 |
|
|
||
|
March 6, 2009 The genteel unteaching of America's poor Not all schooling is equal. In too many schools, too many students suffer an education of drill and memorization but are deprived of high-level thinking activities, of intellectual discussions, of opportunities to synthesize information and respond creatively -- elements that form the basis of education for other students in other schools. Too many poor kids encounter expectations that deem them worthy of discipline and "the basics" rather than nurturing high-level thinking. According to Kylene Beers, president of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), it is critically important that all students experience a rich, intellectually rigorous curriculum filled with all sorts of writing. "While writing, more than any other intellectual endeavor, sharpens our thinking, in too many schools, especially schools overwhelmed by poverty, writing is not about thinking but about copying; not about creating but about editing; not about persuading or telling or sharing or clarifying but about completing fill-in-the-blank activities or circling verbs in blue and nouns in red or counting the number of sentences in a paragraph to make sure the prerequisite three (or four or five) are there." According to a new report from NCTE, unless we can reduce the number of schools that turn to scripted programs and highly structured class routines -- sometimes almost militaristic environments -- we will continue to be left with an education of America's poor that cannot be seen as anything more than a segregation by intellectual rigor, something every bit as shameful and harmful as segregation by color. Read more: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Press/Beers.pdf Public school kids outpace private school peers in math, study finds A new study by the University of Illinois has found that public-school students outperform their private-school classmates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, thanks to certified math teachers and a modern, reform-oriented math curriculum, Science Daily reports. To account for the difference in test scores, Sarah Lubienski and her co-authors looked at five critical factors: school size, class size, parental involvement, teacher certification, and instructional practices. "There are so many reasons why you would think that the results should be reversed -- that private schools would outscore public schools in standardized math test scores," she said. "This study looks at the underlying reasons why that's not necessarily the case." Of the five factors, school size and parental involvement were "mixed or marginally significant predictors" of student achievement, while smaller class sizes, which are more prevalent in private schools than in public schools, significantly correlate with achievement. Despite this, many private schools aren't accountable to an external body when designing curricula, and thus may not be keeping up with trends. "There's been this assumption that private schools are more effective because they're autonomous and don't have all the bureaucracy that public schools have," Lubienski said. "But one thing this study suggests is that autonomy isn't necessarily a good thing for schools." Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226093423.htm See the report: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/590677 Navigating the educational panopticon According to Herbert Kohl, "People who insult and denigrate teachers by forcing a scripted curriculum on them are perfectly aware that they are forcing teachers to act against their conscience and students to close down their minds. What must be raised and answered for is the moral cost of creating joyless schools that resemble panopticons." British philosopher and legal theorist Jeremy Bentham coined the term "panopticon" to refer to a prison he designed during the 1780s. Essentially it consisted of prisoners' cells built in a circle around a surveillance core in the middle. The idea was to provide complete monitoring of prisoners at all times by guards within the core. When Kohl talks about an educational panopticon, he means a system in which teachers and students are under constant scrutiny, allowed no choice over what is learned or taught, evaluated continuously, and punished for what is considered inadequate performance. In this context students and teachers are forced to live in a constant state of anxiety, self-doubt, wariness, anomie, and even suppressed rage. Read more: http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15477 Secretary Duncan speaks out on school vouchers In an apparent reversal of his position on school vouchers, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told The Associated Press that poor children getting vouchers to attend private schools in the District of Columbia should be allowed to stay there. In a clarification, however, Duncan said, "I don't think vouchers ultimately are the answer. We need to be more ambitious. The goal shouldn't be to save a handful of children. The goal should be to dramatically change the opportunity structure for entire neighborhoods of kids." The voucher issue has been contentious, with Congressional Democrats hoping to kill the program by drafting a bill that dictates Congress and the city council would have to approve more money for it, an unlikely scenario. A closer examination of what Duncan said shows that while he opposes vouchers overall, his attitude in D.C.'s particular case is driven by practicality: "I don't think it makes sense to take kids out of a school where they're happy and safe and satisfied and learning," Duncan said. "I think those kids need to stay in their school." While many urban superintendents oppose vouchers, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is similarly open to the program. The five-year pilot gives scholarships to about 1,700 poor kids in the District to attend private schools, and is set to end this year. A vote on the new bill is imminent. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJue5hj8R1JXT2QPTMcrmRPjpZkQD96NJJV80 Alternative view: http://takingnote.tcf.org/2009/03/a-better-alternative-on-dc-school-vouchers.html Urban districts are closing the gap Part of a new report from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution has compared large urban schools to rural and suburban counterparts in the same state and found encouraging improvement. "City districts still lag behind," conceded the study's author, Tom Loveless, "but we were glad to find that twenty-nine of the thirty-seven big city school districts closed the gap between their test scores and state averages." For eight districts, however, the gap did not close, and in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, for instance, test scores are two standard deviations below state averages. "The 2008 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning?" doesn't pin improvements to a particular policy or practice, but points to a range of explanations that include the rise of accountability systems such as No Child Left Behind; urban school reform strategies such as school choice, standards, and lower class size; and the growth of mayoral control over city schools. The report recommends collecting better data on what urban schools are doing, and suggests an annual national inventory of local policies and practices to allow the nation "to learn from recent successes and to sustain gains into the future." Read a press release: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2009/0225_education_loveless/0225_education_loveless_release.pdf See the report: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/0225_education_loveless.aspx Organized sports give at-risk youth critical support A monograph from Team-Up for Youth, which works to expand after-school sports programs for young people in low-income communities, finds that students who participate in organized sports get better grades, are more likely to finish their homework, are less likely to drop out of school, and more likely to attend college. "Learning to Play and Playing to Learn: Organized Sports and Educational Outcomes" surveys more than 60 studies and articles on various aspects of children's participation in athletics, and concludes that through physical activity, which affects key brain functions critical to learning, and participation in team efforts, low-income youth are better prepared to succeed academically and eventually hold jobs with greater responsibility and higher pay. In particular, African-American and Latina female athletes reported better grades in high school and greater involvement with extracurricular activities than female non-athletes. Opportunities to participate in organized sports are not evenly distributed across the student population, however. One study in the monograph found that 75 percent of children from white middle-class backgrounds participated in organized sports, while only 40 percent to 60 percent of low-income children of color did so. See the report: http://www.teamupforyouth.org/dynamic/attachables/media_filename_119.pdf Peace is the word In Tennessee, the Memphis City Schools will counsel 50,000 students and staff on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s principles of nonviolence, The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports. In 2007-2008, three shootings broke out in Memphis schools, and over 240 weapons were confiscated. The initiative will work to build a nonviolent culture in the district, and 27 community leaders and counselors have already been trained at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence in Florida by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and Bernard LaFayette, Jr., national coordinator of Reverend King's Poor People's Movement in 1968. The trainers will fan out across the school system, teaching nonviolent principles and creating a widening circle of people able to defuse conflict. Work has already begun at one middle school, where the principal says he hopes nonviolent strategies will sink into the community's collective psyche. "I'm hoping that just maybe, maybe, hopefully, [the training] will spill into the neighborhood this summer, and we'll start to see some changes when they come back next fall," he said. Memphis is the site of Dr. King's assassination, 40 years ago this past April. Read more: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/feb/24/school-nonviolence-training-starts/ Districts tighten belts in new and enterprising ways Like the citizens they serve, school districts across the country are finding creative ways to trim budgets, The Boston Globe reports. Suburbs, cities, and rural counties are asking principals to teach instead of substitutes or are installing solar panels as states drastically cut education funds. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 46 states face budget shortfalls next year, a projected deficit of $94 billion. The federal stimulus package, with $100 billion for education, is expected to help, but meanwhile districts are paring everywhere to reduce costs. In a suburb of Atlanta, Ga., officials have refurbished busses by replacing engines and making cosmetic repairs, for a savings of $24 million. In San Antonio, Tex., lunchrooms are serving just two entree options and using paper plates to avoid dishwashers and costly repairs, saving $4 million. Employees of the Montgomery County, Md., schools will forgo a 5 percent raise next year to save $89 million. Dave Peterson, co-superintendent of the Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona, explained its economizing strategy: "Every little bit that we can save is going to help us bring a teacher back." His district faces $26 million in cuts, which could mean laying off 220 teachers and 50 non-classroom workers. "Our goal is to make sure we can get those dollars in the classroom," he said. Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/03/02/cash_strapped_schools_thinking_outside_budget_box/ Troubling alternatives in Mississippi Over the past four years, Mississippi has referred 23 percent more students to its alternative schools, the majority of them black or with special needs, according to The Jackson Clarion-Ledger. A report from the American Civil Liberties Union argues that these schools punish students instead of providing support for behavior and academics, and raise questions about accountability. "Missing the Mark: Alternative Schools in the State of Mississippi" focused on five school districts from around the state where concerns had surfaced, and a year was spent interviewing students, educators, and others in those districts. Students reported they had classes that were unchallenging, no homework, and no books to take home. "Many students said they felt like they were in jail," said Jamie Dycus, lead author of the study. "The atmosphere at the alternative school was overwhelmingly punitive." Mississippi schools in general are increasingly this way, according to Steve Rozman, director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility at Tougaloo College, and an over-emphasis on punishment creates a downward spiral for vulnerable students. The next step for the state's ACLU will be a push for legislative and policy changes. Read more: http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20090225/NEWS/902250367/-1/frontpagetabmodule-1V See the report: http://www.clarionledger.com/assets/pdf/D0129176224.PDF Effective steps for managing students with disabilities In serving students with disabilities, effective behavior management is critical, writes District Administration magazine. For disabled students, especially those with behavior disorders, the emotional toll of inappropriate discipline can be great, "albeit intangible," with financial consequences for a district if a lawsuit is brought. "Given what's at stake," the authors write, "district administrators must be aware of both the educational and legal issues involved in managing the behavior of students with disabilities by implementing effective district-wide policies and implementing appropriate interventions on a case-by-case basis." The article recommends that districts start with a baseline climate that cultivates well-managed classrooms and buildings for all students, using this as a stepping-off point for interventions with students who need special attentions and disciplinary methods. Educators can take a number of steps to define behavioral expectations to themselves, students, parents, and all school staff, and make sure that these are clearly understood and consistently enforced. For students who do not or cannot respond to district-wide strategies, other and more individualized strategies will need to be implemented. Administrators should seek training in drafting policies and carrying out alternative disciplinary strategies, and then have these disseminated to schools that serve students with disabilities. Read more: http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1962 Troops to Teachers Improvement Act of 2009 A new federal legislative proposal would allow more schools across the nation to benefit from the Troops to Teachers (T2T) program, which assists retiring military personnel to start second careers as school teachers. T2T provides veterans with a $5,000 stipend to help cover the costs of teaching certification in exchange for three years of service in an eligible school, which was originally defined as receiving grants under part A of Title I. Since its authorization in 1993, nearly 10,000 troops have participated in the program, bringing math, science, and foreign language expertise to the classroom. Congressman Tom Petri (R-WI) noted that T2T participants fill several critical needs among educators: 82 percent are male, over one-third are ethnic minorities, and a majority bring an expertise in science and math to the classroom. "In an increasingly globalized economy, these valuable characteristics provide a vital resource for schools across the country," he said. Read more: http://petri.house.gov/apps/list/press/wi06_petri/troops_teachers.shtml BRIEFLY NOTED Majority/near-majority of first graders in top ten U.S. cities are Latino Latino children now constitute a majority or near majority of first graders in nine of the nation's largest cities. In some large urban cities the percentage is even higher -- three out of four first graders in these school districts are Latino. http://www.trpi.org/Press%20releases/PRESS%20RELEASE%20The%20Coming%20Latino%20Demographic%203%205%2009.pdf See also: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-03-05-minority-demographics_N.htm Are there benefits to paying students for good performance in school? A new focus on school reform has led researchers on both sides of the debate to intensify efforts to gather data that may provide insights on when and if rewards work. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/health/03rewa.html Information from Feds on school stimulus rules and regulations The Department of Education has posted new information on its web page concerning how schools can use State Stabilization dollars under the stimulus package. http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/modernization/index.html Deciphering the education stimulus plan made easy Learning Point Associates has launched the Education Recovery and Reinvestment Center as a one-stop shop for educators and policymakers for tracking developments and finding current information on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. http://www.learningpt.org/recovery/ Crossing the border to cut costs A Massachusetts superintendent is investigating the creation of a cross-state regional district as a means to cut costs. http://www.eagletribune.com/archivesearch/local_story_057023042.html NEW GRANT & FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES Concern: Creative Writing Contest The 2nd Annual Concern /Cecil Woodham-Smith Creative Writing Contest asks students and others to address a written piece to President Obama that will help him understand climate change, child labor, or world hunger. Entries may be in the form of a factual essay or a fictional story. Maximum award: laptops, iPods, and subscriptions to National Geographic Magazine. Eligibility: three entrant categories -- Junior, ages 12 to 15; Senior, ages 16 to 18; and Adult, ages 19+. Deadline: March 22, 2009. http://www.concern.net/what-you-can-do/schools-and-youth/writing-competition-09/creative-writing-competition-09.php Captain Planet: Grants for Environmental Education Captain Planet Foundation Education Grants support hands-on environmental projects that encourage innovation and empower children and youth around the world to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their communities. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations. Deadline: March 31, 2009. http://www.captainplanetfdn.org/grants.html PTO Today: Parent Group of the Year PTO Today's Parent Group of the Year Contest is an opportunity to showcase hard work while giving schools the chance to win cash and prizes. Maximum award: $5,000; plus a free DIRECTV system for the school, installed in up to eight rooms; a 27-inch television; and a DIRECTV system to use as a fundraiser (for example, as an auction item). Eligibility: all parent groups -- PTO, PTA, HSA, PTC, etc.; public and private schools; rural, suburban, and urban schools. Deadline: June 1, 2009. http://www.ptotoday.com/pgy/ Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Local Initiative Funding Partners Program The Local Initiative Funding Partners Program is a partnership between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local grantmakers to fund promising, original projects that significantly improve the health of vulnerable people in their communities. Maximum award: $500,000 in matching funds. Eligibility: projects must be new, innovative, collaborative, and community-based; projects must be nominated by a local grantmaker interested in participating as one of the funding partners. See website for further requirements. Deadline: July 7, 2009. http://www.rwjf.org/applications/solicited/cfp.jsp?ID=20605 Charles Lafitte Foundation: Grants for Education & Child Advocacy The Charles Lafitte Foundation Grants Program helps groups and individuals foster lasting improvement on the human condition by providing support to education, children's advocacy, medical research, and the arts. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations. Deadline: rolling. http://www.charleslafitte.org/education.html QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Unlike assembly lines that discard materials that can't guarantee a predetermined uniform result, public schools don't discard any child. Children can come hungry or filthy; they can speak English or Spanish or Vietnamese or Hmong; they can be athletic or clumsy, artistic or musical; they can be black or white, Latino or Asian; they can be gay or straight, rich or poor; Muslim or Jewish or Christian or Hindu or atheist. They can know a lot or a little. In public schools, teachers take students as they are, respect all as they are, and promise to teach all, as they are. It might be the plaque on the Statue of Liberty that says, ‘Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free' but it's public schools that live that message daily." -Kylene Beers, president, National Council of Teachers of English http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Press/Beers.pdf 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. Public Education Network |
||||
|
|
||||