According to the article below from USA Today, President Obama will be distributing $11.5 billion to state schools that comply with reform rules, which include:
Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools
The big question posed by the NPR story below that has yet to be answered is whether lower-level classes can hold students to higher standards, or whether any sorting system sends the wrong message to students about their ability to learn. Tracking has been a fundamental aspect of education in the U.S. since the early part of this century when public schools devised a system of curriculum tracks in order to accommodate the diverse group of students attending school for the first time. Recently, tracking has generated a large volume of research and policy analysis. Here’s a summary from the National Center for Education Statistics:
“There has been much debate over whether or not tracking creates unequal quality in educational experiences and later opportunity (Oakes, Garnoran, and Page 1991). There is also concern about whether tracking perpetuates, rather than alleviates, differences in children created by socioeconomic stratification (Oakes 1992). This issue has been particularly relevant for educators and researchers concerned about equal access to education by minority students who, in racially integrated schools, are disproportionately represented in curricula designed for low-ability or non-college-bound students.” The National Center for Education Statistics also reports: “Postsecondary students who take remedial reading are about half as likely as those who take no remedial courses to earn a degree or certificate.”
Source: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2004/section3/indicator18.asp
Typically, students are assigned to levels by a combination of grades, test scores and teacher recommendations. Columbia Principal Lovie Lilly, who is African-American, conducted research on the experience of black students at her school while studying for her doctoral degree. “Black children in higher-level classes were ignored, or perceived that they were being ignored, or did not feel comfortable going to the teacher after school to get help,” Lilly says. “They gave up and decided to go to level three classes where at least there were other black children.”
Remediation is also costly. Here are annual estimates from one district that tracks this data, Maryland Public Schools:
- Families pay: $283 million
- Taxpayers pay: $978 million
How can schools boost the lowest performers while improving achievement for all?
What role do learning styles and multiple intelligences play in the educational outcomes of students?
How can we better prepare students for a love of learning and college level work?
ARTICLE:
Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools
by Nancy Solomon
October 28, 2009
NPR
American schools have struggled for decades to close what’s called the ‘minority achievement gap’ — the lower average test scores, grades and college attendance rates among black and Latino students.
Typically, schools place children who are falling behind in remedial classes, to help them catch up. But some schools are finding that grouping students by ability, also known as tracking or leveling, causes more problems than it solves.
To view this entire article and listen to NPR visit www.npr.org
Transfer Students Less Engaged in Campus Activities, Survey Finds
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
The Chronicle article below reports on the results of a new study, by the National Survey of Student Engagement, known as Nessie, which found that transfer students do not engage in “higher impact” activities such as internships, study abroad or project work with faculty as do “native” students who attend the same school freshmen through senior year. The study also distinguished between two groups: “horizontal” transfer students, who made transfers between four-year colleges; and “vertifical” transfer students who transferred from community colleges to four year institutions. Here’s a sampling of the statistics:
* 62% of native seniors said they participated in internships versus only 49% of horizontal-transfer students and 43% of vertical-transfer students.
* The biggest gap was in study abroad: only 7% of vertical students compared with 15% of the horizontal group; 20% of the native students studied abroad.
The report also stressed the importance of a culminating senior experience that “integrates and synthesize learning within the academic major, provides opportunities to reflect on the overall college experience and may facilitate the transition to life after college.” Experts say we need to place the same emphasis on transfer students that we do on incoming freshmen and to sustain that engagement through all four years of college.
If students today don’t get experience outside of school from a part-time job, one or more internships and volunteer work, they often lack the valuable “soft skills†that success outside of school requires. In addition to learning about how to do work, follow-up on projects and see things through to completion, students also get exposed to what they do and don’t like which can be valuable for narrowing down career choices. Many students today will need to start in an area that is not their dream job, but if they work with that starting point and develop their skills as well as knowledge, they will likely be moving upwards and onwards to more rewarding work with better pay.
ARTICLE:
Chronicle of Higher Education
Transfer Students Less Engaged in Campus Activities, Survey Finds
By Ben Terris
November 8, 2009
Not all transfer experiences are created equal.
So says the latest National Survey of Student Engagement, which for the first time compared data from students who had made “vertical” transfers, from community colleges to four-year institutions, and students who had made “horizontal” transfers, between four-year colleges.
“It’s important that we look at these two groups as distinct populations,” says Alexander C. McCormick, director of the survey. “After all, they change institutions for very different reasons and should therefore have different experiences.”
To view this entire article visit www.chronicle.com
Educational Video Games Mix Cool With Purpose
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Today’s generation of students loves video games and some companies are trying to put this passion “to good use.†In the article below, children “are playing educational video games as part of their school curriculum, in after-school programs or via the Web from home.†Sasha Barab, professor at Indiana University, created Quest Atlantis, a game that incorporates science. Barab states in the article, “Partly what I have to argue to teachers is that there’s value seeing that content bound up in a real-world story.†These educational video games are online for interaction and collaboration, use core subjects such as physics and math to finish a task or trial and work toward solving problems that relate to the real world. In Gamestar Mechanic players even have to defend their solutions to other Gamestar Mechanic players. Alan Gershenfiled, a former executive at Activision and the founder of E-Line Media, says “You’re essentially designing a digital system for others. That’s a very powerful 21st century skill.â€
A New York City public school called Quest to Learn opened this fall and focuses on game-based learning. While this high initiative is a great start to engaging students in learning, how can traditional schools incorporate such educational video games in to their curriculum? How can publishers work to create content which truly involves students in creating their own learning? How will the role of teachers need to change to become a skilled facilitator given the scope of interactivity which technology provides?
ARTICLE:
New York Times
November 2, 2009
Educational Video Games Mix Cool With Purpose
By STEFANIE OLSEN
One of KC Phillips’s favorite video games is the Xbox shoot-’em-up Halo, because, he says, his dad taught him how to play it when he was younger.
Now 15 and a high school sophomore in Madison, Wis., KC views the game with a more discerning eye. Last year, he played Gamestar Mechanic, an educational video game that asks players to solve a set of puzzles in order to win enough power to design and create their own video games.
“Now every single time I play video games, I really think about how the designers built it and what mechanics went into it,†he said.
To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com
The Impact of Teachers
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Who are your most memorable teachers? What did they do that made such a lasting impression on you? For one thing, you were probably inspired by them to achieve more, and they may have been instrumental in helping you experience a learning breakthrough. The breakthrough wasn’t just about the math problem or getting back the second draft of your essay. It was about an emotional connection to the teacher’s belief in you as a student. Teachers have long-lasting impacts on the lives of their students, and the greatest teachers inspire students toward greatness. One example of a great teacher is Michele Washington, who received Chicago’s prestigious Golden Apple Award in 1989. No one at Golden Apple knew at the time, but Washington had been living on and off the streets since she was 15. “I was into bad stuff. I sat in crack houses. I saw people get shot at. Anything you can think of, I probably saw it or experienced it,†Washington recalled. “School was an escape from the realities I had to face at home and in my neighborhood.â€
Washington started at DePaul University in the late summer of 1989 with financial assistance from Golden Apple. College was literally a way to escape that life, but she didn’t completely extract herself from it, continuing to let the distractions get the better of her. With steadfast guidance and assistance from Golden Apple, Washington pulled herself together and graduated. After a brief stint in adult education, she took over a 6th grade science class at Oscar Mayer School in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Wanting to help more kids and realizing the positive impact that she could have on youth, the desire to lead and become a principal began to surface. Washington went back to school to get a master’s degree in a program designed for people who want to be principals at Hispanic schools. “I know there is something bigger I need to do. I accept that, and I’m ready for it,†she said. “Golden Apple was my lifeline. I owe them so much. And thanks to what they gave me, I now know what my purpose is.†Now the first African-American school administrator in Cicero, Illinois, Washington is completing her Ph.D. studies.
Source: http://www.goldenapple.org/pages/golden_apple_achievers/159.php
Teaching is a complicated job. It demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum and standards; enthusiasm, a caring attitude and a love of learning; knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques; and a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people. The article below announces that the Gates Foundation is conducting a study on teacher quality, which is met with some criticism because teachers often feel threatened in their roles today, perhaps more than ever. Hopefully, the study will not only champion teachers to renew their passion for their profession, but it will honor teachers who are building a stronger, better-educated society.
How can we help ensure that our nation’s 1,450 colleges, universities and departments of education are doing an outstanding job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom?
How can we extend effective professional development approaches to the 2.4 million teachers working in 85,000 k-12 schools in the United States that contribute to strengthening the profession and improving the schools?
How can we help teachers boost their emotional intelligence so that they engage students in the classroom and inspire them to become lifelong learners?
ARTICLE:
Nearly 100 schools sign up for Gates-funded teacher quality study
by Anna Phillips
November 3, 2009
A two-year project to study what makes a teacher good or bad is taking root in some of the city’s schools after struggling to bring teachers on board.
The United Federation of Teachers and the city’s Department of Education announced in September that they had joined forces to promote a study of teacher effectiveness paid for by the Gates Foundation. The $2.6 million project, called Measures of Effective Teaching, will look at ways of measuring teacher quality beyond using test scores.
A UFT special representative, Joseph Colletti, said 96 schools, most of them high schools, have signed onto the project. The goal is to have 100.
To view this entire article visit www.gothamschools.org
The Greatest Generation (of Networkers)
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
As the debate continues on the pros and cons of media multitasking, the article below offers a balanced perspective:
“This generation has a gift for multitasking, and because they’ve integrated technology into their lives, their ability to remain connected to each other will serve them and their employers well. Others contend that these hyper-socializers are serial time-wasters, that the bonds between them are shallow, and that their face-to-face interpersonal skills are poor.”
What does the research show? According to this article:
“Young workers spend more time than older workers socializing via their devices or entertaining themselves online. In a 2008 survey for Salary.com, 53% of those under age 24 said this was their primary “time wasting” activity while at work, compared to just 34% for those between ages 41 and 65. Online social networking while at work hampers business productivity, according to a new study by Nucleus Research. Almost two-thirds of those with Facebook accounts access them at their workplaces, the study found, which translates to a 1.5% loss of total employee productivity across an organization.
A study this year by psychology students at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., found that the more time young people spend on Facebook, the more likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits. Heavy Facebook users show signs of being more gregarious, but they are also more likely to be anxious, hostile or depressed. (Doctors, meanwhile, are now blaming addictions to “night texting” for disturbing the sleep patterns of teens.)”
In his book, OUTLIERS, Malcom Gladwell explores the work of Dr. Alan Schoenfeld, a math professor at Berkeley, who studied and videotaped countless students working on math problems. What he found, is that successful students were willing to take up to twenty minutes or more trying to figure out a problem through persisting, experimenting, reviewing the issues, trying a new tact, thinking out loud and simply not giving up. Success, according to Schoenfeld, is a function of persistence and not quitting—a willingness to work for twenty-two minutes when most people would give up after thirty seconds. This principal applies to any area of learning or school work. Only with mastery can the time to do tasks be shortened.
How much is texting promoting the instant gratification tendency which flies in the face of working twenty-two minutes on something whether it is math, or putting together a model airplane, sewing a dress or fixing a broken lamp? How much are our students willing to take the time to work towards mastery and to what extent might a preponderance of social networking threaten students’ ability to do quality work, follow-through and gain real understanding?
ARTICLE:
The Greatest Generation (of Networkers)
by Jeffrey Zaslow
Wall Street Journal
A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal’s office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that’s when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student’s fingers moving on his lap.
He was texting while being reprimanded for texting.
“It was a subconscious act,” says Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. “Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It’s compulsive.”
To view this entire article visit www.online.wsj.com
The School Volunteer Jobs That Most Help Your Kids
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
The Wall Street Journal article below highlights the volunteer roles in school that allow parents to deliver the biggest benefit to their children. To help your child in school, the writer suggests picking volunteer stints that enable you to:
* Learn about classes and curriculum.
* Build relationships with teachers and staff.
* Show the value you place on education.
* Learn how problems at school are resolved.
While every parent can choose to volunteer for projects or assignments according to their own areas of interest and ability relevant to the school’s needs, the research-based advice cited in this article helps steer parents toward the best volunteer options according to their children’s developmental stages as they move through elementary, middle school and high school. For example, children in grades k-5 typically love to see their parents in the classroom, so if you have to choose, helping out with a classroom party or being a chaperone on fields trips trumps serving on the board where kids don’t get to see what you’re doing. In addition to volunteering, the experts underscore an even bigger way to positively impact your child’s life: coaching.
“If you lack time to volunteer, or if you find yourself at the bottom of a long waiting list of wannabe school helpers, don’t despair: How you coach your child at home matters far more.
Throughout school, the most important parental role of all is to shape your child’s attitude toward learning and school, communicate high expectations, and help him or her set goals and solve learning problems,” summarizes the WSJ education author, Sue Shellenbarger.
LifeBound is committed to helping parents learn coaching skills so they can motivate, inspire and connect with their kids. Next week we’re launching a new series of sessions around coaching at schools throughout Jefferson County and in Colorado Springs with coaching facilitator Maureen Breeze, the co-author of LifeBound’s new book, Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers. For more information about LifeBound’s coaching resources for parents at your school, please visit our web site at www.lifebound.com and click on the “coaching” button, or email us at contact@lifebound.com or call toll free 1.877.737.8510.
ARTICLE:
The School Volunteer Jobs That Most Help Your Kids
by Sue Shellenbarger
October 7, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Rosa Rivera receives so many invitations to volunteer at her children’s school and other activities that the dozens of daily emails and calls about various projects can be “just overwhelming,” says the mother of two.
At her children’s stage, ages 7 and 9, her top priority is to take the projects that will help them most in school and life, says Ms. Rivera, Austin, Texas. But it can be hard to figure out which projects those are. “You’re pulled and stretched in so many directions, now more than ever,” she says.
Cash-strapped schools are leaning hard on parents for help this fall. Some 53% of parents plan to volunteer at their children’s schools, up from 44% last year, says a poll of 1,086 parents by Harris Interactive and GreatSchools, a nonprofit parent-involvement group. The re-opening of schools this fall has triggered a 50% increase in volunteer signups at VolunteerSpot.com, a Web site for organizing volunteers, to 75,000 from 50,000 last summer, says Karen Bantuveris, VolunteerSpot founder.
To view this entire article visit www.online.wsj.com
Federal Researchers Find Lower Standards in Schools
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
In the first of its kind study by the U.S. Department of Education, results revealed that almost one-third of states have lowered their profieciency standards in reading and math in order to comply with the No Child Left Behind law. As the New York Times article below reports, 15 states lowered their standards in either reading or math from 2005 to 2007, while three states, Maine, Oklahoma and Wyoming, lowered standards in “both subjects at both grade levels,” the study said.
Note: Researchers compared the results of state tests and the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2005 and 2007, identifying a score on the national assessment that was equivalent to each state’s definition of proficiency. To see these state by state comparison’s click on the imbedded link titled, “Score Discrepanices.”
In response to these results, U. S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan said, ““At a time when we should be raising standards to compete in the global economy, more states are lowering the bar than raising it,â€Â and added, “We’re lying to our children.â€Â The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Louis Fabrizio, described the dilemma: “When you set standards, do you want to show success under N.C.L.B. by having higher percentages of students at proficiency, in which case you’ll set lower standards?†Mr. Fabrizio asked. “Or do you want to do the right thing for kids, by setting them higher so they’re comparable with our global competitors?â€
In the 21st century, new forces—cultural, political, environmental, and economic—are sweeping the world, causing Americans to reexamine the role of their country within these new global complexities. No entity needs to respond more effectively to these changes than our nation’s schools. We need to find new ways to challenge students by helping them clarify their ideas, discover their talents, and maximize their possibilities.
What should all U.S. students be expected to know and understand about the world?
What skills and attitudes will our students need to confront future problems, which most assuredly will be global in scope?
What do scholars from the international relations disciplines and experienced practitioners of global education believe students should know, and how can these insights best be incorporated into the existing standards?
ARTICLE
New York Times
by Sam Dillon
A new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered their academic proficiency standards in recent years, a step that helps schools stay ahead of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law. But lowering standards also confuses parents about how children’s achievement compares with those in other states and countries.
To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/education/30educ.html