Free Republic

The average teacher salary in Michigan's top 10 highest paying districts for 2013 was over $81,000 per year. But there appears to be no correlation between higher paid educators and student outcomes. The information comes from the latest Bulletin 1014, which was just made available from the Michigan Department of Education. The most generous paying districts, in order, are Westwood Community School District*, Warren Consolidated Schools, Center Line Public Schools, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools, Harper Woods School District, Livonia Public School District, Allen Park Public Schools, Utica Community Schools, Grosse Pointe Public Schools and Saline Area Schools. According to an...

Another bad report card for our schools, as we read in The Dallas Morning News: "Handing out dismal grades, the Nation’s Report Card says America’s high school seniors lack critical math and reading skills for an increasingly competitive global economy.    Only about one-quarter are performing proficiently or better in math and just 4 in 10 in reading. And they're not improving, the report says, reinforcing concerns that large numbers of today’s students are unprepared for either college or the workplace.   Scores on the 2013 exam in both subjects were little changed from 2009, when the National Assessment of Educational Progress...

Update: The principal and four teachers at Cayuga Elementary School in Philadelphia's Hunting Park section have been charged with fostering a culture of cheating on standardized state tests there over a 5-year period, Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Thursday. Kane said the educators changed student answers, provided test answers to students and improperly reviewed Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test questions before giving the tests. After the cheating stopped in 2012, the schools test scored dropped dramatically, Kane noted. In 2008-09 state proficiency tests, Cayuga's fourth graders excelled: 88.8% pass math and 83.9% pass reading. By 2012-13, the most...

ST. CHARLES, MO, May 8, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Parents in Missouri are outraged at school district officials for allowing an e-book with images of people engaging in sexual intercourse in school libraries. Francis Howell School District is facing a backlash for placing "It's Perfectly Normal," a book that includes images of naked people, intercourse, and other pornographic material, in its libraries. One parent told a local reporter that most parents "were shocked" when he "showed this to" them, and that "their next reaction was outrage."

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer has released his plan for Michigan education. Rather than propose innovative solutions to Michigan's changing school environment, Schauer's plan appears to be largely directed toward protecting the status quo and making education more expensive. The proposal calls for an "adequacy study" to determine the “true cost” of educating a child in Michigan. Adequacy studies are typically veiled efforts to increase education spending. There is overwhelming evidence that the problem with Michigan school funding is not a lack of money — but that the money is wastefully spent. Indeed, a comprehensive study commissioned by the Michigan Department...

Officials at Broward County Public Schools banned a fifth grader from reading the Bible during “free reading” time, according to lawyers from the Liberty Institute who are threatening to sue the school for violating the First Amendment.

A 2013 study by Stanford University found that Detroit students in charter public schools were performing far beyond those in the Detroit Public Schools district. The study is the most comprehensive yet done, individually tracking students and holding for race, poverty level, English language learner, special education status and more. Although many considered the study a success for charter public schools, gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer apparently has a different view on school choice in Michigan. He’s dedicated a lot of his “education plan” if he were to be governor to dismantling charter public schools in the state. Schauer’s plan wants...

John David Ladue, 17, had made several pressure-cooker bombs and bought an assault rifle and several other guns as he prepared to wreak terror on his Waseca classmates, authorities say. The teen was obsessed with other school shooters and kept a 180-page notebook with critiques of those massacres — and plans for his own.

This year’s national teacher of the year - Sean McComb of Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts in Baltimore - was honored in the East Room of the White House on Thursday as President Barack Obama recapped the story of his early life. Obama wrapped up his remarks by thanking all the nation’s teachers. “You’re doing the Lord’s work,” he said.

Lady Cox spoke of Islamist groups making massive investments in the educational system in UK in order to alter the institutions to serve their purposes. ... Islam is using the freedoms of democracy to destroy it,” as some of its adherents try to “inhibit criticism,” ... In England, if you criticize Islam, you are called a racist, ... Cox spoke of Islamist groups that have been implementing a strategic plan and making massive investments in the educational system in Britain in order to alter the institutions to serve their purposes. For example, she said, is a recent report that allegedly...

DETROIT — Driving down Waterman Street in Mexicantown in Southwest Detroit you pass boarded up houses, closed down businesses, and other things that make up too much of the city. Until you get to Cesar Chavez Academy. The school stands out like an island. No boards. No graffiti. No garbage in the parking lot. This is a place for learning. And it's where Daniel Felix has excelled. He came to Detroit from Los Angeles as a child and lives a few blocks from the high school with his two brothers, a grandfather, and parents who speak mostly Spanish. Felix with...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill that passed the Assembly with unanimous bipartisan support Thursday encourages California schools to teach students about the racial significance of Barack Obama’s presidency. The Assembly approved AB1912 with a 71-0 vote and no debate or discussion. It now heads to the state Senate. The bill by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, asks state education officials to include Obama’s election in history and social studies standards laying out what students are expected to learn. High school history students already learn about recent presidents. But Holden says lessons about Obama also should focus on what his election...

Hundreds of Meridian, Idaho high school students signed a protest petition when their local school board banned Sherman Alexie' young adult novel "The Absolutely True Diary of a part-Time Indian" from their 10th grade curriculum. But a private fundraising drive, organized by two Washington women, has now raised enough money to buy a copy for each of the 350 students who protested...

A New Jersey college professor says he was suspended for posting online a photo of his daughter wearing a "Game of Thrones" T-shirt with a "threatening" quote on it. Francis Schmidt, an art and 3-D animation professor at Bergen Community College in northern New Jersey, told The Record he posted the picture of his 7-year-old daughter Jan. 12 wearing a T-shirt with the "Game of Thrones" quote, "I will take what is mine with fire and blood."... ...A day after posting the photo, Schmidt told The Record that he was questioned as to whether the photo was a threat against...

On Wednesday, H.B. 305, authored by Representative Frank Hoffmann (R-Monroe), passed through the Louisiana House of Representatives by a bi-partisan vote of 91-6. The bill had 35 Representatives join as co-authors. prolifestudents33H.B. 305 states that no individual or organization that performs elective abortion or its affiliates may provide instruction or materials in public elementary and secondary schools or in charter schools that receive state funding. Benjamin Clapper, Executive Director of Louisiana Right to Life, said the following about the vote: “We commend the Louisiana House of Representatives for passing H.B. 305 to protect the children in our state-funded school system....

Islamic extremists abducted about 100 female students from a school in northeast Nigeria before dawn Tuesday, but some of the teens managed to escape from the back of an open truck, ... Islamic extremists have been abducting girls to use as cooks and sex slaves. Insurgents from the Boko Haram terrorist network are blamed for attacks that have killed more than 1,500 people this year alone. The group — whose name means "Western education is forbidden" — has targeted schools, mosques, churches, villages and agricultural centers in increasingly indiscriminate attacks. They have also made daring raids on military barracks and...

After nearly 12 hours of impassioned objections by Republicans, the DFL-controlled House sent an overhaul of Minnesota's bullying-prevention law to Gov. Mark Dayton early Wednesday morning. GOP lawmakers acknowledged from the start of the debate at 1 p.m. Tuesday that House DFLers had the votes to pass the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act, but they objected to the measure right up until the vote, shortly before 12:30 a.m. The bill prevailed on a 69-63 vote, mostly along party lines. The bill passed the Senate last week with a 36-31 vote with all Republicans and three DFLers voting against it....

A Macomb County public school superintendent says the teachers union contract for her district has a provision that would cost the school all the concessions it negotiated if language believed to be against the law is removed. Two years ago, before Deb Wahlstrom took over as superintendent of Mount Clemens Community Schools, she said she was aware of issues in the union contract. Specifically, the union contract includes provisions that the board would not authorize any public school academies (charter public schools) and would implement an affirmative action program in the recruitment, hiring and retention of "multi-ethnic teachers." The full...

Hey, Horace, looks like you might have been wrong. Dead wrong. That is, making good, respectful citizens isn’t best left to government schools. Way back before the Civil War, Horace Mann promoted the “common school” not merely to increase literacy and certainly not to prepare a majority of students for college. The movement that gave birth to the modern public school system in America was designed to inculcate good citizenship. The idea? Put all kids through a “shared experience.” The idea was to promote “American” ideas of democracy and republicanism into the minds of children who, Mann feared, were too...

After considering 15 amendments and more than five hours of debate Thursday, state Senators approved a bill to strengthen bullying prevention in Minnesota schools. The Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act was approved with a 36-31 vote, mostly along party lines. The measure greatly expands Minnesota anti-bullying law that is now just 37 words. It was a hard-fought victory, said State Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, the bill's primary sponsor. "I'm very, very happy right now," Dibble said after the vote. "It's been a long road. It has been a decade in the making trying to convince people that this problem...