EDUCATION & EQUITY NEWS    

NATIONAL

Schools Help Kids Learn to Fight Bullies
The Chicago Tribune, January 24, 2002

Around the country, more school districts are combating bullying with a seemingly contradictory blend of pacifism and power by endorsing self-defense courses, even hosting after-school classes or assemblies.

Click on Progress
The Boston Globe, January 25, 2002

Teachers in several New England schools are experimenting with electronic portfolios and computerized report cards to track student performance.

MARYLAND

MSPAP Scores Fall As Pupils' Success Appears to Plateau
The Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2002

For the second time in three years, Maryland's public school pupils slipped on the state's mandatory annual exams, indicating that their achievement has stagnated since 1997.

City MSPAP Scores Up For Fifth Straight Year
The Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2002

The Baltimore school system continued its slow but steady progress on state tests last year, posting its fifth straight increase and outgaining every other jurisdiction except one in Maryland.

Arundel Officials Puzzled As MSPAP Scores Decline
The Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2001

Anne Arundel County schools lost ground on state test scores this past year, with third-graders declining in all subject areas -- a discouraging sign officials were at a loss to explain.

3rd Straight Decline Drops Harford to 4th Place in State
The Baltimore Sun, January 29, 2002

Harford County slipped from third to fourth place in statewide MSPAP rankings, a year after the county's schools superintendent warned that the system could face declines.

City Plans to Cut Staff
The Baltimore Sun, January 28, 2002

The Baltimore school system has laid off between 50 and 60 temporary workers and plans to lay off permanent administrative staff as part of an effort to eliminate a projected $4.5 million deficit.

MSPAP Criticized During Forum in Eldersburg
The Baltimore Sun, January 27, 2002

Most of the 40 people who attended a public forum on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program - or MSPAP - criticized the mandatory pupil testing, raising concerns about the lengthy testing, lack of individual scoring and secrecy surrounding the results.

Board Cuts Metts's Contract-Signing Power to $5,000
The Washington Post, January 26, 2002

The Prince George's County Board of Education has voted to prohibit Superintendent Iris T. Metts from signing contracts without its approval, a decision that Metts said would prevent her from doing her job and that buoyed state legislators' calls to restructure the school board.

Prince George's Parents at Odds Over School Zones
The Washington Post, January 25, 2002

The Prince George's County school board has voted to redraw attendance zones for more than 60 schools and 7,000 students, a decision that will let the school system open seven new schools and end nearly 30 years of forced cross-county busing.

PENNSYLVANIA

31 Companies Seek Share of Philadelphia Schools Contract
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26, 2002

31 companies, nonprofit organizations, and universities responded to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission's "request for qualifications" for 22 consulting services by last Friday''s 5 p.m. deadline.

Teachers to Vote on Edison Contract
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 29, 2002

Teachers in the Chester Upland School District have begun voting on a proposed contract with Edison Schools Inc. that would install a merit-pay system for some educators and allow up to 10 percent of them to remain permanently noncertified.

Schools Spat, Part Two
Philadelphia Daily News, January 24, 2002

Parents are being ignored, and much opposition remains to a plan to let for-profit companies and community groups run schools. Those were the messages delivered by education advocates at the first meeting of the full School Reform Commission.

WASHINGTON, DC METRO AREA

4,500 D.C. Students Locked Out
The Washington Post, January 29, 2002

About 4,500 District public school students were kept out of classes Tuesday morning because they lacked proof of immunization, but about one-third of them had complied with the rules by the afternoon, health officials said.

SPECIAL ARTICLES & REPORTS

GEDs Aren’t Worth the Paper They’re Printed On
City Journal, Winter 2002

Keeping Jobs and Raising Low-Income
Families in America: It Just Doesn't Work
Radcliffe Public Policy Center, 2002

Teaching America: The New Education Bill
Promises a Lot. Will it deliver? Stay Tuned . . .
U.S. News & World Report, January 28, 2002

WEBSITES AND LINKS

CivilRights.org

An organization/website whose mission is to "empower the civil rights community to lead the fight for equality and social justice in the emerging digital society through the establish of an online social justice network."

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