Marching for Schools: The Save Our Schools March Protests Education Cuts

Standardized tests have come under fire once again in Washington D.C., as the results in three schools have now been thrown out due to testing procedure violations and allegations of impropriety. The city has also implemented tighter security guidelines and is monitoring more schools for testing irregularities each year, according to a report at WAMU. The results of this investigation have resulted in specific measures being taken to ensure the integrity of the testing process in the future. However, questions still remain about how Washington D.C. schools ended up in this position in the first place and whether high-stakes testing is to blame for the problems.

This video reports on the C.D. schools' standardized test scandal.

A History of Washington D.C. Test Issues

Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, sang the praises of many of the schools that raised their standardized test scores by astronomical numbers under her watch. Rhee used the test results as evidence that her sometimes unpopular methods of education reform were working. One school, in particular, Noyes Education Campus, showed two-year gains that were nearly unheard of in the public education system. However, the school also displayed an unusually high number of erasures on their tests, which raised the eyebrows of some education officials and the media.

USA Today was all over the concerns and looked at other schools within the city to

Parents send their children to school every day in hopes that their kids will get a good education in a relatively safe environment. However, drug sales and gang activity often impact a student's ability to learn and feel comfortable in the place they spend the bulk of their time every day. While few argue that drugs and gangs have become a major problem in middle and high schools across the country, not everyone agrees what should be done. Some schools have brought in undercover officers who pose as high school students with the goal of routing out the guilty parties and removing them from the school environment. While the approach has proven successful, questions still remain about whether this is the right way to put a stop to illegal activity in public schools.

Undercover in Florida

In one of the biggest stings ever to hit public high schools, more than 30 people have been arrested in Palm Beach schools for selling drugs in an undercover operation dubbed "Operation D Minus." The students responsible for the drug sales were identified by undercover police officers who posed as students in the schools for the entire school year. These youthful officers were assigned to attend classes, eat lunch in the school cafeteria and even take tests with the other students, in hopes of discovering the root of the drug problem that had grown by monumental proportions among high school students in the area.

According to a report at

Public school auctions are not a new idea, but with the economic woes in recent years, these fundraisers have reached an all-time high in many areas across the country. As the need for successful fundraising increases, so does the intensity of the public auction experience, with more expensive merchandise offered up and even a few tempers to diffuse throughout the evening. This article will take a closer look at the public auction experience, including some of the problems schools across the country have encountered in their efforts to raise necessary funding for their students.

The Benefits of a Public Auction

According to an article at TopSchoolFundraisers.com, the public auction has long been a popular fundraising choice in schools because it offers a myriad of benefits, including:

• The potential to earn plenty of money for the school
• The ability to build a sense of community among students, staff, and parents
• The positive reputation fundraising builds within the community
• The involvement of numerous volunteers in a single purpose and activity
• The chance to provide a single, large fundraiser as opposed to multiple smaller events

The public auction falls into three distinct categories: the live auction, where individuals publically bid on items; the silent auction, where bids are listed until the deadline; and the online auction, which is similar to the silent auction but conducted through the Internet. In many cases, the auction is conducted simultaneously with another event, such as a dinner or dance, to entice more people and

Today's global economy is highly dependent on technology and engineering, and the countries that can produce the most knowledgeable workforce in these areas will surely be the free world's future leaders. However, test scores have indicated that schools across the United States are far from prepared to embrace the needs of tomorrow by training today's workforce. To answer the call, some schools are revamping their educational priorities to educate a new generation of leaders with highly desired innovation and problem-solving skills. STEM schools are one of the latest educational trends to sweep the country, and this article looks closely at what these schools do to train the next generation of workers and leaders in the United States.

What is STEM?

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math, which are the focus subjects in STEM schools today. According to the National Governor's Association, the new global economy requires states to prepare a workforce with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete on a much broader spectrum. The key to developing workers with the innovation, creativity, self-reliance, and problem-solving skills necessary for the modern workforce is a focus on the STEM competencies from when students enter kindergarten until they graduate from high school.

Despite the need for STEM competencies in school today, many of the districts across the country are not yet making the grade. The NGA report cites that results from the 2003 Third International Mathematics and Science Study show that 8^th