Education News Roundup: Sept 6, 2012

Today’s Top Picks:

Teen smoking is down in Utah.
http://goo.gl/TYEm8 (SLT)

Trib features Driven 2 Teach program.
http://goo.gl/db2zw (SLT)

Trib and KSL bust moves on hip hop physics. Those moves, by the way, will continue on indefinitely in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted upon by another force. Seems unlikely that the Trib and KSL could bust moves in a vacuum, but ya never know.
http://goo.gl/1cQjr (SLT)
and http://goo.gl/u98Y2 (KSL)

NPR asks: What’s the difference in education policy between Obama and Romney?
http://goo.gl/U0XET (NPR)

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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH

High school smoking sees big decline in Utah Tobacco » 11.3% of Utah adults smoke — the lowest rate in nation.

Teachers travel the country to better learn U.S. history A look back » Program helps educators inspire students to understand their roots.

Hip hop professor brings different rhythm to science lessons Education » Brooklyn native raps, waxes scientific

New program will certify language experts as teachers

Report: Utah education spending dropped 8 percent since ’08

School trust, EPA settle cleanup at defunct explosives factory

Wasatch Academy opens with record enrollment numbers

Sunset Jr. High choir students gather to get head start on the year Students hone their singing and leadership skills at their August retreat in Sunset.

Ryan supports prayer in schools if states agree

Cedar High locked down after bomb scare Police » Cardboard tube with duct tape on ends was filled with pinto beans.

Granite School District Wants Changes to the Mountain View Corridor Road Project A planned on and off ramp at 4100 South will put much more traffic on the road that runs next to Hunter High School.

Forbes students learn to love reading

Weber district plans ground-breaking

8th grader’s science project falls from space, creates confusion

OPINION & COMMENTARY

Money, politics corrupting valley high school athletic programs

The real wall of separation in public schools

Learning as Freedom

A new Finnish lesson: Why gender equality matters in school reform

Tough truths about charters
Siphoning students from private schools is not a viable path to reform

Recognizing the Parent Role in Character Education

Let’s get rid of high school substitutes

NATION

When It Comes To Education, Two Peas In A Pod?

Arne Duncan DNC speech

Virtual Ed. Addresses Teacher-Certification Questions States grapple with how to ensure the quality of online educators

Arizona moves to explain tough education standards

Dougco schools pass on ballot issue; vote to end talks with union

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UTAH NEWS
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High school smoking sees big decline in Utah Tobacco » 11.3% of Utah adults smoke — the lowest rate in nation.

Utah’s youth are now smoking at a lower rate than ever before, according to a new state Tobacco Prevention and Control Program report.
As of 2011, only 5.9 percent of Utah high schoolers said they smoked cigarettes, compared to 11.9 percent in 1999. Nationwide, 18.1 percent of youth smoke.
http://goo.gl/TYEm8 (SLT)

Teachers travel the country to better learn U.S. history A look back » Program helps educators inspire students to understand their roots.

Standing in front of a room full of history teachers at EnergySolutions Arena, Sarah Olds recalled her favorite memory of the summer. It was meeting her hero, Thomas Jefferson. She fanned her face as her eyes welled up, just remembering the talk she had with our third president.
“One of things that changed my life forever was hearing him speak of freedom and the writing of the Declaration of Independence,” Olds said. “It was in his words, and in a voice that I just knew was the same as Thomas Jefferson’s really would have been.”
As she finished her speech, Olds made it a point to hug Gail Miller on her way back to her seat. Miller happily accepted.
“I want to be in your class,” Miller said.
The event at EnergySolutions Arena was the culmination of this year’s Driven 2 Teach program. In 2007, Larry H. Miller had a conversation with historian David McCullough about their passion for history and the need for better teaching and greater learning in the classroom. That small seed grew into Driven 2 Teach, a field study that Gail Miller has chosen to continue funding after her husband’s death.
http://goo.gl/db2zw (SLT)

Hip hop professor brings different rhythm to science lessons Education » Brooklyn native raps, waxes scientific

Christopher Emdin found his eyelids drooping and his mind wandering one day while doing research for one of his six academic degrees.
“The only thing I could think of to wake up was the right song,” Emdin told students at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education on Wednesday. So he cranked Rick Ross’ rap hit “Hustlin’” and found the motivation he needed to keep working.
“I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m about to hustle too,’ so I started hustling in my science,” Emdin said.
The song, of course, wasn’t about science, but Emdin cited it as an example of how science and hip hop can connect. Emdin, an education professor at New York City’s Columbia University, is visiting schools across Salt Lake City this week, trying to get teens excited about science by showing them how it relates to rap, break dancing, graffiti art (the legal kind), DJing and MCing — in short, hip hop culture.
http://goo.gl/1cQjr (SLT)

http://goo.gl/u98Y2 (KSL)

New program will certify language experts as teachers

No Child Left Behind requires that classroom teachers be certified.
This seems like a reasonable requirement, until one considers Native American tribes trying to impart their languages in the schools.
In that case, most of the experts — in some tribes, the only fluent language speakers still around — are not certified teachers.
To sidestep this barrier, the Arizona State Board of Education last week approved a policy to allow tribes to certify speakers of their own languages to teach in public and BIE-funded schools.
Although the Navajo Nation is fortunate to have many credentialed teachers in Navajo language and culture programs, the new policy is welcome news, said Navajo Superintendent of Schools Andrew M. Tah.
…
When it comes to educational sovereignty, however, Tah said the new credential is just one more step in a long process.
For one thing, the Navajo Nation still needs to get Utah on board.
“We’re already working with the Utah Department of Education on something similar,” the superintendent assured.
http://goo.gl/eCzzZ (Navajo Times)

Report: Utah education spending dropped 8 percent since ’08

SALT LAKE CITY — Most states, including Utah, are funding education below pre-recession levels, according to a new report.
The report, released Tuesday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, shows that Utah’s per-pupil spending has fallen 8.1 percent when adjusted for inflation since 2008. That figure puts Utah behind 26 states that either increased per-pupil spending or decreased by a smaller percentage.
The state continues to have the lowest base per-pupil spending in the U.S. However, according to the report, Utah was among a minority of 22 states that increased funding for the 2012-13 academic year.
http://goo.gl/h1sWH (DN)

http://goo.gl/zBkUc (KSL)

http://goo.gl/TCXLU (KCPW)

School trust, EPA settle cleanup at defunct explosives factory

LEHI — Emergency cleanup of dangerous blasting agents at a now-defunct explosives plant in Utah County has been completed, and the Environmental Protection Agency wants its check from the property’s owner.
The material was once stored in a pair of 20,000-gallon tanks at the Cook Lehi plant and chemical agents like it have been used in bombs for domestic terrorist attacks, including at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
The EPA completed remediation at the site, which occupied 480 acres of Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands property leased by Cook Slurry Company, owned by Merrill Cook and operated from 1979 to 1999.
Cook, a former two-term Republican congressman from Utah, blamed the demise of the plant on declining gold prices, an interruption in his business supply chain and his tenure in Congress, which he said required his resignation as an officer or director of the company.
In a Tuesday agreement reached in U.S. District Court in Utah, the EPA agreed to allow the school trust lands administration to settle its bill with the federal agency for $316,000, in contrast to $672,000 initially sought as payment.
http://goo.gl/53rZt (DN)

Wasatch Academy opens with record enrollment numbers

MT. PLEASANT– Wasatch Academy, a private boarding school, is beginning its 138th year with record enrollment.
For the first time in the history of the college preparatory high school, the school is beginning the 2012-13 year with more than 300 students attending.
Along with record enrollment, Wasatch Academy has the largest sophomore, junior and senior classes in its history.
http://goo.gl/Frbpl (PDH)

Sunset Jr. High choir students gather to get head start on the year Students hone their singing and leadership skills at their August retreat in Sunset.

Sunset • It was a hot August day with little cool air to be found in the school when eighth- and ninth-grade students at Sunset Junior high gathered for a choir retreat. Choir director Melanie Wilcox promised the students that sunny adventures await them during the upcoming school year.
The retreat was planned by Melanie Wilcox with the help of student choir leaders. Wilcox gave the students a list of topics that needed to be covered and allowed them to choose how those topics would be incorporated through out the day.
The retreat’s purpose was to give students the opportunity to get to know one another, sing, participate in team-building exercises, pass off tests, organize portfolios and start preparing costumes for the upcoming school year.
http://goo.gl/CioRU (SLT)

Ryan supports prayer in schools if states agree

PROVO, Utah — Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said Wednesday that he supports prayer in public schools.
The Wisconsin congressman addressed the issue during a brief stop inside a Republican volunteer center in Provo, Utah. He was in the state to attend a fundraiser.
Asked by a volunteer whether he supported giving states the right to allow “prayer or pledge” in schools, Ryan said he did.
“That’s a constitutional issue of the states, moral responsibility of parents, education,” Ryan continued.
“Exactly, so I am hoping to try and push that,” said the volunteer, 40-year-old Jenny Free, of Highland, Utah, a mother of nine.
http://goo.gl/c7n6F (AP)

Cedar High locked down after bomb scare Police » Cardboard tube with duct tape on ends was filled with pinto beans.

Cedar High School was locked down for an hour on Wednesday after an officer discovered what looked like a bomb. But the “bomb” turned out to be nothing more than a cardboard tube filled with pinto beans.
The school resource officer was returning to the school from another call when he saw the tube in the parking lot near the front entrance of the school, said Cedar City police Lt. Darin Adams. The tube had black duct tape on either side of it, and the officer thought it looked suspicious, Adams said.
Cedar City police and firefighters arrived at 10:40 a.m. and the school was put on lockdown five minutes later. Investigators took an X-ray photograph of the tube, but when they couldn’t conclusively tell what was inside, they called out a bomb squad from St. George.
http://goo.gl/BbM6a (SLT)

http://goo.gl/zqtE8 (OSE)

http://goo.gl/CFZJw (SGS)

http://goo.gl/6lUDy (KTVX)

Granite School District Wants Changes to the Mountain View Corridor Road Project A planned on and off ramp at 4100 South will put much more traffic on the road that runs next to Hunter High School.

The Granite School District has voted to ask the Utah Department of Transportation to alter its plans for the Mountain View Corridor.
UDOT plans to construct an on and off ramp at 4100 South. But the district would like it shifted to 4700 South.
Hunter High School sits at the corner of 4100 South, 5600 West. District officials believe the added traffic will create a safety hazard for students.
http://goo.gl/ayIt5 (KNRS)

Forbes students learn to love reading

AMERICAN FORK — Students at Forbes Elementary School in American Fork went on a reading spree on Wednesday as the school held its annual read-a-thon. Extra reading time was incorporated into the day’s schedule, along with fun activities to help the children learn to enjoy reading.
“The kids have got to learn how to read. Reading is the language of learning,” principal Sam Rencher said. “But they also need to learn to love reading. We can’t just teach them how and have them not enjoy it.”
http://goo.gl/OMivZ (PDH)

http://goo.gl/DhtN1 (KSL)

Weber district plans ground-breaking

FARR WEST — The Weber School District will host a ground-breaking ceremony Friday for the new Wahlquist Junior High.
The 10 a.m. ceremony will be at 2700 N. 2575 West. District officials and representatives from MHTN Architects will be on hand to answer questions.
http://goo.gl/RDvlu (OSE)

8th grader’s science project falls from space, creates confusion

BEDFORD, N.H. — A middle schooler’s science project captured the attention of police on Sunday when a beeping, duct-taped box fell from the sky and landed in a stranger’s yard, causing concern.
The box was a homemade weather balloon, created by 8th-grader Jack Miron for an 8th-grade science project. The payload was protected by a styrofoam box wrapped in duct and caution tapes and with a NASA sticker on the side. GPS and a camera allowed Miron and his family to track the weather balloon.
http://goo.gl/A6XMm (KSL)

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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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Money, politics corrupting valley high school athletic programs
(Logan) Herald Journal op-ed by Brian Falslev of Benson

Residents of Cache Valley, money, school politics and prominent business figures are ruining athletics at our local high schools, and we just sit back and watch it happen. Those who are rich are donating money to the high school booster clubs or just the school in general to persuade coaches and principals to secure their kid a spot on a school team, and we are taking about large amounts of money.
Why don’t you people who have so much money and just love to donate get together and build you a private high school, and then let’s play against each other and see who wins. It will be those who have had everything given to them against those who have worked hard and are better skilled. Superintendents, principles, athletic directors and coaches know this is going on but do nothing to stop it.
http://goo.gl/4b5hE

The real wall of separation in public schools Washington Post commentary by Adam Laats, assistant professor of history and director of the Binghamton University’s Center for the Teaching of American History.

Voters in Missouri recently approved — by overwhelming margins — a constitutional amendment guaranteeing students’ rights to pray quietly in public schools. But Missouri’s amendment does more than that. Missouri now joins New Hampshire in erecting a new and potentially devastating wall of separation in public schools.
The new rules represent an effort by activists to throw up barricades around the minds of individual students. Meanwhile, they redirect resources that could be spent on education to fund lawsuits, bankroll public face-offs and support activist groups and political campaigns.
Students can’t learn this way. Schools can’t work this way.
http://goo.gl/ijT7q

Learning as Freedom
New York Times op-ed by MICHAEL S. ROTH, president of Wesleyan University

Middletown, Conn. – IN March, a task force organized by the Council on Foreign Relations tried to reframe the problems of the nation’s public schools as a threat to national security. “Large, undereducated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy,” it warned, while also referring to students as “human capital.”
While the report focused on K-12 education and called for better college preparedness, its instrumentalist rhetoric has remarkable affinities with that of critics who see higher education as outmoded. Conservative scholars like Charles Murray, Richard Vedder and Peter W. Wood ask why people destined for low-paying jobs should bother to pursue their education beyond high school, much less study philosophy, literature and history. The venture capitalist Peter Thiel has offered money to would-be entrepreneurs to quit college and focus on Web-based start-ups instead. Business school professors like Clayton M. Christensen tell us that “disruptive innovation” is causing liberal-arts learning to be “disintermediated” so as to deliver just what the “end user” needs.
From this narrow, instrumentalist perspective, students are consumers buying a customized playlist of knowledge.
This critique may be new, but the call for a more narrowly tailored education — especially for Americans with limited economic prospects — is not.
http://goo.gl/P5OSR

A new Finnish lesson: Why gender equality matters in school reform Washington Post commentary by Pasi Sahlberg, author of “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?”

Finland has come to be known as a nation where educational quality, equity, and productivity exist simultaneously. Those interested in understanding how the Finns have managed to achieve this level of educational performance often point to good teachers, rigorous curricula, and small class sizes. Indeed, some believe that there is a set of such factors that make education systems work well. Then there are those who claim that Finland is too different because of its size and demographics to be taken seriously as a model for large-scale education reforms in countries like the United States, Canada or England. Yet all of these attempts to explain good educational performance in Finland fail to see the big picture.
When trying to understand Finnish schools’ success it is good to keep in mind that Finland scores high in many other international comparisons besides education. Finland is one of the most competitive market economies in the world according to the World Economic Forum, which also rates Finland’s innovation system as a global leader. Corruption is likewise rare in Finland, reports Transparency International. Finally, people often forget that Finland is among the most equal countries in how wealth is distributed and in how women and men are empowered.
Gender equality is a particularly relevant variable to be included in the analysis of a country’s child welfare and education policies. Finnish women were the first in the world to have equal political rights. Since 1906, women in Finland have had the right to vote and stand for elections, 14 years before the United States issued these rights to women. Women and men don’t have equal political rights only in theory in Finland but women have exercised them actively since the beginning.
http://goo.gl/9gGCV

Tough truths about charters
Siphoning students from private schools is not a viable path to reform New York Daily News op-ed by Adam B. Schaeffer, a policy analyst with the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom

Is it possible for charter schools to increase educational options and diversity in the public school system but decrease diversity overall; to spend less money than regular public schools but cost taxpayers more overall, and to outperform regular public schools but decrease achievement overall?
Unfortunately, it is not only possible but is happening in cities across the nation. This mix of intended and unintended outcomes is what’s known as the “charter school paradox,” which hints at the uneasy place these relatively new educational options have in our society.
But it is only a paradox if we take a narrow view of charter school effects. Rigorous new research concludes that public charter schools are seriously damaging the private education market, adding to taxpayer burden, undermining private options for families and reducing healthy competition in the education sector.
http://goo.gl/Oo8Er

Recognizing the Parent Role in Character Education Education Week op-ed by Malcolm Gauld, co-author of “The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have”

When I was a boy, it seemed that everyone was deeply proud of America’s schools and the values of the students within them. You don’t hear much of that these days. When it comes to our kids, it seems we have devolved to a point where we care more about what they can do than about who they are…and they know it. That represents a depressing turn for all of us.
So, what do we do? We can begin by reorganizing our priorities as follows: attitude over aptitude, effort over ability, and character over talent. Rather than merely espouse these priorities, let’s honor and live them from kindergarten on up to the decisions made by college admissions departments. We must say it and mean it. After all, a lifetime of teaching has taught me to never kid a kid. Never tell them something’s important when it’s really not.
But before we can truly help our kids, we may need to first help their parents. Huh?
http://goo.gl/lxS8A

Let’s get rid of high school substitutes Washington Post commentary by columnist Jay Mathews

I loathed substitute teachers when I was in high school. Most of the subs tried their best, but I liked my teachers and treated their temporary replacements as interlopers. My friends who didn’t like school at all were similarly hard to manage.
I was pleased, then, to see that former school superintendent John Fitzsimons has a plan to eliminate short-term subs from high schools. His recent commentary in Education Week said “hiring substitutes can be an administrative nightmare. Most school districts contract with substitute services that experience frequent turnover. Often, first-time subs arrive late or not at all, and the administration scrambles to find a free teacher to supervise the class.”
When Fitzsimons was superintendent of districts in Tenafly, N.J., and Lawrence, N.Y., he allowed classroom teachers and their students to work out their own plans for handling teacher absences. Many organized their students into study groups that would meet in the cafeteria or library.
“Some teachers arranged for students to audit other classes, work on art projects, practice music or engage in club activities,” Fitzsimons said.
That may be expecting too much. Many teenagers I know, given an unexpected free hour, cannot resist curling up in an empty desk for a nap. But what’s wrong with that?
http://goo.gl/f7Gz6

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NATIONAL NEWS
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When It Comes To Education, Two Peas In A Pod?
NPR Tell Me More

President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney disagree on a number of issues. But there are some aspects of education policy on which the two candidates are hand-in-hand. Host Michel Martin speaks with Education Week reporter Alyson Klein, who has compared each campaign’s message on education.
http://goo.gl/U0XET

Arne Duncan DNC speech
Politico

As prepared for delivery:
http://goo.gl/BtjxT

Virtual Ed. Addresses Teacher-Certification Questions States grapple with how to ensure the quality of online educators Education Week

Now that 40 states have virtual schools or initiatives in the works to open them, more attention is going to the skills particularly required of online teachers. Such teachers need to rely especially heavily on written communication, ensure academic integrity from afar, and not only be able to understand how new technological tools function, but also to use them in pedagogically sound ways.
But how should state education officials ensure that online teachers have those skills?
http://goo.gl/eGsCI

Arizona moves to explain tough education standards
(Phoenix) Arizona Republic

Two years after Arizona adopted tough new K-12 learning standards, state officials have finally launched an effort to explain to the public the dramatic changes being made in Arizona classrooms.
On Wednesday, Gov. Jan Brewer and Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal announced the launch of arizonacommoncore.org and an Arizona Public Engagement Task Force, both of which are expected to help spread the word about what educators term the Arizona Common Core Standards.
The new standards were introduced in Arizona kindergarten classes last year and began at the other grade levels at the start of this school year.
Two key changes the standards demand are that teachers present math and reading skills to students in more practical, hands-on ways and that they present material to students one grade earlier than before.
http://goo.gl/fUzq5

Dougco schools pass on ballot issue; vote to end talks with union Denver Post

CASTLE ROCK — The Douglas County School Board voted Wednesday night to end discussions with the union over the collective-bargaining agreement and to no longer pay union leaders’ salaries with public funds.
In addition, the board voted that the district is prohibited from collecting union dues from employee paychecks on the union’s behalf.
Originally, the board contemplated putting the issues on the November ballot but decided the measure would cost too much for actions on which the group could act on alone.
http://goo.gl/GveI0

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

UEN News
http://www.uen.org

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

September 13:
Utah State Charter School Board meeting
250 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City
http://1.usa.gov/Axtt5K

September 18:
Executive Appropriations Interim Committee meeting
1 p.m., 445 State Capitol
http://goo.gl/E0hoC

September 19:
Education Interim Committee meeting
2 p.m., 30 House Building
http://le.utah.gov/asp/interim/Commit.asp?Year=2012&Com=INTEDU

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