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WHAT GOOD IS THE CORE CURRICULUM IF KIDS CAN'T
READ?
Curriculum is the engine of our public education system. To a large
degree it shapes the allocation of financial resources and time, the
preparation and assignment of teachers, and the formulation of
academic standards and standardized tests. Despite its importance,
curriculum doesn't get much attention from parents, politicians, or
the media, writes Ronald A. Wolk for Teacher Magazine. What is the
main purpose of the curriculum? The answer is hardly academic: If
the main purpose is to designate specifically what every student
should know, then the standards movement and core curriculum make
sense. If the purpose is mainly to provide an essential component in
learning to think and solve problems, then the specific knowledge is
of secondary importance, and requiring all kids to learn the same
things at the same time makes no sense. Being able to read
proficiently is the crucial prerequisite to becoming educated.
Schools fail to teach a great many of our children to read well
enough to understand what they read. Yet they still require students
to attend years of courses that they may lack the interest or skill
to master. How reasonable is that?
WHY NCLB NEEDS TO BE RESTRUCTURED TO
ACCOMPLISH ITS GOALS AND HOW TO DO IT The foundations
upon which the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law’s accountability
system is built are flawed, writes Gary Ratner in a new article in
the University of the District of Columbia Law Review. Deep
structural changes are needed to make the legislation effective.
"Merely tweaking the accountability scheme and increasing funding
would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," said
Ratner. Without changes from Congress, if school improvements
continue at the current rates, it will take 280 more years for the
act to meet its goals of bringing every student in the nation to
proficiency in reading (as measured by the National Assessment of
Educational Progress.) Ratner identifies four faulty assumptions
that form the foundation of NCLB’s Adequate Yearly
Progress/sanctions-based accountability system, and that doom it to
failure:
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1.
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Punitive sanctions motivate real educational
improvements; |
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2.
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Problems are local and individual schools have the
capacity to address them in isolation; |
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3.
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Escalating, strategic-planning based, piecemeal sanctions
produce necessary change; and |
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4.
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States have the capacity to turn around failing schools
without significant new investments in human and financial resources.
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Instead of having the federal government continue to sanction
schools for failing to raise test scores, it needs to lead
states and localities to make the changes that experienced
educators know, and research generally confirms, enhance student
learning: systemic improvements in teacher and administrator
preparation, training, curriculum level and family support.
Then, the Government needs to hold localities and states
accountable for implementing those changes, while continuing to
require regular publication of test results for each student
subgroup, so that the public can monitor achievement in each
school.
PLAYING SCHOOL IN KATRINA’S WAKE
In the 18 months since Hurricane Katrina, the infrastructure of the
New Orleans public schools has been systematically dismantled and a
new tangle of independently operated educational experiments has
been erected in its place. This new structure has taken away
community control and community ownership of all but a handful of
schools. Instead, independent charter management organizations --
virtually all from outside the state -- are now running 60 percent
of New Orleans schools. There are no more neighborhood boundaries.
In a market-based model, parents are considered "customers." And
they're supposed to "choose" where to send their kids to school. But
since every one of the charter schools was filled to capacity last
spring, hundreds of parents have no choice at all for their kids.
Families now returning to New Orleans are bringing 15 to 75 kids per
day. Hundreds of kids with disabilities (who are often turned away
from charter schools) are being placed in the under-resourced and
over-burdened state-run Recovery School District. It’s their only
choice. This Balkanized school system is not closing a gap. It’s
opening a chasm, writes Leigh Dingerson for the Institute for
America’s Future. The Bush Administration was instrumental in
creating this new chasm between the "haves" and the "have nots" in
New Orleans. Rather than create the world-class public schools that
all New Orleans kids have deserved for so long, Dingerson says the
Bush Administration invested in an ideological experiment to make a
pro-privatization, anti-public education statement.
THE CASE FOR NATIONAL STANDARDS IN SCHOOL
REFORM
In the absence of a clear and consistent set of national academic
standards for what should be expected of all children, each state
instead sets its own standards for what kids should know and be able
to do. Sometimes these standards are high; often they are not.
Either way, they drive the teaching and learning in America’s
classrooms and serve to perpetuate the nation’s educational
inequities at a time when we should be working to overcome them. In
this Education Week commentary, Rudy Crew, Paul Vallas, and Michael
Casserly advocate for the development of rigorous, uniform national
standards for what we expect of all children, starting with the core
areas of math and science. National education standards would give
all our schools common targets and clarify what we expect teachers
to be teaching and what we will hold schools and districts
accountable for. National standards would give us, for once, a
common definition of what academic proficiency means and what it
doesn't mean, rather than having 50 different definitions. There is
little reason to think, as some critics have claimed, that national
standards would undermine the nation’s tradition of local control of
schools. That would remain intact. Besides, the laws of science and
math do not change when state lines are crossed, and do not require
much local discretion.
LOCAL EDUCATION FUND HANDBOOK
Local education funds are independent, nonprofit organizations at
the center of reform efforts to improve public education and
reconnect people to the institution of public education. In
developing this handbook, PEN drew upon the experience of almost 100
LEFs, many of whom are pioneers and leading innovators in education
reform. The handbook begins with a brief introduction to the
structure and mission of Public Education Network and then goes on
to provide step-by-step information on how to establish and run a
local education fund. It is designed to be a reference for those
starting an LEF, as well as an operational tool and checklist for
leaders of existing LEFs. Specific information includes: How to
start an LEF; Steps to organize a 501c3; Creating a strong board of
directors; Sample mission statements; Building partnerships;
Budgets; Fundraising tips; and much more. Click below to order your
copy today.
COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: BOLSTERING THE AMERICAN
DREAM
How can American schools, where more than half the students are
children of color, who speak little English, and come from poor
families defy the odds and begin to thrive? One example is
Stevenson-YMCA Community School in Long Beach, Calif. It’s open
early and late, evenings and weekends; it provides for all students
and their families high-quality teaching, tutoring, before- and
after-school programs, counseling, health services, parent
engagement and leadership programs, arts and recreation, community
and business partnerships, and additional opportunities at or near
the school. It’s a community school by design -- a hub of
productivity for the neighborhood. Not only have all these
partnerships and supportive relationships changed the culture of the
school, but, according to community members, the school has changed
the culture of the entire neighborhood. A drive through the
neighborhood at 5 p.m. reveals modest, neatly kept houses and loads
of families coming home from work and school to start their evening
routines. Visitors feel none of the tension and highly guarded
climate so prevalent in high-poverty neighborhoods. People seem to
have purpose and feel safe, writes Lisa Villarreal for "Our
Children" PTA’s national magazine. What Stevenson does is not a new
intervention or strategy; it’s actually a return to the historical
idea of schools as the center of community.
THE PRIMACY OF SUPERINTENDENT LEADERSHIP
In the cover article for the March 2007 issue of School
Administrator, Tim Waters and Robert Marzano of McREL report on the
strong connection between superintendent leadership and student
achievement they found in their research. They base their
conclusions on a meta-analytic study of 27 research reports which
comprise 4,434 ratings of superintendent leadership and achievement
scores of 3.4 million students. In addition to finding a
statistically significant relationship (a positive correlation of
.24) between district leadership and student achievement, Marzano
and Waters identify five district-level leadership responsibilities
that are significantly correlated with student academic achievement.
All five of these responsibilities relate to setting and keeping
districts focused on teaching and learning goals. They note that
while effective superintendents communicate to all stakeholders that
these goals are "non-negotiable," they also grant principals some
latitude in how to achieve them — a practice they call "defined
autonomy." Effective superintendents, they write, provide "autonomy
to principals to lead their schools, but expect alignment on
district goals and use of resources for professional development."
Finally, they report that superintendent tenure is positively
correlated with student achievement — and that this correlation
manifests itself as early as two years into a superintendents’
tenure. Yet in many large, urban districts, the average tenure for
superintendents often remains less than two years.
MANY STATES ARE LAX IN THEIR OVERSIGHT OF
CHILD CARE CENTERS
Many states are lax in their regulation and oversight of child-care
centers, according to a new nationwide survey by the National
Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. Among the
common problems in the states are infrequent inspections, deficient
safety requirements and low hiring standards -- including lack of
full criminal background checks -- for center employees. An
estimated 12 million children under age five are in nonparental
child care each week. Following the system run by the U.S. military,
the top ranked states were Illinois, New York, Maryland, Washington,
Oklahoma, Michigan, North Dakota, Tennessee, Minnesota and Vermont.
Idaho ranked last; the next lowest scores were for Louisiana,
Nebraska, Kentucky, California and Kansas. The report, "We Can Do
Better," said eight states do not even require annual inspections of
child care centers. Regarding staff, the report said 21 states have
no minimum educational requirement for child care teachers; it said
only New Jersey and the Defense Department require center directors
to have a bachelor's degree.
CHARLESTON EDUCATION NETWORK PRESSURES SCHOOL
BOARD FOR CHANGE
The Charleston Education Network, a local education fund, has put
pressure on the Charleston County (SC) School Board to adopt some of
its ideas to enhance and accelerate the Charleston Plan for
Excellence. Members of the advocacy group announced seven policies
that they believe will improve the district:
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Staff the lowest-performing schools first; |
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Ensure that teachers at below-average and unsatisfactory
rated schools have at least three years of experience; |
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Assign only experienced principals to those schools; |
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Ensure every child without a profound disability is a
proficient reader by the end of third grade; |
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Fully adopt student-based funding as the budgeting
mechanism; |
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Identify ineffective employees. Improve their performance
quickly or remove them; and |
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Improve the use of technology in delivering instruction.
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"There is nothing magic in these policies," said Johanna Martin-
Carrington, cochair of the Charleston Education Network board.
"They are all common sense and they all go to the heart of the
school district's mission: teach every child successfully to
high standards." Jon Butzon, executive director of the network,
said the proposed policies don't specify the way the district
should operate but give guidance to the superintendent on the
board's priorities.
"KEEPING THE PROMISE" TO EDUCATE GIRLS CREATES
HEALTHIER COUNTRIES
Oprah Winfrey’s new school in South Africa will eventually enable
450 girls to go beyond the sixth grade and get a secondary school
diploma. But these are the lucky ones. Fewer than one in five girls
in all of sub-Saharan Africa complete secondary school, and there
are millions more girls worldwide who will never move beyond primary
school. A new book published by the Academy for Educational
Development (AED) clearly and succinctly presents data and analysis
on the importance of educating girls in developing countries. It
also illustrates the impact educating girls has on the day-to-day
lives of real families the writer has met through her more than 30
years of experience in the field. According to the book’s author,
May Rihani, senior vice president and director of the AED Global
Learning Group, there are five main social and economic benefits
that society will reap as a result of educating girls at the
secondary level:
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1.
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The presence of more secondary schools will increase
primary enrollment and completion and improve overall education quality; |
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2.
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Education beyond primary school results in an increase in
civic participation and lower rates of youth violence and human
trafficking; |
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3.
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Health benefits from educating girls are immense,
including significant decreases in infant mortality, lower teen
birthrates, smaller families, and higher immunization rates and improved
nutrition for children; |
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4.
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Rates of HIV and AIDS decrease when girls are educated;
and |
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5.
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Poverty is reduced as educated girls command higher wages
and increase agricultural productivity. |
"Keeping the Promise" aims to spur action to address the factors
that hinder girls’ enrollment and success in secondary school
throughout the developing world. "We know that girls’ secondary
education offers a multitude of benefits to societies," said
Rihani. "It’s like dropping a pebble in a pond and seeing the
ripples."
THREE GIRLS SUSPENDED FROM SCHOOL FOR UTTERING
CONTROVERSIAL WORD
The girls had been warned by teachers not to utter the word. But
they chose to say it anyway -- vagina -- in unison at a high school
forum, and were swiftly punished by their school. Now the case of
the three, all juniors at an affluent school 50 miles north of
Manhattan, has become a cause célèbre among those who say that the
school has gone too far. The debate, reports Anahad O’Connor in the
New York Times, has touched off a larger debate about censorship and
about what constitutes vulgar language. Is vagina, or the "v-word,"
as some have referred to it, such a bad word?
STUDENT DISCIPLINED FOR SAYING "THAT’S SO GAY"
When a few classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon
upbringing with questions such as, "Do you have 10 moms?" she shot
back: "That's so gay." Those three words landed the California high
school freshman in the principal's office and resulted in a lawsuit
that raises this question: When do playground insults used every day
all over America cross the line into hate speech that must be
stamped out? Derogatory terms for homosexuality have long been used
as insults. But the landscape has become confusing in recent years,
reports the Associated Press, as minority groups have tried to
reclaim terms like "queer," "ghetto" and the n-word. In recent
years, gay rights advocates and educators have tried teaching
students that it is hurtful to use the word "gay" as an all-purpose
term for something disagreeable.
HOW MUCH DOES A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION COST?
For years, Ohio officials have been talking about the need to give
each child in Ohio a world-class education, and finally a price tag
has been attached to the idea: $2.4 billion to $4.8 billion in new
money. The group that developed the plan is a team of researchers at
the University of Washington, funded in part by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, which has been sponsoring education research
around the country. The study suggests that Ohio should spend as
much as 31 percent more on public education for such changes as
longer school years, lower pupil-teacher ratios and significant
improvements in early education. Researchers generated
recommendations for a variety of school settings by talking to
education officials who were part of state- and school
district-level teams. Poor urban districts preferred policies to
lengthen the school year and meet the needs of the poor; rural
districts preferred increasing teacher pay, reducing class size and
extending the school year. Wealthy suburban districts were mostly
satisfied with funding. The costs of eight scenarios were
calculated, reports Dennis J. Willard in the Beacon Journal. Total
spending would increase 16 percent to 31 percent, depending on the
policy chosen, and the average spending for each Ohio child would
increase from the current $9,300 to a range of $10,722 to $12,128
per pupil. In addition to longer school years, the study addresses
early learning, more money and training for teachers, especially
math and science instructors, and an effort to drive more dollars
toward reducing teacher-student ratios in poor and rural districts.
Although the price tag is high, the report notes ``the state team
moderated the investments to bring the costs toward a more feasible
range.''
ARE YOU A "HELICOPTER" PARENT? TAKE THE QUIZ
You've heard of them. They're in constant contact with their
children and make most of the big decisions for them. And when
things get tough, they're all-too-ready to take their children's
side and fight their battles for them. They're the ever-hovering
helicopter parents. Helicopter parenting can have negative effects
for all involved, especially maturing teenagers who need and are
eager for greater independence. It's only natural to want to help
your child, but helping your child become an independent adult is
perhaps the most important and difficult thing you can do. With that
in mind, don't hesitate to involve yourself in certain areas of your
child's life. One area in which your child will probably welcome
your participation is in the search for and application to colleges.
In fact, a recent national survey of college-bound high school
seniors, conducted by the College Board and the Art & Science Group,
shows that these students wish their parents were more involved in
the college search and application process. Are you hovering too
close during the college admission process? Take a twelve-question
quiz and find out.
WHY DO
HISPANIC CHILDREN FALL BEHIND?
The National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics
urges that Hispanic children be enrolled in high quality education
programs as early as possible in order to make more rapid progress
in closing the Hispanic-White achievement gap. Hispanic children,
especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, continue to lag
behind non-Hispanic Whites on measures of school readiness and
school achievement, including in reading and mathematics. At the
same time, there is growing evidence that large state-funded
prekindergarten (pre-K) programs are producing valuable school
readiness gains for Hispanic youngsters who have the opportunity to
attend them. Head Start also is beneficial. In addition, high
quality infant/toddler programs can contribute to greater school
readiness. The earlier Hispanic children have access to high quality
educational programs, the better. However, despite the benefits of
greater access to such programs, Hispanic youngsters continue to be
underrepresented among children who attend pre-K for several
reasons. Among them are an inadequate supply of affordable preschool
seats in many Hispanic communities, a lack of information for
Hispanic parents on the programs that are available, and language
barriers with program operators. A great deal of emphasis should be
on pursuing more effective ways to improve early language
development among Hispanic English language learners from
disadvantaged circumstances, owing to the importance of early
language skills in predicting later success in school. |
