October 5, 2005
Education Week, Vol. 25, Issue 06
Federal
Gulf Coast Schools Prepare to Reopen Amid Uncertainties
With many Louisiana and Mississippi schools expected to open this week for the first time since Hurricane Katrina savaged the Gulf Coast, school leaders were working hard last week to prepare despite uncertainty over how many students would actually show up.
International
Classroom Assessments Stir Growing Global Interest
Accountability based on state-test results has dominated U.S. policy discussions. But around the globe, educators are beginning to pay more attention to the assessments teachers use in classrooms on a daily basis as a powerful lever for raising student achievement.
Education
A National Roundup
Former Head of N.Y. District Pleads Guilty to Taking Money
Frank A. Tassone, the former superintendent of the Roslyn, N.Y., school district, pleaded guilty last week to two felony counts of grand larceny for his role in the alleged theft of millions of dollars from the district.
Federal
Schools Told to Help Mobile Military Children Feel at Home
After attending eight different schools over 18 years, Megan Barron, a self-described Army brat, honed a strategy for fitting in at a new school.
Education
Table: Hurricane Rita and Schools
Close to 100,000 Texas students and about 44,000 Louisiana students were still out of public schools late last week because of Hurricane Rita’s landfall in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana. Many more had missed a few days of school as districts followed evacuation orders.
Education
Table: Hurricane Update
Some school districts in areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina were preparing to reopen this week.
Reading & Literacy
Texas Couple Establishes $100,000 Teacher Reward
If a doctor, lawyer, or business professional can earn a six-figure salary, then good teachers deserve financial rewards as well, a Houston couple says.
Reading & Literacy
Detroit Teachers Accept Freeze for Second Straight Year
Detroit teachers have approved a one-year contract that freezes their salary levels for a second year and defers payment on five workdays until future years.
Reading & Literacy
‘Master Teachers’ in Training for Math and Science
One of the nation’s most respected scientific organizations is partnering with the District of Columbia public schools and a university to train “master teachers” in math and science at the middle school level.
Reading & Literacy
Home-Visit Program Sees New Life Through Private Funders
Now that one of the more innovative home-visit programs for teachers and students has weathered California’s budget crisis, its leaders are aiming to rebuild relationships in the midst of national discussions on high school reform and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Reading & Literacy
Kan. Fires President of Reading Recovery After Complaint Filed
After a decade of working with the Kansas education department and schools throughout the state, Connie Briggs was taken aback when she received word that she was no longer needed to work with one of the state’s Reading First schools.
School Climate & Safety
Teachers, Bus Driver Slain in Iraq
Despite an attack on a primary school in Iraq last week in which intruders shot and killed six school workers, UNICEF’s education chief for Iraq predicts that parents there will continue to take extraordinary risks to send their children to school.
School Choice & Charters
Online Radio Show Features Charters
It’s been nearly 15 years since Ember Reichgott Junge helped launch the charter school movement in Minnesota, the birthplace of the nation’s first such independent public school.
Education
Report Roundup
Student Enrollment
The report projects an increase of about 4 percent in the number of public school students in preschool through grade 12 between 2002 and 2014, while the number of elementary and secondary students in private schools is expected to increase by 5 percent during that period.
Education
Report Roundup
Rural Schools
The report is based on interviews with rural education policy advocates from five states: Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia. It urges additional financial support through a “rural funding index” for schools because many of them face special circumstances, such as high levels of poverty and undereducated families.
English Learners
Report Roundup
Research Report: English-Language Learners
Produced by the Washington-based Urban Institute, the study found that nearly 70 percent of elementary-level English-language learners are enrolled in 10 percent of the nation’s elementary schools. The researchers also noted that nearly half—43 percent—of the nation’s elementary schools don’t have any students with limited proficiency in English. The study defines schools with a high number of limited-English-proficient students as those in which such students make up at least 23.5 percent of enrollment.
Education
Report Roundup
Report Finds Progress in Chicago Schools
A large number of Chicago elementary schools that were low-achieving in 1990 have made substantial progress in reading, concludes a study.
School Climate & Safety
Rita Closes Many Texas, Louisiana Schools
School districts in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas were still struggling to assess damage, make repairs, and reopen nearly a week after Hurricane Rita swept ashore.
School & District Management
Chicago Latest District to Call for Core H.S. Curricula
The Chicago school district will accept proposals this month from outside vendors seeking to craft core college-preparatory curricula in English, mathematics, and science for high schools.
Science
‘Intelligent Design’ Goes on Trial in Pa.
The question of whether “intelligent design” amounts to legitimate science, pseudo-science, or religion masquerading as science is undergoing a potentially historic legal test, as a federal court here considers whether a public school district can require that students be exposed to the controversial concept.
Education
People in the News
Marsha A. Daves
Ms. Daves, 51, previously held the title of associate director of training for the organization.
Education
People in the News
Harriet Sanford
Harriet Sanford has been named the president and chief executive officer of the NEA Foundation.
School Climate & Safety
School Buses Answer Calls for Help in Crises
Houston school officials finally got the word from the Louisiana governor’s office at dusk on a humid Saturday evening: Start the buses. We need you.
Education
People in the News
Gaynor McCown
Ms. McCown, 45, is the executive director of the Teaching Commission, a New York City-based organization working to promote changes in the teaching profession. From 1994 to 1996, she was a senior policy analyst and adviser in the White House, where she worked on education and economic-development issues.
Education
Letter to the Editor
E-Learning in Katrina’s Wake
Your article “E-Learning Providers Offer Help in Wake of Katrina” (Sept. 21, 2005) demonstrates once again how the education community can be counted on to rise to the occasion when disaster strikes.
Education
Letter to the Editor
‘Person-First Language’ for Special Education
I would like to suggest that Education Week use person-first language when discussing issues concerning people with disabilities.
Education
A National Roundup
Obituary: Judge Pursued Civil Rights
Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman named to the federal bench and part of the legal team that argued the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka school desegregation case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954, died Sept. 21. She was 84 and suffered from congestive heart failure.
Education
A National Roundup
Obituary: Head Start Father Bronfenbrenner Dies
Urie Bronfenbrenner, a leading scholar in developmental psychology and a founder of the federal Head Start program, died Sept. 25 at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 88 and had diabetes. Mr. Bronfenbrenner spent most of his career at Cornell University, where he was a professor of human development and psychology. His ideas about the “ecology of human development” helped spurred the creation in 1965 of Head Start, the federal program designed for poor preschool-age children and their families.
Education
A National Roundup
Gates Aids Alma Mater
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates has given $40 million to Lakeside School in Seattle, the private school he graduated from in 1973. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s donation is the largest in the history of the independent school, which serves 773 students in grades 5-12.