stumblEDucation

Less affordable colleges may get 'F,' land on Wall of Shame - USATODAY.com

Interesting take on calling out colleges with out of control costs. Not sure what impact it’ll have though.

Colleges beware: One more tuition hike and your name might just end up on a new federal Wall of Shame.

The College Opportunity and Affordability Act, signed Aug. 14 by President Bush, will require the Department of Education to post online the colleges and universities with the highest percentage increases in tuition and fees in a three-year period. It also calls for the department to list the 5% of colleges with the highest overall sticker prices.

AP: Akron eyes sewage system deal for scholarships

My hometown mayor is getting creative in an attempt to get local kids to stay and attend the University of Akron:

Mayor Don Plusquellic has proposed leasing the city-owned sewage system to a private contractor for up to $200 million and using the money to finance college scholarships for Akron’s public high school graduates.

It’s a novel idea, but the 100 city workers who run the sewage system oppose the plan and have forced the issue on the Nov. 4 ballot. Opponents, which include some community groups, fear privatizing public assets.

… (Plusquellic) said money for the scholarships would help students attend the University of Akron or a trade school in the city, and turning over the system to a contractor would include rate caps and service guarantees.

Plusquellic said the plan would address brain drain — a migration of talented students out of the city. About 18.6 percent of Akron residents are college graduates, compared with 27 percent nationwide, according to the Census Bureau’s estimates for 2006.

Texas school district letting teachers carry guns

Wow. Or perhaps why? That’s all I can say.

A tiny Texas district will allow teachers and staff members to carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings when classes begin this month, provided the gun-toting employees follow certain requirements.

The small community of Harrold in north Texas is a 30-minute drive from the Wilbarger County Sheriff’s Office, leaving students and teachers without protection, said David Thweatt, superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. The lone campus of the 110-student district sits near a heavily traveled highway, which could make it a target, he argued.

I’m proud to never have stepped foot in the great state of Texas.

Beat Blogging: Blog readers lead to A1 story for Dallas Morning News

A reader’s tip about a new, lax grading policy led to a blog post that led to outrage among the Dallas teachers in the blog’s comments. That outrage led to a great A1 story about this:

Dallas public school students who flunk tests, blow off homework and miss assignment deadlines can make up the work without penalty, under new rules that have angered many teachers.

Read the story: DISD plan to ease grading standards angers teachers

SF Asst. Principal Arrested For Pimping - News Story - KTVU San Francisco

Now, that’s an interesting side career for a school principa:

SAN JOSE — The assistant principal of a San Francisco high school has been arrested on pimping charges.

San Jose police say they arrested Gerald Courtney, the assistant principal at Galileo High School, and his accomplice Hsiu Hwa Chou for allegedly running two brothels in San Jose. Both are charged with felony pimping and pandering.

…

No minors, students or other school officials were involved in the prostitution ring, according to police.

Call for Chicago students to skip 1st school day - USATODAY.com

CHICAGO (AP) — Community leaders on Monday called on students from poorer parts of Chicago to protest inequalities in school funding by skipping the first day of classes.

“Today we are back to two-tiered schools — white and affluent on one side, and black, brown and poor on the other,” said Meeks, who also is a minister on the city’s South Side. “That’s an injustice and it’s immoral.”

1 note

Study: IPS graduates just 19 percent of black males (Indianapolis Star)

“INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A study shows Indianapolis Public Schools have the lowest graduation rate for black male students among 63 urban districts nationwide.

School leaders say they’re working to turn around the statistics. In the 2005-06 school year, just 19 percent of black males and 19 percent of while males graduated from IPS, according to the rankings compiled by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

IPS has introduced dropout prevention programs and has worked to ease the transition into high school.”

(BTW: This links to the Indy Star’s original story, but I used the lede on the AP version just to get the news quicker.)

Cleaner Classrooms Mean Fewer Sick Kids - New York Times Blog

In some classrooms, teachers used disinfecting wipes on student desks, and students used hand sanitizers in the classroom before and after lunch. In other classrooms, students and teachers followed usual hand-washing and cleaning procedures but weren’t given specific products or instruction.

Over eight weeks, researchers tracked the frequency of absences and the reasons for missing school. Study investigators also tested several classroom surfaces for bacteria and common viruses.

The absenteeism rates for gastrointestinal illnesses were 9 percent lower in the extra-clean classrooms. However, the absenteeism rate for respiratory ailments was not affected by the intervention.

The Columbus Dispatch : Ohio will try new system to improve poor schools

Indiana is one of the other states picked for this. From the Dispatch’s story, note especially the last quote here because I’ve heard that from so many people:

Although it’s unclear how the change will affect districts — new test scores and yearly growth data will be released this summer — it’s clearer why the changes were made. Some suburban school districts felt their good standing was being tarnished by a few students and wanted more flexibility in how to fix problems.

The federal No Child Left Behind law dictates how schools must be punished when not all students in a school are making progress. Ohio was one of six states offered the chance to veer from the law and try a different set of sanctions. The state legislature still must approve the new plan.

“Quite frankly, I think it’s one of those things where suburban superintendents and suburban lawmakers have thrown their hands up and said, ‘This is stupid. We’re being punished by what happens to 11 kids in a high school of 1,000?’ and that resonates with lawmakers,” said Terry Ryan, vice president for Ohio programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Holding Back Young Students - Is Program a Gift or a Stigma? - NYTimes.com

IPS mulls cutting Wednesdays short | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Indianapolis Public Schools students would get Wednesday afternoons off next school year so teachers could attend training sessions under a new district plan.

Superintendent Eugene White said teachers and administrators would use that extra 90 minutes to better learn fresh teaching methods and collaborate with colleagues.

“Teachers need a common time to plan each week,” White said. “We have teachers next door to one another who never talk about instruction. … And we can’t afford to have teachers out of class during the school day.”

AP: Schools experiment with paying kids

WASHINGTON (AP) — Friday is payday at KIPP DC: KEY Academy, and some sixth-grade girls gather at the makeshift school store trying to decide how to spend their hard-earned money.

They received paychecks for behaving well, doing their homework or making academic gains. The money is pretend. But it can be used at the store for genuine items such as pens capped with fluffy feathers, pencil cases shaped like animals and colorful erasers.

Schools, under pressure to boost student achievement, are offering incentives - field trips and cash, for example - to motivate students.

Full text of Obama's education speech - The Denver Post

Sen. Barack Obama’s speech, “What’s Possible for Our Children,” was delivered at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton on Wednesday…

PD: Cleveland teacher retires; his fight for better schools continues

Now that he is retiring, Cleveland teacher Gene Tracy says he will be less diplomatic in criticizing the district.

That’s hard to imagine. Tracy, 57, has harangued school officials for nearly three decades. And if he ever exercised restraint, it wasn’t apparent.

Tracy, whose last class was Wednesday, began staging dramatic displays of displeasure as a new teacher in 1981. He tossed a sickly pre-wrapped sandwich on the table at a school board meeting and dared administrators to take a bite of their cafeterias’ fare. They declined.

He went out in similar fashion at a board meeting last week. The Lincoln-West High School math teacher accused the district of child abuse for letting teenagers reach his ninth- and 10th-grade classes without mastering basic multiplication. He then handed his retirement notice to Chief Operating Officer Daniel Burns.

… for more of his history, click the <a href=”http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/06/cleveland_teacher_retires_his.html”>link to the story</a>