Friday News Roundup: Week Of March 30-April 3

At Ed Money Watch, we discuss and analyze major issues affecting education funding. In our Friday News Roundup, we try to highlight interesting stories that might otherwise get overlooked. These stories emphasize how federal and state policy changes can affect local schools and districts.

Reforms in Pennsylvania May Earn Stimulus Funds for the State

Massachusetts Makes $300 Million Available for Student Loans

Houston Offers Incentive for Teachers to Move to Struggling Schools

Reforms in Pennsylvania May Earn Stimulus Funds for the State
Officials in Pennsylvania believe they are well positioned to receive a portion of the $5 billion in stimulus funds set aside for education innovation. The state has been working on programs that align with President Obama’s priorities, including teacher quality, aligned assessments and national standards, school improvement, and better data on student achievement. Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesman Michael Race says that the state’s standardized test scores are in line with other states’. He also says that the state has already begun working on a data system to track individual students’ perform also have the flexibility to link student performance with particular teachers and target resources to the schools that need them most. More here.

Massachusetts Makes $300 Million Available for Student Loans
This fall, Massachusetts will offer $300 million in low, fixed-rate student loans to undergraduate and graduate students. According to a plan announced by Governor Deval Patrick, the interest rate on these loans will be as low as 7.75 percent, below the federal 8.5 percent rate on PLUS loans. Students are only eligible for the 7.75 percent rate if they begin repaying their loans immediately, rather than deferring payment until they complete their degree. Those who defer repayment until after graduation are eligible for a rate of 8.89 percent. Last year’s tight credit markets limited the state financing authority’s ability to provide fixed-rate loans to families who had relied on private borrowing in the past. The new fixed-rate loans should be an attractive option for families who need to borrow beyond federal loan limits to pay for higher education. The Boston Globe article is available here. More information about the program here.

Houston Offers Incentive for Teachers to Move to Struggling Schools
The Houston Independent School District is offering its best teachers an extra $20,000 if they are willing to commit to teaching in a struggling school for at least two years. The district will serve as a test site for a study on whether good teachers can get the same results in more challenging circumstances. Using the same method it uses to calculate performance bonuses, the district will identify the top 10 percent of English and math teachers in grades 4 through 8, and offer them the opportunity to teach for two years in schools that are struggling. Participating teachers must have a two-year record of improving scores on standardized tests, and must commit to two years in their new assignments. Similar experiments in other districts have struggled in the past to attract teachers to difficult schools. The $20,000 bonus offered in Houston, however, represents a large increase compared to the other districts. The Houston Federation of Teachers, the district’s largest teachers union, has complained that the process for selecting eligible teachers is based on flawed data. More here.

Briefly Noted

• Secretary Duncan requires new data about student performance in exchange for stimulus funds.
• Denver lawmakers say higher ed will be cut if an agency doesn’t give up $500 million in reserves.