Afternoon Announcements: November 7, 2011

The Washington Times reports that key lawmakers and educators are growing increasingly pessimistic that Congress can pass a massive overhaul of federal education policy before the 2012 election-year battles doom any hopes for major bipartisan legislation. To that point, Alliance President Bob Wise is quoted, saying, “Education is really about the only issue left that has not managed to make itself totally toxic. If Congress really resents the waiver proposal, then they have an obligation to act now. It’s not fair to states to begin implementing significant changes and then suddenly change all of the rules on them. The longer Congress waits, the more the waivers take effect.”

Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, writes about education and the 2012 election in a Huffington Post op-ed.

Middle and high school science classes are holding kids’ interests; surveys show the number of college freshmen interested in majoring in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and math) is on the rise. But as these new coeds fight their way upstream through a flood of calculus, physics, and chemistry in lecture halls with hundreds of other students, the excitement quickly wanes leaving many swimming for shore. Read more in the New York Times about on why science majors change their minds.

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New Straight A's Issue Now Online

The newest version of the Alliance's Straight A's newsletter is now online.

Articles in this issue focus on

• The bill passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act;
• Efforts underway in New York City, Wyoming, and Ohio to reduce the need for remedial courses among college students;
• Hidden costs of community colleges; and
• Dropout rates among students in special education and the economic benefits associated with special education students who graduate from high school.

Links to each of these articles appear below. For a free email subscription to Straight A's, join the Alliance's mailing list.

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Afternoon Announcements: October 20, 2011

According to a new report from Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia’s school closing plan probably won't raise much revenue, writes the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The New York Times reports that he Learning Network is celebrating National Day on Writing today by offering a host of ways for parents, teachers, and students to share their writing.

According to a recent report by the American Institutes for Research, students who drop out of community college before their second year have cost taxpayers nearly $1-billion annually, writes the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Education officials in Tennessee are taking flak from teachers and unions for rushing the implementation of a new teacher-evaluation system that will eventually undergird tenure decisions—a move, some worry, that could undermine redesigns of evaluation in other states, writes Education Week.

The Christian Science Monitor asks, “Can new No Child Left Behind law pass before 2012 elections?”

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Morning Announcements: October 19, 2011

According to U.S. News & World Report, the new No Child Left Behind legislation is facing uphill battles.

The Bakersfield Californian’s editorial board expresses that digital schools must be California’s future. In doing so, it cites an analysis from Digital Learning Now!, a project of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and the Alliance for Excellent Education, which looks at which states are taking new approaches … and which states were lagging behind. The nation’s top laggard was California, a finding that belies the state’s reputation … for innovation.

For an Indiana school district, it’s out with textbooks and in with laptops, writes the New York Times.

Las Vegas schools hope new iPad program will boost test scores, reports the Las Vegas Sun (via Education Week).

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Afternoon Announcements: October 18, 2011

Education Daily reports on a National Center for Education Statistics's (NCES) study that finds 1 in 10 new teachers leaves after first year. But what can be done to help them stay? While the NCES study does not offer policy recommendations, a new brief  from the Alliance for Excellent Education calls for induction supports that provide coaching and guidance by well-trained mentors and increased opportunities for novice educators to collaborate with colleagues.

The Associated Press reports that U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY), the chairman and top Republican, respectively, on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, announced Monday an agreement to move forward on bipartisan legislation to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Also, Education Week reports that a last-minute change to draft language to rewrite NCLB included scaling back the teacher evaluation mandate.

Read the rest of today's top education headlines below the jump.

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Afternoon Announcements: October 13, 2011

Education Week reports that the sprawling Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill put forward yesterday by the chairman of the Senate education committee envisions major programs both for literacy and STEM education. “This is an important provision, and we are pleased to see it included in the draft bill,” said Phillip Lovell, vice president for federal advocacy at the Alliance for Excellent Education. “This proposal takes a comprehensive approach to strengthening literacy by recognizing that students need literacy support and instruction throughout their education.”

Today, the Washington Post highlights education historian Diane Ravitch’s recent blog post “Why Finland’s schools are great (by doing what we don’t).”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes about the Alliance’s recently released report on improving teacher quality by improving the induction of teachers, citing “In 1987–88, the most common experience level of teachers was 15 years. Twenty years later, it was one year.”

Louisiana leads the nation in high school dropouts, as according to the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, one of every six students in the state fails to make it to graduation. “In Louisiana, which has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, the financial impact of the dropout rate is significant. The Alliance for Excellent Education … estimates that dropouts from Louisiana’s class of 2008 could cost the state roughly $6.9 billion in lost wages over their lifetimes,” says the report. (via WWLTV.com in Louisiana)

According to the Huffington Post, YouTube has a Teacher’s Channel that provides teachers with instructions on how to make and upload videos and how to incorporate existing videos in their classroom instruction.

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Alliance Responds to Draft Legislation to Revise No Child Left Behind

On October 11, U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY), the chairman and top Republican, respectively, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) Committee, released draft legislation to revise the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind.

"Patience is no virtue in education reform, and the nation's students have waited long enough for more effective education policy coming from Washington," said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, in response to the draft legislation. "With this bill, they are one step closer to getting it."

Wise said the draft legislation is "especially important" for the nation's high schools, which he said had been "overlooked" by federal education policy for far too long. Specifically, Wise noted the legislation would concentrate improvement efforts on high schools with graduation rates below 60 percent, establish a common, accurate calculation of graduation rates, and support comprehensive efforts by states to strengthen the literacy skills of all students, including young people in high school. Read Entire Post

Stats That Stick: October 12, 2011

Numbers of pages in new No Child Left Behind Act bill: 865
Senior Senate Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa released a draft of a sprawling revision of the No Child Left Behind education law on Tuesday that would dismantle the provisions of the law that used standardized test scores in reading and math to label tens of thousands of public schools as failing. The 865-page bill, filed by Senator Harkin, who heads the Senate education committee, became the first comprehensive piece of legislation overhauling the law to reach either Congressional chamber since President George W. Bush signed it in 2002. Mr. Harkin made his draft bill public 18 days after President Obama announced that he would use executive authority to waive the most onerous provisions of the law, because he had all but given up hope that Congress could fix the law’s flaws any time soon. Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: October 12, 2011

The New York Times and every other national news outlet reported on senior Senate Democrat Tom Harkin’s released draft of a sprawling revision of the No Child Left Behind education law on Tuesday that would dismantle the provisions of the law that used standardized test scores in reading and math to label tens of thousands of public schools as failing. The 865-page bill, filed by the Iowa Democrat who heads the Senate education committee, became the first comprehensive piece of legislation overhauling the law to reach either Congressional chamber since President George W. Bush signed it in 2002.

The Washington Post reported that Harkin’s plan to revamp the main federal education law immediately drew fire from civil rights groups that argued it would ease pressure on schools to provide quality education to all children, regardless of race or income. Further, Education Week   reported the accountability system at the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act would be completely reinvented under the draft reauthorization proposal.

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Morning Announcements: September 30, 2011

According to the Huffington Post, House Republicans on Thursday unveiled plans to cut federal money for job training, heating subsidies and grants to better-performing schools. The draft measure for labor, health and education programs also seeks to block implementation of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, cut off federal funds for National Public Radio and Planned Parenthood, and reduce eligibility for grants for low-income college students.

After months of negotiations, it's finally happening: The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has set a date to take up a bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act., according to Education Week. The markup is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 2:30 p.m. No details yet on the actual legislation, but it's the product of 10 months of negotiations between U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the committee chairman, and Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming, the top Republican. Read Entire Post