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Item(s) found: 196

Hearing on “How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy"

Date Captured

Monday February 16 2015, 12:24 PM

United States House of Representatives 114th Congress, 1st Session; Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Hearing on “How Emerging Technology Affects Student Privacy" February 12, 2015 Statement of Joel R. Reidenberg Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law Founding Academic Director, Center on Law and Information Policy Fordham University New York, NY Good morning Chairman Rokita, Ranking Member Fudge and distinguished

The Belmont Report

Date Captured	Monday November 24 2014, 10:57 AM
Belmont Report does not make specific recommendations for administrative action by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Rather, the Commission recommended that the Belmont Report be adopted in its entirety, as a statement of the Department's policy.

“How Data Mining Threatens Student Privacy"

Date Captured

Thursday June 26 2014, 10:19 AM

1 United States House of Representatives 113th Congress, 2nd Session Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies and Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education Hearing on “How Data Mining Threatens Student Privacy" June 25, 2014 Statement of Joel R. Reidenberg Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law Founding Academic Director, Center on Law and Information Policy Fordham University New York, NY

“How Data Mining Threatens Student Privacy”

Date Captured

Thursday June 26 2014, 7:49 AM

Prepared Statement of Mark MacCarthy Vice President, Public Policy Software & Information Industry Association Before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Of the Committee on Education and the Workforce And the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies Of the Committee on Homeland Security United States House of Representatives On “How Data Mining Threatens Student Privacy” June 25, 2014

2013 CASEL Guide

Date Captured	Sunday December 22 2013, 12:47 PM
Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs (Preschool and Elementary School Edition)

The Missing Piece -- A Report for CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning)

Date Captured	Saturday December 21 2013, 10:58 PM
A National Teacher Survey on How Social and Emotional Learning Can Empower Children and Transform Schools

National Education Data Model

Date Captured

Sunday May 19 2013, 10:16 PM

he National Education Data Model (NEDM) is a P-20 data resource that provides a common framework and language for collecting, comparing, and using data to improve schools and answer important research and policy questions. NEDM is a project funded by the US Department of Education and coordinated by the Council of Chief State School Officers to: • describe relationships between and among data sets; and • create an open framework based on current standards to build education data systems.

Kevin Michael Foster

Date Captured	Monday February 13 2012, 5:43 PM
All about: community/university partnerships; education practice & policy; black student success, being Dad.

Jaye Bea Smalley

Date Captured	Monday February 13 2012, 3:03 PM
Education, disability and healthcare policy and politics.

Social Media: Federal Agencies Need Policies and Procedures for Managing and Protecting Information They Access and Disseminate

Date Captured

Thursday July 28 2011, 6:51 PM

Federal agencies increasingly use recently developed Internet technologies that allow individuals or groups to create, organize, comment on, and share online content. The use of these social media services-- including popular Web sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube-- has been endorsed by President Obama and provides opportunities for agencies to more readily share information with and solicit feedback from the public. However, these services may also pose risks to the adequate protection of both personal and government information. GAO was asked to (1) describe how federal agencies are currently using commercially provided social media services and (2) determine the extent to which agencies have developed and implemented policies and procedures for managing and protecting information associated with this use. To do this, GAO examined the headquarters-level Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and YouTube channels of 24 major federal agencies; reviewed pertinent policies, procedures, and guidance; and interviewed officials involved in agency use of social media. Agency: Department of Education; Records management: Document processes and policies and record-keeping roles and responsibilities for how social media records are identified and managed: Did not develop policies and procedures for use of social media services; Privacy protection: Update privacy policy to discuss use of PII made available through social media: Did not develop policies and procedures for use of social media services; Privacy protection: Conduct privacy impact assessment for social media use: Developed policies and procedures that guided use of some but not all services; Security risk management: Identify security risks associated with agency use of social media and security controls to mitigate risks: Did not develop policies and procedures for use of social media services. ***** Appendix IX: Comments from the Department of Education:

Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act for Elementary and Secondary Schools

Date Captured

Monday July 25 2011, 1:51 PM

Many school districts employ security staff to monitor safety and security in and around schools. Some schools employ off-duty police officers as school security officers, while others designate a particular school official to be responsible for referring potential or alleged violations of law to local police authorities. Under FERPA, investigative reports and other records created and maintained by these "law enforcement units" are not considered "education records" subject to FERPA. Accordingly, schools may disclose information from law enforcement unit records to anyone, including outside law enforcement authorities, without parental consent. See 34 CFR § 99.8. While a school has flexibility in deciding how to carry out safety functions, it must also indicate to parents in its school policy or information provided to parents which office or school official serves as the school's "law enforcement unit." (The school's notification to parents of their rights under FERPA can include this designation. As an example, the U.S. Department of Education has posted a model notification on the Web at: http://www.ed.gov /policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/lea-officials.html.) Law enforcement unit officials who are employed by the school should be designated in its FERPA notification as "school officials" with a "legitimate educational interest." As such, they may be given access to personally identifiable information from students' education records. The school's law enforcement unit officials must protect the privacy of education records it receives and may disclose them only in compliance with FERPA. For that reason, it is advisable that law enforcement unit records be maintained separately from education records.

Addressing Emergencies on Campus June 2011

Date Captured

Tuesday June 28 2011, 6:32 PM

United States Department of Education (USED) : Summary of two applicable Federal education laws administered by the Department of Education (Department): the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended. This Federal component is only one piece of what is necessary to consider in ensuring the safety of our Nation’s students, faculty, and school staff. A comprehensive and effective campus policy must incorporate all Federal and State policies regarding health and safety emergencies, education, student privacy, civil rights, and law enforcement, as well as specific local community needs.

Education and Workforce Data Connections: A Primer on States’ Status

Date Captured

Wednesday April 14 2010, 6:16 PM

Data Quality Campaign - [States are currently working to connect education and workforce data, however, states are far from reaching the goal of having data systems that can link across the P-20/Workforce spectrum. To connect these education and workforce databases, states should engage a broad range of stakeholders to: 1. Prioritize, through broad-based stakeholder input, the critical policy questions to drive the development and use of longitudinal data systems. 2. Ensure data systems are interoperable within and across agencies and states by adopting or developing common data standards, definitions and language. 3. Protect personally identifiable information through governance policies and practices that promote the security of the information while allowing appropriate data access and sharing.]

Clash Over Student Privacy

Date Captured

Tuesday March 09 2010, 5:05 PM

This document should not be shared due to copyright. Inside Higher Ed - [WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Education Department has fired the top federal official charged with protecting student privacy, in what the dismissed official says was a conflict with the agency's political leaders over their zeal to encourage the collection of data about students' academic performance. Paul Gammill says he was physically escorted out of the department's offices on a Friday morning last month after he refused to resign as director of the agency's Family Policy Compliance Office. Administration officials said that "[p]rivacy laws require us to keep certain employment matters confidential, so we cannot comment on Mr. Gammill. But Gammill, not so encumbered, maintains that he was dismissed because, on several occasions, he argued in internal meetings and documents that the department's approach to prodding states to expand their longitudinal student data systems violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of students' educational records.]

Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO)

Date Captured	Wednesday November 04 2009, 5:04 PM
The mission of the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) is to meet the needs of the Department's primary customers--learners of all ages--by effectively implementing two laws that seek to ensure student and parental rights in education: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).

Vermont to study student privacy policies

Date Captured

Thursday June 12 2008, 4:14 PM

Reformer reports, "The state (Vermont) board is also going to consider how the education department handles third party research requests on behalf of the education department using student data. Under the proposed change, the department information technology team would classify data as sensitive and confidential, and a written contract would have to be signed before the release of records. A third proposed policy spells out how organizations that contract with the education department go about obtaining student information for their work."

Student information found in recycle bin

Date Captured

Thursday August 30 2007, 12:57 PM

Deseret Morning News reports, "Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), addresses, phone numbers and names of students fall into the category of 'directory information' and generally may be released by a school district unless the parents have objected in writing, said Jim Bradshaw, in the U.S. Department of Education. However, that doesn't release schools from the responsibility to dispose of records safely to protect student education records. 'That includes disposing of documents in a way that guards against unauthorized disclosure, such as shredding or burning,' Bradshaw said. 'Banks don't throw records in Dumpsters and schools are also obligated to protect the confidentiality of student records.'" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com 1 commentRecent comments Why indict the school on such a non-issue? Your article even cites... Owen | Aug. 30, 2007 at 8:54 a.m. Add your comment Stuart Johnson, Deseret Morning News Folders with student names and other information at Centennial Middle School in Provo are found in a recycling bin Wednesday. Most Popular Most Commented Detmer remains humble Cougs finalizing plans for Arizona Rocky says Buhler would be a 'disaster' Thursday Night Lights: Questions aplenty as Utes open at Oregon State tonight Bombard Comcast, not the dish folk Cousin is willing to risk his life Chinese victims of forced abortion are fighting back U.S. busts brazen ID theft ring in Utah Is there a 'workplace princess' at your firm? Mtn. woes? Try contacting Comcast direct 'Dawn' is an embarrassment 132 Utah mine owner Murray says Gov. Huntsman is jeopardizing 700 jobs 128 Cougar linebackers lead 'D' 96 At odds: Murray says Huntsman endangers jobs 94 The mtn. working for better exposure 90 Going independent not the solution to BYU's problems 89 Cougs counting down to rematch 88 MWC TV situation frustrating 87 Kirilenko praises Utahns, LDS to media in Russia 83 Ex-member of LDS choir pleads guilty in porn case 79 (Stories published in the last seven days with the most comments) Sports A & E LDS news Community Thursday Night Lights: Questions aplenty as Utes open at Oregon State tonight 29 Detmer remains humble 28 Behind the wheel — Roller derby makes women feel tough, sexy, empowered 3 Campgrounds will fill up this Labor Day weekend 0 Argentines fuel RSL victory 6 Concert review: Groban delights Salt Lake audience 0 Sirius channel to play Dead all the time 0 DVD reviews: 'Blades of Glory' tops DVD pack 0 Auditions 0 Wilson drops out of movie after his hospitalization 0 Anti-religion documentary includes visit to Salt Lake City 1 Idaho provides cash crop for Romney 0 Provo firm to produce movie on Emma Smith 6 Concert review: 'White Star' debuts at BYU 1 BYU Ed Week classes to air 0 Above the Rim — At Cloud Rim, Girl Scouts learn about outdoors and more 0 Touching nature — Syracuse park offers urban fishing, trails, wetlands 1 Helping hand 0 Artists to strum tunes at acoustic fest 0 Cherry Hill is celebrating 40 years 1 Columnists Contests Daily Index Education Family & Life Food & Dining Health & Fitness Help Line Home & Garden LDS Church News Local Births Marathon Mobile Politics Religion & Ethics Science & Tech Travel & Outdoors deseretnews.com: Home | Subscription services | Contact us | FAQ | Feedback | Jobs | Purchase photos | RSS | Privacy policy

Survey finds some mid-Hudson school subjects left behind

Date Captured

Tuesday August 14 2007, 7:47 AM

Times Herald-Record reports, "State and federal test requirements are forcing mid-Hudson schools to spend more time on math and English. The price is less time for everything else — from social studies and physical education to art and music, according to some educators. 'What gets tested gets taught,' said Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy, an education think tank that recently released a nationwide study on the issue."

Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA)

Date Captured	Thursday August 09 2007, 11:32 AM
The Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA) has been formed to expand on and advance the ideas in the "Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind" to improve federal education policy.

Manuel 'Manny' Rivera

Date Captured

Monday August 06 2007, 7:54 AM

Times Union reports, "Rivera is Gov. Eliot Spitzer's senior policy adviser and point man on education issues, helping to oversee accountability issues proposed by the governor. He is working with the state Education Department to help implement the Contract for Excellence that Spitzer pushed through, which provides money to needy or under-performing schools but also sets priorities for making improvements. He was previously the Rochester schools superintendent and turned down an offer to run the Boston city school system to work in the Capitol."

Graduation Matters: Improving Accountability for High School Graduation

Date Captured

Thursday August 02 2007, 8:26 AM

By Daria Hall, Assistant Director for K-12 Policy at The Education Trust. "The Education Trust report provides recommendations for policy changes at both the federal and state levels, including the following priorities for NCLB reauthorization: * Crafting meaningful graduation-rate accountability provisions in the law and providing high schools with a greater share of the federal investment in education so they have more resources to meet ambitious improvement goals; * Targeting federal investments to improve high school curriculum and assessments; and *Better directing funds and interventions toward the lowest performing schools to ensure that high-poverty and high-minority schools get their fair share of the tools they need to be successful – strong teachers, high standards and high-quality curriculum and assessments."

State is on guard to keep schools safe

Date Captured

Wednesday August 01 2007, 8:52 AM

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle guest essayist Alan Ray, director of communications and policy development, New York State Education Department opines, "During the past year, we have: *Provided help to Rochester's and other schools to create safer, more supportive learning environments and prevent bullying. *Held focus groups with parents, students, teachers and administrators to get more ideas on how to make schools safer. *Given uniform training to school personnel statewide on accurate reporting. *Made site visits to nearly 100 schools statewide to determine the accuracy of their data. *Provided detailed guidelines on the Internet so school officials can refer to them easily as needed. We are constantly adding to a question-and-answer document on the Web site as people seek additional guidance. *Developed a fully automated incident reporting system so schools can submit data electronically. This system has controls to help schools check the accuracy of their data and omit inadvertent errors."

Congress Prepares for NCLB Reauthorization Debate

Date Captured

Tuesday July 17 2007, 7:08 AM

School Reform News contributor Dan Lips, education analyst at The Heritage Foundation writes, "After months of committee hearings, congressional leaders are now looking to begin the legislative process for the scheduled reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Democrats control Congress, but Republican leaders are proposing an agenda of policy ideas to be considered in the reauthorization."

Federal Support for Adolescent Literacy: A Solid Investment

Date Captured

Friday July 13 2007, 9:34 AM

This Alliance for Excellent Education brief lays out a set of strategic policy recommendations that include: (1) Encourage schools, districts, and states to articulate clear, comprehensive, actionable plans for improving literacy instruction; (2) Invest in tools that help schools identify struggling readers and appropriately adjust instruction in grades 4-12; (3) Invest in ongoing professional development programs designed to help all middle and high school teachers provide effective reading and writing instruction in their subject area; (4) Support and invest in accountability systems that give teachers strong incentives to provide effective reading and writing instruction; and, (5) Invest in ongoing research on and evaluation of strategies to improve adolescent literacy.

Production Functions and Cost Functions for Public Education

Date Captured

Wednesday June 20 2007, 9:31 AM

A monthly column by EFAP director, John Yinger -- "Economists study the production of a good or service using two closely related tools: production functions and cost functions. A production function shows the outputs that can be produced with various combinations of inputs. A cost function show how much it costs to produce various output levels given input prices. These two tools are widely used in studying public education. Dozens of scholars have used education production functions to estimate the impact of a policy, such as smaller class sizes, on student performance (the output). Many other scholars have studied the cost of reaching various levels of student performance, given the wages that must be paid to attract teachers of a given quality (often called the opportunity wage)."

Reforming No Child Left Behind by Allowing States to Opt Out: An A-PLUS for Federalism

Date Captured

Tuesday June 19 2007, 5:28 PM

Dan Lips, Education Analyst in the Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation writes, "After more than four decades of unsuccessful federal intervention, it is time for Congress to consider a new approach. Returning greater authority to the states would empower parents, local school leaders, state policymakers, and governors to take responsibility for local schools and implement reforms to strengthen public education."

Reauthorizing No Child Left Behind: Schools React

Date Captured	Monday June 18 2007, 12:14 PM
NPR "Tell Me More" reports, "Andrew Rotherham is a published author on education policy and co-founder of the think tank, Education Sector. He discusses the broader implications of the No Child Left Behind Act and how schools are reacting to the pending reauthorization."

Answering the Question That Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased Since No Child Left Behind?

Date Captured	Wednesday June 06 2007, 9:40 AM
Center on Education Policy Report: Using testing data from all 50 states, this study addresses two key questions in the debate surrounding the No Child Left Behind Act: has student achievement increased and have achievement gaps narrowed since NCLB was enacted in 2002?

Foster Care Children Need Better Educational Opportunities

Date Captured

Tuesday June 05 2007, 3:33 PM

Dan Lips, Education Analyst in the Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation writes, "Federal, state, and local policymakers should amend existing programs to improve education options for foster children. As policymakers design these reforms, they should consider four important principles. *New education options for foster children should be structured to address potential legal and constitutional questions. *Opportunity scholarship programs should be structured to ensure that they do not create adverse incentives for placement and adoption. *Scholarship programs should be designed to address non-tuition costs and considerations arising from school choice. *Policymakers should consult with people and organizations in the foster care community when designing their initiatives to ensure that policies best meet foster children's needs."

State improves tracking of student performance, information

Date Captured

Sunday June 03 2007, 10:18 AM

The Journal News reports, "Because every public school and charter school student has been given a unique 10-digit identification number, it is possible to track students as they move from school to school, anywhere in the state. That will help the state develop more accurate graduation and dropout rates. The system, which will be maintained by an outside contractor, also holds the promise of richer analysis of student performance. Musser said it would be possible, for example, to analyze the relationship between a pupil's performance on third-grade tests and his or her achievement in upper grades. Such research will help the state and schools develop education policy and help students who are poor performers in lower grades be able to pass high school Regents exams."

Georgia Department of Education Attendance Policy

Date Captured	Friday May 18 2007, 1:10 PM

Leading Lady: Sallie Mae and the Origins of the Student Loan Controversy

Date Captured

Wednesday May 16 2007, 7:52 AM

Education Sector Policy Analyst Erin Dillon explains how a small, government-sponsored program has evolved over four decades into a vast, aggressive, and highly lucrative industry. No company has been more ambitious than Sallie Mae, the industry's dominant player, and the story of Sallie Mae's rise from a government-regulated niche enterprise to a fully private, multi-billion-dollar corporation goes a long way toward explaining how and why the student loan industry has landed at the center of controversy today.

Section 104.1(i) of Commissioner’s Regulations

Date Captured

Monday May 14 2007, 9:18 PM

EXCERPT: (vi) a description of the incentives to be employed to encourage pupil attendance and any disciplinary sanctions to be used to discourage unexcused pupil absences, tardiness and early departures; (vii) a description of the notice to be provided to the parent(s) of or person(s) in parental relation to pupils who are absent, tardy or depart early without proper excuse. (viii) a description of the process to develop specific intervention strategies to be employed by teachers and other school employees to address identified patterns of unexcused pupil absence, tardiness or early departure; (ix) identification of the person(s) designated in each school building who will be responsible for reviewing pupil attendance records and initiating appropriate action to address unexcused pupil absence, tardiness and early departure consistent with the comprehensive attendance policy. (3) The board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board, county vocational education and extension board and governing body of a nonpublic school shall annually review the building level pupil attendance records and if such records show a decline in pupil attendance the board or governing body shall revise the comprehensive pupil attendance policy and make any revisions to the plan deemed necessary to improve pupil attendance. (4) Each board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board, county vocational education and extension board, and nonpublic school shall promote necessary community awareness of its comprehensive attendance policy by: (i) providing a plain language summary of the policy to the parents or persons in parental relation to students at the beginning of each school year and taking such other steps deemed necessary to promote the understanding of such policy by students and their parents or persons in parental relation; (ii) providing each teacher with a copy of the policy and any amendments thereto as soon as practicable following initial adoption or amendment of the policy, and providing new teachers with a copy of the policy upon their employment; and (iii) making copies of the policy available to any other member of the community upon request.

104.l Pupil attendance recordkeeping

Date Captured

Monday May 14 2007, 10:43 AM

EXCERPT (FULL TEXT AT LINK) (ix) identification of the person(s) designated in each school building who will be responsible for reviewing pupil attendance records and initiating appropriate action to address unexcused pupil absence, tardiness and early departure consistent with the comprehensive attendance policy. (3) The board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board, county vocational education and extension board and governing body of a nonpublic school shall annually review the building level pupil attendance records and if such records show a decline in pupil attendance the board or governing body shall revise the comprehensive pupil attendance policy and make any revisions to the plan deemed necessary to improve pupil attendance. (4) Each board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board, county vocational education and extension board, and nonpublic school shall promote necessary community awareness of its comprehensive attendance policy by: (i) providing a plain language summary of the policy to the parents or persons in parental relation to students at the beginning of each school year and taking such other steps deemed necessary to promote the understanding of such policy by students and their parents or persons in parental relation; (ii) providing each teacher with a copy of the policy and any amendments thereto as soon as practicable following initial adoption or amendment of the policy, and providing new teachers with a copy of the policy upon their employment; and (iii) making copies of the policy available to any other member of the community upon request.

As Studies Stress Link to Scores, Districts Get Tough on Attendance

Date Captured

Saturday May 12 2007, 12:20 PM

Education Week reports, "Student attendance also has been a big focus in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y. When officials of the 37,000-student Rochester district looked at attendance and achievement patterns, researchers found that students who had scored between 85 and 100 on the state English tests had attended school an average of 93 percent of the time. Students who scored below the 54th percentile had an 85 percent attendance rate. The district is now phasing in new minimum attendance requirements, shooting to hit 93 percent districtwide by 2004. Students are now required to attend school 85 percent of the time, or 153 days a year. The new policy would add the equivalent of 14 days of school. Rochester also is getting the community to help with its efforts. Attendance information is shared with community organizations such as the YMCA, city recreation programs, and churches so that they can help reinforce the commitment to school attendance. In addition, the city has coordinated a summer-jobs program for students who maintain at least C averages and who attend school at least 90 percent of the time. 'We must deconstruct the policies that encourage kids to miss or leave school, and construct the incentives to get them to stay,' said Clifford B. Janey, the superintendent of the Rochester schools. 'Attendance should be linked to achievement.' Meanwhile, Buffalo is already seeing gains that officials attribute to relatively simple adjustments in the district's attendance policy this fall. By stating a new minimum attendance rate—85 percent—and making it clear, for the first time, that students who fall short cannot take final exams, the district seems to be raising attendance. In report covering the first five weeks of the school year, one Buffalo high school's attendance rate went from 81 percent in the same period last year to 88 percent. The yearlong average-attendance rate for the school last year was 76 percent, which mean that one in every four students was absent. The 47,000-student Buffalo district is providing home visits for students who have health problems, and automated phone calls to homes for every absence. 'Children and families are making better choices,' said Susan Doyle, the principal of the Buffalo Traditional School and the chairwoman of the district's attendance committee. 'They're changing doctor's appointments, and students are coming to see me before and after school, not during classes.'"

Cell ban upheld - principals get leeway

Date Captured	Tuesday May 08 2007, 9:15 AM
NY Daily News reports, "The city's controversial school cell phone ban will stand - but principals may make exceptions, a Manhattan judge ruled yesterday. Judge Lewis Stone wrote in a 50-page decision that the Education Department's cell phone policy is not unconstitutional."

Blackboards Not Billboards

Date Captured	Sunday April 29 2007, 9:36 AM
NY Times Op-ed contributor David White, adjunct scholar at the Lexington Institute, a public policy research group opines, "All too often, America’s teachers’ unions claim to be championing education when, in fact, they’re pursuing unrelated political agendas."

Teachers want change in education policy

Date Captured

Thursday April 26 2007, 9:36 AM

Observer-Dispatch reports, "New York teachers are asking Congress to: •Allow states to develop appropriate language-arts tests for English-language learners and special-education students. English-language learners have to take the same language-arts tests as their peers, even though they may not have a full command of English. •Distinguish struggling schools from those that are successful but need limited assistance, rather than putting all schools with problems into the same category. •Stop punishing entire schools and districts based on the low test scores of a small number of students. •Adequately fund testing and accountability mandates in the law. New York received $911 million less in funding last year than what Congress authorized when it passed the legislation in 2002, NYSUT said."

CITY EDUCATION PLAN TO BOOT 'NEGATIVE' PTA FOLKS

Date Captured

Sunday April 22 2007, 9:20 AM

NY Post reports, "Principals may soon have the power to expel parents from PTAs. The city Department of Education is mulling a stunning policy change that would allow principals to ban parents from the volunteer panels for patterns of 'negative behavior.' The controversial proposal to alter existing chancellor's regulations comes as the DOE is trying to increase parent involvement - adding paid parent coordinators at each school and hiring a $150,000 parent czar."

Mr. Rivera Goes to Albany

Date Captured	Saturday April 21 2007, 10:58 PM
City Journal, Spring 2007; Peter Meyer, a Contributing Editor of Education Next writes, "Rivera says that he will push the governor’s initiatives, which he helped create as a member of Spitzer’s education-policy transition team; they include detailed accountability standards and the Contract for Excellence, which obligates educators to spend money on 'what works.'"

Boosting Accountability in New York's Schools

Date Captured

Friday April 20 2007, 9:12 AM

How to Meet the Governor's Historic Challenge, Thursday, March 8, 2007. A panel of state and national education experts gathered at the state Capitol in Albany March 8 to examine and debate Gov. Spitzer's historic education reform plan, which aims to hold New York schools more accountable than ever before. This page features a link to a slide presentation by one of the featured speakers, and also includes streaming audio of the event including John C. Reid, Assistant Secretary for Education State of New York; Thomas W. Carroll, President, Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability; Paul E. Peterson Director, Program on Educational Policy and Governance Kennedy School of Government; Moderator: David F. Shaffer, President, Public Policy Institute of New York State; Panelists: Carl Hayden, Chancellor Emeritus, New York State Board of Regents; Richard C. Iannuzzi, President, New York State United Teachers; Timothy G. Kremer, Executive Director, New York State School Boards Association; Thomas L. Rogers, Executive Director, New York State Council of School Superintendents; Sol Stern, Contributing Editor, City Journal and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

When student lenders compete, New York wins

Date Captured

Thursday April 19 2007, 9:06 AM

NY Daily News guest writer MICHAEL DANNENBERG, director of education policy for the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute based in Washington opines, "Banks could offer far cheaper federal loans to students. In fact, one small New York company called MyRichUncle currently offers federal loans at a rate that's a full percentage point lower than Sallie Mae's. For the typical federal student loan borrower with $20,000 in debt, that translates into roughly a $1,000 savings over the life of the loan. When MyRichUncle approached colleges to get on their preferred lender lists, it was rejected - because it didn't offer schools kickbacks, stock options, call centers or computer software like Sallie Mae's. It just had a cheaper product for students. You'd think that would be enough. It is in a real market."

Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening The No Child Left Behind Act

Date Captured	Friday April 06 2007, 11:04 AM
Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act sets forth the policy proposals of Secretary Spellings for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act . U.S. Department of Education, Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., 2007.

Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort

Date Captured

Thursday April 05 2007, 9:16 AM

National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance study finds: "Test scores were not significantly higher in classrooms using the reading and mathematics software products than those in control classrooms. In each of the four groups of products-reading in first grade and in fourth grade, mathematics in sixth grade, and high school algebra-the evaluation found no significant differences in student achievement between the classrooms that used the technology products and classrooms that did not. There was substantial variation between schools regarding the effects on student achievement. Although the study collected data on many school and classroom characteristics, only two characteristics were related to the variation in reading achievement. For first grade, effects were larger in schools that had smaller student-teacher ratios (a measure of class size). For fourth grade, effects were larger when treatment teachers reported higher levels of use of the study product." Dynarski, Mark, Roberto Agodini, Sheila Heaviside, Timothy Novak, Nancy Carey, Larissa Campuzano, Barbara Means, Robert Murphy, William Penuel, Hal Javitz, Deborah Emery, and Willow Sussex. Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, 2007. Prepared under Contract No.: ED-01-CO-0039/0007 with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

North Carolina local county students with good attendance could skip exam

Date Captured

Wednesday April 04 2007, 3:45 PM

Lexington (North Carolina) Dispatch reports, "The policy would allow students to exempt one final exam per semester if they have good class attendance. However, the exemption could not be applied to any course for which there is a required state end-of-course examination, VoCATS examination or transfer or college course examination. VoCATS are state assessments used for career and technical education classes."

Answering some of parents' most-asked questions about No Child Left Behind

Date Captured	Tuesday April 03 2007, 10:09 AM
Arizona Republic reports, "The Arizona Republic sat down with Spellings to get answers to parents' most-asked questions about the centerpiece of the administration's education policy: the No Child Left Behind Act."

Outside-the-box funding

Date Captured

Sunday April 01 2007, 10:19 AM

Newsday Op-Ed contributor Martin R. Cantor, director of the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute at Dowling College in Oakdale and a former Suffolk County economic development commissioner opines, "Let's think of teachers as state, rather than local, employees. Teachers and their benefits account for 68 percent of all education spending in the state, or $18.5 billion. If Albany paid teachers, local school budgets would drop by 68 percent. Remaining education expenses could be covered by modest local commercial property taxes."

Divvying up the aid

Date Captured

Sunday March 25 2007, 10:29 AM

Newsday Op-Ed contributor Leanna Stiefel, professor of economics at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and an associate director at NYU's Institute for Education and Social Policy writes, "New York has been out front in the amount of political bargaining that determines funding, but is way behind in making the system fairer and more transparent. More than 40 states use some version of a 'foundation' aid formula that bases state aid on student need and district fiscal capacity. Many allow the richer, often suburban districts to supplement the amount with local revenues, but usually an add-on limit is arrived at by a political compromise that keeps the richer suburban districts supporting the entire state system. Few states, though, have no real formula and start as New York does from a determination of shares. New York's citizens and lawmakers have a number of decisions to make. Among them is an answer to the question: Are we a state community? In a time and world that are divided and divisive, do we in this state want to move toward a public school system that provides adequate funds to students who are at particular risk of not making it? Do we want to try to provide equal opportunity for all? Or not?"

The Administrative Burden of No Child Left Behind

Date Captured

Sunday March 25 2007, 9:20 AM

Dan Lips, Education Analyst and Evan Feinberg, Research Assistant in Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation write, "As Congress considers the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, it should address the growing administrative burden that federal education policy imposes on state and local authorities. By allowing states to opt out of federal regulations and bureaucracy, A PLUS would return the authority to improve education to state and local officials. State and local communities would have the freedom to redirect resources currently expended on regulatory compliance toward promising reforms that boost academic achievement. Simplifying education policy in this way would bring about greater transparency in federal education spending and, ultimately, greater public accountability over taxpayer funding of education."

50-State Report on Key State Education Policies

Date Captured

Tuesday March 20 2007, 12:06 PM

From the Council of Chief State School Officers , "The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announces publication of the biennial report Key State Education Policies on PK-12 Education: 2006. The most recent edition of this report updates two decades of research, providing 50-state analysis and trends for state policies that define teaching and learning across the nation. The report covers several areas of state policy that will define efforts of states, districts, and schools to meet key requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)."

PARENT PROTEST SHAKES SCHOOL-SHAKEUP MEETING

Date Captured

Tuesday March 20 2007, 8:04 AM

NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Dozens of angry parents, students and activists last night disrupted a panel meeting headed by Chancellor Joel Klein, in protest of his planned reorganization of the city's school system. Chanting, 'No respect for parents' and 'Listen to the parents,' about 60 protesters stalled the monthly gathering of the Panel for Educational Policy at Department of Education headquarters for 20 minutes."

NCLB and the Future of Federal Education Policy

Date Captured

Saturday March 10 2007, 9:09 AM

View webcast or download podcast of this Cato Institute event featuring Martin A. Davis, Jr., Senior Writer and Editor, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation; Dan Lips, Education Analyst in Domestic Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation; Andrew J. Rotherham, Co-Director, Education Sector; Dick Armey, Chairman, FreedomWorks, former House Majority Leader; Susan B. Neuman, Professor in Educational Studies, University of Michigan, Former Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education; Neal McCluskey, Policy Analyst, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute; and Andrew J. Coulson, Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute.

Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict

Date Captured

Thursday March 08 2007, 2:48 PM

Neal McCluskey, policy analyst at the Center for Educational Freedom writes, "This paper reexamines the accepted story about public schooling’s role in creating unity and upholding democracy. First, it documents outbreaks over the past academic year of the most divisive kinds of public school conflicts— those pitting people’s deeply held values against each other—and makes clear that such combat is inevitable when everyone is required to pay for an official school system that only the most politically powerful control. Next, it examines the historical record of American education and finds that conflict and division have long been part of public schooling. Finally, the report identifies the true foundations of the nation’s unity and success, and explains why the only system of education that can effectively support a free society is one that is itself grounded in freedom."

Debunking a Special Education Myth

Date Captured

Thursday March 08 2007, 8:38 AM

Jay P. Greene, professor of education reform, University of Arkansas, and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and Marcus A. Winters, senior research associate at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and doctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas write, " Can spiraling special education costs explain why educational achievement remained stagnant over the past three decades while real education spending more than doubled? Policy makers, education researchers, and school district officials often make this claim. Special education students—goes the argument—are draining resources away from regular education students."

New York City Schools Attendance Memo re: Law and Policy

Date Captured

Wednesday March 07 2007, 1:21 PM

The New York City Department of Education is committed to the academic success and social development of all students. Our objective for the 2006 – 2007 school year is to ensure that all students are provided with the necessary intervention and supports that encourage regular school attendance. Regular attendance is critical to successful achievement in school. Conversely, poor attendance is one of the most significant indicators of potential risk. It is our goal to ensure that students are provided with every available resource to support and facilitate their successful completion of school. To this end, the accurate tracking of student attendance is fundamental to the implementation of effective educational services. The Department of Education has established a clearly defined system for recording, tracking and monitoring school attendance. This system is supported and implemented by a series of attendance guidelines and procedures set forth in Chancellor’s Regulations, State Education Laws, and descriptive memoranda distributed to school staff. This Memorandum provides information about attendance law and policy, attendance procedures for this school year, the implementation of attendance services, clearance of register procedures, revised procedures for addressing student absences, requirements for reporting educational neglect and child abuse, and discharge and transfer procedures including the process for conducting and tracking planning interviews on the ATS system. Additionally information about, “ILOG” the new student intervention screen on ATS, will be provided.

Bridging Differences

Date Captured	Thursday March 01 2007, 8:23 AM
Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools. Bridging Differences will offer their insights on what matters most in education.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG TAPS CRITIC FOR EDUCATION POST

Date Captured

Thursday March 01 2007, 6:55 AM

NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Martine Guerrier, a Brooklyn mom and member of the Panel for Educational Policy, the successor to the Board of Education, will be paid $150,000 a year to manage parent-support functions as the CEO of family engagement for the Department of Education. The differences between the pair were evident immediately after the mayor announced her appointment at City Hall, when she disagreed with his assessment that "most parents really are pleased" with the school system."

Choice would take the fighting out of schooling our kids

Date Captured

Sunday February 25 2007, 9:45 AM

Arizona Republic contributor Neal McCluskey , education policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom writes, "Readers of The Arizona Republic this year have witnessed writers, including Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, lobbing charges of racism at each other in an education battle royale. Many have no doubt found the fight troubling and will likely find it even more upsetting to learn that these conflicts are inevitable in any school system for which many must pay, but only a few can control. Thankfully, though elusive, peace can be attained."

Dunce cap on school reform

Date Captured

Saturday February 24 2007, 8:48 AM

TU publishes LA Times story, "Although the reports came out five years after passage of President Bush's signature education reform initiative, No Child Left Behind, Hall and others said it would be unfair to blame that program for the students' poor showing. They were already in high school when No Child Left Behind was enacted, and it is primarily aimed at elementary and middle schools." (Read report at www.educationnewyork.com/policy filed under Achievement Gap)

Board proposals include closing Arizona homeless schools; In a move that would follow a national trend, one option for Pappas is to convert its schools into resource centers for its kid

Date Captured

Friday February 23 2007, 9:19 AM

Arizona Republic reports, "One of the options mirrors a national movement to convert the few remaining homeless schools to resource centers and keep children in their old neighborhood schools, no matter where they are living, said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the Minneapolis-based National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. She works in Washington, D.C. Studies indicate that students fare best if they stay put, giving them some stability at a time when their lives are in chaos. Many families don't know that children have the right to stay in their schools, even if they lose their housing or live in a shelter. Schools must provide transportation and support."

Breakthrough in School Choice

Date Captured

Friday February 23 2007, 8:20 AM

Adam Schaeffer, policy analyst for the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute writes, "Utah has just approved the nation's first universal school choice program, and in New York, Eliot Spitzer has become the first Democratic governor to propose a private school choice program in his state budget. These two firsts are a major shot in the arm for education reform, and they offer a glimpse of the possibilities to come."

School Finance Reform: Back to Where We Started

Date Captured

Friday February 23 2007, 7:18 AM

New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies studies finds, "The objectives intended by the court were to equalize opportunity to obtain adequate education (“pupil equity”) and to equalize the tax burden associated with providing it (“tax equity”). However, it now appears that the laws and programs to reform school finance, enacted beginning in 1999 to comply with the Claremont II decision, have had no effect on pupil equity, as measured by per pupil spending. Among the highest spending districts, spending is now actually a little higher relative to the median than it was in 1999. Also, while the new laws enacted in 1999 initially did affect taxpayer equity and resulted in somewhat more equal tax rates for schools among towns, much of that change has been eroded away in the past six years. If current trends continue, the variation in tax rates will be just as great in two years as it was in 1998. In essence, measured against the two goals of the Claremont II decision, the state’s school finance reform has had little impact, and we are back to where we started in 1999."

Between Policy and Reality: School Administrators Critical of Department of Education School Safety Policy

Date Captured

Thursday February 22 2007, 7:26 AM

A REPORT BY PUBLIC ADVOCATE BETSY GOTBAUM, FEBRUARY 2007. "The Public Advocate makes these recommendation: The Public Advocate made these recommendations: • The DOE must solicit the input of teachers, students, principals, parents, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders in the development of school safety policies that are conducive to teaching and learning. • The DOE, in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget, should list all school safety budget allocations as line items in the city budget, including items such as Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (SAVE) provisions. • The DOE must ensure that all schools have “time-out” or SAVE rooms on-site for disruptive students, as required by state law. • The DOE must substantially enhance the role of conflict education and resolution programming in schools and make training for teachers and administrators mandatory. 'The DOE must provide the resources needed to ensure a safe environment for students and school staff,” Gotbaum said. “School safety must be a top priority. ”

Educators React to No Child Left Behind

Date Captured	Wednesday February 21 2007, 8:51 PM
NPR reports, "Joel Packer, director of education policy and practice with the National Education Association, offers reaction from educators to recent proposed changes to No Child Left Behind."

February 5-9: Dianne Piché vs. Mike Petrilli vs. Joel Packer on No Child Left Behind

Date Captured	Wednesday February 21 2007, 4:09 PM
Now five years old, the landmark federal law is up for reauthorization. Is it working? What needs to change? This three-way exchange features: Dianne Piché, Executive Director of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights; Mike Petrilli, Vice President for National Programs and Policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation; Joel Packer, ESEA policy manager for the National Education Association.

The Segregation of American Teachers

Date Captured

Wednesday February 21 2007, 9:44 AM

By Erica Frankenberg, M.Ed., is a Research Assistant at The Civil Rights Project and Professor Gary Orfield, Professor of Education and Social Policy and Director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. "This report shows that in an increasingly segregated national system of schools, faculty segregation tends to add to — rather than counteract — the separation of students. We see that the white teachers, who continue to dominate the teaching profession, tend to grow up with little racial/ethnic diversity in their own education or experience. Not only did white teachers, on average, attend schools when they were elementary school students that were over 90% white, they are currently teaching in schools where almost 90% of their faculty colleagues are white and over 70% of students are white."

Report: Districts Unprepared for Education Bill

Date Captured

Wednesday February 21 2007, 9:38 AM

Harvard Crimson reports, "The report, 'Domesticating a Revolution: No Child Left Behind Reforms and State Administrative Response,' was published in this winter’s Harvard Educational Review just as the law comes up for reauthorization in Congress this year. It identifies budgetary limitations, constraints on human resources, and limitations on state governments’ capacities to intervene in individual schools and districts as some of the problems states face in implementing No Child Left Behind. The report was authored by Sunderman and Gary A. Orfield, a professor of education and social policy and the co-founder and director of the Civil Rights Project. "

No Child Left Behind as an Anti-Poverty Measure, Teacher Education Quarterly, Spring 2007

Date Captured

Tuesday February 20 2007, 7:06 PM

In the article, Jean Anyon, a professor of educational and social policy and Kiersten Greene, a doctoral student, both with the Doctoral Program in Urban Education of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York.demonstrate that there are significant economic realities, and existing public policies, that severely curtail the power of education to function as a route out of poverty for poor people."

Sharing Information: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Participation in Juvenile Justice Programs

Date Captured

Sunday February 18 2007, 9:00 PM

1997.Figures, charts, forms, and tables are not included in this ASCII plain-text file. U.S. Department of Education. Family Policy Compliance Office, Shay Bilchik, Administrator. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention The principal authors of this document are: Michael L. Medaris, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Ellen Campbell, Family Policy Compliance Office; Professor Bernard James, J.D., Pepperdine, University School of Law.

National standards under review as lawmakers prepare to take up No Child Left Behind law

Date Captured

Saturday January 13 2007, 3:42 PM

AP NANCY ZUCKERBROD reports, "Among educators, there is a concern national standards would become outdated and that changing them would be difficult and bureaucratic. Brenda Dietrich, a superintendent in the Topeka, Kan., area, said she has not formed an opinion on national standards, but does see a logic to them. 'If we're all going to be held to a standard, it certainly would be nice if it were the same standard,' Dietrich said. That is probably going to be the winning argument, says Michael Dannenberg, who directs education policy at the Washington-based New America Foundation, which recently held a forum on national standards. 'My view is that the country is on an inexorable march toward national standards, and the question is not if but when and how,' he said."

Lift SUNY onto honor roll of American universities

Date Captured

Monday January 08 2007, 6:29 AM

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle contributor Ed O'Shea, English professor at SUNY Oswego writes, "During his campaign, Gov. Eliot Spitzer expressed two goals for public higher education in New York: Employ more of the state's college graduates in the state. Enhance the quality and reputation of the State University of New York among other large state systems. I believe the two objectives are closely related. While some of the causes of SUNY's comparative malaise are structural and systemic and not easily addressed, others will respond to intelligent public policy initiatives. Here are my suggestions, gleaned from almost 30 years teaching in SUNY:" READ MORE

NYSED Update on Limited English Proficient/English Language Learner (LEP/ELL

Date Captured

Tuesday January 02 2007, 8:09 AM

New York state education Commissioner Mills has issued a field memorandum regarding the Regents and Department's efforts to advocate for change in the federal policy that requires all English language learners (ELLs) who have been in this country for more than one year to take their state's English language arts tests. Even as the Department works to change the U.S. Department of Education's policy, we must follow the law and implement the policy during this coming year. The field memorandum identifies a number of additional steps the Department has undertaken at various levels to help our ELL students.

School tax relief is good, but rest of record is sketchy

Date Captured

Friday December 29 2006, 4:56 AM

Poughkeepsie Journal contributor Edward McCormick, member of the Arlington school board, chairman of the New York State Educational Conference Board and a member of the Dutchess County BOCES board writes, "The enactment of the School Tax Relief (STAR) program was the governor’s most creative and largest statewide accomplishment that affects public schools. STAR now exceeds $3 billion in school tax relief. While not intended to increase school funding, STAR contributed to a period (1998-2001) of unprecedented success for school budget passage at the polls. Three years of record school aid increases, a booming economy, plummeting pension costs and initiation of the statewide voting day helped also. While advantageous to the passage of schools budgets, STAR missed an opportunity for education policy reform."

Immigrant Children Shielded From State Tests, but for Whose Protection?

Date Captured

Wednesday December 27 2006, 3:37 AM

NY Times reports, "Like Mr. Noguera [professor of sociology at Steinhardt School of Education at New York University], Diane Ravitch, the education historian, says she thinks testing students after one year may not be a bad idea, but is concerned about how the scores are used. Comparing this year’s Port Chester fourth graders with last year’s based on the upcoming test will put this year’s students and the schools needlessly to shame because last year’s classes did not have many immigrant children tested. But comparing how well students do this school year with how those same students do a year later, Ms. Ravitch said, would provide a telling reflection of the school’s progress. The federal government has started a pilot program in such so-called “growth model” comparisons in Tennessee and North Carolina. What many experts seem to agree on is that No Child Left Behind testing policy lacks a fine enough filter for the nuances of immigrant education."

"Alternative" Charter School Authorizers: Playing a Vital Role in the Charter Movement

Date Captured

Tuesday December 26 2006, 8:06 AM

This Progressive Policy Institute paper by Louann Bierlein Palmer assesses the quality of alternative charter authorizers including independent state-level charter boards, higher education institutions, municipal offices and nonprofit groups. Palmer determines that the best authorizers share three traits: 1. They desire their jobs as authorizers; 2. They are relatively insulated from politics; and 3. They have the ability to create the adequate infrastructure necessary to achieve high quality outcomes.

Education Study: Remake the Public Schools

Date Captured	Wednesday December 20 2006, 8:26 AM
NPR interview, "New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce recommends a major overhaul of U.S. public schools. Commission member Harry Spence, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, and Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, discuss the report."

Jeb Bush leaving a tumultuous mark on Florida's schools

Date Captured

Monday December 18 2006, 6:35 PM

"AP reports, "Others now are measuring the governor's education performance as he prepares to leave Tallahassee. There's little consensus but even his critics concede Bush put a laser focus on education in Florida like never before. 'I really believe he has a sincere desire to help kids who are in schools that are not performing at the level they should be,'' said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association. `'You've got to give the guy credit for that. He did something that we've neglected in this state for far too long.' The union leader, though, faulted the governor for expanding private school vouchers instead of adopting proven solutions and for fighting against class-size reduction by claiming it was too expensive while still cutting taxes. The governor also missed opportunities to improve schools because he refused to include the union in policy decisions, Ford said."

Expert Panel Proposes Far-Reaching Redesign of the American Education System

Date Captured

Friday December 15 2006, 3:30 AM

NY Times David M. HERSZENHORN reports, "The commission’s work was quickly hailed by some as a potentially groundbreaking document. 'This report has the potential to change the debate on education at the national level,' said Jack Jennings, the president of the Center on Education Policy, who is a Democrat and prominent expert on the federal education law. The national teachers’ unions were apprehensive. Antonia Cortese, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the proposals included 'some seriously flawed ideas with faddish allure that won’t produce better academic results.' Reg Weaver, the president of the National Education Association, urged 'caution in calling for drastic changes.'”

North Carolina will study tutoring companies

Date Captured

Thursday December 14 2006, 9:33 AM

News-Record reports, "The N.C. Department of Public Instruction hopes to have some answers next year. In October, the department hired the Center for Research in Education Policy at the University of Memphis to start evaluating about 50 tutoring companies that work with schools that have repeatedly failed to meet federal testing measures. The contract, at a cost of almost $94,000, ends in fall 2007. Although the state approves tutoring providers, it has not evaluated their work as required by the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind Act."

The Charter State Option: Charting a Course Toward Federalism in Education

Date Captured

Wednesday December 06 2006, 5:40 PM

Dan Lips, Education Analyst, Evan Feinberg, Research Assistant in Domestic Policy Studies, and Jennifer A. Marshall, Director of Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation conclude, "Beginning in 2007, policymakers should steer a course toward restoring state control of education by enacting a charter state option. Congress should allow all states to enter into an alternative contractual arrangement with the federal government in which they would be freed from federal program mandates while taking responsibility for results. Such federalism would create an environment in which promising state and local education strategies can flourish."

'Resegregation' of Metro schools cited at high court

Date Captured

Tuesday December 05 2006, 8:50 AM

The Tennessean reports, "Smrekar [associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University] said Metro Nashville's schools have become drastically unbalanced since the race-based requirements were abandoned. Metro Nashville has about 72,000 students, 37.8 percent of which are white, 46.5 percent black, 12.1 Hispanic, 3.4 percent Asian and less than 1 percent Native American or Pacific Islander. 'Nashville has more single-race schools in the district because they have removed race as an element in assigning students,' she said. 'Without a race-conscious policy, you get resegregation.' Since the end of desegregation, the district is home not only to more single-race schools, but also to more schools with a high poverty rate. And with a high poverty rate comes inequality, Smrekar said."

Small Schools Exclude Many Immigrants

Date Captured

Monday December 04 2006, 8:37 AM

Gotham Gazette reports, "It is the policy of the New York City Department of Education to allow a small school to exclude English-language learners (and special education students) during its first two years of operation. This is permitted, according to the department, so that the schools can build up the necessary infrastructure to provide the instructional services these students require. But, as it turns out, many of the older small schools still do not offer programs for these students, according to a new report issued by The New York Immigration Coalition (the organization for which we work), Advocates for Children, and seven immigrant community-based organizations."

NEA stands against real reform to help students

Date Captured

Saturday December 02 2006, 9:04 AM

Chicago Sun-Times contributor David White, adjunct scholar at the Lexington Institute, a public policy research organization based in Arlington, Va. writes, "The number of high school dropouts is reaching crisis proportions. Today, nearly half of all blacks and Latinos fail to graduate. Dropouts earn about $260,000 less over the course of their lives. They're 72 percent more likely to be unemployed. Among prisoners, 80 percent don't have a high school degree. The National Education Association just issued a much-ballyhooed 12-point plan to eradicate this problem. But don't hold your breath. The misguided plan is more about shifting resources to the NEA's power base than doing what it takes to ensure that more students will finish school."

"A profound national crisis in higher education"

Date Captured	Thursday November 30 2006, 1:10 PM
NRO contributor George Leef, director of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy writes, "The fact that employing adjunct faculty helps significantly in keeping down the cost of going to college barely appears at all in this discussion."

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

Date Captured

Thursday November 30 2006, 7:59 AM

Columbia Teachers College Bruce Baker, associate professor in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Kansas and Michael A. Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity and a professor of law and educational practice at Teachers College, Columbia University write, "Having both worked diligently for years to rectify inequities in education finance systems, we are concerned that the particular silver bullet emphasized in the Fordham report- 'an approach known as "weighted student funding"- 'would, if enacted as proposed, be more harmful than helpful to children's interests."

New York City Schools hit on immigration bar

Date Captured

Wednesday November 29 2006, 7:01 AM

NY Daily News Erin Einhorn reports, "The report charges the vast majority of small schools either don't have services for so-called 'English language learners' (ELLs), who comprise almost 12% of the high school population, or exclude them altogether. It also says that immigrant families have less access to information about options for their kids. The city Education Department allows new schools to exclude both ELLs and special-ed students in their first two years because the schools are too new to properly serve those kids. It's a policy being reviewed by the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, which launched a probe after a complaint from a citywide group of high school parents. "

KIDS HIT LANGUAGE BARRIER

Date Captured

Wednesday November 29 2006, 6:56 AM

NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Researchers could not say how many of the 184 new small schools created under Bloomberg exercise the two-year exclusion policy. But they found that 41 percent of 126 small schools surveyed do not offer any English-as-a-Second Language or bilingual services - apparently in violation of city, state and federal laws. 'The problem isn't just access,' said Chung-Wha Hong, director of the New York Immigration Coalition. 'Sometimes they can get in the door but they then face a long-term problem because there are no services for them.' The city Department of Education insisted that only a handful of small schools did not have a single ESL student enrolled."

Schools, teachers fight No Child Left Behind in court

Date Captured

Tuesday November 28 2006, 4:24 PM

CNN reports, "School districts in three states and the nation's largest teachers union asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to revive a lawsuit challenging the way government-mandated programs are funded. The National Education Association and districts in Michigan, Vermont and Texas had sued to block the No Child Left Behind law, President Bush's signature education policy. They argued that schools should not have to comply with requirements that aren't paid for by the federal government."

Public Colleges as ‘Engines of Inequality’

Date Captured

Thursday November 23 2006, 3:22 AM

NY Times opined, "The obvious first step would be to boost the value of the federal Pell Grant program — a critical tool in keeping college affordable that the federal government has shamefully ceased to fund at a level that meets the national need. But larger Pell Grants can’t solve this crisis alone. Policy changes will also be required in the states, where public universities have been choking off college access and upward mobility for the poor by shifting away from the traditional need-based aid formula to a so-called merit formula that heavily favors affluent students. The resulting drop in the fortunes of even high-performing low-income students — many of whom no longer attend college at all — is documented in an eye-opening report released recently by the Education Trust, a nonpartisan foundation devoted to education reform."

SCHOOL SANITY: COURT OPTS FOR RESTRAINT

Date Captured

Tuesday November 21 2006, 6:44 AM

NY Post contributor E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy writes, "It will take a determined governor to prevent legislators and the usual special-interest groups from using CFE as an excuse to promote Albany's traditional education 'solution' - lots more money, no reform. But thanks to the Court of Appeals, these issues at least will be contested in the right forum. In one of his more beneficial legacies, Pataki stocked New York's highest court with judges who were unwilling to micromanage policy. They've now kicked the ball back to the Legislature, once and for all. CFE and its allies must turn their attention to direct lobbying of the people's elected representatives - which is just the way it should be."

Indiana University groups recommend new test for special-education students

Date Captured	Tuesday November 21 2006, 6:20 AM
AP reports, "The recommendation by the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community and the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy focuses on a federal law's requirement that special-education students pass annual achievement tests at the same rate as other students."

Courtroom Alchemy: Adequacy advocates turn guesstimates into gold

Date Captured

Monday November 20 2006, 8:07 PM

James W. Guthrie, professor of public policy and education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and Matthew G. Springer, research assistant professor of public policy and education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University write In Education Next, "The principled cause of adequacy is legitimate. America’s public schools surely would be enhanced if assured the optimal mix of resources, incentives, practices, and structures. Consequently, we set forth three recommendations by which adequacy-driven reform and cost modeling strategies can become more effective." Authors recommendations include investing in research, raising the standards and changing the venue from the courthouse to the statehouse.

Use of Technology in Education

Date Captured

Friday November 17 2006, 5:46 PM

The Board of Regents created a statewide Technology Policy and Practices Council to study the use of technology in education. As part of this effort, the Metiri Group will be conducting random surveys of school districts and other members of the University of the State of New York. Commissioner Mills urges all selected to participate in the survey process; a letter from him with additional information is available at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/metirisurvey.htm.

Study to analyze Utah charter schools

Date Captured

Sunday November 12 2006, 9:25 AM

The Salt Lake Tribune reports, "The Utah Education Policy Center plans to pursue a study on the effectiveness of the state's charter schools, examining whom they benefit and what their impact is on traditional public school districts. The work will follow the policy center's report released Thursday on the state's charter schools. That report, gathered for the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee, did not examine school quality so much as the schools' purpose and governance."

From the Desk of Jean C. Stevens, Interim Deputy Commissioner, New York State Education Department

Date Captured

Friday November 10 2006, 8:08 AM

ELA and Mathematics Results on the New York State Testing and Accountability Reporting Tool (nySTART): Beginning November 14, authorized users in schools and districts will be able to access parent reports for the grades 3-8 State assessments in mathematics using nySTART. Beginning November 13, files containing the mathematics parent reports will be distributed to Regional Information Centers and the Big 5 school districts. If your district has contracted with a Regional Information Center or BOCES to print the reports, please contact them for information about the printing and distribution schedule. Information about interpreting student scores, particularly the standard performance indices, is available at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/nystart/2006/InterpretingStudentScores_files/frame.htm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accountability Verification: On November 14, school districts and charter schools will have access to two sets of reports allowing them to verify student data that will be used to determine each district’s and school’s accountability status at the elementary and middle levels for the 2006-07 school year. Each school superintendent, school principal, and staff member with account administrator privileges can access these reports through nySTART, using their personal UserIDs and passwords. The deadline for submitting data changes to your district’s Regional Information Center or Level 1 Repository operator is November 20. More information about the verification process is available at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/nystart/. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Essential Elements Schools to Watch: New York State is one of 14 states that has joined Schools to Watch, a national recognition program developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. In New York, seven schools were selected for the 2006 group of Schools to Watch by distinguishing themselves in academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity and organization and structure. A list of the schools is available at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/mle/news/schools2watch.htm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reminder of Annual AHERA Notifications to Employees and Parents: The federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) requires all schools to provide public notification regarding inspections and other activities related to asbestos. Schools must also make its asbestos management plan available for public inspection. For more information, go to http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/facplan/AHERA/aheranotifyreminder.htm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VESID Update: National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) and National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC): Guidance regarding NIMAS and NIMAC, as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is now available at http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/persprep/nimas.htm. NIMAC is designed to streamline access to instructional materials that meet the NIMAS standard for students who are blind or have other print disabilities. Please review and share as appropriate; a response is needed no later than November 30, 2006. Provision of Special Education Services to Parentally Placed Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary School Students with Disabilities: This memorandum, available at http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/ nonpublic.htm, informs school districts of their responsibilities to provide special education services to parentally placed nonpublic school students with disabilities for the 2006-07 school year. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous News and Notes: 10/27/06 10/20/06 10/6/06 11/09/2006

First We Take Your Money, Then We Take Your Schools

Date Captured	Thursday November 09 2006, 8:31 AM
Neal McCluskey, policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom writes, "Regrettably, the reality is that George Bush has not been a good Federalist. When it comes to education, he has repeatedly flouted the Constitution and expanded the scope of federal power. If he continues to do so for the next two years, his legacy will not be what he had hoped."

New York education group merges with Annenberg Institute

Date Captured

Wednesday October 25 2006, 9:30 AM

The Brown Daily Herald reports, "The Community Involvement Program, an education policy program previously housed under the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, merged with Brown's Annenberg Institute for School Reform this September. According to Michael Grady, the deputy director of the Annenberg Institute, the CIP split from NYU because of 'serious policy disagreements,' and officials decided that Brown was the right home for the organization."

Tips for dealing with No Child Left Behind

Date Captured

Tuesday October 24 2006, 10:52 AM

Macon Telegraph prints Washington Post story, "A recent study by the public interest law network Appleseed, based in Washington, found many flaws in how schools deal with parents under the No Child Left Behind law. The report, 'It Takes a Parent,' reached five conclusions." Most of the conclusions were related to communication with parents. READ REPORT ON EDUCATION NEW YORK ONLINE, EDUCATION POLICY PAGE, NCLB FOLDER.

Public vs. Private: What's Better?

Date Captured	Tuesday October 24 2006, 7:39 AM
Post-Standard reports, "'Education is the only realm where choices are pretty much tied to where one lives, but schools both public and private are very individual and there are wide variations,' said Margarita Mayo, an education policy specialist for the Business Council of New York State. 'The reasons for their choices are numerous and complicated.'"

Study Takes a Sharp Look at the City’s Failing Students

Date Captured

Sunday October 22 2006, 8:22 AM

NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports, "The study found that students who fall behind in the number of credits they are expected to accumulate have a difficult time getting back on track at traditional high schools. Of the class of 2003’s dropouts, the study found that 93 percent fell behind in their credits at some point, indicating that their chief problem may not be the state requirement that all graduates pass a series of Regents exams. By contrast, only 19 percent of those who graduated had fallen significantly behind in their credits at any point. There are 68,000 students ages 16 to 21 who have dropped out of school, the study found, but there are 70,000 who are still enrolled even though they are behind in their credits. Effectively serving that group, the bulk of whom are 16, 17 and 18, is critical to improving the city’s graduation rate, Ms. Cahill [senior counselor for education policy to Joel I. Klein, the schools chancellor] said."

Taxpayers, teachers call for school funding reform

Date Captured

Thursday October 19 2006, 6:04 AM

Poughkeepsie Journal reports, "Trudi Renwick, senior economist from the nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute, a research and education organization, said a proper balance needs to be found in funding schools with both state and local money. Rising taxes are not due to district overspending or increasing teacher salaries, but insufficient state aid and the increasing costs of maintaining services, she said."

State education officials looking for more leeway in 'No Child Left Behind' law

Date Captured

Wednesday October 18 2006, 8:36 AM

WCF Courier reports, "Focused strictly on education policy, the task force [Under the auspices of the Council of Chief State School Officers],did not address what many critics see as the most urgent problem facing No Child Left Behind: the lack of federal funding for it. In 2006, Iowa received only 59 percent of the $171 million it was authorized to obtain under the act, according to the National Education Association."

Merit system won't pay off

Date Captured	Monday October 16 2006, 2:29 PM
Statesman Journal contributor and mother of eight children, Karen Utley writes, "Public education is expensive. The rate of student failure is deeply depressing. Policy makers and budget-keepers search for simple solutions, but complicated problems require incremental adjustment and no progress will be made until they stop hoping they can fix the schools by blaming the teachers."

Former U.S. education secretaries file brief supporting Jefferson County Public Schools desegregation policy

Date Captured	Thursday October 12 2006, 7:53 PM
Business First of Louisville reports, "The Supreme Court will decide whether school districts can consider race when assigning students to schools in an effort to maintain diversity."

President Bush Says He'll Strengthen Education Policy

Date Captured	Friday October 06 2006, 7:22 AM
LA Times reports, "The president said that parents are not necessarily getting information about students' progress quickly enough to switch a child's enrollment to another school if they think a change is necessary." Bush suggested school districts were not appropriate in their use of federal funds provided for tutoring.

Hawaii High School Audit Prompts Background Checks: Audit Found Coach Had Murder Conviction

Date Captured

Wednesday October 04 2006, 7:19 PM

TheHawaiichannel.com reports, "The state [Hawaii] auditor's report found that the school dismissed a head coach three months into the job when it was discovered he had a murder conviction. An assistant coach was also let go because of a previous assault and abuse conviction. The audit also found that last school year three new coaches were hired and had finished the season before the background checks were completed."

Group wants e-mail records:Mason schools says destroying them OK

Date Captured

Wednesday October 04 2006, 6:37 PM

Cincinnati.com reports, "In the latest dispute between a tax-accountability group and Mason's [Ohio] school district, Mason Citizens for Accountability and Results in Education says the Mason City School District is trying to destroy e-mail records before the group can obtain copies. But district officials say according to their records retention policy e-mails can be destroyed as they are read and that the group's latest lengthy records request is too general to fulfill."

Conservatism’s Big Test

Date Captured	Wednesday October 04 2006, 8:32 AM
National Review Michael J. Petrilli writes, "Parents need the information yielded by standards and tests for the education marketplace to function efficiently. But most states have proven unable to develop these tools and current federal policy is pushing them in the wrong direction."

Ohio National Board Certified Teachers to Meet for First-Ever Education Policy Summit

Date Captured

Monday October 02 2006, 3:42 PM

PRNewswire reports, "For the first time ever, hundreds of the state's top teachers will join Ohio policymakers and educational leaders for a daylong policy summit to discuss the most critical issues facing educators today--closing achievement gaps and staffing high-needs schools. 'We're looking for concrete, workable recommendations that will foster the conditions for high-quality teaching and learning for all students,' said OEA President Gary Allen."

They’re All Federal Educators Now

Date Captured

Tuesday September 26 2006, 8:11 AM

Neal McCluskey, policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom writes, "As Congress moves inexorably closer to next year's scheduled reauthorization of NCLB, conservatives must reject calls for federal standards and tests, and remember the principles that they once held dear. Politically compromised, big-government policies will simply never provide the education our children need and deserve. Only pulling government out of education, and empowering parents and families with school choice, will do that."

Giving Kids the Chaff: How to Find and Keep the Teachers We Need

Date Captured

Monday September 25 2006, 9:08 AM

Marie Gryphon, director of educational programs at the Institute for Humane Studies and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute concludes, "Teacher quality can be improved dramatically when hiring managers understand the attributes that make for good teachers and are given the right incentives to make good hiring decisions. Many of the current public policy proposals to improve educational quality in American public schools, such as merit pay and hiring bonuses for teachers with subjectspecific expertise, attempt to create the same economic stimuli that are naturally present in competitive markets. Allowing families to choose their schools, and giving schools the freedom and market incentives to make wise personnel decisions, will reward good schools and good teachers, providing more students with the high-quality education they deserve."

The US doesn't need more college grads

Date Captured

Monday September 25 2006, 6:41 AM

Christian Science Monitor contributor George C. Leef, executive director of the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, N.C. writes, "Above all, the US should stop worrying about the percentage of its younger citizens who have college degrees vs. the percentage in other countries. The truth is, most of what people need to know in order to be successful in life is not learned in formal educational settings. The job skills that help workers advance in their careers are usually learned on the job."

'No Child Left Behind' commission

Date Captured

Monday September 25 2006, 6:10 AM

Herald Tribune reports, "States have widely different standards for how they are measuring school progress under the law, and testing can be skewed by students with disabilities and those whose first language isn't English. 'Most groups felt they were not fully involved with writing the initial legislation, so now they want to have their say,' said Jack Jennings, director of the Center for Education Policy."

Debates abound at New Jersey board meeting

Date Captured	Friday September 22 2006, 11:30 AM
HERALD NEWS reports, "A policy being considered by the Board of Education will require students involved in extracurricular activities to maintain a minimum 2.0 grade-point average for sixth-, seventh, eighth- and ninth-graders and 2.5 for grades 10 through 12."

'Lite' Choice in School Reform

Date Captured

Wednesday September 20 2006, 12:07 AM

The Washington Post reports, "Under-performing schools in Prince George's, Baltimore and elsewhere across the nation have seized on the turnaround specialist as a quick fix that satisfies the federal No Child Left Behind directive, which requires chronically low-performing schools to choose some form of alternative governance, such as a new staff or management by a private company. The report by the Center on Education Policy cites the Prince George's system as emblematic of a national trend: When school systems are forced to take corrective action, they tend to chose the least radical -- and least corrective, it says -- option."

School Choice: 2006 Progress Report

Date Captured

Monday September 18 2006, 5:46 PM

Dan Lips, Education Analyst and Evan Feinberg, Research Assistant in the Domestic Policy Studies Department at The Heritage Foundation write, "One likely reason for the growing bipartisan support for school choice is the mounting empirical evidence that school choice programs work. Over the past 15 years, the growth of school choice programs has enabled researchers to study the impact of school choice on students, families, and school systems. Students participating in school choice programs have made academic gains when compared to their peers in public school. Importantly, public schools that face competition from choice programs have shown improvement."

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF LA RAZA [NCLR] APPLAUDS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION’S POLICY ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Date Captured

Sunday September 17 2006, 7:16 PM

“Getting the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) right is critical for Latino students, nearly half of whom are ELLs,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “The Department’s regulations strike a balance which ensures that ELLs get the attention they deserve but have often not received, while at the same time giving states time to help ELLs learn English and improve in other important subjects.”

Education Policy Should Not Be Based on Programs that Cannot be Replicated

Date Captured

Thursday September 14 2006, 12:06 PM

Education Finance and Accountability Program at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University (EFAP) Director John Yinger writes, "The use of additional funds does not, of course, guarantee success. Many schools undoubtedly use policies and practices that cost more than equally effective alternatives. But one cannot identify these alternatives simply by looking at a few successful schools. Instead, we need to continue evaluating a wide range of programs to determine which ones can raise student performance under what circumstances and at what cost."

University of Hawai'i athletics to review privacy policy

Date Captured

Wednesday September 13 2006, 10:55 AM

The Honolulu Advertiser reports, "Manin [sports information director] said the department, faced with some athletes who requested privacy and some who agreed to waivers, wanted to adopt a uniform approach. She said the policy was 'implemented to protect the privacy of student-athletes in accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).'"

Derby [Connecticut] to ease cell phone ban

Date Captured	Wednesday September 13 2006, 9:05 AM
Connecticut Post reports, "Cell phones are banned classrooms, but Board of Education members are trying to balance that policy with parents' desire for their children to have access to them during emergencies."

Nursery-school students get head start on computers

Date Captured	Monday September 11 2006, 9:32 AM
The Columbus Dispatch reports, "About two-thirds of children in nursery school use computers and 23 percent of them use the Internet, according to a national study." (read study on Education New York Online --- see Education Policy page, Information Policy link)

Center on Education Policy

Date Captured	Sunday September 10 2006, 11:26 PM

Race, Poverty and Special Education

Date Captured

Sunday September 10 2006, 10:58 PM

Connect for Kids reprints National Academies editorial by Christopher Cross, senior fellow at the Center on Education Policy, "To make sure that minority students who are poorly prepared for school are not assigned to special education solely for that reason, teachers should be required to first provide them with effective instruction and social support in mainstream classrooms before considering special ed."

Making School Choice Work

Date Captured

Friday September 08 2006, 12:46 AM

scoop.co.nz reports, "Schools should be given more management autonomy and greater freedom to open, expand and close, according to a newly released report by Harvard University Professor Caroline Hoxby. The report, School Choice: The Three Essential Elements and Several Policy Options, released tomorrow by the Education Forum and the New Zealand Association of Economists (NZAE), outlines a number of key design requirements if policies aimed at giving parents greater choice over their children’s education are to be successful."

Inequality and the Right to Learn: Access to Qualified Teachers in California's Public Schools

Date Captured

Tuesday September 05 2006, 6:46 PM

By Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University. "The article outlines the legal rationale for insisting on access to qualified teachers for all students, analyzes the reasons for the current shortfalls in California, and proposes a set of remedies based on research and policy outcomes elsewhere." Teachers College Record Volume 106 Number 10, 2004, p. 1936-1966. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 11677, Date Accessed: 9/5/2006 5:46:06 PM

Education system needs reform, not a billion dollars

Date Captured

Tuesday September 05 2006, 3:56 PM

Las Vegas Business Press contributor Chuck Muth, president of Citizen Outreach, a non-profit public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. writes, "A BILLION (!) dollars more for education? That's a lot of dough. But if it comes with spending offsets and serious education reforms that break the government-school monopoly on education, it might be worth considering. The only thing apparently standing in the way is: the teachers unions."

New York Teachers union opposes new mandate for English language learners

Date Captured	Friday September 01 2006, 8:30 AM
New York Teacher reports, "Until now, students who have attended school in the United States for less than three years were not required to take the ELA exam. The recent ruling by the U.S. Depart-ment of Education contradicts the state's policy and NYSUT is investigating possible actions."

Policing as Education Policy: A briefing on the initial impact of the Impact Schools program

Date Captured

Tuesday August 29 2006, 12:50 PM

Prepared by Sharon Balmer with Travis Dale, Bethany Aaronson, and John M. Beam. Brief on Impact Schools reports, "In addition to having significantly higher rates of suspension and police incidents and significantly lower attendance rates than most non-Impact schools, Impact Schools were significantly different from other city high schools in a number of ways." National Center for Schools and Communities, Fordham University, August 2006.

Bush's Education Reforms Falter

Date Captured

Tuesday August 29 2006, 8:54 AM

Forbes.com writes on NCLB, "Some public policy fields exhibit high rates of technical success and political prestige. However, most public policy innovations enjoy lower success rates because: -- the technical knowledge required for the successful delivery of particular policy outcomes is not available; -- politicians, interested parties and voters typically contest a policy's principles, objectives, instruments, costs, or effectiveness; and -- adoption of all public policies implicitly or explicitly defines some winners and losers. U.S. education policy exhibits all three of these characteristics and is, accordingly, politicized."

For rural schools, hurdles are huge: Kentucky options to improve test results are limited

Date Captured

Sunday August 27 2006, 9:13 AM

HERALD-LEADER reports, "In reality, some NCLB sanctions don't hold a lot of weight in rural, lower-income districts. 'The law can sound tough, fire the teachers, fire the principals, take over the schools,' said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy. 'But the practicality of the situation is that more likely than not, you are left with just improving the curriculum and retraining the teachers you have already. That's the practical side of all this.' Jennings said a community's attitudes also have a direct effect on student achievement."

Arizona Maricopa County faces canceling 84 school races

Date Captured	Saturday August 26 2006, 9:58 AM
The Arizona Republic reports, "In all, 84 races could be canceled: 65 races have only one person running, and 19 have no candidates."

College tax credit aids rich most, feds say

Date Captured	Friday August 25 2006, 8:14 AM
AP reports, "College tuition tax credits are benefiting wealthier U.S. taxpayers more than the poorest, according to a federal study of the nine-year-old program." Read report on Education New York Online, Education Policy page, Higher Education link on right sidebar.

Single-Sex Versus Coeducation Schooling: A Systematic Review

Date Captured

Monday August 21 2006, 5:07 PM

"This report deals primarily with single-sex education at the elementary and secondary levels. Research in the United States on the question of whether public single-sex education might be beneficial to males, females or a subset of either group (particularly disadvantaged youths) has been limited. However, because there has been a resurgence of single-sex schools in the public sector, it was deemed appropriate to conduct a systematic review of single-sex education research."U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service, Single-Sex Versus Secondary Schooling: A Systematic Review, Washington, D.C., 2005.

Free preschool will help Latinos and US

Date Captured

Monday August 21 2006, 7:29 AM

Christian Science Monitor contributor Alexandra Starr, journalism fellow in child and family policy in 2005 opined, "To give all kids a chance to be successful in school, we have to intervene early. Kindergarten is too late. But creating more early education programs isn't enough; states need to proactively reach out to Latinos. If they don't, expanding pre-K could ironically increase the disparities in educational achievement, as more whites and African-American kids enroll in these programs, and Latinos continue to be left out."

Suburban Ohio schools also home to test gap: Affluent districts now face disparities that some urban districts have overcome

Date Captured	Sunday August 20 2006, 2:36 PM
The Columbus Dispatch reports, "The disparity in achievement was hidden until recent years, Hall [senior policy analyst at Washington-based Education Trust] said, when the federal No Child Left Behind law began making all schools report how their minority, special-education and immigrant students are faring."

State High School Exit Exams: A Challenging Year

Date Captured

Thursday August 17 2006, 7:48 AM

Authors: Nancy Kober, Dalia Zabala, Naomi Chudowsky, Victor Chudowsky, Keith Gayler, and Jennifer McMurrer. Center on Education Policy report finds, "... no state legislature adopted a new exit exam requirement in 2006 although Maryland, Washington, and Oklahoma are following through on plans set earlier to phase in exit exams. Of the four states scheduled to begin withholding diplomas based on exam performance this year, Arizona and California did so only after facing significant legal challenges, while Utah backed down from its earlier plans to do so. Idaho began withholding diplomas in 2006 with less conflict and controversy than other states experienced. Meanwhile, most of the 25 states that currently require or are phasing in exit exams have moved to create greater flexibility and support to help struggling students meet the exam requirements."

Massachusetts leaders join forces to improve education from pre-K to college

Date Captured

Tuesday August 15 2006, 7:42 PM

AP reports, "Members of the Massachusetts Advisory Committee on Education Policy say they hope the meeting will begin a historic cooperation between the Department of Early Education and Care, the Department of Education and the Board of Higher Education. The committee is made up of high-level officials from the three state agencies. 'Education policy now crosses every sector of education,' said Stephen Tocco, the chairman of the Board of Higher Education. 'We really have to talk collectively.'"

CLASS $TRUGGLE: LITTLE RETURN ON 13G PER STUDENT

Date Captured	Sunday August 13 2006, 9:52 AM
NY Post reports on education return on investment, "But despite the dollars being doled out, student achievement per buck was astonishingly low in New York state - which ranked in the bottom five in the U.S., along with New Jersey, Alaska, Connecticut and the District of Columbia, according to a 2004 report by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research."

Keeping kids on a (technological) leash

Date Captured	Sunday August 13 2006, 9:21 AM
Jerry McGovern, the Press-Republican's coordinator of Newspapers-in-Education opined on school information policy and safety regarding cell phones, "Whatever childhood is, it's not as loose and free as it used to be. And there is no turning back. Parents want to keep their children on shorter leashes, even if they are technological leashes."

Advocates of education for the gifted slam state's policy

Date Captured	Friday August 11 2006, 8:54 AM
Journal News reports, "With so much emphasis placed on global competition, advocates of gifted education say, children who show intuition, aptitudes and brilliance should be nurtured, not ignored. Others say that gifted children will do fine without anything special."

Connecticut school updating off-school policy

Date Captured	Thursday August 10 2006, 11:10 AM
The Connecticut Post reports, "Under the policy, students who get in trouble off school grounds will face punishment from education officials if it is determined that their actions affect the school environment."

Manhattan: School's Discipline Code Criticized

Date Captured	Thursday August 10 2006, 9:23 AM
NY Times ELISSA GOOTMAN reports on New York City schools Internet use related information policy, "Civil rights advocates criticized proposed changes to the city Education Department’s discipline code yesterday, saying that a proposal to punish students who post 'libelous or defamatory material' on the Internet was unconstitutional."

The Non-Working Man’s Burden

Date Captured	Tuesday August 08 2006, 12:27 AM
The NY Times opined on education and employment, "Higher levels of learning and skill don’t magically create jobs. Public policy for a globalized age must grapple with twin challenges: how to create full employment in the face of international competition, and how to create a safety net for jobless Americans in a globalized economy. "

NEW YORK EDUCATION STATISTICS SHOW HIGH SPENDING FOR AVERAGE RESULTS

Date Captured	Monday August 07 2006, 11:34 AM
The Public Policy Institute of NYS "Just the Facts" series shows, "New York's per-pupil spending is the second highest in the nation while the state's graduation rate is near the bottom." Additional data on pupil/teacher ratios, class sizes, teacher salary, student performance on math and reading exams and SATs, and other higher education statistics are included.

The Determinants of Student Achievement in Ohio’s Public Schools

Date Captured

Friday August 04 2006, 1:08 AM

By Matthew Carr, Education Policy Director, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. Carr writes, "To capture the changing dynamics of both different academic subjects and students at different ages, this analysis evaluates student performance in five subjects (math, reading, writing, science and citizenship) across grades 3 to 12. This combination gives us 21 separate analyses, or mathematical models. Controls were also included for geography, student socio-economic status, race, and learning disability. This study breaks new ground by also analyzing the factors that influence student performance in charter schools."

New study identifies significant private school advantages

Date Captured

Thursday August 03 2006, 9:26 AM

Bloomberg News reports, "'We don't interpret our findings as proving that private schools are better,' Peterson [Harvard researcher] said. 'What we do show is that how your results are incredibly sensitive to the exact way you do the analysis.'" READ REFERENCED STUDIES ON EDUCATION NEW YORK ONLINE, EDUCATION POLICY PAGE, SCHOOL CHOICE LINK (http://www.educationnewyork.com/EducationPolicy#CATID55).

Study disputes public school advantage

Date Captured

Thursday August 03 2006, 9:00 AM

UPI reports, "'When you use participation in federal programs as a measure of a student's family background, you undercount the number of disadvantaged students in the private sector,' said Paul Peterson, a professor of government and one of the study's authors. By contrast, Harvard's study gave a more accurate picture of student performance in both public and private schools, Peterson said." READ REFERENCED STUDIES ON EDUCATION NEW YORK ONLINE, EDUCATION POLICY PAGE, SCHOOL CHOICE LINK (http://www.educationnewyork.com/EducationPolicy#CATID55).

On the Public-Private School Achievement Debate

Date Captured

Wednesday August 02 2006, 6:28 PM

Paul E. Peterson and Elena Llaudet discuss methodological problems with NCES's study requested by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), "The results from the Alternative Models should not be understood as showing that private schools outperform public schools. Without information on prior student achievement, one cannot answer questions about schools’ efficacy in raising student test scores. The NCES analysis is at serious risk of having produced biased estimates, because its adjustment for student characteristics suffered from two sorts of problems: a) inconsistent classification of student characteristics across sectors and b) inclusion of student characteristics open to school influence. To avoid bias, classification decisions must be consistent for both groups under study. This rule was violated repeatedly in the NCES study." PEPG 06-02. Program on Education Policy and Governance Department of Government, FAS Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Colleges right to ban smoking

Date Captured	Wednesday August 02 2006, 8:26 AM
The Poughkeepsie Journal opined, "SUNY officials still are determining the specifics of how it will implement the new smoking policy. It is important they ease their students into the changes. Penalties for first violations should focus on education rather than punishment, and should not antagonize students."

STATE $TILL FAILING CUNY

Date Captured	Tuesday August 01 2006, 7:22 AM
NY Post David Andreatta writes, "The study, released yesterday by the city's Independent Budget Office, confirms what CUNY officials have said for years - that a decline in state support has hampered the university's ability to expand." READ REFERENCED STUDY ON EDUCATION NEW YORK ONLINE, EDUCATION POLICY PAGE, HIGHER EDUCATION LINK.

NYS Education Dept. Office of Professions & Teacher Certification accepting applications for immediate vacancies on the New York State Professional Standards and Practices Board for Teaching

Date Captured

Wednesday July 26 2006, 3:42 PM

NYS Education Department: Apply for appointment to the Board if you have an interest in helping to shape teaching policy in New York State and if you qualify for appointment in one of the following categories: Higher Education (President or chief academic officer of a NYS college or university that prepares teachers), Teacher (Either a classroom teacher or pupil personnel service professional in a New York State school) Public (Representative of business, parent group, community organization, etc.) Teacher Education Student (Student matriculated in a teacher preparation program at a NYS institution, full-or part-time). Application information here.

MYSPACE INVADERS FOR CITY STUDENTS, SCHOOLS TAKE AIM AT NASTY BLOGGERS

Date Captured

Tuesday July 25 2006, 7:51 AM

NY Post reports, "The proposed changes to the code have yet to be adopted by the city's Panel for Educational Policy, but civil-rights lawyers are already sounding the alarm over the Internet provision. 'What happens on the Internet at a student's home is not the Department of Education's business," said veteran civil-rights lawyer Elizabeth Fink. 'Any person who believes in the Constitution would have a vast problem with this.'"

Education Policy Studies Laboratory

Date Captured	Monday July 24 2006, 9:00 PM

Ohio local school district agreement stresses all be drug-free campus

Date Captured	Sunday July 23 2006, 10:09 AM
The Marion Star reports, "The Pleasant Education Association, which represents 83 teachers, has agreed to drug testing as part of its new three-year contract. Pleasant Board of Education President Gary Sims and Superintendent John Bruno said the board also plans to pass a policy that would require administrators to be tested."

Public School Finance Programs of the United States and Canada: 1998–99 (NEW YORK STATE)

Date Captured

Saturday July 22 2006, 10:14 PM

NEW YORK: Funding for public education in New York comes from three sources: approximately 4% from federal sources, 40% from state formula aids and grants, and 56% from local revenues. The descriptive information in this publication is designed to be useful to the education finance research community and fiscal policy analysts whose backgrounds and training are very diverse. Brian O. Brent, Warner Graduate School, University of Rochester. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Public School Finance Programs of the United States and Canada: 1998–99. NCES 2001–309; Compilers Catherine C. Sielke, John Dayton, C. Thomas Holmes, of The University of Georgia and Anne L. Jefferson of the University of Ottawa. William J. Fowler, Jr., Project Officer. Washington, DC: 2001.

Fathers of U.S. Children Born in 2001: Findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort

Date Captured

Wednesday July 19 2006, 10:33 AM

This NCES publication presents information on specific demographic characteristics of resident and nonresident biological fathers’ involvement in pregnancy and birth, fathers’ attitudes about fathering, and father involvement. By Kirsten Ellingsen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Christine Winquist Nord, Westat; Frank Avenilla, Education Statistics Services Institute; Emily Rosenthal, Teachers College, Columbia University; Jerry West, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to Chair Education Commission of the States

Date Captured	Friday July 14 2006, 9:06 AM
Infozine reports, "ECS is a national nonprofit organization that helps governors, legislators, state education officials and other leaders develop and carry out public policies that improve student learning from preschool through college."

Access to information is key to independence

Date Captured

Wednesday July 05 2006, 10:04 AM

Special to The Washington Post by US 39th President Jimmy Carter on FOIA, "It is a critical tool in fighting corruption, and people can use it to improve their own lives in the areas of health care, education, housing and other public services. Perhaps most important, access to information advances citizens’ trust in their government, allowing people to understand policy decisions and monitor their implementation."

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS

Date Captured	Tuesday July 04 2006, 7:54 PM

Morahan meets with school officials to discuss funding issues

Date Captured	Tuesday July 04 2006, 7:36 AM
The Journal News reports, "Other groups — government, students, teachers, taxpayers — will have their chance to talk about the issues at a later date. For this first summit, Morahan just wanted to hear from school decision-makers."

Women Underestimate Their Web Savvy

Date Captured	Sunday July 02 2006, 7:03 PM
Read referenced study on Education New York Online EDUCATION POLICY page, GENDER folder.

School boards gear up for fall

Date Captured	Sunday July 02 2006, 7:43 AM
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE)

Date Captured	Saturday July 01 2006, 8:43 PM

The School Testing Dodge

Date Captured	Saturday July 01 2006, 8:33 PM
NY Times registration required. Read referenced PACE study on Education New York Online EDUCATION POLICY page, NCLB folder.

Community College Transfers Shut Out of Elite Colleges

Date Captured	Friday June 30 2006, 10:20 AM
Read executive summary of referenced report on Education New York Online EDUCATION POLICY page, COMMUNITY COLLEGES folder.

States distort school test scores, researchers say

Date Captured	Friday June 30 2006, 10:04 AM
Read referenced report on Education New York Online EDUCATION POLICY page, NCLB folder.

Connecticut Ethics Law May Hinder State Schools

Date Captured	Friday June 30 2006, 9:47 AM

New CED Report Shows the “Economic Promise” of Prekindergarten Programs

Date Captured	Wednesday June 28 2006, 12:18 PM
read full report on Education New York Online EDUCATION POLICY page, EARLY LEARNING folder.

Debunking the fictions that block school reform

Date Captured	Tuesday June 27 2006, 9:48 AM
Read "The Shape of the Starting Line" on Education New York Online, EDUCATION POLICY link, POVERTY folder.

Education Sector

Date Captured	Monday June 26 2006, 8:46 AM

Empire Center for New York State Policy

Date Captured	Sunday June 25 2006, 10:47 AM

Cato Institute

Date Captured	Sunday June 25 2006, 10:27 AM

Failing System

Date Captured	Thursday June 22 2006, 8:26 PM
LI Press (see Education New York Online, EDUCATION POLICY link, SCHOOL FUNDING folder for referenced study)

"Resilient and Reaching for More: The Challenges and Benefits of Higher Education for Welfare Participants and their Children"

Date Captured	Tuesday June 20 2006, 9:44 PM
This Institute for Women's Policy Research report examines both the challenges and pay-offs associated with acquiring higher education under the tight constraints of welfare reform.

The Cost of Remedial Education: How Much Alabama Pays

Date Captured	Friday June 16 2006, 11:57 PM
by ChristopherW. Hammons, Ph.D. and Editing by Greg Heyman and Rob Sutherland. Alabama Policy Institute. This study, using data from state and national sources, calculates the financial impact on Alabama’s institutes of higher education and employers when students leave high school without basic skills.

NCLB education policy to miss goals: Harvard study

Date Captured	Wednesday June 14 2006, 7:44 AM

When poor kids get poor teachers

Date Captured	Monday June 12 2006, 7:18 AM
see "TEACHING INEQUALITY: HOW POOR AND MINORITY STUDENTS ARE SHORTCHANGED ON TEACHER QUALITY" on education new york online EDUCATION POLICY link, TEACHER QUALITY folder.

Few graduating college in four years

Date Captured	Saturday June 10 2006, 8:00 PM
read "The Toolbox Revisited; Paths to Degree Completion from High School Through College" on education new york online EDUCATION POLICY link, HIGHER EDUCATION/COMMUNITY COLLEGES folders.

Inside Albany

Date Captured	Friday June 09 2006, 9:58 AM

East Liverpool Board of Education ponders altering its operations

Date Captured	Friday June 09 2006, 7:59 AM

Statement by Senator Barack Obama on NCLB and teacher inequality

Date Captured	Thursday June 08 2006, 6:49 PM
Read the report on education new york online EDUCATION POLICY page, TEACHER QUALITY folder.

CLASS-SIZE ADVOCATES MAKE WAVES (NY Post registration)

Date Captured	Thursday June 01 2006, 8:34 AM
see education new york online EDUCATION POLICY page, CLASS SIZE folder for class size studies.

Florida Charter Schools: Hot and Humid with Passing Storms

Date Captured	Tuesday May 30 2006, 5:46 PM
read full report on education new york online, EDUCATION POLICY link, SCHOOL CHOICE folder.

What Research Says About Small Classes and Their Effects.

Date Captured	Thursday May 25 2006, 9:46 AM
Bruce J. Biddle and David C. Berliner, Education Policy Reports Project (EPRP), Arizona State University.

Profiles of For-Profit Education Management

Date Captured

Thursday May 25 2006, 9:34 AM

Eighth Annual Report 2005-2006 by Alex Molnar, David R. Garcia, Margaret Bartlett, Adrienne O’Neill. Released by the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University, this report, in its eighth edition, found that Education Management Organizations (EMOs) are consolidating and shifting business models to meet the demand for supplemental education services. Large EMOs continue to focus on managing charter primary schools and enrolling relatively large numbers of students in those schools. Fifty-one EMOs operate in 28 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling some 237,179 students. The report is the most comprehensive resource on the for-profit education management industry.

Dropout Data Raise Questions on 2 Fronts (Washington Post registration)

Date Captured	Tuesday May 23 2006, 10:22 AM
see education new york online EDUCATION POLICY link, GRADUATION folder for referenced studies.

New York State's Dual Crises: Low Graduation Rates and Rising School Taxes

Date Captured	Friday May 19 2006, 9:10 AM
Inadequate state aid to public schools is jeapordizing the future of New York State's two million public school children and driving up local property taxes, according to a new report released today by AQE and the Public Policy and Education Fund.

3 seek $1.43 million in Yonkers schools suit

Date Captured	Saturday May 06 2006, 8:50 AM

Should the federal government be involved in school accountability?

Date Captured	Wednesday May 03 2006, 6:43 PM
This debate between EPI research associate Richard Rothstein and Hoover Institution economist Eric Hanushek, on the role of the federal government in education, was featured in the Winter 2005 issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends

Date Captured	Wednesday May 03 2006, 6:36 PM
Listen to debate between Economic Policy Institute President Lawrence Mishel (co-author of Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends) and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jay P. Greene, on their differing analyses of graduation rates nationwide. The Center on Education Policy (CEP) hosted the debate on Thursday, April 27, 2006, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Research Offers Lessons for Improving Low-Performing High Schools; Studies Address Five Challenges Facing Educators

Date Captured	Monday May 01 2006, 11:36 AM
To read full report see education new york online EDUCATION POLICY page, SCHOOL REFORM folder.

School scenarios for Buffalo city are bleak

Date Captured	Thursday April 27 2006, 9:32 AM

Bentley College-Watchfire Survey of Online Privacy Practices in Higher Education Reveals Risk Management Issues

Date Captured	Monday April 24 2006, 1:17 PM
read full report on education new york online, EDUCATION POLICY link, INFORMATION POLICY folder.

Inequities Persist for Women and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty

Date Captured	Monday April 24 2006, 7:00 AM
read The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession 2005-06 on education new york online, EDUCATION POLICY link, FACULTY folder.

Policies Solving Problems

Date Captured	Saturday February 18 2006, 1:46 PM
Center for Innovative Policy. Best Practices, 2006: Policies Solving Problems Facing America’s Families. Best Practices, 2006 is a sampling of ideas, innovations, policies, and practices.

Higher Education in PA: A Competitive Asset for Communities. Jennifer S. Very, Dec. 2005

Date Captured	Monday December 05 2005, 8:54 PM
The Brookings Institute: This paper surveys Pennsylvania's higher education landscape and its economic impact, proposing a number of policy approaches to boost collaboration—especially on community revitalization.