Education News: June 10 and June 17, 2005

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the weeks ending June 10 and June 17, 2005.

Activists Mobilize to Counter Classroom Bias
(Source: USA Today, 6/5/05)
Conservative activists, perceiving a liberal bias in some K-12 classrooms, have initiated a wave of effort to limit what teachers can say in classrooms and what topics they may discuss. This year, legislatures in 14 different states have considered bills aimed at colleges with the purpose of limiting political bias in academic courses. Activists say they want to expand the movement to the K-12 realm, as young people are the most impressionable.

Head Start Study Finds Limited Effects
(Source: The Washington Times, 6/9/05)
The Department of Health and Human Services has released a report that reveals extremely limited effects of the $7 billion Head Start program. The program is designed to help pre-school-aged children of lower-income families acquire the necessary skills to become fully prepared for kindergarten. However, improvements in skills, health, and behavior problems were shown to be limited, and the study identified several important areas in which no improvement at all was charted.

Education Department Offers New Guidance
(Source: The San Francisco Gate, 6/13/05)
A new guide issued by the U.S. Department of Education clarifies a key aspect of the No Child Left Behind law: eligibility for free tutoring. Under the far-reaching education law, students from low-income families who attend low-performing schools can receive no-cost tutoring, and the newly issued guide is designed to help schools and parents identify eligible students and secure tutors.

Principal Urges Teachers to Pass Students to Meet Federal Quota
(Source: The Sacramento Bee, 6/15/05)
The superintendent of Saddleback High School in Santa Anna, California, has told teachers to ignore a memo from the school’s principal that asked them to reconsider the failing grades they gave to 98 seniors. The reason Principal Esther Jones wrote the memo was so that her school could meet federal requirements regarding school improvements mandated by the No Child Left Behind Law. Teachers at the school refused to heed Jones’ request, and the local school board is currently evaluating Jones and determining whether disciplinary action will be necessary.

Debate Grows Over Teaching of Abstinence
(Source: The San Diego Union –Tribune, 6/20/05)
A new survey by Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat in Los Angeles, reveals that many federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs in schools propagate wrong or distorted information. Many children, for instance, are being taught that saving sex until marriage can prevent mental and physical health problems as well as poverty, drug abuse, and suicide. Such programs sometimes understate the effectiveness of condoms and overstate the likelihood of devastating consequences resulting from pre-marital sex. Such factual errors and biased information are cause for concern as President Bush is looking to greatly expand funding to these programs.

Virginia, Maryland Get Slack on ‘No Child’ Rules
(Source: The Washington Post, 6/16/05)
The states of Virginia and Maryland have both received waivers from certain aspects of the No Child Left Behind law. Virginia, in calculating whether schools are making adequate yearly progress, will now be able to give students credit if they fail a state Standards of Learning test, but then pass an exam in the same subject. Maryland, in testing special education students, will be able to exclude the scores of some mentally disabled students when determining whether schools are making adequate yearly progress.

‘No Child’ Law Credited for Hispanic Gain
(Source: The Houston Chronicle, 6/16/05)
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has announced that Hispanic students are catching up with Anglos in reading and math thanks to the No Child Left Behind law. Closing the achievement gap between white and minority students is among the law’s primary objectives, and early evidence from the states of Maryland, Georgia, and New York suggests that educators are making tangible progress in achieving this goal.

Kansas Legal Battles Threaten to Keep Schools Closed
(Source: CNN.com, 6/16/05)
In the aftermath of a divisive debate regarding the teaching of evolution versus intelligent design in Kansas classrooms, Kansas schools now face the possibility of not being able to reopen in the fall due to a political and legal battle over education funding. The Kansas court has instructed the legislature to expand the state’s education budget, but Republican legislators are resisting doing so, resulting in a standoff.