More school, less summer. That’s what the Obama Administration is advocating as a way to help students in the U.S. catch up academically with their counterparts in other countries who attend school as much as 30 percent longer, according to this Associated Press article.

In an interview with the AP, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he wants “to level the playing field” through extending the school year.

BoardBuzz thinks it’s a great idea to to lengthen the school year/day.  NSBA encourages school districts to partner with other educational entities and community organizations in developing extended learning opportunities, including summer programs, to improve students’ academic achievement.  However, school districts and schools cannot do this without adequate resources. As the AP article points out, extra learning time is not cheap.  Massaschusetts’ extended learning initiative, which adds 300 hours to the calendar in select public schools, cost an additional $1,300 per student.  Unfortunately, the increased cost of fuel last year and the economic downturn have prompted some school districts to adopt a 4-day school week, meaning longer but fewer days in class.

Besides, more school alone will not necessarily help improve academic achievement.  Research shows that the additional time must focus on instruction and learning or “time on task” in order to be effective.  Read NSBA’s Beliefs and Policies on extended learning opportunities here.

Should engineering be taught in schools? Could it become the proverbial fourth “R”: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Engineering? Well, a recent study from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) claims that teaching engineering in K-12 grades would not only boost interest in technical careers (global competitiveness), but would also improve all students’ problem-solving, systems-thinking, and teamwork skills (21st century skills). 

According to the Engineering News-Record though, very few schools actually offer engineering in their curriculum or have the faculty qualified to teach it.  “Engineering might be called the missing letter in STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] education,” says NAE.

ENR reports:

Alan G. Gomez, an engineering instructor at the University of Wisconsin and a member of the NAE report committee, coordinates engineering and technical education for public schools in Sun Prairie, Wis., near Madison. He cites challenges in getting school superintendents, curriculum coordinators and principals to understand and adopt engineering instruction. “It’s not really tested in schools,” he says. In the district’s high school engineering program, in which Gomez also teaches, students design and build prototype racing cars. “Engineering students can attack problems with a higher consistency than other students and carry out thought processes from concept to design more frequently,” he says. Gomez is now hoping to develop the district’s program for use nationwide and eventually in other countries.

“Problem-solving, systems thinking and teamwork aspects of engineering can benefit all students, whether or not they ever pursue an engineering career,” says Linda Katehi, chancellor of the University of California, Davis and chair of the NAE committee that authored the report. “A K-12 education that does not include at least some exposure to engineering is a lost opportunity for students and for the nation.”

Among the committee’s recommendations are:

• National Science Foundation or U.S. Department of Education fund research to determine how science inquiry and mathematical reasoning can be connected to engineering design in curricula and professional development;
• foundations and federal agencies with an interest in K-12 engineering education conduct long-term research to confirm and refine findings of studies of the impacts of engineering education;
• American Society of Engineering Education begin a national dialogue on preparing K-12 engineering teachers, and on the pros and cons of establishing a formal credentialing process; and
• philanthropic foundations or federal agencies with an interest in STEM education and school reform identify models of implementation for K-12 engineering education that will work for different American school systems.

BoardBuzz is intrigued. Do you think engineering in your curriculum would benefit your students? Do you currently offer classes in engineering? Let us know.

BoardBuzz was pleased to see this op-ed from president of the New Jersey School Boards Association and member of the South Brunswick Board of Education, Harry J. Delgado, on the role parents need to play in preventing the spread of H1N1 in schools.    

According to Delgado, the health and welfare of schoolchildren is the paramount concern of school officials who have been preparing for the onset of the H1N1 flu, and have been working with teachers, doctors, school nurses and health experts at the state, county, and local levels.  For BoardBuzz, all of that is essential given that young people have been one of the groups worst hit by this virus. 

But for Delgado, to combat this flu effectively, schools will need a key partner: parents.  As a parent himself, he says that the flexibility and understanding of parents will play a crucial role during these difficult times.  BoardBuzz agrees  – parents are those who teach basic health concepts and they are the ones who can support and reinforce any health habits children acquire at school. 

Some of the messages Delgado thinks parents can reinforce: wash your hands; cover your mouth when coughing; and limit social contact, and stay at home if you’re sick.  BoardBuzz goes beyond these recommendations to say that it is also important to follow the new “on the sleeve” coughing and sneezing fad as seen in this video we posted awhile back. 

Yes, folks, H1N1 is here and experts think that the cold weather might prompt it to spread easily and quickly.  In combating this virus, all of us will have a role to play.

Do your schools need an easy-to-access resource on H1N1?  Check out NSBA’s School Health Programs H1N1 webpage.  It includes relevant resources, tools, and information that are essential for schools to: prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus and track its incidence; plan for and manage a flu outbreak; report school closings; better understand the role of schools serving as H1N1 vaccination sites; and stay abreast of the latest news and guidance related to the virus.

No, it’s not a new game show. It’s real life.

Our friends at the Center for Public Education, have examined how automation – turning tasks over to a computer — is continuing to eliminate jobs. (Ticket agent? Factory worker? Anyone?) If a task can be simplified into a routine with one specific right answer, a computer can often do it more effectively and efficiently than a human.

Don’t worry. People are still better at figuring out complex problems and proposing creative solutions where there is no one right answer. But preparing students to do that means making sure they know how to do more than follow a set of directions. Read the CPE’s 21st century education report to get a practical, real-world look at the kinds of curriculum that has been shown to help them do that.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has spent much of this week talking about his priorities for the No Child Left Behind reauthorization, and he made two things clear in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor: The best ideas probably aren’t going to come from Washington, and the name’s gotta go. In a speech to education and civil rights groups leaders, USA Today reports that Duncan asked them to put aside “tired ideas” and build a new law that focuses on getting “great teachers and principals into underperforming schools” and finding better data to measure student growth, drive instruction and evaluate teachers.

In other stories featured in School Board News Today this week:

• The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governor’s Association have released a draft of common core standards for math and language arts. And while the initiative is groundbreaking, the draft standards have a lot of common ground with some others developed by education groups over the years.
• In the neverending coverage of the H1N1 flu, the federal government says older children will only need one shot of the newly developed vaccine, while younger children still need two. The school nurse shortage, meanwhile, is hurting schools’ efforts to control the virus.
• A school counselor shortage, meanwhile, has sent thousands of high school students to the internet for information on college admissions.
• And an Associated Press investigation found that the drinking water in thousands of schools across the country may have unsafe levels of toxins.

Read these stories and more in School Board News Today’s weekly wrap-up. And check out the round-up of education headlines each day at School Board News.

BoardBuzz was interested to learn of Samsung’s Four Season of Hope contest that New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning is supporting. Manning, the Giants’ nominee to be the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award in 2007 and 2008 for his off-field contributions, kicked off the start of the Four Seasons of Hope contest last week.

Over the past five years, Hope for Education has provided millions of dollars in Samsung technology and Microsoft software to more than 270 K-12 schools across the United States in an effort to reduce the technology gap within our education system. 

The contest asks children to submit 100-word essays on a given topic. This year’s essay topic focuses on the following:

Despite the rapid growth of new technologies, many schools do not have the tools and equipment they need to properly educate their students. So we want to know, how the consumer electronics, computer equipment and software awarded through Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope could benefit your school? Essays should focus on:

1. How consumer electronics, computer equipment, and software can enhance the education process.
2. How access to these technologies and the use of social networking can change the way that students learn.
3. The unique and innovative teaching methods that are enabled by computer and consumer electronics technologies.

At stake is the chance to win top-notch tech gear and cash grants supplied by Samsung and program partners Microsoft, DIRECTV and Best Buy. Entries are due November 1st.

The Technology Leadership Network understands that sometimes there just isn’t any spare money in the budget to cover extras that would give your science programs the excitement needed to keep the attention of today’s student.  Now is a great time to take advantage of online science resources that are available to the public for free.   Listed below are a few motivating science- focused resources to make use of today.

One great way to keep an eye on incoming asteroids and comets is to check out the new Asteroid Watch web page created by NASA which just recently debuted.  You can actually track flybys with the help of an Asteroid Watch widget.  Incoming asteroids have been known to grab anybody’s attention!

Need a resource for an engagement activity in an Earth Science class?  How about The Ten Most Spectacular Geologic Sites in the Continental United States as selected by Smithsonian Magazine Online.  It’s like a trip around the world without ever having to leave the classroom.

Studying volcanic activity in the classroom?  Check out Oregon State University’s Volcano World website where you can click on an interactive map to discover the location of volcanoes around the world.   Or log on to YouTube for a catchy little tune like Explosive Volcanic Eruptions that will get your students singing their newly learned knowledge of volcanoes to their family and friends.

Looking for funds to cover the cost of resources?  Join the webinar on the Latest Information From Capitol Hill, A Special Report.  This webinar will help explain the Race to the Top funds and how they can be applied to Science education in your district.  The Webinar, hosted by NSBA’s Technology Leadership Network, takes place on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT to find out how the U.S. Department of Education is preparing to disseminate education technology funds from the ARRA and how to issue applications for new “Race to the Top” funds.   Registration is free for TLN participants

And if you’ll be at T+L this October you will have the chance to learn about S.T.E.M opportunities that engage your students and increase their excitement about science and technology!  Below is a short list of some of the featured S.T.E.M sessions that will be available to attendees at T+L: 

• TEAMS: Connecting the Dots across S.T.E.M. and the Arts
• Putting an Extra E in S.T.E.M.: Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math into the ELEMENTARY Classroom
• S.T.E.M. on Stage: Blending Fine Arts, Science, Math, and Technology
• Sharing Stories: International K-12 Student S.T.E.M. Projects
• Science and Math Alive: Raising Student Motivation Through Collaborative Projects
• The Virtual Learning Magnet for Space Science and Mathematics: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

We hope to see you there!  And remember if you haven’t registered yet, it’s not too late!  Register now!!

BoardBuzz wants to share some exciting news regarding E-Rate!  The interactive portion of the Universal Service Fund was restored on schedule early last week.  The Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) website, permits the online filing of most forms and provides access to various databases. The restoration of this site permits the online filing of most forms and provides access to various databases. The online resources were shut down September 1, to permit an upgrade of the SLD’s critical database systems.

SLD makes discounts available to eligible schools and libraries for telecommunication services, Internet access, and internal connections. In August, the Federal Communications Commission proposed rules that would expand the types of eligible services under the E-rate program. NSBA is concerned that this action could put additional pressure on the fund, and is working within the EdLiNC coalition to formally comment on the rules by the September 18, deadline. For more information visit NSBA’s E-Rate Center.

Pre-K-12 advocates have much to celebrate with the passage of the $87 billion higher education bill in the House last week.  The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, H.R. 3221, contains $8 billion for an Early Learning Challenge Fund for eight years and $4 billion in school repair and modernization, see NSBA’s update on legislative action here.

Thanks to NSBA’s grassroots members who contacted their House of Representatives urging them to support the bill. NSBA is now working with the Senate to pass the same initiative.

Do you remember the documentary from a few years ago titled, Two Million Minutes, where the crew followed two American suburban students and compared them to their peers in India and China (two students privileged enough to be in school in those countries, but BoardBuzz won’t get into that topic now)?  It got a lot of attention in education circles.  To sum up the film in a broad generalization, the American students came off as aloof about their education, and the students in China and India were devoted and serious about being educated.

A sequel has been completed now, and eSchool News covered it here.  The second film zooms its lens on a charter school in Arizona that apparently has all of the solutions to education’s problems (are you noticing a trend?).  BASIS Charter School starts AP classes in the fifth grade and follows the College Board’s curriculum in all core subjects.  It pays teachers to stay and gives them bonuses for students who score well on AP exams. 

It’s an interesting concept that has been played out in other parts of the country as well.  Charter schools are being given a lot of credit in urban areas for doing good things, but the biggest critique is that all students aren’t served in charter schools, only those selected to be there.  The film shows poverty-stricken children performing well on assessments, which everyone wants to see more often.  High standards are always a key in urban districts and if you’ve ever attended on of NSBA’s CUBE (Council of Urban Boards of Education) conferences, you’ve heard this over and over again.  So it’s no wonder that major business leaders say things like this:

All of the education experts interviewed in Compton’s film agreed that American children have the ability to improve their overall performance in school.

 

“I think that the children in the United States are capable of so much more than we ask of them. They are incredibly smart. They are so smart that they see exactly how high you set the bar, and that’s about all they’re willing to go normally,” said former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, adding that if the standards are increased, students will meet them:

“We’ve just been afraid as a society to raise the level of expectation. These kids could do it. Kids at BASIS [Charter] School are taking on high school [courses]. They’re doing it in middle school. Those are not specially selected kids. It’s the same demographics as the rest of the universe. Why don’t we just accept that they can do it, and accept that as a society we need them to do it if we want to be competitive?”

If it’s that simple, what’s stopping us?