Morning Announcements: March 12, 2012

Good Morning!

It’s a warm front throughout the country as most of the nation will be enjoying record highs and unseasonably warm temperatures for the week. Allow the Alliance the crank up the heat a little more with hot, right-of-the-presses, education news.

From the Associated Press, New York's state senate and assembly will restore $200 million in traditional school aid by shifting it from a proposed schools incentive program. A legislative leader and a legislative official confirmed that the changes will come when they release budget resolutions today.

Education Week reports that Republican Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has just now added education to his campaign website that allows his platform to be available to the public. Up until now, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has had a background section on his Web site that encompassed critical issues such as health care, China, trade—but not education.

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Morning Announcements: February 29, 2012

Good Morning and Happy Leap Day! February 29 only comes around once every four years so enjoy it now before you don’t see it again until 2016.

Education Week reports that the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved a largely partisan, GOP-backed legislation reauthorizing portions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The bills, both introduced by U.S. Representative John Kline of Minnesota, would scale down the federal role in education and give states much more control when it comes to K-12 policy.

Washington D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson is calling for national standards to guide educators in investigating claims of cheating on standardized tests, according to the Washington Post.  She contends that without those standards, school districts will continue to be second-guessed in their efforts to probe and punish such misconduct.

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Morning Announcements: February 21, 2012

Good Morning! Fortunately we were able to skip the sluggish Monday had head right into Tuesday. The countdown through a short week begins! Here are your latest education headlines.

As a part of the Obama administration’s efforts to address the alarming rate of childhood obesity, a new will be announced that highlights guidelines for vending machines in schools, according to the New York Times. The goal is to set nationwide standards that promote healthy choices for nourishment of growing children.

In Chicago, the public schools system’s new administration has added a new assessment test for elementary school students. As the Chicago Tribune reports, the new measures come after years of complaints from teachers and administrators that the previous assessment tests for the state's Illinois Standard Achievement Test set the bar too low when preparing kids for college.

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Afternoon Announcements: January 18, 2012

Happy Wednesday. As you reflect on the amount of cups of coffee it took to reach this day while contemplating how many it will take to finish the week, enjoy the latest in education news.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia School District has failed to report crime consistently. A new report has found numerous safety flaws within the school district including not offering enough counseling for kids traumatized by violence, and failure to replicate best practices citywide. The school district in response has promised to focus more attention on violence prevention, offer more transparency around violence data, enact better reporting, and modify their zero tolerance policy.

 

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Afternoon Announcements: January 13, 2011

Congratulations, you made it! Friday has arrived and soon you will be on your way to watching Saturday morning cartoons. That is, if you haven’t already started. But if you happen to still be in the office, enjoy the latest in education news.

The Washington Post reports the United States Attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania has activated a hotline where citizens can report “suspected possible corruption in public education.” This stems from a probe of schools throughout the state regarding improprieties from the 2009 PSSA tests.

According to the Associated Press, California educators and childcare advocates are protesting Governor Jerry Brown's proposal to dismantle a new program for children who are no longer old enough for kindergarten. The plan doesn't provide funding for "transitional kindergarten," a new grade level created when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that raised the starting age for kindergarten.

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Afternoon Announcements: January 6, 2012

Before the bell rings on another work week, take a moment to catch up in the world of education reform and policy. Here are the latest education news articles:

To say that a teacher is vital to youth development is an understatement. Teachers serve an enormous role in the lives of children. As reported by the New York Times, a new study sheds light on the correlation of teacher involvement and student achievement. The study indicates that teachers who help raise their students' standardized test scores also have a lasting effect on students' lives outside of the classroom, including reducing teen pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation.

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Morning Announcements: November 22, 2011

The Huffington Post reports on a story of a Dallas elementary school that was given "exemplary" status for academic achievement only taught its third graders reading and math last year, and fabricated scores for every student in other subjects like social studies and science.

As the poorest U.S. city, Reading, PA also struggles with high dropout rates in its schools. Watch the latest edition to PBS NewsHour’s "American Graduate" series.

The Huffington Post reports on a new report from Stanford University that shows a dramatic illustration of the impact of income inequality on how children do in school, the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is far higher than the achievement gap between black and white students.

A video contest for Texas panhandle students aims to keep teens in school, reports the Associated Press.

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Stats That Stick: August 3, 2011

Once nearly 100 percent, the teacher tenure rate in New York City dropped to 58 percent of under tougher evaluation guidelines that the city put into effect this year. A decision on tenure was deferred for 39 percent of eligible teachers, up from 8 percent a year ago. (New York Times)

Four out of 10 new public school teachers hired since 2005 came through alternative teacher-preparation programs, according to a survey just released by the National Center for Education Information,  up from 22 percent of new teachers hired between 2000 and 2004. (Education Week)

On Tuesday, the Kentucky Department of Education reported that for the 2009–10 school year, the state’s high school graduation rate was 76.6 percent. (Bowling Green Daily News)

The South Dakota Education Department reported Tuesday that 94 percent of the state’s public school districts made adequate yearly progress under the federal education improvement law, down 1 percentage point from a year ago; about 80 percent of the individual schools made adequate yearly progress. (Rapid City Journal)

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Morning Announcements: August 2, 2011

As a vote nears in Congress to lift the federal debt ceiling and stave off a financial default, education advocates are just beginning to take stock of what this will mean for K-12 education, reports Education Week.

A recent Washington Post blog post includes Stanford University Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond’s speech from last Saturday’s Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC, in which she explains the extent of the trouble public education is in.

According to the New York Times, New York State education officials announced yesterday that they had begun to review the way they detect and prevent cheating on standardized tests, taking a step to avoid the cheating scandals that have engulfed school systems in other states.

A recent Education Week blog post talks about the struggle states are having with linking teacher-student data.

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Afternoon Announcements: July 25, 2011

A decade into his record-breaking education philanthropy, Bill Gates talks to the Wall Street Journal about teachers, charters—and regrets: “It’s hard to improve public education—that’s clear. … It’s been about a decade of learning.” Since 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has poured some $5 billion into education grants and scholarships.

Of more than 100,000 public schools in the United States, about 300 recently have faced suspicions, allegations and, in some cases hard proof, that teachers and administrators cheated to inflate standardized test scores. The Washington Post reports on questions raised in these incidents that have sent tremors through the movement to hold schools and teachers accountable for student achievement through annual testing.

According to an article in Education Week, South Korea plans to replace paper textbooks with digital content.

 

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