Student transfers from failing schools via No Child law swamp successful ones, By Michael Birnbaum, November 23, 2010, Washington Post: “In some struggling school districts around the country, students transferring from failing schools are overwhelming the few successful schools in their areas, an unintended byproduct of the No Child Left Behind law. The issue arose in Prince George’s County this year, when the parents of nearly 3,000 middle-schoolers learned just days before school started that they could switch their children to the only two non-specialized middle schools in the county that met the law’s performance goals. About 200 families accepted the offer, taking their new schools by surprise. The flurry of transfers - more than 700 in Prince George’s this year across all 12 grades - has packed classrooms while underscoring a tough aspect of the Bush administration’s landmark education initiative. It demands steadily rising achievement - all students are supposed to pass benchmark tests by 2014 - and, as a result, more schools fail every year…”

• 12th-grade reading and math scores rise slightly after a historic low in 2005, By Sam Dillon, November 18, 2010, New York Times: “Reading scores for the nation’s 12th-grade students have increased somewhat since they dropped to a historic low in 2005, according to results of the largest federal test, released Thursday. Average math scores also ticked upward. Experts said the increases, after years of dismal achievement reports, were surprising because every year the nation’s schools are educating more black and Hispanic students, who on average score lower than whites and Asians. The black-white achievement gap dates back more than a century, though researchers debate why it persists. Researchers presume that language barriers pull down scores for Hispanics…”
• 12th grade students still below ‘92 reading scores, By Christine Armario (AP), November 18, 2010, Washington Post: “A national education assessment released Thursday shows that high school seniors have made some improvement in reading, but remain below the achievement levels reached nearly two decades ago. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, referred to at the Nation’s Report Card, tested 52,000 students in reading and 49,000 in math across 1,670 school districts in 2009. Students scored an average of 288 out of 500 points in reading comprehension, two points above the 2005 score but still below the 1992 average of 292. Thirty-eight percent of 12th grade students were classified as at or above the ‘proficient’ level, while 74 percent were considered at or above ‘basic…’”

• Report shows fourth-grade students in N.J. public, charter schools have same passing rates, By Rohan Mascarenhas, November 10, 2010, Star-Ledger: “Some public schools in Newark are among the best in the city, performing as well as charters in certain areas, according to the annual Kids Count survey to be released today. Comparing test scores and demographic data, the report found public schools had the same passing rates on average as charters at the fourth grade level, thanks to a decade of significant academic gains. The data appears to contradict the prevailing assumption about the consistent high quality of charter schools and their reputation as a panacea. It also belies the rhetoric from politicians and educators that Newark schools are uniformly bad…”
• Newark rents rise, incomes are stagnant, and more kids on food stamps, report shows, By Rohan Mascarenhas, November 11, 2010, Star-Ledger: “A study released today painted a grim picture of social and economic struggles in the state’s largest city. Rents in Newark have spiked, and more city kids are on food stamps, while income levels are remaining stagnant, according to the annual Kids Count survey published by the Advocates for Children in New Jersey. The report found that median rents rose 22 percent between 2005 and 2009. At the same time, the average income for Newarkers increased only one percent. Compiling statistics on welfare and demographic data, the survey offers a snapshot of the recession’s impact in Newark, where the unemployment rate hovers around 15 percent. Over the past five years, the number of Newark children on food stamps has jumped sharply, rising 33 percent, the report said…”

• Proficiency of black students is found to be far lower than expected, By Trip Gabriel, November 9, 2010, New York Times: “An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented - a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another. But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known. Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys. Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences: poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches…”
• Report calls attention to achievement gap between black and white male students, By Nick Anderson, November 9, 2010, Washington Post: “Black male students trail their white counterparts in school by alarming margins and for reasons that often are not well understood, according to a report released Tuesday. The report from the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy organization for urban education, suggests that poverty is not the only factor behind the black-white achievement gap. Federal test data show that white male students nationwide who come from families poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches outperform black males from large cities whose families are better off economically, according to the report. The report analyzed fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress…”

Fewer black males are dropping out of school in Baltimore, By Liz Bowie, October 20, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “After a push to get dropouts back in the classroom and to provide students with a greater choice of schools, Baltimore has seen marked improvements in both the graduation and dropout rates for black males. In 2007, for every diploma the city handed out to a black male student, another had dropped out. In 2010, the city handed out two diplomas for every one who dropped out…”

School study sees benefits in economic integration, By Stephanie McCrummen and Michael Birnbaum, October 15, 2010, Washington Post: “Low-income students in Montgomery County performed better when they attended affluent elementary schools instead of ones with higher concentrations of poverty, according to a new study that suggests economic integration is a powerful but neglected school-reform tool. The debate over reforming public education has focused mostly on improving individual schools through better teaching and expanded accountability efforts. But the study, to be released Friday, addresses the potential impact of policies that mix income levels across several schools or an entire district. And it suggests that such policies could be more effective than directing extra resources at higher-poverty schools…”

Education Dept. awards grants to 21 distressed communities to plan for ‘Promise Neighborhoods’, By Christine Armario (AP), September 21, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Organizers in distressed communities from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., will soon begin plans to create what the Department of Education envisions as ‘Promise Neighborhoods,’ where children and families receive support services that boost a student’s chance of being successful in school. Twenty-one applicants for the program to transform communities and student outcomes were named on Tuesday. They will receive planning grants of up to $500,000. ‘Communities across the country recognize that education is the one true path out of poverty,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. ‘These Promise Neighborhoods applicants are committed to putting schools at the center of their work to provide comprehensive services for young children and students.’ The program is modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which provides comprehensive support for families from pregnancy through birth, education through college and career. Children in the program’s charter schools have made impressive gains on standardized tests and in closing the achievement gap…”

Racial disparity in school suspensions, By Sam Dillon, September 13, 2010, New York Times: “In many of the nation’s middle schools, black boys were nearly three times as likely to be suspended as white boys, according to a new study, which also found that black girls were suspended at four times the rate of white girls. School authorities also suspended Hispanic and American Indian middle school students at higher rates than white students, though not at such disproportionate rates as for black children, the study found. Asian students were less likely to be suspended than whites. The study analyzed four decades of federal Department of Education data on suspensions, with a special focus on figures from 2002 and 2006, that were drawn from 9,220 of the nation’s 16,000 public middle schools…”

• Social class affects white pupils’ exam results more than those of ethnic minorities - study, By Jessica Shepherd, September 3, 2010, The Guardian: “A child’s social class is more likely to determine how well they perform in school if they are white than if they come from an ethnic minority, researchers have discovered. The gap between the proportion of working-class pupils and middle-class pupils who achieve five A* to C grades at GCSE is largest among white pupils, academics found. They analysed official data showing thousands of teenagers’ grades between 2003 and 2007. Some 31% of white pupils on free school meals - a key indicator of poverty - achieve five A* to Cs, compared with 63% of white pupils not eligible for free school meals, they found. This gap between social classes - of 32 percentage points - is far higher for white pupils than for other ethnic groups…”
• White British school children ‘worst hit’ by poverty, By Richard Garner, September 3, 2010, The Independent: “Poverty has a far greater influence on the performance of white British pupils at school than any other ethnic group, according to research published today. Figures show a 31 percentage point gap between rich and poor white British pupils obtaining five A* to C grade passes at GCSE compared with just five percentage points for Chinese pupils and seven percentage points for Bangladeshi youngsters. The findings will be unveiled at the British Educational Research Association conference at Warwick University later this morning…”

Drive to overhaul low-performing schools delayed, By Sam Dillon, August 23, 2010, New York Times: “Secretary of Education Arne Duncan set an ambitious goal last year of overhauling 1,000 schools a year, using billions of dollars in federal stimulus money. But that effort is off to an uneven start. Schools from Maine to California are starting the fall term with their overhaul plans postponed or in doubt because negotiations among federal regulators, state officials and local educators have led to delays and confusion. In this sprawling district east of Los Angeles, for example, the authorities announced plans earlier this year to use the program to convert Pacific High, one of California’s worst-performing schools, to a charter school, involving a comprehensive makeover. But with time running short this summer, the San Bernardino district switched course, adopting only smaller changes - a crackdown on tardiness and extending the school day, among others - that officials said would be more manageable…”

• $75M Payday,By Mary Vorsino, August 25, 2010, Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “The $75 million Race to the Top federal grant announced yesterday for Hawaii schools will kick-start some of the biggest reform initiatives ever seen in the state’s public education system, educators say. The money will be targeted on efforts to turn around low-performing schools, boost student achievement, better evaluate teacher effectiveness and steer low-performing teachers out of the classroom. Officials say although the changes are sweeping, they are also doable — through measured phase-ins and targeted work to help students, teachers, principals and schools in need of the most help…”
• Race to the Top losers: Why did Louisiana and Colorado fail?, By Amanda Paulson, August 24, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Nine states and the District of Columbia have emerged as winners in Round 2 of the closely watched Race to the Top competition, the Department of Education’s innovative - and controversial - competition to reward reform efforts. Together, they were competing for $3.4 billion available in federal funds. In order of their rank, the winners are Massachusetts, New York, Hawaii, Florida, Rhode Island, D.C., Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio. ‘We funded as many states as we could [until we] ran out of money,’ said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a press call with reporters, noting that just a few points separated some of those states who failed to make the cut from the winners. ‘I can’t overstate how strong the applications were in the second round.’ Still, the big news among many education experts was who lost - particularly Louisiana and Colorado, widely considered leaders in education reform with priorities that are strongly aligned with those favored by the administration. And some of the winners - including Maryland, Ohio, and Hawaii - raised eyebrows, as well…”
• Eastern states dominate in winning school grants, By Sam Dillon, August 24, 2010, New York Times: “When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Tuesday the latest states to win the Race to the Top competition - and a share of $3.4 billion in federal financing - he said they were chosen because they outlined the boldest plans for shaking up their public school systems. But others noted another common denominator: geography. Of the dozen states that have won major grants to date in the two-part grant contest that is the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, 11 are east of the Mississippi and most hug the East Coast, including Florida and Georgia in the South and New York and Massachusetts in the North. Among the winners, Hawaii is the lone geographic exception. Educators in many of the states that did not win, or did not even participate in the competition - which includes every state from Tennessee west to the Pacific - said they were hamstrung from the outset…”

9 states, DC get $3.4B in ‘Race to the Top’ grants, By Dorie Turner (AP), August 24, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “More than 13 million students and 1 million educators will share $3.4 billion from the second round of the federal ‘Race to the Top’ grant competition, the U.S. Education Department said Tuesday. The department chose nine states - Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island - and the District of Columbia for the grants. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 25,000 schools will get money to raise student learning and close the achievement gap. The ‘Race to the Top’ program, part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, rewards states for taking up ambitious changes to improve struggling schools. The competition instigated a wave of reforms across the country, as states passed new teacher accountability policies and lifted caps on charter schools to boost their chances of winning…”

High turnover complicates study of choice schools’ progress, By Jason Stein, August 12, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “A long-range study evaluating voucher schools in Milwaukee is finding little difference in academic achievement between their students and those in public schools, state auditors said Thursday. But the study is complicated by the fact that three years into the research, most of the private school students selected for it are no longer attending schools in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Only 1,097, or 40.2%, of the 2,727 voucher school students selected for the study in the 2006-’07 school year were still part of the choice program by the 2008-’09 school year, according to the report by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau. ‘It’s a very mobile population,’ state Auditor Jan Mueller said of Milwaukee students. The report analyzed data and results gathered by academics at the University of Arkansas to compare math and reading test scores of choice program students with those of similar students in Milwaukee Public Schools. The report looked at a representative sample of voucher students attending third through eighth grades during the 2006-’07 school year, as well as all ninth-graders…”

Who’s teaching L.A.’s kids?, By Jason Felch, Jason Song, and Doug Smith, August 14, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The fifth-graders at Broadous Elementary School come from the same world - the poorest corner of the San Fernando Valley, a Pacoima neighborhood framed by two freeways where some have lost friends to the stray bullets of rival gangs. Many are the sons and daughters of Latino immigrants who never finished high school, hard-working parents who keep a respectful distance and trust educators to do what’s best. The students study the same lessons. They are often on the same chapter of the same book. Yet year after year, one fifth-grade class learns far more than the other down the hall. The difference has almost nothing to do with the size of the class, the students or their parents. It’s their teachers…”

Triumph fades on racial gap in city schools, By Sharon Otterman and Robert Gebeloff, August 15, 2010, New York Times: “Two years ago, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, testified before Congress about the city’s impressive progress in closing the gulf in performance between minority and white children. The gains were historic, all but unheard of in recent decades. ‘Over the past six years, we’ve done everything possible to narrow the achievement gap - and we have,’ Mr. Bloomberg testified. ‘In some cases, we’ve reduced it by half.’ ‘We are closing the shameful achievement gap faster than ever,’ the mayor said again in 2009, as city reading scores - now acknowledged as the height of a test score bubble - showed nearly 70 percent of children had met state standards. When results from the 2010 tests, which state officials said presented a more accurate portrayal of students’ abilities, were released last month, they came as a blow to the legacy of the mayor and the chancellor, as passing rates dropped by more than 25 percentage points on most tests. But the most painful part might well have been the evaporation of one of their signature accomplishments: the closing of the racial achievement gap…”

18 states and District of Columbia are finalists for education grants, By Robbie Brown, July 27, 2010, New York Times: “Eighteen states and the District of Columbia were named as finalists on Tuesday in the second round of a national competition for $3.4 billion in federal financing to support an overhaul of education policies. The much-anticipated decision by the federal Education Department eliminated almost half of the 35 states that entered the competition, called Race to the Top. The finalists are Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina. Winners will be announced in September, and federal officials say they expect 10 to 15 of the finalists to receive financing…”

• More children living in poverty in Kentucky, Indiana, annual survey shows, By Deborah Yetter, July 26, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “The number of children living in poverty has increased in Kentucky and Indiana, following a national trend of high unemployment and growing poverty in families, according to the latest ‘Kid Count,’ an annual state-by-state survey of child well-being by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The numbers are alarming because of the adverse effect poverty has on children’s health and achievement, said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which contributed to the annual report…”
• Well-being of kids falters, By Robert King, July 27, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “There’s little doubt among experts that the Great Recession has been a blow to children, with their parents losing jobs, their families losing health insurance and cash-strapped governments cutting programs that serve children. But the latest statistical assessment of the well-being of children — the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2010 Kids Count report — shows Hoosier kids were struggling before the recession took hold…”
• More Ohio kids living with single parents, By Catherine Candisky, July 27, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Nearly three of every four black children in Ohio live with only one parent, usually their mother - a rate almost three times higher than that of white youngsters. In all, 34 percent of Ohio children, or 870,000 youngsters, reside in single-parent households. That’s a 10 percent increase from a decade ago; only 10 states, all in the South, are worse, according to a report released today…”
• Michigan kids’ well-being slips, U.S. report reveals, By Catherine Jun, July 27, 2010, Detroit News: “Job insecurity and infant mortality rates in Michigan hover above the national average, pushing Michigan’s ranking in child well-being to its lowest level in more than a decade, according to the national Kids Count report released today. The report, which ranked Michigan 21st-worst for child well-being in the nation, showed that 31 percent of children in 2008 lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment, compared with the national rate of 27 percent…”
• Wisconsin 10th for child well-being, study shows, By Tia Ghose, July 27, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin ranks 10th in the nation for child well-being, according to a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Tuesday. The study, called Kids Count, combined data from the 2008 American Community Survey and several federal and local health statistics. Wisconsin has consistently placed between 10th and 14th for the last decade. The state stood out in its performance on education. Wisconsin ranked fourth in the percentage of teens who attend school or have graduated, and fifth in the percentage of teens who were either working or in school…”
• Child welfare improving in Missouri, holds steady in Illinois, By Nancy Cambria, July 28, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Missouri children gained slight ground in a national study ranking the quality of life of kids in all 50 states. The Annie E. Casey Foundation released on Tuesday its 2010 Kids Count, an annual analysis of child welfare statistics around the nation. Missouri ranked 31st among all states, an improvement from last year’s 33rd spot. Illinois ranked 24th, the same as last year…”
• Minnesota still No. 2 in kids’ health but…, By Jeremy Olson, July 25, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “For the sixth time in nine years, Minnesota was the second-healthiest state for children when evaluating rates of deaths, teen pregnancies, high school dropouts and child poverty, a new national ranking indicates. Still, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count report, released Monday, was hardly celebrated by child advocates in the state, who fear Minnesota’s poverty rate — higher than a decade ago — could undermine its success…”
• More children living in poverty in N.D. and Minnesota, By Ryan Johnson, July 28, 2010, Grand Forks Herald: “The number of children living in poverty rose in both Minnesota and North Dakota in recent years, according to a new report released this week. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 21st annual Kids Count report tracks 10 categories of children’s health from 2000 to 2008, ranking states based on how well they did in those factors. New Hampshire took the No. 1 spot in the country, and Minnesota closely followed to get ranked No. 2 for the second consecutive year. North Dakota’s ranking slipped to No. 12 overall, down from No. 7 in 2009’s report…”
• Utah No. 4 in national child well-being report, By Jasen Lee, July 27, 2010, Deseret News: “Being a child in Utah is better than being a child in almost every other state in the country, a new report shows. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual Kids Count Data Book, a national and state-by-state report that includes key measures and statistical trends on the condition of America’s children and families, Utah ranked fourth overall this year - a drop from third in last year’s data book. However, the Beehive State saw improvements in several major indicators studied in the report…”
• Texas has 3rd-highest teen birthrate among states, study says, By Jan Jarvis, July 26, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: ” Texas has the third-highest teen birthrate in the nation, according to an annual study that ranked the state in the overall well-being of children. Sixty-four of 1,000 births were to teenage mothers, far higher than the national rate of 43 births per 1,000, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2010 Kids Count Data Book. The rate puts Texas 48th among the 50 states in teen births, better than only New Mexico and Mississippi. But it is an improvement over last year, when the state was the worst in the country…”
• Report: Well-being of state’s kids improves, but poverty rates soar, By Barbara Cotter, July 27, 2010, Colorado Springs Gazette: “Colorado has improved its standing as a place where children can thrive, according to a national study released Tuesday, but researchers note that data used to evaluate the 50 states on the well-being of their kids predate the economic downturn that began in 2008. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based organization focused on public policy that affects children and families, Colorado’s ranking improved from 22nd in the 2009 report to 20 in the 2010 report. The rankings are based on 10 key indicators that measure how each state’s children are faring…”
• N.J. ranks high in Kids Count survey for children’s health, education, By Susan K. Livio, July 27, 2010, Star-Ledger: “New Jersey is an expensive place to live, but with its competitive public school system and access to health programs for working poor families, it’s also a good place to raise and educate children, according to the latest Kids Count nationwide survey of child health, wealth and well-being. According to the annual survey, scheduled for release today, New Jersey ranks seventh overall in terms of child health, an improvement from the last year’s study when the state placed ninth…”
• Georgia still failing its kids, says report, By Craig Schneider, July 27, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia once again stands among the 10 worst states for the care of its children, and some worry that the state has become complacent about its poor performance in such areas as infant mortality, child deaths and low birth-weight babies. The state lags behind the national average on every one of the 10 measures in the 2010 Kids Count data book, a compilation of state and federal information that will be released today…”
• Child health report uses pre-recession data, By Emily Bregel, July 27, 2010, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “Child advocates in Tennessee and Georgia say a recent ranking of states based on child well-being may be painting a too-rosy picture. The ranking is based on data collected before the economic recession unleashed a wave of unemployment and budget cuts, the advocates say…”
• Alabama still ranks low in Kids Count data, By Jeff Hansen, July 27, 2010, Birmingham News: “Alabama and much of the Southeast continue to lag the rest of the United States in measures of child well-being, according to today’s release of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2010 Kids Count data book. Alabama ranks 47th this year, according to 10 measures of childhood health, poverty, education and family issues. Alabama’s place near the bottom is no surprise: In the last nine rankings, the state has been 48th six times, 47th twice and 43rd once…”
• Md. remains middle of the pack in child well-being, By Brent Jones, July 27, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “As the state continues to struggle with a high infant mortality rate that undercuts its relative wealth, Maryland’s overall rank in child well-being remained in the middle of the pack nationally, according to an annual report released by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. The 2010 Kids Count Databook released Tuesday placed Maryland 25th in overall child well-being, the same ranking as a year ago. Although Maryland has the second-lowest percentage of children living in poverty (10 percent), the state placed 42nd in infant mortality rate, a statistical discrepancy that puzzled the report’s authors…”

Poverty trumps education gains, By Jane Roberts, July 1, 2010, Memphis Commercial Appeal: “Tennessee has made the most gains of any state in high school graduation rates, jumping 13 percentage points between 2002 and 2007. The state also is making measurable gains against other key education benchmarks. State ACT scores have increased from 19.9 in 1999 to 20.6 in 2009. Standards for school principals make the state a regional leader, and new high school graduates in Tennessee are enrolling in college at a higher rate than their U.S. peers. But the increasing number of children growing up in poverty threatens improvements, according to a Challenge to Lead report released Wednesday by the Southern Regional Education Board. In 2009, 55 percent of Tennessee youngsters came from homes where family incomes made them eligible for free school lunches (up to $40,793 for a family of four), a 14 percent increase in 10 years…”

Small NYC high schools found to boost achievement, By Karen Matthews (AP), June 22, 2010, Washington Post: “They were known as dropout factories: big high schools in poor neighborhoods where only a quarter to a third of students graduated. New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg has systematically shut down large, failing high schools and replaced them with small schools, many pegged to themes like the fashion industry or the business of sports. A new study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - which has invested more than $150 million in New York City schools - suggests that the small schools have succeeded in boosting graduation rates for the city’s most academically challenged students. Proponents say small schools can provide one-on-one support to struggling students, and the specialized programs are supposed to improve students’ motivation by enticing them to apply to schools that match their interests…”

• Economic segregation rising in US public schools, By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, May 27, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “More than 16,000 public schools struggle in the shadows of concentrated poverty. The portion of schools where at least three-quarters of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals - a proxy for poverty - climbed from 12 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2008. The federal government released a statistical portrait of these schools Thursday as part of its annual Condition of Education report. When it comes to educational opportunities and achievement, the report shows a stark contrast between students in high-poverty and low-poverty schools (those where 25 percent or less are poor)…”
• Report: Percentage of high-poverty schools has risen; students face persistent challenges, By Christine Armario (AP), May 27, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The percentage of public schools where more than three quarters of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch - a key indicator of poverty - has increased in the past decade, and children at these schools are less likely to attend college or be taught by teachers with advanced degrees. The findings come from a special report on high poverty schools included in the 2010 Condition of Education study, which reports on a broad range of academic indicators across K-12 and higher education. The U.S. Department of Education report released Thursday found that the percent of high poverty schools rose from 12 to 17 percent between the 1999-2000 and 2007-2008 school years, even before the current recession was fully felt. By comparison, the overall poverty rate for children increased from 17 to 18 percent, leading researchers to believe that that a higher percentage of poor kids were signing up for the meal program. In all, there were 16,122 schools considered high poverty…”

• Study says more students struggling with reading at end of pivotal third grade, By Michael Alison Chandler, May 18, 2010, Washington Post: “Nearly two-thirds of students in Virginia and Maryland do not read proficiently by the time they finish third grade, a pivotal milestone when material becomes more complex and children are more likely to slip behind, according to a national report released Tuesday. The report, ‘Early Warning: Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters’, highlights links between early literacy and high school graduation rates and future economic success…”
• Analysis ties 4th grade reading failure to poverty, By Debra Viadero, May 18, 2010, Education Week: “Eighty-five percent of poor 4th graders in predominantly low-income schools are failing to reach ‘proficient’ levels in reading on federal tests, according to a new study by a national foundation that is gearing up to lead a 10-year effort to raise 3rd graders’ reading proficiency. ‘The evidence is clear that those students who do not read well have a very tough time succeeding in school and graduating from high schools and going on to successful careers and lives,’ Ralph R. Smith, the executive vice president of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, said in an interview. ‘The Casey Foundation is putting a stake in the ground on grade-level reading by the end of the 3rd grade.’ The report, which is due to be released this morning, lays out the statistical case for the foundation’s soon-to-be-announced, 10-year initiative to ensure that more children become proficient readers by the time they leave 3rd grade…”

High lead levels hurt learning for DPS kids, By Tina Lam and Kristi Tanner-White, May 16, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “More than half of the students tested in Detroit Public Schools have a history of lead poisoning, which affects brain function for life, according to data compiled by city health and education officials. The data also show, for the first time in Detroit, a link between higher lead levels and poor academic performance. About 60% of DPS students who performed below their grade level on 2008 standardized tests had elevated lead levels. The higher the lead levels, the lower the MEAP scores, though other factors also may play a role. The research — the result of an unusual collaboration between the city’s Department of Health & Wellness Promotion and DPS — also reveals that children receiving special education were more likely to have lead poisoning…”

• College courses for high schoolers, By Melissa B. Taboada, April 28, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “The Austin school district is trying to boost the academic performance and graduation and college-going rates of two struggling East Austin high schools by bringing college straight to the students. On Monday, trustees unanimously approved creating Early College High Schools at Reagan and LBJ. The free program would blend high school and college curricula and allow students to earn up to 60 hours of college credit as they work toward their high school diplomas. The idea is not new. Schools often target high-achieving or college-ready juniors and seniors to take dual credit courses and earn up to 30 hours of college credit…”
• Colorado high schoolers going forth with a state-paid fifth year, By Allison Sherry, April 14, 2010, Denver Post: “Almost 300 Colorado high school seniors are eligible for a state-paid year of college this fall - a policy garnering attention from the nation’s capital as a model to push poor kids to higher education. Colorado’s ‘fifth-year’ program allows seniors to elect to have high schools withhold their diplomas for a year so they can go to college on the state’s dime. State education leaders aren’t yet sure how many students will take advantage of the program, estimated to cost about $1.7 million this year. Participating students, who must have at least 12 college credits by the spring of their senior year to be eligible, can go to any public college in Colorado, as long as the high school sets it up. Previously, high schoolers could get some college credit through advanced courses, but the fifth-year program expands the opportunity to far more students…”

Poorer TN schools will get most Race to the Top aid, By Chas Sisk, April 14, 2010, The Tennessean: “Tennessee schools are set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid through the Race to the Top program, but districts can expect to get vastly different amounts from the effort to raise the state’s education standards. School districts will get half of Tennessee’s $500 million award from the federal government, with the other half remaining under the control of the state government. How much each district gets will be tied to poverty measures, meaning that urban and poor rural districts will get many times more money per pupil from the program than their suburban counterparts. About 40 percent of the $250 million earmarked for school districts through the Race to the Top program is expected to go to two school districts - Metro Nashville and Memphis…”

School suspensions lead to legal challenge, By Erik Eckholm, March 18, 2010, New York Times: “As school let out one day in January 2008, students from rival towns faced off. Two girls flailed away for several seconds and clusters of boys pummeled each other until teachers pulled them apart. The fistfights at Southside High School involved no weapons and no serious injuries, and in some ways seemed as old-fashioned as the country roads here in eastern North Carolina. But the punishment was strictly up-to-date: Sheriff’s deputies handcuffed and briefly arrested a dozen students. The school suspended seven of them for a short period and six others from the melee, including the two girls, for the entire semester. As extra punishment, the girls were told they could not attend Beaufort County’s alternative school for troubled students and were denied aid to study at home…”

• Reading scores lagging compared with math, By Sam Dillon, March 24, 2010, New York Times: “The nation’s schoolchildren have made little or no progress in reading proficiency in recent years, according to results released Wednesday from the largest nationwide reading test. The trend of sluggish achievement contrasts with dramatic gains made in mathematics during the same period. ‘The nation has done a really good job improving math skills,’ said Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research and a former official at the Education Department, which oversees the test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. ‘In contrast, we have made only marginal improvements in reading skills…’”
• Reading scores stalled despite ‘No Child Left Behind,’ report finds, By Nick Anderson and Bill Turque, March 24, 2010, Washington Post: “The nation’s students are mired at a basic level of reading in fourth and eighth grades, their achievement in recent years largely stagnant, according to a federal report Wednesday that suggests a dwindling academic payoff from the landmark No Child Left Behind law. But reading performance has climbed in D.C. elementary schools, a significant counterpoint to the national trend, even though the city’s scores remain far below average. The report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that fourth-grade reading scores stalled after the law took effect in 2002, rose modestly in 2007, then stalled again in 2009. Eighth-grade scores showed a slight uptick since 2007 — 1 point on a scale of 500 — but no gain over the seven-year span when President George W. Bush’s program for school reform was in high gear. Only in Kentucky did reading scores rise significantly in both grades from 2007 to 2009…”
• State’s fourth-grade readers lose ground, By Amy Hetzner, March 24, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The latest scorecard gauging how well Wisconsin’s students read compared with their classmates in other states showed little change from previous years, but the rest of the nation’s fourth-graders have been catching up and Wisconsin’s black students now rank behind those in every other state. ‘Holding steady is not good enough,’ state schools Superintendent Tony Evers said about the results. ‘Despite increasing poverty that has a negative impact on student learning, we must do more to improve the reading achievement of all students in Wisconsin.’ Fourth-graders in Wisconsin posted an average score of 220 on the 500-point reading test administered in 2009 as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s report card. That represented a three-point drop from two years before and translated to a 33% proficiency rate…”

Lawmakers say needs of rural schools are overlooked, By Sam Dillon, March 17, 2010, New York Times: “An Oklahoma senator complained that federal rules on teacher credentials had driven thousands of experienced educators out of rural schools. A North Carolina lawmaker complained that formulas for distributing federal education money favored big-city districts at the expense of poor students in small towns. And a senator from Alaska wanted to know how school-turnaround strategies based on firing ineffective instructors would work in a remote village on the Bering Sea that she said already had tremendous teacher turnover. Lawmakers who represent rural areas told Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a hearing Wednesday that the No Child Left Behind law, as well as the Obama administration’s blueprint for overhauling it, failed to take sufficiently into account the problems of rural schools, and their nine million students…”

Panel proposes single standard for all schools, By Sam Dillon, March 10, 2010, New York Times: “A panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation’s public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. The new proposals could transform American education, replacing the patchwork of standards ranging from mediocre to world-class that have been written by local educators in every state. Under the proposed standards for English, for example, fifth graders would be expected to explain the differences between drama and prose, and to identify elements of drama like characters, dialogue and stage directions. Seventh graders would study, among other math concepts, proportional relationships, operations with rational numbers and solutions for linear equations…”

• Poor children a year behind in language skills, By Warwick Mansell, February 15, 2010, The Guardian: “The vocabulary of children from the poorest backgrounds lags more than a year behind that of their classmates from richer homes by the time they start school, a major new study showed today. The Sutton Trust, the charity which sponsored the research, said the divide was a ‘tragic indictment of modern society’, showing how educational inequality starts young and leaves children from the most disadvantaged homes struggling to keep up throughout their school years. The poorest children face multiple challenges, being less likely to be born to well-educated parents, have a regular bedtime or live with both their biological father and mother, the study found. However, it also concluded that ‘good parenting can triumph’, with families able to limit the effects of poverty by, for example, reading to their children daily…”
• Poor children a year behind when they start school, study says, By Nicola Woolcock, February 15, 2010, The Times: “Children from poor families are already a year behind in vocabulary tests when they start school, according to research published today. It reveals the full impact of upbringing and home life on attainment, and how those from troubled or impoverished homes can fall behind at a young age. Many never catch up with better-off classmates and become stuck in a cycle of underachievement. The report, by the Sutton Trust, highlights the importance of activities such as bedtime stories and taking children to museums and libraries. In isolation, these appear to have a bigger impact on progress than wealth…”

Disadvantaged students continue AP climb, By Erik W. Robelen, February 10, 2010, Education Week: “Continuing a pattern from recent years, more students from low-income families are taking-and earning what is considered a passing score on-at least one Advanced Placement exam, a new analysis of results for the public high school graduating class of 2009 shows. At the same time, significant gaps persist in preparation and access across ‘traditionally underserved students,’ the analysis released today by the College Board suggests, especially for African-American students…”

Fixing our schools, series homepage, Detroit Free Press:

• How do we prepare our kids for jobs, future?, By Lori Higgins, February 7, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Renee Boogren of Troy has two compelling reasons for wanting Michigan to make its schools more challenging. She’s a mother. She’s also a biology teacher at Wayne State University who sees the results of kids who come to college unprepared. It’s most notable in their writing skills…”
• What it’s like inside the Detroit Public Schools, By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, February 8, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “On a recent Wednesday, only 11 of the 29 students enrolled in Karanji Kaduma’s second-hour environmental science class at Pershing High School in Detroit showed up. He didn’t know where the rest were, but he said some of the stories of their homelife could make a grown man cry. ‘When middle school hits, parents’ hands go off. These kids in my classroom — most have no curfews, go to bed when they want to go to bed; they don’t have any particular time to do homework. They’re raising themselves,’ said Kaduma, who has lost six former students to gun violence…”
• Big ideas for Michigan schools, By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, Robin Erb, and Lori Higgins, February 9, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “In Charlotte, N.C., the best principals and teachers are handpicked to lead the worst schools. In Washington, D.C., the mayor appoints the schools chancellor. In New York, Wisconsin and Florida, parents on public assistance lose a chunk of their welfare benefits if their kids continually miss school. These are some of the drastic solutions for schools with low student performance, chronic truancy and other issues affecting achievement. But the innovative changes have made a difference: Students are showing up for class and doing better on tests, and teachers are being held accountable for making sure students succeed…”
• How Marcus Garvey Academy rises above, By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, February 10, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “At Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit, the week begins with the recitation of black history facts followed by the sounds of drummers summoning students to an assembly. Students sing the black national anthem and recite the school creed, which starts, ‘I will have faith in myself. … I can learn! I will learn! I must learn!’ This is before any reading, writing and arithmetic. Garvey is an African-centered educational environment, and in 2008, its students outperformed the state average in most categories on the MEAP. Three other African-centered schools in Detroit serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade fared better than the Detroit Public Schools average…”
• About 1 in 5 students need remedial help in college, By Robin Erb, February 11, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “It should have been a simple math question. But it stumped more than half of Michigan’s fourth-graders last year. Many of them never catch on, even by high school. As a result, remedial education classes are flourishing at colleges and universities. Walk onto any of the state’s 28 community colleges, and one of every five students is enrolled in a remedial education course. National data suggests that one in five students at four-year colleges seek remedial coursework, too. And it’s a costly problem. In Michigan, more than $28 million is spent on remediation at the community college level alone…”

For students at risk, early college proves a draw, By Tamar Lewin, February 7, 2010, New York Times: “Precious Holt, a 12th grader with dangly earrings and a SpongeBob pillow, climbs on the yellow school bus and promptly falls asleep for the hour-plus ride to Sandhills Community College. When the bus arrives, she checks in with a guidance counselor and heads off to a day of college classes, blending with older classmates until 4 p.m., when she and the other seniors from SandHoke Early College High School gather for the ride home. There is a payoff for the long bus rides: The 48 SandHoke seniors are in a fast-track program that allows them to earn their high-school diploma and up to two years of college credit in five years - completely free. Until recently, most programs like this were aimed at affluent, overachieving students - a way to keep them challenged and give them a head start on college work. But the goal is quite different at SandHoke, which enrolls only students whose parents do not have college degrees…”

• Administration outlines proposed changes to ‘No Child’ law, By Sam Dillon, February 1, 2010, New York Times: “The Obama administration said on Monday that it would ask Congress to raise education spending by about $3.5 billion, a 7.5 percent increase, for the 2011 fiscal year, even as it sought to limit other categories of domestic spending. In outlining its budget request, the administration also said it would seek an extensive rewrite of the main federal law governing public schools, known as No Child Left Behind, and would seek to replace the law’s much-criticized system for rating schools based on student test scores. The administration proposed replacing that system, known as adequate yearly progress, with a new accountability system that officials said would more fairly characterize schools’ academic progress…”
• President Obama seeks to revamp No Child Left Behind teaching standards, By Nick Anderson, February 2, 2010, Washington Post: “As legions of schools nationwide fall short of academic targets, the Obama administration proposed Monday to toss out the pass-fail measure that for 15 years has been the bedrock of the school accountability system and replace it with an index that would reward educators who prepare students for college and careers. The shift, if approved by Congress, would force a wholesale rethinking of school testing standards eight years after enactment of the No Child Left Behind law put a spotlight on disparities in achievement among groups of students…”
• Obama education overhaul well received, By James Vaznis, February 2, 2010, Boston Globe: “Massachusetts school officials and education advocates welcomed yesterday President Obama’s proposal for sweeping changes in the way schools are judged on meeting federal standards, hopeful that it will focus attention on schools that need the most help while decreasing the likelihood of labeling good schools as bad. Under the current system, known as the No Child Left Behind Act, 54 percent of schools in the state have missed annual benchmarks for increases in test scores for at least two years, as schools pursue a federal mandate of having all students score in the proficient range by 2014…”
• Education reform: Obama budget reboots No Child Left Behind, By Amanda Paulson, February 1, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “The Obama administration envisions big changes for No Child Left Behind. Included in Monday’s 2011 budget proposal were some significant - and controversial - shifts in federal education policy, even though a formal plan for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (better known as No Child Left Behind) has yet to be submitted. Among the changes Obama wants is a scrapping of the yearly benchmarks that are the cornerstone of NCLB. This would also mean a nullification of the 2014 deadline for all students to be declared proficient…”

• Georgia’s charter schools see gains educating diverse students, By D. Aileen Dodd, January15, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “An annual report on Georgia’s charter schools in 2009 found that many of the campuses were outperforming surrounding schools even though the charters enrolled large populations of poor students. The report released at a Georgia Board of Education meeting this week showed that most charter schools, which enroll higher concentrations of African-Americans, Asians and poor students on average, are seeing gains on standardized test scores…”
• Graduation rate drops at D.C. charter schools, By Michael Birnbaum, January 16, 2010, Washington Post: “The graduation rate for D.C. charter schools dropped nearly five percentage points, to 83.3 percent, for the 2008-09 school year, officials said Friday. The rate is still higher than that of regular D.C. public schools, which announced last week that theirs had increased 2.6 percentage points, to 72.3 percent, in the 2008-09 school year. Charter school officials said they were not worried, and they attributed the decrease to improved tracking…”

Southern schools mark two majorities, By Shaila Dewan, January 6, 2010, New York Times: “The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report. The shift was fueled not by white flight from public schools, which spiked during desegregation but has not had much effect on school demographics since the early 1980s. Rather, an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families have contributed to the change. The new numbers, from the 2008-9 school year, are a milestone for the South, ‘the only section of the United States where racial slavery, white supremacy and racial segregation of schools were enforced through law and social custom,’ said the report, to be released on Thursday by the Southern Education Foundation, a nonprofit group based here that supports education improvement in the region. But the numbers also herald the future of the country as a whole, as minority students are expected to exceed 50 percent of public school enrollment by 2020 and the share of students poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches is on the rise in every state…”

• Why aren’t there more Deidre Greens?, By Susan Troller, December 2, 2009, Capital Times: “Deidre Green got off to a rough start with a bad case of infant jaundice that overwhelmed her mother. She went to live with her grandmother, who showered her with attention that likely changed the arc of her life. ‘I suppose I got pretty spoiled,’ the UW-Madison freshman says with a laugh. ‘My grandma played with me all the time - she did puzzles with me, read to me. She always told me I was smart, so when I got to school, that was what I expected. It was what she expected, too.’ For Green, a variety of serendipitous factors - her own talent and hard work, supportive mentors in and out of school, a core group of good friends and key opportunities - helped her excel in Madison public schools. An educational pioneer in her family, she intends to also do well in college and then go to law school…”
• Report: Minorities, low-income students lag in college success, By Daniel de Vise, December 3, 2009, Washington Post: “A new report, billed as one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how low-income and minority students fare in college, shows a wide gap in graduation rates at public four-year colleges nationwide and ‘alarming’ disparities in success at community colleges. The analysis, released Thursday, provides a statistical starting point for 24 public higher education systems that pledged two years ago to halve the achievement gap in college access and completion by 2015. Together, the systems represent two-fifths of all undergraduate students in four-year public colleges…”
• Skills gulf near impassable for poor children, By Adele Horin, December 3, 2009, Sydney Morning Herald: “Children from poor families have fallen so far behind their peers by the age of six in language development and other measures they are in danger of never catching up, a study has shown. Researchers tracked 5000 four-year-olds and 5000 infants for two years and found stark differences in the cognitive development of children from different socio-economic backgrounds. The differences were evident by age four. As well, there were marked differences in the health of children from different backgrounds, with the most disadvantaged likely to have poorer general health, sleep problems, and ‘illnesses with wheezes.’ Dr Jan Nicholson, associate professor of psychology at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said the results were worse than expected for cognitive development. The findings will be presented to the Growing Up in Australia conference this week…”
• How the economy is failing students, By J. Patrick Coolican and Emily Richmond, December 2, 2009, Las Vegas Sun: “The Clark County School District has always struggled with its sky-high population of poor children. The number of homeless students is expected to reach 8,000 by the end of the academic year, a 30 percent increase. And a full 44 percent of the district’s students receive free or reduced-price lunches, a commonly used indicator of childhood poverty. Family poverty, in turn, is correlated with lagging student achievement. Now, the deep recession threatens to make this problem worse, and do so for years to come. According to a study from two economists at the University of California, Davis, a parent’s job loss can increase by 15 percent the likelihood that a student will repeat a grade. This short-term damage, which is particularly acute in families where the breadwinner has just a high school degree, matches up with other data showing the negative long-term effects of poverty on student achievement…”

Will a longer school day help close the achievement gap?, By Amanda Paulson, November 1, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “Going to school from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. may sound like a student’s nightmare, but Sydney Shaw, a seventh-grader at the Alain Locke Charter Academy on Chicago’s West Side, has come to like it - as well as the extra 20 or so days that she’s in class a year. ‘I’m sure every kid at this school says bad things about the schedule sometimes,’ says Sydney, who was at school on Columbus Day, when most Chicago schools had a holiday. ‘But deep down, we all know it’s for our benefit.’ Finding ways to give kids more classroom time, through longer hours, a longer school year, or both, is getting more attention. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan support a lengthier timetable. Many education reformers agree that more time at school is a key step. Charter schools like Alain Locke and KIPP schools (a network of some 80 schools that are often lauded for their success with at-risk students) have made big gains in closing gaps in student achievement, partly through expanded schedules. Other schools have been making strides, too - notably in Massachusetts and in the New Orleans system…”

More districts use income, not race, as basis for busing, By Jordan Schrader, November 2, 2009, USA Today: “Struggling to improve schools that have large populations of poor and minority students and under legal pressure to avoid racial busing, a small but growing group of school districts are integrating schools by income. More than 60 school systems now use socioeconomic status as a factor in school assignments, says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, which studies income inequality. Students in Champaign, Ill.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Louisville have returned this year to income-based assignments…”

Illinois school test scores: Income-based gap proves hard to close, By Tara Malone and Darnell Little, October 30, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Surrounded by sports fields and suburban lawns, Hadley Junior High School could be the envy of the state. Nine of every 10 students at the Glen Ellyn school passed state exams in reading and math, according to the 2009 Illinois School Report Card made public Friday. But average scores belie a widespread problem the federal government has spent billions trying to fix nationwide: While at least 95 percent of Hadley’s well-off students passed the eighth-grade reading and math tests, about half of their low-income classmates met the same goals, revealing an achievement gap that is as persistent as it is pernicious. Seven years after the federal No Child Left Behind Law ambitiously pledged to eliminate such disparities and invested nearly $6.2 billion in Illinois schools alone, the progress has been modest and isolated. While the performance gap between advantaged and disadvantaged grade school children narrowed in Illinois since 2002 — in math, the margin shrunk by at least 13 percentage points in third, fifth and eighth grades — the divide among high school juniors actually widened slightly in math and reading…”

• Student ‘proficiency’: What is your state’s definition?, By Amanda Paulson, October 29, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “How advanced a student is may have more to do with where he lives than how much he knows. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states are under pressure to bring more students up to ‘proficiency’ every year. But each state can define what proficiency means differently. A new report shows just how widely these definitions vary. ‘A proficient reader in State A may be very different from a proficient reader in State B - even though those students may have the same academic skill,’ says Peggy Carr, associate commissioner for assessment at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which released the study Thursday…”
• Federal researchers find lower standards in schools, By Sam Dillon, October 29, 2009, New York Times: “A new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered their academic proficiency standards in recent years, a step that helps schools stay ahead of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law. But lowering standards also confuses parents about how children’s achievement compares with those in other states and countries. The study, released Thursday, was the first by the federal Department of Education’s research arm to use a statistical comparison between federal and state tests to analyze whether states had changed their testing standards. It found that 15 states lowered their proficiency standards in fourth- or eighth-grade reading or math from 2005 to 2007. Three states, Maine, Oklahoma and Wyoming, lowered standards in both subjects at both grade levels, the study said…”
• Report: States set low bar for student achievement, By Libby Quaid (AP), October 29, 2009, Idaho Statesman: “Many states declare students to have grade-level mastery of reading and math when they do not, the Education Department reported Thursday. The agency compared state achievement standards to the more challenging standards behind the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress. State standards were lower, and there were big differences in where each state set the bar…”

Research shows value of preschool for poor, By Joe Smydo, October 23, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Research released yesterday should end the debate over whether pre-kindergarten classes help level the playing field for the state’s most vulnerable children, researchers and study sponsors said. The three-year study of 10,000 children showed the state’s Pre-K Counts program helped the students improve math, literacy and social skills; helped put them on track for kindergarten; and reduced their need for special-education services…”

D.C. school vouchers have a brighter outlook in Congress, By Robert Tomsho, October 19, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The District of Columbia’s embattled school-voucher program, which lawmakers appeared to have killed earlier this year, looks like it could still survive. Congress voted in March not to fund the program, which provides certificates to pay for recipients’ private-school tuition, after the current school year. But after months of pro-voucher rallies, a television-advertising campaign and statements of support by local political leaders, backers say they are more confident about its prospects. Even some Democrats, many of whom have opposed voucher efforts, have been supportive…”

Teacher inequalities still haunt Nashville schools, By Jaime Sarrio, October 18, 2009, The Tennessean: “Students attending schools at the center of Metro’s controversial rezoning plan are more likely to be taught by inexperienced teachers, despite incentives to attract and retain staff at the high-poverty schools. Teachers at nine select schools affected by the rezoning were offered a 5 percent pay increase or the chance to earn more money through training sessions, but at every school the average level of teaching experience decreased. The problem goes beyond schools involved in the rezoning. Across the district, poor students are more likely to be taught by a new teacher than are their wealthier peers. It’s a trend that has gotten worse in the past year, according to a Tennessean analysis of teacher profile data…”

• No improvement for fourth-graders on national math test, By Amanda Paulson, October 14, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “For the first time since 1990, America’s fourth-graders showed no improvement in math - a disappointing finding in the latest release from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the nation’s report card. In four states, scores for fourth-graders actually declined between 2007 and 2009 - the first time any state has shown a drop since all 50 states began participating in the assessment in 2003. The news is better at the eighth-grade level, where scores did rise by two points since 2007. But achievement gaps between white and minority students stayed the same…”
• Math results show racial achievement gap hasn’t changed, By Tom Weber, October 14, 2009, Minnesota Public Radio: “Fourth and eighth graders in Minnesota continue to rank near the top in the nation in math, according to new national test results. But the new report also exposes a key shortcoming for both Minnesota and the nation — the gap between how well white students perform compared to students of color. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Minnesota fourth-graders ranked third in the nation for math, and the state’s eighth-graders ranked second…”

• Close Oregon’s achievement gap by starting early, study urges, By Kimberly Melton, September 14, 2009, The Oregonian: “A new report from the Chalkboard Project highlights a persistent achievement gap between Latino students and white students in Oregon that starts as early as third grade. It suggests the key to narrowing the gap is to start working with students early. The report, released Monday, echoes the conclusion of an earlier study of the achievement gap between black and white students in Multnomah County that recommended focusing more on prevention than intervention…”
• A blueprint for closing the gap, Editorial, September 15, 2009, The Oregonian: “As a new study of Oregon’s achievement gap makes clear, the state should put more effort into early intervention and dig deeper into what works. The stubborn gap in academic achievement in Oregon between Hispanic students and their white classmates used to be somewhat of a mystery. Not any more. The main causes of this gap are well-diagnosed. So are at least some of the solutions, plus the areas desperately needing further research…”

• Achievement gap still splits white, black students, By Libby Quaid (AP), July 14, 2009, Washington Post: “Despite unprecedented efforts to improve minority achievement in the past decade, the gap between black and white students remains frustratingly wide, according to an Education Department report released Tuesday…”
• Black-white achievement gap smaller in Va. than Md., By Nick Anderson, July 15, 2009, Washington Post: “The achievement gap between black and white students is smaller in Virginia than in Maryland, according to a federal analysis released yesterday that illuminates how states compare on a key measure of academic disparity…”
• Young students improve, but later minority achievement gap remains, By Greg Toppo, USA Today, July 14, 2009: “For decades, public schools have focused on closing the stubborn achievement gap that separates African-American children from their white peers. New data out today from the U.S. Education Department show that the effort may have a limited shelf life for kids…”
• Racial student achievement gap stands wide in state, By Gayle Worland, July 15, 2009, Wisconsin State Journal: “Wisconsin is the only state in the nation where the achievement gap between black and white students in reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades exceeds the national average, according to a U.S. Department of Education report released Tuesday…”