ABQ/ Surfeit of Talent Hampers ABQ Aviation Industry
By Kevin Robinson-Avila
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
November 26, 2012
Sandia Aerospace Corp. President and CEO Dennis Schmidt said finding local talent for his Albuquerque-based avionics design and manufacturing operation is a major hassle.
He's hiring more employees this year thanks to growing sales and contracts as the industry rebounds from the down economy, but he's competing with many other companies also looking for workers with the right skills.
"The big problem is we're all going after the same people," Schmidt said. "It's the No. 1 obstacle we face now."
That's emerging as a critical hurdle for the state's growing aviation and aerospace industry. More companies are relocating to New Mexico, and locally established firms are expanding and hiring, but many must recruit people from out of state.
- "Companies go to places like Wichita because of the trained workforce there," Schmidt said. "We need to build a local talent pool like that in New Mexico."
Workforce training is a key part of the New Mexico Aviation Aerospace Association's efforts to improve the business environment.
- "We're trying to put scholarship programs together and help local communities and schools attract more students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers," said association president Bill McMillan.
The association is also working with the state Department of Veterans Services to get more former military personnel into aviation and aerospace jobs.
- "We've been introducing the department to companies around the state who will hire veterans to build a data base of job openings," McMillan said.
The department is helping veterans identify skills they learned in the military that are applicable to aviation.
- "Many have worked with related technologies they don't even know could go on their résumés," said Veteran Services Secretary Tim Hale. "Many have earned commercial driver's licenses, worked on satellite communications networks or have experience with unmanned aerial vehicles. They're well prepared for the workforce we need out there."
Industry is also supporting the new Southwest Aeronautics, Mathematics and Science Academy, a charter high school near Double Eagle II airport on Albuquerque's West Side.
SAMS opened in August with nearly 300 students. It offers STEM-related curriculum with a heavy focus on aviation, including in-flight training for students who want to become pilots. Industry people participate in an advisory council, and companies offer student internships.
"The council helps develop curricula activity regarding things students need to know and do when they graduate to move into aviation-related positions," head administrator Scott Glasrud said.
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ABQ/ Rachel Kolb: Rhodes Scholar
By Hailey Heinz
ABQ Journal Staff Writer
November 26, 2012
Rachel Kolb is a lot of things you might expect a Rhodes scholar to be. She is an articulate, hard-working, friendly.
She is also deaf, a fact she plays down in describing her path to one of the most world's most prestigious academic honors.
"I've always felt most comfortable in an academic setting, especially while I was reading and writing - that's been close to my heart," Kolb said. "And so I've never really thought of my disability as standing in the way of that."
Just 32 Rhodes scholars were selected nationwide, from a pool of 838 candidates nominated by their colleges and universities. The list was announced this weekend.
Kolb, 22, has finished her undergraduate degree at Stanford. She is still there, now pursuing a one-year master's degree in English. At Oxford next year, she plans to study contemporary literature and comparative social policy.
Kolb said she would like to write about social issues affecting people with disabilities.
"That's something I'm passionate about, and I'm hoping to do that in a very mainstream, meaningful way," she said, sitting outside the Academy on the day before Thanksgiving. Kolb was home for the holiday break.
Kolb has attended mainstream classes with her hearing peers since kindergarten, always with the help of a sign language interpreter. She attended the Albuquerque Academy from sixth through twelfth grade and had the same interpreter the whole time. She credits that interpreter, Jennifer Cole, with providing steady support and a familiar face throughout her schooling.
"That relationship is a really special one to me. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to get to know that person, but also explore what you are able to do in your own abilities while they help you through the classroom setting," she said.
Kolb continued to have classroom interpreters at Stanford and will have them at Oxford. But she can have extensive conversations without any help, thanks to years of speech therapy, her ability to read lips, and a cochlear implant she got in the summer of 2010.
She said the implant helps her communicate, but she still doesn't talk on the phone and relies on a combination of sounds and lip reading.
"It hasn't turned me into a hearing person overnight, but it's given me this wonderful tool to work with," she said.
Besides excelling academically, Kolb began riding horses when she was 8 and did horse shows throughout high school. She has been president of the Stanford equestrian team for two years and represented Stanford in the national finals in 2010 and 2011.
She said that, even though riding takes a lot of her time, it helps her manage stress and focus on school.
"I think of riding as my fun time," she said. "It's my outlet to go to at the end of a day, where I finish stressing out about other things."
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Taos/ Appeals Court Affirms PED Decision, Ex-Taos Teacher Chad Skowronski to Lose License
By Chandra Johnson
Taos News
November 25, 2012
The former Taos teacher accused of inappropriate contact with a teenage girl in 2007 will lose his teaching license, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has ruled.
Chad Skowronski was working as a science teacher at Vista Grande High School in September 2007 when he attended a potluck at a 14-year-old girl's home and slept over at the girl's home.
In June 2008, the girl told New Mexico State Police that Skowronski fondled her after the gathering. Skowronski was originally charged with criminal sexual penetration of a minor, two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
According to case history listed on nmcourts.gov, the case was dismissed in 2010 after Skowronski completed a pre-prosecution probation program, but the New Mexico Public Education Department launched its own investigation into the incident.
Skowronski's attorney, Nancy L. Simmons, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
A copy of the appeals court's opinion filed Nov. 8 states that once the department charged Skowronski with "engaging in inappropriate and improper sexual contact or behavior" with a minor, an evidentiary hearing was held with a department hearing officer, who "found that the charges had not been proved by a preponderance of the evidence" and recommended in writing to then-Education Secretary Veronica García that the department's charges be dropped.
But when García reviewed the recommendation and the details of the case herself, she decided instead to revoke Skowronski's teaching license, citing "that good and just causes have been established ... to warrant revocation."
Upon appeal in district court of García's decision, the court found against Skowronski, affirming the revocation of his license. Skowronski appealed the district court's decision, alleging among other things that the department was biased, denied him his due process rights and that García did not have the authority to revoke his teaching license.
The appeals court disagreed.
"Contrary to Skowronski's argument that the secretary was not permitted to reject the hearing officer's credibility determinations, the department's regulations provide the secretary with the liberty to deviate ... provided that any deviation is supported by a preponderance of the evidence after conducting an independent review," the opinion states. "Neither the department's regulations nor the case law cited by Skowronski supports a holding that the secretary exceeded her authority."
In a written statement, PED public information officer Larry Behrens said it was unlikely Skowronski would teach again.
"He can no longer be employed by the State of (New Mexico) as an educator. While I can't speak for other states, because of this action it is unlikely that he would be employed as an educator outside the state as well," Behrens wrote.
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Santa Fe/ EDITORIAL: Education Reform Can't Be All or Nothing
The New Mexican
November 25, 2012
No education reform is more essential than improving reading skills. Trouble is, reform focused on the classroom leaves out the bigger world - everything from a family's educational attainment, the amount of TV viewed in a home, the number of books readily available to kids before they ever set foot in kindergarten. It's a big problem, but research can show us a path to help children conquer reading.
Gov. Susana Martinez's signature education reform is to hold back students who can't read at the third-grade level until they master this important skill. Despite her focus on retention, the reform has stalled in the Legislature. She plans to ask for retention once more; it's unclear what the bill's chances are, but she is sweetening the pot with more emphasis on early intervention and other strategies.
We urge the governor, as she begins work for this next legislative session, to focus on progress rather than victory. Here's what we mean: She might not have the votes to pass retention legislation. But we believe Martinez would have support for intervention and better preschool programs, for example. Separate the reforms. Focus on intervention - more money for reading tutors, books and curriculum to help low performers. Since Martinez is so set on holding kids back, she should put that measure in a separate bill. That way, she can get some of the tools, the most important ones, necessary to improve children's performance.
The Legislative Education Study Committee recently met to hear a report comparing New Mexico's literacy in preschool to third grade as compared to five other states. New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, Delaware, Kentucky and Maryland all had fourth-graders who scored in the 20 percent to 25 percent range in reading proficiency back in 1992. Twenty years later, all of those states had improved - except for New Mexico. The other states used early intervention and pre-K, as well as professional development for teachers. What the research showed is that improving literacy takes time, strategic planning and hard work. There is no easy answer. The report to legislators also studied Florida's test-based promotion system, but said the results are still preliminary. However, it was reported, "on average, students who were remediated did better than those who were promoted."
That has been Martinez's point as she has pressed for retention for third-graders who are behind in reading. However, the report's researcher cautions: "The research isn't there" to support retention. But we do know that better teaching in early grades, solid preschool education and more training for teachers does help children improve in reading. This next session, New Mexico lawmakers and our governor should pass reforms that are recognized to help children improve their reading skills. And if they can't agree on everything, at least approve reforms that are universally understood to work. That way, we make progress as a state - together.
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ABQ/ EDITORIAL: APS Title IX/Booster Policy Exceeds Sensibility
ABQ Journal
November 26, 2012
Albuquerque Public Schools has gone into overdrive in its attempts to comply with the New Mexico School Athletics Equity Act.
State law requires schools to provide detailed reporting to the Public Education Department about how much funding is channeled into different sports to ensure public schools are complying with Title IX, a federal law that requires equitable funding for boys' and girls' school activities.
Because courts have interpreted Title IX to include money raised by booster clubs, school districts are looking at how that affects monies raised by parents and others for various school activities. Title IX applies to all activities, but the state law is specific to athletics and requires reporting only.
However, APS has taken the ball further down the field by passing a policy to require that all booster club money - not just for athletics - is flowed through school activity funds rather than being independently administered by parent volunteers.
And that is causing consternation among parents and booster club leaders. They argue that some activities - like band - are co-ed, so gender equity isn't an issue. Further, they say the new policy goes beyond what state law requires and is burdensome to volunteers. Plus it can hamper the clubs' flexibility to react to emergencies like feeding kids on the road or providing replacement equipment.
School funds should be spent as equitably as possible for the various sports and activities, but when it comes to outside money raised privately by motivated parents and boosters, it's unreasonable to expect it to be doled out through the schools.
While APS should comply with all state and federal laws, this latest move just creates a bureaucratic snarl that is likely to discourage parent participation. And isn't participation what the schools have been crying out for?
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Santa Fe/ COLUMN: Hooked on Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee, School Board Seats Open
By Robert Nott [Learning Curve columnist]
The New Mexican
November 25, 2012
''You all are shining lights, you are the hope for the future. Don't stop. Don't give up. Keep fueling your anger into positive things. The world depends on you." So said Liberian peace activist and Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee to a group of 16 Northern New Mexico schoolchildren. The students are members of Youth United, which received the 2012 Global Call to Action Challenge Award, co-sponsored by the Pearson Foundation and PeaceJam, in recognition of their literacy campaign, Hooked on Books. The students, from various schools in the region, traveled to Colorado to accept the award and meet Gbowee at the Denver Center for the Arts earlier this month.
Students from the Santa Fe School for Arts and Sciences initially spearheaded the Alliance for Literacy move to start Hooked on Books, which holds contests and offers prizes to encourage reading among youth, in October 2011.
With New Mexico's low reading scores, the Hooked on Books effort aims to get kids reading something - anything that they like, in fact, as long as they read. Last summer Youth United hosted a free summer reading camp at the Santa Fe School for Arts and Sciences to help raise proficiency among students. The group has since reported that, on average, participating students raised their level of reading by at least one grade.
Hooked on Books has already held seven contests and is always looking for books and sponsors to set up bookshelves around the community where youth can access free books. Visit its website, http://www.nm allianceforliteracy.org, for more information about the group, the contests and this important peace prize that Youth United earned.
At the end of her speech to the kids, Gbowee told the Hooked on Books kids, "If you need me, I'll come - pro bono." Reportedly, she plans to visit Santa Fe and these kids sometime early in 2013.
Gbowee shares the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize with Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemen mother and activist Tawakkul Karman.
Filing time looms
Santa Fe County hosts the next school board election on Feb. 5, 2013.
The terms of two board members - Frank Montaño, District 5, and Barbara Gudwin, District 3 - end by March 2013, and as of late last week, they hadn't said whether they will seek re-election.
- "I haven't made up my mind yet," said Montaño, the current president of the board.
- Gudwin said, "I haven't decided, but I would love to run again. I'm processing things in my personal life and some professional opportunities that may be coming my way. I'm getting close to figuring it out. If I don't run, I hope to maintain my ties to the school district in some way. If I do run again, I'll give it my all."
The filing deadline for interested candidates is Dec. 18. Candidates have until Jan. 2, 2013, to withdraw from the election. You must be a qualified elector in the county, be a resident within the school district in question (visit www.sfps.info and click on the Board of Education link to find out more about that), and be at least 18 years old to run. Terms run for four years.
The board election takes place the same day as the district's next general obligation bond election.
- Earlier this month, the school board approved a bond-prioritization budget asking voters to OK $130 million for capital improvements.
- About $35 million of that will go toward the district's efforts to revamp secondary education.
District Superintendent Joel Boyd is slated to unveil his plan for secondary-education reform at the Dec. 4 board meeting, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the district's Educational Services Center on Alta Vista Street.
Boyd, who started his tenure as superintendent with a two-year contract on Aug. 1, gives his first State of the Schools address at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 26, in the Rotunda at the Roundhouse. That event is open to the public.
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ABQ/ OPINION: 3-Tiered Teacher System Never Tied to Students
By David A. Wilson [Tier-3 APS teacher and a school representative for the American Federation of Teachers]
ABQ Journal
November 26, 2012
I would like to comment on two recent Journal articles that addressed two important issues in K-12 public education that are currently being discussed and debated in New Mexico and beyond.
Regarding the Nov. 16 Journal article "Teacher Pay Plan Failed to Hike Scores," I feel obliged to point out that the headline is not only deceiving but is based on a premise that is entirely false. The three-tiered system was never, ever about raising student test scores. In fact, as the Journal itself has aptly pointed out on numerous occasions, including in this article, student test scores correlate more closely with demographic factors such as family income, home language and parents' level of educational attainment than they do with a teacher's location on the three-tier professional scale.
Instead, the system was designed to encourage good teachers to stay in New Mexico instead of fleeing to other states where they could receive better pay for the same work.
Some experts have characterized this exodus as hemorrhaging. Today, this hemorrhaging has slowed dramatically due in large part to the three-tiered system.
The system was also designed to recognize and compensate teachers for their voluntary and selfless efforts, funded primarily by their own modest salaries, to improve their teaching knowledge and skills by earning advanced degrees, becoming instructional leaders in their schools, or by seeking certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.
In nearly all respects and by nearly all measures, the three-tiered system has not only accomplished its goals, it has exceeded them.
As for the article titled "Science Returns to Classroom" that appeared in the Journal the following day, I believe it is important for your readers to know that, despite enormous administrative pressure on teachers to stop teaching science and social studies during the dark ages of No Child Left Behind - a law that was relentless in its efforts to mandate an ill-advised and ill-conceived plan to raise math and reading scores - thousands of teachers in New Mexico and elsewhere not only defied this pressure but redoubled their efforts to deliver quality science and social studies lessons to their students anyway.
Unlike the teacher mentioned in the article, most of the defiant teachers remain unrecognized for their courage and dedication. They are to be commended not only for their efforts to defy administrative pressure to violate state law, but also for their ability to do so while maintaining strong moral, ethical, pedagogical and professional values.
Their students, their schools and all of us who have even the most remote stake in public education should thank them for doing so.
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Santa Fe NM/ LETTER: Remembering Our Teachers: Thanks to All
By Laureen Pepersack [Video producer with emphasis in education videos and affiliated with the Santa Fe Indian School's "Challenging Minds"]
The New Mexican
November 24, 2012
I want to thank Ricardo Caté of the cartoon strip Without Reservations for acknowledging a great teacher's passing, Dianna Saiz of the Santa Fe Indian School.
Saiz was a valued presence - a supersize presence - in the Indian school for very many years, and her passing was marked with a special gathering. Too often, we (the greater public and schools in general) allow great teachers to just disappear without note or appreciation. These are teachers who have given decades of their lives and learning to the students of our community. Still, they can just disappear into retirement at the end of a school year without any note of appreciation. Certainly, we can do better than that.
Our children are our future. That means it is today's quality teachers who give form to our future with their teaching efforts.
In this time of Thanksgiving, please join me in thanking our teachers and academic support staff for their role in making tomorrow a better place. While I cannot ensure that these dedicated people get their just rewards, we, the community of Santa Fe, can show our appreciation by improving pay and increasing support for those who give us all: Teachers, firefighters, EMTs, police and yes, our trash collectors.
In the spirit of the season, thank you for all your efforts that benefit Santa Fe.
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New York NY/ In the Book Bag, More Garden Tools
By Lisa W. Foderaro
New York Times
November 23, 2012
In the East Village, children planted garlic bulbs and harvested Swiss chard before Thanksgiving. On the other side of town, in Greenwich Village, they learned about storm water runoff, solar energy and wind turbines. And in Queens, students and teachers cultivated flowers that attract butterflies and pollinators.
Across New York City, gardens and miniature farms - whether on rooftops or at ground level - are joining smart boards and digital darkrooms as must-have teaching tools.
- They are being used in subjects as varied as science, art, mathematics and social studies.
- In the past two years, the number of school-based gardens registered with the city jumped to 232, from 40, according to GreenThumb, a division of the parks department that provides schools with technical support.
But few of them come with the credential of the 2,400-square-foot garden at Avenue B and Fifth Street in the East Village, on top of a red-brick building that houses three public schools: the Earth School, Public School 64 and Tompkins Square Middle School.
Michael Arad, the architect who designed the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, was a driving force behind the garden, called the Fifth Street Farm.
The idea took shape four years ago among parents and teachers, when Mr. Arad's son was still a student at the Earth School. The family has since moved from the neighborhood to Queens, but Mr. Arad, president of a nonprofit corporation that oversaw the garden, stayed on. The farm, with dozens of plants ranging from leeks to lemon balm, opened Oct. 19. Already, students have learned about bulbs and tubers, soil science and nutrition, while the cafeteria has cooked up fresh kale and spinach for lunch.
Mr. Arad said a conversation with his two children during an apple-picking trip spurred his interest in the farm. "They said, 'What? Apples grow on trees?' " he recalled. "A lot of kids don't get to go upstate. This is 365 days a year. It gives them an immediate, visceral connection to nature."
The Fifth Street Farm cost about $1 million to build and used what Mr. Arad called "off the shelf" components, like fiberglass planters and galvanized fencing. "This has the potential to be a model for the rest of the city," he said. "If money is no object, you can do whatever you want - hydroponics, a greenhouse. But you don't need an unlimited budget."
Most of the funding for the Fifth Street Farm came from the office of Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, who has provided $3 million toward green roofs and gardens atop schools, including ones at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village and P.S. 6 on the Upper East Side. Two years ago, his office organized a forum on the topic for teachers, administrators and parents.
- "There were a lot of naysayers arguing that you couldn't transform these rooftops," Mr. Stringer said. "To me, these are outdoor classrooms. These spaces are not ornamental. Kids are learning while they are planting."
Since the 1980s, the Horticultural Society of New York has worked with more than two dozen schools on garden design, construction and curriculum through its Apple Seed program. Pamela Ito, the society's director of children's education, credited Rudy Crew, the former city schools chancellor, with promoting horticulture in the schools starting in the late 1990s.
The society, which shared plants and expertise with the Earth School, has lately made a push in Queens, where four ground-level gardens have opened in the past year, three of them this fall. Together, the schools have reaped about $270,000 from the Greening Western Queens Fund, which is part of a settlement with Consolidated Edison stemming from a long power failure in 2006. All of the schools - P.S. 2, P.S. 70, P.S. 84 and P.S. 85 - were in the blacked-out area.
Each school has put a different spin on its garden.
- The one at P.S. 2, in Jackson Heights, for instance, focuses on edible plants and has a rainwater catchment system.
- At P.S. 70 in Astoria, students planted butterfly bush and other colorful flowers to attract butterflies and bees, and tree-stump seating was installed in the garden so teachers could hold classes outdoors.
- The roof at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village aims to introduce students to green technologies. The elementary school already had container gardens at ground level, but it wanted to expand on the roof. On Sept. 21, the school opened a 15,000-square-foot green roof, which uses trays with four inches of soil to grow sedum, a drought-resistant perennial, as well as herbs and other native plants.
Among other things, the school's 800 students will learn about the importance of diverting rainwater from the sewer system. A small wind turbine and three solar panels connected to a battery demonstrate alternative sources of energy. There is even a solar-powered fountain. "It's great for the younger kids because if they stand in front of it and cast a shadow, it stops working," said the school's science coordinator, Vicki Sando, who, with the principal, Kelly Shannon, founded the $1.6 million project.
In the hope of extending instruction outdoors, the school is directing as many teachers as possible to the roof.
- Art teachers can bring students en plein-air to sketch the skyline.
- Math teachers can use the roof's outlines to explain concepts like perimeter, area and angles.
- This week, first graders studying the weather climbed to the roof to explore the wind by blowing bubbles.
Green roofs and gardens are not for only elementary schools, however.
- In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the High School for Public Service has a one-acre farm, which is now in its third season. The farm takes center stage in a course about the nation's food system. Students also oversee a farmers' market and offer cooking demonstrations.
"The farm is on the school's front lawn, so you walk up and see tomatoes, corn, broccoli, sunflowers and 11 kinds of hot peppers," said Elizabeth Bee Ayer, a consultant with Green Guerillas, a nonprofit group that helps run the high school's program. "We were blown away because you don't often find an acre of land in the middle of Brooklyn."
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Miami FL/ Teen Pregnancy Study: Students Need Better School Support
By Kelli Kennedy
Huffington Post
November 22, 2012 [posted online 11/26/12]T
When 15-year-old Kali Gonzalez became pregnant, the honors student considered transferring to an alternative school. She worried teachers would harass her for missing class because of doctor's appointments and morning sickness.
A guidance counselor urged Gonzalez not to, saying that could lower her standards.
Instead, her counselor set up a meeting with teachers at her St. Augustine high school to confirm she could make up missed assignments, eat in class and use the restroom whenever she needed. Gonzalez, who is now 18, kept an A-average while pregnant. She capitalized on an online school program for parenting students so she could stay home and take care of her baby during her junior year. She returned to school her senior year and graduated with honors in May.
But Gonzalez is a rare example of success among pregnant students.
- Schools across the country are divided over how to handle them, with some schools kicking them out or penalizing students for pregnancy-related absences.
- And many schools say they can't afford costly support programs, including tutoring, child care and transportation for teens who may live just a few miles from school but still too far to walk while pregnant or with a small child.
Nearly 400,000 girls and young women between 15 and 19 years old gave birth in 2010, a rate of 34 per 1,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those statistics have led child advocates to push for greater adherence to a1972 law that bans sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities, according to a new report by the National Women's Law Center.
Fatima Goss Graves, the center's vice president of education and employment, says offering pregnant teens extra support would ultimately save taxpayers money by helping them become financially independent and not dependent on welfare.
But budget cuts have eaten into such efforts.
- California lawmakers slashed a successful program for such students in 2008, ruling it was no longer mandatory, and allowed school districts to use the money for other programs.
More than 100,000 pregnant and parenting students have participated in the program that helps them with class work and connects them with social services. It boasted a 73 percent graduation rate in 2010 - close to the state's normal rate - and advocates said participants were less reliant on welfare and less likely to become pregnant again. That compares to several counties where only 30 percent of pregnant and parenting teens graduated.
"It's unfortunate that this effective program fell prey to the enormous budget challenges we are facing as a state," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.
- Three years ago in Wisconsin, cost-cutting lawmakers dropped a requirement for school districts to give pregnant students who live within two miles of a school building free rides to school. The requirement had been part of an effort to improve access to education and reduce infant mortality rates.
Less than half of the states have programs that send home assignments to homebound or hospitalized student parents, according to the study.
- In almost half of the states, including Idaho, Nevada, Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah, the definition of excused absences is not broad enough to include pregnant and parenting students. That typically results in a patchwork of policies where some school districts don't excuse absences even if the student is in the hospital giving birth, according to the study.
But a few states have developed programs to help improve graduate rates among pregnant girls and young mothers.
- In Washington, D.C., caseworkers in the New Heights Teen Parent Program often stand by the school entrance or text pregnant students and young moms to make sure they are attending classes.
When students do miss school, caseworkers take them homework assignments. About 600 students participate in the program that also helps students with housing, child care and parenting skills. But the $1.6 million federal grant funding the program runs out next year and officials said they don't have a clear future funding source.
- Roughly 4,500 male and female student parents participated in a Pennsylvania program last year where case workers helped them balance school and child care. Nearly 1,300 graduated or received an equivalent, state officials said. The ELECT program, which started in 1990 as a partnership between state child welfare and education officials, monitors students' attendance, coordinates summer programs and links them with support systems in the community.
- Florida allows pregnant and parenting students to receive homebound instruction and lays out a clear process to make up missed work. The state also gives those students the option of taking online classes.
In St. Johns County, where Gonzalez lives, the school district provides free day care for teen moms and bus transportation for students and their children.
Pregnant students are often stereotyped as low-achievers, but advocates say pregnancy actually motivates some to do better in school.
Gonzalez, whose daughter is now 2, said her grades improved after she became pregnant.
"I did push myself a lot harder and I made sure that I wasn't going to be that statistic," said Gonzalez, who is now married and pursuing a nursing degree.
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McComb MS/ Solutions Follow Funding Eetbacks for Early Childhood Education
By Sarah Carr
The Hechinger Report [Hechingerreport.org]
November 23, 2012
With Mississippi officials steadfastly refusing to fund public pre-kindergarten at a statewide level, local leaders across the state have taken matters into their own hands.
From the Gulf Coast to the Delta, school district leaders are cobbling together resources, partnering with community organizations and devising creative solutions to ensure their youngest students get off to a solid start.
- Biloxi and Pascagoula have embraced Excel by 5, a privately funded effort that helps communities boost educational opportunities for the littlest learners.
- Gulfport business leaders have come together in recent years to sponsor two pre-k classrooms.
- And in the McComb district, officials have brought several different early childhood programs under one roof to improve collaboration.
The proposed education budget released last week by Gov. Phil Bryant included no money for new public pre-k programs, meaning Mississippi will likely continue next year as the only state in the South without state-funded pre-k.
But "there are more and more examples of local efforts by school districts," said Carol Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. "Everyone realizes it's such an urgent need."
In McComb, considered one of the state's leaders in this drive, such locally-driven efforts illustrate the power and promise of expanded early childhood education.
With more than half of McComb kindergarteners arriving unprepared for school, district officials felt they needed to shore up the city's scattered, and uneven, early childhood programs. "Kids who come to us not ready develop early on this mind-set of failure that can be very hard to change," said Therese Palmertree, the district's superintendent.
Building on a commitment to early childhood education established by one of her predecessors, Palmertree sought a space devoted to the town's youngest pupils. That way, she felt, children of diverse backgrounds and needs could learn together, and the staffs of different programs could learn from each other.
The 425-student Kennedy Early Childhood Center, created three years ago, houses:
- the children of teen mothers (infancy through age four) through funding from the federal Even Start program;
- three- and four-year-olds with special needs funded through the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act;
- infants, toddlers, and pre-school children of school district staff members, who pay tuition;
- five Head Start classrooms; and
- the district's kindergarten classrooms for five-year-olds.
The district allocates some Title 1 funds to support the center.
Nationwide, this type of approach has become more common as school districts mingle different funding streams seeking to expand or improve early education offerings.
McComb's results have been promising:
- In the three years since the center opened the percentage of kindergarteners who arrive with age-appropriate math skills has risen from 52 to more than 80, said Katrina Hines, the center's principal.
- Reading levels have been harder to budge-about half of the incoming kindergarteners still start with an inadequate exposure to letters and language-but Hines hopes that will change in coming years as well.
Like McComb, dozens of other districts in the state have found ways to bolster early childhood offerings in the absence of state funding.
- Some spend their federal Title 1 dollars, intended for low-income students, on pre-k.
- Others rely on Excel by 5 or Building Blocks, a largely privately-funded school readiness program that aims to improve the state's network of child care centers. (Bryant's budget included a proposed $3 million for Building Blocks.)
- A few charge tuition or solicit grants from foundations to create programs.
A recent report from Mississippi First, a non-profit education advocacy group, found that 51 of the state's 152 school districts used at least some Title 1 money to create pre-k programs. (This is not uncommon, but nationally only a small fraction of Title 1 money goes early childhood education.) Another 18 districts host Head Start classrooms on school district property.
Burnett said the Mississippi First report cast a much-needed light on progress in Mississippi's early childhood realm - however decentralized and uneven it may be.
Different faces of collaboration
Lisa Guernsey, director of the early education initiative at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy group based in Washington D.C., said collaborations between school districts and Head Start operators run the gamut:
- Many are relatively superficial, existing in name alone, she said.
- But in a few cases, including in Washington D.C., Head Start and non-Head Start pre-kindergarteners attend the same classrooms together, using a blend of funding streams.
- A few Mississippi districts, including Tunica County and Benoit, use a similar blended model.
The partnership in McComb falls between the two extremes described by Guernsey.
- Palmertree invited local Head Start classes to share space when the center-which once housed the district's third graders-became the designated spot for early childhood services.
- But the Head Start staff members are not employed by the district and the Head Start children learn in separate classrooms.
- Head Start's approach differs considerably from the center's other pre-k classrooms. It must include a health component, for instance, like teaching children how to brush their teeth.
Despite these differences, teachers from the programs-who often work a few feet away from each other-have more opportunity to share ideas. Indeed, Kennedy staff members say Head Start classes in the building have become more focused on academics and data since re-locating to the center. Like their pre-k neighbors, for instance, the Head Start teachers have created "data walls" showing how many letters and numbers each child knows.
"They've stepped it up a whole lot, and are borrowing some stuff from the pre-k," said Melanie Montalvo, the director of the center's preschool.
Learning from each other
Children of diverse backgrounds and needs also learn together. In the district's pre-k classrooms, for instance, three- and four-year-olds with severe autism start school alongside youngsters whose academic and social skills put them well above grade level. And the children of staff members learn their ABCs alongside the children of the district's teen mothers.
On a recent morning in one pre-k classroom, three four-year-olds sat dutifully on the carpet learning how to measure objects and listening to their teacher read the children's book Too Many Tamales. Just a few feet away, a classmate with autism wiggled and murmured incessantly.
A teacher's aide took him out for a walk to help calm him. He returned a few minutes later with a wildflower for his teacher, which he offered with an apology for having disrupted class.
Teachers and parents say putting some of the district's more educationally advantaged pupils (the children of teachers) alongside some of its more vulnerable youngsters can help everyone: Students with special needs learn socially appropriate behaviors, and regular education students learn empathy and how to get along with those who are different from them.
Teen mothers whose children started attending the center as infants said they were surprised by how quickly staff exposed their babies to more academic-oriented instruction.
Anishiana Harvey, a 17-year-old whose two-year-old son spends his weekdays at Kennedy while she finishes high school, said she had not expected him to learn so much so fast. But in the year and a half since her son, Bryan, enrolled at Kennedy, he has come home potty-trained, reciting letters, and parroting new expressions (his favorite is, "girl, stop").
"He says a lot more words than I had expected at this age," says Harvey.
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New York NY/ OPINION: What Should Children Read?
By Sara Mosle
New York Times
November 22, 2012
Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point" and a New Yorker staff writer, told me how he prepared, years ago, to write his first "Talk of the Town" story. "Talk" articles have a distinct style, and he wanted to make sure he got the voice straight in his head before he began writing. His approach was simple. He sat down and read 100 "Talk" pieces, one after the other.
The story nicely illustrates how careful reading can advance great writing. As a schoolteacher, I offer Mr. Gladwell's story to students struggling with expository writing as evidence that they need not labor alone. There are models out there-if only they'll read them!
Mr. Gladwell's tale provides a good lesson for English teachers across the country as they begin to implement the Common Core State Standards, a set of national benchmarks, adopted by nearly every state, for the skills public school students should master in language arts and mathematics in grades K-12.
The standards won't take effect until 2014, but many public school systems have begun adjusting their curriculums to satisfy the new mandates. Depending on your point of view, the now contentious guidelines prescribe a healthy-or lethal-dose of nonfiction.
For example, the Common Core dictates that by fourth grade, public school students devote half of their reading time in class to historical documents, scientific tracts, maps and other "informational texts"-like recipes and train schedules. Per the guidelines, 70 percent of the 12th grade curriculum will consist of nonfiction titles. Alarmed English teachers worry we're about to toss Shakespeare so students can study, in the words of one former educator, "memos, technical manuals and menus."
David Coleman, president of the College Board, who helped design and promote the Common Core, says English classes today focus too much on self-expression. "It is rare in a working environment," he's argued, "that someone says, 'Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.' "
This and similar comments have prompted the education researcher Diane Ravitch to ask, "Why does David Coleman dislike fiction?" and to question whether he's trying to eliminate English literature from the classroom. "I can't imagine a well-developed mind that has not read novels, poems and short stories," she writes.
Sandra Stotsky, a primary author of Massachusetts' state standards (which are credited with helping to maintain that state's top test scores) challenges the assumption that nonfiction requires more rigor than a literary novel. One education columnist sums up the debate as a fiction versus nonfiction "smackdown."
A striking assumption animates arguments on both sides, namely that nonfiction is seldom literary and certainly not literature. Even Mr. Coleman erects his case on largely dispiriting, utilitarian grounds: nonfiction may help you win the corner office but won't necessarily nourish the soul.
As an English teacher and writer who traffics in factual prose, I'm with Mr. Coleman. In my experience, students need more exposure to nonfiction, less to help with reading skills, but as a model for their own essays and expository writing, what Mr. Gladwell sought by ingesting "Talk of the Town" stories.
I love fiction and poetry as much as the next former English major and often despair over the quality of what passes for "informational texts," few of which amount to narrative much less literary narrative.
What schools really need isn't more nonfiction but better nonfiction, especially that which provides good models for student writing. Most students could use greater familiarity with what newspaper, magazine and book editors call "narrative nonfiction": writing that tells a factual story, sometimes even a personal one, but also makes an argument and conveys information in vivid, effective ways.
What Tom Wolfe once said about New Journalism could be applied to most student writing. It benefits from intense reporting, immersion in a subject, imaginative scene setting, dialogue and telling details. These are the very skills most English teachers want students to develop. What's odd is how rarely such literary nonfiction appears on English-or other class-reading lists. In addition to a biology textbook, for example, why can't more high school students read "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"?
Narrative nonfiction also provides a bridge between the personal narratives students typically write in elementary school and the essays on external subjects that are more appropriate assignments in high school and beyond. David Coleman may dismiss self-expression. Yet he recommends authors, like the surgeon and medical writer Atul Gawande, who frequently rely on personal storytelling in their reporting.
Models of narrative nonfiction are everywhere, on programs like "This American Life" and "Radiolab," in nonfiction books for young adults, like "Sugar Changed the World" (which is about slavery and science in the pursuit of the food additive), and even in graphic nonfiction works, like "Persepolis," which tells the story of a young woman who grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
Each has a personal angle that students can relate to but is also a genuinely enthralling narrative. Adult titles, like "The Omnivore's Dilemma," already have young readers editions, and many adult general-interest works, such as Timothy Ferris's "The Whole Shebang," about the workings of the universe, are appropriate for advanced high-school students.
Most readily, narrative nonfiction is available every day of the week in the dwindling outlets for long-form journalism. Students are a natural (and the future) audience for serious, in-depth reporting. Skilled practitioners can demonstrate the power of facts, and provide models-topic sentence by topic sentence-for compelling narrative.
There are anthologies of great literature and primary documents, but why not "30 for Under 20: Great Nonfiction Narratives?" Until such editions appear, teachers can find complex, literary works in collections like "The Best American Science and Nature Writing," on many newspaper Web sites, which have begun providing online lesson plans using articles for younger readers, and on ProPublica.org.
Last year, The Atlantic compiled examples of the year's best journalism, and The Daily Beast has its feature "Longreads." Longform.org not only has "best of" contemporary selections but also historical examples dating back decades.
If students read 100 such articles over the course of a year, they may not become best-selling authors, but like Mr. Gladwell, they'll get the sound and feel of good writing in their heads. With luck, when they graduate, there will still be ranks of literary nonfiction authors left for them to join.
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New York NY/ OPINION: At Work, Practice Puts Perfection in Reach
By Katie Yezzi [Founding principal of Troy Prep Elementary School in Troy, N.Y., is a co-author of "Practice Perfect"]
New York Times
November 24, 2012
In 2011, I started a public charter elementary school as the principal. My organization, Uncommon Schools, manages charter schools for the bottom line, which in our case is student achievement. Some 92 percent of my school's students live below the poverty line, and the urgency of our faculty's work is what motivates us to be great every day.
But the overwhelming need to be great can also swallow people up. If teachers are underperforming, or if student achievement appears to be plateauing, teachers can become paralyzed and fall prey to self-doubt or frustration.
We have found an antidote to this sense of defeat: practicing and preparing outside the classroom. Practice, I have found, is one of the most powerful ways to improve performance.
Last March, as I was preparing to conduct midyear reviews with the teachers, my managing director, Doug Lemov, asked me if I wanted to practice any of them in advance. I immediately took him up on the opportunity to practice one review of a teacher who was struggling. I was dreading the review. I didn't want to be harsh, but I also didn't want to water down the message and give this teacher a false impression. I knew that I wasn't ready to have that conversation, so Doug and I practiced.
Doug demonstrated some language I could use, and I rephrased it and tried it out, and then went over and over the main pieces of the conversation. When it was time for the review, I felt confident and calm, and was able to be entirely present and to listen. I said everything that I needed to say, and found the balance between directness and compassion. Practice had helped to make something difficult much easier.
Feeling good about the situation, I jumped into a second review, with one of my stronger teachers. This review would be mainly positive, and so I didn't think I needed to practice. I was surprised when the meeting, far from going as expected, involved lots of tears (hers) and awkwardness (mine) when I went over some areas where she could improve.
As I handed over the tissue box, I realized that I had imagined practice mainly as a tool for dealing with poor performance. But it can also be important for strong employees, who stand to give so much back. A well-conducted review, practiced in advance, has a better chance of making them feel happy and valued.
In other performance professions, like music or sports, the top performers always keep practicing - alone and together. It's understood as crucial to staying at the top of their game. I had fallen into the trap of assuming that practice was a tool to avoid disasters, as opposed to a way to maximize positive outcomes. Now I see it as one of the only things that will keep helping me grow as a professional and add value to my organization. With our students, we never accept that some won't ever "get it." We know that intelligence is not a fixed trait; with the right instruction, and lots of well-constructed practice, all of our students can achieve at high levels.
Interestingly, not all of our teachers initially apply this thinking to themselves. One came into my office the other day, saying she knew that her class wasn't going well and that she didn't think she could ever help her students improve. I rejected that idea and noted two small changes she could make. She still wasn't buying it. Then we practiced, with me demonstrating alternative teaching methods and her trying them out. Her whole outlook changed. She felt the difference.
Five minutes later, she was performing in front of her students, doing what we had just practiced. I could hear the difference. I checked in with her later, and she was beaming. She still had a long way to go, but she had already proved to herself that she could become better - and that the improvement was under her control.
When I read reports of low teacher morale across the nation, I believe them, but I don't see much of that in our workplace. We all work hard in a very demanding environment, but our teachers love their jobs. The key to workplace satisfaction is doing a job well, and our most powerful tool for ensuring that is practice.
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Essex NY/ OPINION: Getting Poor Students to College is about Access
Students from low-income communities need the same mentoring, leadership opportunities, and support through the college application process as their higher-income peers. Strategic partnerships between K-12 schools and local colleges are a key part of this exposure.
By Rick Dalton [President and CEO of College for Every Student]
CSMonitor.com
November 23, 2012
Even with seesawing reports on whether the economy is getting better or worse, one factor remains constant. Many people assume the persistently high unemployment rates mean America needs more job creation. That may be partly true, but here's a surprising fact: Millions of Americans need good jobs, but millions of high-paying jobs are going unfilled because there aren't enough people with the skills and education to do them.
But affordability is only part of the battle. Too many of America's children aren't worried about the cost of higher education because they can't even imagine attending college in the first place. To improve educational access, students from low-income communities need the same mentoring, leadership opportunities, and support through the college application process as their higher-income peers. Strategic partnerships between K-12 schools and local colleges are a key part of this exposure.
Think of the way the typical college search and admissions process happens for children from upper income households. By 9th grade, most of these young people are already aware of Advanced Placement courses, extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, and other factors that lead to college acceptance. In the next year or so, they begin receiving direct mail publications from colleges that target full-pay applicants. Their parents and other family members see higher education as a given, and work closely with them throughout the admissions process to make sure they look as good as possible to prospective colleges.
The situation is starkly different for students from low-income families. Due to economic factors, many attend schools with fewer resources, where fewer opportunities are offered to them, and less may be expected of them. Those who do manage to excel academically are still often confounded by the college entrance process - from taking the SAT or ACT, to understanding how to get financial aid, to simply being able to visit colleges to understand what they have to offer. Many live in neighborhoods with few adults who attended college, and without direct guidance, many of these talented students end up tracked for low-skill, low-wage employment for the rest of their lives.
The impact on our nation is staggering. Three decades ago America was ranked No. 1 worldwide in the proportion of citizens with college degrees. Today we rank 12th, and the college-going and college-graduation gaps between students from middle and upper income households and their lower income peers have widened every year since 1980. In 10 years, 20 million jobs will go unfilled because there aren't enough workers qualified to do them.
Helping talented students from low-income backgrounds access college requires multi-faceted support. Our program, College for Every Student, has forged a partnership between 200 K-12 schools and 210 colleges in 24 states to help these students realize a different future than the one they might have otherwise found. The partnership has engaged 20,000 students from economically challenged rural and urban communities in an effort to boost college readiness, college going, and college graduation. Most students participating in the program do not have parents who attended college.
We begin working with these students as early as the beginning grades of elementary school and support students up through the college application process to college graduation.
Two key tenets guide the partnership.
- First is the recognition that these students need role models to boost their aspirations.
- Second is that, despite their personal circumstances, their schools must expect more of them, not less. The results present a telling picture.
Currently, 99 percent of the students who participate in our program graduate from high school, and 96 percent of these students go on to college. Ours is not the only program to improve awareness of and access to college among low-income students. Like any successful initiative, our partnership has three key components, or messages for students:
- Make college top-of-mind early and often. Common practice is to hold events like college fairs for students in high school. Yet much of the work that has to happen to prepare for college entrance begins much earlier. For that reason, elementary schools in our program begin college readiness activities as early as first grade, to instill the vision of a college education when the kids are still young. Exposure and expectation are key, and they must start early.
Many elementary school students and all of those in later grades are also peered with mentors who are just a bit older and who have a lot in common with them. These mentors reinforce the belief that, with hard work and persistence, they can and will attend college. The message: I'm a lot like you, and if I can succeed, you can, too.
- Lead others, regardless of your personal circumstances. While many students in the program face significant economic and social barriers, the program takes what might seem like a counterintuitive approach to addressing them. Instead of asking less of students to accommodate those challenging external factors, we ask more of our students. We ask them to proactively tackle problems by strengthening their communities.
Every student is expected to engage in leadership activities that support their local community and/or school. Activities vary based on each student's interests and often require them to do things beyond their comfort zone, such as public speaking or organizing a school-wide college awareness event. These activities build discipline and strengthen personal aspirations, leading the students to realize they can improve the lives of others even though they've faced significant challenges of their own.
- With help, you can navigate the journey to college. All K-12 schools in the program have partnerships with neighboring colleges. Many students end up with mentors from those colleges, and virtually all spend time on college campuses - an experience that can be transformative to students who have never set foot on one. The students also get help from college students and alumni and even older peers who help them navigate the maze of application and financial aid forms. And throughout the process, their aspirations are reinforced.
The journey from preparation to entrance to graduation is still difficult, but through the support of this network, they have the guidance that's customary for upper-income kids every step of the way. And it takes only $250 per student annually.
These partnerships between the colleges and K-12 schools are based on the mutual recognition that educated students lead to educated college graduates and, in turn, young people who are ready to work and get our economy back on track.
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