Education News: January 9, 2009

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending January 9, 2009.

Court Blocks California’s Algebra Requirement
(San Francisco Chronicle, December 20, 2008)  Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang issued a preliminary ruling that against California’s new state policy to test all 8th graders in Algebra, which essentially requires all students to take Algebra before that point.  The hearing pitted state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell against the California Board of Education.  O’Connell’s argument against the school board’s policy was that the board didn’t give enough public notice before its vote, stepping outside its legal authority.  The preliminary injunction keeps the policy from being enforced while the case proceeds, which, if passed, will be enforced in three years.  While his argument was based on technicalities, O’Connell’s deeper opposition is that schools need more funding if they are expected to successfully put the policy into effect.  Currently, only 50% of eighth-graders in California take algebra, with less than half of those proficient or above on standardized tests. The state Board of Ed. President Ted Mitchell plans to appeal the ruling.

New SAT Policy Allows Students to Choose Which Grades are Sent
(New York Times, December 30, 2008)  The new SAT policy called Score Choice will allow students to decide which scores are sent to colleges, while hiding the ones they don’t want colleges to see.  Students will be able, at no extra fee, to choose their best overall SAT score to send to colleges, but will not be able to mix and match from different test dates.  The College Board’s goal with this new policy is to reduce stress surrounding the SATs and college admissions.  Some argue that this is merely a marketing tool which encourages students to take the test more often, and others say that it will just add to the testing frenzy.  Score Choice existed from 1993-2002, allowing students to take SAT II subject tests as many times as they wanted and only send the best scores.  The policy was done away with because students who didn’t release their scores in time were missing admissions deadlines and the belief that it wasn’t fair to minority students.  Several top tier schools have already stated that they will still want to see all scores because their practice is to combine the best subscores from each report.  The SATs rival, the ACT, has a similar policy.

New Jersey’s Vaccination Requirement Tested As Students Return to Schools
(New York Times, January 2, 2009)  New Jersey’s state law requiring every child from six months to five years old who attends licensed pre-school and child care centers to receive flu vaccinations will be tested as children return to school after winter vacation.  The state set a December 31 deadline for the vaccinations, as part of a new policy requiring a total of four immunizations.  If a child has not received the vaccination, he or she is to be excluded from the attending class, unless a parent can provide proof that the vaccination will be administered within two weeks.  The state relies on the schools, preschools and daycare centers to collect immunization records, pass them on to the state, and enforce any penalties.  The law was passed with support of health officials and pediatricians as a positive method toward preventing flu outbreaks in schools, despite some parents’ oppositions to vaccinations as a cause of autism. 

New Civilian Service Academy to Offer Education for Government Service
(New York Times, January 6, 2009)  The creation of a Public Service Academy is growing in popularity, with the notion that it will provide a free four year education in exchange for five years of government civilian service.  The school, which is being promoted by Chris Myers Asch, who formerly worked at a Mississippi after-school program, has been endorsements by vice-president elect Joe Biden, and incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel.  Asch argues that American culture derides public service, and as a result, the best and brightest join the nonprofit world while our nation’s bureaucracy suffers.  Supporters of the school point to a better bureaucratic workforce and additional prestige that will be given to government jobs.  Those who oppose argue that the cost is too high, the school won’t be able to compete, and the school does not address the actual problems which prohibit better candidates from entering into civil service, such as wage and seniority.

Budget Crunch Causes College Board to Cut AP Italian
(Washington Post, January 8, 2009)  The College Board has announced its plan to cut AP Italian for the 2009-10 school year.  In March, the nonprofit organization decided to eliminate 3 of their 37 AP courses and stated that Italian would be cut as well if additional donors did not step forward to save the failing course, as it had consistently lost money.  The Italian language foundation raised only $650,000 in commitments which did not meet the requested $1.5 million.

California Schools Could Lose 5 Days of State Funding in Face of Budget Cuts
(Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2009)  A new proposal by Governor Schwarzenegger would cut the existing 180-day school in California by 5-days of state funded education.  The proposal would save $1.1 billion at a time when California’s budget really needs it.  Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell argues that this would particularly affect poor and minority students because their districts will probably not have the money to pay the monetary difference for those five days.  Parents worry both about the lack of education that their children would be getting as well as additional child care costs they would incur.  The cut would be in place of closing schools, firing teachers, and cutting extra curricular activities.

Advisory Committee in San Francisco to Study Why African Americans Lag Behind
(San Francisco Chronicle, January 9, 2009)  On Wednesday, January 7, the California state Board of Ed. voted unanimously to create an “African American Advisory Committee” to find out why black students lag behind their peers.  The committee’s creation has met with strong praise and harsh criticism.  While there is a need to bridge the achievement gap, some wonder why African Americans are being focused on when Latinos and Pacific Islanders also find themselves struggling to catch up.  The committee’s name implies that the achievement gap is a “black problem” when there are many other factors such as poverty and low education levels of parents.  African Americans are the lowest scorers, however, and more than one third drop out of school.  The idea for the committee comes out of the fact that many options have been explored with little success.  This leaves everyone wondering what is really causing the problem.