[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — Oct. 22, 2013

Tue Oct 22 13:12:23 EDT 2013

                                        October 22, 2013 - In This Issue:
                As the South goes, so goes the nation
      Failing those who are failing in NYC
      A distinct, educationally at-risk sub group
      Charters and district finances
      2014 approaches
      The state of state teacher evaluations
      Overall IMPACT
      What the Common Core could yield
      BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
      BRIEFLY NOTED
      GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

    As the South goes, so goes the nation

    A new report from the  Southern Education Foundation finds that a majority of public school  children in 17 states -- a third of the nation -- were eligible for free  or reduced-price lunches in the school year ending in 2011. Thirteen of  the 17 states were in the South; the remaining four were in the West.  Poor students are concentrated in the nation's cities, yet over 40  percent of all public school children in the nation's suburbs, towns,  and rural areas are also low-income. During the last decade, as the  number of poor students grew substantially in all regions, public school  expenditures increased, but at a markedly slower rate and with  considerable differences between regions. Within the next few years,  low-income students will be the majority of all public school children  in the country. With unchanging gaps in learning, schools across the  nation could become entrenched, inadequately funded systems that enlarge  the division between haves and have-nots. No real evidence exists that a  policy of transferring low-income students from public schools to  private will positively impact this problem. The trends of the last  decade suggest that schools and communities must address the primary  question in American education today: What does it take to provide  low-income students with a chance to succeed in public schools? More

    Failing those who are failing in NYC

    A new report from the  Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) finds that between 2008 and  2011, more than 35,000 late-enrolling, high-need students were  disproportionately assigned by the New York City Department of Education  (DOE) to struggling public high schools, essentially setting up the  students and schools for failure. These late enrollees are traditionally  labeled "over the counter" (OTC) students, and include new immigrants;  special-needs students; previously incarcerated teens; poor, transient,  or homeless youth; over-age students; and those with histories of  behavioral incidents. These students are disproportionately assigned to  NYC high schools with high percentages of low-performing students,  English-language learners, and dropouts. OTC students are also  disproportionately assigned to schools targeted for closure or already  undergoing the closure process. To remedy these disparities, the NYC DOE  should assess the demographics and academic performance of OTC students  to identify schools in which such students achieve significantly higher  academic performance than system-wide averages, and identify their  exemplary practices. Schools targeted for closure or already undergoing  the closure process should not be assigned OTC students, nor should  persistently low-achieving high schools, until their performances  improve sufficiently for removal from the state's list of struggling  schools. More

  A distinct, educationally at-risk sub group
  A  new analysis by WestEd of students in foster care in California public  schools shows an achievement gap greater than that for students from  low-income and other at-risk backgrounds. The report analyzes individual  student education and child welfare data to find that in 2009-10, for  example, just 29 percent of students in foster care achieved at  proficient or above levels on the California Standards Test in English.  Students in California foster care are more than twice as likely to drop  out than other students, and twice as likely to be designated with a  disability; within that group, they were five times more likely to be  classified with an emotional disturbance. Just 68 percent of students in  foster care attended the same school for the full school year,  contrasting with over 90 percent of low-SES and statewide student  populations. Nearly 10 percent of students in foster care attended three  or more schools during the same school year, a level of school mobility  experienced by only one percent of comparison groups. Youth in foster  care are also more likely to attend the state's lowest-performing  schools: About 15 percent of youth in foster care attend schools ranked  in the bottom 10 percent of schools on the state's Academic Performance  Index. More

    Charters and district finances

  The  dramatic rise in charter-school enrollment over the past decade is  likely to create negative credit pressure on districts in economically  weak urban areas, according to a new report from Moody's Investors  Service. Charters proliferate where districts already show underlying  economic and demographic stress, and they pull students and revenues  away from districts faster than districts can reduce costs. As districts  trim costs to balance out declining revenues, cuts in programs and  services will further drive students to seek alternative institutions.  Older, urban areas with population and tax-base losses have also been  areas where charters have expanded, according to the report. Cities  where over a fifth of students are enrolled in charters include  Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, and the District of  Columbia. Nationwide, one in 20 students attends a charter school.  Moody's identifies several factors that make a district vulnerable to  charter growth: when it is financially pressured and grapples with weak  demographics; when it has limited ability to adjust operations in  response to a loss of enrollment; when it's situated in a state with a  statutory framework that promotes easy educational choice; and when it  lacks integration into a healthier local government that can diversify  revenues and add flexibility to the balance sheets. More

    2014 approaches

    For the eight states  that have not obtained NCLB waivers, the goal of 100-percent proficiency  by 2014 still stands, along with consequences for schools that fall  short, writes Caitlin Emma for Politico.com. The majority of schools in  these states, if they miss AYP, must continue to provide tutors for  students, allow students to transfer out of them, and accept other  stringent remedies, and must do so even if they are high-performing by  other measures. The proportion of schools in California, Illinois, Iowa,  Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming missing AYP  ranges from 17 to 74 percent, according to the U.S. Department of  Education (ED). Non-waiver states have been talking for months about an  "escape route" as part of an ongoing conversation that culminated with a  call in late September with the department. Some state chiefs feel the  federal government has failed to provide answers about these schools'  future. Iowa, Illinois, and Wyoming have also applied for waivers.  States must comply with the law this year, but if a state opts to apply  for a waiver, the department could freeze the percentage of students who  must be working on grade level. Until the rules about waivers or the  law itself changes, non-waiver states say they just want recognition  that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work for them.  More

    The state of state teacher evaluations

    A new report from the  Center for Public Education looks at changes in state teacher-evaluation  systems since 2009, the most significant being inclusion of student  achievement measures. States use student achievement data in  significantly varying ways. Most use scores from state standardized  tests, but many combine these with student learning objectives,  formative assessments, or other achievement indicators. States also vary  in how they attribute student growth to teachers, most using  value-added and student-growth percentiles. In no state does student  achievement count for more than half of a teacher's evaluation; in  several states, considerably less. Nearly every state is also revamping  classroom observations. Teachers are now observed every year -- often  multiple times -- by trained evaluators using a researched-based rubric  that more accurately judges instructional effectiveness and provides  useful feedback to teachers. Student/parent surveys, lesson-plan  reviews, teacher self-reflections, and student artifacts are often  incorporated. Across states, the report finds 47 states require or  recommend stakeholder input into evaluation-systems design. Most states  use evaluation to improve teacher performance, but also to inform  personnel decisions. Teachers can be dismissed for poor evaluations  in 32 states, although typically not before interventions. Seventeen  states give districts flexibility and support in developing evaluations  systems, while 21 states leave responsibility in the hands of districts.  More

    Overall IMPACT

    Rewards and punishments  embedded in the District of Columbia's controversial teacher-evaluation  program IMPACT have affected both retention and performance of the  system's workforce, Emma Brown reports for The Washington Post. Hundreds  of teachers have been fired for poor performance, but low-scoring  teachers who could have kept their jobs also have been more likely to  leave, according to the study by the National Bureau of Economic  Research. Imminent consequences inspired two groups of teachers to  improve significantly more than others: low-scoring teachers who faced  the prospect of being fired, and high-scoring teachers within striking  distance of a substantial merit raise. But while average  teacher-evaluation scores rose during the first three years of IMPACT,  the study does not indicate whether incentives translated into improved  student achievement. Effects were minimal after the first year of  IMPACT, but they were statistically significant after the second year,  perhaps, the authors reasoned, because teachers did not immediately  believe that the incentives were real and permanent. However, Stanford  Professor Linda Darling-Hammond cautioned against assuming that IMPACT  scores accurately reflect a teacher's effectiveness, pointing to studies  that have shown test-score growth can be an unreliable measure,  especially when a teacher has numerous students working far below or  above grade level. More

    What the Common Core could yield

  The  Common Core State Standards set out what students should know, but not  how teachers should accomplish this, creating a rare opportunity for  education research to inform teaching practice, writes Sarah Sparks in  Education Week. While it's uncertain who will drive Common Core research  and development, many hope that by studying and supporting  implementation, the education research community can forge closer  partnerships with practitioners and enable cyclical models that focus on  problem-solving. "It can't just be documentation of what worked and  what didn't," says John Easton of the Institute of Education Science.  "There's no grand [randomized controlled trial] that anyone will conduct  that will give us yes or no in eight years." Some predict staged cycles  of research to support the standards in the first years of  implementation, with deeper studies six and 10 years out. If  partnerships with educators are formed now, researchers are in a better  position to collect information and understand earlier indicators of  problems or success. "What was the role of research in the prior  incarnation of standards-based reform? It was very removed; it was not  practitioner-based research. We watched it unfold as opposed to being  part of the unfolding," says Jonathan Supovitz of the Consortium for  Policy Research in Education. More

    BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
    Prudent move
   The rollout for the  billion-dollar iPad program could be extended a year, doubling the time  originally allotted for giving tablets to every student in the Los  Angeles Unified School District. More

   Just desert
   Los Angeles Unified  board member Tamar Galatzan has released an unprecedented motion asking  the board to censure its president, Richard Vladovic, who has been  accused of harassment and intimidation by two district employees. More

   Less susceptible to cheating, for now
   This year's California  state standardized tests will be given on computer, and officials can  monitor when a student logs in and out of a website to take the test. More
    BRIEFLY NOTED 
      So dies an initiative
   What remained of Texas's  merit-pay plan after massive funding cuts in 2011 has been converted  into a new state grant program that will pay for innovative education in  a few dozen poor schools. More

   Under the radar
   The bill to end the  federal budget stalemate also addressed whether teachers in  alternative-certification programs should be considered "highly  qualified"; the legislation, which is expected to be approved by both  houses of Congress, would allow teachers participating in  alternative-certification programs to be considered "highly qualified"  for an additional two years, through 2015-16. More

   Burgeoning
   D.C. traditional and  charter schools grew for the fifth year in a row, together enrolling  4 percent more students this fall than last. More

   Nagging has yet to work
   The Massachusetts Public  Health Council has voted to stop automatically sending letters home  with public school students about their weight. More

   Damage control
   Pennsylvania Gov. Tom  Corbett has agreed to release $45 million for the Philadelphia schools  as the district goes through its worst financial crisis in memory and  questions rage about a student's asthma-related death after attending a  school without a nurse. More

   The new prestige project
   Rapper Pitbull (Armando  Christian Pérez) is the latest in a long list of celebrities such as  Alicia Keyes, Denzel Washington, Shakira, and Oprah lending their star  power to the flourishing charter school movement. More

  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

     NCTM: Connecting Mathematics to Other Subject Areas Grants for Grades 9-12 Teachers
   The National Council of  Teachers of Mathematics Connecting Mathematics to Other Subject Areas  Grants help create senior high classroom materials or lessons connecting  mathematics to other fields. Materials may be in the form of books,  visual displays, computer programs or displays, slide shows, videotapes,  or other appropriate media. The focus of these materials should be on  showing the connectivity of mathematics to other fields or to the world  around us. Any acquisition of equipment or payment of personal stipends  must be critical to the grant proposal and may not be a major portion of  the proposed budget. Any published sources must be documented.  Proposals must address the following: the plan for developing and  evaluating materials, the connectivity to other fields or disciplines,  and anticipated impact on students' learning. Maximum award: $4,000.  Eligibility: current (as of October 15, 2013) Full Individual or  E-Members of NCTM who teach mathematics in grades 9-12 at least 50  percent of the school day. Deadline: November 8, 2013.

   NCTM: 7-12 Classroom Research Grants
   National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 7-12 Classroom Research Grants
   support and encourage  classroom-based research in precollege mathematics education in  collaboration with college or university mathematics educators. The  research must be a significant collaborative effort involving a college  or university mathematics educator (a mathematics education researcher  or a teacher of mathematics learning, teaching, or curriculum) and one  or more grades 7-12 classroom teachers. The proposal may include, but is  not restricted to, research on curriculum development and  implementation; involvement of at-risk or minority students; students'  thinking about a particular mathematics concept or set of concepts;  connection of mathematics to other disciplines; focused learning and  teaching of mathematics with embedded use of technology (any acquisition  of equipment must support the proposed plan but not be the primary  focus of the grant); and innovative assessment or evaluation strategies.  Maximum award: $6,000. Eligibility: current (as of October 15,  2013) Full Individual or E-Members of NCTM or those who teach at a  school with a current (as of October 15, 2013) NCTM PreK-8 school  Membership. The college or university mathematics educator must be a  member of the NCTM. Deadline: November 8, 2013.

   NSTA: Sylvia Shugrue Award for Elementary School Teachers
   The National Science  Teachers Association Sylvia Shugrue Award honors one elementary school  teacher who has established (or is establishing) an interdisciplinary,  inquiry-based lesson plan. The lesson plan will fully reference sources  of information and any relevant National Science Education Standards and  benchmarks found in the Atlas of Science Literacy. Maximum award:  $1,000 and up to $500 to attend the NSTA National Conference on Science  Education; the recipient of the award will be honored during the Awards  Banquet at the NSTA Conference. Eligibility: elementary school teachers  (grades K-6); applicants must be a full-time teacher with a minimum of  five years of experience. Deadline: November 30, 2013. 

   NSTA: Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Award for New Teachers
   The Maitland P. Simmons  Memorial Award for New Teachers provides selected K-12 teachers in their  first five years of teaching with funds to attend the annual National  Conference on Science Education. Award recipients will be mentored,  tracked, and provided with continuing opportunities for meaningful  involvement with NSTA and its activities. Maximum award: up to $1,000 to  be used to attend the annual National Conference; recipients will be  invited to attend a variety of workshops and presentations that are of  particular interest to new teachers. Eligibility: teachers within the  first five years full-time teaching at the time of application who are  NSTA members in good standing; to the extent possible, recipients must  have been a student member of NSTA as a pre-service teacher. Deadline:  November 30, 2013.

   QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
   "I thanked President  Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan  and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees. I also expressed my concerns  that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in  these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If  we refocus efforts on education, it will make a big impact." -- Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for championing education for girls, recounting her meeting with President Obama.

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