The Dallas Morning News (6/7, Stutz) reports that a measure to "allow school districts to furlough teachers and cut their salaries to save money" has won preliminary approval in the Texas state Senate. The bill "is aimed at helping school districts deal with funding reductions of $4 billion over the next two years - although teacher groups vigorously oppose the bill. The Senate split along partisan lines in approving the legislation 18-12. All Democrats voted no." An amendment to the bill "would give teachers some voice in the furlough and pay reduction plans adopted by their school districts."

        The AP (6/7) adds that the bill would allow "administrators to move quicker to dismiss teachers to help ease budget strains" and "must now pass the House. ... Republican Sen. Florence Shapiro said the bill passed Monday would give school administrators more flexibility in adjusting to the budget cuts. Among other things, it changes the deadline for when administrators tell teachers whether or not their contract will be renewed. It also allows districts to put teachers on furloughs to save money."

        The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (6/7, Montgomery, Jinkins), the Austin American Statesman (6/7, Alexander), and the San Antonio Express-News (6/7, Scharrer) also cover this story.

A number of Florida papers report on the release of state standardized testing figures, covering both statewide results and those of local students. The Miami Herald (6/7, McGrory) reports that according to data released by the Florida Department of Education, "Miami-Dade students made strong gains in science and matched last year's performance in reading and math" on this year's "new, more challenging" iteration of the state's standardized FCAT tests. Noting that the science portion is "considered the most challenging of the FCATs," the Herald adds that "in Miami-Dade, the percentage of eighth-graders at or above grade level jumped from 34 percent to 41 percent. The percentage of juniors hitting the mark soared from 30 percent to 37 percent."

        The Orlando Sentinel (6/7) reports that the results indicate that "students did better this year on the FCAT science exams, though fewer than half of those tested scored at grade level, results released this morning showed. 'I'm very encouraged by the continued progress we are seeing in science, but the overall performance of our students is still far too low,' said Education Commissioner Eric Smith." The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (6/7, Matus) and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (6/7) also cover this story.

The Columbus (OH) Dispatch (6/7, Bush) reports, "Auditor of State Dave Yost has launched a special audit of a federally funded tutoring program used by Columbus City Schools students" after superintendent Gene Harris related reports of alleged "misconduct by private vendors who provide tutoring under the Supplemental Educational Services program, paid for by the federal No Child Left Behind Act." Yost's office said it will investigate "whether public funds have been misused." The article adds that in recent months, "the school district had stepped up its oversight of the independent tutors, terminating eight contracts this school year. The problems have ranged from students' signatures being falsified to employees who weren't paid, according to district documents." WSYX-TV Columbus, Ohio (6/7) uses similar language to report this story.

        WBNS-TV Columbus, OH (6/7) also covers this story, noting that "the district gets millions of dollars for the program, which provides tutoring to children whose parents cannot afford to pay for the services on their own. ... 'We just didn't find anything that resembled a tutoring center for students,' said Bob Fitrakis, part of Parent Advocates for Students and Services," which "has been following the alleged fraud for years and Fitrakis said that it found several other vendors. 'There's no tutoring center there,' Fitrakis said. 'The money is going to questionable mail drops. All of the student names seem to be written in the same hand.'" WCMH-TV Columbus, OH (6/7) also covers this story.

The Los Angeles Times (6/7, Song) reports that California state Sen. Joe Simitian (D) and a group of educators are "calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to restore funding to two computer databases that track the performance of students and teachers and could provide insight into the effectiveness of key academic programs." Brown has called for cutting some $3.5 million from the programs. "The student database, known as CalPADS, went online almost two years ago and was about to start producing statistics on the number of students who dropped out over the last four years. The teacher database, known as CalTIDES, had been scheduled to go online this year but has been delayed."

        The AP (6/7) adds that in addition to Simitian, "prominent business advocacy group" the Bay Area Council was calling on Brown "to restore funding to develop statewide data systems to track student and teacher performance." The AP explains that the NCLB-prompted CalPADS "is designed to collect information about each of the state's 6.2 million students in kindergarten through 12th grade and track their academic progress over time." Simitian "said the two systems are needed to improve California's public schools, which rank near the bottom among 50 states in many measures of student achievement."

McClatchy (6/7, Garland) profiles the PreK-3 movement, which began in Santa Maria, California, when a group of preschool teacher there "attended a series of meetings with kindergarten teachers in the district" and shared information on teaching. "Among the revelations: The kindergarten teachers told the preschool teachers that their 5-year-olds, many of them immigrants, struggled with stories covered in the kindergarten reading curriculum. They weren't hearing American classics like 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' or 'Humpty Dumpty' at home. So the preschools began incorporating those stories into their classrooms." The piece describes other ways in which the teachers collaborated, and notes that their resultant movement "wants to revolutionize early education through an ambitious list of connected initiatives, including universal access to free public preschool, mandatory full-day kindergarten and a curriculum that is seamlessly connected from preschool to third grade. Increasing parental involvement is also a major focus."

The Washington Post (6/7, Turque) profiles Bruce-Monroe Elementary third-grade teacher Katrina Abdussalaam, who is shepherding her class through a mathematics curriculum designed to conform to that used in Singapore, which is "known as a world leader in math." The Post describes some of the exercises students perform, adding that "Bruce-Monroe is one of about 2,000 US schools in the past decade that have adopted the Singapore approach to math, which stresses mastery of basic skills and a few essential ideas, such as place value and part-whole relationships." However, the school is finding "challenges involved in transplanting a 'math miracle' from Asia. These include high levels of student mobility, instructor turnover and a curriculum that proponents say requires a depth of understanding most US elementary teachers don't acquire in their math training."

The AP (6/7) reports that the Virginia Department of Education has "approved 13 vendors that can provide online instruction to public school students," saying that districts "can contract with the approved providers to expand course offerings through virtual-school programs. The agency's list of 'multidivisional online providers' includes corporate vendors, school division-based programs and nonprofit groups that can provide full-time online instruction, supplemental learning or blended instruction in which students have an online teacher as well as an on-site mentor." The AP lists a number of the entities, noting that the move was based on a 2010 law "that required the state to establish a framework for the operation of virtual schools and set guidelines for such programs."

Education Week (6/7, Klein) reports on the turnaround efforts over the past year at the Academy @ Shawnee in Shawnee, Kentucky, where Principal Keith Look "had to replace half his staff, cope with unprecedented scrutiny from his district, and learn to work with a trio of turnaround specialists sent in by the state of Kentucky-all the while knowing his job was on the line if the school failed to make academic progress." The piece notes that though test results are pending, "by many measures the school...is on the right track toward its goals under the $3.5 billion federal School Improvement Grant program. Attendance is up. Suspensions, for the most part, are down. Nearly all the teachers will be back next year, reversing a longtime trend of high staff turnover. And Mr. Look's own contract is slated to be renewed for at least another year."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (6/7, Badertscher) reports that the Georgia Department of Education "plans to spend $758,000 to bring in outside help to develop a system for evaluating teachers and administrators based on how their students perform academically," saying it "wants a team of experts on teacher quality and evaluations to take the lead on creating the new and uniform system for evaluating Georgia's 143,000 teachers and school administrators. The team will be headed by James Stronge, professor of educational policy, planning and leadership at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va." Georgia DOE officials say they lack the internal expertise for developing such a scheme. The piece notes parenthetically that linking teacher evaluations "to student performance is a popular trend in education that's touted by President Barack Obama and US Education Secretary Arne Duncan."

        The AP (6/7) also covers this story, noting that the effort would be funded with "federal grant money." The effort "would pay for a team of up to 12 researchers to spend 18 months creating and implementing the system. The new system will be piloted next year in 26 districts as part of the state's 'Race to the Top' program. Georgia won $400 million in federal money last year as part of the grant competition."

The Philadelphia Inquirer (6/7, Hardy) reports that the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's leading teachers' union, has "issued its strongest endorsement to date for using student test scores in evaluating teachers, and proposed a streamlined dismissal process for educators and principals" as part of its "Solutions That Work" proposal, which "also includes pitches for longtime union goals such as a focus on struggling schools, more parental involvement, and enhanced school safety. No uniform statewide teacher-evaluation process exists. Most districts judge teacher effectiveness through classroom observations by school officials." The Inquirer notes that Gov. Tom Corbett (R) "wants to institute statewide evaluation procedures that would start by the 2012-13 school year."

The Billings Gazette (6/7, Borchardt) reports that districts in Wyoming are working to comply with a "revised state law" Mandating that next year, "each of the state's 48 districts must average 16 students per class in kindergarten through third grades, if they wish to be eligible for state funding in 2012-13. The school funding formula allocates state money in a block grant based on the previous year's student population for everything from teachers to principals to technology costs."

Reuters (6/7) reports that according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, boys who are bullies during their school years are more likely to abuse their partners when they are adults, suggesting that addressing bullying during youth could help efforts to combat domestic violence. The piece quotes research leader Jay Silverman of Harvard School of Public Health, "We need to do a far better job at recognizing bullying in schools, particularly the harassment of girls by boys. For adolescents, the school context is very much a practice ground for behaviors as adults."

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (6/6, Vanacore) reports that New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux "has taken another step toward cementing a contract with the state to help look out for cases of fraud in the $1.8 billion construction program aimed at rebuilding or renovating school buildings across the city over the next few years." The plan also advanced in the city council, and would "set aside $800,000 a year from a $1.8 billion FEMA construction grant to cover the inspector general's costs. As they have in the past, city council members lauded the agreement for taking a forward-looking approach to protecting that cash from fraud, but they lamented that the deal doesn't go further and allow the inspector general to also place a check on waste caused by simple bad decisions rather than outright crime."

PhillyBurbs.com (6/7, Hellyer) reports, "Makefield Elementary School students celebrated their old school becoming new again on Friday. The community celebration on the front steps of the Pennsbury school was to mark the completion of the $12.7 million renovation and construction project on the district's oldest operating facility." The article describes the ceremony touting the school's new eco-friendly features, including "solar panels, a 'green' roof, energy-efficient windows, new mechanical, electrical and plumbing system upgrades to improve energy efficiency and porous pavements in the school parking lots."

In a 4,300-word article on its front page, the New York Times (6/7, Saul, Subscription Publication) reports on the "meteoric rise and financial clout of the Cosmos Foundation, a charter school operator founded a decade ago by a group of professors and businessmen from Turkey." The group's Harmony Schools unit has become "the largest charter school operator in Texas, with 33 schools receiving more than $100 million a year in taxpayer funds." The piece notes that the many of the vendors for the group's schools are also "run by Turkish immigrants," adding that "some of the schools' operators and founders, and many of their suppliers, are followers of Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic Turkish preacher of a moderate brand of Islam whose devotees have built a worldwide religious, social and nationalistic movement in his name." The Times continues to describe the "backlash" against this movement, including questions about its using public funds "to benefit the Gulen movement."