Education News: March 24, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending March 24, 2006.

TEA to forward full Katrina aid to area schools
(Source: The Houston Chronicle, 03/24/06) Despite initial plans to use a substantial portion of the state’s Katrina funding to repay the state education budget, the Texas Education Agency has agreed to education leaders’ call to distribute the relief aid in full to schools. According to school leaders and test scores, Katrina evacuees who are now attending Texas schools are, on average, significantly behind their classmates academically and need tutoring and remedial help.

House approves overhaul of Florida schools
(Source: St. Petersburg Times, 03/24/06) Governor Jeb Bush’s plan to reform Florida middle and high schools has passed in the state House. The bill is intended to encourage career-planning in middle school and to make high school more like college, complete with majors and minors. The legislation includes a provision that would allow the governor to take over school districts after a poor-performing school earns two consecutive failing grades.

Katrina refugees score lower on tests
(Source: Boston.com, 03/24/06) Third-grade and fifth-grade Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Texas fared far worse than their classmates on a standardized exam administered in February. Just 58% of third-grade evacuees passed the reading part of the exam, in contrast to 89% of all students. Only 46% of evacuees in the fifth grade passed their reading exams, compared to 80% of all students. Educators and officials say the under-performing New Orleans school system and the trauma of displacement are to blame for the students’ low scores.

Sick-out sends 36,000 kids home
(Source: The Detroit News, 03/23/06) On Tuesday, March 22, approximately 1,500 Detroit teachers called in sick in an apparent sick-out to protest raises for principals. Of the district’s 235 schools, 53 were forced to close, sending about 36,000 students home. The protest was allegedly a response to the fact that the principals will receive pay raises while teachers have been asked to “loan” five days’ pay to the district this year.

L.A. mayor gets takeover tutorial in New York
(Source: The Los Angeles Times , 03/21/06) Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, visited New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, this week to receive advice on implementing a mayoral takeover of big-city school districts. Villaraigosa wants to emulate the degree to which Bloomberg has managed to gain control over New York City schools. While Villaraigosa was well-received in New York, his visit and plans for heightening mayoral control of schools sparked outrage among his critics, particularly members of the L.A. school board.