The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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The Root of the Problem

June 20, 2008

Alex Usher, Vice President, Educational Policy Institute

I have spent a good deal of time in the last few weeks working on various international projects and also attending a fantastic meeting on international trends in education put together by the Lumina Foundation. And one of the conclusions I have come to is that one of the most important differences between Europe and North America with respect to higher education lies not in the institutions but in governments. European governments are engaged in learning issues; North American ones, bluntly, are not. READ MORE...

Large District+ Full Time Teaching Staff= 20% of HS completers

The 100 largest public school districts employed 20 percent of the United States and jurisdictions' public school full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers and contained 17 percent of all public schools and 20 percent of public high school completers.

SOURCE: Digest of Education Statistics





	Gifted programs in the city are less diverse Elissa Gootman, New York Times When New York City set a uniform threshold for admission to public school gifted programs last fall, it was a crucial step in a prolonged effort to equalize access to programs that critics complained were dominated by white middle-class children whose parents knew how to navigate the system. Governor to present education package Tania deLuzuriaga, Boston Globe Early intervention with struggling students, better coordination of student services, and improved professional development for teachers are among the strategies Governor Deval Patrick plans to propose next week in a sweeping package aimed at closing the achievement gap in Massachusetts' public schools.	VA board of education looks at legality of school fees Lauren Roth, Virginian-Pilot The state Board of Education took a look Thursday at the results of a survey of school divisions on school fees. It found that nearly all of the 83 districts that responded charge their students for something. Many states watch—and like—Florida’s education policy Ron Matus, St. Petersburg Times Florida is No. 1 in the nation in vouchers. It's No. 2 in charter school enrollment. It's No. 4 in the percentage of high school students passing college-level exams. Numbers like these have made Florida the nation's most-watched laboratory for education policy.


	Nevada colleges to offer student loan information Carson Times The Nevada System of Higher Education has adopted the Nevada Student Loan Code of Conduct, requiring colleges and universities to give students and their parents adequate information and protection when choosing a lender. ‘Free-choice’ learning could ‘change the face of education’ Terry Dillman, Newport News Times The “art and science of learning out of school” or the blending of leisure and learning lie at the heart of Oregon State University's "free-choice learning" concept. University officials have incorporated the free-choice option into its programs for K-12 and college educators, and while it challenges some of the basic tenets of science instruction, it could, researchers like Rowe and others say, “change the face of education” if widely adopted.	House approves veterans’ education aid in a deal on war spending Carl Hulse, New York Times Under an arrangement that allowed separate votes on the war money and a series of domestic initiatives, the war money was approved 268 to 155, with mainly Republicans backing it. Ms. Pelosi and 150 other Democrats opposed the unrestricted war money. A separate package of domestic initiatives including the new G.I. benefits, a 13-week extension of unemployment aid for millions of Americans and $2.6 billion for Midwestern flood relief was approved 416 to 12. The overall measure included $186.5 billion in spending along with the estimated $8 billion costs of the unemployment benefits and almost $63 billion for the college aid for veterans over the next decade.


	Primary schools told breakaway grammar school entrance exams Kathryn Torney, Belfast Telegraph (Ireland) Every primary school in Northern Ireland has received detailed information about the new common entrance exam being developed for 30 grammar schools. Chilean education debate explodes in nationwide protests Thomás Rothe, Valparaiso Times (Chile) Wednesday morning marked the culmination of more than a month of protests against the General Education Law (LGE), a controversial reform package meant to replace the Pinochet-era Organic Constitutional Education Law (LOCE). More than 10,000 teachers and students marched through the Region V city of Valparaíso to the National Congress building, where legislators were debating the bill.	Panel proposes ideas for stanching school dropout rate Or Kashti, The Ha’aretz (Israel) Fines to be levied on schools that allow students to drop out without justification, a new bureaucracy for locating and aiding dropouts, and 30 vocational training centers - these are the main recommendations presented this week by a professional committee appointed by the Education Ministry in preparation for implementing an amendment to the Compulsory Education Law that extends mandatory schooling through 12th grade. 70% of budget will go to girl’s education J. Nathaniel Daybor, The Analyst (Liberia) As the country strives to provide quality education to its citizens especially children, several organizations are also endeavoring to buttress the efforts of Government, by giving larger portion of the operation fund to upgrading the Liberian school system.


	Teacher education programs vary widely in Canada: study Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun Teacher education programs in Canada vary widely but there has been little research to determine which ones produce the best teachers, a study released Monday has found. Canadian Education Statistics Council releases updated indicators in education Council of Ministers of Education The Canadian Education Statistics Council, a partnership between the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) and Statistics Canada, released today 63 updated tables from the report Education Indicators in Canada: A Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP). Released in December 2007, the report is a comprehensive data compendium on the characteristics and functioning of education systems in the provinces and territories. It examines key developments and emerging trends related to the school-age population, the financing of education systems, and the school-to-work transition.	More nurses graduating, but still can’t meet demand Anne-Marie Tobin, Globe & Mail For the first time in 30 years, the number of nurses graduating in Canada has exceeded 9,000, but the total still falls short of the number needed to meet current and future demand, says a new report. There were 9,447 nursing graduates last year, says the report released Wednesday by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing and the Canadian Nurses Association. Speaker advocates for inclusive education Danielle Vandenbrink. Daily Observer Marilyn Delmage has had her share of struggles with societal challenges surrounding intellectual disabilities. Both Ms. Delmage's brother and son lived with an intellectual disability, and both faced lack of accommodation in society, especially when it came to their education. Ms. Delmage, a social worker and researcher for The Ontario Coalition for Inclusive Education, told her story to a crowd of educators and community groups recently at Miramichi Lodge in Pembroke, hosted by Community Living Upper Ottawa Valley.


	Education database raises privacy fears Sydney Morning Herald A photograph and details of every state school student in Queensland will be posted online by December this year, raising fears of privacy breaches and the risk of pedophiles hacking into the database. ‘Education revolution’ may lead to bad grades Australian Broadcasting News The New South Wales Government is hoping to provide their students with laptops which gives students the opportunity to take those computers home.	$10M aboriginal lure Patricia Karvelas, The Australian Aborigines in the Northern Territory will double their money - with an extra windfall of up to $10 million - if they agree to a Rudd government plan to put mining royalty payments in a special education trust fund. Higher education changes pass the Senate The Age Universities will be unable to charge full fees for domestic students from next year, after parliament approved the start of the Rudd government's “education revolution”.


	Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination Susan Bodilly, Catherine Augustine, and Larua Zakaras, RAND For more than 30 years, arts education has been a low priority in the nation’s public schools. During fiscal crises in the 1970s and 1980s in America’s urban centers, arts teaching positions were cut. More recently, arts education in schools has dwindled as schools try to increase test scores in mathematics and reading within the time constraints of the school day. Some communities have responded with initiatives aimed at coordinating schools, cultural institutions, community-based organizations, foundations, and/or government agencies to promote access to arts learning for children in and outside of school. The objective of this study was to investigate this phenomenon in six urban U.S. communities descriptively and comparatively analyzing how these efforts started, how they evolved, what kinds of organizations became involved, what conditions fostered or impeded coordination, and what strategies were used to improve both access to and quality of arts education.


The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher. To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.