October 8, 2010
For most students, school can be a bore, a spur to academic achievement or simply a place to hang out with pals. But for homeless students, especially teenagers known as “couch surfers,” who drift from friend’s sofa to friend’s sofa every night, it is something else. “When you’re neglected and your home life is miserable, […]
October 8, 2010
This year, the school day at some of the worst-performing Minneapolis Public Schools is an hour longer than it has been in the past. In terms of beating the achievement gap, will that extra hour make a difference? The answer, according to the educators who oversaw the change, is a resounding maybe. One of the […]
October 8, 2010
Budget cuts were the topic on everyone’s lips Thursday at an advocacy meeting for the Louisiana Assembly on School-Based Health Care, hosted by St. Francis Medical Center. With a projected $2 billion budget deficit creating a sense of uncertainty, Sen. Bob Kostelka and state Reps. Bubba Chaney, Sam Little, Kay Katz and Frank Hoffmann were […]
October 8, 2010
Special education services must be offered to students for extracurricular activities, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, in a case stemming from a complaint by the parents of a fifth-grader in the Centennial School District in Circle Pines. The court’s ruling upheld a decision by the state Department of Education in the matter. "All children […]
October 8, 2010
In a survey of Medicaid officials, states reported an average increase in Medicaid spending of 8.8 percent across all states in fiscal year 2010, the highest rate of growth in eight years and well above their original projections of 6.3 percent growth. Medicaid directors attributed the unexpected jump to higher-than-expected increases in eligible families due […]
October 7, 2010
California’s school funding system is broken, speakers said Wednesday night at a symposium at the University of Redlands. Since the 1990s, California has set standard requirements for what schools teach and test, but some funding formulas date to the 1950s and don’t take those requirements into account, said Deborah Caplan, an attorney who will make […]
October 7, 2010
When the state freeze on charter school tuition expired earlier this year, charter schools in the state were supposed to get thousands more dollars for every student they admitted. However, at least three public school districts, including Albany, are refusing to pay the higher amounts. Albany officials have been reimbursing schools at their former funding […]
October 7, 2010
Wisconsin is among 11 states winning a competitive federal grant to improve learning conditions for students through the Safe and Supportive Schools grant program. The $3.5 million award announced this week is for the first year of a four-year, $14 million project. The Department of Public Instruction will use the first-year funds to expand the […]
October 7, 2010
The Los Angeles teachers union is promising to challenge a proposed agreement that would change how teachers are laid off in the nation’s second-largest school district, while education experts hail it as a landmark that could pave the way for changes in urban districts across the nation. The settlement, which must be approved by a […]
October 7, 2010
New Orleans, where more than 70 percent of public schools will be independently chartered after this school year, has been placed on a pedestal as a shining model by education reformers. The new documentary Waiting for “Superman”, which hopes to serve as a call to arms for education reform, devotes a page of its Web […]