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August 13, 2010 Zero-sum In an opinion piece in The Huffington Post prior to the passage of the so-called Edujobs bill, Kati Haycock of the Education Trust said that she was "shaken and ashamed" at its passage in the Senate, since "to pay for it, the Senate snatched $11.9 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program," or food stamps. Experts predict more families will resort to soup kitchens and food banks, and many social justice and faith-based groups have expressed their strong opposition. Haycock writes that those who depend on food stamps are the young, the old, the black, and the brown -- 40 million Americans. "Despite cold, inside-the-Beltway rationalizations that food prices have not risen as steeply as had been anticipated, and that this cut will 'just' return benefits to pre-2009 levels," Haycock challenges those who support the bill to feed their own children on $4.50 a day, the average per-person benefit now, before the cut takes effect. "Most shockingly of all, the education community -- particularly those who assert that it's all but impossible to teach impoverished children who come to school hungry or overwhelmed by family stress -- is cheering the passage of this bill with its hateful trade-off. We'd all do well to remember this proposal and those who supported it, next time teacher union bosses assert that they are fighting for what's best for our nation's poor kids." Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kati-haycock/cutting-food-stamps-to-sa_b_674770.html Related: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/10/01jobs.h30.html?tkn=QLBFGY7VOneozO284acplc+3BOD03oODGumx&cmp=clp-ecseclips Related: http://www.eiaonline.com/archives/20100809.htm i3 ID'd Last week, the Department of Education (ED) unveiled the 49 winning applicants for the Investing in Innovation, or i3, fund, which will disburse $650 million; the applicants were selected from a pool of 1,698 entries. Teach for America, Ohio State University, KIPP Foundation, and the Success for All Foundation won scale-up awards worth up to $50 million. Fifteen groups won validation awards, worth up to $30 million, and 30 groups won development awards up to $5 million, including local education funds (lefs) the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, the Board of Education of the City of New York Office of School of One, and the Boston Plan for Excellence in the Public Schools Foundation, as well as lefs associated with the School Board of Miami-Dade County and the New York City Department of Education. In order to receive the grant, groups must secure a 20 percent private-sector match by September 8 or risk losing it, unless they've gotten a waiver from the department. According to ED's Jim Shelton, winning applicants constitute a broad cross-section of the country, urban and rural, and represent diverse areas of the curriculum, from the arts to STEM subjects. In addition, some winning applicants focus on English-language learners and students with disabilities. Winning applicants represent 23 states, with 37 percent intending to serve rural school districts. Read more: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/08/49_applicants_win_i3_grants_1.html For a full listing of winners: http://data.ed.gov/grants/investing-in-innovation/highest-rated Scoundrels (nearly) all With the Obama administration pouring billions into its nationwide campaign to overhaul failing schools, dozens of companies are portraying themselves as school-turnaround experts as they compete for the money, The New York Times reports. Many of the new companies have little or no experience in the challenge of making over a public school, yet neither federal nor state oversight has been organized in most cases, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy. He added, "Many of these companies clearly just smell the money." Rudy Crew, a former New York City schools chancellor who has formed his own consulting company, said he was astonished to see so many untested groups peddling strategies to improve schools, and likened it to the aftermath of the Civil War, "with all the carpetbaggers and charlatans." Under federal rules, school districts can hire companies or nonprofits to help, and experts said a significant percentage, perhaps a majority, were likely to hire at least one outside contractor. The Obama administration has sharply increased federal financing for school turnarounds to $3.5 billion this year, about 28 times as much as in 2007. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is pushing to overhaul 5,000 of the nation's 100,000 public schools in the next few years. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/education/10schools.html?_r=1&ref=us Squandered resources In light of recent controversies surrounding the identification of "gifted" students, most recently a valedictory speech at the sought-after Hunter College High School that criticized the school's admissions policy, Walt Gardner asks on his Reality Check blog whether "giftedness" can be fairly identified by a single instrument. Clearly, the New York City Department of Education thinks so. This despite the near certainty that many gifted students from lower-income families aren't identified because they miss the cutoff score by a point or two, when that edge can be conferred (on toddlers) by $90 workbooks, $145-an-hour tutoring, and weekend boot camps. The dangers of relying exclusively on one exam can be remedied in part by training teachers to recognize giftedness, Gardner writes, since after all, teachers work with students on a daily basis for months on end. About 3 million K-12 students are identified as gifted, but there are probably many more. "What is being lost in the debate is that the U.S. is squandering one of its greatest assets at a time when other nations are nurturing theirs," Gardner writes. "We worry about wasting natural resources, but aren't these students equally important? [...] A gifted mind is a terrible thing to waste." Read more: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2010/08/identifying_gifted_students.html Tackling rural challenges National data show little variance in teacher-attrition rates between rural and non-rural schools, but these data conceal acute staffing shortages in districts that serve swathes of rural poverty throughout the United States, reports Education Week. Rural schools have long struggled to recruit talent, especially small, remote schools and low-performing schools in high-poverty communities. Yet new attention (and money) is turning toward programs that hand-pick promising rural teaching candidates and school leaders, and equip them to thrive in a geographically isolated environment in which resources are limited, poverty can be high, and academic achievement often lags. Among the areas most affected: the Mississippi Delta, the Ozarks, the Central Appalachians, the Southern states, and areas along the U.S. border in southwest Texas and New Mexico and in sparsely populated Great Plains and Prairie states. In the Ozarks, for example, a teacher corps overseen by a regional nonprofit offers scholarships to rural Missouri college students who will return to their hometowns as teachers and school leaders. The University of South Dakota has redesigned its teacher-preparation programs to include a rural-teaching track, and a leadership academy at a North Carolina university targets veteran teachers and prepares them to serve as principals. Read more: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/04/37rural.h29.html?tkn=TNBFVuPmw8mnFfPWIOW%2Bk5AJfCsf1XEp1lMc&cmp=clp-ecseclips Related: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html#rural English immersion affects families, too An Associated Press-Univision poll finds that as English-immersion classes proliferate in K-12, many Spanish-speaking parents are having trouble helping their children with homework or communicating with teachers. The findings also add fuel to the debate whether English-immersion does more to assimilate or isolate. "The language barrier is still a serious risk factor for Hispanics," said Michael Kirst of Stanford University, who helped analyze the survey. Even with many schools replacing Spanish with English in classrooms, "the odds of completing high school, and particularly college, significantly drop" for a student evaluated as learning English. The nationwide poll found the vast majority of Hispanics -- 78 percent -- had children enrolled in K-12 classes that were taught mostly in English, compared with three percent in Spanish. Just 20 percent of mainly Spanish-speaking parents say they were able to communicate "extremely well" with their child's school, compared with 35 percent of Hispanics who speak English fluently. But educators say the problems can be cultural, too, if some Hispanic parents feel less comfortable acting as vocal advocates for education, such as meeting with teachers or lobbying for an extra honors class. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is now reviewing some districts to see if students are being denied a fair education. Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2010/08/05/poll_language_a_barrier_for_latinos_in_schools/ See the poll: http://surveys.ap.org/ A far-reaching view toward stasis A new report from Education Testing Services takes a long look at the achievement gap between black and white students, starting with its first narrowing at the turn of the last century and continuing to the first decade of the present century. The authors take special note of the era in the 1970s and '80s that inaugurated the NAEP and provided the first data on national trends, which they say is important because it witnessed a "substantial narrowing of the gap in the subjects of reading and mathematics." But in the decades since the late '80s, the authors found "no clear trend in the gap, or sustained period of change in the gap in one way or another" -- in other words, stagnation. During this time, there was little analysis of the gap while attention was directed to the vicissitudes of small gains and declines. "Anyone looking for a smoking gun as to why progress halted, establishing dead certainty, will not find it in this report," the authors write. "Having posed the question of why progress halted, we hope to urge the research and policy communities to put this question high on the list of priorities, and encourage funders to make the resources available." See the report: http://www.ets.org/research/policy_research_reports/pic-bwgap Suburban sanctity In a guest post on the Eduwonk blog, Jim Ryan discusses what he deems "Nixon's compromise" and the long shadow it cast over public urban education (he has just published a book on the topic). In March 1972, President Nixon gave a televised address denouncing the prospect of cross-district, urban-suburban busing, which at the time seemed imminent. He proposed that schools in cities be upgraded, so that urban children had a chance at quality education equal to that of suburban children. "Nixon's compromise was clear," writes Ryan. "Poor and minority students would remain in the city and not have access to suburban schools, but efforts would be made to improve city schools. In other words, save the cities, but spare the suburbs." This policy has shaped nearly every major education reform since, and is evident in both legislation and court decisions. Its imprint is on reforms that range from school desegregation, school finance litigation, and school choice plans to the No Child Left Behind Act. It has shaped liberal reforms like desegregation and school funding litigation, but also conservative ones like school vouchers. "Indeed," says Ryan, "to a very large extent, providing some type of aid to urban students while maintaining the sanctity of suburban schools has been the defining feature of modern education law and policy in the United States." Read more: http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/08/a-quiz-and-a-shameless-book-plug.html BRIEFLY NOTED Full court press Chicago's Board of Education plans to lay off 850 tenured teachers and support staff, including "some of the city's best and most experienced teachers," without assessing their "qualifications, certifications, experience, and performance ratings," the Chicago Teachers Union claims in Federal Court. http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/08/05/29341.htm Not powerful enough? Reading and math scores fell sharply at two of the three high-performing D.C. charter middle schools operated by the Knowledge Is Power Program. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/06/AR2010080606206.html?wprss=rss_education Hmmmn... Dan Schruender, a past president of the California chapter of Aryan Nations, filed nomination papers Monday with the San Bernardino County, Calif. registrar to run for one of two open seats on the Rialto Unified School District. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCHOOL_BOARD_SUPREMACIST?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT The graduates For the first time, the New York City Department of Education has sent detailed reports to all of its high schools, telling them how many of their students attending the city's public colleges needed remedial courses, as well as how many stayed enrolled after their first semester. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/education/10remedial.html Pioneering literacy nonprofit closes Beginning with Books, an early-intervention literacy program for 26 years in Pittsburgh, has fallen victim to tough economic times. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10220/1078548-298.stm#ixzz0wOQvwbt3 GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES NSTA: Distinguished Service to Science Education Award The National Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service to Science Education Award recognizes those who, through active leadership and scholarly endeavor over a significant period of time, have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of education in the sciences and science teaching. Maximum award: formal citation; three nights' hotel accommodation and up to $500 toward expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference, March 10-13, 2011, San Francisco. Eligibility: NSTA members who have shown long-term dedication to science education. Deadline: November 30, 2010. http://www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx#distservice NSTA: Delta Education/Frey-Neo/CPO Science Awards The Delta Education/Frey-Neo/CPO Science Awards for Excellence in Inquiry-based Science Teaching will honor full-time PreK-12 teachers of science who successfully use inquiry-based science to enhance teaching and learning in their classroom. Maximum award: $1,500 toward expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference, March 10-13, 2011, San Francisco; and $1,500 for the awardee. Eligibility: PreK-12 teachers. Deadline: November 30, 2010. http://www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx#delta AIAA: Classroom grants American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation Classroom Grants are awarded to encourage excellence in educating students about math, science, technology, and engineering. Eligibility: current AIAA Educator Associate or AIAA Professional members actively engaged as K-12 classroom educators. Maximum award: $200. Deadline: November 30, 2010. http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=244 QUOTE OF THE WEEK "When I came back to D.C., I was excited to get into DCPS because I felt I could be part of a movement based on student needs, and driven by a desire for change and the need for change." -- Daniel Zielaski, 26, incoming hire for the District of Columbia Public Schools. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Composition-of-new-teacher-corps-a-mystery-1008428-100230994.html#ixzz0wOQIciso The PEN Weekly NewsBlast, published by Public Education Network, is a free electronic newsletter featuring resources and information about public school reform, school finance, and related issues. The NewsBlast is the property of Public Education Network, a national association of 79 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities throughout the nation. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who enjoys free updates on education news and grant alerts. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast may change or expire after their initial publication here, and some links may require local website registration. People wishing to add a NewsBlast subscription can go to PEN's website (http://www.publiceducation.org) and follow the instructions in the lower left-hand section of the homepage. Current subscribers can unsubscribe by clicking the appropriate link near the bottom of the NewsBlast mailing. If you use spam filters to protect your inbox, you may wish to take a moment right now to add PEN@publiceducation.org to your e-mail address book, spam-software whitelist, or mail-system whitelist. Adding the address will help ensure that you receive the NewsBlast and that your e-mail software displays HTML and images properly. |
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