Education News: November 4, 2005

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

Schools reopen in Dade, giving students some stability
(Source: The Miami Herald.com, 11/04/05) After missing eight instructional days in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, students in Dade County are headed back to school. While the hurricane claimed more than a dozen lives and inflicted incalculable damage, citizen and students are attempting to reestablish some degree of normalcy. Superintendent of schools Rudy Crew is demanding accelerated instruction to ensure student achievement, while teachers prepare to deal with students’ anxieties concerning the tragedy.

New York City teachers ratify contract
(Source: The New York Times, 11/04/05) New contracts for the country’s largest school district include a 15% pay increase over the next four years. New York City teachers have been without a contract since May 2003.The new contract includes two additional teacher days in the school year and an extra 50 minutes per week. Mayor Bloomberg believes that the contracts are, “good for teachers, the city, and most importantly, our school children.”

A Bush-style education school in Texas
(Source: The New York Times, 11/02/05) This fall Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, opened the doors of its fledgling School of Education and Human Development. This program is based on science-and-medical-protocol style of research as well as implementation of President Bush’s NCLB standards in the classroom. This type of institutional structure has met both praise and criticism much like President Bush’s educational agenda.

Denver voters approve pay-for-performance plan
(Source: CNN.com, 11/02/05) Pay incentives for student achievement will be implemented in Denver school districts based on legislation passed Tuesday. Denver is now the largest school district in the country to embrace this alternative style of pay. Advocates for the law believe it will aid schools in attracting better teachers.

Hispanics’ schools are largest, neediest
(Source: Boston.com, 11/01/05) A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center has shown that Hispanic children are far more likely than black or white students to attend the nation’s largest and poorest schools. More than half of Hispanic teenagers (56%) attend schools with 1,800 students or more, while only 32% of black teens and 26% of white teens do the same. Four in 10 Hispanics attend high schools with a student teacher ratio greater than 22 to 1, while fewer than two in 10 white and black students do the same. Hispanic students are also more likely to attend schools with the highest concentrations of poverty.

Tribes, education leader debate Left Behind Act
(Source: Boston Globe, 10/31/05) American Indian leaders have made the case that the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law are compelling rural schools to eliminate tribal culture and language classes to focus on federally mandated math and reading tests. At a meeting of the National Congress of American Indians, the leaders also asserted that the legislation makes it difficult to recruit and retain the “highly qualified” teachers that the law demands.

Board approves charters for 20 schools in New Orleans
(Source: The Times-Picayune, 10/29/05) In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans school board has unanimously approved charter applications from 20 schools in the district. The approval of these came at the end of weeks of disagreement about how and when to open the few schools that remained in usable condition after the storm. While many greeted the decision with excitement, others, including the United Teachers of New Orleans, expressed hesitation over the plan’s details.