PEN> PEN Weekly NewsBlast for February 7, 2003
- From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 08:10:20 -0600
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K12NewsLetters - From Educational CyberPlayGround
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From: "Public Education Network" <PEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: PEN Weekly NewsBlast <newsblast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 00:21:28 -0800
Subject: PEN Weekly NewsBlast for February 7, 2003
Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
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THE COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE DISASTER: HOW CAN STUDENTS RESPOND?
In response to the Columbia space shuttle disaster, the MindOH! Foundation
has posted resources including: A paper with ideas for appropriate ways
that students might respond to the tragedy; A link to a worksheet titled
"Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" (a reflective activity that
allows students in your life to write down their thoughts and feelings
about the Columbia); and a sample message that you can tailor for
broadcast at your school or in your community.
http://www.mindohfoundation.org/initiatives.htm
THE NEW TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EDUCATION
Each side of the progressivism-versus-traditionalism debate tries to
advance its cause by ridiculing the other. David B. Ackerman looks beyond
the caricatures and finds valid ideas on both sides that can be
synthesized into a new Ten Commandments of Education: Thou shalt teach
that which is of deepest value; Thou shalt teach with rigor; Thou shalt
uphold standards of excellence; Thou shalt not kill time; Remember the
disciplines and keep them holy (even though they are partial); Remember
that children are whole people, not deficient adults; Thou shalt not try
to make one standard fit all; Thou shalt not treat the mind of a child as
though it were a receptacle; Honor what children bring to the text; and
Thou shalt honor the student's search for holistic knowledge.
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0301ack.htm
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MUSIC MAKES YOU SMARTER
Are you interested in the research that shows how
music education can make your smarter? Find all
the relevant websites that help teachers integrate the
internet into their music classroom.
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/Home_MUSIC.html>
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VOUCHER REVIVAL
A few years ago the school voucher movement appeared to be heading toward
demise. With rare exceptions, reports Jeremy Leaming, the courts looked
unfavorably on government plans that paid for tuition at religious and
other private schools. The few programs that were operating did so under a
cloud of constitutional uncertainty. Numerous federal and state courts had
invalidated voucher schemes on First Amendment grounds, citing the
principle of separation of church and state. In addition, voters in a raft
of states turned away initiatives to implement voucher proposals, usually
decisively. That scenario changed overnight with the Supreme Court?s 2002
summer ruling in "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris" that upheld an Ohio voucher
law. The justices? 5-4 decision re-ignited a well-funded pro-voucher
drive in the states and Congress. A select group of wealthy right-wing
foundations and individuals is ratcheting up its financial support of the
political and religious organizations that have been leading the voucher
movement for many years. "The pro-voucher campaign is extremely well
funded and working overtime to lobby state lawmakers nationwide to
implement plans that would drain money from public schools and bolster
religious education," reports Barry Lynn of Americans United. "The
defenders of church-state separation must work equally hard to protect the
American way of life."
http://www.au.org/churchstate/cs02032.htm
MONEY FOR SCHOOLS FALLS SHORT OF PROMISES
Backers of the administration's education law, No Child Left Behind, said
that the level of federal spending was far below the amounts the
administration agreed to in negotiating the law with Congress and that the
shortfalls would undermine the states' ability to deliver on the law's
ambitious promise. The budget for children through 12th grade raises
spending on the country's poorest schools to $12.3 billion, $1 billion
more than the current year's budget, but $6 billion short of the amount
outlined for 2004 in the No Child Left Behind Act. It also includes $1
billion more for special education this year. It achieves those increases
in part by doing away with some 45 programs worth $1.5 billion, covering
rural education, dropout prevention, physical education and a number of
other areas. Ross Wiener, an education policy analyst, compared the
education budget to the president's latest proposed tax cut, totaling $674
billion over 10 years. "If money indicates priorities, the president
believes No Child Left Behind is one sixty-seventh as important as cutting
taxes. When the federal government starts demanding that states close the
achievement gap and turn around struggling schools, there's a commensurate
obligation to see that the funds are there." "
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/education/05SCHO.html
BUSH TAX & BUDGET PLANS: RADICAL AND IRRESPONSIBLE
Since the president has often expressed the desire to "leave no child
behind," examining education funding offers a glaring example of the gap
between the Bush budget and the Bush rhetoric. While the budget proposes
an increase of $2.8 billion for education, roughly two-thirds of this
spending increase will be absorbed by previous shortfalls in the Pell
Grant program. Worst of all, the president proposes to wipe out funding
for 46 education programs including: Rural Education, the National Writing
Project, Arts in Education, dropout prevention programs, Native American
programs, and other programs that benefit children, parents and teachers.
While the Bush budget provides $25 million to help charter schools
renovate their facilities, it fails to fund emergency school construction
to serve the vast majority of public schools. Even as the Bush
administration turns its back on the nation?s commitment to public
education, it reserves its compassion for private schools by proposing to
spend $75 million in new funding for vouchers. And the White House
proposes to sacrifice $226 million in revenue for tax-credit vouchers --
refundable tuition tax credits for private or religious schools. After
analyzing the new proposals, People for the American Way concludes that
President Bush reduces his often-repeated desire to "leave no child
behind" to a cynical slogan.
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=8257
SCHOOL BOARDS: FOCUS ON SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, NOT MONEY AND PATRONAGE
In the long struggle for standards-based improvement of public schools,
local school boards have often been depicted as obstacles to reform or
simply as irrelevant. Education advocates have devoted an enormous amount
of energy to devising and debating different modes of selection for school
boards, such as making them appointive or requiring city- or county-wide
electoral districts to reduce conflict. Educational innovator Paul Hill
argues that fighting over modes of selection or limiting the right to vote
for school board members misses the real problem with school boards: their
focus and mission. As Hill notes, school boards too often distract from
education goals through inter-board conflicts, efforts to micromanage
schools on behalf of "constituents," and involvement in patronage and
contracting. In a new paper he outlines three "traps" school boards should
avoid and calls on states to change the laws governing school boards in
three basic ways to change how school boards operate, and how they
interact with schools.
http://www.ndol.org/ndol_ci.cfm?contentid=251240&kaid=131&subid=192
COPING WITH MALCONTENTS IN YOUR SCHOOL
Negative people are tremendous energy drainers for adults, children and
themselves. Negative people consume large financial and human resources
and usually stand in the way of new ideas and programs. Parents, students
and other staff members do not want to be around them. We become
emotionally upset with negative people, who are frequent targets of
complaint by others. As school leaders, we become frustrated with negative
people and the draining effect they have on everything and everybody they
touch. Sometimes it becomes so difficult to deal with the negativism that
we start becoming negative ourselves. We try to improve morale by
accommodating some of their concerns, transferring them to other
assignments and sometimes providing honest feedback through formal and
informal evaluations. Read Michael Weber?s ideas about becoming a more
positive leader and dealing more effectively with negative people. His
suggestions are based on two years of research, interviews, observations,
and field testing.
http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2003_02/weber.htm
TROUBLE WITH TESTING
To make standards-based assessment a legitimate contributor to improved
instruction, we simply need to be honest about what is and what isn't
measurable in the modest number of minutes available for the assessment of
students. Moreover, so that standards-based assessment will be
instructionally supportive, we must make decisions chiefly on what will be
good for instruction. If the architects of standards-based assessments
remember that their approach to measurement must fundamentally be
predicated on its contribution to improved teaching, then there will need
to be substantial alterations in today's version of standards-based
testing. As matters stand, standards-based assessment is, according to W.
James Popham, a fraud. But that doesn't need to be the case.
http://www.asbj.com/current/coverstory.html
PAPERWORK AND LEGAL THREATS DISCOURAGE TEACHER FIRINGS
While some poorly performing teachers choose to leave rather than face
discipline or bad evaluations, others are "counseled out" of the
profession by supervisors, union leaders or co-workers. But many remain on
the job, either because administrators ignore their poor work or don't
want to go through the hassle of trying to fire them. A teacher dismissal
can be expensive and time-consuming. Because it is so hard to fire an
incompetent teacher, they often are simply eased out of their schools.
Then, they may show up in another district. This is a widespread practice
in education circles known as "passing the trash."
http://www.postgazette.com/localnews/20030206firingrp2.asp
ANOTHER LOOK AT THE NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL VOUCHER EXPERIMENT
This paper reexamines data from the New York City school choice program,
the largest and best-implemented private school scholarship experiment yet
conducted. Previously, a series of studies by Paul Peterson and others
attempted to demonstrate a positive effect on student achievement derived
from the use of vouchers in New York City. A new analysis from two
Princeton University scholars challenges Peterson?s methodology and shows
that there is no significant difference in student performance between
those offered a voucher and the control group for other racial and ethnic
groups, or overall.
http://www.ncspe.org/ocpap/op_pa_detail.php?pap_id=00068
ATTENDING TO TEACHER ATTIRE
Across the country, administrators are wondering how they can better
regulate what teachers wear without provoking a labor war. Many say they
have concerns about the styles worn by those just entering the profession.
Jeans and T-shirts are just as likely as button-down shirts and Chinos to
appear at the front of a classroom. Many school leaders say their current
staff dress codes don't give principals much help in dealing with
questions that arise. Stipulations to dress "professionally?? or
"appropriately" are subjective and leave wide gaps for interpretation.
Teachers complain principals have no right to tell them they can't wear
sandals when the code doesn't ban them. Without a more specific policy,
"it becomes a teacher saying, ?This is your opinion and not mine,??? says
Dennis Smith, superintendent of the Placentia-Yorba Linda, Calif.,
district. But getting all parties to agree on terms for attire is often a
battle of wills. Administrators see dress as a projection of image and an
element of classroom control. Teachers may see any push to regulate their
behavior as an infringement of their civil rights.
http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2003_02/sternberg.htm
FREE SOURCEBOOK FROM NATIONAL ARCHIVES
The "Our Documents Teacher Sourcebook" is a free resource created by
National History Day, Inc. in cooperation with the National Archives that
transports educators back in time to 100 critical moments in our nation?s
history. The sourcebook provides educators with lesson plans and
activities that will help them incorporate 100 milestone documents from
American history into classroom curriculum. "Our Documents Teacher
Sourcebook" is part of a presidential initiative entitled "Our Documents:
A National Initiative on American History, Civics and Service." A key
resource for working documents in the classroom, the teacher sourcebook
includes an annotated timeline, key themes, guidelines to primary sources,
and detailed lesson plans. Educators can request free copies by emailing
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or calling National History Day at
301-314-9739.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/
|---------------GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION--------------|
"Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars Program"
In recognition of the legacy of Dr. King (whose birthday was observed on
January 20), the U.S. Education Department is again soliciting
applications under the Martin Luther King, Jr., Scholars Program, offering
as many as 10 summer internships at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Selected students -- either undergraduate or graduate students with an
interest in education or public policy and administration -- will receive
temporary federal appointments for an eight-week period from June 16 to
August 8. Application deadline: February 21, 2003.
http://web99.ed.gov/hrglibry/HRGInet.nsf/c61d342aed738128852566dc004c5783/42f247562f34b48b85256ca600648371?OpenDocument
"National Science Foundation Funding Opportunities"
The Teacher Professional Continuum (TPC) program at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) announces new funding opportunities to conduct research
studies, as well as research and development projects for K-12 science,
technology, and mathematics (STM) education. This professional continuum
includes K-12 experiences, teacher preparation programs, instructional
practice, professional development, leadership development, and other life
and professional experiences. Proposals may be submitted by universities,
two- and four-year colleges, state and local education agencies, school
districts, professional societies, research laboratories, informal science
education centers, private foundations, or other public and private
organizations whether for-profit or not-for-profit. Preliminary proposal
deadline: May 19, 2003.
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2003/nsf03534/nsf03534.htm
"Good High Schools Program"
Education Development Center (EDC) is seeking nominations of good high
schools as potential research sites. The project will identify a number of
urban high schools in which all groups of students, including those with
disabilities, are performing at high levels. After a systematic
nomination, application, and review process, three urban high schools will
be selected that demonstrate the best combination of academic performance
and outcomes for students with disabilities. EDC will study and validate
their findings and highlight the school-wide approaches, coordinated
services, and instructional supports that contribute to the positive
results. Nomination deadline: March 1, 2003.
http://www.edc.org/goodhighschools/
"BellSouth Foundation Opportunity Grants"
The BellSouth Foundation is currently accepting online concept papers for
its 2003 Opportunity Grants program. Opportunity grants are available for
unsolicited proposals that may not fit within the parameters of a specific
BellSouth Foundation initiative, but that appear likely to add value to
the Foundation's work within that priority area. Opportunity grants are
available in four priority areas: leadership, teacher quality,
college-going minorities, and technology. Grants are awarded once a year
and requests should not exceed $75,000. Application deadline: March 21,
2003.
http://www.bellsouthfoundation.org/grants/og/index.html
"Amazon Rainforest Workshop"
The Amazon Rainforest Workshop is a professional development opportunity
for K-12 teachers to work side-by-side with scientists in one of the most
biologically diverse environments in the world. Activities include:
Ascending over 115 feet on a 1/4-mile rainforest canopy walkway; Visiting
local schools and families to see how indigenous cultures use the forest
for medicine, food, and shelter; Integrating field study with slides and
support materials as a catalyst for local environmental education projects
at home. Four scholarships, as much as $1000, will be awarded.
Application deadline: March 8, 2003.
http://www.travel2learn.com
"Moss Foundation 2003 National Teachers Awards"
The P. Buckley Moss Foundation and Moss Society give annual awards to
recognize outstanding teachers who consistently integrate the arts into
their teaching of children with learning disabilities and other special
needs. The awards also encourage and reward instructional collaboration
among teachers whenever arts are included in the classroom learning
experience as an essential ingredient in the education of all children.
Five $1,000 grants will be awarded. Application deadline: May 1, 2003.
http://www.mossfoundation.org/id.cfm?ID=4
"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
"Withholding funding from the lowest-achieving schools makes about as much
sense as withholding food from the hungriest children, especially when
policymakers attach the caveat that the kids won't be fed until their
hunger ?improves.?"
-Jane Bluestein (author/educator)
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