It cost Arizona $143,000 per year for each juvenile held in a detention center.
Meanwhile, all Arizona kids are gearing up for more cuts to our public schools. What are Republicans doing about that? Apparently their solution is to dramatically increase the private school voucher program that has been providing huge tax breaks for rich families to send their kids to private schools on the public dime.
...school officials mounted a mobile Internet router to bus No. 92’s sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. The students call it the Internet Bus, and what began as a high-tech experiment has had an old-fashioned — and unexpected — result. Wi-Fi access has transformed what was often a boisterous bus ride into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared.
Education reformers push early graduation
By Amanda Soares
The Arizona GuardianHigh school students could graduate by age 16 if a new, more rigorous academic plan in a sweeping education bill becomes law.
The measure, set to be introduced today, is an attempt to reconcile comprehensive education reform with state budget cuts, said House Education Committee Chairman Rich Crandall, the bill's sponsor.
The "Move on When Ready" initiative aims to give high school students an incentive for choosing a tougher academic path, Crandall said.
"What we're saying to kids is, if you achieve this high bar, we'll reward you," he said.Under Crandall's bill, high schools across the state would be eligible, but not required, to offer an alternative, internationally benchmarked two-year curriculum to their freshmen.
Those students who choose to study under the new program would be required to take rigorous college and career readiness exams at the end of the two years.
Some of the exams being discussed include the ACT, Cambridge, and Edexcel exams.
High school sophomores who pass the assessment would then receive a so-called "Grand Canyon diploma" and be able to pick one of three options:
• Enroll in community college courses. Students choosing to stay on their high school campus to take the courses could participate in extracurricular activities, such as sports.
• Enroll in a special continuation program, offered by the high school, to prepare them for college.
• Move on to a full-time technical school.
In addition to graduating early, students in the program would be eligible to receive community college and university scholarships. The bill also would give cash bonuses to outstanding teachers.
And all of it would be done with no extra money from the state, Crandall said.
"This moves funding around so it's an incentive rather than a disincentive," he said. "We're using the money much more efficiently."
Schools would continue to receive state funding through 12th grade for the students who graduate early. The school would then pay the community college for the courses in which its graduates are enrolled.
Schools would get to keep the remaining balance to use toward program expenses, including exams and financial incentives for teachers and students.
Sybil Francis, executive director of the nonprofit Center for the Future of Arizona, said the program will have a transition cost during its first couple of years.
Schools that decide to participate in the plan will have to pay $100 for each student who enrolls, she said. After kids begin graduating early, the money the state saves from the students' last two years of school would repay the investment.
But even with the startup cost, Francis said, 15 school districts are already willing to sign up.
"I'm not going to minimize some of the concerns," she said. "But most districts we've talked to have shown interest."
Francis said AIMS, the high-stakes test given in the 10th grade, is not preparing kids for college admission exams and that most seniors who successfully complete AIMS do not know they're not ready.
Moreover, she said the bill is an attempt to improve stalled high school and college graduation rates in Arizona.
She also said it would help many high school dropouts who lose interest in their studies because they do not feel challenged by them.
"They would feel much more empowered to take their future in their own hands," she said.
High school students already have the option of graduating early under Arizona law, said Penny Kotterman, chair of the Education Coalition, a collection of advocacy groups.
"We just don't have it very well systemized," she said.
She said she likes the concept of "Move on When Ready," but hopes lawmakers are also considering students who take longer to learn.
Francis said schools could give more assistance to struggling students with the money that early graduates will save the state.
The initiative is part of a national push to standardize education curricula. Behind the effort is "Race to the Top," a federal competition for $4.5 billion that will be distributed to states taking bold steps toward education reform.
Arizona is one of roughly 10 states that signed up for a Board Examination Systems consortium aiming to jointly set higher bars for their students.
"In Race to the Top, they're really looking for extremely innovative states that are pushing higher standards," Crandall said.
Moreover, Crandall said the consortium would allow for states to get a better deal on exam prices from providers.
The governor's office is supportive of the "Move on When Ready" bill, said Karla Phillips, Gov. Jan Brewer's education advisor.
This bill is one of five initiatives the governor's office is pursuing this session to help make Arizona's application more competitive, Phillips said. The state stands to win up to $250 million in federal Race to the top grants.
But the proposed national standardization is worrying some education experts.
Jaime Molera, former state school superintendent and a member of the state Board of Education, said what other states believe is important for their education systems may not work for Arizona.
"Whatever they believe in Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, that may be different for Arizona," he said. "We should prioritize what we think is important."
He also said the new programs would take much authority away from local school boards.
"It's all starting to gravitate toward Washington D.C.," he said. "We have a constitutional duty to oversee state education."
Senate Education Chairman John Huppenthal said he supports the measure and thinks it could "potentially shake the foundation" of the state's high schools.
"It's a big deal," he said.
The growth of charter schools has promoted segregation both in California and nationwide, increasing the odds that black, Latino and white students will attend class with fewer children who look different from themselves, according to two new studies.
But because Secretary Duncan does not have classroom experience, he may not know that teachers evaluate their students every day, 180 times a school year. The fact that under our laws these teachers have no say in evaluating their students’ skills and abilities is really quite ludicrous.
[Speaker Kirk] Adams' attempt to slash taxes for corporations and the very rich in House Bill 2250 will guarantee that budget shortfalls will not only continue but grow for the foreseeable future.
From the movie's description:
Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political by igniting a national conversation in this groundbreaking documentary about the pressures American schoolchildren and their teachers face moving into the 21st century. What started as a private family matter widened into a cogent examination of systematic pressures faced by youth and teachers today amid dropping test scores, a shrinking global economy and increasingly unrealistic expectations of parents, universities, school districts and society at large. The demands have crushing, widespread consequences. Cheating has becoming commonplace, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, teenage suicide is on the rise and sutednts arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
But for state officials, the path of least resistance when parents complain about their kids' grades, and teachers complain about standardized testing, is to make diploma requirements so easy that even the worst-prepared students can meet them. That isn't accountability. It's voodoo education.
Far better would be for states to set the bar for graduation exams high, and help weak students reach it. Some states are doing it the right way, by sticking with tough standards, holding teachers accountable and offering remedial class work.
It's a shame they didn't call for adequate funding, smaller class sizes, highly qualified teachers, and tougher truancy standards. You know, things which might make a difference.
Dr Margaret E. Raymond, Director of Stanford's Center for Research on Education Outcomes on charters:
From the New Yorker interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:Many people who voted for Obama are finding out that on education, as on other issues, he is more of a centrist than they ever imagined.
"You might discourage teachers from working with other teachers if they're competing for dollars. If I'm in competition with a teacher across the hall, I‘m not as likely to share strategies. That wouldn't be a good model." --
Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable.
Politico: What are the programs you don't want to see cut.
Duncan: Well, obviously things like Race to the Top. We've seen-- before we've spent a dime-- we've seen massive change around the country. Forty-eight states working on common standards. Many, many states reducing restrictions on innovation. Folks tearing down data firewalls between teacher performance and student achievement. And so, programs like that.
Duncan: I think we’ve been, as a country, far too reluctant to tell the truth,” he said. “The truth can be good, it can be bad, it can be ugly, it can be somewhere in the middle. It could be that a school isn’t working or the school is doing a phenomenal job. Or a district or, for that matter, a state. Or take it all the way down to the classroom.
Politico: You've recently met with the First Lady on her anti-obesity efforts. What's going to be your part in that?
Duncan: All of us have to work together to make sure that our students are healthy. There is so much that I want to do to improve academic achievement. But if students aren't safe, they can't see the blackboard, they don't have clues, if they're not eating the right types of foods, they are not going to be successful academically. These, to me, are like foundational building blocks to making sure students have a chance to fulfill their true academic and social potential.
On Monday, Jonathan Paton’s (R-Tucson) Judiciary Committee will take up two bills that would further expand gun rights in Arizona, both sponsored by Sen. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) and both held over from last week‘s hearing.Imagine how fun working security at the next game between your school and your biggest rival with half of the crowd armed. magine "wanding" every parent who comes onto campus. That will sure build a positive relationship. Fun.
SB 1098 would allow guns and ammunition manufactured in Arizona to be exempt from federal regulations, mirroring laws in Tennessee and Montana.
SB 1102 would make concealed weapons permits and background checks optional, and do away with the requirement for a firearms safety class. Concealed weapons would be legal at any public event or in any public building. An identical bill, HB 2347, will be heard Wednesday morning in the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee.
The House Education Committee will consider a bill Monday to make it easier to become certified to teach in the classroom. Most teachers are certified through universities and community colleges, but HB 2298 would allow new, private companies to offer preparation programs and certify teachers.
Brewer and Republicans say it’s important to ease requirements, particularly for college-educated, second-career professionals who don’t have the time or money to get another degree. But the teachers union [that's me!] is concerned that the standards will be lowered and a glut of teachers will crowd an already crowded market.
On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear Pearce’s bill to put repeal of the Voter Protection Act on the ballot. SCR 1033, held from last week’s agenda, would be a straight repeal of the measure passed by voters in 1998, which prevents lawmakers from tinkering with voter-approved programs.
Brewer has proposed a temporary repeal of the act so that funds for education, health care and early childhood development, among others, could be used to help balance the budget. Under that plan, lawmakers would only be able to tap the funds in fiscal emergencies.
"We cannot predict what the Legislature will do" -- Yuma Union High School Superintendent
"Clearly, we're conducting ourselves with education as a priority." -- Senator John Huppenthal, R-Chandler.
