Saturday, May 29, 2010

Missouri again seeks federal grant by pledging to develop a model education curriculum - KansasCity.com

Missouri again seeks federal grant by pledging to develop a model education curriculum

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JEFFERSON CITY | Missouri is making a second attempt to win a share of $4.3 billion in federal education grants by pledging to develop a model curriculum for children in preschool through high school.

State education officials said Friday that they were seeking $222 million from the “Race to the Top” grant program. Missouri unsuccessfully sought $750 million in a first round of grants awarded earlier this year.

Tennessee and Delaware were the only states to win grants in the first round of the program, which is intended to encourage innovative approaches to boosting student achievement. Both states were lauded for policies that linked teacher pay to student performance, for their charter school laws, and because their plans had the support of all their school districts.

Missouri’s application, however, lacks a portion on the expansion of charter schools and backs off the implementation of merit pay for teachers and principals, said Robin Coffman, chief of staff for the Missouri education commissioner.

Education Research Report: NEW STUDY CALLS FOR SYSTEMIC REFORMS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LEARNER EDUCATION

NEW STUDY CALLS FOR SYSTEMIC REFORMS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH LEARNER EDUCATION

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

Systemic issues in California’s public education have created a majority of high school English Learners who despite many years in our schools are still not English proficient and have developed major academic deficits, according to a recent study authored by Californians Together.

The report, Reparable Harm: Fulfilling the Unkept Promise of Educational Opportunity for California’s Long Term English Learners, calls upon state policymakers and leaders to provide solutions and outlines basic principles and promising approaches for school districts to meet the needs of English Learners more effectively.

Key findings and recommendations from the report include:

• 59 percent of California’s high school English Learners are Long Term English Learners (defined as students in U.S. schools for six or more years who have not been able to achieve English proficiency), according to a survey of 40 school districts across California

• In some districts, Long Term English Learners make up 75 percent of all English Learners

• State policy should require the districts to collect data ad monitor the progress of English learners to prevent the development of Long Term English learners

• Policymakers must commit to providing materials, program, ,professional development and curriculum support

Database: See AP exam scores for every school - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Database: See AP exam scores for every school

By Phillip Reese
preese@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, May. 28, 2010 - 10:56 am

Last Modified: Friday, May. 28, 2010 - 11:40 am

California students annually take more than 200,000 Advanced Placement exams. Last year, students did well enough on 58.3 percent of those tests to earn college credit, up from 56.5 percent the year before, new state data show. In Sacramento County, 53.7 percent of test scores resulted in college credit last year, up from 49.6 percent the year before.

AP exams give bright high school students the chance to earn college credit. They tests are scored from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). A minimum score of 3 is generally required to earn college credit.

Source: California Department of Education
Notes: Only includes schools where more than 10 AP tests were administered last year. Only includes tests that received a score.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: CCSD officials set sights on 'No Child' changes - News - ReviewJournal.com

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: CCSD officials set sights on 'No Child' changes

Official expects more schools to fall short of standards

By JAMES HAUG
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

School officials are preparing the public for a summer storm known as No Child Left Behind.

Because of "enormous changes" such as increases in the percentages of students expected to be proficient in reading and math, more rigorous tests in high school, and a high school graduation target that has increased to 85 percent from 50 percent, this year's progress results could depress the public's expectations when announced July 22.

When Clark County School District officials measured last year's academic results using the higher standards for 2009-10, the number of failing schools on paper increased by almost 100 schools, to 266 from 171.

Also using this model, the number of schools showing adequate progress dropped to 94 from 190.

There are 360 district schools that are judged by the performance standards of the law.

"It's not a lack of schools or teachers not doing what they're supposed to be doing," said Sue Daellenbach, the district's director of assessment, at Thursday's School Board meeting. "The changes in the targets have just been enormous."

School Board President Terri Janison got assurances from the staff that

One of Palm Beach County's last high school graduations gives diplomas to 7 special grads

Mark Randall/Sun Sentinel

Indian Ridge School graduation.

By MARC FREEMAN

Sun Sentinel

Updated: 9:13 a.m. Friday, May 28, 2010

Posted: 8:17 a.m. Friday, May 28, 2010

Wearing a shiny gold cap and gown, Rachel West walked on stage Thursday afternoon to address her graduating class, relatives and friends, and receive her diploma.

But this commencement — the final one of the 2010 high school graduation season in Palm Beach County — might as well have been a world away from the traditional ceremonies held at the convention center.

Here, in the windowless cafeteria of Indian Ridge School, West and six other graduates celebrated their exit from a special education facility for severely emotionally disturbed students. The school serves 105 students from kindergarten through age 22 who are unable to be placed in traditional classrooms.

"It is going to be hard for me to leave Indian Ridge, a school that has helped me so much in my life," said West, 18, of Belle Glade.

She attended the school west of West Palm Beach for the past nine years, long enough for Principal Sherri Kelty to call her "my Indian Ridge daughter." Kelty is completing her ninth year in charge of the campus at the corner of Okeechobee Boulevard and Benoist Farms Road.

"She's worked really hard here," Kelty said of West, noting how the once-misbehaving student "had her moments" but persevered and soon will enter Palm Beach State College to study child care.

West glanced at Kelty during her remarks and said, "You gave me hope. You gave me everything so I could believe in me."

And then she looked to her graduating class and shouted, "We did

The Answer Sheet - 1 in 6 U.S. students in high-poverty schools

The Answer Sheet- 1 in 6 U.S. students in high-poverty schools

1 in 6 U.S. students in high-poverty schools

A government analysis of U.S. schools shows that one in six public school students attend high poverty schools and that the percentage of high-poverty schools has significantly increased over the past decade.

It also confirms what we’ve long known: student achievement at high-poverty schools is lower than at other public schools.

The analysis of high-poverty schools was part of the 2010 Condition of Education, an annual report just released by the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics./a> The analysis looks at the latest available data on public schools.

Here are the conclusions from the analysis on high-poverty schools. High poverty is identified as those schools where 76 percent to 100 percent of the student enrollment is eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The data comes from 2007-08, the latest year for which nationwide information is available.

*One in six public school students attended a high-poverty school.

*Twenty percent of all public elementary schools and 9 percent of public secondary schools were considered high-poverty schools, compared with 15 percent and 5 percent respectively in 1999-2000.

*The overall percentage of high-poverty schools increased from 12 percent in 1999–2000 to 17 percent in 2007–08. There is some

Technology may help poor schools by starting with rich ones

For the first time I realized that the education reforms I write about, raising achievement in the inner city, are as Paul E. Peterson puts it turning standard marketing strategies upside down. Maybe they will work better, he suggests, if we let their 21st century promoters try them out in affluent schools, seeing what works best before moving to kids who really need something better than what they've got.

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Nyankori a rare bird in DCPS wild

It was the bureaucratic equivalent of a Northern Spotted Owl sighting: a District of Columbia official apologizing for mistakes made.

"There have been mistakes. I'm ready to take the whip," Richard Nyankori, deputy chancellor for special education, said Wednesday evening at Randle-Highland Elementary School. And he took his whipping in a cafeteria filled with anxious parents who had been notified--virtually out of the blue, some contended--that the District wanted to end the private school placements they had secured because of the city's inability to meet their children's needs.

The city spends more than $280 million a year on private school tuition and transportation for about 2,700 students, more than a quarter of its total special ed population. Nyankori and Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee say that's way too many, and that some of them can have their needs met in less restrictive environments, as federal law requires. But the rollout of their "reintegration plan" ran into trouble when privately-

D.C. special education chief apologizes

Effort to relocate special ed students from private facilities upsets parents.

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Saturday, May 29, 2010