Daily Headlines for July 19, 2013
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NATIONAL COVERAGE
Education Proposal in House Could Replace ‘No Child’ Act
New York Times, July 19, 2013
For the first time since No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s signature education law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support a dozen years ago, a bill seeking to rewrite the law came to the floor of the House for debate on Thursday, dividing legislators along party lines.
Teacher training programs need a reboot
Washington Post, July 18, 2013 When the National Council on Teacher Quality released last month its report on teacher training programs, I was not shocked to read that the vast majority of colleges and universities do a poor job of preparing their students to teach. I imagine that many other people who have gone through such programs were equally unsurprised.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
LAUSD’s Grumpy Old Man Richard Vladovic Could Squelch Reform
LA Weekly, July 18, 2013
For the first time in six years, the politicians on the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education, responsible for educating one in every 10 children in California, have chosen a new president, the inscrutable Richard Vladovic.
LAUSD’s struggling arts school
Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2013
Turmoil at the $232-million Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts threatens to turn it into just a terribly overpriced neighborhood school.
Vacaville unified School District trustees deny charter school’s petition request
Vacaville Reporter, July 19, 2013
Citing its “unsound educational program,” a majority of Vacaville Unified leaders on Thursday chose to deny a petition by a Rio Linda-based nonprofit operator of charter schools to have its downtown campus, Heritage Peak, fall under district oversight.
DELAWARE
State student test scores flatten out in latest report
News Journal, July 19, 2013
A year after double-digit gains on the standardized test, statewide scores fell slightly or plateaued this year.
FLORIDA
New Fort Myers academy offers ‘careers’
News-Press, July 19, 2013
The officials behind the new DJB Technical Academy in Fort Myers wanted a place where young people could complete their high school diplomas, be trained for skills and have jobs ready to hire them.
IDAHO
Idaho Teachers’ Union Sees Big Membership Decline
Boise State Public Radio, July 18, 2013
Union membership among Idaho teachers has dropped sharply in recent years. Idaho Education News reports a 14.3 percent decline in Idaho Education Association (IEA) membership between the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years. That is compared to a 3.6 percent drop nationally.
ILLINOIS
CPS: More layoffs coming
Chicago Tribune, July 19, 2013
Citing a $1 billion budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees, more than a 1,000 of them teachers, the district said Thursday night.
LOUISIANA
Elmira school board to let state know it’s against charter school proposal
Shreveport Times, July 18, 2013
The Elmira school board took a stance Wednesday night against a group trying to establish a charter school. The board voted 9-0 to send a statement by Aug. 1 to the state Education Department to outline why it opposes the application for Finn Academy: An Elmira Charter School.
MARYLAND
Montgomery County measuring ‘hope’ to help improve academic success in schools
Washington Post, July 18, 2013
The questions — intended to measure student hope, engagement and well-being — are part of a survey Montgomery is conducting with the help of polling giant Gallup.
School emphasis on cultural diversity in spotlight for national program
Baltimore Sun, July 18, 2013
When Centennial High School Assistant Principal Joelle Miller arrived at the school three years ago, she got a copy of her students’ responses to a countywide survey seeking their view of schools’ overall environment for learning.
MICHIGAN
Michigan schools chief offers lesson in improvement
Commentary, Toledo Blade, July 19, 2013
Mike Flanagan, Michigan’s state superintendent of schools, has spent his life in public education. Now, he’s presiding over a system in crisis. Gov. Rick Snyder this month signed a bill that gives the state the power to dissolve two small, economically troubled districts: Buena Vista, near Saginaw, and Inkster, in the Detroit area.
MISSOURI
Bill could be introduced to give schools power to veto school transfers
KSDK, July 18, 2013
It looks like a bill could be introduced to give school boards the power to veto school transfers, which could eventually keep Normandy students out of St. Charles.
St. Louis forges unique partnership with KIPP
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 19, 2013
Six years after refusing to sell vacant buildings to charter schools, leaders of St. Louis Public Schools on Thursday approved a partnership that would give the charter school organization KIPP St. Louis keys to an empty elementary building. For free.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Three New Charter Schools Get OK To Open In New Hampshire
New Hampshire Public Radio, July 19, 2013
The state Board of Education has given the green light for three new charter schools to open in New Hampshire.
NEW JERSEY
Metuchen charter school developer awarded $4.6 million grant
Star-Ledger, July 19, 2013
Build with Purpose, Inc. has been awarded more than $4.6 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education.
NEW MEXICO
PED must address audit to keep reform on track
Albuquerque Journal, July 19, 2013
The New Mexico Public Education Department is under fire from the state auditor for alleged lax financial management. And that is disturbing on several fronts.
NEW YORK
Charter kids shut out of summer school
Riverdale Press, July 18, 2013
The Department of Education is quick to say charter schools are public schools, so it came as a shock to Tech International Charter School parents that this wasn’t the case when summer school seats are at stake.
Teachers union sues Mayor Bloomberg over charter schools opening after he’s out of office
New York Daily News, July 19, 2013
The teachers union slapped the city with a lawsuit Thursday to stop Mayor Bloomberg from opening more charter schools in traditional public school buildings — after he leaves office.
Van Buren faces co-location
Queens Time Ledger, July 19, 2013
The city is considering the co-location of a charter school at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village that could cut 500 seats, a city Education Department spokesman said, despite borough leaders’ concerns.
NORTH CAROLINA
Senate OKs bill to cut school board
Daily Reflector, July 19, 2013
The N.C. Senate passed an amended bill to reduce the number of members on the Pitt County School Board. The legislation creates nine single-number districts and eliminates a voter referendum.
Proposed charter school passes state test
Citizen Times, July 19, 2013
Advocates for a local charter school are one step closer to launching the area’s first charter high school, which could open as soon as next year if the state approves the plan.
OHIO
Columbus schools could legally break up fall levy
Columbus Dispatch, July 19, 2013
A proposal by a Columbus school-board member to break a 9.01-mill property-tax request into as many as five operating levies and a bond issue has some wondering whether that is even possible under Ohio law.
More flexibility on school year
Editorial, Columbus Dispatch, July 19, 2013
Ohio’s schools can benefit from schedule flexibility, but they shouldn’t shorten the time their students spend in class.
PENNSYLVANIA
Christie vetoes bill boosting nonteaching staff’s rights
Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, 2013
Gov. Christie vetoed a bill Thursday that would have given nonteaching school employees such as teacher’s aides, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers the same right to binding arbitration that educators have.
RHODE ISLAND
Carolyn Sheehan and Kyleen Carpenter: High school is not too late for success
Opinion, Providence Journal, July 19, 2013
Twelve years ago, a small group of us set out to create a demonstration project of sorts in Rhode Island. Frustrated by the high drop-out and low college-attainment rates of local students, and the lack of alternatives to large traditional high schools, we designed a small charter school for students from Central Falls and Pawtucket.
TENNESSEE
Metro to begin using evaluation scores as reason to fire teachers
The Tennessean, July 19, 2013
For the first time, Metro Nashville Public Schools is poised to use chronically low scores on controversial state-mandated evaluations as a reason to fire teachers.
VIRGINIA
Transparency
Editorial, Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 19, 2013
The concerns relate to turnover among administrators and principals. They may be valid, they may not be. It is hard to tell. This needs to be discussed in the open. Transparency is the enemy of rumors. The absence of transparency encourages whispering. And whispers fan suspicions.
WASHINGTON
School board’s schedule for evaluation system focuses on new teachers
News Tribune, July 19, 2013
The Tacoma School Board on Thursday approved a roll-out schedule for the new teacher evaluation system that will launch its first phase this fall.
WISCONSIN
Local private schools to seek voucher program participation
Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, July 18, 2013
Leaders of two Wisconsin Rapids-area parochial school systems hope the state’s expanded voucher program will benefit local students and their families who want a Christian education.
ONLINE LEARNING
A virtual high school? Baldwin County considers launching state’s first
The Hunstville Times, July 18, 2013
With overcrowding of many of its facilities becoming a major concern, Baldwin County schools officials may have come up with the perfect long-term solution: A virtual high school.
Learning academy seeks new students
Times Herald, July 18, 2013
Your high school diploma is waiting for you online. The Virtual Learning Academy of St. Clair County is a proven lifeline to high school graduation for more than 200 students.
Virtual public schooling offered to students in grades three through 12
Killeen Daily News, July 18, 2013
While most Texas students will return to brick-and-mortar classrooms for the 2013-2014 school year, some will need to walk only as far as their computers.