Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast

PEN Weekly NewsBlast for January 12, 2007

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COMPLAINING ALL THE WAY TO EDUCATION SUCCESSES IN THE NATION'S SCHOOLS
Expect to read a lot of retrospectives on No Child Left Behind. The controversial package of national education reforms marked its five-year anniversary this week. Administrators, teachers and others will no doubt lament that Washington hasn't put its money where its mouth is, write the editors of The Journal News, and complain that the one-size-fits-all reforms leave much to be desired. The criticisms and observations will no doubt be dead on. But what has been encouraging to many observers are statistics showing significant gains by those on the downside of the achievement gap. The consternation has been worth it to these beneficiaries -- underperformers defying others' time-honored low expectations. Certainly more federal funding should be forthcoming and lots of work remains, but for all the complaints -- kids who were ignored, forgotten or otherwise underserved are being dealt with, or at least more of them are. A critical review of NCLB is overdue. But this editorial says there is more than anecdotal evidence to suggest that Congress should get behind NCLB, preferably one that is improved, better funded and up to the very hard challenges that remain.

NCLB: REFLECTIONS ON NEW DIRECTIONS AFTER FIVE YEARS OF MIXED OUTCOMES
At Public Education Network (PEN), we believe that an active, vocal constituency demanding educational improvement is the key to ensuring that every child, in every community, benefits from a quality public education. The fifth anniversary of the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) reminds us of how important it is for the country to continue to focus on education reform. In public hearings convened by PEN nationwide, Americans reported significant concern over NCLB's implementation. The public supports accountability, but believes the current NCLB accountability system is too narrow. It rejects the idea that a single test can create an accurate portrayal of how well a school is performing and believes that such a determination is often at odds with evaluations based on state assessments and inconsistent with how members of the public personally evaluate their schools. Labeling schools "in need of improvement," typically interpreted as "failing," creates conditions whereby schools are abandoned. This destructive impact goes well beyond the school; it tears at the fabric of community. The public’s belief in the community as a true partner in school success has intensified. The public is certain that schools cannot go it alone, that communities must be key partners, and that responsibility and accountability for student success must be shared. As part of a larger strategy to inform the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB, PEN will convene another set of hearings this year on this extremely important and often controversial matter that affects the 50 million children who attend public school in the United States.

WHY WE HONOR DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Between 1955 and 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped change America. He brought to the world's attention to the unfair and immoral treatment of blacks in the United States and around the globe. He had the help of millions of Americans, but his strong leadership and unprecedented power of speech gave people the faith and courage to keep working peacefully even when others did not. This led to new laws that ended legal discrimination, legal segregation, and other practices of keeping people of different backgrounds apart. America will always remember the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. Each year, on the third Monday in January, we celebrate his birthday and pause to honor his life and dreams of equal opportunity and liberty for all. This is the first national holiday to honor an individual black American. The legacy of Dr. King lives in each of us and we are responsible to promote, teach and live the American Dream. Many classroom teachers also pause in the weeks leading up to Martin Luther King Day to take advantage of an opportunity to teach about the King legacy of tolerance, equality, and respect. The life of American hero Martin Luther King Jr. offers many teaching opportunities. In this article, Education World presents cross-curricular and cross-grade lessons teachers can use to share King's life and legacy with students.

HOW BUSH EDUCATION LAW HAS CHANGED OUR SCHOOLS
A cornerstone of President Bush's domestic agenda and one of his few truly bipartisan successes, No Child Left Behind took what was once a fairly low-key funding vehicle (it was known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act before Bush borrowed the catchy name from the Children's Defense Fund) and turned it into a vast -- and contentious-- book of federal mandates. But one thing is certain, reports Greg Toppo in USA TODAY: No Child Left Behind has had a major influence on the daily experience of school for millions of kids. Here are five big ways it's changing schools:

A MARSHALL PLAN FOR TEACHING
Research indicates that expert teachers are the most important -- and the most inequitably distributed -- school resource. However, in the United States, schools serving more than one million of our highest-need students are staffed by a parade of underprepared and inexperienced teachers who know little about effective instruction, and even less about teaching English-language learners and students with disabilities. Many of these teachers enter the classroom with little training and leave soon after, creating greater instability in their wake. Meanwhile, affluent students receive teachers who are typically better prepared than their predecessors, further widening the achievement gap. If we are serious about leaving no child behind, we need to go beyond mandates to ensure that all students have well-qualified teachers. In Education Week, education professor Linda Darling-Hammond outlines several solutions. First, the federal government should establish service scholarships to cover training costs in high-quality programs. Second, recruitment incentives are needed to attract and retain expert, experienced teachers in high-need schools. Third, as is true in medicine, the Marshall Plan for Teaching should support improved preparation. Fourth, providing mentoring for all beginning teachers would reduce attrition and increase competence. Finally, preparation and mentoring can be strengthened if they are guided by a high-quality teacher-performance assessment that measures actual teaching skill. In the long run, these proposals would save far more than they cost. The savings would include the more than $2 billion now wasted annually because of high teacher turnover, plus the even higher costs of grade retention, summer school, remedial programs, lost wages, and prison sentences for dropouts (another $50 billion, increasingly tied to illiteracy and school failure).

AMERICANS WANT TO SPEND MORE ON EDUCATION, HEALTH
Overall, the American public favors more government spending, particularly for education and health, areas that have consistently lead the public’s spending priorities in recent years, according to a new survey from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. The findings come from NORC’s General Social Survey, which asks people for their opinion on a wide variety of subjects, including spending priorities. When questioned about spending on education for the 2006 survey, 74.1 percent said the government is spending too little, while 5.4 percent felt the government is spending too much, creating an overall score of +68.7. Support for health spending came in second at +66.4. Other top priorities in spending are assistance to the poor (+62.0), the environment (+61.9), social security (+59.2), dealing with drug addition (+54.8) and halting crime (+54.6). Near the bottom of the priority ranking, was spending on the military. The latest survey shows that 26.8 percent of Americans feel the government is spending too little on national defense, while 33.8 percent feel it is spending the right amount and 39.4 percent feel too much is spent, earning military spending a score of -12.6 on the scale.

HARD CHOICES: WAR IN IRAQ OR 35,000 NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS?
The cost of war in Iraq has exceeded $350 billion and the cost to American taxpayers continues to increase. Federal funding requests by President Bush to support his new plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq remind the American people of the important tradeoffs in continuing to wage war. The National Priorities Project estimates that $350 billion would have built more than 35,000 new elementary schools nationwide or hired 6 million teachers. Click the link below to view comparisons of war costs to funding universal pre-school, expanding health insurance to children, funding public education, providing college scholarships, and building safe and affordable public housing.

SHOCKS FROM THE SYSTEM
Although the New York State Department of Education bans corporal punishment, each year it uses taxpayer money to send dozens of children with emotional or learning disabilities to schools that use physically and mentally abusive forms of behavior modification. These include electric shocks, seclusion and sleep and food deprivation. Because these punishments are euphemized as "aversive therapy," they have until recently stayed under the department’s radar. But this summer, the New York State Board of Regents decided to regulate the use of such measures. Thankfully, the proposed new rules, which the Regents are scheduled to enact this week, ban aversive treatment after 2009. Unfortunately, however, for this school year and the two that follow, young New Yorkers who receive a "child specific exemption" will still be subject to some of these therapies, and those who get this treatment now could continue to receive it after 2009. This is a mistake, writes author Maia Szalavitz. Aversive therapy for children should be banned immediately here in New York and nationwide. Though corporal punishment can sometimes produce compliance among unruly children, history shows that regulators cannot prevent it from being applied dangerously and inappropriately.

A NEW DAY FOR LEARNING
No one believes that when the bell rings at the end of the school day, children stop learning. Curiosity bubbles inside the minds of children from the moment they wake in the morning until they go to bed at night. Our challenge is to encourage, connect, and foster learning throughout a child’s day. How do we help children make sense of all the information and experiences in their lives? Policymakers face a challenge: How do we ensure that all children have opportunities to reach their full potential in a competitive world where thinking skills are the most important asset of a society? According to an urgent report from the Time, Learning, and Afterschool Task Force funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, we can start by organizing learning time more effectively. The paradigm in this report is unique. It requires us to think beyond our individual responsibilities and consider the organizational, policy, and traditional barriers we impose on creating a seamless learning day for children. We are not getting very far, very fast because we persist in placing all the responsibility for teaching on the schools and on a short school day. The aspirations of every community -- affluent to low income, homogeneous to widely diverse -- are limited by these habits. Without a broader view of learning, all American school-age children will be denied access to experiences that will help them be successful lifelong learners. Based on extensive research and emerging policies and practices, the Task Force envisions a system rich with multiple ways to learn and develop, anchored to high standards, and aligned to educational resources throughout a community.

DISTRICTS ARE GETTING TOUGH WITH PARENTS WHO HOP BOUNDARIES TO ENROLL STUDENTS
School districts, education agencies, and even municipal governments are increasing their attention on the practice of falsifying residency status to attend a specific school, according to the cover story of the January issue of American School Board Journal. "With fewer than a quarter of states offering open enrollment programs, the only choice for most families, at least as far as they can see, is to cheat the system," writes ASBJ senior editor Naomi Dillon in "Crossing the Line." Different reasons drive different families. For many, it is purely about providing their children with a better education, which may translate into better services, more rigorous academics, or specialized programs. "All districts aren't the same and parents see that," says Hank Langhals, director of student services for Gahanna-Jefferson Schools in Ohio. "They can't afford to move, but they want to do what’s best for their child." The Journal examines how school districts across the country are addressing the border issue and dealing with the growth in illegal registration, which often involves the use of a friend’s or relative’s address, but can also include fake leases and false identification. Dillon writes that the main reason for enforcing student residency requirements is the cost to local taxpayers of educating out-of-district students. But some district officials are just as anxious about what outsiders do to their test scores.

NCLB CALLED "BEYOND REPAIR"
A former Bush administration education official has fueled the No Child Left Behind debate by withdrawing his support of the controversial education reform law. Michael Petrilli was a U.S. Department of Education associate assistant deputy secretary who helped promote the education reform law. But as Bush officials were hailing the law on its fifth anniversary Monday, blogs buzzed about an article Petrilli released Friday, reports Nicole Stricker in the Salt Lake Tribune. "I've gradually and reluctantly come to the conclusion that NCLB as enacted is fundamentally flawed and probably beyond repair," Petrilli, the current vice president at the Fordham Foundation, wrote. "NCLB has 'changed the conversation' in education . . . But let's face it: It doesn't help the dedicated principal who is pulling her hair out because of the law's nonsensical provisions." Petrilli's criticism was a sea change. He characterized himself as a "true believer" in the law, which can withhold federal funding from schools if too many students flub standardized math or reading tests. Although Petrilli spent five years promoting it, he said he had doubts about aspects of the law from the beginning. Among them: requiring districts to hire only "highly qualified teachers" who had degrees in their subject areas, and allowing states to define "proficiency" as they saw fit. "Other flaws," Petrilli wrote, "took me longer to appreciate." He still agrees with the spirit and goals of the law, but realized the federal government can't force states and school districts to do things they don't want to do and "it's impossible to force them to do those things well."

MORE CHILDREN LEARN MORE THAN ONE LANGUAGE
In today's globalized world, according to USA TODAY, many American parents insist that the education of their young children include foreign languages. Not only is learning a foreign language easier for children than it is for adults, but children who are exposed to other languages also do better in school, score higher on standardized tests, are better problem solvers and are more open to diversity, says François Thibaut, who runs The Language Workshop for Children.

THE FEDS ARE HERE TO HELP YOU -- WITH FREE STUFF!
Middle-school reform expert John Norton, a frequent NewsBlast contributor, writes that he is pretty impressed with the redesign of the U.S. Department of Education's FREE website, which serves as a repository of school-related resources from agencies across the spectrum of federal government. FREE stands for "Federal Resources for Educational Excellence" and has been around since 1998, but has always needed a better organizational structure and search engine. The new design, launched in December, has improved navigation and images throughout the site. Click on the link for the new subject map (upper left corner) and you'll find a list of more than 100 topics and the number of resources for each. Example: U.S. History/Famous People/Inventors (36). There's an RSS feed so savvy web-surfers can receive updated information without revisiting the site. Subjects covered include social studies, US and world history, science, math, health and physical education, arts and music and language arts. Well worth investigating!

WHO HAVE YOU OFFENDED TODAY?
What are you doing to make your organization remarkable? What is its remarkable story? Who are its remarkable people? How well are you communicating its remarkability? Roger Craver and Tom Belford advise us you to find out exactly what makes your most passionate supporters most excited about and committed to you, then do more of it, much more ... talk about it, a lot ... and get rid of the chaff.

HURRIED LIFESTYLE AND HEAVY ACADEMIC, EXTRACURRICULAR LOAD TAKING TOLL
A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says free and unstructured play is healthy and essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient. The report, "The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds," is written in defense of play and in response to forces threatening free play and unscheduled time. These forces include changes in family structure, the increasingly competitive college admissions process, and federal education policies that have led to reduced recess and physical education in many schools. Whereas play protects children's emotional development, a loss of free time in combination with a hurried lifestyle can be a source of stress, anxiety and may even contribute to depression for many children. The report reaffirms that the most valuable and useful character traits that will prepare children for success come not from extracurricular or academic commitments, but from a firm grounding in parental love, role modeling and guidance. Still, many parents are afraid to slow their pace for fear their children will fall behind. The report suggests that reduced time for physical activity may be contributing to the academic differences between boys and girls, as schools with sedentary learning styles become more difficult settings for some boys to navigate successfully. To help parents and teens develop resiliency and understand the role of stress in life, the AAP has created a resiliency website that features additional information on stress reduction and coping skills, as well as a stress management plan teens can personalize to fit their personalities and lifestyles.

ZOOMERS: THE NEW WORLD OF ACADEMICALLY DRIVEN YOUTH
What happened to high school? It doesn't take a genius -- or a precocious high school student -- to understand that ramped-up achievement is tightly connected to ramped-up competition for slots at prestigious colleges. At top high schools, tension about college admissions permeates the atmosphere, and students push themselves to the limit. But with so much college coursework before college, educators say, the academic progression is out of whack. Of course, there have always been smart kids, writes Laura Pappano in the New York Times. But whether out of fear, cultural conditioning or some inherent spark, more adolescents than ever before are emerging from the pack and distinguishing themselves academically. Super-achievers aren't just bright; they crave that distinction.

HISPANIC ACHIEVEMENT LAGGING BEHIND IN U.S. PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) has released a statistical brief that portrays the U.S. educational system as an obstacle course from preschool through college for the growing population of Latino students. "Hispanic Education in the United States" identifies the key barriers facing Hispanic students, who continue to have the lowest levels of educational achievement of any ethnic group. The report notes, for example, that less than half of Hispanic males complete high school. Report highlights include:

FORCING A RISKY BUSINESS MODEL ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Political and business leaders are openly promulgating forced competition among schools, coveting any new idea that comes along to demonstrate anecdotal improvement and using flawed statistics to foist unproven changes on schools, writes Robert Brower, a veteran Indiana school district leader in School Administrator magazine. Not only is the business model of reform misguided, he writes, there is not a shred of statistically significant research that supports the notion that competition will solve whatever ails K-12 education. If we succumb to this experiment of political thought, the consequences may be devastating to our economic and social future. Unfortunately, many educators do not recognize the hidden agenda -- the dismantling of public education. During recent national elections it was common to hear politicians calling for schools to be operated more like retail franchises, competing for customers in a crowded marketplace. Rather than shaming schools into improving, we should be supporting low-achieving schools partnering with successful schools. The "produce or die" operating model of the corporate arena and academia may work with manufacturing cogs and college professors, but this business approach to education has no proven track record of success for students and schools. Continuing to advocate a politically motivated, market-driven system of education will only delay the real work that needs to be done to help our public schools grow. We should not be at odds with one another but rather respectful of our separate areas of expertise.

NUMBER OF NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFIED TEACHERS TOPS 55,000
Nearly 7,800 of the nation’s top teachers achieved National Board Certification in 2006, a 7 percent increase over the number of teachers who earned certification in 2005. The cumulative total of National Board Certified Teachers stands at 55,306. The states with the highest number of teachers who recently attained National Board Certification were North Carolina (1,525), Florida (1,513), South Carolina (636), Illinois (431) and Washington (407). Among evidence that the National Board Certified Teacher movement is growing:

During the same period, African American National Board Certified Teachers increased 24 percent, Hispanic teachers increased 13 percent and Native American teachers increased 50 percent. National Board Certification is the highest credential in the teaching profession. A teacher-driven, voluntary process established by NBPTS, certification is achieved through a rigorous, performance-based assessment that typically takes one to three years to complete and measures what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. As part of the process, teachers build a portfolio that includes student work samples, assignments, videotapes and a thorough analysis of their classroom teaching. Additionally, teachers are assessed on their knowledge of the subjects they teach.

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"Advancing School Mental Health: Conference Session Proposals Sought"
Proposals are now being accepted for the 12th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health to be held October 25-27, 2007, sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health Analysis and Action (CSMHA) and the IDEA Partnership. The theme of this year's conference is What Works in Schools: Sustaining a National Community of Practice on Collaborative School Behavioral Health. Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2007.

"Multimedia in the Classroom Awards"
JPMorgan Chase "Multimedia in the Classroom" Awards Competition is accepting submissions from teachers and students who enhance learning in science or global awareness though innovative use of video, the Web or multimedia, Projects must be teacher-mentored and student-executed, and must exemplify skillful use of media and technology to improve learning in a curriculum area Maximum Award: $1000. Eligibility: Teachers and students K-12 in public and non-public schools in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Deadline: February 2, 2007.

"Residential Teaching Fellowship for Emerging Educators"
The Public Allies Fellowship Program at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is seeking emerging educators from diverse backgrounds, beliefs and experiences. Eagle Rock is a tuition-free residential high school that serves diverse young people (ages 15-21) from across the country that have not succeeded in conventional schools. Fellows will work and live together in the community with other Public Allies Fellowship Program participants, students and staff at the school's facilities in the Rocky Mountains northwest of Denver, in order to gain skills that will make them effective teachers, leadership trainers, and youth workers. Maximum Award: program fellowship. Eligibility: emerging educators with a college degree. Deadline: February 23, 2007.

"Apply Now to Become an Urban Public School Principal"
New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS) promotes high academic achievement for every child by attracting, preparing and supporting the next generation of outstanding leaders for our nation’s urban public schools. This year NLNS is seeking over 130 highly motivated individuals nationwide to become New Leaders in Baltimore, California’s Bay Area, Chicago, Memphis, Milwaukee, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Successful applicants have a record of success in leading adults, K-12 teaching experience, a relentless-drive to lead an excellent urban school, and most importantly, an unyielding belief in the potential of all children to achieve academically at high levels. New Leaders for New Schools’ online application is now available. All applications must be submitted online at www.nlns.org. If you have any questions please email info@nlns.org or call 646-792-1070. Deadline: March 1, 2007.

For a detailed listing of EXISTING GRANT OPPORTUNITIES (updated each week), visit:
http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_grants.asp

QUOTES OF THE WEEK
"It is time that the average citizen has his/her voice heard when it comes to what we do in our schools. We have relied only on industry boards, consultants, foundations and university experts to tell us what our graduates should be able to know and do. But that is not how a democracy should operate. Messy, and at times uncomfortable, conversations that include parents, students, and taxpayers about the aims of education are long overdue."

 - George Wood (author/educator) "Stop, Look, Listen"
http://www.forumforeducation.org/blog/index.php?post=45

"Sen. John Edwards's repeated claim that there are 'two Americas' turns out to be correct but misstated: The line of separation runs most saliently not between the haves and have-nots but between the gives and the give-nots, between those Americans who respond to social needs with their own money and time and those who do not."

 - Wilfred M. McClay (author/professor), "Yes, There Are Two Americas" The Wall Street Journal. December 22, 2006.

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