November 1, 2010
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) will continue to allocate $76 million in available federal funds to maintain essential mental health services for students with severe disabilities despite Governor Schwarzenegger’s unilateral suspension of mental health services for students and his line-item veto of $133 million […]
November 1, 2010
NEARLY EVERY major issue facing Boston’s public school system — educational quality, excess building capacity, parent satisfaction, staff morale, and budget challenges — ricocheted around the auditorium of English High School Tuesday night during a turbulent School Committee meeting. With so much stuff flying around, some people were bound to get hurt. Ostensibly, the meeting […]
November 1, 2010
School superintendents, early childhood education advocates and special education coordinators are calling for state administrators to maintain education funding in light of the state’s budget troubles. In the second of six planned public hearings, Illinois State Board of Education gathered last week in Springfield to gather suggestions as the state agency prepares its next budget. […]
November 1, 2010
The toll of California’s $17 billion slash in state public education funding over two years’ time has become obvious: Students are crammed into classrooms. Summer-school programs meant to give students a second chance are being trimmed or eliminated. More than 20,000 teachers across California received pink slips.& #x0D; Janitors, office assistants and aides have been […]
November 1, 2010
When the dust settles from the midterm elections, federal lawmakers—the re-elected and losers alike—will head back to Washington for a lame-duck session with a long to-do list that could have broad implications for education policy over the next year. Congress left town without finishing the U.S. Department of Education’s spending bill for fiscal 2011, which […]
November 1, 2010
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced today that students are showing incremental improvement on tests administered by the state and that 211 schools and 56 districts made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) this year that did not make it last year. However, despite the improvements students are making, more schools and districts are failing […]
November 1, 2010
New recommendations on how to narrow the state’s gaping achievement gap met with cautious approval among local education leaders, but concerns remain about the cost of implementing reforms. The governor-appointed Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement last week released a long list of recommendations for how the state can begin to close the achievement gap between […]
November 1, 2010
The central Wisconsin village of Marathon City (population 1,085) knows something about global competition that eludes many Americans: In a world of global trade, a second language can be a surefire ticket to a career. The school district there began offering Chinese-language classes in 2005, in a town that boasts Wisconsin’s oldest trade ties with […]
October 29, 2010
Richland schools will not be able to maintain current student achievement levels in the coming years, a district official warns. The reason is that special intervention programs face dramatic financial cuts. The programs help the district keep up its test results even as it has faced an influx of ill-prepared students. Erich Bolz, assistant superintendent […]
October 29, 2010
School integration has vexed policymakers for more than half a century. The Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that schools can’t keep kids out based on race. Then in 2007 it ruled that schools can’t bring kids together based on race. After the court struck down two race-based integration schemes in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., attention […]