The Education Blog

The NY Times has assembled a set of editorials on the subject of K-12 testing from a panel of experts, includine cognitive psychologist Howard Gardner (of whom I’m a big fan).

The AP (via USA Today) reports:

A new admissions policy set to take effect at the University of California system in three years is raising fears among Asian-Americans that it will reduce their numbers on campus, where they account for a remarkable 40% of all undergraduates…

The new policy, approved unanimously by the UC Board of Regents in February, will greatly expand the applicant pool, eliminate the requirement that applicants take two SAT subject tests and reduce the number of students guaranteed admission based on grades and test scores alone. It takes effect for the freshman class of fall 2012.

Some Asian-Americans have charged that the university is trying to reduce Asian-American enrollment. Others say that may not be the intent, but it will be the result.

TIME Magazine reports:

…From New Jersey to Wisconsin to California, school districts and private investors are developing [public boarding schools]. Supporters hope that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who pushed for public boarding schools as CEO of Chicago’s school system, will give the programs even greater traction…

…The SEED School, a charter school in gritty Southeast Washington [allows] 320 students–seventh- to 12th-graders– [to] live on campus five days a week. They are expected to adhere to a strict dress code and keep their room tidy. There are computers in the dorms’ common areas, and each student in grades 10 and above is given a desktop computer. At 11:30 every night, it’s lights out. “Principals often say, ‘If I could just extend my day a little longer, I could do so much,’” says SEED’s head of school, Charles Adams. “Here, there’s the gift of time. So there’s no excuse.”

MSNBC reports:

…Across the country, education leaders say they’re seeing what may be one bright spot in the dismal downturn: more students opting to stay in — or return to — school.

…Long waiting lists for adult education and GED — General Education Development — classes, spiking enrollments at community colleges and, perhaps, a surge in returns by high-school dropouts and a decline in those who leave in the first place, may all point to a renewed focus on education, experts say.

“If there’s anything good to come out of this recession, it’s to make educational lemonade out of these lemons,” said Bob Wise, the former West Virginia governor who now heads the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy group.

Education Week reports:

After years of debating the idea of national content standards, representatives from 41 states convened in Chicago today in what organizers hope will be a first, concrete step toward common guidelines in mathematics and English-language arts.

The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers—the Washington-based groups that are co-sponsoring the meeting—want to build a prototype of high school graduation standards by summer, and grade-by-grade academic standards in math and language arts by the end of the year.

The undertaking would start with rigorous math and language arts standards that are aligned with college- and career-ready expectations and made available for states to adopt voluntarily.

Earlier this year, the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve, Inc. released this report (PDF) calling for the development of state and national standards based on ‘international benchmarking.’

NOTE: I previously blogged about the limitations of international benchmarking in March of this year. That post can be found here.

USA Today reports:

A lawyer for a 13-year-old girl strip-searched by school officials looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen pills told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the administrators needed better information than what they had before doing such a humiliating search.

Savana Redding was 13 when Safford Middle School officials ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear looking for pills.

Note: This is cross-posted with my Cognitive Science Blog.

NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross reports:

In the modern world of busy schedules and busier lives, some people are turning to “neuro-enhancing” drugs to gain a competitive edge.

As journalist Margaret Talbot writes in the April 27 issue of The New Yorker magazine, a variety of students, professors and business people are taking drugs intended for attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and epilepsy in an effort to enhance brain function and get ahead.

Talbot’s New Yorker article is available online here.

Education Week reports:

Seventeen years ago, Miriam Flores sent her 5-year-old namesake off to school in this small city on the U.S.-Mexican border. Come fall, she’ll send 5-year-old Isabella, her youngest, and this time around, the 42-year-old Mexican-born homemaker hopes her daughter will get a better education.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this month from a class action Ms. Flores joined on behalf of her first child in 1996. The lawsuit, Flores v. State of Arizona, contends that programs for English-language learners in Nogales are deficient and receive inadequate funding from the state…

Its outcome before the Supreme Court could have further ramifications, not only for Arizona but also for districts and ELLs nationwide.

TIME Magazine reports:

Later this spring, Congress will dive once more into the war over sex education when it decides whether to eliminate $176 million in federal funding for so-called abstinence-only programs, which instruct kids to delay sex until marriage. Advocates will debate at top volume the merits of abstinence-only efforts vs. more comprehensive programs that also teach about birth control and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

These arguments miss the point. We now have a pretty good sense of which sex-education approaches work. Substantial research–including a 2007 Bush Administration report–has concluded that comprehensive programs are most effective at changing teen sexual behaviors. They are also largely uncontroversial outside Washington. Vast majorities of parents favor teaching comprehensive sex education.

What we haven’t seen is the political will and community investment necessary to educate kids about sexuality and healthy relationships in a truly responsible and honest way…

KCRF, one of Colorado’s NPR affiliates, reports on an interesting initiative being proposed by Colorado State Representative Karen Middleton.

Link to KCFR interview (streaming audio)