Districts Concerned About Common Core Technology Costs

Education Week (10/17, O'Hanlon) reports, "In the next couple of years, most public school students will be expected to be taking tests online, instead of using pencil and paper, because of their states' adoption of the Common Core State Standards. But in this time of tight budgets, many school districts are wondering how they will pay for improvements they may need to make to their technological infrastructure to test large numbers of students online under the common-core initiative by the 2014-15 school year." The piece notes that some districts may use funds currently allocated for textbook purchases or boost millage rates.

California Administrator Faces Fire Over Special Education Funding Policy

The Bay Citizen (CA) (10/15, Bundy) reports that Lisa Miller, the head of the San Francisco Unified School District's middle school special education department, "urged teachers to re-evaluate whether to offer summer school to special education students as a way to cut costs, a move that special education teachers and attorneys say violates federal regulations." Miller, the Citizen reports, "said in a Jan. 4 email to her staff that the cost of summer school – known as extended school year, or ESY – had become 'exorbitant' and instructed all middle school special education staff not to authorize the service without her approval. ... The directive appears to violate the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which explicitly requires each child's special education plan to be agreed upon by the student's family, educators and disability experts, not district administrators."

Ravitch: Chicago Strike Illustrates National Backlash Against Education Reform

Progress Illinois (10/16, Blake) reports that former Assistant Secretary Diane Ravitch "says that Chicago has taken the lead on education reform – and the revolt against such policies," noting that she "told reporters at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters Monday that the strike gave 'vicarious exhilaration' to teachers across the nation that were 'beaten down' by evaluations based on standardized tests and charter schools." The piece adds that Ravitch "says Chicago is distinctive on education issues because of a 'more militant' teachers' union," as compared with other parts of the country in which collective bargaining rights are less vigorous.

Many Districts Tout Savings, Academic Benefits Of Four-Day Week

US News & World Report (10/16, Sheehy) reports in its "High School Notes" blog that some 300 US school districts have moved to a four-day week in order to save on transportation, utility, and janitorial costs, noting that more districts are considering similar plans. "But the shorter week requires students to power through longer days when they are in school in order to meet minimum class time requirements set by states. US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has spoken out against four-day weeks, and school boards in several states have shot down attempts in their districts to move to shorter school weeks." However, despite criticisms, some proponents say the extra day off gives students increased focus and the opportunity to take college courses.

WNWO-TV Toledo, OH (10/16, 4:47 a.m. EDT) broadcast a report based closely on the above article, noting that Duncan "has spoken out against four-day weeks."

Michigan Considers Rating Students Proficient On Assessments For Improvement

The Detroit Free Press (10/15, Higgins) reports that under changes being considered by the Michigan Department of Education, "schools that succeed in helping poor-performing students improve academic achievement could soon get a break from the state," noting that the change to the state accountability system would "allow students who fail the MEAP - but whose scores show significant improvement - to be considered proficient on the exam. The change would mean some schools could get a better rating from the state when it introduces a new color-coded accountability system next year."

The AP (10/16) reports that Joseph Martineau, head of the state DOE's Bureau of Assessment and Accountability, said that "a change is needed to both acknowledge the difficulty in helping students who are the furthest behind and to give schools more credit for doing that successfully." The AP quotes him saying, "Because we set the bar high, it is even more important now to be able to give credit for students making progress. A significant amount of them are below the bar at this point." The AP adds that ED would have to approve the changes.

Common Core Implementation Driving Interest In Open Educational Resources Movement

Education Week (10/17, Ash) reports that at both the state and national level, the Common Core Standards movement is leading to increased interest in open educational resources, noting that "OERs, which are free to use, remix, and adapt, also engage teachers more fully in curricula, allowing them to more easily differentiate instructional materials for students, advocates of the movement say. ... Federal policy has also contributed to greater interest in open education resources, says Barbara Treacy, the managing project director for the Center for Online Professional Education at the Newton, Mass.-based Education Development Center."

Common Core Adoption Could Lead To Sharp Rise In Demand For Broadband Capacity

Education Week (10/16, Quillen) reports on the rising demand for broadband internet access in US schools, adding that "with the Common Core State Standards initiative pushing schools in 46 states and the District of Columbia to administer 'next generation' assessments almost exclusively online-with an accompanying commitment to more digital resources-it's possible schools' demand for bandwidth could exceed even those projections." The piece describes the challenges--both financial and infrastructure-related--that districts face in increasing network capacity.

Some States Tying Adaptive Testing To Common Core Implementation

Education Week (10/17, Davis) reports that at least 20 of the states that are adopting the Common Core Standards are planning to use adaptive online testing and are "looking at states like Delaware," which implemented such testing three years ago. "'Adaptive testing is really beneficial and can pinpoint a student's learning level more closely,' says Gerri Marshall, the supervisor of research and evaluation for the 15,000-student Red Clay Consolidated School District in Wilmington, Del., which piloted such tests." The piece notes that both the SBAC and the PARCC "have said their assessments will feature high-tech, interactive questions that incorporate video and graphics and are designed both to identify what students know and to be more engaging. Both assessments will be given online, but Smarter Balanced will use adaptive testing, while PARCC will use what are known as fixed-form tests, which feature set questions that generally do not change."

Special Education Graduation Rates Keep Some Philadelphia Schools From Making AYP

The Philadelphia Intelligencer (10/14, Hegel) reports that a number of high schools in Bucks County, Pennsylvania "failed to meet state standards for special education graduation rates this year, thanks to changes in the way Pennsylvania calculates those rates." This resulted in several schools missing their AYP goal. The students in question have IEPs that allow them three extra years to complete high school. "It's a case of state requirements not matching up with federal ones, said Tom Creeden, principal of Pennridge High School."

Book Explores Decline Of Rote Poetry Memorization In US Schools

The Boston Globe (10/14, Graham) reviews "Heart Beats: Everyday Life and the Memorized Poem" by Catherine Robson, noting, "In the one-room-schoolhouse years of American education, Robson explains, recitation was the default teaching method in every subject," and "poetry in particular was thought to have a special power to comfort, elevate, and refine the children who memorized it. ... By the 1960s, however, mandatory memorization began to decline, a change fueled both by new pedagogical theories and the changing forms and social role of poetry."

DC Experimenting With "Teach To One" Program

The Washington Post (10/15, Brown) reports that students at Hart Middle School, one of the "lowest performing middle schools" in Washington, DC, students are taking part in a program in which "nearly 200 preteens" are placed "in one large classroom space," where each "with the help of laptops and a few teachers" learns "math at his or her own pace. ... Pioneered in New York and expanding to other cities, 'Teach to One' puts a computer algorithm in charge of figuring out what each child needs to learn and do each day, a design meant to ensure that students master one concept before moving onto another." The Post quotes DC Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson saying, "If it works like we think it will, it'll be a game-changer," and adds, "This is the leading edge of the larger 'blended learning' movement that many reformers think could transform education in the United States, harnessing technology to help teachers deliver personalized lessons to every child."

Florida's Race-Based Achievement Goals Spark Controversy

The Miami Herald (10/13, Isensee, Vasquez) reports that Florida's assessments "grade on a curve, with targets related to race and income." The piece notes that the state BOE has "a new six-year strategic plan with student-achievement goals that vary based upon race, income, disability and English proficiency. For example, Florida hopes to have 86 percent of white students at or above grade level in math, but for black students the goal is 74 percent. A torrent of criticism followed, with educators, elected officials and others saying the plan essentially lowers expectations for certain students." The piece notes that state Education Commissioner Pamela Stewart blamed the firestorm on an erroneous public belief that the state is abandoning some groups of students.

Texas School Issues Students Tracking Badges

NBC Nightly News (10/14, story 7, 2:25, Holt) reported that students at Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas, "are among the first in the country to be assigned radio frequency identification badges." Principal Wendy Reyes "says by using new electronics embedded throughout the school, her staff can instantly locate any student in the building." The state gives the district $30 per student in attendance per day. Better attendance recording enables the district to receive more revenue because the school can now count students who are in the building but not in their chairs. Some students and parents have opposed the plan for religious reasons. Others, like the ACLU, worry that "the tracking capabilities violate privacy rights." However, the district "says attendance numbers are up since the system has been in place, so the badges are here to stay."

California Executive Warns Of Looming School Budget "Cliff."

In a Los Angeles Times (10/11, Lopez) column, Steve Lopez writes that Vernon, California, food processing executive Larry Vanden Bos "has studied two November ballot propositions that will cost him money if they pass," and plans to vote yes on both nonetheless. "One is Prop. 30, Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-increase proposal, which would raise about $6 billion, mostly for K-12 public schools, colleges and universities. The other is Prop. 38, civil rights attorney Molly Munger's tax-increase proposal to raise about $10 billion, mostly for K-12 schools." Lopez continues to describe Vanden Bos' experiences with school budget cuts as a local school board member, and quotes him saying that if the ballot initiatives fail, "We're talking about going off the cliff, not just in our district, but every district in California."

Study: Few Illinois Teachers Qualified In ELL Instruction

The National Journal (10/11, Ramirez, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a new study from the Latino Policy Forum and UC Berkeley, "few Illinois teachers are trained to educate English-language learners and only a small number are interested in obtaining the credentials to work with these children." The piece notes that the study found that roughly six percent of early education teachers "have either bilingual or English as a Second Language training. The ratio of ESL students to credentialed ESL teachers in predominantly Latino schools was 50 to 1, a figure significantly higher than the state's education board's recommended 10-to-1 ratio for optimal learning for limited-English youngsters."