May 16, 2007
Education Week, Vol. 26, Issue 37
Education Funding
Florida to Require Physical Education for Grades K-5
Legislation also recommends that middle school students receive at least 225 minutes of physical education each week.
Education Funding
Frustration Builds in N.J. Funding Debate
School districts increase the push for a revised aid formula, amid continuing delays.
Education
Events
10-12—Higher education: Summer Institute on First-Year Assessment, sponsored by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, for administrators and faculty, at the Hyatt Regency Savannah in Savannah, Ga. Contact: Nina Glisson, 1728 College St., Columbia, SC 29208; (803) 777-8158; e-mail: nina1@gwm.sc.edu; Web site: www.sc.edu/fye.
June
10-12—Higher education: Summer Institute on First-Year Assessment, sponsored by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, for administrators and faculty, at the Hyatt Regency Savannah in Savannah, Ga. Contact: Nina Glisson, 1728 College St., Columbia, SC 29208; (803) 777-8158; e-mail: nina1@gwm.sc.edu; Web site: www.sc.edu/fye.
School Climate & Safety
3 Cabinet Members Seek Solutions on Campus Safety
A task force is looking for ways to more widely disseminate proven strategies for preventing and responding to school shootings.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Teachers on Teacher Pay
According to the researcher Miles Myers (Letters, April 25, 2007), my contribution to the recent TeacherSolutions report on teacher pay is illegitimate because I am a teacher-coach rather than a classroom teacher.
Federal
The Bible Makes A Comeback
Many public school officials feared teaching about the text after a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Now, scholars are trying to find ways to teach about it from an academic standpoint.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Mastery Need Not Be Accountability Trade-Off
In his recent Commentary, Joseph DiMartino tempers his compelling argument for the benefits of demonstration over measurement by suggesting that mastery is a trade-off for accountability.
Education
Letter to the Editor
It’s the Human Element That Powers Reform
Carl A. Cohn’s Commentary "Empowering Those at the Bottom Beats Punishing Them From the Top" was powerful in describing how the American system of education has gone through so many phases of reform.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Manipulatives Are Tools, Not ‘Learning Toys’
I read with interest your article "Studies Find That Use of Learning Toys Can Backfire," and commend Education Week for providing a forum to address the research imperative of “how and when manipulatives should be used.”
Education
Letter to the Editor
Disinterest in Reading, Death of the Imagination
Your article “Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading”
was intriguing.
Education
Letter to the Editor
What We Gain in Scores, We’re Losing in Learning
Discussions about rising state test scores often obscure deeper questions: What do score gains mean? Is student learning really improving?
Education
Letter to the Editor
Basketball Analogy Doesn’t Fit ‘No Child’ Law
In your April 25, 2007, issue, Washington attorney John W. Borkowski is quoted as comparing the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act to a basketball tournament in which every team must come in first.
Education Funding
A Kinder, Gentler Schwarzenegger?
Is a bipartisan wind blowing in the debate over California’s “broken” school finance and governance systems?
Education Funding
Colorado Lawmakers Increase K-12 Funding
The money will go toward a 4.6 percent increase in state per-pupil spending for the 2007-08 school year.
Education Funding
Kansas Moves Into Next Phase of School Spending Escalation
A 8.3 percent budget increase represents the second phase in a three-year, $466 million plan.
Federal
Federal File
The Secretary’s Advice, to Go
Margaret Spellings gives her only scheduled graduation address for this year.
Assessment
Opinion
Chat Wrap-Up: High-Stakes Testing
On April 30, readers talked about high-stakes testing with the authors of a new book on the subject, Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools.
Early Childhood
Ed. Dept. Releases Infant, Toddler Rules
The U.S. Department of Education has released long-awaited proposed regulations for the portion of the federal special education law that focuses on infants and toddlers with disabilities.
Law & Courts
State Must Pay $155,000 in Case Over Disinvited Conference Speaker
A Massachusetts state judge has awarded $155,000 in fees and costs to the education author Alfie Kohn, who won a ruling last year that his rights were infringed by state officials who objected to his planned speech at a conference.
Law & Courts
Court Finds Teacher’s Postings Are Form of Curricular Speech
Information on a classroom bulletin board is a form of school-sponsored, curricular speech, and a teacher did not have a free-speech right to post religious items on his bulletin board, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Law & Courts
Calif. Appeals Court Rules School Officials Didn’t Libel Principal
School principals don’t often sue their bosses for libel and invasion of privacy, but that’s just what a former Los Angeles high school principal did when he was publicly criticized by his supervisors for his handling of a spate of violence at his school.
Federal
House Freshmen Could Be Pivotal on NCLB Renewal
Some opposed the law on campaign trail, but have refined their views.
Education
Correction
Correction
An In Perspective story in the April 18, 2007, issue of Education Week about teachers in small high schools gave an incorrect name for a teacher at Mapleton Preparatory High School near Denver. She is Amber K. Kim.
School & District Management
Leadership Change Sparks Hope for Renewal
Paul G. Vallas' arrival boosts the view that New Orleans' schools are poised to emerge from crisis mode.
Federal
Few Federal Math and Science Programs Deemed Effective
A federal report says there is too little coordination between mathematics and science programs.
Federal
House Bill, Hearing Turn Up the Heat On Administration Over College Loans
The House approved a bill that would set new limits on the relationships between lenders and colleges participating in the federal student-loan program.
Reading & Literacy
Senate Report Cites ‘Reading First’ Conflicts
A report suggests that a former Reading First consultant actively promoted his commercial products while serving as a key adviser to states.
School & District Management
Opinion
The Gift of Bleak Research
Some researchers are beginning to concede that instruction probably has more impact on learning, and on achievement gaps, than any other factor.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
Replacing AP
Do its ends and means still live up to the ideal?
