Bedtime Story by Anthonylibrarian/CC/flickr
Today’s Top Picks:
Representatives from USOE and Sutherland discuss the Common Core.
http://goo.gl/tlAlX (KCPW)
Westminster offers a Montessori method in its teacher education program.
http://goo.gl/XzaHn (KUER)
ENR has to concur. Ogden High is a pretty cool building.
http://goo.gl/ccNyc (OSE)
What is the Common Core doing to the psychometric industry?
http://goo.gl/ad53m (Ed Week)
Would introducing a new staffing model upgrade teacher pay?
http://goo.gl/bEy7Y (Ed Week)
or copies of the models
http://opportunityculture.org/reach/pay-teachers-more/
New bedtime conversation: Mom, tell me the one again with the polynomial equations.
http://goo.gl/lD36Q (NPR)
Vegas rolls boxcars on education, two studies say. (And, no, for you smart a …, umm, smart alecks out there, Utah is not on the list for 10 worst places for education.)
http://goo.gl/hdEE3 (Las Vegas Sun)
or Parenting magazine
http://goo.gl/F767G
OK, so ENR is a little too old to be a “New Girl” fan, but he did like Zooey Deschanel in “Gigantic” so he feels bad that her NG character, school teacher Jess, is being laid off.
http://goo.gl/qeF4Z (GOOD)
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH
Common Core/Olympics Update
Westminster Fosters Montessori Education With New Program
Bookmobile to visit new school in Perry
Utah House speaker commends Ogden for preserving its history
Cursive could be on its way out of school curriculums
Davis High Marching Band prepping for a trip to the Parade of Roses
Fitch rates Canyons School District, Utah
Health Department advisory: Immunizations and vaccinations required before school starts
Online school registration
OPINION & COMMENTARY
An Apple a Day Is Great, But Teachers Really Want More Tech
Milton Friedman, Father of School Choice
196 People Control 80 Percent of Super PAC Money: Who Are They?
The National Education Association Shows Its Politics
Exam Schools from the Inside
Racially diverse, subject to collective bargaining, fulfilling a need
A Message to the Candidates — Don’t Forget Ed!
Teacher Layoffs Go Hollywood:
Zooey Deschanel’s ‘New Girl’ Character to Be Pink Slipped
NATION
Questions Dog Common-Test Development
History Lessons Blend Content Knowledge, Literacy
Analyses Find Staffing Changes Could Double Teacher Pay
N.J. Mom Puts Kids To Bed With Math
STEAM Ahead: Merging Arts and Science Education
A Different Road To Work, Bypassing College Dreams
Vouchers get dose of religion
Two reports find Las Vegas to be worst city in the nation for education
High school girls petition for female presidential debate moderator
Games to Sharpen the Brain
Start-Ups Seek FDA Approval for Videogames as Treatment for ADHD
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UTAH NEWS
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Common Core/Olympics Update
In 2010, the Utah Board of Education unanimously adopted the Common Core standards, an initiative led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in the areas of math and language arts. But ever since then, the State Office of Education has had to defend the Common Core from fierce criticism by conservative groups and state lawmakers who charge that it will lead to the nationalization of education policy and allow Utah to be manipulated by the federal government for federal funding. Still, Governor Gary Herbert has defended the Common Core, saying it is not a “socialistic” program.
http://goo.gl/tlAlX (KCPW)
Westminster Fosters Montessori Education With New Program
Westminster College has introduced the only degree program in Utah for educators who wish to use the Montessori learning approach in their classrooms. The Institute for Montessori Innovation opened its doors last month.
This Montessori Method stresses small group instruction and allows children to choose their own learning activities at their own pace, without the use of grades or tests. Michael Doreris Program Director of the new Montessori program at Westminster. He says there are about 40 Montessori schools in Utah, but no Montessori teacher training programs in the state that are associated with a college or university- until now.
http://goo.gl/XzaHn (KUER)
Bookmobile to visit new school in Perry
BRIGHAM CITY — The new public charter school in Perry, the Promontory School of Expeditionary Learning, will be visited by the bookmobile, the county commission told a Perry mother recently.
Esther Montgomery, a city planner for Perry, appeared before the commission to request the bookmobile make a stop at the new school, which opens this fall.
She was concerned her children, who will attend the school, would be denied access to this popular service, which is run by the county and funded by county and municipal taxes.
The bookmobile visits schools in the county outside of Brigham City because the county does not have a building-based library system.
http://goo.gl/lI2NL (OSE)
Utah House speaker commends Ogden for preserving its history
OGDEN — Rebecca D. Lockhart, speaker of the Utah House of Representatives, was driving through Ogden awhile back when a piece of history appeared outside her car window.
Lockhart, R-Provo, spied the art deco palace, Ogden High School, on Harrison Boulevard.
“So many communities would rip it down and replace it,” Lockhart said Monday. “It says a lot about Ogden that you would take it on yourself to restore it and save it.”
Lockhart’s friend James Humphreys, vice president of Utah’s chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans and an Ogden resident, told Lockhart he could set up an insider’s tour of the architectural landmark.
Lockhart, the first female speaker of the Utah House, got her tour Monday, with commentary by Ogden High Principal Stacey Briggs and several other school and school district officials.
http://goo.gl/ccNyc (OSE)
Cursive could be on its way out of school curriculums
SALT LAKE CITY — We all grew up with this familiar sound of chalk against chalkboard.
But with keyboards now more accessible than pencils, do kids still need to mind their p’s and q’s?
Utah is among 45 states across the U.S. that has chosen to adopt the Common Core State Standards. This shared curriculum does not require children to learn how to write in cursive.
http://goo.gl/9lOzB (KSL)
Davis High Marching Band prepping for a trip to the Parade of Roses
KAYSVILLE — The Davis High Marching Band is one of 15 bands selected to compete in the 2013 Parade of Roses in Pasadena. But first band participants must raise enough money for the 290 band members to make the California trip.
“It’s about $1,100 for each student to go to this Rose Parade trip,” band spokeswoman Michelle Thomson said. “The district, however, caps the student’s out-of-pocket expense at $800. So our first goal was $90,000 … and we are short that about $40,000 right now, so we really need everybody’s help to step up and get this band to the Rose Parade to represent the state of Utah.”
http://goo.gl/jLSUL (DN)
Fitch rates Canyons School District, Utah
Fitch Ratings has assigned an ‘AAA’ rating to the following Canyons School District Board of Education (the district), Utah general obligation (GO) bonds: –$80 million series 2012. The ‘AAA’ rating is based on a guaranty provided by the Utah School Bond Default Avoidance Program, whose Insurer Financial Strength is rated ‘AAA’ by Fitch. The Rating Outlook is Stable.
http://goo.gl/AXujA (Reuters)
Health Department advisory: Immunizations and vaccinations required before school starts
ST. GEORGE – The Southwest Utah Public Health Department is encouraging parents to make sure their students get immunized before school starts.
Utah state law requires* proof of the following vaccinations:
http://goo.gl/bBZe3 (SGN)
Online school registration
Registration is open for eSchool, an online school for students in the Provo School District. There are more than 400 online courses to choose from, including exclusive technology and language courses not offered through any other district in Utah. Students in any grade can enroll; in addition to classes there are field trips with other students, and extracurricular activities are available. For more information, call (801) 374-4810 or go to eschool.provo.edu.
http://goo.gl/t2tuz (PDH)
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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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An Apple a Day Is Great, But Teachers Really Want More Tech
Mashable commentary by columnist Andrea Smith
In the days of yore, teachers routinely wanted paper towels and art supplies for their classrooms. Now, in this era of trying to teach to digital natives, they just want more technology in the classroom, according to the results of a survey of teachers across the country.
The survey was commissioned by PBS LearningMedia, a leading provider of free teacher resources and digital content for use in the classroom.
Three quarters of those surveyed said they want more technology in order to better engage their students.
One big barrier to more tech in the classroom is the budget.
http://goo.gl/6YhfE
Milton Friedman, Father of School Choice
American Thinker commentary by Joy Pullmann, an education research fellow at The Heartland Institute
Louisiana’s 10,000 kids clamoring for vouchers may never know it, but they owe their school choice opportunity to a dead white guy whose birthday is this week. So do the approximately 700,000 mostly poor and minority kids now eligible to attend schools their families choose with public funds.
Nobel laureate and economist Milton Friedman graduated from a New Jersey public high school in 1928 and considered it his life’s most important work to conceptualize and promote school choice. Friedman introduced the idea of school vouchers in 1955.
The 100th anniversary of Friedman’s birth is today, July 31. The intellectual giant battled against the fallacies of Keynesian economics and in favor of market freedom, and his influence on today’s economists and policymakers remains immense. One of his great gifts was an ability to explain complicated economic and social principles clearly and entertainingly to average folks.
http://goo.gl/9PcRF
196 People Control 80 Percent of Super PAC Money: Who Are They?
U.S. News & World Report commentary by columnist Elizabeth Flock
This is what Citizens United looks like.
Viral website Upworthy has resurfaced a startling statistic from American academic Lawrence Lessig: That 80 percent of super PAC money spent in the presidential election so far has come from just 196 Americans. As Upworthy points out, that’s less than the capacity of a single Boeing 767.
With just over 100 days to election, Whispers checked in with the Center for Public Integrity to look at the top five of those 196 donors. And, surprise surprise, as of the June FEC filing, 4 of the top 5 biggest super PAC donors support Republican candidates.
They are:
http://goo.gl/q9OCf
The National Education Association Shows Its Politics
GOPUSA commentary by Phyllis Schlafly, a lawyer, conservative political analyst and author of 20 books
Political conversation in the media is full of chatter about how to cut spending and debt, but it reminds us of the comment attributed to Mark Twain: “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” There’s a lot of talk about how to cut back on entitlements, but why doesn’t somebody suggest cutting the extravagant federal dollars spent on education, which is not even an entitlement?
The billions spent on education have not achieved any of their designated goals, which were to raise the test scores and to close the gap between kids from upper-income and lower-income families. The handouts, however, produced a lot of cheating by teachers and administrators trying to hide their failure to achieve designated goals.
We hear about increasing the role of the states in other areas such as Medicaid. But the most important area where the states should have primary responsibility is education.
The most powerful union of government employees is the National Education Association, which held this year’s annual national convention, as usual, over the Fourth of July weekend, attracting 9,000 delegates. To no one’s surprise, it resembled a re-election campaign rally for Barack Obama, with the pressure on delegates to identify themselves as EFO, Educators for Obama.
http://goo.gl/J9aIc
Exam Schools from the Inside
Racially diverse, subject to collective bargaining, fulfilling a need
Education Next analysis by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Jessica Hockett (Chester E. Finn, Jr. is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Jessica Hockett is an educational consultant specializing in differentiated instruction, curriculum design, and teacher professional development.)
Stuyvesant. Boston Latin. Bronx Science. Thomas Jefferson. Lowell. Illinois Math and Science Academy. These are some of the highest-achieving high schools in the United States. In contrast to elite boarding and day schools such as Andover and Sidwell Friends, however, they are public. And unlike the comprehensive taxpayer-funded options in affluent suburbs such as Palo Alto and Winnetka, they don’t admit everyone who lives in their attendance area.
Sometimes called “exam schools,” these academically selective institutions have long been a part of the American secondary-education landscape. The schools are diverse in origin and purpose. No single catalyst describes why or how they began as or morphed into academically selective institutions. Some arose from a desire (among parents, superintendents, school boards, governors, legislators) to provide a self-contained, high-powered college-prep education for able youngsters in a community, region, or state. Others started through philanthropic ventures or as university initiatives. A number of them were products of the country’s efforts to desegregate—and integrate—its public-education system, prompted by court orders, civil rights enforcers and activists, or federal “magnet school” dollars.
Exam schools are sometimes controversial because “selectivity” is hard to reconcile with the mission of “public” education. Even school-choice advocates typically assert that, while families should be free to choose their children’s schools, schools have no business selecting their pupils. Other people are troubled by reports of insufficient “diversity” among the youngsters admitted to such schools.
With such criticisms in mind, we set out to explore this unique and little-understood sector of the education landscape.
http://goo.gl/IRQKb
A Message to the Candidates — Don’t Forget Ed!
College Board commentary
Teacher Layoffs Go Hollywood:
Zooey Deschanel’s ‘New Girl’ Character to Be Pink Slipped
GOOD commentary by columnist Liz Dwyer
It looks like the most popular elementary school teacher on network television, Zooey Deschanel’s quirky, manic pixie dream girl character Jess on the hit Fox TV show “New Girl”, will experience what over 150,000 other American educators have over the past two years. Jess is about to be laid off due to budget cuts.
Indeed, executive producer Liz Meriwether told Entertainment Weekly that Jess will have “to restart her life and figure out who she is and what she wants to do.” And, says Meriwether, the show plans to let Jess “have a moment of questioning who she is, why she’s a teacher, and if that’s really what she wants to do.”
Given that 46 percent of teachers leave the profession within five years, it would be pretty realistic to see Jess doing what so many other former educators have done: deciding that she’s had enough of the relatively low pay, poor working conditions, and being treated unprofessionally.
http://goo.gl/qeF4Z
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NATIONAL NEWS
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Questions Dog Common-Test Development
Education Week
On the verge of signing a contract to help design assessments for the common standards, ACT Inc. has withdrawn from the project amid conflict-of-interest questions sparked by its own development of a similar suite of tests.
Even though it involves only a small subcontract, the move by the Iowa-based test-maker, and the questions from the state assessment consortium that propelled it, have set off ripples of reaction and reflection in the insular educational testing industry. That industry is reshaping itself in response to the unprecedented project by two big groups of states to create new tests for the Common Core State Standards, using $360 million in federal Race to the Top money.
The discussions offer a glimpse into some of the thorny issues that crop up as the two gargantuan assessment projects move forward. How does each group manage intellectual-property concerns and potentially competing interests when 20-plus states and hundreds of players are involved? Even as those questions elude easy answers, the stakes are bigger than ever.
“This work has really changed the game,” said Douglas J. McRae, who spent 40 years in the testing industry before retiring, including overseeing K-12 test development at the McGraw Hill Cos. in the 1990s. “In the past, when vendors have done [test] work for individual states, those products haven’t generally been marketable to other states. Now there is a bigger market, with much more money hanging on it.”
http://goo.gl/ad53m
History Lessons Blend Content Knowledge, Literacy
Education Week
For years, bands of educators have been trying to free history instruction from the mire of memorization and propel it instead with the kinds of inquiry that drive historians themselves. Now, the common-core standards may offer more impetus for districts and schools to adopt that brand of instruction.
A study of one such approach suggests that it can yield a triple academic benefit: It can deepen students’ content knowledge, help them think like historians, and also build their reading comprehension.
The Reading Like a Historian program, a set of 75 free secondary school lessons in U.S. history, is getting a new wave of attention as teachers adapt to the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts. Those guidelines, adopted by all but four states, demand that teachers of all subjects help students learn to master challenging nonfiction and build strong arguments based on evidence.
http://goo.gl/ldCf4
A copy of the program
http://sheg.stanford.edu/?q=node/45
Analyses Find Staffing Changes Could Double Teacher Pay
Education Week
Alternative staffing models could boost some teachers’ pay by as much as 134 percent without increasing existing school budgets, according to a new series of briefs by Public Impact, an education policy and management-consulting firm in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The organization has looked at 20 alternative models through its Opportunity Culture Initiative, which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (Both foundations provide unrelated funding to Education Week.) The newly issued briefs offer financial analyses of three of those—”the multi-classroom leadership model,” “the elementary subject-specialization model,” and the “time-technology swap model.” Each of these models ultimately aims to put the best teachers in front of more students, or increase these educators’ “reach,” as a means of improving student learning with an eye to fiscal constraints.
http://goo.gl/bEy7Y
Copies of the models
http://opportunityculture.org/reach/pay-teachers-more/
N.J. Mom Puts Kids To Bed With Math
NPR Morning Edition
The U.S. ranks 25th out of 34 countries when it comes to kids’ math proficiency. One New Jersey parent wants to change that by overhauling the culture of math. An astrophysics graduate and mother of three kids, she started a ritual when each child was 2 years old: a little bedtime mathematical problem-solving that soon became a beloved routine. Parent friends began to bug her to send them kid-friendly math problems, too. Now Bedtime Math is gaining fans among children and math-shy parents around the country.
http://goo.gl/lD36Q
STEAM Ahead: Merging Arts and Science Education
NewsHour
During tough economic times, arts and music programs are often some of the first programs cut in schools. But at Wolftrap’s Institute of Education, investing in arts education has been a priority for the past 31 years.
A study by the National Endowment for the Arts shows that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds that actively participated in the arts tended to score better in science and writing, and were more likely to aspire to college.
The study used survey data gathered over 20 years that followed socially and economically disadvantaged students, from kindergarten into their early twenties.
At Wolftrap’s Institute of Education, they are trying something different by incorporating art with math and science.
It’s part of a different STEM movement gaining momentum, called “STEAM” – science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, a match that may seem a little strange, but a no brainer for some.
http://goo.gl/2FMev
A Different Road To Work, Bypassing College Dreams
NPR All Things Considered
Rebeca Espinal admits with a shy smile that she’s a straight-A math student. She’s a high school graduate who dreamed of going to college.
Instead, Espinal, 17, is working in a Charlotte, N.C., factory that makes gas turbines and generators. She is an apprentice with the German company Siemens.
“I was planning on getting a degree in international relations, but with financial aid and how difficult it is to pay for college and everything,” she says. “So when Siemens came along and gave me the offer, it was too good of an opportunity to just let it go.
With college costs rising and student debt mounting, a group of college-prep kids in Charlotte are opting for an alternative route: European-style apprenticeships.
http://goo.gl/5eY8p
Vouchers get dose of religion
Associated Press via Baton Rouge (LA) Advocate
Taxpayer dollars in Louisiana’s new voucher program will be paying to send children to schools that teach creationism and reject evolution, promoting a religious doctrine that challenges the lessons central to public school science classrooms.
Several religious schools that will be educating taxpayer-subsidized students tout their creationist views. Some schools question whether the universe is more than a few thousand years old, openly defying reams of scientific evidence to the contrary.
Critics say it’s inappropriate to spend public money on such religious teaching, arguing such programs undercut a strong science education and threaten the adequate preparation of students for college science courses.
http://goo.gl/GdHdE
Two reports find Las Vegas to be worst city in the nation for education
Las Vegas Sun
Despite some gains in student achievement, Las Vegas has been named the worst city in the nation for education, according to two rankings released this week.
Parenting Magazine came out with a list of the top 10 worst cities for education in America in 2012. Topping that list is Las Vegas, which was dinged for its schools’ high pupil-to-teacher ratio and a lower-than-average per-pupil funding.
The magazine, which has a circulation of more than 2 million readers, cited the recession as a cause for Las Vegas’ low education ranking. The Clark County School District was recently downgraded by two Wall Street credit-rating agencies, complicating the district’s plans to address $5.3 billion in school maintenance needs, the magazine said.
The Baltimore-based children’s reach group Annie E. Casey Foundation also released its 22nd annual Kids Count data book, which ranks states on a variety of factors, including education. The foundation worked with UNLV to determine the rankings.
According to the foundation, Nevada ranks 50th in the nation in education despite improving in several key indicators.
http://goo.gl/hdEE3
Parenting
http://goo.gl/F767G
High school girls petition for female presidential debate moderator
Springfield (MA) Republican
Emma Axelrod, a 16-year-old high school student interested in women’s rights, is frustrated that she and her friends have never seen a woman moderate a presidential debate.
“The last time a woman moderated one of the debates was four years before we were born,” Axelrod said.
Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis, rising juniors at Montclair High School in New Jersey, launched petitions that have gotten more than 160,000 signatures calling on the Commission on Presidential Debates and the presidential campaigns to have a woman moderate one of this year’s debates between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.
http://goo.gl/91GK3
Games to Sharpen the Brain
Start-Ups Seek FDA Approval for Videogames as Treatment for ADHD
Wall Street Journal
If two start-ups have their way, videogames might cure more than just boredom. They could also be used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Akili Interactive Labs Inc. of Boston, formed by start-up-creating firm PureTech Ventures, and San Francisco company Brain Plasticity Inc. are seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for a videogame treatment they hope clinicians will turn to before prescribing medicines for ADHD.
The disorder, whose symptoms include difficulty paying attention and remaining focused, affects 9% of adolescents and 4.1% of adults in the U.S., according to the American Psychiatric Association.
http://goo.gl/CSDmP
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CALENDAR
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USOE Calendar
http://tinyurl.com/5x9oh9
UEN News
http://www.uen.org
August 2-3:
Utah State Board of Education meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Meetings/Agenda.aspx
August 9:
Utah State Charter School Board meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://1.usa.gov/Axtt5K
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
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