Education News from Washington Post

(Adding an update with a detailed conversation between Lisa Hansel, the author of the post, and Brian Pick, the D.C. Public Schools official in charge of implementing the Common Core. The update includes a correction about who published the Curriculum Guide, and some new things Hansel learned about DCPS Core implementation.)

In her new book, veteran education journalist Sarah Carr attempts to tell the controversial story of New Orleans schools post-Hurricane Katrina from the ground up, focusing primarily on affected families and educators. "Hope Against Hope: Three Schools, One City, and the Struggle to Educate America's Children" tracks a struggling family at one school, a veteran New Orleans administrator at a second, and a young teacher at a third, alternating between their differing perspectives and experiences.

Segun Eubanks, who on Saturday took over as chairman of the Prince George’s County Board of Education, said people have been unsure whether to offer him congratulations or condolences.

Eubanks takes the helm of a reconstituted board after months of heated debate about the future of the county’s public school system, which has shown improvements in recent years on state testing but continues to languish near the bottom of Maryland’s counties.

Elaine J. Power, a biology and biotechnology teacher at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Md., took strong issue with a post by Penelope Trunk that said schools should loosen up about cheating and encourage students to network to find answers. You can read the original post here, and following is Power's response:

All District students would be able to ride Metro buses for free under legislation proposed Tuesday in the D.C. Council.

The measure is meant to ensure that transportation expenses aren’t keeping kids from attending class, said council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), who introduced the measure with colleagues Anita Bonds (D-At Large) and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).

The St. Mary’s College Board of Trustees announced on Tuesday that President Joseph R. Urgo requested that the board not renew his employment contract, which expires at the end of the month. Here is the statement that the board released:

Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin just introduced a new bill that would rewrite No Child Left Behind, which nearly all people in the education world believe to be fatally flawed. Here's a piece on why the Harkin bill and the likely Republican counterpart in the House won't fix the problems of NCLB. It was written by Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, known as FairTest, which works to eliminate the overuse of high-stakes standardized tests.

This post is the second in a 10-part series called "Dispatches from a Nervous Common Core Observer," written by Michael McShane, a research fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative non-profit think tank in Washington D.C. This appeared on the AEI website, where you can find more information about the series as well as the first part. He is on Twitter @mq_mcshane).

Williams College Assistant Professor Nate Kornell's Psychology Today blog has one of my favorite blog names: Everybody Is Stupid Except You. Kornell, a cognitive psychologist, researches and writes about learning as they relate to education. He focuses on how to maximize learning efficiency and how typical learners understand and manage their own learning. In this post, he writes about whether college students really evaluate their professors properly when they complete course surveys. You can follow Kornell on Twitter.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said she is not convinced that a wide-ranging package of education legislation introduced Tuesday will improve educational outcomes for the city’s children.

“I need more information, because on the face of it, I just don’t believe that these seven proposals are going to move us to where we need to go,” Henderson said of council member David A. Catania’s education proposals.

Governors and education chiefs from nine states said Tuesday that a focus on early-childhood education, the changing dynamic of families and supporting low-income students could help improve literacy across the country.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland President Joseph R. Urgo has asked the college’s board of trustees not to renew his contract, effectively resigning under pressure from the public liberal arts college after intense questions and criticism of him about this spring’s failure to enroll enough students for next year. The shortage of students could deeply harm the school’s reputation and is expected to cost millions in lost tuition.

Three listening sessions have been scheduled over the next week to gather information from Prince George’s County community leaders, elected officials and residents about the characteristics they want to see in a new schools chief.

Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, one of the nation’s highest-paid university leaders, announced his retirement Tuesday after the disclosure of disparaging comments he made in December about Roman Catholics, the University of Notre Dame and other institutions.

The Prince George’s County Council, which must name an appointee to the reconfigured school board, met in executive session Tuesday to discuss candidates.

Council Chair Andrea C. Harrison (D-Springdale) said this week that the council plans to name a member before the end of the month, if not sooner.

The D.C. Council on Tuesday gave final approval to a measure meant to reduce truancy in the city’s schools.

Under the legislation, police must send a letter notifying parents whose children reach 10 unexcused absences that they are at risk of criminal prosecution.

The Fairfax County school board on Thursday will vote on more than a dozen measures proposed by members that may significantly change the district’s discipline policies.

Eight school board members have written 21 amendments for Thursday’s vote on revisions to the Student Rights and Responsibilities booklet.

Next school year, Fairfax County students will be able to take college-level courses in biotechnology and health care at two new Governor’s academies that will open in the fall.

The school system’s Falls Church Academy and West Potomac Academy will establish the new programs in health sciences through a partnership with the Virginia Board of Education and state Department of Education.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said Tuesday that America's educational troubles began when women began working outside the home in large numbers.

Bryant was participating in a Washington Post Live event focused on the importance of ensuring that children read well by the end of third grade. In response to a question about how America became "so mediocre" in regard to educational outcomes, he said:

The Farragut North Metro station hums at 8 a.m. on a weekday, with streams of commuters exiting the Red line and riding escalators into the sunshine of downtown Washington.

Before they hit the streets on Tuesday they passed giant banners advertising Drexel University Online.