eSchool News | stateline page 1

States take steps for full-day kindergarten

In the not too distant past, kindergarten was a place where children learned to color, share and play, Stateline reports. But a higher regard for kindergarten is emerging, including a move toward all-day sessions in some states, as a growing body of research underscores the importance of learning in the earliest years. The percentage of kindergartners attending full-day programs has grown from about 10 percent in the 1970s to about 76 percent in 2012, with a steep increase between 2002 and 2006, according to Child Trends, a nonprofit research center…

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Back-to-school tax breaks on…guns and tech?

Many states with back-to-school sales tax “holidays” are expanding them to cover almost any purchase, in addition to the usual kids’ clothing, shoes, books and school supplies, Stateline reports. As schools and students replace ink and paper with pixels, some states are expanding their holidays to cover sales taxes on low-cost computers and tablets. These electronics are eligible for the tax breaks in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. But some states have broadened the popular holidays beyond school-related items to include other types of clothing, large desktop computers and other electronics. Some now include sheets, blankets, pillows, bedspreads, diapers and baby products…

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States nervous about new Common Core school standards

In Kentucky this year, the percentage of elementary and middle-school students who rated “proficient” or better on statewide math and reading tests declined by about a third. Kentucky high schoolers also experienced a double-digit percentage point decline in both subjects, Stateline reports. Those results may sound dismal, but they were better than state education officials had expected. Kentucky is the first state to tie its tests to the new national Common Core standards in English and math, and state officials had projected that the new, tougher standards could yield declines of as much as 50 percent. Kentucky’s experience is likely to be repeated in dozens of other states. Forty-five states have signed on for the Common Core in both subjects, while Minnesota has adopted them just for English. The standards, which were developed jointly by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers and released in 2010, are designed to be more rigorous than the current standards in most states, and to encourage deeper critical thinking. Chris Minnich, incoming executive director at the Council of Chief State School Officers, says all 46 states are beginning to implement the standards, though few are as far along as Kentucky…

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Should state education chiefs be elected or appointed?

If it were up to Walter Dalton and Pat McCrory, they’d have a little less company on the ballot in North Carolina this year, Stateline reports. In particular, they wouldn’t be sharing space with candidates for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dalton and McCrory are opposing gubernatorial nominees, but they agree on one thing: The governor ought to be able to appoint the state’s top education official. It doesn’t appear that wish will be granted anytime soon — making the office appointive would require a constitutional amendment. But the proper role of the schools chief is central to the campaign of Democrat June Atkinson, who currently holds the position in North Carolina, and to some of her counterparts across the country. Some 13 states currently make their top education official subject to a popular vote. And in virtually every one of those states, there are critics who ask why such an office should be so deeply involved in politics…

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State of school funding in Washington like ‘a wartime setting’

With the state dramatically scaling back its funding, Superintendent Nick Brossoit has had to cut back on just about everything in the Edmonds School District, Stateline reports. Everybody who works for the suburban Seattle district, including Brossoit, took five furlough days last year and will take another three this year. Brossoit eliminated programs for struggling students, foreign language classes and sections of advanced math and science courses. Parents helped pull weeds and trim bushes before the start of this school year, because the district halved its grounds keeping crew. Some science classrooms do not have enough lab stations or chairs for every student.

“It’s almost like being in a wartime setting,” says Brossoit, the head of a group of parents and schools that sued the state in 2007 over insufficient funding. “We’re hunkered down, waiting for air support.”

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Affirmative action gets first Supreme Court hearing since 2003

Abigail Fisher was one of the more than 17,000 high-school seniors from around the country who were rejected when they applied to the University of Texas in 2008. In an argument to be heard next week by the U.S. Supreme Court, Fisher argues the university turned her down because she is white, Stateline reports. If the Supreme Court agrees with Fisher, it could spell the end to affirmative action programs across the country that provide some advantage to applicants from underrepresented minorities. At issue is whether Fisher’s “equal protection” under the 14th amendment was violated by the university’s consideration of the race of some of its applicants. Courts so far have found that it wasn’t, as both the 5th Circuit district and appeals courts ruled in favor of the University of Texas…

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