AM News: National Survey Suggests Major Hurdles for Math, Science Teachers

Survey Suggests Hurdles for Math, Science Teaching EdWeek: A rich new set of survey data on math and science teachershighlights some big challenges the nation faces if it hopes to significantly increase student achievement in those disciplines. It also drives home, experts say, the huge need to support teachers as districts begin implementing the common-core math standards, and as an effort to develop common standards for science nears completion.

Cantor, Rubio, Other Key Republicans in Congress Focus on Choice PoliticsK12: And now Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the second-top-banana in the House, is getting in on the act. Cantor doesn't have a long record on K-12, but it's clear he wants folks to see this as a big issue for him going forward. School choice played a prominent role in Cantor's big speech to the American Enterprise Institute last month, in which he laid out his vision for the new Congress. Since then, Cantor has traveled to New Orleans and met with students who are participating in a voucher program put in place by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate). Check out local coverage here.

Digital Learning Priorities Influence School Building Design EdWeek: As school districts plan and design new buildings, a philosophical shift in how learning environments look is happening, fueled largely by technological advancements and a belief that classrooms should be more interactive and mirror the workplaces of today and the future. That new look puts a high priority on small-group work, use of mobile devices, and project-based digital learning.

Fund That Subsidizes Internet for Schools Should Expand, a Senator Says NYT: The $2.3 billion federal E-Rate program, which subsidizes basic Internet connections for schools and libraries, should be overhauled and expanded to provide those community institutions with new, lightning-fast connections to the Web, the chairman of a Senate committee that oversees the F.C.C. said Tuesday. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, a West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said that the fund should be used to create one-gigabit connections to every school in America — a speed that is 60 to 100 times faster than most schools or homes now receive — and wireless connections in every school building.

New Jersey Town Divided Over Schools and Firearms WSJ: More than two months after this suburban township put armed guards in each of its schools following the rampage in Newtown, Conn., residents are divided over the pilot project's consequences for children and its effectiveness as a deterrent. Police officers—their pistols displayed in holsters—have patrolled Marlboro's nine public schools since Jan. 2, unnerving some parents and comforting others while providing a model for communities that want to follow the National Rifle Association's advice on preventing school violence.

AM News: Don't Forget Broadband Access, Says Rockefeller

Fund That Subsidizes Internet for Schools Should Expand, a Senator Says NYT: Senator John D. Rockefeller IV proposed an overhaul and update of the E-Rate fund, which uses money collected on consumers’ phone bills to subsidize Internet connections for schools.  

Providence, R.I., Wins Mayors Challenge With Literacy Plan NYT: In a contest overseen by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mayor Angel Taveras won his city $5 million to help parents improve the vocabulary of their children.

LAUSD announces multimillion-dollar settlement of 58 of 191 Miramonte sex abuse claims KPCC: David Holmquist, the district's general counsel, would not say how much each family will be paid until the deal is approved by a judge — only that it is a double-digit multimillion-dollar settlement.

In Michigan District, A New Look For Vocational Education NPR:  Classes like wood shop or auto shop used to be called vocational classes. They were known as an academic dumping ground for students who weren't succeeding in a regular classroom. But a lot has changed. In the rural mid-Michigan school district of Stockbridge, classes now offer a pathway to college, and a way to gain skills to pay tuition.

No Division Required in This School Problem NYT: The young man, Peng Shi, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began asking questions and talking to parents. Then he made a suggestion: why not drop the idea of zones altogether?

Paul Ryan: Pell Grants Frozen At Current Levels Under New Budget HuffPost: Under Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis) "Path to Prosperity" budget framework for 2014, college students would have one less weapon against the creep of climbing college tuitions: Pell Grants would freeze at their current level, with a maximum possible grant of $5,645 per student for the next 10 years.

AM News: NCLB Waiver Bids in Pennsylvania, Wyoming & Texas Made Public

Details Trickling Out on Latest NCLB Waiver Bids EdWeek: With the addition of three longtime holdouts to the list of states seeking flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act, nearly every state has sought to design its own accountability system to replace the outdated federal law. But the waiver applications submitted last month by Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming are by no means a sure thing. Neither Pennsylvania nor Wyoming had released its submitted application to the public as of late last week, despite a federal requirement that states collaborate with stakeholders on their new proposed accountability systems.

Lawmakers Eye Early Childhood Expansion PoliticsK12: Under Casey's legislation, programs would have to meet certain quality standards—for instance, classes would be limited to 20 children or less, with a student-teacher ratio of 10-to-one or less. And prekindergarten teachers would have to earn bachelor degrees within six years. Much more about the legislation here.

Teachers union still draws support, money from retired members HechingerReport: Because the UFT is one of the only unions in the country to allow retirees to vote in leadership elections, they are powerful. Even when they live far from New York City, the UFT’s 60,000 retiree members staunchly defend the union they helped shape in the 1960s and 1970s, and they volunteer in droves when the union mobilizes its members to support candidates or lobby on education or healthcare.

22 New York City Schools Slated To Close  Post: The city’s Panel for Educational Policy voted to approve the closure of 22 struggling schools early this morning at a meeting at Brooklyn Tech HS. While hundreds of parents and teachers came to protest the move, the meeting wasn’t nearly as volatile as in past years, when thousands packed the auditorium and raucously taunted education officials. Chancellor Dennis Walcott told reporters, “We are constantly working with schools to improve their outcomes. There are, unfortunately, some schools that just do not get better."

Arizona: Most of Law on Ethnic Studies Is Upheld NYT: A federal judge has upheld all but one aspect of an Arizona law prohibiting school districts from offering courses taught from a specific racial or ethnic perspective, which targeted the Mexican-American studies program at some Tucson public schools. The ruling Friday, by Judge A. Wallace Tashima of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, came in a lawsuit brought by teachers and students at the Tucson Unified School District against Arizona’s school superintendent, John Huppenthal, and other state officials. 

AM News: Obama's Proposal Raises Issue of Pre-K Teacher Qualifications

Obama Proposal Raises Issue of Pre-K Teacher Prep EdWeek: Amid the attention stemming from President Barack Obama's focus on early-childhood education in his State of the Union address, some advocates are wondering what the proposal will mean in the way of expectations for teachers.In particular, they are zeroing in on the president's call for "qualified" teachers—a term that carries baggage in a field where debates loom large about how to simultaneously improve the quality of instruction, increase the number of children served, and raise the prestige and pay of pre-K's approximately 1.8 million teachers.

Democrats in Massachusetts Push to Remove Limitations on Charters  WSJ: Massachusetts lawmakers are considering eliminating a cap on the number of charter schools that can operate in the lowest-performing school districts, including here in the capital city. While other states also have weighed lifting caps, charter advocates point to left-leaning Massachusetts as a somewhat unlikely model for the movement. "This demonstrates that charter schools are a viable reform," said Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a nonprofit aimed at advancing the movement. "If it can happen in Massachusetts, it can happen anywhere."

Alabama's Contentious Education Bill In Limbo As Courts Review Cases NPR: A week after a sweeping and controversial education bill was adopted by the Alabama Legislature, the measure is on hold, with a circuit judge and the state's supreme court reviewing separate lawsuits filed over it. Democrats say Republicans broke the rules when they inserted school choice language into a bill that was originally meant to give school districts flexibility in meeting standards.

Rational Decisions and Heartbreak on School Closings NYT: “In my heart, I didn’t want to accept it,” said Glen Casey, 18, a senior, at the end of the school day Friday. “It broke my heart, it hit me hard.” Wrenching though the decision was, William R. Hite Jr., the superintendent, said it was simply a matter of math in a district where more than a quarter of the schools’ 195,000 seats are now empty.

South Dakota Law to Allow Teachers to Be Armed WSJ: South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a bill Friday allowing the state's school districts to arm teachers and other personnel with guns. Supporters say the so-called sentinels could help prevent tragedies such as the Connecticut school shooting in December. The law will go into effect July 1. Several representatives of school boards, school administrators and teachers opposed the bill during committee testimony last month.

AM News: AFT President Arrested for Protesting Philly's 23 School Closings

Philadelphia Commission votes to close 23 schools, spare four Philadelphia Inquirer: In a tense, dramatic conclusion to a months-long battle, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted Thursday night to close 23 schools across the city - and spare four it had considered shutting

Randi Weingarten, President of AFT, Arrested For Protesting Philadelphia School Closure Hearing HuffPostEdu: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was arrested Thursday afternoon for blocking a school reform hearing in Philadelphia, an AFT spokesperson told The Huffington Post. 

Diane Ravitch Launches New Education Advocacy Counterforce PoliticsK12: Education historian Diane Ravitch, a fierce critic of current education reform trends, is launching a new advocacy organization that will support political candidates who oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, and what her group calls the "privatizing" of public schools. 

Chicago Public Schools panel: Up to 80 schools could close ChicagoTribune: Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration could safely close or overhaul as many as 80 schools this year, according to the final report of a commission that just two months ago voiced misgivings about the district's ability to close a large number of schools without major upheaval.

Districts Tying Principal Reviews to Test Scores EdWeek: A growing number of school districts—including large ones like those in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Hawaii—have become recent converts to new principal-evaluation systems that tie school leaders' appraisals to student test scores. 

AM News: Oklahoma Pioneers Public Preschool for All 4-Year Olds

Oklahoma is Public Preschool's Test Case WSJ: When President Barack Obama unveiled plans to vastly expand preschool access across the U.S., he singled out Oklahoma as a model—a state that shows the promise and the challenges of the undertaking. In 1998, Oklahoma lawmakers passed one of the nation's first state-funded preschool programs for all 4-year-olds. Since then, the number of children enrolled in preschool programs has soared to 40,000 this year, up from 9,000 when the program first started.

NBC News Tackles Race-Based Goals in States' NCLB Waiver Plans PoliticsK12: Tempers have flared in states like Florida and Virginia over new academic goals that are being set in states with waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act. As allowed by the U.S. Department of Education, some states set goals that vary by race—with the aim being that minorities and other at-risk students must make faster progress. I wrote about thistricky topic for Education Week, and then the New York Times followed suit.

Philadelphia set to vote on 27 planned school closings PhiladelphiaInquirer: The Philadelphia school system is broke, with 53,000 empty seats and a huge stable of buildings it cannot afford to maintain. A well-organized, ardent group of citizens - supported by the powerful teachers union - is pushing back hard against the 29 proposed school closings. Thursday is decision day, as the five members of the School Reform Commission will meet to vote on 27 of the proposed closures and dozens more program shifts and grade changes.

Big money doesn't buy much in L.A. school races LATimes: Outside interests poured money into Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's war chest for this week's school board elections in an attempt to influence education reform here and nationwide. But when the votes were tallied, the group could count only one clear winner. The mayor's political action committee, which amassed more than $3.9 million on behalf of three candidates, secured just incumbent Monica Garcia's seat.

Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst Organization Expands to North Carolina PostandCourier: “South Carolina was a state we identified as needing a lot of improvement and needing a lot of policy change when compared to other states,” said Eric Lerum, the group’s vice president of national policy. South Carolina received a “D” on the group’s state policy report card. Students First plans to use a combination of approaches, from mobilizing its members to backing specific lawmakers during elections, to further its policy agenda.

Can Milk Sweetened With Aspartame Still Be Called Milk? NPR: Some school districts have banned flavored milk because of the high-calorie content. And some studies suggest that when you take chocolate milk out of schools, consumption of milk declines. During a phone interview, Miller told The Salt that the industry's petition is aimed at offering school districts a lower-calorie milk option that kids will actually want to drink.

AM News: National Assessment Scores Dragged Down by Student Absenteeism

NAEP Scores Dragged Down By Students Who Missed Past School, Data Show InsideSchoolResearch: Background data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress add to the growing pile of evidence that student absenteeism can hamstring a district's performance on the test dubbed the "Nation's Report Card." In large urban districts, 8th-grade students who missed three or more days in the previous month of school had an average mathematics score of 260 on the 2011 NAEP, 21 points lower than those who missed no school. 

Sequestration Cuts Forcing Schools That Serve Military, Native American Students To Squeeze HuffPostEdu: Mt. Adams serves Washington's Yakima Reservation -- many of its students are Native Americans who live in poverty. That means that unlike most U.S. school districts, Strom counts on a funding stream straight from the federal government, called "Impact Aid," to pay for one-fifth of his budget. This school year, Strom cut five teachers and five assistants -- small cuts that feel big in a tiny rural district that only has 63 teachers to begin with. 

Carmel Martin Leaving U.S. Department of Education PoliticsK12:  Carmel Martin, who has been one of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's right-hand people, will be leaving the U.S. Department of Education to oversee policy development at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank closely aligned with the Obama administration. This is a potentially ground-shifting development at the Education Department.

Special education expansion brings challenges, hope to Newark school HechingerReport: Quitman is one of eight historically low-performing sites in Newark designated as “renewal schools” this academic year. Renewal schools received an influx of resources, including iPads for the autistic children, and principals were granted autonomy over most staffing decisions. In exchange, the schools received students from failing, under-enrolled schools that were shut down, and they agreed to turn themselves around to avoid the same fate. Nearly all the students transferred to Quitman have significant disabilities.

Judge Intervenes In Heated Battle Over Alabama's Education Bill NPR: A judge in Alabama has blocked the state's governor from signing a school choice bill, after a lawsuit alleged that lawmakers bypassed state rules when they substantially revised the legislation in committee. The vote to pass the bill last week was marked by confusion, anger, and accusations of "sleaziness" and "hypocrisy," as AL.com reported.

Program Teaches Hispanics Learning Techniques to Narrow Achievement Gap WSJ: The women had gathered for a session of Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors), a nationwide course that helps Latino parents improve the educational outcome of their children. Lesson 1: "I am my child's first teacher; our home, my child's first school." The number of Hispanic children grew more than any other group by far over the past decade. Hispanics account for more than half of all students in the public schools of California, Texas and New Mexico—and they face big educational challenges.

AM News: Duncan Rescinds Monday's Comments About Teachers Losing Jobs

Education secretary says comments about teachers losing jobs inaccurate Reuters: Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on Monday he had made inaccurate comments about teachers losing their jobs due to mandatory budget cuts and that he had been trying to point out the dire effects spending reductions would have on schools. The $85 billion in across-the-board budget reductions, known as sequestration, started on Friday. "Language matters. I need to be very, very clear and I should have been clearer," Duncan told reporters.

Is Sequestration the New Normal for Federal K-12 Aid? PoliticsK12: So now that the sequester has happened, is Congress doing anything to reverse the cuts? So far, it's not looking great. First off, on Monday Republicans on the committee that controls spending legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives released their version of a giant spending bill to keep the U.S. government—including the U.S. Department of Education—in business for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.

Texas schools could see end of controversial tutoring mandate DallasNews: Texas school districts might no longer have to spend millions of dollars on tutoring programs that have spawned a cottage industry but shown few signs of helping needy students. For Dallas ISD and other districts, it’s one of the least-popular parts of the federal No Child Left Behind law: Poor students in low-performing schools can get free tutoring from private companies. Families choose a company from a state-approved list. School districts then pay the companies, which set their own rates and charge anywhere from $17 to $120 an hour.

NYC Defends Gifted Policy WSJ: Disproportionately low enrollment of black and Hispanic students in New York City's public gifted-and-talented programs "is what it is," schools Chancellor Dennis Walcottsaid Monday, adding that the Department of Education has no plans to radically change admissions policies. "It's unfair to [black and Hispanic students] if they just need to be put in a program to satisfy some type of percentage," Mr. Walcott said at an unrelated event at a Manhattan elementary school.

Skipping Out On College And 'Hacking Your Education' NPR: The cost of college can range from $60,000 for a state university to four times as much at some private colleges. The total student debt in the U.S. now tops credit card debt. So a lot of people are asking: Is college really worth it? There are several famous and staggeringly successful college dropouts, including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison. You may not end up with fat wallets like them, but Dale Stephens says you can find a different education path.

AM News: Standardized Testing Becomes Great Divide in Educational Policy

Standardized testing becomes the great divide in schools policy LATimes: The growing use of standardized tests to assess students and teachers is sparking a push-back nationwide in what has become one of the greatest divides in educational policy. 

Student Database Backed By Gates Foundation Jazzes Tech Startups, Spooks Parents Reuters: In operation just three months, the database already holds files on millions of children identified by name, address and sometimes social security number. 

Teacher-Evaluation Plans Bedevil Waiver States EdWeek: More than six months after waiver recipients turned in their guidelines to the department, only 12 waiver states have gotten the green light for their evaluation systems.

Gifted Class Imbalance in NYC By the Numbers WSJ:  More than 70% of the students in the 110 gifted-and-talented programs across the city this school year are white or Asian, though they make up a third of the general elementary-school student population.  

National Attention and Cash in Los Angeles School Vote NYT: On Tuesday, voters in Los Angeles will go to the polls for a mayoral primary. But much of the attention will also be on the three races for the school board, a battle that involves the mayor, the teachers’ union and a host of advocates from across the country — including New York City’s billionaire mayor — who have poured millions of dollars into the races.

DC Public Schools negotiating with union to extend school day, year to boost teaching time WashingtonPostLocal:  Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson tells The Washington Examiner (http://bit.ly/VZbK4B ) that she’s working to create more flexibility in the teachers’ union contract to implement a longer school day and a longer school year. 

AM News: Fact-Checkers Question Duncan's 'Sequester' Claims; NEA Analyzes How Much Schools Stand to Lose

Arne Duncan's Education 'Sequester' Claims Questioned PoliticsK12: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has long been seen as an administration asset. But this past week, he's also been the chief spokesman for the White House claims about the potential impact of sequestration on education jobs. Now those estimates have run afoul of fact-checkers—and that could ultimately undermine the administration's effort to make education a poster child when it comes to the impact of sequestration on domestic programs.

These Maps Show How Schools Are Going To Get Totally Slammed By Sequestration BusinessInsider: In this report, the NEA analyzed data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and calculated exactly how much funding specific educational programs stand to lose, how many students will be affected, and how many jobs would potentially be lost as a result of these budget cuts. Business Insider took this data and created a series of interactive maps that show you exactly how the sequester would affect the education system in each state.

Q&A: Federal K-12 Policy Chief Shares Outlook EdWeek: Former Ohio schools chief Deborah S. Delisle was confirmed as the top point person on K-12 policy within the U.S. Department of Education. As the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, Ms. Delisle is in charge of about 60 programs—including Title I, the precollegiate flagship focused on disadvantaged students—and more than $20 billion in federal grants. Perhaps her most important task is overseeing the implementation of waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act, the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Survey: Teachers don't want to carry guns, do support armed guards CNN: Nearly three-fourths of the nation's teachers say they personally would not bring a firearm to their school if allowed, but most educators believe armed guards would improve campus safety, a new survey showed. Since the December massacre by a lone gunman in Newtown, Connecticut, many schools have hastened to add safety measures in an effort to prevent similar violence.

Appeals court reinstates Pilot Colorado voucher program EdNewsColorado: Douglas County’s school voucher program does not violate the state constitution, the Colorado Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling Thursday, overturning a lower court’s finding that the program is unconstitutional. Plaintiffs in the case, including the Taxpayers for Public Education, vowed to appeal the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court.

'Bully' Documentary Gets Its Own Documentary On 'Anderson Cooper 360' HuffPostEdu: Alex Libby was 12 years old when director Lee Hirsch included him in a documentary entitled "Bully." The film, which was released in 2011 and acquired shortly thereafter by the Weinstein Company, gave the boy his chance to change things -- for himself and others. Ever since, he's lent his face, time and energy to a worldwide movement against bullying. CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" will feature Libby’s story Thursday night in a documentary, called "The Bully Effect," about the children featured in "Bully."

AM News: Sequester Could Leave Special Ed, Title 1 Students Without Services

Sequester Could Leave Special Education Kids Without Important Services HuffPostEdu: Under sequestration, which is scheduled to go into effect Friday, federal education spending would be reduced significantly. Special-education students in particular would take a huge hit, with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding slated to lose $591 million over 10 years. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been barnstorming cable talk shows and White House press briefings, calling these blind cuts "dumb." And even though most of the school cuts wouldn't take place until the 2013-14 academic year, school districts have already been thrown into chaos as they budget for September.

Sequester Spells Uncertainty For Many Public Schools NPR: If Congress and the Obama administration can't agree on a budget deal by Friday, the federal government will be forced to cut $85 billion from just about every federally funded program. There is one bit of good news for schools: Because most federal aid to schools is forward-funded, the cuts triggered by sequestration would not hit classrooms until September at the earliest. But once they do hit, federal funding for education in some places will drop considerably.

Los Angeles school districts are new target of education reformers HechingerEd: The large amounts of outside money flowing into the Los Angeles Unified school board election represent a new front in the reform battles that have shaken up education politics over the last decade. Donations of $1 million by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and $250,000 by former District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, in particular, have sparked controversy.

House Education Panel Grapples With School Safety Concerns PoliticsK12: Some lawmakers on the Democratic side of the aisle, such as U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut, said they would like to see more resources for school safety and mental health. But the committee didn't engage in a robust debate over whether the federal government, or state and local governments, should be financing school safety efforts. Instead, members heard from witnesses about practices that are already in place, including ensuring that school resource officers develop close relationships with students, and continually updating school safety plans.

Among Philly teachers, anger and dismay at contract offer Inquirer: Teachers were shocked, worried, angry, she said - many senior teachers feel that they're being targeted, that the district wants less expensive and less experienced employees. Schools need a mix of veterans and rookies, Fried said, and it would be a blow to lose big numbers of veterans. The district is in financial distress, projecting a $1-billion-plus deficit over five years without corrective action. It plans to close 29 schools and give three more to charters, and officials have said they expect no teacher layoffs.

AM News: Obama's New Competitive Grant Program for H.S. Improvement In Progress

Grant Contest to Aid High Schools Still Work in Progress EdWeek: Mr. Obama in his Feb. 12 State of the Union speech floated the idea of offering a new competitive-grant program for high school improvement that could help schools partner with businesses and postsecondary institutions. He has yet to put a price tag on the program or offer specifics, such as how large grants would be and for how many years. White House aides said such details would likely be released along with the president's budget plan in the coming weeks.

Sequestration and Education: 12 Frequently Asked Questions PoliticsK12: Sequestration is a series of across-the-board cuts to a broad range of federal programs, including those in the U.S. Department of Education, set to hit the government on Friday, March 1, unless Congress and the Obama administration make a last-ditch effort to stop them. Programs in the U.S. Department of Education would be cut by about 5.3 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Arcane Rules That Keep Low-Income Kids Out of College Atlantic: The communication barriers extend in all directions: The federal and state government bureaucrats little fathom the complexities of low-income students' home lives. But the students, most of them first-generation college aspirants, often do not understand what a "loan" or "interest rate" means--much less how to make sure they maximize their TOPS and Pell Grant payouts if they qualify for both.

Mathematica 2013 Study: KIPP Charter School Students Outperform Public School Peers HuffPostEdu: The study, conducted by independent research firm Mathematica, is the most rigorous research showing that the Knowledge Is Power Program, an acclaimed national chain of charter schools, provides a significant learning boost to middle school students in multiple subjects. It also found that while KIPP serves more low-income students than public school peers, it serves fewer special education students and English language learners.

Teachers Say They Are Unprepared for Common Core EdWeek: Even as the Common Core State Standards are being put into practice across most of the country, nearly half of teachers feel unprepared to teach them, especially to disadvantaged students, according to a new survey. The study by the EPE Research Center, an arm of Editorial Projects in Education, the publisher of Education Week , found deep wells of concern among teachers about their readiness to meet the challenges posed by the common core in English/language arts and mathematics.

Columbus State Education Department Program Probes Data "Scrubbing" By Schools ColumbusDispatch: The state department is releasing official district and school report cards for the 2011-12 school year today, about six months late, because of a statewide investigation into data-rigging. But for districts that cheated, report cards for the past two years could be re-calculated after the department reviews their data.

Columbus City Schools and eight other Ohio districts are now under investigation by the Ohio Department of Education for misrepresenting student enrollment data, meaning they could lose funding and educators who cheated could lose their licenses.

The department is releasing official district and school report cards for the 2011-12 school year today, about six months late, because of a statewide investigation into data rigging. But for districts that cheated, report cards for the past two years could be recalculated after the department reviews their data.

- See more at: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/02/27/ohio-department-probes-scrubbing.html#sthash.sDg7IRvH.dpuf

State education department probes data ‘scrubbing’ by schools - See more at: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/02/27/ohio-department-probes-scrubbing.html#sthash.sDg7IRvH.dpuf

State education department probes data ‘scrubbing’ by schools - See more at: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/02/27/ohio-department-probes-scrubbing.html#sthash.sDg7IRvH.dpuf

AM News: Federal Grant Will Place 650 AmeriCorps Volunteers in Low-Performing Schools

New AmeriCorps Program to Put Volunteers in Low-Performing Schools PoliticsK12: Arne Duncan told participants at the Building a Grad Nation Summit today that a $15 million grant over three years will place AmeriCorps volunteers in persistently underachieving schools around the country. AmeriCorps is managed by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, which in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education plans to place 650 volunteers each year in 60 rural and urban schools.

All Chicago Public Schools will offer full-day kindergarten ChicagoSun-Times: All Chicago Public Schools will provide full-day kindergarten under an initiative Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett will announce Monday. Currently, the city’s public schools have the option of offering full-day kindergarten — rather than the minimum half-day required by state law — and most do. Next school year, they will be required to provide the full-day program, according to the mayor’s office.

More Mergers for NEA, AFT Affiliates Joining N. Dakota and Wisconsin EdWeek: The movement is notable not only as the latest sign of attempts by the teachers' unions to marshal their forces during a period of uncertainty in the profession and, indeed, the labor movement, but also for the different contexts in which the mergers are occurring. North Dakota's merger took place in a state that has been relatively unscathed by the recent recession or anti-union legislation. In Wisconsin, membership has fallen in the wake of laws passed in 2011 curbing collective bargaining for most public employees.

High School Drop-Outs Cost 1.8 Billion Every Year  AP: High school dropouts are costing some $1.8 billion in lost tax revenue every year, education advocates said in a report released Monday.If states were to increase their graduation rates, state and federal lawmakers could be plugging their budgets with workers' taxes instead of furloughing teachers, closing drivers-license offices and cutting unemployment benefits.

Capitol Hill education consultant helps parents navigate D.C. school choice WashingtonPost: When Capitol Hill mom E.V. Downey went into business as an education consultant, she thought she’d cater to parents angling for advice on admission to private schools. Instead, almost all of her clients are clamoring for help getting their children into a good D.C. public school. It’s a sign of the times in the District, where a thriving charter-school movement and a commitment to public pre-kindergarten have given rise to more education options — and more parental angst and competition — than ever before.

Story Follows Chicago High School Where 29 Students Were Shot Last Year ThisAmericanLife: We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances.

AM News: White House Prepares States for Across-the-Board Federal Cuts

White House Estimates Impact of Across-the-Board Cuts by State PoliticsK12: School districts all around the country are bracing for an across-the-board cut in federal funds, set to go into effect on Friday, unless lawmakers and the Obama administration are able to come to some kind of agreement to head them off. The cuts would impact just about every federal program under the sun, from the U.S. Department of Education to the Pentagon and the Justice Department.

Watchdog Gnaws On Foundation With Jeb Bush Ties EdWeek: Correspondence between former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's K-12 advocacy organization and state education leaders—obtained and publicized by a privatization-watchdog group—has renewed debate over the extent to which the private sector can benefit by gaining access to government officials, and markets, through nonprofit advocacy groups.

Arne Duncan urges NYC officials and union bosses to reach deal on teacher evaluations NYPost: President Obama’s education czar personally urged New York officials and union bosses to break their stalemate and adopt a more rigorous teacher-evaluation system. “I just think it’s important for all the adults to work together,” US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a visit to a high school on Governors Island yesterday. “Everyone’s got to compromise. Everyone’s got to find common ground — and I really hope that’s where New York will get.”

Powell Foundation Report: High School Graduation Rate In U.S. On Pace To Reach 90 Percent By 2020 HuffPostEdu: Despite the constantly gloomy rhetoric about the state of America's schools, U.S. students are steadily improving by at least one metric -- for the first time, the nation is making enough progress in graduating from high school to reach the goal of 90 percent graduation by 2020, according to a new report to be released Monday.

Lessons from pre-k that works: Will Mississippi’s children finally move ahead? HechingerReport: Before Quitman County Elementary School in this rural Delta community started a pre-k program three years ago, only 38 percent of the school’s students were scoring at grade level on a national reading test.  Last year, nearly 60 percent of students were at or above the national average. The pre-k program, which serves about 40 children a year, is funded through a combination of private grants and federal money given to the school district.

AM News: Arne Duncan Speaks on Waivers, Sequestration, and Armed Teachers

Arne Duncan On NCLB Waivers, Sequestration, Common Core PoliticsK12: In a wide-ranging, hourlong interview today with a small group of national reporters, Duncan said he met with some of the "CORE" California superintendents yesterday to discuss their waiver request—as my colleague Lesli Maxwell reported yesterday. The CORE is a group of 10 districts, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, that are moving ahead with reforms their state is slow to embrace (such as the common core and new teacher evaluations).

Arne Duncan: Armed Teachers Proposals Are 'A Marketing Opportunity' For Gun Industry HuffPostEdu: People who say that teachers want to carry weapons are just pushing "a marketing opportunity," according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "The vast majority of teachers have spoken pretty loudly and said they're not interested in being armed, so that's a red herring," Duncan said at a small Thursday morning meeting with reporters at the U.S. Education Department. "It's an opportunity to sell more guns, that's a marketing opportunity, it's not serious."

In California, thousands of teachers missing needed credentials HechingerReport: Every year in California, public school administrators assign thousands of teachers to classes for which they lack the credentials or legal authorization to teach. Untrained teachers have been assigned to a variety of difficult classes, including those filled with English-language learners and others with special intellectual and physical needs. Or, in Parker’s case, to teach social studies when they’re credentialed for biology.

Survey: Washington 'Insiders' Pessimistic About Common Tests CurriculumMatters: Since it isn't nationally representative, the survey is notable less as a reflection of general sentiment than for the way it tracks those "Washington insiders'" views across time. And the latest findings show a downward trend in warm-and-fuzzy vibes about the two federally funded test-design groups, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC.

Test Scores of Hispanics Vary Widely Across 5 Most Populous States, Analysis Shows NYT: Of all the changes sweeping through the American public education system, one of the most significant is simply demographic: the growing population of Hispanic students. A new analysis released Thursday of nationwide test results in the five most populous states — California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas — shows that depending on where they live, Hispanic students’ academic performance varies widely.

Weighing Prospect of Changes in Graduation Requirements TexasTribune: Following backlash over the rocky institution of a new student assessment system last spring, Texas lawmakers are scrambling to scale back the requirements they passed four years ago. As the Legislature tackles such reform, attention is also focused on another area of education policy: high school graduation requirements.

AM News: Nationwide AP Scores Up, Reversing Stagnation

AP Scores Up, Reversing Stagnation WSJ: The average score on Advanced Placement exams increased last year for the first time in a decade, according to data released Wednesday by the College Board. The rise was slight—the nation's public-school graduating class of 2012 posted an average score of 2.83 out of 5, compared with 2.80 for 2011. However, it marked a change from years of declining or stagnating scores, which educators have attributed to the growing number of students taking the tests, many of them less well prepared. 

Teacher Survey Shows Record Low Job Satisfaction In 2012 HuffPostEdu:  As school districts continued to cut budgets, increase class sizes, and implement teacher performance evaluations, teachers' job satisfaction plummeted in 2012, reaching an all-time low, according to a survey released Thursday. 

Florida Contemplates 'Backup' Tests for Common Core CurriculumMatters: One of the most visible cheerleaders for the common standards and assessments says that his state needs a contingency plan in case the tests are not ready. At his first meeting with the state board of education since becoming commissioner of education in Florida, Tony Bennett told panelists that he will develop a plan for a statewide testing system for 2014-15 in case the common assessments being developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, aren't ready as promised.

Survey Finds Rising Job Frustration Among Principals EdWeek: A new national survey finds that three out of four K-12 public school principals, regardless of the types of schools they work in, believe the job has become “too complex,” and about a third say they are likely to go into a different occupation within next five years.

New York Times Wants High Schoolers to Document Their Experiences NYT: Well, just as the Farm Security Administration unleashed a team of photographers to chronicle the United States in the 1930s, Lens is beginning a new interactive project called “My Hometown.” In the coming months, we are asking high school students to help create a 21st century portrait of America, turning their cameras on their neighborhoods, families, friends and schools. 

AM News: Federal Education-Equity Commission Urges Swift State & Federal Action

Education panel: To close achievement gap, urgent state, federal action needed WashingtonPost: While the federal government pays about 10 percent of the cost of public education, about half comes from states and 40 percent comes from local communities. The commission urged states and the federal government to send more tax dollars to high-poverty schools to compensate for the imbalance in local funding. But it stopped short of recommending a new way to fund schools that does not rely so heavily on property taxes.

Federal Commission Urges Bold Steps to Boost Education Equity PoliticsK12: A federally appointed education-equity commission is proposing a five-pronged agenda for states and the federal government to help the 22 percent of children living in poverty and eliminate what the commission calls a "staggering" achievement gap. Three years in the making, the new report released today stems from a 2010 congressional directive to the U.S. Department of Education, which created the Equity and Excellence Commission. 

Charter Schools' Discipline Policies Face Scrutiny EdWeek: As the number of charter schools continues to grow, one facet of their autonomy—the ability to set and enforce independent disciplinary standards—has raised difficult questions about whether those schools are pushing out students who pose behavior or academic challenges and how their policies affect regular public schools.

Teachers training teachers: It works in California school district NBCNews: Jandella Faulkner is a teaching coach in the Long Beach, Calif., school district. Her job is to train a select group of teachers at Edison Elementary, including Jennifer Larsen, in a new literacy curriculum called Write From The Beginning.  It’s part of a district-wide training system that relies on teachers working with each other to improve classroom practices. 

'Warnings From the Trenches' InsideHigherEd: Part swan song, part favor for a friend, Ken Bernstein’s letter to college professors upon his retirement from teaching high school government is generating buzz in higher education. Called “Warnings From the Trenches," the piece alerts professors to the generation of No-Child-Left-Behinders they’ve begun to inherit in their classrooms and what standardized test-driven K-12 educations will mean for college-level teaching and learning.

AM News: Wisconsin Governor's Voucher Plan Even Divides Republicans

Wisconsin Governor's voucher plan angers public school backers AP: Gov. Scott Walker's plan to expand the private school voucher program statewide, while not allowing public school spending to increase, drew a raft of angry responses Monday from those who fear his budget leaves public school students behind. The debate over Walker's public education funding proposal and desire to grow alternatives such as private school vouchers is likely to be one of the fiercest in the Statehouse this year, even dividing Republicans who control the Legislature.

In Mississippi, private money and strong principals boost struggling schools HechingerReport: Quitman County Elementary is one of four Mississippi schools participating in the Barksdale Reading Institute’s latest effort to improve literacy in the state. Three years ago, it reached agreements with Quitman, Crenshaw Elementary in Panola County, Williams-Sullivan in Holmes County and Hazlehurst. It would find and fund top-tier principals for those schools and provide various staff and materials. The schools would provide autonomy to their new leaders.

Gym Class Isn’t Just Fun and Games Anymore NYT: Spurred by an intensifying focus on student test scores in math and English as well as a desire to incorporate more health and fitness information, more school districts are pushing physical education teachers to move beyond soccer, kickball and tennis to include reading, writing and arithmetic as well.

Cyber-Bullying Law Shields Teachers From Student Tormentors NPR: Ganging up on classmates online can get students suspended. But sometimes teachers are the target of cyber-bullying and in North Carolina, educators have said enough is enough. State officials have now made it a crime to "intimidate or torment" teachers online. "It's the first statute that exposes 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds to potential criminal sanctions for a dumb mistake they make, something stupid they say," says Chris Brook of the ACLU of North Carolina, who adds the law is too broad.

Special Report: How charter schools get students they want Reuters: Charters are public schools, funded by taxpayers and widely promoted as open to all. But Reuters has found that across the United States, charters aggressively screen student applicants, assessing their academic records, parental support, disciplinary history, motivation, special needs and even their citizenship, sometimes in violation of state and federal law.

Schools wrangle with tolerance for kids faking gunplay USAToday: Kids with active imaginations? Or potential threats to school safety? Some school officials are taking the latter view, suspending or threatening to suspend small children over behavior their parents consider perfectly normal and age-appropriate — even now, with schools in a state of heightened sensitivity following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in December.

AM News: Mandatory School Age Bill Seeks to "Modernize" Washington State Law

Mandatory School Age Bill In Washington State Contains Loopholes AP: Washington is one of only two states that don't require kids to start their formal educations before turning 8. A measure gaining traction in the state Legislature would push that age to 6, but a loophole would exempt kids whose parents say they are homeschooled. Rep. Marcie Maxwell, D-Renton, House Bill 1283's sponsor, said her reason for introducing it is simple: Society has changed since the early 20th century, when the current rules were created, and our laws should reflect that.

Will Obama’s early childhood plan actually work? How? HechingerReport: The speech produced joy – and skepticism. “President Obama is trying, against great odds, to do something for 4-year-olds,” noted New York Times columnist Gail Collins, who pointed out that other presidents have tried and failed, while “working parents of every economic level scramble madly to find quality programs for their preschoolers, while the waiting lines for poor families looking for subsidized programs stretch on into infinity.”

NYC Schools Ask: Gifted or Just Well-Prepared? NYT: When the New York City Education Department announced that it was changing part of its admissions exam for its gifted and talented programs last year, in part to combat the influence of test preparation companies, one of those companies posted the news with links to guides and practice tests for the new assessment.

R.I. Students Gaining 'Badges,' Credits Outside School EdWeek: Many schools encourage students to get real-world experience outside school walls. But very few offer course credit and digital "badges"—virtual records of skills and achievements—for those experiences. Now, the Providence, R.I., school district is in the middle of an initiative that appears to be breaking new ground in giving academic credit and recognizing skills and achievements out of school.

Armed Educators a Reality in Some Schools, Debated in Others EdWeek: While many national organizations have rejected the idea, it is now being seriously weighed by some school boards and state lawmakers across the nation. The actionwouldn’t be without precedent: In Utah, school employees have been able to carry concealed weapons onto campus for about a decade—without telling a soul—and at least four Texas school districts are known to have granted select employees permission to take concealed weapons to school.

AM News: Can Obama Sell Universal Preschool Plan to the GOP?

Can Obama Sell Universal Preschool to the GOP? Atlantic: The policy would guarantee preschool for 4-year-olds whose families earn 200 percent of the federal poverty level or less, and Obama framed it in a way to appeal to Republicans: It saves money. But as with all of Obama's proposals from the State of the Union that weren't executive orders, the question is not whether it's a good idea so much as whether it can pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Conservatives Skeptical of Expanding Preschool and Federal Role NYT: Despite the outlines of a plan that White House officials said would use federal money in support of state-based preschool programs, conservatives said they were suspicious that it would be a foot in the door toward more big government. They also said there was little evidence that large-scale preschool programs do much good for children in the long run.

Obama's Preschool Program Would Target Low-Income 4-Year Olds AP: Obama also proposed letting communities and child care providers compete for grants to serve children 3 and younger, starting from birth. And once a state has established its program for 4-year-olds, it can use funds from the program to offer full-day kindergarten, the plan says.

'Big Three' Publishers Rethink K-12 Strategies EdWeek: The push continues for school districts to move away from paper textbooks and toward digital curricula and e-textbooks. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged educators last year to move quickly to adopt digital textbooks and materials. Also last year, the Federal Communications Commission and the Education Department released a report, the "Digital Textbook Playbook," which provided a blueprint for schools to make the shift.

Utah High School Reverses Policy, Allows Same-Sex Valentines HuffPost: A Utah high school has reversed course this week, after controversy arose over a potential ban on same-sex Valentine's Day messages. The issue at Copper Hills High arose earlier this month, when members of the school's choir handed out fliers announcing that there would be "No Same-sex Delivery" of their singing Valentines, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.

AM News: White House Releases Details About Preschool Expansion Funding Mechanism

Plans to Expand Preschool Unveiled WSJ: The Obama administration's plan to expand preschool would send federal dollars to states that agree to certain conditions, such as adopting small class sizes, rigorous curricula and assessments for youngsters, according to details released Thursday. The plan, to be formally unveiled by the president at a Georgia preschool center, would also include additional money to expand high-quality programs that prepare infants and toddlers for pre-kindergarten.

White House Gives Outline of Early-Childhood Ed. Expansion Plan PoliticsK12: While the financing mechanism still remains somewhat cloudy, the White House put forward additional details this morning about just how the effort would work. Much of the funding would appear to come from states, through a partnership arrangement with the federal government. But the administration also wants to beef up other services for very young children and babies, including home visits from social workers and nurses, although it doesn't say just how much that expansion would cost.

Few States Look to Extend Preschool to All 4-Year-Olds NYT: While supporters herald the plan as a way to help level the playing field for children who do not have the advantages of daily bedtime stories, music lessons and counting games at home, critics argue that providing universal preschool could result in federal money being squandered on ineffective programs.

Feds Want Answers From Florida After Tutoring Dollars Go To Crooks, Cheaters TampaBay: Lax oversight of Florida's mandated tutoring program has allowed federal tax dollars to flow into the hands of cheaters and criminals, a Times investigation found. Now federal education officials are asking for an explanation from the state Department of Education. As first reported today by Education Week's Michele McNeil, the feds called the newspaper's findings "serious and troubling."

For first time, a ‘parent trigger’ without a hitch Hechinger: On a 7- 0 vote, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday afternoon quickly approved a petition to overhaul 24th Street Elementary through a “restart model” under California’s Parent Empowerment Act of 2010. The so-called parent trigger law enables parents to organize and force major reforms on underperforming schools, from firing the principal and half the staff to ceding control to a charter operator.

AM News: Obama Proposes Major Preschool Expansion and RTT Spin-Off in State of the Union Address

Obama Urges Preschool Expansion and RTT Spin-Off in State of the Union Speech PoliticsK12: President Barack Obama called on Congress in his State of the Union address to significantly expand access to preschool to all 4-year-olds from moderate- and low-income families, and to create a new spin-off of his Race to the Top program aimed at pushing high schools to adopt curricula that better prepare students for the jobs of the future.

State Of The Union Proposes Major Preschool Expansion HuffPostEdu: The initiative comes after states have cut preschool budgets by an average of $700 per child over the last decade and as mounting evidence shows the importance of quality preschool in closing the achievement gap for low-income students. Though the president's proposal is short on details, several education advocates expect it will ultimately look something like a suggestion floated in the Center for American Progress' recent report that the federal government create a new pre-kindergarten program partly paid for with state matching funds of $10,000 per student.

Students Must Learn More Words, Say Studies EdWeek: Children who enter kindergarten with a small vocabulary don't get taught enough words—particularly, sophisticated academic words—to close the gap, according to the latest in a series of studies by Michigan early-learning experts. The findings suggest many districts could be at a disadvantage in meeting the increased requirements for vocabulary learning from the Common Core State Standards.

Michigan Wants Wider Control of Its Schools WSJ: State leaders in Michigan are again looking to expand an education initiative that takes poor-performing schools out of local hands and bands them together in a single statewide district with a less-structured curriculum and a nonunion workforce. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder launched the Education Achievement Authority last September, empowering it to take over 15 schools in Detroit, where the state runs the district through an emergency manager.

Online Dating for Teachers: Finding the Right Classroom Dowser: If online dating works so well for people looking for love and happiness, maybe the same concept can apply to people looking for other types of fulfillment, say maybe even teachers looking for the right school to work at, and educators looking to hire the right teacher for their school. myEDmatch, an education technology start-up based in Kansas City, is using the same principle behind online dating to create a matching service for teachers and schools.

AM News: Obama's Big Speech Might Say Little About K-12

Watching for Education Themes in the State of the Union Speech PoliticsK12: It remains to be seen how often—and how specifically—education will come up in President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address tonight, which many advocates and observers speculate will touch on early-childhood education and college access, among other issues.

Obama Speech Lays Out Next Goals WSJ: Obama administration officials also have signaled plans to focus on the "bookends" of education—early childhood and college—during the second term. Education leaders say they expect Tuesday's address to underscore those priorities.

Education Content In State Of The Union Likely To Focus On Littlest Learners HuffPost: In January, The Huffington Post first reported that the White House was weighing a major, long-term plan to boost early education slots for low and middle-income families. At the time, a senior official told HuffPost that she didn't want to get out in front of Obama on the issue. But since then, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said new investments in early education will be a second-term priority -- and many expect this new emphasis to feature in the State of the Union address.

Will White House finally push funding for early childhood education? Hechinger Report: A desire for more federal investment in early childhood education is one reason why experts are anxiously awaiting President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday. So far, the Obama administration has yet to officially release any statement on the president’s early childhood plans or agenda. Stay tuned.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan cancels Monday night fourm in Providence The Providence Journal: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has cancelled his appearance Monday night at Classical High School due to inclement weather. Duncan was supposed to lead a discussion about school and gun violence, beginning at 6 p.m.

Teachers And Students Try Out Longer School Days NPR: Kids may not like the idea of extending the average six-hour school day, but some educators and politicians do. They are experimenting with ways to increase enrichment classes and make it affordable for school districts.

As CPS mulls school closings, study finds city already has plenty of vacant school buildings Sun Times: Chicago has moved from leasing its empty buildings to aggressively marketing them for sale, but unlike many of the other 11 districts Pew studied, Chicago isn’t selling to charters any longer, Pew researcher Emily Dowdall said, adding “They’re concerned that the growth of charters could lead to empty seats down the road.”

Hawaii Gets Partway Out of Race to Top Doghouse Politics K12: The U.S. Department of Education has removed part of Hawaii's $75 million Race to the Top grant from "high-risk status" after the state showed progress hitting milestones in two areas: standards and assessments, and data systems.

AM News: Senator Urges Feds to "Get out of the Way" As NCLB Hearings Drag On

Holding States and Schools Accountable NYT: At a Senate education committee hearing on Thursday to discuss waivers to states on some provisions of the law, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, forcefully urged the federal government to get out of the way. “We only give you 10 percent of your money,” said Mr. Alexander, pressing John B. King Jr., the education commissioner for New York State. 

Five Important Questions About NCLB Waiver Implementation PoliticsK12: After yesterday's Senate hearing on the Obama administration's No Child Left Behind waivers, three state chiefs gathered to talk about the nitty-gritty: How these waivers are playing out in their states. New Jersey's Chris Cerf, New York's John King, and Kentucky's Terry Holliday headlined this one-hour fireside chat hosted by the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Pupil Assignments Get Another Look in Boston EdWeek: In Boston, a city where the struggle to desegregate public education through large-scale busing has left deep scars, school leaders are, once again, grappling with new ways of assigning students to schools that are closer to home. At the same time, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who controls Boston's 57,000-student school system, is pushing a slate of state legislative changes he says are necessary to ensure that every neighborhood in the city can offer enough viable schooling options. 

Teachers' Ratings Still High Despite New Measures EdWeek: Results in Tennessee and Georgia, among the first trickling out from states' newly revamped yardsticks, paint a picture of a K-12 system that remains hesitant to differentiate between the best and the weakest performers—as well as among all those in the middle doing a solid job who still have room to improve.

Rise Early And Shine: Teachers And Students Try Out Longer School Days NPR: That "plain old reading and writing" is what educators call academic time. Advocates for longer school days say kids do best when you increase a blend of enrichment classes with straight academic time, and also extra collaboration time for teachers.

AM News: Senators Scrutinize Waivers and ESEA Renewal

Waivers and ESEA Renewal Get Hard Look From Senators PoliticsK12: Now that the Obama administration has issued more than 30 waivers to help states get relief from parts of the No Child Left Behind Act, should Congress decide to get moving on the long-overdue reauthorization of the law, or step back for a while and allow waivers to take hold in states, and then learn from them? And which policies put in place by the waivers should lawmakers incorporate into a new version of the law?

Arne Duncan Defends No Child Left Behind Waivers In Senate Committee Hearing HuffPostEdu: Duncan said the federal government is committed to staying out of educational issues best negotiated by states. "We don't specify the content of academic standards or negotiate teacher contracts," Duncan said in his testimony. "We do have a responsibility to set a high bar to protect the interests of students … but how to reach that bar, I believe, should be left to states."

Center For American Progress Proposes Preschool-For-All Plan AP: The Center for American Progress proposal, released Thursday, provides a road map for how the Obama administration could move forward with pre-kindergarten programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds. For families with younger children, federal subsidies for child care would increase to an average $7,200 per child and the number of students in Early Head Start programs would double.

A Long Struggle for Equality in Tuscon Schools NYT: A federal judge approved a plan on Wednesday intended to lift a longstanding desegregation order that has served as a reason and an excuse for a lot that has gone wrong in the district over the past decades: shrinking enrollment, sliding graduation rates and insistent dropout rates.

Construction Starts School Inside NYC Housing Development WSJ: Developers plan to break ground Thursday on a new school and affordable housing development tucked in East Harlem’s Washington Houses, part of a larger effort by the city to sell underdeveloped pockets of land in public housing complexes to private builders. That represented a perfect opportunity for Harlem RBI, which had been looking hard for a permanent home for its school. 

AM News: Obama's Ally Attacks Him on Waivers During NCLB Hearing

No Child Left Behind Hearing Features Waiver Attack By Obama Ally HuffPostEdu: Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust -- an influential lobbying and advocacy group that has long backed President Barack Obama -- is coming out against the direction of the waivers, saying some allow states to shortchange underprivileged students, according to the text of remarks she was to make at a congressional hearing on Thursday.

Boston Leader Connects Parents to Learning EdWeek: Brooks is credited with strategically aligning Boston's parent-engagement efforts with the district's academic goals, which moved the work of her office from a peripheral activity to one that is central to the needs of the district's 57,000 students and their families.

NYC Schools beef up security after Sandy Hook Riverdale: The Department of Education already required public schools under its purview to practice “soft” lockdowns, in which security personnel and administrators man a command post because no imminent danger has been detected; “hard” lockdowns, in which every member of the school community avoids an intruder; “shelter-ins,” in which staff lock entrances and exits to keep students from imaginary dangers, and evacuations.

A Hospital Offers a Grisly Lesson on Gun Violence NYT: In a darkened Phildelphia classroom, 15 eighth graders gasped as a photograph appeared on the screen in front of them. It showed a dead man whose jaw had been destroyed by a shotgun blast, leaving the lower half of his face a shapeless, bloody mess.

African Americans Fly High With Math And Science NPR: This Black History Month, Tell Me More is taking a look at African Americans in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) who are inspiring future generations. Today, Barrington Irving shares how his sky high dreams became a reality. A chance encounter in his parents' bookstore put him on a path that would make him the youngest person and first African American to fly solo around the world.

AM News: Obama Calls For Congress to Halt Automatic Cuts to Education Spending

Obama to Congress: Halt Automatic Cuts to Federal Education Spending PoliticsK12: President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to temporarily delay a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts set to hit federal K-12 education spending—as well as defense, criminal justice, and a whole host of other programs—on March 1. Obama is putting forward a package of tax changes and spending cuts intended to buy some time so that lawmakers can come up with a broader agreement on spending.

With Texas School Finance System Unconstitutional, A Fix May Bring Big Price Tag AP: "We would have to modernize our tax system," said Scott McCown, executive director of the progressive think tank the Center for Public Policy Priorities. He said finding even the additional revenue Dietz suggested would mean applying the state sales tax to services and collecting more business taxes. Indeed, $10 billion is more than the state has recently collected annually from its entire business tax.

D.C. Council bill would make cheating on standardized tests illegal WashingtonPost: Cheating on standardized tests in the District would be illegal under a bill introduced in the D.C. Council, and a teacher or principal found guilty of violating the law would lose his professional license and face a fine of thousands of dollars.

Cincinnati school model catches on in New York Enquirer: Community Learning Centers aren’t unique to Cincinnati. More than 5,000 exist nationwide. But Cincinnati’s model, devised in 2001 and improved in the years since, has garnered the attention of visitors as far away as Hawaii and Australia. Its most recent claim to fame came in September when the nearly 1 million-student New York City school district announced it would pilot its own Community Learning Centers based primarily on what it saw in Cincinnati.

Competitions Connect Tech. Startups With K-12 Educators EdWeek: Now, some state and local education agencies are bringing an age-old concept—competitions—to unfamiliar environments and audiences in an effort to close what they see as a disconnect between ed-tech developers and schools. The goal is to encourage technology entrepreneurs and companies to think more closely about how they can craft products to meet the specific demands of schools.

Connecticut State Board Of Education May Slow Roll-Out Of New Evaluation System Courant: The state Board of Education is expected to consider a recommendation Wednesday to allow school districts to more slowly phase in a new teacher evaluation system for staff this coming fall. "This approach enables districts to implement the evaluation system in a flexible way, one that will increase confidence at the local level and decrease anxiety," about the new system, Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said. "The idea will be to ramp up implementation for all certified staff in every school the following year.

AM News: Judge Rules Texas School-Funding Method Unconstitutional

Texas: School Financing System Is Ruled Unconstitutional AP: The system Texas uses to finance public schools violates the state’s Constitution by not providing enough money to districts and failing to distribute the money fairly, a judge ruled Monday in a decision that could force the Legislature to overhaul school financing.

Test Boycott Puts Seattle Teachers in National Spotlight EdWeek: Since a group of Seattle high school teachers decided to boycott administration of a computerized exam in December, their protest has been embraced by opponents of high-stakes testing as a call to nationwide action. Teachers at Garfield High School, however, portray their protest as narrowly focused against one particular test used by their district—the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP—not against assessments in general, high-stakes or otherwise.

Arne Duncan, Mayors, College Groups Push Gun Control PoliticsK12: For the second time in recent weeks, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today attended an event aimed at promoting gun control measures in the wake of the massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last December.

L.A.'s first Hebrew-language charter school raises questions LATimes: Lashon Academy is to teach modern Hebrew, have no religious component and aim for a diverse student body. But some worry that dual-language charters blur the line between public and private schools.

States Lack Data on Principals, Study Says EdWeek: The Dallas-based George W. Bush Institute was expected to release an analysis of all 50 states' principal policies and related data collections in Washington this week. It finds that even states with otherwise comprehensive longitudinal-data systems collect limited information about principals, particularly on their preparation.

AM News: GOP Leaders Pressure Arne Duncan on D.C. Voucher "Roadblocks"

GOP Leaders Press Arne Duncan on D.C. Voucher Program PoliticsK12: Top GOP lawmakers on K-12 issues in the U.S. House of Representatives—including U.S. Rep. John Kline, the chairman of the education committee—are worried that the Obama administration has been throwing "roadblocks" when it comes to student participation in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, which helps low-income students in the nation's capital cover the cost of private school.

Pressure Mounts in Some States Against Common Core EdWeek: Critics of the common core have focused recent lobbying and media efforts on Colorado, Idaho, and Indiana, all of which have signed on to the standards. Forty-six states have adopted the standards in English/language arts, and 45 have done so in math.

Minn. Superintendent Pioneered ELL Reforms EdWeek: As the director of the district's ELL programs from 1998 to 2006, Silva oversaw one of the most dramatic shake-ups of instruction for English-language learners in any major school system at the time. She dismantled the district's use of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) centers, where beginning English-learners were taught separately from their native English-speaking peers for up to two years, and put ELLs directly into mainstream classrooms.

Michelle Rhee: I Wish I Had Paid More Attention to Test Security in D.C. NYT: "My initial reaction was, Well, the investigation showed nothing. I was frustrated that people couldn’t accept that a district of largely low-income kids of color had the ability to grow a lot in a short period of time. In retrospect, what I know is that you have to ensure that you’re doing everything possible when there are allegations of wrongdoing."

Carrot Juice Instead Of Coke? USDA Proposes New School Snack Rules NPR: The Department of Agriculture has proposed a new "Smart Snacks in School" rule that aims to promote more healthful options in school vending machines, snack bars and cafeterias across the country. The USDA's updated regulations, which are open to public comment for 60 days, will set nutrition standards and calorie limits for snack foods that are sold in schools.

In a Memphis Cheating Ring, the Teachers Are the Accused NYT: In addition to the senior Mr. Mumford, eight people have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the investigation into the ring, and on Friday, a federal prosecutor, John Fabian, announced that 18 people who confessed to paying Mr. Mumford to arrange test-takers for them had been barred from teaching for five years.

AM News: Race to Top Progress Report Spotlights Struggles in D.C., Georgia, & Maryland

Race to Top Winners Make Progress, Face Challenges, Ed. Dept. Reports EdWeek: Education Department officials say they are most worried about three recipients for which second-year performance took a nose dive: the District of Columbia, Georgia, and Maryland. Georgia and Maryland have both struggled with implementing their teacher-evaluation systems, while the District of Columbia’s sluggish pace on school turnarounds means it has only worked with one persistently low-achieving school with its grant funds so far.

Race to Top Progress Report: Georgia, D.C., Maryland Flounder PoliticsK12: The second annual progress report on the $4 billion Race to the Top program reveals that the majority of winners are struggling in two areas: implementing teacher- and principal-evaluation systems, and building and upgrading sophisticated data systems that will do everything from inform classroom lessons to identify students at risk of academic failure.

GOP Players in Congress Step Forward on K-12 EdWeek: Two Republicans have ascended to key education roles in a Congress with a lot on its plate when it comes K-12 policy and spending: U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who has a long record on school issues, and Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana, a relative newcomer to Washington.

Skepticism of for-profit companies managing public schools HechingerReport: JACKSON, Miss. — When state officials here tried last year to recruit a for-profit company to manage schools in rural Tate County, the community outcry was swift. Concerned residents spoke out in the media, argued their case to lawmakers and circulated a petition against the “privatization” of Tate County Schools.

Ohio Governor Seeks to Expand Voucher Plan ColumbusDispatch: Administration officials stressed that under the plan no school district would receive less state aid than it did this year. That means a number of districts will remain on what is known as a “guarantee” – meaning they get more money than the formula otherwise says they should get. 

Massachusetts school districts turn to public relations aides when trouble surfaces BostonGlobe: Suburban school districts are increasingly turning to public relations professionals to manage crises and help them communicate with parents and residents, often at a cost of thousands of dollars to taxpayers.

AM News: Charter School Report Casts Doubt on Obama's Education Policy

Charter School Report Casts Doubt on Obama's Education Policy  HuffPostEdu: The report, "Charter School Growth and Replications," found that, with some exceptions, charter schools that start strong are likely to stay that way, just as low-performing schools usually remain at the bottom. The study ranked charter schools within five levels based on performance, and found that 80 percent of schools in the bottom level during their first year remained there for five years. 

Fresh Wave of Head Start Centers Told to Recompete for Aid EdWeek: The announcement that a new wave of more than 100 Head Start grantees will need to recompete for their federal funding has redoubled attention on the federal government's efforts to ensure the effectiveness of the $8 billion preschool program that serves about 1 million low-income children.

Race, the UFT & NYC’s top schools NewYorkPost: The union’s delegate assembly voted last month to support a lawsuit that would destroy New York City’s top academic high schools. The suit by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund aims to throw out the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test, which it claims discriminates against Hispanic and black students.

Cuomo: State Might Impose Evaluations WSJ: State officials will impose their own job evaluation system on New York City's teachers if a deal isn't reached soon between the union and the city, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.

School Shooting Drills: How Realistic Should They Be? AP: While the end of the Cold War removed the duck-and-cover exercises that had students crouching beneath desks under threat of an atomic bomb, the intent is the same: to protect against the unimaginable. But not all experts agree on how realistic the exercises need to be.

A Decade of Writers Promoting Reading at Public Schools WSJ: Behind the Book, a not-for-profit literacy organization that works with New York City's underserved public schools, celebrated its 10th year anniversary with a cocktail party and fundraiser on Tuesday evening in Midtown. The organization brings local authors into K-12 classrooms to work directly with students.

AM News: Debate about School Closings and Charter Schools Rages On

Activists to U.S. Education Department: Stop school closings now WashingtonPost: Activists fighting school closings across the country converged at the U.S. Education Department on Tuesday to demand federal action to stop the shutdowns, which they say disproportionately affect poor and minority students. In a raucous meeting, parents, community organizers and students from as far away as California detailed how school closings are disrupting lives and destabilizing neighborhoods.

Charter advocates rally as school-closing critics pack meetings ChicagoTribune: As opponents of school closings in Chicago pack community meetings this week to make their voice heard, charter school advocates took part in a rally Tuesday at Union Station to draw attention to their call for greater school choice.The rally was part of a cross-country tour organized by the coalition behind National School Choice Week. The local organizer, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, used the occasion to fire up parents who it says want access to higher-quality schools.

School Board Members to Arne Duncan: Back Off PoliticsK12: For the most part, school board members didn't want to hear about his agenda. Instead, they sent a clear message: Your policies continue to overreach into our territory. (They voiced similar complaints about federal overreach last year, and fought with him over mayoral control of schools in 2010.)

Union Backs 'Bar Exam' For Teachers NPR: The system for preparing and licensing teachers in the U.S. is in such disarray that the American Federation of Teachers is proposing a "bar exam"similar to the one lawyers have to pass before they can practice.

Internships Help Students Prepare for Workplace EdWeek: "The central goal is to get students out of the classroom and into the real world so they can feel and see the entire work process," said Randy McPherson, a counselor at Trezevant Career and Technology Center in Memphis, Tenn., and the American School Counselor Association's counselor of the year in 2011. "Otherwise, they don't really grasp what a day looks like or what a job entails."

AM News: Federal Complaint Alleges School Closures Discriminate Against Minorities, Poor

Federal Complaint Alleges City School Closure Policies Discriminate Against Minorities, Poor WSJ: The complaint made by a New York City parent is one of dozens filed recently by opponents of school closures, who are targeting the practice in cities nationwide, including Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. Schools chosen for closure generally have higher proportions of minority, impoverished and special-education students than others.

Ed. Dept. Raises Evidence, Research Ante in Grant Awards EdWeek: Using the Investing in Innovation program as a building block, the U.S. Department of Education is taking the next formal step to make research and evidence far more important factors as it awards competitive grants. The goal is twofold: to reward projects that already have established a research-based track record of success and to encourage grant winners to produce rigorous evidence detailing the extent to which their project does—or does not—work.

L.A. school district’s college-prep push is based on false data HechingerReport: San Jose Unified has quietly acknowledged that the district overstated its accomplishments. And a Times analysis of the district’s record shows that its progress has not, in fact, far outpaced many other school systems’ and, more important, that most San Jose students have never qualified to apply to a state college.

No Academic Harm Found in Early Retirement of Teachers EdWeek: Separate studies of teachers in California, Illinois, and North Carolina paint a complex picture of the choice increasingly faced by education leaders: Keep your most experienced—and expensive—teachers, or encourage them to retire to ease budget woes.

'Learning Community' Nebraska Program Brings Diversity To Some Highly Segregated Public Schools America'sWire: But unlike the typical school in this highly segregated region, or the typical school in many still-segregated communities across the country, Wilson Focus School reaches across two counties to bring together students from a mix of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Yet, even with its well-documented successes, the Learning Community is being threatened by public officials who question the value of the diversity it brings. 

AM News: State Finance Lawsuits Stir Up K-12 Funding Landscape

State Finance Lawsuits Roil K-12 Funding Landscape EdWeek: As state budgets slowly recover from several years of economic contraction and stagnation, significant court battles continue to play a related yet distinct role in K-12 policy, even in states where the highest courts have already delivered rulings on the subject.

The GOP And Taxes: In The States, It Can Get Complicated NPR: Now, state revenues have crept back to pre-recession levels in Indiana and 24 other states,the National Conference of State Legislatures reports. The debate is over how much money to restore — and to what programs. Pence's budget would increase K-12 funding by $137 million over the next two years, boosting funding for Indiana's new full-day kindergarten program.

Top K12 Senator Tom Harkin to Retire PoliticsK12: Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat who sits at the top of the Senate panels that deal with both K-12 spending and policy, isn't planning to seek re-election in 2014. This is a very big deal: Harkin is arguably the most powerful lawmaker in Congress when it comes to education. 

Schools Background Check Visitors In Illinois For Criminal Record HuffPostEdu: Visitors to schools in a suburban Chicago, Ill., district are now required to undergo a background check as part of added security measures in the weeks following last month's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

In Surprise, Educator Tied to Cheating Rejects Deal NYT: MEMPHIS — In an 11th-hour reversal, an educator accused of running a large test-cheating ring in three Southern states rejected a plea deal on Friday and elected to go to trial. Clarence Mumford Sr., who is accused of soliciting teachers to take certification exams for others, said the proposed 9- to 11-year sentence was “too severe for what I am charged with.”

Some Say Common Core Standards for Kindergartners Have Gone Too Far  NYPost: Way beyond the ABCs, crayons and building blocks, the city Department of Education now wants 4- and 5-year-olds to write “informative/explanatory reports” and demonstrate “algebraic thinking.” Children who barely know how to write the alphabet or add 2 and 2 are expected to write topic sentences and use diagrams to illustrate math equations.

Admissions Deadline Confusion: Sandy Delays High School Decisions WSJ: Applying to high school in New York has become even more fraught in recent years, with increasingly competitive—and costly—private schools, a rise in test preparation for specialized public schools and a proliferation of options that can seem daunting to navigate.

AM News: Schools Must Provide Disabled Students with Sports Rights Under Obama

Schools must provide sports for disabled, US Dept. of Ed says AP: Students with disabilities must be given a fair shot to play on a traditional sports team or have their own leagues, the Education Department says. Disabled students who want to play for their school could join traditional teams if officials can make "reasonable modifications" to accommodate them.

Missouri Parents Required To Report Gun Ownership To Schools Under Proposed Bill HuffPostEdu: Democratic state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal's Senate Bill 124 would make it a crime for parents to fail to report gun ownership to a school, punishable by a fine of up to $100. It also bars parents from failing to properly lock or secure firearms, and would punish parents who fail to stop their child from illegally possessing a firearm.

Niskayuna Schools: No thank you to lunch regulations, will lose federal aid WNYT: In addition [the school board member] says kids who were forced to take certain foods wound up tossing it into the trash. Lunch prices increased, portions decreased and the number of kids who were buying their lunch at school was cut in half. By November, the school district's food operation was $59,000 in the red.

To Raise Graduation Rate, Colleges Are Urged to Help a Changing Student Body NYT: In an effort to improve the college completion rate and fend off new regulations, a commission of the nation’s six leading higher-education associations is calling for extensive reforms to serve a changing college population — one increasingly composed of older and part-time students.

Fairness For Struggling Students Act Would Reform Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Rules HuffPostEdu: Three U.S. Senators unveiled legislation Wednesday to reverse a 2005 change in bankruptcy laws that makes it nearly impossible to have private student loan debt discharged.

AM News: Florida Bill Proposes Taxes on Gun Sales Fund School Security

New Florida Bills Would Make Gun And Ammo Taxes Pay For School Security HuffPostEdu: In the wake of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, one Florida lawmaker wants to make gun owners foot the bill for students' safety. In order to pay for these increased safety measures, Stewart proposes creating a Safe School Trust Fund (HB 327) within the Department of Education, and she wants it funded by taxes collected on Florida gun and ammo sales.

Districts Get Bold on School Security EdWeek: President Barack Obama's announcement last week of a wide-ranging anti-violence plan in response to the Newtown, Conn., school shootings comes as many districts are adopting new and sometimes dramatic measures—including arming teachers and volunteers—intended to prevent similar tragedies in their own schools.

 D.C. Schools Consider Dropping U.S. Government High School Graduation Requirement HuffPostEdu: In an ironic twist, public school leaders in the nation's capital are considering allowing its high school students to graduate without taking an advanced level course in government functions.

NY Gov.'s education plans get lukewarm response AP: BUFFALO, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal to spend 4.4 percent more on schools next year received a lukewarm reception Wednesday from educators and advocates who praised some of the planned initiatives but said funding would remain short of what it should be under a landmark court ruling six years ago.

To Raise Graduation Rate, Colleges Are Urged to Help a Changing Student Body AP: In an effort to improve the college completion rate and fend off new regulations, a commission of the nation’s six leading higher-education associations is calling for extensive reforms to serve a changing college population — one increasingly composed of older and part-time students.

AM News: 113th House Ed Committee Keeps NCLB Reauthorization a "Top Priority"

Education Committee Revs Back Up In 113th Congress HuffPostEdu: Today, Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, held his first organizational meeting with the 113th Congress's iteration of his committee. In his opening remarks, Kline said reauthorizing No Child Left Behind will remain a "top priority." NCLB, the sweeping law that governs public K-12 education, expired in 2007.

Colleges Overproducing Elementary Teachers, Data Find EdWeek: Data, while imprecise, suggest that some states are producing far more new teachers at the elementary level than will be able to find jobs in their respective states—even as districts struggle to find enough recruits in other certification fields.

Charters Adjusting to Common-Core Demands EdWeek: Charter schools throughout the country are coping with myriad challenges in preparing for the Common Core State Standards, an effort that could force them to make adjustments from how they train their teachers to the types of curriculum they use to the technology they need to administer online tests.

Florida Mother Writes $12,000 Check for Armed Guard at Elementary School FirstCoastNews: School Superintendent Janet Valentine said she's thrilled and surprised to learn that a parent wants to chip in more than $11,000 to pay for a deputy to provide security during the day at Old Kings Elementary School.

Asian Influx Gives Private Schools Foreign Aid  WSJ: As growing numbers of Chinese students seek a college education in the U.S., many are turning to American high schools as a steppingstone. The resulting surge in Chinese enrollment has helped private high schools, and religious academies in particular, reap much-needed revenue.

AM News: School Safety High on Obama's Second-Term Agenda

Obama Puts School Safety High on Second-Term Agenda PoliticsK12: Obama's pledge on school safety comes less than a week after his administration released a lengthy list of policy prescriptions to prevent further gun violence. They include new money for states to put safety plans in place, and a major focus on beefing up mental health services, including training teachers to recognize the signs of mental illness and get students the help they need.

Obama Evaluating Early Childhood Education Push In Second Term HuffPostEdu: According to sources close to the administration, Duncan and the Department of Health and Human Services are outlining a plan to create universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds from low- and some middle-income families -- approximately 1.85 million children.

'Mail To The Chief' Program Sends Letters Of Advice To Obama On Inauguration - From Kids HuffPostEdu: The letter-writing campaign is part of the "Mail to the Chief" program, launched in 2008 by handwriting curriculum Handwriting Without Tears. The program seeks to garner student interest in government and cultivate an appreciation for written communication.

Teachers’ test boycott draws growing support SeattleTimes: Support is growing for Garfield High teachers in their boycott of a district-required test. Seattle Public Schools officials, while saying the test has value, also are acknowledging that some of the teachers’ concerns have merit.

High-School Graduation Rate Inches Up WSJ: The U.S. public high-school graduation rate climbed to a 35-year high in 2010, according to new federal data, although U.S. high-school students are still struggling to keep up with their international peers.

Anti-Poverty Program Found to Yield Few Academic Gains EdWeek: Ten to 15 years after leaving neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, children of the Moving to Opportunity program are in most ways no better off than their peers who stayed put. But new findings from the ongoing study of their urban communities suggest more comprehensive school-neighborhood improvement initiatives stand a better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.

AM News: MLK/Inauguration Day Edition

Promises kept, promises broken Miami Herald: Obama fared best in the areas of education and healthcare. He kept 54 percent of his education promises and 53 percent on healthcare. Most of those were muscled through Congress with the economic stimulus and healthcare law, which passed when ...

 Obamas Spend Saturday At D.C. Elementary School AP:  The president and first lady Michelle Obama stained a bookshelf at Burrville Elementary School in D.C. They were joined by about 500 volunteers for the school makeover project. 

New Reading Standards Aim To Prep Kids For College — But At What Cost?NPR: Almost the entire country has signed onto the Common Core Standards Initiative. The standards incorporate more nonfiction texts across all subjects to improve reading scores. But some fear the push for nonfiction reading could lead students away from passionate engagement with literature.

Teacher Evaluation Impasse Costs New York City Hundreds Of MillionsNPR: In New York City, the failure to agree on a plan for evaluating its teachers is being widely criticized, especially because the city will now miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars in state financing. At stake was $250 million in aid, and another $200 million in grants, according to WNYC's Schoolbook education blog.

'Parent trigger' organizers find willing partner in Los Angeles Unified EdSource Today: What helped their cause this time was that LAUSD had already identified the school as one of the worst performing in the district and had ordered the school to submit a transformation plan. 

AM News: Schools React To Obama School Safety Initiatives

How to tackle violence and mental illness in schools Washington Post: The White House wants $50 million to train new mental health professionals, $25 million for school-based trauma treatment and violence prevention programs, $25 million for state-based mental health programs targeting youths ages 16 to 25, $15 million to train teachers to deal with mental illness, and $40 million to help school districts direct students to the mental health services they need.

Obama Proposes Host of School Safety, Mental Health Programs PoliticsK12: The administration hasn't always been supportive of federal funding targeted directed exclusively at hiring school counselors and school resources officers. Obama has proposed eliminating the $53 million Elementary and Secondary Counseling Program, in favor of a broader funding stream that schools could use for counselors, but also for activities aimed at improving school climate and safety.

What do Obama's executive orders on gun control mean for schools? The Courier-Journal: Obama says he wants to create a safer climate at schools across the country. The White House document says that with technical assistance from the Department of Education, 18,000 schools have already put in place evidence-based strategies to improve ...

Reaction of education groups to Obama gun proposals AJC: President Barack Obama proposed universal background checks and prohibitions on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the Newtown where a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children.

DC leads nation in strength of charter school laws, report says Washington Post: The District leads the nation in terms of the strength of its public charter school laws and their implementation, according to a new report issued Wednesday by a national group that ...

Video: Couple’s commitment to Kenyan slum leads to trailblazing schoolNBC News: The Kibera Slums are home to Nairobi’s so-called forgotten children. Kennedy Odede, who grew up in Kibera, and his American wife, Jessica, have started a school that is providing 100 girls living in the Kenyan slum with their best chance of beating hopelessness. Rock Center Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton’s full report airs Thursday, Jan. 17 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams. (Rock Center)

How Math Got Its Groove Back PBS NewsHour: Carrie Lewis and Kelly Steele's fifth grade students slide and spin across the classroom floor. They do the hustle, the robot and the running man. While it may look at first glance like goofing off, these students are actually dancing for a higher cause... math.

AM News: Role For Schools In Obama Guns Plan

Obama guns plan to include trafficking law Politico: The other elements of Obama's proposals will focus on education and mental health, Reed said. Obama will seek to build on existing anti-bullying efforts and provide more federal resources for school counselors and school resources officers.

Metal Detectors to Bear Spray, Students Search For Gun Violence SolutionsNewsHour: In the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., the NewsHour asked students from the 45 schools participating in its Student Reporting Labs about ways to prevent the next school shooting.

Failing LAUSD School Targeted In Parent Trigger Law PetitionReuters: The move represents a repudiation of the largest school district in a state that in 2010 became the first to pass a trigger law, letting parents of students in failing schools band together to force sweeping change: They can fire teachers, oust administrators or turn the school over to private management.

Video: Reading, writing and revolvers in Texas? NBC: Texas lawmakers want to allow school teachers to carry a gun into the classrooms. KXAS reporter Omar Villafranca has the story. (NBC News)

Report: Disadvantaged students in U.S. gaining on international peers Hechinger: After adjusting for both of these factors, they estimated that the United States would place fourth in reading and 10th in math—which demonstrates that educational reforms alone aren’t enough for the United States to catch up to the international competition, Carnoy said.

Child-Phobic Teacher Sues School DistrictAP:  A former teacher is suing the Cincinnati school district, saying she was discriminated against because of her rare phobia: a fear of young children.

AM News: California Districts Seek Own NCLB Waivers

Districts preparing their own request for NCLB waiver EdSource Today: Duncan hasn’t yet agreed to consider district waivers in states that either didn’t apply for them or had their applications turned down, and CORE hasn’t yet formally asked Brown for his blessing, which would considerably help their case. 

Call for Nominations: Know a Creative Science or Math Teacher? PBS NewsHour: NewsHour is launching a new series highlighting science and math teachers, kindergarten through high school, across the county who are using innovative teaching methods in the classroom. Each month, we'll publish an original video feature of a teacher who uses creativity in the classroom in order to inspire their students.

Scientology Almost Made It Into No Child Left Behind? Ed Tonight Huffington Post: Reports Vulture: Tom Cruise "tried to convince President George W. Bush's Secretary of Education Rod Paige to include Hubbard's 'study tech' educational methods into No Child Left Behind."

Ohio teacher claims discrimination over fear of kids USA Today:  Lawsuit says woman forced to resign because she can't teach young children.

Parents plan protest of Deasy's plans for Crenshaw High School KPCC: After months of uncertainty, the future of Crenshaw High School will likely be decided at Tuesday's  monthly L.A. Unified school board meeting. 

 

AM News: What Next For Newtown (& School Safety)?

Group: Biden offers to speak with Newtown families AP: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading an administration review of gun safety laws, has offered to talk with any families of the Connecticut elementary school shooting victims who would like to speak with personally, a support group said Saturday.

Newtown Debates the Fate of Sandy Hook Elementary NYT: Residents in Newtown, Conn., attended the first of what might be several meetings to decide the future of the school building where 20 first graders and six staff members were killed.

Vote Set to Name Conn. School for Slain Teacher MSNBC: Town council in Stratford, Conn., to vote on naming new school after teacher slain in Newtown

To lock classroom doors or not? LA Times: Behind a locked classroom door, a Los Angeles third-grade teacher purportedly committed lewd acts against students. The charges spurred demands for classrooms to remain open during the school day.

A System Divided: In One School, Students Are Divided by Gifted Label — and Race NYT: At P.S. 163 on the Upper West Side, the accelerated program is mostly white and middle class, unlike the rest of the school.

Will longer school year help or hurt US students? AP: Proponents say studies show students lose critical knowledge during the summer months away from school. 

AM News: Cops In Schools, Flu In The Classroom

Police in schools may be included in Obama's plan Denver Post: A coalition of progressive groups — including the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Advancement Project, the Alliance for Educational Justice and Dignity in Schools — plans to release a report Friday.

Group says more cops in schools not the answer USA Today: In the wake of last month's Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, many educators and school-safety advocates are pushing for an ...

NRA blasts Biden after White House meeting on gun violence Washington Times: Later Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan joined Biden, the NRA and the other reps from the gun owners groups. Biden and Cabinet members have been meeting with representatives from the entertainment and video industries.

Student tells teacher: 'I don't want to shoot you' AP: The 16-year-old boy had allegedly wounded the teenager he claimed had bullied him, fired two more rounds at students fleeing their first-period science class, then faced teacher Ryan Heber....

Latest Flu Numbers Paint the Picture of an EpidemicAtlantic Wire: Forty-one states have reported "widespread" flu activity, with 24 of those states being declared "high level." In addition, two more children were reported to have died of the flu, bringing the total number of deaths to 20 for people under 18 years old.

AM News: Schools Prefer Doing The Grading Over Being Graded

Schools Get Taste of Own Medicine WSJ: In the past two years, at least 10 states, from Arizona to North Carolina, began handing out letter grades to schools and, in some cases, districts.

Nearly $40 Million in Race to Top Funds for Maryland in Jeopardy EdWeek: The sternly worded letter is the equivalent of sending an honor roll student to the principal's office, as federal officials have placed several major conditions on $37.9 million of the state's $250 million Race to the Top grant.

WPost: Maryland ranks No. 1 in education for fifth year in a row; Virginia ranks fourth.

Board OKs charter takeover of California public school after ‘parent trigger’ Hechinger Report: On a 4-0 vote Tuesday night, the Adelanto School District board approved the charter school operator selected by the Desert Trails Kids First parent union, LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy. It took the parent union nearly two years and a bitter legal battle to get there.

California Teacher’s Fund to Divest of Gun Stock NYT: California teachers said they did not want their retirement nest eggs placed with companies like the one that made the semiautomatic rifle used in Newtown, Conn.

Arizona sheriff launches patrols outside schools AP: The sheriff for metropolitan Phoenix has launched a plan to have as many as 500 armed volunteers patrol areas just outside schools in an effort to guard against shootings like month's attack at a Connecticut elementary school.

AM News: Gates Study Gets Wall-To-Wall Coverage

What measures the best teacher? More than scores, study shows Reuters: Researchers found they could pick out the best teachers in a school and even predict roughly how much their students would learn if they rated the educators through a formula that put equal weight on student input, test scores and detailed classroom observations by principals and peers.

Teacher Observation Less Reliable Than Test Scores Huffington Post: While the study shows some reliability in measuring teachers who either overperform or underachieve dramatically, the authors note that "the vast majority of teachers are in the middle of the scale, with small differences in scores producing large changes in percentile rankings."

Good Teachers Linked to Test Success WSJ: The Gates Foundation said its study found that a combination of student surveys of teacher quality, well-crafted observations of classroom teaching and test scores is the best predictor of teacher effectiveness. Mr. Kane said combining all three is the best predictor of teacher quality.

 Gates Foundation study: We’ve figured out what makes a good teacher Washington Post: Researchers found that multiple classroom observations of teachers by several people — a principal, a peer, an outside expert — result in the most accurate assessments. Many school districts currently rely on observations by just one person, usually a principal.

Timely advice from Gates Foundation GothamSchools: Having multiple people observe the same teacher is more effective than having one person observe the teacher multiple times, the study found. Student surveys are stronger predictors of teachers’ ability to raise test scores than observations. And counting state test scores for a third to half of a teacher’s rating is better than weighting the scores less or more.

AM News: On 11th Anniversary, NCLB In Tatters

On 11th anniversary, No Child Left Behind law in tatters KPCC: As the federal No Child Left Behind law's eleventh birthday arrives Tuesday, California is one of the few states that still must meet its requirements. Now California schools that fail to meet the law's provisions could face serious sanctions. State officials expect 80 percent of mor of schools to fail in 2014. LA Times: California schools flunk education group's ratings

With Obama's deadline nearing, White House to ramp up work of gun violence ...Washington Post: In addition to Biden's meetings this week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will meet this week with parent and teacher groups, while Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will meet with mental health and disability advocates. 

Frontline: D.C. schools downplayed cheating allegations USA Today: The PBS Frontline documentary "The Education of Michelle Rhee," airing Tuesday, offers the first testimony from Adell Cothorne, who filed a federal complaint against the district in 2011, alleging that cheating essentially defrauded the U.S. government. WPost: Federal complaint details cheating allegations at D.C. public school

Chicago Public Schools Faulted on Assessing Learning Disabilities NYT: In a complaint filed on Monday, a group said that the Chicago Public Schools have repeatedly failed to evaluate children with disabilities and move them into special education preschool programs.

AM News: Rhee Rates, Bloomberg Blasts

StudentsFirst Issues Low Ratings on School Policies NYT: The two highest-ranking states, Florida and Louisiana, received B-minus ratings. The states that were given F’s included Alabama, California, Iowa and New Hampshire. New Jersey and New York received D grades, and Connecticut a D-plus. 

Michael Bloomberg Compares Teachers’ Union to the N.R.A. NYT: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s comparison of the United Federation of Teachers to the National Rifle Association might have further damaged the already tense negotiations on an evaluation system.

Most eligible Newark teachers decline new bonus program Hechinger Report: Superintendent Cami Anderson, who personally negotiated the contract with the Newark Teachers Union, said yesterday that the number of willing takers was encouraging and about what she expected.

Ala. teen accused of plotting to bomb classmates AP: An eastern Alabama high school student faces an attempted assault charge after authorities say he planned to use homemade explosives in a terrorist attack on fellow students at his school....

Obama's On-Again, Off-Again Relationship With Progressives WBUR: One progressive disappointed in Obama was Shaun Johnson, an assistant professor of elementaryeducation at Towson University in Maryland. Johnson, who also writes for the education blog The Chalk Face, wrote a column in 2011 titled "Obama Lost My ...

Pass the carrots, pass on the chips: America’s obsession with school lunches Hechinger Report: A recent report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that in school-based efforts, including more physical education time and nutritional standards for snacks sold in vending machines, have led to a 13 percent decline in child obesity in Mississippi over the last six years.

AM News: NJ Union Opposes Blended Learning

In New Jersey, teachers union fights blended learning Hechinger Report: The school, Merit Prep, is also embroiled in a controversy over how much children should be taught by computers. New Jersey’s biggest teachers union is suing to shut the school down and is hoping a state appellate court will do so in early 2013.

N.Y. Reform Commission Stresses Teacher Prep, More Learning Time EdWeek: Recommendations include setting a new, higher GPA for admissions to teacher and principal preparation programs, extending the school day, and using educational technology to overcome barriers between high school and higher education.

Conservative Rep. Todd Rokita Named Chairman of K-12 Panel EdWeek:  That puts him in a powerful position for education policy—particularly if Brokedown Congress surprises everyone and somehow makes significant headway on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act this year.

For Many Kids, Winter Break Means Hungry Holidays NPR: Most kids look forward to their school's winter break. But millions of students in the U.S. get free or reduced-price meals at school, and when school is closed, many of those children eat less until classes are back in session.

Obama asks* Idaho teacher to help with math goals AP: In a story Dec. 21 about President Barack Obama seeking the help of an Idaho Falls teacher, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Obama personally called Skyline High School instructor Julie Nawrocki to help develop new testing strategies. U.S. Department of Education officials and White House officials confirmed that Obama did not make that telephone call.

AM News: Governor Cuomo Proposes Sweeping NY Reforms

Education Commission Recommends Core Reforms NYT: A group empaneled by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo suggested, among other things, extending the number of school days in New York State and making teachers pass the equivalent of a bar exam.

Chicago charter school subject to private sector labor laws WBEZ: Two-thirds of teachers at the school approved the union and it became official under state law.   But school managers wanted to follow federal labor law, which among other things would require a vote by secret ballot.

Contested UTLA panel elections signal internal fissures LA Times: Some union members fear outside groups that encouraged teachers to run for UTLA's House of Representatives, its official decision-making body, will try to influence policy. 

Deferring Six Figures on Wall Street for Teacher's Salary NYT: Teach for America says that its 2012 class contained about 400 recent graduates with a major in business or economics. Of those with professional experience, about 175 worked in finance.

Biden launches gun violence group with law enforcement officials The Hill: Biden and the dozen local law enforcement officials in attendance were joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, along with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Sandy Hook kids face first classes since shooting USA Today:  Students from Sandy Hook Elementary will attend classes at a school in neighboring Monroe.