May 24, 2006
Education Week, Vol. 25, Issue 38
Education
Opinion
Chat Wrap-Up: Knowledge Management
On May 10, readers participated in the second in a series of chats on the recently published Technology Counts 2006: The Information Edge: Using Data to Accelerate Achievement.
Reading & Literacy
The Heart of the Matter
With an unusual systemwide approach, the Jefferson County, Ky., school district is tackling poor reading skills among high school students.
School & District Management
Opinion
Bridging Differences
A dialogue between two renowned educators with often-opposing views, Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier. The two educators were surprised to discover that they shared a similar opinion on many current education issues, especially the nation’s urban school districts.
College & Workforce Readiness
Vocational Programs Earn Mixed Reviews, Face Academic Push
When it comes to work readiness, no topic is more debated than the place of career and technical education in high schools.
Professional Development
Staff-Development Group to Lose Veteran Leader
Dennis Sparks, the executive director of the National Staff Development Council for the past 22 years, has announced that he will be stepping down from the position.
Student Well-Being & Movement
Survey Finds Majority of Elementary Schools Still Offer Recess Time
Despite widespread concerns that the daily recess period is going the way of the dinosaur, a federal survey issued last week suggests that the vast majority of elementary schools still offer unstructured playtime for students each day.
Special Education
Challenge to Corporate Tax Incentives Rejected
In a blow to efforts to curb corporate incentives offered by states, cities, and school districts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that a group of taxpayers may not challenge tax credits that Ohio gave to an auto company in return for its investments in a manufacturing plant in the city.
Federal
Author, Publisher at Odds Over Content of Talk
A popular children’s author has set off a heated discussion on Internet blogs and listservs after posting on her Web site charges that a publisher canceled her contract to appear at a national reading conference in order to censor her criticism of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Federal
Displaced Students’ Test Scores Won’t Count for AYP
States that absorbed large numbers of students fleeing last year’s hurricanes will get a pass this school year on making sure those students reach federal targets for reading and mathematics, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced last week.
Federal
Unrest in France Has Warning for Precollegiate System
Since swarms of French college and high school students took to the streets this spring to protest a youth-employment law, much of the subsequent hand-wringing has focused on problems in the European nation’s troubled public universities. But many believe the furor carried messages for the nation’s elementary and secondary schools as well.
Federal
2 States Selected for ‘Growth Model’ Pilot
The Department of Education last week chose North Carolina and Tennessee as the first states for a pilot program that will allow them to measure adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act based on the academic growth that students show from year to year.
Law & Courts
Fla. Senators to Get Data on Qualifications of Test Scorers
Two Florida state senators have won Round 2 in their bout with the nation’s largest educational testing company and the state’s education department to learn the academic qualifications of temporary workers who score Florida’s high-stakes tests.
English Learners
Immigrants in Developed Nations Lag Behind Native Peers in School
Students from immigrant families lag behind their native counterparts in the United States and many other developed countries, concludes a 17-nation study released here last week.
Law & Courts
Texas Poised to Close Long Chapter on School Aid
After several failed attempts, Texas is about to get a new school finance system.
Equity & Diversity
South Asians Have Concerns About Immigration Policy, Too
Latinos have been the most visible group at the wave of immigrant-rights rallies across the country this spring. But youths of South Asian heritage in New York City want America to know that they and their families are the face of immigration, too.
Law & Courts
Seniors Wait for Final Word in Calif. Exit-Exam Case
Nearly 50,000 students who have not passed California’s high school exit exam remained in a state of uncertainty last week as education officials pressed on with their appeal of a judge’s decision to eliminate the exam as a graduation requirement for the class of 2006.
Law & Courts
NAACP Suit Challenges Breakup of Omaha Schools
The nation’s best-known civil rights group has jumped into the fray over a controversial Nebraska law that would divide the 45,000-student Omaha school system into three separate districts, largely along racial and ethnic lines.
Federal
No State Meeting Teacher Provision of ‘No Child’ Law
No state is expected to meet the looming deadline for putting a “highly qualified” teacher in every core-subject classroom, federal officials confirmed last week.
Federal
Choice, SES Would Flip Under Plan
The U.S. Department of Education is planning to expand a pilot initiative that would flip the order of key consequences for schools’ low academic performance under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Early Childhood
Californians Set to Vote on Universal Pre-K Plan
Supporters of California’s Proposition 82—the Preschool for All initiative—are turning to high-profile political and community leaders to help counter a backlash to the measure, which goes to the voters on June 6.
College & Workforce Readiness
Ambiguity About Preparation for Workforce Clouds Efforts to Equip Students for Future
Preparing students to succeed in the workforce is increasingly seen as a key to global competitiveness. But employers aren't sending clear-cut answers on what young people need to know and be able to do on the job.
Federal
Opinion
‘Supplemental Services’: Theory vs. Practice
Jeffrey Cohen, the president of Education Station, a leading provider of supplemental education services, looks at how this No Child Left Behind mandate can be modified so that it actually works.
Education
Events
21—English: The Write Approach: A Differentiated Approach to Writing, sponsored by Phi Delta Kappa International, for elementary-level educators, at the PDK International Conference Center in Bloomington, Ind. Contact: PDK International; (800) 766-1156; fax: (812) 339-0018; e-mail: cpds@pdkintl.org; Web site: www.pdkintl.org.
June
21—English: The Write Approach: A Differentiated Approach to Writing, sponsored by Phi Delta Kappa International, for elementary-level educators, at the PDK International Conference Center in Bloomington, Ind. Contact: PDK International; (800) 766-1156; fax: (812) 339-0018; e-mail: cpds@pdkintl.org; Web site: www.pdkintl.org.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Achievement-Gaps Goal: Improving or Closing?
A major point missing from your May 3, 2006, In Perspective on Ruby K. Payne, "Payne's Pursuit," is also missing from national reform proposals and policies directed toward closing the achievement gap, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Whys on Early Education Are on Display in Calif.
The answer to the question posed by Kathleen McCartney in the title of her Commentary, "Why Doesn’t the U.S. Invest in Early Education?" (May 10, 2006), is visible at this very moment in California in the debate over Proposition 82.
Education
Letter to the Editor
How One State Avoided Missouri’s Tax-Credit Rift
In response to "Choice Issue Opens Rift in Missouri" (May 3, 2006), which reports on the divide among that state’s black legislators over tax-credit scholarships to nonpublic schools: Such a rift did not occur in Pennsylvania when, five years ago, it implemented a similar program of tax credits.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Hirsch Offers ‘Persuasive Remedy’ for Reading Ills
Michael Pressley's May 10, 2006, letter in response to E.D. Hirsch Jr.’s Commentary represents exactly the roadblock that education schools nationwide have, for decades, placed in the path of developing elementary school children’s skill and pleasure in reading and learning.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Skills or Knowledge? We Need a Balance of Both
Teaching skills or teaching knowledge? It’s like debating which came first, the chicken or the egg. Common sense tells us we need both, and E.D. Hirsch Jr.'s April 26, 2006, Commentary reminds us educators that we need to keep our approaches to teaching reading comprehension balanced.