Education News: February 4, 2005

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending February 4, 2005.

New York Small Schools in City Program to Grow by 52 in September
(Source: The New York Times)
Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that 52 new small middle and high schools will open across New York City in September. The schools will have themes such as coastal studies, theatre arts production, and sports professions. Once these schools open, the mayor will have created a total of 157 new small public and charter schools as the main feature of his efforts to overhaul the city’s schools.

Governors Seek New Teacher Pay Methods
(Source: Education Week)
Governors across the country are exploring alternative ways to compensate teachers in hopes of improving student performance and increasing teachers’ pay in the face of limited fiscal resources. Merit-based raises, determined by student test scores and other criteria, are under consideration in California, Idaho, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. Lawmakers in Texas, alternatively, are considering paying higher salaries at schools with the poorest student performance in order to attract better teachers.

Spellings: Testing to Remain at Core of School Reform
(Source: CNN.com)
New education secretary Margaret Spellings has stated that standardized testing will remain the central feature of national school reform as detailed by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, despite objections by some parents, teachers, and lawmakers. Spellings helped craft the legislation when she worked as President Bush’s domestic policy chief. Now, as the law’s primary enforcer, she hopes to expand standardized testing in schools. The goal of this measure is to get all children to at least grade level in reading and math.

California Parents Put Protests Over Funding to Paper
(Source: LATimes.com)
In response to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent proposal to reduce the school funding required by Proposition 98, parents and education activists across California have deluged the governor’s Sacramento office with letters, phone calls, and emails. Parents from South Orange County, for instance, rendered their protestation hard to ignore by sending thousands of hot-pink letters to the governor. Efforts such as these are most likely only the beginning as the California State PTA is preparing to send nearly 4,000 grassroots advocacy packets to its members. While education groups feel betrayed by the proposed changes, the governor claims that all levels of government must make do with less due to a tight budget.

CUNY Takes Steps to Draw Better Students to Teaching
(Source: The New York Times)
The City University of New York is re-imagining teacher preparation with plans to create a teachers’ academy for undergraduates, according to Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. CUNY, which produces approximately one third of New York City’s teachers, will model the new program on its honors college, which, in addition to providing special academic opportunities, also offers free tuition, free computers, and grants for research and travel. The aim of the new teachers’ academy, according to the chancellor, would be to give students a liberal arts background while providing them with more teaching experience than most teacher-preparation programs.

Fewer Chicago High School Grads Than Claimed
(Source: Education Week)
Only 54 percent of Chicago public high school students graduate in four years, according to the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research. This disturbingly low graduation rate is markedly lower than the 70.7 percent rate claimed by the Illinois Board of Education. The study also found that only 39 percent of Chicago’s black male students finished high school on schedule. Principal Katherine Flanagan of Manley High, an all-black school with a four-year graduation rate of 29%, cited poverty and troubled home lives as the largest obstacles facing her students.

SAT’s Next Chapter About to Be Written
(Source: Education Week)
Starting in March, the SAT will undergo its most significant change in a decade by adding a writing section. The new section will involve a 25-minute essay question, as well as questions that ask students to identify grammatical mistakes and edit sentences and paragraphs. The new section will be worth 800 points, the same number of points designated for the math and verbal (now: “critical reading”) sections, bringing the total available points up to 2400 from 1600. The math section will also undergo changes as more advanced topics are covered.