| Current News Articles |
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The following news articles contain information on educational issues.The views in these articles are not
necessarily those of the Commonwealth Education Organization, but are posted for your information.
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| *Newly posted articles. |
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*March 31, 2011
KASICH SIGNS BILL TO LIMIT UNION BARGAINING RIGHTS
“It prevents unions from negotiating wages but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. It also eliminates automatic pay increases and bans strikes.”
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*March 31, 2011
IS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IGNORING GOVERNMENT STUDY IN D.C.?
“(T)he majority of U.S. House members voted to rescue children who are trapped in low-performing and unsafe schools in one of the worst performing districts in the nation–we are deeply disappointed that President Obama continues to stand against policies proven to increase graduation rates for at-risk students.”
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*March 30, 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE: A REAL TEST AWAITS
That’s really what school choice is about -- giving kids a chance to learn in a safe environment with good teachers, so they can go on to achieve that success. Some day, people will “look back” on how today’s politicians responded to this crisis. What grade will they deserve?
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*March 30, 2011
INDIANA HOUSE PASSES NATION’S LARGEST VOUCHER BILL
The Indiana House of Representatives today passed legislation that would become the nation's broadest voucher program, allowing low- and middle-income families to use taxpayer funds to send their children to the private school of their choice.
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*March 29, 2011
EDUCATION SPENDING WON’T CREATE JOBS
“Why should taxpayers be forced to continue unaffordable deficit spending to send more kids to college when the evidence shows that our economy is not offering enough jobs for college graduates now?”
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*March 29, 2011
OBAMA BASHES HIS OWN EDUCATION POLICIES
“President Obama, I loved the way you described the role of assessment. It should be occasional, not punitive, and used to help diagnose where students need help.”
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*March 28, 2011
BILL WOULD PROVIDE APPROVAL OPTIONS FOR STATE CHARTER SCHOOLS
“One lawmaker likens the charter school approval process in Pennsylvania to the cutthroat fast-food industry. ‘It's almost like saying McDonald's gets to say whether Burger King gets to franchise in their area,’ said state Rep. Tom Killion, R-Delaware County.”
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*March 27, 2011
HOW TO RAISE THE STATUS OF TEACHERS
States around the country are looking to trim their budgets, and public school teachers are feeling unfairly attacked. At the same time, the United States continues to fall behind other countries in student performance rankings.
Education leaders discuss the subject:
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*March 27, 2011
THE COST OF SMALL CLASS SIZE
Small class size is one factor in academic success. The question, then, is whether the educational benefits of class-size reduction justify the costs. Some proponents contend that because research shows reducing class size is beneficial, spending on this should be prioritized over anything that is unsupported by research. That’s a neat rhetorical trick but unsound logic. The absence of research on, say, teacher salaries doesn’t prove that we should pay the minimum wage to teachers to dramatically reduce class size. Research should guide spending decisions only if it measures the benefits per dollar of spending on all alternatives.
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*March 26, 2011
IN FLORIDA, TEACHER PAY NOW TIED TO PERFORMANCE
The law creates an evaluation system that relies heavily on student test score data to judge teacher quality. For new teachers, it also creates a performance-based pay system and ends tenure-like job protections.
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*March 26, 2011
EDUCATION NOMINEE PLANS TO RESHAPE SYSTEM
“Gov. Tom Corbett's administration will attempt to reshape public education during the next four years, enacting an aggressive agenda that focuses on school choice and competition, according to Ronald Tomalis, the governor's nominee for secretary of Education.”
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*March 25, 2011
NYC SCHOOL TO SAY PLEDGE AFTER PARENTS COMPLAIN
“A Brooklyn elementary school that wasn't having students recite the Pledge of Allegiance will change course after a child's parents realized she didn't know the oath. City and state rules mandate the pledge in public schools, but many school in the nation's largest school system ignore the law, according to the Daily News.”
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*March 25, 2011
DEWEY’S DISCIPLES: FROM MADISON TO MARYLAND AND BEYOND
“We see the spirit of Dewey in the constant experimentation that prevails in the classroom, the never-ending, always-changing search for new methods, programs, terms, fads and fashion, and ‘research’ into ‘improving’ education.”
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*March 24, 2011
VOTE FOR NON-UNION, SINGLE-SEX CLASSROOMS
“So, in non-unionized charter schools, kids do better. Single-sex classrooms, where the teachers are specifically trained to deal with how girls and boys learn are superior. If you don't have access to those, then try homeschooling. Notice how you teach your sons and daughters differently, because you know how to get their attention, and it's different with each gender.”
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*March 23, 2011
U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY CALLS FOR OVERHAUL OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Tuesday for an overhaul of the federal No Child Left Behind law and urged Los Angeles school management and teachers union leaders to negotiate a new contract that strengthens teacher evaluations.”
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March 2010
BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM
Obama administration’s plan for the reauthorization of “No Child Left Behind”.
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*March 23, 2011
PA SENATORS PROPOSE BROAD SCHOOL MANDATE RELIEF
“The 18 bills sponsored by members of the Senate Education Committee include requiring a two-thirds vote by a school board to increase property taxes, allowing teacher furloughs for economic reasons without regard to seniority, a two-year moratorium on requirements that teachers engage in continuing education… and end the blanket provision that teachers have 10 paid sick days a year and paid sabbatical leave.”
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*March 22, 2010
MOTHER HOPES OTHERS WILL OPT OUT OF STANDARDIZED TESTING
“A Pennsylvania mother has decided she does not want her two children to take the two-week-long standardized tests given by her state as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law. And she hopes other parents will do the same.”
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*March 22, 2011
SCHOOL LEADERS TESTIFY ON THE BURDEN OF FEDERAL INTERVENTION
“Washington has continued to send burdensome mandates and regulations to local schools… yet politicians are not the ones who have to deal with the consequences.”
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*March 20, 2011
U.S. CHARTER-SCHOOL NETWORK WITH TURKISH LINK DRAWS FEDERAL ATTENTION
“(F)ederal agencies - including the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education - are investigating whether some charter school employees are kicking back part of their salaries to a Muslim movement founded by Gulen known as Hizmet, or Service, according to knowledgeable sources.”
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*March 16, 2011
COLORADO SCHOOL BOARD ENACTS VOUCHER PILOT PROGRAM, MAKES HISTORY
“On Tuesday night the Douglas County R-1 Board of Education unanimously approved a wide-ranging set of reforms that expand school choice, including the adoption of a groundbreaking program that will provide publicly-funded "choice scholarships" to cover or defray private school tuition.”
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*March 16, 2011
DIVORCE BETWEEN TEACHERS AND PARENTS
“Parents, I tell you, used to like teachers. Teachers liked parents in return. There was a kind of compact between them. Back us up, the teachers said, and we'll deliver the goods. The parents nodded their heads. OK. That was until the compact came apart and society as a whole withdrew its support from the teacher: the teacher as authority figure anyway.”
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March 16, 2011
FED INSTRUCTS TEACHERS TO FACEBOOK CREEP STUDENTS
“Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.”
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March 15, 2011
LONGTIME EDUCATORS’ SALARIES GARNERING INCREASING ATTENTION
“Local government and school board watchdogs said the increases could force districts to cut educational programs in favor of salaries and pensions down the line. Pensions are determined by a teacher's salary -- the higher the salary, the higher the pension.”
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March 14, 2011
MORE SCHOOLS LIKELY TO FALL SHORT OF STATE ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS
“With students set to take Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment exams this week, educators warned that the number of schools failing to meet tougher math and reading standards likely will rise, and the burden to fix problems will lie largely with school districts.”
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March 14, 2011
CORBETT WANTS TO GRADE SCHOOLS, PAY TEACHERS ON MERIT BASIS
“When Gov. Tom Corbett released his budget proposal, no one was surprised that it rolled back government spending. And with education making up a third of the state budget, it made sense that public schools and colleges would take a hit.”
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March 13, 2011
WHEN TEACHERS USE THEIR CLASSROOMS AS BULLY PULPITS
“Many of the signs at the recent Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to scale back public union power reminded us that ‘if you can read this sign, thank a teacher.’ But they should read, ‘If you see a student holding this sign, shouting obscenities at Republican lawmakers, or drumming to drown out opposing voices, thank a teacher.’”
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Related article: This is about available "resources" for teachers to use in their classrooms
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March 12, 2011
ARNE DUNCAN’S BRAVE NEW WORLD: DEPARTMENT OF ED WANTS YOUR KID’S BLOOD TYPE?
“Among other creepy things. Duncan's DoE appears to be doling out federal funds intending to push aside state and local school boards, establish federal curricula, and gather all sorts of personal data. (Birth marks? Really?)”
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*March 11, 2011
MEMORIZATION PROMOTES LEARNING, RESEARCHERS FIND
“(A) new study finds that teachers who don't provide students frequent opportunities to practice retrieving information from their memories are denying them a valuable learning tool. It turns out that tests or other forced recall exercises aren't just passive evaluation tools. They actually help people learn, and are more effective than a number of other common study techniques.”
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The study: Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying with Concept Mapping |
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March 10, 2011
BULLIED TEACHERS: 145,100 PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS PHYSICALLY ATTACKED BY STUDENTS
“What was not discussed at the White House conference was the massive number of American public-school teachers who, according to the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, have reported being physically attacked or threatened with injury by their students.”
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March 10, 2011
82 PERCENT OF SCHOOLS COULD FAIL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
“The Obama administration estimates that 82 percent of the nation's public schools could fall short of federal standards this year, grades that are not only embarrassing but also mean government intervention for some of them.”
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March 8, 2011
CHOICE PLAN PUTS KIDS FIRST
“Expanding school choice in Milwaukee is also good for taxpayers and should be offered to Wisconsin parents in every major city. School choice saves taxpayers big bucks.”
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March 8, 2011
EDUCATION LEAKED MEMO REVEALS WHITE HOUSE DISTRESS
“A leaked internal White House memo reveals the Obama administration is scrambling to ramp its ‘Race to the Top Commencement Challenge,’ facing a serious shortage of applicants less than one week before the deadline.”
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March 8, 2011
PA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: INVITIATION TO CHILDREN’S PARTY OK…UNLESS HELD AT A CHURCH
“Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Pocono Mountain School District officials Friday on behalf of a 5th-grade student who was prohibited from distributing fliers that invited fellow Barrett Elementary Center students to a Christmas party at her church. District policies prohibit any student speech promoting Christianity.”
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March 7, 2011
FOCUSING ON TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
Various experts and leaders weigh in on this important issue.
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March 6, 2011
SCHOOLS SEEK OK PERMITTING THEM TO BYPASS TAX CAPS
“Skyrocketing expenses, falling revenues and uncertainty about state funding have led a third of area school districts to apply for exceptions to a state law that was intended to put the decision to raise taxes above a state-imposed cap in the hands of voters.”
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March 7, 2011
HEY, NATIONAL CURRICULUM STANDARDIZERS: STOP LYING TO US
“You want this to be truly voluntary? Then you'd better keep federal money, especially for such things as "implementation support," out of it. But by all indications national standardizers don't want this to be truly voluntary. They just want us thinking they do.”
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March 4, 2011
PA MAY ALTER TEACHER FURLOUGH LAW
“State law allows school districts to furlough teachers only if there is a multi-year drop in student enrollment, or as part of a school consolidation or the alteration or elimination of educational programs. Legislation recently introduced in Pennsylvania's House and Senate would change that, allowing school districts to furlough teachers solely for economic reasons.”
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March 4, 2011
‘SEX TALK’ IN U.N., THANK THE NEA
“’Oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education,’ Diane Schneider told the audience at a panel on combating homophobia and transphobia. Schneider, representing the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the US, advocated for more ‘inclusive’ sex education in US schools, with curricula based on liberal hetero and homosexual expression. She claimed that the idea of sex education remains an oxymoron if it is abstinence-based, or if students are still able to opt-out.”
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Caution: Video on this link has offensive language and shows adults acting like immature children
March 3, 2011
TO SURLY, WITH LOVE
“According to Department of Education statistics, in 2007-2008 (the latest year available), full-time public school teachers across the country made an average of $53,230 in 'total school-year and summer earned income.' That compares favorably to the $39,690 that private school teachers pulled down.”
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March 3, 2011
WHEN IT COMES TO CLASS SIZE, SMALLER ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER
“What that research tells us is this: Smaller classes are better, but only if the teacher is a very good one. In other words, class size matters, but teacher effectiveness matters more.”
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March 2011
LOSING THE BRAINS RACE
“America is spending more money on education while producing worse outcomes.”
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March 2011
CLUELESS: READING AS DETECTIVE WORK
“All the techniques taught in Whole Word basically involve collecting clues in order to solve an endless series of little puzzles. Kids search frantically from letter shapes, to context, to pictures, to predictions made initially, to new guesses, and back around again. Their eyes bounce about like dice on a craps tables. All this takes time. Many puzzles are never solved.”
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Winter 2010
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRAITS OF HOMESCHOOL STUDENTS:
A NATIONWIDE STUDY
“The body of research on home-based education has expanded dramatically since the first studies and academic articles of the late 1970s that dealt with the modern homeschool movement. Numerous researchers have examined the academic achievement of home-educated children and youth, their social, emotional, and psychological development, and their success into adulthood, and various aspects of homeschool families in general. Researchers have also explored myriad other aspects and issues related to home education in disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, and law. Only a handful of studies, however, have looked closely at a large nationwide sample of home educators and their children in the United States, and the last one of this nature was conducted about a decade ago.”
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February 28, 2011
STATEWIDE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEST RESULTS VISIBLE ONLINE
“For the first time in Pennsylvania, the public now can see not only how public schools and districts statewide fared on state tests but also whether their students moved ahead or fell behind in reading and math.”
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February 27, 2011
IS AMERICA’S BEST HIGH SCHOOL SOFT ON MATH?
“The solution…is to ‘get rid of all warm and fuzzy math programs at the elementary school level and teach real academic content to all students.’ Textbooks are dumbed down, he said, to accommodate allegedly math-phobic children. Don't get him started on the overuse of calculators.”
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February 23, 2011
PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT
“(A) newly released report by James Sullivan, the inspector general of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), indicates that during Duncan's tenure as CEO of Chicago's schools—from 2001 to 2008—he allowed school choice of another kind. As chief of the district, Duncan stopped short of using his power to abolish the practice of state and local officials lobbying to get favorite students into elite schools through Chicago's political network. Duncan claims he tried to reform clout-based admissions, but in practice he channeled it.”
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February 23, 2011
WISCONSIN TEACHERS EARNED AVERAGE $75,587 IN TOTAL COMPENSATION IN 2010
“Public school teachers in Wisconsin earned a combined $75,587 in total average compensation – wages and benefits – in 2010, according to figures from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).”
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February 23, 2011
U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY: ‘NOBODY CAN BE SATISFIED’ WITH RESULTS OF WISCONSIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told CNSNews.com …. that ‘nobody’ can be satisfied with the reading and mathematics scores achieved by eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools, noting that ‘they’re clearly not what they should be.’ ”
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February 23, 2011
EDUCATION CHAIRS LEAD EFFORT TO MAKE SCHOOL DATA AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC
“Parents who want to see how well their child's school is meeting achievement standards can now access that data on their computer based on a new state law spearheaded by Senator Jeffrey Piccola (R-15) and Representative Paul Clymer (R-145), Chairmen of the Education Committees in the Senate and House of Representatives…. The public can view these newly published results reflecting a school and district's growth at https://pvaas.sas.com. Information relating to annual academic achievement reports can be accessed by visiting: http://paayp.emetric.net.”
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February 22, 2011
NEA TO DOUBLE MEMBER DUES CONTRIBUTION TO POLITICAL WAR CHEST
Amid substantial membership losses and a $14 million shortfall in its general operating budget, the National Education Association plans to double each active member's annual contribution to the national union's political and media funds.
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February 2011
'RUBBER ROOMS' GONE, BUT IDLE NY TEACHERS STILL GETTING SALARIES
“While the agreement between Bloomberg and the union may have given both parties a temporary public relations boost, in reality it did little to change the lengthy and laborious process required to fire teachers, especially those charged with incompetence rather than malfeasance. The union actually conceded very little in the deal; a combination of state tenure laws and union rules ensure that administrators must still spend months or even years documenting poor performance or gathering witness testimonies and other evidence of wrongdoing.”
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February 2011
ZERO TOLERANCE NONSENSE CONTINUES
“Recent disciplinary actions taken against students in three different states once again highlight disproportionate punishment for minor or unintended infractions under zero tolerance weapon policies in schools. Even when school policies permit leniency based on context, some officials insist on taking a hard line for petty violations.”
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*February 20, 2011
THE NEXT FRONTIER (ABYSS?): TESTING AND ITS KISSIN’ COUSIN, CHEATING
“Something is wrong with this picture. For better or worse, mostly worse, we continue to think of our education system as a quiz show – what will the test-writers think of next? – rather than a system to impart knowledge to the next generation. Our education system is not a game of Jeopardy. We need to spell out what we expect our children to know, at what age, and then test them – and their teachers! – on how well that knowledge is learned.”
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February 17, 2011
PROMISE PROGRAM SENDS A BETTER MESSAGE
“The Pittsburgh Promise college scholarship program, in an abrupt departure from its original plan, announced changes to the amounts available to graduating students who qualify for funds. The Promise will now offer more dollars to students who score well on standardized tests.”
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February 15, 2011
OBAMA’S BLOATED EDUCATION BUDGET
“How many more times does this need repeating? Pouring more and more money down the drain of the American educations system is not the answer!”
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February 15, 2011
KIDS GET PRO-UNION HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
“Students at a Philadelphia-area elementary school get a homework assignment about how much their teachers are underpaid, to the chagrin of school officials.”
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February 14, 2011
LETS GET OFF THE STANDARDS TRAIN
“The questions that states must answer are, ‘Do we really want the federal government taking control of our public schools? How much will it cost the cash-strapped taxpayers of our state to make up for the lost CCS/RTTT federal funding?’”
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February 14, 2011
STRAIGHT UP CONVERSATION: SENATOR RAND PAUL ON FEDERAL ED POLICY
“Paul, a fierce critic of deficit spending and expansive government, has called for abolishing the federal Department of Education. His recent appointment to the U.S. Senate committee charged with education has boosted interest in his views on schooling.”
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February 13, 2011
HOW OHIO WILL SPEND ITS $400 MILLION RACE TO THE TOP FUNDS
“The short answer is that the money -- part of the 2-year-old federal stimulus program -- will filter through several layers of well-paid adults before the effects reach 1.8 million students in Ohio classrooms.”
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February 11, 2011
CAN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUND CURRICULUM MATERIALS?
“The assessment consortia are doing more than just designing tests; they are both planning to design a range of curriculum and instructional materials reflecting the common standards.... But it also sparked this question: are you allowed to design curriculum using federal funds?”
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Related blog posting
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February 9, 2011
ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES: ARE THE SCHOOLS BECOMING POLICE STATES?
“There's an old axiom that what children learn in school today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow. As surveillance cameras, metal detectors, police patrols, zero tolerance policies, lock downs, drug sniffing dogs and strip searches become the norm in elementary, middle and high schools across the nation, America is on a fast track to raising up an Orwellian generation--one populated by compliant citizens accustomed to living in a police state and who march in lockstep to the dictates of the government. In other words, the schools are teaching our young people how to be obedient subjects in a totalitarian society.”
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February 8, 2011
TEACHER’S COLLEGES UPSET BY PLAN TO GRADE THEM
“Now U.S. News & World Report is planning to give A through F grades to more than 1,000 teachers’ colleges, and many of the schools are unhappy, marching to the principal’s office to complain the system is unfair.”
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Related article:
February 9, 2011
GRADING OF TEACHER COLLEGES TO BE REVAMPED
“The president of NCTQ indicated that the changes were meant to encourage participation, but she was adamant that the study continue.”
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February 8, 2011
FLAP OVER FEDS FUNDING ARABIC CULTURE CURRICULUM
“Parents in a North Texas school district are upset that they were not notified until after the fact about a plan to require all students in a couple of schools to learn Arabic culture.”
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February 2011
CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS: WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS AND WHAT IT MEANS
The National Education Policy Center concludes that the evidence does not support the belief that consolidating districts together saves money or improves the quality of education. What they do suggest is that school districts investigate deconsolidation.
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February 2011
PLEASE, MR. OBAMA, LISTEN TO REASON
Siegfried Engelmann pleads with the president, “Please, give us one miserably failed elementary school and let us show you what you have to do to turn that school around so that the performances of teachers and students improve greatly.”
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Spring 2011
MERIT PAY INTERNATIONAL
“(S)tudents in countries that permit teacher salaries to be adjusted for outstanding performance score approximately one-quarter of a standard deviation higher on the international math and reading tests, and about 15 percent higher on the science test, than students in countries without performance pay. These findings are obtained after adjustments for levels of economic development across countries, student background characteristics, and features of national school systems.”
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Spring 2011
CHALLENGING THE GIFTED
“Ability grouping “may fly in the face of closing the achievement gap,” but neglecting the country’s brightest kids flies in the face of logic.”
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Spring 2011
A BATTLE BEGUN, NOT WON
“What will be the equivalent signs of success for school reform? Will a big-time university president make K–12 education a personal cause—as Harvard presidents Charles Eliot and James Conant did decades ago? Will an election year come when Republican and Democratic candidates try to outbid one another with proposals for expanding charters, setting high standards, formulating tough accountability regimes, and curbing union power? Will a state supreme court, as part of its remedy in a fiscal equity lawsuit, decree that all children be given a choice of any school, public or private, with the state paying the cost? Will the dean of education at a high-status university campaign for the end of state-mandated certification? Will a legislature—in a state with collective bargaining—require every school system to design and implement a merit-pay plan as a precondition for continued state aid?”
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February 8, 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE & SENATE BILL 1: ANALYSIS BY THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
The Opportunity Scholarship Act would expand scholarships available to children in lower- and middle-income families through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program and provide low-income students in chronically underperforming public schools with a state-funded voucher.
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February 8, 2011
ED PROBLEMS RESIDE AT CORE
“Now is the time for the nation to decide whether we really want to commit to education standards forever subject to political manipulation by Washington and crazy swings in the national political pendulum.”
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February 8, 2011
U.S. PLAN TO REPLACE PRINCIPALS HITS SNAG: WHO WILL STEP IN?
“The aggressive $4 billion program begun by the Obama administration in 2009 to radically transform the country’s worst schools included, as its centerpiece, a plan to install new principals to overhaul most of the failing schools. That policy decision, though, ran into a difficult reality: there simply were not enough qualified principals-in-waiting to take over.”
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February 6, 2011
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL BOARD WANTS TO BOOT FEDERAL REGULATIONS
“A Massachusetts school committee is working with a state lawmaker on a proposal that would allow the district to keep Massachusetts' education standards – and opt out of the state Board of Education's July 21 decision to adopt the federal Common Core State Standards Initiative.”
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February 6, 2011
ADVOCATES LINE UP MONEY, ADS, SUPPORT FOR SCHOOL-CHOICE BILL
“It's a powerful photograph, highlighting the angry racial turmoil of the 1960s: It shows Alabama Gov. George Wallace standing in a schoolhouse door vowing to stop black students from entering... ‘School choice’ advocates, from Philadelphia and out-of-state, are using the segregationist image to focus on what they see as a modern-day problem for poor minority students in public schools.”
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February 3, 2011
SCHOOL BOARDS CIRCA 2010: GOVERNANCE IN THE ACCOUNTABILITY ERA
“Despite the magnitude of this responsibility, school boards and their work are little examined and poorly understood.”
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Read the full report as an Adobe Acrobat PDF
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February 2, 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE IS REMEDY FOR DESTITUTE STATES
“Empowering parents to choose the best school for their children - whether public or private, regardless of ZIP code - isn’t just the right thing to do. With states struggling to overcome yawning budget deficits, school choice makes good fiscal sense.”
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February 2, 2011
BLACK EDUCATION
“At the minimum, a mechanism such as tuition tax credit or educational voucher ought to be available to allow parents and children who care to opt out of failing schools. Some people take the position that we should repair not abandon failing schools. That's a vision that differs little from one that says that no black child's education should be improved unless we can improve the education of all black children.”
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February 1, 2011
ROTE MEMORIZATION: OVERRATED, OR UNDERRATED?
“(I)s it possible that memorizing things is actually underrated in modern American society? Could one make a convincing case that it’s not just useful but vital for people of all ages to memorize things?”
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January 31, 2011
CAN WE FIX OUR FAILING SCHOOLS?
“Indeed, curriculums come and go in school districts like the flavor of the day in an ice cream parlor. Teachers, have NO control as to what instructional method must be implemented in their classrooms, yet somehow they are held accountable for test scores. Can you imagine dictating to a lawyer his method of argumentation? Or a doctor his method of treatment? Yet, this is exactly what goes on in our classrooms each day, all over this country. This is the main reason why our system is so broken.”
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January 31, 2011
SCHOOL REFORM ADVOCATES CHAMPION CHOICE
“Let’s not just make the teacher’s unions the big bad enemy,” he implored the audience, citing his own mother’s publicly-funded health benefits that helped her afford medical treatment after suffering a stroke. “Teachers making a respectable living and receiving good benefits is not something to oppose. If we do, we’ll lose that argument. The problem is the corruption of unions who protect the worst teachers who have no business being in a classroom. We are not on the side of bad, lazy teachers.”
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January 29, 2011
UNION’S SPECIAL INTEREST: BLOCKING SCHOOL CHOICE
“School choice is a positive reform that will help improve public education. Indeed, school choice does not scrap the system we have but enhances it by providing options for student learning. Despite their rhetoric, the special interest of the unions is themselves. It’s time to tune out the unions and implement policies that give all children a shot at academic success.”
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January 29, 2011
OHIO MOM JAILED FOR SENDING KIDS TO SCHOOL JUST WANTED A CHOICE
"If you lived in a crime-ridden neighborhood where your home was broken into a dozen times and the school your children were zoned to was low-performing, wouldn't you take drastic measures to ensure they got a quality education?"
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January 28, 2011
EDUCATION’S LONG FORGOTTEN VISION
“(T)he original formulation of ‘equal educational opportunities’ did not imply equal outcomes or the repudiation of intellectual and civic goals by the schools. Equity was understood to mean a fairer distribution of resources to raise poor children's achievement. But as it became clear by the late 1990s that the increasing flow of federal and other funds to improve their ‘basic skills’ was not changing the demographic profile of low achievers quickly, if at all, U.S. educators and policy makers redefined equity to mean equal outcomes for all demographic groups (except for boys and girls) and altered the goal line.”
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January 27, 2011
CASH-STRAPPED STATES CONSIDER VIRTUAL CLASSES
“The move has caused anxiety among teachers and some parents, who are quite reasonably skeptical that a laptop can really replace a teacher....Other studies have shown that online courses work best with highly motivated and high-performing students, who enjoy being able to work independently and privately.”
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January 26, 2011
PA HIGH SCHOOL DEFENDS PLAN TO SEGREGATE STUDENTS BY RACE AND GENDER
“…the performance of black students whose performance was noticeably lagging behind their fellow students. According to Jimenez, research suggests that same-race classes led by strong same-race role models may improve academic results.”
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January 26, 2011
MAVERICK TEACHERS’ GROUP BUCKING UFT
“A powerful group of teachers more concerned with kids' futures than with the fine print of their labor contract is making leaders of their union very nervous.”
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January 26, 2011
FEDERAL MONEY HASN’T BOUGHT BETTER SCHOOLS
“Our government already spends more per capita on education than any other of the 34 wealthiest countries in the world except for Switzerland, according to recent analysis of data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Overall inflation-adjusted K-12 spending has tripled over the past 40 years, the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy points out.”
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January 25, 2011
BILL WOULD OVERRIDE STATE ED BOARD'S VOTE
"The implementation of the national Common Core standards will ultimately force Massachusetts education officials to realign its MCAS testing to the new curriculum. Critics...question why state education leaders would move away from the gains made under MCAS and the 1993 education reform law that propelled Massachusetts students to the top ranking on many national scorecards."
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January 25, 2011
NATIONAL SCIENCE TEST SCORES DISAPPOINT
“…the data provide a sobering snapshot of scientific performance in U.S. schools early in the 21st century.”
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January 25, 2011
NECESSARY STATE BUDGET CUTS CAN BE A BOON TO EDUCATION
“The budget crisis confronting states is severe and will persist even as the economy rebounds. Most states have substantial shortfalls projected not just this year, but into the future, unless governors and legislators make fundamental changes to the budget. Public education, as the single largest category of all state and local government expenditures, has to be on the table for reductions. The good news is this process offers a great opportunity to consider meaningful education reforms that allow states to do more with less.”
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Winter 2011
DOES COMPETITION IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
“(O)ur results indicate that private school competition, brought about by the creation of scholarships for students from low-income families, is likely to have positive effects on the performance of traditional public schools.”
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January 2011
GAINING GROUND IN THE MIDDLE GRADES
"To find out what district and school policies and practices are linked to higher student performance in the middle grades, a team of researchers from EdSource, Stanford University, and American Institutes for Research spent eighteen months conducting the most extensive empirical study of this grade level to date. The study, Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades, was released in 2010. This Outlook highlights what policymakers can do to support the middle grades."
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January 23, 2011
TEXTING, TYPING KILLING CURSIVE?
“Cursive writing has been eliminated from the Common Core State Standards, a school instruction policy adopted last summer by 40 states. For now, cursive is still being taught, but more kids can’t read it or write it.”
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January 23, 2011
THE EDUCATIONIST VIEW OF MATH EDUCATION
"(W)hether the education establishment realizes it or not, the new generation of coach-proof tests that will be used to evaluate teachers, appear to be measuring the skills students are expected to be learning. And by teaching what should be taught, teachers are teaching to the test."
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January 21, 2011
CHARTER SCHOOLS EXPAND WITH PUBLIC, PRIVATE MONEY
“As cash-strapped school districts lay off teachers and close campuses, publicly funded charter schools are flourishing and altering the landscape of public education.”
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January 21, 2011
STATE SCHOOL BOARD GROUP TO OPPOSE SCHOOL CHOICE MEASURE
“The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is prepared to challenge a proposal to use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school education.”
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January 20, 2011
CORBETT APPEARS SET TO PUSH SCHOOL VOUCHERS
“Corbett and the bill's backers want to shake up public schools with vouchers, a controversial way to help low-income parents transfer their children from failing public schools to a public, private, or parochial school of their choosing.”
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January 19, 2011
LAWMAKER EXPLAINS WHY TEACHERS SHOULD GRADE PARENTS
“ Schools and teachers can do only so much...if parents don't make sure their children are in class and ready for academic lessons.”
Read full text of proposed bill.
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January 18, 2011
STUDENT TRACKING FINDS LIMITED LEARNING IN COLLEGE
"The study, an unusually large-scale effort to track student learning over time, comes as the federal government, reformers and others argue that the U.S. must produce more college graduates to remain competitive globally. But if students aren't learning much that calls into question whether boosting graduation rates will provide that edge."
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January 18, 2011
NEA GAVE MORE THAN $13 MILLION TO ADVOCACY GROUPS
“The expenditures fall into broad categories of community outreach grants, charitable contributions, and payments for services rendered.”
>>see the list>>
Related article:
*February 14, 2011
AFT GAVE $2.6 MILLION TO ADVOCACY GROUPS
>>read more>>
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January 18, 2011
TEACHER-LED SCHOOL INNOVATES WITH STUDENT REGROUPING
“(T)here is little agreement among scholars about the best way to make differentiated groupings work well for all students...figuring out the logistics of constant reviews of data, monitoring student progress, and regrouping students as needed pose constant challenges.”
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January 17, 2011
MASSACHUSETTS CHARTER SCHOOLS MERIT TIP OF THE CAP
“Money has always been the real issue. But the financial arguments of charter school foes ring just as hollow as their academic claims and failed political efforts.”
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January 17, 2011
BULLYING ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES CAN AFFECT SCHOOL WORK
“While most schools forbid students from using cell phones and sites such as Facebook during school hours, educators are increasingly dealing with the fallout of online bullying and what teens term "drama" that begins off campus. There are criminal laws against true threats, stalking and harassment, but bullying that does not go far enough for police to step in still can have a devastating impact.”
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January 2011
‘GIFTED’ CHILDREN, WHO AREN’T
“It appears that the zeal to have one's child identified as gifted and talented and placed, therefore, on an advanced and accelerated track in school is misplaced. A newly released study finds that only 3 percent of gifted and talented children live up to their potential.”
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January 14, 2011
LIBERAL SUMMIT UPSETS CONSERVATIVE PSEA MEMBERS
“Some conservative members of Pennsylvania's largest teachers union are upset that the union is sponsoring a summit for liberal activists.”
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January 13, 2011
A WORM IN THE APPLE?
The Implications of Seniority Based Teacher Layoffs
Center for Education Data & Research University of Washington
“ Districts do consider factors other than seniority alone when deciding which teachers are laid off, but seniority certainly has an outsized effect on layoff decisions, and effectiveness (at least measured in value-added terms) appears to play no role at all. Given what research shows about the importance of teachers for student achievement, it is nearly impossible to argue that this is a system with the best interests of students as its bottom line.”
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January 13, 2011
GOVERNOR–ELECT CORBETT NOMINATES RONALD TOMALIS AS EDUCATION SECRETARY
Ronald Tomalis, 48, a Dickinson College alum, has been tapped to become the next education secretary to advance Corbett's education agenda that includes expanding school choice and increased competition for public schools.
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January 13, 2011
THE WRITE STUFF: HS GRADS OFTEN LACK WORD
“Self-expression has its place, of course, but it is expository writing — grounded in lots of close nonfiction reading, reasoning, and logical argument — that produces strong thinkers who are ready for the challenges of college and the workplace.”
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January 12, 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE OFFERS OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TEACHING PROFESSION
“Educators are uniquely positioned to join the conversation and make sure our voices are heard in this debate. By joining this network of organizations and individuals, we can directly affect policy that will have a profound impact on improving and modernizing education. We urge all parents, students, and teachers to express their support for school choice. Working together, we can change what has become an ineffective system.”
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January 12, 2011
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS: SIMPLY POURING MONEY INTO THE SYSTEM NOT THE ANSWER
“I think it’s important to understand that while we all could use additional resources, simply pouring money into the system is not the answer but it’s actually focusing your response and I can’t comment specifically on the efforts here but I will say that given the diverse population here, it’s consistency and effort; it’s staying the course with a system of supports,”
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January 11, 2011
SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION CHALLENGES BULLYING REGS
“The general counsel of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is warning the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that recent federal guidance on bullying and harassment will create ‘adversarial climates that distract schools from their educational mission’ and ‘invite misguided litigation’ that school districts cannot afford. The NSBA's top lawyer, Francisco Negron Jr., stressed his organization's concern to reduce student bullying and harassment, but cited numerous concerns with the Department's approach to the problem.”
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January 11, 2011
FATTER GOVERNMENT WILL NOT SHRINK KIDS
“...everyone can agree that ensuring children have access to healthy food is a good thing. But the real impact of this bill is much larger than nutrition. It represents an enormous growth in government. Not in the way we've seen it lately — into the financial and business sectors — but into our personal lives and the lives of our children. It tells parents to cease their most basic role — to feed your child.”
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January 11, 2011
NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS CAN RELEASE RATINGS OF 12,000 TEACHERS, JUDGE RULES
"The public has an interest in the job performance of public employees, particularly in the field of education," (Judge) Kern wrote. "Courts have repeatedly held that release of job-performance related information, even negative information such as that involving misconduct, does not constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy."
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January 11, 2011
RETHINKING ADVANCED PLACEMENT
“The changes, which are to take effect in the 2012-13 school year, are part of a sweeping redesign of the entire A.P. program. Instead of just providing teachers with a list of points that need to be covered for the exams, the College Board will create these detailed standards for each subject and create new exams to match.”
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January 11, 2011
VOUCHERS FOR ALL
“I firmly believe parents should have control over their children's education. They should be able to choose where they send their children to school.”
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January 9, 2011
PA LEADERS PUSH PLAN FOR SCHOOL VOUCHERS
Vouchers will be available in the first year to students from a failing school under state standards; the second year to students in a failing school district; and in the third year to any low-income student
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January 7, 2011
JOURNAL SHOWCASES DYING ART OF THE RESEARCH PAPER
“Most kids don’t know how to write, don’t know any history, and that’s a disgrace,” Mr. Fitzhugh said. “Writing is the most dumbed-down subject in our schools.”
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January 6, 2011
EXPENSIVE, LENGTHY NJ TEACHER TENURE PROCESS REVEALED
“The unions claim that tenure doesn't protect bad teachers. This chart and common sense refute that claim. I hope people will see this as another example of the unions putting the interests of its members over the needs of New Jersey’s school children.” Click here for the full version.
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January 5, 2011
PERSONNEL COSTS PROVE TOUGH TO CONTAIN
“Personnel costs—the salaries and benefits that sustain the K-12 workforce—consume an enormous portion of school budgets, and many policymakers are determined to drive those expenses down, even as they also seek to improve academic achievement and the quality of instruction.”
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January 4, 2011
COLLEGES NATIONWIDE RECRUIT HOMESCHOOL GRADS
“As the modern-day homeschool movement confidently marches forward into its fourth decade, colleges and universities are opening wide their doors to welcome its mature, prepared graduates to their ranks. Homeschoolers score an average of 37 percentile points above the national average on standardized achievement tests and typically score above average on the SAT and ACT, statistics that apparently have caught the eye of college admissions personnel.”
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January 4, 2011
MATH THAT MOVES; SCHOOLS EMBRACE THE iPAD
“Technological fads have come and gone in schools, and other experiments meant to rev up the educational experience for children raised on video games and YouTube have had mixed results. Educators, for instance, are still divided over whether initiatives to give every student a laptop have made a difference academically.”
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January 3, 2011
RTTT FUNDS TO BE USED TO PURCHASE APPLE iPADS IN NC
“ Some schools districts in North Carolina plan to use Race to the Top grant funds to purchase iPads for students and faculty. Is this a wise expenditure of funds?”
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January 3, 2011
KIDS AREN’T CARS; SCHOOLS SHOULDN’T BE ASSEMBLY LINES
“(i)t is essential that our children graduate high school and college prepared for the fierce competition they will face in the global marketplace. Their economic survival will be determined by their ability to compete with countries like China, India, and other emerging economies. This requires that our public schools be innovative and effective. Instead, our schools are using a failed, one-size-fits -all approach to education that may actually end up hurting our children.”
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January 3, 2011
SCHOOL REFORM: A CHANCE FOR BIPARTISON GOVERNING
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan writes about going forward: “I have spoken with hundreds of Republican and Democratic mayors, governors and members of Congress. While we don't agree on everything, our core goals are shared - and we all want to fix NCLB to better support reform at the state and local level.”
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January 1, 2011
THE 17TH ANNUAL EMPEROR’S AWARDS
“With American students still lagging behind their international peers, having fallen from first to twelfth place worldwide in college graduation rates, experts and politicians are demanding more rigorous curricula and higher standards, especially in the critical areas of science and technology.”
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January 2011
WHAT DO THE NAEP MATH TESTS REALLY MEASURE?
“Until such time as a reliable national mathematics
achievement test comes into existence, the
plethora of education research articles that base
their findings on NAEP math scores should be
considered with reservations.”
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