Issues

December 3, 2008

Education Week, Vol. 28, Issue 14
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen works between sessions of a special budget hearing. Fifty-nine education department staffers took a voluntary buyout in a statewide effort led by Gov. Bredesen.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen works between sessions of a special budget hearing. Fifty-nine education department staffers took a voluntary buyout in a statewide effort led by Gov. Bredesen.
Mark Humphrey/AP
School & District Management Belt-Tightening Puts State Chiefs on Spot
In state after state, ballooning deficits are hitting an education bureaucracy charged with carrying out a growing list of mandates.
Michele McNeil, December 2, 2008
5 min read
School & District Management Business Lessons Guide Training for Charter Leaders
The Minnesota Leadership Academy for Charter and Alternative Public Schools pairs practicing and aspiring principals and other school administrators with business leaders.
Dakarai I. Aarons, December 2, 2008
4 min read
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will have her official portrait hang at the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education building alongside paintings of all seven past education secretaries.
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will have her official portrait hang at the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education building alongside paintings of all seven past education secretaries.
Dennis Cook/AP/File
Federal Federal File Portraits of Power: Spellings to Join a Historic Gallery
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has at least one item left on her to-do list: Attend the unveiling of her official portrait at the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education building.
Alyson Klein, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Special Education Advocates for Disabled Students Cheer Graduation Rule
Disability-group advocates were concerned that a loose standard could mean fewer opportunities for students with disabilities to earn a regular diploma.
Christina A. Samuels, December 1, 2008
3 min read
Law & Courts News in Brief N.J. Court Orders Trial on School Funding
The New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered that a trial be held to decide whether the state can eliminate the special funding formula that has funneled billions in extra aid to its poorest urban school districts.
Catherine Gewertz, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Funding News in Brief Ga. Pension Board Rejects Move to Change Retirees' Increases
A state board has voted unanimously to keep a nearly 40-year-old policy that guarantees cost-of-living increases to pension payments for retired Georgia teachers.
The Associated Press, December 1, 2008
1 min read
School & District Management News in Brief Vermont Chief Picked
The superintendent of the Franklin West Supervisory Union has been named Vermont’s new education commissioner.
The Associated Press, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education News in Brief Grant Program in Boston Aimed at Boosting Success in College
A five-year, $5 million grant program will encourage collaboration among public school officials, nonprofit organizations, colleges, and city officials in Boston to help more students in the city’s public schools prepare for and succeed in higher education.
Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Federal News in Brief N.J. Parents Lose Suit Over NCLB
The federal No Child Left Behind Act does not provide a private right to sue over its parental-notice and tutoring provisions, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Mark Walsh, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education News in Brief Proposed School for Gay Students to Refashion Focus After Criticism
Backers of a proposed high school in Chicago touted as a haven for gay and bullied youths have pulled their proposal, saying they wanted to spend another year to finalize their plans.
The Associated Press, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Correction Correction
A box that accompanied a story in the Nov. 19, 2008, issue of Education Week gave the incorrect name of a nonprofit organization devising a senior-year course in linear algebra. It is the Education Development Center.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Special Education News in Brief Educator's Life Story to Air
The life of Cobb County, Ga., educator Brad Cohen will be the subject of a “Hallmark Hall of Fame” movie scheduled to air on CBS.
Christina A. Samuels, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Sasha, left, and Malia Obama, the children of President-elect Barack Obama, now attend the University of Chicago Lab School.
Sasha, left, and Malia Obama, the children of President-elect Barack Obama, now attend the University of Chicago Lab School.
Charles Dharapak/AP
Federal News in Brief Obamas Pick Private School, Citing 'Fit,' Security, Privacy
President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have chosen a private school for their two daughters, opting for an institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.
The Associated Press, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education News in Brief Puerto Rican Officials Spar Over Low Scores on NAEP
Puerto Rican leaders are embroiled in a sharp disagreement over whether the island commonwealth should continue to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Sean Cavanagh, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Federal Opinion Rating the Rankings
High schools’ college counselors are tired of publications putting profit ahead of the personal experiences of the young people in our care, says Marty Elkins.
Marty Elkins, December 1, 2008
5 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
Patricia Raine
Reading & Literacy Opinion Reclaiming America, One 1st Grader at a Time
"Learning to read with understanding is the foundation for all learning, but most low-income children in the United States are below grade level in reading by the 4th grade," writes John Merrow.
John Merrow, December 1, 2008
6 min read
Teaching Opinion The Civic Standard: An Alternative to No Child Left Behind
Merle S. McClung writes that our nation's Founding Fathers "had a broader civic purpose in mind, and saw the nation’s interest in public education as growing out of a desire to make our constitutional democracy work."
Merle S. McClung, December 1, 2008
7 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Research Fellowship Story Mischaracterizes SERP Effort
To the Editor:
Your article "Program Lets Urban Districts Call Shots on Research" (Nov. 12, 2008) highlights the Council of the Great City Schools’ research-fellowship program, noting that letting districts set the research agenda echoes the principles of the Strategic Education Research Partnership. The piece mischaracterizes the partnership, however, when it says that SERP “has struggled in recent years to raise the money to meet its original ‘grand vision,’ which called for a $700 million, 15-year effort” to build an infrastructure for research and development focused on urgent problems of practice.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Energy Use in Schools Is a Community Issue
To the Editor:
I read with interest your article "District Leaders Exchange Ideas on Ways to Trim Energy Costs" (Nov. 5, 2008), which reported on the Oct. 23-24 “energy summit” in Washington sponsored by the American Association of School Administrators. It described well the importance of cutting the damage from poor energy management to school budgets and the environment.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Boaler's Math Conspiracy Needs a Hollywood Ending
To the Editor:
Jo Boaler’s Commentary "Where Has All the Knowledge Gone?" (Oct. 8, 2008) would have us believe that a vast right-wing conspiracy is afoot. She asserts that American schoolchildren are behind in mathematics because some unnamed culprits have managed to suppress the research that would support the most effective methods for teaching the subject. She also poses the question of whether the George W. Bush White House withheld such legitimate research from consideration by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, saying it seems likely.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Journalism and Schools: Two Sides to Every Story
To the Editor:
We are shocked that Gina Burkhardt, the president of Learning Point Associates, and Richard Lee Colvin, the director of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media (an organization whose mission is “to promote fair, accurate, and insightful coverage of education”), would encourage a journalistic approach to education reporting that fosters one-sided, and no doubt self-congratulatory, talking points ("Telling the Story of School Reform," Commentary, Oct. 29, 2008). Yes, superintendents should be allowed to tell their stories to the press. But journalists owe the public a comprehensive and critical analysis of those stories. Unfortunately, the authors appear to have forsaken that caveat.
December 1, 2008
2 min read
Education Letter to the Editor School Libraries: An Ignored Indicator of Academic Success
To the Editor:
In response to Eric Schaps’ Commentary "Missing in Action: The Non-Role of Research in Policy and Practice" (Nov. 5, 2008):
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Parent-Involvement Study Is 'Methodologically Flawed'
To the Editor:
The “study” reported in "Parents Show Strong Interest in School Involvement" (Oct. 29, 2008) is so methodologically flawed its conclusions are not supported. This is so clearly the case it would lead one to suspect that the “researchers”—Civic Enterprises and Peter D. Hart Research Associates, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—might have had political or social preconceptions, rather than a researcher’s proper disinterest and objectivity.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor More on What Will Keep Teachers in the Classroom
To the Editor:
Arthur E. Levine and David Haselkorn’s recent Commentary on teacher retention and recruitment, "Teaching at the Precipice" (Nov. 5, 2008), led me to consider two issues I’ve encountered as a 25-year school superintendent in a small, rural elementary district and, currently, as a co-director of an alternative teacher-preparation program.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
Teaching Profession Human Capital Key Worry for Reformers
A growing number of education stakeholders are zeroing in on developing “human capital” as the key strategy to improve student learning.
Lesli A. Maxwell, December 1, 2008
8 min read
School & District Management Report Roundup Data-Driven Instruction
A new study examines how teachers at four “pioneering” urban high schools are using student data to inform a “more responsive and targeted” approach to instruction.
December 1, 2008
1 min read
School & District Management Report Roundup Collective Bargaining
Despite arguments about the effect of collective bargaining contracts on student achievement, research on the question remains “limited, ambiguous, and incomplete,” a report says.
Stephen Sawchuk, December 1, 2008
1 min read
Federal Grants in NCLB to Aid Teaching Under Scrutiny
Little information exists on whether the $3 billion spent annually has improved the effectiveness of U.S. educators, a report says.
Stephen Sawchuk, December 1, 2008
10 min read
School & District Management Report Roundup Charter Leadership
Governors and states should support university-based leadership-training programs and nontraditional organizations that focus on developing charter school leaders, a new report says.
Dakarai I. Aarons, December 1, 2008
1 min read