Friday, June 11, 2010

This Week In Education AM News: Grad Rates Fall-- Again

This Week In Education

AM News: Grad Rates Fall-- Again

Graduation rate for US high-schoolers falls for second straight year CSM: The percent of students earning a standard diploma in four years shifted from 69.2 percent in 2006 to 68.8 percent in 2007, according to an analysis of the most recent data in “Diplomas Count 2010.”.6a00e54f8c25c988340133ef5f8fd8970b-200wi. Education" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/education/11cheat.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 68, 187); ">Under Pressure, Educators Tamper With Test Scores NYT: Experts say that cases of teachers manipulating test scores have risen along with the stakes involved in testing. Little kids, big problems Boston Globe: Extreme behavior in very young children – not your garden-variety tantrums, but aggression, paralyzing anxiety, and other severe problems – is increasingly being addressed by researchers, educators, and lawmakers... Archipelago Learning buys Educationcity for $87M Boston Globe: Online education company Archipelago Learning Inc. said Thursday that it has bought Educationcity Ltd., a privately held company providing online teaching tools, for about $87 million in cash and stock... US senators help Seattle college remove red tape: U.S. Sen. Patty Murray says she and fellow Sen. Maria Cantwell have overcome some very expensive red tape on behalf of Seattle Central Community College...New Teacher Distribution Methods Hold Promise EdWeek: Districts, non-profits, and the federal government are looking at more sophisticated strategies to fix one of K-12 education’s most intractable problems.

Thompson: Tale of Two Schools and One Union

ChExcept for a cheap shot against the union, the Wall Street Journal’s story of Ivan Cantera and Laura Corro in south Oklahoma City was not bad. Ivan described middle school where, "‘every single morning on our way to school we'd smoke weed,’ and he frequently slipped into class after 10 a.m. and snuck liquor into school." Ivan turned around at Santa Fe South Charter School "which had a firm policy of expelling students who fought or carried drugs on campus." Laura attended Capitol Hill High School "which was once featured on the History Channel series ‘Gangland’ and where two police officers are assigned to the school." "’We play by different rules,’" said the Capitol Hill principal, not mentioning that the neighborhood school had 962 suspensions and expulsions in 2008 while the charter had seven. Laura worked nights, her brother went to a reform school, she moved in with her grandmother, and she suffered through the deaths of her grandmother, grandfather, and uncle. "While Laura didn't strive for academic success, she helped organize school festivals and a blood drive. She volunteered at the