[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — October 15, 2014

[Gifted and Talented in Ohio Discussion List]

                                  ?                October 14, 2014 - In This Issue:
       If no one got waivers
  The full story on student achievement
  The power of expectations
  Resources, not punishment
  Trouble in preschool paradise?
  Charters and the ELL enrollment gap
  Deeper Learning sounds great. What is it?
  Governance, Chicago-style
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            If no one got waivers
The Obama administration has released an NCLB "snapshot" indicating where states stood for compliance in 2011-12, the year before waivers were implemented, writes Alyson Klein for Education Week. Even prior to waivers, few eligible students were transferring from schools that didn't make AYP -- just one percent. Just?11 percent of students nationally opted for tutoring in 2011-12, down from 13.6 percent in 2010-11. Students meeting state benchmarks for 4th grade math in 2011-12?ranged from 38 percent (Bureau of Indian Education) to 90 percent (Maryland). States with rigorous standards such as Massachusetts had lower proficiency rates, in its case 51 percent. Students in subgroups underperformed compared to the student population as a whole. For instance, in California, 69 percent of fourth graders scored "proficient" or higher in math, compared to 53 percent?of black students. In Pennsylvania, 42 percent of black students and 43 percent of Hispanic students in high school scored "proficient" in reading/language arts, compared to 73 percent of white kids. Across the nation, 96 percent of classes were taught by "highly qualified" teachers in 2011-12. Under waivers, states are shifting from evaluating teacher "quality" to teacher "effectiveness," based on student progress. A gap remains however, between high- and low-poverty schools: high-poverty secondary schools show 94 percent high-quality teachers, versus 97 percent in low-poverty.?More
 The full story on student achievement
A new report from the Education Trust examines how state accountability systems can mask the full story of student achievement when schools earn high marks despite low performance for some groups of students. Education Trust's analysis used data from Minnesota, Florida, and Kentucky, and found that while each state had some degree of innovative policy design and demonstrated dedication to raising student achievement -- including improvements for low-income students and students of color -- in general, top-rated schools' proficiency rates for low-income students and students of color were about the same as those of white and higher-income students in middle- and low-rated schools. In Florida, the average reading proficiency rate for African-American students in "A" schools is about the same as that of white students in "C" schools; the average proficiency rate for Latino students in "B" schools is about the same as that of white students in "D" schools. In Kentucky, average math proficiency rates of African-American students at schools with a "Distinguished" rating are about equal to math proficiency rates of white students in "Needs Improvement" schools. Minnesota's low-income children in top-rated schools are performing about the same as higher-income children attending schools identified for intervention. The report recommends that all states work to end this pattern by ensuring that gap-closing goals are reflected in school ratings. More
The power of expectations
A new brief from the Center for American Progress looks at the effect of teacher expectations, analyzing the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Longitudinal Study (ELS), which followed a nationally representative sample of 10th grade students from 2002 to 2012. The ELS is longitudinal, allowing researchers to link teacher expectations to individual student data collected up to 10 years later. The data indicate that all else equal, 10th graders with teachers who had higher expectations were three times more likely to graduate from college than students of teachers with lower expectations. The data also suggest consistently lower expectations for certain subgroups: Teachers predicted high-poverty students were 53 percent less likely to earn a college diploma than affluent peers; African-American students 47 percent less likely than white peers; and Hispanic students 42 percent less likely. The brief also found college-preparation programs to be significant predictors of college graduation rates. The brief reviews a large body of research indicating that expectations carry long-term impact and are more predictive than student motivation and student effort. The brief concludes by saying expectations must be raised; the Common Core standards can do this. At the same time, teacher instructional capacity must improve, and it's critical for teacher-preparation programs to communicate the importance of high expectations for all students, especially low-income students of color. More
Resources, not punishment
When she read the federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights report about racial inequities in student punishment, Piazadora Footman writes in The New York Times that it told her son's story. Last year, her 8-year-old was at "the lowest of lows": hitting other children in school, spitting on them, stealing, leaving the classroom, even kicking a teacher. He got little schoolwork done, and had two in-school suspensions. Xavier, who has an IEP, was in an "integrated co-taught class" with many other children. A therapist recommended he have a paraprofessional, but the school said it wasn't needed. "It seemed as if they saw him as a bad child, not a child with needs the school could help address," Footman writes. The school seemed happier to punish him than to help him, and as the Office of Civil Rights report shows, this is common with young children of color. Xavier was angry and sad. Six months ago, Footman got her son transferred to another public school, and he is thriving with the right support. The new school immediately placed Xavier in a class with only 11 students. Xavier no longer has outbursts or is sent to the principal's office, and recently made honor roll in math. Footman wants New York City's Department of Education to track schools with a history of suspending little children. "These schools need either new resources or new leadership to change," she says. More
Trouble in preschool paradise?
A new report from the University of California at Berkeley finds that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's push to provide universal preschool to the city's 4-year-olds has disproportionately benefited children from middle- and upper-income families, reports Michael Alison Chandler for The Washington Post. In the first year of expansion, pre-kindergarten seats in the city's schools increased by 36?percent in zip codes where families earn more than the city's average income of $51,865, twice the increase in the poorest quartile of city zip codes. In the Bronx, with a median household income of $32,568 in 2010, there was a 10?percent increase in pre-k slots in school-based programs; by contrast, Queens, with a median income of $53,052, had a 36?percent increase. Staten Island, with a median income of $70,560, had a 63?percent increase. However, W. Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University says geographically based analysis could be misleading, since it doesn't reflect actual numbers of low-income students served in each location. The report suggests the imbalance is tied to the greater availability of classroom space in more affluent neighborhoods and a stronger demand from economically secure families. Demand is much softer in poorer communities, where mothers often work part-time or irregular hours. More
     Charters and the ELL enrollment gap
A new report from the Manhattan Institute uses longitudinal, student-level enrollment data to explain the ELL enrollment?gap between New York City charter and traditional public schools. The report confirms that the proportion of students in charters with an ELL classification is significantly smaller than the proportion in traditional schools. The gap is largest in kindergarten and first grade, but considerable at every grade. The report finds ELL students are less likely to exit charter elementary schools than traditional elementary schools, and no more likely to exit charter middle schools than traditional middle schools. Moreover, ELL students are more likely to enter charters in non-gateway grades than to exit them. ("Gateway grades" are those in which students make structural moves, such as from elementary to middle school.) The bulk of the ELL gap is instead explained by the fact that ELL students are far less likely to apply to charter schools in gateway grades, and students with particularly poor English skills are least likely to apply. Additionally, charters declassify a significantly larger proportion of their ELL students than do traditional schools. The ELL gap in percentage points?narrows as students progress through grade levels because the proportion of ELL students in charters is, from the outset, considerably smaller than in traditional public schools. More
Deeper Learning sounds great. What is it?
A recent study from the American Institutes of Research (AIR) described excellent outcomes for schools engaged in Deeper Learning, but many in education are unclear what Deeper Learning is, writes Alexandria Neason in The Hechinger Report. Ron Berger of Expeditionary Learning -- a network of 165 schools that use Deeper Learning across 33 states -- explains it as a focus on in-depth academic knowledge and skills combined with the belief that students must also master communication skills, learn to collaborate effectively, and own, manage, and justify their own learning. It tends to embrace the goals of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, and uses teaching strategies long considered good practice: project-based learning, long-term cumulative assessments, advisory classes, and block scheduling. What's new is an explicit combination of deep content knowledge and problem solving with softer skills like the ability to collaborate and learning how to learn. It is characterized by a systemic, school-wide undertaking. Jennifer O'Day of AIR says schools across the country already use these practices, but often in isolation. Project-based learning might be used in one really strong English classroom, for example, but nowhere else within a school. The study, O'Day says, is reassurance to teachers already doing this work and an invitation for more to join the club. More
Governance, Chicago-style
A quarter-century ago, Chicagoans voted for who would sit on the city's first local school councils, a revolutionary experiment that handed significant control of schools to parents and the community, writes Denisa Superville for Education Week. The effort in local democracy was not completely unique, but its governance model was unusually strong because it gave parent-majority boards the power to hire and fire principals, set budget priorities, and develop school-improvement plans. Today, enthusiasm for the councils has waned. Financial support from foundations to finance and advise the experiment has dried up, participation in elections has plummeted, and a state law put the city's schools under mayoral control. Still, the councils remain an important vehicle for participatory democracy, allowing stakeholders -- particularly parents -- the opportunity to make decisions about their children's education. No other urban district has chosen this path, raising the question of whether the councils could ever have lived up to their idealistic goals. Reasons why the Chicago model may not have spread beyond the city include a recognition that other state legislatures may be unwilling to devolve such expansive powers to parents and the community, says Norm Fruchter of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Still, Fruchter thinks the pendulum is shifting again as a backlash emerges to "corporate reform and corporate-foundation-dominated reform." More
          BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
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Nice work
LAUSD's graduation rate of 77 percent for 2013-14 was 12 percentage points better than last year, the largest one-year increase under a tracking system that dates from 2006-07. More
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At a teacher-prep crossroads
A new report from EdSource identifies seven key challenges that California must address to ensure an effective?teaching force -- and the most promising strategies to address them at a local and statewide level. More
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Promising
Officials have announced $36 million in federal funds for Promise Zones in Hollywood, Pico-Union, and Koreatown; a related initiative is underway in the San Fernando Valley, centered in the Pacoima area. More
          BRIEFLY NOTED?
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Urgently needed
Educators who want to implement more positive disciplinary practices can now access an online national repository of research-based alternatives to suspension and expulsion. More
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Not a moment too soon
The D.C. Council has unanimously approved a trio of bills designed to overhaul special-education services in the city, aiming to speed delivery of services to students with special needs and give parents better information and resources they can use to advocate for their children.?More
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A call for reasonable
The Jacksonville Public Education Fund is calling for a suspension of Florida school grades for a year, since measuring student growth from the old FCAT 2.0 to the new Florida Standards assessment is "like comparing apples and oranges."?More
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Could be a problem
Oregon and Delaware are the only states that have set rules and regulations designed to ensure test security and prevent cheating on the new breed of online exams.?More
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Pancake flat
The average SAT score for the Class of 2014 was 1497, down a point from the year before; also stagnant was the share of students who reached a combined score of 1550, considered a standard for college and career readiness.?More
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Indicative
Students First has named as its president Jim Blew, a longtime supporter of school vouchers and loosening tenure protections for public school teachers.?More
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On a scale of 1 to 10
A new North Carolina State Board of Education mandate will require state high schools in fall 2015 to adopt the same grading scale as many other districts in the U.S., switching from its seven-point grading scale to a 10-point grading scale.?More
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Not likely to draw sympathy
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is vowing to fight a surprise move by the district to unilaterally cancel its contract and make changes to its members' health benefits that would require union members to pay part of their health insurance costs for the first time.?More
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Boom time
Enrollment is up in both D.C. charter and traditional public schools this year, according to unofficial numbers released this week by officials from the D.C. Public Charter School Board and D.C. Public Schools.?More
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Whose benefit?
A number of school vouchers go unused from the District of Columbia's Opportunity Scholarships Program, with some of the most disadvantaged students using the program at lower rates than others, according to a report from the Institute of Education Sciences.?More
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GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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ARRL: ETP grants
Through its Education & Technology Program, the National Association for Amateur Radio offers grants for radio station equipment and related software and resources for classrooms in the US. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: schools that provide a plan to use Amateur Radio as part of an enrichment program and/or as part of in-classroom learning.?Deadline: November 1, 2014. More
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NSTA: Wendell G. Mohling Outstanding Aerospace Educator Award
The National Science Teachers Association Wendell G. Mohling Outstanding Aerospace Educator Award recognizes excellence in the field of aerospace education. Maximum award: $3,000, as well as $2,000 in expenses to attend NSTA's national conference. The recipient of the award will be honored during the Awards Banquet and the Aerospace Educators Luncheon at the NSTA Conference. Eligibility: educators in formal education settings. Deadline: November 30, 2014. More
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AAPT: Barbara Lotze Scholarships for Future Teachers
The American Association of Physics Teachers Barbara Lotze Scholarships offer funds for future high school physics teachers. Maximum award: $2,000. Eligibility: U.S. citizens attending U.S. schools as undergraduates enrolled, or planning to enroll, in physics teacher preparation curricula, and U.S. high school seniors entering such programs. Deadline: December 1, 2014. More
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Quote of the Week:
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"What we're doing today in this state is crazy." -- Randy Dorn, Washington state superintendent of education, regarding the situation his state now faces after losing its NCLB waiver. More



 

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