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Two-thirds of teachers feel left out of ed policy debate
Sixty-nine percent of teachers believe their voices aren't heard in
the debate on education, according to the first in a series of three
reports based on the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, which
focuses on what collaboration looks like in schools and to what
degree it is currently practiced. The survey also finds that
teachers (67 percent) and principals (78 percent) believe increased
collaboration among teachers and school leaders would have a major
impact on improving student achievement. Nearly all teachers engage
in some type of collaborative activity at their school each week, on
average spending 2.7 hours per week in structured collaboration,
with 24 percent of teachers spending more than three hours per week.
Teachers (80 percent) and principals (89 percent) believe that a
school culture where students feel responsible and accountable for
their own education would strongly improve student achievement. Most
students (73 percent) definitely agree it's their responsibility to
do the work it takes to succeed in school, but only 43 percent of
teachers say all or most of their students exhibit this sense of
responsibility. The survey questioned a national sample of 1,003
public school teachers and 500 principals of grades K through 12,
and 1,018 public school students in grades 3 through 12.
Identifying readiness and implementing deep reform
Researchers know a teacher's effectiveness has greater impact on
student learning than any other factor under the control of school
systems, including class size, school size, or quality of
after-school programs. Despite this, the education community has
focused too little on the recruitment, evaluation, development,
placement, and retention of highly effective teachers, according to
a new series of briefs from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Rather than evaluating performance and treating teachers differently
on that basis, they are treated uniformly and rewarded for longevity
and degrees. As a step toward changing this, the foundation has
asked nine school districts and one coalition of charter management
organizations to propose strategies for significantly improving
teacher effectiveness and for measuring it. Although sites have not
yet implemented the proposed strategies, their planning processes
have yielded critical lessons and approaches to identifying site
readiness, which are described in the first brief. This identifies
four categories that represent a minimum readiness threshold that
all sites should seek before embarking on deep reform: leadership
alignment, a culture of data-driven decision-making, stakeholder
engagement, and policies that support improvement efforts. The
second brief elaborates on these site conditions that support
implementation of reform, offering strategies to cultivate them. The
third brief is forthcoming.
Related:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/united-states/Pages/empowering-effective-teachers-strategy.aspx
Same data, aiming for different solutions
Three urban school districts -- Springfield, Mass; Durham, N.C.; and
Columbus, Ohio -- will receive funding from the foundation of the
National Education Association to improve instruction, close
achievement gaps, and stimulate parental involvement, Education Week
reports. The $3.75 million in funding is the first major scaling-up
of the foundation's six-year-old Closing the Achievement Gaps
initiative. "The three sites we've picked have shown district
capacity to collect data and to look at data in ways that can drive
instructional change," said William Miles, program director for the
NEA Foundation. "We think a kind of rut districts get into is in
looking into the same data and drawing the same conclusions from
that data. If you put a collaborative process in place, and you ask
questions about the sources and analysis of data, you'll start to
see the problem differently, in ways that will move you to some
different solutions." Though the plans differ, they share common
elements that include setting up teams of teachers and
administrators to review student-achievement data, encouraging
teachers to visit student homes, and establishing joint
labor-management panels to oversee the work. One thrust of the
funding also reflects what appears to be a focus by both national
teachers' unions on initiatives that make use of joint union-labor
management panels, according to Ed Week.
Read more:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr10/yr10rel16.asp
Two studies probe the legacies of Title IX
Separate studies from two economists offer persuasive evidence that
team sports can result in lifelong improvements to education, work,
and health prospects of women, reports The New York Times. Title IX
of the Education Amendments of 1972 required schools and colleges
receiving federal money to furnish the same opportunities for girls
as they did for boys. Just six years after its enactment, the
percentage of girls playing team sports leapt sixfold, from about
four percent to 25 percent. In one study, Betsey Stevenson at the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania focused on
state-by-state trends in girls' sports, "untangling the effects of
sports participation from other confounding factors" like school
size, climate, social, and personal differences among athletes. She
came close to finding a cause-and-effect relationship between high
school sports participation and achievement later in life. Robert
Kaestner at the University of Illinois at Chicago looked at rates of
obesity and physical activity in women who had been in high school
in the 1970s as Title IX was taking effect compared with similar
women from earlier years. He found the increase in girls' athletic
participation caused by Title IX was associated with a seven percent
lower risk of obesity 20 to 25 years later, when women were in their
late 30s and early 40s. Both reports show that schools have not
reached gender parity in terms of sports participation, despite
gains. They also have ramifications for impoverished public school
systems, where comprehensive athletics programs are far less
prevalent than in privately funded schools.
Q & A with Goeffrey Canada
As part of its issue devoted to an in-depth look at the Harlem
Children's Zone (HCZ), City Limits interviewed its founder and
director, Goeffrey Canada. In the question-and-answer, Canada
explained that the only marker of success for the antipoverty
initiative is whether its participants graduate from college. All
other measures are "interim." He concedes that by this metric, it's
difficult to tell if HCZ is working 10 years through a 20-year
cycle. However, the program uses these same interim tests to monitor
outcomes at each step, starting with its first, Baby College. Canada
has set a 65 percent positive student outcome as the universal goal
-- the so-called tipping point -- but says there is no science
behind this number; it's common sense. "Kids do what their friends
do If you get a whole bunch of kids doing positive things instead of
negative things, should you expect that to have an impact on other
kids? Absolutely." HCZ has certain underpinnings that cohere into a
philosophy, Canada explains. "One is that you create pipelines for
kids and you keep them in it, you don't stop." Another is working on
a large scale: "If you have 5,000 kids in trouble, and you serve 200
kids, you're not going to change the outcome." Third and fourth are
constant evaluation of outcomes, and rebuilding the community that
hosts your program. "I want for my kids what every middle-class
person wants," says Canada. "That's my science When the middle class
don't want it, I don't want it."
Related:
http://www.citylimits.org/news/article.cfm?article_id=3884
TFA dealt potential blow in president's new budget
Under an Obama administration proposal to launch a grant competition
for teacher training programs, Teach for America (TFA) would lose
its uncontested claim on $18 million in federal funding, The
Washington Post reports. This is a "surprising setback" for a
program viewed favorably by federal officials, lawmakers, and
philanthropists, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the
proposal merges with other programs and would make $235 million
available for initiatives to recruit and prepare teachers for
high-need schools. "We think there's a chance for programs that are
doing a great job to actually increase their funding," Duncan told
reporters last week when asked about Teach for America. "It's an
expanded pool of resources and we want the best to rise to the
top... There's a big, big opportunity out there for high
performers." Leaders at TFA have expressed concern, however, since
they are counting on federal funding to help finance an expansion; a
dedicated grant is perhaps more valuable to the organization than
the chance to win increased money. Teach for America has received
federal education funding for several years, including a $14.9
million grant in the last fiscal year. Whether the administration's
proposal will win congressional approval remains to be seen,
according to The Post.
Toward a national system of data on student educational progress
An infrastructure is emerging that would make it possible for dozens
of states to share data about the students in their K-12 and
postsecondary education systems, creating the equivalent of a
national system of data on students' educational progress, reports
Inside Higher Ed. Many policymakers say the ability to gather and
analyze such information is essential to reaching the goal of
getting more Americans into and out of higher education. After
Congressional Republicans quashed the Bush administration's proposal
for a truly federal "unit record" database as part of its existing
Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, a coalition of
foundations, research groups, and now, the Obama administration are
looking to develop statewide data systems that could be linked.
"There are a very small number of data elements that are really
central to educational progress and achievement, and sometimes
separate standards [and definitions] for K-12 and higher education,"
explained Paul Lingenfelter, president of the State Higher Education
Executive Officers. "Where there needs to be communication between
the two, like in terms of students' academic preparation and
academic success, this would create consistent standards so that
communication could take place." Some fear, however, that a massive
receptacle of data on students would inevitably impinge on
individual privacy.
Colleges getting public vote of no confidence
A recent study from Public Agenda and the National Center for Public
Policy and Higher Education finds that most Americans think colleges
today operate too much like businesses, more concerned with their
bottom line than with the educational experience of students,
according to The New York Times. This is an increase to 60 percent,
from 52 percent in 2007. The report also found most Americans feel
colleges could admit far more students without lowering quality or
raising prices, and could spend less to maintain a high quality of
education. "One of the really disturbing things about this, for
those of us who work in higher education," said Patrick Callan,
president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher
Education, "is the vote of no confidence we're getting from the
public. They think college is important, but they're really losing
trust in the management and leadership." The survey found that a
growing number of Americans believe college is essential to success
-- 55 percent, compared with 31 percent in 2000. At the same time,
fewer -- 28 percent, compared with 45 percent a decade earlier --
think college is available to the majority of qualified, motivated
students. On the positive side, nine in 10 Americans say it's
somewhat or very likely that their own high-school-age child will
attend college, and the majority believe almost anyone who needs
financial help to go to college can get loans or financial aid, but
83 percent said students had to borrow too much money if they do so.
The report is based on a survey of more than 1,000 Americans.
Who needs charters when you have 'private public schools'?
A new report from the Fordham Institute examines the phenomenon of
what it dubs "private public schools." By the report's definition,
these are schools where low-income pupils make up less than five
percent of the student body -- and more than 1.7 million American
children attend these 2,817 schools across the United States. In
some metropolitan areas, this equates to one in six public-school
students, and one in four white kids. Nationwide, more children
attend "private public schools" than attend charters. "Taxpayers
willingly spend billions of dollars on these exclusive public
schools," said Chester E. Finn, Jr., the institute's president,
"though they are, in practical terms, off-limits to poor kids. And
few if any elected officials raise any fuss. It's hypocritical if
not discriminatory of them to turn around and oppose charters,
vouchers, and other school choice programs that would give truly
needy children a shot at a comparable education." The analysis
examined public elementary, middle, and high schools, using
information from the federal government's Common Core of Data for
2007-2008. The authors write that although they did not investigate
school relationships to academic achievement or effectiveness, they
"hope this report spurs additional research which might shed some
light on these and other issues."
Related:
http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/02/the-poor-you-will-have-always-with-you-not-in-some-public-schools.html
BRIEFLY NOTED
Is 'Morally Straight' morally acceptable?
Persistent messages and practices of discrimination towards gays and
atheists are still propagated as part of the Boy Scouts official
policy, and that's a pity.
Less violent news from Alabama
The state's House of Representatives has blocked Gov. Bob Riley's
efforts to allow charters.
Value-added to be part of Houston teacher evals
The Houston school board has given final approval to a policy
allowing the firing of instructors whose students fall short on
standardized tests.
An education bust to parallel the housing crisis
The number of public schools closing in Arizona has almost tripled
in the past three years, according to figures provided by the state
Department of Education, which may be due to the financial crisis,
according to the state superintendent of education.
Eight states advance 'early college' concept
Dozens of public high schools in each will allow 10th graders who
pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and
immediately enroll in community college.
Oopsy daisy
The New Teacher Project has reconciled new data with that used in its widely-discussed "Widget Effect" report, with ramifications for the report's conclusions.
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"McGraw-Hill
Companies: Harold McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education"
The 2008 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education celebrates the
theme of global awareness in U.S. education and recognizes those
behind educational programs that help students develop the knowledge
and skills they need to function as workers, citizens, and fulfilled
individuals in an increasingly interconnected world. Maximum award:
$25,000. Eligibility: policymakers, leaders in higher education, and
school-based personnel. Deadline: March 19, 2010.
"National
Council for the Social Studies: Defense of Academic Freedom Award"
The NCSS Defense of Academic Freedom Award is given annually to
honor those who have distinguished themselves in defending the
principles of academic freedom in specific controversies, in
fostering academic freedom through advocacy, and in defending or
advocating the freedom to teach and learn. Maximum award: $1,500;
commemorative gift; Annual Conference session presentation;
publicity. Eligibility: classroom teachers, professionals in other
areas of education, students, parents, community groups, and members
of other organizations (preference will be given to social studies
educators) who are or have been engaged in activities that support
academic freedom in the face of personal challenge or promote
awareness of and support for academic freedom. The defense or
advocacy of academic freedom must have been related to the teaching
of social studies. Deadline: March 21, 2010.
"Hitachi
Foundation: Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs"
The Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs Program supports young
entrepreneurs who have formed financially viable businesses that
create jobs, supply goods or services, or use internal management
practices enabling low-wealth individuals the opportunity to achieve
greater economic security. Maximum award: $50,000 over two years,
access to technical resources, and a peer learning community.
Eligibility: entrepreneurs ages 18-29 who are operating businesses
that are 1-5 years old and have been generating revenue for a
minimum of the last 12 months. Deadline: March 22, 2010.
"Questbridge:
college prep for low-income high school juniors"
Questbridge, a non-profit organization dedicated to giving
high-achieving low-income students resources during the college
application process, is accepting applications for its College Prep
Program for high school juniors. Maximum award: full scholarship to
summer program, college admissions counseling, and attendance at
college preparatory conferences. Eligibility: qualified low-income
high school juniors. Deadline: March 29, 2010.
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