An explosion at a Biron paper plant injured two people Friday morning, according to the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune. An explosion happened about 8:13 a.m. at the Biron paper mill, just outside of Wisconsin Rapids. Reporters there are gathering more information, but say three injured people have been taken to the hospital.
Wisconsin District Attorney Tells Teachers They Will Teach Sex Education At Their Own Peril, Risking Prosecution
It’s a ridiculous case that reminds us of the Scopes trial, when a teacher was prosecuted for schooling students on Darwin’s theory of evolution. In the 2010 version, a Wisconsin district attorney is warning teachers that they could charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor if they teach the sex education classes that are mandated by state law next fall. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/90020507.html
That’s right: Teachers will be prosecuted for following Wisconsin law.
Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth has mailed letters to five school districts warning them that teaching kids sex education it tantamount to contributing to the delinquency of a minor it a teacher knows students are sexually active. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/06/us/AP-US-Sex-Ed-Wisconsin.html
Southworth also told the school districts that they should not abide by the new state law — which mandates that this fall schools offer sex ed programs that that teach students about to use condoms and about other kinds of contraceptives – which he expects will be repealed.
The DA in his letters claims that the sex education law “promotes the sexualization – and sexual assault – of our children,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Forcing our schools to instruct children on how to utilize contraceptives encourages our children to engage in sexual behavior, whether as a victim or an offender,” Southworth, a Republican, wrote. “It is akin to teaching children about alcohol use, then instructing them on how to make mixed alcoholic drinks.”
The two legislators who helped write the sex education law, Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, and Rep. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, basically scoffed at Southworth’s anti-sex education crusade.
Roys told the Journal Sentinel that the district attorney’s letter and threat was irresponsible.
“Using condoms isn’t a crime for anyone,” she said.
Grigsby told the Associated Press that Southworth’s March 24 letter to schools was “beyond ridiculous.”
Study: Academic standards vary across states
Date: 2/19/2009
By LIBBY QUAID
AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some schools deemed to be failing in one state would get passing grades in another under the No Child Left Behind law, a national study found.
The study underscores wide variation in academic standards from state to state. It was to be issued Thursday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which conducted the study with the Kingsbury Center at the Northwest Evaluation Association.
The study comes as the Obama administration indicates it will encourage states to adopt common standards, an often controversial issue on which previous presidents have trod lightly.
“I know that talking about standards can make people nervous,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said recently.
“But the notion that we have 50 different goal posts doesn’t make sense,” Duncan said. “A high school diploma needs to mean something, no matter where it’s from.”
Every state, he said, needs standards that make kids college- and career-ready and are benchmarked against international standards.
The Fordham study measured test scores of 36 elementary and middle schools against accountability rules in 28 states.
It found the schools failed to meet yearly progress goals in states with more rigorous standards, such as Massachusetts. But they met yearly progress goals in states with lower standards, such as Arizona and Wisconsin. Under No Child Left Behind, states have a patchwork of rules that vary from state to state, the study said.
No Child Left Behind is misleading, said Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the nonprofit Fordham Foundation.
“It misleads people into thinking that we have a semblance of a national accountability system for public schools, and we actually don’t,” Finn said. “And it’s produced results I would call unfair from one state to the next.”
No Child Left Behind was championed by President George W. Bush and passed with broad bipartisan support, though it has since become hugely unpopular.
The law prods schools to improve test scores each year, so that every student can read and do math on grade level by the year 2014. It is up to states to set yearly progress goals — “annual yearly progress,” or AYP — and each state has its own standards and tests.
It is unlikely the Obama administration or Congress will try to force states to adopt the same standards.
Rather, they favor a carrot-and-stick approach that offers states funding to develop new standards and tests or offers more flexibility under No Child Left Behind.
The House Education Committee chairman, Democratic Rep. George Miller of California, called for incentives when Congress prepared to rewrite the law in 2007, an effort that subsequently stalled.
In the Senate, Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander pushed legislation that offered to waive the rigid annual yearly progress structure in exchange for raising standards to national or international benchmarks.
And in the newly enacted economic stimulus bill, there is a $5 billion incentive fund for Duncan to reward states for, among other things, boosting the quality of standards and state tests.
Several states are moving in that direction; for example, 16 of them working with Achieve, a nonprofit founded by governors and corporate leaders, have adopted common math and English standards.
Any effort toward common standards is likely to have support from teachers’ unions.
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, wrote an op-ed piece Monday in The Washington Post arguing for national standards.
Like Duncan, she used a football analogy, comparing the patchwork of standards to a Super Bowl where the Pittsburgh Steelers must move the ball a full 10 yards but the Arizona Cardinals must go only 7.
“Every other industrialized nation has national standards,” Weingarten said in an interview. “When you start thinking about how are we going to create a school system throughout the United States that helps enable kids to be prepared for college, prepared for life and prepared for work, you have to start with common standards,” she said.
___
On the Net:
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: http://www.edexcellence.net
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
By LIBBY QUAID
AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some schools deemed to be failing in one state would get passing grades in another under the No Child Left Behind law, a national study found.
The study underscores wide variation in academic standards from state to state. It was to be issued Thursday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which conducted the study with the Kingsbury Center at the Northwest Evaluation Association.
The study comes as the Obama administration indicates it will encourage states to adopt common standards, an often controversial issue on which previous presidents have trod lightly.
“I know that talking about standards can make people nervous,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said recently.
“But the notion that we have 50 different goal posts doesn’t make sense,” Duncan said. “A high school diploma needs to mean something, no matter where it’s from.”
Every state, he said, needs standards that make kids college- and career-ready and are benchmarked against international standards.
The Fordham study measured test scores of 36 elementary and middle schools against accountability rules in 28 states.
It found the schools failed to meet yearly progress goals in states with more rigorous standards, such as Massachusetts. But they met yearly progress goals in states with lower standards, such as Arizona and Wisconsin. Under No Child Left Behind, states have a patchwork of rules that vary from state to state, the study said.
No Child Left Behind is misleading, said Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the nonprofit Fordham Foundation.
“It misleads people into thinking that we have a semblance of a national accountability system for public schools, and we actually don’t,” Finn said. “And it’s produced results I would call unfair from one state to the next.”
No Child Left Behind was championed by President George W. Bush and passed with broad bipartisan support, though it has since become hugely unpopular.
The law prods schools to improve test scores each year, so that every student can read and do math on grade level by the year 2014. It is up to states to set yearly progress goals — “annual yearly progress,” or AYP — and each state has its own standards and tests.
It is unlikely the Obama administration or Congress will try to force states to adopt the same standards.
Rather, they favor a carrot-and-stick approach that offers states funding to develop new standards and tests or offers more flexibility under No Child Left Behind.
The House Education Committee chairman, Democratic Rep. George Miller of California, called for incentives when Congress prepared to rewrite the law in 2007, an effort that subsequently stalled.
In the Senate, Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander pushed legislation that offered to waive the rigid annual yearly progress structure in exchange for raising standards to national or international benchmarks.
And in the newly enacted economic stimulus bill, there is a $5 billion incentive fund for Duncan to reward states for, among other things, boosting the quality of standards and state tests.
Several states are moving in that direction; for example, 16 of them working with Achieve, a nonprofit founded by governors and corporate leaders, have adopted common math and English standards.
Any effort toward common standards is likely to have support from teachers’ unions.
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers, wrote an op-ed piece Monday in The Washington Post arguing for national standards.
Like Duncan, she used a football analogy, comparing the patchwork of standards to a Super Bowl where the Pittsburgh Steelers must move the ball a full 10 yards but the Arizona Cardinals must go only 7.
“Every other industrialized nation has national standards,” Weingarten said in an interview. “When you start thinking about how are we going to create a school system throughout the United States that helps enable kids to be prepared for college, prepared for life and prepared for work, you have to start with common standards,” she said.
___
On the Net:
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: http://www.edexcellence.net
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.