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April 29, 2011 |
Click here to read printable version |
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| Y ask why |
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The United States has fundamentally skewed funding priorities, according to a letter from two senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, published by the Pentagon under the pseudonym Mr. Y, reports Foreign Policy Magazine. The authors write that Americans are under-investing in our youth, failing to embrace the sense of competition and opportunity that made America a world power. In their view, the United States increasingly sees the world through the lens of threat, failing to understand that influence, competitiveness, and innovation will best advance American interests in the modern world. The authors also argue that the country continues to rely far too heavily on military means to engage the world; our investment priority should instead be intellectual capital and a sustainable infrastructure of education, health, and social services for the continuing development and growth of America's young people. Yet in the current budget environment, investments in America's long-term human resources are under heaviest attack, with the Pentagon's spending power almost doubled while education budgets are slashed. The report emphasizes the urgency of a sustainable approach to security, energy, agriculture, and the environment, and says America ignores the interconnection between foreign policy and domestic policy at its peril.
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| Teachers at the wheel |
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In a profile of a novel turnaround venture undertaken by three Boston schools with federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) money, Stephen Sawchuck of Education Week finds the effort yields insight into the role of teachers in overhauling the culture of low-performing schools. Turnaround Teacher Teams, or T3, attracts and retains highly effective teachers through incentives that include leadership opportunities, a structure for peer learning, and increased pay. Since it is funded under SIG, each school has a new principal and has replaced at least half its staff; additional details of the initiative have been hashed out in state legislation and a memorandum of understanding with the Boston Teachers Union for extended learning time and hiring flexibility. Beyond this, the initiative has been shaped by classroom teachers, and stands in contrast to incentives over the years that have primarily targeted individual teachers with financial rewards. When crafting the proposal, teachers felt that even the best among them could be overwhelmed by a dysfunctional school environment without support from a critical mass of experienced peers. T3 participants must have at least three years of classroom experience, and must complete a rigorous interview process and provide evidence of past success in improving learning. The current crop of recruits averages nine years in the classroom.
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| A little acknowledgement, please |
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At its core, the current education reform movement believes that great teachers and improved methods are all that's required to improve student performance, writes Joe Nocera in The New York Times. In fact, it takes a lot more. Nocera recounts the story of a Brooklyn student who, despite exceptional intelligence and a teacher willing to go above and beyond for him, still succumbs to circumstances. Nocera says we shouldn't be surprised. Starting with the Coleman report in the 1960s, social scientists have proven that socioeconomic backgrounds vastly outweigh what goes on in the school as factors determining how much students learn -- yet reformers act as if home life is irrelevant. Former NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein conceded to Nocera that beyond a doubt, family engagement matters, yet according to Klein, "they seem to be saying that poverty is destiny, so let's go home. To let us off the hook prematurely seems, to me, to play into the hands of the other side." This last sentence is key, Nocera explains: Reformers fear that to admit the importance of a student's background is to give ammunition to the enemy (social-scientist critics and the teachers' unions). Without question, the latest reforms have achieved progress, Nocera says, but he would like to see acknowledgement that school reform won't fix everything.
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| Let's have some 'Reform Realism' |
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In a new "briefing book" from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Michael Petrilli and Chester Finn Jr. identify ten key issues policymakers must resolve in order to advance ESEA reauthorization. They must decide whether states must adopt academic standards tied to college and career readiness (such as the Common Core); what requirements should be placed on states with respect to achievement standards; whether states must develop assessments that measure individual student growth; whether states should develop standards and assessments in subjects beyond English language arts and math; whether AYP should be scrapped; what should be required of states in terms of rewarding and sanctioning schools; whether Congress should regulate teacher credentials and/or require evaluation of teacher effectiveness; whether school districts must demonstrate comparability of services between Title I and non-Title I schools; whether the ESEA must provide greater flexibility to states and school districts; and whether the law should authorize reform-oriented competitive grant programs, including Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation. The authors feel results-based accountability cannot be successfully imposed or enforced from Washington, and federal officials should instead encourage certain reforms by offering incentives (via competitive programs) instead of by imposing compliance mandates. In the authors' view, this would take a radical rethinking of the federal role in education, more limited and focused, and better tailored to federal capacity and expertise.
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| Easier funded than done |
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More than a year after a federal influx of cash targeting the nation's lowest-performing schools, and a big makeover of School Improvement Grant (SIG) rules, states and districts are grappling with practical and logistical issues, according to Education Week. More than 730 schools across the country are participating in the program, which received a significant rewrite and funding boost with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in early 2009, but new money has brought new restrictions. Program regulations spell out four possible models for schools to employ. States, districts, and schools are still struggling to implement the models, coping with everything from difficulty in finding new staff members to replace those that are removed, to collective bargaining and transportation barriers to extending the school day. To help tailor models to local conditions, some states are urging districts to see the four options as a jumping-off point, not a step-by-step road map for school improvement -- with obvious potential for problems. "There's a lot of conversation across the country that the four models don't work," said Dan Cruce, deputy secretary of education in Delaware. "But the name of the model is just the name of the model. It's what you do with the plan" that matters.
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| An expanding void |
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Shortages in charter leadership are cropping up in places where charter movements are robust and the supply of skilled, experienced talent can't meet demand, reports The Washington Post. Charter activists say the shortage of high-quality principals could significantly slow expansion at a time when nearly 400 new charters open annually. Unlike traditional public schools, most charters lack the resources of a district to fill positions quickly, such as recruitment teams or pools of resumes. Turnover at the top level in charters is also high, with 71 percent of charter leaders planning to leave their positions in the next five years, according to a survey by the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Compounding the problem is the dearth of training programs specifically geared toward charter leaders, who tend to have more responsibilities than counterparts in traditional public schools. "Good leaders need to have not only the core skills around improving student achievement and evaluating teachers," said James Merriman of the New York City Charter School Center. "They also need to know how to manage upwards to their board of trustees, and navigate the shoals of living in and working in a community."
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| Not there yet |
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The Common Core Standards are to be adopted by 42 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands, but the experience of 100 schools in New York City now experimenting with them reveals challenges, The New York Times reports. There are guidelines for what students are expected to do in each grade, but districts, schools, and teachers must determine the finer points of curricula, such as what books to read. There is also no national body responsible for seeing that the standards are carried out, and depending on how No Child Left Behind is refashioned, each state may still be able to measure its own success. The standards set a goal, but don't dictate actual routes to get there. Timothy Shanahan of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who helped write the common core standards for incorporating reading into science instruction, said that as a whole, the standards also make no adjustments for students learning English or who might enter kindergarten without having been exposed to books. "If I'm teaching fifth grade and I have a youngster in my class who reads as a first grader, throwing him a grade-level text is not going to do him any good, no matter what the standards say," he explained.
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| Room for growth |
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A new study from the RAND Corporation finds that expanding measures of school performance beyond mathematics and English language arts will give educators better information when evaluating the achievements of schools. Twenty states have more extensive metrics, but results are often overlooked because of the focus on math and language arts in NCLB. Where they found expanded measures, researchers identified four categories: student test performance in additional subjects (such as history or social studies), growth in student performance over time, and indices for student achievement along the entire spectrum of high to low performance and college readiness. They also identified three other types of measures that are becoming more common: indicators of a safe and supportive school environment, indicators of risk for students not graduating on time, and results of interim academic assessments. The authors recommend that Congress broaden the range of performance measures beyond those mandated under NCLB. New federal legislation should encourage expansion and evaluation of success, but avoid requiring specific measures; as measures are evaluated and found to be successful, they can be incorporated into the system over time. Existing federal grant programs should also be leveraged to encourage development and evaluation of additional school performance measures.
See the report | Back to top
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What was that about vast improvement, again?
A federal judge has denied the Louisiana Department of Education's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of thousands of New Orleans students with special needs.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/judge-denies-motion-to-dismiss-splc-suit-seeking-equal-education-for-special-needs-students
In case you haven't reached your own conclusions
The Christian Science Monitor lays out six considerations regarding LIFO.
http://tinyurl.com/3t8x78j
Big cost-saver, for sure
Hearings have begun over the validity of more than half of LAUSD's 5,000 teacher layoff notices.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/04/25/lausd-teachers-union-challenges-layoffs/
An about-face and reprieve
The case of Olga Zanella, a Mexican-born college student in Texas, looked bleak, but in recent days an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Dallas told her her she could remain in this country, under the agency's supervision, if she stayed in school and out of trouble.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/us/politics/27immigration.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Taken for granted
Most Americans say it is very important for boys and girls to have the same opportunities to participate in high school sports, but few are very familiar with Title IX.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/sports/26titleixpoll.html |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
HHF/ExxonMobil: Latinos On Fast Track Fellowships
ExxonMobil has partnered with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) to create fellowships in STEM fields for Hispanic college students. Through HHF's Latinos On Fast Track (LOFT) program, ExxonMobil looks to nurture motivated college students with a passion for engineering and science across the country. Selected students will be exposed to a top-quality company by participating in the mentoring program, and will be paired up with one of ExxonMobil's engineers/scientists to learn how their knowledge is applied in a corporate setting. Maximum award: five one-hour meetings with mentor (virtual or in person); participation in the Harvard-certified ExxonMobil mentee program (on-line); an exclusive curriculum to introduce fellows to the culture and career opportunities with the company; $ 1,000 educational grant; and possibility to interview for ExxonMobil positions (internships/full-time) upon successful completion of the fellowship. Eligibility: sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students attending a four-year college or university with declared primary majors in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Civil Engineering. Deadline: May 9, 2011.
http://www.hispanicheritage.org/loft_int.php?sec=200
EPA: Sense of Wonder Contest
To honor the late preservationist and ecologist Rachel Carson, the EPA, Generations United, and the Rachel Carson Council, Inc., are holding a photo, essay, and poetry contest "that best expresses the Sense of Wonder that you feel for the sea, the night sky, forests, birds, wildlife, and all that is beautiful to your eyes." In her book The Sense of Wonder (written in the 1950s and published in a magazine in 1956), Carson used lyrical passages about the beauty of nature and the joy of helping children develop a sense of wonder and love of nature. Maximum award: publication on the websites of EPA Aging Initiative, Generations United, and Rachel Carson Council, Inc. Eligibility: entries must be joint projects involving a person under age 18 and a person age 50 or older. Deadline: June 10, 2011.
http://www.epa.gov/aging/resources/thesenseofwonder/index.htm
AAPT: Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment for the Support of Physics Teaching
The American Association of Physics Teachers Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment for the Support of Physics Teaching was established to support special activities in the area of physics teaching. Activities can include but are not limited to the development and distribution of innovative apparatuses for physics teaching; traveling exhibits of apparatuses; and local workshops. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: AAPT members. Deadline: July 1, 2011.
http://www.aapt.org/Programs/grants/bauderfund.cfm
CVS: Caremark Community Grants
The CVS Caremark Community Grants Program is currently accepting proposals for programs targeting children with disabilities that address: health and rehabilitation services; a greater level of inclusion in student activities and extracurricular programs; opportunities or facilities that give greater access to physical movement and play; provision to uninsured individuals with needed care, in particular programs where the care received is of higher quality and delivered by providers who participate in accountable community health care programs. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: nonprofit organizations. Deadline: October 31, 2011.
http://info.cvscaremark.com/community/ways-we-give
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"It is a tragedy for the young people of Louisiana and an embarrassment for the entire state and the nation. Shame on the legislature that enacted it, and especially on the governor who signed it into law."
-- Roger Kornberg of the Stanford University School of Medicine and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in chemistry, regarding the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008, which creates a pathway for creationism and other non-scientific instruction to be taught in science classes.
http://tinyurl.com/3t8eqn3
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