April 15, 2011
Houston Independent is set to become one of a handful of Texas school districts to move away from the state-approved method of teacher evaluation. Its teachers unions are threatening a lawsuit if the change goes through, chron.com reports. The new plan will require four classroom visits by an appraiser who will then share feedback and […]
April 15, 2011
The Chicago Teachers Union jabbed at Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on Thursday over education reforms pending in Springfield, a sign that upcoming talks on a new contract might not be easy. The changes would require that 75 percent of union members approve a strike and allow Chicago Public Schools leaders to lengthen the time kids are […]
April 15, 2011
A plan to expand school choice by creating education savings accounts — dubbed by some as “vouchers for all” — won a favorable vote from the Florida Senate’s education committee this morning. The education savings account would be a pot of public-school money that parents could use to pay for private school, homeschooling services or […]
April 15, 2011
EAST ST. LOUIS • The Illinois State Board of Education has laid the groundwork to remove all responsibilities from the board that oversees the East St. Louis School District. By late May, the district’s School Board must agree to an arrangement that would strip it of financial decisions and any influence in the hiring of […]
April 15, 2011
DETROIT — The emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools put teachers on notice Thursday that he plans to use his expanded powers under a new state law to modify their contracts. “I fully intend to use the authority that was granted,” Robert Bobb said, referring to a new law that gives emergency managers the […]
April 14, 2011
WASHINGTON — President Obama made the case Wednesday for slowing the rapid growth of the national debt while retaining core Democratic values, proposing a mix of long-term spending cuts, tax increases and changes to social welfare programs as his opening position in a fierce partisan budge t battle over the nation’s fiscal challenges. After spending […]
April 14, 2011
Facing a deficit of $408 million for the 2011-12 school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District is considering an emergency plan that would require all employees to take 12 furlough days in the coming year and might also cut the school calendar by up to one week, the Daily News Los Angeles reports. The […]
April 14, 2011
Teach for America, a group that has been a major source of young instructors for New Orleans schools since Hurricane Katrina, is breathing a little bit more easily this week, having just gotten word that it might be able to blunt the impact of potentially devastating cuts in aid from Washington. Until Tuesday, when new […]
April 14, 2011
After 13 months of meetings, a council tasked with narrowing the definition of an effective educator to one for the entire state is presenting the definition to the State Board of Education today. It is not a simple definition, though. It consists of six quality standards, including showing knowledge of the content they teach, demonstrating […]
April 13, 2011
In his sixth State of the City address Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will turn his sights to education and call for throwing out the telephone-book sized teachers contract as a fundamental strategy for reforming the state’s largest public school system. The result, he argues, will be more freedom for teachers, higher pay for […]