Santa Fe/ 2-Language School Draws Interest, Santa Fe Board Hears Ideas for High School Reform By T. S. Last ABQ Journal Staff Writer December 5, 2012 A dual-language magnet school where classes would be taught in both English and Spanish was one option that received a favorable response from school board members after a presentation on secondary school reform at Tuesday's school board meeting. Board member Steven Carrillo and board vice president Linda Trujillo expressed support for the idea after the presentation by Chief Academic Officer Almudena "Almi" Abeyta. - "I've always supported that kind of concept," said Trujillo, who added that it was part of her platform when she ran for the school board. "I can see the benefits."
That was just one idea for a magnet school among several offered during the presentation that addressed how high school education will be shaped in the Santa Fe Public Schools in the coming years. - The district plans to take the issue of secondary school reform to the community by sending out surveys to parents and holding a series of public forums during the early part of 2013.
- "We're looking to expand options for the community, so we want the community to determine what those options are," Superintendent Joel Boyd said. "This is about getting feedback."
Boyd said all the options presented are realistic, but whatever is decided won't be fully implemented until the 2014-15 school year, after a full year of planning. - The options Abeyta presented were devised by a task force consisting of 13 people, including school administrators and two representatives from Santa Fe Community College.
- Abeyta noted that the school district's strategic plan now includes expansion of a ninth-grade academy and career pathways at the high schools and the launch of an alternative program for high school students.
- Abeyta provided statistics that bear out the need for reform. She pointed to the school district's graduation rate of 56.5 percent last school year and noted that 30 percent of elementary school students leave the district.
The committee identified several key aspects that contribute to the "ideal high school experience." - At the core are three Rs, but not the ones traditionally associated with education. In this case they are rigor, relevance and relationships, which research shows result in student success, Abeyta said.
- She defined rigor as a challenging curriculum that meets high standards, relevance as how school work is linked to what students want to do with their lives after graduation, and relationships as meaningful personal contact with caring adults.
Abeyta said the committee came up with a three-pronged approach to options for redesigning secondary school structure within the district. - They consisted of comprehensive high school redesign;
- magnet school options, including International Baccalaureate for grades 7-12,
- a dual language academy,
- an arts academy,
- an innovation school and another admission-only school;
- and alternative pathways to be included in all options.
The alternative pathways could include a twilight or virtual school, credit recovery and behavior support school for grades 7-12, she said. The four options the committee presented for consideration were: - Strengthen and build the current programs at Santa Fe High, Capital High and the Academy of Larragoite with no additional school/ programming;
- Strengthen and build the current program and add two magnet schools;
- Establish career academies at both high schools, two magnet schools and a ninth-grade academy located at or close to a high school; and
- Establish four career academies at one high school and International Baccalaureate 7-12, plus a magnet school at a high school and as a ninthgrade academy at or close to a high school
The next step in the process, Abeyta said, will be student-facilitated community forums in January and February. Surveys also will be used to determine community preferences. The district would settle on a final selection of options in February or March. After the presentation, board members asked questions and commented on some of the things being proposed. Many of the remarks had to do with ideas for magnet schools, career academies, or alternative pathways. Board members seemed to agree that an arts academy would be a natural for Santa Fe, but Glenn Wikle said that perhaps a distinction should be made between fine arts and performing arts. Barbara Gudwin and Wikle said they some of the concepts, like a behavior support school, could be in place as early as next year. And though Gudwin said she liked the idea of an International Baccalaureate magnet school, she said one year of planning may not be enough time to train teachers and get the required certification for teachers. "It's also an expensive program," she said. "I think I.B., as much as I like it, it may not be realistic to implement that soon." Gudwin also mentioned technology as a subject area that could be considered as an option for a magnet school or career pathway. Trujillo offered several other suggestions, including journalism, public administration and political science. "You always hear about Santa Fe being an arts community, but we're also the capital of New Mexico," she said. Carrillo offered the idea for a magnet school that focused on sustainability, especially green building. He said more kids would decide to stay in school if they had a magnet school that appealed to them. Board President Frank Montaņo was concerned about costs and asked Abeyta if that had been given consideration. She said there had been some preliminary examination of costs, but "until we know what the options are, we haven't addressed that." Montaņo also had questions about the student-facilitated public forums. Abeyta said the forums would be conducted in much the same way Boyd conducted public forums earlier this year and that she would attend each to help guide the discussion. Boyd said he hoped to enlist the help of the three student representatives on the school board: - Bree Hernandez from Santa Fe High,
- Jose Rodriguez from Capital High and
- Austin Tyra from Academy at Larragoite.
"We're hoping the students will take a leadership role," he said. Boyd said the plan was to have options, including projected costs for programs, ready for the school board to act on in February or March.
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Santa Fe/ NM Teacher Colleges Not Good Enough By Hailey Heinz ABQ Journal Staff Writer December 6, 2012 New Mexico's colleges of education are not doing enough to prepare future teachers for the classroom, according to a new legislative report. The report, released Wednesday by the Legislative Finance Committee, calls for: - higher standards in teacher preparation programs,
- more oversight from the state Public Education Department and
- more time in the classroom for student teachers.
- The report also recommends that data about the quality of teachers educated in local colleges should be a factor in how those schools are funded.
Deans of several colleges said they are eager to improve their programs but question the report's reliance on standardized tests as measures of student learning and teacher ability. - "Nationally, we have been misled to believe and to think that standardized tests measure student achievement, measure student knowledge, and measure student learning, and I contend that standardized tests do not do that," said Michael Morehead, College of Education dean at New Mexico State University.
The 60-page report used various measures to evaluate New Mexico's teacher colleges, including: - surveys, interviews and statistical calculations based on test scores.
- Researchers examined degree requirements, course syllabi and the credentials of students entering teacher programs.
Researchers found that these entering students are "academically average" according to their ACT scores. - Prospective teachers in New Mexico have an average ACT score of 20.1, which is slightly above the state average of 19.8. But the report's authors say standards should be raised.
- The report cites research in other states that found teachers with higher ACT scores helped their students make greater strides on reading tests.
More broadly, the report makes the argument that low standards in teaching colleges are connected to low student achievement in New Mexico. - The report also found that nearly all teaching students pass New Mexico's teacher assessment, which is required to receive a license, and those that don't pass the test can retake it as many times as they need to. The report suggests setting a higher passing score on the test.
- The report also found, through its surveys, that teachers and principals both feel teachers are not sufficiently prepared to manage behavior in their classrooms, use student data to make decisions, or teach students who have special needs or are learning English.
- Principals also said teachers with extensive student teaching experience were better prepared.
The report uses a new research method that linked university programs to the teachers they educate. - The report then examined the test score improvement of those teachers' students.
- Researchers used statistical controls for poverty, and looked at students' test score improvement over time.
Using this method, researchers found that teachers at five of the six colleges in the study raised their students' scores by slightly more than would be statistically expected. - Only New Mexico Highlands University had teachers with average performance below what would be expected.
- But the report's authors call for higher growth across the board, arguing that many students who are behind need to move their test scores significantly to get up to grade level.
- Highlands had the lowest outcomes by nearly every measure in the report.
Gilbert Rivera, vice president for academic affairs at Highlands, cautioned the LFC against drawing broad conclusions from the data. - "A cautionary note is that we don't generalize what we hear and what we see in this report to an entire group of dedicated and excellent teachers we have in the state of New Mexico," Rivera said.
The report also broke the data down in other ways that showed more differences, like sorting teachers into thirds by effectiveness, based on their students' scores. - The University of New Mexico had the highest percentage of teachers in the top third, while Highlands had the largest proportion of the bottom third.
- More specifically, teachers educated at Central New Mexico Community College and Western New Mexico produced the largest gains on their students' math scores.
- In terms of reading, teachers from Eastern New Mexico University appeared to get the best results.
Some members of the legislative committee were skeptical Wednesday about the validity of such measures, and Morehead contended the calculations are too complex to be meaningful. "It has more statistical manipulations than the bond derivative market that collapsed the economy of this country. I can't trust it," he said. Others raised more specific concerns. Richard Howell, dean of the College of Education at the University of New Mexico, pointed out that 46 percent of New Mexico's teachers are educated outside New Mexico or in smaller in-state institutions. He said a comprehensive solution should address the entire teaching force, not half of it. ~~~~~~~~~ ABQ/ ABQ Progress Report: APS' Grim Statistics KOAT-TV Report , Channel 7 December 5, 2012 The city of Albuquerque Progress Report confirms a third of Albuquerque Public Schools students don't graduate in four years. - "I'm not satisfied at all, I think we have a lot of work to do," said APS Superintendent Winston Brooks.
Brooks said the way the state calculates the graduation rate just changed, causing the drop. - "We're all concerned and working I think as hard as we possibly can to get that grad rate, my hope is we can bump it up and get it over 70 percent."
Mayor Richard Berry also weighed in on the issue and said he knows the school district doesn't do as well as other peer states in graduating students from school. To combat the problem, he has helped inject a program called "Running Start for Careers" into APS. - "We're bringing businesses in with their curriculum, their experts, and their resources to teach students while they're still in high school and they can use those electives to graduate from high school," said Berry.
This is a plan both Berry and Brooks say they hope will get more kids graduating.
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Clovis/ Mentoring Program in 15th Year, James Bickley Elementary School Needs More Volunteers By Benna Sayyed Clovis News Journal December 5, 2012 Joshawa Mathis sat up straight in his chair grasping his book, his eyes tightly focused on the words with a serious look on his face. The second-grader seemed to read with growing confidence, especially since his adult mentor was close by ready to help him sound out words or understand a sentence. Mathis is one of 58 students who receive one-on-one tutoring in language arts every week in the James Bickley Elementary mentoring program, which is in its 15th year. - Students in grades first, second, third and sixth are tutored in reading and spelling in 30-minute sessions four days a week. Six children are served each week.
- Students read Accuplacer books, books selected to assess a student's academic skills, for 10 minutes each session and are rewarded with fruit, candy, juices, pencils and stickers each month for achievement.
Mathis said attending the program has definitely helped his reading and spelling and believes having a mentor helps him learn better than being in the classroom. "Now I can get better grades," Mathis said. "It's fun because you get to learn stuff and read. I like Charlie Brown, Clifford and all that." James Bickley mentor coordinator Theresa Span works with teachers each Friday to organize the next week's lesson plans. Lesson plans reflect class material and enable mentors to easily assist students. "It's kind of hard for these kids to work in a big group in class," said Span, a junior at Wayland Baptist University majoring in special education. - "In here they're able to work one-on-one. When they don't get it in class and finally get it in here, you can see their face just lights up. It makes them want to learn more."
Span said the mentors, who come from various parts of the community, act as positive role models for the students. She said students like seeing military personnel and bank tellers in uniform and usually ask mentors about their jobs. "Hearing about the mentors' jobs really encourages students," Span said. Pauline Smith, 77, a retired nurse in her third year of mentoring loves to pass along her love of reading to students. "If you can't read you can't get along in life. My mother was a school teacher and reading is one of the most important things in school." The program has 35 mentors and according to Span, 58 mentors are needed. ~~~~~~~~~ ABQ/ Running Program Helps Sierra Vista Elementary School Students Get, Stay Fit By Glen Rosales ABQ Journal December 6, 2012 Imagine running from Los Angeles to New York, with maybe a side trip to, say, Albuquerque, along the way. That's what the students in Sierra Vista Elementary School's runners club have already accomplished this school year. The program that takes place during lunch recess has about 300 fairly regular participants, said Darlene Argano, the school's physical education teacher, who implemented the runners club a number of years ago. - "I saw a lot of kids not being active for one reason or another, outside of school or even during school," she said. "Some kids, their parents couldn't afford to put them in extracurricular activities or, if they could, they didn't have the time because mom and dad were both working."
What's more, there were issues on the playground and health problems. - "In school, a lot of kids were getting in trouble at recess," Argano said. "We had a lot of overweight kids at every grade level. We were even seeing kids at every grade level with Type II diabetes."
Since there is no particular skill needed to run, it seemed like the best way to get the kids moving. The club, however, didn't really take off until a couple of years ago when Argano committed to providing plenty of incentives for the students. - In addition to bigger prizes for the top runners at the end of the year, a runner gets a small token for every mile negotiating the "Scorpion Trail," which winds around the school's playground.
- Runners get a somewhat larger token at two miles and a figure of a little runner for five miles.
- For every 25 miles, they get a big foot.
- And at 30 miles for runners in grades first through fifth, they get their photo taken and put on a wall in the main hallway of the Northwest Albuquerque school.
"As they increase their miles, their picture is moved along the wall," Argano said. "So everybody gets to see it. Parents get to see it. APS Superintendent Winston Brooks came last year and he noticed the wall." Of course, with the added incentives and the increased participation, it took more money to pay for the prizes, Argano said. She twice earned grants from the National Football League's "Fuel Up To Play 60" program, but that didn't come through this year, although she has another shot at it in early 2013. Some of the numbers the students post are fairly amazing, like those of third-grader Jeremiah Sanchez, who was the top runner last year with 210 miles. "My goal is to get 250," Sanchez said. "I like running because it's fun and you get prizes. Last year, I got a watch, a football and big, huge Gatorade." Sanchez may be challenged for his title this season, as fourth-grader Jacob Smith is at 89 miles. "I run every lunch recess," said Smith, who also races BMX bikes, rides mountain bikes and plays soccer. "I just like running. I wasn't here last year. I wanted to try (the club) because it sounded cool." Third-grade friends Maddie Saavedra and Roslynn Mares like to run together. "Last year I only ran 10 miles and this year I'm at 51," Saavedra said. "Last year my friend, she didn't want to run and I did. She wouldn't run with me but I have to have somebody to run with me to motivate me to run." The friends frequently talk while they're running. "We talk about what we're going to do tomorrow and what we're going to wear," Mares said. Fifth-grader Megan Grubaugh, who has run 51 miles, prefers to run alone. "It lets me express how fast I can go," she said. "It gives me a chance to have the time to myself and I can think about things I need to do." Diane Sanchez, Jeremiah's mother, and a cross-country runner while in high school in Belen, has been helping with the program and enjoys watching the students gain an appreciation for running. "You see the changes in them," she said. "These kids are going to be stronger, healthier. They see it. They recognize the effects it has." Sanchez recalled a boy last year who started out by walking the course. "By the end of year, he got to 90 miles," she said. "He was running the whole track and he made friends with members of the 100-mile club so his motivation was not only physical fitness but socialization because he became a part of something. He was no longer just a student at Sierra Vista, he was part of the runners club." While the runners club is good for the body, it's also been incorporated into the educational program at the school. The students are using math skills as they add up their miles, Argano said. And some of the classes are compiling their miles and tracking them across several of the traditional cross-country routes and studying places along the way. Classes that finish a route get a pizza party or an ice cream party, she said. Even the parents are getting something from it. "What they're teaching me is not to sit on the couch anymore," Sanchez said. "I need to be active just like them." ~~~~~~~~~ Washington DC/ Secretary Duncan Sketches Out 'Long Haul' Agenda By Michele McNeil Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 13 [Edweek.org] December 5, 2012 U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who says he plans to serve in the Obama Cabinet for the "long haul," has begun sketching out his priorities for the next four years. They include using competitive levers to improve teacher and principal quality and holding the line on initiatives he started during the president's first term. The secretary is also making clear what he won't do: devote a lot of energy to a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act if Congress doesn't get serious about rewriting the current version, the No Child Left Behind Act. - "We will lead, we will help, we will push, but Congress has to want to do it," Mr. Duncan said in remarks last month to the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Mr. Duncan sees a tough road ahead for many critical state efforts-all of which are encouraged and financed by his department-to put new common academic standards, common tests, and teacher evaluations in place. - "These next couple of years are years of huge challenge. Do we have the courage to stay the course?" he said during remarks last week at a Washington event held by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Secretary Duncan will face other significant challenges during the Obama administration's second half. - His team must implement flexibility waivers he's granted under the NCLB law, which so far have gone to 34 states and the District of Columbia that are instituting highly complex accountability systems.
- The federal Department of Education also must keep tabs on the dozen states that shared $3.4 billion in original, state-based Race to the Top grants, the highest-profile competition Mr. Duncan's agency has embarked on so far.
- And then there are several other, smaller grant competitions to manage, including Investing in Innovation, or i3, and Promise Neighborhoods.
Many state education chiefs, meanwhile, will be looking for two things during the president's second term: a new ESEA and clarity on federal funding levels for K-12. - "A reauthorization and a [federal] budget-those are the things that they really need to focus on," Ronald Tomalis, Pennsylvania's secretary of education, said in a recent interview. "I was hoping to see much more energy expressed from [Mr. Duncan] on reauthorization especially."
During a series of speeches after President Barack Obama's re-election and in an interview with Education Week, Secretary Duncan has reaffirmed his commitment to using federal incentives to prod education policy changes. In the president's first term, that leverage came in the form of $100 billion in education aid from the 2009 federal economic-stimulus package, and later, from the announcement that the administration would grant waivers giving states flexibility on compliance with key parts of the NCLB law. Encouraging Competition Given the tough budget climate in Washington, there is no doubt Mr. Duncan will have less money to work with in the coming years. But with whatever money he can find, he seems interested in new grant competitions that would improve principal- and teacher-preparation programs-and encourage districts and states to place the best-performing educators in the highest-need classrooms. - During his remarks Nov. 28 at the Foundation for Excellence in Education's gathering, Mr. Duncan said he was deeply troubled to know of no schools or districts that work "systemically" to identify the best teachers and principals, then place them with the children with the highest needs. "We're not even in the game. We're not there yet," he said.
- A push by the secretary to overhaul teacher and principal preparation isn't new, as his department has proposed several initiatives that haven't gotten much traction. And he counts that as one of the weaknesses in his service so far.
In his two postelection speeches, Mr. Duncan has said that teacher education programs are "part of the problem" and that the Education Department is looking at a competitive initiative to foster innovation in schools of education, though he didn't get specific. In a phone interview Nov. 16, he said money to improve teacher- or principal-preparation programs could come through Title II grants, which are used for professional-development kinds of activities, from federal School Improvement Grants, and from other programs. Mr. Duncan said that improving early-childhood education and making college more affordable and attainable also would have a prominent place in his agenda for the coming years. And, to the dismay of many state schools chiefs, Mr. Duncan is still considering NCLB waivers for school districts in states that, for whatever reason, do not themselves get waivers. During his Nov. 16 remarks to a meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers in Savannah, Ga., Mr. Duncan said that while the majority of his department's time and money is spent with states, he did not want states to have "veto power" over districts that have their own improvement ideas. That's one reason the federal department launched the $400 million Race to the Top competition for districts to help them develop personalized teaching and learning strategies-a contest that's ongoing now. "We do want to see innovation at the district level," Mr. Duncan said. "I think it's important we play there." Pressure Mounts Education policy advocates say the pressure will be on Mr. Duncan to use his next four years to deliver another big bang along the lines of Race to the Top, which dangled $3.4 billion in front of states to devise bold education-improvement plans and change policies that would expand charter schools, adopt common standards, and revamp teacher evaluations. - "He needs to come up with a significant initiative that's new and address things that have not been addressed in the first term," said Charlie Barone, the director of federal policy for Democrats for Education Reform, a New York City-based political action committee. Topping Mr. Barone's list would be to spend more time on policies that benefit the most disadvantaged students.
"It's incumbent on the administration to come up with an equity agenda for a second term," Mr. Barone said. Many see Mr. Duncan's reluctance to prioritize reauthorization of the ESEA as a glaring omission on his agenda for the next four years. The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002. - "For any administration to have a lasting legacy, they have to work with Congress to pass a few laws," said Vic Klatt, a longtime aide to Republicans on the House education committee who now serves as a principal at the Penn Hill Group, a government-relations firm in Washington. "You can't just take your marbles and go home."
Many state education chiefs agree. Tom Luna, the superintendent of public instruction in Idaho, said many of his colleagues worry that, because the administration has handed out the NCLB waivers, rewriting the law is no longer a top priority. "Waivers are a poor substitute," Mr. Luna, a Republican, said in an interview at the CCSSO gathering in Savannah, Ga. The chiefs acknowledge that they were some of the loudest cheerleaders for those waivers-but with a caveat. "We asked for waivers, not permanent waivers," said Peter Zamora, the director of federal relations for the Washington-based chiefs' organization. Mr. Duncan, however, has made clear that his agenda is still evolving, and that in the coming weeks, he will sharpen his focus. "This is really a time to listen to folks and get their advice and input," he said in the interview last month. "This is a chance to think big."
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Washington DC/ Was 'Brown v. Board' a Failure? A new study shows a steady but significant return of racial isolation to America's schools By Sarah Garland [Staff writer at The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University, and author of the forthcoming book Divided We Fail: The Story of an African American Community that Ended the Era of School Desegregation] The Atlantic [theatlantic.com] December 5, 2012 After half a century, America's efforts to end segregation seem to be winding down. - In the years after Brown v. Board of Education, 755 school districts were under desegregation orders.
- A new Stanford study reports that as of 2009, that number had dropped to as few as 268.
The study is the first to take a comprehensive look at whether court-ordered busing successfully ended the legacy of Jim Crow in public education, and it suggests a mission that is far from accomplished. - On average, those districts that stopped forcing schools to mix students by race have seen a gradual but steady-and significant-return of racial isolation, especially at the elementary level.
It's unclear what effect school "re-segregation" will have on minority achievement, though a large body of research suggests it certainly won't help efforts to improve test scores, graduation rates, and college entry levels for blacks and Hispanics, a growing share of the U.S. population. But the retreat from desegregation also suggests the policy had significant flaws-problems current education reformers should pay attention to. The hope behind desegregation was that it would bring together white and black children to learn with, and from, each other, and end the disparities that blacks suffered under legal segregation -hand-me-down textbooks, decrepit buildings, lower-paid teachers, and, of course, lagging achievement. In the three decades following Brown v. Board of Education, courts ordered districts to create elaborate student assignment plans-often dependent on forced busing-to mix black, Hispanic, and white students together in the same schools. Most school boards complied reluctantly, and parents in places like Boston reacted violently. A few educators and parents began to see substantial benefits that changed their minds. - "It was really hard to do, but we all came together and over the years it has paid off," said Carol Haddad, a long-time school board member in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the few districts that has maintained desegregated schools voluntarily despite the lifting of its court order.
- "We can give equal opportunities to all kids."
Indeed, during the height of desegregation in the 1970s and 80s, the achievement gap between black and white students narrowed at the most rapid rate ever recorded in the history of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), the most reliable, long-term measure of student achievement in the U.S. Black graduation rates also rose at desegregated schools, research has found. War on Poverty programs and other efforts to improve life for black families were one factor. "There was a lot going on," said Sean Reardon, a Stanford sociologist and the study's lead author. "But clearly desegregation improved outcomes for blacks, and didn't harm them for whites." Nevertheless, in most communities forced to try desegregation, the sacrifices weren't worth the benefits. - Parents of all races complained about the hassle of busing and the loss of neighborhood schools, but for black families the burdens were often heavier: Their children tended to spend more time commuting, their own schools were closed to make desegregation more convenient for whites (and prevent their flight to the suburbs or private schools), and their teachers were fired when white and black schools were merged.
- In the 1990s, a series of Supreme Court decisions made it much easier for school districts to get out from under court supervision. During that decade, school districts and groups of parents both went to court to fight desegregation orders. In a few cases, including in Louisville, the main parties fighting busing were black. "It's not surprising," said Michael Petrilli, author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma and executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank that advocates for school choice. "These court orders are by and large unpopular with parents, both white and black."
In the last decade, the speed of re-segregation has accelerated. - The Bush administration took a proactive role in pushing for the end of desegregation in more than 200 districts, the Stanford study found.
- The districts were picked seemingly at random-on average, they still had levels of segregation in their schools that were about the same as the districts that remained under orders. "It wasn't like in some places desegregation had done a great job and that's why they were released and in other places there was still work to be done," Reardon said.
- The strongest blow came in 2007, when the Supreme Court handed down a ruling restricting the use of race in school assignments in those districts not under court order. But by then, priorities had shifted. Both Democrats and Republicans embraced new ideas for closing the achievement gap, including No Child Left Behind's testing regimes, charter schools, and a push to make teachers more accountable for their performance. However, these new ideas have yet to show the same impact that desegregation seemed to have on minority student outcomes.
- Since 1990, when schools began re-segregating in large numbers, black gains on NAEP have slowed.
The next question Reardon plans to look at is whether re-segregation led to a widening of the achievement gap. Whatever he finds, it's unlikely that desegregation-at least in its forced-busing form-will ever experience a resurgence. A new generation of reformers has begun looking for ways to create voluntarily integrated schools in order to harness the benefits of racial and other kinds of diversity. "For the people who care about integration, we need a new set of strategies," Petrilli said. Perhaps just as importantly, the demise of desegregation offers lessons about what not to do in order to improve outcomes for minority children. In black communities, desegregation lost support when thousands of teachers and principals lost jobs, schools were closed, and people felt that they lost power over their schools. For the same reasons, some of the intended beneficiaries have not wholeheartedly embraced-and even protested-aspects of the current education reform movement. As Fran Thomas, one black activist in Louisville, Kentucky, said of her decision to fight the district's desegregation system: "I can see why everybody was excited when the law came down that we were integrated. They thought this was utopia, and that everything was going to be all right. We got a new school. We got a swimming pool and trees. Everybody was happy and ecstatic. But they didn't know what the integration really meant-the harshness." Thomas says she stopped believing in the promises of desegregation when she saw "the destroying of schools under the name of education." ~~~~~~~~~ Washington DC/ Carnegie Unit May Yield to Better Course-Credit Measure By Caralee Adams Education Week [Edweek.org] December 5, 2012 The Carnegie Unit, the time-based standard used to judge student learning, may be replaced. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the very group that conceived the unit, has been awarded research funding to explore ways-instead of time-to measure competency. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced it is giving $460,000 to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Stanford, Calif., to support research on the role of the Carnegie Unit in American education. Developed in 1906, the unit is a gauge of the amount of time a student has studied a subject. - For example, a total of 120 hours in one subject, meeting four or five times a week for 40 to 60 minutes, for 36 to 40 weeks each year earns the student one "unit" of high school credit.
This approach has become the dominant way of tracking student progress in secondary and postsecondary education, but not without its critics. Some say the use of time is an arbitrary basis for measuring educational attainment. With advances in technology and the potential for personalized learning, there is a push to revise the unit to be based on competency rather than time. Researchers Thomas Toch and Elena Silva from Carnegie, an independent research and policy organization, will use the grant to reach out to the education community to get input on the future of the Carnegie Unit. Silva, a senior associate for research and policy, says the foundation is in a good position to ask these questions since it developed the Carnegie Unit, which never intended it to be used as it is now. - "Initially, it was part of an effort to push for higher and better standards," she says. "It is not a good universal measure for student progress. ... We are curious to know how it might be changed and more aligned with better, richer tools for measurement."
The credit hour is an efficient and simple way to move students through education-and it provides the framework for K-12 and higher education. Any change would require a huge shift in schools, says Silva. There are also concerns about moving younger students who are academically ready into classes with older children. It could be that a competency-based approach would work in some places, but not others, she added. - "[The Carnegie Unit} was not intended to measure learning, so it shouldn't be a surprise that it hasn't," says Silva. "It's a good time right now to revisit. We have new technology, new ways of assessing learning ... to consider a new criteria not based on time might improve teaching and learning."
The researchers will likely begin their work by convening experts in Washington and Stanford, Calif., to gather suggestions. A report on the findings is expected in early 2014. ~~~~~~~~~ Washington DC/ Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Updates Common-Core Tech. Requirements By Katie Ash Education Week [Edweek.org] December 5, 2012 The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has released an updated guide to technology requirements and recommendations for member states planning to implement the common core assessment system the consortium is developing for the 2014-15 school year. Under the framework, most schools should be able to implement the assessments, the organization said. However, schools that meet only the minimum specifications for the assessments may experience lag times and delays, while schools that implement the recommended guidelines for technology will experience a faster, more seamless assessment experience. However, the organization asserts that the lags and delays will not affect the quality of the assessments, only the amount of time it takes to process students' responses. The document makes five recommendations to prepare schools for the new assessments. 1. Move away from Windows XP (which is currently used by more than half of schools today) to Windows 7. Windows 8 might be acceptable, but further testing is needed. However, the assessments will work with Windows XP. 2. Upgrade computers to at least 1 GB of internal memory. Most schools have already implemented this recommendation (63 percent, to be exact.) 3. Make sure that all screens being used for the assessments have a visual display of no less than 9.5-inches, with at least a 1024 x 768 resolution. About 88 percent of schools have already met this recommendation. The assessments could work with an 8-inch screen, but 9.5 inches is the recommended width, the document says. Schools should also consider the dimensions of the actual visual screen if using tablets with an on screen keyboard, the document recommends, suggesting that schools provide plug-in keyboards to take full advantage of the screen. 4. Make sure the student testing site operates on secure browsers. While data reports from the assessments can be accessed through Google Chrome, Safari on iOS, Firefox, and Internet Explorer 8, the organization will release secure browsers each year that will be required for the actual test-taking. These browsers will prevent students from being able to access anything except the exam, and it will prevent them from copying and pasting or taking screenshots. The browsers will need to be installed every year prior to the assessment dates. 5. The assessment requires about 5-10 Kbps of bandwidth per student. The amount of bandwidth needed will depend on the assessment, some of which include animations, recorded audio, and other technology-enhanced items. Schools should estimate about 1 Mbps for every 100 students taking the assessment, keeping in mind that the school may be using additional bandwidth for other functions within the school during assessment periods. For a full list of minimum technology requirements along with Smarter Balanced's current recommendations, download the report here. And check out the latest issue of Digital Directions to read more about how the shift to common core assessments will affect schools' bandwidth needs, the types of devices schools will need to buy, schools' assistive technology needs, as well as where schools currently stand in terms of technology readiness. |