Obama to give back-to-school speech Tuesday at Masterman
President Obama will give his back-to-school speech at Philadelphia's prestigious Masterman School on Tuesday.
Superintendent Arlene Ackerman got a call Thursday telling her that the public magnet school, which educates 1,200 fifth through 12th graders from around the city, would host the president.
"This is really exciting," Ackerman said. "We're thrilled and honored."
The superintendent said she didn't know why the White House had chosen Philadelphia, but she had a theory.
"We made some pretty fantastic gains this year," Ackerman said of the district's state test scores. "We've had eight straight years of gains."
For the first time, more than half the district's students are performing at grade level in reading and math and more than half the 265 city schools met state standards.
Ackerman said she also believed Philadelphia had been chosen because of her Renaissance schools initiative.
This month, 13 failing schools were reconstituted - either as charters or district-run schools with longer school days and years and more supports. Obama has called for 5,000 struggling schools around the country to be
Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20100910_Obama_to_give_back-to-school_speech_Friday_at_Masterman.html#ixzz0zEXWxUjN
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New Jersey applies for federal school funds on deadline eve
The state is all but assured of receiving the aid, which Congress approved last month.
The money is part of $10 billion for education offered to all states and territories. To receive it, a governor or other official had to submit an application and specify whether the money would be distributed according to the state's funding formula or a federal formula, said Sandra Abrevaya, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education.
The Christie administration elected to go with the state formula.
The $268 million will not reverse the effects of the nearly $820 million in state aid reductions imposed by Gov. Christie this year. But using the state formula will allow the federal money to be distributed among school districts fairly, relative to the cuts, said Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. "This is
Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20100910_New_Jersey_applies_for_federal_school_funds_on_deadline_eve.html#ixzz0zEXgz1Rz
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