May 15, 2002
Education Week, Vol. 21, Issue 36
School & District Management
School Board Poll Finds Turmoil Isn't Common
A study sponsored by the National School Boards Association seeks to offer an unusually comprehensive view of who serves on school boards, the challenges they face, and what they value. Includes a table, "School Boards and Superintendents."
Education
People in the News
Linda Goudy and Elsa Bravo were recently hired by the South Florida Annenberg Challenge to lead its Florida School Report, a research project aimed at using standardized-test scores to see how schools are doing at raising achievement. Ms. Goudy, 47, is the project's research director. Before joining the initiative, she served as the senior project coordinator of Florida Atlantic University's area center for educational enhancement. Ms. Bravo, 38, is the project's research associate. She previously served as a 1st and 2nd grade teacher with the Miami-Dade County school district.
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Education
Behind the Scenes
As they get a taste of the high-stress world of broadcast news, students in Kansas are finding out that producing a TV show is harder than it looks.
Education
School Boards and Superintendents
Although school board members said they spend more time than in the past on student achievement, when it comes to evaluating superintendents, their first priority is a smooth relationship with their districts' top official.
Education
Honors & Awards
2002 ASBJ MAGNA AWARDS
The American School Board Journal, a trade publication for school boards, and Sodexho School Services, a Gaithersburg-Md.- based provider of food and facilities management, recently announced 25 winners of the 8th annual Magna Awards. The awards recognize school boards for implementing programs that encourage public engagement in schools and that improve student achievement.
Classroom Technology
Report Says E-Learning Redefining K-12 Education
Cyber schools, online teaching and testing, and other e-learning initiatives are emerging quickly across the country, changing traditional notions of how K- 12 education is provided, an Education Week report released last week concludes.
Reading & Literacy
Teaching & Learning
- Reading Association Recognizes
'Phonicators' Group - Science Teachers
- Crying Foul
- Chicago Discounts
School Climate & Safety
Weather Wreaks Havoc On Some Schools
Schools in rural McDowell County, W.Va., may not reopen for the rest of this academic year, after severe flooding May 2 destroyed one school and damaged up to 11 others.
Early Childhood
Rules for Accrediting Early-Childhood Programs Revisited
Accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children could soon last for five years, instead of three. Individuals who coordinate accreditation visits would be paid for their work. And programs that earned accreditation would be expected to keep improving their programs.
School Choice & Charters
Milwaukee Board Tips In Favor of Vouchers
A recent election to the Milwaukee school board has created a voting majority that supports the city's private-school-voucher program, triggering elation among the program's advocates and worry among public school loyalists.
School & District Management
Fla.'s New Code Drops Requirement For Principal Licenses
Tucked inside the more than a thousand pages of revised education code approved by the Florida legislature this month is a one-sentence provision that would open principals' jobs to all comers.
Education
News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup
- Ariz. Lawmakers Reject Ruling on School Funds
- Illinois Eyes Elected State Chief
- Mich. Court Rejects Funding Suit
- N.C. to Appeal Finance Decision
Education Funding
Standard & Poor's Studies School Spending in Pennsylvania
How much Pennsylvania spends on schools is, in many ways, less important than how that money is spent, according to a new analysis of the state's education spending patterns and student achievement.
Education
Urban Education
Job Hunting
Paul G. Vallas, the public-finance whiz who led the Chicago schools in an era of profound change for the district, has applied to run Philadelphia's schools as the Pennsylvania district struggles for academic and financial health.
Education
News in Brief: A Washington Roundup
- Education Department Releases Draft Rules on Standards, Testing
- Report: Thumbs Down on Lap Belts
Education
State Journal
A Measure of Fluency
Determining if students are fluent enough in English to keep up with regular classroom work is not easy for educators who work with immigrant children.
States
Casey, Rendell Rhetoric Hot In Pa. Democratic Primary
Two Pennsylvania Democrats with big political name recognition are making school funding a key issue in an increasingly nasty and intense bid to win next week's gubernatorial primary.
Two Pennsylvania Democrats with big political name recognition are making school funding a key issue in an increasingly nasty and intense bid to win next week's gubernatorial primary.
States
Fla. Lawmakers End Impasse On K-20 Guidelines
In their second special session of the year on education, Florida lawmakers last week finally set into motion the laws that give structure to the state's new K-20 system of schooling.
International
Education Issues High On the U.N.'s Agenda For Session on Children
Providing all of the world's children with a free, high-quality primary education by 2015 and giving girls the same access to schooling as boys by 2005 were among the targets expected to be endorsed late last week at the United Nations' Special Session on Children.
Education
Correction
A story in the May 8, 2002, issue of Education Week on the use of charts and other graphics from USA Today in mathematics textbooks ("'Nation's Newspaper' Moves Into Math Texts") incorrectly said the newspaper is distributed free to schools. It charges schools for subscriptions.
College & Workforce Readiness
Calif. District: Talk Career Talk Or No Graduation Walk
For some high school seniors in southern California's San Fernando Valley, taking part in graduation-day festivities is no longer as easy as strolling across stage, shaking hands, and picking up a diploma.
Assessment
U.S. History Again Stumps Senior Class
For the second time in seven years, American high school students turned in what officials described as an "abysmal" or "awful" performance on the national assessment in U.S. history, with nearly 60 percent of test-takers failing to demonstrate even basic knowledge and understanding of the subject, according to the test results released here last week.
Student Achievement
Pa. Tutoring Effort Could Foreshadow ESEA Results
The low participation rate in a Pennsylvania tutoring program for students who perform poorly on standardized tests may serve as a harbinger for a similar provision in the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001.
The low participation rate in a Pennsylvania tutoring program for students who perform poorly on standardized tests may serve as a harbinger for a similar provision in the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001.
School Climate & Safety
New York Schools, U.S. Officials At Odds Over 9/11 Aid
New York City schools still recovering from the impact of Sept. 11 are sparring with the federal government over financial help education officials say they need to speed the healing.
Federal
Department Aims to Promote Single-Sex Schools
When state and federal officials discovered public elementary school principal Benjamin Wright had split his enrollment into classes of all boys and all girls this school year, they descended on Seattle's Thurgood Marshall Elementary School.
Education
Federal File
Message: They Care
At the same time President Bush was visiting schools in Wisconsin last week to talk up the new federal education law, congressional Democrats staged a press conference to slam his budget request for schools.
Student Achievement
Critical Study of NBPTS Spurs State Advisory Group to Act
A small-scale study that suggests teachers with national certification are not better than other teachers in raising student test scores has prompted a group advising state policymakers to undertake an "independent review" of the research.