NEA Turns To Congress To Address Concerns About NCLB Unfunded Mandates.
Education Week (6/10) reports, “Fresh from a snub by the US Supreme Court, the National Education Association is turning to Congress to address its concerns that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) — in the form of the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act — is an unfunded mandate.” Congress may consider the issue with “other questions in considering the renewal of the ESEA,” according to “Martha Derthink…who has written about court challenges to NCLB.” When considering ESEA reauthorization, said NEA’s general counsel, Alice O’Brien, “lawmakers ‘need to think through that issue very clearly, and NEA will encourage them to do so.” Meanwhile, the Obama “Administration, which earlier this year unveiled a blueprint for renewing the ESEA, has indicated it doesn’t agree with the [NEA's] arguments.”

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In the Classroom
Distance Learning Network Brings Lessons From NASA To Fifth-Graders.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/10, Ritchie) reports that recently, students in Juretta Carr’s science classes at Moton Elementary School in Brooksville, Florida, “took advantage of special equipment and a distance learning network…to bring Damon Talley, the Digital Learning Network coordinator at NASA, to the classroom.” The fifth-graders “talked and interacted with Talley just as if he were right in the room with them.” He demonstrated several science experiments for them “for about 45 minutes…asking students what they thought would happen.” Talley’s “lesson reinforced what the students had learned in class and was so new and interesting that everyone was engaged,” the St. Petersburg Times adds.

Students Design, Present Park Buildings For Town Planning Commission.
Maryland’s Gazette.net (6/9, Tierney) reported, “Civil engineering and architecture students from Poolesville High School spent most of the academic year in teams of two, creating designs for a 3.77-acre parcel” of land acquired by the town two years ago, and last week “shared their projects with” Poolesville’s Planning Commission “and fielded questions from board members as well as the town manager and engineer.” The assignments were a component of the Project Lead the Way course the students were enrolled in. “They researched facilities built by towns with demographics similar to Poolesville and followed the town code and master plan to design their projects using professional building design software.” Officials praised the students’ work, both in terms of design and presentation.

Georgia CRCT Results Continue To Climb.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/10, Torres) reports, “Georgia students improved in almost all areas of the CRCT this year, with middle school students showing some of the biggest gains, according to statewide results released Wednesday by state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox.” The marks “the second consecutive year of solid gains for the state’s elementary and middle-schoolers. Cox was quick to credit educators across the state, who beginning in 2004 faced a rolling implementation of a new, tougher state curriculum that in some cases caused scores to plummet.”

InSciEd Out Program Aims To Turn Students Into Scientists.
The Winona (MN) Post (6/9, Porter) reported on “InSciEd Out, a science outreach program aimed at elevating student performance and building a new generation of scientists.” The program was developed through a collaboration between Winona State University, Rochester Public Schools, and the Mayo Clinic, as well as teachers, students and parents “to deliver a groundbreaking curriculum that transforms every student into a scientist.” In the case noted in the article, K-8 students “study, calculate, write about and create scientific positions on the zebra fish, as the science-based curriculum is embedded in many facets of their core education.” The Post noted, “Zebra fish are the chosen research tool because they share 75% of their genetic code with humans,” and are relatively easy to study.

High School Group Making Bid For International Automotive X Prize.
Michel Martin reported on NPR’s (6/9) “Tell Me More,” that “a group of students in the West Philadelphia High School Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering are trying to create the car of the future.” The team of students, called West Philly Hybrid X, is competing for the International Automotive X Prize, “an adult-level car design contest with professional auto-manufacturing teams from around the world.” Martin interviewed X Team co-captain Azeem Hill and faculty director Simon Hauger, who discussed the school’s history of developing a hybrid sports car for competitions, and then transitioning to the X Prize competition. Describing the challenges the team faces, Hauger said, “At the end of the day, we’re educators. So hybrid vehicles are very important, and the X Prize is very important. But even more important than that is this idea of engaging urban youth.”

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On the Job
Florida District Hires Consultants For “Value-Added” Teacher Assessments.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/10, Marshall) reports that the Hillsborough County, Florida, school board plans to spend $3.2 on “consultants from the University of Wisconsin” to “use student tests to calculate each teacher’s annual ‘value-added’ contribution to the district.” Hillsborough wants to eventually be able to “use the value-added data — along with principal and peer evaluations — to help decide which teachers deserve tenure, promotions or dismissal.” According to the St. Petersburg Times, “the university’s Value-Added Research Center in Madison” already “performs such calculations for New York City, Chicago and Milwaukee schools and several states.” The contract will be funded through a “seven-year, $202 million partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

North Carolina Teacher Headed To Space Camp.
The Fayetteville (NC) Observer (6/10) reports, “A teacher at Irwin Intermediate School on Fort Bragg will spend 10 days at a space camp starting Friday. Kelli Charles, a math and science teacher, was one of 220 teachers from 17 countries chosen to participate in the all-expense paid Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy in Huntsville, Ala.” At the US Space & Rocket Center, the teachers “will undergo astronaut training and pick up teaching techniques that will help them re-energize science, math, technology and engineering lessons.”

Law & Policy
Kentucky School Loses Appeal To Keep Site-Based Council.
The Louisville Courier-Journal (6/9, Konz) reported that “the site-based decision-making council” at Frost Middle School in Kentucky has appealed “to keep its authority,” but the appeal “was denied by the Kentucky Board of Education Wednesday. The board voted” unanimously “to uphold Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday’s recommendation that the council be disbanded and its authority transferred to” the “superintendent of Jefferson County Public Schools.” According to the Courier-Journal, “Holliday’s recommendation came as a result of leadership audits conducted at 10 of the state’s lowest performing schools, including six in Jefferson County.”

San Antonio School District Considers Changing Policy On School Murals.
The San Antonio Express-News (6/9) reported that “days after a mural by noted artist Vincent Valdez was painted over during restoration work at Burbank High School, many in the school community remain incensed.” On Tuesday, Robert Duron, superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD), “apologized to Valdez.” Also, district “officials say they are working to ensure such a mistake isn’t repeated.” They are currently “considering creating a new policy for whether murals should be painted directly onto walls, which makes them more difficult to maintain than murals on parchment or canvas.”

School Boards Association Developing Policy To Regulate Use Of Social Media.
The Dallas Morning News (6/10, Hundley) reports, “With the growing popularity of blogs, podcasts, Twitter and other online social media, school districts are beginning to develop policies that govern the use of these emerging technologies.” Now, the Texas Association of School Boards “is drafting new policy language that addresses how employees should use social networking sites, even on their own time and on their own computers.” The new “policy isn’t expected to be finalized until the fall,” but according to the association’s director of policy service, “it will address what’s expected of employees when they’re posting information that could be accessed by students.”

Salt Lake Tribune: Common Core State Standards Are Roadmap To Graduation.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/10) editorializes, “Graduation rates reveal that public schools can be difficult to navigate.” The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers have recently released “a road map to help administrators, educators, and parents keep students out of the ditch.” On Friday, Utah’s Board of Education “gave a preliminary nod to the” Common Core State Standards developed by the two groups. The Salt Lake Tribune Asserts that “by standardizing the grades in which students learn new concepts, the standards assure that students who move to another state are on the same page as their new classmates, not struggling to catch up.” They also “will allow apples-to-apples comparisons of test scores between states, enabling educators to better gauge their progress.”

Press Telegram: Common State Standards Allow For Reassessment Of California Standards. California’s Press Telegram (6/10) editorializes that “for a decade, defenders of California’s K-12 standards in math and English language arts have warded off criticisms and legitimate calls for revisions by citing positive reviews by think tanks and praise for the rigor of California’s standards.” The newly released Common Core State Standards, the Press Telegram asserts, offer “an opportunity for an overdue reassessment.” The state’s “21-person Academic Content Standards Commission” will “study the common-core standards and make recommendations to the state Board of Education by July 15.” The Press-Telegram points out that “the commission’s assessment and state board’s decision will shape the education of the next generation of students.”

Column: Merit Pay Systems Can Be Designed To Allay Teacher Union Concerns.
Daniel Indiviglio writes in a column for The Atlantic (6/10) that incentive “works” yet teacher unions “are vehemently against incentive-based pay” saying “that test scores aren’t a fair indicator of how much a child has learned. … So why not devise an evaluation methodology that answers such complaints?” Indiviglio adds, “It is possible to determine a teacher’s performance by using broader methods of evaluation and taking into account differences in student aptitude.”

Special Needs
California Court Limits Who Can Inject Diabetic Students.
The San Francisco Chronicle (6/9, Egelko) reported, “A state appeals court struck down California school regulations Tuesday that allowed trained staff members to give insulin shots to disabled children with diabetes, saying state law requires the caregiver to be a nurse. The ruling by the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento overturned a 2007 agreement between the state Department of Education and the American Diabetes Association.” According to the Chronicle, “That agreement, which settled a separate lawsuit, required schools to train non-nursing employees to test children’s blood sugar, if a child is unable to do so, and to administer insulin whenever licensed nurses are unavailable.”

School Finance
Education Stakeholders In New Jersey Call For Abolition Of Proposed Child Nutrition Program Cuts.
New Jersey’s Time (6/10, Karas) reports that New Jersey “State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-15th) joined…nonprofit leaders for a press conference yesterday at the charity HomeFront, calling for the abolition of proposed state funding cuts for child nutrition programs. … According to a joint press release from the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition, HomeFront and the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) “budget proposal includes cutting $3 million in state funding for school breakfast programs and $2.5 million for school lunch assistance. Some schools might decide to scrap breakfast programs considered vital to keep children well fed and attentive in school, said Adele Latourette, director of the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition, who also spoke at the conference.”

Education Law Center Asks New Jersey Supreme Court To Halt School Budget Cuts. WCBS-TV New York (6/9) reported on its Website, “An education advocacy group has asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to restore funding to schools that Gov. Chris Christie has proposed cutting. The Education Law Center, which represents children in the state’s poorest communities, said Christie’s proposal is contrary to the school funding plan approved last year by the state’s top court.” According to WCBS, “Education funding has been before the court for decades” and “justices have repeatedly found that the state has an obligation to do more for the poorest schools.”

DC Schools Chief Facing Ethics Probe Involving Solicited Donations.
NBC Washington (6/9, Orvetti) reported that days after DC schools chief Michelle Rhee “won merit pay provisions in a new contract with the” local teachers union, she “is facing an ethics probe over allegations by D.C. Federation of Civic Associations President Robert Brannum that [she] broke the law by soliciting donations from private foundations that reserved the right to pull their funding if Rhee lost her job.” Overall, Rhee “raised $64.5 million from four private foundations to pay for the pay raises and merit bonuses included in the contract.” But Cecily E. Collier-Montgomery of the Office of Campaign Finance says the “investigation was warranted.”

Online Summer School To Start In Chicago Public Schools.
The Chicago Tribune (6/11, Byrne) reports, “Chicago public high school students will be able to take online courses this summer for classes they failed, in a move Mayor Richard Daley hopes will save money.” Students will be able to use the computer labs 30 high schools throughout the city. “Certified teachers will teach the online classes, but schools CEO Ron Huberman said the district will save money by allowing a single teacher to teach a course to students around the city.”

The Chicago Sun-Times (6/11, Spielman) reports, “In addition to high school students seeking to wipe out F’s, the program will have three other tracks.” They are for “7th- and 8th- graders who need remedial work in pre-algebra and composition to prepare them [for] high school; students who want to knock off core courses” before the fall; and “high school juniors interested in doing independent study in partnership with the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute and Broadway in Chicago.”

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In the Classroom
Educators Tamper With Test Scores Amid Pressure To Boost Student Performance.
The New York Times (6/11, Gabriel, A1) reports on its front page that “of all the forms of academic cheating, none may be as startling as educators tampering with children’s standardized tests.” Recent “investigations in Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, Virginia and elsewhere this year have pointed to cheating by educators.” And, according to experts, “the phenomenon is increasing as the stakes over standardized testing ratchet higher — including, most recently, taking student progress on tests into consideration in teachers’ performance reviews.” Another major source of pressure for teachers and students ins No Child Left Behind, “which mandates that public schools bring all students up to grade level in reading and math by 2014.” While “no national data is collected on educator cheating,” some experts estimate “that one percent to three percent of teachers” in the US cheat each year.

Experts Question Effectiveness Of Some Classroom Technology.
The Washington Post (6/11, McCrummen) reports, “Under enormous pressure to reform, the nation’s public schools are spending millions of dollars each year on gadgets from text-messaging devices to interactive whiteboards that technology companies promise can raise student performance.” However, a growing number of experts are arguing “that the money schools spend on instructional gizmos isn’t necessarily making things better, just different. Many academics question industry-backed studies linking improved test scores to their products” while some even “argue that the most ubiquitous device-of-the-future, the whiteboard…locks teachers into a 19th-century lecture style of instruction counter to the more collaborative small-group models that many reformers favor.”

More New York City Students Need Summer School Due To Low Test Scores.
The New York Times (6/11, Medina) reports, “An estimated 21,000 elementary and middle school students scored at the lowest levels on state math and reading exams, New York City education officials said Thursday, meaning that twice as many students in those schools as last year will be required to enroll in summer school. Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s policy of ending so-called social promotion, students who score at the lowest levels of the state English and math tests must go to summer school or be held back.” The Times notes that the “increased enrollment in summer school comes as the city is facing drastic budget cuts.”

Turnitin.com Helps Teachers Spot Plagiarism.
The Fairfax County (VA) Times (6/10, Hobbs) reported, “With modern technology, students have discovered new academic cheating schemes — some through cellphone cameras, text messages and calculators — but teachers in Fairfax County say they are on to them.” Teachers say that “plagiarism is the most common form of cheating on major assignments.” So, they use websites like Turnitin.com to catch plagiarism. “Schools that have the program ask students to submit electronic copies of their work, which is loaded into the program and checked for authenticity.” When it comes to punishment for cheating offenses, “teachers say they try to handle” it “on a case-by-case basis. Depending on the severity of the case, students can receive anything from a reduced grade or zero on an assignment to suspension or expulsion from school.”

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On the Job
Districts Experimenting With New Teacher Distribution Methods.
The Education Week (6/10, Sawchuk) reported, “With effective teaching a top policy priority, certain school districts, the federal government, and nonprofit groups are renewing efforts to pilot and study strategies for pairing effective teachers with students in low-performing, high-poverty schools.” Current “initiatives differ from earlier attempts to equalize teacher talent by using more sophisticated techniques to identify and target top teachers, including the use of value-added data.” The efforts “include targeted retention strategies, improved professional development, and a focus on the caliber of the school leaders and peers that teachers new to such schools will be working with every day.” According to Education Week, “some of the districts are even working to place whole teams of educators — rather than just individuals — in challenging schools,” which some scholars see as “a promising approach…at a time when individual teacher performance has galvanized much policy attention.”

Fewer Than Expected Michigan School Employees Taking Retirement Incentive.
The AP (6/11) reports, “Fewer Michigan public school employees appear to be taking advantage of a retirement incentive package than state officials had assumed would participate, based on numbers from Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s [D] administration. About 14,000 teachers and other school employees had applied to retire this summer as of late Thursday, Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.” According to the AP, “State officials were hoping that roughly 27,000 school employees would retire to help trim salary costs for schools across the state.”

Farm Bureau Workshop Gives Teachers Agriculture Lessons To Tie Into Core Curriculum.
KFYR-TV Bismarck, North Dakota (6/10, Kaucher) reported that the North Dakota Farm Bureau held a workshop for teachers on Thursday to help them bring agriculture “into the classroom.” Teachers were given “lessons to incorporate into subjects like English and Math that help children understand how the land and farming affect their everyday world.” Other lessons answered questions of “how bread is produced around the world and how farming ties into different cultural celebrations.”

Law & Policy
Oregon Court Says School Officials Can Search Students For Drugs With Reasonable Suspicion.
The AP (6/11) reports, “The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that high school students can be searched for illegal drugs without a warrant if school officials have a reasonable suspicion based on specific facts.” The court reasoned that probable cause is not necessary “for a search if officials believe there is an immediate risk of harm from possession of illegal drugs on school grounds.” This the court compared “to police who are allowed to search without a warrant when there is an immediate threat to safety.” The AP adds, “The ruling upheld a juvenile court judge who applied a US Supreme Court standard on school searches because there were no previous Oregon cases that applied.”

Revised Policy Allows Teachers In Arizona District To Use Force To Tame Unruly Students.
The Arizona Republic (6/11, Seligman) reports, “The Gilbert Public Schools governing board unanimously approved modified state recommendations on student behavior management, including when unruly children can be physically restrained or put into seclusion.” The new rules allow “teachers and administrators to use force on a student ‘to the extent necessary to act in self-defense, defense of students and/or in defense of property.’” Should an employee have to use “force on a student,” he or she “must submit a written report to his or her supervisor within 24 hours. The supervisor must then submit a report to the administrator within two working days.” District officials also “modified the state recommendation that calls for a functional behavior assessment and a behavior intervention plan if a student has been restrained or secluded three times during a semester.” Instead, the plans will be provided upon request by the parent.

Oklahoma Governor Approves Five-Point Rating System For Teachers, School Administrators.
The Tulsa (OK) World (6/10, Eger) reported, “Teachers and principals across Oklahoma will soon have to make the grade on a new five-point rating system or risk losing their jobs.” The Oklahoma Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Act “recently signed into law” by Gov. Brad Henry “calls for a new system of evaluating public school educators to be in place no later than December 2011.” The measure received support from the Oklahoma Education Association. According to the World, the bill “was written to strengthen the state’s chances in a federal education grant competition called Race to the Top.”

Lawmaker Proposes $8 Billion In Additional Child Nutrition Program Funding.
The Washington Post (6/11, Black) reports, “With Food Network star Rachael Ray at his side, Rep. George Miller (D-California) unveiled a bill on Thursday that proposes about $8 billion in additional funding over 10 years for child nutrition programs, including school breakfast and lunch. The programs have been the main focus of Michelle Obama’s high-profile Let’s Move campaign, which aims to end childhood obesity within a generation.” According to the Post, “The bill, dubbed the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010, is similar to a Senate bill that is awaiting a floor vote” as it “includes an additional six cents for each school lunch that meets federal standards” but the House bill “also asks for an additional half a cent per lunch to fund nutrition education, which might include student taste tests or redesigning a cafeteria to encourage students to make healthier choices.”

New York Governor Introduces Mayoral Control Bill.
Education Week (6/10, Aarons) reported, “New York Gov. David A. Paterson (D) introduced a bill in both houses of the state legislature yesterday that would give Rochester Mayor Robert J. Duffy command of the city’s 32,000-student school district.” Education Week adds that “under the proposed legislation, which would take effect in July of next year, a nine-member appointed ‘education commission’ would replace the current elected seven-member school board. Five of the commission’s members would be appointed by Mr. Duffy, with the balance selected by the City Council.” This “group would serve as a policy board and” would “‘exercise no executive power and perform no administrative or executive functions,’ according to the legislation.”

Safety & Security
Study Links High School Start Times, Car Wrecks Involving Teens.
The San Antonio Express-News (6/11) reports that a new study “presented in San Antonio on Wednesday at the 24th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, found that students who had to be at school by 7:20 a.m. in Virginia Beach, Virginia, were more likely to wreck their cars than those who had an 8:40 a.m. start time in nearby Chesapeake, Virginia.” The study was conducted by Dr. Robert Vorona, associate professor of internal medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, who “is quick to say the study doesn’t prove that the earlier bell caused the higher crash rate.” Still, Vorona’s results are “in keeping with the results of a 2008 study in Kentucky that found when one county pushed back the morning bell by an hour, the teen crash rate dropped by 16.5 percent.”

School Finance
Alabama School Chief Plans To Bill BP For Oil Spill Losses.
The AP (6/11) reports, “Alabama’s state school superintendent said Thursday he plans to bill BP for the loss of state education tax revenues caused by the Gulf oil spill and will sue the company if it doesn’t pay.” According to State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton, “the Gulf oil spill’s impact on Alabama’s tourism and fishing industries is hurting tax collections, particularly sales, income and utility taxes that go toward public education.” Morton “said he will use economic experts to calculate the loss each month and will send BP a bill” and if “he’s rebuffed, Morton said he will sue BP on behalf of Alabama’s 745,000 public school students.”

Also in the News
“Diplomas Count” Report Finds Some Improvement In Texas High School Graduation Rates.
The Dallas Morning News (6/11, Hacker) reports, “Texas high school students are more likely to graduate than a decade ago, but more than a third of them still won’t earn a diploma in four years, a new national study found. … ‘Diplomas Count,’ a study released Thursday by the Education Week newspaper, reported that 65 percent of Texas students in the Class of 2007 graduated on time, up from 59 percent in 1997.” However, in “Texas and nationally, big gaps remain among demographic groups” as boys “are less likely to graduate than girls, and blacks and Hispanics are less likely to graduate than whites and Asian-Americans.”

Report Quantifies Utah High School Dropouts’ Impact On Economy.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/10, Schencker) reported, “A new report released by the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education on Wednesday shows how much money dropouts in three Utah counties are costing the state. If half of the students who dropped out of the Class of 2008 in Salt Lake, Tooele and Summit counties had stayed in school, they could have earned $18 million more, spent an additional $12 million and invested an additional $4.6 million a year on average, according to the alliance.” According to the Tribune, “The report on the Salt Lake City metropolitan area was among 43 similar reports on areas throughout the country that the alliance released Wednesday in hopes of inspiring improvement.”

New Curriculum Brings Engineering To Students At A Younger Age.
On its front page, the New York Times (6/14, A1, Hu) reports on the Glen Rock, New Jersey, school district, which “now teaches 10 to 15 hours of engineering each year to every student in kindergarten through fifth grade, as part of a $100,000 redesign of the science curriculum.” Similar programs geared toward younger students are cropping up across the US. “Supporters say that engineering reinforces math and science skills, promotes critical thinking and creativity, and teaches students not to be afraid of taking intellectual risks.” The curriculum director for Glen Rock said that initially, many people were skeptical of introducing children to engineering at such a young age. Now, “the engineering lessons have become so popular that children are talking about their projects at the dinner table, and some of their parents have started researching engineering colleges.” The Times describes some of the kindergarten projects, noting that they “take students step by step through the engineering process.”

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In the Classroom
Pre-K Boot Camp Prepares Youngsters For Routines, Expectations Of Kindergarten.
Pennsylvania’s Times-Leader (6/14, Mocarsky) reports that Jennifer Hoffman Dessoye, “an occupational therapist with the Hazleton Area School District” designed “a pre-K boot camp” after noticing that many students entered “kindergarten unprepared to meet increased expectations created by No Child Left Behind standards.” The Times-Leader adds that “the six-week summer course…will take place in a classroom setting and will better prepare students — especially those who might be a little behind their peers — for an unfamiliar routine and expectations. Skills include such things as being able to print the alphabet on a line before entering first grade, Dessoye said.”

More School Friends May Equal Better Grades, Study Suggests.
USA Today /HealthDay (6/13, Preidt) reported, “School friends may play a major role in your teen’s academic success, a new study” conducted by Melissa R. Witkow, an assistant professor of psychology at Willamette University suggests. The study, published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, “included 629 12th-graders in Los Angeles who filled out a questionnaire and then kept a record of activities such as time spent studying and time spent with school friends and out-of-school friends. Students with higher grade-point averages (GPAs) had more school friends than out-of-school friends.”

Ten-Year Study To Measure Hope, Engagement Of Fifth-Through-Twelfth Graders.
Iowa’s Telegraph Herald (6/13, Becker) reported that in the fall of 2009, “the Dubuque Community School District began participation in [a] national, 10-year longitudinal Gallup Student Poll, which measures hope, engagement and well-being of students in grades five through 12.” Data collected so far shows that “sixth-graders and ninth-graders” in the Dubuque Community district “transitioned well into their new schools based on stable scores from fall and spring. However, student engagement consistently declined as students progressed from fifth grade to 12th grade.” In “a couple more years…the district will be able to identify trends” within the poll data. At that time it will “make changes to improve any area of student hope, well-being or engagement.”

Elementary School Holds Fair To Teach Probability Through Games.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (6/13, Lizama) reported on the probability fair held at Hopkins Elementary School in Chesterfield County, Virginia, last week. “Kindergarten to fourth-grade students participated in the fair. Fifth-graders had the responsibility of running the” more than 30 games. “After students participated in the fair, teachers went back to the classroom to make the academic connection to the games as they talked about the probability of winning and whether the games were fair.”

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On the Job
Educators From 17 Countries To Participate In Space Academy Program In Alabama.
The Tampa Tribune (6/13, Frazier) reported that “educators from 17 countries and 44 states” have been “selected to attend the Honeywell Educators Space Academy program under way this week at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.” The training “program is designed to help teachers inspire the next generation of explorers by moving beyond the standard math and science curriculum.” Teachers will “spend part of each day during the weeklong camp completing classroom, lab and field exercises, then” they “will undergo real-life astronaut training exercises, such as high-performance jet simulations, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival training, and state-of-the-art flight programs.”

The Springfield (MA) Republican (6/13, Urban) also covered the space program for teachers, noting that “Honeywell Educators participate in 45 hours of professional development as well as an intensive educator curriculum focused on space science and exploration.”

Indiana To Begin Growth Model System Next Year.
The Indianapolis Business Journal (6/12) reported that “an avalanche of data about student performance has been piling up the past decade in public schools and, beginning next year, every teacher in Indiana will have ready access to performance metrics about each of their students.” The system, “called the Indiana Growth Model…will be the ultimate measure of quality, not only of individual teachers, but also of the principals and school districts overseeing them and even the teachers’ colleges that trained them.” Indiana education leaders want “teachers to constantly test students, review the data produced by those tests, then refine their instruction methods accordingly.” Ultimately, “Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and Indiana public schools chief Tony Bennett want to link these new data to how teachers and principals are evaluated and paid.”

Wisconsin Teacher Licensure Overhaul Gets Mixed Reviews From New Teachers.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (6/12, Hetzner) reported, “Ten years after Wisconsin overhauled its licensure system for public school educators, the first big wave of teachers is set to advance under the rules — and reports are mixed on whether the change has made a difference.” The regulations introduced in 2000 required “that teachers pass basic knowledge and skills tests and receive mentors for their first year in the profession.” In addition, they required “that teachers…demonstrate they had grown enough in their careers to attain a ‘professional’ license.” Some new teachers have seen the rules as “stressful additions to the start of an unfamiliar career with many bugs still left to be worked out.” But “others say they appreciate that they could set their own teaching goals and pursue related professional development activities while also reflecting on their experiences.”

Law & Policy
Education Initiatives Run Into Resistance On Capitol Hill.
Education Week (6/11, Klein) reported, “Two of the Obama administration’s signature initiatives-the economic-stimulus program’s Race to the Top competition and a massive expansion of federal School Improvement Grants-are running into some resistance on Capitol Hill. Key lawmakers charged with crafting a renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act continue to argue that the four models offered in regulations for the $3.5 billion School Improvement Grants are inflexible, unproven, and unrealistic, particularly for rural schools.” Spokesman Peter Cunningham said that even though the Education Department understands “that a lot of the elements of our agenda push people outside their comfort zones,” officials are “trying to be very responsive to all these concerns while at the same time remaining committed to the goal” of giving all children a chance to succeed.

Colorado Alters Teacher Tenure Rules.
The AP (6/12) reported that Colorado “is changing the rules for how teachers earn and keep the sweeping job protections known as tenure, linking student performance to job security despite outcry from teacher unions that have steadfastly defended the system for decades.” According to the AP, “Colorado’s legislature changed tenure rules despite opposition from the state’s largest teacher’s union, a longtime ally of majority Democrats” and Gov. Bill Ritter (D) “signed the bill into law last month. It requires teachers to be evaluated annually, with at least half of their rating based on whether their students progressed during the school year.”

Columnist Says Anti-Obesity Efforts Could Be Administration’s Most Important Legacy.
Neal Peirce wrote in a column for the Denver Post (6/13), “Can we really slim down the next generation of Americans, help our school children shed the extra pounds that could spell lifetimes with high prospects of type 2 diabetes or heart problems?” First Lady Michelle Obama “is trying hard to reach parents with her ‘Let’s Move’ campaign” on a national level yet the “national effort shouldn’t obscure” efforts of individual cities like DC which has “approved some of America’s strictest rules, aiming to curb the overweight and obese conditions that plague no less than 35 percent of its public school children – one of the nation’s highest rates.” Pierce adds that in May, “Michelle Obama released the report of the administration’s Childhood Obesity Task Force, including 70 specific steps” to curb childhood obesity, and “this initiative is so crucial for the nation’s future that if it succeeds, it might just be the Obama administration’s most important legacy.”

School Finance
Atlanta Public Schools Spent Nearly $1.5 Million On Travel.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/14, Mckay) reports, “While school systems are cutting jobs or furloughing teachers to shore up withering budgets, Atlanta Public Schools has spent more than twice as much money per student on travel as most other metro districts.” In the 2008-09 school year, “Atlanta spent more than $1.4 million on travel,” or about “$28.77 per student.” This was “far higher than neighboring DeKalb County and more than double per pupil what Clayton, Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties spent on travel, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found.” School officials in Atlanta “say travel is important so teachers can get the training they need and bring new skills and insights to the classroom. Much of the travel represents teachers going to education conferences,” they said. The Journal-Constitution adds, “Atlanta’s travel tab would cover the annual salary of about 45 teachers, based on an average Georgia starting salary for teachers of about $31,000.”

Majority Of Oklahoma Education Funding To Pay For Health Insurance Premiums.
The Oklahoman (6/12, Bisbee) reported, “In an executive order issued” last week, Gov. Brad Henry (D) “directed the state Education Department to allocate money to the same programs it funded last year,” but with less money. According to State schools Superintendent Sandy Garrett, “the bulk of state dollars appropriated to education would pay for the health insurance premiums of certified teachers and support staff in the 528 school districts across the state.” Consequently, “there [will] very little money left to fund programs,” Garrett said during a press conference last week. Gov. Henry said that due to a “paperwork error,” state lawmakers “approved a budget that failed to include specific allocations for programs. … Without the line items, funding for a network of early childhood education centers and other programs could be cut.”

Also in the News
Rhee Says DC Teacher Contract Is Example For New York City.
D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee writes in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News (6/14), “For two-and-a-half years, the District of Columbia Public Schools were locked in a difficult negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement with the” teachers union. But, “after announcing a tentative agreement with the union on April 6, last week our teachers voted to ratify the contract by an 80%-20% margin, a resounding endorsement of the proposal.” According to Rhee, “the contract is groundbreaking in many ways, and can serve as a roadmap for other districts – including…the largest and most important public school district in the country, New York City, where teachers have been working without a contract since October.” She asserts that “New York continues to operate under a contract that is much more focused on arcane rules, seniority and job protections than about how to promote better learning outcomes for kids.”

Texas District’s Class Of 2010 Includes Refugees.
The San Antonio Express-News (6/11, Davis) reported on four young refugees who are graduating from high schools in Texas’ Northside Independent School District. “Their families arrived with the help of the Catholic Charities of San Antonio Refugee Resettlement Program and an agreement with the US State Department.” This year, “an estimated 600 students from refugee families attended classes from kindergarten through 12th grade in the Northside Independent School District, facing challenges that included language barriers, repeating grades and assimilation.” The Express News details the experiences of students from Iran, Nepal, and Rwanda.

Study Shows Neighborhood Homicides Impact Student Performance.
The Chicago Tribune (6/15, Shelton) reports, “Neighborhood homicides can have a detrimental effect on Chicago schoolchildren’s academic performance, whether they witness the violence or not, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Sociologist Patrick Sharkey of New York University used “Chicago crime reports and the reading and vocabulary assessments of a sample of Chicago children” for the study. He found that “African-American children scored substantially lower on reading and vocabulary tests within a week of a homicide in their neighborhood.” The Tribune adds that the “effect on performance was seen regardless of whether the children were physically harmed, were witnesses to the crime or had merely heard about the violence, the study reported.”

Stephanie Smith wrote in the CNN (6/14, Smith) “What may help children work around violence is the study’s finding that the effect of the violence appears to be transient.” The study showed that “cognitive performance for a child seems” is restored “about a week after the homicide.” Still, “the study cannot explain…how those horrifying images may translate over the long term.”

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In the Classroom
Oregon Students’ Writing Scores Lower On Computer Tests.
The AP (6/14) reported that principals and other officials in Oregon’s Bend-La Pine school district “have puzzled over recent preliminary writing test scores showing students who took the online version of a state writing test scoring lower than students who completed a paper version.” The state began “offering the state writing exam to” middle school students this year. “But the tests have come under scrutiny because some schools around the district and state have reported significant score differences between the online and paper-based tests.” According to Education Week, “the tests used the same prompts and were identical,” and “test scorers are trained to read both handwritten and typed essays.” Students who took the online tests attributed the discrepancy to having trouble “proofreading their work on-screen,” not having access to “spelling and grammar tools,” and writing more quickly on the computer.

Missouri District Opts Out Of Contract To Develop Own Summer School Program.
The Missourian (6/15, McCann, Meuir) reports, “Columbia Public Schools has decided to internally oversee the summer school program this year after previously contracting with EdisonLearning.” The school district will save money by operating its own program. “In addition to financial benefits, there has been more local input and control over the curriculum,” as “staff throughout the district” have been able to make suggestions and recommendations. New programs are being offered, including online classes “at the high school level, and…half-credit classes such as finance and health.” There will also be “elective courses including language, music, art, nature, fitness, cooking, anthropology and photography.” The Missourian notes that “the language class was cut by the school district from the regular academic year, so now it is only offered in the summer.”

Mini-Grants Support “Education-Enhancing Extras” In Connecticut District’s Classrooms.
The Bristol (CT) Press (6/14, Church) reported on the “high-tech” instructional programs teachers in the Southington school system plan to implement next fall with the help of $500 mini grants awarded Thursday by the Southington Education Foundation. The grants are “funded entirely by private donations to pay for education-enhancing extras that are not included in school budgets.” Beverly Skinnon, a first grade teacher at Plantsville Elementary School “is getting four Flip Video cameras for her proposal, ‘Flip for the Good.’ Students will use them to record events and cerebrations and post them online, as well as make “commercials” and interview fellow students and staff members.” Another “project is ‘Digital Storytelling’ at Thalberg Elementary School where students will record moments on film and make them into multi-media productions.” Two “low-tech” projects also received funding. One will “allow kindergarten students to grow flowers using compost made from household waste.”

Google Faces Backlash From K-12 Ed-Tech Officials Over Private Search Feature.
eSchool News (6/14, Stansbury) reported that “a new encrypted search feature that internet search giant Google Inc. rolled out last month is causing problems for schools, which say the service keeps them from complying with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and could put their federal e-Rate funding at risk.” The new feature allows for private searches that cannot “be tracked by employers or internet service providers.” This “has angered K-12 education technology officials, many of whom are now blocking access not only to Google’s encrypted search page but also Gmail and Google Docs.” ESchool news notes that the backlash could grow to be an even bigger “problem for Google, which is competing with Microsoft in supplying free software for communicating and collaborating online to schools.”

Denver Public Schools Targets Graduation Rate By Promoting Extra-Curricular Activities.
The Denver Post (6/15, Davis) reports on “a new $7.8 million program” being implemented by Denver Public Schools (DPS) to “promote participation in…extracurricular activities” in an effort to boost the graduation rate by five percent annually. “The first-year goal is to have 90 percent of freshmen participate in at least one activity.” With $3 million in private donations “through the Denver Public Schools Foundation and $4.8 million…from the school district,” DPS will offer “scholarships…to reduce the” athletic activity “pay-to-play fee for low-income students to $10 from $60.” Antwan Wilson, assistant superintendent for post-secondary readiness, “said much of the program will focus on sports because he believes that is where more students will get involved.” The district will also offer tutoring programs as part of the initiative.

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On the Job
Colorado District Offering Medical Insurance To Domestic Partners Of Employees.
The Denver Post (6/14, Illescas) reports that Aurora Public Schools “recently began allowing people who are domestic partners of employees to register to receive medical and dental insurance.” It applies “to same-sex couples as well as heterosexual couples who live together.” Employees opting for the plan, which begins July 1, “must pay the entire premium. The school district pays 95 percent of the medical premium for employees.”

Law & Policy
Immigration Law Creates Uncertain Role For Police In Schools.
Education Week (6/14, Zehr) reported, “Nearly two months after Arizona enacted a controversial law requiring police officers to ask about the immigration status of suspected undocumented immigrants involved in a ‘lawful stop, detention, or arrest,’ educators, police agencies, and advocates are beginning to sort out what the new requirements mean for the police officers who work in public schools.” Some observers say that “the law presents a potential conflict for school resource officers,” as though “police agencies may be compelled to follow the new immigration law, schools are obligated to comply with Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 US Supreme Court ruling that says students’ right to a free K-12 public education did not depend on their immigration status.”

California State Senator’s Plan To Raise Age For Kindergarten Entry Could Save $700 Million Annually.
The San Francisco Chronicle (6/14, Tucker) reports, “Currently, in California, any child who turns 5 before Dec. 2 can enter kindergarten.” However, nationwide, “almost every other state…requires a September birthday cutoff.” Now, state Sen. Joe Simitian (D) is proposing a bill that would move the kindergarten “eligibility date up a month each fall starting in 2012, until it becomes Sept. 1.” The Chronicle added, “By moving up the eligibility date to Sept. 1, estimates show the state probably would save about $700 million annually for 13 years, about $7,000 for each of the 100,000 students who have to wait to start school.” Under Simitian’s bill, “half the money saved by the state” would “be spent on preschool programs to serve disadvantaged children.” The rest would “help cover state budget shortfalls.”

Facilities
High School In Massachusetts Strives To Be Greenest In America.
The Gloucester (MA) Daily Times (6/14, Fletcher) reported, “The Manchester Essex Regional High School (MERHS) green team – led by Eric Magers, a foreign language teacher – want their facility to stand as the ‘greenest school in America.’” Already, the school is one of the three greenest in the state. Last month, MERHS received “a state ‘Green Difference’ award” in recognition of its “efficient design, recycling, composting and waste reduction programs.” The school has “high-efficiency lighting that dims depending on sunlight, low-flow faucets and toilets, a 30kw photovoltaic (solar) power system that provides 40,000 kilowatt hours of clean electricity.” According to Sarah Creighton, “school building committee chairwoman…the $49 million school facility received the highest level of pre-certification under the Massachusetts high performance schools program.”

School Finance
More Alabama Teachers Could Lose Jobs Without BP Reimbursement.
WVTM-TV Birmingham, Alabama, (6/15, White) reports that, according to Jefferson County School Superintendent Dr. Phil Hammonds, more teachers in Alabama could lose their jobs “if BP doesn’t reimburse the State Education Department for lost revenues.” WVTM-TV explains that “the oil spill off the gulf coast” is “having a negative effect on tourism, sending sales tax collections way down for the state.” Said Dr. Hammonds, “If people are going to not be employed because of people not spending money that then that hurts two of our major sources of funding for public education.” Meanwhile, State Superintendent Dr. Joseph Morton is working to come up with a bill to send to BP to recoup revenue losses “to the Education Trust Fund. He hopes to send [the] bill, within the next 45 days.”

Court Upholds New Jersey Governor’s School Cuts.
The AP (6/15) reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) “acted within his constitutional authority in ordering school districts to use surplus money to make up for cuts in state aid during the school year ending this month, an appeals court panel ruled Monday. In February, the Republican governor ordered the freeze of $475 million in school aid payments in 2010 by requiring districts to use their excess surplus instead of state aid.” According to the AP, “In addition to the $475 million in cuts this year, Christie slashed education money for the next budget year, which starts on July 1, by nearly $1 billion — $820 million for K-12 schools and $175 million for higher education.”

Also in the News
High School In Dallas Named Best In US.
The Dallas Morning News (6/15, Hacker) reports, “Newsweek magazine has named Dallas’ School for the Talented and Gifted the best high school in America for the third time in four years. Newsweek’s annual list of ‘America’s Best High Schools’ depends on a single measure: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or Cambridge tests given at a school each year (to all students, not just seniors) divided by the number of graduating seniors.” Though some “experts have criticized the methodology as narrow and misleading,” Newsweek “says it ignores scores because high schools can artificially boost their passing rates by letting only top students take the exams.”

Fifth-Grader Raises $70,000 To Aid Birds Affected By Gulf Oil Spill.
USA Today (6/15, Steinberg) reports that “Americans nationwide feel helpless when it comes to aiding the birds smothered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.” But Olivia Bouler, a fifth-grader from Long Island, New York, is doing something about it. She “has raised more than $70,000 for the National Audubon Society — a non-profit dedicated to bird conservation — by drawing pictures of birds and sending them to people in the USA and abroad in return for a donation.” Olivia started drawing pictures in May and has since “drawn and painted 150 original pieces.”

NEA in the News
States See More Union Buy-In, Less District Support In Second Round Of Race To The Top.
Education Week (6/15, McNeil) reports that for round two of the federal Race to the Top competition, “states significantly increased buy-in from local teachers’ unions…but made far less progress in enlisting districts or expanding the number of students affected by the states’ education reform plans,” according to an Education Week analysis of 30 applications. Florida and Michigan made great progress increasing union buy-in, which increased in all states by an average of 22 percentage points. In Florida, Education Week notes, Gov. Charlie Crist (R) “vetoed a bill that would have linked teacher pay to student performance and made it easier to fire teachers.” The veto “paved the way for more collaboration between the unions and state officials.” Florida Education Association Spokesman Mark Pudlow said that the resulting plan “more reflected reality” by focusing “on low-performing schools rather than districtwide changes.”

Hawaii Passes Law Mandating 180-Day School Year.
The AP (6/16, Niesse) reports, “A new Hawaii law enacted Tuesday requires at least 180 school days a year as the state tries to shed its reputation for having the shortest amount of instructional time in the nation. The law prevents the state from cutting the school year below 180 days due to budget cuts, which is what happened when teachers were furloughed on 17 instructional days during the recently ended school year.” The AP adds, “In addition to setting a minimum number of class days, the law also mandates annual instructional time” as elementary schools “are required to offer 915 hours a year, and middle and high schools will have to offer 990 hours.”

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In the Classroom
Educators Using Social Networking Platforms As Learning Tool.
Education Week (6/16, Davis) reported, “Just a few years ago, social networking meant little more to educators than the headache of determining whether to penalize students for inappropriate activities captured on Facebook or MySpace. Now, teachers and students have a vast array of social-networking sites and tools-from Ning to VoiceThread and Second Life-to draw on for such serious uses as professional development and project collaboration.” According to Education Week, “Educators who support using social networking for education say it has become so ubiquitous for students-who start using sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin when they are in elementary school-that it just makes sense to engage them this way.”

First, Second Grade Achievement In Baltimore Increases For Sixth Consecutive Year.
The Baltimore Sun (6/16, Bowie) reports, “Baltimore City’s first- and second-graders improved for the sixth year in a row on a standardized test of math and reading, with students scoring better than 50 percent of their peers around the country.” First-grade “scores on the Stanford 10 have increased from the 38th percentile…in 2004 to the 55th percentile this year. Math scores rose during the same period from the 44th percentile to the 67th percentile in first grade.” Meanwhile scores on the Stanford 10 second grade test “rose from the 36th percentile to the 51st percentile in reading and from the 40th to the 61st percentile in math.” School officials said that a boost in pre-kindergarten enrollment was “one of the reasons for better test scores.”

Houston District Investigates Claims Of Teacher Cheating On AP Tests.
The Houston Chronicle (6/16, Mellon) reports that the Houston Independent School District is looking into allegations “that teachers at Wheatley High School helped students cheat on Advanced Placement exams.” According to HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, “two teachers are suspected of letting students use books during the exams this year.”

Districts Selected For Innovation Labs Curriculum Pilot.
WETM-TV Elmira, New York, (6/16, Natario) reports that the Hornell school district and the Greater Southern Tier BOCES have been “selected by the New York State education commissioner to be ‘innovation labs.’” The main element of the labs is a “new curriculum that encourages technology and other new methods of teaching.” If successful, the program could be expanded to other districts nationwide. “New York is one of six states to participate in” the program, which begins this fall.

On the Job
Study Shows Improvements In Chicago’s Teacher Evaluation System.
Stephen Sawchuk wrote in a blog for Education Week (6/15), “Results from year one of a pilot teacher-evaluation system in Chicago show a much broader range of ratings under the new system than under the district’s existing one, with at least 8 percent of pre-tenured teachers receiving at least one ‘unsatisfactory’ rating, according to a new paper out from the Consortium on Chicago School Research. Although Chicago is not the only district putting a new teacher-evaluation system in place, it is certainly one of the few that’s paying a lot of attention to implementation, studying it, and documenting the results.” According to Sawchuk, “According to the data, over a third of teachers received all ‘proficient’ or ‘distinguished’ scores from their principals on the various strands of the observation framework, and about a third received a mix of ‘basic’ and ‘proficient’ scores.”

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Law & Policy
New Jersey Bill Would Allow Public Schools To Charge For Summer School.
The AP (6/15) reported, “The sponsor of a proposal that would allow New Jersey public schools to charge for summer school said cash-strapped districts can’t afford to keep classrooms open without the fee. Assemblyman Vincent Prieto said half the 12 towns in densely populated Hudson County are likely to offer remedial and enrichment classes this summer if they are permitted to charge parents.” According to the AP, “The bill was released unanimously by the Assembly Education Committee on Monday” and it’s “now up to Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver to post the bill for a floor vote.”

Chicago Schools Chief Granted Authority To Lay Off Teachers, Boost Class Sizes.
The Chicago Tribune (6/16, Burnette, Ahmed) reports, “The Chicago Board of Education on Tuesday granted schools chief Ron Huberman authority to lay off teachers and increase class sizes, a procedural move that was met with fierce resistance from union groups. … The threat of class sizes of up to 35 students next fall has loomed for months due to an estimated $600 million budget deficit for Chicago Public Schools.” According to the Tribune, “more than half of the deficit comes from state cuts to education funding, which could be restored when” when state lawmakers pass “a final budget,” yet the Chicago district “is preparing for layoffs should” state lawmakers “fail to act, stoking the ire of union groups suspicious over the financial picture painted by the school system.”

Special Needs
Some States Seek Waivers To Cut Special Education Funding.
Education Week (6/15, Samuels) reported, “At least three states have asked for permission to cut back on the money they provide districts for special education, under a built-in escape clause in the federal special education law that is aimed at financially struggling states. Iowa and Kansas have both been granted a waiver, which under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act can be given out in ‘exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances such as a natural disaster or a precipitous and unforeseen decline in the financial resources of a state.’” Education Week adds, “Advocacy groups are sympathetic to the states’ financial bind, but they’d like to see more transparency in the department’s decisionmaking process, said Katherine Beh Neas, the vice president for government relations for Easter Seals, a disability advocacy organization in Washington.”

School Finance
Florida Districts Change School Start Times To Save On Transportation.
The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (6/16, Marrero) reports that the Hernando County School Board on Tuesday voted to “change bell times for nearly all of the district’s 22 schools.” The change “will allow the cash-strapped district to cut 15 buses for an estimated savings of $750,000.” The St. Petersburg Times adds that “under the new plan, five elementary or K-8 schools will start 40 to 55 minutes earlier,” while some other schools will see only “slight changes to start times, ranging from five minutes earlier to 25 minutes later.” Also, some high schools and middle schools “will start a few minutes earlier.”

In another article, the St. Petersburg (FL) Times (6/16, Catalanello) reports that the Pinellas County School Board has also “approved new school start times…to save money and close a pressing budget gap.” In addition, Superintendent Julie Janssen has “proposed furloughs and higher employee health insurance costs” to help fill the $26 million budget hole.

Nevada District To Reassign School Leaders In Money-Saving Move.
The Las Vegas Sun (6/16, Richmond) reports, “With the Clark County School District eliminating nearly 90 assistant principal and dean positions to save money, employees will be reassigned to work with either elementary or high school students for the first time in their careers.” In accordance with “the district’s contract with the administrators union, the reassignments are based solely on seniority, and do not distinguish between elementary and secondary positions.” The deans and assistant principals will be sent “back to classroom teaching positions. Additionally, 38 assistant principals will be moved to new administrative positions that are either in lower salary ranges or require shorter contracts.” The Las Vegas Sun adds that the changes do not “sit well with some district employees,” because the moves are involuntary.

Virginia District To Seek Corporate Donations Via Proposed Nonprofit Foundation.
The Washington Post (6/16, Kravitz) reports, “Cash-strapped and seeking new sources of revenue, Fairfax County’s [VA] public school system is again reaching out to the private sector. The Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce unveiled plans Tuesday for a new nonprofit foundation that would allow companies to donate money to benefit the county’s public schools.” The Post adds that the “new foundation raises questions about the future of the county’s chief education nonprofit entity, the Fairfax Education Foundation,” which “has raised and contributed roughly $23 million in cash and high-tech equipment for more than 30 county school projects” yet “donations to the organization have fallen sharply since 2004, when donors gave nearly $600,000.”

Also in the News
All Seniors At Microsoft-Designed School Accepted By A College.
The AP (6/16, Matheson) reports, “When the Microsoft-designed School of the Future opened, the facility was a paragon of contemporary architecture, with a green roof, light-filled corridors and the latest classroom technology, all housed in a dazzling white modern building.” And though the “school’s creative ambitions have been frustrated by high principal turnover, curriculum tensions and a student body unfamiliar with laptop computer culture, the school graduates its first senior class Tuesday with each student having been accepted to an institution of higher learning.” The AP adds that the school, built in Philadelphia’s “rough Parkside section with district money,” partnered “with Microsoft on new approaches to curriculum, instruction and hiring” and “attracted reform-minded teachers and students bent on avoiding traditional high schools.”

Group Of Fifth-Graders Help Test New Stock Trading Platform.
USA Today (6/16, Toppo) reports, “When it came time to beta-test its new Web-based stock trading platform, the development team at Kapitall.com turned to business students at Harvard University, Boston University, Johns Hopkins University – and, among others, a group of fifth-graders here at Cold Spring Elementary School” in Potomac, Maryland. According to USA Today, “As it turns out, the kids helped the developers work out a few bugs” and “if they’d been trading real money, a few would have earned a tidy sum.” The Kapitall.com platform is “scheduled to allow users to open real accounts this summer, and its developers hope it will become a sort of second-generation Ameritrade, encouraging more gamers, women and young people to begin investing.”

NEA in the News
Both Eugene Education Association Co-Presidents Retiring.
The AP (6/15) reports that Paul Duchin and Merri Steele, “the co-presidents of the Eugene Education Association are retiring with mixed emotions about long careers that earned them plenty of respect from teachers.” The two leaders have been praised “for their bargaining skills and for leading a National Education Association diversity training program.”

Teachers In Vermont Largely Believe Poverty Affects Student Achievement, Survey Finds.
The AP (6/16) reports that “in a survey of 6,200 teachers and support professionals released Tuesday, the Vermont-National Education Association found that its teachers believe poverty at home continues to play a big role in classroom achievement and that poorer districts have less favorable learning conditions in their schools.” The AP adds that “Vermont NEA President Martha Allen says the 12,000-member teachers union will work with the state to take the survey’s findings to heart in adapting to President Barack Obama’s education strategy.”

Missouri District Officials Propose One-Half Percent Pay Increase For School Employees.
Missouri’s News-Leader (6/15, Riley) reports, “For the second year in a row, most Springfield Public Schools teachers likely won’t see a bump in their paychecks.” The district’s “recently revised 2010-11 operating budget includes $550,000 to give employees a 0.5 percent ‘salary adjustment.’” Springfield National Education Association President Ray Smith said that the district’s priorities were “out of whack” and that “more should have been done to help teachers.” The News-Leader adds, “The proposed budget still includes the loss of nearly 57 full-time positions, including 26 teaching jobs.”

Two-Thirds Of Indiana Students Pass Math, English Exams.
The AP (6/17) reports, “Two-thirds of students passed both Indiana’s math and English standardized tests this year, and the state’s school superintendent said his goal of having 90 percent pass by 2012 is attainable even in a climate of declining school funding.” Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett hopes “to have 90 percent of the state’s more than 500,000 students in grades 3 through 8 pass both the math and English exams by 2012.”

The Gary (IN) Post-Tribune (6/16, Kirk) reported that most elementary and middle schools in Northwest Indiana “are passing the ISTEP, according to the newest round of test results released by the Indiana Department of Education on Wednesday.” For grades 3-8, “about 57 percent of students passed both portions compared to 42 percent in 2009 with 68 percent passing English and 68 percent passing math. Those numbers are in comparison to a state average of 74 percent passing English and 76 percent in math.”

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In the Classroom
New Art Lesson Plans Aim To Boost Student Creativity.
The Los Angeles Times (6/17, Finkel) reports that Mark Bradford, an “artist known for bringing the gritty, multilayered texture of urban life into painting,” has “decided to develop a set of free lesson plans for K-12 teachers that makes its debut on the Getty Museum website Thursday. The Getty invited Bradford a year ago – shortly before he received the MacArthur ‘genius’ award – to devise a project of his choice with its education department.” Bradford’s “idea is encouraging students to use art as a tool for exploring personal or social issues that matter to them.”

Some Educators Question Whether Children Should Have Best Friends.
The New York Times (6/17, Stout) reports that “increasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend? Most children naturally seek close friends.” However, “the classic best-friend bond – the two special pals who share secrets and exploits, who gravitate to each other on the playground and who head out the door together every day after school – signals potential trouble for school officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity, in part because of concerns about cliques and bullying.”

Strauss: Flawed Data Behind Rise In Texas Test Scores.
Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (6/16), “Good news: Texas schoolchildren performed better on the 2010 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills this year than they did last, according to preliminary results released this month. Bad news: It turns out that students could pass the test answering fewer questions correctly than in 2009.” Strauss added that a Houston Chronicle “story behind the story of the gains on the TAKS should be a cautionary lesson in relying too much on test scores and reform driven by ‘data.’”

On the Job
Los Angeles Unified Expects To Save Nearly 2,500 Jobs.
The Los Angeles Times (6/17, Blume) reports, “Employee furloughs, federal funds and cost-cutting measures are saving nearly 2,500 jobs in the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials said this week.” Still, “682 teachers and professional ‘support personnel’…face losing their positions June 30, a much smaller number than the 3,090 who received notices March 15 that they could be laid off.” Also, “several hundred administrators are likely to be demoted to classroom positions,” as are some librarians. According to the Times, the “news on layoffs would be better still if voters had passed a district-sponsored parcel tax that failed at the polls this month, officials said.”

Law & Policy
Students In Florida District Say Changes To Spring Break Would Interfere With AP, IB Tests.
The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (6/17, Marshall) reports that the Hillsborough County School Board listened to public comment on Tuesday regarding proposed changes to the school calendar. The school board scheduled “spring break for April 25-29 next year, just six weeks before the end of school.” They “cited testing — specifically the need to avoid scheduling break right before the high-stakes Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which is held in mid April — as a reason to avoid the break in March. But on Tuesday, high school students said the late spring break would interfere with their Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests, which are held the following week.” Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia argued that “any changes that interfered with the FCAT could be damaging, since that test affects far more children.”

New Jersey High School Serves Cheese Sandwiches As Punishment For Unruly Behavior.
New Jersey’s Press of Atlantic City (6/16, Clark) reported, “The infamous cheese sandwich, recently offered to students as punishment for unruly behavior in the school lunch room, was again the only food offered Wednesday” at Atlantic City High School. “Superintendent Fredrick Nickles confirmed that one lunch period was subjected to the simple serving, consisting of two slices of bread and a slab of cheese, after five students were suspended for starting a food fight.” Still, he “insisted that the meal meets the state requirements and is served to send a message to the rest of the student body.” Nickles also pointed out that “students were warned Tuesday that cheese sandwiches would be the only offering Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.”

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Special Needs
Officials Fight To Get School For Special Needs Students Off Low-Performing List.
The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (6/17, Murray) reports, “Since the 1960s, Lincoln School has served students with severe special needs from across Kent County.” This year, the state Education Department put “the school on a list of about 100 traditional programs from across the state that are considered in the lowest performing 5 percent,” citing federal regulations. But Kent Intermediate School District leaders have been trying to get the school off the list “for months without success.” The school “is run by the Grand Rapids Public Schools on behalf of the KISD and serves all 20 county districts.” Because it serves several districts, it could be removed from the list, according to state Education Department official Linda Forward. “KISD Assistant Superintendent Ron Koehler said the state’s confusion stems from the way grades are distributed.” The Grand Rapids Press details the grading distribution system.

Safety & Security
Urban School Chiefs Accused Of Misleading Public About School Violence Levels.
Attorney and safe-schools advocate Jack Stollsteimer wrote in an op-ed for Education Week (6/16), “The Obama administration recently announced its intention to ask Congress for significant changes to the little-loved [NCLB] when it reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.” Unfortunately, he added, “the administration’s ‘blueprint for reform’ doesn’t mention the NCLB provisions…designed to stop the rising epidemic of violence in the nation’s schools.” Stollsteimer added that this “oversight is understandable,” as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “was a serial violator of federal rules designed to make public schools safe during his tenure as the Chicago schools chief.” But Duncan, Stollsteimer added, “was just doing what all other big-city schools chiefs have done since NCLB became law in 2002: misleading Congress and the public about the level of violence in their schools” according to the Inspector General of the US Education Department.

Facilities
New York City Alleges Theft By School Contractor.
The New York Times (6/16, Otterman) reports that an electrical contractor in Queens, New York “bilked the [New York City] Department of Education of more than $1 million by submitting fraudulent invoices, falsifying payrolls and charging for work that was never completed, according to allegations released Wednesday by Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools.” Kostas Andrikopoulos, “owner of Hara Electric Corporation in Astoria,” has also been charged by the state attorney general’s office “with skimming more than $2 million off the top of separate School Construction Authority projects since 2005.” Charges include “385 counts of falsifying business documents, among other charges, and faces up to 25 years if convicted.”

School Finance
Rhode Island Develops First New School Funding Formula In 20 Years.
The Providence Journal (6/17, Jordan) reports, “After years of failed attempts, Rhode Island finally has a statewide school-financing formula, its first in two decades.” The Journal describes the new formula as “complex.” It “was developed by the state Department of Education and researchers at Brown University…and is intended to redistribute about $705 million a year in direct aid to school districts, charter and state-operated schools – without adding a lot of new money to the system.” According to critics, the formula, which goes into effect beginning in 2011, gives “more state aid to districts where student enrollments have increased or that serve high numbers of low-income students, while cutting districts that have lost students or serve fewer poor students.” However, “Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has dismissed complaints,” saying, “Having a formula actually gives us equity, transparency and consistency in the ways our funds are distributed and the resources we give to our schools.”

New Jersey Education Department Awards $45.3 Million To Schools For School Turnaround.
The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger (6/17, Alloway, Rundquist) reports that on Wednesday the New Jersey Department of Education “awarded $45.3 million in federal grants to 12 persistently low-performing schools that have proposed bold plans, including four who said they will replace half of the school’s staff.” The schools may choose from “four federally required models to reform and boost student achievement.” The Star-Ledger notes that “seven of the 12 schools selected the ‘transformation model,’ which requires the district to replace ineffective principals, extend the school day, and boost teacher training, among other changes.”

Superintendents In Colorado Forgo Raises, Bonuses Amid Budget Shortfalls.
The Denver Post (6/16, Meyer) reported, “Economic woes that have led to deep school budget cuts across Colorado have spurred several metro area school superintendents to reject bonuses and raises written into their contracts. Leaders of Cherry Creek, Jefferson County and Boulder Valley school districts declined bonuses and raises.” In Denver, the “superintendent is donating his extra compensation to a nonprofit foundation.” The Denver Post notes that Colorado “cut $260 million from the K-12 budget for next year, forcing districts to lay off teachers, increase class sizes and even charge for riding the bus.”

Also in the News
Student Collects Discarded Textbooks For Students In African Countries.
The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (6/17, Solochek) reports that Sierra Cook, a student at Sunray Elementary School, is collecting discarded textbooks throughout Florida’s Pasco school district to send to children in Africa. The school district is getting rid of the books “for a new title that better tracks the state’s updated math curriculum.” Some teachers have “inventoried, boxed, and delivered more than 300″ textbooks “to Sierra’s home, where they sit in the garage awaiting a ride from her grandmother’s truck-driver friend to the Books for Africa warehouse in Smyrna, [Georgia].” The Minnesota-based charity “has delivered more than 22 million books to 45 African countries since 1988,” the Sr. Petersburg Times adds.

NEA in the News
Missouri District Faces Health-Insurance Plan Shortfall.
The Springfield (MO) News-Leader (6/16, Riley) reported that on Tuesday Springfield Public Schools officials discussed changing its “$201 million operating budget” in light of an expected “major shortfall” for the “district-funded health insurance plan…next year.” The current plan “calls for a loss of nearly 57 full-time positions — including 26 teaching jobs,” and it “gives the Springfield National Education Association (SNEA) authority to negotiate with the district about salaries, benefits and work conditions.” SNEA President Ray Smith has said regarding the budget, “There are only so many times you can beat a dead horse. … Going before the board and begging for raises is over. We’ll take it up at the bargaining table.”

Maryland Education Association Concerned About State’s Teacher Evaluation Plan.
WBAL-TV Baltimore (6/17) reports that the Maryland State Education Association and its affiliates have “some doubts about a proposed evaluation program that’s tied to Maryland’s attempt at getting $250 million in education funding.” Some are particularly concerned about merit pay. MSEA member Clara Floyd said, “We need to be certain that evaluation systems take into account all of the academic, social and personal factors that impact student achievement.” WBAL adds, “The state’s proposal, in part, calls for an overhaul of the teacher evaluation system while giving more weight to student achievement.”

Testing Flexibility Needed For Indian Students, Lawmakers Say.
The AP (6/18) reports, “Indian students face fewer chances for academic success under education standards that don’t embrace their traditional cultures, lawmakers and witnesses said Thursday during a Senate hearing considering revisions to” No Child Left Behind. According to the AP “Federal education standards complicated by varying state tests do not recognize tribal culture, which unfairly challenges Indian students, according to testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Among statistics cited at the hearing: About 50 percent of Indian students graduate from high school, compared to more than three-fourths of white students.”

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In the Classroom
More Than Half Of Philadelphia Public School Students Pass State Tests.
KYW-AM Philadelphia (6/18, DeNardo) reports that, for the first time, “more than half of” all students in the Philadelphia School “scored at least ‘proficient’ on the latest standardized state tests.” Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said, “Getting over the 50 percent mark for the majority of our students, I think psychologically will let people know that it can be done.” KYW notes that “in math, 56-percent of students made the grade – up four points over last year, and reading scores were 51 percent, up three points. The district’s…worst performing schools” had the greatest gains.

IES Awarding $100 Million In Grants To Fund Reading Programs Nationwide.
Debra Viadero wrote in a blog for Education Week (6/17), “The federal Institute of Education Sciences yesterday announced it was awarding $100 million in grants to six teams of researchers across the country for a major new initiative aimed at promoting reading comprehension in students from preschool to high school.” The five-year grants will be awarded to “130 researchers in the fields of linguistics, reading, developmental psychology, speech, cognitive psychology, assessment, and language pathology, are the largest ever awarded by the Institute’s National Center on Education Research for a single research program, said IES director John Q. Easton.” The funds “will go to help create a new Reading for Understanding Network, in which researchers will be required to work with teachers and other practitioners on the ground level, as well as with one another, to try to find proven, practical solutions to the thorny problem of improving reading comprehension.”

On the Job
Abilene District Tightens Requirements For Merit-Based Teacher Bonuses.
The Abilene (TX) Reporter-News (6/17) reported, “In the year after researchers questioned the effectiveness of Texas’ teacher merit pay programs, the Abilene Independent School District is stiffening the requirements for teachers to get performance-based bonuses next year.” Teachers will have “to post 10 times higher classroom improvement on the TAKS test to earn extra cash, but the bonus format only encompasses scores from students in low-income households.” In addition, just “four teachers taking tough assignments in district high schools” will receive “big bonuses.” The Reporter-News notes that prior to the new rules, “participating AISD teachers who posted a collective classroom improvement of even 1 percentage point were granted a bonus from the $1.2 million pot.”

Texas District May Move To Single-Year Contracts For Teachers.
The Dallas Morning News (6/17, Holloway) reported, “New teacher contracts in Mesquite may be for a single school year, instead of the continuing contracts that teachers have now, said Lanny Frasier, the district’s assistant superintendent for personnel services. Mesquite is one of the few school districts offering teachers continuing contracts” are “pretty much for life” after “a teacher passes the probationary period,” Frasier said. According to the Morning News, “With continuing contracts, the district must follow procedures to fire a teacher it believes has problems, a difficult process” and with “one-year contracts, the district can simply not renew the contract, Frasier said.”

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Law & Policy
North Carolina Senate Votes Against Four-Year High School Project Requirement.
The Raleigh (NC) News & Observer (6/18) reports that the North Carolina “Senate dealt the final legislative blow to a plan to require high school students complete projects designed to show they have planning, writing and speaking skills.” On Thursday, “the Senate voted unanimously…to kill the projects as a state requirement.” The plan put forth by the State Board of Education would have required “high school students to embark on a 4-year journey to complete a project that would include a paper, an oral presentation, a product, and a portfolio.” The News & Observer adds that many “school districts, parents and teachers” did not support the plan.

NYTimes Urges States To Crack Down On Testing Fraud.
The New York Times (6/18) editorializes though most educators across the US administer standardized “tests honestly and in good faith,” test-tampering cases “have recently turned up in at least a half-dozen states.” According to the Times, “groups that dislike standardized tests – and teacher accountability systems based on them – are blaming both for the cheating problem.” However, this “is no time to back away from testing” and states “need to develop clear, well-publicized antifraud policies and act decisively when test-tampering is uncovered.”

Florida School Trades Evangelism For Shoes, School Supplies.
USA Today (6/17) reported on its “Faith & Reason” blog that “Combee Elementary School in Lakeland, Florida, where separation of church and state is clearly not on the social studies curriculum, has been ‘adopted’ by First Baptist Church at the Mall. According to [a] story in the Wall Street Journal, the church, in turn, has…stocked a resource room with $5,000 worth of supplies” and “now caters spaghetti dinners at evening school events, buys sneakers for poor students, and sends in math and English tutors.” According to USA Today, “So far the evangelists visited 30 homes at Christmastime and 13 ‘came to the Lord,’” Pastor Dave McClamma said.

Toy Soldiers Violate Rhode Island School’s Weapons Ban.
The AP (6/18, Smith) reports, “Christan Morales said her son just wanted to honor American troops when he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures.” But the Tiogue School in Coventry, RI “banned the hat because it ran afoul of the district’s zero-tolerance weapons policy” because the “toy soldiers were carrying tiny guns. … On Thursday,” Superintendent Kenneth R. Di Pietro and the school’s principal “met with the retired commander of the Rhode Island National Guard, at the commander’s request.” Lt. Gen. Reginald Centracchio “said he disagreed with the decision to ban the hat and hoped it offered a chance for the school to review its policies.”

Special Needs
Spectrum Academy To Serve Special Needs Students With Behavior Problems.
The Tennessean (6/17, Mielczarek) reported on the Spectrum Academy opening this fall in the Metro Nashville school system for “special education students with severe behavioral problems.” The school aims “to help students catch up academically – most are one to three years behind – and socially transition them back to their original high schools before graduation. All participants follow individualized lesson plans and will come recommended by teams of teachers.” The Tennessean adds that the academy is opening as part of “Metro’s attempt to expand and improve its special education services.”

Facilities
“Eco-Walk” Will Connect Schools’ Educational Outdoor Walkway.
The Sag Harbor (NY) Express (6/18, Benard) reports that “a group of Sag Harbor parents and British designer Sam Panton of the environmentally friendly landscape architecture firm, Terra Design” will soon create “an educational outdoor walkway” between Sag Harbor Elementary School and Pierson High School. The Sag Harbor “Eco-Walk” will be “an educational outdoor walkway that…aims to teach children the benefits of having an ‘edible backyard.’” Students will “cultivate their own food and beautify their surroundings, while simultaneously creating a greater sense of community within the whole of Sag Harbor.” The Eco-Walk will “rely on the Sag Harbor community for both labor and funding.”

School Finance
Local Governments Struggling To Avoid Layoffs Amid Budget Woes.
USA Today (6/18, Keen) reports, “Some city and county employees and school districts are taking dramatic steps to try to solve their budget problems. … Curt Bradshaw, Board of Education president for the Indian Prairie School District in Aurora and Naperville, Ill., says creative solutions to budget woes are essential.” The Indian Prairie “district wants to keep employees’ state payroll taxes – about $500,000 a month – to offset $14.4 million in tardy state payments,” Bradshaw says, and the “district adopted a $21.4 million austerity plan, including a teacher salary freeze and layoffs of about 145 teachers before union concessions allowed them to call 20 back.”

More New Jersey Towns Forcing School Districts To Cut Budgets.
The New York Times (6/18, Gebeloff, Hu) reports, “About 17 percent of the New Jersey school districts that had budgets rejected by voters this spring have been ordered by town councils to make cuts to lower their proposed school taxes by at least 3 percent, according to an analysis by The New York Times of state education data released on Thursday. In the previous two years, 8 percent of districts with failed budgets made reductions of that magnitude.” According to the Times, “New Jersey voters rejected 316 school budgets this spring, a modern-day record,” yet “8 percent of the districts with failed budgets made no further cuts.”

Education Takes Big Hit In Latest Round Of Budget Cutting In Missouri.
The AP (6/18, Lieb) reports, “Education took a big hit Thursday in Missouri’s latest round of budget cuts as Gov. Jay Nixon [D] halved busing aid to public schools and significantly reduced college scholarships for the upcoming academic year. Other cuts will affect people with chronic health problems, the mentally ill, the disabled who receive in-home services and developers who depend on state tax credits.” Nixon “said the cuts are necessary because Missouri’s tax revenues have continued to fall short of projections, and because legislators failed to pass several moneysaving measures that had been assumed in their $23.3 billion budget.”

Alabama State Superintendent “Holding BP Accountable” For Oil Spill’s Impact On Schools.
Betty Carol Graham, an Alabama state representative from Tallapoosa County, wrote in a commentary for the Dadeville (AL) Record (6/17), “The BP oil disaster in the Gulf continues to threaten Alabama’s coastline.” Dr. Joe Morton, the state’s superintendent of Education, recently “held a press conference and outlined another victim of the oil spill: Alabama’s schoolchildren.” According to Morton, “the BP nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico is having and will continue to have a negative effect on the Education Trust Fund (ETF),” which “accounts for sixty percent of education spending in the state.” Through ETF, the state pays for “everything from teacher salaries to textbooks.” Graham asserts that “Morton should be applauded for his first steps in holding BP accountable.”

Districts Struggle To Meet Needs Of Severely Disabled Students.
The New York Times (6/20, Otterman) reports, “Once predominantly isolated in institutions, severely disabled students have been guaranteed a free, appropriate public education like all children since the passage of federal legislation in 1975. In the years since, school districts across the country have struggled to find a balance between instruction in functional skills and academics while providing basic custodial care.” The Times notes that there “are 132,000 such students in the United States, out of more than 6.5 million now receiving some kind of special education service at an estimated cost of $74 billion a year.”

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In the Classroom
Educators, Community Members In Nevada District Seek Solutions For Curbing Truancy.
The Las Vegas Sun (6/20, Richmond) reported that educators and community members in the Clark County School District are focusing on solutions to curb the truancy within the district. “For each of the past three academic years, the Clark County School District has cited more than 2,500 students for habitual truancy, meaning they had at least three unexcused absences.” Once problem pointed out by Edward Goldman, associate superintendent of education services, is that Clark County schools only have “25 attendance officers to cover more than 350 campuses, and their duties are more comprehensive than just hunting truants.” He also noted that “many students…stop going to high school entirely after 10 unexcused absences in a semester because they know they’ll be denied credit for the class even if they make up the work.” As a solution, Goldman suggested switching “to a quarterly grading cycle instead of two semesters…so that students can at least earn partial credit.”

Mentorship Program Aims To Refine Leadership Skills Of Minority Males.
The New Haven (CT) Register (6/20, Pinto) reported on the West Haven school system’s Developing Tomorrow’s Professionals, “a mentorship program for black and Latino young men who have shown” leadership potential. This year, 64 teens participated in the program. After being chosen among 781 other applicants, “the students…were fitted for suits they must wear to all DTP functions.” They “will attend 10 weeks of weekend classes, called Academic Saturdays, and be partnered with mentors who are professionals or graduate students at Southern Connecticut State University.” In addition, the teens will “receive laptops and a stipend and get academic training, as well as education in the ‘values, principles and ethics of real men.’”

“Rap Teacher” Uses Hip-Hop To Teach Math To Students In Los Angeles.
The AP (6/19, Hoag) reported, “The class of eighth graders at” Los Angeles Academy, “a Los Angeles middle school tap their rulers and nod their heads to the rhythm of the rap video projected on a screen. It’s not Snoop Dogg or Jay-Z” but it is “their math teacher, LaMar Queen, using rhyme to help them memorize seemingly complicated algebra and in the process improve their grades.” Queen’s “is now known at Los Angeles Academy as the rap teacher, but his fame has spread far beyond the 2,200-student school in this gritty neighborhood” as he’s “won a national award and shows teachers and parents how to use rap to reach children.”

Educator Advocates Return To Slow Reading.
The AP (6/20) reported, “At a time when people spend much of their time skimming websites, text messages and e-mails, an English professor at the University of New Hampshire is making the case for slowing down as a way to gain more meaning and pleasure out of the written word. Thomas Newkirk isn’t the first or most prominent proponent of the so-called ‘slow reading’ movement, but he argues it’s becoming all the more important in a culture and educational system that often treats reading as fast food to be gobbled up as quickly as possible.” Newkirk “is encouraging schools from elementary through college to return to old strategies such as reading aloud and memorization as a way to help students truly ‘taste’ the words.”

On the Job
Florida District Officials Say Gates Grant Helping Attract Prospective Teachers.
The St. Petersburg Times (6/20, Marshall) reported that officials in the Hillsborough County, Florida school district “say their $100 million Gates grant” is helping to attract teaching candidates and is “also…helping them figure out which places — education schools, states, or even regions — produce their most effective teachers.” So far, “Hillsborough has found recruiting success in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, where population has been shrinking and candidates are plentiful.” At a teacher recruitment event held last week, the school system interviewed about 1,000 teachers “over three days to fill an estimated 600 openings. Officials say they hired around 150 teachers, and will likely pick up more over the summer.”

Teachers Union, District Officials In Hernando County, Florida, Developing Teacher Evaluation System. The St. Petersburg Times (6/20, Marrero) reported, “Before the furor over Senate Bill 6 put the issue of teacher performance in the spotlight, Hernando school officials already had begun working on a revolutionary new way to evaluate educators.” Union and district officials are developing an evaluation system that takes “student scores and schoolwide performance” into “account for as much as half of a teacher’s evaluation. Teachers would still be evaluated…by an administrator based on best classroom practices, but they also would get credit for other work, such as tutoring students and helping with school events.”

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Law & Policy
New Law Will Change School Evaluation Metrics In Ohio.
The Cincinnati Enquirer (6/19, Clark) reported that “after earning the state’s top academic ranking for seven straight years,” the Lebanon school system in Warren County “plunged three categories on the six-category scale — from ‘excellent with distinction’ to ‘continuous improvement.’” This, despite the fact that Lebanon Schools achieved “29 out of 30 academic indicators in the 2008-2009 school year and improving its ‘performance index’ in each of the previous four school years.” Now, a law “signed by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D) this month will correct this problem. Instead of dropping three categories, districts not meeting federally mandated ‘adequate yearly progress’ standards for certain sub-groups of students will drop only one category.” The law will go into effect in mid-September.

Minnesota Legislature Passes Overhaul Of Charter Laws.
Education Week (6/18, Aarons) reported, “A major overhaul to a Minnesota law aimed at strengthening accountability for those who sponsor charter schools is drawing both praise and criticism and spurring some districts to consider getting out of the business of authorizing such schools. Among the districts contemplating leaving authorizing behind is St. Paul, the home of the nation’s first charter school.” The Minnesota “state legislature approved a slew of changes last year that increased the responsibility of authorizers for the oversight and renewal of charter schools, which are publicly funded but largely independent in their operations.”

Rhode Island District To Alter Policy That Banned Soldier Hat.
The AP (6/20) reported that Ken Di Pietro, the superintendent of the Coventry (RI) Public Schools district “that banned a second-grader’s homemade hat because it displayed toy soldiers with tiny guns said Saturday he will work to change the policy to allow such apparel.” According to the AP, “David Morales, an 8-year-old student at Tiogue School, made the hat after choosing a patriotic theme for a school project last week,” gluing “plastic Army figures to a camouflage baseball cap.” However, “school officials banned the hat, saying the guns carried by the Army figures violated school policy” yet the “decision prompted criticism of the school and support for Morales.”

Maryland District Enacts Ban On Student Cell Phone Use In School.
The AP (6/20) reported that Prince George’s County, MD “has restricted cellphone use in the past, but officials say the new policy sets clear consequences. Under the new policy, students may carry cellphones, but the phones must be off during school, not just silenced.” According to the AP, “students who violate the policy will initially have their phones confiscated” an after “a second offense, the student will have to have a parent pick up the phone” and students “who break the rules a third time can’t have a phone at school for the rest of the year.”

The Washington Post (6/18, Birnbaum) reported, “Prince George’s County students will have to keep their cellphones turned off from the first bell of the morning to the last bell of the day under a strict new ban passed Thursday night by the school board. And they will not be permitted to post photographs taken on school property to Web sites such as Facebook.” According to the Post, “The ban goes further than any other local school system’s, many of which have been liberalizing their cellphone rules, not tightening them.” WUSA-TV Washington, DC (6/19, Mastis) also covers this story.

Facilities
New York City Opens East Side’s First New Public School Building In 50 Years.
The New York Times (6/19, Ceasar) reports that East Side Middle School “officially opened on Friday; it is the first new public school building on the Upper East Side in nearly 50 years. … Upper East Side campuses are overcrowded, with many students on waiting lists to attend schools in their own neighborhoods.” According to the Times, “The building was made possible through the city’s Educational Construction Fund, a partnership between the city and private developers who build and pay for the school” and in “return, the developers are allowed to build on part of the land, said Jamie Smarr, the fund’s executive director.”

School Finance
Chicago Parents Discuss Fundraising Strategies.
The Chicago Tribune (6/20, Schmadeke) reported, “After detailing the yawning budget shortfall Chicago Public Schools faces next year, schools chief Ron Huberman drew laughter from a group of parents Saturday when he said he was ‘optimistic’ that state lawmakers would eventually be forced to fix the perennial school-funding crisis. The nearly 120 people from nearly 70 schools around the city who gathered at an East Lakeview magnet school Saturday for what was billed as a first-of-its-kind fundraising gathering were a bit more skeptical” as “these parents were among those who are increasingly being asked to raise money on their own to help pay the bills at their children’s schools.” According to the Tribune, “Many parents worried that if a much-discussed option to cut the CPS deficit by increasing class sizes to as many as 35 students were enacted, it would drive away those who can afford to send their children elsewhere” and the parents “know their own fundraising won’t be enough to close the budget deficit.”

Also in the News
Texas District Experimenting With School Bus Videos.
The Dallas Morning News (6/19, Holloway) reported, “The Garland [TX] school district is experimenting with playing educational videos on a school bus to help cut discipline problems. For $1,500 per bus, Carrollton-based AdComp Systems installs a 26-inch flat screen TV at the front of the bus.” According to the Morning News, “Garland transportation director Brian Abbett said it’s a good thing anytime that students’ attention on the bus can be focused on something other than picking on each other.”

NEA in the News
Elementary Teacher To Take Over As Utah Education Association President.
The Salt Lake Tribune (6/21, Schencker) reports that Dilworth Elementary School teacher, Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, will take over as president of the Utah Education Association (UEA) in July. “Over the past few years, Gallagher-Fishbaugh has won a slew of prestigious education awards,” including Teacher of the Year in Utah for 2009. “This year, she won the National Education Association’s top honor, the $25,000 NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence.” The Salt Lake Tribune adds that Gallagher ran unopposed for the position of UEA president.

New York City School Officials Seek More Equitable Gifted Admissions Test.
The New York Times (6/22, A21, Otterman) reports that New York City schools “will search for a new admissions test for its gifted and talented public school programs” in order “to address concerns that some families were ‘gaming’ the test through extensive preparation.” The city’s “new deputy chancellor for portfolio planning,” Marc Sternberg, “announced the move” after City Council members questioned “why the city’s gifted programs were not as racially and economically diverse as the city schools as a whole.” Council members noted that “while more students now take admissions tests for gifted programs, fewer students now enroll, and they are less racially diverse” than in years prior to 2008, when the city adopted its current gifted tests.

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In the Classroom
Chinese Gaining Popularity Over French In Some Schools.
The AP (6/21) reported, “The rapidly growing Chinese economy is causing French language classes to be phased out and replaced with Mandarin Chinese classes in private and public schools,” according to some language teachers. A survey by the Modern Language Association in 2006 showed a decrease in French class enrollment of 43 percent between 1990 and 2006 was down by 43 percent, compared to a 106 percent increase in Chinese language. “Mandarin, the most widely spoken dialect,” has seen the greatest increase. “Another study by the Center for Applied Linguistics found that students taking French decreased from 27 percent in 1997 to 11 percent in 2008.”

More Districts Launching Online Credit-Recovery Programs.
Education Week (6/21, Zehr) reported, “Interest in online credit-recovery courses continues to surge, prompting some policy experts and educators to consider whether traditional rules requiring students to spend a certain number of hours in the classroom, rather than simply demonstrate their proficiency in the subject matter, are increasingly outdated. At least three large urban school districts-New York City, Chicago, and Boston-have recently rolled out or soon will roll out programs for online credit recovery” which allow “students who have failed courses in high school” to “earn credits for those courses by making them up through online coursework.” Education Week added, “The increase in credit-recovery programs is being fueled by pressure from state and federal accountability systems to increase graduation rates, educators say.”

Strategies To Curb Summer Reading Loss Outlined.
National Summer Learning Association CEO Ron Fairchild wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (6/21), “A century of empirical evidence confirms a pattern of summer learning loss, particularly for low-income children. … What we learned from” studies into the summer learning loss phenomena “is that high-quality summer programs combining engaging lessons and enriching experiences can help these children stay on track for the academic challenges ahead.” According to Fairchild, a “new initiative that highlights the need for learning opportunities and physical activity for children during the summer months” spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama, “combined with a range of strategies including access to books and community resources and high-quality summer learning programs, can make a dent in the problem of summer learning loss and put more children on the path to academic success.”

STEM Program Seeks To Foster Skills In Creativity Innovation, Critical Thinking.
CentralJersey.com (6/22) reports on the “12 districts across that state that will benefit from an $11.5 million National Science Foundation Math-Science Partnership Grant that aims to engage and motivate teachers and students to improve learning in science and engineering.” The grant-funded program, “PISA 2 program: Partnership to Improve Student Achievement in Physical Sciences: Integrating STEM Approaches,” is being offered through the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology and “will enhance teaching and learning of physical and earth science in grades 3 through 8 at the 12 districts across the state, thereby fostering skills including creativity innovation, problem-solving, and critical thinking, according to the university.” The article notes, “The program will use societal problems such as climate change to engage and motivate teachers and their students in STEM subjects.”

Seventh-Graders Discover Crater On Mars.
Space.com (6/22, Moskowitz) that 16 students in Dennis Mitchell’s “7th-grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, [California], found what looks to be a Martian skylight — a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars” — while studying “images taken by a NASA spacecraft orbiting the red planet.” Glen Cushing of the U.S. Geological Survey said that the crater is similar to a skylight — “where a small part of the roof of a cave or a lava tube had collapsed, opening the area below the surface to the sky.” The seventh graders made the discovery after initially setting “out to hunt for lava tubes” as part of the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University.

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On the Job
Ohio Districts Increasingly Rehiring Retired Educators.
The AP (6/21) reported, “More Ohio school districts are hiring retired teachers and administrators, allowing them to earn a salary and collect a pension at a time when the state retirement system is ailing.” This practice, called “double dipping,” is especially prevalent among superintendents, with “more than 25 percent of the state’s 614 superintendents…drawing full retirement benefits.” Meanwhile, “the State Teachers Retirement System, which has suffered investment losses, has $40 billion in unfunded liabilities and is seeking a taxpayer bailout.” State lawmakers have targeted double dipping “several times in the past 10 years.” However, in at least two cases, “the Legislative Service Commission, which provides fiscal and legal analysis to lawmakers,” was unable to “determine whether double dipping cost taxpayers money.”

Beginning Teacher Academy In West Virginia Offers Classroom Management Training.
West Virginia’s State Journal (6/22, Lieu) reports on the Beginning Teacher Academy being offered to first-year teachers in West Virginia this year “by the West Virginia Center for Professional Development.” The summer training sessions focus on classroom management, and “understanding framework for poverty so they can understand students as they are teaching them,” said Dixie Billheimer, CEO of the West Virginia Center for Professional Development. The State Journal notes that a 2005 study found that “classroom management is one of the key reasons why 50 percent of all new teachers entering public schools leave the profession within five years.”

Arizona State University To Offer New Online Degree, Certification Programs For Educators.
T.H.E. Journal (6/22, Schaffhauser) reports, “Arizona State University has expanded its online degree and certification programs for PK-12 teachers, including the addition of a new credential for online teaching.” Starting next fall, six new programs “will be available completely online,” including Arizona State’s “first fully online graduate certificate offering…a 15-credit hour graduate certificate for online teaching for grades K-12, designed for educators who want to lead development, implementation, and evaluation of online and hybrid education programs at their schools.”

Law & Policy
Alaska Governor Signs Rural Grant Program For School Repairs.
Alaska’s News-Miner (6/21, Eshleman) reported that Gov. Sean Parnell (R) on Monday signed into law “a grant program to build and repair rural schools.” Funding for these projects will be calculated by matching each dollar spent “to help repay bond-funded school construction in organized areas…for rural grants.” In addition to stabilizing “an often-inconsistent flow of school-construction dollars going to rural, unincorporated communities,” the bill “also extends in perpetuity the state’s promise to cover 70 percent of school construction debt in Fairbanks, Anchorage and other municipalities’ school districts.”

Louisiana Lawmakers Approve Stricter Oversight Of State Superintendent.
Louisiana’s Advocate (6/22, Sentell) reports, “With just minutes left before adjournment, the Louisiana Legislature voted Monday to impose tougher oversight on the effectiveness of state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek.” Under Senate Bill 302, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) must “report to lawmakers on: How Pastorek is implementing the $3.3 billion in basic state aid to public schools” and “whether he is establishing good working relationships with state educators, lawmakers and local school board members.” In addition, the BESE must report on “whether local schools are getting adequate technical assistance from the state Department of Education.”

As Education Aide To President Clinton, Kagan Weighed In On K-12 Issues.
Mark Walsh wrote in a blog for Education Week (6/21), “In 1997, as President Bill Clinton’s administration was pursuing an initiative on voluntary national testing,” Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, then “a White House education aide” suggested “the possibility of a high school test to follow proposed 4th and 8th grade tests. … The voluntary test idea eventually fizzled amid opposition in Congress” yet the “e-mail from Kagan…shows the political instincts she exhibited during her two years in the domestic policy job.” Walsh added, “The Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark., on June 18 released its final batch of Kagan records, including thousands of e-mails composed by her” and “e-mails show that Kagan was more of a traffic cop on domestic-policy proposals than a prolific writer advancing her own views.”

Special Needs
South Dakota Receives Highest Special Education Scores Possible Under IDEA.
KPLO-TV Sioux Falls (6/22, Janssen) reports that “the teachers and administrators who help implement” special education programs in South Dakota “are getting proof that their efforts are paying off.” The state, which serves nearly 18,000 special needs students, is “one of only 16 in the country to receive the highest scores possible under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA.” IDEA takes into account factors such as “the percentage of special ed students who graduate from high school, the drop-out rate for those students and how many pass state assessment tests.”

School Finance
Detroit School Board, Financial Manager In Dispute Over Academic Control.
The AP (6/21) reported that Detroit public schools emergency financial manager, Robert Bobb, is currently facing “a civil suit filed against him by the school board.” Board members claim that “Bobb didn’t communicate with them on” a “sweeping, multimillion dollar academic plan, which includes curriculum changes, a more rigorous learning environment for Detroit students and an eventual 98-percent graduation rate.” They say that Bobb was hired to manage the district’s finances, not its academic programs. Meanwhile, “Bobb has testified that his academic changes all are part of his plan to wipe out a deficit of more than $300 million.”

Also in the News
Obama Urges Absent Fathers To Re-Engage With Families.
USA Today (6/22, Toppo) reports, “Saying he has ‘lost count’ of all the times when work demands have taken him away from his children, President Obama said Monday that his administration would move to raise awareness about ‘responsible fatherhood’ and push to re-engage absent fathers with their families. The announcement, coming one day after Father’s Day, follows a year-long, six-city tour by administration officials focusing on fathers’ roles and influences.” Obama “said he would ask Congress to expand fatherhood and family program” and “he has asked US Attorney General Eric Holder to create a ‘Fathering Re-Entry Court’ that would help fathers leaving prison get jobs and services they need to start making child support payments and reconnecting with families.”

NEA in the News
Utah Governor Discusses School Finance, Charters With UEA Members.
Lisa Schencker wrote in the Salt Lake Tribune (6/21) “The Chalkboard” blog that last week, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) “met with leaders of the Utah Education Association (UEA)…and shared some of his thoughts on key issues in education.” In a press release, the UEA noted the governor’s position on several key issues. Herbert told union members regarding education funding “that Utah is in a ‘unique’ position with only 21.2 percent of the state held privately, limiting the amount of land available to generate tax revenue.” He also said that even as “a vocal supporter of vouchers,” he “recognized that there were flaws in the law ultimately passed by the Utah legislature.” Said Herbert, “(Vouchers) should have been means tested and there should have been income limits. … As far as I’m concerned, the (voucher) issue is dead for at least the next decade.”

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