FROM THE ED TRUST

Act Now Equity Express

Closing Gaps and Raising the Bar for ALL students

Feb. 23--Education leaders, practitioners and advocates from Western states to gather in Los Angeles in April for Ed Trust-West’s second biennial conference, All Students, College-Ready, Work-Ready.

ASSESSMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY AND REFORM

Leaving No One Behind Press-Enterprise
Feb. 21--Luquanda Neekey Williams doesn't shy away from stating her belief in the No Child Left Behind educational doctrine.  "I truly see it as a positive thing," said the math teacher and head of the mathematics department at Pinacate Middle School in Perris. "I believe that, for so many years, we've dumbed down things for kids."

States Acting to Raise Bar on H.S. Skills Ed Week

Feb. 22--States are moving to close the gap between high school preparation and college and workforce readiness, but momentum is far greater in some policy areas than in others, a 50-state survey set for release this week shows.

High Schools May Pay For College Gap San Antonio Express-News
Feb. 23--Texas education officials plan to ratchet up the state's accountability system by finding ways to hold high schools responsible for their graduates' college performance.

Del. Aims For Better College Prep Wilmington News Journal
Feb. 23--Sobering statistics reinforce need to start tracking students in high school.

Houston's Best Public High Schools Houston Press
Counting down: Our sixth- through tenth-place finishers
Feb. 23—Aldine High, in the Aldine Independent School District, serves more than 2,000 teenagers. Its student body is 90 percent minority and 70 percent poor, and ten percent of its kids arrive with few English-language skills. Despite these challenges, the school produces high graduation rates and test scores with an emphasis on preparing kids for college.

Let's Teach to the Test Washington Post
Feb. 20--You may have heard that teaching to the test is bad, very bad.

20 States Ask for Flexibility in School Law New York Times

Feb. 22--The federal Education Department has agreed to review requests from 20 states to alter significantly the way they measure student progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Proposed Grants for Improvement Highlight Key New Role for States Ed Week

Feb. 22--President Bush’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year includes a first: school improvement grants to help state education departments turn around schools and districts identified as needing improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Senate Panel Explores Ways to Spur Progress on Math and Science Ed Week

Education-related prescriptions for strengthening the nation’s economic competitiveness took center stage in a pair of Senate meetings last week.

Anti-Dropout Bill Graduates From Statehouse Indianapolis Star-Tribune
Feb. 23--Starting next year, Indiana high schools would aggressively try to reduce the number of dropouts under new requirements that sailed through the Senate on Wednesday.

TEACHER QUALITY, PREPARATION, SUPPORT AND RETENTION

Board Of Education OK's Plan To Tie Teacher Bonus To FCAT Performance Sun-Sentinel
Some School Board members, teacher's union oppose plan
Feb. 22--The State Board of Education approved a new pay plan for Florida teachers Tuesday that bases bonuses on pupil test scores and ties salaries to student performance.

Fla. Ready to Demand Bonuses Based on Test Scores Ed Week

Teachers Can Train Their Way To More Pay Herald Tribune
Feb. 23- -- The school district is taking a lesson from businesses like Nike and Ford and launching an in-house university to reward the most successful teachers with extra cash.

PRACTICE, POLICY AND ED THOUGHT

Bridging The Language Gap Chicago Tribune
Feb. 23--As a new Mexican immigrant, Bertha Garcia was as nervous as her two children before she enrolled them at Elgin's Highland Elementary School.

NEWS AND REPORTS

Closing the High School-College Gap   Inside Higher Ed
Feb. 23--States have made some progress on aligning standards and requirements, but have far to go, report says.
“Closing the Expectations Gap 2006,” a report by Achieve

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