12-22-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Quote Of The Day: This Is A Key, If Not THE Key, Evaluation Issue For Educators Everywhere

Here’s an excerpt from today’s New York Times article, Bumpy Start for Teacher Evaluation Program in New York Schools: You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

The Best Posts & Articles On Boredom & How Students & Teachers Can Deal With It

A year or two ago, I published a couple of posts about student boredom, and a lesson I do with students to help them think about it a bit differently. In the past month, boredom seems to have become a “thing” and a couple of new articles have been written about the topic, which I will be including in my lesson. I thought I’d bring them all together into a “Best” list: First, here are links to my

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min 

More Resources On The Sochi Olympics

Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: Gays In U.S. Olympic Delegation Will Send Message To Russia is from NPR. U.S. delegation to Russian Olympics includes gay athletes includes many videos from CNN. Aiming For The Gold is CNN’s ongoing special feature on Sochi. NBC has an enormous site on Sochi. Olympic Posters Over Time is an Associated

by Larry Ferlazzo / 0min 

Quote Of The Day: “Fighting in Teenagers Lowers Their IQ”

Fighting in Teenagers Lowers Their IQ reports on the results of a recent study. Here’s an excerpt: I’m not sure how strong a deterrent reading this article would be to students, but it certainly couldn’t hurt — ideally prior to an altercation. But, if not then, perhaps as part of the disciplinary process?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 0min hide  //  save

The Best Science Sites Of 2013 – Part Two

Well, this is the last of my annual lists for this year. You can see all twenty-one “The Best of 2013″ lists here. You might also be interested in: The Best Science Sites Of 2013 – So Far The Best Science Sites Of 2012 — Part Two The Best Science Sites Of 2012 — Part One The Best Science Sites Of 2011 The Best Science Sites Of 2011 — So Far The Best Science Websites — 2010 The Best Science &

by Larry Ferlazzo / 0min 

Video: “NASA | Earthrise: The 45th Anniversary”

From NASA: In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space. But as crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered was Earth. Using photo mosaics and elevation data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), this video commemorates the 45th anniversa

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3min 

Excellent Infographic On Writing Better Blog Posts

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers. I don’t think it will show up in an RSS Readers, but it’s worth clicking through to see it:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min hide  //  save

Cartoon: “Try To See Things From The Other Person’s Perspective”

created by Abstruse Goose This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9min 

Important Post For Email Subscribers To This Blog

I really “went to town” yesterday and published many posts to get caught up on a backlog. Unfortunately, Feedblitz didn’t include all of them in the email they sent to subscribers. So here are links to the posts they didn’t include: More Good “Year In Review” Features “Education Innovation Is Like A ‘Stradivarius Violin’” (this is my latest Education Week Teacher post) Impressive BBC Infographic:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 52min hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

Send A Personalized Google Maps Holiday Greeting

It’s A Message lets you send a personal holiday message, along with images of snow falling on the address of your choices. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa. And, while I’m at it, I’m also adding these resources to the same list: Here’s the EFL Classroom 2.0 Christmas page. A Christmas Game Gap Fill ‘How to celebrate Christmas with Technology: 7 id

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Quote Of The Day: “Subtract Teachers, Add Pupils: Math of Today’s Jammed Schools”

Subtract Teachers, Add Pupils: Math of Today’s Jammed Schools is an article in today’s New York Times that includes a particularly interesting graph on school funding levels. Here’s an excerpt: You might also be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About How Class Size Does Matter.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 12-21-13 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAYMy Favorite Posts In 2013 — Part TwoI regularly publish a list of my personal favorites posts during the year, and it’s usually my last annual “Best” list of the year. You might also be interested in: My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume One, focused on the year 2007 and includes a fair am

by mike simpson / 8h 

12-22-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Quisling AstroTurf Groups Like E4E and Teach Plus Reality Distortion

 ...the views of most early career teachers differ from those of many veteran teachers. As a national survey conducted by Teach Plus in 2012 found, early career teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to strongly support rigorous evaluations, performance-based compensation, and inclusion of student growth measures in teacher evaluations..... Balderdash from ed deform astroturf orgs.NYC h

by ed notes online / 2min 

Matt Vaz in The Brooklyn Rail

Then he gets on the train, everybody in the train car has to lie face-down on the floor with their hands behind their head. Then the train goes 150 yards, and then stops in between two stations, and then Bloomberg exits through a private tunnel, and then gets back in his helicopter and flies to Bermuda to get a manicure and pedicure. He goes to Bermuda every day. He loves that spot. He bought a ho

by ed notes online / 8h 

12-21-13 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: Ed Notes OnlinePortelos Update: A Para for the Defense, Part 2The story below is a warning to anyone who might think that taxpayer supported DOE Legal has any interest in the truth.Part 1 is here: Portelos Update: A Para for the Defense, DOE Pulls Race Card, Theresa Europe Sits in to Intimidate Hearing OfficerPORTELOS HEARING DEC. 18, 2013CROSS EXAMINATION by DOE Legal Jordana She

by mike simpson / 8h 

teacherken at Daily Kos 12-22-13: the Nation's Progressive Honor Role for 2013

Daily Kos: the Nation's Progressive Honor Role for 2013:

the Nation's Progressive Honor Role for 2013

is something everyone here should read and ponder. The Progressive Honor Roll of 2013 is authored by John Nichols, and is subtitled We celebrate these heroes both for their accomplishments of the past year and their determination to do even more in 2014. There are those whom we would expect to appear on such a list:  Elizabeth Warren as Most Valuable Senator and Bernie Sanders for his budget propo

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 52min 

teacherken at Daily Kos This Week 12-21-13

teacherken at Daily Kos:teacherken at Daily Kos This WeekTeaching as a relationship of trustParker Palmer has been my guide in many things, especialy in the importance of relationship in teaching.  In his seminal work, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, he describes teaching as a series of overlapping relationships - between teacher and students, among the stu

by mike simpson / 8h 

A look at what SAT report on Camden means - Philly.com

A look at what SAT report on Camden means - Philly.com:

A look at what SAT report on Camden means

By Julia Terruso, Inquirer Staff Writer

POSTED: December 21, 2013

CAMDEN A statistic released by the Camden School District - that three out of about 882 high school seniors scored "college ready" on the SAT in 2012 - sparked criticism and questions from education advocates last week.

The number, based on state performance reports from the 2011-12 school year, uses the College Board's college-readiness parameter score of 1550 out of 2400 on math, reading and writing.

The reports have been accessible since May, but the statistic about the three students was largely brought to public attention by superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard at Tuesday's school board advisory meeting.

While only the three students - one at Camden High School and two at Brimm Medical Arts High School - scored 1550 or higher, only 42 percent of Camden High School seniors took the test. Nationally, 43 percent of students met the benchmark.

"The College Board's definition of college-ready is a relatively new initiative," said Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. "It's really a self-promotional tool to get people to pay more attention to SAT scores at a time when their product has been overtaken in the marketplace by the ACT and as colleges, by large numbers, are dropping testing completely."

The College Board said its 1550 score is associated with a 65 percent probability of obtaining a first-year average of B-minus or higher, and is based on a sample of student performance at four-year colleges.

"If a student does not meet the SAT benchmark score of 1550, it does not mean he or she can't or won't be successful in college," the College Board said in a news release. "It means that students who do not achieve a score of 1550 on the SAT

Teacher Diversity Matters | Center for American Progress

Teacher Diversity Matters | Center for American Progress:

Teacher Diversity Matters

A State-by-State Analysis of Teachers of Color

SOURCE: AP/Pat Sullivan

Marjorie Hunt-Bluford works with her fifth-grade students on math problems.

By Ulrich Boser | November 9, 2011

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Download this report (pdf)

Download the introduction and summary (pdf)

Read the full report in your web browser (Scribd)

See also: Increasing Teacher Diversity by Saba Bireda and Robin Chait

At some point over the next 10 to 12 years, the nation’s public school student body will have no one clear racial or ethnic majority. In other words, students of color—students who are not classified as non-Hispanic whites, for purposes of this analysis—will constitute more than half of our primary and secondary students. This demographic trend is already manifest in some of the nation’s most populous states, including California and Texas, where the majority of students are students of color.

But the makeup of the nation’s teacher workforce force has not kept up with these changing demographics. At the national level, students of color make up more than 40 percent of the public school population. In contrast, teachers of color—teachers who are not non-Hispanic white—are only 17 percent of the teaching force.

This is a problem for students, schools, and the public at large. Teachers of color serve as role models for students, giving them a clear and concrete sense of what diversity in education—and in our society—looks like. A recent review of empirical studies also shows that students of color do better on a variety of academic outcomes if they’re taught by teachers of color.

Policymakers are increasingly concerned about the relatively low percentages of teachers of color working in the nation’s schools. So we at the Center for American Progress set out to study this issue, conducting an analysis of the 2008 Schools and Staffing Survey, or SASS, a nationally representative survey of teachers and principals administered every four years by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The 2008 SASS data are the most recent available. We define students and teachers of color as everyone who is not white, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. Here are our main findings.

Almost every state has a large teacher diversity gap

In California, 72 percent of students are of color. In contrast, only about 29 percent of teachers are of color, a gap of more than 43 percentage points. Texas has a similarly large diversity gap. In the Lone Star state, two-thirds of all kids in the school system are students of color, while only about one-third of those teaching them are teachers of color.

Such large differences between the numbers of teachers and students of color are common across the country. More than 20 states have differences of 25 percentage points or more between the diversity of their teacher and student populations.

To evaluate the states on their performance, we calculated a teacher diversity index, ranking states on the percentage point difference between teachers and students of color. So, for instance, Illinois has an index score of 35. To obtain that figure, we subtracted the percentage of teachers of color (11 percent) in Illinois from the percentage of non-white students (46 percent) in the state. For specific breakouts out by state, see Appendix A on page 13.

Alternative route programs help ensure diversity

Most states now have alternative route programs for teacher credentialing, which make it easier for college graduates and mid-career professionals to enter the classroom without conventional teaching preparation. These programs are proving to be successful tools to recruit teachers of color.

In 2008, 27 percent of all African-American teachers and 25 percent of Hispanic teachers came into the classroom through alternative routes. In contrast, only about 11 percent of white teachers were alternatively certified.

Teachers of color are far less likely to be satisfied with their salary and school management

Only 37 percent of African-American teachers and 46 percent of Hispanic teachers were satisfied with their pay. In contrast, 52 percent of white teachers are satisfied with the amount of money that they earn.

Part of the issue is that teachers of color are more likely to teach in public schools in urban, high-poverty communities, which often receive less than their fair share of school dollars. There could be other reasons as well, which are discussed in greater detail below.

Teachers of color also are far less satisfied than white teachers with the way in which their school is run. Only 70 percent of African-American teachers are satisfied with the way that their school is run, 8 percentage points lower than white teachers. Hispanic teachers as well as Asian and Pacific Islander teachers are also less likely than white teachers to say that they liked how their school was run.

What our findings suggest

Our findings suggest that the nation needs a two-pronged approach to improving teacher diversity. We need to expand high-quality recruitment programs, for starters, with some of this being done through the alternative certification programs mentioned above. We also need to do more to improve the professional experience of teachers of color. Our nation has a long way to go when it comes to ensuring a diverse and well-qualified teacher workforce. Solutions will not be easy. It will take hard work, smart policy, and above all, the political will to ensure that the nation has an effective and diverse workforce.

Ulrich Boser is a Senior Fellow at American Progress.

Download this report (pdf)

Download the introduction and summary (pdf)

Read the full report in your web browser (Scribd)

See also:

• Increasing Teacher Diversity by Saba Bireda and Robin Chait

Subtract Teachers, Add Pupils - Math of Today’s Jammed Schools - NYTimes.com

Subtract Teachers, Add Pupils - Math of Today’s Jammed Schools - NYTimes.com:

Subtract Teachers, Add Pupils: Math of Today’s Jammed Schools

Overcrowding in Classrooms: Cuts to payrolls in school districts have resulted in unwieldy class sizes and a lack of specialists to help those students who struggle academically.

By MOTOKO RICH

Published: December 21, 2013

 COATESVILLE, Pa. — The recession may have ended, but many of the nation’s school districts that laid off teachers and other employees to cut payrolls in leaner times have not yet replenished their ranks. Now, despite the recovery, many schools face unwieldy class sizes and a lack of specialists to help those students who struggle academically, are learning English as a second language or need extra emotional support.

Donna Guy’s fourth-grade class at Caln Elementary School here is too big — 30 pupils — for the room, so some of them sit halfway into a coat closet. Across town at Rainbow Elementary School, the 36 third graders in Kristen Pleasanton’s gym class rotate on and off the bench during 25 minutes of seven-a-side soccer games, because she cannot supervise all of them playing at once.

And during social studies class at Scott Middle School, Keith Lilienfeld tries to keep control of a class of 25 students, 10 who need special education services, four who know little or no English and others who need more challenging work than he has time to give.

“I’m up there putting out fires like you wouldn’t believe,” said Mr. Lilienfeld, who used to have the help of two or three classroom aides. “There’s only one of me, and there’s a need 

I Believe in Human Rights: Youth Homelessness and Education | ED.gov Blog

I Believe in Human Rights: Youth Homelessness and Education | ED.gov Blog:

I Believe in Human Rights: Youth Homelessness and Education

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Deb Delisle

Cross-posted from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Blog

For two years in a row, I have been honored to speak with the recipients of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth’s LeTendre Education Fund Scholarship (NAEHCY/LeTendre). The recipients are undergraduates who have demonstrated an incredible commitment to education during their experience of homelessness.

These young people – typically in college by the time I’ve met them – are among the most courageous students I have ever met. Their stories are heartbreaking, yet hopeful at the same time. This year, they shared their experiences of surviving domestic violence, helping their parents and younger siblings gain access to food and shelter, dealing with constant stress and worry, working through high school, and getting by without much sleep. For many of them, these experiences began early in their lives and came full force during middle school. 

And yet, these students fought, and still fight, to take full advantage of every opportunity that crosses their paths – be it community service, school athletics, extracurricular activities, and Honor Society. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a more focused, and more dedicated group of people, and I am humbled that they continue to reach for a brighter future in the face of so many obstacles.

Yet, the sobering truth is this – homelessness is no obstacle that any child should have to face. While I’m awed by the strength and persistence of the human spirit – especially in our young people – I am a firm believer that the true measure of a society’s greatness is in its treatment of our most vulnerable people.  The stories of the 13 NAEHCY/LeTendre undergraduates are inspiring, and yet, even they continue to struggle for the basic necessities of life – including shelter and food – and they are the exception among homeless youth, not the norm.  There are far too many homeless youth who are left behind and cannot find the strength or resources to face another day without the basic necessities which leaves them with little, if any, hope.

We must do better.

The Department provides about $60 million per year to support the education of homeless youth, from kindergarten through grade 12.  These funds are vital to supporting State and local efforts to keep these highly mobile youth in their school of origin — minimizing the disruption that sudden or chronic homelessness may cause to their academic careers and community supports.  However, these dollars are thinly stretched and, over the past few years, school districts have reported more and more students in need of stable housing and basic necessities.

During the 2011 – 2012 school year, school districts reported 1,166,436 homeless youth – a 10 percent increase over the previous year. Seventy-five percent of these youth are “doubled-up” – that is, they are residing temporarily with other people, with or without their parents.  The remaining 25 percent stay in shelters, motels, or are completely unsheltered.  Too many of them are left wandering.

To give homeless youth the best possible chance to succeed, it is critical that we provide them with high-quality education services, wherever they go, and maintain strong partnerships between local education agencies and housing authorities.   However, after meeting with the NAEHCY/LeTendre recipients, I strongly believe that we must to do more to prevent youth homelessness in the first place and, for those students who become homeless, rapid rehousing must become our first priority.  What we offer to our children tells them what it is that we value.  By prioritizing the needs of homeless youth, we tell them that we believe in them and are willing to be advocates on this challenging pathway called life.

Deb Delisle is the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education.

Save Our Schools NJ:

Should your local public school have to pay for charter and county vocational school sports programs?

The New Jersey Legislature is about to vote on legislation that would do just that!

Assembly Bill 3421/Senate Bill 3043 require public school districts to allow students attending charter or county vocational schools, or being home schooled, to play on the local public school sports teams, if the charter and county vocational schools do not offer those sports.

However, this legislation does not require charter or county vocational schools to contribute to the cost of their students participating in the local public school  sports programs, even though New Jersey public schools are dealing with severe, multi-year funding cuts from the State.

This legislation also does not give local public school students the same opportunity to play sports, or take part in any other extra curricular activities, at charter or vocational schools.

This legislation actually creates an incentive for charter and county vocational schools not to fund their own sports programs, instead encouraging their students to play on the local public school teams.

Charter schools and county vocational schools are taxpayer funded. In fact, vocational schools areamong the highest funded schools in New Jersey.  Public school districts also pay to transport students to charter and county vocational schools, at significant cost. Why must local public schools be forced to bear the cost of these schools’ sports programs as well?

Public school districts already have the option to allow any child who lives within the school district to play on a local public school sports team, but this legislation would FORCE school districts to do so, taking away their ability to determine what is best for their students.

Please ask the Legislature not to force this requirement on our local public schools.

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