Individual States Show Progress In Closing Gaps On NAEP.
The Washington Post (3/25, Anderson, Turque) reports, “A report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that fourth-grade” reading “scores for the nation’s public schools stagnated after the law took effect in 2002, rose modestly in 2007 and remained unchanged last year. … The national picture for eighth-grade reading was largely the same: a slight uptick in performance since 2007, but no gain in the seven years” when NCLB “was in high gear.” The Christian Science Monitor (3/25, Paulson, Khadaroo) reports that, according to Amy Wilkins, Vice President of the Education Trust, “One glimmer of hope in the nation’s report card…is that individual states have shown progress in closing gaps.” For instance, “among Florida fourth-graders…the black-white gap and the income gap have narrowed.”

The New York Times (3/25, Dillon) reports that some experts attribute “the lagging reading scores…to declines in the amount of reading children do for pleasure as they devote more free time to surfing the Internet, texting, on cellphones or watching television. Others blame undemanding curriculums.”

The AP (3/25, Armario) reports that “the nation’s fourth-grade math scores flattened last year and eighth-grade scores improved two points.” It points out, however, that since 1990, “there has been a 27 point increase overall” in math “for fourth-grade students.” Brookings Institution senior fellow, Tom Loveless, noted, “To the extent that there are gains, they’re found amongst the lowest achievers.” This, “he suspects…is related to the enactment of more accountability systems at the state and federal level that focus attention on the lowest achievers and punish or reward schools based on progress with that group.”

Georgia Achievement Gap Narrowing.

Students Celebrate National Engineers Week. The Anderson (SC) Independent-Mail (2/17, Jackson) reports, “Some Clemson Elementary School students filled the Hendrix Student Center at Clemson University on Tuesday to celebrate National Engineers Week. Mary Beth Kurz, professor of industrial engineering at Clemson University, said a total of more than 150 first- and second-graders from the school participated in learning exercises from stargazing to understanding artificial knee and hip replacement technology.” Kurz said, “Our goal is to encourage students to like math and science. If they begin to understand the importance of math, then they will be ready to study engineering in the future.”

News 8 Austin (2/16) reported on “Discover Engineering Week” in the Austin area, which will give students “a hands-on and updated view of the engineering industry,” and will include visits from industry professionals who “will talk about the importance of engineers in society and provide interactive features for students and teachers.” Another News 8 Austin (2/16, Iglehart) story reported, “IBM is one of the companies participating in” the initiative. Yesterday, “IBM trained volunteers for the program and taught various activities to get students acquainted with the life of an engineer. … Each activity gives students an idea of how important engineering is to their community and the impact it can have on their daily lives.”

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Governor Announces Texas Will Not Participate In Race To The Top.
The AP (1/14) reports that Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said that the state will not “compete for up to $700 million in federal stimulus money for education because the program ‘smacks of a federal takeover of our public schools.’” Surrounded by “representatives of teachers’ unions” and Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, Perry said at a press conference Wednesday that “taking the money would force the state to adopt national education and testing standards and result in Texas losing its autonomy in educating children.” The governor also noted that “under state and local control,” schools in Texas are excelling: “standardized test scores are up, the dropout rate is down and Texas has been recognized as one of only four states that is closing the achievement gap in math.” Some lawmakers, however, “were quick to criticize Perry’s decision.”

The Houston Chronicle (1/14, Mellon) reports that Perry’s “decision to forgo the money available in the Race to the Top grant competition defied pleas from local school leaders who said their districts could use it.” Terry Grier, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, asked, “If our standards are that much better, why don’t we get in there and convince everyone else in the nation to rise to our level?” Meanwhile, many state teachers groups praised the decision.

Financial Turmoil Boosting Student Interest In Economics.

The AP (11/25, Gross) reports that the current financial crisis has made economics “more relevant and immediate to many high school and college students, and they are suddenly paying closer attention in class. … Instructors are delighted by the opportunity to use the dramatic events on Wall Street to explain concepts students might otherwise find dry, such as liquidity and Federal Reserve monetary policy.” The AP adds, “At Plano West Senior High School in a prosperous Dallas suburb, Advanced Placement economics teacher Sally Meek said her students keep veering off into politics and policy, debating the presidential candidates’ plans during the election and grappling with questions of how big a role government should take in trying to turn around the economy.” Also, the “Arizona Council on Economic Education is helping teachers design classes based on the current financial crisis.”

In the Classroom

Predicted Teacher Shortage Turning Into Teacher Surplus. The AP (11/12, Hollingsworth) reported that across the U.S., “droves” of college graduates “are unable to find teaching jobs, in large part because the economy is forcing school systems to slash positions. The teacher shortage that many feared just a few years ago has turned into a teacher glut.” According to the AP, “Since last fall, school systems, state education agencies, technical schools and colleges have shed about 125,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Also, “many teachers who had planned to retire or switch jobs are staying on because of the recession.”

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In the Classroom
STEMfest Gives Kids Fun Introduction To Sciences. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (11/13, Miller) reports on STEMfest, “a one-day fair Saturday at Discovery World where visitors can enjoy the museum for free and get a fun introduction to the sciences that make their world go.” The fair is being funded by of Time Warner, which earlier this year “announced a nationwide effort to fund a five-year, $100 million philanthropic effort to address America’s decline in STEM.” The company’s Milwaukee office has “lined up several local partners to make their best pitch for youths to explore science, technology, engineering and math as interests and careers, including FIRST Robotics and the FIRST Lego League, Growing Power, Milwaukee Area Technical College and the Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee.” In addition, “Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, the Great Lakes WATER Council, the Badger State Science & Engineering Fair, Marquette’s College of Engineering, Lakeshore State Park, WAUK-AM (540) ESPN radio and the Urban Ecology Center also will have exhibits, information and experts on hand.”

Study Of Harlem Children’s Zone Finds Achievement Gaps Closing.

Duncan Stresses Need For “Extraordinary” Teachers.
The AP (10/12) reports, “U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan appealed Friday for a new generation of extraordinary teachers, calling education the civil rights cause of our time.” He noted specifically that there is a great need “for black men in the nation’s classroom.” In his comments, Duncan stressed that “strong education is needed to reduce dropout rates among African-American, Latino and low-income students,” and pointed out “that the demand for teachers is greatest among ‘high-poverty, high-needs’ and rural schools, as well as in subjects such as math and science.”

African-American Male Teachers Seen As Key To Reducing Achievement Gaps, Dropout Rates. In a separate story, the AP (10/10, Matheson) reported, “Only about two percent of teachers nationwide are African-American men. But experts say that needs to change if educators expect to reduce minority achievement gaps and dropout rates.” Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the majority of “American teachers are…white (87 percent) and female (77 percent), despite minority student populations of about 44 percent.” But Greg Johnson, a policy analyst for the National Education Association, said that having “minority teachers is important because of ‘the role model factor.’ … ‘These students need to see successful adults of color in front of them,’” Johnson added. To that end, Cheyney University sophomores Lenny Macklin and Gregory Georges founded the Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models) teaching program, which “offers scholarships in exchange for teaching in public schools.

NEA To Encourage Best Teachers To Teach At High-Need Schools.
USA Today (10/1, Toppo) reports that the National Education Association “will encourage local chapters to ignore contract provisions that in the past have kept school districts’ best teachers out of schools that serve mostly poor and minority students.” In testimony before the House education committee on Tuesday, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said the move “is part of the union’s ‘Priority Schools’ campaign that will also encourage ‘the most accomplished teachers-members’ to start their teaching careers in high-needs schools, remain there or transfer there.” The NEA “has come under fire from critics for supporting contracts that allow experienced teachers with more seniority to transfer to schools that serve more middle-class children.”

Jay Mathews wrote in a “Class Struggle” blog for the Washington Post (9/30), “Data show that schools in poor neighborhoods tend to have a disproportionate number of unqualified, inexperienced or out-of-field teachers. That compounds the schools’ many academic challenges.” Thus, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel “said in prepared testimony that the union would ask ‘every local NEA affiliate to enter into a compact or memorandum of understanding with its local school district to waive any contract language that prohibits staffing high-needs schools with great teachers.’”

Draft Of Common State Academic Standards Released.
The Washington Post (9/22, A6, Anderson) reports, “Experts convened by the nation’s governors and state schools chiefs on Monday proposed a set of math and English skills students should master before high school graduation, the first step toward what advocates hope will become common standards driving instruction in classrooms from coast to coast.” In math, the “proposal envisions that students would be able to solve systems of equations; find and interpret rates of change; and adapt probability models to solve real-world problems.” In English, students “would be able to analyze how word choices shape the meaning and tone of a text; develop a style and tone of writing appropriate to a task and audience; and respond constructively to advance a discussion and build on the input of others.” The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers “launched the Common Core Standards Initiative this year, enlisting 48 states and the District of Columbia.” Two states yet to join the effort are Texas and Alaska.

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Some New York Districts Cutting Back On Foreign-Language Programs.
The New York Times (9/13, MB1, Hu) reports, “After years of expanding language offerings,” suburban districts across the New York City metropolitan region “are now cutting back on staff and instructional time, phasing out less popular languages, and rethinking whether they can really afford to introduce foreign tongues to their youngest students while under constant pressure to downsize budgets and raise achievement in English and other core subjects.” However, these cuts “have dismayed and frustrated some educators and parents, who say that children need more, not fewer, foreign language skills to compete in a global marketplace.”

iPods Used To Help ESOL Students Improve English Skills. The Hilton Head Island (SC) Packet (9/14, Cerve) reports that “at Hilton Head Island Middle School and others with high numbers of students with limited English skills, teachers use” iPods “to help students learn to read.” Sarah Owen, the district’s ESOL coordinator, said that “the school district paid about $200 for each” of the 30 iPod Touch units it purchased last year “using federal money earmarked for ESOL students.” In Nancy Davis’ ESOL class, “students use the iPods about twice a week” to “listen to stories as part of a fluency program designed to develop vocabulary, improve pronunciation and emphasize important words and concepts taught in core subjects.” In addition to Island middle school, five other “county schools will use iPods in their English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes this year to tailor instruction to students with different levels of English proficiency.”

More Students Receiving Free School Lunches.
The CBS Evening News (6/11, story 11, 0:15, Couric) reported, “A new report says more than 16 million school kids get free lunches in this recession. That’s up more than six percent in a year. The cost to taxpayers, about $50 million.”

USA Today (6/11, Eisler, Weise) reported, “Nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation’s schools, an all-time high, federal data show, and many school districts are struggling to cover their share of the meals’ rising costs.” Data from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) show that, “through February, nationwide enrollment in free school lunch programs was up 6.3% over the same time last year,” and “demand in some states has climbed at an even greater rate: Enrollment in free lunch programs jumped almost 17% in California, and several states – Arizona, New Jersey, Utah and Vermont – also saw more than 10% growth.” FNS Administrator Julie Paradis said that “many new enrollees are believed to be first-timers from families hit by the recession.” While “the federal government pays schools $2.57 for each free lunch served,” the School Nutrition Association says “the average food and labor cost for each meal is about $2.92.”

In the Classroom
California School Suggests Motivation Is Key To Helping At-Risk Students.
In a front-page story, the San Francisco Chronicle (6/11, A1, Tucker) reports that Palo Alto’s Eastside College Preparatory School is “a Cinderella story with an academic record any school, public or private, would envy.” It “shows one way to set at-risk students squarely on the academic path to success, closing the seemingly unmovable achievement gap between poor and often minority students and their white, Asian and wealthier peers.” Founded without a building, for the last decade it’s “had a 100 percent graduation rate, with every graduate heading to four-year colleges.” While “the admission process is selective,” it’s based on motivation, not grades or test scores. However, “public schools will have a hard time following Eastside’s recipe for success,” as the school receives donations of $17,000 per year for each child to pay for the program. Still, Phil Halperin, president of the Silver Giving Foundation, which has helped fund the school for the past 10 years, said that “a key is believing that the students can make it, and that’s part of the recipe public schools can follow.” He added, “It takes a really dedicated staff.” The school’s “teachers earn $45,000 to $90,000 annually, on par with public school salaries.”