News Archives – April 2008
April 30, 2008 – Austin American-Statesman – “Bush awards teacher of the year, pushes No Child Left Behind”
President Bush gave a crystal apple to the Teacher of the Year Wednesday. “Good teachers are empathetic souls. And really the best teachers have a special intuition and the ability to see potential and have the patience necessary to watch it grow,” Bush told state teachers of the year in the Rose Garden.
April 24, 2008 – Newsweek – “Still at Risk”
This weekend marks 25 years since the publication of the U.S. Department of Education's explosive report "A Nation at Risk." Its powerful indictment of American education launched the largest education-reform movement in the nation's history, paving the way for strategies as different as charter schools and the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. But even after a vast political and financial investment spanning two and a half decades, we're far from achieving the report's ambitious aims.
April 24, 2008 – The Christian Science Monitor – “Despite 25 years of reform, U.S. schools still fall short”
The report that launched an education-reform movement – released 25 years ago Thursday – is causing some reform advocates to issue the same sort of dire warnings today. The original report warned that "the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people." Now, despite the push toward standards-based reform that culminated in No Child Left Behind, the United States has made relatively small strides in student achievement. And it has fallen further behind other industrialized nations. Without major changes, including better teacher training and compensation, the US risks not only stagnating achievement but also serious harm to the economy, reformers say.
April 23, 2008 – Wall Street Journal – “Administration to Change No Child Left Behind Rules”
The Bush administration sought to bolster its signature education law, announcing new rules designed to address the nation's dropout problem and ensure close attention is paid to the achievement of minority students. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that among the proposed changes being made to the No Child Left Behind law is a new requirement that by the 2012-13 school year, all states would have to calculate their graduation rates in a uniform way.
April 23, 2008 – Detroit Free Press – “Changes to No Child unveiled”
Saying the U.S. can't afford to "waste so much human potential," the nation's top educator on Tuesday proposed requiring every state in the nation use the same formula to calculate high school graduation rates -- an action she said is necessary to grasp the seriousness of the dropout problem.
April 22, 2008 – USA Today – “'Nation at Risk': The best thing or the worst thing for education?”
Twenty-five years ago this week, Americans awoke to a forceful little report that, depending on your point of view, either ruined public education or saved it. On April 26, 1983, in a White House ceremony, Ronald Reagan took possession of "A Nation at Risk." The product of nearly two years' work by a blue-ribbon commission, it found poor academic performance at nearly every level and warned that the education system was "being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity."
April 22, 2008 – Associated Press – “White House announces new reforms for No Child Left Behind”
The Bush administration sought to bolster its signature education law Tuesday, announcing new rules designed to address the nation's dropout problem and ensure close attention is paid to the achievement of minority students. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that among the proposed changes being made to the No Child Left Behind law is a new requirement that by the 2012-13 school year, all states would have to calculate their graduation rates in a uniform way.
April 22, 2008 – New York Times – “Education Secretary offers changes to ‘No Child’ law”
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings used her executive powers on Tuesday to propose a series of ninth-inning regulatory fixes to President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, including requiring states to use a single federal formula to calculate and report high school graduation rates.
April 22, 2008 – CNN – “New regulations to be announced for NCLB”
The Bush administration will announce new regulations for its No Child Left Behind education program and propose a uniform graduation rate Tuesday, officials said. The changes, to be announced by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in Detroit, will "strengthen and improve" the No Child Left Behind law, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said.
April 22, 2008 – Washington Times – “’No Child’ changes are a response to critics”
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings today proposed new federal regulations that would make several changes to the No Child Left Behind law without the help of Congress, including requiring states to use one formula to calculate graduation rates.
April 10, 2008 – Newsweek – “‘Things Can’t Go Back’”
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has had the thankless task of being the primary spokesman for No Child Left Behind. But her commitment has never wavered.
April 9, 2008 – CBS News – “McCain makes education priority”
John McCain has new take on education: He’s now concerned with disparities in the level of education for inner cities. He said our education system is “one of the great injustices remaining in America.” In a town hall meeting in Westport, Conn., McCain was asked how he ranked the importance of education. “I give it the highest priority. And I believe education, we all know, is probably one of the most unsavory aspects, or, let me put it this way, one of the great injustices remaining in America is our educational system,” he said.
April 4, 2008 – Christian Science Monitor – “U.S. student writing gets a bit better”
American students are slowly getting better at crafting sentences and using the written word to persuade and explain. That's the good news in the latest results from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), which on Thursday released its 2007 writing results, the first time eighth- and 12th-graders were tested in the subject since 2002.
April 4, 2008 – Christian Science Monitor – “A good grade for Teach for America”
What makes a good teacher? Experience helps. But a new study of Teach for America (TFA) – education's version of the Peace Corps – shows that their novice high school teachers bring something to the classroom that trumps traditional training and experience. The advantage of having a TFA teacher is particularly strong in math and science, the study finds.
April 1, 2008 – New York Times – “U.S. to Require States to Use a Single School Dropout Formula”
Moving to sweep away the tangle of inaccurate state data that has obscured the severity of the nation’s high school dropout crisis, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will require all states to use one federal formula to calculate graduation and dropout rates, Bush administration officials said on Monday.
