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TURNING SIX: NCLB GETS INTO ITS
BIRTHDAY, NO, LAWSUIT
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) had a raucous week-long birthday
celebration that really beat the pants off of a typical six-year-old’s
party (you know with the freaky clowns and flea-ridden petting
zoos). Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) started the week with an
opinion piece in the Washington Post (first link), in which he
derided campaigns for turning the law into a political football
without adding much substance to the debate. Kennedy, one of the
chief architects of the legislation, detailed the positive aspects
of the law, most notably the requirement that all children be
counted. Before the law’s enactment, only a handful of states
monitored achievement levels for every student group. While this has
been an important step, Kennedy discusses the negative aspects
(one-size-fits-all, teaching to the test, etc.) with a focus on the
law’s failure to supply the essential resources that schools
desperately need to improve performance (otherwise known as the
unfunded mandate argument -- more on this later. Kennedy
finishes his piece by appealing to both parties to put progress
ahead of politics and support what is working in school reform.
Later that same day, President George W. Bush said that if Congress
doesn't re-authorize NCLB, he'll make as many changes as he can on
his own. The president added that if Congress does renew the law but
weakens it, he'd "strongly oppose it and veto it," reports the
Associated Press’ (AP) Jennifer Loven (second link). Additionally,
the president discussed changes he would consider making
administratively, which could include ensuring "a high school degree
means something," increasing flexibility for states and school
districts, providing extra help for struggling schools and devising
an accurate measurement of high school dropout rates. Even later
that very same day, a federal appeals court revived a lawsuit
challenging the compliance costs associated with NCLB, reports Tim
Martin for the AP (third link). School districts in three states and
the nation’s largest teacher’s union filed the lawsuit, arguing that
schools should not have to comply with requirements that aren't
fully funded by the federal government. The suit also charges that
the federal government is imposing unfunded mandates (see, right
back to it), even though the act itself prohibits them. The crux of
the claim is that federal funding does not maintain pace with
federal mandates, which in turn forces schools to pay from local and
state sources to keep up. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret
Spellings said her department disagrees with the ruling and that
federal education funding is up about 46 percent since the president
took office. For additional information on the complex 1,000 page
law, check out the fourth link, which provides everything you ever
wanted to know. As requested by community leaders and parents from
across the country, Public Education Network worked in conjunction
with the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education to
develop the expansive materials.
Also:
http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=9061104
http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-14/1199748260225200.xml...
http://www.publiceducation.org/nclb_main/index.asp
WHAT IS WITH TEXAS HATING ON MEN’S
HAIR STYLES?
Sebastian Pham is no Burt Reynolds (he of Smokey and the Bandit
fame), but is just as proud of his mustache, reports Karin Shaw
Anderson in the Dallas Morning News. He doesn't see his whiskers as
disabling his learning ability, so he grew angry when a teacher made
him miss his whole chemistry class to go shave. To help in his
defense, Pham contacted, not the American Civil Liberties Union,
but, you already guessed it, the American Mustache Institute. In
another case of a Texas’ high school boy’s out of control stylings,
Matthew Lopez-Widish hasn't cut his hair in four years and in so
doing violated a policy that forbids males from having hair that
extends past the collar. Lopez-Widish was told to cut his hair
before returning to school after break or be sent to alternative
school, be removed from all extracurricular activities and risk not
graduating, reports Matthew Haag, also in the Dallas Morning News
(second link). Jim Walsh, a school law expert in Austin, said the
law will likely be on the school’s side, as several cases have ruled
that schools have the right to mandate hair and dress codes. At
least one of the male hairstyle stand-offs has come to a head as
Widish-Lopez, a straight-A student, was suspended from school (third
link) after attempting to return from break.
Also:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/DN-longhair_08met...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/010907dnmetlonghair...
VIDEO GAME DESIGN CLASSES KEEP HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS ENGAGED
Sixteen-year-old Greg Condit sat enthralled with a virtual
capture-the-flag game that included all the amenities: mountains,
rivers, human-like characters and flags hanging in the air. However,
Condit’s attention was not involved in wining the game, but in
designing it, reports James Hannah for the Associated Press. The
project was part of a video game design course at a two-week summer
camp coordinated by the Columbus-based Ohio Supercomputer Center.
The camp’s instructors believe high schools should seriously
consider making video game programming part of the curriculum, as it
engages students in math and science and prepares them for careers
in a burgeoning field. In Condit’s game, to capture the fags,
characters had to jump for the flags. This meant that Condit had to
write the physics of that movement into the game code. In another
project, aimed at getting a soccer ball to mimic real-life
trajectory, students had to take into account gravity, wind and the
rotation of the ball, all of which involves mathematics and physics.
Paul Ackerman, who teachers video-game design at Edgewater High
School in Orlando, Fla., says "kids are engaged daily...they come to
class early, and [he] has to kick them out when the bell rings." If
you are still dismissive of the value of adding this to an
increasingly watered-down curriculum, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, computer and mathematical science occupations are
expected to grow by about 24 percent over the next decade, a rate
that would add 822,000 new jobs.
COUNTING THE QUALITY OF TEACHER PAY
COMES UP ABOUT 12 CENTS SHORT
The 12th edition of Education Week’s Quality Counts (QC), which
grades the nation and states on key educational indicators, was
released this week (and if you're counting, that makes it twice as
old as NCLB). The nation as a whole barely received a passing grade
on K-12 achievement, while the average state earned a D-plus. The
K-12 achievement indicator awarded states points on current levels
of student performance, improvements over time and achievement
equity between poor and non-poor students. The report found that no
state excelled across all three criteria. In addition to
achievement, QC focused on state efforts to improve teaching, a
category in which 10 states earned a ‘D’ or lower. The analysis
suggests that the average public school teacher makes only 88 cents
for every dollar earned by individuals in 16 comparable professions
(like architects, counselors, editors/reporters, occupational and
physical therapists and registered nurses). In fact, a
state-by-state analysis shows that teacher earnings fail to reach
the parity line (where earnings are equal to those in the other
identified professions) in 40 states and the District of Columbia.
According to the report, Missouri has the least competitive teacher
salaries, as teacher earnings are less than 80 percent of those for
comparable workers. As David Lieb reports for the Associated Press
(second link), some Missouri teachers have taken to moonlighting as
restaurant cooks to both work in "a profession [they] love," and to
make ends meet. As seems universally accepted, teachers are
responsible for so much regarding student achievement. To not
provide this profession with both the professional and occupational
resources necessary looms as a major obstacle for public school
improvement in the United States.
Also:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/22568041/for/cnbc
TO HONOR WORD OF THE YEAR, KIDS
SUBPRIME TESTS
Even the American Dialect Society is feeling the risk of home
mortgages these days, reports Sophia Tareen for the Associated
Press. The group chose "subprime," which means a risky or less than
ideal loan, mortgage or investment, as 2007’s Word of the Year.
About 80 members of the organization spent two full days debating
the merits of "subprime" against the runners up ("Facebook,"
"green," "Googleganger" and "waterboarding"). Note that the American
Dialect Society is vastly ahead of Microsoft Word, as NewsBlast’s
official spell-check thinks three of those are not actual words. As
for the winner, "subprime" is an odd word for linguistics, as the
prefix usually signals "below", while "prime" means "the best" or
"exclusive" -- this makes the word’s root meaning "far below the
best." According to Wayne Glowka, a spokesman for the group, "people
were saying that students were referring to their tests, ‘I'm going
to subprime this’." The word has officially taken on a whole other
scary meaning.
PROMOTE LITERACY BY PLACING
LIBRARIANS ON THE PROTECTED SPECIES LIST
The day "the book man" arrives is exciting for the children at the
New Day Child Development Center in Kansas City, Mo., reports Sara
Shepherd in the Kansas City Star. Every month the aforementioned
"book man" picks up four boxes of books and replaces them with new
ones. On delivery day, the children clamor to help carry the books
in and then pounce on them the minute they are allowed to do so.
This is the reason the program, Books To Go, was started by the
Kansas City Public Library in 1995. The program puts books in as
many little hands as possible, delivering nearly 17,000 books each
month, which ensures an ample rotating supply. Fostering an interest
in reading at an early age is incredibly important, because as
Carrie McDonald, the project’s outreach manager, says, "if
[children] are not ready to learn to read when they go to
kindergarten, they are way behind." It is important to remember the
benefits of librarians and libraries as there is a growing trend for
cash-strapped districts to drop the programs to save money, reports
Stuart Glascock in the Los Angles Times (second link). In Washington
State, parents have grown fed up with the movement toward fewer and
potentially less-skilled librarians and have launched an initiative
to bring school librarians back from the brink of extinction. The
campaign has involved blasting e-mails to garner support for an
online petition, posting flyers and leaflets at coffee shops,
bookstores and public libraries and even camping out at school board
meetings. The hope is to ultimately change the way schools value and
pay for librarians, and to get school librarians off the endangered
list.
Also:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-librarians23dec23,1,1497338.story
INTERNET TOOL PROMOTES TEEN SAFETY ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY
The whole world has become increasingly wired, with Internet access
seemingly available to everyone, including teenagers. While this has
allowed teens to connect with valuable sources of information and
keep in touch with peers from around the globe, there are
considerable dangers present in the free flowing Internet
superhighway. According to research conducted by the Crimes Against
Children Research Center for the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC), youth Internet users face online
victimization that comes in various forms. Most notably, one in
seven youths are sexually solicited online and one-third experience
unwanted exposure to sexual materials. To help teens better
understand the risks associated with the Internet and to educate
parents, guardians and teachers, Sprint has launched the 4NetSafety
program in partnership with NCMEC and the National Education
Association Health and Information Network. The initiative offers
free resources designed to help teens understand the impact of
online decisions and the potential dangers they face. The project
also intends to help educators implement Internet safety education
and keep parents informed of potential online risks. The oh-so-cool
teen resources address issues through comic book-style characters
who model safe online practices. The not-quite-as-cool adult
resources include safety tips, suggested activities and discussion
ideas that are designed to accompany the teen resources. The
initiative also incorporates a free bi-monthly newsletter (second
link) that provides information teaching pre-teens how to navigate
safely.
Also: http://www.bnetsavvy.org/
KEY FACTOR IN MURDER TRENDS: LACK OF
PREVENTION PROGRAMS
Murders are down to a 40-year low in New York and Chicago, yet
homicide rates are on the rise in cities like Baltimore and Detroit,
reports Alexandra Marks in the Christian Science Monitor. The
differences between the cities can paint a positive picture of
successful attacks on crime, but at the same time, an alarming
picture focused on rising gang-related and youth violence is
emerging, especially within the African American community. An
analysis of federal crime data by Northeastern University’s James
Alan Fox found a 52 percent jump in the number of murders committed
by male African American teens from 2002 through 2006.
Criminologists have cited a variety of factors for the increases,
including a decrease in the number of police on the beat, a shifting
of resources to fighting terrorism and cuts in federal spending on
youth programs and gang prevention. However, it remains clear that
the availability of resources for police and prevention programs
alike play a key role in determining which cities have high homicide
rates. New York is at a 40-year low and has spent more money on
youth and prevention programs and things like summer jobs, which has
enabled them to better control the city’s gang problem. On the other
hand, Baltimore, which has fewer resources, exhibits little ability
to offer similar programmatic alternatives. While the incidence of
homicides is still relatively low compared with the early 1990s, the
rate is ticking up as young people turn to gangs.
THE IMPORTANCE OF AFTERSCHOOL
PROGRAMS TO RURAL COMMUNITIES
A total of 21 percent of children in the United States attend rural
public schools. These children also have the lowest median
per-student funding for afterschool programs. In addition, their
schools typically have fewer financial resources because of
diminished property tax bases and inequitable distributions of state
funds. The disparity in funding underscores the need for children
living in persistently poor rural areas to attend afterschool
programs. These programs sometimes serve as the only source of
supplemental enrichment in literacy, nutrition and physical
education, technology and preparation for college entrance exams. In
light of this, the Afterschool Alliance has written a research brief
that details information on current challenges and opportunities
facing rural programs and offers examples of programs that
successfully address key problems facing rural communities. Across
the globe, poverty has a direct and negative effect on academic
achievement, as children living in poverty experience less cognitive
stimulation and enrichment than their middle income peers. In
addition, rural poverty presents further challenges for children,
families and communities. Poor rural households are three times more
likely than non-poor rural households to be without a vehicle,
making transportation either inaccessible or costly, thereby
discouraging children from participating in extracurricular
activities. Rural communities also have the highest rate of drug use
among teens, and unfortunately, at-risk behaviors are not adequately
addressed because of limited resources. Still, rural communities do
possess the strengths (strong work ethics, a sense of teamwork and
an ease in partnering) that can enable them to overcome these
obstacles and challenges. In turn, this allows for the
implementation of afterschool programs tailored to the needs of
children and built upon community strengths, which should lead to
marked success.
DIOS MIO, MAN. TEN-YEAR-OLD STAGES
PROTEST TO BRING BACK CHRISTMAS
School breaks tend to give children a sense of freedom, of time and
activities unencumbered. For one 10-year-old Mexican boy this
sentiment is undoubtedly true. The boy, Diego, tried to extend
Christmas break by, in a way, intentionally imprisoning himself. His
solution was not hiding away in some unknown cubbyhole, but instead,
gluing his hand to his metal bed. According to Agence France-Presse,
Diego "thought that if [he] was glued to the bed, they couldn't make
[him] go to school. [He] didn't want to go, [because] the holidays
were so much fun." His mother was unable to free him from the grips
of the industrial strength glue, and had to call paramedics, who
"freed" the boy, while he watched cartoons. Unfortunately for
present day Diego, but fortunately for future Diego, he made it to
school only a few hours late.
PRINCIPAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CAN BEGET STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
The Instructional Leadership Study, released by MDRC, has provided
suggestive, yet not definitive, evidence that providing
instruction-related professional development to school principals
sets in motion a chain of events that improves teaching and
learning. By examining a theory of school change articulated by the
Institute for Learning (IFL) at the University of Pittsburgh, it was
determined that through leadership training, principals learn
high-quality instruction and also actions they can perform to
motivate and support their teachers. Principals are then able to
organize professional learning opportunities for teachers to improve
instruction, and with improved instruction should come increased
achievement. The study found that principals who received more
professional development were more actively involved in the
professional development of their staff, which should result in
better instruction. At schools where instructional quality was
better, students represented higher academic achievement.
PARENTS: CHECK CLASS SIZE, THEN
ADVOCATE FOR MORE TEACHER SUPPORT
Behavior problems for preschool students can be a meaningful
predictor of continued behavior problems and academic difficulties
throughout the education pipeline. Still, high-quality early
education and intervention programs may be able to prevent severe
behavior problems in young children. To help better understand what
comprises beneficial programs, the Foundation for Child Development
has released a policy brief that examines the factors associated
with expulsion from prekindergarten. Drawing from new research
conducted by Yale University’s Edward Zigler Center in Child
Development and Social Policy, the brief finds that children are
much more likely to be expelled from pre-kindergarten programs with
high student-teacher ratios and in extended day programs. In fact,
only 7.7 percent of pre-kindergarten teachers reported an expulsion
in the past year when there were fewer than eight children per
adult, while the rate of expulsion reported by teachers responsible
for12 or more children was 12.7 percent. In addition, teachers
reporting a high level of job stress were much more likely to expel
children, and this factor may be linked to high student-teacher
ratios and extended day programs. The brief concludes that by
requiring classrooms to have no more than 10 children per teacher
and by providing teachers access to early childhood mental health
consultants to help manage the behavior of disruptive children,
policymakers can reduce prekindergarten expulsions.
YOUR STATE’S 2007 CHANGES TO EARLY
CARE AND EDUCATION POLICIES
The National Association for the Education of Young
Children has released a summary of state policy changes that
occurred in 2007. The summary information should help those focused
on early care and education at the state level keep up with changes,
as governors and state legislatures approved varying investments in
a variety of areas. The shifts have and will affect initiatives like
early learning councils, public schools, prekindergarten,
kindergarten, afterschool programs and others. The recap includes
information for every state. |
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"The
Excellence in Summer Learning Award"
The Excellence in Summer Learning Award recognizes an outstanding
summer program that demonstrates excellence in accelerating academic
achievement and promoting positive development for young people
between kindergarten and twelfth grade. Award: national recognition,
increased press opportunities, conference presentations and
complimentary registrations, professional development opportunities
for staff, and increased publishing opportunities. Eligibility:
public or private organization or agency (schools, community-based
organizations, libraries, universities, faith-based organizations,
etc.) serving young people between the ages of kindergarten and 12th
grade over the summer months. Deadline: January 15, 2008.
"Disney
Minnie Grants"
The Walt Disney Company and Youth Service America are offering
grants to support youth-led service projects in their community. A
significant part of the service must take place on Global Youth
Service Day 2008, April 25-27. Youth are encouraged to address
important issues such as climate change, malaria or other diseases,
human rights, literacy, or others. Maximum Award: $500. Eligibility:
Youths aged 5-14, as well as teachers, older youth (15-25), and
youth-serving organizations if they engage younger youth (5-14) in
planning and implementing the project. Deadline: January 21, 2008.
"American
Association of School Librarians Innovative Reading Grant"
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Innovative
Reading Grant is designed to support the planning and implementation
of a unique and innovative program for children that motivates and
encourages reading, especially with struggling readers. Selection
criteria include the potential to measure and evaluate a literacy
project that promotes the importance of reading and facilitates the
learners' literacy development by supporting current reading
research, practice, and policy. Maximum Award: $2,500. Eligibility:
reading programs specifically designed for children (grades K-9) in
the school library setting. The program must encourage innovative
ways to motivate and involve children in reading. Applicant must be
a member of AASL. Deadline: February 1, 2008.
"NCFL
Grants for Family Literacy"
The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is seeking five
school districts to receive an award of $600,000 each in direct
funding and support services to implement the highly successful
Toyota Family Literacy Program. The program uses a quality family
literacy approach to increase basic language and literacy skills,
and provides parents with the specific skills they need to help
their children succeed. Maximum Award: $600,000. Eligibility:
communities with high or fast-growing Hispanic and other immigrant
populations. Deadline: February 15, 2008.
"Legacy
Listen to A Life Contest"
The Legacy Project Listen to A Life Contest connects generations
through oral history. To enter, a young person must interview an
older person about their hopes and goals through their life, how
they achieved goals and overcame obstacles, or how dreams may have
changed along the way. The young person then writes a 300-word essay
based on the interview. Maximum Award: a Lenovo ThinkCentre, iPod
classic, and $800 worth of Orchard software; each young person’s
school receives $25,000 worth of Orchard software. Eligibility: each
team must consist of a young person 8-18 years and a grandparent or
grandfriend 50 years or over (co-entrant cannot be a parent; they
can be a grandparent, older friend, mentor, neighbor, nursing home
resident, etc.). Deadline: March 31, 2008.
"GO
OVERBOARD CHALLENGE GRANT"
Youth Venture, Burton Snowboards, and Justina Chen Headley are
co-sponsoring the Go Overboard Challenge Grant to fund the best
youth-led ideas to change the world by giving away 12 grants, $1,000
each to encourage students to become change makers. Eligibility:
students ages 12-20 who have an idea as to how to improve their
school, neighborhood, city, country or the world. Students need an
adult sponsor, such as a teacher, to endorse their grant
application. Deadline: May 1, 2008. |
