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| NEWS The Tennessee House passed the "Complete College Act of 2010" - the plan will increase the number of college graduates, offer easily transferrable credits, and make the community colleges, four-year institutions, and technology centers work as a tightly knit network. In addition, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); a move that lawmakers believe will make the state’s flagship university a premier research institution. more information January 21, 2010 President Obama to Nationalize Student Lending with Pending Budget Bill - A bill currently before the Senate would empower the Obama administration to nationalize the student lending industry, eliminating the federally subsidized private loans millions of university students rely on to finance their educations. more information from CNSNews.com January 20, 2010
Race to the Top - Passed by Tennessee legislature and signed by Governor Click here for bill summary.Race to top Summary.pdf January 16, 2010 School Lunch Fraud? - Fraud in the school lunch program could be costing taxpayers billions every year, reports David Bass in an article at Education Next. Participating schools are required to verify the incomes of only 3 percent or 3,000 (whichever number is lower) of applicants who are near the income thresholds for participation. Bass reports: Of the 10 districts, all but 1 had a rate of reduced or repealed benefits above 70 percent for those in the verification sample for the 2007–08 school year … . Most of those benefit reductions and repeals were due to participants’ failure to respond to the mailing, which automatically revoked their benefits. The average nonresponse rate among the 10 districts was 58 percent. Significantly, an average of only 1.5 percent of those who did respond had their benefits increased, suggesting that parents were more likely to understate than overstate their income on the forms.
A February 2009 study by Mathematica estimated that misreporting of incomes on school lunch applications cost taxpayers $1 billion annually. The program itself spends about $8 billion per year, but it’s not just program funds that are at stake. High participation rates in the school lunch program can trigger a number of other funding streams for schools. Also, targets for adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind law are tied to school lunch participation rates. Suffice it to say that there is little incentive for school districts to exercise diligence. Even worse, reports Bass, the Department of Education actually forbids school districts from conducting any sort of audit other than the 3 percent sampling of required by law. The Department, apparently, is afraid that strong income verification efforts would discourage too many poor families from signing up. Alex Adrianson, InsiderOnline December 18, 2009 Innovation Schools Raise Learning Outcomes for Students - In recent years, state education leaders have strongly resisted making deep, systematic changes in the centralized model used for financing and managing Washington’s public schools. The Common School Manual contains over 2,000 pages of detailed rules and instructions which dictate all aspects of running a local school. Washington schools are heavily unionized, and public sector labor leaders have consistently opposed merit pay, flexible work rules, open hiring or permitting principals to control local budgets. To overcome these obstacles Washington education leaders should adopt reforms based on the Innovation School model that has proven so promising in Colorado. The Innovation Schools approach would allow local leaders to deliver high-quality educational services to children in a way that better matches local conditions and the learning needs of their communities. more information Liv Finn, Washington Policy Center
December 17, 2009 Parents sue school for role in 'sexting' tragedy - Parents of Ohio high school student say school officials and peers are partly to blame for their daughter's suicide - more information December 10, 2009 December 3, 2009 Teacher Loses Appeal to Carry Gun at School - An Oregon court opinion, issued November 18 by Judge Jack Landau, upheld a November 2007 decision by the Jackson County Circuit Court that affirmed the Medford School District's authority to prohibit employees from carrying firearms on school grounds. - more information Paris Achen, The Mail Tribune November 19, 2009 The ARRA (stimulus spending) May End Up Hurting School Systems - The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has released a new survey on the impact of the recession on school districts, finding that because of federal stimulus funding, states have sharply curtailed their own education spending, creating an austere budget structure from which it will be hard to retreat, Thompson.com reports. Of 875 school administrators, 66 percent report having eliminated personnel positions for 2009-10, and 83 percent say more will go in 2010-11: about 15 staff per respondent this year and about 11 per respondent next year. Just 13 percent said American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars increased state and local funding, which AASA says illustrates the "shell game" that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has warned against, with states cutting education budgets as soon as it was known that ARRA included money for education. more information November 6, 2009 New Form of Integration - In an effort to integrate schools without relying on a racial metric, a growing number of districts are integrating on the basis of income, reports USA TODAY. More than 60 school systems now use socioeconomic status as a factor in school assignments, according to Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation. Districts in Champaign, Ill.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Louisville, Ky. returned this year to income-based assignments. "To the extent we can eliminate the highest concentrations of poverty or spread more thinly those concentrations of poverty, I think we make the environment a little less challenging for students and staff to be successful," says Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Michael Rice. The strategy is not unprotested, however, since many parents prefer neighborhood schools where their kids have shorter (or no) bus rides and it's easier for them to stay involved. more information November 2, 2009 Tennessee Report Cards Issued – The Tennessee Department of Education has released the annual comprehensive report card on pre-K – 12 education, including state, district and school-level information on achievement, demographics, and discipline. This year’s report card demonstrates fundamental changes to the calculations of Value Added and Achievement scores. The method of calculating scores and the scale used to determine letter grades have been revised to allow for a transition to the new standards and assessments required by the Tennessee Diploma Project. “Because we have been on an aggressive path of improvement with the Tennessee Diploma Project, it was necessary to utilize this transition year to change our calculation methods and more accurately demonstrate student progress in an effort to pursue higher standards,” Education Commissioner Timothy Webb said. Two major changes have been implemented for calculation of scores on the Report Card. First, the baseline year for comparing student achievement has been reset using 2009 test scores. Second, a new grade scale will be used. The scale used to determine all grades A through F has been dramatically revised, meaning scores considered to be an “A” proficient in years past may now be a “B” or “C”. more information November 2, 2009 Autism Becoming More Prevalent - While research has suggested that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in American children was about 1 of every 150 children, a new government study estimates that the prevalence is more likely about 1 in every 91 children, ages three to seventeen. The study, which is published in the October issue of Pediatrics, estimated that 110 of every 10,000 U.S. youngsters will be diagnosed at some point in their lives with an autism spectrum disorder. That currently translates to about 673,000 American children with some form of atuism, according to the study. The study also found that the odds of receiving an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis were four times higher for boys than girls, and that non-Hispanic black and multiracial children were less likely to have an autism spectrum disorder than white children. more information October 5, 2009 Teachers Sue the NEA and a Local Affiliate - Jefferson County, Kentucky educators have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against local and national teacher unions for a series of schemes designed to force unwilling educators into full-dues paying union membership. The lawsuit alleges that union officials routinely blocked membership resignations for years at a time, automatically enrolled new teachers in the union without their consent, and used a collective bargaining scheme to force county teachers to pay union dues. more information September 23, 2009 National Right to Work Foundation discloses the National Education Association and SEIU Diverted Union Dues to Corrupt ACORN Offices - The National Right to Work Foundation decided to do a little digging into union financial disclosure forms on the DepNumerous Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) agents were caught on camera giving advice to undercover journalists on how to open an illegal brothel, launder its profits, defraud banks and the IRS, and commit a host of other illegal activities. According to The Washington Examiner, teacher union officials have contributed over $1.3 million in union dues to ACORN since 2005 according to the Department of Labor's website. After examining union financial records, it turns out that officials of several high-profile unions diverted large sums of mostly forced union dues dollars to the very same ACORN offices in Washington and New York that are implicated in the hidden camera scandal. Check out the Foundation’s Freedom@Work blog click here to learn more about how much the NEA and SEIU unions funneled into these particular ACORN offices – and how they used dues and forced revenue from nonmembers to do it. September 21,2009
School Enrolment and Per Pupil Spending at All Time Highs - The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that approximately 1,085,000 children are expected to attend public prekindergarten this fall. Enrollment in kindergarten, at approximately 3,790,000, is also projected to be an all-time high. Nearly 49.8 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. An additional 5.8 million students are expected to attend private schools this fall. The national average current expenditure per student is projected at $10,844 September 10, 2009 Flu Tool Kit for Schools - The federal government today released updated link guidance and a new link toolkit to help school officials prepare for, and respond to, the H1N1 flu in the 2009-10 school year. The new resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were announced at a joint news conference by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden. August 7, 2009 Federal Technology Funds Available - The U.S. Department of Education has released new guidance for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (Ed Tech) program as funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). ARRA provides $650 million for the Ed Tech program on top of $269 million in the regular FY 2009 appropriation. This unprecedented amount of funding is intended to "help ensure that every student is technologically literate" and to "encourage the effective integration of technology with teacher training and curriculum development." Under the Ed Tech program, states and school districts that receive funds must ensure that expenditures for children attending religious and independent schools are equal (taking into account the number of students) to expenditures for children attending public schools. July 31,2009 Hooked on Phonics® Launches Teacher's Edition Designed to Support Phonics Instruction in the Classroom. Hooked on Phonics®, the maker of award-winning educational and reading tools, has just released its first-ever Learn to Read Teacher's Edition product for educators. The flagship product, Learn to Read, has been redesigned to cater specifically to the needs of small group or classroom learning situations. Similar to the original product, the new Teacher's Edition incorporates the latest reading and literacy research into lesson strategies and fun reading activities designed to teach children fundamental reading skills. This is the first product designed especially for educators from Hooked on Phonics and is approved by the Children's Reading Foundation. http://www.prweb.com/releases/Hooked_on_Phonics/Learn_to_Read/prweb2695264.htm July, 30, 2009
For a summary of Bills passed into law by the 106th Tennessee General Assembly click here. July 7, 2009 Governor Bredesen signed into law (Public Chapter 153), a change for school board policies. They now must include certain criteria in policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying. This amends TCA Section 49-6-1016. May 12, 2009 According to Katherine K. Merseth, senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, "Hard working, dedicated teachers don't need bureaucratic unions to improve communication with administrators. Indeed, involving the union with their pages and pages of lengthy, often incomprehensible contracts that have little to say about educating children obfuscates rather than clarifies the work of teachers. Teachers and administrators should focus on the important work of educating children and act like adults, not squabbling siblings. Engaging the union in charters will only serve to distract teachers. Calling in the union is like calling in the National Guard to solve a dispute when children throw sand in the sand box." (May 6 This Week in Education) From EIA Communique' - 5/11/09 May 11, 2009 The “Listening and Learning Tour” of the Department of Education, featuring Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, has been announced for the coming months. The nationwide discussion intends to gather information on the current administration’s education agenda, which includes: early childhood, higher standards, teacher quality, workforce development, and higher education. Duncan describes the tour as “a national dialogue about how to best deliver a complete and competitive education to all children. Press release: http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/05/05052009.html May 8,2009 Reminder notice to all members: Please do not send legal questions via email. Call the office at (615) 778-0803 or (800) 471-4867. We want to be able to address your concerns as soon as possible. April 10, 2009 In Tennessee, despite budget cuts in most areas of state government, the Basic Education Program will be funded. Growth in BEP spending will be slower than expected however it will not be cut. K-12 spending on the state level will be maintained and will grow. March 30, 2009 Kansas Local Boots NEA. The 56 teachers of the Riley County Unified School District in Kansas decided they would be better off without belonging to NEA and Kansas NEA, decertifying the Riley County Education Association and forming the new Riley County Educators as a local-only union. Liability insurance and legal protection will be provided by the Association of American Educators. Other News Sources | |
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