[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — December 10, 2014

[Gifted and Talented in Ohio Discussion List]

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           ?                December 10, 2014 - In This Issue:
       The case, or not, for single-sex education
  Still want single-sex classes?
  The mighty impact of peer pressure
  What's at risk with high school MOOCs 
  The vendor pushback revolution
  Where the money is
  Toward progressive Progressives
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            The case, or not, for single-sex education
Single-sex education is on the rise in public schools, as educators seek to improve academic performance among poorer students, reports Motoko Rich for The New York Times. The theory that girls learn differently from boys is held in low regard by most social scientists; however, some districts have seen improvement in low-income-student outcomes when trying the approach. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 750 public schools around the country have at least one single-sex class, and 850 schools are entirely single-sex. Critics cite scant evidence of substantial differences in brain development between boys and girls, and warn that dividing children by gender reinforces entrenched stereotypes. Advocates of single-sex classes cite the struggles of boys, who lag behind girls in national tests of reading comprehension, and are more likely to face disciplinary problems and drop out of school. Educators also argue that girls underperform in science compared with boys, and benefit learning with other girls. This year, the ACLU has filed complaints against four Florida districts, accusing them of using "overly broad stereotypes" to justify separating girls and boys into different classrooms. The ACLU also filed a complaint in Austin, Texas against two new single-sex middle schools, and has pending complaints in Idaho and Wisconsin. Lawsuits in Louisiana and West Virginia have resulted in single-sex classes reverting to coeducation. More
 Still want single-sex classes?
Schools that would offer single-sex classes in mixed-gender schools must make a clear case that these will lead to increases in student achievement, must give parents a chance to "opt-in"?to the single-sex model, and must offer a co-ed option on the same subject, according to guidance released by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), writes Alyson Klein in Education Week. Schools must also steer clear of gender stereotypes, and avoid considering gender when selecting faculty members to lead these classes. Regular reviews must ensure compliance with Title IX regulations, and schools must treat transgender students in a manner consistent with their chosen gender identity. Importantly, the guidance doesn't apply to public single-sex schools, which have separate regulations. The guidance marks the first time that OCR has weighed in on single-sex schooling since 2006, and perhaps addresses concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is questioning single-sex classes in Alabama, Maine, Mississippi, Virginia, and West Virginia. Much advocacy, but little evidence, supports the claim that?an all-boys or all-girls class boosts performance more than a comparable mixed class; some studies suggest keeping boys and girls segregated can lead to other behavior issues. More
The mighty impact of peer pressure
Depending on context, the rate at which students sign up for SAT prep can dramatically differ, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, reports Max Nisen for The Atlantic. Researchers offered free access to an online SAT prep course (normal cost: $200) to juniors at large, predominantly low-income, low-performing Los Angeles high schools. In non-honors classes when sign-ups were made public, participation dropped by 11 percent. The publicity had no effect on students in honors classes. To net out the possibility that honors and non-honors students might have different characteristics or priorities, researchers limited part of the study to students who take only some honors?classes so that researchers would encounter them in non-honors classes as well. In this case, students presented with the choice to sign up in the honors class were 25 percent more likely to do so if the decision was public those?in a non-honors class were 25 percent less likely. The data suggest social pressure is dramatically different depending on type of class, and that pupils' decisions to enroll are contingent on the kind of class they are in at the time of offer. More
What's at risk with high school MOOCs
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have made their way into high schools, and loopholes in federal privacy laws allow a flood of personal data about students to flow to private companies, reports Caitlin Emma for Politico.com. The slew of free, open-access online courses have been presented to students as a way to supplement Advanced Placement coursework or earn a certificate of completion for college-level classes. When students participate, they unwittingly transmit a torrent of data about their academic strengths and weaknesses, learning styles, and thought processes. They may also hand over birth dates, addresses, even drivers license information. Their IP addresses, attendance, and participation in public forums are all logged by providers of the courses. With little federal guidance, key decisions on how to handle student data -- including how widely to share them and whether to mine them for commercial gain -- are left up to the company hosting the MOOC or its business partners. Student data are less protected by federal law since a 2012 update by the Education Department that allows even greater disclosure of students' personal identifying information. Congress is divided on how to tackle privacy laws. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) proposed a bill in July that would prohibit the use of personally identifiable information to target advertising to students.

 Read more:The vendor pushback revolution
A handful of large districts are aggressively pushing big publishers and other providers of digital content to overhaul delivery of instructional materials, a move?that could upend long-established purchasing patterns and help educators more easily access materials from multiple vendors, reports Benjamin Herold for Education Week. The movement is led by the 215,000-student Houston district and the 187,000-student Orange County, Florida schools, which have declared they will no longer do business with vendors that do not adopt "interoperability standards" put forth by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. Shared interoperability standards would free districts from being locked into the product ecosystem of an individual vendor or left to navigate a thicket of proprietary content-delivery systems that don't mesh with one another. This could also transform how schools purchase and consume digital content: The standards could allow districts to procure small "chunks" (individual chapters, lessons, or videos) from multiple vendors, perhaps through licensing agreements, rather than rely on big buys of yearlong or grade-span textbook series from a single publisher. The goal is easier choice and access for teachers to an array of materials, saving time and helping personalize instruction. Other prominent districts -- including Denver; Gwinnett County, Georgia; and Nashville, Tennessee -- may follow suit. Already, Discovery Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Pearson have begun to meet the districts' terms. More
     Where the (teaching) money is
A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality examines salaries of teachers in 113 districts employing 20 percent of the nation's public school teachers, finding that teachers' lifetime earnings vary greatly from district to district, due largely to the time it takes to climb the salary ladder. It takes an average of 24 years for teachers to reach a common salary of $75,000, but in some districts, like Boston, it takes only seven, while in other districts, like Wichita, it takes 30. The disparities remain even after adjusting for cost of living. Teachers in Albuquerque work over 30 years to reach the same adjusted salary that teachers in Shelby County in Tennessee make in 10 years. The report ranks districts by available lifetime earnings adjusted by cost of living, and accommodates performance-pay districts by three rankings based on likely lifetime earnings of a teacher with average, above-average, and exemplary ratings. The top districts are Pittsburgh and the District of Columbia for highly effective teachers, and Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta; and Shelby County, Tennessee for all teachers. Districts with the lowest adjusted earnings all have uncommonly high costs of living, depressing what initially appear to be relatively generous salaries: Newark, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Orleans and Jefferson parishes?in Louisiana. More
Toward progressive Progressives
At its core, to be "progressive" is to fight for the little guy against powerful forces of self-interest, writes Peter Cunningham in The Hechinger Report. Historically, the teacher has been the "little guy," and many reforms have protected him: higher pay, health care and retirement benefits, tenure, and seniority. Yet it is also apparent that an even littler guy needs protection: the student. Some say recent reforms are at odds with the progressive traditions of the Democratic Party, and that charter schools, accountability, and competitive grant programs are essentially Republican. They feel these put the Democratic Party at war with its base -- specifically, teacher unions. Yet Cunningham points to the pro-reform Obama administration providing $60 billion to save 400,000 teacher jobs during the recession, money with no strings attached that dwarfed the administration's other education initiatives. Both national unions support higher academic standards, and both unions and some state and local affiliates at first embraced the competitive grants they now oppose. Some unions have piloted programs that factor performance into compensation. Most reformers, including those behind lawsuits in California and New York, want to raise the bar on tenure, not eliminate it. The littlest guys of all, students, are most at risk from low standards, weak accountability, and lack of educational options. Therefore, knee-jerk opposition to reform is not progressive, Cunningham says. More
          BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
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The next change on the horizon
California policymakers intend to create a different system for reporting results of upcoming tests aligning with the Common Core Standards than were used in the era of NCLB. More
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Give them the hook
California's statewide charter school association is calling on authorizers to not renew charter contracts of five of the state's lowest-performing schools, which are located in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sutter, Contra Costa, and Monterey counties.?More
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Teamwork
Stanford University is joining with the state's largest teachers union to prepare schools for new learning goals that will change the way California students are taught and tested.?More
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Windfall
California organizations and individuals landed more than $4 million in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in the latest round of grant awards.?More
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Alternatives
Under a new plan, 27 Los Angeles schools originally set to receive iPads now will have the choice of less-expensive Chromebooks, which use a Google operating system.?More
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The plot thickens
FBI agents paid a surprise visit to the Los Angeles Unified School District, taking away 20 boxes of documents related to the district's troubled iPad project.?More
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A jumping-off point for district transformation
Education Resource Strategies has introduced a California-oriented version of their School Budget Hold 'Em, a self-assessment tool for districts that allows administrators to gauge whether their people, time, and money are serving student needs, and what other strategic options are available; this version incorporates California's priorities for the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP).?More
          BRIEFLY NOTED?
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The fun begins
The rollout of tests aligned with the Common Core Standards developed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers begins this month for students in Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, and Rhode Island. More
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They want results
A policy adopted by the Tennessee State Board of Education in October will make programs that develop and train teachers in Tennessee the subject of annual reports that measure the outcomes of graduates; those failing to produce teachers who are meeting performance expectations could eventually lose accreditation.?More
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A critical measure
The D.C. Council approved $80?million to serve the needs of 36,000 students who are in foster care or are homeless, who are receiving welfare benefits or food stamps, or who are performing at least a year behind in high school, about 40?percent of all of the city's public school students.?More
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The long reach of the Kochs
North Carolina high school Social Studies?teachers would be encouraged to use curriculum materials prepared by an institute funded by the Koch family under a proposal presented by the state Department of Public Instruction.?More

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Not kosher
Delaware's charter policies contribute to racial segregation and violate federal law, according to a complaint that has been filed with the U.S. Department of Education by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Community Legal Aid Society.?More
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They're welcome
The Minnesota State High School League has voted to approve a policy regarding transgender student athletes on high school sports teams, which will take effect for 2015-2016 and allow transgender students to participate in activities in line with their gender identity after turning in a confidential written request to their school.?More
          
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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Dupont: The DuPont Challenge Science Essay Competiton
The DuPont Challenge encourages students to delve deep into their interests in science, technology, engineering, and math and express themselves with creativity and purpose. Ours is a growing world that faces new challenges each day, and DuPont wants students to share their ideas for how science can help keep our global population supplied with food, safety, and clean energy. Essays must be between 700 to 1,000 words in length, include a list of research sources, and fall under one of four categories: Together, we can feed the world; together, we can build a secure energy future; together, we can protect people and the environment; or together, we can be innovative anywhere. Maximum award: U.S. Savings Bond of $5,000 at maturity; expenses-paid Orlando trip; Britannica Digital Learning E-book collection, including Britannica Illustrated Science Library (67 E-book volumes total); and Britannica's 5 iOS science apps. Eligibility: students currently enrolled in grades 6 through 12 in public, private, or home schools in the United States, Canada, or their territories. Deadline: January 31, 2015. More
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United States-Japan Foundation: Elgin Heinz Outstanding Teacher Award
The United States-Japan Foundation Elgin Heinz Outstanding Teacher Award recognizes exceptional teachers who further mutual understanding between Americans and Japanese. The award is presented annually to two pre-college teachers in two categories, humanities and Japanese language. Maximum award: $7,500 ($2,500 monetary award, $5,000 in project funds). Eligibility: current full-time K-12 classroom teachers of any relevant subject in the United States who have been teaching for at least five years. Deadline: February 5, 2015. More
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Quote of the Week:
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"On the surface, the tragic events in Ferguson concerned the police and the local community. But ultimately, this is a case about how America's institutions, including our schools, respect the rights, well-being and futures of all our young people. This broader reading of Ferguson extends to how our schools define and mete out justice and ensure that all students have access to the highest standards and opportunities." -- Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. More


 

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