[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — Sept. 17, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                September 17, 2013 - In This Issue:
       Charters, two decades on
  All Title I dollars are not the same
  Data boost for TFA
  About that Mathematica study
  Tablets for everyone!
  RttT: rushed and unresourced
  Deep cuts to special ed
  Indiana gets a C-
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            
Charters, two decades on
Twenty-two years after the first charter was founded in Minnesota, the national movement still grapples with the tension between creativity and conventional measurements of success, writes Sarah Butromywicz for TIME Magazine. Overall, charter performance remains mixed. A recent study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes?that looked at charters in 25 states and D.C. found that just a quarter outperformed traditional peers in reading, and just 29 percent in math. The middling quality of charter schools on average has led to calls for increased accountability and tighter regulations. Some states, including Florida and Ohio, have passed charter closure laws that specify when a charter will be shut down based on its performance. In Minnesota, lawmakers recently tweaked charter rules to clarify that their primary purpose was to increase student achievement. Priorities passed in the early 1990s included fostering innovative teaching practices and devising alternate ways to measure student achievement. Charter leaders say the recent shift in emphasis makes experimentation more difficult. Increased paperwork and reports to authorizers drain time and resources; more time is spent negotiating for exemptions or putting student performance in context. Some are pushing back. In Minnesota, Chicago, and Southern California, educators have drafted alternate accountability systems for charters that include multiple measures of performance, including financial performance and school culture.?More


 
All Title I dollars are not the same
A new article in the journal Education Finance & Policy takes on the accepted notion that Title I over-subsidizes urban districts. The authors argue instead that measures of student poverty that drive state and federal funding allocations fail to reflect geographic differences in cost of living. The article constructs alternative poverty income thresholds based on regional differences in wage levels for low-skilled workers, and then examines distribution of Title I revenues after adjusting poverty rates for geographic differences in cost of living, and adjusting Title I revenues for differences in purchasing power of districts. The authors find that when fully adjusting for regional differences, Title I funding patterns disproportionately favor rural districts in low cost-of-living states. The authors recommend that the baseline measure of student poverty be changed to incorporate geographic differences in cost of living, preferably using labor market analysis because it offers a more complete picture of regional differences. Additionally, Title I funding allocations should be adjusted for uncontrollable differences in the cost of education rather than for state average expenditure levels, so that Title I funds have the same purchasing power in every district.?More



Data boost for TFA

A new study from Mathematic Policy Research finds that middle and high school math teachers from Teach For America (TFA) and The New Teacher Project (TNTP) Teaching Fellows programs are as effective or more effective than other math teachers in the same schools. Both programs recruit high-achieving college graduates and professionals, give them five to seven weeks of full-time training, place them in high-poverty schools -- often in hard-to-staff subjects -- and offer ongoing training and support. Students assigned TFA teachers scored higher than those assigned to comparison teachers on end-of-year math tests, equivalent to gains from an additional 2.6 months of instruction. Students of inexperienced TFA teachers (who had taught for three years or less) outperformed students of more experienced comparison teachers, leading the authors to conclude that over the long term, filling positions with TFA teachers who depart after a few years would lead to higher student math achievement than filling the same positions with non-TFA teachers who remain in the position and accumulate teaching experience. Students taught by Teaching Fellows had math scores about the same as those taught by comparison teachers. Inexperienced Teaching Fellows (who had taught for three years or less) were more effective than inexperienced comparison teachers; among teachers with more experience, there was no difference.?More



About that Mathematica study
On her blog, Dana Goldstein makes several points about the recent Mathematica study of Teach for America (TFA) and TNTP Teaching Fellows. First, older studies of TFA already suggest its recruits are more effective at teaching math than other subjects, and it's generally easier to raise math scores than literacy scores. The study finds TFA math teachers outperformed non-TFA math teachers in their schools by .06 standard deviations in middle school and .13 standard deviations in high school, a modest improvement. A child who scored in the 27th percentile in math would move to the 30th percentile with a TFA teacher -- not exactly proficient. Goldstein also finds the bias against first-year teachers borne out in the study's data. Students of second-year teachers outperformed students of first-year teachers by .08 standard deviations -- greater than the average between students of TFA and non-TFA teachers. The data don't indicate that teachers peak after two years on the job. To the contrary, researchers found that for teachers with at least five years of experience, each additional year was associated with an increase of .005 standard deviations in student achievement. Two factors likely contribute to higher TFA-taught outcomes, Goldstein says. First, TFA teachers are mission-driven and believe closing the achievement gap is possible. Second, TFA's training emphasizes data tracking of student outcomes, which could mean TFA teachers provide more test-prep and emphasize performing well on tests.?More



Tablets for everyone!
In a lengthy article in The New York Times Magazine, Carlo Rotella takes a skeptical look at the national trend toward using computer tablets for instruction, spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch's education technology company Amplify. Amplify has tested its tablets and curriculum in a dozen small pilot programs, and by next fall plans to have its products in middle schools across the country, with high schools and perhaps elementary schools to follow. Guilford County in North Carolina, Amplify's first paying customer, has a modest budget and a mix of urban, suburban and rural sections that makes it a plausible proxy for school systems nationwide. Observers will gauge teachers' enthusiasm for the tablets, as well as increased "time on task" and other signs of student engagement. They'll definitely look for higher test scores in two or three years. But, writes Rotella, if everyone agrees that good teachers make all the difference, doesn't it make more sense to devote resources to strengthening the teaching profession with better recruitment, training, support, and pay? Why put an expensive tool in the hands of teachers we otherwise treat like the poor relations of the high-tech designers? "Are our overwhelmed, besieged, haphazardly recruited, variably trained, underpaid, not-so-elite teachers, in fact, the potential weak link in Amplify's bid to disrupt American schooling?" Rotella asks. He put the question to Joel Klein, who runs Amplify. "Behind the talking points and buzzwords, what I heard [Klein] saying was Yes," Rotella writes.?More


     
RttT: rushed and unresourced

A new report from the Economic Policy Institute examines how adherence to commitments for the federal Race to the Top (RttT) has played out over the first three years, and what progress states have made toward meeting outcome goals. The report finds states are largely behind schedule in improving instruction and educational outcomes just a year before funding ends. Many have experienced setbacks due to unrealistic promises and unexpected challenges, and implementation of the Common Core standards will only deepen problems. The report argues that RttT policies have fallen especially short on teacher improvement, and have failed to address core drivers of opportunity?gaps. RttT shortcomings have spurred state-district and union-management conflicts that hinder?progress, and the push to do too much too quickly with too few resources has led to teacher, principal, and superintendent frustration and stress. Major problems limiting student and school success remain unaddressed. Setting and reaching higher standards can only happen after school boards, principals, teachers, parents, and community leaders work to ensure that basic student, family, and educator support systems are in place and resourced, and that a plan to sustain progress has been established. Strong, collaborative union-management relationships are at the core of such coalitions. These realities should guide implementation of the Common Core standards.??More



Deep cuts to special ed

Across the country, advocates for children with disabilities are struggling with the impact of sequestration, writes Adrienne Lu for Stateline. Many schools have fewer speech, occupational, or physical therapists, or social workers and school psychologists. Students who had received speech therapy twice a week now get it once week. And some general education classrooms that had two teachers -- one for the whole class and one specifically to support students with special needs -- have had the special education teacher eliminated. Although cuts took effect March 1, the impact is felt this school year because of how programs are funded. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that the sequester cut $579 million in federal funding for IDEA Part B. The National Education Association calculates that if states and local school systems do not replace funds lost through sequestration, nearly 300,000 students receiving services will be affected. Up to 7,800 jobs could be lost. It is unknown how many states or districts will replace some or all of that money from other sources, such as new taxes or cuts to other programs. They may hesitate to replace funding, since by law, states and districts that?increase funding for special?education and then later reduce it can see federal funding cut, a rule known as maintenance of effort.?More



Indiana gets a C-

A new report by legislative leaders in Indiana finds that changes to the state's school-grading system, which benefited a politically connected charter school, were "plausible," but it also highlights problems in implementing new school-rating systems when departments of education are struggling with human and technical capacity issues, reports Michele McNeil for Education Week. The report found the raised grade of Christel House Academy to be "both an attempt to save the credibility of the new accountability model and a desire to treat a recognized good school fairly. Any further motivations underlying these actions are beyond the scope and documentation of this report" -- in other words, the authors didn't assess whether politics played a role. The report also found the state underestimated administrative and technical challenges of the system, and because of loss of key personnel, ran out of time to perform adequate programming and quality-control work. The report underscores that significant parts of the education community in Indiana do not trust the new rating system, and calls for more transparency around school-grading decisions and for piloting changes to the accountability system before full implementation. Under NCLB waivers, 41 states, the District of Columbia, and eight districts in California are implementing new school accountability systems.?More


BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Line in the sand
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has threatened to withhold federal funds if California lawmakers approved pending legislation to revamp the state's standardized testing system.?More
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They crossed it anyway
On a 51-22 vote, California's state assembly on has approved a bill that would transition schools to new standardized tests -- and temporarily reduce the number of tests during a transition period -- despite warnings from the federal government that the plan is against the law.?More
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All aboard
California became the sixth state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards with the unanimous approval by the State Board of Education.?More
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Trigger training
Pioneering guidelines to help Los Angeles Unified school staff and parents navigate the complex and controversial process to overhaul failing schools under the state parent trigger law have been approved by the school board.?More
BRIEFLY NOTED?
This ain't Jersey
School boards in Virginia are planning a legal fight against a new law signed by Gov. Robert F. McDonnell that creates a state-run K-12 district for schools performing poorly academically.?More
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Welcome to public education, kids
Thousands of Oregon kindergartners are participating in a new statewide assessment this year expected to help education officials, teachers, and parents gauge how prepared children are to learn as they take their first steps in the school system.?More
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No dice
The federal government has denied Texas's request to waive No Child Left Behind testing requirements for students in elementary and middle school. More
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Backsliding
A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that "at least" 34 states are funding public schools at lower levels for the 2013-14 school year than they did for the 2007-8 school year, on a per-student basis and adjusted for inflation.?More
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Ouch
Michigan has cut investment in K-12 schools by 9 percent since 2008, a deeper cut than 33 other states.?More
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Overhaul
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has announced it will decrease the credential's price tag by $600, give teachers more flexibility in completing required assessments, and integrate new information into the certification process, including student surveys and measures of students' academic progress.?More
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The crux of the matter
Starting this term, every public school student in Oregon will be graded solely on academic mastery of a subject -- lateness, missing assignments, etc. won't matter.?More

GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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Google: RISE Awards
Google RISE Awards support organizations that promote access to Computer Science (CS) education and give students aged 7-18 the opportunity to become creators -- not just consumers -- of tomorrow's technological innovations. Google awards funding to, and partners with, organizations running programs that inspire, engage, and retain students on a long-term path in the field of computing. Maximum award: $50,000. Eligibility: organizations running a successful program in CS that they want to expand in terms of reach and depth of impact or that currently run a successful wide-reaching program in STEM that they want to grow to include CS. At a minimum, programs should have regional reach (city, county, or state) with the potential to scale nationally and collaborate internationally with similar organizations. Programs must target girls and/or underrepresented minority students up to the age of 18. Deadline: September 30, 2013.
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Toshiba America Foundation: Education Grants
Toshiba America Foundation Education Grants contribute to the quality of science and mathematics education in U.S. communities by investing in projects designed by classroom teachers to improve science and mathematics education. Maximum award: $1,000. Eligibility: teachers K-5. Deadline: October 1, 2013.
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Knowles Science Teaching Foundation: Fellowships
The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation awards fellowships in the areas of biological sciences, mathematics, and physical sciences to support high school math and science teachers from the onset of the credentialing process through the early years of their careers.?Maximum award: professional workshops, materials grants, and access to a teacher-to-teacher mentoring network, valued at $150,000. Eligibility: individuals who have earned at least a bachelor's degree in an area relevant to the subjects they plan to teach before the fellowship begins in June. Candidates for Physical Science, Mathematics, or Biological Science Teaching Fellowships must enroll in a secondary teacher credential program before the fellowship is awarded. Individuals who have completed the fourth year of a five-year combined bachelor's and credential program by the start of the fellowship are also eligible to apply, as well as those currently enrolled in a teacher education program who will be first-year teachers in the fall of 2014.
Deadline: October 15, 2013.
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Toshiba/NSTA: ExploraVision Awards
All inventions and innovations result from creative thinking and problem-solving. The Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision Awards Program encourages kids to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with the tools of science. Maximum award: $10,000 bond per student on winning team. Eligibility: Students K-12. Deadline: January 30, 2014.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Part of the energy that I have to try to change things is to expiate whatever responsibility I had in terms of advocating something that turned out to be so terribly wrong for children." -- Diane Ravitch, in an interview with The New York Times.


 

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