Education News Roundup: July 30, 2012

Today’s Top Picks:

ENR apologies for being MIA on Friday. Sometimes, life just intervenes.

Summer’s over for year-round schools.
http://goo.gl/Olwhr (DN) and http://goo.gl/s3pMA (KSL)

Utah State Board of Education Member Leslie Castle speaks up on democracy and public schools. http://goo.gl/3ipyR (SLT)

Is algebra necessary? Don’t get your hopes up mathphobes. Apparently, it may be. http://goo.gl/J4Ovk (NYT – Not necessary) and http://goo.gl/OGs5X (WaPo – Necessary)

25 states are changing the process for becoming a teacher. http://goo.gl/SOTij (NYT)

When you’ve got all this great new history to discuss, what do you leave out of history class to make room? ENR’s suggestion: The Boer Wars. http://goo.gl/Tu7oQ (NPR)

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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH

Classes start at state’s few remaining year-round schools

ALEC provides receptive crowd for Utah’s land battles

Utah principals bond at outdoor education center before start of school Education » Gathering at Mill Hollow offers chance to network and check out camp opportunities for students.

Why boys’ literacy skills lag behind girls’ and how to bridge the reading gap

Summit seeks to support LGBT youth in Top of Utah

Huntsville board brings Utah educator in as Challenger Elementary principal

Students take first at national tech competition Motivator » Students who may struggle in other courses excel in engineering class.

Midvale teen joins the ranks of Coca-Cola Scholars Giving back » Nikolaos Liodakis engaged in community service.

Granger High School graduate wins Gates Millennium scholarship Gates Millennium » Granger High graduate Anand Singh wins prestigious academic award.

Elk Ridge Middle School health teacher named Utah’s best

North Ogden to spend $10K on school safety measures

Onsted school board approves computer purchases, adopts contract.

World-renowned pianist to perform benefit for Tuacahn High School

Drive to collect school supplies for kids in need

Exchange students need host families

More than 300 ninth-graders paid to attend summer school

OPINION & COMMENTARY

Poverty matters
Report shows improvement needed

Child poverty research shows how much kids really do count

A highly effective person

Zealotry threatens public schools

Interest groups affecting legislation and Utah lands

Remembering the origins of ‘Joy School’

Another bite at paying teacher’s differently

Another bite at the common core standards – will they make a difference?

Jordan parleying

Raise reading rate

Thanks to the arts

Is Algebra Necessary?

Yes, algebra is necessary

Can School Performance Be Measured Fairly?

Large study says great teachers get little respect

Why the Online-Education Craze Will Leave Many Students Behind Free classes from elite colleges like Princeton and Harvard have generated excitement, but they could actually widen the learning gap

Duz Txting Hurt Yr Kidz Gramr? Absolutely, a New Study Says

‘Whatever Means Necessary’
Unions stand in the schoolhouse door against minorities in Louisiana.

Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators The system to review misconduct is rigged so even abusive teachers can stay on the job.

Five Reasons You Should (or Shouldn’t) Share Stories With Sources

NATION

To Earn Classroom Certification, More Teaching and Less Testing

Design Flaw Suspected In Texas Standardized Tests

Biden: Romney doesn’t see value in education

Teachers meet as fiscal, policy pressures mount

Romney: Students should ‘go to the school of their choice’

Private Tuition Tax Break Nears End

Ever-Growing Past Confounds History Teachers

School dress codes aren’t just for students anymore

Marines aim to counter teachers’ opposition to recruiting students Educators visit Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego to watch exercises, gain a more nuanced view of the military and maybe recommend it to students.

Catholic schools see marketing aid enrollment

Wyoming Education Department bars legislative consultant from meeting

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UTAH NEWS
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Classes start at state’s few remaining year-round schools

WEST JORDAN — While most of their peers are out and about enjoying the summer sun, thousands of elementary students headed back to the classroom this week for the start of year-round school.
“I think it’s not fair,” said Ellie Bearden, a fourth-grade student at Daybreak Elementary in the Jordan School District. “I’m already sick of it.”
Thursday was Daybreak’s second day of school and Ellie and her classmate Lydia Owen both said they’d rather not be in class during the summer. But without skipping a beat, they both agreed it’s nice to have a three-week break every two months.
http://goo.gl/Olwhr (DN)

http://goo.gl/s3pMA (KSL)

ALEC provides receptive crowd for Utah’s land battles

In waging the Western land wars, Utah lawmakers have won recruits to the battle among like-minded lawmakers at the American Legislative Exchange Council conference in Salt Lake City.
“It’s tremendous,” said Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, who sponsored legislation in Utah demanding Congress turn over 30 million acres of federal land to the state and got the bill adopted as ALEC model legislation last year.
Ivory, who now chairs the ALEC Task Force on Federalism, said the conference is a way for legislators with common goals to share ideas and build support around the region to help restore some balance with the federal government.
Gov. Gary Herbert, who signed Ivory’s bill into law, included a plug for the public land issue when he welcomed legislators to the ALEC conference on Wednesday.
http://goo.gl/7u6QA (SLT)

Utah principals bond at outdoor education center before start of school Education » Gathering at Mill Hollow offers chance to network and check out camp opportunities for students.

With the start of another school year just weeks away, educators in the Granite School District have the usual back-to-school checklists on their minds.
Prepare classrooms, order supplies, organize first-day orientations and … dissect owl pellets?
Principals from several of the district’s schools will head 60 miles southeast of Salt Lake City on Thursday to the Mill Hollow Outdoor Education Center, where they will take part in activities usually reserved for educating fourth- through sixth-graders about nature.
http://goo.gl/JTjpp (SLT)

Why boys’ literacy skills lag behind girls’ and how to bridge the reading gap

Janae and Joseph Wise’s Washington state home is a shrine to their passion for reading.
“We have books everywhere,” said Janae, a professional blogger, fitness instructor and mother of four young children. As young parents, the Wises built up an impressive home library. Exposing children to books, they assumed, would naturally lead them to love reading. It hasn’t quite worked out that way.
“My boys just aren’t that interested in reading,” Janae Wise said. Her 7-year-old son Hyrum in particular has a difficult time sitting still long enough to finish a story. “I kept asking myself, ‘Why doesn’t he love reading?’ I have to fight this urge I have to force him to read.”
http://goo.gl/9QwTG (DN)

Summit seeks to support LGBT youth in Top of Utah

OGDEN — Support is out there for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth who may not feel supported by their families.
That was the message for teens and young adults who attended Friday’s sessions of the Ogden OUTreach “Reach In, Reach OUT, Team Up LGBT Summit,” which continues today at Weber State University.
Those in attendance included parents of LGBT youth, counselors and teachers interested in how to help their young people who face an increased likelihood of depression, suicidal thoughts or actions, sexually transmitted diseases, illegal drug use and more, all due to feeling unaccepted by their families, and to a lesser extent, by society.
http://goo.gl/l44O0 (OSE)

http://goo.gl/2TPXp (KSTU)

Huntsville board brings Utah educator in as Challenger Elementary principal

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Challenger Elementary School has a new principal, completing the Huntsville district’s shifting of school leaders for the new school year.
The school board on Thursday approved a contract bringing Michele Wallace into the district as principal of Challenger. Wallace, who will make a salary of $92,500, with up to $5,100 in incentive pay, comes to the district from Park City, Utah.
…
Board member Jennie Robinson said Wallace has a “really great background.” Laurie McCaulley, school board president, said Wallace has been principal of Parley’s Park Elementary in Park City since 2009. Before that, she spent six years as principal of Jeremy Ranch Elementary in the same school district.
http://goo.gl/ZKvvc (Huntsville [AL] Times)

Students take first at national tech competition Motivator » Students who may struggle in other courses excel in engineering class.

Alex Eldredge and Spencer Griffin have come a long way from the playroom.
Instead of expressing an early love for designing structures with Legos, the duo and their classmates are winning top awards at the Technology Student Association National Competition.
The national convention was held in Nashville, Tenn., at the end of June. Eldredge, from Layton, took first in the nation in technical sketching. Student team Spencer Griffin and Josh Wilson from Syracuse High won the national VEX robotics challenge to design, build and compete with a robot in a variety of tasks. Zack Zundel from Farmington Juniro High also placed first in his competitive event, the trivia-like Tech Bowl.
http://goo.gl/AmGNe (SLT)

Midvale teen joins the ranks of Coca-Cola Scholars Giving back » Nikolaos Liodakis engaged in community service.

Nikolaos Liodakis, who graduated from Hillcrest High School this year, was awarded with a $10,000 scholarship by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation.
In April, Liodakis and 251 other scholars had the opportunity to travel to Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta to be recognized, meet with professional leaders from different fields and participate in community service.
http://goo.gl/qmCBt (SLT)

Granger High School graduate wins Gates Millennium scholarship Gates Millennium » Granger High graduate Anand Singh wins prestigious academic award.

Anand Singh always has been driven to serve.
When he realized he had been named a 2012 Gates Millennium scholarship recipient, it was one of his first thoughts.
“I want to help other people out,” said Singh, of West Valley City. “Once you are in the Gates Millennium program, you are part of this big family. Even after you are done with your college degree, you can come back and help other students.”
The scholarship pays for college through graduation and can be used at any school of the recipient’s choice.
http://goo.gl/nBXyT (SLT)

Elk Ridge Middle School health teacher named Utah’s best

SOUTH JORDAN — Elk Ridge Middle School instructor Cindy Benton is being recognized as Utah’s Middle School Health Teacher of the Year.
She received the award during a recognition dinner in Park City sponsored by UAPHRED, the Utah association that oversees health and wellness.
http://goo.gl/HcxvZ (DN)

North Ogden to spend $10K on school safety measures

NORTH OGDEN — The city council will spend $10,000 to increase safety around North Ogden Elementary School.
The council responded to requests from the school’s principal and community council members and will hire a crossing guard. School crossing signs and painted crosswalks for children will also be added around the increasingly busy elementary school that is only a few blocks from the city offices.
http://goo.gl/5R0mt (OSE)

Onsted school board approves computer purchases, adopts contract.

ONSTED, Mich. — When Onsted students return to school in September, they will notice not only improved ame­nities in the district buildings, but new computing equipment.
The Onsted Community Schools Board of Education at a special meeting Monday approved a recommendation to purchase 50 portable computers for $16,294.50 from I-O Corp. of Buffdale, Utah. The computers include a five-year warranty and will be placed in the high school lab.
http://goo.gl/GybMn (Adrian [MI] Daily Telegram)

World-renowned pianist to perform benefit for Tuacahn High School

ST. GEORGE – World-class pianist William Joseph, a protégé of music icon David Foster, will perform a benefit concert for Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts, Thursday, Aug. 2 at The Ledges.
The concert will include a light dinner in the scenic Fish Rock Grill at The Ledges Golf Club, at 1585 W Ledges Parkway, in St. George, beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $37.50 and can be purchased by calling The Ledges at 435-634-4650. All proceeds benefit the Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts.
http://goo.gl/y73zb (SGN)

Drive to collect school supplies for kids in need

SALT LAKE CITY – As the school year begins, some students have trouble getting necessary supplies. The University of Phoenix Utah campus and the Boys and Girls Club of South Valley teamed up to help those students get things like backpacks, pens, pencils and paper.
http://goo.gl/9K05N (KSTU)

Exchange students need host families

LAYTON — An international student exchange organization is looking for three families to host boys from China, Taiwan and South Korea so they can attend Layton Christian Academy.
http://goo.gl/kdYmA (OSE)

More than 300 ninth-graders paid to attend summer school

Ever wonder where your tax dollars are going? For those that live in Washington, D.C., they could be headed to pay for a ninth-grader to attend summer school, according to The Examiner.
More than 300 at-risk ninth-graders in Washington public schools will be earning $5.25 an hour. The schools are hoping to target students that are less likely to graduate in four years, according to the article.
http://goo.gl/gTsru (DN)

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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Poverty matters
Report shows improvement needed
Salt Lake Tribune editorial

All those rankings that Utah’s political and business leaders are so proud of — business climate, best managed state, etc. — are worthy of note.
But those charts do not always measure the factors that are really important in a humane civilization. They don’t give a person much of a feel for what kind of a place is Utah, not just to create or manage wealth, but to live, thrive and raise a family. For that kind of knowledge, a different set of criteria is necessary, such as standards used by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its annual KIDS COUNT Data Book.
In the 2012 edition of that report, many of Utah’s trend lines are running in the wrong direction.
…
Utah’s most embarrassing ranking comes in education. We’re 27th, with bad trends in children not attending pre-school, fourth graders not reading at grade level and high schoolers not graduating on time. (The number of eighth graders doing math at grade level has improved.)
The takeaway from all of this may be that the area where Utah ranks the worst — education — is the area that is most clearly a state, rather than a family, responsibility. And it suggests that action — say, moving the state out of the bottom on the level of per-pupil spending and taxpayer effort in support of education — might have the greatest impact.
http://goo.gl/pZvjo

Child poverty research shows how much kids really do count Deseret News editorial

In the world of politics, problems like poverty are sometimes described in sweeping, black-and-white terms designed to make solutions seem straightforward and even easy.
But in the real world of policymaking, solutions are in fact more complex, involving many facets of life and sectors of the community.
That’s why it’s encouraging to see solid research on child poverty that emphasizes not just the economic factors affecting this sad situation, but the family and community aspects, as well.
The “Kids Count” report, published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is one of the most widely cited surveys of child well-being in the U.S. Its most recent update, released last week, paints a mixed picture of how kids are faring in America today.
On one hand, the percentage of kids growing up in poverty — a key threat to healthy child development — is up significantly as families have been hard-hit by recession. More than one in five kids live below the poverty line, and a third of kids live in a home in which neither parent has secure employment.
On the other hand, children have made long-term progress in education and health, with high school graduation rates and certain measures of reading ability at an all time high. (There is still plenty of room for improvement: one in four high school students don’t graduate on time, and two thirds of fourth graders can’t read proficiently.) http://goo.gl/KWjNE

A highly effective person
Salt Lake Tribune editorial

What do you do when you win an award for serving your community? If you are Greg Williams, a former high school teacher who has since made a mark as a financial adviser for the Massachusetts-based MassMutual Financial Group, you direct the $10,000 prize to your old school district. The Jordan School District will use the money to expand the The Leader in Me program, modeled after Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to two more schools. As Covey, who died earlier this month, advised (Habit 4), everybody can win.
http://goo.gl/j84i9

Zealotry threatens public schools
Salt Lake Tribune commentary by columnist Leslie B. Castle, member of the Utah State Board of Education

Public education is essential to a democracy. It is not simply education that is funded by the commonwealth, rather, it is an institution designed to teach citizens how to live in a free society. It must be rooted in a curriculum that is free of indoctrination, religious coercion, political intimidation and intellectual bias.
Thomas Jefferson said: “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”
Jefferson and others believed that the newly formed republic could not survive without public education.
http://goo.gl/3ipyR

Interest groups affecting legislation and Utah lands Deseret News commentary by columnists Frank Pignanelli & LaVarr Webb

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is hammering Gov. Gary Herbert in media ads for supporting legislation that would shift control of some federal lands to the state. Is the criticism fair, and is it damaging Herbert’s political future?
http://goo.gl/Nb2iH

Remembering the origins of ‘Joy School’
Deseret News commentary by columnists Linda & Richard Eyre

Way, way, way back when our two oldest children were preschoolers, we were having a hard time choosing a preschool.
We lived in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and there was no shortage of options. There were intense, early-reading preschools. There were preschools that featured dance and the arts. There were preschools that promised to teach your kids science and long division.
Somehow, none of them seemed right for our kids. In fact, we wondered if we should have them in a preschool at all or just keep them at home with us.
http://goo.gl/V8PPQ

Another bite at paying teacher’s differently Deseret News commentary by columnist Mary McConnell

In one of my posts on how Utah and other states could pursue “exceptional” education in an era of tight budgets, I expressed skepticism about paying teachers more simply for earning a masters degrees in education. (Let me just note that I would not advocate changing this rule retroactively and penalizing teachers who made this investment in good faith. Let me also note that the “masters bump” is smaller in Utah than in most states.)
A recently-published supports this skepticism, and provides some alternative suggestions for changing teacher pay.
http://goo.gl/yOowm

Another bite at the common core standards – will they make a difference?
Deseret News commentary by columnist Mary McConnell

Supporters of the common core expressed dismay when education scholar and activist Diane Ravitch reserved judgment on the common core standards. A long time supporter of stronger, more specific core requirements, Ms. Ravitch explains on her education blog:
http://goo.gl/koNc9

Jordan parleying
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Jennifer Boehme, President Jordan Education Association

Members of the Jordan Education Association are disappointed with the negotiating method chosen this year by the Jordan School Board. With new school board members and a new superintendent, employees felt calm and hopeful with improving morale.
The JEA negotiations team desired collaboration through interest-based bargaining. Hope was lost when the board chose to “broker” negotiations through an attorney.
http://goo.gl/inqMn

Raise reading rate
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Tom Campbell

Re “Democratic guv candidate decries Utah’s school funding levels” (Tribune, July 18):
I’m for Democrat Peter Cooke’s promise to reduce class sizes. Utah’s large classes impede the ability of teachers to be effective. Utah’s many average teachers may be competent with a class of 20, but incompetent with 30 or 35.
But reducing class size alone will not solve the problem that two-thirds of Utah’s fourth-graders don’t read at grade level — a pivotal moment that dooms many students to the back of the class for the next eight grades. It is a disgrace that we can’t even achieve that crucial task for a majority of Utah’s students.
http://goo.gl/Zzj6c

Thanks to the arts
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Nancy Boskoff

From the Native Americans to the Mormon pioneers to 21st-century Utahns, the arts have been important in this state. As American urban studies theorist Richard Florida observed: “a community’s aesthetic assets — its architecture and public spaces, its musical, theatrical, and artistic communities and institutions — are among its most priceless resources..”
Two recent events are cause for concern — the months-later scrutiny of a theater production of “Dead Man Walking” at Bingham High School and the eviction of the Central Utah Art Center in Ephraim.
The award-winning drama teacher at Bingham High expressed a genuinely educational perspective, observing that art evinces a wide range of responses.
http://goo.gl/7YSYM

Is Algebra Necessary?
New York Times commentary by ANDREW HACKER, co-author of “Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids — and What We Can Do About It.”

A TYPICAL American school day finds some six million high school students and two million college freshmen struggling with algebra. In both high school and college, all too many students are expected to fail. Why do we subject American students to this ordeal? I’ve found myself moving toward the strong view that we shouldn’t.
My question extends beyond algebra and applies more broadly to the usual mathematics sequence, from geometry through calculus. State regents and legislators — and much of the public — take it as self-evident that every young person should be made to master polynomial functions and parametric equations.
There are many defenses of algebra and the virtue of learning it. Most of them sound reasonable on first hearing; many of them I once accepted. But the more I examine them, the clearer it seems that they are largely or wholly wrong — unsupported by research or evidence, or based on wishful logic. (I’m not talking about quantitative skills, critical for informed citizenship and personal finance, but a very different ballgame.)
This debate matters. Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent. In the interest of maintaining rigor, we’re actually depleting our pool of brainpower.
http://goo.gl/J4Ovk

Yes, algebra is necessary
Washington Post commentary by Daniel Willingham, professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia

When I first saw yesterday’s New York Times op-ed, I mistook it for a joke. The title, “Is algebra necessary?” had the ring of Thurber’s classic essay, “Is sex necessary?”, a send-up of psychological sex manuals of the 1920s.
Unfortunately, the author, Andrew Hacker, poses the question in earnest, and draws the conclusion that algebra should not be required of all students.
http://goo.gl/OGs5X

Can School Performance Be Measured Fairly?
New York Times commentary by Leonie Haimson, Marcus Winters, RiShawn Biddle, Julia Fox, Kevin Carey, Michael J. Petrilli, Patrick J. Bassett, Pedro Noguera, Sandra Stotsky

More than half the states have now been excused from important conditions of the No Child Left Behind education law. They’ve been allowed to create new measures of how much students have improved and how well they are prepared for college or careers, and to assess teacher performance on that basis. Teachers will be evaluated in part on how well their students perform on standardized tests. One study, though, found that some state plans could weaken accountability.
How can we measure achievement of students, teachers and schools in a way that is fair and accurate, and doesn’t provide incentives for obsessive testing, and cheating?
http://goo.gl/P2VDR

Large study says great teachers get little respect Washington Post commentary by columnist Jay Mathews

The fourth-grade teacher was by any measure a star. Fidgety students behaved in her class. Test scores were high. She had come to the low-income neighborhood school to make an impact. In her class, she did. But few of her supervisors or colleagues seemed to care.
“School leaders gave her little recognition,” says a new research study on how schools treat great teachers. They “failed to take advantage of her instructional expertise and stymied the sort of team-building and collaboration that had helped her boost performance among students and fellow teachers at other schools for decades.”
So this summer, she left for another school that wanted her talent. She told the researchers that when she resigned, the principal “just signed my paperwork, and didn’t even say a word. . . . It made me feel like he couldn’t care less, not about me and not about this school.”
The report from the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit research and training organization, is titled “The Irreplaceables: Understanding the Real Retention Crisis in America’s Urban Schools.”

http://goo.gl/ekJoc

http://goo.gl/R5fzG (Ed Week)

A copy of the study

http://tntp.org/irreplaceables

Why the Online-Education Craze Will Leave Many Students Behind Free classes from elite colleges like Princeton and Harvard have generated excitement, but they could actually widen the learning gap Time op-ed by Noliwe M. Rooks, associate professor at Cornell University

You have probably heard some of the hoopla about elite universities offering free online courses through Coursera, a new Silicon Valley start-up founded by Stanford University computer-science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. In just the past few weeks, Coursera has added has added 12 universities to its lineup, bringing its total to 16, including Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Johns Hopkins.
The company’s website says its goal is to “give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few,” and, accordingly, much of the news coverage has focused on how this will democratize learning. Two weeks after Coursera announced its initial round of partnerships, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a plan to invest $60 million in a similar course platform called edX, and then a third company, Udacity, announced that it too would join the fray.
Despite near universal enthusiasm for such projects, it’s important to take a few steps back. First, although the content is free now, it’s unlikely that it will remain that way for long. According to an analysis of one of Coursera’s contracts, both the company and the schools plan to make a profit — they just haven’t figured out the best way to do that yet. But more important, I am concerned that computer-aided instruction will actually widen the gap between the financially and educationally privileged and everyone else, instead of close it.
This is what has been happening in K-12 public schools. Over the past 10 years, public school districts have invested millions of dollars in various types of online and computer-aided learning and instruction programs, yet few are able to show the educational benefit of their expenditures for a majority of students. Those who benefit most are already well organized and highly motivated. Other students struggle, and may even lose ground.
http://goo.gl/GjJSW

Duz Txting Hurt Yr Kidz Gramr? Absolutely, a New Study Says Education Week commentary by columnist Sarah D. Sparks

“Wud u lk 2 meet me 4 brgr 2nite?”
If you’ve ever looked at a teenager’s text message and thought it looked more like a kindergartener’s scrawl, you might not be far off.
Middle school students who frequently use “tech-speak”—omitting letters to shorten words and using homophone symbols, such as @ for “at” or 2nite for “tonight”—performed worse on a test of basic grammar, according to a new study in New Media & Society.
http://goo.gl/Hwzyo

A copy of the study
http://goo.gl/NkeKj

‘Whatever Means Necessary’
Unions stand in the schoolhouse door against minorities in Louisiana.
Wall Street Journal editorial

In some parts of the antebellum South, it was illegal to teach blacks how to read. Are teachers unions in Louisiana trying to turn back the clock?
Last week, lawyers for the Louisiana Association of Educators, one of the state’s two major teachers unions, threatened private and parochial schools with lawsuits if the schools accept students participating in a new school choice initiative that starts this year. Education reforms signed into law in April by Governor Bobby Jindal include a publicly funded voucher program that allows low-income families to send their children to private or parochial schools.
Teachers unions allege that sending public dollars to nonpublic schools violates the state’s constitution, and they are challenging the law in court. A hearing is set for October, but the unions have already lost several court bids to delay the voucher program until the lawsuit plays out. Hence, the bullying.
On Thursday, lawyers representing the unions faxed letters to about 100 of the 119 schools that are participating in the voucher program. “Our clients have directed us to take whatever means necessary,” the letter reads. Unless the school agrees to turn away voucher students, “we will have no alternative other than to institute litigation.” The letter demanded an answer in writing by the next day.
http://goo.gl/X6OCY

http://goo.gl/r0V18 (Ed Week)

http://goo.gl/1p5MJ (NO Times-Picayne)

Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators The system to review misconduct is rigged so even abusive teachers can stay on the job.
Wall Street Journal op-ed by CAMPBELL BROWN, a former news reporter and anchor at CNN and NBC

By resisting almost any change aimed at improving our public schools, teachers unions have become a ripe target for reformers across the ideological spectrum. Even Hollywood, famously sympathetic to organized labor, has turned on unions with the documentary “Waiting for ‘Superman’” (2010) and a feature film, “Won’t Back Down,” to be released later this year. But perhaps most damaging to the unions’ credibility is their position on sexual misconduct involving teachers and students in New York schools, which is even causing union members to begin to lose faith.
In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. Among the charges substantiated by the city’s special commissioner of investigation—that is, found to have sufficient merit that an arbitrator’s full examination was justified—in the 2011-12 school year:
• An assistant principal at a Brooklyn high school made explicit sexual remarks to three different girls, including asking one of them if she would perform oral sex on him.
• A teacher in Queens had a sexual relationship with a 13-year old girl and sent her inappropriate messages through email and Facebook.
If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless.
http://goo.gl/svioT

Five Reasons You Should (or Shouldn’t) Share Stories With Sources Education Writers Association commentary by Mikhail Zinshteyn, Jay Mathews, and Diane Rado

EWA invited two veteran journalists to share their thoughts on whether reporters should offer to share drafts of stories with their sources before publication. Jay Mathews, seasoned education reporter with the Washington Post, has been a long-time proponent of story-sharing. Diane Rado, a veteran education reporter with the Chicago Tribune, is an adamant opponent. Both debated the topic on the EWA K-12 listserv this week.
http://goo.gl/cYrk1

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NATIONAL NEWS
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To Earn Classroom Certification, More Teaching and Less Testing New York Times

New York and up to 25 other states are moving toward changing the way they grant licenses to teachers, de-emphasizing tests and written essays in favor of a more demanding approach that requires aspiring teachers to prove themselves through lesson plans, homework assignments and videotaped instruction sessions.
The change is an attempt to ensure that those who become teachers not only know education theories, but also can show the ability to lead classrooms and handle students of differing abilities and needs, often amid limited resources.
It is also a reaction to a criticism of some teachers’ colleges, which have been accused of minting diplomas but failing to prepare teachers for the kind of real-world experience where creativity and flexibility can be the keys to success.
The new licensing standards will be required next year in Washington State and have been committed to in Minnesota.
http://goo.gl/SOTij

Design Flaw Suspected In Texas Standardized Tests Texas Tribune

In 2006, a math pilot program for middle school students in a Dallas-area district returned surprising results.
The students’ improved grasp of mathematical concepts stunned Walter Stroup, the University of Texas at Austin professor behind the program at Richardson Independent School District. But at the end of the year, students’ scores had increased only marginally on state standardized TAKS tests, unlike what Stroup had seen in the classroom.
A similar dynamic showed up in a comparison of the students’ scores on midyear benchmark tests and what they received on their end-of-year exams. Standardized test scores the previous year were better predictors of their scores the next year than the benchmark test they had taken a few months earlier.
Now, in studies that threaten to shake the foundation of high-stakes test-based accountability, Stroup and two other researchers said they believe they have found the reason: a glitch embedded in the DNA of the state exams that, as a result of a statistical method used to assemble them, suggests they are virtually useless at measuring the effects of classroom instruction.
http://goo.gl/paJ88

Biden: Romney doesn’t see value in education Associated Press

DETROIT — Vice President Joe Biden, in a speech Sunday to the nation’s second largest teachers unions, said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney doesn’t treat public education as a priority and distrusts the hardworking teachers who struggle to create opportunity for the nation’s young people.
Biden addressed 2,500 delegates at the American Federation of Teachers national convention in Detroit on Sunday.
Biden painted Romney as planning to gut education funding to finance tax breaks for the wealthy.
http://goo.gl/MG56K

http://goo.gl/oHEui (Detroit FP)

Teachers meet as fiscal, policy pressures mount Reuters

DETROIT – As representatives of America’s second-largest teachers union gather in Detroit for the start of a four-day convention, the stark prospects facing their 1.5 million members are right here in front of them.
In June, an official appointed by the state of Michigan imposed sweeping wage and benefit cuts on Detroit educators represented by the American Federation of Teachers as the debt-heavy, tax-deficient city struggles to maintain basic services.
The fiscal emergency, and the strain it is putting on public education, is hardly limited to “Motown” – though the measures taken here may have been more drastic. From Maine to Hawaii, public teachers are under pressure as politicians discover that wringing concessions from teachers to help close gaping budget holes is popular with voters.
“As the economic downturn goes on longer, the pain gets worse, insecurity builds up,” AFT president Randi Weingarten will tell the 3,000 delegates convening here, according to prewritten remarks. For politicians of all stripes, teachers and their pay and benefits have become “a big fat target,” Weingarten will say.
Across the country, public educators have been socked with pay freezes, furloughs and layoffs as well as demands that they pay more for their health and pensions.
http://goo.gl/tO6Wx

Romney: Students should ‘go to the school of their choice’
NBC Nightly News

In an exclusive interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney called his education plan revolutionary and said funds should follow the student. NBC’s Rehema Ellis reports.
http://goo.gl/B3Qsx

Private Tuition Tax Break Nears End
New York Times

In this, the hour of the annual tuition bill, the season of the fiscal cliff, let us pause to gaze in wonder at a true curiosity: the tax break for people who send their children to private or religious schools for kindergarten through 12th grade.
If you’re not familiar with it, you’re not alone. Plenty of otherwise savvy tax professionals and financial planners don’t know much about it, either.
It’s called the Coverdell Education Savings Account, and there is nothing else like it.
The Coverdell lets people put away up to $2,000 each year in an investment account. While the contributions are not tax-deductible, you don’t pay any taxes on the earnings you take out as long as you use them for tuition or other qualified expenses, including those for elementary or secondary education. Even with that annual contribution limit, the tax savings can add up to thousands of dollars for people who are persistent savers.
Now, however, the question is whether this quirk will last. As with a lot of things in the tax code, the Coverdell tax break for elementary and secondary tuition costs is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, absent some legislative action in Washington.
http://goo.gl/xZQCr

Ever-Growing Past Confounds History Teachers NPR Talk of the Nation

Jonathan Rees faces a persistent problem: The past keeps growing. He teaches U.S. history and, like many teachers, every few years responds to major events by adding them to his lectures. But that means other important events get left behind. He wrote about this conundrum in a piece for The Historical Society blog, “When Is It Time To Stop Teaching Something?”
NPR’s Neal Conan talks with Rees, a Colorado State University history professor, about the difficult decisions he faces about when to stop teaching a piece of history, to make room for something new.
http://goo.gl/Tu7oQ

School dress codes aren’t just for students anymore USA Today

When kids in one Kansas school district return to class this fall, they won’t be seeing cutoff shorts, pajama pants or flip flops — on teachers.
The Wichita School District is just one of a growing number in the nation cracking down on teacher apparel. Jeans are banned in at least one elementary school in New York City. A school district in Phoenix is requiring teachers to cover up tattoos and excessive piercings. And several Arizona schools are strictly defining business casual.
In an increasingly diverse nation where what you wear may be the ultimate self-expression, teachers are falling victim to the same dress code rules as their students.
In most cases, schools are taking the actions because they believe some teachers are dressing inappropriately.
http://goo.gl/rx861

Marines aim to counter teachers’ opposition to recruiting students Educators visit Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego to watch exercises, gain a more nuanced view of the military and maybe recommend it to students.
Los Angeles Times

SAN DIEGO — The bellowing from the drill instructors began as soon as the newcomers arrived.
“GET OFF THE BUS!” barked one D.I.
It’s a ritual reenacted countless times since 1923, when young men first began coming to boot camp to see if they were tough enough to be Marines.
But last week’s group was not composed of frightened young recruits.
Instead they were high school teachers, guidance counselors and administrators from school districts in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas. All had accepted the Marine Corps’ invitation to spend four days at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, watching the training and talking to recruits, enlisted Marines and senior officers.
http://goo.gl/kDdgF

Catholic schools see marketing aid enrollment Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — After 97 years, Our Lady of Lourdes School was closing – enrollment had dwindled to just 35 children last year at what was once one of the West Coast’s biggest Catholic schools.
But with a new principal who knocked on doors, offered X Box video game consoles to kids who brought in a friend, and recruited families who lost their bid in a charter school lottery, the East Los Angeles school stayed open – 132 pupils are registered for this fall.
Call it educational evangelism. Roman Catholic schools are seeing years of marketing efforts starting to pay off in spite of tough competition from charter schools and the lingering effects of a devastating recession.
http://goo.gl/iHd8i

Wyoming Education Department bars legislative consultant from meeting Casper (WY) Star-Tribune

TORRINGTON — Tensions continued between the Wyoming Department of Education and legislators, as department officials said a nonpartisan Legislative Service Office liaison overstepped bounds and encumbered the department’s work. Meanwhile, legislators questioned the department’s use of funds.
“It was all-on attack [Thursday] … I think the good ol’ boys were in full action today,” Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill said. “There’s a lot of misinformation.”
The Wyoming Select Committee on Educational Accountability unanimously passed several motions in a Thursday meeting in Torrington to clarify how the education department is required to spend money to support the State Board of Education’s duties in fulfilling the Wyoming Accountability in Education Act.
http://goo.gl/G8q3P

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CALENDAR
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USOE Calendar
http://tinyurl.com/5x9oh9

UEN News
http://www.uen.org

August 2-3:
Utah State Board of Education meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Meetings/Agenda.aspx

August 9:
Utah State Charter School Board meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://1.usa.gov/Axtt5K

August 14:
Executive Appropriations Interim Committee meeting
1 p.m., 445 State Capitol
http://goo.gl/E0hoC

August 15:
Education Interim Committee meeting
2 p.m.
http://goo.gl/8WODJ

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