- Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, & 10 school districts & partnerships are receiving $23.8 million under the new
Voluntary Public School Choice Program, authorized under No Child Left
Behind to offer students choices, including transferring out of
low-performing schools. [source]
An Everyday Effort to
Improve Education - Karen Budd is one
of those parents that school administrators try to avoid. To begin
with, she understands math, having a bachelor's degree in the subject,
plus some graduate work in engineering, from the University of
Pittsburgh. Every school superintendent who has ever attended a PTA
meeting knows the math-savvy parents are the worst.
PTA's Course is Clear - When the doors to the national
Parent-Teacher Assn. convention swung open Saturday in Anaheim,
delegates had a smorgasbord of workshops from which to choose. Mixed
in with lectures on the latest trends in teen sexual behavior and
child obesity were discussions on race and money that go to the heart
of the advocacy group's future.
Tools For Getting Parents Involved in the
Exceptional Education Process:
An Overview of Children's and Parental Rights Under the IDEA & PL
94-142 by James J. Messina, Ph.D. &; Constance G. Messina, Ph.D.
"The IEP is the driving cog in the exceptional education wheel and
is emphasized on this site. We also emphasize the importance of the
team approach encouraging good communication, cooperation and parental
assertiveness. Parents need to be focused on the "whole child" when
planning for their children's education. These materials will bring
many of you to a position of planning, which to this point you have
felt unnecessary given the young age of your children. You will
hopefully recognize that education prepares all children to live in
the world. This education for life begins in preschool and ends only
when the person ceases to exist on earth. Use it to educate yourselves
to become the best advocates you can be for your children. These
materials can be used in workshops with other parents for advocacy
training. Feel free to download them for you use."
FL
Schools Lure Parents Back to School - With so many high school
graduates unsure of what they want to do afterwards, and with many of
their parents unaware of opportunities for their kids, schools are
trying to reach students through their parents. Greater efforts to get
parents -- at every level of school -- more involved in their child's
education are being made. More often, writes Christina Denardo,
schools are tailoring their outreach program to boost student
achievement and give parents what they want.
Parent Reviews Give an Inside View - How does your school
do in meeting the needs of its students? Just click on Parent Reviews
on any school profile on
www.greatschools.net to see personal, up-close comments about
schools. Thus far, they've published over 37,000 reviews of schools
across the country, and the number keeps on growing! Parents tell us
what they like about their schools and what needs improvement.
Words That Hurt. Words That Heal:
How
Adult Morale Affects Student Achievement
- A teacher's words can make a parent's day and vice versa. My
daughter called excitedly the other day when her first child brought his first
report card home. No, It wasn't all A's but it did carry a sentence from the
teacher that made all the difference: "Your child is a wonderful boy."
MS
Parent Nights Focus on Test Taking Results - As students, teachers, and schools face increasing pressure
to improve student performance on standardized tests, involving
parents as a critical "fourth partner" in improvement efforts makes
more than just good sense -- it improves student learning. Last
spring, Armstrong Middle School in Starkville, Mississippi implemented
a new parent program that provides a good model of how schools can
involve parents in student learning in a way that is consistent with
these findings. This story shares the details.
The Parent Gap Part 1:
Pulling in
Separate Directions - Soon
after her daughter died and Brenda Joyner found herself
raising three grandchildren, the Durham retiree couldn't help
but notice something unusual about other black parents in the
public schools. In short, they weren't around much. "I just
don't see a lot of African-American parents involved in the
schools," said Joyner, 51. "I wonder if they really see the
importance of it."
The Parent Gap Part 2:
Building
Partnerships - North Carolina
teachers know all about the achievement gap that divides black
and white students in the classroom. They know closing the gap
will require better relationships with African-American
parents. What they don't know is how to get there.
Including Every Parent: A Step-by-Step
Guide to Engage and Empower Parents - Educators, parents,
and researchers agree -- students do better at schools where parents are actively involved.
Now, a new book provides a step-by-step
guide for schools to increase parental involvement. But this guide is unique: it was
written by teachers and parents from the Patrick O'Hearn, an elementary school in the
heart of Boston widely recognized for its
accomplishments in involving parents. At the
O'Hearn, the payoff is clear -- not only in
the school's "family atmosphere," but in student achievement. O'Hearn students have
made tremendous gains on state assessments.
"Including Every Parent" is the eighth book in the "By Teachers for Teachers" series. Each book is full of step-by-step instructions, tips, and
ideas teachers can follow to replicate proven, effective practices that are working in successful public
schools -- each book is developed by
teachers who are making those schools
succeed every day. Read the book's
introduction at
http://www.psinnovation.org/psi/btft08.html.
PTOs Court New
Members: Dads - Carey Heuer gets
teased sometimes. After all, he's a man on the Parent Teacher
Organization (PTO). Instead of Sports Illustrated, he reads PTO Today.
Heuer's fellow board members are all women. When they talk about
diets, he chimes in. When meetings close with "Thank you, ladies," he
cheerfully quibbles. And when the PTO sponsors an event at Alexandria
Elementary School, Heuer is always there, taking notes on what to do
better next time.
Wired Schools Help Keep Parents Informed - Every year, more schools
across the United States, both public and private, are joining the online world
with websites that post news about school events and also allow parents and
students, via confidential passwords, to access teacher comments, test results,
and grades. Even teachers, for whom frequent updates about students' work means
more recordkeeping, are enthusiastic. For them, it can also mean less phone tag
with parents, fewer surprises when it comes time for parent-teacher conferences
or report cards, and the ability to deal with problems faster.
Free Resources from
The Parent Institute - click here.
Includes 10 Things Any School Can Do to Build Parent Involvement...Plus Five
Great Ways to Fail!; Sixty-Eight Parent Involvement Ideas That Really Work;
Seventy-Five Ideas to Build Parent Involvement and Support; Selected Parent
Involvement Research; Ten Questions About Parent Involvement; Forty-Four Proven
Ideas Parents Can Use to Help Their Children Do Better in School; What
Principals Would Tell Parents to Help Parents Help Their Children; and Tips
Parents Can Use to Help Their Children.
CA System Keeps Schools in Touch
With Parents - After a gun battle erupted near Stevenson Ranch Elementary
School in Santa Clarita two years ago and left two people dead, administrators
evacuated the school and scrambled to contact parents to pick up their children.
They relied on word of mouth, handmade signs and a phone tree to reach parents. [Source]
Parent Skills,
Input a Boon to Schools - Real openness and cooperation, not
just the all-too-common rhetoric, are vital for effective schools.
As the new school year begins, it's worth remembering that students do
better when educators and parents don't just listen to but hear each
other. Building ties can be harder than you think. Sometimes,
misguided professionalism or family frustration over previous failures
limits what can be accomplished.
NY New York
City Hires Parent Coordinators - The
city's Department of Education has put 1,200 parents and community
members on salary, paying them $30,000 to $39,000 a year to help
improve communication between teachers and parents.
Raspberry:
To Bridge Poor Childrens' Language Gap - "I've just finished a book
called Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American
Children, and I am confirmed -- in spades! -- of something I'd reluctantly come
to believe: That it is beyond unrealistic to expect schools to fix children who
enter school -- even preschool) -- already behind.
Detroit Study: Parents Key to Students' Success- At
24 Detroit public schools -- 12 where children excelled and 12 where
students overall performed poorly -- researchers interviewed parents
and caregivers about their involvement. "The
environment is very important, and we don't downplay the environment.
But clearly, a strong and engaged principal who provides a warm
environment for students and welcomes parents to their schools and
works with teachers can also play an important role," Green said.
"Students can overcome the negative environment but parental
involvement is key."
A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and
Community Connections on Student Achievement - This review of the
research examines the growing evidence that family and community
connections with schools make a difference in student success. It is a
synthesis of 51 studies about the impact of family and community
involvement on student achievement, and effective strategies to
connect schools. Large pdf file, but extensively bookmarked for easy
reading. (PDF size = 1.2 MB; 241 pages)
Parents
asked to help kids learn -
Caregivers encouraged to spend 15 minutes a day reinforcing
schoolwork; Involvement seen as critical; State to provide
resources for education program.
Parents,
step forward - When I moved to Washington,
D.C., a number of years ago, I learned one thing very quickly
about the school my children would attend. Get involved,
neighbors told me – but don't overdo it.
MI
Michigan Seeks Exception to NCLB Special
Education Requirements (PDF) - In a March 31,
2005 letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, the Michigan
Department of Education seeks an exception to the 1% cap on the proficient
scores of special education students under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Bush Education Officials Try to Pacify States -
The Bush administration's decision to give states greater flexibility to
comply with the No Child Left Behind Act was greeted with enthusiasm by state
education officials meeting in Washington, D.C., this week. But the new
concessions may not be enough to quell rebellions against the law brewing in
several states.
ED Expected to Raise Alternate Assessment Cap to 3 Percent - The U.S.
Department of Education (ED) is poised to dramatically lift a cap on the number
of special education students who can take out-of-level tests and still be
counted under the accountability umbrella of No Child Left Behind (NCLB),
according to sources close to the negotiations. An advocate for disabled
students said: "They need to show us that this isn't simply 'we can't take the
heat.' Having these deliberations among only a small circle of insiders is
suspect. They really owe it to our children to go out for public scrutiny,
debate, and review of these proposals, especially since there is real potential
for grave harm by condemning kids to low expectations in order to make schools
look good."
Arnold Wields Clout on Education Rules - Education Secretary Margaret
Spellings eased federal guidelines the same day California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger asked her to relax certain school requirements under the No Child
Left Behind Act, a feat some of his fellow governors haven't been able to
accomplish. Most states are looking for ways to test reading and math ability of
children with disabilities and low English proficiency separately, so their
performance does not pull down a school's overall academic progress. But other
governors who have negotiated personally with Mrs. Spellings were told to wait
on their requests for greater flexibility under the NCLB.
Beyond Good and Evil - As recently as this past
year, I would have told you that the standards and accountability movement was a
necessary evil. But, I would have added, certainly the best students and
teachers would find this new environment stifling. It turns out I was dead
wrong. During 2004, in my role as a consultant with the Broad Foundation and the
National Center for Educational Accountability, I was a part of a team that
visited five extraordinary urban districts in the country. What we saw was
astounding.
No Child Left Behind Act:
Guide to Frequently Asked Questions (PDF) - The House Committee on
Education and the Workforce majority staff recently released an updated version
of its guide to frequently asked questions regarding the No Child Left Behind
Act (2002). Released February 2005 and available in PDF (31 pages, 786 KB).
Panel Says 'No Child' Law Left the Constitution Behind - A bipartisan panel of state legislators that conducted a yearlong
study of President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law pronounced it
flawed on Wednesday. It said the law's accountability system, which punishes
schools whose students fail to improve steadily on standardized tests,
undermined school improvement efforts already under way in many states and
relied on the wrong indicators. It said, moreover, that the No Child Left Behind
rules for educating disabled students conflict with another federal law and its
bureaucratic requirements fail to recognize the tapestry of educational
challenges faced by teachers in the nation's 15,000 school districts.
Special Report: Data-Driven Decision-Making
- Data-driven decision-making, which involves the collection
and analysis of test results, demographic information, and other student data to
make more informed decisions about instruction--and, given the stringent
requirements of NCLB, it's a practice that is no longer an option for today's
school leaders, but a necessity.
KY
Kentucky
to launch online testing pilot - This spring, Kentucky will join the growing
number of states implementing computer-based testing of students. A state pilot
program will offer online testing to more than 3,000 students in more than 30
high schools across Kentucky.
Few math
studies pass federal scrutiny - Fewer than
2 percent of the studies of software and other curriculum programs that have
been evaluated for their effectiveness meet the federal government's standards
for demonstrating clear scientific evidence of success, according to a recent
announcement.
Schools Grapple With Standards For Special Ed Pupils
- Some educators say their schools are being unfairly labeled as
underperforming because of test scores from special needs students.
[Free login/registration required.]
Lawmakers Knock 'No Child' - A bill and a
resolution viewed as knocking President Bush's signature education program
are headed to full Senate debate this week.
Assessment and Achievement - Few issues are hotter than assessment—thanks
to the No Child Left Behind Act and similar measures—but few are more
misunderstood. With the generous support of Software Technology Inc., the
editors at eSchool News have assembled a variety of news and information as well
as outside resources to help put assessment in clearer perspective and to tie it
more closely to its primary purpose—namely, better test scores through improved
instruction.
CA
Schools Take Advantage of NCLB Loophole - Some
California schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress under NCLB
guidelines are taking advantage of a loophole in the law that exempts schools
that don't receive Title I funds from being sanctioned. More schools may attempt
to jump through the loophole if they fail to meet NCLB goals for certain
subgroups of students such as special education and ESL.
From the Capital to the
Classroom: Year 2 of the No Child Left Behind Act - This report from the Center on
Education Policy is the first and most comprehensive national examination of all main aspects of NCLB implementation at the federal, state, and local levels, and
is based on a survey of 47 states and the District of Columbia, a nationally representative survey of 274 school districts, in-depth case studies of 33
urban, suburban, and rural school districts, and other research methods.
PA
Principal Getting Results in a Struggling School - Claudia Cream, in her third year as Parkside's principal, has sought to boost
student achievement by instilling ethnic pride, setting high standards, and
imposing strict discipline. "Children seem to thrive when they realize they come
from greatness," she said. "I give them a sense of who they are." The efforts
are producing improvements at Parkside, once the lowest-performing elementary
school in the nearly 18,000-student Camden system.
MI
More Michigan High Schools Fail - Higher standards are partly blamed for almost half missing the mark for No Child Left Behind. More Michigan high
schools are failing federal achievement standards and graduation rate requirements than last year, despite districts' efforts to improve student
performance.
MI
Understanding Michigan’s
District Report Cards - This is the first time
school districts as a whole have received report cards. Similar to individual
schools, the district report card is based on:Minimum
size of 30 students in each subgroup for the district, in the grades tested,
using the same rules as applied to individual schools and Overall student
achievement in Math and English Language Arts (ELA) over the entire district.
NCLB Presents Middle School Complications -
Local and state education officials have voiced concerns that middle-grades teachers would be affected by the “highly qualified” provision of the the No
Child Left Behind Act far more than teachers at the elementary and high school levels. [Free login/registration required.]
MI
Background on NCLB/MEAP and
Michigan High School Report Cards - On
Thursday, November 4, 2004, the Michigan Department of Education posted
Education YES! High School Report Cards on
www.michigan.gov/mde.This is the second time high
schools have received the annual report cards. The Education YES! accreditation
system is how the State of Michigan is meeting the federal requirements of No
Child Left Behind (NCLB).
Suits to Target No Child Left Behind Act - The federal No Child Left Behind Act threatens costly penalties for schools deemed failing to meet academic standards. In response,
many educators have a threat of their own: A flood of lawsuits aimed at avoiding the sanctions. [Free login/registration required.]
No Way
Out - The No Child Left Behind Act provides
only the illusion of school choice. Three years later… families across the
United States are still trapped in failing and dangerous schools. There are many
adjectives that describe their relationship with the public school system, but
empowered is not one of them.
Paige Announces 2004 No Child Left
Behind Blue Ribbon Schools - More than 250 of the nation's schools have
been named 2004 No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools, U.S. Secretary of
Education Rod Paige announced last month. The No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon
Schools program recognizes schools that are either academically superior in
their states or demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement.
No Child Left Behind Newsletter:
September 15, 2004 Edition (PDF) - Topics
Include: Letter to Superintendents Offers Guidance, Funding for the Arts;
Filling the Summer Gap; Close-Up: No Child Left Behind—Improving Literacy
Through School Libraries; Tips for Parents; and New Resources! Just Added to
FREE Web Site.
MI
Education Community Invited to Comment on Proposed District Report Cards -
NCLB requires the state to issue an adequate yearly progress (AYP) report
card for a school district as well as individual schools within the district. We
did not do so in 2003 because of incomplete data. We are prepared to do so now,
but need to define on what basis we will compute a district’s AYP.
Tips for Parents on No Child Left Behind from The Achiever - As
states across the nation release their education report cards
revealing which schools met their progress goals, parents no doubt
will have a few questions about what these changes under No Child Left
Behind mean to their child, school and community. Below are a few
questions parents may want to consider: How many special education,
minority, limited English proficient or economically disadvantaged
students are achieving at grade level (are proficient) in either
reading or mathematics? What percentage of students graduate from your
child's high school? How many attend college? Does the school offer
afternoon, weekend or summer school instruction for students who need
extra help in reading and language arts or math? Does the district
inform parents of the choices and options available to them under the
No Child Left Behind Act? How many of your school's teachers meet the
highly qualified teacher standards under No Child Left Behind? How
many teachers hold only emergency credentials? Is there an explicit
student disciplinary policy? How does the school inform parents when
their child has misbehaved and been placed in detention, suspended or
expelled? Has the school been identified as a "persistently dangerous
school"? A full checklist of these and more questions is available at
www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/nclbchecklist.html.
New Learning Resources From Ed.gov's FREE Web Site - The
federal government's most dynamic Web site for learning resources
www.ed.gov/free recently added to
its collection nearly 20 new online resources in science, health and
social studies. The Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
(FREE) Web site is designed to make it easy to find teaching and
learning resources on subjects ranging from arts to vocational
education, from more than 35 federal organizations. Updated weekly,
the site includes, among recent additions: Hubble: A View to the Edge
of Space, from the National Science Foundation; Hands on the Land,
from the Bureau of Land Management; I Hear America Singing, from the
Library of Congress.
CPS Corners Tutoring Market But Runs Risk of Losing it All
- Following a turbulent first year, private tutoring companies take a
back seat in competition for $45 million in federal funds. Putting it
charitably, last year’s effort to provide the tutoring required by the federal
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was a rocky learning experience.
Military Calls Teens with Help of Schools - A little-known provision in
No Child Left Behind requires high schools to give the names and phone numbers
of juniors and seniors to military recruiters who could call and encourage them
to enlist. Supporters of the 2-year-old law say it ensures that teenagers know
the military is an option. But some parents and teenagers say unsolicited phone
calls are an invasion of privacy. And some object to a provision in the law that
would deny millions in federal dollars to schools that ignore recruiters'
requests for contacts. Parents can notify schools in writing if they don't want
their children's information released. [Free login/registration required.]
NC
Federal Law Hits North Carolina's Schools Hard - A significant number of
schools in North Carolina are feeling the sting of the No Child Left Behind law
for the first time as hundreds of students transfer to other schools. Only 18
schools across the state were required to offer transfers last year. But after
the second year of the sweeping reform effort, 138 regular public schools must
give parents the option. In addition, 22 charter schools face a range of
sanctions.
MI
State Likely Escapes
Penalties on Report Cards - The school report
cards for elementary and middle schools were out on time under federal law. The
high school report cards will not be. But officials told the State Board of
Education that the current conflict in schedules should protect the state from
any sanctions for not meeting the deadline.
CO
Math is Not a Chore with Colorado's New Curriculum, Students Show Test Gains
- Having those kindergarten kids study algebra seems to be paying off.
OK, maybe they're not exactly learning the quadratic formula or solving
polynomial equations, but some educators think the exposure 5-year-olds have
been getting to basic patterns and symbols used later in algebra is working. The
2004 CSAP scores tend to support their point of view.
Schools Get Mixed Grades on 'No Child' Law - As
report cards go, it is a spotty mix of promising and abysmal grades. But an
independent review praises the states for progress given the scope of their
assignment -- putting in place the most sweeping education law in decades.
No Child Left Behind Act Becomes Political Football -
The question of whether Nevada and other states have let millions of
dollars in "use it or lose it" federal education funds languish in the bank has
turned into a political football.
Oregon Education Professors Influence Bush -
Over the years, the University of Oregon has developed a reputation as a hippie
haven, home to Hacky-Sackers, Frisbee-throwers and anti-globalism activists. But
tucked away in a bucolic corner of the campus is a group of education professors
whose work has been widely influential and found favor with the Bush
administration.
VA
Some Teachers Left Behind
- More than 100 local teachers could lose their jobs starting today because
of state licensing rules - a situation that complicates recruitment for
administrators already struggling to fill classroom slots. For three years,
these teachers have worked under nonrenewable provisional licenses from the
state. They had until today to pass standardized tests and complete coursework
required for a regular teaching license. Many struggled with the exams and are
now stranded in unlicensed no man's land.
MI
Highland Park Schools Seeing Some Rewards - In
a single year, Highland Park Community High School has been transformed. This
month, 130 graduates in a class of 139 crossed the stage at the Masonic Temple,
a milestone for the struggling district, which saw only 86 students earn
diplomas in 2003. At the heart of the changes is Theresa Saunders, the
district's superintendent hired in August 2003. Among the keys to success at
schools Saunders said, is to give freedom to principals to study their own
problems and suggest their own solutions.
MI
Pass, Fail, Struggle: Whatever the MEAP Scores, Education Isn't Easy at Farwell
Middle School - The MEAP tests were over and now real work could begin. I
wanted the students I taught at Farwell Middle School to work on some engaging
writing for a change. So we started a lesson inspired by Louis Carney, a former
English teacher at Detroit's Cody High whose students aced the MEAP.
MI
Reforms Mean Short Summer for
Teachers - Principals will have less power and teachers will put in extra
time at 14 low-performing Grand Rapids schools under a district plan for
boosting achievement. "Everybody's pride is at stake," said Chief Academic
Officer John Harberts, who crafted the plan, which has the teachers union's
support.
MI
Schools Want Education
Funding Study - Experts say push to determine
funding adequacy spurred by tight budgets, No Child Left Behind Act. School
superintendents, who say they’ve been crippled by continued state funding cuts,
are pushing Michigan to pin down just how much money it takes to educate its
children. It’s called an adequacy study, and it is likely to accelerate the
debate over whether Michigan’s school funding system is working.
PA
Testing
Standards Spawn Court Fight - The state is failing the children in its fifth-largest
school district, which has a large number of children who live
in poverty and understand little English, by holding them to the
same academic standards as their counterparts in wealthier
districts, an attorney for the Reading School District argued
yesterday.
Numbers Game Scores -
MATHCOUNTS, a problem-solving version of a spelling bee that celebrates the
unpredictability of mathematics, has spread to about 6,000 U.S. schools and
continues to grow.
In Failing Schools, How Real is NCLB Transfer Option? -
While supporters of the controversial law say the problems will be
worked out, the early experience of Chicago and other cities shows how the
ideals of a law passed in Washington can be difficult to implement in the
complicated world of urban education. In the long list of consequences for
schools under NCLB, students can transfer after their schools land on the "needs
improvement" list for two years running -- but students can't transfer to
schools that don't exist, and -- unless interdistrict agreements become an
option -- many cities may see scenarios like Chicago's, in which "choice" is
largely meaningless.
VA
Norfolk, a Blueprint for Narrowing the Gap - In
virtually every grade and subject, Norfolk, Va., schools have markedly narrowed
the gap between black and white student performance on state tests. Norfolk's
numbers are particularly noteworthy given the district's demographics.
Two-thirds of the students are African-American. Sixty percent are low-income.
NY
Staggering Fail Rate in Special Ed - The city's special-education
students are being left behind. New state statistics on the achievement of Big
Apple students with learning disabilities in 2003 showed a shockingly abysmal
performance, with only 3.5 percent of the eighth-graders passing the English
exam and 5 percent passing the math test.
Sticks and
Stones - Yesterday, in “Truth of the Heart,”
Debi Lewis wrote so poignantly about the tragic results that can occur when
educators label children. She concluded that “when
administrations start to back off the notion that kids must be sorted by label,
our children can finally be viewed as incredible assets instead of liabilities.”
Nearly Every School District in America Left Behind -
The Children's Defense Fund recently released a detailed
analysis comparing the amount of Title I funding each school
district in America would receive under the White House's
proposed FY05 budget to the amount school districts would
receive at levels authorized under the No Child Left Behind
Act. The data show how nearly every school district in the
country continues to be shortchanged. Some of the largest
school districts in the country will be subjected to
significant shortfalls in the 2005-2006 school year: Los
Angeles, for example, will suffer a $294 million shortfall
from what it was promised under NCLB. In New York, the funding
gap will be $649 million; in Houston, $78 million; in Seattle,
$8 million; and, in Detroit, $119 million. CDF urges the
Administration to re-evaluate its priorities and put our
nation's children first by keeping its promise to fully fund
the No Child Left Behind Act.
The Punishing Truth About No Child Left Behind - Under
the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind law,
public schools would no longer be able to mask the
miseducation of certain minorities by reporting averages and
aggregates. They'd have to make sure every group -- virtually
every child -- was making good academic progress, or there
would be penalties to pay. This is perfect -- unless you run
an indifferent school district with incompetent administrators
and unprepared teachers fearing to be found out, writes
William Raspberry. And that may be the fatal flaw with NCLB:
its underlying assumption that school failure is willful, and
that if you put the fear of God in the people who run the
schools, they'll do their jobs a lot better. A handful might.
But for most educators, the penalties make about as much sense
as yelling at me for using the wrong fork at high tea with the
queen of England. I can't do what I don't know how to do --
what I haven't been taught to do -- and punishment is of no
help.
IL
Early Results on 'No Child': Progress - Kids
who won highly prized transfers out of failing Chicago public schools averaged
much better reading and math gains during the first year in their new
schools--just as drafters of the federal No Child Left Behind Law envisioned, an
exclusive analysis indicates.
A Special Case - The notion that all children can—and should—meet
challenging achievement standards has become the mantra of standards-based
reform. Both in the individual school microcosm and in the larger academic
universe, those standards boil down to numbers. And the numbers are telling.
[Free login/registration required to view this article.]
The Contentious 'No Child' Law I: Who Will Fix It? And How? - That the
federal No Child Left Behind Act is in serious disrepair as the nation's premier
educational law in a generation goes without saying. Educators, gop state
leaders, governors, Democratic Party candidates for president, suburban parents,
and former supporters ridicule the law's anemic funding and intrusive rules that
label schools as failures for not achieving "adequate yearly progress." [Free
login/registration required to view this article.]
The Contentious 'No Child' Law II: Money Has Not Been Left Behind - "An
unfunded mandate," cry the critics of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. In
the words of Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee:
"By neglecting his promise to provide the funding necessary to help each student
to reach high standards, George W. Bush has made a mockery of the phrase 'leave
no child behind.'" Virginia's Republican-dominated legislature recently struck a
similar chord, passing (on a vote of 98-1) a resolution complaining that the law
will cost "literally millions of dollars that Virginia does not have."
[Free login/registration required to view this article.]
Choices for Parents:
Getting Students Help With Supplemental Services - Answers to frequently
asked questions about "supplemental services" - extra help in reading, language
arts, or math that is offered to students before or after school or on weekends.
Choices for Parents:
The Facts About...Getting Students Help - How No Child Left Behind makes
sure that families have options and that children are not trapped in schools in
need of improvement.
U.S.
New Policy for Calculating Participation Rates Under No Child Left Behind
- The Bush administration is easing the restrictions of its
"No Child Left Behind"
education law in the area of testing. The 2001 law requires schools to get
participation from at least 95% of students in math and reading testing, as well
as at least 95% participation from all major subgroups of students, such as
minority students or students with disabilities. Under the new policy, as long
as schools average a 95% participation rate among students over two or three
years, they'll meet the law. A school that tested only 94% of students one year,
for example, could make the mark if it tested 96% of students the year before.
The option would apply both to a school's overall population and to any of its
major groups of students.
Commentary:
Demeaned, Diminished,
Demoralized, and Drained - In the overall context of IDEA reauthorization
from a parent perspective, this week has been full of rumors, anxiety, and
emotions on overdrive. This is because amending Part B of the IDEA is one of the
most important, if not the single most important, decision that our legislators
can make in the lives of 6.5 million students with disabilities.
Lines Drawn in Fight on N.S.F. Financing -
Michigan Republican Representative Vernon J. Ehlers, the first research
physicist elected to Congress, is fighting the Bush administration over a
proposal that pits the National Science Foundation against the Education
Department. [Free login/registration required to view this article.]
AZ
Arizona Easing Fed's Rules for School Standards - As complaints against the federal No Child Left Behind Act grow louder, the
Bush Administration's tough, two-year-old education reform law is quietly being
softened in behind-the-scenes negotiations between the states and Washington,
D.C.
Nebraska Shuns State Tests - In Nebraska, students aren't pushed to do
well on 50-minute tests that will determine whether their teachers and their
schools are considered successful. With criticism mounting over implementation
of the federal accountability law and states scrambling to overhaul their
testing systems to comply, Nebraska alone has succeeded in saying no to
mandatory statewide tests. [Free registration/login required to view this
article.]
U.S.
Paige Finds Schools Act a Tough Sell - Little
more than two years after Congress gave Bush his first major domestic policy
success by overwhelmingly passing the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB), teachers, parents and state officials across the country are
balking at the law's requirements. What figured to be an unquestioned
accomplishment for Bush now looks like it could be a liability. And U.S.
Education Secretary Rod Paige, who has traveled to 46 states since taking
office, primarily to promote NCLB, is finding it
harder than ever to make his case.
CA
Funds Could Leave No Bilingual Child Behind -
Once excluded from federal dollars, districts with limited-English learners are
applying for money to improve literacy for students in grades K-3.
The World of Immigrant Students - Although eight languages --Spanish,
Vietnamese, Hmong, Cantonese, Cambodian, Korean, Laotian, and Navajo -- comprise
85% of linguistic diversity, 350 language groups are actually spoken in U.S.
school districts. Meeting the needs of these students challenges many areas of a
school system. In this article, Judy Smith-Davis outlines a set of best
practices and a wealth of Web resources to help educators meet this challenge
and serve this population of students.
U.S.
DOE Offers More Guidance to States to Help Implement No Child Left Behind
- In an effort to further help states implement the provisions of the
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) today
added a new page to its Web site that provides links to more than 50 policy
letters that help explain the law.
IA
City Outlines
Strategies to Close Learning Gap - A high
school counselor once told Robert Smith he would have to work much harder than
his white peers to achieve the same things throughout his life. Smith, who is
African American, took those words with him from a low-income, one-parent home
in Dallas, Texas, to college at the University of Iowa. He carried the same
message to the State Board of Education on Friday.
U.S.
New Policies to Help Teachers Become Highly Qualified -
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today announced three new
policies giving teachers greater flexibility in demonstrating that they are
highly qualified under the No Child Left Behind Act while also ensuring that
every child in America is taught by a teacher who knows his or her subject.
These new policies, which take effect immediately, will address the particular
challenges of teachers who teach more than one subject, especially those in
rural districts and science teachers.
MI
Detroit Students
to Finally Get Transfers From Failing Schools - Detroit Public Schools has finally figured it out. It may have taken all
school year, but within a week the Detroit district will send letters letting
parents of students at poorly performing schools know which better ones their
children may attend, officials said Friday. Nearly 1,000 students who have
waited a year to be transferred from academically struggling schools will get a
response from the district.
FLSchool Cuts
Students; Grade Goes Up - Oak Ridge High in Orlando boosted its school
grade from an F to a D last year after purging its attendance roll of dozens of
low-performing and often-absent students in the weeks before the FCAT.
DE
Special Ed a Challenge - No
Child Left Behind law has teachers struggling to keep up. "If I get myself so
anxious about a test score, it's going to, you know, get in my way of the real
target of why we're here." [Source]
MI
Failing Schools
Face Tight Deadline - More than 100 of
Michigan’s chronically failing schools have six months to outline a major
overhaul that could include replacing entire teaching staffs. Educators and
experts say the September deadline is too tight to come up with a restructuring
plan, one of the most severe penalties schools face when consistently failing to
meet federal achievement standards.
U.S.
5 States Want
Out of Education Law - The No Child Left Behind
Act is only 2 years old, but the federal education law is already sparking a
mini-revolt from some states.
U.S.
Changes Made in Test Rules of School Law - Federal officials
said that the test scores of recent immigrants who do not speak
English would no longer be considered in determining whether a school
was meeting annual targets.
U.S.
Secretary Paige Announces New Policies to Help English Language
Learners - U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today
announced two new policies that will help students who are new to this
country and the English language while also giving states and local
school districts greater flexibility to help these students and still
meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind education reform
law.
Feds: No Child Left Behind Being
Adjusted - The U.S. Department of Education has been hearing the same
concerns that legislators are hearing about the effects of the federal No Child
Left Behind Act and is making adjustments to administration of the law to meet
those concerns, Undersecretary of Education Eugene Hickok told a joint meeting
of the Michigan House and Senate Education Committees. But he also noted on
Thursday that the standards schools are meeting-or in some cases not meeting-are
set by the state, not by his department.
U.S.
'No Child' Law Leaves Old Ways Behind
- President Bush's education initiative means many schools must drop arts
and extra-curriculars to focus on test results and
accountability. [Free login/registration required to view this article.]
MI
Memorandums from MDE Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Jeremy Hughes
(PDF) -
Transfer of Student Disciplinary Records - "It is hereby directed that
school districts and public school academies must put in place procedures to
transfer the disciplinary records of students, with respect to suspensions and
expulsions..."
NCLB Highly Qualified Teacher Flexibility - "New flexibility will allow
Michigan to expand the number of teachers who will now meet the NCLB highly
qualified requirements without additional coursework or testing." Additional
Clarification on Highly Qualified Teacher Flexibility - Addresses new
flexibility for special education, social studies, science, and elementary
teachers, those who teach in rural areas, the impact of a master's degree, ESL
and bilingual ed, and middle school teachers and middle school team teaching.
[April 2004]
U.S.
Myths and Realities:
What do we really mean by “No child left behind”?
- The purpose of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
is “… to ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant opportunity
to obtain a high-quality education… (emphasis added).
U.S.
Examining No Child Left Behind
- More than a month ago I asked for stories about the new federal
No Child Left Behind law. The stories I got point to very specific
strengths and weaknesses of the law, as it becomes reality for our
children. [Free registration/login required to view this article.]
Critics:
School Law Hurts Kids -
Thousands do not receive promised academic aid. State fails to
check compliance with federal rules.Strong
schools flunk for nonacademic reasons.
U.S.
'No Child'
Rebellion Picking up Momentum - Opposition to President Bush's No Child Left Behind
education law is gaining traction, and Republicans -- even in GOP
strongholds such as Utah -- are among those digging in deepest.
U.S.
Sea of Testing Data Buries
U.S. Schools
- Complex results, errors delaying state report cards. From Utah to Pennsylvania, education officials have been
trying to analyze mounting piles of student test scores and teacher competency
statistics and finding the task far more costly and time-consuming than they
imagined.
U.S.
Video Webcast: Sec.
Paige Announces New No Child Left Behind Provision
For Students With Disabilities -
Originally broadcast on December 9, 2003; U.S. Secretary of
Education Rod Paige, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver,
House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner and
children with disabilities gathered for a press conference to discuss
how all children in America deserve a quality education, including
those with disabilities.
Website Promises Easy
Access to School Data - Federal, state and private
education leaders launched a website that promises unprecedented
access to information about public school performance.
U.S.
Schools
Chiefs Seek Changes in Testing Law - No Child
Left Behind Law called 'too Harsh' on some. School superintendents representing
17 Washington area districts and two Catholic school systems presented a plan
yesterday to fix what they consider the most damaging part of the federal No
Child Left Behind law -- the annual testing of nearly all disabled and limited
English-speaking students.
VA
Virginia Seeks To Leave Bush
Law Behind - The Republican-controlled
Virginia House of Delegates sharply criticized President Bush's signature
education program Friday, calling the No Child Left Behind Act an unfunded
mandate that threatens to undermine the state's own efforts to improve students'
performance.
NCLB Guidance & Regulations - A new provision of NCLB gives local school
districts greater flexibility in meeting the act's requirements for students
with disabilities.
US Dept. of Ed Claims States Have Unprecedented Flexibility to Implement NCLB
- The diversity among approved state accountability plans & state
consolidated applications shows that states have great flexibility in the design
of their systems & implementation of particular NCLB provisions. ED issued a
document that describes this flexibility & provides examples.
No Child
Left Behind Could Spell End for Triage Teaching
- The No Child Left Behind Act has been taking a beating
lately. When National Education Association President Reg Weaver came to Prince
George's a couple of months ago for County Executive Jack B. Johnson's education
summit, he blasted the law as "one size fits all." Democratic presidential
candidate Howard Dean recently called it "No School Board Left Standing." And
many educators say they are worried that the law is unfair to schools because it
labels so many of them failures.
NC
How North Carolina
Creates More Dropouts - North Carolina's
nationally praised push to raise standards in public schools has a dangerous
downside that state leaders have widely ignored: a dramatic rise in dropouts.
After holding steady for years, the percentage of students quitting N.C. high
schools in 1999 surged to the highest rate in at least a decade, and remained
high a year later. [Source]
MO4
East St. Louis Principals, 6 Others are Demoted Over
Special Education Lapse -
Four popular East St. Louis principals whose students did not take
mandatory special education tests have been demoted on the recommendation of
Superintendent Nate Anderson. The School Board voted 5-1 Friday to discipline
the principals, the director of special education and members of her staff at a
special board meeting. The demotions were effective Friday.
U.S.
Klein's New Plan to Rate Teachers -
Teachers and supervisors could be rated on how well their students
perform compared to kids in other classes - or even in other schools - under a
sweeping new accountability plan being crafted by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
Policy:
Charter School Program Guidance (Word File) - Non-regulatory guidance
addressing questions the U.S. Department of Education has received regarding
various provisions of the Charter Schools Program statute, including those
related to student admissions to charter schools, the use of lotteries, private
school conversions, and the involvement of for-profit organizations in charter
schools.
U.S. Wrightslaw Explains Reading
and No Child Left Behind - Because two-thirds
of students are not proficient readers when they graduate from high school, No
Child Left Behind focuses on teaching children to read.
The Special Ed Dilemma
- Advocates say holding special ed kids to the same standards as
everybody else is a step forward, but critics say it makes no sense. It produces
dumbfounded stares and sighs of frustration. Yes, special education students now
have to take regular tests. And the kicker? They are expected to do just as well
as students without the same problems.
Great Resource:
A Translation Guide to
Education Jargon - Here's a sentence somebody might say these days in a
school near you: "Now that we have to disaggregate scores on a CRT, I don't see
how Title I kids are going to make AYP." If you understood that, face it: You're
a hopeless education nerd. But parents and other people interested in schools
need to recognize some of the jargon common in a discussion about the No Child
Left Behind education law.
FL
Fewer Students,
Money Left Behind
- The legal fine print of the No Child Left Behind Act details
what can happen if a public school fails to make what the federal
government considers adequate progress each year. Between the lines is
what that can mean for a school in terms of dollars, especially when
not meeting the grade provides students the choice to transfer to a
better-performing school. In Duval County, it will mean more than $2.3
million in funding will be redirected this year.
Commentary:
No Child Left
Behind Leaves No Loopholes
- If little Delaware is in a dither over the impact of the
federal No Child Left Behind law, you can imagine what is about to
happen in the rest of the country.
Bill Maher Commentary:
Leave No Child Behind Means
Make 'em Vanish
- Slogans are not policy, and they're not truth. Twinkies aren't
wholesome goodness, and The Clear Skies Initiative isn't really going
to bring clear skies. And, it turns out, the Leave No Child Behind law
actually leaves lots of children behind.
MD
Some Parents of Special-ed Students Oppose Plan for Testing
- If Maryland's special-education teens were required to pass last
year's High School Assessment exams to graduate - which the state is considering
requiring all students to do - 90 percent of them would not earn their diplomas.
MI
State Looks to
Bridge Student Achievement Gap -
Determined to close a yawning achievement gap between Michigan's white
and minority students, Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Watkins has created the first state-level position to try to
address the stubborn problem.
MI Parent
Notifications Required in Michigan by No Child Left Behind Act - The
purpose of this memorandum is to summarize the notifications that school
districts and public school academies are required to provide to parents under
the No Child Left Behind Act, and to clarify these requirements in light of the
delay in the availability of 2002-03 MEAP results and calculation of 2002-03
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
No Parent Left Behind
- Educators have recognized for some time that parent involvement
plays a critical role in student achievement. Especially in urban districts it
has become increasingly clear that failure to enlist parents as partners
seriously hampers any school-reform efforts.
NC Efforts Pay Off to Close
Achievement Gap - Encouraged by a big jump in this year's test scores
among minority students, a growing number of educators say North Carolina could
eliminate the racial achievement gap in the next few years.
TX
Booking Success at Stop Six School - "We have
children at Walton who don't know the alphabet. They can't write their name.
They don't know how to open up a book. They don't even know what a book is for.
Yet, over the past decade, the school has found a formula for success, rising
from the lowest possible rating of low performing to the state's second-highest
rating of recognized.
NCLB and Students with Learning
Disabilities:
Opportunities and Obstacles - The No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the Bush Administration’s bold
federal school reform law, includes benefits to students with learning
disabilities (LD), as well as some barriers that might prevent these
same students from enjoying all of the opportunities in the law.
The Move to
Get a Top Teacher in Every Major Class -
After more than 25 years giving science tests to her
middle-school students, Rebecca Pringle may have to pass one
herself to prove she's qualified to teach the subject.
PA 'No Child Left Behind' Law
Bumps Into Hard Reality - Before the school
year began, 30 parents in the Chester Upland School District believed that a
federal law would allow them to transfer their children out of the troubled,
low-achieving district into one with more resources and better test scores. They
were in for a letdown.
IL
Top Suburban Schools Listed Among Low Scorers on State Test - When state
test results are released next month, some top high schools, such as Evanston
Township, will find themselves in a potentially awkward position: on a list
alongside some of the state's lowest-performing schools.
Alternative teacher-certification program debuts online
- A new internet-based program that allows under-qualified
teachers, career changers, and other professionals to bypass teacher
colleges to become "highly qualified" certified teachers made its
debut Aug. 22. Passport to Teaching targets people who are interested
in becoming teachers but don't want to take the time and incur the
expense of completing a traditional teacher-education program.
[Free registration required to read/view this article @
www.eschoolnews.com]
NY
In Order to Cut Their
Failure Rate, Schools Shed Students
- Growing numbers of students — most of them struggling
academically — are being pushed out of New York City's school system
and classified under bureaucratic categories that hide their failure
to graduate.
The
Teacher Shortage & its Implications For Recruitment Policy
- If districts are to meet No Child Left Behind'srequirement for a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom
by2005-06, they need to reform underlying
human resource operationsand takea strategic approach to teacher recruitment.This report examines the way districtsresponded to the teachershortage
problem between 1999 and 2002.
WA
School chiefs lack broad authority for reforms, UW survey finds
- A University of Washington study being
released Monday suggests the goals of No Child Left Behind -- a
sweeping educational reform that holds schools and districts
accountable for student achievement -- will be difficult to meet
unless school superintendents are given greater authority.
NCLB:
Conspiracy, Compliance, or Creativity?
-
"The reason the NCLB exists is simple. For decades, local
policymakers and school
officials turned a blind eye to a set of
vexing problems in public education."
U.S. New Initiatives to Celebrate
Teachers - U.S. Education Secretary Paige sends
Congress progress report about states' teacher quality initiatives.
- "I am an attorney who represents
children with disabilities. For more than 25 years, I have watched
school after school 'drop the ball'
— and not give proper education services to disabled children. The
only recourse is for courageous and determined parents to take on
school systems and make them follow the law, often leading to costly
and painful lawsuits" - Bill Byrne.
U.S.
No Child Left
Behind Puts School Districts in a Bind
-
Thousands of parents in the [California] Bay Area and millions
nationwide are receiving letters from their school districts saying
their children have a right to transfer immediately from their
low-achieving schools to better ones.
U.S.
To Educators, 'No
Child' Goals Out of Reach
-
As the bad news about America's public schools has poured in,
with large numbers falling short of state targets demanded by the new
federal education law, local officials are blaming the White House and
Congress for asking the impossible. How could rational leaders demand,
in just 12 years, that 100 percent of students do well enough on
standardized tests to be rated proficient in reading and math? The No
Child Left Behind law is "out of touch with reality," said Ron Wimmer,
school superintendent in Olathe, Kan., and many of his counterparts
across the country agree.
Commentary:
Maximum Convenience or
Maximum Courage?
-
The practical reality of IDEA and the IEP development process
is that it is school-driven and school-focused,
rather than child-driven and child-focused. Active and involved
parents can change that balance, but only with significant personal
effort and dedicated support from other parents or advocates.
U.S. Governors Told Urban Schools
Need to be "Blown Up" to Improve - The
structure of the nation's high schools, particularly those in urban centers with
high concentrations of poverty, need to be "blown up" in order to improve
student performance, governors were told Monday.
Who's Attending Michigan's Priority Schools? (PDF) - Some Michigan
schools have failed to meet AYP targets for several years and find themselves in
the fourth year of NCLB sanctions. This brief provides analysis of the
geographic and demographic characteristics of the schools on the priority
schools list in order to provide a clearer picture of the challenge facing state
and local school officials. The results are sobering even for experienced school
watchers. [Source: Electronic Library of Current Educational Research (ELCER)
newsletter]
MI
Schools in dark on
MEAP - Michigan teachers are still waiting for
the results of last winter's MEAP test -- information they need to determine how
to improve student learning.
544 Schools Inadequate - An
additional 544 Michigan elementary and middle schools have been added to a list
of those needing academic improvement after the state learned it erred in
following federal rules.
NCLB Booklet
from the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. - As part of the Project's effort to educate families and their children
about their rights, here is a
pamphlet on
assessment and accountability in PDF format.
MI
School Improvement
List Sees Temporary Balloon - The list of
schools under sanction for having not met adequate yearly progress two years in
a row will grow by as many 1,000 schools in the next few days. But that list
will likely drop back down to about 200 schools after the next release of
Michigan Educational Assessment Program data.
Much Educational
Research Lacks Proper Standard - A few years ago, late-night TV host Jay
Leno found fodder for his opening monologue in a national study purporting to be
educational research. A major finding was that students who took algebra in high
school did better in college than those who did not.
CA
Testing must include disabled -
Federal law requires state to include special-education students to show it is
being accountable for all pupils.
Education Effort Meets Resistance
- Leaders Say Teacher Certification Test Was Sabotaged; The leaking of test
questions, which the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence said
led it to cancel a $1.2 million agreement with the testing company ACT Inc.,
marks the latest battle in a long war between the new organization and several
established education groups.
MA
Real MCAS rates cause for worry, not celebration
- As graduation time approaches, news about MCAS testing seems
reassuring. After four rounds of re-tests, the Department of
Education says 91% of all seniors will receive a diploma. If
only reality were so rosy. The problem is this: MCAS pass rates
fail to include students from the Class of 2003 who haven't
survived to the twelfth grade.
Reaching a "100% pass rate" is possible if we lose more students
before graduation.
Bill Summary:
The
Ready to Teach Act - Congressional
Republicans are targeting the nation's teaching colleges with the first in what
will be a series of bills to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). The
Ready to Teach Act seeks to ensure that teacher training programs are producing
well-prepared teachers to meet the needs of America's students.
ME
Maine May Resist Federal School Law - State lawmakers are
expected to consider a resolutioncalling on President
Bush and Congress to exempt Maine from Bush's sweeping new education law or
fully fund the high cost for states to comply with it.
NCLB: Conspiracy,
Compliance, or Creativity? -
"The reason the NCLB exists is simple. For decades, local
policymakers and school officials turned a blind eye to a set of vexing problems
in public education."
U.S.
Dept of Ed Seeks Broad Input for New
National Education Technology Plan -
The U.S. Department of Education today announced that it is
calling for broad participation and input from a wide array of education
stakeholders in crafting a new National Education Technology Plan, as required
by the recently enacted No Child Left Behind law.
U.S.
Ed. Dept. Invests $500,000 in Team to Tout
its Agenda - The U.S.
Department of Education has quietly assembled an eight-person,
half-million-dollar team of political appointees to promote the "No Child Left
Behind" Act of 2001 and, agency officials say, clear up misperceptions about it.
MI
School choice: Stick or switch?
-
Patricia Duncan has never felt her 7-year-old daughter was
challenged to excel at Bellevue Elementary School in Detroit.
Granholm Announces United Front
Against School Failure - Governor Jennifer
Granholm announced Monday that 216 elementary and middle schools
in the state had not met federal adequate yearly progress
standards, and she announced that nearly every state department,
as well as private entities, would be enlisted to help those
schools improve next year.
List of
Approved Supplemental Educational Service Providers
- click here.
Michigan Schools
Continue to Improve: Reports compiled according to federally
mandated Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) formulas indicate that 88 percent of
Michigan’s elementary and middle school buildings are making progress toward
achievement testing goals.
Phase 2
Schools Continuing to be Identified for Improvement that Did Not Make AYP in
2001-02. View the list of schools in pdf -
click here.
Phase 3
Schools Continuing to be Identified for Improvement that Did Not Make AYP in
2001-02. View the list of schools in pdf -
click here.
Phase 4
Schools Identified for Corrective Action that Did Not Make
AYP in 2001-02. View the list of schools in pdf -
click here.
MI
Testing Fad Achieves New Levels With the Disabled -
Bloomfield Hills, MI - Fifteen Years ago, when Linda
Mischley was looking for a public school for her severely disabled son, she
moved hundreds of miles from northern Michigan to this Detroit suburb, so her
Bobby could attend the Wing Lake Developmental Center. [All
New York Times articles require free registration with
www.NewYorkTimes.com
before you can access them.]
Chasing
and Catching Slow Learners in Changing Times - Slow learners make up 14% of the general population yet often do not qualify for
special education or other services. The No Child Left Behind Act and amendments
to IDEA may change that.
CA
Disabled students call test unfair: State high school exit exam forcing them
out of classroom, some say. After Justin Pierce, an 11th-grader with
dyslexia, failed the math portion of California's new graduation exam for the
second time, he left his family in Napa.
U.S.
Granholm Warns of
Unfunded Mandates in 'No Child' Act -
Republican and Democratic governors split sharply at this weekend's National
Governors Association meeting over President George W. Bush's "No Child Left
Behind" federal school funding law that significantly increased education
funding to states in exchange for greater school choice for pupils.
Inside the No Child
Left Behind Law - Like many people, I am having
difficulty understanding the new federal No Child Left Behind Law. It helps me
to have well-informed advocates debate issues that confuse me. So two experts
have kindly accepted my invitation to argue about the law in this column.
Find Information on Your State!
The Education Commission of the
States <http://nclb.ecs.org/nclb/>
has information on each state's compliance and
progress with regards to the No Child Left Behind Act. Choose your method
of search from the left-hand panel of the page.
Supplemental Services Addressed by the No Child Left Behind Act: The term
"supplemental services" refers to extra help provided to students in reading,
language arts and math. This extra help can be provided before or after school
or on weekends.
Fiscal
woes endanger `No Child Left Behind' law, report says -
State fiscal woes and limited federal funds may doom an ambitious
education law that aims to ensure all public school students are academically
proficient by 2014, according to a report issued Friday.
States argue schools can't measure
up - The problem being cited by many state and local officials is that
the "No Child Left Behind" law requires school systems to raise the achievement
levels of students in each of five racial and ethnic subgroups, as well as among
low-income students, those with limited English skills and disabled students
every year.
U.S.
States Strive Toward Federal Compliance
- While most states have moved quickly to meet the student
testing requirements of the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001, a majority have
not defined how they will measure "adequate yearly progress," how many students
from a subgroup (disabled, racial minority, etc.) are needed in a school before
their test scores will count for accountability purposes, or how to define a
"highly qualified" teacher.
NY
Students
Ousted for Stats? - Thousands of struggling students were discharged by high school
administrators more concerned about their own job evaluations than the
students' futures, say some public officials and children's advocates.
U.S.
Federal rules put schools to test
- Rules
force penalizing schools when special-ed students fail to make gains on tests.New federal education rules will force Florida to do what it has never
done: penalize public schools when special-education students fail to make
acceptable gains on statewide tests.
MI MIRS
9-12-02
Education YES! Another
Deadline Doomed? - Do it now or do it right. That is the
dilemma facing the State Board of Education as it attempts to meet
another self-imposed December deadline for implementing its
accreditation system for Michigan's public schools, Education YES! – A
Yardstick for Excellent Schools.
Buried deep within the new No Child Left Behind Act is a provision
requiring public secondary schools to provide military
recruiters with contact information for every student -- or
face a cutoff of all federal aid. To many, requiring the
release of personal information intrudes on the privacy rights
of students - and they plan to inform students of their right
to withhold their records.
[source]
State,
U.S. Feud Over Teachers - Strapped for experienced teachers,
California is skirting the nation's new education law by insisting
that 50,000 rookies without full credentials are nonetheless "highly
qualified," federal officials said Monday.
School
choice law may not help children in districts with tight space
- A key feature of a new federal education law
intended to give 3.5 million poor children a chance to attend better
public schools this fall cannot succeed in urban districts that are
strapped for space, educators say.
MN
Teachers get an easy pass
- Minnesota teachers hold a
national reputation for excellence, but when it comes to the tests
they take to get their licenses, the state allows some of the lowest
passing scores in the country.
State,
U.S. Feud Over Teachers - Strapped for experienced teachers,
California is skirting the nation's new education law by insisting
that 50,000 rookies without full credentials are nonetheless "highly
qualified," federal officials said Monday.
Frustration
Grows as States Await 'Adequate Yearly
Progress' Advice - State officials are frustrated and worried over a lack of
federal guidance on setting annual performance targets for schools, as
required by the nation's major education law. Fueling their concerns
are preliminary simulations in more than a dozen states that suggest a
majority of their schools could be identified as needing
"improvement."
Private Schools and Testing of Title I
Students - Clarification
- The
Department of Education recently published
in the Federal Register final regulations for the standards and
assessment requirements of Title I. Since a number of you have
inquired about the applicability of state academic assessment to
private schools, we are pleased to inform you that the regulations
address that issue directly, and make it clear that private schools,
including private schools with Title I students, are not required to
participate in a state's academic assessments. If a private school has
students who receive Title I services, the LEA must consult with
private school officials about how those students will be assessed.
Law
could worsen teacher shortage:
U.S. act tightens certification rules -
A little-noticed provision in
the new federal education law could seriously aggravate the teacher
shortage across Illinois over the next few years, as school officials
scramble to fill classrooms with properly certified candidates. (source)
Leave
No Child Behind in the Middle Grades-
It all comes down
to implementation. How "historic" the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
will be depends on the readiness of states and school districts to
conform to the requirements of the law. In this interesting analysis,
Cindy Brown makes 12 predictions of how implementation will unfold,
with an emphasis on the impact of the law on middle grades.
No
Child Left Behind: What Will It Take? -
Just one month after President Bush signed the No Child Left
Behind Act into law, a provocative set of expert papers commissioned
by the Fordham Foundation explores the legislation's key features: its
testing and accountability provisions.
Click here for a copy of the report in PDF format, or
click here for a copy of the report
in Word (source).
Testing
Rules Would Grant States Leeway- States would have significant flexibility in meeting new
federal testing requirements, under draft regulations released by the
Department of Education last week.
A
"PROFICIENT" SCORE DEPENDS ON GEOGRAPHY- What exactly does "proficient" mean? The answer, it appears,
depends on where you live. Yet how states define the word is at the
heart of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Education
Act Limits Privacy- A little-mentioned provision of President Bush's new education
act could mean constantly ringing telephones, jammed mailboxes and a
loss of privacy for high school students and their parents. Section
9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, signed into law Jan. 8,
says high schools receiving federal aid must give students' names,
addresses and telephone numbers to any military recruiter or higher
education provider who asks for them.
Post
Your Response -
ESEA Reauthorization: A Bit More of the Same?-
How much does the new law move the nation forward in
addressing the achievement gap between rich and poor students and
between those who are well- protected and resilient and those who are
vulnerable and troubled? (source)
Law
Mandates Scientific Base For Research- Congress and the Bush administration are aiming to
base school improvement efforts less on intuition and experience and more on
research-based evidence. But the question arises: Who decides what counts as
such? Includes a resource list: "Finding
What Works in Education."
