Education in the News This Week

Teachers Swap Lesson Plans for Cold, Hard Cash
"Thousands of teachers are cashing in on a commodity they used to give away," reports the New York Times. But selling lesson plans appears to be diminishing the isolation that teachers feel in the classroom and increasing their cooperation:

Lauren Perreca, 24, used a $10 lesson on the Vietnam War novel 'Fallen Angels' as a reference last year while creating her own lesson for her classes at Weston High School in Connecticut. She also revised her reading questions about 'Lord of the Flies' after comparing them with two other lesson plans.

"At first I was self-conscious I had bought something, because what did that say about me?" she said. "But I realized I wasn’t just taking it and using it, I was adapting it to fill in the gaps of my knowledge."

Unfortunately, legal and ethical concerns are brewing. NYU professor Joseph McDonald fears that "the online selling cheapens what teachers do and undermines efforts to build sites where educators freely exchange ideas and lesson plans." Though education blogger Joanne Jacobs responds by asking, "So teachers who create value are obliged to give it away?"

A Calculated Risk
At a low-performing high school packed with students still struggling to learn English, you might not expect an AP Calculus course to be the one filling seats. But as the Voice of San Diego tells us, "This isn't your typical calculus class. [...] It is a different way of teaching math, deeply personal and tailored to English learners who struggle with problems loaded with words." If that doesn't inspire you, check out the high school's honors math fraternity!

Changes in Chicago Magnet School Admissions
Income and other socioeconomic factors will now come into play when reviewing student applications for Chicago magnet and selective enrollment schools. "It's a departure from the last 30 years," Chicago Public Radio explains, "when race had been the deciding factor." But Catalyst Chicago asks, "Can the district achieve [racial diversity], especially in the most sought-after magnets, which have already become less diverse in recent years?"

Parents Matter

Part of a panel on improving schools with the Rev. Al Sharpton and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Arne Duncan has been touring the country in an effort to look at school reform through non-partisan eyes. And on NBC's Meet the Press last night, he reported, "Parents matter tremendously. Parents are always going to be our students' first teachers, and they're always going to be our students' most important teachers." Referencing the way President Obama established expectations with his daughter Malia, David Gregory asked how we can change the way lower-income students imagine their futures — raising expectations from within. Sharpton, Gingrich, and Duncan agreed: parents make all the difference.

If you've only got time for a bit, start about 23 minutes in!

Education in the News This Week

Ratings Have Little to Do With Teaching
In Monday's Washington Post, education writer Jay Mathews quipped that with teacher ratings in most DC school districts "as discerning as peewee soccer award night, with everyone getting a trophy, why bother?" A recent New Teacher Project report stated that the teacher evaluation system "not only keeps schools from dismissing consistently poor performers, but also prevents them from recognizing excellence among top performers or supporting growth among the broad plurality of hard working teachers who operate in the middle of the performance spectrum." In Massachusetts, educators are asking similar questions about how to best hire, evaluate, pay, and assign teachers:

We base hiring decisions on certification credentials that don’t seem to correlate highly with teacher quality. Most teachers receive only cursory performance evaluations, with virtually every teacher graded highly. We use a one-size-for-all salary structure, in which the only factors used in raises are a teacher’s higher education credentials and number of years in the system, neither of which is strongly linked to teacher effectiveness. And we often let seniority, rather than merit, drive decisions about where a teacher is placed.

In an attempt to answer some of these questions, Texas has toughened up its standards for teacher certification.

$20 for 20 Test Points?
In a ploy to raise funds this year, a middle school in North Carolina tried peddling better test scores. Though Wayne County school administrators shut the fundraiser down on Wednesday after news of the campaign raised concerns among local parents. "Tight state and local budgets have put extra pressure on schools to raise their own money," reports the News & Observer. "But [Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction,] said exchanging grades for money teaches children the wrong lessons. She also said it is bad testing practice and is unfair to students whose parents can't pay."

Map Your State's Education Innovation
The Center for American Progress took the findings from their Leaders & Laggards report and created an interactive map to visualize not "how states are performing today, but at what they are doing to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Texas is in the lead for teacher hiring and evaluation! But how does your state fare on the issues?

Education in the News This Week

Lowering Standards to Skirt Sanctions
According to a new federal study published this week, 15 states lowered their academic proficiency guidelines to stay ahead of the penalties under No Child Left Behind. "Under the No Child law, signed in 2002, all schools must bring 100 percent of students to the proficient level on states’ reading and math tests by 2014, and schools that fall short of rising annual targets face sanctions," writes New York Times reporter Sam Dillon. "Facing this challenge, the study found that some states had been redefining proficiency down, allowing a lower score on a state test to qualify as proficient." 48 states are now working cooperatively to establish a common core of academic standards, though it may be a long time before we can reach nationwide agreement on what curriculum constitutes proficiency.

Reforming Schools With Involved Parents
Under a new plan unveiled by the superintendent on Tuesday, Los Angeles Unified School District could face major reforms triggered by the parents of children attending any of their low-performing schools. "Ben Austin, [executive director of the Parent Revolution], has lobbied for the widest possible version of parent participation because, he said, improving a school can consume several years," reports Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times. "The parent of a young child should have the right to set in motion changes to that child's future middle school."

Charter School Success Stories
From an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal:

Opponents of school choice are running out of excuses as evidence continues to roll in about the positive impact of charter schools. Stanford economist Caroline Hoxby recently found that poor urban children who attend a charter school from kindergarten through 8th grade can close the learning gap with affluent suburban kids by 86% in reading and 66% in math. And now Marcus Winters, who follows education for the Manhattan Institute, has released a paper showing that even students who don't attend a charter school benefit academically when their public school is exposed to charter competition.

Are you considering your local charter school? You may want to keep these facts and figures in mind when researching your child's educational options.

Obama Uses Malia’s Test Scores as a Teachable Moment

Campaigning for the renovation of the "No Child Left Behind Law" yesterday, President Obama shared a rare, candid story about how he's raising his daughters to love learning and achieve their best:

These aren't my prepared remarks but I think it's important to note... Malia and Sasha are just wonderful kids and Michelle is a wonderful mother but in our own household, with all the privileges and opportunities that we have, there are times when kids slack off. There are times when they'd rather be watching tv or playing a computer game than hitting the books. And part of our job as parents, Michelle's and my job, is not to just tell our kids what to do but to start instilling in them a sense that they want to do it for themselves.

So... Malia came home, the other day, she had gotten a 73% on her science test. Now, she's a sixth-grader. Now, there was a time a couple years ago when she came home with an 80-something and she said, "I did pretty well." And I said, "No, no, no... Our goal is 90% and up." [applause]

Here's the interesting thing! She started internalizing that, so she came [home] — she was depressed. Got a 73%. And I said, "Well, what happened?"

"Well, you know, the teacher... The study guide didn't match up with what was on the test and..."

"So, so what's your idea here?"

"Well, you know, I'm going to start... I've got to read the whole chapter. I'm going to change how I study, how I approach it."

So she came home yesterday... She was... Got a 95! So she was high-fiving. [applause]

But here's the point! She said, "I just like having knowledge." That's what she said! And what was happening was she had started wanting it more than us. Now, once you get to that point — our kids are on our way.

But the only way they get to that point is if we're helping them get to that point. So it's going to take that kind of effort from parents to set a high bar in the household. Don't just expect teachers to set a high bar. You've got to set a high bar in the household — all across America.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves, Mr. President! But what about you? Have you taken the pledge to support your child's education this year?

Photo credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project

Education in the News This Week

Make Schools, Not War
In a New York Times op-ed, Nicholas Kristof argues that "for roughly the same cost as stationing 40,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, we could educate the great majority of the 75 million children worldwide who, according to Unicef, are not getting even a primary education." And over in a Forbes Magazine commentary, Mark Rice makes a similar case for budgeting education:

Imagine the possibilities if the U.S. spent even 1% more on education. With an annual federal budget of close to $3 trillion, a 1% increase would amount to $30 billion. An annual infusion of $30 billion directly into public K-12 education could go a long way toward rebuilding or rehabilitating crumbling school buildings, guaranteeing an adequate supply of up-to-date textbooks, supplying districts with computers and computer upgrades, installing smart boards for classrooms, stocking quality science labs and revitalizing programs in music, art and drama.

America's Dropout Crisis
"Every single school day, more than 7,200 kids, on average, drop out of high school — 1.3 million each year," reports The Daily Beast. "Just 15 percent of American high schools — known in the education world as 'dropout factories' — produce more than half of American dropouts, and three-quarters of black and Latino dropouts." Surveying school districts nationwide, TDB also compiled a list of the 10 Worst Dropout Cities, including Bakersfield, Calif.; McAllen, Texas; and Augusta, Ga.

Fixing Our Education System
The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray asked a panel of education experts, "What will it take to get the American system up to the level of some of the other developed countries in terms of math and science education?" With answers ranging from better teacher recruitment and retention to fundamentally changing the competition between schools and school districts, the entire discussion is worth a read.

Meet GreatSchools: Jennifer Fleming

We love our senior user-interface designer, Jen Fleming. With an impressive 14 years of experience designing for the Web, for such clients as Ask.com, Ofoto/Kodak Gallery, and Silicon Graphics], Jen brings her expertise to refining both GreatSchools and our newest program, College Bound. But it's her fresh humor and humility at the office that truly brighten our days.

What inspires you about the GreatSchools mission?
Jen: I'm driven by our dream to get parents more involved in their children's lives. As a mother it's very motivating to know that I can help my daughter be her best just by being a loving and involved parent. Reading to her daily, teaching her the names of flowers, or keeping art supplies readily available will each positively impact her success in life, and make the process of parenting very rewarding.

Who in your childhood most inspired your love of learning?
Jen: My grandmother inspired the greatest love of learning for me. Though we lived on opposite coasts, she was persistent in educating me to respect wildlife and our environment, and to make things for myself. As a master seamstress, crafter, musician, and outdoorsy woman, she strove to share her love of life with me in every way that she could. I feel much of her influence in my life every day.

What's the best parenting advice you've heard?
Jen: Don't forget to take care of yourself! Remembering to eat healthily, get enough sleep, and exercise should be a priority for parents as much as their kids. It's too easy to overlook these basics in the demands of school and work schedules.

Thanks, Jen! It's true... a run-down, frazzled parent will have a tougher time making the best parenting decisions.
Jen: So we should all remember to be healthy for ourselves, and especially for our kids.

Education in the News This Week

This week two major themes emerged: teachers and parenting. The topic of teachers was split into various arguments, but on the whole covered the notion of quality and retention. It starts with an Op-Ed by Michelle Obama:

As the president has frequently said, in a 21st-century global economy where jobs can be shipped to any place with an Internet connection and children here in America will be competing with children around the world for the same jobs, a good education is no longer just one road to opportunity—it is the only road. And good teachers aren't just critical for the success of our students. They are the key to the success of our economy.

Then Teaching for a Living, a Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates study, concluded that "forty percent of K-12 teachers are 'disheartened and disappointed' about their jobs," writes education blogger Joanne Jacobs. "Most of the disheartened teach in low-income schools. They’re frustrated with unsupportive administrators, disorder in the classroom and testing." But without testing, asks the National Journal's Education Experts blog, how should teacher effectiveness be assessed?

As for parenting, a public school teacher wrote a thought-provoking op-ed of his experiences with low-income students:

My students knew intuitively that the reason they were lagging academically had nothing to do with race, which is the too-handy explanation for the achievement gap in Alexandria. And it wasn't because the school system had failed them. They knew that excuses about a lack of resources and access just didn't wash at the new, state-of-the-art, $100 million T.C. Williams [High School], where every student is given a laptop and where there is open enrollment in Advanced Placement and honors courses. Rather, it was because their parents just weren't there for them — at least not in the same way that parents of kids who were doing well tended to be.

Enter Miami-Dade County's Parent Academy, which TIME Magazine profiled yesterday on its efforts "to engage parents who are otherwise uninvolved in their child's education." As Karen Mapp, the director of the Education Policy and Management Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education, explains it: "There's 40 years of research that indicates a pretty positive relationship between families being engaged in their children's education and positive effects on students in terms of their academic achievement."

Education in the News This Week

The Uneducated American
In a recent New York Times op-ed, columnist Paul Krugman writes, "These days young Americans are considerably less likely than young people in many other countries to graduate from college. In fact, we have a college graduation rate that's slightly below the average across all advanced economies." He recommends that the federal government approve "another big round of aid to state governments," but education reform bloggers now ask whether more money can effectively be the sole solution.

NAEP Math Scores Released
As the Wall Street Journal reports that "fewer than four of 10 fourth- and eighth-graders are proficient in mathematics, [...and] while some educators cautioned against reading too much into a single round of NAEP testing, others said the latest results indicate a need for more drastic changes than those prompted by the federal No Child Left Behind Law and various state initiatives." The NYTimes' Room for Debate asks, "Do the poor results suggest that testing requirements under 'No Child Left Behind' have been ineffective and should be abandoned? What’s lacking in math education that makes progress so hard to achieve?"

Columbus Day Falls Out of Fashion
"Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years," reveals the Associated Press. "Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations." And the Wall Street Journal asks, "Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar?"

Education in the News Last Week

Investing in Innovation
On Tuesday the Department of Education released proposed regulations to govern the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) authorized under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. i3 is a separate competition from the $6 billion education improvement fund known as Race to the Top, in that individual school districts or groups of districts can apply for the i3 grants, and entrepreneurial nonprofits can partner with these districts to submit applications. The New York Times reports, "In a speech last month, Mr. Duncan said programs that might qualify for innovation fund financing included Teach for America, the nonprofit organization that recruits elite college graduates for two years of teaching in hard-to-staff schools, and Green Dot, a nonprofit charter school organization with headquarters in California."

Violence in Chicago Schools
After images of the death of 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert were widely broadcast last week, Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan flew to Chicago to meet with the students, parents, and administration of Christian Fenger Academy High School. "Activists say the escalating violence among Chicago's teens may have roots in an unlikely place — an ambitious plan to improve education that's also thrown rival gangs together in an often-volatile daily mix," writes Karen Hawkins of the Huffington Post. "Before the 2006 school year, an average of 10-15 public school students were fatally shot each year. That soared to 24 deadly shootings in the 2006-2007 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-2008 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year."

Advice for Parents Volunteering at School
The Wall Street Journal asks, "For parents with limited time and energy, which roles deliver the biggest benefit for your kids? And how does the answer to that question change as a student grows up?" The answers just might surprise you.