Printer-friendly versionSome of the News Fit to Print
IN A NEW ROLE, TEACHERS MOVE TO RUN SCHOOLS
There is a growing experiment around the country allowing teachers to step up from the classroom and lead efforts to turn around struggling urban school systems. Brick Avon is one of the first teacher-run schools in the New York region, joining a charter school in Brooklyn started in 2005 by the United Federation of Teachers. Others have opened in Boston, Denver, Detroit and Los Angeles. This article is in The New York Times.
ANALYSIS NOTES VIRTUAL ED. PRIORITIES IN RTT WINNERS
While public education experts have debated which priorities weighed most heavily in the second round of the federal Race to the Top grant competition applications, a review by an online education organization shows most of the 10 winning states submitted strong online learning proposals. Susan D. Patrick, president of International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), said a wiki document released by the organization highlighting the virtual learning components in all 19 finalists’ applications shows the winning states were ready to use RTT funds to offer more online opportunities and make needed state policy revisions. Further, she said, those changes are happening in regions that have been traditionally hesitant to embrace online learning.
Much of those shifts involve replacing traditional seat-time requirements—which mandate the hours a student must spend in class to gain credit for a course—with competency-based requirements that allow students to progress at varying paces through a course depending on their mastery of the subject. This article is in Education Week.
STATES TEST OUT NEW MATH
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has used much of his $100 billion budget—almost twice what his recent predecessors had—to lure states into reshaping schools through programs such as Race to the Top and school transformations. Race to the Top, the $4.35 billion competitive grant program at the heart of Mr. Duncan's effort, prodded 11 states to tie teacher pay to student performance, nearly 40 to adopt rigorous common standards in reading and math, and at least another dozen to vow to fix failing schools. Only 11 states and the District of Columbia were awarded money, but new laws in many other states are, nevertheless, taking effect. This article is in The Wall Street Journal.
GIVING UP STATE FUNDS
How bad are things in California? The budget cuts and fiscal uncertainty are so severe that the University of California at Los Angeles's business school is proposing that it give up all state funding -- in return for greater budget flexibility and the right to raise out-of-state tuition to the levels of private institutions. Leading public universities regularly complain about the decline in the shares of their budgets that come from the state, even as regulation has not lessened. But being willing to give up those funds altogether is rare. This article is from Inside Higher Ed.
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