Afternoon Announcements: June 21, 2012

Hellooooo, Thursday! Welcome to your afternoon announcements! Although today’s introduction is peppy, some of the news we have today is less than chipper. Bear with us as we walk you through your education news for the day.

First up, Gallup says that “confidence in America’s public schools has hit a record low, with only 29 percent of respondents expressing ‘a great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in them.” The previous low was 33 percent in 2007 and 2008. The Huffington Post has the news. How confident are you in America’s public schools? Let us known in the comments!

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Stats That Stick: May 30, 2012

We’re back with another edition of Stats That Stick. Do you have any particularly sticky stats from this week? Leave them for us in the comments!

Number of states that have been approved for a No Child Left Behind Waiver: 17

With yesterday’s approval of eight more NCLB waivers, the number of states who have been awarded flexibility from the current iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act stands at 17. 26 additional states and the District of Columbia still have pending waiver requests, according to the Associated Press

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Morning Announcements April 30, 2012

Happy Monday (or at least pretend to be happy, soon it’ll be over). Here are the top headlines in education news. Enjoy!

The Chicago Tribune reports that the cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools is racing to spend about $16 million in federal tutoring grants by the end of the summer to avoid losing the money in a program plagued by dwindling participation and financial missteps.

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Morning Announcements April 18, 2012

Happy (and hopefully not hectic) Wednesday! It’s the middle of the week, so in between thanking your lucky stars that it’s not Monday or Tuesday and praying for Friday, get caught up on the latest in education news.

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney is coming under fire for expressing his intent to largely slash the Department of Education. The two-time Harvard professional degree recipient told a room full of campaign donors that he'd slim down the U.S. Department of Education if he were elected president, according to Education Week.

That battle for public schools continues in Chicago; between teacher unions, schools days, and funding, every day is a different fight. With changes to the length of next year's school day, a continuing budget deficit and ongoing teacher contract talks that pose the potential for a strike,  Chicago Public Schools principals are Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: March 12, 2012

Good Morning!

It’s a warm front throughout the country as most of the nation will be enjoying record highs and unseasonably warm temperatures for the week. Allow the Alliance the crank up the heat a little more with hot, right-of-the-presses, education news.

From the Associated Press, New York's state senate and assembly will restore $200 million in traditional school aid by shifting it from a proposed schools incentive program. A legislative leader and a legislative official confirmed that the changes will come when they release budget resolutions today.

Education Week reports that Republican Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has just now added education to his campaign website that allows his platform to be available to the public. Up until now, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has had a background section on his Web site that encompassed critical issues such as health care, China, trade—but not education.

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Afternoon Announcements: January 12, 2012

Don't fret, you're almost there. One more pit stop on the road to an extended weekend. In the meantime, enjoy the latest in education news.

 

The Huffington Post reports that parents in Middletown, Connecticut  are protesting the use of what they're calling "scream rooms" by Farm Hill Elementary School as a way of disciplining misbehaving students. The rooms have essentially been used as a “time-out” space for students who have become unruly or disruptive.

 

District of Columbia Public Schools is set to receive $21 million to cover cost overruns after the District Chief Financial Officer revised the revenue forecast to include an additional $42.2 million. But the Washington Post reports that the city’s charter schools are objecting to Mayor Vincent C. Gray asking the D.C. Council to appropriate half of it to the city’s 123-school system and are looking to stake a claim for some of the revenue.

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Morning Announcements: November 22, 2011

The Huffington Post reports on a story of a Dallas elementary school that was given "exemplary" status for academic achievement only taught its third graders reading and math last year, and fabricated scores for every student in other subjects like social studies and science.

As the poorest U.S. city, Reading, PA also struggles with high dropout rates in its schools. Watch the latest edition to PBS NewsHour’s "American Graduate" series.

The Huffington Post reports on a new report from Stanford University that shows a dramatic illustration of the impact of income inequality on how children do in school, the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is far higher than the achievement gap between black and white students.

A video contest for Texas panhandle students aims to keep teens in school, reports the Associated Press.

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Afternoon Announcements: November 9, 2011

A much-anticipated hearing was held yesterday on a Senate bill that would reauthorize the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Education Week blogs that the hearing had “one of the bill's chief sponsors casting it as an important but imperfect compromise, while republicans were saying the bill wouldn't do enough to rein in the federal role in education.” The Associated Press writes that although lawmakers in Washington, DC are in agreement that NCLB needs to be fixed, finding the fix hasn’t been easy.

In Education Next, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush talks about the importance of giving every student a digital learning experience.

Some lawmakers and educators want the Alabama state school board to retract its decision to adopt a set of national core standards for teaching math and English, reports the Associated Press.

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Stats That Stick: April 27, 2011

Hispanics students are by far the largest minority in U.S. public schools — comprising more than 1 in 5 in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Hispanics are also projected to account for the majority of the nation’s population growth between 2005 and 2050. –Miami Herald on the White House’s “Winning the future: Improving education for the Latino community” report

One in four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent. –Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of people over the age of 25 with at least a bachelor's degree rose from 26 percent to 30 percent. Women in that age group were slightly more likely than men to have a degree—86.7 percent compared with 86.6 percent. –U.S. Census Bureau

Funding for early-childhood education declined between 2009 and 2010 and only 26 percent of 4-year-olds were enrolled in pre-K last year. -National Institute for Early Education Research, based at Rutgers University Graduate School of Education

More than 80,000 students in Maryland are missing 20 or more days of school each year; some of the highest numbers are in Baltimore City and Prince George's County. –Baltimore Sun

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Morning Announcements: August 19, 2010

In California lawmakers are considering using the $1.2 billion from the federal Education Jobs Fund to shrink the state’s $19.1 billion deficit instead of saving teachers’ jobs according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Clarion Ledger editorial staff discusses the Education Department’s announcement that Mississippi will receive $47 million to help improve the state's most low-performing schools.

According to the New Jersey News Room, State Education Commissioner Bret Schundler told lawmakers Monday that many New Jersey school children could benefit from more days in school and more time in class.

The Las Vegas Sun editorial staff calls for state lawmakers to redo the school funding formula to ensure that every student who attends a public school receives a quality education, writing, “We can think of few greater accomplishments that lawmakers could achieve in 2011 than to help schools deliver the quality students deserve.”

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