January 2007
Copyright © 2007, Queue, Inc.

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Education News

For back issues of this newsletter, as well as current and back issues of our other newsletters, U.S. Education News and Education Research Report, please go to: http://www.queuenews.com/

For the latest education research news, please go to:
http://www.queuenews.typepad.com/education_research_report/

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Georgia Scores 3 Out of 6: Results of 2006 NCEA Survey of State Data Collection Issues Related to Longitudinal Analysis

In preparation of the launch of the Data Quality Campaign, the National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA) conducted a survey, with the support of The Broad Foundation and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, about state data systems to determine the number of states that have built the infrastructure to tap into the power of longitudinal data. This report provides an overview of the findings of the August 2006 survey in addition to a state-by-state analysis of the policy implications of each state's data system.

The Power of Longitudinal Data

Longitudinal data matches individual student records over time, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and into post secondary education. States are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve student achievement. But without quality data, they are essentially flying blind.

olicymakers need to act now to put in place the policies and resources to ensure that each state has a longitudinal data system and the culture and capacity to translate the information into specific action steps to improve student achievement. When states collect the most relevant data and are able to match individual student records over time, they can answer the questions that are at the core of educational effectiveness. Longitudinal data (data gathered on the same student from year to year) makes it possible to:

• Determine the value-added of specific schools and programs by following individual students' academic growth;
  
• Identify consistently high-performing schools so that educators and the public can learn from best practices;
  
• Evaluate the impact of teacher preparation and training programs on student achievement; and
  
• Focus school systems on preparing a higher percentage of students to succeed in rigorous high school courses, college and challenging jobs.

Based on responses to the 2006 NCEA survey, only a few states can answer each of these priority questions facing policymakers and educators today.

Which schools produce the strongest academic growth for their students? (23 states can answer this question)

• Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin

What achievement levels in middle school indicate that a student is on track to succeed in rigorous courses in high school? (5 states can answer this question)

• Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Utah

What is each school's graduation rate, according to the 2005 National Governors Association graduation compact? (26 states can answer this question)

• Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

What high school performance indicators (e.g., enrollment in rigorous courses or performance on state tests) are the best predictors of students' success in college or the workplace? (4 states can answer this question)

• Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Texas

What percentage of high school graduates who go on to college take remedial courses? (14 states can answer this question)

• Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming

Which teacher preparation programs produce the graduates whose students have the strongest academic growth? (9 states can answer this question)

• Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia

For the complete report, go to: http://www.dataqualitycampaign.org/survey_results/

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The Education Watch State Summary Reports provide state-specific data on:

Achievement Gaps:

• How many students are proficient in reading and mathematics on state assessments? How do proficiency rates on state assessments compare to proficiency rates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)?
• How do achievement gaps between groups compare across states? Where are gaps the smallest? Where are they the biggest?
• What are the trends in student achievement over time? Which states are making the biggest gains?

High School and College Attainment Gaps:

• What is the on-time high school graduation rate for different groups of students?
• How many high school graduates enroll in college?
• What is the college graduation rate for different groups of students?

Opportunity Gaps:

• What are the participation and success rates for different groups of students in high-level courses such as Advanced Placement (AP)?
• Which students are most likely to have teachers who have even a college minor in the subject they’re teaching?
• How much state and local per-pupil funding is provided to schools in low- versus high-poverty districts? Which states provide the most funding to low-income districts? Which states provide the least?
• How affordable is college for each state’s lowest income students?

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A Deeper Look at Achievement Across States: NAEP Data Tables

While no state is yet where it needs to be in terms of educating poor and minority students, some are doing a much better job than others. To help state leaders, researchers, and advocates explore these differences and identify states from which they might learn, the accompanying NAEP Data Tables allow for easy state-to-state comparisons of scale scores for different groups of students. They include tables that look at student achievement and gap trends over time. For example:

• Low-income eighth-graders in Massachusetts score 21 points higher in math than low-income eighth-graders in neighboring Rhode Island (273 vs. 252).
• In 2003, reading scores for African-American fourth-graders were 14 points higher in Connecticut than in Delaware. Over the last five years, however, African-American reading scores increased by 23 points in Delaware while in Connecticut, they decreased by 2 points. Delaware’s African-American fourth-graders now read at higher levels than their peers in Connecticut.
• The gap in math achievement separating Latino from White eighth-graders in Minnesota is 10 points larger than the gap in Virginia, a state educating a similar proportion of Latino students (33 points vs. 23 points).

The wide variation between states in achievement for the same groups of students demonstrates just how important state policies and practices are. “If race and poverty mattered more than what happens in schools, then NAEP scores for low-income students and students of color would be more consistent from state to state,” said Daria Hall, senior policy analyst for the Education Trust.

Focus on Opportunities to Learn

The data are clear: what states do matters a lot when it comes to student achievement. But far too often, state policies and practices work to the direct disadvantage of low-income and minority students. For example:

• In New York, schools in the highest poverty districts have $2,065 less to spend per pupil than schools in the most affluent districts.
• In Illinois, students in high-poverty secondary schools are more than three times as likely as students in low-poverty schools to have a teacher lacking even a minor in the subject they’re teaching (47 percent vs.15 percent).
• In Michigan, African-American students represent 20 percent of the state’s K-12 enrollment but just 5 percent of the students enrolled in Advanced Placement English Language and Composition courses.

Georgia Report: http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/summaries2006/Georgia.pdf

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Annual Report Charts Georgia’s Participation in School Breakfast Program – Georgia Ranks 9th

During the 2005-2006 school year, 395,422 low-income Georgia students participated in the School Breakfast Program, according to the School Breakfast Scorecard 2006. The Scorecard is issued annually by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) to measure participation in the School Breakfast Program.

For every 100 low-income children that participated in the National School Lunch Program, 53.3 also received free and reduced-price breakfasts. If Georgia schools increased school breakfast participation by serving 60 out of 100 low-income children eating lunch, they would help 49,728 more children and gain an additional $10,364,800 in federal funding.

In Georgia, 95.6 percent of schools that offer school lunch also offer school breakfast, ranking Georgia 9th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The School Breakfast Program began as a pilot program in 1966 as a way to make sure children were able to start the school day ready to learn. Numerous studies have found that breakfast in the morning improves children’s school achievement and health.

“Reaching a lot more children with breakfast in schools is probably the cheapest and fastest way to improve children’s learning and health, improve attendance and, of course, reduce hunger,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). “It’s essential that more schools serve breakfast, adopt steps like breakfast in the classroom and reach out to more children.”

Nationally, the program has grown to include 7.7 million low-income children. To get even more children and schools participating, FRAC recommends that all schools participate in the school breakfast program, even offering universal breakfast, which provides breakfast at no charge to all students who want it. Schools can encourage higher participation among children by providing breakfast in the classroom, “grab and go” breakfast or offering breakfast after first period. These successful strategies have been used by states to boost participation in the program.

The full report, School Breakfast Scorecard 2006, is available at http://www.frac.org/pdf/2006_SBP.pdf

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Forsyth County Schools Select Manager for Its Video-on-Demand and Digital Media Management Solution

Forsyth County Schools have selected the award-winning SAFARI Montage system as their Video-on-Demand solution for the entire school district. Considered to be a leader in adopting technology and using it to enhance student achievement, this Atlanta suburban school district plans to further improve visual learning in its classrooms by using SAFARI Montage WAN Manager – the only WAN-based, VOD and digital media management solution for school districts.

“Technology has the power to improve teaching and learning like never before, and Forsyth County Schools is dedicated to improving student achievement through technology-enriched learning opportunities,” said Bailey Mitchell, Chief Technology and Information Officer for the district. He added, “Our school district decided to use technology, not just to do the same things more efficiently, but to create a ‘state of the art’ collaborative classroom. Each classroom in the district includes an interactive whiteboard, a ceiling-mounted projector and now, Video-on-Demand with SAFARI Montage. We are truly excited about the transformation of our classrooms with this new technology, and the ability of this technology to support and extend many different teaching and learning styles.”

Forsyth selected SAFARI Montage as its district-wide solution because of the high-quality content providers, the powerful and flexible system management, and for its ability to integrate with Forsyth’s existing leading technology advancements in the classroom, including PCs and projection devices, which are so critical to their interactive learning environment.

About Forsyth County Schools

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Dr. Sharon Riley Ordu,  Principal of J. E. Brown Middle School

In 2002, Atlanta’s J. E. Brown Middle School was placed on Georgia’s “Needs Improvement” list because of poor academic performance. Only 46 percent of its students were proficient in math, and just 65 percent were proficient in reading and language arts. A year later, Dr. Sharon Riley Ordu was named principal at the middle school.

“The school was very troubled when I took over. There were serious culture and climate issues. High expectations weren’t being communicated,” Dr. Ordu explained. “We initiated a laser-like focus on quality instruction.”

Today, the school, which has nearly 660 students in grades six through eight, is no longer on Georgia’s “Needs Improvement” list. Through Dr. Ordu’s leadership, the number of students who demonstrated proficiency in math jumped from 46 percent to 68 percent, and proficiency levels in reading and language arts climbed from 65 percent to 81 percent.

To achieve those results, Dr. Ordu introduced new instructional leadership and other skills to the 45 teachers at the school. Specifically, she implemented improvements that included:

• One hour of reading after homeroom each day
• Use of research-based best practices in teaching core subjects
• Adopted the books Good to Great and Turning Points as a framework for how the school would operate
• Development of professional learning communities
• Quality feedback given to teachers
• Assessments of the school’s climate and culture, with necessary changes made
• Close monitoring of lesson planning, instructional delivery and support provided to teachers

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West Hall High's Laurie Ecke

Laurie Ecke caught the education bug as a 3-year-old child, when her mother taught her how to read.

She was "my first and best teacher," said Ecke, now a teacher at West Hall High School.

As she honors her mother's work, so has the school system recognized Ecke. She has been named the Hall County school system's teacher of the year for the 2007-08 school year.

She now is in the running for Georgia teacher of the year, which will be announced in the spring by the Georgia Department of Education. She was among 32 school-level teachers of the year in Hall County.

Ecke, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., who grew up in Atlanta, didn't set out to be a teacher. She pursued English at the University of Georgia because "I liked reading and writing."

It wasn't until she started tutoring after earning her college degree that she began to turn toward education.

She earned her master's degree in math education and later her gifted-education endorsement from North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega.

Ecke, 45, went on teach for a few years at Lakeview Academy in Gainesville, then to classrooms at West Hall and Chestatee middle schools.
She is in her sixth year of teaching at West Hall High. She teaches honors geometry and a new, systemwide honors mentorship class that began this fall…

To read the rest of this article, please go to: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20061217/localnews/144448.shtml

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