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Schools grapple with the threat of swine flu
The number of states with confirmed cases of swine flu is expanding
with each passing hour. As the virus spreads, reports National
Public Radio, so does awareness and the potential for overreaction.
School districts and universities in particular are wrestling with
this question: to close or not to close? Earlier this week, health
officials had been urging K-12 schools to stay open if possible. But
as the week wears on, more public school systems are initiating
widespread closures. In Texas, for instance, at least 100,000
students across 13 districts remained at home Thursday as entire
suburban districts closed. Some plan to remain closed until May 11.
In Huntsville, Ala., all schools were closed on the advice of the
county health department because of two probable cases of swine flu
at a local school. The closures affected more than 51,000 students
in three different districts. Parents are being urged to keep their
kids at home, a challenging prospect for those who have to work. In
this economic recession, parents with young children will face
difficult choices as the school closings drag on and as the long
summer break approaches. The standard option during ice storms ("go
play at your friend's house") isn't available. Meanwhile, public
officials struggled to raise awareness without spreading panic.
Related:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5juw6araWsKtat5t1Fcj6MACPTjjwD97SKRP80
Schools
embrace txt msg
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, a number of Utah schools are
using cell phone text messaging as a tool rather than seeing it as a
menacing distraction. Throughout the state, coaches notify their
players of schedule changes via text messages, and some teachers
have started incorporating texting into their lessons. Still, other
Utah schools hold firm in their belief that cell phones should be
kept out of class, period. "They're still more of a distraction than
a benefit," said Ben Horsley, Granite School District spokesman.
Jordan School District spokeswoman Melinda Colton said Jordan also
is trying to keep cell phones out of the classroom. "It's not really
something we would probably sanction," Colton said of using cell
phones for lessons. But some other districts and schools are
beginning to embrace the philosophy "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
On a recent school day, Northridge English teacher Travis Lund asked
his students to do something unusual in the middle of class -- pull
out their cell phones. Lund then questioned them about papers
they're researching. Students typed their paper topics into their
phones, and their responses instantly appeared on a Web page Lund
projected onto a screen at the front of the room. They spent another
10 minutes having a discussion -- via text messaging -- about their
papers. "Instead of fighting it all the time, I try to embrace it
just a little bit," Lund said. "It holds their attention. It's
something different." He said it also prompts more class
participation than he gets holding traditional discussions.
In search of a replacement for "accountability"
In an opinion piece on the Inside Higher Ed blog,
teacher-researchers Linda Adler-Kasner and Susan Marie Harrington
take exception to the widespread use of the term "accountability"
when discussing students, teachers, and the process of education.
They prefer instead to discuss reform in terms of "responsibility"
and "visibility," which they feel better represent contemporary
assessment efforts in education. To their minds, "accountability"
implies that left unchecked, human beings will inevitably work in
their own interest, and therefore "actors must provide evidence that
they understand and have taken into consideration the interests of
others in addition to their own." Accountability tends to be levied
from individuals or organizations in times of failure, thereby
suggesting that "processes by which people or entities are 'made
accountable' can be completed quickly and 'errors' remedied."
Finally, accountability concentrates power in one place -- those who
oversee it -- and removes power from those in the trenches.
Accountability is about proving rather than improving, the authors
write, and is associated "with corruption, mismanagement, and
ineptitude. Unless we believe that those are the right shoes for us
to fill -- and we don't think that they are -- we would do well to
invoke other language, other stories, in our discussions."
Young, gifted, and black, but not in a special program
A new article in the May/June issue of Principal Magazine states
that while federal civil rights efforts have improved educational
opportunities for formerly excluded and marginalized students, work
remains to ensure that gifted children from all backgrounds are
given a high-quality education and encouraged to reach their
potential. Recent focus has centered on culturally and
linguistically diverse students who have been disproportionately
placed in special education, but authors Kathleen King, Elizabeth
Kozleski, and Kimberly Lansdowne say disproportionate representation
of students of color in gifted classes is equally striking. As an
example, they cite California, where black students made up 7.4
percent of the total school population. Blacks make up 22 percent of
students categorized as emotionally disturbed, but only 4.1 percent
of those considered gifted and talented. By contrast, white students
-- 28.5 percent of California enrollment -- make up 41.7 percent of
gifted and talented enrollment. The authors offer suggestions to
principals for combating this nationwide issue, and recommend that
government mandates for children with disabilities should be matched
with provisions for gifted education.
Placement for AP no longer so advanced
A study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found that in a survey of
1,000 Advanced Placement (AP) teachers, more than half fear that
looser enrollment requirements for students are leading to a
dilution of course quality, The New York Times reports. As high
schools have introduced open enrollment policies, students are
signing up for AP courses in large numbers to bolster their college
applications. The number of students who took at least one
college-level course in high school nearly doubled from 2004 to
2008, but 56 percent of surveyed teachers felt "too many students
overestimate their abilities and are in over their heads," according
to the study, and 60 percent said that "parents push their children
into AP classes when they really don't belong there." Fifty-two
percent said AP courses should be open only to students who
demonstrate that they can handle the work. In the view of The Times,
these findings "support Fordham's general position that the nation's
current focus on raising basic skills sometimes neglects a need for
the continued growth and challenging of high-achieving students."
In four decades, high school progress is almost nil
According to a new report from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP), U.S. high school students have made no
significant gains in reading or math since the early 1970s,
according to The Wall Street Journal. The study looked at results of
the highly respected federal test, known as the "Nation's Report
Card," for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds over four decades, finding that
while the younger groups have progressed, scores for 17-year-olds
are virtually unchanged, advancing a single point on a
zero-to-500-point scale since 1971 in reading, and two points in
math since 1973. In simple terms, the scores mean students can make
generalizations about what they read, and perform moderately complex
mathematical procedures, such as computing with decimals and simple
fractions. The new report, based on "long-term trend" tests given to
a sampling of about 52,000 public- and private-school students in
early 2008, comes as colleges and employers are complaining that too
many students earn diplomas without skills for college or the
workplace. Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent
Education, says the scores indicate a "washing out" of gains by
students as they get older: "What we are learning is that they need
help all the way through."
An alternate take:
http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/04/the-education-f-19.html
Effective organizational practices to cultivate effective schools
A new report from Research for Action identifies effective
organizational practices of better-performing schools in
Philadelphia for grades 6-12. The findings are based on qualitative
research in 22 schools, all of which serve low-income students with
multiple risk factors, conducted during 2008. Successful practices
break down into three spheres: Conditions for Teaching,
Student-Centered School Community, and Instructional Programs. The
study finds that when school leaders assemble a team that makes
strategic staffing and scheduling decisions, the faculty becomes a
community of learners with a shared vision of good teaching. When
staff create an environment encouraging academic growth and personal
development in students, students more easily build personal
relationships and a sense of responsibility, and take pride in
themselves and in their school. When school leaders rigorously
prepare students for standardized tests and provide struggling
students with additional instructional time, but also use data to
fluidly respond to individual student progress, achievement
flourishes. The report gives specific suggestions to enact these
practices, along with case studies that illustrate what the
practices look like when combined effectively. The report also
details obstacles that schools face within the focal sphere,
including systemic challenges.
See the report:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/irepp/cgi-bin/joomla/index.php
New assessment may help lead students to college-readiness
Preliminary results from an Educational Policy Improvement Center
study suggest that its College-readiness Performance Assessment
System (C-PAS) can measure key cognitive skills for success in
college. A lead author of the study, Dr. David Conley, defines
college-readiness as preparation to succeed without remediation in a
credit-bearing, general education course at a post-secondary
institution that provides either a baccalaureate degree or transfer
to a baccalaureate program. Whereas high school instruction
frequently amounts to prescribed tasks requiring little cognitive
engagement (often in preparation for state tests), expectations at
college differ. There, instructors accept they often must re-teach
content knowledge, but expect students to make inferences, interpret
results, analyze conflicting source documents, support arguments
with evidence, solve complex problems with no obvious answer, reach
conclusions, offer explanations, conduct research, engage in the
give-and-take of ideas, and generally think deeply. The pilot C-PAS,
which uses specific performance tasks in English and mathematics,
analyzed 1,795 students at 13 New York City high schools in grades
9-12 during Fall 2007. Results indicates that cognitive strategies
can be measured discretely and within separate subject areas, and
that complex performance assessments can help improve the more
complex cognitive skills that students will need in college.
Related:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/oct08/vol66/num02/What_Makes_a_Student_College_Ready.aspx
BRIEFLY NOTED
What we learn from school tests
What does the National Assessment of Educational Progress say about
school reform and what improves public education the most?
Two southern states take highest rating for pre-K
For the third consecutive year, the National Institute for Early
Education Research rated Alabama and North Carolina as tied for the
top spot in meeting all pre-K quality standards.
Michigan announces its Promise Zones
High school graduates in 10 low-income areas of Michigan will get
free tuition for two years of community college, part of an
ambitious effort to ensure low-income students attend colleges.
'I suspect that people will be going crazy'
Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times reports that a group of
10th-graders will forgo electronic devices for one long week.
Broader parental license for sex-ed in North Carolina
The North Carolina House of Representatives has narrowly approved a
bill that allows parents to choose between an abstinence-only
curriculum and a "comprehensive" course of instruction for their
children.
Abbott goes all the way
The Supreme Court has heard arguments in the long-running Abbott vs.
Burke school funding case, and will rule later this year.
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"EPA/
Generations United/Rachel Carson Council: Sense of Wonder Contest"
To honor the late preservationist and ecologist Rachel Carson, the
EPA, Generations United, and the Rachel Carson Council, Inc.,
announce a photo, essay, and poetry contest "that best expresses the
Sense of Wonder that you feel for the sea, the night sky, forests,
birds, wildlife, and all that is beautiful to your eyes." In her
book The Sense of Wonder (written in the 1950s and published in a
magazine in 1956), Carson used lyrical passages about the beauty of
nature and the joy of helping children develop a sense of wonder and
love of nature. Maximum award: publication on the websites of EPA
Aging Initiative, Generations United, and Rachel Carson Council,
Inc. Eligibility: entries must be joint projects involving a person
under age 18 and a person age 50 or older. Deadline: June 10, 2009.
"Live
Monarch Foundation: Free Seeds"
The Live Monarch Foundation is offering free milkweed seeds to
classes, groups, and individuals in the migration path of the Monarch butterfly
to help rehabilitate the natural habitat of the Monarch in North America. In
recent years, over 75 percent of the wintering Monarchs butterflies from North
America have frozen to death in Mexico as a result rain and sub-freezing
conditions, and a nationwide shortage of milkweed, which Monarchs need to
procreate, has further decimated their population. Please plant milkweed seeds
to ensure Monarch survival. A milkweed in every yard! Maximum award: 15+
butterfly garden seeds, including milkweed seeds. Eligibility: anyone in the
Monarch migration path who will plant seeds. Deadline: N/A
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