January 31, 2007
Great news from the Peach State
In Georgia, the special needs scholarship bill passed the state Senate. It now goes to the House. Hats off to our allies in Georgia for terrific work--and thanks to all the legislators who voted for the students and their parents.
Morning Shots
AP Atlanta: Spellings continues push for No Child renewal
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Tuesday the next phase of the federal No Child Left Behind law should focus on schools that chronically underperform.
Schools that don't meet federal standards for multiple years should offer parents more options for transferring their child _ such as vouchers to attend private schools _ and need to have the resources to attract top teachers, she said.
Speaking to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Spellings downplayed critics of the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind law while continuing to push for its renewal.
"I'm counting on reformers and pioneers like you to lead the way," she said.
Deseret News: Committee passes school-vouchers bill
As expected, the House Education Standing Committee on Tuesday OK'd what would be Utah's first general government voucher program for private school tuition, costing the state $9.2 million up front.
That leaves the House, once again, in the ultimate driver's seat — positioned to steer the controversial measure either to the graveyard, where it has dumped it seven years in a row, or to the Senate, where many believe it will pass without too much difficulty. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has expressed support for the concept.
"We knew this would not be close," Kim Burningham, chairman of the State Board of Education, which opposes the concept, said after the committee hearing. "We always knew (the real test) was on the floor of the House. We'll keep working."
San Francisco Business Times: KIPP Foundation gets $14.6M grant
Atlantic Philanthropies has made a $14.6 million, five-year commitment to San Francisco's KIPP Foundation. It is the largest single grant to the nonprofit since Doris and Don Fisher invested $15 million to start the charter school foundation in 2000.
KIPP supports a network of 52 Knowledge Is Power Program charter schools in 16 states and Washington, D.C. To date, its expansion has been largely funded by the Fishers, co-founders of Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), who have contributed more than $40 million to KIPP Foundation. Don Fisher told the Business Times last year that he wants KIPP Foundation to be less reliant on philanthropy and to diversify its funding sources.
The Atlantic Philanthropies grant will fund a major third-party study of the effectiveness of the KIPP model, which has students attend school from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. five days a week, as well as every other Saturday and up to four weeks in the summer. The grant will also support principal recruitment and leadership training as well as shore up administrative systems in advance of future growth.
KIPP plans to double to 100 schools within five years and to triple the number of KIPP students. Currently, 12,000 students are enrolled in KIPP schools.
Washington Post: Audit Finds Financial Problems
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)An independent audit of the D.C. government has found serious problems with the public school system's financial controls, alarming District officials who say that the city's fiscal health could be at risk if the lapses are not corrected.
The audit could help Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) win critical support in his attempt to persuade the D.C. Council to approve his proposal to take direct control of the 58,000-student school system.
Fenty and D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi plan to formally announce the findings at a news conference today, during which they will also hail the city's 10th consecutive balanced budget.
Education News for Wednesday, January 31
Spellings continues push for No Child renewal - Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Tuesday the next phase of the federal No Child Left Behind law should focus on schools that chronically underperform.
Why Johnny can't read very well and what to do about it - Opinion: Juan/Sean/John doesn't read too well because we don't teach him how very well.
Charter schools would feel pinch of uncollected taxes - Indiana State Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, found initial support Monday for a plan to make charter schools share the pain of uncollected property taxes.
Ousted Chicago Teachers Union President to Take On Her Successor (Edweek.org subscription required) - Former President Deborah Lynch, who lost the last election by just over 500 votes, has thrown her hat into the ring to unseat her successor, Marilyn Stewart, in the May election.
Center for Education Reform: Philadelphia's Multiple Provider Model Makes Progress - Press release: Five years after the state of Pennsylvania took over the financially and educationally bankrupt school system of Philadelphia, five years after the new, dynamic CEO Paul Vallas was given oversight of the new system, and five years after the new School Reform Commission turned over the worst-performing schools to numerous education service providers to fix, educational progress across all schools in Philadelphia is at a record high.
Charter, choice debate hits district’s wallet - With the combined charter and choice schools’ cost to the Shrewsbury, Massachusetts school district for 2006-07 at $324,254, officials are asking questions about why students are leaving and what they can do to prevent it.
Make school cool: Give dropouts a choice - Editorial: The best way for New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch to realize his goal of reducing the dropout rate is not to spend millions on remedial programs. It is to give these kids an attractive alternative to their regular public schools. He can do this by letting parents take struggling students out of schools where they are falling behind and move them to schools -- public or private -- that might excite them.
Leaving Children Behind - To solve problems of education, you need to be willing to go the whole way down difficult roads, and to do this will require a far greater commitment than the federal government and civic leaders have given any indication they are willing to make. Our teachers and inner-city schools are facing overwhelming and heartbreaking odds, and we are letting them down.
Committee passes school-vouchers bill - As expected, the House Education Standing Committee on Tuesday OK'd what would be Utah's first general government voucher program for private school tuition, costing the state $9.2 million up front.
Voucher bill raises potential for special needs students - Opinion: A look at two students who could benefit from a special needs scholarship program currently under debate in Georgia. (Opposing view here.)
Educators get foot in door at state Capitol - Florida lawmakers, lobbyists and political observers say a new tone — more cordial, more cooperative, maybe even bipartisan — has emerged in the days following the inauguration of Gov. Charlie Crist and preceding the first legislative session in nine years that won’t be dominated by former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Study: Metro Detroit teachers earn most - Public school teachers in Metro Detroit have the highest hourly pay among 66 metropolitan areas, according to a study released today by a New York think tank.
Educators blast No Child Left Behind changes - Two key proposed Bush administration changes to the No Child Left Behind law drew criticism from local public school education officials and union leaders.
Romanoff kicks off school-reform tour - On Tuesday, Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff visited Denver's Hill Middle School, 451 Clermont St., the first stop on a year-long, statewide school tour to find out what works in public education and what should change. It's part of a plan to mobilize revolutionary reform in Colorado.
Education secretary pushes for 'No Child' reform renewal - Given President Bush's slumping approval ratings, Margaret Spellings is touching all the bases in pushing through Bush's signature domestic-policy measure, even though it has bipartisan support.
School choice as business - Letter to the editor: There has been much talk lately about tuition tax credits and how they will allow parental choice. This is not true. Parental choice exists now. What is involved here is a behind-the-scenes move by conservative Republicans to support private schools.
Parents brave bitter cold for hot school zone talk at forum - The fight to replace limited school choice with neighborhood schools isn’t over, Rockford, Illinois Superintendent Dennis Thompson told about 40 parents and residents who Tuesday night braved bitter-cold weather to attend a community forum.
Education chief makes pitch for consolidation - Education Commissioner Richard Cate debated his proposal to consolidate school districts in front of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, reiterating his claim that the current system is not sustainable as statewide enrollment declines.
Legislature: Vouchers one step closer - Utah's school voucher bill was so sure to earn a committee's approval Tuesday that House leaders had already scheduled a floor debate for Thursday. Yet more than 100 people turned out to register their opinions on the divisive issue.
KIPP Foundation gets $14.6M grant - Atlantic Philanthropies has made a $14.6 million, five-year commitment to San Francisco's KIPP Foundation. It is the largest single grant to the nonprofit since Doris and Don Fisher invested $15 million to start the charter school foundation in 2000.
Charter school system plan moves closer to a vote - A Georgia plan that would give entire school systems the same freedoms as existing charter schools moved one step close to passage on Tuesday, clearing a Senate committee on a party-line vote.
Charter schools face limit in Gary - Charter school backers vow to lobby against a bill authored by Indiana state Rep. Vernon G. Smith, D-Gary, that would reduce their funds and temporarily ban more charters in Gary.
Streisand donates $10,000 to St. Paul charter school - She charged up to $450 per seat last fall for her concert at the Xcel Energy Center, but Barbra Streisand is leaving some money behind in St. Paul as well.
Acrimony engulfs school plan - Opinion: For the sake of any Topeka kid who’s struggling in school, here’s hoping supporters of the proposed Sumner charter school projects don’t give up. But unless the movement’s point women, Betty Horton and Sandra Lassiter, find a way to work more constructively with Topeka Unified School District 501 staff and board members, hoping might be pointless.
Report gives edge in pay to teachers - The typical public school teacher in Iowa City earns 27 percent more than the average white-collar worker when wages are calculated per hour, according to a new national report that the state teachers union immediately dismissed.
Can a monolithic school system serve the common good? - Opinion: Decentralizing and expanding the concept of public education is a radical approach to reform, but it is also an honest attempt to reconcile two very different perspectives in two otherwise irreconcilable reports. The alternative is the same old debate that inherently produces conflict over who gets final control of education policy. That is not good for children. That is not good for the republic. It's time to be bold.
College Scholarships for All No Myth in El Dorado - A city of 21,530 just north of the Louisiana border, El Dorado, Arkansas now boasts a program that guarantees that high school graduates from the area can afford college courtesy of a $50 million gift from its own local benefactor, Murphy Oil Corp.
Audit Finds Financial Problems - An independent audit of the D.C. government has found serious problems with the public school system's financial controls, alarming District officials who say that the city's fiscal health could be at risk if the lapses are not corrected.
Small Schools to Be Added by September - New York City's Education Department yesterday announced that it would open 20 small secondary schools in September, including five schools for students at serious risk of dropping out. But the department, which has struggled to find sites for new schools, did not announce the locations for 10 of them.
UPDATE:
The case for vouchers and school choice in Illinois - Opinion: Lawmakers have failed to reach a consensus over how to simultaneously improve urban and rural education. Yet there are a number of reforms which will instantly improve all Illinois' schools - reforms that revolve around school choice.
Senate approves private school vouchers for disabled students - Students with disabilities would get state tax money to attend private schools under a bill approved Wednesday in the state Senate.
Senate approves special needs scholarship - After nearly three hours of debate, the state Senate today approved Senate Bill 10, which would allow state-funded vouchers for disabled children to attend schools outside their resident districts.
An Age-Old Debate Continues - Citizens packed a House Education Committee meeting yesterday to speak out on a bill that would give funnel tax dollars into private school scholarships. Kathy Tenney is a mother of five who supports the bill.
Here's what 2007 voucher bill would, would not do - The Utah House is expected to debate this year's voucher bill Thursday, less than one week after legislators got their first look at it. The bill's speedy journey through the House has left lawmakers and the public little time to study the particulars.
Carcieri: Budget, education, transportation and environment top of mind - Carcieri suggested lifting the moratorium on new charter schools, which he said are getting “good results.” And the governor proposed a new initiative focused on one troubled school district.
Report: Focus on learning, not testing - Maine's system of using local assessments to evaluate students' progress should be replaced with a method that emphasizes learning over testing, Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said on Thursday.
State reading and math scores rise - New Hampshire elementary and middle school students statewide made gains in reading and math last year, but their writing scores worsened, according to test data released yesterday.
Posted by Daily News at 06:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Georgia Debates Florida-Inspired Choice for Special Needs Kids (Matt Warner)
Few things flow north, but a virtual copy of Florida’s special needs scholarship program has seeped into northern neighbor Georgia’s state legislature this session and stands a good chance of passing the Senate this week.
Continue reading "Georgia Debates Florida-Inspired Choice for Special Needs Kids (Matt Warner)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)January 30, 2007
Will she listen?
With California flatly refusing to comply with federal law, a lot of people are getting impatient. Last week a letter from leaders of a broad coalition of groups was sent to Margaret Spellings, asking her to take action and hold school districts' feet to the fire with respect to the rights of parents under NCLB to transfer their children to better schools. (Our press release is here.) I'll merely repeat what I said last week: if enforcement doesn't happen, NCLB reform will be largely without meaning.
Mayoral takeovers, east and west
The LA Daily News suggests there's little that can be done to stop the Villaraigosa juggernaut:
DESPITE the Los Angeles school board's efforts to fight, dodge or ignore major reforms, there's every indication that change is coming and there's nothing the intransigent board can do to stop it.
The question of major change in the Los Angeles Unified School District is no longer one of "if," but "when" and "how."
The editorial staff goes on to point out just a few of the many of the other forces in play: LAUSD's new supe, an insurgent Green Dot looking to grow, new legislation to break up the district. Along those lines, consider the D.C. takeover, which is just beginning: like LAUSD, there are lots of different players jockeying for a seat at the table. If anything, the D.C. scenario is even more complicated due to congressional control of the city,
It seems like mayoral takeovers can be a real crapshoot. As illustrated in New York, the end result can be beneficial for students. But the problem is the process required to get to that point, which by definition is political to the extreme--and that's saying a lot, given how politically charged public education already is (witness Villaraigosa, who is pulling out all the stops, including trying to engineer a takeover of the school board). Even if the mayor succeeds, if the process doesn't get beyond the politics, the net result may be a big negative.
One other interesting aspect to all this is how public school choice is increasingly a component of such takeovers. Mike Bloomberg and Eliot Spitzer want the charter cap raised, and in L.A., it seems Villaraigosa is about to turn to charters as leverage for change in LAUSD (particularly interesting, given his strong union ties). No such thread has emerged yet in D.C., but the process there is still young, and given the popularity of charters there, I imagine it will come along soon enough.
But these are America's biggest urban areas. Will we see more such takeover attempts in smaller cities? Obviously it's a bit of a stretch to make a blanket statement, since every city's political atmosphere and dynamics are unique, but something tells me mayors from smaller cities will be much more reluctant to attempt it: I think that districts in smaller cities have more clout relative to their mayors than is the situation in bigger locales, meaning only big-city mayors can amass the star power and political capital to contend. I think it's generally agreed that Villaraigosa has put an awful lot of his own momentum into the LAUSD venture, and it remains to be seen if it was spent successfully.
Morning Shots
Topeka Capital-Journal: Charter school hearing divisive
In a meeting that spiraled quickly into snide remarks, Topeka Unified School District 501's school board on Monday night again rejected two charter school applications.
"Madame chairwoman, I would vote that we adjourn," said board member Tim Clothier at the close of the three-hour meeting.
"You are adjourned," fired back charter applicant Betty Horton.
Then, as the audience that numbered as many as 50 packed up, Horton hollered a warning to her opponent in the April 3 school board election, "Dr. Pezzino, I'm running for your position."
AP: LA superintendent meets with lawmakers, lobbies for more funds
District Superintendent David L. Brewer met with lawmakers Monday, seeking a change in the way the state distributes money for school construction projects.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is in the middle of a $20 billion construction project expected to add 145 new schools. However, district officials say the project may be in peril since some predictions show a $1.6 billion shortfall by 2009.
Brewer, who spent Monday in Sacramento, said changes need to be made to the current state formula that links construction funds with student enrollment projections. District officials estimate Los Angeles, the nation's second largest school system, will lose students over the next few years due to a variety of reasons, including high housing costs and migration to inland areas.
"(The formula) unnecessarily penalizes urban school districts like L.A., so we just need to get this straightened out," Brewer said in a telephone interview.
NYT: Spitzer’s Education Agenda Promises Aid Increase
Gov. Eliot Spitzer declared on Monday that he would propose a major increase in state aid for New York’s public schools in his first budget and would seek vastly expanded oversight of local school districts, including wide powers to remove school boards or force the dismissal of superintendents for repeated failures.
Laying out an expansive agenda in a speech at the State Education Department, Mr. Spitzer said he was proposing “the largest infusion of resources in our state’s history” but left a specific number for Wednesday, when he is to unveil his budget. Officials who have been briefed on the governor’s plans said he would propose $1.4 billion in added education spending statewide for the coming fiscal year, increasing to $7 billion in added annual spending after four years.
The largest share of that $7 billion — about $3.1 billion — would go to New York City. Combined with $2.2 billion in added city education spending over the next four years proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, city schools ultimately stand to gain $5.3 billion a year — a huge windfall even for a school district that already spends more than $15 billion a year.
“There will be no more excuses for failure,” Mr. Spitzer declared in his address. “The debate will no longer be about money, but about performance. The goal will no longer be adequacy, but excellence. And the timetable will no longer be tomorrow, but today.”
Washington Post: Board of Ed Presents Alternative to Takeover
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)The D.C. Board of Education countered Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's school takeover plan yesterday with a proposal outlining specific academic targets to improve the city's low-performing school system within two years.
Led by board President Robert C. Bobb, the school board unanimously passed the "Emergency Student Achievement Act of 2007." The legislation, which requires council approval, would be in effect for the next 18 months. It would allow the school board to retain power over its budget and the construction and renovation of school buildings and give a new State Department of Education the ability to open charter schools.
In contrast to the mayor's plan, which does not deal directly with academics, Bobb promised to increase services for special education students in D.C. classrooms and to increase the number of students who test at the proficient or advanced level by 10 percent. Additionally, Bobb said the board's proposal would not require a change to city's Home Rule Charter, which Fenty is seeking by going to Congress.
"This is not a bill on restructuring," Bobb said. "This is a bill that is focused on improving student outcomes."
Education News for Tuesday, January 30
Religious, civic groups want education act revised - As Congress considers reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind education act, civic and religious groups believe changes are needed to ensure that no child, indeed, is left behind in the U.S. public school system.
Secretary Spellings Promotes Education Priorities at National School Boards Association's Annual Federal Relations Network Legislative Conference - Press release: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings continued her national dialogue with top education officials to promote the successes of No Child Left Behind and Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act.
No Child act creates problems - Editorial: No Child Left Behind expires this year and must be reauthorized. With Democrats in control of Congress, changes to NCLB may lie ahead. Making the program more realistic and practical would be a help.
Spitzer Seeks School Reforms, More Charter Schools - New York schools would have to improve student performance and defend the use of tax dollars in exchange for historic amounts of new aid, while failing schools could be closed, under proposals by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
Salute to Catholic Schools Celebrated Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2007 - Press release: The nation's nearly 8,000 Catholic school students are celebrating Catholic Schools Week, Jan. 28 through Feb. 3. This year's theme is "Catholic Schools: the Good News in Education."
Spitzer calls for fair school funding, accountability - Gov. Eliot Spitzer Monday called for more charter schools and pre-kindergarten classes and generous education funding awarded on a fair formula, but the money will have strings attached and poorly performing schools will be closed.
Experts Urge Governor, Lawmakers to Increase Charter Public School Funding - Press release: The Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) today urged Governor Blagojevich and lawmakers to support the Illinois State Board of Education's recommendation to add $4.4 million to Illinois' education budget to expand charter public schools in Illinois.
Judge tosses lawsuit over school finances - Education union lobbyists worried Monday that a judge's decision to throw out their school-finance lawsuit strips disadvantaged children of their right to fight in court for a better education.
Governor Spitzer Announces Education Reform Agenda - The governor's calls for change lead up to the release of his first budget - which will include what he calls the biggest funding increase for education in a decade.
Public-schools group jeers privatization - Some National School Boards Association (NSBA) members yesterday booed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings when she mentioned the administration's proposal to help students in chronically failing public schools attend private ones instead.
Education bill slammed by local officials - Mansfield, Massachusetts School Superintendent John Moretti has some simple advice for Congress as it begins work on reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind education bill: Scrap the law and start over again.
Drop-Out Rate a Crisis for Texas - Press release: According to education experts a least half of all high school students in the state's urban school districts are dropping out of school and the rate is highest among blacks, Hispanics, and low-income students. In statistics released by the Intercultural Development Research Center statewide, each graduating class has at least 120,000 fewer students than started high school.
Editorial: K-12 committees address learning gap - Minnesota ranks highly among the states on most education indicators, but gets low marks for its achievement gap. With the fifth-widest disparity in the nation between white students and those of color, helping thousands of kids catch up must be a top priority.
Michigan lawmakers take on No Child Left Behind overhaul - Congress plans on renewing NCLB before it expires this year. Democratic leaders have vowed to make it a top legislative priority, hoping to make it more user-friendly for local school districts.
Leave no child behind - Editorial: Federal lawmakers should approve the No Child Left Behind reauthorization.
Left Behind - Editorial: Virginia's high-profile challenge over students with limited English proficiency, coming as congressional debate over reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act begins, at least may focus attention on an issue that has been overlooked for too long.
Charter school hearing divisive - In a meeting that spiraled quickly into snide remarks, Topeka Unified School District 501's school board on Monday night again rejected two charter school applications.
Math + low FCAT = summer school - Starting next school year, a new Florida law will require high school students to pass four years of math to graduate.
Senator wants students fully ready for higher ed - A North Dakota state senator wants to make high school graduation and college admission requirements the same, saying too many students aren’t prepared for college classes.
Change agent - Editorial: Despite the Los Angeles school board's efforts to fight, dodge or ignore major reforms, there's every indication that change is coming and there's nothing the intransigent board can do to stop it.
LA superintendent meets with lawmakers, lobbies for more funds - LAUSD Superintendent David L. Brewer met with lawmakers Monday, seeking a change in the way the state distributes money for school construction projects.
Evans presents plan to improve schools in city - Mayoral candidate Dwight Evans presented an education strategy yesterday that would put laptop computers in every Philadelphia classroom. But then he reiterated his support for a school governance structure that gives the mayor no power to turn such ideas into reality.
Appalling dropout rates make school choice case - Opinion: By introducing competition, school choice can and will increase high school graduation rates across Texas.
Michigan must close gap in its students' education - Editorial: Parents, students, political, business, labor and civic leaders all must play an active part in transforming Michigan's educational achievement rates. Waiting to do that only puts us farther behind and at risk of a long, painful decline.
No deal left behind for two old lions - Opinion: There's a limit to how much any president, especially an unpopular one, can achieve in a seventh year. Mr. Bush and Mr. Kennedy could surprise people, if they follow their natural instincts to get things done.
Mixed reaction to Bush plan for No Child Left Behind act - Some of the kindest words President Bush received after his State of the Union speech last week resulted from his commitment to expand No Child Left Behind.
Gifted student feels Left Behind - As No Child Left Behind policy is reviewed this year, there is one group of students some think may have been left behind — those who are high achievers.
Spitzer Vows School Funds, With Conditions - New York school systems that want to receive extra state funds ordered by the courts in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case will have to sign a contract promising to do things such as reduce class size or lengthen the school year, Governor Spitzer says.
Spitzer’s Education Agenda Promises Aid Increase - Gov. Eliot Spitzer declared on Monday that he would propose a major increase in state aid for New York’s public schools in his first budget and would seek vastly expanded oversight of local school districts, including wide powers to remove school boards or force the dismissal of superintendents for repeated failures.
Board of Ed Presents Alternative to Takeover - The D.C. Board of Education countered Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's school takeover plan yesterday with a proposal outlining specific academic targets to improve the city's low-performing school system within two years.
UPDATE:
Who wins, who loses in school choice legislation? - (registration required) Both sides of the school-choice issue are gearing up for what many say is an inevitable battle in the Missouri General Assembly.
Reaction from area school leaders - (registration required) None of the Eastern Jackson County public school superintendents support the tax credits, but leaders of two prominent private schools in the area are enthusiastic about their potential.
Lawmaker wants Missouri schools to start later - Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mount Vernon, is proposing legislation that would prohibit schools from starting 10 days before Labor Day, the U.S. holiday for workers that falls on the first Monday of September.
Bush Offers ‘Blueprint’ for NCLB - (Edweek.org subscription required) With the release last week of the Bush administration’s blueprint for changes to its signature education program, it’s clear that Republicans and Democrats agree that the priority should be improving the nation’s lowest-achieving schools. How to do that, though, will be the subject of partisan debate.
Unions push for pension choice - Teacher and school service personnel unions will ask the state Legislature to let workers choose between two retirement systems, now that a merger of the plans has been deemed unconstitutional.
Raising Enrollment Focus Of Catholic Schools Week - The Archdiocese of Philadelphia introduces an enrollment campaign and expresses support for school choice.
Grand day for students with special needs - Opinion: It’s a rare treat to be present when the Earth moves, when change comes to an institution that has clung to yesterday despite the collapse and transformation of the world it served.
Senate Discusses School Vouchers for Disabled Students - The Bibb County Board of Education is preparing to send a letter to Atlanta denouncing a proposed bill.
Senate set to consider voucher plan for disabled students - Objections to private school vouchers will bump up against an effort to increase choices for students with learning disabilities when the state Senate considers a bill sponsored by its top member.
Freshmen may face changes - Rockford schools are changing how they do freshman year. Judging by failure, truancy, graduation and disciplinary referral rates, they have to change, Auburn High School Principal Richard Jancek said.
Teachers back more school for young kids - Four west-metro kindergarten teachers agree that access to all-day classes would help many kids, but they cautioned that it's not the answer for every student.
Spellings Defends No Child Law - Education Secretary Margaret Spellings downplayed critics of the federal No Child Left Behind law Tuesday as she continued to push for the renewal of the 5-year-old education reform package.
Spitzer Outlines "Tough Love" Approach To Education Reform - Governor Spitzer is calling it "contracts for excellence," and its meaning is simple for the local education officials who sign it.
AFT No Longer a Major Player in Reform Arena - (Edweek.org subscription required) Focus of union changed with loss of leaders and shift in nation's political climate.
Education plan caught in nitty-gritty - Gov. Chris Gregoire pitched her broad preschool-to-university education reform proposal to two Senate education committees Monday.
Evans: Battle violence with education - Cops alone will not solve Philadelphia's violence problem, mayoral candidate Dwight Evans said yesterday.
Evans presents plan to improve schools in city - Mayoral candidate Dwight Evans presented an education strategy yesterday that would put laptop computers in every Philadelphia classroom.
Financial crunch takes its toll; lauded program loses ground - Citing a lack of money, increasing numbers of Wisconsin schools are pulling out of a state program credited with boosting the scores of vulnerable poor and minority students.
UW-Madison professor has a vision for school funding - But will anyone listen? It would mean blowing up the $10 billion system of paying for Wisconsin's public schools.
For schools, an increased sense of urgency - Cody Schara, a sophomore at Baraboo High School north of Madison, wishes he'd been born a few years earlier, before his school axed classes and packed 30 students into some classrooms to save money.
Teachers seek reform during rally in Austin - More than 300 educators, including 12 from El Paso area schools, converged on the Capitol on Monday to let lawmakers know there is still much work to do to improve Texas public schools.
Corporate donations to offset parochial/private school tuitions - A new program, the Rhode Island Corporate Scholarship Tax Credit, will soon provide relief for economically disadvantaged families faced with paying parochial and private school tuitions.
Spellings Hits Road, Stresses Charter Plan - (Edweek.org subscription required) The administration said it would support local decisions to reopen schools identified as needing improvement under the No Child Left Behind law as charters, even if state law limits the number of those independent public schools.
Posted by Daily News at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Teacher Shortages in Australia (Jennifer Buckingham)
The Australian Education Union (AEU) – the peak national union for public education – likes a good crisis as much as the next vested interest, especially if the remedy is money. According to the AEU, Australia is facing a dire shortage of teachers in the next three years.
Continue reading "Teacher Shortages in Australia (Jennifer Buckingham)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)January 29, 2007
Coercive unionism at its worst
Ohio teacher Carol Katter, a devout Catholic, had always refused to join the Ohio Education Association due to the NEA's support for abortion on demand. She tried to exercise her right under state law to withhold her agency fee dues, claiming religious objection; in those circumstances, the union would supposedly donate the dues of such individuals to charity. But she found out the hard way that the actual application of the policy wasn't all that inclusive:
[Katter] later learned that members of only two religions receive the charity exception. "If you're a Seventh-Day Adventist or a Mennonite, you're pretty well covered" because unions "don't hassle them at all" due to those denominations' history of objection to union membership, she said.
While discussing the situation with an OEA official, Katter "pretty much pleaded with the lady," saying: "I can't do this. It's against my belief and my conscience. Isn't there anything I can do to just give the money to charity?"
The teacher's request was turned down "basically because I could not come up with proof that my individual church -- not the Catholic faith, but my individual church -- had a record of anyone having successfully fought a union," she said. "In my little parish church, no one's ever done this, and that's what threw it out."
Katter said the union attorney told her she had two choices - pay her dues or "change religions." [emphasis added]
The resulting lawsuit should be interesting after SCOTUS issues its opinion on the Washington paycheck protection case.
Posted by Ryan Boots at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Morning Shots
Washington Times: High schools eyed in No Child Left Behind renewal
Educators, lawmakers and the White House are indicating that high school reform should be included in this year's renewal of the No Child Left Behind law, and the discussion about what it will include is already under way.
"If we're going to do significant high school reform, this is the vehicle, this is the year," Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE), told educators gathered on Capitol Hill yesterday [Friday].
The administration -- to the chagrin of some conservatives worried about ballooning the law -- included several new high school requirements in its NCLB proposal, such as mandatory dropout-data collection, additional testing standards and more funding for low-income schools.
"I think something can and will happen this year on high school reform," Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said recently.
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Voucher drive gets fresh push
This week's announcement that hundreds of students have been turned away from city public schools has prompted the Archdiocese of New Orleans to renew its push for vouchers, hoping mounting frustration with the current system might finally sway state lawmakers who've historically opposed public financing for private schools.
At the same time, the Rev. William Maestri, superintendent of archdiocesan schools, announced a limited expansion of a scholarship program, inviting any parent of a student wait-listed in a New Orleans public school the chance to enroll in one of his schools.
Expected sponsors of the legislation, Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, and Sen. Derrick Shepherd, D-Marrero, said the political will now exists for the plan to win approval.
"The time has come, and my mind has changed," said Shepherd, who has historically opposed vouchers, as have most New Orleans legislators. "The Recovery School District is broken."
CBS: Prince Charles Visits Harlem Charter School
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, watched schoolchildren pick stocks and perform Shakespeare during a visit to a Harlem charter school on Sunday.
The Prince of Wales, wearing a double-breasted blue suit and dress shoes, even shot baskets during a practice at the school gym.
The royal couple arrived in New York from Philadelphia by private train and toured the Harlem Children's Zone, which operates the Promise Academy charter school and a range of social services and programs dedicated to the betterment of Harlem. The prince later received from Al Gore an award for his efforts to protect the global environment.
Washington Post: Studies Find Benefits to Advanced Placement Courses
Posted by Ryan Boots at 06:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)In the midst of a national debate over whether Advanced Placement courses place too much pressure on U.S. high school students, a team of Texas researchers has concluded that the difficult courses and three-hour exams are worth it.
In the largest study ever of the impact of AP on college success, which looked at 222,289 students from all backgrounds attending a wide range of Texas universities, the researchers said they found "strong evidence of benefits to students who participate in both AP courses and exams in terms of higher GPAs, credit hours earned and four-year graduation rates."
A separate University of Texas study of 24,941 students said those who used their AP credits to take more advanced courses in college had better grades in those courses than similar students who first took college introductory courses instead of AP in 10 subjects.
"Both of these papers are home runs. They definitely settle a lot," said Joseph Hawkins, an AP expert and senior study director for the private research firm Westat in Rockville.
Education News for Monday, January 29
No Child Left Behind: Reform in Need of Reform - Opinion: This month marks the fifth anniversary of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the key education initiative of the Bush administration. Is it time to renew our vows, or go our separate ways?
5 years after No Child Left Behind - The intent of the No Child Left Behind Act is spelled out right there in the title. But the net results have been somewhat different for some local educators, who have spent the last five years working to comply with the controversial law.
More Minority Teachers Earn National Certification (Edweek.org subscription required) - The number of minority teachers receiving national certification shot up this year, suggesting that the advanced credential may have started to better penetrate schools serving poor, minority children.
Better School Reform - Opinion: Adrian Fenty, then a member of the Washington D.C. City Council, opposed mayoral takeover of D.C. schools, as did I. Now recently elected D.C. mayor, he has changed his mind. I have not.
MPS predicts enrollment dip - Enrollment in the main roster of Milwaukee Public Schools is expected to take its sharpest dip in years this fall, dropping by more than 3,300 students.
Shore up schools: Vouchers would only weaken the public system - Editorial: Proponents of private-school voucher bills can tweak the details this way and that, but the reason that Utah legislators should vote against them for the third year in a row hasn't changed: Taxes collected by the state to fund public schools should be used only for that purpose, not to help parents pay to educate their children in private schools.
School Vouchers for Private School Tuition Stirring Debate - Backers of school vouchers say they are confident their bill will pass -- but opponents say they aren't playing fair.
High schools eyed in No Child Left Behind renewal - Educators, lawmakers and the White House are indicating that high school reform should be included in this year's renewal of the No Child Left Behind law, and the discussion about what it will include is already under way.
Proposals take aim at UEA dominance - Some lawmakers are making legislative efforts to level the playing field for competing teacher associations in Utah, giving all groups equal access to teachers and prohibiting school districts from endorsing the Utah Education Association or any other group.
LAUSD officials to push changes in Sacramento - Los Angeles Unified School District officials plan to visit Sacramento next week to establish a better relationship with new lawmakers and push for changes in state law to help the district's building program.
Voucher drive gets fresh push - This week's announcement that hundreds of students have been turned away from city public schools has prompted the Archdiocese of New Orleans to renew its push for vouchers, hoping mounting frustration with the current system might finally sway state lawmakers who've historically opposed public financing for private schools.
Math and science gap - Editorial: It's critical that lawmakers and educators move quickly to improve math and science education.
State assessment tests have lost their value - Opinion: In 2002, No Child Left Behind had a comforting ring to it. No child will fall through the cracks; no child should fail. Five years later, I am truly struggling with this education legislation as an English teacher.
Is parity funding ahead for charters? - Utah charter school leaders could be checking off their wish list this session after meeting with lawmakers who want to give charters funding parity with traditional schools and more money for administrative costs.
Senate expected to take vote on school vouchers - The state Senate is expected to vote next week on a measure that would allow vouchers for special needs students in Georgia.
Performance issues add to drive for school reform - Rhode Island’s teachers’ unions, long under political fire, are bracing for a tough year as a tight state budget, new restrictions on municipal and school district spending, and growing frustration with urban schools’ performance build up the momentum for reform.
Prince Charles Visits Harlem Charter School - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, visited Harlem on Sunday afternoon and toured a charter school.
Vouchers could send disabled to private schools - Special-education students could get vouchers from their public schools to offset the cost of private schooling under a bill pending in the Georgia Senate.
The ugly secret in school success - Editorial: As Lee County, Virginia's test scores were going up, the graduation rate it reported to the federal government was going down, from 84 percent in 2004 to 76 percent in 2005 to about 70 percent in 2006. The slippage didn't affect accreditation, because - astonishingly - keeping kids enrolled isn't required by the commonwealth. That makes a mockery of education reform.
School vouchers are divisive issue - Opinion column featuring differing perspectives on pending voucher legislation in Utah.
Financial crunch takes its toll; lauded program loses ground - Citing a lack of money, increasing numbers of Wisconsin schools are pulling out of a state program credited with boosting the scores of vulnerable poor and minority students.
Give kids a choice and a chance in school - Opinion: What can possibly be wrong with letting low-income parents use their tax dollars to save their children from failing schools in Texas' largest cities?
Lesser-known test gauges national academic progress - Most people in Michigan schools know all about MEAP. But NAEP? ``Even some teachers don't know about that,'' says Sue Wakefield, superintendent of Plainwell Community Schools.
No Child Left Behind's benefit found in the details - With all the things associated with student success, it's hard to find anyone in Virginia singing the praises of No Child Left Behind, the federal law that went into effect five years ago this month.
Are fewer children being left behind? - A look at the impact of NCLB.
No Child Left Behind Mandate Faces Contrasting Degree of Appraisal, Support - Some educators call President George W Bush's 'No Child Left Behind' the most challenging legislation since segregation -- mainly because federal legislation targets broad statistics rather than an individual in a diverse student body.
American education needs reform, not more money - Letter to the editor: In Detroit, the school voucher system rewards good teachers, got rid of poor ones and the students were excited to learn. That's what we need.
Mayor opens floodgates - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa failed to win cooperation, lost in court and now has one shot left to take over some of L.A.'s lowest-performing schools - by winning control of the school board. But having sparked an intense public debate about the successes and failures of Los Angeles Unified, Villaraigosa finds that his own plan is just one of the various subplots unfolding for reform of the 710,000-student district.
Prejudices against teachers, not facts - Letter to the editor: The LA Times' latest anti-teacher editorial is long on opinion and short on facts.
Worry, anger at school's plight - Critics say that a drastic move to reinvigorate a struggling Maryland high school might do more harm than good.
Korean educators eye program - The open classroom concept this week brought Korean educators and graduate students across the Pacific to a Salt Lake City elementary school.
A private choice on education - Elite private schools say that more students are coming from North Jersey's prestigious public districts -- even though yearly tuitions are as high as $30,000 on top of the steep taxes paid in affluent communities.
Achieve gap still too wide - Boston school officials will never close the so-called “achievement gap” between whites and minorities, boys and girls, and special-education students and their peers, until all schools have the same resources, parents said Saturday.
Just how well have charter schools worked? - Ten years into the charter school movement, the Texas experiment, like those under way around the country, is a confusing mix of extremes, and hardly the transformative educational experience reformers predicted.
One-third of students in Texas don't graduate - One out of three Texas students don't graduate, and more students drop out than finish high school in the state's largest cities, according to education experts.
No choice in the choice model - Opinion: The Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Recovery School District have placed over 300 children on waiting lists as leadership for the state-run schools rush to open additional facilities and find more teachers. If waiting lists are harbingers of things to come, then there seems to be no choice in the choice model for the most vulnerable of students.
Education ideas deserve a full debate in Capitol - If this year's session of the Georgia General Assembly needs an issue it can jump into with both feet, we have a suggestion: Education, specifically how to raise the state's academic performance through innovation, expansion and better funding.
Teachers union elects new chief - The state's public school teachers have selected David Sanchez, an elementary school teacher from Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County), as president of the California Teachers Association.
Activists Organize To Fight Fenty Plan - Fenty's proposal is intended to reduce the power of the Board of Education and transfer authority over the school superintendent and budget to himself and the D.C. Council. Roughly two dozen diehard community activists are waging a desperate campaign to rally opposition to the mayor's proposal.
Education Reforms Get Mixed Reviews - Democrats and teachers' unions are criticizing the Bush administration for proposing to let school officials override collective bargaining agreements and state laws in an effort to reshape the No Child Left Behind law.
Pointing the way out of ed failures - Editorial: The president’s ideas are sensible and a logical next step on the road to education reform. Sadly, they’re getting a shrug and a wave of the hand from the new Democratic majority who seem to like only those of the president’s ideas that involve paying teachers more.
East Throws Zones a Curve - The potential switch from school choice to attendance zones in Rockford, Illinois has the community divided.
Test results sink in for educators - Montana students are barely a month away from the next round of federally mandated reading and math tests as their teachers begin poring over results from 2006. But the scramble is already on, because next year it will be even harder to pass. And yet, as Montana educators absorb the data of their Adequate Yearly Progress reports, one quiet reaction is “so what?”
Education plan works; it should be renewed - Editorial: Despite its bureaucratic faults, No Child is showing real achievement gains, even in low-income schools where longstanding school quality problems have confounded decades of federal administrations. Now, the act should help provide schools with the best methods on how to improve, not simply expand funding.
Q&A: Education commission chair backs charter schools - An interview with Dennis Roch, chairman of New Mexico’s Public Education Commission. Roch’s district encompasses five counties in eastern New Mexico.
American businesses want schools to fix defective 'product' - Dozens of business groups have formed the Business Coalition for Student Achievement. The coalition's goal is to convince Congress to keep the needs of employers in mind when they revisit the issue of education reform this year.
NASBE Issues Guiding Principles for NCLB Reauthorization - The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) last week released a list of "guiding principles" that it hopes Congress will consider as it makes modifications to the No Child Left Behind Act.
Teacher-coaching cuts - A budget deficit is forcing the Philadelphia public school district to put teacher coaches back in regular classroom teaching jobs.
Bring back vocational ed - Editorial: A worthy measure in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget is being dwarfed by the hullabaloo swirling around healthcare reform: increased funding for vocational education.
Tuition credit is voucher system in disguise - Opinion: How many Iowans are aware that on May 2, 2006, a bill to establish the equivalent of a private-school voucher system was introduced into the state Senate and overwhelmingly passed that very same day by both legislative chambers?
A genius who trusted the marketplace - Opinion: Some might ask, who the heck is Milton Friedman, and why should he get a day?
Educators, parents question No Child Left Behind - U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., has surveyed more than 2,000 educators, school principals and administrators, parents, education experts and others regarding their experiences and perspectives on the federal No Child Left Behind Law.
Students, teachers weigh in, as 'Left Behind' up for renewal - The debate over NCLB continues to polarize parents, teachers and politicians.
'No Child' act imposes draconian rule - Opinion: Has there ever been a more ill-conceived attempt to improve education than the No Child Left Behind act?
Local leaders hear report on education - A first-hand report of Margaret Spellings's appearance in the Dallas area to speak on NCLB.
Harlem charter school plays host to Britain's royals - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, visited Harlem yesterday as part of their whirlwind American weekend, stopping at a charter school where they answered children's questions and the prince shot some hoops with a basketball team.
New York’s Public Schools - Editorial: New York lawmakers and the State Board of Regents are rightly nervous about the school reforms recently announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Tokofsky's files tell quite a story - A look at the work of an L.A. Unified school board member.
Studies Find Benefits to Advanced Placement Courses - In the midst of a national debate over whether Advanced Placement courses place too much pressure on U.S. high school students, a team of Texas researchers has concluded that the difficult courses and three-hour exams are worth it.
Why Read Shakespeare When Clancy Can Get You a Pizza Party? - The 20-year-old Accelerated Reader program has drawn raves from some teachers and principals who say it helps them monitor students' supplemental-reading progress. But to some parents, the levels and points give kids a disincentive to read the classics.
UPDATE:
The Power of Milton Friedman - Milton himself was simply what he was: the best of all possible professors, one who reminded the world of what it knew as common sense before Keynesianism made it forget.
Milton and Rose Friedman: Liberty's Couple - In what we hope is the beginning of what will eventually become a national memorial, the Chicago City Council declared January 29, 2007, to be Milton Friedman Day.
A Free-Market Economist, Up by His Bootstraps - Milton Friedman, arguably the most influential economist of the 20th century, died in November at 94, and today the world is commemorating him.
Schools bring in diversity expert - A magnet school can be a possibility for any family, because even a well-performing traditional public school can't please everyone, says a Connecticut education consultant.
Displaced Children Welcomed into Catholic Schools - Fr. William Maestri announced that the 300 children denied places in the public schools of the state-run New Orleans Recovery District System, will be offered places in the Archdiocesan Schools, at the expense of the Catholic Church.
L.A. Mayor Wants to Build a 'Schoolhouse For Reform' - The mayor of Los Angeles is fighting back against an attorney for the school board who compared the mayor's effort to bring area schools under his control to placing Jiffy Lube in charge of more than 700,000 California students.
Thousands hope to win magnet-school lottery - But this one won't bring millions of dollars - rather, it will allow the parents to send their son to the school of their choice.
Spitzer seeks school reforms, more charter schools - Schools would have to improve student performance and defend the use of tax dollars in exchange for historic amounts of new aid, while failing schools could be closed, under proposals by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
Spitzer’s Education Czar - Gov. Eliot Spitzer formally announced today that Rochester Schools Superintendent Manuel Rivera will serve in the newly-created position of senior education policy adviser, a post that pays $169,000-a-year.
D.C. School Board Approves Reform Plan - The D.C. Board of Education approved a school reform plan today in an emergency meeting that members said had seven goals for improved student achievement and was better than the proposal put forth from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.
When principals in N.M. make less than teachers, few want a promotion - At a recent meeting of West Side principals, the question popped up: Who's considering a move back to teaching?
Harness students’ passion to get through graduation - Opinion: Students’ own passions are rarely welcome in school — which kids resent.
One teen's struggles preparing for standardized test - There is no time to waste at the Boston Community Leadership Academy, where the teachers and 10th-graders have mere months left to prepare for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test.
An Update on Ohio (T.J. Wallace)
Newsflash: More than 100,000 K-12 students are now eligible for the Ohio EdChoice Scholarship program!!
Continue reading "An Update on Ohio (T.J. Wallace)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)January 26, 2007
Friedman documentary
Scheduled to coincide with Milton Friedman Day next Monday, January 29, a documentary on Milton Friedman will be broadcast next week on a variety of PBS stations. Go here to find out when it appears in your area.
Whither NCLB choice?
With President Bush's SOTU address Tuesday and the USDOE's announcements Wednesday, the NCLB reauthorization saga has officially begun. Linkage on it is all over the place on yesterday's news and Morning Shots; there's commentary on it here and, if you search really carefully, here.
Yes, I'm very pleased to see that Bush is revving up for a big NCLB school choice push. I'm likewise happy to see that Spellings is promising to be "much more aggressive and much more vigorous" on extending choice to children in failing public schools.
However. Even beyond the undeniable political difficulties that will arise over this (neither Checker Finn nor Mike Petrilli expect Bush's school choice proposals to get out of committee), there's something else here that really bugs me. Joe Williams actually summed it up:
...Democrats are forbidden from talking about anything interesting when it comes to education, while Republicans do nothing but talk.
Continue reading "Whither NCLB choice?" »
Posted by Ryan Boots at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Morning Shots
Chicago Tribune: Education secretary lobbies for Bush plan
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings spent the day in Chicago Thursday, lobbying students, teachers, school officials and business leaders to support proposed changes to the No Child Left Behind law.
Visiting a Near West Side charter high school and business leaders at the Aon Center in downtown Chicago, Spellings praised the program but called for significant changes that would, among other things, give school districts more power to help students trapped in chronically failing schools.
"I am convinced that we are on the right track with No Child Left Behind, but I like to say that we are pleased, but not satisfied," Spellings said to representatives from the Illinois Business Roundtable. "We need to start paying more attention to the chronically underperforming schools, where we have children that have been trapped for years and years."
Macon Telegraph: Education bill clears panel
A bill that would allow disabled children to get government scholarships to attend private schools narrowly passed committee Thursday, setting up a potential debate in the state Senate early next week.
The committee heard pleas on both sides of the issue, with some wanting parents to have more choice when it comes to special education. Others are concerned the program would leave students in the lurch at private schools without state and federal oversight.
There are also wider concerns that the bill is a first push toward a broader voucher program for all students, which critics fear would sap money from public schools.
The measure, Senate Bill 10, passed the Senate Education and Youth Committee 5-4. Now it heads to the Rules Committee, which has to place it on the full Senate's calendar for a floor debate. That could happen as soon as Monday, with a full-blown debate following soon after, bill sponsor and Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson said Thursday.
Deseret Morning News: House set to OK vouchers?
Utah House leaders said Thursday they think they have the votes to pass the perennially controversial voucher bill, marking the first time House GOP leaders have predicted passage of the measure that pits public education advocates against private school voucher supporters.
"I think I got 38 votes," a majority in the House, said House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, also predicted it would pass and he added that anti-voucher advocates are "freaked out" over the vote not going their way.
The claims come amid angry backroom battles, with both sides claiming the other is playing foul, arm-twisting politics.
"They may have 38 votes, but I think it is doubtful," countered Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, a longtime Republican moderate who has orchestrated the defeat of past voucher bills in the 75-member Utah House.
Topeka Capital-Journal: Charter school issue to again be considered
Posted by Ryan Boots at 05:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Charter school plans will get another shot before the Topeka Unified School District 501 school board...
"This is exciting," charter petitioner Betty Horton said as she read a message informing her of the meeting. "This is unbelievable."
Earlier this month, board members unanimously rejected three requests to open charter schools — including two that would have been located in the historic but unused Sumner Elementary School.
Education News for Friday, January 26
Our president, right or wrong - Editorial: Democrats hated President George W. Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday night, not so much because of what he said but because of how he said it.
Secretary Spellings Meets with Business Leaders, Students, and Teachers in Chicago to Promote Education Priorities - Press release: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings kicked off a national dialogue Thursday in Chicago with top business leaders, students, teachers, and school officials to promote Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act.
Education secretary lobbies for Bush plan - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings spent the day in Chicago Thursday, lobbying students, teachers, school officials and business leaders to support proposed changes to the No Child Left Behind law.
Vouchers for special-needs students proposed - This year's most widely debated Georgia education bill, which would allow vouchers for special-needs students, could be voted on by the full Senate next week.
Intensify education reform efforts - Editorial: Tax rates for Ohioans should not be set by a panel composed of just 19 people. Yet, if backers of a proposed education funding amendment to the state’s Constitution have their way, that is precisely what will happen.
The more school choice the better - Opinion: According to Mrs. Spellings, 1,800 of America's public schools are in trouble, failing to help our children reach even the basic, on-grade levels of math and reading so that they can become productive citizens who take care of their own families. Shame on us if we don't get it right this time around.
Sugarhouse: Try out another school - Salt Lake City School District officials are encouraging parents to take advantage of the district's school-choice policy.
Graduation rates a local concern - Massachusetts might have a higher high school graduation rate than the national average, but recent data shows minority, poor and special needs students are struggling to get a diploma.
If Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act Gets Renewed, Let’s Be Sure to Properly Fund It This Time - Opinion: With the Democrats exerting their recently won power in the Congress, now is the time for progressive thinkers to fight for an increase in education spending.
Teachers tell Courtney No Child Left Behind punitive - U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, made his first “Listening Tour” stop Thursday at Connecticut College and local educators gave him an earful about why Congress shouldn’t renew the No Child Left Behind Act.
Manchin invokes deficit to counter higher raises push - West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has warned lawmakers that they risk huge budget deficits by mid-2009 if they attempt more generous pay raises than what he has proposed for teachers and other public workers.
Charter school issue to again be considered - Charter school plans will get another shot before the Topeka Unified School District 501 school board.
Education bill clears panel - A Georgia bill that would allow disabled children to get government scholarships to attend private schools narrowly passed committee Thursday, setting up a potential debate in the state Senate early next week.
House set to OK vouchers? - Utah House leaders said Thursday they think they have the votes to pass the perennially controversial voucher bill, marking the first time House GOP leaders have predicted passage of the measure that pits public education advocates against private school voucher supporters.
Voucher backers spreading message - A group advocating for government vouchers for private school tuition is hitting the airwaves — and the pavement — hard with its campaign for more school choice in Utah.
More charter schools pitched - Illinois law caps the number of public charter schools at 60, but if President Bush has his way, school districts here and in other states could override state law to convert as many failing schools into charters as they wanted.
Posted by Daily News at 05:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Teachers Go to Washington (Jeff Leer)
As I stood shivering in the frigid morning air, my mind scrolled back to all the events that have transpired to bring me to this moment. In particular I remembered a conversation I had with a seasoned veteran teacher at my school who told me that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn. My reminiscing was brutally interrupted by the cutting wind that was blowing at 5:00 a.m. as I held on tightly to my cup of coffee, hoping to suck out every ounce of heat I could. Here I was standing with a number of teachers on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States, hoping to get a seat to hear oral arguments in a case that had it origins some 14 years ago.
Continue reading "Teachers Go to Washington (Jeff Leer)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)January 25, 2007
Please Save the Baby in the Bathwater, President Bush! (Matthew Ladner)
President Bush said the following about education in the State of the Union address:
Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in life. Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, preserving local control, raising standards, and holding those schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap.
Now the task is to build on the success, without watering down standards, without taking control from local communities, and without backsliding and calling it reform. We can lift student achievement even higher by giving local leaders flexibility to turn around failing schools, and by giving families with children stuck in failing schools the right to choose someplace better. We must increase funds for students who struggle -- and make sure these children get the special help they need. And we can make sure our children are prepared for the jobs of the future and our country is more competitive by strengthening math and science skills. The No Child Left Behind Act has worked for America's children -- and I ask Congress to reauthorize this good law.
Having recently hopped into the skeptic column on NCLB, I decided to do a quick check on the President’s empirical assertion that students are performing better in reading and math, and that minority students are closing the achievement gap.
Continue reading "Please Save the Baby in the Bathwater, President Bush! (Matthew Ladner)" »
Posted by Featured Guest at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Merit pay: good for students and teachers
Jay Greene and Marcus Winters at the University of Arkansas recently released a very interesting study on merit pay. It centers on an experiment at five elementary schools in Little Rock. Greene et al set up an experimental group and a control group, meaning they were able to compare results. Even proponents of merit pay may be surprised by the findings: math scores of students taught by those participating in the merit pay program increased by an average of 3.5 normal curve points in a single year (equivalent to an average of 7 percentile points per student), while students in the control group saw their scores decrease.
Since the devil is always in the details, it's worth taking a moment to discuss the design of the program. Four of the schools participating based teacher bonuses on the average growth in the classroom, whereas the fifth was based on the number of individual students who achieve higher test scores. A hypothetical from the report:
For example, if a first grade teacher at Geyer Springs has 20 students and 10 students improve by 10 NCE points and 10 students decline by 10 NCE points, then the class average growth is 0. The teacher receives a bonus of $1,000 ($50 times 20 students). If this first grade teacher is at Meadowcliff and 10 students improve by 10 NCE points and 10 students decline by 10 NCE points, then the class average growth is 0. However, the Meadowcliff teacher receives a bonus of $3,000 ($300 times 10 students who gained 10 NCE points plus $0 for each of the 10 students who decline 10 NCE points). The potentially negative incentive for teachers to focus only on selected students in the Meadowcliff payout plan contributed to the payout change in the other schools. However, since the teachers at Meadowcliff approved the program in 2004-05 based on the per student payout structure, the payout scheme was not changed.
So the way the program is structured at the majority of the schools, the overall tide must rise in order for teachers to benefit. Teachers who don't see overall scores increase will only receive a token bonus ($1000 for the year isn't a whole lot, especially compared to what they can stand to make when their students' scores improve, and is likely only a token incentive to persuade teachers to opt in).
In the interests of looking into some of the perceived advantages and disadvantages of merit pay, the study also included interviews with teachers in both groups. This is where the more startling observations are found:
- The more prevalent criticisms of merit pay by detractors, such as corrosive competition or a negative work environment, didn't surface in the study. In fact, the opposite may have occurred: 83 percent of teachers participating in the program reported increased collaborations with fellow teachers, compared with just 19 percent of teachers outside of the program. There were similarly lopsided responses with respect to counterproductive competition: 22 percent of teachers in the merit pay program agreed that this occurred, compared to 74 percent of teachers outside the program.
- Teachers participating in the program didn't report being more innovative or working harder than their colleagues who didn't participate in the program.
- Teachers receiving merit pay "were more likely than comparison teachers to view low-performing students as an opportunity to demonstrate teaching ability rather than as a burden."
In short, a properly designed merit pay program can have significant benefits for both teachers and students. It sounds like one of the reasons teachers participating in the program didn't report any of the negatives commonly associated with merit pay is because the program was deliberately designed to avoid them. Rather than having to choose between helping students or teachers, this would seem to be a policy that does both: teachers have a built-in incentive to collaborate and help one another, meaning students overall benefit. I'd say this is a good thing, something teachers' unions should (in theory) applaud. If one of the goals is to professionalize teaching, it sounds like merit pay, particularly the version employed at the majority of schools in the program, is a professional and fair way to deal with a challenge.
Alas, the unions are withholding their applause; the NEA tried to make some hay out of the study's limitations (it's the first year of the study, and due to a variety of data issues, only math scores were used). But that it's only the study's first year is, in itself, a very heartening thing. With a lot of education reforms, it takes at least three to four years before measurable results can be found. It appears that, with a properly structured program, merit pay could be the exception to that rule.
In any event, these results are very encouraging; with NCLB reauthorization debate in full swing, maybe merit pay will have a shot at finding a place in the law. Even though teachers don't think they're working any harder or more creatively, students still do better? And low-performing students particularly stand to benefit? Is it possible that, for once in education, somebody has found a way to productively throw money at the problem?
For more thoughts on merit pay, check out this excellent post by Hube at Colossus of Rhodey. (Hat tip to this week's Carnival of Education, brought to you by Education Wonks.)
Morning Shots
Washington Post: Bush Proposes Adding Private School Vouchers to 'No Child' Law
The Bush administration yesterday unveiled an education plan that would allow poor students at chronically failing public schools to use federal vouchers to attend private and religious schools, angering Democrats who vowed to fight the measure.
The private school vouchers, which on average would be worth $4,000, were among a series of proposals presented yesterday that President Bush hopes will be included in the reauthorization of his signature education initiative, No Child Left Behind.
In a conference call with reporters, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the initiatives were necessary to help students in the nation's 1,800 most persistently under-performing schools.
"How do we answer the question: What do we do for kids trapped in schools that continue to under-perform?" she said. "Is the promise of No Child Left Behind real?"
Washington Times: Spellings stands firm on '