[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — Aug. 20, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                August 20, 2013 - In This Issue:
       Social impact through financial efficiency
  Cincinnati's community schools
  The other casualties of Head Start cuts
  A hidden cost of closures
  'What younger principals are too scared to say'
  An education legacy founders
  Competencies, not rote curricula
  Single-sex equals simply wrong
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            
Social impact through financial efficiency

A partnership involving Goldman Sachs, a district in Utah, and several community charities to expand that district's early education is intended to save taxpayers money and provide a financial return for investors, reports Sean Meehan for Education Week. This fall, Goldman Sachs and the Pritzker Group will pay $7 million over eight years to expand preschool in the 67,000-student Granite district through a social-impact bond. These loans seek both a positive social outcome and a reduction in future costs by investing in prevention and intervention in the public sector. If successful, the public-education venture will be the first of its kind. But the model also raises questions about whether it will encourage the district to change policies to produce greater financial returns. Still, data indicate that students who go through quality preschool are less likely to need expensive special education later in their academic careers. Schools in Utah receive $2,600 annually from the state for each student requiring special education, yet many kids get services simply because they trail their peers academically upon entering elementary school. To pay off the loan, the district has until this fall's cohort of students completes 6th grade. If the district pays it off early, investors receive 40 percent of any additional savings, and the district keeps the other 60 percent. Once students complete 6th grade, further savings go solely to the district. More


 
Cincinnati's community schools

Educators and politicians from around the world have descended on Cincinnati's poorest neighborhoods, hearing of a renaissance through community schools, reports Javier Hernández for The New York Times. Stories abound of schools with dental clinics, mental-health therapists, mentors from local banks and churches, engaged teachers, and scores of volunteers. The community-schools model is fully in place in 34 of 55 schools in the 30,000-student system. Yet many of Cincinnati's community schools remain in dire academic straits, according to an analysis by The Times. Testing data show that at eight schools that pioneered the model, student scores still trail those of other Ohio children, even poor ones. Still, Cincinnati teachers and principals enthusiastically endorse the model. "I can't teach science to a kid whose father went to jail the night before," says teacher Carolyn Powers. "Sometimes you have to let some of the academics go and focus on social and emotional needs." Cincinnati redesigned schools with community schools in mind, beginning more than a decade ago when it embarked on a $1 billion effort to renovate. The district has also mandated that partner organizations pay for their programs; the district only offers facilities. Several schools are also collecting private donations as a buffer in case public or private groups reduce funding. More



The other casualties of Head Start cuts

The budget deal that President Obama cut with Congressional Republicans has forced children out of existing Head Start programs, which in turn has cost low-income parents jobs when they're left with no childcare, reports William Selway for Bloomberg.com. Sequestration excised $400 million from Head Start this year, the deepest cut since the program's 1965 creation. As a result, 60,000 slots are projected to disappear by September 30, the end of the federal fiscal year. Chicago and Baltimore will use their own resources to offset the budget gap, but rural municipalities lack that ability. And in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Phoenix, more than 1,700 slots have been eliminated. In 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services spent $8 billion on Head Start; in April, the department announced spending would be $7.6 billion. Single mother Kelly Burford of Taneytown, Maryland had to quit her $7.25-an-hour job as a department-store clerk when her son Bradyn's slot was eliminated from a program run by Catholic Charities. "The teachers were really good -- he was learning a lot," she said. "Now, he's fallen back." Burford is relying on help from her parents to pay $200 a week -- about what she was making at her minimum-wage job -- to place Bradyn in a nursery school while she looks for new work. More



A hidden cost of closures

Critics of the shutdown of 50 schools in Chicago have protested that children now must cross gang boundaries to get educated, but largely overlooked are the thousands of people who have relied on the schools to safeguard their neighborhoods, reports Don Babwin for the Associated Press. "I used to come home late from prayer meetings at my church, and just seeing the light on and knowing the engineers and the janitors were working, I felt safe because they were there," says Carolyn Lang, 58. The fate of the buildings is unclear. Some have reopened as charter, magnet, military, alternative, or other kinds of schools, but the district has never had so many vacant properties at once. Chicago Schools spokeswoman Becky Carroll said no one should expect the buildings to be repurposed in time for the school year or over the next year. Richard Ingram, who manages rental properties on the South Side, says tenants call schools rather than police to report crimes, which prevents criminals from discovering who they are. Now what will they do? No one's saying the closed schools will cause neighborhoods to decline -- it's been happening for years -- but the concern is that the shuttered schools will accelerate the decline. More



'What younger principals are too scared to say'

As principal of P.S. 146 in Brooklyn, one of the highest-achieving and most popular public schools in New York City, Anna Allanbrook feels her job is to shield students, teachers, and parents from the state's ever-expanding testing system, and to question its reliability publicly, reports Michael Winerip in The New York Times. In a letter to school parents in April, she criticized the new Common Core-aligned tests as too hard, too confusing, and too long. She predicted scores would plummet, and they did. "As a senior principal, I feel a duty to speak honestly about what's going on," she says. "By my age, my position is relatively safe; I feel like I've learned a lot and should express what younger principals and teachers are too scared to say." In her letter to parents, Allanbrook said the test was unrealistically hard: "What 10-year-old understands the difference between loneliness and being alone, especially in poetic form?" She also said it was too long for 9- and 10-year-olds, and had questions with more than one answer. The best way to improve a school, in her opinion, is to hire talented teachers: "As I've got older, I've become much better. It's not about what university someone attended, it's about passion and love for children." More



An education legacy founders

Long viewed a contender in the 2016 presidential race, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has taken considerable heat from activists on the right recently for his support of the Common Core State Standards, writes Stephanie Simon on Politico.com. Several rivals, including Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, have come out against the Common Core, which tea-party activists characterize as a heavy-handed federal intrusion into local control of education. Bush also drew fire for standing by Tony Bennett, former schools superintendent in Indiana and Florida, a flap that also drew negative attention to a cherished Bush policy: grading public schools on an A-F scale. But Florida residents know the grading formulas are easy to manipulate: The Florida legislature has tinkered with the A-F school grading formula at least two dozen times in recent years. This spring, the state guaranteed schools that their grades wouldn't drop steeply regardless of student outcomes. Yet the state graded a record number of schools F, with a more than 50-percent increase in D schools. "All of a sudden, [Bush is] looking like Romney did on health care in 2012 -- an area that could have been a real strength for him is either up in the air or a real weakness," according to Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. More


     
Competencies, not rote curricula

Competency-based education, which defines a set of central concepts and skills a student must be proficient in to pass a class, is gaining momentum around the country, reports Stacy Teicher Khadaroo for The Christian Science Monitor. Proponents say it deepens learning and ties education explicitly to skills that equip students for the workplace and college-level studies, from accurate math and writing to creative problem-solving. It can be conducted in a variety of ways and across all subjects, but takes a different mindset than simply marching through a textbook-based curriculum. It is also a promising way to personalize learning and break out of traditional classroom and school calendars, which move students through on the basis of age and "seat time." Among 165 Expeditionary Learning Schools around the U.S., which incorporate a competency approach, students have reached proficiency on standardized reading tests at a rate 12 percent higher than district peers. In math, scores are eight to nine points higher. New Hampshire has widely adopted the approach, and Oregon, Maine, Kentucky, Arizona, and Iowa are moving in that direction. When individual districts recently competed for federal Race to the Top grants, 75 percent of winning plans included competency-based elements.  More



Single-sex equals simply wrong

Are single-sex classes effective? asks Michael Kimmel on CNN.com. Single-sex classes in public schools are a popular low-cost way to encourage girls' ambitions in science, technology, engineering, and math, and to address chronic underachievement in boys. Yet these classes do more harm than good, Kimmel writes. Yes, in some communities, single-sex "academies" have gained popularity through rigid discipline, uniforms, and a powerful sense of community. But other efforts are based on flawed notions from organizations such as the National Association for Choice in Education. "A girl-friendly classroom is a safe, comfortable, welcoming place," the association's website explains. "Forget hard plastic chairs: Put in a sofa and some comfortable beanbags." Under these theories, districts have experimented with different curricula, seating arrangements, pedagogical styles, and room temperature -- 72 degrees for girls and 68 for boys. According to the ACLU, boys in a Louisiana school read one book while girls read another, because "boys like 'hunting' and 'dogs,' but girls prefer 'love stories.'" Fortunately, as evidence mounts that single-sex classrooms teach to stereotypes, parents are protesting. In the past year, single-sex options in public schools dropped for the first time in over a decade. Several schools -- in Boston; Pittsburgh; Madison, Wisconsin; and Durham, North Carolina -- have dropped existing or planned single-sex classes after ACLU involvement. More


BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Better together
In an unprecedented partnership, LAUSD has joined forces with Crown Prep, an outside charter operator, to run a persistently low-performing campus south of downtown. More
 
Self-determination
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law a bill that will allow transgender students to participate in school sports, activities, and facilities based on how they identify their gender, regardless of sex at birth. More
 
Failing the smell test
The Beverly Hills Unified School District will conduct an independent review of its relationship with a for-profit summer sports camp owned by the Beverly Hills High School principal. More
BRIEFLY NOTED 
They are not amused
The U.S. Department of Education is threatening to revoke NCLB waivers for Kansas, Oregon, and Washington at the end of 2013-14 over failure to draft teacher-evaluation systems tied to student growth. More
 
Full stop
U.S. District Court Judge John Lee has ruled he will not bar Chicago Public Schools from closing 49 elementary schools and a high-school program, rejecting arguments that African-American and disabled students' rights will be violated. More
 
Dire
The financial situation of Philadelphia Public Schools is so severe that the city will borrow $50 million just to open schools on time. More
 
Keep it coming
A survey of 21 states by the National Conference of State Legislatures shows that spending on early-childhood programs is rising slightly, as states make investments in home-visiting programs and state preschool. More
 
What was that about 'no impact'?
A new survey from the American Association of School Administrators finds that districts are dealing with sequestration cuts to federal education funding by reducing professional development (59 percent of districts), eliminating personnel (53 percent), increasing class size (48 percent), and deferring technology purchases (46 percent). More
 
Can you hear him now?
ConnectEd, an Obama-administration proposal to expand high-speed internet access in schools and facilitate digital notebooks and customized lessons, would be funded by raising fees for mobile-phone users. More
 
Hardball
If for two consecutive years a Utah district fails to make progress toward the state's goal of 90-percent-third-grader reading proficiency, that district will lose money, under a new rule from the state Office of Education. More
 
Transition pains
Standardized test performances for Wyoming elementary and middle school students declined in every subject and every grade level from 2012 numbers, according to data newly released by the Wyoming Department of Education. More
 
Are they being served?
For New York State's English-language learners, only 3.2 percent were proficient in ELA on the recent Common Core-aligned tests, while 9.8 percent were so in math. More
 
Productive disruption (and let's forget about that soda thing)
In an effort to shake up institutions that have been criticized as too insular and inert, the Bloomberg administration has released scorecards for a dozen teacher-preparation programs in New York City. More
 
True accountability
All Wisconsin schools funded by state taxpayers -- including private voucher schools -- would be held to new standards, and Milwaukee's public schools would still face state intervention, under newly proposed state legislation. More
 
Congratulations in order
Newly revised history standards in Tennessee have been moved from a grade of C to an A for their coverage of the civil rights movement by the Southern Poverty Law Center; only three other states have the top grade. More

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
 
NSTA: New Science Teacher Academy
The NSTA New Science Teacher Academy uses mentoring and other professional development resources to support science teachers during the often-challenging, initial teaching years to help them stay in the profession. Maximum award: participation in web-based professional development activities; unlimited use of resources, including vetted web links for lesson plans, links to state and national standards, professional organizations, and to safety tips; e-mentoring with an experienced teacher in the same discipline and grade level; facilitated online curriculum focusing on science content and applicable classroom pedagogy; access to a nationwide, online network of science educators and scientists who facilitate an exchange of information, ideas, and resources; accommodations, airfare, food, and registration fees to attend the NSTA national conference; and an opportunity to participate in specialized conference pathways and to participate in a Research Dissemination Conference or a Professional Development Institute. Eligibility: middle or high school science teachers entering their second or third year of teaching, working a schedule with 51 percent of their classes in science. Deadline: August 26, 2013.
 
Target: Field Trip Grants
Target Field Trip Grants fund scholastic outings for visits to art, science, and cultural museums, community service or civic projects, career enrichment opportunities, and other events or activities away from a school facility. Funds can cover field trip-related costs such as transportation, ticket fees, food, resource materials, and supplies. Maximum award: $700. Eligibility: teachers, principals, paraprofessionals, and classified staff in K-12 public, private, or charter school in the U.S. Deadline: October 1, 2013.
 
The John F. Kennedy Center: Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards
The Kennedy Center seeks nominations for Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards, awarded to K-12 teachers and college or university instructors in the U.S. in recognition of their outstanding impact on the lives of students. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: Nominees must be legal residents of the U.S. Nomination must be based on experience as a full-time classroom teacher in a K-12 school in the U.S., or as a college or university instructor in the U.S. Nominators must be 18 years of age and have been a student of the nominee. Deadline: December 15, 2013.
 
 
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
 
"The long sleep is now over. People are starting to realize that Jeb and his reforms are not good for children and not good for schools. They are meant to privatize public education." -- Kathleen Oropeza, of the Orlando-based parent group Fund Education Now, regarding the education policies of former Governor Jeb Bush.


 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/ohiogift/attachments/20130820/b631db4e/attachment.html>