[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — Nov. 26, 2013

[Art Snyder]

                       NewsBlast will be taking the next week off to observe and celebrate Thanksgiving. Best wishes for the holiday!
          
                November 26, 2013 - In This Issue:
       Congressional rhetoric, funding realities
  One district tackles the Common Core
  Measuring tenacity
  States get serious about data
  The crucial third-grade benchmark
  Where single-gender may work
  How teacher observations can be effective
  What to consider when evaluating teacher prep
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            
Congressional rhetoric, funding realities

The American Association of State Administrators (AASA) has analyzed a comprehensive dataset detailing revenues and expenditures for every district in the nation for federal fiscal year 2011 (FY11). Federal revenues have historically been a small portion of overall K-12 spending (8 to 9 percent), yet as the recession ends they currently represent an above-average share. In FY11 (2011-12), federal dollars represented -- on average -- 12 percent of schools' revenues. In more than a quarter of schools, federal revenues were more than 15 percent of budgets, and in over six percent they represented a quarter or more. The rhetoric of Congress -- growing the economy, addressing the nation's debt and deficit, increasing employment, and expanding competitiveness -- is in direct conflict with its funding of public education. Final FY12 appropriations agreements cut $1.5 billion in education programs. The sequester cuts another $2.4 billion, not including $401 million from Head Start. These cuts come at the same time that public school enrollment is increasing. It is time for Congress to align what it says with what it does. A Congress that is serious about jobs, the economy, and employment rates would not only focus on, but would prioritize, investing in education.??More


 
One district tackles the Common Core

A new article in Strategies Magazine examines the work that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district in North Carolina has undertaken to build capacity for the Common Core State Standards for all its students in all classrooms. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has over 141,000 students at 159 schools, with a student population that is 42 percent African American, 32 percent white, 18 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian, and 3 percent American Indian or multiracial. Fifty-four percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The district determined that without systemic shifts, a piecemeal response to the Common Core would intensify inequities for its students. Its Common Core Steering Committee includes principals at all levels, community superintendents, and representatives of all content areas, special education, Limited English Proficiency, accountability, professional development, and communications. Principals serve as building-level instructional leaders who deliver a common focus, using common language around common activities. Each school's leadership team includes a literacy facilitator, an academic facilitator, or an assistant principal of instruction. With the support of the Curriculum and Instruction Department, teachers were divided into grade-level groups and engaged in professional development around mastery of given standards. To foster buy-in, the district's Common Core Comprehensive Communications and Engagement Plan involves four approaches to reaching the wider community: parents, principals and teachers, community partners, and media partners.?More


Measuring tenacity

An article in Voices in Urban Education Magazine by Jay Carrano of New Visions for Public Schools (NVPS) describes their work around measuring non-cognitive skills for college and career readiness. To date, measurements of academic tenacity have been subjective student self-assessment tools like surveys, or other rough proxies like attendance. At the time it was undertaking a different project, College Readiness Indicator Systems, NVPS was also developing Common Core-aligned modules, and saw a convergence. The Common Core will require academic tenacity, since they'll induce students to understand skills and knowledge needed to self-regulate toward mastery. Toward this end, NVPS started iMentor, a school-based program that matches high school students with college-educated mentors in one-to-one relationships for all four years of high school, over which time they exchange weekly emails and meet in person on a monthly basis. Students entering eight New Visions high schools will pair with a mentor for four years as part of a six-year study to be completed in 2018; approximately 2,500 students will participate. NVPS is also developing a data warehouse to connect formerly isolated data sets to produce nuanced data analysis that can help schools make informed decisions about programming and resource allocation. This includes tracking the four-year high school trajectory of individual students at each school in its network.??More



States get serious about data

That latest national survey from the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) reports state progress in using data to ensure that students graduate college- and career-ready. As a metric, DQC uses its 10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use, as well as emerging data issues and practices in the field. The report finds the average number of Actions achieved by states increased from 4.7 in 2011 to 6.6 in 2013. Arkansas and Delaware have achieved all 10 State Actions. Most states are providing policy and funding support for their data systems (41 states); developing data governance structures (43); and creating publicly available reports on school systems and groups of students (46). Only 19 link K-12 and workforce data. States are still working to provide timely access to student data for stakeholders (9) and to implement policies and practices that ensure educators use data appropriately (12). Four states gained three or more Actions (Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, and North Dakota). Fifteen states have eight or nine Actions (the District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin). Recent policy changes across the country have driven demand for data for high school feedback reports, teacher evaluations, early warning systems, and other educational improvement efforts.?More


The crucial third-grade benchmark

About 30 states have adopted measures to help all students attain reading proficiency by the critical point of third grade, reports Adrienne Lu for Stateline.org. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have strict retention policies based on third-grade reading benchmarks, with some calling for interventions much earlier. Connecticut has expanded its statewide reading plan to include oral language and pre-literacy proficiency for children moving from pre-kindergarten to kindergarten, and has passed legislation requiring elementary school teachers to take surveys on reading instruction. Virginia has approved legislation requiring districts to provide early intervention from preschool to third grade for struggling students. From 2016, Ohio will require districts to submit reading-achievement improvement plans every year if too many students fail to meet certain benchmarks, and in 2017, new teacher licenses in Ohio will require teachers to pass tests on reading instruction. Utah is requiring that schools improve the percentage of third graders reading on grade level, or risk losing state funds. These efforts notwithstanding, experts believe children learn most language skills at home before they even enter school. States wanting to make significant improvements in early reading need to target parents before children reach school, or even preschool.?More


     
Where single-gender may work

The all-male educational model has been resurrected to serve New York City's poorest boys, writes Karen Matthews in The Washington Post. David Banks, the founding principal of the first Eagle Academy, has just opened his fifth academy, in Harlem, and hopes to open two more for a total of seven serving 4,000 students, all in high-poverty neighborhoods. The Eagle Academies have shown above-average results. The four-year graduation rate in 2012 for the Bronx Eagle Academy -- the first location to have a graduating class -- was 67.5 percent. Citywide, the average was 59.9 percent for boys. Graduates have gone on to colleges including Syracuse, Skidmore, and Fordham. Single-sex education has long been available to children in private schools, but remains controversial in public ones. The American Civil Liberties Union argues that efforts to separate sexes in the classroom are often rooted in outdated gender stereotypes. However, anecdotal evidence supports the model for at-risk boys. Single-sex believers include Melanie Harmon, whose son Aaron just started at the Harlem Eagle Academy after struggling with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at his previous school. Harmon said Aaron is learning to focus without the added distraction of girls. She added: "They teach them to become responsible. They're teaching him basically how to grow into a man."?More



How teacher observations can be effective

A new paper from The New Teacher Project proposes an overhaul of classroom observations. Nearly every teacher-evaluation system in use today -- outdated and next-generation systems alike -- is built on the assumption that classroom observations can serve as both comprehensive teacher-development and rating tools. Too often, observations accomplish neither: Observers are asked to do too much; rubrics are too complex; ratings are inflated and inaccurate; and observations give inadequate feedback. Rubrics should focus on the essential aspects of a lesson and assess whether students are learning, providing specific feedback to the teacher. Rubrics need not be comprehensive frameworks that describe each element of successful teaching practice, nor include every possible technique a teacher could use inside or outside the classroom. They should rate a small number of student outcomes and draw a clear distinction between what outcomes teachers are responsible for producing in a successful lesson and strategies that can achieve those outcomes. They might also list the various instructional strategies and techniques teachers could pursue. Complex rubrics should be analyzed toward collapsing, combining, and eliminating indicators. Leaders need support and training on delivering feedback to teachers, and must be held accountable for doing it well, perhaps by using teacher surveys or other sources of upward feedback.?More


What to consider when evaluating teacher prep

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) has released a report that addresses key methodological and policy issues in the evaluation of teacher-preparation programs (TPPs) in the United States. In America's fragmented education system, TPPs will always involve multiple players with different purposes and interests. The limitations of any evaluation system should be weighed against its potential benefits, given its differential and potentially unfair effects on diverse populations of prospective teachers and communities. Evaluation systems must also reflect changes in education goals and standards. In selecting a TPP evaluation system, its primary purpose must be considered. It should be determined which aspects of teacher preparation matter most, and what sources of evidence will provide the most accurate and useful information. How will measures be analyzed and combined to judge program quality? What are the intended and potentially unintended consequences of the system? The process must be transparent, and users must be helped to interpret the results and use them appropriately. The credibility of results from TPP evaluations will hinge largely on the extent to which their implementation is monitored and their key features are revised and refined based on independent and objective research.??More

          BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
Oh well
California's Department of Education has announced it's backing down from a plan to give students just one of the new math and English standardized tests this spring.?More
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Again with the iPads
An oversight committee has nixed the L.A. Unified District's plan to provide every teacher and administrator in the district with an iPad.?More
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Valley bloc
After a change in Los Angeles Unified's funding policy sent their numbers soaring, the 42 affiliated charter schools in the San Fernando Valley have formed an official council that will work as a bloc to communicate with district officials.?More
          BRIEFLY NOTED?
Ruh roh
A federal program that pumped a record $5 billion into failing schools is showing mixed results, with students at more than one-third of targeted schools doing the same or worse after the schools received the funding.?More
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Race matters
The U.S. Department of Education today named 31 finalists for the second Race to the Top district competition, worth $120 million.?More
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Oversight needed
The local agency that administers D.C.'s school vouchers, the nation's only federally funded program that gives tax dollars to poor children to attend private schools, has so many faulty internal systems and missing policies that it can't manage the program, according to the General Accounting Office.?More
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Tweaking in order
Only two years into a new formula, the South Dakota Department of Education wants to overhaul the way it evaluates the quality of the state's public schools.?More
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Rural focus
The Idaho-based J.A. and Kathryn Albertson family foundation has launched a new consortium to identify best practices, support innovations, and research national trends in rural education.?More
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Oh dear
Only one in four aspiring teachers passed a beefed-up version of Michigan's teacher certification test -- an exam that teachers must pass to be hired to lead a classroom -- when the new test was administered for the first time last month.?More
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Come teach
The Department of Education, in partnership with the Advertising Council, Microsoft, State Farm Insurance, Teach for America, the nation's two largest teachers' unions, and several other educational groups is unveiling a public service campaign this week aimed at recruiting a new generation of classroom educators.?More
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Only connect
The Obama administration's Youth CareerConnect will deliver 25 to 40 competitive grants of $2 million to $7 million to teams of secondary schools and higher education institutions to build programs to prepare students for the job market.?More
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Dude, really?
A newly elected school board member in a Connecticut town neighboring the one where 26 people were killed at an elementary school has apologized for saying on Facebook that he'll observe the anniversary of the Newtown shooting by distributing ammunition.?More
          
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES


The New Teacher Project: The Fishman Prize
The Fishman prize is an annual award for exceptionally effective teachers working in high-poverty public schools. Maximum award: $25,000; summer residency. Eligibility: full-time teachers at public schools (including charter schools) where at least 40% of all students are eligible for Free or Reduced Price Lunch (or a Title I school). Deadline: December 3, 2013.
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Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards
Each year, The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards solicits nominations from the general public and notable public figures, providing the opportunity to submit stories about teachers and professors who made a significant difference in their lives. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: Nominees must be legal residents of the United States teach or have taught in a K-12 school, or college, or university in the United States. Deadline: December 15, 2013.
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U.S. Army: eCYBERMISSION
eCYBERMISSION is a free, web-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics competition in which students compete against other students in their grades for state, regional and national awards.?? Teams consisting of 3-4 students and a team advisor would work to solve problems in their community utilizing the scientific method, scientific inquiry, or engineering design process and can win at the state, regional and national levels. Maximum award: $5,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds per student. Eligibility: students grades 6 through 9 at a U.S.-based public, private or home school, or a Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) school abroad. Deadline: January 15, 2014.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who -- all of a sudden -- their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that's pretty scary. You've bet your house and where you live and everything on, 'My child's going to be prepared.' That can be a punch in the gut." -- Arne Duncan at a meeting of state schools superintendents, regarding opposition to the Common Core.

 
   
 
    
  

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