Fast Report

12/16/03 -- Kansas school funding system unconstitutional

• Shawnee County, Kan., District Judge Terry Bullock has found Kansas' system of funding schools unconstitutional. The Dec. 2 ruling gives the state legislature and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius until July 1, 2004, to fix flaws in the state's school finance formula or face a court-imposed remedy.

According to Bullock, the state's 1992 school finance law fails to comply with the requirement in the state constitution to provide an equitable education to poor students. He calls the current system "clearly and grossly inadequate" and says "those schools with the most expensive children receive the least."

Non-school factors affect achievement gap

• School leaders will not be able to close the achievement gap unless policymakers, educators, and parents address the variety of factors responsible for the gap, the Educational Testing Service warns in a report released Nov. 20.

In Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines for Tracking Progress, ETS's Policy Information Center identifies 14 factors that create and perpetuate the well-documented gaps in achievement among students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and different family income levels.

These factors are divided into three categories:

• factors relating to early development -- weight at birth, lead poisoning, and hunger and nutrition;

• the school environment -- rigors of the school curriculum, teacher preparation, teacher experience and attendance, class size, availability of appropriate classroom technology, and school safety; and

• the home learning environment -- reading to young children, TV watching, parent availability and support, student mobility, and parent participation.

In every instance, the ETS report found minority students disadvantaged relative to white students in the conditions and experiences conducive to student achievement.

For 11 of the factors, there were clear gaps between students from low-income families and higher-income families.

"This research shows that the achievement gap is not only about what goes on once kids get into the classroom; it's also about what happens to them before and after school," says Sharon Robinson, president of ETS's Educational Policy Leadership Institute.

Maryland proposes four types of diplomas

• The Maryland state board of education has tentatively agreed to a plan to require a high school exit exam and to allow alternative diplomas for students who fail to pass. The board is expected to vote on the plan this spring.

The proposal calls for high school students to pass four assessments to get a "Maryland high school diploma," beginning with the class of 2009. These tests are in algebra/data analysis, biology, English I, and government.

Students who fail to pass the four tests would have three other paths to high school completion:

• A student who passes three of the tests and completes other requirements would receive a "local high school diploma."

• A student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) who takes the four assessments but doesn't pass all of them would receive a "local high school IEP diploma."

• A student with an IEP who takes alternative assessments or the high school assessments would receive a "certificate of program achievement," if approved by the student's IEP team. Students with IEPs also would receive an exit document describing their skills.

Federal grants target pro-voucher groups

• An analysis of federal education grants by People For the American Way (PFAW) has uncovered a pattern of major -- and at times unsolicited -- grants made to a small cadre of pro-voucher private advocacy groups.

The report, Funding a Movement, says funds diverted to these groups total more than $75 million over the last three years.

Among the groups cited in the report are the Black Alliance for Education Options, the Hispanic Council for Reform and Education Options, Education Leaders Council, National Council on Teacher Quality, and the Center for Education Reform.

"The mission of the Department of Education is to advance and promote public education," says PFAW President Ralph G. Neas. "Why is the department handing out $75 million to groups whose work undermines public education?"

More teachers gain national certification

• Nearly 8,200 U.S. teachers earned national board certification in 2003, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) announced Dec. 2. Last year, 7,900 teachers achieved national certification.

Since the NBPTS was created 16 years ago, 32,131 teachers have received national certification. To become a "National Board Certified Teacher," teachers undergo a voluntary, rigorous, performance-based assessment that takes between one and three years and measures what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do.