The Current Events in Education: 07/01/2006

Schools spend money on Marketing

A Detroit local television station reports, "The Detroit school district plans to spend $500,000 on a publicity campaign designed to fight its long enrollment decline." Perhaps the $500,000 would be better spent on teaching and learning. If learning was improved maybe the district wouldn't have to market?

History Without Text Books

Reuters reports, "What began as a long-shot attempt last year by Pearson Plc to sell California educators digital materials to teach history and politics, collectively known in US schools as social studies, has become reality in what could be the first large-scale step to eliminate books from classrooms." I'm completely intrigued by the idea of learning history without textbooks. What do you think?

Government's Role? A Right Wing Perspective

In A Little Unhappiness Goes a Long Way, Harvard Economist Jeffrey Alan Miron writes, "Most debates about government policy concern whether government should intervene. A different but important question is whether intervention belongs at the state or federal level, if intervention occurs. In fact, many current federal policies should be left to the states."

Nel Noddings on No Child Left Behind

Nel Noddings writes, "NCLB is hurting the very kids it purports to be helping. Supposedly, the law is intended to close the achievement gap between whites and minorities. However, it is mainly black and Hispanic kids who are being retained in grade and deprived of high school diplomas."

She writes in response to an Asbury Park Press Editorial in which the author states, "Call me cynical, but I never thought for a minute that the NEA was really concerned about education. I never believed the organization was eager to find new ways to empower students or to hold schools accountable for the educational products they turn out."

Does Math Class Teach Real Math Skills? It Better

A Colorado newspaper writes, "Math teachers from schools throughout (the nation?) are working on a tough equation this week: how to make what they teach equal the needs of employers and the requirements of colleges. " Actually, do any subject areas teach important real world skills?

Is Blogging Marketing? What do you think?

Think:Lab posted an interesting comment about blogging and marketing. Christian DeLong writes: "Blogging ain't a press release. This is why 90% of business bloggers (or those trying to adopt the technology) will fail. They see it as a tool. Completely overlooking that it's a frame of mind. Period." I liked the post so much that I wrote a four or five paragraph response. Hopefully, it'll be up soon. Interestingly, I just did a little bit of research, hoping to put something up to complement this post and there's a lot out there. It seems like lots of companies are starting to use blogging for marketing purposes. But the question is: should they use it as a press release?

NCLB Not Just Bad - It is Misleading

According to a commentary at the Wall Street Journal, NCLB is misleading: "A pass percentage is a bad standard for educational progress. Conceptually, "proficiency" has no objective meaning that lends itself to a cutoff. Administratively, the NCLB penalties for failure to make adequate progress give the states powerful incentives to make progress as easy to show as possible. A pass percentage throws away valuable information, telling you whether someone got over a bar, but not how high the bar was set or by how much the bar was cleared. Most importantly: If you are trying to measure progress in closing group differences, a comparison of changes in pass percentages is inherently misleading." How should scoring of standardized tests be changed?

Kimberly Oliver: Teacher of the Year

Edutopia speaks with the National teacher of the year. In describing her, the blog explains "Four times a year...she and her colleagues host a Books and Supper Night, where families are invited to school to sit in cozy nooks and read books together before sharing a communal dinner. The event showcases students' accomplishments in literacy -- and, the teachers hope, encourages reading in the home. Oliver's team has also secured grants for books on tape and bilingual books to help involve parents whose language barriers or illiteracy isolate them from their children's education."

To learn more about the National Teacher of the Year program click here.

Students Demand Teachers and Clean Toilets

According to the San Jose Mercury News, 15 year old Dakota Tu, an incoming sophomore at Independence High School in San Jose asked (referring to her own school) ``Who has substitute teachers who are there for weeks and don't teach anything?" ``Who has seen air conditioning never get fixed? And awful toilets that are unkempt and unsanitary?'' Wouldn't it be wonderful if bloggers could stand up for students in deprived schools?

Take a look at these statistics concerning toilets in U.K. schools. Apparently dirty toilets is an international issue.

Arts Education Improves Literacy Skills

The New York Times reports, "A study to be released today by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum suggests that (arts education does improve literacy skills), citing improvements in a range of literacy skills among students who took part in a program in which the Guggenheim sends artists into schools."

Click here to find a whole range of publications on Arts and Education, hosted by the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge, a partner of the MarcoPolo Foundation.

Libraries and Librarians of the Future?

At his blog, 2 Cents Worth, David Warlick writes, "Libraries, as we think of them, are soon to become obsolete. What will be the point of a library, when nearly all of the information that its patrons need on a day-to-day basis will be available to them with a mouse-click."

Check out Michael Stephens's blog, Tame the Web: Libraries and Technology.

Scientists Suggest Children's Books

Over at The World's Fair, scientists who blog are suggesting their favorite children's books.

Governor "Schwarzenegger "...blowing in the wind."

After Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the way L.A. schools are being run is "horrible" the superintendent of L.A.U.S.D. said that the governor was "blowing in the wind." Read about it.

For more information on L.A.U.S.D. visit the School Me blog.

Do Business People Make School Leaders?

A leading British educational authority said: "top managers with a business background (have) the necessary skills to run a complex organisation such as a secondary school." How important is it for school leaders to understand teaching and learning?

Why Has All the Play Gone Away?

The New York Times runs an article today stating, "The word “kindergarten” means “children’s garden,” and for years has conjured up an image of children playing with blocks, splashing at water tables, dressing up in costumes or playing house. Now, with an increased emphasis on academic achievement even in the earliest grades, playtime in kindergarten is giving way to worksheets, math drills and fill-in-the-bubble standardized tests." Vivian Gussin Paley's book, A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play makes for an interesting read on children and play.

Tests and Graduation Rates

The U.S.A. Today reports on research by Swarthmore and Harvard professors about the effect that high school exit exams have on graduation rates. The paper states, "...In those (states) with the toughest exams, black male students are 7.3% more likely to drop out of high school, researchers from Swarthmore and Harvard colleges reported recently." The actual paper written by Thomas Dee and Brian Jacob, entitled "Do High School Exit Exams Influence Educational Attainment or Labor Market Performance," is available at the Social Science Research Network.

Commercialization of Public Schools

The NEA asks: "Should public schools accept corporate advertising or sponsorships?" Arizona State University's Commercialization in Education Research Unit published a report entitled, Empty Calories: Commercializing Activities in America's Public Schools in November 2005. "The Eighth Annual Report on Schoolhouse Commercialism Trends, Year 2004-2005, finds that criticism of commercial advertising and marketing to children in schools is on the rise. Most of this criticism is directed at marketing activities that are thought to have a negative impact on children's health."

Tom Friedman Admits It

David Sirota reports on Tom Friedman's shocking admission that he often writes about trade policy proposals that he knows nothing about. Sirota writes, "... what’s truly astonishing is that Tom Friedman, the person who the media most relies on to interpret trade policy, now publicly runs around admitting he actually knows nothing at all about the trade pacts he pushes in his New York Times column." After reading this article, I can't help but wonder how often we, as teachers, teach something that we know very little about beyond superficialities.

States Don't Meet Requirements of NCLB

The New York Times reports on the fact that states are simply not fulfilling the requirements of NCLB.

"Faced with such findings, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, who took office promising flexible enforcement of the law, has toughened her stance, leaving several states in danger of losing parts of their federal aid."

Greedy Businesses Invest in Schools

Brett Pawlowski at Edspresso writes, "...the widely acknowledged crisis in public education...drives the business community – which is essentially both an investor in, and customer of, our schools – to see involvement as an imperative, literally something that must be done to ensure its own future. They see involvement in public education as an investment in the short- and long-term health of their companies, and in the continued strength of the markets they serve."

Making Video Games in High School

A new Dayton school has developed a curriculum which includes spending three years developing and marketing a video game. Get on the Bus writes, "Capitalizing on youthful passion for video games, school leaders hope to keep more kids in school by offering the chance to conceive, design, build — and sell — their own video game." If schools can interest kids, they'll stay in school. On what other ideas besides video games could high quality curricula be built?

Rod Paige Speaks about No Child Left Behind

In an interview with EducationNews.org, Rod Paige says, "NCLB is already indelibly etched into our nation's education system and the public will not allow us to turn back the clock. As we go forward the more information about student and school performance that is made available will make it more difficult for the system not to operate in an effective and efficient manner; the public will not stand for it. As a result, no child in this country – no matter his economic standing – will be deprived of the opportunity to receive a quality education."

A New Book

A new book released this week: Teaching Tips from Your One Minute Mentor: Quick and Easy Strategies for Classroom Success. The publisher writes: "Designed for the visual learner...Each section of the book opens with a mindful message, memorable advice, and important topics. Through its...illustrations, the book explores common classroom management challenges and provides a wealth of classroom-tested strategy suggestions designed to make classes safe, efficient, and well-managed."

Arnie Bianco (Tucson, AZ) the author was a school principal for 24 years and has been an adjunct professor and student teacher supervisor at Chapman University for the past 15 years. He is the author of One Minute Discipline.

AFT Raises Membership Dues

Edweek reports that the AFT has decided to raise membership dues to pay for membership drive and political activism. The paper states, "The initial hike of almost 6 percent, approved on the second day of the July 20-23 gathering, will finance broader efforts at political mobilization along with what union officials called “the most comprehensive organizing initiative” in the AFT’s history."

SAT Scoring Must Be Improved

According to the Washington Post a recent report on the SAT states, "Steps such as better software and more training -- and even providing pencils and erasers at test centers -- could improve the reliability of scoring the SAT exam..." Read the report.

The Right to Carry Phones

Tim Johnson has taken on New York City Public Schools, but: "Summarized in pass/fail terms, the meeting rates a fail. Its main topic, the right of students to carry cellular phones to and from, but not during, school remains not only a bone of contention but, so far as Mr. Johnson can tell, absolutely nonnegotiable from the city’s perspective. Puzzling."

Charter Schools Outperforming Traditional Schools

The New York Post reports: "Charter schools in the city are vastly outperforming public schools in their neighborhoods, according to a bombshell state report obtained by The Post... (New York City) Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg are big boosters of charter schools - 60 charters will be operating in the city come September."

Where Have All the Students Gone?

Dave Weber in the Orlando Sentinel writes, "After decades of runaway school growth, educators across much of Florida are asking, "Where are all the kids?" Enrollment has swung into reverse in several of the largest school districts and slowed dramatically in others." I think they are asking the same questions elsewhere.

Resegregation in Boston's Schools

"Like most conversations about progress, money and how it is spent is a factor-a very big factor-in the conversation and concern about resegregation." Read about it in Harvard's Ed.Magazine. Thanks EdWeek for pointing this out.

Right Wing Vs. Left Wing

Recently, I've become very concerned with the ways that my views are perceived. I guess that happens when you begin to publish them. As I'm writing more, my views are not only changing they are becoming more mature. I used to think that I was a "Right Winger." I'm realizing that I'm not a Right Winger. I'm certainly also not a Left Winger. I'm simply a free thinking individual who has many views that are closer to the right than to the left. A few days ago I published a thougth on the war between Israel and Hezbollah, claiming what one commenter referred to as "moral equivalence," even though I'm definitely a supporter of Israel. As soon as Hezbollah attacked Israel, Israel earned the moral right to destroy Hezbollah. But I'm concerned that some will see me as being too far to the left.

But this morning I was very pleased when I received a letter from somebody who had read a post of mine on The Huffington Press.

She wrote:

Dear Andrew,

I read your post on Huffpo just now, and want to thank you for your view on the Israel's detetermination to root out Hizbollah.

I am an American Jewish grandmother/greatgrandmother with a large family in Israel, and every day my husband and I watch TV with great trepidation. Already our eldest granddaughter, husband and 4 children have moved from an area south of Haifa to Jerusalem, where most of our other children live.

It disgusts me to read Huffpo, for it is dominated by very prejudiced, anit-semitic, and anti-Israel posts.

They seem to be very uneducated, and probably part of the unwashed and hippy generation of the past. Once in awhile a post like yours comes in with the real truth, but these vermin wouldn't recognize it, they are so ingrained with hate for the Jews. "You have to be carefully taught...."

No one remembers that Hizbollah caused the Beruit bombing of the Marine barracks, and other atrocities, so the U.S. owes them one big time. Of course, no one remembers that Hizbollah was bombarding Israeli towns with rockets long before the two soldiers were kidnapped from Israeli soil.

My husband and I have been Democrats all our lives, and it pains us to see how Huffpo has become so leftist, and a supporter of Hizbollah against Israel. I will probably "delete" the site, but maybe not, because of opinions like yours.

Thank you, keep it up!

Mildred

I enjoy reading Huffington Press. But, as I write more I have a feeling that its letters like this that will keep me writing.

Teaching About Stem Cell Research

Earlier this week Congress approved funding for reseach using stem cells. Immediately after the Senate approved the legislation, President Bush vetoed it - exercising his veto right for the first time. Research using stem cells has the potential to glean important scientific knowledge and the potential to eradicate some of the worst deseases. However, the Christian Right and a handful of other religious groups believe it is sacreligious and immoral to use stem cells, that have the potential for life, in scientific studies. The religious right equates using stem cells with murder.

A consideration of the use of stem cells for scientific purposes is clearly very controversial, particularly so in classrooms. Some teachers might choose not to bring up overly-controversial issues, such as whether or not the federal government should fund stem cell research or the origins of the world as intelligent design. However, I believe that eliminating these discussions from the classroom weakens educational programs.

Our students not only have a right to think about controversial issues. They have an obligation to do so. In a few short years, our students will hopefully participate in the democratic process that we call government. In order to effectively fulfill their responsibility to participate students must not only understand controversial issues. They must also be able to take sides or intelligently decide not to take a side. If we don't discuss these issues in our classrooms many students will not think about them.

I don't believe that it's appropriate for teachers to share their opinions on controversial issues. Rather, as teachers, we should ask questions and assign work that encourages our students to critically think about these issues and form their own opinions. Teachers can then encourage a healthy debate within their classrooms. If people complain that your students are discussing these issues, you can remind those complaining that the United States government is discussing these issues.

Students can learn much about stem cell research in a variety of different subject areas: certainly social studies and science. However, language arts teachers can ask students to read different perspectives on the issues and analyze the different perspectives. When students realize that they are learning about an important topic and their opinions can make a difference, they'll likely even enjoy the study.

Just a thought!!

Year Long Schools

The National School Boards Association has an interesting article about year long schools over on its blog. The author writes:

With all the talk about global competitiveness, should our students be in school 12 months of the year? Not to mention the fact that many students, as the article notes, "are loitering in parking lots and shopping malls, cruising iffy websites, and slouching toward academic disaster." Sure, there are those kids whose parents are home or still others whose parents can afford to send them to summer camp or for a month at grandma's. But what of those who are home alone all summer, avoiding their summer homework packets, with no air conditioning, no supervision, perhaps not even a guaranteed lunchtime meal, with only Jerry Springer and the internet to babysit them?

Even if schools don't start running through the summer, a colleague of mine offered an interesting suggestion a few weeks ago. He said that students should switch teachers and grades after spring vacation instead of after summer vacation. This way teachers would have their assigned classes before and after the long summer break. They would take a greater interest in their own students' continued learning over the summer. Perhaps students would take a greater interest in their own summer learning as well, recognizing that work products would count towards grades with their assigned teacher.

Spammed

I've reconfigured my comments so that I'll be able to moderate new comments after being spammed last night. At leas the spammer was nice, he said how beautiful my blog looked. Maybe nice - but probably not aesthetically inclined.

Disney Cruises and Education

I want to be in Vicki Davis's classroom. From her posting on Cool Cat Teacher Blog, entitled "How Disney Cruises Transformed My Views of Education," I can tell that she is an excellent teacher. She writes:

As I put my brain on autopilot and sailed off on a Disney Cruise, the last thing I expected was to learn something about education, but my classroom will be different because of it.

The best teachers find good teaching ideas in the strangest places. She's clearly a thoughtful teacher.

Poor Timing in Educational Policy Making

On Friday afternoon, July 14^th, the United States Department of Education released a report “Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling.” This report compared math and reading scores earned by fourth and eighth graders in public schools to those scored earned by similar aged students in private schools.

Affluent students in the best private schools did outscore their typical age-mates in the public school system. However, when the study held socio-economic conditions and family backgrounds constant the results proved very interesting.

With regards to fourth grade reading scores, the report found little difference between private schools, that like to refer to themselves as “prep schools,” or schools that better prepare students for college, and public schools. Students in public schools outperformed their private school counterparts in fourth grade math. Perhaps the wrong schools are called “prep.”

Eighth grade private, but not parochial, school students did demonstrate better reading skills than their public school counterparts. Performance in parochial schools equaled that in public schools. Once again public school students performed as well as private school students in eighth grade math.

Significantly, students in Conservative Christian schools never scored above public school students.

It’s clear that public schools are holding their own against private schools. But, smart educational pundits are not celebrating these scores. Instead, they are emphasizing that they merely demonstrate that all schools need improvement.

This was last week’s news.

But, it gets a whole lot better:

On Tuesday, July 18^th, Congressional Republicans joined by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings proposed legislation to develop a $100 million voucher program that would enable students in low achieving public schools to attend private and religious schools.

Certainly, if these vouchers enabled the students the opportunity to attend the highest quality private schools students might truly benefit. After all, students who can afford expensive private school tuitions did demonstrate higher achievement than their public school peers.

But, students who attend the lowest performing public schools likely cannot afford the best private schools’ tuition costs. Tuitions in these schools range from $15,000 to $25,000. Vouchers of three or four thousand dollars will not begin to enable economically deprived students to attend the nation’s best private schools.

Instead, these vouchers will typically enable students to attend inner-city parochial schools – the types of schools that did not fare as well as public schools in the recent investigation.

It’s as if educational policymakers are saying, “Your own school isn’t good. We’ll help you pay for a different bad education.”

The Real Loser:

If this proposed legislation passed, high quality secular education would be the real loser. For, if Congress doesn’t approve this voucher program, it might instead invest this $100 million to fund inner-city school improvement efforts. This investment would promote higher quality rather than sub-par education.

How does one explain this policy proposal?

Only one thing can explain the policymakers’ motivation. The sponsors of this legislation are not looking to promote the quality of education that students receive. They are simply seeking to promote their chances of re-election in November.

The sponsors of this legislation are reaching out to their Christian-Right constituencies. The policymakers recognize that right wing Christians place great value on religious education. They want their children to be educated religiously. They don’t want their children to receive public education. Secular education is less important to these constituencies than religious education.

Consequently, this voucher proposal satisfies the needs of Christian-Right constituencies. These same constituencies don’t put a whole lot of credence into a report entitled, “Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling.”

Doing the Right Thing

Tonight, I attended a "rally" at my synagogue on behalf of the State of Israel. I'm definitely a strong supporter of Israel. I spent a year living there in the '90s. However, during the rally I started thinking about something.

I "know" that Israel is a moral nation and that they've been ruthlessly attacked. I "know" that Israel has the right to defend itself. Most importantly, I "know" that Israel has a natural and legal right to its land. However, I'm also very confident that if I ever had the chance to sit down with a supporter of Hezbollah they would say that they know that Israel is a ruthless nation bent on depriving Arabs and Muslims of their rightful land. Members of Hezbollah do not believe that they are doing evil. Indeed, they likely "know" that they are doing the right thing.

The problem is that what I "know" and what a member of Hezbollah "knows" cannot both be correct. It's impossible. The question is, how can both my knowledge and my Hezbollah counterpart's knowledge both exist simultaneously without leading to war?

I believe the answer is quite simple: neither the member of Hezbollah nor I has the right to physically hurt or physically threaten the other. As soon as one physically impedes on the other, the line has been crossed from appropriate to inappropriate behavior. Our relationship must be completely based on words.

Elementary teachers frequently tell their students that fighting is inappropriate. They explain that conflicts must be worked out with words, not with fists. Why is it that national leaders find it acceptable to act like six year olds who don't heed their teacher's call for words instead of fists? If only I knew.

Republicans Propose National Voucher Program

According to the New York Times, Senator Lamar Alexander is proposing a national school voucher program. The article states:

The legislation, modeled on a pilot program here, would pay for tuition and private tutoring for some 28,000 students seeking a way out of public schools that fail to raise test scores sufficiently for at least five years.

However, the legislation likely won't be taken up until next year. Obviously the November elections will have a large influence on the success of this proposal.

Assorted Stuff for Junior High School Teacher

It's worthwile considering Assorted Stuff's post, Teaching Creativity, in light of the Junior High School Teachers concern that she's not allowed to use her own creativity or promote creativity in individual students. The Junior High School Teacher writes:

Last year I threw out almost every thing I'd ever created to teach from the red textbook from Holt. I kept to the schedule, even when it made no sense. I spent at least one class period a week on spelling, because that's the area administration decided upon which we would focus. More than halfway through the year, the English chair decided we would adopt the Sheri Henderson way of teaching writing, and we had no say in that decision. So, yet again, I threw out something (this time, something not even well-tried) for the newest "solution."

I think all good teachers recognize the importance of creativity.

Recycling News

I'm a little confused as to how stories make it in the news. On July 12th Edweek ran an article entitled, "Cellphones in Schools," by Bruce S. Cooper and John W. Lee. The article stated,

Cellphones are here to stay. More and more work is being done on these communication devices, as they morph into BlackBerries, hand-held calculators, phone banks, digital cameras, radios, and even televisions. Education cannot stand in the way of progress, but a carefully constructed technology policy, reliably enforced, would prevent students from being distracted, tempted, overloaded, or confused by constant electronic contact with the outside world

The Current Events in Education

Monday, July 31, 2006

Schools spend money on Marketing

History Without Text Books

Government's Role? A Right Wing Perspective

Nel Noddings on No Child Left Behind

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Does Math Class Teach Real Math Skills? It Better

Friday, July 28, 2006

Is Blogging Marketing? What do you think?

Thursday, July 27, 2006