[Ohiogift] PEN Weekly NewsBlast for Oct. 19, 2012

[Art Snyder]

Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
October 19, 2012

Needs improvement
A new report from First Focus and Save the Children gives the country a letter grade of C- in child well being. The report card assigns national grades in five key domains of a child's life. Regarding economic security, America got a D, based on the number of children living in poverty, and experiencing food insecurity and unstable housing. For early childhood, the nation received a C-, based on early-learning program availability and enrollment, as well as parental access to childcare. K-12 education got a C-, based on children's math, reading, and science skill levels, school resources, the number of at-risk youth, and educational attainment. For permanency and stability, the U.S. got a D, based on the well being of children impacted by the child welfare, juvenile justice, and immigration systems. For health and safety, we received a C+, based on health insurance coverage for children, access to health care, as well as preventive services, public health and safety, and environmental health. The report urges Americans to take action to boost children's chances for success in school and life: Vote in November's general election for candidates who support investments in children; hold elected officials accountable for commitments to help children succeed; and engage with other local leaders to improve the lives of children in their communities.
See the report: http://www.firstfocus.net/library/reports/americas-report-card-2012-children-in-the-us

A movement underway
A new project in Oakland, California is addressing the "teacher-diversity gap," reports Stephen Sawchuck in Education Week. According to federal data, more than 40 percent of the nation's public school students are non-white, compared to 17 percent of teachers. A limited but mounting body of research suggests students of color benefit academically from having a teacher of the same race or ethnic background. Less empirically verified -- but still compelling -- is the idea that such teachers can be role models and dispel stereotypes for white students and colleagues. Teach Tomorrow in Oakland (TTO), begun in 2008, guides city adults as they fulfill credential requirements, pass licensing tests, navigate the hiring process, and negotiate the first few years in the classroom. Its manager, Rachelle Rogers-Ard, calls TTO a teacher-development program, emphasizing the initiative does not focus only, or even primarily, on recruiting teachers. The program requires a commitment to teaching in the district for at least five years. Since 2008, TTO has helped 70 adults become teachers in the 37,000-student district. It has a retention rate of 89 percent. The program's recruits speak of it as a family that continues to grow as more TTO teachers come in and increasingly take on leadership roles in their schools. According to 6th-grade TTO teacher Sabrina Moore, "It's a movement now."
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/8gpqmnt

Persistent findings
A new brief from the Center for Public Education examines ways to improve first-to-second-year "persistence" rates in college, since students are more likely to drop out their first year than any other. The brief identifies three factors that increase postsecondary chances of staying on track to a credential by roughly 50 percent, factors rooted in high school. The findings also suggests these factors have greatest impact on those who start college least likely to succeed: students who began high school with below-average achievement and socioeconomic status. High-level mathematics, Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses, and academic advising all significantly impact student persistence; high-level mathematics instruction is the largest predictor of college success. (Low-socioeconomic status/achievement students who took high-level math in high school were 22 percent more likely to persist.) The analysis also shows that taking an AP/IB course in any subject improved persistence in college, regardless of whether students passed a test for that course. AP/IB courses should therefore not be exclusively for students with the highest academic achievement; even students with low academic achievement their sophomore year benefit from AP/IB courses, and show greater gains than high-achieving students.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/8ou58nj

Something to it after all
Given the increasingly prominent role in education of Catholic schools as beneficiaries of states' education voucher policies, a new report from the Center for the Study of Privatization in Education examines the effectiveness of Catholic schools in improving student achievement. Past research yields mixed results. Catholic schools have different effects depending on type of students served and locale, and effects are difficult to separate from differences due to student selection. Accordingly, researchers matched Catholic school students with public school students on a range of demographic and other characteristics. They then divided matched students into five strata, the lowest being low-income students least likely to attend a Catholic school, and the highest being affluent students. They found a small but positive and statistically significant effect for Catholic schools in mathematics achievement when students are matched based on demographics. Yet when matching occurs within districts, the Catholic-school effect disappears. Significantly, though, when results break down by stratum, the lowest stratum improves math achievement regardless of how matching is done. Finally, the Catholic-school effect on test scores increases significantly in districts allowed by state law to provide public aid to private schools, especially for the lower strata. Overall, while effect sizes are modest, results support the claim that Catholic schools can improve achievement among disadvantaged students.
See the report: http://www.ncspe.org/list-papers.php?utm_source=op+210&utm_campaign=OP+210&utm_medium=email

Not just early, but in-depth and 'design-build'
An article in the latest issue of Voices in Urban Education profiles the College Readiness Indicator System (CRIS) initiative, which is developing a menu of signals and supports on students' academic progress, tenacity, and college knowledge at the individual, school, and district levels. Working with certain districts to address the college-readiness gap, the John W. Gardner Center employs the CRIS framework, which enhances early warning systems in three ways. Its indicators look beyond academic preparedness to include student knowledge and attitudes for successfully accessing college and overcoming obstacles to college graduation. Its approach generates and uses data that reflect activities, processes, and outcomes at the individual, setting (classroom or school), and district levels. And its iterative "design-build" approach incorporates feedback from key stakeholders, and affords attention to local variation in capacity, needs, and opportunities. The CRIS project also employs a Cycle of Inquiry (COI) to help districts think through necessary conditions for effective use of indicators: When are the data available? Who ensures data are entered accurately? At what threshold is intervention warranted? What actions are taken? The COI requires districts to reflect on the meaning of their selected indicators and make explicit rules and cut scores that connect those indicators to action. The article also offers lessons and key factors that influence the speed and depth at which districts can build their CRIS.
Read more: http://www.annenberginstitute.org/VUE/vue35-gurantz

Same old song?
The designers of new high-tech standardized tests that a majority of states plan to adopt in two years have offered an advance look at sample questions, writes Sarah Garland in The Hechinger Report. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has posted an English/Language arts question and a math question, and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has posted a sample question from its third grade assessment and a sample math question from its high school assessment. It has also been revealed that in some questions, which test designers call "computer enhanced," students will be asked to drag words or numbers across the screen, or highlight phrases or sentences in a reading passage. Many questions will continue to be multiple-choice, however, since multiple-choice tests are cheaper to design and score, and answer sheets can be run through a computer. Questions and tests that require writing and research are more expensive and likely require a trained evaluator for scoring, and one of the biggest concerns about the new tests has been how to finance them. The two coalitions designing the tests won federal grants to launch the process, but this funding won't cover ongoing expenses related to the tests, such as paying people to score answer sheets and the cost of new computers and expanded bandwidth.
Read more: http://hechingered.org/content/are-new-online-standardized-tests-revolutionary-decide-for-yourself_5655/

It's all in the delivery
A new brief from the National Education Policy Center summarizes current research on the likely effects of widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS were developed by the National Governors' Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through conditions placed on grants and on NCLB waivers, the U.S. Department of Education pushed states to adopt "college- and career-ready standards," with 46 adopting the CCSS in whole or in part. Since the CCSS have yet to be implemented, no research exists on them, but based on experience with state standards and the experience of other nations, effects of the CCSS will depend less on the standards themselves than on implementation. Two factors are crucial: whether states invest in necessary curricular and instructional resources and supports, and the nature and use of CCSS assessments from the two national testing consortia. On their own, the CCSS do not create strong incentives to change what happens in the classroom. But they can be a foundational layer on which states build other policies, such as supports for teaching and learning. The critical question is whether, given current federal and state budgets, there is political will to give schools and students the necessary support and learning resources.
Read more: http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/options
Related: http://tinyurl.com/94jf92r

Beating us at our own game
In a post on Education Week Teacher, Ronald Thorpe reports on a conference for World Teacher's Day at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and writes that most countries are focusing on raising the public opinion of teachers and establishing teaching as a true profession. A few nations have already achieved this. Others -- such as Serbia and the Philippines, Guinea and South Africa -- have work to be done. Thorpe says the U.S. falls somewhere in between the highest performers and developing countries, which is both unusual and uncomfortable. America leads the world in every other profession, and does so through conscious and strategic decisions from within those professions. We should do the same in education, and attend to innovations we've created at home, as other countries are doing. For example, a growing number of teacher-led schools and teaching partnerships use master teachers in new roles. States are also developing roles and responsibilities through teacher career ladders. But efforts are disconnected, and there is (of yet) no agreement on standards, roles, or assessment of effectiveness in such roles. America is still too prone to chase fads and phantoms in education reform. Thorpe says it's time to bring our best ideas to scale here at home, rather than "discover" them as the basis for some other country's educational success story.
Read more: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/worldteachersday/2012/10/what_do_we_do_on_monday_mornin.html

BRIEFLY NOTED

In the extreme
Just one in four children in Kentucky is prepared for kindergarten, according to preliminary data presented to the Kentucky Board of Education.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/oct/10/only-1-in-4-ready-for-kindergarten/

Privatized paradise
The Florida Board of Education has adopted a new strategic plan that envisions about 17 percent of one-time public school students attending either charters or using taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools by the 2017-18 school year.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-charter-schools-expansion-florida-20121009,0,4168913.story

Dose of their own medicine
School officials have formally approved a one-year agreement for evaluating principals in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but the head of the administrators union also asserted that principals will be overburdened by a new teacher-evaluation system.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/10/principals-approve-new-evaluations-but-object-to-workload.html

Watch your step
A San Francisco Unified School District administrator urged teachers to re-evaluate whether to offer summer school to special education students as a way to cut costs, a move that special education teachers and attorneys say violates federal regulations.
http://www.baycitizen.org/education/story/sf-official-sought-limit-special/

Exit stage left
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked choice to head the Chicago public schools, Jean-Claude Brizard, has resigned just three weeks after the end of the city's first teachers strike in a quarter century.
http://tinyurl.com/8g34yyk

Meta tech
The State Educational Technology Directors Association has announced the launch of a new online database intended to help policymakers, researchers, corporate and philanthropic investors, and educators keep track of developments in state-level policy directly affecting the realm of educational technology. 
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2012/10/new_ed-tech_policy_database_un.html

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

National Geographic: International Photography Contest for Kids
The National Geographic International Photography Contest for Kids invites children to enter their photographs in four categories: animals, people, scenery, and humor. Maximum award: 16.1-megapixel digital camera; an 8GB memory card; a copy of the books National Geographic Kids Almanac 2013, Weird But True 4, Everything Dogs, and Ultimate Weird But True. Eligibility: legal residents of the United States between the ages of 6 and 14 on October 31, 2012. Deadline: October 31, 2012.
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/activities/contests/photo-contest/

City National Bank: Reading is the Way Up
City National Bank is now accepting applications for grants to support literacy-based projects at public and private elementary, middle, and high schools in California, Nevada, and New York. Recipients can create, augment, or expand literacy projects that are judged to be creative and engaging, and that may help improve student achievement. Awards can be used for books, videos, CDs, DVDs, computer software or hardware, or in other ways as long as the recipient shows that the project for which funds are sought will support literacy. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: any full-time teacher, librarian, or administrator at schools in counties where City National has offices. Deadline: November 30, 2012.
http://www.readingisthewayup.org/literacy.php

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

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"If you want to reduce the influence of teachers unions, and/or find something on which both major parties can agree, and/or punch the bureaucracy in the nose, and/or improve outcomes for families with more money and more education, and/or satisfy your quest for more personal freedom and/or indulge your entrepreneurial instincts, by all means support charters and choice. If you are looking for a way to create a school system at the scale of a nation or a state in which all students are performing at higher levels and the gap is closing between the best-performing students and those at the bottom, then be aware that there is no evidence, anywhere in the world, that choice and charters will get you there."
-- Marc Tucker, president of the non-profit National Center on Education and the Economy, in The Answer Sheet blog in The Washington Post.
http://tinyurl.com/8zenfhm

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