PEN> PEN Weekly NewsBlast for February 21, 2003
- From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:19:09 -0600
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From: "Public Education Network" <PEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: PEN Weekly NewsBlast <newsblast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 16:16:46 -0800
Subject: PEN Weekly NewsBlast for February 21, 2003
Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
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PARENTS MAY GET REPORT CARDS
Parents in Lebanon, PA, may soon be getting report cards of their own: The
school system's superintendent is proposing that parents be graded on how
involved they are in their children's education. Under the proposal,
parents would be evaluated in areas such as attendance at parent-teacher
conferences, whether they return papers they have to sign and whether
their children come to school healthy and properly dressed. Parents who do
not live up to any of their responsibilities would be contacted by an
outreach worker who would try to help them become more involved. And
parents who cannot or will not cooperate would have an "adult mentor"
assigned to their child. Proponents of the plan point to research
connecting parent involvement and student academic success. Critics say
the plan is demeaning and insulting and question the appropriateness of a
government agency critiquing and evaluating parenting skills. Sue
Ferguson, of the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education,
said schools would be better served by collaborating more with parents and
getting to know them personally, rather than filling out evaluation forms
that could alienate them.
http://www.arizonarepublic.com/news/articles/0207gradingparents07.html
OLD SCHOOLS, NEW CHALLENGES: WILL MONEY ALONE PRODUCE BETTER RESULTS?
Last fall Minnesota voters approved new public school taxes of nearly $150
million dollars a year to improve their children's schools. Polls report
that, nationwide, 75 percent of Americans are willing to raise their taxes
by $200 to $500 per year to improve their schools. Americans agree to tax
themselves because they continuously hear that schools could be improved
if only there were more money. Maybe we're afraid of what would happen if
we didn't provide more money. The percentage of Americans who have ?a
great deal? or ?quite a lot of confidence? in our public schools has been
falling steadily, from 58 percent in 1973 to 36 percent in 1999. According
to Stacy Becker, Americans can't necessarily conclude that they spend too
much or that all expenditures are unwise. We want our teachers to be paid
well, and our class sizes to be reasonably small. But perhaps we don't
know how to spend money in the ways that will improve student achievement.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/opinion/5185105.htm
NYC SCHOOL REFORMS MAY ALIENATE MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES
Endless debates rage about pedagogical theories, but the efficacy of one
method for improving schools has never been disputed: Attract and keep
aggressive, educationally ambitious parents, the people who read to their
kids every night, volunteer for committees during the day, and help stock
the school library on the weekend. ?Get those families into your school
and their energy drives the place,? says the principal of one of
Manhattan?s best public elementary schools. According to Chris Smith, the
reorganization of the nation?s largest school system is alienating much of
the very audience Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein need to charm.
These parents, idealistic and hopeful that weak schools will be lifted up,
are rattled by the prospect of their own kids being lost in a giant
experiment. Under Klein?s plan, an elite 200 schools are to be exempted
from the system-wide revamping -- though the selection standards are still
secret.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/columns/citypolitic/n_8335/index.html
HELPING KIDS DEAL WITH THE FEAR OF WAR
As U.S. troops mount for battle and Americans absorb terrorism warnings,
schools are preparing for war, too. Weapons of mass destruction have
become a forum of class instruction, resonating so strongly with students
that even some teachers are surprised. "I hear kids saying it: Will I have
to go off to war?" said Todd Wallingford, who teaches high school civics
and history in a Boston suburb. "There's more genuine interest in a
current event than I've seen in a long time, and that's because it's
really relevant to these kids" Teachers say their mission is to help
students understand and analyze a crisis that seems to shift topic,
country, channel and color code all the time. But as they talk of
balancing civil liberties and military might, educators have a lot to
balance themselves -- weaving war into a curriculum geared toward
standardized tests, preparing older students but reassuring younger ones,
presenting balanced views of America's goals. "It's time we bring young
people into the national dialogue," said Cricket Kidwell. "I think if
there's one thing all history and social science teachers agree on, it is
that we have a democracy that allows for participation. And that begins in
the classroom."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/02/18/schools.war.ap/index.html
BOARDS OF EDUCATION: WE NEED EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
No topic seems to gain more attention in local newspapers and in the
electronic media than continuing friction among board of education members
and between boards and administrators. This increasingly negative
spotlight in many school systems makes it more difficult to recruit good
superintendents and tougher to interest community leaders in serving on
boards of education. This commentary from the final issue of "Technos
Quarterly" outlines six conditions for school district success: Shared
leadership; Continuous improvement; Sustained initiatives; Supportive
workplace for staff; Utilization of data; Staff development; and Community
involvement. It concludes by proposing some common sense and some
controversial remedies for school boards to use in creating governance
structures that establish accountability for school personnel without
interfering with day-to-day decisions made by employees.
http://www.technos.net/tq_11/4bainbridge.htm
PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORTER TO WITHHOLD FUNDING
A private foundation that supports city schools has yanked future funding
until Memphis City Schools leaders show they can spend wisely. Partners In
Public Education (PIPE), a local education fund, said they won't hand over
any more money until they see school leaders working to enact 65
recommendations that a consultant says could save $114 million over the
next five years. The move is largely symbolic, as the $12 million the
group has given the schools since its inception in 1993 would barely dent
the city schools' budget. But the board has enjoyed PIPE's programs, such
as a prestigious program that sends school principals to Harvard
University for training each year, and the district's state-of-the-art
Teaching & Learning Academy. PIPE, made up of some of the city's prominent
business executives and philanthropists, even footed most of the bill for
a $575,000, five-month study that outlined dozens of ways the school
system could be more academically effective and fiscally efficient. PIPE's
board members say they want to make sure donors aren't wasting their
money. Past chairman Chip Dudley called the funding moratorium a "wake-up
call" to the school district. "We want to be very positive in our
assistance but the existing system is not working for our kids and we
can't tolerate that."
http://www.gomemphis.com/cr/cda/article_print/1,1250,MCA_437_1682065,00.html
SCHOOL ATMOSPHERE FOSTERS ABUSE OF "NERDS"
Many American teenagers are so afraid of being labeled "nerds" or "freaks"
by their peers that they undermine their own educational experiences in an
attempt to avoid such tags, new research says. That's understandable,
because such distinctions invite brutal abuse, often verbal and sometimes
physical, said John H. Bishop, a professor at Cornell University. His new
study reports that secondary students conform to their schools' norms,
which are set by a popular crowd that often discourages high achievement.
"We found that there is an optimal amount of studying," Mr. Bishop said.
"You tend to be harassed if you exceed that level, or if you perform
substantially below." Schools reinforce those sentiments because they
foster competitive cultures that pit students against one another and
highlight the achievements of individuals, he said. Teenagers simply want
to have fun and those who excel in the classroom are perceived as
spoilers. The solution is to craft an environment in which learning and
academic achievement are prized by the "in crowd," and its admirers, Mr.
Bishop concludes. Schools should make college competition a common goal,
encourage academic teams such as debate clubs, institute "no pass, no
play" rules, and use standardized tests that judge students on a fixed
criteria, he argues. But David F. Labaree criticized the solutions laid
out in the study as simplistic. American society has a long history of
anti-intellectualism, he said, and it is difficult to sell the love of
learning as an end in itself.
http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=23nerd.h22
SUPPORT BUILDS TO STOP CHARTER SCHOOL GROWTH
Some influential Indiana lawmakers want to slam the brakes on the charter
school movement. Other states face similar issues. Massachusetts is also
arguing over how to fund charters and is debating a moratorium. South
Carolina's charters are operating without a law; it was struck down as
unconstitutional because of racial demographic requirements. Support for a
moratorium in Indiana is growing as legislators grapple with how to pay
for charter schools without hurting their traditional counterparts, such
as Indianapolis Public Schools. Indiana is one of 36 states with charter
schools, which are public schools free from many state regulations.
Statewide, about 1,300 students attend charter schools. Charter schools
officials complain they aren't getting as much money as traditional
schools and must wait months for it; traditional public schools complain
they're losing funds to charter schools. State senators are trying to fix
this before the issue escalates into a repeat of the war over charter
schools fought for seven years in Indiana before the law allowing the
schools was passed in 2001.
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/8/023572-7548-092.html
DEFINING SUCCESS IN NARROW TERMS: LABELING SCHOOLS FAILURES
The students, the parents, the teachers at Gonzales Elementary thought
they had a terrific school. Most students in the Mexican-American student
body are very poor (83 percent receive free lunches). Spanish is the
first language of half the children. Many are migrants and the school's
annual mobility rate is 29 percent. But despite challenges, citizens are
proud of their handsome school. The school has a gifted program, and
though Arizona ranks near the bottom in education spending and does not
pay for basics like kindergarten, local residents passed a special tax so
their children would have kindergarten, too, same as the rich. To these
first- and second-generation immigrant families, Gonzales represented
America's generosity: a free breakfast program, an after-school program
and a health clinic, with a dental clinic soon to be added. In a recent
survey, 88 percent of parents gave the school an A or B. They love their
principal, Jim Paxinos, an Anglo who speaks Spanish and works 12-hour
days. Average attendance has climbed to 97 percent from 93 percent in Mr.
Paxinos's six years at the school; discipline referrals fell by half. On
national and state tests that measure a student's yearly academic
progress, this poor school scores above average. But under the No Child
Left Behind Act signed by President Bush last year, states cannot rate
schools this way. The federal law says a school must be judged solely on
how much the student body improves on math and English competency tests.
Under No Child Left Behind, test scores are what matter. Even if your
school is excellent by numerous other measures, you can be labeled a
failing school.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/19/education/19EDUC.html
SHOULD PRIVATE, HOME SCHOOL STUDENTS BE TESTED, TOO?
Hundreds of citizens came out to oppose a bill to require Montana's home
school and private school children to take state standardized tests that
are currently required in public schools. People from all across the
state, and country, spent hours telling lawmakers that home-schooled
children perform well above the national average. They went on to say they
would resent the unconstitutional governmental intrusion in the education
of their children. Critics of testing home-schoolers see testing as a
limit upon their educational freedom. Proponents of testing believe that
all students, regardless of the method of their instruction, need to
demonstrate adequate yearly progress on standardized tests.
http://m1e.net/c?5168660-jFMl0S48bPIBQ%40150304-xNoKQGylE8LUs
TEXAS COURT TO REVIEW "ROBIN HOOD" SCHOOL FINANCE LAW
Stoking a fire already burning under Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature,
the Texas Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a lawsuit that claims the
so-called "Robin Hood" school finance law is unconstitutional. Lt. Gov.
David Dewhurst said the court's action "underscores the need for the Texas
Legislature to address our school finance system directly. "The Robin Hood
system is broken and must be reformed," he said. The school finance law,
which requires property-rich school districts to share local tax revenue
with poorer schools, was enacted in 1993 to comply with an earlier Texas
Supreme Court order for more equity in funding among school districts.
Local property taxes now pay for about 60 percent of public school costs,
and local taxes have increased significantly since the law was passed.
Many Republican legislators promised to repeal Robin Hood during their
election campaigns last year, and last week, the House Public Education
Committee approved a bill to repeal the law on Sept. 1, 2005. But state
leaders have been unable to agree on a replacement, partly because a new
plan would likely require a large increase in state funding and an
increase in state taxes. Perry and most lawmakers also have vowed to
oppose higher taxes in the face of a $9.9 billion revenue shortfall.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/1778555
HEAD OF THE CLASS: QUALITY TEACHER IN EVERY CLASSROOM
A group of Pennsylvania's top education leaders are calling for
significant changes in state laws and school district practices to improve
the quality of teachers in the state's public schools. The report makes
the "perhaps obvious conclusion that the ultimate key to student
achievement is quality teaching," Education Policy and Leadership Center
president and former state legislator Ronald R. Cowell said. The report?s
contributors, including the Mon Valley Education Consortium, a local
education fund, recommend: Better evaluation of teachers; Abolish the
state basic competency test for teachers; More help for new teachers;
Higher salaries for new teachers; End pointless professional development
programs; and Create district hiring plans
http://www.eplc.org/teacherquality.html
CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-QUALITY TEACHER PREPARATION
Two paths to development of high-quality teachers have recently emerged in
policy debates at both the federal and state levels. One path assumes a
"trade" model for teacher preparation. This model assumes future teachers
will receive in-depth training in their subject matter prior to teaching,
and the majority of their training in how to teach will be in-class, or
on-the-job training. Another path emphasizes the professional body of
knowledge related to teaching, and includes pre-service instruction in
both the science of teaching, and subject matter. Traditionally, states
have emphasized the professional path to teaching, requiring significant
pre-service training for future teachers in the state certification
requirements; however, most states now also offer alternate paths to the
classroom that emphasize on-the-job training. This research brief outlines
four findings about teacher preparation that are consistent across a wide
body of research on teacher quality.
http://www.ascd.org/cms/objectlib/ascdframeset/index.cfm?publication=/publications/researchbrief/index.html
EVALUATING COUNSELING SERVICES AT LATINO HIGH SCHOOLS
The dropout rate for Latino students is in a state of crisis. In 2000,
Latinos had a dropout rate of 28 percent, while African Americans had a
dropout rate of 13 percent and Caucasians had a dropout rate of 7 percent.
There are many factors that contribute to students dropping out of school.
Among those factors are enrollment below grade level, poor academic
performance, low attendance, pregnancy, involvement in gangs and other
criminal activities, obtaining employment to support the family, lack of
role models and mentors, and inadequate counseling services. A new report
on reducing dropouts focuses on counseling services because they have a
significant impact on whether a student falls through the cracks and drops
out of school or successfully graduates from high school and pursues
postsecondary education. The findings suggest that a significant
percentage of the counselors at the four high Chicago schools in the study
were not providing the basic services to students. The findings by race
indicated that Asian and Caucasian students consistently received more
services from their counselor than the other racial/ethnic groups. Asian
students received the most services. Latino students and students of mixed
race/ethnicity consistently received less services from their counselor
than the other racial/ethnic groups. The report provides several
recommendations for addressing the challenges in the counseling services.
http://il.aspira.org/cleri.htm
GIMME AN "A" ... OR ELSE!
A high school senior is suing his local school district to get a grade
overturned, a restraining order on class rankings and $25,000. Brian
Delekta recently filed the lawsuit claiming he wasn't given the grade he
had earned, which he claims will keep him from being class valedictorian.
Delekta ended the 11th grade in 2002 ranked top in his class. While taking
a work-experience class through another school district, his employer --
his mother -- gave him an A+. He worked as a paralegal in his mother's law
office. Although his local school district awards grades on a 12-point
scale, with an A+ being the highest grade, the highest grade awarded by
the district in which he performed his internship is an A. His local
district, therefore, gave Delekta credit for an A.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/news/stories/20030206/localnews/929400.html
NEWS TRENDS, NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS & SCHOOLS
Ascribe -- the national public interest newswire and a trusted source for
news from educational institutions, associations and organizations -- has
written an essay on newsroom trends and the changing nature of news
distribution. It will interest everyone in education concerned with
getting their stories out to the widest possible audience. The essay is
available, with a special offer to NewsBlast subscribers at Ascribe
Newswire.
http://www.ascribe.org/education
|---------------GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION--------------|
"Rosie's Girls Summer Program"
Once again this summer, middle school-aged girls will have a unique
opportunity to spend three weeks banging nails with hammers, sawing boards
with chop saws, bending and cutting metal with welding torches and plasma
cutters and getting greasy under the hood of a car. Rosie's Girls Summer
Program is a three-week long trades exploration program for girls entering
6th through 8th grades in the fall of 2002. Designed to meet the
particular needs of young adolescent girls, Rosie's Girls Summer Program
participants have the chance to push beyond preconceived limitations and
expand their sense of what they can achieve. By the end of the program,
most participants gain a vast array of new, practical skills and use them
to make a tangible contribution through the community service activities.
Full and partial scholarships are available. For more information about or
to request an application, call 802-878-0004 x103.
http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=4223
"2003 Craftsman/NSTA Young Inventors Awards Program"
This program challenges students to use creativity and imagination, along
with science, technology, and mechanical ability, to invent or modify a
tool. The award program is open to students in grades two to eight who are
residents of the United States and U.S. Territories. Two national
finalists will receive a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond (one winner grades two
to five; one winner grades six to eight); 10 national finalists will
receive a $5,000 U.S. Savings Bond (five winners in each grade category).
All applications must be sent in by March 4, 2003.
http://www.nsta.org/programs/craftsman/
"2003 McGraw Prize in Education"
Since 1988, the prestigious Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education has
been annually awarded to three individuals who have had an unusually
positive impact in the field of education. Past honorees include U.S.
Secretaries of Education Roderick Paige, Richard Riley and Terrel Bell,
former First Lady Barbara Bush, former Governor James Hunt, as well as
university presidents, principals, superintendents and educators from
across the country. Prize recipients are selected by a distinguished Board
of Judges who review eligible nominations. Recipients are honored at a
dinner in New York City and receive a $25,000 prize. Only individuals who
are presently committed to the cause of education are eligible for
nomination. Nomination deadline: March 14, 2003.
http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/community/mcgraw_prize/2003/
"School Funding Services Grant of the Week"
Each week School Funding Services, a division of New American Schools,
features a new grant on their website. This week they highlight the NEA
Foundation for the Improvement of Education's Leadership and Learning
Grants.
http://www.schoolfundingservices.org/newsViewer.asp?docId=2546
"FastWEB"
FastWEB is the largest online scholarship search available, with 600,000
scholarships representing over one billion in scholarship dollars. It
provides students with accurate, regularly updated information on
scholarships, grants, and fellowships suited to their goals and
qualifications, all at no cost to the student. Students should be advised
that FastWEB collects and sells student information (such as name,
address, e-mail address, date of birth, gender, and country of
citizenship) collected through their site.
http://www.fastweb.com/
"Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)"
More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make
hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to
find. The result of that work is the FREE website.
http://www.ed.gov/free/
"Fundsnet Online Services"
A comprehensive website dedicated to providing nonprofit organizations,
colleges, and Universities with information on financial resources
available on the Internet.
http://www.fundsnetservices.com/
"Department of Education Forecast of Funding"
This document lists virtually all programs and competitions under which
the Department of Education has invited or expects to invite applications
for new awards for FY 2003 and provides actual or estimated deadline dates
for the transmittal of applications under these programs. The lists are in
the form of charts -- organized according to the Department's principal
program offices -- and include programs and competitions the Department
has previously announced, as well as those it plans to announce at a later
date. Note: This document is advisory only and is not an official
application notice of the Department of Education.
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCFO/grants/forecast.html
"eSchool News School Funding Center"
Information on up-to-the-minute grant programs, funding sources, and
technology funding.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/funding/
"Philanthropy News Digest-K-12 Funding Opportunities"
K-12 Funding opportunities with links to grantseeking for teachers,
learning technology, and more.
http://fdncenter.org/funders/
"School Grants"
A collection of resources and tips to help K-12 educators apply for and
obtain special grants for a variety of projects.
http://www.schoolgrants.org
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what to hope for.
And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a
distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I
almost can't say it: Elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go
around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the
destroyers or the destroyed. That's about it. Right now I'm living in that
hope, running down its hallways and touching the walls on both sides."
-Barbara Kingsolver (author)
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