Afternoon announcements: Tony Bennett moves to Florida

Tony Bennet has been selected as Florida's new state education commissioner. Bennett lost his seat as the Indiana superintendent of public instruction in the November election. Huffington Post

Some states are deciding that the art of cursive writing is one that should be prserved. THe Kansas State Board of Education believes cursive belongs in schools and adopted a policy statement this week encouraging educators to continue teaching it. Lawrence World-Journal

The D.C. teacher of the year has been named. Julia King is a 7th-grade teacher at D.C. Prep Public Charter School. Mayor Vincent Gray surprised her in her classroom last week with the announcement. Washington Post

It's well known that standardized tests quantify what students know in core subject areas, but what about health and sex ed? D.C. released standardized test scores from 5th and 8th-graders in health and sexual education for the efirst time this week. The students performed well on the health section but lacked knowledge on human anatomy. Washington Post

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Afternoon announcements: Jon Stewart talks public education

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart took on public school education in Thursday night’s episode. In a discussion on the documentary, “Brooklyn Castle” – a story of how budget cuts changed a successful chess program at a New York City middle school with the director and a student, he discussed budgets, teachers, learning and more. Washington Post

Andreas Schleicher, a special advisor to the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), gives an interview to the New York Times. He answers questions on his role in the OECD’s annual review, “Education at a Glance.” New York Times

As many as 100 Chicago public schools may close, given a $1 billion budget deficit. The Atlantic

The Kansas State Board of Education may soon provide a formal definition of “college- and career-ready.” They’ll discuss the issue in their regularly monthly meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Topeka. Lawrence Journal-World

“Digital learning” has become a contentious phrase, with those against it arguing that technology will replace teachers and traditional classrooms. One opinion writer argues that, on the contrary, technology will set students free. Huffington Post

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Afternoon Announcements: August 15, 2012

Whoa! Wednesday! I didn’t see you there! Don’t creep up on me like that. At least cough or jingle your keys or something so I know you’re right behind me. You almost have me too nervous to write about today’s Afternoon Announcements. Almost.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that the University System of Georgia may be experiencing a “rare decrease” in the number of students it has. The article notes that “of the system's 35 colleges, 33 taught fewer students this summer.” This is bad news because tuition and fees from students covers approximately 50 percent of the cost of teaching them.

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Afternoon Announcements: June 4, 2012

Hello and happy Monday! Neck-deep in TPS reports and playing catch-up? Let’s see if we can lighten that load for you by providing you with a short list of stories from this weekend and today that deserve your attention.

First, The Washington Post offers up this feature on “flipped” classrooms where students do their reading (or watch teacher-prepared lessons) at home and do their “homework” in class. This type of classroom set-up has found success with some students who do better having a teacher and classmates around to assist with applications of lesson concepts. Overall, if you haven’t heard of flipped classrooms yet (and we hope you have), then this article is a good primer.

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Afternoon Announcements: May 21, 2012

Good afternoon! We hope that your weekend was great. Time to find out what’s notable in the news on this Monday! 

U.S. News and World Report kicks us off today by reporting on teachers who develop applications that fill gaps in their lessons. The article features Jeff Scheur, a Chicago English teacher, who developed a web application to help his students avoid repeatedly making the same writing mistakes.

Alliance President Bob Wise wrote an editorial for the Detroit Free Press yesterday about the benefits of blending technology into classrooms and promoting digital learning. “Digital hardware by itself does not bring change, but combine teachers and technology with proper leadership, vision and planning, and watch schoolhouses become transformed learning environments,” Wise writes.

The Kansas State Legislature has passed a bill prohibiting state funds from paying for remedial courses and supporting students who fall below minimum admissions requirements, reports the Lawrence Journal-World (Kansas). The bill will now go to Governor Sam Brownback’s desk. The Alliance for Excellent Education previously examined the costs of remediating high school students in Paying Double.

Here’s more news from the state level; this time out of Georgia. The Athens Banner-Herald (Georgia) reports that state funding on education has been declining since 2001. For example, Georgia “has cut funding to the University System of Georgia by 19.8 percent since 2009, and slashed spending on the state technical college system by 11 percent in the same time period.”

 

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Afternoon Announcements: September 15, 2011

The New York Times reports that average scores on the SAT fell across the nation this year, with the reading score for the high school class of 2011 falling three points to 497, the lowest on record. This information comes from a report by the College Board, which administers the exams. The report shows the average writing score dropped two points, to 489, and the math score was down one point, to 514. The College Board attributed the decline to the increasing diversity of the students taking the test. For example, about 27 percent of the nearly 1.65 million test-takers last year came from a home where English was not the only language, up from 19 percent a decade ago.

A group of key U.S. Senate Republicans—led by Sen. Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, a former U.S. secretary of education—are going their own way on reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, according to Education Week. Back in January, the top lawmakers on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee pledged to work together on a bipartisan, comprehensive bill to fix NCLB, the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. But almost eight months later, those talks haven’t resulted in a bill.

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Common Standards Update

Nearly eighty percent of states including the District of Columbia have now adopted the common core state standards. This month Kansas (October 12) and New Mexico (October 19) were the latest states to announce they were officially on board. In September, Minnesota announced they would be adopting the English Language-Arts standards but not the math standards. So far, they are the only state to adopt the standards this way.

To see where your state stands, check out the Alliance’s common standards map by clicking on the image to the left or our state-by-state common standards cards. These profiles capture data relevant to the need for improved standards and assessments in the United States and the potential benefits of educating all students to meet the common college- and career-ready core standards.

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Morning Announcements: October 25, 2010

Kansas and New Mexico are the latest states to adopt the common core state standards, bringing the total count to 40 states including Washington, DC.

According to Education Week, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council have approved plans to merge into a single organization.

The Montgomery Advertiser takes a look at the high school dropout problem in Alabama in a story and an editorial.

The Daily Press (California) covers community college attrition rates, America’s international standing in education, and solutions that could boost the global competitiveness of American students.

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Morning Announcements: October 13, 2010

The big news today in Washington: DC School Chancellor Michelle Rhee is resigning at the end of this month. The Washington Post covered this story extensively with a cover story on her resignation, another story on Rhee’s unfinished business, a column by Robert McCartney on presumptive mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray’s next moves in education, and a live chat on the issue moderated by education reporter Bill Turque.

In the Letters to the Editor section, a number of Washington Post readers also responded to the manifesto by Rhee, Klein and other education leaders published on Sunday.

The future of charter schools in Georgia rests in the hands of the state Supreme Court as it considers a case that could affect choice for parents and unravel a network of schools, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

In Kansas, reading and math scores have improved drastically in the past decade. According to test results released yesterday in Topeka, overall reading scores have gone from 59.2 percent proficient or better in 2000 to 86.3 percent this year.

According to the Providence Journal, about 15 percent of the teachers at Central Falls High School have been absent in recent weeks, a negative trend that threatens the ambitious transformation plan of the struggling school.

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Morning Announcements: September 15, 2010

Education Week reporter Alyson Klein interviews Rep. John Kline on ESEA, Race to the Top, and common standards.

Several key reforms in Race to the Top winning states hinge on the effectiveness of data systems, but the judges and outside experts worry states could face some heavy lifting to ensure their data systems keep up with their policy plans, Education Week reports.

According to the Washington Post, two D.C. Council members said Tuesday that they will press mayoral primary winner Vincent C. Gray and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to negotiate an "extended transition" that could keep her in the job until the end of the 2011-12 school year.

The editorial staff at the Star Advertiser (HI) thinks the state board’s selection of Kathryn Matayoshi as permanent superintendent to head the embattled Department of Education is a cause for hope.

The number of public school districts and schools not making adequate yearly progress in Kansas under No Child Left Behind increased significantly this year, according to The Lawrence World Journal.

The Boston Globe reports that MCAS test scores released yesterday show that more Massachusetts schools than ever are failing to measure up to federal achievement standards, with 57 percent out of compliance.

And in Pennsylvania, more than eight in 10 schools met the required academic goals for the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2010, according to The Patriot-News.

Patrick Welsh, an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, explains why he thinks schools can’t manage poverty in USA Today.

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