Tuesday, February 5, 2013

EDUCATION WEEK

States Lack Data on Principals, Study Says

By Sarah D. Sparks

While principals increasingly are moving to center stage in national debates over school improvement, a new study finds most states have little or no information about how their principals are prepared, licensed, supported, and evaluated.

Test Boycott Puts Seattle Teachers in National Spotlight

By Ross Brenneman

Since a group of Seattle high school teachers decided to boycott administration of a computerized exam in December, their protest has been embraced by opponents of high-stakes testing as a call to nationwide action.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Education spending that isn't smart

By Jonah Goldberg

Not long after President Obama proclaimed in his second inaugural that "an economic recovery has begun," we learned that the U.S. economy actually shrank in the last quarter. Many economists believe this is a temporary setback. This recovery may be the weakest in American history, but the economy isn't cratering either.

WASHINGTON POST

How online class about online learning failed miserably

By Jill Barshay

At a recent event, a bigwig at McGraw-Hill, the textbook publisher, urged the audience to take an online course so that we’d have a sense of the future. As a journalist who covers online education, I was embarrassed not to be enrolled in one.

Why growing concentrated poverty dooms school reform

By Greg Kaufmann and Elaine Weiss

Researchers know a lot about how various factors associated with income level affect a child’s learning: parents’ educational attainment; how parents read to, play with, and respond to their children; the quality of early care and early education; access to consistent physical and mental health services and healthy food. Poor children’s limited access to these fundamentals accounts for a good chunk of the achievement gap, which is why conceiving of it instead as an opportunity gap makes a lot more sense.

Jon Stewart tests Michelle Rhee, defends teachers

By Valerie Strauss

Jon Stewart invited Michelle Rhee on “The Daily Show” Monday night and, while he didn’t skewer her the way some Rhee critics would have liked, he kept challenging her about whether her brand of school reform unfairly targets teachers. He also said something that Rhee and other reformers could take to be something of a slap: that there has been “no real innovation in education since John Dewey.”

Related story:

> Washington Post: Michelle Rhee’s memoir: What you can learn from reading it

Saturday-Monday, February 2-4, 2013

DETROIT NEWS

Texas fight highlights higher ed culture clash

By Justin Pope

Austin, Texas — If colleges were automobiles, the University of Texas at Austin would be a Cadillac: a famous brand, a powerful engine of research and teaching, handsome in appearance. Even the price is comparable: Like one of the luxury car's models, in-state tuition for a four-year degree runs about $40,000.

NEW YORK TIMES

The Boys at the Back

By CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERS

Boys score as well as or better than girls on most standardized tests, yet they are far less likely to get good grades, take advanced classes or attend college. Why? A study coming out this week in The Journal of Human Resources gives an important answer. Teachers of classes as early as kindergarten factor good behavior into grades — and girls, as a rule, comport themselves far better than boys.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

L.A.'s first Hebrew-language charter school raises questions

By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times

When Lashon Academy opens its doors this fall, its students will be taught to read and write in both English and Hebrew — a first for a public school in Los Angeles. But the approval of the charter school last month has raised concerns that it and others, particularly dual-language charters, blur the line between private and public campuses by accepting public money to cater only to a certain demographic.

WASHINGTON POST

Why much-praised KIPP D.C. expels kids

By Jay Mathews

Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, founders of the KIPP charter school network, produced some of the best middle schools in the country by trying to keep every child safe from harm, including insults. A student who teased another student found herself surrounded by the two tall teachers, who asked if that was really the way she wanted to treat a teammate.

Why ‘school reform’ is a misnomer — principal

By Valerie Strauss

Carol Burris is the award-winning principal of South Side High School in New York who has been at the forefront of opposition to New York State’s new teacher evaluation system. Named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State, Burris is one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by student test scores, which has been signed by 1,535 New York principals. Here are excerpts from the keynote address that Burris delivered last week to the New York Performance Standards Consortium:

Prince George’s considers copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work

By Ovetta Wiggins,

A proposal by the Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual.

The inconvenient truth of education ‘reform’

By Jeff Bryant

Events this week revealed how market-driven education policies, deceivingly labeled as “reform,” are revealing their truly destructive effects on the streets and in the corridors of government.

HUFFINGTON POST

Junk Food In Schools: USDA Proposes Calorie, Sugar Limits

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON -- Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools. For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Friday, Feb. 1, 2013

EDUCATION WEEK

We're Teaching History Wrong

By Vicky Schippers

The way history is taught in U.S. high schools should be completely overhauled. For the vast majority of students, history is presented as a litany of disconnected names, dates, and events to be memorized before an exam. Their other core subjects—English, science, and math—almost always pull in students who love reading or enjoy the intricate pleasures of numbers and theories. However, it is the rare student who finds anything edifying or relevant about history as it is taught in our classrooms today.

NEW YORK TIMES

Teachers and Policy Makers: Troubling Disconnect

By SARA MOSLE

Can the school reform movement accept constructive criticism? Gary Rubinstein hopes so. Mr. Rubinstein joined Teach for America in 1991, the program’s second year, and has now been teaching math for 15 years, five of them in some of the nation’s neediest public schools and 10 more at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. He has a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s in computer science, has written two books on classroom practice and at one point helped train new corps members for Teach for America. For years, he was a proponent of the program, albeit one with the occasional quibble.

WASHINGTON POST

Business leaders urge Congress to rewrite No Child Left Behind

By Valerie Strauss

A group of chief executive officers at leading U.S. companies is urging Congress to rewrite No Child Left Behind as part of its recommendations for policies that promote business growth in 2013.

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013

EDUCATION WEEK

Equal Internet Access Is a K-12 Must-Have

By Helen Brunner

The days when spiral notebooks, No. 2 pencils, and a backpack full of textbooks served as the mainstays of the American classroom are rapidly giving way to a new school environment. Interactive whiteboards, online classes, streaming lectures, and digital textbooks are revolutionizing the way students learn and communicate with their teachers. Technology is blurring the brick-and-mortar boundaries of learning in 21st-century schools.

Interpretations Differ on Common Core's Nonfiction Rule

By Catherine Gewertz

As the common core is brought to life in classrooms this year, some English/language arts teachers are finding themselves caught in a swirl of debate about whether the new standards require them to cut back on prized pieces of the literary canon to make room for nonfiction.

WASHINGTON POST

Michelle Rhee uses StudentsFirst to sell memoir

By Valerie Strauss

Is this putting students first? Michelle Rhee’s new memoir is set to go on sale Tuesday and she is already trying to hawk it, using the website of her school reform organization, StudentsFirst, to attract buyers. The site has a free excerpt, which I found out about when I received the letter below from Rhee.

E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials

By Valerie Strauss

A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders.

HUFFINGTON POST

Charter Schools That Start Bad Stay Bad, Stanford Report Says

WASHINGTON -- When it comes to charter schools, the bad ones stay bad and the good ones stay good, according to a report on charter school growth released by an influential group of Stanford University scholars on Wednesday.

Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Charter advocates rally as school-closing critics pack meetings

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Ellen Jean Hirst

As opponents of school closings in Chicago pack community meetings this week to make their voice heard, charter school advocates took part in a rally Tuesday at Union Station to draw attention to their call for greater school choice.

WASHINGTON POST

The Vietnamization of public education

By Steve Cohen

I have been reading a new book, “The Generals,” by Tom Ricks.  He looks at individual American military leaders from World War II until the present day and offers thumbnail sketches of their successes and failures. Ricks also made some interesting points about the changes in personnel policy in the military over time. 

Activists to U.S. Education Department: Stop school closings now

By Lyndsey Layton,

Activists fighting school closings across the country converged at the U.S. Education Department on Tuesday to demand federal action to stop the shutdowns, which they say disproportionately affect poor and minority students.

HUFFINGTON POST

Cindy Hill, Wyoming Elected Schools Chief, Demoted By Legislature

The elected chief of Wyoming's education system, Cindy Hill, is vowing to fight after being stripped of her power and relegated to largely ceremonial and minor advisory duties on Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013

EDUCATION WEEK

Overcoming Impact of Adversity on Learning

By Sarah D. Sparks

Poverty, neglect, or family stress can make it especially difficult for young children to develop the self-discipline and habits of mind they will need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Armed with research and a commitment to the whole child, Washington state has transformed the way its agencies work together and in partnership with researchers to address the effects of early adversity on learning and to help disadvantaged children build resiliency and other so-called executive-function skills they need to learn and grow.

Ed. Dept. Raises Evidence, Research Ante in Grant Awards

By Michele McNeil

Using the Investing in Innovation program as a building block, the U.S. Department of Education is taking the next formal step to make research and evidence far more important factors as it awards competitive grants.

NEW YORK TIMES

In California, Son Gets Chance to Restore Luster to a Legacy

By JENNIFER MEDINA

LOS ANGELES — During a 1960s renaissance, California’s public university system came to be seen as a model for the rest of the country and an economic engine for the state. Seven new campuses opened, statewide enrollment doubled, and state spending on higher education more than doubled. The man widely credited with the ascendance was Gov. Edmund G. Brown, known as Pat.

Education Dept. to Hear School Closing Complaints

By JON HURDLE

PHILADELPHIA — The United States Department of Education is investigating complaints that plans to close or reorganize public schools in Philadelphia, Detroit and Newark discriminate against black and Hispanic students, as well as those with disabilities, a department official confirmed on Monday.

WASHINGTON POST

Why we love artists but not arts education

By Lisa Phillips

There seems to be a major disconnect between how creativity is valued in society and the career advice we give our children. We all know that the arts are a valuable means of expression, a means to share stories across cultures and an uplifting and moving source of entertainment.

A tough critique of Common Core on early childhood education

By Edward Miller and Nancy Carlsson-Paige

Recent critiques of the Common Core Standards by Marion Brady and John T. Spencer have noted that the process for creating the new K-12 standards involved too little research, public dialogue, or input from educators.

SLATE

Tear Down the Swing Sets

By Nicholas Day

In 1888, the psychologist Stanley Hall published a story about a sand pile. A minor classic, it describes how a group of children created a world out of a single load of sand. These children were diligent, they were imaginative, they were remarkably adult.

Saturday-Monday, Jan. 26-28

NEW YORK TIMES

In Surprise, Educator Tied to Cheating Rejects Deal

By MOTOKO RICH

MEMPHIS — In an 11th-hour reversal, an educator accused of running a large test-cheating ring in three Southern states rejected a plea deal on Friday and elected to go to trial.

Revolution Hits the Universities

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

LORD knows there’s a lot of bad news in the world today to get you down, but there is one big thing happening that leaves me incredibly hopeful about the future, and that is the budding revolution in global online higher education. Nothing has more potential to lift more people out of poverty — by providing them an affordable education to get a job or improve in the job they have.

Still on Strike, a Bus Union Sees a Threat to Its Culture

By AL BAKER

Each August, just before the start of school, more than 1,000 drivers for the Atlantic Express school bus company gather in a lot in the shadow of Citi Field in Flushing, Queens. For the drivers, it is the event of the year, one repeated at lots all over the city, and is known simply as “the pick.”

WASHINGTON POST

Florida ed reform: ‘A danger of all this imploding’

By Valerie Strauss

Educators in Florida have been screaming for some time about the irrationality of the state’s standardized test-based school accountability system — which is being sold around the country by former governor Jeb Bush as a model for education reform. But now the powerful president of the Florida Senate, Republican Don Gaetz, has become part of the chorus.

HUFFINGTON POST

Stacey Campfield, Tennessee GOP Lawmaker, Wants To Tie Welfare Benefits To Children's Grades

By Nick Wing

Tennessee state Rep. Stacey Campfield (R) introduced a bill this week seeking to make welfare benefits contingent upon the grades of a would-be recipient's children.

Schools Background Check Visitors In Illinois For Criminal Record

Visitors to schools in a suburban Chicago, Ill., district are now required to undergo a background check as part of added security measures in the weeks following last month's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

DETROIT NEWS

Teachers flip for 'flipped learning' class model

By Christina Hoag, Associated Press

Santa Ana, Calif. -- When Timmy Nguyen comes to his pre-calculus class, he's already learned the day's lesson — he watched it on a short online video prepared by his teacher for homework.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

L.A. Unified's college-prep push is based on false data

By Howard Blume and Sarah Butrymowicz,

Eleven years ago, the San Jose school district began requiring all students to pass the classes necessary for admission to the state university systems. Educators elsewhere watched with enthusiasm as early results showed remarkable success.

USA TODAY

Too soon to celebrate higher grad rates

At first glance, new federal data released this week showing that the high school graduation rate has risen to its highest level in 35 years is cause for celebration. The stagnation that characterized the graduation rate between 1970 and 2000 finally seems over. In 2000, 77.6% of those between age 20 and 24 had a high school diploma. But by 2010, 83.7% of those in the same age group had a high school diploma.

Friday, January 25, 2013

EDUCATION WEEK

State Finance Lawsuits Roil K-12 Funding Landscape

By Andrew Ujifusa

As state budgets slowly recover from several years of economic contraction and stagnation, significant court battles continue to play a related yet distinct role in K-12 policy, even in states where the highest courts have already delivered rulings on the subject.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

From homeless shelter to elite science fair

By Bridget Doyle

In March, Lane Gunderman, a senior at the University of Chicago Lab High School, will fly to Washington to compete for one of the nation's most prestigious high school science awards. The 18-year-old is one of 40 finalists — out of more than 1,700 applicants — for the Intel Science Talent Search.

WASHINGTON POST

The real problem with multiple-choice tests

By Valerie Strauss

One of the biggest complaints about standardized tests is that the multiple-choice questions don’t measure deep thinking skills. Here’s a new look at the problems with multiple-choice questions, written by Terry Heick, curriculum director at TeachThought, an online platform that that explores innovation in education.

Rocketship charter schools revamping signature ‘Learning Lab’

By Valerie Strauss

The Rocketship network of charter schools has made a name for itself in the world of school choice — and attracted $2 million from the Obama administration to help it grow — with its “blended learning” model that incorporates traditional classroom settings with a computer “Learning Lab” for students.

California’s Gov. Brown blasts state, federal education policy

By Valerie Strauss

California Gov. Jerry Brown smacked state and federal education policy in his State of the State Address Thursday, calling for more local control of school issues and saying, “I would prefer to trust our teachers who are in the classroom each day, doing the real work – lighting fires in young minds.”

Niskayuna School District Dumps Healthy School Lunch Regulations, Will Lose Federal Aid

New York's Niskayuna Central School District is severing ties with the National School Lunch program, tossing out its adherence to federal regulations for more fruits and vegetables on lunch trays.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

DETROIT NEWS

HS grad rates hit high note

By Dale McFeatters

Educators cite a variety of reasons — from aggressive student-retention programs to the decline in teenage pregnancies — but the sluggish economy appears to be the biggest reason our public-school graduation rate is the highest in more than 30 years.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

The feds' education power grab

By Marc Tucker

In December, California's application for a waiver from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act was denied by the U.S. Department of Education. This, we were told, was because California had failed to embrace the federal department's reform agenda, especially on issues of evaluating teachers.

WASHINGTON POST

Questions about newly named head of National Independent Schools Association

By Valerie Strauss

The choice of John Chubb, a vocal advocate of school choice who was part of Mitt Romney’s campaign education advisory team, as president-elect of the National Association of Independent Schools has sparked some controversy in that part of the education world.

Texas House eliminates funding for standardized testing

By Valerie Strauss

The revolt against standardized testing in Texas has taken a new twist: The Texas House has put forth a draft 2014-15 budget that zeroes out all funding for statewide standardized assessment. By way of explanation, Speaker Joe Straus said, “To parents and educators concerned about excessive testing, the Texas House has heard you.”

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

HUFFINGTON POST

Dede Terhar, Ohio Board Of Education President, Criticized For Obama-Hitler Comparison

By John Celock

Ohio Democrats are calling on the president of the state Board of Education to resign after she compared President Barack Obama with Adolf Hitler on her Facebook page.

Education Committee Revs Back Up In 113th Congress

It's back to school for Congress. Today, Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, held his first organizational meeting with the 113th Congress's iteration of his committee. In his opening remarks, Kline said reauthorizing No Child Left Behind will remain a "top priority." NCLB, the sweeping law that governs public K-12 education, expired in 2007.

'Tiger Mom' Study Says Both Amy Chua And Her Critics Have A Point

By: Stephanie Pappas

NEW ORLEANS — In 2011, Yale Law professor Amy Chua caused a stir with a Wall Street Journal article titled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," describing her strict methods of parenting. In the backlash to the article, critics accused Chua of hurting her daughters in her quest to make them succeed. For her part, Chua criticized the less strict, Western methods of parenting as being too lenient and setting kids up for failure.

CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA

WBEZ tours 'half-empty' schools

By: Becky Vevea

Chicago Public School leaders say 137 of their schools are sitting half-empty – with way too few students. When they talk about closing schools to make the district more efficient, these are the schools they’re talking about. WBEZ went to see what it looks and feels like inside some of the district’s “underutilized” elementary schools.

EDUCATION WEEK

Charters Adjusting to Common-Core Demands

By Katie Ash

Charter schools throughout the country are coping with myriad challenges in preparing for the Common Core State Standards, an effort that could force them to make adjustments from how they train their teachers to the types of curriculum they use to the technology they need to administer online tests.

Anti-Poverty Program Found to Yield Few Academic Gains

By Sarah D. Sparks

Ten to 15 years after leaving neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, children of the Moving to Opportunity program are in most ways no better off than their peers who stayed put. But new findings from the ongoing study of their urban communities suggest more comprehensive school-neighborhood improvement initiatives stand a better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.

NEW YORK TIMES

New York Archdiocese to Close 24 Schools

By SHARON OTTERMAN

The New York Roman Catholic Archdiocese announced Tuesday that it would close 22 elementary schools and 2 high schools, saying it could no longer afford to spend millions each year supporting schools that were not economically self-sufficient.

The School Bus Mess

New York City mayors have long tolerated one of the most inefficient school transportation systems in the country — made so by a labor agreement that undermines competitive bidding and poorly designed bus routes.

WASHINGTON POST

Popular study strategies called ineffective — report

By Valerie Strauss

Researchers who evaluated 10 learning techniques believed to improve student achievement found that five of them — including highlighting or underlining, are not very effective.

Where’s the ‘collective action’ in Obama education policy?

By Arthur H. Camins

In his 2013 Inaugural Address, President Obama issued a call for “collective action,” arguing forcefully that we cannot “meet the demands of today’s world” by acting alone. “Now, more than ever,” he said, “we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.”  But, this is not the philosophy that guides education policy today.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

ATLANTIC

'Anybody? Anybody?' What Ferris Bueller Got Right

By John Tierney

Students definitely begin losing interest in school somewhere between first grade and 12th. But is the drop-off really as dramatic as a new Gallup poll shows? Let's do a mental exercise. I'm going to ask you to picture a series of school classrooms full of students and their teachers. First, imagine a class of second graders. Got it? Now fifth graders. Now ninth graders. And finally, picture a classroom of high school seniors.

DETROIT NEWS

High school grad rate best since '76

By Philip Elliott, Associated Press

Washington — The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released today.

Related story:

> Education Week: National High School Graduation Rate Climbs

EDUCATION WEEK

Anti-Poverty Program Found to Yield Few Academic Gains

By Sarah D. Sparks

Ten to 15 years after leaving neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, children of the Moving to Opportunity program are in most ways no better off than their peers who stayed put. But new findings from the ongoing study of their urban communities suggest more comprehensive school-neighborhood improvement initiatives stand a better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.

WASHINGTON POST

Obama’s three education references in inaugural speech

By Valerie Strauss

Here are the three references to education that President Obama made in his inaugural speech today:

Why all high school courses should be elective

By Marion Brady

Both my late mother’s and my father’s right foot tended to be heavy when in contact with car accelerators. Their brothers and sisters shared the tendency, suggesting some sort of genetic propensity — which I, unfortunately, seem to have inherited.

Top 10 skills children learn from the arts

You don’t find school reformers talking much about how we need to train more teachers in the arts, given the current obsession with science, math, technology and engineering (STEM), but here’s a list of skills that young people learn from studying the arts.

Why MLK was kicked out of school at 5 and other ed facts …

By Valerie Strauss

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had something of an unusual education. Here are five things you may not know:

Saturday-Monday, January 19-21, 2013

OAKLAND PRESS

Teacher cheating scandal creates vicious cycle

By WALTER E. WILLIAMS

Nearly two years ago, U.S. News & World Report came out with a story titled “Educators Implicated in Atlanta Cheating Scandal.” It reported that “for 10 years, hundreds of Atlanta public school teachers and principals changed answers on state tests in one of the largest cheating scandals in U.S. history.”

EDUCATION WEEK

Crush of Education Laws Awaits Renewal in Congress

By Alyson Klein

The new, still-divided Congress that took office this month faces a lengthy list of education policy legislation that is either overdue for renewal or will be soon, in a political landscape that remains consumed with fiscal issues.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

CPS removes high schools, high-performing schools from target list

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah

Chicago Public Schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett has taken high schools and high-performing schools off the table for potential closings, following the recommendations of a commission set up to study the issue.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

New York school bus strike: sign of national pressure on unions (+video)

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo

The New York City school bus strike is now in its third day – pitting the union’s concerns over job security and bus safety against the city’s need to bring down bus costs that are the highest in the nation.

Related story:

> New York Times: With Bus Strike, Fragile Students Face Hard Trips

NEW YORK TIMES

A Christian Pioneer of Home Schooling Looks to Its Future

By MARK OPPENHEIMER

Back in 1993, when Mary Pride and her husband appeared with their eight children in the first issue of Wired magazine, it was hard to say what seemed strangest: that the Prides were Protestants who rejected birth control, that they home-schooled their children or that in home schooling they relied heavily on computer software. All those choices would have seemed bravely countercultural, or just weird.

Backed by State Money, Georgia Scholarships Go to Schools Barring Gays

By KIM SEVERSON

ATLANTA — As the nation works its way through the debate over vouchers and other alternatives to traditional public education funding, a quieter battle over homosexuality, religious education and school tax money is under way in Georgia.

More Money at Risk on Teacher Evaluations

By AL BAKER

A day after New York City’s failure to create a new teacher evaluation system cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid, an exasperated state education official on Friday threatened to withhold more than $1 billion more from the city, including its share of federal Race to the Top grants.

WASHINGTON POST

Martin Luther King: ‘Intelligence is not enough’

By Valerie Strauss

Martin Luther King Jr., was prescient on a lot of things, including education. Here are some things he wrote decades ago that sound contemporary.

Friday, January 18, 2013

EDUCATION WEEK

Crush of Education Laws Await Renewal in Congress

By Alyson Klein

The new, still-divided Congress that took office this month faces a lengthy list of education policy legislation that is either overdue for renewal or will be soon, in a political landscape that remains consumed with fiscal issues.

ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

DeKalb board members defend themselves against accusations that could unseat them

By Ty Tagami

The nine members of the DeKalb County school board have one month to prepare for another showdown over concerns raised by an accrediting agency, and if they make a weak case they could lose their seats.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

CPS student gains to make up 50% of principal evaluations

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah

 Student achievement will now account for 50 percent of the evaluations given to principals in Chicago Public Schools.

NEW YORK TIMES

No Deal on Teacher Evaluations; City Risks Losing $450 Million

By AL BAKER and MARC SANTORA

The Bloomberg administration and New York City’s teachers’ union said Thursday that they had failed to reach a deal on a new system for evaluating 75,000 public school teachers, putting the city into immediate danger of losing out on up to $450 million in state and federal money and raising the possibility of cuts to staff and programs.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Beyond gun control: Will Obama's plans make schools safer?

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo

Many education groups applauded President Obama’s proposals and executive actions Wednesday – particularly the broad gun-control agenda that took center stage because of the high-powered weapon used in an attack on schoolchildren and staff in Newtown, Conn., and other recent mass shootings.

WASHINGTON POST

No, Sidwell Friends School has no armed guards

By Valerie Strauss

The National Rifle Association is airing a television ad (and has on its website this four-minute video) that says the private school that President Obama’s daughters attend, Sidwell Friends School, has 11 armed guards. It doesn’t.

HUFFINGTON POST

Duncan On Guns In Schools: Hard To Teach Kids Scared Of Being Killed

By PHILIP ELLIOTT

WASHINGTON -- Too many students worry more about being killed by a gun than learning in the classroom, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on Thursday, as he cautioned that firearms alone do not make schools safer.

School Discipline Report Highlights Tension Between Safety, Civil Rights

In Holmes County, Miss., a sheriff's car once picked up a 5-year-old. The crime? Wearing shoes with red-and-white symbols, an apparent school dress code violation. In DeSoto County, Miss., cops reportedly arrested and threatened six students for arguing on a school bus.

Gun Violence A Common Occurrence For Students In New York City High School