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August 20, 2010 A dismal failure A new study from the Schott Foundation documents the widespread failure of the American public education system to educate black males. The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education indicates that the overall 2007-2008 graduation rate for black males in the U.S. was 47 percent, with half of states having rates below this. The report highlights New Jersey's Abbott plan, whose targeted resources yielded significant results: New Jersey is now the only state with a high black population and a greater-than-65-percent graduation rate for black males. Currently, the five worst-performing districts with large black male student enrollment are New York City (28 percent); Philadelphia (28 percent); Broward County, Fla. (39 percent); Chicago (44 percent); and Nashville, Tenn. (47 percent). Districts with black male student enrollment exceeding 10,000 that have the highest graduation rates are Newark, N.J. (76 percent); Fort Bend, Tex. (68 percent); Baltimore County, Md. (67 percent); and Montgomery County, Md. (65 percent). The districts with the lowest graduation rates for black males are Pinellas County, Fla. (21 percent); Palm Beach County, Fla. (22 percent); Duval County, Fla. (23 percent); Charleston County, S.C. (24 percent); and Buffalo, N.Y. (25 percent). Dade County, Fla.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Detroit, Mich. all have graduation rates at 27 percent. The report outlines potential solutions to the crisis, as well as describing "Conditions for Failure." See the report: http://www.blackboysreport.org/ Same old same old In an opinion piece in La Prensa San Diego, Pedro Noguera writes that the president and his secretary of education have adopted policies far more similar to the previous administration than expected. Market-based reforms like performance pay for teachers, a high emphasis on charter schools, and the distribution of federal funds through competitive grants all represent "a disturbing continuity" with policies of the past. What is needed, Noguera feels, is "a new vision for public education rooted in the recognition that schools must provide equal opportunity for all children to learn if the schools are to fulfill their vital role as the cornerstone of our democracy." He recommends that Mr. Obama and Mr. Duncan choose language more carefully when addressing the politics of education, rather than, for example, describe the mass firing of teachers in Central Falls, R.I. as "courageous." Noguera also thinks narrowly framed pay-for-performance schemes are insensitive to the needs of schools plagued by high failure rates. Education policy should be devised in concert with health reform, poverty alleviation initiatives, and economic development, and reforms should be designed and implemented in concert with key constituents -- parents, teachers, local leaders, and students. "Rather than launch another set of Bush-type reforms, the administration must comprehend why the policies of the Bush years did not produce greater success," he writes. Read more: http://laprensa-sandiego.org/editorial-and-commentary/commentary/obama-administration-needs-to-change-direction-on-education/ Unpacking the implication of NYC's state scores When New York City's results from its state 2010 tests were released last month, they were a blow to the legacy of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein, writes The New York Times. Passing rates fell by more than 25 percentage points on most tests, and what had been a signature accomplishment of the administration -- the narrowing of the city's racial achievement gap -- vanished. The city's progress in closing its gap had drawn national attention and praise, as well as the prestigious Broad prize, but the latest state math and English tests show the proficiency gap between minority and white students has returned to the same level as when the mayor took office. Chancellor Joel Klein said that he was not discouraged by New York City's performance on the 2010 state tests, and that he still felt "awfully good" about improvements for black and Hispanic students, noting rising graduation rates and college enrollments. "I don't think we claimed it was a miracle; certainly I don't believe it was a miracle," he said. "I think there are sustained steady gains here, and I think that's important." However, the persistent gap still means that most black and Hispanic students will be at a sharp disadvantage when they compete against white and Asian peers in school and in the workplace. Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/nyregion/16gap.html?partner=rss&emc=rss Cities eager for change look to mayoral control As cities come under increasing pressure to fix failing schools, many more are considering putting district control in the hands of mayors, even though results of the policy have been mixed, according to The Wall Street Journal. Both Detroit and Milwaukee recently launched bids for mayoral control, but these have stalled amid opposition from lawmakers, unions, and school boards. In California, where mayoral control has been ruled incompatible with the state constitution, Sacramento's mayor is seeking an unofficial workaround for his involvement. The policy generally means dissolving elected school boards and replacing them with commissions appointed by the mayor, and was pioneered in Boston in 1992. Since then, several big cities have adopted the practice, notably New York City in 2002; Washington, D.C., in 2007; and Chicago in 1995, where current Education Secretary Arne Duncan ran the school system for seven years as the mayor's appointee. Schools in Cleveland; New Haven, Conn.; and Providence, R.I. are also under mayoral control. Critics of the policy point to results from the NAEP: Mayoral-controlled Chicago and Cleveland ranked low in 2009 in fourth-grade reading, whereas schools in Charlotte, N.C.; Austin, Texas; and Miami -- run by school boards -- were on top. Opponents also argue that dissolution of elected boards takes power away from voters, and contend that while mayoral control alters the structure of school systems, in itself it does nothing to overhaul curriculums or instruction. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704268004575417301793522096.html The right teacher is more important than the right school The Los Angeles Times has obtained seven years of math and English test scores from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and used the information to estimate the effectiveness of L.A. teachers, which it says LAUSD could have done but has not. The Times used a statistical approach known as value-added analysis, rating teachers based on students' progress on standardized tests from year to year. Among its findings was that highly effective teachers routinely propel students from below-grade-level to advanced in a single year. It found a substantial gap at year's end between students whose teachers were in the top 10 percent in effectiveness and in the bottom 10 percent -- the former ranked 17 percentile points higher in English and 25 points higher in math. It also found that some students got poorest-performing instructors year after year: More than 8,000 students got such a math or English teacher at least twice in a row over the time period examined. The best teachers were not necessarily concentrated in schools in the most affluent neighborhoods, nor were the weakest instructors bunched in poor areas. Instead, quality of instruction typically varied far more within a school than between schools. The Times plans to publish the value-added ranking of 6,000 teachers later this month. Read more: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/14/local/la-me-teachers-value-20100815 Related: http://themoderatevoice.com/82920/teachers-union-threatens-boycott-against-struggling-la-times/ Related: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0817-teachers-react-20100817,0,4846188.story Refining the early-college approach In a profile of Hostos-Lincoln Academy in the South Bronx, The Hechinger Report looks at the evolving goals of the Early College High School Initiative, started in 2002 and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the aim of getting at-risk students an associate's degree or equivalent credit by the end of high school. The program has had strong success: By 2009, it boasted an 85 percent graduation rate nationwide, with 65 percent of its students accepted to four-year colleges. At the same time, only 11 percent of early-college graduates received associate's degrees, far below the goal of 100 percent. Hostos has learned that many students can meet high expectations, but others respond poorly. Some needed constant prodding to turn in assignments on time, or lacked maturity and felt uncomfortable approaching a professor with questions. The program still aims to teach high-schoolers how to operate in college, primarily through weekly advisory seminars covering basics like taking notes during a lecture and following along with assignments in the syllabus. Hostos has now shifted its emphasis, however, with all ninth-graders still enrolled in college courses but no longer required to stay on the track if it doesn't work for them. "The point of this is not to put students who are not ready for college-level work and dump them into college classes," said Joel Vargas, program director at Jobs for the Future, the nonprofit that runs the initiative. "They have to be ready." Read more: http://hechingerreport.org/content/early-college-programs-get-real-learning-lessons-about-high-expectations_4001/ The crucial year of kindergarten New research from the National Science Foundation's Division of Social and Economic Sciences finds that children who learn more in kindergarten go on to earn more as adults and are more successful overall, according to Science Daily. Taking into account all variation across kindergarten classes (including class size), children who learn more -- as measured by an above-average score on the Stanford Achievement Test -- and are in smaller classes earn about $2,000 more per year at age 27. Moreover, students who learn more in kindergarten are more likely to go to college than students with similar backgrounds. Those who learn more in kindergarten are also less likely to become single parents, more likely to own a home by age 28, and more likely to save for retirement earlier in their work lives. "Kindergarten interventions matter a great deal for long-term outcomes," said Harvard economist John Friedman, an author of the report. "For instance, being in a smaller class for two years increases the probability of attending college by 2 percent." Researchers recently presented results of the new study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, at an academic conference in Cambridge, Mass. Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100811085412.htm Surveys, but to what end? A review of state policies from UCLA raises questions about the validity of home-language surveys in identifying students needing special help to learn English, Education Week reports. Though a common practice, the federal government does not mandate the use of surveys, but does require that states somehow identify students who need extra services to learn English. The authors of the review found that both the wording in surveys and the way they are undertaken varies so widely from state to state that their use should be abandoned. The UCLA researchers also say that the quality of information taken from home-language surveys is "rarely scrutinized." In some cases, children who need special help may be missed by the survey, leaving it up to teachers to request further testing, and at the same time, students who are already proficient in English or even are native speakers of English are identified as in need of testing. "The bottom line should be the use of an instrument that gives us the most valid and reliable way of identifying those students in the general K-12 population who are potentially in need of English-language services," said Alison Bailey, a professor of education for UCLA and an author of the study. Read more: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/17/01language.h30.html?tkn=XRSFx8JjlopW6pF1/tL9x5SZtVLeWiUPZtVC&cmp=clp-sb-ascd BRIEFLY NOTED Nominations wanted The National Assessment Governing Board is seeking public input to identify qualified candidates to serve a four-year term. Congress established the 26-member Governing Board to set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation's Report Card. http://www.nagb.org/newsroom/release/release-081610.htm CPS and union working through impasse Cincinnati Public Schools teachers will begin the new school year without a new contract. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100816/NEWS0102/8160325/New-CPS-year-no-teachers-contract ELL wars heat up in AZ Lawyers for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne want research related to the education of English-language learners in Arizona for use in a long-running federal court case over the state's approach to educating its ELL students. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/08/12/01arizona.h30.html?tkn=OTBFyRQAKkLcgpxbAnOtlemruZkRwGsKSLz8&cmp=clp-ecseclips Tracking the ABC's of dropping out Michigan is introducing a database that pulls together in one place information on attendance, behavior, and class work -- three key indicators of dropout risk -- for all students, starting as early as elementary school. http://www.freep.com/article/20100812/NEWS06/8120378/1008/New-database-aims-to-help-schools-stop-dropouts California state test scores inch upwards If slow and steady wins the race, California schools will eventually emerge victorious in significantly raising student proficiency levels in math and English, but at the current pace it will take years if not decades. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/08/17/MNMP1ETQUQ.DTL#ixzz0x3yeTl1o GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES Clorox: Power a Bright Future Grants Clorox Power a Bright Future Grants aim to provide necessary resources to help support school programs that enrich kids' lives. Maximum award: $50,000. Eligibility: Anyone at least 18 years old at time of entry can nominate an accredited K-12, public or private school program. Deadline: September 27, 2010. http://clorox.promo.eprize.com/brightfuture/?affiliate_id=Inbound5 U.S. Government: Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange Program The Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange Program provides opportunities for teachers to participate in direct exchanges of positions with colleagues from other countries for a semester or academic year. By living and working in the cultures of their host countries, Fulbright teachers gain an understanding and appreciation of the similarities and differences in national cultures and education systems. Maximum award: year-long or semester-long direct exchange of teaching positions with a counterpart in another country teaching the same subject(s) at the same level. Eligibility: full-time U.S. teachers. Deadline: October 15, 2010. http://www.fulbrightteacherexchange.org/cte.cfm Prudential: Spirit of Community Awards The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards honor young people in grades 5 through 12 who have demonstrated exemplary voluntary service to their communities. Maximum award: $1,000 and a trip to Washington, D.C. Eligibility: Students grades 5-12 who have conducted a volunteer service activity within the past year. Deadline: November 1, 2010. http://spirit.prudential.com/view/page/soc QUOTE OF THE WEEK "[Teachers] look at this as a hammer, a sledgehammer, and they're scared about it. They're schoolteachers; they're private individuals.... They're not public figures. And they just woke up one day and 6,000 names were going to be in the newspaper." -- American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, on pending publication of teacher value-added rankings in The Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0819-teachers-union-20100819,0,5684383.story 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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