April 11, 2001
Education Week, Vol. 20, Issue 30
Federal
Ed. Dept. Cited for Finance Abuses
At least $450 million in Department of Education funds have been misused through improper payments, fraud, and other instances of financial mismanagement in the past three years, the agency's inspector general said last week.
Education
Honors & Awards
The American Association for Career Education, based in Hermosa Beach, Calif., recently announced five recipients of the 2001 Awards for Excellence and Innovation in Career Education. The award honors organizations for innovative programs, practices, or publications that advance career education. The recipients and their programs are as follows:
States
Colorado OKs Plan To Spend Extra School Aid
In recent weeks, Colorado lawmakers have come to relatively easy agreement on the annual school finance bill and on a measure that would carry out a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing greater spending on public education over the next 10 years.
States
State Journal
Private Interests
Mayor Bret Schundler of Jersey City, N.J., wanted to attract attention to his private-school-scholarship fund, so he ran television and radio advertisements across the state.
States
Kansas House Rejects Plan To Increase Taxes for Schools
The Kansas House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a bill last week that would have revamped the way the state's schools are financed. But members of the Senate were much more receptive to the idea, agreeing to keep it alive for reconsideration later this month.
Federal
N.C. Educator To Head Council Of State Schools Chiefs
G. Thomas Houlihan, a North Carolina educator who served as the senior education policy adviser to that state's former governor, James B. Hunt Jr., will take the helm of the Council of Chief State School Officers this summer. Some educators say the appointment, announced last week, could usher in a more centrist era for the Washington-based association.
School Climate & Safety
Maryland Ready To Require Gun-Safety Education in Grades K-12
Maryland was poised last week to become the first state to require gun-safety education for students in grades K-12.
Education
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
- Wisconsin Voters Elect Principal
To Be State's New Schools Chief - Illinois' Private School Tax Credit Upheld
Standards
Virginia Revamps Its Social Studies And History Standards
"New and improved" is generally a fitting characterization of Virginia's revised history and social studies standards, according to experts and Virginia educators who have reviewed them.
Ed-Tech Policy
San Francisco Schools Scrap Plan, Pass Up E-Rate Money
The San Francisco schools are shelving a multimillion-dollar plan to outfit classrooms with a souped-up telecommunications network, even though that means turning down up to $50 million in federal support for the project this year.
Teaching Profession
HUD Suspends Housing Program For Teachers
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has suspended its popular "Teacher Next Door" program for 120 days in an effort to curb fraud and abuse in the initiative.
Assessment
NRC Panel: Rethink, Revamp Testing
The tests that are playing an increasingly central role in education need to be changed substantially to reflect new knowledge about how people think and learn, a report released last week asserts.
Education
People in the News
The Spencer Foundation's board of directors has elected Paul D. Goren as the foundation's new vice president. He replaces John B. Williams, who is stepping down from the position. Mr. Goren, 43, previously was the director of child and youth development at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In his new role, which begins June 1, he will supervise the Spencer Foundation's staff. The Chicago-based philanthropy finances educational research.
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Early Childhood
Early Years
Child-Care Quality: A new study offers strong evidence that raising the wages of teachers in child-care centers can improve the quality of the care children receive.
Assessment
4th Graders Still Lag On Reading Test
Widespread efforts to boost reading achievement in the elementary grades, and to close the test-performance gap between minority and white students, have not yet yielded results, concludes the report of the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading, released here last week. Includes a table, "A Widening Gap."
Mathematics
A World-Class Education Eludes Many in the U.S.
The lastest installment of an international assessment study shows wide disparities in performance within the U.S. Includes a table, "Achievement Locally and Abroad."
Education
Assessment-Committee Members
James W. Pellegrino (co-chair), professor of cognitive studies, Vanderbilt University; Robert Glaser (co-chair), professor of psychology and education and founder, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh; Eva J. Baker, professor of psychological studies in education and social research methodologies, University of California, Los Angeles; Gail P. Baxter, research scientist, Educational Testing Service; Paul Joseph Black, emeritus professor of science education, King's College, London; Christopher Dede, professor in learning technologies and co-director of the Technology in Education Program, Harvard University; Kadriye Ercikan, assistant professor of educational and psychological counseling, University of British Columbia; Louis M. Gomez, associate professor of education and computer science, Northwestern University; Earl B. Hunt, professor of psychology, University of Washington; David Klahr, professor of psychology, Carnegie Mellon University; Richard Lehrer, professor of cognitive science and mathematics education, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Robert J. Mislevy, professor of measurement, statistics, and education, University of Maryland; Willie Pearson Jr., professor of sociology and adjunct in medical education, Wake Forest University; Edward A. Silver, professor of mathematics education, University of Michigan; Richard F. Thompson, professor and director of the program in neural, informational, and behavioral sciences, University of Southern California; Richard K. Wagner, professor of psychology, Florida State University; Mark R. Wilson, professor of measurement and assessment, University of California, Berkeley; Naomi Chudowsky, study director.
Assessment
'We Didn't Think It Would Happen'
When Florida crafted its high-stakes assessment and accountability system, the goal was to identify and improve poor-performing schools. Few predicted any school would rise from the bottom of the Sunshine State's letter rankings to the top in one year. Still, that's just what Fessenden Elementary School in Ocala and Brentwood Elementary School in Pensacola did.
Student Well-Being
USDA Flips on Ground-Meat Rules For School Lunches
The Bush administration last week abruptly withdrew a proposal that would have allowed ground meat sold to schools to be treated with radiation, while lifting requirements that it be tested for salmonella.
Education
Federal File
Something in the Air
The federal government is auctioning off the rights to portions of the United States' publicly owned airwaves—the swath of the electromagnetic spectrum used for sending electronic signals within the nation's borders—and some see a potential payoff for schools and other good causes.
Education
Private Schools
Help at Home: When Marsha Ransom began home schooling her oldest child, she designed a curriculum around her state's guidelines, with neat, 50-minute blocks of study.
Education
Student Sparks Probe of Local Superintendent, Wins Election to Board
Meet 18-year-old Seth Konkel: high school senior, aspiring illusionist, elected school board member—and the kid who forced his town's schools superintendent out of office.
Education
News in Brief: A National Roundup
- Nonprofit Group Forms To Challenge 'Monopoly"
- Girl Sentenced in Shooting
- Staff Arrests Prompt Resignation
- N.Y. Catholic Schools May Close
- Classes Resume After Shooting
- 'Sick' School Closes Again
- Hispanics Sue To Delay Vote
Education
Corrections
An article in the April 4, 2001, issue of Education Week about a Washington conference organized by the Center for Education Reform ("Activists Trade Tales From Charter Wars") understated the number of participants at the conference. The center reports that more than 100 people attended. The conference took place on March 28.
Education
Achievement Locally and Abroad
The charts below show how 8th graders in a number of U.S. school districts, consortia, and states stacked up against students throughout the United States and in other nations on the second administration of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study in 1999.
| KEY Scores significantly higher than the U.S. Scores not significantly different from the U.S. Scores significantly lower than the U.S. |
School & District Management
School-to-Work Seen as Route to More Than Just a Job
In Philadelphia, what started 10 years ago with a few students in a manufacturing apprenticeship has today grown to a districtwide school-to-work program in which hundreds of employers work with thousands of students and teachers to provide work-based learning experiences.
Assessment
From Worst to First
It wasn't a big surprise when Fessenden Elementary earned an F under Florida's grading system. In just a year, though, the rural Ocala school made a dramatic leap to an A for its test scores. Now, the question is whether students can score top grades again. Includes the story, "'We Didn't Think It Would Happen,'" and the table, "Anatomy of a Grade."