A study in the British Medical Journal shows that a structured school physical activity program can improve a child’s fitness and decrease body fat.

Researchers in Switzerland studied 540 seven and 11-year-olds in 15 schools over a nine month period that were randomly selected. Students underwent a physical activity program designed by experts that involved structuring their existing three physical education lessons and adding two extra lessons a week. The students were also given daily short activity breaks and physical activity homework.

The researchers reported a relative decrease in body fat, improved aerobic fitness, higher levels of in-school physical activity, smaller increases or larger reductions in body mass index (BMI), and lower cardiovascular risk in the intervention group.

BoardBuzz knows that physical activity is important to combat childhood obesity. Currently in the U.S., nearly one third of children and youth are overweight or obese. NSBA is addressing childhood obesity through our member state school boards associations and is working to provide local school boards with the information and tools they need to support school environments that address childhood obesity by fostering healthy eating and physical activity.

NSBA’s School Health Programs works with state associations and the federal government to develop policies that local school boards can adopt to support student health and has numerous resources on best practices physical activity programs and combating childhood obesity.

Last month, NSBA announced its support for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to combat widespread childhood obesity by to improving student nutrition and physical fitness.

With all that is going around in the world of education lately, this suggestion from Ohio popped up from among the edu-chatter.  A report from the Greater Ohio Policy Center and The Brookings Institution suggests that Ohio consolidate many of its school districts and reduce the number of districts in the state from 613 to somewhere around 400 instead. 

The justification is that Ohio spends far too much money on administrators and not enough in the classroom.  They suggest the state take on a “base-closing” examination, similar to what the military did to reduce the number of bases in the military and limit redundancies, with schools.  Of course, there is opposition to this idea, which got BoardBuzz thinking.

What if all states reduced the number of districts and consolidated, would there be a financial savings in the long run?  How much would the increased travel time that would be required to bus students longer distances cost?  What are the impacts on student achievement in schools where students spend long periods of time going to and from school?  Could this be something other states should consider?  We know that many districts have consolidated in the past (see NSBA’s resources), but would a state be able to make this change wholesale and pass it off as education reform?  It sounds like Ohio isn’t close to making this a reality, but it certainly got us thinking…

There has long been a debate over school vouchers in the U.S. , but many other countries have also been experimenting with vouchers. In Chile, vouchers have long been available to provide parents the opportunity to choose their child’s school regardless of ethnic or socioeconomic class, but recent research has shown that such programs may still be promoting segregation.

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education has posted research by Gregory Elacqua  on their website reviewing  school choice and segregation between public and private schools in Chile and among different private sectors. His research revealed that even with vouchers, private schools serve a lower proportion of vulnerable and indigenous children than public schools and among private schools, those for-profit were more likely to enroll vulnerable and indigenous students than non-profit private schools.

BoardBuzz finds this research from Chile interesting and hopes future research is done reviewing the effects of voucher programs around the world.  NSBA continues to oppose private school tuition tax credits and vouchers which divert funds from public schools in order to help subsidize the tuition of private and religious school students. For more information against vouchers, visit NSBA’s Voucher Strategy Center.

BoardBuzz read this excellent article in Education Week  on a nationwide study of teachers and their perspectives on the profession.  The “Teaching for a Living” study by Public Agenda and Learning Point identified three categories of teachers – “Contented,” “Disheartened,” and “Idealists” – and describes the differences between them. 

But when BoardBuzz looked at the questions and results here, what stood out is a key similarity between Disheartened and Idealist teachers. Both Disheartened and Idealists were motivated to go into teaching by the idea of putting underprivileged kids on the path to success – 73 percent of Disheartened teachers said it was either the most important or a major factor in their decision and 78 percent of Idealists responded similarly.  Only 56 percent of Contented teachers responded this way, by contrast.   

BoardBuzz wonders…if Idealists and Disheartened teachers are similarly motivated to begin with, what happens afterward to put them in such different places?  We noticed that 77 percent of  Idealists have been in the profession for 10 years or less, compared with only 21 percent of Disheartened teachers.  Do Idealists become Disheartened over time?  If so, what do respondents think will keep teachers motivated, effective and feeling valued? The respondents give us some clues:

- Career paths: Most respondents see teaching as a lifelong choice, but Idealists are more likely than others to see it as part of a career path in education. 

- Classroom supervision by experienced teachers is viewed by all groups as an effective strategy for improving teacher effectiveness.

- Ensuring technology is available in each classroom to aid instruction is highly valued by all groups, but most highly by the Idealists (97%). 

- Increasing teacher salaries to levels of other professional jobs such as lawyers or doctors – need we say more?

There is lots of other interesting information in the study – and more still to come. At least ten questions in the study are being held for later release, and BoardBuzz will let you know as soon as we do.

Do you see evidence of the three categories of teachers in your school district (Contented, Disheartened, and Idealist)?  What are some strategies to assure that all children have access to effective teaching?

BoardBuzz told you last year  — and the Center on Education Policy concurs — high achieving students are not being left behind. Last year BoardBuzz took issue with a Fordham Institute report’s conclusion that schools have been concentrating on low performing students at the expense of high achieving students since the implementation of NCLB. Fordham didn’t agree with BoardBuzz’s analysis but a new report by the Center on Education Policy called Is the Emphasis on “Proficiency” shortchanging our Low- and High-Achieving Students? concluded that there is “…no persuasive evidence that NCLB’s focus on proficiency is shortchanging students at the advanced or basic levels.”

Does this mean that that all high performing students are doing as well as they would have before NCLB? Of course not. But it does mean that despite NCLB’s punitive pass/fail system our schools are working hard to educate all students not just those nearing proficiency. However, as BoardBuzz has stated before and for which NSBA advocates, schools should get credit for how much their students’ have learned during the year via a growth model, instead of just on the percent of students reaching a certain score on their state assessment. By doing so, schools will get credit for the learning of all students across the achievement spectrum and not just those nearing proficiency.

Hopefully Congress will act quickly to approve the changes proposed by NSBA to create a much fairer accountability system for our public schools.

Results are in for the 2008 NAEP arts assessment. This is our first look in more than a decade at how much arts instruction our nation’s students receive and how well they know their art and with all the talk about the arts disappearing from our schools BoardBuzz has been quite anxious for the results.

BoardBuzz was (pleasantly) surprised to learn that our nation’s eighth graders are getting just as much arts instruction as they did back in 1997. However, there is room for improvment since just half of eighth graders nationwide have an arts class that meets at least three times a week. Furthermore, less than two in ten eighth graders have taken a school trip to an art museum or gallery to see works of art for themselves instead of in a textbook.

However, the most improvement needs to be made in closing the achievement gaps between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers. Unfortunately, achievement gaps are not just in academic subjects like math and reading.  The gaps in the NAEP arts scores are similar to those on NAEP’S math, reading, and science assessments as well.

Just as with other NAEP releases and other timely reports, you can get a full summary at the Center for Public Education.

The not-so-school-board-friendly education research publication, Education Next, recently featured this article where the authors claim that educating the public on how much money is actually spent on education decreases their support for increasing school funding. But is this really the case?

Taken on face value, this appears to be the case. But if you look closer at the numbers, you can see how the public really feels. The study found that 61 percent of the public who were not told how much their local districts spent per student were in favor of increasing funding for their local schools, but that support fell to 51 percent when respondents were told how much their local district spent. The authors take this as evidence that if the public was educated about how much is spent on education, support for increasing education funding would decrease. Keep in mind, however, that there was only a relatively small decline in support for increasing spending and there  was no increase in support for decreasing education spending. Furthermore, even when told how much schools spend, the majority of the public still believes schools should receive more funding.

Even so, telling people how much their district spends per student is not exactly educating the public about school funding. BoardBuzz would like to see another study done where the public is actually educated on where additional education funds would go and how that would help increase achievement of students in their districts. Such programs as universal pre-school and researched-based dropout prevention and recovery programs could save the taxpayers more money in the long run than it would cost to implement. BoardBuzz is quite certain results from that poll would be quite different.

School board members are well aware that more funding alone will not help students, but they know all too well that they need more funds  to implement programs and provide resources their educators need to meet the needs of all students in their district.

For more information on research based effective programs and how money is really spent ,visit the Center for Public Education. BoardBuzz also recommends you check out NSBA’s Economic Stimulus Resource Center to find out more about the additional funding schools are receiving from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In case you missed it America’s Promise Alliance-Colin Powell’s organization-recently released a report on the graduation rates of our nation’s largest cities. Although challenges remain for school districts serving these cities, progress is being made. Over the past decade graduation rates in the majority of these cities have increased. BoardBuzzwould like to give a special shout out to NSBA’s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) members in Philadelphia, Tucson, and Kansas City, MO which made the largest gains-over 20 percentage points- in graduation rates during this period. Keep up the good work!!

Of course even with these increases the report points out that our nation’s cities still have a ways to go to close the graduation rate gap with their suburban neighbors. While about three quarters (77 percent) of suburban students graduate high school on-time,  just over half (59 percent) of urban students do so. The report points out that narrowing this gap would not only increase future income for the individual graduate but would have a significant positive impact on the cities’ economies as a whole.

For more information on this report check out the Center for Public Education for a quick summary.

Yesterday, BoardBuzz reported new NAEP results showing that  U.S. students are continuing to make gains in reading and math. To our admittedly pro-public school mind, this is obviously good news. Yet judging by yesterday’s coverage, NAEP, which is also called ”the nation’s report card,” should more accurately be described as ”the nation’s Rorschach test.”

From the New York Times:

The achievement gap between white and minority students has not narrowed in recent years, despite the focus of the No Child Left Behind law on improving the scores of blacks and Hispanics …

Then the Washington Post says:

Math and reading scores for 9- and 13-year-olds have risen since the 2002 enactment of No Child Left Behind, providing fuel to those who want to renew the federal law and strengthen its reach in high schools.

Shouts FairTest:

NAEP RESULTS PRODUCE MORE EVIDENCE OF NCLB’S FAILURE

A more measured, but still gloomy headline from Education Week observes:

Older Students Less Successful on Math NAEP.

Holy Moly! No wonder Achieve was motivated to pronounce:

NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessments Show Mixed Results

BoardBuzz believes our readers can make their own judgments by looking at The Nation’s Report Card: 2008 Long-Term Trends for themselves. We think that, like us, you’ll find reason to applaud the hard work of our schools, teachers, and school kids.

BoardBuzz and many others have been concerned that with the focus on math and reading since the passage of NCLB, schools will be forced to squeeze out subjects like art. However, according to a recent study by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), for the vast majority of schools, BoardBuzz is happy to report, this is not the case. Specifically, 90 percent of elementary school teachers reported that the amount of time their schools offered for arts education has not changed. As a matter for fact four percent even said their school offered more time for arts education.

Unfortunately nearly seven percent of teachers did report a decrease in time devoted to arts education. Interestingly, these schools tended to serve large number of minority students and had been identified as ‘in need of improvement’ under NCLB. So concerns continue for BoardBuzz that some of our neediest students may not be getting the well-rounded education they deserve.  

BoardBuzz also recommends you check out our Center for Public Education to find out if  recess is in danger.