March 30, 2011
Despite its flaws, an increased focus on achievement among students with disabilities was one positive outcome of No Child Left Behind, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told members of Congress Wednesday. In testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Duncan said that for all of its shortcomings, No Child Left Behind did […]
March 30, 2011
ALBANY – State Senate Republicans are pushing a revised plan backed by Mayor Bloomberg to change the last in, first out law dictating teacher layoffs. The new version was included in a Senate GOP budget proposal introduced over the weekend. It is billed as a hybrid between the bill the Senate recently passed and an […]
March 30, 2011
As momentum for customized, online instruction grows, its supporters say the biggest obstacle to implementing more adaptive curricula and personalized approaches isn’t popular will, but state and local policies. Often those policies date from a time when phrases like "distance learning" and "blended approach" conjured images of a telegraph wire and a home economics course, […]
March 30, 2011
Three years of state budget cuts have widened the gap between schools in poor and wealthy communities while diminishing the quality of education in California overall, according to a report released Monday by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. "In 2011, California public schools struggle to provide all students with a quality education […]
March 30, 2011
Maryland’s school board will consider passing a regulation that would limit the time a school district can keep a student out of school waiting for a decision on the appeal of a suspension or expulsion. After a Fairfax County, Va., student committed suicide following a long suspension from school, the Maryland board asked state administrators […]
March 30, 2011
Jefferson City — The Senate debated a bill Monday night that would mean more money for Springfield-area schools, but two St. Louis County senators delayed it because their districts would get less. The bill by Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, would make changes to a complex formula that determines how much money each K-12 district receives […]
March 30, 2011
President Obama created a grant program to copy his block-by-block approach to ending poverty. The British government praised his charter schools as a model. And a new documentary opening across the country revolves around him: Geoffrey Canada, the magnetic Harlem Children’s Zone leader with strong ideas about how American education should be fixed. Last week, […]
March 30, 2011
Just as school districts had feared, Gov. Scott Walker’s biennial budget proposal would slash local school funding by hundreds of millions of dollars and prevent them from making it up with higher property taxes. Walker’s budget cuts state school aid by $834 million over the next biennium, a 7.9 percent decrease. That accounts for about […]
March 30, 2011
"What is ‘blaring?’" Emilio Sanchez asks his class of fourth graders during a reading lesson at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center. The children make a sound like a car horn and later discuss many other words they’re about to encounter. Students, and their teachers, have more time to work on such exercises because the San […]
March 30, 2011
SCHENECTADY — The teachers union is consideri ng concessions as part of its contract negotiations to avoid massive layoffs that could be part of the city district’s 2011-12 budget. Interim Superintendent John Yagelski is not disclosing budget details until Wednesday, when a draft plan will be presented to the Board of Education. State aid cuts […]