Study Finds Most Tenured Teachers In Some Districts Receive Favorable Evaluations.
Education Week (6/2, Sawchuk) reports, “In many school districts, nearly all tenured teachers…are deemed above average, concludes a study released today” by the New York City-based New Teacher Project. “The report analyzes the results of a survey of more than 15,000 teachers and 1,300 administrators across four states and 12 districts” and concluded that “more than nine in 10 tenured teachers in those districts met local standards in recent evaluation cycles.” New Teacher Project president Timothy Daly said that even though “survey results don’t make up a representative national sampling of districts,” they do have implications in “other policy areas. … Because distinctions in effectiveness aren’t formally documented, districts are missing out on opportunities to link the evaluation systems to professional-development tools, to decisions for granting tenure to novices, and to bonuses or career-ladder initiatives.”

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In the Classroom
New York City Students Improve Math Scores.
On its front page, the New York Times (6/2, A1, Hernandez) reports, “New York City’s public school students showed large gains on state math tests this year, particularly in the middle school grades, and black and Hispanic students continued to edge closer to their white counterparts,” according to “the city and state education departments.” Eighty-two percent of New York City “students in Grades 3 through 8 passed the test, compared with 74 percent last year.” Meanwhile, the achievement gap between black and white students narrowed to “17 percentage points this year, on average, compared with 31 points in 2006.” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “trumpeted the results as evidence that mayoral control had produced revolutionary improvements and brought city students within spitting distance of state averages after years of mediocrity.”

Year Will Not Be Extended For Most Chicago Area Schools Affected By Swine Flu.
The Chicago Tribune (5/27, Malone) reports, “The swine flu outbreak that closed nearly three dozen schools in the Chicago area amid early concerns about containing the new virus is adding a wrinkle to end-of-school calendars.” Most of the schools that were closed “do not plan to push the school year later with makeup days, local authorities said.” Chicago area school officials “said the missed days will not be tacked on to the school year because, in most cases, a single school within a larger district shut down while the rest remained open.” Only absences that affect “an entire district must be recouped…said Marjorie Beck, a principal consultant with the state education agency.”

New York City DOE Seeks School Year Extension Waiver. The New York Daily News (5/27, Armaghan, et al.) reports, “It was back to class Tuesday for students at more than 20 schools closed because of swine flu fears, including one where an assistant principal died from the virus.” The city’s “Department of Education is seeking a waiver from the state so the school year doesn’t have to be extended past June 26 for closed schools.” Some schools that reopened Tuesday had been closed since as early as May 14.

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In the Classroom
Students In Baltimore Learn About Locally-Grown Foods From Well-Known Chefs.
The Baltimore Sun (5/26, Kelly) reported on the “Days of Taste” seminar that is currently being “offered at 17 Baltimore city and county schools.” The seminar “teaches children about what’s produced on Maryland farms, tells them about non-processed foods and encourages them to grow a little more adventurous at mealtime.” Last week, for instance, third-graders from Catonsville Elementary School visited “One Straw Farm in White Hall in northern Baltimore County,” where they “saw lettuce being started in the greenhouse and the growing fields.” According to the Baltimore Sun, “the instructors who donate their time” to the program “are some of [the city's] best-known chefs.” The seminar “is a project of the American Institute of Wine and Food, a nonprofit educational organization founded by television chef Julia Child, wine maker Robert Mondavi and others.”

Henry Osmers, author of ON EAGLE’S BEAK: A HISTORY OF THE MONTAUK LIGHTHOUSE

Henry Osmers, author of ON EAGLE’S BEAK: A HISTORY OF THE MONTAUK LIGHTHOUSE

State-Appointed Financial Manager Restructuring Detroit Public Schools. The AP (5/22) reports that under Detroit Public Schools’ (DPS) restructuring process, “29 public schools will close, another 40 will be restructured, 900 teachers and staff will be pink-slipped and 33 principals fired” next fall. Robert Bobb, the state-appointed emergency financial manager for DPS “has one year to correct a $300 million budget deficit, improve test scores and address a graduation rate that’s among the nation’s lowest.” Bobb has even sought to have the school system “‘placed under a special presidential emergency declaration’ to get federal funding for infrastructure and curriculum.” The AP notes that “Detroit’s schools have been plagued by mismanagement, lack of oversight and corruption, which has cost the district millions of dollars.” Education Secretary Arne Duncan “described Detroit as ‘ground zero’ for education and said that ‘Detroit is New Orleans two years ago without Hurricane Katrina.’”

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In the Classroom
California Schools Chief Warns Budget Cuts May Undermine Testing Gains.

California’s Budget Deficit Expected To Force Deep Cuts In Education. The AP (5/16, Chea, Young) reports, “California’s public schools already trail most states in academic performance, suffer from high dropout rates and struggle to improve the performance of black and Hispanic students.” Compounding the situation, is “a historic state budget deficit that is expected to force deep cuts in education funding that will lead to thousands of teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, school closures, and a shortened school year.” According to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, additional cuts would mean schools would “lose counselors, nurses, and librarians. They are also likely to cut athletic programs as well as classes in art, music, and career technical education.” So far, “30,000 of the state’s roughly 310,000 public school teachers have already received pink slips this year, and school districts could be forced to lay off more before classes begin in the fall.”

Hundreds Of Los Angeles Unified Teachers, Students Stage Protests Over Budget Cuts. The Los Angeles Times (5/16, Song, Blume) reports, “The head of the Los Angeles teachers union was among 39 people arrested Friday during a sit-in outside the school district headquarters, one among dozens of peaceful protests around the city by teachers and students outraged by plans for deep cuts in education spending.” The protest was fueled “by plans for layoffs of as many as 2,500 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, the consequence of billions of dollars in statewide cuts to education.” Meanwhile, “hundreds of teachers called in sick and hundreds of high school students walked out of classrooms” in protest.

Budget Cuts Funding For Abstinence-Only Education.
The AP (5/8) reports that “President Barack Obama wants to eliminate more than $100 million in spending on abstinence-only education, directing the money instead to teen pregnancy-reduction programs that don’t take the no-sex approach.” According to the budget documents, “the most positive results” would “come from programs that ‘provide a range of services in addition to comprehensive sex education, such as after school activities, academic support, or service learning.’”

Swampland columnist Amy Sullivan wrote in the Time (5/7) blog that “abstinence-only programs have not proven nearly as successful as approaches that combine the message that abstinence is a good goal for teenagers with comprehensive and accurate education about contraception, disease prevention, and decision-making skills.” She argued that “with teen pregnancy rates inching up again after a nearly 15-year drop and the vast majority of parents in favor of comprehensive sex education…it’s long past time to develop sex ed programs that work.”

Meanwhile, On Women columnist Deborah Kotz pointed out in the US News & World Report (5/7) blog that “what’s not clear…is which comprehensive sex education programs will be funded. There’s quite a bit of difference among them, with some far better than others.” Kotz added that it is also unclear “how ‘evidence-based’ will be defined. Just how many studies are needed to determine if a program is effective,” she asked. “And how few are needed to deem a program ‘promising’?” Reuters (5/8) and the New Mexico Independent (5/8, Doland) also cover the story.

More Iowa schools seek four-day week.
The AP (9/29) reports, “An increasing number of Iowa school officials want to shorten the school week to four days to reduce costs.” The policy “has caught on in other states,” and “seems to have its biggest supporters in small districts, where enrollment has shrunk and budgets have been beaten by increasing fuel costs.” The fifth day is accounted for by increasing the length of the school day by two hours, to eight. Although “not everyone is sold on the idea,” according to school “officials in Arizona and Colorado…the shorter week has resulted in fewer absences by students and teachers.” Additionally, it has proven to be “a good tool to recruit teachers.” Arizona educators noted “that change hasn’t affected student achievement, and that some districts have used the day off to offer tutoring students or teacher training.”

Iowa’s Des Moines Register (9/28, Hupp) noted that education officials in some districts “want a waiver from the mandatory state schools calendar so they can switch to a four-day week as soon as next year,” while “other educators who aren’t completely sold on the idea want state lawmakers to free them from the calendar’s confines, just in case.” Heather Chikoore of the National Conference of State Legislatures pointed out that, “in many cases, state laws give school districts the freedom to decide.” In terms of Iowa, Jeff Berger, the education department’s legislative liaison, said that “one approach is to set a minimum number of hours in the school year instead of days.”

In the Classroom
Some Wisconsin schools end class ranking.

Researchers to investigate effect of incentive programs on student achievement.
The New York Times (9/25, B6, Hernandez) reports that Roland G. Fryer Jr., a Harvard economist, “has quit his part-time post as chief equality officer of the New York City public schools to lead a $44 million effort, called the Educational Innovation Laboratory, to bring the rigor of research and development to education.” The purpose of the research is “to infuse education with the data-driven approach that is common in science and business, Dr. Fryer said.” During the first year, the research team, made up of economists, marketers, and educators will “focus on incentive programs, including controversial ideas like giving students cash for good test scores. … Each of the three school districts working with the institute will use a different plan to encourage high achievement, with researchers tracking the effect of each on student performance.” Based on those studies, Fryer said, researchers “would be able to identify what works so that educators across the country could prioritize their spending.”
In the Classroom
Maine community college to offer wind power technology program.
Maine’s Bangor Daily News (9/25, Lynds) reports that “Northern Maine Community College (NMCC) is poised to launch a first-of-its-kind program in New England geared toward training wind power technicians.” On Wednesday, the Maine Community College System (MCCS) “board of trustees formally approved a proposal brought forward by NMCC to introduce a wind power technology program on campus” that “will train wind power technicians to operate, maintain, and repair wind turbine generators.” NMCC officials explained that they decided to “to create the program in light of the growing interest in wind power and NMCC’s proximity to the state’s first commercial wind farm, located…just 14 miles from the campus.” Tim Crowley, president of NMCC, “noted that the college is ideally suited to provide wind power technology instruction” because “NMCC has existing programs in electrical construction and maintenance and computer electronics, two fields that serve as foundations for the multidisciplinary wind power industry.”

Schools increasingly extending learning time.
Education Week (9/22, Gerwertz) reported, “Under enormous pressure to prepare students for a successful future –and fearful that standard school hours don’t offer enough time to do so — educators, policymakers, and community activists are adding more learning time to children’s lives.” Education Week noted that 25 years ago, a report, A Nation At Risk, “urged schools to add more time” to days and years in order “to ward off a ‘rising tide of mediocrity’ in American education.” Since then, “the idea of finding more time for learning has generated a hotbed of activity nationwide.” According to a July study by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, “more than 300 initiatives to extend learning time were launched between 1991 and 2007 in high-poverty and high-minority schools in 30 states.” Education Week lists several “high-profile efforts to extend learning time” in U.S. schools. New York City, for instance, “added 37.5 minutes a day to the first four days of the week so teachers can tutor underperforming students in small groups.”

In the Classroom
Some eighth grade students are not prepared for advanced math, study finds.
In continuing coverage from previous editions of The Opening Bell, the Los Angeles Times (9/22, Blume) reported, “The new [California] policy of requiring algebra in the eighth grade will set up unprepared students for failure while holding back others with solid math skills, a new report has concluded.” The study found that, “over five years, the percentage of eighth-graders in advanced math — algebra or higher — went up by more than one-third.” In 2005, “about 37 percent of all U.S. students took advanced math.” But, about eight percent of students who took advanced math scored “in the lowest 10 percent on the eighth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress.” According to the Times, “at least two students in every eighth-grade algebra class [have] second-grade math skills.” Further, “that number rises in urban school systems where these students are more likely to attend overcrowded schools with teachers who are less experienced and less likely to have math degrees or college-level advanced math.”

Panel calls for overhaul of college financial-aid system.
In The Homeroom blog of the Los Angeles Times (9/18) Gale Holland wrote that the Rethinking Student Aid study group has called for the demise of the “horribly complicated” Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. Holland noted that the FAFSA form is “submitted by almost every student applying to college, regardless of income.” The form, however, “is so dauntingly detailed that some families are discouraged from applying before they even start,” the panel noted.
USA Today (9/19, Marklein) noted that “the group also recommends expanding and strengthening a federal student loan repayment plan that is based on the student’s income after graduation, and rewarding colleges and states that help students succeed once they enroll.” The group’s recommendations also include basing “eligibility for federal Pell Grants only on family size and adjusted gross income;” combining “all education tax credits and deductions into a single tax credit;” and replacing “the 10-year-mortgage-style loan repayment plan with a graduated plan, so that payments would rise over time along with the incomes of most borrowers.” Education Week (9/18, Cech) also reported the story.