Afternoon Announcements: November 14, 2011

According to Education Week, U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers want performance targets for different subgroups of students in ESEA bill.

When it comes to education, reports the Washington Post, “the republican field of presidential candidates has a unified stance: Get the federal government out of schools.”

The Huffington Post writes that minority students will likely outnumber white students in the next decade or two, but the failure of the national teacher demographic to keep up with that trend is hurting minority students.

In a MetroWest Daily story, experts say social media isn't hurting today's teens.

The Wall Street Journal writes about those who are for cyberschooling and those who have other opinions on it.

The Bangor Daily News reports that businesses in Maine have jobs to offer, but job applicants don’t have the skills.

Teachers facing low salaries opt to moonlight, reports the Associated Press.

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The Long Beach Way: A Systemic Approach to Educating Every Child in Every School

Last week I did a site visit at Long Beach Unified and was reminded of what is really possible in urban education. When we hear of great, transformative superintendents, we often hear names like Michelle Rhee or Joel Klein. While I wouldn't take away anything from other leaders, to me, Chris Steinhauser and the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) staff should be at the fore of any conversation on great district leadership and the types of district systems to which the nation should aspire.

The district has not been short on honors over the years. LBUSD received the prestigious Broad prize for urban education in 2003 and has been one of only two school districts to be a finalist five times. In a 2010 McKinsey Company report, LBUSD was identified as one of the world's twenty leading school systems in terms of improved and sustained performance. Yet, it's not awards or numbers that make Long Beach great. At Long Beach, it's all about the system.

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Morning Announcements: November 11, 2011

This morning's announcements come to you courtesy of Alliance Policy Intern Bill DeBaun:

Good morning and happy Veterans Day, everyone. Before I get into the announcements, we here at the Alliance for Excellent Education want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our veterans and men and women in uniform. We remember your personal sacrifices on behalf of the United States of America and her citizens and are grateful for the freedoms and opportunities those sacrifices have earned for all of us.

It’s a relatively light day in the world of education news, but let’s get down to it.

And Montana makes 47. The Billings Gazette reports that Montana has adopted the common core state standards. With Montana now on board, a total of 46 states and the District of Columbia have adopted a common set of educational standards for K–12 English language arts and mathematics that are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to succeed in college and a career.

Alabama’s State Board of Education has decided to keep the state involved in the Common Core Standards Initiative. The Montgomery Advertiser describes the 6–3 vote in support of the national set of math and English standards for students.

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Afternoon Announcements: November 10, 2011

The U.S. Department of Education is making headlines today.

In a recent Huffington Post op-ed, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan comments on a new teacher pay study, saying it asks the wrong questions, ignores facts, insults teachers, and demeans the profession.

Education Week reports that in the second round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition, the U.S. Department of Education has identified 23 finalists.

In a republican debate on CNBC last night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that when he gets into office, he would get rid of three federal agencies, though he could only name two: “Commerce, Education, and the—what’s the third one there?” and then Perry trailed off—this according to  Education Week and the Washington Post.

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Stats That Stick: November 9, 2011

Once again, Bill DeBaun, policy intern here at the Alliance, uncovers some very interesting stats that will surely stick:

Number of current U.S. Secretaries of Education who think the Harkin-Enzi ESEA reauthorization bill could be stronger on accountability and standards: 1
Education Week reports on an interview U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says, “I appreciate folks are working together [on K-12] education—it may be about the only issue right now. I'm encouraged about the process, but it can't just be about the process, it has to be about the product. You don't want to have a weak bill or a bad bill at the end of the day.” Duncan also went on to say that the proposed bill could be “a step back on raising standards and accountability. We've seen so much progress, we've got to keep getting better, not going backwards.”

Percentage increase in enrollment in postsecondary online courses between 2009 and 2010: 10⁺%
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a survey of more than 2,500 higher education institutions conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group shows an increase of 560,000 students from 2009 to 2010. This is the latest in a trend of steady climbs in online enrollment. 31% of all college students now encounter an online course as part of their postsecondary education. 

Minimum number of online credits now required to graduate from high school in Idaho: 2
The Idaho Statesman confirms that state education officials gave final approval to a plan that would require all high school students to complete online courses in order to graduate. This policy is being rolled out in conjunction with teacher merit pay and a plan to provide laptops for every high school student and teacher in the state. 

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Afternoon Announcements: November 9, 2011

A much-anticipated hearing was held yesterday on a Senate bill that would reauthorize the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Education Week blogs that the hearing had “one of the bill's chief sponsors casting it as an important but imperfect compromise, while republicans were saying the bill wouldn't do enough to rein in the federal role in education.” The Associated Press writes that although lawmakers in Washington, DC are in agreement that NCLB needs to be fixed, finding the fix hasn’t been easy.

In Education Next, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush talks about the importance of giving every student a digital learning experience.

Some lawmakers and educators want the Alabama state school board to retract its decision to adopt a set of national core standards for teaching math and English, reports the Associated Press.

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Will Congress Finish Its Work on NCLB Rewrite?

In the video to the right, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia examines whether Congress will be able to finish its work on a rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Wise notes that the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has passed the bill, but it still must go to the Senate floor and be conferenced with legislation from the House of Representatives before it can go to the president for his signature. He notes that some observers believe that the president's plan to grant states some flexibility from certain NCLB requirements may speed up congressional action.

"That's the real issue for this Congress. Does it want to delay further acting on ESEA but in so doing permit states to head off on their own and the executive branch to be the largely determining what education reform and education policy look like," Wise says.

The odds that Congress finishes its work might be long, but, as Wise points out, so were the odds that the East Coast would have its first major snowstorm before Halloween.

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Afternoon Announcements--November 8, 2011

This morning, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on a bill it recently passed to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

As Education Week notes, the hearing was an unusual one because hearings typically come BEFORE the committee passes legislation. The article also examines a couple of issues that could prevent the bill from reaching the Senate floor, including a full Senate calendar and pending House action on NCLB's accountability provision.

Here are the rest of your top education headlines for Tuesday, November 8, 2011.

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