October 25, 2010
While San Francisco schools have been squeezing every dime out of their dwindling budgets, the city’s school board has increased its own budget each of the past four years, spending more on travel to conferences, taking taxis around the city and paying for a board member’s babysitter . All told, the board has increased spending […]
October 25, 2010
School districts that heeded the state’s warning against spending a federal windfall that arrived in August will largely be spared the pain of Gov. Bill Ritter’s latest round of budget cuts, announced on Friday. Those districts that already have spent their share of $156.3 million that came Colorado’s way from the Federal Education Jobs Fund […]
October 25, 2010
Mark Barrett, the 37-year-old chef at Henry’s Restaurant on the Upper West Side, has big ambitions for the $20,000 Hobart food mixer that sits, unused, in the kitchen of DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. “Instead of serving frozen pizza out of a box, they could be making their own dough,” Mr. Barrett suggested […]
October 25, 2010
In southwest Houston, students in Parker Elementary’s special magnet program learn to play instruments from professionals. They get group lessons daily and private lessons weekly. Pop star Beyoncé Knowles got her start there. The Houston school district gives Parker about $670 per student to run the music program, which is so popular it draws a […]
October 25, 2010
The elimination of a $133 million state mental health program violates the federal rights of more than 20,000 special education students across California, a class-action lawsuit filed Friday against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and governmental agencies said. The lawsuit alleges the state violated the Individuals with Disabilities Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act by cutting […]
October 25, 2010
School districts around the state are grappling with how to help growing populations of homeless students, even as budget cuts further slash their ability to meet their federal obligation to do so. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, school districts are required to identify and report homeless students and to guarantee those students transportation so they […]
October 25, 2010
The formal lesson in Crystal Darensbourg’s senior English class at the former Shawnee High School one recent morning was about distinguishing personal narratives, personal essays, and memoirs, but a life lesson was also in store for her students. &# x0D; The assignment: Students had to write about a fear and their efforts to overcome it. […]
October 22, 2010
Steve Richert spends beautiful fall days talking to his former students, assessing their needs and making sure their transition to their new schools are as smooth as possible, but the process is one of the most painful he’s endured. "Having been reared in this community, it was a very difficult situation for me to contemplate […]
October 22, 2010
The New York City school system agreed Thursday to delay releasing teacher effectiveness ratings based on student test scores until after a court hearing in late November. The nation’s largest school district announced plans earlier this week to give several media groups "value-added" scores and other data for nearly 12,000 teachers. The teachers union filed […]
October 22, 2010
A state audit to determine whether public charter school students are receiving nutritional meals on campus could not be fully completed because government databases are not reliable or detailed enough, officials said Thursday. Although the report found that many California charter schools provide meals to their students, state auditor Elaine Howle said it was not […]