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June 18, 2010 Still slipping The percentage of students earning a standard diploma in four years has slid from 69.2 percent in 2006 to 68.8 percent in 2007, according to an analysis in Education Week's "Diplomas Count 2010," The Christian Science Monitor reports. This is the second consecutive year of decline, translating to 11,000 fewer graduates in 2007 than in 2006; at its peak in 1969, the national graduation rate was 77 percent. On a more positive note, the report identifies 21 cities that posted higher graduation rates than expected based on a range of predictors, including demographics and poverty. Five districts outpaced expectations by 18 percentage points or more: Newport-Mesa Unified in California; David Douglas in Portland, Oregon; Texarkana Independent in Texas; Memphis City in Tennessee; and Visalia Unified in California. Diplomas Count computes the percentage of public-school students graduating with a standard diploma in four years using a method known as the Cumulative Promotion Index, which enables comparisons across all districts. The report did note that racial and ethnic gaps persist, with 46 percent of African American students, 44 percent of Latinos, and 49 percent of Native Americans failing to earn a diploma in four years. About one-fifth of the non-graduates come from 25 large school districts that include New York City, Los Angeles, and Clark County, Nevada. Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0610/Graduation-rate-for-US-high-schoolers-falls-for-second-straight-year See the report: http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2010/06/10/index.html Number of U.S. children in poverty expands An analysis by the Foundation for Child Development finds that the number of children living in poverty this year will climb to 22 percent, the highest in two decades, according to USA TODAY. In 2006 nearly 17 percent of children were living in poverty, and the recession could wipe out virtually all economic progress for children since 1975 when the foundation began analyzing data. The foundation's Child and Youth Well-Being Index tracks 28 key statistics that include health insurance coverage, parents' employment, infant mortality, and preschool enrollment. The report projects that the percentage of children living in families with an "insecure" source of food has risen from 17 percent in 2007 to 18 percent in 2010, an increase of 750,000 children. Up to 500,000 children may be homeless this year, living in shelters or places not meant for habitation. Researchers note their projections have limitations, since complete statistics from government and other sources were available only through 2006. However, according to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, "Most of the report is an advertising tool for more government programs and spending, which are pretty ineffective in increasing child well-being." Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-08-1Achild08_ST_N.htm See the index: http://www.fcd-us.org/resources/resources_show.htm?doc_id=1266393 Apocalyptic predictions perhaps overblown "Don't believe the hype" that looming teacher layoffs will have devastating educational consequences for children, writes Charles Lane on The Washington Post's Post-Partisan blog. The often-repeated figure of 300,000 firings is the upper end of a range that could be as low as 100,000 and would include support staff such as bus drivers and custodians. Moreover, springtime layoff notices are an unreliable indicator, since by law many public school systems must notify everyone who might conceivably be laid off, regardless of likelihood. The proposed $23 billion stop gap would be added to a federal bill funding U.S. overseas military operations, and would be distributed among states according to population rather than projected firings. Three hundred thousand layoffs would increase the national student-teacher ratio in public schools to 16.6 to 1 -- about where it was in 1997 -- and 100,000 teacher layoffs would increase it to 2005 levels. And while the bill would partially pay for itself because retained employees would continue to pay taxes and not collect unemployment, the same could be said for spending on any other category of employment. "By enabling inefficient school systems to continue living beyond their means this year," writes Lane, "the bill would merely ensure that today's smidgen of increased growth gets eaten up by tax increases and spending cuts when the federal fillip ends next year or the year after." Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/06/myths_about_the_teacher_layoff.html Teaching ELL learners through commonalities In a guest post on The New York Times' Learning Network blog, community organizer turned teacher Larry Ferlazzo relates techniques he parlayed from his time working with foreign-born populations into successfully teaching English Language Learners at a large high school in Sacramento, Calif. His recommendations are interspersed with interactive tools offered by The New York Times that can be deployed in lessons to put these suggestions into practice. As an organizer, Ferlazzo's process was always the same: First, he encouraged people "to share their stories publicly and find commonalities with the stories of others, perhaps considering new interpretations along the way. I then challenged them, often collectively, to take action in response to what they frequently discovered were common issues. The final step was always to encourage reflection on the whole process. How could what they learned be applied to future problems?" With students, he begins by asking them to speak and write about their lives regularly in small, casual ways so that they begin to identify common experiences and desires across cultures and levels. These exercises help students identify commonalities and give teachers valuable information about student interests. These stories can then be related to instruction, such as a discussion in history about the challenges that immigrants have always faced in this country. Students can consider ways that various groups have organized collectively to solve their problems, and apply them to present-day situations. Finally, Ferlazzo asks students to respond to simple reflective questions such as "what is the most important thing you learned today, and why do you think it's important?" In this way, Ferlazzo says he's able to build connections among students around material, and students learn how to think versus merely learning information. Read more: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/english-language-learners-and-the-power-of-personal-stories/ Making school work for drop outs In response to a graduation rate of 72.6 percent, Nashville, Tenn. has opened two nontraditional high schools that meet on modified schedules to help students complete their studies and earn diplomas, Education Week reports. "What we've done is try to create flexible, alternative structures," explained Jesse Register, superintendent of the Metropolitan Nashville school district. "They are very centered on those young people who have great family demands that prevent them from attending a regular school schedule." The schools were created when school leaders saw a pattern in data on students who dropped out: Many were English-language learners or young parents, or were being raised by single parents, and most were working full or part time to help make ends meet. Now, principals actively recruit students for the schools, those who dropped out during senior year or the second semester of junior year and who are between the ages of 17 and 21. Classes are offered four hours a day, five days a week, and students can earn two academic credits every nine weeks if they attend morning and afternoon sessions. The schools' small size allows individual interaction with students and helps them work around job schedules and transportation issues through a combination of classroom and web-based coursework to graduate. Read more: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/06/10/34nashville.h29.html?tkn=PWCCwmh6vKYRuTC%2BUhHnmWlG8g6AJ%2FNw1JF4&cmp=clp-sb-ascd Report recommends overhaul for Baltimore A study released by the National Council on Teacher Quality and commissioned by the Maryland ACLU concludes that teachers in Baltimore deserve more money but should also work longer hours, and administrators must be able to dismiss poor performers more easily, reports The Baltimore Sun. The study also found that Baltimore's weak teachers are too often passed around rather than removed from the system: Only 14 tenured and 46 non-tenured teachers were dismissed last year from a workforce of 6,000. Baltimore City Schools CEO Andres Alonso says he supports the goals listed by the council and is working toward implementing some of them, but thinks "the report is an idealized roadmap toward a landscape where constraints go away," although, "As a superintendent, I would love to see that landscape completely realized." The council found that Baltimore attracted talent, since many of its teachers have high SAT scores and degrees from selective colleges, but its mentoring system needs improvement, and teachers aren't staying. The council also recommends increasing the pay of the best teachers. Instructors in Baltimore start at salaries similar to those of their suburban counterparts, but fall behind as they climb the pay ladder. Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-baltimore-teachers-20100609,0,682002,full.story See the report: http://www.nctq.org/tr3/consulting/baltimore.jsp A modest proposal Last week, in what D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee calls a "resounding endorsement," 80 percent of the District's teachers voted to ratify a new and controversial union contract. In an op-ed in The New York Daily News, Rhee says that despite provisions that observers thought would undermine teacher support, the vote for the "groundbreaking" contract indicates that teachers are ready for change and "willing to be held accountable as long as they are treated like professionals." Accordingly, Rhee suggests the contract serve as a "roadmap" for many other districts, including "the largest and most important public school district in the country" -- New York -- where teachers have been without a contract since last October, and whose existing contract is "much more focused on arcane rules, seniority, and job protections than about how to promote better learning outcomes for kids." Based on D.C.'s experience, Rhee has a several recommendations for the city: Get rid of the Absent Teacher Reserve Pool; base layoffs on performance; use American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten; compensate teachers according to performance; and remove teachers deemed ineffective. "The precedent has been set for the city and the UFT to make a breakthrough," writes Rhee. "Let's see them do it." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/06/13/2010-06-13_dc_school_chancellor_michelle_rhee_says_new_york_must_learn_from_her_groundbreak.html#ixzz0r6SRDlhr Still segregated and unequal in the Big Easy A new study from a team of Minnesota researchers has concluded that New Orleans' public schools continue to be racially segregated, with African-American students funneled into "schools of last resort" and its few white students attending selective charter schools, The Times-Picayune reports. The findings have been "hotly disputed" by education experts at Tulane University's Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives, who acknowledge that segregation is still a problem but argue charter schools are not to blame. Both sides can agree that the vast majority of students in the New Orleans public schools are poor and African-American, and most attend school with classmates like themselves. Nearly 80 percent of black students in the 90-percent-black district attend schools that are racially segregated by the Minnesota researchers' definition, with almost all of the segregated schools also classified as high-poverty. The divergence in the camps comes in assessing the system's massive post-Katrina reorganization, which placed most of the city's schools under the state-run Recovery School District and encouraged formation of charters. The Minnesota researchers believe the reorganization has created a tiered system that benefits white students and some minorities but consigns the most disadvantaged black children to the worst schools. Read more: http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2010/06/minnesota_report_finds_racism.html See the report: http://www.irpumn.org/website/projects/index.php?strWebAction=project_detail&intProjectID=70 Great unmet need A new report from the After-School Alliance finds that three quarters of America's schoolchildren are not participating in summer learning programs, despite a growing awareness that summer learning loss is a major contributor to the achievement gap between low-income and high-income youth. Of the 25 percent of children (an estimated 14.3 million) that participate in summer learning programs, 43 percent qualify for free/reduced price lunch. Yet 56 percent of non-participating children (an estimated 24 million) would likely participate in a summer learning program, based on parent interest, if one were available to them, and of these, 46 percent are eligible for free/ reduced price lunch. Thirty-five percent of African-American, 29 percent of Hispanic, and 27 percent of low-income children attended summer learning programs in 2008 compared to the national average of 25 percent. More than three in four African-American kids (77 percent) and at least two in three Hispanic (70 percent) and low-income (67 percent) kids would likely enroll in a summer learning program, based on parent interest, if they could. Eight in ten parents (83 percent) support public funding for summer learning programs. Fully 95 percent of African-American, 91 percent of Hispanic, and 90 percent of low-income parents support public funding for summer learning programs. See the report: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM_summer.cfm Large performance gains at Harlem Success Academy Researchers at UPenn's Graduate School of Education have found that attendance at the Harlem Success Academy (a charter overseen by Eva Moskowitz's high-profile Success Charter Network in New York City) is associated with a 13 to 19 percent higher performance on the New York State Test in English language arts and mathematics than students in demographically similar schools. Student results were compared separately for ELA and mathematics controlling for student gender, age, and special education status. The report found that the "most meaningful" results were the large and significant differences between the students who were chosen by lottery to attend HSA and stayed through 3rd grade, in comparison to those who applied to HSA but were not chosen by lottery to attend and stayed in NYC schools through the 3rd grade. The analysis was commissioned by the Success Charter Network in the spring of 2009 as the first group of HSA students was completing the 3rd grade. HSA is one of four existing Success Academies founded by SCN. Over the next ten years, the network plans to expand to 40 schools. See the report (scroll down): http://www.gse.upenn.edu/faculty/supovitz Related: http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/charters-skim-or-not-skim BRIEFLY NOTED Federal probe into discrimination at LAUSD Under pressure from local community leaders, the federal Office for Civil Rights will look at whether low academic achievement of African American students results from discrimination, intentional or not, by the Los Angeles Unified School District. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/lausd-black-students-discrimination-investigation.html The long reach of the oil disaster Alabama's state superintendent of education will ask experts to calculate the losses to the state's Education Trust Fund caused by the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and present a bill to British Petroleum. http://www2.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/bp_will_get_bill_on_behalf_of_alabamas_children/159088/ Renewed attention to school leaders U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado is introducing a bill to nationally reproduce a principal-development program he established as superintendent of Denver Public Schools. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15255684 Not the ones you'd think The toughest New York City charters to get into were not the higher-profile schools such as those in Harlem, but a diverse group of small schools in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/the-choosiest-of-the-charters/ Pitching in Early data suggest that New Jersey's teachers are accepting smaller raises in light of the state's fiscal crisis. http://wcbstv.com/topstories/school.money.advocates.2.1748900.html GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES Hewlett Packard: EdTech Innovators Award The HP EdTech Innovators Award recognizes pioneers in primary, secondary, and higher education who use technology in innovative ways inside and outside the classroom. It supports innovative educators with technology to replicate, advance, and share their successes, and increases awareness of successful programs, supports sharing, and encourages adoption of best practices. Maximum award: a technology grant of approximately $40,000 (HP list price), and membership in an educators' social network with access to support, training, and other resources for sharing ideas and best practices. Eligibility: accredited private or public education institutions at any level of formal education (i.e., primary, secondary, tertiary) in eligible countries; and nonprofit organizations that foster the use of technology in education. Deadline: June 30, 2010. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants/edtech.html Hispanic Heritage Foundation: Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards The Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards promote young leaders who demonstrate success in the classroom and community in an effort to encourage other young people to use education as a vehicle for success. Maximum award: $1,000 educational grant for college education or to fund a community service effort the student will plan, oversee, and sustain; a laptop computer and paid trip to the National Youth Awards Ceremony (Location TBA). Eligibility: current high school juniors planning to enroll in college in 2011-2012 who are citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. and of Hispanic/Latino descent (at least one parent) with a minimum 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) or 7.5 (on a 10.0 scale), willing to travel at own cost to the awards ceremony in selected region. Deadline: July 1, 2010. http://www.hispanicheritage.org/hhf/2010youthawards/ AASA: National Superintendent of the Year The American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year Program pays tribute to the talent and vision of the men and women who lead the nation's public schools. Maximum award: recognition; a $10,000 scholarship to a student in the high school from which the National Superintendent of the Year graduated. Eligibility: Any superintendent, chancellor, or top leader of a school system in the United States, Canada, or international school who plans to continue in the profession. Deadline: July 30, 2010. http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=3404 Open Meadows Foundation: Grants for Women and Girls The Open Meadows Foundation is a grant-making organization for projects that are led by and benefit women and girls. It funds projects that reflect the diversity of the community served by the project in both its leadership and organization; that build community power; that promote racial, social, economic, and environmental justice; and that have limited financial access or have encountered obstacles in their search for funding. Maximum award: $2,000. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations with an organizational budget no larger than $150,000. Projects must be designed and implemented by women and girls. Deadline: August 14, 2010. http://www.openmeadows.org/ Siemens/College Board: 2010 Siemens Competition The Siemens Competition seeks to promote excellence by encouraging students to undertake individual or team research projects. It fosters intensive research that improves students' understanding of the value of scientific study and informs their consideration of future careers in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. Maximum award: $100,000. Eligibility: high school students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Deadline: October 1, 2010. http://www.collegeboard.com/siemens/ QUOTE OF THE WEEK "When you create a system that isn't going to absorb the same students for whatever reason, you are marginalizing them even further. If you are saying that these schools present and offer these ideal learning environments, then you need to make sure that these students have the opportunity to access and go to them." -- Lillian Rodríguez López, president of the Hispanic Federation, about the troubling lack of Latino students in NYC's charters, June 14, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/education/15charters.html 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. |
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