Morning Announcements: March 16, 2012

Friday is here and we at the Alliance for Excellent Education wish you a prosperous weekend of good wholesome fun. For the rest of us you, just make sure you manage to get back to work on time Monday after celebrating a weekend’s worth of Irish heritage (or pretend Irish affiliation). Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Class sizes and limited staffing continues to be a barrier for academic success in school districts all through the country. As the Texas Tribune  reports, the number of elementary classes exceeding the state’s 22-student cap soared to 8,479 from 2,238 last school year.

Teacher satisfaction and evaluation continue to be the hotbed issues of the moment, snagging education headlines everywhere.  In New York state, legislative leaders agreed to turn a new teacher evaluation system into law, according to the New York Times. This would bring the state one step closer to ensuring that the state will hold on to $700 million in federal education aid.

Morning Announcements: April 18, 2011

High School Notes, U.S. News  & World Report’s new education blog, focuses on the Every Students Count Act, a new bill that would require states to improve graduation rates to 90 percent and to report data uniformly. It's expected to be attached to a reworked No Child Left Behind Act.

The New York Times writes, “Those who call themselves reformers are a diverse group, men and women of every political stripe and of every race and ethnicity. But there is one thing that characterizes a surprisingly large number of the people who are transforming public schools: they attended private schools.”

The New York Times also reports on New York City’s incoming schools chancellor Dennis Walcott and his upcoming plans for reform while the Los Angeles Times covers Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deas’ ambitious new agenda.

Morning Announcements: February 14, 2011

Want to know what Obama's recently released budget means for education? Check out this great recap from Education Week blogger Alyson Klein.

The New York Times profiles Ronald Ferguson of Harvard and his efforts to close the achievement gap.

The Washington Post explains how school officials are using the District’s new teacher evaluation system to assess administrators and determine which universities produce the best- or least-prepared teachers.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the California Board of Education has moved to put the brakes on the parent trigger law, legislation that would have provided the parents the right to force major reforms at low-performing schools.

Stats That Stick: December 15, 2010

The number of Californians seeking to become teachers has plummeted by 45 percent over a seven year period – even as student enrollments are projected to rise by 230,000 over the next decade and as many as 100,000 teachers are expected to retire. –California Watch

The rise in the number of homeless youths is traditionally difficult to track, as it is measured largely by reports from schools, shelters, and other social service agencies. Federal officials estimate at least 110,000 youths between 12 and 24 years old live on the nation’s streets. –Boston Globe

An analysis of more than 2,000 low-performing charter and district schools from  2003-04 through 2008-09, found that 72 percent of the original low-performing charters remained in operation—and remained low-performing—five years later. So did 80 percent of district schools. -Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Morning Announcements: September 29, 2010

The St. Louis Dispatch writes about the inaugural class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps, a group of southwest Missouri teachers in training who receive $4,000 annual scholarships in exchange for a three-year commitment to work in rural school districts after graduation.

The director of the Public Education Research Institute at Queens University of Charlotte describes how reducing dropouts would provide an economic stimulus in an op-ed in the Charlotte Observer.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he wants to use new methods to evaluate and pay the state's public school teachers, according to the Associated Press.

The Grand Rapids Press editorial board writes, “With apologies to the Realtors who invented the original joke, nearly everybody agrees the three keys to success for Michigan’s economic future are: Education, education, education.”

Morning Announcements: September 21, 2010

While some states — including Georgia and Idaho — and virtual schools are requiring that online teachers have additional training to teach in a solely virtual environment, many states and education groups still have not addressed the issue of teacher quality for the online classroom, according to Education Week.

Many Michigan districts are not expected to save as much money as anticipated when the state offered incentives for experienced teachers to retire early, according to the Detroit Free Press. “About 17,000 teachers statewide left their classrooms, making way — many thought — for newer teachers at lower salaries to help balance school budgets…But many districts chose to hire based on experience rather than offer jobs to new college graduates, who would be paid at the bottom of the salary scale.”