April 12, 2006
Education Week, Vol. 25, Issue 31
Education
Letter to the Editor
Change Follows a Curve, Not a Straight Line
Commenting on your March 29, 2006, article on Boston, which relates the Aspen Institute and Annenberg Institute for School Reform’s finding that test-score improvements in Boston have “tapered off in the past two years” (“In Boston, Stability Is Key Issue in Search for Leader”):
Education
Letter to the Editor
Pay for Performance? Yes, But for Families
In response to the March 29, 2006, Commentary by Theodore Hershberg and Barbara Lea-Kruger on linking teacher pay to student learning (“Aligning the System”): Can you imagine merit pay for doctors?
Education
Letter to the Editor
To Aid Science, Instruct More Than an Elite Few
I both applaud and weep in response to Nancy S. Grasmick’s Commentary on the National Academies’ committee on science, engineering, and public policy and its 2005 report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” ("A ‘New Model’ for a New World," March 15, 2006).
Education
A Washington Roundup
Mass. Schools Chief Appointed to NAGB
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has appointed Massachusetts Commissioner of Education David P. Driscoll to the National Assessment Governing Board.
Education
A Washington Roundup
More Hurricane Aid for Schools Is Sent
The Department of Education has sent out the second and third of four installments of funding to reimburse school districts that took in students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Student Well-Being
Federal File
Snack Attack
Public school students may no longer be able to hit the school vending machines for their daily fix of Oreo cookies or cheese danish, if a bill introduced last week in Congress becomes law.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Oregon K-12 Funding Falls Short, Report Says
A new report says that Oregon is $1.8 billion shy of providing enough resources to its K-12 schools.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
N.C. Lottery Sales Off to Fast Start
Sales in North Carolina’s first lottery reached $8 million on the first day and more than $25 million in its first week, according to lottery officials. The games, authorized by the state legislature last fall, began March 30 with the sale of scratch-off tickets.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Michigan Measure Revises Background-Check Law
Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has signed a bill that will keep the names of public and private school employees who have minor, nonviolent criminal records out of the public eye.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Texas School Districts Get Rita Reprieve
Texas school districts that bore the brunt of Hurricane Rita won’t be penalized under the state’s accountability system.
Education
Texas-Style Monopoly
Landing on Boardwalk with a hotel on it is something like paying $50 million in local property taxes to the state of Texas—at least for those playing a new board game.
Education
Report Roundup
Teenage Sexual Behavior
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill surveyed 1,017 white and African-American students when they were 12 to 14 years old and again two years later, asking them about their use of four different kinds of media and their sexual behavior. The research team also analyzed the sexual content in 308 television shows, movies, songs, and magazines seen or listened to regularly by the youths to calculate each student’s “sexual media diet.”
Education
Report Roundup
High School Dropouts
The report argues that the education system is failing young people twice, by neglecting to engage them in learning and then offering them inadequate options for completing their studies.
Education
Report Roundup
Debt Seen to Deter Careers in Teaching
More than 23 percent of students graduating from four-year public universities and 38 percent of those graduating from private colleges have too much student-loan debt to live on the average salary for a starting teacher, concludes a report by the State Public Interest Research Group’s Higher Education Project.
School & District Management
Only 20 Percent of Youths Getting Recommended Sleep
Many high school teachers are familiar with the sight of a dozing teenager slumped over his or her desk.
Student Well-Being
To Combat Obesity, Mayo Clinic Creates Unusual Classroom
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a neighboring school district have teamed up to create a “classroom of the future” that researchers hope can combat youth obesity.
Education
People in the News
Osbourne F. Abbey Jr.
Osbourne F. Abbey Jr. was recently elected to the positions of secretary of the National Child Care Association and vice president of the Early Care and Education Consortium. Both organizations are based in Washington. Mr. Abbey, 60, is the vice president for education at Nobel Learning Communities Inc., a provider of private education located in West Chester, Pa.
Education
People in the News
Alan Smagler
Mr. Smagler, 48, was recently the vice president and publisher of the Children’s Book Group at Houghton Mifflin, based in Boston.
Education
People in the News
Jerry L. Caruthers
Jerry L. Caruthers, the executive director of the Virginia Education Association, has been named to the same position for the Oregon Education Association. He begins his duties at the Portland-based organization in May. Both teacher associations are state affiliates of the Washington-based National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, with 2.8 million members.
Education
A National Roundup
Regional Accrediting Agencies Serving 30 States Approve Merger
Two of the nation’s six long-established regional accrediting agencies are planning to merge, creating a group that will serve more than 23,000 schools in 30 states and abroad.
Education
A National Roundup
Five Urban Districts Named as Finalists for 2006 Broad Prize
Five urban school districts were named last week as finalists for an annual award recognizing systems posting the greatest improvement in student achievement.
Education
Holding Firm in Test Standoff
Jim Gill is opposed to standardized tests, so he always keeps his two daughters home when they are given. But this year, that choice came with a heftier price tag.
Education
A National Roundup
Correction
A story in the March 29, 2006, issue of Education Week on debates over in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants misspelled a name in citing a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The case was Plyler v. Doe.
Education
A National Roundup
Clarification
A story in the April 5, 2006, issue of Education Week about a report on the No Child Left Behind Act by the Center on Education Policy should have made clear that 71 percent of the 299 school districts in the study reported reductions in instructional time in some of their elementary schools, not all their schools, in at least one subject such as social studies, art, and music, to make more time for reading and mathematics.
Equity & Diversity
Immigration Proposals Could Aid School Hiring Efforts
Educators have several reasons to follow the volatile debate over immigration in Congress—a debate that ground to a halt last week before lawmakers’ spring recess.
Education
U.S. Pilot of AYP 'Growth' Models Advances
The states that made the first cut to qualify for a new pilot program that would let them use so-called growth models to judge whether schools and districts meet their performance targets under the federal No Child Left Behind Act are using a variety of approaches to tackle the task.