|
October
2006
Copyright
© 2006 Queue, Inc.
FREE STUDENT WORKBOOKS AVAILABLE FOR PREVIEW (Advertisement)
Queue, Inc.'s latest Test Preparation Catalogue features many new titles. We would be delighted to send catalogues and/or free review copies of any of the student versions of these books at no cost to you. Call, fax, or email your request.
In addition, we’re offering a wide array of curriculum-based materials in our New Curriculum Catalogue. We welcome you to request free review copies of these books as well as a copy of the curriculum catalogue.
We think you will find Queue’s test preparation materials to be great tools to prepare your students for state assessment tests. In addition, we encourage you to sample our curriculum workbooks to help engage and challenge your students.
For further information on Queue, Inc. and our product line, visit http://www.qworkbooks.com.
To order free previews, please visit: http://www.qworkbooks.com/samplerequest.html
or call: 800-232-2224
or fax: 800-775-2729
or write: Queue, Inc., 1 Controls Dr., Shelton, CT 06484
For back issues of this newsletter, as well as current and back issues of our state newsletters and U.S. Education News, please go to: http://www.queuenews.com/
For the latest education research news on a daily basis, please visit our Education Research Report Weblog: http://queuenews.typepad.com/education_research_report/
As part Washington state’s efforts to keep students in school, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has released Helping Students Finish School: Why Students Drop Out and How to Help Them Graduate. This analysis examines the wide body of research and professional literature available to help answer some of the troubling questions about why students choose to leave school before earning a diploma.
Written for educators, policymakers and other educational stakeholders, The High Schools We Need organizes its analysis and recommendations around three key themes:
The report connects the history and evolving expectations of high schools with the present approach to secondary education. What used to be an exclusive institution for educating the wealthy elite has evolved into an inclusive system expected to prepare all school-age children to meet the challenges of career, college and life in the 21st century. The report notes how educators today may be working within school settings that are not fully suited for meeting the goals set by national and state education reform efforts.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer for how to shape high schools to meet today’s expectations for providing a broad education to all students, according to the report. However, there are two widely acknowledged improvement strategies that have proven effective, especially when blended with one another: organization and structure changes and classroom/instructional changes.
Changes to the organization and structure of high schools involve strategies around personalized relationships so students feel that someone at their school knows and cares about them. Many of the strategies being used include smaller schools or schools within schools, advisory periods, scheduling students with the same teachers over time and varying length and number of class periods.
Effective classroom and instructional changes increase student learning and student engagement in schoolwork. These strategies include instruction that increases the rigor of class work and challenges students to think deeply about the subject matter. Research suggests that teachers increase student motivation and performance by establishing learning communities in their classes that provide opportunities for students to work together and apply their learning in real world contexts.
In many high schools, improvement efforts using one or more of these strategies are underway. The report describes several of the prominent reform models, including one that is being piloted in several Washington high schools – High Schools That Work. It also looks at strategies being applied in 11 schools and districts in Washington that appear to be making a positive difference.
Why Students Drop Out and How to Help Them Graduate
Word: http://www.k12.wa.us/research/pubdocs/dropoutreport2006.doc
pdf: http://www.k12.wa.us/research/pubdocs/dropoutreport2006.pdf
THE HIGH SCHOOLS WE NEED: IMPROVING AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION
American high schools are increasingly the target of educational reform. Today's high schools are expected to graduate all students with the rigorous academic knowledge and skills necessary to prepare them for college or a career. The report "The High Schools We Need: Improving an American Institution" provides a comprehensive look at high school reform based on research and professional literature. It describes the characteristics of high schools we have and need and suggests strategies and models for improving them. Examples of schools and districts in Washington are highlighted.
"The High Schools We Need: Improving an American Institution"
pdf: http://www.k12.wa.us/research/pubdocs/HighSchoolsWeNeed.pdf
TEACHER EDUCATION IS OUT OF STEP WITH REALITIES OF CLASSROOMS, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH STUDY FROM FORMER HEAD OF TEACHERS COLLEGE
Majority of U.S. Teachers Prepared in Lower Quality Programs; Report Issues Recommendations to Reform What It Calls the "Wild West" of Teacher Education
Despite growing evidence of the importance of quality teaching, the vast majority of the nation's teachers are prepared in programs that have low admission and graduation standards and cling to an outdated vision of teacher education, concludes a new four-year study authored by Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and former president of Teachers College, Columbia University.
The report, Educating School Teachers, released by the Education Schools Project, identifies several model programs but finds that most education schools are engaged in a "pursuit of irrelevance," with curriculums in disarray and faculty disconnected from classrooms and colleagues. These schools have "not kept pace with changing demographics, technology, global competition, and pressures to raise student achievement," the study says.
A majority of teacher education alumni (61 percent) reported that schools of education did not prepare graduates well to cope with the realities of today's classrooms, according to a national survey conducted for the study. School principals also gave teacher education programs low grades, with fewer than one-third of those surveyed reporting that schools of education prepare teachers very well or moderately well to address the needs of students with disabilities (30 percent), a diverse cultural background (28 percent) or limited English proficiency (16 percent).
Further, fewer than half of principals reported that education school alumni are very well or moderately well prepared to use technology in instruction (46 percent); use student performance assessment techniques (42 percent); or implement curriculum and performance standards (41 percent).
"Teacher education is the Dodge City of the education world," says Levine, noted author and scholar of higher education. "Like the fabled Wild West town, it is unruly and chaotic. There is no standard approach to where and how teachers should be prepared, and the ongoing debate over whether teaching is a profession or a craft has too often blurred the mission of education schools that are uncertain whether to become professional schools or continue to be grounded in the more academic world of arts and sciences."
Low Admissions Standards, Lack of Quality Control
The report says that because universities tend to rely on schools of education as "cash cows," the quality of teacher education is compromised by setting low admissions standards to help boost enrollments and revenues. Although the SAT and GRE scores of aspiring secondary school teachers are comparable to the national average, the scores of future elementary school teachers fall near the bottom of all test takers, with GRE scores 100 points below the national average.
Equally troubling, state quality control mechanisms focus too much on process, not substance, and vary dramatically. For example, the amount of field work required ranges from 30 hours in one state to 300 hours in another, and the number of required reading credits ranges from 2 to 12, the report says.
Accreditation does not assure program quality, either. Of 100 graduate schools of education ranked by U.S. News and World Report in 2005, three of the top 10 are accredited versus eight of the lowest 10. In addition, Levine's report found no significant difference in student math or reading achievement, regardless of whether their teachers were prepared at nationally accredited institutions. The study was prepared by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), which controlled for teacher longevity.
Most Teachers Trained in the Weaker Programs
Education schools based at master's degree-granting institutions have lower admissions requirements, less impressive faculty, and higher student-to-faculty ratios than those based at research universities. Yet these schools currently produce a majority of the nation's teachers. A study conducted for the report by NWEA indicates that students of teachers prepared at Masters I institutions had significantly lower growth in math and somewhat lower growth in reading than the students of those prepared at research institutions.
The report includes a comprehensive action plan to improve teacher education in America. Recommendations include:
Full Report: http://www.edschools.org/pdf/Educating_Teachers_Report.pdf
The Education Schools Project promotes well-informed and non-partisan policy debate on how best to prepare the teachers, administrators, and researchers who serve the nation's school children. The Project's reports are drawn from the most extensive study ever conducted into the strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance of the more than 1,200 schools and departments of education at colleges and universities across the country.
The study of university-based teacher education programs is the second report in a four-part series to be released by the Education Schools Project.
The first report, Educating School Leaders, was released in 2005:
Executive Summary: http://www.edschools.org/pdf/ESFinal313.pdf
Full Report: http://www.edschools.org/pdf/Final313.pdf
ON EDUCATION SCHOOLS PROJECT'S REPORT ON TEACHER PREPARATION
Statement by Antonia Cortese,
Executive Vice President, American Federation of Teachers
The Education Schools Project's "Educating School Teachers" addresses the importance, needs and shortcomings of institutions that prepare teachers to work in America's public schools. The American Federation of Teachers concurs with many of the findings and recommendations in this report, but we disagree with a few areas.
It's been six years since the AFT made identical or similar recommendations in our "Building a Profession" report, such as making teacher preparation programs five years in length and focusing the content of these programs on the core skills and knowledge that promote classroom success. Although we are concerned that many of the recommendations made in the 2000 AFT report are not yet common practice, we are encouraged to see that other organizations are reaching many of the same conclusions. Perhaps reports like the one released by the Education Schools Project will prompt an earnest nationwide effort to strengthen teacher education programs.
The AFT is concerned with the report's recommendation to identify and shut down failing teacher preparation programs based on student outcomes, because the technology to do so is not likely to be developed anytime soon. Efforts to improve programs should be more focused on measures such as raising the entry criteria for students to these programs and strong induction programs during which classroom novices become full-fledged professionals.
We also disagree with the report's assertion that resources should be concentrated on schools that grant doctoral degrees. To adequately prepare the more than 280,000 new teachers that enter our nation's schools each year, we must tap into the strengths of four-year colleges, rather than relying so heavily on universities that grant doctorates.
NAEP CHARTER SCHOOL PILOT STUDY
Charter school students took the fourth-grade NAEP reading (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/) and mathematics (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/) assessments at the same time as students in all other schools. Within each of the 150 participating charter schools, a random sample of students participated in either the reading or mathematics assessment. About half participated in reading and about half in mathematics. In total, 3,115 charter school students participated in the reading assessment, and 3,154 charter school students participated in the mathematics assessment.
While charter schools are similar to other public schools in many respects, they differ in several important ways, including the makeup of the student population and their location. For example, in comparison to other public schools, higher percentages of charter school fourth-grade students are Black or attend schools in central cities.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) conducted a pilot study of America’s charter schools and their students as part of the 2003 NAEP assessments in reading and mathematics at the fourth-grade level. NAEP also surveyed participating charter schools about their practices, structure, and governance.
Charter schools are public schools of choice. A number of states have few or no charter schools; many charter schools have just recently opened; and some charter schools last only a few years. All of these factors make the selection of a representative sample challenging.
For example, the final sample of 150 charter schools was obtainable only after multiple sources of information were consulted. Information from local school administrators, follow-up interviews, and field staff were used to update and verify the original school questionnaire data.
While charter schools are similar to other public schools in many respects, they differ in several important ways, including the makeup of the student population and their location. For example, in comparison to other public schools, higher percentages of charter school fourth-grade students are Black and attend schools in central cities.
Thus, when comparing the performance of charter and other public school students, it is important to compare students who share a common characteristic. For example, in mathematics, fourth-grade charter school students as a whole did not perform as well as their public school counterparts. However, the mathematics performance of White, Black, and Hispanic fourth-graders in charter schools was not measurably different from the performance of fourth-graders with similar racial/ethnic backgrounds in other public schools.
In reading, there was no measurable difference in performance between charter school students in the fourth grade and their public school counterparts as a whole. This was true, even though, on average, charter schools have higher proportions of students from groups that typically perform lower on NAEP than other public schools have. In reading, as in mathematics, the performance of fourth-grade students with similar racial/ethnic backgrounds in charter schools and other public schools was not measurably different.
There are also instances where the performance of students with shared characteristics differed. For example, among students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, fourth-graders in charter schools did not score as high in reading or mathematics, on average, as fourth-graders in other public schools.
When considering these data, it should be noted that the charter school population is rapidly changing and growing. Future NAEP assessments may reveal different patterns of performance. Further, NAEP does not collect information about students’ prior educational experience, which contributes to present performance. Nonetheless, the data in this report do provide a snapshot of charter school students’ current performance.
Download the full report, America's Charter Schools: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005456
Explore NAEP charter school performance results: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/charter/results.asp
A second analysis uses hierarchical linear models (HLMs) to examine differences between the two types of schools when multiple student and/or school characteristics are taken into account. Browse the executive summary (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2006460.asp) or download the full report: A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006460)
AFT WELCOMES RELEASE OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION'S STUDY COMPARING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN CHARTER AND REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The U.S. Department of Education has released an analysis of 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores comparing the academic achievement of students in charter schools with that of their peers in regular public schools. "The department’s study provides further evidence against unchecked expansion of the charter school experiment," American Federation of Teachers president Edward J. McElroy said today.
The Education Department's analysis shows that charter school students for the most part performed at lower levels than students in regular public schools. "The AFT has been calling for the release of this data analysis for more than two years, and we are pleased that the Department has finally made it public," McElroy continued.
The study confirms the findings of a 2004 AFT Report (http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/NAEPCharterSchoolReport.pdf) on the 2003 NAEP charter school data, which showed that charter school students usually do not perform as well as their peers in public school. In a 2004 advertisement in The New York Times, critics of the AFT report said characteristics such as parental education, household income and the quality of learning resources in the home were necessary to make a more accurate comparison between achievement in charter and regular public schools. The analysis released today adjusts for race, socioeconomic status and other characteristics.
Some of the same charter school advocates who attacked the AFT report for not having access to those data now have launched efforts to undermine the Education Department’s expanded analysis even though it includes those data. "These results are inconvenient for charter school proponents," McElroy said. "But charter supporters can’t just keep moving the goalpost when they don’t like the results. Their 'see no evil' attitude ultimately hurts the charter movement."
While the department's study shows that the majority of charters are underperforming public schools, we know that there are some charter schools that are doing well. "We should learn effective practices from successful schools that can be adopted in traditional as well as charter schools," McElroy said. "Charter schools were not conceived to replace traditional public schools. Charter schools were intended to serve as laboratories for innovation, from which we could learn how to further improve the public schools attended by the vast majority of our nation’s children," McElroy added.
"Charter supporters should not be blinded by ideology. It only weakens the original intent of the charter experiment," he continued. "It is time to learn what we can from the few successful charter schools and shut down those that are not working."
"With charter schools in many states operating virtually unchecked, and because conversion to a charter school is a possible sanction through the federal No Child Left Behind Act, policymakers should take note of these findings," McElroy concluded.
SCHOOL AND PARENT INTERACTION BY HOUSEHOLD LANGUAGE AND POVERTY STATUS
Language minority parents may face a number of challenges when trying to communicate or become involved with their child’s school. This Issue Brief describes school-to-home communication practices and opportunities for parent involvement at school as reported by parents of U.S. school-age students from primarily English- and primarily Spanish-speaking households during the 2002–03 school year. Data are drawn from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), which included English and Spanish language surveys of parents’ perceptions of school communication practices and opportunities for parent involvement. Among the findings: A greater percentage of students in English-speaking households than in Spanish-speaking households had parents who reported receiving personal notes or e-mails about the student; receiving newsletters, memos, or notices addressed to all parents; opportunities to attend general meetings; opportunities to attend school events; and chances to volunteer. Differences were still apparent after taking poverty status into account.
Online Availability: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006086.pdf
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 100 LARGEST PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL DISTRICTS
This annual report provides basic information from the Common Core of Data about the nation’s largest public school districts in the 2003-04 school year. The data include such characteristics as the numbers of students and teachers, number of high school completers and the averaged freshman graduation rate, and revenues and expenditures. Several findings were: These 100 largest districts enrolled 23 percent of all public school students, and employed 22 percent of all public school teachers, in 2003-04. The 100 largest districts produced 20 percent of all high school completers (both diploma and other completion credential recipients) in 2002-03. Across these districts, the averaged freshman graduation rate was 68.8 percent. In 19 of the 100 largest districts, the rate was 80 percent or higher. The rate was less than 50 percent in 8 of the 100 largest districts. Three states—California, Florida, and Texas—accounted for 41 of the 100 largest public school districts. Current per-pupil expenditures in fiscal year 2003 ranged from a low of $4,413 in Alpine School District, Utah to a high of $17,652 in Newark City, New Jersey.
Online Availability: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006329.pdf
ON THE 38TH ANNUAL PHI DELTA KAPPA/GALLUP POLL OF THE PUBLIC'S ATTITUDES TOWARD THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Statement by Edward J. McElroy, President, American Federation of Teachers
The Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll on public education sends a direct message to members of Congress as they begin to draft the next version of the No Child Left Behind Act: After four years, this law is not making the grade.
No Child Left Behind needs significant changes before it will live up to its promise, and the survey’s findings suggest strong public support for AFT proposals for improvements. Four out of five of those polled believe the law should give schools credit when students make good progress. A majority of respondents reject school vouchers and transfers, instead calling for improvements to existing public schools. The public also shares teachers' concern about the misuse and overuse of testing, narrowing of the curriculum and a shortage of funds for public schools. All of these are in line with the AFT’s recommendations for improving the law.
No Child Left Behind holds schools and students accountable. Members of Congress should be held accountable, as well. That means listening to the public—and to the teachers who are on the frontlines of education. For our students’ sake, Congress needs to make sure the next version of this law is fair, flexible and fully funded.
COMPUTER AND INTERNET USE BY STUDENTS
This report examines the use of computers and the Internet by American children enrolled in nursery school and students in kindergarten through grade 12. The report examines the overall rate of use (that is, the percentage of individuals in the population who are users), the ways in which students use the technologies, where the use occurs (home, school, and other locations), and the relationships of these aspects of computer and Internet use to demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as students' age and race/ethnicity and their parents' education and family income. This report confirms that patterns of computer and Internet use seen in previous research are observed in more recent data. One of the more important findings presented in the report is that schools appear to help narrow the disparities between different types of students in terms of computer use. Differences in the rates of computer use are smaller at school than they are at home when considering such characteristics as race/ethnicity, family income, and parental education.
Online Availability: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006065.pdf
Research proves that effective reading teachers know how students learn to read (acquisition), how to teach students to read (instruction), how to judge how well students read (assessment), and how to strengthen students’ reading skills (remediation). Despite this, only three out of sixteen Reading First Education Network States require their licensed elementary school teachers demonstrate proficient knowledge of the essential components of reading instruction: phonemic awareness; phonics; vocabulary development; reading fluency; and reading comprehension strategies.
While tests specifically designed as reading licensure tests, such as: the California Reading Instruction Competency Assessment (RICA), the Virginia Reading Assessment (VRA), the Massachusetts Foundations of Reading test, and the ETS Praxis 0201: Reading Across the Curriculum: Elementary) are aligned with the five components of effective reading instruction as defined by scientifically based reading research (SBRR), general tests commonly used for initial licensure of elementary teachers, are not aligned with SBRR. States that depend upon these more generic licensure tests do not have a good measure of the knowledge or skills of new teachers in terms of reading instruction. Indeed, state licensure test questions are more often reflective of ideology. The Language Arts standards set by these states do not necessarily specify any or all five components of proven effective reading instruction be utilized in adopted reading curriculum. Although Title II requires teachers pass licensure tests, the content tested in the general tests does not assure “best practice” in teaching . . .
To read the complete article, please go to: http://americandaily.com/article/15708
To read about the Inspector General's report on mismanagement of Reading First, please go to:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4207953.html
To read the Inspector General's report: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/whatsnew.html
THE COMING CRISIS IN CITIZENSHIP
Unprecedented Study Exposes Higher Education's Failture to Teach America's History and Essential Institutions
An unprecedented study of more than 14,000 randomly selected students from across the country reveals that colleges and universities, including some of the most expensive and elite in the United States, are failing to add to their graduates’ understanding of America’s history and essential institutions. The study, the largest scientifically valid survey ever conducted to measure student learning of these subjects at colleges and universities, was administered by the University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy (UConnDPP) on behalf of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). A nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization, ISI was founded in 1953 to further in successive generations of American college youth a better understanding of the economic, political, and ethical values that sustain a free and humane society.
College freshmen and seniors at 50 of the nation’s colleges and universities were asked 60 multiple choice questions about (1) America’s history; (2) government; (3) America and the world; and (4) the market economy. The average overall score for college seniors was 53.2 percent, just 1.5 percent higher than the average overall score for freshmen, which was 51.7 percent. Both scores represent failure by a wide margin on a traditional grading scale. More significantly, the results demonstrate that colleges and universities are failing to advance students’ knowledge teach students about their country’s history and founding principles. At 16 of the schools, the freshmen actually scored higher than the seniors.
The report also offers the first-ever ranking of U.S. colleges based on the learning added to or subtracted from college students’ knowledge of America’s history and institutions.
“Today’s college students, who are America’s future leaders, must understand their nation’s history and founding principles if they are to be informed, engaged citizens prepared and motivated to improve the public life of their communities and their nation,” said Josiah Bunting, III, ISI’s National Civic Literacy Board Chairman. “The students’ dismal scores provide high-quality evidence of the state of civic learning on campuses throughout the nation—and the results are far from encouraging. They constitute nothing less than a coming crisis in American citizenship.”
Other Key Findings
1. Prestige Doesn’t Pay Off.
There is no relationship between the cost of college and the amount that students learn about America’s history and key institutions. Students at relatively inexpensive colleges often learn more about America, on average, than their counterparts at prestigious, expensive colleges. Lesser-known colleges such as Rhodes College, Calvin College, and Grove City College ranked at the top of ISI’s list, but at many of the nation’s most prestigious universities, including Brown University, Yale University, and Georgetown University, seniors know less than freshmen about America’s history, government, foreign affairs, and economy. “This phenomenon is ‘negative learning,’” said Bunting. “We were stunned to find that a majority of the 16 schools where negative learning occurred are considered to be among the most prestigious colleges in the United States.” (See http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/content/civlit_9-26-06.pdf for the complete list of rankings.)
In addition, ISI’s research found that colleges ranked high in U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges in 2006 (ISI’s study was completed before the 2007 edition was published) ranked low in civic learning. Specifically, a one percent increase in civic learning as measured in ISI’s survey corresponded to a decrease of 25 positions in the U.S. News ranking.
2. Students don’t learn what colleges don’t teach.
Schools where students took more courses in American history, political science, and economics outperformed those schools where fewer courses were completed. Seniors at the two top-ranked colleges, Rhodes College and Colorado State University, took an average of 4.2 history and political
science courses, while seniors at the two lowest-ranked colleges, University of California, Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University, took an average of 2.9 history and political science courses. And the top schools outperformed the bottom schools in the amount learned per course.
3. Greater civic learning goes hand-in-hand with more active citizenship.
Students who demonstrated greater learning of America’s history and institutions were more engaged in citizenship activities such as voting, volunteer community service, and political campaigns. About 86 percent of the students at the four highest-ranked colleges had exercised their right to vote at least once.
In order to improve undergraduate learning about America’s history and institutions, the report recommends five remedies: (1) improving assessment of learning outcomes at the college and university level; (2) increasing the number of required history, political science, and economics courses; (3) holding higher education more accountable to its mission and fundamental responsibilities to prepare its students to be informed, engaged participants in a democratic republic; (4) better informing students and their parents, as well as public officials and taxpayers, of a given university’s performance in teaching America’s history and institutions; and (5) building academic centers of excellence on campuses to encourage and support the restoration of teaching history, political science, and economics.
“ISI offers this report with the hope that it will stimulate corrective action and accountability among those immediately responsible for higher education—trustees, donors, alumni, parents, public officials, administrators, faculty, and students,” said T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., president, Intercollegiate Studies Institute. “By producing these findings year after year, ISI will provide a continuous flow of authoritative evidence that can be used to develop solutions that will strengthen the study of America’s history, government, foreign affairs, and market economy. Good citizenship requires at least a passing knowledge of these subjects.”
For a copy of the report and other survey findings, please visit www.americancivicliteracy.org.
TODAY'S STUDENTS DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY
Today's college students are failing to graduate with a knowledge of and appreciation for America's history and institutions, a new report says. Warning of a "coming crisis in American citizenship," it blames U.S. colleges and universities for neglecting to prepare students for their civic responsibilities.
"We risk a generation of young people not knowing what America stands for," says Eugene Hickok, former deputy secretary of education (under President Bush) and member of the board that commissioned the report. "This isn't saying students aren't doing a good job. It's saying institutions aren't doing a good job..."
Among conclusions:
Test Your Knowledge
A sampling of civic literacy questions and the share of seniors at 50 colleges surveyed who answered each correctly:
To read the complete article and see answers to the questions above, please go to:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-09-26-history-report_x.htm
MAJOR CHANGES NEEDED TO BOOST K-8 SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT
Improving science education in kindergarten through eighth grade will require major changes in how science is taught in America's classrooms, as well as shifts in commonly held views of what young children know and how they learn, says a new report from the National Research Council. After decades of education reform efforts that have produced only modest gains in science performance, the need for change is clear. And the issue takes on even greater significance with the looming mandate of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which says that states must measure students' annual progress in science beginning in 2007.
Being proficient in science means that students must both understand scientific ideas and demonstrate a firm grasp of scientific practices. The report emphasizes that doing science entails much more than reciting facts or being able to design experiments. In addition, the next generation of science standards and curricula at the national and state levels should be centered on a few core ideas and should expand on them each year, at increasing levels of complexity, across grades K-8. Today's standards are still too broad, resulting in superficial coverage of science that fails to link concepts or develop them over successive grades, the report says. Teachers also need more opportunities to learn how to teach science as an integrated whole—and to diverse student populations.
"Current teaching approaches are insufficient to launch students on a path to participation in a society infused with job opportunities in scientific and technical fields, as well as scientific issues such as alternative fuels, avian influenza, global warming, and nanotechnology," said Richard A. Duschl, professor of science education, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "To improve science education, a curriculum coordinated across grade levels and broad changes in assessment and instruction are urgently needed."
Four intertwined and equally important strands comprise the committee's definition of proficiency in science. First, students should know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world. Second, they should be able to generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations. Third, they should understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge. And finally, students' work should include active participation in scientific collaboration and discussion. All K-8 education should offer students opportunities to engage in the four strands of science proficiency.
The commonly held view that young children are simplistic thinkers is outmoded, the report adds. Studies show that children think in surprisingly sophisticated ways. Yet much science education is based on old assumptions, and it focuses on what children cannot do instead of what they can. All children have basic reasoning skills, personal knowledge of the natural world, and curiosity that teachers can build on to achieve proficiency in science.
The four strands, plus current scientific understandings of how children think, should be the basis for new science standards, assessments, and curricula, the report says. In a new, coordinated system, standards and curriculum should have coherent learning goals that can be achieved through instruction over several grades. Assessments should provide teachers and students with timely feedback about students' knowledge. And teacher preparation and professional development programs should focus on boosting teachers' knowledge of science, how students learn the subject, and methods and technologies that aid science learning for all.
Students should have a wide variety of learning experiences in science classes, the committee said. Those experiences should include conducting investigations; sharing ideas with peers; talking and writing in specialized ways; and using mechanical, mathematical, and computer-based models. Science should be presented as a process of using evidence to build explanatory theories and models, and then checking how well the evidence supports them.
The report also urges education leaders, policymakers, researchers, and school administrators to tackle gaps in science achievement among different groups of students. Such gaps exist between white students and non-Asian minority students; they also remain between economically advantaged and disadvantaged students. The problems can be traced, in part, to inequities in learning opportunities and differences in how children are taught. All U.S. students should have adequate time and resources for high-quality science learning, the report says.
A solid base of evidence supports the committee's call for action to help all students become proficient in science, but additional research is needed to shed more light on how learning occurs across the four strands, how instruction should change with children's development, and which scientific ideas have the broadest reach across disciplines.
The study was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Child and Human Development, and the Merck Institute for Science Education. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
Copies of TAKING SCIENCE TO SCHOOL: LEARNING AND TEACHING SCIENCE IN K-8 will be available at:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11625.html
A USC Rossier School of Education professor has identified 20 innovative programs in California charter schools and created a database to share their successes with other schools.
A groundbreaking student discipline program in the Bay Area where students earn "paychecks" for positive behavior; a Los Angeles K-8 school which simultaneously teaches English and Spanish; a fiber-arts program in Santa Barbara in which students learn every subject through such crafts as knitting are among the 20 programs that have been proven to work at their home schools, but until now, the schools haven't had the means to share their practices.
"Charter schools were originally started to be laboratories for experimentation," said Priscilla Wohlstetter, director of the Center on Educational Governance at the USC Rossier School.
"There's a fair amount of experimentation going on in charter schools, but no one has the time to search out the best experiments and to spread them to all kinds of public schools," Wohlstetter said. "Our compendium will help spread the promising practices beyond the schools that invented them."
Lauded programs fall into the categories of arts-themed education, integration of technology into math and science, high school reform, literacy for English-language learners, parent involvement, project-based learning, school leadership, school-university partnerships, special education and student discipline….
One in 20 schools in California is a charter school, according to the California Charter Schools Association; one in 35 public school students in grades K-12 attends a charter school in the state.
For more information, visit http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/cegov/charterschools_projects.html#comp
The compendium's executive summary can be viewed at: http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/cegov/exec_summary.pdf.
To see the rest of this article, please go to:
http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=14058
Public schools shun the best and brightest teachers, claims a study released by the conservative Cato Institute. Indeed, the study finds that the best teachers fare worse than their mediocre colleagues due to biases in hiring and compensation practices.
In the study "Giving Kids the Chaff: How to Find and Keep the Teachers We Need," Marie Gryphon, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, reveals serious flaws in the teacher training, selection, and retention practices of monopolistic state school systems, and argues that market-driven personnel policies produce a far superior alternative to the status quo.
In public schools, "teachers are chosen and compensated on the basis of criteria set by teachers' unions and other entrenched interests," Gryphon explains. "Because those criteria do not focus on the qualities that define good teachers, they often favor less-qualified applicants over applicants whose skills could dramatically improve educational outcomes for their students."
While many policymakers advocate across-the-board salary increases, Gryphon finds that such pay raises do not, in fact, improve teacher quality. In actuality, "untargeted, across-the- board teacher salary hikes may lower the overall quality of the teaching workforce, because they may attract more low-quality applicants," she states. "Only new hiring policies that effectively separate the wheat from the chaff can transform the teaching profession."
Give parents school choice, and give schools the autonomy and incentives they need to hire the best teachers, Gryphon recommends. School choice will foster competition among schools, and in turn, "public school administrators seek out higher- performing applicants and work harder to retain them." This effect, Gryphon finds, is "especially pronounced in low-income districts and can meaningfully improve educational outcomes for poor students."
Policy Analysis No. 579: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6700
WHAT WORKS CLEARINGHOUSE RELEASES NEW REPORTS
The What Works Clearinghouse, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, has announced the release of seven new intervention reports highlighting available research on Character Education, English Language Learning, and Elementary School Math interventions.
The seven WWC Reports provide findings on educational interventions in three key areas:
Here are the seven new reports:
Beginning Reading: http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=01&ReportType=Latest
Character Education
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=12&ReportType=Latest
Dropout Prevention
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=06&ReportType=Latest
Early Childhood Education
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=13&ReportType=Latest
Elementary School Math
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=04&ReportType=Latest
English Language Learning
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=10&ReportType=Latest
In addition, the report on Middle School Math was completed a short time ago:
http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Products/BrowseByLatestReportsResults.asp?EvidenceRptID=03&ReportType=Latest
The What Works Clearinghouse is administered by the U.S. Department of Education through a contract with a joint venture of the American Institutes for Research (http://www.air.org/) and the Campbell Collaboration (http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/).
What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as:
The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children s learning of science about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science education teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.
To read the study: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11625.html#description
NCTM RELEASES CURRICULUM FOCAL POINTS TO FOCUS MATH CURRICULA
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has released Curriculum Focal Points, which identifies three important mathematical topics at each level, pre-kindergarten through grade 8. The publication is intended to bring more coherence to the very diverse mathematics curricula currently in use. It provides a framework for states and districts to design more focused curricular expectations and assessments for pre-K–grade 8 mathematics curriculum development.
“The Curriculum Focal Points are designed to promote a discussion on the refinement of mathematics curricula and address the impression that various state and district curricula are ‘a mile wide and an inch deep,’” said NCTM President Francis (Skip) Fennell.
“The Curriculum Focal Points present a vision for the design of the next generation of state curriculum standards and state tests, and they present a way to bring needed focus to what is taught in mathematics.”
State standards often describe specific learning expectations by grade. In some cases there are close to 100 expectations per grade, with different expectations from state to state. The focal points are intended as a first step toward a national discussion on how to bring consistency and coherence to the mathematics curricula used in the United States. At each grade level, pre-kindergarten through grade 8, the Curriculum Focal Points identify three topics, described as “cohesive clusters of related knowledge, skills, and concepts,” which form the necessary foundation for understanding concepts in higher-level mathematics.
Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence was developed with the involvement of mathematicians, math educators, curriculum developers, and classroom teachers.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is a public voice of mathematics education, providing vision, leadership, and professional development to support teachers in ensuring mathematics learning of the highest quality for all students. With 100,000 members and more than 240 Affiliates, NCTM is the world’s largest organization dedicated to improving mathematics education in prekindergarten through grade 12.
The Council’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics includes guidelines for excellence in mathematics education and issues a call for all students to engage in more challenging mathematics. NCTM is dedicated to ongoing dialogue and constructive discussion with all stakeholders about what is best for our nation’s students.
Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics is available for PDF download as a full document, or by section:
Full Document: http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/full_document.pdf
Introductory Materials: http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/front_matter.pdf
Focal Points by Grade: http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/focal_points_by_grade.pdf
Appendix & References: http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/appendix_and_references.pdf
Additional Downloads
Overview Powerpoint: http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/cfp.pps
Overview PDF: http://www.nctmmedia.org/cfp/cfp_presentation.pdf
U.S. LAGS IN RACE TO EDUCATE ITS YOUNG POPULATION
Long the world leader in higher education, the United States has fallen behind other nations in the race to educate its young adults and workers, says a new report. Moreover, college affordability continues to deteriorate for most American students and their families. The study, Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education, was released by the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
The report card finds that as the country’s well-educated baby boomer generation begins to retire, the diverse young population that will replace it does not appear prepared educationally to maintain the U.S.’s edge in the global economy.
“The report card’s findings challenge the notion that the American higher education system is still the ‘best in the world,’ ” said Governor James B. Hunt Jr., chair of the National Center’s board of directors and former governor of North Carolina. “In such key areas as college access and completion, the U.S. has made little or no progress, while other countries have made substantial gains. Our country must not remain satisfied with past achievements or reputation; we can and must mobilize our nation, our states, and our colleges for success in this global competition.”
Measuring Up 2006 is the fourth in a series of biennial report cards issued by the National Center, based in San Jose, California. Like the earlier reports, this one measures the performance of the nation and of each state in providing education and training beyond high school. This report card is the first in the series to compare national and state higher education performance with other nations.
The Measuring Up 2006 findings show that younger Americans are falling behind young people of other nations in college enrollment and completion rates. While the United States is still a world leader in the proportion of Americans ages 35 to 64 with a college degree, it ranks seventh on this measure for 25- to 34-year-olds.
Several nations have overtaken the U.S. in college access and others are close behind. In rates of college completion, the U.S. ranks in the bottom half in the most recent international comparisons.
“For most American families, college affordability has continued to deteriorate,” Hunt added. “The share of family income required to pay for a year of college has continued to escalate for all but the wealthiest families. And financial aid for qualified students who can’t afford college has not kept pace with tuition increases.”
Looking at trends since the early 1990s in these performance areas, the report finds:
You can view the full report online: http://www.pewtrusts.org/pdf/Measuring_Up_2006.pdf
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ON PAR WITH PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN READING AND MATH
Public schools and private schools are in a statistical deadlock when it comes to students' average reading and math scores, according to a new study released by the NationalCenter for Education Statistics (NCES).
The analysis of grade 4 and grade 8 reading and math scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that private schools generally score higher than public schools in both grades and subjects. However, much, if not all, of this gap is due to differences in the populations of students served by the two types of schools.
After taking into account student characteristics such as race, disability, and economic status, the analysis found that:
The study's authors used receipt of free and reduced price lunch (FRPL) and participation in Title I as proxies for economic status because direct family income measures were unavailable. If there are systematic differences between public and private schools in how students are designated FRPL or Title I then the analysis may have under- or over-estimated differences between school types.
Related Links
READING FIRST PROGRAM GETS FAILING GRADE
An internal review of Reading First, the Bush administration's billion-dollar-a-year reading program, says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.
The government audit says that the Reading First program has conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.
It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views, and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money…
Reading First aims to help young children read through scientifically proven programs, and the department considers it a jewel of No Child Left Behind, Bush's education law. Just this week, a separate review found the effort is helping schools raise achievement.
But from the start, the program has been dogged by accusations of impropriety, leading to several ongoing audits. The new report from the Office of Inspector General an independent arm of the Education Department calls into question the program's credibility…
About 1,500 school districts have received $4.8 billion in Reading First grants.
The audit found the department:
The Reading First director repeatedly used his influence to steer money toward states that used a reading approach he favored, called Direct Instruction, or DI. In one case, the report says, he was told a review panel was stacked with people who backed that program….
To read the complete article, please go to: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4207953.html
To read the Inspector General's report: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/whatsnew.html
To read an analysis of the situation, please go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901333.html
GENDER DISPARITY WITH FUZZY MATH
The Statistical Assessment Service (http://www.STATS.org)—a non-profit, non-partisan media research organization affiliated with George Mason University and committed to correcting scientific misinformation in the media—finds the current debate over women and men in the sciences "bogus."
STATS Research Director Dr. Rebecca Goldin and STATS Contributing Editor Trevor Butterworth find that despite all the recent evidence pointing to discrimination and structural obstacles, media columnists cling to the idea that math scores show men to be superior to women at the higher end of ability. In their new essay, entitled "Curveballs", Goldin and Butterworth point out why this is wrong.
Among the problems with the myth of gender difference:
Standardized Test Scores:
There are real problems with using SAT scores (or other test scores) as a proxy for mathematical ability and intelligence at the highest level. As with all tests, the SAT measures exactly what it tests: the ability to quickly solve specific problems correctly on a high-pressure, timed exam.
Invariably, there are students who are poor test-takers but good "thinkers;" but more to the point, while the resulting scores may indicate "achievement" or "mastery" of a certain skill set, they cannot distinguish those who are truly brilliant from those who are just "very good" at the skill set.
International Findings:
Where SAT scores support the gender bias theory, there is no such difference between test scores in Japan, and while in Iceland women do better than men. If you reduce mathematical ability to gender differences, you have to find a plausible way of explaining away these highly inconvenient facts.
Academic Opinion:
A recent study covered by Inside Higher Ed magazine showed that opinion among academics was nearly unanimous in its objection to feminine inferiority in math science and engineering. Of the 1,500 professors polled, said the article, "1 percent cited differing ability levels, 24 percent saw discrimination, and 75 percent said that the issue was one of different interests."
You can read Dr. Goldin's and Mr. Butterworth's analysis in its entirety at:
http://www.stats.org/stories/curveballs_math_sex_oct02_06.htm
MONTESSORI EDUCATION PROVIDES BETTER OUTCOMES THAN TRADITIONAL METHODS, STUDY INDICATES
A study comparing outcomes of children at a public inner-city Montessori school with children who attended traditional schools indicates that Montessori education leads to children with better social and academic skills.
The study appears in the Sept. 29, 2006 issue of the journal Science.
Montessori education is characterized by multi-age classrooms, a special set of educational materials, student-chosen work in long time blocks, a collaborative environment with student mentors, absence of grades and tests, and individual and small group instruction in academic and social skills. More than 5,000 schools in the United States, including 300 public schools, use the Montessori method.
The Montessori school studied is located in Milwaukee and serves urban minority children. Students at the school were selected for enrollment through a random lottery process. Those students who "won" the lottery and enrolled at the Montessori school made up the study group. A control group was made up of children who had "lost" the lottery and were therefore enrolled in other schools using traditional methods. In both cases the parents had entered their children in the school lottery with the hope of gaining enrollment in the Montessori school.
"This strategy addressed the concern that parents who seek to enroll their children in a Montessori school are different from parents who do not," wrote study authors Angeline Lillard, a University of Virginia professor of psychology, and Nicole Else-Quest, a former graduate student in psychology at the University of Wisconsin. This was an important factor because parents generally are the dominant influence on child outcomes.
Children were evaluated at the end of the two most widely implemented levels of Montessori education: primary (3- to 6-year-olds) and elementary (6- to 12-year-olds). They came from families of very similar income levels (averaging from $20,000 to $50,000 per year for both groups).
The children who attended the Montessori school, and the children who did not, were tested for their cognitive and academic skills, and for their social and behavioral skills.
"We found significant advantages for the Montessori students in these tests for both age groups," Lillard said. "Particularly remarkable are the positive social effects of Montessori education. Typically the home environment overwhelms all other influences in that area."
Among the 5-year-olds, Montessori students proved to be significantly better prepared for elementary school in reading and math skills than the non-Montessori children. They also tested better on "executive function," the ability to adapt to changing and more complex problems, an indicator of future school and life success.
Montessori children also displayed better abilities on the social and behavioral tests, demonstrating a greater sense of justice and fairness. And on the playground they were much more likely to engage in emotionally positive play with peers, and less likely to engage in rough play.
Among the 12-year-olds from both groups, the Montessori children, in cognitive and academic measures, produced essays that were rated as "significantly more creative and as using significantly more sophisticated sentence structures." The Montessori and non-Montessori students scored similarly on spelling, punctuation and grammar, and there was not much difference in academic skills related to reading and math. This parity occurred despite the Montessori children not being regularly tested and graded.
In social and behavioral measures, 12-year-old Montessori students were more likely to choose "positive assertive responses" for dealing with unpleasant social situations, such as having someone cut into a line. They also indicated a "greater sense of community" at their school and felt that students there respected, helped and cared about each other.
The authors concluded that, "when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools."
Lillard plans to continue the research by tracking the students from both groups over a longer period of time to determine long-term effects of Montessori versus traditional education. She also would like to replicate the study at other Montessori and traditional schools using a prospective design, and to examine whether specific Montessori practices are linked to specific outcomes.
Lillard is the author of "Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius." Chapter 1 of Montessori: The Science behind the Genius available for download: http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_genius.htm
EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOLS COULD HELP AT-RISK STUDENTS EARN A BACHELOR'S DEGREE, WITH A POTENTIAL $500K LIFETIME BENEFIT
'Return on Investment' Study Also Shows Clear Benefits for Schools, Districts, States
Young people at risk of dropping out of high school would recognize significant financial advantages in terms of savings on college tuition and increased lifetime earning from attending early college high schools.
Early college high schools are small schools from which students graduate with a high school diploma and an Associate's degree or up to two years of college credit. Designed for underprepared young people who may lack opportunities for a rigorous high school education, these schools target students of color, low-income students, and students who would be in the first generation of their families to attend college.
In addition to the savings to students and their families, states that invest in this new school model would benefit in terms of higher educational attainment for young people, increased individual earnings, and a longer working life for graduates—and hence increased future tax revenues.
These are among the findings released by Jobs for the Future, which commissioned the development of a financial analysis model for calculating the "ROI"—return on investment—for early college high schools. The financial model was created by Augenblick, Palaich, & Associates, Inc., (APA) a Denver-based consulting firm with over 20 years of education policy experience.
"We believe that early college high schools show great promise for increasing the number of young people who earn a postsecondary credential," says Marlene B. Seltzer, president and CEO of JFF. "Yet even if they succeed in doing that—and we believe they will—state and local officials rightly want to know whether funding this innovative school design will yield a positive return on the public's investment."
This is the goal of APA's model, which can be tailored for any state to use to calculate the return-on-investment for early college high schools. APA created the model for JFF, which coordinates the Early College High School Initiative. Through this national effort, 13 partner organizations are creating or redesigning more than 250 of these pioneering small high schools.
Start-up funding for the schools in the initiative comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and a number of local foundations. Foundation support for school planning and start-up costs totals more than $124 million to date.
However, these start-up resources are minimal compared to the ongoing operating budgets of early college high schools, which must come from their respective district and states, as it does for other public schools. Policymakers and others want to know if such investments will pay off.
"APA's cost-benefit model suggests that students and their families benefit tremendously from participation in early college high schools," says Ms. Seltzer. "Indeed, it is clear that the students participating in early college high schools are long-term winners when their participation is analyzed from an ROI perspective."
According to APA's model, over the course of 25 years, an early college high school student who went on to attain a Bachelor's degree would earn $509,400 more in lifetime earnings than a student who did not complete a high school diploma.
One factor that APA considered in projecting the educational attainment of early college high school students was data from two schools that have been part of the initiative long enough to graduate their first class. Seventy percent of the first cohort graduating from Harbor Teacher Prep Academy at Los Angeles Harbor College earned high school diplomas and Associate's degrees. Sixty-seven percent of the first cohort graduating from the Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College earned diplomas and Associate's degrees.
Equally impressive was the reduction in the percentage of students who dropped out of school: 8 percent for the first graduating classes in both early college high schools versus 29 percent for students with comparable economic backgrounds.
APA's analysis also offers encouragement to state leaders interested in investing in early college high schools as a strategy for promoting educational attainment. Looking at California and New York, states with very different education finance structures, APA calculated that every dollar invested in an early college high school would yield $1.33 to $2.11 more than it would when invested in a traditional high schools over the course of 15 years. The additional ROI would be $2.51 to $3.95 over the course of 25 years.
Robert Palaich, principal investigator at APA for the project, cautions that the oldest early college high schools have had only one graduating class, and most of the 86 schools now open are in their second or third years. When more complete data are available from a larger sample of early college high schools, the preliminary results in APA's study will be updated.
METHODOLOGY: CALCULATING THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT
APA collected data from selected early college high schools and developed a cost-benefit model focused on the ROI for early college high schools. APA also illustrated the use of that model with data available nationally and from early college high schools in California and New York.
The difference in benefits between an early college high school and the traditional school determines the "marginal" benefit of the early college high school.
ABOUT THE EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL INITIATIVE: www.earlycolleges.org
Early college high schools are small schools from which students leave with not only a high school diploma but also an Associate's degree or up to two years of college credit toward a Bachelor's degree. By changing the structure of the high school years and compressing the number of years to a college degree, early college high schools have the potential to improve graduation rates and better prepare students for entry into high-skill careers.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is funding the Early College High School Initiative. The 13 partner organizations are creating or redesigning 239 pioneering small high schools. Jobs for the Future www.jff.org coordinates the Early College High School Initiative and provides support to the partners and to the effort as a whole.
ON EDUCATION BATTLEFIELD, FEDERAL OFFICIALS AND LOCAL SCHOOL LEADERS AT ODDS ON TERRAIN, TACTICS
Superintendents' Perspectives Also Vastly Different From Teachers on Key Issues
What does it say about the prospects for improving public education when Washington officials and local school heads are operating with very different assumptions about what schools need? Or when the assessments of teachers and superintendents on how many kids are passing through the system without learning the basics are diametrically opposed?
New surveys from Public Agenda show major disconnects between the priorities of national policy-makers versus those of local school leaders on issues like teacher quality, standards and the need to ramp up science and math coursework. In "Reality Check 2006: Issue No. 4: The Insiders" (the fourth report issued this year in the Reality Check 2006 series), Public Agenda found that even when they see the same problems, the two groups seem to strive for different solutions.
Yes It Is, No It's Not
While 60 percent of principals say they are "very satisfied" with the teachers in their school and most superintendents (56 percent) believe the quality of new teachers is improving, federal officials enforcing No Child Left Behind said in Summer 2006 that not a single state in the nation has yet met its benchmarks for insuring more qualified teachers. And while just more than half of the nation's superintendents consider local schools to be "excellent" and relatively few (23 percent) say low standards are a serious problem where they work, the DOE says only 10 states have testing systems that meet its standards.
Ironically, healthy majorities of superintendents (64 percent) and principals (67 percent) say one of the best ways to help them be better school leaders would be to reduce red tape and bureaucracy associated with school mandates like No Child Left Behind.
School leaders' upbeat views of the schools also significantly differ from those of another key constituency: teachers in classrooms. School superintendents are substantially less likely than teachers to believe that too many students pass through the system without learning. While the majority of teachers (62 percent) say this is a serious problem in local schools, just 27 percent of superintendents think so. In another question in the survey, less than half of superintendents (46 percent) consider it essential to involve teachers more directly in setting school policy, although principals (65 percent) were more inclined to do so.
Is Math & Science a Problem? Would Merit Pay or Alternative Certification Help?
Despite a vigorous campaign by business leaders calling for more math and science education, the President's American Competitiveness Initiative, continuing disappointing scores for American students on international math tests and a much discussed shortage of qualified math and science teachers, 66 percent of principals and 59 percent of superintendents say math and science education is not a serious problem or not a problem at all in their district. About one-third of principals and 40 percent of superintendents say it is a "somewhat" or "very" serious problem in their district.
And while many reformers have called for new mechanisms for improving teacher quality such as merit pay and alternative certification, only small percentages of principals and superintendents voice much interest in these ideas. To them, improving professional development opportunities and eliminating teacher tenure are much higher priorities. Only 4 percent of superintendents say relying more heavily on alternative certification programs would be a "very effective" means of improving teacher quality and only 20 percent say tying teacher rewards and sanctions to their students' performance would do the trick. Many more say eliminating teacher tenure (43 percent) and increasing professional development opportunities (57 percent) would be "very effective."
"With such vastly different sets of perceptions, you really have to wonder whether these people are working at cross purposes," Jean Johnson, Executive Director of Public Agenda's Education Insights division and an author of the report said. "Federal officials see widespread problems; local school officials say the situation is pretty good. Business leaders say reforming math and science education is urgent; local school officials put it fairly far down the list. It's probably natural for principals and superintendents to be upbeat about their institutions and employees, but still, I think the positive, almost buoyant outlook captured here may come as a surprise to a lot of school reformers and critics."
Changing Self-Perceptions
The survey does suggest that local schools leaders are taking on new challenges. At one time, school administrators mainly managed the budget, insured that schools obeyed state and federal education regulations, worked to keep the local school board happy and, of course, were expected to be the loudest cheerleaders at school sporting events. Now, they are expected to be academic leaders and change agents who should be held accountable for increasing student learning overall and especially for improving academic achievement among minority and at-risk students. Reality Check shows school leaders embracing their more academic role.
The vast majority say the most essential aspects of their jobs are: ensuring that teachers use effective teaching methods (92 percent of principals; 87 percent of superintendents); recruiting the best teachers to their schools (91 percent of principals; 90 percent of superintendents); offering sound professional development (89 percent of principals; 91 percent of superintendents); and knowing how to use student data to improve teaching (84 percent of principals; 90 percent of superintendents).
Principals and Superintendents are not simply accepting the status quo, and have a change agenda of their own. School leaders place getting more funding for schools at the very top of their list. They also have their sights set on other targets like making it easier to remove problem teachers even if they have tenure and reducing federal bureaucracy and red tape.
Much Less Enthusiasm for Teachers in Poor, Minority Districts
There are significant differences in the judgments of school leaders in poor, minority districts versus those in affluent white areas. While more than 6 in 10 superintendents in affluent districts are "very satisfied" with their teachers, just 31 percent of superintendents in poorer districts say this. Still, even school leaders in poor, minority districts say that schools today are better than when they went to school.
About "Reality Check 2006"
"Reality Check 2006" is a set of public opinion tracking surveys on important issues in public education. From 1998 through 2002, Public Agenda conducted an annual survey of parents, teachers, students, employers and college professors covering standards, testing and accountability. In 2005 and 2006, Public Agenda revised and updated these surveys to cover a broader range of issues, including high school reform, school leadership, teacher preparation and quality, school funding and other issues. The tracking survey will be repeated periodically as a service of Public Agenda's Education Insights initiative.
Funding for this edition of "Reality Check" was provided by the The Wallace Foundation. The GE Foundation and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation provide additional support for the Reality Check series.
For the full report go to: http://www.publicagenda.org/research/research_reports_details.cfm?list=101
Methodology
The findings in "Reality Check 2006: The Insiders" are based on telephone interviews with a national random sample of 254 school district superintendents and 252 school principals, 721 public school teachers and 1,379 parents of children now in public school. Interviews with principals, superintendents and teachers were conducted between November 19, 2005–March 7, 2006 and interviews with parents were conducted between October 30–December 18, 2005. The margin of error for principals and superintendents is plus or minus 6 percentage points; the margin of error for the sample of teachers is plus or minus 4 percentage points; and the margin of error for the sample of parents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. It is higher when comparing percentages across subgroups. The survey was preceded by two focus groups each with parents and teachers. Selected survey results can be found at publicagenda.org.
Public Agenda is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nonpartisan public policy research. Founded in 1975 by former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Daniel Yankelovich, the social scientist and author, Public Agenda is well respected for its influential public opinion polls and balanced citizen education materials. Its mission is to inform leaders about the public's views and to educate citizens about government policy.
Visit Public Agenda Online - www.publicagenda.org
COLLEGE-EDUCATED ADULTS IN THE SOUTH EARN NEARLY DOUBLE THE INCOME OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES
Southern adults with a bachelor's degree as their highest education level earn nearly twice the annual income of residents with a high school diploma or GED certificate alone, the Southern Regional Education Board reports. A college education also is linked to lower unemployment, higher voting rates and many other economic and social advantages, described in the latest Fact Book Bulletin: College Degrees Benefit States and Individuals Significantly: http://www.sreb.org/main/EdData/Bulletin/06E15_Fact_Book_Bulletin_Sept1.pdf
SREB ANNOUNCES NEW STANDARDS FOR ONLINE TEACHING
Two new, first-of-their-kind publications by the Southern Regional Education Board’s Educational Technology Cooperative give states the essential tools they need to launch—or expand—online education.
http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/PDF/06T02_Standards_Online_Teaching.pdf includes 11 standards that states can use to guide academic preparation, content knowledge, online skills and delivery, and other elements of teaching.
By adopting these standards, states will be able to “set the bar” at a high level to ensure quality teaching for all online courses they provide. The Educational Technology Cooperative also is working to set criteria for quality online courses and will release that information later this year.
http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/PDF/06T03_Virtual_School_Costs.pdf outlines the initial costs that states should consider as they develop and sustain a state virtual school. The report covers establishing procedures and regulations for virtual schools, obtaining courses and technology, and hiring and training teachers and staff.
Just 10 years ago, none of the 50 states used the Web to provide academic courses to middle grades and high school students. Today, most states use online learning to help students who need courses their school cannot provide, who need to re-take courses for graduation, who have physical disabilities or scheduling conflicts—or who simply wish to accelerate their academic program.
An evaluation of Florida's program to end social promotion
This new report compares students who were subject to the threat of retention with students who would have been had they been born a year later. It is available here: http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/3210586.html
An earlier study, Ending Social Promotion: The Effects of Retention, describes the experiences of third- and sixth-grade students who did not meet Chicago Public Schools’ promotional test-score cutoffs and were retained in grade. Researchers examine how the practices resulting from the policy affected the retention experience and students’ achievement growth and experiences in school. This report is available at http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/p70.pdfBALTIMORE'S "NEW" MIDDLE SCHOOLS
One of the most intractable problems facing urban schools is the low performance of middle school-aged children. This is particularly true for the 13,360 students who attend the Baltimore City Public School System’s traditional middle schools, which serve only 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Not one of these 21 middle schools met adequate yearly progress in 2006.
Two anomalies in the disappointing landscape of City middle schools, KIPP Ujima Village and The Crossroads School, are obvious case studies.
The success of KIPP and Crossroads raises two questions. First, can the models used by KIPP and Crossroads be used to educate all or a significant number of the Baltimore’s remaining middle school population? If not, are there practices used by these two schools that could successfully be replicated in other City middle schools and K-8 schools?
This report from the Abell Foundation, which awards grants to improve education, healthcare, and other social services in Baltimore, examines how the two schools achieved this feat and suggests what the district can learn from their successes.
Read the full report here: http://www.abell.org/pubsitems/ed_failing_middle_906.pdf
UNITED STATES HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORES: A TWENTY-TWO-YEAR COMPARISON, 1980–2002
Using questionnaire and test data collected in 1980, 1992, and 2002, this report presents time series data on three cohorts of high school sophomores. The report presents information on the changing context of cohort demographics, family characteristics, school characteristics, and school experiences, after school activities, and future plans and expectations. Tested achievement is also presented with results in math from 1980 to 1990 and 2002, and results in reading from 1990 to 2002: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006327
D.C.'S CHARTER SCHOOLS AT A TURNING POINT AFTER 10 YEARS FIGHT FOR CHILDREN STUDY FINDS
Half of all public school children in the District of Columbia could be attending public charter schools by 2014 if present trends continue, according to a new report released today by Fight For Children. Yet, those same children could be only marginally better off unless strong steps are taken to address facilities challenges and uneven academic performance among D.C.'s charter schools.
“D.C. families have a lot to celebrate given the dramatic growth of charter schools in the last ten years,” explained Gregg Vanourek, the study’s author. “But it’s not all good news. There are serious challenges that charter school authorizers, school operators, and school district leadership need to confront in order for this education reform to fully live up to its promise.”
State of the District of Columbia Charter School Sector 2006: A Ten-Year Review finds the nation’s capital currently has the third highest public charter school student “market share” in the nation, with one out of four public school students enrolled in a charter school—surpassing much bigger cities like New York and Chicago in both the number of public charter school students and the percentage of public school students attending charter schools.
While growth has been dramatic, the study also concludes that D.C. charter schools have had their share of big challenges, the biggest being academic performance. Charter schools have produced a wide array of academic results: some are among the highest performing schools in the District, while too many others at the low end appear to be failing. Just as is the case for the District's traditional public schools, too few charter schools are ensuring that their students are attaining academic proficiency.
Another big challenge facing charter schools is gaining access to suitable facilities. Charter schools have had limited success in accessing empty or underused School District buildings, even as the District spends millions to maintain them.
In Washington, DC, charter schools are “authorized” to operate for fifteen years at a time and are granted increased autonomy in exchange for increased accountability. There are 55 charter schools operating on 69 campuses serving nearly 19,000 students in the District.
For a full copy of the report go to: http://www.fightforchildren.org/docs/State_of_DC_Charters_Oct0106_Final.pdf
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION IN POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
Do theorized educational best practices actually support student learning and persistence in higher education? Find out in the latest Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ResearchBrief: http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd?ascdnavitem=/ResearchBrief/Archived Issues&journalMgmtId=bd9fee6cbf5dd010VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD&javax.portlet.tpst=d5b9c0fa1a493266805516f762108a0c_ws_MX
Other Resources
Commission on the Future of Higher Education: http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/template.MAXIMIZE/menuitem.03e1753c019b7a9f989ad324d3108a0c/Commission on the Future of Higher Education
Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/7princip.htm
‘Engagement’ and the Underprepared
Inside Higher Ed: http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/01/engage
Connecting the Dots
Lumina Foundation for Education: http://nsse.iub.edu/pdf/Connecting_the_Dots_Report.pdf
IT TAKES A PARENT: TRANSFORMING EDUCATION IN THE WAKE OF THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT
This report calls on federal, state, and local officials to do a better job of abiding by the parental involvement sections of the No Child Left Behind Act.
"It Takes a Parent" is based on research involving 18 school districts in six states. The report finds that: data reports are often confusing and overwhelming, and parents wait months for performance results, often into the next school year; teachers and administrators often lack training in how to engage parents; and parent involvement has fallen to the bottom of the list of NCLB requirements, though it is integral to the success of the law and of students and schools. Current parent involvement provisions of the law are solid and ambitious, but require more faithful implementation and greater enforcement.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, schools must notify parents about the test results of individual students and the schools they attend. In addition, the law obligates local school systems to adopt parent involvement policies and to actively enlist the help of parents when constructing school-wide improvement plans.
Among the findings and recommendations for local and state officials and parents are:
Federal, state and local policymakers and educators should recognize parental involvement as central to school improvement and place parental involvement strategies on par with other steps take to improve student achievement.
It Takes a Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the No Child Left Behind Act (application/pdf): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=252
Summary: It Takes a Parent (application/pdf): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=253
Other Resources
12 Truths That We Know (application/msword): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=248
A Dozen Ideas That Really Work (application/msword): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=251
Education Trust Fact Sheets (application/pdf): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=247
Other Notable Parental Engagement Strategies (application/msword): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=249
Sample Report Cards from Around the Nation (application/msword): http://www.appleseednetwork.org./servlet/GetArticleFile?articleFileId=250
BUILDING BLOCKS: MAKING CHILDREN SUCCESSFUL IN THE EARLY YEARS OF SCHOOL
In Building Blocks: Making Children Successful in the Early Years of School, Gene Maeroff says we should pay more attention to the benefits of preschool—and consider creating more pre-K-to-third-grade (PK-3) programs that cater to children under 9.
To read more, please go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-10-03-preschool-q-and-a_x.htm
IDENTIFYING READING PROBLEMS EARLY
Children with severe reading problems usually struggle for years before getting the help they need. But a growing number of neurologists and educators say that with the latest diagnostic tests, children at high risk for these problems can be identified in preschool and treated before they ever begin to read.
To read more, please go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/nyregion/04READING.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=login
WHO WILL OWN OUR CHILDREN? THE NATIONAL IMPERATIVE FOR FINANCIAL EDUCATION STANDARDS
Americans do not have the knowledge and skills to properly manage their finances even as more fiscal control—and risk—is being shifted onto them. This fundamental disconnect is putting the economic security of families and the country at grave risk, and is prompting a national call for states to establish financial education as a core academic subject in all grades—from Kindergarten through graduation—by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE).
“In the old days, a person could rely on a pension and social security to provide a sound retirement. Now, the financial destiny of American families is increasingly predicated on making informed decisions about sophisticated saving and investment options. Students need to learn these concepts. With today’s global competitiveness, financial literacy is as important as the three R’s to a person’s ultimate success,” said Brenda Welburn, NASBE Executive Director.
NASBE established a national commission to examine Americans’ fiscal condition and the status of financial education in K-12 schools. Their findings and conclusions about the national imperative for greater and more comprehensive financial instruction in public schools are included in a new report, Who Will Own Our Children?
“Educating students about personal finance—from the basics of savings to compounding interest—should be a national priority. It helps build a foundation of success and opportunity for our young people and is essential for our nation’s economic vitality. We have the capacity and the responsibility to teach children how to save more, spend wisely, and invest smartly,” said Jared Polis, commission chairman and vice-chair of the Colorado State Board of Education.
A confluence of factors, including unprecedented levels of personal debt, the elimination of pensions, and questions about the future of Social Security, suggests that individuals will have to be much more savvy and proactive in managing their money as they navigate an increasingly complex financial roadmap and work to ensure a secure retirement.
“As economic forces and lab