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September 4, 2009 |
Click here to read printable version |
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| The white interest in school desegregation |
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Scholarship concerning desegregation, affirmative action, and voluntary integration is primarily, if not exclusively, focused on whether such policies harm or benefit minorities. Scant attention is paid to the benefits whites receive in multiracial schools despite white interests underpinning over thirty years of Supreme Court integration jurisprudence. Robert A. Garda, Jr. of the Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law explores the academic and social benefits whites receive in multiracial schools. According to the author, multiracial schools will not be created or endure unless white parents believe it to be in their children's best interests. The article describes the extreme racial segregation in schools today and how white children are the most racially isolated students. This isolation contributes to the unconscious and automatic racial bias that infects everyone and will impair white children's ability to successfully navigate the multicultural marketplace. Integrated schools, however, can de-bias white children and teach them cross-cultural competence, a skill they will need to effectively participate in a market with increasingly multicultural customers, co-workers, and global business partners. The article ends by describing steps white parents can take to ensure their children gain critical cross-cultural competency skills.
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| A nation of diverse talents or of test-takers? |
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National standards will "cause irreversible damage to an education system already suffering from No Child Left Behind," writes Professor Yong Zhao of Michigan State University in The Detroit Free Press. No evidence shows centralized standards lead to higher achievement, he contends, and plenty indicates the opposite. "A child who does not read or do math at the level and time point stipulated is deemed at risk, regardless of other strengths, which may actually be more valuable in future life." This child is then put in remedial classes, and deprived of opportunities to develop her strengths "to have a dream." National standards also discourage innovation by forcing educators to focus exclusively on standards. As a parent and educator, Zhao writes that he wants his children "to have an education, not preparation to take tests. I want my children to be able to have dreams even if they did not meet the state standards. I want my children's teachers to be educators, not implementers of government mandates. [President] Obama and the nation's governors should preserve the legacy of our Founding Fathers and build a nation of diverse talents and creative entrepreneurs rather than a nation of standardized test-takers."
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| In search of an updated measure for poverty |
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The federal poverty measure is deeply flawed, writes Mark Greenberg of the Center for American Progress. Established in the 1960s and "low and in many ways arbitrary," current poverty metrics don't consider tax credits and food stamps, omit key family expenses, and don't adjust for geographical variation. Important federal policies, drafted to aid families, continue to fall short. The pending Measuring American Poverty Act would direct the Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics to adopt measures based on recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). An NAS panel would develop a "decent living standard" measure that would be considerably higher than even an improved poverty measure. Whether or not this moves forward, the Obama administration can adopt a new "decent living standard" administratively without awaiting legislation. "Now is the logical time for the administration or Congress to act to improve the poverty measure," Greenberg writes. "Doing so would provide a more accurate picture of how many people are falling into poverty during the recession and who they are, and it would ensure that the administration's policies and performance can be gauged against a consistent measure that reflects the impacts of a broad range of policies."
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| A popular president can shift attitudes on education |
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A new survey on American attitudes about public education by Education Next suggests that a popular president can significantly shift popular opinions, according to Reuters. The survey, conducted when President Obama's approval ratings were above 60 percent (in March), was designed to uncover factors affecting public opinion, and to assess how people's views shifted when given new information. A group of randomly selected respondents were given the president's position before being asked their own; another was cited research on a particular reform's positive effects that coincided with the president's stated position. A control group was asked its opinion without prompts. The survey found that the "Obama effect" could move overall public opinion by anywhere from 11 (in the case of charters) to 13 percentage points (in the case of merit pay). Responsiveness was not uniform, however. Presidential appeals are more persuasive to fellow partisans than those identifying with the opposition. Cited research also impacts opinion, ranging from six percentage points (in the case of merit pay) to 10 percentage points (in the case of vouchers) to 14 percentage points (in the case of charters). Research appears particularly influential among Democrats, and when the public is undecided on an issue.
Read more | See the report | Back to top
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| Stimulus funds welcome but not used for reform |
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A new survey from the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) has found that 53 percent of district leaders haven't been able to use stimulus funds to save teaching positions in core subject areas or special education, and 67 percent say redirecting funds to reform has been difficult, according to The Christian Science Monitor. Announcement of the education stimulus had raised high hopes, but in fact the money has been mostly used to "backfill budget deficits," according to Daniel Domenech, executive director of AASA. State Fiscal Stabilization funds were largely used for gaps from declining state and local funding. The remaining money was generally mandated for specific purposes: Title I stimulus funds for low-income students, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) dollars for special education. Administrators also worried about a "funding cliff," creating jobs or starting programs they couldn't fund after the stimulus ends in 2010-11. Critics say these complaints reveal a lack of imagination -- a rethinking of class-size configuration, technology use, or pay scales could free up money. "One has to search long and hard to find districts doing any of this," according to Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute.
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| Boston's New Teacher Support |
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Nationally, teacher turnover is a critical issue. Too many leave the profession within five years, with districts suffering financially and students taught by teachers too inexperienced to be effective. For the past six years, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) and local education fund the Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE) have worked together to overhaul the district's hiring and new-teacher support systems, introducing a suite of professional development and induction structures that address novice teachers' needs. Guided by an annual survey of new teachers and graduates of the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) program, BPS and BPE have begun to pinpoint what new teachers need and what districts can do to ensure their success. "Hiring (and Keeping) Urban Teachers: A Coordinated Approach to New Teacher Support," describes improvements fostered and lessons learned. In the words of one Boston headmaster, "The BPS has done a great job of completely rethinking new teacher support, from training to hiring to mentoring to professional development. That is just what we need to recruit the next generation of teachers."
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| Rural districts balk at RttT requirements |
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Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's reforms would be far-reaching, but are they applicable everywhere? Education Week writes that measures like merit pay have little appeal for communities where there frankly isn't much to spend money on, as is the case in many rural communities. Similarly, in low-population areas like Montana, districts can have as few as one hundred students, and no need for alternatives like charters. Advocates for rural communities across the country are charging that Race to the Top rules ignore the challenges of rural districts. In places with few students and fewer teachers, opportunities for collaborative professional development are limited, and districts lack the infrastructure for curriculum development. As to performance pay based on peer review, if you're the only math teacher for a hundred miles, who will review you? Secretary Duncan appears unmoved by these objections. In his view, recruitment and retention of good teachers and school leaders is a problem for any underserved community, urban or rural. However, Mr. Duncan and members of his staff are hosting listening-and-learning meetings in several predominantly rural states, and developing a communications strategy that they say keeps rural challenges at the forefront during policy discussions.
Read more | Read Arne Duncan's position | Back to top
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| Why some triangles are skinny, and some are fat |
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In a drive to instill math fundamentals for an increasingly math-reliant world, early childhood experts are advocating the introduction of math concepts to children as young as three, reports The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It's not the traditional math we think of in terms of calculations and memorization of algorithms and things like that," explains Roberta Schomburg, associate dean in the School of Education at Carlow University. "In the early years, they're really learning concepts of number, space, passing of time, volume. They're experiencing those at a very physical level." The Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics of the National Research Council recommends that parents and educators start talking about numbers in ways that can lay the groundwork for future math skills. For instance, preschool teachers can go beyond naming numbers and shapes to include concepts: why a circle is a circle, and why triangles can be both fat and skinny. Teachers can have children count beyond 20, because that's when patterns -- a key mathematical point -- emerge, according to Herbert Ginsburg, a member of the committee and a professor at Columbia University. Dr. Ginsburg said the panel isn't urging a fifth-grade curriculum on five-year-olds, but that preschoolers be taught in a deep and systematic way, with lots of activities and without textbooks.
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| NOLA's charter experiment yields successes, questions |
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Post-Katrina New Orleans is the site of 52 charter schools, with nearly 60 percent enrolled in charters, the highest percentage of any U.S. city. This sweeping change in the district has brought a leap of nearly ten percent in state standardized tests scores, writes USA TODAY. Though these Louisiana-specific scores are difficult to compare with other urban systems, they still suggest that the revamping of one of the country's worst-performing systems is an experiment worth watching. "If these types of practices can be taken across the country, especially in some of the more challenging urban environments, that would make a difference in improving education," said Tony Miller, a deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, which under Arne Duncan has been a champion of charter schools. However, critics have pointed out that the individualistic business models of charters are hard to replicate, and others wonder what will happen when New Orleans's massive influx of federal recovery money dries up. "It's been extraordinary as far as student achievement," said Luis Mirón, director of the Institute for Quality and Equity in Education at Loyola University, but he adds that successes based on temporary measures may not be sustainable.
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| Impatience grows with the ‘rubber room' |
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In what The New York Times is calling a "quiet act of defiance," many New York City principals are leaving teacher posts vacant rather than filling them from the so-called absent teacher reserve pool, as ordered by the city's Department of Education. The pool, which retains teachers whose positions were eliminated but who remain on the city's payroll, is the result of an agreement between the teacher union and the district, and allowed principals to hire without regard to seniority as long as jobless teachers retained full salaries and benefits. As Chancellor Joel Klein closed poor-performing schools, eliminating positions, many principals also hired newer teachers who were cheaper and without the stigma of a failing school. The "rubber room" swelled, and now stands at 1,983. The freeze on hiring out-of-system teachers, an economic necessity but "not ideal," according to the chancellor, has left reserve-pool teachers frustrated about the scarcity of job offers, and new teachers "furious" about the lack of job prospects. Principals find staffing options drastically limited. Mr. Klein plans to push for time limits in the reserve pool before permanent termination, but thus far an arbitration board has rejected a limit.
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D.C. schools placed several thousand emergency calls to police this year
The good news: "serious incidents" fell by 17 percent to 1,117 compared with 2007-08. The bad news: there were still 3,500 calls overall, according to the Heritage Foundation.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/D_C_-police-receive-thousands-of-calls-about-violence-at-schools-8179288-56406237.html
This time, Mr. Huxtable goes to Detroit
In his continuing efforts on behalf of public education, comedian Bill Cosby worked to woo students back to the Detroit Public Schools. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DETROIT_SCHOOLS_COSBY?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Symbolic steps on the path to performance pay for Los Angeles
The LAUSD has instituted a pay incentive program for high-level administrators that officials and board members hope will pave the way for merit-based compensation for teachers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-pay27-2009aug27,0,2163832.story
Michigan schools racing to race to the top
Dozens of districts have responded with proposals to state Superintendent Mike Flanagan's call to rethink the way children are educated as part of his bid to win RttT funds.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-schoolsreimagined,0,1417928.story |
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| NEW GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION |
IRA: Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Grant
The International Reading Association Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Grant honors an outstanding elementary teacher of reading and language arts dedicated to improving teaching and learning through reflective writing about his or her teaching and learning process. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: regular classroom elementary teachers of reading and language arts grades K-6, in schools where at least 60 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch; must be IRA members. Deadline: October 28, 2009.
http://www.reading.org/Resources/AwardsandGrants/teachers_routman.aspx
NSTA: Distinguished Fellow Award
The National Science Teachers Association Distinguished Fellow Award recognizes extraordinary contributions to science education through personal commitment to science teaching or science, and through significant contributions to the profession that reflect dedication to NSTA as well the entire educational community. Maximum award: Recognition. Eligibility: NSTA members of at least 10 years. Deadline: November 30, 2009.
http://www.nsta.org/main/pdfs/awards/Fellow.pdf
National/State Schools of Character Awards
The 2010 National/State Schools of Character Awards Program names public and private schools and districts (K-12) as National Schools of Character (NSOC) for their outstanding work in character education. The program honors recipients, showcases their work, and helps them to inspire and lead others. Maximum award: $20,000. Eligibility: schools engaged in character education for a minimum of three full years, starting no later than December 2006; districts engaged in character education for a minimum of four full years, starting no later than December 2005. Deadline: December 1, 2009.
http://www.character.org/nsoc
AAPT: Barbara Lotze Scholarships for Future Teachers
The American Association of Physics Teachers Executive Board offers scholarships for future high school physics teachers. Maximum award: $2,000, granted to an individual for up to four years. Eligibility: U.S. citizen undergraduates attending U.S. schools who are enrolled, or planning to enroll, in physics teacher preparation curricula; U.S. citizen high school seniors entering such programs. Deadline: December 1, 2009.
http://www.aapt.org/Grants/lotze.cfm
For more grants, see http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp
"I am not sure you can teach innovation, but you can unteach it. I think every kid starts out as a scientist. Watch a baby. They poke themselves in the eye and then they learn, that wasn't pleasant. They stop poking themselves in the eye. They try some other experiment. They might not like that, they stop doing it. They try another experiment, like crying, and get parents to do whatever they want, and they like that experiment. Kids are very good scientists."
-Dean Kamen (Segway inventor), Forbes Magazine, 8/27/09
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/dean-kamen-education-thought-leaders-innovation.html
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