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September 30, 2011 |
Click here to read printable version |
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***Join us for Public Education Network's National Conference which will take place November 6 - 8, 2011 in Washington, D.C. at the Fairmont Hotel. The conference theme is New American Revolution: College and Career Readiness for All. Our opening plenary session will feature Vicki Phillips, Director of Education, College Ready, from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as other notable session speakers including Pedro Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, and Carol Gilligan, University Professor, from New York University, Paul Reville, Massachusetts Secretary of Education, Ralph Smith, Executive Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Bob Herbert, distinguished DEMOS Fellow and former New York Times columnist. To register, visit our web site at transaction.publiceducation.org/conference by October 7 for the early bird discount. To secure a room at the Fairmont Hotel Please follow this link to make your room reservation. We look forward to seeing you this fall!*** |
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| Major reverberations |
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For 16 years, Parent Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) have helped low-income families, districts, and state governments develop high-quality parent involvement programs, write Arnold Fege and Edwin Darden in a guest piece on the Answer Sheet blog in The Washington Post. These PIRCs have helped families understand school accountability data, prepared educators to engage families in children's learning, and supported family leaders to actively participate in the development, implementation, and review of school improvement plans. Yet on September 30, 2011, federal funding for PIRCs will expire. "We aren't losing a bureaucracy here," write the authors. "We are enduring a real loss that will reverberate across all 50 states and several U.S. territories." Decades of research show family involvement and academic success go hand-in-hand. Left to their own voluntary strategies, states and districts often resist meaningful partnerships with low-income parents and don't see parent involvement as integral to education change and reform. Instead of eliminating the current PIRC network, the authors recommend establishment of a district-based PIRC in each of the lowest-performing five percent of Title I districts to link with state PIRCs. "The loss of PIRCs will be a major blow for kids in high-poverty communities, the parents who love them, the districts that teach them, and a nation that relies on them," the authors write.
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| The craze that's swept the nation |
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In an article in National Affairs, Frederick Hess writes that the "signal contribution" of NCLB to education in this country has been a "sustained fixation" on closing achievement gaps, a "mania" that has shortchanged many children and narrowed the scope of schooling. It has also hollowed out public support for school reform, in Hess's view, stifling educational innovation, eroding traditional notions of what constitutes a complete education, and distorting how we approach educational choice, accountability, and reform. Its effects have been particularly severe in the area of advanced instruction and gifted education. The kinds of teaching and support that can help disadvantaged students acquire skills and knowledge not received at home are often superfluous or inappropriate for more advantaged children. This has created a dangerous complacency, giving suburban and middle-class Americans the false sense that things are just fine in their own schools. Hess quotes Matt Yglesias on the topic: "It would actually be more politically useful to have people focused on the modest but real problems in their own local schools than have them morbidly obsessed with semi-mythical tales of a 'broken' school system that they're fortunate not to be stuck in." And yet because achievement-gap mania has distilled "education reform" to measures that raise the test scores of disadvantaged students, solutions to what ails American education more broadly aren't being developed, in part because the question is hardly ever asked.
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| Reading those scores |
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“What exactly do test scores tell us?” asks Gary Gutting in The New York Times. Despite poor standings of American students on national and international tests, it's not immediately obvious to him what follows from them. Do tests test for things we want students to know? It is entirely possible for students to fail tests on various topics and still have, for example, the mathematical abilities or historical knowledge we want. This is especially germane when testing a skill such as critical thinking. In Gutting's own experience, students who have difficulty arguing philosophical questions nevertheless develop sophisticated cases for turning a paper in late. He's also learned that if he can get them interested in philosophical questions, critical skills follow quickly. And when a test shows students lack a knowledge or skill, what should we do about it? "Here many of us have an unfortunate tendency to think there's a panacea that could cure all our educational ills: well-paid teachers, small classes, better methods of instruction, following the Japanese model, etc.," says Gutting. "It's much more likely that, as in cancer treatment, we need to proceed piecemeal, with different solutions for different problems." We may also need to think the unthinkable: Some students may simply be incapable of learning at the level we would like.
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| A handy guide |
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Education is even less of an issue in this presidential campaign than others, writes Andrew Rotherham in TIME Magazine, with most Republican candidates omitting education positions on their websites. Rotherham therefore provides "a handicapper's guide" to the contenders, listing views and records on education. Rotherham says Rick Perry can't take credit for many Texas ed reforms, but has embarrassing curricular debates, revisionist history, and questionable statements about creationism on his resume. He has, however, resisted efforts to weaken his state's standards. Mitt Romney, while Massachusetts governor, was a pragmatic moderate on education, defending NCLB in 2008 and supporting education as part of America's competitiveness strategy. He has now distanced himself from anything sounding like a national program. As governor of Utah, John Huntsman wanted a distinct state accountability system that would not disaggregate results by race and ethnicity, and passed a private-school voucher plan. On the other hand, he raised teacher salaries and enacted an extended kindergarten program. Michelle Bachmann, with more actual education policy experience than her peers, has been advocating the elimination of the Department of Education and President Obama's education policies. Newt Gingrich, one-time supporter of Arne Duncan, has been silent. Finally, "if you genuinely want the federal government out of education, Ron Paul is your guy," Rotherham writes.
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| We need Pre-K, now |
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As the Pew Center on the States concludes its 10-year initiative to advance pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds, it has released a report strongly advocating that policymakers transform public education by moving away from our current K-12 system. The final report of the Pre-K Now campaign says the present system's shortcomings are clear: Our schools enroll most children at five or six years old; we know from over 50 years of research that vital learning happens before age five. The authors recommend that teachers at every grade level embrace principles of early education, attending to children's social and emotional development as well as their cognitive progress. Policy will need to bridge long-established divides between and among funding streams, educational settings, administrative structures, teacher preparation and licensure systems, and learning standards. States will need to align goals, standards, governance, teacher assessments, and other infrastructure across all grades, schools, and systems. The new system must provide a platform on which later reforms and improvements can be founded, multiplying impacts while reducing costs. All of this will require leaders from across the traditional education, reform, and early childhood communities to change the way they think, talk, and work on issues of early childhood, pre-k, and school reform. The time for fundamental transformation is now.
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| Single-sex education: a dud |
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A new article in the journal Science states there is "no empirical evidence" that segregating students by sex improves student outcomes and compelling evidence that it increases gender stereotyping among students and adults, reports Sarah Sparks in Education Week. The single-sex format has gained ground in public schools since 2006, when the U.S. Department of Education reinterpreted Title IX to allow segregated classes within coeducational schools in some situations. The authors found that brain-based sex differences often cited by single-sex education advocates -- such as differences in memory tasks and brain activation patterns -- have been small, and indicated in studies on adults, not children. The data also revealed that students in single-sex classes did not perform significantly better from those in mixed-gender classes, once performance and characteristics before entering a given program were taken into account. "At a time when we are questioning the quality and effectiveness of our public schools, people are screaming for innovation and looking for the magic bullet, but many of the innovations being put forth are not evidence-based, and single-sex education is not evidence-based," said co-author Richard Fabes of Arizona State University.
Read more | Related | See an abstract of the report | Back to top
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| Murky oversight in the Big Easy |
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A new analysis from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor finds that the New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD) has failed to provide strict oversight of charter schools in the areas of academics, finances, and legal compliance, according to The Times-Picayune. The report covers fiscal 2010, and faults both the district and state charter office for ineffective monitoring of academic performance at charters whose students aren't old enough to take standardized tests. It also found many charters were late in turning in required financial reports, and criticizes the district for collecting and reviewing data on legal compliance only for schools whose charters were up for renewal that year. The audit is a third-party checkup for the still-evolving RSD, which has responsibility for more than two-thirds of public school students in New Orleans; its reforms come up for popular referendum next month. Auditors reviewed factors including percentage of students with disabilities; food and nutrition programs; and policies on enrollment, discipline, and parental complaints. The need for closer scrutiny came into focus after allegations surfaced about a charter in eastern New Orleans. State records from more than a year ago showed that teachers and students had accused the school's administrators of various unethical policies, from cheating on science fair competitions to leaving classrooms unattended for weeks at a time. The state board of education revoked the school's charter after an investigation.
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| The Tacoma agreement, in brief |
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With the strike in Tacoma now over, what did it actually accomplish, asks The Christian Science Monitor, apart from winning national attention as a line-in-the-sand for teachers at a time when reforms and massive budget cuts have left teachers and their unions feeling unfairly targeted? Tacoma teachers have now voted with nearly 99 percent approval for the new three-year contract. According to the agreement, class size will remain the same and teacher pay will hold steady. To absorb state funding cuts, teachers will have one less day of optional paid in-house professional development; the district had proposed a trim in salary or a larger reduction in the number of training and personal days. The teacher-transfer policy will stay intact this year, and during the 2012-13 school year, a committee of teachers and district officials will develop a new policy, with approval dependent on two-thirds of the committee. A major sticking point was the proposal to no longer use seniority as the determining factor when transferring teachers to accommodate changing enrollments. Teachers feared transfers based on principals' personal preferences, and will now have more input about what criteria can be used to make these transfers. An amnesty clause protects teachers from any negative repercussions for striking.
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| Toward breaking a 'vicious cycle' in American math education |
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In a comprehensive article on public math education in this country, Hung-Hsi Wu in the Fall 2011 issue of American Educator writes that the new Common Core State Mathematics Standards could serve as the foundation for creating proper school mathematics textbooks in our country and dramatically improving teacher preparation. Despite rhetoric about local control, our country has had a de facto national mathematics curriculum for decades, defined by several widely used textbooks, mathematically very much alike. In this de facto curriculum, precise definitions are not given and logical reasoning is rarely provided because the publishers mistakenly believe that intuitive arguments and analogies suffice, Wu says. The prevailing dogma in mathematics education has been that the main purpose of a set of standards is either to pick and choose from a collection of tried-and-true topics and organize the selected items judiciously, or to vary the pedagogical approaches to these topics. The CCSMS challenge this dogma by not engaging in "the senseless game" of acceleration -- to teach every topic as early as possible. Wu gives two examples of the difference in teaching under CCSMS versus the de facto curriculum, and adds that students' need of a mathematically valid assessment is currently undercut by flawed and mathematically marginal items in standardized tests, including those from NAEP. Because failure in math education has far-reaching consequences, the worthiness of "breaking the vicious cycle" of the de facto curriculum and successfully implementing the CCSMS is clear, Wu writes.
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Senate Appropriations gets its Scrooge on
K-12 education -- including money for disadvantaged children and special education -- would see stagnant funding under a measure approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
http://tinyurl.com/6xp9g96
Waivers made easy
States that can't meet the initial deadlines for getting their plans together for NCLB waivers can get temporary flexibility to buy them more time.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/09/states_that_cant_meet_the.html
Squeezed
After three years of budget cuts, New York City's schools started the year with more oversize classes than at any time in the last decade, according to data collected by the United Federation of Teachers.
http://gothamschools.org/2011/09/22/uft-budget-cuts-lead-to-more-oversized-classes-this-year/
In with the new
Broad-winner Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is making a new run at revamping how the district hires, evaluates, trains, and pays teachers.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/09/26/2641540/cms-regroups-on-teacher-effectiveness.html#ixzz1ZGDanofh |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
The College Board: Costas Awards
The Bob Costas Awards for the Teaching of Creative Writing support exceptional teachers who through their innovative teaching methods motivate their students to write. Winning teachers are awarded grants to enhance successful projects currently underway. Projects can be carried out in school (public or nonpublic), through an after-school writing workshop, or during a summer program. Maximum award: $3,000. Eligibility: teachers from all academic disciplines grades 6-12. Deadline: November 18, 2011.
http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/awards/costas
Knowles Science Teaching Foundation: Fellowships
The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation awards fellowships in the areas of biological sciences, mathematics, and physical sciences to support high school math and science teachers from the onset of the credentialing process through the early years of their careers. Maximum award: professional workshops, materials grants, and access to a teacher-to-teacher mentoring network, valued at $150,000. Eligibility: individuals who have earned at least a bachelor's degree in an area relevant to the subjects they plan to teach before the fellowship begins in June. Candidates for Physical Science, Mathematics, or Biological Science Teaching Fellowships must enroll in a secondary teacher credential program before the fellowship is awarded. Individuals who have completed the fourth year of a five-year combined bachelor's and credential program by the start of the fellowship are also eligible to apply, as well as those currently enrolled in a teacher education program who will be first-year teachers in the fall of 2012.
Deadline: January 11, 2012.
http://www.kstf.org/programs/teaching/apply.html
Toshiba/NSTA: ExploraVision Awards
All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem solving. The Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision Awards Program encourages kids to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with the tools of science. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: students K-12. Deadline: February 1, 2012.
http://www.exploravision.org/
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"We've been waiting for this for a very long time. We are very tired of being told if we want to help we simply should stand outside watching recess or making something for a bake sale." -- Gregoria Gonzalez, a mother of two girls in Lynwood, California, regarding the California Parent-Trigger law.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/education/24trigger.html?ref=todayspaper
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