District Administration - February 2009 - (Page 8)

Briefings Newsupdate PeoPle Watch MOVING UP Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennett has been named to fill a Senate vacancy by Colorado Gov. bill Ritter that was created by the nomination of Sen. Ken Salazar to be Obama’s interior secretary. RUFFLING FEATHERS Tony Bennett, Indiana’s new superintendent of public instruction, supports vouchers that force public and private schools to compete for state money, as well as small school district consolidation. MONEY WOES Connie Calloway has been dismissed as superintendent of Detroit Public Schools after less than 18 months. The school board attributes their decision to her alleged mismanagement of the district’s budget. by Zach Miners u.S. Students Move up in Math and Science CritiCs who argue that the united states lags behind its international peers in the education rankings might find some evidence to the contrary in the recent results of a major international assessment, which shows fourth- and eighthgraders making strong gains in math and modest improvements in science. “The message for the country is that we’re improving in mathematics, particularly at the 10th percentile,” or the lowest performing students, says Patrick gonzales, the u.s. coordinator for the test, the trends in international Mathematics and science study (tiMss), at the department of education. “in science, there are more mixed results.” u.s. fourth-graders scored 529, on average, in math, which is higher than the tiMss scale average of 500, and they scored 539 in science. eighth-graders scored 508 in math and 520 in science. some experts, while supportive of the results, say the devil may be in the details. Mike Cohen, president of achieve, a nonprofit education organization, cautions that the u.s. results are relative. More developing countries participated in tiMss this year than in previous years, and so while the results are heartening, “there is still much work that needs to be done,” he says. bob wise, president of the alliance for excellent education, offers another perspective: if the united states were in the international education emergency room, our vital signs would now be stable. “however, all the other patients are getting better faster. it’s time to ask, ‘what do we need to do to catch up with the others?’” TOP 10 AVERAGE MATH SCORES OF EIGHTH-GRADERS Country China Republic of Korea Singapore Hong Kong Japan Score 598 597 593 572 570 Country Hungary England Russia United States Lithuania Score 517 513 512 508 506 EFFECTING CHANGE Anne Keehn is new VP of sales and business development at eCollege, a Pearson company and top provider of e-learning solutions and services. She has more than 25 years of experience in education technology. 8 February 2009 Photo courtesy of national league of Cities ROAD TO RECOVERY Ramon Cortines took over Los Angeles schools as superintendent on January 1 under a three-year contract. Educators say he can help the district recover from a financial crisis and improve graduation rates. Newark Schools’ Learning Revolution big Changes are afoot in newark (n.J.) Public schools, where a new initiative to curb the dropout rate will develop and open ten new schools and programs over the next two years. Through the newark-alternative high school initiative (ahsi) Partnership, the city and district will work with partners such as rutgers university and newark alliance to ensure that students Essex County College President A. struggling in traditional high school settings, Zachary Yamba, Newark Mayor including out-of-school youth, have the opportunity Cory Booker and Superintendent Clifford Janey (from left) at the to graduate prepared for college, work and life. launch event for the district’s new The partnership will open a portfolio of high school development project. innovative high school models in existing school buildings, including three big Picture learning schools, which offer a rigorous personalized curriculum; four new Performance learning Centers; and two or more diploma Plus schools, which allow students to progress at their own pace. District Administration

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District Administration - February 2009 Contents Advertiser Index Editor's Letter News Update Security Curriculum Crisis Response Supervisor's Opinion The Rise of the Virtual Teacher Speaking Their Language Alternate Transportation Routes Opinion The Aftermath of the New 403(b) Regulations How Well Does This Web Site Work? Problem Solution New Products Product Focus Professional Opinion

District Administration - February 2009

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