Schools increasingly extending learning time.
Education Week (9/22, Gerwertz) reported, “Under enormous pressure to prepare students for a successful future –and fearful that standard school hours don’t offer enough time to do so — educators, policymakers, and community activists are adding more learning time to children’s lives.” Education Week noted that 25 years ago, a report, A Nation At Risk, “urged schools to add more time” to days and years in order “to ward off a ‘rising tide of mediocrity’ in American education.” Since then, “the idea of finding more time for learning has generated a hotbed of activity nationwide.” According to a July study by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, “more than 300 initiatives to extend learning time were launched between 1991 and 2007 in high-poverty and high-minority schools in 30 states.” Education Week lists several “high-profile efforts to extend learning time” in U.S. schools. New York City, for instance, “added 37.5 minutes a day to the first four days of the week so teachers can tutor underperforming students in small groups.”
In the Classroom
Some eighth grade students are not prepared for advanced math, study finds.
In continuing coverage from previous editions of The Opening Bell, the Los Angeles Times (9/22, Blume) reported, “The new [California] policy of requiring algebra in the eighth grade will set up unprepared students for failure while holding back others with solid math skills, a new report has concluded.” The study found that, “over five years, the percentage of eighth-graders in advanced math — algebra or higher — went up by more than one-third.” In 2005, “about 37 percent of all U.S. students took advanced math.” But, about eight percent of students who took advanced math scored “in the lowest 10 percent on the eighth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress.” According to the Times, “at least two students in every eighth-grade algebra class [have] second-grade math skills.” Further, “that number rises in urban school systems where these students are more likely to attend overcrowded schools with teachers who are less experienced and less likely to have math degrees or college-level advanced math.”
Research indicates NCLB test scores inflated, misleading.
Education Week (9/22, Cech) reported that, according to Harvard University researcher Daniel M. Koretz, “rampantly inflated standardized test scores are giving the misbegotten impression that…all children are above average.” Speaking at a recent panel discussion in Washington, D.C., Koretz also said “that under the No Child Left Behind law, widespread teaching to the test, strategic reallocation of teaching talent, and other means of gaming the high-stakes testing system have conspired to produce scores on state standardized tests that are substantially better than students’ mastery of the material.” Some education experts agreed, calling the testing system “officially sanctioned malpractice.” Others disagreed with Koretz’s assessment. The “senior education adviser to U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)” agreed that “a more effective accountability system ‘needs to be a goal.’” However, he added that “summative assessment is a critically important area of accountability.”
Some community colleges replacing remedial math courses with online programs.
eSchool News (9/22, Carter) reported, “College officials nationwide are concerned about the number of recent high school graduates in need of remedial math courses.” This is a particular problem at the community college level, where “more than 60 percent of students in community colleges need some kind of remedial class — most often, math training — before they can take credit-bearing courses.” However, such remedial courses can prove expensive for schools. As a result, “some schools have turned to online programs that could preserve shrinking operating budgets.” The article profiles an online math program that provides “students a self-paced system for catching up to basic college math standards.” Despite the benefits of such programs, experts pointed out “that while online math programs are valuable for self-disciplined students, professors can’t always trust students to work through math problems without prodding.”
Few students in South Carolina district enroll in free tutoring.
The AP (9/23) reports that, according to district administrators in Columbia, South Carolina, it is “difficult to get poor parents to enroll their children for free tutoring because the after-school help is inconvenient or seen as a stigma instead of an opportunity.” Under No Child Left Behind, the AP notes, “high-poverty schools that don’t meet educational goals for several consecutive years must offer free tutoring to poor students.” District schools have made multiple outreach efforts to increase participation, and officials say it is “frustrating that so few parents take advantage of the government-paid services.” Barbara Ragin, the assistant superintendent, noted that “parents often let their children decide whether they want to be tutored, and, though transportation is provided, staying after school means students may not get home until late in the evening.” Officials “suggested more money for at-home computers that would allow for online tutoring,” and said that “educators may need to try harder to communicate in a way parents will understand.”
Some parents, teachers in Dallas district object to PBS art documentary.
The Dallas Morning News (9/22, Hobbs) reported on the objections of “some teachers and parents in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD)” to “a PBS documentary given to middle and high school art teachers to use as a” curriculum supplement. The series, “art:21-Art in the Twenty-First Century…features short biographies of more than 40 artists and describes their techniques,” and contains images that some “consider too disturbing or sexual for the classroom.” Although art teachers have been given the “choice whether to use the documentary, which is not rated,” those who oppose the series fear that the images in question “may be acceptable to some art teachers,” and that students may “search the Internet for more information about some artists in the documentary and get an eyeful.” DISD officials defended the series by explaining that it focuses “on ‘problem-based learning’ by presenting students with situations that sometimes involve moral issues…found in controversial art.”
Audit finds Georgia math tests were not defective.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/23, Diamond) reports that “an independent audit of Georgia’s math tests has found that questions on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) strongly matched what the state says students should learn, supporting the state’s position that defective exams did not contribute to high failure rates.” The results of the most recent CRCT exam indicated that “about 38 percent of eighth-graders had failed.” The Journal-Constitution points out that Georgia “drastically changed” its math curriculum after the previous curriculum was criticized as “too weak;” the state now uses “an integrated approach, which weaves elements of algebra, geometry and statistics into a single math class, rather than teaching each separately.” While some parents expressed dissatisfaction with the results, and said there were “more questions that must be answered,” state education officials “predicted math scores will increase as students and teachers get used to the more rigorous expectations.”
North Carolina district expands robotics program.
North Carolina’s Dispatch (9/22, Edwards) reported that “after Tyro Middle School piloted the First Lego League program to excite students about science, math and engineering,” the Davidson County, N.C., school system “has now expanded the program to two more of its six middle schools and a special-purpose school.” According to the Dispatch, “the new schools are Ledford and Brown middle [school], and Extended Day.” The Dispatch explains that the “First Lego League is an international program for children ages 9-14 that combines a hands-on, interactive robotics program and a research presentation with a sports-like atmosphere.” Marty Tobey, director of career and technical education for Davidson County Schools (DCS), said, “After a weeklong camp held during the summer to help students gain exposure to the field of robotics, the system wanted to broaden the program to more schools due to the high interest.” One DCS technical education teacher said that “the program will allow students to gain some development skills to take with them to high school and college.”
After-school programs seek to attract high school students.
Education Week (9/22, Jacobson) reported that, “of the more than six million children enrolled in after-school programs across the country, only about eight percent are high school students, according to the Afterschool Alliance.” That is “why after-school-program leaders and youth-development experts have recently been paying more attention to how to attract older students and hold their interest when other opportunities, or distractions, are available.” Supporters of after-school programs maintain “that the variety of opportunities…such as apprenticeships should be considered part of the discussion about extending learning time.” However, Georgia Hall, a senior research scientist at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, pointed out that “funding for out-of-school-time programs is skewed more towards younger school-age and middle school youth.”
Safety & Security
Growing drug problem leads to new school search policy for Maine district.
Maine’s Current (9/22, Clark) reported, “Concerned about what officials fear is a growing drug problem among area teens, the Cape Elizabeth School Board has adopted a new policy that allows searches of student cars and use of drug-sniffing dogs on school property.” The new rule “expands the definition of a ‘storage facility’ to parking areas, and states specifically that canine patrols may be used to conduct searches anywhere on school property.” As such, school administrators will be permitted to “bring a drug-sniffing dog into the school if they suspect students are using drugs, and use the dog to detect drug traces in student vehicles that might not be visible to the average police officer or principal.” Superintendent Alan Hawkins “said school officials haven’t gotten any comments about the new policy from parents, students, or staff.”
School Finance
New Mexico district assures employees, parents that budget shortfall is not a crisis.
KOAT-TV Albuquerque (9/23) reports, “Rio Rancho Public Schools is cutting $4 million for this year’s budget to make up for a shortfall.” On Monday the schools superintendent “sent home a letter to all employees,” reassuring them that “the number one goal is to cut ‘things’ and not ‘people.’” As such, “the district is asking every school to reduce supplies and materials and have smaller utility bills.” The shortfall “will also put limits on trips for band and sports” and teacher “training and conferences that are not mandated.” Meanwhile, “district officials said the cuts will have a minimal effect on students and want to emphasize the budget shortfall is not a crisis. It is just a cause for concern.”
Also in the News
School soda bans may not greatly reduce consumption among students.
In the New York Times’s (9/23, F6) Vital Signs column, Eric Nagourney writes that “banning soft drink sales in elementary schools” does not significantly “reduce how much soda children drink,” according to a study appearing in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The researchers “analyzed surveys done in 2004 that looked at more than 10,000 fifth graders in 40 states,” and found that “only about 4 percent fewer children from” schools that banned soft drinks “said they did not drink” soft drinks than those from schools that allowed sodas. The researchers noted that “these restrictions have value,” but added that “health officials need to act more broadly, focusing on dietary habits in the home and doing more to encourage healthy eating.”
Effects of energy drinks on student behavior debated. Canada’s National Post (9/22, Blackwell) reported that, while “schools in at least three Canadian provinces have issued warnings to parents about” energy drinks, “lawmakers in some U.S. states are pushing for the products to be prohibited.” And, “Denmark and France have already banned Red Bull.” The beverage industry, meanwhile, “argues that many of the drinks have less caffeine than a single coffee.” But, because “cans of energy drinks can contain about as much as or sometimes considerably more caffeine than a cup of coffee,” many experts “worry about [their] impact” when consumed by “adolescents and…pre-teens.” Side effects of consuming too much caffeine can include “hyperactivity, excitement, agitation, inability to concentrate,” and, “for the minority of people with cardiac-rhythm problems” erratic heartbeat. While experts noted that the effects of high caffeine intake are relatively unknown, the Post points out that many in the education system discourage the presence of energy drinks on school campuses
Georgia district develops plan to regain accreditation.
The AP (9/23) reported, “The troubled Clayton County school district will overhaul its superintendent’s contract, hire an internal auditor, and appoint a rules expert for board meetings under a plan adopted Monday to help it win back its accreditation.” Furthermore, “district staff and board members…will be required to sign affidavits swearing they will uphold the district’s ethics and conflict of interest policies.” The plan is part of a “months-long process of demonstrating to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools that” the school district “deserves accreditation, which it lost Sept. 1.” The AP noted that since losing its accreditation, Clayton has sworn “in four new board members,” and “two remaining vacant seats will be filled during a special election in November.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/24, Matteucci), “on Monday, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools signed off on a detailed improvement plan for the district.” The Journal-Constitution lists the mandates and “action steps” Clayton must follow in order to gain back its accreditation.
Florida universities to consider Clayton students for admission. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (9/23, Matteucci) reported that Florida’s public universities “have decided they will, after all, admit Clayton County students.” Despite the decision by Florida officials “to uphold a policy that says students should have a diploma from a ‘regionally accredited high school’ to attend a state university,” Florida Chancellor Mark B. Rosenberg said this week that the policy would be overlooked for Clayton County Students. “Admissions officials at Florida schools will look at students’ grades, SAT scores, extracurricular activities and public service, just as they do any other students,” according to State University System of Florida Board of Governors Spokesman Bill Edmonds. Edmonds explained, “We’re not holding it against the students the fact that they are coming from schools that lost accreditation.”
In the Classroom
Number of schools offering Chinese language instruction increasing.
Florida’s St. Petersburg Times (9/24, Matus) reports that the Mandarin Chinese classes “offered for the first time this year” at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School in Pinellas County, Fla., “are among hundreds cropping up around the country, fueled by awareness of China’s growing economic muscle, the demands of parents and the prodding of educators.” According to a “national survey…by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages,” in 2000 only about “5,000 students were learning Chinese…compared to the 4.8 million learning Spanish.” Currently, however, “an informed guess pegs the figure at 50,000, making Chinese far and away the fastest-growing language taught.” In fact, demand for the language “has been so great that it’s outstripping the ability of schools to find good teachers.” Meanwhile, the number of schools in Pinellas County offering Chinese classes continues to grow, and “efforts are under way to get more teachers in the pipeline.” Aiding in those efforts are the state Department of Education,” which “recently created an expedited certification process for potential Chinese language teachers,” and the Chinese government, which offers “a teacher exchange program.”
New Hampshire schools seek to revitalize education approaches.
Education Week (9/23, Sawchuk) reported on “a burgeoning high school redesign effort in New Hampshire” that seeks “to personalize learning for students, offer them the chance to apply content in real-world contexts, and engage struggling students in content through alternative approaches outside of classrooms, including internships, exhibitions, graduation projects, and apprenticeships.” The redesign stems from a panel, convened in 2004 “to study how to prepare students for the 21st century.” The panel lead to “an overhaul of the state’s school-approval standards,” in which “districts are now encouraged to support alternative education programs, distance-learning opportunities, and ‘extended learning opportunities,’ in which students can get credit for activities outside of school, provided that such activities permit students to acquire knowledge and skills taught in the classroom.” A state education official said that there remained an emphasis on “a core curriculum of courses,” but added that “it doesn’t always have to be delivered in the traditional Carnegie [unit] mode of delivery.”
Panel recommends colleges reduce focus on standardized test scores.
In continuing coverage from a previous edition of The Opening Bell, the Christian Science Monitor (9/24, Khadaroo) reports that a commission “of high school counselors and college officials” has issued a report that “urges colleges to study how well [standardized] tests predict academic success of freshmen on their own campuses.” The group also “highlights what it considers misuse of test scores,” calling on U.S. News and World Report “to stop using average test scores in its ranking formulas for top colleges,” and also asking “the National Merit Scholarship Corp. to stop using the PSAT/NMSQT…as the ‘initial screen’ for scholarship eligibility,” since “lower scores are correlated with lower-income or minority status.” Critics of the report say that standardized testing “is still the single most reliable, comprehensive metric that one can find,” and argue that while “expensive test-prep courses may give affluent students a marginal advantage,” their advantage “would be exacerbated in an SAT-less universe, because then the kind of schools they go to…would get enormous preference in the admissions process.”
Illinois district bans Halloween parties.
Illinois’s Rockford Register Star (9/24, Backman) reports, “Harlem schools will no longer be hosting Halloween parties that involve children wearing costumes,” according to Harlem School Superintendent Julie Morris. Morris explained that such parties were “unsafe because students are wearing costumes and you don’t know who it is, and who should or shouldn’t be in the buildings.” She added that “schools can host fall parties that deal with the season but aren’t focused on dressing up for Halloween.” Even without a Halloween theme, a School Board official noted, such “parties encourage parent involvement,” and also provide students with time for “socializing and having fun.”
On the Job
Many teachers not getting enough sleep, study indicates.
Teacher Magazine (9/23, Rebora) reported that “many teachers may not be getting enough sleep at night to be fully effective in the classroom,” according to a study by researchers at Ball State University. “Some 43 percent of teachers surveyed said they slept an average of six hours or less per night…while half admitted to missing work or making errors due to a ‘serious lack of sleep.’” Further, almost “one-fourth said their teaching skills are ‘significantly diminished’ due to lack of sleep.” The study’s authors classified the results as “preliminary and descriptive,” noting that it was based on “survey responses of 109 teachers in one Indiana district.” But although “the study doesn’t correlate teachers’ reported sleep problems with instructional quality or student performance, the researchers speculated that the potential effects on schools could be significant, based on what is known about job performance and lack of sleep.”
FCAT analysis indicates students have misconceptions about science.
The AP (9/24, Kaczor) reports, “Florida students have misconceptions about science, and they need more practice demonstrating its concepts and relating them to the real world,” an analysis of Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) indicates. The Department of Education “assembled a task force of science curriculum supervisors and specialists, resource teachers, school administrators and other educators to review FCAT science results.” The task force found that “students are hampered by common misconceptions such as thinking plants get their energy by ‘eating plant food’ instead of from the sun through photosynthesis.” The resulting report “recommends more practice demonstrating and explaining scientific concepts and processes, especially in writing, because FCAT results show students are struggling with developing a deeper understanding of science.” Additionally, the report recommends “teachers to use correct science terminology, especially when a scientific term differs in meaning from its everyday usage, such as ‘work.’”
Senior teachers in D.C. said to mistrust chancellor’s salary proposal.
The Washington Post (9/24, B5, Turque) reports, “Senior D.C. teachers’ fear and mistrust of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s intentions are a major obstacle to approval of her potentially lucrative salary proposal,” according to Washington Teachers’ Union President George Parker. “Parker said many older teachers believe that they have been targeted for dismissal by Rhee,” noting that under Rhee’s “two-tiered salary plan that would pay many instructors more than $100,000 annually,” teachers who choose “the ‘green tier’ would be required to spend a year on probation, risking termination.” The other option would be to select “a ‘red tier’ that would allow them to keep tenure and accept lower raises.” Meanwhile, Parker is pressing for Rhee to add to her salary proposal provisions for “an appeals process that would give teachers recourse if they were fired under the new plan.”
Educators at five failed New York City schools receive bonuses.
The New York Times (9/24, B1, Medina) reports on the front page of its Metro section, “Efforts by the Bloomberg administration to add accountability to the public school system have included moving quickly to shut down schools deemed beyond repair, and rewarding those that make significant progress on standardized tests.” But, “those initiatives seemed to collide last week, when teachers and principals at five of the failed schools earned cash bonuses for their successes.” Four of those schools “closed last spring,” and “the fifth scheduled to close in 2010.” Yet, the according to the state Education Department (ED), “during the 2007-8 school year, each of the schools met the improvement targets set by the ED on their report cards, making” teachers “eligible for performance bonuses of about $3,000 each, and $7,000 for each principal.” Garth Harries, “who oversees the ED office…that decides which schools will close, said” that even if they are being phased out, schools should be “celebrated” for the improvements they make.
Law & Policy
Minneapolis schools, community set “covenant” for African-American achievement.
Education Week (9/23, Gewertz) reported, “The Minneapolis school board and the local African-American community have taken an unusual step toward healing fractured relations and improving schooling for black children by signing a ‘covenant’ that places responsibility for improvement on the shoulders of parents and district leaders.” The covenant, which was under development for a year, “says education is a ‘shared responsibility,’ and commits the district and the community to a decade of work ‘with a deliberate focus on African-American students in order to overcome a legacy of educational inequity.’” Education Week noted, “The district agreed to work with…community groups to establish three model school sites with ‘stable teaching teams,’ where best practices in offering a challenging curriculum, culturally responsive teaching, and effective parent involvement can be put into effect.” Meanwhile, “teams of parents, students, and community members at those schools will work with teachers and principals to develop programs.”
Maryland BOE to reconsider standardized testing requirements for graduation.
The AP (9/24) reports that the Maryland “State Board of Education (BOE) will decide next month whether to continue requiring high school students to pass standardized tests in order to graduate.” James DeGraffenreidt, president of the BOE, said “it was prudent to revisit the issue given the heated debate about the tests known as High School Assessments.” The state is still compiling data from this year’s senior exams, and therefore it remains “unclear how many students in the class of 2009 are in danger of failing because they haven’t passed the tests.” However, “board members took issue Tuesday with a claim by [the] assistant state superintendent…that there’s no reason any student will be denied a diploma solely for failing the tests.”
Minnesota governor announces performance pay expansion proposal.
Minnesota’s Star Tribune (9/24, Doyle) reports that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) “announced a plan Tuesday to expand on his longstanding effort to link teachers’ pay to improved student performance and calling for more rigorous training for educators.” In addition, he “proposed new ways to encourage the recruiting of mid-career professionals to teach math and science in high schools and intensive new remedial courses for eighth-graders falling behind classmates.” The Star Tribune notes that the merit-pay plan “follows the governor’s Q Comp program, a merit pay system that allows districts to give teachers extra money for meeting personal, classroom and school goals.” But, “the new version would base a portion of teachers’ pay raises on improvements by their students during the year and be required of districts that aren’t participating in Q Comp.” Although “the head of Education Minnesota, the state’s largest teachers union,” voiced disapproval of the pay-plan, the governor “defended the idea,” calling it “a way to improve a generally effective education system. ‘We need to modernize and improve our expectations for teachers in Minnesota,’” he said.
Safety & Security
Elementary students in West Virginia district receive bullying, sexual harassment training.
West Virginia’s Charleston Daily Mail (9/23, Rivard) reported that in Kanawha County, W.Va., “young schoolchildren are being taught how to recognize and communicate what school counselors call ‘uh-oh moments.’” All primary students and school employees receive “training in identifying and avoiding bullying and sexual harassment.” During the training, “students are taught to come to counselors and other adults in the school, like the principal, with their problems.” They are also taught the difference between “tattles,” or “something students tell to get other students in trouble for the fun of it,” and “tales,” when students tell adults about situations “that could hurt the student or someone else.” The Daily Mail noted that Kanawha County elementary schools received “95 complaints of possible sexual, racial, ethnic, or religious harassment” last year, and “about half of the complaints…ended up being substantiated.”