Perdue Will Appoint Special Investigator To Probe Cheating In Atlanta Schools. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/19, Badertscher, Torres) reports that Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) will appoint a special investigator to look into allegations of “cheating in Atlanta Public Schools (APS).” The investigator will report results to the state Board of education, and, if necessary, forward results “to law enforcement for possible criminal investigation,” Perdue said at a press conference on Wednesday. Atlanta schools spokesman Keith Bromery responded to the governor’s announcement yesterday, saying, “APS welcomes the Governor’s call for a special investigator to look into this matter, and the district will fully cooperate with all aspects of that investigation.”

WAGA-TV Atlanta (8/19) reports that Perdue called previous “probes into alleged cheating on” state tests “woefully inadequate.” WSB-TV Atlanta (8/19) quotes Perdue as saying, “This overwhelming statistical data was met with, as you saw, no wrong doing and no testing violations. … Not only was the investigation in APS lacking in both scope and depth, but the district’s response report completed by the blue ribbon commission has also been unacceptable.”

Organization Withholds Grants To Atlanta Teachers. WGCL-TV Atlanta (8/19, Mayerle) reports that as a result of the cheating controversy, some “APS teachers and principals given an award for excellence in education may never see their monetary award.” More than a dozen APS teachers and principals won “grants from Atlanta Families’ Award for Excellence in Education.” The organization has awarded $2,500 for a school project, “but postponed giving the rest after the” cheating scandal broke.

House Approves $26 Billion Jobs Bill. The New York Times (8/11, A14, Huse) reports that the US House yesterday approved “$26 billion in aid to school districts and states to prevent large-scale layoffs of teachers and public employees.” After the Senate passed the bill last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House “back into session…to approve the bill.” In addition to saving the jobs of “tens of thousands of public school teachers” and public employees, the bill will also “help distressed states provide health care to the poor.”

The Washington Post (8/11, Montgomery, Anderson) reports that according to some lawmakers and administration officials, “the package of state aid is likely to be the last major effort at economic stimulus — at least until after November congressional elections.” Overall, some 300,000 jobs are expected to be preserved under the bill.

Education Week (8/10, Klein) reported that $10 billion of the $26 billion aid bill that “is headed to President Barack Obama’s desk” will go toward “states and school districts to avert educator layoffs and hire new staff members.” In addition, the bill includes “a $10.7 million cut to Ready to Teach, which finances telecommunications-based professional-development programs for educators and educational videos; an $82 million cut to student financial-aid administration; and a $50 million cut to Striving Readers, which underwrites adolescent-literacy programs.”

The Providence Journal (8/11) reports that according to Larry Purtill, president of the NEA of Rhode Island “the money will help bring back laid-off educators and protect the jobs of hundreds of teachers and support staff whose jobs are in jeopardy.” In East Providence alone, he added, more than 30 teachers lost their jobs.

Below is today’s article about the return of Dr. Lewis to the district. I am quoted in this article; however, the entire quote I made was not included. What I stated to the reporter is that the district knew back in June that Dr. Lewis won his case. The decision came in on that Wednesday morning, and they hired a new principal Wednesday evening, knowing that they lost the case. My opinion was then, and it continues today, that the district should have cut their loses and appointed him as the principal of the High School. Instead, they now have two (2) principals that will be in the Middle School at $140,000 a piece. They could have rehired two teachers and two support staff members with that money and the creation of this new position of “principal on special assignment”. Once again, the children in our district suffer with less in class support and the taxpayers foot the bill. That’s every taxpayer in the State of New Jersey. I’m glad he won his case because it makes the tenure law that much more important to all that are protected by this law. Read on in the article. I also contacted Nancy Shields to correct my statements.

Ousted Asbury Park schools chief to return as principal – Link
By NANCY SHIELDS • STAFF WRITER • August 9, 2010

ASBURY PARK — Antonio Lewis, who twice lost his job as schools superintendent, is expected to return in an administrative capacity now that the state education commissioner agreed that he retained his tenure rights as a middle school principal.

Bret Schundler, the education commissioner, last week adopted an administrative law judge’s decision in which Lewis retained his rights as a middle school principal and the city Board of Education is required to give him a job for which he is qualified.

State Test Pass Rates See Sharp Decline In New York City. The New York Times (7/29, Medina) reports on its front page, “Applying new, tougher standards,” New York “state education officials said Wednesday that more than half of public school students in New York City failed their English exams this year, and 54 percent of them passed in math.” But, according to state education officials, the results were “misleading” because scores from previous years “were inflated by tests that had become easier to pass.” In math, “61 percent of state students were deemed passing, or at grade level” this year, “compared with 86 percent last year.” And in English, 53 percent of students passed, “down from 77 percent.” New York’s Post-Standard (7/29, Doran, Nolan) and WNYC-FM New York City (7/28) also covered the story.

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On the Job
Pittsburgh Public Schools Hosts Inaugural New Teacher Induction Program. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (7/28, Weigand) reported, “Students and parents on Tuesday helped about 80 Pittsburgh Public Schools teachers better understand what students need, as part of the district’s inaugural three-week teacher induction program.” The rookie teachers, each with no “more than three years’ experience, toured city neighborhoods and visited community organizations.” The tour was meant to inform the teachers about resources available in the community.

DC Schools Chief Fires 241 Teachers With Poor Scores Under New Evaluation System. The Washington Post (7/24, Turque) reported, “D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system” called IMPACT. The firings commence “Rhee’s bid to make student achievement a high-stakes proposition for teachers, establishing job loss as a possible consequence of poor classroom results,” according to the Post. The teachers union “said Friday that it will contest the terminations.” However, “poor evaluations are generally not subject to appeal unless the union can demonstrate some procedural error in the appraisal process.”

The New York Times (7/24, A8, Levin) reported that in a statement, Rhee said “Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher – in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in [DC].” In all, 302 school employees were fired. In addition to the teachers, “librarians, counselors, custodians and other employees” were also dismissed. The Times notes that “Friday’s dismissals were not the chancellor’s first. In the 2007-8 school year, a district spokesman said, 79 teachers were fired for poor performance, and in 2008-9, 96 were.”

CNN (7/24, Holland) noted on its website that “under the IMPACT program, teachers were judged on five classroom observation visits by principals and outside education experts.