Education News: December 21, 2007

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending December 21, 2007.

Albany Adds 60 Schools to NYC List of Failures
(Source: The New York Times, 12/21/07):  Sixty New York City elementary and middle schools have been newly designated as “failing schools” under the criteria of No Child Left Behind, according to the State Department of Education.  Interestingly, the state’s evaluations of schools had some large contradictions with the letter-grade system that the city recently implemented.  For example, over half of the schools that received an F from the city passed muster according to the state.  Conversely, more than a fifth of the schools that the city gave an A are considered by the state to be failing.

Foundation Hopes to Lure Top Students to Teaching
(Source: The New York Times, 12/20/07):  The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which is based in Princeton, has created a new fellowship program with the hope of attracting high-achieving students to the teaching profession.  The foundation will offer 33 fellowships per year, each of which comes with a $30,000 stipend, for students to attend some of the nation’s best graduate education programs for prospective teachers.  The Woodrow Wilson foundation is also working with other foundations to install fellowship programs in specific states.

Poor Neighborhoods Hurt Children More Than Low Income, Study Finds
(Source:  The Chicago Tribune, 12/19/07):  A new study on the effects of poverty and low-income neighborhoods on the cognitive and verbal skills of children has found that living in troubled neighborhoods harms children’s development more than having a low family income.  The researchers theorized that the violence in poor, segregated neighborhoods leads families to isolate themselves for safety—leading to a less well-rounded life experience for their children.  They also said that poor neighborhoods tend to have the worst schools.

Texas Prepares to Begin Teacher Background Checks
(Source: The Dallas Morning News, 12/19/07):  Texas is embarking on a four-year plan to fingerprint and perform background checks on up to one million teachers, administrators, and other school employees.  Districts to be checked will receive only a two or three week notice so that prospective employees with dubious backgrounds do not seek out jobs in districts that are not scheduled for background checks in the near future.

St. Paul Program to Recruit Teachers from Professions
(Source:  The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 12/18/07):  St. Paul’s public school system has partnered with the New Teachers Project to launch St. Paul’s Teaching Fellows, a program that will recruit and train individuals from other professions to become science, math, ESL, and special education teachers.  The first round of new teachers must submit applications by January 22, and those chosen will begin intensive training in preparation for full-time teaching beginning next fall.

When the Bullies Turned Faceless
(Source:  The New York Times, 12/16/07):  The tragic suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier has turned the nation’s attention to the issue of “cyberbullying.”  In Ms. Meier’s case, a neighborhood mother created a MySpace page for a fictional boy who at first had an online relationship with Ms. Meier and then turned spitefully against her--a betrayal that prompted the teenager to hang herself.  Experts say that many teens (and, in some cases, adults) are not mature enough to handle the responsibilities and freedom of the Internet and cell phones.

Creation College Seeks State’s OK to Train Teachers
(Source:  The Dallas Morning News, 12/15/07):  The Institute for Creation Research, a non-profit that has recently relocated from San Diego to Dallas, is seeking permission from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to enroll Texas public school teachers in its masters of science education program.  A debate about the teaching of evolution is quickly growing in Texas in the aftermath of the state science director’s resignation under pressure (allegedly, because of her support for teaching evolution only) and in the lead-up to the state’s revision of its science curriculum.