[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast for May 7, 2013

Tue May 7 13:48:14 EDT 2013

                                        May 7, 2013 - In This Issue:
                Pre-K annus horribilis
      KIPP: somewhat beneficial
      Core: Not so fast, people
      Online glitches aplenty
      Los Angeles: The fired next time
      Mastery versus time in seats
      What those OECD data actually reveal
      Assessing the source
      BRIEFLY NOTED
      GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

  Pre-K annus horribilis
   A  new analysis of the state of early-childhood education in this country  by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) finds  2011-2012 to have been the worst year in a decade in terms of improving  access to high-quality pre-K for America's children. State funding for  pre-K decreased by over half a billion dollars in 2011-2012, adjusted  for inflation the largest one-year drop ever, falling $400 per child  across the states. It is the first year of stagnant enrollment, with no  increase in percentage of children served. It was also a disastrous year  for meeting quality benchmarks, with lax monitoring and poor technical  support at the same time that local capacity to produce quality programs  has been undercut by reduced financial support. The number of students  whose families lack means to provide them with high-quality preschool  education has increased to an all-time high. For 2012-2013,  appropriations were up modestly, though how well actual expenditures  track these figures remains to be seen. The most positive development is  at the federal level: The president put pre-K on the national agenda in  his State of the Union address, and proposed providing states with $75  billion in matching funds to increase access to high-quality pre-K over  the next 10 years.?More

  KIPP: somewhat beneficial
  A  review by the National Education Policy Center of a study of KIPP by  Mathematica finds that while the original evaluation was carefully  planned and executed -- and a positive impact from KIPP is supported by  the evidence -- the authors may have overstated benefits attributable to  the network. Using two different approaches, Mathematica researchers  concluded that after three years, charter KIPP students scored the  equivalent of 11 months of additional learning in math and eight months  in reading compared with control students not attending KIPP schools.  The reviewer feels that the benefits attributed to KIPP participation  could be substantial if they persist into later grades, but the research  as presented is overly positive. Translating educational outcomes into  months of additional learning is inexact, and "leads to absurd results"  if interpreted literally, according to the reviewer. Also, reported  measures of effectiveness that take attrition into account indicate less  positive outcomes than the estimates used to draw conclusions about  KIPP effectiveness. The reviewer feels the information in the study is  insufficient to guide education policy, and that "future work evaluating  the persistence of KIPP impact will be key to drawing a conclusive  judgment of the educational significance of KIPP schooling."?More

  Common Core: Not so fast, people
    AFT  President Randi Weingarten has called for a moratorium on all stakes  associated with the Common Core State Standards, saying that teachers  have had inadequate time and support to understand them and shift  instruction, reports Catherine Gewertz in Education Week. High-stakes  decisions should be held in check until states and districts develop --  and carry out -- Common Core plans that include time and resources for  professional development, curriculum, and instruction. Weingarten's  speech was triggered by recent opposition from the teacher union in New  York State to this year's tests, which newly reflected the common  standards. In prepared remarks, Weingarten praised the Common Core,  saying it held promise for better teaching and learning, especially for  disadvantaged students. But before students, teachers, or schools are  judged on mastery of the common standards, Weingarten says, adequate  time and support must be available to implement them and then determine  -- through "a bunch of different measures" -- whether the curriculum and  its instruction are working. Putting the new standards into practice  without adequate preparation, she says, is "a failure of leadership."?More
  ?

  Online glitches aplenty
  Widespread  technical failures and interruptions of online testing in several  states have shaken confidence in high-tech assessment methods, raising  serious concerns about technological readiness for coming Common Core  online tests, reports Michele Davis in Education Week. Disruptions  occurred across Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Oklahoma, and were  linked to assessment providers: CTB/McGraw-Hill in Indiana and Oklahoma;  ACT, Inc. in Kentucky; and the American Institutes for Research in  Minnesota. Thousands of students suffered slow question loading times,  were closed out of testing mid-answer, and were unable to log in to  tests; thousands of tests may be invalidated. State education  departments were compelled to extend testing windows, and some lawmakers  and policymakers are reconsidering online testing as a whole. Problems  were "absolutely horrible, in terms of kids being anxious," said Eric  Hileman, director of information technology services for Oklahoma City  schools. Wendy Robinson, superintendent of Fort Wayne, Indiana community  schools, said she doesn't know how students, parents, or educators can  now have confidence using online testing for the Common Core.  Spokespeople for both Common Core consortia said they will work to solve  any technical problems before the Common Core online tests are rolled  out, and were confident issues could be resolved before the tests  launched.?More? ? ?Related

  Los Angeles: The fired next time
  Half  the teachers at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles have been dismissed  as part of a "conversion process," reports Dana Goldstein on her blog.  These include Alex Caputo-Pearl, who has spent two decades teaching in  high-poverty L.A.-area schools, and helped craft the Extended Learning  Cultural Model (ELCM) for Crenshaw. ELCM was driven by the higher  expectations of the Common Core but built around a curriculum that  addressed the challenges of low-income South L.A. Yet despite hundreds  of thousands of dollars in federal and philanthropic support for it,  Superintendent John Deasy announced in November that the ELCM Social  Justice and Law Academy at Crenshaw will be dismantled, replaced with  three magnet programs organized around the arts, entrepreneurship, and  STEM.?Caputo-Pearl and other teachers who led the?Social Justice and Law  Academy, and who have the deep support of parents and students, seem to  have been targeted for dismissal.?Twenty-one of the 33 dismissed are  African American, and 27 have over 10 years of experience. The LAUSD  earlier attempted to remove Caputo-Pearl from Crenshaw in 2006, when he  was organizing neighborhood parents to fight for better school  resources. He says his next step is advocating for the Crenshaw students  affected by the conversion. They will not be automatically re-enrolled  in one of the new magnet schools inside Crenshaw; instead, they or their  parents must fill out an intimidating "Choices" application.?More

  Mastery versus time in seats
  A  new report from Knowledgeworks would help policymakers redefine federal  assessment and accountability systems to support competency education  in the nation's public schools. Competency education replaces rigid,  time-based assessment and accountability structures with flexible  systems that enable students to receive customized supports and extra  time to demonstrate mastery of content and?transferable?skills.  According to the report, "This highly personalized approach provides  clear, individualized pathways to student proficiency that help mobilize  stakeholders around the collective goal of college- and  career-readiness for all." The success of the competency movement  depends heavily on federal willingness to partner with states and  districts as they redesign education systems, offering a partnership  that grants states flexibility to innovate and develop accountability  and assessment policies that better align with student-centered  education. The report includes a competency-education continuum chart,  which can help policymakers differentiate between approaches that are  fully implemented and those in early stages. The report also outlines  key barriers in current federal accountability and assessment systems  that can undermine development of competency education, and indicates  areas where the approach is currently implemented.?More

  What those OECD data actually reveal
  International  student test scores indicate that on average, American students are a  "middling bunch," but these data sometimes "obscure more than they  reveal," writes Jordan Weissmann in The Atlantic Magazine. Once you  compare students from similar income and class backgrounds, our relative  performance improves dramatically, suggesting that American educational  problems may be due to our sheer number of poor families as much as to  supposedly poor schools. In raw numbers, we have far more top performers  than any other developed nation. A recent report from the Economic  Policy Institute (EPI) on America's supply of science and tech talent  found that among OECD nations in 2006, the United States claimed a third  of high-performing students in both reading and science (on math, less  so).?Since the United States is a far bigger country than the other  members of the OECD, we claim roughly 27 percent of the group's  15-to-19-year-olds overall, but the point remains: In two out of three  subjects, Americans are over-represented among the best students. Our  high scorers are balanced out by a very large number of low scorers, and  our education system, like our economy, is polarized.?But sheer numbers  do not signal dominance: Based on OECD data, China likely has more  young math and science geniuses. Weissman restates an argument in the  EPI report: To replicate a country's style of education, you must  replicate its culture, which in the instance of China is unfeasible. "So  instead of looking abroad for ideas about how to teach our kids, as  some policy-types are inclined to do, perhaps we should look at what's  succeeding here at home, and spread it," he writes.?More

  Assessing the source -- but is it the source?
  Scores  of teacher-training programs across the country will soon be evaluated  based on the test scores of their graduates' students, reports Sarah  Carr in The Hechinger Report. Louisiana's experience speaks to both the  "promise and peril" of this approach, writes Carr. For instance, these  analyses only use data from institutions with a large enough cohort of  graduates (25 in a given subject area) for results to be statistically  valid; not a single New Orleans-based teacher-training program is  therefore included in the evaluations. Even when a cohort size is  adequate, the data can be simplistic or misleading. Do low reading  scores, measured years after a group of teachers enters the classroom,  mean their training program had a bad curriculum or weak instructors? Or  did it admit weaker candidates from the start? Or send them off to  schools with less supportive principals? Using a value-added analysis,  Louisiana researchers gauge growth in individual students regardless of  starting point, then compare overall student growth in the classrooms of  graduates from different training programs with growth produced by  veteran educators. Louisiana embarked on its analysis over a decade ago  in an effort to weed out the state's weakest teacher-training programs,  and programs consistently rated low can be shut down. To date, no  program has shuttered as a result of assessment.?More

    BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
    New sheriff in town

     Michael Fullan, the man  credited with transforming the Canadian province of Ontario into one of  the world's most effective school systems, is ready to help California.?More
   ?
   Tarnished appeal
   The number of new  teaching credentials issued in California dropped 12 percent last year,  marking the eighth straight year the state has seen a decrease in the  number of initial credentials.?More
   ?
  BRIEFLY NOTED

   ?
     Money where their mouth is
   The Walton Family  Foundation in 2012 handed out more than $158 million in funding for K-12  education reform initiatives focused on expanding charter schools and  voucher programs. More
   ?
   Loosening of strictures
   Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill that makes it easier to fire some low-performing teachers. More
   ?
   Trending private
   Thousands of Arizona  students in poorly performing public schools could soon get what amounts  to a voucher from the state to go elsewhere -- or even get educated at  home -- in a move that could take hundreds of millions of dollars a year  out of the public school system. More
   ?
   Ditto
   The number of Louisiana  students attending private and parochial school at taxpayer expense is  going up by at least 3,000 in 2013-14, the second year of the Louisiana  Scholarship Program, for a total of 8,000 kids. More?
   ?
   A dose of sanity
   New Mexico Gov. Susana  Martinez has announced she is expanding the state's pre-kindergarten  programs, allowing a dozen new programs to start up statewide, and 1,380  more students served.?More
   ?
   Their own petards
   Instead of handing out  report cards, school officials will get grades themselves next week, as  the state Department of Education announces A-through-F grades for  Maine's 600 public schools.?More
   ?
   Live by the sword, die by the sword
   Florida's controversial  parent-trigger bill has died a "dramatic legislative death" in a  surprise tie vote in the Florida Senate during the final week of  session. More
   ?
   So they're all grounded
   Three-quarters of  Maine's schools received a grade of C or lower under a new ranking  system unveiled by the state Department of Education. More?

  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
  ?
  Dollar General Literacy Foundation: Youth Literacy Grants
   Dollar General Literacy Foundation Youth Literacy Grants provide  funding to help students who are below grade level or experiencing  difficulty reading. Grant funding is provided to assist in implementing  new or expanding existing literacy programs; purchasing new technology  or equipment to support literacy initiatives; and purchasing books,  materials, or software for literacy programs. Maximum award: $4,000.  Eligibility: schools, public libraries, and nonprofit organizations.  Deadline: May 23, 2013.
  ?
  ACTFL: Florence Steiner Award
  The  American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Florence Steiner  Award honors the memory of a teacher, department chair, professional  speaker, and ACTFL President-Elect who inspired a generation of foreign  language teachers and challenged them to improve their teaching through  better communication of the goals and outcomes of second-language  education with the public, administrators, colleagues, and students.  Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: ACTFL members for at least the last  three years who have a minimum of five years teaching experience, with  at least half of each year's assignment in the area of foreign language  education. Deadline: May 28, 2013.
  ?
  Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation: Grants for Youth with Disabilities
  The  Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation Grants program is dedicated to  helping young Americans with disabilities maximize their potential and  fully participate in society. The foundation supports organizations and  projects within its mission that have broad scope and impact and  demonstrate potential for replication at other sites. A major program  emphasis is inclusion: enabling young people with disabilities to have  full access to educational, vocational, and recreational opportunities,  and to participate alongside their non-disabled peers. Maximum award:  $90,000. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations. Deadline: June 1, 2013.
  ?
  Kennedy Center: VSA Playwright Discovery Competition
  The  Kennedy Center VSA Playwright Discovery Competition invites middle and  high school students to take a closer look at the world around them,  examine how disability affects their lives and the lives of others, and  express their views through the art of script writing. Writers may write  from their own experience and observations or create fictional  characters and settings. scripts can be comedies, dramas, or even  musicals. Maximum award: Division 1 (Grades 6-8, or equivalent): $375  for his/her school; publication in the 2013 VSA Playwright Discovery  Program booklet. Division 2 (Grades 9-12, or equivalent): $750  scholarship, $375 for his/her school; publication in the 2013 VSA  Playwright Discovery Program booklet. Deadline: June 1, 2013.
  ?

   QUOTE OF THE WEEK
   "It's crazy to be  considering schools when she's only 7 months old. But I'd rather have a  plan, knowing how difficult it can be to get in." -- Christine Dirringer, a Manhattan commodities banker, strategizing on how to get her daughter into a "good" New York City public school.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/ohiogift/attachments/20130507/653472b7/attachment.html>