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HOW WELL DO YOU AND YOUR COMMUNITY
SUPPORT PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Give Kids Good Schools quiz on "How Much Do You and Your
Community Do To Support Public Education-" asks people five
questions about how involved they are in supporting public education
and five questions about how involved they think their communities
are. Upon completion, respondents immediately see how they and their
communities compare with those of others taking the quiz. The quiz
is intended for a wide audience and should provide valuable insight
into the level of care a public school system receives.
I CAN LEARN BECAUSE I HAVE A
BEAUTIFUL, FUNCTIONAL SCHOOL
Across the country, students are being taught in dilapidated
buildings, which invariably have an effect on their ability to learn
instruction, reports Susan Black in the American School Board
Journal. Franklin Hill, whose company specializes in school
facilities, says a school’s design can help or hinder. For example,
when students were asked to identify three shapes -- a square,
circle and rectangle -- projected on a screen, depending on the
angle of incidence from their desks to the screen, some saw the
square as a rectangle, the circle as an oval and the rectangle as a
square. In fact, students who sit or stand at least 20 feet away
from instructional screens can experience a more than 50 percent
reduction in audibility and visibility. Even with this evidence, new
classrooms, designed to alleviate these problems, are often
underused. In a recent study, it was discovered that teachers are
unable to manipulate physical space to increase student achievement,
as some teachers continue to sit students in straight rows and
underutilize technology. The problem of poor education facilities is
expansive as one-fourth of United States schools are overcrowded and
in poor condition and 3.5 million students attend schools that are
in "very poor" or "non-operational condition." According to the
American Society of Civil Engineers, there was no improvement in the
overall quality of schools from 2000-2004. Don't students deserve a
school that isn't crumbling around them at such a rate that they are
forced to learn in makeshift classrooms in crowded corridors.
SCHOOLS THAT HIDE TEACHER WRONGDOING
FROM STATES ENDANGER KIDS
Last year, Ohio’s largest school districts investigated dozens of
teachers for abusing students, but even when allegations were
proven, relatively few were disciplined, reports Jennifer Smith
Richards and Jill Riepenhoff in the Columbus Dispatch. In fact,
districts often acted as maverick detectives and disciplinarians by
handling problem teachers on their own. Consequently, the state
rarely learned about wrongdoings, meaning the state wasn't able to
decide how to discipline a teacher. This is a significant problem,
as only the state can suspend or revoke an educator’s license.
Additionally, large districts were more likely to write letters of
reprimand or suspend teachers rather than firing them. For instance,
the Columbus school district wrote a letter of reprimand for a
teacher who slammed a student’s head into a wall and another letter
was given to a South-Western substitute teacher who talked to a
student about the color of her pubic hair. The Columbus Dispatch
analysis found that the state knew of fewer than 22 percent of the
189 disciplinary investigations conducted by school districts.
Potentially, districts keep the state in the dark because they
prefer to let problem teachers move on quietly to another school,
called "passing the trash." Some districts also have a "basics-only"
policy for reference checks, meaning they only inform potential
employers when the teacher worked for the district. "Passing the
trash" doesn't work in sanitation and it doesn't work in public
education.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT DATA LARGELY GOES
UNUSED BY TEACHERS
In gang-infested neighborhoods on the east side of Los Angeles, high
school systems struggle every day with educational dysfunction,
reports Diana Jean Schemo in the New York Times. What’s worse is
that for the past six years, not even one in five students have been
able to do grade-level math or English. For chronically failing
schools like these, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) prescribes
drastic measures that include firing teachers and principals,
shutting schools and turning them over to private firms and many
other less severe options. Yet so far, education experts say they
are unaware of a single state that has taken over a failing school
in response to the law. Consequently, NCLB is branding numerous
schools as failing but not producing any measurable radical change
in the governance or operation of these schools. Jack O’Connell,
California’s superintendent of schools, calls the law’s demands
unreasonable -- "to have a successful program, it really has to come
from the community," he said. As a result of the ramp up in
accountability, partly caused by NCLB, there are more data on
student performance than ever before. However, there is a limit to
what teachers can learn from these data. At one Los Angeles high
school, the principal did not give teachers the test scores of their
own students due to union objections that the scores would be used
to evaluate the teachers. Imagine a legitimate policy exists that
prohibits teachers from learning their strengths and weaknesses from
their students’ successes and failures. Perhaps a new frustration
surrounding the law and its implementation is summed up by Mary
Johnson, president of the civic group Parent U-Turn: the interested
parties are "so busy fighting No Child Left Behind...if they would
only use some of that energy to implement the law, we would go
farther."
OPPOSITION TO SCHOOL INTEGRATION
SURFACES NEAR BOSTON
Last spring, school officials changed the elementary school
assignments for 38 streets in the affluent Boston suburb of Milton.
This caused an outrage as some white families were reassigned to
Tucker, a predominantly black school with the area’s lowest test
scores, reports Joseph Pereira in the Wall Street Journal. Among
those reassigned, there has been talk of suing to reverse the plan
by using the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that consideration of race
in school assignments is unconstitutional. The bitterly divided
court reversed a five-decade policy by concluding that "the way to
stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating
on the basis of race." The ruling, some experts say, could further
accelerate the resegregation of America’s schools. Historically, the
push to integrate schools has been associated with the civil rights
movement, while these days, many school administrators want to
integrate schools to raise test scores. Recent studies have
suggested that minority students tend to perform better alongside
white classmates. In Milton, minority representation at three
elementary schools located in the mostly white neighborhoods
averages about 17 percent, and their test scores are generally 20
percent higher than those at Tucker, which is 65 percent nonwhite
and has an average household income of $102,000. Last summer, a
group of parents pushed school superintendent Magdalene Giffune to
close this achievement gap. The plan, eventually adopted, would keep
students at the four elementary schools but draw different
attendance boundaries. Event though no racial considerations were
made, some children in white neighborhoods were reassigned to Tucker
while some minority-heavy streets were reassigned to other schools.
Despite the uproar, there has been no change in Tucker’s racial mix
this year and this failure has left some black parents with bitter
feelings.
FIVE MEN, FIVE DIFFERENT VIEWS ON
EDUCATING BLACK MALES
Black males have learned that they don't need a good education to be
successful, reports Cassie Chew in Diverse Issues in Higher
Education. This seems to partly explain findings of a December 2006
report that found only 42 percent of black males entering the ninth
grade will graduate. The perception of education being the
foundation for economic stability has been challenged by successes
in the music and entertainment businesses and the sale of illegal
drugs, which has enabled some young black men without diplomas to
have nice homes and cars. Dr. Robert Franklin, president of
Morehouse University, remembers his community having a large stake
in helping him achieve academically. Unfortunately, he says, "we
have lost the practice of paying attention to the small achievement
in black boys’ lives." Washington Post journalist V. Dion Haynes
agrees that part of the problem is a breakdown of the family and
community, but said some of the blame must be placed on the school
system. "In some cases, kids come to school enthusiastic and ready
to learn...a lot of them get turned off by education because of the
teachers who don't want to be there, because the building is falling
apart, because the quality of education they get is just so low,"
says Haynes. Whatever the cause, the problem needs a solution.
MIX IT UP; HONORS, REGULAR & SPECIAL
EDUCATION KIDS IN ONE CLASSROOM
In three classrooms at Blue Ridge Middle School in Loudoun County,
Va., educational convention has been turned upside down, reports Jay
Mathews in the Washington Post. Three teachers began an experiment
last year by placing honors, regular and special education students
in the same classes, and also creating a combined social studies and
English course. Putting students with different achievement levels
together would, the school’s administrators thought, help
slower-developing children see new possibilities. In one period,
students read from self-chosen recreational books, including
award-winning World War II and science fiction novels but also
sports magazines. In the second year of the experiment, there was a
tendency for students at or below grade level to try books and
projects considered above their abilities. Also, while the honors
students are assigned projects that demand more thought and
imagination, every student has a chance to volunteer for more
difficult work and students go over what they learn in inclusive
discussion groups. Some of the special education students loved
doing group work in history, because while they were not able to put
their thoughts down on paper, they were excellent at discussing
their knowledge. Another positive outcome of combining history and
English is that when students see the connections between subjects,
it makes the lessons more relevant to the outside world.
YES, SIR: READING, WRITING & MILITARY
RECRUITING-
Chicago Public Schools has the largest junior military reserve
program in the nation, with 11,000 students, mostly low-income
minorities, enrolled in the district’s five military academies,
reports Stephanie Banchero and Carlos Sadovi in the Chicago Tribune.
The school system is continuing to expand the program by
commissioning the country’s first Marine-run public high school.
District officials say the military-themed schools give students
more choices and provide schools that offer structure, discipline
and a focus on leadership. Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan
said, "these schools are popular and have waiting lists, so that
tells me parents want more of them." For the most part, the
academies operate like regular public schools, except military
personnel work at the schools and all students must enlist in the
Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), wear a military
uniform and take a daily ROTC course. Still, cadets are not required
to enlist in the military after graduation, and many of the naval
high school students interviewed said they do not intend to enlist.
According to Army Lt. Col. Rick Mills, who oversees the Junior ROTC,
"we intend to use the academies to take students who perform in the
middle range and use the military to enhance their postsecondary
education." However, the city’s military academies have had mixed
academic records since the first academy opened in 2000. Pass rates
on the 2006 high school state exam ranged from 9 percent to 30
percent at the academies, compared to the district’s average of 32
percent. And critics of the academies worry about the purpose of the
special schools, especially if the academic achievement is not
there. Sheena Gibbs, with the Truth in Recruitment Program, believes
"the academies are about recruitment, not academics."
STRENGTHENING ACCOUNTABILITY,
INCENTIVES & CAPACITY FOR ONLY $2.5 BILLION
In the new book, "Improving the Education of Children Living in
Poverty," Richard Murnane, a professor of education and society at
Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, notes that
children living in poverty tend to be concentrated in low-performing
schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. These students also are
more likely to leave school without the skills needed to earn a
decent living. To remedy this dire situation, Murnane describes
three initiatives which would strengthen the standards-based reforms
at the heart of No Child Left Behind. According to Murnane, Congress
should amend NCLB to make performance goals more attainable by
emphasizing growth in student’s skills rather than whether or not
specific test scores are met. In addition, Congress should
strengthen states’ incentives to improve the education of low-income
students and develop effective school choice programs. Lastly,
Congress should use competitive matching grants to build school
capacity to educate low-income children, while also increasing the
capacity of state departments of education to boost the performance
of failing schools. Murnane estimates the annual cost of these three
initiatives to be approximately $2.5 billion.
HAVING
PROBLEMS FINDING TEACHERS- GROW YOUR OWN.
A few years ago, Chicago public schools would have passed over
college dropout and teacher candidate Anita Sanders, a 42-year-old
mother of three, because she lacked teaching credentials, reports
Eddy Ramirez in U.S. News and World Report. However, after growing
tired of seeing first-year teachers flee to suburban schools, the
city is now targeting teachers like Sanders. Illinois is spending
$7.5 million to help people like Sanders become teachers in
underperforming schools as part of the Grow Your Own Illinois
initiative which aims to prepare 1,000 teachers by 2016. The
candidates, mostly women of color from low-income communities, will
receive forgivable college loans of up to $25,000 in exchange for a
minimum five-year commitment to teach in underserved schools. In
order to qualify, candidates had to show promising ability, as
gauged by transcripts, an interview and performance on a test.
According to Anne Hallett, director of Grow Your Own, these teachers
know and love the kids and "want to make their neighborhood schools
better." For the Illinois candidates, the biggest challenge is
combining the responsibilities of schoolwork, jobs and family life.
Still, as one candidate put it, "this was the opportunity I was
looking for. It’s like I won the lottery." Imagine if all teachers
felt that way.
LOW-PERFORMING MIAMI SCHOOLS GET
"INTENSIVE ACADEMIC THERAPY"
One of Florida’s worst-performing schools, Miami Jackson High
School, has brought its state grade up two of the last three years,
reports Catherine Gewertz in Education Week. School staff credit the
gains to the intensive academic therapy their school received as
part of the School Improvement Zone, an initiative aimed at
resuscitating 39 of the Miami-Dade County school district’s failing
schools. As part of "the zone," schools have a longer school day (by
one hour) and year (by two weeks), an intensive curriculum, extra
teacher training and instructional coaches and their own district
support structure. A special agreement with the local teachers’
union made the longer hours possible, as it provided 20 percent more
pay for teachers who chose zone jobs. In any zone school, students
below grade level in reading or math receive double doses of
instruction in small groups. Those who don't need the extra time
choose electives. Unfortunately due to a state economic pinch, the
$37 million a year program is too costly to preserve in its current
form. Superintendent Rudolph F. Crew expects that some of the key
practices will continue in schools that find them necessary. The
zone, which includes 44,000 students, is overwhelmingly poor and
black or Hispanic -- and while they generally score lower on state
tests, in some grades and subjects, zone students are testing out of
the lowest levels more rapidly than students districtwide. Not
surprisingly, concerns from zone advocates fear that downsizing or
broadening the initiative will inevitably mean a net loss of energy
and resources in the neediest of schools, just as they have gotten
traction. According to one zone teacher, "if it were up to me, we'd
keep going with all that we have in the zone, because it’s been so
worthwhile."
SCHOOL VIOLENCE IS COMMUNITY VIOLENCE
IN DISGUISE
It is far better to win the loyalty and harness the collective power
of students than to increase the amount of Tasers and metal
detectors, according to Dr. Stephen Sroka, a retired Cleveland
public schools educator. In this culture, he says, schools are
criticized despite offering students the "safest place they will be
all day," as schools cannot avoid the problems students bring in
from the outside, reports Charles Lussier in the Baton Rouge (La.)
Advocate. Sroka says that "people call it school violence. There is
no school violence. There is community violence that takes place in
schools." Schools can still help curb the violence through educators
forging more personal connections with children and getting them
help for the many issues they face. Even small gestures pay
dividends -- Sroka said a former student thanked him for simply
saying ‘hi’ to him every day, a courtesy no one else extended.
Students, oftentimes a bundle of confused emotions and feelings,
require personal connections. "In the end, only kindness matters,"
Sroka says.
LEARNING FROM JENA, SO THERE ISN'T
ANOTHER
In 2006, a survey conducted by Teaching Tolerance, the National
Education Association and the Civil Rights Project found that most
teachers claim their schools are free of ethnic or racial bias,
reports Teacher Magazine’s Elizabeth Rich. However, recent news and
a federal study, which found that one in four students are victims
of racial or ethnic incidents every school year, suggest otherwise.
Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Law Poverty Center, who
testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee about the Jena
High School incident, pointed educators to "Six Lessons from Jena,"
a document that outlines what every school and educator can learn
from the recent events and what they can do to hopefully prevent
them. As a path to early prevention, the lessons include ways to
examine a school’s climate and how to identify and respond to bias
incidents, among others. Similar episodes cannot always be
prevented, but the more learned from what has already occurred the
more likely future incidents can be avoided.
NINE WAYS TO HELP CHILDREN WITH
LEARNING DISABILITIES ACHIEVE
For kids with learning disabilities, homework can be exceptionally
trying. Homework also has a dramatic effect on parents who watch
their children struggle, without knowing how to remedy the
situation. The guide "9 Ways to Have Success at School" provides
tips for parents to help them steer their children through a
successful school year. Among the recommendations are starting a
homework group -- having one or two classmates over so kids can work
side by side offers dual benefits: a parent can see other children's
homework habits, and the child has the built-in incentive of getting
to play after homework is completed. Another suggestion is to
identify a dedicated homework location somewhere in the house -- but
not necessarily in the child's room. In addition it might be
advantageous to reward even small homework accomplishments, with
things like a cookie, a grape or a gold star. Parents may be
rewarding children with small trifles in the short-term, but by
bolstering their education, they are providing a life-long reward.
BETTER MANAGEMENT ISN'T ALL THAT IS
NEEDED TO FIX SCHOOLS
New survey data confirm that few districts are involved in
developing the type of comprehensive system of learning supports
that can adequately address the range of factors interfering with
students having an equal opportunity to succeed. The UCLA report,
"New Directions for Student Support," notes that school improvement
planning guides need to be revised to ensure they focus on the
development of a comprehensive, multifaceted and cohesive system for
addressing barriers to learning and teaching. Also, this must be
done in ways that are fully integrated with plans for improving
instruction. Specifically, districts and schools should redesign how
they conceive student and learning supports and the related
organizational and operational infrastructure. In this context, it
is important that schools and district designate a dedicated
position for leadership of efforts to develop and implement such a
comprehensive system.
LEARNING
FROM ONE’S ANCESTORS IS ALWAYS IMPORTANT
A total of 30 Des Moines middle school students took a field trip to
the Great Ape Trust of Iowa to watch the interactions of the seven
bonobos and three orangutans, reports Perry Beeman of the Des Moines
(Iowa) Register. The students were enthralled as they witnessed a
bonobo using a vending machine, heard an orangutan give a "long
call" and one animal, named Kanzi, put on a Halloween mask to greet
the kids. The field trip to the 230-acre research complex was one of
the inaugural events of the Great Ape Academy, an education pilot
program developed in partnership with the Des Moines school
district. A Des Moines science teacher noted that "lots of kids
think that science is facts and figures that just go away. This
shows that it isn't teachers just pulling things out of thin air."
Kanzi, the wunderkind great ape, is also able to communicate with
humans through symbols on a touch screen -- he correctly pushed the
symbol for 15 different items pictured on posters the students held
up. The delighted students proved the axiom that one can always
learn from his or her ancestors.
YOU CAN SWALLOW YOUR GUM, JUST DON'T
MAKE A HABIT OUT OF IT
For generations, parents have told their children never to swallow
chewing gum, lest it take years to digest, reports Anahad O’Connor
in the New York Times. However, for the most part, this is an old
wives’ tale. In fact, swallowed gum typically passes through the
digestive tract without harm and is eliminated at the same rate as
other foods. Still, rare complications can occur, as medical
literature contains several reports of young people, mostly small
children, who developed intestinal obstructions because they had a
habit of swallowing their gum. One such documented case was a
four-year-old boy who "always swallowed his gum after chewing five
to seven pieces each day." In most of the document cases, the young
patients were fine after the removal of the obstruction. While the
phenomenon is rare, the cases do serve as a cautionary tale for the
parents of small children with a particular fixation for gum
chewing. |
