Quick Hits

Political e-mail sparks controversy at N.C. university: A Winston-Salem State University administrator sparked debate recently after forwarding an e-mail with early voting information that also appeared to support the Democratic ticket. The e-mail was sent to all those with university e-mail accounts. University officials sent a follow-up e-mail asking that the first e-mail be ignored, but Republican leaders say the retraction did not go far enough and called for equal time. Feeling that they needed “to do something, even though it wasn’t the best thing,” said Nancy Young, the spokeswoman. The university sent out a campus-wide e-mail identical to the original message, but with promotional material from the GOP. Because that e-mail also violated state law, the university was forced to publish a retraction for the Republican-leaning message, too. “The second one was just as illegal as the first one,” Ms. Young said.. (Wired Campus)

Are Calif. charter schools meeting the nutritional needs of students?: California was unable to complete an audit of school-meal programs at charter schools because of incomplete reporting, officials said Thursday. Many charters reported serving a subsidized daily meal to students, but charters are not bound by federal requirements that schools provide meals to needy students. State officials were unable to determine the level of participation. Some advocates say the exemption may be forcing low-income families to choose either their children's academic or nutritional needs. (Los Angeles Times)

Fla. maritime charter school to pilot 4-day school week: Riviera Beach Maritime Academy, a charter high school in Palm Beach County, Fla., is planning to become the first in the area to switch to a four-day school week. The schedule change -- to take place in January -- is designed to allow students more time for school activities, part-time employment and dual-enrollment options that earn students college credit. (Sun-Sentinel)

New Report Focuses on Funding Inequities Nationwide: A new report that provides the most up-to-date data on the extent of funding inequities nationwide was released this month by the Education Law Center (ELC) in New Jersey. “Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card” grades states on their level of school funding through four statistical indicators. (ACCESS)

Prayer at school events silenced: Jim Scales knew it was only a matter of time before someone complained about prayers said aloud at school-sponsored sporting events. The Hamilton County Schools superintendent attends local high school football games regularly and said he's heard prayers over the loudspeaker. He always wondered when someone would protest. Someone did. After receiving a letter of complaint from the Freedom from Religion Foundation this week on behalf of students from Soddy-Daisy High School, Scales sent an e-mail to all local principals on Tuesday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled prayer before football games and graduation ceremonies to be unconstitutional and that the practices should be stopped. PDF: Email to principals. (Times Free Press)

Survey: Cyberbullying is most common among high-schoolers, girls: About 43% of students who participated in a recent survey by the National Crime Prevention Council say they have been the victims of cyberbullying. The incidents are most frequent among high-school students and females, with 51% of girls saying they have been victims of cyberbullying. (PC Magazine)

Cloud technologies are changing IT skill needs: Nothing stays constant in technology, especially in terms of IT job requirements, as emerging innovations such as cloud development shake up how things are done and managed. Sanjay Mirchandani, EMC's chief information officer, examines how private-cloud deployments now require a "wider, converged skill set" encompassing areas such as virtualization, storage, big data and security. (CIO.com)

Should teachers be Facebook friends with former students?: A Massachusetts district has adopted a policy that bans teachers from communicating with students on social-media websites, such as Facebook, and discourages them from contacting former students or their parents online. Teachers union officials question how the policy will be enforced, since Facebook allows users to keep their friends list private. "It seems like it was written by people who don't understand social media," a union representative said. (WBZ-TV)

Georgia district wins 2010 Broad Prize for Urban Education: Georgia's Gwinnett County Public Schools was named the winner of the 2010 Broad Prize for Urban Education and will receive $1 million in college-scholarship money for the class of 2011. The prize is awarded each year by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to a district that improves student academic performance while narrowing income- and ethnicity-based achievement gaps. Four other districts were finalists and will each receive $250,000 in scholarship money. (NPR.org) (Education Week)

The why behind RTI: Misunderstanding and misuse of Response to Intervention in some schools means that the right practices have been employed for the wrong reasons. The authors of "The Why Behind RTI," an article featured in the October edition of Educational Leadership, set out to help educators ask the right questions by eliminating the wrong ones. The first wrong question: "How do we raise test scores?" (Educational Leadership)

School featured in documentary challenges "dropout factory" label: Officials at a struggling Pittsburgh high school that was deemed a "dropout factory" in the documentary "Waiting for Superman" say the label does not reflect the current status of the school. Changes are under way, say officials, with zero-tolerance behavior policies in place and higher expectations for students. Beginning next year, the school is adopting longer days and an extended year, career academies and collaboration with a community college. The dropout label "disrespects what is going on here and what students are striving for," the principal said. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Union leaders seek to block the release of value-added data in NYC: New York City union leaders plan to seek an injunction to block the release of teacher-effectiveness data to the media this week, a disclosure similar to that in Los Angeles in August. At issue is whether teachers' names will be attached to the results, which are based entirely on test scores. "The reality is, without any other information, people are going to look at this and think this is the whole [of] teacher evaluations," said a Columbia University education professor. (GothamSchools) (Daily News)

11 teachers sue Arizona over Mexican-American studies ban: A group of 11 Tucson, Ariz., teachers has filed a lawsuit against state education officials ahead of a law set to take effect on Dec. 31 that could prohibit schools from teaching a Mexican-American studies class. The educators say the law violates free speech and that the classes have reduced dropout rates and behavioral issues while improving attendance and achievement among Latino students. But state schools chief Tom Horne, a defendant in the suit, said the courses teach students that the Southwest is "occupied territory" and should be returned to Mexico. (CNN)

NASBE Study Finds Teacher Training and Evaluation are Left Behind in Scramble to Deliver 21st Century Education to Students: The current education model in the United States, a relic of the Industrial Age, is increasingly out of touch with the needs of society and the students it serves. In addition to the continued use of dated models of educating students, our systems for teacher training and evaluation have not kept up with the fast pace of change. Findings from a National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) study group, Next Generation Learning: Transforming the Role of Educators Today for the Students of Tomorrow, call for a reexamination of how America not only looks at teaching, but whether teachers are given even adequate professional development to keep up with the ever-changing demands of society on their students. (NASBE)

Using social media with students: A high-school technology-integration specialist offers several tips on helping students learn to use social media. Andrew Marcinek writes that students should be held to high standards of writing and content in their blogs or other online posts, and that students should be asked to examine whether their Twitter or Facebook messages are contributing "something of substance." "Remind students of the power of digital media and how much their words can impact the lives of others," Marcinek recommends. (Edutopia)

Anti-gay chant at game put school in bad light: North High School Principal Jennifer Chauby met with several students Monday after a group chanted an anti-gay slur during a football game Thursday. During the pregame against cross-town rival Willoughby South, North High students called the football team "Powder Blue [expletive]." A 30-second video of the chant has been posted on YouTube. Chauby said that a number of students admitted that they were just following everyone else and that they didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. Chauby also said that she didn't see what good would come from suspending about 300 students. (Cleveland.com)

Is your power corrupting you?: Power corrupts, writes John Baldoni, and CEOs are no exception to that rule. To keep yourself from going over to the dark side, examine your real reasons for the decisions you make and don't be afraid to surround yourself with strong deputies willing to challenge your judgment, Baldoni advises. (Harvard Business Review)

Change in AP Exams Should Relieve Stress for High School Pupils: It might not be a millionaire's lifeline, but high school students taking the rigorous Advanced Placement tests should now take a guess if they are unsure of an answer, experts say. The quarter-point penalty for a wrong answer has been eliminated this year, so experts are advising students to play the odds. Kristen Campbell, a vice president of Kaplan Test Prep, said the new scoring system makes life easier for test takers. "That's a significant change from a student standpoint. (Education Week)

Focus on top teachers is gaining bipartisan support: More policymakers from both sides of the aisle support removing the small minority of ineffective teachers from the classroom and rewarding good teachers, Eric A. Hanushek writes. Hanushek, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, argues that there is no "war on teachers" -- as is the view of some unions -- but rather a growing recognition that continuing to prop up a small number of ineffective teachers may not be the best way to serve students. (The Wall Street Journal)