Education News
SAT scores remain flat, participation increases, College Board reports.
The Washington Post (8/27, B1, Glod, Chandler) reports on the front page of its Metro section, “SAT performance held steady for 2008 high school graduates even as participation rose among minority students and those who are part of the first generation in their families to go to college,” according to a report from the College Board. “Nationwide, the number of students taking the SAT surpassed 1.5 million for the first time, up 8 percent from five years ago and almost 30 percent over the past decade.” The Post notes that “some educators, policymakers and others concerned about high school quality saw the consistency in scores from last year as a bright spot,” as “scores on standardized exams often dip when the number of test-takers increases.” The steady performance is also seen in some quarters as evidence “that recent efforts to improve the quality of high school courses and expand academic options…are possibly starting to take hold.”
Education Week (8/26, Cech) added, “Scores were down slightly from those of the class of 2007 on the critical-reading section among all ethnic and racial groups except whites, who improved by 1 point.” Regarding the math section, “white students and those identified as ‘Asians, Asian-Americans, or Pacific Islanders’ posted the only gains.” In terms of “the writing section, only students in the Asian/Pacific Islander category improved on last year’s crop of scores.” Education Week also noted that “gender gaps persisted on this year’s SAT.” While there were “narrowing score differences between men and women on some other standardized math exams in recent years,” on the SAT, “the mean math score” for males “was 533 out of a possible 800 points, 33 points higher than the mean score for women.”
The Los Angeles Times (8/26, Holland) reported, “About 40 percent of those who sat for the exam were minorities, up from 33 percent a decade ago.” However, “the gap between average scores for black and Mexican American students and for white and Asian American students persisted.” According to the Times, “Asian American students topped the math scores, with an average of 564, compared with 549 for white students, 453 for Mexican American students and 429 for black students.”
Regarding these “racial and socioeconomic gaps” in scores, the New York Times (8/27, A15, Rimer) notes that “College Board officials said they reflected similar gaps in other areas of academic achievement, like grades, as well as in access to education.” A College Board official also “addressed what he called the myth of SAT preparation,” arguing that preparatory courses “result only in very small score improvements.” However, “longtime critics of the SAT disagreed, saying that private test preparation was unfairly distributed,” particularly in terms of “class and race.”
The Chicago Tribune (8/26, Malone), the Boston Globe (8/27, Schowrm), the Dallas Morning News (8/27, Scudder), New Jersey’s Star-Ledger (8/27, Mooney), the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/26, Diamond), and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (8/26, Agee), among others, reported on the results for individual states.
In the Classroom
Dual-language kindergarten program profiled.
Texas’s Express-News (8/26, Kastner) reported on a dual-language kindergarten class at Regency Place Elementary School, “one of four new dual-language classrooms to open this year in North East Independent School District.” Educator Yesenia De Angel “teaches entirely in Spanish,” although “nearly half the students in her class are native English speakers who have little or no experience with the new language.” As a result, “pantomime goes a long way toward understanding — a finger to the lips, for instance, and everyone knows to be quiet — but De Angel never lapses into English.” The Express-News noted, “The students receive 90 percent of their instruction in Spanish and 10 percent in English, although the English-portion of the day is with another teacher.” According to De Angel, the “students begin to have comprehension in the new language right away.” She added, “By October, they’re writing in their journals.”
New York City pilot program to extend standardized testing to kindergartners.
On the front page of its Metro section, the New York Times (8/27, B1, Gootman) reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (I) “administration, which has made accountability the watchword of its overhaul of public education, is asking elementary school principals across the city to give standardized tests in English and math to children as young as kindergartners.” School administrators have been “urged…to join a yearlong pilot program with five testing options for kindergarten through second grade, including timed paper-and-pencil assessments in which students record answers in booklets for up to 90 minutes, as well as ones in which teachers record observations of individual students on Palm Pilots.” The program “is already inciting outrage among some educators and advocates who worry that [the mayor's] efforts to overhaul the school system have been overly focused on standardized testing.” The Education Department’s chief accountability officer, however, “stressed that the pilot program was voluntary…and that the tests were not high-stakes.”
Latino student population increasing nationwide.
California’s Mercury News (8/27, Noguchi) reports, “Latinos make up nearly half of California’s K-12 public school students, and their numbers are surging across the country, underscoring a growing challenge for educators.” Latino students account for a third of California students, and they “now make up the largest minority student group in 22 states.” The Mercury News notes that in California, “educators are struggling to address an academic achievement gap between Latinos and blacks and their higher-performing Asian and white peers.” Their “biggest challenge…is educating immigrant students, especially those who start school at an older age.” To help those students, California’s Oak Grove School District offers teachers “training in teaching English learners.” It also offers “English classes to parents, and…a program to help parents prepare their children for college.” Higher achievement has resulted from the district’s outreach efforts.
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California school uses character-education curriculum.
The Los Angeles Times (8/26, Rivera) reported on St. Genevieve High School, which “has gained a reputation as one of the most innovative high schools in Los Angeles.” The school provides “classes in Mandarin, overseas trips to China and France,” and “fitness instruction that includes salsa and tai chi.” It also has a policy of closing “for a week each year for a teachers retreat to discuss educational goals,” and “to foster cooperation and trust.” The school is particularly “well-known for its character-education curriculum.” This includes a number of field trips to public venues where “part of the goal is to teach the teenagers comportment.” The Times noted that “character education has its skeptics,” supported by a 2007 U.S. Department of Education report which “found that many programs have failed to prove their effectiveness.” But the school’s principal “cites the turnaround of his school as the best evidence” of the policy’s success, noting increases in student attendance and performance.
On the Job
New Orleans superintendent addresses social, economic challenges with operational changes.
USA Today (8/27, Toppo) reports that as New Orleans superintendent Paul Villas “begins his second…year trying to rebuild the ailing public school system, he not only has more teachers than he needs, he has eye-popping funding, nearly unchecked administrative power, and ‘a sea of goodwill’ that stretches across the USA.” Villas, described as a “renowned leader,” who “helped transform Philadelphia’s and Chicago’s public schools,” currently “faces challenges few other leaders do.” They include educating many children who are over-aged, not living with their parents, and also some schools where all students qualify “for free or reduced-price lunches.” To address these issues, Villas has been steadily making changes to the system. For instance, he has added “seven weeks of instruction” to the school year, “including two more hours of math and 1.5 hours of reading each day.” In addition, Villas “has remade [the district's] high schools into career-themed academies, and opened a school for ‘over-aged underachievers.’” In addition, he has implemented a computerized program “for older, struggling readers.”
New York City to reduce number of parking permits issued to educators.
On the front of its Metro section, the New York Times (8/27, B1, Neuman) reports, “The city announced on Tuesday a drastic cut in the number of parking permits given to teachers for parking around schools, to about 11,000 from about 63,000.” City officials are not sure “what effect, if any,” the move will “have on parking on crowded neighborhood streets around schools,” as “the amount of parking space reserved for teachers will not be cut, and could even grow.” According to Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, “an inventory found that there were more than 63,000 parking permits distributed to Department of Education employees but only about 10,000 parking spaces on the streets around schools designated for their use.” Therefore, “officials decided to limit the number of parking permits to the amount of available space, with an additional 1,143 for administrators, teachers, nurses and other employees whose jobs require them to travel around the city.”
Law & Policy
Connecticut state senator wants uniform calendar for schools.
The AP (8/26) reported that Connecticut state Sen. Thomas Gaffey (D), “the co-chairman of the legislature’s education committee, doesn’t want Connecticut schools open before Labor Day.” Gaffey “is seeking a uniform school calendar that begins after the Labor Day weekend,” arguing that “it makes no sense to hold classes for a few days this week, only to send students and teachers home for a long three-day holiday weekend.”
Special Needs
Michigan school to implement new program for dyslexic students.
Michigan’s Charlevoix Courier (8/27, Hoffman) reports on Learnable Linguistics, “a new teaching project is taking place at Northwest Academy to help students with dyslexia.” The project will teach students “a structured, phonetic and multi-sensory approach to teaching reading, spelling and other language skills based on the Orton-Gillingham approach and philosophy.” The goals “are to first train the teaching faculty at Northwest Academy the Learnable Linguistics program,” and then “screen students at the beginning of the year for the purpose of setting a baseline against which to measure improvement.” Educators “will then re-screen students at the end of the year and compare each score to evaluate the gain/loss of skills during the year.” The Courier notes, “The two final steps include using the Learnable Linguistics materials consistently and having the teachers keep a journal throughout the year of what they teach and how the skills they learned…helped or hindered their classroom activities.”
School Finance
Texas district may close small schools if state does not provide more funding.
Texas’s Forth Worth Star-Telegram (8/26, Ayala) reported, “The Fort Worth school district is dipping heavily into reserve funds to balance its budget this year, but officials warn that small schools could be closed next year if the state doesn’t provide districts more money.” If the district were to cover a $42 million budget “gap with reserve funds,” it would be left with “a balance of about $64 million next year, enough for about six weeks of operating expenses, officials said.” If the district is left with “less than three months’ worth of reserves,” it may not be able to “sell bonds as it tries to fund projects approved by voters in November.” Meanwhile, “the district is…working on next year’s budget. Administrators hope to offer recommendations to trustees by December.”
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Commercial links school hot dogs to colorectal cancer.
The AP (8/27, Tanner) reports on “a new TV commercial” that “shows kids eating hot dogs in a school cafeteria.” One of the children tells the audience, “I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer.” According to “the commercial’s pro-vegetarian sponsors,” The Cancer Project, “it’s a dramatization that highlights research linking processed meats, including hot dogs, with higher odds of getting colon cancer.” But, the AP notes, “that connection is based on studies of adults, not children, and the increased risk is slight, even if you ate a hot dog a day.” Colleen Doyle of the American Cancer Society says she is concerned that the television campaign may give children the impression “that the occasional hot dog in the school lunch is going to increase cancer risk. … An occasional hot dog isn’t going to increase that risk,” she said
Educator provides advice for back-to-school events.
In a column for Teacher Magazine (8/27), National Board-certified teacher and author Marsha Ratzel provided strategies for “a successful parent meet-and-greet experience.” Foremost, Ratzel wrote, “is preparation. Think about the questions that most parents are going to want answered and make a list.” This way, “you’ll be able to think about your responses.” New teachers unsure of “how to respond to parent questions,” or what parents may ask, should “ask a colleague” for advice. Ratzel added, “Remember that this is what most parents want to know: (1) You’re going to treat their child fairly; and (2) You are committed to teaching both the curriculum and other skills well.” They also “want reassurance that you’ll listen to them as a valued partner in their child’s school year.” Ratzel also provided a list of “what is most important to remember” during back-to-school events, and added, “Learning the ropes of back-to-school events is tough work.” However, “once you have, you’ll have a powerful tool at your disposal for any event where parents are gathered.”
In the Classroom
California high school to offer legal career academy.
California’s Ventura County Star (8/27, Finch) reported that Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley, Calif., the “Simi Valley Unified School District’s award-winning magnet high school,” is offering students “classes…through the Law in Society Academy, a new program offering students a deep look into the country’s legal system.” The academy was “created out of student interest in the subjects,” and “consists of a handful of classes dedicated to law” such as Applied Legal Studies and Constitutional Law. And, “in a yet-to-begin class called Law & Order, seniors will be job shadowing and interning in legal careers.” Teacher Matt Long said, “They’re going to learn to be advocates for themselves. … They’re going to learn how to write well, speak for themselves and feel comfortable or competent with public speaking.” The Ventura County Star noted that the academy was funded with a $200,000 state grant for its first three years.
Virginia students show gains in math, reading on statewide tests.
On the front page of its Metro section, the Washington Post (8/28, B1, Chandler, Glod) reports, “A switch in testing for students who are learning English fueled a rebound in scores this year for immigrant-rich schools in Northern Virginia that had failed the year before to meet targets set under” NCLB. The Post adds that unlike “last year, when the federal government…required Virginia school systems to give English learners the same reading tests as” fluent English-speakers, “federal officials” this year “allowed the state to assess…English-learning students through portfolios of their work over the school year.” Test results for the Virginia Standards of Learning show that “84 percent of students passed the standardized math exams, a four-point increase over the previous year…and 87 percent passed the reading tests, a two-point gain. In both subjects, African American and Hispanic students made the greatest gains, narrowing the gap between them and white students.” Furthermore, 75 percent of limited-English-speaking students passed the regular reading test, up from 64 percent last year.
The AP (8/28, Sampson) notes that 74 percent of Virginia’s public schools “met annual performance benchmarks in reading and mathematics under the No Child Left Behind law, but 93 schools face sanctions after failing to achieve those goals, state education officials said Wednesday.” According to the AP, Virginia Department of Education statistics show that 1,355 of 1,837 schools met all AYP goals in 2007-08, “largely tied to increased student success on the state Standards of Learning exams.” Virginia’s Daily Press (8/28, Grimes) also reports the story.
Workshops explore impact of writing on student achievement.
Education Week (8/27, Manzo) reported on workshops being sponsored by the National Writing Project, which “have drawn a steady and loyal following…among teachers seeking to refine their own skills, reflect on their practice, and learn strategies for teaching their young scribes.” But over time, as “the demands of high-stakes testing have led to a curriculum dominated by reading and mathematics instruction, discussion in the seminars these days is more likely to turn to the practical challenges of fitting writing into the school day, and how to show that it makes a difference in student achievement.” Participants in the workshops “work on their professional writing skills…study successful teaching practices” for developing critical thinking and analytical skills, and learn “strategies for teaching specific writing skills or genres, or for instilling science or math concepts through writing.” And, during “the school year, the teachers hold follow-up discussions on how they’ve applied their new skills and share findings of their classroom research.”
Head Start accuses immigration officials of targeting program’s centers.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/27, Pabst) reported, “Immigration enforcement officials are now targeting migrant and seasonal Head Start centers in some states as part of efforts to track down illegal immigrants,” according to the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association. President Yvette Sanchez “said immigration surveillance is emerging as one of the top three issues for the group, comprising migrant and seasonal Head Start directors, staff, parents and friends.” Other concerns were “financial appropriations and the need for more bilingual materials.” Sanchez said, “Since early 2007 many of our programs started to notice that Border Patrol of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles were parked outside their centers and some were following buses picking up children.” An ICE official “said it’s not the agency’s policy to stake out Head Start centers.” However, he added, “we will take into custody during…targeted operations anyone encountered who may be in the country illegally.”
Law & Policy
Pennsylvania school board to create “geographic seats.”
The AP (8/27) reported, “A federal judge has approved a legal settlement aimed at adding Hispanic representation to” Pennsylvania’s Bethlehem Area School District. The decision “settles a lawsuit filed by a former school board candidate in Bethlehem,” who said that the district’s “methods of electing the board” kept “Hispanics from being elected.” Board members “are currently elected at-large. The agreement will create three geographic seats, including one in an area where voting-age Hispanics make up nearly 40 percent of the population.”
Safety & Security
Knoxville teachers seeking access to student criminal records.
The AP (8/28) reports, “Some Knoxville (Tenn.) teachers want to know about students’ juvenile crime records in light of last week’s fatal school shooting at Central High School.” Athanasios Bayiates, president of the Knox County Education Association, “said he has been talking with teachers at that school and in the county about a possible change in school procedures.” Bayiates “said that if teachers are aware of a student’s background, educators will ‘be able to approach that child in a more proactive way and de-escalate a situation.’”
Tennessee’s Knoxville News Sentinel (8/27, Alapo) added that the shooting has not only “prompted questions about whether teachers and administrators should know of a student’s juvenile record and background,” but “also raises a concern about the line between a student’s right to privacy and a second chance versus a teacher’s right to information about his or her students.” According to police, “there had been ‘recent contact’ between the boys” involved in the shooting, but the police “have declined to detail the nature of the disagreement.” The News Sentinel noted that Bayiates “said he’s been in talks with the Knox County Schools’ central office and security officials about creating procedures to that effect.” Bayiates added that student information provided to teachers “needs to be used in not judging that student, but it would inform you in how you relate to that student.”
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Maryland county approves “body safety” curriculum for elementary students.
Maryland’s Business Gazette (8/28, Raycheva) reports that the Frederick County, Md., school board approved a new “elementary school body safety curriculum” that “teaches students what to do if they are being treated inappropriately, and tells them where to seek help.” The program “will be field tested in three Frederick County schools this spring and offered throughout the county next year. Materials for the class were selected this year and included a video called ‘Joey Learns the Touching Rule;’ and books such as ‘Your Body Belongs to You,’ by Cornelia Spelman…and ‘Too Nice,’ by Marjorie Pellegrino.” Meanwhile, in order to “ensure the safety of the system’s youngest students,” the board also voted to make the program’s opt-out process more difficult. “Parents of pre-kindergarten to second graders who don’t want their children to” participate in the lessons “must meet with their child’s principal to work out an alternative way for the child to get the information.”
Facilities
School adds outdoor classroom designed by kindergartners.
The Tennessean (8/27, Highland) reported that Southside Elementary School’s “outdoor classroom is a new addition this school year, complements of last year’s kindergarten class, which helped design it.” The classroom has “a small amphitheater for seating, a rainwater-measuring device, and [a] grid patio. Flowers and small trees surround the classroom.” Last year, kindergarten students “were asked to draw out the things they wanted to have in an outdoor classroom,” and “their drawings were incorporated into the design.” Lisa Baines, a second-grade teacher said that for students, the classroom’s “setting makes the difference. Bringing them outside makes them more relaxed.”
School Finance
North Carolina district receives planning grant for technical high school.
North Carolina’s Havelock News (8/27, Buday) reported that “Craven County Schools will look at the possibility of a new high school that will focus on technology in Havelock.” Last week, Superintendent Larry Moser told the Board of Education “that the system had received a $40,000 planning grant for the” school, which “would focus on science, technology, engineering and math.” Annette Brown, Craven County assistant superintendent for instruction and curriculum, said that “the money from the state grant would be used to discover whether such a school would be feasible in the area.” According to Brown, Havelock High School’s principal, “officials at the Havelock campus of Craven Community College, and officials with Fleet Readiness Center East at Cherry Point would all be involved in the process.” She said that they would “tour other similar schools and assess the possibility of a STEM school in Havelock.”
Also in the News
Maryland county advertising campaign targets truants.
The Washington Post (8/28, B2, Hernandez) reports that Prince George’s County, Maryland’s Board of Education “is unleashing a barrage of television, radio and print advertising as part of a crackdown on one of the school system’s most serious problems: the 6,000 students who are regularly skipping class.” The school’s “public relations campaign…asks adults to call police if they see students out of class during school hours.” School board member Rosalind Johnson said that the system was “going to enforce the law, which is compulsory attendance.” Johnson added, “If we have to jail them, I want them jailed.” The Post notes, “In most cases, a truant apprehended by police would be taken to school, not to jail. From there, the student’s parents would be contacted.” However, Johnson “did not rule out harsher measures for repeat offenders.”
The AP (8/28) notes, “The 130,000-student school system has the second-highest truancy rate in Maryland after Baltimore. State data shows in the 2006-07 school year, more than 4 percent of county students were habitually truant.”
U.S. Army opens prep school to help recruits earn their GED.
The AP (8/27, Schafer) reported that the U.S. Army formally opened “its first prep school” yesterday to help recruits earn their GED. “Under the yearlong pilot project, classes of about 60 soldiers will enter the monthlong program every week.” The recruits’ “day begins in uniform at 5 a.m. with physical training,” after which “they attend about eight hours of academic review classes, followed by homework each evening.” The recruits also participate in “an hour of marching drills and military discipline” each day. “The soldiers work in small classrooms outfitted with simple desks, chairs, and dry-erase boards,” as well as “in-desk computers…used for test-taking.” Col. Jeffrey Sanderson, chief of staff at Fort Jackson, “said the Army prefers those who graduate from high school on their own, because it demonstrates ‘tenacity.’” However, he added, “the reality of current graduation rates has the Army pressed to find an alternative.”
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More NEA affiliates joining AFL-CIO.
Education Week (8/27, Honawar) reported, “When the National Education Association gave its affiliates the green light to join the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) two years ago, there was no stampede to the giant federation of labor unions, and it looked as if the national teachers’ union was more eager to take the step than its state or local groups were.” More recently, however, “a steady trickle of NEA locals…have begun to affiliate formally with the umbrella group.” Currently, “nearly one-third of the NEA’s 3.2 million members” have joined the AFL-CIO, and “labor experts say that both state and local affiliations are set to increase as teachers seek strength in numbers to fight battles over tenure, salaries, health care, and No Child Left Behind Act mandates.”