Eye on Curriculum

• More students admit to cheating amid pressure to win better grades
  As the college admissions process grows more competitive, two of three U.S. high school students admit to "serious" cheating and 90% say they cheat on homework, according to a Rutgers' Management Education Center national survey. "These kids are desensitized in a culture that values the bottom line," says Jason Stephens, an assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Connecticut who recently won a $400,000 grant to study classroom ethics. ABC News (2/29)

• Florida school uses peers to judge cheating offenses: At Palm Beach's Spanish River High, one incident of cheating can disqualify a student from joining an honor society or taking a leadership position at the school, activities which can tip the balance in college admissions. Students found to have cheated appear before a board of their peers, who decide how to address the behavior. The Palm Beach Post (Fla.) (3/3)

• Researchers: Over-testing, underfunding hurt British children
  While British standardized test scores have risen, elementary students receive a less balanced curriculum than they did previously and their schools receive too few funds compared to their secondary-school counterparts, according to a Cambridge University-led review of British primary schools. BBC (2/29) , The Guardian (London) (2/29)

• Other News

• Survey: Only 8% of Florida voters want abstinence-only sex-ed
  St. Petersburg Times (Fla.) (3/1)

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Professional Leadership

• Report: Country's largest merit-pay plan has pluses, minuses
  The first year of Texas' $100 million grant program for district-wide merit-pay plans has had some success, but bonuses were not as large as anticipated and high turnover among teachers remained an issue, according to a report. Teachers who participated rated the plan favorably, but 85% said receiving the bonuses had no effect on how they did their work. "What did the $100 million accomplish?" asked Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association. "These teachers were already doing a good job." Houston Chronicle/Associated Press (2/29)

• New Zealand calls for tougher teacher-training criteria
  Future New Zealand teachers may be required to have an extra year of in-classroom training, under a series of recommendations being drafted by the country's Ministry of Education, which has been reviewing the quality of teacher education for several months. The New Zealand Herald (3/3)

• Other News

• Arizona bill would mandate training for school-board members
  The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)/Cronkite News Service (3/3)

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Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by ASCD SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Virginia may abandon NCLB (The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk))

• Imaginative play may help solve some behavioral problems (National Public Radio (text and audio))

• IB students feel shortchanged on college credit (The Washington Post)

• Report: Focus on reading, math leaves other subjects behind (The Washington Post)

• Column: Principal rewrites rules to end punishment cycle (The Providence Journal (R.I.))

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

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Technology Solutions

• Cyberbullying a new slant on an old problem
  The threat of cyberbullying is prompting more Ohio schools to take a closer look at in-school bullying, incidents of which may be recorded by students and placed on video sites like YouTube. "We worry about cyberbullying spilling over into the building and getting physical," principal Dennis Ashworth said. The Cincinnati Enquirer (3/2)

• New online standards aim to set benchmarks for virtual schools
  The North American Council for Online Learning's voluntary national standards for online teaching will give lawmakers some context in which to review virtual schools, advocates of online learning say. "What has hurt virtual education has been some low-quality players who have been confused with higher-quality players," said Bror Saxberg, chief learning officer of K12 Inc., which is said to be the largest for-profit online K-12 education provider in the U.S. Education Week (premium article access compliments of EdWeek.org) (2/29)

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Policy Watch

• Report: Dropouts take economic toll on state
  The roughly 120,000 California students who each year fail to earn a high-school diploma before they turn 20 are costing the state $46.4 billion over the course of their lives, owing to their greater rates of unemployment, crime, welfare and state-funded medical care, as well as lost tax-revenues, according to a California Dropout Research Project report. San Francisco Chronicle (2/28)

• Boston questions free busing for private-school students
  With no legal obligation to do so, Boston public schools spend more than $2 million annually to bus nearly 2,000 private school students, even though the state in 2004 stopped picking up part of the district's overall transportation costs. The provision of free busing has come under some fire as the district confronts a $33.2 million funding gap in next year's budget. The Boston Globe (2/29)

• More parents seek to avoid vaccines for their children
  More families are seeking exemptions from required vaccinations for their children, even after scientists and health experts have confirmed that vaccines do not cause autism. Some parents believe vaccinations should be a "personal choice," but a health expert said that the national schedule for vaccinations should still be followed because the benefits outweigh the risks. The New York Times (3/2)

• Arizona bill calls for RN in every school
  Arizona lawmakers are considering a bill asking each school district to put a registered nurse in every public school. The law would not be mandatory, and there is no funding attached to it, but supports say it could put pressure on school districts to take action. Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) (3/3)

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In the Field

• Teens go hungry rather than eat free lunches
  Many low-income San Francisco high-school students are forgoing subsidized cafeteria meals out of concern that participating in the program "lowers their status." Of the city's high-schoolers who are eligible for the subsidized meal program, just 37% avail themselves of it. The New York Times (3/1)

Association News

• Most-Clicked: VA's NCLB Ultimatum
  Last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief article highlighted how Virginia legislators are currently working on bills that set a July 2009 NCLB pull-out date for the state, if the federal government does not approve Virginia's NCLB exemption requests. An ASCD blog post includes a link to this article, and seeks input from readers on whether they think this is the beginning of the end of NCLB, or whether the law will just become more tailored to states' needs. View the post

• 65th Reflections
  In 1943, a fledgling organization formed to focus professional attention on curriculum planning, instructional methods, and leadership among educators. ASCD has come a long way from its early days. If you've been there with us for any part of the journey, share your ASCD memories on our blog. Maybe a particular ASCD conference, book, or issue of Educational Leadership impacted your work in education. Selected anecdotes will be featured in the Education Update newsletter throughout the year. View the post

Principal Northside Urban Pathways Charter School Pittsburgh, PA Teachers/Licensed positions Clark County School District Las Vegas, Nevada Middle School Principal Cave Creek Unified School District STMS - Cave Creek, Arizona Principal Mastery Charter Schools Philadelphia President Academy of the Holy Cross Kensington, Maryland Seeking Extraordinary and Uncompromising Educators DC Prep Washington, DC Founding Elementary Principal - Anacostia Campus DC Prep Washington, DC Professional Development Project Leader Mondo Publishing New York City Associate Program Officer Communities Foundation of Texas Dallas, Texas Secondary English Education CUNY City College New York, NY Principal - Derrick Thomas Academy Edison Schools Inc. Kansas City, MO Dean of Studies Mount Saint Joseph Academy Flourtown, Pennsylvania Assistant Principal, Middle School Program MATHS Charter School Baltimore, MD

SmartQuote

The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children." --Clarence Darrow, American lawyer