Morning Announcements: July 27, 2011

As states tally their standardized test scores and graduation rates this summer, they are feeling the squeeze of the 2001 No Child Left Behind law, which Congress has failed to revamp since it came up for reauthorization in 2007, reports the Huffington Post.

According to Maine's Bangor Daily News, Gov. Paul LePage issued an order yesterday that takes a first step toward giving the state’s students the option of a five-year high school education.

In another Bangor Daily News article, author and education expert Tony Wagner is quoted from his keynote address at a conference at the University of Maine, during which he talked about the education system built in the past century and how it is failing today’s students.

NPR continues its series “School’s Out: America’s Dropout Crisis” with this fourth story in the five-part series:

Part 4: Despite Interventions, No-Show Students Drop Out
In Baltimore, the vast majority of kids who never finish school drop out because of extreme poverty, homelessness, and a drug epidemic that has left some neighborhoods desolate and dangerous. In the toughest neighborhoods, kids miss lots of school days, and that puts them at risk of dropping out. Now, Baltimore’s efforts are driven toward reaching these children early.

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Afternoon Announcements: July 26, 2011

The Huffington Post writes that Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), a former superintendent of Denver’s public schools, sees the holdup on overhauling No Child Left Behind as having little to do with education and everything to do with politics: “I’ve learned more about how schools work than how the United States Senate works … For the life of me, it’s hard to see why we can’t make progress on this.”

As part of NPR’s special series “School’s Out: America’s Dropout Crisis,” Claudio Sanchez tells the first three stories in the five-part series:

Part 1: From Drug Dealing To Diploma, A Teen’s Struggle
No statistic in education is more damning than the nation’s dropout rate. Almost four million students start ninth grade every year. One in four won’t graduate.

Part 2: A Young Mom Resists A Cycle Of Failure
Of the million or so kids who drop out of school every year, nearly half are girls. They drop out for the same reasons boys do: they skip school, fall behind academically and they’re bored. But the single biggest reason girls drop out is because they get pregnant.

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Morning Announcements: July 22, 2011

Another hot day across the nation gives way to another day full of education news. Grab an ice-cold drink and read on ... 

According to the Associated Press, at least three states are vowing to ignore the latest requirements under the No Child Left Behind law in an act of defiance against the federal government that demonstrates their growing frustration over an education program they say sets unrealistic benchmarks for schools.

Education Week writes about the new guidelines on crafting curriculum materials for the common standards in English/language arts that are reigniting debate about how to ensure a marketplace of good instructional materials for the new standards without crossing the line into telling teachers how to teach.

The Los Angeles Times reports on a new study that finds California’s higher education system is in decline, with fewer students able to afford college, falling college participation rates and dwindling state support.

Education Week writes about a new initiative that targets “school-to-prison” pipeline.

Test Scores, Schools, and Expectations: The Up, the Down, and the Stagnate

The Hattiesburg American reports that test scores released by the Mississippi Department of Education on July 19 show public school students improved on MCT2 and Subject Area Test (SATP) scores, compared to last year.

 

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Lessons From Atlanta

The cheating scandal that has engulfed the Atlanta public schools (and similar scandals that are bubbling up in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and elsewhere) ought to serve as a "teachable moment" to point to a path forward in how we think about holding schools and educators accountable for student performance. Unfortunately, the incident has provoked a predictable response: those who object to high-stakes testing have used the case to renew calls to ease up on accountability, while those who favor strong accountability say that all that needs to happen is to tighten up on test security.

Neither of these responses addresses the real issue. Accountability is necessary, and easing up on it will not provide children or schools the help they need. At the same time, simply improving test security is not enough.

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Afternoon Announcements: July 19, 2011

According to the Wall Street Journal, officials who are frustrated with No Child Left Behind try to substitute their own plans.

Raising new questions about the effectiveness of school discipline, a new report finds that 31 percent of Texas students were suspended off campus or expelled at least once during their years in middle and high school, reports the New York Times.

Obama pushes businesses to invest $118 million in education, writes USA Today.

Education Week reports that the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released results today for the 2010 NAEP geography test, finding that fourth graders scored on average 213 out of a possible 500, an “all-time high” since the test started in 1994, but the rising scores have not translated to more students moving from “basic” to “proficient” performance on the test, and the percentage of students achieving at the “advanced” level has gone down in every grade.

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Highlights from "The Nation's Report Cards in U.S. History and Civics"

Earlier this month, the Alliance for Excellent Education held "The Nation's Report Cards for U.S. History and Civics," a webinar that focused on student performance in those two subjects.

It featured Dr. Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, Kelly Kovacic, California's 2010 Teacher of the Year and an Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history and AP U.S. government teacher at the Preuss School, a public charter school in San Diego, Dr. Cornelia Orr, executive director of NAGB, and Bob Wise, president of the Alliance and former governor of West Virginia.

A video with highlights from the webinar is below. To watch the entire hour-long webinar, go to http://media.all4ed.org/webinar-jul-6-2011.

 

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Afternoon Announcements: July 13, 2011

According to the New York Times, some state education chiefs say that if Congress does not overhaul No Child Left Behind, the main federal law governing public education, by the fall, they may be allowed to propose their own accountability systems as an alternative.

Education leaders, teachers, and their advocates gathered at the American Federation of Teachers national conference this week and expressed deep frustration at the lack of movement to overhaul the vastly unpopular No Child Left Behind education law, reports the Huffington Post.

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Afternoon Announcements: July 7, 2011

Writing for Education Week's K-12 blog, Alyson Klein notes that Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, is less than thrilled with the response from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to his request for more information about the department's plan to give states leeway on parts of the No Child Left Behind Act in exchange for signing onto a package of reforms-to-be-named-later. Summarizing Duncan's response, she writes, "If you expected the department to provide Kline & Co. with a thorough, detailed explanation of the waiver proposal, you'll be sorely disappointed. "

In another post from earlier this afternoon, Klein (the reporter) writes that Kline (the congressman) gave a preview of the House Education and the Workforce's funding flexibility bill today on former Education Secretary Bill Bennett's radio show, Morning in America. And he said that the bill won't be introduced with bipartisan support. More details on the bill are expected to come out this afternoon. You can listen to audio from Chairman Kline's radio appearance at http://edworkforce.house.gov/Audio/.

Now that your speakers are warmed up, you can also listen to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talk to NPR about No Child Left Behind, the plan aimed to improve failing public schools; as well as the Dream Act, which would create a path to citizenship for some undocumented youth.

More links below the jump.

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Morning Announcements: July 6, 2011

Illinois high school juniors will no longer be tested on writing skills during the state's standardized tests every spring, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution elaborates on the investigation into Atlanta Public Schools’ cheating.

More states are defiant on NCLB compliance; some say they’ll flout the 2014 deadline on AYP, writes Education Week.

When asked about his role in overhauling England’s national history curriculum, famed historian Simon Schama understates his contributions by telling the Huffington Post, “It’s not a very sexy field.”

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Morning Announcements: June 29, 2011

As reported on National Public Radio, states threaten to defy No Child Left Behind, saying that they need emergency relief from the controversial education law’s requirements—otherwise, they say, a huge number of decent schools will face sanctions.

According to the Boston Globe, students’ MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) scores and other achievement data will become key barometers in evaluating the performance of their teachers and administrators, under new criteria the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently approved.

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