NY Teachers Are Urged to Be Kind on School Surveys

New York City Schools are sending out surveys, at a cost of $2 million, to teachers and parents regarding the quality of their "learning environment." Though the surveys are designed to poll on a variety of issues from art programs to teacher-parent communications, school administrations are asking the respondents to react in a positive light as it, "contributes additional funding to our schools."

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/03/31/2008-03-31_schools_urge_teachers_make_positive_comm-2.html

Getting Urban Students to Attend School

In many urban schools, attendance is often the greatest indicator of achievement versus failure: more than intelligence, work ethic, or economic background. On average, a Chicago Public School freshman will miss 20 schools days in a year and fail two classes. The impetus to attend school everyday is missing for most low-income urban students where the incentive of a "better future" is not enough.

Read more of this article at:
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/one-class/index.html?ref=opinion

Education Earmarks at Record Highs

Last year, Congress gave out $2.3 billion in pet projects for colleges and universities for research on subject many people would scratch their head at. In spite of recent calls by presidential hopeful John McCain and many others in Congress, last year's total exceeds the previous year's by $300 million. The largest single earmark went to the University of South Alabama which received $30 million for an engineering and science center.

Read about all of the earmarks at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/washington/24earmarks.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Free Tutoring Not Helping Students In Need

Though Federally mandated, free, public after-school tutoring isn't reaching all of the students it's intended to help--and when it does, it doesn't always raise a students scores. New data from Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee found that very few students take advantage of this free resource.

Read the article at:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7056860684661284059

Smaller Classes Alone Benefit Students

It's been a key movement in the United States to break up bigger classes for small ones, but the reasoning behind it was that it would positively affect how a teacher is able to teach to a smaller audience. However, a new study, conducted by four nations (US, England, Switzerland, and Hong Kong), suggests the benefit is not as originally thought. The simple fact that a student will not have to compete with as many students for the teacher's time makes the classroom a more engaging environment.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-03-24-small-classes_N.htm

Some States Under Report Graduation Rates for NCLB

A team of statisticians reported Mississippi's graduation rate at a nice rate of 87 percent; however, the state schools superintendent, Hank Bounds, is on a campaign that is combating a drop out crisis. His statistic of choice is a sobering 63 percent graduation rate.

Why the disparity? No Child Left Behind.

Many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting. The law never set any national completion goals and thus the states choose which criteria define that rate.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/education/20graduation.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Does a Six Figure Salary Mean Better Teachers?

Zeke M. Venderhoek believes it will. He has received New York City and state approval to open up his charter school in 2009. Zeke will be the principal of the school at an annual salary of $90,000 while the teachers will be paid $125,00/year. Already this experiment has critics amongst the public education sector, but Zeke believes his economics are sound.

Read the entire article at:
http://ednews.org/articles/24054/1/Paying-Teachers-125000/Page1.html

No Child Left Behind Easing Its Provisions

The Bush administration announced it would relax the No Child Left Behind law's provisions for some states, in an acknowledgement that the law is diagnosing too many public schools as failing. The new eased code with allow states to differentiate between those schools that have a few problems from those that require major overhaul.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/us/19child.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Why Some Students Don't Get to College

The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research found that being part of a college going culture makes a huge difference in getting students to college. Additional factors that were cited as difference makers were the overwhelming FAFSA document, applying to multiple schools, and getting steady support from teachers and counselor throughout the application process. The statistics are staggering: though 83% of Chicago Public School students aspire to a four-year degree, but approximately 40 percent of those students do not even apply for one. Among the top achievers, only 38 percent enrolled in a school that matched their credentials. Though the study focused on Chicago Public School students, "this is a national policy issue," says Vanessa Coca, a researcher for the study.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p02s03-usgn.html?page=1

Federal Panel: American Math at "Mediocre Level"

"The sharp falloff in mathematics achievement in the U.S. begins as student reach late middle school, where, for more and more students, algebra course work begins," said the report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. The advisory panel was appointed two years ago by President Bush to study why American students were lagging behind the rest of the world in mathematics.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/education/14math.html?ref=education

Secretary of Education Promises Sudents Can Find Lender

Secretary Margaret Spellings testified before the House Committee on Education and Labor that, "Federal student aid will continue to be available." She went on to explain that though a "small number" of lenders have stopped making loans, "other lenders have stepped in to meet student needs." Critics have often pointed out that tight credit markets make it much more difficult for students and their families to find willing lenders, as investors have proved reluctant to buy securities backed by student debt.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/education/15educ.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

College: Soon A Buyer's Market?

High school seniors across the nation are nervously waiting for their fate in the form of a college acceptance letter. Though their's was an intensely competitive landscape, projections indicated that in a few years, the annual number of high school graduates in the U.S. will decline - until 2015.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/education/09admissions.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Can Billionaires Fix a Broken School System?

Traditionally, wealthy Americans have donated generously to education. This interesting interview is from a New York Times Magazine article who invited five interested parties to discuss educational philanthropy.

Read the interview at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/magazine/09roundtable-t.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Helicopter Parents and their kids

Helicopter parents are baby boomer moms and dads who virtually accompany their children to college and involve themselves in their social and classroom interactions. What college administrators fear is that the students are not learning to fend for themselves. The majority of children, however, feel that the level of their parent involvement is just right - according to a College Board survey.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/767344.html

Free speech and the Internet

Can a school regulate a student's language off campus? Before you craft an answer, consider how the internet blurs the boundaries of a school campus. That is the question the U.S. District court is struggling with after school officials barred Avery Doninger from speaking at the high school graduation after her blasting the aforementioned administrators on an internet blog.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-webspeech.artmar05,0,3846137.story

Single-sex classrooms make a comeback

In Foley, Alabama, the Foley Intermediate School began offering separate classes for boys and girls, after the school's principal, Lee Mansell, read a book by Michael Gurian titled, "Boys and Girls Learn Differently!" Soon thereafter, Ms. Mansell read an article by Leonard Sax which discussed his thoughts on how teaching boys differently would improve the test scores of minority boys.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02sex3-t.html?ref=education

US Educators tour Scandinavia for Ideas

A delegation of US educators recently toured Scandinavia in hopes of finding our how students of that region were able to score highly on an international test of math and science skills. Strikingly absent in those Scandinavian classrooms: competitive grading, standardized testing, and top-down accountability--staples of the American school. Instead, the educational systems of Finland, Sweden, and Denmark all cited autonomy, project-based learning, and nationwide broadband internet access as their ways to success.

Checkout the entire article at:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=52770;_hbguid=31475690-290f-4e70-8ce4-2742f7b52b83

As tuition rises, so does the cost of student loans

The credit crisis rolling affecting the US economy is also negatively impacting the student loan industry. Students who seek federally guaranteed loans, very popular because they offer fixed, below-market rates, might be required to pay higher fees in order to borrow the money. Moreover, at community and for-profit colleges, students might be denied money altogether.

Check out the entire article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/02/AR2008030202213.html