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June 29, 2007
Morning Shots
Washington Post: Divided court limits use of race by school districts
A divided Supreme Court yesterday restricted the ability of public school districts to use race to determine which schools students can attend, a decision that could sharply limit integration programs across the nation.
The nine justices split decisively along ideological grounds, with a five-justice majority ruling that school admission programs in Seattle and Louisville violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection to individuals. Educators said the decision may lead many districts to drop efforts at racially balancing schools.
"The lesson of history is not that efforts to continue racial segregation are constitutionally indistinguishable from efforts to achieve racial integration," Breyer wrote. "Indeed, it is a cruel distortion of history to compare Topeka, Kansas, in the 1950s to Louisville and Seattle in the modern day."
Kennedy said that race could perhaps be considered in the tools that school districts use to bring "together students of diverse backgrounds and races." He mentioned magnet schools, "strategic site selection" of new schools, redrawing attendance zones and other measures.
The long-awaited ruling has newspapers across the country analyzing the decision and what it means for schools across the country. Charles Lane offers an analysis in the Washington Post, while the editorial boards of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post all weighed in on the decision. The New York Times also offers a glimpse into the integration programs across the country that could be affected and how two programs have been successful.
Miami Herald: Schools to find out their letter grades
It's that day again. When school leaders and administration get to feel what it's like to be a student coming home with the final report card of the year. To see how Florida schools fared this year, check out the Florida Department of Education's school report card.
After weeks of uncertainty, letter grades for Florida schools will finally be released Friday. Though the annual rating of public schools is typically released in mid-June, the process was delayed because of errors in scoring the third-grade reading portion of the 2006 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Statewide last year, a record 1,466 schools earned an A. In Broward, 157 schools had an A; 179 schools had an A in Miami-Dade.
There have been concerns this year that the number of A schools could decrease -- and that the number of F schools could increase -- because the science portion of the FCAT will count toward school grades for the first time.
Los Angeles Times: 2 charter schools get one-year reprieve
Two popular charter schools that faced immediate closure because of low test scores won a one-year reprieve Thursday from the Los Angeles Board of Education. Discovery Preparatory high school in Pacoima and Pacifica Community Charter, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in West Los Angeles, will use the time to make the case to local and state officials that their schools are getting better and are worthy of keeping open.
But the news wasn't all bad. The school board, at the recommendation of staff, simultaneously approved a new one-year charter for each school. Officials acknowledged that to close the schools now would deny their operators due process to appeal first to the county Board of Education and then, if necessary, to the state Board of Education.
Unmoved, board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, a frequent skeptic of charter schools, voted to shutter both. "I know the time is late," she said, "but we have many, many other charter schools that have adhered to this timeline."
Los Angeles Unified oversees 103 charter schools, the most in the nation. The charter office has dealt with 18 renewal petitions this year; 15 have been or likely will be granted.
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