A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Editor's note: This post was originally written for Edutopia.
As 2011 winds to a close, we are about to turn the page on a year that saw new evidence suggesting that the education reform policies du jour aren't really working. Most charter schools perform no better than traditional public schools (at least in Chicago); value-added modeling does not produce consistent, reliable measures of teacher effectiveness; and the school curriculum is narrowing, in part because of the pressures of state tests (according to teachers).
Student performance on standardized assessments has remained stubbornly flat during the past few years (though much more progress has been made in math than reading). And despite all our efforts over the past decade to dictate down school improvement through governance and accountability policy, the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their middle- and upper-class peers is actually growing. We must be doing something wrong.
In looking ahead to the education agenda of 2012, I hope that we can learn from what hasn't worked in school improvement over the past few years, as well as what has ...
When it comes to high stakes testing, of any kind, its purpose should always be questioned. What is the value-add of a high school exit exam? Should it test students’ basic skills? College and career readiness? Do today’s tests do either?
A few weeks ago, a school board member in Florida took a version of the state’s 10th grade high school test, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Students must pass this test to graduate, and they have five opportunities to do so. The school board member averaged a D on the reading section, noting that: “In our system, that would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block of reading instruction.” This individual has two masters’ degrees and a successful professional career. He admits that while the material tested wasn’t fresh in his mind, he also didn’t use it in his work, thereby making him wonder how relevant it really was for the average student’s success after leaving school. ...
With the beginning of a new year, many of us think about exchanging our old bad habits for new good ones. Often, New Year’s resolutions focus on changing how we eat, how much sleep we get, or how active we want to be. In preparation for getting a great start in 2012, the NEA Health Information Network offers its list of the ten top good habits (in no particular order) that schools can adopt to help students and staff be healthier.
- Offer healthier food in school meal programs and from other sources that sell food in the schools. With the twin challenges of hunger and obesity, the types of food served in schools becomes more important than ever. Students need access to healthy food choices so they can make them.
- Expand school breakfast participation. Nationally, only a fraction of the students who participate in free and reduced lunch programs also participate in breakfast. Research shows that kids who eat breakfast function better throughout the day.
- Provide more physical activity before, during, and after school. Kids should get 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity each day, but very few do. Schools can help children be healthier by adding activity to instructional programs, creating exercise breaks, offering active recess programs, and ...
Yesterday I wrote about Mark Schneider’s belief that to significantly raise student achievement in this nation, we need to “shock” the system. Today, I learned about a partnership aiming to do just that in a rural West Virginia district.
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, State Board of Education Vice President Gayle Manchin and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have announced Reconnecting McDowell, a public-private partnership with more than 40 partners aimed at enhancing educational opportunity for children in McDowell County, a district that has ranked lowest in the state in academic performance for most of the past decade.
As a community, McDowell County faces a number of challenges in addition to a low-performing educational system. According to the Washington Post, while historically the area has produced the most coal in the state, with the collapse of the coal and steel industries in the 1960s, the unemployment rate has risen dramatically. Nearly 80% of children in the school district live in poverty; 72% live in a household without gainful employment. The area has a high incarceration rate. It also has a large number of residents struggling with addition, and it leads the nation in ...
Have we hit a plateau in student achievement in this nation? In a paper released today, Mark Schneider suggests that yes, we have.
Schneider was asked to study student achievement in Texas over the past few years, at the time their Governor Rick Perry was a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Education Secretary Arne Duncan had suggested that Perry ran an inadequate school system, and the Fordham Institute wanted to determine whether or not that was true.
As Schneider reviews, Texas’ performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) over the past few years has been relatively flat, after a few years of rapid improvement. But in his research, Schneider uncovered a larger trend. And rather than blame stagnant performance on the governor, he suggests that it’s somewhat inevitable.
There’s a concept in biology known as punctuated equilibrium. It posits that systems typically exist in a steady state (equilibrium) in which little change occurs. Occasionally there is a shock to a system from ...
Today the largest teachers’ union in the US, the National Education Association (NEA), announced an action plan to strengthen the teaching profession and invest in the development of teacher leaders whose advocacy for and support of effective classroom practitioners will result in improved student learning and stronger public schools. The recommendations made today are based on the work of an independent Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching made up of accomplished teachers and educational leaders that looked at best practices from effective teachers across the country. These recommendations will result in an increase in the quality of teacher candidates before they reach the classroom; ensure that teachers remain at the top of their game throughout their careers; and improve student achievement by improving the profession.
The NEA Action Agenda has three major components:
- Raising the Bar for Entry—advocating to strengthen and maintain strong and uniform standards for preparation and admission to teacher preparation programs
- Every teacher candidate should have one full year of residency under
Brookings Institution recently unveiled the Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI). Its goal is to provide an “informative and consumer-relevant measure of the degree of choice and competition within the geographical boundaries of large school districts.”
This index considers this choice and competition a positive – the nation’s 25 largest school districts are given a letter grade, with an “A” representing the highest “quality” of choice, as determined by the developers’ framework of 13 categories, including the proportion of students enrolled in nontraditional public schools, the mechanism used to assign students to schools, and information available on-line regarding school performance and how to use the choice process.
As far as I can tell, only one of these 13 categories is a measure of quality – and it’s a reflection of the average public (traditional/charter/magnet) school within a district, weighted by the number of students enrolled at the school. While the developers do express concern over the quality of options available to parents, this measure did not appear to greatly impact rankings. For example, Chicago ranked second in the choice index. Yet it was tied for 23 out of 25 when it came to school quality.
It’s a common frustration I have in arguments over school choice policy. Often, it seems the ultimate goal is ensuring choice, with quality concerns to be resolved by market forces. My view: If the options parents have aren’t high quality, how much does choice really matter?
Take New York City, which was the highest-ranked district in this index, in part because of its mechanism for assigning students to ...
Native American National Heritage Month is a chance to highlight a component of American history that is often overlooked. Native American Heritage Month celebrates those, along with their tribal ancestors, who were here thousands of years before Columbus or Cortes set foot in North America. The unique nature of America’s immigration history results in distinct parameters for discussions on race, ethnicity and heritage and unprecedented diversity. While we all have our individual ancestral heritage, this land – our country – has a complex and rich history that is far older than that of America and the Declaration of Independence. If we still claim, or even think, that this land belongs to us, should we not celebrate its entire history? That journey reveals some uncomfortable moments and brings up challenging discussions; all the more reason to have them. History is not just the past and it should not be left without context and relevance. ...
Recently I was looking through old paper files in the Learning First Alliance (LFA) office and happened upon a successful grant application that LFA had received some years ago to gather, record, and disseminate the knowledge, skills, and approaches successful school districts use to ensure their students achieve to their highest abilities. The project resulted in a publication called Beyond Islands of Excellence that, indeed did chronicle what goes into an effective public school system and profiled districts whose students had benefited from their wise, effective leadership. I was struck by how much the scope of work described in the successful grant application articulated the concepts and big ideas that LFA organizations and their leaders still work diligently to implement today. ...
Editor’s Note: This post is from our partners at the NEA Health Information Network (NEA HIN). Each month, we feature a new column on a topic related to school health. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of important health issues that impact schools and offer educators and parents resources to address them.
Today's post was authored by Édeanna M. Chebbi, Hygiene and Disease Prevention Program Coordinator for the NEA Health Information Network.
Fever. Stuffy head. Sneezing. Runny nose. Sore throat. Does any of this sound familiar? Oh yes, it’s that time of year again! Flu season is just around the corner, and that means the best time to prepare and prevent illness is now!
The flu (influenza) is one of the most commonly spread infectious diseases in the United States. It is responsible for an average of 5 missed work days a year. Flu can impact children and adults alike. And because the severity of illness from the flu depends on each person’s level of immunity, you may be one of the 200,000 Americans who are hospitalized each year from flu related complications.
But there’s good news! The flu is preventable. The number one means of preventing a flu infection is through vaccination. Each year the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and ...
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A VISION FOR GREAT SCHOOLS
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