麻豆原创

School Funding Litigation/Policy

AZ legislators approve a $40.6 million funding boost to help about 138,000 students learn the English language, and hope to avoid court fines

NH schools “cut everything to the bone” to absorb more than $100 million in budget cuts that will likely be ordered by the state Legislature

KY education officials warn that the General Assembly’s spending plan may leave schools facing wide-ranging financial difficulties

NJ districts work hard to get voters to back their school budgets, now that new funding formula asks them to use a large portion of their aid to provide residents with tax relief

State Roundup

NE legislator signs a statewide testing bill into law, setting up a new level of accountability for schools

NY credit recovery program leads some to believe that certain students are “being pushed through the system regardless of whether they have done the work to earn their diploma”

Other News

Grassroots community organizing efforts to reform schools in urban districts contribute to a myriad of improvements, says report

Pre-K momentum seen in states that have lagged in implementing and funding preschool programs

In the News on April 10, 2008

School Funding Litigation/Policy

AR legislators are concerned about a state law that allows schools to spend funds earmarked to help low-income students on teacher salaries and bonuses

NYC and schools will receive new state aid; total school aid will increase by a record $1.75 billion

IA House passes legislation to distribute tax money for school construction projects on a per pupil basis

IA tax proposal would help provide financial equity among schools in sparsely populated areas and urban centers

SC school officials are unsure about how to handle the $30 million funding shortfall projected for this school year

State Roundup

AZ House of Representatives votes to spend $40 million next year to boost English-language instruction for non-native speakers, even though school districts with the most English-language learners would get little or none of the money

NY Schools Chancellor has plans to broaden the city’s new policy for admitting children to gifted programs

OR’s high school dropout rate increased in 2007, according to state report

SC Senate Education Committee approves bill to change standardized tests because results take too long to report and they don't let educators analyze topics where students are struggling

SC school choice bill stopped by lawmakers

Federal/NCLB

UT decides to opt out of pilot program that will allow states to change the way they treat struggling schools under NCLB

Other News

Young people's financial know-how has gone from bad to worse, concludes survey

In the News on April 9, 2008

School Funding Litigation/Policy

Every governor stressed the link between education funding and economic growth in their State of the State speeches, according to study

NH school funding bill is amended to reserve extra money for disadvantaged students

NJ reforms tighten school budgets; some districts see tax relief, others see layoffs

State Roundup

CA accord calls for special education students to take high school exit exam

CO’s effort to reduce the number of statewide achievement tests stalls amid resistance from the governor and the state education department

over ME school consolidation law is reawakened by governor’s veto and quick Senate vote

MI students improve in math section of assessment, but scores in reading performance show mixed results

NJ shows that preschool funding is a wise investment

NY lawmakers decide to bar student test scores from being considered when teacher tenure determinations are made

Editorial – NY’s latest decision to bar test scores from teacher tenure determination is an absurd ban that does a disservice to the state’s millions of public school students

Only about one-third of NYC students that were enrolled in the 1st grade in 1995 progressed to the 8th grade on time, says report

OH bill would require parents to volunteer in their school districts

Why is the process to revise WA’s math standards taking so long? Lawmakers and education officials say it’s because they have a lofty goal: to finish the process with the best math system in the country

Federal/NCLB

The number of students taking advantage of free tutoring and school choice under NCLB increased dramatically in 2003-2004, according to U.S. Department of Education

Other News

Smaller class size is not a silver bullet: Professor’s research says the success of class-size-reduction strategies depend largely on the context in which they are set

New center applies cost-benefit analysis to education strategies by calculating and comparing long- and short-term costs and payoffs

Report that questions the wisdom of federal pre-kindergarten proposals draws sharp response preschool proponent for being “incomplete, misleading, biased, and inaccurate”

Teacher union tries to prepare a new generation of local union leaders to be hands-on school reformers

Commentary – Addressing the teacher crunch: Reframing ‘retention’ to fit the needs of a new generation

School Funding Litigation/Policy

KY advocacy group says two-year spending plan approved by lawmakers will likely cause teacher layoffs across the state

MN legislative plan, the “Minnesota Miracle” aims to reform K-12 school funding

NJ legislators wonder whether they were duped by key bargaining chip in school funding formula - state aid to help local districts pay for high special education costs

State Roundup

Dual-enrollment programs are a hot debate in IA, and pushback for expansion is unusual

Graduation rate report uses numbers that were worse than what the KS and MO education departments have been reporting; transfer students compound the reporting problem

ME lawmakers approve bill to refine consolidation legislation, but governor vetoes it

NE lawmakers give final-round approval to a bill that would require uniform tests in reading, math and science - ending the state’s unique approach to testing

Changing NE’s unique way of measuring academic accountability for uniform statewide tests will have different impacts in different school districts

SC governor pushes for public school choice

In the news on April 7, 2008

MD and VA made adequate progress under NCLB last year, but they failed to meet performance targets for all groups of historically underperforming students

Editorial – “School choice: Now more than ever” – why Sol Stern’s, a veteran advocate of school choice, second thoughts about the movement warrant a response

School Funding Litigation/Policy

Lawsuit accuses IA governor and Education Department Director of failing to provide students with a proper education

MN legislative task force will unveil a plan today to change the funding system for public schools

UT continues to rank last nationally in the amount of money it spends per student; spokesman for the State Office of Education says it partially has to do with demographics

State Roundup

CA education agencies will study why high school seniors in special education classes often fail the exit exam, under terms of a legal settlement that will end a 7-year-old class-action lawsuit

DE could fall further in national rankings of high school graduation rates, with new formula

FL bill would cut the number of in-service hours in teaching English as a second language required of reading teachers

Demand for FL teachers is waning, and officials blame looming state budget cuts and declining enrollment tied to the economic slum

Private-school vouchers were dealt another defeat when FL panel failed to muster the votes for a proposal to restore vouchers for students in low-performing schools

MD school-choice supporters will likely win a sizable victory, with a bill that gives a tax credit to businesses who donate to scholarship funds for private schools

Published Monday, Apr. 14, 2008