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Education News for Wednesday, May 10

AP: Rising number of schools face penalties – Falling short of requirements under President Bush’s education law, about 1,750 U.S. schools have been ordered into radical "restructuring," subject to mass firings, closure, state takeover or other moves aimed at wiping their slates clean. (more)

New federal rule shifts more tax buck for disabled to private schools – Florida students who get state tax money to go to private schools because they have disabilities now will be entitled to about $21 million more, taken from programs that would have helped disabled students in public schools. (more)

NY: Klein give powerful No Child Left Behind defense – City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein gave an impassioned defense of the federal No Child Left Behind law yesterday, saying schools need more testing and accountability – not less – to bolster performance and close the achievement gap.  (more)

Come back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

NYT: Reining in charter schools – The charter school movement began with the tantalizing promise that independently operated schools would outperform their traditional counterparts — if they could only be exempted from state regulations while receiving public money. (more)

Newark – first new mayor in 2 decades – Cory Booker, a 37-year-old former Rhodes scholar, became Newark’s first new mayor in two decades by a landslide Tuesday, ushering in a new era for the struggling city. (more)

An earlier start – Ed Week commentary (subscription required) – Prekindergarten is becoming part of elementary school in the growing number of districts that treat the pre-K-3 years as a distinct learning period. (more)

USA Today: SAT scores drop, some see red flag – Some colleges are reporting double-digit drops in the average SAT scores of applicants this year, even as other credentials, such as class rank and college-prep coursework, remained similar to or grew stronger than last year’s. (more)

Nearly half of U.S. children under 5 are minorities – Nearly half of the nation’s children under 5 are racial or ethnic minorities, and the percentage is increasing mainly because the Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, according to a census report released today. (more)

Schwarzenegger plans to pay debt, help schools – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to retire a large chunk of the state’s debt and boost education funding with more than $5 billion in unexpected revenue from surging tax receipts, according to documents obtained by The Times. (more)

Texas group backs equity for poor schools – Top school groups Tuesday expressed support for a provision to boost funding for poorer school districts that has stalled a Senate vote on a bill to cut property taxes and raise teacher salaries. (more)

Is closing 8 Detroit schools enough? – Observers inside and outside Detroit’s school district are asking whether the proposed closures of eight buildings will do enough to help the financially struggling district stay afloat. (more)

AZ: AIMS change may be too late – Weeks before graduation, state lawmakers want to make it easier for students to earn a high school diploma, though it appears unlikely that the measure would benefit this year’s seniors. (more)

Tracking the elusive dropout – In the latest volleys in the seemingly interminable battle over how best to calculate graduation rates, Jay Greene of the fairly conservative Manhattan Institute argues that many current methods exaggerate the figures. (more)

USA Today opinion: Accountability is key – Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour writes about public money to be given to a private organization — with no state accountability for its operations. (more)

Missouri votes to create virtual school – Missouri lawmakers approved the creation of a new public school Tuesday that would link students to teachers and textbooks by the computer instead of a traditional classroom. (more)