May 20, 2009
Education Week, Vol. 28, Issue 32
School & District Management
Bloomberg's Way
The state law that changed the governance of the system is sunsetting next month, setting off intense scrutiny of the system over the past seven years.
School & District Management
'Innovation' Push Raising Questions
Experts are urging that effectiveness, not just newness, should be reformers’ goal.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Inauguration Trip Focus of Lawsuit
A lawsuit was filed in federal court last week on behalf of more than 15,000 students who paid to attend inauguration but reportedly were left out in the cold.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
N.C. School District to Replace Laid-Off Teachers With Novices
Some experienced teachers being laid off in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., district will be replaced with 100 new Teach For America recruits.
Special Education
News in Brief
N.J. to Close Special Schools
The New Jersey Department of Children and Families plans to close 18 schools that serve troubled or disabled young people.
Education Funding
News in Brief
Georgia Governor Vetoes Tax Credits for Scholarships
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue vetoed two education-related bills last week, one of which would have provided an expansive tax credit to people who donated money to Georgia’s student-scholarship organizations.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
Alabama State Board Approves Streamlined Teacher Evaluations
Members of the Alabama board of education have voted to make the process of evaluating the state’s teachers more streamlined.
Education
News in Brief
Home-Schoolers Rally
Hundreds of home-schoolers descended on the Missouri Capitol on May 14 to protest a measure that would require students to earn 16 credits before they can drop out of high school.
Curriculum
News in Brief
Louisiana Bill Would Allow Nonacademic H.S. Studies
Louisiana Sen. Robert Kostelka has won unanimous state Senate approval for a plan to allow high school students to follow a nonacademic curriculum.
Ed-Tech Policy
News in Brief
Calif. Governor Sets Plan to Offer Open-Source Digital Texts
California will offer free, open-source digital textbooks under a plan unveiled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
School Choice & Charters
Report Roundup
Research Report: Charter Schools
President Barack Obama may want to take note of a new study which concludes that partisanship is the "strongest predictor" for whether voters back charter schools.
Federal
News in Brief
Population Growth of Hispanics, Asians Slowing, Census Says
Deterred by immigration laws and the lackluster economy, the population growth of Hispanics and Asians in the United States has slowed unexpectedly.
Education Funding
News in Brief
Blackboard Inc. Purchases Education Software Developer
Blackboard Inc. announced last week that it had acquired the education software developer ANGEL Learning Inc.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Student Testing
Educators need to use both "assessments for learning" and "assessments of learning" to gauge and improve student progress.
Education
News in Brief
3 N.Y.C. Schools Shut After Flu Outbreak
Health investigators are trying to figure out why swine flu has spread erratically after an outbreak closed three more New York City schools.
Federal
Report Roundup
Report Highlights Risks of Teacher Merit Pay
Teacher merit-pay plans may be growing in popularity with politicians, but a new report finds such programs are less widespread in the private sector than might be expected, and often bring unintended negative consequences.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Preschool Language Learning
Preschoolers’ exposure to the stronger language skills of peers in the preschool classroom can have a small but significant impact on their language learning.
Education Funding
Report Roundup
The Cost of College
Many low-income students don’t go to college because they lack information about how to apply for the financial aid that would make it possible.
School Choice & Charters
Spotlight Focuses on D.C. Vouchers
For such a small program, the private-school-voucher initiative for the District of Columbia has been getting an awful lot of attention lately.
International
Charter-Style Schools Catching on Across the World
At least 14 countries have introduced a form of the publicly financed, privately run schools pioneered by the United States.
Federal
Large Districts to Use Stimulus for ELL Support
With varying degrees of success serving English-learners, city school systems plan to tap federal aid to improve their programs.
School & District Management
N.Y.C. Bans Teacher Hires From Outside
Principals will have to draw from the reserve pool or teachers seeking to transfer from one school to another.
Special Education
Restrictions on Spec. Ed. Spending Prompt Complaints
The complex rules that govern how federal dollars must be spent on special education services are getting a new, critical look as stimulus money starts flowing to the states.
School & District Management
Duncan Hits Road, Hoping for Earful
Arne Duncan has been a mainstay of the speakers’ circuit inside the Washington Beltway since taking the helm of the U.S. Department of Education four months ago, but now he’s taking his show on the road.
School & District Management
Opinion
Democratize School Budget Data
J.H. Snider writes, "Federal, state, and local education checkbooks should all be made available online in a single, standardized format using so-called semantic Web technologies."
Federal
Opinion
Ending the Battles Over Teaching
"Researchers and policy wonks need to listen carefully to young professionals eager to make change," says Barnett Berry.
Curriculum
Letter to the Editor
Civic Engagement: Tilted Toward Affluent Students?
To the Editor:
In response to "Youths' Civic Engagement Seen to Rise" (April 22, 2009), which reports on research findings showing that young people today are voting in greater percentages and volunteering more while still in high school, compared with their parents’ generation:
In response to "Youths' Civic Engagement Seen to Rise" (April 22, 2009), which reports on research findings showing that young people today are voting in greater percentages and volunteering more while still in high school, compared with their parents’ generation:
Curriculum
Letter to the Editor
Principal Disagrees With Study of Reading Programs
To the Editor:
I have been a secondary principal for the past 26 years, and have seen the positive impact on learning throughout my district resulting from Project CRISS, one of the reading programs reported on in your article "Supplementary Reading Programs Found Ineffective" (May 13, 2009). I attended my first CRISS training with three of my teachers in 2005, and could tell then that it was a professional-development program different from any other I had experienced. I recognized that CRISS had the potential to dramatically change the way we taught reading.
I have been a secondary principal for the past 26 years, and have seen the positive impact on learning throughout my district resulting from Project CRISS, one of the reading programs reported on in your article "Supplementary Reading Programs Found Ineffective" (May 13, 2009). I attended my first CRISS training with three of my teachers in 2005, and could tell then that it was a professional-development program different from any other I had experienced. I recognized that CRISS had the potential to dramatically change the way we taught reading.
Early Childhood
Opinion
Preschool and Early Reading
"Public schools must do whatever is required to make certain that primary students are readers," writes Gordon MacInnes.