[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — April 1, 2014

[Art Snyder]

                                                                                                                            April 1, 2014 - In This Issue:
                Vergara wraps up
      Claims and counter-claims about RttT
      The truth about skills and employment
      Through student eyes
      Managing the managers
      New York: America's most segregated
      Strong Start is just a start
      Failing ESLs in New Orleans
      BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
      BRIEFLY NOTED
      THE MARKETING HELP YOU NEED
                                                                                                                  Vergara wraps up
  
     The closing arguments of  Vergara vs. California painted two vastly different pictures of whether  students are harmed by job protections enjoyed by public school  teachers, reports Adolfo Guzman-Lopez for Southern California Public  Radio. Ted Boutrous, one of the lawyers representing nine California  public school students who alleged their exposure to ineffective  teachers denied them an adequate education, reminded presiding Judge  Rolf Treu that his side questioned 30 witnesses over two months,  including public school superintendents, teachers, parents, researchers,  and student plaintiffs, and their testimony showed that bad teachers  aren't fired early in their careers because the state's seniority-based  layoffs allow them to stay on the job. Deputy California Attorney  General Susan Carson, defending the state's laws against the suit,  questioned the validity of using student test scores to measure whether a  teacher is doing a good job and argued that well-managed districts are  already able to identify and fire bad teachers under the current system  of teacher job protections. Judge Treu has up to 90 days after April 10  to make a ruling. The trial has been closely watched and widely viewed  as a bellwether case for public education reform efforts nationwide. More
  
  
           Claims and counter-claims about RttT
  
     A new study from the  Obama administration credits its signature K-12 education program, the  Race to the Top, for "enormous positive change" in public school  classrooms across the country, reports Lyndsey Layton for The Washington  Post. The study is significantly more positive about the competitive  program than progress reports from the Education Department, which have  indicated some states improved but others had trouble spending funds and  lacked capacity to implement promised changes. The program has drawn  fire from a range of players: Teacher unions, school administrators, and  members of Congress have argued it's unfair to give money to only some  states. Others say the policies promoted are unproven. Cecilia Muñoz,  director of the Domestic Policy Council for the White House, pointed out  that high school graduation rates are at a record high -- 80 percent --  and in 2013, students recorded the highest math and reading scores on  the National Assessment of Educational Progress since that test was  first given in the early 1990s. But federal researchers have also  suggested the high graduation rate stems from a soft economy, since  students stay in school when they lack job opportunities. And while NAEP  scores are the highest in 20 years, they've been incrementally  increasing since 2005. More
  
  
        The truth about skills and employment
  
     A new report from the  Economic Policy Institute finds persistent unemployment in the  manufacturing sector is likely driven by inadequate demand rather than a  shortage of skilled workers as is often contended. While skills  required of the manufacturing workforce have increased over time,  they're well within the reach of most Americans, according to the  report. For instance, while 38 percent of manufacturing firms require  math beyond simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication, the level  of math expected is at the level of a good high school or community  college education. Further, a minority of manufacturers report  difficulty recruiting employees. Nearly 65 percent of establishments  report no vacancies whatsoever, and 76.3 percent report no long-term  vacancies (in which jobs remained unfilled for three months or more).  Only 16 percent of respondents -- typically plant managers -- responded  affirmatively when asked if access to skilled workers were a major  obstacle to increasing financial success. Employers with the very  highest skill demands -- those classified by the Bureau of Labor  Statistics as high-technology -- actually had significantly lower  long-term vacancies as a percentage of total core workers. The current  impact of technology does not condemn most people holding unskilled jobs  who have not obtained high levels of education and training. More
  
  
        Through student eyes
  
   A  movement to systematically incorporate student feedback into the formal  teacher-evaluation process is growing nationally, reports Scott LaFee  in School Administrator Magazine. Based on the work of Ronald Ferguson  of Harvard, "finely tuned" student-perception surveys can reveal what's  happening inside classrooms and augment principal observations and  student test scores. In his work, Ferguson found that regardless of  race, socioeconomic status, or other demographics, student-survey  answers were serious and remarkably consistent. The Bill & Melinda  Gates Foundation-funded Measures of Effective Teaching study concluded  that students were better than trained adult observers at evaluating  teachers, clearly identifying teacher strengths and areas for  improvement. Student observations also had predictive validity,  forecasting with reliable consistency how students would fare on  standardized tests and other measures of achievement. Scores of  districts, mostly large, have launched high-profile pilots to survey  student perceptions, though none as yet are making student feedback a  significant factor in teacher accountability. Ross Wilson, an assistant  superintendent for the Boston Public Schools, "was surprised last year  by the pilot results. Kids from all grades took the survey and they all  took it seriously... We learned a lot about what was happening in  classrooms and, more broadly, in schools. We learned how teachers engage  their students and how students themselves think about the learning  process and what it means to them."  More
  
      Managing the managers
     A new report from the  Thomas B. Fordham Institute looks at capacity of local school board  members to lead their districts, finding that that officials who focus  on academic improvement are likelier to govern districts that outperform  others with similar demographics and funding. It also finds board  members by and large possess accurate information about their districts  regarding finance, teacher pay, collective bargaining, and class size,  but such knowledge is not uniformly distributed. Members who were never  educators themselves are more accurately informed than their peers who  once were (or still are) educators. Likewise, political moderates appear  to have more accurate knowledge than liberal or conservative  counterparts. Though a district's success academically appears related  to board-member focus on improvement of academics, some board members  prefer a broader approach, such as developing the "whole child." Board  members elected during on-cycle, at-large elections are more likely to  serve in districts performing well academically than those chosen by  voters off-cycle or by ward. In some localities, how board members are  elected may deter the best and brightest from taking on key roles. The  report also offers "commonsense board-level advice": 1) hire well; 2)  hold senior managers accountable for running the system effectively and  efficiently, in accord with board-set priorities; and 3) provide  responsible oversight without micromanaging. More
  
  
                     New York: America's most segregated
   A  new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA finds New York state  has the most segregated schools in the country. In 2009, New York black  and Latino students had the highest concentrations in intensely  segregated public schools, the lowest exposure to white students, and  the most uneven distribution across schools. New York City, the largest  and one of the most segregated systems in the nation, heavily impacts  state data, with school-choice programs and policies exacerbating racial  isolation. A growing diversity of enrollment in schools and districts  across the state and metropolitan areas, accompanied by a lack of  diversity-focused policies over the last two decades, has resulted in  persisting and in some cases increased segregation patterns. The study  also explored associations between race and class, finding an  overexposure to low-income students for black and Latinos across  geographical levels. It found high racial isolation for the average  charter school, and lower segregation for the average magnet school  across New York City, although there was substantial variation within  magnets. Finally, due to the lack of voluntary metropolitan or  inter-district policies across upstate New York, as well as the  proliferation of small, fragmented districts, close to 90 percent of  segregation is occurring among rather than within upstate districts.  More
  
        Strong Start is just a start
  
     A new report from the  Center for American Progress looks at whether new federal investment in  early childhood education would be duplicative of existing programs, and  finds the answer "a resounding no." Less than a third of low-income  children have access to publicly funded or subsidized preschool. The  Strong Start for America's Children Act would improve access to  high-quality programs, but still leave 60 percent of low-income children  under age 5 without access. The federal government currently has just  two major investments in early childhood education: Head Start and the  Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). Only half of eligible  children have access to Head Start, with many on waiting lists. CCDBG  serves only a quarter of those eligible; 19 states had waiting lists or  frozen intake as of February 2013. State preschool programs reach 28  percent of 4-year-olds and 4 percent of 3-year-olds, with a low  per-child spending rate. The Strong Start Act would implement  evidence-based standards and offer states assistance in improving  existing programs. Teachers would be required to have a bachelor's  degree and training or demonstrated competency in early childhood  education. They would be paid the same rates as K-12 teachers, reducing  turnover and improving retention. Small class sizes, a research-based  curriculum, and comprehensive services to families would be part of the  initiative. More
  
  
        Failing ESLs in New Orleans
  
   While  many districts nationwide struggle to serve non-English-speaking  families, the situation in New Orleans is unique, writes Katy Reckdahl  for The Hechinger Report. Between 2000 and 2010, the Latino population  in New Orleans increased by 57 percent, drawn largely by  hurricane-recovery work. Dozens of charter schools opened after 2005,  most with little expertise in or infrastructure for working with  families not fluent in English, and without the economies of scale that  can be realized by sharing interpreters or bilingual teachers  system-wide. In 2011, the Louisiana Language Access Coalition prompted  some systemic reforms when it got Vietnamese and Spanish interpreters to  be placed in school registration centers. But within a couple of years,  interpretation service grew erratic. As a result of gaps in services,  the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association has partnered with the  national Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund to file a  federal complaint on behalf of 35 Spanish- or Vietnamese-speaking  parents, alleging that the Orleans Parish School District and the  state-run Recovery School District routinely fall short of federally  mandated translation services for parents who speak little or no  English. A spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Education said the  state monitors charters to ensure their services for  non-English-speaking families are in compliance with federal mandates,  but most of the monitoring is limited to paperwork reviews. More
  
                        BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
    (Smarter) Balanced feedback
   The Smarter Balanced  field tests got underway in California and 21 other states, with  officials receiving positive feedback from participating schools. More
    
   More ambivalent
   The Center for Research  on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford has now released a report on  charter outcomes for California as a whole, and the results are mixed. More
    
   Title IX in the mix
   In a significant  departure from how school performance has been judged in the past,  legislation introduced would add to the matrix an assessment of how well  California schools ensure that boys and girls have equal access to all  programs and services. More
    
   Waiver issue
   The U.S. Department of  Education's sweeping decision to let California avoid making new school  accountability decisions until 2016 worries civil rights officials, who  argue it could jeopardize everything from who gets special education  services in the state to how English-learners are classified. More
                        BRIEFLY NOTED 
    Crackdown
   The U.S. Dept of  Education is looking to reinstate a requirement -- which a federal judge  struck down in 2012 for procedural reasons -- that providers of online  education obtain approval from state regulators in each and every state  in which they enroll students. More
    
   It's never too early
   A 50-state database on  kindergarten policies compiled by the Education Commission of the States  shows that more than half of states and the District of Columbia have  enacted legislation to administer kindergarten entrance assessments as  policymakers continue their emphasis on school readiness. More
    
   Sure to measure original thought
   A computer program will  grade student essays on the writing portion of the standardized test set  to replace the FCAT, according to bid documents released by the Florida  Department of Education. More
    
   Smart money
   A smattering of  Mississippi districts, child care centers, and Head Start programs will  all benefit from the addition of $3 million in state grants to serve  nearly two-dozen districts and reach an estimated 2,400 4-year-olds  during the next two and a half years. More
    
   First in, first out
   Less than four years  after Indiana became an early adopter of the Common Core education  standards, Gov. Mike Pence has signed legislation making Indiana the  first state to opt out of the K-12 guidelines. More
    
   Or maybe it's just them
   Some Texas lawmakers are  complaining that new high school curriculum and standardized-testing  rules are too complicated to understand for even those who approved them  -- much less students, parents, or academic counselors. More
    
   Personal belief and medical fact
   The Colorado House has  passed a bill that would require parents who want to opt children out of  immunizations for reasons of "personal belief" to obtain a note from a  doctor or medical professional certifying they have been briefed on the  benefits and risks of vaccinations, or to complete a state online  training about those risks and benefits. More
    
   Emergency measures
   Philadelphia  Superintendent William Hite will institute new work rules that allow  principals to take factors other than seniority into consideration when  selecting and assigning teachers. More
    
   Seeing double
   Federal and Texas  officials are in talks to work out a conflict between testing  requirements under the state's new high school graduation standards and  federal education law that could force students to take two sets of  standardized tests in math. More
    
   Salvo
   Tennessee's teacher  union has filed a federal lawsuit calling the portion of the state's  teacher-evaluation system based on test scores arbitrary, flawed, and in  violation of teachers' constitutional rights. More
    
   Get with the program
   The Education Law Center  has filed a motion with the New Jersey Supreme Court, under the  landmark Abbott v. Burke ruling, taking Gov. Chris Christie to task for  failing to use the School Funding Reform Act's formula in determining  school aid for fiscal 2015. More
    
   Can't lose
   Former first lady and  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has launched a campaign aimed at  improving early childhood education, Too Small to Fail. More
    
   More nuanced recognition
   A new licensing field  from the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board has been created to recognize  teachers who serve in a leadership capacity other than school  administration. More
    
   Workaround
   Having teachers read  aloud a reading-comprehension test to students with disabilities and  English-language learners offers a boost in scores without altering what  the test is trying to measure, according to a study of about 2,000  California 4th and 8th graders who were given the NAEP in 2013. More
                       
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
 
  Institute for Global Environmental Strategies: Thacher Environmental Research Contest
  The  2014 Thacher Environmental Research Contest, sponsored by the Institute  for Global Environmental Strategies, challenges high school students to  conduct innovative research on our changing planet using the latest  geospatial tools and data. Eligible geospatial tools and data include  satellite remote sensing, aerial photography, geographic information  systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). The main focus of the  project must be on the application of the geospatial tool(s) or data to  study a problem related to Earth's environment. Maximum award: $2,000.  Eligibility: any student attending high school (grades 9-12 - public,  private, parochial, Native American reservation, or home school) in the  United States or U.S. territories; or any student who is a United States  citizen and enrolled in a high school (grades 9-12) attending a  Department of Defense Dependents' Overseas School or an accredited  overseas American or International School; or foreign school as an  exchange student; or a foreign school because his/her parent(s) are  temporarily working and living abroad. Deadline: May 5, 2014.
   
  NSTA: New Science Teacher Academy
  The  NSTA New Science Teacher Academy Foundation is a professional  development initiative created to promote quality science teaching,  enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence, and improve teacher  content knowledge. Maximum award: program expenses. 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: July 1, 2014.
   
  Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest: Community Grant Program
  The  Brown Rudnick Center Community Grant Program recognizes, encourages,  and collaborates with front-line workers within the educational system  who often do not have a voice in funding decisions; and provides funding  to assist with small, concrete projects or needs that will make an  improvement in inner-city education in Boston, Hartford, New York City,  Providence, and Washington, D.C. within a year of the award. Maximum  award: $2,000. Eligibility: "front line educational workers" involved in  the education field or a related field in Boston, Hartford, New York  City, Providence, or Washington, D.C. partnered with a non-profit  organization or tax-exempt organization (e.g. a public school) that is  willing to accept the grant and use it in the required manner. Deadline:  rolling.
   
  QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
 "When  Hillary Clinton runs around trying to close the word gap, it's like  fine, vocabulary is good. But there is a deeper commitment to literacy  and conversation around the dinner table and talking to kids about ideas  and political controversies that is the more colorful fabric of  literacy and conversation." -- Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. 
 
   
 
    
  

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