Afternoon announcements: Fiscal cliff deal may still leave education funding on the edge

A deal to avoid going off the ‘fiscal cliff’ has been reached… kinda. While the kinds are being worked out, how does the current deal affect K-12 education? Education Week

School districts and high schools nation-wide are undergoing major changes – in how teaching is done, the emphasis on technology and raising standards. Some of the biggest trends to look for in high school education in 2013 include blinded learning, flipped classrooms, and new standards. High School Notes

Some teenagers are foregoing higher education to cash in on the oil boom in Montana. Salaries can start at $50,000 a year. New York Times

D.C. parents are up-in-arms over Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s proposal to close 20 city schools this fall. Parents are organizing recruiting efforts to increase enrollment numbers in the hope to keep some of the schools open. Washington Post

Angelica Gonzales graduated at the top of her high school class and headed off to one of the nation’s top universities. Four years later she is back home, without a degree. Research shows that lower income students are falling behind their more affluent peers. Watch this video. New York Times Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: September 7, 2011

Today's morning announcements:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is going on a road trip this week to the “Great Lakes Region” – which includes electorally important states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin – to discuss education reform. According to Education Week, Duncan says he believes K-12 education is a bipartisan issue that he hopes to work on with both sides of the aisle. Duncan’s first top will be today in Pittsburgh, where he’ll talk about the importance of collaboration, and then it’s on to Erie, Pa, where he will discuss the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Fund. View the entire bus tour schedule here.

Negotiations over Chicago extending its school days continues. The Chicago Tribune reports the city’s public schools officials have expanded their offer of financial incentives to schools and teachers in exchange for working longer hours. Three schools have voted to move to a longer day, despite union opposition.

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Morning Announcements: September 2, 2010

Today the U.S. Department of Education awarded two state coalitions a total of $330 million in federal aid for the design of new assessment systems aligned to the recently developed common-core standards.

A nonprofit group in Connecticut has developed a five-year plan to change cultural views toward math and science and get students to take personal responsibility for their own learning.

A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute identifies nine cities, including New Orleans, Washington, D.C. and New York, as having the most reform friendly  ecosystems in the country.

The Houston Chronicle reports that in an attempt to ensure that public school districts aren’t disguising high school dropouts, the Texas Education Agency is conducting an audit of students who withdrew under the auspice of home schooling.

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Morning Announcements: August 27, 2010

In DC, progress in narrowing the achievement gap between African American students and their white counterparts has stalled, according to The Washington Post.

The Denver Post tries to make sense of Colorado’s second consecutive loss in the Race to the Top program. The Washington Post editorial staff comments on the federally funded competition writing, “Even in states that failed to win additional money, students will profit from newly implemented reforms, and that's the most important result.”

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Morning Announcements: August 24, 2010

Education Week reports that the Department of Education has announced the Race to the Top Round 2 Winners, the dollar amount that each state is slated to receive, and their total point score:

• District of Columbia: $75 million. Score: 450.0
• Florida: $700 million. Score: 452.4
• Georgia: $400 million. Score: 446.4 
• Hawaii: $75 million. Score: 462.4
• Maryland: $250 million. Score: 450.0
• Massachusetts: $250 million. Score: 471.0 
• New York: $700 million. Score: 464.8
• North Carolina: $400 million. Score: 441.6
• Ohio: $400 million. Score: 440.8
• Rhode Island: $75 million. Score: 451.2

Secretary Duncan’s plans to turnaround 1,000 schools a year using federal stimulus money are delayed due to stalled negotiations among federal regulators, state officials and local educators, reports the New York Times.

The Chicago Tribune reports that fifteen Chicago Public Schools plan to add ninety minutes to the schedule using online courses and nonteachers. The extra time will be tacked on to the end of the school day and be split evenly between math and reading.

Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett delivers the state’s first State of Education address and calls for linking teacher pay to student performance.

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Morning Announcements: July 21, 2010

Common standards are all the buzz today with New York Times reporter Tamar Lewin recapping state progress in adopting.  The New York Times also hosted a discussion on the pros and cons of mandating what American school children should know. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released a report this morning that determined the common core standards are clearer and more rigorous than the English standards in 37 states and the math standards in 39 states. According to the study, nearly a dozen other states have English or math standards that are “in the same league” as the common core. Lastly, the Washington Post ran a story about the school boards in DC and Massachusetts being on the verge of adopting the standards and then the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced that the board had indeed voted 8-0 to adopt the standards and cited the increased academic rigor and stronger expectation in their decision making process.

In other news, according to a new survey from Sam Houston State University, four in ten teachers moonlight to make ends meet. The study also found that 47 percent of those surveyed said they have seriously considered leaving the profession.

And finally, the Washington Post reports, “Math and reading scores for Maryland elementary and middle school students who were already meeting basic expectations improved this year, but the worst-performing students posted smaller gains than in previous years, according to test results released Tuesday.”

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