| May, June & July 2011 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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July 31, 2011
PA JOINS STATES FACING A SCHOOL CHEATING SCANDAL
"Will Pennsylvania do what it takes to root out cheating? Few school districts have. Most inquiries are led by educators who are not first-rate investigators and have little incentive to make their own districts look bad. The Pennsylvania investigation is only a few weeks old, far too early to judge. But the first step is not encouraging: State officials have directed school districts and charter schools with suspicious results to investigate themselves."
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July 28, 2011
EDUCATION AS WORK FORCE DEVELOPMENT FALLS SHORT
"It's sadly ironic that Race to the Top, which was supposedly designed to replicate academic success, is the vehicle being used to resurrect the failed education as work force development model. In the battle between students' interests and those of education's institutional players, score one for the players."
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July 2011
EDUCATORS CHEATING ON TESTS IS NOTHING NEW: DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT WOULD BE
“The most fundamental issues in these school scandals are neither cheating, nor pressure, nor testing; they are power and control. Standardized tests scores will be trustworthy if responsible external authorities control their administration. It is that simple. Leave control of testing, or “audit testing”, to school administrators themselves, and wide-scale institutionalized cheating on educational tests will be with us forever.”
>>read more>>
Related articles:
July 17, 2011
DON’T BLAME TESTS FOR SCHOOL CHEATING SCANDALS
“If the cheaters in Atlanta had put as much time, effort and ingenuity into raising test scores as they did into their schemes, their students might have hit their targets honestly.”
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July 15, 2011
EASING TEST PRESSURE WON’T SAVE KIDS
“...teachers and students, like all of us, must learn how to deal with some forms of pressure. Reducing stress in the either/or dynamic of public schools can lead to eliminating it altogether, which is bad. If we don’t have a chance to fail, no one will know that we need help. We won’t be able to improve.”
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July 14, 2011
DON’T DITCH TESTING AFTER ATLANTA CHEATING , BOOST TEST SECURITY
“Cheating should not lead us to abandon assessments, even as we develop additional performance indicators for our schools and educators.”
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July 14, 2011
REAL SHAME OF APS CHEATING: “WE HAVE LET TESTING CORPORATIONS MAKE MOCKERY OF EDUCATION”
“We may be witnessing the education equivalent to the foreclosure crisis, where high profits and compensation in private multinational corporations take priority over the children filing into public schools every day. But we can stop the madness before another generation suffers.”
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July 13, 2011
CHEATING TEACHERS PLAY THE BLAME GAME
“Atlanta's dishonest teachers say the data made them do it.”
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Spring 2001
CHEATING TO THE TEST
“Cheating itself leads to inaccurate information and misguided decisions about students. It signals that students have learned the skills we want them to, when in fact they haven’t. It threatens the values that we hope to impart to students via those we have charged with their education. It leads to mistaken conclusions about the efficacy and pace of needed educational reforms. Even if cheating is limited to a minority of educators, as it most likely is, its effects are devastating. It is no more justifiable than telling a sick patient that he is well and then sending him on his way.”
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July 27, 2011
STATE EDUCATION AGENCIES AS AGENTS OF CHANGE
“Today, state education agencies and their leaders face unprecedented demands. What was once a low-profile job of managing federal aid, providing curricular guidance, and ensuring compliance with various legal obligations is now a far more visible and politically fraught task... Heightened attention to issues such as turning around low-performing schools, fixing state data systems, and improving teacher evaluations all require state education officials to play a new and far more demanding role, often under the scrutiny of the media spotlight.”
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Full report
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July 26, 2011
SCANDALS IN THE CLASSROOM
Between the cheating scandal in Atlanta and elsewhere and the policies passed this summer by the NEA, scandals abound and parents and others should be aware.
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July 26, 2011
HOW CERTIFICATION RULES IMPEDE THE GROWTH OF VIRTUAL SCHOOLS
“Teacher-certification requirements are among the most onerous rules enforced by state education agencies and have the potential to seriously limit the scope, quality and accessibility of virtual schooling for years to come. By design, certification requirements prohibit unlicensed individuals who reside within a state -- such as higher education faculty, private-sector professionals, private school faculty and independent scholars -- from teaching virtual courses, says the John Locke Foundation.
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The report: VIRTUALLY IRRELEVANT
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July 21, 2011
STUDENT-TEACHING FOUND TO SUFFER FROM POOR SUPERVISION
“The student-teaching experience offered by many traditional schools of education couples poor supervision with a lack of rigorous selection of effective mentor-teachers…”
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July 24, 2011
ED SCHOOL’S PEDAGOGICAL PUZZLE
“Experts hope that out of this sea of experimentation comes a consensus on what teacher training should look like. In some programs, it takes a semester to train a teacher, in others five years. Some require a year of mentored student teaching, others almost no teaching at all.”
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July 23, 2011
UNIONS CHEER WHEN SOCIALIST-STYLE MERIT-PAY SCHEME DOESN’T WORK
“...buried three paragraphs from the bottom of RAND’s press release announcing the results, is this little stink bomb: ‘Researchers also found that a majority of the schools disseminated the bonuses equally among staff, despite program guidelines granting school committees the flexibility to distribute the bonus shares as they deemed fit.’ ”
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July 22, 2011
STUDENTS CHANT FOR GENDERLESS SOCIETY
“What this curriculum seems best designed for is to teach kids there’s a bully around every corner and the best way to handle him...is to shout clever slogans. Sure, the kids whose school careers are frittered away with such tripe might not be prepared to enter the competitive world of work or college.”
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July 22, 2011
NEW CHARTER SCHOOL BATTLEFIELD, SAME OLD ARGUMENTS
“What is revealed here is the attitude of too many traditional public school administrators who believe that education funds are theirs and do not belong to the people at large. Charter schools provide an opportunity to establish true equity funding, where money allocated for education does what it should — follows students to schools that best meet their needs rather than to districts simply by virtue of their existence.”
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July 20, 2011
HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS’ GEOGRAPHY SCORES DON’T IMPROVE
“High school seniors' scores on a national geography assessment showed no improvement between 2001 and 2010, and scores have declined from 1994 levels, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).”
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July 19, 2011
NATIONAL TEACHERS UNIONS RAMP UP THEIR WAR ON REFORMERS
“NEA and AFT escalate attacks on non-existent teacher bashers, while vilifying those who are trying to reform a failing system.”
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July 19, 2011
TWO NEW STUDIES SHOW BENEFITS OF SCHOOL CHOICE
“As the debate on school choice continues in PA, a couple recent studies highlight the benefits of school voucher programs in the U.S. and internationally.”
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July 17, 2011
CHARTER SCHOOL BATTLE SHIFTS TO AFFLUENT SUBURBS
“Charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently operated, have mostly been promoted as a way to give poor children an alternative to under-performing urban schools — to provide options akin to what those who can afford them have in the suburbs or in private schools. Now, educators and entrepreneurs are trying to bring the same principles of choice to places where schools generally succeed...”
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July 15, 2011
HOW KHAN ACADEMY IS CHANGING THE RULES OF EDUCATION
“Whatever Khan’s limits, his site has become extremely popular. More than 2 million users watch his videos every month, and all told they answer about 15 questions per second. Khan is clearly helping students master difficult and vital subjects.”
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July 15, 2011
NEW STATE LAW REQUIRES TEXTBOOKS TO INCLUDE GAYS’ ACHIEVEMENTS
“ Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Thursday making California the first state to require that school textbooks and history lessons include the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans.”
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July 15, 2011
GREEN CURRICULA’S REAL TARGET IS FREE MARKETS, NOT GLOBAL WARMING
“It's no wonder America's future is looking more bleak, when this is the type of garbage filling our students' minds. Instead of belittling free markets and economic success with unrealistic caricatures, perhaps it would behoove teachers to reflect on the real progress, innovation and high standard of living that capitalism has brought to America.”
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July 15, 2011
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL DISTRICT SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS
“Citizens’ groups bring much needed sunlight into a process that is often very secretive and very political. By opening contract talks up for public inspection and input, there’s a much greater likelihood that the best interests of students and taxpayers will be served.”
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July 15, 2011
20-YEAR HISPANIC ACADEMIC GAPS PERSIST IN MATH, READING
“While growing numbers of Hispanic students have changed the face of American education in the past two decades, the gap between them and their white classmates in math and reading remains as wide as it was in the 1990s, says a new federal study.”
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July 14, 2011
A BRILLIANT EXPERIMENT IN READING: BUT WILL NEW SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR FUND REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM?
“If children don't reach reading proficiency by the eighth grade, they'll almost always hit a wall in other subjects, and they're unlikely to catch up in the next four years.”
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July 14, 2011
EDUCATOR CHEATING ON TESTS INCREASING ACROSS THE NATION
“(S)o far any public expression of outrage from honest teachers and their professional organizations has been rather muted, at best. That does little to put pressure on Kentucky’s education leaders to find and appropriately deal with cheaters who do a great disservice to their profession, to their students and to the general public alike. And, so long as the cheaters go unpunished, it’s our kids ultimately continue to be cheated...”
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July 14, 2011
REPORT ON PSSA TEST RESULTS UNSEEN
“The state spent about $183,000 in taxpayer money on a report that revealed possible cheating on a standardized test, but it never made it to the Education secretary's desk.”
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THE REPORT
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July 14, 2011
VOTERS’ VOICE IN PA SCHOOL BUDGETS
“Under the change, districts would have to ask voters to approve a property tax increase above the index if costs go up because the district negotiates higher employee compensation...”
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July 13, 2011
THE GLOBAL SEARCH FOR EDUCATION: A VIEW FROM NORWAY
“There is too much emphasis in our education systems on assessment and accountability instead of on curriculum and responsibility.”
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July 13, 2011
WISCONSIN SCHOOLS ALREADY IN LINE TO SAVE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THROUGH NEWLY NEGOTIATED TEACHER CONTRACTS
“An analysis of new labor agreements in Wisconsin’s school districts indicates requiring teachers to make modest contributions to health and pension benefits can cut the cost of education by over $500 per student in Wisconsin in 2011-2012, saving school districts hundreds of millions of dollars without affecting class size or course offerings.”
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July 13, 2011
WHY SO MANY ELEMENTARY STUDENTS AREN’T MASTERING BASIC MATH FACTS
“I think students would be far better served by having HALF the number of math topics ...and making sure they have mastered basic addition facts (by heart), addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers, and multiplication tables up to 5 (by heart) before moving into Grade 3. If parents don’t have time to drill children at home on these facts, then some time for it should be allowed in the school curriculum.”
>>read Part One>> >>read Part Two>> |
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July 13, 2011
THE YEAR OF SCHOOL CHOICE—BUT NOT FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN KIDS IN NYC
“Despite progress in many places, New York City children, many of them African-American, may not be able to return to charters or start in them anew in the fall due to a lawsuit instituted against the NYC’s Department of Education by what would seem to be a tragically ironic twosome: the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).”
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July 13, 2011
REPORT ON PSSA SCORES RAISES POSSIBILITY OF CHEATING
“Pennsylvania officials are reviewing a report that flags irregularities in test results from 11 Western Pennsylvania schools, pointing to possible cheating on a state assessment test.”
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July 13, 2011
RACE TO THE TOP COSTS STATES, ENDANGERS DEMOCRACY
“The standards have quality problems. They have not been field-tested. They open the door for bias and indoctrination. They radically change language-arts curricula. And Race to the Top calls for testing and assessments that will inflict a cost burden on the states and take up valuable classroom instruction time.”
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July 10, 2011
OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUYS 8,000 DIVERSITY MANUALS
“The Omaha Public Schools used more than $130,000 in federal stimulus dollars to buy each teacher, administrator and staff member a manual on how to become more culturally sensitive.”
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Summer 2011
BRIDGING THE “WIDEST STREET IN THE WORLD”: REFLECTIONS ON THE HISTORY OF TEACHER EDUCATION
“For more than a century, teacher educators and their colleagues in the liberal arts have failed to collaborate in linking two of the most vital aspects of the instructional experience—subject matter and pedagogy.”
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Summer 2011
SAGE ON THE STAGE
“Newer teaching methods might be beneficial for student achievement if implemented in the proper way, but our findings imply that simply inducing teachers to shift time in class from lecture-style presentations to problem solving without ensuring effective implementation is unlikely to raise overall student achievement in math and science. On the contrary, our results indicate that there might even be an adverse impact on student learning.”
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July/August 2011
COMING SOON: THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF STANDARDIZED MINDS
“What we clearly need in education, but have had less and less of as the decades have passed, is freedom. Unfortunately, the most powerful drive in education today—the national standards movement—is taking us in exactly the wrong direction.”
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July 12, 2011
SEX, LIES AND GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
“It is no secret that government schools across the United States have become indoctrination centers for the spreading of a social gospel that is anathema to the values of the majority of American parents. Public education is largely run by union bosses and liberal school boards protecting incompetent educrats who push an agenda that has nothing to do with teaching children how to think and everything to do with teaching them what to think.”
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July 8, 2011
OHIO’S NEW SCHOOL RANKINGS
“Starting next year, Ohio's 3,500 public schools will be ranked best to worst in annual reports issued by the state. The lists will show parents and others how schools—traditional, charter and vocational—stack up based on student performance, per-pupil expenditures, percentage of funding spent on classroom expenditures and other measures.”
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July 8, 2011
SCHOOL CZAR FLUNKS CIVICS
“Even as renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act looks increasingly unlikely anytime soon, the debate over Washington's place in schooling has heated up. Unfortunately, all the noise has drowned out the primary – but almost completely forgotten – reasons Washington should keep to itself: its very limited Constitutional powers and human reality.”
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July 7, 2011
SIZING UP CLASSROOMS:
IT’S TIME TO EXPOSE THE “SMALLER-IS-BETTER” MYTH
“Teachers like smaller classes, and understandably so. The advantages include fewer papers to grade, students to manage, and parents to deal with. The teachers’ unions like smaller classes, too. Smaller classes mean more teachers—and more union dues….continuing to insist on smaller classes is foolhardy. In fact, bigger classes could benefit some children and the economy.”
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July 7, 2011
WISCONSIN SCHOOLS BUCK UNION TO CUT HEALTH COSTS
“It's not hard to see why union officials hate the new law so much. It not only breaks up cherished and lucrative union monopolies like high-cost health insurance; it also threatens to break through the union-built wall between teachers and administrators and allow the two sides to work together more closely.”
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July 7, 2011
GET AN EDUCATION ON INDOCTRINATION
“As a PhD economist and former college professor, I’ve seen this pervasive politicizing of education move beyond elections and into the classroom itself. While students in China and India are learning future job market skills in math and science, American students are being taught to parrot liberal talking points on the “failures” of our economic system.”
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July 7, 2011
REAL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION STARTS WITH SCHOOL CHOICE, NOT QUOTAS
“To the extent government intervention is needed, it should occur much earlier in a minority student’s education. Minority students don’t need help cutting in line with college admissions; they need help learning how to learn at the primary and secondary levels. In short, minorities need better schools.”
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July 6, 2011
CHRIS CHRISTIE-LOATHING NEW JERSEY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION’S TAX LIEN TROUBLES
“ An investigation into New Jersey's largest teachers union finds that the Internal Revenue Service has an outstanding lien against the New Jersey Education Association for $56,730.31 in back taxes. “
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July 6, 2011
INVESTIGATION INTO ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOL CHEATING FINDS UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ACROSS EVERY LEVEL
“(T)he governor's special investigators describe an enterprise where unethical — and potentially illegal — behavior pierced every level of the bureaucracy, allowing district staff to reap praise and sometimes bonuses by misleading the children, parents and community they served. The report accuses top district officials of wrongdoing that could lead to criminal charges in some cases.”
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July 6, 2011
OBAMA AND THE TEACHERS
“The premise that underlies the public school monopoly is, look, give us the tax money (whether you want to or not), and we, the teachers and principals, will turn your little savages into Shakespeare-quoting masters and mistresses of differential calculus and, if you really want it, Mandarin Chinese. It's a trade-off in other words. Taxpayers cough up; teachers deliver.”
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July 5, 2011,
‘EDUCATIONAL TRAIN WRECK’ PREDICTED AS ‘NO CHILD’ DEADLINE NEARS
“If Congress doesn't move quickly to change the No Child Left Behind law, they project that 82 percent of the nation's public schools could fail to meet proficiency targets this year, facing sanctions that ultimately can include a loss of federal aid. That's up from 37 percent last year.”
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July 5, 2011
THE YEAR OF SCHOOL CHOICE
“But choice is essential to driving reform because it erodes the union-dominated monopoly that assigns children to schools based on where they live. Unions defend the monopoly to protect jobs for their members, but education should above all serve students and the larger goal of a society in which everyone has an opportunity to prosper.”
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July 5, 2011
FRAUD ‘RAMPANT’ IN EDUCATION SYSTEM
“A well-regarded national authority on education is claiming that political considerations are leading school officials to commit large-scale fraud.”
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July 5, 2011
BEFORE IT BEGINS, PERRY CANDIDACY HINGES ON KEY ISSUE OF EDUCATION
“In each state you can find at least one living-room full of people who wonder why, at a time when America’s public schools are going bankrupt, we are spending billions, under the direction of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and an assortment of textbook publishers, testing companies and consulting firms, to promote billions of dollars in purchases for Gates software, new tests and new piles of studies. And not incidentally, these people also wonder why, under a Constitution which explicitly forbids federal control of education, we are about to launch a level of federal control of education far beyond anything seen before.”
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July 5, 2011
$10 TAX FOR UNION TEACHERS—YOU PAY
“While the rest of us were celebrating the 4th of July with BBQs and parades and recitations of the Declaration of Independence, teachers’ union “delegates” from the far left were giving Obama the thumbs up. Not coincidentally they also voted to levy a $10 tax on union teachers nationally to help support ‘messaging’ in front of his reelection bid.”
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July 3, 2011
WHY VOUCHERS FAILED
“Yet vouchers failed. But nothing is ever dead in the Legislature and voucher proponents will be knocking on lawmakers' doors in the fall. But doing it during Corbett's first six months in office, when his political capital was at its zenith, was clearly the best window to get it done.”
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July 2, 2011
TEACHER’S UNIO PREZ HEADS TO EGYPT
“American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently led a delegation of union representatives to Cairo, Egypt to meet with ‘leaders of Egyptian unions that were instrumental in the recent political and governmental changes there,’ according to a news release issued by the union... As for her travels in Egypt, it would be interesting to know exactly what she has up her sleeve.”
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July 2, 2011
LESSONS FROM FINLAND-TEACHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
“Raise the education requirements and require classroom-based training for new teachers and education costs will decline while results goes up. Moreover, one does not need to micro-manage highly trained, well prepared teachers.”
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July 2, 2011
NEA DELEGATES HATE DUNCAN, HATE TO HATE OBAMA
“Except many delegates are not thrilled with Obama and his Secretary of Education. Oh, they’re pretty happy about the money he’s disbursed to save their jobs, but he’s too pally with the education reform wing of the Democratic Party....
Some of them think they’ve hit upon the solution: getting rid of Duncan. Duncan’s scalp is to be the price of an early endorsement.”
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July 2, 2011
PA VOUCHER ISSUE GROWS IN INTENSITY
“Corbett is trying to do what fellow Republican Gov. Tom Ridge was unable to do in two campaigns for vouchers between 1995 and 2001. The program would give parents the ability to choose their child's school by using taxpayer money to provide tuition vouchers to low-income children in failing schools.”
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July 1, 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE MAKES HISTORY-MORE STATES ENACT, EXPAND SCHOOL CHOICE IN 2011 THAN EVER BEFORE
“More states have passed school voucher or scholarship tax credit legislation in 2011 than ever before, according to an analysis by the American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for school choice.”
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July 1, 2011
NORTH CAROLINA EMPOWERS FAMILIES OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
“North Carolina becomes the eighth state to enact a private school choice program for children with special needs. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah also offer programs—benefiting more than 26,000 children in the 2010-2011 school year.”
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July 1, 2011
INDOCTRINATION FRIDAYS: TEACHER’S LESSON COMPARES SCOTT WALKER TO SEGREGATIONISTS
“A paper published by several college professors, entitled Organizing the Curriculum for Labor Consciousness, calls for more weaving of Big Labor history and tactics into every day curriculum.... This is the overarching principle of “organizing the curriculum:” to change America away from a free market economy and towards socialism, all the while exalting the virtues of Big Labor.”
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*June 30, 2011
TEACHING GRAMMAR DOESN’T STIFLE CREATIVITY; IT ENHANCES CREATIVE WRITING
“Although the rules of the English language are constantly changing and transforming, teaching grammar has great value in the school system because it gives students the background that they need to understand their language and use it effectively both in and out of the academic world. By teaching grammar, educators provide students with the building blocks of language. When students understand each of the building blocks behind their language, they have a greater ability to communicate not only in their native tongue but also in other languages which employ similar building blocks, albeit in a different order.”
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June 30, 2011
UNION CURBS RESCUE A WISCONSIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
“Starting next year, Ohio's 3,500 public schools will be ranked best to worst in annual reports issued by the state.”
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June 30, 2011
PLANS SEEK HIGH STANDARDS, ACCOUNTABILITY FOR STUDENTS
“One aspect of the A-Plus Act is it gives states the opportunity to voluntarily enter into a five-year performance agreement with the U.S. Secretary of Education. This allows states to consolidate federal education funds to use on their state's education as deemed best and not be subject to federal NCLB regulations for the five-year period. In exchange, the state must demonstrate students have improved academically and the achievement gap between students has been narrowed. If the state fails to show improvement academically, the agreement is removed and the state must return to the NCLB regulations.”
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June 30, 2011
PLANS SEEK HIGH STANDARDS, ACCOUNTABILITY FOR STUDENTS
“One aspect of the A-Plus Act is it gives states the opportunity to voluntarily enter into a five-year performance agreement with the U.S. Secretary of Education. This allows states to consolidate federal education funds to use on their state's education as deemed best and not be subject to federal NCLB regulations for the five-year period. In exchange, the state must demonstrate students have improved academically and the achievement gap between students has been narrowed. If the state fails to show improvement academically, the agreement is removed and the state must return to the NCLB regulations.”
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June 30, 2011
OHIO’S DRAMATIC EXPANSION OF SCHOOL CHOICE PRAISED BY NATION’S ORIGINAL VOUCHER ORGANIZATION
“With two expanded school choice programs and one new program, Ohio joins a true education reform revolution....‘Ohio’s bold reforms will ensure that school choice grows in the state until every family has the freedom to choose how to educate their child, and until every child receives an effective education that prepares him or her for success in life,’ said Enlow.” ( President and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice).
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June 30, 2011
SMELLS LIKE SCHOOL SPIRIT
“Ravitch thinks the solution is to get rid of the tests. But that way just leads to lethargy and perpetual mediocrity. The real answer is to keep the tests and the accountability but make sure every school has a clear sense of mission, an outstanding principal and an invigorating moral culture that hits you when you walk in the door.”
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June/July 2011
THE STATE OF HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS
“Do textbooks matter?...while textbooks are a dominant part of teaching and learning in all subjects, in mathematics the reliance on textbooks is even greater. Textbooks are the primary source for planning daily mathematics instruction by teachers, according to Weiss et al...The purpose is to inform the college mathematics teaching community about the sorry state of high school textbooks. There is much to complain about in college textbooks as well, but at least they are usually written by mathematicians with some sense of mathematical integrity.”
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June 2011
MEET THE SUBURBAN PARENTS
“Teachers unions are widely regarded as the most serious obstacle to the reform of public education, but history suggests a second critical, though less obvious, impediment. It was the muckraker Upton Sinclair who in 1919 conceded -- and, as a socialist, with no great pleasure -- that the success of any reform movement in the United States depends on the active support of the upper-middle class.”
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June 30, 2011
SCHOOL VOUCHER PUSH STALLS, LIKELY HALTED UNTIL FALL
“Looking ahead, Piccola said it ‘is clearly the responsibility of the governor if this remains on his agenda to define the parameters, initiate the process and drive that process to a successful conclusion.’ "
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June 29, 2011
UNDER THE NEW WISCONSIN BUDGET REPAIR, ONE DISTRICT GOES FROM $400,000 DEFICIT TO A $1.5 MILLION SURPLUS
“The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
Cost savings from worker contributions to health care and retirement, taking effect today as part of the new collective bargaining laws, will swing the Kaukauna School District from a $400,000 budget deficit to an estimated $1.5 million surplus.... The district... plans to hire teachers and reduce class size.”
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Summer 2011
HIGH SCHOOLERS IN COLLEGE
“A century ago, often under pressure from labor unions, states passed seat-time and mandatory-attendance laws that compelled youngsters to stay in school, and out of the competition for jobs. The laws haven’t changed much today, but kids have, and by their midteens, many of them—bored with high school or academically beyond it—are ready for the next step.”
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Summer 2011
A LESS PERFECT UNION
“it is at the state level that their lobbying efforts are focused, because that is the level at which the nation's public school monopolies are legally enshrined. So long as they protect that monopoly on roughly $600 billion in tax dollars, they will face no meaningful competition, and so long as they are without competition, they will be able to secure wages, benefits, and staffing levels far above what a competitive market would bear.”
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June 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE: LEGISLATION STATE BY STATE
“This memo summarizes and analyzes private school choice legislation introduced in 2011 across the nation. School choice programs provide opportunities for students to access a quality education and allow parents to choose the education they determine is best for their children.”
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June 28, 2011
THE GOP FAILS PENNSYLVANIA KIDS
“On the campaign trail last fall, Mr. Corbett seemed to appreciate this fact when he called education reform "the civil rights issue of the 21st century." Many African Americans, including President Obama, agree with that, though they remain suspicious of such talk when it emanates from Republicans. When you look at how GOP leaders in Harrisburg have handled the issue, who can blame them?”
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June 27, 2011
WHY BOYS ARE FAILING IN AN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM STACKED AGAINST THEM
“At some colleges today, boys are being given a boost in the admissions process because they have become a minority. If we do not address boys' educational needs earlier in life than this, the skewing of college enrollment, and thus opportunity in life, will only get worse.”
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June 27, 2011
BOTTOM LINE: VOUCHERS CAN HELP NEEDIEST CHILDREN
“The truth is those opposed to vouchers appear to care more about adults than these underprivileged children. Why else would they support a status quo where we spend almost $20,000 per student in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and less than 53 percent of kids in failing districts score proficient in reading and math on the PSSA in 2009-10? These kids can’t wait another year — they need to be rescued now.”
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June 27, 2011
L.A. UNIFIED’S NEW HOMEWORK POLICY GIVES STUDENTS A BREAK
“Though they make up just 2 percent of CalSTRS pensions, six-figure payouts are a focus of pension reform discussions under way at the Capitol. Six-figure retirees eat 7 percent of CalSTRS benefits and can ultimately get millions more than they put into the system.... The number of six-figure pensions will likely continue to rise as more highly paid baby boomers reach the end of their careers.”
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Editor’s note: this really doesn’t help out those low performing students. It only makes sense that the more homework they have the better their chances are of improving their grades if they struggle with passing tests. |
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June 26, 2011
WISCONSIN GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER SIGNS HISTORIC SCHOOL CHOICE EXPANSION INTO LAW
“Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker today signed into law the largest expansion to the state’s school choice programs in history. The expansion will benefit thousands of children from the state’s low- and middle-income families and sends a strong signal to the nation that educational equality is possible with strong leadership from state legislators and executives.”
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June 26, 2011
SIX-FIGURE PENSIONS FOR CA SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS SOARS 650%
“Thousands of newly retired school administrators will earn more during retirement than most Californians will make during their working careers.”
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June 25, 2011
UNION APOLOGISTS: WHY KEEP SCHOOL SENIORITY? OLDER TEACHERS HAVE MORTGAGES!
“So teachers with mortgages deserve special job protections. They could be completely worthless at their job – a negative influence, in fact – but they have obligations they must meet. That means taxpayers and parents must tolerate their incompetence to make sure they don’t lose their house, right? Never mind the fact that children aren’t learning.”
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June 24, 2011
CONFUSION OVER NATIONAL STANDARDS
“If, as Bush and Klein argue, most states have woefully inadequate standards, isn’t it likely that the central bureaucracy you’re creating will gravitate to mediocrity rather than excellence? And isn’t that just what Common Core represents, given that its standards for what count as “college ready” are actually set below what you need to even apply to, much less succeed at, most colleges?”
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June 24, 2011
SCHOOL BOARD RESISTS ‘COMING OUT’ VIDEO
“School board members received multiple emails opposing it—and the board listened. ‘It’s about sexuality. We got sold on it as something more about bullying,’ one board member who voted against it told the local newspaper. “This does little on the harassment and bullying component … It’s not the bulk of the video,’ said another.”
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June 24, 2011
CORBETT GEARS UP FOR PUSH ON SCHOOL VOUCHERS
“Corbett's effort to win approval for vouchers, taxpayer-paid documents that parents could use to send their children to private or parochial schools, is the first major effort in the state House and Senate in more than a decade.... Christiana's bill would make school vouchers available to low-income children who attend the lowest-performing 5 percent of Pennsylvania schools.”
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June 24, 2011
DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY
“The "nation's report card" sounds the alarm that the lessons of history are threatened when those lessons are never learned.”
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June 22, 2011
THE BIGGEST SCHOOLYARD BULLY: THE ACLU
“The schoolyard has always been prime turf for bullies. But these days it's not just students who are victims. School administrators and the taxpayers who foot the bill for municipal legal costs are prime targets as well.”
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June 22, 2011
TEXAS PULLING OUT OF COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS
“Texas has withdrawn from the Council of Chief State School Officers, an influential Washington organization that is helping lead the push to create common academic standards across states...”
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June 22, 2011
VIRTUAL SCHOOL PLAN PRAISED
“A virtual school would give students in rural and low-performing schools access to honors, enrichment and remediation courses, improving achievement and graduation rates at a lower cost than traditional classroom instruction, according to a report by the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy.”
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June 22, 2011
PARENTS SEE POLITICAL SLANT IN 3rd-GRADE TEXTBOOK
“Some Frederick County parents are upset over a third-grade textbook that they say promotes such ideas as government-sponsored child care and universal health care.”
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June 21,2011
THE EDUCATION VICTIMIZERS IN CHIEF
“Even the usually union-friendly Assembly Education Committee didn't have the stomach to approve this blatantly anti-parent, anti-student bill, which laid bare the union's real agenda, which is all about protecting the adults in the government education system, not about improving the learning and achievement of children. The CTA can huff and puff and point fingers, but here's the reality: Teacher unions are at the root of the problems facing education in California.”
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June 21, 2011
THESE NUMBERS DON’T LIE: SCHOOL VOUCHERS ARE PENNSYLVANIA’S ONLY CHOICE
“While not a panacea, school choice has proved a worthy alternative. Nearly every empirically based study shows that school choice programs increase academic achievement for students and improve public schools through competition. No study has ever shown harmful effects to scholarship recipients or public schools.”
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June 22, 2011
"CHARTER SCHOOLS ON STATES AGENDA
"The application process to become a charter school requires approval from public school districts. Killion maintains that's a conflict of interest for school districts because the districts and charter schools compete for the same funding and students. Under his bill, Killion said, charter schools would have the option of applying to the district or a state board. The board would include three appointees by the governor and four by legislative leaders of both parties."
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Summer 2011
EVALUATING TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
“The results presented here constitute the strongest evidence to date on the relationship between teachers’ observed classroom practices and the achievement gains made by their students. The nature of the relationship between practices and achievement supports teacher evaluation and development systems that make use of multiple measures.”
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June 21, 2011
PRESIDENT CLINTON AND CHARTER SCHOOLS: A HISTORY LESSON
“When Clinton convened the governors on national goals, charters were not on the table. When the NEA convened and invited Clinton to meet with them, charters were on the table, albeit for different reasons. Reform-minded school chiefs fought to help their governors get these efforts enacted. The establishment fought and many compromises were made. The Clinton administration called for moderation, not strong charter laws.”
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June 21, 2011
THE DUMBING-DOWN OF AMERICA
“If the racial gap in academic achievement persists for the next 40 years, as it has for the last 40, virtually all of the superior positions in the New Economy and knowledge-based professions will be held by Asians and whites, with blacks and Hispanics largely relegated to the service sector.”
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Related article:
June 16, 2011
CONTESTED CURRICULUM: HOW TEACHER & CITIZENS VIEW CIVICS EDUCATION
“Americans are rightly concerned that schools are not providing students with the knowledge and habits necessary to be good citizens.”
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Read full report |
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June 2011
‘ADVANCED’ IN NAME ONLY
“More students than ever are earning credits for advanced classes, according to a Department of Education study released in April. The Department's National Center for Education Statistics examined nearly 38,000 high school transcripts and found that the proportion of graduates completing rigorous coursework rose from 5% in 1990 to 13% in 2009. Good news on the education front, you say? Not so fast. Despite taking more challenging-sounding coursework, 17-year-olds aren't scoring any higher on federal standardized tests than they did in 1973. SAT scores have flat-lined since 2000, offering further evidence that kids aren't learning more now.”
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June 2011
SCHOOL FLOUTS PARENTAL CONSENT
“Memorial Middle School in Fitchburg, Massachusetts recently conducted a survey asking students intrusive questions about sex, suicide, and illegal drugs without written permission from their parents. Arlene Tessitore has two daughters enrolled at the Fitchburg school in the seventh and eighth grades who were made to complete the survey. She was upset about the survey's probing and inappropriate contents and that she was given no notice that her children would be told to complete it, and so she contacted the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization, for legal help.”
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June 2011
COMMON CORE SPARKS WAR
“Despite all the financial inducements to cede state educational control to federal bureaucrats, counter-manifesto signatory Shelby Steele of Stanford University's Hoover Institution urged Americans to consider the long-term consequences. ‘Decentralization has been the engine of educational innovation. We shouldn't trade our federalist birthright for a national-curriculum mess of pottage,’ he said.”
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June 17, 2011
WISCONSIN LEGISLATURE PASSES BUDGET EXPANDING NATION’S OLDEST SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM
“The budget’s school choice provisions will give the MPCP—the nation’s oldest private school choice program—the broadest participation of any voucher program in the country. A study conducted early this year by a professor at the University of Minnesota showed that students participating in the MPCP, which was enacted in 1990, graduate at rates that are 18 points higher than students in Milwaukee Public Schools. It is also estimated that the MPCP will save Wisconsin taxpayers more than $50 million this fiscal year, according to an exhaustive evaluation of the program conducted late last year.”
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June 17, 2011
STUDY HELPS PINPOINT MATH DISABILITY
“Burgeoning research into students’ difficulties with mathematics is starting to tease out cognitive differences between students who sometimes struggle with math and those who have dyscalculia, a severe, persistent learning disability in math.”
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June 17, 2011
WHY IS U.S. HISTORY HIGH-SCHOOLERS’ WORST SUBJECT?
“With American students less proficient in their nation's history than any other subject, it's hard to argue against the public's emphasis on old-fashioned content. If creating good citizens who understand the workings of their government is a national goal, schools need to do better. And there seems to be no better place to start than by listening to what American citizens as a whole think is important to learn.”
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June 17, 2011
CHARLOTTE ISERBYT: THE MISEDUCATION OF AMERICA
“This 74 minute exposé is a must see for anyone who wants to truly know why the education system is deliberately crafted to produce human drones with no critical thinking whose only skills are to be subservient, trust authority and follow orders.”
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June 16, 2011
THE YEAR OF SCHOOL CHOICE: 42 STATES CONSIDER SCHOOL VOUCHERS, SCHOLARSHIP TAX CREDITS IN 2011
“If these bills pass, millions of children would have the opportunity to attend the private schools of their parents' choice, demonstrating historic momentum for the popular educational choice movement.”
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June 16, 2011
A SCHOOL CHOICE FIRST IN NORTH CAROLINA
“Should the bill become law, North Carolina parents of students with special needs can claim an independent tax credit for expenses related to private school tuition and other educational services. Specifically, those families can receive a non-refundable tax credit worth up to $6,000 annually.”
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June 16, 2011
WHAT TEACHERS UNIONS WON’T TELL YOU ABOUT SCHOOL LAYOFFS
“Society should be focused on maintaining the necessary number of teachers for today’s student population, instead of keeping a bunch of educators on the public payroll for no particular reason.”
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June 15, 2011
TEACHERS UNION FUNDS ‘GENDER IDENTITY’ CURRICULUM
“A pro-family leader in California says it's alarming that the teachers union in his state is paying for a sexual indoctrination course for elementary students.”
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June 15, 2011
JUSTICE WINS OUT IN WISCONSIN ON NEW LABOR LAW
“The court’s task…is limited to determining whether the legislature employed a constitutionally violative process in the enactment of the Act. We conclude that the legislature did not violate the Wisconsin Constitution by the process it used.”
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June 14, 2011
U.S. HISTORY TEST SCORES STAGNATE AS EDUCATION SECRETARY ARNE DUNCAN SEEKS ‘PLAN B’
“The lack of emphasis on U.S. history knowledge displayed by public officials sends a bad message to students….While these matters may seem trivial in the digital age, when a date or fact is just a click away, Lee said searchability does not compensate for learning.”
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June 14, 2011
PARENT TRIGGER’ LAWS: SHUTTING SCHOOLS, RAISING CONTROVERSY
“…the nation's first parent-trigger law, says it was designed so that parents would not have to sit idly by and wait for reform that would never come in cases where school districts weren't doing enough.”
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June 12, 2011
EDUCATION CHIEF MAY USURP 'NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND'
“Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he will give schools relief from federal mandates under the No Child Left Behind law if Congress drags its feet on the law's long-awaited overhaul and reauthorization.”
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June 10, 2011
IMMUNE TO REFORM
Book review: Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools by Terry M. Moe
“Moe traces the sources of the unions’ power and explains why they behave as they do. In the process, he blows apart several pervasive myths that have been used for far too long to let teachers and their unions off the hook.”
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June 7, 2011
WHAT’S NOT SAFE: PROMOTING SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATION TO KIDS
“But regardless of what temporary political administrations do, the truth remains—if educators really want to create safe schools and protect kids, they won’t open their doors to one-sided messages from sexual advocacy groups that don’t give kids the whole story—or all of the medical and health information.”
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June 6, 2011
THE OTHER LOTTERY: ARE PHILANTHROPISTS BACKING THE BEST CHARTER SCHOOLS?
“There is effectively no correlation between grant funding and charter network performance, after controlling for individual student characteristics and peer effects, and addressing the problem of selection bias.”
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Click to read the study
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June 6, 2011
CHARTER SCHOOLS TIED TO TURKEY GROW IN TEXAS
“(A)n examination by The New York Times of the Harmony Schools in Texas casts light on a different area: the way they spend public money. And it raises questions about whether, ultimately, the schools are using taxpayer dollars to benefit the Gulen movement — by giving business to Gulen followers, or through financial arrangements with local foundations that promote Gulen teachings and Turkish culture.”
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June 6, 2011
TEACHER FORCES STATE REP’S 8-YEAR OLD TO LOBBY HER DAD
“Freshman Republican lawmaker Mike Stone says his daughter was “used against” him when a public school teacher instructed her and her classmates to contact elected officials in opposition to budget cuts.”
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June 6, 2011
TN TRUMPS WI: KILLS TEACHER COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
“School boards are elected by the public to run public schools. Nobody elected the unions.”
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June 4, 2011
NAACP FIGHTS TO KEEP KIDS TRAPPED IN FAILING SCHOOLS
“Civil rights leaders understand that education is the key to escaping the cycle of poverty that’s prevalent in many inner-city neighborhoods. Kids trapped in poorly run, dangerous schools often don’t receive the instruction required to move on to college or a decent job.”
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Related article:
June 4, 2011
NAACP VS. BLACK PARENTS
“The teachers union wants to keep these abysmal schools open to preserve jobs for their members. This is bad enough. But the union and NAACP also want to limit better educational options for low-income families who can't afford private schools and can't afford to move to an affluent neighborhood with decent public schools. The union knows that in a place like New York City, where space is at a premium, blocking charters from operating in public buildings will hamper charter growth.”
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June 3, 2011
OBNOXIOUS CLASSROOM CURRICULUM
“Elementary school curriculum isn't just about the three R's any more. Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic now have to make time for lessons in gender diversity and for nosy questionnaires that lead kids into teen sex and illegal drug usage.”
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June 2, 2011
REDUCING THE GENERAL FOOTPRINT ON EDUCATION AND EMPOWERING STATE AND LOCAL LEADERS
“It is time for Washington to hand back the reins to state and local leaders, and let go of the federal government’s stifling grip over education policy. Senator Jim DeMint described the path federal policymakers should take to reform education best: ‘No longer can we think in terms of what government must do but instead in terms of what government must let go of.’ “
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June 2, 2011
COLLEGE, TOO EASY FOR ITS OWN GOOD
“Colleges have abandoned responsibility for shaping students' academic development and instead have come to embrace a service model that caters to satisfying students' expressed desires.”
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June 1, 2011
CHARGING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
“Though public schools have long charged for extras such as driver's education and field trips, many are now asking parents to pay for supplies needed to take core classes -- from biology-lab safety goggles to algebra workbooks to the printer ink used to run off grammar exercises in language arts. In some schools, each class comes with a price tag, to be paid at registration. Some schools offer installment plans for payment. Others accept credit cards -- for a processing fee.”
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June 1, 2011
SUBCOMMITTEE FINDS CHARTER SCHOOLS EMPOWER PARENTS, INSPIRE STUDENTS, DEMAND RESULTS
“Charter schools are not the only answer to school reform,” Ms. Purvis said, “but represent one way that school districts and state agencies can efficiently and affordably improve and increase educational options for families.”
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June 2011
"COUNTER-MANIFESTO" CHALLENGES COMMON CORE STANDARDS
“A coalition of more than 150 education reformers, state and federal policymakers past and present, teachers, and opinion leaders has released a manifesto opposing a state and federal government effort to establish a national curriculum and testing system.”
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May 31, 2011
LIBERALS INTERPRET THEMSELVES LIBERALLY
“As for the grants for national standards, they will go to publishers, testing companies, and a variety of consultants. Teachers and schools need not apply. Teachers unions, though overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic, are inexplicably silent on this total exclusion of their own rank and file from the largesse.”
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May 29, 2011
50,000 YEARS OF PHONEMES TOSSED
“Phonemes are the foundation of language. A recent study by Dr. Quentin Atkinson, Auckland University, New Zealand tracked “phonemes, distinct units of sound such as vowels, consonants and tones,…” back 50,000 years to early humans in Africa. The brain achieves reading fluency when letters and sounds are taught to the point of automaticity.”
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May 28, 2011
A ‘COMMON’ EDUCATION DISASTER
“In short: voluntary out; coercion in. Federal control up; local control down.”
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May 2011
COMMON CORE TESTS AHEAD
“A major concern is whether school districts have the technological capacity to handle large-scale computer-based testing. For instance, if a school's internet router can't handle 60 or 70 computers at once, a social studies teacher trying to stream video during class could encounter problems if large numbers of students in another part of the building are taking tests.”
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May 2011
FREE LUNCHES FEED SCHOOL COFFERS
“(S)chools have plenty of financial incentives for increasing the number of students who receive free and reduced-price lunches. That is because free and reduced-price lunch percentages are commonly used to quantify how many low-income students attend a school, and those numbers determine how much Title I funding a school gets.”
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May 2011
UNION THUGGERY 101
“The University of Missouri is receiving some unwanted attention after conservative website BigGovernment.com posted video clips from a” course on organized labor. Lecture comments from the two instructors sounded more like a seminar in coercive organizing and negotiating tactics than a college-level survey of the American Labor movement.”
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May 27, 2011
U.S. REFORMS OUT OF SYNC WITH HIGH-PERFORMING NATIONS, REPORT FINDS
“The United States’ education system is neither coherent nor likely to see great improvements based on its current attempts at reform, a report released this week by the National Center on Education and the Economy concludes.”
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May 26, 2011
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE UNDERMINES U.S. FOUNDING PRINCIPLES
“An international education must go well beyond the provision of information and is involved in the development of attitudes and values which transcend barriers of race, class, religion, gender or politics."
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May 26, 2011
RACE TO THE CRADLE
Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced how $700 million in new Race to the Top money will be employed: $200 million to get close-loser states in the last RTTT to once again jump through hoops and grovel before their federal overloads, and $500 million for a new “early-learning” obedience contest.”
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May 25, 2011
CA SCHOOL TELLS ELEMENTARY STUDENTS THERE ARE MORE THAN 2 GENDER ‘OPTIONS’
“(E)ducators at Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, California, are teaching young children all about the complicated world of “gender diversity.” The school has designed curriculum for every grade level.”
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May 25, 2011
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ANNOUNCES $200 MILLION TO CONTINUE STATE-LED REFORMS UNDER RACE TO THE TOP
“The U.S. Department of Education announced today that nine finalist states that did not win grants in the first two rounds of Race to the Top (RTT) will be eligible to compete for $200 million in additional funds this year. Applications will be available in the early fall.”
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May 24, 2011
MARK THEM TARDY TO THE REVOLUTION
“The cost of education has gotten so high, student achievement has become so disappointing, and the technology and computerized pedagogy are now sufficiently developed and ubiquitous that the long-awaited revolution in education is about to begin.”
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Related article: May 17, 2011
THE REAL THREAT TO TEACHERS UNIONS
Review of Special Interest, the new book by Terry Moe on teacher’s unions and America’s public schools. Says Moe, "Education technology is a tsunami that is only now beginning to swell." Unions "can't stop it, although they will try."
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May 24, 2011
ARNE DUNCAN: WE WILL NOT PRESCRIBE A NATIONAL CURRICULUM
“We have not and will not prescribe a national curriculum. I want to repeat that." This remark (By Duncan) prompted laughter from the audience...who attended the forum, reports. Duncan also said it would be against the law to prescribe national curriculum.”
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May 24, 2011
PERPETUATING FEDERAL SPENDING ON EDUCATION
“The people and groups working to achieve national control of education curriculum view the collection of enormous amounts of personal information about every student on a longitudinal basis, with tracking from "pre-birth" and preschool through postgraduate experience and into the labor force, as the essential path to achieve control of school curriculum and to guide kids' opinions about America.”
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May 23, 2011
SCHOOL DISTRICT BOASTS OF IGNORANCE
“The school district in the "candy cane case" is apparently hedging its bet by arguing it shouldn't be held accountable for not knowing religious rights extend even to youngsters in the early grades.”
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May 23, 2011
A FOR-PROFIT APPROACH TO HEAD START
“Like his counterparts in the charter school movement, Lieberman wants to transform his Head Start program from a system focused mainly on inputs – like teacher qualifications, time spent in the classroom, class size, and curriculum quality – to one also focused on measuring outcomes, including assessments in literacy and math skills.”
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May 21, 2011
WHOSE FAILING GRADE IS IT?
“Teachers are fed up with being blamed for the failures of American education, and legislators are starting to hear them. A spate of bills introduced in various states now takes aim squarely at the parents. If you think you can legislate teaching, the notion goes, why not try legislating parenting? It is a complicated idea, taking on the controversial question of whether parents, teachers or children are most to blame when a child fails to learn.”
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Editors note: While I want very much to see parents involved in their children’s education as this promotes academic success for students, I am also concerned about “forced volunteerism” in which the state issues ultimatums on private citizens. |
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May 20, 2011
MATH WARS PARENT MEDAL OF HONOR
“Parents are to be commended for calling for fully informed, research based, open decision making involving all school constituencies and including the full range of necessary mathematics and instructional experience and expertise, and for recognizing the value of transparency and inclusiveness in deliberations on mathematics education issues.”
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MAY 20, 2011
PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION (PII): DOES THE DOE NEED TO KNOW YOUR RELIGIOUS & POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES?
“Have you heard of "Personally Identifiable Information" (PII)? PII plays a large role in the proposal to reshape the privacy regulations in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).”
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May 20, 2011
FEDERALLY FUNDED NASA ‘EDUCATES’ CHILDREN ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING ON ‘CLIMATE KIDS’ WEB SITE
“CNSNews.com asked NASA about “Climate Kids” and why the federally funded agency was promoting the idea of global warming and, specifically, man-made global warming in the cartoon and through other activities on the Web site.”
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May 19, 2011
GOV. SCOTT WALKER FIGHTS REPUBLICANS, UNIONS IN MISSION TO EXPAND SCHOOL CHOICE
“Somehow our society has been blinded into thinking that government-run schools have an exclusive right to K-12 students. State constitutions mandate that governments provide an education to every student in their jurisdiction. That does not mean those students have to attend government-run schools.”
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May 18, 2011
COULD THE INTERNET SPELL THE END OF SNOW DAYS?
“Could the Internet mean the end of snow days? Some schools think so, and they are experimenting with ways for students to do lessons online during bad weather, potentially allowing classes to go on during even the worst blizzard.”
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May 17, 2011
SAVING OUR SCHOOL BOARDS “The Pennsylvania School Boards Association and Commonwealth Foundation are policy opponents in the debate over giving students taxpayer-funded vouchers. But we strongly agree on the need to give elected school boards relief from onerous mandates that cost taxpayers more money and do little or nothing to improve the quality of public education.”
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May 16, 2011
SINGLE STANDARDS VS. MULTIPLE STANDARDS
“This issue is not solved by just having a single set of standards, or by a single test. To have the same meaning for “proficiency,” the test must also have a uniform definition of cut scores for all states that define the various achievement levels.”
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May 16, 2011
RESEARCHERS PROBE CAUSES OF MATH ANXIETY
“Ms. Beilock found female 1st and 2nd grade teachers with high anxiety about math affected both their students’ math performance and their beliefs about math ability. In a study of a dozen 1st grade and five 2nd grade teachers and their students, researchers found no difference in the performance of boys and girls in math at the beginning of the year. By the end of the school year, however, girls taught by a teacher with high math anxiety started to score lower than boys in math.”
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May 16, 2011
EDUCATION FREEDOM IS CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE OF TODAY
“We shouldn’t be returning black children to public school plantations and punishing their mothers. They need education freedom and school choice. This is the civil rights issue of our time.”
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May 13, 2011
USDOE BREAKING THE LAW-WHO OWNS COMMON CORE STANDARDS?
“Nor can the Department justify its current activities by claiming that they are only funding the development of curricular frameworks and instructional materials. The Department is also explicitly prohibited from directing, supervising, or controlling the content of instructional materials.”
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May 12, 2011
HOW THE US LAGS IN MATH, SCIENCE EDUCATION, AND HOW IT CAN CATCH UP
“Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Bill Schmidt is the interim director of the Institute for Research on Mathematics and Science Education, and author of the forthcoming book ‘Inequalities for All: Why America Needs Common Core Standards.’”
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May 12, 2011
HOW MUCH DO PUBLIC SCHOOLS SPEND ON TEACHING?
“Public education now costs federal, state and local governments upward of $500 billion annually. This total is up from $354 billion 15 years ago and currently represents the largest state and local government expenditure. While spending increased nearly 50 percent, enrollment increased by just over 10 percent, reading and science scores held steady and on-time graduation hovered at 70 percent.”
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*May 11, 2011
CALORIE CAMERA: SCHOOLS PHOTOGRAPHING STUDENTS’ LUNCH TRAYS
“Funded by a $2 million federal grant, San Antonio schools will photograph students’ filled lunch trays before they sit down to eat then photograph the leftovers when they are finished.”
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May 11, 2011
CLASS SIZE: WHAT RESEARCH SAYS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR STATE POLICY
“State resources for education should always be judiciously allocated, but the need to carefully weigh costs and benefits is particularly salient in times of austere budgets. Class-size reduction has been shown to work for some students in some grades in some states and countries, but its impact has been found to be mixed or not discernable in other settings and circumstances that seem similar. It is very expensive. The costs and benefits of class-size mandates need to be carefully weighed against all of the alternatives when difficult budget and program decisions must be made.”
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May 10, 2011
EDUCATION PROGRAMS ASSAIL 'U.S. NEWS' SURVEY
“Amid criticism from education reform advocates who say many teacher preparation programs provide poor training, a national organization is conducting a review of more than 1,000 programs to help aspiring teachers choose from the best. This consumer guide for prospective teachers — conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality — will be published in U.S. News and World Report next year.”
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May 10, 2011
MARYLAND’S UNEDUCATED HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
“According to the Maryland Higher Education Commission, 56 percent of those students need some form of developmental education, and 53 percent need it in math. Ten years ago, 47 percent needed some type of remedial help, 39 percent in math. The bill for taxpayers is $90 million annually. That figure does not count the millions spent by individual students who must use financial aid to pay to learn things they should have known cold before donning their mortar boards.”
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May 9, 2011
AGAINST A NATIONAL CURRICULUM
“A national curriculum backed by national tests will stifle innovation, freeze the status quo into place, end state and local control of schooling and “impose a one-size-fits-all model on America’s students,” argues Closing the Door on Innovation, signed by 100 education and public policy leaders.”
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CLOSING THE DOOR ON INNOVATION: WHY ONE NATIONAL CURRICULUM IS BAD FOR AMERICA
“A Critical Response to the Shanker Institute Manifesto and
the U.S. Department of Education’s Initiative
to Develop a National Curriculum and National Assessments
Based on National Standards”
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May 4, 2011
FAILING GRADES ON CIVICS EXAM CALLED A ‘CRISIS’
“Fewer than half of American eighth graders knew the purpose of the Bill of Rights on the most recent national civics examination, and only one in 10 demonstrated acceptable knowledge of the checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches.”
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May 2011
STOTSKY TESTIFIES BEFORE TEXAS LEGISLATURE ON EDUCATION STANDARDS BILL
“Texas lawmakers are considering a proposed bill that gives the state sovereignty over curriculum standards, assessments and student information and prohibits the state from adopting national education standards promoted by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.”
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May 1, 2011
BACK TO SCHOOL FOR THE BILLIONAIRES
“They hoped their cash could transform failing classrooms. They were wrong. NEWSWEEK investigates what their money bought.”
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