[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — July 31, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                July 30, 2013 - In This Issue:
       Congratulations, we're #2 in child poverty
  Predicting drop-outs at age 6
  A stronger path to college and career for youth of color
  What we don't know about early-childhood education
  'Fixate instead' on supporting teachers
  About those NAEP-based claims
  Flight or fight
  Trigger unhappy
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            
Congratulations, we're #2 in child poverty

A new report from ETS finds that although the United States is one of the 35 richest nations in the world, of these, it ranks second-highest in child poverty, at a cost of $500 billion per year in lower earnings, fewer taxes paid, and other long-term economic and educational outcomes. Twenty-two percent of the nation's children are in poverty, and one in five are food insecure. While white Americans comprise the largest number of poor, the poverty rate for Hispanics and blacks is significantly higher. Six percent of married-couple families are poor, compared with 31 percent of families headed by a single female. About 1.5 million households with about 2.8 million children are in extreme poverty, living on $2 or less of income per person per day in a given month. Between 2007 and 2010, the median net worth of Americans fell 39 percent, and the mean fell 15 percent. In 2010, the median net worth for whites was $130,600, compared to $20,400 for non-whites. Toward a remedy, the authors recommend increasing awareness of the incidence of poverty and its consequences; equitably and adequately funding our schools; broadening access to high-quality preschool education; reducing segregation and isolation; adopting effective school practices; recognizing the importance of a high-quality teacher workforce; and improving the measurement of poverty.?More


 
Predicting drop-outs at age 6

Chris West of the Montgomery County Public School district in Maryland has built what is likely the only first-grade early-warning system for eventual high school dropouts, reports Jill Barshay on the Education by the Numbers blog of The Hechinger Report. Montgomery County has kept excellent data records for over a decade. West studied the county's senior class of 2011, in which 833 (or 7.4 percent) of the 11,241 students dropped out of high school. When he traced these students back to their first-grade report cards and attendance records, he found 75 percent of the dropouts could be identified at age six through warning signs such as missing school for more than three days each quarter or performing below grade-level in math or reading. The big problem with West's model is that it over-identifies, flagging 48.6 percent of the student body to find the 7.4 percent that will drop out. Teachers and counselors have no idea which of the 48.6 percent to focus on, and they don't all need the same kind of interventions. West also found that as these first-graders progressed through their education, they went in and out of the warning zone. This first-grade dropout model is still an experiment, and has not been implemented.?More



A stronger path to college and career for youth of color
A new report from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools examines the trajectory of black and Latino males on their path to college, and zeroes in on points along that path where schools might effectively intervene. The report describes college-related outcomes and other indicators that help predict college readiness for black and Latino male students over time, and discusses key contextual factors that underlie these educational outcomes. It then uses this research to examine the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI), an ongoing citywide effort to improve college and career readiness for young men of color. Specifically, the report looks at the role of poverty, gender expectations, and language and cultural barriers in shaping the educational experiences and outcomes of young men of color. Policies and programs that address these underlying issues are needed to achieve more equity -- and across-the-board success -- in the city's public schools. The authors find that ESI does touch on several levers critical to increasing college readiness among black and Latino young men: focusing explicitly on college readiness; investing resources in the 9th grade; increasing opportunities for rigorous coursework; cultivating student leadership and voice; forming strategic partnerships with organizations that offer support for youth or educators; and training school staff in culturally responsive education.?More



What we don't know about early-childhood education

A new report synthesizes findings from research grants on early intervention and childhood education funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) National Center for Education Research and National Center for Special Education Research through June 2010. It looks across IES-funded projects to determine what has been learned and to suggest avenues for further research. In addition to summarizing findings of various research undertakings, the authors assert a number of questions that the findings raise. What are the crucial features of high-quality early childhood education? More evidence is needed about the relationship between specific features of classroom quality and children's development and learning. Second, which instruction is most effective for which children and under what circumstances? More evidence is needed about aspects of effective instruction for young children, including children with significant learning needs. And third, how do we effectively and efficiently support teachers in improving their instruction? While we have learned a lot about effective instructional practices, we know much less about effective strategies for helping teachers improve the quality of their classrooms and instruction. Rigorous research that addresses these important questions can provide educators (and other public consumers of education) with important guidance regarding the scientific bases for practices and policies currently in place or under consideration for adoption.?More



'Fixate instead' on supporting teachers

Teachers who aren't up to snuff should find new careers, AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a recent speech before 2,000 rank-and-file members of the American Federation of Teachers. The Associated Press reports that Weingarten stated, to applause, "If someone can't teach, after they've been prepared and supported, they shouldn't be in our profession." But she also said too often, teachers are left "to sink or swim" without help from more senior teachers or school leaders, so new teachers should be mentored and offered more training if their college coursework was inadequate. She said union-backed evaluation systems would help keep successful teachers in the classrooms, and remove those who aren't helping students, recasting tenure as a guarantee of fairness and due process, "not as an excuse for managers not to manage, and not to cloak incompetence." But she had harsh words for those who would fire teachers based on students' performances on standardized tests, a practice that has gained popularity as states have implemented school-improvement plans. "I have a plea for those who fixate on how to dismiss teachers: Fixate instead on how we nurture, support, and keep them," Weingarten said.?More


     
About those NAEP-based claims...

NAEP data are frequently used to bolster claims about the effect of particular policies -- from test-based accountability to collective bargaining to specific reading and math interventions -- on student achievement, but these claims are mostly speculative, writes Stephen Sawchuck in Education Week. Researchers say the exam's technical properties make it difficult to use its results to prove cause and effect. NAEP data are generated through matrix sampling, in which a portion of exam questions are given to each sample of students; no child takes a "full" exam. Most claims suffer, researchers say, from failing to consider that a correlation or relationship between two points of data does not prove causation. Moreover, NAEP data represent repeated cross-sectional snapshots of achievement, not the progress of individual students, making it much more challenging to institute controls. Scholars say it is possible to do high-quality research using NAEP data, but doing so appropriately requires research expertise beyond what most lobbyists and policy analysts possess. Advocates' desire to seek quick confirmation for their policy prescriptions -- especially when they are gaining or losing momentum -- mean that it's unlikely that using NAEP for policy analysis will end anytime soon.?More



Flight or fight

The tragedies in Newtown, Connecticut and Columbine, Colorado have given rise to new recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education around keeping students safe, writes Jane Meredith Adams on the EdSource website. Instead of huddling in locked classrooms awaiting rescue, it is now recommended that students run away and hide, or if they have to, fight. This is a major shift from the static classroom lockdowns campuses have followed for years.?The new procedure asks teachers and staff to take a more assertive role in trying to survive the unlikely event of an "active shooter" situation on campus. The technique gives teachers leeway to ignore lockdowns, to run off campus with students, and to unleash a fire extinguisher on a person with a gun. "The idea is that instead of being passive and being executed, be active and perhaps save your own life and the lives of others," said Arthur Cummins of the California School Resource Officers Association. The preparation comes as crimes of all types at school, including violent crimes, have steadily declined from 1992 to 2011. In the 2010-11 school year, 11 students died at school from homicide, out of a total school student population of 55 million, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.?More



Trigger unhappy

When California's parent-trigger law was passed in 2010, former California State Sen. Gloria Romero, its author, compared it to the civil rights movement five decades before and envisioned bipartisan support in state legislatures across the nation, writes Natasha Lindstrom in TIME Magazine. Three and a half years later, Romero's grand vision seems remote, as opposition grows to any bill that even resembles a parent trigger. No group has succeeded in invoking a parent-trigger law -- or even made a full-fledged attempt -- outside of southern California. Only seven states have a parent-trigger law on the books, some versions weaker than others. In 20 states, bills to create or expand such laws stalled or died in legislatures this past spring; only one prevailed. The movement has also been damaged by the first few attempts at invoking a parent trigger, characterized by fierce hostility and feuding within schools, with parents turning on one another and accusations of harassment, intimidation, and fraud flying on both sides. Undeterred by the bills that stalled or died in 2013, Derrick Everett of Parent Revolution, a non-profit that supports parent triggers, said that "laws as novel as the parent trigger process have often taken multiple legislative sessions to both get the law 'right' and get it passed."?More


BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Here comes the money
The first installment of Gov. Jerry Brown's new state aid program, known as the Local Control Funding Formula, will reach schools by next week.?More
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Slumming it
California has funded less than half of the $800 million required by the Emergency Repair Program to fix "slum" schools, which grew out of a class-action lawsuit against the state that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to settle.?More
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Unpopular move
Scores of Los Angeles Unified parents and teachers protested the looming transfer of hundreds of disabled students from special-education centers to traditional schools, as the district complies with laws to integrate students who have physical and developmental challenges.?More
BRIEFLY NOTED
Money where their mouth is
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is awarding more than $15 million in "Innovative Professional Development" grants over a three-year period for on-the-job teacher training, to be split among the Fresno, California; Long Beach, California; and Jefferson County, Colorado districts.?More
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Pricey
PARCC summative tests in mathematics and English/language arts will cost member states $29.50 per student, more than what half its member states currently pay for their tests.?More
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Thanks, but no thanks
Georgia leaders have announced that the state will not offer a new, expensive standardized test tied to the Common Core.?More

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES


Libri Foundation: Books for Children
The Libri Foundation Books for Children Grants donate new, quality, hardcover children's books for small, rural, public libraries across the country. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: Libraries should be in a rural area, have a limited operating budget, and an active children's department. The average total operating budget of a Books for Children grant recipient must be less than $40,000. Deadline: August 15, 2013.
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AMA/Hesselbein Institute: AMA Scholarship
The American Management Association and the Hesselbein Institute Ambassador scholarship program is intended to assist social-sector nonprofit organizations in developing strong leadership. The scholarship is designed to provide nonprofit leaders with an opportunity to step out of the day-to-day, interact with peers across sectors, and develop practical skills they can apply immediately within their organizations. Maximum award: one-year scholarship. Eligibility: employees of 501(c)(3) organizations with a minimum of three years of work experience in the social sector. Deadline: November 29, 2013.
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Bonnie Plants: 3rd-Grade Cabbage Program
Bonnie Plants delivers millions of free cabbage plants each year to students in third grade classes throughout the country. The program offers students a chance to get a unique, hands-on gardening experience through growing colossal cabbages, reaping hefty harvests, and the possibility of winning "best in state" and a scholarship. Maximum award: $1,000 scholarship towards education from Bonnie Plants. Eligibility: teachers of 3rd grade nationally, with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii. Deadline: February 1, 2014.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
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"We can't forget what districts were allowed to do to black kids and brown kids and poor kids before No Child Left Behind. Unfortunately, a lot of the conversations continue to perpetuate wrongheaded accountability. It's still about too much standardized testing. But without the accountability measures for states and districts, I do fear what happens to the equity agenda." -- Joshua Starr, the superintendent of Montgomery County schools in Maryland, regarding the legacy of NCLB.


 

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