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February 13, 2009 |
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| Education takes a hit in final stimulus bill |
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Congress has reached agreement on a $789 billion economic stimulus bill, a contentious process that left many Congressional Democrats feeling too much was cut, and many Congressional Republicans that too much remained, The New York Times reports. In order to win three crucial Republican votes in the Senate, senators pared away education and healthcare spending from the initial House bill, prompting House Democrats to balk before a final meeting between House and Senate negotiators on Wednesday afternoon. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference that this delay helped House Democrats win back concessions, including an agreement to let states use some money in a fiscal stabilization fund for school renovations. "There is no question that one of our overriding priorities in the House was a very strong commitment to school construction," she said. "That's still in the bill." Despite intense lobbying by governors around the country, the final deal slashed $25 billion from a proposed state fiscal stabilization fund, which would provide fiscal relief to states to prevent cuts to education and other priorities, eliminated a $16 billion line item for school construction, and sharply curtailed spending that would give health insurance for the unemployed.
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| Arne Duncan on NCLB |
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In an interview with U.S. News & World Report, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan weighed in on the No Child Left Behind Act, the signature education law of the Bush years and a legacy he must contend with as he works to fix the nation's ailing public schools. Duncan said that he supports the focus on accountability for student achievement, but he wants to make the law less punitive. He also wants states to adopt academic standards that are more rigorous and aligned with each other and with those of other leading nations. He is concerned about over-testing, and feels that fewer, better tests would be more effective. He wants to develop better data management systems that will help teachers track individual student progress in real-time, so that teachers and parents can assess and monitor student strengths and weaknesses. His bottom line: "I think we're lying to children and families when we tell children that they are meeting standards and, in fact, they are woefully unprepared to be successful in high school and have almost no chance of going to a good university and being successful." Duncan said he is open to ideas for renaming the law.
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| Without intervention, public education may be on the road to 'catastrophe' |
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A new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education finds that states will probably cut an estimated 18.5 percent of spending over the next three years, an $80 billion drop that could eliminate 574,000 publicly funded jobs and severely impact public education, USA TODAY reports. The projection doesn't account for the effect of stimulus money, but the author of the analysis, Marguerite Roza, says the cuts could be even more drastic, since she didn't include shortfalls in local funding, which are currently too hard to track but account for 44 percent of total K-12 education spending, according to the report's abstract. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan referred to the report as he stumped for education spending in the stimulus bill earlier in the week, saying that it "obviously confirms what we have feared: that there is so much at stake now and we're really trying to stave off catastrophe." "Projections of State Budget Shortfalls on K-12 Public Education Spending and Job Loss" estimates an 8.7 percent drop in total public education spending, $54 billion less on public K-12 education during the 2009 and 2010 calendar years than if spending had been held at budgeted FY 2009 levels.
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| Generating public consensus and urgency for STEM education |
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In an editorial on the EdNews.org website, "EduFlack" Patrick R. Riccards writes that states and school districts must move into a mode of advocacy and social marketing on behalf of Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) education, "effectively linking K-12 education and economy and demonstrating the urgency for improvement to both." The key, he says, is public engagement, which moves beyond educating constituencies to lead a broad section of the population to the informed level of opinion that generates consensus and a sense of urgency. Riccards outlines three phases for galvanizing public engagement: informing the public, building commitment for a solution, and finally mobilizing around specific actions. "Given time, incentives, and opportunities to consider their core values in light of challenges and needs," Riccards writes, "stakeholders can reach the final stage of full intellectual and emotional acceptance of the importance of improving education opportunity for all."
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| Hundreds of students alleged beaten in Chicago Public Schools |
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An investigative report by the CBS affiliate in Chicago has charged that at least 818 students in the public schools there have been physically abused by teachers, coaches, and staff since 2003. Reporters for the news station found cases where students were beaten with broomsticks, whipped with belts and yard sticks, struck with staplers, choked, stomped on, and pushed down stairs; one student suffered a fractured neck at the hands of a substitute teacher. In 568 instances, Chicago Public School investigators determined that children were telling the truth, but in the vast majority of cases, teachers found guilty were only given a slap on the wrist. The station indicated that it told then-Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Arne Duncan shortly before his confirmation as Secretary of Education, at which point he said, "Any founded allegation where an adult is hitting a child, hitting a student -- they're going to be gone," but this seems not to have happened under his tenure, during which only 24 teachers were terminated for illegal corporal punishment. "I'll tell you what it is -- it's deplorable," said Alderman Pat O'Connor, who is on the City Council Education Committee. "I really believe that the Board has dropped the ball in
this instance." He has said he wants all the reported cases re-examined.
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| Focus on 'virtues' decreases school violence |
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A new character education initiative called the Virtues Project is altering the way teachers, administrators, and students communicate in one Baltimore County school, The Baltimore Sun reports. The program itself started nationally in 1991 to combat violence among young people and in families, and its "virtues" are 52 good character traits -- for instance, truthfulness, patience, responsibility, and self-discipline -- developed from texts throughout the world, identifying universally shared principles. The project was founded by Linda Kavelin-Popov, a psychotherapist; her husband, Dan Popov, a pediatric psychologist; and her brother, John Kavelin. The initiative has been used by businesses, organizations, and schools in more than 90 countries. In Baltimore County's Kenwood High School, teachers use the virtues to acknowledge, guide, and correct students, and students have internalized the instruction to use it in their dealings with each other -- fighting has declined at Kenwood over the past several years. "Our kids are so used to all of us telling them what they did wrong," said teacher Nancy Hanlin. "Instead of looking at the behavior, we're actually looking at the kids." Character education has impacted school climate, which in turn impacts student learning and teacher effectiveness.
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| Educating the great middle |
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The town of Port Washington, N.Y., has undertaken a policy of giving high school students with solid but not stellar grades access to the best academic and extracurricular programs, The New York Times reports. After decades of grooming a handful of students for elite programs, it has expanded its menu of Advanced Placement courses and opened them to students who previously wouldn't have qualified, and prohibits cutting students from orchestra, band, and sports on account of ability. The experiment, underway in other suburban towns across the country, cultivates the so-called great middle: students who fall between the overachievers who win prizes and the underachievers whose performance is monitored by federal and state testing mandates. "There's been such a focus on the high-high and the low-low that the parents of children in the middle are feeling like 'our kids need attention, too,' " explained Denise Pope, a professor at Stanford School of Education. While the changes haven't pleased those who complain of dumbed-down AP courses and mediocre extracurriculars, district officials say the overall quality of education has improved. The number of A.P. exams taken by Port Washington students has nearly doubled since 2002 to 1,134 last year, with the average score climbing to 3.30 from 3.04. At the same time, the percentage of students accepted to four-year colleges also rose, to 82 percent from 74 percent.
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| District bans building sales to charter schools |
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With charter schools booming and enrollment in regular public schools declining, the St. Louis Public Schools has banned the sale of closed school buildings to charters, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The ban, which charter advocates say was unwritten but active for some years, was made official in April of 2007. Now, with 29 schools slated for closing and charters scrambling for space, legislators are asking the district to remove the ban. Residents fear that empty buildings will blight their neighborhoods, and pro-charter groups protest that charters are public schools and should be able to use public buildings. St. Louis has 17 charters that serve one quarter of the city school population, and eight more plan to open for 2010-11. Six are still looking for buildings. "The consequences to us are largely monetary," said Rhonda Broussard, executive director of St. Louis Language Immersion Schools, which is still homeless. "It means we need to raise more money and spend more money in order to have a viable school facility for our students." Broussard said an old public school building costs between $800,000 and $1.5 million, whereas a non-school conversion could cost up to $6 million, state dollars that would otherwise go to the classroom.
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| Rhee says economy forces D.C. to cut teacher wage proposal |
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The faltering economy has forced D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to cut the wage proposal in her contract offer to the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU), The Washington Post writes. Rhee had initially offered a minimum salary increase of 28 percent over five years, depending on which salary "tier" teachers selected, but due to a sharp decrease in expected tax revenue for the District, at least $456 million less for 2010, the situation has changed. Rhee will soon submit a revised final offer. However, the downturn has not changed commitments from private foundations to fund a five-year program of "reform stipends" and performance bonuses, she said. Under the unprecedented proposal, senior teachers could make as much as $135,000 annually in exchange for forgoing tenure. The Post also reports that Rhee and the union have struck a more conciliatory tone with each other. A new contract proposal drafted by the WTU and the American Federation of Teachers is said to include a process to fairly and expeditiously remove underperforming teachers, and calls for more professional development for novice and seasoned teachers, both of which Rhee sought. "I think where we are is in a good place," Rhee said. "We finally have some momentum after being stagnant for so long."
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| Connecticut plans merger of technical high schools & community colleges |
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Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has proposed merging the state's technical high schools with its community colleges to create a new "middle college" system, The Hartford Courant reports. The plan, which is designed to improve graduation rates and career prospects for these students while also meeting the state's labor needs, would give 10,000 technical school students free college courses and training for careers in health care, early childhood programs, computer support, automotive technology, and "green" technology. The merged system would be administered by the state Office of Workforce Competitiveness and would save Connecticut $4 million over the next two years, according to the governor's budget director Robert Genuario. Similar programs can be found in North Carolina, Michigan, and Texas, and Connecticut already has models in Great Path Academy at Manchester Community College, and Capital Preparatory Magnet School at Capital Community College, both in the Hartford area. "I think it's a brilliant idea," said Steve Perry, principal of Capital Prep. "Eighty-seven percent of our seniors graduate with the first year of college already done." Some educators and officials were more ambivalent, saying that the plan was hastily conceived and would be an administrative challenge.
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| New Leaders comes to Jefferson Parish |
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New Leaders for New Schools, which has been working with Orleans Parish public schools for the past two years, is now joining forces with education officials in neighboring Jefferson Parish, writes The New Orleans Times-Picayune. The partnership is a move to shore up the parish's weakest schools, six of which have been labeled "academically unsuccessful" by Louisiana Department of Education based on standardized test results, dropout rates, and attendance rates. Jefferson is ranked 57th out of 69 Louisiana school districts. New Leaders for New Schools recruits people from education and business, provides intensive training and support, and places them in urban schools where they will have extensive decision-making power. Candidates attend a six-week summer academic training institute, serve a yearlong, paid residency at a high-performing school, and receive three years of intensive on-the-job coaching and support. School officials in Jefferson began discussing the partnership with New Leaders after the system lost 15 principals since 2003 and found little interest among assistant principals in moving up. "We've committed to seven [new principal candidates] a year," said Jefferson Superintendent Diane Roussel. "We're trying to help our struggling schools. The whole purpose of the program is to place them where there is the most need."
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Throwing schools out the window
Education is the best way to fight poverty, the best way to break the cycle of the underclass, the best way to ensure a broader distribution of opportunity in America, the best way to preserve our country's economic competitiveness.
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/throwing-schools-out-the-window/
In Salt Lake City school, ballet for the boys
Instructors from London's Royal Ballet School teach dance to ease violence and racial tension.
http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_11629017?source=rss
A Contest! Name That Law!
EduWonk.com is holding a contest to determine the best new name for the No Child Left Behind Act.
http://www.eduwonk.com/2009/02/a-contest-name-that-law.html
Judge gives Alaska 60 days to improve rural education
Some rural students are 2-3 years behind those in Anchorage, experts find.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/682838.html
4-day week a possibility for Missouri schools
Legislators are contemplating a shortened week that would exceed state required hours for instruction.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/1837833CD801D71B862575580001753E?OpenDocument
This teacher works hard for the money
An Ohio fourth-grade teacher is alleged to have worked on the side as a prostitute.
http://news.aol.com/article/teacher-prostitution/338744 |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
McGraw-Hill: Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education
The 2009 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education will be awarded to three individuals who have addressed innovation and education, focusing on the whole child, in one of three broad categories: professional development and teacher education (in school, only); pre-K-, elementary- and secondary-level education programs (in and out of school); and policy maker. Maximum award: $25,000. Eligibility: policy makers, leaders in higher education, and school-based
personnel. Deadline: March 20, 2009.
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/prize/about_history.shtml
The National Association for Gifted Children A. Harry Passow Classroom Teacher
Scholarship awards teachers who have shown excellence in teaching gifted students, the ability to meet the needs of gifted students, and commitment to furthering the development of their teaching skills. Maximum Award: $2,000. Eligibility: teachers K-12 who have been members of NAGC for at least one year. Deadline: April 20, 2009.
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=1255
Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes honors outstanding young leaders who have focused on helping their communities and fellow beings and/or on protecting the health and sustainability of the environment. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: youth 8-18. Deadline: April 30, 2009.
http://www.barronprize.org/index.html
Bridgestone Firestone: Safety Scholars Video contest
The Bridgestone Firestone 2009 Safety Scholars Video Contest will award college scholarships for the most compelling and effective videos that drive home life-saving messages on auto and tire safety, and includes a chance for young filmmakers to have their auto safety videos broadcast as a public service commercial. Maximum Award: $5,000 scholarship; new set of Bridgestone tires. Eligibility: high school students. Deadline: entries accepted May 27-June 17, 2009.
http://safetyscholarsvideo.com/index.php?/site/guidelines
State Farm/NYLC: Project Ignition
State Farm and the National Youth Leadership Council are sponsoring Project
Ignition, which funds programs that give high school students and their teachers
the chance to work together to address the issue of teen driver safety. Maximum
award: $10,000. Eligibility: students grades 9-12. Deadline: June 30, 2009.
http://www.sfprojectignition.com/apply/submission_form.htm
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"I don't need to tell you that America has lost its global leadership in education. K-12 achievement levels leave millions of young people unprepared for work or for college. This is a national crisis that is rapidly creating an entire class of Americans who are unable to share in the benefits of a modern, progressive and productive society. There simply are no good jobs for people without an education."
-Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in remarks at the American Council on Education, February 9, 2009.
http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=HENA&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=31080
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