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Obama's Remarks on Education Get Mixed Reviews
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2009 Comment (37)In his speech to Congress this week, President Barack Obama said he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020 and asked every American to complete a year or more of college or career training. He said federal stimulus dollars will expand education opportunities for preschoolers and college students who need financial help. But he also talked about the need for more reform in education, saying he wants to reward teacher performance and grow the number of charter schools. Here is how some education pundits reacted to his education remarks:
Jonathan Schorr, partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, a San Francisco-based group that seeks to improve public education, gave Obama high marks for pledging to increase the share of college graduates. According to the Los Angeles Times, the percentage of American adults of all ages with a four-year bachelor's degree was estimated at 17.1 percent in a recent Census survey. Schorr told the Times, "Anything that moves us in the direction of more of our students attending college is welcome and recognizes the economic realities we're living in."
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Should Middle Schools Be More Like High Schools?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 24, 2009 Comment (10)At Florida middle schools, students can sign up for Algebra II Honors and biology—classes that they would typically take in ninth or 10th grade. District officials say introducing rigorous high school work in middle school is tied to higher levels of student achievement. It also offers an advantage to students who want to build a competitive résumé for college. But some education experts are concerned that this trend in Florida and in other states is leaving minority students behind.
"The trend has sparked a lively debate nationwide between those who say middle-school students aren't ready to be treated like high school students and those arguing that the brightest children shouldn't be held back because minorities aren't signing up for certain courses," the Orlando Sentinel reports. The newspaper conducted an analysis and found that most Florida middle-school students who take advanced classes are white, even in schools where black and Latino students are the majority. At one middle school, for example, 93 percent of the students taking high school geometry are white, even though white students make up only 29 percent of the school's student body.
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University of California Asks Applicants to Show Proof of Extracurriculars
Tweet Share on Facebook February 20, 2009 Comment (5)Working 15 hours a week at McDonald's? Volunteering for a homeless shelter? Starring in a school play? If you are seeking admission to the University of California system and plan to boast about these accomplishments in your application, you might want to gather proof. In what appears to be the only formal program of its kind in the nation, UC officials ask randomly selected applicants for documentation that supports their claims about any personal accomplishments, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Since 2001, UC has conducted these random screenings to make sure that students are being truthful in their applications. Students who are caught in a lie or fail to submit the necessary proof can have their applications thrown out. UC officials say their goal is not only ferreting out cheats but also to "scare everyone straight," as the newspaper puts it. The nine-campus system receives 98,000 freshmen applications annually. But only 1,000 applicants are investigated. The Educational Testing Service is involved in selecting the applications. The four employees who conduct the screenings give students multiple opportunities to clear up any doubts. Submitting clippings from a school newspaper, a copy of a theater program, pay stubs, or letters from a coach or counselor are common remedies. UC officials say that less than a handful of applicants each year engage in outright deception.
The advice to applicants is simple: "Be thorough and honest and put your best foot forward," Mary Jacobson, a program administrator, told the Times. After all, she added, "It's just not a happy thing if you have to cancel their university applications."
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How to Spend $100 Billion on Education
Tweet Share on Facebook February 18, 2009 Comment (29)Now that President Barack Obama has signed into law a $787 billion economic recovery plan, including an unprecedented $100 billion for public schools, the next task is getting that money out to states. But exactly how that will happen and how each state will spend the money is being worked out.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has told U.S. News that, in addition to saving and creating jobs, he wants to use the stimulus to innovate and improve schools. The education funding contained in the stimulus could give Duncan the leverage to do that. Besides nearly doubling the budget of the federal Department of Education over the next two years, the stimulus package sets aside $5 billion for states that can prove to Duncan that they are raising student achievement by 1) improving teacher quality and getting better teachers into high-poverty schools, 2) raising academic standards and creating better tests, 3) using data systems that can track individual student growth, and 4) supporting struggling schools.
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The ACLU Sues a Florida School District Over Gay-Straight Alliance
Tweet Share on Facebook February 13, 2009 Comment (32)The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against a north Florida school board for preventing students from forming a Gay Straight Alliance, the ACLU of Florida announced earlier this week.
When student plaintiffs Jacob Brock and Hannah Page of Nassau County's Yulee High School approached school officials about forming such a club, the superintendent of schools responded, telling them the school would not recognize groups with names that reference a specific sexual orientation. Even changing the GSA's name to something less explicit would not guarantee the school district's approval, according to the ACLU. The federal Equal Access Act requires schools to grant access and official recognition to most student groups if the school allows any extracurricular activities to form. No comment on the suit yet from the Nassau County School District.
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How Much Construction Money Would Your School District Lose?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (1)ProPublica, an independent newsroom for investigative journalism, has developed a tool that lets you see how much money your local school district could lose in construction funds under the Senate's version of the economic stimulus bill. The bill passed by the Senate no longer contains $16 billion to modernize and repair public schools. The House bill provides $14 billion for school construction. Both parties are now debating whether to include all or part of those funds in a final stimulus bill. Democrats argue that it will create jobs and improve learning conditions for students. Republicans are worried about the money being misspent and setting a precedent for greater federal funding of education, which historically has been the responsibility of states. Read more about the debate over education spending.
The folks at ProPublica used data from the proposed stimulus bills and the federal Department of Education to develop a tool that they say gives "you the ability to explore the real-world consequences of the potential funding cuts" if the Senate version is passed.
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What's the Best Way to Make Teachers?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (9)A new federal study on teacher quality has found that teachers who enter teaching through an alternative route have roughly the same impact on student achievement as teachers who come from regular teacher education programs. The results of the study, commissioned by the federal Department of Education, could spur more states to consider changes to teacher training and hiring practices.
For years, a debate has raged over the effectiveness of teachers who come from programs that prepare noneducation majors for the classroom. These alternative programs allow recent college graduates or midcareer professionals to teach—in many cases at the most challenging schools—while taking classes to obtain a teaching certificate. The most well-known alternative certification programs are Teach for America and New York City Teaching Fellows. (This study measured the quality of teachers from less selective programs.)
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Education Spending Is Major Sticking Point in Stimulus Talks
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (14)As both parties in Congress begin negotiations on a final economic stimulus bill, education spending promises to be a major sticking point. The Senate passed a stimulus bill that includes $83 billion for public schools and higher education. That amount is considerably less than the $150 billion voted by the House. So, what ended up on the chopping block? The Senate bill is stripped of, among other funds, $16 billion for school construction and $40 billion more for states to fund schools. (Read a comparison of the two bills.)
President Barack Obama has signaled that he wants those funds reinstated. He seemed bewildered during Monday's televised news conference by the logic of lawmakers who say that school construction is the responsibility of states, not the federal government. "Why wouldn't we want to build state-of-the-art schools with science labs that are teaching our kids the skills they need for the 21st century . . . and, by the way, right now, will create jobs?" Obama said. Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, made a similar case Tuesday while visiting a high school in need of repairs in Arlington, Va. A day earlier, Duncan warned that almost 600,000 education jobs are at risk unless a stimulus package is passed and that the Senate's proposed $39 billion in state aid for schools is not enough.
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Study Finds Grade Inflation at Some Georgia High Schools
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 Comment (8)A recent study by a professor of economics found that some high schools in Georgia routinely hand out A's to students who can't pass a standardized "end of course" test, suggesting that these students are not as well prepared for college as their transcripts might indicate.
The results of the study are troubling for college officials, who say 1 in 10 freshmen in the state takes remedial classes. The study also triggered a debate about the pressure that parents and students exert on teachers to award high marks. In Georgia, high school students need at least a B average to be eligible for a state scholarship. Teachers say they don't want to jeopardize the chances of a hardworking student getting to go to college.
Chris Clark, an economics professor at Georgia College and State University, conducted the study for the Georgia Governor's Office of Student Achievement. After analyzing 2007 classroom grades and scores on standardized tests in eight subjects, he found some glaring discrepancies. For example, in economics, nearly 36 percent of students didn't pass the test, but only 6 percent failed the class. In U.S. history, about 29 percent failed the test, while only 9 percent failed the class.
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Maryland Ranks No. 1 in AP Tests Success
Tweet Share on Facebook February 4, 2009 Comment (13)Nearly a quarter of Maryland's graduating seniors passed at least one Advanced Placement exam last year, the highest passing rate among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to a report from the College Board released today. New York, Virginia, and Connecticut trailed Maryland, but not by much. Louisiana did the worst, with only 3.7 percent of its seniors passing an AP exam, which was a modest improvement over last year.
High school students who pass an AP exam can earn credits and advanced standing at colleges and universities. Research also shows that students who do well on the tests are more likely to graduate with a bachelor's degree in four years. It remains to be seen whether these credits will financially help this year's entering freshmen who are worried about paying for college in a recession. Not all colleges accept AP credits, and students typically don't use them to graduate early. (U.S. News uses AP data for its Best High Schools rankings.)
