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Education News for Tuesday, April 25

Unions’ Advice is Failing Teachers – Teachers’ unions have joined forces with investment firms to steer educators into savings plans that often have high expenses and poor returns. (more)

State Senate Democrats sue to uncover qualifications of state test scorers – Two Democratic senators filed a lawsuit Monday against the Florida Department of Education, saying the agency and its contractor violated state public records laws by refusing to release the names of the scorers of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. (more)

Budget crisis looms in Albany – Gov. George Pataki’s efforts to enact an educational tax credit are at the heart of budget vetoes the state legislature is expected to override today, as relations between the two branches of government fall to historic lows and the state veers toward a constitutional crisis. (more)

The new new math – Georgia sixth-graders took a new state-mandated math test last week that favored concept over computation. (more)

Check back later today for more education news.

UPDATE:

Florida senator breaks rank on charter school bill – Boca Raton Sen. Ron Klein broke with other Democrats Monday on a bill that would create an independent state board with the power to approve charter schools. (more)

Senate Dems sue to uncover qualifications of FCAT scorers – Two Democratic senators filed a lawsuit Monday against the Florida Department of Education, saying the agency and its contractor violated state public records laws by refusing to release the names of the scorers of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. (more)

North Carolina forum looks at equity and choice – "To hear a school-board member say that integration is irrelevant does not do justice to … years of struggle…" (more) 

The tools to turn schools around – While the state has made great progress in the 13 years since education reform was enacted, more than 60,000 children across Massachusetts still languish in schools… (more)

Houston debuts pilot virtual schooling project – The Southwest School is the first of five programs in Texas to launch under a pilot approved by state lawmakers in 2003. The Houston, Coleman, Fort Davis and Iraan-Sheffield school districts also are developing "electronic course pilots" that are expected to begin soon. (more)

Pataki’s "cruel and unusual" flick of the pen – Gov. George Pataki slashed nearly $3 billion from the Legislature’s state budget, including a child tax credit for working families and tuition assistance for low-income college students. (more)

Omaha school reform on NPR – Click to listen to NPR’s Ed Gordon examine how Omaha’s school controversy is resonating nationally. He speaks to Jeff Howard, founder and president of the Efficacy Institute based just outside Boston.

Indiana test may cause schools to fail – Indiana schools will be judged for the first time this year by the test scores of children who are severely disabled or barely speak English, under a piece of federal law that administrators worry will sink their reputations. (more)

New Orleans schools will be unique in nation – Paving the way for a public education system unlike any other in the nation, state officials who took over most district campuses last fall say New Orleans parents will be able to chose from about 50 schools reopening this August with capacity for 34,000 students. (more)

West Virginia pre-K programs growing – By 2012, all county school systems must offer 4-year-old preschool or pre-kindergarten classes to all children to comply with state law. (more)

School choice expanding in three states – In the May issue of School Reform News, three states either created new school choice programs or expanded existing ones in late March–a trend suggesting the movement is gaining wider support among legislators. (more)

UPDATE:

Campus murder, lawwuit spur calls for school choice in Texas – School Reform News: School choice is seldom discussed in literal life-or-death terms. (more)

Kansas education chief advocates vouchers – School Reform News: One: He came to the job from outside the field of professional education.Two: He is an advocate of vouchers and other forms of choice for students whose needs are not being met in the public school system. (more)

Report: Spending increases don’t improve student achievement – School Reform News: ALEC’s Report Card on American Education: A State-by-State Analysis foun
d
no evident correlation between improved student achievement and increasing education spending or lowering student-teacher ratios. (more)

New Hampshire Senate passes scholarship program – School Reform News: Later this year, if the New Hampshire House agrees with a measure passed by the state Senate on January 18, students in low-income families in the Granite State could receive scholarships to attend the schools of their choice. (more)

Universal vouchers approved in Maine – School Reform News: The people of Swans Island, Maine, a town without a secondary school, voted to pay for their children’s education with local tax funds at either public or private secondary schools… (more)

Barriers to innovation in government-run schools – School Reform News: After a century of failed public school innovations, pressure is increasing for education reforms to be "research-based." (more)

USA Today: Richer areas attract better teachers – Public school teachers in the nation’s wealthiest communities continue to be more qualified than those in the poorest despite a federal law designed to provide all children equal educational opportunity. (more)

Ed Week: Do they really help troubled schools? (subscription required) Of the most popular organizations and companies that are hired to run troubled public schools, only one has accumulated a solid body of evidence to show that it does improve student achievement… (more)

DC schools’ accounting "high risk" – The U.S. Department of Education has declared the D.C. school system at "high risk" for mismanaging federal funds, a rarely used designation… (more)

Ed Week: Low grades thwart college for some Chicagoans – (subscription required) While most of Chicago’s high school seniors hope to attend college, the school system has a long way to go to make that vision a reality.. (more)

Ed Week: Federal suit contends Dallas school segregates Latinos – (subscription required) The complaint maintains that one of the three children, a 5th grader, doesn’t have limited proficiency in English but is still assigned to an English-as-a-second-language class… (more)

Cleveland’s new accountability effort – Spending continues on the district’s roughly $1 billion effort, and the need to rejuvenate oversight is as urgent as ever. (more)