[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — Aug. 6, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                August 6, 2013 - In This Issue:
       Christel House: the actual tally
  The right to learn
  We want public preschool
  That Head Start competition
  Systematically prepared to disengage
  Still PARCC-ing
  The innovation leadership gap
  Four years to three
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            
Christel House: the actual tally

In a blog post on the New America Foundation's website, Anne Hyslop finds the most troubling aspect of the firestorm at the Indiana Department of Education to be that the grading methodology, and the change to it, wasn't transparent. Tony Bennet, former Superintendent of Education for both Indiana and Florida, explained changing one school's grade by saying that Christel House Academy and a dozen other schools were unfairly penalized due to their unconventional grade configurations. These schools don't serve students grades 11 or 12, and therefore lacked key data for calculations. Except they didn't, Hyslop says. Indiana's accountability model has a provision for schools that are just 9-10, so Christel House should have been graded by combining its elementary and middle school score with its score for its 9-10 school. Instead, the 9-10 scores were thrown out, a loophole that the Indiana DoE recognized as such in its now disclosed emails. According to The Indianapolis Star, Bennett refused to allow two regular public schools facing state takeover to use a similar loophole a year earlier. "Christel House's grade is simply more false advertising from states and local districts that have a long history of finding loopholes in accountability systems and exploiting them," writes Hyslop. She feels accountability systems can be done properly, but these latest "shenanigans" have made it that much harder to argue for them.?More


 
The right to learn

Virginia has a religious exemption law unlike any other in the country, allowing families to entirely opt out of public education, writes Susan Svrluga in The Washington Post. Children are excused from attending school -- as those educated under the state's home-school statute are -- but they are also exempt from any government oversight. School officials don't require transcripts, test scores, or proof of education. The case of Josh Powell, a student who sought public education and was refused because of his family's exemption, highlights the debate over the long-standing law, with Powell's parents earnestly trying to provide an education that reflects their beliefs, and their eldest son arguing that without structure or official guidance, children are getting shortchanged. Some national advocates fight for the right of parents to educate their children at home, but Powell thinks children -- most urgently, his siblings -- should have the right to attend public school, too. He worries that he's running out of options to help his brothers and sisters and others, though he himself made it to university with the help of remedial studies at a community college. "Who knows how many of these families are out there?" Powell says. "It's the isolation that allows it to exist. Unless you go to that small-town church, you don't know these children are out there at all."?More



We want public preschool

A new poll suggests broad bipartisan support for federally funded public preschool, reports Lillian Mongeau on the Ed Source website. The poll from the First Five Years Fund found that 50 percent of the 800 registered voters polled nationwide said they "strongly" support President Barack Obama's $75 billion proposal to expand public preschool offerings by raising the federal tobacco tax. Another 20 percent said they "somewhat" support it. A majority of likely voters from every major party -- including 60 percent of registered Republicans -- supported the plan, according to the bipartisan polling team that conducted the poll. Several typically conservative groups such as business organizations and retired military officers have come out in favor of the idea, arguing that research has shown a high return on investment for money spent on early education. Still, no Republican lawmaker is in favor of the president's proposal. Even Republican governors who support public preschool in their own states, like Gov. Nathan Deal in Georgia, have balked at paying for the program with a new tax. Advocates are hoping the new poll might sway politicians, and are optimistic based on some of the poll results.?More



That Head Start competition

The first competition for federal funds in Head Start's history was a sea change for the 120 programs deemed low-performing who were asked to reapply, yet the process resulted in few new organizations participating, writes Christina Samuels in Education Week. Only eight of 153 agencies to win funding from the competition are new providers of Head Start services. Many grantee organizations were prior "delegates" to larger Head Start programs, meaning they provided services but did not directly control their funding. Still, a Head Start shake-up was both needed and overdue, says Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution. "The biggest flaw is that in order for the strategy to work, you've got to have good competition at the local level," and so far, this is lacking, he says. But Head Start providers, even those that don't need to compete for funds, are now focused on improving their quality: "This is still worth doing, because Head Start wasn't providing the results it could have." Head Start and Early Head Start, a separate program launched in 1994 to serve pregnant women and toddlers, served about a million children and pregnant women in fiscal 2012, at a cost of $7.97 billion. Automatic federal budget cuts under sequestration will force some centers to reduce enrollment.?More



Systematically prepared to disengage

Whether you live in urban or rural America, everywhere you can see the results of an educational design that cripples learners who aren't advantaged or nurtured, writes Bob Sornson of the Early Learning Foundation on the Center for Michigan's Bridge website. Under our system, young children come to school with vast differences in nutrition, oral language skills, motor skills, and home routines around academic and social readiness.? Poor children more often attend preschools or have childcare of lesser quality. Even in the early grades, most public American schools use curriculum-driven instructional systems in which teachers are expected to "cover" long lists of content expectations. A group of children with different ages, genders, experiences, and developmental readiness are placed in a classroom with 25 to 35 other children. The classroom is organized using an old industrial model, in which this wildly diverse group of children receive similar instruction within the allotted time. Children with less-developed skills can quickly disengage from learning, even though they have incredible potential to succeed. For poor children, the rates of learning success are abysmally low. Unsuccessful early learners are consigned to live without the skills that open the doors to opportunity and success.?We are systematically preparing them to be disengaged learners and low-wage earners.?More


     
Still PARCC-ing

In the wake of several withdrawals from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), leaders at the testing consortium recently gathered to confirm the strong commitment of states remaining in the group, writes Catherine Gewertz in Education Week. PARCC officials announced that 14 states and the District of Columbia have committed to field-testing the PARCC assessment in the spring of 2014: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. Four PARCC states have not reached that level of commitment: Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, and in fact Indiana has already announced it will drop out. Pennsylvania, another state not mentioned, intends to withdraw from PARCC but has not yet completed paperwork required to do so. Yet Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester points to the fact that not only are 14 states and D.C. committed to field tests, they're also committed to using the PARCC exams when they debut in spring of 2015. To bolster PARCC's claim of strong member support, four state commissioners of education and one higher education representative took turns praising the quality and value of the assessment and the involvement of teachers in creating it.?More



The innovation leadership gap

Chief innovation officers (CIOs) are surfacing in districts around the country to fill a leadership gap that some feel is holding back public education, writes Tanya Roscorla in Governing Magazine. Newark Public Schools has a CIO in multiple schools. Large urban systems including Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee have created the position in the last two years. And one smaller district in Illinois has inaugurated a CIO position to focus on innovation in technology and other areas. But the position looks different, depending on the district. The job description of the chief innovation officer in Community Consolidated School District 59 in Illinois has five components: technology vision and leadership; innovative learning; administrative professional development; communications; and community development. Detroit Public Schools has a chief innovation officer to better prepare students for college. "That may seem very small, and it sounds like a very simple task, but given the urban population that we serve, it's proven to be extraordinarily difficult," said Natasha Baker, who fills the position for the Detroit Public Schools. Having an Office of Innovation allows Detroit to have a central think tank that drafts ideas and then implements them. She also pushes schools to try different methods and leadership structures.?More



Four years to three

Financial incentives are offered in Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Utah to students who complete high school in fewer than four years, reports Kimberly Railey in USA TODAY. Although exact figures are elusive, the increasing creation of these programs, which lower district instructional costs, suggests their popularity may be growing among students. In Indiana, for example, scholarships to students who graduated early rose from 17 in 2011-12 to 204 in 2012-13, a 1,100 percent increase. They are also cropping up at the local level: The Dallas Independent School District, second largest in Texas, is creating a three-year high school proposal that would direct savings toward pre-kindergarten programs, which would take effect for 2014-15 if approved. Across the nation, fewer than 3 percent of students graduate high school early, according to the National Center for Education Statistics' most recent report from 2004. About half of states have policies that allow the practice. Proponents of the programs say they help reduce state spending and can give students a jump-start on college and careers. The programs often target low-income students, who face the highest barriers to access and success in college.?More


BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Teach for Angelinos
The largest number of Teach For America instructors -- more than 700 -- from the new Walton Family Foundation grant of $20 million are slated for Los Angeles.?More
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California has CORE support
The California Legislature is poised to pass legislation this month that reaffirms the start of student?testing aligned to?the Common Core standards in spring 2015.?More
BRIEFLY NOTED?
No PARCC-ing
Republican Gov. Mike Pence has filed notice that Indiana intends to withdraw from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, also known as PARCC.?More
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Good news
Students in D.C.'s traditional public schools scored higher than ever on the city's math and reading tests this year, posting the largest single-year gain since 2008, according to new test results.?More
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Only fair
Ohio's public colleges must charge in-state tuition to young residents who are undocumented immigrants with temporary legal status, Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor John Carey has ruled.?More
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Major influx
The Walton Family Foundation, already the largest single donor to Teach For America, has committed an additional $20 million to recruit, train, and place an additional 4,000 corps members.?More
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A federal scolding
The U.S. Department of Education will take the unprecedented step of withholding part of Georgia's Race to the Top grant over problems the state is having implementing its teacher-evaluation plans.?More
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No easy task
Libby Doggett, most recently director of the home visiting initiative at the Pew Charitable Trusts, has been named head of the U.S. Department of Education's office of early learning, the second person to hold the post in the office's two-year history.?More
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Goodbye to tenure as they know it
North Carolina?is the latest state to overhaul its teacher tenure rules, directing school administrators to offer four-year contracts to top performers but one- or two-year contracts to everybody else.?More
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Truth will out
Florida's commissioner of education, a rising star in a national movement pushing for test-based accountability in public schools, resigned after reports surfaced that he had changed the grade of an Indiana charter school founded by a prominent campaign donor while he was the superintendent of schools there.?More
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The Race continues
The U.S. Department of Education has invited districts across the country to apply for $120 million of the latest round of Race to the Top grants.?More
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Take our high schools -- please!
In New York State, the Buffalo School Board has voted to have Johns Hopkins University serve as lead supervisor for two city high schools.?More
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Reckoning time
After three years of development and pilot tests, new teacher-effectiveness ratings begin for all 178 Colorado districts this fall.?More

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES


P. Buckley Moss Foundation: Educator Grants
P. Buckley Moss Foundation Educator Grants aid and support teachers who wish to establish an effective learning tool using the arts for teaching children with learning disabilities and other special needs. Maximum award: $1,000. Eligibility: programs in the planning stages or in existence for less than two years that use the arts to educate children who learn differently.
Deadline: September 30, 2013.
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IRA: Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Award
The International Reading Association Regie Routman Teacher Recognition Award honors an outstanding elementary teacher of reading and language arts dedicated to improving teaching and learning through reflective writing about his or her teaching and learning process. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: regular classroom elementary teachers of reading and language arts grades K-6 in a school in which at least 60 percent of the school's students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch; must be IRA members. Deadline: November 15, 2013.
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NSTA: Distinguished Service to Science Education Award
The National Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service to Science Education Award recognizes those who, through active leadership and scholarly endeavor over a significant period of time, have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of education in the sciences and science teaching. Maximum award: formal citation, three nights' hotel accommodation, and up to $500 towards expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference, April 3-6, 2014, Boston. Eligibility: NSTA members who have shown long-term dedication to science education. Deadline: November 30, 2013.
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Delta Education/Frey-Neo/CPO: Awards for Excellence in Inquiry-based Science Teaching
The Delta Education/Frey-Neo/CPO Science Awards for Excellence in Inquiry-based Science Teaching will recognize and honor three full-time preK-12 teachers of science who successfully use inquiry-based science to enhance teaching and learning in their classrooms. Maximum award: $1,500 towards expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference, April 3-6, 2011, Boston; and $1,500 for the awardee. Eligibility: preK-12 teachers. Deadline: November 30, 2013.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
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"Given what the president and the secretary and the entire administration said [about the cuts], I'm surprised any teacher's car started the morning after sequestration. The effect of the sequester was small in the education world. I'm not surprised that states and localities were able to weather this. It wasn't nearly as drastic as the administration led us to believe." -- U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind, regarding sequestration.


 

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