[Ohiogift] PEN Weekly NewsBlast for Nov. 9, 2012

Fri Nov 9 11:56:08 EST 2012

Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
Nov. 9, 2012

How it all shook out
On Tuesday, education ballot initiatives yielded different results across the country, indicating a public still divided on the movement known as education reform, writes Joy Resmovits in The Huffington Post. In Connecticut, South Dakota, and Idaho, voters dealt the movement a significant blow, pushing back measures that would have ended an elected school board, abolished teacher tenure, and instituted merit pay. On the other hand, a major charter-school initiative in Georgia passed, as did one in Washington state. In general, results demonstrate an appetite for moderate school choice but distaste for laws that dramatically change how teachers are hired and fired. The limits of national reform groups that funnel money into state races were also apparent. South Dakotans voted down a measure to end teacher tenure and give each district's top-fifth of teachers a $5,000 bonus. In Idaho, the so-called Luna Laws -- which rerouted education funding into increased technology in school, limited teachers' collective bargaining rights, and introduced merit pay -- were repealed. And in Bridgeport, Conn., voters rejected a measure that would have replaced an elected school board with a mayor-appointed one -- despite a last-minute $20,000 donation to the cause from Michael Bloomberg's super PAC, and significant support from Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/education-ballot-initiatives-2012_n_2088587.html
Related: http://tinyurl.com/cz5ba4h

The digital natives are restless
Two new surveys reveal widespread belief among teachers that constant use of technology is hampering student attention spans and perseverance in the face of challenging tasks, reports The New York Times. The studies were conducted by the Pew Internet Project and Common Sense Media, and their timing appears coincidental. Researchers also caution that they offer subjective views of teachers, not definitive proof that computers, phones, and video games affect student capacity to focus. Even so, those who study technology's impact on behavior and the brain say the studies are significant because teachers spend hours a day observing students. Nearly 90 percent of 2,462 respondents in the Pew survey said that digital technologies were creating "an easily distracted generation with short attention spans." Similarly, of the 685 teachers surveyed in the Common Sense project, 71 percent thought technology was hurting attention spans "somewhat" or "a lot." About 60 percent said it hindered students' ability to write and communicate face-to-face, and almost half said it hurt critical thinking and ability to do homework. There was little difference in perception between younger and older teachers. While the Pew research explored how technology affects attention span, it also examined how it has changed student research habits. The Common Sense survey focused largely on how teachers saw the impact of technology on a range of classroom skills.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/c96j6st

A trove of data, largely unnoticed
At a time when the homicide rate in Chicago has jumped 25 percent since last year and 100 percent or more in a few areas, an ongoing study from Northwestern University offers a portrait of both perpetrators and victims in struggling neighborhoods, reports Erica Goode in The New York Times. Now in its 17th year, the research has produced a trove of data and several published papers, yet its findings have gone unnoticed, perhaps in part because its focus is on problems affecting blacks and Hispanics in poor neighborhoods, says its chief author Linda Teplin. The study finds that over 80 percent of juveniles who enter the criminal justice system early in life have at some point belonged to a gang. At any given time, 20 percent of the juveniles in the study have been incarcerated. Seventy-one percent of men and 59 percent of women are without jobs as adults. Of the 1,829 youths originally enrolled in the study, 119 have died, most from violence, a death rate three to five times as high as that for Cook County men in the same age group and four times as high for women. The study seeks to determine what factors allow some youths to succeed in life despite considerable obstacles. In the view of one study subject, transformations have little to do with policies or cyclical crackdowns by law enforcement. Instead, they are prompted by less tangible forces: the support of a parent, the insistence of a girlfriend, the encouragement of a priest or pastor, the mobilization of a community, or the birth of a child.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/us/chicago-project-follows-what-happens-to-juveniles.html?hp

An opportunity that can no longer be wasted
A new report from the National Association of Gifted Children offers recommendations regarding how to better serve low-income, high-ability learners. The report spotlights strong evidence-based program models that produce performance results for these children -- who are often overlooked -- detailing educational best practices and identifying research and public policy gaps that, if filled, could achieve significant results for the future. The report calls on educators and policy makers to expect more than proficiency from many more students through policies, funding, and practices that consistently support high expectations and high achievement. They must also implement multiple strategies to support student achievement at the highest levels, and expand access to rigorous curricula and supplemental services and programs. Pre-service and in-service teacher training must be expanded for identifying and serving high-ability, low-income and culturally and linguistically diverse students. Emergent talent must be identified as early as possible, and communities must be engaged to support in-school learning and to supplement curriculum with outside-of-school opportunities. Finally, policy barriers that impede participation and access must be removed. A student's zip code and socioeconomic status must no longer be determining factors in receiving a rigorous, high quality education.
See the report: http://www.nagc.org/

Get ready, 'cause here they come
A new report from ASCD looks at actions that educators and policymakers at all levels can undertake to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) successfully. Based on data gathered at statewide summits and through fieldwork, the report issues a number of recommendations. These include transforming principals into instructional leaders, consulting educators about professional learning needs, aligning initiatives into comprehensive reforms, ensuring educators deeply understand the CCSS and what instructional shifts will be required, and vetting instructional resources for quality and alignment with the CCSS. It further recommends engaging higher-education partners, and understanding and planning for the coming CCSS-related assessments. Technology should be adopted with the priority of meeting teaching and learning needs, but also with an eye toward working with the new common assessments. The report's authors stress that the 2012–13 school year is a pivotal time for implementing the CCSS, as a critical mass of teachers begin to integrate the standards into their classrooms. This is an unprecedented opportunity for professional learning and collaboration.
See the report: http://educore.ascd.org/resource/Download/1d60f46d-b786-41d1-b059-95a7c4eda420

Common challenges ahead
A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education discusses challenges that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) may present for English Language learners (ELLs) and their teachers. The number of school-aged children speaking another language at home more than doubled between 1980 and 2009, from 4.7 million (10 percent) to 11.2 million (20 percent). According to the 2011 NAEP twelfth-grade reading scores, 77 percent of ELLs performed below the basic level, compared to 27 percent of their non-ELL peers; only 3 percent of ELLs scored at or above proficient, and results are similarly discouraging at the state level. Helping ELLs meet the higher expectations of the CCSS, which spells out sophisticated language competencies that students must perform in respective academic subject areas, will place new demands on teachers. Specifically, teachers must develop a deep knowledge of the vocabulary and language functions of their content area, then structure multiple opportunities in the classroom for students to use language, focusing on discipline-specific concepts rather than overemphasizing syntax and grammar. The burden will be particularly heavy for high school teachers, who sometimes struggle to use a range of proven reading and writing strategies within their content areas. To help all teachers make this transition, the report lists ten key strategies for language and content learning that all teachers must understand, given the growing number of ELLs.
See the report: http://www.all4ed.org/

Some other results with implications
Results from new state tests in Kentucky -- the first in the nation explicitly tied to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) -- show that the share of students scoring "proficient" or better in reading and math dropped by roughly a third in both elementary and middle school, reports Andrew Ujifusa in Education Week. Since Kentucky in 2010 was the first state to adopt the CCSS, its assessment results for 2011-12 are under scrutiny nationwide for what they may reveal about how the CCSS will affect student achievement. The biggest drop came at the elementary level. On the K-PREP test in 2010-11, 76 percent of elementary students scored proficient or higher in reading; that fell to 48 percent in 2011-12. The same year, 73 percent of elementary students were proficient or better in math, but that fell to 40.4 percent. Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said, however, that students in 2011-12 beat the state's predictions: It had anticipated a 36 percentage-point drop in elementary reading scores in 2011-12, instead of the actual 28-point drop. Earlier exposure to the common standards, Holliday suggested, would help younger students at first. "It's going to take longer to see middle and high school growth on these tests," he said, about five years for overall growth at all levels.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/age4e4f

Perhaps they should improve their oversight
An independent audit of the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) in the U.S. Department of Education criticizes it for failing to monitor how states spend hundreds of millions of dollars in charter-school funding, the Associated Press reports. The report from WestEd also singled out state education departments in California, Florida, and Arizona as lax. The OII spent $940 million from 2008 to 2011, administered through competitive grants, to help launch new charters and replicate successful charter models. According to the audit, OII did not give guidance to states on monitoring use of the money, and lacks policies to ensure that states corrected deficiencies when found. Additionally, the audit found the office did not review expenditures to ensure they met with federal disbursement requirements. In California, which has received nearly $182 million in federal charter grants, auditors found ‘‘significant weaknesses'' in charter oversight, such as school reviewers unqualified to conduct on-site school visits. In Florida, which received $67.6 million, state officials had no records of which schools got federal grant money, nor which had on-site monitoring and audits. And in Arizona, which received $26 million, reviewers lacked a monitoring checklist and collected inconsistent data when visiting schools.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/d7fcpbq

BRIEFLY NOTED

Common sense prevails
California will avoid deep spending cuts in education after voters handed Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature tax measure a decisive victory Tuesday.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Prop-30-wins-Prop-38-flames-out-4014648.php#ixzz2BfUJt3gF

As does decency
A resounding 58 percent of Maryland voters chose to uphold the 2011 state law known as the Dream Act, which sets a path for undocumented students to obtain in-state tuition rates if they attended a Maryland high school for three years, meet various other conditions and go first to community college.
http://tinyurl.com/cbtd84w

As Kline sees it
U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., is still at the helm of the House education committee, and shares his vision for the next two years with Education Week.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2012/11/post_election_kline_talks_esea.html

No longer Top Secret
Education schools within the Minnesota State Colleges and University system must comply with an open-records request and allow an outside research and advocacy organization to copy course syllabi, a district court judge has ruled.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2012/11/minn_teacher_colleges_must_tur.html

Early and eager
According to the United States Department of Education, all five eligible states -- Wisconsin, Oregon, New Mexico, Illinois, and Colorado -- have stepped forward to participate in the second round of applications for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge.
http://tinyurl.com/caj2hyg

Practically routine
California education officials have stripped 23 schools of a key state ranking for cheating, other misconduct, or mistakes in administering the standardized tests given last spring.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tests-cheating-20121029,0,6753685.story

We have seen the future
Nearly 620,000 students took an online course during the 2011-2012 school year, up 16 percent from the previous year, according to an annual report released this week by the Evergreen Education Group.
http://tinyurl.com/9kedag3

Put up or
If colleges want more of their students to be ready for the academic challenges of higher education, those institutions have to take a more direct role in elementary and secondary education, recommends a new report from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Must-Help-Prepare/135480/

No free lunch
A growing chorus of education policy advocates is urging the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen graduation-rate accountability in states that have earned waivers under NCLB.
http://tinyurl.com/cggqrhr

An expanding model
Starting next summer, Seattle will join a dozen other U.S. cities that train some of its teachers similar to the way hospitals teach medical residents, with significant on-the-job learning alongside experienced mentors.
http://seattletimes.com/html/education/2019556628_teacherresidency30m.html?prmid=4939

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Fund for Teachers: Grants
The Fund for Teachers provides funds for direct grants to teachers to support summer learning opportunities of their own design. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: teachers who work with students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12, with a minimum of three years teaching experience, full-time, spending at least 50 percent of the time in the classroom at the time grants are approved and made. Deadline: January 31, 2013.
http://www.fundforteachers.org/about-us.php

Captain Planet Foundation: Grants for the Environment
The Captain Planet Foundation funds hands-on environmental projects to encourage youth around the world to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and communities. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: U.S.-based schools and organizations with an annual operating budget of less than $3 million. Deadline: February 28, 2013.
http://captainplanetfoundation.org/

Earthwatch Institute: Fellowships
The Earthwatch Institute offers educators fully-funded fellowships for hands-on learning with leading scientists doing field research and conservation on one of over 100 projects around the world. Maximum award: fully-funded fellowship. Eligibility: elementary, middle, and high school educators and administrators of any discipline. Deadline: two weeks after educator-interest application is submitted; ultimate deadline May 1, 2013.
http://www.earthwatch.org/aboutus/education/edopp/

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I understand Idahoans have expressed concerns, yet I do not believe any Idahoan wants to go back to the status quo system we had two years ago. I am as committed as anyone to finding a way to make this happen." Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, regarding the repeal of his signature laws.
http://tinyurl.com/c6bna4b

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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. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast may change or expire after their initial publication here, and some links may require local website registration. Your e-mail address is safe with the NewsBlast. It is our firm policy never to rent, loan, or sell our subscriber list to any other organization, group, or individual.

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Kate Guiney
Editor
PEN Weekly NewsBlast
NewsBlast at PublicEducation.org

Public Education Network 
P.O. Box 166
Washington, DC 20004
PEN at PublicEducation.org
Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
November 9, 2012

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To read a colorful online version of the NewsBlast with a larger typeface, visit:
http://www.publiceducation.org/newsblast_current.asp

Follow us! PEN has gone to social media:  facebook.com/publiceducationnetwork and @publicednetwork. 
Follow Give Kids Good Schools at: www.facebook.com/GiveKidsGoodSchools and @GKGSchools