On Wednesday, January 11 at noon, the Maryland General Assembly convened for its 90 day session.  For the first time in a long time, education will not be at the top of legislator’s list of critical issues – at least at the beginning of the session. Some of the hot topics for 2012 [...]]]>

(Photo: Washington Post)

On Wednesday, January 11 at noon, the Maryland General Assembly convened for its 90 day session.  For the first time in a long time, education will not be at the top of legislator’s list of critical issues – at least at the beginning of the session. Some of the hot topics for 2012 will be the gas tax, same sex marriage, flush tax, gambling expansion, off-shore wind,  and of course, legislative redistricting.

We posted a previous list of education-related bills that we thought our SOEtalk readers would be interested in. We have decided to add a few more to that list. SOEtalk will keep readers informed on education-related bills as they are introduced and scheduled for hearing. We encourage all interested readers to follow those issues they care about and let their elected officials hear your opinions.

We have heard from Senator Bill Ferguson, an SOE alumni, and Delegate Sandy Rosenberg, who are sponsoring legislation to provide universal preK in Maryland. Currently, preK education is offered to low-income students. The service would be funded with some of the revenue from slots machines. At this point, no hearing date has been scheduled.  We encourage readers to let us know of bills they would like us to follow.

House Bills:

HB 1110 Public Schools – Dating Violence – Kristen Marie Mitchell Law

Adding dating violence to provisions of law requiring the reporting of incidents of specified conduct by a county board of education; altering the content of a specified form and report, policies, and educational programs to include incidents of dating violence; requiring the State Board of Education to develop, by a specified date, a model policy that includes a prohibition on dating violence; altering the date by which each county board is required to submit a specified policy to the State Superintendent of Schools; etc.

The First Hearing was on February 10, with the Ways and Means Committee, and the Hearing will be held on February 22.

HB 1212 Building Better Schools through Innovation Act

Establishing a nonprofit partnership as an alternative financing arrangement for specified public school construction projects; authorizing a county board of education to enter into a contract with a specified nonprofit entity or entities for school construction projects; authorizing a county board to receive funding for school construction as a block grant; etc.

The First Reading was on February 10, with the Appropriations Committee, and the Hearing will be held on February 28.

HB 1217 Public Charter Schools – Chartering Authorities, Application Requirements, and Funding

Expanding the purpose of the Public Charter School Program; expanding the definition of a public charter school; authorizing the State Board of Education to be a primary chartering authority for the granting of a charter to a public charter school applicant; requiring a county board of education or the State Board to take specified actions when reviewing, evaluating, and making a decision on a charter school application; requiring each county board to disburse a specified amount of funds to each public charter school; etc.

The First Reading was on February 10, with the Ways and Means Committee, and the Hearing will be held on March 15.

HB 1218 Public Charter Schools – Chartering Authorities, Application Requirements, Employees, and Facility Funding

Authorizing the State Board of Education to be a primary chartering authority for the granting of a charter to a public charter school applicant; requiring an application to the State Board to establish a public charter school to include specified information; requiring specified public charter schools to receive an annual per pupil facilities allotment; establishing the Public Charter School Facility Revolving Loan Fund; requiring the Governor to provide a specified amount of money in the State budget for the Fund; etc.

The First Reading was on February 10, with the Ways and Means Committee, and the Hearing will be held on March 15.

HB 1227 Core Content Areas – Accountability Program

Requiring the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Schools to assist each county board of education to establish goals that conform with specified objectives for subject areas that include science and social studies; requiring each public school to survey current student achievement in science and social studies; requiring the State Board and the State Superintendent to design and implement assessment programs in specified subjects; requiring specified grade band assessments and end-of-course assessments to be implemented; etc.

The First Reading was on February 8, with the Ways and Means Committee, and the Hearing will be held on March 8.

HB 1240 School Infrastructure Local Option Act

Authorizing the governing body of a county to impose a tax not exceeding 1% on retail sales; exempting specified sales; requiring that the net proceeds of the tax be used only for capital funding for the construction, renovation, and upgrading of public schools; providing that before a specified law or ordinance takes effect it must first be submitted to a referendum of the qualified voters of a county for approval at the next following general election; etc.

The First Reading was on February 10, with the Ways and Means Committee, and the Hearing will be held on March 9.

HB 1241 Preschool for All – Establishment

Establishing funding for prekindergarten by altering a specified definition to include prekindergarten students in the number of students enrolled; altering a funding calculation to phase in a reduction of specified funding; altering a definition to make specified children eligible for prekindergarten; requiring that specified prekindergarten programs be established by the 2015-2016 school year; etc.

The First Reading was on February 10, with the Ways and Means Committee, and the Hearing will be held on March 15.

HB 1246 Baltimore City Public School Construction Authority

Establishing the Baltimore City Public School Construction Authority; providing for the purpose, duties, membership, appointment, terms, and compensation of the Authority; authorizing the Authority to use alternative financing methods and issue bonds to finance public school construction projects; requiring the State to provide a specified block grant each year to Baltimore City for specified public school construction projects and requiring the Authority to administer and manage the block grant; etc.

The First Reading was on February 10, with the Appropriations Committee, and the Hearing will be held on February 28.

A variety of methods for evaluating teacher education programs will be weighed for their methodological rigor, accuracy, and utility as part of a new research project recently launched by the National Academy of Education and George Washington University.

The new project is at least partly a reaction to a controversial review of every teacher education [...]]]> From Education Week:

A variety of methods for evaluating teacher education programs will be weighed for their methodological rigor, accuracy, and utility as part of a new research project recently launched by the National Academy of Education and George Washington University.

The new project is at least partly a reaction to a controversial review of every teacher education school in the country that is now being conducted by the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality and U.S. News & World Report.
read more

The financially troubled Chester Upland school district in Pennsylvania, which made national news when its teachers promised to stay on the job even if the district could not pay them, continues to teeter on the brink of financial collapse despite a court-ordered meeting with state officials this month to seek [...]]]> From Education Week:

The financially troubled Chester Upland school district in Pennsylvania, which made national news when its teachers promised to stay on the job even if the district could not pay them, continues to teeter on the brink of financial collapse despite a court-ordered meeting with state officials this month to seek a rescue.

A week before the Feb. 9 conference, the 3,700-student school district and the Chester Community Charter School, which, with 3,100 students, is almost as large, had asked the state for $21.5 million to finish out the school year. The charter school is funded by pass-through money given by the state through the district.

Read more

Photo: Michael McElroy for The New York Times

COLUMBUS, Ohio — With his candidacy surging, Rick Santorum on Saturday questioned the legitimacy of state-run public education systems and suggested that President Obama’s agenda sprang from a “phony theology.”

At one appearance here, he said the idea of schools run by the federal government [...]]]>

Photo: Michael McElroy for The New York Times

COLUMBUS, Ohio — With his candidacy surging, Rick Santorum on Saturday questioned the legitimacy of state-run public education systems and suggested that President Obama’s agenda sprang from a “phony theology.”

At one appearance here, he said the idea of schools run by the federal government or by state governments was “anachronistic.” Mr. Santorum did not say public schools were a bad idea, and he said that there was a role for government help in education.

But it was the latest in a series of comments by the former Pennsylvania senator — who is tied in polls in the critical Ohio and Michigan primary contests — suggesting that he takes a dim view of public schooling. He and his wife home-schooled their children.

For the first 150 years, most presidents home-schooled their children at the White House, he said. “Where did they come up that public education and bigger education bureaucracies was the rule in America? Parents educated their children, because it’s their responsibility to educate their children.”

Read more

The second in the ‘Brown Bag Lunch‘ series of discussions organized by Visiting Fellow Peter Groff, “The Legal Challenges Facing Charter Schools” features Renita Thukral, Senior Director, Legal Affairs, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Renita Thukral is the senior director of legal affairs for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she develops and coordinates the [...]]]>

The second in the ‘Brown Bag Lunch‘ series of discussions organized by Visiting Fellow Peter Groff, “The Legal Challenges Facing Charter Schools” features Renita Thukral, Senior Director, Legal Affairs, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Renita Thukral is the senior director of legal affairs for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where she develops and coordinates the Alliance of Public Charter School Attorneys and addresses civil rights, fiscal equity and labor/employment issues confronting charter schools. Prior to her work with the Alliance, she was the policy director at the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and, prior to that, the director of policy and advocacy at New Schools for New Orleans. While in New Orleans, she taught as an adjunct professor at Loyola University School of Law and published an article titled, “The Unique System of Charter Schools in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: Distinctive Structure, Familiar Challenges.”

Before entering the charter school world, Renita was a public defender in New York City, practicing at the trial and appellate levels in state and federal courts. She clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet, in federal district court in the Southern District of New York; she earned her Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School and her Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University. She taught junior high school math in Los Altos, Calif., before attending law school.

We teachers have been hearing for years about “differentiated instruction.” It makes sense to treat individuals differently, and to adapt communication toward what works for them. Some kids you can joke with, and some you cannot. Some need more explanation, while others need little or none. If you consider students [...]]]> From the New York Times Teacher’s diary:

We teachers have been hearing for years about “differentiated instruction.” It makes sense to treat individuals differently, and to adapt communication toward what works for them. Some kids you can joke with, and some you cannot. Some need more explanation, while others need little or none. If you consider students as individuals (and especially if you have a reasonable class size), you can better meet their needs

Read more

The charter school movement has expanded over the last 20 years largely on this promise: If exempted from some state regulations, charters could outperform traditional public schools because they have flexibility and can be more readily tailored to the needs of students. Another selling point is that these schools are supposed to [...]]]> From the New York Times:

The charter school movement has expanded over the last 20 years largely on this promise: If exempted from some state regulations, charters could outperform traditional public schools because they have flexibility and can be more readily tailored to the needs of students. Another selling point is that these schools are supposed to be periodically reviewed when they renew their operating permits — and easily shut down if they fail.

It has not worked out that way. Despite a growing number of studies showing that charter schools, financed with public money and operating in 40 states, are often worse than traditional schools, the state and local organizations that issue charters and oversee the schools are too hesitant to shut them down. That has to change if the movement is to maintain its credibility.

A new study from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, a nonprofit, pro-charter school organization, found that a smaller and smaller percentage of schools are being denied charter renewals.

According to the study, charter authorizers who oversee many of the nation’s approximately 5,600 charters have, in recent years, shut down fewer schools. Only 6.2 percent of those that came up for renewal in 2010-11 were shuttered, down from 8.8 percent in 2009-10 and 12.6 percent in 2008-9.  A 2009 study from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that 37 percent of charter schools performed worse on student test measures than their traditional counterparts. Given that data, closure rates should clearly be higher. Those rates vary widely across the country. The District of Columbia Public Charter School Board is one of the agencies that sets clear standards and shuts schools that fail to meet them, according to the study. It oversees 98 charter schools and has closed 14 over the last three years.

The study raises troubling questions about the management practices of the oversight groups. Nearly a third of charter authorizers have not established clear revocation criteria; fewer than half have the kinds of strong, independent review panels the association recommends; and about only half issue annual reports that show the schools how they are doing.

State governments and local districts need to do a much better job overseeing these schools, which now educate more than two million students. When weak charters stay open, students are deprived and public money is wasted.

-0-

by Catherine Gewertz Will the Common Core State Standards improve student achievement? Not according to a new study out today.

The crux of the argument in the Brookings Institution report is that there is not much of a connection between standards—even rigorous ones—and student achievement. If there was a connection, we would have seen signs of [...]]]> From Education Week:

by Catherine Gewertz
Will the Common Core State Standards improve student achievement? Not according to a new study out today.

Read more

The Daily Show posted an uncut, extended take of his appearance on its website – which is available below.

Part I

Part 2

Part 3

Earlier this week, John Wilson put the spotlight on a national embarrassment in his Education Week blog post entitled Flunking 3rd Graders Is Not An Intervention. His central point is worth repeating here:

“Flunking 3rd graders is costly to the taxpayers and devastating to the students. Do the math. It costs $10,000 to educate a student every year [...]]]>

Earlier this week, John Wilson put the spotlight on a national embarrassment in his Education Week blog post entitled Flunking 3rd Graders Is Not An Intervention. His central point is worth repeating here:

“Flunking 3rd graders is costly to the taxpayers and devastating to the students. Do the math. It costs $10,000 to educate a student every year or $20,000 annually for a special needs student. Is it better to fail a student and create an extra year of that cost or to create a “bridge” program for students who have not mastered reading by the end of the third grade? It is better to provide an intensive intervention in literacy while covering a fourth grade curriculum and eventually place the students in the fourth grade classroom when they will be successful there.”

Wilson’s assessment could not be more devastatingly true. Clearly, retention is a fiscally irresponsible option. Even worse, it sets children back an entire year in their education by repeating the course of action that set them behind in the first place. Yet schools continue to opt against adopting more effective proven interventions because they are deemed “too expensive,” and legislators in several states are considering mandatory retention for low-performing third graders.

Continue reading this post at Education Week