Education News: May 26, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending May 26, 2006.

School exit test reinstated by state high court
(Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, 05/25/06) The California state Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that made exit exams unconstitutional. The appeal that is in process will most likely not affect the 47,000 students who did not pass the exams and will not graduate with their class. The exit exam was previously ruled unconstitutional because students in low-performing schools and English Language learners did not have an equal opportunity to learn the material. The test ensures that students perform at a 7th to 10th grade level in math and English. Those in favor of the exit exams feel they give the state’s diploma more legitimacy.

Report says school bus exhaust harm kids
(Source: New York Times, 05/25/06) According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, states are not protecting children from diesel fumes as they ride and wait for school buses. The organization recommended that states replace older buses, switch to alternative fuel buses, and place emission trapping devices on current buses.

Middle, high school science scores fall flat
(Source: The Chicago Sun Times, 05/25/06) While elementary school students’ science scores are rising, high school students’ scores are declining. Older students, in eighth through twelfth grade, scores remained the same as last year’s or dropped when compared to pervious results. Some are accrediting elementary schools’ success to No Child Left Behind, especially the rise in scores of low-performing schools.

Milwaukee’s lessons on school vouchers
(Source: The Christian Science Monitor, 05/23/06) After 16 years of existence the largest voucher program in the country is expanding with the aims of eliminating its ongoing problems. The motive behind vouchers, the use of public money for private schools, is to give parents a choice. One glitch to this choice, however, was that prior to the current expansion there was no proof that the private alternative was better than the public school. The new expansion of the program calls for private schools participating to be accredited and to conduct standardized testing.

Testing undervalues us, teachers say
(Source: The St. Petersburg Times, 05/22/06) A recent poll conducted with teachers in Florida, uncovered that teachers were opposed to the ideal of merit pay that would link teachers pay with students’ test scores. Many teachers claim that student achievement is linked to other factors, such as parental support, over which educators have no control. Teachers are especially against the idea of using Florida’s state standardized test as the sole measure of improvement. This issue is especially relevant in Florida where the state legislature has recently approved performance pay.

Bilingual law fails its first test
(Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, 05/21/06) Four years ago Boston abolished a decades long bilingual education law that allowed students to be taught in both English and Spanish. The law that replaced it dictated that students primarily had to be taught in English. The law let English Language Learners take separate English classes for a maximum of one year for up to three hours a day. After four years, the new law is showing the same problems as the preceding Act, such as students being placed for years in separate English language learners’ classes, language learners being wrongfully classified as special education, and a lack of teacher training. Education observers site the reoccurring problems as proof that one size does not fit all; educating bilingual children should be done on a case-by-case basis.