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December 19, 2008 NOTE TO READERS: The NewsBlast will settle down for a short winter's nap and next publish an abbreviated issue on January 2nd, as we take time to enjoy holiday and New Year celebrations with our family and friends. Thank you for your ongoing support! Holiday message for NewsBlast readers and friends of Public Education Network In this year of new political leadership, with millions of energized new voices calling on us to renew our commitment to the relationship between democracy and education by increasing student achievement, PEN continues to celebrate the extraordinary 25th anniversary of the first LEFs. Their lasting accomplishments have permanently transformed public education around the globe. Together -- writes PEN's president, Wendy D. Puriefoy -- we have excelled in our core priorities of increasing student achievement, developing and implementing innovative school reform initiatives, community organizing, resource development, and public engagement. All this success is due to the hard work and dedication of LEF leaders, educators, parents, business leaders, government officials, philanthropic leaders, and countless other key partners. We at PEN are grateful for your work and for the work of our staff and the team that produces NewsBlast. See the colorful online card: http://www.publiceducation.org/2008_Emails/Holiday_2008/Holiday_2008.html Arne Duncan to become next U.S. secretary of education President-elect Barack Obama has tapped Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan to be his secretary of education. Duncan's selection is seen as a middle way between two sparring Democratic factions in education reform, both of whom lobbied the Obama transition team as it contemplated a choice. On one side are proponents of the whole-school approach, who feel helping students achieve cannot be limited to academics but should include school-based services such as clinics and counseling. On the other side are advocates of a get-tough approach to teachers and administrators, pushing for results through shake-ups in hiring, salary, and tenure practices. Duncan, who served seven years as Chicago's superintendent, is said to have worked well with the teacher union while undertaking back-to-basics reform and restructuring where schools were failing. He is a supporter of early childhood education, The Washington Post reports. He has urged Congress to retain the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, which he said were a step in the right direction but required standardization. Under his supervision, the Chicago Public Schools -- the third-largest public school system in the country -- were generally seen to have improved. Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR2008121602475.html Related article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1332922,CST-EDT-edit16d.article Looking for a last minute holiday gift? Support public education! Is your holiday shopping list stressing you out? Do you know someone who went to public school? Who cares about public education? Who wants to ensure that all kids go to great public schools? Sometimes the most thoughtful gift you can give to someone you care about is a donation to a great cause in their honor. Gifts to PEN fill a direct and tangible need: keeping the NewsBlast free for all who want it, improving college access, supporting teacher professional development, and mobilizing the public to demand accountability from education leaders. Each gift of $25 or more will be personally acknowledged informing the person you designate that a gift was given in their honor to support the work of Public Education Network. Give a gift today: http://transaction.publiceducation.org/donate/index.cfm Hiring effective teachers: addressing the "quarterback problem" in public education Writing in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell contemplates the issue facing education reformers around teacher performance, which he characterizes as "a quarterback problem." That is, in the same way you can't predict who will become a star quarterback in the NFL until that athlete is actually in the NFL, you can't predict who will become a star teacher until that person is actually teaching in the field. No other situation replicates the blend of demands, skills, and intuitions of either job. College football, or teacher certification, can't predict success, and the stakes are high. According to research that Gladwell cites, students in the class of a bad teacher will learn, on average, half a year's material. Students in the class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half's material -- putting them an entire year ahead of their poorly-taught peers. "Teacher effects dwarf school effects," Gladwell writes. "Your child is actually better off in a ‘bad' school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher. Teacher effects are also much stronger than class-size effects. You'd have to cut the average class almost in half to get the same boost that you'd get if you switched from an average teacher to a teacher in the eighty-fifth percentile." The implications are clear: "After years of worrying about issues like school funding levels, class size, and curriculum design, many reformers have come to the conclusion that nothing matters more than finding people with the potential to be great teachers. But there's a hitch: no one knows what a person with the potential to be a great teacher looks like. The school system has a quarterback problem." Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell Read a book excerpt at: http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html "Widespread, insidious, and largely unaddressed" toxic chemicals in air near schools In its series on industrial pollution in the air outside schools, USA TODAY has ranked 127,800 public, private, and parochial schools based on the concentrations and health hazards of chemicals likely to be in the air outside them. The newspaper used the federal government's most up-to-date computer simulation for tracking toxic chemicals to compile the list -- an exercise never undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency. Its conclusion: "Potential problems that emerged were widespread, insidious, and largely unaddressed." Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have the highest numbers of worst-ranked schools, but the 435 worst are in 170 cities across 34 states. Though the EPA has a special office charged with protecting children's health and has invested millions of taxpayer dollars in pollution models, USA TODAY found that the agency "all but ignored" an analysis of air outside "the very locations where kids are required to gather." The problem, said Philip Landrigan, a physician who specializes in children's health and the environment, is that no one's focused on the issue. "The mere fact that kids are being exposed ought to be enough to force people to pay attention. The problem here is, by and large, there's no cop on the beat." Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/school-air1.htm Related article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-12-09-toxic_N.htm Free and reduced-price lunch on the rise A new report by the School Nutrition Association says that 425,000 more students are participating in free and reduced school lunch programs as a result of the economic downturn. The study, entitled "Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises" and which surveyed over 130 school nutrition directors from 38 states, found that 79 percent of districts saw an increase in the number of free lunches served, while nearly 65 percent saw an increase in the number of reduced price lunches served over last year. Participation by students paying the full price for school lunch decreased in 48 percent of districts. Because the school-based child nutrition programs are entitlement programs, federal reimbursements will be provided to schools for each meal served; however, the amount of reimbursement provided continues to fall short of the actual costs associated with producing each school meal. However, the upside to these data, according to School Nutrition Association president Katie Wilson, is that "this year, when hunger is more common, more students are able to eat a balanced, nutritious meal at school." Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Report-More-Children-Eating-Healthy/story.aspx?guid={070F884B-594F-4DA8-8AB0-71D45126522A} Related article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1866098%2C00.html Early childhood boosters anticipate new era bolstered by $10 billion federal funding pledge After years of feeling neglected by a president whose interest was the testing of older children, advocates of early childhood education are eagerly anticipating a surge in support from the incoming Obama administration, The New York Times reports. In debates, the president-elect referred to early education as one of his highest priorities, and his nomination of Arne Duncan, a champion of early childhood education, as Secretary of Education seems to bear this up. Mr. Obama has also pledged $10 billion toward early childhood funding, and said he will not be deterred by the financial crisis. According to transition spokeswoman Jen Psaki, "We simply cannot afford to sideline key priorities like education." Given that a major early learning initiative is now likely, advocates are debating the best ways to overhaul a system they call poorly managed, organized, and funded. They are, however, thrilled at the prospect: "People are absolutely ecstatic," said Cornelia Grumman, executive director of the First Five Years Fund. "Some people seem to think the Great Society is upon us again." Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/us/politics/17early.html Moving away from homeschooling as a partisan issue In an article in Home Education Magazine, homeschoolers Larry and Susan Kaseman lay out the reasons that they feel homeschooling should be removed from the realm of partisan debate. Since those who decide to homeschool their kids come from a wide political spectrum, the Kasemans recommend that homeschoolers shy away from political affiliation when lobbying on homeschool matters to better respect this. If widespread perception of homeschooling equates it with one major political party over the other, the opposing political party is more likely to work against the interests of homeschoolers, in their opinion. What this all boils down to is generating more widespread tolerance of homeschooling: "The more we succeed at winning the hearts and minds of the people, or at least convincing them not to oppose homeschooling, the more secure our homeschooling freedoms are. The general public is more likely not to oppose homeschooling if they view homeschoolers as a varied group of families, some of whom are a lot like their families. Homeschoolers are more likely to generate opposition if we are seen as a uniform group allied with a particular political party or political agenda." The Kasemans provide a list of talking points for approaching legislators and broader political strategies in the interests of homeschooling. Read more: http://homeedmag.com/HEM/256/takingcharge.html State-sanctioned Bible classes a tougher-than-expected sell When Georgia legislators passed a law in 2006 allowing state high schools to teach about the Bible, it prompted a firestorm of media attention, adding to the national debate on religion in schools. Yet this year, only 37 of the state's nearly 440 high schools had the state-approved Bible class, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Many districts fear lawsuits if the course isn't taught properly -- without what could be considered proselytizing -- but an equally significant factor is that schools report low student interest. Georgia Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R), who sponsored the bill authorizing the classes, says that schools need to do more to promote the classes, but others, such as Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center, say the law gives too little guidance on how the course should be taught. "Everyone knows this is not like other electives," Haynes said. "There's been a long fight about getting the Bible in schools since the start of public schools. Georgia's law has been flawed from the start because it didn't put in any safeguards to make sure this is taught legally." Read more: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/12/12/georgia_bible_classes.html Report decries neglect of computer science certification The Computer Science Teachers Association has issued a report on the current neglect of teacher certification in the field, which it says is shrinking the supply of computer science teachers and causing students to turn away from studying the subject. "The current systems of pre-service education and teacher certification, if they exist at all, are profoundly disconnected from the discipline of computer science and the needs of teachers and students," writes Chris Stephenson, the executive director of the CSTA and report co-author. As a result, the report says many of the 1.5 million potential jobs in computing, communications, and information science and engineering that the U.S. economy could create by 2012 will not be enough highly skilled Americans to fill them. In addition to outlining issues relating to certification, "Ensuring Exemplary Teaching in an Essential Discipline: Addressing the Crisis in Computer Science Education" gives models for teacher certification programs and has a recommendation for a multi-level model of computer science teacher certification. Read more: http://csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/Documents.html Great success seen in Utah's all-day kindergarten program According to a first-year report on Utah's $30 million Optional Extended Day Kindergarten program, the effort was a major success, with extended-day kindergartners advancing faster than their half-day peers and few parents turning down the opportunity, writes The Salt Lake Tribune. The program is designed to help disadvantaged students catch up with their peers, and is intended for schools with the neediest students. At some schools, only students who score poorly on kindergarten pre-tests are eligible, while at other schools, higher-scoring students may also be considered. "We believe it's the most powerful intervention we've seen come along in a long time," said Reed Spencer, a coordinator in the curriculum department at the state education office. "Five-year-olds can enter school way, way behind. Not all kindergartners walk in the door and are the same." The results of a scientific study on the program's first year by WestEd, a nonprofit research, development, and service agency, are expected by the end of this year. The program's $30 million is expected to last for a total of four school years, but many other educators hope the program will continue longer. Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_11149956 BRIEFLY NOTED Philly's surplus put towards inaugural curriculum Los Angeles Supt. David L. Brewer to step down NEW GRANT & FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES NCFL/ Verizon: Tech Savvy Awards 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. Public Education Network |
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