Harassment, bullying, and free expression guidelines for public schools

22 May

Parents and students should familiarize themselves themselves with their school’s code of conduct or ethics policy. Adam Cohen has an interesting case study at Time. In Can Schools Punish Students for Posting Racy Photos Online? Cohen reports:

Two Indiana girls — one 16, one 15 — took racy photos of themselves at a slumber party and posted them online. When their high school found out, it suspended the girls from participating in a certain amount of their extracurricular activities. Can the school legally do that?

A federal district court in Fort Wayne, Ind., recently ruled that it cannot — because the punishment violated the girls’ First Amendment rights. The legal question of what rights students have to post provocative material on the Internet, and what rights schools have to restrict such postings, is still unsettled. But the Indiana decision is the second important ruling in recent months to strike a blow for students’ online speech rights.

In other words people have a right to be idiots. The question is do you want to be identified for posterity as terminally stupid?

Nirvi Shah is reporting in the Education Week article, Groups Urge Balance Between Censoring, Stopping Bullies:

Parts of the guidelines are bolstered by several unrelated court rulings. In a 2011 ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, for instance, a judge wrote that the phrase “Be Happy, Not Gay” on a student’s T-shirt was not derogatory or demeaning to other students. Students wore the shirts on the Day of Truth, a response to the national Day of Silence. The latter, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, based in New York City, is intended to bring attention to anti-lesbian, -gay, -bisexual, and -transgender name-calling, bullying, and harassment in schools.

In this Illinois case, two students had sued their school district after they were prevented from wearing the shirts at school….

“Students may have a right to say what they’re saying, but etiquette in a pluralist society sometimes means you can’t say everything you want to say when you want to,” he added. “The approaches we’ve outlined will work to diffuse controversy.”

One notable exception to the list of groups endorsing the guidelines was GLSEN. Executive Director Eliza Byard said she appreciated the guidelines’ intent, and the distinction made between a simple statement of belief versus bullying and harassment.

However, she said, given the political climate, her organization feared misuse of the document, so they didn’t endorse it.

She referenced several states’ proposals to ban the discussion of homosexuality in school, or “Don’t Say Gay” bills, as they have been dubbed, including one in TennesseeRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader that died earlier this month and another effort still alive in Missouri….

Spelling It Out

The guidelines note that “students should be able to attend school without being—or even reasonably feeling—threatened by others. School officials should be mindful that abusive peer conduct may deny students full access to an education, even when it is not on a basis prohibited by law.”

They also say that there is no gray area when it comes to suppressing any kind of physical assault, unwanted touching, or violence.

But in general, unless a student exercising his or her right to free speech or expression is creating a substantial disruption of the school environment, it should not be squelched.

That criterion was established more than 40 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Tinker decision over whether students could wear black arm bands in protest of the Vietnam conflict.

For example, the guidelines say the presence of a Confederate flag, clothing expressing a stance on abortion, or something that provides a viewpoint about homosexuality aren’t inherently bullying or harassment. Exceptions in which schools may intervene include speech that promotes the use of illegal drugs, speech considered lewd or vulgar, and school-sponsored speech, such as what’s printed in a school-run newspaper, Ms. Trainor said. When schools do face a situation in which students’ speech is disruptive, the guidelines suggest asking the students to stop what they’re doing rather than immediately punishing the students.

The guidance left the question of off-campus speech fairly untouched, noting a mixed collection of court rulings and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to take up such cases earlier this year.

“We are responsible for protecting students and teachers from online harassment, but in doing so, we may trigger a lawsuit from a student claiming that his or her free speech has been impinged upon,” said Sasha Pudelski, the government affairs manager for the AASA. “As a result, the line between what is appropriate punishment and what is appropriate speech continues to remain blurred. In the meantime, school districts could be at risk for litigation when they attempt to punish students for online, off-campus speech.”

While there is a gray area, it may not be as murky as some think, said Justin Patchin, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.

The standard is the same: whether the expression results in a substantial disruption at school…..

Lawsuits are often triggered when schools attempt to quell the speech and punish the posters severely, such as by expulsion or suspension, or when schools fail to intervene at all, including simply having a conversation with parents of the student who posted the offending material.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/22/33bully.h31.html?tkn=OTTFBsvEVUBC3UYHvsOCR4S1yzBvGPtF1wUM&cmp=clp-edweek

Here is some information about the guidelines:

Harassment, Bullying and Free Expression:

Guidelines for Free and Safe Public Schools

Produced by:

American Jewish Committee

http://www.ajc.org

Religious Freedom Education Project/First Amendment Center

http://www.religiousfreedomeducation.org

Endorsed by:

American Association of School Administrators

http://www.aasa.org

ASCD

http://www.ascd.org

Center for Religion and Public Affairs, Wake Forest University Divinity

School

rpa@wfu.edu

Christian Educators Association International

http://www.ceai.org

Christian Legal Society

http://www.clsnet.org

Hindu American Foundation

http://www.hafsite.org

Islamic Networks Group and its Affiliates

http://www.ing.org

Islamic Society of North America

http://www.isna.net

Muslim Public Affairs Council

http://www.mpac.org

National Association of Evangelicals

http://www.nae.net

National Association of State Boards of Education

http://www.nasbe.org

National Council for the Social Studies

http://www.ncss.org

National School Boards Association

http://www.nsba.org

Religion Action Center of Reform Judaism

http://www.rac.org

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

http://www.ou.org

http://www.edweek.org/media/harassmentfree-33bully.pdf

This is a general statement from the guidelines:

Where Should Schools Draw a Line?

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that students have the right under the First Amendment to express religious, social and political views in public schools, even on subjects as controversial as the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War while that war was still ongoing, unless the school can demonstrate or reasonably forecast that the expression will cause a substantial disruption of the school environment or violate the legal rights of others (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969).5 Most litigation has focused on the disruption prong of the test – what the Supreme Court meant by intruding on the legal rights of others is uncertain.

School officials may lawfully prohibit speech, upon a showing that the expression either causes an actual disturbance to the school’s educational program – or makes it reasonably foreseeable that the expression would cause such a disturbance.6 In reviewing the content of student expression, school officials should apply the following

5 More detailed summaries of Tinker and subsequent cases can be found at

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/category/speech

6 The Supreme Court has recognized that public schools may in some circumstances restrict speech that is school-sponsored, lewd or vulgar, or related to illegal drug use.

safeguards and guidelines:

· Generally, the offensiveness of the content alone, without a showing that the speech is, or is likely to be, substantially disruptive, is not a basis for silencing speech. Fully-protected speech is often offensive to someone. Of course, grade level and developmental stage matter.

· When faced with disruptive or harassing student speech which conveys an idea, absent exceptional circumstances or a previously published specific rule, school officials should generally ask the students to discontinue the speech rather than immediately imposing discipline. At the same time, school officials have an

affirmative duty to prevent anti-harassment and anti-bullying rules from being used as a “heckler’s veto” of unpopular speech.

· Narrowly tailored bans on speech determined to cause, or likely to cause, substantial disruption should, absent exceptional circumstances, be viewpoint neutral.

· Student expression of ideas occurring outside of school should be subject to school action only, if at all, upon a clear showing of disruption, or likely disruption to the school, or a violation of the rights of school administrators and officials, teachers and other school employees, or students.

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988); Bethel v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1987);

Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393 (2007).

The authority of school officials to discipline students for off-campus speech, and the liability for doing so, is currently in dispute in the state and lower federal

courts. It is likely that, at some point, further legal guidance will come from the Supreme Court.

· Regardless of how the First Amendment issues about out-of school speech are ultimately resolved, schools should consider incorporating proactive measures as part of their response, apart from discipline and suppression of speech. For example, schools could monitor the locations within the school where the students

involved in incidents of off-campus bullying or harassment may interact; publicize statements that the school will not tolerate in school harassment; incorporate harassment awareness education into the curriculum and professional development programs; and engage parents and community groups. If adopted, such programs

should be designed with sensitivity to a wide range of community views.

· True threats of physical harm or targeted, continuing harassment may be the basis for disciplinary action, while speech intended to convey a student’s viewpoint or ideas on social, religious, political, or cultural issues (among others) may not be the basis for disciplinary action absent a showing of substantial disruption (or likely disruption) or a violation of another student’s legal rights. Schools should teach students that, as a general matter, there is no right to be free of speech one does not like, whether in school or elsewhere.

The Tanenbaum Center which honors the work of the late Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum has a really good definition of the “Golden Rule” which is stated in an interview with Joyce Dubensky entitled, The Golden Rule Around the World At the core of all bullying is a failure to recognize another’s humanity and a basic lack of respect for life. At the core of the demand for personal expression and failure to tolerate opinions which are not like one’s own is a self-centeredness which can destroy the very society it claims to want to protect.

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

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Homeschooling is becoming more mainstream

22 May

Parents and others often think of school choice in terms of public school or private school. There is another option and that is homeschooling.Homeschooling is one option in the school choice menu. There are fewer children being homeschooled than there are in private schools. There are fewer children in private education, which includes homeschools than in public education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the vast majority of students attend public schools. Complete statistics can be found at Fast Education Facts

The question, which will be discussed at the end of this comment, is: What is so scary about school choice? After all, the vast majority of children are enrolled in public school and school choice is not going to change that.

What is Homeschooling?

Family Education defines homeschooling. 

Homeschooling means learning outside of the public or private school environment. The word “home” is not really accurate, and neither is “school.” For most families, their “schooling” involves being out and about each day, learning from the rich resources available in their community, environment, and through interactions with other families who homeschool.

Essentially, homeschooling involves a commitment by a parent or guardian to oversees their child or teen’s educational development. There are almost two million homeschoolers in this country.

There is no one federal law, which governs homeschooling. Each state regulates homeschooling, so state law must be consulted. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has a summary of each state’s laws. State Homeschool Laws The American Homeschool Association (AHA) has resources such as FAQ and the history of homeschooling at AHA

Why Do Parents Homeschool?

According to the Washington Homeschool Organization, there are many reasons parents choose to homeschool.

Advantages of Homeschooling

·     Parents are with their children all day.

·     Parents know and understand their children, and are influential in their lives, even as they enter the teen years.

·     Homeschooling prevents premature parent-child separation, avoiding inappropriate pressure on children.

·     Children are allowed to mature at their own speeds, no “hurried child” syndrome.

·     Parents and other adults are the primary role models for homeschooled children.

·     Homeschooling provides positive and appropriate socialization with peers and adults.

·     Homeschooled children are largely free from peer pressure.

·     Homeschooled children are comfortable interacting with people of all ages.

·     Homeschooled children view adults as an integrated part of their world and as natural partners in learning.

·     Family values and beliefs are central to social, emotional and academic development.

·     Family life revolves around its own needs and priorities rather than the demands of school.

·     Homeschooling creates/maintains positive sibling relationships.

·     Homeschooling promotes good communication and emotional closeness within a family.

·     Research shows that the two most important factors in reading and overall educational success are positive home influence and parental involvement; homeschooling provides both.

·     A child’s natural thirst for learning is nurtured, not squelched, and learning becomes a lifelong joy.

·     Each child’s education can be tailored to his or her unique interests, pace, and learning style.

·     Homeschooling children have time to pursue their special interests and talents.

·     Homeschoolers enjoy unlimited educational resources; the world is our classroom, and resources abound in the community.

·     Homeschooling provides a high adult/child ratio for the student.

·    Homeschooled children become independent thinkers who are secure in their won convictions. 

A. Bruce Arai, in an early article on homeschooling looks at the civic implications of homeschooling and discusses some of the socialization impacts. 

In Homeschooling and the Redefinition of Citizenship He quotes Callan:

He argues that a true common school, in which all students receive a common curriculum, with some reasonable departures, provides the best way of ensuring a vibrant sense of citizenship among present and future generations. This sense of citizenship is built around the virtues of a critical tolerance of diversity, the power of rational thought and argument, and commitment to a defensible moral code. Citizens who develop these graces will have an understanding of the world which will give them the freedom to choose how they live their life, which is the ultimate aim of the liberal democratic state. Moreover, it is through common schooling that these attributes are best developed.

Some have opined that many homeschool parents seek not only a better education for their child, but seek to prevent interactions with those of different races, religions, and backgrounds.

Julia Lawrence writes in the Education News article, Number of Homeschoolers Growing Nationwide:

Since 1999, the number of children who are being homeschooled has increased by 75%. Although currently only 4% of all school children nationwide are educated at home, the number of primary school kids whose parents choose to forgo traditional education is growing seven times faster than the number of kids enrolling in K-12 every year.

Any concerns expressed about the quality of education offered to the kids by their parents can surely be put to rest by the consistently high placement of homeschooled kids on standardized assessment exams. Data shows that those who are independently educated typically score between 65th and 89th percentile on such exams, while those attending traditional schools average on the 50th percentile. Furthermore, the achievement gaps, long plaguing school systems around the country, aren’t present in homeschooling environment. There’s no difference in achievement between sexes, income levels or race/ethnicity.

Recent studies laud homeschoolers’ academic success, noting their significantly higher ACT-Composite scores as high schoolers and higher grade point averages as college students. Yet surprisingly, the average expenditure for the education of a homeschooled child, per year, is $500 to $600, compared to an average expenditure of $10,000 per child, per year, for public school students.College recruiters from the best schools in the United States aren’t slow to recognize homeschoolers’ achievements. Those from non-traditional education environments matriculate in colleges and attain a four-year degree at much higher rates than their counterparts from public and even private schools. Homeschoolers are actively recruited by schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and Duke.

Nor do homeschoolers miss out on the so-called socialization opportunities, something considered a vital part of a traditional school environment and lacking in those who don’t attend regular schools. On the contrary, those educated at home by their parents tend to be more socially engaged than their peers, and according to the National Home Education Research Institute survey, demonstrate “healthy social, psychological, and emotional development, and success into adulthood.”

http://www.educationnews.org/parenting/number-of-homeschoolers-growing-nationwide/

Homeschoolers of Color

The Village Voice has an excellent article about the experiences of Black homeschoolers and why they made the choice of homeschooling. Black Homeschoolers

Black parents tend to take their children out of the schools for other than religious reasons, and homeschooling groups say black children taught at home are nearly always boys. Like Robinson, some of New York’s parents have concluded that the school system is failing the city’s black boys, and have elected to teach them at home as an alternative.

The National Home Education Research Institute which cites statistics from The Condition of Education 2009 reports the number of homeschoolers of color is growing.

If one reviews the statistics from the last four years of USDE research (i.e., the last two USDE reports), one will find that 77.0% of homeschool students were white in 2003 while 76.8% were white in 2007 (i.e., a 0.2% decrease in those who are “white”). Second, this authors’ roughly 25 years of experience with and studying the homeschool community shows that the percentage of the homeschool community comprised of minorities is continuing to increase. Third, homeschool leaders across the nation are telling this author the same; that is, an increasing percent of the homeschool community is non-white.

Homeschooling is the choice for many parents because they don’t feel that current education institutions serve either their child or their values well.

Pros and Cons of Homeschooling

Tamma DeHart summarizes the pros and cons of homeschooling. Pros and Cons of Homeschooling

The advantages of homeschooling over public schooling:

•    Homeschooling provides individual attention and quality time to each learning student which is not possible in a public school. A parent can observe how their kids progress and can help them in areas they find difficult to cope.

•    Homeschooling is more flexible than public schooling as the schedule can be adjusted to the child’s suitability. Flexibility also helps in changing the curriculum according to what is easy for you and your child. Parents can help children understand the subject matter and yield good results.

•    Children are made to learn in a practical environment thereby involving them in a variety of situations. Children tend to learn faster and enjoy working in such situations.

•    Another big advantage of homeschooling over public schooling is the cost structure. Homeschooling is comparatively less expensive as compared to public and private school fees. You can involve your child in social activities that can help them to develop their social skills and hence save a lot of money too.

•    There is no age classification for homeschooling children; hence children not only get engaged with same age group but also with children of different ages and adults as well. Such factors have induced many parents to opt for homeschooling but one should not forget the positive aspect of public schooling which a child lacks in home based schooling. The advantages of public schooling over homeschooling are:

•    Public schooling provides social development of the child. Although a homeschooling child can be involved in social activities, none will be as effective as being a part of some social groups for years to come. The classroom setting provides the benefit of socializing for your child.

•    The parent is left with the complete responsibility to educate the child during homeschooling. Thus, you might not get time for yourself and your job which is otherwise possible in public schooling. This also helps in reducing financial stress for parents who are both working.

•    Public schooling has trained teachers who are well equipped with the knowledge of teaching a wide range of subjects. Homeschooling, on the other hand leaves no option but for the parent to understand each and every subject before making it easy for their child to learn. Moreover, the parents have to research and gather the curriculum for each of their child.  

In a nutshell, the questions that parents and society should be asking of any family that chooses the option of homeschooling are:

1.      Is there a real and sufficient commitment to homeschool?

2.      Do the parents have the educational resources both in their background and aptitude to realistically homeschool?

3.      Do the parents have the temperament to homeschool?

4.      Are there resources available in their community to provide enrichment activities to the child?

5.      The most important question of all, the choice of homeschooling the appropriate education choice for the child or is it the appropriate choice for the parent’s belief system? The child’s well-being and education should be paramount.

Tips for Parents

The Reno Homeschool Association has compiled tips for parents.

1. Know your approach or philosophy.
2. Be organized, patient, and flexible.
3. Develop a working relationship with your child.
4. Find other homeschool parents.
5. Set aside place for academic work.
6.Have a method of evaluation for your child.
7. Have a plan.

8. Take advantage of the resources in your community.

9. Don’t forget the social realm.

Reno Homeschool Association

School Choice is Good for the Education Process

Homeschooling is not a conspiracy, it is simply a choice. There is a difference between “education” and “schooling.” “Schooling” is defined as:

·         the act of teaching at school

·         school: the process of being formally educated at a school; “what will you do when you finish school?”

·         the training of an animal (especially the training of a horse for dressage)
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

“Education” is a much broader concept. It is the process of continually being curious. Eric Hoffer aptly distinguishes the difference between “schooling” and “education.”

The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.

Many of our children are “unschooled” and a far greater number are “uneducated.” One can be “unschooled” or “uneducated” no matter the setting. As a society, we should be focused on making sure that each child receives a good basic education. There are many ways to reach that goal. There is nothing scary about the fact that some parents make the choice to homeschool. The focus should not be on the particular setting or institution type. The focus should be on proper assessment of each child to ensure that child is receiving a good basic education and the foundation for later success in life.

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

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Digital textbooks may or may not be cheaper

21 May

In Could ‘open source’ textbooks be cheaper than traditional textbooks? Moi said:

Open-source textbooks are another option in the calculation of the most cost effective option for obtaining needed textbooks. Information Age Education has a lot of information about the “open source” movement. http://iae-pedia.org/Open_Source_Textbooks The question is whether “free” is really “free.”

Education News is reporting in the article, Teacher-Written Digital Textbooks: A Cheaper Alternative?

Tired of constantly replacing their outdated — and expensive — statistics textbooks, officials in the Anoka Hennepin School District have let their teachers write their own digital textbooks instead, writes Abigail Wood at the Heartlander.

“The teachers thought we could do a better job writing our own book that fit our state standards and the needs of our students,” said high school math teacher Michael Engelhaupt, who helped write the digital textbook.

Three teachers were asked to create the book and were paid $10,000 each. The whole project saved a total of about $175,000….

http://www.educationnews.org/technology/teacher-written-digital-textbooks-a-cheaper-alternative/

The push for “open source” textbooks has been around for a couple of years. Ashley Vance writes in the 2010 New York Times article, $200 Textbook vs. Free. You Do the Math. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/technology/01ping.html?emc=eta1 Whether the “open source” movement will evolve into the way that textbooks are sourced remains to be seen. https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/could-open-source-textbooks-be-cheaper-than-traditional-textbooks/

Daniel Lutzer has an informative Washington Monthly post, Why Textbooks Cost So Much:

Considering that the average student spends slightly under $900 buying textbooks in a year, reducing the cost of such things seems like a worthy endeavor, but how much of the textbook market can change? How much of this is worth fixing, really?

According to this piece at Mental Floss, there’s not really much we can do. As Ethan Trex wrote back in September:

In the simplest economic terms, the high price of textbooks is symptomatic of misaligned incentives, not exorbitant production costs. Students hold the reasonable stance that they’d like to spend as little money as possible on their books. Students don’t really have the latitude to pick which texts they need, though.

Professors pick the course materials, and faculty members don’t have any strong incentive to be price sensitive when it comes to selecting textbooks. Their out-of-pocket expense is zero whether the required texts cost $100 or $300, so there’s no real barrier to heaping on more reading material. If a student needs Class X to graduate, they’ll likely need to procure the required texts. This lack of cost-control incentives for professors is a major reason that at some point in college, everyone meets the expensive textbook’s even more maddening cousin, the Expensive Textbook You Never Even Use.Moreover, however, while students might complain about the price of textbooks, they don’t exert enough influence over the process to bring the costs down.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/why_textbooks_cost_so_much.php

Because of the cost of textbooks, some are advocating not only open-source texts, but digital texts to cut costs.

Jason Tomassini writes in the Education Week article, Educators Weigh E-Textbook Cost Comparisons:

Proponents of digital textbooks say they save school districts money, even when factoring in the costs of tablets. In figuresRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader cited by the Digital Textbook Collaborative from Project RED, a research project that examines the use of technology in education, a 500-student school can save between $35 and $250 per student per year by switching to digital textbooks.

But more than $100 of those estimated per-student savings is associated with improved student discipline, increased teacher attendance, and digital student assessment, highly variable costs not directly tied to digital content. The estimate also assumes the price of a tablet is $250, less than many tablets, including the iPad, which runs between $379 and $700, depending on the specifications.

Independent observers have moved to debunk some of the cost-saving estimates for digital textbooks.

Using numbers from the 11,000-student Palo Alto district, in California, The San Jose Mercury News determined that hardware and content for digital textbooks on the iPad would add up to three times the cost of sticking with print.

And in a widely distributed blog post, Lee Wilson, a technology-industry veteran with experience at companies such as Apple and Pearson, determined that it could cost up to five times more to provide students with an iPad and Apple’s digital textbooks….

Different Models

McAllen Independent School District, McAllen, Texas

Enrollment: 27,000 students (67 percent eligible for free or reduced-price meals, 92 percent Hispanic)

Textbook Initiative Started: Fall 2011

Expenditures: $20 million total over five years (three years remaining). $6.5 million on infrastructure, including broadband and equipment; $12.1 million for devices, cases, and apps; $1.2 million for professional development

Funding Sources: E-rate, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, private donations, technology budget, special education budget, Title I funding

Devices Purchased: 27,000 iPad 2s

Digital Textbooks: 80 percent PDF, 15 percent interactive, 5 percent teacher-generated content

Notes: Encouraged local businesses to offer Wi-Fi so students could use devices outside class; students allowed to download music on devices; partnering with Abilene Christian University for research.

Pinellas County Schools, Fla.

Enrollment: 104,000 students

Students With Internet Access: 50 percent

Textbook Initiative Started: March 2010

Devices Purchased: 2,350 Kindles with Wi-Fi ($177 each, four-year shelf life); 1,000 Kindle Fires ($199 each), 3,100 Kindle readers, 7,500 iPads

E-textbook Publishers: CK-12 (free), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, Cengage Learning

Funding Sources: Voter referendum, advance on school technology funds

Notes: First districtwide client for Amazon Kindle device; sent books to third-party company to “Kindle-ize” books with note-taking capabilities; Amazon delivered customized reading lists through a cloud service to each student.

Vail School District, Ariz.

Enrollment: 11,000 students

Textbook Initiative Started: May 2008

Devices Purchased: 1,300 MacBooks ($800 each); 102 iPads ($500 each); 120 iPod Touches ($200 each); 400 Hewlett-Packard netbooks ($400 each)

Classroom Hardware Purchased: 100 interactive whiteboards, document camera in each class

Expenditures: $500,000 on property and liability insurance, $40,000 per year on Internet services

Course Material Expenditures: $10 per student, down from $60 per student

Notes: District stopped purchasing new textbooks, both print and digital; all course material is free and/or generated by teachers; largest school district in Arizona with all schools rated as “excelling.”

Riverside Unified School District, Calif.

Enrollment: 44,000 students (67 percent eligible for free or reduced-price meals)

Textbook Initiative Started: May 2009

Devices Purchased: 4,500 Hewlett-Packard netbooks ($300 each); 4,500 Android devices, including Lenovo slates and Kindle Fires ($200 each); 3,000 iPod Touches ($200 each); 500 iPads ($500 each)

Digital Content: 60 percent e-textbooks, 40 percent open content

Notes: Students without devices follow Bring Your Own Technology approach; district had to cut $200 million from its budget in recent years; students use Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Fuse Algebra app ($40 each) and CK-12 Flexbooks (free).

Source: Education Week

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/09/30etextbooks_ep.h31.html?tkn=ZQMFDjmq%2FeaRHDALmba2uUHCH27%2Feqhvd1uC&intc=es

The economics of the textbook market are one example of why it is difficult to curb some education costs.

Related:

The digital divide in classrooms                              https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/the-digital-divide-in-classrooms/

The importance of the skill of handwriting in the school curriculum https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/the-importance-of-the-skill-of-handwriting-in-the-school-curriculum/

Dr. Wilda says this about ©

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Update: Don’t ignore concussions

20 May

Moi discussed concussions in Don’t ignore concussions:

Lindsey Tanner of AP reports on a new study about concussions in the article, Even mild concussions can cause lingering symptoms:

Children with even relatively mild concussions can have persistent attention and memory problems a year after their injuries, according to a study that helps identify which kids may be most at risk for lingering symptoms.

In most kids with these injuries, symptoms resolve within a few months but the study results suggest that problems may linger for up to about 20 percent, said study author Keith Owen Yeates, a neuropsychologist at Ohio State University’s Center for Biobehaviorial Health.

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Even-mild-concussions-can-cause-lingering-symptoms-3383079.php#ixzz1oMUeQVuu

Citation:

Concussion

Time to Start Paying Attention

Frederick P. Rivara, MD, MPH

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Published online March 5, 2012. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1602

Coaches and parents must be alert to signs of concussion.  WebMD has a good description of what a concussion is and the signs of concussion https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/dont-ignore-concussions/

Bryan Toporek is reporting in the Education Week article, Head Impacts in Sports May Reduce Student-Athletes’ Learning Ability:

Certain contact sports, such as football and ice hockey, may hinder some student-athletes’ ability to learn and remember new information, suggests a study published online Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

However, at a group level, repetitive head impacts over the course of a single season don’t appear to have detrimental short-term effects on cognitive function for contact-sport athletes, the study found.

Researchers examined a mostly male group of 214 contact-sport athletes and 45 noncontact-sport athletes from three Division 1 schools who completed both preseason and postseason ImPACT tests. In addition, 55 noncontact-sport athletes and 45 contact-sport athletes completed a neuropsychological test battery along with the pre- and postseason ImPACT tests.

Of the 45 contact-sport athletes who completed the neuropsychological test, 22 percent finished more than 1.5 standard deviations below their expected score. Of the 55 noncontact-sport athletes who took the same test, only 4 percent finished more than 1.5 standard deviations lower. This discrepancy was deemed statistically significant by the researchers.

These findings suggest that “there may be a subgroup of athletes for whom repetitive head impacts affect learning and memory at least on a temporary basis,” the study authors wrote.

“The good news is that overall there were few differences in the test results between the athletes in contact sports and the athletes in noncontact sports,” said study author Dr. Thomas McAllister of the New Hampshire-based Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, in a statement. “But we did find that a higher percentage of the contact-sport athletes had lower scores than would have been predicted after the season on a measure of new learning than the noncontact-sport athletes.”

The contact-sport athletes were exposed to an average of 469 separate head impacts over the course of a season, according to the study. No athlete who endured a concussion during the season was included in the study.

On a potentially positive note, the researchers didn’t find any association between accumulated head impacts over previous seasons and reduced cognitive performance when comparing contact- and noncontact-sport athletes….

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/schooled_in_sports/2012/05/head_impacts_in_sports_may_reduce_student-athletes_learning_ability.html?intc=es

Here is the citation for the study:

Cognitive effects of one season of head impacts in a cohort of collegiate contact sport athletes

  1. 1.     T.W. McAllister, MD,
  2. 2.     L.A. Flashman, PhD,
  3. 3.     A. Maerlender, PhD,
  4. 4.     R.M. Greenwald, PhD,
  5. 5.     J.G. Beckwith, MS,
  6. 6.     T.D. Tosteson, ScD,
  7. 7.     J.J. Crisco, PhD,
  8. 8.     P.G. Brolinson, DO,
  9. 9.     S.M. Duma, PhD,
  10. 10.  A.-C. Duhaime, MD,
  11. 11.  M.R. Grove, MS and
  12. 12.  J.H. Turco, MD

+ Author Affiliations

1.     From the Departments of Psychiatry (T.W.M., L.A.F., A.M., M.R.G.), Community and Family Medicine (T.D.T.), and Medicine (J.H.T.), Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon; Simbex (R.M.G., J.G.B.), Lebanon; Thayer School of Engineering (R.M.G.), Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Bioengineering Laboratory, Department of Orthopaedics (J.J.C.), The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI; Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (P.G.B.), Blacksburg; Virginia Tech-Wake Forest (S.M.D.), Center for Injury Biomechanics, Blacksburg; Pediatric Neurosurgery (A.-C.D.), Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, NH; and Pediatric Neurosurgery (A.-C.D.), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
  1. Correspondence & reprint requests to Dr. McAllister:thomas.w.mcallister@dartmouth.edu

View Complete Disclosures

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether exposure to repetitive head impacts over a single season negatively affects cognitive performance in collegiate contact sport athletes.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study at 3 Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic programs. Participants were 214 Division I college varsity football and ice hockey players who wore instrumented helmets that recorded the acceleration-time history of the head following impact, and 45 noncontact sport athletes. All athletes were assessed prior to and shortly after the season with a cognitive screening battery (ImPACT) and a subgroup of athletes also were assessed with 7 measures from a neuropsychological test battery.

Results: Few cognitive differences were found between the athlete groups at the preseason or postseason assessments. However, a higher percentage of the contact sport athletes performed more poorly than predicted postseason on a measure of new learning (California Verbal Learning Test) compared to the noncontact athletes (24% vs 3.6%; p < 0.006). On 2 postseason cognitive measures (ImPACT Reaction Time and Trails 4/B), poorer performance was significantly associated with higher scores on several head impact exposure metrics.

Conclusion: Repetitive head impacts over the course of a single season may negatively impact learning in some collegiate athletes. Further work is needed to assess whether such effects are short term or persistent.

Received July 14, 2011.

Accepted January 25, 2012.

Copyright © 2012 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.

Parents must be alert to what is happening with the children when they participate in athletic events and activities.

Resources:

Concussions http://kidshealth.org/teen/safety/first_aid/concussions.html#a_What_Is_a_Concussion_and_What_Causes_It_

Concussion                                                                                                                         http://www.emedicinehealth.com/concussion/article_em.htm

Concussion-Overview

http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/traumatic-brain-injury-concussion-overview

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

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Brookings study: State grant aid goes increasingly to the wealthy

19 May

In 3rd world America: Money changes everything, moi said:

Sabrina Tavernise wrote an excellent New York Times article, Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say

It is a well-known fact that children from affluent families tend to do better in school. Yet the income divide has received far less attention from policy makers and government officials than gaps in student accomplishment by race.

Now, in analyses of long-term data published in recent months, researchers are finding that while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period.

“We have moved from a society in the 1950s and 1960s, in which race was more consequential than family income, to one today in which family income appears more determinative of educational success than race,” said Sean F. Reardon, a Stanford University sociologist. Professor Reardon is the author of a study that found that the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites.          https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/3rd-world-america-money-changes-everything/

The increased rate of poverty has profound implications if this society believes that ALL children have the right to a good basic education.

Daniel de Vise has written the thought provoking Washington Post article, State grant aid goes increasingly to the wealthy:

But what the report really advocates is that all states base their grant programs primarily on need. Its top recommendation: “Focus resources on students whose chance of enrolling and succeeding in college will be most improved by the receipt of state support.”

A surprisingly large number of states don’t do that.

Twenty years ago, the report says, 90 percent of state grant dollars were awarded at least partly according to financial need. Today, that share has dipped to 70 percent.

At least 13 states have enacted large merit-based grant programs in the last two decades. Such programs are popular among middle-class families who vote.

The result: 35 percent of aid recipients in Louisiana come from families with family incomes above $80,000. A Georgia grant program favors students in the top income quartile.

Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia all award less than half of their state aid according to financial need.

An inventory of aid programs in Washington, D.C. found that just 6 percent of state-based grant aid went to students according to need. The best-known program, Tuition Assistance Grants, is open to rich and poor alike.

Virginia spends about two-fifths of grant dollars without regard to need. Maryland, by contrast, allots only 5 percent of scholarship funds without considering need.

The authors, who include college-finance guru Sandy Baum, suggest states eliminate the current complex web of aid programs and streamline the state scholarship effort into a single, simple program that targets students according to income and family size, period.

For example, a state might enact a sliding scale of aid according to income: $4,000 to a student from a family at the poverty line, $1,000 for a family earning $50,000 and a cutoff of $60,000 in household income.

This matters because states are spending a growing share of a shrinking higher-education budget on grant aid. State subsidies declined from $8,700 per student to $7,100 per student between 2008 and 2011, after inflation. Yet, over the same span, state grant aid grew from $8.4 billion to $9.2 billion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/state-grant-aid-goes-increasingly-to-the-wealthy/2012/05/15/gIQARIvHRU_blog.html

The report de Vise refers to is Beyond Need and Merit: Strengthening State Grant Programs which was released by Brookings Institute (Brookings) .

Brookings describes the report in a press release:

Editor’s Note: This report was released in conjunction with an event at Brookings on strengthening state grant programs.

Rising college tuition levels—accelerated by cuts in state funding for public universities— have combined with today’s tough economic realities to make financing a postsecondary education even more difficult for students and their families. State grant programs are more important than ever to make college possible for many students who could not otherwise afford to enroll.

For these dollars to make as much difference as possible in the lives of students and in the future of state economies, state grant programs must be designed to produce the largest possible return on taxpayers’ investment. In this report, the Brookings Institution State Grant Aid Study Group, chaired by student aid expert Sandy Baum, examines the variety of state grant programs currently in place and makes policy recommendations based on the best available research.

The group proposes moving away from the dichotomy between “need-based” and “merit-based” aid and instead designing programs that integrate targeting of students with financial need with appropriate expectations and support for college success. Here are highlights from their recommendations:

Help students with financial need

• To maximize the impact of their financial aid programs, states should do a better job of targeting aid dollars at students whose potential to succeed is most constrained by limited resources.

• Students whose options are constrained by limited resources are most likely to be affected by state grant awards—in terms of both their ability to attend college and the likelihood that they will graduate.

Consolidate and simplify

• States should consolidate programs to make the system simpler and easier for prospective students and their families to understand and navigate.

• Programs can be better targeted but still relatively simple. Look-up tables like those that would base grant eligibility only on income and family size might serve as a model.

• States should welcome federal simplification efforts and should resist any temptation to collect additional data—restoring complication even as the federal government reduces it.

• States should create a single net-price calculator that students can use to calculate the cost of attendance at every public institution in the state.

Design programs that encourage timely completion

• To encourage on-time degree attainment, state grant programs should reward concrete accomplishments such as the completion of credit hours.

• Academic requirements embodied in state grant programs should provide meaningful incentives for success in college; they should not be focused exclusively on past achievement or be so high as to exclude students on the margin of college access and success.

• States should provide second chances for students who lose funding because they do not meet targets the first time around.

Improving state grant programs in difficult financial times

• Rationing funds is unavoidable and there may be no good options under these circumstances, but some choices are worse than others. Providing assistance to those who apply early and denying aid to those who apply after the money has run out is quite arbitrary, particularly if an application deadline cannot be specified in advance.

• States under pressure to reduce their budgets quickly could lower income limits; cut grants for all recipients, with the neediest students losing the least; or build more incentives for college completion into their programs.

• States should use this time of financial exigency to carefully evaluate the effectiveness of existing grant programs and put in place systems for periodic review of these programs.

• In addition to tweaking their existing programs, states should test and evaluate innovative approaches. A pilot program found to be very successful could then be scaled up and replace another program found to be less effective.

State Profiles

Downloads

1.2 MB

210 KB

http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2012/05/08-grants-chingos-whitehurst

In 3rd world America: The economy affects the society of the future, moi said:

One of the major contributors to poverty in third world nations is limited access to education opportunities. Without continued sustained investment in education in this country, we are the next third world country. All over the country plans are being floated to cut back the school year or eliminate programs which help the most disadvantaged. Alexander Eichler reports in the Huffington Post article, Middle-Class Jobs Disappearing As Workforce Shifts To High-Skill, Low-Skill: Study:

America is increasingly becoming a place of high- and low-skill jobs, with less room available for a middle class.

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that over the past 30 years, the U.S. workforce has shifted toward high-paying jobs that require a great deal of education — jobs in the legal, engineering or technology industries, for example — and toward low-paying jobs that require little schooling, like food preparation, maintenance and personal care.

What haven’t fared so well are the industries in the middle, like sales, teaching, construction, repair, entertainment, transportation and business — the ones where a majority of Americans end up working.

In 1980, these middle-level jobs accounted for 75 percent of the workforce. By 2009, that number had fallen to 68 percent. In the same span of time, low- and high-skill jobs had each grown as a percentage of the workforce.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/middle-class-jobs_n_1105502.html?ref=email_share

In order to support family creation and family preservation, there must be liveable wage jobs.                                                                                     https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/3rd-world-america-the-economy-affects-the-society-of-the-future/

Related:

College Board’s ‘Big Future’: Helping low-income kids apply to college                    https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/college-boards-big-future-helping-low-income-kids-apply-to-college/

The growing class divide: Parents taking out loans for kindergarten and elementary school education                                                                                                  https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/the-growing-class-divide-parents-taking-out-loans-for-kindergarten-and-elementary-school-education/

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

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Johns Hopkins University report about school absenteeism

17 May

In School Absenteeism: Absent from the classroom leads to absence from participation in this society, moi said:

Education is a partnership between the student, the teacher(s) and parent(s). All parties in the partnership must share the load. The student has to arrive at school ready to learn. The parent has to set boundaries, encourage, and provide support. Teachers must be knowledgeable in their subject area and proficient in transmitting that knowledge to students. All must participate and fulfill their role in the education process.

https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/school-absenteeism-absent-from-the-classroom-leads-to-absence-from-participation-in-this-society/

John Hopkins has released the report, The Importance of Being in School: A Report on Absenteeism in the Nation’s Public Schools. Here is a summary from Everyone Graduates Center:

The Importance of Being in School: A Report on Absenteeism in the Nation’s Public Schools

America’s education system is based on the assumption that barring illness or an extraordinary event, students are in class every weekday. So strong is this assumption that it is not even measured. Indeed, it is the rare state education department, school district or principal that can tell you how many students have missed 10 percent or more of the school year or in the previous year missed a month or more school − two common definitions of chronic absence.

Because it is not measured, chronic absenteeism is not acted upon. Like bacteria in a hospital, chronic absenteeism can wreak havoc long before it is discovered. If the evidence in this report is borne out through more systematic data collection and analysis, that havoc may have already undermined school reform efforts of the past quarter century and negated the positive impact of future efforts.

Students need to attend school daily to succeed. The good news of this report is that being in school leads to succeeding in school. Achievement, especially in math, is very sensitive to attendance, and absence of even two weeks during one school year matters. Attendance also strongly affects standardized test scores and graduation and dropout rates. Educators and policymakers cannot truly understand achievement gaps or efforts to close them without considering chronic absenteeism.

Summary

Chronic absenteeism is not the same as truancy or average daily attendance – the attendance rate schools use for state report cards and federal accountability. Chronic absenteeism means missing 10 percent of a school year for any reason. A school can have average daily attendance of 90 percent and still have 40 percent of its students chronically absent, because on different days, different students make up that 90 percent.

Data from only six states address this issue: Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Nebraska, Oregon and Rhode Island. How these states measure chronic absenteeism, however, differs by number of days and by whether or not data include transfer students.

Such limited data produce only an educated guess at the size of the nation’s attendance challenge: A national rate of 10 percent chronic absenteeism seems conservative and it could be as high as 15 percent, meaning that 5 million to 7.5 million students are chronically absent. Looking at this more closely sharpens the impact. In Maryland, for instance, there are 58 elementary schools that have 50 or more chronically absent students; that is, two classrooms of students who miss more than a month of school a year. In a high school, where chronic absenteeism is higher, there are 61 schools where 250 or more students are missing a month or more of school.

The six states reported chronic absentee rates from 6 percent to 23 percent, with high poverty urban areas reporting up to one-third of students chronically absent. In poor rural areas, one in four students can miss at least a month’s worth of school. The negative impact chronic absenteeism has on school success is increased because students who are chronically absent in one year are often chronically absent in multiple years. As a result, particularly in high poverty areas, significant numbers of students are missing amounts of school that are staggering: on the order of six months to over a year, over a five year period.

Chronic absenteeism is most prevalent among low-income students. Gender and ethnic background do not appear to play a role in this. The youngest and the oldest students tend to have the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, with students attending most regularly in third through fifth grades. Chronic absenteeism begins to rise in middle school and continues climbing through 12th grade, with seniors often having the highest rate of all. The data also suggest that chronic absenteeism is concentrated in relatively few schools, with 15 percent of schools in Florida, for example, accounting for at least half of all chronically absent students.

Missing school matters:

  • In a nationally representative data set, chronic absence in kindergarten was associated with lower academic performance in first grade. The impact is twice as great for students from low-income families.
  • A Baltimore study found a strong relationship between sixth-grade attendance and the percentage of students graduating on time or within a year of their expected high school graduation.
  • Chronic absenteeism increases achievement gaps at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
  • Because students reared in poverty benefit the most from being in school, one of the most effective strategies for providing pathways out of poverty is to do what it takes to get these students in school every day. This alone, even without improvements in the American education system, will drive up achievement, high school graduation, and college attainment rates.

Students miss school for many reasons. These can, however, be divided into three broad categories:

  • Students who cannot attend school due to illness, family responsibilities, housing instability, the need to work or involvement with the juvenile justice system.
  • Students who will not attend school to avoid bullying, unsafe conditions, harassment and embarrassment.
  • Students who do not attend school because they, or their parents, do not see the value in being there, they have something else they would rather do, or nothing stops them from skipping school.

Despite being pervasive, though overlooked, chronic absenteeism is raising flags in some schools and communities. This awareness is leading to attendance campaigns that are so vigorous and comprehensive they pay off quickly. Examples of progress nationally and at state, district, and school levels give hope to the challenge of chronic absenteeism, besides being models for others.

In addition to these efforts, both the federal government, state departments of education, and school districts need to regularly measure and report the rates of chronic absenteeism and regular attendance (missing five days or less a year) for every school. State and district policies need to encourage every student to attend school every day and support school districts, schools, non-profits, communities, and parents in using evidence-based strategies to act upon these data to propel all students to attend school daily. Mayors and governors have critical roles to play in leading inter-agency task forces that bring health, housing, justice, transportation, and education agencies together to organize coordinated efforts to help every student attend every day.

Download the Full Report

Download the full report, available here in pdf.

Download the presentation tool, available here as a  PowerPoint show.

Report Coverage in the News

New York Times

Huffington Post

http://new.every1graduates.org/the-importance-of-being-in-school/

Resources from the Johns Hopkins report:

For Schools

For Parents

For City Leaders

In Should we pay children to go to school? Moi said:

The disintegration of the family has profound implications for the education success of children.

Huffington Post is reporting in the article, Ohio High School Paying Students To Show Up, Behave In Class:

A Cincinnati high school is paying its students to go to school.

The Dohn Community High School, a charter school in Ohio, started a program this week that would pay seniors $25 weekly and underclassmen $10 weekly in Visa gift cards for showing up to class every day, being on time and behaving in school. The move aims to encourage students to stay in school and graduate from the school where 90 percent of its students live in poverty. Fewer than 20 percent are in two-parent households.

“Money is important to them,” school Chief Administrative Officer Ken Furrier told CBS Cleveland. “We can’t teach them if they’re not here.”

Every week a student is paid, an additional $5 goes into a savings account, payable upon graduation. The program is being funded by $40,000 from several areas, including private donors and federal Workforce Investment Act dollars funneled through the Easter Seals, a community-based health agency, KMSP-TV reports.

“The target is graduation,” Furrier told Reuters. “We do almost everything we can to get the kids to there.”

Critics say the school is rewarding students for basic things students should be doing already, but at Dohn, “they’re not doing it,” Principal Ramone Davenport told KMSP-TV. “We’ve tried everything else.”

Davenport tells the Associated Press that the program is already working and attendance is up. Dohn was designated by the Ohio Department of Education as an “academic emergency” last year, with just a 14 percent graduation rate during the 2010-2011 academic year. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/ohio-high-school-paying-s_n_1280227.html?ref=email_share

This school is dealing with the reality of certain education settings because they have not absorbed from their upbringing the thought that education is crucial to later success in life. Further, these children often face emotional and economic challenges because of their family circumstance.

In answer to whether children should be paid to come to school and achieve – for some children, this may be an option. https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/should-we-pay-children-to-go-to-school/

Related:

We give up as a society: Jailing parents because kids are truant https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/we-give-up-as-a-society-jailing-parents-because-kids-are-truant/

Hard truths: The failure of the family              https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/hard-truths-the-failure-of-the-family/

See:

Don’t skip: Schools waking up on absenteeism           http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44704948/ns/today-education_nation/t/dont-skip-schools-waking-absenteeism/

School Absenteeism, Mental Health Problems Linked http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/12/25/school-absenteeism-mental-health-problems-linked/32937.html

A National Portrait of Chronic Absenteeism in the Early Grades        http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_771.html

Resources:

US Department Of Education Helping Series which are a number of pamphlets to help parents and caregivers

How Parents Can Help Their Child Prepare for School Assignments

The ABCs of Ready to Learn

Getting Young Children Ready to Learn

Ebony Magazine’s How to Prepare Your Child for Success

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

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Schott Foundation study: An example of inequity in education

17 May

In Location, location, location: Brookings study of education disparity based upon neighborhood https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/location-location-location-brookings-study-of-education-disparity-based-upon-neighborhood/ moi said:

The increased rate of poverty has profound implications if this society believes that ALL children have the right to a good basic education. Moi blogs about education issues so the reader could be perplexed sometimes because moi often writes about other things like nutrition, families, and personal responsibility issues. Why? The reader might ask? Because children will have the most success in school if they are ready to learn. Ready to learn includes proper nutrition for a healthy body and the optimum situation for children is a healthy family. Many of societies’ problems would be lessened if the goal was a healthy child in a healthy family. There is a lot of economic stress in the country now because of unemployment and underemployment. Children feel the stress of their parents and they worry about how stable their family and living situation is. Sabrina Tavernise wrote an excellent New York Times article, Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?emc=eta1

The Brookings Institute study:

Housing Costs, Zoning, and Access to High-Scoring Schools Jonathan Rothwell, Associate Fellow and Senior Research Analyst, Metropolitan Policy Program The Brookings Institution

Downloads

See, Study Links Zoning to Education Disparities http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/04/19/29zoning.h31.html?tkn=WZZFADpJ4QDbHYgGkErxvyM40vV%2B6oC2KKaZ&cmp=clp-edweek

John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew professor of education at New York University introduce the Schott Foundation report, “A Rotting Apple: Education Redlining in New York City,” in the Washington Post article, Why education inequality persists — and how to fix it:

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.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-education-inequality-persists–and-how-to-fix-it/2012/05/15/gIQAXEIeSU_blog.html

Here is a portion of the press release from the Schott Foundation:

School district inequities are barrier to quality education for New York City’s poor, Black and Hispanic students, Schott Foundation report finds

FOR RELEASE:  April 17, 2012
Contacts:
Rachel Sugar, 212-245-0510
Shawna Ellis, 617-876-7700

In New York City public schools, a student’s educational outcomes and opportunity to learn are statistically more determined by where he or she lives than their abilities, according to a new report, A Rotting Apple: Education Redlining in New York City, released today by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

Primarily because of New York City policies and practices that result in an inequitable distribution of educational resources and intensify the impact of poverty, children who are poor, Black and Hispanic have far less of an opportunity to learn the skills needed to succeed on state and federal assessments. They are also much less likely to have an opportunity to be identified for Gifted and Talented programs, to attend selective high schools or to obtain diplomas qualifying them for college or a good job. High-performing schools, on the other hand, tend to be located in economically advantaged areas.

“While the term ‘redlining’ might seem strong, this report reveals evidence of blatant disparities tantamount to Apartheid-like separations accepted in New York for far too long,” said Pedro Noguera, education professor at NYU, who wrote the foreword to the report.

“Unequal learning opportunities for poor students and students of color have become the status quo in New York City,” said John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation. “The current policy landscape in New York does very little to give these young people access to the supports, type of schools or qualified teachers that give them a substantive opportunity to learn. We need creative leadership to promote greater equity and alignment so the city no longer relegates our neediest children to the most troubled schools with the most limited resources, thereby limiting their potential for future success.” 

Education Redlining bases its findings on an “Opportunity to Learn” Index that examines 500 NYC middle schools across the city’s 32 Community School Districts (CSDs). The report identifies a series of inequalities between and within districts—that largely correlate to race and poverty level. The Opportunity to Learn Index is calculated by sorting New York City middle schools by their results on the New York State Grade 8 English Language Arts assessment. Schools are then sorted into four citywide groups based on average test scores. The percentage of students in the highest-scoring group in each CSD indicates the opportunity that a student in that group has to attend one of the city’s top schools in their district.

Community School Districts with no schools among the top set of schools—with Opportunity to Learn indices of 0.00—are in the city’s poorest neighborhoods of Harlem, the South Bronx, and central Brooklyn. Schools with the highest scores are found in northeastern Queens, the Upper West Side, and the Upper East Side.

To read the full report, including district by district analysis and policy recommendations, click here.

Learn more and download the full report >

Policy Recommendations

The Schott Foundation’s Education Redlining report offers several recommendations for how New York City can improve education outcomes for all of its students by providing equitable access to the DOE’s best schools and programs:

The State of New York, which is legally responsible for providing a “sound basic education” to all children (Court of Appeals, CFE v. State of New York; November, 2006), has dramatically cut school aid over the past two years, in effect reversing the impacts of the CFE investments. NYS should restore and increase funding in accordance with the CFE decision.

The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) should adopt policies that pro- vide equitable access to the Department’s best schools and programs. For example:

  1. All New York City middle schools should offer the courses necessary for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) (e.g., Algebra II). If it is determined that extracurricular tutoring confers a competitive advantage for the SHSAT, it should be offered gratis to all students eligible for free and reduced-price meal programs.
  2. The Gifted & Talented Program Test should be administered to all prospective kindergarten students. If it is determined that extracurricular tutoring confers a competitive advantage for the Gifted & Talented Program Test, it should be offered gratis to all students eligible for free or reduced price meal programs.
  3. New York State and City Departments of Education should direct additional resources to schools on a non-competitive basis in accordance with student need: schools serving students from homes with fewer resources should receive significantly more per student funding than those serving students from homes with greater resources. The system currently in place is not adequate to this purpose.
  4. Each student who is currently a grade level or more behind in Reading should immediately be given a Personal Opportunity Plan that gives the student access to additional academic (tutor, extended day learning, ELL), social (mentor) and health supports (eye sight, dental, mental health) necessary to bring the student to grade level proficiency within a 12 to 24 month period.
  5. Every school should have an opportunity audit to determine if it has the supports and interagency relationships to offer each student a fair and substantive opportunity to learn, through access to high-quality early childhood education, highly prepared and effective teachers, college preparatory curricula, and policies and practices that promote student progress and success.
  6. The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) should set as a goal to bring every school’s Opportunity to Learn Index (or the equivalent) to no less than a .80 by 2015 and 1.0, like CSD 26, by 2020.
  7. The New York City Department of Education should set a maximum level for the percentage of teachers with less than three years of teaching experience in districts with current Opportunity to Learn Indexes below 0.50 (or the equivalent). That percentage should be no higher than the average percentage with less than three years of experience in the top five highest performing district in the state. The Department should also take steps to reverse the salary gap recently identified by the U. S. Department of Education between teachers in high and low poverty schools.

In The next great civil rights struggle: Disparity in education funding moi said:

If one believes that all children, regardless of that child’s status have a right to a good basic education and that society must fund and implement policies, which support this principle. Then, one must discuss the issue of equity in education. Because of the segregation, which resulted after Plessy, most folks focus their analysis of Brown almost solely on race. The issue of equity was just as important. The equity issue was explained in terms of unequal resources and unequal access to education.

People tend to cluster in neighborhoods based upon class as much as race. Good teachers tend to gravitate toward neighborhoods where they are paid well and students come from families who mirror their personal backgrounds and values. Good teachers make a difference in a child’s life. One of the difficulties in busing to achieve equity in education is that neighborhoods tend to be segregated by class as well as race. People often make sacrifices to move into neighborhoods they perceive mirror their values. That is why there must be good schools in all segments of the city and there must be good schools in all parts of this state. A good education should not depend upon one’s class or status.

I know that the lawyers in Brown were told that lawsuits were futile and that the legislatures would address the issue of segregation eventually when the public was ready. Meanwhile, several generations of African Americans waited for people to come around and say the Constitution applied to us as well. Generations of African Americans suffered in inferior schools. This state cannot sacrifice the lives of children by not addressing the issue of equity in school funding in a timely manner.

The next huge case, like Brown, will be about equity in education funding. It may not come this year or the next year. It, like Brown, may come several years after a Plessy. It will come. Equity in education funding is the civil rights issue of this century.

https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/the-next-great-civil-rights-struggle-disparity-in-education-funding/

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Many U.S. colleges use the ‘Common Application’

15 May

Many students are preparing to apply to college and they will be using the the “Common Application” which is used by over 450 universities including some international schools. According to the “Common Application” site:

GENERAL QUESTIONS

WHAT IS THE COMMON APPLICATION?
The Common Application is a not-for-profit organization that serves students and member institutions by providing an admission application – online and in print – that students may submit to any of our 456 members.

The Common App Online Demo for Students (Flash Movi

WHY USE IT?
Once completed online or in print, copies of the Application for Undergraduate Admission can be sent to any number of participating colleges. The same is true of the School Report, Optional Report, Midyear Report, Final Report and Teacher Evaluation forms. This allows you to spend less time on the busywork of applying for admission, and more time on what’s really important: college research, visits, essay writing, and senior year coursework.

IS IT WIDELY USED?
Absolutely! Millions of Common Applications are printed and accepted by our members each year. In addition, last year almost 2.5 million applications were submitted via the Common App Online.

IS IT TREATED FAIRLY?
YES! Our college and university members have worked together over the past 35 years to develop the application. All members fully support its use, and all give equal consideration to the Common Application and the college’s own form. Many of our members use the Common Application as their only undergraduate admission application.

CAN ALL COLLEGES PARTICIPATE?
Membership is limited to colleges and universities that evaluate students using a holistic selection process. A holistic process includes subjective as well as objective criteria, including at least one recommendation form, at least one untimed essay, and broader campus diversity considerations. The vast majority of colleges and universities in the US use only objective criteria – grades and test scores – and therefore are not eligible to join. If a college or university is not listed on this website, they are not members of the consortium. Sending the Common Application to non-members is prohibited.

WHAT IS THE COMMON APP ONLINE SCHOOL FORMS SYSTEM?
As part of the application process, schools require a variety of information to be provided by teachers and guidance counselors who have interacted with you in the high school environment. Until last year, those forms were only available as PDF files that could be printed, copied, and mailed to the appropriate colleges. Now each teacher and counselor will have the option to complete the forms online via the Common App Online School Forms system if they desire. There is no cost to you or high schools, and using the online system is completely optional for your teachers and counselor.

When you create an account on the Common App Online, you must first indicate what high school you attend. Once this information has been saved, you can access a ‘School Forms’ section of the Common App where teachers and counselors can be identified. By adding a teacher or counselor to the list of school officials, an email is triggered to the teacher or counselor with information about how to log into the Online School Forms system or how to opt for the “offline” or paper process. You are then able to track the progress of your various teachers and counselors via a screen within the Common App Online.

The Common App Online School Forms System Demo (Flash Movie) Camera

WHAT IF I’M A TRANSFER STUDENT?
There’s a Common Application for Transfer Admission as well as First-Year Admission. The Transfer Application is available primarily for online submission; however, the form can be downloaded in PDF format from our Download Forms page.

https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/FAQ.aspx

In addition to U.S. colleges, colleges in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland use the “Common Application.” For a good synopsis of the pros and cons of using the application, go to Should I Use The Common Application? http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-admissions-experts/2011/09/07/should-i-use-the-common-application

Valerie Strauss writes in the Washington Post article:

When the Common Application was developed in 1975, officials hoped it would reduce the number of separate applications and essays a student applying to numerous colleges would have to complete. Actually, many colleges still require additional information, including more essays. So students, beware: There’s a lot of work to do.

So what are the undergraduate application essays? They are pretty much the same as last year, and the year before. Here are the instructions:

Please write an essay of 250-500 words on a topic of your choice or on one of the options listed below, and attach it to your application before submission. Please indicate your topic by checking the appropriate box. This personal essay helps us become acquainted with you as a person and student, apart from courses, grades, test scores, and other objective data. It will also demonstrate your ability to organize your thoughts and express yourself. NOTE: Your Common Application essay should be the same for all colleges. Do not customize it in any way for individual colleges. Colleges that want customized essay responses will ask for them on a supplement form.

* Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

* Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

* Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.

* Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music or science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.

* A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.

* Topic of your choice.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/2012-13-common-application-previews-available/2012/05/15/gIQAnQ79PU_blog.html

Applying to a college is just the first step. Students and families also have to consider the cost of particular college options.

Beckie Supiano and Elyse Ashburn have written the article, With New Lists, Federal Government Moves to Help Consumers and Prod Colleges to Limit Price Increases in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Department of Education’s new site about college costs.

Resources:

College Preparation Checklist

College Preparation Checklist Brochure

Federal Student Aid At A Glance 2011 – 2012

Funding Education Beyond High School

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Research: Summer bridge programs can help students succeed in college

14 May

In Helping community college students to graduate moi said:

Going to a community college is one way to reduce the cost of college.

The Lumina Foundation provides the following statistics:

  • Forty-six percent are 25 or older, and 32 percent are at least 30 years old. The average age is 29.

  • Fifty-eight percent are women.

  • Twenty-nine percent have annual household incomes less than $20,000.

  • Eighty-five percent balance studies with full-time or part-time work. More than half (54 percent) have full-time jobs.

  • Thirty percent of those who work full time also attend classes full time (12 or more credit hours). Among students 30-39 years old, the rate climbs to 41 percent.

  • Minority students constitute 30 percent of community college enrollments nationally, with Latino students representing the fastest-growing racial/ethnic population.

Source: The American Association of Community Colleges, based on material in the National Profile of Community Colleges:Trends & Statistics, Phillippe & Patton, 2000.

Many of those attending community college will need a variety of assistance to be successful in their academic career.https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/helping-community-college-students-to-graduate/

Caralee J. Adams has written the Education Week article, Colleges Offer Incoming Freshmen a Summer ‘Bridge.’

“Summer bridge programs can provide an important head start on college,” said Elisabeth Barnett, a senior research associate at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the Community College Research Center in New York. “They can increase the chances that students will enter college without needing remediation, and they can help students to gain comfort with the college environment and with themselves as college students.”

Such programs, which tend to run four to five weeks, offer intensive academic instruction. At-risk students are often recruited, and colleges generally pick up the tab as an enticement.

Students can come for the day or, at some institutions, live in the dorms. In developmental programs, classes focus on mathematics or English. Other campuses allow students to take a broader range of courses. Almost all find providing “college knowledge” through peer mentors is a valuable way to help students feel more confident about the transition to campus….

Participating in the summer programs did not lead to higher enrollment or better long-term persistence, but Ms. Barnett said they are beneficial, and schools should build on them with supports in the freshman year and beyond.

There is an increased need for remediation for the broader swath of students enrolling in college, including those who are the first generation of their families to attend, said David Hawkins, the director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC, in Arlington, Va.

“This creates a significant demand for pathways that feed into the college pipeline that allow students the time and knowledge to catch up to others who were born into families who had gone to college and were exposed to that culture,” he said.

A new NACAC survey found that 57 percent of colleges have some type of provisional-admission program, and of those, 23 percent had a summer bridge program. Other NACAC research of camp colleges (a form of summer bridge) also reported better persistence and outcomes among participants.

“It seems like we are at a breaking point on cost and remediation,” Mr. Hawkins said. “It gives reason for colleges to want to open their doors earlier.”

Recruitment Issues

Nationwide, about 40 percent of all traditional-age college students at two- and four-year colleges take a remedial course, and about 60 percent of incoming community college students are deemed not ready in at least one core subject—math, reading, or writing.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/09/30bridge.h31.html?tkn=NTSFjDnm0FZQdpTpx9MAnzPSdg0kJXiVUEh4&intc=es

The National Center for Postsecondary Research has published a report, Getting Ready for College: An Implementation and Early Impacts Study of Eight Texas Developmental Summer Bridge Programs written by Heather D. Wathington, Elisabeth A. Barnett, Evan Weissman, Jedediah Teres, Joshua Pretlow and Aki Nakanishi.

Overview

In 2007, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) funded 22 colleges to establish developmental summer bridge programs. Aimed at providing an alternative to traditional developmental education, these programs involve intensive remedial instruction in math, reading, and/or writing and college preparation content for students entering college with low basic skills. In 2009, the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) launched an evaluation of eight developmental summer bridge programs in Texas (seven at community colleges and one at an open-admissions four-year university), the

early findings of which are described in this report. Students who participated in the study were randomly assigned to the program group or the control group. Program group students participated in the developmental summer bridge programs, while control group students received colleges’ regular services. All developmental summer bridge programs had four common features: accelerated instruction in math, reading, and/or writing; academic support; a “college knowledge” component; and the opportunity for participants to receive a $400 stipend.

The main findings of this preliminary report are:

• All eight programs in the study were implemented with reasonable

fidelity to the model framed by the THECB, but they varied on some

key dimensions.

• Program costs averaged about $1,300 per student but varied widely.

• Program group students did not enroll in either the fall or spring

semester at significantly different rates than control group students;

enrollment rates were high for both groups.

• There is evidence that the program students were more likely to pass

college-level courses in math and writing in the fall semester following

the summer programs. The findings also suggest that program students

were more likely to attempt higher level reading, writing, and math

courses compared with control group students. http://www.tc.columbia.edu/i/a/document/DSBReport.pdf

In Producing employable liberal arts grads, moi said:

One of the goals of education is to give the student sufficient basic skills to be able to leave school and be able to function at a job or correctly assess their training needs. One of the criticisms of the current education system is that it does not adequately prepare children for work or for a career.

Related:

New report takes community colleges to task https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/new-report-takes-community-colleges-to-task/

Producing employable liberal arts grads https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/producing-employable-liberal-arts-grads/

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

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Technology report: Ed-Fi, the student info data base

14 May

Julia Lawrence of Education News is reporting on the growing acceptance of Ed-Fi in the article, Ed-Fi Signs Up More States, Teachers and Companies:

Collecting data on students in order to closely tailor the classroom experience to student strengths got easier last year with roll-out of Ed-Fi™ Tool Suite, a free software solution to help educators conduct useful analysis in a timely manner. Since its launch in July 2011, Ed-Fi™ has been used by schools and districts in 8 states, with 4 more taking advantage of the software’s functionality through the Shared Learning Collaborative. Nearly one in three teachers and as many students are now making use of this technology nationwide.

The software was designed to comply with the Common Education Data Standards which allows seamless transfer of knowledge between schools, school districts and the states. Companies who have licensed the software in order to integrate it in their own education-targeted products include e-Scholar, Curriculum Associates and Wireless Generation, among others. http://www.educationnews.org/technology/ed-fi-signs-up-more-states-teachers-and-companies/

The stated goal is to make student data more accessible and user-friendly for educators. A significant part of the push for more data has to with the introduction of Common Core Standards. See, Will ‘Common Core Standards’ increase education achievement? https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/page/2/

According to the Ed-Fi site, Ed-Fi is a product of the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation:

Developed for the K-12 sector, Ed-Fi is open, XML-based, and CEDS-aligned to integrate information from a broad range of existing sources so it can be sifted, analyzed and put to use every day.

Ed-Fi enables educators to:

  • Easily access current, accurate classroom and student-level data
  • Develop more effective, progress-based lesson plans
  • Strengthen student academic growth and achievement
  • Conduct more objective, fact-based parent-teacher dialogues
  • Integrate data from existing systems such as student information systems (SIS), grade book applications, curriculum planning systems, and benchmark testing and reporting systems

Ed-Fi enables districts and agencies to:

  • Access consistent, comparable performance data across districts, schools and states
  • Continuously monitor, assess and improve program effectiveness
  • Manage evolving compliance-reporting requirements
  • Integrate with existing infrastructures
  • Ensure system interoperability
  • Accommodate future technological developments

Ed-Fi enables vendors to:

  • Develop reusable products for multiple districts, states and other vendors
  • Align to existing national standards
  • Address shifting requirements without major code overhauls
  • Streamline and systematize complex integration processes
  • Develop productized solutions for use among multiple districts, states and vendors
  • Focus on innovations that address emerging needs and open new markets

Available free of charge, Ed-Fi licenses provide school districts, state education agencies and vendors with access to all Ed-Fi components.

About Ed-Fi and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation was established in 1999 to help improve the lives of children in need around the world. The Ed-Fi initiative supports the goal of ensuring that all children have access to quality education in public schools, one of the foundation’s key objectives.

Designed to function as a national data standard, Ed-Fi was developed based on input from vendors as well as state and local education agencies. The Ed-Fi data standard is governed by foundation representatives working in collaboration with an advisory council of education agency representatives from states that opt to implement the standard. The Ed-Fi standard is vendor-neutral and does not require any specific vendor’s hardware, software or protocols.

http://www.ed-fi.org/about/

Here are some frequently asked questions about Ed-Fi:

General (11)

http://www.ed-fi.org/faqs/

Here is a portion of the press release from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation:

AUSTIN, Texas, May 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Since launching in July 2011, the Ed-Fi Tool Suite, including the data standard and dashboards, has gained significant momentum in K-12 education among state education agencies, school districts and vendors.  Eight states have licensed or are in discussions to license the Ed-Fi Tool Suite, and an additional four states will benefit from Ed-Fi-enabled tools through the Shared Learning Collaborative. This represents 34% of K-12 students and 36% of teachers across the United States. 

Ed-Fi is the only free, flexible and complete ed-tech solution to empower educators with relevant, timely, student-centric information that enables better data collection and reporting to improve decision making, facilitate targeted action plans and drive higher student outcomes. The Ed-Fi data standard aligns with Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) and facilitates secure data exchange among disparate data systems in the K-12 education sector. The Ed-Fi data standard enables interoperability among education systems that states and districts have already implemented, and enables organizations to build on prior investments in existing IT systems and processes. Most importantly, it puts the transformative power of information in the hands of teachers and other educators when and where they need it most: their classrooms.

Arizona, Kansas and New Mexico join Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texasin using Ed-Fi to power their ongoing efforts to ensure that educators have the information and insight they need to understand the individual needs of every student and be equipped to respond.

Vendors including e-Scholar, Curriculum Associates, SunGard and Wireless Generation have also licensed Ed-Fi. Further, the Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) has chosen Ed-Fi to power its scalable shared technology services, which aim to accelerate progress toward personalized learning for every K-12 student in the United States.  The SLC will help existing and future instructional technology investments in states, districts and schools work better together, and will extend the reach and potential of Ed-Fi to additional states including Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina….

Ed-Fi does not replace existing education data or information systems, nor does it supplant existing data standards; it enables them to work together to give educators nationwide what they need: holistic portraits of students that are detailed, easy to understand and up-to-date at any given moment. Moreover, Ed-Fi addresses a long-standing challenge to meaningful systemic improvement in schools nationwide: The multiple and often non-interoperable information and education data systems used by schools, districts and states.

“Ed-Fi fills the persistent need in the education sector to harness the power of data already collected in school districts and states,” said Fey.

STATE EDUCATION AGENCY QUOTES

“Joining Ed-Fi and uniting behind a common data standard is an important step forward for Arizona’s education community to provide powerful student-level data to educators,” said Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal. “Arizona is undergoing transformative education reform, and improving the quality of education through sound data-driven decision making is a key part of that change. I applaud the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation for offering such a robust education technology solution, at no cost, to the Arizona Department of Education.”

“Colorado has consolidated 19 primary data collections, and we now have eight. We were able to do this by taking a student-based approach to data as compared to the old way of approaching data based on programs.  Ed-Fi wholly supports this enterprise view of data.  By streamlining the flow of information and eliminating redundant data requests, Colorado can reduce the data administration burden for schools while shifting resources towards using data to enhance performance,” said Robert Hammond, Commissioner of Education, Colorado.

“Use of the Ed-Fi standard allowed us to significantly accelerate the development life cycle for our Education Insight warehouse and dashboard projects, enabling us to move from analysis to production in just 12 months. Ed-Fi provided a compass that guided the transformation of data from a variety of disparate data sources into meaningful real-time metrics for classroom decision-making, while allowing us to customize the teacher dashboard to the specific needs of Delaware educators,” said Reese Robinson, Education Insight Project Manager, Delaware Department of Education….

About Ed-Fi

Ed-Fi is a universal educational data standard and tool suite that enables vital academic information on K-12 students to be consolidated from the different data systems of school districts throughout the United States. Ed-Fi acts as a universal translator of academic data, integrating and organizing information so that educators can start addressing the individual needs of each student from day one, and can measure progress and refine action plans throughout the school year.

Developed through funding from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Ed-Fi licenses provide school districts, state education agencies and vendors with unrestricted access to all Ed-Fi components free of charge. For more information, visit www.ed-fi.org. The Ed-Fi initiative supports the goal of ensuring that all children have access to quality education in public schools, one of the foundation’s key objectives. http://www.educationnews.org/technology/ed-fi-signs-up-more-states-teachers-and-companies/

Schools also have to be concerned with student privacy rights.

Kelly Field reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education article, New Rules Would Allow for A Broader Sharing of Student Records

The Department of Education will release new rules today that will make it easier for states to develop data systems to track students’ academic progress and evaluate education programs.

The proposed new rules would allow high-school administrators and state officials to share student-level data with researchers, auditors, and other agencies without violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, or Ferpa.

The changes are being welcomed by education reformers but criticized by privacy advocates, who fear they could undermine longstanding student protections. Under Ferpa, colleges must generally obtain a student’s consent to release data from an education record.

In an effort to strike a balance between privacy and accountability, the department has hired a chief privacy officer and created a technical-assistance center to advise states, schools, and colleges on privacy and data security.

But critics of the rule say such efforts won’t do enough to protect students in the face of expanded data-sharing.

The U.S. Department of Education has a site about the Family Education Act and Privacy

GENERAL
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) Home

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

For additional information, you may call 1-800-USA-LEARN (1-800-872-5327) (voice). Individuals who use TDD may call 1-800-437-0833.

Or you may contact us at the following address:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-8520

Although, the database may make accessing student information easier, student privacy concerns should also be addressed.

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