This Week In Education: 12/01/2004

Tsunamis, Snowstorms, and Year-End Roundups

Year-end roundups are, like tsunamis and snowstorms, forces of nature that cannot be stopped. Fortunately, they're harmless.

For starters, there's Greg Toppo's brief but very good piece in USA Today -- Plenty to debate and litigate (USA Today) -- which among other things happens to include a somewhat mixed-metaphor observation of mine about why so few schools pulled out of NCLB:

"After much saber-rattling, very few districts and absolutely no states ended up seceding [from NCLB]," says Alexander Russo, who runs the Web log thisweekineducation.com. "There's too much money involved, too many questions that would flow to states that pulled out and, in the end, too many easier ways to dilute or bypass many of the law's requirements."

Equally as good is the list of top education stories of 2004 from the ASCD SmartBrief:

"Multiple intelligences" theory comes under fire (9/7)
Researchers find direct reading program less effective (1/28)
Study: Intensive reading programs can trigger brain changes (4/27)
Paige to announce NCLB changes (3/29)
NYC to eliminate most middle schools beginning this fall (3/3)
Kindergarten a more serious, less playful time (8/24)
Researcher: Children who memorize times tables multiply faster and more accurately (9/8)
Educators split over how best to teach reading (2/25)
Study: Exercise program yields dramatic improvement for dyslexics (5/21)
America's Choice a top choice in comprehensive school reform (4/21)

Note: old links may or may not still work or be available for free.

The folks at the Progressive Policy Institute also put together an amusing and insightful best and worst:

Most Amusing Spin of 2004: AFT release on charter schools and NAEP
Least Amusing Spin of 2004: Responses to the NAEP data
Quote of the Year: George Miller (D-CA) on NCLB
Must Read Article of the Year: Politics Aside, a School's Real Success NYT
Must Read Book of the Year: The Picky Parent Guide
Innovator of the Year: Brad Jupp Denver Public Schools

Last but not least, there's Gerry Bracey's "rotten apples" round-up on EducationNews.org.
It gets strident after a while, and is not even trying to be fair and balanced, but there's some good stuff in there and it's always useful to know how people think: THE ROTTEN APPLES IN EDUCATION AWARDS OF 2004 (EducationNews.org).

Happy Holidays

This Week In Education will be back next week.

Kicking Out Low Scores Doesn't Really Make Schools Look Better (NCLB News)

One of the most interesting stories about NCLB this week chronicles the many ways in which minority children were left out of the scoring system in Illinois, which only this week released its 2004 scores: Test scores don't count the neediest (Chicago Tribune).

It’s amazing how hard some folks are working to kick out scores that would lower schools’ ratings, but an awfully good way to understand the mentality and behavior that NCLB is trying to modify.

On the same day the Tribune story came out, the state superintendent in Illinois said that he thought NCLB was stigmatizing low-scoring kids. Scary that he would think that the kids, not the schools who weren’t teaching them, would be in danger of that. But he’s not alone in trying to take pressure off the adults: Nearly 80% of Georgia schools file successful AYP appeals (Access North Georgia).

In fact, examples of more constructive use of test data are few and far between, though extremely powerful and seemingly on the rise: Mining the Scores for Nuances in Improvement (Washington Post).

More NCLB News:
More schools making gains on No Child Left Behind Kansas City Star
Joseph and the Achievement Gap Classroom Leadership
Reading First program targets K-3 Michigan children Associated Press
'No Child Left Behind' applies to poorer students only if schools get federal grants
Lifting test scores in one San Jose district San Jose Mercury News
Students at Boca Raton area elementary schools prove that poverty ...
Getting to know what they need to know Barnstable Patriot
Few math studies pass federal scrutiny (eSchoolNews)
Real Kids, Real Numbers (Urban Institute)
Some timid, other teachers not bothered by new requirements
Demopolis Times
State official lists 7 schools to close in '05 San Francisco Chronicle
District OK's plan for at-risk schools Miami Herald
State tests often trail US results USA Today
Younger students face tough test for 1st time DetNews.com
Tests will hurt kids, critics say Orlando Sentinel
No Child Left Behind pits fail against fair Chicago Daily Herald
Tutoring eludes many of city poor (Philadelphia Inquirer)
In need of a tutorial on tutoring (Chicago Tribune)
Tale of Two Letters (Teach and Learn)

High School vs. Preschool vs. Teacher Quality (New and Notable)

Concerns about the small schools craze continue to bubble up, as here in the Christian Science Monitor: Is a smaller school always a better school? Meanwhile, the Gates folks are at it again: Schools Receive Big Reward From Gates Foundation (NBC4.TV).

Meanwhile, it's not at all clear clear whether everyone agrees that it's time to use small schools to revamp high school (many elementary schools are already pretty small), or whether it's time to go for universal preschool. There's no Gates Foundation for preschool education, but there's lots of interest nationally and in the states: Universal Preschool (Blueprint Magazine ), Pre-K plan sails to governor (Daytona Beach News-Journal). Like small schools, however, universal preschool plans are not without challenges: State Oversight Sought for Preschool Program (Sacramento Bee). Preschool bill to hit roadblock(Washington Times), and 10 Things Your Preschool Won't Tell You (Smartmoney.com).

On the teaching front, there's also lots going on. States are supposed to submit their highly qualified teacher reports to the feds today, though as EdWeek and others have pointed out the standards for highly qualified have been set pretty low, and little effort has flowed towards easing the skewed distribution of qualified teachers in most districts. Some timid, other teachers not bothered by new requirements (Demopolis Times), Officials vow to buck feds on teacher qualifications (In-Forum).

But there's lots of other good reading and listening: Teacher facts the state didn't want to know are admitted at last (Sarasota Herald), Study Urges More Diverse Teachers (NPR), Math teacher pay doesn't add up (Christian Science Monitor), Tests for Ala. Teachers to Resume in 2006 (Newsday), and
Searching the Attic: How States are Responding to the Nation's Goal of Placing a Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom (NCTQ)

Best of the rest:
Schools to reduce honors courses San Diego Union Tribune
Segregation by Sex Reverses Progress in the Classroom Kansas City Star
'Acting White' Myth, The New York Times Magazine
The Last Time You Used Algebra Was...New York Times
You do the math Baltimore Sun
High School AP Course Enrollment Surges Washington Post
Can For-Profit Schools Pass an Ethics Test? New York Times
Educators are warming to comics as reading aid Baltimore Sun
More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About The Incredible Never Ending Charter Flap (Eduwonk)

CPS Flexes Its Muscle at Senn High School (Chicago IL)

Enough about Chicago already (see previous posts below). Except to say that was pretty interesting that the Board of Education ignored a fairly well-organized protest and went ahead with its plans to add a new Navy program at Senn High School: Student walkout doesn't stop naval academy (Chicago Sun Times), Navy school OKd for Senn (Chicago Tribune), Teens protest N. Side naval academy.

It's not like the Board hasn't backed down on things like this before -- holding off on closing charters, never following through with a promised second wave of school closings, and promising a school to hunger striking moms in Little Village, among other examples. So either this Daley-esque defiance thing is really taking hold on Clark Street, or there's an inside fix that I don't know about, or CPS folks simply couldn't figure a third way that wouldn't endanger all the future school closing and re-opening plans that are in the works (aka Ren 10).

In the meantime, the on-again, off-again approval of the next round of charters is parsed by Teach and Learn: New CPS Charters…or Not.

The rest of the week's best on Chicago:
Court Orders Integration of Chicago Public Schools NPR
Chicago Progam Enlists Parents to Help Failing Kids NPR
A pillar of West Garfield Park to retire Chicago Tribune
Cost of Little Village High School up to $63 million Chicago Sun Times
State academic watch list in big jump to 541 schools Chicago Tribune
Tardy test results leave schools scrambling to help students
Chicago Daily Herald
Archdiocese calls on alumni to help keep schools open
Chicago Daily Southtown,
Catholic school rebirth Crain's Chicago Business
Schools soar to new heights Chicago Sun Times
Pepper spray released in school; 5 youths hurt
Chicago Tribune

IPods for Teachers (School Life)

It’s the week before Christmas, but you wouldn’t really know it from all the interesting pieces, serious and otherwise, that have come out over the past few days.

More than a few folks have been inspired to write riffs on Caitlin Flanagan’s recent piece in the New Yorker about giving over-the-top gifts to teachers: "Opinion: Giving teachers luxe gifts in hopes of good grades could backfire" (Los Angeles Times), New Rules for Teacher Gifts: Apples (but Perhaps No IPods) (NYTimes). For what it’s worth, the writer Flanagan and I taught at the same school in Los Angeles way back when, and as I recall she did receive an awful lot of holiday loot.

There’s news that at least one of the Bush family members takes public education seriously: Jenna Bush Taking Teaching Job (Associated Press). Though of course she’s teaching at a charter school.

Other School Life articles this week:
In schools and cities, battles over 'Christ' in Christmas CSM
A nation of wimps Psychology Today
Junk Food Ban Puts LA Schools in the Red NPR
The Cafeteria Crusader (Time Magazine)
Toxic Health (Newsweek)
Tempe OKs Taser guns for 9 schools Arizona Republic
Upsurge in teenage girls' drinking San Francisco Chronicle
A Push to Restrict Sales of Video Games The Washington Post
Parents pay little heed to video game ratings (New York Times)
Grokker Schools Students on Meta-Search InternetNews.com
Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database New York Times

No Athlete Left Behind (NCLB News)

You know NCLB is really taking root when it starts getting used as a way for student-athletes to transfer schools: Case to help decide if 'No Child Left Behind' transfers can still ... (Dallas Morning News), UIL rejects eligibility claim under No Child Left Behind (San Jose Mercury News).

Early Xmas for Chicago-Area Public Schools (Chicago IL)

Hidden underneath slew of numbers and 20-page pull-out sections, the basic news revealed this week is that Chicago-area public schools improved last year, despite the difficulty of the task and, in Chicago at least, all the tumult and distraction created by the near-strike by the teachers union and displacement of its reform leader Debbie Lynch last year. While some of the apparent improvements were the result of bureaucratic and statistical "adjustments" to the process, there was a real and substantial improvement.

For all the details, see: 2004 School Report Card (Chicago Tribune), Schools soar to new heights (Chicago Sun Times), South suburban schools improve (Chicago Daily Southtown), and For schools labeled failing, goals are key (Chicago Daily Herald). Or, listen to my take on the results on WBEZ: 2004 Test results -- what do they mean?

The news couldn't have come at a better time for the Chicago Board of Education, which has had a difficult and defiant run of days since Thanksgiving -- first spanked by the Tribune's editorial page for failing to create more preschool spaces, then chastized by a federal judge for scrimping on transfer spots for minority students who might want to attend largely white schools, and finally called to task for Hoovering the lion's share of the $53 million federal tutoring program that is supposed to be operated by outside tutoring companies. Over the weekend, Mayor Daley apparently blew up at being victimized thusly: Daley blows up at federal judges at luncheon (Chicago Sun Times).

See "Showdown in Chicago" for all the previous details.

Taking Root-In Some Places (NCLB News)

There are two big overviews of the state of play in re NCLB this week: Taking Root (Education Week), and More schools pass -- and fail -- No Child tests (Stateline.org).

Despite complaints and wishful, thinking, Washington insiders (and yours truly) predict that NCLB opponents have better things to do than hold their breath waiting for an NCLB rollback: Moving Past NCLB (Scholastic Administrator).

The rest of this week's NCLB news can be divided into four easy categories: (a) good "we can do it" news, (b) bad "it'll never happen" news, (c) tutoring, choice, and school improvement news, and (d) doom and gloom.

Good news:
Ohio Urban Districts Outpace State Test Gains Education Week
Maryland Honors Schools For Closing The Achievement Gap
Aggressive response lifts scores
Opinion: See? If Pushed, Kids Deliver USA Today
New Research Shows Some Math Practices Help Minority Pupils
Schools' ratings remain steady

Bad news (see also "Showdown in Chicago"):
New Jersey must double the number of students it tests New Jersey Journal
Feds reject Utah criteria for "highly qualified" elementary teachers
The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
Missing the grade Salt Lake City Weekly
School gets mixed reviews Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Federal, state report cards vary widely on Oregon schools Philadelphia Inquirer
Oregon's school ratings at odds
ISTEP scores stagnant as 1 in 3 fails test Indianapolis Star
''No Child'' rules: Utah's school plan doesn't include information by a subgroup as mandated by federal law The Miami Herald
State must devise tests to comply with No Child Left Behind Newark Star Ledger

Tutoring, choice, and school improvement:
Federal Law Spurs Private Companies to Market Tutoring Education Week
Online Tutoring Targeted at Rural Areas Education Week
Commentary: Outsourcing the Tutor’s Job Education Week
See also "Showdown in Chicago"
Suburbs get more pupils from Detroit CNN
Education Needs to Provide Additional Technical Assistance and Conduct Implementation Studies for School Choice Provision GAO (PDF)
Flawed instruction seen at state's failing schools Boston Globe
KIPP Tapped to Run Failing Denver School Education Week
Can State and Federal Government Better Support Low-Performing Schools and Districts?
Makeovers, Facelifts, or Reconstructive Surgery: An Early Look At NCLB School Restructuring in Michigan
Off with their heads!: A cure for underachieving schools
Washington Post

Doom and gloom
The Perfect Law: No Child Left Behind and the Assault on Public Schools From Dissent
The Perverse Incentives of the No Child Left Behind Act NYU Law Review
Over Ruled: The Burden of Law on America's Public Schools From Common Good

High School Is Where It's At

The President wants to do it. The foundations want to do it. The big cities are trying to do it. The slew of Gates-related stories this week provides a great opportunity to reflect on the current rage for reforming high schools that is sweeping the nation, or at least some corners of it: The schoolhouses that Gates built (Christian Science Monitor), The blind men and the high school (Education Gadfly), Gates Foundation Adding to a School Project (New York Times), Gates grants to expand 'early college' high schools (Seattle Post Intelligencer). Not that there's anything wrong with examining high schools: Six Surprises From Challenging High Schools (Washington Post), In AP-vs.-IB Debate, A Win for the Students (Washington Post).

Showdown in Chicago

The Chicago school system is now facing the wrath of both the US Department of Education (over its insistence on providing tutoring under NCLB) and the US Department of Justice (for reportedly allowing schools with larger numbers of white children to deny transfer requests from black children).

Both of these flare-ups may be resolved without basketball-bruised and defiant Arne Duncan having to pull a Meigs Field, but each gives a clear view of Chicago's desire to be left alone and do things its own way, whether the issue is tutoring children or intergrating the schools. This is not a town that takes kindly to being told what to do.

On the NCLB front, school officials have made lots of noise about the possibility of their having to get out of the lucrative tutoring business, which they have dominated. U.S. hits back at Duncan on tutors (Chicago Sun-Times), Schools told to outsource tutoring (Chicago Tribune), US halts local schools tutoring (Chicago Sun Times), Duncan may sue US over tutoring(Chicago Tribune), Feds halt school tutoring programs (Washington Times), Tutoring laws skirted, official says (Chicago Daily Southtown). There’s also a great interview with Arne Duncan and Gene Hickock on Friday’s edition of WBEZ’s Eight Forty-Eight, which you can listen to online with RealPlayer as soon as it's posted.

Meanwhile, a Federal judge has given Chicago a week to explain why schools with more than 40 percent white kids have failed to take in minority transfers despite having enrollment space. New school integration edict (Chicago Tribune), 41 white kids may have to transfer (Chicago Sun Times), Racial transfer battle reignites (Chicago Tribune), Judge issues new Chicago schools integration ruling (Chicago Daily Southtown).

Chicago's new schools plan lacks "strategic" view of where to close and open schools

This week's Chicago Journal describes the mismatch between where new schools are going to be opened under Renaissance 2010 and where they're most needed, and calls for the Board of Education either to build a more explicit "neighborhood need" factor into the process, or to de-link school closing and opening decisions -- starting now.

Since the column is not available online, here's the short version: A recent report from an outfit called the Illinois Facilities Fund (www.iff.org) found that only three of the 23 elementary schools on Chicago's Near West Side are neighborhood schools where at least 40 percent of the students pass their state reading and math tests. And yet, Renaissance 2010, the Mayor's plan to open 100 new schools, could leave this underserved and fast-growing area (and many others in worse shape) largely untouched. That's because, under Renaissance 2010, it’s a lot easier to get a new school if you live in a neighborhood where a school recently closed. The Board of Education should ultimately be making its Renaissance 2010 decisions at the broader neighborhood level, not school by school.

Does Chicago's "Super-Sized" Coaching Program Really Work?

Largely without notice, Chicago's three-year-old literacy program has grown into one of the largest efforts to put literacy coaches in schools in the nation, putting it at the leading edge of a major trend in education reform. The Chicago Reading Initiative now includes over 600 literacy coaches in almost 400 schools, including over 200 schools with two coaching positions. But the $52 million a year program has had three directors in three years and recently decided to water down the qualifications for coaches in the schools in order to fill an ever-expanding number of positions. Just as important, the original set of schools with reading coaches have not outpaced the rest of the district when it comes to reading scores.

For all this and more, see: Reading initiative expands, stumbles (Catalyst Chicago).

For additional background, see:
School-based coaching: revolution or fad? (Harvard Education Letter)
Literacy coaches: an evolving role (Carnegie Reporter)

Moving On Past NCLB (Washington News)

My latest column is now online, looking at what should happen next on the federal policy front in the new Congress. You can find the full article "Four More Years" in the December/January issue of the Scholastic Administrator magazine.

In essence, the column argues that debate over education policy now needs to move past NCLB. In fact, revisiting NCLB could have wildly unintended effects. Most of all, Democrats and NCLB opponents need a compelling new education agenda, well beyond being against NCLB and being for more money.

Friday Update from Houston

Just a quick Friday update from the Education Writers Association NCLB conference:

Bush the moderate emerging San Francisco Chronicle
Feds Say Utah's Grade-School Teachers Fall Short
The Salt Lake Tribune
Education deputy with Pa. ties resigns Philadelphia Inquirer
Barbour says his education plan is about 'fundamentals'
Jackson Clarion Ledger
On the Bus, Going Round and Round The New York Times
Famed educator orders Milwaukee school to stop using her name
Kansas City Star
Literacy help opens many doors Chicago Tribune
DCFS turns its attention to education Chicago Tribune
It's so good, NY wants to copy it Chicago Tribune
Cultural Divide on Campus Los Angeles Times
Pay Closer Attention: Boys are Struggling Academically
USA Today

Adios to Hickock, Budget Blues, and Sexing Up Abstinence Education (Washington News)

Surprising few, Gene Hickock announced his resignation on Thursday -- not nearly as problematic or portentious as the exodus of top officials from the CIA under Porter Goss, but it will have to do. Hickock was a tireless defender of NCLB. He must be tired.

Meanwhile, pundits and advocates continue to ponder the impact of Margaret Spellings on federal education policy -- School Choice Advocates Worried About Spellings (Education Week), Ms. Spellings (New York Post).

On the Hill, Congress passed a budget bill: 2005 Budget Drops Below Bush Request (Education Week), but on the whole didn’t get as much done as it was supposed to: Congress Gets an Incomplete on 3 Major Education Bills (Education Week).

Post-mortems on the just-passed IDEA reauthorization suggest that the full impact of the changes may not yet be entirely known: Reauthorized IDEA Could Shift Power to School Districts (Education Week), Congress finally OKs Senator Sessions' crackdown on special ed discipline (Associated Press ).

Last but not least, red-state issues like abstinence and intelligent design seem to be popping up more and more: Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says (Washington Post), Millions allotted to sex education (Washington Times), Verdict Out on Abstinence-only Sex Education (USA Today), and Anti-evolution foes gain foothold in education (San Francisco Chronicle). Or maybe it was just a slow news week and writers needed to sex up the budget bill.

Getting teachers to stay where they're needed (NCLB News)

The most interesting of this week's slew of NCLB pieces covers newer ground. A BaltSun article describes the district's controversial move to limit teachers' ability to leave low-performing schools: Limiting teacher moves decried.

Forcing some teachers to stay put may or may not be the right way to go, but teacher assignment and seniority bumping policies are some of the most important, poorly-covered issues in education. Right now, teachers decide pretty much on their own where they want to work. Not unexpectedly, they tend to pool at the best schools as best they can, which end up having Yankees-like all-star faculties (and draw down much more by way of payroll than other schools).

The rest of the best:
Are Schools Cheating Poor Learners? Los Angeles Times
33 schools in city honored for test score achievements Baltimore Sun
Official Urges Aid to 8 Weak Schools Hartford Courant
Nixing grants may not work Record-Journal
Tutoring is No Child's latest snag Daily Southtown
School transfer slots wasted Chicago Tribune
Midyear move affects students academically Cleveland Plain Dealer
Some tips on moving CPD
Every child left behind Greeley Times
Test and Punish NEA Today
The Future Of No Child Left Behind KELOLAND TV
Law leaving Texas behind San Antonio Express
NCLB "Poverty is no excuse,” echoes political times EducationNews.org
Pending "No Child Left Behind" Legislation Could Spare School Districts WPCO.com
7,600 Ky. students' test scores excluded Kentucky.com
NAEP exclusion rates by state NCES.gov
Educators wary of testing plan Everett Herald,
Parent leadership guide KSA Plus
Center on Education Policy Set to Expand Work Tracking NCLB Education Week

Early Childhood's Trials and Tribulations, Report-O-Rama, and Marketing to Kids (New and Notable)

For the second or third week in a row, there’s lots about early childhood education: Georgia Early Learning Professionals Receive More than $1 Million from Smart Start (PR Newswire via ECS), State Aid, Enrollment for Preschool Climb (Education Week).

But not all the news on the cute-little-kid front is unequivocally good. Last week, it was revealed in a Tribune editorial that officials in Chicago had used a hard-won increase in state preschool funding to pay other bills rather than create 3,000 additional preschool spots.

This week, news comes out that Jeb Bush might lower preschool standards: Governor set to allow lower pre-K standards (Orlando Sun-Sentinel), and Jay Mathews tells us about the move towards focusing on literacy in the early primary grades: Reading More Into the First Grade (Washington Post). As one teacher told me recently, “Kindergarten is the new first grade, and preschool is the new Kindergarten.”

Report-O-Rama:
Costly new testing program certifies few teachers Stateline.org
School spending on the rise Stateline.org
Federal Report Examines Charter Schools NY Times
Crime in Schools Fell Sharply Over Decade, Survey Shows NY Times
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2004 (NCES)
Federal Plan to Keep Data on Students Worries Some New York Times
Government might require colleges to report 'sticker price' of ... Muncie Star Press

Marketing to kids:
Design 2004: The Thoroughly Designed American Child NY Times Magazine
A drug kids take in search of better grades Christian Science Monitor

Entrepreneurial Educators, Privatization in Philly, and Not Enough Homework in KC (Urban Education)

As educators, they're head of the class NY Daily News
A city's schools test a new way Christian Science Monitor
Advisory a hard sell Oregonian
Homework disparity points to education gap Kansas City Star
Where have all the city's students gone? Answers can be painful
Detroit Free Press
Program incentives benefiting students The Plain Dealer
Vallas, Street stand firm in first showdown Philadelphia Inquirer

Daley's son signs up for Iraq...Governor Rod loses his "super-sized" security detail...

...But not that much education news.

There's a great piece about Gage Park High School's efforts to implement AVID: Trying to unleash potential in underperforming students (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) .

There's piece about Chicago's implementation of the NCLB transfer requirement, School transfer slots wasted (Chicago Tribune), which chronicles the limited use of the provision by parents but almost entirely lets CPS off the hook for its letter-of-the-law implementation of the requirement. Not that I don't love Xavier as much as anyone else.

The best of the rest:
Tight budget endangers teacher retention efforts Illinois Issues
We've got the tax hike blues Chicago Sun Times
State may retire teacher perk Tribune
Troubled youths, school struggling to succeed Tribune
Tutoring is No Child's latest snag Daily Southtown
Experimental school gets more experimental Chicago Sun-Times:
Chicago schools, mission near deal to move shelter Chicago Tribune:
Edgewater divided on proposal for navy school Tribune
Student stabbed in high school Tribune

Raves, Freak Dancing, and Fat Kids, and the Poker Craze (School Life)

LAPD Considers New Tactics to Curtail Rave Parties LA Times
Principals freaked out by students' dance, dress Chicago Tribune
Here's the Skinny: Most Students Aren't LA Times
Experts warn that the new poker craze among teens could lead to ...
Houston Chronicle
Down With Detention! Education Week
Writing a wrong: Too many students can't put pen — or pencil — to paper USA Today
Community college: No longer just 2 years and out USA Today

This Week In Education

12/27/2004

Tsunamis, Snowstorms, and Year-End Roundups

12/22/2004

Happy Holidays

12/17/2004

Kicking Out Low Scores Doesn't Really Make Schools Look Better (NCLB News)

High School vs. Preschool vs. Teacher Quality (New and Notable)

CPS Flexes Its Muscle at Senn High School (Chicago IL)

IPods for Teachers (School Life)

12/15/2004

No Athlete Left Behind (NCLB News)

Early Xmas for Chicago-Area Public Schools (Chicago IL)

12/10/2004

Taking Root-In Some Places (NCLB News)

High School Is Where It's At

Showdown in Chicago

Skyrocketing Suspensions (Chicago IL)

Wristbands, eBay Fundraising, Tennis Balls, and Jell-O Shots (School Life)

Leaning Tower of PISA (New & Notable)

12/08/2004

Chicago's new schools plan lacks "strategic" view of where to close and open schools

Does Chicago's "Super-Sized" Coaching Program Really Work?

12/05/2004

Moving On Past NCLB (Washington News)

12/03/2004

Friday Update from Houston

12/02/2004

Adios to Hickock, Budget Blues, and Sexing Up Abstinence Education (Washington News)

Getting teachers to stay where they're needed (NCLB News)

Early Childhood's Trials and Tribulations, Report-O-Rama, and Marketing to Kids (New and Notable)

Entrepreneurial Educators, Privatization in Philly, and Not Enough Homework in KC (Urban Education)

Daley's son signs up for Iraq...Governor Rod loses his "super-sized" security detail...

Raves, Freak Dancing, and Fat Kids, and the Poker Craze (School Life)

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