Vol. 27, Issue 37
FRONT PAGE
School districts that want to start pay-for-performance programs for school leaders should look beyond high-stakes student tests as the primary measure for awarding bonuses, a recent position paper says.
The U.S. Department of Education's move could prompt major changes in the way states measure the achievement of English-language learners.
State legislators are arguing that teachers have a right to raise doubts about that essential scientific theory as a matter of free speech.
Experts caution that reliable and up-to-date statistics on student violence against teachers can be hard to acquire. National and district data show a drop in such violence over the past decade.
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Report Roundup
News in Brief
Report Roundup
News in Brief
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News in Brief
Clarification
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Despite the encouraging progress, students in the state-run Recovery School District remain academically troubled, especially in high school.
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Health & Safety
A new first-of-its-kind analysis suggests that in Chicago, at least, charter school students are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college than similar students in regular public high schools.
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Most public school teachers are unequivocally ambivalent about unions and education reform, a recent survey says.
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Preliminary findings suggest that in three states where voters decided to replace bilingual education with structured English immersion may be producing less-than-stellar results.
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State Journal
Reeling from unprecedented cuts to the state’s K-12 system, local school leaders eliminate teacher aides, consolidate bus routes, and cancel before- and after-school programs.
Roughly 14,000 teachers will learn whether the layoff warnings they got in March will mean they will not have jobs in the fall.
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‘We the People’ program boosts civic involvement among its participants.
Federal File
Schools are failing to identify such students under the No Child Left Behind Act and to get them the academic interventions they need, a report says.
PAGE 20 - In Perspective
Community-based nonprofit groups are a small but important piece of the marketplace of organizations that provide free tutoring to 530,000 poor children nationwide under the No Child Left Behind law, experts say.
PAGE 24 - Commentary
Everybody talks about how important teachers are, but no one really believes it, argues James Starkey.
Gerald F. Wheeler argues that it's time to get serious about the gaps in science teachers' salaries and those of science professionals in the private sector.
PAGE 25 - Commentary
As a result, they have little understanding of the workplace, and no action plan to prepare for a happy and successful future, writes John G. Bendt.
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Letters
PAGE 32 - Commentary
The single-minded focus on standardized tests has dictated an impoverished curriculum and pushed out other evidence of learning, writes Randi Weingarten.
FOUNDATION SUPPORT: Coverage of specific topics in Education Week is supported in part by grants from the Annenberg Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Spencer Foundation, the Wallace Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The newspaper retains sole editorial control over the content of the articles that are underwritten by the foundations.
