[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast for April 16, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                April 16, 2013 - In This Issue:
       With liberty, and preschool, for all
  Mapping the preschool gap
  One in three black secondary school males
  Some alternatives to suspension
  To change outcomes, change teaching
  Holla for 'hollege'
  A back-track in testing, from the state in the vanguard
  About those 10K degrees
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  THE MARKETING HELP YOU NEED
                                            
With liberty, and preschool, for all
In the unveiling of his latest proposed budget, President Obama has again signaled that education -- from early childhood through college and career-training -- is a priority, The Christian Science Monitor reports. Under his proposal, the Department of Education would receive $71.2 billion in discretionary spending for 2014, up 4.5 percent from 2013 pre-sequester funding but without adding to the deficit because of other offsets. Overall spending is increased by 2.5 percent for a total of $3.8 trillion. Mr. Obama's signature education proposal -- Preschool for All -- would cost $75 billion over 10 years, to be funded by a tax hike on cigarettes. The federal government would partner with states to expand high-quality preschool to all low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds (children below 200 percent of the poverty level). Some funding would also support younger children and encourage expansion of full-day kindergarten. An additional $750 million is proposed for FY 2014 to help states not yet ready to expand pre-K. In the K-12 realm, the budget largely holds the line, bringing spending on major formula grant programs back to 2013 levels before the sequester. For example, Title I for districts would get $14.5 billion; IDEA grants for special-education students would get $11.6 billion.?More

 
Mapping the preschool gap
A new brief and interactive map from the Center for American Progress highlights the preschool-access gap by state. Currently, only 39 states have state-funded preschools (with a 40th, Mississippi, on the way), but these have limited reach: Most state programs are unavailable for 3-year-olds. Vermont leads the country in 3- and 4-year-old state-funded enrollment, followed by Florida, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, but even in Vermont less than half of 3- and 4-year-olds attend. In almost every state, enrollment of children in poverty trails the general population. Sixty percent of all 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool nationally, compared with less than 50 percent of disadvantaged children. Over one million low-income children attend no preschool at all. The brief also argues that access is but one issue; program quality is key. Using the National Institute for Early Education Research's 10 quality benchmarks, the brief categorizes states based on quality of state preschool programs, with additional weight given to whether teachers must hold a four-year college degree and have training in early childhood education. The brief recommends a significant federal investment to help states provide high-quality preschool for all, and to jumpstart programs in states without adequate preschools, while helping states with existing programs reach their lowest-income children. More



One in three black secondary school males
A new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA analyzes data from 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools to estimate over two million secondary school students -- one in nine -- were suspended at least once during 2009-2010. Research indicates suspension even once in the ninth grade doubles likelihood of dropping out. Suspension rates in middle and high schools have increased dramatically since the 1970s, especially for black students, to the extent that about one in four black secondary school children today, and nearly one in three black middle school males, was suspended at least once in 2009-2010. Black female secondary students were suspended at a higher rate (18.3 percent) than male counterparts from all other racial/ethnic groups. One in five secondary school students with disabilities was suspended (19.3 percent), nearly triple the rate of students without disabilities. The highest rates were at the intersection of race, disability, and gender: 36 percent of all black middle school males with disabilities were suspended one or more times. The analysis also found suspension "hotspots": In 323 districts, suspension risk for all secondary students was 25 percent or higher. Nationally, 2,624 secondary schools suspended 25 percent or more students annually; for 519 schools, suspension rates equaled or exceeded 50 percent. Nearly 7,000 secondary schools with at least 50 members of a racial subgroup, English learners, or students with disabilities met or exceeded suspension rates of 25 percent for at least one subgroup. In contrast, 7,710 secondary schools in 3,752 districts did not exceed 10 percent for any subgroup with at least 10 members. Chicago had the highest number (82) of high-suspending hotspot secondary schools in the nation.?More


Some alternatives to suspension
Given a growing body of research that links low self-control in childhood with serious problems later on, schools are exploring ways -- from character-based education to mindfulness meditation to social-emotional learning -- to teach self-restraint, writes Andrew Reiner in The Washington Post Magazine. At the D.C. Prep Middle School, for instance, administrators cultivate persistence and self-restraint through a school day that runs from 8 to 4, teachers who are on-call until 8 p.m., and evening study and college counseling for graduates. Suspended students wear green pinafores and still attend classes, though they may not speak and are placed at the back of the classroom and the end of the hallway line. Alternatively, Mindful Schools and the University of California at Davis taught meditation practice in three Oakland elementary schools, resulting in 84 percent of teachers believing students calmed more easily, and 61 percent of students reporting better focus. The third front -- social emotional learning, or SEL -- centers on the emotional needs of children. SEL curricula teach children self-awareness and empathy, as well as steps for handling conflict constructively and creating positive relationships. A study by the University of Virginia found that children at schools using the Responsive Classroom approach showed increases in reading and math scores; teachers were more effective in discipline and in offering high-quality instruction; and children felt more positively about school.?More


To change outcomes, change teaching
In today's world, students must not only acquire information, but competently analyze, synthesize, and apply what they've learned to address problems, design solutions, collaborate effectively, and communicate persuasively, writes Linda Darling-Hammond in The Washington Post. Efforts to manage instruction through top-down prescriptions will not enable the teaching required. Educators must be able to model and demonstrate these skills, link what their students already know to what they must learn, build on students' diverse experiences and language backgrounds, and structure rich learning opportunities that combine explicit instruction with inquiry, feedback, reflection, and revision. Teacher collaboration can transform practice to meet these expectations. Yet a recent National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE) survey found only 32 percent of educators have a chance to co-create or reflect with colleagues about how a lesson has worked; only 21 percent are given time to examine student work with colleagues; only 14 percent receive feedback from colleagues; and only 10 percent have the opportunity to observe the teaching practices of colleagues. The NCLE survey also found that in schools where educators report professional collaboration is routine, trust is high, and effective practices are shared more rapidly. Where principals, school system leaders, and instructional coaches model collaborative decision-making, real change in student learning results.?More
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Related

     
Holla for 'hollege'
On the School Book website, NYC principal Rashid Davis -- who runs the Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-Tech -- writes that although the 9-14 school model would seem to exclude high-needs students, his school employs techniques that broaden inclusion and can be duplicated in other schools. Many who enter these 9-14 programs, which he calls "hollege," seek to graduate with an associate's degree and a job in a technical field. To achieve this, P-Tech's ninth grade spends additional learning time on core academic subjects, which means teachers work more hours in the classroom and are compensated for it. Team-teaching comprised of one special education and one general education teacher worked so well for students with disabilities that Davis now has two teachers in the room for all core classes, sometimes using two general education teachers. Team-teaching, a longer school day, low adult-to-student ratio in the first year, and a six-week summer program focused on geometry has contributed to 68 percent of students with disabilities scoring a 65 or higher on a math Regents exam, and 12 percent scoring an 80 or higher, the first year out. Currently at P-Tech, 37 percent of students with disabilities are in a college course, as are 66 percent of students without disabilities.??More


A back-track in testing, from the state in the vanguard
In Texas, which spearheaded test-based accountability and tough high school curricula?in public schools, lawmakers are considering a reversal that would ease graduation requirements and standardized testing, reports Motoko Rich in The New York Times. The Texas House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would trim the number of exams students must pass to earn a high school diploma to 5 from 15; the Texas Senate is expected to take up a similar bill. Proponents say the move will allow more creativity in teaching, and students will be freed to pursue vocational courses. Critics fear the changes will result in tracking poor and minority students into classes that won't prepare them for four-year colleges and higher-paying careers. "What we all know is when you leave it up to kids and schools, the poor kids and kids of color will be disproportionately not in the curriculum that could make the most difference for them," says Kati Haycock of the Education Trust. Texas is an outlier in the number of exit exams it requires and in the number of courses its default high school curriculum prescribes. Actions in Texas are being closely watched as many states move to raise curriculum standards to meet the demands of employers while grappling with critics who say testing has spun out of control.?More


About those 10K degrees...
Even as Texas Gov. Rick Perry thanked 13 Texas universities that "have announced plans for a $10,000 degree" in his State of the State speech this year, some degrees exceeded this price when textbooks were added and before a single student had graduated, The San Antonio Express reports. The low-cost degrees are often touted by the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems, under whose umbrella seven of the 13 programs fall. Yet "cost creep" is underway: The IT degree available through the Alamo Colleges and Texas A&M University-San Antonio, for example, grew by $400 between its announcement last spring as a $9,672 package and today. To attain any of the 13 degrees at their lowest advertised cost, students must clear significant hurdles -- accruing college credits in high school, maintaining good grades, taking heavy course loads, or receiving federal aid -- which eliminate many potential applicants. Few schools offering so-called $10,000 degrees track how many students have responded, but numbers are thought to be low. Based on 2012 tuition rates, the average price of a degree before financial aid at one of Texas' four-year public universities is about $28,700 -- a 109 percent increase from a decade ago. Two years at a Texas community college costs $4,300 on average, also a dramatic increase.?More

BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Ray of sun amid general gloom
Despite the recession and years of budget cuts, California schools overall haven't lost any ground in getting students to graduation day, according to 2012 statistics newly released. More
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Alternative thinking
More than 200 people rallying against excessive suspensions and expulsions were buoyed by a commitment from Fresno Unified school leaders to embrace an alternative approach to discipline. More
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Poor showing
Los Angeles teachers overwhelmingly expressed "no confidence" in L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy in the first vote of its kind in the nation's second-largest school system. More
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BRIEFLY NOTED
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What's Next
The final set of standards aimed at reshaping the focus and delivery of science instruction in U.S. schools -- the Next Generation Science Standards -- has been publicly unveiled, setting the stage for states to consider adopting them as their own. More
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Inconvenience notwithstanding
The Next Generation Science Standards will also ensure that the politically touchy topic of climate change will be taught more deeply to students. More
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The Wizard of Ed
Jim Shelton, the U.S. Department of Education's assistant secretary who helped craft and implement the Investing in Innovation grant competition, is in line to become deputy secretary. More
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We are shocked, shocked
The city council in Washington, D.C. is slated to hold a hearing after the surfacing of a memo that warned officials of cheating on standardized tests during the chancellorship of Michelle Rhee. More
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Only fair
Maine Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen has introduced a proposal that would spread the cost of charter schools across every school district in the state, minimizing the impact on individual schools in favor of having everyone pay a lower amount. More
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Getting real
Florida's high-school-graduation requirements would be altered considerably to make a diploma easier for some students to earn and to encourage more teenagers to gain job skills while in school under a bill the Florida Senate has passed. More
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Close shave
The Cleveland Public Schools will not fall under the control of a state academic distress commission. More
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GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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American Psychological Foundation: Pre-College Grant Program
The American Psychological Foundation Pre-College Grant Program provides financial support for efforts aimed at improving education in psychological science and its application in secondary schools for high-ability students. Proposals must focus on supplying education for gifted and talented high school students. Maximum award: $20,000. Eligibility: educational institutions or 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations affiliated with them. Deadline: May 1, 2013.
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Butler-Cooley: Excellence in Teaching Awards Program
The Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Awards Program honors teachers who have demonstrated capacity to change the outcome of students' lives and the communities where they teach. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: licensed and active elementary or secondary (K-12) classroom teachers who teach at an accredited public or private school and have at least five years of teaching experience, and have instructed students the equivalent of 20 hours per week during a nine-month academic calendar year for at least five of the prior seven years. Deadline: May 1, 2013.
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CVS/Caremark: Community Grants
CVS/Caremark Community Grants are currently accepting proposals for programs, targeting children under age 21 with disabilities, which address health and rehabilitation services or enabling physical movement and play. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: non-profits located in states that also have CVS stores. Deadline: October 31, 2013.?
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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"It's not a 'Well, here's your gun; carry it.'?It's very closely monitored. It's not a Clint Eastwood-type deal." -- " Vic Williams, superintendent of schools in Fairview, Missouri, regarding the recent training and arming of teachers at an area school.


 

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