NEWARK — In an historic reshuffling of the state’s largest school system, Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson Friday will announce a series of districtwide reforms that include closing seven failing schools and increasing charter school accountability.

The measures, which also call for an expansion of Newark’s elite magnet school system, are by far the most far-reaching — and potentially controversial — initiatives of Anderson’s eight-month tenure.

“It’s our responsibility to put kids in schools that put them on a pathway to college,” Anderson said, adding that the reforms will foster diversity among students with different socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of achievement.

“We can’t become a city where struggling students are isolated in some schools,” she said.

According to a list obtained by The Star-Ledger and corroborated by three district officials, the schools that will close are: Dayton Street, Martin Luther King, 18th Avenue, Miller Street and Burnet Street elementary schools, and the ninth grade academies at Barringer and West Side high schools.

Anderson would not confirm which schools are closing, but said the facilities were targeted, in part, because of declining enrollment and poor performance.

Except for Miller Street Elementary School, the others posted failing grades for most students on math and language tests, according to statewide results released Wednesday. At Martin Luther King, only 10 percent of seventh graders achieved minimum language proficiency on the statewide tests.

Anderson admitted the school closings will be controversial.

“I understand that schools are first community institutions,” she said. “If you went there, if your grandfather went there, you have an emotional tie to it.”

School board members and principals from the schools slated for closure were briefed on the plan Thursday.

Beginning in September, students from those schools will be “co-located” to other buildings. It was unclear what will happen to teachers and staff.

The closings come almost one year after a proposal to consolidate city schools sparked a major outcry and divided community members.

At least one city leader has already expressed concern with the reforms.

South Ward Councilman and Central High School Principal Ras Baraka said any school closing will carry unforeseen consequences.

“The gang lines, kids moving one place to another, it’s always an issue in Newark,” he said. “I’m sure that they thought this through downtown. The question is have they thought this through in the neighborhoods.”

Baraka has repeatedly called on the state to relinquish control of the district, which it has held since 1995.

In addition to the school closings, Anderson’s initiatives call for increased accountability among Newark’s charter schools. She said she wants those schools to enroll more special needs students and do a better job sharing achievement data with the district.

Anderson also wants to expand access to the city’s exclusive magnet schools because, she said, those schools too often admit only the highest performers. Magnet schools typically require an application process and tend to accept only the best students.

“In general, we need a better distribution of kids in schools across Newark,” Anderson said. “That goes for existing schools, magnet schools and charter schools.”

Anderson will formally announce the reforms this afternoon at Rutgers-Newark. Meetings will be held throughout the city with parents and community leaders to further explain the process and solicit input.

“We want to hear feedback,” she said, adding that the proposals emerged from a plan put forth two years ago by former superintendent Clifford Janey — drafted with exhaustive community input.

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TRENTON — New Jersey’s public school students racked up slightly higher test scores in most grades in the 2010-11 school year, despite Gov. Chris Christie’s cutting about $1 billion in state aid to schools that year, according to standardized test results released today by the state Board of Education.

Students posted slightly higher test stores in math and language arts in most grades, from 3 through 8, and in high school. In science, however, a subject in which students are tested only in fourth and eighth grades, scores dropped.

Many schools experienced cuts in staff and other areas in 2010-11, due to the steep drop in state aid. But results of the NJASK tests, given in grade school, and the High School Proficiency Assessment showed most weathered the storm.

“The year that generated that cut, actually turned out to be a year where we had decent student (achievement),” said Acting Commissioner Christopher Cerf, cautioning “I don’t want to leave you with the impression that means we can cut more. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Christie, in fact, returned some of the money to schools the following year.

The state each year releases data from tests taken the previous spring, as a snapshot of how New Jersey’s students are learning. In high school, scores showed steady progress up. The percentage of students passing language arts rose from 94.3 in 2010 to 96.1 percent in 2011, and the math passing rate went from 82.8 to 83.6. A new high school biology test also showed improvement.

The scores are for students in the “general population,” and do not include special education students or those with limited English proficiency.

In the younger grades, most improved or held steady. Fourth-graders’ passing rate went from 82.5 percent, to 84.4 percent in math; and from 66.9 to 70.0 percent in language arts — bouncing back up after a drop there, the previous year.

Eighth-graders rose in math, from 77.4 to 80.4 percent proficient. In language arts, eighth-graders fell slightly, from 90.6 percent to 90.1 percent.

Science was the spoiler in each of those grade levels. The eighth-grade passing rate fell from 89.8 to 88.4 percent in science, and the fourth grade proficiency rate dropped from 96.0 to 93.8. Cerf pointed out that in science, the scores were very high to begin with, however.

Cerf said despite the overall positive year, the state needs to do more. The achievement gap, between poor and wealthier students, or between students of different minority groups, remains “extremely large,” he said. Numerous reform efforts are under way to address it.

“In some cases it is expanding and in some cases narrowing, but in all cases, it remains large,” Cerf said. “”We are not fulfilling the basic purpose of public education.”

TEWKSBURY TWP. – Think your property taxes are too high? State Sen. Mike Doherty, R-Hunterdon, says he has a solution.

As part of a tour that has taken him to municipalities throughout the state, Sen. Doherty came to Tewksbury Tuesday, Jan. 17 to pitch his controversial Fair School Funding Plan (FSF), legislation he maintains would increase school funding and lower property taxes for 85 percent of the state.

How? Currently, state education aid is calculated via a formula approved under former Gov. Jon Corzine as part of his School Funding Reform Act. The formula calculates aid per student by several designations, including whether a student receives free or reduced school lunches or speaks another language at home.

Sen. Doherty’s proposal would do away with the formula altogether, and instead give each New Jersey student equal state funding, at $7,481 per child. The legislation would increase aid to suburban and rural districts while drastically reducing funds currently reserved for urban schools in so-called Abbott districts, including Newark, Camden and Asbury Park.

Under existing regulations, “It’s a very unequal distribution,” said the senator Tuesday. By his calculations, using figures he said came from the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Education and the Office of Legislative Services, the average Tewksbury resident contributes 14 times as much to the income tax fund as the average resident in urban Asbury Park, while Asbury Park receives 29 times more in state education aid.

Under Doherty’s plan, every town in Hunterdon County would receive an increase in state education funding, $130 million in total, that could then be used towards lowering income taxes.

In northern Hunterdon, he said Califon would receive an additional $884,565 in aid; Clinton an additional $1,209,546; Clinton Township $10,547,299; High Bridge $1,277,519; Lebanon $702,906; Lebanon Township $3,537,368, Readington Township $13,665,423; Tewksbury Township $5,131,403; and the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional School District $16,457,452.

Asbury Park, meanwhile, which the senator said currently receives $57,632,816 in state education funding for 2,316 students, would lose $40,306,820 in aid.

“I don’t think this is heartless. I think this is pretty fair,” said the senator. “Every student is treated equally.”

Doherty also railed against the State Supreme Court saying that it has interfered in education funding decisions that New Jersey’s constitution outlines as the legislature’s domain.

“It has been hijacked by the Supreme Court,” he said. “I think the constitution right now gives the power to the Legislature. We just have to take it back.”

Notwithstanding, the FSF plan also includes a constitutional amendment that Doherty said in his presentation “would specify a method of providing for the maintenance and support of public schools,” though he later acknowledged that the amendment might not be necessary.

Local Reaction

Tewksbury Mayor Dana Desiderio, who attended the meeting along with several other municipal and state officials, said she stands behind the senator’s plan.

“The current School Funding Reform Act is not only unfair to our students who receive far less per capita than the majority of other municipalities in our state but is unfair to our residents who pay an unfair percentage of the costs,” she said following the meeting.

Desiderio added, “The taxes assessed on Tewksbury residents are excessive. The result is catastrophic and the impact on property values is negative.”

Others, however, are not as supportive of the plan.

“It seems to be an overreaction,” said Nicholas Nacamuli, vice president of the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School Board of Education and a Tewksbury resident, who also attended Doherty’s presentation.

Nacamuli agreed that the current system “does seem very unfair,” but instead proposed a modification that would make the funding distribution more equitable. “The formula could be redone in a way that keeps more funds being sent to the districts that need it,” he said.

Following Doherty’s presentation, Assemblyman Erik Peterson, R-Hunterdon, who is also backing the plan, remarked, “This isn’t about rich versus poor. This is about educating kids.

“All our kids are the same,” he said. “They all deserve an equal opportunity.”

Officials pointed out that a public school student in Newark currently has a 23 percent chance of graduating high school, while almost all of Hunterdon County’s students go on to higher education.

Doherty cited corruption and misappropriation of funds as a primary factor behind the failures in many of the state’s urban public schools.

Current regulation “is supporting a system that’s failing,” he said.

When questioned, the senator suggested that urban students should be given the option of attending parochial or experimental charter schools at what he maintained would be a lower cost to the state, rather than sending those tens of thousands of students to faltering public schools.

Chance For Success

Actually getting the FSF plan passed in a Democratically-controlled state Legislature will prove a significant challenge, which is why the senator has been pushing his proposal at town-hall style meetings throughout New Jersey since introducing the plan in May.

He said he wants to encourage suburban and rural residents to talk to their representatives in support of the legislation.

“I think that people are going to have to demand change,” he said. “We can’t maintain the status quo.”

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie said he can institute an across-the-board 10 percent income tax cut and still increase state aid to education.

As part of a day-long victory lap Wednesday to promote the ideas unveiled one day earlier in his State of the State address, the Republican governor told a town hall audience in Vorhees he would phase-in the cut over three years at a cost of $300 million per year.

“The fact is there’s a lot of waste in government to be ferreted out over time,” he told hundreds of people in the atrium of a shopping mall, some perched over a balcony to get a good look. “I would tell you we’ll be able to do that not only without cutting aid to education but with increasing aid to education.”

The promise is a direct reaction to Democrats in control the Legislature who pounced on Christie’s income tax plan, calling it rhetoric aimed at boosting the governor’s national profile. They labeled it a gift to the wealthy that would decimate revenues so much that schools would suffer.

“Don’t let the Democrats who are opposing this fool you into thinking you have to make a choice between the two,” he said.

Christie, who said more details about how he’ll slash state spending would come in his Feb. 21 budget address, took his message of responsibly reducing the size of government around the state and over the airwaves. The whirlwind day started at 7 a.m. with an interview on NBC’s “Today Show,” followed by an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

As soon as the hour-and-a-half-long town hall ended, he held three quick-fire radio interviews before heading to the New Jersey Agricultural Convention in Atlantic City Wednesday night. He’s got interviews lined up today on CBS and Fox.

 Asked on WNYC whether he would sign the same sex marriage bill Democrats have made a priority of the new session, Christie said he remains unconvinced the Legislature can muster the votes to deliver a bill to his desk.

“This type of societal change is something we need to do very deliberately and have as much public input as we possibly can before people decide whether we can to overturn hundreds of years of social mores and traditions,” he said.

Christie said he would not “prejudge” the measure, and signaled he’d be open to strengthening the current law.

“I want to see what they come up with,” he said in an interview on New Jersey 101.5. “There might be other ways to address the issues, the legitimate issues that advocates have raised. I’d be willing to listen to all that stuff.”

Christie commands the national spotlight more than ever as GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s most outspoken surrogate – a position that may help him at home.

Though 60 percent of Garden State Republicans said it is “somewhat likely” or “very likely” the former Massachusetts governor will tap Christie as his running mate, 68 percent of them agree with Christie, who has said time and time again he that he does not have the “right kind of personality” to fill the number two spot.

The numbers, released in a Quinnipiac University poll Wednesday, found 53 percent of New Jersey voters approve of the job he’s doing.

Gov. Chris Christie has declared war on the public school system and the teachers who work there.

First, he started his propaganda that the teachers were responsible for the economic crisis in the state. As absurd as this is, many people chose to believe it. Why? Because when things get complicated and scary, people want to find an easy target for all of their angst, anger and hardship.

The governor was eager to offer up the teachers as this target. He cut school aid and proclaimed that these cuts would not result in any loss of teaching jobs, nor affect the quality of education.

These claims were patently absurd, yet many believed. The laying off of teachers began immediately, and many students suffered a decline in their educational programs.

The governor declares that teachers are responsible for poor academic performance. This is also absurd.

It is not a coincidence that the majority of failing schools are in inner cities and/or economically deprived areas. If only teachers could cure all the ills of society — addiction, crumbling infrastructure, crime, poverty, families in crisis — they surely would.

Despite the research to the contrary, the governor has declared charter schools to be the answer. Beware the red herring. The vilification of teachers serves to keep the public from asking the real questions and demanding answers.

What happens to the millions in lottery sales? The economic crisis in this state was caused by the downturn in the economy and the failure of government to be good stewards. We have failed cities — look at Camden. Who will he blame for that?

We need to get past the rhetoric and start dealing with the real issues in this state. We need to demand accountability, honesty and transparency in government.

Rosemary Richards

Little Silver

NEW BRUNSWICK — A scholar who studies and blogs about education finance says improving the state’s urban schools will take more money — and that merit pay is not likely to help.

Bruce Baker, an associate professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, spoke with The Associated Press for an occasional series of interviews on public education reform in New Jersey.

Baker’s work is more often cited by those skeptical about the so-called reform movement in education. He’s skeptical about whether students’ standardized test scores should be incorporated into decisions about which teachers should be laid off and which should make more money. Those are among ideas promoted by President Obama, Gov. Chris Christie and New Jersey Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.

Baker, a former middle-school science teacher and tennis coach, has done research funded in part by teachers unions. But he’s also quick to point out that he once did consulting work for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination and is a critic of teachers unions.

AP: What’s the state of New Jersey’s public education system?

Baker: It’s strong. It’s strong for some reasons within its control and it’s strong for other reasons that are just the luck of being geographically where it is and having an affluent, educated population.

Part of what’s made it strong is the state has put financial effort into its schools. The state has — through a back-and-forth between the Legislature, governor and courts over time — targeted resources to high-poverty areas, established one of the strongest preschool programs in the country and has made strides in high-poverty settings that are well beyond what other states have done.

AP: If you look internationally?

Baker: The international comparisons on tests are difficult to make. New Jersey and Massachusetts and Vermont, for example, would tend to compare favorably with Singapore and Finland.

AP. What needs to be reformed about New Jersey’s education system? What are its biggest problems?

Baker: From a research angle, if you looked at the high-performing and the low-performing schools and you asked yourself what’s different about them, well, our highest-performing schools also have step-structured pay scales, collective bargained agreements, tenure, union contracts as do our low-performing schools. That’s not a differentiating factor. The personnel factors aren’t hugely different.

When we look at the charter schools that are high-performing, the charter schools tend to be structured.

These things that we’re talking about like merit pay, disrupting union contracts and collective bargaining don’t tend to be the things that the high-performing schools are doing.

Any system ought to be looking at ways to increase efficiency — making it desirable for the best teachers on the labor market to want to go into Newark, Camden or Jersey City, solving that teacher quality inequity problem. But making their pay based on test scores is probably more likely to do the opposite.

AP: Is the biggest problem the difference between the high-performing schools and the low-performing urban schools?

Baker: We have concentrated poverty, concentrated minority populations, very highly concentrated in certain areas. The costs of getting good outcomes in a high-poverty, high-minority world … is very high. … Because when you’ve got 80 to 90 percent of your kids low-income, large shares of your kids non-English-speaking, kids from homeless families. To raise the outcomes in that kind of setting requires substantial investment in early-childhood, substantial investment in class-size reduction — kind of layering on all of the possible strategies to make things work.

The alternative is if you can actually break up concentrated poverty and have kids more integrated and better mixed across settings, you can reduce the costs of getting to the same outcomes. But typically what you find in the political dynamic is that people are much more willing to pay the price of extreme segregation than to actually move forward on desegregation.

AP. Why is it we’re so interested in using test data?

Baker: It’s what we’ve got. I certainly don’t want to get rid of it entirely. It’s all how you use the information. Testing data can be a useful tool for what I would refer to as system monitoring.

We ought to be giving these tests for a reason other than giving the tests and saying because they are tests, they therefore are an accountability measure. A lot of people are doing it. New Jersey’s not alone on that one.

I understand this obsession — that we’ve got to have something firm, we’ve got to have something quantitative that we can base these teacher ratings on. I think we’re also kidding ourselves when we say education is the only industry that doesn’t do this. … If there are productivity metrics in different settings, they’re often dealing with raw quantity of production, which would be more similar to number of sections taught or number of students taught.

AP: To hear Gov. Christie or Acting Commissioner Cerf talk about the state of the schools, it often sounds like, “if only the teachers were better,” to hear NJEA officials talk about it, it sounds like they’re saving, “Teachers are doing all they can. The problems are not our fault.” The truth lies somewhere in the middle of that range, right?

Baker: It’s certainly hard to distill that second one. It’s certainly, I don’t think, an effective form of messaging. I think any organization of teachers … has to be viewing themselves as possibly having an effect. I do think the message comes out that way. I think that’s problematic.

If you look at the biggest differences between the schools that are doing well and the schools that are doing poorly, there may be differences in teaching quality. There may be differences in skill-set of the teachers who are sorting themselves among the more and less desirable schools. We have evidence from a number of years of studies of teacher labor-market behaviors in disadvantaged, high-needs, high-minority, high-poverty settings. Teachers will avoid those settings to begin with and they’ll leave those settings when they can.

It may be that we’ve got some inequities in teaching quality. But to suggest that those inequities are a function of not having merit pay or they’re a function of having collective bargaining and a union presence doesn’t seem to fit when those structures also exist in the highly successful and affluent districts.

AP: If you were czar of New Jersey, what would you do to improve the school system?

Baker: I think we’ve got to keep up the effort of targeting resources toward the high-need districts, and the key is that equitable and adequate funding — and this is my big punch-line — is the necessary condition for everything. If you want to run a good charter school, if you want to run a good public school, you’ve got to have enough money to do a good job.

AP: These sound like ideas that are more likely than to lower taxes

Baker: We could take the money we have in the state aid as it is and target it more aggressively. Many towns that lost state aid would raise their property taxes more as they do and seem willing to do invariably anyway. … They’re willing to vote more taxes on themselves and maybe complain about perhaps it the next day.

————

Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

One in a periodic series on efforts to remake New Jersey’s education system.

TRENTON — A bill that paves a legal path toward new public-private schools in three cities – including the Lanning Square Elementary School in Camden – passed two legislative committees Thursday.

The Democratic-sponsored bill was amended to overcome Republicans objections, though a legal advocate for low-income students threatened to bring a lawsuit to stop the program if the bill becomes law.

The Urban Hope Act would allow for up to four privately operated public schools to be authorized and built each in Newark, Trenton and Camden.

The bill (A4426/S3173) passed both the state Assembly and Senate budget committees and is expected to be voted on in both chambers Monday, the last day of the two-year state legislative session.

South Jersey Democratic leader George E. Norcross III has been pushing for the bill, particularly because he wants to see a new private-public school in the Lanning Square section in the center of Camden.

Gov. Chris Christie had indicated earlier he would support it, but the administration has been reviewing the bill, which changed in recent days and on Thursday.

The bill is sponsored by Norcross’ brother, state Sen. Donald Norcross, D-Camden. It is controversial because it circumvents the state’s School Development Authority, which had been charged with constructing schools in 31 of the state’s low-income school districts that are protected under two decades worth of state Supreme Court rulings.

The bill is also controversial because it allows nonprofits that would eventually build the schools to be exempt from public bidding requirements.

However, school operators will have to find private financing. Republican Assembly members objected to a provision that allowed for public bonding for the schools, so it was removed.

George Norcross, in an interview Wednesday, said that public bidding laws have proven to escalate the costs of projects, not lower them.

“Public bidding causes all sorts of litigation, arbitration and change orders,” he said. “Why hamstring someone from going in and negotiating?”

Sen. Norcross reiterated the stance in comments Thursday. He said private school operators will be able to make payments on the buildings simply from the per-student aid they receive from the school districts, thus saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark, which has successfully sued the state to gain billions of dollars in additional state aid for the 31 low-income school districts, said that his organization was readying to file a lawsuit to block the bill. He contends the state, not a private entity, should build the school.

Sciarra said that state taxpayers have already spent $11 million to purchase the land at Lanning Square, demolish buildings that had been on the property and clean it from environmental hazards. A design for the new school has already been completed, he said.

And the state has cash on hand in its school building funds to construct it, and even if not, the state has already authorized $3.9 billion in new school construction statewide, Sciarra said.

“The money is there. It’s not a financial issue,” Sciarra said.

He estimated it would take another $25 million to $30 million to build the Lanning Square school.

The state’s school construction effort, however, has also seen its share of controversy. The agency burned through its initial $8.6 billion allocation and completed a fraction of the schools it was supposed to complete as projects faced cost overruns and were bloated with professional fees and project management contracts.

Camden resident R. Mangaliso Davis opposed the bill at the Assembly Budget Committee hearing. He complained that the community had no input into the program.

“This bill will take away the one school that we should have gotten 10 years ago,” he said.

Republican Assembly budget officer Declan O’Scanlon of Monmouth County, said he believed the pilot program would provide new alternatives for urban students.

“I think what you’ll find is the school will perform,” O’Scanlon said.

The bill allows school boards in the designated districts to approve up to four “renaissance” school projects in their districts.

The districts would be able to appoint non-profit organizations to build and operate the schools. But those groups may buy or rent land from for-profit entities or may authorize a for-profit company to build the new school.

If the school were to become defunct, the land would immediately be deeded back to the school district. That raised a question from some GOP Assembly members about how a bank might secure a loan for a building.

The school district would pay nearly all of the per-child education costs to the nonprofit agency, which could use that money to pay to construct and operate the schools.

The bill calls for renaissance schools to be authorized to operate for ten years, but will face an annual review on whether it was meeting goals and improving school achievement. An independent researcher is to review the program after five years, according to a provision in the bill.

The New Jersey Education Association backed the bill because the new school will still be considered a public school and all staff must meet state certifications.

“It provides innovation within public education, along with accountability,” said Ginger Gold Schnitzer, the top lobbyist for the NJEA.

New Jersey’s bid to waive the requirements of a federal education law includes proposals to reward high-performing schools and force low-performing ones to remove ineffective teachers, according to a draft of the state’s application.

The “No Child Left Behind” law requires all public school students to demonstrate proficiency in math and reading by 2014, but it would be nearly impossible for New Jersey to comply — 55 percent of the state’s public schools have students who do not meet that standard, test data show.

In seeking the waiver from 100 percent compliance, the state’s application proposes a new system for public school accountability that would group schools into three tiers based on students’ performance on standardized tests. The federal law deems any school not in compliance as failing, a penalty that could result in withheld funds after the 2014 deadline.

According to the state’s application, the 5 percent of schools with the lowest test scores would be deemed “priority.” Another group with low graduation rates or wide achievement gaps would be considered “focus.” The state’s best schools would be called “reward.”

Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said the proposed accountability system would support struggling schools and offer credit for progress toward the “flawed” federal law’s goal of having all students demonstrate proficiency in math and reading.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to school improvement, which is why we must focus our resources and most significant interventions on those schools with a longstanding history of low performance,” Cerf said.

The Department of Education released a draft Thursday of the state’s waiver application to seek public comment on the proposals. Comments must be submitted through the department’s website by Nov. 9.

Under the application, “priority” schools could be forced to fire their principals, remove ineffective teachers and extend the school day to boost achievement. “Reward” schools would be given financial bonuses.

The application notes swift passage of Gov. Chris Christie’s education reform bills would make it easier to implement the state’s proposals. Legislation the governor supports includes overhauling teacher tenure, offering bonuses to the best teachers and expanding access to charter schools.

Changing state law would make the application’s proposals more effective, a Department of Education spokesman said.

Martha DeBlieu, a research director for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said the application is not an appropriate venue to advocate for legislative proposals the union does not support.

By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

They’re among the best, but they have a long way to go.

Fourth- and eighth-graders in New Jersey ranked near the top in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in math and reading, posting the second-highest reading scores in both grade levels, according to data released today.

The state’s fourth-graders ranked fourth nationally in math — up from fifth in 2009 — while eighth-graders got the third-highest scores, up from fifth two years ago.

Massachusetts students posted the highest scores in all four areas.

But results of the NAEP assessments, often nicknamed the “Nation’s Report Card,” also showed fewer than 40 percent of students nationwide were “proficient” in all of the categories tested.

New Jersey fared somewhat better, with 43 percent of fourth-graders and 45 percent of eighth-graders scoring proficient or better in reading. In math, 51 percent of fourth-graders and 47 percent of eighth-graders were proficient or better.

NAEP defines proficient as “solid academic performance” and “competency over challenging subject matter.”

“Being basic isn’t good enough,” Newark School Superintendent Cami Anderson said. “The NAEP is sort of the gold standard. It’s the best thing we have to measure true proficiency.

“We want highly proficient,” she said. “Obviously, we need to make leaps.”

The NAEP tests were administered between January and March this year to a representative sample of about 200,000 fourth graders and 170,000 eighth-graders across the country. In New Jersey, that included 3,100 fourth-graders and 2,500 eighth-graders.

The tests — which are scored from 0 to 500 — are the only nationally representative assessments given.

Nationally, the results showed an upward trend in math for both fourth and eighth graders, with a one point increase in overall scores since 2009, when the tests were last given. In reading, however, fourth-grade scores remained unchanged from 2009. Eighth grade reading scores went up by a point from two years ago.

The results also offered a few tidbits that help student performance. Among them: Fourth-graders who read for fun almost every day scored higher in reading.

The national results also showed the size of the ‘achievement gap” between wealthy and poor students, or between students of different races. In New Jersey, the results showed an “achievement gap” between wealthy and poor students that is among the highest in the country.

New Jersey Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf praised the state’s “significant achievement” on the exams, but also said much work needs to be done to help lowest-performing students.

“We must find the right balance between celebrating our successes and a sense of urgency to improve,” he said.

David Sciarra, executive director of the Newark-based Education Law Center, also noted the nagging achievement gap “reflecting the growing inequality in our state.

“The challenge now is to work together on proven efforts that will improve and strengthen NJ’s public schools for all of our students,” he said.

Anderson, the Newark superintendent, said she believes there is “hope” of improving.

“There are schools all over the country, hundreds of schools where 90 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, and 90 percent are going math and reading at proficiency,” she said. “There are core things they do very well. And I find that very hopeful.”

The math and reading results are available at http://nationsreportcard.gov.

By Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

NJ Senate Democrats Consider Budget That Would Increase School Funding By $600M, Reintroduce ‘Millionaire’s Tax’

TRENTON — Senate Democrats are thinking of introducing their own budget that would increase school financing by as much as $1.1 billion, including about $600 million for non-Abbott school districts, according to four people familiar with the plan.

The money would come from a combination of additional revenue, some cuts in spending, and possibly a millionaire’s tax, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the plan.

The proposal is emerging less than three weeks after the state Supreme Court ordered the state to increase financing for poor school districts, known as Abbott districts, by $500 million, and with three weeks to go until the legislature is required to approve a budget for the next fiscal year.

The plan was unveiled by State Senate President Stephen Sweeney at a recent Senate Democratic caucus, the sources said. Derek Roseman, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said he would not comment on internal deliberations, nor would he confirm or deny the proposal.

The state Supreme Court stopped short of ordering the restoration of the full $1.7 billion in cuts that Gov. Chris Christie relied on to balance this year’s budget. The governor said he would comply with the order after giving some mixed signals, but left it to the Democrat-controlled legislature to work out the details — as long as there is no tax increase.

The Senate plan would satisfy the court ruling as well as provide additional money for up to 240 other districts that are not spending as much as they should be under the school funding formula. Many of those districts have high numbers of at-risk students, but were not granted any financial relief by the court.

David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, who has lobbied lawmakers and Christie to restore the funds, said the additional money would go to all students who need it, not just to those in the poorer districts.

“If this were done it would go a long way towards fulfilling the commitment made by the Legislature in the (school funding) formula, which was to make sure that at-risk students, whichever district they were in, received the funding they were entitled to receive,” he said.

Woodbridge, a district with 13,000 students, about 30 percent of whom are low income, would receive $18.6 million in additional aid, he said, while Hamilton Township in Mercer County, also with about 13,000 students, would get an additional $9.8 million.

To pay for the proposal, Democratic Senators would rely on the revenue estimates provided by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services instead of the less optimistic figures put forth by the Christie administration, sources say. The OLS figure of $913 million is $400 million higher than the administration’s figure.

The Democrats would also rely on up to $300 million in budget cuts that have not yet been determined, sources said. A millionaire’s tax has been discussed despite Christie’s objection to it.

The sources said Democrats are divided on whether to pursue the strategy in part because it would require them to sponsor the budget and make it difficult for them to criticize the governor for his handling of the state’s finances.

Last year, the budget was approved with the slimmest of Democratic support, handing Republicans ownership of a plan that included huge cuts and froze property tax rebates.

Lawmakers have until June 30 to approve Christie’s $29.6 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Christie has called for tripling current property tax rebates next year, but only if legislators agree to make changes to health and pension benefits for state and municipal workers.

Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the governor, said he wouldn’t comment on a plan put forward by lawmakers until it was more than a rumor.

“We will review a budget bill once the legislature fulfills its own obligation to pass such legislation and it reaches the governor’s desk for consideration,” Roberts said in an e-mail message. “We won’t be responding to abstract proposals in the interim.”

A spokesman for the Assembly Democrats, Tom Hester Jr., said the governor’s budget puts the heaviest burden on working-class residents, and that lawmakers are committed to doing everything possible to resolve that problem.

“But as everyone is also well aware, nothing gets to the governor’s desk without garnering Assembly support,” Hester said. “We look forward to a cooperative discussion in the month ahead built around the goal of advocating for working class residents.”

By Jarret Renshaw  (jrenshawstarledgercom)   and Matt Friedman  (mfriedmanstarledgercom)  /Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — An opinion by a divided state Supreme Court on Tuesday sets up a state budget confrontation between a Republican governor who vows not to raise taxes and a Democratic-controlled state Legislature seeking to funnel even more money to local schools.

The state Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, ordered New Jersey to provide full funding for 31 school districts that have long received massive state aid under previous court orders.

The ruling presents the state with a much smaller bill — estimated to be $500 million — than it would have if the court had ordered New Jersey to provide full state aid, some $1.75 billion more, to all school districts.

But the decision also marks a rebuke for Gov. Chris Christie, who has criticized the court over the school funding issue since he was a gubernatorial candidate.

Christie, who had broached the idea of defying the court in a radio appearance, said in a press conference that he would comply with the order. Christie said the Legislature should now determine the state budget that takes effect July 1, but he said he did not want to see new taxes.

Christie also castigated the decision.

“As a fundamental principle, I do not believe it is the role of the state Supreme Court to determine what programs the state should and should not be funding, and to what amount,” he said in a news conference. “The Supreme Court is not the Legislature. It should not dictate policy…and it should not have any business deciding how tax dollars are spent.”

State Democratic leaders called for the state to find additional money for local school districts. State Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, wanted some $500 million more for lower and middle-income school districts.

The decision was the latest hearing in the state’s long-running school funding case. Advocates for children in 31 low-income school districts had asked the court to enforce a state aid formula agreed to in a 2009 ruling that provided additional funds to districts across the state.

The ruling then had finally moved the state from protecting the 31 districts and allocating aid on a statewide basis. Tuesday’s decision moves New Jersey back to the prior position of having select school districts protected by the court and those that are not.

In the majority opinion, Justice Jaynee LaVecchia wrote that the court could only order funding for the Abbott districts because of the precedent set by prior rulings.

The 2009 formula had determined how much money was expected to be spent educating various types of students and required the state to provide full funding after the school district’s “fair share” of property taxes was raised.

For example, that formula then determined the base cost of a general elementary student’s education was $9,649.

More money was allocated to educate students from low-income families, as well as for students who had trouble speaking English or who suffered with physical or educational disabilities or speech problems.

The Supreme Court decisions in the case, beginning in 1990, have been highly controversial because they have directed tens of billions over the years into large urban districts like Newark and Trenton, as well as poorer small districts, such as Keansburg and Asbury Park.

Even now, more than half of the state’s $7 billion in local state aid goes to those districts. But in many cases, test scores have remained low and dropout rates have held high, which has prompted criticism of the program.

In legal arguments, the Christie administration had said it planned on fulfilling the school funding formula, but had to cut state aid last year because of declining tax revenues amid the financial crisis.

Yet Christie often publicly criticized the court’s long-running decisions on school funding.

He had said that the notion that more money can lead to better results is “failed legal theory.’’

Christie had refused last year to reappoint Justice John Wallace and cited the court’s previous decisions as a reason, though he did not name the school funding case specifically as the reason Wallace was not reappointed.

The court has operated short-handed on the school funding case. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, who was an Attorney General for then Gov. Jon S. Corzine, had worked on the school funding formula and has recused himself from the case.

Justice Virginia Long recently had recused herself from the case.

The reason was not announced.

LaVecchia was joined by Justices Barry T. Albin and Judge Edwin H. Stern, who was appointed to temporarily fill Wallace’s seat.

Justices Roberto A. Rivera-Soto and Helen E. Hoens dissented in the opinion.

“Like anyone else, the State is not free to walk away from judicial orders enforcing constitutional obligations,’’ LaVecchia wrote in her opinion.

She later added “the state may not use the appropriations power as a shield from its responsibilities.”

Rivera-Soto called the court’s school funding decisions, stretching back to the 1970s, a “well-intentioned but now fundamentally flawed and misguided approach.’’

Rivera-Soto questioned how the court could order full funding for children in some districts, while allowing others not to receive funding that met the state’s constitutional requirement.

Hoens, in a separate opinion, said the state’s budget cuts were necessary and showed no defiance of the court.

She questioned the finding in March by a special master that Christie’s budget cuts had violated the constitution.

By Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — When an Assembly committee recently advanced a bill offering scholarships for students in failing public schools to attend private schools of their choice, proponents said the legislation had enough votes to land on Gov. Chris Christie’s desk within weeks.

Two months later, Democrats now say the bill lacks their support and may not make it out of the lower house or the Senate. Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) said the legislation, which includes 13 target districts, needs to be scaled back in scope and cost.

“There is no support for the bill in the caucus at its current size,” Greenwald said. “Thirteen towns is not a pilot program, it’s a cultural shift.”

Assembly Majority Leader Joe Cryan (D-Union) said the bill (A2810 in the Assembly and S1872 in the Senate) is not manageable in its current state and requires “extensive reworking.”

“If it moved forward at all, and I would emphasize ‘if,’ it would move forward as a much-scaled-down version,” Cryan said.

The Opportunity Scholarship Act would offer vouchers to as many as 40,000 low-income public school students in the 13 districts — which include Newark, Jersey City and Lakewood. Elementary students would get up to $8,000 a year and high school students up to $11,000 for tuition at private and parochial schools.

An estimate of the Senate bill by the nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services pegs the program’s cost at $840 million for its first five years. That money would come not from state coffers, but rather from donations made by businesses that would then be eligible for tax credits in equal amounts.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming the constitutionality of school vouchers funded by tax credits led Christie to again call for swift passage of the bill in hopes that eligible students could enroll in new schools by the fall.

Christie accused legislators who do not support the scholarship act of being “owned by special interests” and likened opposing the program to “a sin.” If the bill ever reaches his desk, Christie has pledged to sign it without delay.

“Basically what they’re saying to poor people in failing districts is ‘Hang in there; it might get better someday,’” Christie said. “But in the meantime, day after day, week after week, year after year, those students are failing.”

Since clearing the Assembly Commerce Committee in February amid predictions it would soon go to Christie, the bill fell out of favor with some Democrats because of the “toxicity” surrounding the often impassioned debate over private school vouchers, said Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Essex), who chairs the committee.

“It was wishful thinking of supporters to say it was a done deal,” he said.

The Assembly’s version of the voucher legislation would offer smaller scholarships than the Senate version and cost less, yet Greenwald said the program would still need to be capped at five or six failing school districts to gain the support it needs to move forward.

Opponents of the bill, including the state’s largest teachers union, said they were glad the legislation has stalled, according to New Jersey Education Association spokesman Steve Baker. Following the bill’s approval by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee in January, the NJEA launched a campaign to educate legislators and the public on why vouchers are “not the right policy for New Jersey.”

Baker said the teachers union would also oppose a scaled down version of the bill, because it would also be an ineffective use of public tax dollars.

“We talk to a lot of legislators about a lot of issues, and this is an issue we addressed with a number of legislators,” Baker said. “We made sure they were aware of the bill’s cost, how it worked, and the impact of vouchers in other parts of the country.

Research conducted by the University of Indiana Bloomington and the University of Arkansas on voucher programs in Cleveland, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., show students in those programs did little better than their public school counterparts on state tests.

Students in the Washington voucher program did, however, have a 12 percent higher probability of graduating from high school, and their parents reported feeling their children were safer at voucher schools.

One of the bill’s prime sponsors in the Senate, Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), said the ills of chronically failing schools will take so long to fix that if the state doesn’t offer an immediate alternative, “we risk allowing these children to move forward in life without the tools they need to succeed as adults.”

Senate Republican spokesman Adam Bauer urged lawmakers to post the bill for full votes in both houses of the Legislature in spite of waning support from the Democrats. But even some Senate Republicans are still questioning the merits of the bill.

State Sen. Diane Allen (R-Burlington) said she does not support the bill “at the moment,” in part because of concerns about whether it’s constitutional, a question for which she has turned to attorneys for advice.

“Our New Jersey Constitution says, as I recall, that we promise a thorough and efficient education through public schools. This (bill) would be doing something other than that, so I’m just not clear that it’s constitutional.”

Staff writers Matt Friedman and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

INSIDE: Jerseyans split on continuing growth of charter schools, poll finds.

Gov. Chris Christie, spelling out his teacher tenure reform plans in the most detail yet in front of an audience of national experts, wants each school district to have significant discretion in constructing its own teacher and principal evaluation systems.

Appearing at an event hosted in New York Thursday by the prominent Washington-based think tank, the Brookings Institution, Christie said growth in test scores, grades and other metrics should serve to make up half of each teacher’s annual evaluation. Districts should also design their own subjective evaluation based on administrators’ in-class observations and other criteria.

Christie again attacked the state’s powerful teachers union through much of his speech, but also praised teachers and said they needed to be part of reform. Christie said he had learned much from meeting with small groups of teachers privately in recent weeks.

“If you empower teachers to be a large part of the decision-making process, it will work,” Christie said in response to a question. “I think that will lower the fear level.”

He stressed that he would not allow the unions to influence the creation of local evaluation criteria. He also said teachers and administrators know their local students best and should have influence on how staff is measured for raises and tenure.

“What needs to be done in Short Hills is significantly different than what needs to be done in Paterson,” Christie said.

Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said in an interview after the event that the state still planned to create a more complete statewide database of student test scores and other information.

The state would provide guidance to districts on how to create a teacher measurement model, Cerf said.

Grover J. Whitehurst, director of an education policy center at Brookings, said in an interview afterward that although Christie’s proposal would help gain support of some educators, it would lead to a range of standards across the state.

“The details will be worked out by the local school districts, and that’s hard and difficult work,” Whitehurst said. “”But can the state tolerate a system where it is much easier, say, to be (classified) an exceptional teacher in Asbury Park than it is in Trenton?”

In other details, Christie said:
Teachers should not be paid based on seniority, adding that they should not automatically receive raises because they have obtained advanced degrees.

Tenure should be revoked for teachers who receive poor evaluations for two years in a row. In order to obtain tenure, new teachers should have to be rated effective for three consecutive years.

The state should offer teachers more money to teach in urban districts or in subject areas where there is a shortage of teachers, such as science.

Echoing comments he made on ABC-TV on Wednesday, Christie called lobbyists for the state’s largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, “bullies and thugs.”

Christie, a Republican, said that he is better able to drive educational reform than the Democratic Party, which he described as beholden to the campaign contributions of the teachers union. He also said that he can better bridge the political divide between low-income areas and the suburbs.

“In the same way that only Nixon can go to China, you need a Republican governor who can go into the urban areas and say he cares about those kids,” Christie said.

The NJEA contended the proposals are an expansion of high-stakes testing that has proved ineffective.

“Anytime someone resorts to that much name calling, he’s not that confident in his ideas,” Baker said. “When people focus on the substance of what he’s saying, they’ll realize what a disaster this is.”

Christie again criticized the state Supreme Court on the day the administration and a nonprofit advocacy group were scheduled to file their final briefs in the long-running case over school funding.

A special master had ruled last month that Christie’s budget cuts had violated a constitutional requirement that the state provide a “thorough and efficient system” of education by leading to reductions in programs for low-income and other students considered at-risk for failure.

The state Supreme Court is expected to order the state to spend more money on local education to support a formula the court endorsed in a 2009 decision. Christie mocked the idea that more money would “tip us over into raging success” in low-income schools.

In a report released last year, Brookings advocated a school choice program in which parents would choose schools for their children, though it favored choice among public schools. The program also called for the creation of virtual schools so that students would have the option of taking classes online.

In comments before Christie’s speech, Whitehurst said that if school funding followed the students, who had the opportunity to transfer out of district, it would create much pressure for schools to perform better.

Whitehurst said that would be an especially powerful incentive in New Jersey if students in certain low-income districts, which receive massive amounts of state funding, were able to take those dollars with them upon transferring.

“The entire U.S. economy operates through choice and competition,” Whitehurst said.

“Public education does as well for affluent parents, who choose their schools by purchase of a residence,” Whitehurst added. “Eliminating or severely restricting choice for low-income parents generates striking inequities in the quality of educational opportunity.” Christie’s address comes a day after President Barack Obama visited New York and called the disparity in school test scores between black and white students a civil rights problem. He urged reinvigorated efforts to close the achievement gap.

Christie, who has criticized Obama on a number of issues, has repeatedly said his policy positions on education are virtually indiscernible from the president’s. On Thursday, he praised Obama for “speaking strongly and firmly about education reform.”

Christie Tells Diane Sawyer He Won’t Run for President in 2012, But Will His Friend Donald Trump?

By BRADLEY BLACKBURN
April 6, 2011

In an interview with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, Christie offered no apology for his often tough talk that has left some teachers feeling bruised. He also talked about the presidential possibilities of both himself and his “friend” Donald Trump, and criticism by Jersey rock icon Bruce Springsteen.

While sitting in the school library at Lincoln School in Kearney, N.J., Christie told Sawyer that it’s essential for his state’s education system to change and he blames the teachers union for the harsh cuts his administration is making, that includes layoffs and larger classrooms.

“I believe the teachers in New Jersey in the main are wonderful public servants that care deeply. But their union, their union are a group of political thugs,” Christie said.

He said the New Jersey Education Association refused to negotiate on a salary freeze last year. “They should have taken the salary freeze. They didn’t and now, you know, we had to lay teachers off.”

“They chose to continue to get their salary increases rather than be part of the shared sacrifice,” he said.

Dismissing objections to his blunt talk, Christie said, “We’re from New Jersey and when you’re from New Jersey, what that means is you give as good as you get.”

Christie is also suggesting a dramatic change in the state’s tenure program, forcing tenured teachers to undergo a yearly review and face removal from tenure if they’re found to be ineffective.

Christie: I’m Not Running for President

Christie’s tough talk for teachers unions has found a receptive audience beyond his state borders. A political unknown on the national stage just two years ago, Christie, 48, is now mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.

But the governor repeated his claim today that he has no plans to run in 2012.

“No, I’m not running for president,” Christie said. “I don’t feel ready in my heart to be president. And unless I do, I don’t have any right offering myself to the people of this country.

“I don’t want to participate in the vanity exercise just because people ask me to do it or because people say, ‘You could win.’ That’s not the point,” he said.

Will Donald Trump Get In the Republican Race?

Christie also downplayed the idea that Trump might actually seek the Republican presidential nomination.

“Donald’s a really good friend of mine. I don’t know that Donald really wants to be President,” he said.

“We’ve spoken about it, and all I can say to you is that, you know, I’ll believe it when I see it,” Christie said. “I think he likes what he does. I think he likes building things. And I think he likes being on TV, and you know, he does that well.”

Referring to Trump’s hints about running, Christie added, “I wouldn’t call it stunt, but I think he’s very outspoken and… he loves to be on the stage and to express his opinions.”

Christie’s Advice to the President on Budget: Get in and Lead

As the nation’s political leaders wrangle over the federal budget in Washington, Christie said his experience cutting billions from the New Jersey state budget in 2010 taught him some lessons about the importance of executive power.

“We had the same kind of situation a year ago, and I just got in the room with the Democrats in the legislature, and we came to a principled agreement,” Christie said. “I have a particular message for the president: He should get in and lead and bring them together.”

Christie said that no matter the differences, a government shutdown is unacceptable.

“Shutdown is a failure of everybody, including the president. Because in the end, we’re here to stand up for principles, to say the things that we believe in, but we’re also here to lead and run a government,” Christie said. “It would be a failure of everyone involved, of the Congress and the president, if they don’t get this done.”

Christie Slims Down, Responds to Criticism from Springsteen

Christie, who has an outsized frame to match his bold personality, has recently begun to slim down. With the help of a trainer, he’s exercising several times a week and says he has lost weight, though he won’t reveal a number.

“Let’s just say this — I feel better, I have more energy, and my wife’s happier because, you know, we’ve got four kids,” Christie said.

“What do you say to psyche yourself into it?” Sawyer asked.

“I just look in the mirror, Diane, and I go, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get healthier,’” Christie said. “This job has really forced me, because it’s such a draining job from an energy perspective… If I want to be good, I’ve got to do this.”

Christie, born and raised in the Garden State, is also a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, but the musician and Jersey icon hasn’t been shy about criticizing his fan.

Springsteen, who declined to play at the governor’s inauguration, recently wrote to a New Jersey newspaper saying that Christie’s policies favor the wealthy.

Christie’s “cuts are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years,” Springsteen wrote.

“Are you surprised to hear that from Bruce? I mean, you know, Bruce is liberal,” the governor said. “Doesn’t mean I like him any less.”

Christie’s direct, even confrontational nature has certainly grated on some, even as its drawn him millions of fans who click on YouTube videos of the governor berating teachers that he says have disrespected him at town halls.

For his part, Christie says he’s determined to defend his positions, stridently if need be.

“If you treat me with respect even when you disagree with me, I’ll treat you with respect back. You treat me with disrespect, that’s what you’re going to get back,” Christie said.

“I kind of wake up every morning excited to get going and to get to work,” he continued. “Cause the things that we’re working on are so important. And I have a chance to actually do something, not just talk about it, but actually do it.”

The AP (3/10, Bauer) reports the Wisconsin Senate “succeeded in voting Wednesday to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, after Republicans outmaneuvered the chamber’s missing Democrats and approved an explosive proposal that has rocked the state and unions nationwide.” The state Senate “requires a quorum to take up any measures that spends money,” but Republicans “on Wednesday took all the spending measures out of the legislation and a special committee of lawmakers from both the Senate and Assembly approved the revised bill a short time later.”

The Los Angeles Times (3/10, Sewell) reports the Republicans “voted 18 to 1 Wednesday night to pass the non-fiscal provisions of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, including those that would eliminate or severely limit collective bargaining rights for most public employees.” With “no Democrats present, Republican Sen. Dale Schultz cast the only dissenting vote,” and in a statement, he “said he had spent the last four weeks working for compromise.”

The Christian Science Monitor (3/10, Trumbull) reports Senate Republicans “decided yesterday that they could detach the collective-bargaining provision from the broader ‘budget repair bill’ and vote on it without a quorum.” A Democratic member “of the Assembly present in the Capitol, Rep. Peter Barca, said that the Republicans’ procedural maneuvers violated Senate rules.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/10, Marley) reports Barca “screamed that Republicans were violating the state’s open meetings law.” The law “requires most public bodies to give 24 hours notice before they meet. The conference committee met with about two hours notice.”

The Washington Post (3/10, Fletcher) reports Walker “appeared undaunted as he applauded the Senate’s action. In a statement, he said the state could not afford to be paralyzed any longer by a controversy that had caused Democratic senators to flee for Illinois and brought tens of thousands of protesters to the state capitol in Madison.”

The New York Times (3/10, Davey) reports Democrats, “meanwhile, condemned the move as an attack on working families, a violation of open meetings requirements (most of them did not know there was to be a vote until not long before), and a virtual firebomb in state that already found itself politically polarized and consumed with recall efforts, large scale protests and fury from public workers.”

The Wisconsin State Journal (3/10) reports, “Thousands of protesters rushed to the state Capitol on Wednesday night as word spread of the hastily called votes that sent” Gov. Walker’s “controversial bill limiting collective bargaining rights for public workers speeding through the Legislature.” Moments later, “police ceded control of the State Street doors and allowed the crowd to surge inside.” Meanwhile, “some union leaders interviewed Wednesday night at the Madison Labor Temple indicated that strikes — which are illegal in Wisconsin for public-employee unions — are possible.”

More Commentary. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/10) says in an editorial that the Republicans “went too far in their zeal to bust the unions and too far in their stubborn tactics to accomplish that mission. They are forcing these changes on an unwilling state at great cost – and they still haven’t filled the budget hole the original measure was designed to fill.”

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In the Classroom
Most Schools Could Be Labeled As “Failing” This Year, Duncan Says.
The AP (3/10, Armario) reports, “The number of schools labeled as ‘failing’ under the nation’s No Child Left Behind Act could skyrocket dramatically this year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday. The Department of Education estimates the percentage of schools not meeting yearly targets for their students’ proficiency in math and reading could jump from 37 to 82 percent as states raise standards in attempts to satisfy the law’s mandates.” According to the AP, “Duncan presented the figures at a House education and work force committee hearing, in urging lawmakers to rewrite the Bush-era act.”

The New York Times (3/10, Dillon) reports that NCLB critics “have also long predicted that the law will, over time, determine that all but a handful of schools are failing – a label that would demoralize educators, lower property values and mislead parents about the instructional climates in their schools.” The Times adds that “Peter Cunningham, an Education Department spokesman, said Mr. Duncan’s intention was to inform Congress of the dynamics of the law this year. … ‘Arne is just telling the committee that is charged with rewriting this law what’s coming.’”

The Washington Post (3/10, Anderson) reports that Duncan’s estimate that 82 percent of schools could be labeled as failing under NCLB “drew immediate criticism from an expert who is usually an Obama ally – Charles Barone, a former congressional aide who helped draft the 2002 law and tracks federal policy for the pro-administration group Democrats for Education Reform. Barone called Duncan’s projection ‘fiction.’”

The Los Angeles Times (3/10, Parsons) reports, “The Obama administration estimates that 82% of the nation’s public schools could fall short of” NCLB “standards this year, grades that are not only embarrassing but also mean government intervention for some of them. In a report to Congress on Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan was urging Congress to change the federal standards so that failing grades are awarded only to the schools most in need of help.”

Duncan: Special Education Benefited From NCLB. Disability Scoop (3/9, Diament) reported, “Despite its flaws, an increased focus on achievement among students with disabilities was one positive outcome of No Child Left Behind, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told members of Congress Wednesday.” In his House testimony, Duncan “said that for all of its shortcomings, No Child Left Behind did bring needed attention to children with special needs and students in other high-risk groups.”

USA Today Investigates Cheating On Standardized Tests.
USA Today (3/10, Upton) reports, “The standardized tests required by the federal No Child Left Behind law have become one of the most important – and controversial – ways to measure a student’s progress, a teacher’s competence, a school’s success and a state’s commitment to education.” USA Today adds, “Teachers cheat sometimes and so do principals, according to academic studies. .. In an investigation of standardized testing in six states and the District of Columbia, USA TODAY found that an infraction such as casually coaching one student can carry nearly the same punishment as deliberately changing answers for a whole class.”

Investigation Exposes Cheating At Michigan School. USA Today /Detroit Free Press (3/10, Dawsey) reports, “The teachers and principal at George Washington Carver Academy, a charter school” in Highland Park, MI, “have learned firsthand what happens when an official probe concludes that the staff cheated on a standardized test. Monitors sent by the Michigan Department of Education have watched over teachers here for the past two years as state tests have been administered.” According to USA Today, “Educators at Carver cheated on the tests in many ways, stopping just short of giving students the answers, the state investigation found.”

Professor Aims To Curb Cheating. USA Today (3/10, Upton) reports, “Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, an associate professor at Arizona State University, had a powerful motivation to find out how common cheating is among schoolteachers: She says she cheated when she was a teacher. A lot of cheating goes on, often because teachers are unaware that what they are doing is cheating, Amrein-Beardsley said in an interview.” Thus, along with “Arizona State colleagues David Berliner and Sharon Rideau, she created an online survey – one of the first of its kind – to measure what types of cheating take place and how often it occurs among Arizona teachers.”

Law & Policy
Idaho House Approves Teacher Merit Pay Plan.
The Idaho Statesman (3/10, Bonner) reports, “Lawmakers in the Idaho House approved legislation Wednesday to introduce a pay-for-performance plan for teachers, sending the bill to the governor’s desk. The legislation would award bonuses to teachers who raise student achievement and take on hard-to-fill positions or leadership roles.” The measure “is one of three Republican-backed bills that were crafted in the 2011 session to carry out an education reform package authored by public schools chief Tom Luna, who praised passage of the bill to introduce merit pay in Idaho.”

The Twin Falls (ID) Times-News (3/10, Botkin) adds, “Wednesday’s vote means that two of Luna’s three bills await only the governor’s signature before becoming law. The first bill, which passed Tuesday, revamps teacher contract negotiations and limits the scope of collective bargaining to only salaries and benefits.” The Times-News adds, “The third bill, which stalled in the Senate Education Committee, would cut 770 teaching positions, a move intended to free up more money for technology and the pay incentives.”

Florida Senate Set For Vote Thursday On Teacher Bill.
The AP (3/10, Kaczor) reports, “The Republican-controlled Florida Senate set the stage for a vote on teacher merit pay and tenure by rejecting a proposal to soften the measure Wednesday. What’s expected to be a partisan roll call on a modified version of the previously vetoed bill is scheduled Thursday.” The bill under consideration “would require school districts to adopt merit pay plans based 50 percent on how well much each teacher’s students improve on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test – FCAT – or other exams over a three-year period.”

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Safety & Security
White House Plans Conference On Topic Of Bullying.
The White House is broaching the topic of bulling, USA Today (3/10, Hall) reports. A day-long conference Thursday is the latest of the Administration’s efforts to address the issue. This is the “first time a president has brought so much attention to the difficult and sometimes devastating problem of bullying,” USA Today says. Appearing with the First Lady in a video posted to Facebook, President Obama encourages students, teachers, parents, and coaches to tune in to the conference via video. USA notes that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at a prior anti-bullying event, “We simply have not taken the problem of bullying seriously enough. Too often, bullying gets shrugged off.”

McClatchy Newspapers (3/10, Barrett, Thomma) report that President Obama and “first lady Michelle Obama will bring parents, teachers and experts to the White House for a series of talks and seminars on how to stop bullying and how to help victims survive it.” According to McClatchy, “Critics say it’s a poor use of the president’s time and question whether the federal government needs to get involved. But Obama thinks he alone can turn a pressing local problem into a national priority.”

CNN (3/9, Shepherd) reported on its Website, “President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will host the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying Prevention Thursday. … The conference, put on in coordination with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, will include discussions about the effects of bullying on young people, preventing bullying and harassment in schools and the community, and cyber-bullying.” CNN added that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “and Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes will conclude the conference with closing remarks.”

Also in the News

Kaya Henderson Nominated For DC Schools Chancellor Post.
The Washington Post (3/10, Turque) reports, “D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray has tempered his recent criticism of the IMPACT teacher evaluation system, which he said in January was unfair to educators in high-poverty schools because it judged them by the same standards used to assess educators working with less-disadvantaged students. He signaled the change of view Wednesday toward the end of a news briefing in which he formally introduced Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson as his nominee to replace Michelle A. Rhee, who resigned in October.” The Post notes that Henderson has “received endorsements from US Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the philanthropic community that underwrites many public education initiatives in the city.”

The Washington Times (3/10, Simmons) adds, “The Washington Teachers Union, whose members backed Mr. Gray’s mayoral campaign, is not happy with the choice” of Henderson “for several reasons. Chief among them is the fact that no national search was conducted – a possible breach of the D.C. law that established the chancellor post.” Also, “union leaders have been barking about marks Ms. Henderson has left on school reform, such as the teacher-evaluation tool called Impact, which the mayor calls unfair, the union calls flawed and Ms. Henderson said is undergoing changes.”

Push For Charter School In New Jersey District Generates Controversy.
The New York Times (3/10, Applebome) reports, “In a perfect world of unlimited resources, it’s possible, though hardly certain, that” Highland Park, NJ “might want to become a host to the nation’s first Hebrew-language public high school. But in the imperfect world of public education today, the idea of diverting diminishing resources from existing schools for the proposed Tikun Olam Charter High School would seem to be dead on arrival if local school officials got to choose or local residents got to vote on it.” The Times goes on to detail “the issues beneath the glossy promise of charter schools in the increasingly testy politics of public choice” in Highland Park.

Wisconsin Assembly Passes Controversial Public Union Bargaining Bill.
A day after Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate used procedural maneuvers to pass a bill stripping public unions of most collective bargaining rights, the state Assembly passed the bill, sending it to Gov. Scott Walker. While media reports, including the lead story on NBC, portray the vote as a win for Walker, many outlets note the controversy has energized unions and the Democratic allies.

The AP (3/10) reports the White House “is denouncing a vote by the Wisconsin Senate to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from government workers, calling it an assault on public employees.” White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama “believes it is wrong for Wisconsin to use its budget troubles ‘to denigrate or vilify public sector employees.’” In a second story, the AP (3/11, Bauer) reports union leaders “plan to use the setback to fire up their members nationwide and mount a major counterattack against Republicans at the ballot box in 2012.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/11, Stein, Marley, Bergquist) reports “even with the battle won by Republicans, a wider war now remains for both sides, one expected to be fought in the courts and through recall efforts against 16 state senators.” The Wisconsin State Journal (3/11, Spicuzza, Barbour) reports Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca “called the actions ‘a mockery of our democracy,’ and said he believed the vote would not stand. Barca said that in the past month Republicans violated open meetings laws, a court order to open the state Capitol and various rules of the Assembly and Senate — all to advance legislation aimed at busting unions under the guise of balancing the budget.”

The Madison Capital Times (3/11, Davidoff, Czubkowski) reports, “Tears flowed freely from the eyes of several protesters while others had a look of stony resolve when it became clear that the state Assembly had, as expected, voted Thursday to approve a bill that sharply curtails collective bargaining rights for most public employees.”

The Los Angeles Times (3/11, Haggerty, Muskal) reports even though “the outcome was expected, it didn’t stop the fiery words that have monopolized Wisconsin politics for almost a month and have put the state solidly on the national political map.”

The Washington Post (3/11, Tumulty) reports the “new legislation represents a major setback for organized labor, but the political battle over public employees and their rights to bargain is likely to continue – not only in Madison.” Despite “losing the battle in Wisconsin, union leaders said it would have repercussions across the country.”

The New York Times (3/11, Davey, Sulzberger) reports Walker “won his battle on Thursday to cut bargaining rights for most government workers in Wisconsin,” but his “victory, after the State Assembly passed the bill, also carries risks for the state’s Republicans who swept into power last November.” Democratic-leaning voters “appeared energized by the battle over collective bargaining on a national stage.”

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On the Job
Union Workers Protest GOP Agenda In Indiana.
The AP (3/11, Martin) reports the “thousands of union workers who gathered outside Indiana’s Statehouse for a huge rally Thursday railed against several education and labor bills, but their message reflected a united theme: Republicans here and across the country have gone too far in pushing an agenda opponents consider an attack on working families.” State police “estimated that more than 8,000 people gathered outside the Statehouse at the rally’s peak, making it the largest rally at the Indiana Statehouse in years.” Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott “told the crowd — some wearing fluorescent yellow work vests and hard hats — that craftsmen built the Statehouse more than 100 years ago, and had returned Thursday to reclaim it.”

New York City Comptroller Rejects Contract To Recruit New Teachers.
The New York Times (3/11, Otterman) reports, “The New York City comptroller on Thursday rejected a $21 million contract to train and recruit teachers over the next five years, a move the city said jeopardized a popular program that attracted teachers from nontraditional backgrounds to the city’s schools. The comptroller, John C. Liu, denied the contract for the New York City Teaching Fellows program on technical grounds, but said that it was wrong to use taxpayer money to train new teachers at a time when the city was warning of widespread layoffs.” The Times adds, “City officials said on Thursday that the rejection would hurt the city’s pipeline of teachers into hard-to-fill subject areas, including English as a second language and special education.”

USAT: Cheating Among Teachers Should Be Eradicated.
USA Today (3/11) editorializes, “Teachers were the enforcers of honesty, and most still are. But under pressure to meet rising standards, measured by high-stakes testing, the tables are turning” and in some instances, “teachers and school officials have become the cheaters and students the police,” a USA Today investigation reveals. Now that cheating is “getting the kind of scrutiny it deserves, educators and state officials should have little trouble finding ways to deter it.”

Misuse Of Standardized Tests Blamed For Teacher Cheating. In an opposing view, Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, writes in an op-ed for USA Today (3/11), “Cheating on standardized exams is unethical, whether done by teachers, students or administrators. Enhancing test security might temporarily reduce the number of reported cases” yet “it will not address the root cause of the misbehavior.” Schaeffer adds, “The cheating spike is the predictable fallout from the pervasive misuse of standardized tests in public schools.”

Law & Policy
Funding Questions Persist As Florida Teacher Reform Bill Advances.
The Miami Herald (3/11, Mazzei) reports, “A sweeping bill that would overhaul so-called teacher tenure and salaries swept through the Florida Senate on Thursday, but even its most ardent supporters admitted it still has to clear a major hurdle: how to pay for it. The bill, whose House companion will be debated during two marathon sessions next week, would require principals to begin evaluating teachers in 2014 based on their students’ performance on high-stakes tests and on other criteria school districts have yet to develop.” According to the Herald, “During Senate debate Thursday, a couple of Republicans and a slew of Democrats questioned funding for the teacher tenure bill, which will also set annual – instead of three-year – contracts for new teachers and end the long-standing practice of basing layoffs on seniority.”

Pennsylvania House Bill Would Allow Non-Seniority Teacher Layoffs.
The Philadelphia Inquirer (3/11, Hardy) reports, “School districts in Pennsylvania are barred by law from laying off teachers in most cases, and when furloughs do occur, they must be by seniority. A bill introduced this month in the state House would change that” policy, allowing “teachers and other school professionals to be laid off to help close budget shortfalls. Now, layoffs can be triggered only by declining enrollment, school closings, or changes in academic programs.”

Florida GOP Bills Target Public Employee Unions.
The Miami Herald (3/11, Klas, Sanders) reports with “a national wind at their back and a Republican majority in their grip, the Florida Legislature is going after unions.” House and Senate lawmakers “have taken up three bills that would weaken the teacher’s labor organization, restrict the political clout of all public unions, and reduce the benefits of all state workers.” Union representatives “say the bevy of bills shows that the Republican-controlled Legislature is capitalizing on a national anti-union sentiment.” Lawmakers and business groups “have worried that the bills could trigger chaos at the Capitol similar to Wisconsin, where lawmakers this week voted to end collective bargaining rights of state workers.”

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Safety & Security
Obama Says Bullying Not “Just A Harmless Rite Of Passage.”
Thursday’s White House Conference on Bullying Prevention received more attention on the three broadcast network newscasts than in major newspapers, with all three networks covering the emotional, television-ready issue. By contrast, several newspapers offer only online coverage. Though none of the three networks led with the story, both CBS and NBC used the event as a lead-in to detailed reports on bullying. ABC ran a shorter item. There was also substantial local news coverage across the US.

The New York Times (3/11, Calmes) reports, “President Obama poked fun at his own big ears and funny name on Thursday, but all in the service of a serious subject as he and Michelle Obama opened a White House conference to spur antibullying efforts in schools and communities nationwide. … While Mr. Obama elicited chuckles with that memory, he and other participants also recalled examples from more recent and tragic stories of young people who killed themselves rather than endure further abuse from classmates, often for being gay or for being thought to be gay.” The Times notes that in “October, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights sent educators a letter explaining their legal duties to protect students from bullying” and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “who heads the administration’s efforts, sent guidance to state officials on resources and best practices.”

The AP (3/11, Superville) reports, “President Barack Obama says he endured school-yard harassment because of his large ears and funny name and he wants today’s students to know bullying is unacceptable. Obama and his wife, Michelle, convened a conference on bullying Thursday, shining the national spotlight on an issue that touches millions of youngsters each year.” The AP adds, “Several administration officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, are leading discussion groups during the conference.”

New Online Resource On Bullying Launched. WHSV-TV Harrisonburg, Virginia (3/10) reported on its Website, “The Obama administration is launching a new” Stop Bullying Now “Website to help parents, teachers and students.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “announced the Website’s launch in a press conference Thursday afternoon. … ‘Parents have to be vigilant, have to be helping to instill the values in students,’ says Duncan.” KOCO-TV Oklahoma City, OK also covered this story on its Website.

Bloomberg News (3/11, Brower, Runningen) reports the President “said some groups ‘are stepping up and accepting responsibility,’ including the Parent Teacher Association that’s begun a campaign to get anti-bullying literature to parents. MTV is leading a new coalition to fight bullying online, the president said.”

The Boston Globe (3/11, Slack) reports the President said “he and his wife take bullying very seriously, not just in their public roles but as parents to two young girls. He noted that a third of middle and high school students reported being bullied, and he said that adults sometimes do not acknowledge the problem because they see it as a rite of growing up, a relatively harmless trial to be endured.”

The Washington Post (3/10, Henderson) reports on its website that the White House “has launched a Web site, stopbullying.gov, as a clearinghouse for information on prevention. And the Department of Education is working with schools to implement guidelines for dealing with the problem.”

On its website, the Christian Science Monitor (3/10, Khadaroo) quotes psychologist Susan Lipkins, who said that “by taking on bullying in such a high-profile way, the conference ‘will be a huge step towards changing our current ‘vulture culture’ into one of respect and equality.’ … Because the conference included a live chat on Facebook, she says, it’s ‘really hitting directly at the population most likely to bully and be bullied.’” CNN (3/10) reports on its website that Facebook “announced two new safety features Thursday in conjunction” with the event.

School Finance
Miami-Dade Schools Face Deep Budget Cuts.
The Miami Herald (3/11, Kathleen McGrory) reports, “The Miami-Dade school system is bracing for unprecedented cuts to its $4.3 billion budget – reductions that could mean teacher and counselor layoffs, and the elimination of some arts and magnet programs.” According to the Herald, “Miami-Dade has thus far been able to prevent teacher layoffs and protect arts and music programs” yet Florida “Gov. Rick Scott recently proposed slashing $3.3 billion from statewide education spending” which would lead to “a $150 million loss to the Miami-Dade school system.”

Head Start Targeted For Cuts Amid Budget Austerity Push.
The New York Times (3/11, Steinhauer) reports, “The fight over federal spending intensified on Capitol Hill this week when two bills — the House Republican version with large cuts to Head Start and scores of other programs, and a Democratic rejoinder with far fewer trims — both failed in the Senate.” The Times adds, “Among programs chosen by Republicans for large cuts, Head Start is perhaps the most visible and popular,” though the program was targeted for cuts because House Appropriations Committee members “concluded that the program was getting too much money given what they felt was its effectiveness, and that too much of its financing had gone to administrative costs rather than new enrollment.” Nevertheless, research on Head Start “has shown that children who complete it do better socially and academically than children not enrolled in the program.”

Also in the News
Merger Talks Underway Between California Charter Operators.
The Los Angeles Times (3/10, Blume) reported, “Two of [California's] largest charter school organizations are in talks to merge, raising questions about the future of their 33 campuses and the local charter movement.” The merger of ICEF Public Schools and Alliance College-Ready Public Schools “could create the largest charter school operation in California, and one of the nation’s biggest with 12,000 students.” According to the Times, “Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa exhorted charter schools to take charge of more low-performing traditional schools, accept greater numbers of harder-to-educate students and support the closing of low-performing charters.”

Walker Signs Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Bill Into Law.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/12, Stein, Walker, Marley) reported, “In just his third month in office, Gov. Scott Walker rewrote Wisconsin history Friday by signing into law his bill to repeal most collective bargaining for public employee unions. The move comes in the state where a half-century ago public workers first gained widespread ability to bargain together and in the very city where the nationwide public-sector union, AFSCME, was founded.”

The AP (3/12, Bauer) said Walker, “who has swiftly become one of the most polarizing politicians in the country, signed the legislation in private Friday morning. At a ceremonial signing later in the day, he said the new law would be ‘good for the middle class for years to come.’” The Wisconsin State Journal (3/12) said the “bill signing ends a tumultuous chapter in state history, one in which protesters — many days numbering in the tens of thousands — marched on the Capitol for nearly a month, and 14 Democratic senators fled the state to stall passage of the bill.”

The New York Times (3/12, Sulzberger) reported, “Democrats and union leaders, emboldened by the huge outpouring of protesters who have rallied for weeks at the Capitol to oppose what they called a politically motivated effort to weaken unions, pledged to redouble their political, legal and legislative efforts” against Walker’s policies, and “recall petitions continued to circulate against legislators from both parties. A lawsuit was filed challenging the unusual legislative maneuvering that preceded the bill’s passage.”

Ohio Republicans Seek Quick Passage Of Collective Bargaining Bill. The Hill (3/11, D’Aprile) reported Ohio Republicans want to pass a bill that “curbs some collective bargaining rights for public employees quickly in order to thwart labor groups.” Unions are planning “to launch a repeal referendum against the bill, and Republicans stand a better chance of defeating such a measure if it makes the ballot in 2011 instead of 2012.”

Iowa Bill Limiting Collective Bargaining Unlikely To Become Law. The AP (3/11, Glover) reported the Iowa House of Representatives “approved a bill Friday limiting public workers’ collective bargaining rights and requiring them to pay more for their health insurance.” But “while similar legislation reducing the power of unions has passed in states like Ohio and Wisconsin, it is unlikely to become law in Iowa,” since “Democrats who control the Senate…have said they won’t allow debate on the bill.”

As Many As 100,000 Turn Out In Madison To Greet Returning State Senators. The AP (3/13, Richmond) reported, “Clogging the Wisconsin Capitol grounds and screaming angry chants, tens of thousands of undaunted pro-labor protesters descended on Madison again Saturday and vowed to focus on future elections now that contentious cuts to public worker union rights have become law.” Madison teacher Judy Gump said, “This is so not the end. This is what makes people more determined and makes them dig in.”

The Wisconsin State Journal (3/13, Cullen) reported, “Demonstrators — 85,000 to 100,000 strong — turned out in force again Saturday for what Madison police say was the largest crowd since protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to strip state employees of most collective bargaining rights and other proposals for balancing the state budget began more than three weeks ago.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/13, Glauber, Held), meanwhile, reported 14 Democratic state senators, “unbowed and unrepentant,” returned Saturday “and received a tumultuous welcome from tens of thousands of pro-labor demonstrators.” The Madison Capital Times (3/13, Davidoff, 15K) reports demonstrators “surrounded the podium on the State Street side of the Capitol and showered the senators with shouts of ‘Thank you! Thank you!’” The New York Times (3/13, Sulzberger) called the senators “the unlikeliest of folk heroes.”

Obama Administration Has Stayed Out Of Wisconsin Controversy. The AP (3/12, Hananel) reported that so far, “the White House has stayed away from any trips to Madison, the state capital, or other states in the throes of union battles. The Obama administration is treading carefully on the contentious political issue that has led to a national debate over the power that public sector unions wield in negotiating wages and benefits. … The stakes are high as Obama looks toward a grueling re-election campaign. Republicans have begun airing television ads linking Obama to ‘union bosses’ standing in the way of budget cuts in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states.”

Wisconsin Democrats Ramp Up Recall Campaign. USA Today (3/14, Williams, Cauchon) reports, “Opponents of Republican Gov. Scott Walker were back at work Sunday on recall efforts targeting Republican state senators who supported the new governor’s overhaul of public employee union rights. Volunteers worked the phones in an office a block from the Capitol, where a day before, about 100,000 people protested. … In Wisconsin, recalling lawmakers from office is the easier route for voters to register their displeasure.”

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In the Classroom
Class Sizes On The Rise.
The Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press (3/14, Gauthier) reports, “For years, Hamilton County [TN] has taken pride in smaller class sizes and schools, but officials say that luxury may be a thing of the past. As long as the school system continues to cut its budget year after year, class sizes won’t be shrinking any time soon, said spokeswoman Danielle Clark.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “acknowledges that class sizes will keep growing” and suggests “that schools think outside the box and reduce class sizes based on the skill of the teacher, or use part-time staff to decrease class sizes during ‘critical reading blocks.’”

More Pennsylvania Schools Likely To Miss NCLB Benchmark.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (3/14, Weigand) reports, “With students set to take Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment exams this week, educators warned that the number of schools failing to meet tougher math and reading standards likely will rise, and the burden to fix problems will lie largely with school districts. State officials use the PSSA as a benchmark to determine which schools or districts need to improve, and they wield considerable power to make changes when students don’t make the academic progress mandated by” NCLB. According to the Tribune-Review, “Last year, nearly 18 percent of Pennsylvania schools failed to meet state standards under” NCLB.

Exclusive San Francisco Preschool Undergoing Turmoil.
The New York Times (3/12, Stevens) reported, “For the past 14 years, Ann and Gordon Getty have run an invitation-only, free preschool for the offspring of some of San Francisco’s most powerful families, including their own grandchildren. … The Playgroup, as it is known to those in the know, typically has had about two dozen pupils – including the grandchildren of Peter Magowan, the former managing general partner of the Giants, and other scions of inherited fortunes – who learn and play in the Gettys’ Pacific Heights residential complex.” However, “all is not as wonderful as it might appear” as staff “turnover has been substantial in recent years, and actions by the Playgroup’s forceful director, Lonna Corder, have caused some parents considerable anxiety.”

On the Job
Thousands Rally At Texas Capitol To Protest Education Cuts.
The Austin American Statesman (3/13, Kaspar) reports, “Thousands of parents, teachers and other education advocates poured onto the Capitol grounds Saturday to rally against proposed state budget cuts that school districts say could force layoffs of thousands of teachers and other public education employees. Demonstrators sprawled across the statehouse grounds, carrying signs scrawled with ‘Save Our Schools’ and ‘Fund the Future.’” Other protestors “carried umbrellas to underscore their desire that lawmakers tap into the state’s rainy day fund to help balance the budget.”

Indiana Republicans Taking Wide Swipe At Unions.
The AP (3/14) reports, “Union leaders and Democrats facing a barrage of labor-related proposals since the [Indiana] legislative session started in early January hadn’t been able to do much to slow them down until House Democrats took the bold step of fleeing the state Feb. 22. Now they’re using the three-week-old boycott and a series of rallies to fuel the showdown that carries high stakes for both parties.” According to the AP, “Republican legislators aim, among other things, to strictly limit collective bargaining for teachers, permanently ban union contracts for state workers and exempt many government construction projects from the state’s prevailing wage law.”

Law & Policy
Duncan’s Alarm On “Failing” Schools Raises Eyebrows.
Education Week (3/11, McNeil) reported, “Education policy experts are questioning the strategy and data behind U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s announcement that the wide majority of schools could be labeled as ‘failing’ this year under the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Duncan this week ramped up his push for Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the current version of which is NCLB, telling Congress that 82 percent of the nation’s schools may not make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, this year, according to U.S. Department of Education estimates.” Education Week added that the AYP warning is based on a statistical analysis of “the amount of gain on state reading and math tests and used that gain to build projections that were compared against the states’ annual performance targets.”

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Facilities
EPA Rejects New York City Timeline On PCBs.
The New York Times (3/12, Navarro) reported, “New York City’s 10-year plan to identify and replace school-building light fixtures that are leaking toxic chemicals should be handled in a speedier and more comprehensive fashion, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday. Federal officials initially praised the city for taking a step in the right direction when it announced its plan last month as part of a wider energy efficiency effort.” However, “the E.P.A. is rejecting the city’s timeline of 10 years and pushing for a shorter time frame, although how much shorter is still a subject of discussions with the city, said Judith Enck, the agency’s regional administrator in New York.”

School Finance
Federal Budget Standoff Puts Pressure On States, Districts.
Education Week (3/11, Klein) reported, “States and school districts remain in suspense-and frustrated by their inability to plan-as Congress struggles to come up with a budget for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.” According to Education Week, “The current, two-week stopgap measure finances most programs at fiscal year 2010 levels, but it also includes some important cuts to education.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “testified about the administration’s longer-range budget plans at a pair of congressional hearings this week” which included “consolidating 38 programs…into more targeted funding streams.”

Detroit Schools Still Struggling.
In a column for the New York Times (3/14), Michael Winerip analyzes the state of education in Detroit Public Schools, noting that since Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb “arrived, the $200 million deficit has risen to $327 million” and though Bobb “has made substantial cuts to save money – including $16 million by firing hundreds of administrators – any gains have been overshadowed by the exodus of the 8,000 students a year. … Maybe the best way to say it is: Things are not hopeless, but they are not hopeful, either.”

Also in the News
Chicago Mayor-Elect Proposes Bonus Pay For Principals.
The Chicago Sun-Times (3/13, Spielman) reported That Chicago “Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel already has proposed creating a local version of the federal ‘Race to the Top’ fund to reward the best teachers and schools.” Now, Emanuel has “proposed cash incentives to reward the best-performing principals.” Emanuel said “that the bonus would be big enough to serve as an appropriate motivation for outstanding principal performance.”

Itinerant Life Weighs On Farmworkers’ Children.
The New York Times (3/12, Brown) reported, “Efforts by lawmakers to rescind automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants are already stoking fears among many agricultural workers, and that has consequences for their children. Some parents, as they move with the crops, are already keeping their children out of school when they get to Arizona because they are worried about the bureaucracy and tougher restrictions in the state.” The Times adds, “Even as Latino enrollments grow, the number of new teachers earning bilingual credentials has fallen in the last decade to 1,147 per year from 1,829, according to the California Teacher Commission.”

Obama Calls On Congress To Overhaul NCLB By Beginning Of School Year.
The AP (3/15) reports that President Obama, speaking Monday at a middle school in Arlington, Virginia, cited a new Education Department report indicating that “four out of five schools may be tagged as failures this year under provisions of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law” and called on Congress to revamp the law by the beginning of the next school year. “‘That’s an astonishing number,’ he said. ‘We know that four out of five schools in this country aren’t failing. So what we’re doing to measure success and failure is out of line.’” However, House Education Chairman John Kline “acknowledged the need for improvement but called the president’s time line ‘arbitrary.’” Obama praised the law’s goals, but criticized its metrics for “measuring student progress and labeling schools that fall short.”

Bloomberg News (3/15, Johnston, Brower) adds that Obama stressed the need for NCLB “to meet the needs of the economy for a skilled workforce. Obama said parents, schools and the government must work together to assure the success of students through hard work in the classroom and programs that will help them excel.” Noting that Monday’s comments are part of “administration plans to emphasize the importance of education in US economic growth,” Bloomberg adds, “Obama also is using the issue to counter Republican proposals to enact as much as $61 billion in cuts to this year’s budget, arguing that the plan would hit vital programs.” The piece notes that reforming NCLB has bipartisan support. “‘We need to fix this law now,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters on a conference call yesterday. Duncan said the law is too punitive and takes a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to achievement.”

The Christian Science Monitor (3/15, Paulson) adds that Obama said that “NCLB is not without its successes, such as shining a light on the achievement gap between students of different races and backgrounds. … But he added that the law needs changes, which include: rewarding schools for success, improving standards and assessments, getting the best teachers in front of the most disadvantaged kids, and giving more support and better pay to teachers.” The Monitor notes that Secretary Duncan last week “told Congress that 82 percent of America’s schools could fail to meet the goals set by NCLB this year, and also called for reforms. ‘This law has created a thousand ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed,’ he said.”

USA Today (3/15, Jackson) notes that Duncan “said Sunday that if No Child Left Behind isn’t changed, four of five schools won’t meet its standards. ‘Under the current law, it’s one size fits all,’ Duncan said. ‘We need to fix this law now, so we can close the achievement gap.’”

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In the Classroom
Mother Sues New York City Preschool Over Inadequate Test Preparation.
The New York Times (3/15, Anderson) reported, “A Manhattan woman has sued a $19,000-a-year preschool her daughter attended, arguing that the program failed to adequately prepare her daughter for the test required to enter New York City’s hypercompetitive private school system.” Nicole Imprescia’s lawsuit asserted York Avenue Preschool did not heed its mission to prepare her daughter for the E.R.B. but placed her “into a class with 2-year-old children, talking about shapes and colors.”

The AP (3/15) reports Imprescia is suing to recoup tuition as York “promised top-notch education but turned out to be ‘just one big playroom.’” A lawyer for the school said “it was the first such complaint in the school’s roughly 20-year history and parents sign contracts saying tuition is nonrefundable.”

Reuters (3/14) reports, Imprescia’s attorney Mathew Paulose Jr. described the matter as a theft because the school made certain promises it did not keep. The suit was filed following the weeks after which many of New York City’s prominent elementary schools issue their acceptance and rejection letters.

Author Recommends Students Design Their Own Curricula.
In a New York Times (3/15) op-ed, author Susan Engel writes that President Obama’s comments last week that “it was unacceptable that ‘as many as a quarter of American students are not finishing high school’” miss the point that “our current educational approach doesn’t just fail to prepare teenagers for graduation or for college academics; it fails to prepare them, in a profound way, for adult life. We want young people to become independent and capable, yet we structure their days to the minute and give them few opportunities to do anything but answer multiple-choice questions, follow instructions and memorize information.” Engel argues that this failing calls for a reexamination of “the very nature of high school itself” and recommends programs in which students design their own curricula with adult supervision. Such programs “might not be exactly alike,” but “participants will end up more accomplished, more engaged and more knowledgeable than they would have been taking regular courses.”

Budget Crunches Push Chicago-Area Schools To Multi-Grade Classrooms.
The Chicago Tribune (3/15, Malone) reports that a number of schools in and around Chicago are combining two grades into one class, with a shared teacher. “Although multiage learning has long been a hallmark of Montessori education, today its finances, not academics, driving the renewed interest in many districts.” In the face of tightened purse strings, “more educators are realizing they can save the cost of a teacher’s salary every time they put extra students from two grades into one class together rather than keeping them separated, with two different teachers. ‘People are revisiting it because it’s a viable option and, historically, it’s always worked,’ said Jim Grant, an educational consultant and author who has written on the subject. But ‘it’s done out of financial necessity.’”

Massachusetts Officials Investigating Suspicious Boost In MCAS Scores.
The Boston Globe (3/15, Schworm) reports, “When students at the Wilbur Elementary School in Somerset brought home their MCAS scores last fall, parents were thrilled. Their math scores were off the charts, with an impressive 79 percent of fifth-graders scoring in the top category. But for some parents who had watched their children struggle all year with their math assignments, the stellar results didn’t add up.” Therefore, “state education officials are investigating whether the scores are legitimate after receiving complaints from suspicious parents, according to parents and a school board member. In one anonymous allegation, a parent noted her child received an ‘advanced’ score on the MCAS after receiving mediocre marks in her math class.”

Baltimore Schools Investigating Prayer Service Seeking Good MSA Grades.
The Baltimore Sun (3/15, Green) reports that Baltimore, Maryland, officials are investigating reports that a “Baltimore elementary school principal used prayer services to prepare pupils for recent statewide tests. For two years, prayer services have been held at Northeast Baltimore’s Tench Tilghman Elementary/Middle School as the Maryland School Assessments, a standardized test for children in the third through eighth grades, neared. Fliers promoted the most recent event, on March 5, as a way to ‘come together, as one, in prayer and ask God to bless our school to pass the MSA.’” The district released a statement to the effect that such a service would be inappropriate, while an ACLU lawyer “called the service a clear violation of the US Constitution.”

Philadelphia Launches 2011 PSSA Testing.
PhillyBurbs (3/15, Hellyer) reports, “More students will have to demonstrate this year that they are learning at their grade level on standardized tests or their school system could face corrective action from the state. The 11-day window for districts and schools to administer the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests in reading and mathematics opens today.” Noting that the tests are used to determine AYP, the article adds, “This year districts and schools must have 72 percent of its students reaching proficiency on the PSSA reading test. That’s up from 63 percent in 2010. The math proficiency threshold will be 67 percent, up from 56 percent last school year.”

Georgia Adopts Dual Math Tracks.
Maureen Downey writes at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/15) “Get Schooled” blog the Georgia “Board of Education voted this morning to approve dual math tracks in Georgia high schools, a decision that is bound to be controversial among math professionals, many of whom are bombarding me with notes that the problem is not the math but the lack of teacher training and resistance to change.”

Safety & Security
California Legislature Considering Anti-Bullying Measure.
The San Francisco Chronicle (3/15, Tucker) reports that under a bill introduced by California state assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D), “California school districts would have to increase anti-bullying efforts” and “create anti-harassment policies and programs that include bullying based on perceived or actual sexual orientation, if they don’t already exist. They would also be required to have a system in place to ensure all reports of bullying are taken seriously and addressed immediately.” The measure is “called Seth’s Law, in memory of Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old gay student from Tehachapi, who killed himself in September. A proposal submitted last week in Congress in Seth’s memory would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity in public schools.”

New Mexico Legislature Passes Anti-Bullying Bill.
The Las Cruces Sun-News (3/15, Simonich) reports that both houses of the New Mexico legislature have passed legislation under which the state’s “school districts would have to devise programs to stop bullies. … It now goes to Gov. Susana Martinez, who can sign it into law or veto it. Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Dona Ana, sponsored the bill, saying many school districts have done nothing to stop bullies. Her measure would require the state Public Education Department to establish guidelines for bullying prevention policies. Local school boards would have until August to establish a policy.”

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Facilities
Construction “Paperwork Error” To Cost Atlanta Schools $48 Million.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/15, Torres) reports, “An unintentional paperwork error by Fulton County will cost Atlanta Public Schools $48 million and force the city to delay several school construction projects, in some cases indefinitely.” Officials misfiled enrollment records, “resulting in an overpayment to Atlanta from a 1-percent sales tax used for school capital needs. Starting in August, Atlanta schools will make monthly payments until the amount is repaid, said Chuck Burbridge, the city school system’s chief financial officer. The mistake also increases the pressure on the school system as it explores whether to ask voters for a sales tax extension for another five years.”

School Finance
Full Day Of Merit Pay Debate Scheduled In Florida Legislature Tuesday.
The Miami Herald (3/15, Bousquet) reports that Dean Cannon, speaker of the Florida house, “has scheduled nine full hours of discussion and debate on the so-called teacher quality bill (HB 7019) that creates new evaluation systems for teachers and includes a merit pay plan.” Noting that then-Gov. Charlie Crist (R) vetoed a similar bill that was perceived as rushed in 2010, the Herald adds, “‘It’s giving the opportunity for all legislators, Republican and Democrat, to discuss a very important issue to the citizens of the state of Florida,’ said Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. ‘It just takes time.’”

Teachers Rally In Austin To Protest Texas Education Cuts.
The Houston Chronicle (3/15, Scharrer) reports on the “noisy teacher rally” in Austin, Texas, Monday, which “made it nearly impossible to hear an invocation inside the House chamber. And it’s way too early to know if lawmakers heard the pleas from teachers, school employees and parents demanding that state leaders not cut funding for public schools while fixing a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall.” The Chronicle adds that over 12,000 stakeholders “opened their spring break with a Saturday rally at the Capitol that emphasized identical themes as Monday’s demonstration with more than 3,000 education advocates: Use the $9.4 billion rainy day fund and close tax loopholes to spare public education from massive budget cuts. More than $11 billion could be cut from public education in worst-case scenarios.”

NEA in the News
Analysis Of NEA, DOJ Reports Shows States Spend More On Incarceration Than Education.
FOX News (3/15, Prann) reports that according to DOJ research on state budgets, “most states are spending three to four times more incarcerating prisoners than they are educating students. … Georgia lawmakers, for example, dole out almost $18,000 a year to house one inmate in a state prison. But the National Education Association says the state spends about one-third of that to put a child through the public education system. And other states have larger discrepancies. In analyzing two separate reports from the Department of Justice and the National Education Association conducted over similar periods, research shows California spends about $47,000 per inmate while only spending about $9,000 for every student enrolled. New York State spends about $56,000 per inmate and approximately $16,000 for every student in the school system.”

NEA Backs Limited Distance Learning.
The Sacramento Bee (3/15, Harrison) reports that a number of states’ education officials are learning about the value of distance learning, adding, “A combination of higher proficiency standards and tighter budgets are prompting school officials to look more closely than ever at online education. In recent years, several states have put forward plans to expand the reach of virtual schools. Most prominent is Idaho, where state Superintendent Tom Luna wants to require students to take online courses in order to graduate.” The Bee notes that the NEA “has embraced online learning, provided it’s taught by licensed and trained teachers and as long as it doesn’t completely replace in-school teaching. ‘We think that students really benefit from having a classroom experience,’ says Andrea Prejean, associate director of education policy and practice at the NEA. ‘Public school is that social net that catches a lot of things. My third-grade teacher is the person who found out I needed glasses.’”

Leading the News
GOP Wants Ban On Teacher Strikes In Minnesota.
The St. Paul Pioneer-Press (3/16, Belden) reports, “Minnesota teachers would lose the ability to strike and contract negotiations would be limited to the summer months under a bill passed by a state Senate committee Monday. … The bill, carried in the Senate by Republican David Hann of Eden Prairie, passed 8-5 in a party line vote in the State Government Innovation and Veterans Committee.” The bill “would forbid teachers from striking in the same way ‘essential employees’ such as firefighters, police officers and prison guards are prohibited from doing so.” The Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/16, Roper) also covers this story.

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On the Job
US Urged to Raise Teachers’ Status.
The New York Times (3/16, Dillon) reports, “To improve its public schools, the United States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more, according to a new report on comparative educational systems. Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the international achievement test known by its acronym Pisa, says in his report that top-scoring countries like Korea, Singapore and Finland recruit only high-performing college graduates for teaching positions, support them with mentoring and other help in the classroom, and take steps to raise respect for the profession.” The Times adds that the Pisa report was prepared in advance of an Education Department conference, and “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that he hoped educational leaders would use the conference to share strategies for raising student achievement.”

Pennsylvania Governor Seeking To Implement New Grading, Merit-Pay Systems.
The AP (3/16) reports that Pennsylvania “Gov. Corbett’s administration is working to develop a new A-to-F grading system for public schools and to launch merit pay for teachers, officials said. Acting Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis said the school-grading system could take into account various factors – including student performance on tests, dropout rates and how much school districts are spending per pupil – so parents and taxpayers can more easily compare school performance.” According to the AP, “Tomalis said he wants to work with school districts and education officials to devise a blueprint to be used in each district in Pennsylvania.”

Union: 19,000 Educators Getting Pink Slips In California.
The AP (3/16) reports, “Union officials estimate at least 19,000 California school employees are getting pink slips. And California Teachers Association President David Sanchez says he expects the number to top 20,000 when the union gets a better count by the end of the week.” The layoffs “come as Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers negotiate over how to close the state’s nearly $27 billion budget shortfall.”

Michigan Legislature Approves GOP-Backed Emergency Financial Measure.
The Detroit Free Press (3/16, Christoff) reports that the Michigan House “gave final approval to far-reaching powers for emergency managers appointed by the state to cities and school districts in financial distress. That includes the ability to terminate employee union contracts, fire local officials and even dissolve local governments and merge them with others On a 62-48 vote, with only one Republican opposed, the bill was sent to Gov. Rick Snyder for his signature.”

According to the Detroit News (3/16, Bouffard), “Thousands of teachers and other union members have staged raucous protests against the legislation in recent weeks. … Proponents of the bill said emergency financial managers need authority to right the financial ship in communities and school districts that have failed to solve their own financial problems.”

Wisconsin Republicans Drop Contempt Ruling Against Absent Democrats.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/16, Stein, Marley) reports Wisconsin Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald, “backtracked Tuesday, saying Republicans would lift fines and a contempt finding against Democratic senators back from Illinois — a first move toward crossing a chasm of mistrust that now divides the two parties.” On Monday, Fitzgerald said the Democrats “couldn’t vote on bills in committee immediately” because “GOP lawmakers voted to hold Democrats in contempt of the Senate for heading to Illinois. But less than 24 hours later, Fitzgerald and Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) said at a news conference they would not enforce that contempt finding.”

Walker Touring Wisconsin. The Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/16, Helgeson) reports Gov. Scott Walker “is touring Wisconsin to promote his budget solution and declare the state ‘open for business.’”

Law & Policy
Final Vote Set On Florida Teacher Merit Pay, Tenure.
The AP (3/16) reports, “Republican-sponsored legislation setting up a merit pay plan for teachers and ending tenure for new hires is up for a final vote in the GOP-controlled Florida House. If passed as expected Wednesday, the bill (SB 736) will go to Gov. Rick Scott, who has made it one of his top priorities.” Opponents of the law say its chips “away at teachers’ due process and collective bargaining rights.”

AP Scrutinizes Obama Claim On NCLB Failure Rate.
The AP (3/16) reports President Obama “declared this week that four of five public schools could be labeled as ‘failing’ this year under the No Child Left Behind Act if Congress does not take action to rewrite the law.” However, Obama’s “terminology wasn’t quite right, though,” because “there is no ‘failing’ label in the No Child Left Behind Act.” ED spokesman Justin Hamilton is quoted saying that the need to overhaul NCLB has been long-standing, and now “that it is upon us, we need to have an open, honest debate about the consequences of a law that could label four out of five schools as failing.”

Administration Efforts To Overhaul NCLB Applauded. The Philadelphia Inquirer (3/16) editorializes, “Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered a dire warning to lawmakers last week that 82 percent of schools could miss [NCLB] academic benchmarks this year, compared with 37 percent last year. The projection should come as no surprise given the well-known flaws in the law, which is the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.” The Inquirer adds that the “Obama administration’s blueprint for reauthorization has some good proposals” and “offers a starting point for Congress to rewrite the law and make it better.”

On Conference Call, Duncan Calls For NCLB Overhaul.
The Denver Daily News (3/16, Marcus) reports, “US Sen. Michael Bennet and [Colorado] Gov. John Hickenlooper joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan yesterday for a conference call with reporters to make the case for replacing the Bush-era No Child Left Behind. The oddly Colorado-centric conference call with President Obama’s education chief was planned as Obama has directed Congress to send him a new education law by this fall.” The Daily News adds, “Hickenlooper, who has been recently criticized by education supporters for proposing a budget that would cut $332 million from K-12 education in Colorado, said yesterday that he expects teachers and administrators are ready to make up for the expected budget cuts.”

Education News Colorado (3/15, Engdahl) reported, “Gov. John Hickenlooper and US Sen. Michael Bennet Tuesday enlisted in the Obama administration’s campaign to reform the No Child Left Behind law, telling Colorado reporters that change in the law can’t wait. Along with US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the two participated in a conference call with Colorado reporters with as part of the administration’s campaign for a major overhaul of the law, signed in 2002 by President George W. Bush.” According to Education News Colorado, “Duncan said there’s ‘a lot we have to fix’ in NCLB, called it ‘very punitive in nature’ with ‘no real rewards for success.’”

The Denver Post (3/16) quotes Hickenlooper saying to Duncan, “I cannot express how much we appreciate your sense of urgency. … All of us together need to work toward a common goal.” The Post goes on to say that Duncan, Bennet and Hickenlooper stressed that NCLB mandates need more flexibility.

Rift Grows Between Maryland Unions And Lawmakers Over School Funding.
The Washington Post (3/16, Davis) reports, “For much of the past four years, record spending increases for schools proposed by [Maryland] Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) made him and other Maryland lawmakers mutual cheerleaders with the state’s powerful teachers unions.” However, “a Monday night rally by teachers unions and state employees – the largest protest at the Maryland State House in more than a decade – brought into focus how much has changed in the relationship, and why a compromise scheduled to be voted on today may not close a growing gap between educators and legislators. In the wake of outcries in recent weeks by public employees unions in Wisconsin and elsewhere who have watched their power to collectively bargain be stripped away, the 71,000-member Maryland State Education Association and other education advocates have ‘drawn a line in the sand,’ they say, against even a modest school-funding cut contained in O’Malley’s proposed budget, which aims to close a $1.6 billion deficit.”

Public Sector Offers Promise Of Middle Class Life In Rural Ohio.
The New York Times (3/16, Tavernise) reports from Gallipolis, Ohio: “As Ohio’s legislature moves toward final approval of a bill that would chip away at public-sector unions…workers say they see it as the opening bell in a race to the bottom. At stake, they say, is what little they have that makes them middle class. … It is not that there are no jobs, but rather that the jobs available pay too little and have no benefits.”

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Special Needs
Duncan Calls For End To Inflated Special Education Test Scores.
Disability Scoop (3/16, Diament) reports, “Federal education officials will end a practice that allows some states to classify students with disabilities as academically proficient even if they’re not. Speaking at the American Association of People with Disabilities gala in Washington Tuesday evening, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pledged to end the so-called ’2 percent proxy rule.’” Duncan is quoted saying at the AAPD gala, “We have to expect the very best from our students – and tell the truth about student performance – so that we can give all students the supports and services they need.”

Facilities
Los Angeles District Construction Chief Resigns.
The Los Angeles Times (3/16, Blume, Holland) reports, “The head of the $20-billion construction program for the Los Angeles Unified School District announced his resignation Tuesday, the second departure in two years of the top official for the nation’s largest school-construction program. James Sohn had the support of Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who said he especially valued Sohn’s efforts to streamline the maintenance of schools in the wake of budget cuts.” However, Sohn “has come under scrutiny for his handling of contractors in the district’s massive school-building program.”

Also in the News
Charter School Operators To Run Seven More Los Angeles Schools.
The Los Angeles Times (3/16, Blume) reports, “Major charter-school organizations won the right Tuesday to operate at seven of 13 schools under a policy that allows bidders inside and outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to take control of new and academically struggling campuses. Charter schools got most of what they wanted by the end of a 51/2-hour meeting in which the Board of Education divvied up or relinquished 10 new campuses, including seven new high schools, and three low-performing schools. About 20,000 students will be attending those schools next year.” The Times notes that LAUSD “officials were lobbied hard to support more charter schools than last year, when groups of district teachers, often working with administrators, prevailed on most plans.”

More Districts Placing Ads On School Buses.
USA Today (3/16, Jennings) reports, “The look of school buses hasn’t changed much over the years, but as states scramble for revenue sources, a growing number are adding something new – advertising for such clients as banks, real estate and insurance agents. New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation in January making his state the sixth to allow advertising on school buses.” USA Today adds, “Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas also permit ads, says Michael Beauchamp, president of Alpha Media, which manages advertising on 3,000 school buses in Texas and Arizona.”

Boehner Backs DC Voucher Funding.
The Washington Post (3/16, Pershing, Kane) reports that despite their plans to cut Federal Government spending, congressional Republican leaders have tapped several programs for funding increases, including “a little-known program, which gives money to disadvantaged District students to attend private schools, that would get an additional $2.3 million — thanks largely to one powerful patron, House Speaker John A. Boehner.” In his “opening gambit as the House’s top leader, Boehner has put his name and new-found clout behind a pair of efforts to give poor students a chance to attend private schools and, in the process, boost the city’s struggling Catholic schools.” In addition “to the extra $2.3 million in the House-passed spending bill for 2011, Boehner has also submitted a bill that would authorize an additional $20 million per year over the next five years.”

Florida House Approves Ending Tenure for New Teachers.
The New York Times (3/17, Alvarez) reports, “A bill to end tenure for new teachers and link their job security and pay to how well students perform on assessment tests cleared the Florida House of Representatives on Wednesday and now goes to the new governor, Rick Scott, a Republican who strongly supports the measure. Taking on the teachers’ union, House Republicans used their supermajority to handily approve the legislation, which will dramatically change the way teachers in Florida are hired, fired and rewarded.” The bill “would require new teachers to work under one-year contracts beginning in July, effectively ending tenure.”

The Miami Herald (3/17, Mazzei) reports, “A major law intended to reward the best teachers with better pay and weed out bad teachers won final approval in the Florida House Wednesday, handing a victory to Republicans who pushed similar reforms through the Legislature last year only to be rebuffed by former Gov. Charlie Crist. This time, the bill is headed to the desk of Gov. Rick Scott, who will sign it as likely the first piece of legislation of his new administration.” According to the Herald, “The bill stipulates that half a teacher’s evaluation is to be based on student test scores” and “the other half will be up to school districts.” The AP (3/17) also covers this story.

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In the Classroom
Experts Say Approach To Teaching Is Critical In Quest To Top Education Rankings.
The AP (3/17) reports, “On Wednesday and Thursday, education leaders, including US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the nation’s largest teacher unions, and officials from the highest scoring countries, are meeting in New York to identify the best teaching practices. The meeting comes after the recently released results of the Programme for International Student Assessment exam of 15-year-olds alarmed US educators” ranking the US “14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math” out of 34 countries. The Canadian Press adds, “In the US, part of the reason why the standards to enter teaching are not higher stems from lingering fears over teacher shortages, like those seen during the 1950s when baby boomers were students and what may happen as they are retiring.”

On the Job
New York City Teachers Union Criticizes LIFO Petition.
NY1 (3/16) reported on its Website that New York City’s “teachers union says the Department of Education went too far in its quest to end the controversial ‘Last In, First Out’ teacher layoff policy…after the DOE circulated a petition encouraging parents to support the city’s efforts to abolish the law.” NY1 added, “The United Federation of Teachers fired off a cease and desist letter to the state, claiming the city is breaking a law that prohibits public employees from pushing a partisan political agenda. … The DOE admitted it was inappropriate for employees to circulate the petition and will make sure its staff understands their responsibilities and appropriate standards they must adhere to.”

KIPP, Baltimore Teachers Union Reach 10-Year Agreement.
The Baltimore Sun (3/17, Bowie) reports, “A Baltimore charter school network that had threatened to shut down in June reached an agreement in principle with the Baltimore Teachers Union minutes before testimony was set to begin in Annapolis on a bill that would have given city charters more flexibility in dealing with union rules. KIPP, or the Knowledge is Power Program, will stay in Baltimore for the next decade under the agreement that gives the school the long-term stability to invest in its buildings as well as raise money for its schools.” According to the Sun, “KIPP agreed to shorten its workday from 91/2 hours to nine hours and pay teachers 20 percent more than the average city teacher makes, down from 20.5 percent.”

Thousands Rally At Michigan Capitol.
The Detroit Free Press (3/17, Gray, Christoff) reports, “The political drama — and melodrama — reached a new peak Wednesday: Day 74 of [Michigan] Gov. Rick Snyder’s tenure running Michigan’s battered ship of state. Late Wednesday afternoon, Snyder signed the main emergency financial manager bill — one he said is critical to helping stave off bankruptcy in troubled cities and school districts.” However, “the new law also was among the sparks for the largest rally yet against Lansing’s fresh GOP rule, as thousands of activists and union members listened to speeches and sang songs.”

Pay, And Pensions, Sought For Retired Rhode Island Teachers.
The Providence (RI) Journal (3/17, Gregg) reports, “A bill to allow as many as 50 retired public-school teachers and administrators to return to work as $500-a-day consultants to the state Department of Education – without giving up their pensions – ran into a buzz saw of opposition from lawmakers and union leaders at the State House on Wednesday. With an 11.3-percent unemployment rate and a ‘boatload of unemployed teachers’ in Rhode Island, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers lobbyist Maureen Martin was one in a parade of union leaders urging rejection of the bill, while a spokeswoman for the Department of Education called it essential to the state’s ability to keep the promises it made in its application for $75 million in federal Race-to-the-Top dollars.” According to the Journal, “These back-to-work pensioners numbered 557 during the last school year; 405 so far in this year, according to the state retirement office.”

Law & Policy
Tennessee Republicans Back Off Collective Bargaining Ban.
The Tennessean (3/16, Sisk) reported, “Republican lawmakers are moving toward letting teachers unions continue to negotiate with school districts, but they are setting new limits on what can be discussed and opening the door for more challenges to unions’ status. Republicans in the [Tennessee] state House rolled out a compromise Wednesday that would let teachers bargain with school boards over salaries and fringe benefits – but not over performance bonuses or assignments.” The Tennessean adds, “House Republicans backed off a plan that would have ended negotiations between teachers and school districts altogether.”

The Commercial Appeal (TN) (3/16) reported that “Gov. Bill Haslam, who had kept silent on the issue as he focused instead on his efforts to alter teacher tenure, endorsed the compromise: ‘It gives superintendents greater flexibility in making personnel decisions and supports my central focus of doing what’s best for children in Tennessee classrooms.” Also, the “Tennessee Education Association, representing 52,000 teachers, had no role in drafting the amendment but said it’s ‘huge progress’ from the original repeal of the Education Professional Negotiations Act of 1978 that enacted collective bargaining rights for teachers.”

Illinois School Board Member Censured.
The Los Angeles Times /Chicago Tribune (3/17, Craig) reports, “An Illinois school board censured one of its members Wednesday for allegedly trying to obtain a password to a district computer system to see how many teachers attended pro-union rallies in Wisconsin during the recent legislative struggle over collective bargaining for public employees. Grayslake Community Consolidated Schools District 46 board member Michael Carbone denied wrongdoing but called the censure a ‘high honor for being a watchdog’ for children and taxpayers in the district.” The Times adds, “Board President Mary Garcia said the matter had been referred to the Lake County state’s attorney for investigation.”

Walker Defends Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law.
In a Washington Post (3/17) op-ed, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin defends the legislation recently passed in his state to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions, noting that Federal Government workers also do not have these rights. Walker says his “reform plan calls for a 5.8 percent pension contribution from government workers, including myself, and a 12.6 percent health insurance premium payment. Both are well below what middle-class, private-sector workers pay. Federal workers, however, pay an average of 28 percent of health insurance costs.” Walker notes that “beyond balancing budgets, our reforms give schools — as well as state and local governments — the tools to improve their operations.”

Walker Says Schools Can Cover Revenue Cuts With Employee Contributions. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/17, Hetzner) reports Gov. Walker “released projections Wednesday showing that many school districts in the state could cover projected revenue losses from his budget proposal in 2011-’12 by diverting about 10% of their employees’ salaries to cover pension and health insurance costs. Even under that scenario, however, 94 of the state’s 424 school districts would still be short, although many by only tens of thousands of dollars.” The Journal Sentinel adds school officials, “some of whom were in the Capitol but not allowed into the governor’s news conference, cast doubt on the figures.”

Duncan Takes Sides In State, Local Education Debates.
Michele McNeil wrote in a blog for Education Week (3/16), “US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan-who often reminds folks that, as a local school superintendent, he did not appreciate interference from Washington-continues to insert himself in state and local debates.” McNeil added, “Now that Duncan has finished giving out nearly $100 billion in education stimulus aid, his ability to push his education-reform agenda is much more limited. The bully pulpit may be his most powerful lever, so I would expect Duncan to continue to be take sides in state and local education debates.”

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Also in the News
SAT’s Reality TV Essay Stumps Some.
The New York Times (3/17, Steinberg) reports that “few questions on the” SAT “appear to have provoked more anxious chatter – at least in this era of texting and online comment streams and discussion threads – than an essay prompt in some versions of the SAT administered last Saturday in which students were asked to opine on reality television.” According to the Times, “Angela Garcia, executive director of the SAT program, said she did not think it was unfair to ask that question of students who had neither the time nor inclination to watch Mike Sorrentino on ‘Jersey Shore,’ or Kim Kardashian on ‘Kourtney & Kim Take New York.’ … This particular prompt, Ms. Garcia said, was intended to be relevant and to engage students, and had gone through extensive pre-testing with students and teachers.”

Computer Technology Adds New Dimension To Summer Camp Experience.
The New York Times (3/17, Meece) reports, “Summer camps have long been part of the American experience for children and teenagers, and for the last 30 years or so, computers and technology have added to the equation.” According to the Times, “Much has changed since Michael Zabinski, a professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, founded the first such camp, the National Computer Camps, in the late 1970s, featuring the likes of RadioShack TRS-80 and Apple II microcomputers. … At today’s tech camps, including National Computer, children design video games and Web pages, explore robotics, learn three-dimensional animation, create applications for mobile phones and tablet computers, shoot and edit films, and delve into graphic design.”

Number Of Children’s Museums Booming.
The New York Times (3/17, Schwartz) reports that the “30 million who visit children’s museums worldwide…are, clearly, mixing learning and fun – a neat trick that the best of the museums pull off seemingly without effort. Which is partly why, even in a difficult economy, many of these institutions are booming.” According to the Times, “The nation had just 38 museums for children in 1975, but today there are some 250, with another 80 being planned.”

Duncan Previews International Summit On Teaching.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development Secretary-General Angel Gurría, and Education International General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen wrote in a blog for Huffington Post (3/16) that they “have convened the first-ever international summit on the teaching profession for high-performing nations and rapidly-improving countries on March 16 and 17 in New York City.” Duncan, Gurría and van Leeuwen added, “Across the globe, education is the great equalizer, the one force that can consistently overcome differences in background, culture, and privilege. Increasing teacher autonomy and participation in reform is vital not just to improving student outcomes but to elevating the teaching profession. We reject the prevailing wisdom that it can’t be done.”

Idaho Law Strips Teachers Of Collective Bargaining Rights.
The AP (3/18) reports that Idaho Gov. Butch Otter “signed a law Thursday to phase out tenure for new teachers and restrict collective bargaining in Idaho. The Republican governor also signed off on legislation to introduce teacher merit pay.” According to the AP, “Otter said he remains committed to working with lawmakers on a third piece of a plan authored by public schools chief Tom Luna to overhaul Idaho’s education system” and the new law “comes amid high-profile battles in Wisconsin and other states with Republican governors and majority-Republican legislatures over measures seeking to curb unions, especially those for public employees.” Reuters (3/17) also covered this story.

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In the Classroom
NCLB Reform Debate Intensifies Amid Test Cheating Scandals.
USA Today (3/18, Toppo) reports on a standardized test cheating scandal at Baltimore’s George Washington Elementary School which became public last year, noting though “the kinds of troubles that snared Washington Elementary are rare, these and other glitches happen often enough that they are prompting educators nationwide to reconsider the basic principles of the USA’s massive school testing infrastructure, a $1.1 billion system that increasingly steers the ship of public schools.” The cheating scandal comes amid intense debate over changing the strict testing mandates of NCLB, and nearly “everybody…from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on down…is searching for something new, something more secure or simply something that makes more sense. Duncan last September said he has visited 42 states and that nearly everywhere he went, teachers, parents, principals and lawmakers complained that what’s taught in school is narrowing as more teachers focus on improving scores in standardized tests, especially in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students.”

On the Job
Tennessee Senate Leaders Push For Repeal Of Collective Bargaining Rights.
The Commercial Appeal (TN) (3/18) reports that Tennessee “State Senate Republican leaders threw down the gauntlet Thursday against their House GOP colleagues and Gov. Bill Haslam, vowing to push for full repeal of collective bargaining by teachers and to oppose a House compromise allowing limited bargaining to continue. The Senate sponsor of the repeal bill, Sen. Jack Johnson, and Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey said they will stand firm and push for repeal of the 1978 statute that authorized collective bargaining between local school boards and local teachers’ associations.” The Commercial Appeal adds, “Republicans are pressed by tea party activists to hold firm for a total repeal.”

Doubts Emerge On New York Mayor’s Teacher Layoff Forecast.
The New York Times (3/18, Otterman) reports that New York City “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been warning that 4,600 city teachers will receive pink slips this spring, as he pushes for legislation in Albany that would eliminate rules requiring that layoffs be based solely on seniority. That number of layoffs will be necessary, the Bloomberg administration says, because budget cuts will eliminate about 6,100 teaching positions, and only 1,500 teachers will be lost due to attrition, the natural churn of teachers resigning, retiring, being fired or otherwise leaving their jobs.” However, “over the past two years, the city’s teaching force has shrunk by 2,000 to 2,500 each year through attrition, according to Department of Education statistics, suggesting that the city would need to lay off 500 to 1,000 fewer teachers than it has said.”

DC Teacher Evaluation System Analyzed.
The Washington Post (3/18, McCrummen) reports that DC’s teacher evaluation system, “called IMPACT, now in its second year-is becoming a national model, even as unions and some experts question the wisdom of staking careers on it.” According to the Post, “Under the new system, the annual rating for teachers in certain grades depends heavily on how much their students’ test scores improve, a metric that many experts consider unreliable. But the heart of the new system is a set of nine standards – from explaining content clearly to time management – that are supposed to represent years of research on the elements of great instruction.”

Law & Policy
Texas State Senate OKs Bill Outlawing Grade Inflation.
The Houston Chronicle (3/18, Mellon) reports, “Texas school districts no longer could force teachers to inflate students’ grades under a bill the state Senate approved Thursday. The measure, which now goes to the House, clarifies a 2009 law that prompted a legal challenge from 11 school districts, many of them in the Houston area.” According to the Chronicle, “Numerous districts had policies that prohibited teachers from giving students grades lower than a certain number – typically, 50 percent or 60 percent.”

Special Needs
DC Investigates Special-Ed School.
The Washington Post (3/18, Turque) reports, “A Northwest [DC] private school that has collected more than $16 million in tuition from the District over the past two years to serve special education students is under investigation for lax security, high rates of truancy and inadequate academic programs. Officials of Rock Creek Academy said they have done their best to serve a population of emotionally and physically disabled children from kindergarten through 12th grade whose needs cannot be met by the city’s public schools.” However, “But District officials said they have received what they describe as an alarming stream of complaints in recent months from Rock Creek students and parents, including an allegation of sexual misconduct by a staff member involving a student older than 18.”

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Safety & Security
DC Elementary Students Sickened By Cocaine.
The Washington Post (3/18, Turque) reports, “A D.C. elementary school student was charged with possession of a controlled substance Thursday after being accused of taking cocaine to school and sharing it with four classmates who were hospitalized after ingesting the drug. Police and school officials said that the four students at Thomson Elementary, at 1200 L St. NW, were never seriously ill and that their examinations at Children’s National Medical Center were precautionary.” According to the Post, “The incident stunned parents who received word at afternoon pickup and jolted officials accustomed to dealing with an urban school system’s usual array of crime and other emergencies.”

School Finance
Education Jobs In Jeopardy As Stimulus Funds Run Dry.
The Juneau (AK) Empire /Hechinger Report (3/17, McNeil) reported, “The economic-stimulus package Congress passed two years ago preserved hundreds of thousands of jobs in the nation’s public schools but, with the economy still sputtering, the future of many of those positions remains in jeopardy.” According to the Empire, “Observers say states and school districts did not go on a hiring spree with their stimulus funds” but “they hunkered down to prevent mass layoffs and to maintain the status quo.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is quoted saying that he thinks the stimulus bill “helped to stave off a total disaster.”

Also in the News
Emanuel May Go Outside Chicago For New Schools CEO.
The Chicago Tribune (3/18, Hood, Ahmed-Ullah, Mack) reports, “While his handpicked education team met this week to begin figuring out how to implement Rahm Emanuel’s campaign promises to fix [Chicago] schools, the mayor-elect is forging ahead to find the beleaguered school district’s next top executive. It’s a critical decision for Emanuel, who needs to bring stability to a district that has seen three CEOs in three years.” The Tribune adds, “US Secretary of Education and former CPS boss Arne Duncan said Thursday that he’s confident Emanuel will pick the right person.”

Alonso May Be Contender For Chicago Superintendent Post. The Baltimore Sun (3/18, Green) reports, “Baltimore City schools CEO Andres Alonso may be a top contender to take the helm of the long-troubled Chicago Public Schools, according to an article published by the Chicago Tribune. … Alonso, whose contract in Baltimore expires June 30, told The Baltimore Sun he does not comment on speculation about job offers from other districts.” The Sun adds, “For months, the schools chief has been negotiating a new contract with the Baltimore school board amid rumors that his name has come up for various superintendent vacancies across the country.”

Head Of Fund That Raises Cash For CPS Resigns. The Chicago Tribune (3/18, Ahmed) reports, “A mainstay in Chicago’s school reform efforts announced today that she will be resigning as CEO of the Chicago Public Education Fund, a private charity that under her leadership raised $50 million for programs to improve the city’s schools. Janet Knupp, 46, the founding president of the organization, said she was leaving for personal reasons and is not interested in becoming the next CEO of Chicago Public Schools, a position now held on an interim basis by Terry Mazany.”

New Jersey School Renamed For President Obama To Close.
The AP (3/18) reports, “A central New Jersey elementary school that was renamed in honor of President Barack Obama last year will soon be closed. The state monitor who oversees financial operations for the Asbury Park School District cited declining enrollment for the decision” to close Barack H. Obama elementary school. The AP notes that the school “was built more than a century ago and formerly was known as the Bangs Avenue School.”

Idaho Teachers Face Uncertain Future.
The Twin Falls (ID) Times-News (3/20, Huddleston) reported that Idaho Gov. C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter signed two education reform measures into law on Thursday, which “will limit what Idaho’s teachers union can negotiate with local school districts and tweak the longstanding method of how teachers are paid, adding merit-based pay incentives but also eliminating tenure for new teachers. Idaho Education Association President Sheri Wood said fears over job and financial security may weigh heavily on teachers.” Many teachers “saw their pay reduced last year, after the Legislature allowed school districts to renegotiate teacher contracts to deal with dwindling state and federal education funding.”

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On the Job
Florida Teachers Question Merit Pay Bill.
The Florida Today (3/19) reported, “Brevard County [FL] teachers on Thursday raised concerns about a bill Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign that will base teacher’s pay on student performance. The legislation would establish a statewide teacher evaluation and merit pay system in 2014 and do away with tenure for new teachers hired after July 1 this year.” Florida Today adds, “The bill passed the House 80-39 this week and cleared the Senate 26-12 last week, and has been championed by some Floridians as a way to improve education and ensure students are being taught by the best.”

Schools Use Race To The Top Money For Teacher Workshops.
The Coshocton (OH) Tribune (3/19, Moore) reported, “School districts are using a big chunk of Race to the Top cash for professional development this year. During the next four years, schools in Coshocton County [OH] have more than $730,000 to spend on improving student achievement.” The Tribune added that ED “has set stipulations for four specific areas where the money should be focused — standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction, great teachers and leaders and turning around the lowest achieving schools.”

More Teachers See Pay Freezes As Economy Sputters.
The Connecticut Mirror (3/18, Frahm) reported, “Sometime this spring, teachers in” the New Britain, CT “school system will begin negotiating their next labor contract, and, once again, they will face an unpleasant choice: Give up pay raises or give up jobs.” In New Britain “and in other beleaguered school systems across the state, many teachers and other union employees are foregoing raises and making other concessions as Connecticut weathers the worst financial crisis in decades.”

Law & Policy
Connecticut Bill May Change Kindergarten Entry Age Law.
The AP (3/20) reported, “Connecticut lawmakers are considering ways to narrow the age range of incoming kindergarteners, as parents hold kids back to as old as age 7 so they can enter school bigger and better prepared. A legislative committee recently endorsed a bill requiring parents to enroll their children before their seventh birthday, unless they can show a compelling reason for the delay.” The AP adds, “Currently, children can be as young as 4 and a half when they start kindergarten, often in the same class with students up to 7.”

Virginia Schools Decry High Cost Of New PE Requirement.
The Washington Times (3/21, Cunningham) reports, “Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell with a stroke of a pen could compel school districts to require that elementary and middle school students receive at least 150 minutes of physical education a week. Both chambers of the General Assembly this winter passed the legislation by wide margins out of heightening concern about problems associated with childhood obesity – a cause championed by both first lady Michelle Obama and Mr. McDonnell’s wife, Maureen.” However, “the bill is getting increasing pushback, with opponents saying it constitutes an unfunded mandate by the state at a time when school districts are strapped for money.”

Safety & Security
Perez, Ali Highlight School Safety Imperative.
Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the US Department of Justice, and Russlynn H. Ali, assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education, wrote in an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer (3/18), “In a nation that values education, every child must be able to go to school in a safe environment. Administrators who don’t create such an environment are hurting students’ ability to succeed in school and in life.” Perez and Ali added, “If we fail to help our children understand the importance of tolerance and diversity, we will ultimately raise a nation of intolerant, hateful adults” so “we must teach the traditions of tolerance and respect that are fundamental to the American way of life.”

School Finance
Detroit Emergency Financial Manager Struggling To Close Budget Deficit.
The AP (3/21) reports that “in his final months as the state-appointed emergency financial manager,” of the Detroit school district, Robert Bobb “is proposing several headline-grabbing ideas – including a radical plan to shut down so many buildings that some high schools could see more than 60 students per class – in an attempt to wipe out the red ink. … Bobb’s latest proposal, announced about a week ago, calls for placing 41 academically poor schools and the 16,000 students attending them in the hands of charter operators.” The AP adds that “Bobb also has proposed asking the state to continue current funding levels, despite a drop in enrollment, while it chips away at the accumulated deficit over time.”

Ohio Receives $19.5 Million In Federal School Turnaround Funds.
Crain’s Cleveland Business (3/18) reported, “Ohio is receiving $19.5 million in grants from the federal government to help turn around the state’s lowest-performing schools. … The funds are part of $546 million available to states through the School Improvement Grant program in fiscal year 2010.” Crain’s Cleveland Business quotes Duncan saying in a news release, “Turning around our lowest-achieving schools is difficult for everyone, but it is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids.”

Affluent Schools Also Feel Financial Strain.
The Chicago Tribune (3/21, Malone) reports, “Amid another year of stalled state payments and dwindling property taxes, several Chicago-area school districts – including some of the state’s most affluent schools – are cautioning that classroom cuts, student fee hikes and even teacher layoffs may be needed come fall. The financial strain that swept hundreds of school systems last year now roils many districts that relied on property taxes from well-heeled neighborhoods and rainy day funds to buoy them through the recession’s early blows.” The Tribune adds, “Along the lakefront of the North Shore, Wilmette School District 39 officials hammered out $1.8 million in reductions and fee hikes for fall, targeting everything from after-school tutoring to student-of-the-month awards” yet “they itemized another $6.4 million in cuts that would take effect during the next two years if a tax rate increase fails to win voter support in April.”

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Also in the News
New York City School-Liaison Office Accused Of Pushing A Political Cause.
The New York Times (3/19, Santos, Otterman) reported, “In 2007, the New York City Department of Education created” the Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy, which “was set up as a bridge between parents and the department’s central office. … But lately, according to people who have had dealings with the office, the role has been expanded in a way that has made some of them uncomfortable” as “employees of the office” have asked some parent coordinators “to forge relationships with parents who they thought might speak out in support of the department’s policies, including its controversial push to close failing schools.”

Biden, Duncan To Promote Education Reform In Delaware.
The AP (3/21) reports, “Vice President Joe Biden is coming to Delaware to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the state receiving more than $100 million in federal education reform money. Biden and US Education Secretary Arne Duncan are scheduled to appear Monday afternoon at Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington to discuss how the federal government’s Race to the Top program is helping transform schools in Delaware.” The AP adds, “Officials say Howard High, one of the first four schools in Delaware to receive Race to the Top assistance, has made significant progress and has begun a transformation plan that will be fully implemented in the next school year.”

Program Boosts Kindergarten Readiness For At-Risk Cincinnati Children.
KYPost (3/21, McKee) reports, “Home visits for children in the first three years of life and quality child care from ages three to six form the nucleus of Success By Six, a community-wide effort to get at-risk, low-income children in the City of Cincinnati ready for kindergarten. The program has produced gains in the number of children prepared to start school, but a great deal of work remains.” KYPost adds, “The education makeover is under the umbrella of the Strive Partnership in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.”

Florida Girl Hopes To Extend Indian-American Win Streak At Spelling Bee.
USA Today (3/21, Basu) reports that Stuti Mishra “is Brevard County’s [FL] reigning spelling bee champion and in just a few days, the 13-year-old from Melbourne’s Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy will take the stage in Orlando along with Colin Moor, a sixth-grader from Palm Bay’s Odyssey Charter. They will battle 14 others at the regional competition for a place in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.” USA Today adds that “Mishra has aspirations of joining a long line of Indian-American children from immigrant families who have swept the national bee in recent years.”

Biden, Duncan Celebrate RTTT Anniversary At Delaware High School.
Delaware media sources heavily covered Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s visit to a Delaware high school. The Wilmington News Journal (3/22) reports that the pair “joined hundreds of high school students” in Wilmington, Delaware, Monday “to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Delaware receiving more than $100 million in federal education reform money” from RTTT. “Howard High is one of the four schools in the state to receive early Race to the Top assistance as part of a state effort to turn around poorly performing schools with the help of federal funds.”

The Delaware Wave (3/22) also covers the visit, noting that local “officials say Howard High, one of the first four schools in Delaware to receive Race to the Top assistance, has made significant progress and has begun a transformation plan that will be fully implemented in the next school year.”

Newark Post (3/22) adds that Biden and Duncan “discussed the success of teacher collaboration in Delaware, as well as how winning the future in education will continue to require investments that promote a shared responsibility among everyone involved; reform at the state and local levels; and a focus on achieving results.” Other dignitaries included Gov. Jack Markell, Sen. Chris Coons, and others. The AP (3/22), The WGMD-FM Delmarva (MD) (3/21, Steele), and WDEL-AM Wilmington, Delaware (3/22, Cherry) also cover this story, as does the Boston Globe (3/22, Johnson) near the end of an article about Biden’s subsequent visit to Boston.

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In the Classroom
Herbert: Geographical Concentration Of Poverty Leads To De Facto Segregation.
In a column in the New York Times (3/22), Bob Herbert writes that studies consistently show that “poor kids of all ethnic backgrounds do better academically when they go to school with their more affluent-that is, middle class-peers,” lamenting that this “has become a political no-no.” He adds, “when the poor kids are black or Hispanic, that means racial and ethnic integration in the schools. Despite all the babble about a postracial America, that has been off the table for a long time.” Herbert writes that the nation is still adhering to “the discredited concept of separate but equal schools” 50 years after Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education overturned it. “Schools are no longer legally segregated, but because of residential patterns, housing discrimination, economic disparities and long-held custom, they most emphatically are in reality.”

Writers: US Competitiveness Depends On Support For STEM Education.
Melody Barnes, President Obama’s Domestic Policy Adviser, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson write at the Huffington Post (3/22) that “America has fallen behind” in education, and “we need to challenge ourselves to improve educational outcomes” in order to “win in the global marketplace. This week, hundreds of educators, policy makers, business and community leaders are gathering in Washington, D.C. to discuss this challenge and the way forward. The three-day Building a Grad Nation Summit aims to inspire a national movement to reach the goal of a 90 percent national graduation rate by 2020.” The writers say that the goal should also be to “ensure those graduates are prepared for future education and 21st century careers” by emphasizing STEM education.

Washington State District Cutting Most Summer School Classes.
The Kitsap (WA) Sun (3/22) reports that the North Kitsap School District in Washington State is cancelling most of its summer school classes “in a move meant to net an estimated $65,000 in cost savings. … Students currently enrolled in grades nine through 12 who have fallen behind will have the option of enrolling in a virtual academy to get caught up,” but “supplemental summer courses” will now be out of reach for younger students. “‘It was not an easy decision to make because many of our older students rely on credit retrieval during the summer school program to graduate on time,’ Assistant Superintendent Shawn Woodward said in a statement. ‘We knew we needed to have an alternative plan in place to accommodate these students.’”

Massachusetts School Gets State Approval To Eliminate Grade Levels.
The Salem (MA) News (3/22, Roy) reports that Massachusetts education officials have given a nod to a plan for Carlton Elementary School in Salem to “pursue dramatic changes to its teaching methods and curriculum, including abolishing the traditional grade-level structure. In other words, second- and third-graders could be learning in the same classroom.” As part of the state’s “Innovation Schools” program, Carlton “received a $15,000 planning grant.”

Minnesota School Getting ActivBoards From State STEM Grant.
The St. Cloud Times (3/22, June) reports that schools in that Sauk Rapids-Rice school district in Minnesota are receiving interactive white boards. “‘It really captures the attention of the students and, because of this, student motivation and engagement are increased,’ first-grade teacher Lisa Yoerg said. ‘The ActivBoard takes the fundamentals of teaching to a new and exciting level.’ School administrators successfully applied for a grant awarded under Minnesota Department of Education Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic Initiative. Rice elementary was one of seven schools in Minnesota and the only outstate school awarded a STEM grant.”

On the Job
Teachers Sound Off Over Restricted Education Funding.
NPR (3/22) aired a roundtable discussion with “three teachers from Wisconsin, Ohio and California about how the cutbacks are affecting their work and the children they teach.” The panel discusses rancor against teachers, NCLB, and challenges stemming from high concentrations of poor and/or ELL students.

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Law & Policy
Florida Education Chief To Step Down.
The announcement that Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith will step down generated coverage in Florida’s dailies and from the AP. The Miami Herald (3/22, Mcgrory) reports that Smith has announced his upcoming retirement, saying in a statement, “The time has come to allow our newly elected governor to have input through the State Board of Education on the type of leader to pursue his goals for education.” Noting that Gov. Rick Scott “does not have a vote, he does have substantial sway” in selecting Smith’s successor, the Herald adds, “Earlier this year, rumors swirled that controversial reformer Michelle Rhee was next in line to become Florida’s top education official.” However a spokesperson for Rhee refuted the notion that she would consider such an appointment.

The AP (3/22, Kallestad) adds that despite Smith’s statement that he “wants to give new Gov. Rick Scott a say in a successor who will pursue his goals,” state BOE chairman T. Willard Fair “said Monday he wants Smith to change his mind. ‘There is nothing that anybody can tell me that would make me accept his resignation,’ Fair told The Associated Press. ‘There is too much at stake for me to be that selfish.’” The AP notes that Smith “served during a tumultuous time in Florida education, with budgets already being cut when he took over in October 2007 and lawmakers challenging teacher tenure while promoting merit pay and relaxing classroom size standards.”

The Orlando Sentinel (3/22, Postal) reports that Smith “told the state Board of Education, which hired him after a national search, of his decision this weekend. Board member Roberto Martinez called Smith’s departure a ‘huge loss’ for Florida and said the board ‘will be challenged to find an adequate successor.’” Martinez denied that the board or governor’s office had sought Smith’s ouster. The piece notes that the BOE, which hires the commissioner, “is appointed by the governor. When he took office in January, Gov. Rick Scott had three appointments to make to the state board, and he has not yet filled those spots.”

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/22, Haughney) notes that Smith “shepherded the state through its Race to the Top application, resulting in the federal government sending $700 million to Florida for education reform. He was also a huge advocate for the Legislature’s teacher merit pay proposal, which passed the House last week and now goes to Scott.”

Safety & Security
Chicago Principal Stresses School’s Safety In Wake Of Sex Crime Allegation.
The Chicago Tribune (3/22, Schorsch) reports that Principal Eric Olsen of Stagg High School in Chicago, in response to allegations that a student committed a “sex crime,” “has left a message at students’ homes and on the school’s website assuring parents the school is safe. ‘I hope that as you read about the allegation referenced in this article you consider the services that Stagg High School has provided to your students and know that we hold the safety and security of all Stagg High School students as our chief concern to ensure an environment that supports learning at high levels for all,’ Olsen said in the message.” The Tribune notes that it reported over the weekend that “police are investigating if a developmentally disabled student’s allegation of sexual abuse by another student at Stagg was not reported by a school staffer to police as required by law, according to a source familiar with the probe.”

Facilities
New York City Set To Implement Sharp Cuts In School Construction Funding.
The New York Times (3/22, Otterman) reports on a new New York City school construction budget “that would significantly cut the number of schools to be built in the next three years, as the city faces what it says is a new cap on state construction aid. The School Construction Authority’s $9.3 billion budget” is expected to be cleared for City Council approval. “Instead of the 56 new schools that the Council approved last year, the budget would support the construction of 26 schools across the city, reducing the number of places for new students to 14,000 from roughly 28,000. The cuts come as class sizes have swollen in much of the city, a situation serious enough that the city has received a state waiver from court-mandated class size reduction targets for all but 75 of its nearly 1,700 schools.”

Maryland Superintendent Touts School Construction/Renovation Financing.
In an op-ed in the Annapolis Capital (3/22), Anne Arundel Public Schools superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell writes that much of the public debate about his school system’s budget is likely to “center on the capital budget, which lays out the many critically needed renovation and construction projects we seek to undertake in the coming years.” Maxwell details projects dependent on the “$156.9 million Capital Budget request approved by our Board of Education in February,” noting that “residents justifiably want to be reassured that their money is being put to good use. It is! We continue to proceed in an efficient and effective manner, aggressively realizing savings wherever possible.”

San Jose, California, Mulls $500 Million School Construction Bond.
The AP (3/22) reports that school officials in San Jose, California, are “considering whether to seek taxpayer approval for a $500 million bond measure to pay for school construction and repairs,” noting that the “measure could be placed on the same ballot as Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed tax extensions-if the school board approves the move and the Legislature sets a special election for June.”

The San Jose Mercury News (3/21, Noguchi) reported that the proposal comes as the district is “facing a historic funding crisis that could cut teachers and programs in record numbers. The money couldn’t be used directly for day-to-day school spending, but it could indirectly yield a few million for those operational costs. District officials say the bond won’t raise taxes because property owners will continue paying the same rate that they’ve been paying for previous bonded indebtedness,” but “critics argue that the ‘No Tax Rate Increase Bond Measure’ — as the district calls it — masks that the tax rate could be lowered, amid tough economic times for all. ”

NEA in the News
“Glee” Star Working With NEA Civic Education Initiative.
Ok! Magazine (3/22, Eggenberger) reports that Darren Criss of the hit program “Glee” “is helping to kick off the first annual Democracy Day in partnership with Rock the Vote and the National Education Association to bring civic education classes to the classroom. On March 23, Darren will help launch the program at Hamilton High School in L.A., which will feature a one-class-period program that uses pop culture, video, discussion and mock election to teach young people to engage as active citizens in the election process.” The piece notes that Democracy Day “coincides with the passing of the 26th Amendment, which gave 18-year-olds the right to vote.”

Idaho Senate Panel Advances Education Reform Measure.
The AP (3/23, Bonner) reports, “Lawmakers voted Tuesday to advance the third piece of a plan to reform Idaho’s public schools with legislation to boost technology in the classroom. The Senate Education Committee voted 6-3 to move the Republican-backed legislation forward.” The AP adds that backers of the measure “were convinced by public schools chief Tom Luna’s argument that lawmakers needed to take action in the 2011 session to restructure how Idaho’s scarce education dollars are spent.”

The Idaho Reporter (3/23) reports, “The third and final part of state schools superintendent Tom Luna’s school reform plan passed the Senate Education Committee. The next step will be a full Senate vote, which is currently projected for early next week.” The bill “would lock-in millions in state funding for classroom technology and training for teachers and roll out a program to give all high school students laptops or similar computing devices by the fall of 2015.”

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In the Classroom
Illinois District Could Face State Takeover.
The Belleville (IL) News-Democrat (3/23, Pawlaczyk) reports, “Removal of the School District 189 school board by state overseers and dissolution of the entire troubled district ‘May not be a bad thing,’ board member Carl Officer said Tuesday. Reacting to an ultimatum by the Illinois State Board of Education to correct numerous problems in the way the district deals with about 1,500 special education students or face sanctions, including dismantling the district, Officer said, ‘We may have to consider more oversight.’” The News-Democrat adds that in June, Sen. Dick Durbin, “requested that US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan” investigate the district “after articles last year in the News-Democrat reported possible widespread misuse of federal money by the district.”

On the Job
Tennessee Proposal To Limit Teacher Union Rights Advances.
The Tennessean (3/23) reports, “The House Education Committee approved compromise legislation that would limit the powers of teachers unions in Tennessee in a 12-6 vote Tuesday. Republican committee members agreed to an amendment that would let unions negotiate with school districts over basic issues such as salary and benefits – but not classroom assignments, work conditions or bonus pay – despite objections from Democrats and the Tennessee Education Association, which represents about 52,000 teachers statewide.” The Tennessean adds that the vote “sets the House at odds with the Senate Education Committee, which voted last month to eliminate union negotiations entirely.”

Maryland District Accused Of Targeting Foreign Nationals For Layoffs.
The Washington Post (3/23, Samuels) reports that school officials from Prince George’s County, MD “traveled to the Philippines and other countries in 2005, searching for teachers who could meet stricter standards called for in the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Since then, the school system has amassed more than 1,000 foreign nationals as employees – the vast majority of whom are dependent on special visas allowing them to work in the United States.” The Post adds that many of these teachers are considering legal action, contending “that the school district, faced with the prospect of cutting about 1,300 positions, is creating an unfair standard for laying off teachers recruited from foreign countries – a group that is largely made up of Filipinos.”

New York City Mayor Counters Teachers’ Ads With His Own.
The New York Times (3/23, Chen) reports, “After being pilloried for weeks in advertisements from the city’s teachers’ union accusing him of threatening to fire teachers, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hit back on Tuesday by using a familiar tactic: paying for his own campaign-style advertisement. The ad war comes at a time when Mr. Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers have been sparring over the mayor’s bid to upend state rules on teacher seniority.” According to the Times, “Bloomberg’s ad features the kind of upbeat music and imagery one would normally expect from a political front-runner.”

Law & Policy
Duncan Calls For NCLB Overhaul During Los Angeles Visit.
The Los Angeles Times (3/23, Song) reports that in a speech at a United Way of Greater Los Angeles education summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “called…for an overhaul of [NCLB] and urged Los Angeles school management and teachers union leaders to negotiate a new contract that strengthens teacher evaluations.” The Times adds, “Many of Duncan’s comments echoed remarks by President Obama earlier this month, when he said that the previous administration’s signature school accountability law classifies too many schools as academic failures and does not give enough flexibility to local and state educators. … Duncan also urged Los Angeles educators to use student growth as a factor in evaluations, something he and Obama have long advocated.”

The AP (3/23, Hoag) adds that during his speech, Duncan “came down hard on the dismal performance” of the Los Angeles Unified School District, “the nation’s second largest school district. Although he noted that district leaders are now reforming underachieving schools, he said that the district’s 50 percent graduation rate is the lowest among the nation’s big-city districts, and reeled off a litany of similar statistics.” Duncan also “called on district management and labor unions to collaborate to put student interests first.”

The Press Telegram (CA) (3/23, Puente) reports that Duncan “paid a visit to Long Beach’s Tincher Preparatory School on Tuesday as part of a two-day trip to California to highlight the need for education reform. In a roundtable discussion with teachers, parents, students and school leaders, Duncan echoed President Barack Obama’s call to fix” NCLB. The Press Telegram notes that Duncan “listened intently as administrators and teachers talked about the programs that make Tincher a success.”

KABC-TV Los Angeles, CA (3/23, 8:43 ET) broadcast, “The US secretary of education has alarming news about future of local classrooms. Arnie Duncan met with parents, teachers and administrators at Tincher Preparatory School in Long Beach today to talk about dire need for changes to our education system. Earlier, he told the crowd that in three years, nearly every school in Los Angeles Unified School District will be classified as failing if the No Child Left Behind Act is not reformed. Duncan says the current law is too focused on test scores and not a well-rounded curriculum.”

Bill To Loosen Florida’s Class Size Cap Advances.
The AP (3/23, Jones) reports, “A once-controversial proposal to loosen Florida’s class size caps has unanimously cleared a Senate committee without debate. The Education Pre-kindergarten-12 Committee on Thursday approved a bill (SB 1466) that would allow schools to exceed the limits by three to five students per class to accommodate those who enroll after an annual count is taken each October.” According to the AP, a similar bill passed the Florida House in 2008 yet the “Senate then refused to consider it, insisting the limits could be changed only by a state constitutional amendment.”

Bills In Pennsylvania State Senate Aim To Bolster School Budgets.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (3/23, Olson) reports, “With state funding to public schools set to be slashed under” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s “budget, a group of senators is aiming to also shrink the number of requirements dictating how districts operate. Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, who heads the chamber’s education committee, and several fellow lawmakers, including one Democrat, unveiled a package of bills Tuesday that they say would reduce mandates on school districts and help them handle the proposed cuts.” The measures “would change bidding criteria for construction projects, no longer require a special certification for school nurses, temporarily suspend a professional development obligation for teachers, and tie teacher furlough decisions to student performance instead of seniority.”

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Safety & Security
Virginia District Chief Seeking Ways To Improve Discipline Process.
The Washington Post (3/23, George) reports, “The debate over discipline practices in Fairfax County [VA] took a slight turn Tuesday night as Superintendent Jack D. Dale told an audience in McLean that the school system is looking at ways to create ‘a much more expeditious process,’ even before broader policy changes are fully considered and enacted. Speaking at a town hall meeting organized and moderated by WAMU Radio host Kojo Nnamdi, Dale said the system is also considering improving support services to students on suspension.” According to the Post, “Dale’s remarks…followed the playing of an impassioned recorded message made by the mother of Nick Stuban, a 15-year-old football player at W.T. Woodson High School who committed suicide on Jan. 20 after a disciplinary infraction.”

School Finance
Judge Is Critical Of Cuts In Aid For New Jersey Schools.
The New York Times (3/23, Perez-Pena) reports, “New Jersey’s cuts in school financing violate the State Constitution’s mandate to provide ‘a thorough and efficient’ education system and hit poor districts especially hard, a judge reported to the State Supreme Court on Tuesday. The report by Judge Peter E. Doyne is not binding on the court, but it raises the prospect that the justices could once again order the state to direct more money to poor schools” which “would complicate Gov. Chris Christie’s efforts to cut spending as the state struggles with its worst fiscal problems in generations.” The Times notes that Christie has “cut $475 million in school aid from the budget of about $11 billion that was already in place” when he took office last year.

Also in the News
Fewer US Schools Qualify As “Dropout Factories.”
The Christian Science Monitor (3/23) reports, “A report released Tuesday has good news for those working at improving the graduation rate in America’s schools – an effort that has received significant attention only for the past decade or so. The number of ‘dropout factory’ high schools – those graduating 60 percent or less of their students – was 1,634 in 2009, according to the report, released by America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center.” This figure “is down from 1,746 in 2008, and from a high of 2,007 in 2002.”

Public Will Weigh In On DC Schools Chancellor Nominee At Community Forums.
Bill Turque wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (3/22), “D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) says Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson will get her confirmation hearing in early May, day and time tbd. But before then, her nomination process will hit the road, with a series of three ‘citywide community conversations’ that Brown will convene to collect public comment.” Brown is quoted saying, “This is an important appointment that will have a critical impact on the future of our children and our city for years to come” and “it is imperative that we hear from as many parents, students, and residents as possible.”

DC Principal Accused In Cheating Scandal.
The Washington Post (3/23, Turque) reports, “D.C. school officials are looking into allegations that the principal of McKinley Technology High School falsified student transcripts to award credit for courses never taken. The allegations, first reported Tuesday by the Washington Examiner, are that David Pinder instructed data clerks to make the changes.” According to the Post, “It is the latest in a series of probes at the school – one of the District’s five application-only high schools – that in 2009 claimed one of the city’s highest graduation rates: 96.5 percent.”

NEA in the News
NEA Calls For Delay On Debit-Card Limits.
Peter Schroeder wrote in a blog for The Hill (3/22) that the National Education Association “is joining the call to delay new limits on debit-card fees, saying they could negatively affect middle- and lower-income consumers, including teachers. Instead, the group is backing legislation that would delay the fee limits for one or two years as the impact of the provision included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law is further analyzed.” Schroeder added, “The NEA joins the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People as non-banking groups airing concerns about the Durbin amendment.”

Florida Governor To Sign Teacher Merit Pay, Tenure Bill.
The AP (3/24) reports that Florida “Gov. Rick Scott is going to a Jacksonville charter school to sign a bill that would put Florida teachers on merit pay while ending tenure for new hires. The bill that’s set for signing Thursday also would chip away at teachers’ due process and collective bargaining rights.” The AP adds, “The GOP-controlled Legislature put the bill (SB 736) on a fast track and passed it just a week after this year’s regular legislative session began.”

WESH-TV Orlando, FL (3/23) reported on its Website, “Scott will sign the bill at the Knowledge Is Power Program School, which is part of a nationwide chain of public college preparatory charter schools targeting low-income children.” WESH notes that former “Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill in 2010.”

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In the Classroom
Chicago School District Proposes School Consolidations.
The Chicago Tribune (3/24, Dizikes) reports, “A handful of neighborhood schools would be consolidated and some charter or magnet schools given more space under a cost-saving measure being considered by Chicago Public Schools, interim CEO Terry Mazany announced Wednesday.” According to the Tribune, “If approved, about 4,800 students would be affected by the moves, with around 700 of those changing school buildings in the fall, Mazany said. Up to 100 teaching positions could be eliminated, and eight principal positions would be lost in the short term, he said.” The Chicago Sun-Times (3/24, Rossi) also covers this story.

Hispanics Now Majority Of Texas Public School Students.
The Dallas Morning News (3/23, Unmuth) reported, “According to the Texas Education Agency, this year about 50.3 percent of the state’s 4.9 million students are Hispanic. A decade ago, Latino students made up about 40 percent of the state’s enrollment.” The Morning News adds, “Hitting the statistical marker comes at a time when the state is looking at funding cuts for education, including programs aimed at some children within the Hispanic group who are learning or improving their English.”

On the Job
Cleveland, Ohio District Chief’s Budget Proposal Includes Mass Teacher Layoffs.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/24, Ott) reports, “The Cleveland school board will consider laying off 835 employees — 13 percent of its full-time work force — and closing seven schools as it claws to get the district on firmer financial ground. Interim Chief Executive Officer Peter Raskind proposed more than $74 million in cuts at a board meeting Tuesday, going well beyond a $47.5 million deficit forecast for next year.” The Plain Dealer adds, “Raskind said his plan would solidify the budget for two years and help come to terms with a decade-long free-fall in the number of students, now about 44,000.”

Report Probes “Diversity Gap” On Teacher Tests.
Stephen Sawchuk wrote in a blog for Education Week (3/23), “Minority teachers tend to take licensing exams later in their academic or professional careers than their white peers, findings that could partly explain their lower scores on the tests and lower passing rates, according to a report released this morning by the Educational Testing Service and the National Education Association. The study suggests candidates who take the tests earlier in their career, regardless of race, tend to do better on it, and that efforts to improve the knowledge and skills of minority teacher candidates therefore need to begin early.” According to Sawchuk, “Everyone from the teachers’ unions to US Secretary of Arne Duncan have acknowledged that the paucity of minority-race teachers is a problem, especially as the country grows more diverse every year.”

Maryland Teacher’s Union Floats Alternative Pension Plan.
Aaron C. Davis And Ann E. Marimow wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (3/23), “With this year’s budget debate in Maryland’s House of Delegates set to begin Wednesday afternoon, a competing pension plan has emerged that the state’s largest teacher’s union has been discussing with legislative leaders and the administration of Gov. Martin O’Malley. The proposal by the Maryland State Education Association sent to House lawmakers Tuesday night warned that the 71,000-member MSEA would not support either the governor’s proposed plan from January, or a reworked version from a House budget committee last week that significantly watered down cuts to retiree health-care benefits.” According to Davis and Marimow, “MSEA’s plan says it will achieve a federally recommended funding level of 80 percent for outstanding pension costs ‘two or three years after’ the plans put forward by both the governor and the House.”

Law & Policy
Duncan Highlights Need To Overhaul NCLB During San Diego Visit.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s San Diego, CA visit was covered extensively by local print and TV media outlets, the tone of the coverage was generally positive, highlighting the urgency behind Duncan’s call to overhaul NCLB. The San Diego Union-Tribune (3/24, Flynn) reports, “Three out of four young adults are unqualified to join the armed forces, largely because of failures in the nation’s schools, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Wednesday. A retinue of current and retired military officers, elected officials and others joined Duncan at a Miramar Marine Corps Air Station news conference after the secretary visited a school in North County.” According to the Union-Tribune, “Those who spoke Wednesday said that childhood obesity and criminal activity are the other two key factors that contribute to making 75 percent of the nation’s young people ineligible for the service” yet the main focus of the event was “education” as speakers called “for reform of the No Child Left Behind Act and for increased commitment to high-quality early education.”

The Pomerado News (CA) (3/24, Himchak) reports, “US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Shoal Creek Elementary Wednesday morning to learn from locals how the federal government can improve education. His stated goal is to revise the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act before this fall.” Duncan is quoted saying, “We have to … get Washington off folks’ backs, hold accountability to a higher bar and be more flexible.” The Pomerado News adds that “Duncan was accompanied by Rep. Duncan D. Hunter, the Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee chairman.”

The North County Times (CA) (3/24, Brennan) reports, “Overhauling the No Child Left Behind Act will restore well-rounded curricula, refine ways of measuring school achievement and give school districts more flexibility in achieving higher academic standards, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told local school officials during a visit Wednesday to Shoal Creek Elementary School in Poway.” According to the Times, “Duncan said No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration’s version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, was ‘too prescriptive, too top-down, and led to dumbing down of standards and narrowing of curriculum.’”

The Rancho Bernardo Patch (CA) (3/23, Lowe) ran a series of Duncan’s statements in a Q&A format. According to Patch, “‘You don’t learn by sitting in Washington,’ Duncan said, adding that he tries to visit three or four schools each week and talks with teachers, students and staff. … Duncan also talked about the ineffectiveness of teacher evaluations and support systems that help the small segment of low-performing teachers but do nothing for those in the middle.” KPBS-TV San Diego (3/23, Tintocalis) and KUSI-TV San Diego (3/23) also covered this story.

No Consensus Reached On NCLB Reauthorization.
The Detroit News (3/24, Schultz) reports, “As President Barack Obama pushes Congress to revise the No Child Left Behind law by fall, Republicans and Democrats agree the sweeping education act needs fixes. However, his proposals have raised concerns about the federal government’s role in K-12 classrooms.” According to the Detroit News, “Recently, US Education Secretary Arne Duncan told members of Congress that schools labeled ‘failing’ could jump from 37 percent to 82 percent this year.”

McKenzie: Administration NCLB Overhaul Plan Flawed. The Dallas Morning News’ William McKenzie wrote in a column for McClatchy (3/23), “Almost a decade after its passage,” NCLB “could use some freshening,” however, “the administration’s suggestions put at risk many disadvantaged kids. .. I’m talking here about their proposal to remove the ‘Washington stick’ to prod so-so schools” to improve. Duncan is quoted saying in a recent interview that ED wants to see “states, districts and parents stepping up” to overhaul mediocre schools, while ED would only step in to overhaul the lowest-performing schools under the Administration’s proposal.

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Safety & Security
Jennings Highlights Obama Administration’s Anti-Bullying Initiatives.
Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools chief Kevin Jennings wrote in an op-ed for Bay Windows (3/23), “We can’t wait for it to get better for LGBT kids — we need to make it better right now. By convening the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying and hosting it personally in the East Room of the White House, the President and the First Lady made the strongest statement possible that they believe the moment for bullying to end has arrived and that they are putting themselves and our entire Administration on the front lines of this fight.” According to Jennings, “As someone who spent more than two decades fighting this battle before I joined this Administration, I watched in awe as the combined leadership of the Obama Presidency sent a clear and unequivocal message: We can’t wait for it to get better for LGBT kids — we need to make it better right now.” The Windy City Times (3/23) also ran Jennings’ op-ed.

Also in the News
Some Chicago Parents Object To Mandatory Classroom Breakfasts.
The Chicago Tribune (3/24, Eng, Hood) reports, “In January, the Chicago Board of Education passed a blanket mandate requiring free breakfast to be served in all elementary school classrooms during the first 15 minutes of the day. Since then, hundreds of parents have signed petitions and sent letters objecting, including those who fear their children would be exposed to life-threatening foods” due to allergies. According to the Tribune, “Breakfast in the Classroom programs have been rolling out across the nation for several years now, but Chicago’s mandate is the biggest, fastest and strictest in the nation.”

DC Principal Put On Leave Amid Transcript Fraud Allegations.
The Washington Post (3/24, Turque) reports, “McKinley Technology High School Principal David Pinder, under investigation on allegations that he ordered student transcripts doctored, was placed on leave Wednesday by acting [DC schools] Chancellor Kaya Henderson. Henderson said in a late afternoon statement that Pinder’s placement on paid administrative leave ‘is not a finding of misconduct’ but ‘a necessary precaution’ based on information her office received this week.” Pinder “is facing allegations that he changed the senior transcripts of at least 13 students to give them credit for courses they did not take.”

NEA in the News

NEA Urges Delay In Implementation Of “Swipe Fee” Limits.
The Washington Post (3/24, Eggen) reports, “A roiling Capitol Hill debate over debit-card fees has attracted input from banks, credit unions, retailers, mom and pop stores, universities and a host of other players.” The Post notes that the NEA “sent a letter to House and Senate leaders this week urging a delay in implementing limits on “swipe fees” for debit cards that were enacted as part of last year’s financial regulatory overhaul. ‘We believe that this amendment, while well-intentioned, could have a significant negative impact on the cost of mainstream banking services to middle and lower-income consumers, including teachers and education support professionals, because of the benefits currently made possible by debit cards,’ the NEA said in its letter.”

Third Education Reform Bill Passes Idaho Senate.
The AP (3/25) reports, “The Idaho Senate voted 20-15 on Thursday to pass the third piece of a Republican-backed plan to reform Idaho’s public schools. The bill will advance to the House despite opposition from public school trustees, administrators and the statewide teachers union over how the legislation will fund technology upgrades in the classroom.” According to the AP, “The new bill would shift money from school funding used primarily for educator salaries to finance new technology in the classroom and a teacher merit pay-for-performance plan.”

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In the Classroom
Chicago Schools Struggling To Curb Student Absenteeism.
The New York Times (3/25, Cullotta) reports, “At schools in the city and across the United States, chronic absenteeism is affecting performance, particularly among children from poor families.” According to the Times, “In Chicago, the public schools system has attendance coordinators in 27 area offices and a truancy hot line, but there is no comprehensive, systemwide approach focused on high-school absenteeism. Instead, the school district is testing a program that relies on a trio of programs: one to reduce in-school violence, one to engender a calmer atmosphere in classrooms and hallways, and a third to enable safe passage from home to school.”

Virginia Education Leaders Scrutinize Social-Media Use In Classrooms.
The Washington Post (3/25, Sieff) reports that classroom assignments requiring the use of social networking tools “are coming under new scrutiny as Virginia and other states consider restricting how teachers and students interact on social-networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Officials want to preserve the educational opportunity offered” by the social-networking platforms “but also want to prevent sexual predators from exploiting the casual tone of such sites to build rapport with potential victims.” The Post adds, “The Virginia Board of Education voted Thursday to encourage school districts statewide to adopt policies regulating social-media use by teachers.”

Virginia Officials Withdraw Approval Of Two History Textbooks.
The Washington Post (3/25, Sieff) reports, “The Virginia Board of Education on Thursday withdrew its approval of two textbooks that were found to contain numerous errors. Historians appointed by the state found dozens of errors in ‘Our Virginia: Past and Present,’ a fourth-grade Virginia social studies textbook, and ‘Our America to 1865,’ a fifth-grade text on US history.” The Virginia BOE voted Thursday to “require publishers to vet their books with independent experts before they are submitted to the Department of Education.”

California Districts Look To Digital Options Amid Textbook Funding Cuts.
McClatchy (3/25, Gutierrez, Reese) reports, “A significant decrease in the amount of money school districts throughout California spend on textbooks is pushing some to experiment with e-books in order to achieve long-term savings. However, many school administrators say if there isn’t money for textbooks, there certainly isn’t money now for the wholesale adoption of electronic textbook devices, like iPads and netbooks.” According to McClatchy, “In Sacramento’s four-county region, spending on state-approved, core curriculum textbooks plummeted by 55 percent, or $15.5 million, from 2008 to 2010, according to a Sacramento Bee review of newly released school district financial data.”

On the Job
Illinois District Plans To Cut 31 Jobs.
The AP (3/25) reports, “Overseers of public schools in the western Illinois city of Quincy plan to cut 31 jobs to save as much as $1.8 million, leading to a union official’s warning that such budget-slashing has produced a morale-lowering ‘doomsday’ effect among remaining educators. The Quincy Herald-Whig reported that 24 full-time employees will be affected by the moves announced by the school board Wednesday night after its more than two hours of private meetings.” The AP adds, “Lonny Lemon, the district’s superintendent, said the state still owes the district about $3 million for the current fiscal year, and the board assumes those overdue funds eventually will show up. If not, steeper cuts may follow.”

Law & Policy
Wisconsin Supreme Court Asked To Weigh In On Union Law.
The AP (3/25) reports that a Wisconsin “appeals court declined to rule Thursday on whether to allow a law stripping public employee unions of nearly all their collective bargaining rights to take effect, saying the issue should be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.” The court “opted not to rule on whether a lower court judge properly issued an order last week temporarily blocking the law from taking effect” and the “law remains on hold while the legal fight continues. A majority of the seven-member Supreme Court must agree to take the case or it would remain in the appeals court.”

Florida Governor Signs Teacher Merit Pay Bill Into Law.
Highlands Today (FL) (3/25) reports, “Thursday, [Florida] Gov. Rick Scott signed his first legislation, which ties teacher evaluations and pay heavily to student test performance and eliminates multi-year contracts for new teachers who are hired starting July 1. This is the second year the Legislature has tried to pass a teacher merit pay bill, with former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoing the bill last year after teacher protests.” Under the new law, “new teachers with advanced degrees will not get more money unless their degrees are in the ‘area of certification.’”

Virginia Governor Vetoes P.E. Bill.
The Washington Post (3/25, Kumar) reports that Virginia “Gov. Robert F. McDonnell vetoed a bill Thursday requiring all elementary and middle school students in the state to participate in at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, describing the proposal as an unfunded mandate on Virginia’s schools. His decision followed weeks of lobbying by school officials, particularly in populous Northern Virginia, who argued that the requirement could extend the school day, lead to cuts in arts and music classes and cost millions of dollars to hire new teachers.” According to the Post, “The bill was designed to help fight childhood obesity, a cause championed by McDonnell’s wife, Maureen, as well as by first lady Michelle Obama.”

Bennet: NCLB Should Support Education Innovation Among Local Districts.
Sen. Michael Bennet writes in an op-ed for the Washington Post (3/25), “It is certainly true that the real work of reforming our schools must be done at the state and local levels” yet the macroeconomic implications of education quality leaves “us little choice but to make a national commitment to give all our children the chance for a proper education. Our goal in Washington must not be to impose but to expect and assist: Expect the most of educators and students and assist them as they work together to meet those expectations.” NCLB should be overhauled to “set clear, ambitious goals and support innovative local efforts to achieve them.”

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Also in the News
Madonna’s Charity Fails In Bid To Finance School In Malawi.
The New York Times (3/25, Nagourney) reports, “A high-profile charitable foundation set up to build a school for impoverished girls in Malawi, founded by the singer Madonna and fellow devotees of a prominent Jewish mysticism movement, has collapsed after spending $3.8 million on a project that never came to fruition.” According to the Times, “Most strikingly, the plans to build a $15 million school for about 400 girls in the poor southeastern African country of 15 million – which had drawn financial support from Hollywood and society circles, as well as the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre International, an organization devoted to Jewish mysticism – have been officially abandoned. That prospective move set off a fierce backlash when first raised earlier this year, with Malawi officials saying they were stunned and asserting that Madonna was blaming management breakdowns because she had been unable to raise the money she had promised.”

Texas District Superintendent’s Leadership Scrutinized.
The New York Times (3/25, Smith) reports that Beaumont Independent School District Superintendent Carrol A. “Butch” Thomas “is the highest-paid superintendent in Texas, even though his district of about 20,000 students is considerably smaller than those in other large Texas cities. Mr. Thomas, who was widely praised when first hired, has recently become the focus of criticism for his leadership – criticism his supporters say is racially motivated.” However, Thomas’ critics say an upcoming ballot initiative proposing to make two of the “school board’s seven seats at-large positions” is “an opportunity to reclaim control of an institution still central to the life of a struggling city with an 11 percent unemployment rate and a median household income well below the national average.”

Florida Governor Signs Teacher Merit-Pay Bill.
The Los Angeles Times /Orlando Sentinel (3/26, Postal) reported, “Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed a far-reaching teacher merit-pay bill that will overhaul how teachers across the state will be evaluated and paid.” The law makes use of “student test score data to judge teacher quality.” The measure’s supporters “say the law will help Florida schools identify top teachers, reward them financially and assign them to work with their neediest students.” The Florida Education Association opposes the law, arguing that it “will be expensive, will rely on an unproven system and won’t fairly evaluate teacher performance.”

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In the Classroom
Test Scores At Standout DC School Challenged.
USA Today (3/28, Gillum, Bello) reports DC’s Noyes Education Campus “went from a school deemed in need of improvement to…one of its ‘shining stars’” after its “standardized test scores improved dramatically.” Former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee “touted the school…as an example of how the sweeping changes she championed could transform even the lowest-performing Washington schools.” However, according to USA Today, “A closer look at Noyes…raises questions about its test scores from 2006 to 2010.” USA Today “found…most of Noyes’ classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests,” and “the consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones.”

In Georgia, High Erasures Triggered Criminal Investigation. USA Today (3/28) reports, “The same kind of high erasure rates that have been reported on standardized tests in Washington, D.C., schools also spurred intensive investigations by state and federal authorities in Georgia during the past two years. The tactics used in Georgia are sharply different, however, from those employed in Washington: Georgia is conducting a criminal investigation that could lead to prosecutions.” According to USA Today, “Former governor Sonny Perdue, a Republican whose term ended in January, ordered law enforcement to take over the Georgia investigation because he said he was dissatisfied with the failure of districts in Atlanta and elsewhere to explain the erasures.”

Obama Administration Seeking To Turn Around Lowest-Performing Schools.
The Christian Science Monitor (3/26, Paulson) reported, “Across the country, a new movement is taking root, backed by the Obama administration, that is trying bold and controversial new methods – a kind of shock therapy – to fix the nation’s worst schools,” which “have resisted the best intentions and ideas of educational gurus for decades. Now comes a new effort, led by President Obama’s reform-minded secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, who vows to turn around 1,000 of the schools over the next five years.” Duncan is “putting $4 billion of federal money into the quest,” and the turnaround options range from “revamping a school from scratch, with virtually all new teachers, to installing a new principal who will carry out major reforms.”

South Korean Official Advises Caution in Following His Country’s Education Model.
Sean Cavanagh wrote in a blog for Education Week (3/27), “A former top education official in academically high-flying South Korea has warned against US officials attempting to copy his nation’s approach, saying it has grown too test-centered and often detracts from students’ love of learning. Byong Man Ahn, the former minister of education, science, and technology in South Korea, said government officials in his country are attempting to scale back the heavy test emphasis and nurture broader student skills, a step some of the United States’ other foreign competitors also have taken.” Education Week added, “In a speech last year,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “noted the contrast between South Korea’s challenge in trying to get parents to dial down the pressure and some American parents’ lack of engagement in their children’s education.”

California School Enacts Ambitious Change.
The Los Angeles Times (3/28, Song) reports that science instructor John Laird “and the other instructors at” Fedde International Studies Academy in Hawaiian Gardens, CA “have embarked on an ambitious turnaround program that has embraced some of the most controversial measures in education today: evaluating teachers based, in part, on student test scores; allowing instructors to review administrators; and paying teachers more if test scores rise. While such measures are becoming more common throughout the nation, they have been staunchly resisted almost everywhere in California.”

Small Classes Viewed As Not Necessarily Better Than Larger Classes.
Success Charter Network founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz writes in an op-ed for the Washington Post (3/28) that “small class size is neither a guarantor nor a prerequisite of educational excellence. The worst public elementary school in Manhattan, 16 percent of whose students read at grade level, has an average class size of 21; PS 130, one of the city’s best, has an average class size of 30. Small class size is one factor in academic success.” Moskowitz adds, “Overspending on class-size reduction is particularly unconscionable in tough fiscal times.”

On the Job
Idaho Teachers Unsure What New Laws Mean For Future.
The Idaho Statesman (3/26) reported, “Even after Idaho recently eliminated the Early Retirement Incentive Program, which offered financial incentives for teachers who wanted to put down their pencils before retirement age, some teachers are still looking to get out early. Idaho’s public school teachers become eligible for their full Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI) benefits once they reach the Rule of 90, which adds public employees’ age to their years of public service.” According to the Statesman, “Last year, PERSI reported 787 teachers and education administrators retired – the highest number since the state updated its recording system in 1990.”

Teacher Seniority, Budgets Collide In Minnesota District.
The St. Paul Pioneer-Press (3/28, Koumpilova) reports on the practice of “stranding,” named “after the case of a Minneapolis teacher named Arlene Strand, who successfully sued her district in the 1980s after losing her job. In Lakeville, 28 teachers face involuntary reassignments next fall, many of them to special education positions.” According to the Pioneer-Press, “At a time of widespread school budget cuts, more Minnesota districts are weighing contract changes that would trump the Strand precedent and ward off some reassignments, says the state’s School Board Association.”

Teacher Seniority Rules, Job Security Threatened Amid Budget Cuts.
Bloomberg (3/27, Staley) reported, “Public school teachers are facing the biggest challenge to their job security in more than half a century as politicians” across the nation, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “target seniority rules that make the last hired the first fired when jobs are cut.” Bloomberg added, “As officials cut education budgets, they should focus on what is best for children, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.” Duncan is quoted saying, “Layoffs based only on seniority don’t help kids” and education stakeholders should seek “to minimize the negative impact on students.”

Kansas Teachers Brace For Education Budget Cuts.
The AP (3/26, Milburn) reported, “Kansas teachers and administrators say there is little reason for optimism from the 2011 Legislature where lawmakers are preparing to make deep cuts to public schools. Their concern is this won’t be the last reduction as demands for educating students and meeting ever-increasing achievement mandates increase.” Gov. Sam Brownback “proposed cutting school spending by $232 per student in next year’s budget” and “House and Senate budget plans largely follow that recommendation, reflecting tight state revenues and the end of federal dollars sent to states to support education budgets.”

Los Angeles District Poised To Implement “Value Added” Teacher Evaluations.
The Los Angeles Times (3/28, Watanabe) reports, “In Houston, school district officials introduced a test score-based evaluation system to determine teacher bonuses, then – in the face of massive protests – jettisoned the formula after one year to devise a better one. In New York, teachers union officials are fighting the public release of ratings for more than 12,000 teachers, arguing that the estimates can be drastically wrong.” Nevertheless, “Los Angeles school district leaders are poised to plunge ahead with their own confidential ‘value-added’ ratings this spring, saying the approach is far more objective and accurate than any other evaluation tool available.”

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Safety & Security
Fairfax, Virginia Schools Consider Recording Disciplinary Hearings.
The Washington Post (3/28, George) reports, “A growing number of Fairfax [VA] school officials support the idea of creating audio recordings of student disciplinary proceedings as the district seeks to respond to parent complaints about fairness and tone in the hearing room. The hearings, which have become a flash point in a debate over how students in trouble get punished in Fairfax, have been criticized by parents for being highly adversarial and straying from fact to suspicion.” According to the Post, Assistant Superintendent Barbara M. Hunter said “she could envision parents being given a tape or CD shortly after each hearing.”

Also in the News
Charter School Pioneer Shifts Focus.
The New York Times (3/25, Dillon) reports, “Green Dot, the schools group based in Los Angeles that challenged conventional practices by staffing its charter schools with unionized teachers, is going through a divorce with its founder, Steve Barr, who is leaving to build a new national charter group. On Friday, Mr. Barr and Shane Martin, the college dean who succeeded him as chairman of the Green Dot board in 2009, issued a joint statement announcing that Mr. Barr would no longer use the Green Dot name as he sought to open charter schools in New York and elsewhere.” Green Dot “will continue, under the leaders who have replaced Mr. Barr, to run its network of 16 charter schools in Los Angeles.”

Philadelphia Education Stakeholders Fighting Obesity Epidemic.
The New York Times (3/28, Moss) reports, “Earlier this year, when Michelle Obama, as part of her campaign against childhood obesity, announced that Wal-Mart would reduce salt and sugar in its packaged foods, she said, ‘We’re beginning to see the ripple effects on the choices folks are making about how they feed their kids.’ But this effort is up against an array of powerful forces, from economics to biology, all of which are playing out in Philadelphia, where the obesity rate is among the nation’s highest.” According to the Times, “Since 2001, a Philadelphia organization called Food Trust has worked to get corner stores to offer healthier foods,” yet “just 507 of the city’s estimated 2,500 corner stores have signed on.”

Public School Waiting Lists Grow In New York.
The New York Times (3/26, Santos) reported that New York City “schools sent kindergarten acceptance letters to parents this week, and for many of them, the news was not good. … The Department of Education was still compiling official waiting-list statistics on Friday, but in some neighborhoods, there were signs that the space crunch may only be getting worse.” Though “waiting lists will shrink in the next few months as some students accept placements in gifted programs and others opt for private school,” ultimately, “some parents are forced to choose schools they do not prefer.”

Fired Principals Quickly Find New Education Jobs.
The AP (3/26) reports in an article carried by numerous media outlets across the nation, “The most popular way for schools to qualify for a slice of the $3 billion available” under the federal School Improvement Grant program “was pick a reform plan that called for replacing what was considered failed leadership – but many of those principals are still running schools. … When asked about the principal shuffle, US Department of Education spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya said hiring decisions were ‘best handled at the local level.’” The AP adds, “Many rural districts worried that the replace-the-principal approach wouldn’t work for them, and education officials in 13 farm states wrote to US Education Secretary Arne Duncan last spring expressing concern about finding new administrators.”

Pay Teachers More
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

From the debates in Wisconsin and elsewhere about public sector unions, you might get the impression that we’re going bust because teachers are overpaid.

That’s a pernicious fallacy. A basic educational challenge is not that teachers are raking it in, but that they are underpaid. If we want to compete with other countries, and chip away at poverty across America, then we need to pay teachers more so as to attract better people into the profession.

Until a few decades ago, employment discrimination perversely strengthened our teaching force. Brilliant women became elementary school teachers, because better jobs weren’t open to them. It was profoundly unfair, but the discrimination did benefit America’s children.

These days, brilliant women become surgeons and investment bankers — and 47 percent of America’s kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers come from the bottom one-third of their college classes (as measured by SAT scores). The figure is from a study by McKinsey & Company, “Closing the Talent Gap.”

Changes in relative pay have reinforced the problem. In 1970, in New York City, a newly minted teacher at a public school earned about $2,000 less in salary than a starting lawyer at a prominent law firm. These days the lawyer takes home, including bonus, $115,000 more than the teacher, the McKinsey study found.

We all understand intuitively the difference a great teacher makes. I think of Juanita Trantina, who left my fifth-grade class intoxicated with excitement for learning and fascinated by the current events she spoke about. You probably have a Miss Trantina in your own past.

One Los Angeles study found that having a teacher from the 25 percent most effective group of teachers for four years in a row would be enough to eliminate the black-white achievement gap.

Recent scholarship suggests that good teachers, even kindergarten teachers, increase their students’ earnings many years later. Eric A. Hanushek of Stanford University found that an excellent teacher (one a standard deviation better than average, or better than 84 percent of teachers) raises each student’s lifetime earnings by $20,000. If there are 20 students in the class, that is an extra $400,000 generated, compared with a teacher who is merely average.

A teacher better than 93 percent of other teachers would add $640,000 to lifetime pay of a class of 20, the study found.

Look, I’m not a fan of teachers’ unions. They used their clout to gain job security more than pay, thus making the field safe for low achievers. Teaching work rules are often inflexible, benefits are generous relative to salaries, and it is difficult or impossible to dismiss teachers who are ineffective.

But none of this means that teachers are overpaid. And if governments nibble away at pensions and reduce job security, then they must pay more in wages to stay even.

Moreover, part of compensation is public esteem. When governors mock teachers as lazy, avaricious incompetents, they demean the profession and make it harder to attract the best and brightest. We should be elevating teachers, not throwing darts at them.

Consider three other countries renowned for their educational performance: Singapore, South Korea and Finland. In each country, teachers are drawn from the top third of their cohort, are hugely respected and are paid well (although that’s less true in Finland). In South Korea and Singapore, teachers on average earn more than lawyers and engineers, the McKinsey study found.

“We’re not going to get better teachers unless we pay them more,” notes Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust, an education reform organization. Likewise, Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform says, “We’re the first people to say, throw them $100,000, throw them whatever it takes.”

Both Ms. Wilkins and Ms. Allen add in the next breath that pay should be for performance, with more rigorous evaluation. That makes sense to me.

Starting teacher pay, which now averages $39,000, would have to rise to $65,000 to fill most new teaching positions in high-needs schools with graduates from the top third of their classes, the McKinsey study found. That would be a bargain.

Indeed, it makes sense to cut corners elsewhere to boost teacher salaries. Research suggests that students would benefit from a tradeoff of better teachers but worse teacher-student ratios. Thus there are growing calls for a Japanese model of larger classes, but with outstanding, respected, well-paid teachers.

Teaching is unusual among the professions in that it pays poorly but has strong union protections and lockstep wage increases. It’s a factory model of compensation, and critics are right to fault it. But the bottom line is that we should pay teachers more, not less — and that politicians who falsely lambaste teachers as greedy are simply making it more difficult to attract the kind of above-average teachers our above-average children deserve.

Behind the scenes of standardized testing
By Jessica Lussenhop
published: February 23, 2011

Dan DiMaggio was blown away the first time he heard his boss say it.

The pensive, bespectacled 25-year-old had been coming to his new job in the Comcast building in downtown St. Paul for only about a week. Naturally, he had lots of questions.

At one point, DiMaggio approached his increasingly red-faced supervisor at his desk with another question. Instead of answering, the man just hissed at him.

“You know this stuff better than I do!” he said. “Stop asking me questions!”

DiMaggio was struck dumb.

“I definitely didn’t feel like I knew what was going on at all,” he remembers. “Your supervisor has to at least pretend to know what’s going on or everything falls apart.”

DiMaggio’s question concerned an essay titled, “What’s your goal in life?” The answer for a surprising number of seventh-graders was to lift 200 pounds.

Although DiMaggio had been through a training process, he found himself tripped up as he began scoring the essays. What made the organization “good” as opposed to “excellent”? What happens when the kid doesn’t answer the question at all, but writes with excellent organization about whatever the hell he wants? Did it matter that it was insane for seventh-graders to think they’d be benching 200 pounds?

DiMaggio had good reason to worry. His score could determine whether the school was deemed adequate or failing—whether it received government funding or got shut down.

DiMaggio soon learned that his boss was a temp like him. In fact, the boss was only the team leader because he’d once managed a Target store.

DiMaggio found out that the human resources woman who’d hired them both was a temp. He realized that their office space—filled with long tables lined with several hundred computer monitors and generic office chairs—was rented.

Eventually, DiMaggio got used to not asking questions. He got used to skimming the essays as fast as possible, glancing over the responses for about two minutes apiece before clicking a score.

Every so often, though, his thoughts would drift to the school in Arkansas or Ohio or Pennsylvania. If they only knew what was going on behind the scenes.

“The legitimacy of testing is being taken for granted,” he says. “It’s a farce.”

THOUGH THE EFFICACY of standardized testing has been hotly debated for decades, one thing has become crystal clear: It’s big business.

In 2002, President George Bush signed the infamous No Child Left Behind Act. While testing around the country had been on the rise for decades, NCLB tripled it.

“The amount of testing that was being done mushroomed,” says Kathy Mickey, a senior education analyst at Simba Information. “Every state had new contracts. There was a lot of spending.”

The companies that create and score tests saw profits skyrocket. In 2009, K-12 testing was estimated to be a $2.7 billion industry.

The Twin Cities were early beneficiaries of the gold rush. Minnesota’s history as an early computer hardware hotbed led to the creation of some of the earliest data-scanning and numbers-crunching businesses here, including Scantron and National Computer Systems. By the ’90s, NCS was grading 85 percent of the standardized tests for the nation’s largest school districts.

In 2000, NCS was bought by Pearson, a multinational corporation based in London, making it a part of the largest education company in the world. In 2009, it posted $652 million in profits.

Today, tens of thousands of temporary scorers are employed to correct essay questions. This year, Maple Grove-based Data Recognition Corporation will take on 4,000 temporary scorers, Questar Assessment will hire 1,000, and Pearson will take on thousands more. From March through May, hundreds of thousands of standardized test essays will pour into the Twin Cities to be scored by summer.

The boom in testing has come with several notable catastrophes. The most famous happened in 2000, when NCS Pearson incorrectly failed 8,000 Minnesota students on a math test. Pearson shelled out a $7 million settlement to the students, and Gov. Jesse Ventura participated in a makeup graduation for students who were wrongly denied their diplomas. In 2010, Pearson again miss-scored two questions on Minnesota’s fifth- and eighth-grade tests. Delays in its Florida scoring resulted in a $3 million fine and glitches in Wyoming led the company to offer a $5.8 million settlement.

But while a mistake on a bubble form is a black-and-white problem, few scandals have broken on the essay side of the test-scoring business.

“It requires human judgment,” says Michael Rodriguez, of the University of Minnesota’s educational psychology department. “There is no way to standardize that.”

Now scorers from local companies are drawing back the curtain on the clandestine business of grading student essays, a process they say goes too fast; relies on cheap, inexperienced labor; and does not accurately assess student learning.

“The entire testing system in the U.S. needs to be restructured,” says Robert Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest. “That would likely result in the disappearance of these essay-scoring sweatshops.”

DANI INDOVINO DIDN’T want to score tests. She wanted to work in nonprofit administration.

But she was fresh out of school in September 2008, just as the economy was entering its freefall. Desperate to get out of her parents’ house, she perked up when some friends told her about becoming a “reader” for one of the local test companies. It was easy work to get and there was lots of it. All you needed was a college diploma.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I have a degree, I can do that,’” she recalls.

On Indovino’s first day, she drove out to Questar Assessment in Apple Valley, a beige warehouse, and followed the signs that said “Scoring Center” in bright red letters. During her brief interview, she’d been asked repeatedly if she was able to follow a “rubric”—a set of guidelines to assess the essays in as uniform a way as possible.

“I guess they’ve had bad experiences with English teachers,” she says.

Inside Questar, Indovino took a seat in a room that looked like a classroom, crammed with as many computers and desks as could fit. It was here that the team leaders unveiled the scoring rubric, which was like a secret decoder ring for the job.

The rubrics are most often developed in conjunction with the state’s department of education and its testing contractor. Currently, Minnesota contracts both its test writing and scoring to Pearson. Local teachers are included in the rubric-writing process, as well as test-writing academics called “psychometricians.”

At first blush, the rubric seemed simple enough to Indovino. It was a chart with one- or two-sentence explanations of each number grade. Scorers are forbidden from taking the rubrics out of the Questar building or talking about them, but they generally look something like this:

6. An excellent response, the essay includes

• excellent focus and development

• excellent organization

• excellent language skills and word choice

• excellent grammar, usage, and mechanics

5. A good response, the essay includes

• good focus and development

• good organization

• good language skills and word choice

• good grammar, usage, and mechanics

4. An adequate response …

On down to 1s, which were reserved for barely decipherable language.

As part of their training, Indovino and her co-workers read through pre-graded examples out loud, then discussed why each had been scored the way it was. The process quickly divided the room into two camps—the young, unemployed kids who were just there for a paycheck, and the retired teachers.

“The retired teachers would argue everything,” says Indovino.

After two days of going through example papers, each scorer had to pass a qualifying exam. Indovino scored three sets of ten pre-scored papers. In order to be approved to work on the project, she had to pass two of the sets with at least an 80 percent “agreement rate” with the rubric. She did so with relative ease; most of the rest of the room passed on their second try.

Her first project was from Arkansas, an essay written by eighth-graders on the topic, “A fun thing to do in my town.”

And that’s where the troubles began.

Suddenly, she was being asked to crank through 200 real essays in a day. The scanned papers popped up on the screen and her eyes flitted as fast as they could down the lines. The difference between “excellent” and “good” and “adequate” was decided in a matter of seconds, to say nothing of the responses that were simply off the reservation. How do you score a kid who rails that his town sucks? What about an exceptionally well-written essay on why the student was refusing to answer the question?

All over the room, the teachers were raising their hands and disputing the rubric. Indovino preferred to keep her head down and just score the way she was told to.

“I was good at the bad system,” she says.

Over the next several months, Indovino got to know her co-workers better. The young people were mostly laid off or in foreclosure. They came straight from paper routes and went off to waitressing jobs afterward.

They also made for a very dedicated workforce. Indovino says she saw her co-workers hung-over, extremely ill, and even fresh from surgery.

“I scored a full day without glasses on,” Indovino says with a shrug. “I sat with my nose up to the glass all day. I couldn’t read it.”

When she eventually got a full-time job, Indovino quit scoring. Although she’d done well by the company’s standards, following the rubric provided little sense of accomplishment.

“Nobody is saying, ‘I’m doing good work, I’m helping society,’” she says. “Everyone is saying, ‘This isn’t right.’”

DAVID PUTHOFF WAS an experienced reader with Questar when he started getting the warnings that his job performance wasn’t up to snuff.

“Your numbers are down a little bit,” his supervisor said at the end of one day. “Make sure you bring those back up.”

Most essays, depending on the criteria established in the state, are scored by two readers. As Puthoff and his fellow scorers whipped through their essays, their supervisor had their own eyes glued to a screen, keeping them apprised of whether Reader #1 agreed with Reader #2. If so, both got a 100 percent agreement score for that essay. If one differed by a point or so, the essay would be counted as “adjacent” agreement.

Puthoff had thus far been an agreement-rate superstar. He was consistently in the high 80s.

Then came the question from hell out of Louisiana: “What are the qualities of a good leader?”

One student wrote, “Martin Luther King Jr. was a good leader.” With artfulness far beyond the student’s age, the essay delved into King’s history with the civil rights movement, pointing out the key moments that had shown his leadership.

There was just one problem: It didn’t fit the rubric. The rubric liked a longer essay, with multiple sentences lauding key qualities of leadership such as “honesty” and “inspires people.” This essay was incredibly concise, but got its point across. Nevertheless, the rubric said it was a 2. Puthoff knew it was a 2.

He hesitated the way he had been specifically trained not to. Then he hit, “3.”

It didn’t take long before a supervisor was in his face. He leaned down with a printout of the King essay.

“This really isn’t a 3-style paper,” the supervisor said.

Puthoff pointed out the smart use of examples and the exceptional prose. The supervisor just shook his head and pointed out how short the paragraphs were.

“You know, it’s more of a 2,” the supervisor repeated. “Not enough elaboration.”

Puthoff quickly learned these were not arguments he could win. But as time went on, he found himself having more and more of them.

There were the students who wrote extremely well but whose responses were too short—in his mind he saw them, bored with the essay topic, hurrying to finish. Or the essays where the handwriting got rushed and jumbled at the end, then cut off abruptly—he imagined the proctor telling the frantic student to lay down his pencil on a well-written but incomplete response.

And there were the kids who just did what they wanted. Like the boy from Arkansas who, instead of writing about the most fun thing to do in his town, instead wrote a hilarious essay on why his town is terrible and how he wanted to burn it down and pee on the ashes.

“I wanted the kid to get the score they deserved,” Puthoff says of his time in the business. “But they want to put them in boxes.”

In defiance, Puthoff started giving creatively written essays an illicit score bump. His agreement numbers noticeably suffered.

The industry calls this “scorer drift,” a well-documented tendency to begin deviating from the rubric over time. One case of scorer drift actually resulted in some 4,100 teachers failing the essay portion of their certification exams. The teachers successfully sued for $11.1 million.

What was different about Puthoff’s scorer drift was that he was doing it on purpose.

“I’ll bring them up, don’t worry,” he’d say of his agreement rate, then go back the next day and do the exact same thing.

“I know this kid is good,” he’d tell himself. “I know this kid’s a good writer.”

TODD FARLEY TREATED his supervising position at a scoring company like a joke.

“At the time, testing wasn’t that big,” he says. “I never had to feel like I’m actually deciding someone’s future. It was just silly.”

Farley had started at the bottom rung of the testing industry in Iowa City. A part-time graduate student with bills to pay, he was more interested in partying and trying to become a writer than he was in getting a real job. So he took one scoring job after another for NCS.

“It was always a temporary gig,” he remembers. “It was a lovely, slacker-y life.”

Farley had no official training in teaching, education, or test writing, but the longer he remained at NCS, the more responsibilities he was handed. He took the offer to become a team leader because it paid a little extra money and got him out of scoring.

Teaching his first group of scorers, Farley walked them through the rubric the same way he’d been shown. He fielded the inevitable bombardment of confused questions as best he could, in particular from one man: Harry the laid-off refrigerator plant worker.

Even though Harry eventually passed his qualifying exams, he was a disaster. As Farley monitored Harry’s scoring, he found himself walking back over to Harry repeatedly.

“Look,” Farley would say. “You’re giving this essay a 2 even though it’s perfectly formatted.”

Harry would nod. But a short time later, another ridiculous low ball from Harry would land on Farley’s desk. Before long, Harry began to drag down the all-important agreement level.

Farley now understood the reasons why, when he’d been a scorer, his team leaders would tell the room he wanted to start seeing more 3s or 4s or whatever. Supervisors were expected to turn the test scores into a nice bell curve. If his room did not agree at least 80 percent of the time, the tests would be taken back and re-graded, wasting time and money. The supervisor would be put on probation or demoted.

When Farley complained to a fellow supervisor about his problem, she smiled wryly and held up a pencil.

“I’ve got this eraser, see,” she told him. “I help them out.”

So Farley simply began changing Harry’s scores to agree with his peers’. The practice soon spread well beyond Harry.

“I’d just change a bunch of answers to make it look like my group was doing a great job,” Farley says. “I wanted the stupid item to be done, and so did my bosses.”

There were a few other tricks to keep the numbers up. One was to send a wayward scorer off into a corner to study example papers long enough for the group’s numbers to rebound. Another was to pair up a couple of bad scorers and make them decide together what to give a paper.

Or he could make the same announcement he’d heard from his supervisor back when he was a scorer.

“It’s time we see more sixes,” Farley would tell the group, which was code that his bell curve was off. “We’re in trouble here, we need higher scores, give higher scores.”

Though Farley and his fellow team leaders were fudging the numbers, even he was shocked when a representative from a southeastern state’s Department of Education visited to check on how her state’s essays were doing. As it turned out, the answer was: not well. About 67 percent of the students were getting 2s.

That’s when the representative informed Farley that the rubric for her state’s scoring had suddenly changed.

“We can’t give this many 1s and 2s,” she told him firmly.

The scorers would not be going back to re-grade the hundreds of tests they’d already finished—there just wasn’t time. Instead, they were just going to give out more 3s.

No one objected—the customer was always right.

Eventually, Farley was hired away by a rival testing company and moved to the East Coast. As he saw standardized tests becoming more and more important to the fate of schools and kids, he got fed up, quit the industry, and decided to write a whistle-blowing book.

Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry, came out in 2009. Though the tell-all chronicles Farley’s many misdeeds while scoring tests and supervising, he has nonetheless been invited back to work for the testing companies several times. The boom has just made his experience too valuable.

“They get paid money to put scores on paper, not to put the right scores on papers,” he says. “They have a bottom line. Why anyone would expect anything else is beyond me.”

PEARSON SPOKESMAN ADAM Gaber warns against taking the opinions of former scorers too seriously.

In an email, he characterized their concerns as “one-sided stories based upon people who have a very limited exposure and narrow point of view on what is truly a science.”

Questar declined a request to visit their facilities, but reached by phone, Susan Trent, vice president of assessment services, said that the essays are scored as objectively as is possible.

“We’re really insistent that readers understand they’re dealing with kids,” she says. “Decisions are being made about these kids based on these scores, and we’re absolutely committed to getting them right.”

She denies that graders are pressured to work too quickly and says that any evidence of scorer drift results in test re-scoring. She is also adamant that well-trained temps are the best way to score essays objectively.

“You do not have to be a teacher in order to score student response,” adds Terry Appleman, vice president of performance assessment. “You have to have a good rubric and good training.”

Asked what to make of the former Questar employees who felt they couldn’t do a good job given their training and time constraints, Appleman quickly answers: “If they don’t think they’re qualified, it’s not the job for them.”

Most of the scorers interviewed for this story agree, but nearly all plan to return to the scoring center. They say they need the money.

The AP (2/17) reports, “US Education Secretary Arne Duncan says that the move in Wisconsin and other states to strip teachers of bargaining rights worries him. Duncan said Wednesday at a Denver conference of teacher unions and school administrators that he’d make a personal call Thursday to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.” According to the AP, Duncan “promised…educators that he’d put pressure on governors to work with unions, not antagonize them.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/17, Stein) reports, “Gov. Scott Walker’s bill to strip almost all union rights for public workers advanced out of committee Wednesday just before midnight, setting up a pivotal floor vote in the Senate that is expected for Thursday amid massive demonstrations. … In a sign of the national attention the proposal is drawing, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has scheduled a telephone call with Walker for Thursday, said Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the federal agency.”

WUVM-FM Milwaukee, WI (2/16, Henzl) reported on its Website that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker “can expect a call Thursday from US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Duncan says he’s concerned about discussions in Wisconsin and other states, to strip teachers of bargaining rights.” WUVM added, “Walker says it’s fitting for public workers to share the burden of balancing the budget, including by paying more for their health care and pension benefits.” Valerie Strauss also covers this story in a blog for the Washington Post (2/16).

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In the Classroom
Virginia District Students No Longer Have To Pay For AP Tests.
The Washington Post (2/17, Sieff) reports that Fairfax County, VA “schools will no longer require students to pay for Advanced Placement exams, in response to a ruling by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II that called such fees illegal. Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale announced last year that the district would charge students for the tests, which cost about $75 each, as a cost-saving measure during difficult Financial Times.” The Post adds, “The Fairfax school board will be given the option of refunding exam fees collected this school year or lifting the requirement that A.P. students take the exams, district spokesman Paul Regnier said.”

GOP Voice Joins Curriculum Debate In Texas.
The Houston Chronicle (2/17, Scharrer) reports, “A new Republican member of the [Texas] Board of Education favors reopening the controversial social studies curriculum standards, which the board chairman may have do to if she wants to keep her post. A harshly critical review of Texas’ new history curriculum standards by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute released Wednesday has reignited debate in the state Capitol over what public school children should learn about US history.” The Chronicle adds, “The new Texas curriculum standards represent a hodge-podge of names motivated by partisan politics, the Fordham Institute said in its report.”

On the Job
New York City Mayor To Announce Plan To Lay Off Nearly 4,700 Teachers.
The New York Times (2/17, Hernandez) reports that New York City “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, escalating his battle with Albany over cuts to city programs, will announce plans to lay off nearly 4,700 teachers as part of a bleak budget to be released on Thursday.” Bloomberg “will portray the reductions as necessary to make up for a loss of $2.1 billion in state aid” yet the “forecast will also serve a political purpose, given the mayor’s desire to wring more money out of the Legislature and to abolish a law that protects veteran teachers”

The AP (2/17) adds, “Bloomberg has been pushing the state government to allow the city to lay off teachers without regard for their seniority, arguing that merit is more important. Currently, the city is required to lay off the most junior teachers first.” The AP adds that “United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said the city already has lost nearly 5,000 teachers to attrition in the last two years and class sizes are ‘skyrocketing.’”

The New York Daily News (2/17, Lisberg, Monahan) reports, “Despite skyrocketing tax revenues, the city still needs to ax 4,666 teachers to balance the books, officials said Wednesday.” The Daily News adds, “As part of the public negotiations over the budget, city officials are continuing to push Albany to increase funding for education – and to change state law on layoffs that requires cutting the most inexperienced teachers first. ‘The only thing worse than laying off teachers would be laying off the wrong teachers,’ Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said.”

New Jersey Governor Proposes Ending Tenure For Low-Performing Teachers.
The New York Times (2/17, Hu) reports, “One month after Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey used his annual state address to call for an end to tenure for teachers, his administration unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would take away tenure from ineffective teachers but stopped short of eliminating it. The acting state education commissioner, Christopher D. Cerf, in an address at Princeton University, said Mr. Christie would propose that tenure continue to be awarded to teachers who are rated highly effective or effective for three consecutive years” and teachers “rated ineffective for one year, or partially effective for two consecutive years, would lose their tenure protections, though not necessarily their jobs, he said.”

The Star-Ledger (NJ) (2/17, Rundquist) adds, “Key details in the proposal include an evaluation system that would rate teachers as highly effective, effective, partially effective or ineffective – with at least half of that rating being based on measures of student performance. Also proposed is a tenure system in which teachers would earn the job protection after being rated effective or highly effective for three consecutive years – instead of the current system, where teachers automatically gain tenure after three years and one day on the job.”

At National Summit, Duncan Urges Education Stakeholders To Work Together.
The AP (2/17, Wyatt) reports that “hundreds of teachers from around the country got a soft sell from the US Department of Education to become more open-minded about new pay and evaluation systems” at “the first national summit among teachers’ unions, school administrators and board members representing some 150 districts from 40 states.” According to the AP, “The summit was billed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a groundbreaking effort to build trust between unions and the leaders who sometimes are their adversaries. … Duncan told reporters in a conference call that schools should ban ‘last hired, first fired’ policies touted by unions as a way to protect seniority, just as districts should not lay off only older teachers simply because they are paid more.”

The Los Angeles Times (2/17, Song) reports, “After a year of often using financial incentives to spur school reform, US Education Secretary Arne Duncan unveiled a different approach during a two-day conference in Denver: urging districts and teachers unions to develop trusting relationships and work together to improve student achievement. … ‘I fundamentally believe that tough economic times are either going to paralyze folks or you’re going to see opportunities through crisis,’ Duncan said.” According to the Times, “Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Assn., said there is more opportunity for teachers unions to work with districts without looming federal grant applications.”

The Christian Science Monitor (2/17, Khadaroo) adds that the “Denver conference comes even as school districts face severe financial strains and governors and legislators in several states are proposing ways to reduce unions’ influence. In Wisconsin, Idaho, Indiana, and Tennessee, for instance, debates are under way about limiting or eliminating teachers’ collective bargaining rights.” Also, as “a followup to this week’s conference, the Department of Education plans to build a database to track progress in the 150 participating school districts.” WLWT Cincinnati, OH (2/16) also covered this story in a report on its Website

Law & Policy
DC Voucher Program A Point Of Contention At Senate Hearing.
The Washington Post (2/17, Craig, 605K) reports, “At a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee,” Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins “sternly told” District of Columbia officials Wednesday “that Congress probably will cut funding for city schools if efforts to revive a federal voucher program for students are not successful this year. … The senators issued their warnings” to Mayor Vincent Gray and Council Chairman Kwame Brown, “whose testimony created a rare public split before Congress between a District mayor and council chairman.” Though Gray supports “phasing out the vouchers,” Brown “broke with Gray by telling the committee that he recently embraced the calls for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to continue.”

The Washington Times (2/17, Simmons) adds, “The Obama administration and the Democrat-led Congress began phasing out the voucher program, which provides up to $7,500 per student, in 2009, allowing no new students to enroll. Pupils currently in the program can continue to receive the scholarships through 12th grade.” However, on “Wednesday, voucher proponents released a poll by Lester & Associates that showed D.C. residents’ views are more in sync with new congressional efforts than those of the mayor.”

Oregon Legislators To Consider Sweeping Education Reforms.
The Oregonian (2/17, Melton) reports that Oregon state lawmakers will consider legislation that “would fundamentally change Oregon’s education system, giving more leeway to teacher licensure, providing scholarships to kids with disabilities and forcing a wholesale redesign of report cards.” According to the Oregonian, “One of the most controversial ideas is social promotion. … Several studies suggest that forcing kids to repeat the same grade doesn’t lead to big increases in achievement and can create self-esteem problems and lead more students to drop out of school.”

Virginia District In Legal Battle Over Ten Commandments In School.
The Washington Post (2/17, Sieff) reports, “Nearly 12 years ago, in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School, officials quietly posted the Ten Commandments on the walls of Giles County public schools.” However, an “anonymous complaint” in December “prompted the superintendent to order the removal of the displays” sparking a “passionate community backlash.” The Post adds, “Now the fight appears headed to the courts as residents of Giles County, along Virginia’s rugged, pious southwestern spine, fight what they call mounting pressure from Washington and Richmond to secularize their public institutions.”

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School Finance
Accounting Firm Hired To Help DC Schools Balance Books.
The Washington Post (2/17, Turque) reports, “Facing a budget deficit of as much as $600 million for the next fiscal year, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray has asked accounting giant Deloitte to analyze the District’s public schools budget in search of savings and new sources of money.” According to the Post, “Kaya Henderson, the interim public schools chancellor, has signaled that the city’s diminished financial condition will mean smaller school budgets and in some instances larger class sizes.” The Post, Linda Wharton Boyd, Gray’s communications director, said “the plan is for the firm to complete its study and have recommendations ready before Gray must submit his proposed budget for 2012 to the D.C. Council on April 1.”

Colorado Educators Decry Governor’s Proposed Cuts.
The Denver Post (2/16, Auge, Illescas) reported, “Slashing $375 million from Colorado’s public schools, as Gov. John Hickenlooper has proposed, could cost teachers’ jobs and shrink the paychecks of many who remain, and would mean nearly $500 less spent on each schoolchild.” Educators “responded with expected outcry, while the governor’s budget proposal generated a topsy-turvy political response, with some in the governor’s party decrying the bloodletting and asking for additional revenue – i.e. taxes – to stanch it.” According to the Post, “The potential cuts to K-12 education come despite Amendment 23, which is supposed to increase education funding each year by at least the rate of inflation.”

Also in the News
Pennsylvania Teacher Sparks Controversy With Blog Critical Of Students.
The AP (2/17) reports, “A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia who was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young charges ‘disengaged, lazy whiners’ is driving a debate by daring to ask: Why are today’s students unmotivated – and what’s wrong with calling them out? As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe says she had no interest in becoming any sort of educational icon” yet Munroe’s “comments and her suspension by the middle-class school district have clearly touched a nerve, with scores of online commenters applauding her for taking a tough love approach or excoriating her for verbal abuse.”

NEA in the News

NEA Report Analyzes Per-Pupil Spending, Teacher Salaries Across US.
The Arizona Daily Star (2/17, Huicochea) reports, “Arizona is ranked lowest in the country for per-pupil spending and among the highest for student-teacher ratio, a national report found. The National Education Association’s annual Rankings and Estimates also took a look at teacher salaries, student enrollment and financial expenditures for public education.” According to the Daily Star, “Arizona was found to spend $6,170 per student – one of the lowest in the country, while states including New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Rhode Island and Wyoming spent upward of $15,000 per student.”

The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (2/17) reports, “Michigan teachers, once among the nation’s highest paid, are dropping into the middle of the pack in terms of average salary, according to a new union report. The state’s educators dropped from the 10th highest-paid in 2006-2007 to the 12th last year, with an average salary of $57,958, according to…a National Education Association survey.”

Teachers Say They Often Feed Students Who Come To School Hungry.
USA Today (2/23, Hellmich) reports, “This may be the land of plenty, but many children are going to school hungry, and teachers often give students food to help them make it until lunchtime, according to a new national survey of 638 public teachers. Two-thirds of these teachers, grades kindergarten through eighth, say they have students in their classes who regularly come to school hungry because they aren’t getting enough to eat at home, and 63% of the teachers say the problem increased this past year.” USA Today adds, “Breakfast is served to 11.6 million school children; 74% of the breakfasts are free and 8.8% are at reduced price, according to the US Department of Agriculture.”

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In the Classroom
Mastery Charter Network Spearheading School Turnarounds.
Politics Daily (2/22, Weber) reported that Mastery Charter Schools “operates just seven schools, all in Philadelphia, but has ascended to the national stage by inspiring other groups to take on” daunting school turnaround challenges. Politics Daily added, “‘Going forward, we’ll see which models worked best,’” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “said, adding that he’s thankful for ‘leadership and courage’ at the local level, as well as ‘a sense of urgency [for transforming schools] that frankly we’ve never seen in this country.’ … Mastery, meanwhile, has been approved to run as many as four more schools next year, including its first charter, which will not be a restart, in the devastatingly poor district of Camden, N.J.”

States Fail At Effective Use of Student Data, Report Finds.
T.H.E. Journal (2/22, Aronowitz) reported, “The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) last Wednesday released its sixth annual analysis of the data states collect on students and how the states use that data at the policymaking level to effect improvements in student achievement. The report issued by the DQC based on its state analysis, ‘Data for Action 2010, ‘ concluded that, while states have made exceptional progress in collecting quality longitudinal data on individual students and their educational progress over time, many continue to lag when it comes to applying this data to making policy decisions that positively impact student achievement.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is quoted saying that school reforms “cannot work unless states have good data and are willing to use it.”

North Carolina Judge Sets Up Showdown Over Tests.
The Raleigh News & Observer (2/23, Stancill) reports, “A Wake County [NC] judge has warned state lawmakers that dropping some mandatory end-of-course tests would violate the rights of public school students.” The North Carolina “state House passed a bill last week that would get rid of four of seven mandatory end-of-course tests – those in US history, civics and economics, Algebra II and physical science.” The measure “is now in the Senate, where it has been referred to an education committee.”

Detroit District Officials Credit Bobb’s Overhaul For Boost In Graduation Rates.
The Detroit Free Press (2/23, Erb, Tanner-Shite) reports, “Detroit Public Schools has boosted its graduation rates to a four-year high because of aggressive academic expectations and leadership changes, according to district officials.” According to the Free Press, “District officials credit the numbers to an ambitious overhaul of the district under emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, who has restructured dozens of schools, reassigned or hired 91 new principals and implemented ambitious academic requirements that expanded time for basic courses and increased access to college preparatory classes. Bobb, in a statement Tuesday, called the grad rates a ‘true testament’ that reforms are working.”

On the Job
Vermont Unions Rally In Support Of Wisconsin Workers.
The AP (2/23, Curran) reports, “Shaken by the crisis facing their brethren in Wisconsin, Vermont labor union members and their supporters staged a noisy, sign-waving rally Tuesday, calling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s push to strip some public employees of collective bargaining rights a disturbing tactic that could spread to other states.” According to the AP, “More than 300 people — teachers, firefighters, nurses and retired state workers among them — gathered on the Statehouse steps in bitter 12-degree cold, pledging solidarity with their union comrades and warning that if the bargaining rights are lost in Madison, Montpelier could be next. … ‘While we understand the need for governments to close budget deficits, we know from experience here in Vermont that busting unions and silencing public employees is wrong,’ said Martha Allen, president of the Vermont-National Education Association, who was among the speakers at the rally.”

Education Experts Weigh In On Teacher Layoffs.
Fawn Johnson reported in a blog for the National Journal (2/22) that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has “warned states and school districts that there are no more federal bailouts” yet Duncan is “also asking school boards to manage their problems in a smart way,” by taking steps to retain top-performing teachers. According to the National Journal, “Duncan’s comments ultimately boil down to making hiring (and firing) decisions based on teacher effectiveness. … If anything is to be learned from the labor-management conference this week, those tough calls ideally should be made with buy-in from all the stakeholders — school board members, administrators, teachers, and parents.” Several education stakeholders go on to weigh in on teacher dismissal policies.

Law & Policy
Indiana Senate Approves Teacher Merit Pay Measure.
The AP (2/23) reports, “Indiana teachers would have their pay linked to student performance under a proposal that has cleared the Indiana Senate.” According to the AP the bill calls for teachers to “be ranked into one of four categories, and those who fall into the lowest two categories wouldn’t get any automatic pay raises. Local districts would create their own evaluations systems but would have to include objective measures of student achievement.”

North Dakota House Passes Anti-Bullying Bill.
The AP (2/23) reports, “A measure that’s intended to deter bullying in schools has won overwhelming approval in the North Dakota House. The bill…instructs the state School Boards Association to develop a policy as a model for local schools” and the state “Senate approved a similar bill last week that requires the state school superintendent to develop the model rules.” Under the terms of the bill, school anti-bullying policies “must include instructions for reporting, investigating and punishing cases of bullying.”

Debate Over Busing in Wake County Shows Signs Of Cooling.
Education Week (2/23, Samuels) reports, “More than a year after dismantling a student-assignment policy based on socioeconomic diversity and setting off a wave of reaction that drew national attention, the Wake County, N.C., school board took a step last week that may turn down the temperature of the intense debate.” Among the plans now under consideration is a proposal “crafted by local business groups that would offer a controlled form of school choice to parents” that would allow “the district to steer parents to certain choices based on their children’s academic achievement, to avoid having schools with a high concentration of students who have performed poorly on state standardized tests.” Education Week adds that “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan weighed in on the matter in a January letter to the editor in The Washington Post, saying ‘America’s strength has always been a function of its diversity, so it is troubling to see North Carolina’s Wake County school board take steps to reverse a long-standing policy to promote racial diversity in its schools.’”

Compton, CA School Board Rejects Parent Trigger Effort.
The Los Angeles Times (2/23, Watanabe) reports, “After two months of controversy, the Compton school board Tuesday rejected a petition by parents aiming to use a groundbreaking state law to turn over their struggling elementary school to a charter operator. Board members with the Compton Unified School District voted unanimously, 7-0, to return the petition to parents at McKinley Elementary, saying it failed to include information required by state regulations.” The Times adds, “The closely watched case represented the first test of a new law giving parents the power to petition for major reforms of low-performing schools, including shutting them down, changing staff and programs, and turning the campus over to a charter operator. Charters are independently run, publicly financed schools.”

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School Finance
Losing States In Race To Top Struggle To Fulfill Pledges.
Education Week (2/22, McNeil) reported, “In these tough budget times, states that failed to receive a Race to the Top award are scrounging for state funds to implement education overhaul promises they made in their grant applications, raising private money, and taking stock of what really needs to get done. What happens now in the 35 states that applied and came away empty-handed may vary greatly, but many report they intend to stick with their plans even if it means accomplishing the promised changes at a far slower pace.” Education Week added, “Complicating the tasks in many states are big changes in state leadership in the wake of last fall’s elections” as officials “who wrote the Race to the Top applications in some cases are not in office anymore.”

Duncan Says Louisiana Districts Still Eligible For Race To Top Funding.
The Washington D.C. Examiner (2/23, Yowell) reports, “After having his “heart broken” because the Louisiana Education Department was left out of the list of Race to the Top grant recipients, Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan indicated that individual school districts or a collective of districts will now be able to apply for grants, instead of states only. Secretary Duncan has often praised Louisiana for their efforts to reform and improve their schools” yet Louisiana “wasn’t able to procure any grants because many of the state’s school districts and one of the two teachers’ unions didn’t participate in the process.”

Also in the News

Georgia Governor Aims To Trim HOPE Scholarship Program.
The AP (2/23) reports, “Only Georgia’s top-performing high school students would continue to receive free public college tuition under sweeping changes Gov. Nathan Deal and Republicans proposed Tuesday for the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship. HOPE would pay for full public college tuition for those students who earn a 3.7 grade point average or better;” HOPE “has provided free public college tuition to those students with a 3.0 grade point average or better.” Deal “argued that even with the cuts, HOPE would continue to be among the most generous scholarship programs in the nation.” Also, “Deal’s plan would reduce pre-k to a half-day program – down from 6 1/2 hours a day to four.”

Tennessee Teachers Opposing Efforts To Ban Unions.
The Commercial Appeal (TN) (2/24, Roberts) reports, “Last week, a bill that would eliminate collective bargaining through teachers’ unions passed in the” Tennessee “state Senate Education Committee,” and another measure “has been introduced in the state House to end payroll deduction of public-sector union dues. Without a bargaining unit, city teachers fear decisions will be arbitrary, whittling away their pay to reduce the cost of public education.” Shelby County (TN) Education Association “leaders have ‘serious concerns’ about the bills, saying while they don’t affect Shelby County Schools, they may harm teachers in other Tennessee districts.”

The Tennessean (2/23, Sisk) reported the GOP lawmakers in Tennessee “have pushed ahead of Gov. Bill Haslam in the race to shape the state’s agenda on education and provoked a confrontation with Tennessee’s biggest teachers union. The state Senate took the first step last week toward rewriting Tennessee’s education laws this year, when a committee voted to reverse a 1978 law that gave teachers the right to bargain collectively through a union.” The Tennessean adds, “Supporters say the bill would…give teachers who are not members of the union more” sway during labor negotiations, while opponents “say the bill would strip teachers of their ability to negotiate with school boards, and it is little more than payback by Republicans for the TEA’s past support of Democratic candidates.”

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In the Classroom
Report: California Charter School Performance Mixed.
The Contra Costa (CA) Times (2/24, Llanos) reports, “Despite the growing popularity of charter schools, results are mixed on whether the independently run campuses do a better job of educating their students than traditional schools, according to a” new report from the California Charter School Association which “found that 20 percent of charters rank among the top 10 percent of all schools statewide. However, the same percentage of charters also ranks among the lowest-performing schools.” The report “drew praise from US Education Secretary Arne Duncan” who is quoted saying, “I commend the California Charter Schools Association and its membership for taking this bold step to raise the bar on accountability.”

On the Job
Wisconsin District Teachers’ Pay Docked For Attending Rally.
The Ozaukee Press (WI) (2/24, Schanen) reports, “The Port Washington-Saukville [WI] School District will dock the pay of 82 teachers who skipped school last Thursday to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s budget bill in Madison, Supt. Michael Weber said Tuesday. The absences, which left the district without about 43% of its teachers, essentially crippled the school system” and “shocked school officials and parents, who said they thought the Port Washington-Saukville School District would be the last place to experience a mass exodus of teachers because of the remarkably good relationship between the district and union. The district was one of only a handful in this area of the state forced to cancel classes because of teacher absences.”

The New York Times (2/24, Zernike) reports “An increasingly heated national debate about the rights of union workers was stuck in a standoff Wednesday as Democratic lawmakers” in Madison, WI “and in Indiana stayed away from their Capitols to frustrate Republican efforts to vote on legislation that would undercut collective bargaining and the ability to organize. While Republicans insisted that the bills were required to balance state budgets, Democrats and thousands of protesters who circled and chanted outside the Capitols in the two states insisted that the legislation was an all-out attack on the middle class.” The Times adds, “In Wisconsin, Democratic lawmakers said the state’s Republican governor, Scott Walker, was out purely to bust the unions,” and their “suspicions were increased after the revelation of comments” highly critical of unions Walker “made during what turned out to be a prank phone call from a blogger.”

Scott Expects Similar Protests In Florida. The Washington Times (2/24, Lengell) reports Florida Gov. Rick Scott “said Wednesday he expects his proposed overhaul of the state’s pension system will be met with protests similar to the ongoing labor battle” in Wisconsin. But Scott “added that his state’s employees are compensated too well and that ‘it’s not fair to taxpayers’ to continue the practice.”

Wisconsin Pension Proposal Analyzed. Sean Cavanagh wrote in a blog for Education Week (2/23), “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants most public employees in his state to chip in 5.8 percent of their salaries to their pensions. … A recent report by the National Education Association suggests that, on the surface at least, the proposed pension contribution in Wisconsin would be in line with what public-sector employees in other states pay for retirement.” However, “while the report lists state-by-state breakdowns of pensions and says what employees pay-described as the ‘employee rate’-in some cases, states and local school districts have agreed to cover all or a portion of the ‘employee’ share-meaning taxpayers at some level pick up the tab.”

Mass Teacher Layoffs, School Closings Pending In Rhode Island District.
The Providence Journal (2/24, Borg) reports that Providence, RI “Mayor Angel Taveras said Wednesday that an undetermined number of schools will be closed next year in an effort to help the School Department close a $40-million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year. … Taveras says he does not expect the closings to rival Detroit, which plans to close up to half of its 140 schools over the next two years.” The Journal adds, “Taveras announced on Tuesday that the school district intends to send out dismissal notices to its 1,926 teachers,” issued due to “a state law that says teachers must be notified about possible layoffs or terminations by March 1.”

DC To Appeal Decision Reinstating Fired Teachers.
Bill Turque wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (2/23) that DC officials “will appeal an arbitrator’s decision ordering the reinstatement of 75 teachers Michelle Rhee fired in 2008.” According to Turque, “It is the opinion of the Attorney General that the arbitrator erred in requiring the District to provide back pay to teachers who were justifiably found not to be effective teachers,’” DC Mayor Vincent Gray “said in a statement. ‘Therefore, while we remain committed to providing the due process cited by the arbitrator, the OAG will appeal the decision by Monday’s deadline to ensure that the District is not forced to place or pay ineffective teachers in the event there are future disagreements about what the decision means.’”

Former DC Teachers’ Union Chief Embroiled In Pay Dispute.
The Washington Post (2/23, Turque) reported that “a fight has broken out over who should pay the balance of the $96,000 annual teaching salary that a written agreement guarantees” former DC teachers’ union chief George Parker. Though the “Washington Teachers’ Union traditionally reimburses the District for the salary and benefits of teachers who work full time for the union,” now that Nathan Saunders, his “most vocal critic,” is “president, he is balking at having the union cover the cost of Parker’s time off, even though the terms are set out in a written agreement that requires the union to cover his salary through June.”

Law & Policy
Michigan House Approves Tougher Approach To Faltering Cities, Schools.
The Detroit News (2/24, Bouffard) reports, “Emergency financial managers would be granted broad powers to toss out union contracts, strip mayors of power and dissolve city councils and school boards under legislation passed Wednesday by the ” Michigan “state House. … David Martell, executive director of Michigan School Business officials, which represents school district financial managers, noted the bill grants authority to solve fiscal problems that administrators don’t have.” The Detroit News adds, “Republicans contend the legislation will help communities and school districts avoid deficits and cut down on the number that require an emergency manager, who would be appointed by the governor.”

Bill Clinton Criticizes North Carolina District’s Effort To Alter Integration Policy.
The Raleigh News & Observer (2/24, Goldsmith) reports, “Former President Bill Clinton has become the highest-profile figure to wade into the controversy involving the future of Wake County’s public schools. Clinton chose the opening of an exhibit in his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. on one of the nation’s most dramatic school integration events to criticize Wake County’s change in direction on keeping schools’ populations balanced by students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.” The News & Observer notes that “newsmakers including federal Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and cable television satirist Stephen Colbert had taken swipes at the decisions made by the board leadership in charge since December 2009.”

Florida Lawmakers To Take Up Bill Which Could End Teacher Tenure.
The AP (2/23, Armario) reported, “The upcoming legislative session is likely to be a pivotal one in shaping the future of education in Florida. On the table again this spring” is a bill “that would make 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation based on student growth on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The legislation would also get rid of tenure for new teachers” and if “passed, Florida would join a handful of other states that have enacted reforms tying teacher pay and evaluations to test scores and weakening the protections of tenure.”

Florida Teachers Plan Rallies Over Proposed Legislative Changes.
The Tampa (FL) Tribune (2/24, Silvestrini) reports that teachers across Florida “want their voices heard in the education reform debate, some through legislative testimony, and some through planned rallies. They say they do not oppose reform, but want legislators to be cautious about implementing specific changes” to merit pay and tenure “without knowing the ramifications.” The Tribune adds, “The March 8 ‘Awake the State’ rallies being held throughout the state will focus on budget cuts in all areas, not just education, said Tim Heberlein, community organizer for the Florida Community Action Network, which he described as a non-profit, non-partisan consumer watchdog.”

Florida Lawmakers Move Ahead On Teacher Merit Pay Bills.
The Miami Herald (2/24, Sanders) reports, “Despite pleas from teachers and Democratic lawmakers to hold off on bold reforms, plans to reinvent how Florida pays and evaluates its teachers soared through legislative committees Wednesday. The new model would tie at least 50 percent of teachers’ salaries and contracts to student performance, replacing a structure that values seniority and uses a last-in, first-out layoff policy.” According to the Herald, “The legislation would measure teacher performance based on four categories, and give principals the option to reject teachers who have not been rated highly effective or effective; end teacher contracts for those who receive two unsatisfactory evaluations in three years; give teachers hired after July 1, 2011, annual and not continuing contracts; and put teachers hired after July 1, 2014, on performance-based scales.”

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Safety & Security
Maryland Schools To Examine Disciplinary Policies.
The Washington Post (2/24, George) reports, “Maryland officials will ask school systems across the state to examine their disciplinary policies in the aftermath of the suicide of” 15-year-old Nick Stuban, “a Northern Virginia football player who took his life as he grappled with the fallout of being suspended from his high school” due to possession of a substance banned from school grounds, yet legal to possess. The Post adds that the “Maryland Board of Education asked for a review of policies in the state’s 24 school systems, expressing concern about any existing ‘zero tolerance’ practices and a need for support services for suspended students. … Fairfax officials have said on several occasions that the system does not use a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to discipline and considers each case individually.”

WPost: Rhetoric Surrounding Fairfax “Zero Tolerance” Policy Overblown. The Washington Post (2/24) editorializes, “It is wrong, in the interest of advancing a particular agenda, to blame” Stuban’s “death on school policies,” yet “there are several issues involved in this case that bolster the earlier calls for a review of school policies.” According to the Post, “Fairfax officials also would do well to see whether there is more they can do to support students while they are suspended and to ensure that hearings are more constructive than punitive.” The Post adds, “Fairfax may need to make adjustments, but school data show discretion is being used in individual cases.”

Facilities
New York City To Replace School Lighting Tainted By PCBs.
The New York Times (2/24, Navarro) reports that New York City officials “announced on Wednesday that the city would replace light fixtures containing the toxic chemicals known as PCBs in nearly 800 city school buildings over the next 10 years, after months of pressure from federal officials and worried parents. City education officials said they had allocated $708 million to the effort, which would also involve broad improvements in energy efficiency, and would open bidding for a contract this year.” According to the Times, “For months, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has been pressing the city to assess and replace older fixtures containing PCBs in all of those schools because of the danger of leaks.”

School Finance
Maryland District Chief Poised To Make “Severe” Budget Cuts.
The Washington Post (2/24, Harris) reports that the Prince George’s County, MD “school system is facing a $155 million gap in its $1.6 billion budget,” which “has led schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. to propose the most severe cuts in his three-year tenure. Among many other cuts, Hite has proposed eliminating 259 jobs by increasing class sizes, which would save $20 million, and eliminating 233 positions for the pre-kindergarten program, which would be reduced to a half-day program, saving $10 million.” According to the Post, “School board members say budget cuts are particularly painful this year because the system has relied for the past two years on federal stimulus money that has ended.”

Some Texas Districts Will Close Schools In Response To Budget Shortfalls.
The Dallas Morning News (2/24, Unmuth) reports that some Texas “school districts are considering the dramatic and emotional step of closing schools as a way to slash their budgets because of expected state education funding cuts.” The Cedar Hill and Grand Prairie districts “are considering closing campuses” and the “Little Elm school district has already decided to close two schools. … Dallas schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said the district won’t close schools this year, but will examine the option next year.”

Also in the News
Virginia District Board Votes To Remove Ten Commandments Displays.
The Washington Post (2/24, Sieff) reports, “The School Board in Giles County, Va., voted this week to remove the Ten Commandments from the walls of its public schools after a pair of civil liberty groups announced they were preparing to sue the district. But officials involved in the case suggested that the commandments might be replaced, along with a number of other historical documents in an effort that could strengthen the school district’s case in court.” According to the Post, “In the past, displays including the Ten Commandments have sometimes fared well against court challenges when the display incorporated secular historical documents.”

Wisconsin Bill Targeting Unions Advances.
Multiple major media outlets across the nation are reporting on the passage of a bill ending collective bargaining by the Wisconsin Assembly, while Wisconsin state troopers have been dispatched to find Democratic Wisconsin state Senators who have left the state Capital in protest. The AP (2/25, Richmond) reports, “The Wisconsin Assembly early Friday passed a bill that would strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights,” with GOP legislators approving it “in a matter of seconds,” before many Democrats had a chance to vote on the bill. “The measure now goes to the Senate, where minority Democrats have been missing for a week, preventing a vote in that chamber.” The bill is seen by Democrats and unions as “an attempt to cripple union support for Democrats.” Although the Unions are willing to increase workers’ contributions to pensions and healthcare, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker “has refused to compromise.”

GOP In Some States Softening Attacks On Unions. The Washington Post (2/25, Cha, Gardner) reports, “Republican leaders in several states softened their attacks on public employee unions on Thursday in an effort to avert the fiery demonstrations that have gripped Wisconsin’s state Capitol for two weeks.” GOP legislators in Ohio “agreed to modify a bill that would have banned collective bargaining, allowing state workers to negotiate on wages,” the Republican governor of Michigan “offered to negotiate with public employees rather than create political gridlock,” and “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) called on GOP lawmakers to abandon their ‘right to work’ bill.”

Attitudes Towards Unions Mixed In Ohio. The New York Times (2/25, A19, Tavernise) reports, “Columbus, Ohio’s capital, seems remarkably free of affection for unions,” although most people interviewed “had mixed views, expressing sympathy for the deteriorating condition of the middle class, but also frustration that a union member could get a better deal.”

Wisconsin Districts Brace For Layoffs Ahead Of Governor’s Budget Proposal. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/25, Hetzner, Richards) reports, “The first tremors of what could be coming when Gov. Scott Walker releases his 2011-’13 budget proposal next week are rippling through Wisconsin school districts, where officials are preparing for the worst possibilities and girding for fiscal fallouts.” The Journal Sentinel adds, “School officials already are anticipating significant funding cuts that could endanger jobs and programs. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards and other education groups have cautioned that Walker’s budget proposal could decrease the state’s general aid to schools by $900 million over the next two years and lower the amount of revenue that districts can collect by up to $500 per student.”

All Teachers In Wisconsin District Could Receive Non-Renewal Notices. The New Richmond (WI) News (2/25, Grumish) reports that Morrie Veilleux, New Richmond, WI district administrator, “said the district initially had planned to issue 25-30 non-renewal notices,” to teachers, “but after talking to his administrative team, he realized that the administrative priorities might differ from the school board’s priorities. Those priorities could range from wanting to lay off the younger teachers – most of which work in the elementary schools and would then cause larger class sizes – to eliminating entire programs at the middle or high school levels.” The New Richmond News adds, “Veilleux said the district’s lawyers suggested issuing a mass notices.”

Michigan Unions Criticize “Anti-Labor” Bills. The Detroit News (2/25, Bouffard) reports that the Michigan “Legislature is debating nearly 40 labor-related bills at a time when unions nationwide say they’re under attack by Republican lawmakers swept into office in November. Hundreds of union members – from construction workers to firefighters to teachers – showed their displeasure with the legislation by rallying in Lansing this week over bills they say are anti-union and would end their rights to bargain collectively, cut their pay and force larger contributions to health care costs.”

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In the Classroom
NAEP Test Results Show Widening Achievement Gap.
The Chicago Tribune (2/25, Hood) reports, “A new national study on science proficiency indicates Illinois students are on par with their peers across the US, but Chicago students are lagging well behind counterparts in other large urban school districts. … Results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly called the Nation’s Report Card, showed Chicago’s eighth-graders scored 27 points lower (out of 300 total) than their peers nationwide in their understanding of several core areas of science: physical, life, earth and space.” The Tribune adds, “Though cities such as New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Miami and Houston ranked ahead of Chicago, the overall findings showed a widening achievement gap between urban and suburban districts that is worrisome to some educators.”

The New York Times (2/25, Santos) reports, “Only 18 percent” of New York City’s “public school fourth graders and 13 percent of its eighth graders demonstrated proficiency on the most recent national science exams, far below state and national levels, according to results released Thursday. Alan J. Friedman, a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests, called the city’s results ‘a big disappointment,’ particularly because New York has a number of cultural organizations devoted to science, like the Museum of Natural History and the New York Hall of Science in Queens, which he directed for 22 years.”

Education Week (2/24, Robelen) reported, “Most of the 17 urban districts that took part in a prominent science exam fell below the national average, with the exception of the school systems in Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; and Jefferson County, Ky.; where 4th graders scored about the same as their peers across the country. Even in those three districts, however, only about one-third of 4th graders were deemed ‘proficient’ in science, according to results released today on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as ‘the nation’s report card.’” Education Week adds, “Overall, the average for all students in big-city public schools was about 14 percentile points behind the nation in science, compared with about 10 points behind the national average in recent results for reading and mathematics.”

The Charlotte (NC) Observer (2/25, Helms), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/25, Richards) and the Louisville Courier-Journal (2/25, Konz) also cover this story.

Detroit District Chief Says Class Sizes Will Not Grow To 60.
The Detroit Free Press (2/25, Dawsey) reports, “Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for” Detroit Public Schools, “attempted to quell some of the fear resulting from his deficit elimination plan that calls for placing as many as 62 kids in a class by 2014. In response to a Free Press inquiry, Bobb said that classes will not balloon to 60 or more children per class” yet “did not say how large they might become, however.” Bobb “said he is working on a new budget that is due to the state by May 31 and that he expects to get savings from sharing some services with the city and the Wayne County Regional Educational Service agency.”

North Carolina District Chief Challenges Clinton To Visit Schools.
WTVD-TV Raleigh, NC (2/24) reported on its Website, “Wake County [NC] Schools Superintendent Tony Tata has issued a challenge to former president Bill Clinton,” inviting him “to visit the Triangle to see how great schools are in the Wake County Public School System.” WTVD noted that when Clinton “honored the Little Rock Nine last weekend,” he “complimented Wake Schools in calling the district one of the largest, most successful urban school districts in America. But then he chided the school board majority, saying the district seems to have decided to ‘let these kids go to school with more of their own kind.’”

The News & Observer (NC) (2/25, Goldsmith) reports, “Former President Bill Clinton has become the highest-profile figure to wade into the controversy involving the future of Wake County’s public schools. Clinton chose the opening of an exhibit in his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. on one of the nation’s most dramatic school integration events to criticize Wake County’s change in direction on keeping schools’ populations balanced by students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.” The News & Observer notes that “newsmakers including federal Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and cable television satirist Stephen Colbert had taken swipes at the decisions made by the board leadership in charge since December 2009.”

On the Job
Rhode Island District Votes To Send Termination Notices To All Teachers.
The Providence (RI) Journal (2/25, Borg) reports, “After a raucous discussion, the Providence School Board Thursday night voted 4 to 3 to send letters of termination to the 1,926 teachers in the city’s school district.” The Journal adds, “Every one of the district’s teachers received a certified letter from the School Department Thursday informing them that they might be terminated at the end of the school year” and many teachers who spoke at a forum Thursday said they “were caught off guard by Mayor Angel Taveras’ decision to terminate teachers instead of laying them off. Every speaker Thursday night questioned the mayor’s rationale for the possible firings: a $40-million school budget deficit and a March 1 deadline by which the School Department must notify teachers if their jobs are in jeopardy.”

The Los Angeles Times (2/25) reports, “The school board of Rhode Island’s financially troubled capital city has voted to send termination letters to all of its nearly 2,000 teachers after city officials said the move would give them ‘maximum flexibility’ to make budget cuts. … The financial problems in Providence, the state’s biggest city, have caused enough alarm at the state level that Gov. Lincoln Chafee has instructed two of his top fiscal officers to meet with city officials. A recent audit showed Providence, which has about 175,000 residents, had nearly depleted its rainy-day fund and overspent its budget last year by more than $57 million.” CNN (2/25) also covers this story on its Website.

American Federation Of Teachers Chief Unveils Tenure Overhaul Plan.
The New York Times (2/25, Gabriel) reports, “Responding to criticism that tenure gives even poor teachers a job for life, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, announced a plan Thursday to overhaul” teacher tenure policies that “would give tenured teachers who are rated unsatisfactory by their principals a maximum of one school year to improve. If they did not, they could be fired within 100 days.” The Times adds that “Weingarten said the process represented a major advance over current systems, which do not include detailed improvement plans and often end up in tortured hearings ‘litigating the teacher’s competency.’”

Law & Policy
HOPE Bill Moving Swiftly Through Georgia House.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/25, Diamond) reports, “Georgia lawmakers Thursday fast-tracked the proposed overhaul of the popular lottery-funded HOPE scholarship. First the House higher education appropriations committee…approved the bill” then “the full House appropriations committee discussed and approved the bill.” The Journal Constitution adds, “HOPE traditionally covers all tuition at public colleges for students who maintain a 3.0 GPA. But the bill would tie the scholarship amount to revenue from the Georgia Lottery instead.”

Safety & Security
Virginia District School Board To Review Discipline Policies.
The Washington Post (2/25, George) reports, “School board members in Fairfax County [VA] agreed Thursday night to review discipline policies in a move that some hope will lead to change in the aftermath of a recent teen suicide. Nick Stuban, 15, had been suspended from W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax when he took his life Jan. 20″ and Stuban’s “death sparked a growing concern among Fairfax parents that the discipline system is too punitive, with harsh hearings, long suspensions and destabilizing school transfers.”

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School Finance
Maryland District Board Approves Major Budget Cuts.
The Washington Post (2/25, Samuels) reports, “The Prince George’s County [MD] school board approved on Thursday night a gloomy budget that slashes more than 1,300 jobs and increases class sizes, despite the pleas of parents and educators who begged the panel to find another way. Still, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the 8-to-1 vote was only a first step, as he held out hope that the tough-love fiscal plan might persuade the state and county governments to contribute more money.” The Post adds, “In an effort to close a $155 million gap, the plan would cut 300 staff vacancies, 400 teachers and 92 librarians, among other personnel reductions.”

Virginia District Budget Proposal Includes Raises, Larger Classes.
The Washington Post (2/25, Sieff) reports, “Arlington County [VA] Superintendent Patrick K. Murphy proposed a $470 million budget on Thursday that would give employees their first raises in two years but would increase average class sizes in the district. Like most other Northern Virginia school divisions, Arlington is working to reconcile a tight budget with substantial projected enrollment increases.” The Post adds, “The Arlington school system spends more per pupil than any other school district in the Washington area, and it has some of the region’s smallest average class sizes.”

Houston District Chief Proposes Series Of Budget Cuts.
The Houston Chronicle (2/25, Mellon) reports, “Fewer police officers would patrol school hallways, property taxes would rise, several campuses would close and about 300 central office jobs would be cut next year under HISD Superintendent Terry Grier’s initial cost-cutting proposals. Grier asked the Houston school board on Thursday to consider increasing the property tax rate by up to 4 cents and reducing a tax discount known as the optional homestead exemption.” According to the Chronicle, “Houston Independent School District officials are preparing for a shortfall of $171 million based on deep cuts in state funding.”

Also in the News
California District Employs GPS Technology To Combat Truancy.
The Los Angeles Times (2/25, Cruz, Times) reports that 32 students “in the Anaheim [CA] Union High School District are participating voluntarily in what some consider a cutting-edge solution to the age-old problem of truancy. Backers of the program hope that by giving parents and school officials a better idea of where students are – and by giving students a visible incentive to resist peer pressure to skip classes – the GPS can succeed where curfews, strict punishments and even fines for parents have failed.” Though “Anaheim is the first district in California to try the idea, cities elsewhere in the country, including San Antonio and Baltimore, have used GPS to chart the movements of chronic truants and say they have experienced considerable success.”

Administrator Pay Under Scrutiny In Texas.
The New York Times /Texas Tribune (2/24, Smith) reported, “Beaumont Independent School District is the 64th largest in Texas” yet it “is also the home of the state’s highest-paid public school administrator,” as Superintendent Carrol A. Thomas draws an annual salary of $346,778, “a fact that could soon put an uncomfortable spotlight on the community. For lawmakers scrutinizing every possible saving, the broad category of ‘administrative costs’ presents an easy mark.”

Virginia African-Americans Split In Battle Over School Vouchers.
The Washington Post (2/25, Kunkle) reports that Precious Blessing Academy in Richmond, VA “sent a delegation of schoolchildren to the Virginia General Assembly last week to support a bill giving businesses a huge tax break for funding poor children’s tuition. They were stunned that one of their opponents was a hero of Virginia’s civil rights movement: Sen. Henry L. Marsh, a powerful black Democrat who represents their Richmond district.” According to the Post, “In Virginia, and elsewhere, the debate over school choice and voucher-like programs has split the African American community along generational, and perhaps, class lines.”

Pro-Union Demonstrators Turn Out Across US.
Demonstrators backing public workers and unions in Wisconsin turned out across the US on Saturday. The AP (2/27, Condon, Richmond) reported the demonstrators “turned out in cities nationwide to support thousands of public workers who’ve set up camp at the Wisconsin Capitol.” Meanwhile, the Wisconsin State Journal (2/27, Hart) reported more than 70,000 turned out in Madison in the “the largest day yet in their continuing struggle to stop” Walker’s plan to “essentially end collective bargaining rights for most public employees.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/27, Gilbert, Walker) reported the state’s “scorched-earth budget battle has become a consuming national spectacle and defining political moment, an episode with few parallels in the legislative annals of this or any state.” What started “as one state’s budget dispute has become a much bigger melodrama, test case and proxy war, spawning fundraising and advertising campaigns, mobilizing labor and the left on a national scale and transforming a longtime but low-profile conservative cause (reducing the power of public employee unions) into a hot-button issue that could influence the 2012 Republican nominating fight and shape the future of organized labor.”

The New York Times (2/27, Oppel, Williams) reported, “With booming chants of ‘This will not stand!’ at least 70,000 demonstrators flooded the square around the Wisconsin Capitol on Saturday. … It was a call heard in sympathy protests that drew thousands of demonstrators to state capitals and other cities from Albany to the West Coast.”

The Washington Post (2/26, Fletcher) reported Walker “threatened to trigger as many as 12,000 layoffs beginning next week unless lawmakers enact his plan to strip public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights.” The AP (2/26, Condon) said school districts “are warning teachers that their contracts might not be renewed” as Walker’s “plan to cut nearly all public employees’ collective bargaining rights remains in limbo.”

The Los Angeles Times (2/27, Sewell) reported in Los Angeles, “hundreds of boisterous pro-union demonstrators gathered” on the steps of City Hall, “loudly voicing their support for the Wisconsin workers while speaking of concerns that the perennially forceful labor movement in California could one day face a similar crisis.”

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (2/27, Von Sternberg) reported a demonstration in St. Paul that drew more than 1,000 people “was one of 50 planned by the liberal activist group moveon.org to be held nationwide.”

Indiana Provides Example For States Seeking To Eliminate Collective Bargaining. The New York Times (2/27, Greenhouse) had a piece on Indiana, “where Gov. Mitch Daniels eliminated bargaining for state employees six years ago.” That example “shows just how much is at stake, both for the government and for workers. His 2005 executive order has had a sweeping impact: no raises for state employees in some years, a weakening of seniority preferences and a far greater freedom to consolidate state operations or outsource them to private companies.”

Impasse Looks Likely In Ohio. Over in Ohio, the AP (2/26, Sanner) reported Republican lawmakers “sifted through stacks of proposed changes to a bill that would dramatically reduce collective bargaining rights for state employees, as thousands of opponents geared up for demonstrations ahead of a likely vote next week.” The state Senate leadership “set a Friday deadline for amendments, which were still being processed into the evening.” But the Cleveland Plain Dealer (2/26, Guillen) reported labor leaders “refused to help reshape the plan, which would diminish public workers’ collective bargaining rights, because it is beyond repair, they said.”

Governors Take Sides On Wisconsin Public Union Standoff. USA Today (2/28, Hall) reports a national governors meeting “focused on closing huge state budget gaps showed chief executives deeply divided Sunday over whether a Wisconsin plan that has sparked weeks of protests by public employees is the way to go.” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley “was all for a proposal by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a fellow Republican, to bring his projected $3.6 billion two-year budget deficit under control by cutting state workers’ health care and pension benefits and sharply limiting their right to collective bargaining.”

In Wake Of Wisconsin Standoff, Public Unions Making Major Concessions. The New York Times (2/28, A1, Cooper, Greenhouse) reports as Wisconsin’s “governor and public employees square off in the biggest public sector labor showdown since Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981, government employees’ unions in a range of states are weighing whether to give ground on wages, benefits and work rules to preserve basic bargaining rights.” It is “not yet clear whether Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin will succeed in his quest to strip public employee unions of most of their bargaining rights. But by simply pressing the issue, he has already won major concessions that would have been unthinkable just a month ago.”

The Washington Post (2/28, Whoriskey, Gardner) reports the “divide between government worker unions and their opponents, playing out now in several state capitals, highlights a critical aspect of the evolving labor movement.” The “recent state budget controversies feature union members bargaining against state and local governments over wages and benefits provided by taxpayers. The shift reflects the profound changes in American unionism.”

Tuesday Could Be Crucial Day In Wisconsin Union Bargaining Dispute. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/28, Marley) reports, “Neither side is budging in Wisconsin’s epic fight over union rights, but at some point the dispute must come to a head. And Tuesday could prove to be a crucial day.” Gov. Scott Walker says “that is the deadline for the his budget-repair bill to pass because it includes a $165 million bond restructuring needed to shore up problems in the fiscal year that ends June 30.” Tuesday is “also the day Walker will deliver his two-year budget – one that will cut aid to schools and local governments by more than $1 billion, he said Sunday in television appearances.”

Walker, Fellow GOP Governors At Center Of Public Sector Union Debate. The New York Times (2/28, Davey, Zeleny) reports that in private, “three of the Republican governors at the center of a growing national debate over public sector workers commiserate in telephone calls and e-mail messages. In public, the three – now members, it seems, of a newly established fraternity – sound like one another’s biggest boosters.” The Times notes the network of Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker, New Jersey’s Gov. Christie, and Indiana’s Gov. Mitch Daniels, noting that “for all their camaraderie, significant differences exist – both in tone and substance – in the three governors’ approaches to cutting the costs of their public work forces, limiting unions and demanding austerity. Their strategies are shaped by their states’ relationships with the unions, by their personal styles and even by their political ambitions.”

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On the Job
New York City Details Worst-Case School Layoffs.
The New York Times (2/28, Santos) reports, “The New York City Department of Education made public on Sunday a list that estimates the number of teachers each school will lose to layoffs if the state does not allocate more money for schools and seniority rules are not changed. The layoffs, totaling 4,675 teachers, 6 percent of the active teachers in the system, would spare virtually no academic subject or neighborhood, and they would affect 80 percent of the approximately 1,600 public schools in the city.” The Times notes that the “list details the worst case, and its projections may never materialize.”

Mayor Tries To Reassure Teachers Amid Furor Over Firing Notices In Rhode Island.
The New York Times (2/25, Goodnough) reported, “A day after the school board in Providence, R.I., voted to send termination notices to all of the city’s 1,926 teachers, Mayor Angel Taveras sought to calm the uproar by saying that an ‘overwhelming majority’ would not, in fact, lose their jobs. Mr. Taveras, a Democrat who took office last month, described the extraordinary step as a pre-emptive move to guarantee flexibility in addressing the budget deficit.” According to the Times, “Rhode Island law requires teachers to be notified of possible layoffs or terminations by March 1, which is why the school board did not wait for next year’s budget picture to become clearer.”

The AP (2/28) reports, “A union representing teachers in the state’s financially troubled capital city says it has met with the mayor to discuss the decision to send them all termination notices. … The Providence Teachers Union said its president, Steve Smith, met with the city’s new mayor, Angel Taveras, on Sunday to explain the potential ramifications to the city based on what it called ‘the unlawful firing’ of all 1,926 teachers.” The AP adds, “Smith, who wants the termination letters rescinded, said firing any teacher without cause is unacceptable and would be more costly to the city, the union said in an e-mailed statement.”

Law & Policy
Education Overhaul Package Clears Idaho Senate.
The Idaho Statesman (2/25, Murphy) reported that a “divided” Idaho Senate “agreed to change the balance of power in labor negotiations between local school boards and teachers and to implement a statewide pay-for-performance plan for Idaho teachers after five hours of tense debate Thursday. Now the first two-thirds of school Superintendent Tom Luna’s education overhaul head to the House, where they are expected to meet a far more hospitable reception” yet “not all of Luna’s plan may remain intact. The final part of the education-reform plan – which would fund the pay-for-performance plan, increase technology in the classroom and begin to equip each Idaho high-schooler with a laptop by increasing class sizes and eliminating 770 teaching positions – awaits changes in the Senate Education Committee.”

Tennessee Teachers Decry GOP Bills.
The Columbia (TN) Daily Herald (2/28, Fletcher) reports, “Storm winds rattled the bay doors of the volunteer fire department” in Culleoka, TN “as state legislators met with several hundred constituents for a sometimes blustery discussion of education and other issues.” According to the Daily Herald, “audience members decried GOP proposals affecting the Tennessee Education Association, which is the state’s teachers union. Teachers at the meeting said they are concerned that these bills will harm their ability to bargain for good working conditions or competitive wages, but the lawmakers said they are working to improve education while being fiscally responsible.”

Kansas Seeking To Opt Out Of Some NCLB Requirements.
KSN-TV Wichita, KS (2/27) reported on its Website that Kansas officials are seeking permission from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to opt out of some NCLB requirements for this year, as David Dennis, Chairman of the Board of Education, “says too many Kansas schools will be sanctioned for not meeting those requirements if action is not taken soon.” KSN added, “Secretary Duncan agrees there needs to be change and is leaning toward giving states more flexibility. ‘We have to provide much more flexibility and get Washington off the backs of local educators that are doing a great job,’ Duncan said.”

The AP (2/26) reported, “The federal government should allow Kansas schools to stop chasing an ‘elusive’ goal of having 100 percent of students fare well on state tests by 2014, said the chairman of the state’s Board of Education. David Dennis, a Wichita Republican, sent a letter earlier this month to US Education Secretary Arne Duncan seeking a waiver from some of the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind education law. He said Friday that it’s time to focus on a system that actually works.”

House Vote Could Bring Texas Closer To Race To The Top Funds.
The Dallas Morning News (2/25, Huisman) reports, “It has been a week since the House passed an amendment that sought to snip the strings attached to $830 million in aid for Texas schools, but many government officials are unclear whether the amendment accomplished what it set out to do.” The Morning News adds, “Democrats and Republicans are under increasing pressure to resolve the stalemate. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced last week that Texas has until Sept. 30 to accept the funds; after that, the money will go back to the US Treasury.”

Rhode Island Race To The Top Funds At Risk.
GoLocalProv (RI) (2/28) reports that Rhode Island Campaign For Achievement Now “is warning that as much as $75 million in Race to the Top funds is at risk under the new Board of Regents.” RI-CAN Executive Director Maryellen Butke “said she was concerned about Rhode Island’s Race to the Top money could be at risk after recent statements made by US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Last week, in a statement to Education Week, Duncan said the government would be willing to rescind funding” if states do not follow through on Race to the Top plans.

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School Finance
Study Ranks Budgeting Efficiency Of School Districts.
The Washington Post (2/28, Anderson) reports that a new Center for American Progress “analysis of spending patterns and test scores in school systems nationwide found a surprising result: Manassas Park [VA] and Calvert County [MD] have the most efficient schools in the Washington area.” According to the Post, “The Obama administration has picked up on the theme as the flow of federal aid from the 2009 stimulus law has dried up. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in November declared that the ‘new normal’ for schools will be doing more with less.”

Students In Ohio District Take Up Boxing Amid Deep Cuts To Athletic Programs.
The New York Times (2/26, Maag) reported that “hundreds of Toledo [OH] youths…have discovered boxing this year after the public school system, facing a $39 million deficit, cut its athletics budget. It is a scenario that is being played out across the country, as high unemployment, falling home values and declining tax revenues continue to batter school finances.” According to the Times, “At the beginning of the school year, the” Toledo “district disbanded all sports teams for middle school students and high school freshmen.”

Also in the News
North Carolina School District Grapples With Integration Issue.
The New York Times (2/28, Winerip) reports though the Wake County, NC school district has long “been known as a strong academic district committed to integration,…a new conservative majority was elected to the Wake school board” in 2009 “and last spring it voted to dismantle” an integration plan which bused students from impoverished neighborhoods to schools in more well-to-do neighborhoods. However, civic leaders have “unveiled their proposal for a third generation of integration,” which would mandate that no school “have an overwhelming number of failing students. Instead a school might have a 70-30 mix — 70 percent of students who have scored proficient on state tests and 30 percent who are below grade level.”

Los Angles District Set To Renew Charter Contract Despite Evidence Of Cheating.
The Los Angeles Times (2/28, Blume) reports, “The performance of Crescendo charter schools was nothing short of remarkable – annual gains on state tests that were sometimes 10 times what other schools would consider strong progress. .. Last year, administrators and teachers at the six schools south of downtown Los Angeles were caught cheating: using the actual test questions to prepare students for the state exams by which schools are measured.” However, “on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to act on a staff recommendation to reauthorize Crescendo’s charter, giving the organization another five years to operate.”

Bill Gates Backs Teacher Development To Improve Education.
In a Washington Post (2/28) op-ed, Bill Gates says, “Over the past four decades, the per-student cost of running our K-12 schools has more than doubled, while our student achievement has remained virtually flat.” But we “know that of all the variables under a school’s control, the single most decisive factor in student achievement is excellent teaching. It is astonishing what great teachers can do for their students.” Yet “compared with the countries that outperform us in education, we do very little to measure, develop and reward excellent teaching. We have been expecting teachers to be effective without giving them feedback and training. To flip the curve, we have to identify great teachers, find out what makes them so effective and transfer those skills to others so more students can enjoy top teachers and high achievement.”

Idaho House To Consider Education Overhaul, Collective Bargaining Restrictions.
The AP (3/1) reports, “Lawmakers in the Idaho House plan to take up legislation this week that would eliminate tenure for new teachers, restrict collective bargaining and introduce merit pay.” The plan, devised by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, would “boost technology in the classroom and require online courses, while also bumping up the minimum teacher pay. Idaho would increase class sizes to help pay for the reforms and cut 770 teaching jobs under the plan, which is being reworked in the Senate amid lawmaker concerns over class sizes.”

Idaho Students Descend On State Capitol To Protest Plan. The Idaho Statesman (3/1) reports that police in Boise, Idaho, “ushered protesting students out of the state Capitol on Monday afternoon, after roughly 150 students demonstrating against school superintendent Tom Luna’s education-reform proposals began chanting in the rotunda. With students on the three floors shouting ‘Kill the Bill,’ the noise reached every corner of the Capitol.” Most students at the Capitol were from Boise, but “Students from Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and American Falls have walked out of classes” in protest of the Luna plan.

KPVI-TV Idaho Falls, Idaho (3/1) reports, “Many high school students throughout eastern Idaho weren’t in class Monday morning, but instead, were outside protesting. … Arizona Knight, Sophomore at Highland High School: ‘We need more one-on-one time. Not computers. Not technology, no. We need teachers.’”

The Idaho Reporter (3/1, Iverson) reports that the student protests at the Capitol “started out quietly, with some students doing homework as others held signs opposing school reforms proposed by state schools superintendent Tom Luna. By the end of their protest, state and local police had to escort the students out of the Capitol to a park across the street.” An Idaho State Police official estimated some 250 students were escorted out, adding that “it wasn’t the students’ message that spurred the police action. He said the noise at the Capitol can’t be disruptive.” Reuters (3/1, Zuckerman) also covers the student protests.

Legislator Forces Aloud Reading Of Education Bills. The Twin Falls (ID) Times-News (3/1, Botkin) reports that Idaho Senate Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai invoked a “parliamentary move” on Thursday “that took about an hour of the five-hour session the Senate dedicated to passing two of three bills in public schools chief Tom Luna’s education reform proposal. Malepeai’s request: Let’s read the bills aloud before we debate and vote on them.” After legislators declaimed the text of the bills, Malepeai “defended the move. In a statement, he said the legislation is too important to rush through; he was concerned votes would be cast by senators who hadn’t read the bills.”

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In the Classroom
Gates Calls For Better Teachers To Have Larger Classes.
The AP (3/1, Freking) reports that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, speaking Monday at the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, said that despite budget shortfalls, “schools can improve the performance of students if they put more emphasis on rewarding excellent teaching and less emphasis on paying teachers based on seniority and whether they have a master’s degree.” Gates said “that he’s concerned that many states will reduce how much money goes to education. At the same time, he’s convinced that spending cuts don’t necessarily have to harm students. One way to save money would be to get more students in front of the very best teachers. Those teachers would get paid more with the savings generated from having fewer teachers overall. ‘There are people in the field who think class size is the only thing,’ Gates said. ‘But in fact, the dominant factor is having a great teacher in front of the classroom.’”

Daniel De Vise writes at the Washington Post (3/1) “College Inc.” blog about his interview with Gates, who “famously dropped out of Harvard in 1975 to launch the company initially known as Micro-Soft. … Lately, Gates has been advocating paying teachers based on classroom performance instead of seniority and ending costly investments in class-size reduction, two of the more provocative topics in public education. .. Gates’s central point is that the nation is spending more than ever on public education and not getting better results in return.” However, “Many education leaders would say that Gates’s criticism is unfounded” based on improving test scores. Meanwhile, “the research community has more or less confirmed that class-size reduction doesn’t yield significant performance gains.”

Blogger Backs Gates’ Call For Larger Class Sizes For “Best Teachers.” Ezra Klein writes in a blog post on the website of the Washington Post (3/1) writes about Bill Gates’ suggestion that “the conventional wisdom that smaller class sizes mean better education” may be misleading, noting that he has “advocated for bigger class sizes — at least for the best teachers.” Klein concludes that it “seems worth a try, at least.”

California Superintendent Touts New Method For Helping Struggling Readers.
The Tri-City (WA) Herald (3/1, Von Lunen) profiles Lou Gates, superintendent of schools in Burbank, California, who has penned an article in The Reading Teacher in which he “introduces a method to teach struggling readers he said is more reliable than existing strategies. Now that his method is peer-reviewed and published, it might grab the attention of textbook publishers and other school districts. The core innovation in Gates’ research is that he showed English to be more predictable than previously thought. Instead of a lot of confusing and shifting rules about which sounds one should say when reading certain letters put together, every word in a child’s vocabulary now falls into one of five categories.” Gates has dubbed his system “Phonguage.”

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Law & Policy
Indiana Teachers Say Governor Unfairly Targeting Them.
The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press (3/1) reports, “In pushing for a list of education reforms during the current session of the Indiana General Assembly, Gov. Mitch Daniels and legislative allies repeatedly have said the agenda is not an indictment of public schools or the teachers who work in them.” However, “‘It absolutely feels like that,’ said Art Adye, a Reitz High School teacher who chairs the Evansville Teachers Association’s political committee. ‘I know that’s what they say, and they also say it’s all about kids. Anyone who takes a legitimate look at what’s part of the package can’t help but come to the conclusion that this is a coordinated attack on public schools, public school teachers and especially on (teacher unions),’ Adye said.”

Special Needs
Connecticut Parents Seeking Changes To IEP System.
The AP (3/1) reports, “A group of Connecticut parents and lawmakers are requesting changes in the way school districts draw up education plans for students with special needs. The legislature’s education committee heard testimony Monday on a bill to give parents more input in the early stages of creating Individualized Education Programs (IEP). Federal law mandates those plans for students with special needs.” Parents are seeking the right to offer prior input to teachers and other individuals engaged in writing the plans.

Safety & Security

Illinois Students Use Citizenship Program To Address Bullying, Cyber-Bullying.
TribLocal.com (IL) (3/1, Conenna) reports, “Highland Park Elm Place Middle School 7th graders will formally address bullying and cyber-bullying for this years Project Citizen Program. Project Citizen, is a nationally sponsored program teaching civic education where the students identify a community problem and after research, develop a public policy and action plan to promote and legislate it.” This is the first year in the past ten in which students at the school have not selected an ecologically-themed project.

Massachusetts Student Program Offers Anti-Bullying Advice To Peers.
The Walpole (MA) Times (3/1) profiles the “Bully Busters” program at Farley Elementary School in Hudson, Massachusetts, noting that “for the past three years, the school’s Bully Busters, made up of fourth-grade students, have given tips to students through skits and a new program that answers letters to the group seeking advice. The Bully Busters began three years ago after Farley’s fourth-grade teachers wanted to create a signature service learning project and the students suggested doing something to curb bullying. … During the first year of the program, students collected information from all grade levels about the types of bullying students were experiencing. They then wrote and performed skits highlighting the issues and ways the students could prevent bullying.”

Facilities
Los Angeles Schools Lay Off Mandatory Construction Site Inspectors.
The Contra Costa (CA) Times (3/1, Llanos) reports that the Los Angeles Unified School District has laid off state-mandated inspectors required to be “at dozens of school construction sites, potentially compromising the safety of children.” The piece reports “that regulators have warned the district for more than two months that California law requires a state-certified inspector to be assigned to every construction site to ensure compliance with building and safety codes. The Division of State Architect has the authority to shut down construction or withhold certification unless an inspector is present to oversee the work. Without an inspector responsible for every construction site, experts say, there’s no assurance that adequate precautions are being taken to guarantee the safety of students during school hours.”

School Finance
Florida Legislature Renewing Teacher Merit Pay Push.
The Orlando Sentinel (3/1, Postal) reports that though then-Gov. Charlie Crist (R) vetoed a bill mandating merit pay for teachers last year “to the cheers of teachers,” “a new teacher merit-pay proposal is moving briskly through the Florida Legislature. The Senate proposal, in fact, passed through its last committee stop last week and is ready for a floor vote on the second day of the upcoming session. The very similar House bill is not far behind.” Less “far-reaching” than the previous versions, the current bills “still push ‘badly needed’ reforms that recognize quality teaching is the key to student learning, said education Commissioner Eric Smith. The bills would tie teachers’ evaluations to their students’ academic gains, as measured by tests, and then would use those evaluations to make decisions about employment and pay.” The Orlando Sentinel (3/1) also runs a sidebar listing the details of the bills from both houses of the state legislature.

Also in the News
New York Governor Calls For Limits On Superintendent Salaries.
The New York Times (3/1, Kaplan) reports that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), “in his boldest attack yet on what he calls wasteful spending by school districts, introduced legislation to limit superintendents’ pay,” noting that the move closely resembles a similar proposal enacted recently by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). “Mr. Cuomo’s proposal would tie superintendents’ maximum pay to the size of their school districts, with the leaders of New York’s largest districts limited to a salary of $175,000 and those in the smallest limited to $125,000. It would not affect the New York City school system, where the chancellor, Cathleen P. Black, earns $250,000 a year.” Cuomo “singled out administrative compensation as one area where districts could find savings as they worked to absorb his proposed $1.5 billion reduction in state school aid, which has drawn criticism from teachers’ unions and education groups.”

Bloomberg Says Cuomo’s Cuts Will Mean Nearly 5,000 Teacher Layoffs.
The AP (3/1) reports that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has released a budget proposal that includes cuts to around 4,675 teacher positions. Under the plan, some schools “could lose 20 percent of their current teachers” while “most of approximately 1,600 schools would lose one to five teachers.” Bloomberg “said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget, which would cut $1.4 billion in aid to city schools, will leave him with no option but to lay off teachers. Under the state law that Bloomberg is seeking to overturn, any teacher layoffs would be governed by seniority, with the most recently hired teachers getting the ax. Schools staffed mainly with recent hires could lose 30 to 40 percent of their teachers, and veteran teachers from other schools would replace them.”

Wisconsin Schools Face Deep Cuts Under Governor’s Budget.
In continuing coverage, numerous major media outlets across the nation continue to cover the impasse between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic legislators over Walker’s proposal to rescind collective bargaining rights. Amid the furor, Walker has now proposed a budget which contains deep education spending cuts. The AP (3/2, Bauer) reports, “Gov. Scott Walker is plowing ahead with his full plan for balancing Wisconsin’s budget, proposing massive cuts to public schools even as he faces a stalemate over his proposal to strip public workers of collective bargaining rights. With Senate Democrats still missing, Walker presented the second part of his two-year spending plan to the Legislature on Tuesday” which “relies on getting concessions from government employees to help pay for about $1 billion cuts in aid to schools, counties and cities.” According to the AP, “Walker says eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public-sector workers would give state agencies, local governments and school districts flexibility to react quickly to the cuts.”

The New York Times (3/2, Davey, Oppel) reports, “Gov. Scott Walker, whose push to limit collective bargaining rights and increase health and pension costs for public workers has set off a national debate, proposed a new budget for Wisconsin on Tuesday that called for deep cuts to state aid to schools and local governments, provoking a new wave of fury.” Walker “called for no tax or fee increases, but cuts of $1.5 billion to items like the schools and local governments – the preferable choice, he said, for solving a deficit expected to arise in the two-year budget period that begins in July.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/2, Stein, 206K) reports Gov. Scott Walker “vowed Tuesday to close a gaping state budget gap by reshaping Wisconsin government at every level: holding spending of state tax dollars nearly flat, slashing aid to public schools and local governments while expanding state aid to private schools, eliminating 1,200 state jobs with some possible layoffs and placing the tightest limits on property taxes that the state has seen.” The budget “was unveiled as a dramatic legal fight played out over the administration’s restriction of public access to the Capitol, where protesters have demonstrated for days.”

According to USA Today (3/2, Jones, Keen), Walker “said the proposed cuts could be offset by cuts in public-employee health and pension benefits under his proposal to end collective bargaining for most public-employee unions. … If his effort succeeds, it could be replicated in other states, curtailing the cost of union benefits and salaries while undercutting the political power of union members, who often support Democratic candidates.”

Ohio Democrats, Unions Object To Revised Collective Bargaining Bill. The New York Times (3/2, Tavernise) reports, “Republican state senators unveiled a new version of a bill governing public employee unions on Tuesday, saying it would preserve their right to collective bargaining, but Democratic lawmakers said the revisions failed to alter the essence of the bill, and in some cases made it even worse.” According to the Times, “Most significant for local workers like police officers and firefighters was the change that would give elected officials the power to decide labor impasses, something that is currently handled by neutral third parties, said Mark Horton, the treasurer of the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters. ‘It’s worse than before,’ he said.”

The Washington Post (3/2, Gardner, Fletcher) reports, “Thousands of union supporters descended on the Ohio Statehouse on Tuesday to protest a proposal to dramatically curtail bargaining powers of government workers.” The Post notes that “unlike the ongoing standoff in Wisconsin,” Ohio Democrats “don’t have the numbers to walk out and delay a vote.” The AP (3/2, Sanner) also covers this story.

AFL-CIO Leader: Wisconsin Fight Energizing Unions. The AP (3/2) reports, “In trying to take away nearly all collective bargaining rights from state workers, Wisconsin’s governor may have unintentionally given the American labor movement the lift it needed after years of decline. … ‘We’ve never seen the incredible solidarity that we’re seeing right now,’ AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters Tuesday at the federation’s headquarters.” According to the AP, “Trumka said the clash between pro-union protesters and Republican leaders in Wisconsin has brought a level of excitement to unions that he hasn’t seen in years – one that could spark a resurgence in the American labor movement.”

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In the Classroom
Los Angeles School Board To Close Six Charter Schools Caught Cheating.
The Los Angeles Times (3/2, Blume) reports, “The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to shut down six charter schools that were accused of widespread cheating on last year’s standardized tests, citing the malfeasance and an insufficient response to it. The board took the initiative to revoke the charter of the Crescendo organization despite an earlier recommendation by the district to reauthorize its schools for another five years.” According to the Times, “Crescendo founder/executive director John Allen allegedly ordered principals and teachers to prepare students for last year’s exams with the actual test questions.”

On the Job
Cuomo Seeks Swift Change in Teacher Evaluations.
The New York Times (3/2, Kaplan) reports that New York “Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Tuesday that he would introduce legislation to speed the implementation of a statewide system to evaluate teachers’ performance. His announcement came minutes after the State Senate passed legislation sought by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that would reverse a rule protecting long-serving New York City teachers from layoffs regardless of their effectiveness.” Cuomo “is seeking to accelerate the introduction of new standards for teacher and principal evaluation that the state’s Education Department, with the support of teachers’ unions, has been developing since last year.”

Teachers Group Looks To Make It Easier To Fire Teachers.
The Detroit Free Press (3/2, Higgins) reports, “The AFT-Michigan issued a proposal Tuesday to improve teacher quality through more effective evaluation and due process.” David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, “said the tenure process can be streamlined by as much as 40%, in part by reducing the amount of time teachers have to file an appeal; how long an administrative law judge has to complete a hearing, and the time given attorneys to file briefs. Also, having more than one administrative law judge to hear the cases would make the system more efficient, he said.”

Law & Policy
Idaho Bill Increasing Class Sizes Stalls.
The Spokesman-Review (ID) (3/2, Russell) reports, “The centerpiece of Idaho’s controversial school reform plan may be dead, senators indicated late Tuesday, even as separate bills on teacher contracts and pay move through hearings in the House. The main bill, SB 1113, was sent back to the Senate Education Committee last week after earlier squeaking through it on a 5-4 vote; on Tuesday, committee members said it’s not coming back to the full floor.” According to the Spokesman-Review, “The measure sought to raise Idaho’s class sizes in grades 4-12 and eliminate 770 teaching jobs in the next two years, to generate millions in savings that would be funneled into technology boosts, including laptop computers for every high school student and a teacher performance-pay plan.” The AP (3/2) also covers this story. The Twin Falls (ID) Times-News (3/2, Botkin) also covers this story.

Idaho House Committee Hears Testimony On Education Reforms. The AP (3/2) reports, “Lawmakers in the Idaho House started taking public testimony Tuesday on legislation to eliminate ‘tenure’ for new teachers, restrict collective bargaining and introduce merit pay. For every supporter to speak in favor of the legislation, about five opponents railed against the measures in Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s reform plan.” According to the AP, “Teachers have taken issue with the use of the word ‘tenure’ in the legislation and say continuing contracts are being mislabeled, calling the measure as a whole ‘mean-spirited.’” KPVI-TV Idaho Falls, ID (3/1, Kunz) also covered this story on its Website.

Tennessee Lawmakers May Soften Teachers Union Bill.
The Tennessean (3/1, Sisk) reported that Tennessee “lawmakers may soften a controversial bill that would put an end to mandatory negotiations between school districts and the teachers union. Leaders in the state House of Representatives are considering an amendment that would give local school boards the option of deciding whether to negotiate contracts with their teachers.” According to the Tennessean, “At the request of Gov. Bill Haslam, the Senate has held up a vote on the bill for nearly a week while House leaders work on a compromise that would keep the bill from getting bottled up.”

Numerous Education Stakeholders Speak Language Of Reform.
Education Week (3/1, Cavanagh) reported on its Website, “The rhetoric of education today tends to divide the world in two: between those who favor ‘reform’ and those who don’t.” According to Education Week, “References to ‘reform’ and ‘status quo’ fill policy papers” and “color the speeches of politicians in both parties, including President Barack Obama and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan, and Republicans like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as the remarks of forceful and charismatic advocates, such as former District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.” Education Week adds that in using reform “language,” President Obama and Duncan “were following a tradition that has an indelible place in American politics and policymaking.”

Texas Schools Contemplate Race To The Top Changes.
The Texas Tribune (3/1, Smith) reported, “The Obama administration’s 2012 Department of Education budget includes $900 million for the Race to the Top program” and “districts – as opposed to states – can apply for the funds. For Texas districts, if it’s approved, that could mean access to new federal dollars that Gov. Rick Perry passed up last year.” Though “cash-strapped districts may leap at the opportunity for much-needed extra funds, some in the education community caution that receiving a Race to the Top grant could mean unwieldy testing requirements for their schools.”

Duncan Defends Obama’s Budget On Capitol Hill.
CNN (3/1, Holland) reported on its Website, “It takes a lot of guts to go up to Capitol Hill in the current budget-cutting climate and ask for more money, yet that’s what Education Secretary Arne Duncan did at his appearance at the Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday. President Obama’s 2012 budget request for education, including Pell Grant increases, calls for an 11% increase over the 2011 continuing resolution level.” According to CNN, “An increase in demand for Pell Grants, a program for low-income students that covers up to $5,500 per year for college costs, is partly to blame.”

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Safety & Security
Philadelphia Schools Chief Urged To Continue Reforms.
The Philadelphia Enquirer (3/2) editorializes, “An extra year added to her contract should refuel Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman’s drive to address the litany of ailments affecting most urban school districts today, especially school violence. The School Reform Commission’s extension of Ackerman’s contract until at least 2014 removes that distraction so she can focus on her reform agenda.” The Inquirer adds, “Ackerman has received accolades for her Imagine 2014 strategic plan, and US Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently touted her Renaissance Schools as a model for other cities. So, it’s understandable that the SRC would want to give her an additional year to reach her goals.”

Also in the News
Obama, Jeb Bush, Duncan To Headline Education Event In Florida.
The Miami Herald (3/1 Clark) reported, “President Barack Obama will share a political stage at a Miami high school Friday with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, giving the president’s education initiative a bi-partisan boost. The Republican governor, who last summer criticized Obama as ‘childish’ for continuing to blame the sluggish economy on former President George W. Bush, will join the president and Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Miami Central Senior High School where Obama is to deliver remarks on his push for improving US schools.” The Herald adds, “Duncan said the White House had proposed the visit to Bush, who recommended Miami Central.”

The Miami Herald (3/2, McGrory) reports, “In deciding which Miami-Dade school to visit this week, President Barack Obama (with a little help from former Gov. Jeb Bush) chose the poster child for turnaround schools: Miami Central Senior High.” Duncan “praised the Miami-Dade school system, which recently established a department to oversee 19 of its persistently low-achieving schools. ‘The district has worked extraordinarily hard to recruit and retrain high-performing teachers and administrators,’ Duncan said.”

The AP (3/2, Armario, Farrington) adds that the joint appearance between Obama and Bush “comes as Obama aims to rewrite [NCLB] – signed into law by the governor’s brother, former President George W. Bush, no less. … ‘The president working with Gov. Bush, working with leaders across the aisle, is hugely important for leading the country to where we need to go,’ Duncan said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday, citing a range of figures that show United States students trailing behind students in other countries. ‘We need to put politics and ideology to the side.’”

NEA in the News
First Lady, Van Roekel, Duncan To Appear At Read Across America Event.
Yahoo News (3/1) reported, “Beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss (born Theodor Geisel) would have celebrated his 107th birthday on Wednesday. In honor of his work and to foster the love of reading in children, the National Education Association will host the 14th annual Read Across America celebration.” Yahoo added, “First lady Michelle Obama is also reportedly getting into the spirit of the event, making a scheduled appearance at the Library of Congress to read Seuss’ classic ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ on Wednesday. She is expected to be joined by both NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for the reading.”

The AP (3/2) reports, “Students in Tennessee will join millions of their peers across the country to celebrate the ninth annual National Education Association’s Read Across America Day on Wednesday. The NEA said in a news release that the goal is to show youngsters the joy of reading and build a nation of readers” and the NEA “said it expects more than 45 million readers across the country to participate.”

Tom Silverstein wrote in a blog for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/1), “The NEA’s Read Across America Day Kickoff Event features celebrity readers…who will read in front of hundreds of school children and encourage students across the country to read more. … Among those attending will be first lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, ‘Today Show’ correspondent Norah O’Donnell, NBC news correspondent Luke Russert and actresses Bridget Moynahan and Jessica Alba.”

Ohio Senate Passes Bill To Curtail Public Employees’ Bargaining Rights.
Bloomberg News (3/3, Niquette) reports the Ohio Senate “passed a bill to limit collective-bargaining rights for public employees by a 17- to-16 vote, with all Democrats and six Republicans objecting. The measure now moves to the Republican-controlled House.” Sen. Shannon Jones, “the bill’s sponsor, acknowledged the demonstrators, though she said the measure is needed to give state and local governments the ability to cut costs and lower the number of firings needed in the face of budget reductions.” The legislation “would require workers to contribute at least 15 percent of their healthcare premiums and prohibit negotiations on those benefits.”

The New York Times (3/3, Tavernise) reports the bill “is expected to be passed next week in the House and signed into law by Gov. John Kasich, who issued a statement applauding the Senate vote. Democratic lawmakers said they would take it to a ballot referendum this fall.”

The Washington Post (3/2, Gardner, Fletcher) reports, “Like their counterparts in Wisconsin, protesters here accused” lawmakers and Kasich “of trying to use a budget crisis to destroy public-sector unions. Government workers did not cause the crisis and should not bear the brunt of it, protesters said.” But “unlike the ongoing standoff in Wisconsin, Democrats don’t have the numbers to walk out and delay a vote.”

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In the Classroom
Kansas District Granted NCLB Waiver.
The McPherson Sentinel (KS) (3/2, Sawyer) reported that the McPherson, KS district “has been granted a” NCLB “waiver from state standardized tests,” and the district is the first “in the country to receive a waiver from the state standardized testing system,” says district Superintendent Randy Watson. According to the Sentinel, “The waiver…means the district will not be responsible for meeting the Annual Yearly Progress subject and grade-level testing standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind program.” KSN-TV Wichita, KS (3/2) also covered this story.

On the Job
Teachers Demoralized By Attacks On Pay, Benefits.
The New York Times (3/3, Gabriel) reports that “around the country, many teachers see demands to cut their income, benefits and say in how schools are run through collective bargaining as attacks not just on their livelihoods, but on their value to society.” Even in a country “that is of two minds about teachers — Americans glowingly recall the ones who changed their lives, but think the job with its summers off is cushy — education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters.” Republican lawmakers “in half a dozen states are pressing to unwind tenure and seniority protections in place for more than 50 years.” Some experts “question whether teaching, with its already high attrition rate — more than 25 percent leave in the first three years — will attract high-quality recruits in the future.”

More Commentary. In his Washington Post (3/3, 605K) column, Matt Miller says the “future of the country depends on the public-sector workers known as teachers. That’s because unless we dramatically improve our educational performance, America’s standard of living will be at risk.” But “we’ll never attract the kind of talented young people we need to the teaching profession unless it pays far more than it does today.” Anyone “serious about improving American schooling has to reckon with this paradox: Unions here are often obstacles to needed reform, even as the world’s best systems work hand in glove with their unions to continually improve their performance.”

Rhode Island District Teachers Rally In Protest Of Mass Termination Notices.
The Providence Journal (3/3, Borg) reports, “In a rally that echoed the public employee protests in Wisconsin, about 1,000 teachers and their supporters thronged Kennedy Plaza Wednesday to tell” Providence, RI Mayor Angel Taveras “to negotiate, not terminate.” The protestors “gathered to tell Taveras that he was wrong to send out termination letters to all 1,926 Providence teachers. Although the mayor has promised to bring back most of the teachers, this decision – and one to close as many as six schools – has left teachers wondering if they will have jobs next fall.”

The Boston Globe (3/3) reports, “A panel appointed by Mayor Angel Taveras to review Providence finances said on Wednesday the city faces a $70 million structural deficit this year, and a $110 million structural deficit the next. The panel’s complete findings were not scheduled to be released until Thursday, but some details were released Wednesday, including its finding that without immediate action, the city, the second largest in New England and the state capital, will face a deficit of as much as $29 million in the fiscal year that ends in June.” According to the Globe, “The problems have led the city to issue firing notices to all its teachers, a move Taveras says gives him ‘maximum flexibility’ to close schools and make other cuts needed to balance the budget.”

New York Governor’s Teacher Evaluation Plan Criticized.
The New York Times (3/3, Hernandez) reports the New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo “has portrayed a plan to change the way New York teachers are evaluated as a significant break with the past that would end a longstanding practice of laying off less senior teachers first. But critics of the governor’s proposal said Wednesday that it would not be the revolutionary move he had made it out to be, at least in the short term.” Though “the proposal would expand the criteria by which teachers are judged, it would leave intact a provision in state law that requires layoffs to be carried out in reverse order of seniority, a policy known as ‘last in, first out.’”

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Law & Policy
Midwest Union Battles Highlight Debate Over Improving Schools.
The Washington Post (3/3, Anderson) reports, “The Republican faceoff with labor unions in the Midwest and elsewhere marks not just a fight over money and collective bargaining but also a test of wills over how to improve the nation’s schools. Various GOP proposals to narrow labor rights, dismantle teacher tenure and channel public money toward private schools raise a question: Should states work with teacher unions to overhaul education or try to roll over them?” The Post adds that the aftereffects of the labor clash “could ripple far beyond their statehouses, polarizing what has been until now a largely bipartisan movement to fix education and perhaps complicating efforts in a divided Congress to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law.”

Wisconsin Senators Remain At Odds On Budget Stalemate. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/3, Stein) reports Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats “made an effort Monday to find a deal in the state’s budget stalemate, exchanging a private offer and counter-offer but remaining far apart in their positions, according to lawmakers present at the talks.” Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) “drove to Kenosha Monday to meet with two Senate Democrats among the 14 who fled to Illinois last month to block action on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair proposal.” And in an “effort Wednesday to step up the pressure on the Democrats, the state Senate unanimously – with only Republicans present -adopted a resolution that would fine senators $100 each time they miss a session day without a valid excuse.”

Duncan, Senators Outline NCLB Reform Plan.
McClatchy Newspapers (3/3, Barrett) reports, “Saying the current education policies are failing kids, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a group of mostly Democratic senators plan to introduce a set of revisions that would move away from rigid testing and toward flexibility for local school districts.” McClatchy adds, “At a news conference Wednesday at a Washington public school, Duncan and a group of moderate senators slammed No Child Left Behind as a law that’s frustrated parents, teachers and principals across the country. Duncan, a former schools superintendent in Chicago, said that under current law, states could lower their standards so that more students appeared to be succeeding.”

The Charlotte (NC) Observer (3/2, Bennett) reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “and a group of Democratic senators this morning embraced a slate of education reforms that move away from rigid testing and toward flexibility for local school districts. The recommendations come as Congress prepares to reconsider the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as ESEA, which offers a slate of regulations and funding for K-12 education.” The Observer adds, “Duncan and the senators unveiled their proposal this morning at a press conference at an elementary school in Washington, D.C.” The Denver Post (3/3, Sherry) also covers this story.

Talk Radio News (3/2, Cameron) reported, “Moderate Senate Democrats gathered Wednesday on the Walker Jones Education Campus in D.C., a pre-K-8 school, to introduce key principles in American education by stressing the need for the urgency of reform to the No Child Left Behind program. ‘Education is the civil rights issue of our generation,’ said US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who joined the group in its call for action.” Talk Radio News adds, “Addressing several problems in No Child Left Behind, the proposed principles aim to close the Title I Comparability loophole, support bold efforts at school turnaround, target accountability structures, foster innovation, and ameliorate teacher recruitment, training, and evaluation systems.”

Education Week (3/2, Klein) reported, “A group of moderate Democratic senators released a set of principles Wednesday for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that largely echoes the Obama administration’s vision for overhauling the law as outlined in the administration blueprint put forth almost a year ago. Still, the statement of principles marks the first time in recent years that a group of lawmakers has come together with a vision for revising the current version of the law, the No Child Left Behind Act, which was slated for renewal back in 2007.” Education Week adds, “US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who was on hand when the senators unveiled their ideas at the Walker-Jones Education Campus, a pre-K-8 school in Washington, gave the lawmakers a thumbs-up for moving on education.” KDVR-TV Denver (3/2, Stokols) also covered this story on its Website.

Tennessee Senate Panel Passes Teacher Tenure Bill.
The Knoxville News Sentinel (TN) (3/3, Humphrey) reports that Tennessee “Gov. Bill Haslam’s teacher tenure bill took a step forward in its first committee hearing Wednesday, while legislation to block cities and counties from enacting anti-discrimination laws took a step back. The tenure bill (SB1528) was approved in a 6-3 party-line vote by the Senate Education Committee, with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing.” According to the News Sentinel, “The bill extends from three to five years the time newly hired teachers must spend on probation before being granted tenure, which makes it more difficult to fire them.”

NEA in the News

Duncan, First Lady Headline Read Across America Event.
The AP (3/3) reports that in honor of Read Across America Day, “First Lady Michelle Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan read the Dr. Seuss classic ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ to about 250…elementary school students. Duncan told the children gathered at the Library of Congress on Wednesday that his parents didn’t allow television in his house when he was growing up, which helped him develop a love for reading and learning.” The AP adds, “Read Across America Day is an annual celebration of reading held on Dr. Seuss’ birthday by the National Education Association.”

The AP (3/3, Nuckols) reports that First Lady Michelle Obama “and Education Secretary Arne Duncan marked Read Across America Day by reading the Dr. Seuss classic ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ to students at the Library of Congress who wore red-and-white-striped stovepipe hats inspired by Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Cat in the Hat.’” According to the AP, “Duncan told the children that his parents ‘were a little bit crazy’ because they didn’t allow television in the house when he was growing up. ‘Instead, my parents read to me and my brother and sister every single night, and we didn’t always understand that, but it really instilled in us a love of learning and a love of reading,’ he said.”

The Washington Post (3/3) adds, “The NEA’s ‘Read Across America’ kickoff at the Library of Congress, on what just happened to be the late Dr. Seuss’s 107th birthday. So, an array of attractive celebrities (Jessica Alba, Green Bay wide receiver Donald Driver), a gaggle of D.C. area school kids in floppy Cat in the Hat hats, and the first lady resplendent in pink and orange.” The Post notes that NEA President Dennis Van Roekel was also on hand for the event. The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (3/3, Murray) and the Daily Mail (UK) (3/3) also covered this story, as did Lesa Jansen in a blog for CNN (3/2) and Marielena Hatzigiannis in a blog for CBS News (3/2). ABC News (3/2) also posted a video clip of the “Read Across America” event on its Website.

Idaho House Panel Passes Bills Curbing Collective Bargaining Rights.
The Twin Falls (ID) Times-News (3/4, Botkin) reports, “Two pillars of [Idaho] Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s “Students Come First” plan passed the House Education Committee Thursday on 13-5 votes, setting the stage for a vote on the House floor. If the bills become law, the legislation will revamp the state’s system of negotiating contracts with teachers, add performance-based pay incentives, and phase out tenure by not awarding it to new teachers, replacing it with two-year rolling contracts.” The Times-News adds, “The bills have proven divisive, as many teachers have raised concerns that the legislation will hurt their job security, limit negotiations with school boards, and eliminate seniority as a consideration when school districts lay off teachers to cope with declining enrollment.”

The AP (3/4) reports, “Legislation to eliminate ‘tenure’ for new teachers, restrict collective bargaining and introduce merit pay is headed toward its final hurdle in the Idaho Legislature. … The measures are part of a plan by public schools chief Tom Luna to overhaul K-12 education in Idaho, where furor over the proposal has triggered teacher and student protests.” The Spokesman-Review (3/4) also covers this story.

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In the Classroom
Clashes Pit Parents Against Gay-Friendly Curriculums In Schools.
The New York Times (3/4, Shih) reports, “Polls show that the public’s stance against same-sex marriage is softening, and education about gay issues has expanded dramatically in recent years around the country, but experts suggest that the battle over what should and should not be a part of public school curriculums has just begun.” According to the Times, “California is poised to take a step sure to sharpen the debate. A bill introduced in December by State Senator Mark Leno, Democrat of San Francisco, would require all of the state’s history textbooks to include figures and events in gay history and portray them ‘in a positive light.’”

On the Job
Duncan Expresses Opposition To “Last In, First Out” Teacher Layoff Policies.
The New York Times (3/4, Dillon) reports that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “urged state and local authorities to avoid short-sighted decisions as they cut school budgets, and said laying off teachers based solely on seniority was ‘a wrong way to cut spending.’” The Times notes that 14 states “ban districts from considering any factor but seniority in layoffs” which “often results in layoffs of young teachers. Teachers’ unions say, however, that laying off by seniority prevents struggling districts from removing more experienced and higher-paid teachers.” The New York Post (3/4, Gonen, Campanile) also covers this story.

CNN (3/3, Holland) reported on its Website, “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stepped onto his bully pulpit Thursday, arguing for states to protect their education budgets. He sent a letter to all 50 state governors outlining the flexibility that the governors have in spending federal education dollars, and giving them suggestions on how to manage their education resources during tight budget times.” According to CNN, “If cuts require teacher cuts, Duncan said ‘Layoffs should be based on a number of factors but the most important thing we can do is keep the best teachers in schools where they are needed most.’”

Howard Blume wrote in a blog for the Los Angeles Times (3/3) that Duncan “Thursday criticized the education funding cuts that California lawmakers have used to balance the budget, but offered limited alternatives for accomplishing the same level of cost savings in the short run.” According to Blume, “Duncan had some alternative ideas, but some of them, such as improving data systems, would add to near-term costs before producing savings, and others could yield only modest savings compared with the size of the cuts that states are seeking, or they could require years to bear fruit.” Reuters (3/4, Lambert), the Wall Street Journal (3/4, Martinez) and the Bellingham (WA) Herald /Contra Costa Times (CA) (3/4, Harrington) also covered this story, as did Arlette Saenz in a blog for ABC News (3/3).

WPost: “Last In, First Out” Policies Hamper School Improvement Efforts. The Washington Post (3/4) editorializes that a “last in, first out” teacher layoff policy in New York City backed by state law “doesn’t allow performance to be a factor and that means good teachers – possibly even great teachers – are likely to be forced out of the classroom. It’s an indefensible policy,” and revamping “this counterproductive policy takes on a new urgency as states grapple with fiscal challenges.” The Post adds, “Refreshingly, US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in a conference call with reporters Thursday, clearly opposed seniority as a litmus test for continued employment.”

Walker Issues Layoff Warnings To Wisconsin State Employee Unions.
The New York Times (3/4, Davey, 1.01M) reports Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin “said Thursday that he would begin issuing layoff warnings to unions representing 1,500 state employees on Friday if his bill to sharply reduce collective bargaining rights and benefits for public sector employees remained at an impasse in the Legislature.” Meanwhile, GOP leaders in the state Senate, “where the bill has been stalled since Senate Democrats left the capital two weeks ago to block a vote, passed a provision that they said allowed law enforcement officers to detain the missing Democratic senators if they were seen anywhere in Wisconsin and take them to Madison.” Both measures “were aimed at increasing the pressure on Democrats,” but they also “significantly raised the stakes in a fight that has grown into a national referendum on unions and public workers and has spread to Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere.”

Pro-Union Protestors Leave Wisconsin Capitol. The AP (3/4, Bauer) reports, “Pro-union protesters who had been camping out at the Wisconsin Capitol for 17 days vacated the building peacefully late Thursday after a judge ordered the building closed at night but ruled the state was wrong to restrict access to the building during the day.” Police “confirmed that all of the protesters had departed, and that there had been no arrests. The peaceful departure came after two hours of back-and-forth exchanges between the police and demonstrators, who demanded to see the court order saying they had to leave.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/4, Walker, Marley, Stein) reports the “more than two-week occupation of the state Capitol ended peacefully, as Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs gently prodded and patiently waited for around 50 of the last holdout protesters to file out of the rotunda.” Earlier Thursday, “in a historic ruling after three days of testimony, Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Albert on Thursday issued an interim order calling for the immediate removal of overnight protesters at the State Capitol and putting state officials on notice that improved access to the building has to be in place by Monday morning.”

The Wisconsin State Journal (3/4, Cullen) reports Judge Albert “rejected claims by officials in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration that the protests over Walker’s proposal to limit collective bargaining that have roiled the Capitol for more than two weeks were so disruptive that public access needed to be slowed to a trickle.”

Walker’s Aggressive Effort To Enact Agenda Noted. The Los Angeles Times (3/4, Riccardi) reports even before Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin “set off a national firestorm by proposing to strip most Wisconsin government workers of their collective bargaining rights, he had hit the ground running.” The Times recounts some of the items on Walker’s agenda that have passed the legislature or that he has enacted through executive actions, and notes that Democrats “contend that Walker seems to be more interested in changing Wisconsin’s political dynamics than in financial stewardship. Even outside observers are starting to agree.” Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said, “What you’ve got is a governor who’s come in with a great appetite for achieving his ends. This is far more about power than it is about money.”

Democratic Legislators Face Criticism For Skipping Town. The Washington Post (3/4, Somashekhar) reports that some Democratic state legislators “have recently embraced a simple tool to gain leverage: the empty chair.” The tactic “is still being used in spectacular fashion by Wisconsin legislators, who fled to Illinois two weeks ago to prevent a vote on a bill that would weaken public employee unions. And Democrats from Indiana who are upset about a similar issue also have decamped to Illinois, holing up at a Comfort Suites in Urbana.” The “disappearing lawmakers have succeeded in drawing out the various debates, underscoring their seriousness and ensuring that they remain in the headlines day after day. But they have also provoked a backlash among critics who wonder whether it’s fair for the legislators to essentially take their ball and go home instead of acknowledging that they’ve lost the game.”

Law & Policy
Bill Curbing Ohio Public Unions Draws Less Protest.
The AP (3/4, Sanner, Smyth) reports with “barely a whimper of the protests that have convulsed Wisconsin, legislation to curb public employee unions is speeding toward passage in Ohio, an even bigger labor stronghold.” Labor experts “said the greater tumult in Wisconsin reflects the state’s long history of progressive political activism; the Statehouse’s location in Madison, the famously liberal home of the University of Wisconsin; and perhaps a feeling of hopelessness among Ohio’s working class, which has been hit particularly hard by the recession.” The rallies in Madison “have topped more than 70,000 people, compared with roughly 8,500 on the largest day of demonstrations at the Ohio Statehouse. When the Ohio bill passed the Senate 17-16 on Wednesday, the crowd was estimated at 450.”

The Christian Science Monitor (3/4) reports the Ohio Senate “accomplished in just days what Wisconsin lawmakers are still debating during a standoff that is in its third week and counting.” If passed, Ohio “will become the biggest state to impose sweeping reforms on public-sector unions. Besides Wisconsin, similar measures are moving through legislatures in Indiana, Tennessee, Idaho, and Kansas.”

The Dayton Daily News (3/4, Bischoff) reports Gov. John Kasich said “the collective bargaining bill” is “‘very fair’ to workers because they’ll be allowed to negotiate for wages and it gives taxpayers some balance.” Kasich said, “The primary reason why I wanted to do collective bargaining reform is to give local governments the tools to deal with fewer dollars. And we can also save a lot of money. But I want the communities to have the tools to provide an ability to cope with fewer dollars.”

The Cincinnati (OH) Enquirer (3/4, Horstman) profiles GOP state Sen. Shannon Jones, noting her “central role in the acrimonious battle over a dramatic remake of Ohio’s collective-bargaining law shows that she is not shy about tackling white-hot issues – or stepping into the political spotlight.”

Some Predict Backlash From Ohio Public Union Bill. The Washington Post (3/4, Gardner) reports Ohio Republicans “took the toughest line yet against public-sector unions this week, delivering an early and significant victory for a slew of lawmakers elected in November.” But Democrats “and even some Republicans said that the bold action and the uncompromising way it was carried out could boomerang on Republicans in the next election, in much the same way that the stimulus bill and healthcare overhaul haunted Democrats in Ohio and elsewhere last year.” GOP state Sen. Tim Grendell, who voted against the bill, said, “People in the public believe that this collective-bargaining bill was a Republican overreach, and now you’re going to see a sort of slap-back reaction.”

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Safety & Security
Texas Legislature Spotlights Bullying In Schools.
The New York Times (3/4, Smith) reports that the death of middle-school student Asher Brown “has given momentum to antibullying bills filed in the Legislature this session – there are currently more than 15. But the prospect of legislation, supported by teacher organizations and advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League, has drawn opponents as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Liberty Institute, a conservative legal organization.” The opponents “question how successful any new law will be in curbing aggression in schools and say that policing such conduct is best accomplished locally.”

Also in the News
Obama To Visit Miami School On Turnaround Path.
The AP (3/4, Armario) reports on President Obama’s scheduled visit to Miami Central Senior High School on Friday, noting that he will be accompanied by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other education leaders, and in 2008, Miami Central scored “an ‘F’ on state reports” yet “began a transformation” which has borne fruit, as in 2010, “58 percent of sophomores were rated as proficient in math, up from 17 percent in 2001.” The AP adds, “Miami Central’s story illustrates the challenges faced by public schools that have been rated as ‘failing’ since the No Child Left Behind Act was passed into the law during the Bush administration. Despite frustrating efforts to turn them around, administrators and researchers still haven’t reached a consensus over what works.”

Duncan Applauds Miami Central’s Turnaround Progress. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan writes in an op-ed for the Miami Herald (3/4), “Every day educators across the country are challenging the status quo and showing that low-performing schools can be turned around” and President Obama “and I will visit Miami Central Senior High School to talk to some of those educators.” Duncan notes that “more than 80 percent of” Miami Central “students are on free or reduced price lunch. Yet academic performance is steadily improving – and students and teachers are showing that a committed school can beat the demographic odds.”

Federal School Turnaround Efforts Applauded. The Miami Herald (3/4) editorializes, “It’s taken a lot of hard work by…students, teachers and administrators to dig Miami Central out of the academic basement. … The visit by the president, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former Gov. Jeb Bush is important validation that the administration’s so-called turnaround model for school improvement is paying off.” Student test scores have “skyrocketed” and “suspensions are down about 60 percent from last year,” and these trends “are impressive for a school where more than 80 percent of students come from poor households and get free or reduced-price lunches.”

The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (3/4) editorializes that President Obama and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush “will join US Education Secretary Arne Duncan at Miami Central Senior High School, which has received federal grant money targeted to improve under-performing schools. While worlds apart on other issues, both men have been supportive of one another regarding how best to address the nation’s pressing education challenges.” The Times adds, “At a moment in the nation’s political history when bitterly partisan dialogue seems to rule the day, Obama and Bush are demonstrating that two thoughtful men of often differing views can come together over a substantive issue such as improving the nation’s educational system.”

Bill Gates Says State Budget Battles Detrimental To Education Progress.
AFP (3/4) reports, “Microsoft’s billionaire co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday warned that US state politicians are pitting young against old in their heated budget battles. Politicians are dooming the young by using obvious gimmicks to avoid dealing with soaring pension and health care costs for state employees, Gates said at a prestigious TED conference in the Southern California city of Long Beach.” According to AFP, “Schools are paying the price as tight budgets result in cuts in funding to education, one of Gates’s passions.” The Wall Street Journal (3/4, Guth) also covers this story.

ABC World News (3/3, lead story, 2:55, Sawyer) reported, “Bill Gates, whose foundation spends hundreds of millions of dollars on US schools, called out state officials for incompetence, wasting money and making grave mistakes about teaching American kids to succeed.” Gates: “State budgets are a critical topic, because here’s where we make the real trade-offs. If we make the wrong choices, education won’t be funded the right way.”

Walker Announces Layoffs, Missing Democrats Negotiating With Governor For Return.
The AP (3/4, Smathers) reported that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) “informed state employee unions on Friday that he intends to issue layoff notices to 1,500 workers that would be effective on April 4 to realize cost savings that otherwise would come from a part of the stymied bill forcing those employees to pay more for their benefits.” State departments now “have 15 days to develop layoff plans before individual employees are notified.” Walker and absent Democratic senators are negotiating a deal so they can return to Madison. In recent days, the number of protesters has dwindled, with a “hardcore group” of 50 remaining, mostly students.

The Washington Post (3/5, Fletcher) added that Walker’s lay-off notice “would eliminate most collective bargaining for public employees across Wisconsin, while preventing unions from collecting dues with payroll deductions. Walker’s bill would also prevent unions from requiring members to pay dues. … Walker’s measure would also require state workers to pay more for their healthcare and pensions – which they have agreed to. … A new Rasmussen poll found that 57 percent of likely voters in Wisconsin disapprove of the job Walker is doing, while 43 percent approve. Of those who disapprove, 48 percent strongly disapprove, according to the survey.”

As for the negotiations to get the missing Democrats back to Madison, the New York Times (3/5, Davey) reported, Chris Larson, one of 14 Senate Democrats who left Wisconsin last month to prevent a vote from taking place on the bill, said Friday that negotiations, while still extremely delicate, seemed closer than before to a resolution. “It has come to a point where there could be a breakthrough,’ Mr. Larson said. A spokesman for Mr. Walker did not respond to requests for information.” Neither side has revealed any details about the ongoing negotiations.

Michael Moore Rallies Union Backers In Madison. The AP (3/6, Richmond) reported filmmaker Michael Moore “urged Wisconsin residents Saturday to fight against Republican efforts to strip most public workers of their collective bargaining rights, telling thousands of protesters that ‘Madison is only the beginning.’ The crowd roared in approval as Moore implored demonstrators to keep up their struggle” against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Police said there were “‘tens of thousands’ of protesters but didn’t give a specific count. The vast majority of the crowd was pro-union, and no one was arrested or cited.” The Wisconsin State Journal (3/6, Wahlberg) reported police “estimated the crowd at 30,000 to 40,000, less than the past two Saturdays.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/6, Glauber, Spivak, Stein) reported, “Rallies inside and outside the Capitol took place for the third straight weekend amid a backdrop of political stalemate, as Democrats and Walker’s administration put on hold compromise talks over the bill.” Democratic state Sen. Tim Cullen “said Saturday no new talks are scheduled.”

The Washington Post (3/6, Fletcher) reported that “as the crowd rallied at the Capitol, Democratic Party volunteers canvassed the districts of eight Republican state senators with petitions that, if enough people sign them, could force recall elections. The goal is to replace senators who support Walker, or at least pressure them into compromise.” Meanwhile, the New York Times (3/6, Davey) reported “some of the Senate Democrats, who make up a minority in Madison, found themselves the focus of recall efforts” as well.

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In the Classroom
Schools Weigh The Benefits Of More Classroom Time.
The Los Angeles Times (3/7, Rivera) reports, “President Obama, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and school districts nationwide have embraced extending the school year. In Los Angeles, the Catholic archdiocese recently announced a goal of moving most of its 210 elementary and middle schools to a 200-day calendar.” According to the Times, “Some supporters say US students aren’t in school enough” while others “say the expanded calendar, with the same teachers and curriculum, doesn’t automatically mean a jump in test scores.”

Class Sizes On The Rise Amid School District Budget Cuts.
The New York Times (3/7, A1, Dillon) reports on its front page that “millions of public school students across the nation are seeing their class sizes swell because of budget cuts and teacher layoffs, undermining a decades-long push by parents, administrators and policy makers to shrink class sizes.” The Times adds that some education stakeholders have emphasized the importance of teacher quality over class size, noting that “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan…last Sunday told governors gathered in Washington to consider paying bonuses to the best teachers to take on extra students. Mr. Duncan said he would prefer to put his own school-age children in a classroom with 28 students led by a ‘fantastic teacher’ than in one with 23 and a ‘mediocre’ teacher.”

New York Teacher Layoffs Threaten To Increase Class Sizes. The AP (3/6, Gross) reported that as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg “plans to take more than 6,000 teachers off the payroll to help balance a strained budget, some parent advocates are questioning what the layoffs will do to New York public school class sizes. Across the country, some policymakers have turned their focus away from class size reduction, arguing that it’s too expensive and significant improvements are unattainable in the current budget climate, which already has school districts nationwide slashing jobs.” The AP adds, “On Thursday, US Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued guidance directing education officials around the country to consider ‘modest, smartly targeted increases in class size’ combined with increased pay for the most effective teachers.”

Bipartisan Group Backs Common School Curriculum.
The New York Times (3/7, Dillon) reports, “A bipartisan group of educators and business and labor leaders plan to announce on Monday their support for a common curriculum that states could adopt for public schools across the nation. The proposal, if it gains traction, would go beyond the common academic standards in English and mathematics that about 40 states adopted last year, by providing specific guidelines for schools and teachers about what should be taught in each grade.” The Times adds, “The three-page statement is to be published on the Web site of the Albert Shanker Institute, a research group associated with the American Federation of Teachers.”

Report: No Evidence Mayoral Control Boosted Test Scores In DC.
The Washington Post (3/5, Turque) reported, “Rising standardized test scores, often cited by D.C. officials as evidence of an improving school system, are of limited value in determining whether students are actually learning more, according to the first major independent study of D.C. school reform. That conclusion, part of a report issued Friday by the National Research Council, is likely to drive new debate about the testing-centered culture of D.C. schools and other systems across the country.” According to the Post, “The council is the research arm of the National Academies, and its report is the first in a series of evaluations required by the 2007 law that placed the city’s long-troubled public schools under mayoral control.”

DC Schools Cram For Standardized Tests. The Washington Post (3/7, Turque) reports, “Stung by a decline in elementary school reading and math scores on 2010 standardized tests, D.C. officials are raising the intensity of preparations for this year’s exams to unprecedented levels. In systemwide training ‘webinars’ and school meetings, teachers and administrators have been flooded with data about the prior performance of students on the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System, called DC CAS.” According to the Post, “Some teachers and parents say the emphasis on improving test performance has narrowed the curriculum and flattened creativity and intellectual inquiry in the classroom.”

On the Job
Teacher Layoff Plans In Los Angeles Pose Broad Implications.
The New York Times (3/4, Medina) reports though the Los Angeles Unified School District plans “to lay off as many as 4,500 teachers under what school leaders call a doomsday budget,” a court ruling exempts schools from layoffs. According to the Times, “The ruling, which ratified a settlement agreed to by plaintiffs and the school district, is being appealed by the teachers’ union. … If the ruling is upheld for the seemingly inevitable layoffs this summer, Los Angeles, the second-largest district in the country, will be among the first to dismiss teachers using criteria other than seniority.”

NYTimes: Teacher Layoff Policy Overhaul Needed. The New York Times (3/7) editorializes, “Most reasonable people would agree that, when layoffs become necessary, teachers should be let go through objective evaluations of how well they improve student performance, and not merely on the basis of seniority. The problem throughout most of the country is that evaluation systems are not in place,” and New York “Gov. Andrew Cuomo had this in mind last week when he introduced a bill that would speed up introduction of a comprehensive, statewide evaluation system that New York State legislators ordered developed last year.” The Times adds, “The Legislature should require all districts to subscribe right away, instead of rotating onto it as they negotiate new union contracts.”

Teachers Rally In Tennessee Capital.
The Tennessean (3/6, Upchurch) reported, “More than 3,000 people packed downtown [Nashville, TN] Saturday to protest legislative efforts to end collective bargaining by Tennessee teachers; several hundred counter-protesters demanded that legislators pass the bills. … ‘This is not about budgets. This is a political ballgame. They want to silence the votes of teachers,’ said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association.” The Tennessean added that stakeholders on both side of the debate are urging Tennessee Governor to take a stand on the bills.

Teachers Rally Against Indiana Governor.
The Indianapolis Star (3/6, McCleery) reported, “Hundreds of educators and other supporters of the Indiana State Teachers Association stood in the rain Saturday outside the Indiana Statehouse to protest Gov. Mitch Daniels’ education agenda. The hottest issue seemed to be the governor’s proposal to put new restrictions on collective bargaining by public-school teachers.” Members of the crowd “cheered speeches by ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger and other union leaders.”

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Law & Policy
Congress Cuts Funding For High-Profile Education Programs.
Education Week (3/4, Klein) reported, “More than a dozen education programs-including high-profile efforts focused on literacy, teaching, and learning-are looking at the prospect of a permanent federal funding loss after they were chopped from a stopgap spending measure signed into law by President Barack Obama this week. … The measure slashes nearly $750 million from the U.S Department of Education’s most recent overall discretionary budget of $46.8 billion, excluding Pell Grant funding.” Education Week added that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “said at a March 3 breakfast with bloggers that he hoped the funding could be restored at some point, and that he didn’t consider the cuts in the two-week patch to be the final word on those programs.”

Minnesota Governor To Sign Alternate Teacher Licensure Bill.
The Republic (Columbus, IN) (3/7) reports, “Legislation creating alternative licensing for teachers gets [Minnesota] Gov. Mark Dayton’s signature Monday, creating a new path into the profession for nontraditional teachers and midcareer professionals.” According to the Republic, “The change is aimed at helping to close a wide racial achievement gap in Minnesota and fill projected teacher shortages. … Opponents such as the Education Minnesota teachers union have predicted the change will weaken standards for becoming a teacher.”

Utah Senate Approves Bill To Stop Paid Teacher Union Leave.
The Salt Lake Tribune (3/5, Schencker) reported that the Utah Senate “approved a bill Friday that would prohibit school districts from paying teachers on leave from the classroom to perform union duties. The Senate voted 16-8 on Friday to pass HB183, which would make it illegal for districts to pay teachers on union leave when they perform duties that don’t directly benefit the district.” The Tribune adds that opponents of the bill “have said many of those local presidents’ duties, such as serving on district committees and helping teachers and districts work out issues, benefit school districts and the issue should be decided on a local level.”

Also in the News
DC Mayor To Name Henderson Schools Chancellor.
The Washington Post (3/7, Turque) reports that DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray “intends to name interim schools leader Kaya Henderson as permanent schools chancellor this week to replace Michelle A. Rhee, according to a source close to the situation. Gray (D) has, by most accounts, never seriously considered any other potential leader of D.C. Public Schools.” The Post adds, “Nathan Saunders, president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, said the one-candidate field violates both the letter and spirit of the 2007 law that sets up the search process.”

Obama Joins With Jeb Bush In Miami To Promote Improving Education.
President Obama’s visit to Miami Central Senior High School gets upbeat coverage, most of it focusing on the President’s appearance alongside former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush as a symbol of bipartisan solution-seeking. While none of the broadcast network newscasts covered the event, many national newspapers did.

The AP (3/5, Pace) reported, “Joining forces with the Bush political family,” Obama “tried to lift up his education agenda in politically vital Florida, saying his government is determined to help the nation’s worst performing schools rebound. Said Obama: ‘I am not willing to give up on any school in America.’” The President’s “stop at an improving high school offered the bipartisan imagery he intended: the president on stage and in step with Jeb Bush, the popular Republican ex-governor” and the brother of “the man Obama succeeded in the White House after long assailing his record on the campaign trail.”

The Los Angeles Times (3/5, Oliphant, Parsons) reported that President Obama “tried to strike a bipartisan chord at Miami Central Senior High School, touting its dramatic turnaround and underscoring the importance of federal investment in education at a time when almost every domestic program sits atop a congressional chopping block.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “who also attended the Miami event, said the decision to appear with Bush was an example of Obama’s bipartisan approach to education policy. ‘We all have to work together,’ Duncan said.”

Obama, Duncan Tour Virginia School With Australian Prime Minister.
The AP (3/8, Werner) reports that though there was little agreement on the culinary merits of vegemite, “President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard couldn’t say enough about the close friendship between their two countries” as the pair, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, visited Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, Monday “to mix it up with an 11th grade history class. Obama had used the school as the site of a national address on education, and Gillard is Australia’s former education minister and was interested in taking a look at US education methods. Plus, the venture had a political purpose: Keeping Obama on his month-long message of education even as world events tug away at his time.” The AP notes that when a student asked “whether basketball is played in Australia,” Duncan noted that he “actually played there and claimed to have been the leading scorer for four years.”

The Washington Post (3/8, Goodman) also covers the “unexpected visit,” adding that “Gillard gave an impromptu quiz on Australia. … ‘We are extremely honored that President Obama, Prime Minister Gillard and Secretary Duncan devoted time from their schedules today to engage our students in such a special way,’ said Christian Willmore, Wakefield’s principal, in a statement. ‘The relevance of our students’ daily work in the classroom is heightened when they have an opportunity to spend time with role models from our community and beyond.’”

CNN (3/8, Crawford) also notes that Duncan “once played semi-professional basketball in Australia,” adding that the visit “was part of Obama’s month-long push to emphasize the importance of America out-educating the rest of the world in order to compete in the 21st century global economy according to a statement from the White House. The school has implemented rigorous college preparatory classes, Spanish-language immersion and study abroad programs, as well as a program designed to increase the enrollment of African-American and Hispanic males in Advanced Placement courses.”

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In the Classroom
Michigan Probing Assessments At 34 Schools Seeking Signs Of Cheating.
The Detroit Free Press (3/8) reports that in response to the paper’s analysis which found suspiciously-higher test scores at 34 Michigan schools, the state’s “Department of Education said Monday it had launched a review of state test scores. … ‘Adults cheating with … tests is deplorable and an egregious disservice to the students they are responsible to educate,’ Jan Ellis, a department spokeswoman, said. ‘The department … will be following up on this report.’ Also on Monday, state Rep. Douglas Geiss said he will call for hearings to examine how Michigan investigates cheating” on state assessments. “The Free Press analyzed millions of test scores in Michigan in conjunction with USA TODAY.”

Monitors To Oversee All Baltimore Schools Giving State Test.
The Baltimore Sun (3/8, Green) reports, “Testing monitors will be placed in every Baltimore City school that is administering the Maryland School Assessments beginning this week, an unprecedented measure that comes after an investigation a year ago found test tampering at an award-winning school and a principal of another school was removed pending an investigation into plummeting test scores. City school officials said Monday that 157 testing monitors have been hired to serve in elementary and middle schools where students will begin taking state assessments in math, science and reading on Tuesday. Over the next several weeks, every Maryland student in grades three through eight will be tested in the subjects.” The Sun notes that in 2009, Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited one of the schools investigated, “where he celebrated the students’ achievement and praised it as a model for the country.”

Blogger: NCLB Must Be Fully Overhauled To Erase “False Premises.
Gary M. Ratner, director of Citizens for Effective Schools, writes at the Huffington Post (3/8, Ratner) that it is important to address restructuring NCLB because “it is widely recognized that NCLB is failing to achieve its goals. … As Senators Michael Enzi (Wyo.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), senior Republican members of the Senate’s education committee, recently recognized, for Congress to develop appropriate remedies for NCLB, it must first understand NCLB’s deficiencies. This common-sense observation leads to profound consequences. Because the current law rests on false premises and has serious harmful effects, it cannot simply be ‘fixed’ — it needs to be overhauled.”

Florida School Set To Launch IB Program.
The Palm Beach Post (3/8, Schultz) reports, “William T. Dwyer High School is poised to become the fifth high school in Palm Beach County to offer an International Baccalaureate diploma program that would enable students to leave high school with more than a year of college credits.” Some 40 juniors are expected to participate next year, whole Principal Joseph Lee “expects to have 125 spots available for incoming freshmen and sophomores to take the preliminary programs and then start the official program their junior year.”

Illinois School Unveils Program To “Do Whatever It Takes” To Cut Dropout Rate.
The Proviso (IL) Herald (3/8, Lawton) reports, “A program starting this week at West Leyden High School aims to retain at-risk students and persuade dropouts to return. Through September 2015, the school will have six employees dedicated to doing whatever it takes to retain students. That could include a wide-ranging set of actions.” Dubbed “Project Tapestry,” the program is “paid for by a $1.5 million grant from the Federal government, solicited by the West 40 Intermediate Service Center. West 40, as it’s known, sits halfway between the Illinois State Board of Education and local school districts and aims to assist schools. West Leyden is one of 29 schools across the United States that received the grant.”

Washington State Nonprofit Grant Promotes STEM Education.
The Vancouver (WA) Columbian (3/8, Buck) reports that nonprofit group Washington STEM “has doled out an initial round of seed money designed to help STEM learning blossom forth in school classrooms across Washington. Among the first recipients unveiled Monday: Burton Elementary School in east Vancouver, and La Center Middle School. Burton received an $8,676 grant to allow more than 50 fifth-graders to build and program small, LEGO-component robotics units, folded into larger broader study of wind and solar power technologies.” The group “is bankrolled by big hitters such as Microsoft, the Boeing Co. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation” and “has unveiled $2.4 million in an initial round of grants to 15 teachers, schools and programs, with a target of $100 million total over the next 10 years. Its goal is to get more interactive STEM lessons” and to “underscore the ripe opportunity for STEM studies and lucrative careers in the years ahead.”

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On the Job
Nevada Legislature Panel Calls For Streamlining STEM Teacher Licensure.
The AP (3/8) reports that a “task force” on Monday told the Nevada Assembly Education Committee that the state “should make it easier to get a teaching license for hard-to-fill posts in high school math and science classrooms.” The group calls for “a commission to create more alternative routes to a teacher’s license. The existing alternative process takes three years of classroom experience and concurrent coursework; the new process would take two years. Officials said the bill will accommodate candidates who have relevant work experience, but do not have time for the traditional licensing process.”

Duncan Praises Minnesota Alternative Licensure Law.
In a Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/8) op-ed, Education Secretary Arne Duncan congratulates Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) for signing “a law that will attract new teachers to the classroom and help boost student achievement in Minnesota. The law, which authorizes the Board of Teaching to approve alternative licensure programs for aspiring teachers, is a bipartisan model of how lawmakers can work together on education to do what’s right for children. At present, a midcareer professional, scientist or military veteran would likely have to return to college to earn a degree in teaching before he or she could become a public school teacher in Minnesota.” Noting that TFA needed a “special waiver” to operate in Minnesota before the law, Duncan adds, “CareerTeacher — another innovative certification program designed collaboratively by the teachers union and school district in St. Paul — will now be able to proceed with preparing midcareer professionals to become special-education teachers.”

Facilities
Los Angeles Has Until Friday To Have Construction Inspectors At School Sites.
The Los Angeles Daily News (3/8) reports, “State regulators have given Los Angeles Unified until Friday to provide certified construction inspectors at 14 campuses or face a shutdown of the improvement projects for violating state law. Certified letters sent March 4 by the Division of the State Architect warn that stop-work orders may be issued if the district misses its deadline for providing inspectors to ‘competently, adequately and continuously’ oversee the construction and renovation projects.” The District, the Daily News reports, says that inspectors are being assigned, and stressed that inspections have not been interrupted. However, “California’s Education Code requires districts to provide continuous oversight by state-certified inspectors of all school construction or renovation projects.”

NEA in the News
Teacher Tenure Debate Stirs Controversy.
NBC Nightly News (3/7, story 10, 3:20, Williams) reported on the teacher tenure debate, describing public school tenure as “a controversial teachers union protection, frequently perceived as a job guarantee. Nationwide, a handful of states are trying to eliminate it.” Gov. Chris Christie: “Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure. Let New Jersey lead the way again. The time to eliminate teacher tenure is now.” Ellis: “But what is tenure? New public school teachers get tenure after three to five years, but it is not a job guarantee.” Dennis von Roekel, president, National Education Association: “What it means in the k-12 system is that you are entitled to a hearing, and that’s it.” Ellis: “But at least nine states have replaced tenure and the perception of a permanent position with renewable contracts, based on teacher evaluations.”

NEA’s Wilson To Attend DC Screening Of Documentary On Finnish Education System.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal (3/8) reports, “Former Memphian Robert A. Compton, who produced the education documentary ‘Two Million Minutes’ comparing the typical American high school experience to Indian and Chinese models, will unveil another film later this month. ‘The Finland Phenomenon’ looks at the education system in Finland, which it claims is the world’s best using a regimen nearly opposite the American model.” The Commercial Appeal notes that the film “will receive its premiere at the National Press Club on March 24 followed by a panel discussion led by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and John Wilson, executive director of the National Education Association, among others.”

Columnist Sees NEA, AFT As Contrary To “Free Society.”
In a column in the Colorado Springs Gazette (3/8), Ed Jones writes that the “controversy with public sector unions in Wisconsin exemplifies what happens when government monopolies prevent the interests of individuals to mutually benefit one another. For simplicity, let’s focus on teachers unions. Unions benefit their interests with increased membership and dues revenue. Teachers benefit their interests by keeping their job, earning a salary, and, for many, satisfaction from educating children. … In a free society, these interests are complementary and benefit everyone. A free society has school choice. … A free society doesn’t have union monopolies.” Deep in his column, Jones adds, “With the benefits, granted by the government, to unions, is it any wonder that the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) combined are the largest political contributors in the country?”

TRENTON — Throwing down another challenge to the state’s education establishment to embrace reform, Gov. Chris Christie unveiled a task force report Thursday that called for rigorous teacher and principal evaluations based in large part on student performance on standardized tests.

The recommendations of the New Jersey Educator Effectiveness Task Force, headed by North Brunswick Schools Superintendent Brian Zychowsky, include creating evaluations that would be based entirely on student learning — with test scores being a vital part of that. Four grades would exist for teachers and principals: highly effective, effective, partially effective and ineffective.

The recommendations, Christie said, “will help to improve education for all the kids in New Jersey.”

Standing between Zychowsky and acting Commissioner of Education Christopher D. Cerf, Christie repeatedly said the effort was designed to help make good teachers better, and allow excellent teachers to continue to excel.

Zychowsky praised Christie for setting the tone for an aggressive look at teacher effectiveness.

“Your bold initiatives have really allowed us to get into much needed and long overdue conversations about improving the quality of teaching and learning, and how we measure effectiveness and the importance of that effectiveness relative to the growth of the student,” Zychowsky said to the governor.

In addition to Zychowsky, the task force included current and retired teachers, a PTA member from Lacey Township, education reform advocates and a number of academics.

The New Jersey Education Association reacted Wednesday to the anticipated release of the report, saying that research showed test scores were not reliable enough to form a basis for teacher evaluations.

“We believe student test scores have a place in the evaluation process,” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said in a release Wednesday from the union, “but we also agree with highly regarded researchers that they should not play a determining role in high-stakes personnel decisions.”

The governor and Cerf both criticized the NJEA for reacting to the report before it was released. But union officials rejected that criticism, saying the effort to tie test scores with teacher evaluations was well known before Thursday.

“His executive order. . .stipulates that at least 50 percent of evaluations would be based on test scores,” said Steve Wollmer, NJEA communications director. “Everyone’s known that for months. It’s not like that’s been a state secret. And we knew (the task force report) was coming out this week, so that’s why we issued our report yesterday.”

Cerf also dismissed complaints about the means proposed for teacher evaluations, and said it was past time for doing nothing.

“Any intelligent, responsible observer of teacher evaluation systems today will have to conclude that they’re badly broken,” he said.

“No accountability or evaluation system is perfect,” Cerf added. “But only in public education do we go that “because we can’t get it right to the thousandth degree, we ought not to do it at all.’ And that is, in effect, what we have been doing as a nation and in this state.”

Wollmer said: “That is not our position. We’ve even gone so far as to say that there is a place in the evaluation process for using student test scores, just not the deciding percentage.”

While Cerf criticized the teachers union in nearly academic terms, Christie heaped on the vitriol.

“These people are a joke,” Christie said of the union leadership. “Barbara Keshishian and the executive director (Vincent E. Giordano) over there are a joke, and they’re an expensive joke.”

He later referred to Keshishian as “Miss $265,000-a-year,” a remark about the union president’s salary.

Those comments drew an impassioned response from Wollmer.

“There is no lie that this governor won’t tell about NJEA. We’ve come to accept that,” Wollmer said. “And now he’s calling our leadership names. That is the last refuge of the totally clueless. If you’ve got no other ideas, start calling people names.

“What an insult — not very gubernatorial and certainly not very presidential,” Wollmer said, referring to speculation by some political observers that Christie should run for the nation’s top job.

Christie also said again that he would not meet with the union leadership until a Bergen County union official who sent an e-mail to fellow union members jokingly wishing for the governor’s death was fired. Wollmer said Keshishian, who apologized to Christie about the incident, could not fire the Bergen official.

The majority of the evaluation would focus on the “teacher’s contribution to his/her students’ progress on a statewide assessment,” according to a prepared release from the governor’s office. Smaller portions would hinge on a state-approved student performance measure. There would be an optional area in the process for quantifying performance.

The governor said he would work with the Legislature on making the proposals law, but he also said he would authorize Cerf to use regulatory powers where possible to forward the reform agenda. The reforms would be phased in over a number of years, Christie said, but he stressed the need to begin implementing them now, adding that a pilot program could be ready by the fall.

Christie cited records that show only 17 teachers were fired because of competence issues in the past 10 years as evidence that poor teachers are being protected by the current system. The NJEA disputes those figures, saying scores of teachers every year leave the profession rather than face scrutiny of their competency.

Cerf indicated that there needs to be a way to distinguish the top performers from those who are not adequate.

“Teachers are extraordinary professionals,” he said, “but they are not interchangeable commodities.”

While a good portion of the news conference was given over to criticism of what Christie said is union intransigence, Cerf sought at one point to sound a conciliatory note:

The proposed teacher evaluation process, he said, “is not an effort to root out or find or pick on those very distinct minorities of teachers who are really not up to the job. It should not be threatening. It should be a contribution to the professional discourse about teachers.”

Christie also said again that he would not meet with the union leadership until a Bergen County union official who sent an e-mail to fellow union members jokingly wishing for the governor’s death was fired. Wollmer said Keshishian, who apologized to Christie about the incident, could not fire the Bergen official.

The majority of the evaluation would focus on the “teacher’s contribution to his/her students’ progress on a statewide assessment,” according to a prepared release from the governor’s office. Smaller portions would hinge on a state-approved student performance measure. There would be an optional area in the process for quantifying performance.

The governor said he would work with the Legislature on making the proposals law, but he also said he would authorize Cerf to use regulatory powers where possible to forward the reform agenda. The reforms would be phased in over a number of years, Christie said, but he stressed the need to begin implementing them now, adding that a pilot program could be ready by the fall.

Christie cited records that show only 17 teachers were fired because of competence issues in the past 10 years as evidence that poor teachers are being protected by the current system. The NJEA disputes those figures, saying scores of teachers every year leave the profession rather than face scrutiny of their competency.

Cerf indicated that there needs to be a way to distinguish the top performers from those who are not adequate.

“Teachers are extraordinary professionals,” he said, “but they are not interchangeable commodities.”

While a good portion of the news conference was given over to criticism of what Christie said is union intransigence, Cerf sought at one point to sound a conciliatory note:

The proposed teacher evaluation process, he said, “is not an effort to root out or find or pick on those very distinct minorities of teachers who are really not up to the job. It should not be threatening. It should be a contribution to the professional discourse about teachers.”