Please Raise Your Hand and Repeat After Me

Over at Prichard, Susan posted "The Learning Pledge" penned by the Kentucky Association of Assessment Coordinators. The pledge is intended to address "concerns about the testing transition and its instructional implications."

Teachers are asked to "proclaim and steadfastly adhere to" the pledge of learning.

Regardless of test measures, instruments, or accountability features I will provide each individual child with the highest level educational opportunity possible.

And will

• Teach all core subjects whether they are tested or not.
• Provide authentic writing instruction while compiling student work.
• Be held accountable whether there is an accountability system or not.

Massive Demonstration Ends Peacefully. ; )

Quick Hits

Education Standards Likely to See Toughening: The Obama administration will likely toughen rules on areas like teacher quality and academic standards. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the administration was “laying the foundation for where we want to go” with the No Child Left Behind reauthorization. (N Y Times)

Study: 1 in 10 Texas kids has an undocumented parent: A growing share of the children of illegal immigrants are U.S.-born citizens, illustrating a sensitive, demographic shift in the makeup of America’s undocumented migrant population. (Houston Chronicle)

5,400 L.A. teacher jobs in jeopardy: LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year. (USA Today)

Parents to be hit with penalties if children misbehave at school: Parents will be hit by severe penalties if children misbehave under a back-to-basics crackdown on indiscipline in schools, it is announced today. (London Daily Telegraph)

Education board in Texas faces curbs: Texas state legislators are considering reining in the Board of Education amid frustration with the board's politically charged debate over how to teach evolution. (Wall Street Journal)

School's noise irks neighbor; cops issue ticket to principal: They say good fences make good neighbors, but at Olympia Elementary School, a fence was not nearly enough. Late last month, police issued Principal Terri LeBleu a citation for violation of the Universal City noise ordinance after a neighbor who has long complained about commotion at the school called again during its Family Fitness Day. “They’ve built a 7-foot fence at the back of the school,” LeBleu said. “They’ve put special backing on the basketball hoops because he doesn’t like hearing the basketball hit, and they’ve even taken out the loudspeakers that allowed me to make announcements to the kids who are outside, so now I’m not able not do that.” During the March 20 fitness event, parents were invited to walk the track with their children. “We had some music playing, and that’s probably what started some of his concerns,” said LeBleu, who also said she’s had no complaints about noise except Armstrong’s. (San Antonio Express-News)

'Spirituality for Kids' class draws fire: The program, created by a leader of the L.A.-based Kabbalah Centre International, is promoted as a way to teach children how to make wise choices. Critics say it brings religion into public schools. (L A Times)

Vermont Lawmakers Look To Legalize Teen 'Sexting': Text messaging graphic pictures of yourself could soon be legal for teens in Vermont. Lawmakers there are considering a bill that would make it legal for teenagers 18 and under to exchange explicit photos and videos of themselves – an act that's come to be known by teens as "sexting." Under the current law, teenagers could be prosecuted as sex offenders if they get caught sending graphic sexual images of themselves, even if it was consensual. (CBS)

School Strip-Search Case Heads to Supreme Court: The U.S. Supreme Court next week will hear a case on the strip-search of a 13-year-old girl at a public school, wading into the legal balancing act between protecting students’ privacy rights and allowing school officials to take steps to ensure a safe campus environment. The case, which has attracted national media attention—as well as friend-of-the-court briefs from national education groups, civil-liberties advocates, and the Obama administration—could have major implications for how schools proceed when they wish to search students. At issue in Safford Unified School District v. Redding (Case No. 08-479) is the search of 8th grade honor student Savana Redding amid suspicion she possessed prescription-strength ibuprofen tablets. (Ed Week)

BIPPS Twists South Dakota School Funding Case

The Bluegrass Institute is at it again.

Self-styled education analyst Richard Innes has now turned to the law. He states in his post "Surprise – Quality Education Isn’t Constitutionally Guaranteed" (with the subtitle, "At least in South Dakota") that a South Dakota judge issued a ruling "concerning a school funding gambit much like the 1989 lawsuit that brought KERA to Kentucky."

In South Dakota, it looks like at least one judge understands the restrictions on what the judiciary can, and cannot tell the legislature to do with tax dollars. It’s a separation of powers issue – one that probably got violated here in Kentucky in 1989.

As is too often the case, Innes got some things right and some things wrong - but still ended up with the conclusion he wanted in the first place. No money for schools.

Separation of powers is an important issue - one that lead attorney Bert Combs took great care to avoid in the 1989 Kentucky case, Rose v Council for Better Education. The court was specifically asked to render a declaratory judgment only - that the educational system was unconstitutional - and did not ask the court to direct the legislature to do anything specific. That's up to the legislature - and that was the key to avoiding what Innes suggests "probably got violated." It never did.

No specific remedy was sought, so the legislature's authority to decide what to do about its unconstitutional school system was never in question. In fact, for a brief time, legislative leaders considered a constitutional struggle by ignoring the court - but soon thought better of it.

The reverse was true in Franklin Circuit Court with Judge Thomas Wingate's 2007 decision in Young v Williams, where the schools went back to court in an adequacy suit and asked for a specific remedy - to require the legislature to raise taxes. They got a summary judgment instead.

The Rose case argued equity and adequacy. The South Dakota case is an adequacy case. Both cases focused on the education language in their respective state constitutions - but the language is different for each state.

Based on the strength of the constitutional language in Kentucky, the Supreme Court declared that education is a fundamental right, that the General Assembly is solely responsible for providing sufficient funding for schools to reach their goals but never said how, or how much.

The South Dakota Constitution requires that the legislature establish and maintain a "general and uniform" system of public schools, adopt all "suitable means" to secure the advantages and opportunities of education, and set up taxes to "secure a thorough and efficient" school system.

The South Dakota judge noted that their state Constitution does not specifically require a "quality" education.

The constitutional language requires an education system that provides students with the opportunity for a free public education that is "adequate to allow students to be responsible and intelligent citizens," the judge said. However, adequacy does not require an education that prepares a student to find meaningful employment or qualify for higher education, the judge wrote. This is what passes for a solid decision at BIPPS.

Then without presenting any evidence of it, Innes proclaims,

South Dakotans are incensed by the million dollar waste this has caused to date.

There is, however, evidence of students going to school in trailers because school districts can't afford to build proper buildings, and the legal challenge is being supported by two-thirds of the state's 161 school districts. Some of those folks are probably incensed.

And of course, in the best scenario, the legislature would sufficiently support its schools as is its constitutional duty, and nobody would have to sue anybody.

In any case, this issue is going to be decided at the Supreme Court level, just like in Kentucky. This is South Dakota's first school funding challenge. Stay tuned.

After Occupation Ends, Tensions Flare Again at New School University

This from the New York Times, photo by Yana Paskova.

More than 20 people occupied a building on the New School campus in Greenwich Village on Friday, demanding that the school’s embattled president, Bob Kerrey, be ousted. But unlike a similar protest in December that was peacefully negotiated to an end after 30 hours, Friday’s ordeal was concluded in a few hours after the school asked the police to remove the protesters.

Tensions flared again at 10 p.m. when about 200 protesters rallied in Union Square against Mr. Kerrey’s leadership of the school. The rally turned into an impromptu march south toward Mr. Kerrey’s house. The police blocked the protesters at about 11th Street and prevented the marchers from getting close to the house.

After being turned away, the marchers headed north and then east to Fifth Avenue...
By the end of the operation, 22 people were arrested, 19 of them on burglary, riot and criminal mischief charges. Two of the 19 were also charged with assault, and one with assault and grand larceny. The police had removed banners hung by the students at the building, at 65 Fifth Avenue, near Union Square...



While the protesters were being arrested, sympathizers on the street yelled at the police. A video shot on the street by a Brooklyn videographer appeared to show one officer pushing a man in the face and knocking him to the ground before he was arrested. A police spokesman, Paul J. Browne, would not characterize the officer’s actions, saying only, “He pushed him and he fell down.” ...

Mr. Kerrey’s leadership has come under attack in recent months, with some faculty members and students accusing him of being too secretive and failing to consult with them as he sought to shake up the school. Mr. Kerrey’s lack of a Ph.D. and early support of the Iraq war has also drawn criticism.

In December, shortly after Mr. Kerrey, a Vietnam war veteran and former Nebraska governor and senator, announced that he would also take on the role of provost after losing his fourth provost in seven years, professors gave him an overwhelming vote of no-confidence...

JCPS Tackles Student Assignment Plan

This from Toni at C-J:

Middle, high schools focus of work session

The Jefferson County Board of Education has moved a step closer to giving final approval to a new student assignment plan for middle and high schools. The plan, which includes boundary changes for dozens of schools, was discussed during a work session before last night's school board meeting. It will be further discussed at the board's April 27 meeting and be voted on May 11.

The changes, which would take effect with the 2010-11 school year, are all part of the school district's effort to adopt a new way of assigning students after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 struck down its desegregation plan, which required that schools keep black enrollment between 15 percent and 50 percent.

The district now requires schools to enroll 15 percent to 50 percent of their students from neighborhoods where the average household income is below $41,000; average education levels are less than a high school diploma with some college; and the minority population is more than 48 percent...

Beshear calls for school reform

This from Pat Crowley at the Enquirer, photo by Patrick Reddy:

ERLANGER - Gov. Steve Beshear told a group of educators and business people Monday that Kentucky's 19-year-old education reform act needs a complete
overhaul.

The Kentucky Education Reform Act, commonly known as KERA, "was never meant to be a one-time fix," Beshear said Monday during a speech at the Boone County Education Foundation annual lunch.

"Instead, it was the start of a new commitment to education," Beshear said. "I'm determined, as we look toward the next two decades, that we seize the opportunity ... to take a top to bottom look at KERA both to see what is working and to see what needs improving.

"And I don't mean merely tinkering around the edges, but a frank and open evaluation of the fundamentals of our system," he said. "And I plan to create a task force to do just that. I want a vision for the future. I do not want a dissertation on the past."...

...Beshear said that graduation rates, content standards, college and university teacher preparation programs and remediation for college students who struggle as freshman must be evaluated...

Quick Hits

Should athletes be allowed to skip physical education?: About a dozen Cincinnati-area districts are allowing some student athletes, cheerleaders and band members to opt out of state-mandated gym classes. Some educators say such students already are committed to physical fitness, while others argue that physical education can teach teens about lifelong fitness and nutrition. (The Cincinnati Enquirer)

Florida magnets prepare teens for careers in education: Ninth-grade students in a Florida district are getting a head start in a possible teaching career through a high-school magnet program designed for those interested in becoming educators. Students practice the use of classroom technology, learn how to emphasize important information in lessons and study other topics. The program intends to add more grade levels, and upper-level students will have the chance to shadow teachers, work in elementary schools and perhaps even go to college for free. (The Tampa Tribune)

Helping children may improve seniors' health: Senior citizens who volunteer in schools not only help struggling readers, they help themselves, according to studies. Seniors who committed to spending at least 15 hours a week in classrooms said they were more active than they had been previously, reducing their rates of depression and likely helping themselves regain mobility, according to a Washington University study. (The Baltimore Sun)

Research: Facebook users report lower GPAs, less study time: Students who use Facebook, a social-networking Web site, have lower grade-point averages than their peers, according to a study of college students. Researchers say their data do not show that Facebook causes lower grades, but perhaps suggest a common trait among users, such as procrastination or a short attention span. (TIME )

Columbine lessons help educators prevent other shootings: In the almost 10 years since the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School, school leaders have been working to head off school violence. Student relationships with school staff are key, as are anti-bullying efforts and safe avenues for students to report potential danger, said Jeff Daniels, a West Virginia University counseling psychologist who has studied schools that have prevented student violence. (USA TODAY)

"Affordable" is this year's prevailing prom theme: High-school students from Florida to Massachusetts are working to make their proms more affordable by carpooling or dressing up school buses rather than renting limos. "The first thing I thought about was the recession," said Marilyn Orr, who is organizing her high school's junior prom. "I thought, we need to make this prom affordable." (Orlando Sentinel) & (The Boston Globe)

Study: Understanding concepts is important to children's learning: Students learn more when taught general math theories that help them understand formulas and procedures or when allowed to compare ways of solving problems, according to Vanderbilt University research. "Teaching children the basic concept behind math problems was more useful than teaching children a procedure for solving the problems -- these children gave better explanations and learned more," said Bethany Rittle-Johnson, a Vanderbilt University assistant professor of psychology and human development. "This adds to a growing body of research illustrating the importance of teaching children concepts as well as having them practice solving problems." (ScienceDaily)

Is accelerated math appropriate for all students?: A Maryland district that has increased student test scores in math with the help of accelerated math classes for all is coming under fire from some parents, who say the academic push may be stressing students, columnist Jay Mathews writes in The Washington Post. Educators say rigorous classes help prepare young students for advanced courses in high school. (The Washington Post)

Students inspire educators to stay the course: A group of Georgia teachers writes that it is students who keep them in the classroom despite all the challenges that come with their job. "When you believe that all students can learn and have the opportunity to prove it, a wonderful thing happens. You see a light come on, a face smiles, a quiet determination, a few tears -- from students, parents and even teachers," one teacher writes. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Study: Privatized Philadelphia schools perform worse than public schools: Students at struggling Philadelphia middle schools taken over by private managers perform worse on state tests than children at district-run schools, according to a study. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Sounds Easy. Wanna be Interim Commish for a Month?

Interim Education Commissioner Elaine Farris has accepted a job as superintendent of Clark County Public Schools. Farris’ new contract begins July 1, but a new commissioner isn’t expected until Aug. 1. So now the Kentucky Board of Education must find a new Interim Commissioner to fill the spot for the month of July.

Lisa Gross, director of communications for the Kentucky Department of Education told the State Journal,

“The board will talk about how they want to proceed (in naming an interim commissioner),” she said. “They have not made a decision. They have some time, but I suspect that they’ll talk about it as quickly as possible.”

The board meets in Frankfort May 12 and 13 for its annual retreat. Gross said the board doesn’t usually take action at its retreat, but could discuss the interim commissioner position.

“Because we’re a state agency, we need someone who has the authority to sign off on things – personnel actions, things that are purchased by the agency,” she said...

Commish is Super

This from GRC Online:

After beginning her career in Clark County,
Elaine Farris returns to lead district

For Elaine Farris, it’s been a full circle journey. The career educator began kindergarten in Clark County at the age of five, and after 27 years of professional preparation at all levels, Mrs. Farris is now Clark County Schools superintendent.

“It’s exciting to be back home again,” Mrs. Farris said Tuesday after the Board of Education awarded her a four-year contract as superintendent. “I can’t express to you what this feeling is. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am so excited about the opportunity.”

Mrs. Farris brings to her new position a wide range of experience in education, from physical education teacher at Odell Gross, to ninth grade principal at George Rogers Clark, to Kentucky Distinguished Educator, to Shearer Elementary principal, to interim Commissioner of Education, a position she has held since January.

In announcing the hiring, Board chairman Judy Hicks said the Board is “excited about the level of instructional leadership, passion, energy, enthusiasm and expectation that Elaine Farris brings to our school district and to the community of Winchester and Clark County.”

Though her resume is sparkling and her accomplishments vast, Mrs. Farris’s strongest points reach far beyond paper. “We have to understand that what this is really all about is the kids,” she told GRC Online after the hiring became official. “I’m a big proponent of hearing the student voice. I will organize a superintendent student advisory council and I will meet with them on a regular basis and hear what they have to say.

Oftentimes we make decisions and we don’t hear from the kids. I look forward to
getting to know my students here, interacting with them and having a close relationship with the kids because that’s really what it’s about.”

Board member B.J. Swope said Mrs. Farris is uniquely qualified. “She was the best candidate and we’re excited about her being here,” he said.

Mrs. Farris and husband, Alvin, have a son, Ryan, who was educated in Clark County schools, and now have three grandchildren in the district, two at Conkwright and one at Central Elementary.

In her comments to a packed Central Office boardroom, Mrs. Farris called Clark County “an outstanding school district” and pledged to take it to the “next level.”

“I appreciate and want to publicly recognize and honor the work that has gone on here and that is currently taking place,” Mrs. Farris said. “Thank you Central Office staff, building principals, faculty and staff for what you are doing and will continue to do for kids. I know that what you do makes a difference. We -- this board team, this district, the school staffs and this community -- must have a collective obligation to provide every child in every classroom every day, a quality education. I know that this is what this board team wants because we discussed it in our interview.”

Mrs. Farris stressed the importance of collaboration between education, business,
faith-based organizations and universities in the community. “We must have that kind of collaboration if we are going to achieve at high levels for all of our students,” she said. “During my interview with this board team, we discussed the opportunity to move this district from good to great. In order for us to make that happen, we have agreed that we are going to focus on the right stuff and we are going to go in the right direction together."

Board member Debbie Fatkin praised each candidate who made the final five. “Each interview was a great interview,” she said. “They all did an excellent job. With Elaine, it was about passion.”

Indeed. And it showed when she took the podium. “I make a commitment that I will work tirelessly to lead and to work with this board and this community to make this school district a great school district,” Mrs. Farris said. “You know why? Because these children -- our children, -- their families, and our community deserve nothing less. I am willing and ready to come back home and move this district to the next level. I am excited about being back home.”

Elaine Farris hired as new superintendent

Clark County’s own Elaine Farris was hired Tuesday as the new superintendent, punctuating an illustrious career in education that includes three local schools.

Farris, who has served since January as interim state Commissioner of Education, was superintendent at Shelby County Schools for three years before joining the state department as deputy commissioner in 2007.

Prior to leaving Clark County to become elementary director for Fayette County Schools in 2001, Farris served as Shearer Elementary principal. Farris lived in Clark County while she worked as a Kentucky Distinguished Educator, and before that, she was assistant principal at GRC, health and PE teacher at GRC, and PE teacher at Odell Gross Elementary, where she began her teaching career.

The board’s unanimous vote met with rousing applause from a packed Central Office boardroom.

SOURCE: Clark County schools by way of KSBA

Tax Reform Talk

This from Ronnie Ellis in the Glasgow Daily Times:

...When lawmakers adjourned three weeks ago, there was talk of a June special session – either to look at House Speaker Greg Stumbo’s bill to allow electronic slot machines at horse tracks or to take a look at tax reform. Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, downplayed the likely need for a special session.

During the session, two lawmakers from opposite ends of the political spectrum offered bills to change the state’s tax code. Rep. Bill Farmer, R-Lexington, wants to eliminate individual and corporate income taxes and extend the sales tax to services. His legislation anticipates the actual sales tax rate might also be reduced.

Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, wants to extend the sales tax to some services used primarily by the affluent and to make income taxes more progressive, taxing upper income levels at higher rates while reducing taxes for the lower end of the income spectrum.

Both Beshear and Stumbo said at the close of the session they are willing to look at tax reform during the interim period before the legislature convenes in January, but some lawmakers have said it could be taken up during a special session.

“We have committed to looking at tax reform and various (other) options that are out there,” Stumbo said.

Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Charlie Borders, R-Grayson, said this week that “everything would be on the table” as lawmakers deal with Kentucky’s seemingly chronic revenue shortfalls and a faltering economy.

Borders and House A&R Chairman Rick Rand, D-Bedford, have been talking of ways the state can respond to any additional shortfall, Stumbo said. The new Speaker said he’s advising House Democrats to prepare for the worst.

What KIPP is Yet to Prove

Until KIPP tries to succeed within an entire, single community,

it is, for all its remarkable rise and deserved praise,

just another model program that has

yet to prove it can succeed with all

—or even most—disadvantaged children.

This from Sara Mosle in Slate:

The Educational Experiment We Really Need

What the Knowledge Is Power Program has yet to prove.

In his new book, Work Hard. Be Nice., Jay Mathews claims that the Knowledge Is Power Program is the "best" program serving severely disadvantaged, minority-group students in America today.

Let me begin—before I'm denounced as a traitor to the cause of educational reform—by saying that I'm inclined to agree. The improbable story of how KIPP was founded in 1994 by David Levin and Michael Feinberg, two young Teach for America alumni in Houston, is thrilling and worthy reading. KIPP's mission has been akin to putting the first man on the moon: an all-out education race, requiring extraordinary, round-the-clock dedication from parents, students, and teachers alike.

But the program is not the proven, replicable model for eliminating the achievement gap in the inner city that Mathews imagines, and this distinction is crucial. KIPP may be something more important: a unique chance to test, once and for all, the alluring but suspect notion that there actually is an educational panacea for social inequality. As of yet, the evidence for such a thing doesn't exist.

There have always been model school programs that work. There have even been some that have been successfully replicated in different parts of the country. But no program has shown it can work for all, or even most, disadvantaged children within a single city or neighborhood.

Instead, as critics point out, such model programs tend to skim off those kids who are already better positioned (thanks to better home environments, greater natural gifts, savvier or better-educated parents, etc.) to escape the ghetto. Meanwhile, regular public schools are left with a more distilled population of struggling students...

Mathews insists that KIPP has solved this riddle.

It's true that perhaps no other model program has risen so far so fast, with such consistently strong test scores. KIPP now has 66 academies in 19 states. Still, 66 academies amount to just three schools, on average, per state. Houston has far and away the highest concentration with, currently, seven middle schools, three elementary schools, and one high school. But this is in a school system with 200,000 students, nearly 80 percent of whom qualify for reduced or free lunches.

At the moment, like every other model program before it, KIPP serves only a tiny fraction of disadvantaged students within any given district. And as education researcher Richard Rothstein has rightly noted, comparing students from different schools, even within the same disadvantaged neighborhoods, is very difficult to do in a rigorous, scientific way. Just because KIPP uses a lottery for admissions, for example, does not tell us anything about the self-selecting nature of the pool from which this lottery is drawn. (Rothstein's own research—here and here—has shown that KIPP students come from families that are better off, or better educated, than their regular public school or special-education counterparts.) ...

KIPP teachers typically work 65-hour weeks and a longer school year. Recognizing that students need more out-of-school aid to supplement their educations, the program also requires its staff to be available to students by phone after hours for homework help and moral support. For this overtime (which represents 60 percent more time in the classroom alone, on average, than in regular public schools), teachers receive just 20 percent more pay. Unsurprisingly, turnover is high. The program has relied heavily on the ever-renewing supply of very young (and thus less expensive) Teach for America alums, whose numbers, while growing, are decidedly finite...

Plan to Change Student Lending Sets Up a Fight

This from the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The private student lending industry and its allies in Congress are maneuvering to thwart a plan by President Obama to end a subsidized loan program and redirect billions of dollars in bank profits to scholarships for needy students.

The plan is the main money-saving component of Mr. Obama’s education agenda, which includes a sweeping overhaul of financial aid programs. The Congressional Budget Office says replacing subsidized loans made by private banks with direct government lending would save $94 billion over the next decade, money that Mr. Obama would use to expand Pell grants for the poorest students.

But the proposal has ignited one of the most fractious policy fights this year...

During the Bush administration, a massive student loan scandal exposed student lending companies that were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies. At the time, Education Secretaries Rod Paige and his successor, Margaret Spellings, argued repeatedly that under existing law they were powerless to stop the payments and that it was Congress that needed to act.

Obama apparently disagrees.

For lenders, the stakes are huge. Just last week, Sallie Mae reported that despite losing $213 million in 2008, it paid its chief executive more than $4.6 million in cash and stock and its vice chairman more than $13.2 million in cash and stock, including the use of a company plane. The company, which did not receive money under the $700 billion financial system bailout and is not subject to pay restrictions, also disbursed cash bonuses of up to $600,000 to other executives...

Tennessee teacher filmed kids' sex, police say

Child porn case contains allegations of

teen alcohol, drug use dating to '70s

This from the Tennessean:

Teenagers have gone for decades to a science teacher's Belle Meade-area home to drink and smoke marijuana. Many went to have sex with each other. Few knew they were being videotaped.

Those allegations were detailed in a federal complaint released [last week] charging Louis Jay Levine, 52, with producing child pornography. Police recovered 400 tapes, many with handwritten labels, at his Alton Road home near Belle Meade.

Levine, who holds a bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University and a master's from Belmont, is a first-year teacher with Murfreesboro City Schools. He traveled through the district teaching science and nature classes to elementary and middle school students. He has been a substitute teacher with Metro Nashville Public Schools since 2002, and for many years took snakes and other wildlife to presentations for youth groups and camps...

...The police investigation began in late March, when a concerned parent told a Metro detective that her teenage son and other teenagers were given alcohol and marijuana at Levine's house and allowed to use the bedrooms for sex.

Detectives searched the home March 31 and found an "isolation room" — a waterbed covered by a wooden box with an improvised ventilation system, an outbuilding teenagers called the "Little House" where sex and drug use were common, and a monitoring and recording system hooked up to cameras positioned throughout the property.

Investigators looked at Levine's MySpace page and were alarmed at the content. While they did not elaborate on what alarmed them, the page features a picture of him holding a snake, as well as what appear to be photo comments from several teens...

And this:

Teacher's arrest raises questions about why no one spoke up

In the days since a Middle Tennessee teacher and former employee of several child-oriented organizations was arrested on federal charges of producing child pornography, there is at least one question that looms large.

If Louis Levine really spent three decades doing the things he's accused of, why didn't anyone speak up?

The answer lies in a web of shame, self-blame and societal attitudes toward sex and power. Those who deal with abused children say there's no way for outsiders to understand the emotional trauma a victim experiences. And Levine's neighbors say they didn't feel confident calling police or were criticized when they did.

"How common is this kind of secrecy? In a word: very," said Raquel Hatter, a Nashville psychologist who specializes in sexual abuse...

...Federal authorities charged Belle Meade-area resident Levine, 52, last week with producing child pornography after recovering more than 400 homemade tapes from his padlocked bedroom. If convicted, he faces a minimum prison sentence of 15 years.

The tapes depicted teenagers engaged in sex or masturbation, recorded in Levine's house or an outbuilding in the back yard. To the outside observer, it might seem that any one of the teens could have reported what happened to their parents, school officials or even police. It turns out a clear line linking victimization, investigation and punishment is the exception rather than the rule.

People need look no further than the Catholic Church to understand, said Linda Lebelle, director of Focus Adolescent Services....

Alternative Grading Policy Concerns Texas Parents

This form the Dallas Morning News:

Plano considers alternative grading policy for middle schools

Cheat on a test, get a zero. Turn in a late assignment, the grade suffers.

They are the long-established rules of engagement in school.

But now a growing philosophical shift is putting more emphasis on what students are learning overall, rather than mostly focusing on a grade that can be pulled down by smaller assignments, quizzes, bad behavior or poor study skills.

Plano school officials are exploring a policy for middle schoolers that would not dock grades for cheating or late assignments. And teachers wouldn't grade some homework at all.

Plano ISD officials had hoped to roll out the new policy next school year, but the changes have been delayed because several teachers raised concerns they wouldn't be able to hold students accountable, according to documents and e-mails obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

But for some parents and teachers, such policies lower expectations and soften consequences for students who don't do work.

The debate touched down in Dallas schools this fall, when officials revamped grading rules to allow high school students to make up work and to retake tests without taking hits to their grade-point averages...

Major ELL Funding Case Goes to U.S. Supreme Court

This from ACCESS:

For the first time since 1973 when it ruled in Lau v. Nicols, 414 U.S. 563 that students with limited English proficiency have a right to a “meaningful educational opportunity,” the United States Supreme Court will be considering a case involving the provision of services to English Language Learners (“ELLs”).

Speaker of Arizona House of Representatives v. Flores, which will be argued later this month, involves enforcement of the federal district court’s order that the State of Arizona reasonably fund programs for teaching English to these students.

In 2000, the federal district court had held that Arizona was violating the federal Equal Educational Opportunity Act (“EEOA”) because the amount of funding it was allocating to school districts for ELL programs had not been determined through any rational process and was ‘arbitrary and capricious.”

The EEOA requires states to “take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in instructional programs.” ...

Clark County School Board to Hire New Superintendent Tonight

"It’s somebody (that) people will recognize the name.”

---Clark Co board member Rick Perry

This from the Winchester Sun:

Clark County may meet its new school superintendent Monday night.

The board of education called a special meeting for 6:30 p.m. Monday solely to hire a new superintendent and allow for his comments. Board members met in closed session Thursday night for an hour and 40 minutes to discuss the five finalists and which one to offer the position.

Until the contract is signed, board members aren’t saying who their first choice is.
“We’ve made a decision,” board member Rick Perry said. “It’s somebody (that) people will recognize the name.”

Board Chairperson Judy Hicks said the members were confident the contract will be signed without complications, or the meeting would not have been called for Monday. During Thursday’s meeting, Hicks said the board authorized the board attorney to draw up a contract...

If "people will recognize the name" of the board's choice then one must consider who has the most name-recognition among the finalists. That's easy. Elaine Farris.

But three of the candidates have Clark County ties including Paul Christy works with the district at present and Lisa Stone used to work there. So that would seem to leave out Donald F. Aldridge and Stephen Dickerson.

Sex advice website for primary kids angers Aussie parents

This from Venkey On Your Side:

Outraged parents are demanding the withdrawal of a sex education website
endorsing abortion and giving pre-teens information about sexual pleasure.

The controversial site, thehormonefactory.com, has been approved as a student resource for Queensland Year 7 classes.

Educators say that it is a valuable, fun tool that helps children entering their teens learn about their bodies, but parents are angry over the site's description of abortion as 'a relief' and claims certain hormones make teens "feel sexy"...

Australian Family Association Queensland president Ken Francis warned that the website was potentially dangerous to the "physical and mental health of our children" and was unsuitable for Year 7 students...

However, Family Planning Queensland educational services director Cecelia Gore backed the website, insisting Year 7 was the "crucial time" for sex education because research showed students dealt better with sexual encounters if they had been educated beforehand...

Ill. school board approves prior review policy for student newspaper

This from the Student Press Law Center:

ILLINOIS — After three months of review, the Harrisburg, Ill. school board approved a prior review policy that gives Harrisburg High School Principal Karen Crank authority to review the student newspaper, the Purple Clarion, 48 hours before publication.

Harrisburg Community Unit #3 Board of Education member Judy Cape said there is not much change from the past policy and that she does not believe this is censorship.

"Hazelwood defines the standard of censorship for high school newspapers," Cape said. "It is my intent and expectation as a board member that the paper will be reviewed within those standards. These students still have First Amendment rights under Hazelwood."

Under Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, high school administrators can censor many school-sponsored student publications if they can show they have a legitimate educational reason for doing so.

In addition to prior review, the new policy requires writers to sign all editorials and opinion articles. Purple Clarion adviser Cathy Wall voiced displeasure with the policy changes at the school board meeting and said that she does not agree with the idea of prior review of content by an administrator.

"Instead of teaching them (the students) to think freely and independently — to watch their government with a critical eye and speak out when something is amiss — we are teaching them to accept the role of government censorship because the principal is a government employee," Wall said in an e-mail...

In Hazelwood, the Court held 5-to-3 that the First Amendment did not require schools to affirmatively promote particular types of student speech. The Court held that schools must be able to set high standards for student speech disseminated under their auspices, and that schools retained the right to refuse to sponsor speech that was "inconsistent with 'the shared values of a civilized social order.'" Educators did not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the content of student speech so long as their actions were "reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns."

New college graduates facing tough job market

This from the Rockford Register:

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) -- Facing a bleak job market, Brittney Joiner is thinking about extending her time in school once she gets her degree this spring at Western Kentucky University.

The psychology major from Hopkinsville thinks graduate school might be the best place to ride out the recession before heading into the job market.

"If I had (fore)seen the economy downturn, I wouldn't have worked so hard to get done in four years," Joiner told the Daily News of Bowling Green. "I wouldn't be looking ahead of me and seeing graduation in a month, it would be a year down the road."

Joiner said it's a "nerve-racking" time, adding "I guess I can always live with my parents if things don't work out." ...

...For Tompkinsville senior Savannah Thomas, an advertising major at WKU, having a resume is not going to be enough to set herself apart from other applicants with more experience.

Thomas said she is working on a digital resume and Web site through the advertising department, and will be seeking advice from others in the field during a "Webinar" being hosted by the department.

"They recommend you have two to three internships by graduation, but that's difficult, especially if they're unpaid," she said. "Grad school is definitely looking really good right now."...