April 23, 2008
Education Week, Vol. 27, Issue 34
Law & Courts
High Court Hears Closely Watched Employment Case
The issue before the justices involves whether public employees may press federal lawsuits when an adverse job action is based on subjective or malicious reasons targeted only at them.
Federal
Forum Seeks A New Vision for U.S. Role
The Forum for Education and Democracy report calls for moving away from k-12 tests and sanctions and, instead, do what other countries with high student achievement do.
Education
News in Brief
Certification Measure Approved in Missouri
Legislation authorizing a new alternative- teacher-certification process that supporters say could take less time and less money than the current path is on its way to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican who has supported the idea in the past.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Missing an Opportunity on Gifted Education?
It is disappointing that Education Week did not use this opportunity to include an article on the negative impact the No Child Left Behind Act has had on gifted education.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Set Goals and Make Time for Teacher Collaboration
To the Editor:
Your In Perspective article “Working Smarter by Working Together” (April 2, 2008), on the professional learning community at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill., was a compelling description of how educators can organize themselves to learn from each other. Adult learning, however, should only be an interim goal. Professional learning communities will become just one more transitory innovation unless they narrowly focus their efforts on improving teacher performance and raising student achievement.
Your In Perspective article “Working Smarter by Working Together” (April 2, 2008), on the professional learning community at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill., was a compelling description of how educators can organize themselves to learn from each other. Adult learning, however, should only be an interim goal. Professional learning communities will become just one more transitory innovation unless they narrowly focus their efforts on improving teacher performance and raising student achievement.
Special Education
Letter to the Editor
Autism-Program Study Is Said to Be Flawed
While research on autism is to be commended, the Policy Matters Ohio study of the Autism Scholarship Program exhibits some serious flaws.
Teaching Profession
Letter to the Editor
Much of Teacher’s Role in Learning Is Immeasurable
Teaching is a relationship, first among teacher and students, and then among those who surround that primary relationship.
Education
Letter to the Editor
The ‘Unasked Questions’ Found From Story on Math Panel’s Report
“The qualities of an effective mathematics teacher,” according to your front-page summary of findings from the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s recent report, are “frustratingly elusive.”
Education
Letter to the Editor
Rewards and Mediocrity: State-Testing Questions
With so much national focus on standardized tests, why haven’t I heard much conversation about the use of incentives before test administration?
Teaching Profession
Federal File
First Lady, Spellings Try Their Hands in the Classroom
First lady Laura Bush and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings visited a class of 1st grade students at in Washington as part of a week recognizing the Teach For America program.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
High School Redesign
A school redesign program in Sacramento, Calif., has led to more high school choices for students, says a report.
Teaching Profession
Lawmakers in N.Y. Bar Student Scores in Weighing Tenure
They were hoping to more closely align teacher-tenure decisions with student test scores, but the mayor of New York City and other proponents of that idea got the opposite: a two-year ban.
Education
Correction
Corrections
• A chart accompanying a story in the April 9, 2008, issue of Education Week about a union-run institute focused on helping local teachers’ unions find ways to bring reform to themselves and their school districts should have said that Mark Simon served as the president of the Montgomery County Education Association in Maryland for two six-year terms between 1985 and 2003.
English-Language Learners
Report Roundup
English-Learners
Los Angeles schools are not serving English-language learners well, researchers say.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Classroom Spending Tied to Achievement
Larger expenditures on regular classroom instruction do lead to better performance, with higher teacher compensation showing the single largest effect, a study finds.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Service Learning
Students involved in service-learning programs report being more interested in their coursework and better motivated to do well in school, a report says.
International
America Scouts Overseas to Boost Education Skills
As state leaders reassess the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in a competitive economy, they are weighing plans to gauge how their schools measure up against those of Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, as well as Finland and other European nations—all perennial leaders on international assessments.
Federal
Researchers Gain Insight Into Education's Impact on Nations' Productivity
Today, a mounting database of results from international studies has made it possible for researchers to start exploring the relationship between education and economic growth in much more systematic ways than in 1983.
Mathematics
Catching Up on Algebra
The push to ensure that all students, not just the academically gifted, take introductory algebra and do so earlier has gained widespread acceptance in U.S. schools over the quarter-century since A Nation at Risk advocated strengthening graduation requirements in math.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
D.C. Teachers’ Union Officials Urge Rejection of Rhee’s Buyout Offer
Critics of the buyout program say it encourages young and midlevel teachers to resign.
School & District Management
Opinion
An Epoch-Making Report, But What About the Early Grades?
The persistent lack of significant improvement since publication of A Nation at Risk is owing to the unwavering persistence of the very ideas that caused the decline in the first place—the repudiation of a definite academic curriculum in the early grades, argues E.D. Hirsch Jr.
School Choice & Charters
Trends in India: Expanding Middle Class Drives Private Schooling
India's education landscape reveals that its image as a rising force in science and math fields is driven mostly by changes in the private school sector.
Federal
Trends in China: Schooling Shifting With Market Forces
China’s education system has undergone significant changes over the past quarter-century, some brought into classrooms directly by government policy, others swept along by the rising tide of free-market reforms.
Federal
Trends in Japan: Japan Continues Search for Academic Triumph
The education system has long been viewed as a model because of its strong performance on international-comparison tests, but among its citizens, schooling in the nation is seen as inadequate.
International
Trends in the European Union: Education Seen Driving Prosperity
The European Union has its share of education successes with Finland outperforming the world on international exams and several other European countries scoring above the international average.
Teaching
Opinion
E Pluribus ... A Tale of Three Systems
One can debate whether a straight line can be traced from the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983 and the signing of the federal No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, argues Howard Gardner.
School Climate & Safety
Maryland Moves Against Bullying, Boosts Aid to High-Cost Districts
Highlights of a recent state-legislative session.
Student Well-Being
Polygamy Case Raises Complex Schooling Issues
It remains unclear how long Texas state officials will be responsible for the schooling of the 416 children removed from a polygamist group's compound.