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

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

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

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In the Classroom
Program Uses Dogs To Help Children Improve Reading Skills.
The AP (8/18) reports on programs that use dogs to help children improve their reading skills. Carol Kellerman, coordinator of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society’s Reading to Rover program, said that a dog’s presence helps create a “relaxed, nonjudgmental atmosphere” in which a child can feel comfortable reading. The AP added that “canine mentors have been proven to lower children’s anxiety, which helps boost literacy skills.” Dogs chosen for Reading to Rover program “must first pass good citizenship training through the American Kennel Club, and are screened through the shelter to work with children.” The program allows students 20 minutes of reading time with the dogs each week.

National Council To Develop “Best Practices” For Digital Learning.
Education Week (8/18, McNeil, Samuels) reported that former governors Jeb Bush of Florida and Bob Wise of West Virginia introduced in a press release on Wednesday the Digital Learning Council, “an effort intended to encourage states to more deeply weave current and future technology innovations into public education.” The council consists of 50 leaders in education, politics, and business who will “create a set of best practices” for “digital learning issues” by December. Afterward, council members will “encourage states to adopt” the best practices. Jeff Solochek also covered the story in the St. Petersburg Times (8/18) “Gradebook” blog.

Pinellas County, Florida District Disputes Report On Black Male Graduation Rates.
The St. Petersburg Times (8/19, Marshall, Catalanello) reports that a report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education released this week said that Florida’s Pinellas County school district ranks lowest among large US school systems for graduating black male students. In 2008, “21 percent of black males earned regular diplomas…after four years of study, compared to 50 percent of white males and a national average of 47 percent.” But district officials argue that the data is “inaccurate and unfair.” To come up with the figures, Schott Foundation Research Consultant Micahel Holzman “divided the number of standard diplomas awarded in 2008 by the number of students who entered high school four years earlier.” Pinellas Superintendent Julie Janssen said the method was “totally nonstatistical.” According to the district, 50 percent of its black male students graduated in 2008. Still, Janssen acknowledges, “There is a gap.”

Kindergartners At Elementary School In Tennessee To Use iPads In Classroom.
WMSV-TV Nashville (8/18, Williams) reported on its Website that soon kindergartners at Julia Green Elementary School in Nashville “will be using iPads as part of the learning experience.” Eileen Wills told WMSV, “The emphasis is on global mindedness.” The Green Elementary Parent-Teacher Organization raised money for the iPads.

On the Job
CONNECT-ED Helps New Jersey Teachers Connect New Concepts To Prior Education.
New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (8/18, Rich) reported, “Through a unique partnership with Rider University and Princeton University, public school science teachers” throughout New Jersey “have received hands-on” training on helping students make connections between concepts learned “in prior years” of schooling. Kathleen Browne, assistant provost and director of CONNECT-ED, the Consortium for New Explorations in Coherent Teacher Education, said that until connections are made, students do not usually understand how a learned concept “connects to other concepts already learned or to be learned, it’s just bits of information,” she said. “The latest CONNECT-ED program spanned two weeks, with a focus on making connections in physical and earth sciences from the elementary grades to the high school level.” Teachers said that “the experience has switched on a light bulb in terms of methodology.”

Law & Policy
District’s Abandonment Of “D” Grade Questioned.
Joe Bower, a teacher in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (8/18), “I read in the New York Times that Mount Olive School District in New Jersey has abolished the ‘D,’” and “I fear that the Mount Olive School District has just doomed itself to mediocrity, if it is lucky, or very likely something much worse.” According to Bower, “Despite good intentions, Mount Olive School District’s best-case scenario involves some of those ‘Ds’ turning to ‘Fs’ while others become ‘Cs’. … This is exactly why tougher standards, grading, test scores and competition don’t make schools better – they simply make schools more like their mediocre neighbors.”

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Safety & Security
Preliminary Tests Find Elevated PCB Levels In Three New York City Schools.
The New York Times (8/19, Navarro) reports, “Elevated levels of toxic chemical compounds were found in the first three New York City public school buildings tested in a pilot study meant to assess the risks posed by PCBs, according to preliminary results. Officials of the city’s Department of Education said the study at first focused on cracked caulk, but that air sampling also pointed at a lighting ballast, a regulating device in fluorescent lights made with oil containing PCBs.” According to the Times, “Workers have been removing caulk and replacing light fixtures at those three schools to get them ready for students.” The Wall Street Journal (8/19, Martinez) also covers this story.

School Finance
Utah Will Apply For Federal School Assistance.
The Salt Lake Tribune (8/19, Schencker) reports that Utah will “apply for $101 million in federal cash for schools despite criticism from some who say the feds are forcing the money upon states.” The money could save between 1,600 and 1,800 teacher’s jobs in the state, according to federal and state data. Gov. Gary Herbert (R) decided to apply for the money “after meeting with legislative leaders on Wednesday.” Said Herbert, “I am of a mind that first and foremost you’ve got to protect education. My frustration comes in that if you don’t take it, you’re going to have to pay it back anyway. That’s doesn’t make a lot of sense for the taxpayers of Utah.”

Utah District Implements “Farm To School” Program. The Salt Lake Tribune (8/19, Winters) reports that the Jordan School District’s “Farm to School” program, which supports Utah farmers, teaches students “about their food supply and” enhances school lunch with freshly picked produce from local farms, is “the first of its kind in Utah.” All Jordan elementary schools will offer the program beginning next week when school starts. As part of “Farm to School,” students “will receive informational cards about each featured item, including the farm where the fruit or vegetable was grown and the nutritional benefits.”

Also in the News
ACT Scores Show Mixed Progress.
The AP (8/18, Gorski) reported, “Average scores on the ACT college entrance exam inched downward this year, yet slightly more students who took the test proved to be prepared for college, according to a report released Wednesday.” The report says that “24 percent of ACT-tested students met or surpassed all four of the test’s benchmarks measuring their preparedness for college English, reading, math and science, … up from 23 percent last year and 21 percent in 2006.” However, test results also indicate that “three in four test-takers will likely need remedial help in at least one subject to succeed in college.”

Education Week (8/18, Gewertz) reported that “the number of Hispanic students who have taken the college-entrance exam during high school grew 84 percent in the past five years.” Meanwhile 63 percent more Asian-American students to the test this year, and 55 percent more African-American students took the test, “compared with a 29 percent rise in the number of white students.” The Washington Post (8/19, Birnbaum) and the Dallas Morning News (8/19, Stutz) also cover the story.

Many Experts Agree Wi-Fi Does Not Cause Negative Health Effects.
Fox News (8/18, Liu) reported that while “some parents in Canada are blaming their children’s illnesses on the wireless Internet routers installed in their schools,” many scientists still insist that radio frequency radiation does not “cause any negative health effects.” The World Health Organization, for instance, says “that the range of radiation exposure from Wi-Fi routers is between 0.002 percent and 2 percent of recommended maximum levels — less than people receive from televisions and FM radios.” Fox News added that “numerous studies over the years have supported the safety of low-level radiation from devices like cellphones…and Wi-Fi routers are even further removed from the body, lessening their impact.”

Columnist Says There Are Reasons To Question Health Effects Of WiFi. Columnist Moira McDonald writes in the Toronto Sun (8/19) that despite the controversy over Wi-Fi in classrooms, “the Toronto District School Board is still poised to go full speed ahead with plans to make every school wireless by 2015.” And, according to Health Canada, “‘there is no convincing scientific evidence that this equipment is dangerous to schoolchildren’ and based on continuous review of new scientific studies, the energy from Wi-Fi systems ‘is not dangerous to the public.’” But, McDonald adds, a study on the issue set for publication shows “the development of irregular or very rapid heart rates…in six out of 25 study participants during exposure to a 2.4 GHz radio frequency, the same frequency used in wireless routers.” The rapid heart rates slowed “when the frequency was turned off.” According to McDonald, the data show that there is room for questioning the health effects of Wi-Fi.

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NEA in the News
Lakota Education Association Official To Retire.
Ohio’s Journal-News (8/19, Hilty) reports that Judy Buschle, who “oversees more than 1,200 Lakota Education Association members that work in 23″ schools in the Lakota Local district , is retiring next year. “Since 1992, she has negotiated contracts with four superintendents and has helped develop a teacher evaluation method.” Buschle said that in all her years with the district, she is most proud of “bringing in labor management to bring about interest-based bargaining.” She added that “despite a rocky contract dispute that led to a near strike in 2007, relationships between administration and the union…are good.”

Colorado Opens First K-8 STEM School.
The Denver Post (8/19, DeHaas) reported on Adams 12 Five Star Schools’ new Magnet Lab STEM School, which according to officials is the first K-8 STEM school in the state. “Its most unique feature is that local business and technology experts worked with the district to design its hands-on, science-based curriculum. The whole idea is to restock America’s dwindling supply of scientists and innovators, said Principal Penelope Eucker.” When setting up the school, “Eucker and the district invited private companies to advise about what should be taught at the STEM school.” She noted that a special effort was made “toward keeping the school as diverse as the rest of the Adams 12 district.” Officials said “instruction will be based on real-world problem solving” and will emphasize collaboration.

The Broomfield (CO) Enterprise (8/20) reports students kicked off the new school year by building rockets and firing them off. Describing the local industry’s input into the development of the school’s curriculum, industry liaison Kellie Lauth said, “Industry is usually brought in on the back side.” The Enterprise notes, “Science will infiltrate every area of education at the school. Art class includes discussion of the physical properties of light, music class discusses sound waves, and physical education uses heart monitors. Wednesdays, students will either go on a field trip or have engineers and researchers come to school to lead a project.”

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In the Classroom
Detroit Public Schools Rescinds All Teacher Layoffs Announced in April.
The Detroit Free Press (8/20, Dawsey) reported that on Thursday, Detroit public school officials announced the district “has rescinded all of the teachers layoffs that were announced in April.” About 40 percent of DPS teachers received layoff notices in April. Since then, “more than 1,000 employees [have] retired.”

Judge Orders Detroit Public Schools To Rehire Security Guards. The Detroit News (8/19, Schultz) reports that “a Wayne Circuit Court judge Wednesday ordered the Detroit Public Schools to reinstate security guards the district terminated to make way for a private security firm.” After DPS “signed a $6.5 million contract with” the Securitas security firm, 226 school security officers were fired. “The union representing the security officers went to court to stop their termination and won a victory Wednesday.” The school district plans to “fight the decision.”

Perdue Skeptical About Thoroughness Of Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Probe.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/20, Torres) reports that Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) “questioned Thursday whether a test security firm hired to help investigate 58 Atlanta Public Schools for alleged cheating on state tests may have deliberately narrowed its search for wrongdoing — a key concern to his decision this week to appoint a special investigator to broaden that probe. Results of the local investigation were released Aug. 2, but Perdue said he had concerns as far back as June that a commission set up to lead Atlanta’s investigation may have gotten off the tracks.” The Journal-Constitution adds, “Perdue’s comments came as Atlanta Superintendent Beverly Hall said she wished the state had handled the initial investigation.”

On the Job
Washington State Math And Science Teachers Paid Less Than Teachers Of Other Subjects.
The City Town Info Education Channel (8/20) reports that “an analysis from the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE)” found that, in Washington State, “the average pay for math and science teachers in high schools is less than the average pay for teachers in other subjects.” According to Education Week, “this difference in pay is due to the fact that Washington’s salary schedule rewards longevity and credentials,” and that “compared to other teachers in the study, math and science teachers had a high rate of turnover…which results in a less experienced group of educators.” And although “one reason for high turnover may be because of the pay difference…it was also hypothesized that teachers with math and science skills have more opportunities to advance–and better pay–outside of education and, thus, leave after only a few years of teaching.”

Safety & Security
Survey Indicates Increased Drug Activity In Public Schools.
The Chicago Tribune (8/20, Geiger) reports that “more than a quarter of public middle and high school students say both gangs and drugs are present at their campuses, according to a survey released Thursday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.” The survey “was conducted in April and was based on responses from more than 2,000 students and 456 parents from across the country who were surveyed by phone or over the Internet.”

Health Day (8/19) reported that 46 percent of the “public school students aged 12 to 17″ that were surveyed said “there are gangs in their schools and 47 percent of teens say that drugs are used, kept, or sold on school grounds.” Caitlin Hagan wrote in the CNN (8/19) “The Chart” blog that “one in three middle-schoolers say drugs are used, kept, or sold at their school,” compared to 23 percent last year. Overall, “66 percent of high school students said their schools were drug-infected, a steep increase from last year when 51 percent said their schools had drugs.” Moreover, based on the survey, researchers “found that children who go to schools where both gangs and drugs are present are five times more likely to smoke marijuana” and “12 times more likely to smoke.”

CDC Study Examines Prevalence Of Heat-Related Illnesses Among High School Athletes.
HealthDay News (8/20, Preidt) reports, “Heat-related sicknesses sideline American high school athletes for more than 9,000 days a year, a new study” from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds. According to HealthDay, the study finds that the “majority of such illnesses (70.7 percent) occur among football players, according to” CDC “researchers who analyzed 2005-09 data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study.” HealthDay adds, “No heat illness-related deaths were reported by any of the schools in the study,” yet “heat stroke has claimed the lives of 31 US high school football players since 1995, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.”

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Facilities
Energy-Efficient Elementary School Relies On Pump House For Air Conditioning.
NEWS14-TV Charlotte, North Carolina (8/20, MacRoberts) reports that Cumberland County’s New Century Elementary School “has earned a 99 Energy Star rating for energy efficiency.” The school’s “green technology is expected to save an estimated $75,000 a year.” Innovations include “heavy insulation, use of natural lighting, and lights that turn themselves off.” New Century also has “a pump house that is the heart of the school’s air conditioning and heating system.” By next summer, solar panels will be installed. Principal Felix Keyes “said that the new school should hopefully make a positive impact on the students to become conscientious members of society.”

School Finance
Parent Volunteers Fill-In At Colorado Schools Hit By Budget Cuts, Layoffs.
KMGH-TV Denver (8/20, Hernandez) reports that Tracy Stegall, principal at Birch Elementary School in Broomfield, Colorado, “is asking parents to volunteer inside and outside the classroom” to help the school save $36,000. So far, “more than 100 parents have signed up.” Some volunteers are being “assigned to help students with reading comprehension,” help in the library, and to run the copier. In addition to volunteering their time, Birch Elementary parents this year “helped raise more than $12,000 part of which is being used to help keep the art club and choir going.”

KWGN-TV Denver (8/20, Romero) reports that parents at Superior Elementary School in Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District are also responding to the school’s call for volunteers. The school “lost 5 para-professionals” and asked parents to step in their place. “Over 200 parents are volunteering at Superior Elementary…working as everything from assistants, to crossing guards,” according to Principal Mary Hausermann. KWGN points out that “parent volunteers are nothing new in schools, but it is rare, as with Boulder Valley, they directly replace paid staff.”

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Also in the News
California District To Hire Manager To Help Bridge Cultural Gap Between Educators, Families.
California’s Contra Costa Times (8/20, Calhoun) reports that in an effort to close a widening gap “between its white teachers and administrators and its ethnically and racially diverse students and parents,” the Berkeley school board agreed Wednesday to hire a “manager of culture and linguistics.” He or she will observe operations “critically” to help schools “become more culturally and linguistically sensitive to students and parents,” said Christina Faulkner, the director of curriculum and instruction. The Berkeley school district has majority white teachers and administrators, but the student population is made up of mostly black, Latino, and Asians. Nicole Sanchez of the Berkeley Alliance, which aims to help the “school district…close the achievement gap by the year 2020,” said that “a contributing factor in the achievement gap is parents who do not know how to advocate for their children in a culture dominated by the white middle class.”

New Science Show From MythBusters Aimed At Middle Schoolers.
Daniel Terdiman writes in his CNET (8/19) “Geek Gestalt” blog about Kari Byron, a co-host of the Discovery Channel show “MythBusters” who is hosting a new show, “Head Rush,” that is “aimed at getting middle school kids hooked on science.” The new program “is the result of conversations that Byron had had with a Science Channel producer about trying to figure out a way to show kids that science is easily worth their after school time.” Byron described the show as “similar to ‘MythBusters,’” except “aimed specifically at kids.” It is also “part of President Obama’s STEM…Initiative.” Terdiman notes, “While it might seem difficult to convince kids that they should drop their video games and their cartoons and their text messaging for science, imagine the charismatic Byron talking to them through their TVs about the science behind fainting goats.”

Businesses Taking Action To Increase Students In STEM.
Daily Tech (8/19, McDaniel) reports, “As companies brace for a flood of retirements, they anticipate a shortage of workers across the country,” particularly in STEM-related fields. “Some businesses are taking measures to increase their efforts by partnering with schools, calling for higher national education standards, and sponsoring more student competitions,” a recent report indicates. Raytheon CEO William Swanson went so far as to say “the shortage could pose a national security danger because it can limit the ability of the United States to be innovative and compete on the world stage.” Daily Tech notes, “And while many engineering jobs in these fields are only open to US citizens because of security requirements, some aerospace and defense companies say they will recruit more workers from outside of the states recruiting in STEM-strong countries like China and India if necessary.”

Some Teachers In Central Florida Using Social Media To Enhance Instruction.
The Orlando Sentinel (8/23, Lundy) reports that “more Central Florida educators are using social media and technology in classrooms.” Although most schools “block Facebook and YouTube…on school computers because of the distractions to students and potential for inappropriate material,” some teachers find “Facebook a helpful way to communicate with kids away from school.” Skype and Apple’s iChat are also used “to communicate in a video conference call on computers” between classrooms. The Sentinel notes that “there are several websites created to help match up classrooms from across the country and the world.” Also, text messaging is being incorporated into some teachers’ lesson plans. “For example, a teacher can ask a question in class and tell the students to text the answer to a specific number. Using a special program, the teacher can immediately see their responses in the classroom computer and it can show them whether the students understand the lesson.”

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In the Classroom
Georgia, South Carolina Schools Adopt Changes To Math Programs.
The Augusta (GA) Chronicle (8/22, Fetter, Sellers, Sparks) reported on math curriculum changes in some Georgia and South Carolina schools. In Georgia middle and high schools, math classes that “once were delineated by a particular discipline, such as algebra or geometry…now combine” the concepts. In Math III, students learn “multiple concepts to see the relationship between and discover for themselves why those formulas work,” said Kimberly Belcher, a Math III teacher at Lakeside High School. Meanwhile, South Carolina’s Aiken County school district has “created an Algebra Institute with instructors from the University of South Carolina Aiken and Aiken Technical College to ensure that eighth- and ninth-graders are prepared for high school math and can have smoother transitions into college.” Schools in Columbia, South Carolina now offer 30-minute power periods in which students can receive math “remediation or enrichment.”

School Offers Math, Science Curriculum With Strong Support.
The Springfield (IL) State Journal Register (8/22, Sherman) reports, “The Springfield School District’s new Capital College Preparatory Academy opens for the first time Monday.” The program will begin with “115 sixth-graders this year and then gradually expand by one level each year up through 12th grade. A lot of work has gone into developing the academy’s math and science curriculum, which is enhanced by grant funding. It offers an extended school day that provides enrichment programs for top students and tutoring for struggling ones, regular Saturday sessions, single-gender classrooms and teachers who will stay with their students for three straight years.” The program “was created in large part for students who need a strong support system, but who also have college aspirations. The first class is about 50 percent black and 45 percent white (district-wide, 52 percent of the students are white and 37 percent are black).”

Philadelphia Schools Celebrate School Turnaround Successes.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (8/21, Graham) reported that Roosevelt Middle School “was singled out as one of the Philadelphia School District’s top performers Friday – a school that has jumped 46 points in reading scores and 52 points in math scores on state exams in the last four years. Along with 157 other schools that made [AYP], Roosevelt was celebrated at a district event Friday.” According to the Inquirer, “More than half of district schools made the mark, and for the first time since Pennsylvania has been keeping tabs under [NCLB], more than half of city students met state standards in reading and math.” Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) was among numerous leaders at a celebration recognizing Philadelphia schools’ successes and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also called Philadelphia schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman to offer congratulations.

On the Job
Educators In Florida County Seeking Alternative Ways To Discipline Students.
The Miami Herald (8/22, Burnett) reported, “As the new school year gets underway, Broward [County, FL] school principals say too many children are getting criminal records for what used to be considered mischievous behavior in the classroom, so they are looking for alternatives to the controversial Zero Tolerance discipline policy. More than 1,000 Broward public-school students were arrested last school year for relatively minor infractions — 66 percent of which resulted in misdemeanor charges.” According to the Herald, “Principals took up the issue at a recent gathering of Broward Schools’ Summer Leadership Academy at Cypress Bay High School — a three-day training marathon for principals and other administrators” and “local and state law enforcement officials also were on hand to discuss alternative ways of discipline.”

Law & Policy
Columnist Says Successful School Reformers Are Often Polarizing.
Jay Mathews wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (8/22) that if DC “Mayor Adrian M. Fenty loses the Democratic primary, Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee – the most divisive D.C. educator in my 39 years at The Washington Post – will probably leave. … People I respect who want Rhee to go say she is too impulsive, too disrespectful of community leaders, too quick to dismiss experienced teachers, too wedded to test scores and always convinced that she is right.” However, these arguments “contradict what I have learned about improving schools from educators who have done so” as “these ultimately successful school leaders were as divisive as Rhee has been.”

Rhee Setting High Expectations For Principals. The Washington Post (8/23) runs an excerpt from a blog by Bill Turque which reads, “Sounds as if the D.C. schools chancellor was channeling Mike Shanahan, but that was her message to principals at a recent ‘academy’ at Gallaudet University. According to an attendee who shared notes with me, Michelle A. Rhee said that with the installation of the new IMPACT system, principals now have unprecedented ability to remove ineffective teachers.” According to Turque, “Rhee said in an interview that the locker-room aphorism is one she has used with her senior staff, but as she begins her fourth school year as chancellor, she wanted to use it to put principals on notice.”

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Safety & Security
Utah School Safety Report Contains Inaccurate, Inconsistent Information.
The Salt Lake Tribune (8/22, Schencker) reported that Utah’s annual school safety report with information on “incidents of truancy, aggravated assault, tobacco, alcohol, drug, arson and weapons violations” has “inaccuracies and inconsistencies that make it all but impossible to judge the safety of one district compared with another.” According to State Superintendent Larry Shumway, variations “in how schools and districts decide what constitutes a reportable incident can lead to inconsistencies in the state report.” He noted, for example, that “different principals might have different ideas of what qualifies as a fight.” Experts say that inaccuracies in school safety reporting are “a nationwide problem,” with crimes “often underreported.” Ronald Stephens, executive director of the nonprofit California-based National School Safety Center said that principals lack incentive to report school crimes. “If you report too much crime, then the public will say, ‘Wow, you have some real problems over there,” he said.

Fire Marshal Enforcing Wall Covering Restrictions In Texas District.
Texas’ American Statesman (8/23, Heinauer) reports that schools in the Leander district “are trying to conform to local fire codes that say no more than 20 percent of any wall…or hallways may be covered with teaching materials or student artwork.” Leander “adopted international fire code recommendations years ago,” but the county fire marshal is sending inspectors to campuses during school hours this year “so they can personally let teachers know when they are in violation.”

Facilities
Los Angeles District To Open Most Expensive School Ever Built In US.
The AP (8/23, Hoag) reports, “With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million” the opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles next month “will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever. The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of ‘Taj Mahal’ schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.” According to the AP, “Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million” and the “extravagance has led some to wonder where the line should be drawn and whether more money should be spent on teachers.”

Numerous Dallas Schools Undergo Extensive Renovations.
The Dallas Morning News (8/22, Hobbs) reported, “Many Dallas students will return to class Monday to more modern surroundings, cooler buildings and much improved restrooms. Nearly one-third of the schools in Dallas ISD have been under construction this summer, part of a first phase of improvements in the district’s $1.35 billion bond program.” According to the Morning News, “Officials expect most of the work to be completed by Monday, but they said some projects could carry through to November, as scheduled.”

School Finance
Mississippi Governor Asks Schools To Wait Until Next Year To Use Stimulus Funds.
McClatchy (8/20, Maxey) reported, “Mississippi will apply for $98 million in federal stimulus funds to help education, and Gov. Haley Barbour [R] is urging local districts to save the money for a tough fiscal challenge next year.” Barbour “said he made the decision after learning that Mississippi meets the requirements allowing states to access the funds and won’t be forced to shift money from other departments to qualify, as initially appeared to be the case. .. In the letter, Barbour urged districts to use the money in their fiscal 2011-2012 budgets rather than in the current budget year.”

Also in the News
Parents Should See Teachers’ Grades, Columnist Says.
George Shelton writes in his Los Angeles Times (8/23) “Capitol Journal” column, that even though “state law for more than three decades has required that pupil progress be one of the factors in evaluating teachers,” the concept is “highly contentious” when put into practice. According to Shelton, the standardized tests students take each year are “public information.” He quotes Bonnie Reiss, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s education advisor, as saying, “Maybe in the private sector there’s some expectation of privacy. But if you’re in the public sector and supported by taxpayers, the people have a right to know.” Shelton concludes, “The parents’ children are being graded. Their teachers should be too. And the parents should see all the scores.”

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NEA in the News
White House Back-To-School Message Marks “Truce” With Teachers Unions.
Politico (8/23, Marr) reports that the White House’s “back-to-school message” is that teachers play an essential role “in shaping a competitive American work force.” Last Wednesday, President Obama said in a speech, “Teachers … are the single most important ingredient in the education system.” And, according to Politico, “after 18 months of frosty relations that at times bordered on outright hostility, it seems that Obama has called a truce” with teachers unions. NEA President Dennis Van Roekel “said that Obama’s recent pro-teacher language has been appreciated.” Politico quotes Van Roekel as saying, “[The President is] recognizing that the very thing he cares most deeply about can’t happen without the involvement and collaboration of those people who are teaching. … I like the message he’s sending.”

Laptops Becoming Increasingly Popular As Classroom Tools.
USA Today (8/24, Steinberg) reports laptops are becoming standard back-to-school supplies “for a growing number of families,” and are becoming increasingly integral to some districts’ curricula. Michigan’s Walled Lake Consolidated School District offers “a districtwide laptop program” that “starts in the sixth grade and incorporates technology in math, science, English and history lessons.” Most of the students’ work is done on their computers, although they “also use ‘smart boards’ and electronic clickers to key in answers.” Officials there “say laptops improve grades, boost critical-thinking skills and increase collaboration among students.” And Michigan is not alone; Maine has been pursuing the goal of expanding classroom laptop use since 2000, and has set a goal of “a laptop for every student in grades 7 through 12 by 2013.”

High School Renovated To Appeal To “Tech-Savvy” Students. The Miami Herald (8/23, McGrory, et al.) reported that the first day of school in Miami-Dade County, Florida “kicked off in some unconventional ways.” At the new iPrep Academy in Miami, for instance, “classrooms are furnished with plush leather couches and decorated with large mirrors, retro lamps and colorful throw pillows.” Students also “have access to the school iCafe, where they can purchase wraps, smoothies, and power bars,” and “there’s a Wii hooked up to a large flat screen TV.” Moreover, each student at iPrep Academy gets and iBook. The academy “seeks to reinvent high school by making it relevant to today’s tech-savvy teenagers.”

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In the Classroom
New K-5 STEM School Helps District Fight Enrollment Losses.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune (8/24, Smith) reports on the opening of a new K-5 STEM school in Richfield, which has led to an enrollment increase for the district. “The hands-on, interactive program was designed not just to integrate more science within the curriculum to boost test scores but also to keep more students in the district,” and it appears to have seen some success in this respect. “More than 800 students have registered to attend it,” which is “100 more students than officials expected” but slightly lower than its capacity. Overall, the number of STEM programs in the state has been expanding, as have the number of teachers who have received specialized training in the subjects. However, Richfield expects its particular program to “stand apart” because of “a school-wide science emphasis embedded in its classes, three labs and special programs — such as monitoring water quality.”

Detroit Public Schools Sends Students Test Prep Homework During Summer Break.
The Detroit News (8/24, Lowery) reports that Detroit Public Schools (DPS) “will mail 62-page packets of homework this week to 28,650 students in grades three through eight.” Students are expected to complete the packets and turn them in on the first day of school. The packets target “areas in which DPS students have tested poorly.” Jan Ellis spokeswoman for the Michigan DOE, noted, “There is often a ‘brain-drain’ for students over the summer, and often for those students most at risk.” She added that “Detroit’s effort to ensure parents are involved in areas of student involvement and success is critical.” This is the first year DPS has given students “homework before the start of school.” University of Chicago researcher Julie Spielberger said that the success of the homework initiative “will depend on getting parents involved” and actively encouraging “their children to complete the assignments.”

On the Job
Chicago Public Schools To Use “Nonteachers,” Online Classes In Some Elementary Schools.
The Chicago Tribune (8/24, Ahmed) reports that according to unnamed sources, Chicago Public Schools “plans to add 90 minutes to the schedules of 15 elementary schools using online courses and nonteachers.” The district will save money by hiring the nonteachers “and get around the teachers’ contract, which limits the length of the school day.” Five schools will start the “Additional Learning Opportunities” pilot program this fall and 10 more will start the program in the spring. The extra instructional time “will be divided between math and reading, with a short break for a snack and recess.” The Tribune adds that Additional Learning Opportunities “is the product of a” different program lunched last year that offered “online math courses to” some elementary students. District officials saw a dramatic increase in test scores among students taking the online classes.

Law & Policy
Education Department Will Announce Race To The Top Second Round Winners Today.
CNN (8/24, Holland) reports that the US Department of Education today will announce “the winners in the second round of its Race to the Top competition.” Nineteen states are finalists in the competition. Throughout the summer representatives in each state made “their case in front of a group of peer reviewers and education department officials.” More than $3.4 billion will “be granted” in the second round.

Sean Cavanagh wrote in the Education Week “Politics K-12″ blog that each of the 19 finalists “notched at least 400 points on the competition’s 500-point grading scale. The finalists are “Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.”

States, Districts Mull How To Use Education Jobs Bill Funding.
Education Week (8/23, Aarons, Klein) reported, “As governors gear up to apply for federal money from the $10 million Education Jobs Fund, states and school districts are wrestling with how they plan to spend the aid the Obama administration said was desperately needed to save what the administration said would be some 160,000 educators’ jobs that otherwise would be lost.” According to Education Week, “Some districts will use the money to roll back furloughs and restore jobs slated to be cut for the 2010-11 school year.” Other “districts are planning to spend the lion’s share of the money in the 2011-12 school year, because they are concerned about the forthcoming ‘funding cliff’ after funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal economic-stimulus program, dry up at the end of this year.”

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Safety & Security
Former Teacher Develops Disaster Preparedness Curriculum.
The Washington Post (8/24) reports, “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Michelle Collins,” a “second-grade teacher in Baton Rouge, La., in 2005″ saw “how disasters impact children. … Collins quickly discovered that the children who were best able to handle the situation were those who had some knowledge about emergencies, those, for example, who knew what a hurricane was before Katrina struck. In 2008, Collins was hired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to translate her insights into a new curriculum to teach elementary school students the ABCs of disaster preparedness” and the program, “known as Student Tools for Emergency Planning, or STEP, teaches fourth- and fifth-grade students what to do in emergency situations and empowers them to implement life-saving preparedness initiatives in their homes.”

Some Iowa Schools Close Due To Soaring Temperatures.
The AP (8/24) reports, “Some school districts in northern Iowa are closing early as temperatures flirted with 90 degrees outside and classroom temperatures topped 80 degrees. The Nora Springs-Rock Falls and North Central community schools shut down before 1 p.m. Monday” as “did Howard-Winneshiek, Riceville and St. Ansgar.” According to the AP, “Nora Springs-Rock Falls Superintendent of Schools Steve Ward says he visited more than a dozen classrooms on Monday and found temperatures of 85 degrees and higher at 9 a.m.”

Facilities
America’s Five Most Expensive Public Schools Each Cost More Than $100 Million.
Dana Chivvis in the AOL (8/24) “Surge Desk” column lists the five most expensive public school buildings in the US. Topping the list is Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, a $578 million, 452,000 square foot building “on the grounds of the former Ambassador Hotel, where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.” Each of schools on the list cost “more than $100 million.”

School Finance
Lag In School Overhaul Funding Stalls Nationwide Effort.
The New York Times (8/24, A13, Dillon) reports that a nationwide effort to overhaul 1,000 public schools each year has gotten “off to an uneven start,” with schools across the US postponing their overhaul plans or confused about spending guidelines. “The turnaround effort is being financed with $3.5 billion this year,” and states have been allowed to delay “disbursement of federal money to schools if more planning was needed.” But because there has been a “lag in disbursing” funding for the initiative, students in some states “were unable to participate in summer activities that were supposed to be part of their school’s turnaround strategy.”

California To Delay Monthly Payments To Schools, Counties Beginning Next Month.
The AP (8/24) reports that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the state controller and treasurer announced in a letter Monday that they will “delay $2.9 billion a month in payments to school districts and counties” beginning in September “so the state can meet debt and pension obligations.” The delay was originally expected to happen in October, and it “came on top of a July deferral of $2.5 billion for schools and $700 million for counties.”

Florida District Has $35 Million At Stake Under Class-Size Mandate.
The St. Petersburg Times (8/24, Marshall) reports that when classes begin today in the Hillsborough County, Florida district, there will be “an added sense of urgency” for teachers “to check their attendance lists.” If even one student in attendance is not counted “when the state eventually makes its official tally in October,” the district stands to lose “up to $35 million.” That money could be added, however, if Hillsborough is found in compliance “with the class-size amendment” that “moves into its final phase across Florida this week.” Under the final phase, classes must be capped at “18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade and 25 in high school.”

Also in the News
Former Surgeon General Calls For Community Efforts To Prevent Brain Injuries In Sports.
David Satcher, former US Srugeon General and director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine, writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/24) that in the past several months, “increased attention has been given to the issue of concussions sustained by athletes in all levels of sports participation.” The National Federation of State High School Associations last week issued “new concussion rules.” Also that week, the Journal of Neuropathlogy & Experimental Neurology published a report examining “the link between head and brain injuries and dementia and cognitive decline in NFL players who develop symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis…later in life.” In light of such findings, Satcher urges communities to “create a ‘game plan’ for reducing stigma while influencing supportive measures to address mental disorders and prevent traumatic brain injury across all sports.”

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NEA in the News
Van Roekel Kicks Off National Tour With Visit To Denver Schools.
The AP (8/23) reported that NEA President Dennis Van Roekel visited the Math & Science Leadership Academy and the Lake Intermediate Baccalaureate Middle School in Denver on Monday, where he “met with teachers” and served students lunch. The visit kicked off Van Roekel’s “national tour looking at how teachers, parents and communities can help transform schools.” Throughout the week, he will also visit schools in St. Louis, Missouri, Columbus, Ohio, Tampa, Florida, and San Antonio and Austin, Texas.

Nine States, DC Win Second Round Of Race To The Top.
The AP (8/25, Turner) reports that the US Education Department on Tuesday announced second-round winners of the Race to the Top competition. The winning states and DC will get “a cash infusion at a time when education funding is dwindling, forcing teacher layoffs and program reductions.” Grants “range from $75 million for Rhode Island and D.C. to $700 million for New York.”

USA Today (8/25) reports that the winners are “Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.” Focusing on Florida’s win, USA Today adds that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) “attributed the success to the working group led by Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to rewrite the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) after being rejected in the first round.” The first round’s MOU was rejected by “teacher unions and school boards” because, they said, “it didn’t seek teacher input on performance-based pay policies the first time around.”

The New York Times (8/25, Dillon), meanwhile, notes that 11 of the 12 Race to the Top winners from both rounds are located “east of the Mississippi and most hug the East Coast.” Educators in states that did not win “said the competition’s rules tilted in favor of densely populated Eastern states, which tend to embrace more the ideas that Washington currently considers innovative, including increasing the number of charter schools and firing principals in chronically failing schools.” Still, US Education Secretary Arne Duncan insists the winners “were chosen because they outlined the boldest plans for shaking up their public school systems.”

In a separate story, the New York Times (8/25, Medina) called New York’s $700 million Race to the Top win “a victory for state education officials as well as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had pushed the Legislature to enact changes that helped secure the money.” But, the Times notes, the changes fell short of “more wide-ranging” reforms favored by Bloomberg and New York City Chancellor Joel I. Klein.

The Washington Post (8/25, Anderson) reports that DC and Maryland’s grants of $75 million and $250 million, respectively, “will help the city and state ramp up plans to turn around struggling schools and measure the effectiveness of their teachers, in significant part through student achievement.” The Washington Times (8/25, Simmons) notes that “officials said the District was boosted to the top by reforms that tie teacher performance to student progress, a new teachers’ contract that institutes a ground-breaking merit pay plan and a flourishing charter-school movement.”

Education Experts Puzzled By Some Race To The Top Winners, Losers. The Christian Science Monitor (8/25, Paulson) adds that “the big news among many education experts was who lost – particularly Louisiana and Colorado, widely considered leaders in education reform with priorities that are strongly aligned with those favored by the administration.” Also, some of the Race to the Top “winners – including Maryland, Ohio, and Hawaii – raised eyebrows, as well. ‘What’s really going on in these states and the degree of sincerity of their reform convictions, I don’t think has made it through these review decisions,’ said Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Meanwhile, Andrew Rotherham of Bellwether Education, “which advised some of the states on their applications,” said that the scoring may have been “skewed by the same problem that occurred in Round 1, which saw some uneven scores that weren’t always in line with the goals of the administration.”

The Wall Street Journal (8/25, Banchero, King) also coves this story, as does the Wall Street Journal (8/25, Martinez) in a separate report. The Chicago Tribune (8/25, Malone, Rado), the AP (8/25, O’Connor), Bloomberg (8/25, Lauerman), the Miami Herald (8/25, McGrory), the Boston Globe (8/25, Vaznis, Levenson), the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/25, Badertscher, McWhirter), the Providence (RI) Journal (8/25, Jordan), the Baltimore Sun (8/25, Bowie), North Carolina’s News & Observer (8/25), Ohio’s Plain Dealer (8/25, Starzyk), the Arizona Republic (8/25, Kossan), South Carolina’s The State (8/25, Rosen) and Education Week (8/24, Cavanagh, Sawchuk, Sparks) also cover this story.

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On the Job
Duncan Want School Districts To Disclose Teacher Data.
The Los Angeles Times (8/25, Song) reports, “US Education Secretary Arne Duncan will call for all states and school districts to make public whether their instructors are doing enough to raise students’ test scores and to share other school-level information with parents, according to a text of a speech he is scheduled to make Wednesday. ‘The truth is always hard to swallow, but it can only make us better, stronger and smarter,’ according to remarks he plans to deliver in Little Rock, Ark.” According to the Times, “The lack of public accountability in California’s schools compared with those in some other states could have been a factor Tuesday in the state’s failure to win any money in the federal government’s competitive Race to the Top education grant program.”

Summer STEM Institute Provides Teacher With Ideas, Joint Study Opportunities.
The Gainesville (GA) Times (8/25, Crist) reports on Kathy Mellette, a North Hall Middle School teacher who was one of 50 from “across the nation” to attend the Siemens STEM Institute over the summer. She is returning to school with “seminar notes and contacts” in order to help students better explore careers in STEM. Through the program, “Mellette spent the week working with government officials, leading scientists and STEM educational leaders in Washington, DC.” She also “coordinated with teachers from a school in Texas and a school in Minnesota to conduct class projects on their local lakes. Mellette’s directed studies eighth-grade elective class will study Lake Lanier, testing the pH levels and temperature changes.”

Law & Policy
Texas Districts Decide Not To Appeal Ruling On Minimum Grade Requirements.
The Dallas Morning News (8/25, Stutz) reports that a “group of school districts” in Texas “that sued the state over its truth-in-grading law has decided not [to] appeal a court ruling in June that upheld the law” barring “districts from requiring teachers to give minimum grades on student report cards.” The districts “filed suit against the state earlier this year,” arguing that the “law applied only to class assignments and not to progress reports or semester report cards.” But the judge in the case said that the law “was ‘not ambiguous’ and reflected the Legislature’s intent to protect teachers from having to give unearned grades.”

Report Ranks Cities Based On Openness To Education Reforms.
The Christian Science Monitor (8/24, Paulson) reported that a study released Tuesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute ranks US cities according to “how welcoming they are to [education] reforms and new ideas.” Titled “America’s Best (and Worst) Cities for School Reform: Attracting Entrepreneurs and Change Agents,” the report “looked at six measures: human capital, financial capital, quality control, political environment, openness to charter schools, and the district environment.” Researchers “relied extensively on survey data, with standardized surveys issued both to local education operators and national groups.” New Orleans topped the list of cities most open to reform and “received a B” for openness. No city on the list received an A grade.

Utah Lawmaker Proposes Grading Schools.
The Salt Lake Tribune (8/25, Schencker) reports that some Utah lawmakers “want to follow in Florida’s footsteps when it comes to school reform by grading” public schools. State Sen. Wayne Niederhauser (R) announced Tuesday “that he’s drafting a bill that would hold Utah schools accountable by giving them A-F grades.” The grades “would likely take into account student academic growth.” Niederhauser’s announcement came amid a visit to the state by former Florida Gov. Geb Bush. State Rep. Greg Hughes (R), who is the bill’s House sponsor. The Salt Lake Tribune adds after listening to Niederhauser and Bush, some state leaders “wondered how labeling schools with F grades would improve them, especially when many low-performing schools face challenges others do not, such as serving students from low-income families and students learning English.”

Geb Bush Tells Utah Leaders Little Evidence Links Class Sizes To Student Achievement. The AP (8/25, Vergakis) reports that during the meeting on education, Bush told Utah officials “that there’s little evidence to link smaller class sizes and student achievement.” Utah Superintendent Larry Shumway, however, “said there’s significant research to show class size has the greatest impact on minority students.” The AP notes that “Utah has long been home to the nation’s largest class sizes largely because it…spends less per student than any other state.”

Students Without Immunizations Not Able To Attend School In Some Texas Districts.
The San Antonio Express News (8/24, Lloyd) reported that more than 2,000 San Antonio public school students could not “attend their first day of class because they didn’t have updated immunization records.” Many Texas districts have a “no shots, no school” policy, according to the Express News. In the Northside Independent School District, 1,248 students came to school on the first day Monday “without proper immunizations and had to be picked up by a parent or guardian.” But, “at least two area districts, Fort Sam Houston and Randolph ISDs, touted perfect immunization rates.” Meanwhile, other school systems are “more lenient.” For instance, the South San Antonio district “gives students a 30-day grace period on immunizations if they are classified as homeless, enrolling from another Texas district, or a military dependent.”

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School Finance
Analysis Shows Link Between Race, School Budget Approval In New York.
The New York Times (8/25, A19, Roberts) reports that a new New York Times analysis shows that school budget proposals are more likely to fail in “districts with a large number of white voters and a large number of nonwhite students.” Nathan Rothschild, president of the East Ramapo, Board of Education noted, “Economics is a bigger factor when the majority of voters do not have children in public schools.” But “budgets were also defeated in the three districts where blacks and Hispanics constitute most of the eligible voters as well as the students.” Sociologists say the data “suggests the possibility of a growing demographic divide over public policy – school spending, in particular – that has been identified elsewhere in the country between an older, white electorate and a population of voters who are younger and members of minority groups.”

Critics Target $578 Million High School In Los Angeles.
The Christian Science Monitor (8/24, Wood) reported that the $578 million price tag makes Los Angeles’ new Robert F. Kennedy High School “the most expensive public school in American history and an easy target of criticism.” The schools’ opening comes as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which “laid off 3,000 teachers in the past two years,” cuts “academic programs this year to close a $640 million budget gap.” LAUSD superintendent Ramon Cortines insists that construction funding “didn’t come from” state or city education budgets. “It came from $20 billion in bond measures approved by voters back in 2006.” But critics, including California Board of Education member Ben Austin, “feel money should be spent on teachers, not structures.” Said Austin, “When taxpayers see that we’re spending half a billion dollars to build one school, they are not going to open their wallets again to invest in teachers, invest in textbooks and kids, that’s what we need.”

Also in the News
Poll Shows Most Americans Have Favorable View Of Local Public Schools.
The AP (8/25, Blankenship) reports that a new Gallup poll shows that “fewer Americans approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing in support of public education, but they continue to have a highly favorable opinion of their local schools.” Thirty-four percent of about 1,000 Americans who responded to a “random telephone poll” in June “gave the president a grade of A or B for his work in support of public schools, compared with 45 percent at the same time in 2009.” And while giving “worse grades for the quality of the nation’s schools,” most said “they approve of their local schools.” Also, the majority of respondents “picked school budgets and improving teacher quality as their top education issues.”

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NEA in the News
Columbia Public Schools Wins $10,000 NEA Public Engagement Grant.
The Missourian (8/25, Hendry) reports that Columbia Public Schools in Missouri has received a $10,000 public engagement grant from the NEA. The money will “supplement plans the district has to bridge academic achievement gaps among students.” The purpose of NEA public engagement grants is to help “to remove some of the obstacles that stop students from succeeding by improving parental and community involvement in…schools.” NEA President Dennis Van Roekel told school officials when presenting the check on Tuesday, “This problem cannot be solved by the school district alone. … If your desire is to do more, we want to assist you.”

Teachers Expected To Pay More Out Of Pocket For Classroom Expenses This Year.
CNNMoney.com (8/25, Yousuf) reports that the New York City Council this year scaled back its fund to reimburse teachers for classroom expenses by nearly 30 percent. “That breaks down to just $110 per teacher — or roughly $4 per student per year.” Consequently, teachers, who already dip into their own pockets to purchase items for the classroom, are likely to spend even more of their own funds. A national survey by Kelton Research shows that “a whopping 97 percent of teachers frequently dip into their own pockets to purchase necessary classroom supplies.” On average, teachers spent more than $350 of their own money last year. Al Campos of the National Education Association noted, “They’re not required to, but teachers will pay out of their own pockets to make sure their students have the supplies they need to receive a quality education.”

Duncan Calls On Public Schools To Disclose More Data On Teacher Effectiveness.
The AP (8/26, Demillo) reports, “US Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged schools across the country on Wednesday to disclose more data on student achievement and teacher effectiveness, saying too much information that would help teachers and parents is being kept out of public view.” According to the AP, “Duncan, who spoke at a lecture hosted by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and the Clinton Presidential Library, said his remarks were prompted by a Los Angeles Times series analyzing teacher performance. The newspaper took seven years of student test data from Los Angeles and developed a ‘value-added’ analysis to show which third through fifth grade teachers were making the most gains.”

The Washington Post (8/26, Anderson) reports, “Education Secretary Arne Duncan, stoking a national debate over a Los Angeles Times series that examines how much individual teachers have raised test scores, urged public schools Wednesday to give educators more data on student achievement and parents a full report on teacher effectiveness.” In advance text of a speech Duncan planned to give Wednesday night in Little Rock, AR, Duncan is quoted saying, “Every state and district should be collecting and sharing information about teacher effectiveness with teachers and – in the context of other important measures – with parents.” According to the Post, “Duncan, who plans a back-to-school bus tour this week through the South, appeared to straddle a fine line: He wants more disclosure to teachers and the public but wants it to be done judiciously.”

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In the Classroom
Benefits Of Smaller Classes Questioned.
USA Today (8/26, Henry) reports that despite “$10 billion in additional federal money, part of the $26 billion bill President Obama signed recently, the struggling economy is expected to reverse a decades-long trend toward smaller classes.” USA Today adds, “Conventional wisdom says the smaller the classes, the better the education, because teachers can pay more attention to each child. But while smaller classes are popular, decades of research has found that the relationship between class size and student outcomes is murky.”

On the Job
New Report Ranks Detroit Schools.
The Detroit News (8/26, Schultz) reports, “The first-ever ranking of the city’s public, charter and private schools is being released today in an effort to help parents choose good schools and pressure failing schools to shut down. The US News & World Report-style listing of schools in the city is produced by Excellent Schools Detroit, a broad coalition that includes Detroit Public Schools, charter school leaders and several foundations.” According to the Detroit News, “The report uses student test scores to rank the best and worst schools in the city” and though “some schools stood out as high achieving, the rankings highlight that about 90 percent of the schools scored below the state average on student achievement indicators.”

The Detroit Free Press (8/25, Dawsey) added, “The report card, ‘From Top to Bottom on Student Achievement,’ follows the rankings released this month in the Michigan Department of Education’s ‘Top to Bottom’ school list. That statewide list of public schools was based on 2006 to 2009 testing data.” According to the Free Press, “The ESD rankings use reading and math MEAP results for 2007-09, ACT results for 2008-10 and the 2009 graduation rate.”

Law & Policy
Missouri Teachers Sue Over Virtual Schools Cuts.
The AP (8/25, Blank) reported, “Fourteen teachers have filed a lawsuit over state budget cuts that cost them their jobs with Missouri’s virtual schools program. According to the lawsuit, cuts last year to the virtual schools program led teachers to be laid off despite contracts guaranteeing them jobs for longer, and officials did not make the impending financial difficulties known.” According to the AP, “Missouri’s virtual schools program grew from a $5.2 million program with more than 2,000 students in the 2007-2008 school year to a $5.8 million program with about 2,500 students in the following year.”

Safety & Security
Oklahoma Districts Remove X-Wave Playground Equipment After Student’s Death.
The AP (8/26, Juozapavicius) reports that education authorities in Wyandotte, Oklahoma are investigating the school playground death of a 9-year-old student last week. Meanwhile, “some schools are pulling equipment off the playground” in response to the incident. According to the AP, the child died after falling off a piece of playground “equipment known as the X-Wave, which has plastic hinges and moves up and down.” Even though “officials are considering that it may have been natural causes,” some administrators are rethinking “having the set and other similar equipment in their schoolyards.”

KJRH-TV Tulsa (8/26) reports that Tulsa Public Schools sent “certified inspectors to survey playgrounds at 58 playgrounds across the district” this week and has “located and removed the only X-Wave apparatus on district property.” Duane Beamer, a certified playground inspector, told KJRH that “the X-Wave had been at Zarrow for about five years without incident,” and “is now being stored at the district’s maintenance department.” KOTV-TV Tulsa(8/26, Vreeland) notes that “officials in at least six other school districts across the state– Moore, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Putnam City, Deer Creek and Norman — have either already removed the structures or prohibited children from playing on them.”

Missouri To Open Center for Education Safety In September.
The AP (8/25) reported that the Missouri School Boards’ Association has partnered with “the state Department of Public Safety to form the Center for Education Safety.” The center, which opens Sept. 1, “will work with preschools, K-12 schools and higher education institutions to increase school safety and emergency preparations.” KMOX-AM St. Louis (8/25) also covered that story.

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School Finance
Clerical Error Cost New Jersey Five Crucial Points In Race To The Top Competition.
The New York Times (8/26, A20, Otterman) reports that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christi (R) said Wednesday that “a clerical error by a midlevel official had caused the state to lose out on $400 million in federal school reform money.” The mistake was made on a question asking states “to compare their 2008 and 2009 school budgets to illustrate their commitment to education financing. Instead, a New Jersey official, whom the governor would not identify, compared the state’s 2010 and 2011 financing, thus forfeiting the points.” New Jersey fell “short of the 10-member winner’s circle by just three points,” the Times adds.

The AP (8/26, Mulvihill) notes that Gov. Christie “blamed the administration of President Barack Obama for docking the application because of” the error. State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler “provided the correct information” at a meeting with Race to the Top judges this month. The mistake “was still held against the application, which was reviewed by a national panel of education experts.” The AP notes, however, that “it’s not certain that the state would have aced the section if the right numbers had been used.”

New Orleans To Receive $1.8 Billion Reimbursement For School Reconstruction.
The New York Times (8/26, A18, Robertson) reports that US Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D- Louisiana) announced Wednesday that New Orleans will receive a $1.8 billion “lump-sum reimbursement for schools that were damaged or destroyed in the flooding after Hurricane Katrina.” The money “will pay for 87 school campuses in the city to replace the 127 that existed before Katrina.”

CNN (8/26) reports that the federal reimbursement comes from “a provision in an appropriations bill.” A statement from Landrieu’s office said, “The provision also reduced penalties for insufficient flood insurance and alternate projects, which yielded more than $500 million in savings for Louisiana schools.”

Also in the News
Poll Shows Public Support For Obama Administration Education Policy Slipping.
The Christian Science Monitor (8/26, Paulson) reports, “Just 34 percent of Americans give the president a grade of A or B in his support of public schools, compared with 45 percent a year ago, according to the survey of public opinion on education, conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK) and Gallup.” However, the survey also reveals that support “is growing for ideas like charter schools and merit pay for teachers, which are being pushed by the administration. But support is slim for the sort of drastic school-turnaround strategies sometimes favored by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.”

Ron Matus wrote in a blog for the St. Petersburg Times (8/25), “There are a lot of nuggets to chew on in the latest PDK/Gallup education survey, released today, but here’s one that seems to put parents at odds with school districts and teachers unions: They really, really like the idea of paying teachers more for working in tough schools.” According to Matus, “Asked if teachers should be paid higher salaries as an incentive to teach in schools which have been identified as in need of improvement, 68 percent of the parents who responded said yes.”

New Guidelines Allow Ontario Teachers To Give Grades Of Zero For Late Assignments.
CBC News (8/26) reports that under “new guidelines from the Ontario Ministry of Education” this year, teachers in the province will be allowed to give a grade of zero to students who “fail to hand in assignments on time — something teachers have been discouraged from doing in the past.” Previously, teachers were urged only to “give students a mark of zero as a last resort. Some schools even took it further and banned the zero mark completely.” The Toronto Sun (8/25, Dempsey) noted that “until now, handing in a late assignment would have had an impact on the work habit component of a student’s report card, but not necessarily on the student’s academic grade.”

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NEA in the News
Some Districts Plan To Save Federal Funding Meant To Bring Back Teacher Jobs.
USA Today (8/26, Toppo) reports that teachers throughout the US have waited months for “for long-sought federal funding to save their jobs.” Now, eve after “Congress finally appropriated $10 billion this month to bring back thousands” of school employees, many teachers are still waiting to be rehired. According to USA Today, “many school districts might not get the money in time to bring back teachers” and others may save most of the money for “next spring.” NEA President Dennis Van Roekel noted, however that “Congress wanted districts to use the money to save jobs now, ‘not as a savings account for next year.’”

Van Roekel Says Obama Administration Willing To Listen To Teachers.
The Columbia (MI) Daily Tribune (8/25, Silvey) reported that Missouri National Education Association leaders met with Missouri Senate hopeful Robin Carnahan (D) in St. Louis to discuss “education and politics.” During the meeting, Charles Smith, vice president of the state association asked if the NEA made a mistake in working to elect President Obama. The Daily Tribune notes that NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said “he realizes programs such as Race to the Top aren’t popular among some educators, but” that “the administration has been willing to listen to NEA.” And, “unlike his predecessor, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan meets regularly with the group, Van Roekel said.” For her part, Carnahan pledged to also “listen to teachers…if elected.”

Los Angeles Schools To Adopt “Value-Added” Method For Teacher, School Evaluations.
The Los Angeles Times (8/26, Blume) reports that Los Angeles school Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines “said in an address to administrators Wednesday” that “the district will develop and adopt a ‘value added’ method that determines teachers’ and schools’ effectiveness based on student test scores.” Cortines also said that the school system “The district plans to publish such data about schools…but not the scores for individuals.” The Times notes that “linking student test scores to individual teachers became an especially heated topic after The Times published a series of stories based on a value-added analysis of teachers and schools.”

The AP (8/26) adds that Cortines “says 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation should be based on student test scores.” According to the AP, “Such a plan would need approval from the teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles,” an NEA affiliate. “Union president A.J. Duffy said Thursday the district needs to examine data before moving forward with such a plan.”

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In the Classroom
Some Academics Argue Family And Consumer Sciences Should Be Mandatory.
The Los Angeles Times (8/27, Scattergood) reports on “the evolution of the home economics program,” now called Family and Consumer Sciences, which since its inception has evolved “into classes focusing on child development, nutrition, family health, food service and hospitality.” One thing that has remained constant, however, is student participation. “More than 5 million students were enrolled in secondary FCS education programs in the 2002-03 academic year,” or “about 25% of all students, almost the same percentage” as in the late 1950s. Despite “this upbeat picture” however, “FCS programs are overwhelmingly electives, determined state by state, always under threat of budget cuts and frequently recalibrated to fit an individual school’s needs, student demographics and teacher ideology.” And because of its malleable nature, “it can also mean that basic cooking skills can get lost.” FCS educators stress that the skills they teach are “used every day,” and some academics are pushing for FCS to be compulsory.

Houston Public Schools Experiment Pays Fifth-Graders For Passing Math Tests.
The Houston Chronicle (8/27, Mellon) reports that Houston public schools this year will experiment with paying fifth-graders for “passing math tests,” under a $1.5 million program aimed at boosting performance. The money would be paid to both students and their parents, up to $1,020 per family. Fifth-graders could “earn up to $440 for passing short math tests that show they have mastered key concepts, according to the draft proposal.” Parents would get less for the passing scores, but they will be able to earn “for attending nine conferences with teachers to review the youngsters’ progress.” Teachers, meanwhile, will receive “up to $40 per student for holding the parent conferences.” The program is being funded by the Liemandt Foundation of Dallas.

Maryland District Launches New Natural Resources, Agricultural Sciences Magnet Program.
The Baltimore Sun (8/27, Hare, Sun) reports that the 60 freshmen who make up the “first class in Harford County’s [MD] Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences magnet program will start high school next week in the company of cows, sheep, horses, alpacas and a pig. They will take classes in barns, pastures, waterways and forests, all while pursuing the traditional core courses required of ninth-graders.” According to the Sun, “The instruction runs the gamut from classrooms and computer labs to livestock barns and woodlands.”

Analysis: Number Of Hispanic, Asian Kindergartners On The Rise.
USA Today (8/27, El Nasser, Overberg) reports that its “analysis of the most recent government surveys shows” that the “kindergarten class of 2010-11 is less white, less black, more Asian and much more Hispanic than in 2000, reflecting the nation’s rapid racial and ethnic transformation. The profile of the 4 million children starting kindergarten reveals the startling changes the USA has undergone the past decade and offers a glimpse of its future.” According to USA Today, “In this year’s class, for example, about one out of four 5-year-olds will be Hispanic.”

Progress Slows In Closing Achievement Gap In DC Schools.
The Washington Post (8/27, Turque) reports, “After two years of progress, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s effort to narrow the vast achievement gap separating white and African American students in D.C. public schools has stalled, an analysis of 2010″ DC Comprehensive Assessment System test scores reveals. According to the Post, “After narrowing from 2007 to last year, the gap in secondary math proficiency widened by slightly less than 2 percentage points. Secondary reading scores show the same flattening trajectory.”

New Orleans School System Experienced Vast Transformation In Katrina’s Wake.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune (8/27, Chang) reports, “When US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Hurricane Katrina was ‘the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans,’ the backlash was swift, and he soon apologized.” However, “many in this city would agree with this rephrasing of Duncan’s January remark: Only because the old was wiped out could the new take root so quickly.” According to the Times-Picayune, “Of all the things damaged by the storm and subsequent levee breaches, public education has arguably undergone the most far-reaching makeover” as New Orleans is now “the first majority-charter city in the country” and though test scores “as a whole have risen rapidly,…some schools are performing abysmally, with others comprising a vast middle group, improving but still struggling to teach basic reading and math.”

On the Job
California District Will Hold Teacher Training On Explaining Math To English Learners.
District California’s Mercury News (8/26, McCord) reports that California’s Santa Cruz City Schools has hired a consulting firm to help “teachers better explain math to English learners.” Under an agreement with the education firm WestEd, the district will pay $8,000 on “four workshops for middle and high school teachers to offer advice and skills to teach mathematical reasoning and conceptual development to non-English speakers.” The workshops will be paid for using Title II funds designated for teacher training. “The days the teachers take off for the workshops will be paid with Title III English learners funding.”

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Law & Policy
Judge Allows Lawsuit Challenging Florida’s Funding, Quality Of Education.
The Orlando Sentinel (8/27, Postal) reports, “A judge has denied Florida’s request to toss out an education adequacy lawsuit, ruling the plaintiffs – including three Orlando mothers – can challenge in court the state’s commitment to public education.” Pointing to state budget cuts and “low high school graduation rates,” the plaintiffs say that Florida “is violating its own constitution by failing to adequately fund education or provide a system of ‘high quality’ public schools.” The Sentinel notes that “a similar adequacy lawsuit filed in 1996 was dismissed when a judge ruled the constitution’s language was too vague to allow a ruling on school quality.”

The St. Petersburg Times (8/27, Matus) that the ruling this week came in response to a suit filed in November “by the Orlando-based Fund Education Now and other plaintiffs.” In an email, State Department of Education spokesman Tom Butler said, “We are reviewing our options at this point. … No decisions yet on what our next steps will be.” The defendants in the case “now have 20 days to file a response to the complaint.”

School Finance
Judge Denies City Of Memphis’ Appeal In $57 Million School Funding Case.
Tennessee’s Daily News (8/27, Dries) reports that the Tennessee Supreme Court decided this week it would not “hear an appeal in the long-running school funding case” between Memphis City Schools and the City of Memphis. “The school system’s general counsel, Dorsey Hopson, said the city owes the district $57.4 million for the 2008-2009 school year.”

Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal (8/27, Maki) explains that “the City Council slashed $57 million from its annual contribution to Memphis City Schools two years ago but put no money aside in case of unfavorable court rulings in its dispute with the school district.” Now Mayor A.C. Wharton and city council members “are scrambling to raise” what amounts to “9.1 percent of the city’s operating budget for a one-time payment to the school district.” The options Wharton laid out on Thursday included “spending cuts, layoffs and a tax increase.” WHBQ-TV Memphis (8/27, Johnson) on its website quotes Wharton as saying, “The courts have spoken, let’s go forward.”

Also in the News
Texas District Considering Incentives For Students Who Return To Teach.
The Dallas Morning News (8/27, Haag) reports that as the Plano, Texas school system struggles to recruit experienced teachers, it is now considering “offering financial incentives to students who return as teachers.” The Morning News notes that many school districts nationwide offer incentives for teachers accepting hard-to fill positions, “but few…have targeted their own students to become teachers.” District officials have not completed the plan, but “say they could offer no-interest loans to students to help pay for college,” and the district “has already set aside $600,000 to finance the loans.” Students would pay back the loans when they began working, thus allowing “the district to continue providing aid.” The Plano district is also looking at reinstating “teacher courses in its high schools and offer[ing] students classroom internships several times a week.”

Agriculture Secretary Visits Denver School.
KUSA-TV Denver, CO (8/26, Clough) reported on its Website that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, “Colorado Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp and Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg visited Centennial Elementary School” in Denver “to highlight improving access to quality, healthy meals. Congress is currently working to bolster the Child Nutrition Act, which authorizes the National school lunch, breakfast and food service programs.”

KVDR-TV Denver, CO (8/26, Posey) added, that Vilsack “visited Centennial Elementary school to see the changes the school has made,” to its lunch menu “and to push for the passage of the Child Nutrition Act. Starting this week, kids eating lunch at Centennial Elementary get to chose from fresh fruits and vegetables on the brand new salad bar.” Also, “meals are made from scratch, and the beef is grass-fed.” The AP (8/25) also reported on Vilsack’s visit to Centennial Elementary School.

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NEA in the News
Van Roekel Says Ways Of Achieving Reform Goals At Issue In Debate With Duncan.
The St. Petersburg Times (8/27, Marshall) reports that NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on Thursday spoke “to local union members and district officials in Hillsborough County” about education reform. While noting that “public schools aren’t working for…many students,” Van Roekel “said reforms won’t get far if legislators don’t consult teachers, or” if they “hang everything on the results of a high-stakes test.” He also praised Hillsborough’s “seven-year, $202 million partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” which among other moves “toughens teacher evaluation,” adding “a peer evaluation system and ties student test scores to teacher pay.” Van Roekel told the audience that “he has no argument with” US Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s goals, but he clarified, “What we’re debating is the best way to get there.”

Texas State Teachers Association Region 4C Elects New President.
Michigan’s Argus Press (8/27) reports that “John C. Brunger, a 1966 graduate of Corunna High School” recently was elected president of the Texas State Teachers Association Region 4C, the Texas affiliate of the NEA. “Region 4C covers a large area of the Fort Worth metro area with more than 33 Texas school districts,” the Argus Press adds.

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