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February 27, 2009 |
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| President Obama spells out nation's educational challenges |
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In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama outlined a series of challenges for the nation that included giving every child a "complete and competitive education," reports The Los Angeles Times. Americans must attain greater levels of education, the president said, if the nation is to compete globally, and he pledged that his administration would work to make the U.S. have the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020. "Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma," Mr. Obama said. "And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish." Education is vital to our national interest, he asserted, because "countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow." He added that if young Americans commit to community service, "we will make sure that you can afford a higher education." Though offering few details, Mr. Obama mentioned legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass) and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), called the Serve America Act, which would make ServeAmerica Corps participants eligible for educational awards.
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| A call for 'positive deviance' |
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On the website of the Hope Foundation, Pedro Noguera and Alan Blankstein write that as a country, we must "move the conversation about teacher quality beyond a narrow debate over merit pay and job protection to one focused more broadly on how to ensure that teachers receive adequate support and training to meet the academic needs of their students." New approaches to educating children are required, in their opinion, and new ways for managing schools and districts. Policies and systems must promote best practices in teaching, reward high performers, and provide opportunities for feedback and development. Part of this equation, they say, will be the provision of high-quality early childhood education, health care, and extended learning opportunities for low-income students, which the authors point out exist in other countries to which we typically compare ourselves. Finally, they write, while teacher quality is crucial, sustainable school improvement is generated by leadership development on a district-wide basis. "We need a new generation of leaders who possess the skills required to engage in 'positive deviance' -- employing the tactics essential to achieve success within an otherwise failing or mediocre system."
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| National teacher outlook 'substantially more positive' |
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MetLife has issued its 25th annual Survey of the American Teacher, with findings that are "substantially more positive than they have been in the past." In a nationally representative sample of 1,000 K-12 teachers interviewed, the survey found teachers today are more satisfied in their careers than in earlier years and feel more respected in society and better compensated. Along with 502 K-12 principals interviewed, teachers rate the quality, standards, and curricula of their schools higher, and are more positive about students, finding them better prepared for grade-level work and capable in specific subjects and skills. The 902 students from grades 3 through 12 interviewed felt better about their school culture and trusted their teachers, rating them more highly academically. However, the survey showed a significant discrepancy between attitudes in urban schools and those in suburban and rural schools. Educators in urban schools, which tended to have a high proportion of minority students, rated them significantly lower in terms of academic standards, curriculum, and student preparation, and were concerned about the supply of qualified teachers, teacher turnover, student dropout rates, quality of college preparation, school disciplinary policy, parental support, poverty, and nutrition. The notable exception to this pattern was that urban teachers tended to be more positive about their professional development.
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| Recovering past the status quo< |
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For tens of millions of Americans, economic recovery is not enough, writes Bill Shore on politico.com. "What about those problems that affect people so voiceless and vulnerable there are neither economic nor political markets to serve them?" asks Shore, founder and executive director of the national anti-hunger organization Share Our Strength. Recovery, in Shore's estimation, implies a return to the pre-recession economy. This economy was one in which 35 million Americans lived below an unreasonably low poverty line, without access to quality health care or education. "When the economy is roaring," writes Shore, "the poor are so far removed from the prevailing culture of consumption, investment and growth as to be all but forgotten... When the economy tanks, on the other hand, the poor find that other priorities, like the financial system and infrastructure, must be addressed first." For the recovery to have moral weight, it must mean economic inclusion. This amounts to decent housing, health care, food, quality education, and training for jobs of the future -- for all Americans, not just those who had these basics but recently lost them. To bring this about, says Shore, President Obama must devote his considerable political skill not just to market-driven leadership, but moral leadership.
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| Cultivating citizen writers |
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In a new report from the National Council of Teachers of English, Professor Kathleen Blake Yancey states that writing is now so ubiquitous, we are living in the Age of Composition, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In "Writing in the 21st Century," Yancey says that beyond the school walls, students and others are constantly writing: e-mails, Facebook entries, text messages, blogs, job letters, resumes, and more. "I think we're conceiving of writing very differently than we did before. "We're understanding writing takes place in lots of different environments and for lots of different purposes." Schools that erect "firewalls" between outside writing and school writing are being counterproductive: "Writing curricula that are smart invite participation because that's what people want right now. Where you can invite participation, people stay engaged." Her report is a call to action, she writes, "a call to research and articulate new composition, a call to help our students compose often, compose well, and through these composings, become the citizen writers of the country, the citizen writers of the world, and the writers of our future."
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| Transparency required in education funding |
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In an editorial, The Christian Science Monitor has called for transparency in the spending of stimulus funds for education. Education Secretary Arne Duncan must resist political pressures from interest groups and Congressional members, which former secretary Margaret Spellings admits she routinely faced, they say. The editorial board is particularly concerned that discretionary stimulus education funds, not the pre-ordained money for specific programs such as Pell Grants or Head Start, be handled prudently and disbursed in the open. These funds, around $54 billion, have some criteria attached to them for channeling to the states, but not enough to discourage misuse, in the opinion of the authors. "Transparency should start at the agency," they write, "so taxpayers can see what's flowing from the spigot and know whether to turn it off. And it should reach all the way down to school districts, so parents can see who's getting what."
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| Budget shortfalls may mean crowded classrooms in New York City |
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Crowded classrooms are an alarming prospect for many advocates and parents, according to The New York Times. For some, low class size is a sacrament, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein question class-size importance. They point to research that shows slight reductions in student numbers per room have little impact on student performance. "It's the teacher looking a child in the eye, and teachers can look lots of children in the eye," Mayor Bloomberg said. "If you have to have smaller class size or better teachers, go with the better teachers every time." But Assemblywoman Catherine T. Nolan, a city Democrat and chairwoman of the state's Education Committee, said she routinely hears from middle-class parents that they are leaving the city for smaller classrooms where teachers can pay more attention to each child. The teachers' union estimates the city's classes have 10 to 60 percent more students than in neighboring suburbs, the highest average size in the state. "I always thought more money and the mayor controlling the schools would give us smaller classes," said Ms. Nolan, who has a son in public school. "I just don't understand it, but they seem to be nostalgic for a time of larger classes." A similar debate is sweeping other cash-strapped states like California.
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| An overhaul for decades-old oversight? |
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A major push is afoot to revamp Louisiana's local school boards, according to The Baton Rouge Advocate. The boards, in place for decades, have come under fire for micromanaging personnel decisions, nepotism, and various other impediments to academic achievement in Louisiana's classrooms. Under current state law, local board members can serve indefinitely, collect up to $800 per month for their service, and face no degree requirements such as a high school diploma or its equivalent. Proposed changes would limit tenures to three or four terms, make the job unpaid, and adopt minimum education requirements. Board ability to make operating decisions would also be curtailed. "Superintendents need to have the ability to move personnel in and out of positions, to move personnel from one campus to another," said Louisiana Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek. "And they need to do it without the political pressures of local school board members." He added that many of the state's 600 school board members have been involved in education for decades, and that "the education systems of 30, 40 or 50 years ago are not the education systems that we need now."
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| Looking at the four-day week in rural districts |
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For five years, Oregon's Colton School District, like 40 others in the state, has held classes just four days a week. More schools are exploring this option in the economic downturn, according to The Oregonian, and the experience of Colton and other districts show its effect on everything from athletics and after-school programs to homework and child care. District superintendent Linda Johnson estimates Colton saves about $100,000 annually from its $6 million budget, mainly from reduced classified staff hours. Some districts eliminate after-school programs on Fridays, but others skip Mondays to make it easier for kids to participate in Friday sports and activities that involve other districts. The rhythm of school and homework has definitely changed, with less assigned on weeknights, since kids involved in sports or other after-school activities often don't get home until 8 p.m. Teachers compensate with more homework over the longer weekend, and they say lengthier classes give science and art students more time to finish labs or projects. Generally, families in smaller districts have found solutions to childcare.
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| The high cost of low-cost school lunch |
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In an op-ed in The New York Times, renowned chef Alice Waters asks us to reevaluate the National School Lunch Program. "Launched in 1946 as a public safety net," she writes, "it has turned out to be a poor investment." Waters wants money paid by the federal government -- $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch, and 24 cents for a paid lunch -- to make our children healthier. Schools now use the funds to pay for everything from custodial services to heating in the cafeteria. As a remedy, schools receive commodity foods valued at 20 cents per meal: "high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods like chicken nuggets and pizza, many of them ready to be thawed, heated, or just unwrapped -- a necessity for schools without kitchens." Food distributed by the National School Lunch Program "contains some of the same ingredients found in fast food, and the resulting meals routinely fail to meet basic nutritional standards. Yet this is how the government continues to 'help' feed millions of American schoolchildren, a great many of them from low-income households." How much, Waters asks, would it cost to feed 30 million American public schoolchildren a wholesome meal? Five dollars per child, roughly $27 billion a year, plus a one-time investment in real kitchens. "Yes, that sounds expensive," she writes. "But a healthy school lunch program would bring long-term savings and benefits in the areas of hunger, children's health and dietary habits, food safety (contaminated peanuts have recently found their way into school lunches), environmental preservation and energy conservation."
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| Meeting the 21st century head-on in Chicago< |
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In the second part of its profile of Chicago Public Schools' VOISE -- Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment -- high school, Edutopia writes that after a shaky start that included technological and social barriers and theft, the school is delivering its promise of a "21st-century education." The school's online curriculum enables subject-specific instruction, allowing students to learn at their own pace. "Some kids are now starting semester two because they flew through semester one," explained one teacher, "While others are in only the second unit of semester one." Many VOISE freshmen had never used a computer before, and few understood the basics of email or simple word-processing maneuvers like copying, cutting, and pasting. During the first semester, teachers spent significant class time getting students up to speed, but the issue was exposure, rather than aptitude: "In grammar school, we would have a computer class once a week, and that'd be for only 40 minutes," said student Tisha Phillips. "You'd want to learn more stuff, but you couldn't. Now, when we get to college, we'll already know what to do, because we'll have had four years of experience." The school is ably served by a technical staff that keeps everything up and running.
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'The Double Back Around to Pick Up the Children We Left Behind Act'
The New York Times notes the NCLB renaming contest at www.eduwonk.com.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/education/23child.html?em
No more lunch bills: schools go after deadbeats
School districts including those in Albuquerque, N.M.; Chula Vista, Calif.; Hillsborough County, Fla.; and Lynnwood, Wash.; have taken to serving cheese sandwiches to children with delinquent lunch accounts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090225/ap_on_re_us/cheese_sandwich_flap
More persuasive than detention?
Proposed Alabama bill would suspend the driver's licenses of chronically misbehaving high school students.
http://montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20090218/NEWS0201/902180373/1009/NEWS02
The importance of recess
The best way to improve children's performance in the classroom may be to take them out of it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/24well.html
No dog left behind: the fallacy of 'tough love' reform
Why are one-size-fits-all performance standards inappropriate to the point of silliness when applied to dogs, but accepted without question when applied to kids?
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/28/19brady.h28.html
Time away from the classroom beats smaller class size
A New Zealand professor advocates giving teachers one day off a week for feedback from colleagues.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/01/04/1245978506d1
Related: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/feb09/vol66/num05/Fostering_Reflection.aspx |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
Do Something: Awards for Teen Do-ers
The Do Something Award honors the nation's best young world-changers -- pivotal "do-ers" in their field, cause, or issue -- and rewards them with a community grant, participation in a special award ceremony, media coverage, and continued support from Do Something. Maximum award: $100,000 community grant. Eligibility: U.S. or Canadian citizens under 25. Deadline: March 1, 2009.
http://www.dosomething.org/programs/awards_guidelines
NCSS: Grant for Geographic Literacy
The National Council for the Social Studies Grant for Geographic Literacy promotes geography education in the schools with the aim of enhancing the geographic literacy of students at the classroom, district, or statewide level and encouraging the integration of geography into the social studies curriculum or classroom. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: programs, not individuals, individual lessons, or units, that will enhance the geographic literacy of students at the classroom, district, or statewide levels. Recipients may be individuals or groups in school districts, public institutions, or universities. Deadline: postmarked by March 21, 2009.
http://www.socialstudies.org/awards/geographiclit/
Dominion Foundation: Grants for Math and Science
The Dominion Foundation is currently accepting applications for Education Partnership grants to encourage the development of new programs that strengthen math and science education through the study of energy and the environment in K-12 education. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: certain accredited public and private elementary and secondary schools and public school divisions in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Virginia. Deadline: May 1, 2009.
http://www.dom.com/about/education/grants/grants.jsp
American Honda Foundation: Grants for Youth and Scientific Education
The American Honda Foundation makes grants to K-12 schools, colleges, universities, trade schools, and other youth-focused non-profit organizations for programs that benefit youth and scientific education. Maximum award: $60,000. Eligibility: schools and youth-focused nonprofit organizations. Deadline: Grant applications are accepted four times per year; next deadline is May 1, 2009.
http://corporate.honda.com/america/philanthropy.aspx?id=ahf
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country -- and this country needs and values the talents of every American. That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."
-President Barack Obama, February 24, 2009.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=AB2B498F-18FE-70B2-A8A7003485FD46B4
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