Fensterwald: NCLB’s escape hatch for schools [Educated Guess, 4/14/11]: An escape hatch – the “Safe Harbor” provision under the federal law – could spare a majority of schools from the law’s penalties and the failure label.
 
Colorado committee to unveil complex definition of "effective educator" [Denver Post, 4/13/11]: After 13 months of meetings, a council tasked with narrowing the definition of an effective educator to one for the entire state is presenting the definition to the State Board of Education today. It is not a simple definition, though. It consists of six quality standards, including showing knowledge of the content they teach, demonstrating leadership and taking responsibility for student growth.

U.S. judge sides with middle schoolers suspended for wearing 'I (heart) Boobies' bracelets [Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/13/11]: A federal judge in Philadelphia ruled Tuesday that, when it comes to breast-cancer awareness, it's OK for middle school students to say they love "boobies." The free-speech decision was a victory for two girls who got in trouble for defying a ban at Easton Area Middle School on wearing bracelets that said "I (heart) Boobies! (Keep A Breast)." Read the ruling in H. v. Easton School District.  The School Law Blog post is here. Read the story from “The Legal Intelligencer.”

Hopkins: Teach For America at 20: Add a year of training to the model [Thoughts on Public Education, 4/13/11]: This year marks Teach For America’s 20th anniversary. The nonprofit serves as one of the most prominent educational innovations in the last two decades, recruiting graduates from top universities and placing them for two years in classrooms across urban and rural communities in the United States.

Probes into teacher misconduct delayed; calm urged [Orange County Register, 4/12/11]: Orange County's schools superintendent is urging parents not to become alarmed by a new audit that suggests teachers accused of lewd and sexual acts against minors aren't being investigated in a timely manner by the state agency responsible for revoking education credentials.

U.S. Proposes New Education Privacy Rules [School Law Blog, 4/8/11]: The U.S. Department of Education has proposed new regulations on the privacy of educational records, meant to safeguard student data but also to guarantee that states may share data to help judge the effectiveness of school improvement efforts. The proposed regulations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 were published April 8 in the Federal Register. Read the PDF file of the proposed FERPA regs. Read Sarah Spark’s discussion of the proposed rules [Inside School Research, 4/7/11].