Three of the ten scholarships awarded nationally by Watson Pharmaceuticals have gone to local students.
The winners are:
American Heritage School graduate Joel Haines of Weston, who will study Biochemistry and Finance at the University of Florida this fall.
College Academy at Broward College graduate Alina Khan of Pembroke Pines, who will study Pharmacy at Nova Southeastern University and
Cooper City High School graduate Roshelle Wijeratne, who has just completed her freshman year at the University of Florida where she is studying Mechanical Engineering.
The $5,000 Dr.
A new study released Tuesday finds that teacher turnover at Los Angeles charter schools is nearly three times higher than in the district’s traditional public schools. The findings contribute to the current debate over teacher effectiveness.
Teachers leave schools for personal and professional reasons. At traditional L.A. Unified schools, teacher turnover hovered at about 15 percent during a recent six-year period, says UC Berkeley scholar Xiaoxia Newton.
At charter schools, she adds, it was about 40 percent. “One of the implications is that with nowadays’ teacher evaluation and accountability and also teacher development focus, if we have such a mobile teaching force, how are we going to calculate value-added?”
That’s the new teacher evaluation method that’ll likely be part of L.A. Unified’s major overhaul of the way it evaluates and retains teachers.
St. Paul, Minn. State officials are encouraging teachers and other school staff who need licenses to submit paperwork in the next few days, ahead of any possible government shutdown.
Staff whose licenses haven’t been approved by the start of school will be prohibited from working. Educators usually have the entire summer to submit paperwork. But the state education department’s licensing office would close if state government shuts down next week.
Licensing director Richard Wassen says summer is already the busiest time for the department, with thousands of licenses to process.
“These days remaining between now and the beginning of school – we need every day,” Wassen said. “And sometimes we ask staff to work on weekends. The longer a shutdown goes, we lose not only the time we would have been working, but there’s more of a backup, as you can imagine.”
License renewals can be processed online in a few days but applications for new licenses take longer, Wassen said.
Less than a week after being named state schools superintendent, Stan W. Heffner is fending off accusations of ethical misconduct.
A Democratic lawmaker yesterday asked Inspector General Randy Meyer to launch an investigation into whether Heffner improperly tried to steer state business to a company for which he planned to work.
Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, said Heffner, while serving as interim state superintendent and after accepting a job with Educational Testing Services, advocated for legislation that would have benefited the company, which provides certification tests for Ohio teachers.