Claudio Sanchez

30 Years On, Educators Still Divided On Scathing Schools Report

Claudio Sanchez — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:47:00 +0000

Thirty years ago this week, President Ronald Reagan's administration released "A Nation at Risk," a report warning of "a rising tide of mediocrity" in American public education.

According to the report, only one-third of 17-year-olds in 1983 could solve a math problem requiring two steps or more, and 4 out of 10 teenagers couldn't draw inferences from written material.

'Core Curriculum' Puts Education Experts At Odds

Claudio Sanchez — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 08:58:00 +0000

At 2 p.m., it's crunchtime for students who write for The Harbinger Online, the award-winning, student news site at Shawnee Mission East High just outside Kansas City, Kan.

El Paso Schools Cheating Scandal Probes Officials' Accountability

Claudio Sanchez — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:50:00 +0000

No one knows if Atlanta's school superintendent or any of the people accused of falsifying test results will go to jail, but they wouldn't be the first if they do.

Lorenzo Garcia, the former superintendent of schools in El Paso, Texas, has been sitting in a federal prison since last year.

Study: More Adult Pell Grant Students, Not Enough Graduating

Claudio Sanchez — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:08:00 +0000

The federal government each year gives needy college students billions of dollars they don't have to pay back — $34.5 billion to be exact. More than 9 million students rely on the Pell Grant program. But a new study says much of the money is going to people who never graduate.

Sandy Baum, an expert on student financial aid, has been leading a group in a study of the 48-year-old Pell Grant program.

Race, Poverty Central To National School-Closure Debate

Claudio Sanchez — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:22:00 +0000

In Chicago, parents are fighting to prevent the city from closing 54 public schools.

Sequester Spells Uncertainty For Many Public Schools

Claudio Sanchez — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:19:00 +0000

If Congress and the Obama administration can't agree on a budget deal by Friday, the federal government will be forced to cut $85 billion from just about every federally funded program. Every state could lose federal aid, and a myriad of government programs could shut down or curtail services — and that includes the nation's public schools.

There is one bit of good news for schools: Because most federal aid to schools is forward-funded, the cuts triggered by sequestration would not hit classrooms until September at the earliest.

Union Backs 'Bar Exam' For Teachers

Claudio Sanchez — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:21:00 +0000

The system for preparing and licensing teachers in the U.S. is in such disarray that the American Federation of Teachers is proposing a "bar exam" similar to the one lawyers have to pass before they can practice.

Currently, there's a patchwork of different certification requirements that vary state by state. There's no single standard to determine who's fit and who's not fit to teach.

Holiday Travelers Stranded By Severe Weather

Claudio Sanchez — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:34:00 +0000

A major storm system is causing havoc for travelers trying to get home from their holiday destinations. Powerful winds and blizzard conditions have hit parts of the U.S.

In California, Parents Trigger Change At Failing School

Claudio Sanchez — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:15:00 +0000

Parents in one small California community have used a "parent-trigger" law for the first time to shut down and take over an elementary school.

Firestorm Erupts Over Virginia's Education Goals

Claudio Sanchez — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:05:00 +0000

As part of Virginia's waiver to opt out of mandates set out in the No Child Left Behind law, the state has created a controversial new set of education goals that are higher for white and Asian kids than for blacks, Latinos and students with disabilities.

Virginia Democratic state Sen.

With Varied Approach, Candidates Push School Choice

Claudio Sanchez — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:17:00 +0000

The right to choose the school you want your child to attend has been the subject of court battles and bitter political debates. Still, both President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney have made school choice a cornerstone of their efforts to reform public education.

Romney says he wants to give every student trapped in a failing school the chance to attend a better school.

Obama, Romney On Higher Ed Help: Dueling Visions

Claudio Sanchez — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:48:00 +0000

Many Americans today feel like they've lost or are losing their shot at a college education because paying for it often seems out of reach. So how big of an issue is this in the presidential campaign?

Here's what President Obama has done to help families pay for college: He negotiated a deal with Congress this summer that kept the interest rate on government-backed Stafford loans from doubling for 7.5 million students.

Obama's income-based repayment plan will eventually cap students' loan payments at 10 percent of discretionary monthly income.

Parsing Fact From Fiction In 'Won't Back Down'

Claudio Sanchez — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 07:24:00 +0000

Won't Back Down opens with a little girl's anguished face. It fills the entire screen. The camera hovers as she struggles to read a simple sentence on the blackboard out loud.

She's dyslexic. Not that anyone at Adams Elementary cares — least of all her second-grade teacher, who is berating or slapping kids around when she's not shopping for shoes online.

But if it was your kid who was struggling and nobody at school cared, what would you do? What could you do?

Teachers Unions At A Crossroad

Claudio Sanchez — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:18:00 +0000

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

On the face of it, the teacher's strike in Chicago is about money, job security and how teachers are evaluated. But it's also about the political pressure on teachers' unions to make concessions that not long ago would've been unheard of. Teachers' collective bargaining rights these days have taken a backseat to bare-bones budgets and to claims that unions are an obstacle to efforts aimed at improving the quality of schools.

From A Single Charter School, A Movement Grows

Claudio Sanchez — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 10:24:00 +0000

City Academy in St. Paul, Minn., became the nation's first publicly funded, privately run charter school when it opened its doors in 1992. Its founders, all veteran public school teachers, had tried but failed to create new programs for struggling students in their own schools.

The school helped launch a movement that has since grown to 5,600 charter schools across the U.S. But back in the late 1980s, it faced strong resistance.

Milo Cutter, one of City Academy's founders, had grown frustrated at her old school, where kids dropped out in droves.