Afternoon announcements: What you need to know about federal student loans

What does the public need to know, that they don’t, about federal student loans and aid programs? After more than a dozen organizations, including the Alliance for Excellent Education, submitted recommendations on improving the system, some basic truths were revealed. The Quick & the Ed

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced on Monday that his administration may take over the public school system within six to eight weeks. He suggested various ideas for what the takeover would look like. He referenced New Orleans, where many schools were converted to charter schools. Wall Street Journal

The new assessments that will align with the Common Core State Standards may first be implemented in Alabama. The Alabama State Board of Education will consider adopting the new tests in its April 11th meeting. Alabama.com

An innovative college and career readiness pilot program in Vermont has students anticipating their futures. The 15-week course taught students how to create a resume and an online portfolio. They also worked on computer, speaking, and collaboration skills. Education Week Read Entire Post

Afternoon announcements: New Jersey teachers union sues charter school over blended learning

Merit Prep is a charter school in New Jersey with the mission of improving the academic achievement of low-income minority students. It utilizes technology, combined with traditional classroom teaching, or blended learning. A teachers union in the state is suing to shut the school down. Hechinger Report

A new Texas state law that goes into effect this year mandates a financial literacy program for high school students, that will teach them how to apply for and pay for higher education. One of the program’s goals is to ensure every high school senior completes the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Star-Telegram

Admissions decisions just got tougher for M.B.A. candidates. Some programs are bringing in career-services staff to analyze prospective candidates in terms of their job potential and set expectations for what the school can offer. Wall Street Journal

A new face will lead the House Education subcommittee on K-12 policy in Congress this term. Representative Todd Rokita, a republican from Indiana, will take on the powerful position in education policy. Politics K-12
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Creating A School Culture That Supports And Sustains Digital Learning

The following is a guest blog submitted by Eric Sheninger, principal of New Milford High School in New Jersey, and a member of the Digital Learning Day Educator Working Group, which provides leadership on the Digital Learning Day toolkits and outreach development for teachers and administrators across the country. Read other blog posts from the Digital Learning Day Educator Working Group.

To learn more about Digital Learning Day, which is February 1, 2012, visit the Digital Learning Day website.

With the quarter of the school year in the books, I am extremely pleased with how more staff members are embracing educational technology and effectively integrating a variety of tools into instruction. At New Milford High School we clearly articulate that technology is a powerful tool. Together, with a sound pedagogical foundation, these dynamic 21st Century tools have the ability to assist in transforming learning environments where students are engaged and excited to learn.

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Morning Announcements: November 4, 2011

It's Friday again! This weekend marks the end of Daylight Savings Time for most of the country. Remember to turn your clocks back an hour on Saturday night, which will give you an extra hour to catch up on education news!

The Indiana State University newsroom reports that of the 2010 high school graduating class in Indiana, 12 percent, or more than 10,000 students, left high school without a diploma. ISU and community groups from across the state continue to combat those statistics one child and one school at a time.

With concentrated poverty on the rise, the Hechinger Report wonders if education reformers should be worried, referencing a Brookings Institution report out yesterday: “After declining in the 1990s, the population in extreme-poverty neighborhoods—where at least 40 percent of individuals live below the poverty line—rose by one-third from 2000 to 2005–09.”

The Fiscal Times covers a Center for Budget and Policy Priorities report that shows nearly all the top ten toss-up states in next year’s presidential election have sharply curtailed their education budgets since the recession began in 2008.

Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education Kevin Huffman will ask the state Board of Education today to modify the new teacher evaluations, hoping to relieve time-pressured principals of some requirements and better ensure assessments are fair, reports the Tennessean.

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Morning Announcements: September 14, 2011

Education Week reports that not even half of the school districts in states that have adopted the common standards are taking essential steps to implement them, and most cite inadequate state guidance as a major problem in moving forward. This information come from a new surevey released today by the Center on Education Policy. The report shows districts are also deeply divided about how rigorous the new standards are and how much they demand new curricula and instructional strategies.

According to the New York Times, President Obama visited a high school in the potentially politically crucial state of Ohio Tuesday in order to pitch his jobs bill. His $447 billion proposal, which includes tax cuts and stimulus projects to improve the economy, also calls for billions to be invested in renovating our nation’s schools. Obama said Tuesday the $25 billion for education construction and improvements in the plan would achieve two goals at once: modernizing American schools and putting construction workers back on the job.

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Morning Announcements: November 30, 2010

The New York Times and TIME magazine write about a new report from America’s Promise Alliance that finds that US high school graduation rate is on the rise. According to the analysis, the U.S. graduation rate increased from 72 percent in 2002 to 75 percent in 2008 and that the number of “dropout factory” high schools fell by 13 percent – from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,746 in 2008.

Yesterday, Cathleen Black, a publishing executive, was approved as Chancellor of New York City public schools with a waiver from the state education commissioner that said her inexperience in education would be offset in part by the appointment of a chief academic officer to serve by her side, according to the New York Times. The editorial board weighs in on the appointment of Ms. Black’s chief academic officer - Shael Polakow-Suransky, a respected, hard-driving educator who has worked his way from middle school math teacher, to high school principal, to his most recent post as the school system’s accountability officer. On a related note, the Christian Science Monitor asks “Have business-savvy officials improved big-city schools?”

The New York Times editorial board also writes about how the Dream Act, the immigration bill that opens a path to legalization for undocumented young people who go to college or serve in the military, has a shot at passing the lame-duck Congress.

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Morning Announcements: November 8, 2010

A story in Education Daily explains how although a bipartisan compromise on an ESEA reauthorization bill next year will be difficult, it could provide political benefits for both parties. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance, is quoted as saying, “I'm somewhat bullish that education can be an issue in which both parties can come together. Unlike 1994, when Republicans did not know how to be in the majority, and Democrats didn't know how to be in the minority, folks have learned how to switch. Both sides have had training. Presumptive House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the House Republican leadership team are much more ready to hit the ground running. 2011 can be in education what welfare reform was in 1994.”

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Jim Simons, a mathematician and retired founder of Renaissance Technologies, writes, “Whatever is happening during high school, the result is that too few of our kids who go on to college are prepared or inspired to major in math, science or engineering, the bedrock of the new economy.”

The New York Times reports on the rising number of college applications that selective schools receive and asks when is enough enough?

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Morning Announcements: November 2, 2010

The Harvard Review examines how U.S. high schools can help students be prepared to succeed in college: “As Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and the former governor of West Virginia, told the HPR, college preparedness boils down to the Three A’s: academic preparation, attitude, and assets. Wise defines the first as basic reading, writing, researching, and critical thinking skills; the second means appreciating the importance of college; the third means ensuring an adequate college funding plan. While Wise considers all the A’s to be prerequisites for higher education, most public policy has only focused on the first.”

Nearly 40 percent of Arkansas' 1,075 public schools have failed to meet minimum achievement requirements on state exams for at least two years according to the Northwest Arkansas Times.

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Morning Announcements: November 1, 2010

On Saturday the Wall Street Journal ran a piece by Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty entitled The Education Manifesto. In the essay, they wrote , “Four years ago, we both found a cause that inspired us to work hard every day. Reformers nationwide need to take up that mantle. Now is not the time to go soft on tough decisions. Fixing our schools will require courage and persistence, but young lives are at stake. What could be more worth the risks?”

The Boston Herald reports that the number of Massachusetts children attending charter schools has more than doubled in the past decade, reflecting national trends.

A story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution examines the costs of remedial education at Georgia’s colleges. 

One month after school districts in New Jersey received their share of $268 million to bring laid off teachers back to the classroom from the Education Jobs Fund, most districts have not hired anyone and are socking the money away for next year, according to The Star-Ledger.

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Morning Announcements: October 20, 2010

College graduation rates among young Americans, especially Latinos, are stagnating, according to the Wall Street Journal and a new report from the American Council on Education. Click here to view an interactive graph on the college attendance rates from the WSJ. The Washington Post also picked up on the study but focused on the finding that younger men are significantly less likely to have completed college than older men.

A new report from the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education finds that about 60 percent of students who graduated from public and private schools in 2005 and 2006 who enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island needed remediation in one or more areas: reading, writing or math. To read more about the remediation problem on a national level, see the Alliance brief entitled Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation. While this RI study finds that high schools aren’t preparing students for community colleges, across the country, a report from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento finds that community colleges aren’t preparing students for the workforce. Specifically, the study finds that seventy percent of students seeking degrees at California's community colleges did not manage to attain them or transfer to four-year universities within six years.

 

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