Powered by Propane: Greener School Buses

Drug testing has been commonplace in professions that require critical decision-making skills, ranging from police officers to civil servants. A growing number of individuals also believe that the people who spend the most time with our children should also be subject to random testing of this kind. Teachers have come under the gun in recent years over the issue of random drug testing. While some parents and education experts believe random testing is necessary to keep schools safe, teachers believe these tests violate their privacy rights. Public school teachers are not universally required to undergo drug testing in every state. No federal mandate requires drug testing for teachers, and no state laws specifically mandate it for all teachers across the United States. However, drug testing policies vary significantly by state and individual school districts.

Drug testing is one part of these policies, and it serves a necessary role in a drug-free work culture. And because of the negative impact drug use can have, especially in safety-sensitive industries, companies should consider the benefits of drug testing in the workplace when developing new safety policies. Source: PharmaChek

Why Drug Testing?

In numerous states, questions have arisen over whether teachers in public schools should undergo random drug testing as a part of their employment. The practice is shared with other professionals, and some believe teachers fall into a similar category because they work directly with students all day. They argue that teachers who fail random drug tests

A troubling report by the Government Accountability Office shows that individuals with a history of sexual misconduct are working in some neighborhood schools. In fact, some have been able to land new teaching or staff jobs after behaving inappropriately towards children in other school districts. The report by GAO cites a number of breaks in the system that allow these individuals back into schools, due to incomplete background checks or other administrative loopholes.

The GAO Report

The recently released GAO report examined 15 case studies in public schools that employed questionable individuals, according to a report at the Christian Science Monitor. Of these 15 cases, 11 of the teachers or staff members had previously victimized children with inappropriate sexual conduct. In six cases, the individuals went on to abuse children again at their new posts.

This video from Action News lays out the issue facing schools.

The report was in part a response to another report released by the Department of Education in 2004, which estimated that millions of students in the public school system are victims of sexual misconduct by school employees between kindergarten and 12^th grade. The GAO compared a national database of sexual offenders with employment records in 19 states from 2008 to 2009. The agency also reviewed public records and interviewed officials involved in dozen of sexual misconduct cases from 2000 to 2010.

What

Local schools and charter schools have historically clashed in many school districts. Local schools have complained that charters take away district funds and promote competition that has no place in the public school system. On the other hand, charter schools counter the fact that they typically receive less funding than other local schools, even though they are also considered public schools.

The District-Charter Collaboration Compact

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is addressing this conflict directly at its source by providing financial incentives for charter and local schools to work together for the benefit of the students they serve. The District-Charter Collaboration Compact was designed by the foundation to encourage these two groups to find new and creative ways to work together to raise the bar on the standard of education in their communities. Schools that prove they can work well together will be rewarded with grants from the foundation that will go to providing access to consultants and advisors that will help them improve the quality of education across the board.

Vicki L. Phillips, director of education, College Ready, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a press release on the foundation's website, "Traditional public schools and public charter schools share a common goal of preparing all students for future success. Too often, issues not tied to academic outcomes can make it difficult for schools and teachers to have the opportunity to learn from each other and build upon successful practices,

The debate over teacher evaluations has been raging for some time, with discussion over how to rate teachers in very different communities with very different student demographics by the same basic criteria. One solution that has been effectively used across the country is value-added analysis, which pits teacher performance against specific student expectations. While many agree that value-added analysis is the best system to gauge teacher performance today accurately, another conflict has been brewing – whether to make these evaluations accessible to the general public.

What is Value-Added Analysis?

According to an article at National Public Radio, value-added analysis is "a method for calculating teacher effectiveness based on how the teacher's students perform on standardized tests." Instead of strictly looking at the scores, however, these evaluations consider the expectations for the students based on 30 factors, including the students' ethnicity and whether they are poor enough to qualify for a free lunch. This methodology more accurately compares the performance of teachers who teach to different populations of students.

In addition to value-added analysis, most teachers are evaluated by a "soft" criterion, which tends to be more subjective. This might include classroom observations by the principal, student papers, and project evaluations. The data compiled on teachers through these evaluations has been historically kept private by the school district and used strictly by administrators for developing classroom strategies and managing a teacher's personal career track. However, that changed when the Los Angeles Times published teacher