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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Education Research Report: STEM Coursetaking Among High School Graduates

Education Research Report: STEM Coursetaking Among High School Graduates


STEM Coursetaking Among High School Graduates

A new report, "STEM Coursetaking Among High School Graduates, 1990-2005," uses National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP)High School Transcript Study data to examine student coursetaking patterns in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses.

The NAEP High School Transcript Study examined the transcripts from samples of graduating seniors to determine STEM coursetaking.

The report compares data from the 2005 High School Transcript Study against data from the 1990 and 2000 studies to determine how well prepared our nation's students are within the STEM fields. Read the report to find out more about:

* overall change in STEM coursetaking patterns, 
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Campaign for High School Equity

Campaign for High School Equity



About CHSE

The Campaign for High School Equity is a diverse coalition of national organizations representing communities of color that believe high schools should have the capacity and motivation to prepare every student for graduation, college, work, and life.

Events

High School Dropout Meter


CHSE Partners

National Urban League • National Council of La Raza • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund • Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund • League of United Latin American Citizens • National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund • Alliance for Excellent Education • National Indian Education Association • Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
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Op-Ed Contributor - Playing to Learn - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributor - Playing to Learn - NYTimes.com:

"THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.

In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the"
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This Week In Education: Thompson: Accountability, the Spinmeisters' Quest

This Week In Education: Thompson: Accountability, the Spinmeisters' Quest
Thompson: Accountability, the Spinmeisters' Quest
NCLB-Texas-ModelJack Jennings is right, "If there's one thing that causes anger on the part of teachers, its AYP" .., (we) "think it's arbitrary and an unfair way to measure how schools are doing. The question is, will the replacement be better?" My state’s AYP was based on API, an algorithm used for ½ of California’s system (the adjustment for socio-economics had already been dropped as impractical, partially because it could not account for the proliferation of choice) which was designed for another purpose (awarding incentives). It was further based on the lowest common denominator testing system of Texas. We explicitly patterned our rules on Ohio’s because that state’s political importance meant that they would get the maximum number of loopholes. This time we were told, the Feds were really serious and our only hope was a rebellion by Republican governors. NCLB was a "Pass Fail" system and schools that did not improve dramatically would have to replace the name on their marque.
Ironically, the only metric that proved relevant for my school was "Safe Harbor," which was a way of saying that we were just kidding about 100% proficiency. Even though my school only had two students who passed the Math EOI, (1%) the statistical engineering gave us an API of 648 out of 1500. Six years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, after cut scores were reduced, we made Safe Harbor with 13 passes and an Math API of 932 and a total API of 594. Last year we were 
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GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools:

"Hundred of parents of charter school students from all over the city climbed into buses bound for Albany in the pre-dawn hours this morning. Once they got there, parents and advocates are spending the day pressing legislators to change state law to allow for more charter schools and better funding and facilities access for them.

Some schools, like Harlem Success Academy and Democracy Prep, are each bringing hundreds of parents on multiple busloads. Others, like Brooklyn’s Opportunity Roots Charter School, pictured here, filled one bus, or shared a bus with other schools. All in all, 80 city charter schools sent a total of 60 buses to Albany today. (more…)"
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Eduflack: ED Budget Winners and Losers

Eduflack: ED Budget Winners and Losers


The President's FY2011 budget is out, and we've now had a day to digest the toplines and find out if our pet programs are on the chopping block or slotted for additional support.  Not surprisingly, ED is reorganizing its budget around priorities similar to Race to the Top, leaving some clear winners and losers.  (The full breakdown of the budget reccs can be found here.)

As a former Capitol Hill rat and appropriations staffer, I find it important to note that yesterday's document is a starting point, and not the final deal.  Programs that have been eliminated or consolidated are bound to be reinstated once their constituency speaks up.  Additional money is likely to be found to fund those reinstatements.  (And as a former Byrd scholar, Eduflack, for one, is hoping that funding for the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship is reinstated immediately).  But the new parameters and programmatic headers offered in the President's budget is likely to hold, standing as our new organizational strands for future spending and ESEA reauthorization.

So who are the winners?  Who are the losers?  Let's take a quick look, shall we.
Winners
* Arne Duncan — The EdSec has put his personal brand on both discretionary and non-discretionary spending, while imposing his own "brand" on the future of federal education dollars.  The current budget demonstrates that Duncan's four pillars are not a one-time RttT deal, and instead are the buckets by which federal education policy will be governed for years to come.
* Reforming School Districts — The new budget likely provides another $700 million to LEAs under an expanded RttT and another $500 million for i3 (more than doubling our current i3 investment).  For those districts that are focusing on teacher/principal quality and school turnaround and research-proven innovation, the coming years may be profitable ones (as long as there aren't too many good districts who can walk the walk).
* Teach for America — At first glance,
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National Journal Online - Education Budget Signals Sea Change For NCLB

National Journal Online - Education Budget Signals Sea Change For NCLB


Specifics of the Obama administration's plan for reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, the landmark education bill enacted by the Bush administration in 2002, were laid out for the first time in the budget proposal unveiled today.
The administration put forward two fundamental changes to the structure of NCLB, also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: a new yardstick to hold schools accountable for compliance with the law and a shift from formula-driven federal funding to a model that emphasizes competition and performance. Both are controversial.
Renewal designs call for replacing "adequate yearly progress," the key-measuring tool under NCLB, with new and still undetermined standards for college and career readiness. Without the old measurement standards, which require schools to test students on their proficiency in English and math, the bill's original goal of having 100 percent of students proficient in these areas by 2014 is essentially null.
The budget proposal includes $14.5 billion for states to adopt accountability systems linked to college- and career-readiness standards -- but those standards don't exist yet. Ostensibly, the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a state-led effort to produce common standards in English and math for grades K-12, will create them. Every state but Texas and Alaska has signed on to Common Core, and SecretaryArne Duncan has often praised the initiative's efforts. However, Common Core has yet to produce a finalized version of the standards. The administration says it will work with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle to create the new accountability system in the coming months.
A move away from adequate yearly progress standards may raise concern from stakeholders who want to ensure that accountability, the most valued takeaway from the Bush-era law, is not lost with any changes. However, Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at Education Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to closing the achievement gap, is optimistic about this development.
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Finebaum: Barack Obama, Orrin Hatch should not mess with BCS | Sports from the Press-Register - al.com

Finebaum: Barack Obama, Orrin Hatch should not mess with BCS Sports from the Press-Register - al.com:

"You've got to hand it to Barack Obama. If nothing else, he's got chutzpah.

The president just celebrated his first anniversary in office, which by all accounts was not a good one. His party just lost the safest seat in the Senate to the Republicans. His standing among world leaders appears to be in a free fall. His popularity among the electorate is tumbling.

So what's he do? Obama has declared war on the BCS.

On Friday, it was revealed that the Obama Justice Department will review the legality of the BCS. This comes after Utah ornery Senator Orrin Hatch -- who is still steaming from his home-state Utes not being given consideration for the 2008 BCS title -- demanded a review into whether the college football system violates antitrust laws."
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Would New Standards in ESEA Rewrite Affect Teachers? - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Would New Standards in ESEA Rewrite Affect Teachers? - Teacher Beat - Education Week


I will confess to being somewhat confused by all the rhetoric around the new accountability framework that the Obama administration is considering for the NCLB law. This Washington Post story makes a big deal about possible flexibility for the 2014 deadline, at which states' proficiency targets must reach 100 percent, and about the idea of intervening differently based on how far schools miss their targets.
But isn't the idea of everyone graduating "college" and "career ready" still pretty much a "universal goal," and a harder one at that, if our current tests are really as crummy as everyone asserts?
Perhaps this is where scrapping 2014 and focusing on growth instead of absolute targets would provide some flexibility. NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, quoted in the WaPo story, sounds thrilled by the potential for changes. But it's possible that standards for college- and career-readiness, coupled with the proposed changes to Title II I wrote about yesterday, will push the bar for quality instruction even higher.
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Khan Academy

Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
We have 1000+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.
Read a recent San Francisco Chronicle article about Salman Khan and the Khan Academy.
Listen to a recent interview by Salman with NPR's All Things Considered
Download the Khan Academy factsheet. You can also read more about the Khan Academy vision in this document.
The Khan Academy and Salman Khan have received a 2009 Tech Award in Education. The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.
Sal has just launched the alpha version (the software version of a first draft) of a new version of the old web app. Try it out if you're interested in practicing some of the concepts in the videos.. It requires a google account (not the login from the old app). The old, slow version is still available here.
To keep abreast of new videos as we add them, subscribe to the Khan Academy channel on YouTube.
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Wireless mic frequency change could affect schools | eSchoolNews.com

Wireless mic frequency change could affect schools | eSchoolNews.com


Schools and colleges that use wireless microphones operating on the 700 megahertz (MHz) frequency band have until June 12 to change the radio frequency or buy new equipment, according to a Jan. 15 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The FCC’s decision is part of a larger government effort to clear the 700 MHz band for use by cell phones, digital TV transmissions, and emergency communications. About 25 percent of the country’s wireless microphones will have to be modified or replaced, according to federal projections.
The ruling affects schools, colleges, sports stadiums, churches, theater groups, musicians, and others who rely on wireless microphones to amplify sound. Some schools and colleges using wireless mics to help their instructors or performers be heard more clearly could end up spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars to replace the banned equipment.
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Poll: Michelle Rhee's Popularity Decreasing in D.C. - District Dossier - Education Week

Poll: Michelle Rhee's Popularity Decreasing in D.C. - District Dossier - Education Week


While Michelle Rhee isn't in danger of losing her crown as the nation's Education Queen of All Media, the District of Columbia school leader's popularity is taking a bruising hit back home.
A pair of polls released by The Washington Post this week show the personal popularity of Rhee and her chief patron, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, have taken a precipitous fall in the Nation's Capital.
Fenty, who took control of the school system and hired Rhee within six months of taking office in 2007, is up for re-election this fall.
In January 2008, 59 percent of residents approved of her and 29 percent disapproved. Now residents are divided: 43 percent approve of what she's doing, and 44 percent are dissatisfied.
Even so, residents said in the poll they believe safety and teacher quality have improved since Rhee took over.
Rhee has the opposite problem of many superintendents and other politicians: her reforms are more popular than she is. Most leaders find they are unable to transform their personal popularity into lasting traction for their 
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Duncan Apologizes for Katrina Remarks - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Duncan Apologizes for Katrina Remarks - Politics K-12 - Education Week


From State EdWatch blogger Lesli Maxwell
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says he's sorry for saying that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing that had happened to the education system in New Orleans. This morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, he told host Joe Scarborough that the remarks were a "dumb" thing to say and that he had expressed them in a "poor way."
Since the remarks were made public last Friday, the blogosphere and Twitterverse have been ablaze with chatter, much of it critical, about the secretary's choice of words in an interview he did for "Washington Watch with Roland Martin," which aired on Sunday on the cable channel TV One.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the secretary had phoned New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin on Friday night to explain his comments. And look here for a story from my colleague Mary Ann Zehr about local reaction to what the secretary said.
Here's the secretary's interview from this morning:


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