January 5, 2005
Education Week, Vol. 24, Issue 16
Education Funding
Winning Ways
Lawyer Michael A. Rebell has chalked up an impressive string of victories in his 12-year effort to bring billions of dollars in new funding to New York City's public schools.
Federal
NCLB’s Transfer Provisions Stymied, GAO Report Says
Implementation of the school choice provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act has been stymied by a lack of space to accommodate transfers and unrealistic timelines for notifying parents of their options, a report by the Government Accountability Office concludes.
School & District Management
Education Leaders Council Aims for New Start
Avoiding talk of its financial and administrative problems, the Education Leaders Council tried to give itself a fresh start at its annual conference here last month.
Law & Courts
References to Religion in Teacher’s Handouts Spur Calif. Legal Fight
Stephen J. Williams says he merely wanted to give his 5th graders an accurate picture of the nation’s heritage by enriching his lessons with documents containing references to God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ.
Federal
Teens Unlikely to Meet Reading Goal, RAND Report Warns
As researchers and policymakers turn attention and resources to boosting adolescent literacy, an analysis of students’ performance on state and national tests holds out scant hope that schools will come close to meeting federal goals for reading achievement over the next decade.
School & District Management
Gates Foundation Expands Support for ‘Early College’ High Schools
New grants totaling nearly $30 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will underwrite dozens of new “early college” high schools, with a goal of more than tripling the nation’s supply of such schools over the next four years.
College & Workforce Readiness
Study: AP Classes Alone Don’t Aid College Work
There is no evidence that high school students who enroll in college-level courses such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes improve their academic performance in college unless they take the tests offered at the end of each course, says a study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
Education Funding
Quality Counts 2005 Examines Changes in School Finance
With 31 states considering major changes in how they pay for public education, the nation’s school finance systems are in transition, an Education Week report set for release this week concludes.
School & District Management
Teachers’ Unions in New York State Take Steps to Merge
Another pair of teachers’ unions has taken preliminary steps to unify—this time in New York state.
Equity & Diversity
Report Faults Immigrant Instruction in 3 States
School districts in three Southern states with fast-growing Latino populations have not done a good job overall in teaching immigrant children, according to a study by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute in Los Angeles.
Education
Opinion
A Time for Mobilization and Fresh Ideas
As the president enters his second term, the education agenda for the nation is in flux and likely to change substantially, says Arthur Levine.
Families & the Community
Opinion
Varsity Electioneering
What is the proper role of schools, teachers, and students when it comes to public issues and partisan politics, asks teacher Peter Berger.
Federal
States Criticized on Standards for Veteran Teachers
States may be demanding high standards of their newly certified teachers, but they’re doing a poor job of requiring their veteran teachers to get the training necessary to meet the “highly qualified” provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to a new assessment of states’ progress.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
An Education Reform Agenda for the Next Four Years—and Beyond
Revolutionizing the teaching profession is the next major task for education reformers, argues Louis V. Gerstner Jr., chairman of The Teaching Commission.
Assessment
Opinion
How Bad Is Cheating?
Because of its moral impact on the academic mission, cheating should not be treated as simple rulebreaking, stresses writer Joan F. Goodman.
International
Company Matches Foreign Teachers and U.S. Schools
The Visiting International Faculty Program is likely the sponsor of more international-exchange visas for teachers per year than any other U.S. organization, and it represents a greater than tenfold increase in the number of VIF teachers from five years ago.
School & District Management
Actual Cost of Salaries Figures Into Budgets for Oakland’s Schools
In the Oakland Unified School District, the actual amount of staff salaries counts against individual schools’ budgets. So a more experienced employee—who has a bigger paycheck—eats up more of a school’s funding than does a less experienced one.
Reading & Literacy
Entrepreneurs’ Literacy Program Takes Off in D.C. Schools
In2Books, a reading program designed by a former entertainment lawyer and her husband, has become an integral part of the curriculum in hundreds of classrooms throughout many of the capital city’s elementary schools.
Education
Table: Math Differences
Percentage of 4th grade students at or above “basic” and “proficient” in mathematics for charter and other public school students overall, and by student and school characteristics:
Education
Table: Reading Comparisons
Percentage of 4th grade students at or above “basic” and “proficient” in reading for charter and other public school students overall, and by student and school characteristics:
Assessment
NAEP Study Fuels Debate Over Charter Schools
Stoking a debate that had been heating up all fall, federal officials recently released a long-awaited study showing that 4th graders in charter schools posted lower math scores on the tests commonly known as “the nation’s report card” than their counterparts in regular public schools.
School & District Management
Miami Union Election Under Scrutiny by AFT, State
The American Federation of Teachers and a Florida employee-relations agency are conducting a preliminary probe into the results of the election for president of the United Teachers of Dade.
College & Workforce Readiness
Report: High Schools Must Demand More
States desperately need to raise the bar on high school graduation requirements to better prepare students for college and the workforce, a report says, contending that a wide gap exists between graduating students’ skills and the challenges of the postsecondary world.
Education Funding
Passions High as S.C. Finance Case Comes to a Close
Steve Morrison’s voice shook with the weight of South Carolina’s history as he closed his arguments against the state last month in the key trial of an 11-year-old school finance case.
School & District Management
Chicago Resisting Federal Directive on NCLB Tutoring
Federal authorities have told the low-performing Chicago school district that it must stop providing tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act. But the district has refused, producing a standoff between U.S. education officials and the country’s third-largest school system.
School & District Management
K-12 Finance a Top Priority in ’05 Sessions
Schools will have to fight for significant increases in next fiscal year’s budgets, according to lawmakers and analysts preparing for the 2005 legislative sessions.
Education
A National Roundup
Obituary: Influential Texas Critic of Textbooks Dies
Melvin F. Gabler, whose efforts to rid school textbooks of what he viewed as left-wing and anti-Christian content had an impact far beyond his native Texas, died Dec. 19 after suffering a fall and a massive brain hemorrhage. He was 89.
Education
Correction
Correction
An article in the Dec. 8, 2004, issue of Education Week ("Study: Foster Children Often Trail Their Peers in School") should have said that a study by the University of Chicago showed that 15 percent of Chicago students in “out of home” care who dropped out of school did so before turning 16. By age 19, 64 percent had dropped out.
Education
A National Roundup
Curriculum Prompts Lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are suing a Pennsylvania district over a revised biology curriculum that calls for citing alternatives to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The federal lawsuit was filed Dec. 14 in Harrisburg on behalf of 11 parents in the 3,600-student Dover district who oppose the curriculum’s statement that students “will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin’s theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to intelligent design.” ("Pa. School Officials, Science Groups Split Over New Biology Curriculum," Dec. 1, 2004.)