| Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
March 12, 2010
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One step closer to common standards
State boards of education are moving rapidly to adopt the common-standards proposal made by state governors and schools chiefs this week, with many in the South eager to act within the next few months, The Washington Post reports. "I think you'll get half of the states by the end of the year, based on what they've said to us," said Brenda Welburn, executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education. According to Welburn, some Western states appeared more cautious. The blueprint aims to replace a hodgepodge of state benchmarks with common standards. President Obama has aggressively encouraged state action as a key to improving troubled schools and keeping the nation competitive. New academic standards would affect textbooks, curricula, teacher training, and student learning from coast to coast. The new proposal is considered a breakthrough after years of stalemate over the federal role in setting education standards. Both the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations tried and failed in the 1990s to establish voluntary national standards, leaving expectations for students up to states.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/10/AR2010031000024.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010031000033
See the standards: http://www.corestandards.org/Standards/K12/
A 'broader and more complicated' look at civil rights in education
The federal Department of Education will intensify its civil rights enforcement efforts in schools around the country, taking a deeper look at issues that range from programs for English language learners to access to college preparatory courses, the Associated Press reports. Though such investigations have been conducted before, the department's Office of Civil Rights intends to undertake broader, more complicated reviews that will look not just at whether procedures are in place, but at their impact on students of one race or another, and if student needs are being met. In remarks in Selma, Ala., Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined troubling data: At the end of high school, white students are six times more likely to be college-ready in biology than black students, and more than four times as likely to be prepared for college algebra. A quarter of all American students drop out before graduation, and of these, half come from 12 percent of the nation's high schools, which have predominantly black and Latino populations. Black students without disabilities are more than three times as likely to be expelled as white students, and those with disabilities more than twice as likely to be expelled or suspended.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CIVIL_RIGHTS_EDUCATION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Related: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/03/portland_education_leaders_tal.html
Deep reform underway in Pittsburgh
Issues of what makes a teacher effective and who gets to decide this are among those facing administrators in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers as they begin implementation of a new performance pay plan, reports The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The plan, part of the $40 million grant that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the district last year, includes seven core initiatives designed to improve teacher efficiency and the learning environment in the school district. These include the creation of a Promise-Readiness Corps, a team of teachers who will shepherd the same group of students from ninth through 10th grade. The plan also calls for expanded career opportunities through the creation of six new job classifications that would account for 400 teaching positions; a teacher academy to train incoming teachers in certain subjects, and a teacher practice and evaluation system. The district will also streamline its human resources operation and information technology platform to better track and place teachers and students. In addition to the $40 million grant awarded to the Pittsburgh schools, the foundation is also funding a two-year research project in eight school districts around the country -- including Pittsburgh -- to come up with a method of teacher evaluation.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041269-298.stm#ixzz0hsqwtHii
The rundown on I3
Andy Smarick of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has read the 377-page final application for the federal Investing in Innovation Fund (I3), and writes on his Flypaper blog that "not all that much changed since the draft documents were released last year." The competitive grant program for districts, nonprofits, and groups of schools is still "wholly focused" on high-need students, with the same four priority areas as the Race to the Top initiative: teacher and principal quality; better use of data; improved standards and assessments; and improving failing schools. Unlike RtTT, extra consideration will be given to proposals in four targeted areas: early childhood; college access and success; special education and LEP; and rural education. In Smarick's analysis, "the greatest disappointment is that the Department did not reconsider its earlier decision to disallow private schools from making up a 'consortium of schools'" -- the upshot of which is that faith-based urban schools will be excluded from participation. Andrew Rotherham of Education Sector writes that Smarick's synopsis misses the big understory -- the inclusion of evidence standards in the final draft. "These standards set a pretty high bar for the big money that largely reflects the views of some senior administration officials with strong views on research evidence," says Rotherham. "As a result, there are some organizations, including some Smarick cites, that may not be eligible for the big money. Not because they're not producing results, but because they don't have evaluations of sufficient methodological rigor completed yet."
Read more: http://www.edexcellence.net/flypaper/index.php/2010/03/i3-analysis/
Related: http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/03/i3.html
More analysis of the broad reforms in NYC
A new report from MDRC looks at the historical backdrop to New York City's effort to transform its public high schools from 2002 to 2008. At the start of the decade, the city routinely assigned students to zoned high schools, which often had thousands of students and were overcrowded and low performing. By the 2007-2008 school year, 23 large and midsize schools with graduation rates below 45 percent had closed or were on their way to closing, and almost 200 new small schools for high school-aged kids had opened. Under new procedures, all eighth-graders submit up to 12 schools that they wish to attend, ranked in order of preference, and the New York City Department of Education (DOE) use a computerized process for assigning students. The sweeping reforms affected all public high school students, but were directly intended to benefit academically and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, especially those living in low-income, largely nonwhite areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx. MDRC's report rests primarily on quantitative data from large databases maintained by the DOE, the New York State Education Department, and the U.S. Department of Education, but includes other sources.
See the report: http://www.mdrc.org/publications/543/overview.html
A closer look at career-changers
A new report from Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation underwritten by the MetLife Foundation points to significant shortfalls in preparation and support for those who change careers to teach, and debunks common assumptions about their paths to teaching. Its survey of 504 teachers found that that the majority of career changers -- 92 percent -- pursued teacher education through a university program, and nearly nine in 10 considered their programs to have been excellent overall. Programs were mainly faulted for failing to prepare teachers for real-world challenges. On a composite index of ratings, more than one-quarter of those surveyed (28 percent) gave their teacher preparation a "C" or better with regard to dealing with behavioral issues, incorporating standards into the curriculum, and teaching English language learners. The report also counters stereotypes about career changers as midcareer or second-career executives taking large pay cuts to teach. It found that nearly three in five career changers (57 percent) worked in other jobs for less than ten years before entering the classroom. Two out of three (67 percent) reported that their teaching salaries were the same as or better than salaries in their previous jobs. To be eligible for the survey, interviewees had to be current teachers who had been teaching in public schools for no more than 20 years, and who had held positions in other fields for at least three years before teaching.
See the report: http://www.woodrow.org/policy/current.php
Teaching of the fittest? Maybe not
A "new and unusually careful survey" finds that in the case of at least one Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter school, it is untrue that student scores are high because weaker students have dropped out, according to Jay Mathews of The Washington Post. Mathews, who published a favorable book on the KIPP network last year, relates that the study from the National Bureau of Economic Research "is the first to use a randomized control group method to determine the effects of KIPP's long school days, energetic teaching, and strong work ethic on fifth- through eighth-graders." Comparing the progress of 200 students admitted to the KIPP Academy in Lynn, Mass. with another 200 who applied but were not selected in a random lottery, the data indicate significant gains in math and reading for KIPP students compared to the control group. In the words of the study, this particular KIPP school "raises achievement more for weaker students." It looked at the lowest category of scores on the Massachusetts state test (the "warning level") and found that "a year at KIPP Lynn reduces the probability that students perform at the warning level by 10 percentage points for math, with an equal likelihood of reaching the advanced level. For ELA [English Language Arts], the table shows a five percent drop in the warning group. . . It is noteworthy that achievement gains in both subjects come from a shift out of the lowest group."
Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/03/examining_kipp_dropout_theory.html
See the report: http://www.nber.org/papers/w15740
Progress in assessment
A new report from Achieve, a nonprofit group created by the nation's governors and business leaders, charts changes in state standards and practices in the years following its National Education Summit in 2005. Five years after the summit, 31 states report having college- and career-ready standards, including eight that adopted aligned high school standards in the past year. In 2005, only three states had graduation requirements that all students complete four years of mathematics at the level of what is typically taught in an Algebra II course, and four years of grade-level English. Today, 20 states and the District of Columbia require these for graduation. At the time of the summit, only three states had operational P20 longitudinal data systems. Today, 16 states report that they have begun to match K12 and postsecondary student-level data annually, including five new states in the past year. However, at the time of the summit, no state had a comprehensive college- and career-ready accountability system, and there has been little progress in this area in the five years following.
See the report: http://www.achieve.org/ClosingtheExpectationsGap2010
The wellness gap
According to a new study from Equity Matters, better efforts to address health disparities that impede learning for students from disadvantaged groups are needed to close the achievement gap, reports Education Week. "At the national level, we're on the verge of investing billions in our educational system, and the return on those investments is going to be jeopardized unless these health issues are addressed in a much more cogent way," said the study's author, Charles E. Basch of Teachers College, Columbia University. The report examined over 300 studies in education, psychology, health, and other areas, identifying disparities and strategic leverage points for improving student learning. For identification as leverage points, health problems had to negatively affect urban students from traditionally disadvantaged minority groups, be linked in some way to poorer educational outcomes for students, and have some evidence of school-based programs and policies that could successfully address them. The six "educationally relevant health disparities" Professor Basch selected are: vision problems, asthma, teenage pregnancy, aggression and violence, physical inactivity, lack of breakfast, and inattention and hyperactivity. Beyond treatment of these problems, better coordination is needed among school-based health-related prevention and intervention programs so that simultaneously occurring issues can be treated together.
Read more: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/09/25health.h29.html?tkn=TRBFoB4yttNFMN%2BK8NURXHoVSah3PF3l2FfB&cmp=clp-ecseclips
See the report: http://www.equitycampaign.org/article.asp?t=d&id=7381
BRIEFLY NOTED
Bid to redefine tenure
Minnesota's K-12 teachers would have to reapply for teacher tenure every five years if a proposal from Gov. Tim Pawlenty is approved by the legislature.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/86425097.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUsr
Bringing Turkish Harmony to Lone Star
In Texas, university professors and graduate students from Turkey who thought American students were lagging in math and science founded the charter Harmony Science Academies, which now have 25 campuses and 12,000 students K-12 statewide.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-harmony_02met.ART.State.Edition1.4bb08db.html
And so they come to the end
Saying that Baltimore's schools have made great strides in the past several years toward providing better teaching to special education students, a federal judge ended 26 years of oversight of the school system and paved the way for a final settlement in two years.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-specialed-settle0308,0,7599023.story
Pawning its gold?
New York State officials are considering scrapping all but a handful of the vaunted Regents exams, "the gold standard of academic achievement" in the state's schools, to save millions of dollars.
http://www.uticaod.com/education/x324652565/State-continues-discussions-to-cut-Regents-exams
So much for the experts
A widely heralded Stanford Universityrun charter in East Palo Alto has landed on the state's worst list.
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=16029
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures: Community College Encore Career Grants
MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Community College Encore Career Grants explore how community colleges can help those in the second half of life pursue new careers in education, health care, social services, and similar fields. Maximum award: $25,000. Eligibility: community colleges. Deadline: April 12, 2010.
http://www.civicventures.org/communitycolleges
Target: Early Childhood Reading Grants
Target Early Childhood Reading Grants promote a love of reading and encourage young children to read together with their families by supporting programs such as after-school reading events and weekend book clubs. Maximum award: $2,000.
Eligibility: schools, libraries, and nonprofit organizations. Deadline: April 30, 2010.
http://sites.target.com/site/en/company/page.jsp?contentId=WCMP04-031821
Target: Arts and Culture in Schools Grants
Target Arts and Culture in Schools Grants help schools and nonprofits bring arts and cultural experiences directly to K-12 students. Programs must have a curriculum component. Maximum award: $2,000. Eligibility: schools and nonprofit organizations. Deadline: April 30, 2010.
http://sites.target.com/site/en/company/page.jsp?contentId=WCMP04-031819
ING: Unsung Heroes
The ING Unsung Heroes awards program recognizes innovative and progressive thinking in education through monetary awards. Maximum award: $25,000. Eligibility: full-time educators, teachers, principals, paraprofessionals, or classified staff members with effective projects that improve student learning at an accredited K-12 public or private school. Deadline: April 30, 2010.
http://www.ing.com/us/unsungheroes
NCSS: Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award
The National Council for the Social Studies Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award aims to help a social studies educator make his or her dream of innovative social studies a reality. Grants will be given to assist classroom teachers in: 1) developing and implementing imaginative, innovative, and illustrative social studies teaching strategies; and 2) supporting student implementation of innovative social studies, citizenship projects, field experiences, and community connections. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: full-time social studies teachers or social studies teacher educators currently engaged with K-12 students; NCSS membership required. Deadline: May 1, 2010.
http://www.socialstudies.org/awards/grants/mcauliffe/
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"You're going to run out of people willing to work an 80-hour week. Everyone here is single; no one has a kid. That's just not (replicable). I want us to look like something any school in New Orleans could do. Right now, we're not there."
-- Sean Gallagher, principal and founder of the Akili Academy charter school in the Gentilly section of New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2010/03/new_teachers_working_long_hard.html
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