April 24, 2006
Youth Leadership in Government
Young people are making waves at City Hall:
Policymaking is starting at puberty these days. Berkeley and other cities are drawing teenagers into government in a bid to create politically active -- rather than apathetic -- adults. Although no one tracks the numbers, nine government agencies from San Francisco to Santa Cruz are making room for teenagers on boards and commissions, along with cities across the country.
The phenomenon is called "youth civic engagement,'' and it is being driven in part by celebrity endorsements of political and social causes, moral issue campaigns by religious groups and the growing sophistication of teens who are informing themselves through the Internet.
Youth Movement at City Halls Across the Nation
community and housing development, education
April 14, 2006
Omaha Formalizes School Segregation
Omaha has passed legilsation to divide the public school district into new districts based on race. This regressive move won't take effect till 2008. Even if law suits manage to halt the splitting of the district, the current system does not integrate through busing, but forces students to attend already segregated neighborhood schools.
Omaha school district to split along racial lines
KIPP Keeps Growing - Now at Stanford
KIPP is clustering schools with the goal of providing a pre-K-12 education. They are also relocating the Fisher Fellows summer training to Stanford, and hoping to double their 46 schools in the next five years. This EdWeek article mostly addresses the challenges in maintianing the quality of the schools as they expand and criticisms of creaming. Even at full build out, KIPP will still only reach some 20,000 or so, hardly a drop in the bucket in terms of national education reform...
KIPP Schools Shift Strategy for Scaling Up
April 13, 2006
Article: NY Rethinks its Remaking of the Schools
Joel I. Klein has taken on yet another restructuring of NYC's public schools, distributing more localized power to principals, bringing on a range of consultants like Chris Cerf of Edison, and developing new performance and accountability systems.
New York Rethinks its Remaking of the Schools
March 09, 2006
Another trend bites the dust...
A recent study looks at combining elementary and middle schools into k-8 complexes and finds little difference between the two strategies...
he period of the middle grades has seen numerous reforms to improve education for students in early adolescence. However, although several current reforms seek to overhaul middle schools, only a handful of studies have directly compared the effects of different configurations of grades. Our analysis uses district and student data from one of the few American urban districts that contain both middle schools and K8 schools. We compare student outcomes in eighth grade, finding few differences by school type. Only self-esteem and perceived threat differ by type of eighth-grade school. We also show that students' self-esteem benefits academic outcomes, a benefit that primarily accrues to students in middle schools.
Article: K-8 Structure Gives No Academic Boost, Analysis Finds Abstract: Reexamining Middle School Effects: A Comparison of Middle Grades Students in Middle Schools and K-8 Schools
Link Roundup
A study in London looked at pollution by taxis, buses, motorcycles and cars...turns out taxis are the greatest polluters. Pedestrians Inhale Less Pollution than Passengers
Teachers, parents, and activists protest mislabeling of Latino and African American students in San Francisco as special ed students. Separate and Unequal
An interview with Marty Black of the Coalition for Community Schools. Coalition for Community Schools Advocates Neighborhood-Centered Schools Across the Country
A look at the plac of schools in smart growth... Schools vital part of Smart Growth strategy
Somewhat naive opinion piece on school choice and suburbia. School choice could be an answer to sprawl
The Planning Center is an ed facility planning/development firm working mostly in Southern California. The Planning Center Instucts Schools on How and Where to Build
What should be the relationship/level of coordination between school boards and city government? Akron Mayor Don Plusquelle Endorses Mayors Being More Responsible for Public Schools
From information aesthetics, a mapping tool for Seattle that shows real estate pricing. Seattle Washington Real Estate at Redfin
The Bush Administration appears to be awarding grants to education organizations affiliated with it by bending the rules. Education Grant Rules were Broken
In a review released by a top House Democrat, the Government Accountability Office detailed three cases in which the department made exceptions to benefit certain applicants. In at least two of those cases, the groups getting money had ties to the Bush administration.
education, environmental justice
February 16, 2006
Link Roundup
Before I forget where these articles went:
- NY Times: Housing for Teachers in Santa Clara
- NY Times: As Test Scores Jump, Raleigh Credits Integration by Income
- The Planning Report - The Planning Center Instructs Schools on How & Where to Build
- Teachers as Placemakers: Investigating Teacher's Use of Physical Learning Environment
class, education, school facilities
February 07, 2006
Test Score Merit Pay for Teachers in Houston
Houston's Board of Education voted unanimously to implement bonuses for teachers based on student progress on test scores.
Houston Ties Teachers' Pay to Test Scores
More on NAACP and CT in NCLB law suit
In its filing last week, the NAACP and other civil rights groups actually asked to be included in the suit with the federal government so that their lawyers could argue on behalf of the fed's. What will the judge decide?
Civil Rights Groups Back NCLB Law in Suit
February 05, 2006
Racial Segregation through Special Ed. in SF
The SF Weekly takes a look at the high percentage of African American students in special day classes in San Francisco and the overall performance gap.
Most significantly, the gap between San Francisco's overall score and the score for its African-American students remains far and away the widest achievement gap of California's seven major urban districts. (The Academic Performance Index, or API, measures a range from 200 to a possible high of 1,000.) This gap in San Francisco is 85 points higher than the gap in Sacramento, 96 points higher than the gap in San Diego, and a full 118 points higher than the gap in Los Angeles.
January 31, 2006
NCLB lawsuits - the NAACP of CT weighs in...
The NAACP has entered the battle over NCLB, asking that the case filed by the state of Connecticut against the Bush legislation be dismissed because it wastes state resources that could be redirected towards education.
NAACP Contests Connecticut Lawsuit
January 25, 2006
Middle class families leaving SF for better schools
Surprise! San Francisco's youth population continues to decline and there appears to be a link to the quality of the city's schools. The Chronicle ran an article linking middle class flight to the suburbs to school quality in San Francisco. Some parents blamed the school lottery system mandated by the Consent Decree that sought to create more integrated schools, but recently expired - parents do not want to be forced to send their children to a school outside their neighborhood or that they don't like. The article also seeks to reassure middle-class parents that SF schools are a safe and good choice for their students.
Fact: Metropolitan revitalization depends on the return of the middle class to the urban interior.
Fact: Urban neighborhoods are often extremely segregated by class and wealth.
Neighborhood schools continue this segregation, and, now, without the Consent Decree to at least attempt to integrate students by economic and social factors, San Francisco's schools are becoming more and more segregated themselves. How can the middle class be coaxed back or convinced to stay without providing a "separate but equal" parallel school system? Why does the failure of public schools to provide an excellent education for low-income families not receive attention, but the fears of middle class residents sparks instant response?
Asking rhetorical questions doesn't solve much, but reinstating the Consent Decree or similar integrative legislation could certainly break down class barriers across neighborhoods. Then, we'd need "urban school chic" to come into the style lexicon for middle class values... Ha.
community and housing development, education, real estate
January 24, 2006
Finding Our Folk Tour
High school students from McClymonds in Oakland and Galileo in SF will be traveling to the Katrina ravaged Gulf Coast to remember, learn about and bring back information on the destruction and rebuilding efforts. The Fnding Our Folk project/tour is a multi-city effort, but a send off for the Oakland representatives is being sponsored by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Community Works, YELL Project, McClymonds High School, and the Gardner Center.
Wednesday, February 1st, 7-9pm
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
344 40th Street, Oakland
disaster planning, education, environmental justice
September 28, 2005
NYC's Academy of Urban Planning
An offspring of Gates and the New Century High Schools initiative in New York, the Academy of Urban Planning is a small high school within a high school that opened in 2003. There will be a special on MTV this Thursday, September 29th at 10:30pm about students' redesign of the school cafeteria.
August 27, 2005
Young Students Are New Focus For Big Donors
Successful entreprenuers are funding k-12 education reform at higher rates than ever before and with more focus. Gates, the heaviest hitting education philanthropist at $1.2 billion in the last 5 years, targets the creation/recreation of small high schools. The role of philanthropy has changed not just in terms of funding, but in terms of public policy:
"What many people, especially on the left, are concerned about is whether these folks are buying a piece of public policy," said Mr. Hess, who was the moderator at a conference last spring on K-12 philanthropy. "It's a reasonable question, since the political economy of this is that their work is usually evaluated only by people they hire, and the findings, which tend to be positive or mixed, are disseminated in glossies that play up the positive aspects.
Young Students Are New Focus for Big Donors
August 26, 2005
Charter Schools Not Equally Financed
Charter schools in California, for instance, receive on average about $4,800 per student in federal, state and local taxpayer money, compared with the $7,000 that traditional public schools there receive, the study found. In New York, it said, the average charter school receives $10,500 per student, compared with $13,300 at traditional public schools.
Backer of Charter Schools Finds They Trail in Financing
August 16, 2005
California Test Scores In
In English, 40 percent of California students scored "proficient" or "advanced" on the rigorous exam, up from 35 percent last year, and 31 percent in 2001. "Proficient" is considered to be scoring at grade level.
In math of all kinds -- from arithmetic to algebra and geometry -- 38 percent of students scored at grade level, up from 34 percent last year and 32 percent in 2001.
States Students do Better on Math and English Tests
August 09, 2005
Stanford Redesign Network: Redesigning Schools: What Matters and What Works (10)
Architects of Achievement, a Seattle based design group on the Gates' scorecard, links to several publications from Stanford's School Redesign Network, including Redesigning Schools: What Matters and What Works, 10 Features of Good Small Schools. Although tensions have existed between Linda Darling-Hammond and Teach for America, both espouse similar philosophies of teaching. As an overview to small schools, this piece takes a general stab at many aspects of education without much depth or detail. Model schools are also referenced, but only in brief paragraphs that point towards further investigation on the part of the reader.
Most of it is just common sense.
Notes in the extended...
Continue reading "Stanford Redesign Network: Redesigning Schools: What Matters and What Works (10)"
July 26, 2005
Article Round Up
Schools Set for Building Boom in Maryland
Maryland public schools are entering a mini-building boom, fueled by nearly $250 million in state construction funds announced this month.
Polk County's aspiring homeowners would have to shell out more than five times the current school impact fee if county commissioners adopt a consultant's recommendation. Fees for apartments and mobile homes would also rise dramatically. The consultant's study ordered by commissioners suggested upping the impact fee on new houses from the current $1,607 for a single-family home to $8,767, an increase of $7,160 -or 446 percent. If the consultant's plan is adopted in full, fees for new multi-family homes, such as apartments or duplexes, would go from $832 to $5,831 per unit, an increase of $4,999 -- or 601 percent. Mobile homes' fees would be hiked from $802 to $4,677, an increase of $3,875 -or 483 percent.
All Laptop High School to Open in Vale
At least, that's what they're saying in Vail, where about 350 students will ditch books for laptops this fall as the Southeast Side district opens the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public high school. Students still will go to class and teachers still will create lesson plans, but textbooks are making way for electronic and online articles. Next door, in the 60,000-student Tucson Unified School District, workers are installing 300 Smart Boards in high-school math and English classrooms before school starts this fall.
What to do with vacant schools?
The Fairfax County School Board is poised to consider a multi-million dollar plan that would transfer 17 vacant school sites and administrative centers to the Board of Supervisors — clearing the way for the sites to be preserved as parks, converted into public facilities and affordable housing, or sold off to real estate developers. In return for the valuable properties, the school system is hoping the Board of Supervisors will increase its annual $130 million spending limit on school construction and renovations.
July 08, 2005
Article: McClymond's Health Clinic
Always interesting when the NY Times picks up an article on a local issue here in the Bay Area. McClymonds High School in West Oakland has an on-site health clinic...
Easing Troubled Emotion in a Troubled School
central station, community and housing development, education
July 01, 2005
Article: Ackerman demonized in the Guardian?
The San Francisco Bay Guardian is running a highly critical piece on Arlene Ackerman with a tabloid-like front cover portrayal of the SFUSD superintendent. The article is clearly for a teacher's union audience, but that doesn't necessarily mean the allegations regarding Ackerman's unwillingness to hear out dissenters are unfounded.
June 29, 2005
Article: Test Scores in NYC Misleadingly Up
Although fourth grade English test scores in NYC rose, pushing more students into the proficient range, several different trends could account for the growth besides students' skills. The test itself was changed to be more child friendly; more programs focused on test preparation in class; a higher number of ELL students were excempted from the test itself; and the scaling of the test may have been too easy.
Test Scores Are Up. So Why Isn't Everybody Cheering?
June 24, 2005
Study: High School Graduation Rates Mis-reported
Now, a year and a half after the Department declared its commitment to tackling the graduation-rate issue headon17, little has changed— the fundamental problem of states calculating and reporting faulty graduation rates remains largely unaddressed. The states that have taken responsibility and steps to improve their graduation-rate calculations and reporting have done so in spite of, not because of, the Department’s actions. And the states that have continued to calculate and report inaccurate data without consequence have lost yet another year that they could have used to build public support for the hard work of improving results for students.
High School Graduation Rates Innacurate
June 21, 2005
Article: Project Choice Links Urban Students to Suburban Schools
The program has paired students from poor cities like Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and New London with suburban school districts that have room to spare. And so every day, 200 children leave Bridgeport, joining the commuter conga lines on Interstate 95 and Route 15, to attend schools in the Fairfield County towns of Westport, Fairfield, Trumbull, Stratford, Monroe, Weston and Easton.
Demand is so strong for spots in those schools that when 13 openings materialized this spring, the agency that runs the lottery for the Fairfield County schools received 800 applications without advertising. Siblings get first crack, said Diane Wheeler, coordinator of the program in Fairfield County, followed by children in schools identified as failing under the No Child Left Behind Act.
June 18, 2005
Comfort v. Lynn School Committee
First brought in 1999, Comfort v. Lynn School Committee recently left the federal appeals court in Boston with a 3-2 ruling in favor of Lynn's school district's desegregation plan. The court reversed it's previous decision from October in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003 -- the court upheld a desegregation plan based on race used by U. Michigan Law.
“Many good things can be said about the Lynn plan,” the dissenting opinion says. “But the overriding fact is that it unnecessarily inflicts racially based wounds on a large and diverse group of its students and, consequently, fails to satisfy the narrow-tailoring requirements set out in the Supreme Court’s equal protection jurisprudence.”
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Use of Race by Lynn, Mass., Schools
The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has also posted a briefing of the case.
In the past 15 years, the federal courts have moved away from desegregation remedies and have made it easier for communities to get out of existing court-ordered plans. Subsequently, communities have turned to voluntary plans to achieve the desegregation of their schools. The second wave of legal challenges is focusing on dismantling voluntary school desegregation plans. The federal courts are now starting to address whether it is constitutional for local educators to use race as a factor in student assignments after determining it is in the educational interests of their students to prevent racial isolation and segregation in their schools. Distilled to its essence, the big question raised by this case is whether state or local government any longer can try to achieve the clear command of Brown v. Board of Education (to desegregate public schools and strive toward truly integrated public schools) through voluntary non-court ordered action. Although consideration of race has been addressed in other contexts (the limits of affirmative action in employment and government contracting and procurement procedures), this is an issue that has not been directly addressed by the Supreme Court in the factually and legally unique context of elementary and secondary public schools.
June 15, 2005
Headstart Study Suggests Some Benefits, but Reporting Hits HS Hard
As a former kinder teacher, I believe strongly in the importance of 0-5 education, especially in disadvantaged communities and for English Language Learners. A recent study on HeadStart looks at student performance in five areas compared to national averages. Although the study appears somewhat favorable, reporting on the work itself has thrown a negative a spin on the issue. It's dissapointing to see the media harming a reasonably good, slowly progressing program through sensationalistic headlines.
NPR's report Head Start Study Suggests Minimal Benefits:
The results of a new large-scale study of the federal Head Start program suggest that in some areas, the childhood development program produces only minimal, short-term benefits. The findings are from the study's first phase. Program supporters say it's too early to draw conclusions.
Citation from the study itself (isn't the achievement gap what we're really working on here?). Head Start Impact Study First Year Findings, Executive Summary:
Comparing the skill levels of children in the Head Start Impact Study with those of the general population of 3- and 4-year-olds in the United States (including those who were not from low-income families) on the Woodcock-Johnson III Letter-Word Identification test showed that, after one year, the mean performance of Head Start children was still below the average performance level for all U.S. children, by about one-third of a standard deviation (about 5 points). However, at the end of one year, Head Start was able to nearly cut in half the achievement gap that would be expected in the absence of the program (as indicated by comparing the means for the Head Start and non-Head Start groups in Exhibit 4).
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation
Arizona S.U. Study Stings Charter Schools
Arizona State University's Education Studies Policy Laboratory has put out two studies that do not paint charter schools in a favorable light.
Charter Schools Performance and Accountability: A Disconnect
This report argues that evidence exists for the case that the charter school movement is largely a failed reform. The report puts the charter school movement in the context of dissatisfaction with public schools and the public sector in general. It then describes the claims for charters made by the early charter school advocates, emphasizing the advocates’ promise of increased achievement. From there, the report reviews evaluations of charter schools in Arizona, California, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, and Texas, as well as several national evaluations.
The review shows that charters have not lived up to their promise of increased achievement. This failure is surprising given that charter schools are small (most have fewer than 200 students) with small classes, two factors known to increase achievement. This failure becomes even harder to understand given the advantages that charters enjoy in their freedom from the rules, regulations, and contracts that are said to bureaucratically burden the public schools.
The second study, City-wide Systems of Charter Schools: Proceed with Caution:
The City of Buffalo, New York has proposed to establish a network of charter schools under the aegis of the district school board. This appears to be the first time a large urban area has made such a proposal. This report addresses what the research literature to date has said about the performance of charter schools. It reviews the record of charter schools in the context of six questions asked in the planning document, Creating a Network of Charter Schools in Buffalo, prepared by the Education Innovation Consortium, a Buffalo think-tank, at the direction of the Buffalo School Board.
- What Does Chartering Bring to Buffalo School Reform?
- Can Chartering Bring Higher Levels of Accountability for Results?
- Can Chartering Provide More Quality Choices for Parents?
- Can a Network of Charters Promote the Transformation of the Entire System?
- How Do Charters Compare Academically?
- Can Chartering Provide Adequate Services to Children With Special Needs?
Counterpoint in the Arizona Republic:
Clint Bolick, president of the Arizona-based Alliance for School Choice, called the report "ideology, not scholarship" and said competition from charters has forced district schools to improve.
Kurt Davis, president of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, said the charter movement has " numerous examples of excellence and, in some cases, a need to improve."
"The charter experience in Arizona is a success in progress," Davis said.
Article: Keeping Overage Students in H.S. Proves Tough
Hanging onto kids who might otherwise leave school is the mission of the Options Complex, a program for students in grades 6-12 who are behind in school by two or more years. Much of the concern about dropout rates has focused on improving high schools. But experts say that struggling middle schoolers, a too-often-overlooked group, are likely to flounder in 9th grade and stop attending school.
Keeping Overage Students in H.S. Proves Tough
June 10, 2005
Article: LAUSD New School Built on Tainted Fill
In fact, the records show, school officials failed to tell state environmental regulators that the fill was already in the ground when the regulators ordered the school district not to use it. L.A. Unified officials kept mum for two years, despite a state law requiring school districts to notify regulators whenever contaminants are detected at a school construction site, records and interviews show.
New School Built on Tainted Fill
June 09, 2005
Book: Teaching to Transgress
bell hooks's Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, is a collection of essays dealing with race, class, gender, and multicultural pedagogy.
Notes are in the extended entry...
Continue reading "Book: Teaching to Transgress"
June 07, 2005
Article: New York's Revolving Door of Good Teachers Driven Out
After teaching at five schools and four grade levels in SFUSD within 2 years and being laid off twice, this story had a certain resonance, to say the least.
They knew from their children that there was trouble in the fifth grade at Public School 111 in Manhattan. But it wasn't until teacher conferences in late February that parents learned how badly the class had fallen apart.
By then, the fifth graders were on their third teacher in seven months. The first left before Christmas to get married. And though her departure was widely known by November, the second teacher, a substitute, Emebet Shiferraw, says she wasn't told about taking over that class until she reported to P.S. 111 in early January.
The sub left after two months, she says, because she got little support and things were not going well in class.
The third teacher, Millie Rodriguez, was pulled off her job as a reading specialist at P.S. 111 and handed the fifth grade just days before conferences. Parents were told their fifth graders would not get second semester report cards. "Ms. Rodriguez told me she was just there a week and had no work whatsoever to go on," said Reyna Soriano, whose son Elmer is a fifth grader. "I was so upset. How could this happen? They don't have report cards? Maybe they don't learn nothing."
New York's Revolving Door of Good Teachers Driven Out
Report: The Health and Well Being of Young Children of Immigrants
The Urban Institute took a look at the increasing number of children of immigrants in the U.S.:
Children of immigrants are the fastest growing component of the child population (Hernandez 1999). While immigrants are 11 percent of the total U.S. population, children of immigrants make up 22 percent of the 23.4 million children under 6 in the United States. They make up a larger share of the population under 6 than the population age 6 to 17 (20 percent).
The Health and Well Being of Young Children of Immigrants
May 21, 2005
Article: The Rise of the Six-Figure Teacher
Wow. It is sad to see such disapproval of thirty-year veterans with graduate degrees making a reasonable salary in one of the toughest fields out there. Would there be fewer complaints from taxpayers it they considered teaching a merit-based field, rather than a union-dominated tenure based field?
The Rise of the Six-Figure Teacher
Paper: Pre-K Expulsion Study
Yale's Child Study Center published a paper on the rate of expulsion for pre-K students, focusing largely on publicly funded preschools like Headstart. The discrepancies in expulsion between groups are predictable, but discouraging.
Boys were over four times as likely to be expelled as girls, and African-American preschoolers were about twice as likely to be expelled as preschoolers of European descent. Although a pattern of particular risk for expulsion with African-American students has been demonstrated during kindergarten through grade 12 (Holzman, 2004), the pattern of disparity appears to begin much earlier.
Expulsion is the most severe disciplinary sanction that an educational program can impose on a student. Prekindergarteners are expelled at a rate that is more than three times that of their older peers in grades kindergartenthrough 12 (6.67 per 1,000 preschoolers, as compared to 2.09 per 1,000 K-12 students). Prekindergarten expulsion rates were higher than those found for K-12 students in all but 3 of the 40 states that fund prekindergarten (Kentucky, South Carolina, and Louisiana).
Major newspapers have also picked up on the story . . .
Although preschool expulsion rates varied widely by state and type of setting, the study found that on average, boys were expelled at 4.5 times the rate of girls, African-Americans at twice the rate of Latinos and Caucasians, and 4-year-olds at 1.5 times the rate of 3-year-olds. Expulsion rates were lowest in preschool classrooms in public schools and Head Start, and highest in faith-affiliated centers, for-profit child care and other community-based child-care settings.
Research Finds a Higher Rate of Expulsions in Preschool
Article: How a District in the Bronx Got Results: From Pushing
Encouraged by the Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University, parents and community groups banded together to form CC9, the Community Collaborative to Improve District 9 Schools. Since then, the group has lobbied relentlessly on behalf of the district's children. Targeting teacher support and professional development appears to work in this case...
In addition to fighting for safer streets around schools and better trained teachers and principals, CC9 last year brokered a remarkable deal between the teachers' union and the school system to create a "lead teacher" program, in which veteran educators were paired to share a class so they could spend half their time mentoring less experienced colleagues. Lead teachers are paid an extra $10,000 a year.
How a District in the Bronx Got Results: From Pushing
May 19, 2005
Report: Why Segregation Matters
Orfield, Gary and Chungmei Lee, Harvard Civil Rights Project, January 2005
One of the common misconceptions over the issue of resegregation of schools is that many people treat it as simply a change in the skin color of the students in a school. If skin color were not systematically linked to other forms of inequality, it would, of course, be of little significance for educational policy. Unfortunately that is not and never has been the nature of our society. Socioeconomic segregation is a stubborn, multidimensional and deeply important cause of educational inequality.
Why Segregation Matters: Poverty and Educational Inequality
May 16, 2005
Article: Students Try Their Hand at Urban Design
Y-Plan made the Oakland Tribune yesterday! Congratulations Team Holloway, and, of course, Team Smith -- it was a long semester, but we made it. The next big question is sustainability; how will students stay involved with the station and see the design ideas to fruition in a decade?
Students Try Their Hand at Urban Design
central station, education, historic preservation, planning articles, urban design
May 08, 2005
Article: Florida Legislature Stings Bush
Jeb Bush's push for school vouchers and rolling back class size limits in Florida met with decidedly sweet defeat last Thursday. Legislator's refused to vote on the class size limits, making the voucher system also impossible to implement.
After Florida Legislative Session Ends, Governor Bush Feels Sting of Defeat
May 05, 2005
Opinion: Daley on Chicago's Community Schools
The Chicago Planning Report includes excerpts of Daley's State of the City message, emphasizing the importance of schools as key elements of a city -- community anchors that share park space and facilities. (among a variety of other things)
Creating livable communities in times of fiscal constraint requires innovation. Central to creating these communities is building schools that serve as community anchors. In recent years Chicago has been at the forefront of general school reform and the community school movement. TPR is please to provide excerpts of Chicago Mayor Daley’s address to the Sustainable Communities Summit on February 1, 2005, in which he talks about community schools and other strategies to enhance neighborhoods in Chicago.
Daley's Chicago State of the City Message Offers Proof of Mayoral Leadership
May 04, 2005
Article: States Scrutinize School Construction Costs
New Jersey has even put a hold on new land deals, contracts, and change orders under its $8.6 billion facilities project for some of its neediest districts after a review by the state inspector general found “lax and/or nonexistent oversight and accountability” within the state’s School Construction Corp.
Meanwhile, Indiana is near the end of a 120-day moratorium on approving school construction projects. The halt was called by newly inaugurated Gov. Mitch Daniels in his State of the State Address in January to give the state time to review whether too much school construction aid was going to nonacademic frills.
Massachusetts recently formed a school building authority, which moves the audit process for construction projects from the state education department to the state treasurer’s office, partly to devote more people to routine audits of school construction.
And Ohio officials announced earlier this year that they would review and scale back school district plans under a $10 billion statewide building project after finding that some of the districts targeted for the project were seeing declining enrollments.
States Scrutinize School Construction Costs
education, land use, urban design
May 03, 2005
Article: Higher SATs = Higher Housing Prices
The Higher the SAT Scores, the More the House is Worth
Parents are using the internet to research schools as they shop for new homes.
Opinion: NCLB
Instead of throwing barbs at teachers and unions, the Times should challenge the nation and the president to take on the difficulties facing teachers in disadvantaged communities. The Times--and other opinion leaders--should call for universal pre-school programs so poor children enter school on level ground with their more advantaged counterparts. They should call for universal quality health care and after-school programs so all children start the school day ready to learn. The Times and the Post should both do all of this, while putting on a spirited defense of NCLB. It’s important to protect the core mission of NCLB, but doing so at all costs is as dangerous to children as accepting Bush at his word.
Article: Getting Smaller to Improve the Big Picture
New York has had its share of unsuccessful small schools, but claims to be doing things differently now.
Research by, among others, Jacqueline Ancess of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching at Columbia University's Teachers College, found that small schools suffered when forced to take root in large school buildings, alongside other schools with conflicting cultures and incompatible approaches to learning.
Getting Smaller to Improve the Big Picture
Interview: Chicago's Public School CEO
Arnie Duncan is Chicago's acting Public School CEO. In a city where the mayor has controlled the school system since 1995, Duncan and an appointed school board are focusing on community schools and small schools. In this interview, Duncan supports any movement the author throws at him. Although shared facilities planning and extending the school day are great ideas, the trend to create "small schools" is re-segregating schools at an incredibly fast pace. Smart growth rhetoric and the small school movement are being used to justify a new apartheid at lightning speed and without evaluation of academic outcomes.
Arnie Duncan - Chicago's Public School CEO
May 02, 2005
Recreating OUSD
The Oakland Unified School District is "redisigning itself" and offering a range of employment opportunities. Such systemic rebirth is neither easy nor cheap, and it will be a while before one can judge whether it is more than merely superficial.
OUSD is undergoing tremendous change, but it is also making an investment in public schools and the future of our children.
Our old approach wasn’t paying off. And rather than tinkering around the edges as in the past, OUSD is investing time, work and resources to build a better approach and to launch a bold, new beginning.
The new approach is centered on providing better support to schools and students, with the ultimate goal of improving academic achievement for all children. In addition to the creation of School Networks, which will support school leaders, the central office will be divided into a Strategy Group and a Services Organization.
Recreating Oakland Unified School District
SBE: Who's Minding the Store?
Larson, Rick and Real Enterprises, Inc., Who's Minding the Store? A Guide for Educators Working with School-based Enterprises: Activities and Strategies for Creating and Operating Innovative and Productive Learning Experiences, Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, June 1995 (MDS-1254).
This guide is intended for use by educators who are working with school-based enterprises or contemplating the establishment of an SBE in their school. It seeks to help schools, students, and teachers develop enterprises that:
- place students in positions of responsibility for management and operations.
- provide an opportunity for students to learn entrepreneurial skills, group problem-solving, and effective decisionmaking.
- encourage creativity and innovation and help students learn a broad range of academic and career-oriented skills.
- provide an opportunity for students to learn about a number of aspects of the business, not just the specifics of a particular job within that business.
- operate responsibly from ethical, social, and economic perspectives.
- promote academic achievement.
National Center for Research in Vocational Education
Notes in the extended...
Continue reading "SBE: Who's Minding the Store?"
community and housing development, economic development, education
Article: Amid Affluence, a Struggle Over Special Education
Interesting to see how affluent families are actively (and vocally) fighting for accomodations and services for their students. How many children are not receiving the services they need in less affluent districts? San Francisco Unified requires a student have a two year gap between their academic potential and their current performance in order to qualify for special education services. It's crushing to have a kindergarten student who clearly needs services, but will not be able to "qualify" until they are in the first or second grade.
With an estimated 5.7 million children in the United States qualifying for special education, similar struggles are playing out around the country. Federal laws aimed at protecting the disabled entitle those who qualify to a free and "appropriate" education tailored to their needs. But the definition of "appropriate" differs from town to town, leaving much to quarrel about.
The battle is particularly intense in the suburbs, where wealthy, educated parents no longer see special education as a stigma or trap. They are pressing hard for services and accommodations to address their children's learning needs, from extra time on tests to tuition for private schools. But many suburban school districts are aggressively challenging some of the requests as indulgent interpretations of the law.
Amid Affluence, a Struggle Over Special Education
Article: 'Skill gap' between races stagnant
A University of Chicago economist will soon publish documentation of the stability of the academic gap between white and black students from 1990 to 2000.
One tool Neal highlights to help reverse the current trend is quality early childhood education, an intervention well-established by research. The Chicago public school system, for example, has an academic-based preschool program that includes classes for parents at its "Child-Parent Centers."
'Skill gap' between races stagnant
April 26, 2005
Article: Questions Linger Over NCLB Policy Shifts
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is trying to backpaddle on state accountability, but hasn't specified how or when policies will change.
Questions Linger Over NCLB Policy Shifts
April 22, 2005
Article: Seattle Closing 10 Schools
10 Seattle Schools Targeted for Closure
Faced with a growing budget gap and years of declining enrollment, Seattle Public Schools yesterday unveiled a sweeping plan that calls for the closure of 10 schools, the conversion or expansion of 14 others, fewer choices for elementary students and reduced bus service for middle and high schools.
Article: Clearer NCLB
First National Suit over Education Law
April 21, 2005
Article: NCLB Lawsuit
Michigan, Texas, and Vermont school districts (along with the NEA) filed against the United States Department of Education's NCLB Act, and the next day Utah's legislature passed a law requiring the lowest possible state spending on meeting the act's mandate. Connecticut has also expressed intent to sue the federal government. Secretary Spellings countered:
Returning to the pre-NCLB days of fuzzy accountability and hiding children in averages will do nothing [to help Utah students]...
NY Times: Districts and Teachers' Union Sue Over Bush Law
The section of the law in question:
(a) GENERAL PROHIBITION. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local education agency, or school's curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act. [20 U.S.C. 7907(a).
The main argument of the suit claims that NCLB included express guarantee that the federal government must fund its mandate. From the text of the complaint itself:
Plaintiffs contend that the Secretary of Education is violating this 'Unfunded Mandates Provision' by requiring states and school districts to comply fully with all of the NCLB mandates even though states and school districts have not been provided with sufficient federal funds to pay for such compliance. Plaintiffs further contend that by failing to honor the commitment made by the Unfunded Mandates Provision -- namely, that the federal government would fund the mandates or not require compliance with them -- the Secretary of Education is violating the Spending Clause of the United States Constitution.
In the dance between federal and state control of education, the backlash against accountability is equaled only by the lack of foresight on the part of NCLB's authors. What is the solution -- nationalize education?
April 20, 2005
Article: NEA Files "NCLB" Lawsuit
And so it begins....
According to the suit, the gap between the spending authorized by the law and the actual amount that goes to the states has been growing since it was passed. Further, a number of calculations by the states show that even the authorized amount would not be enough to provide the tutoring and greater school time that low-achieving students would minimally need to reach the bar.
Edweek: NEA Files "No Child Left Behind" Lawsuit
Article: Rethinking America's Schools
The new issue of Philanthropy magazine features responses from leading education philanthropists to a previous essay by Frederick Hess on "Retooling K-12 Giving," which critiqued the school reform programs and strategies of selected national foundations. This online symposium, which features responses from Dan Katzir of The Broad Foundation, Ed Kirby of the Walton Family Foundation, Lowell Milken and Lew Solmon of the Milken Family Foundation, and Vartan Gregorian of the Carnegie Corporation.
Retooling K-12 Giving: A Response from Philanthropy Leaders
Paper: Academics v Civic Engagement in Public Schools
The report, released by the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), in partnership with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum (ASCD), questions the current focus on core academic subjects at the expense of an equally important role: preparing students to be engaged and effective citizens. The report is the product of collaborative discussion among policymakers, education practitioners, community groups, parents, and youth across the nation. The report offers a seven-step action plan to help schools refocus on the goal of creating both academically proficient and civically engaged students. The report also highlights several programs, including school-community partnerships that promote both quality academics and civic engagement.
Restoring the Balance between Academics and Civic Engagement in Public Schools
Detailed notes on the paper are in the extended...
Continue reading "Paper: Academics v Civic Engagement in Public Schools"
April 18, 2005
Article: 1,116 Teachers Flunk Out
Although this article leans towards painting principal control over staffing as a threatening and destabilizing force, Chicago's investment in its education leadership may create a system of better teacher quality.
Chicago Sun-Times: 1,116 Teachers Flunk Out
Article: The Schools Under Bloomburg
The NY Times reviews public opinion of Bloomburg's progress as head of the city's schools. Mayoral control of school districts is a slowly spreading trend (i.e. Chicago) that may or may not produce results in the future. For Bloomburg, taking on the plight of the school system could harm his political career -- it is not easy to evoke changes in test scores in such a large system in only two years. Putting the burden of student performance on such a well known and publicly elected official, however, builds in a higher, more publicized level of legislative accountability.
The Schools Under Bloomburg: Much Tumult, Mixed Progress
April 09, 2005
Articles: Education links
Two recent articles passed on to me regarding education -- both reference big ideas without providing much substance.
Common Dreams News Center put out an opinion piece, Bill Gates and the Corporatization of American "Public" Schools. The author, Phillip Kovacs, decries standards/test score based education as a corporate philanthropic agenda that fails to create democratic citizens.
Another article Successful Schools can Contribute to Neighborhood Revitalization references one specific group called The Big Picture Company as an example of improving scores via other social services for students and then calls for mayors to take on the role of educational change agents.
April 05, 2005
Harvard's Civil Rights Project
Harvard's Civil Rights Project recently put out a study (mentioned in the entry below) highlighting discrepancies in graduation rates for African-American and Latino students. California papers are picking up on this pretty quickly... An article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle regarding Oakland's exceptionally high drop-out rate -- roughly half of all high school students in Oakland do not graduate, which is significantly higher than surrounding districts in the region.
Study Puts Oakland Dropout Rate at 52%, Mayor Decries Crisis -- District Questions Research Accuracy
Report by the Civil Rights Project: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis in California
April 04, 2005
Article: Schools' Dropout Remedy - Get Small
The L.A. Times posted an article about the significantly higher dropout rate for African American and Latino students in the LAUSD. Rather than creating smaller structures to house fewer students, LA is developing a host of "small schools" within one school campus. McClymonds High School in West Oakland will be undergoing a similar structural shift in August as the school divides into two within one building. As of yet, little research has been done on whether or not such models are successful.
Are prototypical small schools, on the other hand, (i.e. neighborhood schools) a solution, or do they re-instigate the academic segregation that Brown v. Board of Education sought to undo?
L.A. school officials, said Barr of Green Dot charter schools, "get intoxicated with the idea of small schools, but they still don't trust the stakeholders. They still don't believe in the kids, that they can all succeed."
In order for school reform to be successful, said Barr, the district must grant school sites more control over their budgets, have higher expectations for students, help teachers feel motivated and make parental involvement a premium.
(Finally, the article also cites Pedro Noguera, who spoke on campus earlier this week!)
Schools' Dropout Remedy: Get Small
April 02, 2005
Article: The Segregated Classrooms of a Proudly Diverse School
A NY Times article looks at the use of a leveled classroom system in New Jersey as a tool of "contemporary segregation." Affluent, mostly white students enroll in advanced placement courses, while mid and lower level classes are composed of less economically advantaged and minority students. At no point in the article does the school appear to be "proud" of its diversity, making this an interesting choice of title for the story. Times readers might shy away from a more honest headline along the lines of, "Public Education: The American Apartheid Continues."
The Segregated Classrooms of a Proudly Diverse School
April 01, 2005
Talk: "The Importance of Vibrant Cities in Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education"
Sociologist Pedro Noguera and Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley both spoke at Cal today in the College of Environmental Design. The symposium was sponsored by IURD's Center for Cities and Schools.
My notes are limited mostly by my typing speed during the talk. Although Noguera was a dynamic speaker and often used analogies or specific examples to illustrate larger points, he calls for a variety of changes that seem less tangible: networking, investment in schools, university participation in local k-12 public education, and compromising around budget issues. How should such large changes be undertaken? Are there examples of the solutions he proposes, not just the problems?
Mayor Tom Bates took a pragmatic approach to the topic of the talk, though perhaps even less concrete, and ended with outlining programs the city has undertaken during his tenure.