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'Skills-based' curricula serve no one
In an editorial in The Boston Globe, education professor Diane
Ravitch of New York University writes that our drive for "21st
century skills" has sidelined a knowledge-based curriculum, even
though "skill-centered, knowledge-free education has never worked."
Skills-based learning has been propagated in one guise or another
throughout the 20th century, Ravitch says, and in every instance,
failed. Yet its philosophical impact has been substantial:
"[supporters] inserted into American education a deeply ingrained
suspicion of academic studies and subject matter," Ravitch argues.
"But we have ignored what matters most. We have neglected to teach
[students and teachers] that one cannot think critically without
quite a lot of knowledge to think about." Thinking critically, she
says, involves comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing what one has
learned. What matters most is our capacity to see beyond our own
immediate experience. "The intelligent person, the one who truly is
a practitioner of critical thinking, has the capacity to understand
the lessons of history, to grasp the inner logic of science and
mathematics, and to realize the meaning of philosophical debates by
studying them." Without a love of knowledge and learning, we cannot
expect anyone to use his or her mind well.
In the accountability debate, where does student responsibility
fall?
In an opinion piece in The Bangor Daily News, educator Lori Wingo
writes that after carefully reading the text of the president's
back-to-school speech and its accompanying lesson plans, she fails
to see how student responsibility is a "socialist agenda." The
president's message is, rather, an antidote to the No Child Left
Behind era, whose drive for "proficiency" has left good students
idling at lower achievement levels, and struggling students thinking
that "potential" matters over effort. In the accountability wars,
Wingo writes, "there is a critical stakeholder who has not been
asked to assume any responsibility in student achievement: namely,
the students themselves." She decries the fact that schools, not
students, are accountable for outcomes of standardized tests, while
"there are no consequences for the student who takes the test with
grudging indifference." Mediocre expectations -- a goal of
"proficient" -- has college freshmen expecting the easy grades of
high school, "only to experience academic meltdown when they realize
they really have to go to class, take notes, study, turn in work and
be accountable for their own learning experience." Educators have
traded critical thinking and higher levels of learning "for a
curriculum that asks only for proficiency and tests for it in
multiple-choice format."
A fundamental realignment in education, writ large and small
In a clear-eyed analysis in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Alan
Borsuk writes that the gathering "political thunderstorms" over
education, both in Milwaukee and nationally, are impacting the
fundamental position of Democrats on the matter. Contentious issues
such as mayoral control, teacher performance pay, and teacher
assessment with student data are prompting reevaluations and new
party factions. "Those calling for sweeping changes against those
aligned with the status quo is increasingly an intra-party fight,"
Borsuk explains, Democrat vs. Democrat. The tensions on a national
level are playing out in Milwaukee, where Gov. Jim Doyle and Mayor
Tom Barrett are pushing for mayoral control of the Milwaukee Public
Schools, over the objections of community members, political
figures, and the powerful teacher union. Historically, teacher
unions have prevailed in contests against Democratic officeholders,
since they are major donors and organizers for the party. But this
is a distinct moment in education reform, with a Democratic
president and Department of Education heavily invested in dramatic
change. Milwaukee is looking to the New York model, where Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and his schools chancellor, Joel Klein, have
successfully made broad systemic changes even in the presence of the
mighty UFT. "The way Democrats wrestle with that question [of
acceptable reform] and who prevails in the next few months will show
the destination, at least when it comes to Democrats," according to
Borsuk.
Local education fund (LEF), community group, and Cosby bring
'Mission' to Philly
In his continuing efforts to support public education around the
country, Philadelphia native Bill Cosby lent his celebrity and
conviction to Mission: Education, an awareness campaign organized by
the Father's Day Rally Committee and the Philadelphia Education
Fund. The campaign aims to unite the African American community in
Philadelphia around a common goal: the importance of educating every
child. "We're asking those of you responsible for the child to make
sure that the child gets to the school, eats properly, and does his
or her homework," Cosby said at the rally. "We raised the children
so that they would go on and be higher and better. That's what we're
raising them for. We're not raising them to go out on the street
corner and hang out with the Bloods and the Crips." Bilal Qayyum,
president of the Father's Day Rally Committee, agreed. "A child
needs to be educated." The committee promotes positive interaction
among individuals toward resolving problems in African-American
communities. Qayyum said that raising the expectations for
children's educational performance while increasing access to
resources can help cut the dropout rate, reduce crime, and give kids
a chance to succeed. The rally was one of many planned before the
end of the year, according to Qayyum.
What we talk of, when we talk of lunch
For some students, school lunch makes up half of their daily
calories, rendering it "a critical component of our health and
educational system," according to Deborah Eschmeyer in The
Huffington Post. Eschmeyer, co-founder of the group One Tray, writes
that, "Healthy, local, sustainably produced school food can improve
the health of kids, develop new marketing opportunities for farmers,
and support the local economy." One Tray, a national campaign to
encourage direct connections between local farms and federal
nutrition, would like Congress enact $50 million in mandatory
funding for a farm-to-school provision when it reauthorizes The
Child Nutrition Act at the end of September. This would fund 100 to
500 projects per year, Eschmeyer writes, up to $100,000 each, to
cover start-up costs for Farm to School programs. One-time grants
would allow schools to develop vendor relationships with nearby
farmers, plan seasonal menus and promotional materials, start school
gardens, and develop hands-on nutrition education to demonstrate the
important interrelationship between nutrition and agriculture. "Farm
to School is a win-win for everyone. Farm to School programs address
many critical issues of our society: the health of our children,
economic success of our farm communities, and environmental
footprint of food traveling long distances."
Related:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/lunch
Using cultural resonance for gang intervention
In the midst of San Francisco's many civic strengths, gang violence
persists. A new policy brief from the National Center for Cultural
Competence outlines innovative measures taken by the San Francisco
Children's System of Care (SOC) to combat the issue. The SOC, a
federally funded initiative, has set in play interventions that use
cultural strengths, values, traditions, and practices. As the brief
notes, youth violence is not limited to particular racial, ethnic,
or cultural groups, but the SOC found violence predominating among
young Latino and African American males in certain parts of the
city. For Latino youth, the group introduced "healing circles," a
Native American rite with cultural resonance for Hispanics.
Individuals sit in a circle, meditate, and share stories, all with
the intent of "receiving healing." In another action, mentors from
the African American community lead youth in a 12-week course of
study, activities, and community service, the last day of which ends
with a ritual that recognizes entry into adult life and
responsibility to the community. "These activities that connect them
to their past and cultural affirmation of who they are just so
powerful," says Esperanza Echavarri, a program coordinator. "The
kids just gravitate towards it."
Detroit versus charters: time to throw in the towel
In its longtime resistance to charters, the Detroit Public Schools
(DPS) is like "an aging boxer fighting Muhammad Ali in his prime.
He's still trying to hit Ali, who has already punched him four times
and headed back to his corner," writes Rochelle Riley in The Detroit
Free Press. School leaders in the district continue to fight
education alternatives, she says, despite the fact that more than
half Detroit's school-aged children now attend charter, parochial,
or private schools -- they've already left. Thirty thousand Detroit
children attend 49 charter schools within city limits, and an
additional 20,000 attend charters in the suburbs, according to Gary
Naeyaert, spokesman for the Michigan Association of Public School
Academies. Heaster Wheeler, executive director of the Detroit Branch
NAACP and a charter school parent, says the terms of the argument
should shift: "If your only debate is about the Detroit Public
Schools [versus charters], you're talking about yesterday's reality.
While we need the public schools to work, we need education to work.
Period." Riley agrees. "It's time to end the debate and figure out
the best way to get DPS back into the very competitive game. That
means that Detroit school leaders and parents must accept that
reform is necessary."
Teacher-performance incentives and student outcomes in Portugal
A recent paper from the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in
Bonn, Germany examines individual, performance-related teacher pay
in Portugal's public schools, introduced seven years ago. The study
matched student-school data for secondary school national exams,
then analyzed the same for two control groups: public schools in
autonomous regions exposed to lighter versions of the reform; and
private schools subject to the same national exams but whose
teachers were unaffected by the reform. In what the researchers
found to be scant literature on the topic, their study is the first
to look at a reform applied across an entire country (rather than a
localized pilot study), and to conduct an analysis with
representative population data. Up to this point, research on
incentive pay has faced severe data constraints and therefore tended
to be based on case studies of individual organizations, making the
results harder to extrapolate for larger populations. Looking at a
reform in its entirety, the IZA research consistently indicates that
an increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a
significant decline in student achievement in Portugal, particularly
with respect to scores on national exams; the study also documents a
significant increase in grade inflation.
BRIEFLY NOTED
They have seen the future, and it's in Mandarin and Spanish
Pasadena (among others) is piloting English dual-language immersion
programs in both Mandarin and Spanish for elementary school students
this fall.
Related:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090912/NEWS01/909130343/1055/NEWS/Mason+offers+foreign+language+to+middle+schoolers
Teen birth rate higher in Bible Belt states
U.S. states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs
on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth, a
new study suggests.
Clash of the reform titans
Caroline Grannan of The San Francisco Examiner reports on a falling out between Steve Barr of Green Dot charters and D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
Seattle schools may lower grade-point requirements
The Seattle School Board will consider a staff recommendation to
roll back the requirement of a C average for students play on sports
teams and to graduate from high school.
New Orleans school pays for good behavior
At Children's Charter middle school, kids get $25 a month for
showing up, and various other incentives for good behavior that they
can convert into cash at the school store.
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