November 10, 2010
The Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously approved a contract Tuesday with a company that will analyze teachers’ effectiveness in raising students’ standardized test scores. The agreement with the University of Wisconsin Value Added Research Center, which does similar work for New York City public schools, could cost about $1.5 million. The first phase of […]
November 9, 2010
The two Southeast Washington middle schools are less than a mile apart. The real distance that separates them is the number of hours their students spend in class each week. At Johnson Middle School, the day is 61/2 hours, 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Students at AIM Academy, a KIPP charter school, stay for nine […]
November 9, 2010
Some of Illinois’ best-known teacher education programs are leaving prospective teachers ill-prepared for the classroom, according to a new report released Tuesday. The National Council on Teacher Quality examined 111 undergraduate and graduate programs in 53 education schools across the state and found many — including Illinois State University and Northern Illinois University, the state’s […]
November 9, 2010
Kansas is one of 11 states that will share in a $38.8 million Safe and Supportive Schools grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of the grant is to measure school safety at the building level and provide funds for interventions in those schools with the greatest needs. The ultimate goal is to […]
November 9, 2010
A Senate bill that would prohibit restraint and seclusion from being used to control students with disabilities is causing a split among some disability-rights advocates. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., would place an absolute ban on certain restraining techniques, such as holds that impede breathing […]
November 9, 2010
Governor-elect Dan Malloy may have promised not to cut state aid for schools, but state education leaders aren’t taking that for granted: They’re scrambling to form a plan for dealing with a major loss of funding. For the current school year, state lawmakers capped school aid at $1.9 billion, but $270 million of that was […]
November 9, 2010
Boston schools underwent a radical experiment in the past decade: Four large neighborhood high schools were shuttered and replaced with more than a dozen smaller ones. The thinking was that smaller schools could deliver a better education. A few years into the effort, funded with millions of dollars from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, […]
November 9, 2010
A handful of districts, some with the approval of their local teachers’ unions, are experimenting with alternatives to the fundamental components that govern teachers’ base-pay raises. Ranging from a long-standing plan in Eagle County, Colo., to a contract ratified earlier this year by teachers in the Pittsburgh district, the systems tie raises more closely to […]
November 9, 2010
The Alabama Board of Education will decide next week whether to join 38 other states in adopting common standards for math and English language arts. The Common Core State Standards outline what students are expected to learn in those subjects in each grade. The initiative is led by the National Governors Association Center for Best […]
November 8, 2010
Kansas Court of Appeals Chief Judge Gary Rulon Thursday named three judges, from widely separate parts of the state, to hear a lawsuit that claims state budget cuts for school funding violate state school childrens’ constitutional rights. The three include Shawnee County District Judge Franklin R. Theis, of Topeka, who also was appointed the panel’s […]