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July 11, 2008 6 States to Tailor NCLB Plans in Pilot Program In a departure from the Bush administration's approach to the No Child Left Behind Act, six states -- Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Ohio -- will be allowed in a pilot program to write their own prescriptions for failing schools, the Associated Press reports. The selected states have devised plans to tailor solutions more closely to individual schools' problems and focus resources on schools that are in the worst shape. The plans include requiring schools to offer tutoring earlier than is currently called for, to rely more on testing throughout the year to identify academic weak spots, and to put more emphasis on preparing school principals. In all, 17 states sought to participate in the program. Those not selected were Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Read more Gains in Reading, Math Since 2002 Reported for Many States Students' scores on state tests in reading and mathematics have risen in more than 20 states since 2002, a new report indicates, and achievement gaps among various groups of students have narrowed more often than they have widened. The report, by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy, says that among states for which data were considered sufficient, "moderate-to-large gains" in math were found for elementary schools in 21 states, for middle schools in 22 states, and for high schools in 12 states. In reading, the CEP's analysis found such gains for elementary schools in 17 states, for middle schools in 14 states, and for high schools in 8 states. Other states made slight gains in at least one area or showed improvement for one indicator but lacked data for the other, according to CEP's report, "Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?: State Test Score Trends Through 2006-07." The policy group describes its findings as "the most comprehensive and rigorous recent analysis of state test scores," and it observes: "These improvements have occurred during a period when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), state education reforms, and local school improvement efforts have focused on raising test scores and narrowing achievement gaps." Read more Poor Math Prep Found Among Elementary-School Teachers Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by schools of education to teach math, a study by the National Council on Teacher Quality concludes. The study by the nonpartisan research and advocacy group comes a few months after a federal panel reported that many American students are having difficulty with fractions. It's a problem, notes the Associated Press, that arises in elementary school -- where math's reliance on cumulative knowledge makes learning during the early years critical -- and that can prevent kids from mastering more complicated material, such as algebra, later on. The council's study found significant differences in the number and kind of teacher-ed courses required by each of 77 education programs it considered. A report of the study blames education schools for not being selective enough among applicants. Most of the schools require applicants to take an admissions test, usually around their sophomore year of college, but the report says such tests -- which typically including reading, writing, and math -- are far too easy. "Almost anyone can get in," says the report. "Compared to the admissions standards found in other countries, American education schools set exceedingly low expectations for the mathematics knowledge that aspiring teachers must demonstrate." Read more Wyoming Names State Coordinator for At-Risk Students The Wyoming Department of Education has selected a former teacher and district superintendent to become statewide coordinator for students at risk of dropping out of school, reports the Star-Tribune (Casper, Wyo.). The appointee, Susan Kinneman, will work with a study commission and examine how school affects achievement among at-risk students. "This is really groundbreaking for a state to attempt this huge of a project," Kinneman said. "The ultimate goal is to reduce the barriers that keep kids from being successful." Because schools often lack resources to work with such children, Wyoming wants to create a single support system for schools to call on for help. In the past, a variety of local and state agencies, as well as schools, have worked in this area, but there has been little coordination of their work. Read more Massachusetts Governor Proposes Sweeping Education Reforms Gov. Deval Patrick (D) of Massachusetts has put forth a 55-point plan for far-reaching education reforms ranging from early-childhood programs to the state's universities. According to the Boston Globe, some of the proposals -- such as lengthening the school day and year, consolidating school districts, and implementing a statewide teacher contract -- could face resistance from influential special-interest groups. Critics have raised questions about the state's ability to pay for the plan and about roadblocks it could face from teachers unions and lawmakers with sharply differing views. The governor's response: "You must accept the challenge that every child is your responsibility, even when he or she is not your child. An achievement gap matters, even when it's not your community; an opportunity gap matters, even when it's not your chance; a skills gap matters, even when your own kids are all grown up and fully employed. We all have a stake in a better future." Read more More States Abstain from Abstinence Education Program Skeptical states are forgoing millions of federal dollars for abstinence education, walking away from the program that the Bush administration touts for slowing teen sexual activity, the Associated Press reports. Some $50 million has been budgeted for the program this year, but a federal tally shows that participation in the program is down 40 percent over two years, with just 28 states still participating. Supporters of abstinence maintain that it is the only fully effective way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Critics argue, however, that abstinence education does not stop teenagers from having sex, and that those teens need more information about how to reduce pregnancy and disease. A 2007 federally financed study of four abstinence-only programs by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., found that participants had just as many sexual partners as nonparticipants and had sex at the same median age as nonparticipants. Longtime critics of abstinence-only education say the dwindling state participation is a signal that Congress should abolish the program or change it. Read more The Demise of For-Profit Edison Schools "After 16 years, endless controversy, and a sea of red ink, Edison Schools is no longer," blogs Education Sector co-director Tom Toch in "The Quick and the Ed." Terry Stecz, who replaced Edison's founder, Chris Whittle, as its chief executive last year, announced that Edison Schools would henceforth be known as edisonlearning, Toch notes, and the company intends to become a player in education software, focusing on student tracking systems and other "achievement management solutions." The work of running schools for mostly disadvantaged kids in poor neighborhoods proved a lot tougher, and less profitable, than the company had expected, says Toch. "Nor has the company been able to scare up much new business in the No Child Left Behind era, a period where states and schools systems have scrambled to find help in turning around the many failing schools identified by the law. Edison's competitors haven't fared much better." Read more Teaching English Language Learners: The Research In the summer issue of American Educator, the journal of the American Federation of Teachers, Stanford education professor Claude Goldenberg examines two recent reviews of research on educating English Language Learners (ELLs). Currently, one in nine public-school students in K-12 is an ELL, and demographers estimate that in 20 years that proportion could swell to one in four. Goldenberg says the research suggests that teaching students to read in their first language promotes higher levels of reading achievement in English. Another conclusion: What we know about good instruction and curriculum in general holds true for English learners, too. And this: When instructing English learners in English, teachers must modify instruction to take account of students' language limitations. The journal also contains sidebars dealing with what the research does not say (yet), and it includes resources for teachers of ELLs. Read more Students Shadow Workers for Real-Life Experience Middle-school students from Mobile, Ala., had a chance recently to see how algebra, verb conjugations, and other concepts learned in class actually could apply to their future careers by visiting companies in the Mobile area, reports the Press-Register in Birmingham. About 150 students from four schools spent four days shadowing employees at the companies and learning how to do some of the work themselves. For example, an eighth-grader at Clark School of Math, Science and Technology shadowed an AT&T technician who likes to show students the educational background of his work. "It helps to know things like Ohm's Law, voltages, and currents to understand the principles of electricity," he said. The Mobile Area Education Foundation started the program in 1996, but it ended in 2002 because of a lack of funds. It was revived this year with a $50,000 donation from the AT&T Foundation. The hope is to invite every middle school in the Mobile County School System to participate next year. Read more Alternative Certification for Teachers: Texas Weighs Tougher Rules The agency that licenses teachers in Texas is considering a proposal to require alternative-certification programs to accept only students who maintained a 2.5 grade-point average or better in college. Under the proposal, as described by the Dallas Morning News, so-called "alt-cert" teachers also would have to undergo a set number of training hours before facing students in the classroom. High-poverty urban school districts are among those opposing the proposal, which has been under review at the Texas State Board for Educator Certification. Currently, nearly 20 percent of Texas's public-school teachers -- and roughly half of all new teachers hired in the state each year -- are products of alt-cert training programs, mirroring a national trend. Supporters include state education officials, teachers colleges, teachers groups, and most school-district hiring officers. Advocates maintain that stricter state regulation will enhance teacher quality and improve student performance. In addition to high-poverty schools, opponents include for-profit companies that run alt-cert programs, and rural school districts. The companies don't want to limit their customer base, and critics in school districts that have trouble attracting teachers are concerned about limiting the pool of job candidates. On average, alternatively certified teachers are considered more likely to leave the teaching profession than university-trained teachers. Read more Classroom Observations: Seeing Both the Trees and the Forest Classroom observations, or "walkthroughs," are part of a principal's job, but they can be useless if the principal doesn't know what information to look for or how to use it. In the summer issue of McREL's publication Changing Schools, Senior Director Howard Pitler explains that the key to meaningful observations is to ask the right questions and then aggregate the resulting data across teachers and over time. "One, two, or even 10 observations of an individual teacher does not provide a clear picture of the quality of instruction within a school," Pitler writes, "but 10 visits each to 40 teachers' classrooms does provide a more accurate picture." He says that pulling together brief observations into a more complete picture helps principals fulfill the purposes of observations: to coach teachers to higher levels of performance, support professional learning communities, and evaluate the effectiveness of professional-development initiatives. (McCREL, based in Denver, is the nonprofit research organization also known as Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.) Read more How the Arts Can Increase What Students Retain Marcia Daft, an education consultant from Washington, D.C, who specializes in using the arts to teach math -- as well as language arts, social studies, and science -- spent several weeks in Greenville, Miss., over the past two years, showing educators there how to use chanting games to promote literacy, dance routines to demonstrate scientific processes, and group movement to teach math. It's all part of applying "arts integration" to promote learning, reports the Delta Democrat Times. Daft says the greatest benefit is that the approach helps students retain more information after a lesson. She says the greatest barrier to arts integration is classroom management, although not in the traditional sense. Students in arts-integrated classrooms do not become bored and lose control, as they often do in a conventional, sit-in-your-seats-and-learn environment. Instead, Daft maintains, students become so excited about what they are learning that teachers can have trouble managing their enthusiasm. Read more Teachers of 'Regular' Students Getting ESL Certification To meet the challenge of imparting the same content to both gifted students and struggling students, an increasing number of teachers in northwest Arkansas have been pursuing certification in English as a Second Language, reports the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The program seeks to help teachers refine lesson plans so they can challenge students at all levels of literacy. ESL certification, traditionally a requirement for teachers in classrooms where English is taught to non-native speakers, has also become valuable for teachers in mainstream classrooms where students who are not considered English-language learners still may have language issues. "If you pull those [struggling] students out for 45 minutes of special training, then they spend the rest of the day not understanding what's happening in their classrooms," says Mary Bridgforth, an ESL coordinator in Springdale, Ark. "They're not going to grow as quickly." In Springdale's schools, where 38 percent of students are not proficient in English, administrators would like to see every classroom teacher obtain ESL certification. Read more Debating the Cost of Firing Bad Teachers In New York City, it often costs taxpayers $250,000 just to fire one incompetent teacher, the Associated Press reports, and some teachers remain on the payroll even after a felony conviction, requiring their districts to hold disciplinary hearings in prison. Such situations illustrate a persistent problem in school districts around the country, and are part of an ongoing debate over education reform and the role of tenure. Argues one foe of tenure, B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability: "Protecting jobs of adults without regard to how well their students perform almost certainly will lead to greater costs, stagnant academic achievement, and greater dysfunction of our public education system." But Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, counters: "Tenure provides the right to due process. It is consistent with the American way; a person is innocent until proven guilty." According to the Center for Union Facts, from 1995 to 2005, a total of 112 Los Angeles tenured teachers out of some 43,000 faced termination, while in New Jersey, 47 teachers out of about 100,000 were fired in a 10-year period. Read more NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION School Counselor of the Year Award The American School Counselor Association's School Counselor of the Year program honors "the best of the best" school counselors. The award is granted to school counselors who are running a top-notch, comprehensive school-counseling program at either the elementary, middle, or high school level. Maximum award: expenses for award ceremony. Eligibility: U.S.-based practicing school counselors as of February 2008. Nominations deadline: Sept. 5, 2008. Read more Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy's grantmaking program for 2009 seeks to develop or expand projects supporting development of literacy skills for adult primary caregivers and their children. Maximum award: $65,000. Eligibility: organizations with current nonprofit or public status that have been in existence for at least two years on the date of the application. Deadline: Sept. 5, 2008. Read more Best Buy Awards for Interactive te@ch Programs The Best Buy te@ch program rewards schools for successful interactive programs they have launched with available technology. Winning te@ch programs focus on kids using technology to learn a standards-based curriculum, rather than on teaching students to use technology or educators using technology that children aren't able to use hands-on. Maximum Award: $5,000. Eligibility: Accredited K-12 public, private, parochial, and nonprofit charter schools in the United States. Deadline: October 12, 2008. Read more National Schools of Character Awards The National Schools of Character Awards program identifies exemplary schools and districts to serve as models for others and helps schools and districts improve their efforts in effective character education. Maximum Award: $2,000. Eligibility: To be eligible, a school must have been engaged in character education for a minimum of three full years, starting no later than December 2006 for the 2009 awards. Districts need to have been engaged in character education for a minimum of four full years, starting no later than December 2005. Smaller administrative units that maintain a separate identity within a large district may apply in the district category -- for example, a school pyramid or cluster. Deadline: Dec. 8, 2008. Read more Comcast Grants for Diversity-Oriented Programs The Comcast Foundation is awarding grants to maximize the impact of community investments so they yield tangible, measurable benefits to the neighborhoods Comcast serves and the people who live there. The Foundation's primary focus is in funding diversity-oriented programs that address literacy, volunteerism, and youth leadership development. Maximum Award: $500,000. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations operating within communities that Comcast serves. Deadline: N/A. Read more QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier." -- Charles F. Kettering ===========PEN NewsBlast========== The PEN Weekly NewsBlast is a free e-mail newsletter featuring school reform and school fundraising resources. 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