Education News: May 11, 2007

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending May 11, 2007.

South Leads in Early Childhood Education
(Source: The Los Angeles Times, 5/11/07): The Southern Education Foundation released a study this week showing that the South has the highest percentage of state-funded early education programs in the country. While benefits for lower-income students have been proven, studies show that middle class and affluent students don’t derive as many benefits from the programs.

New Figures Show High Dropout Rate
(Source: The Washington Post, 5/10/07): First Lady Laura Bush and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings have unveiled a new system for tracking high school drop-out rates across the country. Currently, schools only have to report confirmed drop-outs in their statistics; this new system will greatly lower the reported percentages of students graduating in four years.

Michigan’s Education Time Bomb
(Source: The Detroit News, 5/10/07): Loopholes in Michigan law are allowing retired education professionals to collect millions of extra dollars a year. Generous health plans that last for life in many cases are also negatively impacting the system, causing huge financial strain on districts that are forced to fit the bill. Many see a crisis looming.

District Copied Schools Strategy
(Source: The Washington Post, 5/9/07): A study commissioned by the Washington Post found that DC Mayor Fenty’s proposal for how to improve DC schools borrowed nearly a third of its content from proposals other districts had written. It is unclear if Fenty knew that staffers were directly borrowing language from other proposals.

Battlefield to Classroom
(Source: The St. Petersburg Times, 5/9/07): Troops to Teachers, a program that helps retired military personnel complete the necessary prerequisites to teach, is about to aid its 10,000th military retiree. The program, started in 1994, helps people navigate the often tricky process of becoming certified and finding a teaching job.

‘Huge’ Drop in Graduations
(Source: San Francisco Gate, 5/8/07): Last year California instituted a high school exit exam to test proficiency of seniors before graduation. Since then, rates of students graduating in California have plummeted. Now the state is now fighting a court case to keep the law instituting this new exam from being repealed.

50 Years Later, Little Rock Can’t Escape Race
(Source: The New York Times, 5/8/07): Roy Brooks, the superintendent of the Little Rock school district, is enmeshed in a bitter debate between blacks and whites over his actions as superintendent. Mr. Brooks, who is black, is supported by a majority of white families who say he has simplified district bureaucracy. Many black parents counter that he is taking away jobs from other black individuals.

Migrant Education Changes Sought
(Source: The Lexington Herald-Reader, 5/6/07): The United States Education Department is examining ways to lessen migrant status fraud in relation to education funding. Migrant families that move their children around frequently can claim extra money for their school districts, which leads to over-reporting in many states. The government is looking for ways to combat this problem.

Science Tests Come as Teaching Time Falls
(Source: The Washington Post, 5/5/07): This week, Maryland will begin testing science knowledge in its student population. This test is being administered because of the possibility that No Child Left Behind will soon include a science section.

The following sites offer collections of the latest news stories related to education from around the nation and around the world.