July 10, 2002
Education Week, Vol. 21, Issue 42
Education Funding
N.Y. Appeals Court Rebuffs Lower Court's School Aid Ruling
A state appeals court in New York has reversed a landmark school finance decision that had ordered lawmakers to overhaul the state's school funding system.
School Climate & Safety
Teaching & Learning
- Some Calif. Test Scores Fall Along With Class Size
- Games and Lessons
- Online Teacher Learning
- Testing Guidance
Education
Frustration Grows as States Await 'Adequate Yearly Progress' Advice
State officials are frustrated and worried over a lack of federal guidance on setting annual performance targets for schools, as required by the nation's major education law. Fueling their concerns are preliminary simulations in more than a dozen states that suggest a majority of their schools could be identified as needing "improvement."
Families & the Community
A Great Day, or Dark One, for Schools?
Charneice M. Broughton picked up her ringing telephone on the last Thursday in June to hear news that made her burst into tears of joy: The highest court in the land had just given its blessing to the voucher program that enables her to send her 8-year-old daughter to a private school.
Education
Given a Choice
Here are the numbers of schools identified by each state, based on the most recent test scores available, that will have to offer public school choice this fall, under the less stringent 1994 ESEA:
Education
The New-Look SAT
Here are examples of the kinds of questions that students will be asked in the verbal section of the revised SAT:
Curriculum
Geography Makes Comeback In U.S. Classrooms
After falling off the curriculum map a generation ago, geography has made a quiet comeback in U.S. classrooms. Still, its supporters are looking to hold on to the ground they've gained, especially at a time when political and economic stakes have been raised to learn about other places and cultures.
Teaching Profession
Teaching Quality Viewed as Crucial
Americans say the No. 1 way to improve schools is to raise teacher quality, according to a recent poll commissioned by the Public Education Network and Education Week.
Student Well-Being
Low Appetite Seen for Free Summer Lunches
Advocacy groups and federal nutrition officials worry every summer that millions of children aren't getting the meals they need when school is out.
Education
People in the News
Betty Castor, the president and chief executive officer of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, recently announced that she plans to leave the organization in October.
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School & District Management
Senate May Vote on Overhaul Of OERI Before Fall Elections
If influential Senate lawmakers have their way, the Department of Education's primary research office will get its long-awaited face-lift this year.
School Choice & Charters
Advocates' Post-Ruling Choice: Bubbly
Several mornings this June, Clint Bolick arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court and took a seat in the exclusive section of the gallery set aside for members of the court's bar.
Education
Education and the Supreme Court: The 2001-02 Term
It was a major year for education in the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices addressed school vouchers, drug testing of students, and two cases involving the federal law that guarantees the privacy of education records.
Education
In the Court's Words
Here are excerpts from the majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27 decision in Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls, the student drug- testing case from Tecumseh, Okla.:
Majority Opinion | Concurring Opinions | Dissenting Opinion
Early Childhood
L.A. Panel Set to Vote On Preschool-for-All Plan
A commission that chooses how to spend tobacco-tax revenues in Los Angeles County is expected to decide next month whether to establish universal access to preschool across the county.
School & District Management
Several City Districts In Hunt for New Leaders
In the latest turn of the revolving door that has come to symbolize the job, three urban superintendents are out and one is in.
School Choice & Charters
In the Court's Words
Following are excerpts from the majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions in the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27 decision in the Cleveland voucher case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris:
Education
News in Brief: A Washington Roundup
- Initial 'Reading First' Grants Awarded to Three States
- Program Pushes Fruits, Veggies
- Welfare Overhaul Advances
- Report Sees College-Cost Crunch
- Study Urges Aid to Hispanics
- African Education Aid Proposed
- 'Hatched' D.C. Teacher Rehired
- Title IX in the News: Education Department Names
Commission to Study Title IX - Title IX in the News: Group Cites Costs of Gender Bias in Athletics
Education
Vouchers on the Ballot
Ballot measures that would have led to publicly financed voucher systems have been put to voeter and defeated in the following states. No such statewide ballot proposal has won voter approval.
Education
Geographic Exposure
Students taking the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress in geography were asked the following:
Education
A Long Road to the Court
Given the ferocity of the debate over vouchers, it is often forgotten that early in the history of the United States, religiously affiliated schools at times received generous public funding from states and cities. By the mid-19th century, with the rise of the common school and the increasing desire by Roman Catholic immigrants for their own schools, government aid to private schools gradually declined. Such aid to religious schools was generally not considered unconstitutional, however, until the 14th Amendment was interpreted as applying to the states the First Amendment's prohibition on a government establishment of religion. The specific policy debate on vouchers that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27 decision is a post-World War II phenomenon. Here's a look at some mileposts on the way to that ruling:
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
A Bogus Bonus?
A truly meaningful bottom line for teachers should be based on objective measures of their classroom-delivery prowess, not their students' normative tests, says teacher Davy McClay.
Federal
Opinion
Time to Save Federal Education Data
How can anyone trust the numbers if there is opportunity for politicians to massage the data or determine the time and manner of their release, ask Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn Jr.
Assessment
Opinion
Ensuring Failure
Walt Haney, a professor of education at Boston College, says his recent research on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System calls in to question the basic premises of the accounability movement.
Curriculum
Overhauled SAT Could Shake Up School Curricula
The first anxious teenagers won't lay their hands on the new, revamped version of the sat for three years. But the impact of the decision to overhaul the nation's most widely used college-entrance exam is likely to resonate in high school classrooms, admissions offices, and "test prep" courses well before then. Includes sample questions.