| |
|
May 29, 2009 |
Click here to read printable version |
|
| Using public engagement to enhance the validity of education adequacy policy |
| |
In recent years, state legislatures, state education departments, and advocacy groups in over 30 states have sponsored education adequacy studies, which aim to determine objectively the amount of funding needed to provide all students with a meaningful opportunity for an adequate education. Not surprisingly, because of their growing influence on funding decisions, these studies have now become the subject of critical commentary and judicial scrutiny, and serious questions have arisen about the validity of the methodologies used in some of the studies. According to this article by Michael Rebell for TC Record, the validity and the reliability of the methodologies of contemporary adequacy cost studies can be improved. According to Rebell, more extensive public engagement and continuing judicial oversight will be necessary to ensure the credibility and the legitimacy of the ultimate judgments that result from these studies.
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| Restoring our 'teaching infrastructure' |
| |
Professor Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University wants to know why people don't demand excellent teachers in every classroom. In a recent interview with The Des Moines Register, Darling-Hammond states that Americans "have behaved for a very long time as if that is not something to be expected, in contrast to high-achieving nations that have put in place an infrastructure for producing high-quality teaching." She feels the last attempt to strengthen this "teaching infrastructure" was in the 1960s and '70s, but we've now gotten used to variable teaching quality. Every reform, she feels, depends on quality teachers, and a key issue is the lack of collaborative planning in the profession. In most high-achieving countries, teachers have 15 to 25 hours a week where they plan collaboratively with colleagues, "so they are not just making up lessons at the kitchen table on a Sunday night by themselves." What Darling-Hammond prescribes is American teachers working together, observing each other, and problem-solving together. They also need access to expertise about teaching strategies in specific content areas, for particular groups of students. This, she says, "is not what most professional development looks like in the United States."
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| Of free markets and public education |
| |
School choice advocates have long predicted that increased competition from charter schools would spur substantial improvement in nearby traditional public schools, but this has not been the case, according to a new report from Education Sector. For example, in Washington, D.C., despite the fact that over 20 percent of the public schools in the neighborhoods surrounding the much-touted Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) are charter schools, traditional public schools in the area still post some of the lowest student-achievement results in the city. Using the analogy of Giant Supermarkets, which came into a poor D.C. neighborhood alongside a bank and other amenities by way of federal subsidies, the report explains that many habits in the neighborhood were ingrained, and residents still used high-priced corner stores with little selection or fresh food, and usurious check-cashing services. In other words, "government programs that bring in private sector firms like Giant or nonprofits like KIPP can increase the supply of market options in low-income communities. But such subsidies will not, in and of themselves, ensure that all of those options will be high-quality. Nor will they guarantee that consumers will make good choices and utilize the newer, better options that come along."
Read more | See the report | Back to top
|
|
| Educators' candor is welcome |
| |
Candor and straight talk are rare in education, and euphemisms abound. The use of education jargon serves as a defense mechanism to keep parents at bay and to establish from the onset who is the expert and who is the amateur. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the use of jargon becomes a way to silence questions and squelch opposition. Parents of children with special needs report the most chilling experiences with edu-speak wielded as weaponry. When parents show up for the mandated IEP -- individualized education plan -- meetings, they are typically met by incomprehensible bombast fired from a small army of school professionals. Many parents describe these IEP meetings more as ambushes than collaborations. In one sense it's understandable. As members of a beleaguered and often scapegoated profession, educators want to wrap themselves in a protective lingo and avoid acknowledgement of real problems. If principals admit to unhappy parents that a new teacher is not proving effective, for example, they may also have to tell those parents that they're stuck with the teacher anyway, since it's not an easy task to replace staff midyear. Resorting to happy talk or edu-babble only contributes to parental mistrust.
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| District boundaries: integration's final frontier |
| |
Considering the high-profile school selections of both the Obamas and the Duncans, it's the public school in the suburbs (the Duncans) rather than the private school of the First Family that holds greater public policy significance, writes Dana Goldstein in The American Prospect. "The Duncans chose not to enroll their kids in school alongside the children of [the] 'underclass,'" she says, but -- contrary to those who equate urban public education with child abuse -- data show educational outcomes for middle-class kids attending "bad," socioeconomically integrated schools are similar to those of middle-class kids attending "good," mostly white schools with little poverty. At the same time, economically diverse schools help "poor children immeasurably by allowing them to share in the benefits of having active, highly educated parents advocating on their behalf." Goldstein feels that in the calculus of "school choice," one choice is consistently denied: that of poor, urban parents to send their children to suburban schools. Charter schools can yield benefits, but still hew to district, and therefore socioeconomic, boundaries. "This doesn't mean we should reopen the busing wars," Goldstein writes. "Rather, we should foster regional partnerships between urban and suburban districts."
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| Student outcomes and the 'money myth' |
| |
In an opinion piece in The San Francisco Examiner, W. Norton Grubb writes that "Since the 19th century, we've been told that money alone will improve school outcomes, and that to reform schools, all we need is more money." This is "plain wrong." Grubb's research points to a number of inefficiencies in California's system in particular -- all money wasters that undermine education quality. These include frequent policy reversals; counterproductive practices like traditional vocational education; little support for teacher innovation; and ignoring the crucial role of school climate. Moreover, "almost no one pays much attention to diagnosing, and then correcting, the specifically racial and ethnic dimensions of achievement gaps among white, Asian-American, African-American, and Latino students." For resources to be effective, he writes, they must be used with "vision, leadership, and cooperation from everyone in a school and have district support." Understanding what resources matter, and which ones are "relatively costless (yet priceless)," means that despite historically low levels of funding, significant improvement in public education is truly possible.
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| For at-risk youth, a crisis deepens |
| |
In a policy brief prepared for the new Obama administration and Congress, MDRC requests better programs for disaffected youth. "Too many young people are disconnected from the worlds of school and work," it states, "putting them at serious risk for getting into trouble today and not succeeding in the future." The brief reports that 30 percent of high school freshmen nationally do not graduate in four years; in the 50 largest U.S. cities, the dropout rate is closer to 50 percent. Also nationwide, nearly 14 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds have not graduated from high school, are not attending school, and are not working. For African-Americans in this cohort, the rate is closer to 23 percent. Teenage employment has sunk to its lowest level in 60 years, and employment for those 18 to 29 has spiraled downward. Among 18- to 29-year-olds not in school, nearly one in four is currently not working, and one in six did not work in the previous year. What to do? "The first policy option should be to prevent young people from dropping out of school." But once youth are disconnected, states and localities need assistance from the federal government via funding, compilation of best practices, and research. Evidence-building in the youth field is critical because self-selection issues are severe: Only the most motivated voluntarily participate in "second chance" programs, the same young people more likely to succeed on their own.
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| A modest proposal for a post-NCLB era |
| |
Writing about Richard Rothstein's "Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right" on his blog in The Washington Post, columnist Jay Mathews calls the book a "must-read for anyone who wonders, as I often have, how we might replace or augment standardized testing with measures of what is happening in the classroom." Rothstein, a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a former education columnist for The New York Times, has spent much of his career analyzing school district spending. According to Mathews, Rothstein argues that with expanded national tests, more money for economically disadvantaged states, and a corps of 50,000 state-supervised school inspectors, the work of public schools could finally be judged in ways that would widely satisfy critics and identify the most effective reforms. Rothstein and his co-authors want to reduce the federal role in assessing schools, and to enlarge the number of student characteristics assessed. They cite as a good example the British inspectorate, the independent Office for Standards in Education, which until recently contracted with firms to provide 6,000 inspectors, usually retired school principals or teachers, to observe classroom teaching, interview students about their understanding of what they had learned, and examine random samples of student work.
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| NYC's Absent Teacher Reserve explained |
| |
New York City's Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR) is under new scrutiny now as a moratorium on hiring outside this teacher pool has gone into effect. It is, writes Seyward Darby in The New Republic, "one model of what not to do" about union seniority as states seek education stimulus money. The ATR was designed to free New York City from the decades-long "stranglehold" of the United Federation of Teachers on teacher hiring, which favored seniority and lifelong job security over teacher quality. Created in 2005, it compels displaced teachers to compete for jobs, often against novices. But as Darby tells it, the union, "spurred by traditionalists sticking to a deeply rooted belief that teachers should be guaranteed jobs," fought back. The resulting agreement ensured that teachers who didn't find new positions would get paid regardless. Darby feels NYC and other cities should adopt Chicago's model of "mutual consent," which allows teachers to remain in reserve for ten months, after which time they are removed from the public payroll. Some experts also advocate putting reserve teachers on unpaid leave after a specified amount of time; if they find new jobs, they can return at their old salary levels.
Read more | Back to top
|
|
| California tracking of charters may point to larger issue |
| |
In its annual report on California's nearly 700 charter schools, the University of California's Center on Educational Governance finds that lax financial reporting makes it difficult to assess their fiscal health. Although the schools are required to file quarterly financial reports with local districts, which in turn file them with the state, USC researchers found that data were spotty in some counties, including Los Angeles, where figures were available for only 30 of 163 schools. "This is so critical," said education professor Priscilla Wohlstetter, who heads the research project, "because the president and the secretary of education have said we are going to double the number of charter schools around the country; however, we want to make sure we have good state accountability systems that track progress... If there's this much missing data, how is California going to be able to access the federal money that's available?" The report did conclude, however, that the limited information suggests many charters are efficiently using public funds. It also found they continue to outperform traditional public schools in English instruction, but seem to do worse in bringing nonnative English speakers to fluency. Overall, math performance in California charters has slipped, lagging behind traditional public schools.
Read more | See the report | Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Sotomayor on education
Erik Robelen breaks down the SCOTUS nominee's decisions on education.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2009/05/from_guest_blogger_erik_w.html
No Milk without permission
The ACLU plans to sue Ramona, Calif., school officials after they told a sixth-grader she couldn't present a report on Harvey Milk unless parents of fellow students signed permission slips.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/21/1n21ramona00477-ramona-girl-blocked-giving-talk-ha/?education&zIndex=103050
L.A.U.S.D. makes STEM inroads with computer science
A pilot program has increased the number of some minorities taking the subject's AP test, a success that answers the president's call for an emphasis on math and science education.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-digital-divide21-2009may21,0,4195521.story
Lemonade from lemons?
The "Traders to Teachers" program at Montclair State University in N.J. will retrain laid-off financiers to become math teachers.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/05/22/us_state_seeks_laid_off_traders_to_teach_math/
A 'wonderful, wonderful surprise' for foster kids in Missouri
Missouri may provide college tuition for teens in the state's foster care system.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/00D5F22D6F69FD8F862575BE00092E42?OpenDocument |
|
| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
Represent Magazine: Writing Workshop for NYC-area Teens in Foster Care
This summer, from July 6th to August 13th, Represent Magazine will hold its 17th Annual Summer Writing Workshop in Manhattan. Those selected will write articles for publication. Maximum award: $600 stipend upon successful completion of the workshop. Writers also get Metrocards and $5/day for lunch. Eligibility: anyone in the New York City area between the ages of 14 to 20 who lives in a group home, foster home, or on a campus, or who used to be in foster care. Deadline: June 8, 2009.
http://www.youthcomm.org/PDF/Represent-Summer2009-app-web.pdf
NEEF: Classroom Earth Professional Development Grants
The National Environmental Education Foundation's Classroom Earth Professional Development grants help high school teachers new to the field of environmental education who want to increase the environmental literacy of their students. Maximum award: $1,500 to take two graduate-level courses offered online by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point's Environmental Education and Training Partnership. Eligibility: full-time U.S. teachers grades 9-12, in a public or private school, with at least two years teaching experience. Deadline: June 12, 2009.
http://www.classroomearth.org/professional-development-grant-2009
Ronald McDonald House Charities: Grants for Children
Ronald McDonald House supports programs that help children read, provide nutritious after-school meals, offer life-changing surgeries, or help prevent life-threatening disease. Ronald McDonald House Charities Board of Trustees is most interested in national and/or international organizations that have a specific program related to children's health and wellbeing. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations. Deadline: September 4, 2009.
http://rmhc.org/what-we-do/grants/how-to-apply/
SOS: Great American Bake Sale
Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale seeks to ensure that low-income children receive nutritious food during critical times when they are out of school and particularly vulnerable to hunger by increasing participation among low-income children in summer and after-school meal programs. Share Our Strength is specifically interested in increasing participation in meal programs that use USDA reimbursement through the Summer Food Service Program, National School Lunch Program, or Child and Adult Care Food Program. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations, schools with a valid NCES code, or local government entities that work to ensure children have access to after-school and summer meal programs. Deadline: September 30, 2009.
http://gabs.strength.org/site/PageServer?pagename=GABS_grants
C-SPAN: Video Archive Grants
C-SPAN Archives Grants give teachers videotapes from the extensive collection in the C-SPAN Archives for creative proposals that use the network's programming in the classroom or in research projects. Eligibility: middle and high school teachers and college/university professors. Maximum award: use of archive tapes. Deadline: N/A.
http://www.c-span.org/classroom/grants.asp
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"It's amazing how much of a difference being able to see or not feeling the constant pain of rotting teeth will make in the academic achievement of a child."
-Salt Lake City district spokesman Jason Olsen on their new "whole child," anti-poverty measures.
http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_12442891
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.
Your e-mail address is safe with the NewsBlast. It is our firm policy never to rent, loan, or sell our subscriber list to any other organization, group, or individual.
TO UPDATE OR ADD A NEWSBLAST SUBSCRIPTION
PEN wants you to receive each weekly issue of the NewsBlast at your preferred e-mail address. If you are already a subscriber and would like us to change your e-mail address, please click on "Update Profile/Email Address" near the bottom of the NewsBlast mailing.
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.
To view past issues of the PEN Weekly NewsBlast, visit http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_past.asp.
If you would like to submit a proposed article or news item about your local education fund, public school, or school-reform organization for a future issue of the NewsBlast, please send a note to PEN@PublicEducation.org. For the NewsBlast's submission policy, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_submission_policy.htm.
Kate Guiney
Contributing Editor
PEN Weekly NewsBlast
Public Education Network
601 Thirteenth Street, NW
Suite 710 South
Washington, DC 20005-3808
PEN@PublicEducation.org |
|
