Leaders Of Five Florida Districts Cast Doubt On Accuracy Of State Test Results.
The St. Petersburg Times (7/13, Stein) reports that “the superintendents of Hillsborough County [Florida] and four other large school districts said Monday they have doubts about the accuracy of this year’s FCAT results and want a state investigation.” Their main concern is “a sharp drop in the number of students making learning gains, especially on the reading test” and at the elementary level. Even though Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith “said Monday afternoon that he stood by the results,” he still “has asked another examiner to look at the” districts’ concerns. Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia has “called for the state to hold off on releasing school grades” until the issue is resolved.

The Miami Herald (7/12, McGrory, Tepoff) reported that Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said on Monday that “if the scores stand as they are, dozens of high-performing South Florida elementary schools will likely see their letter grade drop.” The Herald adds that “if there are errors in the FCAT data, the consequences could be serious,” because “school grades determine if a school receives money from the state or federal government, and if students can transfer out.”

The Tampa Tribune (7/13, Ackerman) notes, “FCAT scores were late this year because of computer glitches with NCS Pearson, a testing contractor hired by the state. The company and Smith assured school districts that the scores, while late, would be accurate.”

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In the Classroom
Hawaii Educators Anticipate Poor State Test Results Due To Lost Instructional Time.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (7/12, Vorsino) reported that “The annual Hawaii State Assessment scores will be released this week, and many educators are bracing for bad news, saying budget cuts and teacher furloughs are almost certain to have had a negative effect.” In April, when roughly 90,000 “public school students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 10 took the annual assessments,” they already “had lost nearly three weeks of instructional time to teacher furloughs.” In an effort to maximize instructional time prior to the tests, many schools rearranged their schedules and limited “other activities, from art instruction to field trips. Several beefed up after-school tutoring, in hopes of helping struggling students get up to speed.” The Star-Advertiser notes that test scores will be released on Thursday.

Draft Framework Outlines Science Standards Vision.
Erik Robelen wrote in a blog for Education Week (7/12), “As part of a national effort to develop a set of ‘next generation’ science standards for elementary and secondary education, a panel of experts convened by the National Research Council…issued a draft of the ‘conceptual framework’ that will guide the standards. …. In the introduction to the draft framework, the panel explains that the document presents a ‘vision of the scope and nature of the education in science and engineering that is needed in the 21st century.” According to Robelen, “The draft also notes a strong emphasis on engineering and technology.”

On the Job
Milwaukee Public Schools Recalls Nearly 90 Teachers Who Received Layoff Notices In June.
Erin Richards wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/12) “School Zone” blog, “Milwaukee Public Schools recalled 89 of the 482 teachers who received layoff notices in June, district officials announced today in a news release.” Of those, “37 K-8 teachers were recalled after a certification review, 13 teachers were recalled to staff the district’s Montessori, IB and language immersion schools, and 13 more teachers were recalled because the district received 13 late resignations.” The district said that “the recalls…were made possible because of late resignations of other staff members and the identification of additional funding sources.” The Business Journal of Milwaukee (7/13) quotes Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Thornton as saying, “The teachers may have been on summer break, but we haven’t stopped thinking about them. … We have been vigilant in our search for ways to get educators back into the classroom.”

Law & Policy
Indiana AG Says Charging Students To Ride School Buses Violates State Law.
The AP (7/13, Wilson) reports that on Monday the Indiana Attorney General said that “state law doesn’t allow public school districts to charge students a fee for taking the bus to and from school.” Some school districts throughout the state have “been looking at the fees as one possible way to help them out of a financial bind caused by property tax caps and a $300 million cut in state education spending.” A spokeswoman for AG Greg Zoeller noted that “said official opinions are intended to serve as guidelines for state officials and aren’t legally binding.” But Indiana ASBO executive director Dennis Costerison said that even though the opinion is not legally binding, “it could give ammunition to a parent who decided to sue their school district over bus fees.”

WXIN-TV Indianapolis (7/13, Loncich) reports that in a nine-page opinion, Zoeller wrote, “A public school corporation is not authorized to assess and collect a bus rider fee from a student in order for that student to receive transportation to and from the student’s school to receive a public education.” WTHR-TV Indianapolis (7/13, MacAnally) reports that the AG “pointed to an earlier state high court ruling that found fees for extracurricular activities was okay.” WTVR-TV Indianapolis (7/13) also covers the story.

Corporal Punishment In Memphis Schools Voted Down.
The Commercial Appeal (TN) (7/13, Roberts) reports, “The Memphis City school board on Monday night” voted against “member Kenneth’s Whalum’s wish to reinstate corporal punishment.” The Commercial Appeal notes that “Whalum brought the issue up last month, drawing national attention, including a threat from detentionslip.com, an education news website, to call for a boycott of Memphis if corporal punishment were reinstated.” In 2005, the practice was eliminated in Memphis schools “after research showed that the same children were receiving the punishment repeatedly.” WHBQ-TV Memphis, TN (7/13) also covers this story.

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Safety & Security
Georgia District Proposes Hiring Inmates For Grounds Work At Schools.
The Augusta (GA) Chronicle (7/12, Sparks) reported, “In an effort to save money, the Richmond County School System’s Facilities and Maintenance Department wants to start a county inmate work detail at schools.” The proposal calls for the school system to “hire six inmates and a guard for chores such as grounds and retention pond work, moving heavy items and cleaning stadiums, at a cost of $65,000 for the inmates and guard and $10,000 for vehicle and equipment needs.” The workers would not at any time “be close to students or faculty,” and “the school system would also make sure no inmate workers are on a sex offender list.”

WRDW-TV Augusta (7/13, Thomas) reports that some Richmond County residents are concerned that “the cost savings of bringing in inmate crews could put their children and neighborhoods at risk.” Nevertheless, the Augusta finance committee has already “cleared the idea Monday. It now goes to the Richmond County Board of Education.” The AP (7/13) also covers the story.

School Finance
Massachusetts Awarded $58.7 Million In Stimulus Funds To Help Turn Around Failing Schools.
The Boston Globe (7/13, Vaznis) reports, “Massachusetts will receive $58.7 million in federal funds to help turn around the state’s lowest-achieving schools. … About 100 schools across the state, including 35 designated as ‘underperforming’ by the state, will be eligible to compete for the money.” According to the Globe, “In anticipation of the announcement, Boston and other districts have been putting together funding proposals, which must include adopting one of the school-overhaul plans developed by the Obama administration, such as forcing teachers to reapply for their jobs.” The AP (7/13) reports that “a dozen of the [eligible] schools are located in Boston and another 10 in Springfield with other schools located in Fall River, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford and Worcester.”

California School Funding System Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Alleges.
The Oakland (CA) Tribune (7/13, Murphy) reports, “California’s substandard school system is depriving students of the opportunity to receive a meaningful education and to meet the standards the state has set for them, a coalition of parents, students and civil rights advocacy groups argued in a lawsuit filed Monday in Alameda Superior Court against the state and the governor. The plaintiffs argue that education is a fundamental right under California’s constitution, and far too many students are failing to read and write at grade level or graduate from high school.” The Tribune adds, “To remedy the problem, the coalition is demanding equal access to preschools, increased school funding, better data systems and an efficient, coherent school finance system that provides more resources to children with greater need.”

The AP (7/13, Chea) reports, “Groups representing low-income families sued the state of California Monday in the second major legal action alleging the government is failing to adequately fund public education. … The plaintiffs, including the Campaign for Quality Education and Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment, asked the court to declare the current school finance system unconstitutional and force Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger [R] and the Legislature to create a new system that adequately funds public schools.” Schwarzenegger “said he hopes he can work with the plaintiffs to reach a mutually acceptable agreement that puts the needs of students first.” Lesli Maxwell also covered the story in a blog for Education Week (7/12).

Also in the News
Flash Drive With Educators’ Data Missing From Connecticut Teacher Retirement Board.
The Connecticut Post (7/13, Lambeck) reports that last week, the Connecticut Teacher’s Retirement Board sent a letter to teachers throughout the state “warning them that a computer flash drive containing retirement fund data is missing.” The data on the flash drive “is encrypted,” or “scrambled to make it unintelligible to unauthorized parties.” Retirement board official, Darlene Perez, assured in the letter, “We have numerous controls in place so that financial transactions are properly authorized and executed and have enhanced our internal procedures over the physical control of flash drives.” Teachers were not asked “to take any action or change any passwords,” the Connecticut Post notes. Kathy Frega of the Connecticut Education Association “said the union has been in discussions with the retirement agency about this issue and has been assured the data was ‘considered a relatively low-risk occurrence.’”

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NEA in the News
New Jersey Education Association Opposes Lower Property Tax Cap.
Education Week (7/12, Maxwell) reported, “Some education officials in New Jersey are warning that a new legislative agreement that would cap annual property-tax increases could further erode already-tenuous budgets for the state’s public schools.” The deal reached between Gov. Chris Christie (R) and “Democratic leaders in the legislature” this month would “impose a two percent cap on growth in local property taxes that the governor said would deliver ‘long-overdue relief’ to residents who pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation.” Public schools statewide will see an overall “$1.3 billion reduction over fiscal years 2010 and 2011.” Education Week notes that the New Jersey Education Association “has argued vigorously against changing the current” four percent cap on property taxes. In a statement, the NJEA said that “the consequences of the deal” include “deeper cuts in staff …even larger class sizes,” fewer extracurricular activities and higher activity fees.

Kansas NEA Lists Pro-Education Funding Candidates.
KTKA-TV Topeka, KS (7/13, Seabrook) reports that when Kansas NEA President Blake West “returned from this year’s National Education Association Convention,” he was “frustrated by the Obama administration plan to award competitive grants for state education funding.” That is why “he says the upcoming elections are more important now than ever.” KTKA provides a link to the KNEA’s “list of what it calls ‘pro-education funding’ candidates.”

US Expected To Fall Short In Computer Science Education.
Education Week (7/14, Robelen) reports, “National statistics indicate that computing will be one of the fastest-growing areas for employment in coming years, but experts say the US educational pipeline is expected to fall far short in producing college graduates in the field.” Also, “representation of female and minority students among those studying computer science in high school and college is seen as especially low.” Experts say the confusion of computer science with computer literacy is “a major hurdle.” In order “to help address the apparent disconnect between supply and demand, efforts are building to increase access at the pre-collegiate level to high-quality instruction in computer science, a cross-cutting subject that includes elements of math, science, and other disciplines.” Among these efforts are “a new AP course in computer science that is intended to appeal to a broader and more diverse audience than the existing course,” and initiatives from companies such as Google and Microsoft.

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In the Classroom
DC Test Scores Show Mixed Progress.
The Washington Post (7/14, Turque) reports, “After two years of significant gains across the D.C. school system, elementary students lost ground in reading and math test scores this year, a setback to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee as she seeks to overhaul the city’s schools. The data released Tuesday did reflect encouraging news for middle and high schools, which extended gains in reading and math proficiency on the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System.” Though officials have said the “the three-year record of double-digit growth in secondary schools’ test scores — an average gain of 14 percentage points in the reading pass rate and 17 points in the math rate — surpasses the norm for big urban school districts,” the “dip of between four to five points in elementary scores halts an upward two-year trend.”

Montana District Proposes Sex Education Beginning In Kindergarten.
Fox News (7/13) reported on its website that Montana’s Helena Public School District’s proposal to teach “kindergartners sex education will be up for debate Tuesday evening at a school board meeting.” The proposal “includes teaching first graders that people can be attracted to the same gender. In second grade students are instructed to avoid gay slurs and by the time students turn 10 years old they are taught about various types of intercourse.” The plan has sparked outrage from some in the community like Jeff Laszloffy, of the Montana Family Foundation, who says that it crosses the line between “education and indoctrination.”

Olympic Medalist To Teach Swimming To Baltimore Summer Learning Academy Students.
The Baltimore Sun (7/14, Green) reports that “Baltimore native and 14-time gold medal Olympian Michael Phelps” will give a swim lesson to summer school students in the city on Wednesday. The lesson will “kick off a partnership between the city schools’ Summer Learning Academy and the Michael Phelps Swim School. The swim school will give 60 middle school students up to 20 hours of swim lessons donated by its coaches.

NAEP Scores Improve When Students Are Paid, Study Shows.
Debra Viadero wrote in a blog for Education Week (7/13), “A new study has hit on one possible way to improve 12th graders’ dismal scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Pay them to take the test.” Viadero added that the study, authored by Boston College’s Henry Braun and Irwin Kirsch and Kentaro Yamamoto of the Educational Testing Service, involved three groups of students, seniors who “were paid $20 at the start of the test-taking session” seniors who were “offered $5 in advance and $30 at the end of the session if they correctly answered two randomly chosen questions on the test” and a control group that “received no special incentives.” The study found that “both of the monetary incentives spurred students to do better than they might have otherwise, although the second condition, in which part of the payout hinged on the students getting answers correct, proved to be the stronger incentive.”

On the Job
Former Astronaut Urges Educators To Counter Stereotypes, Humanize STEM Careers.
The Chicago Daily Herald (7/14, Daday) reports, “Former NASA astronaut Sally Ride flew into Motorola’s Schaumburg campus on Tuesday in time to headline the company’s 2010 Innovation Generation Network Conference,” and “in doing so…practiced what she preaches: to put a face to the wide variety of scientists and engineers working in innovative fields, who come from different backgrounds, and are of different ages and ethnicities.” Ride told her audience, “Counter stereotypes early, and introduce (these scientists and engineers) as real people…so students can humanize these careers.” Much of Ride’s audience was “educators and Motorola grant recipients,” notes the Daily Herald. The Motorola Foundation “announced this week it has given out more than $7.5 million to promote STEM education programs…across the country.”

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Law & Policy
Survey Shows Texans Want Reform Of Process For Changing Curriculum.
TWEAN-TV Austin, Texas (7/14) reports that the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (TFN) this week “released the results of its statewide survey into education and curriculum issues in Texas.” In a statement, the TFN said that survey results show “Texans overwhelmingly support reforming the way the state sets requirements for curriculum and textbooks in public schools and reject key ‘culture war’ positions [conservative board members have] taken regarding public education.”

Terrence Stutz wrote in the Dallas Morning News (7/13) “Trail Blazers” blog, “Nearly three out of four Texans want to see curriculum standards for public schools written by teachers and scholars – not the State Board of Education – according to” the poll. Also, 68 percent of the 601 “likely Texas voters” who participated in the poll “said separation of church and state is a key legal principle, but 49 percent also said religion should have more influence in the schools.” The poll also showed that “80 percent want high school students to be taught about contraceptives in health classes and 55 percent oppose publicly funded vouchers to let students attend private and religious schools.” The San Antonio Express News (7/13, Scharrer) reported that “the poll surveyed 972 likely voters and was conducted by Washington-based Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.” Kate Alexander also covered the story in Texas’ American Statesman (7/13) “Postcards” blog.

Maryland Governor Proposes Waiving AP, PSAT Test Fees.
The Baltimore Sun (7/14, Bowie) reports that Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) “wants to remove the financial hurdles that he says prevent more students from taking the Advanced Placement and PSAT tests by having the state pay for them. … Since the AP test fee is already waived for poor students,” O’Malley’s “proposal would only benefit middle-class and wealthy families who pay $86 for each test.” According to the Sun, “Baltimore City and Prince George’s County already pay the cost for all students in their systems who take the test” and O’Malley “also would have the state pick up the cost of giving the PSAT to all sophomores.”

Federal School Lunch Program Viewed As A Waste Of Taxpayer Dollars.
The Washington Times (7/14) editorializes, “Although the $19.2 billion federal child nutrition program already hands out free or subsidized breakfast, lunch and snacks to 32 million kids,” a bill slated to be considered today by the House Education and Labor Committee “would open up the freebies to millions more” as the “Obama administration has pledged another $10 billion in spending over 10 years.” However, the “school-meal initiative has become a typical government welfare program, riddled with fraud and waste. … Instead of expanding the multi-billion-dollar boondoggle, Congress should think about getting the federal government out of the free-lunch business.”

Many Eligible Students Do Not Participate In Federal School Meal Summer Program. Miami Herald (7/13, Pugh) reported that “for the 19 million students” nationwide “who get free and reduced-cost government-subsidized meals at school, the summer months can also mean an unhealthy vacation from good nutrition.” In 1968, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program “was launched in 1968 to address these problems by providing healthy meals from June to August so students in low-income areas are ready to learn when school begins in the fall.” But today, that program “isn’t reaching nearly as many youngsters as it could.” According to data from the Food Research and Action Center, “only one in six eligible students…participated in a summer meal program in July 2009,” about a 21 percent drop from 2001.

Safety & Security
Drug Testing Reduces Students’ Drug Use, Federal Study Finds.
Education Week (7/13, Samuels) reported, “Students involved in extracurricular activities and subject to in-school random drug testing reported less substance use than their peers in high schools that didn’t have drug-testing programs, according a federal evaluation of 4,700 students spread across seven states. The study was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, a branch of” the Education Department, “and conducted by RMC Research Corporation in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. and the Princeton, New Jersey-based Mathematica Policy Research.” Education Week added that according to the report 16 percent “of students subject to drug testing in the study reported using substances covered by their district’s testing program in the past 30 days, compared to 22 percent of comparable students in schools without the program.”

Also in the News
“Silly Stunts” Help Motivate Students, Educators Say.
The AP (7/13) reported that each year, “school administrators…make local headlines for silly stunts intended to motivate students.” They “do everything from spending the day on the roof to kissing pigs to taking pies in the face to reward students for a job well done.” Diane Cargile, president of the NAESP, “The antics really help ‘motivate and encourage’” students. Barbara Sistrunk, “an assistant principal who jumped out of a plane when the Parent Teacher Association at Greenland Pines Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida, met their parent participation goals,” such “over-the-top acts underscore a principal’s commitment to the school” and they “grab students’ attention.” For instance, “after Sistrunk’s sky dive,” a student at Greenland Pines “decided to do her science project on what type of fabric makes the best parachute.”

Former Students Using Facebook To Recognize Teachers Decades Later.
The New York Times (7/14, Feinstein) reports, “At a time when public school teachers are being blamed for everything from poor test scores to budget crises, Facebook is one place where they are receiving adulation, albeit delayed. The site has drawn more attention as a platform for adolescent meanness and bullying, and as a vehicle for high school and college students to ruthlessly dissect their teachers.” However, “people who are 20, 30 or 40 years beyond graduation are using Facebook to re-establish relationships with teachers and express gratitude and overdue respect.”

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NEA in the News
“Clinton 12″ Receive NEA “Rosa Parks Memorial Award.”
WBIR-TV Knoxville (7/14, Dreher) reports that “54 years ago…Jo Ann Boyce and the ‘Clinton 12′ made their way to Clinton High School, the first school in the Southeast to integrate.” This month, the Clinton 12 received the NEA “Rosa Parks Memorial Award.” That the award comes from teachers is significant to Boyce, because, she said, “It was the teachers who were the strongest on our side; best pals, best buddies, tried to help us through the whole process in 1956.”

Report Shows Many Districts Expect To Cut Teaching Jobs As Stimulus Funds Run Out.
Education Week (7/15, Aarons) reports, “School districts have used federal economic-stimulus money to help ameliorate the effects of the economic recession and keep their teaching staffs employed, even as their overall budgets decreased. But the looming end of that funding means 75 percent of the nation’s school districts expect to cut teaching jobs in the 2010-11 school year, according to a report published today by the Center on Education Policy.” According to Education Week, the report finds that districts “are worried about the upcoming ‘funding cliff’ when the stimulus funds run out; 60 percent reported when surveyed this spring that their districts had spent or expected to have spent all of the funds received by the end of the 2009-10 school year” and “the stimulus wasn’t enough to stop layoffs-45 percent of school districts reported cutting teaching jobs in the 2009-10 school year.”

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In the Classroom
In New Mexico, A Renewed Push For Career And Technical Education.
The AP (7/14) reported on “one point of view not touted by many educators these days: that having some students focus on a [CTE] track in high school, with no immediate plans for college, is OK.” The article examines the Santa Fe Public Schools, which “acknowledges and encourages students” to pursue technical education. “The district provides three tracks for high school students, depending on whether a student plans to: attend a ‘selective’ college such as private institutions with stringent admission standards; attend a ‘major college (or) university’ such as a state university; or pursue a technical career, community college or the military.” While districts vary in their approach, more New Mexico schools are encouraging “students to choose a career path.” A state education official “said the department encourages schools to focus on seven of 16 national career clusters that are relevant to the local economy.”

On the Job
Chicago Districts Offer Six-Figure Salaries To “Extraordinary Number” Of Teachers.
Chicago Tribune (7/15, Rado) reports, “An extraordinary number of public school teachers in the Chicago region earned $100,000 or more in 2009, straining school budgets and taxpayer wallets and fueling the debate over what teachers are worth and how they get raises.” The highest percentage of teachers taking home six-figure salaries is in the Township High School District 113, with nearly half of teachers earning $100,000 or more. “The highest-paying districts note that they are top performers that get accolades and national rankings, and they need to be competitive to attract top teachers as parents expect.” The Chicago Tribune notes, however,” that “the six-figure salaries highlight disparities that have persisted between rich and less wealthy communities in Illinois.”

Law & Policy
NCLB Impedes Language Preservation Efforts, Native American Leaders Say.
Education Week (7/14, Zehr) reported, “Native American leaders pressed members of Congress and federal education officials this week to provide relief from provisions of” No Child Left Behind “that they see as obstacles to running the language-immersion schools they need to keep their languages from disappearing. As part of a two-day national summit” in Washington, DC “on revitalizing native languages, three founders of immersion schools that are teaching children Cherokee, Ojibwe, and Native Hawaiian contended that some” NCLB “provisions present huge hurdles for language-immersion programs or schools and conflict with schooling rights spelled out in another federal law, the Native American Languages Act.” Education Week added, “In a face-to-face interaction at the summit, the founders of immersion schools petitioned Charles P. Rose, the general counsel of the US Department of Education], to give them a legal interpretation that exempts their schools from having to meet provisions of the NCLB law that require them to test their students in English, particularly in the early grades, and ensure that teachers are ‘highly qualified.’”

Illinois Bill Aims To Curb School Bullying.
The AP (7/14, McFarlan) reported that a new Illinois bill aims to make bullying “a thing of the past” and Illinois “school districts are joining the fight with new anti-bullying efforts that could make schools a safer place this fall. Senate Bill 3266, which took effect June 28, prohibits bullying in public school districts and nonpublic, nonsectarian elementary and secondary schools in the state of Illinois. … SB3266 also says school districts should educate students, parents and staff what behaviors constitute bullying” and the bill “requires each school district to create and maintain a policy on bullying that is updated every two years.”

Ohio Law Calls For Optional Pilot Exercise Program For Schools Next Year.
Ohio’s Suburban News Publications (7/14, Perrin) reported that last month, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) “signed the final version of Senate Bill 210 — the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act — into law.” Under the legislation, “the Ohio Department of Education will oversee an optional pilot program that requires K-12 schools to incorporate 30 minutes of physical activity into the school day beyond recess” starting “with the 2011-12 school year.” The Delaware News notes that early versions of the bill required that districts “add the 30 minutes of exercise. But lobbyists from organizations including the Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) balked at the idea of more unfunded state mandates and they lobbied against the requirement.” OASBO officials Barbara Shaner and Jennifer Economus sent “a March memo to the original bill’s sponsors” which said that “without additional funding, school districts simply cannot afford this mandate.”

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Safety & Security
Teacher Fired Over Drowning Death Of New York City Student.
The New York Times (7/15, Medina) reports, “A teacher was fired and two administrators were disciplined on Wednesday after an inquiry into the drowning of a 12-year-old girl on a field trip found fault with a Harlem school’s planning and supervision of the trip. The girl, Nicole Suriel, a sixth grader, was one of 24 students on a class trip June 22 to Long Beach, on Long Island, from Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science and Engineering, a middle school” in Manhattan. According to the Times, “An investigation by the city’s Department of Education found that officials at the school did a poor job planning the trip and failed to obtain the required

The New York Daily News (7/15, Monahan) adds that “Special Commissioner of Investigations Richard Condon laid out Nicole’s last hours as a series of disastrous mistakes” as teacher Erin Bailey, “the main chaperone, exercised ‘poor judgment’ by allowing kids into the churning ocean off Long Beach without a lifeguard” and there “weren’t specific permission slips, just ‘blanket’ slips from the start of the year that didn’t include swimming” Also, “Assistant Principal Andrew Stillman decided at the last minute not to go, staying behind to do administrative work.” New York City Education Department “officials will demote Stillman to a teaching position and seek to put Principal Jose Maldonado-Rivera on probation, they said.”

Facilities
Agreement Reached Over Where To Build New Schools In New York City.
Sharon Otterman wrote in a blog for the New York Times (7/14) that the New York City Department of Education “and the city teachers’ union announced a solution on Wednesday to a math equation that had been plaguing them since this spring: how to fit 16 new and expanding schools into space occupied by 19 existing schools. … Under the terms of the agreement, 9 of the 16 schools will open in the promised locations, alongside some of the saved schools” and in “exchange, the union pledged to not sue the city for placing new schools in the closing schools’ buildings, a matter that was left undecided in the lawsuit that could have been challenged.”

Also in the News
E-Education Providers Seek To Break Into Public Education Mainstream.
Education Week (7/14, Gustke) reported, “The for-profit e-learning company K12 Inc. grew 40 percent last year, generating $385 million in revenue by providing virtual courses to 70,000 students across the country” and “Connections Academy, another such provider, generated about $120 million in revenue serving up online courses to some 20,000 students.” According to Education Week, “Experts say for-profit providers of online courses-long seen as an option for home-schoolers and a potential rival to public schools-are breaking into the public education mainstream as more schools mix face-to-face classes and online courses to expand their curricular offerings. With demand for that ‘blended’ approach expected to grow, other players in the online-coursetaking marketplace, such as Apex Learning, Aventa Learning, Compass Learning, and Kaplan Virtual Education, are also seeking business in public schools.”

“Blast Sites” Offer Venue For Cyber Bullying Attacks.
WHBQ-TV Memphis (7/15, Lee) reports, “Cyber bullying is more common than ever with the popularity of what’s called ‘blast sites,’” which “name names and tell tales, usually of sexual exploits.” In Memphis, a blast site linked to Facebook “focuses on several Memphis City Schools and area colleges.” Site administrators, who are anonymous, say that Brutal Weeks “has become a form of entertainment for Memphis students.” Facebook told WHBQ that “it has a very aggressive campaign against cyber bullying sites, including a team that reviews when a page is reported, getting law enforcement involved if necessary.”

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NEA in the News
Teachers’ Unions Contribute More Money Toward Elections In Oregon Than Other States.
The Oregonian (7/14, Hammond) reported, “Teachers’ unions spent far more per teacher to influence elections in Oregon in 2008 than the unions spent in any other state, according to a study released” Wednesday by “the non-partisan education journal Education Next.” According to the Study, “the nation’s two large teachers’ unions and their state affiliates contributed $357 per teacher to elections in Oregon,” while the national average for states stood at $22 “about $22 worth of campaign contributions per teacher.” Most of the campaign dollars spent in Oregon went “to fight ballot measures backed by prolific initiative author and union nemesis Bill Sizemore.” The Oregonian added that “the Oregon Education Association contributed about $5.5 million to a coalition called Defend Oregon that fought a high-profile advertising battle against those measures,” and the NEA “pumped in another $3 million.”

Maryland State Education Association Touts O’Malley, Benefits Of Fair Negotiations Act.
Clara Floyd, president of the Maryland State Education Association, writes in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post (7/15) that “educators across Maryland — and across the country — celebrated Gov. Martin O’Malley’s (D) leadership on public education as he received the National Education Association’s America’s Greatest Education Governor Award” earlier this month. Floyd asserts that in a July 9 editorial, “The Post exhibited a profound misunderstanding of the reasons for the award as well as Maryland’s recently enacted Fairness in Negotiations Act (FINA), which governs collective bargaining in Maryland education.” She points out that “Mr. O’Malley’s budgets resulted in school construction investments more than double those during the previous administration,” and that he was honored by the NEA for providing “leadership, resources and respect for public education.” Floyd added that the Maryland State Education Association believes that FINA “will improve the efficiency of negotiations, allowing school employers and employees to devote more energy to teaching and learning.”

House Committee Approves Child Nutrition Act.
The AP (7/15, Jalonick) reported, “House Democrats are moving forward on first lady Michelle Obama’s vision for healthier school lunches, propelling legislation that calls for tougher standards governing food in school and more meals for hungry children.” On Thursday, the House Education and Labor Committee approved legislation that “would allow the Agriculture Department to create new standards for all food in schools, including vending machine items.” The measure “would also expand the number of low-income children eligible for free or reduced cost meals.”

Nia-Malika Henderson wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (7/15) that the First Lady “offered something of an olive branch and a pat on the back Thursday, releasing her first written statement on House legislation.” In the statement, she congratulated “the House Education and Labor Committee on the successful bipartisan passage of a child nutrition reauthorization bill,” and said, “The President looks forward to signing a final bill this year, so that we can make significant progress in improving the nutrition and health of children across our nation.’”

Jane Black wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (7/15) that the nutrition bill, called the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010, “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.”

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In the Classroom
Despite Furlough Days, Student Test Scores in Hawaii Show Improvement.
KITV-TV Honolulu (7/16) reports, “Hawaii public school student test scores went up this past year in every category except one, according to statistics released by the Department of Education on Thursday.” The improvements came “despite schools closing for furloughs 17 times this past school year.” Parent activist Jo Curran said that “the higher test results show a lot of teachers did extra work to help their students learn even with 17 fewer school days.” In addition to the increase in “overall scores…the number of schools that met the AYP standards rose also,” KITV adds.

On the Job
Florida School Grades Delayed For Second Audit Of Test Scores.
The St. Petersburg Times (7/16, Stanley) reports, “Florida school districts have learned that the release of individual school grades will be delayed so that a second company can audit FCAT scores that some superintendents have flagged as suspicious.” The Virginia-based auditing company HumRRO will be performing the second audit of FCAT scores. HumRRO “is a subcontractor for NCS Pearson, the testing giant in charge of scoring the test in the first place. Several school superintendents see [that] as a conflict of interest,” the Ledger adds. In addition to HumRRO, the State Department of Education has also “hired the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, also called the Center for Assessment, as an additional reviewer of the results.”

The Orlando Sentinel (7/16, Postal) reports, “Two days after five Florida superintendents asked the state to investigate ‘anomalies’ with this year’s FCAT, 41 other districts said they, too, have concerns with student performance on 2010 state tests.” The “districts say the data shows a decline in the percentage of students making gains — often a bigger drop than could be explained by normal, year-to-year fluctuations.” The Sentinel also noted that “school grades, which local officials expected out next week, won’t be released until the two outside audits are complete. One audit will look at learning gains and the other overall test design, among other issues.”

Workshop Aims To Help Teachers Use Modeling Skills.
The Clarksville (TN) Leaf Chronicle (7/15, Wallace) reports on a recent teacher workshop that was held as part of an effort to improve STEM education. The “workshop spotlighted a method called ‘modeling’ which essentially places the teacher as a facilitating guide to a student’s quest for cause and effect,” and has students learn through “observation and experiment.” Dennis Glass, a veteran educator and long-time teacher for modeling workshops, said that modeling skills are “a life long learning exercise.” Glass said, “We start the modeling approach in seventh grade for our students. There is no reluctance from them in high school because they are used to exploring the perimeters.” Glass also “pointed out the ‘modeling’ approach is especially critical ‘because we’ve had so many scientific discoveries like DNA.’”

Law & Policy
Duncan Pushes For Passage Of Teacher Jobs Bill.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (7/16, Bock) reports, “Missouri’s schools chief joined the nation’s top education official Thursday in support of $10 billion in emergency public school funding” needed to pay teachers. Roughly 3,200 “education jobs could be saved in Missouri with a bill currently under debate in Congress, state Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro said.” Nicastro and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters during a conference call that the legislation “would help states and school districts across the country save an estimated 100,000 or more education jobs during a tough budget year.” But, they say, “the money should not come at the cost of school reform programs such as Race to the Top.”

Reuters (7/16) adds that the President Obama has threatened to veto the $10 billion teacher jobs measure passed by the House as part of a defense spending bill if the final version contains cuts to Race to the Top and other education reform programs. According to Reuters, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the proposed legislation would cut $500 million from Race to the Top. According to the NEA, the extra funding would preserve about 138,000 school jobs nationwide.

Advocates Say Improved Test Scores Show Diversity Policy Benefited North Carolina District.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (7/15, Hui) reported that “preliminary results released on Wednesday showed” increased “performance by Wake students in elementary, middle and high school on state exams this past school year, with the racial achievement gap narrowing.” Advocates of school diversity are pointing to the academic gains as proof that “the Wake school board majority…didn’t need to discard the decades-long policy of maintaining socioeconomic balance in schools.” Last Spring, the board majority voted “to eliminate the diversity policy and is now developing a new model designed to send students to schools closer to their homes.” Member John Tedesco said that the test results do not “prove that the assignment model works.” Instead, he says, they prove “that teachers are making it work for our students.”

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Special Needs
Parents Press For “Sustainable” Autistic Education Program In California District.
California’s Sun (7/16, Lovell) reports that “a group of parents” in the Redlands school district are pressing officials to create “a more suitable academic program for their autistic children.” The parents complain that there is currently “no program in the district for children with autism” and that none of the special education options available “are appropriate” for autistic children. “At a board meeting last month, seven parents and advocates” specified what “they want to see for their children: a class free of noisy distractions and confusion, a teacher who has been trained to work with children with autism, lessons in social interaction, and challenging and stimulating assignments.” Until these requests are met, they say they will continue “using the public comment sessions of the city’s Board of Education meetings to voice concerns.”

Safety & Security
“Pools 4 Schools” Provides Swimming Safety Lessons To Schoolchildren.
The Toronto Star (7/15, Monsebraaten) reported, “One of the main barriers to teaching swimming safety to every Ontario elementary school student is the lack of easy access to pools, physical education experts say.” In 2009, British Gas launched the “Pools 4 Schools” program “to solve the costly and time-consuming problem of busing school children to pools for lessons.” The program, “partly funded by the British government, provides 12-metre by 6-metre portable pools that can be assembled in school halls or gymnasiums on a temporary basis.” Now Pierre Lafontaine, CEO of Swimming Canada, is urging school officials in Canada to consider a similar solution.

Also in the News
Some Schools Stock Vending Machines With Healthy Foods.
The AP (7/16, Locke) reports, “Efforts to get empty calories out of students’ hands are being made in almost every state, according to the Centers for Disease Control.” According to the AP, food “in the lunch and breakfast programs must meet nutritional standards to qualify for federal reimbursement, but food sold in other school venues, including vending machines, aren’t subject to those requirements,” however, starting “this fall, one machine is being piloted in a San Francisco high school that will offer full, reimbursable, meals – fruit, vegetable, milk, sandwich.” The AP adds, “Healthier snack machines are showing up all over” as “Jolly Backer, CEO of San Diego-based Fresh Healthy Vending, says the company has machines in 1,700 locations, including schools, across the United States.”

Virginia District’s Nutrition Program Named Best In Nation. Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (7/15) that Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools’ “nutrition program was named best in the country by the nonprofit School Nutrition Association. Fairfax’s Food and Nutrition Services Department, the largest child nutrition feeding program in Virginia, was recognized this week for its commitment to creating nutritious and appealing meals to kids, and for the way it has implemented nutrition education initiatives.” Strauss added, “Peggy McConnell, the district’s Food and Nutrition Services director, accepted the award of $25,000 at the association’s annual conference, money that will be used to improve the program.”

Gates Foundation Shifts Focus From Class Size To Teacher Quality.
Bloomberg News (7/16, Golden) reports that while the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “efforts in global health are widely applauded, its record in America’s schools has been more controversial. Starting in 2000, the Gates Foundation spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its first big project, trying to revitalize US high schools by making them smaller, only to discover that student body size has little effect on achievement.” However, the Gates Foundation “has since shifted its considerable weight behind an emerging consensus-shared by US Education Secretary and Gates ally Arne Duncan-that quality of teaching affects student performance and that increasing achievement is as simple as removing bad teachers, identifying good ones, and rewarding them with more money.”

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NEA in the News
Thirty-Year Teaching Veteran To Head Utah Education Association.
Utah’s Deseret Morning News (7/16) reports that Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, a teacher with more than 30 years experience, “was elected as the new president of the Utah Education Association by fellow educators in a statewide vote in May.” In 2009, Gallagher-Fishbaugh “was named the 2009 Utah Teacher of the Year by the state Office of Education, and” this year, she “was awarded the National Education Association Foundation’s top honor…the $25,000 NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence.”

North Carolina District Divided Over School Diversity.
The AP (7/19) reported that integration “came relatively peacefully” to schools in Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital, and almost “50 years passed — mostly uneventfully, at least until a new school board majority was elected last year on a platform supporting community schools.” According to the AP, “The result has been turmoil” as the “superintendent resigned in protest” and a “coalition of residents and civil rights groups filed suit.” In addition, numerous “rallies, news conferences and candlelight vigils” have been organized “against the feared ‘resegregation’ of the state’s largest school district.” The conflict revolves around the Raleigh school board’s decision to dismantle a busing policy designed to maintain the racial and socioeconomic diversity of district schools.

North Carolina General Assembly Forms Study Commission To Examine School Diversity Issue. The Raleigh News & Observer (7/19, Hui) reports, “The bitter battle over Wake County’s move toward neighborhood schools is moving into the hands of state legislators, who could recommend that school districts adopt diversity policies.” The General Assembly has created “a legislative study commission charged with seeing whether diversity helps public schools and whether the state should help it along by changing the way schools are funded.” The commission will look into “what effect diverse schools have on closing the performance gap between white and minority students, as well as the effect on parental involvement and student discipline.” In addition, “the commission will also see how diverse schools do academically compared to schools with homogeneous populations.”

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In the Classroom
Illinois Cancels Most Writing Tests.
The Chicago Tribune (7/18, Rado) reports, “For the second time in less than a decade, Illinois is eliminating the state writing exam for elementary and junior high students, provoking concerns that writing instruction will taper off and fewer students will master the critical skill.” Officials say that “canceling the writing test this year will save $3.5 million at a time when cuts are being forced in a variety of education programs.” The Tribune noted that “a writing exam is not required under federal education law that focuses on testing students in reading and math.” Illinois will keep “the 11th grade writing test…because some universities require a writing exam of applicants.”

Engineering Program For Middle Schoolers Growing In Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin State Journal (7/18, Cotant) reported on the Gateway to Engineering program for middle school students at East High School and Memorial High School. The program, “designed as a bridge to Project Lead the Way Pathway to Engineering” in area high schools, is attracting more students in its third year and, in some cases, creating waiting lists. The program allows children to “do a puzzle cube project, which involved coming up with ways to put together 27 cubes of wood in five sections according to certain rules and creating an isometric drawing and a computer rendition.” They also create robot cars and “take a field trip and design an invention.” The Journal pointed out that the four-day, $100 program has reduced costs “because of grants from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics grant from the state Department of Public Instruction.”

Maryland Officials Weigh Environmental Education Graduation Mandate.
Education Week (7/16, Robelen) reported, “Top state officials in Maryland are promoting a plan that would make the study of environmental education a requirement for all students to graduate from the state’s public high schools.” Even though “many schools have long included environmental literacy in the curriculum,” Donald R. Baugh of the Chesapeake Foundation said “that implementation has never reached all schools.” Moreover, he noted “that the proposed new requirement…’provides much greater guidance regarding appropriate high school instruction and requires school systems to provide professional development for teachers to assist them in meeting the requirement.’” The proposal also “gives districts considerable leeway in how they choose to bring environmental education into classrooms,” according to Baugh.

On the Job
Teachers In Virginia Take On Internships Increase Classroom Skills.
The Washington Post (7/19, Gibson) reports on teachers who are working in different jobs this summer “as part of the George Washington University Teachers in Industry Project — a program that has paired 16 middle and high school teachers from Loudoun public schools with seven prominent local businesses for three-week, full-time internships this summer.” Their goal is to back up their teaching skills in STEM classes with “real-world experience.” The teachers are working in “emergency medicine, airport management” as well as a vineyard. The Post notes, “The idea emerged from a group of 40 Loudoun business and education leaders who were convened by the Loudoun Economic Development Commission in 2008 to address the issue of impending workforce shortages resulting from the retirement of baby boomers, and how best to prepare students for the 21st-century workforce.”

Training Program Brings California Teachers To East Coast To Tour Historical Sites.
California’s Imperial Valley Press (7/18, Flores) reported that a group of teachers from Imperial County, California recently toured historic landmarks on the East Coast “on the Imperial Teaching American History (ITAH) Civil War Battlefields Tour 2010 this month. The weeklong trip, which was paid for by federal funds from a bill sponsored by late Sen. Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia, was sponsored by the Imperial County Office of Education as professional development.” The tour culminated “a year of intensive study and other development training” that included “a six-day summer institute, three days of Saturday technology training, and three afternoons of book seminars.” In addition, the “teachers read important Civil War literature, designed curriculum and wrote lesson plans,” said Michele Soria, the history-social science school support coordinator for ITAH.

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Law & Policy
Georgia District Prohibits Use Of Social Media Websites To Combat Cyber Bullying.
The Augusta (GA) Chronicle (7/17, Sparks) reported that beginning this fall, “blogging or using such social media Web sites as Facebook or Twitter will be prohibited in Richmond County classrooms,” except “when such activity is tied to the student’s curriculum.” Richmond County School System made up the new rule in “response to a new state law on bullying that will go into effect in the 2011-12 school year.” The law will require “school boards to adopt a policy prohibiting” online bullying “in their student code of conduct.” The Chronicle adds that the new law lists bullying as “an act which occurs on school property, on school vehicles, at designated school bus stops, or at school related functions or activities, or by use of data or software that is accessed through a computer, computer system, computer network or other electronic technology of a local school system.”

WRDW-TV (7/19, Calhoun) reports that Richmond County public schools “will be installing a new computer software to help block any social networking websites. When it comes to cell phones, students aren’t even allowed to have those on school grounds, so logging on through your cell phone is really off limits.”

Wisconsin Court Says Teacher E-mails Are Private.
The AP (7/16, Bauer) reported, “Wisconsin government employees can safely send personal e-mail messages on their work computers without worrying that they will have to make them public, under a ruling Friday by the state Supreme Court.” The ruling states that “just because a public employee uses a work computer to send an e-mail, it doesn’t automatically make that message subject to the state open records law.” The AP added, In her majority ruling, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson noted that “no state has ruled that private e-mails should be subject to open records disclosure.”

Circuit Court To Reconcile Verdicts On Two Student Free Speech Cases.
Pennsylvania’s Express Times (7/18, McEvoy) reported that “in February, panels of judges on the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals considered two separate cases with virtually identical circumstances, but came to opposite decisions.” In one case, a student in the Hermitage School District “a mock MySpace profile of a principal,” calling him various names. “A federal judge ruled that school officials overreacted by suspending [the student] from school.” In the second case, a student in the Blue Mountain school District “described a principal on a fake MySpace profile as a pedophile and a sex addict.” In that case, “a federal judge upheld a 10-day suspension of the student.” Last month, the “Third Circuit court heard testimony in both cases…and will reconcile the two decisions.” The court’s decision “has not yet been rendered,” the Express Times noted.

Federal Food Service Program Underutilized.
McClatchy (7/18, Pugh) reported, “Educators have long cautioned that students can lose much of what they learn in school during the three-month summer vacation” yet the “summer months can also mean an unhealthy vacation from good nutrition.” According to McClatchy, “The Summer Food Service Program of the US Department of Agriculture was launched in 1968 to address these problems by providing healthy meals from June to August so students in low-income areas are ready to learn when school begins in the fall. However, the program, which reimburses sponsors for providing breakfast, lunch and snacks in impoverished neighborhoods, isn’t reaching nearly as many youngsters as it could” as “only one in six eligible students…participated in a summer meal program in July 2009, according to the Food Research and Action Center.”

School Finance
Georgia Teacher Layoffs Widen Financial Stress.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7/18, Kanell) reported that “as teacher layoffs ripple across Georgia, the cuts mean financial stress among thousands of households, but also trouble for the larger economy. The equation is simple – and circular: Layoffs and pay cuts reduce government costs, but also undermine the spending that produces the taxes that government relies on for revenue.” According to the Journal-Constitution, “The precise impact is hard to calculate” as the “state is cutting jobs while slashing its contributions to hundreds of school districts that make their own cuts.”

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Also in the News
Critics Say Nevada’s Reciprocity, Alternative Certification Rules Discourage Applicants.
The Las Vegas Sun (7/18, Richmond) reported, “When it comes to teacher licensing, Nevada offers reciprocity with many states, which means teachers who are in good standing can move and resume their careers, albeit with certain conditions.” In addition, it offers “an ‘alternative route to licensure’ program to encourage people who have a bachelor’s degree to consider teaching.” But, according to critics, “Nevada’s reciprocity regulations are too rigid to truly encourage the kind of diversity the profession needs,” and the “alternative path isn’t much shorter than the traditional one, which discourages would-be applicants.” State education officials, meanwhile, say they are faced with the challenge of bringing “top teachers to Nevada without lowering the professional bar.”

Battle Over Teacher Tenure Looms As Budget Shortfalls Prompt Mass Layoffs.
Newsweek (7/17, Wingert, Thomas) reported, “Education reformers were feeling optimistic” as “they’ve made real progress in weeding out poor teachers” amid the ongoing Race to the Top federal stimulus competition. However, “reformers have spotted a dark cloud on the horizon” as state “budgets, particularly in badly managed big states like California, New York, and New Jersey, are out of control” and “stimulus money is running out,” which “means teacher layoffs are coming-perhaps more than 100,000 nationwide.” Though in “most states, union contracts or state law requires they be done by seniority, so the newest teachers are pink-slipped, no matter how good they are,” the “Chicago School Board, handpicked by the Windy City’s tough-minded Mayor Richard M. Daley, has interpreted a new state law as giving it the power to fire the city’s 200 most incompetent teachers first.”

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