October 4, 2006
Education Week, Vol. 26, Issue 06
School Climate & Safety
Hostage-Taking Seen as Difficult to Prevent
The hostage-taking at a rural Colorado high school last week that left one student and the armed intruder dead was a rare event and one that would have been nearly impossible for school leaders to prevent, school safety experts said.
Education
Report Roundup
Research Report: English-Language Learners
The policy brief identifies five myths about educating English-learners and tells how to overcome them. One myth, the brief says, is that school time frames for completion of high school are sacred. Norm Gold, a longtime educational specialist for English-language learners who wrote the brief, recommends expanding the time provided for high school from four to five years for English-language learners who want the extra time and need it.
Education
Report Roundup
Behavioral Drugs
The survey, conducted by HCD Research and Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, also found that doctors estimated that in roughly 60 percent of cases in which a behavioral drug such as Ritalin is prescribed, a student’s academic performance improves.
Education
Report Roundup
Research Report: Charter Schools
The report said its goal was to showcase charter schools that are improving student learning using some unconventional approaches.
Education
Report Roundup
Research Report: Mental Health
The survey of 1,318 children and teenagers ages 8 to 18 found that about three in four young people recognized asthma as a physical illness, but only about half recognized depression as a mental illness.
Education
Report Roundup
Student Technology Use
The survey of 15,000 high school students—conducted by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation—found that after Internet portals such as Google and Yahoo!, teenagers use national television Web sites, and then local television and daily newspaper Web sites to keep up with current events, according to the survey by the Miami-based foundation, which promotes excellence in journalism.
Education
Report Roundup
Survey Identifies Needs of Teachers
The biggest needs of teachers in pre-K to grade 12 are learning how to manage their classrooms more effectively and developing skills to improve student achievement related to the No Child Left Behind Act, according to a national survey.
Education
Correction
Correction
A story on the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences in the Sept. 27 issue of Education Week cited the wrong number of pre- and post-doctoral fellows who have received training grants from the institute, due to incorrect information supplied by the department. The correct number is 177. Also, the institute’s Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse, or ERIC, system currently contains all or most published studies in education, in contrast to what the story reported. A previously publicized goal to archive only high-quality studies was later deemed unworkable, according to Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, the institute’s director.
Education
A National Roundup
McGraw Prizes Awarded
Three educators were announced as winners of the 2006 Harold W. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education last week in New York City.
Education
People in the News
David J. Moriarty
David J. Moriarty has been elected the president of the board of directors for the Reading Recovery Council of North America, a Worthington, Ohio-based group dedicated to helping 1st graders who have difficulty learning to read. Mr. Moriarty, 63, is an adjunct professor in writing at Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Mass.
Education
People in the News
Eugene W. Hickok
Eugene W. Hickok has become a Bradley education fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. Mr. Hickok, 56, is a former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and a former state secretary of education for Pennsylvania.
Education
People in the News
Elizabeth Neale
Elizabeth Neale has been named the executive director of the newly formed National School Leadership Network, a Hinsdale, Mass.-based group that supports regional mentoring projects for principals nationwide. Ms. Neale, 58, was formerly the principal of the 500-student Silvio O. Conte Community School in Pittsfield, Mass.
Education
Obituary
Thomas H. Reece
Thomas H. Reece, a former president of the Chicago Teachers Union, died Sept. 17. He was 68 and had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
Education
A National Roundup
NASSP Lands Grant for Civic Engagement of H.S. Students
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has won a federal grant to involve high school students in creating “civic action plans” to improve their schools and communities.
School & District Management
Beefing Up Personnel Skills
Faced with the enviable challenge of picking new teachers from a much-expanded pool of applicants, Chicago principals are about to get a lesson on how to make the right choices.
Curriculum
Opinion
Bibliophobia
Ignoring academic writing and the reading of nonfiction books at the high school level will only prolong our national bout of failure in college, writes Will Fitzhugh, the founder of The Concord Review.
Education
Opinion
Chat Wrap-Up: State Leadership for Low-Performing Schools
On Sept 19, readers questioned S. Paul Reville, the president of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, in Cambridge, Mass.; Yvonne Caamal Canul, the director of the office of school improvement of the Michigan Department of Education; and Christopher B. Swanson, the director of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, on the topic of “New Leadership Role for States: Instructional Improvement for Low-Performing Schools.”
Education
Letter to the Editor
Educators Must Persist in Reaching Out to Parents
I had mixed feelings about Lisa M. Weinbaum’s efforts to highlight the growing distance that immigrant parents feel between themselves and their children, as the children assimilate into U.S. culture ("Straddling a Cultural Chasm," Commentary, Sept. 20, 2006).
Education
Letter to the Editor
Seeing ‘Unfettered Social Darwinism’ in Our Future
Thomas Sobol is right that the No Child Left Behind Act is used as a distraction from confronting educational issues with direct implications for the nation’s future ("Beyond No Child Left Behind," Commentary, Sept. 20, 2006). But Mr. Sobol is wrong if he believes that these issues would be addressed if the federal law were to suddenly vanish at reauthorization time.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Pressure on Children: Not Better, Worse by Degrees
While I appreciate the fact that my book The Homework Myth was mentioned on your front page, I read the article in question ("Student Pressure Subject of Debate," Sept. 13, 2006) with increasing concern.
Education
Events
1-2—Middle schools: Middle Level Fundamentals, sponsored by the New England League of Middle Schools, for middle-level educators, at the Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vt. Contact: Valerie Kacian, 460 Boston St., Suite 4, Topsfield, MA 01983; (978) 887-6263; fax: (978) 887-6504; e-mail: vrkacian@nelms.org; Web site: www.nelms.org.
November
1-2—Middle schools: Middle Level Fundamentals, sponsored by the New England League of Middle Schools, for middle-level educators, at the Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vt. Contact: Valerie Kacian, 460 Boston St., Suite 4, Topsfield, MA 01983; (978) 887-6263; fax: (978) 887-6504; e-mail: vrkacian@nelms.org; Web site: www.nelms.org.
Education Funding
Grants
Grants
6-8—English-language learners: Bridges to Understanding: Teaching That Matters for English Learners, sponsored by the Northeast Office of the University of California, Los Angeles’ School Management Program, at Cooperative Educational Services in Trumbull, Conn. Deadline: Oct. 30. Contact: Lisa DiMartino, 40 Lindeman Drive, Suite 200, Trumbull, CT 06611; (203) 365-8914; fax: (203) 365-8947; e-mail: ldimarti@smp.gseis.ucla.edu; Web site: www.smp.gseis.ucla.edu/Northeast.htm.
Reading & Literacy
Scathing Report Casts Cloud Over ‘Reading First’
The findings of a scathing report on the federal Reading First program continued to reverberate last week following its Sept. 22 release, fueling debates in Congress, on the Internet, and among professionals in the field about their gravity and potential impact.
Reading & Literacy
Publisher Who Filed Initial Complaints Gets Some Satisfaction From I.G. Report E-Mail Exchanges
State officials, publishers, and educators began complaining to one another very early during the implementation of Reading First that the U.S. Department of Education appeared to be promoting particular reading programs, assessments, and consultants over others in their guidance to states.
Equity & Diversity
Study Blasts Proposed Changes in Race, Ethnicity Data
Proposed changes in the way schools and states report data on students’ race and ethnicity to the federal government “would make it extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible,” to conduct research, monitor civil rights compliance, and enforce accountability, according to a report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.