Schmoke was key to D.C. teachers contract deal
Former Baltimore mayor brought feuding sides back together
Former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke (TWP)
Allergies can affect kids' grades
School nurses are sending home notes to parents that they are seeing more children with symptoms of allergies. For many students, they are more than just an irritant. Allergies can affect how well they do at school.
Researchers in the United Kingdom did a study published in 2007that showed that seasonal allergic rhinitis--a common allergy--affected performance on national exams of 1,834 students aged 15 to 17.
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Principal keeps student in AP class she rejected
Sherry Arritt's daughter told her counselors, English teachers and the principal at Barren County High School in Kentucky that she did not want to take Advanced Placement English Literature. She was a 4.0 student. She wanted to study nursing in college. She already had AP French on her schedule. AP English was too much. She wanted the less demanding honors English course.
When the school refused to change her schedule, her parents repeated that seemingly reasonable decision to her principal, Keith Hale, and the district superintendent, Jerry Ralston. Both men refused to let her drop AP. They had decided that too many students were taking courses that were too easy for them, missing a chance to challenge themselves and prepare for college.
"I really believe if we had continued to let families decide" to put children in courses beneathe their abilities "we would still have the 30-plus ACT [the equivalent of 2000-plus on the SAT] student sitting in Basic English," Hale said.
The Arritt parents were so upset by this that they transferred their daughter to another school for her senior year. What happened to them dramatizes an issue of growing importance when many educators are doing everything they can to prepare students for higher education, even if some of the students and their families think they go too far.
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Gray warns of strings on private ed dollars
D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent C.Gray said Thursday he welcomes the DCPS-WTU tentative agreement, but that the council will take a hard look at the $64.5 million in foundation largesse embedded in the pact.
"While I appreciate and am grateful for outside resources and new partnerships that help our children achieve and reward high-quality teachers, there is no such thing as a free lunch," Gray said in a statement. "Grants or donations of this magnitude rarely come without expectations or some kind of give and take. We will need to determine what those expectations are, what DCPS might be expected to give as it takes funds to the tune of $64.5 million, what strings are attached, and whether D.C. taxpayer dollars may be at-risk at any point."
Chief Financial Officer Natwar M.Gandhi's fiscal review of the private donations is due by the middle of next week. If Gandhi gives the green light, the teachers' union will send out mail ballots for a two-week voting period. If the union approves, the accord goes to the council for final consideration.
Here is Gray's full statement:
Continue reading this post »Rhee funds contract with Houston connection
A Houston foundation created by a billionaire hedge fund manager who began his career as a trader for Enron would finance part of theproposed contract between DCPS and the Washington Teachers' Union. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation would provide $10 million of the $64.5 million Rhee has assembled to pay for teacher raises and performance bonuses under the tentative agreement announced this week.
While a couple of the names in the private funding mix, Eli and Edythe Broad and the Walton Family Foundation, are highly recognizable brands in the world of educational philanthropy, the Arnolds are relatively new players. Their IRS Form 990 for 2008 lists a $5 million donation to Baylor College of Medicine and another $5 million to Texas Children's Hospital. Published reports say they provided $10 million for a major expansion of the KIPP and YES public charter schools in Houston.
Their money for the teachers' contract would be limited to underwriting the merit pay program that Rhee plans to initiate this fall, according to Cate Swinburn, president and executive director of the D.C. Public Education Fund, the non-profit that will manage the private grants for DCPS. The same restriction applies to the $10 million pledged by Broad. The $44.5 million from the Walton and Robertson foundations could be used for both bonuses and the 20 percent salary increase that is also built into the contract.
Ed Buzz: The Nation
- Schools tackle teacher-on-teacher bullying (USA Today)
- English-language learners making gains (Education Week)
- Researchers argue over Head Start study (Education Week)
- States skeptical about Race to Top contest (New York Times)
- School law clinics face backlash (New York Times)
- L.A. allows students to stay in other districts (Los Angeles Times)
Ed Buzz: The Region
- Loudoun looking to slash positions, up fees (WTOP)
- Kids at Md. school get tainted milk (Fox 5)
- McDonnell signs college lab school legislation (Richmond Times Dispatch)
- Schools reduce police presence (The Examiner)
- Montgomery College, schools brace for cuts (The Gazette)
- P.G. County PTA reinstated (The Gazette)
- Md. GOP: Don't raise dropout age (The Gazette)
- Birth-control center finds home at T.C. Williams (Alexandria Gazette Packet)
- Fairfax teacher quits over embezzlement charges (Examiner)
- MoCo teachers say they are overwhelmed (Gazette)
- Alex. considers new school boundaries(Examiner)
- PG parents fear impact of school cuts(WJLA)
- Md. lawmakers favor ed cuts (Baltimore Sun)
