Santa Fe/ Governor Martinez Still Pushing Education Reform Bill
By Robert Nott
The New Mexican
October 4, 2012
Gov. Susana Martinez said Wednesday that she intends to continue to push the Legislature for a "no social promotion" bill as part of her educational reform platform for New Mexico.
The governor and Secretary of Education-designate Hanna Skandera spent much of Wednesday promoting literacy skills by reading aloud to pre-kindergartners at several Santa Fe public school sites.
The book Martinez read at Chaparral Elementary School, Lady Bug Girl and the Bug Squad, by Jacky Davis and David Soman, involves a young girl who, with the help of her dog, Bingo, starts a kids' club called the Bug Squad, while hijinks ensue.
- Referring to a mid-September Albuquerque Journal poll stating that 75 percent of voters favor putting an end to social promotion if a student cannot read at their grade level, the governor said she feels more New Mexicans are now behind her educational initiatives.
- She noted her administration's dedication of $30 million for reading assessments and reading coaches in grades K-3 to measure students' progress and said the Public Education Department needs this type of hard data to drive its reading programs over the course of this school year.
- In other education-related issues, Martinez and Skandera said the state is testing its controversial new teacher/principal evaluation system in 68 pilot schools, though none of those sites are in Santa Fe. "It's what families and communities want," Skandera said, adding, "We believe there is growing support for it."
Santa Fe Superintendent Joel Boyd - who was present at the Chaparral event Wednesday - already has announced his plans to evaluate principals and top administrators over the course of the next year, regardless of whether the Public Education Department backs it or not. On Wednesday, Skandera said she welcomes the chance to speak with Boyd about his plan: "As long as he is working to raise the bar, we look forward to working together. ... We can find a way to make it happen."
In an effort to increase communication efforts, the Public Education Department also is hosting a series of workshops this month to further inform educators and the public about the relatively new A-F school grading system, which the state officially implemented this past summer. Martinez and Skandera have repeatedly said the system allows educators and community members to hold their schools accountable, due to the ease in understanding the differences between an A, a B, a C, a D and an F.
Of the state's 831 schools, 275 received a C, 250 a D, 198 a B, 69 an F, and 39 an A as of last July.
Even critics who have embraced the notion of an A-F system have suggested that the Martinez administration has done a poor job of communicating just how the grades were compiled and why the grades at some schools changed so drastically from the beginning of the year, when the state released preliminary scores, and July, when it released the first official grades.
But when it came to ladybugs, the governor could do not wrong. Claire Wright's pre-K students at Chaparral Elementary, where Martinez read the bug tale around noon Wednesday, were enthralled with the story and did their best to answer Martinez's queries.
When the governor asked the kids what a squid is (there's a squid in the story), one said, "It's me." Another said, "A creature who lives in the ocean."
"And wraps its arms around you," another shouted.
"And makes you die," a fourth said.
One little girl sidled up to the governor to read over the latter's shoulder. "What's your name?" the governor asked the tyke.
"It starts with an N," the girl replied.
"I have to guess?" the governor said. She ran through an array of "N" names and still didn't hit pay dirt. No wonder - the girl's name is Nayeli Ortiz.
The event, which concluded with the governor passing out copies of the ladybug book to all the kids (in English and Spanish) also sported moments of unintentional humor. When the governor read a passage about an alien creature being involved in the Bug Squad's antics, she turned to the kids to ask them if they knew what an alien is.
One little girl raised her hand and said, "My mama."
~~~~~~~~~~
Rio Rancho/ RRPS Workers May Get $500
1-time payment has hit bumps
By Elaine D. Briseņo
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
October 4, 2012
Rio Rancho Public Schools employees started the school year thinking they weren't getting any extra income this year.
Then they learned they were.
Then they weren't.
Now they might.
In August, the school approved a one-time $500 payment that it called a "cost-of-living adjustment" to help employees absorb the costs of increased living expenses because they have not seen a raise since the 2008-09 school year.
The cost to the district would be $1.2 million.
But the Public Education Department sent out a memo to all school districts Sept. 20 saying these types of payments were not allowed. The PED memo was sent out by Hipolito Paul Aguilar, PED's deputy secretary of finance and operations.
- "The issue of paying employees a one-time, lump-sum payment in the middle of the school year without legislative appropriation or without receiving additional services. ... is tantamount to providing employees with a one-time bonus," he writes.
- "Such bonuses are not permitted and, on their face, violate the Anti-Donation Clause of the New Mexico Constitution."
The district appealed the ruling to the PED.
- Department spokesman Larry Behrens said in an email Wednesday to the Journal that "Rio Rancho has explained their process for issuing the payment, and PED plans to approve the action."
- Rio Rancho spokeswoman Kim Vesely said she was not aware the PED had granted the district's appeal.
During a Rio Rancho Public Schools board meeting on Sept. 10, union president Peggy Stielow criticized the $500 payments, saying they didn't begin to compensate teachers the amount they deserve.
Richard Bruce, the school district's chief operations office, emailed a letter to staff later that month, that referred to Stielow's comments.
- "Unfortunately, after the Rio Rancho School Employees Union President publicly criticized the (payment) at a School Board meeting, in the Albuquerque Journal and in an interview with KOAT Channel 7, the (PED) notified all ... school districts of the PED interpretations and restrictions on salary increases and on one-time lump sum payments."
The letter, which does not have a signature but is from the district's "administration," goes on to say "at this time RRPS is unable to provide the (payment) to our deserving staff" and that the district has appealed the decision.
Stielow did not return a phone call or an email seeking comment.
Behrens said in an email that Rio Rancho's decision did not prompt the memo.
Non-union employees were set to receive the payments and the district was negotiating with the union so its members could receive the payment as well.
~~~~~~~~~~
Clovis/ COLUMN: Schools Taking Bullying Seriously
By Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy [Instructional technology coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools]
Clovis News Journal
October 3, 2012
October is National Anti-Bully Awareness month, and the Clovis Municipal Schools is taking bullying seriously.
The bad thing about bullying in today's world is that, not only are bullies using intimidation in face-to-face encounters, but also, there is now a whole cyber-world to tap into.
However, the Clovis Municipal School District regards Internet safety, Internet usage, and attempted cyber-bullying seriously.
- Proper usage of the Internet is required by school district policy and inappropriate usage of the Internet to harass or bully others is prohibited by state law.
- CMS will investigate alleged "cyber-bullying and will discipline any students involved in this inappropriate behavior."
According to CMS School Psychologist, Glynnis Maes, "recent research has shown that a substantial number of children have been victimized by bullying and have bullied others in turn." Maes described characteristics of bullies as those who "objectify their victims, who have little or no empathy," and use of the Internet provides an environment that further encourages that sense of detachment in objectifying individuals.
"Steps to Respect," an evidenced-based program, as well as "Character Counts" are some of the tools and resources used district wide to educate students and adults alike.
Maes further explained that bullying is bad for all concerned, including the bullies. It is likely that those who demonstrate bullying behaviors have been bullied themselves, and they experience a host of problems, such as poor academic performance, dropping out of school, social problems, as well as other long-term impact. It's important not only to identify bullying and how to report it, but it is crucial that we effectively intervene.
Marshall Middle School has been particularly proactive the last couple of years in promoting zero-tolerance for bullying behaviors. Through anti-bullying curriculum, now mandated by the state, anti-bullying contests, and a host of other activities, kids are now readily coming forward to report instances that a victim may not report. These are thoroughly investigated and dealt with.
Lynn Fronk, licensed social worker (working with Cindy Terry, Marshall Middle School assistant principal) explained, "it is our hope that what we're doing will have far-reaching effects, something they (students) carry through life, so they can recognize and identify unacceptable behaviors in others, now and in the future." Great progress has been noted since the inception of their anti-bullying activities.
Marshall is hoping to spread their anti-bullying message throughout the community, so that the entire city of Clovis is maintaining the same stance: "bullying is not acceptable and will not be tolerated."
If you - as a business, parent, or concerned individual - would like to participate in anti-bullying activities, contact our main office at 769-4300.
J. K. Rowling noted, "It is our choices ... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
~~~~~~~~~~
Washington DC/Federal Grants Totaling More Than $1.2 Million to Charter Schools
U.S. Department of Education Release [Ed.gov]
October 3, 2012
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded seven Charter School Exemplary Collaboration grants totaling more than $1.2 million to support collaboration between public charter schools, traditional public schools and school districts.
Funds will be used to deepen the collaborations and share lessons learned with the education field.
Held for the first time this year, the Charter School Exemplary Collaboration grants program encourages high-quality charter schools, traditional public schools and school districts to share resources and responsibilities, build trust and teamwork, boost academic excellence, and provide students and their parents with a range of effective educational options.
- "By sharing best practices, schools can work together to solve persistent challenges in public education," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. "It is so important that we break down traditional barriers and all work together to ensure that every child gets the world-class education they deserve."
The U.S. Department of Education's Charter Schools Program (CSP) has invested more than $255 million in charter schools this year.
The purpose of the program is to:
- increase financial support for the startup and expansion of these public schools,
- build a better national understanding of the public charter school model, and
- increase the number of high-quality public charter schools across the nation.
More information about the Charter Schools Program is available from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement.
|
Grantee
|
State
|
Project
|
Total
Award
Amount
|
|
Arts and College Preparatory Academy
|
OH
|
Expand the Equality Project at Arts and College Prep to non-chartered public schools to improve their school climates by using theater to encourage conversation about bullying, exclusion, inequality, and social justice.
|
$102,900
|
|
Boston Collegiate Charter School
|
MA
|
Expand the partnership with Jeremiah E. Burke High School, a Boston Public School, to improve its academic program and culture and raise its graduation rate. Boston Collegiate will share its online portal with Burke to identify students' academic weaknesses and provide remediation.
|
$203,800
|
|
Community Day Charter Public School
|
MA
|
Expand partnership with Arlington Elementary School in Lawrence by providing a range of services including professional development for teachers, increased outreach and support for neighborhood families.
|
$199,963
|
|
Highlander Charter School
|
RI
|
Expand Highlander's school-based literacy reform program in East Providence elementary schools. Train teachers in effective assessment in order to provide frequent student assessments, identify individual areas of weakness, and target remedial efforts.
|
$169,680
|
|
IDEA Public Schools
|
TX
|
Develop partnership between two Austin schools-IDEA Allan and nearby Eastside Memorial High School. IDEA will work with Eastside school leadership on projects focused on student achievement and will help to create a neighborhood high school with the academic rigor needed to prepare students for college and careers.
|
$199,962
|
|
Jumoke Academy Schools
|
CT
|
Jumoke is collaborating with Thurman L. Milner School, a Hartford Pre K-8 school. This partnership includes: (1) developing a plan to engage Milner parents; (2) improving the school environment by addressing non-academic factors such as students' social, emotional, arts, cultural, recreational and health needs, among others; (3) using Jumoke's model for effective school leadership; (4) providing teacher and staff support; (5) making effective use of school time; (6) implementing an effective curriculum and instructional program; and (7) using data to inform decision-making.
|
$200,000
|
|
KIPP Metro Atlanta Collaborative
|
GA
|
KIPP Metro Atlanta Collaborative and B.E.S.T. Academy Middle School at Benjamin S. Carson (the Academy), an all-boys' school within Atlanta Public Schools, are partnering to implement strategies for improving student achievement and to develop a positive school climate at the Academy. This effort will increase student support for higher expectations, improve student attendance and discipline, provide professional development for teachers, and allow the principal to complete the KIPP School Leadership Principal Prep Program.
|
$160,000
|
|
|
|
Total
|
$1,236,305
|
~~~~~~~~~~
Washington DC/ Online Schools Face Backlash Amid Exploding Popularity
States question academic results
By Stephanie Simon
Reuters to Huffington Post
October 3, 2012
Virtual public schools, which allow students to take all their classes online, have exploded in popularity across the United States, offering what supporters view as innovative and affordable alternatives to the conventional classroom.
Now a backlash is building among public officials and educators who question whether the cyber-schools are truly making the grade.
- In Maine, New Jersey and North Carolina, officials have refused to allow new cyber-schools to open this year, citing concerns about poor academic performance, high rates of student turnover and funding models that appear to put private-sector profits ahead of student achievement.
- In Pennsylvania, the auditor general has issued a scathing report calling for revamping a funding formula that he said overpays online schools by at least $105 million a year.
- In Tennessee, the commissioner of education called test scores at the new Tennessee Virtual Academy "unacceptable."
- And in Florida, state education officials are investigating a virtual school after it was accused of hiring uncertified teachers; in the past two weeks two local school boards in the state have rejected proposals for virtual schools.
Some states, including Michigan, Indiana and Louisiana, are still moving aggressively to embrace online schools. But the anger and skepticism elsewhere is striking, in part because some of it comes from people who have ardently supported opening the public school system to competition.
"There's a sense that [online education] is a lot more mainstream now and we need to take a closer look at it," said Michael Horn, an advocate of digital learning at Innosight Institute, a think tank focused on education policy. "I don't think we need to put the brakes on completely, but we need tweaks to accountability models, which will slow growth."
The charter school movement
Online courses first appeared in public high schools in the early 1990s. They were promoted as a way for students in isolated rural schools to tap into advanced classes not offered in their towns, or for students at risk of dropping out to make up credits.
By the early 2000s entrepreneurs were pitching full-time online schools-perfect, they said, for athletes with heavy travel schedules, children with medical conditions that confined them at home, or almost anyone who found the hustle and bustle of neighborhood schools uncomfortable.
The concept began to take off about five years ago, as the charter school movement gained steam. Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run, in some cases by for-profit companies.
Enrollment in online-only schools, most of which are set up as charters, has jumped 30 percent in each of the last few years.
- At least 250,000 students take all their classes online, including physical education, and
- 1.8 million take at least one course online, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, which represents the industry.
- The schools are especially popular in Colorado, Washington, Ohio and Arizona, where 4 percent of public school students attend cyber-schools full-time.
Online classes sometimes use animation and video to bring topics alive, but often they resemble standard textbook lessons transferred to a computer screen.
A typical high school English unit asks teens to click through biographical information about American poet Walt Whitman, review a time line, then read four of his poems. As they work, they're prompted to write several sentences about about the poet's style and check their responses against an answer guide.
Teachers are assigned to each class, but their role varies depending on the school. Some give lectures and hold discussions online, with far-flung students participating via interactive software. Others spend most of their time answering individual questions by email.
- Public entities, such as local school districts, run some cyber-schools.
- Many, however, are operated by private companies, which receive anywhere from $3,000 to more than $13,000 in public funds for each student enrolled, depending on state and local funding formulas.
The industry leader is K12 Inc., a publicly traded company that has notched huge growth in enrollment-and profits.
- The company recently reported profits of $17.5 million on revenue of $708 million for fiscal 2012.
- Both figures are up more than 35 percent from a year earlier.
Close behind K12 is Connections Academy, a unit of educational publisher Pearson PLC. Pearson does not break out financial results for Connections.
Falling behind or catching up?
Cyber-school boosters call the programs engaging and highly personalized, since students can log in any time, from anywhere, and work at their own pace.
"Children should not be shackled to a one-size-fits-all school building the way they have been for the last 100 years," said Ronald Packard, chief executive officer of K12 Inc.
But in state after state, full-time online schools have posted poor test scores and abysmal graduation rates.
- School administrators explain that their students come in far behind and need time to catch up. Indeed, students who stick with an online school for several years see steady improvement, according to data provided by K12 and a recent study by the University of Arkansas.
Yet when researchers look at all students enrolled full-time in a virtual school-a highly transient population-they find that many actually lose ground in core academic subjects.
- Almost every cyber-school in Ohio ranked below average on student academic growth in preliminary report published by the state last week.
- A Stanford study last year found cyber-students in Pennsylvania made "significantly smaller gains in reading and math" than peers in traditional public schools.
- And Tennessee's first virtual school was slapped with the lowest possible score for student growth in recently released state rankings, putting it in the bottom 11 percent of schools.
Online school executives say the growth formulas are unfair and unrepresentative.
- Tennessee, for instance, looked at test scores from just 25 percent of the virtual school's students.
Still, the poor results are prompting caution in many jurisdictions. In Maine, the Charter School Commission this summer refused to authorize two online schools even though they were pet projects of Governor Paul LePage.
"How do you evaluate the quality of the courses?" asked Jana Lapoint, chair of the commission.
In Pennsylvania, Republican State Representative Mike Fleck is pushing a bill that would-for the first time-set minimum standards for how much time online students must spend on coursework; limit public funding for virtual schools; and curb their spending on lobbying and advertising.
"This is taxpayer money," said Jack Wagner, the state's auditor general, who was one of a handful of Democrats to back charter schools in the 1990s but now finds the online model deeply flawed. "During tough economic times, we have to be very watchful of that-and right now, in Pennsylvania, we are not."
Similar rhetoric comes out of Colorado, where the state Department of Education has announced a more rigorous process for reviewing proposed cyber-schools, so they're "not just rubber-stamped, which is sort of how it was in the past," said Amy Anderson, an associate commissioner.
Packard, the K12 CEO, who earned about $5 million last year in salary and stock awards, dismisses critiques of online schools as "negative propaganda" put out by teachers unions, school boards and others with vested interests in the status quo.
"It's like buggy-whip manufacturers saying, 'Cars aren't the solution,' " Packard said. Stepped-up regulation and delays in school authorizations are "just little obstacles in the road," he said. "I'm extremely bullish."
But other charter school operators say they're disappointed in their results and welcome thoughtful suggestions from state officials.
"Let's not say everything is wonderful and this is all working great, because it's obviously not," said Barbara Dreyer, CEO of Connections Academy.
Connections has spent heavily to reduce class sizes, train teachers and revamp curriculum, but student scores have not risen significantly, Dreyer said. So her team is sorting through data to try to pinpoint why some kids flourish and others flounder online. "We really have to figure this out," she said.
New Jersey Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, a Democrat, agrees.
"We have to learn from the mistakes of other states who have unleashed this and may be seeing the drawbacks," she said.
The New Jersey Department of Education authorized nine new charter schools to open this fall but ordered a proposed statewide virtual school-which would have been the first in New Jersey-to spend another year working on academics and logistics. In the meantime, Wagner is holding hearings on the promise and pitfalls of virtual schools.
"I'm not closing the door on it," Wagner said. "But we have to do it right."
~~~~~~~~~~
Orlando FL/ New State Pre-K Test Draws Concerns from Educators
Social and emotional skills seen getting short shrift
By Lesli A. Maxwell
Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 5 [Edweek.org]
September 26, 2012 [posted online 10/4/12]
Teachers at Orlando Day Nursery in Florida have always evaluated how well their 4-year-old prekindergartners-most of them poor and African-American-could recognize letters, isolate sounds in words, understand stories read to them, and show other hallmarks of early literacy.
Just as important, though, have been the teachers' formal observations of social and emotional development: Could children follow instructions, for example, and make friends and cooperate in a group?
But under a new standardized assessment required by the state to measure how the nearly 184,000 4-year-olds in Florida's voluntary prekindergarten program are doing in early literacy, numeracy, and language development, some early-education providers say those key social skills will be discounted as evidence of how well they are preparing pupils for kindergarten.
- Voicing concerns that resonate around the country, early-childhood advocates fear that the state's pre-K providers-under pressure to demonstrate children's progress on academic indicators-will focus only on developing those skills.
- "With the assessments we were using before, you could really get to know the strengths of each child and clearly identify what you needed to work on to help them develop," said Mata Dennis, the director of Orlando Day Nursery, which serves the children of low-income families in west Orlando, including 57 students in the voluntary prekindergarten program.
- "The new assessment does not give us the same quality of knowledge about every child," she said.
Assessments Vary
The issues in Florida reflect an ongoing national debate over how best to evaluate the school-readiness skills of young children, especially as a growing number of states provide publicly funded preschool programs for low-income families and want to ensure that the money is spent well.
- Roughly half the states now use some form of a kindergarten-entry or -readiness assessment, but there are huge variations in which skills and knowledge are measured and how states use the results to make policy and instructional decisions, said Kyle Snow, the director of the Center for Applied Research at the Washington-based National Association for the Education of Young Children.
- And while momentum around using assessments to measure and improve quality has picked up even more since the U.S. Department of Education announced its Race to the Top Early-Learning Challenge grants for states last year, establishing broad agreement among early-childhood educators and K-12 practitioners on what constitutes school readiness and measuring that accurately is a work in progress everywhere, Mr. Snow said.
If states are going to require assessments, Mr. Snow said, it's imperative to proceed with care in deciding when, how, and why they are doing so, and to make sure all facets of a child's development and learning are evaluated.
"This is profound," he said. "To really understand where a child is, you have to look across multiple areas of development."
Samuel Meisels, the president of the Chicago-based Erikson Institute and a national authority on assessing young children, said that while states justifiably want to know if their pre-K investments are paying off, "readiness for school is not an absolute," and that assessments need to be able to detect nuances and different ways children display readiness.
"We're not talking about whether someone is ready to drive a car," he said. "It's about readiness for the ability to learn in a certain context and situation, which is going to look different for different kids in different classrooms, different schools, and different communities."
Dispute in Florida
Florida's voluntary prekindergarten program-known popularly as VPK-started seven years ago, and has grown into the nation's second-largest public prekindergarten program, after Texas.
- In 2012-13, the state will spend $413 million to provide prekindergarten services through a network of private preschools and child-care centers, as well as some public schools.
- The estimated enrollment of nearly 184,000 children represents roughly 84 percent of all of Florida's 4-year-olds.
- Any child who turns 4 by Sept. 1 is eligible to participate;
- there is no family-income requirement.
The new assessment-developed by researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee-was mandated by a state law that specified that a child's knowledge and skills in early literacy, math, and language be measured and used to judge how well a provider was performing, said Mary Jane Tappen, the state education agency's deputy chancellor for curriculum, instruction, and student services.
- The assessment-which will be given at the beginning of the school year and again at the end of the school year-is also designed to give providers clear guidance on how to improve, she said.
- "The assessment is based exactly on the Florida standards for 4-year-olds and is geared toward those early-literacy and -numeracy skills that we know are critical and predictive of how well a child is going to do in school," Ms. Tappen said.
Currently, pre-K providers are evaluated on how well their former pupils perform on a two-part kindergarten-readiness test that many educators say does not accurately discern what role a pre-K program played in children's preparation versus the role of parents.
- Within three years, the test will determine whether prekindergarten providers must take prescribed steps to improve their services or risk losing their funding, Ms. Tappen said.
But to the dismay of many in Florida's early-childhood community, the new test does not evaluate children's social and emotional or physical development, even though those areas are in the state's standards for early-childhood programs.
- "This does not assess all of the standards we have here in Florida, and it does not assess the exact standards that everything in the research literature is telling us are the most important ones," said Kathleen Reynolds, the chief executive officer of the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida, a nonprofit organization that helps coordinate state-funded school-readiness programs in four counties, including voluntary prekindergarten.
- "It's like saying your height will predict your reading ability," she said.
The same objections were raised earlier this year by members of the statewide advisory council on early-childhood issues, which urged Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, to halt the new assessments.
But Gerard Robinson, then the state schools chief, wrote in a letter to the panel in July that the test is a "sound assessment" that "provides Florida's VPK teachers with information related to children that drives instruction in the classroom."
Tests in English
The assessment is also administered only in English, despite the state's large population of English-language learners.
- Ms. Tappen said that's because the language of instruction in all voluntary prekindergarten programs is English, making it "inappropriate" to assess a child's skills in his or her primary language.
- Ms. Reynolds said not offering the test in other languages, particularly Spanish and Haitian Creole, will only make providers reluctant to serve English-learners.
- "It's penalizing the child, and it penalizes the providers who work with these kids," she said.
Despite the strong disagreement over the VPK test, providers are moving ahead with administering the first "pre-assessment" of the new school year. Many will also conduct their own formal observations of children to evaluate how they are developing socially and emotionally, Ms. Reynolds said.
For the 20-minute-long state assessment, a child is pulled out of the regular flow of activities by a teacher and is asked to answer a series of questions, mostly by pointing to answers on a flip book, said Ms. Dennis of Orlando Day Nursery, whose school was a pilot site for the assessment last year.
The children have a few opportunities to answer out loud, she said, "but mostly they just point."
Ms. Dennis said her teachers will still use the observation tool they have relied on for years to capture all dimensions of how children are developing.
"We are doing that because it's the right thing to do," she said. "But it does add another layer of responsibility for teachers on top of this new assessment."
~~~~~~~~~~
Concord NH/ Charter Freeze Triggers Backlash, Scramble to Repeal
By Sean Cavanagh
Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 6 [Edweek.org]
October 3, 2012
A recent decision by the New Hampshire board of education to place a moratorium on new charter schools drew an angry response from elected officials and parents-and underscored recurrent tensions among state and local officials across the country about how to fund those schools and manage their growth.
- As of last week, state legislators and board members in New Hampshire said they were confident that they could reach an agreement to lift the hold on charters, which was put in place Sept. 19.
- But that optimism was also tempered by the board's questions about the state's longer-term plans for funding charter school growth.
Concerns about charter school oversight, amid rising enrollment, also were raised recently in a very different educational setting: the Los Angeles Unified School District, where a school board member recommended postponing the review of new charter school applications, pending a number of policy changes.
The concerns raised in New Hampshire, while specific to that state, have emerged in various forms elsewhere, as charters expand and occupy an increasing share of the public school market, said Robin Lake, the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, at the University of Washington.
"The financial question has always been central to the charter school debate," said Ms. Lake, adding that charters' continued growth will require policymakers concerned about funding and oversight to "sit down with charter schools and work out solutions."
Growth Pressures
Forty-one states allow charter schools, and one of the nine that does not, Washington, will allow voters to decide Nov. 6 on whether that policy should be changed. Over time, the trend has been for states to remove restrictions on charter school growth.
A decade ago, 23 states, plus the District of Columbia, had caps either on the number of charter schools that could open per year, or overall, according to the Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based organization that supports those schools. Just 14 states have those types of caps today.
Outright moratoriums on charter schools are rare.
- In most of the handful of states where they have been implemented, those policies were approved by legislatures where there was political resistance to charters, and as support for charters grew, those bans did not stay on the books for long, said Todd Ziebarth, the vice president for state advocacy and support at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, in Washington.
New Hampshire lawmakers previously had approved a moratorium on new charters, which lasted from 2007 to 2010, at which point legislators nixed it as they prepared to compete for federal Race to the Top funding. That federal competition discouraged state-imposed limits on charters.
The state's most recent moratorium came about last month.
- Board members voted unanimously to take that step after arguing that state legislators had not provided funding to cover the costs of eight charter schools approved over the previous two years, leaving a $5 million shortfall.
- New Hampshire currently has 17 state-approved charter schools, and there are 15 at some stage of seeking approval to open.
In a letter explaining the decision, board Chairman Tom Raffio said the panel "continues to be supportive of charter schools," but said it would be inappropriate to clear more of them to open, without additional funding.
The action by the nonpartisan, appointed state board disappointed Karin Cevasco, a parent who began work last year planning to open a charter in Nashua that would integrate arts across the curriculum.
The process for securing approval from the state board already had been a laborious one, and the moratorium only added to the uncertainty, she said. Not having state approval has made it difficult to secure property for the school, said Ms. Cevasco, who hopes to send her two children to the new charter. The possibility of the moratorium lifting buoyed her spirits somewhat, she said, but supporters of the proposed Gate City Charter School for the Arts still have a lot of work to do to open by next fall, as they envision.
"We've worked for a year and a half" on the project, Ms. Cevasco said. "We're doing what we can to prepare for the opening of the school. ... We're confident in our model."
The board's move also drew sharp criticism from the New Hampshire Center for Innovative Schools, which said the board and the state's department of education could have avoided the shortfall by giving state lawmakers more accurate projections about charter school growth.
"The rationale and logic on this was terrible," said Matt Southerton, the director of the Concord-based group.
But Mr. Raffio said that while coordination between the department and legislators could have been better, projecting future school enrollment, and the costs of individual charters, is difficult.
Seeking a Solution
As of last week, Mr. Raffio and state Rep. Kenneth Weyler, Republican chairman of the House Finance Committee, both said in interviews that they were confident that the state could end the impasse and find the charter school funding to address the state board's immediate concerns.
Mr. Weyler also chairs the legislature's joint fiscal committee, which he said has the power under state law to shift funding within the state's budget without a full act of the legislature-and thus could move the $5 million to meet charter school costs. The committee is likely to take that step at a meeting late this month, he said.
Mr. Raffio said he will recommend that the board of education wait until after the fiscal committee votes to move the money before his panel takes action, probably in November.
"The proof is going to be in the pudding," Mr. Raffio said. Legislators "all seem super-confident" that the funding will be provided, he said. "If they're that confident, all I'm looking for is that they codify that."
Mr. Raffio added that he hoped the fiscal committee would go a step further and provide some guarantee that the costs of future charter school growth would also be covered, so the issue doesn't emerge again. He said he was not sure what the board would do if state lawmakers don't agree to take that step.
State Variations
New Hampshire's overall approach to funding charters does not make it easy to accommodate growth and shifts in demand for those schools, argued Mr. Ziebarth of the national charter alliance. In many states, money for charters is rolled into the state's overall school funding formula, which allows for money to be reallocated between charter schools and regular public schools based on need.
- In New Hampshire, charter schools are funded as a separate line item, which requires state officials to make projections about enrollment.
- In Los Angeles, questions about a school system's capacity to cope with charter school growth, while also ensuring they are adequately regulated, emerged last month, when district board member Steve Zimmer proposed a resolution calling for the system to hold off reviewing new charter school applications for the time being.
Mr. Zimmer, whose resolution is scheduled to be heard by the board Oct. 9, raised concerns about several issues, including charters serving a relatively small portion of students with moderate to severe disabilities-a long-standing concern in the district-and the lack of consistent reporting from those schools on issues such as disciplinary policy, parent engagement, and closing achievement gaps.
The board member says he is a charter school supporter. But he questioned whether the district has the capacity to monitor the quality of a charter system that now enrolls 110,000 students. He said that the board often gives scant reviews to charter applications before approving them.
"We have to make sure we're providing a baseline of oversight in what's become a radically deregulated environment," Mr. Zimmer said. The district needs to begin a process for "completely overhauling how we consider charter applications," he said, one that will ensure that for parents weighing school options, "every choice is a quality choice."
That proposal has drawn the objections of the California Charter Schools Association, which has called for crackdowns on low-performing charters but believes the independent schools in the district's 664,000-student system are put through extensive review by district staff, said Jed Wallace, the group's president.
The resolution is "a solution in search of a problem," Mr. Wallace said. "The portfolio of schools in Los Angeles are performing very well."
~~~~~~~~~~
Washington DC/ Educate The Educator: New Initiative to Better Prepare Teachers for Instructing Military Kids
By Stacy A. Anderson
Huffington Post
October 3, 2013
Madeline Stevens knows what it's like to be a military brat.
"The first week of school, it's really hard," said Stevens, a 17-year-old from Jacksonville, Fla., who has moved eight times with her naval aviator father and attended 10 different schools. "You sit by yourself at lunch, you try and make friends in classes. When you're younger it's easier because, you know, you just share crayons, and you're new best friends."
But in high school Stevens said she's had to integrate herself into sports and clubs to make friends, many of whom already have known each other most of their lives. The shuffle also has been a strain academically.
Moving can be tough for any child, but it can be even harder for children of military families, who, like Stevens, may relocate more frequently.
- They must leave friends behind and get acclimated to new schools that may have a different curriculum than the one they left behind.
- And the emotional impact of having a deployed parent can also include worry and anxiety, said Mary Ann Rafoth, dean of Robert Morris University's School of Education and Social Sciences.
"Most of us go through each day not realizing that we're a nation at war. But those kids do," she said. "They often feel like they're carrying that burden alone."
However, educators often don't have the tools to help military children cope.
A new initiative being launched Wednesday by first lady Michelle Obama and the vice president's wife, Jill Biden, is designed to better prepare educators instructing military-connected children.
- "Operation: Educate the Educator" already has a commitment from more than 100 colleges offering teaching degrees.
The Obama administration has partnered with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Military Child Education Coalition to help military children as they face social, emotional and learning challenges in the classroom while having an active-duty parent.
The colleges that have signed on have agreed to incorporate information about military children in the training curriculums for student teachers, push faculty and student teachers to do research on military children and require student teachers to work with military children as part of their final clinical experience or internship.
The guidelines also encourage the colleges to work with admissions offices to identify military children, offer workshops and seminars to faculty and student teachers, and partner with K-12 schools for joint development programs.
There are nearly 2 million students whose parents are either on active duty, members of the National Guard or Reserves or military veterans, according to the Military Child Education Coalition.
- Students often move six to nine times during their preschool through high school education.
- More than 80 percent of the 1.1 million-plus K-12 students attend public schools.
Biden said she was moved by a story of a little girl who burst into tears when "Ave Maria" played at her school's Christmas program because the song had also been played at the funeral of father, who died in Iraq.
- "It was so shocking to me that that teacher really was unaware that this girl had a daddy who was in the military," she said. "We have to make sure that we can identify the military children and that we can do things to celebrate military families."
Biden said it was inevitable that the education of military children would become part of Joining Forces, the initiative she launched with Mrs. Obama in 2011 to support military families. The campaign also has helped formerly deployed soldiers seek employment stateside and has aided spouses.
- "We say, when you have a family member who is in the military service, the families serve too," she said. "Think of the pressures on the families, and so they're all in this together."
Robert Morris University, located in Moon Township, Pa., near Pittsburgh, serves a large community of the military children with the nearby Air Force Reserve base.
- All education majors at Robert Morris attend weekly seminars to discuss the challenges of student teaching with their school faculty.
- Starting this semester, one of the sessions will be devoted to discussing the needs of children with parents in the military who are deployed, stateside or veterans.
Rafoth, who will lead the session, said the constant moving can cause "holes in instruction," rather than cognitive issues for the student.
"This especially happens with math instruction because math curricula vary place to place, and it's possible you can go around and never get fractions because those are taught in a discrete place in the curriculum," she said. "Then, boy, are you up a creek when you meet algebra."
Almost 10 percent of the 24,000 students at Kansas State University are military-connected since there are three military bases in the state.
- The university's College of Education will hold a special session on the needs of the military-connected families at its educational symposium, an annual career day for about 500 students.
- The school also will incorporate information about military children into a required teaching course, Core Teaching Skills, about effective teaching and learning.
Debbie Mercer, the college's dean, said military children deal with anxiety and fear of the unknown. Those issues can manifest in the classroom with a student becoming withdrawn or acting out, she said.
"Being able to reach that child where they are, help figure out exactly what is going on and then come up with a plan for that child is important," she said.
~~~~~~~~~~
Washington DC/ COLUMN: Pearson's New Chief on the Business of Education
By Valerie Strauss [The Answer Sheet daily column]
Washington Post
October 3, 2012
Pearson, the world's largest education company, just announced that John Fallon takes over as the chief executive officer in January after working for a decade to help the company expand its international education business.
Pearson, seen as a major player in corporate-style education reform, has a large and controversial presence in U.S. public education.
- The company earns billions of dollars for publishing textbooks and curriculum and standardized tests, including the one given this year in New York that caused a furor when a badly worded question about a talking pineapple became news.
- Pearson recently purchased an online charter school network to have a presence in that business space.
- Last year it joined with the American Council on Education to both redevelop the General Education Development Test, the high school diploma equivalent exam known as the GED, and to turn it from a nonprofit program to a for-profit business.
Those are just some of Pearson's businesses.
Below is a video on which Fallon explains his strategy and priorities. Here's some of what he says on a company video:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/pearsons-new-chief-on-the-business-of-education/2012/10/03/a3a727fc-0d8b-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_blog.html
What's important is the strategies that have driven the growth of our education business are the same strategies that have driven the success of the Financial Times and Penguin.
They are Pearson group strategies, not education specific, and those strageies are digital transformation, getting much more engaged in delivering high quality effective services... and they are also about increasing exposure and playing a much bigger role in those fast-growing emerging markets....
For the last 10 years I've been working with colleagues around the world to build our international education business. I think the financial results are probably fairly well known.
We've quadrupled sales, profits have increased more than 15-fold in that decade, but much much more importantly, we've been building sizeable, scaleable businesses in some of the fastest growing economies of the world, in China, in Brazil, in India, across sub-Saharan Africa and the like ... and we're meeting a rapidly growing and universal need for high-quality, effective, accessible and affordable education.
You've got a rapidly growing middle class who really recognize the value of education, are ambitious for themselves and their children, and are hungry to see a better and more affordable effective education. ... We're only just getting started.
