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Sunday, April 18, 2010

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

New program may prosecute S.F. teen truants

Older teens who are chronically truant from San Francisco public schools may be prosecuted if they don't...
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Modified PSSA test in math offered for 1st time

Educators have complained for years that too many special education students are forced to take inappropriate state tests, resulting in frustration and results that don't reflect what they really can do....
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DPS may have to cancel summer school

Detroit -- Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb announced today that a judge's ruling Friday keeping him out the district's academics has forced him to shut down ...
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New teacher training programs lure candidates to transform Tennessee's schools

Since November, The New Teacher Project, a New York nonprofit that specializes in recruiting people to teach, has heard from 1,400 people ready to try Memphis classrooms. ...
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Cleveland schools CEO says central office staff to get leaner, more efficient

Cleveland schools chief Eugene Sanders says a restructuring will make his central office more efficient. He says the staff of nearly 400 also will get leaner in the next few months, though it's too early to say how much. ...
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Harry Potter tops list of decade's most banned/challenged books

The Harry Potter series of books were the most banned or challenged books in schools and libraries over the last decade. The list includes some literary classics. Here's the top 50. ...
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Why some countries welcome children being taught at home and others don’t

UNLIKE many of the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” that have sought refuge in America, the Romeike family comes from a comfortable place: Bissingen an der Teck, a town in south-western Germany....
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Race to Top Rules Aim to Spur Shifts in Testing

Competition opened yesterday for $350 million in federal money to design new ways of assessing what students learn. Rules for the contest make clear that the government wants to leave behind multiple-choice testing more often in favor of essays, multidisciplinary projects, and other more nuanced measures of achievement.... ...
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Kentucky Governor Signs KCTCS-supported Transfer Legislation (HB160)

Frankfort, Ky. (April 14, 2010) – Today, Gov. Steve Beshear officially signed landmark transfer bill – House Bill 160. Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) students will greatly benefit from this legislation, which will ease the transfer of community college credits to four-year universities in the state....
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Minnesota schools renew focus on keeping students safe

School districts have spent millions to build safer schools. They've touted safety plans, installed high-tech surveillance, locked doors and monitored entrances. ...
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D.C. Students First Among 2010 Graduates Chosen as Gates Scholars

Seven of 57 high-achieving Washington, D.C., students who applied for the competitive Gates scholarships learned Thursday they will receive the prestigious award. ...
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McKinney elementary school to teach kindergartners in English and Spanish

When the next school year begins at Caldwell Elementary, some kindergarteners will no doubt arrive unwillingly, clinging to their parents' knees. ...
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Indiana schools chief says union vague on proposed reforms

Indiana public schools chief Tony Bennett criticized the head of the state's largest teachers union for failing to clearly and specifically state his position as the two continued to fight over proposed school reforms ...
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Fighting school health center closures

Dozens of parents filed through City Springs Elementary/Middle School on Friday to sign a petition to protest proposed funding cuts to the school's health center. ...
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DeKalb schools chief fired

School board says it and Crawford Lewis (right) "mutually agreed" that his departure is the best thing for the district. ...
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Nation & World | Students shape up under paddle threat | Seattle Times Newspaper

Nation & World | Students shape up under paddle threat | Seattle Times Newspaper

Students shape up under paddle threat

In an era when students talk back to teachers and wear ever-more-risqué clothing to school, one central Texas city has a solution.
By Michael Birnbaum
The Washington Post
TEMPLE, Texas — In an era that students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risqué clothing to school, one Central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle.
Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly one-quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State.
But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president.
Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote last May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the schools has been paddled.
"The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the

Kentwood High School to compete in rocket challenge

An eight-person team from Kentwood High School also plans to travel for a rocket competition in May.

Ingraham High students set for rocket launch in Alabama

Ten Ingraham High School students will spend Sunday trying to launch their 10-foot-long rocket a mile high into the Alabama sky, along with 13 other high-school rocketry teams from around the country.


Nonprofit school in talks to use T.T. Minor Elementary

The boarded-up TT Minor Elementary School at 17th Avenue and Union Street could have a new tenant as early as this summer.
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Buzz for Palin event at CSU Stanislaus turns into a roar - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Buzz for Palin event at CSU Stanislaus turns into a roar - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Buzz for Palin event at CSU Stanislaus turns into a roar


Sarah Palin will speak at a CSU Stanislaus Foundation fundraiser in June.
TURLOCK – When they signed Sarah Palin, California State University, Stanislaus, foundation officials expected to generate buzz.
What they got was a deafening roar.
Entities ranging from the "Today" show to the Huffington Post have featured items on a fundraiser on the small campus in the heart of California's Central Valley. A nonscientific search found 256 media mentions of the event since it was announced last month.
The celebrity television show "Extra" referred to the "diva demands" in Palin's speaking contract.
"By the looks of the demands," "Extra" wrote on its website, "you would think the former governor was a Hollywood celebrity, not a politician!"
Students, faculty and others have protested the selection of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate for the university's 50th anniversary gala on June 25.

Instant ice cream, cockroach races thrill guests at UC Davis' spring rite

by gkim@sacbee.com (Gina Kim)

Jennifer Ronconi,center, and friends enjoy some music at Picnic Day on Saturday at UC Davis. Police estimate that 75,000 people attended the event, which offered cow weigh-offs, cockroach racing, goat milking and wine-barrel making in addition to music.
The four friends climbed single-file through the corral and onto the fading metal cow scale in a UC Davis barn. Their combined weight – 241 kilograms, well below the heifer known as Legendairy who registers at a hefty 541 kilograms.
"I'm so glad we're under," said Kailey Banks, 20, a sophomore at the university.

Sacramento area schools try to serve healthier food

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L. Merion to let parents see secretly snapped photos | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/17/2010

L. Merion to let parents see secretly snapped photos | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/17/2010

L. Merion to let parents see secretly snapped photos

By John P. Martin and Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writers
The president of the Lower Merion school board said Friday that investigators had retrieved "a substantial number" of photos secretly snapped by laptops the district gave its high school students, and that officials were arranging for parents whose children were photographed to see the pictures in private.
In his strongest terms since the furor began over the laptop-tracking program two months ago, board president David Ebby also said district officials "deeply regret the mistakes and misguided actions" that have given rise to a lawsuit, a federal criminal inquiry, a call for new privacy legislation, and a wave of national publicity.
But Ebby said Lower Merion's continuing internal investigation had found no evidence that its employees used the technology for "inappropriate" purposes."
"We are committed to disclosing fully what happened, correcting our mistakes, and making sure that they do not happen again," he said in a statement addressed to parents and guardians and posted on the district's Web site.
Ebby's comments came less than a day after a lawyer for Harriton High sophomore Blake Robbins filed a motion in federal court asserting that the district's system for tracking lost or stolen laptops had secretly captured "thousands" of images, including photos of students in their homes, the Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats.
Robbins and his parents, residents of Penn Valley, filed the suit in February that first drew attention to the laptop-tracking system and triggered an investigation by school officials - as well as a federal investigation into whether wiretap and privacy laws had been violated.
As part of that federal probe, the school administrator who ran the tracking system is to be interviewed next week by

Protests revived over school land

A plan to transfer valuable Philadelphia School District property to a well-connected nonprofit group has fallen through over a federal funding denial, prompting further protests by residents around the Tanner Duckrey School.


Judge calls for settlement in L. Merion bias case

The judge in a racial-bias case aimed at a school-redistricting plan for Lower Merion on Friday broke routine protocol by calling upon the parties, in open court, to reach a settlement.


North Penn teachers plan to strike Monday

Teachers in the 12,700-student North Penn School District are scheduled to strike on Monday after the school board's rejection of a proposed contract negotiated during nonbinding arbitration.


Teachers' union agrees to freeze salaries

A third South Jersey teachers union has agreed to a wage freeze to lessen the blow of cuts in state aid.
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Education - San Jose Mercury News

Education - San Jose Mercury News

News > Education
California's university system: What went wrong?
A Mercury News analysis of California's higher-education mess reveals that many factors drove the inevitable and ugly collision between the university system's ambitious and uncoordinated growth and the state's declining ability and desire to pay for it.

  • Seven South Bay and Peninsula school districts hold mail-only tax elections


  • School Scene or Honors: - 04/16/2010


  • Raza Day at Ohlone - 04/14/2010

    • Road to College

    Our new special section has tips and stories to help you navigate the path to higher education.

    My Town community pages

    Whether you live in Los Gatos or love Sunnyvale, you'll find a home for your news, photos and more in My Town.

    Schools, Race and Ethnicity

    Find out more about the success gap in California schools. Search for your school, watch video and join the debate about this hot topic.

    Special Section: 150 years of SJSU

    A look at San Jose State, from its spare beginnings in a San Francisco high school basement 150 years ago to today.

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    Education - latimes.com L.A. Community College District gets a new chancellor

    Education - latimes.com

    L.A. Community College District gets a new chancellor

    By Gale Holland

    Daniel LaVista, a state education official from Virginia, is chosen by the district's Board of Trustees to head the nine-campus system.

    UC a tougher bet this year for Californians, with 10,700 wait-listed

    By Larry Gordon

    The university system is cutting freshman enrollment and boosting out-of-state admissions in the wake of budget cuts. That leaves fewer spots for residents, many of whom are left to wait and hope.


    EDUCATION
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    Brian McCall's Economics of Education Blog: New York City will no … | Educational New York

    Educational New York




    Brian McCall's Economics of Education Blog: New York City will no … | Educational New York


    Brian McCall's Economics of Education Blog: New York City will no …









    by Educational America on Saturday, April 17th 2010
    New York City pays some $30 million a year to some 650 educators who do nothing. As reported in the Associated Press article “NYC to stop paying teachers to do nothing” these teachers go to reassignment centers or “rubber rooms” …

    Read this article:Brian McCall's Economics of Education Blog: New York City will no …
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