Morning Announcements: May 9, 2012

Happy Wednesday! There is still plenty of time for you to show appreciate for your children’s teacher, neighborhood teachers, or even educators from your childhood with whom you are still in contact.

The Wall Street Journal reports that despite the voluntary adaptation by 46 states and the District of Columbia within two years, conservative groups are challenging the Common Core State Standards  siting it as a federal intrusion into state education initiatives. Supporters, including the Alliance for Excellent Education, say the Common Core standards better prepare students for college or the workforce, and are important as the U.S. falls behind other nations in areas such as math proficiency.

Read Entire Post

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.

Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: February 16, 2012

Thursday can be frustrating. It’s so close to the weekend that it tempts you to waste time contemplating about fun activities. But then Thursday reminds you that it’s not the weekend when all the work from Monday through Wednesday that you procrastinated in doing piles up on your desk. Clear some space and get caught up on the latest in education news.

States around the country are backing away from previous laws and initiatives that ranked each public school by a grading system and New Mexico is following suit. As the Associated Press reports, New Mexico is becoming the latest state to free itself from an unpopular federal system of rating public schools.

According to Education Week, states that are looking to become exempt from provisions within the No Child Left Behind Act now have a third deadline to submit waiver applications. Additionally, states that need more time to develop their proposal for a waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act can now request a one-year freeze in their annual achievement targets to keep the list of schools not making adequate yearly progress from growing.

Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: February 10, 2012

Enjoy your Friday Morning Announcements quickly before you head off to your Friday afternoon hiatus.

The New York Times (NYT) is providing all sorts of tidbits in the realm of education news today. The editorial staff wants you to know of a city board’s vote to close 18 poor-performing schools and eliminate the middle school grades at five others, despite a show of the strong voices of opposition from protestors including hundreds of teachers’ union members, parents and students.

The NYT also shines a light on the growing disparities between the rich, middle class, and poor and how economic hardships transfer into educational gaps in productivity. The achievement gap between affluent and low-income students is widening but is often over-looked when compared to the gap between white and black students. The racial achievement gap has actually narrowed.

Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: February 7, 2012

Greetings from the Alliance for Excellent Education. Between the hustle and bustle of the day, take a moment to kick back relax and take in some of the top news in the world of education.

After years of recession and budget cuts, state funding for K-12 education is beginning to improve nationwide. According to Stateline, a new survey indicates that many states plan on increasing spending on K-12 education this year. However, state education spending remains below pre-recession levels.

From Education Week, Rep. John Kline (R-MN) who serves as chairman of the House education committee, will release a formal version of his draft bill rewriting the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also know as the No Child Left Behind Act, very soon. Principals, superintendents, and school boards will have the opportunity to critique the draft.

Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: January 25, 2012

It's ok. We know you were up late causing havoc at State of the Union watch parties; but hopefully you won our State of the Union Bingo. So as you sluggishly trod your way through Wednesday, ease through the afternoon with news on education.

Across the country, changes in teacher evaluation have meant that teacher tenure is no longer a guarantee. As the Associated Press reports, a few states have essentially nullified tenure protections altogether. An analysis released by the National Council on Teacher Quality shows that qualifications for teacher tenure are getting a makeover.

Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: December 13, 2011

Happy Tuesday. Enjoy a break from meetings and monotony with the latest in education news.

A long standing argument for why students in other countries outperform Americans has been the theory that American children spend less time in school. This includes less hours within the day and less days within the year. But a new report from the Washington Post exposes that theory as just a myth. No worries kids, your school day will not be getting longer.

 

Read Entire Post

Friday Report Round-Up

Here is this week’s report round-up:

Washington State High Schools Pay Less for Math and Science Teachers than for Teachers in Other Subjects by the University of Washington 's Center on Reinventing Public Education. This report finds that the Washington state salary system fails to attract qualified educators from the science, technology, engineering, and math profession and retain them in the field of K-12 education.

Better Benefits: Reforming Teacher Pensions for a Changing Work Force from Education Sector. This report examines teacher pensions and details the problems facing current state pension programs-both the fiscal problems, which are severe, and the educational consequences of these retirement plans. It also offers a specific set of policy recommendations designed to improve the fiscal solvency of state pension plans while also making the new plans more attractive to teachers.

The Status of Childhood Weight in Massachusetts from the Massachusetts State Department of Health. According to this analysis, more than one-third of Massachusetts students evaluated during the 2008-2009 school year were overweight or obese.

Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: September 10, 2010

More than 40 percent of Chicago’s public high schools are failing, according to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Public Schools’ internal documents.

In California, a civil liberties group is suing the state over charges incurred by public school students to use textbooks or take required tests or courses. The group is arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education. Read more in a story in today’s New York Times.

According to the latest results of a teaching licensing exam in Connecticut, colleges and universities that train new teachers are producing too many graduates who don't know how to teach children to read.

More than one-third of Massachusetts students evaluated during the 2008-2009 school year were overweight or obese, according to a report released yesterday.

Yesterday, the Department of Education recognized 304 schools as 2010 National Blue Ribbon Schools.

Read Entire Post

The Richer Life (Or Why Congress Should Pass the Child Nutrition Act)

We as Americans have always wanted more for our children:  more money, more opportunities, bigger cars, bigger houses, and even more food.  We want a better life or perhaps, a bigger life than what we had.  But is bigger always better?  With the current recession, we have been forced to scale back and take a hard look at the consequences of our “bigger is better” attitude—including food. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one third of our children are overweight or obese—an epidemic.  That translates to 23 million children and adolescents.  When analyzing the current trends, the childhood obesity rate fares to continue growing.

The child obesity epidemic has attracted the attention of many Americans, ranging from First Lady Michelle Obama to chefs to members of Congress.  The truth of the matter is that we all have a stake in our children’s health, including the well being of our high school students.  Here are a few reasons why:

• Cost:  The CDC estimates that medical expenses linked to obesity totaled around $147 billion in 2008 dollars. With an estimated 10.58 million children, or nearly one in three children ages 10–17, being overweight or obese in 2007, these costs can only be expected to increase.
• Quality of Life: According to the CDC, high school students are at greater risk for childhood obesity in part because of a significant decrease in physical activity as students get older and less physical education embedded in the high school curriculum.  
• Security Risk:  Otherwise qualified recruits are turned away from military service due to obesity and other related weight problems.  According to a group of retired generals, obesity is one of three leading reasons why military recruits are rejected from service.  The military has a long history of involvement with school lunches.  During World War II, the military saw how inadequate nutrition led to stunted growth in recruits and became an advocate for school lunches following the war to improve the health of the nation’s soldiers.  Once again, our generals are sounding the alarms and pushing Congress to reform the school lunch program.  
• Education:  A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that adults who were overweight since high school were more likely to be single, suffer chronic health problems, lack postsecondary education, and receive unemployment compensation.  While discrimination may reinforce a lot of these negative effects, researchers found a negative correlation between high school grades and weight. 

 

Read Entire Post