Thomas B Fordham Institute - Advancing Educational Excellence

First Bell 4-4-13

yes Pamela Tatz / April 4, 2013

A first look at today's most important education news:

On Wednesday, the Mississippi House and Senate passed legislation providing $3 million to partially fund pre-K programs for four-year-olds. Today, the state Senate will consider a bill (passed by the state House yesterday) that would allow charters to open in low-performing districts and give school boards in high-performing school districts veto power. (Hechinger Ed and Charters & Choice)

Last autumn, Tennessee began to place its lowest-performing schools in a special state-run district; 80 percent of those bottom-ranked schools are in Memphis. (New York Times)

The Indiana House Education Committee considers a bill that would make it the first state to require all public schools to have an armed person with a loaded weapon on the school campus during school hours. (Huffington Post)

With the Atlanta school cheating scandal on the mind, NPR looks back at a similar scandal twenty-five years ago.

Leonie

» Continued

First Bell 4-4-13

First Bell 4-3-13

yes Pamela Tatz / April 3, 2013

A first look at today's most important education news:

Test-prep-focused “cram schools,” once the turf of Asian- and Russian-American students, are gaining popularity with other cultural groups. (New York Times)

Some Texas lawmakers are aiming to scale back the state’s high school graduation requirements. (Education Week)

AFT president Randi Weingarten attributed the standardized-test cheating scandal in Atlanta to “test-crazed” education policies. The drama continues. (Huffington Post and New York Times)

Studies find that students who have the most trouble in mathematics have the worst odds of obtaining a qualified math teacher. (Education Week)

According to Thomas Friedman, the most recent PISA report comparing U.S. middle-class students to global peers shows that the best schools have “cultures that believe anything is possible with any student” (New York Times)

U.S. Representative Eric Cantor argues that federal education aid should follow children, especially those of “vulnerable populations” and kids with special needs. (Politics K–12)

Malala Yousafzai, the fifteen-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban earlier this

» Continued

First Bell 4-3-13

First Bell 4-2-13

yes Pamela Tatz / April 2, 2013

A first look at today's most important education news:

The former schools chief in Atlanta and three-dozen others have been indicted for test fraud. (New York Times and Huffington Post)

The common-assessment consortia will undergo a federal technical-review process. (Curriculum Matters)

A new study finds that teachers who gesticulate as they explain equations can make mathematic concepts more concrete for students. (Inside School Research)

In states that have recently revamped teacher-evaluation policies, change still hasn’t come. (New York Times)

The Stuyvesant teacher whose computer-science program inspired New York City’s new Academy for Software Engineering claims he has been effectively “cut out of the school’s planning process.” (New York Times)

Hamas has issued a new education law requiring a more rigid separation of genders in Palestinian schools and barring relations with Israelis. (New York Times)

According to an analysis of the cost of teacher-evaluation policies, SLOs are the most expensive option for districts. (Teacher Beat)

» Continued

First Bell 4-2-13

First Bell 3-29-13

yes Pamela Tatz / March 29, 2013

A first look at today's most important education news:

Connecticut schools have begun to tighten graduation requirements in an effort to better prepare students for college. (New Haven Independent)

The Hechinger Report worries that a “Bring-Your-Own-Device” approach to educational technology, while cheaper for school districts, will lead to a “digital divide.”

Over fifty years since a federal judge ordered schools in Cleveland, Mississippi, to desegregate, the issue has returned to court. (Wall Street Journal)

After New York City relaxed its disciplinary policies, the number of public school students suspended fell by more than a third. Overall crime in the city’s schools dropped nearly 25 percent in the second half of 2012, as well. (Wall Street Journal)

A new report suggests that states could afford better-quality tests simply by reallocating the money they already spend on tests. (Curriculum Matters)

A federal appeals court has decided that a Kentucky school administrator’s search of a student’s text messages violated the student’s rights under the Fourth Amendment. (School Law)

According to a new longitudinal study, teenagers who are socially awkward at age thirteen continue

» Continued

First Bell 3-29-13