The news that didn't fit from Oct 7th!

►Ed Week: PUSH TO REVAMP HIGH SCHOOLS OFF TRACK, SCHOLARS SAY - OVEREMPHASIS SEEN IN RATCHETING UP STANDARDS AT EXPENSE OF BROADER VIEW OF ACADEMIC ‘RIGOR'.

In a new arguing that the ongoing national push to dramatically improve American high schools has gotten off course, two University of California education professors take aim at what they see as an overemphasis on states’ adoption of higher standards for graduation and more-rigorous tests.

“The push to enhance rigor and standards behind the high school diploma is seriously flawed,” write W. Norton Grubb, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Jeannie Oakes, an education professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the paper. “Any gains come at the expense of other goals for high school reform, including equity, curricular relevance, and student interest.”

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►OUT OF THE TOWER AND INTO THE CLASSROOM: CONNECTING RESEARCH TO TEACHING THE KEY TO SUCCESS

· Why are we having so much difficulty increasing student learning in the U.S.?

· Do we lack knowledge about how to improve K-12 education,

· or are we failing to use what we know?

To be sure, we don't know everything. But many effective practices that are well known among researchers are rarely seen in K-12 schools.

The problem stems in part from a disconnect that exists between research and practice. Unlike other fields, where research is directly connected to production or implementation, educational research in the U.S. is done mostly in universities and by organizations completely separated from schools. As a consequence, many educational researchers are not well-informed of the real challenges practitioners face, which undermines the relevance of their research, writes Deborah Stipek in the Dallas Morning News

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►LOS ANGELES USD TRIES OUT MASS NOTIFICATIONS

Dave Nagel reports in THE Journal that LAUSD is giving up on the '70's era AllCall automated phone dialer telephone notification technology and is crossing the digital bridge into the 21^st century … just when LATimes columnist Sandy Banks kicks automated notification around [LOGGING OFF E-MONITORING OF CHILD'S SCHOOLWORK] - and then embraces it as a parent's best friend! [RETHINKING E-MONITORING AFTER PROGRESS REPORT]

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►And in BRITISH STUDENTS SPURN NUTRITIOUS MEALS the LATimes - and every newspaper in Britain - reports that celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who single handedly has turned around nutrition in British public schools - finds himself in a bit of bother. It turns out kids like junk food! Who knew? Whatever happened to gruel? - And "Please sir, may I have some more?"