Education Program
This Week in Education
March 6 - March 12, 2008
Highlighted Bills of the Week
(Powered by State Net)
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Minnesota SF 3151 (To SENATE Committee on state and local government operations and oversight)
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SF 3151 provides for a plan to reduce the achievement gap. The bill requires school districts experiencing disparities in academic achievement to develop a plan to significantly improve academic achievement using concrete measures to eliminate differences in academic achievement; requiring plan submission to the commissioner of education by a certain date; creating an advisory task force on improving students academic achievement to review plans
submitted to the commissioner of education and submit a proposal for improving student academic achievement to the legislature by a certain date. |
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Arizona SB 1334 (Passed SENATE. To HOUSE)
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This bill relates to the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The purpose of the bill and compact is to remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents by: facilitating the timely enrollment of children of military families and ensuring that they are not placed at a disadvantage due to difficulty in the transfer of education records from the previous school districts, variations in entrance or age requirements. Facilitating the student placement process through which children of military families are not disadvantaged by variations in attendance requirements, scheduling, sequencing, grading, course content or assessment.
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West Virginia SB 595 (Eligible for GOVERNOR'S desk.) |
This bill would create the statewide Vision 2020: An Education Blueprint for Two Thousand Twenty. SB 595 includes goals, objectives, strategies, indicators and benchmarks for grades pre-K through 12, post-secondary education and work force investment initiatives alike. The contains several components: Rigorous 21st Century curriculum and engaging instruction for all students, A leadership recruitment, Equitable access to 21st Century technology, A universal prekindergarten system, A statewide balanced assessment, A 21st Century accountability and accreditation system. |
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This Week in Education
March 6 - March 12, 2008
K-12
Coloring Outside Curriculum Lines To Depict the Drop in Arts Education
A report released last month by the Washington-based Center on Education Policy, which found that many elementary schools across the country have allotted more time to reading and math by cutting time for social studies, science, art and physical education. The issue of "curriculum narrowing" has become a key part of the debate over reauthorizing the 2002 federal law, which is designed to improve reading and math proficiency.
Assembly Passes Bill to Allow 'No Child' Opt-Out
Virginia's Board of Education would be directed to recommend whether the state should pull out of a federal school accountability system under legislation that cleared the General Assembly Saturday. It now awaits consideration by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D).
Report: Homeless teens need more help to graduate high school
They're called "unaccompanied youth" -- homeless teens ages 16 through 18 who are on their own -- and a new report says the state isn't doing enough to help get them the two things they need most, a safe place to sleep and the chance to earn a high school diploma.
Smaller Classes Don't Close Learning Gap, Study Finds
Findings in the March issue of Elementary School Journal contradicts assumptions that class size reduction might have a significant effect on the gap between rich and poor students.
Principal Sees Injustice, and Picks a Fight With It
In her career as an educator, Ms. Watterson had been nothing if not decisive. When she became principal at GateWay in 2003, she threw out a progressive curriculum and replaced it with a traditional variety. She required all 10 teachers on the staff to reapply for their jobs and hired back just one. After visiting early-college high schools in New York City and Stockton, Calif., and seeing how well they served immigrant teenagers, she brought the model to GateWay.
Leadership
Illinois House gets bill to strip Blagojevich of power over school board
A bill that would strip Gov. Rod Blagojevich of control over the Illinois State Board of Education sailed through a state House committee Tuesday, sending it before the full House. The bill, sponsored by frequent Blagojevich critic state Rep. Lou Lang, would take away the governor's power to pick the state superintendent of education and members of the state school board. It also would hold the new board more accountable to legislators by requiring them to provide detailed budget information to the General Assembly instead of to the governor.
States Eye Looser Rein on Districts (EdWeek)
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue is proposing “performance contracts” that would free administrators in 15 districts from some regulatory strictures as early as next fall, if they agreed to meet achievement targets in the next three years.
School Choice
Ruling seen as a threat to many home-schooling familes
Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California's home schooling families.
School Boundary Change Discussed
The lack of interest in school choice programs and a deadline looming to meet the class-size amendment have sent the district back to busing.
Voucher idea for Texas dropouts resisted
A special committee charged with drafting a plan to reduce the high school dropout rate was urged Monday by several education groups to not open the door to a voucher program that would allow dropouts to re-enroll in private schools at state expense.
STEM
States struggle with assessing tech literacy
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) stipulates that all students should be technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade. But how to assess technological literacy has proven to be a complex challenge for school leaders.
Teacher
At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay
A New York City charter school set to open in 2009 in Washington Heights will test one of the most fundamental questions in education: Whether significantly higher pay for teachers is the key to improving schools.
Austin educator background checks turn up 15 felonies, 241 misdemeanors
The Austin school district has fingerprinted about two-thirds of its approximately 6,600 certified educators, and criminal histories have popped up for 256 employees after a search of a national crime database.
Education Finance
Budget gap spotlights public school funding
Inevitably, every debate about California's deficit-riddled budget morphs into a fight over how much money we should be spending on public schools and how that money should be spent.
State funds to target learning
State Education Commissioner Dwight Jones soon will get the funding he sought to start closing the learning gap between low-income and middle-class students.
Judge OKs more time in English case but sets fines
The state Legislature has until April 15 to properly fund English-language-learner programs or face fines of $2 million a day that could climb to $5 million daily.
Education bill passes Senate
The Alaska Senate on Monday joined the House in approving a wide-reaching education funding package that will increase money for school districts by more than $40 million this year and more in future years.
Bill would give Ga. schools spending flexibility
They weren't able to overhaul Georgia's complex education funding formula, but House lawmakers voted Wednesday to allow school administrators to have a bit more say over how that money is used. The new powers would come with a price: School systems that accept the "performance contracts" must also agree to more rigorous academic standards - such as increased graduation rates and higher test scores.
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