[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — March 10, 2015

[Art Snyder]

           ?                March 10, 2015 - In This Issue:
       Black males and graduation 
  The sorry legal state of charter discipline
  Restorative practice minus training equals chaos
  The ongoing discipline gap
  Consultation intervention for the very young
  A community focus on child development
  Young, homeschooled, and black
  The toll of kindergarten absence
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            Black males and graduation?
A new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education finds the latest estimates for high school graduation rates are 59 percent for black males, 65 percent for Latino males, and 80 percent for white, non-Latino males. Since the foundation's 2012 report, the graduation gap?between black and white males has increased from 18 to 21 percentage points (2012-2013). New Jersey?and?Tennessee?are the only states with significant black-male enrollment to have black-male graduation rates above 70 percent. Maine's rate is highest (90 percent), while Nevada's?is lowest for both black (40 percent) and Latino (44 percent) males. The report confirms higher out-of-school suspension rates?for black males, despite no evidence of greater school misbehavior, and lower Advanced Placement enrollment, with less access to AP courses in schools that serve more black students. Gaps for reading and math proficiency between black and white males nationally are 26 percentage points for 8th?grade reading and 32 percentage points for 8th?grade mathematics (2013). Towards a remedy, the report proposes consistent state and local reporting of graduation rates, disaggregated by race and gender; student-centered educational programs that align academic, social, and health support systems; a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions, which disproportionately affect black and Latino students; and more private-sector programs and community networks to prepare low-income youth for professional success. More
 The sorry legal state of charter discipline
A new report from Advocates for Children of New York looks at 164 discipline policies at 155 charters in New York City, both large charter networks and small, independent schools, finding many violate federal, state, and city law. Of the 164 NYC policies reviewed, 107 permit suspension or expulsion as a penalty for any infraction listed in the discipline policy, no matter how minor. The NYC Department of Education's Discipline Code limits suspension to specific violations, and prohibits expulsion for students under age 17 and/or with disabilities. Eighty-two policies permit suspension or expulsion for lateness, absence, or cutting class (in violation of state law). One hundred thirty-three omit a right to written notice of suspension prior to enforcement (violating state law). Thirty-six policies preclude hearings prior to short-term suspensions, and 25 preclude hearings prior to long-term suspensions, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, the New York State Constitution, and state law. Fifty-nine lack a right to appeal, despite a specific process for charters stipulated by law. Thirty-six lack additional procedures for suspending or expelling students with disabilities, violating federal and state law. Finally, 59 omit alternative instruction during a suspension, violating state law. The Charter Schools Act requires authorizers to ensure charter applications include discipline policies and procedures that align with it, yet all three authorizers in the city have approved charters for schools with legally inadequate policies. The report recommends a host of legislative actions by state legislators and authorizers as a corrective. More
Restorative practice minus training equals chaos
Teachers at one Chicago school say a revised Chicago Public Schools (CPS) student-discipline code that scales back suspensions and expulsions has left them struggling, reports Juan Perez, Jr. for The Chicago Tribune. "It's basically been a totally lawless few months," said Megan Shaunnessy of De Diego Community Academy. The new code seeks to replace punishments that keep students out of class with alternatives that encourage improved behavior. However, the school lacks a dedicated "peace room" where students can cool off if removed, and lacks a behavioral specialist to intervene with students, as well as resources to train teachers on discipline that addresses students' underlying needs. The policy discourages out-of-school suspensions unless a student hasn't responded to prior interventions, or his or her attendance endangers others or causes extreme disruption. A CPS spokesman says training is available to all schools on subjects that include?restorative practices and classroom management. Roughly 100 schools have "restorative practices coaches" in the building weekly, and behavioral health teams work at 66 schools. School board members are scheduled to vote on a proposal to renew one-year agreements that pay $15 million to five dozen vendors responsible for working with students and teachers in an effort to reduce suspensions and violations of the conduct code. More
The ongoing discipline gap
A new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA finds nearly 3.5 million public school students were suspended from school at least once in 2011-12, more than one student for every public school teacher in America. More students were suspended in grades K-12 than were enrolled as high school seniors. Of the 3.5 million students suspended in 2011-12, 1.55 million were suspended at least twice. Given that the average suspension is conservatively put at 3.5 days, U.S. school children lost 18 million days of instruction in a single year because of exclusionary discipline. National suspension-rate trends for K-12 indicate that rates increased sharply from the 1970s to the early 2000s, then more gradually, leveling off in the most recent three-year period, though little progress was made in reducing them.?After years of widening, the gap in suspension rates between blacks and whites and between Latinos and whites narrowed slightly in 2009-10 and 2011-12. The gap narrowed, however, only because of an increase in white suspensions. Sixteen percent of blacks and 7 percent of Latinos were suspended in both years, while rates for whites rose from 4 to 5 percent. The report found a slight reduction nationally in suspension rates for all students at the secondary level, along with some narrowing of the racial discipline gap. More
Consultation intervention for the very young
In a profile in The Hechinger Report of Laura Wiley, an early childhood mental health consultant in Chicago, Sarah Neufeld describes Wiley's job as listening to adults so they can create emotionally healthy environments for children. Wiley trains teachers and others who work with young children to recognize trauma, which so often causes misbehavior. She supports teachers in confronting cultural biases and in forging relationships with parents, showing how to recognize families' strengths and promote mental wellness before problems develop. Adverse childhood experiences like violence and family dysfunction predict everything from academic failure to cancer and heart disease. In 2005, Yale professor Walter Gilliam published the first research showing preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of children in kindergarten through 12th grade, with young African-American boys most vulnerable. He realized the issue can't improve unless teachers receive help managing challenging behavior, and has zeroed in on consultation intervention as promising and cost-effective. A recent study found it reduced preschool expulsions by half. It also improves children's emotional well-being in the pivotal years before kindergarten, and boosts staff retention and job satisfaction in an industry with rampant turnover. Consultation is now being tried in home visiting programs, domestic violence shelters, pediatrician's offices -- anywhere serving young children. Early efforts are taking similar services to older kids. More
     A community focus on child development
Many adults besides teachers regularly interact with children but are overlooked as contributors to the educational mission, writes Sam Chaltain in The New York Times. However, in 2011, Hartsville, South Carolina (population 8,000) partnered with Yale's School Development Program and began evaluating schools by broader measurements -- for instance, the number of disciplinary referrals a bus driver wrote each morning. Hartsville coordinated its social services, and turned a communitywide focus on childhood development. In the case of bus drivers, coordinators saw a lack of relationship between drivers and schools, and that drivers lacked training to deal with children or families. In response, the district organized a series of two-hour sessions for drivers over two years, providing basic information about the developmental pathways along which kids develop, and suggesting constructive ways to interact with students and parents. Drivers focused on behaviors they thought most important, and reduced a long list of potential infractions to five rules. Within schools, the program helps teachers and district and support staff -- principals to cafeteria workers -- take the initiative in identifying children at risk, using a shared language about what children face and how they are likely to react developmentally. Results are promising: At the end of 2013-14,?disciplinary referrals dropped by 71 percent and academic achievement rose. More
Young, homeschooled, and black
Black families are one of the fastest-growing demographics in homeschooling, with black students constituting 10 percent of the homeschooling population, about 22,000 children, reports Jessica Huseman for The Atlantic Monthly. And while white families traditionally cite religious or moral disagreements with schools in the decision to pull kids from traditional classrooms, black families are more likely to cite a culture of low expectations or dissatisfaction with how their children -- especially boys -- are treated. When Ama Mazama of Temple University began homeschooling her children 12 years ago, she found little research on black homeschoolers, and so undertook her own. In her 2012 study published in the Journal of Black Studies, Mazama surveyed black homeschooling families from around the country and found most chose to educate their children at home at least in part to avoid school-related racism, a move she calls "racial protectionism." Mazama found black parents who choose to home school often teach a comprehensive view of African history by incorporating more detailed descriptions of ancient African civilizations and accounts of successful African people throughout history. Traditional schools rob black children of the opportunity to learn about their own culture, in her view, because of a Eurocentric world-history curriculum. More
The toll of kindergarten absence
In Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest district, kindergarten absence is a significant problem, with some students missing 30 days or more, reports Deepa Fernandez for NPR. In 2012, almost 10,000 students were chronically absent from Los Angeles public kindergartens; last year, the number improved only slightly. It's an issue around the country, and research confirms the danger that chronic absence creates for the youngest. A 2008 report from the National Center for Children in Poverty found that children missing more than 10 percent of kindergarten were the lowest-achieving in the first grade. LAUSD has mounted a big push to combat the pattern, putting educators in schools with a mission to get these children to school every day. Yet illness and poor health care, lack of transportation, extended trips to home countries, and heavy work demands on parents weigh heavily on many low-income communities. Maria Ramirez Waight, an L.A. kindergarten teacher, sees the problem every day, and it affects teachers, the students themselves, and their peers. At age 5, she says, kids are assembling the foundation for future learning. "You have to constantly go over the things they are missing to try and catch them up," she says. "So you're playing catch-up with certain kids all year long." More
          BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
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Signs of a bounce back
The number of school districts in California reporting precarious financial conditions is continuing to decline, according to a new report released by the state Department of Education. More
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A difficult thing, made easier
Public school employees can take their required annual training to spot child abuse or neglect online, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has announced.?More
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In depth and at length
California's Statewide Special Education Task Force has shared publicly 44 specific recommendations aimed at improving academic outcomes for students with disabilities in the state.?More
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Tentative steps
Amid much uncertainty, some of California's most severely disabled students begin field-testing an alternate academic-performance assessment aligned to the Common Core this spring.?More?
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Not havin' it
Thousands of Los Angeles-area educators and their supporters rallied in a massive downtown protest, demanding smaller classroom sizes and higher wages as part of contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District.?More
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Nice?while it lasted
The Los Angeles Unified district cannot afford to provide all of its students with a digital computing device, Superintendent Ramon Cortines has decided.?More

          BRIEFLY NOTED?
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Quelle surprise
The White House is threatening to veto the Student Success Act (the House Republican's bill rewriting NCLB) because of what it views as big steps back on accountability, particularly for poor and minority kids. More
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No way, no how
New assessment tests that have angered parents and teachers across the nation prompted walkouts by hundreds of high school students in New Mexico who had been set to take the exams.?More
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Reverse course, again
The Alabama Supreme Court has overturned a lower court's ruling that the Alabama Accountability Act, a school choice law, was unconstitutional.?More
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Mind the gap
A newly released report finds that while 43 percent of Colorado schoolkids are minorities, only 10 percent of the state's teachers are.?More
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Stayin' alive
The New Jersey schools chief has extended the contract of embattled Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson despite calls in some quarters of the community for her to step down.?More
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Move over, B-52s and REM
Philip Lanoue, schools chief in the Clarke County district in Athens, Georgia, was named national superintendent of the year by the AASA.?More
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He may be somewhat biased
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has told New York state lawmakers he wants the city's schools to be permanently controlled by the mayor, a move that would end the cycle of renewing that state law every few?years.?More
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Nice going
Minnesota has the worst or second-worst graduation rates among reporting states in all four non-white student categories; no other state is in the bottom five in all four groups, and only Oregon comes close with three races in the bottom five.?More
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The sideshow continues
A judge has ruled that Gov. Bobby Jindal has standing to bring his?Common Core case against the federal government.?More
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One solution, anyway
The Maine Department of Education will suspend the A-F school grading system this year because students are taking a new assessment test and the state will not have enough data to measure their progress, education officials have said.?More

          
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES



Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching
The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching?are among the nation's highest honors for teachers of mathematics and science and recognize?highly qualified teachers for their contributions in the classroom and to their profession. Maximum award: $10,000; a paid trip for two to Washington, D.C. to attend a series of recognition events and professional development opportunities; a citation signed by the President of the United States. Eligibility: U.S. citizens teaching grades K-6 in a public or private school with 5 years experience teaching math or science. Nomination deadline: April 1, 2015. More
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Libri Foundation: Books for Children Grants
The Libri Foundation Books for Children Grants donate new, quality, hardcover children's books for small, rural, public libraries across the country. Maximum award: varies. Eligibility: Libraries should be in a rural area, have a limited operating budget, and an active children's department. The average total operating budget of a Books for Children grant recipient must be less than $40,000. Deadline: May 1, 2015. More
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Wish You Well Foundation: Grants for Literacy
The Wish You Well Foundation's mission is to foster and promote the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs. Maximum award: $10,000. Eligibility: 501(c)3 organizations. Deadline: rolling. More
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 Quote of the Week:?
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"We don't need the Ferguson report to know [racism persists]. We just need to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. We know the march is not yet over; we know the race is not yet won. We know reaching that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character requires admitting as much." - President Barack Obama, speaking on the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama. More



 

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