Education Program
This Week in Education
January 31 - February 6, 2008
Highlighted Bills of the Week
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Arizona HB 2064 (Introduced)
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This bill expands the powers and duties of the E-Learning Task Force. HB 2064 directs the E-Learning Task Force to submit recommendation concerning the following issues. First for the implementation of measures to ensure teachers receive updated e-learning tools. Secondly, for the coordination of a standardized data system with ADE which provides decision support data to school districts, parents and pupils. The E-Learning Task Force is also required to provide recommendations for the enhancement of Arizona’s learning web portal system and the development of a Digital Curriculum Institute. The bill also allows the Task Force to collaborate with the Government Information Technology Agency and other public and private entities. |
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Colorado SB 130 (Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Education) Bill encourages schools to seek autonomy.
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Colorado Senate President Peter Groff on Thursday introduced a bill that encourages schools statewide to seek more freedom in hiring, scheduling and spending - and allows them to sidestep the teachers union to get it.
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This Week in Education
January 31 - February 6, 2008
K-12
School boss’ focus: Close the gap
Five months after taking over as Boston public schools superintendent, Carol R. Johnson last night proposed a shakeup in her administration to close the achievement gap among students and ensure “graduation for all.” Under her plan, a new office will focus on closing the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian peers, as well as the performance gaps between rich and poor, between male and female, and between English and non-English speaking students.
Finding Time for Success: Test Pressures Spur Some Schools to Stretch Out Calendar
Under mounting pressure to raise achievement in public schools, a handful of states and cities and many charter schools are seeking to squeeze more hours, days and even weeks into the academic calendar.
First, Kill All the School Boards
It wasn’t just the slate and pencil on every desk, or the absence of daily beatings. As Horace Mann sat in a Leipzig classroom in the summer of 1843, it was the entire Prussian system of schools that impressed him. Mann was six years into the work as Massachusetts secretary of education that would earn him lasting fame as the “father of public education.” He had sailed from Boston to England several weeks earlier with his new wife, combining a European honeymoon with educational fact-finding. In England, the couple had been startled by the luxury and refinement of the upper classes, which exceeded anything they had seen in America and stood in stark contrast to the poverty and ignorance of the masses. If the United States was to avoid this awful chasm and the social upheaval it seemed sure to create, he thought, education was the answer. Now he was seeing firsthand the Prussian schools that were the talk of reformers on both sides of the Atlantic.
For an interview with the author of the article with National Public Radio, visit http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18632834
Leadership
Budget Cuts Raise Wrath of Principals
Principals across New York City turned on their computers Thursday morning to discover that because of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s new budget proposal, their budgets had been slashed overnight by sums ranging from $9,000 to $447,587.
Big decisions: Even good school districts need visionary leaders
Poquoson and York County are in enviable territory when it comes to attracting good candidates for the job of school superintendent. They're among the higher-performing school systems in the area. They have the advantage of many residents who care about education and help make the schools, and their students, successful through their encouragement, expectations and help at home.
Building a Knowledge Base for Educational Leadership (EdWeek)
Richard F. Elmore explains how to make the content and pedagogy of leadership-preparation programs match the aspirations of reformers.
School chief lays out ambitious plan
In her first major policy address, new Boston Superintendent Carol Johnson unveiled plans to improve art and music education, add college opportunities for high school students and beef up programs for struggling students. "Unless [the school system] is perceived as offering a broader array of exemplary schools and programs of choice, parents have and will make choices outside of Boston public schools," she said.
Md. Bill To Target Tenure of Grasmick
Democratic leaders of the Maryland General Assembly are preparing to push a bill that would effectively rescind the recent four-year reappointment of embattled State Schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick and allow new school board appointees of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to decide whether to extend her tenure beyond this year.
School Choice
The Political Appeal of Charter Schools: Legislative Activities on Charter Schools: The Beginning of Policy Change?
School choice reforms, like all policy proposals, do not occur in a political vacuum; they must proceed through each state's legislative process in order to become law. Of the many forms of school choice, charter schools have been the most successful at navigating the political process. In only 16 years, 40 states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws in place. Yet research on charter school academic effectiveness relative to traditional public schools finds mixed results. How could charter schools show little or no academic advantage, but be so prominent on the political agenda? One possibility explored in a new paper by Ramona McNeal and Lisa Dotterweich is that charter schools have institutionalized their popularity by appealing to influential liberal and conservative actors across the political spectrum. The authors' analysis of what might explain why some state legislatures produce more charter school bills than others produced some counterintuitive results. For example, increased spending by the National Education Association is significantly associated with more charter school bills. In addition, liberal state governments supported charter schools, but states with more conservative citizens also support charter school.
STEM
Tests of Tech Literacy Still Not Widespread Despite NCLB Goals (Ed Week)
The federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law six years ago, made it a national goal for all 8th graders to be technologically literate. Unlike reading and math, though, tech literacy does not factor into the law’s school accountability provisions, and most states do not administer separate tech-literacy tests statewide.
Teacher
Desperately seeking teachers: DPS is having a hard time filling positions in subjects like math, special education and bilingual education
For Denver principals, and for principals nationwide, some jobs are always hard to fill - math, special education and bilingual education continually top the list of federally designated teacher shortage areas.
Education Finance
Groundbreaking Cost Study On Preschool
Rigorous studies of the comprehensive costs of a quality public education can play an important role in advising policymakers involved in reforming a state’s system of education finance. In December 2007, Education Law Center released The Cost of High-Quality Preschool in New Jersey, by Dr. Clive Belfield and Heather Schwartz. This study documents the cost of delivering preschool under the rigorous quality standards already in place for children in New Jersey’s urban districts in the nationally acclaimed Abbott preschool program. The authors examined actual Abbott preschool budgets and classroom quality to calculate the cost of high-quality preschool, and concluded that $12,276 per-pupil is needed to do so in New Jersey.
Cash, Md. test scores up
A record $3.3 billion in new local and state school spending during the past five years largely has gone toward the hiring of new teachers, raising salaries and lowering the ratio of students to teachers, according to a new report to the Maryland General Assembly.
School officials fear extra work in monitoring funds
The 30-year-old school funding formula, which is used to distribute state funds to local districts, is poised for an overhaul that could inject millions of dollars into New Mexico schools. But some school officials are worried that a mechanism in the proposed legislation for ensuring the money is spent effectively is asking too much of them.
Rendell wants $2.6 billion more for education
Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday proposed a new education funding formula that would funnel an extra $2.6 billion over six years to school districts that a study claimed aren't spending enough on students.
Funding sought to preserve native languages
Teaching American Indian languages in schools is a tool that educators say has been tested as a way of raising the achievement bar. To that end, the State Board of Education is seeking $275,000 to preserve and revitalize Utah's indigenous languages to help narrow achievement gaps.
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