[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast — June 9, 2015

[Art Snyder]

                            June 09, 2015 - In This Issue:
       Ed tech's Law of Amplification
  The Silicon Valley approach
  An unsurprising completion gap
  'The ultimate in school choice'
  What it's triggering now
  Common Core's next problem
  SPED data and accessibility
  BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA
  BRIEFLY NOTED
  GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
                                            Ed tech's Law of Amplification
Across all education-technology projects, a single, simple pattern holds true, writes Kentaro Toyama for The Atlantic. The "Law of Amplification" dictates that since technology's primary effect is to amplify human activity, in education, technologies amplify whatever pedagogical capacity already exists. Technology is merely a tool that augments human power, an obvious fact with profound consequences when overlooked. Amplification explains why large-scale roll outs of educational technology rarely succeed. In any representative set of schools, some are achieving, others failing. Computers may benefit some (the ones highlighted in pilot studies), but distract weaker schools from their core mission: Knowledge around their use isn't already in place, or easily harnessed to existing strengths. Administrators rarely allocate sufficient resources to adapt curricula or train teachers. Outside of school, technology amplifies a child's propensities to both learn or distract herself. Propensities vary from child to child, but usually distraction wins out where adult guidance is absent. In terms of educational inequality, what ails American education can be attributed to many things; none of these are a lack of computers. More
 The Silicon Valley approach
Through his nonprofit, Marc Zuckerberg has just invested $100 million in AltSchool, writes Issie Lapowsky for Wired. AltSchool is a private Bay Area experiment with a student-centered approach, deploying the latest technology and staffed with forward-thinking teachers who custom-teach each student. The result, founders say, is superior education. AltSchools serve students from pre-K to 8th grade, and have no administrators, no gymnasiums, no cafeterias, no hallways, no report cards, and no bells. Instead, they are single-room schoolhouses in storefronts on city streets, currently four, next year eight, including an outpost in Brooklyn (where else). Students get personal iPads or Chromebooks depending on age, with their own weekly queues of individual and group activities tailored to their strengths and weaknesses. AltSchool's proprietary technology tracks student progress, placing AltSchool in the position of not just building apps or schools, but both. AltSchools function as mini-research and development labs, where teachers and engineers are developing a formula for 21st-century education they hope to apply universally. "Schools aren't good at making changes or measuring the effects of those changes," says AltSchool founder Max Ventilla, formerly of Google. "They're not good at correcting when those changes aren't positive, and they're not good at propagating changes that are good so you get the maximum benefit." Silicon Valley startups, on the other hand, excel at this. More
An unsurprising completion gap
New data show rich and poor students complete college at starkly different rates, reports Susan Dynarski for The New York Times. Starting in 2002, the National Center for Education Statistics tracked 15,000 high school sophomores in a longitudinal study, recording academic achievement, college entry, work history, and now, degree attainment. The study divided students into four groups based on parental education, income, and occupation. Students in the lowest quartile had parents with less income and education. Students in the highest quartile had parents with the greatest income and most education. In both groups, teens aspired to college; overall, 70 percent of sophomores planned to earn a bachelor's degree. In the top quartile, 87 percent expected to earn at least a bachelor's, with 24 percent intending an advanced degree. In the bottom quartile, 58 percent of students expected to earn at least a bachelor's, and 12 percent to attend graduate school. Thirteen years later, just 14 percent of students in the lowest quartile had earned a bachelor's degree -- one out of four who had hoped to. Sixty percent in the top quartile had earned a bachelor's, two-thirds. Based on initial screenings, high school achievement and aptitude did not explain the disparity. Poor teenagers with top screening scores and rich teenagers with mediocre scores were equally likely to graduate college. More
'The ultimate in school choice'
Next year, any parent in Nevada can pull his child from a public school and receive state dollars to pay for private school or home schooling, reports Lyndsey Layton for The Washington Post. The law is a conservative breakthrough; Georgia, Iowa, and Rhode Island considered similar legislation this year. The law is singular in that all the state's 450,000 public school children -- regardless of household income -- are eligible. Supporters argue the state's public system, regularly at the bottom in comparisons with other states on academic achievement, left no alternative. As the country's most expansive voucher plan, it could exacerbate the gap between the state's rich and poor, subsidizing affluent families that choose elite private schools inaccessible to struggling students or those who can't afford tuition even with a voucher, says Eskelsen García of the National Education Association. Since 2006, 27 states have opted for school choice, ranging from vouchers for students from low- and middle-income families or disabled students; to tax credits for donations to private school scholarships; to education savings accounts that allow families to use public funds for private tuition, tutoring, online education, and other services. Nevada's low-income families and students with disabilities can receive $5,700, the state's annual expenditure per public school student; middle- and upper-income families can receive $5,100. More
What it's triggering now
In Los Angeles, the parent trigger, once considered a mechanism to charterize schools, has instead become a leverage point in dealings between parents and the LAUSD, reports Brenda Iasevoli for The Hechinger Report. The 2010 law permits 51 percent or more of parents at an underperforming public school to petition for an overhaul, such as replacing a principal, hiring a charter operator, or shuttering a campus completely. An alliance between 20th Street Elementary School parents and the LAUSD is the latest instance where the district retained a school's traditional status through negotiations with invested parents. At West Athens Elementary in South Los Angeles, parents invoked the trigger to get teacher training, computers, fresh paint, and $300,000 for additional staff. LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines has shown willingness to work with parent groups backed by Parent Revolution, unsurprising given sharply declining district enrollment due to charters. "The district is learning it just can't shut people down," says L.A. School Board member Monica Garcia: The recession forced the district to go door-to-door, explaining budget cuts and asking people to support Prop 30, a ballot measure to temporarily increase taxes to raise money for schools. This, according to Garcia, taught the district about better communication and building trust. The new challenge is mending rifts between parent groups working with Parent Revolution and those who are not. More
Common Core's next problem
As California districts finish administering new Smarter Balanced online Common Core assessments, educators face the next hurdle: sharing data with millions of parents about how their children fared, writes Sarah Tully for EdSource. It's anticipated that fewer students will meet proficiency standards compared to the earlier California Standards Tests in 2013 and before. New scores break down into four categories: "standard exceeded," "standard met," "standard nearly met," and "standard not met." If large numbers of students score lower than "standard met," opposition to the Common Core may mount in a state where it has been relatively muted. The timing of the release of scores is also important, since a major selling point of Common Core assessments was that they were taken online and therefore would be available more quickly and could better inform instruction. This year, parents and students will get results the same time as previously, mid-summer. To manage expectations, some districts are holding sessions with principals on explaining reports, with parent meetings planned when school resumes. The California Parent Teacher Association helped state officials prepare the report's format so parents could better understand it, and is urging school chapters to discuss Smarter Balanced results during back-to-school meetings. Next year's report will include comparisons to the prior year's scores so parents can track student progress. More
SPED data and accessibility
A new report from the National Center for Educational Outcomes analyzes whether states publicly report data for students with disabilities with the same frequency, and in the same detail, as it reports on the assessment of nondisabled children, as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It also assesses reporting of performance gaps across years, and ease of access to public reporting of participation and performance for ELLs with disabilities. In 2012-13, 48 regular states and four (Bureau of Indian Education, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands) of 11 unique states reported participation and performance of students with disabilities for all general assessments and alternate assessments used for Title I accountability. Fifty-two of 61 states reported participation and performance for all general assessments; 52 reported similar data for alternates. Of the 16 states with general assessments not used for Title I, only six reported participation and performance, three fewer than in 2011-12. The report recommends states be required to publish participation and performance results of students with disabilities for each assessment, content area, and grade level, clearly labeling preliminary and final data with dates posted. They should also report accommodations, and participation percentages disaggregated by grade. Data must be publicly accessible through user-friendly formats, easily found, with clear language, rather than solely through technical tracts. More
               BRIEFLY NOTED CALIFORNIA


Low point
State support for building new schools is nearing historic lows, after California Senate Republicans nixed a plan to seek voter approval for a bond measure for school construction and modernization costs. More
 
Can't hurt
An expansion of a federal arts education program will pump additional resources into some of California's struggling schools, with a focus on teaching the arts to the state's youngest students.  More
 
Gray water is good water
Amid California's record drought, students at Los Angeles River School in Glassell Park are learning about water conservation through landscaping with recycled water. More
          BRIEFLY NOTED 

 Breaking news
Federal census data show a growing gap in education spending by the nation's poorest and most affluent districts. More
 
Imbalance
Teachers in high-poverty districts were twice as likely to be in training as those working in the wealthiest districts in 2011-12, according to a congressionally mandated report just released by the U.S. Department of Education. More
 
Relentless tide
More than half of the nation's preschool teachers say they have tablet computers in the classroom -- nearly double what was reported two years earlier. More
 
Making the grades
The Texas legislature has approved a bill to give A-F grades to public schools, which now heads to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. More
 
So much for that
Missouri public school children spent untold hours this spring prepping for a new computer-based standardized test that has now been banned by the state legislature. More
 
Eyes on New York
A veteran Great Neck elementary teacher, Sheri Lederman, has won the first round of her legal challenge to New York state's teacher-evaluation system, which she contends is unfair because of statistical flaws. More
 
Breakfast for all
Maryland's Hunger-Free Schools Act will make it possible for entire schools and districts to provide free meals to students, regardless of household income. More
 
E-Z access
Through the site NYC Schools, city parents can access their children's attendance records, student profiles, and contact information on file; when math and English language arts scores are released in August, those will also be available. More
 
A promising step
Mississippi will open its first early-college program at Golden Triangle Early College High School on the campus of East Mississippi Community College with 62 students. More
          
GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

 
 
NASSP/MetLife: Breakthrough Schools
The National Association of Secondary School Principals and the MetLife Foundation Breakthrough Schools program highlights high-achieving middle or high schools, or schools that are making dramatic improvements in student achievement, whose best practices and outstanding results can inform other schools as they further their own improvement efforts. Maximum award: $5,000, plus being featured in the association's monthly magazine, Principal Leadership; principals of Breakthrough Schools participate in dissemination activities at the NASSP National Conference and other venues throughout the year. Eligibility: high-achieving K-12 schools with 40 percent or more students eligible for free and reduced-priced meals. Deadline: June 30, 2015. More
 
ESA: President's Prizes for Outstanding Achievement in Primary and Secondary Education
The Entomological Society of America's President's Prizes for Outstanding Achievement in Primary and Secondary Education recognize educators who have gone beyond the traditional teaching methods by using insects as educational tools. Maximum award: $400 to the winner's school to purchase teaching materials required to expand the use of insects in the teaching curriculum; $400 to the winner for expenses associated with travel required to present a paper or poster on the use of insects in primary or secondary educational programs at a peer professional venue of their choosing; gratis registration to attend ESA's annual meeting; and an $800 award to the winner for expenses associated with travel, hotel arrangements, and all other costs associated with attending the annual meeting. Eligibility: primary teachers (grades K-6) and secondary teachers (grades 7-12). Deadline: July 1, 2015. More
 
Dow Jones Fund: National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year
The National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year award identifies outstanding high school journalism teachers who have done exemplary work in the previous academic year. Maximum award: laptop computer, travel and lodging expenses to national conference, per diem for substitute teacher fees, and a quarterly column for the Fund's newspaper; the winner also attends a seminar at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., and a senior student at the winning teacher's school will receive $1,000 to study journalism, based on performance in a writing contest held at his or her school. Eligibility: high school teachers with at least three years' experience. Deadline: July 9, 2015. More
 
Dollar General/ALA/AASL/NEA: School Library Disaster Relief
Dollar General, in collaboration with the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and the National Education Association (NEA) is sponsoring a school library disaster relief fund for public school libraries in states served by Dollar General. The fund will provide grants to public schools whose school library program has been affected by a disaster. Grants replace or supplement books, media and/or library equipment in the library setting. Maximum award: $20,000 to replace or supplement books, media, and/or library equipment. Eligibility: public school libraries preK-12 within 20 miles of a Dollar General store, distribution center, or corporate office, which have lost their building or incurred substantial damage or hardship due to a natural disaster (tornado, earthquake, hurricane, flood, avalanche, mudslide), fire, or an act recognized by the federal government as terrorism; or have absorbed a significant number (more than 10 percent enrollment) of displaced/evacuee students. Deadline: none. More
  

Quote of the Week: 
 
"I am absolutely convinced that education must be at the top of our agenda again, so I am putting it at the heart of my campaign. ...Every single child should be able to start learning early at home, in child-care settings, at pre-K, and then go off to public school with teachers who are going to be able to support them and who have the respect and dignity that comes with the teaching profession." - Hillary Clinton, in a sit-down with the AFT. More



 

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