6/22/04 -- Maryland requires high school exit exams
• Maryland has become the latest state to require high school students to pass an exit exam to graduate.
A policy passed by the state board of education June 15 requires students, beginning with the class of 2009, to attain minimum scores on each of four assessments -- in English I, algebra/data analysis, government, and biology -- and earn a combined score on all four tests that is in the passing range.
According to the Education Commission of the States, 26 states have enacted policies requiring students to pass exit exams to get a high school diploma.
Many D.C. voucher applicants ineligible
• There should be as many as 1,700 slots available under the District of Columbia voucher program, but only 1,200 eligible, low-income students will be accepted in year one -- including 200 who already attend D.C. private schools, the Washington Post reported June 11.
While close to 500 eligible private school students applied, the non-profit Washington Scholarship Fund agreed to grant vouchers to just 200 of them. The fund also received more than 900 applications from ineligible families.
The $14 million D.C. voucher program, the nation's first federally funded voucher program, was approved by Congress in January. The vouchers, worth up to $7,500 per child, can be used for tuition and other education expenses at religious or other private schools. Fifty private schools have agreed to accept voucher students.
NSBA opposed the creation of the voucher program for several reasons: The federal funds should have been invested in the nation's public schools that must meet underfunded federal mandates. Private schools don't have to meet the rigorous NCLB standards required of public schools. And voucher schools don't have to accept all students who apply.
Obesity epidemic worse than thought
• The largest assessment of childhood obesity in the United States finds the problem is bigger than previously thought.
The Arkansas School BMI (body mass index) Assessment Project found that 40 percent of students in the state are overweight or are at risk of becoming overweight.
That compares with a previous U.S. government study that put 30 percent of the nation's children into that category.
Arkansas is the only state that requires all K-12 students to have their BMI measured. School districts must send letters to parents informing them of their child's BMI, whether it is in the normal range, and the health risks of being overweight.
The report is based on data from 276,783 children in 1,139 schools.
Company pleads guilty to e-rate fraud
• NEC-Business Network Solutions Inc. (NEC/BS), a subsidiary of NEC America Inc., agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total of $20.6 million in criminal fines, a civil settlement, and restitutions relating to charges of collusion and wire fraud in the Federal Communication Commission's e-rate program.
NEC/BS, based in Irving, Texas, was charged with allocating contracts and rigging bids for e-rate projects at five school districts in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and South Carolina in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The company is also charged with wire fraud by entering into a scheme to defraud the e-rate program and the San Francisco Unified School District by inflating bids, agreeing to submit false and fraudulent documents to hide the fact that it planned on installing ineligible items, and agreeing to donate "free" items for which it planned to bill the e-rate program.
Reform group opposes high-stakes testing
• The Coalition of Essential Schools, an education reform organization founded by Theodore Sizer in 1984, has come out against high-stakes testing.
According to a statement by the group, high-stakes testing forces teachers and students to focus on information cramming and "test prep."
The coalition proposes an alternate system of determining student advancement that uses broader and deeper assessments, such as exhibitions and portfolios, and requires students to use more skills to demonstrate mastery of an entire curriculum.
Supreme Court rules on tax credit program
• The Supreme Court ruled June 14 that a group of Arizona taxpayers can ask a federal court to halt a state program that allows tax credits for citizens who make donations to tuition scholarship organizations.
The group had filed suit in federal court charging the state law that permits tax credit contributions to "state tuition organizations" (STOs) is unconstitutional because the vast majority of STOs used the contributions for students who attend religious schools.
The decision in Hibbs v. Winn addresses tax policy, not the constitutionality of the scholarship program. The Supreme Court agreed with a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the federal Tax Injunction Act does not prevent the taxpayer group from pursuing constitutional challenges to state tax benefits, such as tuition tax credits.
The act precludes district courts from interfering with a state's tax or assessment policies when there is a remedy available in state court. The Court found the tuition tax credit law is not an "assessment" within the meaning of the act.