For about two years, I've used this blog to give readers a broader picture of education. It's been a great place to give more detail and context about things in the news, such as by linking to this report where readers could see graduation rates for every high school in the state or this blog item from a BYU assistant professor on the much debated "compound constitutional republic."

In short, it's been a great place to direct attention to interesting things tha...

As almost everyone knows by now, lawmakers passed a bill last legislative session requiring Utah educators teach students the U.S. is a compound constitutional republic.

But how common was that term before Utah passed the law? Adam Brown, an assistant professor of political science at BYU, in a blog, Utah Data Points, performs the analysis.

From his blog: "First, let’s look at whether th...

The Washington D.C.-based Center for Union Facts sent out a news release today saying it "applauded the Ogden School District for pushing for the gradual introduction of merit pay in the school district, and questioned why the state's teachers unions were so scared by the idea of paying their members according to the quality of their work."

Sarah Longwell, communications director of the group, went on to say in the release "Merit pay is oen of the best ways to attract a higher class of candidates to the education profession." She also said, "Teachers unions always say they’re interested in helping children, but it’s hard to see how encouraging mediocrity in the classroom is good fo...

The U.S. Department of Education has released lists of college costs here. You can see all sorts of lists, such as a list of public 4-year colleges with the highest tuition and the lowest tuitions or highest and lowest tuitions for private schools.

Not surprisingly, many California colleges are on the list of four year public colleges with the fastest rising tuition costs.

Is your college on the list?

The U.S. Department of Education released new data today as part of the Civil Rights Data Collection on resources and opportunities for students in 72,000 schools across the nation. You can see how many kids at a school took Advanced Placement classes, how many took Algebra 1 and geometery, calculus, physics, etc. — and all by ethnicity. Not all Utah schools are included, but many are, as are the districts.

You can go here to search for your school or district (tip: I've done a few searches, and I find the fewer terms you put in the better. For example, if you're searching for a distri...

Elizabeth Mott, a Logan High teacher who was laid off recently amid budget cuts there, thanked students and community members today in a letter to the The Herald Journal for their support. Students rallied at a local school board meeting recently to protest the firing of Mott, a popular AP Calculus teacher. Mott was one of five middle- and high-school teachers laid off after the Logan District, in consultation with the Logan Education Association, cut part-time teachers before full-time ones, and Mott worked half-time. You can

State school board member Kim Burningham today posted an entry on the State Office of Education's blog titled "Another Stark Comparison Showing Appalling Funding of Education in Utah." In the blog, Burningham discusses the New Jersey Supreme Court, which, according to the New York Times, recently ruled that "a major piece of Gov. Chris Christie's cost-cutting was unconstitutional and ordered lawmakers to raise spending for poor, urban schools by $500 million next year, despite a state budget...

Today is National Summer Learning Day, and in honor of that, here's a list sent to me by Utah Connections Academy (a new online charter school beginning in the fall) of ways to help keep kids learning during the summer (and to learn more about summer learning loss read my colleague Rosemary Winter's recent story here):

1. Take a Chance!
Monopoly and Monopoly Junior are classic board games that put math skills to the test. Counting money, buying and selling, and making change, all reinforce math concepts that many students are learning as early as first gr...

Newsweek's annual list of the best high schools in the country is out, and three Utah high schools made the top 500 this year. InTech Collegiate High, a North Logan charter school ranks at #161. Park City High ranks at #179, and Hillcrest High in Midvale ranks at #445.

This year the rankings were based on the following criteria: graduation rate (25%), college matriculation rate (25%), and AP tests taken per graduate (25%), plus average SAT/ACT scores (10%), average AP/IB scores (10%), and AP courses offered per graduate (5%). The list was compiled from more than 1,100 top high schools that suppl...

How would you do on National Assessment of Educational Progess (NAEP) history tests given to fourth, eighth and 12th-graders? You can go here to answer sample questions and find out for yourself.

Recently, results of the 2010 U.S. History Report Card (NAEP), given to samples of students, were released. Only 17 percent of eighth-graders scored proficient on the test, though that was the highest ever for eighth-graders. Performances by fourth (20 percent proficient or higher) and 12th graders (12 percent proficient or higher) remained the same as in 2006.

I'm [excited? relieved? embarassed?] to say...

High school graduation ceremonies are typically meaningful — but not entertaining. But graduation at Timpview High in Provo on Thursday ended with a flash mob. The entire graduating class broke out into song and dance, making this possibly the most entertaining graduation ceremony ever.

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Tonight, a unique group of college students will graduate — members of the Ventures Course in the Humanities program, a program of the Utah Humanities Council. The program gives low-income Utahns who never had the opportunity to go to college a chance to see what it's all about.

The students spent two semesters learning philosophy, literature, art history, American history, and critical writing and thinking with professors from Westminster College and the University of Utah, and will graduate from the program tonight with eight college credits. Among this year's students are people who have been homeless, addicted to drugs, associated with gangs, and unemployed. And tonight Earl Sh...

This blog item was written by Tribune education reporter Rosemary Winters

In the wake of Canyons School District launching an investigation into “serious incidents” of racism at Alta High School, more than a dozen community members attended a Canyons Board of Education meeting Tuesday hoping to learn more about the district’s probe and share their own concerns, questions or praise.

It was the board’s first meeting since revelations last week that the district had uncovered other problems at Alta after investigating allegat...

What kinds of education bill did lawmakers pass this year? What will they mean for Utah schools? And what happens next? The State Office of Education has put together a summary of education bills passed this session, along with information about when they take effect, their cost and if school districts must now take further action.

To see the summary go here.

Valerie Strauss' blog at washingtonpost.com today features a re-posted "rant" from a college admissions counselor in Massachusetts about college-bound kids and their parents. The blog was originally posted on the listserv for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. I thought it was kind of interesting.

From the blog:

"The truth is that most kids in this country go to State U’s, that many Nobel Prize winners came out of small denominational schools with...

The Park City Education Foundation and Park City School District will host an event Wednesday evening (April 6) about "Gamification," specifically video game theories in learning.

Industry innovators, students and school leaders will share insights and dispel myths. The event will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Park City High School lecture hall.

Today, Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued guidance, for the first time, specifically advising schools, colleges and universities that their responsibilities under Title IX include protecting students from sexual violence.

According to a fact sheet included with the guidance, "Recent data shows nearly 4,000 reported incidents of sexual battery and over 800 reported rapes and attempted rapes occurring in our nation’s public high schools. Indeed, by the time girls graduate from high school, more than one in ten will have been physically forced to have sexual ...

Utah Connections Academy, a new virtual charter school in grades K-12 slated to open in the fall, will hold information sessions for parents over the next month or so. The free sessions will focus on explaining how the virtual school will work, its curriculum, how teachers will interact with students, college preparation and social events. As a charter school, the school is tuition free and open to the public. To learn more go to www.utahconnectionsacademy.com. The dates and locations of the information sessions are below:

Courtyard Salt Lake City Sandy
10701 S. Holiday Park Dr.
Sandy, UT 84070
Mond...

A new state website, http://ilovehistory.utah.gov/index.html, offers resources for kids, teachers and anyone else interested in Utah history. The site has quizzes, like the Ancestral Puebloan Quiz, and games, like the Paleoindian Memory Game and a Counties Map Game. (The Counties Map Game told me I did a "good job" when I finished, but I suspect I actually did quite poorly.) Personally, I liked the "Cool Old Photos," mainly the ones of the old Sugar House Penitentiary and South Temple.

Earlier today and yesterday, students at Jordan Valley, Canyons District's school for severely disabled students, put on a production of "Peter Pan." Students and staff spent months working on the play, which was adapted to the students' special needs. Below you can see a picture of the production's star resting between breaks, from the Canyons District Facebook page. From that Facebook page, "This smile could warm even the toughest critic's cold heart."

Students at Lakeridge Junior High in Orem were surprised this morning with $20,000 in new musical instruments donated by Fidelity Investments. Students received 10 violas, five cellos, two violins and two string basses.

More than 50 Fidelity volunteers also spent the past weekend making over the school's music room with new paint, furniture and decorations. Music teacher Megan Graves said in a Fidelity press release, "I love seeing the change in a student’s countenance when they hear themselves playing a recognizable melody on a quality instrument. With this generous donation from Fidelity, the orchestra students will have the opportunity to play on quality instruments, feel a grea...

The Murray Education Foundation has annouced the winners of the 8th Annual Pinnacle Awards honoring "outstanding efforts of excellence in education." Each of the below winners will receive $500.

This year's winners include:

- Allison Bulson – Murray High School physics teacher (6 yrs. teaching, all in Murray schools)
- Kelli Kercher – Horizon Elementary special education teacher (20 yrs. teaching/all in Murray schools)
- Danelle Nessen – Grant Elementary kindergarten teacher (22 yrs. teaching/10 yrs. Murray schools)
- Judith Payne – Kennecott Nature Center Coordinator/teacher (10 yrs. teaching i...

Utah Education Association (UEA) leaders have said it's been a rough year for education policy at the Legislature, which passed bills this year to prohibit school districts from considering seniority when laying off teachers, to prohibit districts from paying teachers on leave to perform union duties and a teacher evaluation bill, that, in part, removed a requirement that districts try to help teachers with poor performance evaluations improve.

But UEA leaders have been saying for days that policy aside, they're pleased with the

Michael Horn, co-author with Clayton Christensen and Curtis Johnson of "Disrupting Class," has a blog on Forbes.com today about yesterday's failure of SB65 in the Senate.

In the blog, he says, "... online learning represents the potential beginning transformation of that factory-model, monolithic system that doesn’t serve our students well. If Utah’s legislature doesn’t end up passing this bill, it will punt on that opportunity."

Sen. Howard Stephenson's SB65 aims to expand online learning opportunities by creating a system to allow public and private organization t...

The state school board has sent a letter to the governor and lawmakers urging them to oppose SJR9, a bill that seeks to amend the state constitution to give the governor control over K-12 and higher education.

The bill passed out of the Senate the other day and is now headed to the House. Now it must pass the House with a two-thirds majority and then be approved by voters in the 2012 general election to take effect. You can read more about the debate in the Senate here. You can read the full text of the letter below

The Governor's Education Excellence Committee today voted to start calling Common Core State Standards the Utah Common Core State Standards instead. The standards outline what students in grades K-12 should know in reading and math by the end of each grade and are the product of a states-led effort meant to improve college and career readiness. More than 40 states, including Utah, have agreed to adopt the standards.

The name change follows unrest last month over the standards by some Republican senators who worried that Utah was losing local control over what's taught in schools b...

According to this New York Times article today, a number of Republican governors across the country are calling for the elimination of tenure. In Utah, some lawmakers are taking up similar issues.

In Utah, teachers don't have "tenure" but after three to five years in the classroom administrators decide whether to give them career status. Before Utah teachers earn career status they're considered provisional meaning they can be fired at the end of the school year without explanation. Once they gain career status they can only be fired after a more extensive due process.

Sen. Howard Stephenson is working on ...

On the state office's new blog today, State Superintendent Larry Shumway defended the state school board's decision to adopt new academic standards, known as Common Core State Standards.

His defense comes several days after the Senate Majority caucus voted to ask the House to join it in sending a letter to the state school board asking it to reconsider adopting the standards out of concern Utah was giving up some local control by adopting the standards. (The standards outline what students are expected to know by the end of each grade.) Sen. Chris Buttars told me at the time: “We’re dropping Utah’s moral and ethical standards in favor o...

The State Office of Education launched a new social media initiative today. Former KCPW reporter Elizabeth Ziegler is now blogging, Facebook-ing and Tweeting news and views out of the state office and state school board.

To see the page for yourself go to utahpubliceducation.org.

From an entry on the new blog from State Superintendent Larry Shumway:

"Every day, nearly 30,000 licensed educators, their support staff, classified employees, and administrators are working aggressively to build on a foundation of success to ensure all of Utah’s nearly 600,000 public school students have access to a high-quality education that pr...

Since Jeb Bush visited Utah in August, lawmakers and education leaders here have been discussing Florida's education reforms and whether to implement them here. At least one of those reforms — grading schools — seems to be moving forward with lawmakers working on a bill about it and the state school board working on a rule.

And Utah isn't the only state considering adopting some of the Florida reforms. You can read more about the spread of Jeb Bush's influence on education reform nationwide in this Education Week article here. From the article:

"...

More than one in five young people nationwide who try to join the military score too low on its entrance exam to enlist, according to a report released Tuesday.

But in Utah, young applicants fared better, with 16.7 percent failing the exam, according to the report from The Education Trust.

Utah had the ninth lowest percentage of young people in the nation who were ineligible to enlist in the U.S. Army because they failed the exam. In Utah, 16.7 percent of 2,354 high school graduates ages 17-20 who took the test between 2004 and 2009 tested too low to enlist.

Utah’s Latinos didn’t fare as well, though, compared with their peers nationwide. Among Utah Latinos who took t...

Canyons Superintendent David Doty shares his thoughts on social media and education in two recent issues of the American School Board Journal.

"It connects me with professional colleagues and people in ways that I couldn’t before,” he said in one of the articles.

To read the articles go here.

The Center for Public Education, which is an initiative of the National School Boards Association, has created a new website, www.data-first.org, that features all sorts of data and explanations about education. The site, which was developed with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is designed to help school leaders and educators, but I think it has some features that might be useful for anyone interested in schools.

For example, it will direct you to websites and reports where you can find out average class size for any school in the country, high school graduation requirements, percentage of children enrolled in preschool and ...

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill, which Obama signed into law yesterday, reauthorizes child nutrition programs for five years and includes $4.5 billion in new funding for the programs over 10 years. To see a sample menu from the White House showing how school lunch could change as a result, go here. Specifically, it also, among other things (from a White House fact sheet):

- Gives USDA the authority to set nutritional standards for all foods regularly sold in schools during the school day, including vending machines, the “a la carte” lunch lines, a...

Rhonda Bromley, Alpine District spokeswoman, has written a personal guest column in the Daily Herald, about the convertrovery in recent months over the district's use of the word "democracy" in its mission statement, among other things. In case you haven't been following this issue, a group of Utah County parents has been protesting for months the district's use of the word "democracy" saying the U.S. is a republic and should be recognized as such. They also object to four value statements that back up the mission statement. To see their obj...

During a recent speech in which U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan unveiled a final version of a National Education Technology Plan, he held up one Utah schools as an example of what to do. From his speech:

"... But we know we are not starting from scratch. Right now, your states are offering courses through virtual high schools.

These online schools provide learning opportunities and expand access to Advanced Placement and other courses to thousands of students who otherwise wouldn't be able to take them.

For example, the Open High School in Utah is offering students the chance to be learners anywhere and at anytime.

Through the scho...

Nationally, 12th graders reading scores were up slightly from 2005 but lower than they were in 1992, according to results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress released today. And the achievement gap between white and Latino students hasn't changed much since 1992.

Scores in math are up since 2005, though the achievement gap between white and Latino students remains about the same.

Though the results are for the nation as a whole, they're not available by state (except for 11 pilot states, not including Utah). To see the full report go here.

Does teacher education need to change? Many, including the National Council of Accreditation for Teacher Education, think so. A blue ribbon panel convened by the organization called today for teacher education to be “'turned upside down' by revamping programs to place clinical practice at the center of teacher preparation."

Eight states — California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee — have already committed to reform following the panel's recommendations, which include:

· There must be an intense focus on developing teaching practice and P-12 student
learning.

- Higher education and school districts must share accountability and ...

Slate.com recently held a contest to solicit designs to reinvent the classroom. And they've now picked a winner with a design that is partly indoor, partly outdoor and has adjustable furniture, an art area, video screens, communal areas for classes to share, mirrors that allow for eye contact when a student and teacher sit at a computer together.

To see the winning design go here.

Reformers have long complained that classrooms today still look too much like they did 100 years ago despite changes in the world.

Now you can see the new 'Harry Potter' film one day before the national release and help Park City Schools. If you buy tickets to a Nov. 18, 6 p.m. screening of the movie at the Cinemark Theater in Park City for $10, the Park City Education Foundation will benefit. Proceeds from the tickets will go to the foundation to support programs at Park City School District.

You can buy tickets at the foundation office on Tuesday and Wednesday: Nov 16 & 17. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the theatre starting at 4pm on Nov 18. Only cash and checks will be accepted. Enough tickets will be sold to fill two theaters. Call 435-615-0235 for more information.

Thirty-two countries outperformed Utah when it came to the percentages of students scoring at advanced levels in math, according to a new report released today by Education Next in conjunction with Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance. Utah appeared to outperform nine countries and was most similar in its performance to Israel, Italy, Latvia, Portugal and Turkey.

The report compared Utah and other state's scores on the National Assessment of Educational progress administered to 8th graders in 2005 with the results of the PISA, an international assessment, administred one year later to students at the age of 15.

Top performing countries include Taiw...

The 10 schools honored include:

- Belknap Elementary, Beaver

-Bridger Elementary, Logan

-Bruin Point Elementary, Sunnyside

-Cedar East Elementary, Cedar City

-Guadalupe Schools, Salt Lake City

-Milford Elementary, Milford

-Minersville Elementary, Minersville

-Moroni Elementary, Moroni

-Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science (NUAMES), Layton

-Red Mountain Elementary, Ivins.

To earn Utah Title I Closing the Achievement Gap Awards, schools had to reduce, by at least 50 percent, the ...

"First of all, I recognize that there are concerns regarding the UEA's dual endorsement in the Governor's race. I would like to go through the process of the U-PAC in coming up with the recommendation.

As you may or may not know, the U-PAC Committee is made up of representatives fr...

The award will be presented tomorrow at the NASBE national conference, which started today here in Salt Lake City. To follow what's going on there on Twitter, use the hashtag #NASBEac.

Winners of the 2010 William and Pat Child “Excellence in Teaching” Awards (which include $1,000):

• Ginger Brakke, sixth-grade teacher at Grant Elementary School, Murray City School District
• Susan Ericksen Bruschke, kindergarten teacher at Heritage Elementary School, Washington County School District
• Kari Cahoon, third-grade teacher at Dilworth Elementary School, Salt Lake City School District
• Leslie DeMille, welding instructor at th...

A new report out of the Education Law Center ranks each state on the fairness of various aspects of education funding measures including funding distribution, effort, funding level and coverage. And Utah seems to be either near the top or the bottom of the list on the various measures.

For example, the report ranks Utah No. 1 in the nation when it comes to distribution, which means the distribution of funding to school districts relative to student poverty.

But it gives Utah a grade of F when it comes to effort, which means the state's effort to fu...

— Highland Elementary in the Alpine District wants $5,000 to replace disposable school lunch trays with reusable ones to help the environment and save money.

— Oakridge School in the Nebo School District, which serves students ages 5-22 with severe developmental disabilities, is seeking $50,000 to enhance the quality of li...