April 9, 2008
Education Week, Vol. 27, Issue 32
School Climate & Safety
Civil Rights Groups: School Safety Not Dependent on Guns
A coalition of organizations unveiled its plan to head off school violence through positive behavioral approaches and better training and support for students and staff.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Development: 'Other Half' of the Teacher Equation
Attracting and inducting new teachers is only half the equation for ensuring effective teachers for every student.
Education
Report Roundup
Tracking Teens With GPS
Satellite-tracking technology may help pinpoint where adolescents are when they engage in certain harmful behaviors, a study finds.
Education
Report Roundup
Student Mobility in N.Y.C.
Researchers found that only about one-third of the students in that 1st grade cohort progressed to the 8th grade on time.
Education
Report Roundup
Federal Job Corps Program
Review gives the federal Job Corps education and training program a “potentially positive” rating for its effectiveness at getting participants to earn a high school diploma or GED.
Education
Report Roundup
Education and the Economy
A study of State of the State speeches found that every governor has stressed the link between education funding and economic growth.
Education
Report Roundup
Child-Welfare Rankings
Report says where children grow up makes a difference in their health and welfare.
Curriculum
Report Roundup
Smaller Classes Seen As No Silver Bullet
Research does not provide evidence that a district should—or should not—try to improve learning by shrinking class sizes, a review finds.
Student Achievement
Playing Catch-Up
Plenty of academic programs, but uneven progress, mark New Orleans’ recovery district.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Anti-Plagiarism Software
Judge says use of student works constituted “a fair use under U.S. copyright law and is therefore not copyright infringement.”
School & District Management
Opinion
When Life Interferes
A family member’s death, a teacher’s illness, a son’s deployment, a divorce; these are just some of the many parts making up the principal's untaught duty, writes Jamie Sussel Turner.
Federal
News in Brief
Ed. Dept. Report Shows Increase in Tutoring, Choice Under NCLB
The number of students taking advantage of free tutoring and school choice under federal law increased dramatically in 2003-04 school year.
Law & Courts
Court to Weigh Deductions for Union PACs
The Idaho Education Association, its Pocatello affiliate, and several other public-employee unions in the state, which rely on the deductions to help pay for their political action committees, challenged the Idaho law.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Broad Foundation Names Finalists For Urban Prize
Five school districts in the Sun Belt have been named as finalists for a prize recognizing their progress in raising student achievement.
Federal
Report Challenging Federal Pre-K Ideas Gets Sharp Rebuttal
A report that questions the federal prekindergarten proposals has drawn a sharply worded response from a leading proponent of public preschool programs.
College & Workforce Readiness
College-Credit Plan for High-Schoolers a Hot Iowa Debate
The U.S. Department of Education says that more than half of all colleges enroll high school students in courses for college credit.
School & District Management
Mooney Institute Tries to Blend Unionism, School Reform
Teachers’ unions are rarely seen as hands-on school reformers, but the Tom Mooney Institute for Teacher & Union Leadership thinks they should be.
Federal
New Center Applies Cost-Benefit Analysis to Education Policies
The Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education specializes in calculating and comparing the long- and short-term costs—and probable payoffs—of different educational strategies that promise to improve students’ lives.
School & District Management
Opinion
The Post-Boomer Teacher Crunch
Celine Coggins writes on the need to reframe the concept of retention to fit the needs of a new generation of teaching professionals.
Education
Letter to the Editor
The ‘STEM’ Effort
In response to your Technology Counts 2008 special issue, "STEM: The Push to Improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics."
Education
Letter to the Editor
Should Schools Be Paying for National Spelling Bee?
This self-proclaimed "not-for-profit" spelling bee claims to have no choice but to charge schools $99 to participate in this event?
Education
Letter to the Editor
Add Classroom Discipline to ‘Incarceration’ Solutions
I totally agree with Tom Carroll that, as his Commentary title says, "Education Beats Incarceration."
Federal
Federal File
New Chief Brings State Lessons To Title I Office
Back in 1984, Zollie Stevenson Jr. was on the front lines in a state that was experimenting with setting academic standards and creating tests aligned with them.
School & District Management
Opinion
School Leadership’s Unfinished Agenda
Michael Fullan writes about ways to improve school leadership, especially ways that involve integrating individual and organizational development.
Federal
College Board Intends to Drop AP Programs in Four Subjects
Officials overseeing the Advanced Placement program have announced that they intend to drop AP classes and exams in four subject areas, in a pullback expected to affect about 12,500 students and 2,500 teachers worldwide.
Federal
Retired Justice’s Focus Now on Civic Education Project
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor says that federal mandates are squeezing some subjects out of the curriculum, and she is working on a project that has a goal of restoring one of them: civics education.
Federal
Florida Bill Would Ease ESL-Training Mandate
The bill would cut to 60 the number of in-service hours in teaching English as a second language required of reading teachers who work with ELLs, down from the current requirement of 300.
School & District Management
Principals’ Group Updates Standards for Leadership
The NAESP recently released two new publications designed to help its members create and lead learning communities.