Education News: August 18, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending August 18, 2006.

Hundreds Worldwide Hit By Loss of AP Tests
(Source: The Washington Post, 08/18/06) ETS finds itself in hot water these days over the loss of several hundred pieces of AP tests taken this year. ETS, the Educational Testing Service, has for years served as the administrator of the AP tests. Each summer, it receives over two million boxes of AP tests to score. Inevitably, tests get lost in the shuffle each year, whether it be because of the school, the postal system, or the ETS. Students who are affected by this have the option to get partial credit, to retake the test, or to cancel their test.

Afghan Schools Burning as Taliban Changes Tactics
(Source: The New York Times, 08/18/06) In the past year, 41 educators and students have died in Taliban attacks on schools in Afghanistan. The Taliban, weakened in the eyes of the Afghan government and desperate to still have a large impact on Afghanistan, have taken to hitting schools as a symbol of their defiance of the regime. Under the reign of the Taliban, girls had been prohibited from going to school. Today, girls and boys learn side by side in class in a much more democratic learning environment. With the constant attacks and accompanying fear, everyone in Afghanistan will have to remain vigilant about protecting educational spaces.

States Fall Short on Teacher Quality
(Source: Boston.com, 08/17/06) Not a single state met the No Child Left Behind stipulation that every core academic class have a highly qualified teacher by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, a recent report shows. A qualified teacher, according the act, is defined as someone who has obtained a bachelor’s degree, a state license and proven competency in the subject that they teach. While some states were on the way to meeting the standards, four states, including Hawaii, Missouri, Utah and Wisconsin, failed completely. To keep states on track towards achieving the standards, states are being required to submit plans detailing the changes how they will “improve their teaching corps and ensure fairness for poor and minority children.” Secretary of Education Spelling weighed in on importance that teachers play in shaping the nation’s future: "Many states took this very seriously, recognizing that good teachers make all the difference in whether or not our children succeed in their studies."

Class of ’06 Posts Big Gains on ACT
(Source: The Washington Post, 08/16/06) Up from 20.9 to 21.1 points overall, the ACT has made a big leap this year in nationwide overall scores. The ACT, a rival to the SAT, tests high school students’ knowledge and serves as a college admissions hurdle in addition to serving as a barometer measuring ability to learn in advanced placement classes. (Some districts place students in different level classes based on their ACT scores.) While the ACT has traditionally been a Midwestern phenomenon, it is increasingly gaining in popularity (see For SAT Maker, A Broader Push to the Classroom). Scores for black students rose overall in the 2006 test season, while scores for Hispanic students remained the same.

Textbooks Free—With Ads
(Source: The Courant, 08/16/06) Freeload Press, a Minnesota start-up company, will be offering free textbooks this fall for over 100 titles. The catch—these downloadable and printable e-textbooks will feature ads from companies such as Kinko’s. With college textbook prices reaching astronomical levels, this company hopes to relieve a part of the financial burden that faces college students each semester. While textbooks prices have increased two times the inflation rate since 1986, textbook makers counter that the exist in an extremely competitive market that is made difficult by the presence of used books stores. The only thing required to download books from Freeload Press is to fill out a five minute survey. The company boasts 50,000 downloaded books thus far.

For SAT Maker, A Broader Push to the Classroom
(Source: The New York Times, 08/16/06) The College Board is making an effort to increase its presence and involvement in higher education in America as the SAT fades in importance and other groups such as Kaplan and the Educational Testing Service edge in on the College Board’s market. Under the leadership of Gaston Caperton, who has doubled the amount of revenue that flows in to the Board, the College Board is helping set up new high schools, running seminars for high school principals, and devising grade 6-12 math and English curriculums. Some applaud the efforts of the Board, including the Gates Foundation, which provides funding for the College Board schools. Others worry that an increasing College Board presence in higher education will cause officials to focus even more on testing.

K-12 Spending Outpaces Medicaid in State Budgets for First Time in Six Years, Report Finds
(Source: EdWeek.com, 08/15/06) The National Conference of State Legislatures has published a study that states are posting higher spending on K-12 schooling than on Medicaid for the 2007 fiscal year. Many states had extra revenue this year, so some of them, including Texas, Wyoming and Alabama put their money into school costs. Although the current extra revenue is a boon for state projects such as education, the next few years are not projected to post deficits, so the extra education money seems to be a temporary phenomenon.