EDUCATION NEWS
District Seeks Ideas On How to Spend Federal Stimulus Funds
March 10, 2009
Austin American Statesman
State study linking fitness, test scores coincides with bill that would boost physical education
March 10, 2009, Austin American Statesman; Students who are physically fit are more likely to pass state tests and attend school regularly, regardless of their race and family income levels, a study of 2.4 million Texas students by a Dallas medical research institute shows.
Project-based Learning engages students, garners results
February 2, 2009, e-School News Special Report, lead author
Jennifer Nastu.
"Engagement
is the Answer"
A lot of buzz has circulated around this thought-provoking article by Joseph S. Renzulli since its first appearance in the July 2008 issue of Education Week magazine.
We offer it here as a recommended reading to share and discuss within your own professional learning community. Project-based learning is a successful approach to instruction for a variety of reasons, its proponents say. For one thing, it helps students retain the information they learn. Lecture approaches don't always lead to long-term retention, says John Mergendoller, executive director of the Buck Institute. "Kids learn it for a week, then forget it," he observes. "Here's the key to why project-based learning works so well It engages students' interest and motivates them to learn."
Texas school leaders outline plan for school reforms
January 27, 2009, Houston Chronicle
Nearly three dozen Texas superintendents say the country must radically reform schools to better prepare students for the 21st century, and they've amassed their ideas in a new report. "We came together to say 'Stop this train that's going in the wrong direction,' " said Jeff Turner, a superintendent in the Dallas area.
For a copy of "Creating a New Vision for Public Education in Texas," go to the Texas Association of School Administrators Web site: http://www.tasanet.org/files/visioning/visioningfinal.pdf
U.S. schools more segregated than at any time since civil rights era
January 2009, ASCD: About 40% of U.S. black and Latino students attend schools that are increasingly racially isolated, according to a new report from the University of California's Civil Rights Project. "It would be a tragedy if the country assumed from the Obama election that the problems of race have been solved, when many inequalities are actually deepening," said Gary Orfield, Civil Rights Project co-director....
December 2008, ASCD: We enjoyed the most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief story - a teacher shares her top 10 strategies for staying organized in the classroom - and thought some of our new teachers might as well (only because we've all been there!). An ASCD blog post highlights some of these strategies and provides readers the opportunity to share their own tips.
Giving Students Ownership of Learning
November 2008: Too many students treat learning passively, educators say, working only for good grades or to get by. But passive learning often engenders boredom and rote memorization that does not prepare students well for the 21st-century.
This two-part ASCD SmartBrief Special Report, "Giving Students Ownership of Learning," explores how educators can shift some of the responsibility for learning to their students.
Part I looks at some of the successful techniques used by other educators and the technology that may help. Begin with introductory article, Learning: Whose Job Is it?
Part II explores more instructional methods, a few viewpoints on how student ownership can transform education and ways to apply such ideas to disadvantaged students and those with disabilities.
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Recent Items:
Students must learn 21st-century skills, Recent Study Indicates They're Not
Technology and the changing economy make it more important than ever for high school graduates to know how to communicate well, work in teams, research effectively and solve problems, yet a new state report indicates students are still falling short. "In our high schools, we need to prepare our young adults to be college and career ready," said Gerald Chertavian, who chairs the task force that produced the report, "unfortunately we are not in that position today."
"...the task force recommends revising teacher training and recruitment, weaving those skills into curricula and assessments, and holding schools accountable for delivering that kind of education."
[Boston Globe, November 19, 2008]
As Economy Slumps, Teachers' Jobs in the Crosshairs
Faced with high energy costs and crimped budgets, school districts have cut administrative positions, bus routes, special services, and athletics programs. But as economic prospects worsen, the salaries and jobs of teachers are increasingly coming under green-eyeshade scrutiny. [Education Week, September 22, 2008]
Texas Move to Tighten GPA Formula Sparks Backlash
Texas is working on a formula that all high schools would have to use to calculate students’ grade point averages. But it is encountering strong resistance from educators who fear it could discourage teenagers from taking challenging courses.
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The selected articles below come from a special edition of Education Week magazine marking the 25th anniversary of the landmark report A Nation at Risk.
Interactive features in the report include:
- A Nation At Risk, major events Timeline.
- Graduation Rates by Congressional Districts
- 2008 State Technology Grades - how do states compare in STEM issue?
- Pew Center Interactive Report, State Report Cards on Education Quality
How are we doing as a nation when it comes to education? One telling fact should put this question in stark perspective: The annual number of high school dropouts - 1.2 million - is more than twice the size of the active-duty U.S. Army. And so begins the very frank commentary by Former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and his longtime adviser Terry K. Peterson who identify five points that still must urgently be addressed in response to A Nation At Risk.
Consensus on Learning Time Builds
Under enormous pressure to prepare students for a successful future - and fearful that standard school hours don’t offer enough time to do so - educators, policymakers, and community activists in areas across the nation have begun adding more learning time to children’s lives. And surprise - the data indicates it's working.
Research Yields Clues on the Effects of Extra Time for Learning
Since A Nation at Risk in 1983, one blue-ribbon panel after another has called for expanding learning time as a way to boost student achievement. Yet studies only recently have begun to document the potential impact that a little extra learning time might have in practice.
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Archives:
- Judge Orders Texas to Fix Secondary-School Bilingual Education
- Austin American Statesman, July 26, 2008.
Related article, Texas likely to appeal bilingual education ruling
- Dallas Morning News, July 29, 2008
- Report: Exam scores up since NCLB enactment
-The Washington Post, June 25, 2008
More learners have improved their reading and math exam scores, and the performance gap between lower-income and more affluent students has narrowed since NCLB was enacted six years ago, according to a Center on Education Policy report. "We're moving in the right direction," said Jack Jennings, the center's president and CEO.
"That is not to say, though, that we shouldn't ask whether everything we're doing to achieve those results is the right thing to do."
- Issue Debated: Is including average students in AP the best course of action?
Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews believes AP courses can benefit even struggling students, while Thomas B. Fordham Foundation president Chester E. Finn Jr. says AP is meant primarily for high-school students already prepared for college-level work in discrete subject areas. They debate the issue and discuss other ways to improve regular high-school classes. [The Washington Post, June 2008]
Some 7,000 high-school students drop out of school every day, at a cost to society of $209,000 per student over their lifetimes.
Between 20% and 42% of graduates require some remedial coursework before moving on to college-level work, and 60% of manufacturers say recent entry-level hires were unprepared for the work they were hired to do.
The question facing educators and business leaders is: What can be done to reverse this trend? The United States faces a choice, says author Bob Wise: Do nothing to fix a broken high school system and watch our competitiveness further decline, or summon the political will to demand change.
This two-part ASCD SmartBrief Special Report, "Reshaping High Schools," explores the problems that face high schools and delves into some possible solutions. Part I examines successful instructional and assessment methods and surveys perspectives on solving the problem. [ASCD Educational Leadership magazine, May 2008]
It's year six of the No Child Left Behind law, and Social Studies has suffered greatly. In spite of the public outcry over the law's testing mandates and limited federal funding, some educators believe most of the public doesn't know about core academic subjects being squeezed out of the K12 public school curriculum.
According to a 2007 report from the Center on Education Policy, which surveyed nearly 350 school districts across the nation, 44 percent of districts reported cutting time from one or more subjects or activities, including social studies...." [District Administration, April, 2008]
Fascinating article about a University of Texas assistant professor of communication studies who is working to develop tools to remedy race / gender gaps in standardized test performance. [University of Texas website, March 2008]
Reducing classroom size to fewer than 18 students per teacher benefits high-achieving students more than struggling ones, according to an analysis by a Northwestern University researcher of data gathered in a major study on the interplay of class size and learning. "While decreasing class size may increase achievement on average for all types of students, it does not appear to reduce the achievement gap within a class...." [Washington Post, March 2008]
Far too many educators believe the main purpose of educating is to "cover the material" in math, science, and social studies, writes Marion Brady. In an information-based economy, he says, schools should look to the real world for their subject matter and teach students to think critically. [Educational Leadership magazine 2/2008]
In a world filled with more information than any one person can possibly hope to learn, students need to learn how to interpret the world through the distinctive ways of thinking that characterize the work of experts -- historians, scientists, mathematicians and artists. Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers Veronica Boix Mansilla and Howard Gardner show educators how to explore essential themes from disciplinary perspectives. [Educational Leadership magazine February/2008]
In this era when the emphasis in schools is on math, reading, and science, one organization is trying to ensure that history doesn’t just survive, it flourishes...[ASCD SmartBrief, January 2008]
Touting the success of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), President Bush urged Congress to "strengthen this good law" by increasing accountability, adding flexibility for states and districts, reducing the number of high school dropouts, and providing extra help for struggling schools. [eSchool News, January 2008]
[Austin American Statesman, January 2008]
[University of San Francisco education professor Judith L. Pace in ASCD SmartBrief, December 2007]
[Education Week, Edweek.org, November 2007]
[eSchool News, November 2007]
[ABC News, Oct. 30, 2007]
[ATPE, October 2007]
[ASCD SmartBrief, October 25, 2007]
- "A Comparative Study of Block Scheduling and Traditional Scheduling on Academic Achievement,"
[The Journal of Instructional Psychology]. This study compared the academic achievement of high school students on the block schedule with the academic achievement of high school students on the traditional schedule to determine what impact block scheduling would have on academic achievement. Results showed students on the traditional schedule scored significantly higher on standardized tests.
© AISD, 2008 /