December 3, 2008
Education Week, Vol. 28, Issue 14
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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):
In response to Eric Schaps’ Commentary "Missing in Action: The Non-Role of Research in Policy and Practice" (Nov. 5, 2008):
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.