Schools becoming concerned about electronic communications between teachers and students

Education Week reports:

A new state law requires all Louisiana districts to implement policies requiring documentation of every electronic interaction between teachers and students through a nonschool-issued device, such as a personal cellphone or e-mail account, by Nov.15. Parents also have the option of forbidding any communication between teachers and their child through personal electronic devices.

Similar policies exist in many school districts across the country, and at least one other state has considered such legislation in recent years. But critics question the measures, saying they will likely restrict appropriate communication between teachers and students and discourage the use of new technologies.

“The motivation for the bill was growing problems with [interactions] that started relatively innocently and escalated from there,” said state Rep. Frank A. Hoffman, the Republican who wrote the bill, which Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law in June. “It’s to head something off before it ever gets started…”

Texas: U.S. history classes join biology as battleground for ‘culture war’

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state’s social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history.

Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.

“We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it,” said Rev. Peter Marshall, a Christian minister and one of the reviewers appointed by the conservative camp.

Three other reviewers, all selected by politically moderate or liberal members of the board, recommended less-sweeping changes to the existing curriculum. But one suggested including more diverse role models, especially Latinos, in teaching materials. “We have tended to exclude or marginalize the role of Hispanic and Native American participants in the state’s history,” said Jesús F. de la Teja, chairman of the history department at Texas State University.

In related news – Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has appointed Gail Lowe, described by critics as a creationism supporter, to head the Texas Board of Education (link to story from The Examiner [of Texas]). Perry describes Lowe as an ‘exemplary leader’ (link to story from the Houston Chronicle).

Public school districts must pay for private special education, Supreme Court finds

NPR reports:

In a 6-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that school districts could be required to reimburse students who choose special education programs at private schools even if they did not try the public school’s special education offerings first.

Phoenix-area district faces elimination of its ethnic studies curriculum

The Arizona Daily Star reports:

A Tucson lawmaker and the state’s schools chief are moving to make ethnic studies in the Tucson Unified School District illegal.

If a bill set for a hearing in the state Legislature next week is approved, the city’s largest school district would have to get rid of the ethnic-based programs in four of its high schools or risk losing 10 percent of their state funding each month.

If the classes were eliminated, the money would be returned.

“Ethnic studies programs … are designed to promote ethnic chauvinism,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said in a news release Friday. “I have tried for two years, using publicity and persuasion, to attempt to convince the Tucson Unified School District to put a stop to this dysfunctional program. They have refuse

Young primary-grade students who are retained are unlikely to receive special education services, study suggests

From the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine:

Most children retained in K/1 or third grade for academic reasons, including many of those who demonstrated sustained academic difficulties, never received an IEP during elementary school. Further studies are important to elucidate whether retained elementary schoolchildren are being denied their rights to special education services (Silverstein, Guppy, Young & Augustyn, 2009).

University of California’s proposed new admissions system generates controversy

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.

Supreme Court hears Arizona school strip search case

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.

Can ‘neuro-enhancing’ drugs give students an advantage?

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.

Arizona bilingual education lawsuit may have national implications

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 on ending the “war over sex ed”

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…