[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast - May 29, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                May 29, 2013 - In This Issue:
       NCLB in retrospect
  Scrutinizing test oversight
  Drafting the science standards was the easy part
  The Common Core is good conservatism.
  The Common Core and money
  Per-student spending drops
  Clear benefit in Boston
  In Chicago's under-enrolled schools
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            
NCLB in retrospect
A new report from the American Enterprise Institute considers the record of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), asking if it was a well-intentioned initiative that failed, or did it actually attain its stated goal of improving academic achievement, particularly for disadvantaged students? The report concludes that school accountability systems in general, and those of NCLB in particular, have only modest beneficial effects on standardized test scores; however, accountability systems are complex and can have both beneficial and harmful elements. Schools exposed to punitive NCLB sanctions, or the threat of sanctions, tended to outperform nearly identical schools that barely avoided them. Most individual sanctions in the NCLB regime, such as offering students transfers, tutoring, or modest "corrective actions," had no discernable effect. Schools restructured under NCLB posted significant improvements in both reading and math scores, suggesting leadership change is an essential reform in persistently low-performing schools. While a pure focus on proficiency can lead to diversion of resources from higher- or lower-performing students, complementary policies that focus on those students mitigate this risk substantially. The report recommends that any new law focus on test-score gains rather than levels of proficiency; incentivize schools rather than teachers; intervene with rather than fire underperforming teachers; and move state and district autonomy even further. More


 
Scrutinizing test oversight
A new report from the federal General Accountability Office examines states' policies and procedures around accountability testing; how states ensure that districts and schools follow test-security policies; how often cheating by school officials has been identified as part of this oversight; and what assistance states rely upon for test-security issues. Researchers surveyed administrators in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. All states reported policies that included 50 percent or more of leading practices around security planning, training, security breaches, test administration, and protecting secure materials. States varied in the extent to which they incorporated certain categories of practices. For example, 22 states undertook all leading practices for security training, but four states undertook none. Many officials reported feeling vulnerable to cheating at some point during the testing process. To detect cheating, states use statistical analyses of student data, monitoring, and audits of testing procedures. Forty states reported cheating allegations within the past two years, and 33 states confirmed at least one instance. Thirty-two states canceled, invalidated, or nullified test scores because of cheating. Officials from a majority of states said it would be useful if the U.S. Department of Education (ED) gathered and disseminated information on test-security best practices, and ED has since released a report containing opinions of experts around best practices and policies.?More



Drafting the science standards was the easy part
Now that the Next Generation Science Standards, which were drafted by 26 states and several national organizations, have been completed, the hard work of implementation begins, writes Erik Robelen in Education Week. What sets the new standards apart from existing state science standards, and even those abroad, is how they weave together disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and "cross-cutting concepts" that span scientific disciplines. At their heart are performance expectations that ask students to actively demonstrate learning by planning and conducting investigations, making observations, analyzing data, and devising models. These practices will be the most significant change -- and challenge -- in classrooms. The standards will also impact critical levers in the education system: teacher education and professional development, curriculum and instructional materials, and assessments. One of the biggest issues, experts say, and a costly endeavor, will be helping teachers deeply understand this new vision for science education. Whether the Next Generation Science Standards succeed will depend on the strength of professional learning opportunities for educators, said Fred Ende, regional science coordinator for Putnam-Westchester in New York state: "That to me is really going to be the glue that holds this together."?More



The Common Core is good conservatism
In an opinion piece in The Washington Post that criticizes conservative opponents of the Common Core, Michael Gerson argues that these opponents are applying a single, abstract principle -- an ideological commitment to localism in education -- and elevating that principle above all others, regardless of conditions and circumstances. Localism is not the answer to our educational problems, and in any event, the Common Core is not a federal approach but a national approach from institutions outside the federal government. There is no ideal ideological world in which state and local control has resulted in education excellence, Gerson writes. Since we don't have measurements to adequately compare outcomes between students, schools, and states, we have a patchwork of dumbed-down standards that render millions of American students unprepared for global competition. And resistance to the standards puts ideological conservatives in questionable company. In fighting the Common Core, some tea party activists have made common cause with "elements of the progressive education blob that always resist rigor, measurement, and accountability." Localism is an important conservative principle, but so is excellence, in Gerson's view. The measure of a successful education policy is a demonstrated presence of actual education.?More



The Common Core and money
In response to Democratic state senators in Pennsylvania who recently opposed the Common Core on grounds that poor districts lack funds to implement them, Marc Tucker of the National Center on Education and the Economy, writing in Education Week, has a question: Why do countries spending substantially less per student than the United States produce student achievement way above ours? One answer is that top-performing countries have redesigned their school-finance systems to direct greater resources toward harder-to-educate students. What the Pennsylvania legislators should do, Tucker says, is file bills allocating more money for the harder-to-educate. But it's easier to oppose the Common Core, though it hurts the very people they're supposedly championing.?The world now operates according to these tougher standards, anyway: Employers use them, as do graduate schools for the professions. People who can't meet these don't get jobs or a professional education.?We must radically change our school-finance systems, and make big changes in teacher compensation, teaching-career structures, standards for getting into teachers' colleges, curricula in teachers' colleges, teacher licensure standards, and the way we support new teachers. The only option these senators really have is to embrace the Common Core and use money they already appropriate to fix our bloated, ineffective system.??More


     
Per-student spending drops
U.S. public-education spending per student fell in 2011 for the first time in three decades, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, reports Stephanie Banchero in The Wall Street Journal. Spending for schools across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. averaged $10,560 per pupil in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, down 0.4% from 2010 and the first drop in actual numbers since the bureau began collecting data in 1977. Adjusted for inflation, spending per pupil dropped once in 1995 and hit its highest level in 2009. In inflation-adjusted terms, spending per pupil was down 4% in 2011 from its peak. Overall, the nation's schools spent $595.1 billion on 48 million students in 2011, $522.1 billion of this for daily operating expenses, a decline of 1.1% from 2010 and the second year in a row that total spending dropped. Salaries took up the largest share of the total with $308 billion, and another $109 billion went toward employee benefits, including pensions. According to the data, New York spent most per pupil at $19,076, followed by Washington, D.C. at $18,475; Alaska, $16,674; New Jersey, $15,968; and Vermont, $15,925. Utah spent the least, $6,212 per student, followed by Idaho, $6,824; Oklahoma, $7,587; Arizona, $7,666; and Mississippi, $7,928.?More



Clear benefit in Boston
A new report from the Boston Foundation follows up a 2009 report and assesses the effect of Boston's charter high schools on student outcomes beyond state standardized test scores -- high school graduation, attainment of state competency thresholds, college scholarship qualification, Advanced Placement (AP) and SAT scores, college enrollment, and college choice. The study finds that while students at Boston's high-performing charters graduate at about the same rate as those not offered a seat, charter enrollment produces gains on AP tests and the SAT. Charter attendance roughly doubles the likelihood that a student will sit for an AP exam, and increases the share of students who pass AP Calculus. Charter attendance does not increase likelihood of taking the SAT, but it does boost scores, especially in math. Charter attendance also increases the pass rate on the exam required for high school graduation in Massachusetts, with especially large effects on the likelihood of qualifying for a state-sponsored college scholarship. Other estimates suggest charter attendance may increase college enrollment, but the number of charter applicants old enough to be in college is still too small to be conclusive. However, charter attendance does induce a clear shift from two-year to four-year colleges, with gains most pronounced at four-year public institutions in Massachusetts.?More



In Chicago's under-enrolled schools
At first glance, Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in East Garfield Park in Chicago is an obvious candidate for closing, writes Steven Yaccino in The New York Times. The school has a low academic rating, and serves 377 students in a building that could hold 780. A mile away, John Milton Gregory Elementary School is in top academic standing, with a half-dozen unused, fully equipped classrooms. If the two schools combine, the district will save $700,000 annually, money that can be repurposed for computer labs, a science lab, and tablet computers. And yet in uprooting elementary schools like Bethune, community members say the city is uprooting the personal and academic lifelines of Chicago's neediest. "Bethune is a safe haven for me," explains Alicia Jefferson, whose 13-year-old daughter attends the school. Jefferson said that teachers at Bethune had assisted her with personal problems, and last year aided her when she spent a night searching for her daughter after the daughter stayed out til morning. Her son Brandon, now in high school, returns to Bethune for tutoring. It is not yet known how many teachers will follow students to consolidated schools. District guidelines allow up to 31 students per class, raising concerns that students will get less individual instruction in merged classrooms.?More


BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Too tall an order
Citing the difficulty of reforming the state's education system, California will not make another attempt to get a waiver of the federal law NCLB that requires every youngster be proficient in English and math by 2014.?More
BRIEFLY NOTED
An era passes
All Virginia students will have to log on to take this year's Standards of Learning tests, making it one of the only states to wholly abandon paper-and-pencil bubble sheets.?More
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Incentivizing
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher are offering a four-year, $60,000 stipend to high-performing science and math teachers willing to serve as mentors and?coaches.?More
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Smart move
Most Minnesota parents will have access to free, all-day kindergarten beginning in fall of 2014 under a $15.7 billion education-funding bill that has been given final approval.?More
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Questionable move
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill that allows people with police training be armed in schools.??More
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Even more questionable
A provision has been added to the Kansas 2014 state budget banning spending of any money to implement the national Common Core standards for math and reading.?More
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Okay, you know what?
Legislation has been introduced in Alabama that would prohibit the federal government from offering grants or policy waivers contingent on a state's use of certain curricula or assessment policies such as the Common Core.?More
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Reason prevails
Rhode Island is the first state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards, after its state board of education voted unanimously to approve them.?More
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Good news for NOLA, if you like those kinds of measures
The Recovery School District's standardized test scores in New Orleans grew faster than any other public school system in Louisiana this spring, according to newly released data.?More
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A moratorium on moratoria
A group of state education chiefs, Chiefs for Change, has sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, urging him to resist a call for a moratorium on high-stakes uses of tests on the common standards.?More


Too tall an order
Citing the difficulty of reforming the state's education system, California will not make another attempt to get a waiver of the federal law NCLB that requires every youngster be proficient in English and math by 2014.?More


GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
 
Save-the-Redwood-League: Grants for Education on Forest Stewardship
The Save-the-Redwood-League's Education Grants Program funds projects that provide engaging, firsthand experiences of redwood forests for youth (pre-K thru college); for example, through field trips, park interpretive programs, service projects, and after-school or family programs among the redwoods. Projects must connect more underserved, low-income youth to the redwoods through culturally relevant projects that reflect the changing demographics of California and the United States including, but not limited to: projects that connect rural redwood region communities with the forest resource in their backyards, and projects that connect urban communities with local, regional, or distant redwoods. Maximum Award: $5,000. Eligibility: schools and 501(c)3 organizations. Deadline: July 3, 2013.
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The Fruit-Tree Planting Foundation: Fruit Tree 101
The Fruit Tree 101 program creates outdoor edible orchard classrooms at public schools of all levels across the country, providing generations of students with environmental education opportunities and a source of organic fruit for improved school lunch nutrition. The "Fruit Tree 101" event is typically completed in two parts. The first is held on a weekend to accommodate volunteer schedules, and involves planting the orchard under the direction of our certified arborist. The school helps coordinate local volunteers for this day. The second part, held when school is in session, invites students to join FTPF's instructors for a fun, hour-long lesson about the importance of trees for the environment and fruit in the diet-culminating in a group tree planting exercise. Maximum award: varies.? Eligibility: schools in Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York City, San Antonio, San Francisco/Oakland, and Washington, D.C. Deadline: rolling.
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Fender Music Foundation: Grants
Fender Music Foundation grants are awarded to music academies, schools, local music programs, and national music programs across America, particularly in-school music classes, in which the students make music; after-school music programs that are not run by the school; and music therapy programs, in which the participants make the music. Maximum award: $5,000. Eligibility: established, ongoing and sustainable music programs in the United States, which provide music instruction for people of any age who would not otherwise have the opportunity to make music. Deadline: rolling.??
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"It would be nice if you stopped trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time." -- Nine-year-old Hannah Robertson to McDonald's CEO Don Thompson at the corporation's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago.


 

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