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June 20, 2008

Rudy Crew Speaks to CUBE

Dr. Rudy Crew, Miami-Dade's superintendent, spoke to a packed room at CUBE's Issues Seminar this morning in Miami. As the country's fourth largest district and the winner of last year's CUBE Award for Excellence, Dr. Crew spent time discussing the innovative style he's brought to Miami-Dade and the sometimes difficult choices that have to be made to benefit the children of the district. "We have to look at the way we look at children. It's not about yesterday's assumption base to define the children of today. It starts with belief," he said.

The theme of CUBE's Issues Seminar this year is Parent and Community Involvement. Miami-Dade's Parent Academy devotes resources and a tremendous staff to helping parents and community leaders work with the schools to help children learn. Dr. Crew echoed the program's mission by pushing those in attendance to use the community as an asset and to help build the relationships that are going to help students achieve. "It's all about the kids and moving the energies of success to get to the end zone."

With over 300,000 students, Miami-Dade has looked at new ways to work with students to improve their achievement and find answers to tough questions about how students learn, their reading and math scores, and alternatives to traditional schooling methods. Dr. Crew stressed the building of a community saying, "Build a bridge from your aspirations into practicality. That's 21st century learning."

His message today was primarily about his experience as superintendent in Miami-Dade and in New York City, but Dr. Crew was quick to point out that regardless of the size of the district, whether it was less than 5 or 10,000 all the way up to the largest districts in the county, "it's all about keeping the conversation about children and achievement." If it were that simple all the time, many of our educational woes would be behind us.

Abandon the SAT?

While the thought might bring joy to high school students everywhere, it's not quite happening yet. Studies (see here and here) find that SAT scores are no better predictors of college success than high school grades. Critics of the SAT point to the results of these studies to show that the SAT is an unnecessary financial and emotional burden on students. However, the College Board, creator of the SAT, says the studies show that combining the results from the SAT with a student's high school grades provides a stronger prediction of college success than either piece of data separately.

BoardBuzz isn't a huge fan of standardized tests and certainly didn't enjoy taking the SAT back in high school, but getting rid of the SAT may be a bit premature. Getting into college is no easy task nowadays and the SAT and other college admissions tests provide another way for students to demonstrate they are indeed ready to succeed in college. This is especially true for students who may have struggled for a time in high school where their grades may not truly reflect their true ability. Just as standardized testing should be used, the SAT is just one tool college admissions officers rely on to determine if a student should be accepted into their school.

And while we're on our soapbox, BoardBuzz would also like to point out that Congress should take note that test scores are just one measure of student achievement. So, when it comes to grading schools for accountability schools should be not be judged solely on test scores but on multiple measures of student performance like grades and student projects. By doing so, the public will be given a much more accurate picture of their local schools.

For more information about high stakes testing check out the Center for Public Education's Guide to Standards and Testing.

Posted at 12:58 AM | Advocacy & Legislation | Link to this story | Comments (0)

June 19, 2008

Too much energy

Having energy in the classroom is great and BoardBuzz loves for students and teachers to be enthusiastic about learning. Yet, when this energy is the result of gulping down sugary drinks, BoardBuzz isn't so sure that these energy drinks should have a place in the school environment.

It looks like some New Jersey districts agree. According to the The Star Ledger, some New Jersey schools are trying to steer students away from downing energy drinks and consuming extra caffeine. A middle school principal in Hillsborough recently barred students from drinking energy drinks on school grounds and a Manville high school sent home a letter to parents advising them to be mindful of the caffeine these drinks have.

No state-wide bans have been set, but BoardBuzz is pleased that some districts are putting school health as a priority. Craig Stevens of the American Beverage Association, said that energy drinks are designated for adults and reminded that each drink has about 10 milligrams of caffeine per ounce...which is more than double that soft drinks have!

We've covered the efforts of schools to reduce sugary drinks and snacks, and increase healthy options before (here, here, and here).

Have energy drinks become a problem in your school district? Let BoardBuzz know how you are keeping kids enthusiastic, without all the extra caffeine.

Posted at 11:42 AM | Health & Wellness | Link to this story | Comments (0)

Would you pay $700,000 to chaperone your child’s field trip?

Parent chaperones generally have enough to worry about on a field trip, from maintaining basic order to keeping kids safe. A recent trend of court decisions may add personal liability to the list of chaperones’ concerns—and may come at such an outrageous price tag as to deter many parents from volunteering. The Associated Press reported a recent court decision ordering a parent chaperone to pay $690,000 to the parents of an 18-year-old high school student, Lauren Crossan, who died from falling off a balcony on a cheerleading trip to Hawaii.

In another case, a parent chaperoning a dance was sued when a student broke his nose while dancing. Luckily, the PTA had liability insurance. Such liability insurance is increasingly common, since, like most things schools do, chaperoning comes with some amount of risk. But there also seems to be an undertone of a litigious American society.

James Krueger, who represented the student’s family and has handled many other cases of children injured while under someone else’s supervision, stated: “If you’re a good parent, you’re not going to have problems. If you’re a crappy parent, you are.” But sometimes even being the best parent is not enough to stop a child from making a poor decision or prevent every possible injury a child may receive. Most parents have probably been in the emergency room with a child with a broken bone at least once—that doesn’t make them bad parents.

NSBA's own Lisa Soronen weighed in as well.

Sometimes it takes an event like the Crossan lawsuit draw attention to a potential risk, said Lisa Soronen, a senior staff attorney with National School Board Association in Alexandria, Va.

"Many parents do chaperone and don't think a think about it for a second," she said. "Almost everything a school does involves some amount of risk."

The key is to work with the school or sponsoring organization to reduce the risks, Soronen said. Students and chaperones should be made aware of the expectations while on a trip, she said.

How does your school district handle chaperones? Leave us a comment and tell us what you think.

June 18, 2008

Classroom technology: room for improvement

According to a study released last week by the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), educators are optimistic about the impact of technology on student achievement. However, the findings from the study show that technology is "woefully inadequate" in most classrooms.

1,934 public school educators participated in the survey, 90.4 percent of whom were classroom teachers (The margin of error on results was ±3 percent.) Educators participating in the survey consisted only of instructional personnel. The survey sample was randomly selected from members of the NEA and members of the AFT.

The key findings from the report:

Access to Technology and Support
Findings for technology access and support indicate that although schools had accumulated technology hardware for students’ use, it was not adequate in most schools to meet the demands of classroom instruction. Further, many teachers still believed that their access to instructional software and technical support was not adequate.
Finding 1.
The number of computers in public school classrooms was not adequate to use computers effectively for classroom instruction, and the classroom was not the main location in school where most students used computers. More than half of public school educators had no more than two computers available for students’ use in their classroom or primary work area, and that level of access was inadequate for educators to use computers effectively in classroom instruction. Educators in elementary schools had more computers inside the classrooms for students’ use, whereas secondary schools had more computers in the technology labs. Secondary schools had more laptops available for short-term use in the classroom when necessary.

Finding 2.
Most of the educators believed that their own access to technology at school was adequate to do their job, but they reported receiving little support for technology access outside of school. Whereas rural/small town educators were least likely to receive support for personal technology, urban educators were most likely to be provided with a laptop computer for work purposes inside and outside of school, and they were as likely as suburban educators to receive assistance to purchase a computer for home. Educators in secondary schools were less likely than those in elementary schools to believe that their own access to technology was sufficient to do their jobs effectively.

Finding 3.
Access to the Internet and instructional software at school was adequate for most educators, but technical assistance and support in using the equipment and software were often inadequate. The software and condition of the equipment in urban schools was likely to be less adequate, compared with suburban and rural/small town schools, and technical support for using the equipment and software was less adequate in urban schools. Elementary educators were less likely to be satisfied with the software for their students, and they were less likely to have access to high-speed Internet connections for their students.

Technology Training
Results show that the training educators receive on using technology has been more effective for administrative tasks than for instruction and that training has been more accessible to educators in certain demographic groups.

Finding 4.
School districts required professional development in technology for the majority of educators, but most educators believed that their training had been more effective for noninstructional tasks. Educators with the most job experience were more likely to participate in technology training and more likely to believe that their training was adequate, but less experienced educators were more satisfied with their knowledge of technology and its impact on their own jobs. Urban school educators were the least likely to receive adequate training to use technology, particularly in using administrative and instructional software and in designing individual lessons for students. Educators in middle schools were more satisfied with their technology training than educators at any other school level.

Use of Technology
Both educators’ and students’ use of technology for instruction has been limited in scope and
infrequent.

Finding 5.
Despite educators’ limited access to technology training, computers and the Internet were the leading technologies used in public schools, rendering certain other types of technology nearly obsolete. Educators in elementary schools were the most likely to have used other types of technologies at school recently (e.g., videos, compact discs, and cable and satellite television), and educators in urban schools were the least likely.

Finding 6.
Most educators used technology regularly at school for administrative tasks, but substantially fewer used it for instruction-related tasks. Educators with less experience were more likely than educators with more experience to use technology for instructional purposes. Urban school educators used computers much less frequently than did other educators for both administrative and instructional tasks.

Finding 7.
About half of the educators required their students to use technology at school for individual research and problem solving, but only a few educators reported that they required their students to use computers regularly. Only one-third of educators reported that they required their students to use computers at least a few times a week.

Perceptions of Technology
Most educators have positive perceptions about the value of technology for teaching and learning.

Finding 8.
Most educators surveyed were highly optimistic about the impact of technology on their jobs and on their students, and they considered technology essential to teaching and learning. Most believed that technology had improved students’ motivation for learning. Educators in suburban schools were the least positive about the impact of technology on teaching and learning. Educators in secondary schools were less likely than elementary educators to be satisfied with their students’ reliance on technology.

Finding 9.
Educators asserted that their unions or education associations should be more involved in advocacy for technology, particularly regarding increased funding and more equitable distribution of technology in schools. Educators displayed notable differences in their perspectives on their union’s or education association’s involvement based on their level of experience and certain school characteristics. Urban educators believed their union or education association should help advocate for more equitable technology across schools. Less experienced educators overwhelmingly believed that their Associations should advocate for more technology funding. Mid-career educators were not as optimistic about the effectiveness of their Associations’ advocacy in this area. Finally, secondary school educators were the least likely to want their Associations to advocate for technology.

The complete report, including demographics, discussions, and data can be downloaded in PDF format from the NEA website.

Posted at 11:41 AM | Education Technology | Teachers | Link to this story | Comments (0)

NCLB Plan B: Stop the sanctions

Email, write, call, fax . . .

NSBA is asking grassroots advocates to urge their congressional representatives to co-sponsor H.R. 6239, which would freeze NCLB sanctions on schools and school districts for a year until Congress reauthorizes the law. Click here to read the rationale and talking points for H.R. 6239, sponsored by Rep. Sam Graves, R-MO, and co-sponsored by Rep. Tim Walz, D-MN.

In the absence of congressional action on NCLB, NSBA endorsed the bipartisan bill because it will offer temporary relief for schools while giving Congress some extra time to fix the law. The focus now is to drum up the bipartisan support for H.R. 6239 through co-sponsorship so that it raises enough concerns to move the bill forward.

Some civil rights groups have opposed the bill—see Charlie Barone's blog here—saying it would eliminate accountability for public schools. But H.R. 6239 is an interim solution, not a replacement for reauthorization. It would "stop" and "freeze" only further escalation of sanctions while the feds get their act together—it would not erase any current identification of schools or ongoing interventions. Like these civil rights groups, NSBA supports what NCLB intends to do with accountability, but it also recognizes the current statute is not the right tool to achieve the desired results.

Posted at 10:23 AM | No Child Left Behind | Link to this story | Comments (3)

June 17, 2008

Much ado about D.C. vouchers

Lots happening with the only federally funded private school voucher program. Today a House appropriations subcommittee will vote on the Washington, D.C. appropriations bill that could include an increase to $18 million for the city's private school voucher program. That program, created as a 5-year pilot program, is set to expire in September and reauthorization of it is unlikely. However, President Bush wants to increase funding for it, while the city's lone Congressional Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton opposes continuing it. See her column from today's Washington Post.

Meantime, the latest research on the program, despite the U.S. Department of Education's attempt to spin it otherwise, again finds no overall differences in academic achievement between students using vouchers and their public school peers in Washington. The full 174-page report can be found here.

As NSBA told Education Week, “The key finding is that there are no statistically significant differences overall in academic achievement between the two groups of students. This is the second straight year in a row with those findings. The alleged rationale for the program was improved student achievement. The voucher program, like others before it, has come up short."

Despite proponents' spin, the report's executive summary does not bury the lead. It's right there in the first point of the executive summary: "After 2 years, there was no statistically significant difference in test scores in general between students who were offered an OSP scholarship and students who were not offered a scholarship. Overall, those in the treatment and control groups were performing at comparable levels in mathematics and reading."

Washington Post coverage is here.

NSBA's letter to the subcommittee is here. And for more on this and other Hill activity this week, check out NSBA's Advocacy highlights.

Posted at 12:21 PM | Advocacy & Legislation | Privatization & Choice | Link to this story | Comments (1)

Checking in with education leaders

For the past couple of months, BoardBuzz has commended the Learning First Alliance for their engaging interviews with education professionals, leaders, and celebrities that help to keep us up-to-date on the most recent education news. Now, we are reliving the excitement as Public School Insights has recently added the transcripts from the interviews we have enjoyed so much.

If you missed them the first time, take a minute and read about these interesting developments that Public School Insights has shared:

Best-selling author Dave Eggers tells us about his plans for a documentary on the professional lives of teachers;

Teacher Simon Hauger describes how he and his students at urban West Philadelphia High School created the world's first high-performance hybrid car;

World-record breaking polar explorer Will Steger talks about the importance of environmental education

Fitness guru Richard Simmons shares his plan to get physical education into American public schools

Principal Tamala Newsome tells us about her groundbreaking green public school in Portland.

BoardBuzz is happy to enjoy them again and hopes you find the time to check them out and share what you think. Special thanks to the Learning First Alliance for always keeping us informed!

Posted at 9:16 AM | Announcements | Link to this story | Comments (0)

June 16, 2008

Student leaders leading

Our friends at the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the National Association of Student Councils are gearing up for a big meeting next week. The NASC National Conference will be held in Ft. Worth, for more than 1,000 student leaders.

According to a press release that BoardBuzz received about the event,

Students will participate in community service projects, team-building activities and various workshops to help enhance their abilities to effectively utilize their voices as student leaders.

One of the highlights of this year’s four and a half day conference will be a mass Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training of the student leaders conducted by local nurses, firemen, EMTs, military personnel and a host of other emergency responders, including staff from the Greater Dallas chapter of the American Heart Association. Proper administration of CPR can help save the life of an individual suffering from cardiac arrest. This training will empower students with the skills that they may one day need to answer such a call to action.

During the event-filled conference, students will also get some political insight from Ken Walsh, one of the country’s top political writers and Young Republicans and Young Democrats from universities in the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth area. Walsh, the chief White House correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, has covered the presidency, presidential campaigns and national politics since 1986. Students will participate in a mock presidential election on Saturday.

Sounds like a great opportunity to us! Are student leaders from your district heading to Texas to participate in the conference? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Posted at 3:00 PM | Students | Link to this story | Comments (0)

What ever happened to "A job well done is its own reward?"

And why does BoardBuzz sound like someone's mom? This isn't entirely new-- we've all gotten some candy or a pizza party at school for work well done or reaching a goal in the classroom, haven't we? Call BoardBuzz a Grinch, but maybe some places are going too far by rewarding what should be an expectation-- that all students do their very best...

According to NPR this morning (and an article we saw as well), "Schools, under pressure to boost student achievement, are offering more frequent, tangible incentives to motivate students. At the KIPP DC KEY Academy in Washington, D.C., students are rewarded on Fridays at the Academy for behaving well, doing their homework or making academic gains. Rewards include "paychecks", which can be used at the school's store for genuine items, and wearing jeans on Fridays.

In New York, about 5,500 students can earn money for getting good test scores. The program is open to fourth-graders, who can earn up to $250 a year, and seventh-graders, who can end the year with $500 in the bank. "We'll soon give out over $1 million to fourth- and seventh-graders this year," said Roland Fryer, a Harvard University economist leading the experiment. He said he is happy with the results so far."

Proponents and opponents both, what do you think? Should financial incentives, real or imagined, play a role in the student achievement struggle.?

Posted at 10:56 AM | Miscellany | Students | Link to this story | Comments (0)