Education News Roundup: Aug. 3, 2012

By Mark Peterson, on August 3rd, 2012

“Packing for DevMob 2010 by umpcportal/CC/flickr

Today’s Top Picks:

Trib reports on pushback in the Sagebrush Rebellion-Outdoor retailers debate.
http://goo.gl/KBGvk (SLT)

Weber teachers look at classroom tech.
http://goo.gl/kSo7T (OSE)

And for those of you wondering when ENR would get around to the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes matter, wait no longer.
http://goo.gl/a3qWI (Life & Style)

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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH

Outdoor industry wants political clout it says it deserves Recreation » Group says it deserves a voice in land decisions, but Utah lawmaker pushes back.

Weber School District employees participate in annual Brain Blast

Riverton High duo makes school history in auto competition Big winners » Neighbors and best friends won tools and $70,000 for school.

Utah weighs whether to teach children cursive

Students experience Camp Williams at Freedom Academy

C.R. England Global Transportation Donates Backpacks and School Supplies to Students in Laredo, TX

OPINION & COMMENTARY

Better teachers, equipment won’t improve schools as long as students avoid work

‘Roam school’: the future of education

Better schools through smarter testing
We need to redesign testing so that it becomes integral to the subjects students are studying, rather than an add-on afterward.

How Valuable Are College-Placement Tests?

NATION

Wash. Supreme Court rules backpack search illegal The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a student backpack search in 2009 at a Bellevue high school was illegal because the officer who conducted the search and found a weapon was acting as a police officer at the time.

Free speech: Can school fire ‘redneck’ over Confederate flag on his truck?
An Oregon school bus driver who refers to himself as a ‘backyard redneck’ was fired for refusing to remove the Confederate flag from his truck. A federal magistrate upheld his free speech lawsuit.

Michigan City Outsources All of Its Schools Highland Park Turns Over Troubled Operations to For-Profit Charter Firm.

Aurora schools prepare to help students in wake of theater massacre

Tablets Trump Laptops in High School Classrooms New tech initiatives and product sales show growth and prevalence of tablet devices.

McGraw takes bids for education unit: sources

Education business, fewer print ads hurt Washington Post

Back to school: How soon is too soon?

Katie Holmes enrolls Suri in Avenues – A $40,000-a-year private school

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UTAH NEWS
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Outdoor industry wants political clout it says it deserves Recreation » Group says it deserves a voice in land decisions, but Utah lawmaker pushes back.

The way Frank Hugelmeyer sees it, the burgeoning outdoor industry is just beginning to find its voice — and using it to agitate for a place at the table where big public policy decisions are made.
But it hasn’t been easy for the 4,000-member group, whose leaders issued a sharply worded statement Wednesday criticizing how Utah politicians are setting public-lands policies.
Thursday, as 27,000 buyers and sellers convened at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center for the Outdoor Retailer summer show — Utah’s largest convention — at least one Utah official said he found the trade group’s message grating.
Rep. Fred Cox, R-West Valley City, a vocal supporter of Utah’s new Sagebrush Rebellion, said he’s fed up with the trade group’s demands. He’s tired of its seemingly endless clamoring for more hotel and convention space. And the latest request to have a seat at the table when politicians make public lands policy is “out of line,” he said.
http://goo.gl/KBGvk (SLT)

Weber School District employees participate in annual Brain Blast

PLEASANT VIEW — Asked to use their cellphones and tablets to type in their favorite technology to help students learn, about 300 teachers and administrators tapped in their answers.
Smart boards, iPads, the Internet, came the responses. LCD projectors, Wikipedia, YouTube, flip videos, the list, projected on the auditorium screen, continued.
Then came a few playful comments from Weber School District employees who weren’t onboard with the district’s latest technology: pencils, books, electricity, well-trained teachers.
The teachers and administrators gathered this week for a two-day conference, Brain Blast, focused on the technology they can use in the classroom.
http://goo.gl/kSo7T (OSE)

Riverton High duo makes school history in auto competition Big winners » Neighbors and best friends won tools and $70,000 for school.

The training regimen was vigorous, demanding.
The expectations were even greater. Anything less than perfection was unacceptable, deemed a failure.
The accomplishment was historic.
Jordan Kearns and Chandler Adkins did what no other Riverton students ever had, and what no Utah duo had accomplished in nearly a decade, when they placed fourth in the Ford/AAA National Auto Skills competition earlier this summer in Dearborn, Mich.
http://goo.gl/3Jovd (SLT)

Utah weighs whether to teach children cursive

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah education officials are discussing whether to continue teaching cursive at schools.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the board of education will also discuss Friday whether to end its leadership role in a group of states developing tests based on new academic standards. More than 45 states and territories voluntarily belong to the group known as the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.
http://goo.gl/M3AMu (OSE)

http://goo.gl/qU921 (PDH)

http://goo.gl/LY1HU (CVD)

Students experience Camp Williams at Freedom Academy

CAMP WILLIAMS, Utah – The Freedom Academy at Camp Williams gives participants an opportunity to experience freedom from a different perspective.
FOX 13′s Big Buddha met with about 100 high school students as they participated in the Utah National Guard’s 51st annual Freedom Academy.
http://goo.gl/SJtQt (KSTU)

http://goo.gl/F10ji (PDH)

C.R. England Global Transportation Donates Backpacks and School Supplies to Students in Laredo, TX PRNewswire via Sacramento (CA) Bee

LAREDO, Texas — C.R. England Global Transportation, one of the nation’s leading transportation companies, has donated 500 backpacks and school supply vouchers to the children in Laredo’s United Independent School District. This marks the second consecutive year the transportation company has provided assistance to children in need in the district, becoming one of the District’s most generous donors.
The announcement was made by the UISD Board of Trustees and Superintendent Roberto J. Santos at a press conference on July 30, 2012 at the Bill Johnson Student Activity Complex Auditorium located at 5208 Santa Claudia Lane in Laredo, TX. C.R. England’s corporate headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah but the company has terminal and maintenance operations in Laredo.
http://goo.gl/IGQhe

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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Better teachers, equipment won’t improve schools as long as students avoid work Deseret News op-ed by Teresa Talbot

This fall, I will begin my 25th year of teaching in Utah’s public schools.
In the past few years I have come to realize that the main problem with our education system today is not what is taught, where it is taught, by whom it is taught or how it is taught. The main problem with education today is students who refuse to work. It is the students in a Seventh grade English class who were given three days in class to write an essay. At the end of the three days only 12 of 27 students had completed the assignment and turned it in.
http://goo.gl/Ewnwh

‘Roam school’: the future of education
Sutherland Institute commentary by Pamela Whitmore, editor

A first-person story in the Wall Street Journal points out the exciting developments in homeschooling and digital learning and the growing possibilities of being able to “mix and match” different options to create the best K-12 schooling for our children.
The writer, Quinn Cummings, home-schools her child but hastens to point out that despite her friends’ worries, that doesn’t mean her child is isolated or unsocialized. “Everyone is worried that I keep my child in a crate with three air holes punched in it and won’t let her have friends until she gets her AARP card.” But home-schooled children do plenty of socializing, including with their own family members – what a concept!
She became aware of the many options for teaching and talks about the future of education: “As our habits evolve, it won’t be home schooling as we’ve known it, but it won’t be brick-and-mortar schooling, either. I call it ‘roam schooling.’”
http://goo.gl/mC12I

http://goo.gl/7o7zM (WSJ)

Better schools through smarter testing
We need to redesign testing so that it becomes integral to the subjects students are studying, rather than an add-on afterward.
Los Angeles Times op-ed by Arthur Levine, president emeritus of Teachers College, Columbia University

Despite the barrage of criticism that schools are spending increasing amounts of time testing our children and teachers are being forced to teach to the test, the reality is that testing is no fad. Initiatives like California’s STAR test, the high school exit exam and Academic Performance Index, or API, scores are here to stay, and are likely to become even more pervasive in schools nationwide. But in the years ahead the way testing happens must change in a manner that will benefit our children and that parents are likely to embrace.
The increasing emphasis on testing in U.S. schools is a consequence of perhaps the most profound change in American education in modern times — the shift in focus from teaching to learning. When education systems concentrate on teaching, the emphasis is on the process of instruction, measured in the length of time students are exposed to teaching. (Think, for instance, of the 180-day school year.) Time is the constant; all students are expected to learn the same amount of information in the same period of time.
In contrast, when the focus is on learning, the emphasis shifts to how much the student has mastered rather than how long the student has been taught. There is a shift in concern from the process of education to the outcomes of education, from coverage of a subject to learning the subject matter. Time becomes variable; learning is the constant.
http://goo.gl/mMksp

How Valuable Are College-Placement Tests?
Education Week commentary by columnist Catherine Gewertz

College readiness is getting examined like never before. As tricky as it is to define exactly what “college readiness,” it could be even trickier to figure out how to assess such readiness. Colleges have long used placement tests to figure out whether students are ready for entry-level, credit-bearing coursework, or should be funneled instead into remedial (or “developmental”) classes.
Boatloads of students are ending up in remedial coursework. Whether that is an indicator of poor high school preparation, poor assessment instruments or both, the depressing results for students are the same: getting mired in those classes drastically reduces their chances of finishing college.
As the field tries to get its arms around how it can ensure better-prepared students, with better chances of finishing postsecondary education, the placements tests themselves are coming under increasing scrutiny. Recent research, for instance, found that placement test results are weaker predictors of success in college course than are high school grades.
Now a new report explores some of the changes that colleges are making—or contemplating—to make the readiness-and-placement conversation more meaningful and productive.
http://goo.gl/7mKzc

A copy of the report
http://goo.gl/aDghE

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NATIONAL NEWS
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SEATTLE — The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a student backpack search in 2009 at a Bellevue high school was illegal because the officer who conducted the search and found a weapon was acting as a police officer at the time.
The court said the search did not qualify for a school search exemption and the weapon should not have been allowed as evidence in the young man’s trial. On a 6-3 vote, the decision overturns an appeals court ruling.
The majority opinion, written by Justice Susan Owens, said the Bellevue police officer who conducted the search was paid by the school district to be a school resource officer.
But Owens writes that the officer, Michael Fry, was acting as a police officer at the time of the search at Robinswood High School, an alternative school that has since closed. He had arrested the student, Jamar Meneese, for possessing a bag of marijuana, which Meneese was holding in his hand in a school bathroom.
http://goo.gl/hXImJ

A copy of the ruling
http://goo.gl/AdW9z

A copy of the dissent
http://goo.gl/AebAE

An Oregon school bus driver has won the first round of a free speech lawsuit claiming his First Amendment rights were violated when he was fired for refusing to remove a Confederate flag from the back of his pickup truck.
Kenneth Webber had worked as a K-12 bus driver for nearly six years in Oregon’s Jackson County School District 4. But he lost his job after he repeatedly refused a supervisor’s order to remove the three-by-five-foot flag – emblazoned with the work “Redneck” – from his truck while it was parked on school district property.
Mr. Webber filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that his former employer, his former supervisor, and the school superintendent violated his free speech right to express controversial or offensive ideas without facing censorship or punishment from the government.
On Thursday, a federal magistrate upheld the lawsuit, and said Webber’s case should proceed to a trial to determine whether his constitutional rights were violated.
http://goo.gl/5Nkly

Michigan City Outsources All of Its Schools Highland Park Turns Over Troubled Operations to For-Profit Charter Firm.
Wall Street Journal

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich.—The public school district in this hard-luck city has come up with a radical answer for its troubled education system: It is outsourcing all of it.
Highland Park School District, one of the state’s lowest-performing academically, says it will turn over its three schools and nearly 1,000 students to a private, for-profit charter school company—the second district in Michigan to take such a drastic step to avert financial collapse.
The abrupt news last week sparked concern—and in some cases, relief— from parents and other residents who packed a Wednesday night meeting in the faded industrial city, which is nearly surrounded by Detroit.
http://goo.gl/ppQFP

Aurora schools prepare to help students in wake of theater massacre Denver Post

AURORA — The first day of classes next week at Aurora Public Schools will be like no other in recent memory.
The community is still reeling from the Aurora theater shooting July 20 that left 12 people dead and 58 others injured. Several dozen Aurora district students were at the multiplex that night.
With that in mind, Aurora school officials Thursday held a news briefing on how the district will handle the upcoming school year. Among the changes: They plan to enhance security, have more counselors on hand, and set up a crisis-management committee to help with students, staff and others.
http://goo.gl/HKqwS

Tablets Trump Laptops in High School Classrooms New tech initiatives and product sales show growth and prevalence of tablet devices.
U.S. News & World Report

During its quarterly earnings call on July 24, Apple announced that it sold 500,000 MacBook laptops to schools during the previous quarter—an all-time high for the tech company. It also announced that it had sold 1 million iPads to high schools and colleges, doubling its iPad sales to schools during the same quarter a year ago.
“Education tends to be a conservative institution, but we’re not seeing that at all on the iPad,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a call with investors. “The adoption of the iPad in education is something I’ve never seen in any technology.”
http://goo.gl/lHjHO

McGraw takes bids for education unit: sources Reuters

NEW YORK – Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP are among several parties that have put in initial bids for McGraw-Hill Companies Inc’s (MHP.N) education business, which could value the world’s second-largest education company by sales at around $3 billion, several sources familiar with the matter said.
Other bidders for the business include Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N) and Cengage Learning Inc, the second-largest U.S. college textbook publisher, the sources said. Cengage is owned by Apax Partners LLP and OMERS Capital Partners.
McGraw-Hill Education, whose textbooks are distributed in 65 languages across 157 countries, could be valued by buyers at about six times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), although McGraw-Hill has higher expectations, one of the sources added.
http://goo.gl/7rOli

Education business, fewer print ads hurt Washington Post Reuters

The Washington Post Co reported a fall in quarterly revenue as new student enrollments dropped in its Kaplan education business and print advertising revenue slid.
Revenue in the Kaplan division, which accounts for more than half of Washington Post’s total revenue, fell 9 percent to $558.4 million in the second quarter.
New-student sign-ups, which returned to growth two quarters ago after four straight quarters of declines, reversed direction again to fall 1 percent.
Enrollments have been under pressure at U.S. for-profit colleges after they tightened admission standards to comply with tougher government regulations.
http://goo.gl/toI74

Back to school: How soon is too soon?
CNN

When do your kids go back to school? School start dates are about as varied as the styles and colors of backpacks you find at local retailers.
The federal government doesn’t mandate the number of days in a school year, but most states require about 180. How those days work into the calendar is usually set by local school boards.
For example, in Cherokee County, Georgia, students went back to school on August 1 this year. Yes, you read that right, the first day of August.
And while students in other districts around the U.S. return on various dates this month – August 13 and 27 seem to be popular – many, like Virginia Beach, Virginia students, return on September 4, the day after Labor Day.
http://goo.gl/93WfU

Katie Holmes enrolls Suri in Avenues – A $40,000-a-year private school Life & Style

Suri Cruise can’t wait to start school!
Life & Style has learned exclusively that Suri’s mom, Katie Holmes, has enrolled her 6-year-old in Avenues, a nearly $40,000-a-year private school opening this fall in NYC.
Says a source, “Katie has eagerly been telling Suri all about the lunchrooms, basketball courts and different activities Avenues offers. Suri’s really excited about it.”
http://goo.gl/a3qWI

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

UEN News
http://www.uen.org

August 3:
Utah State Board of Education meeting
8:15 a.m., 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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