UPDATE: Alabama law requiring teachers say being gay is crime + From Canada to Georgia, teachers complain of pressure to change grades to mask high failure rates | Get Schooled

From Canada to Georgia, teachers complain of pressure to change grades to mask high failure rates | Get Schooled:

Students lead effort to repeal Alabama law requiring teachers say being gay is crime and unacceptable to public

by Maureen Downey

Two Alabama high school students have started a petition to repeal an old Alabama law that mandates teachers in sex ed classes teach that homosexuality is a criminal offense and “not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public.”
While there’s no evidence Alabama schools adhere to the outdated law, the state’s first openly gay legislator, state Rep. Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, wants it off the books.  She is being assisted in her effort by a conservative Republican in the Legislature who doesn’t want sex ed taught, period.
According to the Anniston Star:

Politically, Mary Sue McClurkin and Patricia Todd don’t have a lot in common. Todd, a Democratic state representative from Birmingham, is Alabama’s first openly gay state legislator. McClurkin, a 

From Canada to Georgia, teachers complain of pressure to change grades to mask high failure rates

by Maureen Downey

Interesting AJC story on an Atlanta high school principal who resigned after accusations he bullied and intimidated teachers into raising failing grades.
Grade inflation has been in the national news as schools face increased pressure to improve student achievement, an issue Georgia knows well after the CRCT cheating scandals in Atlanta and Dougherty County schools.
Even Canada, held up as a model of effective education reform, has seen complaints from teachers of mounting pressure to alter grades so fewer students fail under a stricter accountability system.
Closer to home, teachers in a Tennessee for-profit virtual school complained of an email that directed them to drop failing grades. In a recent investigation, Nashville’s WTVF/NewsChannel 5 found that a Tennessee Virtual Academy administrator instructed middle school teachers to delete failing grades.
The case has had reverberations nationwide as the parent company of Tennessee Virtual, K12, the nation’s largest …