Entries for January 2009

The nation's students, schools, and universities stand to receive about one sixth of the $800 billion economic stimulus package passed by the House of Representatives Wednesday evening, a proportion that amounts to the largest increase in federal money for education in nearly half a century.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which the Senate will begin debating Monday, is comprehensive in its effort to aid struggling early childhood, elementary, secondary, and higher education systems. The plan proposes renovations to crumbling school buildings, greater access to prekindergarten classrooms, and increased aid for disadvantaged students, among other initiatives. While most Democrats see the education spending as vital to jump-starting the economy, many Republicans worry the expenditures won't stimulate anything but will have a lasting impact on how much the federal government spends on education in the future.

The new leader of the nation's third-largest school system has no experience running schools. But Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says Ron Huberman ,his former chief of staff, is well suited to be Arne Duncan's replacement as the head of the Chicago system. Huberman, 37, was selected by Daley to serve as the leader of the 408,000-student district now that Arne Duncan is the U.S. secretary of education. Huberman has been the president of the city's transit authority since 2007. Before that, he was director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Daley says he was impressed by Huberman's management skills.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that several people are not happy with the mayor's choice. According to the newspaper, Duncan lobbied "hard and long" for Barbara Eason-Watkins, a veteran educator in the city who served as his chief academic officer. But at yesterday's announcement in Chicago, Duncan had only praise for Huberman. He called him "a brilliant pick." Eason-Watkins, who was not at the press conference, has agreed to serve alongside Huberman, who said his priorities are to make schools safer and continue the district's trend of improvement.

Research published last week indicates that President Barack Obama might be more than an inspirational figure for black Americans. During critical moments of the presidential election, familiarity with his achievements appears to have helped study participants overcome the achievement gap seen frequently between black and white test-takers.

The study's design involved 84 black and 388 white participants ages 18 to 55 taking 20-question tests on reading and language arts comprehension that the study's authors administered four times—twice during moments when Obama was less prominent in the media (before he accepted the Democratic nomination and midway between the convention and Election Day) and twice when his accomplishments dominated the news (just after his speech at the Democratic National Convention and just after he won the presidential election). Though the achievement gap between black and white test-takers was substantial when news about Obama slowed, the gap all but closed during his moments of greatest accomplishment.

The impassioned debate over what role, if any, religion can play in the country's public schools resurfaced Wednesday in an Illinois courtroom and a Texas State Board of Education meeting, the Associated Press and the New York Times report.

In Illinois, a federal judge ruled against a state law requiring public school students to observe a moment of silence meant for prayer or personal reflection at the start of each school day. District Judge Robert Gettleman said the law was an unconstitutional breach of the separation of church and state.

Fifteen students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., were chosen as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious science competition. That's the most semifinalists from a single high school this year. Thomas Jefferson High was ranked the No. 1 high school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for the second year straight. See the full list of America's Best High Schools.

In all, 300 students from 176 high schools were named semifinalists this week. That was out of a pool of 1,806 contestants. On January 28, the list will narrow even more. Only 40 students will become finalists. They will travel to Washington, D.C., and compete for a $100,000 grand prize.

Facing big deficits and the prospect of painful cuts, school officials have been asking for their own federal bailout, and now Uncle Sam could be responding. The proposed federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill includes an estimated $141 billion for education. "It's the 'education community's' dream come true," blogs Mike Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington. But that's not necessarily a good thing: Petrilli and other education pundits are skeptical that the bailout of schools will be good for actual education reform.

Federal lawmakers stress that the proposed stimulus will have "unprecedented accountability measures built in." It's not clear, however, whether Arne Duncan—the reform-minded leader of Chicago schools who is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Department of Education—is playing a role in attaching any conditions to this proposed pot of education money. Below is the breakdown of how your tax dollars could be spent on education. Federal legislators call this part of the stimulus "Education for the 21st Century." Here are excerpts from their breakdown:

One in seven adults lacks the literacy skills required to read anything more complex than a children's book, a staggering statistic that has not improved in more than 10 years, according to a federal study released last week.

The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy surveyed more than 18,500 Americans ages 16 and older and found about 14 percent could not read, could not understand text written in English, or could comprehend only basic, simple text. This study's predecessor, 1992's National Adult Literacy Survey, also found that about 14 percent of the 24,000 adults interviewed lacked moderate or advanced literacy skills. Because the overall population of the United States has grown by about 23 million adults, the number of adults with low literacy skills has grown by 3.6 million since 1992.

Arne Duncan, head of Chicago's public schools, will likely be confirmed as U.S. secretary of education, according to the general consensus among a diverse group of education observers that has responded enthusiastically to his nomination. The 44-year-old Chicago native and onetime pro-basketball player goes to a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday.

President-elect Barack Obama nominated Duncan on December 16, saying he was someone who doesn't blink when faced with tough decisions. Obama and Duncan are longtime friends. Beyond the Windy City connection, they both graduated from Harvard University and play basketball together. If confirmed, Duncan will leave his post as head of the nation's third-largest school system and take over the federal Department of Education. As education secretary, he will oversee 4,200-employees and inherit a host of challenges, mostly in the K-12 education policy arena.

Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, says Duncan will likely sail through tomorrow's confirmation hearing. Hess's real concern is whether Duncan, as education secretary, will be able to usher in thoughtful and lasting education reforms. It's not clear whether he will recreate the same relationships in Washington that helped him overhaul Chicago schools, Hess says. As the chief of Chicago schools for seven years, Duncan enjoyed a reputation as a collaborative leader and was able to implement controversial reforms such as expanding charter schools and altering teacher salaries.

Margaret Spellings, the outgoing secretary of education, seems to thinks Duncan can be a transformative leader. In a letter to Duncan in the Washington Post today, she offers him some advice, urging him above all to capitalize on the overwhelming goodwill directed at Obama and his team and "treat education reform as a bipartisan issue. You have a tremendous number of friends and allies on both sides of the aisle willing to fight for reform—including me. Call on us," she says. Will he?

In a final push to bolster his legacy before leaving office, President Bush is touting the success of his education reforms, mainly the federal No Child Left Behind law, and he is not alone in doing so. Margaret Spellings, the outgoing education secretary, is also trying to put a favorable light on the controversial testing law before she leaves Washington. The two also have wasted no public opportunities to warn the Obama administration against any changes that could weaken the law's accountability measures.

During a tour of an elementary school in Philadelphia last week, the president said that NCLB has led to greater accountability in schools as well as higher levels of achievement among low-income and minority children. "I firmly believe that thanks to this law, students are learning and the achievement gap is closing," Bush told a crowd at General Philip Kearny Elementary School, a K-8 school serving a racially diverse student population that has met the goals of NCLB for the past four years.

Facing a massive budget deficit, California is considering shortening the school year by five days, a move that would save the state $1.1 billion. But the proposal is causing uproar among families and educators, who say the consequences would be disastrous, the Los Angeles Times reports. State schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell told the paper the move would hurt low-income and minority children because affluent school districts will most likely have the funds to remain open all 180 days of the school year. If the California legislature agrees to cut the school calendar, the state will join North Dakota, Kentucky, and a few other states that require the least number of school days.

Much of the criticism is being directed at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proposed the idea. It bears noting that the governor sends his children to private school. His office says the idea to shorten the school year has received support from school districts that don't want to resort to more painful measures such as employee layoffs and cuts to arts and music programs. But school districts that are facing severe shortfalls in the state say it's not an either-or scenario. The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, recently announced it is examining the possibility of laying off 2,300 instructors in an attempt to close a $400 million deficit in next year's budget.

American students already spend far less time in school than children in countries such as China and India. Shortening the school week, by even five days, critics say, would undermine efforts by educators to make American teenagers more competitive. Last year, U.S. News wrote about a film titled "Two Million Minutes" that raises concerns about U.S. public education and whether American students spend enough time in school. Tell us what you think. Should states facing budget woes shorten the school year? Is it better than eliminating arts and music programs?