Education News Roundup: July 10, 2012

By Mark Peterson, on July 10th, 2012

: “4-H Sheaf Class” by RichardBH/CC/flickr

Today’s Top Picks:

Department of the Interior releases a report on the value of federal lands.
http://goo.gl/Rz7dV (DN)
and http://goo.gl/VQDJR (CVD)
or a copy of the report
http://goo.gl/O4KFW

Jordan District to review policy on school plays.
http://goo.gl/a0W3i (SLT)

Guess who thinks school is too easy.
http://goo.gl/0tVpZ (USAT)
and http://goo.gl/lrRuH (HuffPo)
or a copy of the report
http://goo.gl/VmCbD

Is ENR just getting old or did summer go by way too quickly in Denver?
http://goo.gl/awKs1 (Denver Post)

Looking for a real meta YouTube experience? Look no further.
http://goo.gl/wlb11 (YouTube)

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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH

Report highlights economic value of Utah’s federal lands

Utah school board to review policy after “Dead Man Walking” complaints Jordan District » Eagle Forum claimed five unnamed, unsigned letters were from parents.

A blue-ribbon organization: 4-H celebrates 100 years in Utah
36,000 Utah students enjoy both traditional and modern activities.

Ogden students get hooked on acting

One school district has more than $10,000 debt per student. Is it yours?

Man becomes first Utah teacher at a Catholic school to win presidential education award

New logo possibilities for some SLC high schools

Guadalupe School students create art with glass

OPINION & COMMENTARY

Too many (underpaid) teachers?

Common Core: Is It Best for Utah Children?

The Opportunity Gap

U.S. Drops in Global Innovation Rankings

Teachers want the role of unions to change, survey says

Why our kids hate math

California Works on New English-Language Development Standards

Is Science a Girl Thing?

Blue Is for Boys, Red Hearts for Girls

Teaching ‘Taco Bell’s Canon’
Today’s students don’t read. As a result, they have sometimes hilarious notions of how the written language represents what they hear.

Trick Teacher Knows How To Hold A Class

NATION

School is too easy, students report

High schools slow to adopt standards-based report cards; GPAs for college admissions cited

Pensions at charter schools hot topic with IRS Fear rule change will deter teachers

Most kids don’t get enough PE, says study

Summer ends, classes begin for Denver’s Manual High students

Miami-Dade School Board members decry Michelle Obama campaign stop at local school One School Board member called for Michelle Obama’s visit to Barbara Goleman Senior High to be cancelled, and another asked the board attorney to review his opinion.

Students fight addiction at ‘Recovery High’

Scient-Friction
L.A. schools paid L. Ron Hubbard-based program for failing after-school education

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UTAH NEWS
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Report highlights economic value of Utah’s federal lands

SALT LAKE CITY — A new report shows the wide range of economic impact to Utah’s economy from Department of Interior-managed lands, with nearly $14 million that was infused in the last fiscal year.
That impact, detailed Monday, includes 83,292 jobs in fields ranging from energy and mineral development to tourism and outdoor recreation.
Of those Utah jobs, close to 22,000 are directly from the oil and gas fields and more than 950 come from coal mining-related activities.
http://goo.gl/Rz7dV (DN)

http://goo.gl/VQDJR (CVD)

A copy of the report
http://goo.gl/O4KFW

Utah school board to review policy after “Dead Man Walking” complaints Jordan District » Eagle Forum claimed five unnamed, unsigned letters were from parents.

Complaints over Bingham High School’s production of the drama “Dead Man Walking” last spring have prompted the Jordan Board of Education to review the district’s policy on selecting school plays.
The school board will discuss the policy Tuesday at a study session before its regularly scheduled meeting in West Jordan.
The board isn’t considering any major changes, said Steve Dunham, a district spokesman, but wants to ensure policy is being followed in the wake of objections expressed by the Eagle Forum earlier this summer.
http://goo.gl/a0W3i (SLT)

A blue-ribbon organization: 4-H celebrates 100 years in Utah
36,000 Utah students enjoy both traditional and modern activities.

Not many people have built robots and raised lambs.
But 13-year-old Rachel Hale has done both, and in some ways, the two activities aren’t all that dissimilar, said the Herriman teen.
“They all had the same ethics,” said Rachel, a member of 4-H. “You learned the same things: teamwork, working with others and learning from others.”
They’re skills Utah 4-H has been working to instill in kids for a century, and this week, Utah State University will celebrate the organization’s 100th anniversary here. The club began in 1902 and spread to Utah in 1912.
http://goo.gl/qYyXT (SLT)

Ogden students get hooked on acting

OGDEN — Acting has been a learning experience for the young cast of “Peter Pan,” a show produced by the Ogden School District with support from RAMP.
“I was having a hard time acting like a man and a pirate,” said Jazmin James, 14 and from Highland Junior High, as she stood, twirling the hairs of her fake beard. “But then I got into my makeup and I got to see how hideous I was, and it got a lot easier.”
Jazmin plays a pirate named Cookson in the nonmusical original adaptation of the J.M. Barrie book about a boy who wouldn’t grow up. The show opens Wednesday and continues through Saturday at Ogden High School. http://goo.gl/p56nx (OSE)

One school district has more than $10,000 debt per student. Is it yours?

For school districts, debt is sometimes necessary in order to construct new buildings or provide additional services to students.
But, which district has the most?
The follow is a ranking of school districts based on total liabilities per student.
Financial numbers, like total liabilities, came from Bloomberg, while education figures were found on the Utah State Office of Education website.
http://goo.gl/gdQ7R (DN)

Man becomes first Utah teacher at a Catholic school to win presidential education award

SALT LAKE CITY — A middle school science teacher has become the first Catholic in Utah to be awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
Jim Larson, a 7th- and 8th-grade science teacher at Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School in Salt Lake City, was one of two Utahns to win the award. Larson spent three days in Washington, D.C., with the other 96 award recipients. He said it was “the experience of a lifetime.”
The other Utahn to win the award was Vivian Shell, a math teacher at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education.
http://goo.gl/lNxU1 (KSL)

New logo possibilities for some SLC high schools

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City School District has announced new brand identity concepts for East, Highland and West high schools. The district communications department has worked closely with the schools to develop a series of logo concepts to be used in all school communications.
This process will also include new websites with mobile users in mind. The district aims to share these concepts with the community and various stakeholder groups to receive feedback on each item.
http://goo.gl/bxZZr (KSL)

Guadalupe School students create art with glass

Students enrolled in the Guadalupe School’s summer program will use glass donated from the Glass Art Guild of Utah and Red Butte Garden to make unique art pieces and create an additional group piece of art for the school to auction off later in the year.
http://goo.gl/WQ0vy (SLT)

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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Too many (underpaid) teachers?
Deseret News commentary by columnist Mary McConnell

Hey, fellow teachers. Feeling a little too relaxed after the Fourth of July weekend? Here’s an opportunity to raise low blood pressure. Today’s Wall Street Journal includes an article by Cato education scholar Andrew Coulson stating that “America has Too Many Teachers.” (By the way, in my last post I contended that I’m not really a libertarian. Coulson – and Cato – are the genuine article.) http://goo.gl/KFQyG

Common Core: Is It Best for Utah Children?
Sutherland Institute analysis

On August 6, 2010, the Utah State Board of Education voted unanimously to replace Utah’s core K-12 standards with Common Core State Standards developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Utah’s adoption of Common Core standards and related agreements has recently come under scrutiny from concerned policymakers, parents, and other citizens in Utah. These people have expressed many concerns about the new standards, including whether they are the best possible, whether they represent a loss of state sovereignty and local control, and whether the process used to adopt them was thorough and appropriate.
State officials and others continue to defend Common Core as a positive step for Utah schools, asserting, for example, that the new standards are more rigorous and easier to use and allow for more collaboration with curriculum and instructional materials.
This diversity of opinions provokes some questions. First and foremost, will Common Core standards lead to better education for children in Utah? After all, the primary purpose of public schools is to serve the needs of children – not teachers, administrators, businesses, the state, or anyone else. Also, is Utah’s participation in Common Core and related agreements opening a door to greater federal intervention in Utah public education and, if so, should Utahns be concerned about it? Should Utah move forward with Common Core standards or find an alternative?
In this report, we seek to provide answers to these questions, based on the facts involved and principles of good governance.
http://goo.gl/DtFAy

The Opportunity Gap
New York Times commentary by columnist DAVID BROOKS

Over the past few months, writers from Charles Murray to Timothy Noah have produced alarming work on the growing bifurcation of American society. Now the eminent Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam and his team are coming out with research that’s more horrifying.
While most studies look at inequality of outcomes among adults and help us understand how America is coming apart, Putnam’s group looked at inequality of opportunities among children. They help us understand what the country will look like in the decades ahead. The quick answer? More divided than ever.
Putnam’s data verifies what many of us have seen anecdotally, that the children of the more affluent and less affluent are raised in starkly different ways and have different opportunities. Decades ago, college-graduate parents and high-school-graduate parents invested similarly in their children. Recently, more affluent parents have invested much more in their children’s futures while less affluent parents have not.
http://goo.gl/8kSNZ

U.S. Drops in Global Innovation Rankings Education Week commentary by columnist Jason Tomassini

The United States may be home to Facebook, Google, Apple, and taco shells made of Doritos, but according to a recent international study, our nation is becoming less innovative, at least compared to last year. After ranking 7th in 2011, the U.S. is ranked 10th in this year’s Global Innovation Index, a massive report published by Insead, an international business school, and the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations.
The report ranks 141 nations on nearly 100 factors related to innovation, in areas like “Business sophistication,” “Human capital & research,” and “Knowledge & technology outputs.” Switzerland and Sweden are ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, for the second straight year. Rounding out the top five are Singapore, Finland, and the United Kingdom.
The survey is divided into 21 sub-groups which contain related metrics. In only “Creative intangibles” (No. 84), “Ecological sustainability” (No. 73), and “Trade & competition” (No. 69), does the U.S. rank worse than it does in two education sub-groups.
In a category related to K-12 education, the U.S. is ranked 31st, owing to low rankings in education expenditures. Our pupil-to-teacher ratio in secondary education, at 13.8:1, is ranked 61st. In higher education, the U.S. ranks second in enrollment, but 74th in students graduating with science and engineering degrees. Elsewhere, the U.S. ranks No. 1 in the amount of students taking the GMATs, the entry exam for business school, but 53rd on GMAT mean score.
http://goo.gl/7b6gQ

A copy of the report
http://goo.gl/7Y1dd

Teachers want the role of unions to change, survey says Hechinger Report commentary by columnist Sarah Butrymowicz

Critics have portrayed teachers unions as impediments to reform efforts around the country because they have fought against changes such as pay-for-performance and the abolition of tenure. But stories of unions working with school district officials to craft new teacher quality initiatives are slowly becoming more common. And, according to a new study that surveyed more than 1,000 teachers, that’s exactly what a growing number of teachers think unions should be doing.
“Trending Toward Reform: Teachers Speak on Unions and the Future of the Profession,” released Tuesday by Education Sector, a nonprofit education think tank located in Washington, D.C., reveals that teachers are more likely to think unions should help with and even lead reform efforts than they were five years ago.
In 2007, 32 percent of teachers said that unions should focus more on improving teacher quality. In 2011, that number was 43 percent. Just 14 percent of teachers thought that union involvement would be an obstacle in reform efforts while 62 percent said unions could be “helpful partners in improving schools.”
Yet, when it came down to the specifics of how the teaching profession should be improved, teachers didn’t necessarily agree with many of the in-vogue education trends, such as merit pay, overhauling teacher evaluations to include student test scores and eliminating tenure.
http://goo.gl/mYxXD

A copy of the report
http://goo.gl/ddaQ9

Why our kids hate math
USA Today commentary by Patrick Welsh

When summer school opened Monday at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., where I teach, remedial courses in math had more students than any other subject.
That is because of the high failure rate not only in math courses, but also on the state’s standard of learning exams in math. The summer school pattern is similar in most high schools around the country where kids will be trying to learn the math they never figured out during the year.
I worry that we’re pushing many kids to grasp math at higher levels before they are ready. When they struggle, they begin to dread math, and eventually we lose thousands of students who could be the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. If we held back and took more time to ground them in the basics, we could turn them on to math. http://goo.gl/gEiqJ

California Works on New English-Language Development Standards Education Week commentary by columnist Lesli A. Maxwell

California education officials are moving ahead to revamp the state’s English-language development standards so that they are aligned with the academic demands of the common-core standards in English/language arts. The state education agency has published the draft ELD standards for each grade level, along with loads of other supporting documents, and is asking for feedback before final adoption later this summer.
This is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. For one, the sheer size of its English-language learner population—roughly 25 percent of the public school enrollment statewide—often makes California’s policies and practices on English-language learners a signal of what other states may do later. Second, California is, once again, part of a group of states seeking to win a multimillion dollar federal grant to design a new assessment of English-language proficiency that will measure the language demands of the common standards.
http://goo.gl/YxAwL

A copy of the draft standards
http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/el/er/eldstandards.asp

Is Science a Girl Thing?
Huffington Post commentary by Mary Ann Rankin, President and CEO, National Math and Science Initiative

The European Union recently put out a music video to encourage girls to go into science — and recalled it after a chorus of complaints. The video was a viral disaster.
The critics who said the video was sexist and superficial had a point. The content looked more like Sex in the City than Respect in the Lab. Young girls in mini-skirts are shown prancing in four-inch heels and blowing kisses at test tubes, while a man in a white lab coat looks admiringly at them.
The goal was to reach out to the 13-to-17 demographic in time for female students to take foundational courses in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in school to launch them into STEM careers. That’s a laudable goal. But the video message came across as “Wear short skirts; girls are just decorative” rather than “Take Algebra and prepare for the thrill of achievement in STEM.”
The rest of the EU campaign “Science — It’s a Girl Thing!” was actually quite good. A tab on the website called “Six Reasons Science Needs You” reminds girls that the challenges our world faces need to be tackled by all of us — challenges like health and well being, food security, secure and clean energy, smart transport, climate action, and innovative/secure societies. Those problems aren’t pink or blue.
…
No doubt about it, there are women going into STEM fields today who are glamorous and brainy — to cite just one example, the new Miss Utah, Kara Arnold, has a magna cum laude degree in Biochemistry and was just accepted into the medical program at the University of Utah. She’s deferring med-school for one year while she travels throughout the state of Utah promoting her platform to young girls, “Discover Your Potential — Step Up with STEM.”
http://goo.gl/GI4Bt

Blue Is for Boys, Red Hearts for Girls
Slate commentary by columnist Cassie Murdoch

The idea of putting boys and girls in separate classrooms certainly is not new—private schools have been dividing the genders for eons. But lately, more and more public schools are opting for single-sex education. The ACLU is fighting against the trend, and already some programs have been dropped. But there are still plenty of educators advocating that separate-but-equal is better for everyone.
The AP has an interesting report on this growing conflict, which really ramped up in 2006 when the Department of Education relaxed restrictions on single-sex classrooms. In 2002, there were only about a dozen public schools that had separate classrooms, and now it’s estimated that there are roughly 500 schools that have at least some same-sex classrooms. The interest in teaching the sexes separately grew largely out of research that showed that boys, especially minority boys, didn’t do as well on tests as girls and graduated at lower rates. But the idea is that same-sex ed is supposed to benefit both boys and girls equally.
Arguments for keeping the sexes separate include that divided classrooms allow both groups to concentrate more because they’re not distracted by flirting. Seriously? It’s hard to imagine that a significant number of kids are failing tests and not learning to read because they’re too busy singing “Jack and Emma sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
http://goo.gl/06nqm

Teaching ‘Taco Bell’s Canon’
Today’s students don’t read. As a result, they have sometimes hilarious notions of how the written language represents what they hear.
Wall Street Journal op-ed by James E. Courter, recently retired from teaching at Western Illinois University

Is it true that college students today are unprepared and unmotivated? That generalization does injustice to the numerous bright exceptions I saw in my 25 years of teaching composition to university freshmen. But in other cases the characterization is all too accurate.
One big problem is that so few students are readers. As an unfortunate result, they have erroneous, and sometimes hilarious, notions of how the written language represents what they hear. What emerged in their papers and emails was a sort of literary subgenre that I’ve come to think of as stream of unconsciousness.
http://goo.gl/7r7eG

Trick Teacher Knows How To Hold A Class
YouTube video from HowDoULikeIt07

More often than not, teachers lose our attention to other things like phones, talking to friends, or anything more exciting than their voices. But, this one teacher knows how to get his students’ attention and keep it.
http://goo.gl/wlb11

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NATIONAL NEWS
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School is too easy, students report
USA Today

Millions of kids simply don’t find school very challenging, a new analysis of federal survey data suggests. The report could spark a debate about whether new academic standards being piloted nationwide might make a difference.
The findings, out today from the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank that champions “progressive ideas,” analyze three years of questionnaires from the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national test given each year.
Among the findings:
•37% of fourth-graders say their math work is “often” or “always” too easy;
•57% of eighth-graders say their history work is “often” or “always” too easy;
•39% of 12th-graders say they rarely write about what they read in class.
http://goo.gl/0tVpZ

http://goo.gl/lrRuH (HuffPo)

A copy of the report
http://goo.gl/VmCbD

High schools slow to adopt standards-based report cards; GPAs for college admissions cited Associated Press via Washington Post

Those A’s, B’s, C’s and, yes, even F’s are still coming home on most high school report cards, despite moves to scrap the grading system in favor of one that gives parents more information about a student’s progress.
Numerous elementary schools around the country have moved to so-called standards-based grading and report cards. Many middle schools are onboard, as well. But high schools have been much slower to embrace the change.
“It’s a big leap for people,” said Denise Khaalid, assistant principal at South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, S.C.
There’s widespread agreement among educators that the standards-based report cards are more informative than traditional ones, and proponents say they’re more accurate and fairer, too.
http://goo.gl/fhL1t

Pensions at charter schools hot topic with IRS Fear rule change will deter teachers Washington Times

Charter school supporters are continuing to pressure the Internal Revenue Service to change proposed regulations that could disqualify teachers at charter schools from public pension systems.
The potential changes, released late last year, would revise the definition of “governmental plans,” the current standard for determining who can be legally considered a government employee and therefore eligible for state retirement plans. There’s a growing fear that charter school employees would not meet the new IRS criteria, and ineligibility for pensions, analysts fear, could keep good teachers from taking jobs at charters and slow the alternative schools’ rapid growth across the U.S.
“The charter school sector around the country needs to be able to grow … you see states across the country improving their charter-school laws. This rule could jeopardize that,” said Renita Thukral, senior director of legal affairs at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Ms. Thukral and other charter backers testified Monday before a panel of IRS officials, who are sifting through more than 2,300 public comments submitted by teachers’ groups and others urging changes to the proposal.
http://goo.gl/WkLu9

Most kids don’t get enough PE, says study CNN

Most schools in the United States are not offering children the suggested amount of physical education, according to a new study.
The study, conducted by Bryan McCullick, a kinesiology professor at the University of Georgia, examined all 50 of the United States and found six states where elementary schools followed recommended physical education guidelines. Two states followed the guidelines at the middle school level, and no states had strong enough regulations at the high school level.
Several other states had some form of physical education requirement, but they did not reach a threshold the researchers thought was appropriate.
What’s the issue? McCullick says schools may be cutting time for physical education to increase time for other subjects, in the hope of raising standardized test scores.
http://goo.gl/IX35g

http://goo.gl/SKl7L (U-GA Red and Black)

Summer ends, classes begin for Denver’s Manual High students Denver Post

The rest of us may not have gotten around to tossing that July Fourth potato salad yet, but for the 360 or so Manual High School students, summer is over.
Students at the historic downtown high school chalked up yet another milestone Monday, trooping up the steps and into class for the first day of what will be the longest school year of any Denver school.
It won’t all be drudgery, though. Students will spend many of the extra days visiting college campuses, getting a taste of higher education. Tuesday, for example, they will escape the non-air-conditioned building (giant fans have been installed to circulate the hot summer air, according to the district) and visit Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
Some of those excursions are possible because of foundation grants.
http://goo.gl/awKs1

First lady Michelle Obama will stop in Miami on Tuesday to recruit residents to vote and volunteer to reelect her husband, President Barack Obama.
But the spot for the political event – Barbara Goleman Senior High in Miami Lakes – has some Republican members of the School Board seeing red.
Miami-Dade School Board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla has called for the event to be cancelled and board member Carlos Curbelo has asked the board attorney to reconsider his opinion that the event meets legal muster.
While School Board seats are nonpartisan, Diaz de la Portilla is running for state House as a Republican and Curbelo has worked as a Republican strategist.
“Allowing the first lady of the United States to use one of our schools explicitly to benefit the president’s reelection campaign is inappropriate and sends the wrong message to our students, employees, and to taxpayers – even if the president’s campaign is willing to pay for all costs resulting from the event,” Curbelo wrote in the letter to School Board attorney Walter Harvey.
http://goo.gl/ks4vK

Students fight addiction at ‘Recovery High’
NBC News

…
While teen drug use is nothing new, the proliferation of high schools designed for students in recovery is something of a 21st century phenomenon. The first recovery high school in the United States opened its doors in Minnesota in 1987, calling itself “Sobriety High.” Until recently, it was one of a handful sprinkled around the country. Today it is joined by at least 35 recovery high schools across the nation, with at least five more in development, Association of Recovery Schools founder Andrew Finch told NBC News.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, close to two million American students meet the criteria for drug or alcohol abuse. Yet less than eight percent of them receive the treatment they need. Those who do get treatment typically return to the schools they left in order to recover, and 75 percent of them relapse within their first year after treatment.
http://goo.gl/66qnc

Scient-Friction
L.A. schools paid L. Ron Hubbard-based program for failing after-school education The Daily

Los Angeles public schools paid nearly half a million dollars for a tutoring program with close ties to Scientology, a program that the district’s own study shows is ineffective, according to documents obtained by The Daily.
The district paid $447,338 to Applied Scholastics International between November 2008 and this past February, invoices provided under a public records request show.
The after-school tutoring, for which the district receives federal funds, is required under the No Child Left Behind law. Failing schools must offer it to low-income students. Although religious organizations are eligible to provide tutoring, Applied Scholastics officials insist its program is separate from the Church of Scientology, despite being based on the theories of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
California is one of 12 states that had approved Applied Scholastics for the after-school tutoring. In all, Applied Scholastics worked with 248 public schools in 2010 and took in $1.3 million from its education and literacy programs, the bulk of it from the tutoring.
http://goo.gl/FxZu7

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CALENDAR
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USOE Calendar
http://tinyurl.com/5x9oh9

UEN News
http://www.uen.org

July 12:
Utah State Charter School Board meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://1.usa.gov/Axtt5K

August 3:
Utah State Board of Education meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Meetings/Agenda.aspx

August 14:
Executive Appropriations Interim Committee meeting
1 p.m., 445 State Capitol
http://goo.gl/E0hoC

August 15:
Education Interim Committee meeting
2 p.m.
http://goo.gl/8WODJ

Education News Roundup: June 27, 2012

Education News Roundup: Nov. 26, 2012

Education News Roundup: Jan. 16, 2013

Education News Roundup: Feb. 13, 2013