Our weekly roundup of the week’s most important news, information and blog posts about curriculum, teaching, education policy and other items of interest to the Core Knowledge community.
Core Knowledge
All Roads Lead to Early Childhood Ed
Want to know who will have the toughest time passing high school exit exams? Look at 4th grade test scores, grades and classroom behavior.
June: National Social Promotion Month?
Is social promotion happening in your school?
A Hippocratic Oath for Teachers?
Do we need a Hippocratic Oath for teachers?
O’Connor: NCLB Has Squeezed Civics Off the Curriculum
Sandra Day O’Connor says one unintended effect of the No Child Left Behind Act, is that it has effectively squeezed out civics education
Best of the Blogs
Still a Bobo in Paradise at Eduwonkette
At least half of the achievement gap that exists between black and white students cannot possibly be attributed to the K-12 schools.
A Dopier Approach to Education at D-Ed Reckoning
There’s nothing bigger or bolder about the “Broader, Bolder Approach to Education.” It’s the same old meme Rothstein and his ilk has been peddling for decades. The only thing that has changed is the packaging.
McCain Adviser: NCLB is Adequately Funded at Campaign K-12
John McCain education plan will likely not include additional funding for NCLB and will not direct Title I money toward private school vouchers.
100% Bull$#!% at Swift and Change Able
Two weeks ago, the Center for Education Policy published what we have come to refer to here at Swift & Change Able as “The Little Study That Cried Wolf”
What Sharpton and Klein forgot to ask at AFT NCLBlog
Apparently, Ed in ‘08, which has had little impact despite its 60 gazillion dollar budget, has been reincarnated as the Educational Equality Project (EEP). The “two” programs seem to have the same funders, a lot of the same players, and similar goals.
School of hate at Joanne Jacobs
Students at Islamic Saudi Academy, a Saudi-funded private school in northern Virginia, learn from Saudi textbooks that it’s OK for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam.
Teaching and Curriculum
Peer Review System for Teachers Spreads
National Public Radio
The teachers’ union in Toledo, Ohio, has spearheaded a controversial policy to purge the school district of incompetent teachers. It’s called “peer review” and no school system in the country has been doing it longer than Toledo.
Board-certified teachers boost student scores
USA Today
Students taught by educators certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards make bigger gains on standardized tests than students taught by other teachers a report finds.
Accelerated Math Adds Up To a Division Over Merits
The Washington Post
Montgomery County, Maryland is known for demanding parents, but its school districts math push has generated an unexpected backlash. Many parents say children are pushed too far, too fast.
Asian Americans’ academic success misleading, report says
Los Angeles Times
The success of some Asian American and Pacific Islander college students has given rise to a myth of the “model minority” that obscures important differences within a diverse population whose educational needs are often neglected
Teachers Want Better Tech Training and Support
eSchool News
After more than decade of investment in school technology, educators say they still don’t feel adequately prepared to integrate instructional software into their classrooms according to a joint study by the nation’s two largest teacher unions.
Education Policy
Standing Up for the Children
The Washington Post
Joel Klein and Al Sharpton are co-chairmen of a new national effort to push education issues from the periphery to the center of the 2008 presidential campaign. The Education Equity Project sees the failure of schools to educate black and Latino children as the overriding civil rights issue of the 21st century.
Mandated Tutoring Not Helping Test Scores
The Washington Post
Free tutoring that NCLB prescribes to help students at struggling schools has yielded little or no positive effect on student test scores in Virginia, Maryland and several other states, according to early evaluations.
Bush Loyalist Fights Foes of ‘No Child’ Law
The New York Times
Margaret Spellings is not running for office. But in the waning days of the Bush presidency, she is running one last campaign, to save No Child Left Behind.
2008 Enrollment In U.S. Expected To Set Record
The Washington Post
Public school enrollment across the country will hit a record high this year with just under 50 million students, and the student population is becoming more diverse in large part because of growth in the Latino population.
Homeschooling and Parenting
Home-Schooled Girl Denied Scholarship
WSMV-TV/Nashville
A girl who had the grades and the ACT scores was recently denied a scholarship to Middle Tennessee State University because she is home-schooled.
Seeking a few good men
The Baltimore Sun
At root, children need a loving home, but experts say that foster fathers, in particular, may offer children something that mothers can’t necessarily provide.
Colleges take different tack with home-schooled students
Redwood City News
Just because a home-schooled applicant’s transcript may carry less weight than that of a traditional high school student, home-schooled applicants’ transcripts are still important.
More Problems for Home-Schoolers in Germany
The Washington Times
In Germany, homeschool families continue to be aggressively pursued by school authorities and youth welfare officials.
Et Alia
Somber Students Outperform Cheerful Students
A study in the June issue of the journal Developmental Science found that children who feel happy don’t do as well on tasks that require precision as their peers who are sad or have neutral feelings.
‘Rewired’ brains help children read better
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
An intensive reading program conducted three years ago in 50 Allegheny County schools permanently “rewired” the brains of dyslexic children, Carnegie Mellon University researchers say.
Worrisome Rise in Underweight Babies
The Associated Press
The percentage of underweight babies born in the U.S. has increased to its highest rate in 40 years, according to a new report that also documents a recent rise in the number of children living in poverty.
A Half-Century of Serving, And Not Just Hot Lunches
The Washington Post
Helen Cook, 84, is still serving lunch to Lincoln Elementary students. This year marks her 50th year of service at the Purcellville, Virginia school. To honor that milestone, students and teachers surprised her with a special assembly Monday. A boxwood garden in front of Lincoln also has been dedicated in her honor.
Recent Comments