education

If a school is failing, how do you fix it? Can you fix it without admitting anything is wrong with the teaching? How about the leadership? The district administration? The parents or the students? Whose fault is it anyway?

Schools on a list of the state’s lowest performing schools are in line to get some big federal dollars. President Obama this week announced he has $900 million in new federal grants available to school districts willing to take aggressive steps to fix their struggling institutions, or close them. That $900 million is on top of $4 billion in federal grants in the “Race to the Top” fund aimed at improving education nationwide. That program will make about $50 million available to Washington schools judged to be among the lowest 5 percent in student achievement.

Obama said the new federal aid would be available to the districts that are home to the 2,000 schools that produce more than half of the nation’s dropouts.

But the fix has to include some big admissions of failure – the school districts must agree to take at least one of these steps: firing the principal and at least half the staff of a troubled school; reopening it as a charter school, which is not legal under Washington law; or closing the school  and transferring students to higher performing schools in the district. 

According to a story in the Seattle Times, the Tacoma Schools superintendent is proposing to close one middle school, replace the principals and at least half the staff at two others, and transform the fourth.

Gathered in a packed art gallery on Capitol Hill in Seattle, was a group of mostly young adults. They sat on stairs, the floor, and they stood. All eyes rested upon a pull-down screen that was displaying President Obama's State of the Union address.

They did not assemble merely to watch the president speak from the nation's capital, but to also discuss what was going on in their own capital, Olympia. The topic of the evening – higher education.

The event, “Olympia – In a Can,” was organized by the group the Washington Bus, a politically progressive non-profit organization aimed at raising political awareness among young adults.

Joining the group via Skype, were Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, chair of the Higher Education committee, and Rep. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, vice chair of the Finance committee, to discuss and answer questions regarding funding for higher education in Washington. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties the legislators didn't get to share much.

Filling in the gaps were Maggie Wilkens with the League of Education Voters, Mike Bogatay with the Washington Student Association, and David Parsons with the UAW Local 4121.

With the $2.6 billion deficit that the state faces, “cuts to higher education are inevitable,” explained Wilkens to the audience.

It may not be surprising, but it’s worth noting that the poverty rate for children varies widely by the counties they live in. In Oregon, children in rural counties were the most likely to live in impoverished households.

According to Betsy Hammond, writing in The Oregonian, children in the Lake Oswego, Sherwood, Corbett and West Linn-Wilsonville school districts had six percent or fewer children living under the poverty line.

In contrast, many of the school districts in southeast Oregon’s Harney County and in the Three Rivers school district near Grants Pass had up to one-third of their students living in poverty.

Poverty level is considered $22,050 a year for a family of four.

Students need more assistance in high-poverty communities in order to read and do math. A federal report released last week shows that kids who go to school in low-income districts are about 12 times more likely to be attending low-performing schools, Hammond writes.

Holly Pruett, executive director of Stand for children in Oregon, told the Oregonian:

 “For children living in poverty, schools are the essential lifeline to the skills and the inspiration to be able to succeed in life.”

--Carol Smith

A state probe of Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind has found some failings in the way the state handles the education of 2,200 students with vision disabilities.

The investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by parents, who cited faulty Braille  translations of textbooks and inadequate teacher training, among other shortcomings, according to a story by Kirsten Stewart of the Salt Lake Tribune. Although the state review found the schools were out of compliance with federal law 42 times between November 2006 and April 2008, it stopped short of saying there were systemic problems at the schools. The schools have filed an appeal and an outside evaluator will review the state's report.

Utah's spends less money per student than any other state, according to Lisa Schencker of the Salt Lake Tribune. U.S. Census Bureau data shows a $4,000 gap between what Utah spends and the national average, a difference that's been steadily growing over the past five years.

Critics say the trend means Utah has larger class sizes, fewer class choices, and fewer counselors, ultimately affecting the quality of student education. Others argue the tighter spending reflects more efficient spending.

Jackie Burrell at the Contra Costa Times sheds light on the hazards faced by many students with Asperger's syndrome and other forms of autism as they go to college and try to have an independent life. 

It's not a question of intelligence. It's regular life they have difficulty with — getting up in the morning, prioritizing tasks, and taking care of themselves. Autism affects executive functioning, the brain's ability to process the overwhelming surge of information that streams through our lives every moment. They have trouble interpreting events and social cues, and formulating an appropriate response.

UC Berkeley offers a two-year-old College Internship Program for young adults with Asperger's and similar disabilities. The program works to bridge the gap between the highly specialized youth programs and the traditional college experience that students with autism get launched into with little preparation -- and often little success.

Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/lLGS3