Education News from Washington Post

Chicago officials are going ahead with the largest mass closing of public schools in the country's history despite polls showing that a majority of city residents oppose it and looming questions about the rationale offered for the action.

Paul Tudor Jones sent a statement to The Washington Post in reference to comments that he made at a U-Va. McIntire School of Commerce investment symposium April 26. When asked at the event why there are not more women high up in the trading world, Jones said that most women lose focus when they have children. This is the full statement he released to The Post on Thursday:

Paul Tudor Jones, the hedge fund billionaire, told an audience of University of Virginia students, alumni and others that it is difficult for mothers to be successful traders because connecting with a child is a focus “killer.” As long as women continue having children, he said, the industry is likely to be dominated by men.

As the fiscal 2014 budget season closes with the Montgomery County Council’s final approval of a $4.8 billion spending plan Thursday, the school system is already gearing up for 2015 with a new budget process that will tap focus groups for input.

You may view "Star Trek" as just another science fiction movie, but world renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson doesn't.

Tyson, in the video below, explains that he is a big fan of Star Trek -- all of the various television series -- because the franchise makes some attempt to use physics to tell its stories. Star Wars never did, and that's one of the reasons he prefers Star Trek.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) said he plans to ask interim school superintendent Alvin Crawley to rescind his resignation and stay on at least through the end of his contract, which ends June 30.  

Big money doesn't always win the day. At least it didn't in a school board race in Los Angeles in which a few million dollars showered on a favored candidate failed to overcome the poorly funded campaign of a fifth-grade teacher.

Increasingly we are hearing concerns from educators that new education reforms are being rushed, including the Common Core State Standards. At the same time, new teacher evaluation systems are being put into place as well. Here to evaluate the risks to rushing these systems are Morgan S. Polikoff and Matthew Di Carlo. Morgan is assistant professor in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Di Carlo is a senior fellow at the non-profit Albert Shanker Institute, located in Washington, D.C. This post appeared on the Shanker blog.

Teachers and principals in New York have expressed strong concerns about the new high-stakes standardized tests supposedly aligned with the Common Core State Standards that were recently given to students across the state. The following letter to New York Education Commissioner John King from a number of New York principals explains the depth of the problems educators found with the tests.

Downtown Silver Spring isn’t exactly Hollywood, but for Montgomery County middle school students, it was transformed into a scene as thrilling as any L.A. movie premiere Wednesday.

Silver Spring International Middle School students filled the seats of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center to see their documentaries and films roll on the big screen, part of a two-day film festival that continues Thursday morning. The event is the culmination of the school’s “Lights, Camera, Literacy!” classes, designed to teach middle school students about storytelling and the elements of literature through movies and other visual media.

As a year-long study of Fairfax County school discipline policies nears its end, some School Board members and parents are questioning whether any substantial changes will come out of it.

The board plans to consider revised regulations relating to student rights and responsibilities at a meeting Thursday, with a final vote scheduled to come in two weeks. Notable proposed changes focus on how parents are notified when their child is under investigation for possible discipline, and they would soften punishments for first-time marijuana possession.

Chicago’s board of education voted Wednesday to shutter 50 schools, the largest number of schools closed at one time by any major U.S. city.

The board, appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), opted to close 49 elementary schools and one high school after the current school year ends. It decided to keep open four additional schools that had been recommended for closure by Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

Quick question: Name the peak in Ecuador with a summit that marks the point farthest from Earth’s center due to our planet’s bulge at the equator.

If you were Sathwik Karnik, a 12-year-old from Massachusetts, you’d know the answer is Chimborazo, and you’d have won the National Geographic Bee along with a $25,000 college scholarship.

More than 100 teachers and other staff members at two D.C. schools learned this week that they must reapply for their jobs after Chancellor Kaya Henderson decided to “reconstitute” the schools in an effort to spur improvement.

Maryland has allocated $2 million to help fund programs throughout the state that will allow students to take high school and college courses at the same time, Gov. Martin O’Malley said while taking a tour at the Academy of Health Science at Prince George’s Community College on Wednesday.

A Montgomery County student, who said she was harassed for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance said the apology she received from her principal wasn’t enough. She still wants to meet with district officials and Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s staff.

A parent asked me recently what she should do if her child doesn’t appear headed for college. The student in question is just a fourth-grader, but this is the Washington area, probably our nation’s most college-conscious region. Parents here like to plan ahead.

The Prince George’s County Board of Education released an e-mail statement Wednesday about its decision to hire 15 new employees to work for the school board.

The board voted 7-1 on May 9 to approve the emergency measure. School board member Donna Hathaway Beck (District 9) was opposed, and Carletta Fellows (District 7) was absent.

Construction of a new building for Alexandria’s Jefferson-Houston School broke ground this week, an event officials said heralds a brighter future for a school that is under tremendous pressure to improve academically.

Organizers of a petition drive to block Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III’s plan to restructure the public school system from taking effect said during a news conference Tuesday that they have a couple of hundred canvassers collecting signatures at megachurches, graduations and community gatherings as their deadline approaches.