[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — Oct. 15, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                                        October 15, 2013 - In This Issue:
                The voucher disconnect
      Opening the student-data floodgates
      Technology pitfalls, NYC edition
      Bipartisan agreement on two disastrous ideas
      Both vocational and educational
      Getting used to the Common Core
      Drop-out prevention in a rural context
      Portfolio district? Not so fast
      BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
      BRIEFLY NOTED.
      GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                                                                                              
    The voucher disconnect
  
    American taxpayers will  soon spend $1 billion a year to help pay private-school tuition  vouchers, though the policy has yielded few academic gains, reports  Stephanie Simon on Politico.com. In Milwaukee, 13 percent of voucher  students were proficient in math and 11 percent proficient in reading  this spring, worse than students in the city's public schools. In New  Orleans, struggling voucher students haven't advanced to grade level any  faster than students in public schools that in some cases are rated D  or F. And across Louisiana, popular voucher schools posted miserable  scores in math, reading, science, and social studies, with fewer than  half of voucher students achieving basic proficiency and fewer than 2  percent demonstrating mastery. Yet vouchers are proliferating: 245,000  students in 16 states plus D.C. currently pay private tuition with  public subsidies. Nine states added or broadened voucher programs this  year; New Jersey and Tennessee may soon join them. Voucher recipients  aren't necessarily poor, either. In Milwaukee, a family earning as much  as $71,000 annually is eligible; in Louisiana, a family can earn up to  $59,000. Two-thirds of students in Wisconsin's Parental Choice Program  were already in private schools before receiving tuition subsidies. And  Gallup polls consistently find a majority of Americans oppose sending  students to private schools at public expense: this year, opposition hit  70 percent.?More
  
 
       
    Opening the student-data floodgates
  
    To prepare for  assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards, districts  across the country are investing in software to analyze individual  student performance in detail, reports Natasha Singer in The New York  Times. The company inBloom wants to speed introduction and lower the  costs of these assessment tools by standardizing data storage and  security. inBloom's open-source code could facilitate universal apps,  reducing customization for each district and theoretically making  software cheaper. For believers in data-driven education, consolidating  and analyzing data that districts already collect makes common sense.  Yet inBloom also raises questions about mass-scale surveillance of  students. Changes in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act allow  schools to share student data with companies to which they outsource  functions like scheduling or data management -- without notifying  parents. "It's an experiment in centralizing massive metadata on  children to share with vendors," says parent Rachel Strickland, "and  then the vendors will profit by marketing their learning products, their  apps, their curriculum materials, their video games, back to our kids."  inBloom has no oversight by a publicly elected body, and the company  has said districts must define their own legitimate uses for data and  develop policies to manage them. It announced in February that nine  states, representing more than 11 million students, will test its  technology.??More
  
 
    
    Technology pitfalls, NYC edition
  
    A $41 million-plus  settlement to educators in New York City could have huge ramifications  for districts across the country that are struggling to provide adequate  technology and internet bandwidth, reports Benjamin Herold in Education  Week. In April, the NYC Department of Education began paying back wages  to more than 30,000 teachers, school psychologists, social workers, and  others after an arbitrator agreed with the United Federation of  Teachers that its members had been forced to work beyond their  contractually mandated workday when implementation of a new  student-information system, SESIS, was plagued by slow internet  connections, glitchy software, a lack of computer access, and poor  training and technical assistance. Initially, the legal decision went  largely unnoticed outside of New York City, but experts have now seized  upon its significance. Increasingly, educators see digital devices and  high-speed internet connections as basic workplace necessities, an idea  buttressed by this legal precedent and potentially affecting everything  from collective bargaining to court-mandated funding parity. Giving  laptops and tablets to students, administering online tests, and  conducting extensive data analysis all "presuppose software that works,  robust broadband access, and effective training and support," says  Douglas Levin of the State Educational Technology Directors Association.  The city is contesting part of the arbitrator's award. SESIS is still  in use, and educators are reporting continued problems.?More
  
 
    
    Bipartisan agreement on two disastrous ideas
  
    In a commentary in  Education Week, Marc Tucker, Linda Darling-Hammond, and John Jackson  write that Democrats and Republicans agree on two things for ESEA  reauthorization: continued grade-by-grade testing, and sanctions  exclusively for the lowest-achieving schools, which primarily serve  low-income and immigrant students. The authors feel these provisions  virtually guarantee the overall performance of our students will never  equal that of our international competitors, and will further widen the  gap between our top performers and our disadvantaged students. By  continuing accountability requirements and high-stakes testing that  effectively force states to use cheap, standardized tests, Congress will  ensure our teachers have strong incentives to teach a curriculum that  leaves out complex skills and knowledge. By refocusing sanctions on  schools serving the most disadvantaged, Congress ensures that those who  most need a top-flight education receive the most limited curriculum.  Instead, Congress should require that states ensure external testing for  a single grade at each of three school levels -- elementary, middle,  and high school -- while continuing to report scores for vulnerable  groups. Without spending more than they do now, states could employ  higher-quality assessments that encourage productive teaching while  reducing the testing burden on students and teachers.?More
  
 
    
    Both vocational and educational
  
    In a profile of the  Utica Center for Science and Industry (CSI) about an hour north of  Detroit, Sarah Butrymowicz writes in The Hechinger Report that the high  school uses technology to prepare students for automotive and  military-industry jobs with a goal of boosting the region's economy and  aligning with employers' needs. In other parts of the country, high  schools treat college and career preparation as mutually exclusive, but  Utica blends them, and CSI's model directly links skills students  acquire with specific job needs of the community. Students must apply  for one of 90 slots available each year for freshmen. Once enrolled,  students spend three hours at CSI every day and three hours at their  home high school taking other requirements. CSI offers electives in  multimedia, engineering, or mechatronics (a mixture of mechanics,  electronics, and computer science), with an emphasis on hands-on  experiential learning. Post-secondary attendance is assumed; of the  program's 120 graduates so far, nearly all have gone to college.  Students can enter nearby Macomb Community College with up to a year and  a half's worth of credits. In a new apprenticeship program by the  Michigan Economic Development Corporation for high school graduates,  half of the slots have gone to CSI students.?More
  
 
                   
    Getting used to the Common Core
  
    For Massachusetts,  questions around Common Core adoption centered on the wisdom of changing  the state's already high standards, writes Nick Pandolfo in The Boston  Globe. Massachusetts students excel on the NAEP, and the state ranked  sixth globally in math on the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics  and Science Study, scoring in the company of Japan, Singapore, and South  Korea. Despite this, Common Core proponents insist the new standards  are a step forward for the state. In math, the standards set a more  deliberate pace in the early grades, and teachers cover fewer topics in  greater depth with the goal of achieving mastery of basics early on.  Some have criticized the pace for higher grades, saying Algebra I is  introduced too late and Calculus omitted entirely. Massachusetts  middle-school math teacher Michelle Calioro says monthly math  professional development meetings now focus on preparing for consortium  assessments, whereas before they centered on implementation. She expects  this year to be smoother, since her new students were taught a full  Common Core curriculum last year, but there are bound to be bumps as  students and teachers recalibrate. "I'm hopeful that as we move forward  that will decrease and students will come into eighth grade really ready  for the rigor," says Calioro, "and that they'll leave really ready for  high school."?More
  
 
    
    Drop-out prevention in a rural context
  
    A new report by the  Inner City Fund considers dropout intervention in rural communities,  where a quarter of American public school students are educated.  Twenty-two percent of rural students don't complete high school,  troubling in an era of declining rural-community fortunes. Rural  communities have specific challenges: a small tax base, limited pool of  educators, and lower student aspirations for postsecondary education  since few rural jobs require it. But rural districts also have distinct  strengths that can be leveraged: strong school-community relationships,  robust parent involvement, and intergenerational relationships among  community members. Rural districts typically have less bureaucracy and  organizational complexity, lower student-teacher ratios, and a capacity  to respond creatively to challenges. Because of a school's central role  in a rural community, it is often open before and after school hours,  offering a place for credit recovery, tutoring, and adult education --  an ideal setting for at-risk students. And because students lack  anonymity, it is more difficult to "fall through the cracks." Perhaps  because the dropout crisis is stereotyped as urban, or due to challenges  in obtaining a large enough study sample, research on rural dropout  prevention is scarce. More is needed to understand whether the evidence  base underlying typical interventions can apply in rural contexts, and  what elements of programming could be viewed as universal versus  context-specific.?More
  
 
    
    Portfolio district? Not so fast
  
  A  review by the National Education Policy Center of two presentations  claiming success for the portfolio-district approach cautions their  evidence is weaker than it seems. The review discusses PowerPoint slide  sets by Elliot Smalley of the Achievement School District in Memphis and  Patrick Dobard of the Recovery School District in New Orleans,  presented to the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. Under  the portfolio-district model, a district contracts with outside  providers to run its schools. The district administration holds the  providers accountable for schools' results -- usually, academic  achievement as measured by standardized tests. In the opinion of the  reviewers, the presentations' strong assertion of improved student  achievement fails to acknowledge "the thin evidence base on portfolio  governance." The presentations ignore alternative explanations for  positive results: The New Orleans data, for instance, are presented  without accounting for the massive out-migration of New Orleans  students, which in itself could plausibly lead to higher achievement  averages. The Memphis findings reflect too few data to draw reliable  conclusions. Both presentations report "teacher and administrator  human-capital improvements," but lack specifics about type, cost, or  frequency. The cost of the portfolio model in each district is likely  underestimated, since both received federal and philanthropic funds not  mentioned in the PowerPoint analyses. The reviewers conclude that the  presentations lack the research base that policymakers should demand  before embarking on the portfolio model.?More
 
    BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
    Keep it coming
   California's Linked  Learning Initiative will get over $7 million in new funding from private  and public sources to support its high school career-preparation  program, which grew last year from seven to 63 districts across the  state.?More
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   Back at ya
   Gov. Jerry Brown has  vetoed a bill that would change the complex system for dismissing  teachers, encouraging districts and teachers to keep negotiating a way  to simplify the process.?More
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   Sua maxima culpa
   Whatever harassment  issues he faced, LA Unified's Board President Richard Vladovic still has  UTLA support, thanks to his public acknowledgement of his bad  behavior.?More
    BRIEFLY NOTED?
    No way to run a federal program, but hey
   John and Laura Arnold,  who made billions in a hedge fund, have donated $10 million to Head  Start to keep its programs running through this month despite the  government shutdown.?More
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   Not good, people
   The National School  Lunch and Breakfast Program could soon be a casualty of the government  shutdown, leaving millions of children without an important source of  nutrition.?More
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   Case in point
   Nebraska Public Schools  has learned the state lacks money to reimburse it for free or  reduced-price student lunches as a result of the federal shutdown.?More
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   Problems Amplified
   A North Carolina school  district has suspended use of 15,000 tablets after reports of multiple  hardware issues, including device chargers melting at home -- a major  sting for NewsCorp's Amplify, which was piloting the initiative.?More
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   Vouchers we can get behind
   Massachusetts Gov. Deval  Patrick says his administration plans to issue more than 3,000 new  vouchers to enable young children of low-income parents to receive early  education services.?More
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   Not exactly streamlining
   The Business Roundtable  has issued a paper calling for the establishment of a panel of judges to  decide which instructional materials are aligned to the Common Core  State Standards.?More
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   Headway
   More than 2,000 preschool-age children in Ohio will get an early start to their education this year, thanks to new funding.?More
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   They'll be hard-pressed to find complaints
   The Montgomery County  school board has agreed to look into shifting high school starting times  to 8:15 a.m. a week after the county superintendent proposed delaying  the first bell so that teenagers can get more sleep.?More
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   An end to 'chaos'
   The majority of D.C.  charter schools and all schools in the city's traditional system will  participate in a single unified lottery to determine enrollment for the  2014-2015 school year, the office of Mayor Vincent Gray said.?More
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   Ain't no mountain high enough
   Despite delivery  problems stemming from the federal shutdown, 219 applicants made last  week's deadline for the U.S. Department of Education's second Race to  the Top district contest.?More
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   Spin-proof, it would seem
   New York City will spend  $29 million in 2013 on the salaries and benefits of 326 educators who  have been deemed too dangerous or incompetent to work in public school  classrooms but cannot be immediately fired, the New York Daily News has  learned.?More
    
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
 
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   Whole Kids Foundation: School Garden Grants
   The Whole Kids  Foundation is offering grants to help bring "outdoor science labs" -  school gardens -- to K-12 schools. Maximum award: $2,000. Eligibility:  schools K-12. Deadline: October 31, 2013.
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   Sea World: Environmental Excellence Awards
   SeaWorld Environmental  Excellence Awards recognize the outstanding efforts of students and  teachers across the country who are working at the grassroots level to  protect and preserve the environment. Maximum award: $10,000.  Eligibility: All schools (grades K-12) and community groups. Deadline:  November 1, 2013.
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   NFL: Fuel Up to Play 60
   The NFL Fuel Up to Play  60 Playbook focuses on school breakfast and increased physical activity  -- because students who eat well and move more learn better! Your school  can apply for funding to support one Healthy Eating Play and one  Physical Activity Play from the 2013-14 Playbook (see website). Maximum  award: $4,000. Eligibility: schools participating in the National School  Lunch program. Deadline: November 1, 2013.
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   VFW: Smart/Maher National Citizenship Education Teachers' Award
   The VFW's Smart/Maher  National Citizenship Education Teachers' Award recognizes the nation's  top elementary, junior high, and high school teachers who teach  citizenship education topics regularly and promote America's history and  traditions. Maximum award: $1,000. Eligibility: teachers K-12.  Deadline: November 1, 2013.
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   QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
   "Beginning learners have  a right to know what scientists have concluded. It is not right to  allow religious, political, or economic ideologies to trump instruction  in science." -- Eugenie Scott and Minda Berbeco  in Scientific American, in an article about "academic freedom" laws  aimed at teaching evolution and climate change in public schools.
  
 
   
 
    
  

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