Morning Announcements: February 4, 2011

The Kansas City Star reports on the opportunities and challenges in implementing the common core state standards.

The Orlando Sentinel reports on why it’s a tough time to be a public school teacher in Florida right now, writing, “Gov. Rick Scott wants to make public employees contribute to their pensions, which would amount to a 5 percent pay cut for teachers. Lawmakers are again pushing to adopt a merit-pay bill that would overhaul how teachers are evaluated and paid — relying heavily on tests to judge their quality — and end tenure for new instructors.”

Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist wants to push back the deadline for more rigorous high school graduation requirements and is backing off her proposal that Rhode Island establish a three-tier diploma system, according to the Providence Journal.

The Thomaston Times spotlights the Ninth Grade Academy, a new school located in Georgia,  and their efforts to reduce the high school dropout rate. In the story, Dr. Larry Derico, Director of Federal Programs for the school system, is quoted as saying, “The primary focus of the 9th Grade Academy is to keep those students together in their core academic courses to ensure that they are supported from an academic standpoint, and we really hope, also from a social standpoint, to get them to really feeling comfortable and secure as they move into their 10th, 11th and 12th school years.”