Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
October 3, 2003
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SMALL SCHOOLS AND RACE
Spurred by research that suggests that small schools produce a range of positive
outcomes, policy-makers and funders have launched a number of initiatives to
create new small high schools or break down the size of large schools. Yet even
as these initiatives advance, there is concern that they may be insufficient
to improve educational opportunities, particularly for children of color. Without
explicit attention to issues of race and culture, some educators contend, small
schools may end up as previous reforms did, leaving African American and Latino
children behind. The current issue of "Voices in Urban Education,"
edited by Robert Rothman, promotes the idea that small schools will lead to
improved educational opportunities for students who have been poorly served
by urban schools. Theresa Perry suggests some additional indicators of success
and resources that might make schools more responsive to and effective for children
of color. Patricia A. Wasley emphasizes that small schools can foster authentic
equity, learning, and relationships. Thomas Toch takes readers inside a small
school to show how the school creates bonds between adults and the student body.
Wendy D. Puriefoy argues that a strong connection between schools and the community
is essential for schools to succeed. She outlines ways in which local education
funds have forged such ties by launching effective small schools. Warren Simmons
draws on lessons from previous reform efforts to consider the conditions that
need to be in place for small schools to become an effective strategy for urban
education reform. http://www.annenberginstitute.org/VUE/fall03/Rothman.html
GETTING REAL ABOUT VISIONARY LEADERSHIP FOR EDUCATION
The writing and posting of vision statements is a nearly all-pervasive activity
in schools, districts, and other organizations required to adapt to changing
circumstances. But regardless of the ubiquity of these documents, writes Scott
Thompson, it appears that comparatively little in the way of genuine visioning
takes place in public schools and school districts. And so we need to make a
sharp the distinction between a vision statement -- words on paper –-
and the vision itself, which is more of a living power. In this detailed examination
of the visioning process undertaken in schools, Thompson outlines methods and
strategies for inspiring, energizing, and motivating stakeholders; key elements
in creating ownership and ensuring that vision becomes action. http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/thompson.htm
TEACHERS STRESSED OUT IN THE CLASSROOM
Stress seems to be a way of life for teachers. Many teachers that researcher
Susan Black works with describe themselves as overwhelmed. They admit to feeling
anxious and apprehensive -- especially about meeting the mounting needs of troubled
students, doing justice to an all-consuming curriculum, and getting kids ready
for a relentless series of tests. And they complain about tension throughout
their schools. As one math teacher put it, "Some days my school feels like
a powder keg that's about to explode." Work-related pressures can create
considerable wear and tear. Physical effects can include headaches, fatigue,
ulcers, upset stomach, and insomnia, as well as more serious nerve disorders,
increased heart rates, and cardiovascular disease. Psychological effects often
include outbursts of anger, bouts of depression, unremitting tension and anxiety,
confusion, indecisiveness, and constant worry. In some cases, say researchers
who've studied stress in teachers, serious stress can lead to panic attacks
and lingering feelings of inadequacy. This article identifies numerous sources
of teacher stress and numerous strategies for alleviating the effects.
http://www.asbj.com/current/research.html
VOICES FOR EQUITY & EXCELLENCE
Across the United States, families, community groups, business and congregations
are demonstrating that ordinary people can be a powerful force for education
reform. The Ford Foundation’s Constituency Building for Public School
Reform Initiative aimed to increase civic capacity to promote high-quality education
for all students. Based on the understanding that sustained school reform requires
an informed and mobilized public, the initiative provided over $30 million between
1995 and 2000 for projects engaged in constituency building, research and evaluation,
and communications and media efforts. A new report looks at the major tasks
of constituency-building work and discusses a range of strategies used by participants
to achieve their goals, including: Building Understanding and Sense of Shared
Interests; Creating Political Will and Holding Public Education Institutions
Accountable; Changing Roles, Relationships, and Power Dynamics; and Identifying
Challenges to Working Collectively. Throughout, the report uses case examples
to illustrate constituency building and reform efforts. http://scs.aed.org
STUDENT WELL-BEING ESSENTIAL FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Research conducted by WestEd shows a strong connection between high school students'
academic achievement and their overall health and well-being. A new report demonstrates
"a significant relationship between secondary school standardized achievement
scores and a variety of nonacademic factors." These factors include substance
use, exposure to violence, exercise, nutrition, school climate, and safety.
"Our longitudinal research reveals that schools with higher percentages
of students who are less engaged in risky behaviors, more likely to eat nutritiously
and exercise, and report caring relationships and high expectations at school
made greater progress in raising test scores," write Thomas Hanson and
Greg Austin. "This indicates that youth development and learning are complementary
processes that must be addressed in concert to support student and school success."
http://www.wested.org/cs/wew/view/rs_press/22
TALKING TO LAWMAKERS ABOUT SCHOOL POLICY
This list of straightforward tips for communicating effectively with elected
officials can help teacher leaders influence critical education policy decisions.
Face-to-face meetings with lawmakers and their key staff aides can open up communication
channels for key issues. Legislators, busy as they are, will usually find time
to meet with their constituents. Study these tips and you'll be ready for your
first contact with the movers and shakers who make education policy. http://www.teacherleaders.org/Resources/talkingtips.html
ESSENTIAL PARENT-TEACHER CONVERSATIONS
This fall, in schools across America, teachers and parents will warily eye one
another as they attempt to "conference" about the students they share.
In this interview in Teacher Magazine author-researcher Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
shares some findings from her new book, "The Essential Conversation: What
Parents and Teachers Can Learn From Each Other." She demonstrates how the
parent-teacher divide can be bridged, if not resolved, by sharing the stories
of 10 teachers who've been effective at this kind of work. http://www.teachermagazine.org/tmstory.cfm?slug=01interview.h15
HELPING PARENTS PREPARE FOR TEACHER CONFERENCES
The first six weeks of school have ended. As a parent, you anxiously await the
arrival of your child's report card, and instead, you get a notice requesting
that you attend a parent-teacher conference. As part of the Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory's (SEDL's) ongoing effort to help parents become meaningfully
engaged in their children's learning, SEDL offers tips for parents on how to
prepare for and participate in a parent-teacher conference. Parent-teacher conferences
often create concern for parents, especially when the conference ends up being
a session where parents spend most of the time listening to reports about their
child's conduct and class work. A short primer helps parents understand how
to be effective in preparation and follow up to teacher conferences in ways
that support student learning. http://www.sedl.org/new/press/20031001_pt_conf.html
TIME TO RE-PUBLIC THE REPUBLIC
Paul D. Houston examines why we must rethink public education to avoid fragmenting
the current system because of private choice. Rather, he argues, let’s
reconnect to the common and public qualities of a system that promotes a sense
of civic virtue. How can public schools be reinvigorated? According the Houston,
"Standing up for public education is not about papering over the cracks
in the system -- it is about imbuing the system with a new energy based upon
the real needs of our dynamic society." http://www.aasa.org/publications/sa/2003_09/Houston.htm
STUDENT CHEFS GET A TASTE OF THE REAL WORLD
The small kitchen teems with white-clad teenagers carrying baskets of egg rolls,
pans of ginger orange chicken and plates of steaming egg fu yung. Greg West
stands in the midst of it all, calling out orders and making sure no pair of
hands crosses the room empty, reports Nicole Garton. In only 10 minutes, the
hungry faculty of Gallatin High will show up, $4.50 in hand, expecting to be
fed. But there are still omelets to flip and rice to fry to make sure the Chinese
food buffet holds up against the rush.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the self-supporting cafe is open for business. Students
cook and serve a sit-down lunch -- with the occasional buffet -- to between
40 and 100 school faculty members. Throughout the day, students come in shifts
and spend their class period working the cafe. The first shift gets the food
started. The next arrives just in time to start serving. The last class of the
day cleans up. Everyone has a job to do. Beginning students pay their dues with
the cleaning, dishwashing and serving as they learn about sanitation.
http://tennessean.com/education/archives/03/09/40104569.shtml?Element_ID=40104569
NASSP RELEASES NEW GUIDE TO HELP SCHOOL LEADERS COMMUNICATE NCLB Communicating
NCLB: A Principal's Desktop Guide is designed to help principals communicate
with parents and the public about NCLB and schools in need of improvement. The
Desktop Guide contains talking points, frequently asked questions regarding
NCLB, key provisions of the law, timelines, and much more. http://www.principals.org/advocacy/frr/frr_current.cfm#art1
WHAT DOES ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS MEAN FOR YOUR SCHOOL?
The current edition of "Bookmark" focuses on one of the major components
of the No Child Left Behind legislation: adequate yearly progress. With states
currently striving to meet adequate yearly progress targets, the first of Bookmark’s
twelve issues addressing No Child Left Behind deals with this complex aspect
of the legislation. The following article elaborates on the definition, significance,
and consequences of adequate yearly progress for states and their school districts.
http://www.goodschools.gwu.edu/pubs/book/oct03.html#2
PAY "SUPER TEACHERS" UP TO $100,000?
Will paying "super teachers" as much as $100,000 a year at the state's
most challenged schools make students learn better? Will making it easier for
educated professionals to become teachers do the trick? Minnesota governor Tim
Pawlenty, announcing a new multipronged initiative, said he is willing to give
it a go. Minnesota students are among the tops in the country on test scores,
but the achievement gap between black and white students is among the widest.
The governor's plan would pump millions in additional money into a handful of
pilot projects around the state to see if basing teachers' pay on their students'
performance pays off. The first and perhaps most dramatic part of the plan would
be to create "super teachers" at five Minnesota schools. Principals
of those schools would have sweeping authority to recruit, hire and fire teachers
outside of normal union contracts and tenure rules, Pawlenty said. In exchange,
teachers at those schools would be eligible for bonuses of $20,000 to $40,000,
based on their performance and student achievement. The program, which would
cost $2.5 million to $5 million in new funding per year, would target those
schools that serve large numbers of disadvantaged students and have struggled
to raise test scores. http://www.startribune.com/stories/1592/4129828.html
SCHOOL PHOTOS ENDURE, LOPSIDED GRINS AND ALL
School photography has grown to be a $1.5 billion business annually in the US.
Student photos are taken early in the school in order to be ready for holiday
giving, even though middle school students may have changed identities and hair
color several times by December. But parents -- moms most often do the ordering
-- find photos of their offspring, even those with green hair, too endearing
to pass up, reports April Austin. Sixty-four percent of all kindergarten- through
11th-grade students purchased school portraits last year, according to Brian
Longheier of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA). Parents feel compelled to
sign up for packages that average $12 to $60 because they are proud of their
kids, and because they don't want their child to be empty-handed on photo-delivery
day. High school seniors and their families spend the big bucks, often springing
for multiple poses and additional sittings throughout the year, not to mention
prom night. It's not unusual for seniors to pay as much as $500 for such packages.
The school photo is hardly known for its aesthetic value. While many good studios
make an effort to photograph kids more naturally -- such as shooting them outdoors,
or posing them less stiffly
-- the results are often bland and homogenized. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0930/p18s01-legn.html
SCHOOLS ARE SKIPPING PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Missing from the schedule of many students this year is one class that used
to be a staple: physical education. From North Carolina to California, physical
education classes have been squeezed out of the school day, a trend that parallels
a national increase in childhood obesity, according to Vicki Kemper. In 1991,
4 in 10 high school students took gym classes daily; 10 years later, the proportion
was barely one-third. In 1980, just 5 percent of school-age children were severely
overweight; 20 years later, the number jumped to 15 percent. Few would argue
that the one trend is completely responsible for the other, but a lack of physical
activity, in school or out, is a significant contributor to obesity. But faced
with shrinking budgets and growing demands for improved academic performance
on standardized tests, mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, many
school systems see physical education as a course they can no longer afford.
"It's a terrible, terrible decision," said Anne Bryant, executive
director of the National School Boards Association. "Do you cut math and
reading, or do you cut P.E.? "There's a lot more to this thing we call
learning than simply test scores." http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2003/09/30/schools_are_skipping_pe/
LEARNING GAP STIRS NEW CRITICISMS
The Kentucky Department of Education and local school districts aren't doing
enough to close "alarming" academic achievement gaps affecting disabled,
low-income and minority students, the state Commission on Human Rights contends.
The commission argues that too many students face a "downward spiral of
high drop-out rates, poor job and life skills, and an overall low quality of
life" unless educators act more aggressively to help them. According to
the report, disabled students had an average gap in scores of 25 percent or
more overall compared to non-disabled students. Low-income students, as measured
by those receiving free and reduced lunches, were less likely than their higher
income counterparts to score proficient or higher on state tests; the gap was
20 percent. Between white students and their black and Hispanic peers, gaps
were about 15 percent, double that in some subjects. The report also said that
male students have moderate scoring gaps with females. Low achievement among
minority and low-income students has been a recognized, and perplexing, education
problem unresolved since the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. In response,
the 2002 Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Bill 168, which requires schools
to identify achievement gaps between specific student groups and set goals for
closing them. But the human rights commission said more needs to be done. Its
report, according to Jim Warren, blames the Kentucky Department of Education
for taking a "passive" approach, and providing local school districts
with confusing information. Department officials must develop a more "systematic,
long-term approach," while school superintendents, school boards and individual
site-based councils must act collaboratively to attack the problem at the local
level, the report said. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/6887031.htm
NEW FREE GUIDE HELPS FAMILIES FIND TUTORS
A free new national guide for families looking for extra academic help during
the school year is available from Partnership for Learning. The guide also will
help thousands of families becoming eligible for tutoring scholarships under
President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The Tutoring and Academic Enrichment
Guide walks families through four steps to finding help when their child falls
behind or wants to get ahead. Designed by parents for parents, the Learning
Guide includes comparison charts, self-tests, edubabble definitions, cost estimates
and questions to evaluate your options. Schools and other agencies can also
call to distribute the advertising-free guide as a parent involvement tool.
The guide includes hands-on advice to save money, identify learning disabilities
and monitor progress. It's available by calling 1-800-832-2464 or visiting:
http://www.partnershipforlearning.org/article.asp?ArticleID=1999
DELAYING KINDERGARTEN ENTRY
Should kindergarten entry be delayed for some children? Contrary to some popular
opinion, a thorough review of the research on delaying kindergarten entry demonstrates
that holding children out does not generally provide any long-term academic
or social advantage. Any early advantage disappears by about Grade 3. Moreover,
holding children out may actually have long-term negative consequences, including
poor attitudes toward school and self, more behavior problems in high school,
and dropping out of school. On the other hand, entering kindergarten when legally
eligible has the advantage of providing instruction in skills that children
cannot learn on their own. Children may also benefit from receiving special
services to help overcome possible learning problems. An article by Hermine
H. Marshall, in the journal of the National Association for the Education of
Young Children, provides information and suggestions for teachers and administrators
who are concerned about particular children and who must counsel parents. Delaying
kindergarten entry may not be giving children a "gift of time," but
instead be depriving them of opportunities to learn. Kindergartens need to be
prepared to receive, support, and stimulate all children. (Click link at bottom
of list of contents.) http://www.naeyc.org/resources/journal/beyond_09.asp
MEDITATION KEY TO EDUCATION, SAY SCHOOL OFFICIALS
It's 8:30 on a misty Wednesday morning, and at Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of
Detroit, many of the older students are performing a twice-daily ritual that's
rare in American schools. Sitting down against blue floor chairs, the students
fold their arms against their green school shirts, close their eyes and focus
their minds. Then they meditate. For 10 minutes -- before the students set off
for an academics-filled day -- they relax in the calm of the room, which is
silent except for the whir of an overhead ceiling fan and the frequent click
of a photographer's camera. Seventh-grader Kenia Bradley describes the feeling
like this: "It puts you into this deep coma." And afterwards? "You
feel refreshed." But does it make a difference? Jane Pitt, a Birmingham
woman who helps teach transcendental meditation to the school's teachers and
staff, thinks so. "It dissolves stress," she said. "It's easier
to make the right choices when you're thinking clearly." Early findings
of research by the University of Michigan's Complementary & Alternative
Medicine Research Center suggest it may make a difference, at least in improving
students socially and emotionally. Students meditate to reduce stress; not to
improve test scores, Principal Carmen N'Namdi said. When compared to students
from another Detroit charter school -- where students don't meditate -- researchers
found the Nataki students were happier, have higher self-esteem, get along better
with fellow students and handle stress better. http://www.freep.com/news/education/tm5_20030605.htm
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