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Education News for Tuesday, June 13

Voucher backer winces at low numbers – As Ohio’s new voucher program gets its start, just 5.5 percent of those eligible applied to use tax money for private school tuition, officials announced Monday.  Even so, voucher proponents called the program a success, noting it likely will have higher first-year participation than similar programs in Washington, D.C., Florida and Milwaukee. (more)

2nd school voucher sign-up offered – With only 5.5 percent of those eligible applying for Ohio’s new voucher program by Friday’s deadline, it appeared nearly 11,500 vouchers approved by the legislature would go unused. But those who missed out will get another chance during a second enrollment period July 21 to Aug. 4, House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said Monday. (more)

U.S. Gives Charter Schools a Big Push in New Orleans – Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced Monday that $24 million in federal aid had been awarded to Louisiana for the development of charter schools, more than doubling what the state has already received to help create such schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (more)

Incentive pay enters classroom – Texas teachers are embarking on a massive, quarter-billion-dollar experiment to find out whether big bonuses can produce big gains in student achievement, despite criticism that such plans are largely unproven. (more)

Education chief’s race seen as referendum on school choice – Tuesday’s crowded, hotly contested Republican primary for South Carolina education superintendent was widely seen as a referendum on choice for South Carolina’s public schools. (more)

Do the math: support a teaching standard – Editorial: Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson says she doesn’t have any brilliant schemes for tackling the less-than-impressive performance of students in math. But the latest results from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning beg for a strategy. (more)

No Child Left Behind sets unreachable goals – Last in a series of editorials on the effect of NCLB on one Indiana middle school, which was forced to close. (more)

East Penn forgoes some federal aid – In a dramatic move that underscores mounting tension between local school boards and federal government mandates, the East Penn (Pennsylvania) School Board decided to give up some federal funding rather than come under certain provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind school reform initiative. (more)

Check back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

Ed Week: White House education policy role ebbs and flows – (subscription required) In recent history, the ebb and flow of White House involvement in education policy has often depended on personalities more than on the pull of political tides. (more)

Ed Week: House panel rejects some Bush budget items – (subscription required) A House subcommittee voted last week to cut discretionary funding for the Department of Education slightly next fiscal year, but its plan would partially pay for some proposals in President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative. (more)

Ed Week: School reopened as charter under NCLB winds up year one – (subscription required) The bell is ringing in a new chapter for Gompers, a high-poverty school in the gang-plagued area of Chollas View, in southeastern San Diego. (more)

Ed Week: A union chief’s defeat stirs debate on leadership – (subscription required) Over the past few years, more than a half-dozen union leaders who have worked collaboratively with their districts have been voted out of office… (more)

Ed Week: K-12 diversity policies at issue in two Supreme Court cases – (subscripton required) By accepting two appeals on the voluntary use of race in assigning students to public schools, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely decide the constitutionality of widespread practices that school districts use to promote diversity. And the decision could affect schools in unforeseen ways. (more)

Jay Greene’s education myths – Myths aren’t lies. They are beliefs that people adopt because they have an air of plausibility. But myths aren’t true, and they often get in the way during serious problem-solving. (more)

Daring to think outside the K-12 structure – The past few decades have witnessed major changes in the substance and rhythm within the individual grades that make up the architecture of kindergarten through 12th-grade education. (more)