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The four-day school week: a desk calendar with four school days filled and one day empty, a rural school bus outside
InformED Report

InformED Report: The Four-Day School Week

by EdCircuit Staff April 24, 2017
written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 40 (1 minute 31 seconds)1:31

The InformED Report: Episode 401 min 31 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The four-day school week led the InformED Report for April 24, 2017, edCircuit’s short video news briefing for educators. The edition looked at North Callaway R-1 in Missouri, one of a number of rural districts that had decided to hold classes four days a week rather than five, and at the budget and staffing pressures behind that choice.

The edition also covered two international reports showing that noise and disorder were keeping many Australian students from hearing their teachers, and closed with a spotlight on a New Jersey principal who ran a 5K race pushing a 10-year-old student’s racing chair. Each story concerned how schools protect time, order and belonging when resources are limited.

In this edition

  • North Callaway R-1 in Missouri planned a four-day school week from 2017-18, estimating savings of about $100,000 a year.
  • Two international reports found that in some Australian classes up to half of students could not hear the teacher, and Education Minister Simon Birmingham called for zero tolerance of bad behaviour.
  • Spotlight: Principal Vincent Myers of West End Memorial Elementary in Woodbury, New Jersey, pushed 10-year-old Andrew’s racing chair through a 5K so that Andrew could cross a finish line.

A Missouri district moves to a four-day school week

The North Callaway R-1 School District in Missouri announced in March 2017 that it would move to a four-day school week beginning in the 2017-2018 school year. Under the plan described in the episode, students would no longer attend on Mondays and would instead have longer school days on the remaining four days. Superintendent Bryan Thomsen presented the change as a response to state funding cuts, and KBIA reported his estimate that the schedule would save roughly 1 percent of the annual budget, or about $100,000 a year.

Thomsen told KBIA that the district weighed three factors: finances, fit with the community, and the effect on recruiting and keeping staff. He said small rural districts struggle to compete with larger neighbours on salary and benefits, and that a four-day week could make North Callaway more attractive to teachers. Before deciding, the district surveyed parents online; about 65 percent supported the change, 13 percent opposed it and 21 percent were undecided.

District officials also visited schools already on a four-day schedule, including Montgomery County R-II, whose assistant superintendent, Della Bell-Freeman, said the shorter week had made her district more careful about how it used instructional time. For leaders weighing a similar step, the North Callaway account is a reminder that the savings are modest relative to the whole budget, and that the harder questions concern child care on the fifth day, the quality of the longer days, and how the change will be evaluated, which Thomsen said the district would do as it went while keeping parents informed.

Australian reports link classroom disorder to weaker results

Two international studies released in March 2017 described Australian classrooms in stark terms. As reported by Yahoo News Australia, the Programme for International Student Assessment, which tested 14,500 15-year-olds at 758 Australian schools, placed Australia significantly below the OECD average on classroom discipline, and some classes were described as so affected by noise and disorder that up to half of the students could not hear the teacher. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study added that 20 percent of Year 4 students and 9 percent of Year 8 students reported being bullied regularly.

The reports connected these conditions to Australia’s weaker standing in mathematics and science. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham responded by calling for a zero tolerance approach to bad behaviour, arguing that extra spending does not by itself produce better discipline or engagement and that families and communities share responsibility for attitudes to school. Labor’s education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, offered a different reading, saying disadvantage was the largest factor holding students back and that the schools in greatest need should receive the most support.

The data describe the problem more clearly than they settle its cause, and both arguments have a place in a school’s planning: shared expectations for behaviour, and targeted support where the load is heaviest.

InformED Report spotlight: a principal at the 5K finish line

The edition closed with a story from Woodbury, New Jersey. FOX 29 reported in March 2017 that Vincent Myers, principal of West End Memorial Elementary School, ran the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5K pushing the racing chair of Andrew, a 10-year-old student with autism who was completing his first 5K. Andrew’s twin brother, Austin, held on to the chair and helped push him to the finish, while family members, classmates and teachers cheered along the course.

Myers organised the run through Ainsley’s Angels, a nonprofit that helps children of all abilities take part in races, and invited the brothers and their classmates to join him. He told FOX 29 that the school’s aim in Woodbury is to personalise what it does, and that it wanted to give Andrew the experience of crossing a finish line. The story shows how inclusion can reach the events where a school community gathers, often through partners that already exist for that purpose.

Sources

  • Alexis Reese, “North Callaway School District to Have Four Day Week in 2017-2018 School Year,” KBIA, March 3, 2017.
  • “Unruly Aussie children the ‘reason students are failing’,” Yahoo News Australia, March 14, 2017.
  • “NJ principal assists 10-year-old with special needs to the 5K finish line,” FOX 29 Philadelphia, March 20, 2017.

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on April 24, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

April 24, 2017 0 comments
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Two teenagers talking openly on a bench, changing the stigma of mental illness
InformED ReportK-12

Changing the Stigma of Mental Illness

by EdCircuit Staff January 30, 2017
written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 22 (1 minute 27 seconds)1:27

The InformED Report: Episode 221 min 27 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for January 30, 2017 looked at a national grant to build career pathways in high schools and at Oklahoma’s low grade in Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report. It then crossed to Britain, where Prime Minister Theresa May promised to reduce the stigma of mental illness, including in schools, and critics replied that words were not enough. The spotlight went to federal guidance on how schools must support homeless children under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

In this edition

  • Louisiana and Oklahoma were among 10 states awarded three-year, $2 million New Skills for Youth grants from JPMorgan Chase and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
  • Oklahoma ranked 47th in Education Week’s Quality Counts report, with a D+ and a score of 68.3 against a national average of 74.2.
  • Theresa May announced measures to reduce the stigma of mental illness, saying funding alone was not the answer; letter writers in The Guardian argued words were not enough.
  • U.S. Department of Education guidance explained new ESSA protections for homeless students, including preschool-aged children.

Career education grants for Louisiana and Oklahoma

The Council of Chief State School Officers and JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced on January 11, 2017 that Louisiana was one of 10 states to receive a three-year, $2 million grant in the second phase of the New Skills for Youth initiative, KATC reported. The money is meant to strengthen and expand career-education pathways for high school students. Governor John Bel Edwards said the grant would help teachers and students reach high-quality workforce training, “particularly in rural school districts and in support of our students with disabilities.”

Oklahoma was also among the 10 states selected. For district leaders in those states, the grants offered a chance to connect high school courses more closely to local employers and workforce training.

Oklahoma’s D+ in Quality Counts

Oklahoma started 2017 near the bottom of Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report, ranking 47th in the nation, ABC Tulsa’s Franque Thompson reported. The state earned a D+ overall, scoring 68.3 out of 100 against a national average of 74.2. It received a D for school finance, a C for chance for success and a D for K-12 achievement.

Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist called the grade a painful reflection of the state’s budget crisis. “We have been for the last three years the state that has cut the most from education compared to any other state in the country,” she said, adding that low funding made it hard to pay teachers enough to keep them in Oklahoma. Quality Counts combines many indicators into a single grade, so it is best read as a broad comparison rather than a precise measure, but its finance score pointed to the same pressure Oklahoma’s superintendents described.

Theresa May and the stigma of mental illness

In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May said the government would announce measures to reduce the stigma around mental illness, The Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow and Peter Walker reported. She noted that a colleague with an arm in plaster gets sympathy at work, while “if you have a mental health problem, people are more likely to try to avoid you.” The plans included a review of workplace support, faster digital mental health services and improved services for schools. “Money is going into mental health, but it is always wrong for people to assume that the only answer to these issues is about funding,” she said.

Not everyone was persuaded. In letters to The Guardian, a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist wrote that mental health difficulties had grown in the six years since deep cuts to public and preventive services. Teachers, she argued, could often already recognize mental health issues but lacked the time and expertise to intervene, and identification alone would not help unless resources followed. The exchange framed a question that school leaders in any country would recognize: training staff to spot a problem is a start, but students also need somewhere to be referred.

InformED Report spotlight: ESSA protections for homeless students

The spotlight went to guidance from the U.S. Department of Education on the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youths program, as reauthorized in the Every Student Succeeds Act, Education World reported. The new provisions took effect on October 1, 2016, and the guidance was issued to help states and districts understand their responsibilities.

Under the amendments, schools are required for the first time to identify homeless children and youth and to make sure preschool-aged homeless children receive the services they need. Schools must coordinate with outside agencies, such as family courts and public housing providers, to work out what support a student needs. They must remove enrollment barriers and provide transportation through the end of the school year, even if a student becomes housed. The Department also asked schools to check that attendance and discipline policies did not disproportionately punish homeless students. For principals and district homeless liaisons, the guidance turned a broad federal promise into a practical checklist.

Further reading from that week

  • The Huffington Post (UK): Teachers Must Be Supported To Put The Mental Health Of Young People First
  • The Telegraph: Every secondary school in England offered mental health training in bid to end ‘stigma’ and help children
  • MassLive: Gov. Charlie Baker talks education, mental health hospital reforms and veterans’ tax credits in State of the State speech

Sources

  • “Louisiana Awarded $2 Million to Improve Career Education,” KATC, January 2017.
  • Franque Thompson, “Oklahoma scores D+ on national report for education quality,” ABC Tulsa (KTUL), January 4, 2017.
  • Andrew Sparrow and Peter Walker, “We will reduce stigma around mental illness, says Theresa May,” The Guardian, January 9, 2017.
  • Letters, “Words are not enough to tackle the crisis in mental health,” The Guardian, January 10, 2017.
  • Education World, “U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance to Clarify ESSA Provisions Designed to Protect Homeless Youth,” 2016.

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on January 30, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

January 30, 2017 2 comments
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An ornate vintage brass key resting on a modern computer keyboard
Education Policy and GovernmentInformED ReportOnline LearningHigher EducationK-12

Online School Trends

by EdCircuit Staff January 20, 2017
written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 19 (1 minute 29 seconds)1:29

The InformED Report: Episode 191 min 29 sedCircuit on Vimeo

Two questions about fairness and quality ran through the InformED Report for January 20, 2017. The first was whether Washington State’s way of funding schools quietly favored wealthier districts. The second was how colleges, as online courses grew, could tell whether those courses and the people teaching them were any good. The edition closed with a doctoral student in Tulsa whose path ran from a Head Start classroom to a national research grant in early education.

In this edition

  • The Seattle Times reported on “stealth inequities” in Washington’s school funding that can send more money to affluent districts for students with the same needs.
  • U.S. News looked ahead to online education trends for 2017, from alternative credentials to artificial intelligence.
  • With an estimated 5.8 million students in online courses, colleges were under pressure to evaluate online teaching well.
  • Emisha Pickens-Young, a former Head Start child, became one of six graduate students nationally to win a federal Head Start Graduate Student Research Grant.

Washington’s “stealth inequities” in school funding

In The Seattle Times, Claudia Rowe examined how parts of Washington’s education system worked against schools in poorer communities. Some of the state’s funding formulas pushed more money to programs in affluent districts than to districts with higher poverty rates, even for students with the same needs. Because the effect sat inside technical formulas rather than in any single, visible decision, the paper called them “stealth inequities,” and low-income communities were pressing for major changes to the system.

Rowe’s account began with a trip. In November 2016, a group of 15 Washington activists, legislators, philanthropists, school officials and policy specialists, brought together by equity advocate Sharonne Navas, flew to Sacramento for a two-day look at California’s effort to overhaul school funding by directing more money to poorer students.

The timing mattered. Washington’s legislature was under a state Supreme Court order, from the McCleary case, to fully fund basic education, so the shape of the state’s funding system was already on the table in Olympia. For district leaders, Rowe’s reporting was a reminder that the fairness of a funding system lies in its formulas as much as its totals, and that a district’s own budget can carry those inequities without anyone choosing them.

Online education in 2017: growth, and the question of quality

Looking ahead to 2017, U.S. News’s Jordan Friedman noted that in recent years more students had enrolled in online courses, more organizations had offered alternative credentials such as digital badges and nanodegrees, and more employers had accepted online degrees. The experts he spoke with expected more online degrees and courses, and suggested artificial intelligence could begin to appear in classrooms. Some cautioned that bringing these tools into teaching would not be easy.

Growth brought its own problem. In EdTech Magazine, Meghan Bogardus Cortez cited the Online Learning Consortium’s estimate that 5.8 million students were enrolled in online courses, and pointed to a report titled “Effectively Evaluating Online Faculty.” Its authors argued that an evaluation method that both assesses and mentors online instructors is vital to a program’s success. The consortium had maintained a set of quality scorecards since 2010, and in December 2016 it added three more, covering course design, instructional practice and digital courseware, one of them developed with the State University of New York’s Open SUNY program.

The same questions applied to K-12. Districts adding virtual courses and blended programs needed a way to judge course design and teaching online, not only to count enrollments. Scorecards of this kind are frameworks built from expert practice rather than proof that a course will raise achievement, but they give leaders a shared checklist for what good online teaching should include.

InformED Report spotlight: from Head Start child to Head Start researcher

Ginnie Graham reported in the Tulsa World that Emisha Pickens-Young, 36, a doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, had been selected as one of six graduate students in the country, and the first ever from Oklahoma, to receive the federal Head Start Graduate Student Research Grant, an award of about $25,000. She had been a child in a Head Start program herself, and the power of a good early education had stayed with her.

Looking back on those early years, Pickens-Young said, “I thought school was a fun place to be.” The grant would support her research in early childhood education, adding to the evidence on programs like the one she attended. Her story was a direct, personal example of what early education programs aim to do: give children a strong start, and open doors that last well beyond the classroom.

Further reading from that week

  • WPRI: Raimondo’s $9.3B budget targets online sales to spend on schools
  • Chalkbeat: Why online learning works for these Indiana kids
  • Stanford University News: Brief interventions help online learners persist with coursework, Stanford research finds

Sources

  • Claudia Rowe, “‘Stealth inequities’: How Washington’s education system hurts poor schools,” The Seattle Times, January 2017.
  • Jordan Friedman, “5 Online Education Trends to Watch in 2017,” U.S. News & World Report, January 2017.
  • Meghan Bogardus Cortez, “Is Your University’s Online Course Up to Code?,” EdTech Magazine, January 9, 2017.
  • Ginnie Graham, “OU-Tulsa grad student receives prestigious early education grant,” Tulsa World, January 2017.

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on January 20, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

January 20, 2017 0 comments
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A stack of old encyclopedias and dictionaries with copy space on a neutral background
InformED ReportK-12

InformED Report 11/23/16

by EdCircuit Staff November 23, 2016
written by EdCircuit Staff 6 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 10 (2 minutes 3 seconds)2:03

The InformED Report: Episode 102 min 3 sedCircuit on Vimeo

The InformED Report for November 23, 2016 was about money. In Mississippi, teachers and parents told lawmakers that the state’s school funding formula worked well enough and that the real problem was that the Legislature had rarely paid for it in full. In North Carolina, a legislative study found the state’s own system too complex and tilted toward wealthier counties. The edition then looked at other routes to school funding: a Connecticut poll, an Oregon ballot measure, and a local bank paying for a high school robotics team in New York.

In this edition

  • Mississippi’s school funding formula had been fully funded only twice since it was fully enacted in 2003.
  • A North Carolina study found the state’s 37-allotment funding system too complex, short on transparency and at times favoring wealthier counties.
  • Most Connecticut voters polled said the state should not wait for the courts to fix school funding.
  • Oregon voters rejected Measure 97, a corporate tax meant partly for schools.
  • Ballston Spa National Bank gave $6,000 to a New York high school robotics team.

Mississippi teachers fight for full funding

The Mississippi Adequate Education Program, known as MAEP, is the formula lawmakers passed in 1997 to send state money to local school districts. WLOX’s Doug Walker spoke with science teachers at a conference in Biloxi, worried by a push to rewrite the law. Emanuel Posey said the state’s students needed full funding “to compete and be successful with other countries,” and to use classroom technology as intended. Another teacher, Mena Burnett, said she found it curious that the formula was law yet had gone unfollowed for so long.

At a public hearing on the possible rewrite, most speakers made the same point. Bobby Harrison of the Daily Journal reported that MAEP had been fully funded only twice since it was fully enacted in 2003, and had been underfunded by about $1.8 million since 2008, as the paper reported it. Lauren Stubblefield, a public school parent from Utica, said the answer was “for the Legislature to do its lawful job and fund the formula.” In The Sun Herald, Jeff Amy reported that the formula divides $2.2 billion among schools. Several speakers were hostile to Republican plans to change it, and Jeremy Eisler of the Mississippi Center for Justice said that without a commitment to funding, “any formula is no more than public relations.”

For district leaders in Mississippi, the hearings framed the debate a particular way. A new formula would matter less than whether the state paid what any formula promised, and budgets built on the formula’s numbers would keep falling short until it did.

North Carolina’s funding formula under review

North Carolina’s General Assembly received a report from its nonpartisan Program Evaluation Division on how the state pays for K-12 schools. The state distributes operating money through 37 separate allotments, for classroom teachers, textbooks, administration, transportation and more. In 2014-15, the Department of Public Instruction sent $8.4 billion through that system to local districts and charter schools. The division found problems with individual allotments, a lack of rationale for some of the factors used, and weaknesses in the system as a whole caused by its complexity. It gave lawmakers two options: move to a weighted student funding model built on individual students, or repair the current allotments and improve transparency and accountability.

Bill Ball of The Progressive Pulse described the report as a call for a massive revamp. WRAL’s Kelly Hinchcliffe reported that the study found the model at times favored wealthier counties, and that committee co-chair Sen. Fletcher Hartsell called it the “lengthiest and most detailed study” the committee had done on K-12 funding. Sen. Tom McInnis praised it as a “fabulous piece of work” that confirmed what many rural North Carolinians had believed for years. For superintendents, especially in rural districts, the choice between a full overhaul and targeted repairs would decide how predictable their state money would be for years.

Connecticut voters on school funding

In Connecticut, a state judge had ruled in September that the way the state funded schools was badly inadequate, and the state was appealing. The CT Post’s Linda Conner Lambeck reported on an October telephone poll of 600 people who voted in the last governor’s race. Most did not know the case, but after a short description, 68 percent supported the ruling and 57 percent said the General Assembly should act now on a plan. Another 36 percent were willing to wait for the appeal. A poll of 600 voters is a snapshot of opinion, not a mandate, but it suggested that lawmakers would have public room to move before the courts finished.

Oregon’s Measure 97 defeated

The Oregonian’s Hillary Borrud reported that Measure 97, a $3 billion corporate tax initiative, was losing 58 percent to 42 percent on election night. It would have taxed certain corporations 2.5 percent on Oregon sales above $25 million, with the money going to education, health care and senior services. The campaign broke the state’s spending record for a ballot measure. Ben Unger of Our Oregon, which backed it, said “the details weren’t right.” Even in defeat, the vote showed that school funding could go directly to voters when legislatures did not act.

A bank pays for a robotics team

The Times Union reported that Ballston Spa National Bank again gave $6,000 to the Ballston Spa Central School District in New York for its high school robotics team to compete in the FIRST Robotics competition. Combined with other sponsors and team fundraising, the gift paid for building a robot, entering regional events and expanding robotics to more students. Sponsorships like this can keep a program going, but they depend on local businesses, and districts without such partners do not get the same programs.

Sources

  • Doug Walker, “Concern over education funding growing among MS teachers,” WLOX, October 2016.
  • Bobby Harrison, “Many say funding, not formula is problem with schools,” Daily Journal (DJournal.com), 2016.
  • Jeff Amy, “At Mississippi school funding hearing, many say spend more,” The Sun Herald, 2016.
  • North Carolina General Assembly, Program Evaluation Division, “Allotment-Specific and System-Level Issues Adversely Affect North Carolina’s Distribution of K-12 Resources,” November 2016.
  • Bill Ball, “New state report: Myriad flaws, inequities in North Carolina’s system of funding schools,” The Progressive Pulse, November 16, 2016.
  • Kelly Hinchcliffe, “Study: NC school funding formula lacks transparency, favors wealthier counties,” WRAL, November 16, 2016.
  • Linda Conner Lambeck, “Poll: most say don’t wait for courts to fix school funding,” CT Post, 2016.
  • Hillary Borrud, “Oregon corporate tax Measure 97 defeated: Election 2016 Results,” The Oregonian, November 8, 2016.
  • Wendy Liberatore, “Ballston Spa National Bank donates $6,000 to the high school robotics team,” Times Union, 2016.

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on November 23, 2016. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

November 23, 2016 0 comments
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Historic university building with tall columns and a clock tower behind a wide lawn and trees
K-12InformED Report

InformED Report 11/07/16

by EdCircuit Staff November 7, 2016
written by EdCircuit Staff 6 minutes read

Play video: The InformED Report: Episode 6 (1 minute 51 seconds)1:51

The InformED Report: Episode 61 min 51 sedCircuit on Vimeo

On October 19, 2016, faculty at 14 Pennsylvania state universities walked off the job in the first strike in the state system’s history. The InformED Report for November 7, 2016 opened with that strike and the deal that ended it on its third day. It then looked at a report showing that many states were still spending less on schools than before the Great Recession, and at the record high school graduation rate President Obama announced in October.

In this edition

  • Thousands of faculty at 14 Pennsylvania state universities went on strike, the first walkout in the system’s nearly 34-year history, and reached a tentative contract two days later.
  • At least 23 states were providing less general funding per student in 2016-17 than in 2008, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
  • The U.S. high school graduation rate reached a record 83.2 percent for the 2014-15 school year.

Pennsylvania’s state university faculty strike

Thousands of faculty members and coaches went on strike on Wednesday, October 19, at the 14 universities of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Erin McCann and Richard Pérez-Peña reported in The New York Times that it was the first walkout in the system’s nearly 34-year history. Their union, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, had been without a contract since June 30, 2015. The Times placed the strike in a wider pattern: that same year, faculty at California State University and the City University of New York had come within days or weeks of striking. “Labor issues are far more prominent on the radar screen of higher education than they were 10 or 20 years ago,” said Terry W. Hartle of the American Council on Education.

Students were divided. The Morning Call found Kutztown students on the picket lines and others simply confused. Liv Sun, a 19-year-old Kutztown sophomore and student organizer, said students were “against all the fundamental changes the state is trying to push through.” Others said they had been told to keep going to class with no answers about what would happen to their credits.

The strike was short. NPR’s Sonari Glinton reported that on Friday, October 21, the union and the state system reached a tentative three-year contract. It included pay increases and allowed the state to reduce health care costs, and the state withdrew proposals the union had opposed, including cutting adjunct wages and having graduate students teach more classes. “I wouldn’t say we got what we wanted,” said union president Kenneth Mash. The deal still had to be ratified by the union and the system’s board of governors.

States still spending less than before the recession

Emma Brown of The Washington Post reported on a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which the Post described as a left-leaning think tank. By 2014, 35 states were spending less per student in total than they had in 2008. Looking at general or “formula” funding, the main form of state support for schools, at least 23 states were providing less per student in the 2016-17 school year than in 2008. “Public investment in K-12 schools,” said co-author Michael Leachman, “has declined dramatically in recent years” in too many states.

In a Huffington Post opinion column, Harlan Green drew a partisan conclusion from the same report. He noted its finding that eight states had cut general funding per student by about 10 percent or more, and that five of them, Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, had enacted income tax rate cuts rather than restore school funding. Those cuts came as schools nationally had 1.1 million more K-12 students to educate.

The study’s numbers and the column’s argument are different kinds of evidence. The first is a survey of state budget documents. The second is an interpretation of why the budgets looked that way. For superintendents in the affected states, the numbers alone explained a great deal. When state formula aid falls behind enrollment and inflation, districts either raise local money or cut, and many of the cuts of 2008 had not been reversed eight years later.

A record high school graduation rate

On October 17, 2016, President Barack Obama visited Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C., to announce that the U.S. high school graduation rate for 2014-15 had reached 83.2 percent, the highest on record. CNN’s Allie Malloy reported that, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, every group of students, by race, income and disability, had improved, though significant gaps remained between them. The Associated Press noted that the District of Columbia made the biggest one-year gain, seven percentage points, and that Banneker had graduated all of its seniors.

The good news came with a caution. The AP pointed out that the gains arrived against a backdrop of falling scores on national math and reading tests. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. acknowledged the concern: “A higher graduation rate is meaningful progress, but certainly we share the concern that we have more work to do to make sure every student graduates ready for what’s next.” Obama urged the students to fill out the FAFSA and told them they would need more than a diploma in a job market where machines could do repetitive work.

For high school leaders, the record was worth recognizing and worth testing. A graduation rate counts the students who finish; it says less about what they can do when they leave. Pairing graduation figures with evidence of readiness, such as course completion, college enrollment and remediation rates, gives a school a fuller picture of whether its gains are real.

Sources

  • Erin McCann and Richard Pérez-Peña, “Faculty Members at 14 State Universities in Pennsylvania Go on Strike,” The New York Times, October 19, 2016.
  • Jacqueline Palochko, Andrew Wagaman and Christina Tatu, “What students, faculty are saying about the state university strike,” The Morning Call, October 2016.
  • Sonari Glinton, “Breakthrough In Strike By Pennsylvania Professors,” NPR, October 21, 2016.
  • Emma Brown, “These states are spending less on education now than before the Great Recession,” The Washington Post, October 20, 2016.
  • Harlan Green, “Greed Is Destroying K-12 Education System,” The Huffington Post, October 2016.
  • Allie Malloy, “Obama highlights record high school graduation rate,” CNN Politics, October 17, 2016.
  • The Associated Press, “High school graduation rate hits record high of 83.2 percent,” WTOP, October 2016.

About the InformED Report

The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on November 7, 2016. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.

Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.

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