By Valerie Strauss

This was written by John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew professor of education at New York University.

By John H. Jackson and Pedro Noguera

If it takes a village to raise a child, the same village must [...]]]> From the Washington Post:

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew professor of education at New York University.

By John H. Jackson and Pedro Noguera

If it takes a village to raise a child, the same village must share accountability when many children are educationally abandoned. In New York City, the nation’s largest school system, on average student outcomes and their opportunity to learn are more determined by the neighborhood where a child lives, than his or her abilities.

A new Schott Foundation for Public Education report, “A Rotting Apple: Education Redlining in New York City,” reveals that the communities where most of the city’s poor, black and Hispanic students live suffer from New York policies and practices that give their schools the fewest resources and their students the least experienced teachers. In contrast, the best-funded schools with the highest percentage of experienced teachers are most often located in the most economically advantaged neighborhoods.

Schott’s new report documents gaps that have not only long been accepted in New York City but are also institutionalized by city and state policies.

The report finds that a black or Hispanic student is nearly four times more likely to be enrolled in one of the city’s poorest performing high schools than an Asian or white, non-Hispanic student. According to review of 2009-10 data, none of the city’s strongest schools are located in the poorest neighborhoods of Harlem, the South Bronx, and central Brooklyn. Schools with the highest scores are found in northeastern Queens, the and the Upper East Side. As a result of New York City policies, black, Latino and low-income students have very limited access to those schools.

Districts with higher poverty rates have fewer highly educated, experienced teachers and less stable teaching staffs. Students from low-income New York City families of all ethnic groups have little chance of being tested for gifted-and-talented program eligibility. Few black and Hispanic students are selected for the city’s top exam schools, such as Stuyvesant and the Bronx High School of Science.

The real outrage, then, is not our vivid language but how education in New York City is more likely to reinforce existing patterns of inequality than to serve as a pathway to opportunity. It is as if New York is testing black, Latino and poor students on their swimming abilities after knowingly relegating them to pools where the water has been drained. These students are then stigmatized as failures, their parents labeled as less than fully engaged, and their teachers called ineffective. Ultimately, their community’s schools are closed rather than being supplied with the necessary resources and supports to flourish. One cannot ignore the impact of such policies and practices on the public image of blacks and Latinos males and the profiling that exists in our society.

Under these circumstances it is reasonable for parents to call for no more tests and reject the closure of their neighborhood schools that have been drained of resources, for students to walk out, and for parents to seek to enroll their students in better schools even when district laws don’t permit them to do so.

Yes, some schools in high-poverty, high-minority areas perform well, but not nearly enough to say that New York City is offering all students a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. Even in the days of legal, state-sponsored segregation, some students and schools were able to swim upstream against a current of inequality. This should not cause us to be any more accepting of bad policies. We should not forget that many more students, schools and good teachers are drowning because of policies that exacerbate racial and wealth inequities.

Parents, teachers, and political leaders must reject long-standing practices that undermine students’ opportunity to learn in the city’s most neglected communities. In their place, they must advocate for genuine reforms, which will assure equitable access to good schools and programs.

As a first step, New York State should restore funding for education equity that was dramatically reduced over the past two years. Recent cuts have undermined the ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s lawsuit that the state must provide a “sound basic education” to all children.

At the same time, the city’s Department of Education should direct additional resources to schools based on student needs. Schools serving children from homes with fewer resources should receive significantly more per-student funding than those serving students in wealthier neighborhoods.

Every kindergarten student should take the gifted-and-talented program test to identify talent at an early age. Similarly, all middle schools should offer the courses necessary for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. Tutoring should be offered to low-income students so they can do their best on these crucial gatekeeper exams.

Finally, every school should conduct an “opportunity audit” to determine if they are offering each student a fair and substantive opportunity to learn.

The New York City public school system is the biggest apple on the U.S. education tree. By enforcing policies that aggressively dismantle educational inequality — rather than reinforce educational redlining — many more students can thrive in our classrooms, our labor force, and our democracy.

-0-

Would you rather have an academically successful kid who can’t quite handle life’s social and emotional challenges or an average student able to deal with success and failure with equal aplomb?

Most of us probably hope for the whole package: a caring, well-adjusted child who works hard in school and strives to [...]]]> From Bethesda Magazine.com:

Would you rather have an academically successful kid who can’t quite handle life’s social and emotional challenges or an average student able to deal with success and failure with equal aplomb?

Most of us probably hope for the whole package: a caring, well-adjusted child who works hard in school and strives to be a good person. But by focusing too much on achieving academic success, we and our kids may have lost our way.

So how do we refocus on developing the whole child?

By promoting social and emotional learning at home and at school, says Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr, who hosted a forum on the topic Thursday night at Walt Whitman High School.

more

To earn a teaching license in most states, candidates must pass a handful of exams — largely multiple-choice — that test basic skills and knowledge of specific subjects. Some states also include tests that focus on teaching strategies. One state, Montana, requires no tests at all, just graduation from a teaching [...]]]> From the Hechinger Report:

To earn a teaching license in most states, candidates must pass a handful of exams — largely multiple-choice — that test basic skills and knowledge of specific subjects. Some states also include tests that focus on teaching strategies. One state, Montana, requires no tests at all, just graduation from a teaching program.

This pathway to the classroom has long been called into question. Now, 25 states — including Minnesota — are preparing to test a brand-new assessment that will judge teachers-to-be on how they work with real students. As policymakers and reformers across the country push to make America’s teaching force more effective, developers of the so-called Teacher Performance Assessment hope it will provide a much-needed overhaul to the process of certifying who’s ready to take charge of a classroom

more

Harvard University announced today that it is joining MIT in offering free online courses—and that the two institutions will together spend $60 million on a project that will grant certificates of completion to those who finish a Harvard or MIT course online.

The universities will also make their courses available at [...]]]> From the Hechinger Report:

Harvard University announced today that it is joining MIT in offering free online courses—and that the two institutions will together spend $60 million on a project that will grant certificates of completion to those who finish a Harvard or MIT course online.

The universities will also make their courses available at no cost to other providers, which is likely to continue the growth of organizations that offer free online higher education. They will also use the courses to test new ways of providing online education, including to their own students, which could reduce the demands on faculty time and classroom space.
more

At a crowded County Council budget hearing Monday night, Anne Arundel schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell asked those in the auditorium who had come to voice support for public education to stand.

Nearly everyone stood, joining those already standing along walls and in corners at Old Mill High School in Millersville.

The [...]]]> From the Baltimore Sun: 

At a crowded County Council budget hearing Monday night, Anne Arundel schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell asked those in the auditorium who had come to voice support for public education to stand.

Nearly everyone stood, joining those already standing along walls and in corners at Old Mill High School in Millersville.

The second of two public hearings on County Executive John R. Leopold’s proposed operating and capital budgets went more than three and a half hours on Monday night, focusing mainly on education, as many parents, teachers and students voiced support for their particular schools, advocating for items requested in the school board’s budget proposal.

  School system and government officials testified as well, including Kurt Svendsen, Anne Arundel’s acting budget officer, who said that 51.7 percent of the proposed budget “goes to support the board of education’s initiatives.” He reiterated what Leopold has long stated, that the budget proposal funds all of the school board’s requests except pay raises.

Svendsen then enumerated the items covered in Leopold’s capital budget and drew applause when he said that it included funding for projects at Lothian Elementary School and Severna Park High School.

But Maxwell testified that Leopold’s proposal “violates the law by failing — for the second consecutive year — to provide $12 million in additional funding required by the state’s maintenance of effort law.”

The state requires counties to fund per-pupil spending in an upcoming year at the same — or higher — level as the previous year.

“This has been the subject of much of our discussion with this council to date,” Maxwell said, “and it is the county executive’s actions that have put this council in a very difficult predicament.”

Maxwell acknowledged that Leopold’s proposed budget funds most of the school board’s request save pay raises, but added, “Let me say very clearly that I believe our employees deserve pay raises – just like employees of the police, fire and health departments, the library system, and those elsewhere in county government deserve pay raises.”

His comments drew loud applause.

Among those who testified on behalf of their schools were members of the parent association of Edgewater Elementary, which has been the subject of discussion in recent months over air quality concerns.

Jenny Corkill, Edgewater Elementary PTA president, requested Edgewater Elementary be put in the 2013 capital budget feasibility study. “We have been neglected for too long,” she said.

Before the budget hearing, scores of teachers gathered at the front of Old Mill High carrying placards that read, “Respect” and “Support Our Schools.”

“We would like a secure funding source for Anne Arundel County schools,” said teachers’ union President Tim Mennuti. “We believe that there are monies there that can be used, and they need to be used in the most economical fashion, and they need to do what’s best for everybody.”

joseph.burris@baltsun.com

Maryland Sen. James Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat, said he wants Dance to examine restoring positions at high schools, [...]]]> From the Baltimore Sun:
Baltimore County parents and legislators will ask incoming schools Superintendent Dallas Dance to consider putting more teachers in high schools, where class sizes have swelled since positions were eliminated a year ago.

Maryland Sen. James Brochin, a Baltimore County Democrat, said he wants Dance to examine restoring positions at high schools, where hundreds of classes have been dropped, soon after Dance takes over July 1. He said he warned county board members last fall that cuts made to the budget were having a more significant impact in the classroom than predicted.

“Now we have documented evidence of the impact,” he said, which he believes could reverse 15 years of progress in the schools. He said there have to be “more intelligent cuts than these” that can be made in the school budget. The school system said last year that it would save $12 million by eliminating 196 teaching positions in the high schools.

“I think class size is one of several areas I will be looking at upon my transition,” Dance said. “Where you decide to put your resources, that is where your beliefs and philosophy lie.”

School board President Lawrence Schmidt said he will ask Dance to evaluate whether there are programs that can be consolidated to free up money to put more teachers in the classroom.

But, he said, he believes school leaders need to look at achievement at the high schools. “With lean times, what does it all mean performancewise?” said Schmidt.

An analysis of class size data by The Baltimore Sun shows county high schools have dropped about 700 of their 9,200 classes, including 19 Advanced Placement classes.

The analysis also showed that while nearly all of the 25 high schools lost teaching positions, officials protected the lowest-performing high schools, where smaller classes were deemed important for struggling students. But that meant the best and brightest students at some of the county’s star high schools have the largest classes.

About one-third of all classes at Dulaney, Towson and Pikesville have 30 or more students — a level that is used as a cap in some states; at Hereford, more than a quarter of classes are that big. All four schools are high-performing.

“Class size matters. … We told them early on, you take that many teachers, you are going to lose classes and raise class size,” said Abby Beytin, the president of the teachers union. “It is devastating. Every time we cut schools, we affect students. We can’t keep saying we believe in education and then not fund it.”

Jean Suda, the parent of a Dulaney High School student, said she will attend school board meetings over the summer and ask for more teachers in the high schools.

Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said that fewer classes were offered this year because enrollment dropped in high schools and that some small classes, including AP, were offered online. The number of students dropped by about 500 to 30,664, according to school data.

A news release issued by the school system Monday called The Sun analysis “misleading” but not inaccurate. “We are saying it is dangerous to look at class size as the be-all and end-all,” said Charles Herndon, a spokesman for the school system. He said there is no empirical evidence that class size is linked to student achievement.

The county school board budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 does not include any new teaching positions in the high schools, and school system officials said they will be reducing high school staff by about five total because of projected enrollment declines. Teachers are being hired for elementary schools, where enrollment is steadily increasing.

The cuts in teaching positions last year have been criticized because the school system did not look first at administrative positions. No teachers were laid off, and positions were reduced through attrition.

“This could have been less painful if they would have looked at administrative” jobs, Brochin said.

In the coming year, teachers will start using a more rigorous curriculum that puts greater emphasis on the sciences and writing. That focus is difficult with large class sizes, according to Julie Gillern, an English teacher at Western Technology High School.

The school system needs to examine “the outcomes of larger class sizes in a time when [President Barack] Obama and [U.S. Secretary of Education] Arne Duncan are promoting strong and rigorous teaching strategies, ones that require space, time and resources,” she said.

People of all political persuasions all over the world have reason to mourn Senator Richard Lugar’s loss to a Tea-Party candidate in the recent Indiana Republican primary. Senator Lugar is the ranking minority member on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he has long put principle and practicality above partisanship. Yet his defeat matters in [...]]]>

People of all political persuasions all over the world have reason to mourn Senator Richard Lugar’s loss to a Tea-Party candidate in the recent Indiana Republican primary. Senator Lugar is the ranking minority member on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he has long put principle and practicality above partisanship. Yet his defeat matters in education, too.

Even though Senator Lugar has never served on an education committee, he has always been interested in education. Before he was elected to the Senate, he was Mayor of Indianapolis and before that, Chairman of the Indianapolis School Board. But beyond this history, I think he just cares about the future of our country, and sees education as central to that vision.

Based on a long-ago article in The Wall Street Journal, Senator Lugar got interested in our Success for All program, and we visited an SFA school near Indianapolis together. From then on, he found many ways to support evidence-based reform in education broadly. In doing this, he routinely collaborated with Democrats. His guiding principle was always, “what’s good for the children” and “what’s good for the country.” What is so disturbing is that his defeat in the primary was largely due to his commitment to bipartisan solutions to national problems.

Continue reading this post at Education Week

Recently we wrote about a call to align the child-care and early-education professions with unified standards and professional development to improve workforce quality. Here’s news about another report that explores the need to revise training for teachers who work with our youngest learners.

Laura Bornfreund, a senior policy analyst for New America [...]]]> From Education Week:

Recently we wrote about a call to align the child-care and early-education professions with unified standards and professional development to improve workforce quality. Here’s news about another report that explores the need to revise training for teachers who work with our youngest learners.

Laura Bornfreund, a senior policy analyst for New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative, examines the issue in this month’s Educational Leadership magazine published by ASCD.

Bornfreund shares research from her policy paper, “Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensing and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and the Early Grades,” and discusses the idea that “disparate preparation” of early-grade teachers has resulted in many lacking the complete training they need to successfully teach younger kids.

more

TRENTON, N.J. — State education officials will no longer use a standardized test question that asked third-graders to reveal a secret and write about why it was difficult to keep.

The question appeared on the writing portion of some versions of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge given to [...]]]> From the Huffington Post:

TRENTON, N.J. — State education officials will no longer use a standardized test question that asked third-graders to reveal a secret and write about why it was difficult to keep.

The question appeared on the writing portion of some versions of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge given to third-graders this past week. And it drew criticism from some parents, who thought it was inappropriate.

The state Department of Education said the question was reviewed and approved by it and a panel of teachers. It said Friday the question was only being tried out and would not count in the students’ scores.

more