Farmington/ Secretary of Education-Designate Hanna Skandera Discusses School Grades

By Jenny Kane

Farmington Daily News

October 11, 2012

Few parents showed for the last-minute public meeting held with Secretary of Education-Designate Hanna Skandera and local educators.

"Maybe they didn't want parents to show up," said Mitch Burns, parent of a second- and third-grader at Country Club Elementary School.

The Public Education Department announced Tuesday late afternoon that it hoped the public would attend its Thursday morning meeting with local educators.

Burns and a handful of other parents did show, though the information seemed redundant, and did not answer all their questions.

"It's a start. I at least understand it better than AYP," said Burns.

The new A through F grading system applied to schools replaces the former Adequate Yearly Progress system, which for years left the majority of schools floundering without much feedback on how they might improve themselves.

• In 2011, about 87 percent of New Mexico's schools failed AYP. If the state continued using those same standards this year, about 98 percent of those schools would have failed.
• The new system launched this year aims to assess schools based on various components, all of which are individually graded.
• The schools are graded on test scores, ability to improve test scores, and also overall learning environment. High school grades also factor in graduation rates and ability to prepare students for a college education or career.
• Since all 831 schools received their first report cards, the Public Education Department has engaged with its audience an "unprecedented" amount, Skandera said.

The department's school grading web page alone has had 500,000 hits alone since the school grades' release, she said.

Yet, looking at the grades takes more than a glimpse, as the department provides a wealth of information about each school's student population and its performance during standardized testing.

"I believe in data," Skandera said.

Most educators still were unsure of how to interpret all of the data, and how accurately it portrayed the strengths and weaknesses of each school.

"This gives us real data to focus in on ... but it's difficult to make the transition with the new Common Core standards," said Richard "RJ" Macsalka, district instructional coach for Central Consolidated School District.

The Common Core curriculum is readily being adopted by 48 states in the country in an effort to standardize learning around the country.

"We're unveiling this report card, but we're also making this transition to new standards," said Macsalka.

The secretary answered all of her audience's questions, though not always the answers they wanted to hear.

"I don't believe there's a magic bullet in education," Skandera said. "But we can use these components to make our schools better."

The secretary tentatively has scheduled similar regional meetings in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Roswell, all expected to be open to the community.

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Raton/ Summer Program Boosts Reading Skills

By Bob Morris, Staff Writer

Raton Range

October 12, 2012

To help promote reading, a Columbian Elementary School teacher held a summer program that gave students incentives to read more books.

Wanda Henson discussed the program during Monday's Raton school board meeting.

She had invited a number of students to participate in the program, with 13 attending regular sessions during the summer.

Henson said the reason she started the program was to ensure that students who finished the school year reading at their particular grade level would be encouraged to continue reading during the summer months and thus keep their skills sharp.

She said she specifically picked students who "showed a lot of growth and that I didn't want to lose that growth."

• The students met with Henson for two hours each session, participating in games that helped improve reading skills.
• The students also read books during the summer, with rewards given for how much reading they completed. S
• everal high school students volunteered their time to help the younger students with reading.

Henson said she received a pair of grants that she used to purchase prizes for incentives.

Raton schools Superintendent Dave Willden said Henson went "above and beyond the call of duty" with her efforts to encourage students to read.

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Santa Fe/ Blast-Off: Capshaw Middle School Students Get Lift from Rocket Launches

By Robert Nott

The New Mexican

October 11, 2012

Until about 3 p.m. Thursday you could have put out a sign near Capshaw Middle School reading "Missing: one model rocket, approximately 40 inches tall, last seen floating toward the ground with the help of a parachute near the intersection of West Zia Road and Botulph Road around 10:35 a.m. Thursday morning."

The rocket in question took off from the athletic field at Capshaw Middle School on Zia. It was one of 100 launched at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning from 100 schools around the state as part of a celebration of space exploration, rocketry and New Mexico's centennial birthday.

But this one disappeared somewhere in the neighborhood southeast of the school, and despite the one-hour search efforts of two Santa Fe High School students (both former Capshaw students) and a New Mexican reporter, it still was not found as of mid-day. But by 3 p.m., a Botulph neighbor returned the rocket - with the fins missing - to the school.

The New Mexico Centennial organization provided 100 large Estes Leviathan rockets to 100 schools with instructions for assembly and launch. Participating schools also received a lesson plan about the state's scientific and rocketry contributions and a copy of both the novel Rocket Boys and the movie that book inspired, October Sky. Those stories relate the adventures of a coal-miner's son in rural West Virginia, 1957, who dreams of launching rockets into the sky despite his father's opposition.

In Santa Fe, El Dorado Community School, the Academy for Technology and the Classics, and Capshaw Middle School all planned to take part in pre-orchestrated rocket launches at 10:30.But according to El Dorado science teacher Hope Cahill, that school has postponed its launch until later in the year.

As for Capshaw's rocket, it actually went off about 10:34, after the first attempt - made at the end of a dramatic 10-second count-down by the roughly 480 students (plus staff members) - fizzled out at 10:30.

A groan of disappointment filled the bleachers surrounding the athletic field as the school's 7th and 8th graders, among others, wondered aloud why the rocket hadn't taken off.

Science teacher Christy Krenek, who oversaw the launch, worked with other staff members on the field to see what went awry. It turns out an alligator clip designed to ground two electric fuses together wasn't hooked on correctly.

While Krenek and others worked to reset the rocket, students in the stands caught the sight of a strange metallic-grey object floating over nearby St. Michael's High School. It moved slowly toward the Capshaw athletic field. One boy wondered if St. Michael's had set off its own rocket, while another suggested it was a UFO. Upon closer examination, the object seemed to be a balloon.

"Maybe we'll hit it and bring it down," one spectator said.

Eighth-grade students Jose Tapia and Gabe Mu�oz, who are in Krenek's science class, sat in the stands and recalled setting off home-made bottle rockets when they were kids. They both agreed that teens today just don't do this sort of thing anymore. Reflecting back on their reading of Rocket Boys, they both said it would have been fun for them to have lived in the 1950s, when everyone was still fascinated with outer space and the cars were ultra cool.

But when the first rocket launch didn't launch, both shirked responsibility for the misfire. "We didn't work on the engine," one of them explained.

Nearby, art teacher Kennan Girdner sat in the stands sketching the scene playing out on the field before him. "We're hoping it doesn't cause a retaliatory strike," he said as launch-effort two approached.

After Krenek reset the rocket on the launch pad, the students in the stand began another count-down, from five to zero. As if on cue, when the students got to the words "Blast off!" the rocket soared into the sky - but not directly up, as expected.

Instead it careened wildly southeast over the stands and down the road, perhaps reaching a height of about 500 feet (the notes on the rocket package itself suggest these rockets can go as high as 1,500 feet) before the parachute opened. Then it floated downward, disappearing behind some trees down the road.

Krenek was happy with the event, which had seemed to cheer everyone up. She said she has used the lesson plan to emphasize the state's history in science, nuclear physics and rocketry.

"For most of these students, this is something new," she said, noting that most kids today probably don't set off toy rockets like their predecessors in the 1960s and 1970s may have done. "The kids will remember this moment in their lives when they think back to their eighth-grade science class as something cool that they got to do."

Ona Johnson, director of New Mexico Centennial, said by phone Wednesday that the state wanted to "create a moment to remember for the teachers and students involved." She said her department put out a call for entries last spring, and then basically chose the first 100 schools to respond.

She noted that this coming December marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 17 mission, which was the last manned moon trip in the Apollo program. New Mexico resident and former senator Harrison Schmitt was one of the three astronauts on Apollo 17; he is scheduled to appear at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo on Friday, Oct. 12, as part of the centennial celebration, according to Johnson.

Krenek said she plans to display the rocket somewhere in the school.

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Santa Fe/ Rocket Malfunctions Become Teaching Tool

By T.S. Last

ABQ Journal Staff Writer

October 12, 2012 

Five hundred Capshaw Middle School students seated in the grandstand at the football field Thursday morning began the countdown.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven ..."

They were counting in unison with the recorded voice of International Space Station Commander Sunita Williams, awaiting the blastoff of a 42-inch model rocket from its launch pad at roughly the 50-yard line.

"... six, five, four, three ..."

It was one of 100 rockets slated to launch at 10:30 a.m. from schoolyards around the state as part of New Mexico's centennial celebration.

"... two, one, blast off!"

But nothing happened. The rocket students in Christy Krenek's science class had christened "Falcon" remained poised on its perch.

Houston, we have a problem.

After flight technicians, specifically Krenek and another teacher, Mark Daley, attended to the issue, the countdown was repeated.

"... three, two, one, blast off!"

Again, nothing.

This time, Krenek and Daley diagnosed the problem. A faulty fuse appeared to be the gremlin grounding this flight. A switcheroo and the countdown began again.

"... three, two, one, blast off!"

With that, the rocket's engine ignited. Smoke spewed from the projectile. The crowd cheered as the rocket rose about 40 feet into the air, then took a hard turn to the east.

Some caught glimpses of it floating lazily back to earth after its parachute had deployed, but a recovery crew couldn't locate the Falcon after an hour long search.

But later a man living on Botulph Road, a block away from the school, found it in his backyard and brought it back to the school.

"The fins are a little loose, but everything is still together," Krenek reported.

Following the launch, Krenek returned to her third period class and wrote "Why did it not lift off the first time?" on the white board, leaving students to ponder the question.

"There was a malfunction. Something was wrong with the wire," one student answered.

"The button didn't work," another speculated.

"The fuse didn't connect," said a third.

Krenek then explained in technical terms just exactly what went wrong.

"We have these alligator clips that had to connect to the fuse by these itty bitty wires," she said. "The first time what happened was one of the alligator clips slid off the itty bitty wires."

On the second attempt, Krenek said there was a connection and, standing 30 feet away, she heard a snap, crackle and pop.

"Then Mr. Daley and I decided to change the fuse," she said.

When Krenek asked her class what they thought of the launch, the responses she got were "cool," "awesome," and "amazing."

Prior to the launch, Krenek explained that the event was part of the Centennial Education Rocket Project, a program initiated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Capshaw was one of 100 schools statewide selected to participate. Each school was supplied with a kit to build the rocket and a lesson plan focusing on New Mexico's rich history in rocketry and science.

"We're just kind of in the beginning stages of that," Krenek said, adding that as part of the program her students were reading "October Sky."

"As we're reading, we're talking about rocketry. We'll talk about forces of motion, Newton's Laws and gravity - all with the rocket as a focus."

Despite the delay, Krenek declared their mission had been accomplished.

"The kids have been talking about it all day long - not only my students but students from the general population came up to me and said how exciting it had been. The teachers, too. Everybody couldn't stop talking about it," she said.

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Farmington/ New Mexico Celebrates Centennial with 100 Rocket Launches

By Jenny Kane

Farmington Daily News

October 11, 2012

From outer space, NASA Commander Sunita Williams waited to count down for 100 rocket launches at 100 schools in New Mexico on Thursday.

"Are you ready for the countdown?" Williams asked from the International Space Station, heard over speakers at each school.

Locally, eight schools were on the edge of their seats, waiting for their own rockets to take off, including:

• Piedra Vista High School,
• Tibbetts Middle School,
• Esperanza Elementary School, and
• McKinley Elementary School in Farmington;
• Charlie Y. Brown Alternative High School,
• Mesa Alta Junior High School, and
• Central Primary School in Bloomfield; and
• Northwest High School in Shiprock.

The remaining 92 schools were from all over the state, all of them taking part in the launch as a way to celebrate the state's 100 years of history, especially that which is rooted in space technology.

From the White Sands Missile Range to Spaceport America, the students learned about it all.

Even the teachers were excited.

"It's going to be kind of neat that we're going to hear the voice of a human being that's not even on the planet," said Kevin Beckner, a Piedra Vista teacher whose freshman honors physical science class organized the launch at their school.

All participating schools received a kit to build a large model rocket, accompanied by instructions for assembly and launch.

Schools also received an accompanying lesson plan and curriculum, which included a copy of the feature film "October Sky," chronicling a young man's effort to build a rocket despite a small town upbringing.

• "The example set by astronauts like Commander Williams serves as an inspiration to the hundreds of students that will participate in this event," said Veronica Gonzales, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs secretary.

The Department of Cultural Affairs donated the 100 rockets to the schools, along with the additional materials.

• "Launching this rocket, and watching it soar 1,500 feet allows my imagination to run wild and let me think maybe one of us could be the next scientist working on White Sands Missile Range developing mind-boggling technology," said Brandy McCoy, one of the freshman who worked on the rocket at Piedra Vista.

Students squealed as the countdowns began Tuesday, many of them anxiously awaiting the rocket's race into the air. If any larger, the two-and-a-half foot tall model rocket would have had to airport clearance.

"... Three, two, one," Williams counted down Tuesday.

For some, the students gasped as their rockets hesitated, then they cheered in relief as the rockets shot off with a burst of steam left behind.

Momentarily, the rockets were out of sight, leaving audiences peering upward until they saw a small red parachute tumbling down with the rocket still attached.

Students called the event "a blast."

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Portales/ Bullying Prevention: Elementary Students Participate in National Awareness Month

By Alisa Boswell

Portales News-Tribune Staff Writer

October 11, 2012

A dozen first-graders at James Elementary School listened attentively as school counselor Shirley Tapia read a book to them.

"I don't like those kids. I don't want to play with them," Tapia read out loud from "The Juice Box Bully," a book about a boy who throws juice at fellow students and steals things.

All week, the hallways at James Elementary were covered in the anti-bullying artwork of first- and second-grade students as they participated in National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month.

• Tapia said the school is emphasizing with the first- and second-graders how to exercise nice behavior and how to set a good example for others.
• Tapia said last week, students talked to about bullying while in physical education class and made posters against bullying in art class.
• This week, stories were read to each classroom. Next week will include another bullying story with student worksheets.

Tapia said school faculty wanted to focus on anti-bullying for the whole month rather than just a week.

"There's not a lot (of bullying) that goes on here, but it happens in other places all the time and we just want them to know what to do," Tapia said. "We're just trying to be proactive."

Tapia said although bullying becomes more of a problem in schools when children are older, it can still happen at times at the kindergarten through second-grade level and small children can observe the behavior in adults and older children outside of school.

First-grader Esperanza Cruz said she has already experienced bullying.

"When I was in kindergarten, I was bullied a lot," she said. "Kids would say mean things to me. It made me feel sad and kind of mad."

Esperanza said it is important to stop bullying, because it hurts people's feelings.

"You should try to help people to learn to not bully to make bullying a thing of the past," she said. "You can talk to them and tell them not to bully anymore."

Esperanza pointed out that forgiving people for bullying is important in teaching them to be nice.

First-grader Angelique Marez agreed.

"You don't have to use tough words to stand up," Angelique said. "Just say it nicely."

Tapia said rather than the school putting emphasis on anyone being a bully, they put emphasis on how to exercise nice behavior and setting a good example.

• "We don't use the word bullying a lot," she said of school faculty. "Bullying can sound negative so when we have a bullying prevention class, we focus on treating others the way you want to be treated rather than telling anyone they are bullying others."

Tapia said bullying prevention classes are rarely held at the school and are held only if there is a repetitive problem with bullying.

She said this month is a rare exception to not using the word, because teachers want their students to recognize what bullying looks like.

"We talk about how we're not perfect and if we make a bad choice, there's always tomorrow," she said. "We encourage them to make good choices and be good examples."

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Espa�ola/ Deferment Program Offers Options to Illegal Students

By Louis McGill

Rio Grande Sun Staff Writer

October 11, 2012

President Barack Obama's deferred action policy has given undocumented immigrants in Northern New Mexico a reason to hope, despite a future dependent on the general election results.

The policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ("DACA") went into effect Aug. 15, allowing undocumented immigrants, who came to the U.S. as children, to request the Department of Homeland Security defer deportation for two years if the immigrant can meet certain criteria. One such requirement is a history of school enrollment. The program also allows those accepted, to apply for work authorization and a social security number, if they can demonstrate an economic necessity for employment.

The policy is meant to free up enforcement resources to focus on the removal of those who pose a threat to national security or public safety, including violent criminals, felons, and repeat offenders.

Espa�ola resident LuzHilda Campos recently started the application process after consulting with a lawyer. Campos is an undocumented immigrant student and activist who has lived in Espa�ola since she was brought to the United States by her family at age four.

• Campos said she is completing an associate degree in human services, psychology, and Spanish language at Santa Fe Community College and takes classes at the University of New Mexico.
• Her education began at Head Start in Espa�ola and attended Espa�ola public schools until leaving Espa�ola Valley High School to transfer to Pojoaque, after becoming dissatisfied with her education there.

"I chose this because I am a student and I am an activist and I do qualify, so I think if we've been fighting for something for so long then why let this opportunity go by?" she said.

In fact, Campos said she first ran into the barriers imposed by her immigration status when she was applying for college. She was a bright student in high school, so many universities offered her scholarships. All of them asked for a social security number.

"And I think that's when I really recognized it," she said. "I recognized that I have a limitation, but that's not the end. That's when I became an activist. I said there's no way that I can sit around and wait for someone else to do this for me."

Legal help

Santa Fe immigration lawyer Victoria Ferrara said at least a third of her deferred action clients are from Espa�ola.

"They're excited," Ferrara said of her clients. "They're excited that they can finally contribute, that they can come out."

Carlos Deoses, a community organizer for New Mexico Dreamers in Action, who works with Campos, and an undocumented immigrant himself, said according to the National Immigration Rights Center there are at least 10,000 undocumented immigrants in New Mexico that would qualify. He believes deferred action to be a great thing for his community.

"It allows our community to come out of the shadows," Deoses said.

Campos calls the policy a great first big step.

"To me it just means we're getting started, and it's a great start," she said.

Though she hasn't been in Mexico since age four, she said if she were deported she would be able to contribute to her country of origin what she has been deprived of contributing in the United States.

"I feel, and this is being completely honest, that I have so many skills and that I am a really good citizen and I have a lot to contribute to this country, but I'm being very limited," she said.

The assimilation may be difficult, but she believes deportation would be less of a loss for her than it would be for the United States, since all of her education and skills gained here would be shipped back over the border.

• "The U.S. has provided these opportunities," she said. "We've taken advantage of them. We've become the citizens that you wish us to be, and yet once we're there you limit us. You don't let us contribute it back."

While the policy is a temporary protection that can be reversed at any time, Deoses said lifting the daily threat of deportation is worth it.

"It's going to allow me to exercise my career as a social worker legally and to be able to contribute both socially and economically to my community," he said.

Campos said she feels the atmosphere has changed since the policy was announced.

Ever since that moment I really felt my dream was reachable," she said.

Campos has been daydreaming about what could come next, since she heard about the opportunity to lift what she calls the "nine-digit limitation" of not having a social security number. She hopes one day to work in a mental hospital or children's hospital.

"It opens up so many doors and it gives you so many opportunities to really do what you want to do with your life," she said.

Caution advised

Yet because of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's positions on immigration, Ferrara said she is advising her clients to take an abundance of caution.

"My professional thoughts are that I'm advising kids to wait until after the election to file, because if Mitt Romney wins the election, he could cancel the program," she said. "And if the kids have already filed, then all the information would be out there and they could be at risk of deportation."

Deoses also recommends caution. He said this is a good opportunity for unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of people, and since applying for deferred action is a one-shot deal, applicants should take pains to make sure it gets done right.

"People need to take their time, get informed, and consult with a legal representative they trust or Catholic Charities," he said.

Campos said she doesn't mind who wins, because the immigrant rights movement fought hard for the gains it made and whoever wins the election will be held accountable.

"There's always that little question inside of you in terms of what's going to happen, or what's going to happen to me personally, and what's going to happen to the movement," Campos said. "And I have much more faith in what the movement is capable of doing, so I guess that diminishes my worry in terms of what's going to happen to me, because I know that I have thousands of other students that are willing to back me up."

However, both Campos and Deoses are careful not to minimize the need for further reforms. Deoses describes deferred action as something they need to secure and protect while continuing to push for full implementation of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform.

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Santa Fe/ EDITORIAL: High-Tech Chip Tracking of Children in Schools 

The New Mexican

October 11, 2012

A new idea is spreading fast in Texas, of all places, to keep track of children at school. Public school students are being required to wear cards with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips embedded so that administrators can keep track of their whereabouts. Makes us wonder why they don't just implant the chips behind students' ears.

The chips are being in use in schools in Austin, Houston and San Antonio - needed, say officials, not just to keep track of students but to ensure that all students on campus are counted for attendance purposes. Schools receive their funding based on bodies in the seats - average daily attendance - and at a large district, increasing the count could bring in thousands, even millions of dollars more in funding. In California, the chips are implanted in jerseys worn by preschoolers, tracking their every move.

Interestingly, despite the reputation of the state of Texas as a bastion of freedom and individual rights, parents don't seem too put out about their students being tracked by remote control. In government schools, mind you. A few parents are upset, including one dad who feels the chip is akin to the biblical mark of the beast. Liberals are calling the chips an invasion of privacy, and we'd have to say we agree. Opposition to these chips has united Glenn Beck and the American Civil Liberties Union, a sure sign of a bad idea.

We are all for schools receiving well-deserved funding, and believe students should not go AWOL from school. However, keeping track of their movements on campus by way of chip (just how long was Johnny in the bathroom?) seems both intrusive and unnecessary.

Delinquent students can be tracked, called and coaxed into returning to school without this technology. Schools already check attendance daily; use those lists to help catch truants, intervening to catch chronic skippers. We remember well procedures at the Denver public schools several years back: Top administrators would go door-to-door to bring truants back to school.

It shouldn't take a creepy, sci-fi tactic to track kids in school - that's the job of teachers and principals, with families backing them up.

What is even creepier, though, is how little this seems to bother anyone.

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Washington DC/ Guide Advises on Tying English Proficiency to Common Core

By Lesli A. Maxwell

Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 7  [Edweek.org]

October 10, 2012

As school districts forge ahead in putting the common academic standards into practice, many states are still revising or creating new English-language-proficiency standards to spell out for teachers the sophisticated language skills that their English-learner students will need to succeed with the rigorous new academic expectations.

To help states with that task, the Washington-based Council of Chief State School Officers late last month released a detailed set of guidelines created by English-language-learner experts and some of the lead writers of the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards.

The new guide, or framework, as it's formally called, is designed to be a road map for states as they update, revamp, and rewrite the English-language-proficiency standards that teachers will use as guideposts to help ELL students acquire the academic language necessary to learn the new content.

• "The implementation of the common core and the Next Generation Science Standards is going to be a heavy lift for a lot of kids, and probably most significantly for English-language learners," said Andr�s Henr�quez, an education program officer at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which supported the development of the new framework.
• "We want to make sure that states are thinking about what they have to do to make sure that their ELLs are well supported," he said. "It's critical for all of us to think about how we educate these students for the next generation."

'Correspond' or Align?

The release of the framework comes at an optimal time for many states, which, under the requirements of waivers they have received from the U.S. Department of Education to ease provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, must have English-language-proficiency standards that "correspond" to the common core. Thirty-three states have already had their waivers approved; seven more have applied.

• "For states, it's tricky to know what 'correspond' means exactly," said Kenji Hakuta, a Stanford University education professor and an expert on English-language learners who advised the group of writers that developed the framework. "What the framework writers have done is take the common core and the Next Generation Science Standards and identified the language demands in each of those content standards and described them."

Many states have already been moving ahead with updating their English-language-proficiency standards.

• California, home to 1.6 million ELLs, is in the final stages of revising its English-language-proficiency standards so that they correspond with the common standards.
• Florida is also revising its proficiency standards, as is New York.
• And the 28 states that belong to the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium, or WIDA-representing a total of more than 1 million ELLs-now have a new edition of English-language-development standards that makes clear connections between the content standards of the common core across every grade level and the academic language that teachers will need to use to teach across varying levels of English proficiency.

Earlier Attempt

Title III of the No Child Left Behind law calls for states to have English-language-proficiency standards that are, in theory, to serve as a bridge to the language skills ELLs need to fully access and meet the achievement demands in the mishmash of academic-content standards that states had been using before the common core.

But many states didn't actually create specific language standards by English-proficiency level that connected to academic content, said H. Gary Cook, an associate research scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is part of the team that developed the new framework.

"That's why we wanted to create a tool for states to use to help them do this well," Mr. Cook said.

The 105-page guide is highly technical and is meant primarily for the state-level policymakers who are overseeing the revamping of English-language-proficiency standards, Mr. Cook said.

But the guide includes extensive tables that describe, for each content area, the types of practices-such as arguing by using evidence in English/language arts, for example-that students must be able to handle. The tables describe the language demands behind each of those practices and outline how teachers might help ELLs meet those demands in the classroom.

"Those tables are the meat of the framework," Mr. Cook said.

Guadalupe Vald�s, a Stanford University education professor who was also part of the team that devised the framework, said the guide is meant to help the writers of English-language-proficiency standards in state departments of education to "think about the many ways that people use language in the classroom and keep that image in their heads as they do this work."

For example, Ms. Vald�s said, using evidence to make an argument can play out in several ways for ELLs, regardless of their levels of English proficiency. Students can work in small groups to talk about evidence for an argument, listen for evidence in what their teacher or a fellow student says, or look for evidence in their reading, she said.

• "Ultimately, what we want to see happen is that English-learners are getting opportunities to do all of these more-rigorous practices even with less-than-perfect language," she said. "Intellectually, they are able to engage in all of these practices."

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Denver CO/ Adams 12 Five Star Schools Expands STEM Program

School district to expand science- and math-rooted curriculum into Northglenn High School next year

 By Joey Kirchmer

Denver Post

October 10, 2012

The Adams 12 district is breathing new life into some of its schools with a curriculum heavily rooted in math and science.

Officials with Adams 12 are busy rolling out an expansion of STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The program is already entrenched at two schools, including the recently opened STEM Launch in Thornton.

Next fall, Adams 12 will include the curriculum at Northglenn High School, where students will be offered new elective courses such as biomedical and engineering, said Kellie Lauth, science and STEM coordinator for Adams 12 Five Star Schools.

Each classroom at Northglenn High School will also incorporate some aspects of the STEM model, including an emphasis on "problem-based learning" in addition to more field and laboratory work.

"We're not overhauling all of the courses," Lauth said. "We're enhancing them."

A pilot program that seeks to connect students with entrepreneurs is also underway at Northglenn High School.

• The school is offering space in the facility, free of charge, for local start-up companies.
• In exchange, students can work "side-by-side" with employees to gain valuable workforce experience, Lauth said.
• "They'll be creating products and asking them for feedback on how to get a business off the ground, for example," she said
• The first business - a small Broomfield-based tech outfit called BuyBak - is expected to move in soon. By 2013, the district expects to establish similar partnerships with four additional start-up companies, Lauth said.

The rapid expansion of STEM is due, in large part, to increasing demand. About 450 families are on a waiting list for the district's two STEM-focused schools, according to officials.

"That tells you that there's not only excitement, there's also a need," Lauth said.

The education model has produced some impressive results in the classroom.

• Last year, 100 percent of the fourth-graders at STEM Lab in Northglenn were deemed "proficient and advanced" in math in the state's annual TCAP tests.
• The statewide average, meanwhile, was only 71 percent.

STEM also helps prepare students for the "real-world issues" they will face upon graduation, said Michelle Priola, coordinator at STEM Launch.

Classroom projects at the K-8 school are aimed at tackling unique problems, everything from how to construct the most cost-efficient pizza box to developing ecological management plans for areas devastated by forest fires, Priola said.

"It's about inventing things and being entrepreneurs as opposed to just being consumers," she said. "These are the things that make STEM different."

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Boston MA/ How Tougher Classes in High School Can Help Kids Make it Through College

Some 40 percent of students are failing to graduate from college in six years. A study calls for higher-quality college prep, with more advanced math, advanced placement classes, and better advising.

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo

The Christian Science Monitor [CSMonitor.com]

October 11, 2012

About 4 out of 10 students at four-year colleges fail to earn a degree within six years - and timely completion rates at two-year schools are even lower.

But what if high schools had a better recipe for preparing their students to stay in college? The National School Boards Association released a study Thursday afternoon highlighting some key ingredients: more advanced math courses, challenging courses such as Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB), and better academic advising.

If students are exposed to those factors - even if they don't earn high scores on the course exams - they are more likely to continue college after their first year, a point at which many drop out, the study notes.

"This provides a rare glimpse into what high schools can do to really improve college success," said Jim Hull, senior policy analyst at NSBA's Center for Public Education, in a teleconference with reporters Thursday.

The findings don't provide a silver bullet for school districts - many of which are still debating whether to make higher math mandatory or to open up college-level AP courses to all students who are interested.

• "There's certainly a big correlation between students in high school who take advanced math and [those who] do well in college, but correlation is not cause and effect; it could very well be that the people whose future destiny is to do well in college also are good at doing math," says David Klein, a math professor at California State University at Northridge who has studied AP math courses and found many of them to lack quality when compared with college courses.

But by providing details about how students from various achievement levels and socioeconomic backgrounds fare in college, NSBA's study attempts to control for as many factors as possible in order to isolate elements that high schools can improve.

The study is based on data from more than 9,000 students who enrolled in college immediately after high school in the fall of 2004 - a sample that represents more than 2 million students nationwide.

Among the findings:

• Higher-level math: Algebra II is the highest level of mandatory math in many high schools, Mr. Hull said. But if the high school students took pre-calculus or calculus, rather than stopping at Algebra II, their likelihood of staying in a four-year college past the first year ("persistence") increased by a range of 10 to 22 percent (10 percent for students who already had above-average achievement and socioeconomic backgrounds and 22 percent for those who were below average). Persistence in two-year colleges was 18 to 27 percent higher.
• AP/IB courses: Participation in these courses increased four-year students' college persistence by 7 to 17 percent, again with the higher figure for students who had lower academic achievement prior to taking AP or IB. The impact in two-year colleges was 17 to 30 percent higher. The more of these courses they took, the more their likelihood to persist in college increased. "There are still some people out there who believe that providing students with a course that might be over their head might be detrimental to their academic success," Hull said. "However, this study provides one strong indicator ... that providing all students with a rigorous curriculum helps students succeed."
• Academic advising during the first year of college. The study found that 11 percent of four-year college students and 25 percent of two-year students had never talked with a college academic adviser. For four-year college students from lower-achieving, lower-socioeconomic backgrounds, those who saw an academic adviser often were 53 percent more likely to persist than those who saw one never. At two-year colleges, the difference was 43 percent. The need for investing in better advising trickles down to high schools, where the national ratio of students to guidance counselors is about 500 to 1, Hull says.

The NSBA report isn't the first call to expand access to more challenging courses. Since 1998, for instance, The Washington Post's Jay Matthews has been ranking high schools for how well they prepare students for college, based on a Challenge Index that takes into account AP and IB courses.

The National Math and Science Initiative's Advanced Placement program, which includes open enrollment in the courses in participating schools, has trained more than 11,000 teachers to help bolster students' preparation for college. In 2011-12, the 70 schools that newly joined the initiative doubled the number of qualifying scores students achieved on math, science, and English AP exams. That included a doubling of qualifying scores for Hispanics and tripling of such scores for African-Americans.

"Many people often overlook students such as myself since I come from a lower socioeconomic background/single parent household," writes Rudy Davis - a junior at Auburn University in Alabama, who attended an Alabama high school with the NMSI AP program - in a blog entry.

"Through this program I saw my standardized test scores improve from 68th percentile to 97th percentile. And my math and science score rose to the 99th percentile.... The AP curriculum has more than prepared me for my current college course work. I gained credit hours, the work ethic needed to do well, confidence in my intellect, and as a result, have made the Dean's list in college."

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Washington DC/ COLUMN: Why 'Market Theory' of Education Reform Doesn't Work

From Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet daily column

By Marc Tucker [President of the non-profit National Center on Education and the Economy and an internationally known expert on reform. Tucker is also editor of "Surpassing Shanghai: An Agenda for American Education Built on the World's Leading Systems"]

Washington Post

October 12, 2012

Years ago, Milton Friedman and others opined that the best possible education reform would be one based on good old market theory.  Public education, the analysis went, was a government monopoly, and, teachers and school administrators, freed from the discipline of the market, as in all government monopolies, had no incentive to control costs or deliver high quality.  That left them free to feather their own nest. 

Obviously, the solution was to subject public education to the rigors of the market.  Put the money the public collected for the schools into the hands of the parents.  Let them choose the best schools for their children.  Given a genuine choice among schools, parents would have a strong incentive to choose the ones that were able to produce the highest achievement at the lowest possible cost, driving achievement up and costs down.

At first, there was little appetite among the public for this approach.  But, in time, many people, both Republicans and Democrats, seeing the cost of public education steadily rise with no corresponding improvement in student performance, began to blame the school bureaucracy and the teachers' unions.  They saw charter schools as a way to get away from both. 

All of these people, both those driven by ideology in the form of market theory and those driven by anger at the "educrats" and the teachers unions, found that they could agree on charter schools.  A coalition of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Wall Street investors put their money behind the cause and the die was cast.  The U.S. Department of Education then jumped in with both feet.  Choice and markets, in the form of the charter movement, began to drive the American education reform agenda in a big way.

The theory is neat as pin and as American as apple pie.  But what if it is not true?  What if it does not predict what actually happens when it is put into practice?

For the theory to work, parents would have to make their decisions largely on the basis of information about student performance at the schools from which they can choose.  But it turns out that they don't do that.  American parents seem to care most about their children's safety.  Wouldn't you?  Then they prefer a school that is close to home.  At the secondary school level, many appear to care a lot more about which schools have the most successful competitive sports programs, rather than which of them produce the most successful scholars.  How many trophies in the lobby of the entrances to our schools are for academic contests?

If the theory was working the way it is supposed to, you would expect that the first schools to be in trouble would be the worst schools, the ones with the worst academic performance.  But any school superintendent will tell you that the most difficult task a superintendent faces is shutting down a school - any school - even if its academic performance is in the basement.  How could this be?  Does it mean that parents don't care at all about academic performance?  I don't think so.

But it does mean that, if they have met teachers at that school that seem to really care about their children, take a personal interest in them and seem to be decent people, they are likely to place more value on those things than on district league tables of academic performance based on standardized tests of basic skills, especially if they perceive that school to be safe and it is close to home.

The theory doesn't work. It doesn't work in theory (because most parents don't place academic performance at the top of their list of things they are looking for in a school) and it doesn't work in practice, either.  How do we know that?  Because, when we look at large-scale studies of the academic performance of charter schools versus regular public schools, taking into account the background of the students served, the results come out within a few points of each other, conferring a decisive advantage on neither.  It is certainly true that some charter schools greatly outperform the average regular public school, but it is also true that some regular public schools greatly outperform the average charter school.

So, you might say, it's a tossup.  No, it isn't.  The country with the most aggressive school choice system in the world is probably New Zealand.  Ted Fiske and Helen Ladd, in their book, "When Schools Compete: A Cautionary Tale," report that the effect of choice systems is to draw students whose parents have higher expectations, more income and higher education levels away from the lowest performing schools only to leave high concentrations of the poorest students in those lowest performing schools.  That is certainly true in the District of Columbia, probably the most aggressive choice and charter system in the United States.  Average performance is not changed, but the better off students do better and the initially worse off do even worse.  Performance, in other words, is simply redistributed.  Is that what we want from our schools?

If you want to reduce the influence of teachers unions, and/or find something on which both major parties can agree, and/or punch the bureaucracy in the nose, and/or improve outcomes for families with more money and more education, and/or satisfy your quest for more personal freedom and/or indulge your entrepreneurial instincts, by all means support charters and choice.

If you are looking for a way to create a school system at the scale of a nation or a state in which all students are performing at higher levels and the gap is closing between the best-performing students and those at the bottom, then be aware that there is no evidence, anywhere in the world, that choice and charters will get you there.

Don't mistake this argument for a defense of the status quo.  It is nothing of the sort. 

The United States, once the home, by common consensus, of the finest education system in the world, is now far behind the leaders in student achievement, equity and system productivity (other nations are getting much more for their money than we are).  That constitutes a genuine emergency.  In this context, choice, charters and competition are collectively a sideshow, simply because there is no evidence from any quarter that they can deliver the gains in these three quarters that are vitally necessary.

So what can deliver those gains?  And, whatever that might be, what is the evidence for them?

Our organization has for 25 years been working on the simple premise that the first place we should be looking for ideas about how to improve achievement, equity and productivity is in the countries whose performance has been outstripping our own.

In a nutshell, here's what they've been doing:

• They have much less poverty among their children.
• They have much more equitable systems of school finance
• They have stronger systems of early childhood education.
• They are selecting their teachers from higher ability graduates of their high schools.
• They are insisting that their teachers in training really master the subjects they are going to teach - including their elementary school teachers - and their craft as well.
• They pay their teachers much better then we do  (typically beginning teachers in those countries make as much as beginning engineers).
• They set performance standards for students at internationally benchmarked levels (not just in their native language and math but right across the whole core curriculum).
• They have a strong national or state curriculum and very high-quality exams (usually at only two points in the whole sequence of the years from the first grade to the end of secondary school) that measure mastery of the curriculum.
• They train their teachers to teach the courses they require their students to take.
• They match the standards that students are supposed to meet at the end of each key stage of their education to the requirements for being successful at the beginning of the next stage.
• They have a strong system of vocational and polytechnic education that provides students with the skills needed not only to begin rewarding careers, but also the educational qualifications they will need to go back into the postsecondary education system, whenever they need and want to.

These systems are managed so that very few youngsters fall through the cracks, almost all - including those going into vocational options - are educated to world-class academic standards and there are no dead ends. 

These systems are built on the idea that the key to it all is highly educated, very well trained professional teachers who can be trusted to do the job without the need for the kinds of draconian accountability systems now being built by the United States.

That reform agenda makes sense.  Even more important, we know that it can work at a national and state scale, because we have examples of it working at that scale from Singapore to Finland, from Australia to Canada.  Until the United States embraces that agenda - all of it - we are just diddling around.