January 9, 2008
Education Week, Vol. 27, Issue 17
Education
Report Roundup
D.C. Opportunity Scholarships
Most parents of students receiving aid through the Opportunity Scholarship Program say they have seen progress in the program’s handling of school safety issues and in efforts to make academics a higher priority.
Education Funding
Let History Reign
In an era when the emphasis in schools is on math, reading, and science, one organization is trying to ensure that history doesn’t just survive, it flourishes.
Education
Report Roundup
School Reform Models
A new paper argues that efforts to improve K-12 education need to break away from conventional forms of school.
Education
Report Roundup
Foreign-Language Learning
Ohio students should begin studying foreign languages as early as kindergarten and receive uninterrupted, continual instruction in a foreign language.
Education
Report Roundup
Math Assessment for Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico’s mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress can be accurately reported on the same scale that is now used to record individual U.S. states’ results.
Education
Report Roundup
Hispanic Views on Education
More than nine of every 10 Hispanic Americans view education as a top priority in the United States, a report says.
Education
Report Roundup
Child Poverty
Seventeen percent, or 13 million, of the nation’s children are living in poverty, a figure that has increased by 11 percent since 2000.
Education
News in Brief
New Appointee Starts Job As Florida’s K-12 Chancellor
Frances Haithcock has become Florida’s K-12 chancellor, replacing Cheri Pierson Yecke, who stepped down after losing a bid for education commissioner, the state’s top public schools job.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Federal Study Tracks Public, Private Enrollment
Public and private school enrollment in elementary and secondary schools increased by 15 percent between 1991 and 2004.
School & District Management
Memphis District Reels From Operations Woes
The district is trying to steady itself in the wake of controversies that have rocked its operations side, potentially complicating its search for a new superintendent.
School & District Management
D.C. Chancellor Gains Authority to Fire Central-Office Employees
Michelle A. Rhee, the chancellor of the public school system in the nation’s capital, soon will have the authority to fire employees in the central office.
Education
Letter to the Editor
New Discipline Strategies Are Unlikely to Pay Off
It’s impossible for anyone who has not taught in a public school to understand the effect that disruptive students have not only on teachers, but on other students as well.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Were Data Used Selectively in Clearinghouse Essay?
Why doesn’t Robert E. Slavin write about unrewarded, thoroughly researched instructional-process programs in greater detail, rather than point out bad programs that got good reports?
Education
Letter to the Editor
Supplement Coaching With Other Tools and Evaluation
Effective professional development should help teachers both with the work of teaching and the knowledge needed to do that work.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Boards: An ‘Outmoded Relic’ for Today’s Needs
What school boards really do is allow finger-pointing and blame-shifting.
Education
Letter to the Editor
'Highly Qualified' Principals
If we are to significantly improve principal preparation, orientation and induction, and ongoing development, we have to commit the resources over an extended period of time until the entire culture of the profession is altered.
Federal
School Nutrition Measure Is Dropped From Farm Bill
A proposed amendment to a major farm bill in Congress, backed both by health-advocacy groups and food-and beverage-industry giants, would have updated the nutrition standards for snacks to meet today’s concerns.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Business, Conscience, and Teaching
Educators have a larger and more vital role in the classroom than teaching to the test, argues Paul Shaker.
School & District Management
Home-School Parent in High-Profile Seat
How many children should a person have in public school in order to be qualified to head a state school board?
Education
News in Brief
Retired Chicago Teachers Protest Pension Payments
Newly retired educators are complaining about receiving partial pension payments, an aspect of a larger payroll problem in the district.
Education
Obituary
Teacher Advocate Dies
Lewis C. Solmon, a former education school dean who led the influential Teacher Advancement Program, died Dec. 17 as the result of a stroke. He was 65.
Curriculum
News in Brief
Children’s Author to Promote Importance of Reading
Jon Scieszka will promote literature as the first “national ambassador for young people’s literature,” the Library of Congress announced last week.
Education
News in Brief
ETS, N.J. Law Center Expand Advocacy Work
Organizations have teamed up to develop a national program to support advocacy efforts on behalf of low-income and minority students.
Education
News in Brief
Interim Chief Named in San Diego
The San Diego school board has named William Kowba acting interim superintendent.
School & District Management
Opinion
How Cincinnati Turned Its Schools Around
Joe Nathan examines "significant and successful" changes in Cincinnati public schools.
Teaching
Evidence on Effect of Culture-Based Teaching Called Thin
Few studies have examined whether culture-based instruction affects the achievement of language-minority students, despite its popularity with many educators.
International
PISA Results Scoured for Secrets to Better Science Scores
The less publicized analyses in the report examine differences in how nations go about the business of schooling and pinpoint which of those practices are statistically linked to better performance on the science portion of the exam.
Law & Courts
Courts: Students Have No Rights on Witnesses
In criminal law, the right of defendants to confront the witnesses against them is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.