November 1, 2006
Education Week, Vol. 26, Issue 10
Education
Opinion
Chat Wrap-Up: The Changing Federal Role in Education
On Oct. 18, readers questioned Christopher T. Cross, a former assistant U.S. secretary of education for research and improvement under President George H.W. Bush and the author of Political Education: National Policy Comes of Age, on the changing role of the U.S. Department of Education.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Compulsory Schooling: Was Edison Right?
Compulsory schooling until a diploma is earned or a student reaches the age of 21 is now getting a big push from the National Education Association.
School & District Management
Randomized Trials Flourish in Developing Countries
Researchers are beginning to learn a great deal from dozens of randomized education studies going on now throughout the developing world. Spurred in part by the success of a bold anti-poverty experiment in Mexico, researchers are using the methodology to evaluate programs for reducing class sizes in Kenya, providing tuition vouchers in Colombia and Chile, and decreasing teacher absenteeism and raising student achievement in rural schools in India, among other projects.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Criticizing a 'Puffy' Look at the Gates Foundation
I know Education Week gets funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and well you should, but this is ridiculous.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Not All Public Schools' Moments Are Noteworthy
To the Editor:
No one argues that there aren’t a number of American public schools providing the educationally enriching moments described by Mike Rose in his Oct. 11, 2006, Commentary "Grand Visions and Possible Lives." But he does not address the scandalous number of schools where such moments never occur, where children are abused, day in and day out, because they are not educated.
No one argues that there aren’t a number of American public schools providing the educationally enriching moments described by Mike Rose in his Oct. 11, 2006, Commentary "Grand Visions and Possible Lives." But he does not address the scandalous number of schools where such moments never occur, where children are abused, day in and day out, because they are not educated.
Education
Letter to the Editor
School Violence Needs a Broader Definition
One of the most outrageous comments I have ever read about school violence appeared in your article "School Shootings in Policy Spotlight" (Oct. 11, 2006).
Education
A Washington Roundup
Head Start Group Questions HHS Suggestions On Costs
The National Head Start Association has criticized a letter sent by the Department of Health and Human Services to Head Start grantees in March suggesting that local Head Start centers cope with a 1 percent cut in the program’s funding for fiscal 2006 by re-evaluating staffing levels and fringe benefits, rather than by cutting student enrollment.
Education
A Washington Roundup
Williams to Repay $34,000 in PR Probe
Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams has agreed to pay $34,000 to the federal government to settle civil charges that he did not meet his obligations to produce radio and television advertisements for the Department of Education.
Reading & Literacy
Audit Faults Wisconsin’s ‘Reading First’ Grant Process
Wisconsin education officials failed to ensure that schools and districts that received federal Reading First grants adhered to the program’s strict guidelines, a failing that, if not rectified, could cost the state nearly $6 million of its $45 million allocation, a federal report concludes.
Law & Courts
Ohio Supreme Court Narrowly Upholds State Charter Law
In a 4-3 ruling handed down last week, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state’s charter school law.
Standards
Opinion
Fuzzy Policy, Not 'Fuzzy Math,' Is the Problem
Jere Confrey, a professor of mathematics education at Washington University, offers her seven-point plan for strengthening the mathematics instructional core.
Federal
Federal File
Articles of Faith
A widely discussed new memoir that says the Bush administration used its faith-based initiative as a sop to win political support from the religious right, while making little attempt to provide promised funding, portrays Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings as part of that effort in her first-term role as the president’s chief domestic-policy adviser.
Education
Budget Targets Funds to Teacher Quality
Aiming to fill future vacancies left by the expected retirements of thousands of teachers in the next few years, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation following this year’s legislative session that seeks to remove barriers that discourage out-of-state teachers from working in the state and provides incentives to encourage skilled teachers to work in the neediest schools.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Web-Based Remediation
To help students meet graduation requirements by passing their high school exit exams, Maryland is now offering Web-based remedial courses for students who have failed the exams or feel they need help to pass them.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Illinois Dropout Task Force Searching for Solutions
A task force of Illinois elected officials, representatives of state agencies, and members of the public staged the first of five public hearings last week to discuss strategies for re-enrolling dropouts in school.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Scientists Campaign Against Anti-Evolution Ohio Panelist
A group of scientists from a respected Cleveland university is endorsing a candidate for the Ohio state board of education because the incumbent he’s opposing has voted against teaching evolution in the state’s schools.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Massachusetts Raises Graduation Standards
The Massachusetts state board of education voted 7-2 late last week to raise the minimum score required for students to pass the state’s high school exit exam and earn a diploma.
Education
Ariz. Chief Angry Over Ranking
A recent ranking of state education systems by a Lawrence, Kan.-based research and publishing firm has Arizona state schools Superintendent Tom Horne questioning the intelligence of the company’s staff.
Law & Courts
New U.S. Rules Boost Single-Sex Schooling
The U.S. Department of Education has issued final regulations that definitively state it’s legal to educate boys and girls separately under certain conditions. Though the Bush administration had signaled two years ago it planned to change federal rules to allow broader use of single-sex education in public schools, many schools were reluctant to take the plunge until the legal ambiguities were settled.
School Climate & Safety
Facilities Spending Criticized as Uneven
States and school districts spent almost $600 billion on building and renovating schools from 1995 to 2004, an amount that far exceeds earlier expectations, concludes a report released last week.
School Climate & Safety
L.A. Building Program Faces Possible $2.5 Billion Shortfall
Managers of the Los Angeles school district’s massive program to build 160 new schools and expand and repair hundreds of existing campuses are forecasting a possible funding shortfall as high as $2.5 billion, just as the multiyear project approaches its halfway point.
School & District Management
Minnesota Governor Struggles to Keep Seat
At a forum on science and technology in Minneapolis last week, more than two dozen educators and community leaders gathered at Patrick Henry High School to put one of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s signature policy initiatives into action.
School & District Management
Independent Points to Stint as Minneapolis Schools Chief
Peter Hutchinson, former superintendent of Minneapolis public schools, said he found the best definition of what it is to be a leader in the most unlikely of places: a 4th grade classroom.
Federal
Federal Officials Find Their Way to Tight Races
As the midterm election season moves into the final stretch, education policy leaders in Washington are lending a hand in tight races to bolster their parties’ prospects of gaining—or retaining—a majority of seats in the next Congress.
School Climate & Safety
Law’s ‘Persistently Dangerous’ Tag Weighed
Of all the reasons so few schools are identified as “persistently dangerous” under the No Child Left Behind Act, the label itself may be the biggest, according to members of a federal advisory panel.