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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In the Classroom
US Customs and Border Protection Donates Seized Vehicles To Four Arizona High Schools.
The Yuma (AZ) Sun (2/17, Gilbert) reports that the US Customs and Border Protection’s donation of “eight vehicles to vocational automobile programs at four Yuma-area schools” will give high school students in automotive classes “the opportunity to hone their auto mechanic skills.” Each of the four schools will receive two of the vehicles. The “five sedans and three minivans…had been seized during the commission of crimes over the past six months,” the Yuma Sun adds.

North Carolina Education Officials Come Up With New US History Curriculum Options.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (2/17, Bonner) reports that North Carolina “education officials yielded to critics of a proposal that would have limited the required high school US history course to events of the last 132 years.” On Tuesday, the state Department of Public Instruction’s chief academic officer, Rebecca Garland, “told legislators” that “the agency used…feedback from 7,000 emails on the proposed social studies curriculum to come up with two new options.” Garland added that the options “will be ready in April.”

More Special-Needs Utah Students Learning In Regular Classrooms.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/16, Stewart) reported, “Today, 52 percent of Utah’s special-needs learners spend most of the school day in regular classrooms, up from 42 percent in 2004. … Technology has driven advances in learning aids and textbook publishers are now producing adaptive instructional materials.” Also, Christine Timothy, severe disabilities specialist at the Utah State Office of Education, “said mounting evidence shows mainstreamed students fare better as adults in terms of employability, wages and independence.”

Students Design Machines To Measure Licks Needed To Reach Center Of Tootsie Roll Pop.
The Ipswich (MA) Chronicle (2/17, Dooley) reports, “Engineering Tech II students at Ipswich High School have undertaken a sweet challenge: They’ve designed machines to measure how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop.” The students’ designs included “donated motors with worm gear drives intended to power automobile seats, scraps of wood, calculators, a laptop computer, gears, axles, and Lego parts.” Teacher Bill Gallant, who found the project in “Technology Teacher” magazine, said, “The project takes students through all the stages of the engineering design process. They have to think like an engineer.” He added, “The Tootsie Roll pop assignment follows the trebuchet catapult project students worked on previously to throw an egg into a frying pan.”

On the Job
Illinois State University Student Group Provides Urban School Instruction Training.
The Chicago Tribune (2/17, Cvetan) reports that Urban Needs in Teacher Education (UNITE), a “student-led organization at Illinois State University,” aims to “change the way education is taught for urban schools, thereby having a greater impact on issues such as high dropout rates. … The group’s most recent effort was Project 43, a 43-hour marathon event for about 40 budding educators focused on how make their instruction relevant to students, excite the desire to learn and help them go on to college.” According to the Tribune, “The weekend featured workshops and seminars on professional development, social justice and school improvement; meetings with Chicago Public Schools teachers; and speakers who addressed issues related to the dropout problem.”

Law & Policy
National School Nutrition Reform Efforts Show Promise.
Education Week (2/16, McNeil, Quillen) reported, in a story outlining the various nutrition efforts planned for schools, that “while states and school districts have tried to promote healthier foods and distribute them to more students, the possibility of national nutrition reform may be starting to show some real teeth.” The current “push to reauthorize the 64-year-old federal school meals program” coincides with “a new anti-obesity campaign headed by the first lady” and proposed changes from the Obama administration “that stretch across both the US Departments of Education and Agriculture.” The Department of Agriculture’s plan focuses on “improving nutrition standards” critics say have remained about the same since 1946. Mrs. Obama’s campaign, “Let’s Move,” aims to “encourage more physical activity for children, healthier foods, and more accurate food labeling,” Education Week adds.

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Special Needs
Criticism Grows Against State, District Home-Language Survey To Identify ELLs.
Education Week (2/16, Zehr) reported, “A growing chorus of people are saying that some school districts are overzealous in categorizing students as English-language learners” and that “information requested on” a home-language survey filled out by parents “can be misleading or misused.” Education Week also points out that in “districts across the country, once a student is designated as an ELL, the label is not readily lifted.” State officials in Arizona, meanwhile, “have changed the home-language survey there to ask only one question rather than three,” in an effort to “cut down on the overidentification of students as ELLs.” However, the move has prompted a complaint — currently being investigated by the US Department of Education’s office of civil rights — that the simplified “home-language form” promotes discrimination “against children who may be dominant in English, but still need extra help to gain proficiency in it.”

Safety & Security
Maryland Districts Taking Precautions As Schools Reopen Today.
The Baltimore Sun (2/17, Fuller) reports that officials in Maryland school systems reopening on “Wednesday after the recent snow storms that blanketed the area with more than 3 feet of snow” are taking precautions to promote safety. For instance, “Anne Arundel County police are deploying a helicopter to assist an increased police presence on major streets during school arrival and dismissal times Wednesday.” Meanwhile, Baltimore County “school officials are calling for students to wear bright clothing for greater visibility.” In many areas “sidewalks still covered with ice and huge piles of snow.” And some school systems plan to start schools “two hours late for the rest of the week.”

School Finance
Florida District May Charge Parents Full Price For Lost Or Damaged Textbooks.
Denise-Marie Balona wrote in a “Sentinel School Zone” blog for the Orlando Sentinel (2/16) that Lake County, FL “school officials are considering charging families the full price of lost or damaged materials, regardless of their age or condition. Right now, principals charge students a replacement cost based on the number of years the item has been in use.” According to Balona, Lake officials “say they can’t afford to keep shouldering the bulk of the financial burden — $90,000 a year, on average.”

Florida District’s Penny Sales Tax Helps Pay For Most Promised School Projects.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/17, Solochek) reports, “The Pasco County School District’s income from the Penny for Pasco sales tax, approved in 2004,” reached its highest “single-month revenue” of $1.48 million in December 2005. In 2006, tax money peaked “at $14.44 million.” But “since then, the annual revenue has declined,” and in October of last year the district received its “single lowest” collection of $717, 626 from Penny for Pasco. Mike Williams, the districts construction manager told the School Board on Tuesday, “The positive point is, we’re still collecting money.” On the other hand, “there’s little money available for any additional construction and maintenance projects.” The Times notes, however that “the majority of the new schools and additions promised with the Penny for Pasco are either complete or in the works.”

Louisiana Governor Proposes “No-Growth” In State Aid To Public Schools.
Louisiana’s Advocate (2/16, A6, Sentell) reported, “Basic state aid to Louisiana public schools would be virtually frozen for the second consecutive year under the budget Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) unveiled last week.” The budget would provide “$3.3 billion in basic aid to public schools, which aside from money for new students is the same as what schools got last year.” Still, state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) Chairwoman Penny Dastugue pointed out that “a no-growth budget is better than reductions in state aid.” The BESE will make decisions about the proposal on March 11.

Also in the News
Indiana Foundation In Talks To Preserve Historic Grade School.
The AP (2/16) reported, “The Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana says it wants to talk with officials in Lowell about saving an old grade school. The Board of Zoning Appeals could vote Feb. 23 on whether to condemn the Old Lowell Grade School.” According to the AP, “Historic Landmarks’ Central Region Director Mark Dollase says options include a program in which the building could be stabilized and then resold.”

Army General Takes “Second Act” As CEO Of DC Public Schools.
The Washington Post (2/15, Turque) reported on Army Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata, who once served in Afghanistan and is now CEO for DC public schools. In the “newly created post,” Tata overseas “purchasing, food service, technology and other support areas.” The Post explains that while serving in “Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in April 2006…a Taliban rocket slammed into a primary school in Asadabad, killing seven children and wounding 34.” That event and “others like it by the Taliban” inspired Tata’s pursuit of a career in the education sector. Said Tata, “It struck me at the time that if the enemy of my enemy is education, then perhaps that’s a second act for me.” According to the Post, since joining the DC public school system, he has “helped win certification for 77 D.C. public schools to serve free lunch to all children” and revamped the district’s warehouse system.

NEA in the News
Alabama Teacher Accuses Principal Of Harassment.
The Decatur (AL) Daily (2/17, Hughes) reports that the Morgan County, AL school board was asked to intervene after Dawn Davis, “a Danville Middle School teacher who was forced to remove her nose stud, accused her principal of ’systematic and ongoing harassment.’ Alabama Education Association representative Gloria Johnson said the request to remove the nose stud was just an example of the harassment of Davis by Principal Gary Walker during a 12-year period.” Johnson “accused Walker of being inconsistent in his decisions because, she said, he let some students wear” clear studs, yet the board ultimately “denied Davis’ grievance.”

School System Offering Camp To Expose Students To Nontraditional Careers.
The Newton (GA) Citizen (2/23, Floyd) reports on the Girls in Engineering Camp that Rockdale County Public Schools offered its middle schoolers. Jill Oldham, the camp’s organizer, said the idea was “to expose students to nontraditional careers.” Interest from students was higher than expected, Oldham added. For four days over winter break, “instructor Casey Martin introduced a specific engineering career field to the class, and then a guest speaker talked to the students and answered questions from them; three of the days included a female working in the engineering field or from a engineering organization. Afterward, Martin told them about education requirements in that field, and then the girls completed a project related to the field.” Oldham noted that “RCPS later will try to offer camps or special programs for other nontraditional careers, like boys in health care.”

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In the Classroom
As Student Interest “Ebbs And Flows,” Budget Cuts Seen To Threaten Sewing Classes.
The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press (2/23, Bartels, Owen-Phelps) reports on the decline of sewing classes in Tri-State schools. “While interest in sewing ebbs and flows among the young, budget cuts and increasing academic standards discourage some school systems from offering sewing classes.” At time same time, “television shows such as ‘Project Runway,’ ‘What Not to Wear’ and home improvement programs have piqued the interest of some young people.” The article notes the experiences of students who have participated in programs that include sewing, and the benefits they gleaned from developing those skills. And while some schools have been reducing and eliminating programs, “at North High School in Evansville, sewing is part of a fashion and textiles class,” and the two sessions offered each semester are routinely full. Teacher Alyson McIntyre-Reiger said “she recruits on the middle school level.”

School’s Natural Resources Pathway Adds Course In Environmental Services And Wildlife.
In the seventh of a series of article produced for National Career and Technical Education Month at Winfield High School, the Winfield (KS) Daily Courier (2/23, Hogan) reports on “the Natural Resources pathway in Ag Education,” which “provides students with a unique opportunity to study science and how it applies to their world as well as explore related careers and compete in FFA.” In addition to classes such as horticulture and animal science, the department is now offering a course in environmental services and wildlife. For the “first semester, students studied land conservation and wildlife management and visited with several representatives from colleges and [CTE] schools about job opportunities related to this class.” They also “learned about heavy equipment operation” through a simulator at North Central Tech. College, among other things. Students are currently preparing to compete based on what they have learned.

Study Shows “No Cussing” Clubs Helped Reduce Violence, Profanity In Schools.
KSTU-TV Salt Lake City (2/23) reported on its Website that McKay Hatch, founder of the “No Cussing Club,” spoke to students at Bennion Elementary School in West Jordan on Monday. Hatch “taught students about the power of their words and how to combat bullying and cyber bullying.” KSTU added that “a two year study in Louisiana shows that violence and profanity decreased 64 percent after their school implemented the No Cussing Club chapter in their district.”

Evolution Of Student Assessment Tools Analyzed.
Stanley N. Rabinowitz, director of the Assessment and Standards Development Services Program at WestEd, wrote in an op-ed for Education Week (2/22), “An unprecedented confluence of factors — economic, political, and educational — is causing many states to rethink their student-assessment programs,” however, “careful thought and expert guidance will be needed if they are to avoid the problems of the past and take advantage of promising new developments” like the current NCLB renewal push. According to Rabinowitz, “Our assessment and accountability systems should reflect what we value most for our students, schools, and society, and what we think it means to be a well-prepared student, worker, and citizen. Once these are clear, we should be willing to fight and to pay for their reflection in our system for measuring academic progress.”

On the Job
More Maryland Districts To Become Majority-Minority.
The Baltimore Sun (2/22, Carson) reported that by the start of classes in the fall of 2011 in Maryland, “white students in Howard County are expected to be a minority, joining those in Baltimore County. The two school systems are riding a demographic wave” that is “sparking intensive efforts to shape children from all backgrounds into eager, high-achieving students.” According to experts, school enrollments are a reflection of the growth in diversity that is happening nationwide. Mark Goldstein, “an economist and state planner,” said, “Statewide, the population is clearly becoming more minority. … That is increasingly true as we go through the decade.”

More Georgia Districts Planning Switch To Four-Day Weeks.
The AP (2/22) reported, “With budget cuts looming, more Georgia school systems are considering switching to four-day school weeks. Peach County took the step last fall when officials decided to hold classes Tuesdays through Fridays.” District officials saw the four-day week as “a way to fill a nearly $800,000 budget shortfall.” So far, “Peach County officials have estimated they saved $313,000 in transportation and utilities costs by making the schedule change.”

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Law & Policy
Some Education Stakeholders Want More Federal Recognition, Funding For Magnet Schools.
Education Week (2/22, Zehr) reported that when compared to the attention given to charter schools, “some educators and researchers” say that “magnet schools have been given short shrift by the Obama administration.” Magnet schools, which “typically have a particular academic focus,” increase the “racial or economic diversity” of a school and “deserve more federal funding and support than they are receiving,” some argue. U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton said that “the administration thinks magnet schools play an important role.” He also clarified, “Arne Duncan has consistently said he’s not for all charter schools, just good charter schools.”

DC Schools Chief Submits Teacher Abuse, Misconduct Report To City Council Chairman.
Bill Turque wrote in a “D.C. School Insider” blog for the Washington Post (2/22) that D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee “has fired ten DCPS teachers for administering corporal punishment and two for sexual misconduct since July 2007, according to a report she has submitted to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. Another 28 served suspensions ranging from two to ten days for some form of corporal punishment, defined by District law as the use or attempted use of physical force against a student, ‘either intentionally or with reckless disregard for the student’s safety, as a punishment or discipline.’” According to Turque, the report “was requested by Gray after the uproar Rhee triggered by telling ‘Fast Company’ magazine that an unspecified number of the 266 D.C. public school teachers who were laid off in October had physically or sexually abused students.”

Sex Education Bill Dies In Utah Senate.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/23, Schencker) reports that “after months of negotiations,” state Senate bill 54 “died with barely a whisper Monday morning after lawmakers chose not to talk about it.” The bill would have changed “language in state law to clarify that Utah teachers are allowed to talk about contraception.” It “also would have directed the State Office of Education to develop materials on contraception for teachers to use and would have made those materials available for parents to review.” The Tribune notes that “state law already allows schools to teach students about contraceptives, but it prohibits ‘advocacy or encouragement’ of their use.”

School Finance
Arts Classes Jeopardized By Michigan Education Cuts.
The Detroit News (2/23, Hodges) reports, “Only 40 percent” of Detroit Public Schools “have an art teacher, down from 80 percent 10 years ago.” And though “Detroit’s public schools have been in crisis mode for far more than a decade,” schools in Detroit’s suburbs “may not be far behind,” as late last year, “all public schools suffered a $165 per pupil cut in state aid — some suburbs lost even more — leaving even wealthy-by-comparison systems contemplating cuts to programs once regarded as indispensable.”

Chicago-Area Districts Blame Recession, State Financial Crisis For “Deep Cuts.”
The Chicago Tribune (2/23, Black) reports that “Chicago-area school districts already struggling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits are warning of mass teacher layoffs and deep program cuts for the coming school year — an impending crisis they blame on the recession and the state’s chronic financial woes.” State Board of Education spokeswoman Mary Fergus called Illinois’ current financial crisis “unprecedented.” Even with $3 billion “in federal stimulus funding provided over the last two years,” the state has not “paid the current school year’s education bills in months,” the Tribune notes. Consequently, many school districts in the state have had to “cut band programs, increase class sizes, reduce field trips and use fewer substitute teachers.” Michael Jacoby, executive director of the” Illinois ASBO pointed out, “Cutting supplies or taking a copy machine out of a school — they are low-hanging fruit but really won’t balance the budget. People are the thing you need to remove to balance the budget.”

Also in the News
“Keep Fit Club” Helps Overweight Texas Youth Get In Shape.
The Houston Chronicle (2/22, George) reported on the Keep Fit Club, “a free program offered to overweight and obese 10- to 18-year-olds in the Texas Children’s Health Plan, which provides medical care for 250,000 area children on Medicaid or CHIP. Keep Fit Club families are taught how to make healthier choices during Saturday exercise and nutrition sessions.” According to the Chronicle, the “program is among several in the Houston area helping youngsters beat childhood obesity through exercise and healthy eating — key goals” of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “‘Let’s Move’ initiative announced this month.”

Amid Spying Lawsuit, Pennsylvania District Asked Not To Delete Evidence From Computers.
The AP (2/23) reported, “A student who accuses his suburban Philadelphia school district in a lawsuit of spying on students via their school-issued webcams will ask district officials not to remove any potential evidence from student computers, his lawyer said Monday. Lawyers for the Lower Merion School District are due in federal court on the issue Monday afternoon, on an emergency petition from student Blake Robbins of Penn Valley.” According to the AP, “Lower Merion officials confirmed last week they had activated the webcams to try to find 42 missing laptops, without the knowledge or permission of students and their families.”

Teachers To Appeal Mass Firings At Rhode Island High School.
The AP (2/26, Henry) reports, “The entire staff of teachers fired in a radical attempt to improve one of the worst performing high schools in Rhode Island will appeal their dismissals to school authorities, the head of the teachers union said Thursday. The board of trustees overseeing the school system in Central Falls, one of the poorest communities in the state, voted Tuesday to fire 88 high school teachers and other support staff by the end of the year.” According to the AP, Jane Sessums, president of the Central Falls Teachers’ Union, says she “still hopes negotiations will resume, although her union has not made any requests to school officials to continue talks.”

The Christian Science Monitor (2/26, Khadaroo) reports, “To the dismay of many local and national union members, all the teachers, the principal, and other staff of Central Falls [RI] High School were fired by the board of trustees this week,” as “part of a dramatic turnaround plan proposed by the superintendent and approved by the state education commissioner.” According to the Monitor, “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded the Rhode Island decision this week. But Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president, shot back with a statement that ‘firing all of the teachers is a failed approach and will not result in the kinds of changes necessary to improve instruction and learning.’”

In the Classroom
Saturday Science Academy Uses Hands-On Approach To Motivate Students.
The San Gabriel Valley (CA) Tribune (2/25, Irwin) reported that Kwis Elementary School is “trying an experimental Saturday science academy,” and “is using a hands-on approach to science to motivate students.” The academy takes place “one Saturday a month from 9 to 11 a.m.” Instructors “use ‘guided discovery’ to pique the students’ interest.” For example, “the first class gave the students a ‘mystery powder’ to figure out. The kids used microscopes to study the crystalline structure of the mysterious substance.” The Kwis academy is made possible through a federal grant.

Report Analyzes “Best Practices” Among Middle Grades.
Education Week (2/25, Zehr) reported, “Using students’ test scores as one part of evaluations for teachers, principals, and superintendents is associated with better academic performance at schools serving the middle grades, a report released this week has found. Linking students’ test scores with evaluations was one of the ‘best practices’ that high-performing schools serving students in grades 6 to 8 have in common,” the EdSource report found. According to Education Week, “Researchers analyzed the relationship between students’ spring 2009 scores on California’s tests in mathematics and English/language arts and answers to surveys by 303 principals, 3,752 English and math teachers, and 157 superintendents in the state.”

After-School Enrichment Program Introduces Elementary Schoolers To Hobby, Career Skills.
The Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot (2/26, Wilson) reports on the Challenge U program at Bean Elementary School, and “after-school enrichment program, which has been offered at Bean for almost two decades” and “gives students a chance to learn about a variety of activities” that could be applied to hobbies or careers. The 16 classes offered this year encompass “soccer, wrestling, cake decorating, knitting, sewing, jewelry making and photography,” as well as courses on animals and electronics. ‘”I hope they gain an understanding of engineering and that there are careers in Jackson County related to electrical engineering,’ said Albert Rossner, a digital electronics instructor for Project Lead the Way at the Jackson Area Career Center, who was teaching students how to build a circuit.”

Grant To Help Colorado District Beef Up STEM Programs, Serve As National Model.
The Colorado Springs Gazette (2/26, McGraw) reports, “Falcon School District 49 has received a $100,000 federal grant to beef up its fledgling science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program” by funding teacher training. It will also be used to “provide programs and buy equipment such as laptops and interactive videos.” A district official said “that over five years Falcon will create a program that will serve as a state and national model. In this effort, the district will partner with the Center for STEM Education at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and the Museum of Science and the National Center for Technological Literacy, both in Boston. The district also will consult with industry professionals from around the state.”

On the Job
Orange County, California, Schools Chief Calls For Elimination Of Teacher Tenure.
The Orange County Register (2/26, Leal) reports that Orange County, CA schools Superintendent William Habermehl “proposed eliminating teacher tenure, boosting local control of education funding and reducing federal and state regulations Thursday during his annual State of Education speech.” Habermehl “admitted many of his proposed reforms would face tough challenges from lawmakers, unions and other groups. But the several consecutive years of massive budget cuts have severely damaged the ability of schools to provide an education necessary for students to succeed in the 21st century, he said.”

Law & Policy
Parents Push For Ban On Solitary Confinement In Georgia Schools.
The AP (2/26, Turner) reports that the parents of a 13-year-old student who “hanged himself while in” a seclusion room at school “are pushing state education officials to pass a policy banning the use of solitary confinement in Georgia schools, which they say led directly to their son’s death in 2004.” A “federal report released this week” by the Department of Education says that “19 states, including Georgia, do not regulate” seclusion of students in schools. However, it also shows “that many of the states that have no policy are in the process of developing regulations, and a handful of the states that have policies are reviewing them to ensure they are sufficient.” The AP notes that the report “stems from Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s query to state school chiefs last year on policies for confinement and restraint of misbehaving students.”

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New York City Education Panel Approves Ban On Bake Sales.
The New York Times (2/26, A24, Medina) reports that the New York City Department of Education’s Panel for Education Policy unanimously approved a new policy that “bans most bake sales but allows students to sell premade items including Pop-Tarts and Doritos.” The Times notes that the vote was made after 11:30 pm Wednesday night, and “by then, just one mother…was waiting to speak out against the new policy.”

Los Angeles District Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over School Layoffs.
The Los Angeles Times (2/25, Song) reported that a class-action lawsuit was “filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of students at three of the city’s worst-performing middle schools. The suit claims those students were denied their legal rights to an education and aims to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District from laying off more teachers there.” The “student body at the three schools is almost exclusively minority, and campuses in more affluent areas were not hit as hard by teacher layoffs.”

School Changes Policy On Sending Students To Office After Child Walks Off Campus.
The Dallas Morning News (2/26, Mueller) reports that Casa View Elementary School in Dallas “has changed its policy regarding sending students to the principal’s office after a 7-year-old walked off campus.” The student “was missing for about two hours Wednesday after being sent to the office” for “playing in the boys’ bathroom.” Instead of going to the office, the boy walked off campus and “hid behind a nearby house.” The student told a local television station “that he skipped out because he” thought the principal would suspend him. Though school employees did follow “procedures according to Dallas ISD policy, which requires students to be paired up when going to the office,” the school will now require that teachers call “the office to let the principal’s staff know when students are on the way.”

Special Needs
Ontario District Using Online Technology To Support Autistic Students.
T.H.E. Journal (2/25, McCrea) reported that knowing autistic students “need special attention in the learning environment and that the instructors who teach those students require additional support,” Joel Godecki, autism spectrum disorders project director for the 8,000-student Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board in Northwestern Ontario, “looked around for a technology tool that could serve both purposes.” Godecki “decided to try a suite of products developed by AutismPro. ‘I was intrigued by the fact that the system was based on the Web and that it would be easy to implement at different schools,’ said Godecki, whose district is currently using AutismPro’s workshops, resources, and professional and resource management products.”

School Finance
Chicago Public Schools Faces Up To $1 Billion In Debt Next Year.
The Chicago Tribune (2/26, Ahmed) reports, “Chicago Public Schools is facing a deficit of up to $1 billion next year that can be reduced only through a combination of pension reform, union concessions and job cuts, schools chief Ron Huberman said Thursday.” He added that “without all three measures in conjunction…teacher layoffs, increased class sizes and cuts to important programs are distinct possibilities.” The Tribune notes that the “2011 budget forecast takes into account a skyrocketing pension obligation next year and contractual raises for teachers that together increase costs by about $450 million over this year.”

More Funds Could Be Cut From Hawaii Schools’ Budget.
The AP (2/26) reports that the Hawaii Board of Education “has found an additional $37.7 million it could cut from the budget of Hawaii’s public school system. State Sens. Norman Sakamoto [D] and Donna Mercado Kim [D] had asked the Department of Education to prioritize a list of cuts amounting to about $78 million,” about five percent “of the system’s general fund budget.” The AP added, “Island public schools have already absorbed $269 million in cuts over this year and next,” which “have resulted in teacher furloughs that have cost students more than three weeks of class time.”

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Utah Assembly Votes Against Equal Distribution Of Funds Between Split Districts.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/25, Schencker, Drake) reported that on Wednesday night, Utah’s House Education Committee “shot down HB292, a bill that would have brought property tax revenues per student in” the Canyons and Jordan school districts “back to equal levels by redistributing money,” and would “have applied to splitting districts in the future.” As a result, “Canyons will not be required to send $15 million in property tax revenue to Jordan.” Before the vote, “administrators from both districts presented financial arguments.” Burke Jolley, Jordan deputy superintendent for business services, said that “Jordan now collects only $1,136 in property revenue per student compared with $2,087 collected by Canyons.” But, according to Canyons’ business administrator Keith Bradford, when “taking into account other factors, such as the property tax money Canyons already sends to Jordan under a county-wide equalization law passed two years ago,” the Jordan school district “now collects $1,467 per student and Canyons gets $1,899.”

Also in the News
Television Station Owner Launches Ad Campaign Advocating Diversity In Schools.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (2/26, Goldsmith, Hui) reports, “Capitol Broadcasting Corp., owner of WRAL, is airing an editorial ad campaign on the television station proclaiming that ‘diversity matters.’” The ads “come as a new majority on the county school board has proposed getting rid of Wake’s current diversity policy of trying to balance the numbers of students at each school based on families’ economic backgrounds.” Capital Broadcasting Corp. CEO Jim Goodmon “said today that the spots are not meant as direct endorsement of the current policy, but as an editorial statement in favor of the principle of diversity.”

Duncan To Announce Ramped-Up Civil Rights Enforcement.
The Washington Post (3/8, Anderson) reports, “Education Secretary Arne Duncan plans to announce Monday that his agency is ramping up enforcement of civil rights laws in schools and colleges, a move that seeks to draw a contrast with the policies of his Republican predecessors. In a speech drafted for an appearance” at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, “where civil rights marchers were beaten by state and local police in March 1965,” Duncan “said the department’s Office for Civil Rights expects to issue a series of guidance letters to educators to address ‘issues of fairness and equity.’” Duncan “said the department will also announce in coming weeks and months several enforcement actions to ensure that students have equal access to a college-prep curriculum, advanced courses, and classes in math and science.”

The AP (3/7, Armario) reported that ED “plans to intensify its civil rights enforcement efforts in schools around the country, including a deeper look at issues ranging from programs for immigrant students learning English to equal access to a college preparatory courses. … ‘For us, this is very much about working to meet the president’s goal, that by 2020 we will regain our status in the world as the number one producer of college graduates,’ Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, said.”

The Wall Street Journal (3/8, King) also reports on the story, quoting Ali saying, “We are back in business … Across all of the statutes under our jurisdiction, we will vigorously enforce civil-rights laws.”

Duncan To Participate In Selma Event As Planned. The AP (3/6) reported, “Alabama’s Legislative Black Caucus on Saturday called on U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to cancel a planned appearance at Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery. State Rep. Alvin Holmes said the school and its principal publicly opposed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Selma-Montgomery march in 1965.” The AP added that Duncan “is scheduled to meet with teachers and students at the school and march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the 45th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ the violent clash between civil rights protesters and state troopers in Selma.”

The AP (3/7) reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “will meet with students as planned at Montgomery’s Robert E. Lee High School, despite a state legislator’s call to cancel the appearance. … Officials in Duncan’s office said the school is now majority black and the current principal was 2 years old at the time of the march.”

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In the Classroom
New Math Curriculum Credited For Improvement of DC Students.
The Washington Post (3/8, Turque) reports that educators say a new emphasis on “deeper conceptual understanding” of Math concepts as opposed to rote memorization in D.C. school is “paying off,” as “December results for the National Assessment of Educational Progress…showed that the District was the only one of 11 urban school systems tested that made significant gains in math in 2007 and 2009.” The “shift is a legacy of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s predecessor, Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, who imported more rigorous math and reading standards to the District from Massachusetts in 2005, along with the DC-CAS, an annual standardized test that resembles the NAEP. That year, he also introduced Everyday Mathematics, a K-6 curriculum developed in the 1990s by the University of Chicago.”

All-Male All African-American Urban Prep Academy Sends Entire Class To College.
The Chicago Tribune (3/5, Eldeib) reported that Urban Prep Academy for Young Men, Chicago’s “only public all-male, all-African-American high school,” has “fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges. Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.” According to the Tribune, “The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city’s elite, selective enrollment high schools,” but Urban Prep, “a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago’s most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.”

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On the Job
New Report Highlights Challenges Faced By High School Guidance Counselors.
Valerie Strauss wrote in an “Answer Sheet” blog for the Washington Post (3/6) wrote that high school counselors “are overworked,” many are not “well trained” and many students “think their counselors don’t really know them.” According to Strauss, these were among “key conclusions of the study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…and conducted by the nonpartisan, nonprofit research group Public Agenda. … The report, entitled ‘Can I Get A Little Advice Here: How an Overstretched High School Guidance System Is Undermining Students’ College Aspirations,’ is the second in a Public Agenda series on college completion.”

Law & Policy
US To Step Up Collections Of Delinquent Federal Loans From Social Security Checks.
The Wall Street Journal (3/8, Schultz) reports that the federal government will start “offsetting,” or taking a portion of Social Security or disability benefits of individuals who owe on debts to the Department of Education or other federal departments. The Journal notes that before 2008, the U.S. government could not offset debt more than 10 years old, but a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill lifted that restriction.

More Districts Moving To Four-Day Weeks.
The Wall Street Journal (3/7, Herring) reported that an increasing number of school districts around the U.S. are shifting to four-day weeks amid major budget shortfalls, but critics say education quality will suffer if instruction days are reduced. The Journal noted that more than 100 districts in about 17 states are currently using a four-day week, according to Education Commission of the States data. An ED spokeswoman is quoted saying in an e-mail that “generally, we are concerned about financial constraints leading to a reduction in learning time.”

The Macon Telegraph (3/8) reports Ray Markwalter of the Baldwin County Board of Education “plans to move forward with a proposal for a four-day school week for the district.” He first heard the idea “during the Georgia School Boards Association conference in December after listening to Peach County Superintendent Susan Clark present her school system’s results.” He said that “the drop in disciplinary incidents, as well as fewer teacher absences, were among the appealing aspects of adopting a four-day school week.”

Special Needs
Florida Accommodates Special Needs Students On Testing.
The Miami Herald (3/8, McGrory) reports, “When students sit down this week to be tested on their knowledge of math, reading and science, not all will be putting pen to paper.” That’s because accommodations for students with disabilities mean that “some may be dictating” while “others may use switches, or computers that play back text in a spoken voice.” And “beyond the accommodations outlined by the state, individual school districts can petition the state Department of Education for other adjustments, said Bambi Lockman, the state director of Exceptional Education and Student Services.” Also, “administrators try to assure that special-needs students take the tests with teachers they know. They also have counselors and school psychologists on hand to help students who are frustrated.”

Facilities
Kansas City, Missouri, May Close Nearly Half Of Schools To Reduce Deficit.
The AP (3/8) reports, “Kansas City was held up as a national example of bold thinking when it tried to integrate its schools by making them better than the suburban districts where many kids were moving.” But “now it’s on the brink of bankruptcy and considering another bold move: closing nearly half its schools to stay afloat.” Superintendent John Covington has proposed “closing 29 out of 61 schools to eliminate a projected $50 million budget shortfall.”

School Finance
Louisiana Districts Use Stimulus Funds To Keep Programs Operating.
The Shreveport (LA) Times (3/8, Johnson) reports, “Title I and special education programs and technology upgrades are set to receive the bulk of millions of federal stimulus dollars rolling into northwest Louisiana school districts through the end of next academic year.” The state “will receive more than $377 million in stimulus money this academic year.” Janis Parker, Title I director for Caddo public schools, said that “She is using a portion of her department’s $18.4 million allotment to continue a Reading First Grant.” The funding is reportedly allowing many school districts to keep programs operating that they otherwise might have had to close down.

Des Moines To Cut 60 Percent Of Art, Music And Phys Ed.
The Des Moines Register (3/6, Reynaud) reports, “Des Moines elementary school students would spend less time singing, drawing and running next school year under a proposal that already is drawing criticism from parents.” That’s because “on Friday, district officials unveiled $33 million in spending cuts including eliminating 60 percent of the district’s elementary art, music and physical education jobs.” Superintendent Nancy Sebring “expressed frustration” but explained that “the district also has a commitment to making sure students pass core subjects and meet federal requirements.”

Texas District Superintendent Proposes Merger Of Districts To Get More State Aid.
The San Antonio Express-News (3/8, MacCormack) reports, “School officials in Hunt and Ingram are exploring the feasibility of consolidating their two small districts in western Kerr County as a way to boost state funding.” Ingram Superintendent J. T. Stroder “has concluded that Texas school finance laws disadvantage smaller districts.” In response, “Hunt School Board President Sandra Schmitt said she’s open-minded but noted previous talks on consolidating the neighboring districts didn’t get far.” Meanwhile, “Hunt Superintendent David Kelm said he’s awaiting input from the Texas Education Agency on Stroder’s unusual proposal.”

Houston To Cut Back On Cafeteria Expenses.
The Houston Chronicle (3/8, Mellon) reports, “More than 425 cafeteria workers in the Houston school district will have their wages slashed this month, dozens of other positions will be cut and students likely will pay more for lunch next year to cover a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. The Houston Independent School District also is expected to take the rare step this year of spending $10.5 million from savings – about 3 percent of the account – to meet cafeteria expenses.” Superintendent Terry Grier “said part of the deficit could have been avoided with better management.” Grier said that “payroll expenses should have been cut sooner, and the district should not have been serving what he dubbed ‘platinum’ meals with pricey fresh fruit daily.”

Also in the News
Analysis Documents College “Grade Inflation” Over Decades.
USA Today /Inside Higher Ed (3/6, Epstein) reported, “Grades awarded to U.S. undergraduates have risen substantially in the last few decades, and grade inflation has become particularly pronounced at selective and private colleges, a new analysis of data on grading practices has found. In ‘Grading in American Colleges and Universities,’ published Thursday in Teachers College Record, Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke University professor of geology, and Christopher Healy, an associate professor of computer science at Furman University, illustrate that grade point averages have risen nationally throughout most of the last five decades.” Also, the study “indicates that the mean G.P.A. at an institution is ‘highly dependent’ upon the quality of its students and whether it is public or private.”

Los Angeles Principal Apologizes For Choice Of Black Role Models.
The AP (3/5, Jablon) reported, ‘The principal of a South Los Angeles elementary school has apologized after some children carried photos of O.J. Simpson, RuPaul and Dennis Rodman in a parade celebrating Black History Month. ‘Unfortunately, questionable decisions were made in the selection of noteworthy African-American role models,’ Lorraine Abner wrote Thursday in a letter sent to parents of students at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School.” According to the AP, “During a Feb. 26 parade in the school playground honoring Black History Month, some youngsters carried photos of Simpson, RuPaul and Rodman while others displayed more conventional role models such as President Barack Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” Alexandra Zavis also covered this story in a “L.A. Now” blog for the Los Angeles Times (3/5).

The Los Angeles Times (3/6) editorialized, “As usual when things go awry in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the fiasco” concerning the choice of Black role models “was a conflation of silly, smaller mishaps and oversights. … None of this serves as an excuse for what looks like a remarkable dearth of common sense or sensitivity among the teachers involved, along with a disregard for parents and the larger community, and scorn for the curriculum they’re supposed to be imparting.”

NEA in the News
Teachers Unions Outraged By Obama’s Support For Mass Layoff.
The New York Times (3/7, Greenhouse, Dillon, 1.09M) reports, “A Rhode Island school board’s decision to fire the entire faculty of a poorly performing school, and President Obama’s endorsement of the action, has stirred a storm of reaction nationwide, with teachers condemning it as an insult and conservatives hailing it as a watershed moment of school accountability.” According to the Times, “Officials at the two unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, were so angry in the hours after Mr. Obama first endorsed the firings that an irreconcilable break with the administration seemed possible,” but “neither the president nor Education Secretary Arne Duncan backed off his support for tough action, including dismissing teachers en masse, to improve learning conditions in chronically failing schools.” NEA president Dennis Van Roekel is quoted as saying that Obama’s “position ’set us back in how we work together. … I think the worst thing that can happen would be for President Obama to be seen as antiteacher.’”

Duncan Calls For Renewed Civil Rights Enforcement.
The AP (3/8, Johnson) reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “said Monday the federal government will become more vigilant to make sure students have equal access and opportunity to everything ranging from college prep classes to science and engineering programs. ‘We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement,’ Duncan said on a historic Selma bridge to commemorate the 45th anniversary of a bloody confrontation between voting rights demonstrators and state troopers.” Duncan “spoke to a crowd about 400 people on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in observance of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ the day in 1965 when several hundred civil rights protesters were beaten by state troopers as they crossed the span over the Alabama River, bound for Montgomery.”

The Christian Science Monitor (3/9, Paulson) reports that Duncan “signaled Monday the Obama administration’s intention to step up enforcement of civil rights laws that apply to schools and colleges, many of which are often ignored.” According to the Monitor, “In remarks delivered in Selma, Ala, timed to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the marches in which civil rights protesters were brutally attacked by police, Secretary Duncan said, ‘The truth is that, in the last decade, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has not been as vigilant as it should have been in combating gender and racial discrimination and protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities. But that is about to change…. We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement.’”

The Selma (AL) Times-Journal (3/9, Fenton) reports, “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stood in the middle of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the first leg of the Selma-to-Montgomery March of 1965 for voting rights, and announced the Obama administration’s strengthened commitment to ensure fair opportunities and practices for all students as about 500 students, principals and elected officials listened.” ED’s OCR “will send guidance letters on issues of fairness and equality to schools and colleges, work to have equal access to educational opportunities such as college-preparatory curricula or advanced courses for all students and to ensure discipline in schools is not based on a child’s skin color.” ED “will take a look at 38 school systems this year to see how they measure up.”

The Montgomery (AL) Advertiser (3/9, Ricks) reports, “Despite the controversy that proceeded his visit, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s visit to Montgomery was relatively low-key. After state Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, threatened to picket the secretary’s visit to Robert E. Lee High School, Duncan added an extra stop in Montgomery.” Duncan “participated in a panel discussion with students, a faculty member and parent at Lee High School before heading to Selma where he was to give a major speech about his plans to reinvigorate [ED]’s Office of Civil Rights.”

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In the Classroom
Class Shows Young Women They Can Be Successful In Traditionally Male Fields.
The York County (ME) Journal-Tribune (3/9, Mendros) reports on the “Independent Woman” class at Biddeford High School, which is now in its second year. “One of the initial subjects the students learned about was electricity,” and more recently, students have been “learning how to work with wood and how to use an electric sander, a table saw and other woodworking tools and equipment.” A lamp-building project is used to pull together their skills in electricity and woodworking. “The girls will also be learning how to work with metal. They will drill into metal sheets to form a design and then the sheets will be formed into lamp shades.” Technical Education teacher Michelle Lane “also plans to teach them about basic automotive maintenance.” Lane “said she wants to show her students that they can be just as successful as their male classmates in traditionally male jobs.”

Mentor Program Introduces Students To Careers In Architecture, Engineering And Construction.
Maryland’s Daily Times (3/9) reports, “Local high school students are discovering careers in architecture, construction and engineering thanks to” the ACE Mentor Program of America, “a new mentoring program that connects them with area professionals in these fields.” Through the program, “11 volunteers from four Salisbury-based companies, and two national contractors involved with construction at Salisbury University, are teaching students about their industry through mock development projects.” Students learn about topics such as “architecture, civil engineering, electrical engineering, structural engineering, construction and cost planning,” and then discuss how these skills are applied.

Publishers Focusing On Technology Supplements To Textbooks.
Inside Higher Ed (3/9, Kolowich) reports on the increased use of software provided by publishers such as Pearson that offers automatic grading and feedback on student understanding, tools which some professors argue has improved their efficiency and their ability to address issues that students are having difficulty with. Now, major publishers “say that as instructors begin to realize the capabilities of e-learning tools, it is not enough to pitch professors — particularly those in the natural sciences — a traditional textbook or even an e-textbook.” William Reiders of Cengage’s Global New Media division said, “It is a fact that we are aggressively trying to add curricular solutions to what traditionally would have been our print textbooks – that’s really driven by what the professors want.” The article goes on to address issues stemming from the “added costs” that come along with the additional tools and content, and how these impact students.

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On the Job
FEA Denounces Merit Pay Plan.
The Orlando Sentinel (3/9, Postal) reports, “Florida’s largest teachers union lashed out Monday at a proposal to overhaul teacher pay-plans, saying it would force experienced teachers out of the classroom and lead to even more standardized tests for the state’s students.” The Florida Education Association also said the measure “would wrench control of schools away from local school boards.” FEA President Andy Ford “said the plan ‘lashes out at the teachers who have made Florida schools a model for the nation.’”

The AP (3/9, Kaczor) reports, “The sponsor calls it a ‘hammer.’ The head of Florida’s statewide teachers union says it’s more like a ‘nuclear weapon.’” The bill would penalize “school districts that fail to adopt merit pay plans by cutting part of their state funding,” and “also would reduce teacher job protection and make it easier for school officials to fire teachers.” Ford “argued state law already allows school districts to suspend or fire ineffective teachers, even those that have completed probationary periods of three or four years.”

The Naples Daily News (3/9, Albers) reports, “In Collier County, the Superintendent is calling it a disaster.” Collier County School District Superintendent Dennis Thompson also, “called the bill a nightmare.” Thompson said, “You will not improve education by paying your best teachers more … You improve education by getting rid of ineffective teachers.”

The Fort Myers News-Press (3/9, Breitenstein) reports, “A teacher-quality bill up for discussion this week by Florida lawmakers has unions in an uproar, strapping on their pads for what’s certain to be a knock-down, drag-out battle.” Under the proposed bill, “at least half of a teacher’s performance evaluation must be based on how well his or her students do on standardized tests.”

Wichita Examines Layoff Procedures.
The Wichita (KS) Eagle (3/9, Yount) reports, “Wichita school board members Monday night reviewed the processes for laying off teachers, administrators and staff as they braced for an estimated $25 million budget shortfall next school year.” Afterwards, “the board approved an updated version of layoff procedures for administrators, including allowing them to continue in the early retirement program if they come back to the district within two years.” So far, “the district has cut about $25 million from its $620 million budget since January 2009. School leaders said an additional shortfall would cut directly into positions and salaries, which make up about 80 percent of the budget.”

East Carolina University Partners With School District To Improve Teacher Quality.
The Greenville Daily Reflector (3/9, Drake) reports, “East Carolina University, Pitt County Schools and other local educational entities have formed a partnership to improve teacher quality through an $8.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The ECU College of Education, the ECU College of Arts and Sciences, Pitt County Schools and Greene County Schools have joined together for the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant.” The grant “will be distributed over five years.”

Providence, RI Proposing School Changes That Include Teacher Participation.
The Providence (RI) Journal (3/9, Borg) reports that Providence “is poised to embark on an unorthodox method of transforming four of its lowest-performing schools, asking the teachers union, long an adversary of management, to help in an overhaul. Monday night, Supt. Tom Brady presented his plans to the School Board before sending a letter of intent to state Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist, who has 10 days to approve or deny them.” The “wide-ranging reforms are the result of an order from Gist who, in January, identified the six lowest-performing schools in the state and ordered them to shape up or else.”

Law & Policy
ED Releases I3 Rules, Applications.
Education Daily (3/9, Brodie) reports that ED “released on Monday its long-awaited application for the $650-million Investing in Innovation Fund,…part of the $5 billion overall school reform investment included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” According to Education Daily, “ED grants will hone in on four areas the Obama administration has targeted in its school reform agenda: supporting effective teachers and principals; improving the use of data to accelerate student achievement; implementing standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and careers; and turning around persistently low-performing schools.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “said the i3 rules outline ED’s definitions of what constitutes strong and moderate evidence” of successful education innovation “as well as a reasonable hypothesis, and use these definitions as a basis for awarding the money.”

Education Week (3/9, McNeil) reports that ED “today unveiled the final rules for its $650 million Investing in Innovation , or i3, grant program, standing fast in the face of criticism that its proposed guidelines demanded too much from applicants in the way of private-sector match and evidence to back up their proposals.”

Safety & Security
Police Kill Man Outside New York City School.
The New York Times (3/9, Henry) reports, “A 22-year-old man was fatally shot by the police outside a Brooklyn elementary school on Monday afternoon after he pointed a fake gun at an officer, the authorities said. The man, identified by a law enforcement official as George D’Amato Jr. of Brooklyn, showed up behind Public School 194, at 3117 Avenue W in the Gerritsen Beach neighborhood, about 3:10 p.m., and someone called 911 to report a man with a gun.” According to the Times, “School had been let out about half an hour earlier, and no children were in danger, the police said.”

WPost Says DC Teacher Pact Must Have Stronger Safeguards Against Sexual Misconduct.
The Washington Post (3/9) editorializes that D.C. law “considers it a crime when doctors betray a trust and have sex with patients,” yet, “for reasons that no one can really explain, this common-sense protection doesn’t apply to teachers and students.” The Post adds that it is “important to stress,” as D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee “did in a recent letter to teachers, that the vast majority of those who work with children are hard-working professionals with a dedication to doing what’s best for their students. That makes it no less important, though, that a new contract with teachers — and an agreement is said to be near — contain reforms to deal with this serious issue.”

School Finance
Colorado District Implementing Four-Day Week.
The AP (3/8) reported, “A four-day school week is coming for students in Pueblo County School District 70 next school year, as the district tries to cut its budget by $5.8 million. … The district’s finance officer, Ryan Elarton, has estimated that the change could save between $883,000 and $1.1 million in cuts in utilities expenses, transportation costs and salaries for some workers.”

Also in the News
Officials Investigate Grade-Changing Scheme At Maryland High School.
The Washington Post (3/9, Johnson) reports, “A grade-changing scheme at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac [MD] involved the gradebooks of 35 teachers and was primarily isolated to the junior class, school officials told several hundred parents at a public meeting Monday night. Police and school officials have been investigating the security breach in which at least eight students stole teachers’ computer passwords using USB key loggers, which can be purchased inexpensively online.” The Post adds that Churchill “routinely ranks high among elite schools in the region and nation.”

Ravitch Outlines Why She Changed Mind About Longstanding School Reform Advocacy.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal (3/9), education historian and former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch outlines the reasons she has reversed her longstanding support for charter schools and the strict school accountability measures contained within NCLB. Ravitch cites wide variances in charter school quality and criticizes the charter school model for siphoning the highest-performing students from regular public schools. Ravitch is also critical of the strict school accountability standards backed by the Obama administration, calling them excessively punitive and outlining complaints from colleges that many incoming students lack basic knowledge.

NEA in the News
NEA Honors Minnesota Teacher With Human Rights Award.
Coon Rapids (MN) (3/9, Lestrud) reports, “An Eagan teacher who helps students from other countries transition to a new culture is the first in Minnesota to receive a human rights award from the National Education Association. Magaly Miralles, an English language learners teacher at Red Pine Elementary, has been awarded the George I. Sanchez Award for her work with Hispanic children.”

Monday, March 8, 2010 – Bradley Elementary: 2:30pm

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 – Asbury Park High School Library: Immediately following the Superintedent’s meeting

Thursday, March 11, 2010 – Thurgood Marshall Cafeteria: Immediately following the Superintedent’s meeting.

Monday, March 15, 2010 – Barack Obama Elementary School Cafeteria/Auditorium: 2:30pm.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 – Asbury Park Middle School Cafeteria or Library: 2:30pm.

Please advise Melanie from the Annex that they can attend any of these meetings. Also, word must be given to the Alternative MIddle School to attend one of these meetings, preferably the Middle School meeting. Barbara from the ITC and Gena from the Board Office, please advise your members of these meeting dates.

I STRONGLY URGE EVERY MEMBER TO ATTEND THESE MEETINGS. WE ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO STAND TOGETHER TO PROTECT EACH OTHER.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

John

The Washington Post (3/4, Anderson) reports that “the decision last month to replace the teaching staff at the end of the school year cast the spotlight on a new Obama administration policy: To qualify for a share of $3.5 billion in federal turnaround aid, local officials must close the struggling school or replace the principal and start over with a new academic game plan and perhaps a new staff.” However, The Post notes, “Experts say there is little evidence to determine whether firing teachers en masse will improve a troubled school.”

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In the Classroom
Middle School Teacher Ties Mosaic-Building Exercise To Geography Lesson.
The St. Petersburg Times (3/4, Ritchie) reports that through mosaic-building, J.D. Floyd K-8 school teacher Kevin McManus “has been combining art with geography for years. … This year’s project is called Pop Art II.” To help students create the mosaics, McManus follows “a four-step process” that involves “taking a photo of a painting, creating a transparency, projecting it onto a concrete board and having student artists trace it.” After the image has been transferred to “the board, it is labeled by color and is ready for the mosaic pieces.” The St. Petersburg Times adds, “The results are remarkable reproductions that are displayed around the campus.” Said McManus, “Geography studies culture all the time and part of that is art. … And it ties into the campus plan of beautification.”

Partnership Gives High Schoolers Professional Experience In Construction Technology.
The Washington Post (3/4, Hobbs) reports, “More than 100 students from 12 Fairfax County public high schools are participating in the Residential Construction Program, offered through the Construction Technology courses.” Students involved in the program are building a number of houses in the area, currently “putting the finishing touches on a 3,500-square-foot house in Springfield.” Throughout their participation, students “work side-by-side with professional contractors,” who “submit bids to work on the project and are contracted to teach and mentor students as well as complete typical construction work.” The Post notes, “The program is a partnership between Fairfax County public schools and the nonprofit Foundation for Applied Technical Education.” The program owns the houses, which are sold to pay “for the next construction project and for scholarships.”

High Schoolers Can Gain Priority University Admission Through Teacher Cadet Program.
The Detroit News (3/4, Williams) reports on a partnership between the Utica Community Schools Future Educator Program and Oakland University that allows students to “gain priority admission to the university’s school of education and earn two college credits.” Utica high schools offer the program as an elective. “As teacher cadets, [students] spend the first half of the school year” assisting a teacher “in one classroom and then switch to another classroom the second semester.” Program Coordinator Karen Chaffe said that “the students learn classroom management, lesson planning and leadership skills.” They “work more than 170 hours in the classroom through the course of the program” and “can use 50 of the 70 hours required by the university for acceptance into the department of education.”

On the Job
Florida District Seeks Immediate Solutions For Disruptive Students.
The St. Petersburg Times (3/3, Matus, Thalji) reported, “The Pinellas County School Board said Tuesday the district can no longer tolerate small but potent numbers of chronically disruptive students — and must find a way to boot them from traditional schools, pronto.” The discussion “came after a St. Petersburg Times story detailed the chaotic atmosphere at John Hopkins Middle School.” In the first five months of the school year, “police arrested 60 students – more than twice as many as any other St. Petersburg middle school.” Of those arrests, “many…were for fighting or flagrantly disrupting class.” The Times added that “board members didn’t dwell on details Tuesday.” Nor were they in any “mood for long-term solutions.”

Students Respond To Reporting Of Bad Behavior At Their School. The St. Petersburg Times (3/4, Matus) reports in a separate story, “The unfolding story about student discipline problems at John Hopkins Middle School in St. Petersburg has touched a nerve — and not just with teachers, parents and School Board members.” Following the St. Petersburg Times report, students at Hopkins have been “weighing in with letters to the editor.” According to some, “the newspaper should note positive things about the school, too.” Others said that they are “glad that a spotlight is being put on the school’s problems.”

Columnist Says Alternative School Should Be Reserved For Students Who Batter Teachers. In a related opinion piece, columnist Howard Troxler writes in the St. Petersburg Times (3/4) that a “large-scale fight” that took place at John Hopkins Middle School “the other day was scary. … No wonder one teacher declared the place to be ‘out of control.’” He points out, however, “There are still good things happening at the school, trouble is always going to happen, and these days kids get arrested all the time for offenses that used to be settled in other ways.” But, “students who commit a battery against a teacher or staff member” should be moved “to alternative school.” Troxler concludes that “sending every kid who gets in trouble to alternative school…does not give them a chance to benefit from intervention. But when it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”

Officials In Maryland To Investigate Grade-Changing Scheme.
The Washington Post (3/4, Birnbaum, Morse, Johnson) reports, “The Montgomery County [MD] state’s attorney has opened a criminal investigation into a grade-changing scheme at Winston Churchill High School…elevating the digital subterfuge into a major scandal at one of the region’s most prestigious public schools.” The investigation will focus on “the actions of at least eight students who allegedly used a USB device to steal teachers’ passwords and change the grades of 54 students.” Already, “nearly 700 student records have been subpoenaed, and three of the eight students identified as ringleaders have left the school.”

Law & Policy
House Approves School Restraint, Seclusion Bill.
The Washington Post (3/4, Anderson) reports, “The House approved a bill Wednesday to limit the physical restraint and seclusion of students in schools, a response to an investigation last year that found numerous reports of students abused or killed through such disciplinary measures. The bill…would establish safety standards in schools and prohibit physical restraint and seclusion of students except to stop imminent danger of injury.” Also, the bill “would bar mechanical restraints such as strapping students to chairs and any restraint that restricts breathing.” The New York Times (3/4, Carey) reports that “the coalition that passed the bill 262 to 153…sided with dozens of disability groups, as well as the American Federation of Teachers, and against some private school groups.”

The CQ (3/4, Ethridge) reports that the bill “would set the first federal safety standards on seclusion and restraint in schools” and “would allow the use of restraints on students in certain cases, such as when there is immediate danger to the student or others.” According to CQ, “Under the bill, the Education Department could award three-year grants to state educational agencies to help meet the department’s standards.”

Wisconsin Teachers Opposing State Senate Restraint, Seclusion Bill. The Oshkosh (WI) Northwestern (3/3, Rodewald) reported, “Teachers and school support staff from Oshkosh and across” Wisconsin “are speaking out against a proposed law restricting the use of restraints and timeouts for students.” The Wisconsin state Senate bill “comes in response to reports of abuse of children with special needs, who are often restrained and secluded in small rooms when acting out. The bill would only allow physical restraints in the case of an emergency and only if other less intrusive interventions have failed.”

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Duncan Outlines Administration’s No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Goals.
The New York Times (3/4, Dillon) reports that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “is presiding over the rollout of the largest competitive grant program in his department’s history, a vast expansion of the government’s direct loan program for college students and sweeping new expenditures on failing schools, teacher quality and other big initiatives.” At “an appearance before Congress” on Wednesday, lawmakers Asked Duncan if “the Obama administration would…try this year to rewrite” NCLB. Duncan said reauthorizing NCLB this year “is absolutely the goal,” and in written testimony on Wednesday, he noted that under the Administration’s plan, states “would measure school performance on the basis of progress in getting all students, including groups of students who are members of minority groups, low-income, English learners, and students with disabilities, on track to college- and career-readiness, as well as closing achievement gaps and improving graduation rates for high schools.”

Opponents Of Evolution Instruction Link Issue To Global Warming.
The New York Times (3/4, A1, Kaufman) reports on its front page that “critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.” According to the Times, these critics are “capitalizing on rising public resistance in some quarters to accepting the science of global warming, particularly among political conservatives who oppose efforts to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases.” In Kentucky, for instance, “a bill recently introduced in the Legislature would encourage teachers to discuss ‘the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,’ including ‘evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.’” Meanwhile, the South Dakota’s Legislature this week passed “a resolution calling for the ‘balanced teaching of global warming in public schools.’”

Utah Bill Would Hold Back First- Through Third-Graders Unable To Read At Grade Level.
The Salt Lake Tribune (3/4, Schencker) reports that the Utah Senate on Tuesday passed a bill (SB150) that “would bar schools from promoting students in” the first through third grades “who couldn’t read at grade level.” In addition, the bill “would also require schools to notify parents before halfway through the school year if there was a possibility their kids might be held back.” Under the legislation, “parents who disagreed with a school’s decision to hold back a child could appeal to the principal, who could overrule teachers.”

NEA in the News
Teachers Rally At State Capitol For Arizona Education Association’s March4Schools.
The Arizona Republic (3/4, Nevarez) reports that on Wednesday, “dozens of…teachers and education leaders descended on the State Capitol for the Arizona Education Association’s March4Schools, hoping to make their case as lawmakers consider another round of budget cuts. AEA President John Wright is advocating the “proposed temporary 1 cent-per-dollar sales tax Arizona voters will consider May 18″ He says that “cutting all-day kindergarten, AIMS intervention programs and career and technical programs would make Arizona less competitive” and that the sales tax “would help avoid deep cuts to education.” Meanwhile, Mesa Education Association president, Kirk Hinsey, said, “It’s a shame that in Arizona they don’t look at the funding of education as an investment; they look at it as a cost.”

Educators, Administrators Disagree On Changes To Teacher Tenure Rules In Kansas.
The Topeka (KS) Capital-Journal (3/4, Hollingsworth) reports that at a Wednesday hearing of the Kansas House Education Budget Committee, teachers and school administrators “clashed over a bill (HB 2699) that would delay by two years the ability for teachers to receive tenure.” Brenda Dietrich, superintendent of the Auburn-Washburn Unified School District 437, argued “pushing back the date for receiving tenure — from a teacher’s fourth contract in a district to their sixth” — would allow new teachers more time for mentorship. “If we had more time to mentor them, we could provide very focused professional development to close their skill gaps,” she said. On the other side of the argument were “teachers and the Kansas National Education Association,” who “said administrators should be able to weed out poor teachers within the current three-year time frame.”

Idaho Budget Reserves Less Money For Education Than Last Year.
The Idaho Statesman (3/4, Murphy) reports that “Idaho’s public schools will receive a 7.5-percent cut in state and federal funding under the budget adopted Wednesday morning by the Legislature’s budget-writing committee in party line votes.” According to some lawmakers, the decision is the “first time in state history that public education received less total funding (all state and federal sources) than the year before.” The Idaho Statesman lists highlights of the budget, and notes that, according to the State Department of Education and the Idaho Education Association, “schools had to cut $69 million in programs and services last year,” for a total of $200 million in cuts over two years.

Also in the News
Survey Reveals Teacher Views On Linking Evaluations To Standardized Test Scores.
USA Today (3/4, Toppo) reports, “Education reformers have long dreamed of a day when schools could rate every K-12 teacher in the USA based on how his or her students perform on a standardized test. … But a new, large-scale survey finds that only one in 14 teachers thinks” that student standardized test scores are a “‘very accurate measure’ of teacher performance” and 22 percent of teachers “say principal evaluations are a very accurate measure, but 78% of teachers agree that principals are at best only ’somewhat’ trustworthy when it comes to rating job performance.” According to USA Today, the “findings are part of a wide-ranging survey…of more than 40,000 USA teachers” conducted “by Scholastic, the children’s publisher, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

Educators Search For Building Blocks Of Great Teaching.
The New York Times (3/4, MM30, Green) reports, “After a successful career as a teacher, a principal and a charter-school founder,” Doug Lemov “was working as a consultant, hired by troubled schools eager – desperate, in some cases – for Lemov to tell them what to do to get better.” Ultimately, “realized that he had no clue how to advise schools about their main event: how to teach.” Yet after conducting “his own search” for what ingredient makes a great teacher stand out, “he noticed something about most successful teachers that he hadn’t expected to find: what looked like natural-born genius was often deliberate technique in disguise.”

Obama Focuses On Reducing High School Dropout Rate.
The AP (3/1, Superville) reports, “President Barack Obama will offer $900 million in grants to states and school districts to turn around low-performing schools – but recipients would have to take drastic action, such as replacing principals, reopening schools as charter schools or closing them outright. Obama was to announce the plan Monday at an education event sponsored by the America’s Promise Alliance, the youth-oriented organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma.” The President “also planned to discuss ways to better prepare students for college and careers.”

The Hill (3/1, Hart) reports that President Obama “will announce Monday a national effort to reduce the high school dropout rate and better prepare students for successful college careers. The administration has committed $3.5 billion to fund changes in persistently low-performing schools around the country, with priority given to high schools with graduation rates below 60 percent.”

In the Classroom
Interest In Russian On The Rise In US Schools.
The Washington Post (3/1, Birnbaum) reports, “Russian used to be hot, the must-learn language of ambitious Americans looking to talk to their rivals. But the end of the Cold War put the language in a deep freeze — one from which it’s just beginning to emerge.” According to the Post, “Students now see Russia as a place to make money, and, with the highly charged rhetoric of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the country appears to be a bit of a rival again.”

Increasing Numbers Of Younger Students Are Taking AP Classes.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2/27, Hetzner) reports, “Advanced Placement has enjoyed a boom over the last decade, with one out of every four students now taking an AP exam before graduating.” In that time, increasing numbers of younger students have been enrolling in AP classes, which has “led to worries that the standards for the esteemed program…might be lowered to accommodate a population not prepared for its challenge.” Still, according to a survey “released last year” by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, “suspicions about watering-down the program…mostly remain just that.” The majority of teachers who participated in the survey “said the difficulty and complexity of their class material has not declined with the qualifications of the students.” But the majority of teachers also “believed that many parents were pushing children who don’t belong there into AP classes and that too many of their students…were in over their heads.”

Stretch-N-Grow Helps Boost In-Classroom Physical Activity At Some Chicago Schools.
The Chicago Tribune (2/26, Eng) reports on “Stretch-N-Grow, an in-class fitness program that operates in 22 Chicago-area elementary schools.” The national franchise is a ten-week program that “allows schools to boost physical activity without having to build a new gym or make the day longer. Schools can pay between $1,000 and $3,000…depending on their size, and parents can pay for after-school programs.” In addition to Stretch-N-Grow, Chicago Public Schools also offers “dancing, yoga and cardio training to…help augment” — or as “a substitute for — physical education programs.”

Survey Suggests “Confusion” About Who Should Teach Kids Cyber Security.
The Christian Science Monitor (2/26, Khadaroo) reports that according to “a new cybersafety survey” by the National Cyber Security Alliance, “only about half of school administrators report that their districts require lessons in online safety as part of their curriculum.” Michael Kaiser, the alliance’s executive director, said, “There’s no national consensus around what we are supposed to be teaching kids about being participants in a digital age.” However, he added, “there seems to be some confusion about who is supposed to be doing it and how much they’re supposed to be doing.” Based on the survey, “seven out of 10 teachers think parents should be primarily responsible for cybersafety lessons,” while “nearly half of school administrators say teachers should be primarily responsible.”

Four-Year-Olds In Texas District Take Tests To Determine Gifted Status.
The Dallas Morning News (2/26, Holloway) reported that in the Garland school district’s effort to find the youngest “little geniuses or near-geniuses” in the school system each year, 4-year-olds “demonstrate their mental talents in a 15-minute one-on-one IQ test with a diagnostician and then complete a short achievement test. Those who score highest are called back for additional tests.” The “children must score in the 90th percentile or above” to be considered gifted and “must score at least in the 75th or 50th percentile” to qualify “for the new kindergarten magnet programs” offered in Garland. The Morning News noted that “testing of increasingly younger kids has become popular over the last decade.” However, “most public school districts wait until kids are in classes, then use achievement tests given to all students to identify” gifted students.

Oregon Students Learn Through Mock Hearing.
The East Oregonian (2/28) reported, “As part of the ‘We the People’ social studies curriculum, all fifth grade students at Pilot Rock [OR] Elementary School participated in a Simulated Mock Hearing last month. After completing the ‘We the People’ textbook, each student took a question from a unit in the textbook and prepared an answer.” According to the East Oregonian, “Students performed research and practiced their public speaking skills in preparation for this event.”

Program Helps Spanish Speakers Gain Literacy Skills.
The Chicago Tribune (2/26, Fuller) reported on a Spanish language literacy program in Illinois called “Plaza Comunitaria,” which “is designed to help those who are illiterate as well as students who wish to continue their education.” According to the Tribune, “Materials and the curriculum are provided by the Mexican government” and funding for the program also “comes from the state and federal government.” The Tribune added, “Participants who finish their primary education receive a certificate” and if participants “finish their secondary education, they get a degree from the Mexican government, said Kiyo Johnson, coordinator for the Plaza Comunitaria program” at Golfview Elementary School in Carpentersville, IL.

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On the Job
More Schools Experimenting With Individualized Learning Plans.
The New York Times (3/1, A19, Hu) reports, “In New Jersey and elsewhere, middle schools and high schools are experimenting with individualized learning plans” that include “differentiated instruction and specialized career academies.” The effort is seen as “yet another way that public schools, under pressure to raise test scores and graduation rates, are trying to reach more students.” The article profiles Linwood Middle School in New Jersey, where sixth graders are determining “heir own academic path with personalized student learning plans – electronic portfolios containing information about their learning styles, interests, skills, career goals and extracurricular activities.” Advocates argue “that creating learning plans for everyone can better prepare students for college, and motivate even low achievers to work harder.” The practice also reduces “the burden on school guidance departments,” which have been under increased pressure because of budget cuts.

New York District Considers Splitting High School Into Specialized Academies.
New York’s Post-Standard (3/1, Moses) reports, “The Liverpool School District is proposing splitting its high school into six specialized academies in four district buildings over the next three years.” Under the district’s proposal, after completing 10th grade students would be able to choose between academies “for college bound students,” for fine arts students, and for engineering and mathematics students. There would also be “an academy that features a more traditional structure.” Proponents of the plan argue that academies, with their smaller classroom size, are “an effective way to create smaller learning environments for students.” Critics have voiced concerns about the expense of the proposal. An independent expert, meanwhile, “said there are many positives and negatives to academies, but the format isn’t a sure fix.”

Teacher Unions Challenged In Unprecedented Face-Off At Rhode Island School.
The Providence Journal (2/28, Jordan) reported that Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist, “who approved the firing of teachers, support staff and administrators at Central Falls High School, has said she will ‘do whatever it takes to create better schools.’ … It was her Jan. 11 order to overhaul the state’s six lowest-performing schools that triggered the chain of events leading to last week’s decision to fire the entire teaching staff at Central Falls High School, effective at the end of the school year.” Also, it “was her order that prompted a rare statement of support from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the very night the Central Falls school Board of Trustees voted 5 to 2 to terminate 93 teachers, support staff and administrators at the city’s only high school.”

Firing Of All Teachers At Rhode Island School Seen As Unlikely To Improve Education Outcomes. Valerie Strauss writes in a column for the Washington Post (3/1, Strauss), “The school committee in Central Falls, Rhode Island’s smallest and poorest city, voted to fire every educator at Central Falls High School at the end of the school year.” However, there is “no evidence that wholesale changes at schools make a difference at schools, though it has been tried repeatedly in districts around the country — even in” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s “Chicago public schools, which he ran for years before leading the Education Department. … That’s because grand gestures don’t work to improve schools.”

Chicago Education Stakeholders Debate School Turnaround Strategies In Chicago.
The New York Times (2/28, Yednak) reported that as the Chicago Public Schools system “entered its annual process of selecting schools for closing or turnarounds, parents, teachers and community groups leveled criticism at school officials for the lack of communication with the communities involved and questioned data from the central office that does not match the reality in the schools.” According to the Times, “Ron Huberman, the public schools chief executive, acknowledged that the process was imperfect, but remained committed to it,” adding that the “alternative – tolerating schools that clearly have failed both the system and the children in it – was not acceptable either.” According to the Times, “The debate is drawing attention because a national program to restructure the worst-performing schools encourages states to use the same strategies that Arne Duncan, the federal education secretary, introduced as chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools.”

Law & Policy
Jobs Bill May Boost School Bond Sales, Bank Of America Says.
Bloomberg News (2/26, Saraiva) reported, “Municipal bond sales for transportation and school construction may rise if the U.S. House of Representatives passes the Senate’s job-creation bill, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said. Programs such as the taxable Qualified School Construction Bonds and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds may see a ‘marginal increase’ if representatives approve a version of the Senate’s jobs bill that will let local governments get a 45 percent subsidy on the interest costs after issuing the bonds, strategists led by John Hallacy wrote in a note.” According to Blooomberg, “The qualified bonds, which provide tax credits to investors, have been less popular than Build America Bonds, which give 35 percent federal interest subsidies on taxable issues for public works.”

Special Needs
IDEA Helps Parents Stay Involved In Special Ed Decision-Making Process.
Walecia Konrad wrote in a column for the New York Times (2/27, B5), “More than 6 percent of school-age children – almost three million students – are receiving special education services because of learning disabilities, according to the Learning Disabilities Association of America.” According to Konrad, “Parents have extensive rights under” the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, “including the right to ask for an evaluation or a re-evaluation of their child at any time. Most important, however, is the parents’ right to be part of the team that decides what special education services and therapies the child will receive.”

Columnist Says Special Education Students Should Be Integrated In Regular Classrooms.
Sarah Barnes wrote in a column for the Austin American Statesman (2/28) regarding her daughter Meredith, a sixth-grader who takes special ed classes, “I think students in a typical classroom or lunchroom can learn as much from Meredith as she can from them. If Meredith is to become a productive citizen, then there must be a paradigm shift in the schools regarding inclusion, especially in the middle schools.” Barnes added, “It doesn’t trouble me that kids see Meredith as a student who needs an aide; it troubles me when they don’t see her at all.”

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NEA in the News
Read Across America Day Will Take Place Tuesday.
California’s Desert Sun (3/1) reports that “March 2 has become more than just a day to remember” Dr. Seuss’ birthday, “it’s also Read Across America Day, a day when you’ll find normally dignified adults wearing floppy red-striped stovepipe hats and telling grade-school children about green eggs and ham.” An NEA task force came up with the idea for Read Across America Day in 1997. The Desert Sun adds, “Efforts to encourage reading are especially important in the Coachella Valley, where literacy scores lag behind state and national averages.” The majority of schools in the Valley, as well as “many libraries and some businesses, will participate in Read Across America Day. Guest readers include firefighters, police officers, elected leaders and ordinary citizens.”

The Bowie (TX) News (3/1) reports that “Bowie Schools will be participating in the Read Across America inspired events over the next two weeks with a goal of getting kids of all ages excited about reading.” In its 13th year, the celebration “is expected to draw more than 45 million participants” nationwide on March 2. The Bowie News adds, “Every year, around the time of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, NEA hosts a major event to pay homage to the beloved children’s book author and get the nation’s children excited about reading.”

Obama Announces $900 Million School Turnaround Grants.
The New York Times (3/2, Zeleny) reports, “President Obama said Monday that he favored federal rewards for local school districts that fire underperforming teachers and close failing schools, saying educators needed to be held accountable when they failed to fix chronically troubled classrooms and curb the student dropout rate. The president outlined his proposal to offer $900 million in federal grants, which would be made available to states and school districts willing to take aggressive steps to turn around struggling institutions or close them.” Obama “spoke alongside former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, who lead America’s Promise Alliance, an advocacy group dedicated to combating the school dropout rate.”

The Washington Post (3/2, Fletcher, Anderson) reports that the President “voiced support Monday for the mass firings of educators at a failing Rhode Island school, drawing an immediate rebuke from teachers union officials.” Obama, who was “speaking at an event intended to highlight his strategy for turning around struggling schools,” said that “the controversial firings” were “justified.” The Post notes that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “has said repeatedly that he wants to work with unions rather than impose reforms on them,” and that the NEA and other teacher unions have “generally sought to play down policy differences with the administration.”

The Providence (RI) Journal (3/2, Mulligan) reports, “President Obama singled out Central Falls High School on Monday as an example of failing public schools whose teachers have been let go as a ‘last resort’ to confront substandard scholarship.” The Journal adds that “union officials quickly criticized what they called Mr. Obama’s comments ‘condoning the mass firing.’”

The Los Angeles Times (3/2, Parsons) reports that in the speech given “to a coalition of education advocates at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Obama said he wants states to transform the poorest schools with ‘last resort’ strategies that could necessitate dismissing principals and staff and closing some campuses.” He also said that for states “to receive the…turnaround grants for their districts, state officials must draft a set of criteria to determine their lowest-performing schools. To be eligible, a school must either have state test scores in the bottom 5 percent or high school graduation rates below 60 percent.”

The AP (3/2, Superville) reports that the event was “sponsored by the America’s Promise Alliance, the youth organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma.” According to the AP, “The president’s plan would seek to help 5,000 of the nation’s lowest-performing schools over the next five years.”

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In the Classroom
Student Survey Helps Guide Schools’ Technology Initiative.
The Gadsden (AL) Times (3/2, Poythress) reports, “The younger generation is living up to its tech-savvy reputation, according to a survey recently conducted in Gadsden City Schools, and educators say classrooms need to keep up.” The Student Technology Survey found, among other things, that “at-home technology use is on the rise among students of all ages.’ There was a particularly strong gain in the percentage of “students who reported having their own Web pages.” Director of Technology/Human Resources David Asbury said the complete findings “can definitely influence the direction our technology initiative takes.” He noted, “One thing we’re concerned with is students doing activities at home with technology, so we need to make sure they have those resources available at home. It does have a big impact on what we do in the classrooms.”

Smart Shorties Uses Rap Songs To Help Students Learn Math Rules.
WTOL-TV Toledo (3/1, Lowrey) reported on Smart Shorties, “a music-based math program that takes popular rap songs and changes the lyrics to help kids memorize their math rules.” Creator Christine Smith explained, “The students write all of the lyrics. … In order to do that, they have to understand the process. So, the whole school learns it, which is a win-win situation.” A year after Smith, a Star Academy teacher, “first began using it, she brought her 6th grade class from 0 percent passing on the Ohio Achievement test to 48 percent passing.” Smith said that she is partnering “with Scholastic, and they want to run a huge marketing campaign and put [the] products in every single classroom.”

Drug Sweeps Becoming Increasingly Common In Richmond, Virginia-Area Schools.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (3/1, Bowes) reported that “school drug sweeps have become so commonplace across the region that hardly a week goes by that police aren’t checking on students somewhere.” Last year, “police in the Richmond and Tri-Cities areas…conducted at least 126 sweeps at 61 schools — some twice or more — in what has become a perpetual cycle of drug deterrence at the region’s middle and high schools.” Some “authorities believe a measure of the sweeps’ success can be found in the paltry quantity of narcotics being found — compared with the plentiful finds more than a decade ago.”

On the Job
Texas District Proposes $45,800 Starting Salary To Get “Good Enough” Teacher Candidates.
The Dallas Morning News (3/2, Weiss) reports, “The Richardson school district let slip a secret recently: its proposed starting salaries for next year’s new teachers.” District “officials wanted to come up with a number before its recruiters hit the road last week,” and decided on a starting salary of “$45,800 for someone with no teaching experience, which is $700 more than last year. Teachers with more experience, advanced degrees or other certifications can make more.” The Dallas Morning News explains, “The basic goals are pretty simple: Pay no more than is necessary to get enough, and good enough, job candidates.” Donna Johnson, assistant superintendent for human resources, said, “Richardson has always been conservative with its raises. … It always starts with zero.” Then, Johnson “looks at salaries of districts that Richardson considers competition.”

Firing Of All Teachers At High School In Rhode Island Called “Illogical.”
The Nashua (NH) Telegraph (3/1) editorialized, “The decision by the impoverished school district of Central Falls, R.I., to fire the entire high school staff — teachers and administrators — was the inevitable, albeit illogical, result of a decade’s worth of No Child Left Behind.” According to the Telegraph, the basis of No Child Left Behind “has been to identify ‘nonperforming schools’ on the basis of test scores and to structure sanctions accordingly.” At the center of that effort “has been the notion that there’s no such thing as a failing child, only failing schools.” The Telegraph asserts, “If we continue down this path of expecting our schools and teachers to overcome all the factors contributing to poor student performance, we will only drive the best and the brightest to other professions.”

Law & Policy
Pennsylvania Plans To Use Video Games To Teach Math And Science.
Pennsylvania’s Tribune-Democrat (3/2, Evans) reports, “A new statewide plan to use video games to help teach math, science and technology is taking root in Johnstown.” Ed Sheehan, president of Concurrent Technologies Corp. and a member of the state Board of Education “said CTC will field a team of 3-D gaming and Hollywood special effects experts to be certain the new program ‘fully captures the imagination of student participants.’” The plan will seek to spur “an innovative statewide technology program that boosts student math, science and technology achievements by actively engaging them with cutting-edge 3-D gaming technology, real-world, project-based internships and technology camps,” according to Sheehan.

Connecticut Bill Would Implement Parent-Initiated School Turnaround Trigger.
The Connecticut Post (3/2, Lambeck) reports, “Convinced that they have found the key to eradicating the state’s cavernous student achievement gap, a cadre of Connecticut parents hopes to do here what California did a few months ago by passing a law to ‘trigger’ school change.” According to the Post, “Unlike the California law, the Connecticut legislation, as it is being drafted by state Rep. Jason W. Bartlett, D-Bethel, and other members of the state General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, would not give parents the power to close a school. Rather, a petition signed by 51 percent of parents of any school deemed as failing — under criteria set by [NCLB] — for three years in a row, would force the local school board to hold a hearing and then decide whether to reorganize the school, replace its staff or implement a new instructional model.”

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Special Needs
Superintendent Seeks To Bring Interactive Whiteboards Into Special Needs Classrooms.
Michigan’s Bay City Times (3/2, Dodson) reports, “Bay-Arenac Intermediate School District Superintendent Michael Dewey hopes to bring” interactive whiteboards “into special education classrooms.” The Times explains that “the special whiteboards allow for moving windows of information that are projected onto it with the swipe of a hand. Special markers can also be used to circle and highlight information digitally — rather than using standard dry-erase markers.” Dewey has proposed using “stimulus money from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) to fund the technology.” When trustee William Karbowski pointed out that the ARRA “are supposed to be used to stimulate the economy and employ people,” the superintendent “said he would research where the boards are made and how many people they employ.”

School System In Alabama To Build Fully Accessible, Green Playgrounds.
The Brewton (AL) Standard (3/2, Prestridge) reports, “Special needs children across the county will soon have the freedom to go down a slide and cross the monkey bars, activities that many take for granted, when the construction of four playgrounds is complete later this school year.” The Escambia County School System’s special education coordinator, Suzanne Barnett, said that most of the district’s playgrounds are not compliant with the Americans Disabilities Act. Escambia will use funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to pay Kid Zone $249,772 to construct the “four special needs playgrounds at schools countywide.” In addition to being fully accessible, “the playgrounds are also considered…’green projects,’ Barnett said.”

School Finance
Stimulus Grant To Help Bring Broadband To Utah Schools.
The Salt Lake Tribune (3/2, Maffly) reports, “Utah education officials have secured a $13.4 million federal grant to pipe broadband into dozens of elementary schools, making Internet access available to thousands of students. But the project requires a hefty state commitment that some lawmakers fear could be undermined if the Legislature takes a hatchet to higher education spending.” According to the Tribune, the “grant comes from a $4.7 billion pool of federal stimulus money distributed by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).”

Also in the News
First Lady Touts Schools’ Influence On Childhood Nutrition.
The AP (3/2) reports that, at the annual meeting of the School Nutrition Association, First Lady Michelle Obama said that “the people who prepare meals for schools have more influence over what kids eat than parents do. She said that’s because kids who participate in school meal programs eat about half their daily calories at school.” The SNA “is a partner in Mrs. Obama’s new campaign to tackle the problem of childhood obesity.”

Kids Found To Be Snacking More. USA Today (3/2, Hellmich) reports that a study appearing in the March edition of Health Affairs shows that “children today snack an average of three times a day, and they are mostly consuming sugary beverages, cookies, cake, candy, salty snacks and other high-calorie junk food.” Kids “are now consuming 168 more calories from snacks than kids did in 1977,” researchers said. According to USA Today, “The findings confirm previous studies that indicate snacking may have run amok in the USA, and it may be contributing to the rising rates of childhood obesity.”

Haiti Quake Left More Than 80 Percent Of Schools Damaged Or Destroyed.
The AP (3/2, Katz) reports that Haiti’s Jan 12 earthquake left “more than 80 percent” of schools “in the earthquake zone…damaged or destroyed.” Currently, all of the schools “in Port-au-Prince and the other affected towns remain closed, and with tens of thousands of bored and restless children living in increasingly squalid encampments, patience is growing short.” While some education stakeholders demand that “schools reopen immediately – be they in tents, temporary buildings or other makeshift facilities,” others “are urging caution before rushing back into a system that never really worked in the first place.” The AP points out some problems with Haiti’s educational system. For instance, “just one in 10 Haitian teachers is a qualified educator…and a third have not even completed ninth grade.”

NEA in the News
NEA Commended For Supporting Pilot Program Allowing Students To Graduate Early.
Amy Rosen, the President & CEO of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, wrote in the Huffington Post (3/2), “Education can be exciting. Very exciting.” She points to “a new program being offered to students in 8 states…that will help prepare them for college and beyond.” The program is being “organized by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE)” and “will allow 10th graders to take a series of board examinations to test their mastery of basic educational requirements” and will allow those who pass “the opportunity to graduate early and attend a community college.” Rosen asserts, “This is the type of forward-looking approach that is desperately needed in states and communities throughout our nation.” She also commends “groups like the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Education Association for providing their support” to the program.

Few States Considering Increase In Education Budget.
Education Week (3/2, Maxwell) reports, “Budget pressures still have a tight grip on most of the states and are already leaving governors and lawmakers little choice but to cut as they prepare, debate, and settle on new funding for public schools.” Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are among a small number of states that are considering an increase in education funding. The others are either planning to cut or “keep funding level for public schools,” according to Daniel G. Thatcher of the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Virginia, for instance, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) “has proposed deep cuts to K-12 funding,” and the Virginia Education Association “strongly disputes any suggestion that the decreases, if adopted, would spare the classroom” and “estimates that as many as 28,000 school-based jobs would be shed.”

Teachers To Appeal Mass Firings At Rhode Island High School.
The AP (2/26, Henry) reports, “The entire staff of teachers fired in a radical attempt to improve one of the worst performing high schools in Rhode Island will appeal their dismissals to school authorities, the head of the teachers union said Thursday. The board of trustees overseeing the school system in Central Falls, one of the poorest communities in the state, voted Tuesday to fire 88 high school teachers and other support staff by the end of the year.” According to the AP, Jane Sessums, president of the Central Falls Teachers’ Union, says she “still hopes negotiations will resume, although her union has not made any requests to school officials to continue talks.”

The Christian Science Monitor (2/26, Khadaroo) reports, “To the dismay of many local and national union members, all the teachers, the principal, and other staff of Central Falls [RI] High School were fired by the board of trustees this week,” as “part of a dramatic turnaround plan proposed by the superintendent and approved by the state education commissioner.” According to the Monitor, “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded the Rhode Island decision this week. But Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president, shot back with a statement that ‘firing all of the teachers is a failed approach and will not result in the kinds of changes necessary to improve instruction and learning.’”

In the Classroom
Saturday Science Academy Uses Hands-On Approach To Motivate Students.
The San Gabriel Valley (CA) Tribune (2/25, Irwin) reported that Kwis Elementary School is “trying an experimental Saturday science academy,” and “is using a hands-on approach to science to motivate students.” The academy takes place “one Saturday a month from 9 to 11 a.m.” Instructors “use ‘guided discovery’ to pique the students’ interest.” For example, “the first class gave the students a ‘mystery powder’ to figure out. The kids used microscopes to study the crystalline structure of the mysterious substance.” The Kwis academy is made possible through a federal grant.

Report Analyzes “Best Practices” Among Middle Grades.
Education Week (2/25, Zehr) reported, “Using students’ test scores as one part of evaluations for teachers, principals, and superintendents is associated with better academic performance at schools serving the middle grades, a report released this week has found. Linking students’ test scores with evaluations was one of the ‘best practices’ that high-performing schools serving students in grades 6 to 8 have in common,” the EdSource report found. According to Education Week, “Researchers analyzed the relationship between students’ spring 2009 scores on California’s tests in mathematics and English/language arts and answers to surveys by 303 principals, 3,752 English and math teachers, and 157 superintendents in the state.”

After-School Enrichment Program Introduces Elementary Schoolers To Hobby, Career Skills.
The Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot (2/26, Wilson) reports on the Challenge U program at Bean Elementary School, and “after-school enrichment program, which has been offered at Bean for almost two decades” and “gives students a chance to learn about a variety of activities” that could be applied to hobbies or careers. The 16 classes offered this year encompass “soccer, wrestling, cake decorating, knitting, sewing, jewelry making and photography,” as well as courses on animals and electronics. ‘”I hope they gain an understanding of engineering and that there are careers in Jackson County related to electrical engineering,’ said Albert Rossner, a digital electronics instructor for Project Lead the Way at the Jackson Area Career Center, who was teaching students how to build a circuit.”

Grant To Help Colorado District Beef Up STEM Programs, Serve As National Model.
The Colorado Springs Gazette (2/26, McGraw) reports, “Falcon School District 49 has received a $100,000 federal grant to beef up its fledgling science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program” by funding teacher training. It will also be used to “provide programs and buy equipment such as laptops and interactive videos.” A district official said “that over five years Falcon will create a program that will serve as a state and national model. In this effort, the district will partner with the Center for STEM Education at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and the Museum of Science and the National Center for Technological Literacy, both in Boston. The district also will consult with industry professionals from around the state.”

On the Job
Orange County, California, Schools Chief Calls For Elimination Of Teacher Tenure.
The Orange County Register (2/26, Leal) reports that Orange County, CA schools Superintendent William Habermehl “proposed eliminating teacher tenure, boosting local control of education funding and reducing federal and state regulations Thursday during his annual State of Education speech.” Habermehl “admitted many of his proposed reforms would face tough challenges from lawmakers, unions and other groups. But the several consecutive years of massive budget cuts have severely damaged the ability of schools to provide an education necessary for students to succeed in the 21st century, he said.”

Law & Policy
Parents Push For Ban On Solitary Confinement In Georgia Schools.
The AP (2/26, Turner) reports that the parents of a 13-year-old student who “hanged himself while in” a seclusion room at school “are pushing state education officials to pass a policy banning the use of solitary confinement in Georgia schools, which they say led directly to their son’s death in 2004.” A “federal report released this week” by the Department of Education says that “19 states, including Georgia, do not regulate” seclusion of students in schools. However, it also shows “that many of the states that have no policy are in the process of developing regulations, and a handful of the states that have policies are reviewing them to ensure they are sufficient.” The AP notes that the report “stems from Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s query to state school chiefs last year on policies for confinement and restraint of misbehaving students.”

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New York City Education Panel Approves Ban On Bake Sales.
The New York Times (2/26, A24, Medina) reports that the New York City Department of Education’s Panel for Education Policy unanimously approved a new policy that “bans most bake sales but allows students to sell premade items including Pop-Tarts and Doritos.” The Times notes that the vote was made after 11:30 pm Wednesday night, and “by then, just one mother…was waiting to speak out against the new policy.”

Los Angeles District Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over School Layoffs.
The Los Angeles Times (2/25, Song) reported that a class-action lawsuit was “filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of students at three of the city’s worst-performing middle schools. The suit claims those students were denied their legal rights to an education and aims to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District from laying off more teachers there.” The “student body at the three schools is almost exclusively minority, and campuses in more affluent areas were not hit as hard by teacher layoffs.”

School Changes Policy On Sending Students To Office After Child Walks Off Campus.
The Dallas Morning News (2/26, Mueller) reports that Casa View Elementary School in Dallas “has changed its policy regarding sending students to the principal’s office after a 7-year-old walked off campus.” The student “was missing for about two hours Wednesday after being sent to the office” for “playing in the boys’ bathroom.” Instead of going to the office, the boy walked off campus and “hid behind a nearby house.” The student told a local television station “that he skipped out because he” thought the principal would suspend him. Though school employees did follow “procedures according to Dallas ISD policy, which requires students to be paired up when going to the office,” the school will now require that teachers call “the office to let the principal’s staff know when students are on the way.”

Special Needs
Ontario District Using Online Technology To Support Autistic Students.
T.H.E. Journal (2/25, McCrea) reported that knowing autistic students “need special attention in the learning environment and that the instructors who teach those students require additional support,” Joel Godecki, autism spectrum disorders project director for the 8,000-student Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board in Northwestern Ontario, “looked around for a technology tool that could serve both purposes.” Godecki “decided to try a suite of products developed by AutismPro. ‘I was intrigued by the fact that the system was based on the Web and that it would be easy to implement at different schools,’ said Godecki, whose district is currently using AutismPro’s workshops, resources, and professional and resource management products.”

School Finance
Chicago Public Schools Faces Up To $1 Billion In Debt Next Year.
The Chicago Tribune (2/26, Ahmed) reports, “Chicago Public Schools is facing a deficit of up to $1 billion next year that can be reduced only through a combination of pension reform, union concessions and job cuts, schools chief Ron Huberman said Thursday.” He added that “without all three measures in conjunction…teacher layoffs, increased class sizes and cuts to important programs are distinct possibilities.” The Tribune notes that the “2011 budget forecast takes into account a skyrocketing pension obligation next year and contractual raises for teachers that together increase costs by about $450 million over this year.”

More Funds Could Be Cut From Hawaii Schools’ Budget.
The AP (2/26) reports that the Hawaii Board of Education “has found an additional $37.7 million it could cut from the budget of Hawaii’s public school system. State Sens. Norman Sakamoto [D] and Donna Mercado Kim [D] had asked the Department of Education to prioritize a list of cuts amounting to about $78 million,” about five percent “of the system’s general fund budget.” The AP added, “Island public schools have already absorbed $269 million in cuts over this year and next,” which “have resulted in teacher furloughs that have cost students more than three weeks of class time.”

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Utah Assembly Votes Against Equal Distribution Of Funds Between Split Districts.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/25, Schencker, Drake) reported that on Wednesday night, Utah’s House Education Committee “shot down HB292, a bill that would have brought property tax revenues per student in” the Canyons and Jordan school districts “back to equal levels by redistributing money,” and would “have applied to splitting districts in the future.” As a result, “Canyons will not be required to send $15 million in property tax revenue to Jordan.” Before the vote, “administrators from both districts presented financial arguments.” Burke Jolley, Jordan deputy superintendent for business services, said that “Jordan now collects only $1,136 in property revenue per student compared with $2,087 collected by Canyons.” But, according to Canyons’ business administrator Keith Bradford, when “taking into account other factors, such as the property tax money Canyons already sends to Jordan under a county-wide equalization law passed two years ago,” the Jordan school district “now collects $1,467 per student and Canyons gets $1,899.”

Also in the News
Television Station Owner Launches Ad Campaign Advocating Diversity In Schools.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (2/26, Goldsmith, Hui) reports, “Capitol Broadcasting Corp., owner of WRAL, is airing an editorial ad campaign on the television station proclaiming that ‘diversity matters.’” The ads “come as a new majority on the county school board has proposed getting rid of Wake’s current diversity policy of trying to balance the numbers of students at each school based on families’ economic backgrounds.” Capital Broadcasting Corp. CEO Jim Goodmon “said today that the spots are not meant as direct endorsement of the current policy, but as an editorial statement in favor of the principle of

Mass Firings At Rhode Island School Seen As Part Of National Accountability “Phenomenon”.
USA Today (2/25, Toppo) reports, “The mass firing of teachers at a Rhode Island high school this week is hardly new.” However, “Tuesday’s move by Central Falls, R.I., Superintendent Frances Gallo to remove all 74 teachers, administrators and counselors at the district’s only high school may be the first tangible result of an aggressive push by the Obama administration to get tough on school accountability,” USA Today adds. Andy Smarick of the DC-based think tank noted, “This may be one school in one town, but it represents a much bigger phenomenon. … Thanks to years of work battling the achievement gap and the elevation of reform-minded education leaders, we may finally be getting serious about the nation’s lowest-performing schools.”

The AP (2/24, Henry) reported that the decision to fire the teachers and administrators at Central Falls High School comes “as Rhode Island’s new education commissioner, Deborah Gist, pushes the state to compete for millions of dollars in federal funding to reform the worst 5 percent of its schools, including in Central Falls.” The New York Times (2/25, Zezima) reports that similar battles over school reform “have taken place in troubled districts in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, where officials have tried to fix failing schools by starting over with new staff members.”

The Christian Science Monitor (2/25, Belsie) also descirbes the move as “part of a national shake-up that US Education Secretary Arne Duncan hopes to engender in public schools.” Duncan “is forcing states to identify the bottom 5 percent of their schools and take one of four actions with each one: closure; takeover by an independent organization; transformation; or turnaround, which calls for firing all the teachers and rehiring no more than half of them in the fall.” The Providence Journal (2/25, Jordan) also covers the story.

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In the Classroom
Teachers Use Testing Data To Help Students Overcome Academic Challenges.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/25, Solochek) reports that “since the beginning of the school year, San Antonio Elementary School” in Pasco County, FL, “has brought its teaching teams together to solve academic problems, using data to help make informed decisions.” Third-grade teachers have focused “on improving children’s ability to decode words through phonics,” an area in which “more than 80 percent of students were having problems.” Since October, the teachers have increased “their classroom instruction of phonics…and provided additional pullout assistance for a smaller group of youngsters who had more specific needs beyond group lessons.” The strategy yielded positive results: The median score for third graders on the “reading assessment rose from the 21st percentile to nearly the 50th percentile.”

More High Schoolers Skipping, Altering Senior Year.
USA Today (2/25, Toppo) reports on “a small but growing group of students — most of them academically advanced …who are tinkering with their senior year.” Currently state laws differ on early graduation. Many US high schools have, however, been taking steps to make community college enrollment easier, “often with a chance to earn a high school diploma and associate’s degree in five years.” In one case highlighted by the article, a Utah state senator proposed making students’ senior year of high school optional in order to let students seeking further challenges move one, and conserve school resources for those that needed help. While educators disagree over the proposal’s merits, one noted that the “bill — since withdrawn — ‘has ignited a renewed and necessary controversy: How can we make 12th grade really meaningful?’”

School To Launch New Courses In Scientific Ethics, Renewable Energy.
Wisconsin’s Chronicle (2/25, Colson) reports that Black River Falls High School has approved two new courses for the fall, “one delving into ethics in science and the other studying renewable energy.” The former “will largely focus on reading, writing and discussion on major science-related topics like stem cell research, animal testing and genetic engineering,” while the latter “will explore energy concepts and practices and renewable energy systems. Students also will assess sites for renewable energy systems, learn about “green” energy programs in Wisconsin and career opportunities and explore renewable energy opportunities in the school district.” The two teachers in charge of the courses explain how they chose the topics, the training involved, and what they expect students to learn. The courses’ approval was contingent on the educators’ ability to provide them without additional staff, and within budget constraints.

Elementary Explorer Days Gives Third Graders A Look At Careers.
The Adrian (MI) Daily Telegram (2/25, Cherry) reports on the Elementary Explorer Days program at the Lenawee Intermediate School District’s Tech Center, which “offers third-graders a glimpse at their possible future careers.” Jane Castle, the career preparation coordinator, “said the program can help inspire children’s interest in their careers at an early age.” Castle noted that the event also “gives the kids a chance to see local high school students, perhaps an older sibling, in a learning environment outside the traditional classroom setting.” The Daily Telegram notes, “Students can also explore career options not covered during the elementary visit though the LISD’s career exploration camps, open to those in grades 2-10.”

On the Job
Action By Employees At Middle School In Colorado Ended Shooting Spree.
The Denver Post (2/25, Pankratz, Nicholson) reports that Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, the “man who allegedly shot two Deer Creek Middle School students was ordered held on $1 million bond today by a judge who said he considered the man a threat to the community.” Eastwood shot and injured two eighth graders before he was tackled by a teacher who witnessed the shootings. CNN (2/25) reports that a Deer Park Middle School math teacher, David Benke, “saw a man shooting at students as they were leaving the Littleton, Colorado, school on Tuesday” and “tackled the gunman…and with the help of another teacher and some bus drivers, was able to hold him until police arrived.” Assistant Principal Becky Brown said that she “saw Benke tackle the suspect. … While Benke and the suspect struggled on the ground, she grabbed the gun ‘and got it out of there,’ she said.”

FOX News (2/24) reported that before the shootings, Eastwood “had entered and left the building on his own…on Tuesday, seemingly without drawing much suspicion.” According to Jefferson County sheriff investigators, Eastwood “signed in at a reception desk before the Tuesday shootings and indicated he was a former student.” They also said that “he was never asked to leave the building.”

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Law & Policy
Maryland Teacher Will Apologize To Student Over Pledge Of Allegiance-Related Reprimand.
The Washington Post (2/25, Johnson, Birnbaum) reports, “A Montgomery County [MD] teacher has agreed to apologize to a 13-year-old student whom he reprimanded and sent to the office for twice refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance, said a lawyer who represents the student.” The teacher and school administrators also have agreed “to lead the girl’s class in a discussion about the incident and their constitutional rights.” The Post notes that according to the ACLU, “Maryland law explicitly allows any student or teacher to be excused from participating in the pledge.” Moreover, “the Montgomery school system’s student handbook” states, “You cannot be required to say a pledge, sing an anthem, or take part in patriotic exercises. No one will be permitted to intentionally embarrass you if you choose not to participate.”

School Finance
Virginia District’s Revised Budget Plan Eliminates Fewer Jobs.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch (2/24, Lizama) reported that “the Chesterfield County School Board gave initial approval last night to a revised school budget that saves about 100 jobs and lowers employee pay cuts from what first was proposed.” The $548.3 million 2010-11 budget plan includes a revision of the “$26.5 million in cuts initially proposed last month by Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome,” that is “based on staff and community input.” The initial “3 percent and 4 percent pay cuts” have been revised to “a 3 percent pay cut for central office administrators and 2 percent cut for all other employees.” In addition, the number of eliminated positions was reduced from 304 to 196. The positions will be eliminated “through attrition when possible.”

Hundreds Of Teachers, Students In Utah District Rally To Support Proposed Tax Hike.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/24, Drake) reported that “hundreds of Jordan School District teachers and students packed a sweltering and stuffy Board of Education room Tuesday to protest 500 proposed job cuts — 250 of them teachers.” The majority of “teachers and students spoke in favor of a tax increase proposed by the Jordan Education Association [JEA].” The increase of less than “$10 a month on a $200,000 home, combined with a district-wide five-day furlough, would make up $18 million of the shortfall, said Robin Froge, JEA president.” The Tribune adds that talk of “strikes and walkouts…as options in the near future” over the issue prompted “Superintendent Barry Newbold to issue a statement reminding staff that ‘an employee walkout, job action, or strike is an illegal activity.’” Still, most teachers have resolved “to work their contract hours” for now, instead of “taking home papers to grade or serving as advisers to clubs.”

Also in the News
Students From Six Florida Counties Compete In Nature Coast Envirothon.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/25, Ritchie) reports that on Wednesday, “hundreds of high school students from six counties turned out for the” 15th Annual Nature Coast Regional Envirothon, “competing in hands-on experiments and other tests in five nature-related categories.” The teams from each county with the highest scores “are now eligible to compete in the state Envirothon on April 23-24 at Silver Springs State Park. Winners from that event will go to the national contest Aug. 1-7 in California.” The St. Petersburg Times also sponsored a $2,500 scholarship competition for teams from the Nature Coast.

National Engineers Week Future City Competition Held In DC.
USA Today (2/25, Klinck) reports, “With materials as diverse as empty pill containers, soda cans and an old Christmas tree ornament, hundreds of middle school students set out to create futuristic city designs that would ‘provide an affordable green living space for people who have lost their home due to disaster or financial emergency.’” Their efforts were part of “the 18th annual National Engineers Week Future City Competition” finals held in DC last week. Thirty-nine “teams of seventh- and eighth-graders” competed for scholarships and the grand-prize “trip to US Space Camp in” Alabama.

NEA in the News
Local NEA Affiliates’ “Books for Babies” Effort To Bring 150 Books To Hospitals In North Dakota.
The West Fargo (ND) Pioneer (2/24) reported that the “West Fargo Education Association (WFEA) and the Fargo Education Association (FEA), local affiliates of the North Dakota Education Association, are joining together to…increase the awareness of early reading and reading readiness with activities planned throughout the community during ‘Read Across America Week’ March 1-5, and throughout the month of March.” Planned activities include collecting “used or nearly new” books for donations from school staff. The associations are also “involving the community by including Fargo MeritCare Health System and Innovis Health System” in “Books for Babies” to present 150 books “to both health systems on March 3.”

“Extreme Makeovers” Of Chronically Failing Schools Expected To Become More Common.
The AP (2/24, Matheson) reports that “extreme makeovers” of chronically failing schools “are likely to become more common because of more money from Washington, a growing consensus on education reform, and newfound willingness on the part of teacher unions to collaborate, experts say.” In Minnesota, for instance, plans are underway “to remake 34 schools by the time students return next fall — more than the federal No Child Left Behind legislation did in the state since it was enacted in 2001.” And in Philadelphia, a “turnaround effort, dubbed Renaissance Schools,” that “is backed by a union contract approved last month…requires teachers at failing schools to reapply for their jobs; eliminates their seniority rights when it comes to rehiring them; and extends the school day by up to an hour, with the possibility of class up to two Saturdays a month and 22 days in July.”

Plan To Fire Staff Members At High School In Rhode Island Is Approved. The New York Times (2/24, Zezima) reports, “A plan to dismiss the entire faculty and staff of” Central Falls High School in Rhode Island “was approved Tuesday night at an emotional public meeting of the school board. The board voted 5 to 2 to accept a plan proposed by Schools Superintendent Frances Gallo to fire the approximately 100 faculty and staff members at the chronically underperforming” school in June. According to the Times, “The plan will also create a new school governance structure and requires the high school’s new teachers to take part in ‘professional development’ that meets federal standards.”

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In the Classroom
Parents, Educators In Hawaii Say More Students Are Showing Anxiety Over Lost Instruction Time.
The Honolulu Advertiser (2/23, Moreno) reported, “More than two weeks of instructional time so far this year has been lost to furloughs of public school teachers, and parents and educators say the effects have started to show.” For instance, they say more students “are falling behind” and “expressing anxiety about lessons moving too quickly.” Moreover, “parents say their children are bringing home more schoolwork. … And teachers and principals say students are often…unsettled for the intense instruction the shorter weeks now require.” The Honolulu Advertiser adds that the actual impact of furlough Fridays on student achievement may only be revealed after this year’s Hawaii State Assessment results “are released this summer.”

Many American COMPETES Act Programs Never Received Funding.
Education Week (2/24, Robelen) reports that despite “considerable fanfare and bipartisan support” from Congress in 2007, “many of the new education-related programs spelled out under” the America COMPETES (Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology) Act remain unfunded. “A program to improve math instruction in the elementary and middle grades, for instance, hasn’t received a penny, nor has an initiative that would send out bonus grants to high-poverty schools that show the strongest gains in math and science.” The reauthorization, however, “comes amid strong and growing interest in promoting and improving STEM education, including from President Barack Obama.” Some experts also argue that despite funding issues, “the law has helped spark greater interest and investment by states and the philanthropic sector.”

Transition Workshop Gives Seniors A “Crash Course” On Jobs.
The Opelika Auburn (AL) News (2/23, Prater) reported that “more than 30 Lee County high school seniors got a crash course of sorts on what they hope will be their employment futures at the 2010 School-To-Career Transition Workshop.” The event provided students with “insight from local business professionals on everything from handing in a winning resume to landing and hanging on to a job.” It also gave students “the opportunity to shadow professionals in the field of their choice.” The article describes some students’ experiences with the workshop and job shadowing, and notes that the event was “organized by the Opelika Chamber of Commerce and hosted by Southern Union State Community College.”

Expert Panel Outlines Vision For Educational Assessments.
Education Week (2/23, Gewertz) reported from Washington, DC, “A group of high-powered policymakers and educators gathered here yesterday to build support for a new vision of educational assessment that is less a snapshot of students’ one-time performance and more like good instruction itself.” The panel “outlined a comprehensive system that includes summative and formative tests of higher-order thinking skills, reflecting a marketplace that they say places increasing value on such skills.” The panel also “urged a move away from of multiple-choice tests that demand factual recall, toward the development of a set of deeper, more analytical questions, tasks, and projects that ask students to solve and discuss complex problems.”

On the Job
Florida District Considers Merging Elementary Schools To Save Money.
The Gainesville (FL) Sun (2/24, Daniels) reports that “in an effort to maximize space and save money, the Alachua County School Board is considering a plan to consolidate Metcalfe and Rawlings elementary schools, both in close proximity in east Gainesville.” The school merger would initially save the district about “$700,000 in salaries duplicated between both schools in areas such as administrative support staff. Other savings such as building maintenance also might be realized.” The proposal calls “for students zoned for Rawlings to move to Metcalfe, with the larger capacity, at the start of the upcoming school year.” The school board will hold several public hearing “before making a decision” on whether or not to approve the merger.

South Carolina Has Second-Highest Number Of Students Participating In Breakfast Program, Report Shows.
South Carolina’s Independent-Mail (2/24, Carey) reports that according to a statement by the South Carolina Department of Education, “the latest School Breakfast Scorecard, a report by the Food Research and Action Center,” shows South Carolina as ranking “second in the nation in terms of students participating in both the National School Lunch Program and federal School Breakfast Program.” State law requires that all public school districts “participate in the federally funded School Breakfast Program.” Every day, an average of 222,500 “students participate in the program.” According to South Carolina Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, “an increasing poverty rate in South Carolina is making school breakfast and lunch programs more vital.” Currently, 58 percent of South Carolina families with students in public schools “qualify…for free or reduced-price lunches.”

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Law & Policy
New York City Struggles To Fire Underperforming Teachers.
The New York Times (2/24, Medina) reports that the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) “has made getting rid of inadequate teachers a linchpin of its efforts to improve city schools. But in the two years since the Education Department began an intensive effort to root out such teachers from the more than 55,000 who have tenure, officials have managed to fire only three for incompetence.” According to the Times, “Ridding schools of subpar teachers has become one of the signature issues of national education reformers, but the results in New York City show that, as is true in many school systems around the country, the process is not easy.”

Report Says Lack Of Evaluations Could Stall Superintendent Control Of Firing Teachers. The Boston Globe (2/23, Vaznis) reported that a new Massachusetts “law that bolsters a superintendent’s ability to fire teachers at underperforming schools could be undermined in Boston because administrators routinely neglect a basic task: evaluating teachers.” The new law gives superintendents authority to “terminate teachers at a failing school only for ‘good cause,’ elevating the importance of job evaluations to provide evidence for dismissal or as a way for teachers to challenge their firings.” But, in the last two years, roughly “half the [Boston's] approximately 5,000 teachers have not received an evaluation…and a quarter of the city’s 135 schools have not conducted evaluations during that period, according to a report commissioned by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education that was provided to the Globe yesterday.”

Los Angeles School System Will Cede Control Of Some Campuses To Teachers, Outside Groups.
The Los Angeles Times (2/24, Blume) reports, “In an unlikely victory, groups of teachers, rather than outside operators, will run the vast majority of 30 campuses under a controversial school reform effort, the Los Angeles Board of Education decided Tuesday.” Twenty-two of the schools will be turned over “to teacher-led efforts.” Meanwhile, “charter schools were given the chance to run four schools and the mayor’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools was given three.” And, at two of the schools, both teachers and outside groups “were given a role.”

Maryland Districts Can Request Waiver Of Up To Five School Days.
The Baltimore Sun (2/24, Bowie) reports that on Tuesday, “the Maryland board of education unanimously approved a plan…that will allow school systems to request a waiver of up to five days for days missed because of snow.” For the waiver, districts must “submit a plan for how they will make up the days they have lost and request…a specific number of days. School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick must approve each district’s plan.” The Baltimore Sun notes that several districts in the state closed “for about eight days” due to “snow storms in December and February.”

The Washington Post (2/24, Birnbaum) notes that the winter weather “forced many school districts to come up with creative ways to make up for lost time, including lengthening class days and, in Frederick County, shaving two days off spring break.” In other DC- area districts, “more drastic measures” are being considered. For instance, “many plan to extend at least a few days into the summer.”

Colorado Reforms Seen As Promising In Race To The Top Competition.
Former newspaper editor, Dick Hickler, wrote in an opinion piece for the Denver Post (2/23), “At first glance, Colorado’s wimpy entry in the national ‘Race for Big Education Bucks’ wouldn’t seem to stand much chance in the first round of the competition.” However, he adds, Colorado may have a chance, because “other states aren’t exactly racing toward the top, either.” According to Hickler, “Legislators and lawmakers from coast to coast are having great difficulty approving tough reform measures for public schools despite the fact that $4.2 billion is on the table.” He explains some of the “teacher tenure and compensation” changes being developed by Colorado lawmakers, noting that “the bigger question here is whether the Obama administration will follow through on its tough stance on reform.”

Safety & Security
Practice Of Chaining Doors At Many Dallas Schools Said To Create Firetraps.
The Dallas Morning News (2/23, Rado) reported, “Dallas’ Samuell High School violated fire codes and created a potential firetrap for students when it chained a school exit door last week, fire officials say.” However, chaining doors “has become ‘fairly common,’ as schools weigh security issues against fire safety concerns, said Kurt Harris, an administrator in the State Fire Marshal’s office and past president of the Texas Fire Marshal’s Association.” According to the Morning News, “At Samuell, the issue came to a forefront last Thursday, when a fire started in a boys bathroom,” and students and staff “were told to evacuate the building,” yet “some students trying to get out ran into a chained door, which was later unlocked.”

School Finance

Indiana School Districts Sue State Over Funding Formula.
The Indianapolis Star (2/24, Lopez) reports, “A lawsuit filed in Hamilton County on behalf of Hamilton Southeastern Schools’ district, Franklin Township Community and Middlebury Community Schools charges” that Indiana’s school funding formula “lacks uniformity, is unconstitutional and hurts growing school districts.” According to the Star, “The districts point to the state’s using the average of past enrollments in place of current enrollments, called de-ghosters, to determine per-pupil funding. The districts claim the de-ghoster artificially inflates the enrollments for schools with declining enrollments and that the money does not follow the student.”

Also in the News
Univision To Launch Campaign To Increase Academic Achievement For Hispanic Students.
The AP (2/23) reported, “Univision will announce Tuesday a multiyear campaign to boost academic achievement among Hispanics by teaching parents about American schools, educational opportunities, and college scholarships and requirements.” For the campaign, titled, “The Moment is Now,” the company “will use its television and radio networks, and its mobile and Internet platforms to provide information to parents about how to encourage high school completion and college readiness, as well as where to turn for college loans and scholarships — a key component that can be daunting even for those familiar with US financial and academic systems.” Although “an exact cost of the program hasn’t been determined,” it “is expected to be several million dollars in cash and donations.”

NEA in the News
Proposed Education Cuts Would Pressure Districts To Raise Taxes, NEA Official Says.
The Providence Journal (2/24, Peoples) reports, “As key lawmakers probed Governor Carcieri’s plan to strip as much as $34.5 million from school districts in the coming year…fresh details emerged Tuesday about a funding formula that would fundamentally change the way state government distributes hundreds of millions of dollars each year to local school districts.” According to Patrick Crowley, assistant executive director for the National Education Association of Rhode Island, “the education cuts would apply immediate pressure on municipalities to raise property taxes, cut staff or reduce student

School System Offering Camp To Expose Students To Nontraditional Careers.
The Newton (GA) Citizen (2/23, Floyd) reports on the Girls in Engineering Camp that Rockdale County Public Schools offered its middle schoolers. Jill Oldham, the camp’s organizer, said the idea was “to expose students to nontraditional careers.” Interest from students was higher than expected, Oldham added. For four days over winter break, “instructor Casey Martin introduced a specific engineering career field to the class, and then a guest speaker talked to the students and answered questions from them; three of the days included a female working in the engineering field or from a engineering organization. Afterward, Martin told them about education requirements in that field, and then the girls completed a project related to the field.” Oldham noted that “RCPS later will try to offer camps or special programs for other nontraditional careers, like boys in health care.”

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In the Classroom
As Student Interest “Ebbs And Flows,” Budget Cuts Seen To Threaten Sewing Classes.
The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press (2/23, Bartels, Owen-Phelps) reports on the decline of sewing classes in Tri-State schools. “While interest in sewing ebbs and flows among the young, budget cuts and increasing academic standards discourage some school systems from offering sewing classes.” At time same time, “television shows such as ‘Project Runway,’ ‘What Not to Wear’ and home improvement programs have piqued the interest of some young people.” The article notes the experiences of students who have participated in programs that include sewing, and the benefits they gleaned from developing those skills. And while some schools have been reducing and eliminating programs, “at North High School in Evansville, sewing is part of a fashion and textiles class,” and the two sessions offered each semester are routinely full. Teacher Alyson McIntyre-Reiger said “she recruits on the middle school level.”

School’s Natural Resources Pathway Adds Course In Environmental Services And Wildlife.
In the seventh of a series of article produced for National Career and Technical Education Month at Winfield High School, the Winfield (KS) Daily Courier (2/23, Hogan) reports on “the Natural Resources pathway in Ag Education,” which “provides students with a unique opportunity to study science and how it applies to their world as well as explore related careers and compete in FFA.” In addition to classes such as horticulture and animal science, the department is now offering a course in environmental services and wildlife. For the “first semester, students studied land conservation and wildlife management and visited with several representatives from colleges and [CTE] schools about job opportunities related to this class.” They also “learned about heavy equipment operation” through a simulator at North Central Tech. College, among other things. Students are currently preparing to compete based on what they have learned.

Study Shows “No Cussing” Clubs Helped Reduce Violence, Profanity In Schools.
KSTU-TV Salt Lake City (2/23) reported on its Website that McKay Hatch, founder of the “No Cussing Club,” spoke to students at Bennion Elementary School in West Jordan on Monday. Hatch “taught students about the power of their words and how to combat bullying and cyber bullying.” KSTU added that “a two year study in Louisiana shows that violence and profanity decreased 64 percent after their school implemented the No Cussing Club chapter in their district.”

Evolution Of Student Assessment Tools Analyzed.
Stanley N. Rabinowitz, director of the Assessment and Standards Development Services Program at WestEd, wrote in an op-ed for Education Week (2/22), “An unprecedented confluence of factors — economic, political, and educational — is causing many states to rethink their student-assessment programs,” however, “careful thought and expert guidance will be needed if they are to avoid the problems of the past and take advantage of promising new developments” like the current NCLB renewal push. According to Rabinowitz, “Our assessment and accountability systems should reflect what we value most for our students, schools, and society, and what we think it means to be a well-prepared student, worker, and citizen. Once these are clear, we should be willing to fight and to pay for their reflection in our system for measuring academic progress.”

On the Job
More Maryland Districts To Become Majority-Minority.
The Baltimore Sun (2/22, Carson) reported that by the start of classes in the fall of 2011 in Maryland, “white students in Howard County are expected to be a minority, joining those in Baltimore County. The two school systems are riding a demographic wave” that is “sparking intensive efforts to shape children from all backgrounds into eager, high-achieving students.” According to experts, school enrollments are a reflection of the growth in diversity that is happening nationwide. Mark Goldstein, “an economist and state planner,” said, “Statewide, the population is clearly becoming more minority. … That is increasingly true as we go through the decade.”

More Georgia Districts Planning Switch To Four-Day Weeks.
The AP (2/22) reported, “With budget cuts looming, more Georgia school systems are considering switching to four-day school weeks. Peach County took the step last fall when officials decided to hold classes Tuesdays through Fridays.” District officials saw the four-day week as “a way to fill a nearly $800,000 budget shortfall.” So far, “Peach County officials have estimated they saved $313,000 in transportation and utilities costs by making the schedule change.”

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Law & Policy
Some Education Stakeholders Want More Federal Recognition, Funding For Magnet Schools.
Education Week (2/22, Zehr) reported that when compared to the attention given to charter schools, “some educators and researchers” say that “magnet schools have been given short shrift by the Obama administration.” Magnet schools, which “typically have a particular academic focus,” increase the “racial or economic diversity” of a school and “deserve more federal funding and support than they are receiving,” some argue. U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton said that “the administration thinks magnet schools play an important role.” He also clarified, “Arne Duncan has consistently said he’s not for all charter schools, just good charter schools.”

DC Schools Chief Submits Teacher Abuse, Misconduct Report To City Council Chairman.
Bill Turque wrote in a “D.C. School Insider” blog for the Washington Post (2/22) that D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee “has fired ten DCPS teachers for administering corporal punishment and two for sexual misconduct since July 2007, according to a report she has submitted to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray. Another 28 served suspensions ranging from two to ten days for some form of corporal punishment, defined by District law as the use or attempted use of physical force against a student, ‘either intentionally or with reckless disregard for the student’s safety, as a punishment or discipline.’” According to Turque, the report “was requested by Gray after the uproar Rhee triggered by telling ‘Fast Company’ magazine that an unspecified number of the 266 D.C. public school teachers who were laid off in October had physically or sexually abused students.”

Sex Education Bill Dies In Utah Senate.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/23, Schencker) reports that “after months of negotiations,” state Senate bill 54 “died with barely a whisper Monday morning after lawmakers chose not to talk about it.” The bill would have changed “language in state law to clarify that Utah teachers are allowed to talk about contraception.” It “also would have directed the State Office of Education to develop materials on contraception for teachers to use and would have made those materials available for parents to review.” The Tribune notes that “state law already allows schools to teach students about contraceptives, but it prohibits ‘advocacy or encouragement’ of their use.”

School Finance
Arts Classes Jeopardized By Michigan Education Cuts.
The Detroit News (2/23, Hodges) reports, “Only 40 percent” of Detroit Public Schools “have an art teacher, down from 80 percent 10 years ago.” And though “Detroit’s public schools have been in crisis mode for far more than a decade,” schools in Detroit’s suburbs “may not be far behind,” as late last year, “all public schools suffered a $165 per pupil cut in state aid — some suburbs lost even more — leaving even wealthy-by-comparison systems contemplating cuts to programs once regarded as indispensable.”

Chicago-Area Districts Blame Recession, State Financial Crisis For “Deep Cuts.”
The Chicago Tribune (2/23, Black) reports that “Chicago-area school districts already struggling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits are warning of mass teacher layoffs and deep program cuts for the coming school year — an impending crisis they blame on the recession and the state’s chronic financial woes.” State Board of Education spokeswoman Mary Fergus called Illinois’ current financial crisis “unprecedented.” Even with $3 billion “in federal stimulus funding provided over the last two years,” the state has not “paid the current school year’s education bills in months,” the Tribune notes. Consequently, many school districts in the state have had to “cut band programs, increase class sizes, reduce field trips and use fewer substitute teachers.” Michael Jacoby, executive director of the” Illinois ASBO pointed out, “Cutting supplies or taking a copy machine out of a school — they are low-hanging fruit but really won’t balance the budget. People are the thing you need to remove to balance the budget.”

Also in the News
“Keep Fit Club” Helps Overweight Texas Youth Get In Shape.
The Houston Chronicle (2/22, George) reported on the Keep Fit Club, “a free program offered to overweight and obese 10- to 18-year-olds in the Texas Children’s Health Plan, which provides medical care for 250,000 area children on Medicaid or CHIP. Keep Fit Club families are taught how to make healthier choices during Saturday exercise and nutrition sessions.” According to the Chronicle, the “program is among several in the Houston area helping youngsters beat childhood obesity through exercise and healthy eating — key goals” of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “‘Let’s Move’ initiative announced this month.”

Amid Spying Lawsuit, Pennsylvania District Asked Not To Delete Evidence From Computers.
The AP (2/23) reported, “A student who accuses his suburban Philadelphia school district in a lawsuit of spying on students via their school-issued webcams will ask district officials not to remove any potential evidence from student computers, his lawyer said Monday. Lawyers for the Lower Merion School District are due in federal court on the issue Monday afternoon, on an emergency petition from student Blake Robbins of Penn Valley.” According to the AP, “Lower Merion officials confirmed last week they had activated the webcams to try to find 42 missing laptops, without the knowledge or permission of students and their families.”

Obama Seeks To Raise State Reading, Math Standards.
The Washington Post (2/22, Anderson) reports that President Obama “will seek to raise academic standards across the country by requiring states to certify that their benchmarks for reading and mathematics put students on track for college or a career, administration officials said Sunday. The proposal, part of Obama’s evolving blueprint for a revision of the No Child Left Behind law, was expected to be released Monday as the president meets with governors in Washington.” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is quoted having said in an address at the National Governors Association conference on Sunday, “We have to stop lying to children,” adding that education stakeholders must look children “in the eye and tell them the truth at every stage of their educational trajectory.”

The AP (2/21) reported that President Obama “will urge states to better prepare high school students for college and careers when he meets Monday with the nation’s governors. In remarks released Sunday by the White House, Obama praises governors for working in tandem with his Race to the Top program to reward school systems that raise standards and prove that through tougher student assessments.” Yet at the “same time, Obama will tell the governors that too many states are churning out graduates unprepared for the 21st century.”

The New York Times (2/22, Dillon) notes that “since last year, 48 states have been collaborating to write common standards in math and reading, coordinated by the governors’ group and with the encouragement of the White House.” That effort “has produced a draft, and earlier this month Kentucky became the first state to approve the substitution of the new standards for the state’s own standards in the two subjects.” Still, it is yet to be seen “how successful or quickly the governors, legislatures, state boards of education and other authorities in other states will be in agreeing on adoption of the new standards.”

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In the Classroom
Program At High School In Florida Aims To Keep Teen Parents In School.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/21, Anton) reported that the teen birth rate has increased over the past few years and so has “the number of girls taking voluntary teen parenting classes at Pinellas high schools.” The St. Petersburg Times singled out Gibbs High School in Pinellas County, noting that “last year there were more than 60″ teen parents at the school, up from “40-plus teen parents” a few years ago. And, “this semester, the school’s teen parenting classes became so crowded that Gibbs added a third class.” The classes offer instruction on “how to tell fake contractions from real ones, how to give their babies CPR, how to avoid future pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.” Students who choose to participate in the parenting program receive free daycare, “transportation on a school bus for mom and baby to school and day care,” and “a social worker to help solve problems.” The goal of the program is “to keep them in school.”

Educators In Tennessee Await State Testing Requirements, Fear High Failure Rate.
Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal (2/20, Roberts) reported that Memphis city school officials “say only 37 percent of students are performing well enough to score at the 40th percentile on this year’s more difficult state test.” Teachers have only a short period of time “to move at least half of those students up before April, when grades 3-8 take the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program Achievement Test.” Some teachers and principals “fear that the failure rate could be even higher than predicted because the state has not determined what it will take to pass.” State officials will “determine the cutoff scores…this summer when [test] results are in.”

Some Educators Say Black History Should Be Better Integrated Into Curriculum.
The Ithaca (NY) Journal (2/20, Neumann, et al.) reported, “When educators and others argue in favor of keeping Black History Month on the calendar, they say it’s because the designation at least provides an opportunity to give special attention to events and people who might otherwise go unnoticed.” However, the other side of the argument is that “the accomplishments of black Americans should be integrated into history lessons year-round.” Diane Huggler, an AP history teacher at West High School in Painted Post, said, “We need…to be cautious that in our study of minority history, we don’t factionalize American history, but instead recognize and celebrate the contributions of all Americans to the overall development of the United States and the world.” In New York, “local districts have the flexibility to select textbooks, pieces of software and other instructional resources.” And some educators say that contributes to the segregation of US history instruction.

On the Job
Grants Help Teachers In California District Cover Field Trip, Supply Expenses.
The Pasadena (CA) Star-News (2/21, Charles) reported, “Field trips outside of district limits are just part of the expenses that school teachers at Pasadena Unified School District must pay for with their own money or money they get from grants.” They also spend on “the supplies they need to do the day-to-day activities like making copies for students and providing items for science labs,” said Sujey Acuna, programs director for the Adopt-A-Classroom organization. Sometimes parents “donate paper” to classrooms. Also, the nonprofit Pasadena Education Foundation contributes “more than $100,000 into the school district to help teachers pay for supplies and an additional $50,000 for field trips.”

Performance Pay Seen As Capable Of Encouraging Teachers To “Be More Innovative.”
Gary Ritter, the “director of the Office for Education Policy (OEP) and professor at the University of Arkansas,” and Nathan Jensen, “a research associate in the OEP and a doctoral student in counselor education,” wrote in an opinion piece for the Oklahoman (2/21), “Recently, the Oklahoma House of Representatives unanimously approved a performance pay pilot program in six districts across the state” that has been controversial. However, the authors noted that the “programs can encourage teachers to work harder, be more innovative and collaborate with peers in return for year-end bonuses.” They also presented a list of criticisms they said were “important to consider” regarding performance pay. The NEA, for instance, asserts, “Merit pay systems force teachers to compete, rather than cooperate.” The authors argue that while “this is a concern,” it may not be “unavoidable.”

“Good Pay” Seen As Likely To Help Iowa Attract, Keep Top Teachers. The Des Moines Register (2/20) editorialized, “News that Iowa’s average teacher pay jumped to 26thin the nation may not seem like something to celebrate when many teachers are worried about losing their jobs next school year.” However, the Register pointed out, “If Iowa can stay in this neighborhood, it will strengthen education in the long run.” The Register also asserts, “Good pay makes it more likely the state will keep and attract top teachers who are the linchpin for putting other key reforms in place to prepare young people for an intensely competitive global economy.”

San Francisco District To Implement New Student-Assignment Plan.
The New York Times (2/21, A27A, McKinley) reported, “After years of complaints from parents, the San Francisco Unified School District has just taken a serious step toward revamping its well-meaning but labyrinthine student-assignment system, which decides the educational homes for tens of thousands of children.” The system currently being used “involves a complicated computer algorithm that creates student ‘profiles,’ using various economic and educational factors, with the aim of sending students of different backgrounds to the same schools.” However, the new student-assignment plan “is designed to more closely consider proximity between a student’s home and classroom,” and “while advocates of the new plan say it offers more flexibility and simplicity, whether that will be the case is unclear.”‘

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Law & Policy
Maryland Governor To Propose Teacher Tenure Changes.
The Washington Post (2/20, Anderson, Birnbaum) reported that last week, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), “who is seeking union support for reelection, proposed tighter rules for teachers to qualify for tenure and opened the door to broader use of test scores to evaluate them.” Though O’Malley “initially hesitated to propose any changes,” he “shifted course, hoping to boost Maryland’s chances at snaring as much as $250 million in President Obama’s Race to the Top competition,” the Post noted

The Baltimore Sun (2/21, Bowie) reported that the proposal “is sparking a debate over how to elevate the quality of the teaching profession. Some educators say that tenure should be reserved only for those teachers a school system is willing to invest in for decades and that new teachers should be given far more training and mentoring.”

Facilities
Kentucky District Seeks To Make Green Technology Standard For Construction Plans.
The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader (2/21, Warren) reported that Fayette County Public Schools “says it will emphasize earth-friendly technology to reduce energy use and promote environmental sustainability at its new Locust Trace Agri-Science Center on Leestown Road and the new elementary school planned for Keithshire Way.” Mary Wright, Fayette schools’ chief operating officer, expects that the two projects will “be the most environmentally friendly facilities the district has built.” She also said that the district wants “green technology figures to be part of [its] plans from now on.”

School Finance
Illinois Districts Anticipate “Sharp Drop” In State Funding.
Springfield (IL) State Journal-Register (2/21, Reavy) reported, “School districts across central Illinois are slashing their budgets, and in many cases, classes and teacher positions, in anticipation of a sharp drop in state funding for public schools next year.” The State Journal-Register provides a brief summary of what programs and services “area school districts have cut or are proposing to cut for the 2010-2011 year.” The Auburn school district, for example, is considering reducing “purchases of equipment, supplies, and other expenditures.” Meanwhile school officials in New Berlin “will consider proposals to cut the sports budget by 10 percent, as well as eliminate uniform purchases, buy only one school bus rather than three, increase driver education fees, and increase lunch prices by 20 to 25 cents.”

Also in the News

Florida District Stocking School Vending Machines With Nutritious Snacks.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/21, Solochek) reported on the new vending machines at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes, FL that are stocked with “baked chips, fruit leather, and reduced calorie cookies and muffins, and even healthier items such as hummus, carrots and ranch dressing, yogurt, and peanut butter.” Beginning this month, each “Pasco County middle and high school has received two snack vending machines, one that’s refrigerated and one that isn’t.” The machines have been stocked with items “that meet strict standards limiting salt, fat and calories.” According to Pasco County schools’ food and nutrition services director, Rick Kurtz, the snacks “meet the Alliance for a Healthier Generation snack guidelines.”

NEA in the News
Read Across America Day Seen As Highlighting Need To Provide Books To Students.
Author Carol Eron Rizzoli wrote in the Denver Post (2/21), “March 2 is Read Across America Day, the day that the National Education Association calls for every child to be reading in the company of a caring adult.” However, she noted that “in some towns and cities — including Denver — there are children and families who don’t have any books and won’t be able to participate.” Rizzoli detailed a book donation drive in “suburban Maryland” that was initiated by her daughter to benefit students in Denver public schools. Through the donation drive, Rizzoli said, “students were reaching out to help other students in need and starting a dialogue about, and through, books.” She concluded that “there’s still time, before Read Across America Day on March 2, to get books into the hands of children who don’t have any.”

Books To Be Delivered To Students Throughout Kentucky District For Read Across America. Kentucky’s Times Leader (2/21) reported that the Read Across America event sponsored by NEA “and other organizations…will take place Tuesday, March 2.” For the event, “a total of 1,500 books will be delivered to students in the primary and elementary schools and daycare centers” throughout Caldwell County.

Teachers Seen As Key Component To Solving Education Crisis.
Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in an op-ed for the Washington Post (2/19), “Sitting on the desk of the secretary of education are dozens of ideas bold enough to finally start solving our country’s education crisis. They are contained in applications by 40 states and the District of Columbia for grants from the Race to the Top fund, a $4.35 billion piece of the stimulus package designed to dramatically improve student achievement.” Gates adds, “One reason I am so optimistic about these developments is because, after decades of diffuse reform efforts, they all zero in on the most important ingredient of a great education: effective teachers.”

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In the Classroom
Elementary School’s Black History Month Trivia Competition Encourages Discussion, Learning.
Kalamazoo (MI) Gazette (2/19, Barr) reports that during Wednesday’s morning announcements, “Principal Wes Seeley challenged his students Comstock East Elementary School to name the state with the highest African-American population.” He asked “two more Black History Month trivia questions” before signing off. Throughout the month of February, Seeley is engaging fourth and fifth-grade students “in a spirited Black History Month competition. After each classroom agrees on a collective answer to each question posed by the school principal, the answers are checked and results are tallied and posted by midday.” Through the competition, students participate in class discussions about black history. And some students have been “surprised by some of what” they have learned. Said ten-year-old Caleigh Wilfong Dyer, “I was surprised to know that 33 percent of families owned slaves [in 1860]. … I just couldn’t believe it — it should have been a lot lower.”

Fifth Graders Participate In “Block Kids Building Competition.”
KCCO-TV Grand Junction, CO (2/19) reports that fifth-grade students at Fruitvale Elementary School in Mesa County, CO, “took part in the 10th Annual Block Kids Building Competition” on Thursday. They received “100 Legos, their choice of either a small rock, string, foil or poster board, and just 45 minutes to make what represents something used in construction or the result of a construction project.” The event was part of the “Block Kids Building Program, a national effort to get kids interested and involved in the construction industry.”

League of Black Women Begins Mentoring Program For Girls In Chicago Schools.
The Chicago Tribune (2/19, Peyton) reported on “a mentoring program initiated by the League of Black Women” for “girls in Chicago Public Schools. The organization received a seed grant from the Ford Motor Company Fund to start the program.” Sandra Finley, president of the League of Black Women, is quoted saying, “We’ve asked 100 black female executives and entrepreneurs to join in our endeavor to mentor 100 black girls from 6th through 8th grade in the public school system.”

Pilot Program To Encourage Students To Take More Difficult Courses.
Following a New York Times report on eight states that were chosen “to pilot test a rigorous new system, including board examinations,” Westport (CT) Now (2/18, Frahm) reports on Connecticut’s participation in the program, beginning in 2011. “Under the proposed system, students who volunteer to take the exam and pass it at the end of 10th grade would be eligible to enroll at any open admissions two-year or four-year college in their state.” These students “also could choose to remain in school and take an advanced upper division program preparing them for admission to selective colleges.” Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, said the program “is designed to encourage students to take tougher courses and work harder in order to be ready for college or the workforce.” The article notes, “The board exams and curriculum will be aligned with a series of new voluntary national standards.”

Experts Debate Benefits, Risks Of Fast-Track Approach. The editors of the New York Times (2/19) “Room For Debate” blog note yesterday’s story about the early college program, noting that “the fast-track approach, which is focused on ‘at risk’ students, is already in place at 71 North Carolina high schools, and is spreading in New York, California and Texas.” The editors ask, “What are the benefits of the fast-track approach recommended by the National Center on Education and the Economy? What are the problems and risks?” The blog carries the written arguments of eight experts, including K-12 teachers, college presidents, the former chancellor of New York City Schools, and a former Education Department adviser.

Georgia Has Enacted Early College, But Awareness Seen As Low. In the “Get Schooled” column of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/19), Maureen Downey notes the early college program being piloted in eight states, and points out that early college is “already in Georgia, although few people seem aware of it.” The Move on When Ready Act, which was enacted last summer, “enables high school juniors and seniors to essentially complete their high school careers at community colleges or technical schools. State Rep. Jan Jones, who sponsored the legislation, said the program was meant to address both students who are “uninspired in or unserved by a traditional high school setting,” as well as “highly motivated, high-achieving students whose aspirations would be better met as full-time college students will be free to move on.” Downey notes that she has heard little about the act since it was passed, and that “perhaps the structures are being put in place to kick this off for real next year.”

Students Explore Potential Careers At Future Engineers Day.
Oregon’s Statesman Journal (2/19, Liao) reports, “An athletics engineer trying to eliminate the stinging vibration of a swinging bat that hits a ball, an audio engineer figuring out how to digitize a saxophone — these were among the career possibilities presented Wednesday at” Future Engineers Day, which this year saw its attendance nearly double after being moved to a larger venue. Salem-Keizer Public Schools also “offers engineering curriculum such as Project Lead the Way at McNary and North Salem high schools, which also gives students credit at Oregon Institute of Technology,” according to Sharleen Grove, Salem-Keizer’s CTE coordinator. The students heard from engineers from a range of backgrounds, including the Oregon Department of Forestry, Garmin AT, and the City of Salem. They also met with officials from Oregon State University, Chemeketa Community College and Portland State University.

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On the Job
Rhode Island District Superintendent To Fire Entire Staff At Underperforming High School.
The Providence (RI) Journal (2/18, Borg) reported that once Rhode Island “identified Central Falls High School as one of the lowest-achieving schools” in the state, district Superintendent Frances Gallo “had to choose one of four federally mandated options.” Gallo initially “chose the transformation model,” though the teachers union “turned it down because members felt that they weren’t being adequately compensated for the additional time” in class required by that model. Thus, Gallo has announced she is firing all teachers at Central Falls High, implementing the turnaround model, which calls “for removing the entire staff and rehiring no more than 50 percent.”

Law & Policy
Teachers In Georgia Largely Reject Proposal To Make Cheating On Tests A Crime.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/18, Torres, Badertscher) reported that teachers in Georgia have pushed against a state proposal that would “make cheating on tests a crime.” This month, state Rep. Matt Ramsey (R) “filed two bills…that would make it unlawful to tamper with state tests or help others cheat on them.” Under the legislation, violators would be “guilty of a misdemeanor” and “subject to up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.” They also “would also face the loss of their pensions.” The plan “kick-started last week when state officials announced 191 schools –10 percent of Georgia’s public elementary and middle schools — will be investigated for possible cheating on state tests.”

“Parent Trigger” Seen As Potentially Beneficial For Failing Schools.
The Hartford Courant (2/19) editorializes, “Hartford parents frustrated by the achievement gap that still separates white and minority students are rallying behind a radical idea called the ‘parent trigger’ to change the direction of a failing city school.” The Courant supports the trigger, “with some reservation.” The idea was “developed by the legislative Black and Puerto Rican Caucus” as “part of education reform legislation now before the General Assembly” that “would permit 51 percent or more of parents of children in a failing school to petition for intervention.” A school would be considered failing if it failed to “progress for three consecutive years under the national No Child Left Behind guidelines.” The Courant asserts, “Change doesn’t guarantee success. That’s our reservation.” However, it adds that “doing the same old, same old in a school that consistently under-achieves guarantees failure.”

Pilot Program Will Let Some High Schoolers Graduate Early.
The New York Times (2/18, A14, Dillon) reports, “Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.” The program will also allow those who pass the multi-curricular test “but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years.” States participating in the program include “Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.” The states plan to apply for federal stimulus money to help districts pay about $500 per student to start the program. The Times notes that the NEA supports the program.

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In the Classroom
Seattle School Experiencing Success With Singapore Math.
Bruce Ramsey wrote in a column for the Seattle Times (2/17), “Since the 2007-08 year, Singapore Math has been taught at Schmitz Park Elementary in West Seattle – and only there in the district. In the war over school math — in which a judge recently ordered Seattle Public Schools to redo its choice of high-school math — Schmitz Park is a redoubt or, it hopes, a beachhead.” According to Ramsey, “Test results are encouraging,” as 86 percent of Schmitz Park “fifth-graders passed the WASL test in math, compared with 68 percent district wide.”

Teachers Discuss Importance Of “Essential Life Skills,” And How To Teach Them.
In an article for the Washington Post (2/18), Jay Mathews writes about “eight essential life skills” that students should learn in school, accompanied by “expert opinion on their importance and how to teach them.” Among these skills are organization, teamwork, exercise, arguing, critical thinking and presentation. In regards to the last skill Mathews writes, “As adults we often learn the hard way how important it is to be prepared, maintain eye contact and dress appropriately for the situation. It is better to learn this in school than while shaking in fear two minutes before our first job interview.”

Week Of Job Shadowing A Requirement For Some Seniors.
Washington state’s Columbia Basin Herald (2/18, Kehoe) reports on a group of Wilson Creek High School seniors who “shadowed a person working in the career of their choice for five days as part of a senior requirement.” The school also requires the students to write a paper on their experiences. Business teacher Jackie Floetke noted, “The paper isn’t on the career itself but something specific. For example, if they wanted to be a doctor they might write a paper on” Down syndrome. Of the program in general, Floetke said, “One-day job shadows just don’t allow students to see the good, the bad and the boring. With a week, they get a better overview of what it is like in the real world.”

On the Job
MetLife Survey Finds Collaboration Is Key To Improving Student Success.
Teacher Magazine (2/17, Fine) reported, “Most principals and teachers say they believe creating school environments that allow educators to work together more would have a ‘major impact’ on improving the chances for student success, according to a new national survey by MetLife Inc.” Yet the 2009 “MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Collaborating for Student Success,” finds that “the specific methods and amount of time currently allowed for such collaboration among educators vary widely from school to school.” The study, “which will be released in three parts over the next two months, examines the views of teachers, principals, and students about their respective roles, responsibilities, and priorities in schools today.”

AYP Pressure Blamed For Cheating By Georgia Educators.
Mari Ann Roberts of Clayton State University’s Department of Teacher Education wrote in an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/17) “There is no excuse for cheating. … Nevertheless, if the schools currently under question by the Professional Standards Commission felt like they had to do something to ease the inordinate amount of pressure placed on them to increase the outcomes of their CRCT test results in 2008, then, as comedian Chris Rock often says, ‘I understand.’” Roberts added, “Individual schools, principals, teachers and students are placed under bone-crushing pressure to meet ‘adequate yearly progress’ standards.”

Florida School Sponsors “Family Share Night” Clothing Swap.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/18, Ritchie) reports on Explorer K-8 school’s “Family Share Night,” during which families swap clothing. “The idea for the collection came from the School Advisory Enhancement Council. During the cold weather, students were seen without jackets and wearing flimsy shoes.” Teachers and parents washed the “shirts, shoes, pants, skirts, dresses, coats, jackets, pajamas, bathing suits, infant clothes and towels,” and sorted them by size and sex. The event also included “a spaghetti dinner and door prizes,” as well as a book exchange.

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Law & Policy
Chicago District Officials Reverse Decision To Close, Overhaul Five Schools.
The Chicago Tribune (2/18, Ahmed) reports, “Chicago Public Schools officials will spare five of 14 schools they planned to shut down or overhaul next year, a reversal that follows recent hearings about the closings that ignited a firestorm of protest.” According to Schools Chief Ron Huberman, “new information that came to light at the hearings” influenced the new decision. For instance, Curtis Elementary School “will undergo a turnaround rather than be shut down for underperformance” after representatives from the school “showed district officials that sending students to other schools would pose unnecessary security hazards for students, Huberman said.”

Most California Districts Decline To Participate In Race To The Top Competition.
The AP (2/17, Hoag) reported, “Less than half of California school districts and only about a quarter of teacher unions have promised to make key education reforms required for the state to win $700 million in competitive federal grants, officials said Wednesday. Only 41 percent of school districts and 60 percent of eligible charter schools signed on for changes needed to participate in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top contest in which states can win extra federal funding to ease the impact of steep budget cuts.”

The Los Angeles Times (2/17, Song) reported, “A large number of California school districts and teachers unions have refused to accept education reforms being pushed by the Obama administration, and that could hamper the state’s chances of winning hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants, some officials fear.” Meanwhile, other “California officials say they are comfortable with the level of participation in the state, pointing out that the districts that have signed agreements serve nearly 60 percent of the state’s students.”

DC Schools To Reevaluate Lunch Program.
The Washington Times (2/18, Anderson) reports that Anthony J. Tata, chief operating officer for D.C. schools, said this week that the district “is reevaluating its multimillion-dollar contract” with Chartwells-Thompson School Dining Services and “considering significant reforms to its school lunch program.” According to Tata, the decision “comes on the heels of an investigative report by The Washington Times and as lawmakers weigh the nutritional standards of the food that schoolchildren eat.” Tata said the district would be “looking for an innovative model, to balance nutritious food with a strategy that is cost-effective.”

Safety & Security
Illinois Districts Warn Against Use Of Hand-Held Phones While Driving In School Zones.
The Chicago Tribune (2/17, Black, Garvey) reported, “School districts and police officials are using e-mails, letters and warnings to publicize a new state law that…prohibits the use of a hand-held cell phone while driving in a school zone.” Even after the law took effect Jan. 1, some parents continued to “dial away while…dropping off or picking up their children” from school. The Tribune notes that “the law is praised by some for its focus on improving safety,” but “others say it adds to the confusion in dealing with cell phone regulations.” Some districts are “posting information about the new law on their Web sites and outdoor marquees, and sending e-mails and letters to parents.”

Connecticut Lawmakers Considering School Bus Seat Belt Law.
The AP (2/17) reported that Connecticut state Rep. Antonio Guerrera (D), “co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee, said lawmakers are trying to craft a seat belt bill this session. On Wednesday, committee members heard testimony from supporters and opponents of the concept, as part of an information-gathering process.” According to the AP, “The issue of seat belts on school buses is not new, but concerns about cost and practicality have stalled the bill over the years.”

School Finance
Texas Education Agency Proposes $135.5 Million In Cuts.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (2/17, Ayala) reported that “the Texas Education Agency is proposing $135.5 million in cuts — including science lab grants and funding for steroid testing — as part of the state’s across-the-board plan to reduce spending.” The proposal “suggests that districts could make up some of the cuts through other federal grants and bond programs.” The Star-Telegram notes that it comes just one month after Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) “announced that the state would not apply for more than $700 million in federal stimulus funds under the Race to the Top program, designed to improve education for American children.”

Virginia Governor Backing Deep Education Cuts.
The Washington Post (2/17, Kumar) reported, “Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has privately recommended cutting $730 million from K-12 education and $300 million from health programs, as well as changing the state retirement system and requiring 10 days of furloughs for state employees, all to help offset a $2.2 billion budget shortfall over two years, according to sources familiar with the plan. The K-12 reductions would loosen the state’s basic educational standards while reducing funds for support staff, supplemental salaries for coaches and teachers who serve as club sponsors, and health insurance for teachers.”

Also in the News
Obama Urges Parents To Stop Children From Watching TV On School Nights.
The AP (2/17) reported that President Obama “says there’s one sure thing parents can do to help their kids learn, regardless of financial means: forbid them from watching television on school nights. Of his own daughters, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, Obama told Essence magazine: ‘The girls don’t watch TV during the week. Period.’” The President “who said he hasn’t missed a parent-teacher conference since taking office, said parents can stay in touch with their children’s teachers.”

Organization’s Supply Give-Away Benefits Both Teachers And Donors.
The Los Angeles Times (2/17, Fleming) reported on “L.A. Shares, one of the city’s busiest nonprofit donation centers.” About 60 “schoolteachers, soup kitchen administrators and nonprofit office managers” attended a recent event hosted by the organization. “Armed with oversize plastic bags and cardboard boxes, they spent the next two hours selecting office supplies, software, paper goods, personal electronics and toiletries.” And all of the items were free. LA Shares Director Bert Ball said that all of the give-away items were “headed for the landfill.” The Times explained that through the process, “public schools and other nonprofits get essential supplies they otherwise can’t afford” and “corporations get tax breaks for” the donations.

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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In the Classroom
US Customs and Border Protection Donates Seized Vehicles To Four Arizona High Schools.
The Yuma (AZ) Sun (2/17, Gilbert) reports that the US Customs and Border Protection’s donation of “eight vehicles to vocational automobile programs at four Yuma-area schools” will give high school students in automotive classes “the opportunity to hone their auto mechanic skills.” Each of the four schools will receive two of the vehicles. The “five sedans and three minivans…had been seized during the commission of crimes over the past six months,” the Yuma Sun adds.

North Carolina Education Officials Come Up With New US History Curriculum Options.
North Carolina’s News & Observer (2/17, Bonner) reports that North Carolina “education officials yielded to critics of a proposal that would have limited the required high school US history course to events of the last 132 years.” On Tuesday, the state Department of Public Instruction’s chief academic officer, Rebecca Garland, “told legislators” that “the agency used…feedback from 7,000 emails on the proposed social studies curriculum to come up with two new options.” Garland added that the options “will be ready in April.”

More Special-Needs Utah Students Learning In Regular Classrooms.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/16, Stewart) reported, “Today, 52 percent of Utah’s special-needs learners spend most of the school day in regular classrooms, up from 42 percent in 2004. … Technology has driven advances in learning aids and textbook publishers are now producing adaptive instructional materials.” Also, Christine Timothy, severe disabilities specialist at the Utah State Office of Education, “said mounting evidence shows mainstreamed students fare better as adults in terms of employability, wages and independence.”

Students Design Machines To Measure Licks Needed To Reach Center Of Tootsie Roll Pop.
The Ipswich (MA) Chronicle (2/17, Dooley) reports, “Engineering Tech II students at Ipswich High School have undertaken a sweet challenge: They’ve designed machines to measure how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop.” The students’ designs included “donated motors with worm gear drives intended to power automobile seats, scraps of wood, calculators, a laptop computer, gears, axles, and Lego parts.” Teacher Bill Gallant, who found the project in “Technology Teacher” magazine, said, “The project takes students through all the stages of the engineering design process. They have to think like an engineer.” He added, “The Tootsie Roll pop assignment follows the trebuchet catapult project students worked on previously to throw an egg into a frying pan.”

On the Job
Illinois State University Student Group Provides Urban School Instruction Training.
The Chicago Tribune (2/17, Cvetan) reports that Urban Needs in Teacher Education (UNITE), a “student-led organization at Illinois State University,” aims to “change the way education is taught for urban schools, thereby having a greater impact on issues such as high dropout rates. … The group’s most recent effort was Project 43, a 43-hour marathon event for about 40 budding educators focused on how make their instruction relevant to students, excite the desire to learn and help them go on to college.” According to the Tribune, “The weekend featured workshops and seminars on professional development, social justice and school improvement; meetings with Chicago Public Schools teachers; and speakers who addressed issues related to the dropout problem.”

Law & Policy
National School Nutrition Reform Efforts Show Promise.
Education Week (2/16, McNeil, Quillen) reported, in a story outlining the various nutrition efforts planned for schools, that “while states and school districts have tried to promote healthier foods and distribute them to more students, the possibility of national nutrition reform may be starting to show some real teeth.” The current “push to reauthorize the 64-year-old federal school meals program” coincides with “a new anti-obesity campaign headed by the first lady” and proposed changes from the Obama administration “that stretch across both the US Departments of Education and Agriculture.” The Department of Agriculture’s plan focuses on “improving nutrition standards” critics say have remained about the same since 1946. Mrs. Obama’s campaign, “Let’s Move,” aims to “encourage more physical activity for children, healthier foods, and more accurate food labeling,” Education Week adds.

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Special Needs
Criticism Grows Against State, District Home-Language Survey To Identify ELLs.
Education Week (2/16, Zehr) reported, “A growing chorus of people are saying that some school districts are overzealous in categorizing students as English-language learners” and that “information requested on” a home-language survey filled out by parents “can be misleading or misused.” Education Week also points out that in “districts across the country, once a student is designated as an ELL, the label is not readily lifted.” State officials in Arizona, meanwhile, “have changed the home-language survey there to ask only one question rather than three,” in an effort to “cut down on the overidentification of students as ELLs.” However, the move has prompted a complaint — currently being investigated by the US Department of Education’s office of civil rights — that the simplified “home-language form” promotes discrimination “against children who may be dominant in English, but still need extra help to gain proficiency in it.”

Safety & Security
Maryland Districts Taking Precautions As Schools Reopen Today.
The Baltimore Sun (2/17, Fuller) reports that officials in Maryland school systems reopening on “Wednesday after the recent snow storms that blanketed the area with more than 3 feet of snow” are taking precautions to promote safety. For instance, “Anne Arundel County police are deploying a helicopter to assist an increased police presence on major streets during school arrival and dismissal times Wednesday.” Meanwhile, Baltimore County “school officials are calling for students to wear bright clothing for greater visibility.” In many areas “sidewalks still covered with ice and huge piles of snow.” And some school systems plan to start schools “two hours late for the rest of the week.”

School Finance
Florida District May Charge Parents Full Price For Lost Or Damaged Textbooks.
Denise-Marie Balona wrote in a “Sentinel School Zone” blog for the Orlando Sentinel (2/16) that Lake County, FL “school officials are considering charging families the full price of lost or damaged materials, regardless of their age or condition. Right now, principals charge students a replacement cost based on the number of years the item has been in use.” According to Balona, Lake officials “say they can’t afford to keep shouldering the bulk of the financial burden — $90,000 a year, on average.”

Florida District’s Penny Sales Tax Helps Pay For Most Promised School Projects.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/17, Solochek) reports, “The Pasco County School District’s income from the Penny for Pasco sales tax, approved in 2004,” reached its highest “single-month revenue” of $1.48 million in December 2005. In 2006, tax money peaked “at $14.44 million.” But “since then, the annual revenue has declined,” and in October of last year the district received its “single lowest” collection of $717, 626 from Penny for Pasco. Mike Williams, the districts construction manager told the School Board on Tuesday, “The positive point is, we’re still collecting money.” On the other hand, “there’s little money available for any additional construction and maintenance projects.” The Times notes, however that “the majority of the new schools and additions promised with the Penny for Pasco are either complete or in the works.”

Louisiana Governor Proposes “No-Growth” In State Aid To Public Schools.
Louisiana’s Advocate (2/16, A6, Sentell) reported, “Basic state aid to Louisiana public schools would be virtually frozen for the second consecutive year under the budget Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) unveiled last week.” The budget would provide “$3.3 billion in basic aid to public schools, which aside from money for new students is the same as what schools got last year.” Still, state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) Chairwoman Penny Dastugue pointed out that “a no-growth budget is better than reductions in state aid.” The BESE will make decisions about the proposal on March 11.

Also in the News
Indiana Foundation In Talks To Preserve Historic Grade School.
The AP (2/16) reported, “The Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana says it wants to talk with officials in Lowell about saving an old grade school. The Board of Zoning Appeals could vote Feb. 23 on whether to condemn the Old Lowell Grade School.” According to the AP, “Historic Landmarks’ Central Region Director Mark Dollase says options include a program in which the building could be stabilized and then resold.”

Army General Takes “Second Act” As CEO Of DC Public Schools.
The Washington Post (2/15, Turque) reported on Army Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata, who once served in Afghanistan and is now CEO for DC public schools. In the “newly created post,” Tata overseas “purchasing, food service, technology and other support areas.” The Post explains that while serving in “Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in April 2006…a Taliban rocket slammed into a primary school in Asadabad, killing seven children and wounding 34.” That event and “others like it by the Taliban” inspired Tata’s pursuit of a career in the education sector. Said Tata, “It struck me at the time that if the enemy of my enemy is education, then perhaps that’s a second act for me.” According to the Post, since joining the DC public school system, he has “helped win certification for 77 D.C. public schools to serve free lunch to all children” and revamped the district’s warehouse system.

NEA in the News
Alabama Teacher Accuses Principal Of Harassment.
The Decatur (AL) Daily (2/17, Hughes) reports that the Morgan County, AL school board was asked to intervene after Dawn Davis, “a Danville Middle School teacher who was forced to remove her nose stud, accused her principal of ’systematic and ongoing harassment.’ Alabama Education Association representative Gloria Johnson said the request to remove the nose stud was just an example of the harassment of Davis by Principal Gary Walker during a 12-year period.” Johnson “accused Walker of being inconsistent in his decisions because, she said, he let some students wear” clear studs, yet the board ultimately “denied Davis’ grievance.”

DC-Area Districts Scramble To Open Schools After String Of Snow Days.
The Washington Post (2/16, Birnbaum) reports that school districts across the D.C. area “raced against time Monday to dig out buildings for Tuesday’s resumption of classes. … Most school systems vowed that they would reopen Tuesday.” However, “real challenges clearly remain, with sidewalks still covered in iced-over snow, streets narrowed by small embankments of ice and minor snow accumulations predicted for Monday afternoon and evening.” In a separate report, the Washington Post (2/12, Birnbaum) adds that “at least one [district] is considering lengthening the school day between March and June” in order to make up for lost time. School officials need to “balance practicality with the pressures of standardized tests, which are difficult or impossible to reschedule,” The Post adds.

The Washington Post (2/16, Labbe-DeBose, Jackman) also reports that some D.C.-area “officials made a remarkable appeal to residents to spend the federal holiday shoveling sidewalks and school bus stops so that hundreds of schools could reopen Tuesday.” Officials made the “unusual request” after surveying “bus stops still piled with snow, sidewalks still slick with ice, and school parking lots still not fully plowed and weighed whether to stay closed for yet another day — a decision certain to be debated by parents as the interruption to the school year entered its second week.”

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In the Classroom
Students Witness Naturalization Ceremony In High School Auditorium.
The San Antonio Express News (2/13, Ayala) reported that about 400 students from Roosevelt High School witnessed as “16 immigrants from 11 countries” took the oath of US citizenship at a ceremony that took place in the school’s auditorium. “As the list of countries was read aloud, the student body’s hush filled the room. It was followed by rousing applause.” The ceremony, which included “patriotic songs and a solemn tribute to men and women who’ve died defending the United States,” also marked the end of “a three-week pilot program that brought speakers to Roosevelt for talks on immigration history, immigration law and the naturalization process.” Through the after-school program, students were introduced to “refugees from Sudan, Bhutan and Iraq, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the topic of human trafficking and the work of Catholic Charities.”

Florida Elementary School Promotes Student Health With Fitness Room.
St. Petersburg Times (2/13, Solochek) reported on the new fitness program at Sunray Elementary School in Holiday, FL. “Sunray students from kindergarten through fifth grade, from couch potato to avid athlete, have cheered getting the chance to trim down, bulk up, or just get fit twice a week in the fitness room.” School coach Scott Carlson and Principal Lee Anne Yerkey “came up with the idea for the fitness room over the summer.” Carlson thought of the idea after attending “a workshop with trainers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the University of South Florida Bulls.” His idea came to fruition through “donations from himself and community members.” Carlson said that he hopes the fitness room “will lead to lifetime skills” for students.

On the Job
LAUSD Recalling Teachers On Loan To Outside Districts.
The Los Angeles Times (2/15, Song) reported, “Gerald Freedman teaches at a Los Angeles County high school, by all accounts laudably, while technically employed by the city school district.” However, due to “budget cuts and a Los Angeles Unified School District policy change, Freedman is being ordered to return to a city classroom next fall.” Freedman “is one of about 10 L.A. Unified teachers who essentially are on loan to non-district schools,” yet LAUSD “officials have decided they can no longer afford to pay benefits for teachers who don’t work in the district.”

Teacher, Administrator Unions Say They Are Willing To Negotiate With Los Angeles Unified. Los Angeles Times (2/14, Song) reported that “a plan proposed by Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines” would shorten the school calendar by one week “as early as this spring to help district officials balance a projected $640-million shortfall.” Cortines said that “he is unable to balance the budget without major concessions from employee unions. … Leaders of both the teachers and administrators unions said they are fully aware of the financial crisis and are willing to negotiate,” the Times added.

Illinois To Raise Standards For Prospective Teachers.
The Chicago Sun-Times (2/13, Rossi) reported, “Starting in September, future educators will find it much tougher to pass the Illinois Test of Basic Skills for would-be teachers, but until then, they can squeak under a bar some call shockingly low. Currently, to enter teacher-preparation programs, college students can get as few as 35 percent of the math questions right and still pass the Basic Skills Test.” Though test-takers “also have to hit a certain overall score to pass, some educators were stunned by how poorly would-be teachers have been allowed to score on individual subtests for the last eight years.”

North Carolina Teacher Suspended For Comments On Facebook.
News & Observer (2/15, Hui) reported that “an eighth-grade teacher at West Lake Middle School” in Wake County, NC, “has been suspended following complaints about disparaging comments she made about her class, Christianity, and Southern culture on her Facebook page.” The teacher allegedly “wrote on her Facebook page that it was a ‘hate crime’ that students left a Bible on her desk and how she ‘was able to shame her kids’ over the incident.” Last week, some parents complained “to school board members” because they “were angry that” the teacher “was allowed to stay in the classroom.” She was later told to leave her classroom on Friday and is not back at the school,” the News and Observer adds. According to School administrators, the situation is under investigation.

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Law & Policy
Many States Opt Not To Screen Standardized Tests For Cheating.
The New York Times (2/13, A14, Dewan) reported that last week, “Georgia officials said they had found evidence that cheating might have occurred on standardized tests at one in five public elementary and middle schools around the state. What was extraordinary, however, was not so much the extent of the problem, but the decision of the state to screen for cheating at all.” According to the Times, as test scores “carry greater stakes for students, schools and districts, testing experts say most states fail to” use even basic tools to “monitor for cheating.”

Maryland Bill Aims To Curb Gang Activity In Schools.
The Washington Post (2/16, Davis, Birnbaum) reports, “Principals, police and prosecutors would share confidential information about Maryland public school students suspected of gang activity under a bill House Speaker Michael E. Busch plans to introduce Tuesday. The bill, which is raising concerns about student privacy and civil liberties, would be among the most aggressive in the country in the level of coordination between law enforcement and school officials to root out gang activity.” Busch “said the bill is aimed at preventing a repeat of the kind of violence between school-age gang members that culminated in May’s beating death of a 14-year-old Crofton boy.”

Wyoming House Panel Votes To End School Construction Program.
The Billings (MT) Gazette (2/13) reported that when Wyoming “took over construction of school buildings several years ago, it also stepped in to help the poorer school districts with their existing bond issues. A bill to authorize the state to pay off the bonds and end the program has received the unanimous endorsement” of the Wyoming House Education Committee. The “bill now goes to the floor of the House for further action.”

Legislation Would Allow School Boards In Utah To Sell Advertising On Buses.
Salt Lake Tribune (2/16, Schencker) reports that Utah state Rep. Jim Bird (R-West Jordan) “is sponsoring a bill that would allow school boards to sell advertising space on the exteriors of school buses.” Bird “said the Jordan School District’s financial troubles inspired him to run the bill.” Last week, Jordan’s school board “cut hundreds of jobs and increase class sizes to deal with an estimated $30 million budget shortfall next school year.” Under HB 393, “ads about alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling or sexual material” would be prohibited. “Still, some worry about exposing kids to more commercialization.”

Arizona District’s “Time Task Force” Looks For Ways To Maximize School Days.
Arizona Republic (2/16, Faller) reports that the Scottsdale Unified School District’s Time Task Force “is exploring a range of options, including a four-day week and a 200-day school year, to make the most of every minute of every day,” according to the district director of recruitment and professional development, Andi Fourlis. The task force will strive “to improve students’ class time as well as teachers’ professional development.” Options currently under consideration include “lengthening the school day or year” and “strategically carving out additional teacher prep time in the existing day.”

NEA in the News
Three Urban Districts Receive NEA Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative Grants.
Education Week (2/12, Sawchuk) reported, “Three urban school districts — Springfield, Mass; Durham, N.C.; and Columbus, Ohio — will receive an equal share of $3.75 million from the foundation of the National Education Association to improve instruction, close achievement gaps, and stimulate parental involvement.” The grants are “the first major scaling up of the foundation’s 6-year old, $6 million Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative.” Each of the districts plan to use the funding for “setting up teams of teachers and administrators in selected schools to review student-achievement data, encouraging teachers to visit students’ homes, and establishing joint labor-management panels to oversee the work.”

Kansas NEA President Wants Immediate Action Taken To Restore Education Funding.
KTKA-TV Topeka (2/12, Seabrook) reported on its website that “the Kansas National Education Association [KNEA] says action needs to be taken immediately to restore funding for Kansas education.” The state Supreme Court denied a request to reopen the school finance case.” KNEA President Blake West commented in response, “The decision to not reopen the school funding lawsuit may be viewed as a setback, but the path of a lawsuit remains a possibility. … The real issue is that the Legislature needs to act Now. Not because of arm twisting by the Supreme Court, but because it is the right thing to do.”

Georgia Officials Launch Investigation Into Standardized Test Cheating.
The New York Times (2/12, A14, Dewan) reports, “Georgia education officials ordered investigations on Thursday at 191 schools across the state where they had found evidence of tampering on answer sheets for the state’s standardized achievement test. The order came after an inquiry on cheating by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement raised red flags regarding one in five of Georgia’s 1,857 public elementary and middle schools.” According to the Times, the “inquiry flagged any school that had an abnormal number of erasures on answer sheets where the answers were changed from wrong to right, suggesting deliberate interference by teachers, principals or other administrators.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/12, Torres) reports that in Georgia the “state school board Thursday ordered immediate investigations of 191 Georgia schools facing questions of tampering with last spring’s standardized tests. Lawmakers, meanwhile, began work on a proposal to make test cheating a crime.” The “board’s unanimous vote required local systems to investigate schools deemed by the state to have test results of ‘moderate’ or ’severe’ concern for erasures on the state’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests.”

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In the Classroom
About 1,000 Haitian Students Have Enrolled In Florida Districts Post-Quake.
The AP (2/12, Armario) reports, “Nearly 1,000 youngsters who survived Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake have enrolled in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area’s public schools, joining the largest concentration of Haitians in the United States.” They “have arrived on military planes and aboard private flights,’ and while “some were in the process of being adopted before the quake, the majority “have relatives living in the United States.” The school systems, with decades of hurricane experience, “have mobilized quickly,” the AP adds. “In the week after the quake, 1,000 counselors with the Miami-Dade schools were trained in cultural sensitivity, how to deal with grief-stricken students and how to help teachers identify signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Report: California Students Among The Most Successful On AP Tests.
The Los Angeles Times (2/11, Cruz) reported that California “boasts one of the nation’s highest percentages of public school students passing AP tests, but educators are concerned about a dramatic slowdown in the rate of students taking those college-level courses, according to an annual report released Wednesday.” The number of high school students taking AP exams nationally “almost doubled from 2001 to 2009, but course enrollments are slowing, particularly in California, said Trevor Packer, vice president of the College Board, which administers the tests and released the report.” In the last decade, California “saw 8 percent average growth in AP course enrollment each year,” but in the 2008-2009 school year, that growth “slowed by almost half.”

Minnesota School Olympics To Enhance Learning.
The St. Cloud (MN) Times (2/11, Laskey) reported that Pine Meadow Elementary School in Sartell, MN “is using the Olympic tradition as a framework for lessons in a two-week competition that has students eager to learn. Pine Meadow’s Winter Olympics program “was created by the school’s physical education, music, art and media specialists. They want to leverage Olympic fever into learning in all subject areas.”

On the Job
Virginia District May Implement Open-Enrollment Policy To Ease Overcrowding.
The Washington Post (2/11, Goodman) reported that the Alexandria, VA district “is considering busing elementary students to nearby schools next year when their neighborhood school is too crowded. Superintendent Morton Sherman explained his proposed modified open enrollment policy to School Board members as a cost-effective way to keep class sizes low as more students register for the city’s school system.”

Law & Policy
Kansas Lawmakers Asked To Reconsider Sales Tax Exemption Policy.
The AP (2/12) reports that Kansas state lawmakers “were encouraged Thursday to rethink how” the state “grants sales tax exemptions, including removing special treatment for churches, nonprofit organizations, and utilities.” The House Taxation Committee is reviewing a bill “that would remove $196 million in sales tax exemptions.” Revenue Secretary Joan Wagnon said that “the number of exemptions have tripled between 1985 and 2009 to 96, and that the value of exemptions had grown from $3 billion in 2003 to $4.2 billion in 2009.” According to those who support the bill, “broadening the tax base and generating additional revenue will remove pressure to make further budget cuts.” Kansas National Education Association lobbyist Mark Desetti said, “Sometimes it seems that the criterion for an exemption is one’s ability to find a parking place and the committee room.”

Education Stakeholders In Missouri Debate School Transfer Bill.
KMOX-AM St. Louis, MO (2/11, Young) reported that during state Education committee meeting, a spokesperson for the Missouri National Education Association, said that “a bill allowing kids to transfer to any public school in the state would “not help improve already struggling public schools.” Meanwhile, state Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) asserted that “the main focus should be on the kids, not the institution.” Said Nodler, “Even if the bill didn’t improve a single school but it did improve the life of one child…that’s enough reason to consider the bill.”

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School Finance
Colorado Districts Signal That “Dramatic” Budget Cuts Are On The Horizon.
The Denver Post (2/11, Meyer) reported that Colorado school districts “girding for draconian cuts in state funding are sending out surveys to parents, querying staff and asking community members to help figure out where to cut and how deeply. Colorado districts have not yet finalized their 2010-11 budgets, which are being pared to close a state funding gap of at least $260 million.” However, some districts “have begun to indicate dramatic cuts are approaching — fewer teachers, reduced class offerings and larger class sizes.”

Also in the News
Wi-Fi Enabled Bus Helps Keep Once-Rowdy Students Occupied.
The New York Times (2/12, A22, Dillon) reports that a Wi-Fi-enabled bus has helped curb behavior problems in the Vail, AZ district by allowing students to complete homework and complete other tasks while surfing the Web, and Internet buses “may soon be hauling children to school in many other districts, particularly those with long bus routes. The company marketing the router, Autonet Mobile, says it has sold them to schools or districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, D.C.”

Florida District Cancels Offer Of Stimulus-Funded iPods For Parents.
The FOX News (2/11) reported that officials in the Polk County, FL district have canceled “plans to spend $350,000 in taxpayer money to buy thousands of iPods for parents of special-needs students after it was erroneously reported that federal stimulus funds were covering the costs. Officials in Polk County announced Tuesday their intention to distribute free iPod Nanos to the parents of children with disabilities if they completed a 10-minute survey of just 26 multiple-choice questions about school and teacher quality.”

NEA in the News
Rhode Island Ranks Tenth For Highest Average Teacher Salary.
The Providence Business News (2/12, Nesi) reports that according to new NEA figures, “the average salary for teachers and other instructional staff in Rhode Island’s public schools ranks 10th-highest in the country but about average in New England.” The state’s 17,000 “public K-12 instructional staff members — 93 percent of whom are classroom teachers — earn an average of $63,899 this school year,” about “11 percent more than the national average of $57,464.” That average is also “slightly higher than the New England average of $63,232, according to the union.” Topping the list of “instructional staff salaries” were “New York ($71,470…California ($70,458), Alaska ($69,864), [and] New Jersey ($68,703).” South Dakota had the lowest average: $39,364.

South Carolina Teacher Wins NEA Grant For Students’ Solar Science Study.
The Spartanburg (SC) Herald Journal (2/12) reports, “Lorraine Moore, academically gifted and talented teacher for Spartanburg School District Three, received a $5,000 [NEA] grant.” She will use the money “for Solar Science/Solar Society; a study designed for fourth- and fifth-grade gifted students to experience the power of solar energy-as scientists and as citizens.” For the project, “students will conduct experiments to demonstrate the power of the sun to heat homes and water, conduct research on the practical applications of solar energy.” They will also discuss “the different perspectives about…relying more on solar energy.”

Virginia Education Association President Has Mixed Opinion Of Governor’s Charter School Plan.
The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (2/11, Meola) reported that on Thursday, Virginia education groups said that Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) “initiative to loosen charter school laws…would send precious education dollars to schools that are not needed in a time of drastic budget cuts.” The governor wants “to open more charter schools by shifting power from local school boards to the Virginia Board of Education, which would screen applications and have the authority to overrule local decisions.” Virginia Education Association President Kitty Boitnott said her union “supports the review component of McDonnell’s proposal but opposes what it calls the ‘unconstitutional usurpation of the role of the local school board’ in the appeal process.”

Kentucky Is First State To Approve Common Academic Standards.
Education Week (2/11, Gewertz) reported that on Wednesday, “became the first state to adopt common academic standards that were drafted as part of a nationwide initiative to establish a widely shared and ambitious vision of student learning.” The state’s board of education voted unanimously to approve the new standards. Education Week (subscription only) notes that the Kentucky “boards relied on late-stage drafts that have been circulating among state officials for review” to make their decisions. After the final version of the standards is complete, “the final version of the common standards” will be implemented when complete. “The state will also wait for the final version to begin the normal 30-day regulatory-review period, officials said.”

Teachers In Iowa District Asking For Salary Boost, More Paid On Insurance Premiums.
Iowa’s Quad-City Times (2/12, Rudisill) reports that “the Wapello Education Association is seeking a $500 boost in the current $27,360 base salary for teachers and normal step movements on the salary scale in its initial negotiation proposal.” In addition, teachers are asking “the school district to assume any increases in insurance premiums, establish a salary for elementary yearbook sponsors and have approval of masters programs be determined by the teacher quality committee.”

NEA, American Indian Tribes Were Top Political Lobbyists Last Year.
The San Jose Mercury News (2/12) editorializes, “It’s no surprise that the National Education Association was the nation’s biggest political lobbyist in 2007 and 2008, dishing out $56.3 million in federal and state campaigns.” Now, a study by the Center for Responsive Politics claims “that the next three top donors were…American Indian tribes with gambling interests.” And of the 10 “largest donors to political causes nationwide,” six “were Indian tribes.”

Analysis Finds Testing Irregularities In Several Georgia Districts.
The AP (2/10, Turner) reported, “More than a dozen school districts are expected to launch investigations after a state review showed possible cheating on standardized tests at about 20 percent of Georgia elementary and middle schools last year.” According to the “report released Wednesday by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement…about 370 schools had an unusually high number of erasures on tests last spring.” The Office of Student Achievement “looked at every Criterion-Referenced Competency Test taken in Georgia last spring for grades 1-8 – about 3 million exams.” WAGA-TV Atlanta (2/10) reported that “state officials stopped short of calling the findings cheating, but said the results were suspicious and must be checked.”

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In the Classroom
Florida Middle School’s Community Service Class Successfully Lobbies For Sidewalk Near Busy Street.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/10, Solochek) reported that students in Seven Springs Middle School’s Lead the Pack class successfully lobbied local officials to build a sidewalk for a “busy roadway” near the school. Lead the Pack is a youth council at the school, formed three years ago to encourage students to get involved in the community. Since it began, “the class has persuaded government to put up signs to protect sand hill cranes. It has raised money for charities.” For the latest project, students were thrilled “that their initiative would benefit their community, and not just themselves.” But the estimated $590,000 “cost of the project” surprised many of them. “‘That sidewalk is more than my entire house,’ said eighth-grader David Kreuser.”

Indiana Schools Chief Details New Plan To Track Student Progress.
The AP (2/10, Kusmer) reported that the Indiana Department of Education “will track each student’s academic growth instead of focusing on standardized tests to measure their progress and that of their schools, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said Wednesday. The Indiana Growth Model will help school districts to identify which teachers and teaching methods are most effective at improving all students’ performances.” According to the AP, “Under the new system each student’s yearly academic growth will be calculated by comparing their progress to others who began at similar levels of achievement,” Bennett said.

Some DC-Area Schools Use Internet To Connect With Students On Snow Days.
The Washington Post (2/11, Birnbaum ) reports that “as most school systems in the Washington area shuttered their doors for the rest of the week, parents and educators began assessing the impact of an unplanned week-and-a-half vacation while yet more snow fell Wednesday.” Many teachers in Fairfax County, VA, have been utilizing “an online bulletin board to communicate with students and assign work, said Fairfax schools spokesman Paul Regnier.” The DC school district, meanwhile, has “has posted links to online museum tours, performances and grade-level work packets.” But other area school districts have not been using the internet to help students stay connected, because, they say many families do not have home access.

Officials In North Carolina Consider Removing Pre-1877 Events From High School Curriculum.
North Carolina’s The Star (2/11, Allen) reports that a draft proposal from North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction “would effectively sever pre-1877 events in American history from the high school curriculum,” having those events taught only in the early grades. State Superintendent June Atkinson explained the impetus behind the proposal, “Our goal is to give students more study of United States history and to teach it in a way that helps them remember what they have learned.” She pointed out, “Students will have United States history three times before high school, and in high school they will have at least two more courses.” Still, “some educators worry the changes won’t put American history in context for highschoolers,” and that younger students may not understand the more complex issues surrounding the pre-1877 events in America.

K-Club In New Jersey Organizes Community Supply Drive In Support of Soldiers In Iraq.
New Jersey’s The Record (2/10, Forrest) reported that in December, “the Troy Hills School [Kiwanis] K-Kids Club organized a collection of items for troop 23N/23IN – Alpha Company to support a New Jersey soldier, Justin McBride.” Students “used their technology skills to create computer-generated flyers” asking for items to include in the shipment. By the end of the collection process, K-Kids had “box loads of items including food, toiletries, and stationery.” Shipping to Iraq cost “more than anticipated,” but members of the American Legion Post 249 stepped in to pay the shipping costs. The Record noted that “K-Kids is a student-led community service organization that provides students at different grade levels with an opportunity to develop self-esteem, leadership skills, morals and standards, as well as respect and empathy for others.”

New Study Questions Effectiveness Of Learning Styles Theory.
Jay Mathews writes in a column for the Washington Post (2/11) that the authors of a new study titled “Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence” published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest find that in essence, learning styles “are hogwash. … The problem with learning-styles theory, the psychologists who wrote the paper say, is that it has rarely been tested in a randomized, scientific way.” According to Mathews, “The authors found that studies that claimed certain learning styles benefited from similar teaching styles were not rigorously randomized, and studies that embraced the scientific method showed no significant advantage for students taught by their preferred teaching style.”

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On the Job
Houston District Leader Wants To Make It Easier To Fire Teachers If Students Don’t Show Progress On Tests.
The Houston Chronicle (2/11, Mellon) reports that Houston Independent School District (HISD) Superintendent Terry Grier “is asking the school board to give final approval…to a policy that would allow the district to fire teachers whose students don’t make enough progress on standardized tests.” According to the district, “more than 400 teachers…have performed so poorly that their students have lost ground.” Still Grier and “board members have emphasized that [HISD] will provide training and mentoring to those who are struggling and will not oust them based solely on a year of bad test scores.” Said Grier, “We have an obligation to provide assistance to teachers who are not meeting the needs of their students.” But, he added, “Teachers who cannot or will not meet district standards could lose their positions with the district.”

Some Houston-Area Districts Want To Drop Extra Pay For Teachers With Master’s Degrees. The Houston Chronicle (2/10, Mellon) reported that “with money tight” in Houston-area school districts, “a handful…are considering ditching the traditional salary bump for teachers with master’s degrees in favor of pay based more on student learning.” According to HISD estimates, “the extra payout for teachers with a master’s or a doctorate is costing taxpayers about $7.8 million this school year.” That money, Superintendent Grier said, “might be better spent to pay teachers more for taking on leadership roles or to bolster the district’s bonus plan tied to student test scores.”

Law & Policy
Reports Suggest That School Meals Not Be Subsidized For Students Who Can Afford To Pay.
Jane Black wrote in the Washington Post (2/10) All We Can Eat blog, “It’s a big week for school lunch reformers,” with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announcing his support for “a ban on junk food from school vending machines” and Michelle Obama unveiling “her coordinated federal initiative to fight childhood obesity.” But while these “are sexy proposals,” Black points out that new reports from the non-profit Campaign for Better Nutrition and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities “suggest that there’s another way to improve school lunch: Stop subsidizing meals for students who can already afford to pay.” The reports “recommend that Congress mandate that federal dollars be used only to cover the costs of regulated meals served in the lunch line.”

Special Needs

Alabama District To Reimburse Parents For Transportation Of Special Needs Students.
WAFF-TV Huntsville, AL (2/11, Powell) reports, “Some Huntsville parents were told the special needs buses their children take to school will be canceling their routes to save money in the second year of proration.” According to a letter sent to the parents, “the state department of education allows a local board to make a payment in lieu of transporting students where it’s impractical to do so.” It also says that Huntsville schools do not “have enough special needs students to warrant the cost.” Families of children with special needs have been given until “February 19th to submit an acceptance form to be reimbursed for travel expenses beginning March 8th.” A school district spokesperson said that “said a telephone survey by the special education department revealed at least 90 percent of participating parents said they’d rather take the money instead of having their special needs child ride the bus.”

Facilities
Salt Lake City Schools In High-Poverty Areas More Likely To Be Located In High-Traffic Areas, Study Shows.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/10, Fahys) reported that the seven percent of Salt Lake City children who attend schools located near busy highways “are more exposed to the pollutants linked to asthma, heart problems and a host of other maladies associated with dirty air, says a new study from the University of Utah.” Researchers analyzed “the proximity of schools to different types of roads,” and “found that the schools in the areas of greatest poverty and least education were the ones that were most likely to be in the high-traffic areas.” Meanwhile, “schools nearest the least busy roads are located in neighborhoods with the highest percentage of high-school graduates and the lowest percentage of households in poverty.” The researchers want to expand their study to look at “areas of more concentrated pollution.”

School Finance
Seattle Voters Supported Most School Levy, Bond Measures Tuesday, Initial Results Show.
The Seattle Times (2/20, Rosenthal, et al.) reported that Seattle-area voters showed “their support for most area school districts, with partial returns from Tuesday’s special election favoring passage of billions of dollars in levy and bond measures to operate, maintain and build schools.” Initial results tallied at 8 pm Tuesday indicated that “ballot measures in 20 of 23 King and Snohomish County school districts were winning approval,” if by narrow margins. “Seattle Public Schools was in the best shape of any district in the area,” as 71.8 percent of voters approved “the district’s $442.7 million, three-year operations levy,” and 71.4 percent approved “the district’s $270 million, six-year capital levy,” according to initial figures.

School Officials In Pennsylvania Skeptical About Governor’s Proposed Education Subsidy Increase.
Pennsylvania’s Morning Call (2/10, Esack) reported that on Tuesday, Gov. Ed Rendell (D) proposed “proposed increasing the basic education subsidy for school districts by $354.8 million, or 6.4 percent.” This subsidy is considered “is the biggest driver in the $12.3 billion education budget, which accounts for about 42 percent of the state’s proposed $29 billion spending plan for 2010-11.” But, “as promising as Rendell’s budget may look, local school officials aren’t counting on getting the same amount of money by July 1, the start of the next fiscal year,” the Morning Call added.

Los Angeles Unified To Fire Above Average Number Of Probationary Teachers This Year.
The Los Angeles Times (2/10, Song) reports that “Los Angeles school district officials are planning to fire more than 110 non-tenured teachers this year based on their performance, about three times the number of probationary teachers dismissed annually in recent years.” Each of the teachers under consideration for “termination this year received one or more negative ratings on a recent job evaluation and have been sent letters indicating that they are being considered for so-called non-reelection.” In December, the Los Angeles Times reported that “the Los Angeles Unified School District often grants teachers permanent status with little or no evaluation.”

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In the Classroom
Circus Director Is Artist-In-Residence At Elementary School In Massachusetts.
The Harvard Post (2/9, Quinn-Szcesuil) reported that through an artist-in-residency program at Harvard Elementary School (MA), students “will get a behind-the-scenes peek into circus life when Rick Davis of Circus Smirkus not only comes to town, but also teaches physical education classes for two weeks.” The program officially begins on Feb. 22, and is “funded in part by the Harvard Parent Teacher Organization and a grant from the Harvard Cultural Council.” For the duration of the residency, Davis “will teach each of the grades, from kindergarten through fifth grade, during their physical education classes. The program ends on March 5 with a series of performances by the students for their parents and the school community.”

Florida Students Will Demonstrate Vocational Abilities At Hands-On Skills Competitions.
The St. Petersburg Times (2/10, Miller) reports that at the end of this month, “about 450 students from Pasco, Pinellas, Hernando and Hillsborough counties will descend upon” the Marchman Technical Education Center in New Port Richey, FL, “to compete in hands-on skills and leadership competitions in 38 categories, including automotive service technology, carpentry, culinary arts, cosmetology, nursing, residential wiring, video production and Web design.” Regional winners “will go on to compete at the state level April 19-21 at Manatee Technical Institute.”

Campaign Buttons Don’t Belong In Classroom, Judge Rules.
New York’s Gotham Gazette (2/10, Goodman) reports, “Public school teachers have constitutional rights to wear political buttons while in school, according to the United Federation of Teachers. But not according to the United States District Court in Manhattan. In Weingarten v. Board of Education, a case first brought in 2008, a presidential election year, the plaintiffs, United Federation of Teachers and several individual teachers, claimed” that New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s “regulations banning campaign buttons and distribution of political materials among teachers in Board of Education buildings, i.e., schools, violated the teachers’ free speech rights under the federal and state constitutions.” However, following “more than a year of litigation,” federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan declared Klein’s “regulations to be constitutional.”

On the Job
New York City Leaders Seek To Avoid Parental Ire In Calling Snow Days.
The New York Times (2/10, Otterman) reports that the decision to close New York City schools for Wednesday a day earlier “was literally a night-and-day difference from the last snow day, on March 8, 2009, when the city decided to close schools at the bleary hour of 5:40 a.m., leaving parents little time to make child-care arrangements.” According to the Times, the “decision to close the schools is a careful political calculus in New York City,” as announcing a closure “too early can open the city up to parental annoyance if the snow fails to materialize. Making it too late means parents carp about a shortage of last-minute options for their children.”

Editorial: Sending Unwanted Teachers To Poorest Colorado Schools Unfair To Students.
The Denver Post (2/9) editorialized that Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg “kicked a hornet’s nest last week when he announced that the city’s poorest and lowest achieving schools would no longer be the routine dumping grounds for direct- placement teachers. Instead, Boasberg decided to spread that joy among all schools so that even the most highly ranked schools will get teachers that other schools don’t want.” According to the Post, Boasberg’s “action will force a broader conversation about direct placement and, ideally, about state laws that govern the practice.”

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Law & Policy
First Lady Launches Initiative Aimed At Eliminating Childhood Obesity.
The New York Times (2/10, A16, Stolberg) reports, “The White House, led by Michelle Obama, announced a sweeping initiative on Tuesday aimed at revamping the way American children eat and play – reshaping school lunches, playgrounds and even medical checkups – with the goal of eliminating childhood obesity within a generation. The ‘Let’s Move’ campaign, nearly a year in the making, is Mrs. Obama’s official debut in a high-profile policy role, and she has already lined up an array of partners in government, medicine, science, business, education and athletics who are pledging to work together to get children off their couches and consuming fresher, healthier food.”

Robin Givhan, writing for the Washington Post (2/10), says, “At its core, the initiative has four pillars: more nutrition information, increased physical activity, easier access to healthy foods and, ultimately, personal responsibility. It has bipartisan support. … Obama’s national campaign purposefully and adamantly steers clear of defining itself as in favor of foodie proselytizing and against French fries, burgers and cookies.”

Texas May Submit To Second Phase Of Race To The Top Competition.
Columnist Rick Casey writes in the Houston Chronicle (2/10), “Before being ordered by Gov. Rick Perry (R) not to compete for a chunk of the $4.3 billion ‘Race to the Top’ federal grants for public schools, staffers at the Texas Education Agency had put in more than 800 hours preparing an application. ” And TEA Commissioner Robert Scott has requested that “the work be declared a state secret.” According to the state’s Public Information Act, “all documents produced with the taxpayers’ money are public with” the exception of information that “would give advantage to a competitor or bidder.” Casey notes that “the TEA letter to the attorney general offers an intriguing additional possible reason for keeping the material secret”: the state may decide to submit to Phase 2 of the federal grant competition.

Education Stakeholders Want Michigan To Mirror Other States’ Accountability Measures.
The Detroit Free Press (2/9, Dawsey, et al.) reported that as Michigan “considers new standards for statewide testing of students, some also see hope for Michigan’s educational system in the sweeping reforms recently announced by the state.” And some “say Michigan can learn strategies from other states that have found ways to improve learning and accountability.” The Free Press highlights accountability measures in place in other states that may also work for Michigan. Ideas include “a program under which parents lose public assistance if their children are chronically truant” — like the one in place in Florida, New York and Wisconsin — and seeing that “the best principals and teachers head to the worst schools,” which is done in Charlotte-Mecklenberg, NC, schools.

Report Recommends Use Of Identifiers To Connect Disciplinary Actions To Students.
T.H.E. Journal (2/9, Schaffhauser) reports that the Tenth Annual Safe Schools Data Project, “compiled by the Kentucky Center for School Safety and the state’s Department of Education,” suggests for Kentucky schools to use “a unique identifier in order to connect disciplinary actions to a particular student and to evaluate the effectiveness of programs targeted at repeat offenders.” According to the report, the Center’s “most important shortcoming in the data collection process…involves the current inability to connect each disciplinary action to a particular student through a unique identifier.” The report also notes that such a “connection could assist schools in evaluating programs targeted to repeat offenders.”

Also in the News
Heavy Reliance On Tech Gear Sets “iGeneration” Apart.
USA Today (2/10, Jayson) reports, “To the psychologists, sociologists, and generational and media experts who study them,” heavy reliance on digital gear sets apart the newest group of youth “even from their tech-savvy Millennial elders. They want to be constantly connected and available in a way even their older siblings don’t quite get.” USA Today adds, “The contrast between Millennials and this younger group was so evident to psychologist Larry Rosen of California State University-Dominguez Hills that he has declared the birth of a new generation in a new book, Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn, out next month.”

About One Third Of Colorado’s First-Year College Students Needs Remedial Help.
The Denver Post (2/9, Meyer) reported, “About one in three first-year college students needs remedial help in at least one core subject, according to an annual report by the Colorado Commission for Higher Education.” First year students have the most trouble with college algebra, the report said. It comes just “a week after DPS announced encouraging news about its” high school “attendance rates,” and noting that “more students [were] on track to graduate and” were “taking college preparatory classes.” The Denver Post adds that the commission’s report also “comes as the state is embarking on a sweeping education reform spurred by the 2008 bill — Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids, or Cap4K.”

NEA in the News
Alabama Lawmakers Block Teacher Code Of Ethics.
Education Week (2/10) reports, “Alabama lawmakers have overturned Gov. Bob Riley’s (R) veto and blocked a teacher code of ethics approved by the state board of education from being placed into the state code.” Though “supporters of the ethics code argued it was backed by many teachers and had been in effect for several years without any enforcement provision,” the Alabama Education Association opposed the code, arguing that it “would subject teachers to dismissal or other disciplinary procedures for violating vaguely worded items.” Included in the code were provisions that “defined unethical conduct,” and language stating that educators “should refrain from the use of alcohol and/or tobacco during the course of professional practice and should never use illegal or unauthorized drugs.”

Study Finds Charter Schools Heavily Concentrated By Ethnicity, Socio-Economic Status.
Dave Murray writes in the Grand Rapids Press (2/10) Head of the Class column that according to a report from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice, “charter schools, especially those run by for-profit management companies, tend to be strongly concentrated by ethnicity and socio-economic status.” But “management companies argue that their schools are consumer-driven. If unsuccessful, motivated parents would simply vote with their feet and find a school that was doing better,” they say. The Great Lakes Center “is a research arm of the teachers unions,” including the NEA, “which have been critical of charter schools in the past and the Race to the Top proposal,” Murray notes.

North Carolina District Receives $1.25 Million NEA Grant.
The Durham (NC) Herald Sun (2/9) reports that Durham Public Schools are receiving a $1.25 million grant form the NEA. The grant will be used to “improve the academic achievement of African-American male students.”

Obama Administration Launches Campaign To Remove Junk Food From Schools.
The AP (2/8, Jackson) reported that the Obama administration “will ask Congress to improve childhood nutrition by ridding school vending machines of sugary snacks and drinks and giving school lunch and breakfast to more kids. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the administration will seek changes when Congress overhauls the Childhood Nutrition Act.” In a speech planned for delivery on Monday but cancelled due to snow, Vilsack “outlined changes that include a push to jettison cookies, cakes, pastries and salty food from school vending machines and cafeteria lines.”

The St. Petersburg Times (2/9, Marshall) reports that a proposed federal bill “is said to include $1 billion in extra money to pay for more of the fruits, vegetables and whole grains that make teenagers cringe. But Republican support is far from certain, and the American Beverage Association told the New York Times it did not support a federal ban” on junk food in schools.

Op-Ed: Obesity Seen As National Security Threat. Retired U.S. Army General Johnnie E. Wilson writes in an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/9) that child obesity “has become so serious in this country that military leaders are viewing the epidemic as a potential threat to our national security.” Wilson adds, “Today, retired admirals and generals are calling on Congress to support at least $1 billion per year in new funding that will help to improve nutrition standards for meals served in school, after school and in child care settings. We are also seeking improved nutrition standards for all competitive foods and beverages sold on school grounds.”

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In the Classroom
Educators In Utah District Aiming To Tailor Instruction To Students’ Needs.
The Salt Lake Tribune (2/9, Stewart) reports that “curriculum experts at the newly formed Canyons School District” in Utah seek to implement a Response to Intervention (RTI) “data system to track students’ achievement and, with input from parents and teachers, tailor instruction to students’ individual needs.” According to Mary Ruth Coleman, “a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” RTI can help educators “identify children whose giftedness may have gone unseen — English language learners from disadvantaged families and bright kids with learning disabilities.” But, Coleman also noted that “whether it works may largely depend on the kinds of instructional enrichment Canyons delivers.”

On the Job
More Than 200 Physical, Verbal Abuse Claims Brought Against DC Teachers Last Year.
The Washington Post (2/9, Turque) reports that in Washington, DC, “school officials reported more than 200 allegations of students being choked, shoved, slapped, kicked or verbally abused by teachers to impose discipline last year, according to information compiled by D.C. police.” DC schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has “said that she would like to move the District toward a system that makes it easier to remove abusive teachers whose conduct doesn’t rise to a criminal standard of proof but is still unacceptable.” Abuse by teachers in DC schools is an issue that “surfaced last month when…Rhee told a business magazine that an unspecified number of teachers laid off during October budget reductions ‘had hit children,’” the Post points out.

Math For America Fellowship Seeks To Draw Professionals Into Classrooms.
California’s Contra Costa Times (2/9, Dimartino) reports that the Math for America (MfA) Fellowship program offers math buffs a $20,000 stipend to leave their “science and technology professions” and teach in K-12 schools. “Participants in the MfA fellowship program earn a master’s degree in education and commit to five years of teaching math in public secondary schools. The fellowship also provides a full tuition scholarship, an annual stipend of up to $100,000 over five years as well as mentoring and professional development services.” The program’s goal is to “increase the number of people talented in mathematics, such as recent college graduates and mid-career professionals, entering the teaching profession.”

Law & Policy
Georgia Governor Announces Teacher Evaluation, Testing Integrity Legislation.
Maureen Downey wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/8) Get Schooled blog that on Monday, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) announced that “education legislation has been introduced that would increase pay for Georgia’s top teachers and principals, and increase the integrity of Georgia’s testing system.” Under the legislation, the State Board of Education would have “to adopt a common, statewide evaluation tool that takes student improvement into account in addition to peer observation of planning and instruction when assessing teachers and leaders by July 1, 2011.” An Effectiveness Measure would be calculated using the tool, and teachers would receive pay increases based on the calculation. In addition, HB 1121 also would “make it unlawful for anyone to knowingly tamper with or facilitate cheating on tests required by the State Department of Education.”

Tennessee Officials Developing Evaluations For Teachers Of Subjects Without Standardized Tests.
The Tennessean (2/9, Sarrio) reports that a new law in Tennessee “requires at least 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation be based on student test scores, but….in subjects where students don’t take standardized tests,” teachers are waiting to see “what the future has in store for them.” Subjects without standardized tests include “art, band, physical education” and foreign language. The Tennessean adds that “state officials are working” on “a new evaluation for all teachers” in order to meet the mandate that was set up as part of the state’s Race to the Top bid.

Families Cope With Beverly Hills District’s Decision Not To Renew Permits For Some Out-Of-District Students.
The Los Angeles Times (2/8, Rivera) reports that as the Beverly Hills, CA, school district changes “the way it funds schools,” Board members decided last month that it would not “renew permits for the eighth-graders and other elementary students” who live outside the district to attend Beverly Hills Public schools. “Board members argued that Beverly Hills taxpayers should not subsidize education for nonresidents.” The school district will provide “students and their families” with “counseling and other services” to cope with the decision, officials said. Still, many “Beverly Hills students and their parents said they have no plans yet for the fall,” because they “missed a deadline to apply for Los Angeles Unified’s popular magnet school program” while waiting for the School Board’s decision on the permits.”

Editorial: Report Highlights Need To Overhaul Teaching Standards In Michigan.
The Detroit News (2/8) editorializes, “Michigan gets a D minus grade — which means less than poor — when it comes to preparing teachers for classroom performance, according to a new report” by the National Council on Teacher Quality. According to the Detroit News, “Despite recent improvements, Michigan needs to do more to produce more excellent teachers. … The state Legislature needs to build on its recent Race to the Top legislation and implement new polices to improve procedures for encouraging good teachers” and firing low-performing teachers.”

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School Finance
Virginia Governor’s Decision To Provide More Funding For Northern Districts.
The Washington Post (2/9, Kumar, Kunkle) reports that Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) “announced that he will oppose a freeze in the adjustment to the school-funding formula proposed by his predecessor — Timothy M. Kaine (D) — that would have cost cash-strapped schools in Northern Virginia nearly $140 million.” However, as Northern Virginia “was celebrating, other areas across the state were in mourning — or mobilizing,” as McDonnell’s decision will lead to major budget gaps. Kaine has “suggested freezing the so-called local composite index — the formula that determines state and local education funding — to save money as the state faces a $4.2 billion shortfall over the next two years.”

The Lynchburg (VA) News Advance (2/8) reported, “Central Virginia school districts are facing a cut in state education funding, after Gov. Bob McDonnell said Monday that he will support updating the index that determines how much state money each school system receives. It’s a departure from the introduced budget left by outgoing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who proposed freezing the local composite index for one year.”

Ohio Districts Will Lose Some School Breakfast Program Matching Funds.
The Mansfield (OH) News Journal (2/9, Bradley) reports, “Through 2011, [Ohio] school districts participating in the National School Breakfast Program are losing reimbursements because more matching funds are going to the National School Lunch Program.” According to “Department of Education Spokesman Scott Blake said the school breakfast program isn’t as widespread as the lunch program, so schools generally get smaller state and federal breakfast reimbursements.” Still, Mansfield City Schools food services director, Jane Fortman, is concerned about the decrease in state aid. Said Fortman, “We are $15,000 short of what our district got in 2008-09. … Last year, we were supposed to get three $5,000 payments and only got one $5,000 payment.”

Also in the News
Vermont Seen As A Leader On Efforts To Introduce Healthier Food In School Cafeterias.
The AP (2/8, Rathke) reported that Sharon (VT) Elementary School “is part of the National Farm to School Network, aimed at getting healthier meals into school cafeterias, teaching kids about agriculture and nutrition and supporting local farmers. About 40 states have farm-to-school programs, but Vermont is a leader in incorporating all three missions into its programs.” Also, Vermont “may be a step ahead of other states because a nonprofit partnership called Vermont FEED had already been working to get local foods into schools.”

NEA in the News
Ohio District Receives NEA Foundation Grant.
WCMH-TV Columbus, OH (2/9, McPeek) reports that “the Columbus City School District is one of only three districts in the nation to land a $1.25 million grant from the National Education Association Foundation.” The district will use the money “over the next five years to provide more professional-development opportunities for teachers in two of the district’s most-challenged ‘feeder patterns’” — several “elementary and middle schools that feed into Linden-McKinley and Briggs High Schools.” The grant is “part of the NEAF’s initiative to close achievement gaps.”

Springfield NEA President Says Teachers Have What It Takes To Reach Agreement With District.
The Springfield Business Journal (2/9) reported that last week, after “Springfield teachers voted…to have the National Education Association’s Springfield (SNEA) chapter act as their representative in negotiations with the Board of Education,” Springfield NEA President Chris Guinther noted in a news release, “SNEA has the experience, expertise and commitment to represent more than 1,700 Springfield teachers in reaching a collective bargaining agreement with the district.” He added that the teachers “have proved they have the patience, skill, and desire to get the job done.”

Please make every effort to attend. There will be RIFs on this agenda due to serious budget cuts within the district. Come out support your staff members, colleagues, family members and friends.

Are your members registered to vote?
You can start your school budget campaign by ensuring that your members are registered to vote for the April 20 school budget elections and by working with your administration and parents to register parents to vote. Visit the Division of Elections website for voter registration forms and the addresses to which they can be mailed.

Vote by mail for your school district’s budget
Don’t forget how easy it is to vote in New Jersey! You can vote by mail and it counts the same. No need to wait in line at the polls; you don’t even need an excuse as you did in the past to vote by mail. Simply print out and complete a Mail-In Ballot Application and mail it to your county clerk. Once you fill out the application you will receive, prior to Election Day, a voting ballot in the mail. Remember, if you apply for a Mail-In Ballot, you cannot show up at the polls on Election Day to vote.

Does your school plan to celebrate Read Across America?
Read Across America—a national day to celebrate reading—is slated for Tuesday, March 2. If you or your school has an awesome activity planned over the next several weeks, let the Cat know about it! All events will be posted to tell everyone of “the places you’ll go” when promoting childhood literacy. For additional Read Across America ideas and activities visit NEA’s Read Across America website. You’ll find many valuable resources in the left-hand sidebar. If you’d like your Read Across America activities considered for publication in the NJEA Reporter, NJEA Review, or njea.org, complete this form and send it to NJEA with two or three of your best photos. This form also appears in the February issue of the NJEA Reporter.

Nominate an N.J. Hall of Famer
The New Jersey Hall of Fame is calling for entries to its fourth annual essay contest. It is open to all New Jersey students in grades 4 through 12. Students are asked to nominate potential inductees – living or dead – to the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Nominations must be postmarked by April 1.

FAST program to focus on achievement gaps
Circle May 8 on your calendar to attend “Strategies for Closing Achievement Gaps,” a workshop sponsored by NJEA Families and Schools Together Work for Children (NJEA FAST). Participants will learn ways to apply the NEA’s research-based C.A.R.E. themes: culture, abilities, resilience, and effort. Registration forms will be available in early March. The workshop will take place at NJEA’s headquarters in Trenton. Share this flier with your members. For more information, contact Kathy Mathews at 609-599-4561, ext. 2370 or kmathews@njea.org.

Free tickets available for NYC Teaching and Learning Celebration
NJEA has a limited number of free tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis to members interested in attending either the Friday, March 5 or Saturday, March 6 session of the 2010 Celebration of Teaching and Learning in New York City. A ticket can be requested at njea.org, where a link will lead members to an order form. The free tickets cannot be ordered by phone. Each member must request his or her own ticket. Registrants will not be able to request more than one free ticket. Influential figures such as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Lisa Henson, Her Majesty Queen Noor, Bobby McFerrin and Queen Latifah will be featured. NJEA is a major sponsor. Details about the celebration can also be found at www.thirteencelebration.org.

Plan for the Urban Education Best Practices Symposium
Set aside April 17 to attend the NJEA Urban Education Best Practices Symposium. The day will include a panel discussion that will connect the importance of best practices with student success. Attendees will select three seminars from a choice of seven to round out the day. The event will take place at the Wyndham Princeton Forrestal Hotel and Conference Center. Share this registration form with your members.

Two Technology Integration conferences offered
The first NJEA Technology Integration Conference this year will be held on April 24 at the Princeton Wyndham. Workshops include Google Documents, Google Geo Applications, and Google tools for collaboration. This conference is designed for experienced users. The registration deadline is March 31. The second NJEA Technology Integration Conference this year will be held on May 1 at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. The conference is co-sponsored by NJEA, Richard Stockton College, and the SRI-ETTC. Topics include Web 2.0 Tools for Educators, Introduction to SmartBoards, as well Google applications for educators. The registration deadline for this conference is April 7. Online registration is available both conferences. Mail-in registration forms are also available for the Princeton and Stockton conferences.

Deadline for legislative conference is Feb. 5
Saturday, Feb. 20, is the date for the NJEA Walter J. O’Brien Legislative and Political Action Conference. It will be held at the Hyatt Regency, 2 Albany Street, New Brunswick. Share this registration flier, which can also be found in the December NJEA Review and at njea.org. The registration deadline is Feb. 5.

Higher Ed Conference in new location
Mark your calendar and reprogram your GPS—the NJEA Higher Education Conference, scheduled for April 16-17, will take place at a new location this year: the Princeton Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. More information can be found in the February NJEA Reporter. For more information call the higher education regional UniServ office at 609-689-9580.

Invite future teachers to Student NJEA Conference
Be sure to tell your student teacher, practicum student, or family member preparing to become a teacher about this year’s Student NJEA Conference on Saturday, April 17, at the Princeton Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. More information can be found in the March NJEA Reporter and at njea.org.

Are you ready to run for office?
The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) will host its 12th annual Ready to Run program on Saturday, March 20 at the Douglass Campus Center, Rutgers-New Brunswick. NJEA has a limited number of scholarships available. Call NJEA Government Relations at 609-599-4561, ext 2363 or ggold@njea.org for details. For more information about the program, or to register, visit www.cawp.rutgers.edu. Preconference programs for women of color will be held on March 19.

A delegation that looks like New Jersey
NJEA and NEA are committed to achieving ethnic-minority delegate representation at the 2010 NEA Representative Assembly in New Orleans, La., that is at least equal to the proportion of ethnic-minorities within the state. See this flier and the January 2010 NJEA Reporter for details.

Bank of America’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative®
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s Student Leaders program is an exciting component of its philanthropic program, the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative®. Help spread the word to juniors and seniors in New Jersey high schools, by distributing this flier to school personnel who have contact with juniors and seniors. The deadline for students to submit applications is February 17, 2010. To learn more about the program and for details about the online application process, visit the Bank of America Charitable Foundation website.

Aflac is not the answer
While Aflac is very successful at national advertising, it does not provide one comprehensive solution to protecting income from disability. The NJEA-sponsored disability insurance program was designed by NJEA specifically to meet the needs of members in a cost-effective manner. Local leaders who have questions about disability insurance programs may contact NJEA Member Benefits at 609-599-4561, ext. 2222. Questions may also be e-mailed to Phil Lomonico at PLomonico@njea.org.

Get discount tickets to Devils game
Come see the New Jersey Devils take on the Buffalo Sabres, Sunday, April 11. The game starts at 5 p.m. at the Prudential Center. For this game, you’ll save big on tickets with a special NJEA discount! Get a $56 ticket for $30, or a $79 lower level ticket for only $67. These discounts are for NJEA Members and their families. In addition, the Devils will donate $2 to the Frederick L. Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education for each ticket purchased. To order tickets, complete and mail this order form with payment to the address indicated on the form. Tickets can also be ordered online at www.ticketmaster.com/devilsnjea.

See Rutgers basketball for $5
All NJEA Members and state workers are eligible for a special $5 ticket rate to Rutgers basketball home games when the Scarlet Knights women take on St. John’s on Feb. 24 and when the men take on Seton Hall on March 4. Both games begin at 7:30 p.m. To redeem this offer, visit Rutgers Ticket Office Promotions Page and enter the promotion code “state.”

Are your members aware of the NJEA web giveaway?
Please remind members that there are prizes won every month just for registering at njea.org. Members need to register every month to remain eligible to win.

Open enrollment – every three years
Local presidents should expect to hear from the NJEA-sponsored disability insurance program once every three years. It is crucial that the local president provide direction to the representative of Educators Insurance Services so that all members are given the opportunity to apply for (or adjust) their coverage without the need to answer health questions. If you have any questions, please call 800-704-1365, ext. 0.

Get ideas from Classroom Close-up, NJ archives
At Classroom Close-up, NJ you can search for individual show segments from the last 16 years. Segments are searchable by topic, location, academic subject, and season. The show airs on NJN Public Television every Monday at 7 p.m. and every Saturday at 9 a.m. Watch the current episode online.

Legislative News
You’ll find a rundown of recent legislative actions on NJEA’s website.

Report on Education
Share with your members the Report on Education, NJEA President Barbara Keshishian’s column in newspapers and websites across the state.

NJEA pension consultants available
Remind your members that they are entitled to a free half-hour pension consultation at their regional UniServ office with a trained NJEA pension consultant. As soon as your members are considering retirement, they should call their regional UniServ office to schedule a consultation.

The Christian Science Monitor (2/4, Paulson) reported that a new Gallup survey shows “more than 80 percent of elementary-school principals believe that recess has a positive impact on academic achievement.” Also, according to “two-thirds of the principals” polled, “students listen better and are more focused in class” after recess. “The findings support a growing wave of educators who are pushing to restore the place of recess in schools and, in some cases, to improve its quality.” Schools in some cities such as “Chicago, Atlanta, and Boston…have dropped recess completely,” amid budget cuts and an increasingly intense focus on test preparation.

Nancy Shute wrote in the US News and World Report (2/4) On Parenting blog, “Recess has almost disappeared from the curriculum at many schools, edged out by more math and reading work as schools push to raise scores on standardized tests.” But more and more research “shows that adding more play to the day, not less, improves the likelihood of better test scores and behavior.” However, Shute adds, “The news wasn’t all good. The principals said most of their discipline problems happened during a recess or lunch break and said that they would like to have more staff to monitor the playground, better equipment, and training in playground management.”

In the Classroom

On the Job

Law & Policy

School Finance

Clark County, Nevada, District Could Save $8.8 Million For Each Day Cut From School Year.

 

The Las Vegas Sun (2/5, Richmond) reports, “The Clark County School District is facing budget cuts in basic support from the state of $27.7 million for this year and $84.7 million next year.” The district could save $8.8 million from each day it cut from the school year. Superintendent Walt Ruffles said that “if the district were to eliminate the four days it currently sets aside for professional development, it would be the equivalent of a 2 percent pay cut for the majority of employees.” And with salaries taking up “90 percent of the district’s $2.1 billion operating budget,” Ruffles that “the best hope the district has to save jobs would be for the teachers’ and administrators’ unions to agree to an approach of ’shared sacrifice’” by way of “a temporarily shortened work year.”

Virginia District’s “Best Case Scenario” Budget Has No Raises, No Teacher Layoffs.

 

The Virginian-Pilot (2/5, Garrow) reports that Suffolk “Schools Superintendent Milton Liverman on Thursday released a $148.4 million budget proposal that he described as a ‘best-case scenario.’” It does not include raises, but it also “does not eliminate any positions or programs.” However, according to Liverman, the budget “based on former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s (D) proposed 2010-12 biennial budget” will most likely “change once the state passes a different budget.” As it stands, Liverman’s proposal “accounts for a roughly $962,000 decrease in state funding, and it requires local funding to stay the same.”

Also in the News

Middle-School Students Petition DC Mayor To Reverse Principal’s Reassignment.

NEA in the News

Teachers In Springfield, Missouri, Choose NEA Representation.

 

The Springfield (MO) News-Leader (2/4) reported, “In an election to select which organization would represent them, Springfield teachers voted in favor of the Springfield National Education Association over the Missouri State Teachers Association. In a separate story, the Springfield (MO) News-Leader (2/4, De Vera) reported that before the vote, Springfield NEA president Ray Smith said, “It’s the end of a long haul, and we hope we come out on top.” The News Leaders notes that three years ago, both organizations had “sizable memberships in Springfield.” But, “after the school board adopted a policy calling for teachers to vote whether just one or more than one organization should represent them, the local NEA challenged that policy in court, arguing that exclusive representation was an important part of collective bargaining.”

Student’s Expulsion Sparks Debate On Online Rights.

 

USA Today (2/3, Sarrio, Bazar) reported, “The expulsion of a high school basketball player who posted angry messages on Facebook highlights a growing debate over students’ privacy and free-speech rights online. Taylor Cummings, 17, a senior at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School” in Nashville, TV “logged onto Facebook at home on Jan. 3 and wrote, among other things, ‘I’ma kill em all.’” According to USA Today, “School officials decline to discuss the case but say they have suspended and expelled students in the past for infractions that involved social networks, text messaging, e-mail and other technologies.”

Experts: Rights Of Student Expelled From Honor Society May Have Been Violated. The Tampa Tribune (2/4, Blair) reports, “Two Florida experts in First Amendment law” say the rights of Alex Fuentes, a senior at Wesley Chapel (FL) High School “may have been violated when he was kicked out of the National Honor Society over a Facebook page critical of the school.” Fuentes said the Facebook page was created as “just a joke at first, though he was also frustrated that he was going to be graduating from a D school. Other students discovered the page and began adding their own comments – sometimes profane – about the school.”

In the Classroom

Advanced Placement Test Failure Rate On The Rise.

USA Today (2/4, Gillum, Toppo) reports that the “number of students taking Advanced Placement tests hit a record high last year, but the portion who fail the exams – particularly in the South – is rising as well, a USA TODAY analysis finds.” According to USA Today, the “findings about the failure rates raise questions about whether schools are pushing millions of students into AP courses without adequate preparation – and whether a race for higher standards means schools are not training enough teachers to deliver the high-level material.” USA Today’s analysis “finds that more than two in five students (41.5%) earned a failing score of 1 or 2, up from 36.5% in 1999.”

Maryland School’s Hardships With Computer Classes Seen As Representative Of Many Schools.

 

The Washington Post (2/4, Birnbaum) reports on Surrattsville High School in Prince George’s County, Maryland, which is struggling “to find a qualified computer teacher” for its classes, which are already short on textbooks. Additionally, “the computers were removed because the substitute was unable to control the students and they were damaging the equipment,” according to students. The issue is not unique to Surrattsville High School, which is “just a dozen miles away from an education department that is investing millions in science and technology education.” According to the article, this situation illustrates “the basic problems that schools face even as reform rhetoric increases.”

Michigan Agreement Would Allow High Schoolers Statewide To Earn Davenport University Credits.

 

The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (2/4, Murray) reports that Michigan high school students “will be able to get Davenport University credit while still in high school as part of what state educators are calling a ‘landmark’ agreement that could get more people into college.” The agreement would permit “allows any Michigan student enrolled in a state-approved career and technical education center or high school program to receive Davenport credits,” according to a state Education Department official. “University leaders said there is some risk in entering a statewide agreement, but the Education Department has done a good job creating standards for far-flung programs.”

Rhode Island School’s Achievements Despite High Student Poverty Rate Applauded.

 

The Providence Journal (2/4, Borg) reports that Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has “joined state and local officials in” applauding Anthony Carnevale Elementary School in Providence, R.I. “for beating the odds. Carnevale “students here have made double-digit gains in the latest round of state tests: 17.1 points in reading and 15.6 points in math. The school has flourished despite formidable challenges: 88 percent of the children live in poverty, and 25 percent receive special education services.”

Educators Seek To Boost Overall Student Performance Through Music Enrichment Program.

 

The Naples (FL) Daily News (2/4, Donovan) reports on Enhanced Learning Through Music, a “free after-school musical enrichment program” at Pinecrest Elementary School in Naples, FL in which students in grade three through six learn “how to play mariachi music on violins and guitars. … A Florida Department of Education study shows a correlation between student participation in fine arts courses, higher grade point averages and higher FCAT scores.” According to the Daily, News, Judy Evans, director of the enrichment program, “believes that by learning how to play an instrument, the Pinecrest students will probably improve their overall academic performance.”

On the Job

 

 

Indianapolis Public Schools Delayed One Hour Due To Super Bowl.

 

The AP (2/4, Martin) reports that Indianapolis Public Schools will delay start times on Monday for one hour “to give bus drivers more time to get to work the morning after the Super Bowl.” The district wanted to delay the start of school by two hours, “but changed course after the Indiana Department of Education said such delays should only be used for emergency situations.” And, because the Super Bowl game “between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints didn’t qualify for an automatic waiver for emergency two-hour delays, missed time would have to be made up,” according to State Superintendent Tony Bennett.

Analysis Shows Dallas High Schools Had Largest Decline In Teacher Morale.

 

Diane Rado writes in the Dallas Morning News (2/3) Dallas ISD blog that according tot the Dallas Independent School District’s 2009-10″organizational health” results, “morale is down across Dallas elementary, middle and high schools, with dozens of schools showing double-digit decreases” in scores. According to Rado, who compared the latest scores with the scores from 2008-09, high schools show “the biggest decrease in scores.” She notes that some high schools “are under intense pressure to improve or they face closure by the state.”

Fourth Grade Teacher’s Career In Education Spans More Than 50 Years.

 

The Dallas Morning News (2/4, Hundley) reports on Hebron Valley Elementary School Teacher Dale Swall, who has been teaching “for more than half a century and has no plans to quit anytime soon.” Now, at age 80, Swall teaches fourth grade. His career began in 1954, and he started teaching in the Lewisville, TX, school district in 1997. Throughout “his career, he’s been a school superintendent and principal in Peru, a headmaster in Chile and a principal in Colombia, and has taught in Germany and Hawaii.” Swall’s colleagues “say the energetic octogenarian is dedicated to helping students succeed.”

Law & Policy

 

Op-Ed: School Accountability Push Will Fail Without Proper Metrics.

 

University of Virginia Psychology Professor Daniel Willingham writes in an op-ed in the Boston Globe (2/4), “In an effort to improve public schools, President Obama wants to hold individual teachers accountable for student test scores; indeed, states that prohibit the practice are ineligible for the ‘Race to the Top’ funds.” However, “we do not have good tools to measure teachers, and when you hold people accountable with poor measures, things…get worse. The reason is simple: Accountability changes workers’ focus from ‘do a good job’ to ‘do a job that looks good according to the measure.’”

School Finance

 

 

Second-Largest Virginia District Planning Budget Cut Amid Enrollment Growth.

 

The Washington Post (2/4, Chandler) reports, “Prince William County [VA] School Superintendent Steven L. Walts has proposed a $762 million spending plan for next fiscal year that would increase class size, cut 700 jobs, charge new student fees for athletics and cut transportation to many magnet schools.” According to the Post, “The budget proposal for the state’s second-largest school system represents a 3 percent reduction in spending. At the same time, officials are budgeting for 3,564 additional students, a nearly 5 percent increase in enrollment.”

Virginia District Struggling To Fund School Renovation Projects Amid Student Enrollment Boom. The Fairfax (VA) Connection (2/3, O’Donoghue) reported that the Fairfax County [VA] School Board “has set a goal of renovating school buildings every 25 to 30 years, but in reality, most schools are waiting approximately 40 years before their physical plants receive an upgrade.” According to the Connection, “School Board members unanimously approved a capital improvement plan Jan. 21 that included many school renovation projects several years overdue.” Also, a boom “in the student population is expected to continue, with an estimated 11,500 more students in the school system in the fall of 2014 than were enrolled in this past fall.”

Also in the News

 

 

Middle School Principal Calls On Volunteers To Help Clean Campus Ahead Of District Review.

 

The St. Petersburg Times (1/4, Ritchie) reports, “Nearly 200 people fanned out over the West Hernando Middle School campus on Jan. 23: students, staffers…even visitors from other counties” to help clean “the campus as part of the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day volunteer program.” Volunteers can earn “one ticket to Walt Disney World or Disneyland…for at least four hours” of work. West Hernandez Principal Rick Markford saw the incentive as an opportunity to get people to help make the campus “look good” for an upcoming Quality Assurance Review Team visit “during the district’s accreditation review.” One of the “the challenges was clearing vegetation damaged by recent freezes.” But, Markford said, “The biggest job being done is raking leaves and remulching. … That’s being done in every corner of the campus,” he added.

NEA in the News

 

 

Rhode Island Governor Wants To Give Tax Credits To Private School Donors, Cut Public School Budget.

 

The AP (2/4, Henry) reports that Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri’s (R) state budget proposal “would expand a four-year-old program so it could offer $2 million in tax credits to companies that give money to Roman Catholic, Jewish and independent schools across the state.” Meanwhile, the governor “wants to cut funding for public schools to close a ballooning state deficit.” According to Carcieri, his plan is “justified since taxpayers would face greater costs if students in private and religious schools attended public school districts.” But many state educators do not agree with the plan. Rhode Island NEA executive Director Robert Walsh, for instance, pointed out, “In this environment, taking another million dollars from the public schools … he’s really not helping in a tough time. … He’s being awfully charitable with the public’s money while he’s preaching austerity everywhere else.”

Education Minnesota Buys Television Ads To Push For More School Funding.

 

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (2/4, Draper) reports that beginning on Super Bowl Sunday, Education Minnesota — an NEA affiliate — “will take to the airwaves to push for…more money for schools.” Members of Education Minnesota “will be featured in” the television ads. Said union President Tom Dooher at a news conference, “There’s been much speculation about cutting education to solve the budget crisis. … But cutting education is the wrong move at the wrong time. … Now is the time to protect it, reform the way we pay for it and make it our top priority.” He also said that “polls show that Minnesotans don’t want the state to cut education funding and might even be willing to pay more for schools.”

Opinion: School Administrators Qualifications Should Be Examined.

 

William H. Mayes, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Administrators, wrote in an opinion piece for the Jackson (MI) Citizen-Patriot (2/3), “A spokeswoman for the Michigan Education Association told the Huron Daily Tribune this month that when making budget cuts, administration should be one of the first areas examined by school boards.” Mayes pointed out “that school administrators make an impact on students.” They “make decisions” each day that can “keep students safer, push them to achieve more, and measure how well the system is working — for everyone.” Mayes added that he does agree that school boards should examine whether administrators “are well-qualified to lead.” He concludes, “Michigan’s school administrators are choosing to fight for creative solutions that serve children well.”

 

Hands-On Science Lab Program Utilizes Simple, Inexpensive Supplies.

 

The St. Petersburg Times (2/3, Miller) reports on a “new science lab being offered this year to intermediate students at Mary Giella Elementary School.” The “Hands-on” science lessons are made up of “a variety of 45-minute lab activities for students using some rather simple and inexpensive supplies: marbles, golf balls, coffee cans, plastic bowls and containers found around the house.” One teacher oversees the science labs, which take place once a week. In addition to running the lab, that teacher “also works closely with classroom teachers, who help out with activities and offer input on what skills and standards they want covered. Students either get a preview of what they will be learning in the classroom with their teacher, or the lab is a culminating activity for the lesson.”

In the Classroom

 

 

Students Participate In National Groundhog Job Shadow Day.

 

KHTS-AM Santa Clarita, CA (2/2, Rock) reported on area students’ participation “in the 13th annual National Groundhog Job Shadow Day,” in which students “spread across the valley, from Boston Scientific to Sweetwater Veterinary Clinic, rode with Newhall County Water District workers and stood in surgical suites at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital.” The event was organized by the SCV School and Business Alliance, and featured mentors from “dozens of local businesses” who “welcomed the students and gave them first-hand experience in their day-to-day work lives.” Following the job shadowing, “the students and their mentors were treated to lunch at the City of Santa Clarita’s Activities Center. Keynote speaker Jay Thomas, President of Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor spoke about the importance of leadership in the students’ success.”

Students Tour Naval Ship Exhibit. Massachusetts’ Herald-News (2/3, Vital) reports on Fall River students’ participation in the job shadowing event, which for some included “an opportunity to work alongside staff members at Battleship Cove,” the historic naval ship exhibit. The students met with the group sales manager, a mechanic, and the “first lieutenant in charge of maintenance operations,” among others. “Battleship Cove partnered with Taunton Area School to Career Inc., a nonprofit educational service agency that organizes Groundhog Job Shadow Day in southeastern Massachusetts.”

Pre-Engineering Students Visit Nuclear Plant, Manufacturing Facilities. The Dothan (AL) Eagle (2/2, Cook) reported on students from Dothan Technology Center’s pre-engineering academy, who “visited Farley Nuclear Plant, the Sony plant, the Michelin plant, Polyengineering and SAMC” as part of a recent job shadowing event. “Terry Scott, pre-engineering academy coordinator, said jobs in the fields covered by the pre-engineering academy will be in high demand over the next 10 years.” He added that “these obs also tend to be a little more resistant to economic downturn than other professions.”

Students Gain Broadcasting Experience. WACH-TV Columbia, SC (2/2, Harris) reported that “hundreds of students in South Carolina got an in depth look at today’s job market” through their participation in the 13th Annual National Job Shadow Day, which included visits relating to local television. Bette Jamison, Coordinator of ITV South Carolina Department of Education said, “We’re actually telling them about our jobs, and really we multi-task a lot so we show them how we are the producer or director on different projects.”

Close Relationship Seen Between Job Shadowing And Career Choices. The New Bern (NC) Sun Journal (2/3, Oleniacz) reports on National Groundhog Job Shadow Day, which was held yesterday, where area high schoolers shadowed professionals “in fields ranging from law to medicine to law enforcement.” Paula Hodge, New Bern High’s career development coordinator, said past events have been “amazing; I’d say 80 percent of the students end up focusing on the profession they shadow in.” Hodge noted, “They stay in touch with the people they shadow. They hear the story of how the person they’re shadowing got to where they got — it’s inspiring!” The article goes on to describe the experiences of students who shadowed various workers at CarolinaEast Medical Center.

Student Energy Project Heading To Mars Desert Research Station For Testing.

 

The Naples (FL) Daily News (2/3, Albers) reports a team from Golden Gate High School were “winners” in Space Florida’s Mars Experiment Design Competition for Mission Operations. “The Golden Gate High School experiment, ‘How to Produce Energy,’ will ‘help NASA conserve and produce energy without the use of fossil fuels or gasoline,’” said freshman Fredy Molina. A version of the experiment, one of three selected, will now be tested at the Mars Desert Research Station this March. “NASA personnel will transmit scientific results obtained from the experiments to the three winning teams. During these transmissions, each of the winning teams will have an opportunity to interact directly with NASA engineers.”

More Texas High School Students Taking Classes On College Campuses.

 

The Dallas Morning News (2/3, Unmuth) reports that most of the students who graduated last year from Richland Collegiate High School, on the campus of Richland College in Dallas “not only obtained their high school diploma, but also associate degrees.” According to the Morning News, “A plethora of dual-credit courses are now available in Texas high schools. But more students are actually taking courses on college campuses, working beside older peers.”

Study Finds Abstinence-Focused Programs Are Effective.

 

The Washington Post (2/2, Stein) reported, “Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday.” The study found that “only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years,” while “nearly half of the students who attended other classes, including ones that combined information about abstinence and contraception, became sexually active.”

CNN (2/3, Hayes) reports that “the study did not impart any moral aspects to delaying the onset of intercourse, such as portraying sex in a negative light.” It also did not ask students during “the abstinence lesson…to delay intercourse until marriage — only until they are ready.” It focused on “662 African-American sixth- and seventh-graders recruited from four public middle schools that serve low-income communities in an unidentified city in the northeastern United States.” The students “were recruited between September 2001 and March 2002.” The AP (2/2, Tanner) reported, “Advocacy groups favoring traditional abstinence-only programs praised the study and said it shows that the Obama administration’s move away from funding these programs is misguided.”

Law & Policy

 

 

Obama Administration Seeking To Eliminate “Adequate Yearly Progress” Benchmark.

 

The Washington Post (2/2, Anderson, 684K) reports, “As legions of schools nationwide fall short of academic targets, the Obama administration proposed Monday to toss out” the NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress “pass-fail measure that for 15 years has been the bedrock of the school accountability system and replace it with an index that would reward educators who prepare students for college and careers.” Duncan “credited” NCLB “for exposing achievement gaps but said it has focused too much on reading and math and unfairly labeled many schools.”

Globe Calls Backing Away From AYP Mandates A “Mistake.” The Boston Globe (2/3) editorializes that the Obama administration “is retreating from a deadline to bring every child in 98,000 public schools to academic proficiency by 2014. What was seen as an attainable goal in the Bush years is now a ‘utopian goal,’ according to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.” Yet, according to the Globe, “backing away from the goal that all students achieve proficiency on their state exams is a mistake in a field where nothing short of high-stakes testing grabs the attention of students, parents, teachers, and school administrators.”

Facilities

 

 

School In Port-Au-Prince Withstands Earthquake.

 

The Los Angeles Times (2/2, Landsberg) reports, “Monday was the first day that schools in Haiti could reopen after the earthquake, which was centered near the capital, Port-au-Prince.” Many schools throughout the country “were not directly affected.” But in Port-Au-Prince, between 70 and 80 percent of school buildings “were damaged or destroyed” by the earthquake, and schools are not expected to open until March, if they “can find a safe place to hold classes.” The Times notes, however, that the Plein Soleil elementary school for boys, “designed by two Haitian architects who relied on internationally accepted building codes…was built with both strength and flexibility in mind, the better to withstand Haiti’s frequent hurricanes, and, as it turns out, an earthquake.” Plein Soleil “rode out the January quake with only a few hairline cracks in its concrete floor.” Even though “the Haitian government had said that no schools in Port-au-Prince could reopen,” the school “got the go-ahead” from the Haitian government.

School Finance

 

 

Obama Proposes $1 Billion Increase In STEM Education Funding For 2011.

 

InformationWeek (2/3, Hoover) reports that President Obama’s “proposed 2011 budget includes significant increases in funding for science and math education.” His budget proposal includes a nearly 40 percent increase from 2010 — $1 billion — in “K-12 science, technology, engineering and math education funding.” That would be “a total of $3.7 billion in STEM education funding overall.” In addition, Obama seeks to “make $500 million available through the Department of Education’s ‘Investing in Innovation’ Fund, which would allow schools to make technology-related investments to ‘infuse educational technology across a broad range of programs in order to improve teaching and learning.’” Information Week points out, “These funds appear to take the place of the Enhancing Education Through Technology fund, which receives no money in next year’s proposed budget.”

New York Public Schools May Not Recover From Proposed Budget Cuts, Commissioner Warns.

 

The AP (2/3, Gormley) reports that New York state Education Commissioner David Steiner “told lawmakers Tuesday that if Gov. David Paterson’s proposed cuts in education funding go through, the public schools may never fully recover.” Paterson has proposed “cutting school aid by $1.1 billion.” But at the budget hearing Tuesday, the state Legislature “sought to build support for stopping most or all of Paterson’s cuts, and adding aid.” Said Steiner, “Each year the formula is frozen, it adds to the eventual cost of restoring it once the economy turns around.” School aid is currently “just over $20 billion a year.”

Also in the News

 

Duncan Apologizes For Hurricane Katrina Comments.

 

The Washington Post (2/2, Anderson) reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “apologized Tuesday for asserting that Hurricane Katrina was ‘the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans,’ calling the remark ‘a dumb thing to say.’” Duncan’s “apology on the MSNBC show ‘Morning Joe’ came nearly four days after his Katrina comment began circulating in the blogosphere and two days after it aired on another cable television channel.” According to the Post, Duncan told MSNBC that he was attempting to highlight improved education outcomes in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit but acknowledged that he “said it in a poor way.”

 

Obama Administration Proposes NCLB Overhaul Within 2011 Budget Request.

 

USA Today (2/2, Toppo) reports that the Obama administration “will seek Congress’ help in overhauling a key part of the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind education law,” proposing that “a requirement that states increase the percentage of students meeting standards each year” be eliminated. Instead, President Obama “wants lawmakers to consider rewarding states that show progress toward internationally benchmarked, nationally developed standards.” According to USA Today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan “told reporters the law ‘often does little to reward progress’ of schools that help students achieve – and lets states set standards that are too low to allow U.S. children to get into college or compete internationally.”

The AP (2/1, Quaid) reported that President Obama is proposing an NCLB overhaul, “replacing the school accountability system that has slapped a failing label on more than a third of schools, including many that made big gains but just missed their annual targets.” According to the AP, President Obama’s budget plan aims to “recognize and reward schools for helping kids make gains, even if they aren’t yet on grade level.”

The Washington Post (2/2, Anderson) reports, “As legions of schools nationwide fall short of academic targets, the Obama administration proposed Monday to toss out the pass-fail measure that for 15 years has been the bedrock of the school accountability system and replace it with an index that would reward educators who prepare students for college and careers.” Duncan “credited” NCLB “for exposing achievement gaps but said it has focused too much on reading and math and unfairly labeled many schools.”

The Christian Science Monitor (2/2, Paulson) reports, “Included in Monday’s 2011 budget proposal were some significant – and controversial – shifts in federal education policy, even though a formal” NCLB reauthorization plan “has yet to be submitted. … The administration would like to replace the annual yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks with new standards based on college and career readiness.” Bloomberg News (2/1) reports that according to NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, “the largest U.S. teachers’ union is ‘very pleased’ with the administration’s planned changes to the law.”

In the Classroom

 

 

Thousands Of Florida Students Opt-Out Of Physical Education Classes.

 

The Orlando Sentinel (2/2, Balona) reports that ever since Florida began allowing students to opt-out of physical education with parental approval, “tens of thousands of Florida children” are giving up “gym classes.” The “physical-education waivers” were introduced last semester. Then, “about 15,000 kids in Central Florida alone decided to skip running laps and playing basketball to take other courses, according to the Florida Department of Education.” Some “fitness advocates” speculate that “one reason kids are skipping gym is that some P.E. programs aren’t as good as they should be.” For instance, some “gym teachers aren’t certified, and the classes are seen as a means of simply letting kids burn off energy.” Other teachers do not use “the newest tools and equipment to pique children’s interest in how their bodies move and how to be healthy, said John Todorovich, chairman of the University of West Florida’s Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science.”

Second Graders Learn About Storytelling In Screenwriting Course.

 

California’s Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (2/2, Leung) reports that this week, second-graders at Coyote Canyon Elementary School in Rancho Cucamonga “are scrutinizing and picking apart the elements of” fairy tales for a screen writing class. Opera Singer Ann Noriel “of Southland Opera, a nonprofit focused on music outreach, is leading a series of children-friendly courses on how to create a musical.” The purpose of the lessons is to “teach music and story writing. … The youngsters learn about setting and plot,” for instance. At the end of all the lessons, students will take “a field trip to the Lewis Family Playhouse” to “watch a production of ‘Cinderella.’”

Ecology Clubs At Rival Los Angeles High Schools Find Common Ground.

 

The Los Angeles Times (1/31, Sahagun) reported that 77 students “from two Los Angeles high schools best known for their rivalries on the athletic field and turf battles in the streets took a hike together in the lush scenery of Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area on Saturday as part of what one described as ‘a compromise for nature.’ The Dorsey and Crenshaw high school students were from ecology clubs that have become such close partners that they are now known as the Dorshaw Eco Club.” According to the Times, this year, “for the first time, the clubs are sharing more than $60,000 in grants from the Sierra Club.”

Anne Frank’s Diary To Remain On Reading List In Virginia District.

 

The Washington Post (2/2, Chandler) reports that Culpeper County, VA schools Superintendent Bobbi Johnson “said Monday that the school system had never formally removed a version of Anne Frank’s diary from classrooms following a parental complaint that some passages were objectionable” due to some sexual content. According to the Post, Director of instruction James Allen “last week told The Washington Post that the definitive edition of the diary would not be used in the future and that the decision was made quickly, without adhering to a formal review policy for instructional materials that prompt complaints.” Johnson “said Monday that the book will remain a part of English classes, although it may be taught at a different grade level.”

Editorial: Keeping Public School Bible Classes Nonreligious Will Be A Major Challenge.

 

Tennessee’s Commercial Appeal (2/1) editorialized that the Tennessee Board of Education “has approved guidelines to teach the Bible in high schools, even though the feeling is the curriculum will be challenged in court as a constitutional violation of separation of church and state. State officials think the guidelines would survive a court challenge because they are a nonsectarian, nonreligious elective academic study.” However, “human nature being what it is, the potential problem arises when an instructor intentionally or unintentionally crosses the line and starts teaching a Bible class as a Sunday school course.”

Parents, Students In Virginia District Fight To Save Music Education From Budget Cuts.

 

The Washington Post (2/2, Chandler) reports, “Toting empty violin and trombone cases, Fairfax County [VA] students appeared at School Board hearings for three days last week to protest potential cuts to the instrumental music program in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. With their parents, teachers and a former music director for the U.S. Air Force Band, they said cuts would be academically, economically and personally detrimental.” According to the Post, “As unprecedented cutbacks in school spending are being proposed across the Washington region, parents…have appealed to cash-strapped state and county officials for funds to protect the high-quality, well-rounded education they expect for their children.

Study Finds Abstinence-Only Education As Effective As Other Forms Of Sex Education.

 

WebMD (2/1, Boyles) reported that a new study led by John B. Jemmott III, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania found “an abstinence-only program to be as effective as safe-sex education or a combination approach and more effective than nothing at all for delaying the onset of sexual activity in preteens and young teens.” The study involved sixth and seventh grade African-American students. “Two years after attending single-day sessions that focused on abstinence, safer sex, or both, about a third of the” students “who took part in the study reported having had sex.” Meanwhile, “about half of the students who took part in a day-long health program in which sex was not discussed reported being sexually active two years later.” WebMD notes that “the Obama administration eliminated federal funding for” abstinence-only education programs last spring. National Abstinence Education Association Director Valerie Huber said that “she hopes the new research will lead the administration to rethink the move.”

Elementary School Invites Parents To Sit-In On Classes.

 

Massachusetts’ Herald News (2/2, Vital) reports that Bring Your Parents to School Day, a “monthly program” at Alfred S. Letourneau Elementary School in Fall River “allows parents to sit in on their children’s classes,” giving “them first-hand exposure to the lessons…being taught” to students. Times for the sit-in lessons “are staggered so that each month, the parents will get to see a different subject area covered.” Fifth-Grade Teacher Lesley Froment said that in a typical month, about 12 parents sit in on one of her lessons.

On the Job

 

Op-Ed: Teacher Licensing Rules In Maryland Hamper Efforts To Attract Top Teachers.

 

Abell Foundation President Robert C. Embry Jr. wrote in an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun (2/1), “While most proposals to improve public education are debatable, on one point there is universal agreement: A high-quality teacher offers a sure path to improving student achievement.” However, “Maryland’s teacher licensing rules remain among the most cumbersome in the nation,” hampering the state’s ability to attract the best teachers. Embry added, “Revising the Resident Teachers Certificate process and the teacher licensing process overall would also position Maryland as more competitive for federal Race to the Top funding aimed at improving teacher quality.”

Law & Policy

 

 

Bill Would Force Virginia Districts To Put 65 Percent Of Budgets Toward Instructional Spending.

 

The Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch (2/1, Meola) reported that a bill approved by the Virginia House of Delegates on Monday would require state districts to use “65 percent of their operating budgets [for] instructional spending,” although the bill does not define instructional spending. The state Board of Education “would use a lengthy public input process to develop a definition.” Under the bill, school districts would have to “report annually to the Board of Education the percentage of their operating budgets allocated to instructional spending.” Districts that do not “meet the 65 percent threshold…would have to come up with a plan to increase the expenditure by .5 percent the next fiscal year.”

School Finance

 

 

Students Leading School Levy Campaign In Washington State District.

 

The Tacoma (WA) News Tribune (2/1, Maynard) reported that high school seniors Riley Germanis and Charlene Yamasaki are leading a “campaign to pass a $21.2 million technology levy on Feb. 9.” Germanis and Yamasaki are “co-chairs of Students for Federal Way Schools. It’s a branch of Citizens for Federal Way Schools, the nonprofit group that usually runs campaigns to pass school levies in the South King County [WA] district.” According to the News Tribune, “This year, the adult group turned to students Germanis and Yamasaki to lead the campaign — with the adults’ help.”

Atlanta Public Schools Receive $10 Million Grant For Teacher Recruitment, Training.

 

The Atlanta Business Chronicle (2/2) reports that Atlanta Public Schools has received a “three-year, $10 million grant” from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “to recruit and train top teachers.” The money will go toward the district’s “10-year-old ‘Effective Teacher in Every Classroom (ETEC)’ initiative, which has a stated goal of recruiting, preparing, placing and supporting effective instructors in every district.” ETEC “has developed a teacher evaluation system based on student achievement, and the system is working to improve the abilities of principals to monitor teacher effectiveness.”

NEA in the News

 

 

Indiana Teachers, NEA Leaders Will Meet With Lawmakers To Discuss Education Funding.

 

WSBT-TV South Bend, IN (2/2) reports that “a dozen teachers from” South Bend and NEA members are “planning a trip to Indianapolis” on Tuesday to “to work with state legislators to increase cash flows at area schools.” NEA South Bend Vice President Linda Lucy said of the meeting, “It’s not so much a risk but a need to go and help do whatever we can to help education be stronger.” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) “and leaders from several school corporations have been vocal about funding cuts to public education.” But Lucy points out, “Cuts are not going to help us go where we need to go to help” educate children.

 

Obama Administration Proposing “Sweeping Overhaul” Of NCLB.

 

The New York Times (2/1, A1, Dillon) reports on its front page that the Obama administration “is proposing a sweeping overhaul” of NCLB “and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.” However, the Times adds that the “administration is not planning to abandon the law’s commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.” The Times notes that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “foreshadowed the elimination of the 2014 deadline in a September speech, referring to it as a ‘utopian goal,’ and administration officials have since made clear that they want the deadline eliminated.”

School Board Leaders In Arizona Raise “Race To The Top” Concerns. The Arizona Republic (1/31, Gersema) reported that school board leaders in Arizona “fear the Obama administration’s ‘Race to the Top’ school-reform program will diminish local control over schools, while several teachers worry it will lead to more student testing, evaluation tools and federal requirements crafted without their input.” According to the Republic, “Roughly 60 percent of Arizona school districts and charter-school officials who serve more than 80 percent of the state’s students backed the application by signing a memorandum of understanding. Superintendents overwhelmingly supported it, but many governing-board presidents and teachers’ union representatives were cautious.”

In the Classroom

 

 

Class Size Limit Prompts Mid-Year Shuffling Of Students In North Carolina County.

 

North Carolina’s News & Observer (1/30, Hui) reported, “Elementary school students scattered across Wake County [NC] will be saying goodbye to their teachers and classmates as they change classes in the middle of the school year to comply with state class size limits.” According to the News & Observer, the North Carolina Board of Education “said no in December to Wake’s request to allow 329 kindergarten through third-grade classes to have more than the state limit of 24 students. … The changes are drawing protests from parents, even those whose children aren’t being moved.”

Students Throughout South Jersey Raising Money For Haiti.

 

New Jersey’s Courier Post (1/30, Rothschild) reported that each month, students at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School in Cherry Hill, NJ, attend a character education assembly. “For February, the character trait being emphasized at Kilmer is compassion and the focus is ‘Hope for Haiti.’” In addition to raising money to help quake survivors, student at Kilmer “study how earthquakes occur in science and learn about physical and occupational therapists in health.” The Courier Post points out that throughout South Jersey, “students have been energized to help Haiti by collecting funds and supplies.” At DeMasi Middle school in Evesham, for instance, “students collected crutches, canes and walkers and forwarded them to a local hospital which will send them to Haiti.”

Community Learning Center Grants Fund After School Programs In Florida Counties.

 

The Florida Times-Union (1/30, Palka) reported that in Florida, “Putnam, Baker, Duval and St. Johns counties have all received a total of $3.7 million in 21st Century Community Learning Center grants this year. They are administered by the state, and some of the districts have received them in previous years.” According to the Times-Union, “In Duval County, the grants have helped the school district and Jacksonville Children’s Commission fund Team Up after-school programs at various schools.”

On the Job

 

 

Training Aims To Help Science Teachers Engage Students In Higher-Level Thinking.

 

The St. Petersburg Times (1/30, Solochek) reported that “University of Central Florida aerospace engineering associate professor” Larry Chew “spent two days this week at John Long Middle School training science teachers how to better engage their students in their daily lessons.” For one lesson, he used a game involving “straws, markers and pingpong balls” as an introduction for “instruction on Newton’s First Law of Motion, which states that an object generally keeps doing what it has been doing — moving or standing still — unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” Long “science teachers decided to bring in Chew to help them” teach students “higher-level thinking concepts.” As part of the training, Chew also “modeled how to get the students talking in a controlled environment, where he focused the learning but didn’t dominate.”

Nevada District Responds To Declining AP Pass Rate With Teacher Training Requirement.

 

The Las Vegas Sun (1/31, Richmond) reported that Nevada’s Clark County school district has “sold thousands of students and their families on the value of college prep classes,” and now “district officials are concerned that some of the most challenging classes have become so crowded, the quality of the instruction may be suffering.” Since 2002, the number of students taking AP classes “has nearly tripled…from 5,675 seats to 16,669 this year.” Now, some classes have up to 45 students, “because there is no cap on classroom enrollment.” Meanwhile, the number of students passing these tests has been on the decline. “In 2009, the pass rate was 43.8 percent, down from 57.8 percent in 2002.” In response to the declining pass rate, the Clark County school district next school year will begin requiring “AP teachers to attend a summer institute at least every three years, and the district plans to offer weekend refresher sessions.”

Law & Policy

 

 

Bill Would Allow Utah Districts To Extend Teachers’ Provisional Status.

 

The Salt Lake Tribune (1/30, Schencker) reported that on Friday the Utah State House also passed a bill that “would allow districts to extend” teachers’ “provisional status for up to two more years for a total of five years.” Current law requires that teachers remain “on provisional status for their first three years, meaning they can be fired at the end of the school year for any reason without explanation.”

Bill Would Require Utah School Employees To Get Background Checks At Own Expense. The Salt Lake Tribune (1/30, Schencker) reported that the Utah State House passed HB81 on Friday, which requires “school employees and volunteers to undergo background checks at their own expense.” Currently, teachers must “undergo background checks every time they renew their teaching licenses” and “non-licensed school employees” also must “undergo periodic checks.” HB81 “extends those checks to include volunteers who are ‘given significant unsupervised access to a student.’”

Des Moines, Iowa Considering Saturday School To Make Up Snow Days.

 

The AP (1/31, Welte) reported that due to heavy snow, school district officials in Des Moines, IA “have had to cancel classes enough times this academic year that they’re considering holding classes on Saturdays and cutting into spring break to avoid pushing the school year into mid-June. With six snow days already and two months of winter ahead, the district has set up an online poll through Monday to help it make some decisions.”

Duncan Says Katrina “Best Thing That Happened” To New Orleans Education.

 

The Washington Post (1/30, Anderson) reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “called Hurricane Katrina ‘the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans’ because it forced the community to take steps to improve low-performing public schools, according to excerpts from a television interview made public Friday.” In the interview, scheduled to air Sunday on TV One, Duncan said, “I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, and this is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that ‘we have to do better.”

In a Washington Post (1/30, 684K) op-ed, Teach for America Executive Vice President of Public Affairs Kevin Huffman writes, “Duncan has been getting flak this week” for his words, “but he’s right to praise the enormous progress there since 2005. New Orleans schools have seen significant growth in student achievement levels over the past three years, and the state has real lessons to apply to other struggling schools. … For systemic change, though, local political leaders need to understand the difference between talk and action on education reform. Too many states are attempting to Amble to the Top with their reform plans.”

Safety & Security

 

 

Education Stakeholders Taking Steps To Prevent Head Injuries Among Athletes.

 

The AP (1/31, Rieken) reported, “The House Judiciary Committee will host a forum on head injuries in high school and college football Monday in Houston, following two earlier hearings on the problem in the NFL. The NCAA has endorsed the idea of requiring athletes to be cleared by medical personnel before returning to competition and at least six states are considering measures that would toughen restrictions on athletes returning to play after head injuries.” The AP added, “Texas, with its deep devotion to high school football, is one of only three states with a law dealing with the treatment and prevention of head injuries in high school sports, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.”

Also in the News

 

Some Schools In Haiti Will Reopen On Monday For The First Time Since Jan 12.

 

The Wall Street Journal (1/ 30, Chon) reported that while some schools in Haiti will open again on Monday for the first time since an earthquake hit the island on Jan 12, most schools in Port-Au-Prince will not be open. The UN and Haiti’s education ministry will begin looking at the condition of schools in the capital city and other places severely affected by the quake on Monday.

Military Officials In Hawaii Commission Research On Attitudes Toward State’s Public Education.

 

The AP (2/1) reports that Hawaii’s “decision in October to shrink the school year by 10 percent, giving it the fewest number of instructional days in the nation at 163, is adding to the dismal reputation Hawaii’s public schools have among servicemen and women.” According to the AP, “commanders are so concerned about the overall health of isle schools that the military is paying researchers from Johns Hopkins University $1.5 million to study military attitudes toward Hawaii public education over a three year period to see if there’s any concrete data to support the unhappy anecdotes.” Researchers “will track families who have received assignments to Hawaii, those who are currently here and those who have left the islands” and analyze “whether the education their children received in Hawaii put them at a disadvantage or prepared them well for their next school.”

NEA in the News

 

 

Educators Discuss Issues Affecting Teachers At NEA Delegation Assembly.

 

KTUU-TV Anchorage(1/30, Kim) reported that this weekend “about 400 people” came to the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage, AK, “for the National Education Association’s 49th annual delegation assembly.” At the meeting, they discussed issues such as “class size, teacher retention, and rural housing for teachers.” Teacher Megan Larson pointed out, “In Alaska, we have certain challenges that are not found in other states. … So we may have a population where you have 10 kids and they’re coming from a huge region, and you have one teacher that’s to teach all of the different grade levels.”

 

Report: State Policies Protect Ineffective Teachers.

 

The AP (1/28, Turner) reported, “Most states are holding tight to policies that protect incompetent teachers and poor training programs, shortchanging educators and their students before new teachers even step into the classroom, according to a new” study from the National Council on Teacher Quality. The study “paints a grim picture of how states handle everything from pay to discipline for public school teachers. States are using ‘broken, outdated and inflexible’ policies that ultimately hurt how children learn, according to the report.”

The Denver Post (1/29, McGhee) reports that the report finds Colorado “regulations governing teachers fail to ensure that all students have effective teachers.” The report “gave the state an overall grade of D-plus in its 2009 review of state laws, rules and regulations governing the teaching profession.” The “organization found that Colorado’s teacher policies largely work against the nation’s goal of improving teacher quality at a time when Race to the Top, a $4.5 billion federal grant competition has put unprecedented focus on education reform and teacher quality.”

Dave Murray writes in a column for the Grand Rapids (MI) Press (1/29) that Michigan received a “grade of D-, saying that our state fails to ensure that all students will have effective, well prepared teachers. That seemed kind of harsh, since I know Michigan has some great college education programs, and it’s rare that I run into an ineffective teacher.” However, the “group said the state has some bright spots, including ‘requiring induction for all new teachers.’”

In the Classroom

 

 

Preschools In Massachusetts Must Teach Oral Hygiene.

 

The New York Times (1/29, A10, Zezima) reports, “Massachusetts is the first state to add toothbrush time to” the preschool curriculum, “requiring that all children who eat a meal at day care, or attend for more than four hours, brush their teeth during class and be educated about oral health.” According to the state’s Early Education Commissioner Sherri Killins, “parents who feel strongly about the regulation can opt out.”

Virginia District Stops Assigning 50th Anniversary Edition Of Anne Frank’s Diary.

 

The Washington Post (1/29, Chandler) reports that public school officials in Culpeper, VA, “have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank’s diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes.” The 50th anniversary addition of Anne Frank’s diary, titled, “The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition,” contains “passages previously excluded from the widely read original edition, first published…in 1947.” Some of those “passages detail [Anne's] emerging sexual desires” and “unflattering descriptions of her mother and other people living together.” Culpeper’s director of instruction, James Allen, said, “The school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints about instructional materials,” which requires that complaints be “submitted in writing and for a review committee to research the materials and deliberate.” This decision, however, was “made quickly by at least one school administrator.”

Congresswoman Named “Principal For A Day” At Elementary School In Maryland.

 

Maryland’s Gazette (1/28, Garner) reported that Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-MD) was named “Principal for a Day” at Glassmanor Elementary School in Oxon Hill, MD, last week. “Edwards didn’t attend any staff meetings or hand out hall passes,” still, school “administrators urged students to take the opportunity of her visit to learn more about the political process.” Edwards spoke to the students at an assembly, “giving the students a brief lesson on politics and explaining the duties of the political leaders who serve Prince George’s County.” During her hour-long appearance, she answered questions from students, ranging from, “Did you always want to be a politician?” to “whether she would run against Barack Obama for president.”

Biz Town Teaches Students Skills Needed For Adulthood.

 

WFOR-TV Miami (1/28) reported, “Biz Town in Coconut Creek [FL] is a bustling community that comes to life when the students stop by.” The community is “set to imitate real life situations” to help “students learn what its like to run a business, pay employees, and manage a personal budget.” The program is run through Junior Achievement of Broward County, FL, with support from several local business partners, including Bank Atlantic.

Elementary School’s Walk For Water Campaign Helps Supply Clean Water In Haiti.

 

South Carolina’s Upstate Today (1/29) reports that money raised last November by students at Townville Elementary School during the school’s first Walk for Water campaign is now being used to help International Child Care Ministries set up water filters “in strategic places to help provide clean water to the people affected by” Haiti’s Jan 12 earthquake “and in some other areas of the country as well.” The walk was held in conjunction with the organization, “which routinely supplies water filters and other necessities for Haiti, and Fitness Finders, an educational supply company.”

On the Job

 

 

Los Angeles District Reveals New School Report Cards.

 

The Los Angeles Times (1/28, Blume) reported that on Wednesday, Los Angeles public school officials “unveiled a more user-friendly school ‘report card’…that is more focused on information than public relations.” According to the Times, “last year’s report cards…were difficult to read and had not yet incorporated features such as an annual survey of parents, students and school staff.” The new reports include “student proficiency rates for special programs at a school, such as a magnet program,” and at the high school level they include “the percentage of ninth-graders who move to the 10th grade — a key indicator of whether a school is reaching troubled students.” However, they do not show “proficiency rates for a school once students from higher-scoring special programs are removed from the calculation.”

New York City Schools Cut Whole Milk, Eliminate 4.6 Billion Calories.

 

Bloomberg News (1/29, Randall) reports that according to a new report from the CDC, in eliminating whole milk from its cafeterias in 2006, the New York City public school system has “cut 4.6 billion calories and 422 million grams of fat a year from students’ diets.” The study is “the first to measure how banning whole milk affects school nutrition,” adding that “school districts across the country are tweaking their cafeteria offerings and developing programs to get children to eat better and exercise more.” Bloomberg notes that some 21% of New York City students are obese.

Law & Policy

 

 

Bill Banning Abstinence-Only Sex Education Advances In Wisconsin Legislature.

 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1/29, Marley, Bergquist) reports that under a bill passed yesterday by the Wisconsin state senate, “public schools that teach sex education would be required to instruct students about birth control and sexually transmitted disease,” noting that “Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit), a former nurse, said teaching a solely abstinence-based curriculum has resulted in high rates of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. ‘We have done it your way,’ she told Republicans. ‘President (George) Bush spent $1.5 billion on abstinence-only education and it failed — it failed miserably.’ But Republicans said the bill took control away from local school officials.”

The AP (1/4, Bauer) reports also covers the vote, though there is some dissonance between the two articles regarding whether both houses of the legislature have passed the bill. The AP reports that it was the state assembly that passed the bill on Thursday, with the state senate still yet to approve it.

Safety & Security

 

 

Students Hack Into Maryland High School’s Computer System, Alter Grades.

 

The Washington Post (1/29, Birnbaum, Johnson) reports that some students at Churchill High School in Maryland’s Potomac school system “hacked into the school’s computer system and changed class grade…and officials are investigating how widespread the damage might be.” School workers are not yet sure of the “extent of the apparent security breach,” and teachers are “being asked to review their grades for discrepancies.” But, said some sources, “teachers at the school no longer keep separate log books of their grades,” so “it might be difficult to go back and find a student’s original grade.” The Post adds that the hackers “used a computer program to capture passwords from at least one teacher, according to school sources familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.”

Facilities

 

 

Massachusetts Officials To Distribute $215 Million To Fund School Building Projects.

 

The Boston Globe (1/28, Parker) reported that Massachusetts officials “agreed to pay $215 million toward school construction and renovation projects in a dozen communities yesterday, including about $87 million in funding for new high schools in Natick and Tewksbury, which will use existing designs.” According to the Globe, Natick and Tewksbury “are taking advantage of the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s Model School program, which qualifies communities to receive an additional 5 percent in state reimbursements for school construction costs if the school districts use one of two of the authority’s school designs.”

Also in the News

 

 

Haiti Officials Uncertain About When Schools Will Reopen.

 

The New York Times (1/29, A8, Rivera) reports that on Thursday, government officials in Haiti said “they hoped schools would begin reopening Monday, but it was unclear how many schools would be able to open — or how many students would be able to return.” According to one official on the emergency disaster committee, “up to 97 percent of the city’s schools — built to withstand hurricanes, not earthquakes” may have been destroyed, and “the dead within [are] still being counted.”

Kindergarten-Only School In Oregon Wins Over Skeptics.

 

The Oregonian (1/29, Melton) reports, “Five- and 6-year-olds rule at North Powellhurst School — one of three in Oregon that serve only kindergartners.” Students at the school scored “slightly better than their peers in the rest of the district” last year, and once-skeptical parents “now say the all-kindergarten school is helping preserve the magic of childhood.” According to Principal Kate Barker, “teachers don’t have to worry about the bullying by older kids.” However, she added that “those older students aren’t there to model good behavior, either.” So, teachers “must spend more time teaching kids how to keep their hands to themselves and not to chew with their mouths open.”

NEA in the News

 

 

Proposed Virginia Budget Could Eliminate Up To 23,000 Teachers.

 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch (1/28, Meola) reported that under Virginia’s proposed budget for 2010-2012, “public schools could lose as many as 23,000 jobs” according to the Virginia Education Association (VEA), which compared the proposal “to an ‘out of control freight train’ barreling down the tracks.” VEA President Kitty Boitnott that “the quality of instruction in Virginia’s schools will unquestionably plummet” if the proposal is approved. The proposal “put forth by then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine” (D) would eliminate $1.6 billion “from public K-12 education.” Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) now “must make $4 billion in [overall] budget cuts to balance the budget for the 2010-2012 budget.”

 

Obama Seeks Up To $4 Billion More For Education.

 

The Washington Post (1/28, Anderson) reports, “The Obama administration launched an effort Wednesday to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law, with a proposed increase in federal spending.” According to the Post, the administration plans to “reserve $1 billion to fund programs that may emerge through a revision of the 2002 law.” In addition, Obama “is proposing to raise elementary and secondary education spending by $3 billion in the fiscal year that begins in October.” The AP (1/27) reported that also included in the increase is “$1.35 billion for Obama’s Race to the Top competitive grant program.” With that money, “states not awarded money in the first round would get another chance to compete. Local school districts also would be allowed to apply.”

William McKenzie wrote in “The Education Front” blog for the Dallas Morning News (1/27) that in a conference call with reporters, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said amid budget cuts in other areas, “education spending would go up six percent if the president’s 2011 budget is adopted.” McKenzie added, “I’m glad to see him pushing forward with investments here, especially in trying to get more students into college. We can’t let up on this front.”

In the Classroom

 

 

Students Learn To Program “CalcBots” Provided By NASA, NDEP.

 

The Washington Post (1/28, Arias) reports that members of the Takoma Park Middle School Science Club are learning “to program calculator robots donated by NASA” and the National Defense Education Program. The “CalcBots” are TI-84 calculators combined with “small, flat-back carts with two wheels and a jack to connect the TI-84s.” Students can program the robots “by entering an equation or command in the calculator.” A portion of the NDEP’s support pays for weekly visits from “Michael Britt-Crane, a naval mechanical engineer who meets with the club members on Wednesdays to teach them how to use the robots.” He said, “The curriculum is all related to the Mars rover project.” Britt-Crane “explained that for students to complete their ‘missions,’ they must figure out a math equation or approximate measurement within a scenario faced by real NASA and Navy scientists.”

National Trend Seen Towards K-12, Higher Ed Collaboration On STEM Education.

 

Government Technology (1/27, Nichols) reports on “a national trend of collaboration between K-12 and higher education institutions to put more students on track for STEM careers.” These efforts allow schools to “connect across district lines, share resources and develop in-depth programs,” and give students the opportunity “to learn through hands-on activities, project-based assignments and apprenticeships in the field.” Experts say that “many students don’t know enough about the industry to even think about pursuing STEM jobs,” and say they are working to change this through a variety of programs. The article profiles the Hughes STEM High School in Cincinnati which, among other things, has partnered with the University of Cincinnati for STEM learning, “introduces students to the myriad career possibilities a STEM education can help them obtain” and “offers high school/college enrollment programs, co-ops and internships.”

On the Job

 

 

Houston School District Awards $40 Million In Performance Bonuses.

 

The Houston Chronicle (1/27, Mellon) reported that on Wednesday, the Houston Independent School District paid “more than $40 million in performance bonuses” to “teachers and other staff whose students made the biggest academic gains.” The bonuses ranged “from $25 to nearly $25,000,” and were earned by nearly “90 percent of the eligible employees.” The largest bonuses awarded to teachers — $10,890 — were given to two elementary teachers and one middle school teacher. On average, teachers earned $3,606, “while principals pocketed almost twice that. Executive principals and regional superintendents received $16,157 on average.” WKRK-TV Houston (1/27, Cisneros) reported that the bonuses are “part of the much touted ASPIRE program, started three years ago by former HISD Superintendent Dr. Abe Saavedra.” The evaluation “measures teacher, principal, and certain staff member performances in the classroom, tied to TAKS tests scores.”

Florida Education Department To Make Professional Development Resources Available Online.

 

T.H.E. Journal (1/27, Aronowitz) reports that the Florida Department of Education and the School Improvement Network are collaborating on a system that “will allow educators throughout the state 24/7 access to extensive professional development resources through the company’s PD 360 library.” Resources include “follow-up tools, activities, tracking, collaboration, community discussion forums, file sharing, and, most recently, social networking” forums. In addition, “expert-authored content” will also be available through PD 360, including “assessment, scheduling, classroom management, coaching/mentoring…instructional strategies, student motivation, special education, team teaching, and educational leadership.”

Report Says Principals’ Authority To Dismiss Teachers Affects Absences.

 

Education Week (1/27, Aarons) reported that a new working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that Chicago teachers “who didn’t have tenure took fewer days off after principals were given more flexibility to dismiss probationary teachers.” According to Education Week, “The policy reduced teacher absences on an annual basis by about 10 percent and cut the number of teachers with 15 or more annual absences by 20 percent, according to the report by Brian A. Jacob, a professor of education policy and economics at the University of Michigan.” The study “examines the effects of the policy from that year through the 2006-07 school year, and compares teacher-absence rates from before and after the policy was implemented for probationary vs. tenured teachers.”

Law & Policy

 

 

South Carolina Lawmakers Consider Teacher Furlough Days To Save $100 Million.

 

WYFF-TV Greenville, SC (1/28) reports that lawmakers in South Carolina are considering shortening the school year as an option for saving about $100 million. On Tuesday, “the House panel approved a measure that would require teaches statewide take a five-day furlough and that administrators take 10 days.” Tommie Reece, a trustee on the Greenville County Schools Board, suggested that the state “give local legislation a number to cut [and] give school districts the responsibility to” make cuts at the district level.

South Carolina Senate Education Panel Approves Calorie Limits For Food Sold In Schools. The AP (1/28, Adcox) reports that a South Carolina Senate Education panel tentatively approved legislation in Wednesday that would bar “honey buns, greasy pizza and chocolate bars from being sold to students during the school day.” The bill would limit the percentage of “calories from fat” in each cafeteria item to 35, “and 10 percent from saturated fat.” If the bill becomes law, “South Carolina would join at least six other states that require school meals to be healthier than USDA guidelines, according to the School Nutrition Association.” Some lawmakers and “school groups vowed to fight the bill as passed Wednesday.” Sen. Larry Grooms (R), for instance, said that “the state has no business micromanaging what students can buy.” Grooms “said he’s OK with, for example, students selling cookies for Haiti earthquake victims, or PTAs having the occasional brownie fundraiser.”

Appeals Court Rules That Union Leaders’ Emails Are Not Public Record.

 

The AP (1/27) reported, “The Michigan Court of Appeals court has overturned a judge’s ruling that the email messages of Howell teachers’ union leaders are public records under the state Freedom of Information Act.” The decision was made in regards to “a 2007 lawsuit brought by the Howell Education Association against the Howell Public Schools.” According to the court, “the union and district agreed on a ‘friendly’ suit to establish if three union officials’ email traffic was subject to disclosure if it was recorded in the district’s computer system.”

Federal Desegregation Order Faulted For Not Focusing On Teacher Quality.

 

Reporter Mike Thomas wrote in a blog for the Orlando (FL) Sentinel (1/27) that the federal desegregation order for Orange County, FL schools “will not, by itself, improve high-poverty schools. Data shows that there are two things that improve schools. Great administrators and teachers is one. And parental involvement is the other.” The desegregation order “contains nothing that requires Orange to put high-performing teachers in low-performing schools. Instead, it says Orange will do more to hire more minority teachers.” Thomas added, “Race has nothing to do with teacher quality. Putting a less qualified black teacher in with black kids, instead of a more qualified white teacher, will hinder, not help, their education. … The focus needs to be on the quality of the teachers in these schools. And I don’t see that in this order.”

Special Needs

 

Special Education Enrollment, Litigation Have Increased Over Past Two Decades.

 

Pennsylvania’s Patriot-News (1/27, Andren) reported, “Broadening definitions have put more conditions under the special education umbrella and parents’ increasing awareness of their child’s legal rights have contributed to increased special education enrollment and litigation,” according to Lehigh University law and education professor, Perry Zirkel. Special education enrollment, including enrollment in gifted classes, increased from 14.5 percent to 19 percent between 1990 and 2008. Zirkel said that the “increase can be attributed, in part, to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder becoming recognized disorders under federal special education law within that time span.” During that same period, “due process hearings have increased nationally,” and Pennsylvania is among the 10 states with the highest number of special education cases.

School Finance

 

 

Three School Districts In South Carolina Will Get Nearly $40 Million For Reconstruction.

 

The Washington Post (1/27) reported that three school districts in Dillon, SC, “will receive a $4 million grant and a $35.8 million loan to build two schools and renovate two others.” The city’s schools gained national attention in 2008 when President Obama “twice visited Dillon during his campaign for the presidency. He then specifically highlighted the poor conditions at J.V. Martin Junior High during a speech to Congress last February.” The AP (1/28, Kinnard) reports that according to Dillon School District 2 Superintendent Ray Rogers, “some of the money will be used to refurbish existing facilities and build a new early childhood development center. But about $25 million will go toward building a new J.V. Martin Junior High School.”

Also in the News

 

 

Removal Of Dictionaries From Schools Seen As Harmful To Students.

 

Carl Love writes in a column for the Riverside (CA) Press-Enterprise (1/28) that “well-intentioned folks” in the Menifee, CA district blocked elementary school students’ access to dictionaries “after a parent complained about an elementary school kid coming across ‘oral sex’ in a classroom Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. … Tuesday, the district announced the dictionaries would return and an ‘alternate’ dictionary would available.” Love adds that why “do some people in southwest Riverside County continue to think they can shield their kids from everything bad the grown-up world has to offer? … If a dictionary doesn’t support curriculum, what does?”

 

Debate Over Increase In US Teen Pregnancies Centers On Sex Education.

 

The Washington Post (1/26, Stein) reported that according to an analysis conducted by the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, “The pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 — the first jump since 1990.” The issue of teen pregnancy has “triggered intense political debate over sex education, particularly whether the federal government should fund programs that encourage abstinence until marriage or focus on birth control.” Consequently, the report has prompted debate about “the cause of the increase,” with “several experts” blaming it “on sex-education programs that focus on encouraging abstinence” and others saying “the reversal could be due to a variety of factors, including an increase in poverty, an influx of Hispanics and complacency about AIDS.”

In the Classroom

 

 

Texas Rolls Out New Standardized Testing System.

 

The AP (1/27) reported, “Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced Tuesday that the much-maligned Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills will be replaced with the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. The new testing system, which was mandated by the Legislature, will replace the TAKS beginning in the 2011-2012 school year.” The tests are still in development, but are expected to “debut in 2013, according to the Texas Education Agency.”

Some High Schools In Denver Still Offering Wood Shop Classes.

 

The Denver Post (1/26, Meyer) reported that citing budget cuts, school administrators “have been dismantling industrial arts classes like wood shop, welding, and carpentry for two decades.” Meanwhile, schools have increased their “emphasis on the core subjects of reading, writing and mathematics.” But some say that “the nation’s labor force could suffer with the lack of hands-on skills among students — especially as baby boomer plumbers, electricians and carpenters begin to retire in greater numbers.” In Denver, wood shop classes remain in three of “10 traditional high schools and at Career Education Center Middle College of Denver.” At East High School, for instance, wood shop “classes have built acoustic guitars, Stratocaster clones and, this year, most students are crafting heavy metal guitars in the Gothic design of famed manufacturer BC Rich.”

California’s Top Teachers Say Law Hampers Classroom Creativity, According To Study.

 

California’s Press Enterprise (1/26, Straehley) reported, “The best teachers don’t like the effects of the No Child Left Behind act, saying it hampers creativity in the classroom and makes it harder to teach students to love learning,” according to a UC Riverside study published in Policy Matters today. Researchers “surveyed 740 national board certified teachers in California” and “found that 84 percent reported overall unfavorable attitudes about the” law. Many teachers said that “too much class time is devoted to teaching what’s on the state tests, and there’s little time left for creative and fun lessons.” Titled, “Does the No Child Left Behind Act Help or Hinder K-12 Education,” the reports also says that “teachers did see value in the focus and high expectations set by the act, but” did not see NCLB as helping students reach those standards.

On the Job

 

 

Leader Of DC Schools Explains Claims About Laid-Off Teachers.

 

The Washington Post (1/27, Anderson) reports that in a letter to the DC Council, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said, regarding her comments “about laid-off teachers” published in the magazine Fast Company, that “only one of the 266 employees the school system dismissed last fall had been accused of sexual misconduct.” She also explained that “six of the laid-off employees had been suspended for using corporal punishment and two for being absent without leave ‘on multiple occasions.’” Rhee “declined to apologize for telling the magazine “that some of the teachers laid off in October’s budget cuts ‘had sex with children,’ hit them or were chronically absent without authorization.”

Rhee Urged To Be More Apologetic. Jay Mathews wrote in a “Class Struggle” blog for the Washington Post (1/26), “I think Rhee needs to be more apologetic. Her comments were over the line.” Mathews writes that he fears “any political battle over this might get bad enough to get her fired, or more likely convince her to leave,” adding, “I think that would have terrible consequences for D.C. schools.”

US Space Foundation Pilots PreK-Second Grade Teacher Training.

 

The Colorado Springs Gazette (1/27, McMillin) reports that for the “a new PreK-2 teacher training program piloted this week in Colorado Springs by the U.S. Space Foundation,” several “educators spent a couple of days this week engaged in such activities as building robotic arms out of tongue depressors and simple circuits that set off flashing UFO balls.” The teachers will take the lessons they learned “back to classrooms where they teach preschool, kindergarten and first and second grade and see if they can start a new generation on the path to science literacy,” the Colorado Springs Gazette adds.

Law & Policy

 

 

South Carolina Adopts New School Grading Scale.

 

The Greenville News (1/26, Barnett) reported that South Carolina’s Education Oversight Committee has “approved a new grading scale that widens the level schools have to reach to make Excellent and lowers the range for schools on the bottom end of the scale.” Committee Executive Director Jo Anne Anderson said that “the new criteria were put in place to go along with a new standardized test the state is using” called the Palmetto Achievement Challenge. “Using a simulation based on the 2009 PASS scores, 14.7 percent of the state’s elementary and middle schools would rate Excellent, with 15.8 percent rating Good, 47.3 percent rating Average, 15.9 percent Below Average, and 6.2 percent At Risk” with the new scale.

Review Committee Authorizes Fourth, Fifth Graders’ Use Of Alternative Dictionaries.

 

California’s Southwest Riverside News Network (1/26, Arballo) reported that students at Oak Meadows Elementary School in the Menifee Union School District “will have the option of using an alternative dictionary rather than one that was temporarily removed from the classroom because of language a parent found objectionable.” The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition and the McGraw-Hill School Dictionary have been approved by a review committee for use by fourth and fifth graders at the school. However, the McGraw Hill Dictionary requires parental consent. Southwest Riverside News Network notes that Menifee “had been at the center of a growing controversy since word of the dictionary’s removal became public.” A district spokeswoman “said she had been busy fielding many media calls and that some had wrongly believed the district had removed all dictionaries from classrooms.”

Op-Ed: Education Reform Efforts Should Focus On Bolstering Veteran Teachers’ Skills.

 

Illinois Institute of Technology science professor Leon Lederman writes in an op-ed for Education Week (1/27), “While many in government, nonprofits, and the foundation world have focused their reform ideas on attracting new blood to the teaching profession,” the Illinois Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science “experience shows that working teachers, including the most senior classroom veterans, are eager to learn new strategies to help their students master the math and science they will need to succeed in further education and in life.” According to Lederman, “With modeling and in-class support, working teachers can successfully change their instructional practices. Their classrooms can become more open to the inquiry and hands-on experimentation that breed true scientific thought and understanding.”

School Finance

 

Teachers In Modesto, California, Brainstorm Ways For District To Cut Budget.

 

The Modesto Bee (1/26, Hatfield) reported, “About 120 people — mostly teachers and staff — broke into small groups Monday night to hash out how the Modesto City Schools District can cut $25 million in spending for the next school year.” The groups spent about 45 minutes “brainstorming…then voiced their concerns during an open-microphone session.” Suggestions included “saving programs such as AVID, music, arts and sports and…chopping spending on drug-sniffing dogs, summer school and administrative tasks.” School trustees acknowledged, however, that with “as many as 75 percent of the participants” working “for the school district,” the input may be “skewed.”

Also in the News

 

 

Elementary Teachers In Toronto Say Curriculum Requirements Are “Unrealistic”.

 

The Toronto Sun (1/27, Lem) reports that according to a report by the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, “Toronto elementary teachers say they’re overworked” and “bogged down by administrative matters and unrealistic curriculum requirements, which hinder their ability to teach.” The report is based on interviews with 81 teachers, and “found that while teachers are satisfied with the opportunity to work with children and colleagues in a positive, wider school community, and the salary and benefits of the job, there are a number of issues they’re not happy with.” For instance, several teachers said that there are not enough “resources available” at their schools “to serve the growing number of students with special needs.” They also “said they’re obliged to give undue priority to forcing information on students and teaching too quickly under unreasonable pressure.”

Study: Childhood Bullying Can Lead To Health Problems In Later Life.

 

MSNBC (1/26, Carroll) reported that even though some adults “can sometimes find a positive outcome to the bullying they endured as children, there is now mounting evidence that many are left with scars – in terms of poorer mental and physical health – that can last a lifetime. A study just published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry found that adults who were bullied as children were more likely than others to suffer from depression and anxiety, as well as a host of physical ills, including fatigue, pain and a greater susceptibility to colds.” According to MSNBC, “No one knows exactly how bullying might lead to future physical health problems, says the study’s lead author, Dr. Stephen Allison, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at Flinders University of South Australia. But, he adds, scientists suspect that the daily stress of being bullied can translate into long-term damage to your body.”

NEA in the News

 

 

NEA Did Not File Brief Against Limits On Union Political Speech.

 

Education Week (1/27) reports that “the restrictions on political communications” in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 “applied not just to corporations, but to labor unions as well.” But most teachers unions’ did not join the AFL-CIO and “many business and conservative groups in seeking to overturn the restrictions.” The NEA, for instance, “declined to file a brief” against “limits on union political speech.” The Supreme court on Jan. 21 “overturned limits on spending by corporations and unions on political communications around election time.” Following the decision, the NEA released a statement, saying, “Corporations will be able to inject enormous amounts of money into the political arena.”

 

More US Schools Offering Chinese, Dropping Other Foreign Languages.

 

The New York Times (1/21, A18, Dillon) reports, “Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade,” according to survey conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics. However, “another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.” According to the Times, “No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government’s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.”

In the Classroom

 

 

Flat Stanley Pen-Pal Project Helps Students Learn Geography.

 

Pennsylvania’s Times-Tribune (1/20, Hall) reported that through a unique pen-pal program taking place in Susan Mancus’ class at Frances Willard Elementary School in Scranton, PA. “The project is based on the 1964 children’s book “Flat Stanley,” in which [a] boy is flattened by a bulletin board but then realizes he can visit friends and relatives by mailing himself in an envelope.” Mancus’ students sent “Flat Stanleys” to relatives and family friends. “When a Stanley was returned, the students learned about where he had visited, calculated how many miles he traveled and then wrote about the experience.”

Wilkes University Science Professors Teach Fourth Graders.

 

Pennsylvania’s Times Leader (1/20, Seder) reported that this week, fourth graders “from the State Street Elementary School in the Wyoming Valley West School District” participated in a program at Wilkes University in which they learned science lessons taught by university professor Jeffrey Stratford “and a half-dozen other professors.” Debra Chapman, “a biology professor who started the program” eight years ago, said the program offers “the equipment and personnel you don’t find in an elementary school.” The project this week “included [an] owl pellet observation, a crime scene investigation exercise, testing food samples for simple sugars, starch, fat and proteins and finding out the effects of exercise on heart rates.”

Law & Policy

 

 

Florida Public School Official Says High School Curriculum Standards Are “Too Low.”

 

The Tampa Tribune (1/21, Whittenburg) reports that according to Florida Chancellor of K-12 public schools Frances Haithcock, the state “satisfying [the state's] graduation requirements — but not exceeding them — prepares high school students for …remedial coursework at a community college.” Said Haithcock, “We are not transparent to our parents about what a diploma in Florida means.” He asserted that “Florida’s math and science standards in particular are too vague and too low.” Of the four required high school math courses, “the most challenging course is Algebra I,” said the chancellor, adding, “There are science courses — three of them — not defined. That is unacceptable.” The Tampa Tribune notes, however, that state lawmakers are in the process of revising the standards to make them more challenging for students.

Arizona Releases Copy Of Race To The Top Application.

 

The Arizona Republic (1/20, Kossan) reported, “In an effort to win a share of the largest federal education grant ever awarded, Arizona is offering, among other things, to base up to 50 percent of a teacher’s job evaluation on his or her students’ academic progress each year.” Also, the state “to shut down more chronically failing schools and to expand its data system so researchers can track each student’s progress from preschool through college.” These were proposals were among many submitted by the state for “the Obama administration’s $4 billion Race to the Top grant.” On Tuesday, “Gov. Jan Brewer’s office released a copy of the 300-page application.” Chuch Essigs of Arizona ASBO said that “when schools look at the Race to the Top grant,” they’ll see that they will “have to do most of it anyway, so why not get the extra money to do it.” The Arizona Republic lists Some “key proposals” included in the application.

Colorado Promises To Adopt Teacher Merit Pay. The AP (1/20, Slevin) reported that amid a push for Race to the Top funds, Colorado “vowed Tuesday to expand merit pay for teachers, change how educators are evaluated, and hire more Teach for America national service recruits as it tries to win $377 million in federal funding for schools.” Colorado’s Race to the Top bid “was backed by more than two-thirds of Colorado’s public school districts, which account for 94 percent of its 802,000 kindergarten through 12th grade students, along with the teachers union.”

Education Reform Seen As Benefitting From Results Of Massachusetts Senate Race.

 

The AP (1/21, Woodward) reports that education reform may benefit from the results of the Massachusetts Senate race, which left Democrat lawmakers one Senator short of “the necessary 60 votes” needed to pass legislation. “Congress is overdue to rewrite the No Child Left Behind education law, and Obama shares a number of goals in this area with Republican lawmakers,” the AP says. Meanwhile, labor unions are seen as being at a disadvantage by the new distribution of Republican versus Democrat Senators. “Just last week, unions worked out a deal with the White House to soften the impact of taxes on union health plans that would help pay for health care reform. Whether that deal can survive is now in question.”

Testing Of ESL Students Under No Child Left Behind Seen As Beneficial.

 

New Hampshire’s Union Leader (1/20) editorializes that Manchester “Mayor Ted Gatsas and Superintendent Tom Brennan wrote to the state Education Department last week asking that the ‘English as a Second Language’ (ESL) students be exempted from state testing for two years,” saying, “We believe the requirement to include immigrant/refugee students in the NECAP testing process as it is currently designed to be an unrealistic expectation.” The Union Leader asserted, however, “NCLB is full of unrealistic expectations.” Still, it added, “the kids still must be tested. NCLB mandates testing for ESL and special-needs kids because districts used to pad test scores by excluding them.” Schools must educate “all kids, not just the advanced ones.” If ESL students are not tested, the Union Leader says, “They would get left behind and never catch up.” It is up to the city “to figure out how to educate these children,” it concludes.

Safety & Security

 

 

Report Finds Numerous Safety Violations At Manhattan Schools.

 

The New York Times (1/21, A32, Rivera) reports, “More than one third of Manhattan’s public school buildings have hazardous code violations, including many that have gone unresolved for years, threatening the safety of children and teachers, according to a report by the Manhattan borough president’s office.” According to the Times, the report, scheduled for release Thursday, “offers a cutting assessment of the New York City Buildings Department, the much-maligned agency responsible for building safety, which has been stung by charges of corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency.”

New York City School Safety Officers Abusive To Students, Lawsuit Alleges.

 

Colin Moynihan wrote in a “City Room” blog for the New York Times (1/20), “Five public school students and their parents ” have filed a federal lawsuit against New York City, “claiming that school safety officers employed by the New York Police Department have wrongfully handcuffed, assaulted and arrested students.” According to Moynihan, “In addition to damages, the suit seeks judicial orders that schools, rather than officers, deal with disciplinary issues; that the city establish a ‘transparent and meaningful mechanism’ to lodge complaints about officers; and that the city impose new disciplinary measures for officers found guilty of misconduct.”

Facilities

 

Texas District To Construct Energy-Efficient Middle School.

 

The Dallas Morning News (1/21, Unmuth) reports, “The Irving school district plans to build an energy-efficient eighth middle school that will produce as much energy as it uses.” Dubbed “net zero,” the building model features “solar panels and wind turbines [that] will help provide power,” extra “insulation, and high-efficiency windows.” To add to the roughly $24.7 million the district already had “set aside in bond funds for construction of the 150,000-square-foot school,” Irving also “wants to raise more funds from other sources.” Said Superintendent Scott Layne of net zero, “It’s going to be a completely different type of school. … The kids will actually experience the types of technology that are being used to power the building.” The Dallas Morning News adds, “Construction could begin as soon as late March, with the school opening in fall 2011.”

Detroit Advisory Committee Wants Residents To Get First Shot At School Construction Jobs.

 

The Detroit News (1/20, Schultz) reported that in Detroit, “work will begin this summer on 18 school construction projects, and the advisory committee for the $500.5 million project wants to ensure Detroiters are first in line for the estimated 11,000 jobs expected to be created.” At “the first meeting of the 15-member committee formed by Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb to regularly review the largest construction project in the city,” committee member Rev. Wendell Anthony said, “If Detroiters are not retained or hired at every level, all hell is going to break loose.” Bobb, meanwhile, assured, “Our challenge and my commitment is to really drive this process and make sure that we deliver those goals that we committed to the community.” He presented a “30-month construction schedule to renovate 10 schools and build eight.”

School Finance

 

 

Schwarzenegger Goes To Washington Seeking Nearly $7 Billion For California.

 

The Christian Science Monitor (1/20, Wood) reported that on Wednesday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “met with the California congressional delegation and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius” in Washington, DC. He was in the city to present his case for $6.9 million in additional federal funding for California, including $1 billion for education. The governor’s case “rests on arguments that California gets unfair treatment from Washington.” Many political experts, however, doubt that Schwarzenegger will secure the funds. “US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D) of California told KQED Public Radio Wednesday, ‘The whole premise that somehow California is being disproportionately treated is just false.’”

Also in the News

 

 

Educators In Port-Au-Prince Uncertain Of School’s Future.

 

The Palm Beach (FL) Post (1/21, Duret) reports that “as rescue crews are ending their searches for survivors at…collapsed school buildings” throughout Port-au-Prince, “educators are struggling to figure out what to do with thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of school-aged children who no longer have a school to attend.” Bernard Augustin, director of St. Jean school, said, “We are all powerless in front of what has happened here.” He “wonders not only when, but also if” his school will be rebuilt. The Palm Beach Post adds, “Even if administrators could manage to hold classes outside in what used to be the school’s courtyard, the debris hanging from the building and the growing stench from the dead bodies trapped below would make learning impossible here.”

 

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. The Houston Chronicle adds that “as of last week, Texas Education Agency staff had spent 700 to 800 hours on the application in case the governor gave the green light.”

The San Antonio Express-News (1/14, LaCoste-Caputo) reports, “Perry’s objections seem to center on the fact that the grant rules give preference to states that sign on to a push for national curriculum standards.” The governor and education commissioner “have been critical of the Common Core Standards Initiative, a state-led effort” that aims to “create common standards for math and English in kindergarten through 12th grade across states.” Alicia Thomas, associate superintendent of Texas’ North East Independent School District, “where officials have declared a state of financial exigency,” spoke in favor of the standards, saying, “We are working to prepare our students to be ready to be part of a global economy. … It might be helpful to have some best practices established across the country. Texas has something to add to that conversation.”

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In the Classroom
Experts Push Introductory Science Education For Preschoolers.
Education Week (1/13, Viadero) reported, “Three years ago, when a task force of the congressionally chartered National Research Council issued influential recommendations for improving K-8 science education, it also made a pitch for introducing scientific study” to “children as young as 4.” This call has been highlighted in recent years by educators and policymakers concerned “about American students’ performance on international science tests and the supply of students pursuing” STEM careers. According to some experts, “decades of research in cognitive science and developmental psychology” dispute the idea that young children are “simplistic thinkers” and are unable to “make predictions” and understand science concepts. Still, a study by University of Miami researcher Daryl B. Greenfield concluded that “science is one of the areas in which children show the least learning growth during their preschool years.”

Minnesota Elementary School Piloting Junior FIRST Program.
The Austin (MN) Daily Herald (1/14, Drewelow) reports that Southgate Elementary “is piloting a Junior FIRST Lego League (FLL),” geared toward first- through fifth-graders. The local high school “has had a robotics team for two years, and Southgate is the only other school in the district that is now involved. The program will grow next school year when Southgate fifth graders graduate and move on to Ellis Middle School.” Students participating in the school’s Junior FIRST program “meet twice a month…to reflect on and meet a challenge,” which varies from year to year. “This year’s challenge is to find out what types of transportation are used to get products to Austin.”

Engineering Club Prepares For FIRST, Other Upcoming Competitions. The Frederick (MD) News Post (1/13, Leckie) reported on the Linganore High School engineering club’s preparation for this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition. Just prior to the announcement on this year’s game, the group “gathered for a pep talk from their adviser and mentors.” The News Post noted, “The club operates like a small business. Students set their goals and establish a budget. They obtain grants and sponsors through recruiting and advertising.” The article describes the club’s fundraising efforts, including a “$5,000 grant from NASA”, and notes that its “estimated budget for the 2009-10 school year of $24,500 represents competition fees, materials and travel expenses.” In addition to FIRST, the club’s members “participate in events such as rocketry challenges, electronics projects and robotics.”

On the Job
Education Week Releases Quality Counts Report.
The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot (1/14, Roth) reports that Virginia “has ranked fourth in the nation for the second year in Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report, behind Maryland, New York and Massachusetts.” The Education Week report “measures states in six areas: success factors outside school, such as parent income and education; standards, assessments and accountability; transitions between early-childhood, K-12 education, college and the workplace; teaching; school finance; and student achievement.” Virginia’s “lowest rankings were in assessments, college preparation and funding equity.”

Florida Schools Seen As Heading In Right Direction. Ron Matus writes in a column for the St. Petersburg (FL) Times (1/14) that Education Week researchers have ranked Florida schools No. 8 in the nation, cautioning that “it’s dicey to make year-to-year comparisons, because they look at slightly different indicators every year.” The researchers “also did not update what is arguably the most important piece of their analysis: the national test scores and graduation rates that gauge student progress.” However, “as a broad measure, they say their report shows Florida is headed in the right direction.”

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Law & Policy
Bipartisan Group Proposes Changes To Utah’s Sex Education Guidelines.
The Salt Lake Tribune (1/14, Schencker) reports that in Utah, “a Republican senator, a Democratic representative, the Planned Parenthood Action Council (PPAC), and the state PTA [are] working together” to get a sex education bill passed. Current “state law allows educators to teach students about contraceptives, but it prohibits ‘advocacy or encouragement’ of their use, leading some educators to avoid the topic out of fear of accidentally crossing the line.” The legislation proposed by Sen. Stephen Urquhart (R) “would remove that prohibition and instead require teachers to talk about the limitations and benefits of contraceptives and the importance of parental guidance in such matters.” In addition, it would “require the State Board of Education to select instructional materials about contraception for districts to use.”

Special Needs
New Jersey School Aims To Help Special Needs Students Reach Full Potential.
The Advertiser-News (NJ) (1/13, Wilinski) reported, “Unable to attend school in a traditional setting due to disability,” 19 students attend Special Children’s School in Sparta, NJ “to receive the academic, social, cognitive and physical education and therapy they need, according to their Individualized Educational Program, or IEP.” The Special Children’s School “seeks to provide all of its students with a well rounded education that will help each one reach his or her full potential, utilizing individual strengths.”

Missouri Education Department Holds Hearing On Proposed Special Ed Regulation Changes.
The Missourian (1/13, Ziemba) reported that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education “held a public hearing on proposed changes in state regulations for special education services in Missouri on Tuesday.” Missouri “is changing its state plan to comply with new federal guidelines that regulate federal funding for special education services, Jim Morris, the department’s spokesperson said. … Most of the changes are for clarification purposes, but there is a new federal regulation that will allow parents to withdraw their child from special education services with written consent, Jackie Bruner, special education services director, said.”

Facilities
Parents Pitch In To Update Elementary School.
The Agoura Hills (CA) Acorn (1/14, Fischer) reports that parents in the Oak Park school system spent time before and during winter break making improvements “to the aging multipurpose room, the central quad area and a prominent wall in the outdoor lunch area” of Brookside Elementary School. “Before the winter break, parents,” including PTA president Toni Caruso and her husband, “removed deteriorating and discolored ceiling tiles and cleaned and prepared the walls for painting.” The Carusos also “removed bulletin boards and an unused trophy case, fixed broken walls, installed new ceiling tiles and painted the entire room beige.” Then, during the break, they spent time “updating the multipurpose room.” Overall, the updates cost less than $40,000.

Also in the News
Group Releases List Of 10 Education Technology Issues Expected To Drive Policy Decisions.
Dave Nagel, “executive editor for 1105 Media’s online education publications,” asks in T.H.E. Journal (1/14, Nagel), “Which issues in education technology should drive policymaking in 2010?” The International Society for Technology in Education has “published a list of its top-10 priorities for decision makers for the coming year.” The list includes: “Increasing federal funding support for technology through Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT); Keeping educators up to date on the latest technologies to help them be more effective in their teaching environments;” and “Ensuring universal access to broadband services, which ISTE described as ‘critical so that students and parents have access to school assignments, grades, announcements and resources.’”

Denver Public Schools’ Attempt To Honor King Seen By Some As Insensitive.
The Denver Post reported that the Denver public school district’s attempt to “to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.” was met with disdain from some who found the gesture insensitive. “Friday’s DPS lunch menu, headlined ‘In Honor Of M.L. King,’ offered students ‘Southern Style’ chicken and collard greens — a meal that some say is an offensive caricature of black culture.” On Tuesday, an apologetic statement was posted “on the district’s website,” saying “the meal was ‘highly insensitive in light of certain hurtful cultural stereotypes still harbored in parts of our society.’” The slight was brought to the attention of the school board by teacher Jennifer Holladay, who said “she was instantly upset” when she saw the menu entry. But, School Board President Nate Easley Jr. “said he thinks there are bigger problems facing DPS than what is on the lunch menu.”

NEA in the News
Minnesota School Districts Urged To Settle Teacher Contracts.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune (1/14) editorializes, “The clock is ticking toward a Friday deadline, and dozens of Minnesota school districts have yet to settle teacher contracts.” According to the Star Tribune, the National Education Association “says nationwide teacher salary increases in the past year have averaged 1 to 3 percent. During the same period, teachers’ share of health insurance premiums have risen between 7 and 30 percent.” Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) “has said he’s rethinking his recent policy of protecting K-12 education from budget cuts because some districts have approved pay increases.” The Tribune asserts, “School boards know their local circumstances best, and they should continue to have flexibility to decide on where to make cuts and increases, and on borrowing.”

Michigan Teachers Union Declines To Endorse Race To The Top Plan.
The AP (1/13) reported that Michigan Education Association “won’t endorse the state’s efforts to win up to $400 million for schools through the federal Race to the Top competition.” MEA President Iris Salters “sent a memo to union members this week calling the state plan flawed and incomplete. … The MEA is concerned that collective bargaining rights could be jeopardized when the state takes over low-performing schools.”

Obama To Call For More Race To The Top Funding.
The Washington Post (1/19, Fletcher) reports that President Obama “plans to go to Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church [VA], which the White House calls a low-income but high-achieving school, to signal his intention to expand his Race to the Top program” via $1.35 billion in his next budget. According to the Post, though “money from the first year of funding is just now moving toward being awarded to states, Obama administration officials credit it with prompting education policy changes in many parts of the country.”

Race To The Top Competition Spurs Changes But Also Faces Opposition. The New York Times (1/19, A18, Dillon) reports that the Race to the Top education stimulus competition “has spurred education policy changes in states across the nation, but it is meeting with some last-minute resistance as the first deadline for applications arrives Tuesday.” According to the Times, “thousands of school districts in California, Ohio and other states have declined to participate, and teachers’ unions in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida have recommended that their local units not sign on to their states’ applications.” However, since the competition “got under way last summer, with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan bluntly criticizing school policies in many states, legislatures and officials from Rhode Island to California have reworked laws or policies in ways that have advanced President Obama’s vision: more charter schools, better-qualified teachers and a national effort to overhaul failing schools.”

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In the Classroom
New Hampshire High School Students’ Budget Proposal For District Touted As Model.
The Nashua Telegraph (1/19) editorializes that when school board members begin making cuts to the “school budget proposal for 2010-11,” they should “emulate the innovative and analytical approach taken by a group of Nashua High School South students who took on that challenge as part of a class project.” The “accounting and business law students” examined “the district’s financial problems and came up with suggested new revenue and budget cuts that resulted in between $3.3 million and $4 million in savings.” Cuts were made by “scrapping the Phoenix Program for at-risk students ($994,000) laying off five janitors each from the third shifts at the two high schools ($300,000)…and canceling some or all freshman sports ($16,000 to $33,000).” To generate revenue, the students suggested “soliciting gym and stadium advertising ($265,000)…and renting out space to a franchise such as Dunkin’ Donuts ($100,000).” The Nashua Telegraph provides details on the students’ methods for determining what to include in the proposal.

California District Pilots After-School Elementary Music Program.
The Orange County (CA) Register (1/19, James) reports that “when budget cuts forced the closure of the elementary school music programs,” the city of Tustin joined the Tustin Public Schools Foundation and Tustin Unified School District “to create an after-school music” pilot “program for fourth- and fifth-grade students.” The classes, offered through the city Parks and Recreation Department “cost $55 for 12 weeks, and scholarships are available.” One challenge facing the program is “finding transportation for the elementary students to get to the afternoon classes.” The program also needs “music teachers, volunteers, and donations.”

Some Students Honor King’s Memory By Volunteering.
The Chicago Tribune (1/19) reports that about 25 groups from Chicago and suburbs “participated in volunteer events for King Day, said Paula Phillips, civic engagement coordinator for City Year, an AmeriCorps program that works in inner-city public schools and enlists teens and young adults in 10 months of community service.” City Year “bused groups of students throughout the day to about seven locations to help refurbish schools, senior homes, public housing and community centers. At Wadsworth Elementary School, students marched up stairs and ladders to paint murals of King and President Barack Obama on the walls.

Students In Class On Martin Luther King Day Learn About Civil Rights Struggle. WHSV -TV Harrisburg, VA (1/18, Knight) reported on its Web site that Rockingham County, VA students “were some of the only ones who were in class on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Teachers say they’re using the day in school, along with much of this week, to talk about King and his message.” According to WHSV, “Students in elementary schools have been reading books, as well as coloring pictures and other activities, to help them understand the civil rights struggle.”

Astronaut Visits Middle School In Virginia.
The Washington Post (1/17, Williams) reported that astronaut Robert Satcher visited Potomac (VA) Middle School last week, speaking “to the eighth grade in the Dumfries school’s gymnasium Thursday before moving to the library for a 30-minute question-and-answer session with about 25 science students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades.” Satcher “showed a video” of a mission “and entertained the students with tales of playing weightless football and snoozing in a sleeping bag attached to a wall with Velcro. He compared launches to being on a roller coaster for 8 1/2 minutes.”

On the Job
Blogger Develops Performance-Pay Program For Physical Education Teachers.
Mike Thomas writes in his blog in the Orlando Sentinel (1/19) that he has “come up with a solution” for tying physical education teachers’ “raises to improvements in their students’ test scores.” Each fall, students would “be tested for their Body Mass Index, fat percentage, their time in a mile run, the number of push-ups and sit-ups performed in a two-minute period and, with parental consent, a lipids test.” Then the physical education teachers would develop “exercise programs for each at-risk student, and monitor improvement. … No more simply sending them out to play dodge ball and collecting a paycheck,” he adds. “If more than half the students do not show improvement in all areas, the teacher gets no raise. If more than half the students show regression, the teacher is replaced with a non-union trainer. Obese students will be given YMCA vouchers.”

Special Needs
Teacher Encourages Students With Disabilities To Evaluate Service.
The Whittier (CA) Daily News (1/17, Markus) reports, “Special education instructor Tammy Torres had enough of watching her transitional program students get treated with intolerance while out in their neighborhood.” Torres’s students have disabilities such as “Down syndrome, autism, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy.” Torres “developed a customer service survey” for her students to fill out when they “go out for training” to rate “their experience at local businesses.” Students mostly experience a “lack of communication or lack of eye contact,” said Torres. She added that the transitional program, which includes 18-22 year-olds, is new to the community, but, “as the group makes its way out in the neighborhoods, they will gain more acceptance and above all, respect.”

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Facilities
Texas District Considers Grants To Replace Aging Playground Equipment.
The Dallas Morning News (1/16, Unmuth) reports, “After the principal and parents expressed their concerns to the” Irving Independent School District school board about the poor playground equipment at Farine Elementary School, “the board directed district administrators to create a committee to examine ways to better fund playgrounds at the district’s schools.” The committee “found aging equipment was a problem at elementary and early-childhood schools throughout the district,” with safety a major concern. “Repairs and construction” have been estimated at “between $1.5 million and $3.9 million. Irving ISD plans to use its own funds but also is considering applying for grants and seeking community support.”

School Finance
Grants Will Help Three Schools In Michigan Build Schoolyard Habitats.
The AP (1/17) reported, “The nonprofit group Friends of the Rouge has awarded grants to three Michigan schools to build schoolyard habitats. Each school’s grant includes $500 to purchase native Michigan plants and another $500 in expert assistance with implementing the project. Each school also will get $400 for tools or other garden items.

Firm Aims to Help School Districts Generate Revenue Through Advertising.
The AP (1/19, Workman) reports, “Advertising within school districts has long been a controversial topic. … But a new revenue stream…that could save a few programs or even pay for bus transportation in difficult economic times can certainly look like an attractive option.” Sam Curcuru created the business plan for Alternative Revenue Development with school districts in mind. His “business includes four different media for advertising, none of which are within the classroom.” They include “direct-to-home mailings such as school newsletters;” use of “new media and technology” with tools “such as social networking sites,” and “cell phone texting;” banner ads on “district and school Web sites;” and “on-campus signage” for high schools. Said Curcuru, “We only want areas in the high school where the community comes and attends events, like athletic fields, performing arts centers, media centers and gyms.”

Also in the News
Opinion: Business Model Not Appropriate For Schools.
Former UCLA Graduate School of Education lecturer and 28-year teaching veteran Walt Gardner wrote in an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee (1/17), “If schools were allowed to be truly run like businesses, they (employers) would be able to deny enrollment (hiring) of students (workers) who have neither the ability nor desire (qualifications) to be there. But public schools, unlike private and religious schools, must accept virtually all who show up at the schoolhouse door.” According to Gardner, “This is the antithesis of how business operates. … If taxpayers were to spend time in the classroom, they might gain more respect for the work that public schools do in the face of daunting challenges. At the least, they’d come away realizing the futility of running schools like businesses.

NEA in the News

Repeal Of Gambling Loss Limit Brings Less Revenue Than Expected Into Missouri Districts.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1/19, Logan) reports, “When Missouri casinos asked voters to end the state’s one-of-a-kind gambling loss limit, they wrapped their appeal in education.” A year later, however, the loss-limit repeal “has generated less than a quarter of the school funding that was predicted.” Data from state gambling regulators show that “in 2009…Missouri’s 12 casinos won $1.73 billion from gamblers,” and “with a new, higher tax rate,” Missouri schools received “an additional $22 million…far less than even the lowest estimates that Proposition A’s supporters projected during their campaign.” According to Otto Fagen, legislative director for the Missouri National Education Association, “there are flaws in a system that ties school funding to such an unstable source of revenue.” Suggested Otto, “Maybe we should dictate school funding based on what schools need. … Not, he said, on how much people gamble.”

Rhode Island NEA Will Not Endorse State’s Race To The Top Application.
Jennifer Jordan wrote in the Providence Journal (1/19) Projo 7 to 7 News Blog that the National Education Association of Rhode Island, which represents most of the state’s suburban and rural districts, has declined to endorse” the state’s Race To The Top application. National Education Association of Rhode Island Executive Director Robert A. Walsh Jr. said, “At this time, we see no reason to send a letter and don’t think a letter would be helpful to the cause. … Our list of objections is quite extensive and has not been adequately addressed.” Jordan notes that support for states’ grant applications from teachers unions nationwide has been “mixed.” Meanwhile, “federal education officials [say] that signatures of teachers’ unions, while not required, greatly enhance a state’s competitiveness.”

Oregon Education Association President Explains Support For State’s Federal Grant Bid.
Betsy Hammond reports in The Oregonian (1/19, Hammond) Chalk It Up blog about the reasons why the Oregon Education Association is supporting the state’s Race To The Top application, which includes “a plan to tie student test scores back to the teachers responsible for those students.” Hammond summarizes a letter sent by Oregon Education Association President Gail Rasmussen supporting “Oregon’s application for $200 million of federal Race to the Top money.” Rasmussen points out that “leaders and members of OEA were included on the planning team, were listened to and many of their ideas are reflected in Oregon’s application.” She also notes that “Oregon did not bend to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s urgings that it promise to close down low-scoring schools or look to charter schools as a means of educational salvation.” Moreover, the state’s plan “doesn’t mention merit pay and speaks respectfully of collective bargaining.” It also supports “more mentoring, better on-the-job training…and better teacher evaluations.”

Obama Reveals Plan To Expand Race To The Top.
The Washington Post (1/20, Turque) reports that as 40 states and D.C. submitted “Race to the Top” applications by Tuesday’s deadline, President Obama visited Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, VA “to announce that he will seek an expansion of the $4.3 billion program that would allow individual school districts to compete for the money.” The Los Angeles Times (1/20, Silva) reports that the President “promised Tuesday to ‘raise the bar’ on what is expected of public school teachers and students.” He “plans to include the additional $1.35 billion for the program in the fiscal 2011 budget, which he is due to propose next month.” According to the White House, “the extra funding would enable more states, as well as individual school districts, to apply for some of the money.”

The AP (1/19, Superville) reported, “With the grant programs, Obama is trying to make federal education spending more of a competitive endeavor to encourage states and school districts to do better, rather than a solely formula-driven effort in which states and districts look forward to receiving a certain amount of money each school year, regardless of how good a job they do educating students.”

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In the Classroom
Study Shows Girls Less Engaged In Science Than Boys.
The AP (1/20, Sutschek) reports that according to “a study by two Northern Illinois University professors…high school girls are bored, disengaged, and stressed in science classes when compared with boys.” Co-principal investigators, Jennifer Schmid