Free Republic

Prospective teachers in New York will likely no longer have to pass a basic reading and writing literacy exam, the Associated Press is reporting. The state’s Board of Regents is expected to ditch the Academic Literacy Skills Test in part because black and Hispanic teaching candidates struggled to pass the exam, according to the AP.

New York education officials are poised to scrap a test designed to measure the reading and writing skills of people trying to become teachers, in part because an outsized percentage of black and Hispanic candidates were failing it. The state Board of Regents on Monday is expected Monday to adopt a task force's recommendation of eliminating the literacy exam, known as the Academic Literacy Skills Test. Backers of the test say eliminating it could put weak teachers in classrooms. Critics of the examination said it is redundant and a poor predictor of who will succeed as a teacher. "We want...

The state is hoping the first-of-its-kind proposal generates interest in the profession at a time when educators are harder to come by. California legislators are hoping a proposal to eliminate income tax for teachers will help attract young people into the profession and keep them there at a time when the state is hemorrhaging educators and lacks a pipeline.

LAUSD .. schools are under-enrolled. "There are places where we have schools that are basically four blocks away from each other — and at a time, that made sense," Rodriguez says. Now, he says, "Buildings built for 1,000 kids may have something like 400. "It's expensive." ... Today, LAUSD's enrollment is around 514,000, a number that the district estimates will fall below half a million by 2018. But L.A. Unified's costs have not gone down. They've gone up. This year's $7.59 billion budget is half a billion dollars more than last year's. The nation's second largest school district is facing...

Alexandria (United States) (AFP) - What does a day without women look like? The city of Alexandria, Virginia, just outside the US capital, found out on Wednesday as an avalanche of teacher requests for time off to mark International Women's Day forced it to close down its entire public school district. Alexandria's unprecedented decision -- announced two days ahead of time to give parents time to plan for the disruption -- appeared to be broadly well received in the progressive northern Virginia city.

Throughout the state of Michigan, public school districts are ignoring a 2010 law that mandates they provide merit pay to teachers. Although many districts admit they have no such policy, there appear to be no legal consequences for violating the law. Plymouth-Canton Community Schools became the latest district to admit it doesn’t offer its teachers merit pay despite a law that requires it. The law, signed by then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, says districts must include job accomplishments as “a significant factor” in teacher compensation. Plymouth-Canton joins school districts in Lansing, Grand Rapids, Waterford and Walled Lake, among others, which do not...

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) on Friday picked up the backing of the head of the nation’s largest teachers union in his bid to lead the Democratic National Committee. In a statement announcing her personal endorsement, National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García said she knows Ellison will be a unifying force for Democrats. “Keith’s emphasis and well-documented commitment to party building and grassroots organizing in every community is exactly what we need as the nation finds itself at a crossroad under the divisive Trump administration,” she said. Eskelsen García’s endorsement comes just hours after the Service Employees International Union called...

BANGOR, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – More controversy is hitting the Bangor school system. On the same day two teachers resigned after video of school employees making inappropriate comments about students went viral, new video has surfaced of a Bangor High School teacher duct taping a student in class and there is now a criminal investigation underway. The school system confirmed that a teacher resigned Tuesday after admitting to duct taping a 16-year-old student in his desk. Police say the boy felt embarrassed and wants the teacher to be prosecuted. The video, taken by a student, shows the Bangor High School...

Hello? Just as Mayor Bill de Blasio is to meet with federal prosecutors to talk possible pay-to-play with the city’s teachers union, that same union fulsomely endorses the mayor for a second term. Awkward? You might say. Really. Why not take a bright red Sharpie and draw a fat circle around that $350,000 American Federation of Teachers “donation” to de Blasio’s now-defunct-but-certainly-not-forgotten Campaign for One New York slush fund — followed days later by the $9 billion contract the mayor laid on the union’s local affiliate, the United Federation of Teachers.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was invited to a meeting at Jefferson Middle School Academy Friday morning by the Washington, D.C. teacher’s union. However, when she arrived for the meeting, a handful of protesters took up positions on a narrow stairway and blocked her path. Video of the incident was captured by WJLA reporter Sam Sweeney: (VIDEO-AND-TWEET-AT-LINK) As DeVos turned away from the blocked stairway, a man holding a Black Lives Matter sign ran after her saying, “Keep giving money to Senators and buying your way to the position, you should be so proud of yourself.” DeVos got back in her...

Rutherford County Schools said a substitute teacher will no longer be working in the school district after he was accused of posting “inappropriate, threatening” comments on social media regarding President Donald Trump.Rutherford County Schools received several messages about David Colin on Wednesday. Colin is accused of posting on Facebook, “the only good Trump supporter is a dead Trump supporter,” on Facebook Nov. 9 at 9:29 a.m.Colin is not employed by RCS, but is contracted through PESG. The schools said Colin is no longer permitted to work in the district. The school district has notified PESG about Colin. The contractor indicted...

CHICAGO — Intense rhetoric between Chicago democrats and Illinois’ republican governor is nothing new, but some parents are upset it is now being played out in a letter sent home with their kids. Chicago Public Schools officials sent home a letter with all 381,000 students blasting Gov. Bruce Rauner and ignoring any role democrats may have played in the state’s budget woes. The “Dear Parents” letter begins by stating “Governor Bruce Rauner, just like President Trump, has decided to attack those who need the most help.” Twice the letter accuses Gov. Rauner of “cheating” children. Once it says the governor...

They are the city’s new pot-smoking professionals — ganja-puffing teachers... ...A Brooklyn teacher told The Post that it’s a good thing city education officials don’t randomly test school workers for the drug. “If they did . . . they’d probably have to fire about 85 percent of their staff,” she said. Today’s pot puffers say they’re no head cases...

Seattle preschool teacher's profane speech at anti-Trump rally;calls for murder at approx 1:50 into video 'We need to start killing people. First off, we need to start killing the White House', 'The White House must die. The White House, your f***ing White House, your f***ing presidents, they must go! F*** the White House':Preschool teacher is caught on camera spewing obscenities to Anti-Trump demonstrators  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4191860/Seattle-teacher-s-profane-speech-calls-murder.html#ixzz4XqXtyCjg

From January 2010 through December 2016, 686 teachers in Texas permanently lost their teaching licenses following allegations of impropriety with a student, according to data from the Texas Education Agency. The American-Statesman requested from the TEA the names of teachers who surrendered their teaching licenses or whose licenses were revoked after being investigated by the TEA for engaging in an improper relationship with a student. The newspaper then analyzed thousands of records included in government databases and media reports to determine the names of teachers who were charged and ran criminal background checks on those teachers through the Texas Department...

The two Republicans who broke ranks with their party and announced they would vote against education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos have received thousands of dollars from the nation's largest teachers union.Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have each benefited from contributions from the National Education Association. Collins received $2,000 from the union in 2002 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Murkowski, meanwhile, has received $23,500.The NEA represents 3 million members, making it the wealthiest and most influential union in the country. The NEA, along with other labor groups like the American Federation of Teachers, has waged a fierce campaign against...

Judging by the percentages, the state of Michigan didn’t have one ineffective teacher or administrator last year in the entire public school system, which covers 899 charter schools and conventional school districts. That’s according to the cumulative reports filed by all the state’s public schools after the 2015-16 year. The percentage of teachers and administrators who were given the lowest evaluation was so small that the state rounded it down to zero percent. Districts perform the evaluations and turn them into the state, with the Center for Educational Performance and Information compiling the reports. A 2009 law requires districts to...

Speaking at an event organized to oppose President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington, D.C. Thursday, American Federation of Teachers President Elizabeth “Liz” Davis said that Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, is more frightening than the Ku Klux Klan. “Of course, you know that there are some scarier things that are coming up … one of them is Betsy DeVos,” Davis said. “That frightens me more than the Klan, because Betsy DeVos is a multi-mega millionaire who has managed to buy her way to a position of influence that could actually change the face of what we know...

WILLIAMSTON, MICH. - A Williamston teacher’s decision not to show President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration speech to his students prompted strong reactions on social media after a letter to parents was shared by Williamston graduate and current syndicated radio host Steve Gruber. On his website, Gruber, who also has two children in the school district, posted an email sent to parents Monday by Brett Meteyer, a fourth-grade teacher at Williamston’s Explorer Elementary School. Gruber said he received a copy of the email from another parent in the district. In the email, Meteyer explained that the President-elect's comments during the election about...

Report: Schools Are Teaching Kids To Hate America Under The Guise Of ‘Civics’ The New Civics sweeping colleges and K-12 teaches that citizenship means looking for grievances, then agitating for bigger government to address them. Joy Pullmann By Joy Pullmann January 16, 2017 U.S. civics education, if it exists at all, is being transformed into a political machine to push left-wing causes, undermine American government, and incite civil unrest, finds a 525-page report from the National Association of Scholars. The “New Civics” uses attractive, bipartisan-sounding words like “civics” and “service learning” to trick Americans and their representatives into allowing progressive...