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CONNECTING AMERICAN EDUCATION FROM BIRTH TO
ADULTHOOD
A child born in Virginia is significantly more likely to experience
success throughout life than the average child born in the United
States, while a child born in New Mexico is likely to face an
accumulating series of hurdles both educationally and economically,
according to an analysis published by Education Week. The analysis
by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center is based on
the "Chance-for-Success Index," which tracks state efforts to
connect education from preschool through postsecondary education and
provides a perspective on the importance of education throughout a
person’s lifetime. The index is based on 13 indicators that
highlight whether young children get off to a good start, succeed in
elementary and secondary school, and hit key educational and income
benchmarks as adults. Virginia, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey,
Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire rank at the top of the
index, while Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Arizona,
Louisiana, and New Mexico lag significantly behind the national
average in descending order. The 13 indicators that make up the
index capture key performance or attainment outcomes at various
stages in a person’s lifetime or are correlated with later success.
In general, the report finds far more activity in the early years.
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia report having
early-learning standards that are aligned with the academic
expectations for elementary schools. Thirteen states have a formal
definition of school readiness; 16 require districts to assess the
readiness of entering students; and 18 have interventions for
children not meeting school-readiness expectations. In contrast,
while many states report that they are working to better align high
school graduation requirements with college- and workforce-readiness
standards, many of those efforts have yet to reach fruition.
SURPRISING SECRET TO A LONG LIFE: STAY IN
SCHOOL
It is commonly known that kids who stay in school will secure better
jobs and earn higher salaries. However, new research reveals that
increases in educational attainment contribute to a longer lifespan,
reports Gina Kolata in the New York Times. The one social factor
that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in
every country where it has been studied is education. It is more
important than race; it obliterates any effects of income. Year
after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of
the National Institute on Aging, education "keeps coming up." And,
health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to
be crucial -- money and health insurance, for example, pale in
comparison. Dr. Adriana Lleras-Muney and others point to one
plausible explanation for the life-extending impact of education --
as a group, less educated people are less able to plan for the
future and to delay gratification. If true, that may, for example,
explain the differences in smoking rates between more educated
people and less educated ones. Better educated people tend to make
better choices about lifestyle, diet, exercise, savings, and other
factors that prolong life.
TEACHER MERIT PAY BOOSTS STUDENT STANDARDIZED
TEST SCORES
Students learn more when teachers are given financial incentives to
do a better job, concludes a new University of Florida (UF) study
that finds merit pay for instructors equates to better test scores
for their pupils. Pay incentives for teachers had more positive
effects on student test scores than such school improvement methods
as smaller class sizes or stricter requirements for classroom
attendance, said David Figlio, a UF economics professor. The study,
by Figlio and UF economics professor Lawrence Kenny, has been
accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of
Public Economics. Students at schools with teacher
pay-for-performance programs scored an average of one to two
percentage points higher on standardized tests than their peers at
schools where no bonuses were offered, Figlio said. The UF study
found the effects of these pay incentives were strongest in schools
with students from the poorest families. Figlio and Kenny collected
surveys from 534 schools that were among 1,319 public and private
schools participating in a national study sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Education beginning in 1988. About 16 percent of
American schools have teacher pay-for-performance programs in place,
Figlio said. Many teachers criticize these bonus plans, saying they
raise questions about fairness and they destroy cooperation among
teachers.
WHEN A TEACHER OF THE YEAR TAKES ON A FAILING
SCHOOL
To some, moving up as a teacher means working at an affluent school
with few academic struggles. Not to Betsy Rogers. After being named
National Teacher of the Year in 2003, she switched to Brighton
School -- Jefferson County's poorest school, which held the longest
run on that Alabama county's school-improvement list. She took a job
there as curriculum coordinator -- in essence, a teacher for the
teachers -- believing that beleaguered schools ought to have the
best instructors. But the challenge at the K-8 school was so steep
that early on she couldn't even get out of bed some days, reports
Gigi Douban in The Christian Science Monitor. At the end of 2004-05
school year, the school had failed to meet the state's testing goals
for seven years. Last academic year, a breakthrough occurred. The
school improved not only on the Alabama Reading and Mathematics
Test, which is the state accountability measure, but also on
benchmark tests throughout the year. Eighty-two percent of last
year's fourth-graders, for example, couldn't read. This year, 73
percent of that same group are reading proficiently. The relentless
collective focus on effective parental involvement and improving
teacher quality are credited as large key factors in the turnaround.
QUESTIONS ABOUT STUDENT HAPPINESS ARE NEITHER
RHETORICAL NOR FRIVOLOUS
Is unhappiness a key to academic success? No credible learning or
management theory suggests that fearful, unhappy or insecure people
are more productive. Common sense and countless studies demonstrate
that love is a better master than duty. For example, one popular yet
wrong view of education suggests that school is a child's "job."
This reduces learners to forced unpaid workers, as they do piecework
in the name of higher standards, competitiveness and accountability.
No learning theory suggests that fearful or insecure people are more
productive, writes Gary Stager in the new issue of District
Administration. Paradoxically, the same adults who destroyed the
timeless liberal arts tradition in schools sacrificed many of those
"standards" at the altar of accountability and unhappiness. If
schools are failing, each school employee who advances such nonsense
weakens support for public education and advances the pernicious
curriculum of misery and helplessness.
NCLB ON TRACK, SPELLING SAYS
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has said that she
welcomes proposals to "perfect and tweak" the No Child Left Behind
law as Congress prepares for what could become a divisive debate on
renewal of the landmark education initiative. But in an interview
with Washington Post’s Amit R. Paley five days before the act's
fifth anniversary, Spellings said its implementation was on track.
She rejected calls for a major rewrite of the law, including some
proposals advanced by a coalition of about 100 groups with a stake
in education. Her remarks come as various groups begin to weigh in
on the law and what they believe works and what does not. The No
Child Left Behind law is scheduled to be reauthorized by Congress,
but it is uncertain when lawmakers will act. The Forum on
Educational Accountability -- a coalition that includes education,
religious, civil rights and disability rights groups -- said that
the law overemphasizes standardized tests and arbitrary academic
targets. The coalition also criticized penalties the law imposes on
schools that fail to meet standards. "We don't have to throw out the
whole law and make a big political battle," said Reginald M. Felton,
a senior lobbyist for the National School Boards Association, a
member of the coalition. "But we need to change from the punitive,
'gotcha!' kind of approach to actual support for progress." The
coalition includes the National Parent Teacher Association, the
NAACP and the National Education Association, a teachers union. The
coalition has called for more federal education funding to help
schools meet the law's mandates.
MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS GONE WILD
It is news to no one, not even Lawrence Downes of the New York
Times, that eroticism in popular culture is a 24-hour,
all-you-can-eat buffet, and that many children in their early teens
are filling up. The latest debate centers on whether simulated
intercourse is an appropriate dance style for the high school gym.
In this opinion piece, Downes shares his disgust with writhing,
gyrating and booty-shaking performances at a middle school talent
show, an official function at a public school, a milieu that in
another time or universe might have seen children singing folk
ballads, say, or reciting the Gettysburg Address. What is surprising
is how completely parents of even younger girls seem to have gotten
in step with society’s march toward eroticized adolescence -- either
willingly or through abject surrender. And if parents give up, what
can a school do? Suburban parents dote on and hover over their
children, micromanaging their appointments and shielding them in
helmets, kneepads and thick layers of S.U.V. steel. But they allow
the culture of boy-toy sexuality to bore unchecked into their little
ones’ ears and eyeballs, displacing their nimble and growing brains
and impoverishing the sense of wider possibilities in life.
NEW APPROACHES IN THE CLASSROOM PREPARE STUDENTS FOR CIVIC
INVOLVEMENT Academy for Educational Development (AED)
is working to create education systems that prepare their students
to be active members of a democratic society. At first blush, the
connection between the way children are taught and the way a country
is governed may not be completely obvious, but AED experts believe
that decentralizing education creates systems that cater to
children’s specific needs, support individual teachers, and empower
communities. "Education in many ways really is the key to
democracy," said Alison Price-Rom, a senior program officer with
AED’s Participation, Education, and Knowledge Strengthening, or
PEAKS, project. "It is about more than just teaching facts and
skills. It is teaching children to participate in society." The key
to the success of AED’s education reform projects is
student-centered learning. Instead of teaching the whole class at
the same pace, teachers now respect each individual student’s
progress, and each student’s achievement guides his or her
instruction. "This is ultimately more successful," said Price-Rom.
"Top-down models of education focus on one level of students, and
those not learning at that level are left behind."
STUDENTS AS ALLIES IN IMPROVING THEIR SCHOOLS
In many classrooms across the country, neither students nor teachers
feel very smart. The refrains are familiar. School is boring,
students complain. It's hard to see a connection between what’s
taught and the real world. Teachers don't explain things in ways we
understand. What we think doesn't seem to matter. We can't do
everything, teachers respond. Students are unprepared. It's tough to
reach kids whose backgrounds are so different from our own. Too much
of teaching is really just classroom management. Students need to
meet us halfway. Even in "high performing" schools, the aspirations
of students and teachers require persistent tending, and pockets of
alienation belie the trophy cases. A relentless focus on tests and
grades can consume all the oxygen, snuffing out the sort of learning
that ignites excitement. What if teachers and students became steady
allies rather than frequent adversaries? What would it take for
students to become stakeholders not just in their own success but
also in that of their teachers and schools? With support from
MetLife Foundation, What Kids Can Do (WKCD) has explored these
questions for several years in an initiative called "Students as
Allies." In Chicago, Houston, Oakland, Philadelphia, and St. Louis,
WKCD has collaborated with teams of students and teachers organized
by a local partnership. The efforts in each city include several
parts: helping students conduct survey research about their own
schools, then supporting dialogue and constructive action around the
research results, while nurturing youth leadership all along the
way. Click below to access tools, publications, sample surveys, and
data about what has been gathered and learned.
AN AFTERSCHOOL STRUGGLE TO JUGGLE KIDS & WORK
It's 3 p.m. Do you know where your children are? Millions of working
parents share a common worry as they watch the clock and hope that
their after-school arrangements are in place. For their employers,
these distractions can take a huge toll on productivity, according
to a new study by Catalyst and the Women's Studies Research Center
at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Despite progress, many
communities still face a serious shortage of affordable,
high-quality after-school programs, reports Marilyn Gardner in The
Christian Science Monitor. More than 14 million students between
kindergarten and 12th grade take care of themselves after school,
says Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance in
Washington, D.C. That includes 40,000 kindergartners and almost 4
million middle school students in grades 6 to 8. Parental concern is
greater when children are older -- from grades 6 through 12 --
because this age group is more likely to be unsupervised. A lack of
after-school programs also raises concerns about childhood obesity.
THE WALDORF WAY: INTEGRATING HEADS, HEARTS &
HANDS INTO EVERY LESSON
Implicit in the Waldorf educational philosophy is the belief that
everyone -- assuming no obvious handicap -- has the ability to do
everything well, though that ability often has to be discovered, or
rediscovered. We all can do music, do art, do mathematics. Most of
us conceive of learning how to do something as acquiring a new set
of skills, writes David Ruenzel. But for Waldorf educators and
adherents, the emphasis is quite different. They see learning as a
kind of massive reclamation project: You reclaim what has always
been in you -- the ability, for example, to paint or do mathematics
-- but was never brought out, in part because schooling steered you
away from things in which you could not score a quick success. For
if acquiring ability in some specific area is less a matter of
learning something from scratch than of reclaiming some dormant
capability, then it is never too late for any of us. This is at
least as true for adults as it is for students, as author and
educator A.C. Harwood points out, if a teacher cannot paint, "then
he must endeavor to recapture the ability which his own education
destroyed." In the teaching of children, exuberance counts for more
than knowledge. Teachers experiencing something miraculously new for
themselves will inspire their students with that very emotion. In a
world in which increasing numbers of educators are clamoring for
more computers and academic acceleration, Waldorf educators remain
unapologetically contrarian, playing the tortoise to the hare.
STUDY CHALLENGES MYTH THAT CHARTER SCHOOL
PARENTS NOT WELL INFORMED
Parents who choose charter schools for their children use the same
methods for making their selection, and are as well informed, as
parents who choose private or traditional public schools, a new
study reveals. The study from the National Charter School Research
Project at the Center on Reinventing Public Education challenges the
stereotype that low- to moderate-income ($0–$50K annual) urban
parents are ill-informed consumers led unwittingly to select charter
schools or other schools of choice. Like parents who do not choose a
charter school, charter parents obtain information from other
families with children in schools they are considering, look at
information provided directly by the schools, visit schools with
their children, and also take into account their children’s
opinions. As part of the report "Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced
Look at American Charter Schools in 2006," the study of how charter
school parents do their homework surveyed parents in three cities
with many school choice options: Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and
Denver. The study also found that charter school parents report
greater satisfaction than parents who made a different school
choice. The growth of charter schools in the United States continued
strong in the 2005-2006 school year, according to the report, up 10
percent from the previous year, to a total of 3,638. Most charter
schools are located in urban areas. Chapter Three of the study
contains an intriguing report on a one-day "ceasefire" conference
that brought together teachers union and charter school leaders. The
discussion revealed that the two sides have substantial conflicts
and yet they also share common interests: particularly creating
attractive new opportunities for good teachers and providing options
for children whom traditional public schools do not serve well.
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