A couple of weeks ago we devoted a "This Week at Hilton Pond" photo
essay to making some "confusing fall warblers" less so. After lots of
kind comments from Web site visitors, we decided to cover a few more
species that migrated through during the first half of October. To
view our latest series on migrant parulids, please check out the
1-15 October 2009



First day in, SCOTUS denies two ed cases
The Supreme Court declines to hear two cases with relevance to parental rights and the primacy of belief systems in education.

The high international cost of not educating girls
The third annual "Because I Am A Girl" report from Plan International finds that countries with high levels of institutional discrimination against girls and women are also the least developed, costing the world's poorest countries billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, writes CBC News. "Study after study confirms that if young women are economically active, their country's economy grows and all members of their family benefit," said Rosemary McCarney, president of the Canadian division of Plan International. "Investing in girls delivers a higher return than any other investment made in a country's development, and yet this isn't happening. That's a huge loss for everyone."

NCES predicts coming decline in private school enrollment
The National Center for Education Statistics, the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States, has just released Projections of Education Statistics to 2018, the 37th report in a series begun in 1964 and the first to include projections of first-time freshmen in public and private post-secondary institutions.

A new approach to degsegregation
Philadelphia has set in motion a host of reforms, similar to what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan would like to see across the country. These policies include eliminating seniority from hiring decisions, revising the teacher evaluation system, and offering financial incentives to teachers in low-performing schools. But they are distinctive for a particular reason, writes the Center for American Progress. Philadelphia must implement them as part of a consent agreement to end a 39-year-old desegregation lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission.

New resource to maximize foundation funds for reform
With over $100 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to improve education nationwide, the Department of Education (DOE) is collaborating with the foundation community to support innovative education reform at the local, state, and national levels. The Foundation Center has launched a national initiative to engage philanthropies and education leaders across the country in a drive to improve public education. "Foundations for Education Excellence" offers an online resource center to help funders align grantmaking with monies available through the ARRA and thereby have maximum impact. The initiative's web portal, in cooperation with the DOE, includes: interactive maps, updated weekly, with details for each state, including foundations that have made grants for elementary/secondary school reform, total ARRA education dollars announced, available, and paid out, and key ARRA education funding resources; summaries of best and "promising" practices drawn from foundation-sponsored reports; weekly spotlights of current foundation initiatives on education reform; lists of top foundation funders and recipients in each education reform area, by state; and upcoming and archived events related to ARRA funding for education.

A reliable framework for assessing turnaround
The Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 17 national education associations, has released "clear and actionable" principles for tracking efforts to turn around the nation's lowest-performing schools.

Diplomacy across 'borders' leads to 'fascinating coalitions'
In the wake of the April 2009 McKinsey & Company report that put the economic impact of the "achievement gap" at $700 billion, a fundamental tension between the worlds of education and business was spotlit, according to Jonathan Schorr, a partner at NewSchools Venture Fund and co-founder of Teach for America. The Stanford Graduate School of Business News reports that at a symposium this spring, Schorr related that "People who make the journey between the business and education schools know you are traveling across international borders with different languages, different cultures, different systems of beliefs, and different values."

K-12 exposure to engineering yields a wealth of benefits
A new report from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council finds that the introduction of K-12 engineering education can improve student achievement in science and mathematics, increase awareness of engineering as a profession and career, and boost technological literacy, according to Science Daily. "

Documenting the 'Harlem-Scarsdale' gap
Students who entered lotteries and won spots in New York City charters did better on state exams than students who entered the same lotteries but did not secure charter seats, according to study.

A first step toward common standards
At the behest of the nation's governors and schools chiefs, experts have proposed a set of math and English skills to master before high school graduation.

Emotional and behavioral development paves the way to achievement
According to a new report from MDRC, evidence suggests that improving young children's healthy emotional and behavioral development is both an important outcome in its own right and can also be a pathway to improved academic achievement.

For higher minority AP enrollment, the long view
The latest research from the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management explores the wide disparities in advanced high school course-taking among race, poverty, and gender groups in Florida. The study finds that black and Latino students are less likely to enroll in advanced courses like Advanced Placement than their white peers because they arrive to high school with lower scores on eighth-grade statewide exams.

Achievement gap narrows but remains large
A new study from the Center on Education Policy examines student performance in all 50 states since 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act took effect, reports The Christian Science Monitor. The study paid particular attention to the achievement gaps for minority and low-income students, focusing on "trend lines" -- for instance, for Latino students in fourth-grade reading, or for low-income students in high school math.

NEA signals contract flexibility
In a move perhaps calculated to silence critics, the National Education Association has announced its Priority Schools campaign, which will direct members to ignore contract provisions that in the past have kept the best teachers out of schools with mostly poor and minority students, USA TODAY reports. The parent organization, the largest education union in the country, will ask local affiliates to draw up memoranda of understanding with districts that will "waive any contract language that prohibits staffing high-needs schools with great teachers," and will encourage "the most accomplished teachers-members" to start their teaching careers in high-needs schools, remain there, or transfer there.

Test yourself for hidden bias
Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington have developed online tests to measure unconscious bias.

Rhee's agenda has an IMPACT
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has launched what The Washington Post calls "a rigorous evaluation system" that will make District teachers among the first in the nation to have job security tied to standardized test scores.

No 'simple recipe' for teacher preparation
Variation within teacher preparation programs is as great as variation between programs, write authors of a new study from Teacher College Record, so comparisons often fail to pinpoint qualities that lead to positive teacher outcomes.

Boston union battles TFA contract 'enhancements'
An objection from the Boston Teacher Union (BTU) regarding contract particulars with Teach for America in Boston has prompted an investigation by the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations, according to The Boston Globe. The division has determined a "strong likelihood" that the Boston School Committee violated the union contract in its agreement with the national program that allows greater rights for TFA recruits in retaining their positions during layoffs.