By Smita Ghosh

In education news: Lessons from Most Successful Schools Abroad … Multiracial Pupils to Be Counted in a New Way … U.S. Education Secretary Praises School Changes in New Orleans … Mendez Case at Center of New Curriculum … School Diversity a Concern in District Rezoning … Sarpy County is Urged to Sue Over School Levy … Suit Against City School District Heads to State Supreme Court.

Lessons from Most Successful Schools Abroad
The Christian Science Monitor, March 24, 2009
Advocates and policymakers are looking to education trends from abroad as they try to bring American schools in line with the demands of the 21st-century global economy. Many advocates urge the US to adopt the teaching-related practices of other countries: For example, the National Governors Association claimed that the U.S. should recruit, prepare, and support teachers in ways that “reflect the … practices of top-performing nations and states around the world,” in a report released in December. Researchers like Linda Darling Hammond say that teachers are more involved in school administration in places like Finland, where teachers are more involved than American teachers with creating curriculum and measuring whether students are really learning it.

Multiracial Pupils to Be Counted in a New Way
The Washington Post, March 23, 2009
Reflecting changes in the U.S. Census in 2000–when 6.8 million people, or 2 percent of the population, were counted for the first time as multiracial–the Department of Education has changed the reporting guidelines for the collection of student data. Starting in 2010, under Education Department rules approved two years ago, parents of multiracial children will be able to check all boxes that apply in a two-step questionnaire; first, they will indicate whether a student is of Hispanic or Latino origin, or not, and then they will identify a student as one or more of the following: American Indian or Alaska native; Asian; black or African American; native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander; or white. Analysts suspect that this shift will indicate that there are actually more Hispanic or Latino students than previously estimated.

U.S. Education Secretary Praises School Changes in New Orleans
New Orleans Times Picayune, March 20, 2009
During a March 20 visit to New Orleans, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called Louisiana “uniquely positioned” to vie for $5 billion in “race to the top” grants that will be awarded in the next year to education reformers “willing to push the envelope.” He cited the region’s embrace of different school models, the local teacher pay-for-performance programs and the state’s emerging student data system that can be used to compare student growth across schools and teachers.

Mendez Case at Center of New Curriculum
Orange County Register, March 19, 2009
At a March 19 event, a group of educators from Anaheim, CA unveiled new curriculum aimed at informing youth about Mexican-American history and Mendez v. Westminster, the court case that ended school segregation in California and paved the way for desegregation nationwide. Although the details are still being hammered out, the Mendez case could make it into State Board of Education curriculum framework slated to go into effect no later than May 2010.

School Diversity a Concern in District Rezoning
Roanoke Times, March 22, 2009
On April 7, the board will pick one of three possible rezonings, carving out new elementary and middle school attendance areas and affecting more than half of the city’s elementary school population. Roanoke’s current plan, in which almost 1,000 elementary students, 80 percent of them black, are bused across town every day, was developed out of the district’s 1971 desegregation order. School officials are considering a plan that “tried to include a diversity of socioeconomic backgrounds in the proposed new attendance zones, even if it means that some of them snake around the west side of the city.” Any change could be phased in over several years, to reduce the impact on children already in school, according to officials. Once changes are in place, however, the district will likely rein in its liberal policy on granting transfer requests.

Sarpy County is Urged to Sue Over School Levy
Omaha World Herald, March 25, 2009
On March 24, former Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg discussed Omaha’s integration-focused “learning community” at a 90-minute board meeting arranged at the request of Sarpy County Republican Party officials. On March 19, the Board of the Sarpy County Republicans adopted a resolution expressing their concerns that less rigorous land valuation methods in Douglas County would result in Sarpy County property owners paying a disproportionate share of taxes under the common levy. Party members also cited concerns about the added bureaucracy of the community’s governing council, the loss of local control and the potential for under-representation on the council. The learning community is comprised of 11 school districts in Douglas and Sarpy counties.

Suit Against City School District Heads to State Supreme Court
Daily Californian, March 19, 2009
On March 17, Alan Foutz, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents the American Civil Rights Foundation, appealed the Court of Appeals decision on the Berkeley School District’s voluntary integration plan. Foutz, who argued that the plan violated California’s Prop. 209, plans to take the case to the California Supreme Court.

Smita Ghosh is a Paralegal at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.