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. The teachers also learned about “philosophies and curriculum unique to the district, as well as strategies for classroom management and engaging students.”

Educator Says “Value-Added” Measures For Evaluating DC Teachers Are Flawed.
Aaron Pallas, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (7/28), “We live in an age of accountability and transparency – and yet some school districts seem not to be playing by the rules. I recently wrote about the lack of accountability in the way districts report how they calculate teacher ‘value-added’ measures that are used for medium-stakes and high-stakes personnel decisions (such as granting teachers tenure or firing them).” Pallas goes on to “illustrate how value-added scores may have been misused in the termination of 26 teachers in the D.C Public Schools last week and the classifying of hundreds of other general education teachers in grades four through eight as ‘minimally effective.’”

DC Teacher Dismissal Policies Analyzed. Former UCLA School of Education lecturer Walt Gardner wrote in a blog for Education Week (7/28), “When Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 241 teachers in Washington D.C. on July 23, the news was heralded as evidence that true accountability was finally a reality because the evaluation system used is considered one of the most rigorous in the nation,” yet “like most controversial issues in education, there’s more to the story than initially meets the eye.” According to Gardner, “Rhee acknowledged that she didn’t know how many teachers were fired for low student achievement on standardized tests, and how many were dismissed for poor classroom performance” and this “is a crucial distinction. Despite what is widely believed, these are not necessarily interchangeable criteria.”

Law & Policy
Second Suit Filed Against Pennsylvania District Over Alleging Laptop Spying.
The AP (7/28) reported, “A second lawsuit has been filed against a suburban Philadelphia school district accused of spying on students through cameras in school-issued laptop computers. Jalil Hasan, who graduated from Lower Merion High School last spring, says the school district activated remote-tracking software after he left the laptop at school Dec. 18.” According to the AP, “The suit alleges that more than 1,000 photos were taken, 469 from the webcam and 543 screen shots. Attorney Mark Haltzman is representing Hasan and his family, as well as the family that filed the original lawsuit against the district in February.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (7/29, Nunnally) adds that Hasan’s “suit joins one filed in February by Blake Robbins, a student at Harriton High School, and for the first time draws in Lower Merion High School, where Jalil Hasan was a senior.” According to the Inquirer, the “cases are similar in their broad outlines” as the “electronic monitoring began after school-issued computers were reported missing” and in “both cases, the system was simply left on long after the laptops were recovered. Hundreds of photos and screen shots were captured on a predetermined schedule.” KOTV-TV Tulsa (7/28, Surette) also covered this story in a report on its Web site.

Illinois District Loses Chance At $22 Million After Quinn Vetoes School Funding Bill.
Illinois’ Courier News (7/28, McFarlan) reported, “Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have brought an estimated $22 million more in state funding this year to Elgin School District U46.” Each year, the district “misses out on millions…because the state uses estimated data to determine the funding it gets.” Under Senate Bill 2499 the state would have had to use “the actual property tax cap rate of Cook County, rather than an estimate.”

The Chicago Daily Herald (7/28, Lester) reported that in a message to the Senate, Quinn wrote, “I cannot approve a measure that would boost state aid to one district at the expense of others.” State Rep. Keith Farnham (D) issued a statement pledging to work next fall “to override [the] veto in a speedy manner and bring U-46 the funding it deserves.” He added, “I understand that all schools need more money, but our community has been unfairly losing out.” Illinois’ Winfield Press (7/29, Bruno) notes that “the state owes U-46 about $24 million on top of the money they lost from the bill’s veto. The district is expected to begin the school year more than $40 million in the hole.”

Senate Majority Leader Seeks Passage Of Child Nutrition Bill Before Recess.
Mike Lillis wrote in a blog for The Hill (7/28), “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said this week that Democrats are hoping to pass a child nutrition bill before lawmakers leave town for the August recess. The $4.5 billion proposal, sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), would expand eligibility for school meal programs; establish nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools; and provide a 6-cent increase for each school lunch to help cafeterias serve healthier meals.”

School Bus Seat Belt Bill Languishes In Massachusetts Legislature.
The Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette (7/29, Monahan) reports that a bill that “would require shoulder straps in school busses within two years” in Massachusetts is currently active in the state’s house, but “few lawmakers have heard about the legislation and there is little momentum to pass it. The bill is competing with hundreds of other bills with high-profile legislative battles raging among lawmakers on expanded gambling, economic development, health care cost-cutting, drug sentencing and criminal record and gun-buying restrictions, with only four days left for formal sessions in this two-year legislative session.”

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School Finance
Concessions From Teachers Would Save Chicago Public Schools $446 Million.
The Chicago Tribune (7/29, Ahmed) reports, “Chicago Public Schools officials have suggested a list of concessions from its teachers to close a $370 million budget hole, including unpaid holidays, frozen wages, and unpaid school recesses.” The district would save a total of almost $446 million “if all eight suggestions were implemented.” The proposals would also keep the district from having to increase class sizes. “Already, 600 teachers have received pink slips because of budget constraints,” the Tribune notes.

Oregon District Turns To Grants, Donations To Fund Construction Projects.
Oregon’s Statesman Journal (7/28, Ruttan) reported, “At a time of funding crises and recession, school districts have been putting extra focus on grant writing to sustain programs and to pay for building projects.” The North Santiam School District, for instance, has in the past two years “raised $600,000 to $700,000 for a variety of projects” through grants and donations. In addition, it has “been ramping up partnerships with businesses and organizations in the community like Friends of the Family, Santiam Family YMCA, Stayton Cooperative Telephone Company (SCTC) and Slayden Construction.”

Also in the News
Condoleezza Rice, Aretha Franklin Perform Duet In Support Of School Arts Programs.
The AP (7/28) reported that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and singer Aretha Franklin “took the stage Tuesday evening at Philadelphia’s Mann Music Center in a rare duet for Rice, the classically trained pianist, and Franklin, the divalicious voice of a generation. Their aim was to raise money for urban children and awareness for music and the arts.” According to the AP, Franklin “deplored school budget cuts of music and arts programs as ‘a travesty’ that cannot be allowed” and “Rice, in a separate interview, agreed.”

Announcement Of India’s $35 Laptop Prototype Met With Skepticism.
Wright Bryan wrote in the NPR (7/28) “All Tech Considered” blog, “Despite the ever-decreasing cost of computing power and components,” India’s announcement last week that it “has prototyped a $35 Linux-powered tablet” was met with some skepticism. For example, “education technology leading light” Gary Stager posted on Twitter, “Newsflash: India invents schools so its children have a place to store their useless ‘$35 laptops.’ #vaporware.” When Bryan asked Stager several questions about India’s invention, Stager mentioned the One Laptop per Child project, saying, “It now appears that ‘mine’s bigger’ has been replaced with ‘mine’s cheaper.’” And, “when asked what defines an effective computing tool for education,” Stager said, “Since the only functionality of the “device” is communication and information access (the low-hanging fruit of education), where will that connectivity come from? At what price? How much time will be spent haggling over which information children can or can’t have access to?”

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NEA in the News
West Virginia Teachers Unions Say Some Proposed State Education Reforms Are Unproven.
WVNS-TV (7/29, Williams) reports that “the conflict between school unions and policymakers over education reform is one that has played out in many states since the launch of Race to the Top.” But West Virginia, which has “some of the most powerful state teachers unions in the nation,” may “be the strength of the opposition,” according to WVNS. Teachers unions in the state have said that Gov. Joe Machin’s (D) education reform “proposals lacked what they saw as scientifically proven methods for improving school performance.” For instance, Machin “proposed a bill allowing public schools to adopt some aspects of charter schools found in other states, but it did not go as far as actually creating charter schools.” West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee noted, however, that “data supporting charter schools is a very mixed bag. … There are a very large number of charter schools that are not doing well,” he said.

Teachers Unions In Michigan Want Repeal Of Some Laws Made For Race To The Top.
The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (7/28) reports that “with hopes of $400 million in federal money for school reform fading fast, teachers union leaders say the state should consider repealing some of the changes made this year as part of Michigan’s Race to the Top application.” Michigan’s “new laws…include raising the dropout age to 18, expanding charter schools and accepting common academic standards.” In the first round of Race to the Top, “teachers union leaders fought some of the proposals.” But in the second round, the unions were included in the policy-making process. Doug Pratt of the Michigan Education Association (MEA) asserted, “Anyone who thought we were the reason for the failure in the first round certainly can’t say that now. … We’re disappointed, because that $400 million would have been a big help.” But, he added, “That $400 million in one-time money would not have solved the long-term problems facing Michigan schools.”

Groups Will Ask Obama’s Debt Commission Not To Suggest Social Security Cuts.
Bloomberg News (7/29, Faler) reports, “A co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s debt commission said as much as three-quarters of the panel’s proposed savings ought to come through cuts to government spending rather than tax increases.” The panel was commissioned by the President in February to search “the government’s budget” for areas that can be cut “to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of the economy by 2015, from the current 10 percent.” Bloomberg notes that “the AFL-CIO, NAACP, National Education Association (NEA), Moveon.org, and others” will hold “a joint news conference…in Washington” today “to caution the panel not to suggest cuts to the Social Security program.”

North Santiam Education Association Reaches Agreement With District.
Oregon’s Statesman Journal (7/29, Ruttan) reports that “the North Santiam Education Association teachers’ union and North Santiam School District have reached an agreement that will save eight full-time positions and one half-time position.” Under the agreement, teachers will take “a six-day pay cut and an across-the-board cost-of-living increase.” Teachers with less than 15 years of service “will receive their step increases,” but those “with more seniority will not receive step increases.” In addition, class sizes will increase, the art program at Stayton Middle School will be eliminated, and the technology program at Stayton High School will be smaller.

NEA Alaska Supports State’s Incumbent For US Senate.
NEA Alaska Joshua Saul wrote in the Alaska Dispatch (7/28) “Political Animal” blog that in the US Senate race in Alaska “between incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Fairbanks attorney Joe Miller, the candidates are seizing every opportunity to show off their big name supporters.” Miller is backed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express, while Murkowski’s supporters include “organizations like the NRA and the National Education Association’s Alaska offices.” According to Saul, those and other endorsements reinforce Murkowski’s “establishment image.”

Obama Defends Education Reform Ideas At Urban League Convention.
The AP (7/30, Pace) reports, “Challenging civil rights organizations and teachers’ unions that have criticized his education policies, President Barack Obama said Thursday” in a speech at the National Urban League’s 100th anniversary convention “that minority students have the most to gain from overhauling the nation’s schools.” The President also pointed out that the purpose of the reforms is not “to fire or admonish teachers, but to create a culture of accountability” and “pinned some of the criticism on a resistance to change.” Noting that teachers are “the single most important factor in a classroom,” Obama called “for higher pay, better training and additional resources to help teachers succeed.”

The New York Times (7/30, Calmes) adds that Obama “chose the civil rights organization as his audience to address specifically the complaints of minority groups.” The Washington Post (7/30, Anderson) notes that “the National Urban League, the NAACP and some other groups…have questioned the competitive emphasis of Obama’s $4 billion Race to the Top grants, which produces winners and losers.” They are asking “the administration to seek more equitable funding for schools,” instead.

The Los Angeles Times (7/30, Mamoli) adds that Urban League head Marc Morial “was one of several civil rights leaders who met with Duncan earlier this week to discuss their concerns with” Race to the Top, “specifically that black and Latino students were not benefiting from the federal resources.” Teachers unions “have also objected to the program, which encourages evaluations.” The President “acknowledged the discord over the program,” saying, “We get comfortable with the status quo even when the status quo isn’t good.” But, he told the audience, “The program has already been successful even where federal dollars have not yet been spent.”

The Christian Science Monitor (7/30, Khadaroo) reports that The President “made it clear…that he has no intention of backing down from his education reform agenda, despite criticism from core constituencies in his own party.” Bloomberg News (7/30, Herbst, Runningen), Education Week (7/29, Klein), Reuters (7/30, Bohan), ABC News (7/29, Bruce), MSNBC (7/29), the New Republic (7/29), and The Hill (7/30) also covered this story.

Civil Rights Leaders Soften Criticism Of Education Program. Politico (7/30, Marr) reports that “despite their tough rhetoric earlier this week, civil rights leaders have softened their criticism of the president’s education reforms. A ‘conflict in schedules’ led the coalition to cancel a Monday press conference to air their criticism and tout their 17-page framework for reform.” Politico notes that “instead, the leaders met with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes,” and “afterward, they released a new statement declaring they are ‘confident’ that, working with the White House, ‘a plan can be developed that will provide a high-quality education for all students.’”

Alexander Hails Obama’s Education Remarks, Praises Duncan. The Tennessean’s Bill Theobald (7/30) reports in a blog entry that “Sen. Lamar Alexander has taken his share of pot­shots at” Obama. But yesterday, he “took to the Senate floor to applaud Obama’s education speech.” Said Alexander, “I commend the president for his courage, his vision and for his willingness to undertaken the hard work of helping children across the country learn what they need to know and be able to do.” Of Duncan he said, “He is an excellent leader in education and he has a big heart and he’s worked in a bipartisan way.”

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In the Classroom
Program Helps Prevent Summer Slide For Students In Maryland District.
The Baltimore Sun (7/30, Burris) reports on a summer program in Anne Arundel, Maryland, that targets “the so-called summer slide. The county’s Elementary Summer Academy offers classroom instruction and activities to ensure that students retain the previous grade’s language and math skills.” First, “students are tested…to determine which areas they need to focus on,” and “at the end of the program” they are tested “to see how they’ve progressed.” In between testing, students receive classroom instruction. As part of a behavior modification system, students can earn prize tickets “for such tasks as completing homework assignments or exhibiting good behavior in class.” The tickets can be redeemed “at the schools’ stores” for “items including balls and temporary tattoos.”

Change In Proficiency Standards Leave Some Educators Confused About Schools’ Improvement.
New York Times (7/30, Otterman) reports that the release of state test scores this week “left the city with math and English proficiency rates lower than they had been in 2006, when the state last overhauled grade school testing.” Though “the average city student this year answered about the same number of questions correctly as last year…the number required to pass the tests, or show proficiency,” increased this year. The change has left educators and education stakeholders wondering “exactly how much the city’s schools had improved during the last decade.” Experts agreed that scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will be the most reliable tool for “deciphering where the schools are now.”

District Teams With West Point, Clemson And NASA For STEM Career Program.
The Spartanburg (SC) Herald Journal (7/30, Healy) reports on a group of Carver Junior High students who “agreed to give up three days of their summer vacation to participate in the US Military Academy at West Point’s Summer STEM Quest Institute, a program aimed at boosting student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) career fields.” A similar focus will continue into the school year, which “will be dedicated to professional development as teachers learn to integrate science, technology, engineering and math into the entire curriculum” on a district-wide basis. Carver Principal RaaShad Fitzpatrick said, “It’s going to be a wall-to-wall program. … Every student in the building will participate in the STEM program.” The article notes, “West Point will continue to partner with Carver throughout the year. The district has also formed partnerships with NASA and Clemson University.”

On the Job
Teachers Contract In Ohio District Allows For Recall Of Some Teachers Let Go In April.
WJW-TV Cleveland, Ohio (7/30) reports that teachers in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will have a new contract when they start school next fall. “The new contract features more than $17 million in concessions” and will “allow the District to recall many of the 545 teachers, who were laid off in April.” WJW adds that “in addition to the financial components of the contract, both parties agreed to develop a model for teacher development and evaluation.” The new system “will include student performance data, unannounced teacher observations and increased flexibility for evaluation timing.”

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Law & Policy
Public Will Soon Deem Race To The Top Likely A Failure, Educator Says.
Jeff Passe, chairman of the Department of Secondary Education at Towson University, writes in the Baltimore Sun (7/30, Passe) that money from the federal Race to the Top competition “is needed.” But, he asks, “Has anyone stopped to ask whether these changes will actually improve public schools? Is it a race to the top, or to somewhere in the middle?” Passe outlines the benefits of the Race to the Top qualifying criteria: charter schools, tenure, common core standards, and use of student achievement data. He asserts that “the public will soon regard Race to the Top as a failure — a race to the middle that didn’t make a real difference.” Moreover, educators will somehow “be blamed for policies developed not by scholars who have studied educational reform, but by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a well-meaning but ill-informed leader.”

Tennessee Governor Signs Order Establishing STEM Network.
The AP (7/30) reports from Tennessee, “Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) has signed an executive order that promotes expanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in K-12 public schools across Tennessee.” The Tennessee STEM Innovation Network “will conduct various STEM educational activities in coordination with local education agencies, including teacher professional development and curriculum development,” and “will be managed by Battelle Memorial Institute.”

Massachusetts Governor Expected To Sign School Nutrition Bill.
WSHM-TV Springfield, Massachusetts (7/30, Stewart) reports that today, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) “will sign the School Nutrition Bill,” which mandates that all public schools in the state “stop selling deep fried foods, unhealthy snacks, and vending machine soda.” It also requires that schools “provide more nutrition education.”

School Board Discusses “Controlled Choice” As Alternative To Diversity-Based Assignments.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (7/30, Goldsmith, Hui) reports that Wake County school board members on Wednesday discussed a “controlled choice” school assignment model to replace its former school diversity assignment policy. The model has drawn interest from members “on both sides of Wake’s school assignment fight. … Those in the minority hope such a model will help keep school populations more demographically balanced; those in the majority hope the approach will give parents more choice and allow for school system growth.” The school board’s plan “would divide the county into attendance zones that are supposed to allow children to go to schools in their communities.” Families would be able to choose “among a variety of schools” in each zone. The News & Observer adds that one of “the challenges facing the system is where to draw the lines and what factors will be used in assigning students.”

Safety & Security
Chicago Public Schools Rolls Out Cyberbullying Policy.
NBC Chicago (7/30, Wojciechowski) reports that Chicago Public Schools has rolled out a strict new policy on cyberbullying. The policy imposes “serious new sanctions for offenses that previously were outside the bounds of school discipline.” Punishments include “mandatory suspensions, possible expulsions, and police investigations.” NBC Chicago notes that “the new Student Code of Conduct treats cyberbullying offenses with the same severity as burglary, aggravated assault and other crimes.”

Anti-Bullying Program Yields Positive Results For Massachusetts District.
The Boston Globe (7/29, Travaglini) reported that Danvers school administrators plan to expand an anti-bullying program they say saw positive results “at the elementary schools last year.” The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program was implemented at the elementary level in 2008. The program includes training for all school employees “on how to recognize bullying and ways to deal with it. … Regular school-wide assemblies, classroom discussions on bullying and parent meetings on the topic were introduced as the final phase of the program.” Its “success is measured in part by” a decline in the “number of reports of possible bullying incidents the school” received last year.

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Also in the News
High School Principal Criticized For Selling Weight-Loss Products To Students.
The Washington Post (7/20, Chandler) reports that “an advertisement that Principal Nardos King placed in the Mount Vernon High School yearbook, for weight-loss products she sold in her free time, surprised and upset many parents this summer, and prompted an apology” this week. The ad for “a two-step weight-loss system called Body Magic,” a spandex undergarment, included promises of “Instant Transformation While Losing Weight in the Process!” and loss of “up to 2-3 sizes in minutes.” Members of the community expressed displeasure with the ad “on a Facebook page dedicated to Mount Vernon news,” questioning “the principal’s ethics for selling products to students.” According to a spokesperson for Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools, King “has stopped selling the products” and that she is likely not in violation of the district’s conflict-of-interest policy.

ADHD, Smoking May Be Linked With Dropping Out Of School, Study Shows.
The Los Angeles Times (7/30, Stein) reports, “Many roads can lead to a teen dropping out of high school, but a new study finds that having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and smoking may be strongly linked to not finishing school. Researchers from UC Davis looked at data on 29,662 people from the National Epidemiological Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions.” They found that 32.3 percent “of students who had a combined form of ADHD (hyperactivity and inattentiveness) dropped out of high school.” They also found that 29 percent of “tobacco users…dropped out.”

Arizona State Superintendent Wants Videos Of Tuscan District’s Ethnic Studies Classes.
Arizona’s Daily Star (8/4, Huicochea) reports that Arizona Schools Chief Tom Horne is requesting that the Tuscan Unified School district “videotape courses over the fall semester to be used as evidence that would show whether they are in violation of House Bill 2281.” The legislation restricts schools from offering “courses that promote the overthrow of the US government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, and advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

Mary Ann Zehr wrote in the Education Week (8/3) “Learning the Language” blog that Horne “has told the superintendent of Arizona’s Tucson Unified School District that he will announce a withholding of 10 percent of the district’s funds as soon as” the law “goes into effect Dec. 31.” On Tuesday, Horne sent a letter to Superintendent John Carroll, in which he also made the request for a videotape of the ethnic studies classes “in their entirety.” Zehr added that “Tucson Unified officials would have the opportunity to appeal [a] withholding of funds before an administrative judge.”

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In the Classroom
Progress In Closing Achievement Gap Stalled, New Report Finds.
Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (8/3), “Progress seen over several decades in narrowing the educational achievement gap between black and white students has remained stalled for 20 years, according to data analyzed in a new report. Called ‘The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped,’ the report by the Educational Testing Service examines periods of progress and stagnation since 1910 in closing the achievement gap.” According to Strauss, “The authors discuss various issues that could help explain why progress stopped, including some sensitive ones such as inadequate care in early childhood, the decline of communities and neighborhoods, the explosion of single-parent families, the employment plight of black males and stalled intergenerational mobility out of seriously disadvantaged neighborhoods.”

Researchers Will Test Use Of iPads In K-8 Classrooms.
T.H.E. Journal (8/3, Schaffhauser) reported, “Through a partnership with a large urban school district in Utah, a research project at the University of Cincinnati will experiment with the use of Apple iPads in K-8 classrooms. The initiative will test the use of 35 Apple iPads to collect educational research in a federally funded partnership to improve teacher quality in elementary math and science education.” T.H.E. Journal added, “An overarching purpose for the project, however, is to help schools to become greener and reduce the amount of paper shuttled among researchers and stored for archival purposes.”

On the Job
Chicago Teachers File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Job Cuts.
The Chicago Tribune (8/4, Ahmed) reports, “The Chicago Teachers Union has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt teacher layoffs, the latest move in a months-long battle between union and school officials. The action comes as the two sides are locked in negotiations over layoffs and increases in class size to alleviate a $370 million budget deficit.” According to the Tribune, “The lawsuit comes after the district fired 239 citywide teaching coaches and sent layoff notices to at least 600 teachers and other personnel.”

The AP (8/4) reports that the Chicago Teachers Union “has filed a federal lawsuit against the Chicago Public Schools in an attempt to halt the dismissals of hundreds of teachers and support staff. CTU President Karen Lewis said Tuesday the school board is arbitrarily dismissing some of the system’s most qualified teachers in a manner that violates their constitutional rights to due process under the 14th Amendment and their current labor contract.” According to the AP, the suit “filed Monday in US District Court seeks the reinstatement of all teachers and support staff dismissed to date.”

Georgia Officials Reviewing Report Into Cheating On Standardized Tests.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/4, Torres) reports that Georgia “began its review Tuesday of a long-awaited investigative report into alleged cheating in Atlanta Public Schools, even as top education officials wondered how far they can go with what remains an unofficial document. … The state Board of Education had set Monday as a belated deadline for the Atlanta system’s investigation of possible cheating in schools identified by a state review of standardized tests early this year.” However, “it was unclear whether the report, transmitted to the state without the city board’s stamp of approval, met that deadline” as “City school board members declined Monday by a vote of 5 to 4 to accept the report from the commission it appointed to study suspicious erasures on standardized tests.”

WSB-TV Atlanta (8/3) reported on its Website, “A Blue Ribbon Commission finished its investigation into Atlanta Public Schools’ involvement in the 2009 CRCT cheating scandal. While it found no evidence of district-wide or centrally controlled cheating, it did find evidence involving individual schools and district employees.” WSB added, “The commission said it found statistical evidence and qualified allegations of widespread cheating at 12 elementary schools” and the “commission recommended further investigations into 109 teachers and administrators for their possible involvement in the scandal.”

Fewer Schools In Delaware Receive “Superior” Rating This Year.
WBOC-TV Milton, Delaware (8/4, Tucker) reports that according to education officials in Delaware, there has been “a dramatic drop in the state’s federal school rankings this year.” The number of schools earning a “superior” rating shrunk this year to 66, down from 83 last year. Meanwhile, national standards are becoming stricter. In order “to meet standards…there will be a new focus on science math and technology as well as early childhood education” next year, said Lillian Lowery, Delaware’s Secretary of Education.

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Law & Policy
Massachusetts District Approves New Pledge Policy.
The Boston Globe (8/4, Parker) reports that the Arlington, Massachusetts, School Committee on Tuesday “unanimously approved a new pledge policy.” The decision follows a six-week deadlock on “on a proposal that would have required the pledge to be lead in all Arlington schools.” The approved policy “will allow school principals to determine how the pledge will be recited in their schools each day.” However, “no students or faculty will be required to participate in a recitation.” The Globe points out that while “state law requires that teachers lead their classes in the Pledge of Allegiance each day,” the US Supreme Court has ruled “that making students recite the pledge is contrary to the First Amendment.”

Massachusetts To Require Insurance Companies To Cover Autism.
The AP (8/4) reports, “Massachusetts insurance companies will now be required to offer autistic people coverage for a range of treatments, under a bill Gov. Deval Patrick [D] signed into law on Tuesday. Parents of autistic children say the new measure closes a loophole in insurance plans that will help them pay for the cost of medicines and therapies” yet “business leaders oppose it, saying it will drive up the cost of health care benefits for workers as insurance premiums are already on the rise. … Massachusetts is the 23rd state to pass such legislation.”

Proposed Law Would Link Getting Driver’s License To School Performance.
The Las Vegas Sun (8/3, Ramirez) reports, Though “in Nevada, as in other states, a driver’s license has had little or no connection with attending or graduating from high school,” the Clark County (NV) School Board “on Wednesday will discuss whether to push for a new state law that will link driving to school work. … The proposal under consideration at Wednesday’s work session would require ‘proof of high school enrollment including demonstrated attendance and evidence of passing grades’ to get – and keep – a license until the age of 18.” Also, “And if a student were to skip school three times or more and become what is known as a ‘habitual truant,’ his parents would have to go to ‘Saturday intervention sessions’ to learn how to be better parents.”

School Finance
Detroit Public Schools May Save $5.5 Million With Security Services Contract.
WDIV-TV Detroit (8/4) reports that Detroit Public Schools officials are expecting a new contract with Securitas security services “to save the district more than $5.5 million annually” and help “reduce absenteeism among security personnel.” The $6.5 million year-long contract is less than the $11 million DPS paid in previous years “to employ 226 security officers.” In the past, DPS “has faced challenges…with security officers not showing up for work.” For instance, according to reports from July, “11 to 12 percent of the district’s security officers were absent on a daily basis.”

Directive From Chicago Mayor Spares School Sports Programs From Cuts.
The Chicago Sun-Times (8/3, Spielman) reports, “Mayor Daley said Tuesday he ordered the Chicago Public Schools to restore non-varsity high school sports programs to keep young people occupied and off the streets. One day after the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed the reprieve to the cheers of coaches and student athletes, Daley stepped forward to claim credit for it.” According to the Sun-Times, “CPS spokesperson Monique Bond acknowledged that it was Daley’s directive that convinced the board to restore $2 million worth of sophomore sports programs previously on the chopping block.”

Report Says Pre-K Programs Across Nation Face Deep Budget Cuts.
The AP (8/4, Turner) reports, “States are slashing nearly $350 million from their pre-K programs by next year and more cuts are likely on the horizon once federal stimulus money dries up, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. The reductions mean fewer slots for children, teacher layoffs and even fewer services for needy families who can’t afford high-quality private preschool programs.” According to the AP, “One state – Arizona – has proposed eliminating its 5,500-child program entirely” and Illinois “cut $32 million from last fiscal year’s pre-k budget and plans to slash another $48 million this year.”

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Also in the News
Florida District Seeks To Save Money By Contracting With Local Clinics To Serve Employees.
Jeff Solochek wrote in the St. Petersburg Times (8/3) “Gradebook” blog that the school board in Pasco County, Florida “is looking into contracting with one or more local medical clinics to serve district employees and their immediate family members.” This effort, they hope, will save the district about $100,000 annually “in health insurance and workers compensation.” Board Chairman Allen Altman “said if the program succeeds, he hoped to partner with county government to further reduce costs.”

New Documentary Focuses On Education Reform.
Tom Marshall wrote in the St Petersburg Times (8/3) “Gradebook” blog that David Guggenheim, creator of the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” is directing a new documentary that focuses on education reform called “Waiting for Superman.” DC Schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is in the documentary, as is Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone. Marshall added, “Judging from the trailer,” Waiting for Superman makes an “emotion-laden call to action” similar to that of “An Inconvenient Truth,” “just substitute Al Gore for a classroom’s-worth of ambitious kids, angry parents, lagging Pisa scores, and a star-studded cast of national ed reformers.”

England Releases Results Of Tests Boycotted By Thousands Of Schools.
The AP (8/3) reported that on Tuesday, results of England’s Standard Assessments Tests (SATs) were released, reviving “a long-running debate about whether the government’s determination to rank schools based on standardized tests does anything to improve education.” According to England’s Education Department, “4,005 of 15,515 English primary schools chose to boycott the tests.”

The UK’s Independent (8/4, Garner) reports that reading test scores for 11-year-olds fell “for the second year” in a row. Some educators say “that the drive to boost writing standards, which still lag far behind reading, may have caused teachers to focus less on reading.” The Independent adds that while “overall performance in maths and English both increased by 1 percentage point…officials said the figures should be treated with caution because” 25 percent of schools boycotted the tests. The boycott was led by two national teachers unions, which “complained that too much teaching to the tests was ruining children’s education.”

Teachers Attend Sally Ride Science Academy.
USA Today (8/2, Steinberg) reported on how astronaut Sally Ride and her Science Academy are trying to encourage girls to go into math and science careers. “Last week, 100 elementary teachers from across the US attended the academy, sponsored by ExxonMobil, in Washington, D.C. Ride was there to talk with educators and prove her teaching strategies combat the notion that science is ‘uncool.’” According to the article, Ride “blames society” for how science is perceived, especially to girls. “It’s essential for girls to see examples of women in whatever career they want to pursue, says Ride, who sees herself as a role model.”

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In the Classroom
Former Superintendent Develops Research-Based Summer Reading Program.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/2, Richards) reports on “the Milwaukee Summer Reading Project, a five-week summer reading program for elementary school children” created by former Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Howard Fuller. After “results of a national assessment revealed” in March “that Wisconsin’s black fourth-graders tested more poorly in reading than black children in any other part of the country,” Fuller “mobilized a community group to research, analyze and discuss the best ways to teach reading.” Based on that research, he developed the Reading Project. “The program cost $200,000 to implement” this summer “and was paid for by individual donations and foundation support as well as funding from MPS and the city.”

Some High Schools In California Offer Nation’s First Stem-Cell Curriculum.
The San Francisco Chronicle (7/31, Allday) reported that “California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has developed the country’s first high-school stem cell curriculum. … It is already being taught at a handful of Bay Area high schools,” and “will be pitched to science teachers this fall.” The entire curriculum “is available to teachers online.” It contains units “on embryonic stem cells; adult stem cells and regenerative medicine; stem cell behaviors and cancer; and the immune system and hematopoietic stem cells.” Every unit includes “some political or ethical topic” for students to discuss.

Students Launch Rockets For Young Math And Science Course.
The Orange County (CA) Register (7/31, Koerner) reports, “The 17, sixth through eighth graders enrolled in UCI’s Young Math and Science course have spent the last two weeks learning about satellites, rockets and robotics with some help from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. On Thursday, the class launched their creations.” Sandra Kaszynski, who is working with the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Education Resource Center, “said she wants to encourage a love for science in the younger generation. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory continues to work on robots used in space exploration, and the goal of a human expedition to Mars in 2035 remains.”

Technical High School Maintains 100 Percent Graduation Rate.
The Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail (8/1, Lowrey) reported an informational article on area career and technical institutions, outlining the benefits these schools provide as an alternative or compliment to university studies. One of the schools highlighted by the article is Washington County Technical High School, which both trains students to enter the workforce directly and also encourages them to pursue higher education. “At Tech High, which [Principal Jeffrey Stouffer] noted had a 100 percent graduation rate in 2009 and no dropouts for 2 1/2 years, education goes beyond training in a trade.” Stouffer explained, “We have the students for two straight years. They come in and get their academics, they are able to play all the sports at their home school, and it really works.” He added, “We are one of three high schools in the nation to have top modeling programs for biomedical science and pre-engineering. And we are expanding. We have new programs coming in.”

New Governor’s STEM School First In Virginia To Partner With Four-Year University.
Virginia’s News & Messenger (7/31, Chumley) reported on the Governor’s School at Innovation Park, which will be “an intensive and advanced science, technology, engineering and mathematics course of study…for qualified students from the region” when it opens this fall. “It’s also the first school of its kind in Virginia to partner with a four-year university.” This school is partnering with George Mason University, where students will attend classes “each morning” before “returning to their base high schools each afternoon to complete other requirements for graduation.”

NASA, UIC-Supported Program To Offer STEM Enrichment To Underserved Middle Schoolers.
The Chicago Sun-Times (7/31, Guy) reports on the NASA Summer of Innovation project, which “offers a series of two- to four-week science enrichment camps aimed at getting middle school students interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The goal is to reach children in neighborhoods that otherwise have no access to these programs.” So far, “the program has enrolled 1,100 students but aims to double that by Aug. 27.” The University of Illinois at Chicago and the XSTREME Learning Foundation, a number of school districts and a host of other organizations have partnered to support the effort.

On the Job
Massachusetts Education Officials Look At
Impact Of Student Turnover On School Performance. The Boston Globe (8/2, Vaznis) reports that “as state education officials push school districts to overhaul the lowest-achieving schools, they are focusing on a long-overlooked issue they say could be a key in raising performance — the frequency that students switch schools.” State data show that of the “400 schools across Massachusetts” with “have high turnover rates,” most are “considered underachieving.” Meanwhile, “about half the state’s nearly 1,900 schools had enrollment changes of less than 10 percent and tended to have stronger records of academic performance.” However, Massachusetts has not yet “studied how transient students perform on the MCAS or whether schools with high turnover score lower overall.”

Arizona Will Roll Out New Teacher Evaluation System In 2012.
The Arizona Republic (8/1, Ryman) reported that “by the school year 2012-13, up to 50 percent of teachers’ performance reviews will be based on the progress their students show in the classroom, likely measured in part by scores on standardized tests.” The state BOE still has to decide on the details of the evaluation plan, “including how student progress will be measured and how much progress is required.” Teachers, meanwhile, are concerned “that they will be judged primarily on test scores, which they say don’t provide a full picture of learning.”

Boston Schools Chief Criticized For Abandoning Teacher Relocation Plan.
The Boston Globe (8/2) editorializes, “The Boston school system cannot succeed in elevating underperforming schools unless it gets top-notch teachers into city classrooms.” But, Boston school superintendent Carol Johnson turned down the opportunity “to recruit dozens of highly-qualified teachers from across the nation” with a $225,000 grant from the Lynch and Highland Street foundation. According to the Globe, Johnson “was prepared to offer $5,000 in relocation expenses to each” new highly qualified teacher. But, “members of the school system’s administrative and custodial unions” complained, asking “why they faced the prospect of layoffs due to budget cuts while Johnson was promising relocation funds to out-of-state teachers.” The Globe asserts that by abandoning the relocation plan, Johnson “lost a great opportunity…to recruit potential stars to replace the weak teachers she is trying to broom out of the system’s weakest schools.”

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Law & Policy
First Lady Calls For Passage Of Child Nutrition Bill.
The AP (8/2) reports that First Lady Michelle Obama “urged Congress to pass legislation that calls for higher nutritional standards for school meals. In an op-ed appearing in Monday’s edition of The Washington Post, Mrs. Obama wrote that the Child Nutrition Bill would require more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and less fat and salt in school lunches and breakfasts.” According to the AP, Obama also said the bill “would help eliminate junk food in vending machines,” adding, “‘We owe it to the children who aren’t reaching their potential because they’re not getting the nutrition they need during the day.’”

Time Running Out To Pass School Lunch Legislation. Education News Colorado (8/2, Jones) reports, “As the clock ticks down on the 111th Congress, child and health advocacy groups are lobbying furiously for lawmakers to reauthorize the nation’s school lunch program with an expansion that would provide free, healthy meals to tens of thousands of additional children and tackle the problem of childhood obesity. One major hurdle was cleared this month when the House Education and Labor Committee passed HR 5504, the ‘Improving Nutrition for America’s Children’s Act.’” Also, in “March, the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously passed a similar-though much less costly-bill, the ‘Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010,’” yet “both bills must still be passed by their respective chambers and then be reconciled before the legislation can be signed into law” and with “a dwindling number of days left for this Congress to act, advocates of the legislation fear it may not work its way to the top of the priority pile.”

New Jersey District Eliminates “D” Grades.
The Toronto Star (7/29) reports that New Jersey’s Mount Olive Township School District last week “the D grade in Mount Olive middle and high schools starting this fall. Students must either get a C or they will fail.” Under the new system, the first D a student makes will result in “an email to parents with the escalating options of three days to redo the test or project, followed by tutoring with honors students, a 30-hour, five-week, $150 night school, summer school or, ultimately, repeating the course.” Superintendent Dr. Larrie Reynolds told the Toronto Star, “I’m tired of kids coming to school and not learning and getting credit for it.” Still, Reynolds admits to having made Ds when he was in high school.

Special Needs
Madison, Wisconsin, Among Top Cities In US For Inclusion Classes.
The New York Times (8/2, A9, Winerip) reports that public schools in Madison, Wisconsin, “are nationally known for including children with disabilities in regular classes.” That is why “families with children with autism and developmental disabilities move from all over the country” to Madison. Colleen Capper of the University of Wisconsin said that “inclusion was cheaper than segregating students.” Within the Madison school district, “88 percent of elementary students with disabilities were fully included in classes, along with 81 percent of middle school students and 63 percent of high school students,” according to John Harper, a special education official. In addition to Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina and Clark County, Nevada, Madison rounds out the top three school systems in successful implementation of inclusion, said David Riley of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative.

Also in the News
University Cases Indicate Many Students Do Not Grasp Concept Of Plagiarism.
The New York Times (8/2, Gabriel) reports that college professors “used to deal with plagiarism by admonishing students to give credit to others and to follow the style guide for citations, and pretty much left it at that,” yet plagiarism cases at Rhode Island College, DePaul University and the University of Maryland detailed by the Times “suggest that many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed. It is a disconnect that is growing in the Internet age as concepts of intellectual property, copyright and originality are under assault in the unbridled exchange of online information, say educators who study plagiarism.”

Many Organizations Moving To Provide Open-Source Textbooks Online.
Madison, Wisconsin The New York Times (8/1, BU3, Vance) reported that Curriki, “an online hub for free textbooks and other course material,” was “spearheaded six years ago” by Scott McNealy, co-founder and former chief executive of Sun Microsystems. Curriki, a nonprofit organization, is one of many “organizations that seek to bring the blunt force of Internet economics to bear on the education market.” The Times notes, however, that “progress with these open-source texts has been slow.” California and Texas, the largest markets for textbook publishers, “have only recently established procedures that will let open-source textbooks begin making their way through the arduous approval process.”

Assessment Leaders, Publishers Offer Testing “Best Practices” Guide.
Education Week (8/2, Gewertz) reports, “The test-publishing industry and state assessment leaders have come together for the first time to define a set of best practices for large-scale state testing. The result of the collaboration” coordinated by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Association of Test Publishers “is a new best-practices guide intended to serve as a road map to improving state assessment procedures.” The guide “tackles areas that have been nettlesome for state assessment officials as well as test publishers, including procurement, item development, test security, scoring and reporting, testing special populations, and transitioning assessment work from one provider to another.”

NEA in the News
Objectives Of NEA Priority Schools Campaign Detailed.
Stephen Sawchuk wrote in a blog for Education Week (7/30) on the National Education Association’s Priority Schools Campaign, “a 2009 mandate of the union’s 9,000 delegate Representative Assembly.” The $6 million effort “will focus on four core tenets for improving low-performing schools: increasing staff effectiveness; developing family and school partnerships; increasing district and local-union collaboration; and leveraging community assets.” Sawchuk added that the NEA will place particular emphasis “on schools in 13 states it’s identified as having a strong state affiliate that can help guide the work.”

Panel Releases Findings Of Investigation Into Cheating On Georgia Standardized Tests.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/3, Torres) reports that “an audit…suggested irregularities on state standardized tests,” an investigative panel has “found evidence of suspected cheating at 58 Atlanta Public Schools.” The panel is now recommending “further scrutiny or sanctions” for “109 principals, assistant principals, school-based testing coordinators and teachers” that may have been involved. Although “none of the employees confessed or admitted to wrongdoing in interviews,” the panel focused on the 109 school employees “through data and statistical evidence” and through “qualified allegations.” Investigators looked at “testing documents, policies and procedures, and…more than 50,000 emails” before releasing their findings.

The New York Times’ (8/3, A13, Dewan) coverage of the story is more positive. It reports that the results of the investigation largely vindicated Atlanta Public Schools. The “independent commission, using a national firm that specializes in rooting out cheating, found no evidence of ‘any district-wide or centrally coordinated effort to manipulate’ test scores, and no direct evidence of cheating.” WABE-FM Atlanta (8/3, Scott), WGLC-TV Atlanta (8/3), and WXIA-TV Atlanta (8/3, Quince) also cover the story.

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In the Classroom
Texas’ Formula for Predicting If Students Will Pass State Tests Yields Mixed Results.
The Dallas Morning News (8/3, Weiss) reports that the results of Texas’ formula measuring “whether students who fail the TAKS tests are likely to pass in the future” are mixed. The formula was effective in “predicting which schools and school districts should have received the benefit of the” Texas Projection Measure “in their 2009 accountability ratings.” But, it failed “one-third of the time” to predict “whether a student who failed one of eight TAKS tests in 2009 would pass in 2010.” The Projection Measure, introduced last year, allows schools “to take credit for students who failed but are predicted to pass” for accountability ratings, and aims to “reward schools for improvement.”

Many High School Students In Georgia Graduate Despite Failing Exit Exam.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/3, Badertscher) reports that since 2004, Georgia “has required students to pass the Georgia High School Graduation Test in either their junior or senior years in order to graduate.” Currently, nearly 80 percent “of all students who start ninth grade are eligible” to graduate. A provision in the law “has allowed 2,896 students to graduate, even though they didn’t pass the five-part test of their math, science, social studies, writing and English language arts skills.” The State Board of Education is looking at ways “to further expand the opportunities for students to obtain variances.”

Middle School STEM Academy Offers Eco-Architecture, Mars Settlement Activities.
Louisiana’s Daily Advertiser (8/2) reported on the Science Technology Engineering and Math academy at N.P. Moss Middle School. The academy “is now an International Baccalaureate (IB) candidate school, which provides a stronger emphasis on student involvement in lessons, focuses on hands-on projects and relates academics to the real world.” It also “incorporates the arts and foreign language.” The article notes, “Using the IB method, students in the STEM academy can participate in activities such as designing a building using eco-architecture, discovering problems and solutions to creating a settlement on Mars and study environmental regulations.” An official said the academy “can prepare students for any of our nine high school career academies.”

On the Job
Hawaii Teachers To Furlough Professional Development, Not Instructional Days This Year.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser (8/2, Vorsino) reported that school begins this week in Hawaii and teachers “are looking forward to no longer having to teach around furlough days, which forced them last year to cram lessons into shorter periods,” and “scale back on other activities.” This school year will have “178 instructional days, up from 163 last year, when students lost 17 days to” furloughs. But even though “furloughs on instructional days are over, teachers will still be furloughed this year on” six to ten days designated for professional development. Also “this year, NCLB math and reading proficiency benchmarks rise after remaining the same for three years.” The new targets “come as Hawaii public schools are also moving to tougher curriculum standards, which will be formally adopted statewide in 2011.”

Texas Has Too Few Minority Teachers, Experts Say.
The Dallas Morning News (8/3, Stutz) reports that as “Texas’ minority student enrollment continues to surge…the state’s teacher corps isn’t keeping pace,” leaving many students “without the role models experts believe would help them achieve more.” Throughout the state, “more than 62 percent of students are minorities,” but “the teacher pool was 22 percent Hispanic and 9.6 percent black last year.” Ed Fuller of the University Council for Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin said that Texas does not try hard enough “to get more minority college graduates into the classroom.” The Dallas Morning News points to research indicating that minority and non-minority students perform “better on state tests with teachers of their own race.”

New Jersey Educator Evaluation System To Utilize Student Test Scores.
The NJ Spotlight (8/3, Mooney) reports, “Detailed in its application for federal Race to the Top money,” New Jersey’s new system to evaluate public school educators “would include for the first time using student achievement measures like test scores to judge teachers and administrators across the state. The system will also include measures of agreed-upon ‘effective practices.’” According to NJ Spotlight, “The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s dominant teachers union, is cautious about what may come out of the project, especially if there is heavy emphasis on standardized test scores.”

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Law & Policy
Michigan Supreme Court Says Teachers Can Sue School District Over Student Discipline.
The AP (8/3, White) reports, “The Michigan Supreme Court has…loosened the standard for people who want to file some civil lawsuits.” Overruling decision by the former majority in 2001, justices said Monday that “Lansing teachers had a right to sue the school district over how it disciplined students.” The “four teachers and their union, citing state law, sued the Lansing School District, saying it should have automatically expelled four students, not suspended them, for” violent assaults on teachers. Lower courts “said school boards had discretion in how to handle students and teachers had no standing to sue.” But Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh wrote in an opinion that “The statute is intended to not only make the general school environment safer but additionally to specifically protect teachers from assault and to assist them in more effectively performing their jobs.”

Massachusetts District Officials To Decide On Pledge Recital Policy.
The Boston Globe (8/3, Parker) reports that the School Committee for Arlington, Massachusetts, on Tuesday will decide “on a proposal that would ensure that every student has the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance each day in school.” Under the proposed policy, school principals would have to ensure “that students have the opportunity to say the pledge, but no students for faculty would be required to say the pledge.” The issue was brought up by a high school senior who “asked the School Committee in June to require that the pledge be led in all Arlington schools so students would have the opportunity to participate in a daily recitation,” the Globe adds.

Immigration Law May Have Contributed To Lower Enrollments In Some Arizona Districts.
The AP (8/2) reported that Arizona’s “immigration law may be a contributing factor to reduced school enrollment” in the Phoenix Balsz Elementary School District and the Chandler Unified School District, some officials say. Phoenix Balsz has lost 500 students this year and Chandler enrollment “is down by about 100 students.”

Nevada District Braces For Increased Enrollment Due To Arizona Immigration Law. The Las Vegas Sun (8/2, Richmond) reported, “Arizona’s incendiary immigration law has” education leaders in Clark County, NV “keeping a close eye on enrollment for the upcoming academic year because of the potential influx of students fleeing the Grand Canyon State.” The new law, which has yet to be fully implemented due to a federal court order, “would require Arizona police officers to verify the immigration status of anyone believed to be in the United States illegally.” According to the Sun, “It’s too early to tell whether families with school-age children will leave Arizona, particularly because a federal judge last week suspended the more severe elements of the law.”

California BOE Votes To Adopt National Standards.
The Los Angeles Times (8/3, Blume) reports that the California BOE “unanimously adopted common national academic standards” which “are to ultimately supplant California’s current academic framework, which is widely viewed as among the best in the nation, although the same cannot be said of the results in the classroom.” The Times adds that the vote by the California board “enhances the state’s chances in its bid” for Race to the Top funding, and the “decision before the California board went right to the wire, with a federal deadline set for 1:30 p.m.” on Monday “for states to vote on the standards, to qualify for added points in the Race to the Top competition.”

The AP (8/3) adds that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) “praised the board’s unanimous vote Monday saying the standard’s ‘maintain California’s high expectations and our belief that every student is capable of success in the classroom.’ … The board also voted to direct the state Education Department to create an implementation plan.”

The Sacramento Bee (8/2, Lambert) added that California “school trustees praised the standards, which were molded to California’s standards by a commission over six days last month. They said the standards are more focused than the previous standards and teach critical thinking instead of memorization.” Catherine Gewertz also covered this story in a blog for Education Week (8/2).

Also in the News
Increasing Numbers Of Minority Families Homeschooling, Researchers Say.
Louisiana Weekly (8/3, Sundaram) reports that “as California’s public schools buckle under the weight of the state’s catastrophic budget problems, more and more parents” are homeschooling their children. And, according to Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Fund (HSLDF), “a lot of Black and Hispanic students are home-educated.” Researchers say that African-Americans are “the fastest-growing minority in the home-school movement.” In immigrant communities, says Loren Mavromati of the California Home School Network, more parents would likely home school, except for the fact that many “don’t want their children to miss out on the opportunity to learn English.” In 2009, a National Home Education Re­search Institute study showed that “home schooling is growing at about seven percent a year” nationwide. But, since “home schooling is loosely regulated” in most states, “exact figures are hard to come by.”

Salt Lake City Schools Shuts Down Some Free Meal Sites Due To Theft.
The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (8/3, Schencker) reports that the Salt Lake City School District this week “closed 10 sites that serve free lunches to kids after catalytic converters were stolen from 19 district delivery vehicles during the weekend.” Even though “families who showed up to the closed sites were re-directed to open ones,” the district does not know “how many families and kids might have missed the lunches despite the re-direction.” Officer Gary Keller of the South Salt Lake Police Department said that “catalytic converters are often stolen and sold to scrap metal dealers because they contain platinum.” Repairs for the vehicles are estimates at “more than $9,000.”

Auditors Find No Fault With Florida’s Standardized Tests.
The Orlando Sentinel (8/5, Postal) reports that two outside auditors have found that the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) this year “was a well-designed series of exams with data that fit within historical patterns.” In light of those assessments, State Education Commissioner Eric Smith told school superintendents in a conference call on Wednesday that the test “was ‘high-quality,’ and its results are accurate.” Two companies were chosen “to audit the FCAT last month after five school superintendents questioned ‘anomalies’ with this year’s test results,” the Sentinel notes.

Florida’s Ledger (8/5, Green) reports FCAT results were released in June and “were independently confirmed by The Buros Center for Testing.” The two “additional independent reviews were conducted” after “concerns were raised by five of the state’s largest school districts.” The Miami Herald (8/4, McGrory) reported that “most districts said the percentage of fourth- and fifth-graders making improvements had tumbled — a statistical anomaly on such a large scale.” But, auditors “found the variations to be within normal ranges.”

The St. Petersburg Times (8/5, Solochek) notes that the state hired the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment to review “the design of the test” and determine “the validity of the FCAT, with a particular focus on Grades 3, 4, and 5 reading and mathematics for 2007 through 2010.”

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In the Classroom
High School Students Developing Online Education Program For Somalia.
The Washington Post (8/5, Hobbs) reports on Bashir Warsame and Sahnun Mohamud, two students at Annandale High School in Virginia who “are working to establish an educational program in the West African coastal nation of Somalia, the birthplace of their parents and home to many of their relatives. The venture, Wake Up Somalia, seeks to help reestablish the country’s education system, which has been fractured by civil war.” The two students’ program “will consist of an online curriculum of math, science, reading and writing,” and they “hope to establish their first two pilot schools in September 2011. They also are raising money to buy laptops and projectors, which will be shipped to schools in the country” so that “lessons could be shared in class.”

Number Of Michigan Schools Making AYP On The Rise.
The AP (8/5) reports that more public schools in Michigan are “making progress toward meeting academic performance goals…for the third consecutive year, according to a report by the Michigan Department of Education released on Wednesday. The DOE examined “progress for the 2009-10 school year” and “found 86 percent of the state’s K-12 schools made progress the last school year, up from 80 percent in 2007-08.” Moreover, the “report also showed an 11 percentage-point increase — from 70.9 percent to 81.9 percent — in the number of high schools” making AYP.

The Detroit News (8/5, Schultz, Wilkinson) notes that “for the first time since 2006, Detroit Public Schools, “Michigan’s largest district with about 87,000 students” made AYP “this year as a district.” The Detroit Free Press (8/4, Walsh-Sarnecki) also covers this story.

On the Job
Teachers Agree To Forgo Six Days’ Pay To Save Eight Jobs.
Oregon’s Statesman Journal (8/4, Ruttan) reported that the North Santiam Education Association has agreed to a plan under which teachers “will give up six days’ pay to save eight and a half jobs.” In addition, “teachers with fewer than 15 years of experience in their total career in education will receive their step increases,” but those “with more seniority will not get step raises.” As a result of the deal, only 3.5 jobs will be cut in the North Santiam School District schools this year.

More Districts Nationwide Experimenting With Single-Sex Schools.
The Washington Post Magazine (8/5, Houppert) reports, “The boys and girls at Imagine Southeast Public Charter School” in DC “are part of a national experiment in public schools: single-sex education. While a debate rages about the potential merits and dangers of separating students during the school day based on gender, two-year-old Imagine is one of at least four publicly funded schools in the District, a smattering of public schools in Maryland and Virginia, and a profusion of public schools across the country.” The Post adds that the “surge in these schools followed new rules the Education Department published in 2006 allowing for single-sex classes.”

Law & Policy
Jobs Bill Preventing Teacher Layoffs Reportedly Near Approval.
The AP (8/5, Taylor) reports, “The votes of a couple of GOP moderates are expected to help keep legislation on track that would provide billions to save the jobs of teachers and other public workers.” The legislation “would help states ease their severe budget problems and, advocates say, stop the layoffs of perhaps 300,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees.” The Los Angeles Times (8/5, Mascaro) reports that the Senate “is scheduled to give its final approval to the bill” today.

The New York Times (8/5, Herszenhorn, 1.09M) reports that President Obama “praised the Senate’s action, saying in a statement that it would save teacher jobs and ensure ‘cash-strapped states can get the relief they need.’” Politico (8/5, Rogers), meanwhile, notes that US Education Secretary Arne Duncan “has been a sometimes lonely voice in support of the teacher aid within the administration.”

Bill Could Cost Texas More Than $800 Million In Education Funds. The AP (8/5, Castro) reports that a provision in the legislation “would require Texas to maintain state education spending levels through 2013.” But according to state officials — including Gov. Rick Perry (R) — that requirement would keep Texas from getting “more than $800 million in federal money for its schools,” because the state’s Constitution “prohibits the governor from committing to future legislative spending.” The AP adds that according to NEA estimates, “$800 million would help save nearly 13,400 jobs in Texas education.”

Wisconsin District Drops Indian Mascot.
Wisconsin’s Journal-Sentinel (8/4, Richards) reports that Wisconsin’s new law allowing “the state superintendent of public instruction to order schools to drop race-based mascots found to be discriminatory is having a ripple effect across the state.” The Mukwonago School District, which has the Indians as its mascot, “will likely face a hearing on the matter in the coming weeks.” Meanwhile, on Tuesday, “the Kewaunee School District near Green Bay dropped its mascot, also the Indians, before a hearing on the issue scheduled for today.”

The Green Bay (WI) Press (8/4, Zarling) reported that officials in the Kewaunee School District said that “although they felt no malice was intended by the name, they weren’t confident it was a battle they could win.” They made the decision to drop the name “after meeting with legal counsel.” School Board President Brian Vogeltanz said that the decision “allows the district to maintain better local control over a new team name, as well as the history of the old nickname.” He pointed out, however, that it will cost about $10,000 for the district to “paint logos and names, buy new uniforms…and take down some signs.”

WLUK-TV Green Bay (8/5, DeVries) questions the legality of how the Kewaunee school board “decided to abandon” the old mascot. Board President Brian Vogeltanz is quoted saying, “There was no school board meeting. … They had just given me the authority to contact the attorney and seek legal advice about this in the past, and we’re operating off of that.” Mary Gerbig, an attorney for the district said that the school board “knew about, and supported, the board president’s efforts on this issue as he worked with legal counsel to prepare for the DPI hearing.” But, according to Bob Dreps of the firm Godfrey & Kahn, “A governmental body like a school board cannot make substantive decisions without a motion.”

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Special Needs
Lawmakers In Texas Consider Education Options For Autistic Students.
The Texas Tribune (8/4, Ergenbright) reported that “the number of children believed to be autistic has skyrocketed in Texas and worldwide.” Data from the Texas Education Agency shows that “the quality of Texas special education programs for autistic students runs the gamut, and the number of autistic students in classrooms decreases as children get older.” Currently, policymakers and educators are focusing on “how to best educate [autistic] students and how to pay for” that education. One idea lawmakers are considering is “building charter schools for special ed students and integrating them into existing campuses.” A variation of this would be to place “autism charter schools on state university campuses, where they could draw on university money, staff, and expertise.”

School Finance
Iowa Governor Seeks Four Percent Increase In Education Spending In 2012.
Staci Hupp posts at the Des Moines (IA) Register (8/4) “Iowa Politics Insider” blog that Iowa Gov. Chet Culver (D) announced Wednesday that he wants to increase school spending in 2012 by four percent. The increase “could add up to more than $100 million.” Culver also “repeated his plan to expand public preschool to every Iowa 4-year-old whose family wants it.”

The Quad-City (IA) Times (8/5, Boshart) reports that in a speech to the Iowa State Education Association and others Wednesday, Culver “also pledged support for…raising graduation rates for minority students, eliminating the so-called ‘achievement gap’ by improving curriculum, programs and instruction, boosting professional development, and emphasizing money management for Iowa students.” He also noted that the four percent “in ‘allowable growth’ funding for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2011″ would have a price tag ranging “between $300 million and $400 million.” The Mason City (IA) Globe (8/5, Boshart) also covers the story.

Schools In Oklahoma Find “Creative” Ways To Limit Spending On Sports.
The Oklahoman (8/5, Przybylo) reported on “creative” ways school districts in the state have found to adjust sports programs in order to reduce spending. This year Oklahoma City Public Schools must “cut $17 million from its budget.” The district still plans to “pay for transportation and security at” sports events “but is not buying any uniforms this year.” Meanwhile, Tulsa Public Schools “is combining boys and girls basketball coaching jobs into one position,” to save about “$80,000 in stipends and utilities.”

Also in the News
Girl Scouts Placing Priority On Introductions To STEM Careers.
Tampa Bay Online (8/5, Spann) reports, “Girl Scouts may be known for cookies and camping, but careers for the girls are also a priority. The Girl Scouts organization is placing a priority on introducing the girls to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers.” To that end, “a recent summer camp called Minds for Design” had girls “building electrical circuits for devices like a doorbell or electric fan.” The article notes that “only 27percent of current STEM-related jobs are held by women, and the Girl Scouts is hoping to increase that number by highlighting female role models who have already blazed a path in these careers.” An official with the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida noted that the organization “has been making STEM a priority for the past 20 years.”

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NEA in the News
Seattle Education Association Says Teacher Evaluation Plan Would Cost $3.9 Million.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (8/‎5, Rolph) reports that this week, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson sent teachers an email detailing the district’s proposed teacher evaluation system. The plan is to roll out a “four-tier evaluation system…over two years.” Teachers would be able to choose to be evaluated based on “student growth outcomes and peer and student feedback.” Those who do “would be eligible for…an immediate 1 percent pay increase” and other perks. But, the Seattle Education Association said in a letter, “The truth is [the plan] will cost over $3.9 million dollars over the next four years” and that money “does not include any of the stipends for career ladders, stipends for working in low performing schools, or the 1 percent increase for opting in to the program.”

US Department Of Education Names Investing In Innovation Grant Winners.
The New York Times (8/6, A12, Dillon) reports that the Education Department has announced winners of its $650 million Investing in Innovation grant competition. School districts and nonprofit groups throughout the nation received small grants totaling $455 million. The remainder went to higher education programs, charter schools, teacher recruiting programs, and other organizations.

The Miami Herald (8/6, McGrory) reportsthat “a project to train master teachers in Miami-Dade County was among the big winners this week of a national competition for federal education dollars. The Florida Master Teacher Initiative — a joint effort of the Miami-Dade school district, the University of Florida and The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation — beat out more than 1,600 applicants nationwide for a share of the grant money.” The Herald adds, “‘We were really struck by the number of high-quality applicants and winners who were not among the usual suspects,’ Assistant Deputy Education Department Secretary Jim Shelton said.”

The Seattle Times (8/6) reports, “The Bellevue (WA) School District was awarded $4 million in federal grant money by the Education Department this week as part of the Investing in Innovation program, or I3. The school district was among just 49 applicants chosen out of nearly 1,700 applicants.”

The Oregonian (8/6, Navas) reports, “The Beaverton [OR] School District is one of 49 finalists nationwide in the running for highly coveted federal grant money that will allow it to use arts education to boost student achievement, particularly among its high needs students. The district would receive $4 million over the next five years to fund the Arts for Learning Lessons Project.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (8/6, Rujumba) and the Denver Post (8/6, Meyer) also report on winning programs.

Utah School Districts Loses Out On Grant. The Salt Lake Tribune (8/6, Schencker) reports, “A coalition of 18 Utah rural school districts that had hoped to win $30 million to support computer-adaptive testing is out of the running for those dollars for this year.” According to the Tribune, “The Utah coalition of 18 rural districts, two elementary schools and three charter schools, was not on the list of potential winners. The coalition had applied for $30 million to implement and support computer-adaptive tests, which change in difficulty as students take them to help educators pinpoint students’ strengths and weaknesses.”

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In the Classroom
“Engineering Is Elementary” Encourages Trial-And-Error Method To Find Technical Solutions.
The Carolina Weekly (8/6, Roberson) reports that several educators in the North Carolina’s ­Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district have expressed interest “in using the Engineering Is Elementary curriculum during the 2010-11 academic year.” The curriculum “teaches students about the engineering field and related technology concepts” through problem solving, trial-and-error, and hands-on activities. “The students try out their solutions, observe what has happened and modify their ideas.” According to Liz Parry, director of K-16 STEM Partnership Development at N.C. State’s College of Engineering, “the curriculum taps into students’ natural desire to solve problems.” Said Perry, “It really humanizes engineering. We are accessing in these kids an innate ability to look at a problem, think of several different solutions and devise ways to solve a problem.”

Baltimore Schools CEO Says AYP Targets Do Not Reflect Progress.
The Baltimore Sun (8/6, Green) reports that this year, 60 percent of elementary and middle schools in Baltimore, Maryland, did not may Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). But, according to schools CEO Andrés Alonso, AYP “targets are far from the strongest method for determining a school’s successes and shortfalls.” He explained, “It’s a perverse conversation, because schools can be improving and not make AYP and other schools can be declining and still make AYP. … It focuses school attention only on the tested subjects as part of the push for accountability.” Alonso predicts that soon, education reform will “overshadow AYP” by tying “accountability to progress for individual students.”

School Officials In Austin, Texas, Pleased With Progress, Despite Failure To Meet AYP. Texas’ American-Statesman (8/6, Taboada) reports that the Austin public school district has, “for the second consecutive year…failed to meet” AYP. Special education students were the main group needing improvement. Still, Austin’s “results were better than in 2008,” showing some progress. Bill Caritj, the district’s chief performance officer, said that officials have “been very pleased with the results.” He acknowledged, however, “There’s still a lot of work to do, and we’re still not satisfied with the gains of some schools.”

Building Robots Helps Students Retain STEM Learning, Officials Say.
In a story titled “Building Robots Help Students Retain Information,” WJZ-TV Baltimore (8/5, Barnett) reported on the summer STEM Academy started by Baltimore City Public Schools with the help of federal stimulus funds. “School leaders say robot parts, a remote control and a little competition keep middle school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math classes.” Over the course of five weeks, middle schoolers “complete math courses in the morning and then in the evening, they take what they learn and apply it to robots.” Then, “they battle it out in the summer VEX Competition.” Officials said that in addition to engaging students, “by building robots, students remember the math and science they learn over the summer, making them ready for the new school year.”

On the Job
Some Superintendents In Florida Seek Delay In Release Of School Grades.
The St. Petersburg Times (8/6, Mitchell) reports that on Thursday, some Florida school superintendents “raised strong objections…to the release of school grades planned for today.” They said that “recent state audits of questionable” standardized test “results [were] insufficient.” Hillsborough County superintendent Mary Ellen Elia told the St. Petersburg Times, “We’re very concerned that the accuracy of the Florida accountability system be maintained as fair and reliable.” Throughout the state more than half of all “school districts reported finding statistical anomalies within Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test data.”

The Miami Herald (8/6)‎ reports that State Education Commissioner Eric Smith “has expressed confidence in the scores. A news conference announcing this year’s grades is scheduled for” this afternoon.

Review Shows Lax Investigation Into Test Fraud At Some Atlanta Schools.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/5 Judd, Vogell) reported that the commission “chosen by Atlanta’s school system gave only cursory attention to evidence suggesting extensive cheating on standardized tests in more than half the 58 schools they examined,” a Journal-Constitution review shows. After studying “questionable gains on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT),” the commission this week reported “that alleged cheating seemed to permeate just 12 Atlanta schools, rather than the 58 — more than half the schools in the district — state officials flagged last winter.” But, according to the review, “the Atlanta commission did little to investigate 17 of the 43 schools where state officials had found excessive erasures on test papers” and at some schools “investigators spoke to as few as two staff members.”

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Law & Policy
Senate Approves Bill Aimed At Preventing Teacher Layoffs.
The AP (8/6, Taylor) reports, “Congress is moving rapidly just weeks before the start of the school year to speed billions of dollars in emergency education aid to states in hopes of reversing the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers.” The AP adds that “some $10 billion in aid to school districts is set to flow after a 61-39 Senate vote Thursday — to be followed quickly by a House vote next week — in hopes that it will come in time for many school districts to reconsider teacher layoffs.” The New York Times (8/6, Hulse) notes, that the $10 billion is meant “to retain teachers who might otherwise lose jobs to cutbacks.”

Education Week (8/5, Klein) reports that language in the bill specifies “that the money would have to be used for salaries, benefits, and support services for school staff.” School systems “also could use it to recall or rehire former staff members, or to bring on new employees for K-12 schools and early childhood programs.”

The Los Angeles Times (8/6, Mascaro) reports that “the bill is paid for by the food stamp cuts, closing foreign tax loopholes, eliminating advance filing of a low-income tax credit that President Obama had sought to end, and trims in various other government programs.” The Christian Science Monitor (8/6, Khadaroo), Washington Times (8/6, McLaughlin, Bloomberg News (8/6, Faler), Reuters (8/6, Lambert, Cowan) and KGO-TV San Francisco (8/5, Ishimaru) also covered this story.

Texas Official Threatens Legal Action Over Provision In Jobs Bill. Texas’ Star-Telegram (8/5, Montgomery) reported that Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) on Thursday threatened “legal action against the federal government if the House upholds” a “mandate on education funding” passed by the US Senate this week. The Star Telegram added that “the provision applies only to Texas and was crafted by Texas Democrats in Congress” to make sure that $800 million in federal funds for education are not “diverted to other purposes.” Dewhurst and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) say that the provision does not comply with state law and would cause Texas to lose out on the $800 million.

Senate Approves Additional $4.5 Billion For Child Nutrition.
The Washington Post (8/6, Black) reports, “The Senate passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act on Thursday, a bill that provides an additional $4.5 billion over 10 years to federal child nutrition programs including school lunch. If signed into law, it will be the first time that the federal government has increased funding for the programs in 30 years.” First Lady Michelle Obama had urged senators to pass the bill, and “in a statement released” on Thursday afternoon, she “commended the Senate for its leadership,” saying, “While childhood obesity cannot be solved overnight, with everyone working together, there’s no question that it can be solved — and today’s vote moves us one step closer to reaching that goal.”

The Los Angeles Times (8/6, Mascaro) reports, “The bill would continue existing school nutrition programs that expire at the end of the federal fiscal year Sept. 30,” and “would enable school cafeterias to overhaul their menus and provide updated, healthier choices, supporters said.” The Tribune adds that Mrs. Obama, “who has made childhood nutrition a signature issue, called the bill ‘a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will help us provide healthier school meals to children across America, and will play an integral role in our efforts to combat childhood obesity.’” The AP (8/6, Jalonick) and Politico (8/6, Phillip) also cover this story.

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Also in the News
Thousands Attend Dallas Mayor’s Back-To-School Fair.
The Dallas Morning News (8/6) reports that Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert on Thursday, held his annual Back-to-School Fair at Fair Park. According to the Morning News, “thousands of parents” attended the event that featured “Clowns, jugglers, balloon artists and mascots from area businesses and sports teams.” School supplies were handed out at the event, which also had “booths for free medical, dental and vision screenings, immunizations and haircuts for school-age children.” Said Leppert, “We want to start the kids with a base for a successful year. The basic school supplies are so important and things a lot of people take for granted.”

Student Killed In Two-Bus Crash On I-44.
The New York Times (8/6, Robbins) reported on a highway collision that occurred on Thursday morning involving “two school buses carrying high school band members.” The buses “crashed into a tractor trailer cab and a pickup truck as they were traveling” on I-44 near Gray Summit, Missouri.

The AP (8/6) reports that the two buses “slammed into a freeway wreck that happened right in front of them, crushing a pickup truck and killing its driver and one of the students.” More than 40 more students “were taken to hospitals,” but most did not have life-threatening injuries. According to Highway Patrol Cpl. Jeff Wilson, the first bus crashed after the driver “moved into the passing lane to give a distressed vehicle in the shoulder more room.” The driver “was checking her rearview mirror while returning to the right-hand lane when she noticed the first impact but could not stop in time, hitting the pickup.” Then, “the second bus then rear-ended the first, vaulting the first bus onto the top of the pickup, which was crushed.”

USA Today (8/6, Bello) reports that “the buses were carrying band students to Six Flags amusement park in St. Louis to celebrate the coming school year.” It also notes that both of the people killed in the accident were teenagers.

Bus Safety Expert Says Seat Belts Could Have Prevented Serious Injuries. KTVI-TV St. Louis, Missouri (8/6) reports that according to Dr. Alan Ross, president of the National Coalition for School Bus Safety, “seat-belts would have made the injuries” in the school bus crash “less severe.” According to KTVI, Ross — who has been following the story — said he believes money and politics are the main “reasons why states don’t require seat belts.”

Down Economy Brings Instability To Teaching Profession.
The Chicago Tribune (8/9, Rubin) reports, “Illinois’ budget woes threw schools into a firing frenzy last spring, and many educators remain in layoff limbo. Other teachers have a job but are dreading a year of larger class sizes – followed by what is expected to be years more of budget cutting.” According to the Tribune, “The whole notion of teaching being a profession where you could find a job, earn a comfortable paycheck, get tenure and retire with a tidy pension is changing, experts say.”

Competition Is High For Teaching Jobs In Vermont. Vermont’s Times Argus (8/8, Kumka) reported that in Vermont, “competition is high for teaching jobs.” The Times Argus cites several reasons for this, including late retirement for “teachers in their 60s” who are either waiting “to get better insurance benefits from the state or because they can’t afford to retire in the current economy.” School administrators said that this year, “they are receiving hundreds of applications, mainly from out-of-work teachers.” And, they said that many of the applicants have “more qualifications” than applicants in the past. According to a spokesperson for the Vermont-National Education Association, teaching in the state is still “more secure than in other states where teachers are being laid off in great numbers or threatened with deep cuts in their pensions or benefits.”

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In the Classroom
Arizona School Districts Expanding Online Course Offerings.
The Arizona Republic (8/8) reported that in March 2009, “more than 17,800 students were enrolled full time in an online class” throughout Arizona. Education officials in the state are continuing to expand online learning. Recently, the State BOE “approved applications from 20 districts that will begin offering online classes as early as this academic year.” The Arizona Republic noted that a new survey by Blackboard Inc. and Project Tomorrow shows that students sometimes prefer online classes because they are able “to work at their own pace and personalize their learning.” Students also go online for “classes not offered at their school” or classes that do not fit into their schedule of face-to-face classes.

New Jersey District Fights Grade Inflation By Eliminating D’s.
The New York Times (8/8, Hu) reported that New Jersey’s Mount Olive School District has eliminated the D grade. Now, students can only earn A’s, B’s, C’s, and F’s. The move, according to Superintendent Larrie Reynolds, is “a way to raise the bar and motivate students to work harder.” The Times points out that even though “few high schools have banned D’s outright as Mount Olive has, some have sought to tamp down grade inflation by quietly tightening their standards over the years.” Some schools, “for instance, have raised the minimum for D’s to 70, which is traditionally the C-minus range.” In Mount Olive, students who fail a test or assignment will have the opportunity “to repeat the work for a C.” Those who fail a class will be able to attend evening school for a fee.

New Fitness Programs Aims To Curb Obesity Among DC Students.
The Washington Post (8/8, Seiss) reported, “The days of students fretting over being the last one picked during volleyball or the first one tagged in dodge ball are fading in many D.C. area schools as physical education classes…focus more on individual fitness, personal growth and development.” Via the Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK) program, “all of the District’s schools will receive a new physical education curriculum with age-appropriate fitness lessons and activities, on-site teacher training and equipment: jump ropes, Frisbees, hula hoops and balls, as well as parachutes, rhythm sticks and juggling scarves. .. School officials said their goal is to help reduce the increasing number of children who are overweight, which is in line with the Healthy Schools Act, passed this year by the D.C. City Council and signed into law by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.”

Observers Say New York’s High Standards Result In Average Test Scores.
The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal (8/8, Davis) reported that even though New York “spends more per pupil than any state in the nation,” its “students score in the middle of the pack or below when their state test scores are compared with the 49 other states.” Some observers say that one reason for this is that New York’s standardized test is more difficult than those of other states. The Poughkeepsie Journal points out, for instance, that the state’s special education “standards exceed those of the federal government,” and high school seniors must “to graduate with a Regents diploma.”

Refugee Students In Dallas Resist Reassignment To Overage School.
The Dallas Morning News (8/8, Hobbs) reported that about “500 students in the Dallas Independent School District” (DISD) “are slated to attend a new school for” students who are much older than the students “at regular campuses.” The overage school, “district officials say…will better address the needs of older students, such as providing flexible schedules.” The reassigned students include some refugees who say that the switch to a new school “brings yet more challenges to their lives.” Rob Mezger of Refugee Services of Texas said that “refugees like to stay within their comfort zones in their new community.” He explained that “when they have to leave that area, it’s a foreign country again.”

After-School Robotics Program Persists, Despite Challenges.
The Arizona Republic (8/9, Ruelas) reported a lengthy profile of Faridodin Lajvardi, a marine science teacher at Carl Hayden Community High School, and the work he does leading the school’s robotics club. “Lajvardi has worked late most nights during the nearly two decades he has run the program. His teams have won numerous awards, including a national prize considered the highest distinction in robotics.” The team competes in the FIRST competitions each year, as well as other events. The article details the challenges of running a robotics club in “a school where nearly every student qualifies for free or reduced-price lunches,” chronicling the team’s journey last year when they competed in Breakaway.

Virginia To Use Last Year’s AYP Targets To Mark School Progress This Year.
The Richmond (VA)Times-Dispatch (8/8, Pounds) reported that the Virginia Education Department announced recently that the state has been granted “permission to use last year’s goals as targets for school progress this year under the No Child Left Behind Act.” Under normal circumstances, AYP “benchmarks increase each year by 4 percentage points.” But this year, Virginia schools that “exceed last year’s goals by just a fraction of a point” will meet AYP. The Times-Dispatch noted that “it is not unusual for the federal government to allow states to adjust AYP goals,” but “this is the first time that Virginia had requested it.”

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On the Job
Grant Helps District Provide Teachers With Extra STEM Training.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (8/8, Pikulsky) reported, “Ringgold School District is one of several benefiting from a grant that will help elementary and middle school math teachers receive more training throughout the year.” The STEM education initiative “is part of a program designed to encourage cooperative efforts among teachers on varying educational levels.” Ringgold assistant superintendent Karen Polkabla “said the training should help improve Ringgold’s math scores on state standardized tests.” Polkabla said, “A lot of students have math anxiety, because they’re just fearful of it. We just wanted to do this to better prepare our teachers to work with the students. I think it will be very helpful.” She added that “giving the teachers a chance to network with college professors will provide extra perspective.”

Florida District Begins Teacher Evaluation Revamp Under Gates Foundation Grant.
The St. Petersburg Times (8/8, Marshall) reported that starting this fall, the Hillsborough County school district will “revamp teacher evaluation” with a $100 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The district “will launch a system” that rewards effective teachers and helps “struggling teachers succeed.” Over the summer, “principals and their assistants — along with a corps of 120 peer evaluators and mentors drawn from the teaching ranks” — were trained on the new evaluation system. Throughout the school year, they will “observe, mentor and rate every teacher in the district.” Those ratings, “along with student test scores, will help determine which teachers get tenure, promotions, or pink slips, and will eventually place them on a new salary scale,” the St. Petersburg Times added.

Experienced Teachers Sought Out For Three Turnaround Schools In Boston.
The New York Times (8/9, Winerip, A9) reports that three turnaround schools in Boston are using a new program “to assemble teams of experienced teachers who will make up a quarter of the staff of each” school this fall. Teach Plus, a nonprofit organization funded by the Gates Foundation will put the teams together. “While teaching a full load,” the selected teachers “will serve as team leaders for their grades and specialty areas like English immersion.” And instead of working 185 days a year, they will work “210 days…and get paid $6,000 extra.”

Law & Policy
Race To The Top Spurring Unprecedented Education Reforms.
McClatchy Newspapers (8/8, Yadron) reported, “When Education Secretary Arne Duncan inserted a half-page program description into the economic stimulus act last year, few except top Democratic leaders knew that it would create Race to the Top, a multibillion-dollar sweepstakes to overhaul US schools that gave Duncan’s department unprecedented power.” According to McClatchy, “With only $4.3 billion – less than 1 percent of federal, state and local education dollars – Race to the Top is one of many small, relatively inexpensive projects that lawmakers plopped into the recovery act.” However, via Race to the Top, Duncan “arguably got more states to buy his brand of change in 18 months than any other US school chief had in the Cabinet-level Education Department’s 29-year history.”

School Finance
Mobile County, Alabama, Asks BP To Build It A New CTE School.
Alabama’s Press-Register (8/9, Philips) reports from Mobile, “Expecting a loss in tax revenue because of the oil spill, Mobile County school officials are getting in line with business owners, fishermen, government agencies and others who are asking BP PLC for money.” School system officials “have said they might be satisfied if BP would step up and build the stand-alone, career-technical academy that local officials have wanted for years but have been unable to afford,” adding that the move “would be a good public relations move on the part of BP.” A new CTE school would cost an estimated $15-20 million. “Although the school would accept students countywide, board President Bill Meredith has suggested that it be built in south Mobile County, where the spill has thrown many fishermen and others out of work.”

More Money Needed For Education Of Native American Students, Tribal Leaders Say.
The AP (8/7, Brokaw) reported, “American Indian students could achieve more academically if their crumbling schools are fixed, more money is provided for teachers and supplies and tribes gain more control of what happens in classrooms, tribal officials said Friday at a congressional hearing. … Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., held a field hearing on Indian education on behalf of the House Natural Resources Committee, which deals with Native American issues.” According to the AP, “Representatives of many tribes said schools need to teach more native language and culture, which would help build the self-esteem needed to reduce teenage suicide and also motivate students to learn more in traditional academic courses.”

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Also in the News
Laptop Initiative Helping Change Students’ Attitudes Toward Education In Rwanda.
The Miami Herald (8/7, Whitefield) reported that the Miami-based One Laptop Per Child Association has distributed 65,000 laptops to children in Rwanda and plans to send another 40,000 to the nation. “The association handles logistics, finances and training for the One Laptop Per Child Foundation” (OLPC). So far, OLPC has distributed about 85 percent of its computers to children in Latin America, with Peru receiving the largest shipment of about 450,000 computers, with another 300,000 on the way. In Rwanda, “the computers are changing children’s attitude toward school,” according to OLPC Country Manager Samuel Dusengiyumva. Last month, he showed a video “to local business executives” of children using their laptops to perform “Google searches and peer at a map of Africa on their computer screens. Some don’t even stop using the machines as they walk home from school,” said Dusengiyumva.

NEA in the News
Teachers’ Unions Are “Leaders In Education Reform,” Union President Says.
Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade, wrote in an opinion piece for the Miami Herald (8/8), “It is with dismay that I listen to the relentless attacks against public school teachers and their unions.” She attempts to “set the record straight” by pointing out ways in which “teachers’ unions lead the way in educational reform initiatives.” The NEA, for instance, “has grants that support feeding children in our schools, understanding that hunger is a factor in children’s learning.” Moreover, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel “has continued reform initiatives that include Read Across America, an effort that aims to make reading a joy for our students.” Aronowitz concludes that “teachers and their unions are not standing in the way” of reform. Instead, they “are leaders in educational reform.”

Leading the News
Illinois Law Will Establish Anonymous Hotline For Reporting School Violence.
The Chicago Sun-Times (8/10, Janssen) reports that reports that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) signed into law on Monday legislation that establishes a hotline for students to anonymously “tip police off about after-school fights and other violence.” The law is aimed at breaking “the code of silence protecting gang members and [helping] prevent shootings and fights like those that claimed the lives of” two high school students within the past year.

Monique Garcia wrote in the Chicago Tribune “Clout Street” blog that under the new law, the Chicago Board of Education will “work with city police to create the hotline by January.” All calls, though anonymous, “must be recorded by police, who also are charged with investigating the tips. Information about the hot line, including the yet-to-be-established phone number, must be posted in each school.”

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In the Classroom
Teacher, Administrator Antics Help Motivate Students.
The Wilmington (NC) Star News (8/10) reports that the antics teachers and school administrators use to motivate students sometimes work. Richard Kortan, a fifth-grade teacher at Codington Elementary school, promised his students last year that if 90 percent of the class or more scored “a passing grade on all three end-of-year tests,” he would “wear a chicken outfit and serve them ice cream.” His students “exceeded the 90 percent pass mark, and he found himself wearing feathers, a Carolina Panthers football jersey and a handwritten sign professing his love for the Dallas Cowboys, a team he greatly dislikes.” Diane Cargile, former president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, said that such antics encourage students and show parents that educators “care about the children.”

Online High School Programs Expanding In California.
The Bakersfield Californian (8/10, Barrientos) reports that online education programs “have blossomed in California and will continue to, school officials say.” Carol Abbott, an independent study program consultant for the California Department of Education, said that her office is “creating a database of” accredited online-only programs for high school students. The Bakersfield Californian adds that “online public high schools, which are free, partner with local districts and by state rules can recruit students from surrounding counties.”

New York High Schools Getting Reports On Graduates’ Status In Public City Colleges.
The New York Times (8/10, A1, Medina) reports that this year the New York City Department of Education “has sent detailed reports to all of its high schools” showing the number of students from the schools “who arrived at the city’s public colleges needed remedial courses, as well as how many stayed enrolled after their first semester.” The reports will go out each year. According to the New York Times, Illinois “began tracking how its high school graduates fared in college several years ago,” and Denver and Philadelphia plan to do the same.

University Hosts Science Camp For Homeless Students.
The Los Angeles Times (8/9, Rivera) reported that a summer science camp organized by Cal State Long Beach gives homeless students “a chance to explore concepts and career options they might not otherwise. For parents, the camp offers a haven for their children during the day, when many of them must leave the emergency shelters where they stay each night.” According to the Times, “This year the campers, who ranged in age from kindergarteners through eighth-graders, studied animals and bugs, launched rockets and kites and investigated ‘crime’ scenes, including a mysteriously contaminated cake.”

Some Education Stakeholders Advise Cautious Approach On Use Of E-Books.
USA Today (8/10, Marklein) reports, “Compared with traditional textbooks, the iPad and other devices for reading digital books have the potential to save on textbook costs in the long term, to provide students with more and better information faster, and — no small matter — to lighten the typical college student’s backpack.” However, “the track record on campus so far for e-readers has been bumpy” and “some of the most tech-savvy students aren’t quite ready to endorse the devices for academic use” Moreover, “some educational psychologists suggest the dizzying array of options and choices offered by the ever-evolving technology may be making it harder to learn rather than easier.”

On the Job
Utah Districts Win $2.5 Million In Federal Grants To Improve History Education.
The Salt Lake Tribune (8/10, Schencker) reports that Utah’s Jordan, Granite and Tooele school districts recently “won nearly $2.5 million in federal grant money to enhance the way they teach American history.” With the Teaching American History grants, the school systems will “partner with Utah universities to continue to teach educators more about history and how to teach it.” Teachers in Jordan “will also each get iPod touches and will have access to one classroom set of iPod touches to be shared among the teachers and their history classes for each year of the three year grant.”

California District Receives $100,000 Grant For Teacher Math Training.
California’s Mercury News (8/10, Eslinger) reports that the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto, California, will receive a $100,000 grant form Hewlett-Packard “to send sixth- through eighth-grade teachers to” math training courses. “The professional development is provided through RAFT (Resource Area for Teaching), a Bay Area nonprofit that provides teachers with project ideas, training and hands-on learning materials.” The Mercury News notes that students in Ravenswood generally “score progressively lower” on state standardized math tests “as they move up grade levels.” The hands-on training will teach educators to incorporate “investigative learning” into their instruction to help students boost their math and critical thinking skills.

More Than 80 Percent Of New Jersey Public Schools Will Have Fewer Teachers, Survey Shows.
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (8/10, Fleisher) reports that according to a new survey released by the New Jersey School Boards Association on Monday, “more than 80 percent of New Jersey’s public schools will [have] fewer teachers” next fall. District officials “cited student enrollment declines, defeated budgets…long-term financial planning,” and $820 million in state aid cuts “for the reductions.” The school boards association “said the survey — completed by 40 percent of the state’s school districts — shows the importance of $268 million in federal aid expected to be passed [today] by the US House of Representatives.”

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Law & Policy
Arizona Hotel Association May Seek Fixed Start Date For Schools Statewide.
Barbara De Lollis wrote in the USA Today “Hotel Check-In” blog (8/9) that the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association may soon ask state lawmakers to pass legislation “that would require all schools to start at the same time after Labor Day.” The Association wants “all public schools in the state to start later so that families can squeeze in a few more vacation days and fill their rooms.” A spokeswoman for the organization said that schools would still be able to “fit in the required number of days by eliminating breaks in the fall.” De Lollis notes that “educators in the state aren’t pleased with the idea.” Said Lucy Messing, president of the Tucson Education Association, “We certainly should not be run by the hotel lobby.”

Facilities
Miami-Dade Schools Use Existing Buildings To House Innovative Classrooms.
The Miami Herald (8/9, McGrory) reported that instead of building new schools, the Miami-Dade public school district “is transforming existing spaces into technology-rich, innovative classrooms.” This month, the district is opening “two new schools-within-schools specifically for children with autism spectrum disorders” and “a state-of-the-art magnet school for biomedical sciences” among other additions. The biomedical school “will be called the Medical Academy for Science and Technology, or MAST.” The district will invest “$8 million into rehabilitating the building,” which “will likely be ready for the start of the 2011-12 school year.”

School Finance
Many Georgia Districts Compressing School Year To Cut Costs.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/10, Badertscher) reports that in an effort to save money, “school systems across Georgia are compressing the school year into fewer days to save money.” The state requires 59,400 minutes of instructional time, but it is being more lenient on other “long-standing rules this year” due to the economy. For instance, school districts “are being allowed to assign more students to each classroom — which means fewer teachers.” They may also apply for a waiver in order to “shorten the employment contracts of teachers and bus drivers to coincide with their condensed school years.” Also according to the Journal-Constitution, “some school systems are obtaining hardship waivers” that exempt “them from a requirement” to spend 65 percent of state funds on classrooms instruction.

California District Seeks Donations To Save High School Sports.
The Sacramento Bee (8/9, Lambert) reported that California’s Elk Grove Unified School District officials seek to raise $700,000 for high school sports programs by asking families to make donations. The school system’s “parent advisory committee formed by district officials” is asking players’ families to contribute between $450 and $75. The Sacramento Bee notes that Elk Grove “cut more than $900,000 to high school athletics to help fill a $60 million gap in its 2010-11 budget.”

ACLU Looks Into Extra-Curricular Activity Fees In California Schools. The AP (8/9) reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is looking into school fees charged by school districts in California for anything from textbooks to extracurricular activities. Recently, the ACLU “sent a letter to the San Diego Unified School District, stating fees being charged at various schools for extracurricular activities…were illegal.” According to the ACLU, the fees violate “the state constitution’s guarantee of a free, public education.” The California Supreme Court said in 1984 that “a district’s financial hardship cannot be used to justify levying fees.” The AP adds that some districts request donations or suggest fees for extracurricular activities in order to comply with the law.

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Also in the News
Volunteers Knock On Doors To Enroll Students In Detroit Public Schools.
The Detroit Free Press (8/10) reports that contractors and volunteers in the Detroit public school (DPS) system are “going door-to-door” this summer “to enroll students from…closed” schools “into other DPS schools.” The effort is part of a campaign launched by DPS last year called “I’m In!” In order to avoid more budget cuts, DPS “must retain 77,314″ students. “Officials hope that giving parents doorstep service will help slow the” nation’s worst “enrollment crisis,” which is currently taking place in Detroit. The campaign will include “celebrity visits, citywide events and a mobile enrollment vehicle that will crisscross the city and adjacent suburbs over the next month.” MLive (8/10, Oosting) reports that on Monday, district officials announced that Cosby “will serve as Grand Marshal of the” campaign’s “I’m In!” parade on Aug. 26. The AP (8/9) also covered the story.

At University Of Texas, Obama Restates Goal To Boost Number Of College Graduates.
The New York Times (8/10, Stolberg) reports that in Texas on Monday, President Obama said in a speech at the University of Texas, Austin, that “education is an economic issue,” and he “restated his call for the United States to produce an additional eight million college graduates by the year 2020.” The Dallas Morning News (8/9, Gillman) reported that right now, “about 40 percent of younger adults have college degrees.” In order to reach the goal set forth by Presidnet Obama, 60 percent of younger adults need college degrees, “an extra 8 million graduates that population growth alone would entail.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 8:35 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.