Fast Report
Vermont may reject federal funding
• Vermont Gov. Howard Dean says the state might refuse to participate in the testing and accountability provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act. In a speech to the Vermont Superintendents Association May 16, Dean called Bush's education plan "a terrible mistake."
If the state refuses to comply with the new requirements, it would lose $26 million in federal funding. But Dean says complying with the law could cost the state as much as $60 million.
The law requires each state to test every student in grades 3-8 in reading and math. Vermont only tests students in grades 4, 8, and 10, says Winton Goodrich, associate executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association.
Dean is considering a run for the White House, and the rejection of the Bush plan is a "good sound bite" that will raise his national profile, Goodrich says. "In the end, we'll probably accept it. I don't think we can afford not to receive federal funding." And with the federal guidelines not yet issued, he says, "we don't know much it will really cost."
House passes education research bill
• The House of Representatives has passed a bill to overhaul federal education research activities. The Education Sciences Reform Act (H.R.3801) would replace the Education Department's Office of Educational Research and Improvement with a new, more autonomous Academy of Education Science.
The President would appoint the head of the academy, who would serve a six-year term and would be advised by a 15-member National Board for Education Sciences. The academy would have three National Education Centers–on statistics, research, and evaluation.
According to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the bill would establish "high-quality standards to put an end to education fads that masquerade as sound science."
"We must expect more from our federal investment in education research," says the bill's sponsor, Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.). "At a minimum, we must expect scientific rigor, and we must ensure that 'what works' in education informs classroom practice."
Education research is taking on greater importance now that the No Child Left Behind Act calls for schools to adopt education reforms, particularly in literacy, that have proven track records and are grounded in scientific research.
The Senate also is working on a bill on education research.
Hawaii weighs decentralization
• The Hawaii legislature appointed a task force to study the issue of decentralization after the House and Senate failed to reach agreement on a plan to carve the state into separate school districts.
Hawaii is the only state with a single, statewide school district and no local school boards.
The House had passed a bill to create 15 local school boards, eliminate the state board, and have a state superintendent appointed by the governor. The Senate passed a bill to create seven school boards with a representative from each to serve on a statewide board.
Seven percent of children have ADHD
• Seven percent of children ages 6-11–1.6 million children–have been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported May 21. That condition is also known as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
Prevalence of Attention Deficit Disorder and Learning Disability reports that about one-half of children diagnosed with ADHD have also been identified as having a learning disability.
Boys were three times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD. White non-Hispanic children were more than twice as likely as Hispanic and black children to report a diagnosis of ADHD.
Children with health insurance were more often reported to have a diagnosis of ADHD than children without health insurance.
There has been concern that ADHD has been over-diagnosed among those with regular access to health care, says Acting CDC Director David Fleming. "And there is equal concern that the problem may be under-diagnosed among those who have limited or no access to care."
Mixed results on history NAEP
• Fourth and eighth graders have shown some improvements on the national assessment in U.S. history, but no progress was reported for 12th graders, and the overall scores are still considered too low.
Results in the U.S. history component of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released May 9, show an increase in average scores since 1994 for lower-performing students in grade 4 and higher-performing students in grade 8.
The results show "the performance gap is closing between white and black students at grade 4 and white and Hispanic students at grade 12," says Gary W. Phillips, deputy commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the agency within the U.S. Education Department that administers the NAEP.
Both black and white fourth graders' scores improved, but black fourth graders scores improved at a higher rate.