| 2008 News |  | Links to media coverage about public education issues.
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Speak School Funding Truth
8/11/2008 12:00 AM
John Fitzgerald, Minnesota 2020
Massive state underfunding has made taxpayer-approved levies an unfortunate necessity for Minnesota schools. Since a district's ability to balance its books depends on elections, how a school district asks voters for an increase is very important. |
Austin schools don't deserve 'underperforming' label
8/11/2008 12:00 AM
Austin Post-Bulletin Editorial
As recently as 2006, we might have expected a lot of hand-wringing and concern among administrators in the Austin Public Schools when the No Child Left Behind "Adequate Yearly Progress" evaluations came out. Back when NCLB was relatively new, only a small percentage of schools statewide appeared on the "underperforming" list, which meant there was a stigma associated with such a label.
Not anymore. |
Candidate education plans
8/11/2008 12:00 AM
MPR Midmorning
Midmorning examines the education plans of the two presidential candidates. |
Autism incidents rising
8/10/2008 12:00 AM
Marie Nitke, Grand Rapids Herald-Review
Locals raise awareness, funds for the cause
The number of children getting diagnosed with autism is rising at an alarming rate. For decades before the 1990s, about 4 to 5 out of every 10,000 children in the United States were believed to be autistic. Today, that number has soared to one in every 150 children, or nearly 67 out of every 10,000. |
Uptick in 'No Child' failures largely due to suburban schools
8/9/2008 12:00 AM
Sarah Lemagie, Star Tribune
For a glimpse at the numbers behind the news last week that nearly half of Minnesota's public schools are falling short of state benchmarks in reading and math, many suburban families need look no further than the school down the block. |
District ready for third try on referendum
8/9/2008 12:00 AM
Kylie Saari, Fairmont Sentinel
FAIRMONT - Homeowners are often faced with problems that require attention - a leaking faucet, a cracked sidewalk, or a failing water heater. These are aggravating, but most homeowners take care of them rather quickly and with money budgeted for that purpose. Over time, major items, like the roof or furnace, need repair and a homeowner's loan is not an uncommon solution. |
No Child Left Behind
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
TPT Almanac
New statewide school results are out ... and more schools are struggling. Are the standards screwy or is it the schools? |
Educators react to school test scores
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
MPR Midday
Nearly half of Minnesota schools failed to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act. The head of the Minnesota teachers union and the head of the school administrators association discuss what to make of this news. |
What, Me Worry?
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
John Van Hecke, Minnesota 2020
Half of Minnesota's schools failed to achieve the No Child Left Behind federally mandated "Adequate Yearly Progress" standard this year but, don't worry, Governor Pawlenty has it under control. |
American Indian charter school faces closure
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
A school founded almost 40 years ago by the American Indian Movement may have held its last class. The Heart of the Earth school in south Minneapolis has had its assets frozen by the state and the Minneapolis School District is about to revoke its charter. Police are investigating alleged fraud by its executive director. |
Charter school director may face embezzlement charges
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Terry Collins, Patrice Relerford and Aimee Blanchette, Star Tribune
After spending the night in the Hennepin County jail, Joel Pourier was released Friday while authorities consider filing charges that he embezzled money from the Minneapolis charter school he directed. |
AYP results are not a cause for concern
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Rosemount Town Pages Editorial
Rosemount Middle School principal Mary Thompson said this week she no longer sees her school’s presence on the list of schools failing to make adequate progress toward state education goals as the black mark she once did. She prefers to look at the progress her school has made rather than agonize over the fact it fell short in one or two others. |
Schools make progress on state targets
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Celeste Beam, Alexandria Echo Press
Last month, the state math and reading scores were released and area schools fared well. This week, the state released the 2008 data regarding Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and some schools didn’t measure up. |
Making the grade: Why can't local schools make AYP?
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Ruth Anne Maddox, Joanna Miller and Keighla Schmidt, Savage Pacer
None of the three school districts that draw students from Savage made the grade this year in terms of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) towards the goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. |
Rural schools fare well in AYP
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Scott Wente, Morris Sun Tribune
ST. PAUL – Small schools in rural Minnesota fared best in the latest round of federal education assessments, but even they are part of a statewide trend of fewer schools meeting the standards. |
Range schools left behind in state grading?
8/8/2008 12:00 AM
Charles Ramsay, Mesabi Daily News
Majority of districts fail
ROSEVILLE, Minn. — So how did Iron Range school districts test on the state Adequate Yearly Progress report card under the federal No Child Left Behind Act? The majority flunked. Five of 12 districts or charter school district passed, seven didn’t, for a 41.7 percent success rate. |
Some District 11 schools fail to make AYP
8/7/2008 12:00 AM
Sue Austreng, ABC Newspapers
A cold, hard look at District 11’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report looks like students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District aren’t making the grade. |
Schools fail to meet standards
8/7/2008 12:00 AM
Brian Bakst, Associated Press (International Falls Daily Journal)
Koochiching County’s schools met student performance goals
ST. PAUL (AP) — Minnesota’s schools neared a tipping point Tuesday as nearly half wound up on a state list for failing to meet student performance goals dictated by the federal No Child Left Behind law. |
Test scores don’t tell entire story
8/7/2008 12:00 AM
Owatonna People’s Press Editorial
On the surface, the news looks bad.
When the Minnesota Department of Education released its report card on how students throughout the state — including Steele County students — performed on standardized tests under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the news looked discouraging. The grades? Owatonna failed. Blooming Prairie failed. Medford failed. Or at least that’s what the report says. |
Albert Lea schools fail to hit mark, again
8/7/2008 12:00 AM
Sarah Kirchner, Albert Lea Tribune
The Albert Lea School District did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards put forth by the No Child Left Behind Act for the third year in a row. Within the district, four out of seven schools did not meet AYP for various categories — two for the second year in a row. |
WSHS makes state progress goal
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Cynthya Porter, Winona Post
The chasm between what state education officials expect and the proficiency students are demonstrating widened in 2008, with the latest round of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports showing more schools than last year are not achieving the benchmark. |
Three District 834 schools fall short of state goals
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Mark Brouwer, Lake Elmo Leader
Following a statewide trend, four of 14 District 834 schools, and the district as a whole, failed to meet progress goals set by the state’s department of education, according to results released late Tuesday. |
Some area schools fail to meet federal standards; others show improvement
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Nolan Rosenkrans, Winona Daily News
A third of Winona’s public schools failed to meet federal performance requirements this year, a percentage on par with other districts in the region but better than the state as a whole, according to results publicly released Tuesday by the Minnesota Department of Education |
Districts’ gains not enough
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Mila Koumpilova, Fargo Forum
Earlier this summer, area school districts from Moorhead to Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton to Hawley got word that their math and reading state assessment scores, already comfortably above state averages, rose slightly this year. |
4 FL schools make AYP, 8 do not
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Forest Lake Times
Three elementary schools and one junior high school in the Forest Lake Area School District made Adequate Yearly Progress on the most recent report by Minnesota state education officials, which was released late Tuesday night. |
More Minnesota schools fall short of No Child Left Behind standards
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Lisa Gibson, Grand Forks Herald
Of 507 public school districts in Minnesota, 296, including many in the area, did not meet No Child Left Behind-mandated adequate yearly progress standards for the 2007-08 school year, compared with 233 of 503 districts the year before. |
Fewer Minnesota students hit yearly progress goals
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota is falling farther behind a key national education goal. Rankings just released by the state's Department of Education show the number of schools making annual yearly progress fell nearly 10 percent last year. And for the first time, most of the decline was in the suburbs. |
Extra tax levy would benefit extracurriculars
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Don Heinzman, ABC Newspapers
Motivated by the desire to eliminate participation fees for all high school extracurricular activities, a coalition of interested parties is examining the idea of levying a tax to pay the program costs in each high school. |
High school, Twin Oaks miss special education AYP mark
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Joanna Miller, Prior Lake American
Prior Lake High School and Twin Oaks Middle School missed the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goal in the 2008 analysis of school data by the Minnesota Department of Education. |
Districts face sanctions for not hitting the mark in math and reading
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Linda Vanderwerf, West Central Tribune
Rising standards on state standardized tests are taking a toll on west central Minnesota school districts. More school districts and school sites are facing sanctions for not making adequate yearly progress on state goals on standardized reading and math tests. |
NCLB's Failure Again on Display
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
John Fitzgerald, Minnesota 2020
This clearly ridiculous finding is part of the federal No Child Left Behind law that requires states to test students in math, science and reading each year. Schools that don't meet NCLB goals are publicly shamed and ultimately forced to reroute public money for poor children to private or public firms. |
Students in poverty falling behind
8/6/2008 12:00 AM
Mike Longaecker, Red Wing Republican Eagle
Red Wing school officials will take aim at bolstering achievement among economically disadvantaged students in light of state report card results. For the second-straight year, students eligible for free and reduced-price lunches failed to meet state benchmarks in both math and reading. |
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