Extended Days, Years Produce Mixed Results For Schools Nationwide.
USA Today (6/10, Durando) reports that the Robert Treat Academy “boasted the highest test scores among New Jersey urban public schools in 2008, based on a test called the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge.” Furthermore, “the school was one of only eight nationwide declared ‘high-poverty, high-achieving’ by the U.S. Department of Education.” USA Today points out that class begins at the academy at 8:30 am and ends at 5 pm. “With examples like this, the push for extended learning time is gaining nationwide.” However, “a three-year” extended-day “program in 39 underperforming public schools” in Miami-Dade County, FL, “produced mixed academic results,” and “administrators and teachers experienced fatigue and burnout.” Also, “according to a final evaluation released last month,” students in the program, which also included an extended school year, “scored lower on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests in reading or math compared with other students in the county.”
Janet Allen’s Inside Words: Tools for Teaching Academic Vocabulary, Grades 4-12 helps teachers make content vocabulary accessible and meaningful to their students. Classroom examples and graphic organizers support over 20 instructional strategies. Click here to preview the entire book online!
In the Classroom
Maryland High School Finds Success With Program In Domestic Security.
The Los Angeles Times (6/10, Drogin) reports on Ft. Meade, Maryland’s “long-troubled” Meade High School and its “first in the nation” program in domestic security. The school has “90 ninth-graders who chose the new homeland security program this past school year focused on topics torn from the headlines: Islamic jihadism, nuclear arms, cyber-crime, domestic militias and the like.” Program Coordinator Bill Sheppard and lead teacher Tina Edler put the curriculum together with “help from parents, local businesses, Ft. Meade officials, and other federal and state agencies.” So far, “most of this year’s students have signed up for the advanced course next fall” and “an additional 106 teens have enrolled for the introductory class.”
Wisconsin School Launches Dual Language Immersion Program In Kindergarten.
The Wisconsin State Journal (6/10, Worland) reports on Leopold Elementary School’s new dual-language immersion program which begins this fall. The program starts in Kindergarten with “an equal number of native English and Spanish speakers. To promote the program, “Leopold staff members held parent meetings and made home visits.” So far, “64 families [have] applied for…45 slots, a third of which are being held for last-minute enrollees in August.” As a result, “the school [has] resorted to a lottery to fill the 45 available spots.”
Report Shows Some Improvement In High School Graduation Rates.
The Christian Science Monitor (6/10, Khadaroo) reports that in “some communities in the United States, more than half of high-school students don’t make it to graduation. But despite the complex, stubborn problems behind those numbers,” a new “Diplomas Count 2009″ report on graduation rates by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education “shows a decade’s worth of modest gains in graduation rates. In 1996, the national on-time graduation rate was 66.4 percent; by 2006, that figure had risen to 69.2 percent.” According to the Monitor, “Much greater gains were made by thousands of school districts, including some struggling with high levels of poverty.”
On the Job
“Master Teachers” Urged As Means To Improve Math Instruction.
Newton, MA, Public School Committee candidate Dan Proskauer writes in the Newton Tab (6/10), “We are in crisis — even in Newton. Our teachers are inadequately prepared to instruct in math. Our elementary and middle school math curricula are not working.” Moreover, “Newton’s result of only 15 percent of students considering a career in STEM is extremely poor and should be a wake-up call.” Proskauer blames the situation on “apathy” and says that the current School Committee has “only recently begun to pay attention to this issue at all.” Proskauer also criticizes the school’s textbook, “Impact Math,” as being “very poor.” He calls for new curricula and for means “to identify the teachers who excel in teaching math and make them ‘master teachers.’”
Law & Policy
OCR Monitoring Credited With Improving English-Language Learners’ Education.
Education Week (6/10, Zehr) reports the Salt Lake City, Utah, school district offers “classes in basic reading skills for English-language learners.” This year, “27 percent of the Salt Lake City district’s 25,000 students are receiving direct services to learn English as a second language.” But that is said to have happened because “the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights…forced the Salt Lake City district to bolster services for English-learners in response to a complaint by a local activist in 2001.” The district’s “experience illustrates the array of changes a district may need to undergo to meet federal mandates on educating such students. After five site visits and eight years of monitoring, OCR officials released the school district from scrutiny in March, saying in a letter that ELLs ‘have meaningful access to the district’s educational programs.’” Nationwide, “the OCR is currently monitoring compliance agreements involving ELLs in 75 districts, 38 of them prompted by complaints.”
California’s Program To Help Teachers With Student Loans Delays Payments.
The New York Times (6/10, Sullivan) reports, “California’s budget troubles are starting to have an impact on its programs to help teachers and nurses repay their student loans.” The payments under those programs have been delayed “because of cash flow problems” according to Diana Fuentes-Michel, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission. The Assumption Program of Loans for Education “pays up to a total of $19,000 toward student loans over four years. About 6,500 teachers are currently in the program.” Fuentes-Michel also said, “We’re looking into whether California can renege on its commitment.”
Ideas For Improving Education Proposed.
Derek Thompson wrote at the Business blog for The Atlantic (6/10) on “10 Crazy Ideas for Fixing Our Education System” such as longer school days, shorter summer vacations, more bilingual education, a higher compulsory education age, eliminating the SAT, ending tenure, differential tuition charges for college majors, basing college loan repayment on income, US Department of Education rankings of colleges and Charles Murray’s proposal for skill certifications to reduce the need for four year college programs. Each of his proposals is matched with a brief explanation and defense of the ideas, some of which he seems to think are good ideas despite his initial characterization.
Facilities
More Schools Install Solar Panels.
The Washington Post (6/10, B2, Birnbaum) reports, “Solar panels have been creeping across school roofs around the country for years — campuses in San Diego, Cleveland, and Lexington, Mass., are notable examples — but the hefty initial investment required had kept them off Washington area schools until recently. Montgomery County decked out three schools with solar panels last year and is working on a fourth.” In DC, “Thurgood Marshall Academy…was recently fitted with” panels. “The school’s Environmental Impact Club decided two years ago to pursue sustainable energy.” Students received donations “from environmental organizations, amassing $56,000 to pay for the panels, which generate enough electricity to power an ordinary house.” Now that the system is up, “students [say] they aren’t finished with environmentally friendly initiatives. They and teachers plan to work to ensure that upcoming school renovations are green. There is talk of a study of the merits of installing a wind turbine.”
School Finance
Maryland Counties Plan Stimulus Spending For Education.
The Baltimore Sun (6/9, Bowie) reported, “President Barack Obama is relying heavily on educators to pull the country out of its economic doldrums, and Maryland will soon receive $210 million in federal stimulus dollars for local school districts.” The President also announced Monday “an accelerated spending timetable for a variety of programs, including money for 135,000 teachers, principals and support staff nationwide.” According to the Baltimore Sun, “Baltimore and surrounding counties have already accounted for much of the stimulus money in their budgets for the coming school year.” For instance, Anne Arundel County will be using $9 million for special education including “a significant amount of new technology, called smart boards, that allows special education students to interact more easily in the classroom.”
New York City Mayor Defends Ballooning School Supplier Contract.
The New York Daily News (6/10, Gonzalez) reports that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) “is defending a $150 million Education Department contract that will pay a private company significantly higher-than-retail prices for public school supplies.” At a press conference on Monday, Bloomberg said that the district “will save $3 million annually by closing the school system’s existing warehouse in Queens. The vendor they selected, Strategic Distribution Inc. (SDI), will open a warehouse in Brooklyn and streamline operations by bundling various types of supplies for individual schools, they say.” The New York Daily News adds that “education officials claimed the original contracts would sharply reduce the cost of supplying schools, but those contracts have ballooned to more than $120 million from $88 million.”
Also in the News
“Obama Effect” On Student Testing Disputed.
FOX News (6/9) reported that “In the days after Obama’s election in November, school officials across the country [noted] a noticeable improvement in students’ performance — particularly in black communities — and attributed it to Obama’s success.” Now, however, “two studies have produced conflicting reports on the existence of such an effect — calling into question whether inspiration alone is enough to bring quantifiable change.” A study by Dr. Ray Friedman of Vanderbilt University, “conducted during the 2008 election,” showed “that black students achieved higher scores on standardized tests when they were reminded of Obama’s achievements before the test.” Those “findings have been challenged by another study that found no evidence of an ‘Obama Effect’ on black students’ standardized test scores.” New York University’s Dr. Joshua Aronson “conducted a study in June 2008 after Hillary Clinton conceded and Obama secured the nomination, [and] found ‘absolutely no results’ to support Friedman’s findings.”
NEA in the News
Indiana State Teachers Association Laying Off Employees.
The AP (6/10) reports that the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA), “the state’s largest teachers union is laying off dozens of employees in the wake of a financial crisis that spurred investigations of its troubled insurance trust.” ISTA is expected to let go of “at least 40 people…after 60 days notice.” The layoffs are intended to “free up some money” so that ISTA and its parent organization the National Education Association can “cover the long-term disability claims” of about 650 members. Sandra Steele, president of “the Professional Staff Organization (PSO) at ISTA” said that PSO would eliminate “eight full-time positions and 10 part-time jobs.” Meanwhile, “the Associate Staff Organization (ASO) at ISTA…will lose 24 positions, said ASO president Kathy Hill.”
Unionization Of Charter School Teachers Being Scrutinized By Education Policymakers.
Education Week (6/9, Sawchuck) reported, “What started as a ripple in the charter community shows signs of becoming a wave as major charter school networks scramble to respond to an unfamiliar phenomenon: moves by their teachers to organize unions.” Education Week points out that “teachers have unionized at…charter schools over the years,” but “the recent activity is notable not only for being contentious in several instances, but also because” it is being scrutinized closely by “policymakers, educators, and the news media.” According to some observers, “the contracts…could be viewed as a test of how far the unions are willing to stray from traditional provisions and work rules.” But “supporters of” such unions “point to Green Dot, a Los-Angeles-based” charter management organization, “as proof that all the hallmarks of a strong charter school network can flourish alongside unionization. All Los Angeles Green Dot schools are unionized through the California Teachers Association — a National Education Association affiliate.”