[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — February 11, 2015

[Gifted and Talented in Ohio Discussion List]

           ?                February 11, 2015 - In This Issue:
       Demographic truths about Latino educational attainment
  The cost of current funding
  There is free lunch, but what does it signify?
  Violence intervention from the very start
  The increasingly less-common Core
  Expanding access to rigor
  Hands off the Carnegie Unit
  The educational impact of single-parent homes 
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            Demographic truths about Latino attainment
U.S. population growth is now driven by Hispanics: No other group is replenishing itself through births or immigration to reverse overall population decline, writes Tim Henderson for Stateline. In 25 states, however, whites are twice as likely as Hispanics to have college degrees, a serious problem in an economy that generates more jobs for the educated. Rising Latino dropout rates and falling family incomes will put an increasing strain on state resources if Latinos are left behind.?Yet Hispanic immigrants, documented or undocumented, must overcome daunting obstacles to earn a college degree. U.S.-born Hispanic college students face unusual financial pressures, and lack advice and role models for academic achievement. Happily, recent nationwide studies suggest the education gap is closing as recent waves of Hispanic immigrants settle in and become more affluent and proficient in English. By 2012, a record 69 percent of Hispanic high school graduates were enrolled in college, surpassing the rate for white students, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center report. And in Florida and the District of Columbia, the percentage of Hispanics with a college degree is closer to the share of the overall population with that credential. Miami's large population of Cuban immigrants, many descendants of elites who fled the Cuban Revolution in 1959, is partially responsible for Florida's narrower gap. More
 The cost of current funding
A new report from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth describes the effects of lifting educational achievement nationally for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. Since the early 1970s, income growth has been unevenly distributed, so that families at the bottom and middle economic levels experienced stagnating or declining incomes even as earnings at the top increased sharply. Projecting?the impact of three different scenarios that would start in 2015, the analysis empirically quantifies various outcomes over the next 35 years -- to 2050, when the pressure of supporting retired baby boomers will have largely abated -- and over the next 60 years -- to 2075, when the benefits of narrowing achievement gaps under the three scenarios will be fully phased in. For example, if investments were made that raised U.S. math and science achievement scores to the OECD average (the report's first scenario), the U.S. would experience $72 billion more in GDP growth each year for the next 35 years. Thus, the report argues, we should be willing to invest up to $72 billion per year for the next 35 years to raise U.S. achievement scores to the OECD average. The described potential economic gains starkly illustrate what we risk if achievement is not raised and gaps are not narrowed. More
More quality preschool equals less SPED
A new study published in the journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis finds that access to state-supported early childhood programs significantly reduces likelihood that children will be placed in special education in the third grade, academically benefiting students and resulting in considerable cost savings to districts. The findings indicate direct benefits not only to participating students but also to other third graders through positive spillover effects.?The study examined how investments in two high-quality early childhood initiatives in North Carolina -- a preschool for four-year-olds from at-risk families and a program that provides child, family, and health services for children from birth through age five -- affected likelihood that children would be placed in special education by the end of third grade from 1995 to 2010.?The authors found an investment of $1,110 per child in the More at Four preschool program reduced likelihood of third-grade special education placements by 32 percent. An investment of the same amount in the Smart Start early childhood initiative reduced likelihood by 10 percent.?Both programs together reduced likelihood of third-grade special education placement by 39 percent, resulting in significant cost savings for the state. Nationwide, special education costs nearly twice as much as regular classroom education.?In addition to cost implications, the findings have implications for children's educational careers and future lives. More
The extracurricular gap
Income-based differences in extracurricular participation are growing, and these differences greatly affect later outcomes, writes Alia Wong in The Atlantic Monthly. The disparity exacerbates the achievement gap that is keeping poor children behind in school and life. While upper- and middle-class students have become more active in school clubs and sports teams over the past four decades, working-class peers "have become increasingly disengaged and disconnected," particularly since their participation started plummeting in the '90s, according to a recent study in Voices in Urban Education. A gap in access to extracurriculars has always existed, but participation numbers for both groups increased at the same rate until they diverged precipitously in the 1980s for non-athletic activities and in the early 1990s for sports. By 1992, when 75 percent of upper- and middle-class seniors reported extracurricular participation, involvement among disadvantaged students dropped to 61 percent. By 2004, low-income seniors were at 56 percent. With the many current challenges for schools, extracurriculars may seem tangential, but data suggest that extracurricular participation is as meaningful as test scores for subsequent educational attainment and earnings later in life. Researchers fault the growing disparities largely to rising income inequality. Affluent families have more to spend on their children, and as budget cuts force districts to reduce spending, parents must foot the bill. More
When is early prep too early?
College prep has now hit the playground set, according to Laura Pappano in The New York Times. Charter schools have long put college front and center, and for at least a decade have taken low-income students to visit campuses. Other public schools are joining suit. The goal of these efforts is that lower-income students will picture themselves in college after high school. For example, a four-year-old program in Santa Cruz County, California takes 3,000 fourth graders on a single day in May to a local campus for tours, information sessions, and a sampling of classes, including sociology and women's studies. Rice University last year led 91 elementary and middle school tours, triple the number two years earlier. Not all agree with these tactics. Young children simply cannot understand what college is, says Marcy Guddemi of the Gesell Institute of Child Development. Older children may be able to grasp college, but developmentally struggle with making choices, so early planning may not be fruitful or fair. "We're robbing children of childhood by talking about college and career so early in life," in Guddemi's view. Also, "not every child will go to college." Equating degree-earning with success may set up some to feel like failures. More
     Expanding access to rigor
Unequal participation in advanced high school courses contribute to the achievement gap, writes Sophie Quinton for The National Journal. Around the country, schools and districts are successfully expanding access. Evanston Township High in Evanston, Illinois has eliminated the honors track for ninth-grade humanities and created mixed-level classes that allow freshmen to earn honors credit through hard work. The redesign also prepares students for Advanced Placement (AP) courses and encourages enrollment. Federal Way in Washington state now automatically enrolls?middle and high school students with high scores into honors, AP, International Baccalaureate (IB), or Cambridge Preparatory Academy courses. Minority enrollment in college-preparatory classes jumped 200 percent the first year. Inspired by Federal Way, in 2013 Washington state passed a law encouraging districts to enroll all students meeting state standards into rigorous courses. The law also established incentives that set aside money for teacher training, curriculum development, exam fees, and other costs districts incur by adopting a policy like Federal Way's. At Wakefield High in Arlington, Virginia, boys whose grades average a C or higher in ninth?or tenth?grade are now invited to join Wakefield's Cohort for Minority Males. Participants get extra academic support, college planning, and a chance to bond with each other and staff. To date, 239 cohort members have graduated Wakefield, and 87 percent have gone to college. The University of Iowa has introduced a program allowing rural Iowa high school students to take AP courses online for free. Last year, 87 percent of students taking an online course completed it, and nearly all students completing the course pass the AP test. Howard County, Maryland has redesigned its six most diverse elementary schools to try to boost achievement in both math and reading. It also examines its math course progression to ensure that small administrative decisions don't inadvertently keep students off an accelerated track. And eight high schools in California use IB to support non-native English speakers. The schools are mostly Latino, and at least 30 percent of IB program graduates qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.?Across these?schools, educators treat bilingualism as an asset for IB. More
Teaching 'giftedness'
Many American schools with gifted-and-talented classrooms demonstrate a clear racial and economic divide, writes Emmanuel Felton for The Hechinger Report. This has prompted complaints and lawsuits, and driven districts to find new ways of including more students of color in gifted education. The St. Charles district in Louisiana may hold an answer. In Louisiana, by regulation, standardized tests identify gifted students. In 2012, just 13 gifted students -- one percent of the student bodies -- attended the four district schools in which white students were the minority. The district sought a waiver from test-score cutoff requirements, hoping to boost critical mass and increase diversity by exposing more students to the kind of thinking that gifted tests purport to measure. Last year, the experimental Academic Academy program invited 91 students lacking the requisite scores from second through eighth grades into accelerated classrooms at the four schools. At year's end, students were again tested. Of the 91 students, six minority students and one white student newly attained "gifted" status. Three of the four schools in the Academic Academy have now increased gifted students of color to over half of gifted students at each school. On average, however, the schools continue to have a smaller percentage of gifted students than the state as a whole. More
The educational impact of single-parent homes
A new article on the Education Next website by Ludger Woessmann draws on data from the 2000 and 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies to compare prevalence of single-parent families in OECD nations, and analyzes how family structure relates to educational achievement across countries. Documented disadvantages of growing up in single-parent families in the United States include lower educational attainment and greater psychological distress, as well as poor adult outcomes in employment, income, and marital status. Single parenthood is prevalent in virtually all OECD countries, but particularly high in the United States (21 percent in 2012), where the achievement gap between children raised in single-parent and two-parent families is particularly pronounced (27 percentage points, or one grade level). That said, the U.S. stands out in the OECD in that it has seen a substantial narrowing of this achievement gap over 12 years, a decline by 29 percent. And to a large extent, the gap reflects differences in socioeconomic background, as measured by number of books at home and parental education, rather than family structure alone. Controlling for background factors, the achievement disparity between students in single- and two-parent homes declines by more than 60 percent, from 27 to 10 points. More
          BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
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Looking ahead
Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal for 2015-16 includes $876 million for career technical education and other job-training initiatives at K-12 schools and community colleges, part of a larger push for workforce development in California. More
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Still on thin ice
More than five years have passed since President Barack Obama warned lawmakers in California that federal funding was at risk because the state failed to use education data to distinguish poor teachers from good ones. More
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Can't hurt to ask?
For the second straight year, California will ask the federal government to exempt it from using scores on the new assessments that students will take this spring to measure progress in math and English language arts. More
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Reason prevails
Gov. Jerry Brown, who preserved religious exemptions to state vaccination requirements in 2012, appears open to legislation that would eliminate all but medical waivers. More
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Into action
As schools tout the importance of exercise in an era of childhood obesity, a California parent and his lawyer have agreed to a settlement with dozens of districts across California that will force elementary schools to prove they are providing at least the minimum amount of physical education required by state law. More
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Sardines
Citing criticism of large class sizes, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines has sent school administrators new data that show many middle and high school classes have over 45 students. More

          BRIEFLY NOTED?
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Long, if not eagerly, awaited
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has finally released "interim assessments" that schools can use?to gauge how well their students are doing in math and English language arts instruction aligned with the Common Core standards. More
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Here we go again, Colorado edition
The Colorado Board of Education has voted 5-2 to a Republican-sponsored measure that would pull Colorado out of the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC testing group, reduce state assessments, and give districts more testing flexibility. More
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Short-lived
Arkansas Board of Education has voted to take control of Little Rock schools less than six months after a federal judge granted more independence to the historically embattled district and ended a quarter-century of payments to boost integration. More
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How's that work?
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposes no significant increase for public school funding, but would allow more opportunities for students to use public money to attend private, religious, or charter schools outside traditional districts. More
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Predictably
Legislation that would allow people with concealed-gun permits to carry firearms into Wyoming public schools and government meetings won easy approval from the Wyoming House of Representatives. More
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Slight makeover
The Tennessee Department of Education has unveiled plans to fine-tune a crucial component of teacher-evaluation scores in response to educators' concerns. More
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Significant
After just a single year in Chicago's intensive tutoring and mentoring program known as Match, participants ended up as much as two years ahead of students in a control group who didn't get this help. More
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Opening the door
A new study indicates that statewide administration in Maine of the SAT led to higher college-going rates, particularly among students who would not otherwise have taken the college-entrance exam. More

          
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES



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"Open Meadows Grants for Projects Run by Women and Girls"
Open Meadows Foundation is a grant-making organization for projects that are led by and benefit women and girls. It funds projects that reflect the diversity of the community served by the project in both its leadership and organization; promote building community power; promote racial, social, economic and environmental justice; have limited financial access or have encountered obstacles in their search for funding. Maximum award: $2,000. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations with an organizational budget no larger than $150,000. Projects must be designed and implemented by women and girls. Deadline: Feb 15, 2015. More
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Together Counts: Smart from the Start
The Smart from the Start Awards are designed to reward preschools (including Head Start programs) that develop plans for creating practical, long-term improvements in nutrition and physical activity at their school. As a preschool teacher, you are encouraged to identify your school's Energy In and Energy Out needs, to write a goal statement that addresses these needs, and to create a simple action plan that incorporates support from your community in order to meet this goal. Maximum award: $20,000. Eligibility: U.S. residents over the age of 21 employed at an early childhood education center or elementary school in the United States that offers a Pre-K program or Head Start program. Deadline: February 27, 2015. More
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Jamba Juice: It's All About the Fruit and Veggies
The Jamba Juice It's All About the Fruit and Veggies grant program provides schools with fruit trees to create engaging nutrition and gardening experiences. Observing and exploring fruit production gives a deeper understanding and appreciation for this essential element of our diet. Recipients will be selected based on plans to promote nutrition education, ideas for incorporating fruit tree activities into the curriculum, and ability to sustain the program over multiple years. Maximum award: fruit trees valued at $500 and the Jamba Juice It's All About the Fruit Youth Garden Guide; trees will be selected based on recommended varieties for each area. Eligibility: schools and community garden programs in the United States gardening with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18. Deadline: March 6, 2015. More
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Quote of the Week:
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"It's so different from three years ago, where suddenly you have candidates that may have an offer from Facebook and Wells Fargo and an offer to join the T.F.A. corps, and clearly, the money is going to be radically different," -- Lida Jennings, executive director of the Los Angeles office of Teach for America, regarding a decline in applicants for TFA. More



 

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