Education Briefs
In a preliminary ruling, a judge upheld a public school's right to punish student Avery Doninger for an insult she wrote, outside of school, on her online blog. According to the judge, Avery's Burlington (CT) school district could punish her for something she wrote off campus because it concerned school officials and other students were likely to read it. This ruling, warned Avery's attorney, Jon L. Schoenhorn, means that if "any student anywhere, in an email or IM or blog, a letter to a friend, maybe orally in a conversation at McDonald's, makes any kind of vulgar or offensive remark about the school or anyone in it, the school can track them down and take some action." (The Hartford Courant, 9-1-07)
Teachers and administrators across all educational levels gave millions to Democratic presidential candidates in the first half of 2007. They gave $1.5 million to Sen. Barack Obama, $940,000 to Sen. Hillary Clinton, and an additional $700,000 to other Democratic candidates.They also gave about $1 million to Republican candidates. Educators gave three or four times as much during the 2004 election as they did during elections in the 1990s — partly because of widespread dislike for Pres. George W. Bush, and partly because their pay has increased. (www.opensecrets.org)
A Tucson area nonprofit will pay a few hundred low-income students $25 a week to stay in school. The students attend two high schools with dropout rates of 22 and 24%. During their junior and senior years, students could receive as much as $1,200 if they also receive bonuses for perfect attendance and a 3.0 or higher GPA. (Arizona Daily Star, 8-9-07)
In the U.K., just six out of ten children leave primary school with basic knowledge in all three of the three "R"s. 20% of students failed standardized tests in reading, and 23% failed in math. 26% of girls and 40% of boys failed in writing. Schools Minister Lord Adonis said that changes this year will help remedy the problem. "There will be a renewed emphasis on phonics in early reading teaching, and in math children will focus more on mental arithmetic, including learning times tables one year earlier," he promised. (The Sun, 8-7-07)
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