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January 22, 2010 |
Click here to read printable version |
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| How much of a renaissance? |
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A Chicago Tribune analysis of 2009 Illinois test data finds that six years after Mayor Richard Daley launched Renaissance 2010, "a bold initiative to close down and remake failing schools," little in the educational performance of the city's school system has improved. Scores from elementary schools created under Renaissance 2010 are nearly identical to the city average, and scores at remade high schools are below the "already abysmal" city average. This is significant, because the main architect of the initiative was the present Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who has touted Chicago as a reform model as he pushes ahead with his national initiative, Race to the Top. Renaissance 2010 was launched in 2004 after decades of reforms failed to fix chronically underperforming schools. City leaders promised to close the worst schools and open 100 innovative ones that would rely heavily on the private sector for ideas, funding, and management. Central to the plan was an increase in charter schools. The initiative's supporters argue that many new schools, mainly in low-income and high-crime neighborhoods, are outperforming nearby traditional schools, and attendance rates, parent satisfaction, and student engagement are higher. Expecting significant gains from startup schools is unrealistic, they say.
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| No out-educating on his watch |
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President Obama has announced that as part of his budget request, he'll ask Congress for $1.35 billion to extend the Race to the Top grant program for states, saying that getting schools right "will shape our future as a nation," USA TODAY reports. Extending the program would allow more states to win grants, and some of the money could be used for a similarly competitive grant program for local school districts. "Offering our children an outstanding education is one of our most fundamental -- perhaps our most fundamental -- obligations as a country," Mr. Obama said in brief remarks. "Countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, and I refuse to let that happen on my watch." With the grant programs, the president is trying to make federal education spending more of a competitive endeavor to encourage states and school districts to do better, rather than a solely formula-driven effort in which states and districts look forward to receiving a certain amount of money each school year regardless of how good a job they do educating students. Mr. Obama is expected to send Congress his 2011 budget proposal sometime next month.
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| Tackling state standards without uniformity |
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Too many states' benchmarks for reading and math are low, writes Marcus Winters of the Manhattan Institute in The Los Angeles Times, and they are declining further. He cites a recent federal study that found 15 states lowered at least one of their proficiency standards in math and reading between 2005 and 2007. The perverse incentives of the No Child Left Behind Act clearly have something to do with this, Winters says, and its reauthorization is an opportunity for remedy, but not via national standards. "We could make better progress toward an effective testing regime if we changed our goal from uniform national standards to high state standards, which two simple amendments to No Child Left Behind could help bring about," Winters proposes. First, instead of focusing just on who counts as "proficient," school quality should encompass gains that students make from year to year. This would stop rewarding states that push down proficiency standards. Second, states could develop their own tests and set their own benchmarks, but every few years, the federal government could administer these tests to a small but nationally representative sample of students. These scores would provide a uniform and objective measure that could be used to compare the relative difficulty of standards across states. With an objective measure of each state's standards, a revised law could then link some portion of a state's federal per-pupil funding to the standards' difficulty, relative to those of other states.
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| What Weingarten actually said, redux |
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New York University's Diane Ravitch writes in The Huffington Post that she, too, was surprised to read that AFT President Randi Weingarten had endorsed using student scores in teacher evaluations. Upon reading the actual speech, what Ravitch found was "a far more complicated and nuanced proposal than was widely reported." Weingarten recommended that states set out clear professional standards describing what teachers should know and be able to do. In order to determine whether teachers meet these standards, districts should use "multiple means of evaluation," including classroom observations, self-evaluations, portfolio reviews, appraisal of lesson plans, and a variety of other tools, which include student test scores. Districts would have to test students when they enter a specific classroom in the fall and again at the end of the school year to measure progress; hardly any districts do this now. The goal of evaluation would not be to simply identify teachers who were good or bad, but to help teachers get better at their work throughout their careers. Weingarten proposed that every district should offer "solid induction, mentoring, ongoing professional development, and career opportunities that keep great teachers in the classroom."
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| In praise of building over time |
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Broad Prize recipient Long Beach Unified School District hasn't achieved success by "flitting from reform to reform or looking for silver bullets," writes Anne O'Brien on the Public School Insights blog. Instead, it has spent the past two decades building on the same educational strategies, focusing on data, community buy-in, and staff development. In an interview, Long Beach Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser, who has spent the past 28 years in the district in various capacities, explains that their reform "journey" was prompted in 1992 by the closure of the city's naval base, huge layoffs by local employer McDonnell Douglas, and civil unrest in neighboring Los Angeles. The school system was in turmoil, with students pulling out. In response, the school board implemented K-8 uniforms, ended social promotion, introduced a third-grade reading initiative, and adopted a policy in which eighth-graders who had two or more Fs could not go on to high school. The system also launched a major partnership with its local junior college and local university. All of these measures caught on, says Steinhauser, with the result that Long Beach has huge accountability at the elementary level and one of the most rigorous promotion policies in California. "Everything has just built up over the years," he explains. "We see ourselves as a continuous improvement district. We look at the data every year, target certain issues, and build upon those issues."
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| Institutional innovation in an era of change |
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As part of its 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning initiative, the KnowledgeWorks foundation has released a series of policy briefs to address the reality now facing traditional education institutions. The most dynamic innovations in education will probably occur outside these institutions, and bottom-up developments will have to fuse with their traditional, top-down hierarchies. The first brief in the series, "Crafting Policy for Emerging Educational Futures," examines this issue in light of two drivers of change: The first driver is our present context, in which bio-engineering promises cognitive and physical enhancement at the same time that our biological, ecological, and built environments show signs of stress; the second driver is the current economy, where large-scale production is shifting to bottom-up design and manufacturing. The second policy brief, "Amplified Policymaking," explores skills required to handle the ubiquity of data, along with implications for using those skills to extend individual and organizational capacity. The third brief, "Building Policy Platforms for Resilience," calls on policymakers to bring new strategies in response to disruptions in our geopolitical, economic, environmental, and social systems. The final brief, "Transforming Urban Education: Implications for State Policymakers," explains the process for state-level policymakers interested in transforming urban education.
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| Mind the gaps |
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The most common way of measuring the achievement gap in a given school, district, or area is by simple subtraction: The performance of white students minus the performance of African-American students equals the gap. A new brief from the Education Trust suggests this formulation is misleading, and offers four ways to gain a more sophisticated, comprehensive, and accurate picture. Data must be analyzed from at least four different perspectives: Have absolute gaps in mean performance between groups decreased over time? Have all groups of students gained over time? What is the current size of the gap between groups? How does each group of students currently perform compared with their counterparts in other jurisdictions? These multiple perspectives unquestionably show that some places have much better track records than others concerning equity and achievement. Meaningful differences between states -- as well as between districts and schools -- emerge when assessing performance in these ways, and should be considered when evaluating how much state and local leaders have advanced academic equity to date, as well as their readiness to make additional progress.
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| Regarding that 'sprint to the middle' |
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On Jan 13, Gov. Rick Perry announced that Texas would not compete for a federal education grant that could have won as much as $700 million for the state, since in his view it required too much and offered too little, reports The Austin American-Statesman. Perry's decision falls in line with his historically anti-government stance, but also reflects the tightness of the gubernatorial race in which he is pitted against conservative U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. The decision comes despite the fact that the Texas Education Agency committed upward of 800 hours readying its Race to the Top application, partially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gov. Perry and Education Commissioner Robert Scott particularly criticized efforts by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop national curriculum standards for math and English. "This grant application is essentially a Trojan horse designed for us to take the money and then hand over our control," Scott said. He maintained that the amount Texas could have won was a pittance in a state of 4.7 million public school students. At the top end, the award would have operated the public school system for two days, he said.
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| Lukewarm results prompt Head Start overhaul |
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A congressionally-mandated study on the impact of the 2002-2003 Head Start program showed that at the end of one program year, access to Head Start positively influenced children's school readiness, but when measured again at the end of kindergarten and first grade, Head Start children and control group children were at the same level. The study measured the cognitive and social/emotional development, health status, and behavior of approximately 5000 three- and four-year-olds randomly assigned to either a control group or a group with access to a Head Start program. In the wake of the report, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sibelius announced that her department is now in the process of raising Head Start performance standards; increasing program accountability by only renewing grants for high-quality, constantly improving programs; improving classroom practices by providing higher quality training for classroom teachers, staff, and program directors; improving technical assistance to grantees looking to improve their programs; and convening a research advisory committee to gather insights from the Head Start Impact Study and other relevant research to ensure continuity of quality programs.
See the report | Read a release from HHS | Back to top
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| Facilitating information flow between K–12, higher ed, and the workforce |
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College- and career-readiness has become a focal point in American education, but a new report by Education Sector finds that most high school accountability systems fail to recognize college- and career-ready goals. Many districts rate schools solely on graduation rates and on student scores on basic-skills tests in a single year. Some states have added end-of-course or graduation exams, but these are often stymied by lawsuits or devalued by near-universal pass rates after re-takes and alternate routes. The report looks at various measures some states are taking to remedy this by building "powerful new data systems that track student progress after high school into the workforce and college, allowing vital information to flow between K–12, higher education, and workforce information systems." Sixteen states are already reporting the college remediation needs of public high school graduates, according to the study, and can calculate the percentage of students in a specific high school's graduating class in need of remedial coursework in college, who drops out of college, who earns successful grade point averages their freshman year, and much more. The report also suggests that states calculate the earnings of graduates who enter the workforce, broken down by occupation and industry sector.
See the report | Back to top
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Colorado graduation rates edge upward
The state's Department of Education said 74.6 percent of the class of 2009 graduated from high school, an increase of 0.7 percentage points from 2008.
http://www.kdvr.com/news/sns-ap-co--graduationrates-colorado,0,7165691.story
A rebuttal to The Atlantic Monthly's school garden bashing
On the contrary, writes Alissa Novoselick in Salon.com, school gardens "create excitement, create learning opportunities, and create a sense of community."
http://salon.com/life/education/index.html?story=/food/2010/01/15/school_gardens_strike_back_at_flanagan
HISD moves toward performance-related firing
Houston's school board has given initial approval to a policy allowing dismissal of teachers whose students consistently perform below expectations on standardized tests.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6816752.html
Resources are critical, but so is flexibility
Finalists in the AASA National Superintendent of the Year competition hope the federal government will make resources available to districts while also giving them the flexibility to implement their own improvement programs.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/01/14/superintendents-say-federal-resources-are-a-must/
Training disadvantaged kids in resilience
Researchers at U Penn have developed a curriculum to teach middle-school students specific strategies to challenge negative thought patterns and manage stress.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122526518 |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes honors outstanding young leaders who have focused on helping their communities and fellow beings and/or on protecting the health and sustainability of the environment. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: youth 8-18. Deadline: April 30, 2010.
http://www.barronprize.org/
Earth Island Institute: Youth Award for Outstanding Activism in Environmental and Social Justice
The Earth Island Institute Brower Youth Award recognizes young people for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and social justice advocacy. Maximum award: $3,000; a trip to San Francisco for the awards ceremony, October 19, 2010; and a wilderness camping trip. Eligibility: youth activists ages 13-22. Deadline: May 15, 2010.
http://www.broweryouthawards.org/article.php?list=type&type=54
National Endowment for the Arts: Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth
The NEA Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth program funds projects that help children and youth acquire appreciation, knowledge, and understanding of and skills in the arts. Projects must provide participatory learning and engagement of students with skilled artists, teachers, and excellent art, and ensure the application of national, state, or local arts education standards. Maximum award: $150,000. Eligibility: school-based or community-based projects. Deadline: June 10, 2010.
http://www.arts.gov/grants/apply/GAP11/LITA.html
Actuarial Foundation: Advancing Student Achievement Grants
The Actuarial Foundation Advancing Student Achievement grant program brings together actuaries and educators in local classrooms with the belief that interaction with real-world mentors will boost student interest and achievement in math. The Actuarial Foundation can provide a local network of actuaries ready to participate, as well as suggestions on how to integrate math concepts from the workplace into the classroom. Schools applying for grants will be given wide latitude in designing programs that enhance learning and create a "love of math" in each student. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: All schools willing to undertake a math-mentoring program involving local actuaries as volunteers are eligible. However, in order for a program to be viable, there must be a sufficient population of volunteer actuaries within easy traveling distance to make a regular program possible. Deadline: None, but applications should be received at least one or two months prior to proposed start date.
http://www.actuarialfoundation.org/programs/for_teachers.shtml
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"Historically, we prepare teachers who are white, female, and middle-class. That's not going to change. What needs to change is how we prepare people by teaching them to be competent across cultures." – Southern Miss education professor Tom O'Brien, January 18, 2010
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20100118/NEWS01/1180324
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