Education Program
This Week in Education
November 15 - November 21, 2007
Education Finance K-12
Judge stops enforcement of silence law
A federal judge put a stop Thursday to enforcing a mandatory moment of silence in Illinois public schools that opponents say is an attempt to institute school prayer. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ordered the State Board of Education not to enforce the new law while a suit filed by the father of a public school student proceeds. On Wednesday, the judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the moment of silence in that student's suburban Chicago school district.
Teacher loses battle to arm self at school
An Oregon trial court has upheld a school district’s policy prohibiting teachers from carrying firearms in school, even though a state law allows licensed gun owners to carry concealed weapons in public places.
Judge stops enforcement of silence law
CHICAGO — A federal judge put a stop Thursday to enforcing a mandatory moment of silence in Illinois public schools that opponents say is an attempt to institute school prayer. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ordered the State Board of Education not to enforce the new law while a suit filed by the father of a public school student proceeds. On Wednesday, the judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the moment of silence in that student's suburban Chicago school district.
Leadership
School Choice
Union to Help Charter Firm Start School in the Bronx
Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school operator from Los Angeles, is seeking to expand into New York with the cooperation of the teachers’ union. Under the proposal, Green Dot, which is heavily financed by the billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, would open a high school in the South Bronx. The school, which must be approved by the state, would become one of only a handful of charter schools in the city to use a union contract.
Seeking a 'Gold Standard' in D.C. Charter Education
Some charter leaders want to create a "gold standard designation," to publicly identify for the first time which charters are doing the most to raise teaching quality and academic achievement for low-income students.
Rhetoric vs. Reality: What We Know and What We Need to Know About Vouchers and Charter Schools
This report summarizes new empirical evidence on the achievement impacts of charter schools and voucher programs nationally. The authors find that well-designed voucher and charter programs show promising gains, while few show any evidence of substantial harms to student achievement. They note the important impact policy design has on choice programs: not all charter laws and voucher programs are alike or created equally, and different programs will produce different effects. They call for additional research to help clarify the specific beneficial policy components and to assess a more complete understanding of student outcomes.
Source: RAND Corporation.
Student enrollment keeps dropping: Free fall could mean more charter schools soon
Charter schools are in demand in Detroit and if district enrollment drops below 100,000 students, a provision in state law will allow Wayne County Community College District and Bay Mills Community College to charter an unlimited number of schools in the city. District enrollment is currently below 105,000.
Parents hope South Dakota will allow charter schools: Group of Native American parents and educators push for legislation
At the urging of Native American parents and educators in Rapid City, Sen. Tom Katus is drafting South Dakota's first charter school law and plans to introduce it during the coming legislative session. Katus says Native Americans feel that the school district is not meeting the needs of Native American students. While the graduation rate for the district was 78 percent last year, the graduation rate for Native American students was only 37 percent. "High dropout rates are clearly driving" the push for charter school legislation, he said. With the help of the Society for the Advancement of Native Interests-Today (SANI-T), community members seeking a solution to poor student achievement and high dropout rates began meeting months ago to discuss the charter school concept. "We're facilitating what the community wants," said SANI-T executive director Laurette Pourier. "Kids are leaving (school) at too fast a rate." In its present form, Katus' legislation grants charter authorizing ability to local school boards, the state board of education and an 11-member board of charter schools. The teachers' union has voiced displeasure with the draft.
STEM
Special Report / Are U.S. Students Getting Better in Mathematics?
A recent report from the Center on Education Policy, Answering the Question That Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased Since No Child Left Behind? shows that student scores in math and reading have generally gone up since 2002. Elementary school math was the area in which most states showed improvement, with 37 of the 41 states with available trend data demonstrating moderate to large gains in the percentages of students deemed proficient.
In D.C., a Computer for Every Classroom
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced today that every D.C. classroom will have a desktop computer by February under a $4 million technology initiative.
AP virtual labs questioned: Online science courses lack crucial experience, College Board says
Differences in the kind of lab work done by students enrolled in virtual schools vs. traditional classrooms have become an issue in an ongoing audit of AP courses. So far, thousands of teachers worldwide have successfully completed audits of their syllabuses to ensure that they are teaching what is expected for the AP label. The majority of science courses offered by virtual schools with computerized simulations have been given only provisional permission to continue calling themselves AP classes as they align their lab work with AP standards over the next year.
English, Algebra, Phys Ed ... and Biotech
If you’re interested in seeing the future of biotechnology education, you might want to visit one of George Cachianes’s classrooms. “Students are motivated by understanding the relationships between research, creativity and making money,” he says.
Teacher
Teacher training expected to meet U.S. standards
Big changes are on the way for Michigan's 31 teacher preparation institutions. The State Board of Education cleared the way Tuesday for requiring that each earn national accreditation, a rigorous process that could end ineffective programs.
Merit pay for teachers to resurface on Oregon ballot in 2008
Teachers across Oregon are gearing up for a big fight over a potential 2008 ballot measure that would tie their salaries to their "classroom performance." Oregonians voted down a related proposal to link educator salaries directly to student test results in 2000. But since then, so-called merit pay programs have caught on across the country, in a big way.
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