Education

The University of Idaho has five finalists for its top job. Four hold administration jobs at public universities and one is listed as a higher education consultant.

The U of I has been searching for a president since Duane Nellis left to take a job at Texas Tech last March. Law school dean Don Burnett has been filling in as interim president at a salary of $240,000 a year. He did not apply for the full time job.

Idaho’s State Board of Education will interview the candidates in October and hopes to announce the new president in November.

A school board in northern Idaho is considering a new school security policy that includes training and arming district staff and teachers.

The Bonner County Daily Bee reports the proposed policy has emerged after months of study by the Lake Pend Oreille School Board.

Board chairman Steve Youngdahl presented the proposal this week, saying unguarded schools are more attractive targets for mass shootings.

New state data that tracks high school students after graduation show they're enrolling in more than 450 institutions in every state in the country.

The new system also shows that fewer than half of Idaho's graduates went on to post-secondary schools and universities after getting their diplomas.

The State Board of Education is seeking its third chief academic officer in just five years as the post's current occupant shifts to a new role at Idaho State University.

Selena Grace is leaving the position she took over in 2010 to become vice president of institutional effectiveness in academic affairs at Idaho State University.

The state job pays about $91,000 annually.

The Education Board began its search for a new chief academic officer earlier this month and plans to keep the posting open through Oct. 11.

The College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls is getting a $2.5 million federal grant to create a new degree program in food processing management.  

It’s part of $474.5 million awarded to community colleges nationally to expand demand-driven skills. The CSI program was the only Idaho grant in this round of a program called Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training, which will eventually give out $2 billion.

The U.S. Department of Education says the new CSI degree will meet the needs of the area’s major employers.

Idaho’s Department of Education is proposing several new rules that would affect what kids learn. But creating a new education rule in Idaho is a bit like a soccer game. There’s a long period of passing back and forth before the goal is reached. Take this one: a proposal to require elementary students learn cursive handwriting.

The state Board of Education is seeking input from the public on a series of new requirements — from mandatory cursive writing classes to making physical education a graduation requirement.

The board is taking public comment on six proposed rule changes in all. The board has also scheduled a public hearing Oct. 8.

The proposed rules includes a requirement that elementary students learn cursive writing — an idea initially pitched by Rep. Linden Bateman of Idaho Falls during the 2013 Legislature.

The education data Idaho collects on its students should be used to improve teaching, not just report things like graduation rates, according to an out-of-state analyst. But for Idaho legislators serving on an education interim committee, and in the 2014 Legislature, safeguarding this data will likely be of equal importance.

Update 11:00 a.m: Idaho’s Department of Education has issued a correction saying the removal of the ground beef from schools is technically not a “recall” but a “product retrieval.” According to a USDA spokesman the difference is who bought it. Legally speaking, a recall is issued by a company on retail products. Because the beef was not sold to the public it can’t be recalled. 

Idaho’s Lewis-Clark State College announced Monday it will stop charging an application fee for students sending in the paper form and drop the online application fee to $5.25.

The Lewiston school was already the application-fee bargain for Idaho’s four-year state schools at $35.

Idaho high school juniors who took the SAT last spring scored nearly the same compared to those who took the college entrance exam the year before. The College Board, the company that administers the SAT, says 500 is the benchmark which indicates students are ready for college. The 2013 juniors scored 452 in reading, 452 in math and 446 in writing. The 2012 group got 448 in reading, 454 in math and 447 in writing.

A company installing wireless Internet networks in Idaho public schools says it will reduce the contract's price tag amid pressure from lawmakers who question the deal.

The Spokesman-Review reported Friday that Tennessee-based Education Networks of America and the State Department of Education agreed the company will be paid only for schools it connects with Wi-Fi system, not get a flat fee.

Idaho teacher Shelby Harris is featured in a documentary by Academy Award winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim that premieres Friday on CBS.

"Teach" features four educators from around the country, each trying different strategies to teach and inspire their students.

Idaho doesn’t require schools or daycares to have disaster plans. According to a report out this week from the nonprofit Save the Children, Idaho is one of four states that have no requirement.

Shelby Harris’s first period is not a typical seventh grade class. The students come in, get laptops and go to work.

“Without any instruction from me,” Harris says. “They know exactly what path they’re on. And they just work. It’s amazing.”

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter backed recommendations from an Idaho education task force, saying his top priority in 2014 and beyond will be restoring funding to school districts that have suffered recession-fueled cuts since 2008.

Otter told a Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce crowd Tuesday his top spending priority will be restoring $82.5 million in operational revenue lost by Idaho's 115 school districts.

The Idaho Board of Education has approved a plan to allow second-year University of Idaho law students to take classes in Boise.

It's the second time the state board has granted the request from UI — but last year the budget approval for the expansion was voted down in the Legislature.

UI Vice President for Finance and Administration Ron Smith says he's hopeful that this year lawmakers will support the expansion.

Third-year curriculum is already being offered at the UI's law school program in Boise.