“Writing in Cursive …” by Aaron and Stacia/CC/flickr
Today’s Top Picks:
Regent Nolan Karras says schools need to be more efficient and innovative.
http://goo.gl/zLtmh (OSE)
Trib, who got it right on the story level, misfires on the editorial level and assumes that because the Board voted to leave the Common Core assessment consortium, that we’ve dropped Common Core altogether. We haven’t.
http://goo.gl/B8TbC (SLT)
Infographic fans (you know who you are) may find this one on education technology from MindShift interesting. http://goo.gl/bBSci (MindShift)
Hmmm. Wyoming, in opposition to federal directive, is eliminating 11th grade assessments this year and replacing them with the ACT. http://goo.gl/GhHfL (Casper S-T)
Where’d the new teacher study? Increasingly, the answer is cyberspace U.
http://goo.gl/QONp3 (USAT)
Good news: More education = longer life. Bad news: The additional life you get is proportional to the amount of Newton’s Principia you understand in the original Latin. (ENR just made up the part about the bad news.) http://goo.gl/qoScU (Science Codex) or a copy of the study http://goo.gl/o1BpY
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH
State regent: It’s time to reform education in Utah
Utah to Weigh Pros and Cons of Cursive in Schools
Mueller Park Jr. High recognized for academics
St. George School Employee Accused Of Sexual Abuse
United Way collecting school supplies for low-income students
Apple Tree Campaign collects school supplies for kids in need
OPINION & COMMENTARY
Children lose out
Common Core is misunderstood
Dual immersion
How to make a grocery list
Utah takes exception to the testers . . . or to tests?
Utah Takes First Step in Regaining Control of Education
Gun classes
Thank you for help with summer lunch program
Prayer in Missouri
Principals: Our struggle to be heard on reform
Why teachers quit—and why we can’t fire our way to excellence
How to Pay Teachers Dramatically More, Within Budget
One-year change in test results doesn’t make a ‘trend’
GAO: Transition for Students With Disabilities Can, Must Improve
Edu-Leaders: Get Over Your Policy Allergies
Why Education Remains America’s Most Ignored Crisis
Envisioning the Future of Education Technology
Pregnant? No School for You in This Louisiana Public Charter
Let’s Make Education Big Business, With Profit, Loss And High Pay For Top Performers
NATION
Wyoming Department of Education scraps 11th-grade PAWS
Online education degrees skyrocket
Study: Immigrants Making Modest Gains in Higher Education
Researchers Sound Alarm Over Black Student Suspensions
Oklahoma Schools Are Doing Something Right for Native Students
Skillshare Rethinks Education By Putting Projects, Not Lectures, Online Instead of putting traditional teaching methods online, Skillshare’s hybrid classroom nixes the lecture.
More than 2,100 public schools have closed in the Midwest
Group with Scientology ties tutoring kids in Colorado public schools
LePage’s evidence that Maine students ‘looked down upon’? His life experience
‘Won’t Back Down’ highlights parent trigger law for schools
Fewer U.S. students buy sodas, sports drinks still a problem-study
More education, socioeconomic benefits equals longer life
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UTAH NEWS
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State regent: It’s time to reform education in Utah
OGDEN — State Board of Regents member Nolan Karras told Weber School District administrators Monday that it’s time to talk.
“It’s time to have an orderly debate in our community about the future of education,” said Karras at a district meeting to help administrators gear up for the school year. “Go back to your communities. Talk to your people.”
Nolan is co-chairman of Education First, a 40,000-member citizens’ group “dedicated to improved accountability, innovation, and increased funding for education in Utah,” according to its website, www.educationfirstutah.org.
The group’s goal, according to the site, is “… securing the economic future of our state by ensuring that the workforce of tomorrow has the skills to compete in a global marketplace.”
http://goo.gl/zLtmh (OSE)
Utah to Weigh Pros and Cons of Cursive in Schools
Education officials in Utah plan to study whether or not cursive writing instruction is relevant in public schools today. On Friday, the state school board approved the formation of a committee of teachers and administrators in the state which will examine the issue over the next year.
Is it important to include cursive writing instruction in Utah schools? What does current research say about the importance of cursive to students developmentally and how should educators approach teaching cursive to students? Tiffany Hall is the Kindergarten through 12th grade literacy coordinator for the Utah State Office of Education. She says these are questions the committee hopes to answer.
http://goo.gl/QOfvL (KUER)
Mueller Park Jr. High recognized for academics
BOUNTIFUL — Mueller Park Junior High was recently awarded the National Association of Middle School Principals/Lifetouch School of the Year award.
The NAMSP is made up of more than 3,000 schools, representing 39 states and 545 school districts.
The school received an award of $1,500 and a crystal trophy. Lifetouch School Photography will make a presentation to the school during the Back to School Assembly Sept. 6.
http://goo.gl/A7oUX (DN)
St. George School Employee Accused Of Sexual Abuse
A staff member at a school for troubled teens in st. George is charged with sexually abusing some of the students he was supposed to be protecting.
Diarra Fields, who is also a semi-pro football player, faces 6 sex charges for allegedly touching three male students at the Red Rock Canyon School inappropriately.
The Red Rock Canyon School is a school to help children, ages 12 to 18, who have suffered already – and are struggling with behavioral and emotional problems, according to charging document.
http://goo.gl/8AeRQ (KUTV)
United Way collecting school supplies for low-income students
SALT LAKE CITY — United Way of Salt Lake is encouraging the community to “Stuff the Bus” and donate school supplies to help 5,000 children get the tools they need to learn.
Supplies will be collected through Aug. 31, stuffed into backpacks and delivered to more than 20 United Way Neighborhood Centers serving low-income children and families.
http://goo.gl/fvqxk (DN)
Apple Tree Campaign collects school supplies for kids in need
SALT LAKE CITY – The Road Home shelter in Salt Lake City teams up with local businesses every year to help buy clothes and school supplies for kids who can’t afford them.
The Apple Tree Campaign, which is in its seventh year, has helped over 380 students head back to school with confidence.
http://goo.gl/OVNk7 (KSTU)
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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Children lose out
Common Core is misunderstood
Salt Lake Tribune editorial
It is a mistake for the State Board of Education to yield to a group of conservative lawmakers and other Utahns of the same ilk instead of standing up for what’s best for schoolchildren.
Sadly, the board has decided to withdraw from the group of 45 states and three U.S. territories that is working to adopt some common standards for American public-school students. The standards for what children at each grade level should know and understand would make comparisons among states more meaningful and raise the bar for all schools.
The standards are not mandatory for any state involved in the group. The federal government is not involved with the Common Core Standards in any way.
Dual immersion
(St. George) Spectrum editorial
As the school year approaches, parents are preparing their children for new experiences and new languages. Dual immersion programs are allowing students to take classes in two languages, expanding to several elementary schools in Southern Utah this year.
Hurricane Elementary and Red Mountain Elementary will offer dual immersion programs in Spanish, while Arrowhead Elementary and Horizon Elementary will have students speaking Mandarin Chinese. East Elementary will be the first school in Iron County to offer dual immersion. The school’s first-graders will have the opportunity to learn Spanish.
How to make a grocery list
(Provo) Daily Herald commentary by columnist Randy Wright
NEWS ITEM, AUG. 3: Utah educators consider whether teaching cursive handwriting is really necessary anymore since kids are becoming proficient at typing into hand-held electronics. (No, I’m not joking.)
Phone rings. Mother to teen: “Would you pick up some groceries from the store for me? Write down this list …” Teen to Mother: “Just a sec while I launch the writing app. Gotta take the phone off my ear. OK, shoot…”
Utah takes exception to the testers . . . or to tests?
Deseret News commentary by columnist Mary McConnell
I said in my last blog that I might irritate opponents of the common core who cite Massachusetts as an example of a state that has sacrificed its higher educational standards in the face of federal government bribes and threats.
Here’s why. I’m worried that in opposing federal education bullying – a point on which I agree with common core opponents – they may be strengthening the hand of those elements of the educational establishment that simply oppose testing and the accountability that potentially accompanies testing.
Utah Takes First Step in Regaining Control of Education Heritage Foundation commentary by Lindsey Burke, policy analyst
When the fight for control over what is taught in American schools is won, Utah will be remembered for having fired the shot heard ’round the country’s classrooms and statehouses.
In a move that should inspire other state leaders concerned with the Obama Administration’s push to nationalize standards and tests through the Common Core State Standards Initiative, the Utah State Board of Education voted 12–3 to withdraw from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), the national testing consortium the state joined as part of the its agreement to adopt national standards.
While Utah still plans to implement the standards in the coming academic year, it will now choose from among various testing companies to measure the academic achievement of students, divesting the state from the federally funded testing consortium. As Washington’s overreach creeps further into the nation’s classrooms, Utah has wisely taken a step away from further federal intervention into its schools.
Gun classes
Salt Lake Tribune letter from Anne McCulloch Nelsen
I was shocked and troubled at the large photo and caption atop Wednesday’s Utah section for the story “Weapons of class instruction” (Tribune, Aug. 1).
That photo showed four high school studentbody officers holding assault weapons at the Utah National Guard’s 51st annual Freedom Academy, which “features classes and activities aimed at helping students learn leadership skills.”
In light of the tragedy in Aurora, Colo., where dozens of innocent victims were killed or injured, this element of the leadership curriculum seems tasteless at the very least. What kind of leadership skills are these young people being taught?
Thank you for help with summer lunch program (St. George) Spectrum letter from Jennifer Riedel, Rita Osborn, Janet Ackart
As the Summer Lunch Service Program is winding up, we would like to send out heart-felt appreciation to the community for supporting helping to make this vital program. a success.
We have served over 20,000 lunches over the past 11 weeks between our two sites in Cedar City and Enoch. Thank you to the program staff, and to all of the families and kids who came to the park, for contributing to such a fun and enjoyable atmosphere.
Prayer in Missouri
New York Times editorial
Voters in Missouri on Tuesday will get to decide on an amendment to the State Constitution, which is supposedly intended to clarify the status of religion in Missouri’s public places. According to the amendment’s sponsor, Representative Mike McGhee, a Republican in the State House, the measure is needed to make clear that prayer is a right.
But the amendment is unnecessary because the state and federal constitutions and court rulings already guarantee these rights. It would, instead, create confusion and wreak havoc in classrooms by giving students the right to refuse to read anything or do any assignments that they claim offends their religious views.
Principals: Our struggle to be heard on reform Washington Post commentary by by Carol Burris and Harry Leonadartos (Burris is the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York. Leonadartos is the principal of Clarkstown High School North in Rockland County, New York.)
Several weeks ago, on Meet the Press, Michelle Rhee unveiled her new ad, designed to hammer away at how bad she believes American schools to be. The ad likened public schools to an unfit male athlete competing unsuccessfully in a women’s sport. Many found the ad to be offensive in its stereotypical portrayal of an overweight and effete man. But the true offense was that it took a moment of national pride, the Olympic Games, and used it to give American educators a kick in the pants.
It is reasonable to wonder why it is so important for Michelle Rhee and other “reformers” to constantly deride and disparage American public schools. Although we should always seek to improve, why should those efforts be expected to follow from derision? In truth, while we and others see daunting and unfilled needs in many schools, there has not been a sharp and sudden decline in student performance as is being implied, and in fact scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — sometimes referred to as the nation’s educational report card — are higher than ever before.
The answer is simple. School reform has generated a marketplace, and a profitable one at that. Michelle Rhee’s standard fee is $50,000 an appearance, plus expenses. In Michigan, Clark Durrant is paid over half a million dollars a year to run five charter schools. Eva Moskowitz, Geoffrey Canada and Deborah Kenney all make between four and five hundred thousand a year running their New York City charter school organizations.
And these are the minor players. The real money is corporate.
Why teachers quit—and why we can’t fire our way to excellence Hechinger Report commentary by Aaron Pallas, Professor of Sociology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University
In the past few weeks, two major reports on teacher turnover and retention have been released. One was rolled out with extensive media coverage, and has been the subject of much discussion among policymakers and education commentators. The other was written by me, along with Teachers College doctoral student Clare Buckley.
The first report, “The Irreplaceables: Understanding the Real Retention Crisis in America’s Urban Schools,” was prepared by TNTP, an organization formerly known as The New Teacher Project that prepares and provides support for teachers in urban districts, and that advocates for changes in teacher policy. The second, “Thoughts of Leaving: An Exploration of Why New York City Middle School Teachers Consider Leaving Their Classrooms,” was released by the Research Alliance for New York City Schools (RANYCS), a nonprofit research group based at New York University. (RANYCS published a report by Will Marinell in February 2011 that examined detailed patterns of teacher turnover in New York City middle schools apparent through the district’s human-resources office.)
There are some important similarities between the two new reports. Both surveyed teachers in large urban districts about their plans to stay in their current schools or to depart either for other schools, other districts or other careers. Both also sought to understand the features of teachers’ work on the job that were influential in their plans to stay or leave.
Irreplaceables
http://tntp.org/assets/documents/TNTP_Irreplaceables_2012.pdf
Thoughts on Leaving
http://media.ranycs.org/TTP-SurveyReport-PallasBuckley-final.pdf
How to Pay Teachers Dramatically More, Within Budget Education Next commentary by Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel (BRYAN C. HASSEL is Co-Director of Public Impact. EMILY AYSCUE HASSEL is Co-Director of Public Impact.)
There’s been a lot of chatter about increasing teacher pay—even doubling it. With the release of TNTP’s The Irreplaceables, talk about paying teachers more and retaining the best will likely increase. Whether or not your political perspective leaves you thinking this is necessary, most people assume it’s a pipe dream given budget and political realities.
Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture team ran the numbers to determine how much more schools could pay teachers—within budget—just by putting excellent teachers in charge of more students’ learning. We found that schools could free funds to pay excellent teachers in teaching roles up to 40 percent more and teacher-leaders up to about 130 percent more, within current budgets and without increasing class sizes. In some variations, schools can pay all teachers more, while further rewarding the best.
The financial analyses covered three of more than 20+ school models on OpportunityCulture.org that use job redesign and technology to extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students, for more pay—Multi-Classroom Leadership, Elementary Specialization, and Time-Technology swaps.
One-year change in test results doesn’t make a ‘trend’
CNN commentary by Aaron Pallas, Professor of Sociology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University
It’s the dead of summer, and many states are releasing the results of testing done in the spring. A lot happens between the time that a student fills in the last bubble and a score is produced.
Some things are just general logistics: collecting the exams, routing them to the appropriate destination and processing students’ responses to multiple-choice questions using high-speed scanners. Others require more judgment: Scorers must review and rate students’ responses to open-ended questions to which they must construct an answer, using a grading rubric, or guide to the elements of a good response.
But even more judgment is required after that, much of which takes place behind closed doors.
Testing firms such as CTB/McGraw-Hill or Pearson, which contract with states to produce the scores, must look at the patterns of students’ responses and see if they “behave” in predictable ways. Most tests are assumed to measure a single skill, such as mathematics proficiency, or reading ability, or science knowledge, with some test items designed to be somewhat easier, and others more difficult. Students who get the easy and difficult questions correct are assumed to have more “ability” than those who get the easy questions right and the hard questions wrong.
GAO: Transition for Students With Disabilities Can, Must Improve Education Week commentary by columnist Nirvi Shah
Although a number of federal government programs and services are intended to help students with disabilities after they leave high school, those programs aren’t coordinated well, making them difficult for students and their families to navigate, a new report from the Government Accountability Office says.
Services students can apply for include tutoring, vocational training, and assistive technology. These come from the federal departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration. But the different agencies only coordinate their activities to an extent and don’t ever reflect on how effectively they work together, the GAO said in the report, released today.
While ideally, students with disabilities get help planning for life after high school—planning for a path that leads to work or additional schooling—once they leave school they are on their own in applying for services and support from various federal government agencies.
A copy of the report
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-594
Edu-Leaders: Get Over Your Policy Allergies Commentary by Frederick M. Hess, executive editor of Education Next
Hidy, all. I’m back. I’ve been away teaching at UPenn and Rice, working with Clark County and the folks at UVA’s turnaround program, and generally trying to catch up on writing that got stacked up while I was scrambling to finish Cage-Busting Leadership. Happily, I could once again turn RHSU over to an all-star cast–with Daniel, Trenton, Maddie, Sydney, and Evan penning a slew of compelling stuff that lit up my inbox and provoked a whole bunch of interesting conversations. So, many thanks.
Anyway, thought I’d write today about something that struck me while teaching at UPenn and Rice. At UPenn, I teach policy to mid-career PhDs at the Graduate School of Education. At Rice, I teach aspiring school leaders in the Business School’s educational entrepreneurship program. Every year, I’m struck by the heated, nearly reflexive distaste that so many current (and aspiring) school and system leaders express for “policy.”
I had smart, talented leaders complain about ill-conceived accountability systems. About pols who weren’t willing to spend enough on schools. About why pols don’t listen to them or ask their advice. About how the pols ought to stick to their own business, and let educators run the schools. In general, the view was that policy is something done to them by meddling pols who don’t know their place. The consensus seems to be that policy is something idiotic policymakers do to amuse themselves and annoy practitioners.
How do I respond to this grousing? Mostly, I tell edu-leaders to get over themselves. Public schools spend public dollars and hire public employees to serve the public’s children. For better or worse, they’re going to be governed by public policies.
Why Education Remains America’s Most Ignored Crisis National Journal commentary
Jon Schnur, Chairman and Co-Founder of America Achieves, talks about America’s lack of urgency regarding education reform. Schnur argues that there is a disconnect between local and federal perceptions of education.
Envisioning the Future of Education Technology MindShift commentary
Check out this fascinating infographic, from learning experts TFE Research and emerging technology strategist Michell Zappa.
Pregnant? No School for You in This Louisiana Public Charter Mother Jones commentary by columnist Kate Sheppard
A public charter school in Louisiana is getting national attention for requiring female students to take pregnancy tests if they are suspected of being pregnant and, if they are, forcing them to leave school. The ACLU of Louisiana sent a letter to the Delhi Charter School on Monday arguing that the policy is unconstitutional and “in clear violation of federal law.”
Delhi is a kindergarten through 12th grade public school in a town by the same name in northeastern Louisiana. Its “student pregnancy policy” states that the school seeks to ensure that students “exhibit acceptable character traits”—and in order to do so, allows the school to force any “suspected student” to take a pregnancy test.
Let’s Make Education Big Business, With Profit, Loss And High Pay For Top Performers Forbes commentary by columnist Carrie Lukas
When you see that Americans spend more than $1.1 trillion on education—that’s 7.8 percent of GDP—it’s tempting to call education “big business.” Except that it’s not really: 80 percent of that spending is controlled by government and spent on public schools and universities. That means that it’s divorced from the usual factors that make our competitive free market system work.
Parents everywhere who are getting ready for their kids to go back to school—which includes shopping for new clothes, shoes, backpacks and school supplies—should consider what a functioning education marketplace for schools and learning would look like. As we debate education reforms, rather than focusing on relatively minor policies such as those governing school hours, curriculum, and teacher pay, we should look at the bigger picture: Is our current approach to spending on education providing the most value for students?
The answer is surely no. With government-spending on every K-12 public school student now topping $10,000 each year, the typical American student will have more than $100,000 spent on her behalf from kindergarten through high school. Parents hope and trust that those years in school will give them more than just a degree, and they should expect their children to acquire more than just the most basic life skills, such as reading and arithmetic.
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NATIONAL NEWS
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Wyoming Department of Education scraps 11th-grade PAWS Casper (WY) Star-Tribune
Despite direction otherwise from the U.S. Department of Education, state education officials plan to remove the Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students for 11th-grade students this school year and replace the test with the ACT.
The State Board of Education on Monday approved negotiations to amend a contract with Education Testing Service to remove PAWS for 11th-grade students per legislative mandate.
The Wyoming Department of Education also canceled both its Accountability Study Group and a department position the state Legislature hadn’t mandated or approved.
The changes came after the Legislature’s Select Committee on Statewide Education Accountability last month clarified its position that funds will not be available under any circumstance for the 11th-grade PAWS and that the study group and the position are not appropriate uses for the funds in question.
Online education degrees skyrocket
USA Today
Virtually unknown a decade ago, big online teacher education programs now dwarf their traditional competitors, outstripping even the largest state university teachers’ colleges.
A USA TODAY analysis of newly released U.S. Department of Education data finds that four big universities, operating mostly online, have quickly become the largest education schools in the USA. Last year the four — three of which are for-profit — awarded one in 16 bachelor’s degrees and post-graduate awards and nearly one in 11 advanced education awards, including master’s degrees and doctorates.
A decade ago, in 2001, the for-profit University of Phoenix awarded 72 education degrees to teachers, administrators and other school personnel through its online program, according to federal data. Last year, it awarded nearly 6,000 degrees, more than any other university. By contrast, Arizona State University, one of the USA’s largest traditional education schools, awarded 2,075 degrees, most of them on campus. Columbia University’s Teachers College awarded 1,345 degrees.
Traditional colleges still produce most of the bachelor’s degrees in teaching — ASU topped the list with 979 bachelor’s degrees in 2011. But online schools such as Phoenix and Walden University awarded thousands more master’s degrees than even the top traditional schools, all of which are pushing to offer online coursework. Every one of the top 10 now offers an online education
Study: Immigrants Making Modest Gains in Higher Education National Journal
While undergraduate attainment rates for immigrant and second-generation populations have increased steadily, these groups still lag behind the overall U.S. population when it comes to higher education, a new study has found.
Between 1999 and 2000, about 19 percent of undergraduates were immigrants or second-generation Americans — those born in the U.S. to at least one parent born outside the country. Seven years later, the percentage for that population increased to 23 percent of all undergraduate students, according to the Education Department study.
Nonetheless, these populations continue to be behind in educational attainment from the overall population.
Asians and Hispanics made up bulk of the undergraduate immigrants in U.S. schools. More than half of Hispanics, both immigrants and second-generation, were more likely to say one or both parents did not attend college, compared with 33 percent of the overall population. The education of the parent tends to be a strong indicator of whether the child will obtain a postsecondary degree, according to the study.
A copy of the study
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012213.pdf
Researchers Sound Alarm Over Black Student Suspensions Education Week
Nearly one in six African-American students was suspended from school during the 2009-10 academic year, more than three times the rate of their white peers, a new analysis of federal education data has found.
That compares with about one in 20 white students, researchers at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, based at the University of California, Los Angeles, conclude. They use data collected from about half of all school districts in the nation for that year by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights.
And for black children with disabilities, the rate was even higher: One in four such students was suspended at least once that year.
In some districts, as many as one out of every two black students were suspended.
http://goo.gl/0dpYH (NYT)
A copy of the study
Oklahoma Schools Are Doing Something Right for Native Students Indian Country Today
The National Indian Education Association presented a webinar on July 19 to help educators and Native American advocacy organizations decipher the National Indian Education Study 2011 released earlier in the month.
One of the most striking observations to emerge was the success of the state of Oklahoma in educating American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. The study examined results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) nationwide and for 12 individual states: Alaska, Arizona, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.
Oklahoma was the only state in which the average reading score for AI/AN fourth-graders was higher than the score for all AI/AN students in the nation.
Skillshare Rethinks Education By Putting Projects, Not Lectures, Online Instead of putting traditional teaching methods online, Skillshare’s hybrid classroom nixes the lecture.
Fast Company
Startups such as Coursera, 2tor and Udacity have used the web to bring college professors’ lectures to a wider audience.
Skillshare, meanwhile, is eliminating the lectures–and the professors.
A new class format the startup is launching on Tuesday aims to create a learning environment where teachers become facilitators and students, at times, become each other’s teachers. To do so, it straddles the gap between online and offline learning.
The new “hybrid classes” have both an online component where teachers orchestrate projects, resources, videos and feedback as well as an option for students who live near each other to meet periodically.
Skillshare’s website, which launched last April, has until now been focused on helping anyone organize an offline class to teach anything (it charges a 15% fee on class tuition for the favor). By removing the brick-and-mortar restriction, it has made those classes available to a global teacher and student population.
But it also hopes to change how they’re taught.
“The basic idea is students learn by doing, and learn by doing with other people,” Skillshare founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn says.
In a trial class Karnjanaprakorn taught earlier this year, for instance, he gave his 200 students mini-projects (starting with “define your goals”) for each week. They culminated in one large project: launching a minimum viable project for their startups.
More than 2,100 public schools have closed in the Midwest USA Today via Detroit Free Press
The Midwest has lost more than 2,100 public schools in recent years as school districts hammered by population loss scrambled to shift students and save money.
From 2006-07 to 2010-11, the region saw a net loss of 2,110 K-12 schools, according to a USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Department of Education data. The rest of the nation had a net gain of 965, largely from growth in the West.
The closings — which often see students moved to other buildings in a district — can affect home prices and businesses and often take an emotional toll on residents.
Group with Scientology ties tutoring kids in Colorado public schools Denver Post
Six years ago, a group called Applied Scholastics International won state approval to tutor low-income students from struggling public schools.
The group touts its so-called study technology as “the breakthrough that undercuts why people are illiterate.”
The materials were developed by “educator and humanitarian” L. Ron Hubbard, the group explained in its application to the Colorado Department of Education.
Hubbard is better known as a science-fiction writer who went on to found the Church of Scientology.
Since 2008, three Colorado public school districts have given more than $150,000 in federal money to Applied Scholastics to provide tutoring to nearly 120 students, a Denver Post review found.
LePage’s evidence that Maine students ‘looked down upon’? His life experience Bangor (ME) Daily News
AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage’s recent statement that Maine students are “looked down upon” by people in other parts of the country derives from “life experience,” not any specific incidents or data, according to Adrienne Bennett, a spokeswoman for the governor.
“He is a business man. It’s from his life experience of talking to people,” Bennett told the Bangor Daily News on Monday. “While it’s anecdotal, he believes it.”
“I don’t care where you go in this country. If you come from Maine you’re looked down upon,” LePage said during a July 25 press conference at which he and Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen announced an outline for their new education reform initiatives. “Twenty years ago if you came from Maine, they couldn’t wait to get you into their school.”
Bennett said Monday that the administration does not have any documents or specific anecdotes to substantiate that statement.
“It’s clear that the governor’s intentions are in the students’ best interests,” Bennett said. “It’s a reflection that Maine is a lot less competitive than it was 20 years ago. The governor told me in a conversation that we have lost an edge and that our students are falling behind.”
During that same press event, LePage said Maine students needed to take a special test to be admitted to William & Mary, a public college in Virginia. A spokeswoman at the school said that is not true.
‘Won’t Back Down’ highlights parent trigger law for schools USA Today
It’s rare that a Hollywood movie actually gets out in front of a social trend, but when Won’t Back Down premieres this September, it may well spawn reams of petitions from fed-up parents.
Set in a gritty Pittsburgh neighborhood, the upcoming Maggie Gyllenhaal/Viola Davis film tells the story of two parents, one of them a teacher, who use a little-known state law to take over their kids’ struggling public school. Turns out that such laws actually exist in four states — California, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana — with lawmakers in about a dozen more, including Pennsylvania, expected to consider them over the next year.
First dreamed up by Democratic activist and former Clinton White House staffer Ben Austin, so-called parent trigger laws allow dissatisfied parents to demand changes at their kids’ schools — including a total takeover — if a majority sign on.
Details in each state vary, but in California, birthplace of the first trigger law, parents can convert their school into a charter school or force the district to remove staff, including teachers or even a principal. They can also bargain for “different or nuanced changes that will help fix their children’s failing school,” according to Parent Revolution, the non-profit group that has pushed for parent trigger laws nationwide.
The movie promises to bring such rights squarely into the center of the USA’s education discussion this fall, even though the laws have yet to transform a single public school.
Fewer U.S. students buy sodas, sports drinks still a problem-study Reuters
WASHINGTON – Half as many U.S. adolescents as in 2006 can still buy high-calorie sodas in schools, but other sugary beverages remain easily available onsite, a survey showed.
University of Michigan Ann Arbor researchers found the trend in a survey of more than 1,900 public schools, which has grown as the institutions banish sodas from vending machines, school stores and cafeterias.
Older students who could buy soda in high school fell to 25 percent in 2011 from 54 percent in 2006, while access by younger middle school students fell to 13 percent from 27 percent, according to the study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
But fruit drinks, sports drinks and other beverages with added sugar and calories that could lead to obesity over time can still be bought easily in schools, the study showed.
A copy of the study
More education, socioeconomic benefits equals longer life Science Codex
Despite advances in health care and increases in life expectancy overall, Americans with less than a high school education have life expectancies similar to adults in the 1950s and 1960s.
“The most highly educated white men live about 14 years longer than the least educated black men,” says S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and lead author of the study. “The least educated black women live about 10 years less than the most educated white women.”
The research, funded by The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society, examined life expectancy by race, sex and education and examined trends in disparities from 1990 through 2008.
A copy of the study
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USOE Calendar
UEN News
August 9:
Utah State Charter School Board meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
August 14:
Executive Appropriations Interim Committee meeting
1 p.m., 445 State Capitol
August 15:
Education Interim Committee meeting
2 p.m., 30 House Building
September 6-7:
Utah State Board of Education meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://www.schools.utah.gov/board/Meetings/Agenda.aspx
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