Education News: October 31, 2008

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending October 31, 2008.

New Study Suggests Parents May Be Key to Lowering Dropout Rates
(Christian Science Monitor, October 27, 2008)  Refuting the claim that many parents don’t value their child’s education, or don’t want to be bothered about it, a new study found that only 43% of parents of students in low-performing schools felt that the school had done a fairly good job at communicating with them regarding their child’s academic progress.  Compare this to the 83% of parents of students in high-performing who reported their child’s school did a fairly or very good job in the same task.  The report was done by Civic Enterprises, a public-policy firm in Washington.  The study aimed to get past the traditional finger pointing between the schools and parents, and to try to figure out the best solution.

Teachers Overcome Language Barriers in Various Ways in Denver Schools
(Denver Post, October 27th, 2008)  The Aurora Public School district in Colorado is made up of 32,000 students who come from 105 different countries and speak 84 different languages.  To overcome these obstacles in the classroom, teachers resort to a myriad of techniques to interact with students who may not understand English, the language most of the lessons are taught in.  When 64% of the students do not speak English as their primary language, teachers must focus on vocabulary, gestures and visuals to educate.  In Denver public schools, where 124 languages are spoken, “newcomer centers” are used to help prepare students.  Students are still encouraged to practice their native language, as literacy in one language often translates to success in another.

New Federal Law Deals with Dropout Rates
(USA Today, October 28, 2008)  New regulations were announced Tuesday by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings requiring schools to track and improve the graduation rates for all classifications of students.  The law represents an attempt to extend No Child Left Behind, which has typically been focused on grades three through eight, to the high school grades.  The new law will create uniformity across states for tracking dropouts, transfers and graduates, and also implemented improvement goals which must be met by 2012 for minority and disabled students.

Sharp Increase in Tuition Expected in Response to Economy
(Washington Post, October 30th, 2008)  A survey of tuition fees across the country, done by The College Board, showed only modest gains in tuition for most schools and even a decline in tuition amongst community colleges when adjusting for inflation.  The gains may be short lived, however, as experts say that the recent economic conditions are likely to precipitate a sharp spike in tuition.  The hike will likely occur due to shrinking endowments for private universities, and shrinking appropriations for public colleges whose states are struggling just to balance the budget.

Low-Performing Schools Receive Special Attention in Cleveland
(Plain Dealer, October 30th, 2008)  After years of failure, Cleveland’s ten lowest performing elementary schools with be given extra resources to improve.  If these turnaround schools, as they are being called, don’t show signs of improvement, the district could replace the whole staff and start fresh.  The additional resources will be in the form retired principals and teachers as mentors, training, security, social services, parent counseling and extra curricular activities.  Similar programs have been employed elsewhere and appear to be successful.

New Federal Program Provides Funds to Fight Obesity and Malnutrition
(San Francisco Chronicle, October 30th, 2008)  A new federal program, called The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, provides money for schools to provide the healthy food that experts say is required to fight obesity, malnutrition and attendant ills.  The program had its kickoff event at Will Rogers Learning Community, and is expected to expand to another 180 schools throughout the state by the end of the year.  The 2008 federal farm bill expanded the program to all fifty states, currently providing nearly $49 million.  To qualify, over half of a school’s students must be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.  Schools have the power to decide what produce to buy, where to buy it or how to dispense it.

Boston Public School Superintendents Call for School Choice Reform
(Boston Globe, October 30th, 2008)  In the face of tightening state funding, many school superintendents are clamoring for School Choice reform regarding funding for charter schools who continue to take money away as a growing number of students enroll in charter schools and other alternatives.  Looking at their shrinking budgets, superintendents see the millions of dollars flowing out of their schools resulting from school choice, following students who no longer attend their schools.  While most educators at public schools see the benefits of School Choice, they can’t reconcile them with the amount of money that their schools are now losing.  Proponents of charter schools claim that instead of changing the law, public schools should study the charter schools methods for success.

Want more information on School Choice?  Check out TeachersCount’s School Choice page at http://teacherscount.org/issues/choice/index.shtml.