Washington Post Education News

The Fairfax County School Board voted Thursday night to expand high school honors courses, reversing a policy that was championed by Superintendent Jack D. Dale and that became a central issue during fall’s School Board campaign.

A new study commissioned by D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray recommends that the city turn around or close more than three dozen traditional public schools in its poorest neighborhoods and expand the number of high-performing charter schools.

In the national push to prevent bullying, more elementary schools are introducing lessons about gay tolerance. Some lessons begin before the first day of kindergarten.

One fall day at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School in Northwest Washington, Scarlette Garnier and her pre-kindergarten classmates drew pictures of their families and talked about their similarities and differences.

Shoes get lost, knees get scraped, backpacks get spilled. So on some days, members of the Denicore family get to school a minute or two late.

That’s not ideal, Mark and Amy Denicore admit. But, they wonder, is it a crime?

This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. This first appeared on truth-out.org .

By Marion Brady

Imagine the present corporately promoted education reform effort as a truck, its tires nearly flat from the weight of the many unexamined assumptions it carries.

Update: D.C. schools strengthening hiring process, more details D.C. school officials have now fired a principal they had recently hired without knowing that she had been accused of “unethical” behavior when she was a principal in Dallas, a district spokeswoman said Friday.

A Northwood High School junior and his father are seeking an apology from the teenager’s principal for being required to produce a letter from their rabbi for permission to wear a yarmulke to school.

A yarmulke, or kippah, is a kind of Jewish head covering typically worn by men when they pray. Some Jewish men wear them all day. Many kippahs are small, but the one that Caleb Tanenbaum wore to school last week was a large, black hat that had been knitted by his mother and which covered his dreadlocks.

In recent days, we have heard President Obama lecture college presidents about cost control, and we have seen a vaunted Stanford professor quit to pursue teaching students by the millions online — at minimal cost.

The IDEA public charter school leadership was lawyered up when it came to the table Thursday night to fight a proposal to close it down, accusing the D.C. Public Charter School Board of trampling on its due process rights.

Nearly two years ago, the University of Virginia mourned and tried to comprehend the death of Yeardley Love, a fourth-year student from the Baltimore area who played on the lacrosse team. On Monday a trial is set to start for her ex-boyfriend George Huguely V, who also played lacrosse at U-Va. and is charged with her murder.

This was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including The Schools Our Children Deserve, The Homework Myth, and Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling. He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.

“ Academically Adrift,” a 2010 book, shook the Ivory Tower to its foundations with evidence that a substantial share of college students show no significant learning gains between their freshman and senior years.

D.C. Public Schools and the Public Charter School Board have traditionally operated in silos, each pursuing its unique mission.

DCPS maintains a system of neighborhood schools with seats guaranteed to anyone within prescribed boundaries. The PCSB oversees schools open to all comers citywide. Decisions about openings, closings, program offerings and facilities have, more often than not, been made in isolation.

Correction: Money given by Ellen from J.C. Penney

Ellen DeGeneres just hosted on her television show a teacher from a Pennsylvania public school district that ran out of money — prompting unionized teachers to vote to work without pay — and handed her a $100,000 check for her school donated by J.C. Penney.

My wife and I are on a health kick. We go to the local gym. We eat fish, lean meat and vegetables. I resist cheese, a life-long favorite. I astonish our children by consuming only one milkshake a week.

My wife and I are on a health kick. We go to the local gym. We eat fish, lean meat and vegetables. I resist cheese, a life-long favorite. I astonish our children by consuming only one milkshake a week.

A Northwest Washington public charter school that has not enrolled a special education student in three years is under scrutiny by District officials.

Roots Public Charter School, which serves 120 children in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, said it does not discriminate against students with physical or emotional disabilities. But the staff of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which oversees the city’s 57 publicly funded, independently operated schools, says in a recent report that it has “grave concerns” about admissions practices at Roots. It said the board planned “an intensive compliance review” of the school.

Luke Chung, president and founder of a software development company in Tysons Corner, volunteered many times to help the Fairfax County school system with computer and business issues. He was a nice guy, so when the county needed to fill two slots reserved for outsiders (what educators often call non-educators) on the Teacher Performance Evaluation Task Force, he was appointed.

Looks like the wait is almost over for sixth-grade students who are eligible for the Prince George’s County gifted and talented program.

Prince George’s County Deputy Superintendent Bonita Coleman Potter told an education committee hearing that the district will eliminate its waiting list and fill 100 percent of its TAG (Talented and Gifted) Program next year.