Fast Report

9/14/04 -- House bill has minimal funding increases

• As this issue of School Board News went to press Sept. 9, the House of Representatives was preparing to vote on an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005 with minimal increases in education funding.

The bill would increase funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by $1 billion and would also increase Title I funding by $1 billion. However, it also eliminates several programs, including Title V, and cuts others, so the overall funding increase would be roughly $1.4 billion.

NSBA sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose the bill unless it contains a $2.5 billion increase for Title I and $2.2 billion for IDEA. According to NSBA, "If the bill does not contain these funding increases, local school districts must then cover the costs by raising taxes or cutting funding for general education programs."

Feds withhold funds from Texas

• The U.S. Education Department has threatened to withhold $6.7 million in administrative funds for Texas because the state failed to announce schools' status under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) before the start of the school year.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) was scheduled to release the list of schools failing to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) next February, says spokesperson Debbie Ratcliffe.

TEA submitted its plan for evaluating schools April 1, but the U.S. Education Department didn't approve the plan until July 29, Ratcliffe says.

Texas schools opened the third week of August, and "there was no way we could prepare evaluations on 7,700 campuses by then," she says. And because the federal department rejected some of the elements in TEA's plan -- such as a waiver of the 1 percent alternative assessment rule -- "we have to unravel the programming we had already done and make some major adjustments."

Ratcliffe says the two sides are working on a compromise.

More minorities are taking the SAT

• More than 1.4 million members of the class of 2004 took the SAT, an all-time high. The number of SAT takers has grown every year for 14 years in a row, the College Board reported Aug. 31.

A record 37 percent of students who took the test were minorities, up from 31 percent in 1994.

Average SAT scores for the verbal portion of the test rose 1 point -- to 508 -- over last year. Average math scores are 518, 1 point below last year.

The verbal score increase follows a 3-point gain last year, after years of flat scores. Math scores are up 14 points compared to 10 years ago.

Roof collapse raises concerns

• The collapse of a roof on an elementary school in New York state in August underscores the importance of thorough building inspections and maintenance.

School officials say it was fortunate that no one was in the school when a ceiling and roof structure completely collapsed over a math resource room and damaged other classrooms at Taft Elementary School in the Washingtonville Central School District.

The 44-year-old school used a design of structural steel supports common in older schools but now considered outdated. The roof featured a bar joist with a U-shaped channel, which allowed water to collect and cause deterioration, virtually undetected, states an advisory from the New York State Education Department.

"This failure occurred in a room with a plaster ceiling that had no indication of a moisture problem," the notice states. The department urges all school districts in the state to "review their buildings for this type of roof construction."

Most exit exams not tied to curriculum

• States need to do more to ensure that teachers are covering material on exit exams and reduce the achievement gap for students most likely to fail, reports a study released Aug. 18 by the Center on Education Policy.

Twenty states require students to pass an exit exam to get a high school diploma. Five more will require such tests by 2009.

According to State High School Exit Exams: A Maturing Reform, most states report pass rates of 65 to 85 percent for students taking the exams the first time. However, large gaps in pass rates persist for black, Hispanic, low-income, and disabled students and English language learners.

Nineteen states have completed or are studying the alignment of their exams with state standards. But most states have not examined whether schools are actually covering content assessed by the tests.

The report says only 11 states have programs to help students prepare for or retake exit exams.

Students disengaged from school

• A group of public health and education leaders, known as the "Wingspread Group," issued a statement Sept. 8 calling for new policies to address the "culture of detachment" in U.S. schools.

According to the group, up to 60 percent of students -- not counting those who have already dropped out -- feel disengaged from their school.