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Today’s Top Picks:
Will there be an override session next week?
http://bit.ly/gHHOu2 (DN)
and http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15204009
Parents for Choice and UEA are both part of the Tribune’s left-right Legislator metric.
http://bit.ly/eIRVfN (SLT)
ECS looks at state power struggles over education governance.
http://bit.ly/gC4Xy8 (Ed Week)
or a copy of the ECS analysis
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/92/33/9233.pdf
Survey of young Americans find they’re liking their college experience more than they did high school.
http://yhoo.it/fcOI76 (AP)
or a copy of the survey
http://bit.ly/gwnv8D
Facebook and Twitter: They’re not just for socializing anymore. They can help you study, too.
http://bit.ly/fWpyyp (AP)
Now that’s what ENR calls good, fake research: “The key element of this study,” explained Able, “was our ability at the outset to conclusively define teachers’ effectiveness as equivalent to their height, before we even started looking at the data. Once we figured that out, the rest was easy because there is substantial variation in teachers’ height and – unlike other possible measures of teacher quality – height is very, very stable across years.”
http://bit.ly/gUlQqc (Ed Tweak)
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH
Utah Legislature’s veto override session coming as soon as next week
Scorecard: Utah lawmakers lean right, far right
Politics: Special interest groups’ rankings show lawmakers’ true political hue.
Landowner agrees to sell garage property to Granite
Holladay: Threat of eminent domain ends for mechanic, who will get receive property as part of deal.
A virtual education
Online public school provides details for curious parents, kids
Utah Board of Education approves 2 new charters
Davis District seeks input from parents of special education students
Grim Reaper illustrates for students the deadliness of drugs
ALA students take laps and pledges to fight polio
Students learn balances
Southwest Sterling Scholars honored
American Fork band to play in Rose Parade
Timpview senior finalist in ‘got milk?’ contest
Student art work on display
OPINION & COMMENTARY
Athletes will lose when Christian Heritage closes
Home school to “real” school
Tests promote goals
Schools need strict policies regarding visitors
Power Struggles Over Education in the States
Tin-Eared Reactions To NYT “Private School” Column
Why school vouchers are worth a shot
Ridiculed for reform
Arne Duncan Urges CTE to Prove its Worth
Sold! Auctions helping schools close the funding gap
ESEA Briefing Book
Teacher Effectiveness Linked To Height
NATION
Poll: Students grade high school down, college up
Poll: Social networks used for study, friends
Common Assessments a Test for Schools’ Technology
Bridgeport woman arrested for registering son in Norwalk school
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UTAH NEWS
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Utah Legislature’s veto override session coming as soon as next week
SALT LAKE CITY — Lawmakers will hold a rare override session as soon as next Monday to consider reversing Gov. Gary Herbert’s vetoes.
Herbert rejected four bills from the 2011 Legislature, including legislation that would have ended the state’s Monday through Thursday work week.
But House and Senate leaders say the most likely bill to be overridden deals with earmarking some 30 percent of new tax revenues to pay for transportation projects.
Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said Monday that bill, SB229, is seen by lawmakers as a way to ensure the state has the necessary infrastructure to encourage economic development.
“Without that transportation factor, it’s been proven that businesses will not continue to grow or come in,” Waddoups said, citing the Mountain View corridor and other projects as legislative priorities.
http://bit.ly/gHHOu2 (DN)
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=15204009
Scorecard: Utah lawmakers lean right, far right
Politics: Special interest groups’ rankings show lawmakers’ true political hue.
New score cards for the 2011 Legislature by both conservative and liberal groups agree that the Utah Capitol has a definite rightward tilt — leaning maybe even more than a famous tower in Pisa.
In fact, on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is the most conservative possible and 50 is the political center, legislators scored a median of 73 this year — or well to the political right. Last year, they scored a somewhat less extreme 67.
…
The Salt Lake Tribune gathered annual ratings of legislators by five special-interest groups, and then standardized and averaged scores. That includes three conservative groups: the Utah Taxpayers Association, GrassRoots and Parents for Choice in Education. It also included two liberal groups, the Sierra Club and the Utah Education Association teachers’ union.
http://bit.ly/eIRVfN (SLT)
Landowner agrees to sell garage property to Granite
Holladay: Threat of eminent domain ends for mechanic, who will get receive property as part of deal.
A longtime Holladay mechanic’s shop will move out of the Granite School District’s way.
Wayne Sharp, who owns the land Steve Smith leases for his auto shop, has agreed to sell the land to the Granite School District. The agreement, which the Granite School Board will vote on in May, ends the threat of eminent domain that has hung over Smart and Smith for almost six months. The district wants the property for the reconstruction of nearby Olympus High School.
“I didn’t think we could win in court,” Smart said, explaining why he chose to sell land that had been in his family since the 1870s.
http://bit.ly/g8I7gB (SLT)
A virtual education
Online public school provides details for curious parents, kids
CEDAR CITY – Utah Connections Academy, a virtual public school, conducted an information session Monday night in Cedar City, where students and parents could ask questions about the curriculum and other aspects of this new form of education.
Laura Rice, senior manager of regional marketing for Connections Academy, said there are 350 slots for students throughout the state, and about half of those are filled. Anyone entering kindergarten through 12th grade may apply.
Families of the students enrolled in the Utah Connections Academy will have teachers, technology and curriculum available to them at no cost. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade will receive a loaned desktop computer, but the middle through high school grades must furnish their own computers. The school supplies a list of technology that is required to perform the necessary work in Connections Academy, Rice said.
http://bit.ly/ggcOIx (SGS)
Utah Board of Education approves 2 new charters
SALT LAKE CITY — The State Board of Education has approved two new charter schools slated to open in 2012.
American Fork is set to get its second charter school with Aristotle Academy and Hurricane will get its first with Valley Academy.
http://bit.ly/h5CyRB (DN)
Davis District seeks input from parents of special education students
FARMINGTON — The Davis School District is seeking input from the parents of special education students.
The district’s special education department will hold a focus group as part of the Utah Program Improvement Process conducted by the State Office of Education Special Education Services department. The process is designed to focus resources on improving results for students with disabilities through partnerships between school and district programs, the state office, parents and advocates http://bit.ly/fF8aXP (DN)
Grim Reaper illustrates for students the deadliness of drugs
OGDEN — One hundred Utah adolescents die every month from drug- and alcohol-related causes.
Mount Ogden Junior High School resource officer William Farr wanted to bring that point home to students at the junior high as it kicked off Red Ribbon Week — an anti-drug campaign week — on Monday.
During lunch, Patrick Danley, the 6-foot-8 Colors of Success teacher, dressed as the Grim Reaper and gave “death certificate lanyards” to 100 students.
Once they had the lanyards on, they were instructed to neither speak to nor associate with other students for the rest of the day, because they had been “X’d” out for drug use.
http://bit.ly/fhdJH4 (OSE)
ALA students take laps and pledges to fight polio
Hundreds of kids ran laps on Monday to help eradicate a disease they’ve only heard of. Odds are none of the kids running laps in the American Leadership Academy gym knew anyone who had polio.
http://bit.ly/etlEka (PDH)
Students learn balances
CEDAR CITY – At a time when many families are taking a serious look at their finances, Zions Bank employees are volunteering to teach money management skills to Utah students from kindergarten through high school.
The American Banking Association Educational Foundation is in its 15th year of offering the national program, “Teach Children to Save Day” in April. Zions Bank has provided the program to 2,001 students in 14 different Southern Utah schools this year, according to statistics provided by Heidi Prokop, vice president and public relations manager for Zions Bank.
http://bit.ly/fk0Euz (SGS)
Southwest Sterling Scholars honored
Cedar City — Outstanding high school students from southwest Utah were recognized during the Southwest Utah Sterling Scholar competition held earlier this month. One hundred seventy-nine top scholars came together to compete in the 33rd annual Southwest Utah Sterling Scholar Awards competition on April 7 on the campus of Southern Utah University.
http://bit.ly/gqNzPd (DN)
http://bit.ly/glFV7U (KCSG)
American Fork band to play in Rose Parade
AMERICAN FORK — The American Fork High School marching band will tune up this summer in preparation for a major honor next January: playing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif.
http://bit.ly/fX7KW2 (DN)
http://bit.ly/g95qAs (SLT)
Timpview senior finalist in ‘got milk?’ contest
Timpview senior Kimberly Rosen has been named a finalist in “The Power of 9″ contest sponsored by actress, dancer and singer Julianne Hough, who has partnered with the National Milk Mustache “got milk?” campaign and Seventeen magazine.
http://bit.ly/gkB1eA (PDH)
Student art work on display
The Bountiful/Davis Art Center, 745 S. Main St., is featuring the works of Davis School District junior and senior high teens through April 30. Categories include digital photography, ink, colored pencil, ceramics and more. Call 801-292-0367 for details.
http://bit.ly/egKO7F (SLT)
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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Athletes will lose when Christian Heritage closes Salt Lake Tribune commentary by columnist Bill Oram
If you navigate through Christian Heritage School’s website and click on the “History of CHS” link, you will be taken to a mostly empty page that reads, “Coming soon.”
How fitting. The 16-year-old parochial school, indeed, will soon be history.
Administrators in Riverdale announced last month it will close at the end of the year due to a budget shortfall, and a reported 98 students will be forced to find other education opportunities.
Many of them are athletes for the Class 1A Crusaders.
http://bit.ly/dWqKg7
Home school to “real” school
Deseret News commentary by columnist Mary McConnell
A second bite at the transition from home school to “real” school. Salt Lake City resident and Westminster College graduate Myra Schjelderup reflects on her home schooling experience and how it prepared her to enter college at 16 . . . and succeed.
http://bit.ly/hrxQzT
Tests promote goals
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Karman Wilson
As the school year comes to a close, many students will begin the rigors of end-of-level testing. Tests help students to learn accountability. They are affordable and easy to administer.
Studies have shown that students who are given goals and then are monitored through testing are more likely to perform better academically. The tests are means of determining a student’s development; they provide insight as to whether a student may need an individual learning plan.
http://bit.ly/eItwwm
Schools need strict policies regarding visitors
(Ogden) Standard-Examiner letter from Christine L. Jarvis
What on earth is going on–more invaders? And, I don’t mean aliens. Where are our law enforcers when children are being invaded? First it involves their privacy at school. Where are those hall officers when they are really needed? Or, is this officer just their to intimidate our children?
I am a proud “nana” of a few students who attend the latest school that failed to notice an intruder. I have been to that school to visit my grandkids and I most certainly am detained at the front door. Every school I visit has a “check into the office” policy.
http://bit.ly/gaO0Ka
Power Struggles Over Education in the States Education Week commentary by columnist Sean Cavanagh
It’s been a particularly frenzied state lawmaking season, one that has produced potentially big changes for schools across the country. But some of the activity and intrigue is focused on political power, as much as it is education policy, as governors, lawmakers, and state schools chiefs wrestle over who will set the agenda for schools.
Power struggles over education are common in state government, particularly following election upheaval, as occurred with the Republican wave last fall.
I took a look at governors’ attempts take more control over school policy a few months ago, in a story that focused mostly on Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire’s bid to consolidate her state’s various education-related boards and agencies into a cabinet-level office answerable to her.
But since then, other governors have come forward with their own ideas, a number of which were outlined in a recent analysis by the Education Commission of the States.
http://bit.ly/gC4Xy8
A copy of the ECS analysis
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/92/33/9233.pdf
Why school vouchers are worth a shot
USA Today op-ed by Katrina Trinko, who writes for National Review
Imagine if we only passed legislation that simultaneously slashed spending, boosted income equality, shrunk government, protected the environment, and ensured that pandas didn’t go extinct. That’d be a recipe for do-nothing lawmakers who failed to solve any of our pressing problems, just because they couldn’t find a quixotic policy that solved them all.
So why do we insist on such an idealistic standard for educational voucher programs?
http://usat.ly/fx3wTj
Ridiculed for reform
New York Post editorial
That New York Times sure dropped a snide bomb yesterday on public-school reformers who never happened to attend public schools themselves.
Michael Winerip’s 1,300-word column called out Republicans like Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney; Democrats like President Obama and the late Ted Kennedy; philanthropists like Bill Gates and researchers like Chester Finn; veteran educators like Michelle Rhee and Arne Duncan — each of whom received expensive private-school educations.
The article claims to be agnostic on whether such an experience should disqualify to speak on school reform — but one didn’t have to read between the lines to figure out that the piece couldn’t have been more supportive of the status quo if teachers union uber-honcho Randi Weingarten had written it.
http://nyp.st/fq1DNE
Tin-Eared Reactions To NYT “Private School” Column Scholastic commentary by columnist Alexander Russo
Reformy types were all kinds of apoplectic about Mike Winerip’s column in the New York Times yesterday, which has the gall to note that several of the country’s most prominent reformers went to private school. By the angry/miffed responses — EdSector, Andywonk, and others — it’s a delicate issue. It shouldn’t matter, really. Of course it shouldn’t. But — let’s be honest — it does. People care where you’re from, where you live, and where you send your kids to school (especially if you’re prone to wagging your finger in other peoples’ faces). They also care what you make, they care that you’re (mostly) white and male. Now I have my own complaints about Winerip’s column, which mixes NCLB accountability hawks with Obama-era charter/value-added types together, leaves out “it” reformer Jonah Edelman (Sidwell Friends!), and hilariously calls Michelle Rhee’s organization “Sunshine First” (since corrected). But the fact that reformers don’t like having the private school issue raised and respond to it so angrily suggests (a) some sensitivity, (b)a bit of a tin ear on issues of class, and (c) a corrosive sense of entitlement when it comes to media coverage and commentary. Even the most occasional criticism or skepticism is cause for an attack. It’s an alienating, and amateurish response given how credulous and complimentary the media (including the New York Times) have generally been towards reform efforts.
http://bit.ly/guYz9m
Arne Duncan Urges CTE to Prove its Worth Education Week commentary by columnist Catherine Gewertz
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged the career and technical education community this morning to upgrade its programs to prove they are “worthy investments” as federal funding for offerings grows tighter.
Duncan’s comments were part of an address he gave this morning at a joint meeting of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium and the U.S. Office of Vocational and Adult Education. As prepared for delivery, the speech abounds with support for new-age CTE, but it could also come across as a warning.
He reminded his audience that the federal budget negotiated for fiscal year 2011, and the one the Obama administration proposed for 2012, cut Perkins funding, a key source of support for CTE programs. And he said that in tight budget times, programs need to prove that they work.
http://bit.ly/eGWK0c
A copy of the speech
http://bit.ly/eeEKS6
Sold! Auctions helping schools close the funding gap Washington Post commentary by columnist Petula Dvorak
Fists raised in triumph, the man lorded sweet victory over his foes and strutted, his puffed chest straining the buttons of his Brooks Brothers shirt.
His spoils?
A fruit and vegetable quilt. His 5-year-old daughter made the lime.
His cost?
$2,700.
School auctions are great theater, I’ve learned. They can be a checkbook sword used to settle long-simmering playground disputes, and — as more schools are learning — one way to close the growing budget gap that schools all over are suffering.
Spring is auction season in Washington area schools, and some of the displays of power and largesse here at the epicenter of parent overachievement can seem positively 2005 http://wapo.st/gCjSYx
ESEA Briefing Book
Fordham Institute analysis
President Obama and congressional leaders have vowed to take action this year on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), most recently reauthorized and rebranded as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. While most observers remain skeptical that we’ll actually see a signing ceremony in 2011, it does appear likely that at least one house of Congress will produce a bill.
In this “briefing book,” we identify the ten key issues that policymakers must resolve in order to get reauthorization across the finish line, and explore the major options under consideration for each one.
The ten issues—which fall under the areas of standards and assessments, accountability, teacher quality, and flexibility and innovation—are these:
http://bit.ly/fM1vLm
Teacher Effectiveness Linked To Height
Satire from Education Tweak
A new study offers conclusive proof that taller teachers are more effective. Using sophisticated statistical modeling techniques, researchers Tom Able and Eric Fotushek were able to show that if the least effective (aka the shortest) teachers were removed from the teaching ranks at a rate of just seven percent each year and were replaced by teachers with just average effectiveness (approximately 5′ 4.5″ tall for women and 5′ 10″ tall for men), then within a decade American teacher quality would among be the best in the world.
“The key element of this study,” explained Able, “was our ability at the outset to conclusively define teachers’ effectiveness as equivalent to their height, before we even started looking at the data. Once we figured that out, the rest was easy because there is substantial variation in teachers’ height and – unlike other possible measures of teacher quality – height is very, very stable across years.”
http://bit.ly/gUlQqc
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NATIONAL NEWS
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Poll: Students grade high school down, college up Associated Press via Yahoo
WASHINGTON – Young adults say high schools are failing to give students a solid footing for the working world or strong guidance toward college, at a time when many fear graduation means tumbling into an economic black hole. Students who make it to college are happy with the education they get there, an Associated Press-Viacom poll says.
Most of the 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed gave high schools low grades for things that would ease the way to college: A majority say their school wasn’t good at helping them choose a field of study, aiding them in finding the right college or vocational school or assisting them in coming up with ways to pay for more schooling.
If schools did these things better, it could make a significant difference, because young people already are enthusiastic about higher education. Two-thirds say students should aim for college, even if they aren’t sure yet what career they want to pursue. Almost as many say they want to get at least a four-year degree themselves.
The majority of high school students probably won’t end up with a college degree, however. Among those a few years ahead of them — today’s 25- to 34-year-olds — only about a third hold a bachelor’s or higher degree, according to the Census Bureau. Less than 10 percent get an associate’s degree.
http://yhoo.it/fcOI76
A copy of the survey
http://bit.ly/gwnv8D
Poll: Social networks used for study, friends Associated Press via Google
WASHINGTON — Young people use social media like Facebook and Twitter for more than simply staying in touch with their friends; they’re also a means to make school and career connections, according to an Associated Press-Viacom poll.
Four out of 5 high school and college students say websites are an excellent or good way to interact with fellow students, and a bit fewer — about 7 in 10 — say they’re equally good for getting information on class assignments or school events, or to form study groups and collaborate with peers. Just over half say the Internet is useful to look up ratings on teachers.
http://bit.ly/fWpyyp
Common Assessments a Test for Schools’ Technology Education Week
Washington – It’s a daunting job for two big groups of states to design multilayered assessment systems by 2014, and a panel of experts made it even more daunting last week, composing a long list of concerns about what it will take to make the venture a success.
On its list, the panel included high-level, long-range items such as integrating the tests into systems of instruction, and nitty-gritty, immediate worries such as making sure that the tests’ computer demands don’t blow schools’ electrical circuits.
The to-do list was sketched out during a six-hour hearing convened last week by the U.S. Department of Education. It was the first in a series aimed at informing the two state collaboratives as they design tests for the new common standards in mathematics and English/language arts that have been adopted by all but six states, using $360 million in federal Race to the Top money. Forty-five states are participating in the assessment consortia.
http://bit.ly/hZQq0s
Bridgeport woman arrested for registering son in Norwalk school Stamford (CT) Advocate
NORWALK — A homeless woman from Bridgeport who enrolled her 6-year-old son at a Norwalk elementary school has become the first in the city to be charged with stealing more than $15,000 for the cost of her child’s education.
Tonya McDowell, 33, whose last known address was 66 Priscilla St., Bridgeport, was charged Thursday with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for allegedly stealing $15,686 from Norwalk schools. She was released after posting a $25,000 bond.
McDowell’s babysitter, Ana Rebecca Marques, was also evicted from her Roodner Court public housing apartment for providing documents to enroll the child at Brookside Elementary School.
http://bit.ly/eTEsMY
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