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Welcome!
What is
Urban Edge?
Urban Edge is a service that provides CUBE districts
with relevant information to help your awareness of education issues around the
country. We will glean news sources, blogs, research studies, and NSBA's wide range of expertise for timely information that guides CUBE districts in making sound decisions. From
Washington, again
President
Obama outlines education plan
Although he said most of the same things that he
said on the campaign trail, President Obama told the
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the rest of the
nation, that "we have let our grades slip, our
schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and
other nations outpace us." While his
report was similar to what Secretary Arne Duncan has
been saying publicly, Obama also took on some of the
longstanding relationships in Washington and
challenged educational groups, especially teacher
unions, to change their ways. Merit pay,
charter schools, longer school days, and attacking
the high school dropout rate were among the agenda
items he hopes to change for American schools.
Link
to MSNBC 3/10/09
Will
$100 billion save the children?
Many in the world of education see the stimulus
money headed to states as a saving grace for
stretched budgets. Washington Post columnist
Jay Matthews points out that much of the money will
save jobs, which is good, but when a big infusion of
money has come to schools in the past, it doesn't
show the academic gains expected. He compares
these attempts to the Washington Redskins
outspending other teams and winding up with mediocre
results, and sites examples from around the country,
including CUBE districts, on how not to
repeat the same mistakes. One example of
success is in Prince George's County, where a
principal wants to keep her "rock star"
teachers, expand pre-k, as well as after school
programs with the stimulus money.
Link
to Washington Post
(free registration) 3/16/09
Graduation
rate ideas/update
San
Antonio districts show flexibility
One of the biggest challenges facing urban
districts is the graduation rate. While many
studies have been written and organizations look
closely at why students drop out, there is a lot of
agreement that students drop out because they find
school 'boring.' San Antonio area schools have
made their high schools a little easier for students
to manage by allowing student to have more say in
the coursework they take. Students can enroll
in culinary, automotive, pharmacology, and horticulture
classes, just to name a few examples. As one
administrator said, "the dropout rate has
played a role in us rethinking all of high school
and all the things that we do."
Link
to San Antonio Express News 3/8/09
Good news about graduation rates
Twelve states showed gains in high school
graduation rates, according to a new report out of
Johns Hopkins University. The Everyone
Graduates Center Report said that students in
New York and Tennessee showed the biggest gains, but
other states that showed gains included Arkansas,
Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina,
Hawaii, Missouri, and Nebraska. The news came
on the heels of President Obama's speech focusing on
improving graduation rates nationwide.
Link
to Boston Globe 3/12/09 Around
the nation
Need for substitute teachers is perennial
School employees rely on substitute teachers
on a daily basis. They perform a necessary
role in every district in America, but they often
are difficult to find. The economic recession
we are experiencing might actually be a silver
lining for school districts, since when times are
tough for most industries, the need for teachers is
still here. Now there is a qualified pool for substitute
teachers in many urban districts around the
nation. In fact, in some of the country's
largest districts, school districts are no longer
accepting applications for substitute
teachers. NSBA's Executive Director, Anne
Bryant, spoke to USA Today about the topic, and how districts
are handling the deluge.
Link
to USA Today 3/11/09
CUBE
districts receive excellence awards
The National Center for Urban School
Transformation (NCUST) announced its list of schools
who will receive the National Excellence in Urban
Education Award. Individual schools in CUBE
districts getting the honor included Dallas, Texas,
Roanoke, Virginia, San Diego, California, and
Rochester, New York. The award will be
presented in May in San Diego, and districts that received
it had to demonstrate high achievement among a
variety of criteria. The press release below
gives more details about the award.
Link
to NCUST press release 3/12/09
NSBA
News
NSBA's
look at ARRA
NSBA's advocacy staff has been tirelessly
working on understanding the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In fact, a series of
webinars has taken place, including a webinar on how
urban districts will be impacted by the 'stimulus'
law. In addition, the NSBA advocacy web page
has a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page to help
answer questions you have about how, and when, the
money will impact your district.
NSBA FAQ on ARRA
CUBE
Webinar Link Center
for Public Education (CPE) Update
NSBA's Center for Public Education is a great
resource for research, reports, and sometimes a good
story (and we know we need to hear some of those
lately). CPE
provides examples of 'real' stories from 'real'
districts on what works in public education. Last
week they added a new edition that is about an urban
district that takes parents and students and teaches
them English together. The link below will
bring you to a list of the urban stories.
CPE
stories from urban districts
CUBE
News
CUBE's
Nominating Committee has selected a slate of
candidates for the Steering Committee. An
email was sent out with details last week and a
mailing with a full description of the process has
been mailed to you. For more details, CUBE's web
site also has information on the
process. CUBE's annual business meeting,
where voting will occur, assembles on Friday, April
3rd in conjunction with NSBA's Annual Conference in
San Diego, California.
The CUBE Annual
Award application has also been mailed to you,
and a webinar will be held on March 25 to help any
district interested in applying. For more
information about the award, click here.
Interested in participating in the webinar? E-mail
Kevin Scott for more information.
CUBE
recently sent out a survey
to gauge your availability to travel in 2009.
If you haven't taken the survey already, we ask you
to take five minutes to help us program for
the coming year.
Link
to survey
Meetings
Minute
NSBA
Annual is coming to San Diego
If you are planning to join us, you
will see school visits in CUBE districts San
Diego and Chula Vista Elementary, participate in
sessions about a wide range of topics, and hear
President Obama's former education advisor and
Stanford professor, Linda Darling Hammond. Also,
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be
speaking at Saturday's general session and AASA
Superintendent of the Year, Beverly Hall,
from Atlanta, will be presenting to CUBE along with
members of the Atlanta School Board. It's not too late to
register, for more information,
contact cube@nsba.org.
For a glimpse at what CUBE will be programming at
NSBA Annual, click here.
CUBE is invited to attend the Council of
School Attorneys (COSA) opening session at NSBA
Annual. The session is titled "What
are the financial and political implications for
schools in educating undocumented students?"
CUBE does not have a session at the same time and
CUBE attendees are permitted to participate without
any additional fees.
Program
Note
Did
you know that all previous editions of the Urban
Edge are available on CUBE's web site? If
you missed an issue, wanted to go back to find a
link to a research study we referenced, or need some
information about what other districts are doing,
click here.
Disclaimer
Links
on the Urban Edge are subject to change or
become inactive after a period of time. Please
be aware that CUBE has no control over links to
other organizations or entities.
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