Education News: November 3, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending November 3, 2006.

Can merit pay turn around failing schools?
(Source: The Chicago Sun-Times, 11/3/06) Chicago has won the largest federal grant in the nation—$27.5 million—to implement a new merit pay program for teachers at 40 of its worst performing public schools. Teachers at these schools will be eligible for $9,000 bonuses each year, based on teacher evaluations, gains on test scores by the teachers’ students, and school-wide gains. Additionally, the schools will hire “master teachers,” who will earn an extra $15,000 per year, and “mentor teachers,” who will earn an extra $7,000. Principals and non-teaching staff will also be eligible for bonuses of various sizes.

Some opt out of military option
(Source: USA Today, 11/3/06) As a result of parental activism, more and more parents are signing forms that will prevent schools from giving their children’s contact information to military recruiters. Schools are required by federal law to share student names, addresses, and phone numbers with military recruiters for all students whose parents do not submit opt-out forms.

Classroom discrepancy: Connecticut districts that face toughest challenges often hire least experienced teachers
(Source: The Hartford Courant, 11/2/06) A new study by the Connecticut Center for School Change shows that the poorest cities and towns in Connecticut tend to hire the least experienced teachers. The study pinpointed several factors responsible for this trend, including extensive paperwork in large districts and poor support structures for new teachers, but the most crucial and surprising factor was timing. The study showed that poorer school districts had to wait for budgets to be finalized to hire new teachers and thus did their hiring later in the year—in the summer and early fall—by which time the applicant pools had thinned considerably.

After the storm, students left alone and angry
(Source: The New York Times, 11/1/06) John McDonogh High School, with its 775 students, is the largest functioning high school in New Orleans. Unfortunately, a troubled student population has led administrators to feel that its metal detector, 25 security guards, four police officers, and four police cruisers are necessary for the school’s security needs. In the last six weeks, fights have broken out between students daily, and students have assaulted guards, a police officer, and a teacher. The principal of the school estimates that up to a fifth of the school’s students are living without their parents for various reasons. In many cases, students describe their families as having been barely functional even before its members were separated or displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Students with ethnic pride feel happier, study finds
(Source: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11/1/06) A new study indicates that Mexican and Chinese students who associated positive feelings with their ethnic identities were happier and less stressed than students who had negative associations with their identity. The study was based in Los Angeles and was authored by Lisa Kiang of Wake Forest University.

Schools check kids’ housing
(Source: The Sacramento Bee, 10/31/06) About 95,000 California schoolchildren were homeless for at least some portion of the 2005-2006 school year, according to new data released by the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, though analysts suspect the number will increase before the state submits the data to the federal government in several months. California voters will soon vote on Proposition 1C, which would authorize $2.85 billion in bonds to assist the homeless, low-income renters, first-time homebuyers and others who need help with housing.