“Almost 300,000 reading and math tests taken by Illinois students in 2006 weren’t counted because the state relaxed a rule under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, allowing some schools to dodge a warning they were failing. The tests most likely to be discounted were low-income and minority students, The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday. […]
“Concern over global warming has more U.S. college students looking into careers in alternative energy, leading U.S. universities to add new courses on clean energy technologies and the environment. ‘Students see an opportunity for challenging jobs and a way to do some good for the planet,’ Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of […]
“A referendum wouldn’t stop school vouchers in Utah, but it may weaken vouchers’ chances of surviving a constitutional challenge, according to a legal opinion from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff released Tuesday. The opinion said a second law passed earlier this year amending the state’s original voucher law could stand on its own, allowing the […]
“More than 200 of the Los Angeles region’s top civic and business officials — many of them adversaries back home — delivered a unified civic message and pleas for more dollars to members of Congress and federal bureaucrats today. The delegation sought funding for gang intervention programs, port security, education and affordable housing. ‘All of […]
“State Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak has called for changes in the federal No Child Left Behind Act to provide more money and flexibility. ‘We continue to support the fundamental purpose of No Child Left Behind, which is to ensure that every student has mastered essential skills by the time they graduate and also to raise […]
“Edupundits have chosen very complex subject matter for their investigations and reports. They study and write about dropouts, vouchers, textbooks, teacher selection and training, school governance, budgets, curricula in all subjects, union contracts, school management issues, and many many more. Meanwhile, practically all of them fail to give any attention to the basic purpose of […]
“No one makes a better argument for why charter schools should exist than the very person who leads the state in opposing them. State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago), vice-chairperson of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, wants to limit charter school growth. She filed legislation that would effectively halt Chicago’s plans, already in the […]
“Now they’re getting somewhere. The Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee’s failure to recommend a credible school administration reform plan was beyond irresponsible. Fortunately for taxpayers and students alike, members of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee appear to be made of stiffer stuff. That’s a good thing: Gov. Baldacci has already penciled the $250 […]
“The latest report card on school achievement provides further evidence that we need to change our education funding policy. The current court- imposed policy is based upon a flawed premise that throwing money at a problem will necessarily lead to a solution. However, the report — and history — reveal the contrary. That being the […]
“Leaders of the Detroit Public Schools have mainly themselves to blame for the welcome mat that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick plans to extend to charter and private schools to open in the city. The district has lacked vision and credibility for so long, it has become as much an obstacle to a real Detroit renaissance as […]
