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November 20, 2009 |
Click here to read printable version |
Newsblast will be taking off the holiday to enjoy family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving, and see you on December 6!
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| Some accommodations in final RttT regs |
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The final rules for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top (RttT) funds include modifications that should sit well with teacher unions, according to Bloomberg.com. The Obama administration has vocally sought to tie teacher evaluations and pay to student performance -- a move opposed by unions -- but has now stipulated that student gains should only be a "significant factor," with educator evaluations also using teacher and principal involvement. Among the other criteria for RttT grants are a commitment to developing common, nationwide academic standards; creating more "high-quality" charter schools; and turning around schools that perform lowest. With respect to charters, the Education Department clarified that it doesn't view them as the "chief remedy" for turning around schools that are failing: "While the department believes that charter schools can be strong partners in school turnaround work, it does not believe that charter schools are the only or preferred solution to turning around struggling schools." The National Education Association, the biggest U.S. teachers union, had earlier protested that the preliminary RttT proposal appeared to promote charter schools as a "silver bullet, despite the fact that charters have often produced lower achievement gains than district-run public schools."
Read more | Related | Back to top
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| Lacking incentive, why try? |
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Why should states that get cut out of Race to the Top (RttT) money keep reforming once incentives have expired? asks Chadwick Matlin of Slate.com. Changes that the administration would like to see implemented will be costly. Longer school days, more testing, and extra performance assessments will be hard to carry out without supplementary federal funding. The winner-loser paradigm that RttT sets up will divide states into two classes: those that have reformed according to the administration's ideals and those that haven't, or haven't enough. Yet rather than give flagging states "catch-up money," the Department of Education plans to reward those that have already done well. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has implied that the administration hopes this catch-22 will resolve itself. "We want to reward those states and those districts that have the courage and the political will to do that, and we think other states will follow," he has said. Matlin sees two problems: "First, how are they going to follow if they don't have the money to do so? Second, what's the incentive for them to follow through on reform without a big, Race-to-the-Top-type reward?" In Matlin's assessment, the behavioral economics don't pan out.
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| A look at remaining deseg programs |
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A new report from the Teacher College at Columbia University is the first to comprehensively study the nation's eight remaining inter-district school desegregation programs, which were expressly created to enable disadvantaged black and Latino students to cross school district boundary lines and attend affluent, predominantly white suburban public schools. The report finds that these programs help close black-white and Latino-white achievement gaps, improve racial attitudes, and lead to long-term mobility and further education for the students of color who participate. One striking finding is that suburban residents, educators, school officials, and students grow to appreciate these programs the longer they continue. In fact, many former opponents are now defending these programs against threats of curtailment, even when continuation would mean reduced funding. Despite these successes, education policies addressing segregation and inequality have generally been limited to within-district solutions, and reform focus has shifted to the use of standards, tests, and accountability systems to improve student achievement, along with school choice policies that allow alternative, private providers to compete for students and their public school funds. The authors suggest that these newer strategies have not delivered, and inequality has grown in many states.
Read more | See the report | Back to top
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| Empirically assessing HCZ |
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A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research looks at the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), a program run by Geoffrey Canada in New York City that combines community investments with reform-minded charter schools. Calling it "one of the most ambitious social experiments to alleviate poverty of our time," the report provides the first empirical test of the causal impact of HCZ on educational outcomes, with an eye toward the long-standing debate over whether schools alone can eliminate the racial achievement gap or if the issues that poor children bring to school are too much for educators to overcome. Both lottery and instrumental variable identification strategies in the research lead the authors to conclude that the Harlem Children's Zone is effective at increasing achievement of the poorest minority children. Taken at face value, the program's effects in middle school are enough to close the black-white achievement gap in mathematics, and reduce it by nearly half in English Language Arts. The effects in elementary school close the racial achievement gap in both subjects. The authors end by presenting four pieces of evidence that show high-quality schools or high-quality schools coupled with community investments generate lasting achievement gains, and that community investments by themselves cannot explain these results.
See the report ($5 fee) | Back to top
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| The unflashy work of bringing reform to scale |
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Rebutting an editorial in The Wall Street Journal that characterizes its latest initiative as "another $100 million for education, down the drain," Ford Foundation President Luis Ubiñas lays out the initiative's intent. Rather than underwrite high-profile reforms that have narrower impact, such as select, high-achieving charter schools (which, as The Journal itself points out, are already receiving funding elsewhere), the initiative aims to bring the latest generation of reforms to scale. Most of Ford's grants over the next seven years will go to education entrepreneurs, parent and community organizations, and policy groups working to transform schools from the ground up, not school districts or unions, as The Journal contends. Regardless, Ubiñas takes exception to The Journal's "vilification of teachers," which he says is counter-productive if true reform is to take root. "Most of the Journal's readers probably grew up at a time when public schools provided a very strong basis for success in life," Ubiñas writes. "We believe they can again. The solutions we embrace must work for the majority of students across the country, however, not only a lucky minority."
Read more | See the editorial | Back to top
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| New signs of common ground |
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Americans have long lamented the state of public education, writes Andrew Delbanco in The New York Review of Books, giving as example a complaint from Horace Mann in 1845 that students under his direction wrote "absurd answers... errors in grammar, in punctuation and in spelling." Whether American schools are in decline, however, is a complex question, as are any proposed answers. Delbanco looks at two of many books now offering partial or full solutions to the problems of American schools. Both authors under review, Mike Rose and E.D. Hirsch, "feel besieged, but from different directions," Delbanco says. In "Why School? Reclaiming Education for All of Us," Rose feels education is under assault from "number-crunchers who want to measure everything by tests and thereby reduce education to a 'knowledge-delivery system.'" Hirsch, a leading figure in the Core Knowledge movement, in "The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools" fears "the 'anti-curriculum' crowd, people he regards as deluded by the romantic idea that children somehow possess innate knowledge that can be released through play or self-paced learning." Despite differences, what is heartening to Delbanco is that from opposing ends of an ideological spectrum, both are disposed toward common ground and moderation, surely needed if public education is to continue as an engine for democracy in this country. "Otherwise," Delbanco writes, "we will remain caught between the usual warring parties."
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| Low cost, high payoff |
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A free program outside of Santa Barbara, Calif. that encourages Spanish-speaking families to develop reading routines and improve reading skills has just wrapped up its second year, reports The San Luis Obispo Tribune. The program, which cost the San Luis Coastal Unified School District just $3,500 to implement, helps Latino parents develop an educational environment at home and promote skills that will help their children get to college. "I read to my son now about four times per week for about 30 minutes each time," said Lorenzo Torres, a 40-year-old Los Osos construction worker and father of five-year-old Eric. "I really want to prepare him as well as I can for college." Torres, who has taken both sessions of the program, said he wanted to enroll in the class partly to improve his own English, which his teachers now say is quite proficient. The students read one book a week and discuss themes of responsibility, overcoming hardships, and family values. Each book features a story printed in English on one page and in Spanish on the other, to encourage a bilingual experience between parents and children. Torres is also the father of 16-year-old twin boys, and says he wishes he could have provided better educational support to them when they were young.
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| Eyes are on 'Wild West' of charters as Ariz. ponders renewals |
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Arizona's flourishing charter school movement shows the popular appeal of school choice and education entrepreneurialism, reports The Washington Post. But the state also is a cautionary lesson, as President Obama pushes to dismantle barriers to charter schools elsewhere. Following a 1994 state law that strongly favors charter schools, 500 operate in Arizona, educating more than 100,000 students. This is a quarter of the state's public schools and a tenth of its public school enrollment, a larger proportion than in any other state. A Stanford University report in June found that Arizona charter students did not show as much academic progress as their peers in traditional public schools, and Arizona has revoked four charters since 2007, one for academic problems and the rest for management issues. Twenty-four other charters were surrendered for various reasons, some academic. Now the State Board for Charter Schools is preparing for its first round of charter renewals, which will last 20 years. "There are some excellent, excellent charter schools in Arizona," said Margaret Raymond of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford. "There are a whole bunch that are mucking around [in the middle], and a big cluster that are not doing well."
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| Money spent early saves in the long run |
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In the coming months, Montana's Early Childhood Coalition plans to open a one-stop shop for preschool-aged children to receive services in Great Falls, according to The Great Falls Tribune. Their goal is to offer everything from mental health screenings to Well Baby exams, preschool, and therapy programs. Though it will be housed in a public school, the Early Learning Family Center will be a partnership among several private and public entities. Right now, the only preschool programs the school district offers are to the low-income and special-needs population already designated as such. With the infusion of federal stimulus money and a state Early Reading First grant, the district will be able to hire more preschool teachers and accept more low-income and special-needs students into the program. "We don't know yet how many students it could impact," said Sally Mathers, federal and literacy programs director for the Great Falls Public Schools. "The intent is to reach out to families who have nothing available to them. We have some children whose families can't afford preschool." If children start early with school, it saves public money in the long run, Mathers added, since intervention at an older age is more costly.
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| In defense of political vibrancy |
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Fierce town hall meetings are hardly new, writes Lee Hamilton, director of the Center on Congress and a former member of the House of Representatives for Indiana. The challenge, he says, is not to avoid controversy, but to make the discourse ultimately productive. Regardless of tone, town hall meetings are crucial for elected officials to "gauge the intensity of public feeling, hear from ordinary citizens, and give people a chance to get to know their representative." All should be heard, because even extreme opinions, when aired, tend to lose power after exposure to a moderating reception. Hamilton relates that during his 34 years in Congress, he came away from most town hall meetings with a feeling that he had engaged in "a small part of democracy's dialogue." As often as he encountered extreme opinions, he encountered opinions that reinforced his confidence in the fairness, decency, and judgment of Americans. "So as we look ahead to the next round of heated town hall meetings, let's remember that they, too, help ensure that our representative democracy remains vibrant."
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| A fuzzy picture of students with disabilities |
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Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 100 percent of students with disabilities are expected to perform at the "proficient" level on state tests by 2014, the same goal set for students overall. NCLB also calls on schools and districts to close achievement gaps between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers, and to include disabled students in regular state testing programs to the greatest extent possible. A new report from the Center on Education Policy looks at current progress in raising achievement for students with disabilities, and details the factors that make it difficult to clearly discern achievement trends for this subgroup. Since states administer two or three types of assessments to students with disabilities, including the regular state test (with or without test accommodations) and one or two types of alternate assessments, the variability in the alternate tests and in what is deemed proficient make for "fuzzy" data, resulting in a vague picture of achievement for students with disabilities. The report does find that the subgroup has made progress in grade four at all three achievement levels: basic-and-above, proficient-and-above, and advanced. Still, differences in performance between students with disabilities and non-disabled students remains quite large, often exceeding 30 or even 40 percentage points in reading and math.
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Teacher shortage turns into glut
Across the country, droves of new teachers are unable to find teaching jobs because the economy has forced districts to slash positions.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ihJWq9LZMeJRfuAbcUoWGgHXEg5AD9BU6HRO0
'Learning for the Xbox generation'
NYC Schools' "School of One" sixth-grade math computer program makes the TIME "50 Best Inventions of 2009" list.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933977,00.html
KIPP gets $10m shot in the arm
Houston's Knowledge is Power Program charter school chain got a got a boost when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced plans to help finance its expansion.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6716027.html
Dairy industry, and three fifth graders, fight back
Opponents of the chocolate-milk ban don't take it lying down.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-chocolate-milk-12-nov12,0,3903493.story
Students sue Tenn. over First Amendment violations
Schools reportedly distributed Bibles, held sectarian prayers at all-school events, and allowed at least one teacher to keep a cross on her wall.
http://www.newsok.com/students-sue-tenn.-county-schools-over-religion/article/feed/107138
Nev. throws in the towel
State will not pursue RttT funding.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/14/nevada-out-race-innovation-funding/ |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
NEA: The Big Read
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts to restore reading to the center of American culture by providing citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. The initiative includes innovative reading programs in selected cities and towns, comprehensive resources for discussing classic literature, and an extensive website providing comprehensive information on authors and their works. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: literary organizations, libraries, and community organizations across the country. Deadline: February 2, 2010.
http://www.neabigread.org/application_process.php
Toshiba/NSTA: ExploraVision Awards
All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem solving. The Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision Awards Program encourages kids to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with the tools of science. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: students K-12. Deadline: February 2, 2010.
http://www.exploravision.org/about/
Western Union Foundation: Family Scholarship Program
The Western Union Foundation's Family Scholarship Program is an educational initiative for migrants, immigrants, and their families in the United States that aims to help two members of the same family move up the economic ladder through education. Scholarships may be used for tuition for college/university education, language acquisition classes, technical/skill training, and/or financial literacy. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: two members of the same family, aged 18 years or older, for whom the country of origin for at least one applicant is outside the U.S. Deadline: February 5, 2010.
http://corporate.westernunion.com/scholarship.html
Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation: Music Matters Grants
The Muzak Heart & Soul Foundation Music Matters Grants for 2010 will focus on educational reform in school music programs and independent music programs across the United States. Maximum award: $12,000. Eligibility: U.S. schools that already employ a music educator or educators and have an existing music program in place. Grant requests must articulate specific music program needs for existing and/or planned programs. Deadline: February 5, 2010.
http://heart.muzak.com/what/grants.aspx
Zaner-Bloser: National Handwriting Contest
The 2010 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest encourages legible handwriting by testing the printing (or "manuscript") acumen of first and second graders and the cursive abilities of students in grades 2 through 8. Entries are judged on the Keys to Legibility: Shape, Slant, Spacing, and Size. Maximum award: recognition and a special prize package. Eligibility: students grades 1-8 whose school uses Zaner-Bloser Handwriting curricula. Deadline: March 15, 2010.
http://www.zaner-bloser.com/educator/products/handwriting/national-contest.aspx?id=336
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"Don't let those tests defeat you. Don't let those tests define you."
-- First Lady Michelle Obama, speaking to students at Denver's South High School, November 16, 2009 Mrs. Obama related that she herself was not a great standardized-test-taker.
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