one of the most important things is having a staff that is always aware of a given situation.”
KOHD-TV Salem, Oregon (6/8) reported, “The massive search for seven-year old Kyron Harmon returns no developments Tuesday.” The child “went missing sometime between leaving his step-mom at a science fair and entering his classroom, just down the hall.” In a separate story, KDRV-TV (6/8) reported that “investigators have interviewed the families of about 90 percent of the students at” Skyline Elementary School, where Kyron “has been missing for five days.” According to Multnomah County sheriff’s Capt. Jason Gates, as of Tuesday, “that there have been no significant developments in” Kyron’s disappearance.
School Finance
Rising Claim Costs Force Florida District To Consider Changing Healthcare Coverage.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/9, Marshall) reports, “Employees of the Hillsborough County school system may see changes to their health care coverage in the coming year, as the district grapples for ways to balance the budget without layoffs, officials said Tuesday.” The district would have to “pay around $29 million more” than it already does in order “to keep the existing Humana policy as it is,” because of “soaring claim costs.” This, along with “other budget gaps…would create a shortfall of at least $37 million in the district’s projected $1.3 billion budget for next year.” To deal with rising costs, board members have considered “raising deductibles, encouraging the use of mail-order prescriptions, and publicizing a new service that allows patients to seek a second opinion on diagnoses.”
School Board Proposes Three Separate Start Times For Elementary Schools To Save Millions. The St. Petersburg Times (6/9, Matus) reports that “as part of an effort to make at least $11 million in budget cuts, Pinellas County school officials are discussing a new bell and busing schedule that would have” three separate start times for elementary schools: “7:30, 8:35 and 9:20 a.m., depending on the school.” The new schedule “could save 50 bus routes and about $2.25 million without discontinuing transportation for anyone who is eligible now.” Overall, the district needs “to cut $26 million to balance next year’s budget” due to “declining enrollment and continued reductions in state education spending.”
Pearson To Pay Maryland District $2.25 Million To Develop Elementary Curriculum.
The Washington Post (6/9, Birnbaum) reports that the Montgomery County, Maryland public “school system will be paid $2.25 million to develop an elementary school curriculum that an education company will augment and sell around the world. … Under the terms” of the deal, “Pearson…will acquire the expertise of one of the nation’s top school systems and the right to use its name and its top employees as sales tools.” The Post notes that according to school officials,” money from the deal will allow them to double the dozen people who have been working on the curriculum, speeding its completion and saving money on implementation.”
Also in the News
More US High Schools Opting For Environmentally Friendly Commencement Robes.
The Los Angeles Times (6/8, Gordon) reports that “a number of high schools and colleges around California and the nation” are “adopting environmentally friendly graduation garb made from either renewable wood fibers or recycled plastic bottles. The eco-robes being worn at” Animo Venice Charter High School (Venice, CA), “for example, are designed to decompose quickly if graduates decide to discard them. … Call it social responsibility or savvy marketing, graduation eco-chic was launched this year by several companies and taken up by such California schools as Mills College in Oakland, the University of San Diego, UC Berkeley and Humboldt State.”
Company Could Face Millions In Fines For Delayed Florida Test Results.
The Miami Herald (6/9, McGrory, Sampson) reports that “Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith on Tuesday slammed the testing company in charge of administering the FCAT for delaying the release of this year’s scores.” Smith also “threatened to impose hefty fines, which are likely to reach into the millions of dollars.” The company could pay up to “$250,000 for each day it missed a critical deadline.” Adam Gerber, a spokesman for NCS Pearson, “the testing company…apologized for the delays.” Said Gerber, “With the benefit of hindsight, we underestimated the challenges involved in aligning technology systems between Pearson, the Department of Education and the state’s schools.” Meanwhile, state lawmakers called “for an investigation into how the company was hired — and its problems since.”