|
Click here to read printable version |
|
|
EDUCATING THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES |
| |
In their first seven debates, Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have presented America with a cornucopia of plans for solving a plethora of urgent issues -- health care, national security, energy, and the economy. But the candidates in both parties have had relatively little to say to most viewers about one of the most prominent issues of the past several elections: education. Education is falling off the nation’s priority list, writes Arthur Levine in Education Week. Indeed, during the 2000 presidential election, Americans ranked education either first or second among the nation’s priorities. In 2004, it fell to fifth. To permit education to fall off the national agenda today is to accept weak and inequitable schools. Not only is this bad policy, but it is morally wrong for children to be denied a quality education at birth because of their parents’ income or skin color. The reality is that education is part of the answer to many of the issues that now dominate the presidential debates. Preparation of experts and general education of America’s population are key elements of national defense, the war on terrorism, and energy policy. It is at the heart of immigration, health care, and environmental protection. According to Levine, the national education media and the independent sector (nonprofit organizations) have a crucial role to play in getting candidates to articulate -- and helping to delineate -- their positions. |
| |
Read Article |
|
BRINGING A HUMAN RIGHTS VISION TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS |
| |
Human rights are necessary for people to live life in freedom, dignity and equality, and to have their basic needs met. There are several categories of rights including, civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental. Human rights apply to every person equally no matter where they come from, what race they are, whether they have immigration papers, whether they are married or not, what kind of family situation they have, or whether they are poor or rich. The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE) have produced a training manual for advocates, organizers, community members, parents and youth interested in using human rights as a tool for improving public education in the U.S. The manual includes three training curricula: (1) Know Your Human Rights -- Introduces participants to basic human rights principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and standards for the right to education; (2) Using Human Rights for Social Change -- Introduces participants to strategies for using the language and principles of human rights in their campaigns and messaging; (3) Taking Action by Documenting Human Rights Abuses -- Introduces participants to research methods for documenting rights violations in schools and tips for using documentation as an organizing tool. The appendix includes training handouts and exercises, a glossary of human rights terms, and excerpts from human rights treaties and declarations recognizing the right to education. To order hard copies email info@nesri.org or call 212-253-1710. Available in English and Spanish online in PDF format at: |
| |
Read Article |
|
THE ASSUMPTIONS WE MAKE ABOUT DIVERSITY IN SCHOOLS |
| |
Diversity in schools is not always visible, but it is always present. Just because your students appear relatively homogenous does not mean your class is not diverse. The latest issue of "Thriving in Academe" says that from gender and religion to social class and family background, all aspects of inclusion should be acknowledged and are integral to student learning. It’s all too easy to slip into the bad habit of making assumptions based on outward appearance. Students are diverse in more ways than we will probably ever know, but starting with the assumption of great diversity opens our classrooms up to exciting and constantly changing possibilities. One reason many teachers avoid talking about diversity is the idea that teaching "values" is not our job. But in reality, value-free teaching does not exist. |
| |
Read Article |
|
THE DOWNSIDE OF DIVERSITY |
| |
It has become increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger. But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, there are fewer people who vote, people volunteer less, they give less to charity and work less on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings. The study comes at a time when the future of the American melting pot is the focus of intense political debate, from immigration to race-based admissions to schools, and it poses challenges to advocates on all sides of the issues. The study is already being cited by some conservatives as proof of the harm large-scale immigration causes to the nation's social fabric, reports Michael Jonas in the Boston Globe. But with demographic trends already pushing the nation inexorably toward greater diversity, the real question may yet lie ahead: how to handle the unsettling social changes that Putnam's research predicts. "Diversity, at least in the short run," Putnam writes, "seems to bring out the turtle in all of us." If ethnic diversity, at least in the short run, is a liability for social connectedness, a parallel line of emerging research suggests it can be a big asset when it comes to driving productivity and innovation. In high-skill workplace settings, says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist, the different ways of thinking among people from different cultures can be a boon. |
| |
Read Article |
|
"BABY EINSTEIN": NOT SUCH A BRIGHT IDEA |
| |
Parents hoping to raise baby Einsteins by using infant educational videos are actually creating baby Homer Simpsons, according to a new study. For every hour a day that babies six to 16 months old were shown such popular series as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," they knew six to eight fewer words than other children, the study found. Parents aiming to put their babies on the fast track, even if they are still working on walking, each year buy hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the videos. Unfortunately it's all money down the tubes, according to Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Christakis and his colleagues surveyed 1,000 parents in Washington and Minnesota and determined their babies' vocabularies using a set of 90 common baby words, including mommy, nose and choo-choo. The researchers found that 32 percent of the babies were shown the videos, and 17 percent of those were shown them for more than an hour a day, according to the study in the Journal of Pediatrics. The videos, which are designed to engage a baby's attention, hop from scene to scene with minimal dialogue and include mesmerizing images, like a lava lamp. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under 24 months, reports Amber Dance for the Los Angeles Times. "I would rather babies watch 'American Idol' than these videos," Christakis said, explaining that there is at least a chance their parents would watch with them -- which does have developmental benefits. |
| |
Read Article |
|
THE ROLE OF ART IN SCHOOLS |
| |
In a new book due out this month, Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland argue forcefully for the benefits of art education. In their view, art education should be championed for its own sake, not because of a wishful sentiment that classes in painting, dance and music improve pupils’ math and reading skills and standardized test scores. The researchers found that the visual arts classes did have broad indirect benefits, even if they were not directly related to quantifiable performance in other subjects. "Students who study the arts seriously are taught to see better, to envision, to persist, to be playful and learn from mistakes, to make critical judgments and justify such judgments," the authors conclude. "When kids take a lot of art, they don't improve in their core subject areas," Ms. Winner said in an interview. "We simply found no evidence of that." When students who take art also generally do well in school, reports Robin Pogrebin in the New York Times, this may be because academically strong schools tend to have strong arts programs, or because families who value academic achievement also value achievement in the arts. "You cannot conclude that because they're taking art, they're doing well in school," Ms. Winner said. "There’s just no way to conclude anything about causality." In campaigning for keeping arts education, some educators say, advocates need to form more realistic arguments. Art classes are often the first thing to be jettisoned from a crowded curriculum. As a result, Ms. Winner said, it is understandable that some arts advocates hew to the academic argument to keep the arts in the curriculum. "The arts are totally threatened in our schools," she said. "Arts advocates don't even think about whether they're accurate -- they latch onto these claims." |
| |
Read Article |
|
DEMOLISHING NCLB IDEOLOGY & PRACTICE |
| |
Jim Cummins, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, argued in a recent presentation that what is happening now in the schools is not science but ideology, with federal and state policies imposing a pedagogical divide in which "poor kids get behaviorism and rich kids get social constructionism." In practice, that means skills for the poor and knowledge for the rich. That ideologically based approach ignores and rejects research into the way students learn, particularly how they learn language and how to read, writes Timothy Lange (aka Meteor Blades) for the blog Daily Kos. Cummins has challenged educational practices resulting from federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, with its emphasis on standardized tests and consequent teaching "to the tests," saying instructional approaches now being imposed are something that most in the audience wouldn't want their own children to suffer. These approaches have, he said, more to do with teaching rats than humans. He urged his audience to reclaim good instruction with attention to the lessons of social constructionism instead of treating students with a behaviorist approach in which, as B.F. Skinner proved, even pigeons can be taught to play ping-pong. Cummins offers an alternative to the NCLB approach -- under which more and more inner-city schools are failing every day. That alternative is school-based language planning which instructs along the lines of what the research has shown. Boiled down to its essentials, according to Cummins, literacy attainment is directly related to literacy engagement. Such engagement requires participation, and effective participation requires that student identity is affirmed, which means first language learning should not be discouraged because "new understandings are constructed on a foundation of existing understandings and experiences." His alternative focuses on a four-element approach: scaffolding meaning, activating prior knowledge and building background knowledge, affirming student identity and extending language in a way that uses the students’ first language. |
| |
Read Article |
|
HOW NOT TO TALK TO YOUR KIDS: THE INVERSE POWER OF PRAISE |
| |
When parents praise their children’s intelligence, they believe they are ensuring that children do not sell their talents short. But a growing body of research -- and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system -- strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of "smart" does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it, writes Po Bronson in New York magazine. After reviewing more than 200 studies, Dr. Roy Baumeister concluded that having high self-esteem didn't improve grades or career achievement. It didn't even reduce alcohol usage. And it especially did not lower violence of any sort. (Highly aggressive, violent people happen to think very highly of themselves, debunking the theory that people are aggressive to make up for low self-esteem.) Baumeister has come to believe the continued appeal of self-esteem is largely tied to parents’ pride in their children’s achievements: It’s so strong that "when they praise their kids, it’s not that far from praising themselves." By and large, the literature on praise shows that it can be effective -- a positive, motivating force. However, the effects of praise can vary significantly depending on the praise given. To be effective, researchers have found, praise needs to be specific and sincere. |
| |
Read Article |
|
ENCOURAGING TEACHERS TO TEACH OFF THE SCRIPT & EMBRACE SPONTANEITY |
| |
To the dismay of many educators throughout the country, the popularity of scripted curricula has spread to many public schools, especially those serving poor communities. In response to the widespread belief that high-stakes testing will improve the nation’s schools, teachers are pressured to teach to standardized tests and not waste time on lessons or activities that won't be on one of these tests. Even if there is a major event the children are eager to discuss -- a presidential election, an eclipse, the collapse of a freeway, or an earthquake -- many teachers fear spending precious class time on anything that won't be on the end-of-the-year standardized test. And in many districts, especially those that serve children from the poorest families, teachers are handed scripts and ordered to follow them to the letter. The companies that produce these programs point to studies demonstrating that adhering to the scripts will pay off in higher test scores. While they may in fact raise scores somewhat, scripted lesson plans can be deadly to children eager to learn more than what is covered on the test for their grade level. These schools can be even more mind-numbing for teachers who have been attracted to the profession by a desire to engender in their students a passion for learning. While some new teachers may welcome a script that spells out what to do with most of the school day, veteran teachers and dynamic, creative young teachers are more likely than ever to leave the profession, disgusted by the tedium of drill-and-kill and saddened by the lack of time or freedom to engage their students in the excitement of learning interesting stuff. The idea of using high-stakes testing to improve schools may stem from a genuine desire to offer all children a high-quality education, writes Nancy Ginsburg Gill in Education Week. But if higher test scores are achieved by mandating that teachers follow a script and eschew spontaneity and passion, we will find few great teachers left in the classroom. In fact, we might as well save money on salaries and benefits and employ robots to run the drills. |
| |
Read Article |
|
OVERCOMING NEW SCHOOL FEARS |
| |
Transitions to new schools can be hard, writes Katrina Andrews for momready.com, an online parenting magazine. Parents can soften the anxiety that a young student may have about starting at a new school where they don't know anyone, including the teachers and administrators. To help make this transition an exiting adventure, and not a frightening experience, Andrews offers a few tips to take off some of the pressure: (1) Take a family trip to the school and tour the classrooms together; (2) Introduce your child to the new school principal and main office staff; (3) Meet some of the teachers in your child's grade; (4) Volunteer! Becoming part of a committee or a PTA group helps the family transition and it will make your child proud that you are becoming a part of the school as well; (5) Try to find a family that lives near you who already attends the school and set up a summer play date; and, (6) Speak with your child about how they feel, not just the night before school begins, but throughout the summer. It's important she or he knows that it's okay if they feel afraid or anxious. They need to know that their feelings are being taken seriously and that they can talk to you. With all the plates that parents are juggling, this may seem unnecessary or over the top, but the emotional health of a child is just as important as their physical health. It's easy to see a scraped knee, but not so easy to identify an emotionally lost or frightened child who may not excel simply because they needed someone to listen to them, to make them feel safe or to validate their feelings. |
| |
Read Article |
|
MORE YOUNG ATHLETES OPEN ABOUT BEING GAY & LESBIAN |
| |
An emerging generation of openly gay and lesbian athletes on high school and college campuses across the country. These young men and women are quietly venturing where no active professional football or baseball star has gone, challenging the conformist, if not downright homophobic, tradition of the playing fields. Their numbers are difficult to gauge because many confide only in peers, reports David Wharton for the Los Angeles Times. Experts chart the trend anecdotally through athletes who join gay rights clubs at school, e-mail gay rights advocates for advice or announce their sexual orientation on websites such as Facebook and MySpace. "This is an issue that's in transition even as we speak," said Jay Coakley, a noted scholar and author on sports culture. "We're looking at how the world is changing." Not all the stories have happy endings -- a high-school football player in northern California tells of being ostracized. But others say they were welcomed by their teams. Sociologists see the openness as a generational shift. Polls suggest a growing percentage of young people have more relaxed views about sexual orientation. A 2007 Gallup Poll found that 57 percent of Americans viewed homosexuality as an "acceptable alternative lifestyle," an increase of 11 percentage points from four years ago. |
| |
Read Article |
|
IRONING OUT POLICIES ON SCHOOL UNIFORMS |
| |
As the new school year approaches, more schools are requiring students to wear uniforms or otherwise restricting what they may wear -- and parents are objecting. Their complaint: The policies trample students' right of expression and parents' right to raise children without government interference, says Vickie Crager, founder of a parents rights group that opposes school uniforms. About one in four public elementary schools and one in eight public middle and high schools in the U.S. have policies dictating what a student wears to school, says David Brunsma, a sociologist. Private schools first imported the British tradition of student uniforms to mark a student's social status, Brunsma says. Urban public schools began to adopt uniforms in the late 1980s to reduce social pressure from fashion-savvy students. The idea spread to suburban and rural schools when President Clinton said uniforms make schools more orderly. As the trend grew, so did the opposition, Brunsma says. Most lawsuits against school uniforms fail, says David Hudson, a First Amendment scholar. Judges usually decide that uniform policies are meant to improve schools and not to suppress student speech, reports Carol Motsinger for USA TODAY. |
| |
Read Article |
| |
|
NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
"Funding for Projects Designed and Implemented by Women & Girls"
Open Meadows Foundation is a grant-making organization for projects that are led by and benefit women and girls. It funds projects that reflect the diversity of the community served by the project in both its leadership and organization; promote building community power; promote racial, social, economic and environmental justice; have limited financial access or have encountered obstacles in their search for funding. Maximum Award: $2,000. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations with an organizational budget no larger than $150,000. Projects must be designed and implemented by women and girls. Deadline: August 15, 2007.
"Grants to Fund Projects Making Creative Use of Common Teaching Aids"
Office Depot/SHOPA 2006 Kids In Need Teacher Grants are available to fund projects that make creative use of common teaching aids, approach curriculum from an imaginative angle, or tie nontraditional concepts together for the purpose of illustrating commonalities. Innovation and merit account for 40 percent of the evaluation. Maximum Award: $500. Eligibility: K-12 teachers. Deadline: September 30, 2007.
"Grants Lend a Hand to Public Schools"
General Mills is looking to lend a helping hand to neighborhoods nationwide with its "My Hometown Helper" grant program. Individuals from communities and organizations across America can submit a written essay of 250 words or less describing how the "My Hometown Helper" grant would help improve their community project. Maximum Award: $15,000. Eligibility: Requests for funding must be sponsored by a municipal or civic organization or public school. Deadline: September 30, 2007.
"Awards Recognize School District Best Practices"
American School Board Journal (ASBJ) is accepting nominations online for the 2008 Magna Awards through October 1, 2007. Presented in cooperation with Sodexho School Services, winners of the Magna Awards receive national recognition in a special supplement to ASBJ and are honored at a luncheon at the National School Boards Association's annual conference. Awards are handed out in three enrollment categories -- under 5,000, 5,001 to 20,000, and more than 20,000. Grand prize winners in each category receive a $3,500 cash award from Sodexho. Nominations this year are being accepted only online. For more information, call (703) 838-6739.
"Seeking Nominations for Outstanding Young Educator Award"
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development is seeking nominations for its Outstanding Young Educator Award, which recognizes a teacher under the age of 40 who demonstrates excellence in his or her profession, a positive impact on students, creativity in the classroom, and leadership in his or her school or district. Maximum Award: $10,000. Eligibility: K-12 teachers under age 40; no self-nominations accepted. Deadline: October 15, 2007.
For a detailed listing of numerous EXISTING GRANT OPPORTUNITIES (updated each week), visit: http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of commonplace, the slaves to the ordinary."
- Sir Cecil Beaton (photographer/artist/writer)
|
|