Morning Announcements: January 25, 2011

The Crown Point Community Newspaper focuses on the efficiencies of dual credit programs, writing, “Karen Rodd, a Crown Point resident, believes getting a jump on college credits during high school can provide significant savings for parents and create life-changing opportunities for students. Rodd's daughter Krysta is a freshman at Purdue University finished freshman psychology and communications in her first semester at college. Rodd said it costs about $2,000 for students carrying six to nine hours. However, her daughter could have taken them at Crown Point High School for a fraction of the cost, $75 per class -- or $25 per credit hour.”

When Washington state Governor Christine Gregoire announced that she wanted to take control  of education policy in her state by creating  new, Cabinet-level positions that answers to her, she revived a perennial debate, according to Education Week reporter Sean Cavanagh.

Morning Announcements: January 21, 2011

In South Carolina, a sweeping $350,000 state-funded initiative to prevent dropouts at a high school with one of the Midlands’ highest dropout rates is only five months old but already drawing rave reviews.

The Christian Science Monitor asks, can Obama and Congress meet minds to revamp No Child Left Behind? According to Alliance VP of Federal Advocacy Phillip Lovell, “it's a potential win that everyone can come home with and campaign on."

The New York Times reports on new research finding that taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know but it actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques. The Times also ran a story on rethinking evaluations when almost every teacher gets an ‘A’.

Morning Announcements: January 4, 2011

The high school graduation rate is up in Utah — up to about 90 percent for last school year, according to the state Office of Education. However, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that rate could significantly drop this school year when Utah will be required to change the way it calculates graduation rates. "Starting with the Class of 2011, however, the rates are likely to change. The federal government will make all states use the same formula and rules to calculate graduation rates in an effort to make sure rates aren’t inflated and to make comparisons between states easier."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Illinois lawmakers are debating sweeping legislation that would change how teachers are evaluated, writing, “The fight in Illinois is a microcosm of the shifting sands in national education policy.” Here are a few of the components of the proposed measure:

• Teachers would not earn tenure until they've been rated "proficient" or "excellent" by their principals for four years using the new evaluations. Now, public-school teachers in Illinois, like their colleagues across the U.S., get the job protection almost automatically after a few years. 
• Teacher performance—instead of seniority—would be the driving factor in school layoff decisions. 
• Teachers' power to strike would be limited. Now, teachers can strike after negotiations fail. But the proposal would mandate that the two sides go before a mediation panel and give the local school board the final say on whether to accept the mediators' proposal or to impose its own settlement.

Morning Announcements: January 3, 2011

In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan writes, “In the past two years, I have spoken with hundreds of Republican and Democratic mayors, governors and members of Congress. While we don't agree on everything, our core goals are shared - and we all want to fix NCLB to better support reform at the state and local level.”

The Houston Chronicle writes about a former high school dropout that is now a high school graduation coach: Craig Zeno grew up in public housing in southeast Houston believing he had three options in life. "I was told I was either going to be dead, in jail or on drugs," Zeno recalls. "I didn't want that." So, he fought for more. Zeno became a college graduate whose job now is to inspire struggling high school students with his own story of perseverance.

Morning Announcements: December 9, 2010

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that more than a third of California's black public high school students dropped out before graduation day and that number is on the rise.

The New York Times reports on parent reaction to “A Race to Nowhere”, a new documentary that look at the downside of childhoods spent on résumé-building.

A new report by the Arizona Board of Regents finds that four out of five Arizona high-school graduates do not have a college degree six years after graduating from high school, and just over half haven't gone to college at all.

Morning Announcements: December 3, 2010

During a luncheon he hosted on Thursday for newly elected governors, President Obama promised to work closely with them to fix the economy and improve education over the next two years, according to The Caucus, the politics and government blog of the New York Times.

The previous chancellor of DC public schools Michelle Rhee was named to Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott's education transition team Thursday, fueling rumors that she may become Florida's next education commissioner, The Miami Herald reports.

The Gasden Times (AL) reports on a program that a local high schools is implementing with the goal of keeping more students in high school and preparing them for life afterwards.

In Louisiana, an education advisory panel recommended that the state should assign letter grades to public schools including bonus grades for schools that show solid gains, according to The Advocate.

Morning Announcements: November 15, 2010

Caroline Novak, president of A+ Education Partnership, calls for Alabama to adopt the common core state standards in an op-ed in the Montgomery Advertiser.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explains why grading teachers is no easy assignment.

The Hattiesburg American reports on six Mississippi districts that will participate in a pilot program designed to give students options other than the traditional four-year track to a diploma.

An article in The Southern (Illinois) recommends older Americans volunteering in our nation’s schools in order to encourage interaction between generations.

Morning Announcements: November 11, 2010

The Chicago Tribune editorial board writes about the lowest performing schools in Illinois and the need to reauthorize No Child Left Behind: “We've strongly supported the goals of No Child. But these latest scores reveal more than faltering schools. They expose a law that needs an overhaul to be more effective.”

Education Week reports on the Obama administration’s National Education Technology Plan that was released Tuesday. As part of the action plan, U.S. Department of Education intends to pay for research to study online professional-collaboration communities for teachers and other educators.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof explains the state of education in Pakistan, writing, “One reason Pakistan is sometimes called the most dangerous country in the world is this: a kindergarten child in this country has only a 1 percent chance of reaching the 12th grade, according to the Pakistan Education Task Force, an official panel.”

Morning Announcements: November 9, 2010

The New York Times reports on a new study suggesting that the achievement gap separating black from white students is even bleaker than genrally known.

A Maryland legislative committee voted Monday to reject a new regulation requiring that half of teachers' evaluations be based on student progress, calling into question the future of a $250 million federal Race to the Top grant, the Washington Post reports. Also from the Post - Extended school days under consideration in District public system.

Education Week finds that collaborations are popping up across the country between charter and traditional public schools and showing promise that charter schools could fulfill their original purpose of becoming research-and-development hothouses for public education. Education Week also reports on a handful of school districts, some with the approval of their local teachers’ unions, that are experimenting with alternatives to the fundamental components that govern teachers’ base-pay raises.

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?