Access News from July 14 - July 18, 2008
Daily news stories about education funding
litigation, education funding policy, cost studies,
advocacy and No Child Left Behind.
(Some links go to pages that require free subscriptions)
July 18, 2008
State Roundup
CT’s recently released state standardized test
scores for grades 3 through 8 indicate uneven subject-specific
performance.
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HI test scores demonstrate improvement, yet sixty percent
of public schools still fail to meet their progress
goals under No Child Left Behind.
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more…
MD education officials acknowledge that changes made
on this year’s Maryland School Assessment may
have contributed to the large rise in student test scores.
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more…
ME communities selected to participated in $3.1 million
study to measure their effectiveness in preventing substance
abuse and other problems through the implementation
of youth programming, such as early childhood services,
adolescent mentoring programs, after-school enrichment,
and other activities.
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more…
OK Education Association (OEA) plans petition drive
called HOPE (Helping Oklahoma Public Education) with
the goal of amending the State Constitution to require
more per-pupil funding.
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more…
July 17, 2008
School funding/Litigation
AZ House Speaker’s plan to use $5 million of about
$9 million in a House contingency fund to pay for scholarships
for hundreds of disabled and foster-care children to
attend private schools denied by Attorney General's
Office. Denied on grounds that such programs were declared
unconstitutional by the Arizona Court of Appeals.
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more…
State Roundup
CA high school dropout rate greater than previously
estimated—dropout rate reaches nearly 25%.
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more…
NJ Board of Education approves raising the minimum,
required scores for reading and math proficiency exams
in grades 5 through 8.
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more…
OK Education Association plans petition drive to raise
$850 million for schools by requiring state to fund
schools at regional average.
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more…
PA Independent Regulatory Review Commission reviews
and questions proposal to require high school students
to pass subject-specific exams before they can graduate.
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more…
Other News
McCain discusses education agenda during speech given
at NAACP meeting. Top priorities include: school choice
programs, direct federal resources to alternative teacher-certification
programs, school-level funding for teacher merit pay,
access to tutoring services, and fully funding NCLB.
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more…
July 16, 2008
School funding/Litigation
CT Legislature approves K-12 budget for
fiscal 2008-09.
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more…
FL senator schedules public forums on plan to abolish
property taxes for school funding. Judge schedules arguments
for Aug. 13 on suit to remove Amendment 5 (the proposed
elimination of "required local effort" for
school support) from the November ballot.
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more…
Senate bill approved to provide $61.8 billion for the
Department of Education—a 4.2 percent increase
over the current year. House Appropriations subcommittee
bill approved to boost spending for disadvantaged students
and special education. Both bills would eliminate funding
for the Reading First program.
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more…
Federal funding to be eliminated from Reading First
program.
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more…
State Roundup
MD Education Department reports improvements in test
scores among minority and poor students.
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more…
OR ballot initiative, which would restrict the amount
of time ELLs could receive instruction in their native
languages or take English-as-a-second-language classes,
will be put before a statewide vote.
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more…
PA Governor and state lawmakers make high school, subject-specific
exams for graduation optional.
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more…
RI enacts legislation permitting the creation of “mayoral
academies”—public charter schools overseen
by municipal leaders and intended to serve a diverse
student population.
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more…
Other News
A consortium of charter school advocates issue a report
designed to serve as a framework for assessing charter
quality entitled, “A Framework for Academic Quality.”
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more…
July 15, 2008
School Funding/Litigation
With fuel prices soaring nationwide, school districts
struggle to supplement transportation-budget shortfalls
and find ways to offset the increasing costs
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Education issues like teacher quality and NCLB were
drowned out by concerns over soaring energy prices and
a weakening economy at the National Governors Association
meeting, yet even those worries intersected with education
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State Roundup
MD test scores show surprisingly strong gains in reading
and math, especially among disadvantaged students
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MT educators and candidates urge lawmakers to hike
school funding; the issue could again be a battleground
in the 2009 Legislature.
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NY’s new data system to calculate high school
graduation rates “has caused a number of problems”
and the public has yet to learn what percentage of the
Class of 2007 graduated
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Federal/NCLB
The six states with federal approval to change the way
they hold schools accountable under NCLB will use six
different ways to distinguish between schools with minor
problems and those that need total overhauls
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The new president of the American Federation of Teachers
vows to take down NCLB which has become “a four-letter
word”
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Other News
Opinion – School Choice could sway Hispanic vote
in presidential election.
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Budget woes force cuts in summer school programs across
the nation
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Studies say gap in teacher qualifications at high-
and low-poverty urban schools has narrowed since the
beginning of this decade
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Commentary – “States must take a lead in
improving school leadership”
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July 14, 2008
State Roundup
CA legal ruling which outlawed most forms of home schooling
in California could come under scrutiny because the
court case on which it was based has been dismissed
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more…
IL budget redistributed after $1.4 billion cut. Education
funding to receive $360 million.
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more…
NY Governor states that he would like to lift state's
cap on charter schools.
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more…
Federal/NCLB
Board that sets policy for the National Assessment of
Educational Progress organizes ad hoc committee in an
effort to analyze the consistency of policies associated
with the exclusions and accommodations of states and
cities participating in “the nation’s report
card” exam.
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more…
States continue to struggle in meeting the NCLB’s
academic targets for ELLs in mathematics and reading,
according to the latest analysis released by the U.S.
Department of Education.
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more…
Editorial: Civil rights groups defend provisions of
NCLB.
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more…
Other News
The U.S. Department of Education releases guide to the
evaluation of K-12 online-learning programs.
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more…
A National Council on Teacher Quality study finds that
the math skills elementary school teachers learn in
college are insufficient to adequately teach math to
their students.
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more…
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