EDUCATION & EQUITY NEWS    

NATIONAL

Deal Is Nearer on Education Overhaul Key
The Washington Post, November 1, 2001

Vowing to complete action on education legislation this year, House and Senate negotiators have resolved several disputes over contentious social issues by agreeing to protect Boy Scouts' access to public schools and to give students a limited right to pray on school grounds.

Lessons From School Takeovers: Big
Change at Districts, Less So in Classrooms
The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 4, 2001

Since 1988, beginning with New Jersey's seizure of the Jersey City district 18 states have taken full or partial control of 40 public school districts, including Chester-Upland in Delaware County and Harrisburg. The evidence shows that while state takeover of a school system has been an effective tool at rooting out mismanagement, balancing out-of-whack budgets, restoring crumbling buildings, and filling supply-room shelves, it rarely has had more than middling success at what counts most: higher student achievement.

Nation's Schools Experience Drop in
Crime and Victimization According to the Departments of Justice and Education
U.S. Department of Education, October 31, 2001

According to a new report issued today by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, violent victimization rates at schools generally declined from 48 crimes per 1,000 students ages 12 through 18 to 33 per 1,000 students.

Schools Take First Step in Eliminating Grades
The Buffalo News, November 5, 2001

In a radical method of measuring student performance, the Niagara Falls School District is moving toward eliminating grades. Report cards will show a list of specific skills in those subject areas and indications of whether their child mastered the skills. Eventually, the district plans to do away with grade levels altogether, so there no longer would be a first, second or third grade. Students of different ages would work together at their own rate.

House Approves Bills
Intended to Curb Ritalin Use
The Detroit News, November 1, 2001

The Michigan State House of Representatives has voted for legislation that would prohibit teachers from recommending psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin for children.

Linking Poor Performance
to Working After School
The New York Times, October 31, 2001

The Third International Mathematics and Science Survey, where low exam scores of American students stir such great concern, found that 55 percent of American 12th graders work three hours or more on a normal school day. The proportion for other nations is 18 percent, on average.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

D.C. School Central Offices To Cut 200
The Washington Post, November 4, 2001

About 200 D.C. school administrative officials will lose their jobs in the coming months as part of a reorganization effort by Superintendent Paul L. Vance.

D.C. Schools Hire Firm To Verify Deficit
The Washington Post, November 1, 2001

The D.C. Board of Education voted yesterday to hire a private law firm to investigate claims by city and school finance officers that the school system ran a deficit of $80 million last fiscal year.

MARYLAND

MSPAP Passes Test By California Researchers
The Washington Post, November 1, 2001

A recent study by the California-based research company SRI International says the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program is an "exemplary state assessment" that does a good job of testing reading and writing. Nevertheless, it also reported that the MSPAP tests need some updating and fine-tuning.

Schools Financing Formula Decided
The Baltimore Sun, November 2, 2001

The task force charged with overhauling Maryland's system of school financing voted for a new spending formula that would increase state aid to public schools by $1.1 billion a year. Under the plan, Maryland's contribution to local systems would be set at $5,969 per student, and the state would then give systems extra money for special education students, those who don't speak English as a first language and children who live in poverty.  (See also: Schools Panel Urges Increase In Md. Funds, The Baltimore Sun, November 2, 2001.)

Link: Maryland Assessment Research
Center for Educational Success (marces.org)

A project of the Department of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, MARCES provides support to the range of assessment activities in the State, the region and nation by conducting basic and applied research to enhance the quality of assessment practice and knowledge."

PENNSYLVANIA

Philadelphia's Schools to Be
Privately Run Under Pa. Plan
The Washington Post, November 6, 2001

The state of Pennsylvania intends to take control of this city's troubled public schools within a month, privatize the district's top jobs and place the daily operations of the city's worst schools in the hands of church, business and other community groups.

Board Cites 'Risk' in Schools Proposal
The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 6, 2001

Philadelphia's Board of Education yesterday skewered Gov. Schweiker and Edison Schools Inc. for their plan to overhaul city schools, accusing them of inaccuracies, unrealistic projections and "undue risk." (See also: Schools CEO Wary of Guv's Edison Plan, Philadelphia Daily News, November 6, 2001.)

Edison Offers to Bus Foes to See Its Schools
The Philadelphia Daily News, November 5, 2001

Edison Schools Inc., the for-profit company poised to win the job of managing the schools after a state takeover, is organizing three bus trips to its schools in Washington, Baltimore and Chester-Upland, in Delaware County in an effort to show its opponents and skeptics that its work produces positive results.  (See also: In Baltimore, Edison Fixes Schools While Facing Critics, The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 5, 2001.)

Edison CEO Wants Multiyear Pact
The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2, 2001

The chief executive officer of Edison Schools Inc. says he will seek a five- to seven-year contract to manage Philadelphia's public schools - a job that the governor and his aides acknowledge the firm is almost certain to get if the state takes over.  (See also: Gov. Schweiker Hawks Takeover Plan, Philadelphia Daily News, November 2, 2001)

Street: Schools Proposal is 'Flawed'
The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 1, 2001

Mayor Street strongly disapproves of Gov. Schweiker's proposal to put the Philadelphia School District under private management, saying the "process was flawed in a serious way."(See also: Mayor Calls Guv's School Plan 'Fantasyland', Philadelphia Daily News, November 1, 2001.)

SPECIAL ARTICLES & REPORTS

Bush's Big Test: The President's
Education Bill Is a Disaster in the
Making. Here's How He Can Fix It
The Washington Monthly, November 2001

Changing How and What Children Learn
in School with Computer-Based Technologies
The Future of Children, Fall/Winter 2000

Choosing Content That's Worth Knowing
Educational Leadership, October 2001

Incomplete Picture of Poverty
in the U.S., Researchers Find
Northwestern University/University of
Chicago Joint Center For Poverty Research ,
September 24, 2001

Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2001
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001

Leading Learning Communities (pdf file)
National Association of Elementary School Principals, October 29, 2001

The Nonprofit Contribution to Civic
Participation and Advocacy (pdf file)
The Aspen Institute, Fall 2000

The Nonprofit Sector and Business: New Visions, New Opportunities, New Challenges (pdf file)
The Aspen Institute, Summer 2001

Promising Practices and Organizational
Challenges in Community Technology Centers
Center for Technology in Learning, May 2000

WEBSITES & LINKS

The Aspen Institute
(www.aspeninstitute.org)

A non-profit organization that provides "a global forum for leveraging the power of leaders to improve the human condition."

Center for Technology in Learning
(www.sri.com/policy/ctl)

A public policy center that focuses on how to effectively use technologies to support learning.

Teachers.Net
(www.teachers.net )

A comprehensive website for teachers that has chatrooms, lesson plans, job listings, news columns and other resources.

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