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Relationships and rigor
In an op-ed in The New York Times, David Brooks writes that a
well-known anecdote from President Obama's childhood -- his mother
waking him at 4:30 each morning to tutor him before school --
perfectly encapsulates what's required to reform American education.
When young Barry complained, his mother responded, "This is no
picnic for me either, Buster." That exchange contains what Brooks
feels are the crucial traits for academic success: rigor and
relationships. Mr. Obama had an adult passionately invested in his
future, but also, in Brooks's words, one "disinclined to put up with
any crap." "We've spent years working on ways to restructure
schools, but what matters most is the relationship between one
student and one teacher. You ask a kid who has graduated from high
school to list the teachers who mattered in his life, and he will
reel off names. You ask a kid who dropped out, and he will not even
understand the question." No Child Left Behind has ushered in the
ability to measure student progress and predict success, but Brooks
feels we're faltering where the other ingredient is concerned. We
need to foster relationships, in his view through reforms like merit
pay for teachers and school vouchers. Despite this, he is hopeful:
President Obama "has broken with liberal orthodoxy on school reform
more than any other policy. He's naturally inclined to be data
driven. There's reason to think that this week's impressive speech
will be followed by real and potentially historic action."
School foundations feel pinch of sagging economy
As the shaky economy and tightening state aid have forced school
districts to trim their budgets, private foundations have sprung up
in the last decade to pay for a wide range of equipment,
artists-in-residence, and amenities that are outside the districts'
spending plans. Now they, too, are feeling the pinch, reports The
Philadelphia Inquirer. If the trend continues, the foundations say,
students may have to do without chamber music coaches, Arabic
teachers, smartboards, and other educational goodies the foundations
provide. "I don't know of a local education fund right now that is
not either projecting a fiscal crisis down the line or is in the
middle of one right now," said Arnold Fege, director of public
engagement and advocacy at the Public Education Network, which
represents 82 local education funds in low-income districts. Even
deep-pocketed districts are feeling the strain. Radnor Township's
education foundation stopped awarding teacher grants for the
remainder of the school year after its annual gala, a casino night,
raised 30 percent less than the year before.
Is it possible to satisfy teachers and reformers at the same time?
In The New Republic, Andrew Rotherham and Richard Whitmire look at
challenges facing American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president
Randi Weingarten as she tries to burnish her reformist credentials
while accommodating her constituency. How events play out in the
fight over tenure and pay in D.C., the authors write, will have
ramifications for reform in the rest of the country. On one side is
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, whose get-tough stance has
won her praise, attention, and vilification. On the other side is
the AFT-affiliate Washington Teacher Union (WTU). Weingarten has
stepped in with a counter-offer to Rhee that has both reformers and
union members ambivalent. On the one hand, it "[wraps] teachers even
more tightly in tenure protections and [extends] the termination
process"; on the other hand, its language signals to Rhee that
Weingarten will move in Rhee's direction if she gets political
cover. Rotherham and Whitmire propose that Weingarten should
realize, as her legendary predecessor Al Shanker would have, that
Rhee is not the enemy. "Rhee faces an array of independent charter
schools that now educate more than a third of the District's public
school students. If Rhee can't compete with charter operators who
can fire incompetent teachers, the local teachers' union will become
irrelevant, because there will be few unionized public schools left
in the district." In other words, they say, Weingarten must save the
UFT from itself.
Less politics required to spearhead successful education reform
"If education reform is flush with ideas," asks Clay Risen in the
spring 2009 issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, "why does so
little get done?" The obstacle is not policy, he writes, but
politics. He cites dismal statistics: The 2006 national graduation
rate was 69 percent; 75 percent of high school graduates attend
college, but 28 percent of freshman require remedial education;
among the 30 most-industrialized countries, American students rank
15th in reading, 19th in math, and 14th in science. In Risen's view,
education reform has two entrenched camps: "One holds that
educational progress will only move forward after changes are made
in inner-city students' family and extracurricular life; the other
holds that reform must focus with laser-like intensity on teacher
quality and accountability." The first camp supports more funding
for existing programs and is centered around unions and teacher
colleges; the second wants more choice for parents, including
charter schools and vouchers, and centers around nonprofit
institutions and "civilian" reformers. How will they reconcile?
Risen seeks a politics that would "require all sides to recognize
the validity of each other's thinking and appreciate the goals they
are seeking to achieve," conceding certain policy principles in the
process. Teachers are workers, parents, and taxpayers, Risen says,
who can't be expected to sacrifice everything to student
achievement. But neither are they just another class of workers who
can "always make the same demands that, say, the Teamsters do."
Music instruction helps children read
Children exposed to a multi-year program of music involving
increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display
superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their
non-musically trained peers, according to a study published in the
Psychology of Music journal. According to authors Joseph M. Piro and
Camilo Ortiz from Long Island University, data from this study will
help to clarify the role of music study on cognition and shed light
on the question of the potential of music to enhance school
performance in language and literacy.
Discussion groups help students make better choices
At Audubon Technology & Communication Center High School in
Milwaukee, writes The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, students who fight
don't get suspensions, they get circles. Instead of missed school
and parent-principal conferences, teenage "drama" is treated with
something like an encounter session. "Maybe 10 people, mostly other
ninth-graders, sit in a circle," The Journal-Sentinel explains,
"with some object like an electric candle in the middle. You can't
talk unless you're holding onto a ball or a little figure or
something that that you have to pass around to each other. There's
an icebreaker to start the conversation -- what's your favorite
food, that kind of thing. Everything that is said is supposed to be
confidential, and no one can speak without respecting everyone
else." Then one kid leads the discussion, and each presents his or
her side and describes the impact the problem had on them. A
discussion follows about what needs to be done to get to a point of
trust and respect. Most times, disputing parties work things out.
This "restorative justice" process is part of an $8.5 million,
four-year federal grant called the Safe Schools/Healthy Student
Initiative. Across the Milwaukee Public Schools, suspensions are
down more than 20 percent, according to recent data.
Better education vital to economy
Working with Miami-Dade Public Schools and The Education Fund (a
local education fund), the Citi Foundation will spend $600,000 for
programs that increase low-income, public-school-student enrollment
in post-secondary education, reports The Miami Herald. The program,
which will be matched by local donations, will span five years.
According to Daria Sheehan, senior program officer at the
foundation, the problem they hope to address is acute. Among
developed nations, the U.S. has fallen from first to 14th in
percentage of students who pursue college. Education Fund president
Linda Lecht says that just 44 percent of high school students in
Miami-Dade graduate and go on to more coursework. Citi Foundation
hopes to coordinate its efforts with organizations already working
toward college readiness in South Florida, such as AVID (Advancement
Via Individual Determination) and The Children's Trust.
District-wide, the program's emphasis will fall on both academic
preparation and on helping students to understand the requirements
of applying for and financing college. The Education Fund is calling
on area business leaders to put up matching funds to work around
projected state revenue shortfalls, the better to educate
prospective employees.
To reform schools: think systemically, act individually
Writing from a business and managerial perspective, the Gallup
Management Journal interviews Robert Hughes, president of New York
City's local education fund, New Visions for Public Schools. Hughes
explains that given the endemic problems facing the city's sprawling
education system, New Visions has aimed from the outset to work
intensively with the district "at arm's length," understanding that
it's harder to diagnose a system's problems when you are implicated
in it. "New Visions is a place that helps schools think through
endemic problems and create new systematic structures and strategies
to address those problems," says Hughes. The LEF functions as a
place that can absorb risks that come with innovation, "so people
with direct responsibility for the system don't always have to take
that risk." This encourages experimentation and challenges the sense
of inevitability that often develops in the public sector. Hughes
describes the metric developed by New Visions that lets high schools
track student progress and aggregate these data to class and school
level, in service to the goal of graduating 80 percent of New York
City kids from high school, college-ready. To realize these kinds of
goals, Hughes explains, reformers need to straddle the macro and the
micro simultaneously: "One of the challenges in implementing any
education reform is figuring out how to ensure that the reform
itself empowers teachers to be effective with individual students
and that it does so systemically. It shouldn't require heroics -- it
should be part and parcel of doing business on a daily basis."
Systematically analyzing the impacts of charters
A new study by the RAND Corporation looks at charter schools in
Chicago, San Diego, Philadelphia, Denver, Milwaukee, and the states
of Ohio, Texas, and Florida, using longitudinal, student-level data
across multiple communities and varied charter laws. The study finds
scant evidence that charters produce achievement substantially
different than those of traditional public schools. It cautions,
however, that the evidence is incomplete: Elementary schools -- a
substantial proportion of all charters -- aren't easily assessed.
Two groups of charters, those in the first year of operation and
those serving students remotely through technology, prompt concern
over low performance. The most promising results from charters are
long-term outcomes of high school graduation and college entry. In
the two locations with available data on attainment outcomes
(Chicago and Florida), charter high schools appear to increase the
probability of graduating by 7 to 15 percentage points, and increase
the probability of enrolling in college by 8 to 10 percentage
points. The study refutes the idea that charters are "skimming the
cream" of the student population: Students entering charter schools
have prior achievement levels comparable to their peers in
traditional public schools. Nor do charters produce effects that
substantially help or harm student achievement in nearby traditional
public schools.
See the report:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2009/RAND_MG869.pdf
Cumulative effects of poverty and the struggle for low-income
achievement
A new policy brief from Arizona State University, funded by the
Great Lakes Center, details the poverty-induced physical,
sociological, and psychological effects on students that limit what
schools alone can accomplish. This counters a prevailing trend, of
which NCLB is a part, of relying on schools as a key site for
narrowing the achievement gap between low-income and middle-class
students, and between racial and ethnic groups. The brief lists six
negative out-of-school-factors (OSFs) that inhibit student
achievement: low birth-weight and non-genetic prenatal influences;
inadequate medical, dental, and vision care; food insecurity;
environmental pollutants; family relations and family stress; and
neighborhood characteristics. "Because America's schools are so
highly segregated by income, race, and ethnicity, problems related
to poverty occur simultaneously, with greater frequency, and act
cumulatively in schools serving disadvantaged communities," the
report says. High-poverty schools, already under-funded, face
significantly greater challenges than schools that serve wealthier
students. Efforts to drive change through test-based accountability
are therefore unlikely to succeed unless accompanied by more
comprehensive social policies. The brief names a seventh positive
factor that can mitigate some effects of the first six, the
opportunity for extended learning.
'Vivid Laboratory' sheds light on immigrant education
In an extended article that profiles one suburban high school in
Virginia, The New York Times weighs the pros and cons of
contemporary methods for educating immigrants in America. Hylton
High is distinguished by high test scores and graduation rates, but
these come "at considerable cost" to its English language learners,
who are separated from other students and given intensive support in
what amounts to modern-day segregation. The last decade has seen a
huge influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, leading to the
greatest expansion in public schools since the baby boom. According
to officials, one in 10 of all public school students are now
English language learners, a 60 percent increase from 1995 to 2005.
This places schools on the "front lines of America's battles over
whether and how to assimilate the newcomers and their children," The
Times writes. Schools are required to enroll students regardless of
immigration status, and are prohibited from even asking about it.
The extra attention these students need has strained budgets and
resources, and prompted resentment. At the same time, to meet rising
academic standards, English language learners at Hylton are
"relentlessly drilled and tutored on material that appears on state
tests, but get rare exposure to the kinds of courses, demands or
experiences that might better prepare them to move up in American
society." The issue, according to teacher Peter B. Bedford, who
supports Hylton's program, boils down to a pragmatic choice: "Are
you going to focus on educating [these students]," he asks, "or
socially integrating them?"
BRIEFLY NOTED
Critiquing and defending academic BS
This sassy article challenges academics and professors to explain
their work in ways the lay reader can understand.
School
security goes to the dogs
A Kentucky school district recently added a canine search team to
its security services. (See page 8 of the PDF.)
Gay-Straight club gets the go-ahead
A federal judge has ruled that students at a North Florida high
school may form a Gay-Straight Alliance.
In Pontiac, Mich., schools, everyone gets a pink slip
Teetering on what Gov. Jennifer Granholm termed a "financial
emergency," one gritty suburb is laying off every employee.
North Carolina considers more comprehensive sex ed
State legislators may allow districts to move beyond curricula that
are strictly abstinence-based.
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"Fund
for Teachers: Grants for Travel and Growth"
The Fund for Teachers makes direct grants to teachers for summer
learning opportunities of their own design. Maximum award: $5,000.
Eligibility: teachers K-12 with a minimum of three years teaching
experience; teachers must be full-time and spend at least 50 percent
of the time in the classroom when grants are approved and made.
Deadline: varies by state.
"Institute
for Global Environmental Strategies: 2009 Thacher Scholars Awards"
The IGES 2009 Thacher Scholars Awards are given to secondary school
students who demonstrate the best use of geospatial technologies or data to
study Earth. Eligible geospatial tools and data include satellite remote
sensing, aerial photography, geographic information systems, and global
positioning systems (GPS). The main focus of the project must be the application
of the geospatial tool(s) or data to study a problem related to Earth's
environment. Maximum award: $2,000. Eligibility: students grades 9-12 in public,
private, parochial, Native American reservation, or home school in the United
States or U.S. territories; or U.S. citizens grades 9-12 attending a Department
of Defense Dependents' Overseas School, an accredited overseas American or
International School, a foreign school as an exchange student, or a foreign
school because his/her parent(s) are temporarily working and living abroad.
Deadline: April 6, 2009.
"Music Is
Revolution: Mini-grants"
The Music Is Revolution Foundation makes mini-grants for activities
designed by teachers to implement, support, and/or improve their ability to
provide quality music education for their students. Funds may be used for
supplies, materials, equipment, transportation for a field trip, and/or to bring
a performer or musical group to the school. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility:
public school teachers of children in grades K-12. Deadline: April 15, 2009.
"Target:
Early Childhood Reading Grants"
Target Early Childhood Reading Grants support programs like weekend
book clubs and after-school reading programs that foster a love of reading and
encourage children, from birth through age nine, to read together with their
families. Maximum award: $3,000. Eligibility: schools, libraries, and nonprofit
organizations. Deadline: May 31, 2009.
"Freedom
Alliance Scholarships for Children of Servicemen and -women"
Freedom Alliance Scholarships give financial assistance to sons and
daughters of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardsmen who have been
killed or permanently disabled (100 percent VA disability rating) in the line of
duty, or who are currently classified as a Prisoner of War or Missing in Action.
Maximum award: one-year scholarships to undergraduates. Eligibility: high school
seniors, high school graduates, or registered undergraduate students at an
accredited college or post high school vocational/technical institution who are
dependent sons or daughters of a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, or Guardsman
who was killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty or currently
classified as a POW or MIA. Deadline: July 31, 2009.
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