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It’s Elementary: K-6 Ideas Could Keep Students From Dropping Out of School Later

By Markeshia Ricks, Montgomery Advertiser, Ala. (MCT)
October 26, 2010

E.D. Nixon and T.S. Morris are elementary schools, but the concepts being used there could be key tools in combating the student dropout rate in later grades.
Neither school would seem likely to turn out high-performing students. They serve high minority populations of students, many of whom come from impoverished homes. But both schools have managed to turn what some might see as obstacles into academic excellence.

Both are on a prestigious list of “torchbearer schools,” a program created in 2004 to recognize Alabama schools that are high poverty, but also high performing. Among other criteria, the schools must have at least an 80 percent poverty rate and 80 percent of students must score level three or four on the reading and math sections of the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test.

During the 2007-2008 school year E.D. Nixon Elementary was named to the torchbearer list and T.S. Morris Elementary was named to the list for the 2009-2010 school year.

But the high achievements of these schools that face many challenges often raises the question of why every school in Alabama, particularly high schools, can’t hit the same benchmarks.

The principals at E.D. Nixon and T.S. Morris said that every school can achieve what they have and drive down the state’s dropout rate if they’re willing to stop doing business as usual.

‘Every Student Can Learn’
Though E.D. Nixon and T.S. Morris are in two different neighborhoods and run by different principals you’ll hear the same thing at both—”every student can learn.”

T.S. Morris Principal Tamara Winston said that the school has high expectations of its students and its teachers. But even better, she said, the school has a very deliberate strategy for making sure that those expectations are met.

Winston said it starts with school leadership and teachers being on the same page. That means using data about student performance to make decisions, having teachers mentor each other and collaborate on lesson plans.

“We want to make sure that everyone is on the same bus and that everyone on the bus is in the right seat,” she said. “We need everyone to be on board.”

‘Not Your Average Teacher’
At E.D. Nixon, Principal Anthony Lewis said having the right teachers on board is imperative and sometimes those teachers aren’t the ones with the most degrees or the most years in the classroom.

He said that sometimes they are the teachers who are most willing to adapt their teaching style to meet the needs of their students.

“When I first got here, we had a lot of retirement parties,” Lewis said. “There are a lot of bright teachers out there, and some of them have two and three degrees, but they’re simply not right for Nixon.”

When you look around Nixon, you’ll see a younger teaching staff. Lewis said that is by design.

“Young teachers are moldable,” he said. “They’ve come here because they bought into the vision that all children can learn.”

Mark Coty, a fourth-grade teacher who has taught at E.D. Nixon for seven years, said that Lewis has given the teachers a standard to live by called the three R’s. They stand for rigor, relevance and relationship. That means the schoolwork is challenging, it relates to the lives of the students and the students know their teachers care about their well being.

“They love this school,” Coty said. “And we love them.

In addition to these things, Lewis also said meeting students where they are academically and not just where they should be academically is a priority at Nixon.

For a third-grader with weak reading skills, it might mean spending additional time in a second-grade reading class. For the fourth-grader with exceptional math skills, it could mean getting to move up a grade level in that subject.

“The students that come here, come with a lot of baggage from home,” he said. “It might be a home where there is no money, or they might have two parents who work a lot.

“We can’t change a child’s home life, but what we can do is affect what they do here at school.”

Both Lewis and Winston said their schools get tremendous community support and work hard to generate as much support from the parents of their students. At both schools, parents can attend workshops. At Nixon, they soon will have a place where they can use computers and work on things such as GEDs and resumes.

Rewarding Experience
Lewis said he never thought he wanted to teach in an elementary school, much less lead one.

“Part of my internship was done at an elementary school, and I vowed that I would never teach at an elementary school,” said Lewis, who taught biology and special education at Jefferson Davis High School for six years. “I just felt like, high school kids were more independent, and elementary school was much more ‘touchy-feely.’”

Lewis said that for many years and even today, women dominate elementary schools. He wasn’t sure if he would fit in as a black male. But that’s changed.

“I’m sold and now I never want to work in a high school again,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s because I see the immediate rewards.”

And so do the students and teachers.

Third-grade teacher Aundria Sewell, who has spent all of her five years as a teacher at Nixon, said teachers there are often at school long after their students go home because they believe in what they’re doing.

“We understand our students and that some of their parents want to do more, but are not able to because they don’t have the background,” she said. “So we stay here until 6 p.m. getting lesson plans ready so that we can accomplish as much as we can when they get here.”

Bridge to Somewhere
Lewis said he believes that the main reason that middle and high schools don’t often buy in to the concepts of project-based activity and facilitated learning, which allows the student more control over their learning experience, is because they’re concerned about behavioral problems.

“Having students sitting on their butts for 30-to-40 minutes at a stretch in class hasn’t been successful,” he said. “There needs to be at least 12 minutes or more of cooperative learning. That means that teachers aren’t doing most of the talking. The students do most of the talking and that means that learning is taking place.”

Lewis said that at Nixon there are lots of things that are done differently, and the teachers know they have the flexibility to do them that way.

For instance, students at E.D. Nixon don’t sit in traditional rows. Their desks are grouped together so they can talk to each other. They work on many hands-on projects where they can get out of their seats and move around the classroom without constantly asking permission. Their teachers also don’t spend the entire day standing in front of them lecturing from a book.

Lewis said he believes the main reason students drop out of school is because they don’t feel connected.

“A lot of kids are not engaged and they don’t have that self-efficacy,” he said.

Lewis said that middle and high schools don’t appear to be doing enough to keep students from being bored. He’s not suggesting that students need to be entertained, but believe they should be given more interesting ways to learn.

Lewis said his former students who are now at McIntyre and Bellingrath middle schools often visit and tell him of their boredom.

“If you’re in seventh grade with just a textbook and a teacher it’s easy to disengage,” he said. “We encourage our students to move around.

He said he wishes there would be some kind of bridge between the elementary schools and the middle schools that allows teachers at that level to use more of the same learning tools that elementary schools have.

“In middle school, students all of a sudden have a responsibility to be grown,” he said. “They don’t have a lot of the equipment and hands-on things that we have at the elementary level. In elementary school, learning is fun.”

“When learning is fun, they don’t miss school because they don’t want to miss anything.”

Suicide Surge: Schools Confront Anti-Gay Bullying

By the Associated Press
Education Week
October 11, 2010

A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay harassment is prompting school officials nationwide to rethink their efforts against bullying — and in the process, risk entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.

The conflict: Gay-rights supporters insist that any effective anti-bullying program must include specific components addressing harassment of gay youth. But religious conservatives condemn that approach as an unnecessary and manipulative tactic to sway young people’s views of homosexuality.

It’s a highly emotional topic. Witness the hate mail — from the left and right — directed at Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District while it reviews its anti-bullying strategies in the aftermath of a gay student’s suicide.

The invective is “some of the worst I’ve ever seen,” Superintendent Dennis Carlson said. “We may invite the Department of Justice to come in and help us mediate this discussion between people who seem to want to go at each other.”

Carlson’s district in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis is politically diverse, and there are strong, divided views on how to combat bullying.

“We believe the bullying policy should put the emphasis on the wrong actions of the bullies and not the characteristics of the victims,” said Chuck Darrell of the conservative Minnesota Family Council.

That’s a wrongheaded, potentially dangerous approach, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network — which tries to improve the school climate for gay students nationwide.

“Policies have to name the problem in order to have an impact,” said GLSEN’s executive director, Eliza Byard. “Only the ones that name it see an improvement.”

According to a 2009 GLSEN survey of 7,261 students, only 18 percent said their schools had a comprehensive program addressing anti-gay bullying, while gay students in schools that had such programs were less likely to be victimized and more likely to report problems to staff.

Across the political spectrum, every group weighing in on the issue had deplored the recent deaths — the latest in a long series of suicides over many years by harassed gay teens, but dramatic nonetheless because of the high toll in a short span.

The most recent and highest-profile case involved Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, who killed himself by jumping off the George Washington bridge after his roommate secretly recorded him with another male student, then broadcast the video online.

But at least four younger teens have killed themselves since July after being targeted by anti-gay bullying, including Justin Aaberg, 15, of Andover, Minn., who hanged himself in his room in July. His friends told his mother he’d been a frequent target of bullies mocking his sexual orientation.

Five other students in his Anoka-Hennepin school district have killed themselves in the past year, and gay-rights advocates say bullying may have played a role in two of these cases as well.

Carlson, the district superintendent, lost a teenage daughter of his own in a car crash, and says he shares the anguish of the parents bereaved by suicide. He acknowledges that a controversial district policy calling for “neutrality” in classroom discussions of sexual orientation may have created an impression among some teachers, students and outsiders that school staff wouldn’t intervene aggressively to combat anti-gay bullying.

The district — Minnesota’s largest — serves nearly 40,000 students in 13 towns. The school board adopted the neutrality policy in 2009 as a balancing act, trying not to offend either liberal or conservative families.

Rebecca Dearing, 17, a junior who belongs to the gay-straight alliance at the district’s Champlin Park High School, said the neutrality policy caused teachers to shy away from halting anti-gay harassment — sometimes leaving her gay friends feeling vulnerable to the point where they don’t come to school.

“This shouldn’t be a political issue any more, when it’s affecting the lives of our students,” she said. “It’s a human issue that needs to be dealt with. They can be doing more and they’re not.”

In August, amid the furor over the suicides, the district clarified its anti-bullying program — saying that it was not governed by the neutrality provision and had always been intended to encourage vigilant, proactive adult intervention to curb anti-gay harassment. Staffers were told failure to intervene would be punished.

Justin Aaberg’s mother, Tammy Aaberg, is convinced the broader neutrality policy has been damaging to gay students and wants it changed. She said she heard belatedly from Justin’s friends about instances in past years where he was harassed that she was never notified about even through staff members were aware.

Now she sees signs that the district wants to be more diligent, but isn’t fully reassured.

“Most of the teachers and principals, and maybe even now the superintendent, they mean well — they want to intervene,” she said. “But the teachers still don’t know what they can and can’t do.”

Nadia Boufous Phelps, the school psychologist at Anoka’s Blaine High School, is co-advisor for its gay-straight alliance — to which 27 of the 3,000 students belong. She welcomes the attempt to clarify the stance toward anti-gay bullying.

“In the past, the staff often would not intervene,” she said. “Now the district has come out loud and clear, if you hear “That’s so gay,’ if you witness anything, you must do something.”

Still, she said, “We still have a long way to go”

Carlson says his district, seven years ago, was among the first in the state to implement a comprehensive anti-bullying program. Now he’s exasperated by the highly charged, politicized debate that has flared since Aaberg’s suicide.

“It’s a terribly sensitive situation,” he said. “Hurtful statements on either side are not helpful … and the kids are watching.”

Phil Duran, staff attorney for the statewide gay rights group OutFront Minnesota, says Carlson and his colleagues are constrained by school board members who do not want to anger conservative voters in the district.

“They’re between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “I do think they want to do the right thing — I don’t think they known what the right thing is.”

Nationally, the recent suicides have intensified calls on Congress to pass a pending bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act. It would require schools receiving federal funds to implement bullying prevention programs that specifically address anti-gay harassment.

Supporters of the act say it has bipartisan support, but the likelihood of Democratic losses in the Nov. 2 election cloud its prospects, and it is vehemently opposed by many conservatives.

“A lot of these anti-bullying programs are crossing the lines far beyond bullying prevention into adult-oriented material and politics,” said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family. Mission America president Linda Harvey said the act would “incorporate mandatory pro-gay propaganda.”

According to GLSEN, 10 states have anti-bullying laws along the lines of the Safe Schools Act — requiring specific components addressing anti-gay harassment. But gay-rights activists say enforcement and compliance is not uniform.

For example, Dave Reynolds of the Trevor Project, which seeks to combat teen suicides, says many California schools are not in compliance with the state’s 10-year-old law. One problem area, he said, is California’s Central Valley — the source of many calls to the Trevor Project’s suicide hot line.

Jeffree Merteuil-Clark, 17, is a junior who’s active in the gay-straight alliance at Frontier High School in Bakersfield, a Central Valley city not far from Tehachapi. That’s the town where 13-year-old Seth Walsh, hanged himself outside his home last month after enduring taunts from classmates about being gay. He died after nine days in a coma.

Merteuil-Clark said the teachers who are sympathetic to bullied gay students tend to be cautious, fearing they might antagonize Kern County school administrators who want to “sweep the problem under the rug.”

“Growing up gay in Kern County, you have all this opposition to you,” he said. “It does have an impact on you. When you’re little, you think the rest of the world hates you.”

The debate has proved to be a minefield for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, one of the largest in the nation, as it strives to serve schools ranging from progressive to conservative.

“We have to be extremely careful,” said Marlene Snyder, the Olweus development director, describing a community-by-community approach which enables schools to tailor the program as they see fit in regard to anti-gay bullying.

“We’ve worked in all kinds of schools,” Snyder said. “Some have very much taken on the homophobic situation. Other schools won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

GLSEN sees a mixed picture nationwide — gay-straight alliances continue to spread, numbering more than 4,000 nationwide, yet nine of 10 gay students in its latest survey reported suffering anti-gay harassment,

Asked for an example of an effective program, GLSEN leader Eliza Byard cited New York City’s Respect for All Initiative. The district, which serves 1.1 million students, makes specific mention of sexual orientation in its anti-bullying training for teachers and its materials for students.

“There’s always more to do,” said Elayna Konstan, head of the Office of School and Youth Development. “We’re always trying to do this work better.”

Of course, even a highly praised anti-bullying program doesn’t spare New York City from its own share of anti-gay violence. Police charged members of a street gang with brutally beating a recruit they suspected of being gay and torturing him and two other people last week.

Deadlines Loom on Districts’ Race to Top Plans

By Sean Cavanagh
Education Week
October 13, 2010

The deadline pressure states faced in submitting applications in the federal Race to the Top competition is now being felt at the local level, as school districts scurry to craft work plans that show how they will execute ambitious changes in education policy.

Eleven states, plus the District of Columbia, have won a combined $4 billion this year through the program, which was intended to support changes in teacher evaluation, data systems, math and science education, and other areas.

All of the winners secured varying degrees of commitment from local school systems and teachers’ unions to help carry out their Race to the Top plans. Now the winners in the second round of the competition, which was part of the 2009 economic-stimulus package, have until Nov. 22 to submit “scope of work” plans from their school districts and other participating local education entities to the U.S. Department of Education.

Completing that work is crucial: States are not allowed to give Race to the Top money to schools and districts until the plans outlining their goals, timelines, and budgets are approved, and if enough

local entities fail to submit plans, the winning states’ funding could, at least in theory, be jeopardized, federal officials say.

The Education Department gave the round-two winners 90 days from the time the awards were announced, in August, to submit the local plans. For inspiration, the recent awardees can look to the two first-round winners, Delaware and Tennessee, both of which met their 90-day deadlines earlier this year.

The upcoming deadlines bring a host of challenges.

Some districts have been asked by their states to include descriptions of how they will lay the groundwork for agreements with teachers’ unions on teacher evaluation and pay for performance. Some districts are attempting to figure out which individual projects can realistically be funded through their local shares of Race to the Top aid, and which will require money from other sources.

In Florida, which won $700 million through the Race to the Top, state officials encouraged districts to submit scope-of-work plans by Oct. 13, so that the officials can review them and provide feedback. By Nov. 9, all 65 Florida districts taking part in the Race to the Top—out of 67 traditional school systems in the state—must have their plans in, to give the state time to work out problems by the Nov. 22 federal deadline.

The Collier County, Fla., school system, which is expected to receive $4 million through Race to the Top funding, is making progress on its plan, but isn’t likely to make the October goal, said Mary Ann Gemmill, the chief administrative officer for the 43,000-student district.

“We felt we could do better with the deliverable if we pushed it back,” she said. “We’re going to pray for perfection on November 9.”

New Systems Required

Florida’s application called for the creation of a new system to evaluate teachers and principals, based partly on growth in student achievement on tests. By November, the state expects each participating district to submit a comprehensive timeline that explains how it will address all teacher- and principal-evaluation requirements of the state’s application, over the four-year grant period.

By May, each district will be expected to have a revised evaluation system in place for teachers whose performance can be judged under the state’s current testing structure, Florida officials said.

In Collier County, the toughest challenge is creating a blueprint for the evaluation. District officials have been working with union representatives in recent weeks to put it together, Ms. Gemmill said.

“We know where we have to start, and we know where we have to end up,” she explained.

Florida officials are pleased with the districts’ progress on their plans, said Frances Haithcock, the state’s chancellor for K-12 schools. Districts are likely to have an easier time meeting deadlines in some areas where the state already has invested considerable time and resources, such as helping struggling schools, she said, than they will have hammering out agreements about teacher evaluation.

Local Role Crucial

Federal Money, Local Plans

Winners of the federal Race to the Top grants are expected to submit to the U.S. Department of Education “scope of work” plans for the local educational agencies (LEAs) that are participating in their programs. Those plans describe basic goals, timelines, and budgets for LEAs carrying out the state’s plans. The winners face several expectations in working with their LEAs:

• At least 50 percent of states’ federal awards have to go to LEAs.

• Winners of the second round of Race to the Top have until Nov. 22 to submit their LEAs’ scope-of-work plans to the federal government.

• Many states have set earlier scope-of-work deadlines for LEAs, to allow for review of their plans.

• States cannot allocate Race to the Top funds to LEAs until their scope-of-work plans are approved.

• If LEAs fail to submit plans, states can reallocate their money to other LEAs, with federal approval.

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Local implementation will prove critical to states’ Race to the Top plans. At least 50 percent of individual states’ awards must go to local education agencies, and states cannot give money to local entities until their scopes of work are approved, federal Education Department officials said in a statement. Federal money has been obligated to the states, but it only can be drawn down as the states fulfill their plans, department officials explained.

If districts fail to meet requirements for scope-of-work plans, states can seek federal permission to reallocate aid to other Race to the Top districts, the department said.

Conceivably, the department could withhold Race to the Top money if significantly fewer local districts completed scopes of work than originally signed on to their states’ applications, but federal officials said they were confident state and local obligations would be met.

Florida officials said they have helped districts with their scope-of-work plans by visiting school systems, answering questions over the phone, and staging webinars to explain the process.

In Ohio, which was awarded $400 million in the competition, state officials have held several regional meetings to provide technical assistance to schools and districts. Ohio has set an Oct. 22 deadline for districts to submit their plans.

Costly Promises

A common concern among district officials is that their Race to the Top funding will not cover the costs of implementing the program locally.

The Lee County, Fla., school system is expected to receive $9 million over four years, said Greg Adkins, the chief human-resources officer for the 82,000-student district. But the price tag for carrying out some of the grant’s requirements—particularly improving data reporting—is likely to carry costs above that limit, he said.

The grant money “sounds large at the state level,” Mr. Adkins said, “but when you get to the local level, it’s not much to help us accomplish these goals.”

Ohio state officials have heard similar local concerns, said Michael Sawyers, the state’s assistant superintendent of education. The state could help them by providing some of the state’s share of Race to the Top aid, he said. The state is also encouraging local schools and districts consider pooling their funding in areas such as professional development to make the money go further, he said.

School districts in another winning state, Maryland, have asked districts to turn in scope-of-work plans by Nov. 3, to allow for sufficient state review and changes over the weeks leading up to Nov. 22, said James V. Foran, the assistant superintendent for the state’s division of academic reform and innovation.

Maryland districts have some leeway in working out potentially vexing teacher-evaluation issues, Mr. Foran said, while a council created by Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, studies that topic.

But the Race to the Top plans are due as Maryland districts face an unrelated deadline to submit comprehensive master plans to the state, Mr. Foran said. And some districts must have their Race to the Top scopes of work approved by local school boards.

“The biggest challenge they face, by far,” he said, “is time.”

Coverage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is supported in part by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

What Does ‘Career-Ready’ Mean, Anyway?

By Sarah D. Sparks
Education Week
October 1, 2010

For those of you who’ve been asking yourselves what this push for “college and career readiness” will actually mean, the Education and Labor Departments are trying to flesh things out a bit.

Both the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ occupational classification system and the Education Department’s academic program classifications have been revised this year, so the two agencies are taking the opportunity to realign the two. They are producing a “crosswalk” tool to analyze the relationships between the academic courses available and the needs of local labor markets. At the same time, the bureau is also developing a new National Employment Matrix to describe requirements for 750 different jobs, from teaching to chemical engineering.

The matrix will lay out the typical education degrees, work experience, state licensing or certification and on-the-job training needed to be considered competent (and thus employable) in different jobs, according to Dixie Sommers, the Labor Department’s assistant commissioner for occupational statistics and employment projections.

Both labor and education officials hope to use the new crosswalk tool and employment matrix to explore, “What is the intersection between education and employment? What happens to people come out of postsecondary degree programs; do they get a job [in field]?” Ms. Sommers said.

The education criteria can guide local officials on what businesses to solicit to bring in jobs for their community’s education level. Yet for schools, the numbers also could prove helpful to keep students on track academically. For example, a guidance counselor working with a student interested in medicine can help him compare jobs available with a diploma, such as a physical therapist aide, all the way up to a neurosurgeon, which would require advanced doctoral work and fellowships, and other jobs in between.

Keep an eye out for an initial listing of 100 jobs described using the new criteria, which will be put out for public comment in the next few months.

What a Real Turnaround Looks Like

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

After years of high drop-out rates and dismal test scores, a group of teachers at the high school in Brockton, Mass. organized a school-wide campaign that involved reading and writing lessons in every class in all subjects, including gym. The results have been excellent, reports The New York Times. In 2001 testing, more students passed the state tests after failing the year before than at any other school in the state. This year and last, Brockton outperformed 90 percent of Massachusetts high schools. At 4,100 students, the school contravenes the received wisdom that small is better. In engineering the turnaround, the self-appointed group determined that reading, writing, speaking, and reasoning were the most important skills, and recruited nearly every educator in the building — not just English, but math, science, and guidance counselors — to teach those skills. The committee devised a rubric to help teachers understand what good writing looks like, and devoted faculty meetings to instructing department heads on its use. Then, the school’s 300 teachers were trained in small groups. The committee offered help to reluctant teachers, and since all committee members were in the union, scrupulously hewed to union rules. “In schools, no matter the size — and Brockton is one of the biggest — what matters is uniting people behind a common purpose, setting high expectations, and sticking with it,” explained David P. Driscoll, Massachusetts education commissioner at the time.

A Literacy Crisis

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

A new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education describes how over the last 37 years, the performance of thirteen- and seventeen-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that nearly six million of 22 million American secondary students struggle to read and write. Research demonstrates that around grade four, students must move from learning to read to reading to learn, contending with increasingly complex material each year. Without consistent content-area literacy support, many lose ground due to limited background knowledge and lack of reading strategies to comprehend concepts introduced in textbooks. When faced with students who struggle to read, teachers often lack sufficient training in integrating literacy into content areas, and tend to water down the curriculum and reduce task demands on students. As a remedy, the brief strongly recommends that subject-area teachers become more skilled in the kinds of reading and writing that are essential to their own academic content areas, and foster students’ abilities to read technical text, subject-matter material, and digital content independently. It also proposes that the Common Core State Standards, along with aligned assessments, can serve as a first step to raise the level of literacy achievement for all students in the United States.

The State of Education

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

In an interview with NBC, President Obama asserted that, “We can’t spend our way out of [the problems in public education]. I think that when you look at the statistics, the fact is that our per-pupil spending has gone up during the last couple of decades even as results have gone down.” He stressed that money must be tied to significant reforms, including a longer school year and elevating the profession of teaching. The president called his administration’s Race to the Top initiative one of the “most powerful tools for reform” in many years. He also said that the vast majority of teachers want to do a good job, but our system must identify struggling teachers and give them the support and the training they need. “Ultimately, if some teachers are not doing a good job, they’ve gotta go,” he added. He explained that in addition to its focus on failing schools serving lower-income children, his administration is concerned about the decline in math and science scores in middle-class districts. Hiring teachers is key to reversing that trend. He also underscored parental responsibility, urging parents to become engaged in their children’s learning, as he is with his own school-aged children (whom he acknowledged went to a private school better than the average Washington, D.C. school).

What ‘Superman’ Leaves Out

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

In a review of the much-discussed documentary Waiting for Superman, Dana Goldstein writes in The Nation that it “is a moving but vastly oversimplified brief on American educational inequality.” The film shows “working- and middle-class parents desperate to get their charming, healthy, well-behaved children into successful public charter schools,” but doesn’t show “teen moms, households without an adult English speaker or headed by a drug addict, or any of the millions of children who never have a chance to enter a charter school lottery (or get help with their homework or a nice breakfast) because adults simply aren’t engaged in their education.” It also leaves out charter school teachers such as those at Green Dot schools in Los Angeles, happily unionized, and regular neighborhood schools like PS 83 in East Harlem and the George Hall Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama, nationally recognized for successfully educating poor kids. The film also ignores what Goldstein characterizes as “intra-union ferment,” with affiliates across the country talking about effective teaching in a meaningful way. Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, is given particularly negative treatment; in fact, she has shown strong commitment to retooling the profession to better emphasize professional excellence and student achievement.

Questionable CMO Practice Rife in Ohio

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

According to a new report from Policy Matters Ohio, charter school law in the state has upended standard governance practices and allowed for the proliferation of ineffective, poorly run schools. Policy Matters reviewed management agreements, audits, websites, board lists and other charter school documents, and found clear evidence that management organizations, rather than the boards legally responsible for the schools, are in control. These organizations undercut board independence in a number of ways, such as controlling school revenues, setting up schools, picking board members, limiting board decision-making power, and reducing board ability to contract for independent services. Such practices can make it next to impossible for boards to break free from the managers they ostensibly hire. The report lists the organizations that present Ohio’s most troubling cases: the Richard Allen system of charters, Constellation Schools, Kids Count of Dayton, Mosaica Education, White Hat, Imagine Schools, the Leona Group, and National Heritage Academies. The report recommends charter law be revamped in the state, school-management relationships be closely scrutinized, transparency be required of all organizations, and the numerous violations uncovered be thoroughly investigated.

Consistent Markers on the Road to Dropping Out

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

A new report from the Baltimore Education Research Consortium summarizes commonalities that join together individual stories of Baltimore City School dropouts. After examining surface-level demographics, the report probes into behavioral characteristics of these students in the years preceding the dropout event. The study finds the majority who eventually drop out of Baltimore high schools enter ninth grade with a pattern of chronic absenteeism that reaches back at least several years. A majority of eventual dropouts are overage for grade by the time they enter ninth grade for the first time, and have increasingly high levels of absenteeism and course failure over their years in high school. Grade retention patterns within the district (possibly influenced by accountability pressures related to test scores in the elementary and middle grades) may contribute to the issue and should be examined closely. The report recommends that alternatives to grade retention be implemented to prevent large numbers of overage students in middle and high schools. The study also recommends interventions during the early middle grades to prevent many dropout outcomes, with non-traditional credit-earning options offered to older enrolled students (17 and older) who already have patterns of chronic absenteeism and course failure.

Wasted Opportunities

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

High-quality professional learning is critical to meeting constantly evolving challenges, but the majority of school systems know very little about what educators learn in professional development, how effectively they use what they learn, and to what extent students benefit, writes Hayes Mizell in Education Week. Most PD focuses on process, which often “masquerades as content.” Conversations are dominated by references to speakers, consultants, books, videos, webinars, workshops, courses, conferences, and presentations, with little attention to outcomes. Participation is assumed to equal results, and many states mandate PD in order to renew certification or advance on the pay scale. Most states make no effort to determine the effects of the mandated professional development: Some may benefit, many probably do not; no one knows. School systems routinely use professional-development days to disseminate updates on new laws or regulations, or instructions on administering standardized tests. As a remedy, professional development must be responsive to the objective learning needs of teachers and students, needs supported by student- or teacher-performance data. This is not possible without new expectations and behaviors from the three parties responsible for professional development: administrators who authorize it, educators who organize it, and teachers who engage in it.

What are they Thinking?

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

Lately, teacher colleges and teacher preparation have come in for scrutiny and heavy criticism. Authors of a new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute surveyed a diverse group of education professors on this and a range of issues facing the teaching profession, such as teacher tenure, state and national standards, measures of accountability, and alternative certification programs. The authors state that the ranks of teacher educators are “suffused” with “idealism, good intentions, and progressivist thinking,” showing less concern for educator challenges like managing classrooms and student discipline, implementing differentiated instruction, and working with state standards. They found that most education professors believe their field needs to change, yet are ambivalent about alternatives that recruit teachers through nontraditional paths (with the exception of Teach for America). Most professors offer some support for a number of policy initiatives aimed at improving the teaching corps, but oppose the use of student assessment data to evaluate teachers. Many of the questions in the survey yielded near 50-50 splits, indicating a professoriate that is increasingly segmented into opposing camps. The authors based their report on survey findings from a nationwide, randomly selected sample of 716 teacher educators in four-year colleges and universities.

Compounding the Effects of Poverty and Disability

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

Preliminary data from a 10-year study conducted by University of California at Berkeley that compared California foster kids against their at-risk peers suggests that academic challenges posed by poverty, disability, and language barriers are compounded when children also have to shuffle from school to school because they have no permanent family, the Associated Press reports. Foster children consistently scored lower in state English and math tests, even when factors such as income, race, and learning disabilities were taken into account. The findings confirm earlier studies analyzing foster children in the Midwest and Washington state, but the final California report, due out later this year, will be the first to examine how different circumstances within the foster care network affect student learning, researchers said. There are some 400,000 children in foster care at any one time in the United States. The average time a child spends in the foster care system is about 27 months, advocates say. Legislation sponsored by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., would direct child-welfare agencies to collaborate with local school districts to ensure that foster children remain in their current schools after they move to new school districts if it’s in their best interest.

Gains, But What do they Indicate?

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

A new analysis from the Center on Education Policy looks at states with five years of comparable test data, finding student achievement in reading and math rose between 2005 and 2009 on state tests as well as on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The gains in state and NAEP scores in most of these states overlapped, which may indicate higher levels of knowledge and skills in reading and math. Of the 21 states examined, 20 posted gains in proficiency on their state test, and 17 showed gains in reaching the basic level on NAEP. In grade 4 math, 18 of 19 states improved proficiency on state tests, and 15 showed gains in basic attainment on NAEP. The greatest agreement was in grade 8, where 19 of 21 states showed gains in math on the state tests and on NAEP, while 16 of 21 states showed gains in reading on both. In grade 4, 15 of 19 states showed upward trends on both assessments in math, and the same was true for 13 of 21 states in reading. The greater gains on state scores could be the result of instruction more closely aligned to state content standards than to NAEP, or may indicate inappropriate teaching to the test. Ultimately, students may be more motivated to perform well on state assessments, which have higher stakes for teachers and students.

Mentoring: Ensuring it’s Effective

Public Education Network
October 1, 2010

A new analysis from the Society for Research in Child Development of three recent large-scale evaluation studies of school-based mentoring programs suggests that the most successful programs use a clearly defined program model with well-articulated standards for practice; provide ongoing monitoring and support so that program models are implemented with fidelity; and ensure that all eligible students are matched with appropriate mentors. These programs enlist adult mentors rather than older student mentors, a group whose effectiveness has not been clearly established. They also are structured so that mentors and mentees meet consistently and are supported in developing mentoring relationships that can be maintained. The authors stress that analysis does not show evidence of effects on academic achievement. However, successful mentoring programs do seem to yield important influences on student learning and resilience in at-risk youth. Outcomes from school-based mentoring in decreased truancy and school misconduct may contribute to improved academic achievement over time, but this has yet to be examined. Evaluations of interventions in schools focusing directly on academic skills or social and emotional learning have reported stronger effects than current school-based mentoring programs, which do not necessarily reflect these areas of emphasis.

Charter School Group Fund Launches $160 Million Campaign

Philanthropy News Digest
October 1, 2010

The Denver-based Charter School Growth Fund has launched a $160 million capital campaign to help support the creation of non-traditional public schools nationwide, the Associated Press reports.

Once established, charter schools typically operate with a combination of public and private funding. Start-up funding, on the other hand, tends to be private, posing a challenge for parents, teachers, or business leaders who want to open a charter school. Start-up schools also have to pay rent for facilities and receive on average $2,200 less per student than traditional public schools, said Peter Groff, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The Obama administration has encouraged the creation of new charter schools as part of its efforts to improve public education in the United States. Indeed, states that applied for the billions in funding available through the government’s Race to the Top competition were required to have accommodating policies in place toward charter schools.

To date, the fund has raised half its goal from a range of individual and institutional donors, including the Walton Family Foundation and Netflix founder Reed Hastings. The campaign aims to establish 335,000 additional spots for children at charter schools in the next decade.

“There was a belief that there were lots of great schools out there, many of which wanted to be able to grow and serve more students,” said Charter School Growth Fund CEO Kevin Hall. “We will help full fill their mission of dramatically changing education in their community.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

2010 Innovation and Excellence Forum: Call for Presenters

Deadline: November 1, 2010

The Alliance for Excellent Education is pleased to announce that it will be holding an online forum highlighting successful practices in middle and high school education with online/blended learning and technology. This forum will offer an opportunity for policymakers, educators, researchers, advocates, the media, and others to learn about promising practices that prepare all students for college and work. The forum will feature schools, districts, and states that are effectively using online/blended learning and technology to raise student outcomes.

Speaker proposals for the 2010 Innovation and Excellence: Spotlight on High Schools, Online/Blended Learning, and Technology forum are now being accepted and reviewed according to relevance, effectiveness, and policy implications as described below.

Relevance:

Proposals that include the innovative use of online/blended learning and/or technology to drive or support middle and high school reform that ensures students are college and work ready are welcome, including those at the school, district, or state levels. However, of particular interest are success stories related to the innovative use of online/blended learning and/or technology that facilitates one or more of the following:

• overall school reform efforts that have transformed the school culture and student outcomes;
• improved teacher effectiveness and teacher distribution in low-performing high schools;
• increased access to remedial and enrichment courses, including those that are difficult to offer in tough budget times;
• efforts to increase interest and postsecondary participation in STEM fields;
• improved home and school access to teachers, students, experts, virtual tutoring, and digital content;
• improved outcomes for over-age and under-credited students;
• use of multiple pathways to graduate students ready for college and work, including education in alternative settings or variations on a typical school day; and
• data-driven decision making for personalized learning, including the use of data systems to prevent dropouts, identify students for intervention, and guide instructional improvement.

Also of interest are schools and/or districts, particularly those in rural and urban areas, that have beaten the odds of high-poverty, high-minority, and high-achieving demographics.

Effectiveness:

Proposals should specify how the highlighted program has increased student achievement, graduation rates, and college- and work-readiness rates. Also of interest are programs that show evidence of increased attendance, decreased discipline problems, improved teaching skills, equitable teacher distribution, and improved leadership and school climate. Quantitative data is best, though qualitative data is also useful.

Policy Implications:

Proposals should explain how the presenters plan to illustrate lessons learned from their work, and it should discuss the implementation, sustainability, and scalability of the program, as well as implications for school, district, state, and/or national education policy.

Proposals not focused on secondary level initiatives that promote college and work readiness will not be considered. Submitting a proposal may also lead to additional opportunities to highlight your school, district, or state in other Alliance for Excellent Education efforts. Please submit a one- to two-page proposal addressing the above criteria to digitallearning@all4ed.org by Monday, November 1, 2010, with the subject line “Innovation Series.” The Alliance will cover travel-related expenses for one presenter. If you have questions, contact Chip Slaven using the email address above or by phone at (202) 828-0828. Selections and a date for the first forum will be announced shortly after the submission deadline. If your proposal is chosen, the Alliance for Excellent Education will contact you directly.

GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS

Prudential Spirit of Community Awards

Eligibility: Grade 5-12 Students
Deadline: November 1, 2010
Award: $1,000

Prudential Spirit of Community Awards (Deadline: November 1)

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program is the United States’ largest youth recognition program based exclusively on volunteer community service. The program was created in 1995 by Prudential in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) to honor students for outstanding service to others at the local, state, and national level. The program’s goals are to applaud young people who already are making a positive difference in their towns and neighborhoods, and to inspire others to think about how they might contribute to their communities. To be eligible, a student must be a legal resident of a U.S. state, have engaged in a volunteer activity that occurred during the last 12 months, and submit a completed application to a school principal or head of a designated local organization. 12 students will receive the maximum award, and a trip to Washington, DC.

http://spirit.prudential.com

Youth Garden Grants

Eligibility: Schools & community organizations
Deadline: November 1, 2010
Maximum Award: $1,000

Home Depot and the National Gardening Association (NGA) are partnering again to offer the Youth Garden Grants, given to child-centered garden programs.  Priorities will be given to programs that emphasize one or more of these elements: educational focus or curricular/program integration, nutrition or plant-to-food connections, environmental awareness/education, entrepreneurship, social aspects of gardening such as leadership development, team building, community support, or service-learning. Schools, youth groups, community centers, camps, clubs, treatment facilities, and intergenerational groups throughout the United States are eligible.  Applicants must plan to garden with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18 years. Previous Youth Garden Grant winners who wish to reapply may do so, but must wait one year (e.g., if you won in 2010, you can apply again in 2012) and have significantly expanded their garden programs. This year, 100 grants are available, with five programs receiving a $500 gift card to Home Depot, a $500 gift card to the Gardening with Kids catalog, and educational materials from the National Gardening Association.  Ninety-five programs will receive a $500 gift card to Home Depot and educational materials from NGA.

www.kidsgardening.org/ygg.asp

Echoing Green Fellowships

Eligibility: Start-ups
Deadline: November 12, 2010
Award: $90,000

The two-year Echoing Green Fellowship program will provide start-up capital and technical assistance to help new leaders launch their organizations and build capacity.  This highly-competitive award will give 12-20 individuals $60,000, or two-person partnerships a grant of $90,000 to support their work.  In addition, a health insurance stipend, yearly professional development stipend, access to conferences led by organizational development experts, technical support, and other benefits are included in the package.

www.echoinggreen.org/fellowship/application-overview

Project Ignition Grants

Eligibility: High school students & staff
Deadline: November 15, 2010
Award: $2,000

Applications for grants are now available online for high school students and adults interested in addressing teen driver safety through service-learning initiatives. State Farm and the National Youth Leadership Council are proud to continue their collaboration on Project Ignition in this seventh year. Students and staff from any public high school in the U.S. and in the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick can apply.  Applications are due November 15, 2010, and twenty-five high schools will receive $2,000 grants in December, 2010 to support implementation of their programs between January and April, 2011.

www.sfprojectignition.com

Office Depot Foundation Grants

Eligibility: Community organizations
Deadline: November 15, 2010
Award: $3,000

The Foundation’s funding focus includes: Making a Difference in Children’s Lives – to support activities that serve, teach and inspire children, youth and families; Building Communities – to support civic organizations and activities that serve the needs of our community; and Disaster Relief – to support disaster relief efforts of recognized national, regional and local agencies, and to provide disaster relief to Office Depot associates who have experienced catastrophic loss. An online eligibility survey and grant application can be found on the Grant Making Guidelines page. Applications are retrieved on a monthly basis and are reviewed by a committee. Please allow at least 12 weeks after you submit your completed application before you receive a response. The majority of grants issued are in the vicinity of $1,000 and are supported by in-kind donations when inventory allows.

www.officedepotfoundation.com/funding.asp

AmeriCorps State & National

Eligibility: Public or private non-profit organizations
Deadline: January 25, 2010

CNCS is looking for high-impact organizations across America to submit their strongest applications for how to use AmeriCorps members to address pressing social problems. If the President’s fiscal year 2011 budget request is fully funded, the agency anticipates approximately $311 million to be available for new, recompeting, and continuation grants in all of the AmeriCorps State and National grant categories, and $1 million for AmeriCorps planning grants. This funding will make a focused investment in the six national issue priorities identified in the Serve America Act of improving education, energy conservation, the health of all Americans, and economic opportunity for economically vulnerable individuals; increasing service by and for veterans; and providing disaster services. Organizations, including institutions of higher education;  Labor organizations, faith-based and other community organizations; government entities within states or territories (e.g., cities, counties); Indian Tribes; partnerships and consortia; and intermediaries planning to subgrant funds awarded are eligible to apply. The Corporation encourages organizations that have never received funding from the Corporation or AmeriCorps to apply for these grants.

Successful applicants will be notified in early June 2011

www.americorps.gov/for_organizations/funding/nofa_detail.asp?tbl_nofa_id=83

WaysToHelp.org Grants

Eligibility: Teenagers
Deadline: Ongoing

WaysToHelp.org invites teens to apply for grants to fund their community service ideas across any one of 16 issue areas.  Applications are short – just 5,000 words or less – and should summarize: how the project will involve others, who it will help, what effect it’s expected to have, when it will start and how the funds will be used.  Grant requests are reviewed and responded to on a monthly basis. www.waystohelp.org

Starbucks Shared Planet Youth Action Grants

Eligibility: Community organizations
Deadline: January 31, 2011
Maximum Award: $30,000

The Starbucks Foundation is accepting applications from organizations that provide young people a continuum of opportunities to develop creative approaches to address pressing concerns in their communities. Funding will be considered based on numbers of beneficiaries served, geographic reach, organizational capacity, and size of operating budget. Please complete a letter of inquiry for your organization. The Starbucks Foundation will contact you if we’d like to request a full grant proposal. Successful grant applicants will exhibit all of the following qualities: Deliver services to youth, ages 6 – 24; Preference will be given to organizations that focus on young people in the age range of 12 and older, when they are able to take independent action; Provides opportunity to combine learning with action that support communities and further global citizenship; Deliver services, disseminate information, provide training and/or build broad networks; Provide opportunities for Starbucks partners and multiple stores to be engaged in community service. The Starbucks Foundation reviews the submissions on an annual basis; letters of inquiry submitted will be reviewed and considered for the spring 2011 grant round.

www.starbucksfoundation.com

JPMorgan Chase Foundation International Grants

Eligibility: NGOs
Deadline: Ongoing
The JPMorgan Chase Foundation welcomes grant inquiries from non-governmental organizations working internationally in the Foundation’s three focus areas: community development; youth education; and arts and culture. Of particular interest are requests in the areas of microfinance and support for small business development; low-income housing; youth education in low-income communities; and arts and culture projects aimed at promoting asset development in low-income communities. To be considered for a grant, an organization must be working in one of the countries outside the U.S. where JPMorgan Chase has a grants program.  

www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Corporate-Responsibility/grant_programs.htm

PepsiCo Foundation International Grants

Eligibility: Nonprofit organizations
Deadline: Ongoing
Maximum Award: $100,000

The PepsiCo Foundation seeks to foster healthy, vibrant, and self-sufficient communities worldwide through global partnerships that improve the quality of life across communities in areas of great need. Grants provide support in the areas of health, including food security and improved nutrition; environment, including water security, sustainable agriculture, and adaptive approaches to climate change; and education, including access to education and training for the underserved and women’s empowerment. The Foundation aims to provide support to underserved regions across the globe. Registered nonprofit organizations (501(c)(3) organizations in the United States or the equivalent internationally) are eligible to apply. Requests are accepted through the Foundation’s letter of interest application process. Letters of interest may be submitted year round. www.pepsico.com/Purpose/PepsiCo-Foundation/Grants.html

Got Breakfast? Foundation: Silent Heroes

Eligibility: Schools & non-profit organizations
Deadline: November 15, 2010
Award: $5,000

The got breakfast? Foundation Silent Hero program encourages applicants to expand the reach of underutilized child nutrition programs, most notably the National School Breakfast Program. The program recognizes, encourages, and rewards those silent heroes who help children start their day off right by serving breakfast.

http://www.gotbreakfast.org/

ALA/Young Adult Library Services Association: Great Stories CLUB Grants

Eligibility: Libraries
Deadline: November 19, 2010
Maximum Award: $200

The American Library Association Public Programs Office and the Young Adult Library Services Association are accepting applications for the next round of Great Stories CLUB grants. The Great Stories CLUB (Connecting Libraries, Underserved teens, and Books) is a book club program designed to reach underserved, troubled teen populations through books that are relevant to their lives. Eligibility: all types of libraries (public, school, academic, and special) located within or working in partnership with facilities serving troubled teens in the United States and its territories.

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/ppo/programming/greatstories/club.cfm

Knowles Science Teaching Foundation: Teaching Fellowships

Eligibility: High school science and math teachers
Deadline: January 12, 2011
Maximum Award: $150,000

The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation is now accepting applications for its KSTF Teaching Fellowships, which support America’s best teachers of high school mathematics and science at the critical early juncture of their career. Award includes tuition assistance, monthly stipends, and support for summer professional development; regular meetings, online discussions, and a structured mentor relationship for each fellow.

http://www.kstf.org/fellowships/teaching.html

RESOURCES

School Turnaround Field Guide

5,000 underperforming schools are being targeted by the current administration in an attempt to achieve a ‘turnaround’ in their success. This paper takes a detailed view of the challenges faced by such schools. It identifies key organisations that are involved in ‘ turnaround’,  analyzes  the various successes and failures of earlier attempts, and recommends additional steps to take to ensure the current effort produces positive and widespread results.

http://www.fsg-impact.org/ideas/pdf/School_Turnaround_Field_Guide.pdf

Origins of Chartering – Timeline

This informative page documents the progress of the chartering idea, from 1974 to the present day.

http://www.educationevolving.org/choice/origins-of-chartering

Get Set Students’ Video

A video of the 2010 GET SET students at FPCS-Woodridge Campus discussing and testing the case they made to carry medicine in the Amazon as part of their Malaria Meltdown Project.

http://dcacpswordpressposts.blogspot.com/2010/10/fwd-please-use-this-video-link-in-next.html

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record

Jumpstart’s Read for the Record©, presented in partnership with Pearson, is Jumpstart’s world record breaking campaign that brings children and adults together to read the same book, on the same day, in homes and communities all over the world. The campaign also kicks off Jumpstart’s yearlong program, preparing preschool children in low-income neighborhoods for success in school and life.

http://www.readfortherecord.org/site/PageServer

Jumpbunch

Jumpbunch is a young and exciting company that is committed to the health education of children through a structured physical education curriculum for your locations. Jumpbunch will provide your facility with a trained coach weekly. Coaches are equipped with age-appropriate lessons plans, music, safe equipment, and the skills needed to ensure that children learn while having fun!:-) All activities are designed to develop eye/hand co-ordination, large and fine motor skills, muscle mass and body balance. Jumpbunch services Charter Schools, Daycares, Summer camps, Special Education programs, MOM groups and a range of venues catering to children. We offer more than 70 different activity plans. For example, basketball, soccer games, relays, obstacles courses, football, field hockey, magic scarfs, golf, paddles sports and much more!

Contact “Coach James” at (301)254-5633 to schedule a meeting and a FREE Demonstration

http://www.jumpbunch.com/