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WE ARE A WORLD OF EDUCATION In today’s world, so much has been made of the notion of the global marketplace and the need to prepare students for a 21st century global economy. One beneficial aspect of trade flowing freely from hemisphere to hemisphere is the exchange of ideas and cultural practices. Currently, there is a great international bazaar of education, a flourishing and bustling agora occupied by thousands of traditions, theories and practices devoted to the universal need to teach each generation. Education, then, represents something more than mere goods and services because it represents the future, writes Owen Edwards in Edutopia. This new edition includes vivid images and stories of how students are taught across the globe, from the Tyrolean Alps to Mumbai, Chile to Japan, New Zealand to Russia, and many other exotic locales. With every example of instruction and generational growth comes, at the very least, a reminder that, in the end, all humans are connected through the global, and noble, act of passing along knowledge. Read Article VOTERS SEE IMAGINATIVE EDUCATION CRITICAL TO IMPROVING SCHOOLS A new national survey by Lake Research Partners of 1,000 likely voters finds that they believe education geared toward fostering the imagination is a critical missing ingredient in improving public education. The poll shows that 30 percent of American voters have grown dissatisfied with the increased focus on "core" subjects. In addition, a majority of those surveyed understand the importance of quality public schools, and share a common concern that United States schools lag behind what is offered around the world. These likely voters see the U.S. as devoting less time to developing the imagination, creative skills and innovation, with 88 percent of respondents indicating that education in and through the arts is essential to cultivating vital skills. When viewing this skill set, 63 percent of respondents see building the imaginative capacities as just as important as "core" subjects, and 91 percent of respondents believe imaginative learning should be considered part of the basics. Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, said "these are surprising results that indicate a strong set of shared public values are not being detected by public leaders." Read Article (poll) Read Article TEACH THE WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THEATRE Dancing through science class and singing through math is how 20 Flagstaff (Ariz.) Unified School District teachers hope to enthrall students with learning, reports Rebecca Schubert for the Associated Press. The teachers were encouraged to think creatively when crafting lesson plans by Keeping Score, a program that teaches innovative ways to incorporate music, dance, drama, poetry and art into core curriculum courses. For instance, one third grade class explores the solar system by impersonating the celestial bodes, while one group of students reads lines as if in a play, and yet another interprets the words through movement, mimicking orbits and rotations on axis. In addition, teachers from around the country can post ideas and share successful lesson plans on the Keeping Score website. Read Article STANDARDIZED TESTING: IS IT REALLY STILL ALL THE RAGE? No Child Left Behind (NCLB), being the signature federal education policy, has brought standardized testing to the forefront of policy discussions. At a recent workshop on multiple measures of student achievement sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, David Gitomar of the Educational Testing Service noted that federally mandated accountability systems were psychometrically weak. As Nancy Flanagan writes in Teacher Magazine, the systems are predicated on mistrust between the actors (teachers) and the system. Gitomar added that the field has little to no idea as to what it means to be ‘proficient,’ and in the absence of this wisdom, the field relies on single-number or composite-number metrics. Leaving Capitol Hill, the Minnesota Council of Teachers of English has awarded Peter Henry its annual essay prize for his work titled "The Case Against Standardized Testing" (second link). In the article, Henry takes a comprehensive look at the relative pitfalls to testing as an instructional, pedagogical and educational strategy. While weighing the pros and cons of testing, Henry found that the current form of standardized tests, which are typically multiple choice and lacking in breadth and depth, tend to measure low-order thinking skills. This doesn't quite jive with a future economy focused on creativity, whole analysis, complex reasoning and critical problem-solving. Another detriment of testing is that it results in a kind of "drill and kill" pedagogy that has been proven mostly ineffective. Lastly, Henry argues that high-stakes tests are not good measures of academic excellence because they center on a narrow band of logical sequence operations which are useful only for taking further exams. Read Article Read Article BIG BUSINESS IN "DRILLING AND KILLING" While the use and structure of standardized tests has come under fire, it is hard to overestimate the importance of standardized tests in public schools today, reports Pauline Vu for Stateline.org. Since NCLB was signed into law, funding earmarked for testing has dramatically increased. In 2001, states collectively spent about $423 million on tests, but for school year 2007-08, states will spend about $1.1 billion. Some of this is subsidized by the federal government, which gave states $407.6 million to help pay for testing, but states claim that falls short. The funding issue is important because it directly relates to test quality. For example, some states employ fewer questions that test writing skills since it can cost a thousand times more to score an essay question than a multiple-choice question. While inadequately funded tests can have an impact on difficulty, how difficult a test is can be measured in multiple ways. Even if it is proved that the test questions are challenging, a test’s difficulty can be misleading if a state sets a low cut score, i.e., the number of questions a student must answer correctly to be deemed proficient (which it appears no one has really be able to define accurately). Read Article PAY-FOR-STUDENT-PERFORMANCE GAINS TRACTION, IMPACT STILL A QUESTION Adding fuel to a recent trend, the Baltimore school system plans to pay high school students who improve test scores up to $110 each, reports Sara Neufeld in the Baltimore Sun. Under the plan, students who failed at least one section of the state exit exam will earn $25 for improving test performance by five percent. If they improve an additional 15 percent, they will get $35 more, and 20 percent improvement on top of that earns $50 more. While funding for a similar pay-for-student-performance plan in New York City comes from private donors, the Baltimore plan will draw dollars from the settlement of a dispute over a federal audit. In all, the system will spend $935,622 on student incentives, which comprises part of a $6.3 million plan to help struggling students pass the Maryland High School Assessments. Down I-95 a bit, 40 students in the Fulton County (Ga.) school system will be the first to try the "Learn & Earn" program, in which students will get paid to attend after-school tutoring programs. Students will receive approximately $8 an hour and be eligible for bonuses if their grades improve, reports Michelle Shaw for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (second link). The program is funded by a local nonprofit foundation and intends to determine if paying students to study will improve classroom attendance, grades and test scores. To that end, an unrelated recent study by C. Kirabo Jackson, a professor of labor economics at Cornell University, found that when students and teachers in disadvantaged Texas public schools were offered up to $500 for each passing Advanced Placement (AP) score, participation and scores rose. Though the cash awards were limited to AP tests, student achievement was not, reports Scott Cech in Education Week (third link). Comparing college-entrance-exam scores at schools before the program and three years afterward, the study notes an average 33 percent net increase in students scoring above 1100 on SAT or 24 on the ACT. This gain was above increases that the schools would have expected to see otherwise. Move over textbook companies. Apparently, there is another burgeoning big business growing within schools. Read Article Read Article Read Article DOWN WITH FRACTIONS, SQUARE ROOTS AND LONG DIVISION -- KIDS ECSTATIC In a speech a few years ago, Dennis DeTurck, an award-winning professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, said in today’s digital world that fractions "are as obsolete as Roman numerals." This year, DeTurck is publishing a book that not only derides the teaching of fractions in favor of decimals, but also takes issue with long division, the calculation of square roots and multiplication by hand of long numbers (echoing every students’ belief that they will always have a calculator on standby). Still, DeTurck does not want to abolish the teaching of fractions and long division altogether, repots Maureen Milford in USA Today. He does believe that fractions are important for high-level mathematics and scientific research, but thinks the study of fractions should be delayed until the concept can be fully grasped. One of Deturck’s peers, George Andrews, a mathematics professor at Penn. State University, thinks the proposals are bad pedagogy because "math is hard. The idea that somehow we're going to make math just fun is just a dream." Its possible elementary school kids can agree with both professor’s sentiments. Read Article SOLUTIONS FOR THE U.S. EDUCATION SYSTEM FROM SOME OF THE BIGGEST STARS Education has taken over the "Solutions" opinion page of Forbes magazine, as Editor David Andelman has put together commentaries on reforming public education from 18 luminaries. Bill Gates, the Microsoft and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation guy, started his piece by remembering Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaimed education to be a fundamental human right. He then shifted his focus to the unique ability of technology to enable today’s limited educational resources, making it an essential ingredient in any effort to transform education. John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, continued in Gates’ vein by stating the necessity of creating a new model for how educators use, teach and interact with technology, while fellow businessman Craig Barrett, the chairman of Intel, sees the major problem as the lack of a systematic, coordinated approach to education reform. In his mind, achieving real, sustainable progress requires a more holistic strategy. Moving to the political arena, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings begins with a very Forbes message, namely that America’s competitors are improving the ways they nurture human capital, and that, even at the elite level, the U.S. is losing ground. However, she quickly moves to the main thrust behind the No Child Left Behind Act: closing the achievement gap. The U.S. is getting only half of its minority students out of high school on time, she writes, while 90 percent of the fastest growing jobs require post-secondary education. U.S Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) lent his voice to the increasing fervor for improving early childhood education. As he sees it, every dollar spent on early childhood education makes the U.S. economy stronger and more competitive. With perhaps a unique view on the problems facing education, Col. Dean Esserman, chief of police in Providence, R.I., adds that it is no surprise to members of his profession that small, neighborhood-based schools perform so much better than bigger regional ones (must be music to Gates’ ears). He offers some interesting solutions (putting schools on wheels to keep kids together) rooted in his view that schools are anchors of the community. Read Article PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: U.K. PARENTS WANT KIDS TO LEARN FINANCE According to a survey of 613 parents and 771 primary and secondary school teachers in the United Kingdom, 93 percent of parents support the teaching of personal finance in school, with half believing it should be compulsory, reports the BBC. In fact, parents ranked personal finance lessons ahead of traditional subjects like geography, music and religious studies. The survey also revealed that more than half of parents believe their own financial positions would be healthier if they had been taught personal finance in school. Likewise, almost two-thirds of parents welcome some form of training for adults, in part so they can pass the benefits on to their children. Read Article HOW CHARTER SCHOOLS AFFECT NON-CHARTER STUDENTS It has long been argued by proponents of charter schools that the existence of charters will provide incentives for non-chartered public schools to expend more energy focused on improving student performance. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether schools respond to competition in this way, while at the same time other mechanisms may counteract any possible competitive impacts. In a new paper, Scott Imberman, assistant professor of economics at the University of Houston, investigates how charter schools affect behavior, attendance and test scores for students in non-charter schools. Imberman first looked at three methods (school fixed-effects, school fixed-effects combined with school-specific time-trends and instrumental variables) for calculating a charter’s effect on public schools. Results using school fixed-effects suggest that the impact on test scores is statistically insignificant in levels models, but significantly positive in value-added models. On the other hand, instrument variable results indicate consistently negative, and often statistically significant, impacts of charter schools on test scores in both levels and value-added models. At the same time, Imberman finds large and statistically significant improvements in discipline in schools facing charter competition, also differing from the fixed-effects estimates. Unfortunately, Imberman cannot establish why his results suggest improved discipline in the middle/secondary schools and worsening test scores in primary schools. His results do, however, signal that previous work possibly suffers from substantial selection bias. Read Article COMMON SENSE SHOULD TELL YOU TO STAY IN SCHOOL Fourteen-year-old Harley Rye has become one of the leaders of a Mississippi Department of Education dropout prevention teen summit, reports Jimmie Gates in the Clarion (Miss.) Ledger. Rye, who is one of 20 students on the summit’s advisory board, is an apt choice because he thought about dropping out after his girlfriend got pregnant. He chose to stay in school, though, because "you...need a good job to take care of a child." In Mississippi, on average of 36 students drop out every day, including early a third of all high school students who leave school each year. The hope is that students participating in the summit will go back to their high schools and towns to start their own dropout prevention programs. In addition, the state will hold another summit to get community and business leaders involved in lowering local dropout rates. Read Article UNEVEN FUNDING LEAVES NEEDIEST STUDENTS WANTING The Education Trust has released the latest edition of their annual report, "The Funding Gap," finding that many states spend less money in school districts that educate English language learners (ELLs), low-income students and students of color, than more affluent districts. In fact, the funding gap between high- and low-poverty districts grew between 1999 and 2005 for 16 states. In Vermont, for instance, the gap grew by more than $2,000 per student, even as the state was under a court order to provide equitable funding to poorer districts. Also, in eight of the 16 states where the gap grew, high-minority districts received at least $1,000 less per student than districts with lower percentages of minority students. Still, during that same time frame, 10 states increased funding equity by decreasing the gaps between their high- and low-poverty districts. Moreover, three states reverses the gaps by providing more funding to their highest-poverty districts and high-poverty districts in five states receive $1,000 more per student than their more affluent counterparts. Read Article Read Article MILLIONS OF CHILDREN STILL LIVE IN POVERTY & THE NUMBERS ARE CLIMBING Nearly 13 million American children live in families with incomes below $20,000 a year, which is below the federal poverty level for a family of four. Unfortunately, the number of children living in poverty increased by more than 11 percent between 2000 and 2005, meaning an additional 1.3 million children lives in poverty today than in 2000. Furthermore, research has consistently shown that families, on average, need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet. And 39 percent of children in the U.S. (or more than 28 million in 2005) live in families with an income below this line. Still. What’s worse is that, according to a recent report from the National Center for Children in Poverty, the current U.S. poverty measure is widely acknowledged to be inadequate, yet the political will necessary to implement an official change is lacking. Data collected in the 1950s indicate that families spent about one-third of their income on food, and poverty is still measured by multiplying food costs by three. However, in present day, food comprises far less than a third of an average family’s expenses as housing, child care, health care and transportation costs have grown disproportionately. Additionally, the poverty measure does not adjust for the substantial variation in the cost of living from state to state and between urban and rural areas. A potential growing problem with the current poverty measure is that eligibility for many public benefits are based on this "official" measure. Read Article DASHBOARDS PROVIDE SNAPSHOTS OF EDUCATION IN EVERY STATE, NATION One of the main by-products of the implementation of No Child Left Behind Act has been the creation of vast amounts of data. To make better use of these data, the U.S. Department of Education has released two-page "dashboards," one for the nation and every state, that includes statistics on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, graduation rates, schools making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), highly qualified teachers, parents taking advantage of choice and supplemental educational services, and more. The individual state summaries provide information for anyone trying to get an overview of the state of a state’s education system. Read Article NEW WEBSITE AIMS AT GROWING POLITICALLY INVOLVED YOUTH ServiceVote has launched a new, interactive website intended to engage young people in the 2008 elections by providing news and information on the candidates paired with key issues. The site also allows for peer interaction and ongoing conversations through a discussion forum that enables youths to post videos, images and audio files. The hope is to increase the numbers of young people taking action in the election and in the policy process. Read Article NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION "AASL Collaborative School Library Media Award" The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Collaborative School Library Media Award recognizes and encourages collaboration between school library media specialists and teachers in meeting goals through a combination of school curriculum and media center resources. Maximum Award: $2,500. Eligibility: school library media specialists and teachers who have worked together to execute a project, event or program to further information literacy, independent learning and social responsibility using the resources of the school library media center. The library media specialist must be a personal member of the AASL. Deadline: February 1, 2008. http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslawards/collaborativeslm/aaslcollaborative.htm "Healthy Kids Healthy Schools Hero Award" The Healthy Kids Healthy Schools Hero Award is part of the campaign to promote citizen awareness and responsible leadership for chemical security by eliminating explosives and other hazards in today's schools. Maximum Award: recognition. Deadline: February 15, 2008. http://www.healthy-kids.info/resourcesdetail.lasso?-skiprecords=43 "MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Awards Program" The MetLife Foundation and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) are partnering to recognize the work of innovative partnerships between community groups and police to promote neighborhood safety and revitalization. Maximum Award: $25,000. Eligibility: member organizations of partnerships that include, but need not be limited to, community organizations and police. Deadline: February 29, 2008. http://www.lisc.org/section/areas/sec1/safety/awards/ "Grants for Teachers of Children with Special Needs" The P. Buckley Moss Foundation Education Grants aid and support teachers who wish to establish an effective learning tool using the arts in teaching children with learning disabilities and other special needs. Maximum Award: $1,000. Eligibility: Programs in the planning stages or in existence for less than two years. Deadline: February 29, 2008. http://www.mossfoundation.org/page.php?id=89 "A+ for Energy" BP America’s A+ for Energy program gives grants for implementing creative and innovative educational programs to teach students about energy use, alternative and sustainable energy types and sources and energy conservation. Maximum Award: $10,000. Eligibility: teachers K-12 in Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. Deadline: March 7, 2008. http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=9020145&contentId=7039882 QUOTES OF THE WEEK "Herbert’s analysis of South Carolina’s "toxic layers of bigotry" is an eloquent reminder of how important education is as an instrument of political, social, and moral change. An effective and equitable public school system is not only a preemptive solution to so many of the problems we might face in the future, but also a solvent that can -- finally -- start stripping away the country’s last stubborn layers of race-based bigotry. Voters need to start hearing more about it." - Megan Garber in the Columbia Journalism Review http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/wheres_education_part_ii.php "In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed." - Abraham Lincoln (President, United States of America, 1861 -1865) http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/15.2/zarefsky.html ===========PEN NewsBlast========== The PEN Weekly NewsBlast is a free e-mail newsletter featuring school reform and school fundraising resources. The PEN NewsBlast is the property of the Public Education Network, a national association of 82 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities nationwide. There are currently 42,585 subscribers to the PEN Weekly NewsBlast. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who enjoys free updates on education news and grant alerts. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast change or expire on a daily or weekly basis. Some links may also require local website registration. Your e-mail address is safe with the NewsBlast. 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