Gleaned from an abundance of
interesting items at Public Education Network newsweekly:
www.publiceducation.org
Schools
With Poor, Minority Students Get Less State
Funds
School
districts in Illinois and New York that have large numbers of poor
students get some $2,200 less in state and local funds per student than
other schools, according to a new report, "The
Funding Gap," from The Education Trust. Alaska did the best, providing
$840 in additional funds per student to school districts with low-income
students, followed by Delaware, which provided more than $600. School districts with large
minority populations also get short-changed, the report said. New York
again has the largest gap ($2,000 per student), followed by Kansas and
Nebraska, both with nearly $1,800. On the flip side, Massachusetts
provided an extra $940 per student to school districts with a lot of
minority students and Georgia an extra $560, reports Pamela M. Prah. All
dollar figures have been adjusted to take into
account
local cost differences and
the extra cost of educating poorer students, the trust said. "In too many states, we see yet
again that the very students who need the most, get the least," Kevin
Carey, senior policy analyst and author of the report, said. "At a time
when schools, districts and states are rightly focusing on closing the
achievement gap separating low-income and minority students from other
students, states can and must do more to close these funding
gaps."
http://www.stateline.org/stateline/?pa=story&sa=showStoryInfo&id=332153
No
Parent Left Behind
Educators
have recognized for some time that parent involvement plays a critical
role in student achievement. Especially in urban districts it has become
increasingly clear that failure to enlist parents as partners seriously
hampers any school-reform efforts. But it's only recently that many
schools, districts, and states have been taking concrete steps to help
what's often a tense relationship. Particularly in urban areas, school
officials often complain that parents are too busy or not sufficiently
caring to get involved at their childrens' schools. Yet at the same time
many parents say they feel threatened or unwelcome, and that what many
principals mean by "parent involvement" is really bake sales and book
drives. The
result: open hostility between people who ultimately all have the same
goals. To
improve this unhappy state of affairs, the sweeping 2002 No Child Left
Behind Act has for the first time put in place laws intended to foster
parent involvement. The mandates included in the federal act range from
better communication on such things as test scores and parents' options
to requirements that schools develop a "school-parent" compact and a
plan to involve parents. At this point, most of the reforms still exist
more on paper than in practice. But just formally recognizing the
importance of the issue - the need for involvement that's truly
collaborative - is a step in the right direction, say educators. "People
in the [school] community have to see that communicating well with
families is part of their professional job," says Joyce Epstein,
director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "That's explicit now. If No Child
Left Behind really were implemented as intended, it would really be
quite exciting." As Amanda Paulson reports, a number of states and
districts are also trying out their own strategies. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1028/p12s01-legn.htm
No
Cow Left Behind
Since
testing seems to be a cornerstone to improving performance, Kenneth
Remsen doesn't understand why this principle isn't applied to other
businesses that are not performing up to expectations. In this satire,
he examines the problem of falling milk prices and wonders why testing
cows wouldn't be effective in bringing up milk prices since testing
students is going to bring up test scores. Remsen doesn't want to hear
about the cows that just came to the barn from the farm down the road
that didn't provide the proper nutrition or a proper living environment.
All cows need to meet the standard. It will be necessary for all farmers
to become certified. This will mean some more paperwork and testing of
knowledge of cows but in the end this will lead to the benefit of all.
It will also be necessary to allow barn
choice for
the cows. If cows are not meeting the standard in certain farms they
will be allowed to go to the barn of their choice. Transportation may
become an issue but it is critical that cows be allowed to leave their
low performing barns. This will force low performing farms to meet the
standard or else they will simply go out of business.
http://www.storm-lake.k12.ia.us/Admin/Pages/ncowlb.htm
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