March 9, 2005
Education Week, Vol. 24, Issue 26
Education
Correction
Correction
A news brief in the March 2, 2005, issue of Education Week gave incorrect information about which Roman Catholic archdiocese runs the nation’s largest parochial school system. It is the Archdiocese of New York, with 108,000 students.
Education
A National Roundup
Scholarship Gift
A retired Seattle educator who was one of the city’s first black principals bequeathed $500,000 to the city school district’s scholarship fund.
Education
A National Roundup
Fla. Girl Wearing Boys’ Clothes Won’t Be Pictured in Yearbook
Principal Sam Ward of Fleming Island High School in Clay County, Fla., pulled a lesbian student’s picture from the school yearbook because she wore boys’ clothes in her senior photo.
Education
A National Roundup
Minn. District Holds Some Classes as Teachers’ Strike Continues
The Crosby-Ironton, Minn., school district opened classes for 1st and 2nd graders last week, as a teachers’ strike that has shut schools headed into its fourth week.
School Choice & Charters
Spellings to Catholic Schools: Expand Tutoring
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings last week called on the nation’s Roman Catholic schools to become active in providing tutoring to public school students under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
College & Workforce Readiness
A National Roundup
New NCAA Academic Standards Threaten Division I Scholarships
As many as 410 athletic teams in the nation’s elite Division I universities could lose some of their scholarships unless they improve their student-athletes’ academic performance, according to a preliminary report from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
School & District Management
Summit Underscores Gates Foundation’s Emergence as Player
As its headliner role at the national summit on high schools here highlighted, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has moved beyond a focus on individual schools and entered the fray of national politics and policy.
Education
A National Roundup
Los Angeles Teachers Oust Incumbent Union President
Los Angeles teachers defeated the president of their union and most of its leadership last week in favor of a longtime rank-and-file activist and most of his slate of newcomers. The ouster marks the first time in the union’s 35-year history that an incumbent president has lost an election.
School & District Management
‘First Things First’ Shows Promising Results
No one is calling it a miracle, but the Kansas City, Kan., district’s experience with First Things First—with backing from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation—is offering hope that the redesign of urban high schools is not a lost cause.
Education
A National Roundup
Audit Says N.Y. District Lost $11.2 Million to Theft ‘Spree’
Former employees of a New York state school district, along with friends and family members, spent more than $11.2 million of district funds on personal items, a state audit concludes.
Law & Courts
A National Roundup
School Board in Louisiana to Appeal Ruling Barring Prayer at Meetings
The Tangipahoa Parish, La., school board voted unanimously last week to appeal a federal judge’s ruling striking down its practice of opening meetings with a prayer.
Education
Report Roundup
Teenage Jobs
More than half of high school seniors who participated in a recent survey said they had paying jobs outside of school, and 40 percent of all the students surveyed reported working more than 15 hours a week.
Education
A National Roundup
Boy Charged With Murder of Tenn. School Bus Driver
A 14-year-old student in Cumberland City, Tenn., was charged on March 2 with shooting and killing his bus driver, Joyce Gregory, when she stopped to pick him up on the way to school that day.
Education
Report Roundup
Sleepy Students
A recent study suggests that 5th graders in an Indiana district are entering school most mornings too tired to consistently pay attention in class.
Education
Report Roundup
Academic Tracking
An international study suggests that rigid tracking of students into different classes by their academic ability provides little or no payoff for improving a nation’s overall academic achievement.
Education
Report Roundup
Out of School Programs
Evidence is mixed on whether there is a shortage of publicly financed before- and after-school programs for children.
Education
Report Roundup
Parent Survey Tracks Attitudes on Drugs
A smaller majority of parents polled last year had talked to their teenage children about drugs than their parental counterparts just six years earlier had.
Education
Making an Impression
School district employees in Scottsdale, Ariz., are enjoying some fancy new descriptions for their jobs.
Education
A Washington Roundup
Job Training Gets Nod
The Republican-controlled House passed job-training legislation on a largely party-line vote of 224-200 last week.
Education
A Washington Roundup
Bush Names Whitehurst to Be Acting NCES Chief
President Bush has announced that he will designate Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst as the acting commissioner of education statistics.
Equity & Diversity
Latino Research Group Sets Ambitious Agenda
A group of researchers and advocates unveiled a framework last week for a new generation of education studies that might better meet the needs of the nation’s growing population of Latino students.
School & District Management
Governors Seek Help From Federal Officials on NCLB Law, Funds
The nation’s governors last week identified spiraling Medicaid and other health-care spending as their top budget concern, and asked President Bush and Congress for help in keeping such costs from bleeding other state budget priorities, such as K-12 education.
School & District Management
Summit Fuels Push to Improve High Schools
The nation’s governors adjourned their two-day summit on high schools armed with an expanded arsenal of political and financial commitments to prepare all students for success in college and the workplace.
Education
A Washington Roundup
Lawmakers Form Caucuses on After-School Issues
A bipartisan group of lawmakers last week launched the Congressional Afterschool Caucuses in the hope of increasing federal funding for after-school programs. The group of six legislators includes Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and John Ensign, R-Nev.
Law & Courts
A Washington Roundup
Justices to Weigh Employee Speech
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to consider a case that will further explore when speech about workplace matters by public employees, including teachers and other school workers, is protected by the First Amendment.
Federal
Federal File
A Thaw in Relations
A snowy day in the nation’s capital last week shut down plenty of area schools, but it didn’t keep first lady Laura Bush, nor the U.S. education secretary, from showing up at a Washington university to speak up for an international group that’s weathered some stormy relations with the United States.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Calif. Legislative Analyst Faults Governor’s Program
California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst has recommended that the state legislature seek a repeal of the after-school program that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spearheaded before he became governor.
Education
A State Capitals Roundup
Ohio Newspaper Reviews Charter Teachers’ Licensure
Fewer than half the teachers in Ohio’s nearly 250 charter schools meet the standards for full state certification that teachers in regular public schools must meet, according to a newspaper’s analysis.
Special Education
Oscar Nomination Spotlights Autism
The Oscar-night paparazzi clearly were aiming for the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, in her pale-pink gown by the designer Stella McCartney.