This Week in Education - November 12 - November 18, 2009
Highlighted Bills of the week
(Bill summaries provided by
State Net)
Louisiana – H 570 Enacted:
Requires the governing authority of a public elementary or secondary school to formulate, develop, adopt, and implement policies, procedures, and practices applicable to school employees that relate to electronic communications by an employee at the school to a student enrolled at that school; provides policy guidelines and requirements; provides limitations and exceptions; provides for immunity from civil liability.
Washington – H 2261 Enacted:
Adopts definitions, requirements, and financing formulas for a program of basic education and an instructional program that the legislature deems complies with Article IX of the state Constitution which provides that it is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex. Accountability and assessment: Requires the state to develop a new accountability index and specifies the use of assessments in evaluating performance. Teacher Issues: Convenes a working group to examine teacher issues such as distribution, compensation and evaluation; instructs the professional educator standards board to adopt a definition of master teacher.
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Stimulus and the States
The U.S. Department of Education last week issued a detailed list of data and information that states will need to submit if they want to get a piece of the second and final round of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money—$11.5 billion this time—under the federal economic-stimulus program.
It’s official: Nevada has been shut out of the “ Race to the Top,” a federal grant program offering $4.35 billion to improve the nation’s public schools. Keith Rheault, Nevada’s superintendent of public instruction, said Thursday “it’s looking pretty hopeless ... they won’t even let us come to the starting line.” To compete for the grants, states must, among other qualifying criteria, allow the use of student test scores in the evaluation of their teachers. During a special legislative session in 2003, Nevada lawmakers passed a last-minute bill that explicitly prohibited using test data in teacher evaluations.
Educators argue endlessly about the merits of one idea or another to improve schools. But with billions of dollars at stake, the Obama administration Thursday will lay out a novel federal system for keeping score.
With the starting gun sounding this week for the competitive, federal Race to the Top education-grant program, Colorado suddenly finds itself competing for a smaller prize. The federal government on Thursday released final rules for the $4.35 billion contest for extra stimulus money to be handed to states with the most innovative education reforms. Colorado has been working for months on plans for how to win upwards of $300 million. But the Obama administration has divided the money into four pots, based on state population. This means Colorado now is eligible to receive up to $175 million.
Dropouts
According to the brief, Teaching for a New World: Preparing High School Educators to Deliver College- and Career-Ready Instruction, educating all students to the high standards now required for success in college and careers requires a host of new skills that many secondary school teachers do not currently develop during pre-service preparation or in-service professional development. The brief identifies five critical areas for teachers to develop competency before they enter the classroom in order to be effective.
This publication describes 23 programs that have been proven to help young people successfully complete high school and be prepared for success in postsecondary education and careers. These programs represent a wide range of interventions, including school-wide reform initiatives, community-based afterschool services, work-based learning opportunities, and college access programs. From an analysis of the included programs, the report identifies common programmatic and structural elements that may contribute to their effectiveness and summarizes key outcomes. The publication also sets forth a logic model that illustrates the complexity of the process for youth to develop the foundational knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal resources required for success in careers, lifelong learning, and civic engagement, as well as the various systems and service providers that support youth at each step of the developmental pipeline. The report concludes with policy recommendations on how policymakers can support college- and career-readiness for all students.
The report draws from CEP's eight-year study of high school exit exams to identify long-term trends in state policies and student performance. It highlights a growing trend among states to establish alternate pathways to graduation for students who are struggling to pass exit exams. The report also analyzes exit exam pass rates and finds that 11 of the 16 states showed an average annual growth in the proportion of students passing the test in reading and 13 states showed average annual growth in mathematics. Although many states narrowed the gaps in initial pass rates between the various student subgroups over the years, the gaps remain large in both subjects.
A new system of alternative schools could help re-enroll thousands of high school dropouts every year. But the state’s budget crisis threatens the plan.
Leadership
The U.S. Department of Education last week issued a detailed list of data and information that states will need to submit if they want to get a piece of the second and final round of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money—$11.5 billion this time—under the federal economic-stimulus program.
It’s official: Nevada has been shut out of the “ Race to the Top,” a federal grant program offering $4.35 billion to improve the nation’s public schools. Keith Rheault, Nevada’s superintendent of public instruction, said Thursday “it’s looking pretty hopeless ... they won’t even let us come to the starting line.” To compete for the grants, states must, among other qualifying criteria, allow the use of student test scores in the evaluation of their teachers. During a special legislative session in 2003, Nevada lawmakers passed a last-minute bill that explicitly prohibited using test data in teacher evaluations.
Educators argue endlessly about the merits of one idea or another to improve schools. But with billions of dollars at stake, the Obama administration Thursday will lay out a novel federal system for keeping score.
With the starting gun sounding this week for the competitive, federal Race to the Top education-grant program, Colorado suddenly finds itself competing for a smaller prize. The federal government on Thursday released final rules for the $4.35 billion contest for extra stimulus money to be handed to states with the most innovative education reforms. Colorado has been working for months on plans for how to win upwards of $300 million. But the Obama administration has divided the money into four pots, based on state population. This means Colorado now is eligible to receive up to $175 million.
School Choice
The Wake County school system -- the largest in North Carolina and the 18th largest nationally -- has gotten notice for innovative integration efforts that since 2000 have relied not on race but on income levels reported by families on applications for federally subsidized lunches, with the system aiming for a maximum concentration of 40% low-income students at any one school.
Arizona's flourishing charter school movement underscores the popular appeal of unfettered school choice and the creativity of some educational entrepreneurs. But the state also offers a cautionary lesson as President Obama pushes to dismantle barriers to charter schools elsewhere: It is difficult to promote quantity and quality at the same time. Under a 1994 law that strongly favors charter schools, 500 of them operate in this state, teaching more than 100,000 students. Those totals account for a quarter of Arizona's public schools and a tenth of its public school enrollment, giving charters a larger market share here than in any other state.
The state Senate last night passed a sweeping education bill, the most significant in more than 15 years, giving Massachusetts an edge in a scramble to compete for $250 million in federal education grants. The package the Senate passed, called the most extensive since the Education Reform Act of 1993, would give the state and local school districts more authority in intervening in underperforming schools, create a system for specialized schools in local districts, and effectively double the number of charter school seats that can be located in underperforming districts.
Rebuffed by the Legislature last session in his attempt to raise the state cap on the number of charter schools (now set at 215), state Education Commissioner Robert Scott then took a closer reading of the law — and found a way to add scores of new charter schools, with or without legislative blessing.
Teaching
Though conceding it was a close call, a federal judge refused to halt Hawaii's teacher furloughs, and called on the state and lawyers for parents who filed two lawsuits to quickly reach an out-of-court settlement.
P-12
A proposal before Massachusetts lawmakers aimed at protecting students who voice religious views at public schools is being assailed by advocates of separation of church and state, who say it forces religion on people.
Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of legislation in 1984 that forced all Missouri school districts to offer the experimental Parents as Teachers program to families living in their boundaries. Not just to targeted families. Not just for low-income families. But any family in every district. The universal mandate, inserted into the bill at the 11th hour, probably was intended to kill it, Winter and others said. Such scope, it seemed, would render the program unfundable and unmanageable. But Parents as Teachers, with the backing of Gov. Kit Bond and Education Commissioner Arthur Mallory, forged ahead.
After years of delays, the Legislature appears poised to crack down on bullying among schoolchildren, with hearings beginning this week on nearly a dozen bills that would force local schools to respond more aggressively to instances of cruelty among students.
When the state’s new accountability plan is fully implemented, students in Mississippi will be able to compete with others across the country, educators say. At the end of this week the state Board of Education will vote to approve school and district classifications, the first to be given under the new model. The results will be released to the public Nov. 23.
Ohio is poised to be among the first states to adopt new curriculum standards that 48 states are helping to craft. State education officials said yesterday that Ohio is committed to following the national Common Core Standards Initiative, a state-led process to develop benchmarks in English and mathematics for grades kindergarten through 12.
Post-Secondary Education
In 2007, Latinos made up nearly 12 percent of the 12th-grade class and less than 6 percent of freshmen in the university system. About 20 percent of first-graders that year were Latino.
All the universities have increased their numbers, but educators say that hasn't been enough to keep pace with the students on the way and the state's need for an educated workforce.
A new survey intended to evaluate online-learning policies and practices from coast to coast reveals significant growth in state and district support for this instructional model at the K-12 level. At least 25 states now lead statewide online-learning initiatives, according to the survey, which is a dramatic increase from the 15 states driving programs only a year ago.
School Finance
Schools are gearing up for a legal battle against state legislators — a battle that lawmakers say Kansans can't afford. A coalition of 57 districts met last week to discuss suing the state because of cuts to education funding that they said could leave schools short on money for years to come.
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