[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — April 14, 2015

Tue Apr 14 15:05:08 EDT 2015

 ?April 14, 2015 - In This Issue:
Toward a new ESEA
Title I -- program, no; funding stream, yes
The relentless success of Success Academies
To turn schools around, take bold steps
One way to lower suspension rates
The Katrina generation
One Louisiana school's unaccompanied minors
Red-shirting: quite bad for some
BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
BRIEFLY NOTED
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
 Toward a new ESEA
The 600-page bipartisan bill to replace NCLB, crafted after months of negotiations between Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would end federal high-stakes testing and grant more power to states, reports Lyndsey Layton for The Washington Post. States would still administer reading and math tests to students in grades three through eight, as well as once in high school, and science tests once in elementary, middle, and high school. However, they could choose one end-of-year test or a series of smaller tests that combined to create an overall measurement of student achievement. States would design their own systems to hold schools accountable; these must include graduation rates, English proficiency rates for English learners, and some measure of college or career readiness. They could also include other measures, such as how much students grow academically over a school year, or the number of students enrolled in AP or honors classes. States would also decide whether to evaluate teachers, and how to do so. The bill removes the NCLB requirement that teachers of core subjects in high-poverty schools be "highly qualified." It also creates a competitive grant program to help districts develop, expand, or improve merit-pay programs for teachers, principals, and school leaders.More
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Related:?
 Title I -- program, no; funding stream, yes
Does Title I raise test scores? asks Holly Yettick in Education Week. Fifty years after passage of the ESEA, the question remains unanswered, she writes. Evaluation after evaluation has failed to identify decisive, long-lasting impacts of the funding aimed at raising achievement for disadvantaged children. Part of this lack of evidence stems from Title I's design: Researchers face the fundamental problem of defining the object of their analysis, and isolating its effect. Though Title I targets low-income students, over 90 percent of districts nationally get Title I funds, and use them for purposes as disparate as class-size reduction, extended learning time, professional development, or instructional salaries. Federal revenue accounts for roughly 10 percent of U.S. school funding, making it difficult to tease effects from those of larger state and local funding. Nor can Title I funds be assigned randomly to some districts or states and withheld from others, so randomized controlled trials are impossible. Moreover, many different types of students benefit from Title I, making it hard to determine appropriate comparison groups, or what statistics account for key differences between those receiving and not receiving services. In essence, Title I is not an educational program as much as it is a funding stream. The programs that it underwrites vary enormously, with too many variables to allow generic comparison. More
 The relentless success of Success Academies
Though Success Academy charters in New York City serve primarily poor, mostly black and Hispanic students, the network is a testing dynamo, reports Kate Taylor for The New York Times. Last year, 29 percent of city public school students passed state reading tests, and 35 percent passed math. At Success schools, corresponding percentages were 64 and 94 percent, respectively. Rules at Success are explicit, expectations precise. Incentives like toys are offered for good behavior and for high scores on practice tests. Students deemed not trying are relegated to "effort academy," part detention, part study hall. Teachers are not unionized, with 11-hour days the norm, though beginning teachers receive salaries comparable to those for city public schools. Because administrative functions at Success schools are handled organizationally, principals have time to observe teachers. Each teacher is constantly monitored by a principal making frequent visits, and by databases recording quiz scores. Teachers who struggle receive coaching or demotion. The schools themselves are well-funded, rich in extracurriculars like art, music, chess, theater, dance, basketball, and swimming. The network supplements public money with money from private donors. Success founder Eva Moskowitz has used network scores to argue it should be allowed to open more schools, and an effort by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to raise state charter limits may bring this about. More
 To turn schools around, take bold steps
A new brief from the Center for American Progress summarizes recent research on school turnarounds, finding they are successful where districts take aggressive actions. For instance, New York City transformed large high schools into 100 small, non-selective ones and realized dramatic improvements in graduation and college-going rates. Houston infused traditional public schools with the practices of high-achieving charters, and its achievement gap in math fell 50 percent. Because aggressive turnaround is by nature disruptive, federal laws can give local leaders the political cover to take strong actions; targeted resources -- either from philanthropic organizations or the government -- position schools to achieve significant change. Schools that replaced ineffective leaders showed greatest gains, but replacement in and of itself was not enough; principals must have skills and vision. The brief finds a positive relationship between teachers' data use and student achievement in elementary and middle school math, and principals' data use and higher student achievement in some grades and subjects. Turnaround efforts are ultimately judged by improvement in proficiency and graduation rates, but schools that most successfully turned around focused efforts broadly, working purposefully and deliberately to create collaborative, positive, and enriching school cultures with high expectations for all students. More
 One way to lower suspension rates
Research shows nearly half of all U.S. children have experienced trauma tied to poverty or family dysfunction, writes Meredith Kolodner for The Hechinger Report. Repeated exposure rewires the brain; this fact calls into question "zero-tolerance" school-discipline policies that are harsh and absolute. Spiking expulsions and suspensions have disproportionately affected low-income black and Latino students: Wisconsin suspended 34 percent of its black students in 2011-2012; Florida suspended 37 percent of kids with learning disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education has issued new guidelines to lower suspension rates, but beyond this, research finds any punitive environment causes anxiety and poor relationships. As a corrective, 13 Connecticut schools are working with Animated Learning by Integrating and Validating Experience (ALIVE), a trauma-response program that uses drama therapists to identify trauma, prevent escalation, and respond to acting-out. Therapists offer one-on-one therapy, and use role-playing in interventions. Program participant Metropolitan Business Academy High School in New Haven hosts a social worker, six social-work interns, and three part-time drama therapists from ALIVE. In three years, suspensions there have dropped by two-thirds, to just three percent. Physical fights have gone from 40 in 2010 to fewer than five this year. Graduation rates reached 90 percent in 2014, and college enrollment 70 percent in 2012. "Some say punishment will extinguish bad behavior. I'd say the opposite," says Principal Judith Puglisi. More
 The Katrina generation
An untold number of kids in New Orleans -- perhaps tens of thousands -- missed weeks, months, even years of school after Hurricane Katrina, reports Katy Reckdahl for The Atlantic. A decade later, advocates and researchers are beginning to grasp long-lasting effects. The same lower-income teens who waded through floodwaters and spent rootless years afterward are driving an increased need for GED programs and entry-level job-training in the city. Louisiana has the nation's highest rate of young adults not in school or working, many of them Katrina-affected. Natural disasters are often seen as hitting everyone equally, but children from fragile families recover more slowly, says Lori Peek of the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis at Colorado State University. Lisa Celeste Green-Derry, a researcher and New Orleans native, says "systems" are key to uplifting traumatized students, but 10 years ago, New Orleans teens came home to systems in collapse: flood-damaged blocks, a school district in flux, and homes with limited adult supervision as parents worked or rebuilt. Today in New Orleans, youth service providers are adjusting mission and programming to adults in their mid-20s who, after Katrina, fell behind in school and life. Green-Derry explains that research shows traumatized children will experience "cognitive bumps" well into adulthood, and "tend to stall out." More
 One Louisiana school's unaccompanied minors
As a follow-up to an earlier report, Claudio Sanchez of NPR revisited a school with a number of "unaccompanied minors," children and teenagers largely from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras in deportation proceedings but allowed to attend public schools while they wait. At G.W. Carver Preparatory Academy in New Orleans, which has taken in 50 of these students, Principal Ben Davis reports that adjustment for students and school hasn't been easy, but he also hates that these kids may not be here long. "They know they could be deported at any point, and that's really, really terrifying for them," says Davis. The uncertainty takes an emotional toll, so much that Carver Prep has had to provide "trauma screenings" and interventions. Tensions have also occasionally surfaced between the Latino students and the rest of the mostly poor, mostly African-American student body. Carver Prep now spends an extra $2,500 per student for special education services and instructional computer software that allows unaccompanied minors to take PowerPoint presentations?created by a teacher and translate them into Spanish. The school has also enlisted two educators trained to work with kids who don't speak English. The extra care and attention has paid off, though: This semester, nearly half of ninth and 10th graders on the school's honor roll are unaccompanied minors. More?
 Red-shirting: quite bad for some
New research from Duke University indicates that children who are older when they start kindergarten do well academically and socially in the short term, but as teenagers, can be more likely to drop out and commit serious crimes, depending on context. The study compared North Carolina public school students born 60 days before and 60 days after the school cutoff, which at the time of the study was five years old by October 16 to enter kindergarten that year. Prior studies have established that children who enter school "old for grade" perform better academically than younger classmates. The study confirms this, and also finds old-for-grade students one-third less likely to engage in delinquent behavior while still in school. However, after age 16 and for certain populations, the picture shifts. Among old-for-grade students, likelihood of dropping out and being convicted of a serious crime before age 20 is 3.4 times greater for those born to an unwed mother and 2.7 times greater for those whose mothers were high school dropouts. The explanation may lie with the age at which students may legally withdraw from school, 16 in North Carolina. To improve outcomes, the study recommends that states should require completion of a certain grade or a specified number of years in school for withdrawal, rather than legal age. More
 BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
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Not up to speed
Though the majority of California districts say they have hardware needed to meet this spring's testing demands, more than 40 percent are connected to networks at speeds less than ?recommended for proper digital learning. More
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So breathe deeply
Yoga taught in a San Diego County school system is not a gateway to Hinduism, nor does it violate the religious rights of students or their parents, a California appeals court has ruled.?More
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Another salvo
On behalf of a second group of California teachers, StudentsFirst has filed a lawsuit resembling Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which is challenging the right of public employees unions to collect mandatory dues.?More
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Old and expensive
For every teacher under the age of 25 in the LAUSD, there are more than 19 teachers older than 56, according to district data recently compiled for a retirement plan.?More
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Cramped
The California Supreme Court has ruled that LAUSD is inappropriately calculating space for charter schools, but the district may not cede space to charters just yet.?More

 BRIEFLY NOTED?
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Education for few
According to the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, 58 million children do not attend primary school, and the 164 signatory nations in 2000 to the Education for All manifesto have failed to reach their millennial education targets. More
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Sort it out yourselves
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case involving allegations that a Pennsylvania district systematically funneled a disproportionate number of African-American students into special education.?More
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What's missing
A report from the U.S. Department of Education finds that only 41 percent of the nation's 4.1 million 4-year-olds are enrolled in publicly funded preschool, and to address this unmet need, calls for Congress to include preschool and other early-learning programs in its reauthorization of the ESEA.?More
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New leaf?
Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces challenges at Chicago Public Schools that look a lot like the challenges of four years ago -- declining enrollment, ballooning pension costs, and an expiring contract with the Chicago Teachers Union -- but first-term Emanuel looks different than second-term Emanuel.?More
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No math STAAR scores in Lone Star
The math scores on standardized tests for the third through eighth grades will not be counted in this year's state accountability ratings, the Texas Education Agency has announced, acknowledging that teachers and students have struggled to adjust to a new curriculum.?More
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Vouchers for Vegas
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposal to help lower-income students afford private schools passed the Nevada Senate in party-line vote and is headed to his desk for final approval.?More
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Newly stringent
Beginning next month, Connecticut's State Board of Education is expected to use a new, more rigorous process to decide whether to renew school charters.?More?
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On notice
More than 170 schools across New York state could face a takeover, now that an outside receiver can step in and oversee schools struggling to improve their graduation rates and student test scores.?More
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Carrot
Amid growing complaints about new state tests, the Ohio Department of Education has announced a plan that could allow alternative assessments in some high-performing schools.?More
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Shorted
Two Kansas districts plan to end the academic year early to save money, citing financial pressures caused by reduced state aid for this academic year.?More
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So not happening
Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday says districts cannot honor requests from parents who want to opt their children out of participating in standardized tests.?More
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So much for Jeb's legacy
Responding to a backlash about the continued use of high-stakes standardized tests, the Florida Legislature has passed significant changes to the system that was primarily put in place by former Gov. Jeb Bush.?More
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High demand
More than 8,500 students in D.C. are on wait lists for one or more charter schools this year, and nearly 7,000 are wait-listed for at least one traditional public school, according to new data.?More
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Still capped
A bipartisan plan to reshape the ESEA would maintain strict limits on the number of students with disabilities taking less-rigorous tests.?More

 GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

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State Farm/Youth Advisory Board
State Farm and the Youth Advisory Board are offering grants to help for service-learning projects that include K-12 students at public schools and focus on closing the achievement gap, arts and culture, or improving financial literacy. Maximum award: $100,000. Eligibility: public schools and districts, non-profits, colleges and universities, and governmental organizations. Deadline: May 1, 2015. More
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AAPT: Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment for the Support of Physics Teaching
The American Association of Physics Teachers Frederick and Florence Bauder Endowment for the Support of Physics Teaching was established to support special activities in the area of physics teaching. Activities can include but are not limited to the development and distribution of innovative apparatuses for physics teaching; traveling exhibits of apparatuses; and local workshops. Maximum award: $500. Eligibility: AAPT members. Deadline: July 1, 2015. More

Quote of the Week:?
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"We never asked for all this. We simply stepped into a void of Congress's dysfunction. The goal is never to have power, we've actually been trying to give it away for a long time [by urging Congress to update NCLB]. The goal is to have students learn ... and if we can have a bill that helps students learn, that scales what's working and accelerates the pace of progress, that would be fantastic." - U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, on the strong role of the federal government in education under his tenure. More

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