May 16, 2001
Education Week, Vol. 20, Issue 36
Assessment
Defining 'Failure' Critical To Bush Testing Plan
President Bush has pledged to get tough on schools that are failing to educate their students. But how do you determine when schools are "failing"?
Teaching Profession
Court Upholds Mass. Plan To Test Mathematics Teachers
Teachers' unions in Massachusetts will soon decide whether to appeal a judge's ruling that gives the green light to a new state program requiring math teachers in low-performing schools to take tests detailing their knowledge of the subject.
Accountability
School Accreditation Plan Drawing Criticism in Michigan
A proposed revision of the school accreditation system in Michigan has sparked statewide objections from educators, who fear that schools with good overall records will be tagged with negative labels.
School Choice & Charters
Chicago Catholic Schools Welcome New Chief
A career Roman Catholic school administrator from Ohio who was named to lead the schools in the Chicago Archdiocese said last week that he is committed to battling a downsizing trend that has closed dozens of inner-city schools in the nation's largest parochial school system in recent years.
Education
Memory Makers
These four companies account for at least 90 percent of the market for publishing school yearbooks.
Recruitment & Retention
Freddie Mac To Expand Zero-Down Teacher Housing
Freddie Mac is seeking partnerships with teacher-retirement systems around the country to build an innovative program that provides teachers and other school employees with zero-down-payment mortgages.
IT Infrastructure & Management
Schools Post Internet Access Gains, But Disparities Remain
Minority and poor students still lag behind other students when it comes to access at school to the Internet and computers, even though nearly every U.S. public school has Internet access and the ratio of students to instructional computers has reached an all-time low, a federal study has found.
School & District Management
Cleveland Voters OK Bonds To Repair Schools
Clevelanders agreed last week to a tax hike that will raise millions of dollars to repair and renovate the city's aging public schools.
School & District Management
Push To Raise Achievement Yields Lessons
Among national high school improvement efforts, the High Schools That Work program is a pioneer. Begun in 1987 by the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board, the network now includes 1,100 schools in 26 states.
Families & the Community
Protests Over State Testing Widespread
Test-weary protesters in nearly a dozen states hoisted placards outside state capitols and hosted debates in high school auditoriums last week as they kicked off what organizers touted as "a month of resistance to testing."
Special Education
Policy-Research Groups Issue Joint Report on Special Education
Students are being needlessly referred to special education because of other deficiencies in the education system, concludes one of a collection of 14 papers released last week by two think tanks here. The organizations hope to set the agenda for reconsidering how the nation educates students with disabilities.
School & District Management
On Borrowed Time
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, hand-picked by the mayor of Cleveland to run the city's struggling schools, is getting results. But will voters agree to keep the schools under the mayor's control.
School Choice & Charters
Pa. OKs Private-Tutoring Grants to Parents
Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge governor agreed to a hike in teacher pensions in exchange for a package of education bills that breaks some new ground in assisting private education.
School & District Management
Against Odds, School Propels Its Students to College
Every year, Clement R. Markley does a little mathematics exercise with his history classes here at Simon Rivera High School.
Education
Key Elements of Compensation System
- Salaries are to be based on advancement within what state officials term "a four-step career path." Beginning educators would be paired with mentors, participate in a comprehensive induction program, and earn a minimum of $28,000. Pay would increase at a minimum of $2,000, $5,000, and $14,500 as educators moved through the phases of the salary schedule. Local unions could negotiate larger raises.
College & Workforce Readiness
Lawmaker Seeks Tips To Demystify Financial-Aid Maze
A Republican congressman from California, concerned about the maze of federal financial-aid laws and regulations that bedevils parents, students, and college administrators, plans to hit the Web this week with a site soliciting advice on how to streamline the system.
Special Education
IDEA Funding Plan Draws Fire In Washington and Beyond
A Senate measure that would require pouring additional billions of federal dollars into special education over the next 10 years continued to be welcomed in some quarters last week, but drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration, along with some special education advocates, educators, and lawmakers.
Education Funding
Groups Plead To Keep Resident Teacher, Principal at E.D.
The principal-in-residence and teacher-in-residence positions at the U.S. Department of Education should not be cut, leaders of four major education groups told Secretary of Education Rod Paige in a letter last week.
Education
People in the News
Peggy H. O'Brien will be the new executive director of Cable in the
Classroom, an Alexandria, Va.-based organization financed by the cable-television industry to provide more than 81,000 schools with cable service. Ms. O'Brien, 53, currently is the chief learning and operating officer for Kiko.com, an Internet education company in Long Beach, Calif. She will start her new job next month.
Education
Iowa Approves Performance Pay For Its Teachers
Lawmakers in Iowa discarded their traditional teacher-compensation system last week and voted to replace it with one that would pay educators based on their performance in the classroom and students' achievement, rather than on the number of years spent teaching.
Education
Bush, Democrats Compromise As ESEA Bills Take Shape
The education debate echoed across both sides of the Capitol last week, as momentum continued in the House and the Senate to deliver a major education bill to President Bush's desk this year—probably as soon as this summer—following compromises that appear to locate the bill in politically viable middle territory.
Education
Federal File
Unions: So Sue Me
It's a strange day in Washington when lawmakers propose legislation to protect educators from lawsuits—and the teachers' unions oppose it.
School & District Management
Preschool Study Finds Positive Effects For Poor Children
A newly published study on a long-running preschool program in Chicago provides further evidence that well-designed educational services in early childhood can have positive, lasting effects for disadvantaged children.
School & District Management
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
- Arizona Governor Taps Aide
For State's Top Schools Job - Fla. OKs Bill on Teacher Misconduct
- Calif. Test Called Unfair to Disabled
- Governance Changes Pass in Fla.
Education
State Journal
Uninvited Guest
Organizers of a conference that brought together public and charter school teachers in Massachusetts last week dropped prominent testing critic Alfie Kohn as their keynote speaker after the state education department threatened to withhold about $18,000 in federal grant money to help stage the event.
States
Legislatures Take On Bullies With New Laws
Legislators from Washington state to West Virginia, hoping to stave off violence committed by students who have been picked on by their peers, are taking action this year on bills designed to prevent bullying in schools.