Fast Report
04/08 -- Virginia weighs withdrawing from NCLB
• The Virginia General Assembly has passed legislation calling for the state to withdraw from the No Child Left Behind Act in June 2009 unless the federal Education Department gives the state more flexibility in meeting the law’s testing requirements.
Similar legislation was introduced in the state Senate, but the language on a specific deadline was removed.
The state board of education opposes the measure, and Gov. Tim Kaine has indicated he would not sign it if it means the state would lose federal funding. Virginia is slated to receive about $363.7 million this year to implement NCLB.
The Virginia School Boards Association doesn’t support pulling out of NCLB “unless the state is willing to make up 100 percent of the federal funds we would be losing,” said Executive Director Frank Barham.
“Our school boards and superintendents are fed up with the unrealistic testing requirements and failure to provide the promised funding,” he said. “We have to keep the pressure on to amend the law and make it better.”
The Virginia Education Department and several school districts in the state have battled the federal government over the testing requirements for English language learners and other provisions in NCLB.
Teens fall short in history and literature
• U.S. 17-year-olds display a “stunning ignorance” about basic facts in U.S. history and literature, reports Common Core.
For example, fewer than half can place the Civil War in the correct half-century, a third do not know the Bill of Rights guarantees the freedom of religion and speech, and half have no idea what the Renaissance was.
A report released by the Washington, D.C.-based group Feb. 26 gives the 1,200 students surveyed an average grade of D in history and literature.
Students who had at least one college-educated parent tended to do much better. They were also consistently more likely to have read a work of literature outside of school, visited an art museum, or attended a play.
Common Core finds the survey results troubling. “In profound and essential ways,” the report says, “our civic health and national cohesion depend on our ability to familiarize the rising generation with the touchstones of our shared history and culture.”
At least in part, the report blames students’ ignorance on the No Child Left Behind Act’s emphasis on testing reading and math.
Still at Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now is available at www. commoncore.org.
Study examines concerns with homework
• A majority of teachers, parents, and even students strongly believe homework is important, according to the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: The Homework Experience. But large numbers of students and parents have concerns about the value of homework. Among the report’s key findings:
• Twenty-four percent of teachers rate the quality of homework assigned by their school as excellent, compared to 12 percent in 1987.
• About 60 percent of parents believe their child’s teachers assign the right amount of homework, but one-third of parents rate the quality as fair or poor.
• About 40 percent of parents say a great deal of homework is “busy work.”
• Highly experienced teachers are more likely to use homework to develop students’ interests and are more likely to create engaging assignments.
The report is available at www.metlife.com.