Project Based Learning Video �Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Project Based Learning Video �Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Project Based Learning Video

from Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech by Dean Shareski

I’ve been working with several teachers over the years in our district on the using project based learning. We’re by no means experts but are doing some nice work. These three high school teachers have taken the bull by the horns and restructured the school day to provide some learning not easily done in our traditional 40-75 minute classes. This 5 minute video tells part of their story.
From a storytelling perspective, I struggled with this one. I have about 90 minutes of footage including about 65 minutes of interviews. Trying to edit that down

Bullies: They can be stopped, but it takes a village. - By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella - Slate Magazine

Bullies: They can be stopped, but it takes a village. - By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella - Slate Magazine

BulliesThey can be stopped, but it takes a village.

By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo RotellaPosted Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at 2:50 PM ET

Authorities brought a series of charges Monday against nine teenagers accused of incessantly bullying 15-year-old South Hadley high school student Phoebe Prince for months before she killed herself. Last year, Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella cautioned against common but ineffective responses to bullying and outlined some solutions that actually work. The article is reprinted below.

These responses share three features:Let's say you find out that your child is being bullied by a schoolmate. Naturally, you want to do something right now to make it stop. Depending on your temperament and experience, one or more of four widely attempted common-sense solutions will occur to you: telling your child to stand up to the bully, telling your child to try to ignore and avoid the bully, taking matters into your own hands by calling the bully's parents or confronting the bully yourself, or asking your child's teacher to put a stop to it.

1) They all express genuine caring, concern, and good intentions.
2) You will feel better for taking action.
3) They are likely to be ineffective.

In order to understand why, let's focus on two aspects of bullying: It arises from a

Jeb Bush On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" : Controversy in Florida - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Jeb Bush On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" : Controversy in Florida - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Jeb Bush On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" : Controversy in Florida

What Florida Does, So Will Our Nation?

Why Parents & Schools Need To Know About Merit Pay
& High-Stake Standardized Test Scores

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush visited Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski last week during their special "Great Expectations" in Education day at Alexander Elementary School in Gainsborough, Florida.  He had much to crow about with NAEP scores in Florida being an outlier state showing gains while the rest of the country stagnated. However, the state of Florida is enbroiled in a hot-bed of controversy between teachers and policy-makers. Here is a bit of background info:

See here for conservative-oriented The Foundry's recap. An excerpt:

"Results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment have just been released and are, well, uninspiring. Reading achievement, despite significant increases in spending over the past few decades and increasing federal policy intervention in the past decade, has remained flat.

The lackluster results indicate that the top-down approach of federal policy, characterized by No Child Left Behind and the current administration's policy, has not led to significant increases in student achievement.

But, despite the bad news, there is an outlier among the states- Florida. The Sunshine

Governor signs repeal on teachers' religious dress; ban will lift in July 2011 | OregonLive.com

Governor signs repeal on teachers' religious dress; ban will lift in July 2011 | OregonLive.com

Governor signs repeal on teachers' religious dress; ban will lift in July 2011

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

April 01, 2010, 1:08PM

Michelle Cole/The OregonianSurrounded by lawmakers and rank-and-file Oregonians who support the change, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs into law a bill that repeals Oregon's ban on teacher religious dress.
With supporters of religious freedom looking on, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a bill this morning that will end Oregon's ban on teachers wearing head scarves and other religious attire.

The ban won't lift until after the 2010-11 school year. The rationale for the delay is to give leaders of the state's labor and education agencies plenty of time to write detailed regulations for carrying out the new law.

The governor, who declined to comment on the issue while it was before lawmakers in February, called changing the law "The right thing to do." Some lawmakers in both parties opposed the bill on the grounds that schoolchildren might feel oppressed or proselytized by their teacher's religious headcovering or other similar attire.

Kulongoski forcefully disagreed. "Repeal is consistent with Oregon tradition that honors individual beliefs, values diversity, and promotes tolerance," he wrote in an official letter that accompanied his signature on the bill.

But he emphasized the importance of very clear statewide rules, to be

Local groups receive grant awards for children's books

by Roger Gregory, The Oregonian

The Portland area advisory board of First Book received requests for more than $44,000 in book grants

Cedar Hills Kindergarten enlists The Dougy Center to help it serve grieving families

by Washington County Reader Contributor

The school's parent education chairwoman says it's part of a national movement to give parents tools to help children cope with grief.

Some Unsolicited Advice for ED's Communication Gurus :: Frederick M. Hess

Some Unsolicited Advice for ED's Communication Gurus :: Frederick M. Hess

Frederick M. Hess's Blog

Some Unsolicited Advice for ED's Communication Gurus

by Frederick M. Hess • Apr 1, 2010 at 9:12 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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I've been hard on Secretary Duncan and the administration, especially on the subject of Race to the Top (RTT). No two ways about it. This has prompted some in the administration to ask whether I'm just a reflexive contrarian.

I don't intend to be. As I've said before, I like and respect many in the administration, count many as friends, and think they've been trying to push in the right direction. That I've been semi-scathing is in no small part a reaction to how ED has communicated its efforts and the coverage they've received. There's not much that ED can do about the coverage, but there is stuff it can control.

When Kevin Jennings told Phi Delta Kappan that common core standards would eventually be stretched to include "safe environments," or when concerns emerged last fall about sycophantic ED-issued materials to complement the President's back-to-school speech, I would have been far more sympathetic if anyone at ED had ever conceded, "Whoops, this was a mistake," or granted that there were legitimate concerns and that they were being addressed. Instead, the Jennings declaration was quietly declared inoperative and the back-to-school materials were quietly altered. Asked last fall about the Secretary's promises that the $100 billion in non-RTT stimulus dollars would fund reform as well as jobs, the Department simply bragged about jobs

Obstacles may pull Colorado out of Race to the Top - The Denver Post

Obstacles may pull Colorado out of Race to the Top - The Denver Post: "Obstacles may pull Colorado out of Race to the Top

Obstacles may pull Colorado out of Race to the Top

By Jeremy P. Meyer
The Denver Post

POSTED: 04/01/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT

UPDATED: 04/01/2010 06:23:09 AM MDT

RELATED

• Race To Top Education
• Mar 30:
• Colorado loses out in first round of Race to the Top education funding
• Mar 29:
• Colorado out of first-round Race to the Top running
• Mar 17:
• Colorado officials make pitch in D.C. for education grant

The decision of whether Colorado should apply for up to $175 million in federal education grants in the second round of the Race to the Top competition seems like a no-brainer, but state officials aren't sure.

Two big sticking points: Colorado's unsuccessful first-round application didn't have full union support, and not every school district bought in.

To make a second-round application viable, they'll have to correct both problems, plus create a reform package that appeals to teachers and federal reviewers.

Also, the state would be asking for about $200 million less than it sought in the first round.

"That's one of the questions that we have" for the U.S. Department of Education, said Nina Lopez, director of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the Colorado Department of Education. "Are you expecting us to explain the same plan for less money and, gee, get all the districts to sign on?"

Read more:http://www.denverpost.com/education/ci_14797041#ixzz0jsZyxxi2

Norm's Notes: Barbara Miner's article on Teach for America from the soon-to-be released Spring issue of Rethinking Schools

Norm's Notes: Barbara Miner's article on Teach for America from the soon-to-be released Spring issue of Rethinking Schools

Barbara Miner's article on Teach for America from the soon-to-be released Spring issue of Rethinking Schools

24 n SPRING 2010

Looking Past the Spin

Most Teach for America recruits are idealistic and dedicated. But who is behind the organization, and does its approach bolster or hinder urban education reform?

BY BARBARA MINER

Barbara Miner is a journalist based in Milwaukee, Wis

It is late at night, foggy and misty, and road construction has forced me off the interstate into downtown St. Louis. My Google directions are useless and I follow my nose, heading west on city streets to my hotel. I go past abandoned buildings, lonely gas stations, dimly lit res cue missions. I think of stopping to ask directions, but the neighbor hood’s desolation gives me pause; it’s hard to find an open business, let alone any people walking about.

I am driving from Milwaukee to St. Louis for an article on Teach for America, to get a first-hand take on what is a media star in urban education reform. As I drive past yet another building with flaking paint and board ed-up windows, my cynicism grows. Do people honestly think that sending Ivy League graduates into the St. Lou is schools for two years will somehow unlock the academic achievement that is seen as a cornerstone of rebuilding our cities? Can the antidote to educa tional inequity, urban disinvestment, and neighborhood decay really be so simple?

As my thoughts wander, I try to re gain focus: I am writing a story about Teach for America and education re form, not the abandonment of low-income communities of color. They are two separate issues. Or so I keep reminding myself.

Two weeks later, back in Milwaukee after scores of interviews with TFA teachers and staff and with non-TFA educators and policy makers, I am still groping towards an understanding of the organization. I have come to dis tinguish between the generally hard-working, smart, and idealistic TFA classroom teachers, and a national organization that is as sophisticated, slippery, and media savvy as any group I have ever written about. TFA is per ceived as a major player in the educa tion wars over the future of public schools, and a key ally of those who disparage teacher unions and schools of education, and who are enamored of entrepreneurial reforms that bolster the privatization of a once-sacred pub lic responsibility.

But what exactly is TFA’s role in these education wars? Who is direct ing the organization and to what ends? More importantly, what is TFA’s role in improving urban education?

Connecting the disconnected | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Connecting the disconnected | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

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April 2010 Focus on Dropouts, Disconnected Youth, & Diplomas

Vol. 17. No. 5

Connecting the disconnected

The Re-engagement Center sees a steady stream of youth wanting to resume their education.

by Bill Hangley Jr.

Photo: Harvey Finkle

Students Marlene Williams (left) and Sharidah Harper work on computers at the Re-engagement Center at 440 North Broad Street. Since opening in 2008, the center has placed about 2,800 former students in various educational and diploma-granting programs.

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Demetrius Newton is sitting up straight in a chair at the District’s Re-engagement Center. He’s making eye contact with Bill Simon, one of the center’s three caseworkers, and answering every question clearly and thoughtfully.

Newton is 20 years old, and for the last 18 months, “all day, every day” his friends and family have been bugging him to go back to school. So, now he’s making the effort.

“But it’s been a struggle,” he says, ticking off a list of obstacles that he thinks stand between him and a diploma.

He cites the age limit imposed by traditional public schools that makes him too old to enroll and the credit requirements of alternative schools, which Newton says for some out-of-school youth mean having to “find a school on your own and pay for it.”

Newton was dismissed from Shallcross, one of the District’s disciplinary schools, as a result of verbal confrontations with staff. A counselor there told him about the Re-engagement Center, located on the first floor of District headquarters.

In collaboration with city government and local nonprofits, the District opened the Re-engagement Center in May 2008, the first of its kind in the country. That year, according to state data, 6,000 students dropped out of Philadelphia’s public schools, and the center was hailed locally and nationally as a valuable tool in helping to get these youth reconnected to their education. It is a key component in Mayor Michael Nutter’s plan to boost Philadelphia’s graduation rate from 60 percent to 80 percent by 2014.

Since its opening, about 4,000 former students have visited the center and nearly 2,800 have been placed in a variety of schools and programs, including

Education Research Report: March 31 Summary

Education Research Report: March 31 Summary

March 31 Summary

Recent education research reports are summarized below. Click on the links for further details, and, in many cases. links to the full reports. These, and many other reports are available at my Education Research Report blog.


How quickly we expect to receive our grades may also influence how we perform.

Students who were told they would receive feedback quickly on their performance earned higher grades than students who expected feedback at a later time. Furthermore, when students expected to receive their grades quickly, they predicted that their performance would be worse than students who were to receive feedback later. This pattern suggests that anticipating rapid feedback may improve performance because the threat of disappointment is more prominent. As the authors note, "People do best precisely when their predictions about their own performance are least optimistic."

It's National Poetry Month -- how important is poetry for students? | OregonLive.com

It's National Poetry Month -- how important is poetry for students? | OregonLive.com

It's National Poetry Month -- how important is poetry for students?

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

April 01, 2010, 11:09AM

Today is the first day of National Poetry Month, and to show the proper respect to all the great poets of the world, I will refrain from writing this blog as a poem.

To celebrate the occasion, the Paws for Poetry contest is seeking entries for its annual national competition. Children ages 5 to 12 are asked to write a poem about their favorite animal friend. It must be titled and include a photo of the dog, cat, bird, rodent or reptile. The original poems of any length can be submitted in two categories -- Group One includes children ages 5-9; Group Two is for children ages 10-12. For more information, including where to send the poem, visit pawsforpoetry.org.

In Oregon, children are introduced to poetry as early as first grade,

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Education Research Report: Disadvantaged students reap most financial return from college education

Education Research Report: Disadvantaged students reap most financial return from college education

Disadvantaged students reap most financial return from college education

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

With the college admission season upon us, teens across the country are glued to college websites in hopes of learning whether they have been admitted to their school of choice.

But high school seniors who did not apply to college may be missing out on more than this popular rite of passage, a new UCLA-led study suggests. They could be forgoing some of the greatest financial returns a college education can offer, according to the findings, which appear in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.

"We found that the highest economic return to a college education is among the students who were least likely to go to college," said Jennie E. Brand, the study's lead author and a UCLA assistant professor of sociology. The study's co-author is Yu Xie, the Otis Dudley Duncan Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan.

The economic value of a college diploma is nearly twice as high for women from disadvantaged backgrounds as for women from privileged backgrounds, the findings show. For disadvantaged men, the lift is even greater: A college education is worth three times more for them than for privileged college-goers.

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The NEA’s Convoluted Stance on Tests, Growth Models, and Accountability � The Quick and the Ed

The NEA’s Convoluted Stance on Tests, Growth Models, and Accountability � The Quick and the Ed

The NEA’s Convoluted Stance on Tests, Growth Models, and Accountability

April 1st, 2010 | Category: Accountability

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The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers union, has said they “welcome public accountability” but prefer it to be based on growth models that “acknowledge the progress that students make over time and recognize significant academic gains.” Nothing to quibble with there, except that the NEA has recently released its proposal for reauthorizing the federal accountability law (h/t Sawchuk), and it would literally make measuring student growth impossible. According to their proposal, states would be required to test students only twice, once in grades 4-6 and once in 7-9. They could, at their discretion, choose to test students once more in grades 10-12. States would no longer be required to measure Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and that’s fair, because the NEA’s rule would make this calculation impossible.
“Growth,” by definition, means you have to measure a starting and an ending place. Our current value-added models are still weaker than we’d like because they don’t have enough information about where a student starts and how they progress over time. Growth doesn’t mean much if it’s over a very long period of time, and, in the case of educational growth, it would be very hard to pin down the causes of growth between a student’s fourth and ninth grade years. Maybe that’s the NEA’s real