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Police kill armed 8th-grader in Texas school

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

CBS News - By CBS News - Jan. 04 (News Report) - Police shot and killed an armed eighth-grader who "engaged" officers in the main hallway of his middle school on Wednesday, the South Texas school district said.

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FBI probes white powder in letters sent to DC schools

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - May. 06 (News) - The FBI on Friday is investigating more than three dozen suspicious letters containing a white powdery substance sent to schools in the capital area, leading authorities to race across the city to check for possible threats.

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Why Fire Teachers?

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Atlantic Monthly - By Megan McArdle - Mar. 08 (Opinion) - I think there are some jobs that are too important to let any consideration intrude other than the best way to get the job done. Nuclear power plants, firefighters, poison control--I don't want to let other social goals, no matter how laudable, hamper their mission. Teaching is one of those jobs.

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President Obama discusses education budget plan at Baltimore-area school

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Baltimore Sun - By Jean Marbella, Liz Bowie - Feb. 14 (News) - President Barack Obama's motorcade arrived at 10:10 a.m. Monday at Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology in Baltimore County, passing about 100 spectators who lined the streets near the school. Among the friendlier throngs were a group of protesters who called for him to, as their signs said, "STOP Reckless Spending." The president was in town to announce educational priorities in his 2012 budget.

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Cancer bracelets' 'boobies' tough call for schools

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Bob Moen - Oct. 15 (News) - A $4 rubber bracelet meant to raise breast cancer awareness has done that and more: Students nationwide are wearing the "I (heart) boobies" wristbands, and running afoul of school administrators.

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Firing teachers can be a costly and tortuous task

Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Jason Song - May. 03 (Investigative Report) - A Times investigation finds the process so arduous that many principals don't even try, except in the very worst cases. Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can't teach is rare.

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A Radical Fix for Schools?

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - By David Brancaccio - May. 01 (Special Report) - How is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan going to spend $100 billion in stimulus money—almost twice the education budget—to fix our nation's schools? During his seven years running Chicago's public schools, Duncan went head to head with the teacher's union and skeptical parents by closing down low-performing schools, getting rid of all the teachers, principals, even the janitors, and reopening them with new staffs as "turnaround schools." It's a drastic step, but the results have been promising. This week, NOW travels to Chicago to investigate the collateral damage of a top-to-bottom school makeover, and to get a glimpse of what the future of education might look like for the rest of the country. "We have to be willing to experience a little bit of pain and discomfort, but our children desperately need it and deserve it," Secretary Duncan tells NOW. "Just as we have to do it, unions have to change, principals have to change, teachers have to change, parents have to step up... business as usual is not going to get us there."

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New African-American history course stretches student minds

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - By Joe Smydo - Feb. 06 (News Report) - Pittsburgh Oliver High School teacher Ken Smith doesn't want students to take history; he wants them "doing history." And so the Pittsburgh Public Schools' new African-American history course is designed to stretch students' research, writing and thinking skills while taking them far behind the scenes of a people's struggle for freedom. The district yesterday kicked off Black History Month by gathering civic leaders and school supporters at the Senator John Heinz History Center to introduce the course and a program bringing black artists into three schools. The initiatives are intended to promote achievement among black students who, as a group, trail white students academically. "We have to connect with the kids. We have to be relevant to them," history center President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Masich said.

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Miami-Dade schools chief unveils budget plans

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miami Herald - By Kathleen McGrory - Feb. 05 (News Report) - Miami-Dade Schools Chief Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday unveiled a plan to save the district $56 million -- and balance the budget -- before the fiscal year ends in June. The proposal, discussed at a meeting with The Miami Herald's editorial board, includes $21 million in cuts to nonschool spending and $8 million in cuts to schools. Carvalho also said he would ask employees to defer payment for an unspecified number of work days until the new fiscal year, which begins July 1. The overall savings to this year's budget from the deferred payments would be $27 million. ''We believe we've found a solution that protects educational programs and the workforce and provides financial viability for the school system,'' Carvalho said. But the plan may meet resistance from the teachers union, United Teachers of Dade President Karen Aronowitz said.

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HISD plan could pay best teachers $100,000 a year | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Houston Chronicle - By Erica Mellon - Feb. 03 (News Report) - “It all sounds great, but it all hinges on the accuracy of the value-added data,” Fuller said. “I really like the part about trying to lure teachers into the lowest-performing schools. I think that’s necessary.”

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To Close a School - A Decision Rooted in Data, but Colored by Nuance

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Javier C. Hernandez - Feb. 02 (News Report) - On a recent December morning, a trio of education higher-ups arrived unannounced in the principal’s office at Public School 90 in the Bronx. The school would be gradually shut down, they told the principal, Patricia West. Incredulous, Ms. West, who has been at P.S. 90’s helm for six years, asked them to repeat themselves. “I knew we had to improve, but I was shocked,” she said. “It’s like being told you are arrested and you go to jail. Everybody says, ‘But I didn’t do it!’ ” Parents and community members immediately questioned the decision. While P.S. 90 got an F this year on its report card from the city, 11 other schools had worse scores overall, and many of them were staying open.

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More States Considering Tax Breaks to Woo Jobs

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Wall Street Journal - By Stephanie Simon - Feb. 02 (News Report) - Mr. Ritter's most recent corporate courtship ended with Charles Schwab Corp. agreeing to bring 500 jobs to suburban Douglas County in exchange for up to $1 million in state incentives. The deal left child-welfare advocate Megan Ferland with mixed feelings. Stable jobs are essential for stable families, she said. But she worries that those families will falter if the state does not adequately fund education, health and child care. The Douglas County school district is grappling with a budget shortfall and considering raising class size and cutting teacher training, sports and music programs. "Bringing in jobs absolutely makes sense," but if education and child-care funds are sacrificed in the process, "that's like putting families in a neighborhood that doesn't have a road from the house to the job," said Ms. Ferland, president of the nonprofit Colorado Children's Campaign advocacy group.

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Duncan details $150 billion education stimulus

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Campbell Brown, Arne Duncan - Jan. 30 (Interview) - CB: Mr. Secretary, the President's new stimulus plan includes a massive $150 billion increase in federal money for education. Walk us through what the priorities are and when parents can expect to see results. DUNCAN: This is an extraordinary opportunity and if we want to become a strong economy again, the best thing we can do is have an educated work force. So this is a huge, huge opportunity to make things dramatically better for schools and for school children around the country and at the higher Ed level as well. So the stimulus package is going to do a number of things. It's going to help us a tremendous unmet capital needs and so it's really going to be a huge opportunity to invest in infrastructure and several ready projects that we want to get to work on very early on, late spring and through the summer. We want to save literally hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs. We're very, very worried about tremendous cuts, devastating cuts in school districts and states around the country. We want to stay those off going into the fall. We want to continue to raise the bar academically, raise standards, raise expectations, and there's opportunities in the stimulus package to do that.

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The Guy with 'The Best Job in Public Education'

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

voiceofsandiego.org - By Emily Alpert - Jan. 30 (Interview) - Despite being the son of a principal and a schoolteacher, Jed Wallace says he stumbled into teaching to pay the bills. But what started as just a job at a massive Los Angeles elementary school became a passion and eventually convinced him that solutions lay outside school districts in charters: publicly funded schools that are independently run and free from the rules that gird school districts. The idea germinated after Wallace helped Hooper Avenue Elementary School boost its test scores "overnight" simply by clamping down on teacher and student turnover. Teachers agreed to stick it out at the school instead of climbing the career ladder to more comfortable schools; an area superintendent allowed Hooper to keep enrolling students who had moved a few schools away when a parent got sick or lost a job. But then a new leader came into the school district and parents were told they had to go back to their home schools. Wallace found himself standing outside the school facing furious families. He calls it one of the worst days in his professional career. "I said, 'I will not put myself in a situation where I do not have greater control over my professional destiny,'" Wallace recalled. "And it was clear to me that the charter school movement was in fact that place." Fifteen years later he has seen charters from nearly every angle: as a classroom teacher and charter founder, as a San Diego Unified manager overseeing charters, and as the executive director and later the chief operating officer of High Tech High, a lauded system of charter schools that use projects to engage students in their classes and now trains its own teachers. He was tapped in December to lead the California Charter Schools Association, a group that advocates for quality charters statewide.

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Schools cultivate green living - USATODAY.com

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

USA Today - By G. Jeffrey MacDonald - Jan. 26 (Special Report) - Environmental education is pushing into new territory next week as educators urge children and families to lead more eco-friendly lives outside school. Starting Monday, 700 elementary and secondary schools will take part in the first National Green Week as teachers infuse "green" living lessons into their classes. Students at most of the schools will shun disposable snack containers for the week and opt for reusable ones to reduce waste. Organizers of National Green Week tout the project as a free way to forge environmentally sustainable habits in a rising generation. They say the immediate steps children take to relieve pressure on the planet's resources are apt to influence how others live. "We're trying to teach the kids that parents' behaviors can change to be more green," says Victoria Waters, president of the Green Education Foundation, which is organizing National Green Week.

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No Child Left Behind Act: At a glance

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Associated Press - Jan. 26 (News Analysis) - No Child Left Behind Act: At a glanceTucson Citizen?- Jan 25, 2009The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 passed with widespread support but is immensely unpopular today. The Associated Press One year after taking office, former President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, which aimed to close ...

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Chicago School Reform Could Be a U.S. Model

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Maria Glod - Dec. 30 (Special Report) - CHICAGO -- At Cameron Elementary School west of downtown, most kids don't know the alphabet when they start kindergarten, nearly all are poor, and one was jumped by a gang recently, just off campus. But the school this year posted its highest reading and math scores ever -- a feat that earned cash bonuses for teachers, administrators, even janitors. City schools chief executive Arne Duncan, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for education secretary, pushed that performance-pay plan and a host of other innovations to transform a school system once regarded as one of the country's worst. As Duncan heads to Washington, the lessons of Chicago could provide a model for fixing America's schools.

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Wanted: More science and math teachers in the US

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Christian Science Monitor - By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo - Dec. 29 (Special Report) - New Bedford, Mass. - Jeremy Kennefick and Geoffrey Gailey are both new science teachers, one a career-changer, the other fresh out of graduate school. Both are teaching in high-poverty districts, where the needs are greatest. And both are surrounded by a rare level of support – financial incentives, mentors, and groups of other new teachers to consult with as they grow in the profession. It's no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools – and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year.

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Should Teachers Ignore Poverty's Impact?

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Jay Mathews - Nov. 28 (Opinion) - Owens described her effort to join the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows program, and her reaction to the prevailing view in that organization that good teachers should be able to raise the achievement of even the poorest kids. That is my belief, and the belief of the educators I most admire. But most Americans, including Owens, think people like me are wrongly discounting the effects of poverty and thus hurting, rather than helping, the national movement to raise the level of instruction in impoverished neighborhoods.

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The Next Kind of Integration

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Emily Bazelon - Jul. 20 (Special Report) - "This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret,".... Breyer's warning, along with even more dire predictions from civil rights groups, helped place the court's ruling at the center of the liberal indictment of the Roberts court. In Louisville, too, the court's verdict met with resentment. Last fall, I asked Pat Todd, the assignment director for the school district of Jefferson County, which encompasses Louisville and its suburbs, whether any good could come of the ruling. She shook her head so hard that strands of blond hair loosened from her bun.

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I Know What You Did Last Math Class

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jan Hoffman - May. 04 (Special Report) - A profusion of online programs that can track a student's daily progress, including class attendance, missed assignments and grades on homework, quizzes and tests, is changing the nature of communication between parents and children, families and teachers.

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Florida Passes Anti-Bully Law

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

365Gay.com - May. 01 (News Report) - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is expected to sign legislation that would require school districts to prohibit bullying and harassment. The Senate passed the bill unanimously on Wednesday. It already had passed the House. Crist has said he would likely sign the bill. ''I'm against bullying, too,'' he said. The legislation mandates that school districts throughout the state must put in place specific policies to deal with bullying that includes methods of investigating and punishments. It also bans cyber bullying. The districts would have to comply by December 1 or risk losing state funds.

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California public schools seek private money just to cover the basics

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Seema Mehta - Apr. 20 (News Report) - A free public school education is guaranteed by the state Constitution to every California child. But as districts grapple with proposed state funding cuts that could cause the layoffs of thousands of teachers and inflate class sizes, parents are being asked to dig deeper into their pocketbooks to help. "Public education is free, but an excellent public education is not free at this point," said Janet Berry, president of the Davis Schools Foundation, which recently launched the Dollar-a-Day campaign, urging citizens of the city near Sacramento to donate $365 per child, grandchild or student acquaintance.

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Crazy U.S. Thinking: Rampant Sexually Spread Diseases and No Talk About Sex!

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lara Riscol - Mar. 28 (Opinion) - Fueling the myth that sexual health education causes promiscuity is blood sport in traditionalists' sex-driven culture war. "In our abstinence-only world today, people sometimes confuse providing sexual education with promoting sexual activity for young people," says Deb Levine. Debra Hauser, executive vice president for Advocates for Youth, agrees. "Even enlightened educators fear that parents and administrators will react negatively to a curriculum that promotes healthy sexuality -- that the perception will be that they are condoning or promoting sex," says Hauser, whose group lobbies for the stalled REAL Act to provide unprecedented funding for sex ed that goes beyond today's disease-prevention model. "The perception of many is that [sex ed] needs a heavy-handed message that teaches sex is likely to lead to negative outcomes. Thirty years of public health research shows that teaching young people about healthy sexuality does not promote sex."

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Cookie-cutter schools don't improve student achievement

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Richard W. Clark - Mar. 24 (Opinion) - None of these explanations of why children learn requires that programs adopted in one school be the same as those in another. Districts spend heavily when they seek uniformity by training teachers in the "one-right-way" and then monitor compliance. They do so ignoring the reality that there is no one way that will work with all students in the varied circumstances of their lives. Because it doesn't work, districts that seek such uniformity invariably run out of resources and community support after a few years and new leaders are installed who pour their own magic potion on the district from their perch at the top.

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