[Ohiogift] Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast - Oct. 5

[Art Snyder]

Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
October 5, 2012

So what would he cut?
In his most detailed comments about education spending to date, Mitt Romney pledged during Wednesday night's debate that he would not cut federal education funding if elected, reports Michele McNeil in Education Week. If Romney is elected and leaves education intact, it would mean that to slash the deficit he'd have to make even bigger cuts elsewhere, and at a time when some in his party would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education altogether. "I'm not going to cut education funding," said Romney. "I don't have any plan to cut education funding and grants that go to people going to college... I'm not planning on making changes there... I don't want to cut our commitment to education. I want to make it more effective and efficient." The former governor has been attacked by the Obama campaign since picking as his running mate Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who introduced a budget that would cut domestic discretionary funding -- which includes education -- by 20 percent. The president contended that a Romney-Ryan election would lead to a "gutting" of education. "This is where budgets matter because budgets reflect choices," Mr. Obama said. "Gov. Romney wants to cut taxes and potentially benefit folks like me and him, and to pay for it we're having to initiate significant cuts in federal support for education. That makes a difference."
Read more: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2012/10/though_they_have_very_differen.html
Related: http://tinyurl.com/8efwus6

Their own privatized Idaho
In Idaho, where a three-part proposition on performance pay, tenure, and technology in the classroom is roiling the state, the clash over schools has become a harsh debate about whom voters should trust, reports The New York Times. Political and social battle lines here are neither predictably conservative or liberal, hinging on the issue of what schools can and might be. Education is a major concern nationally this election cycle: South Dakota and Michigan have ballot questions on collective bargaining, California and Arizona voters will decide on expanding taxes to support schools, and at least 20 state legislatures addressed teacher tenure this year, most shifting power from unions to districts. Yet in Idaho, where the recession has been brutal, lawmakers made some of the deepest education cuts in the country. Per-pupil outlays fell 19 percent between 2008 and 2013. In 2011, a regulatory overhaul eliminated tenure and stripped teachers of most collective bargaining rights, while promising hand-held computers for students. The union and its allies suggest these changes were not to improve schools, but to eliminate vestiges of union life in this fiercely anti-union state. The governor and his allies question whether teachers want what's best for students, or if they're defending cushy rights few other workers enjoy. Administrators fear both sides are forgetting students.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/us/idaho-education-overhaul-is-subject-of-referendum.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Related: http://tinyurl.com/8vop8hk

Needed: an about-face on turnaround
A new report from the National Education Policy Center suggests that government agencies and policymakers, including the U.S. Department of Education, would be wise to look at existing research regarding school turnarounds. Evidence shows that top-down, punitive efforts are ineffective and counterproductive. A collaborative, community-driven approach combined with significant, sustained financial investment and a focus on teaching and learning has proven the better path to school improvement. The report explains that the four School Improvement Grant (SIG) approaches are largely grounded in firing and replacing school staff. Because the nation's lowest-performing schools are also hardest to staff, these approaches have an inherent logistical problem: finding better-qualified personnel to refill vacant slots. The report also points out that while many experts consider community engagement critical for successful turnarounds, federal and state policymakers have rarely involved the public in the turnaround decision-making process. Research links community organizing with more effective teacher recruitment and retention, improved curricula, increased equity in school funding systems, and higher student performance. The report also advocates increasing federal and state spending for public education, particularly as it is allocated for turnaround-style reforms.
Read more: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/democratic-school-turnarounds
Related: http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2012/10/study_obama_turnaround_plans_f.html

A path through a crisis
A new municipal action guide published by the National League of Cities' Institute for Youth, Education, and Families highlights potential strategies and promising city approaches for reducing the persistent disparities between black males and their peers in the areas of education, work, and family. The guide presents a range of action steps that city leaders can take to reduce racial and gender inequalities in three areas: strengthening families, improving educational achievement, and expanding access to family-supporting employment opportunities. These steps are likely to have the greatest impact when pursued as part of a larger, data-driven strategy defined by measurable goals, a clear target population, and mechanisms to share accountability among stakeholders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. With nearly two-thirds of black children growing up in single-parent households, and in response to research that traces learning gaps to early childhood, the guide describes key action steps that cities can take to strengthen families and support parents. To close the academic achievement gap between black males and other students, the guide recommends that city leaders partner with schools, early education providers and other organizations on particular initiatives. Cities can help black male residents attain family-supporting jobs that break the cycle of intergenerational poverty by taking a number of steps outlined in the guide.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/9taq6h4

Poor data spur poor policies
The latest brief from the New America Foundation finds that many states don't collect basic information about publicly funded early-education programs at the district level. According to the report, one third of states with publicly funded pre-K programs don't offer district-level data on money allocated to, or numbers of children enrolled in, those programs. Data on special-education preschool grants to districts were unavailable from a quarter of states. Kindergarten also suffers a lack of information and comparable data, with district-level data unavailable on funding specifically for kindergarten, and on half-day versus full-day enrollment. The authors recommend convening national experts to create a system that captures better data on pre-K and kindergarten, covering publicly funded pre-K programs run by community-based organizations as well as districts. Obtaining these data can increase understanding of how public dollars are spent, expose disparities in access to early learning, and potentially increase educational opportunities for young children. As principals and superintendents obtain reliable information on children entering kindergarten and the first grade, they can better understand the support needed to teach them. Good data can lay the groundwork for alignment across the preK-3rd grade years, building a strong foundation for student success.
Read more: http://www.newamerica.net/pressroom/2012/new_report_pre_k_and_kindergarten_data_severely_lacking_at_local_level

Mixed but basically positive
A new report from MDRC presents a more detailed understanding of how parents and their teenage children were affected by Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards, a comprehensive conditional cash transfer program. The three-year initiative offered cash assistance to low-income families to reduce economic hardship. Cash incentives were tied to activities and outcomes in children's education, family preventive health care, and parents' employment, in the hopes of increasing families' "human capital" and reducing their poverty in the long term. Findings show that the program changed how teenagers spent their time. For the subgroup of academically proficient teenagers, it increased proportion of those who engaged primarily in academic activities and reduced the proportion who engaged primarily in social activities; increased parents' spending on school-related and leisure expenses, and increased the proportion of parents who saved for their children's future education. It had no effects on parents' monitoring of their teenagers' activities or behavior, and did not increase parent-teenager conflict or teenagers' depression or anxiety; had no effects on teenagers' sense of academic competence or engagement in school, but substantially reduced problem behavior, such as aggression and substance use; and did not reduce teenagers' intrinsic motivation by paying them rewards for school attendance and academic achievement.
See the report: http://www.mdrc.org/publications/647/overview.html

By their own logic
On his blog The Edifier, Jim Hull of the Center for Public Education finds it ironic that an organization whose sole mission is to end the misuse of tests should "blatantly" misuse test scores. Yet FairTest is claiming that recent SAT results show NCLB has been a detriment to student achievement, and that the U.S. education system is suffering. The organization consistently argues a single test can't be used to make broad claims; by the same logic, overall SAT results cannot accurately measure the impact of NCLB or indicate the state of the American education system. In making such claims, FairTest ignores some facts, Hull says. The SAT is voluntary, and typically taken by students planning to attend college; its results are therefore not representative of all 2012 seniors. In 25 states, less than 40 percent of students took the SAT; in only three states did more than 90 percent of students take the test. The overall decline is significant in one way, however. Since 2006, more disadvantaged students, particularly minority and non-native English speakers, now see college as an option -- hence more are taking the SAT. Such students are typically lower performing, and this may negatively impact SAT results in the short-term. But in a larger sense, the increase in such students taking the SAT is a success for our public schools, and should be considered as such.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/9vyg2fr

BRIEFLY NOTED

Easement
California's key measure of public school quality will be redefined to lessen the impact of standardized test scores under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown-bills-20120927,0,6744403.story

Core issues
The U.S. Department of Education has announced that the state education agency in Oregon has won a $6.3 million grant to create a new English-language proficiency test that will measure the language demands of the Common Core Standards.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2012/09/ore_wins_federal_grant_for_new.html

Before they can read, write, or add
A new standardized assessment required by Florida will measure how the nearly 184,000 4-year-olds in the state's voluntary prekindergarten program are doing in early literacy, numeracy, and language development.
http://tinyurl.com/96cc8wm

Ready, set
The Brigance screening, Kentucky's statewide kindergarten readiness initiative, involves a collection of quick assessments and data-gathering tools used with children entering kindergarten.
http://www.wdrb.com/story/19649449/screeniing-helps-find-strenths-and-weaknesses-of-kindergarteners

The money tap continues to flow
The Obama administration is awarding $290 million in grants to reward top teachers and boost opportunities for teachers who work in impoverished schools.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/27/govt-awards-290-million-f_n_1920552.html?utm_hp_ref=education

Crumbling
Unless there is a major turnaround in the California economy in the next two years, schools may be looking at a future without financial support from the state for building new classrooms and upgrading old ones.
http://www.siacabinetreport.com/articles/viewarticle.aspx?article=2561

Squeezed
Nearly half of New York City's public schools have classrooms that are more crowded than the teachers' union contract allows -- a "very disturbing trend," according to United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/new-york-class-size-uft_n_1914357.html?utm_hp_ref=education

Worked great in Chicago
New York City's Education Department may step up its efforts to close schools after more than 150 of them posted a third straight year of mediocre results on their annual progress reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/nyregion/new-york-school-progress-reports-may-lead-to-closures.html?_r=0

Greater merit
D.C. Public Schools officials plan to offer performance raises to principals and assistant principals who score well on annual evaluations, expanding the merit pay system already in place for teachers.
http://tinyurl.com/8rbugqf

Begging several questions
Despite state laws updating teacher evaluations in Michigan, more than 99 percent of teachers from select districts in the state earned scores placing them in the top two categories on evaluations, according to a new report by Education Trust Midwest.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2012/09/report_most_michigan_teachers_.html

Goal-linked school, family, and community partnerships
The National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University has released Promising Partnership Practices 2012, featuring over 80 goal-linked family and community engagement activities implemented by schools, districts, organizations, and states in NNPS to increase student achievement in reading, math, science, good behavior, college and career planning, and other results for students. http://www.partnershipschools.org.

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

NCTM: Connecting Mathematics to Other Subject Areas Grants for Grades 9–12 Teachers
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Connecting Mathematics to Other Subject Areas Grants help create senior high classroom materials or lessons connecting mathematics to other fields. Materials may be in the form of books, visual displays, computer programs or displays, slide shows, videotapes, or other appropriate media. The focus of these materials should be on showing the connectivity of mathematics to other fields or to the world around us. Any acquisition of equipment or payment of personal stipends must be critical to the grant proposal and may not be a major portion of the proposed budget. Any published sources must be documented. Proposals must address the following: the plan for developing and evaluating materials, the connectivity to other fields or disciplines, and anticipated impact on students' learning. Maximum award: $4,000. Eligibility: current (as of October 15, 2012) Full Individual or E-Members of NCTM who currently teach mathematics in grades 9–12 at least 50 percent of the school day. Deadline: November 9, 2012.
http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=1328

NCTM: 7-12 Classroom Research Grants
support and encourage classroom-based research in precollege mathematics education in collaboration with college or university mathematics educators. The research must be a significant collaborative effort involving a college or university mathematics educator (a mathematics education researcher or a teacher of mathematics learning, teaching, or curriculum) and one or more grades 7–12 classroom teachers. The proposal may include, but is not restricted to, research on the following topics: curriculum development and implementation; involvement of at-risk or minority students; students' thinking about a particular mathematics concept or set of concepts; connection of mathematics to other disciplines; focused learning and teaching of mathematics with embedded use of technology (any acquisition of equipment must support the proposed plan but not be the primary focus of the grant); and innovative assessment or evaluation strategies. Maximum award: $6,000. Eligibility: current (as of October 15, 2011) Full Individual or E-Members of NCTM or those who teach at a school having a current (as of October 14, 2011) NCTM PreK-8 school Membership. The college or university mathematics educator must be a member of the NCTM. Deadline: November 9, 2011.
http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=22418

NSTA: Sylvia Shugrue Award for Elementary School Teachers
The National Science Teachers Association Sylvia Shugrue Award honors one elementary school teacher who has established (or is establishing) an interdisciplinary, inquiry-based lesson plan. The lesson plan will fully reference sources of information and any relevant National Science Education Standards and benchmarks found in the Atlas of Science Literacy. Maximum award: $1,000 and up to $500 to attend the NSTA National Conference on Science Education; the recipient of the award will be honored during the Awards Banquet at the NSTA Conference. Eligibility: elementary school teachers (grades K–6); applicants must be a full-time teacher with a minimum of five years of experience. Deadline: November 30, 2012.
http://www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx?lid=tnavhp#shugrue

NSTA: Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Award for New Teachers
The Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Award for New Teachers provides selected K–12 teachers in their first five years of teaching with funds to attend the annual National Conference on Science Education. Award recipients will be mentored, tracked, and provided with continuing opportunities for meaningful involvement with NSTA and its activities. Maximum award: up to $1,000 to be used to attend the annual National Conference; recipients will be invited to attend a variety of workshops and presentations that are of particular interest to new teachers at the annual National Conference. Eligibility: teachers within the first five years full-time teaching at the time of application who are NSTA members in good standing; to the extent possible, recipients must have been a student member of NSTA as a pre-service teacher. Deadline: November 30, 2012.
http://www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx?lid=tnavhp#simmons

2012 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Awards
The 2012 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of students and teachers across the country who are working at the grassroots level to protect and preserve the environment. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: All schools (grades K-12) and community groups. Deadline: December 1, 2012.
http://www.swbg-animals.org/conservation-matters/eea/about.htm

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The mood of the country concerning racial issues has changed over the last 10 years. To argue today that children of successful minority parents need affirmative action to be admitted to elite colleges and universities just seems to ring hollow." -- Edward Blum, founder of the Project on Fair Representation, that is behind Ms. Fisher's case, which has taken a suit against the University of Texas at Austin over partially race-based admissions to the Supreme Court. --Edward Blum, founder of the Project on Fair Representation, which is behind a suit against the University of Texas, Austin over partially race-based admissions that will be heard by the Supreme Court.
http://tinyurl.com/8p89oxr

The PEN Weekly NewsBlast, published by Public Education Network, is a free electronic newsletter featuring resources and information about public school reform, school finance, and related issues. The NewsBlast is the property of Public Education Network, a national association of 79 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities throughout the nation. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who enjoys free updates on education news and grant alerts.
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