SCHOOLS & THE YOUNG

LOCAL HEROES: SCHOOL SYSTEM STANDS UP TO BUSH

MARIA GLOD, WASHINGTON POST - The Fairfax County School Board last night
defied the U.S. Department of Education -- and challenged the No Child
Left Behind Act -- by declining to force thousands of immigrant students
to take a federally mandated test because local educators think it is
unfair. Fairfax school officials said they will continue to test how
well those students are learning to read, speak and write English and
will report those results. But this year they will not, as the federal
government requires, give the students reading exams that cover the same
grade-level material as tests taken by peers who are native-English
speakers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/
AR2007012502327.html?nav=rss_education

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WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE SAVED BY MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

ANDREW FRIEDMAN, DMI BLOG - Last week, hundreds of parents from all five
[NYC] boroughs crowded the steps of the Department of Education's
headquarters at the old Tweed Courthouse to decry the findings of a new
report that blasted the inequity and failure that characterize middle
school education in New York City public schools. The report, entitled
New York City's Middle-Grade Schools: Platforms for Success or Pathways
to Failure, was published by a coalition of grassroots organizations
called the Coalition for Educational Justice.

Parents were right to be upset. Despite Mayor Bloomberg's focus on
improving public schools, there is simply no way to overlook the fact
that, at least in the city's middle schools, he has failed. And tens of
thousands of young people will pay the price.

During the 2005-2006 school year, according to the report's analysis of
the DOE's own numbers:

- A majority of eighth graders at 75% of all city school cannot read at
grade level.

- Nearly 40,000 of the 53,000 African-American and Latino eighth graders
in New York City cannot meet the state reading standards.

- Only 22% of eighth grade students can read at the level of state
standards in high poverty schools, while close to 60% can at low poverty
schools.

So, we've got failing schools that particularly fail students of color
and low-income folks.

http://www.dmiblog.net/archives/2007/01/stuck_in_the_middle.html

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