Education News: May 18, 2007

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending May 18, 2007.

PTAs Find Something Missing: Parents
(Source: The Dallas Morning News, 5/17/07): Membership in the Texas PTA has plummeted in the last decade, leaving the organization to search for less traditional figures to join the group. Some PTAs have started going to nursing homes and electing community leaders without kids in the house to fill the gap.

ACLU Takes On Abstinence Program
(Source: The Oregonian, 5/17/07): The Oregon branch of the ACLU is suing an abstinence program in Eugene, Oregon for requiring that presenters follow certain explicit religious guidelines.

Charter Schools Dominate Proposed St. Louis School Budget
(Source: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/16/07): The St. Louis school board is faced with another reduction of several million dollars in funding next year because of student defections to charter schools. Charter schools in the city operate within the same budget as public schools, and they have received a massive influx of students over the last several years.

Study Finds College Prep Courses in High School Leave Many Students Lagging
(Source: The New York Times, 5/16/07): The ACT organization released a study this week showing that American high school students are woefully unprepared for college despite an emphasis on high school standards requirements. Of the students that were studied, only a quarter passed all four of the subject areas. Nineteen percent didn’t pass any of the subject tests.

$50 Million—For What?
(Source: The Chicago Sun-Times, 5/15/07): Low-performing students in Chicago public schools who received tutoring mandated under No Child Left Behind showed very slight gains in reading and math this year. Tutoring companies that provided their services to students are claiming that the study failed to factor in several important variables such as access to materials and group size.

Prestigious Private Schools Settle Rights Suit by a Non-Hawaiian
(Source: The New York Times, 5/15/07): The Kamehameha school district settled a suit up for consideration in the Supreme Court on Monday. Details of the settlement were not disclosed. The suit, filed by a non-native Hawaiian student, alleged that his rights were violated by being denied admittance to the school.

16% Fail TAKS Graduation Test
(Source: The Dallas Morning News, 5/12/07): 40,182 high school seniors failed at least one part of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Test this year, preventing them from graduating with their classes. The large number of students who failed a portion of the exam is prompting some legislators to look at reworking the law.

The Teachers Who Cheat
(Source: The San Francisco Gate, 5/13/07): California has a system in place where schools report and examine themselves for cheating during standardized tests. While this does produce close to 100 schools a year who voluntarily admit to cheating, experts believe that the in reality the number is far higher.