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D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is proposing a contract that would give mid-level teachers who are paid $62,000 yearly the opportunity to earn more than $100,000 -- but they would have to give up seniority and tenure rights.....Under the proposal, the school system would establish two pay tiers, red and green....Teachers in the red tier would receive traditional raises and would maintain tenure. Those who voluntarily go into the green tier would receive thousands of dollars in bonuses and raises, funded with foundation grants, for relinquishing tenure. Teachers in the green tier would be reviewed yearly and would be...

There were more than 200 student assaults on county public schools teachers last academic year, according to a state report. But school officials said many of the incidents weren't serious assaults and involved elementary schoolers.clip Mr. Mennuti said he is worried about the effect assaults have on teacher morale. "I don't want teachers to be afraid to come to schools," he said. "That's the last thing we need when we're trying to recruit. We can't afford to have something negative like this permeate through the system.

The first day of kindergarten found Alex Barth in the principal's office. The teacher had asked students to draw self-portraits. Alex had wanted to draw his in red crayon. There was no red crayon. Alex had melted down. Alex was a capable child with superior intelligence -- and no end of eccentricities. He would flee noisy school assemblies. He couldn't bear the smell of the cafeteria. By the end of first grade, his mother was spending much of the day at Alex's side. Robyne Barth soon learned her son had Asperger syndrome, a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum. Children...

Mrs. Demshur's class of second-grade girls sat in a tidy circle and took turns reading poems they had composed. "If I were a toucan, I'd tweet, I'd fly," began one girl. When she finished, the others clapped politely. Down the hall, Mr. Reynolds's second-grade boys read poems aloud from desks facing every direction. A reading specialist walked around with a microphone. "If I were a snow leopard, I would hunt, I would run," began one boy. One classmate did a backbend over his chair as he read. Another crawled on the floor. So went a language arts lesson at Washington...

The Friendswood Junior High principal who outraged some parents by allowing an Islamic group to make a 40-minute presentation to students last month is now off the job. In a two-sentence statement sent late Wednesday, the school district said Robin Lowe "has accepted another administrative position effective immediately."

The Bush administration proposed major changes yesterday in enforcement of the No Child Left Behind law, including some regulations meant to tighten oversight of public schools, as efforts to revamp the landmark education act have stalled in Congress. In the most significant shift, all states would be required by 2013 to use the same formula to calculate the high school graduation rate, an effort to shine a light on the nation's dropout problem and force schools to take steps to ensure that more students earn diplomas. The formula would be based on the number of students who graduate on time...

t's the 800-pound gorilla of U.S. education. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the sweeping legislation enacted six years ago to improve public schools, seems to make a lot of people unhappy. But President Bush, undaunted by the barrage of criticism aimed at this beleaguered measure by states, teachers' unions and politicians on both sides of the aisle, is pushing Congress to reauthorize it this year . Many Capitol Hill observers believe that it won't survive without the political clout a new president and Congress would bring -- but after a starring role in five straight presidential elections, education...

Nearly a year after the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the U.S. Department of Education has proposed regulations to clarify when colleges can release confidential information about students who might be a danger to themselves or others.

Early Tuesday morning, teens grabbed books about plane crashes, car wrecks and professional wrestling before settling into plastic lawn chairs to read. This is “my favorite station because I get to read what I want to read,” whispered 13-year-old Ekara Cowles , one of 70 students selected for a pilot reading program at Oscar Smith Middle School last fall. “Before this I didn’t want to read and I didn’t like math,” Ekara said . “Now I like to read and I’ve got a C in math.” Travis Riggins, 14, added, “Before this, I didn’t read, I didn’t focus and I...

Hillary Clinton - Proposed $10 billion for universal preschool. More money for special education. Opposes performance-based merit pay for teachers, favors incentives for teachers who work in places and on subjects where shortages exist. Supported No Child Left Behind accountability law but says it has not been properly financed or run, and should be replaced. $10,000 higher education scholarships for all who engage in national service full-time for a year. Raise value of tuition tax credit to a maximum $3,500 from $1,650.Obama - Encourage but not require universal pre-kindergarten programs, expand teacher mentoring programs and reward teachers with higher pay...

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee testified yesterday that she plans to move the central office out of leased space and into a school building within a few years; boost the number of high school extracurricular activities by fall; and complete teacher contract negotiations by March 30. .....The council last month passed emergency legislation making the employees "at-will" workers, meaning that they could be terminated at any time.

Need advice on which tablet PC to purchase

RICHMOND, Va. -- The House has unanimously passed legislation to make it more difficult for those who have sexually abused children to get jobs in Virginia's schools.Child Protective Services would be required to notify a school division about employees who have sexually abused children. Existing teachers who take advantage of their students and have exhausted all appeals would be fired and their licenses could be revoked.

For those who feel they missed out on an Ivy League education, there's this: The University of Maryland is bringing leading professors from Harvard, Yale and other top schools to teach classes, and students won't need SAT scores or prerequisites to get in. With an eye on the booming boomer interest in lifelong education, U-Md. officials are announcing a partnership today that will marry talent from the country's best-known schools with the university's own. Professors will lead a day of seminars March 29 geared toward alumni and local residents long out of school, officials said. Excerpt

The White House plans to announce Monday that it has proposed giving the District $32 million in additional federal funding this year for public education, including a special $20 million payment aimed at helping Mayor Adrian M. Fenty restructure public schools, federal officials said. ...... The District schools have not had an incentive-pay program, Rhee said, but she is in the process of developing one, in conjunction with the Washington Teachers' Union. She declined to talk about specifics but said support from the White House shows that federal officials think she is serious about improving performance. "When I say performance...

Is it okay to post or give out a number for a Rasmussen survey?

I want to purchase a notebook tablet for my daughter for high school graduation. Does anyone know which OS is better for handwriting recognition in a tablet format? When I ask someone selling a laptop with XP, they say XP is best. When I ask someone selling Vista, they say Vista is better.She definitely wants a tablet format, not a regular laptop. She will be doing a goodish amount of science classes and the notes for those classes don't translate well in a typing format. Plus, she feels that if her head is down typing, she will miss out and...

Has anyone here worked with Saxon Math at the Calculus level? I am familiar with Saxon at the lower level, but not anything above Algebra. My SIL in NJ has her highschool son at a small, private Lutheran school and he is doing Calc as an independent study, but the program he is using now is not fitting his needs. (He is the only one in Calc, therefore, the independent study) Going to a community college is not an option as they are in the sticks of NJ and Ben doesn't drive (he is 15). I know many homeschoolers here...

Erin Monsell is an 18 year old girl who suffered traumatic brain injuries in a car accident about a year ago. My original post is http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1692767/posts The parents have been fighting with the insurance company (Anthem) for proper care. The Kluge (pronounced clue-ge) Center, at UVA has indicated that they could rehab her to independent living within 60-90 days. Anthem has stated that she is not worth rehabing and placed her in a nursing home. Last week, without any real reason as to the decision, Medicaid approved a transfer for 21 days to Kluge! This is nothing short of a...

Cindy Sheehan A moronic lady who has no clue what politics are and is using the death of her own son as a publicity stunt. Her credibility was dramatically affected by contradicting statements and by a general inability to express herself coherently, especially in reference to the connection between the death of her son and Bush's decision to start an illegitimate war and subsequently continue his conquest for total world domination."I now know president Bush is sincere... and feels some pain for our loss." - Cindy Sheehan, 2004 "I met with him and I know he doesn't care." - Cindy...