Current News

The New Hampshire State Board of Education (SBE) voted unanimously on Nov. 21 to endorse the NH Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Network position statement. The paper presented to the SBE says the IHE Network "stands ready to work with the Department of Education, the legislature, and the professional educational organizations throughout our state to build a modern workforce of educators, leaders, and scholars strongly committed to the highest aspirations of our profession and our communities."

Northern Marianas Islands Education Commissioner Rita A. Sablan, Ed.D, would like to see one system govern the education programs on Rota, Saipan, and Tinian. Currently, the CNMI Public School System handles the preschool-12th grade educational program, while the post-secondary program is administered by the Northern Marianas College (NMC). "We need to reform the structure of education in the CNMI so it becomes more efficient and more effective and that it will meet the needs of the Commonwealth. Make it a structure that would be preschool all the way to the 16th program," she says.

Louisiana Superintendent John White says the state's prekindergarten overhaul will be tested for at least one year before decisions are made on how schools and centers are graded. "Until we see how those assessments work we will not develop an accountability measure," he says. State officials will create early learning performance guidelines for those up to age three and academic standards for those between ages three and four.

The Hawaii Department of Education released its two-year Race to the Top report on Nov. 28, indicating that significant progress has been made toward the state's Race to the Top goals. In particular, the report cites substantial gains in reading and math among the state's fourth- and eighth-graders on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The Nebraska Education Department has released a report on public schools and student progress, indicating that three of four school districts graduated 90 percent or more of their high school students. More than 50 school districts graduated all of their seniors, with 88 percent of high school seniors graduating across the state, up from 86 percent last year. Most school districts demonstrated improvement and growth under the new accountability system.

Beginning this year, Louisiana teachers will be evaluated and ranked on an annual basis, and eventually, teachers considered ineffective for two years in a row will lose their jobs. About 50 percent of the evaluations will hinge on "value-added modeling," using test scores to measure student progress, with the other half based on classroom observations by principals and other administrators.

Pennsylvania educators who provide special education services to students with disabilities will receive professional development through a $6.5 million, five-year federal grant awarded to the State Department of Education.

Guam Education Superintendent Jon Fernandez announced that his department was awarded a $20.6 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education from the Title V, Part A Consolidated Grants program. The island plans to use the money to improve student achievement through local reform efforts that support statewide education reforms; implement promising educational reform programs and school improvement programs based on scientific research; provide a continuing source of innovative and educational improvement; implement programs meeting the educational needs of all students, including at-risk youth; and implement education programs to improve school, student, and teacher performance.

About 28 educators across Delaware received a $10,000 bonus under the state's Talent Cooperative program that identified teachers, assistant principals, and school leaders who helped raise student test scores. The bonuses were offered to teachers who agreed to remain at the same school for at least two years.

School accountability reports for 2012 have been issued by the Arkansas Department of Education, the first under a new system in which student achievement, student growth, and high-school graduation rates are used to gauge performance, and individualized targets apply only to a specific school and its students. Under the old system, schools competed against others in their district and those across the state.