Education Week: Dueling Objectives Mark Stimulus at Halfway Point

Education Week: Dueling Objectives Mark Stimulus at Halfway Point:

"Long-Term Impact Still Uncertain as $100 Billion Aid Flow Continues"

A year ago, the federal floodgates opened for aid to education, releasing a one-time surge of up to $100 billion in economic-stimulus money aimed at both stabilizing and transforming the nation’s public education system.

The results so far have been mixed, as weighed against the Obama administration’s twin goals for its unprecedented infusion of education funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

From the outset, the stimulus program’s education piece—among the largest elements of the $787 billion package intended to jump-start a recession-battered economy—was to serve both an economic and a school improvement purpose.

By pouring money into the coffers of states and districts already suffering from cuts to K-12 schooling, the ARRA aimed to stanch the fiscal bleeding 

Education Week: Aid Lets Hard-Hit State Keep Programs Aloft

Education Week: Aid Lets Hard-Hit State Keep Programs Aloft:

"In the nation’s fifth-largest school district, which encompasses the glitz and grime of Las Vegas, the economic-stimulus package has given school leaders a $193 million lifeline to continue the fundamentals needed to improve student achievement: tutoring for struggling students, credit recovery for those at risk of dropping out, and professional development for teachers.

While not trendy or flashy, those educational interventions met important criteria when officials here in the Clark County, Nev., district were weighing how to spend the federal largess. They were quick and easy to implement, and they already had a proven record of success. In other words, they were programs school leaders wanted to do anyway, except they had long ago run out of money."

Education Week: Title I, Spec. Ed. Aid Casts Long Stimulus Shadow

Education Week: Title I, Spec. Ed. Aid Casts Long Stimulus Shadow:

"Programs serving the nation’s economically disadvantaged students and those with disabilities are receiving massive funding boosts through the federal stimulus package—$13 billion for Title I aid and $11.3 billion for special education—but how school districts choose to use the money may set them up for problems when it dries up.

The fiscal fallout from the recession has forced many districts to use part of the stimulus money for short-term budget fixes, such as filling in funding gaps and avoiding layoffs. Those uses contrast with the kinds of one-time investments for technology, training, school improvement programs, and infrastructure that advocates and federal education officials say would have a long-term payoff."

Rutgers among universities awarded Google grant for greener internet | - NJ.com

Rutgers among universities awarded Google grant for greener internet | - NJ.com:

"NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University will share a grant awarded by Google for research on how to make the internet more energy efficient, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.
A team of computer scientists from the university studying 'green computing,' along with computer scientists at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia, were given the largest share of the $5.7 million Google awarded this week to 12 university projects, the paper reported.
Researchers will use the two-year grant to find ways to improve poorly efficient data centers, which consume huge amounts of power. A study by"

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Readers question Challenge Index

After the release of every new Washington Post Challenge Index list, my rankings of local high schools based on college-level test participation, I get many questions, complaints and even an occasional compliment from readers. Here is a sample of this week's mail. There are some surprises.

Q: When you were compiling your list, I was developing my own, which I feel is equally important. I decided to look at the graduation rates for students with disabilities from the Virginia school report card. Last year Centreville High School had a graduation rate for students with disabilities of 63%. While it’s not the lowest in this category in Fairfax County – Edison and West Potomac have that esteemed title at 49%-- I still think that a rate where over one third of the students with disabilities do not graduate is a compelling statistic, and one that should be spotlighted. Here are the graduation rates for students with disabilities for the other high schools from your Challenge Index – Woodson 90%, McLean 72%, Langley 88%, Madison 81%, Herndon 52%, Oakton 84%, Lake Braddock 75%, Fairfax 61%, Marshall 61%, South Lakes 57%, Chantilly 71%, West Springfield 70%, South County 66%, Westfield 70%, Stuart 51%, Falls Church 55%, West Potomac 49%, Hayfield 61%, Lee 52%, Mt Vernon 61%.

Why should I be excited about my son attending a school where in all likelihood he will not take an AP, IB or college level class, and where he has a 37% chance of not graduating? ---JoNell M. Doyle

Continue reading this post »

Willingham: On Susan Engel

My guest today is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a professor at the University of Virginia and author of "Why Don't Students Like School?"

By Daniel Willingham
In her February 2 Op-ed piece in The New York Times, Susan Engel of Williams College celebrates the current administration’s goal of education reform, but cautions that reform may not mean much unless the curriculum is changed. Test-driven accountability, she argues, has led to a curriculum that “is strangling children and teachers alike.” As an alternative, she suggests a curriculum with more authentic, real-world tasks, and greater student choice.

Engel does not mention that this curriculum has been tried again and again, and it has failed again and again.

Continue reading this post »

Latin American Herald Tribune - Study: Immigration Doesn’t Hurt Pay of Native-Born Workers

Latin American Herald Tribune - Study: Immigration Doesn’t Hurt Pay of Native-Born Workers:

"WASHINGTON – Immigration doesn’t make workers born in the USA earn less, but rather this group, regardless of education level, has enjoyed a modest pay increase as a result of the new immigration, according to a new study.

Immigration and Wages, a research paper released Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute, concludes that over the long term, immigration has no overall impact on the average national wage.

Figures from the U.S. Department of Labor show, according to the report, that the arrival of 9.6 million immigrant workers between 1994 and 2007 increased by 0.4 percent ($3.68) the weekly pay of U.S.-born workers compared with that of the foreigners.

Nonetheless, the arrival of new immigrants did reduce by 4.6 percent ($33.11) the weekly pay of foreign-born U.S. workers relative to that of their native-born counterparts."

CalSTRS expects rate-hike tussle in Legislature amid CalPERS' woes - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee

CalSTRS expects rate-hike tussle in Legislature amid CalPERS' woes - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee

CalSTRS officials say controversies at the state's other big pension fund, CalPERS, will complicate the already difficult task of persuading theLegislature to raise pension contributions for teacher retirements.

Staggered by a 25 percent loss in the last fiscal year, the board of the California State Teachers' Retirement System began crafting a strategy Friday to petition lawmakers for higher rates.

The investment loss left CalSTRS some $42 billion underfunded as of last June – an estimate of how much additional cash the fund needs to pay its bills over the next 30 years. The amount of underfunding doubled in about 12 months.

Although there's no immediate crisis, CalSTRS Deputy Chief Executive Ed Derman said the financial problem will only worsen the longer the fund waits to ramp up contributions. CalSTRS gets more than $6.6 billion in annual contributions from the state, school districts and teachers. About $1.6 billion of that comes from the state.

Unlike CalPERS, which has the authority to impose rate hikes, the teachers' retirement system 

Professor heads for the Hill to promote science education | ASU News

Professor heads for the Hill to promote science education | ASU News

Influencing practice and policy in science education is what drives ASU's Julie Luft and has led to her distinguished service to K-12 science teacher education and renowned research contributions to the field. She considers her recent call from Congress to testify about the status and future of science education to be among her most notable achievements.

Luft delivered her first-time testimony before the House Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee at the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Education Hearings that took place Feb. 3-4.  She was joined by Craig Strang, associate director of the Lawrence Hall of Science at University of California-Berkeley.

The purpose of the hearing was to inform Congressional subcommittee members about the status and future direction of STEM education in the K-12 sector. STEM education is considered vital to maintaining the United States’ leadership in the rapidly 

ETS Looking for California English Teachers to Make a Difference

ETS Looking for California English Teachers to Make a Difference:

"PRINCETON, NJ--(Marketwire - February 5, 2010) - During the upcoming California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) Conference in Los Angeles February 12 - 14, representatives of Educational Testing Service's (ETS) online scoring network will be recruiting English Teachers to participate as essay raters for vital student assessments.
ETS's Online Scoring Network operates over the Internet and allows raters to grade essays from home, work or on the road. Raters receive training and instruction and have the benefit of an online community of scoring leaders to whom they can turn with questions. An hourly honorarium is provided for participating English teachers."

Education Week: Debate Heats Up Over Replacing AYP Metric in ESEA

Education Week: Debate Heats Up Over Replacing AYP Metric in ESEA:

"The Obama administration’s proposal to revamp the signature yardstick used to measure schools’ progress under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is being seen as a bold step toward revising a key feature of the law, even as questions loom about how a new system would work.

Under the plan, adequate yearly progress, or AYP—the accountability vehicle at the heart of the current version of the law, the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act—would be replaced with a new metric that would measure student progress toward readiness for college or a career.

Though many details remain up in the air, some education advocates say the administration proposal outlined in its fiscal 2011 budget request earlier this week is a good first step."

The Civil Rights Project University California, Los Angeles

The Civil Rights Project University California, Los Angeles

Civil rights and policy leaders share CRP charter school segregation concerns

New Report - Charter Schools' Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure

CRP's analysis of the 40 states, the District of Columbia, and several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charter school students reveals that not only are charter schools more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every instance, but troubling data gaps also make it impossible to assess charter schools enrollments of low-income and English Learner students.

Download the report and related documents from the press release page.

February 4, 2010

Charter Schools' Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure: CRP--News and Media

CRP--News and Media

Los Angeles—February 4, 2010— Today, the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA issued "Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards," a nationwide report based on an analysis of Federal government data and an examination of charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia, along with several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charters. The report found that charter schools continue to stratify students by race, class, and possibly language, and are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the country.

"President Barack Obama just delivered his budget to the U.S. Congress which increases both incentives and resources to create more charter schools," Erica Frankenberg, co-author of the report said. "This report should be considered in evaluating new federal incentives to states that encourage the expansion of charter schools, such as the Race to the Top initiative."

The study's key findings suggest that charter schools, particularly those in the western United States are havens for white re-segregation from public schools; requirements for providing essential equity data to the federal government go unmet across the nation; and magnet schools are overlooked, in spite of showing greater levels of integration and academic achievement than charters.

Identifying O.C.'s best elementary schools | schools, school, score - News - The Orange County Register

Identifying O.C.'s best elementary schools | schools, school, score - News - The Orange County Register

The Orange County Register's rankings are designed to show which elementary schools in Orange County provide the richest academic experience and strongest environment for learning – from schools with the best test scores to those with cultural diversity and small class sizes.

The results generated a ranking system of more than a dozen measurements for 388 public elementary schools.

• Data sources: All the data used to create the rankings come from the state Department of Education and Register education partner GreatSchools, and is available publicly. The categories were chosen and weighted in consultation with local education experts.
• Who wasn't ranked: After consultation with county education leaders, we omitted K-8 schools, but kept smaller schools with fewer grade offerings than the typical K-5 or K-6. Because we know parents will want to know how their schools performed, we provide the raw data for those 12 schools.

Register rank

This score is determined by combining a school's academic and school environment scores. Academics forms 75 percent of the total rank. School environment contributes 25 percent. Each category, like the Register rank, runs from 1-388, with 1 indicating the best.

Academics

The Register simplified its academic rating this year, swapping several categories of the California Standards Test and the Academic Performance Index used in 2009 for education partner GreatSchools' rating.

• GreatSchools rating: GreatSchools issues schools a rating from 10, the best possible score, through 1, based on the percent of students who are proficient on California Standardized Tests in English, math and other core subjects. Great Schools calculates ratings by grade, subject and demographic combinations, then averages those ratings to achieve an overall school figure. Those same standardized tests are used by the state to help generate elementary school Academic Performance Indexes. Click here for a detailed explanation on GreatSchools ratings. This category constitutes half of the academic score.
• 2008 API similar schools rank: The state ranks each school's API performance against 100 schools of similar demographic makeup. Schools that perform in the top 10 percent of their comparison set receive a score of 10; those that perform in the bottom 10 percent receive a 1. The 2008 similar school score is the most recent – the 2009 ranking is released in May. This equals one-sixth of Academics score. Note: Trabuco Elementary and Silverado Elementary schools did not receive a score because of their small sizes. Heroes Elementary did not receive a score because the school just opened in 2008.
• 2010 Best Public Schools: 
  Elementary Excellence
  What works, what doesn't: From the best to those struggling, how O.C. schools rank in 2010.
  Top districts: Smaller districts seem to have the edge
   Top 10
  1. Oka Elementary
  2. Loyal Barker Elementary
  3. Jack L. Weaver Elementary
  4. Panorama Elementary
  5. Arroyo Elementary
  6. Northwood Elementary
  7. Stone Creek Elementary
  8. Mariners Elementary
  9. Ladera Elementary
  10. Olinda Elementary
  Review the data
  Compare schools in our database of 388 elementary and 12 K-8 campuses
  Methodology: Our criteria for ranking the schools.

Education officials cry foul over governor's cuts - Times-Standard Online

Education officials cry foul over governor's cuts - Times-Standard Online:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has developed a budget proposal that he claims “protects education,” yet local school officials continue to cry foul over a spending plan they say takes even more away from their already shrunken piece of the state's budget pie.

In reality, the proposed budget will actually cut $2.5 billion from the state's education funds, said Garry Eagles, superintendent of the Humboldt County Office of Education.
Schwarzenegger is being dishonest, he said, and, across the state, schools will likely have to make more cuts and lay off employees to make their budgets work.
”You can't cut as deep as that and not cut vital services...,” Eagles said. “I want parents, students and community members to know that's going to happen.”"

The future of education lies in the cloud | eSchoolNews.com

The future of education lies in the cloud | eSchoolNews.com

Cloud computing offers game-changing options for education.

Calls to improve K-12 education are routine. Business leaders, educators, and other stakeholders demand that our children acquire the knowledge and skills needed to grow our rapidly evolving economy. Yet, although digital resources have expanded learning opportunities, classroom pedagogy has not changed much in the last 50 years. Throwing more money at existing approaches will at best produce only incremental improvements.

Since the 19th century, schools have used textbooks to deliver instructional content. Textbooks, however, are expensive, their content starts to age upon publication, and they must be replaced periodically. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for California schools to shift to digital textbooks to save much of the $350 million that the state annually budgets for textbooks and instructional materials. Moreover, textbooks are hardly interactive and are isolated from the computing resources with which we have provisioned our schools at great expense. Textbooks met the needs of the 19th and 20th centuries, but they fall far short of 21st century needs. They are old-school delivery that supports old-school pedagogy.

Stress is good for children - Parenting - Relationships - Life - The Times of India

Stress is good for children - Parenting - Relationships - Life - The Times of India:

"Children who react strongly to stress or have more behaviour and health problems than their peers are likely to do well when raised in a supportive environment, a new study says. "Parents and teachers may find that sensitive children, like orchids, are more challenging to raise and care for," says Jelena Obradovi, assistant professor at the School of Education at Stanford University. 

"But they can bloom into individuals of exceptional ability and strength when reared in a supportive, nurturing, and encouraging environment," he adds.

Researchers looked at 338 KG students, as well as their teachers and families, to determine how family adversity and biological reactivity contribute to healthy development.

They found that children who had significantly stronger biological reactions to a series of mildly stressful tasks designed to look like challenges in their daily lives were more affected by their family contexts, both bad and good. 

Stress is good for kids (Getty Images)

Substantial Increase or Funding Cliff? � The Quick and the Ed

Substantial Increase or Funding Cliff? The Quick and the Ed

As the budget came out last week with the details this week, I expected that some in the education community would take the glass half full approach and talk about how the education community should be thankful for the 6 percent increase in funding at the same time that the President is proposing a domestic spending limit. While others would take the glass half empty approach and talk about the pending fiscal cliff that schools will face as the stimulus funding for special education and Title I run out and schools face federal funding cuts. What I did not expect was for the same person to be saying both. But, that speaks to the flexibility of NEA lobbyist Joel Packer.

Last week he was congratulating the administration for the substantial funding increase for education in the new budget, and this week commenting that federal funding cliff is a serious problem. What changed?

News: The Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution - Inside Higher Ed

News: The Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution - Inside Higher Ed

WASHINGTON – The number of institutions officially recognized by the federal government as “Hispanic serving” is set to rise dramatically in the coming years, according to a comprehensive study of Latino enrollment in higher education.

In the 1980s, the designation Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) was created by the federal government to directfunding to nonprofit colleges where at least 25 percent of the full-time-equivalent students are Latino. On Thursday, Excelencia in Education, an advocacy group for Latino students, released a report identifying the growing number of institutions that do not meet the HSI enrollment threshold of 25 percent but that fit its definition of “emerging HSIs” – meaning that they “are within the critical mass range of 15-24 percent and have the potential to become HSIs in the next few years.”

Using data federal data from 2006-7, the report states that there were, at that point, 265 HSIs; another 176 institutions were on the brink of becoming HSIs and met its definition of “emerging.”

“Emerging” HSIs were located in 20 states. The highest concentration of these institutions was in California, which had 52, followed by Texas, which had 42. Still, Deborah Santiago, the report's author and vice president for policy and research at Excelencia, said at a discussion accompanying the report’s release on Capitol Hill that these institutions are “not just in those places where we expect to see Latinos.” For instance, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Oregon and Utah are among the states that had one such institution.