Archive for November 11, 2007 - November 17, 2007

Math scores continued to rise in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but reading is showing no improvement with fourth-graders ranking among the lowest among urban districts, according to a federal report released Thursday, November 15, 2007. Every two years, 11 urban districts, including Los Angeles, test their fourth- and eighth-grade students in math and reading. The outcome of these tests, known as the Trial Urban District Assessment Results, are part of the National Assessment of Education Progress—commonly called “the nation’s report card.”

The results provide a look into the achievement in the nation’s urban schools and they echoed some of the concerns from the nationwide assessment. Those results released in September showed that while math scores rose, reading progress was mixed and the achievement gap between white and Asian students and their black and Latino counterparts remains wide. Read the article in The Los Angeles Times.

Congress on Wednesday, November 14, 2007, passed and sent to President Bush a five-year Head Start bill that opens the popular preschool program to more children while taking steps to see that it is well-run and its teachers are better qualified. Bush is expected to sign it, though he is unhappy with several aspects of the bill, particularly its lack of language allowing religious groups receiving Head Start grants to hire and fire staffers based on their religious affiliation. The House passed the bill 381-36. Hours later, the Senate approved it 95-0. Read the article at Ohio.com.

When residents of Darien, Connecticut, walk into their new library in 2009, they will be able to read a book or magazine while sipping coffee in a cafe that spills out to the sidewalk. They will find books grouped by subject, as they are in bookstores, instead of according to the Dewey Decimal System. They will lounge in overstuffed chairs, peruse DVDs in a Blockbuster-style video section, write a report on a wireless computer or print one on a color copier in the building’s small business center. Darien is among dozens of libraries in the area that are being rebuilt or renovated, and, in the process, recast. Librarians say the changes reflect the impact of technology and communities’ increased need for places to meet, relax, socialize and even telecommute. Read the article in The New York Times.

J.K. Rowling is suing the publisher of the Harry Potter Lexicon, which began life as a popular Potter blog, and wants a court to rule that she has the sole right to profit from the “descriptions, character details, and plot points” of the Potter tales. Now, a federal judge has issued an injunction against RDR Books to prevent them from completing the typesetting, selling the books, or even marketing it on Amazon.com. Read Nate Anderson’s take on the lawsuit at Ars Technica.

Welsh parents read more bedtime stories to their children than anyone else in the United Kingdom, while parents in southern England read the least, research published November 15, 2007, shows. Figures highlight a disparity across the UK in the number of children under six who are read to. A total of 83% of parents in Wales read to their child at night while only 51% of parents in the south of England and London do. In the north of England and the Midlands the figure is far higher at 73% and 70% respectively. In second place is Scotland with 71%. In Northern Ireland, 67% of parents read bedtime stories. In the UK as a whole, 75% of parents asked said they read to their children at bedtime. Read more at icWales.co.uk.

The Bloomberg administration in New York City is beginning a drive to remove unsatisfactory teachers, hiring new teams of lawyers and consultants who will help principals build cases against tenured teachers who they believe are not up to the job. It is also urging principals to get rid of sub-par novices before they earn tenure. At the center of the effort is a new Teacher Performance Unit of five lawyers headed by a former prosecutor. A separate team of five consultants, including former principals, will work with principals to improve struggling teachers’ performance. In cases where the teachers fail to get better, the consultants will help amass the documentation necessary to oust them. Read about the undertaking in The New York Times.

When adults have trouble reading, they can’t teach their kids how to read. This vicious cycle of illiteracy is huge when you consider that more than 30 million adults in the United States have reading skills that are “below basic.” To help break these disturbing trends, the National Center for Family Literacy is partnering with Half Price Books to publish the 13th edition of Say Good Night to Illiteracy. It’s a beautifully illustrated children’s book of poems and short stories that raises money to support literacy projects. The hardcover book is a bargain at $4.98. “It’s one of the most imaginative, beautiful kids’ books that I’ve ever seen,” says Aeron Johnson, an assistant manager at Half Price Books–East in Madison, Wisconsin. Read about the book in The Capital Times.

With the United States fighting an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, stories of espionage and critiques of foreign policy were winners at the 58th annual National Book Awards in New York, Wednesday, November 14, 2007. Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke, a 600-page journey through the physical, moral and spiritual extremes of the Vietnam War, won the fiction award Wednesday night, while Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, won in nonfiction. Robert Hass’ Time and Materials, which includes several poems critical of the Iraq war and the Bush administration, won for poetry. The prize for young people’s literature went to Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Each of the winners received $10,000. Runners-up received $1,000. Read more in The Washington Post.

Escalating his budget battle with a Democratic Congress, President Bush on Nov. 13 vetoed a spending measure for labor, health, and education programs that would have provided $63.6 billion for the U.S. Department of Education, a 5% increase over 2007 spending and 8% more than Bush had sought. The president’s veto sets up what could be a nasty showdown over 2008 education spending, with the 2008 fiscal year already two weeks old. Bush vetoed the $150.7 billion labor, health, and education spending measure on the same day he signed a 9% increase in the Pentagon’s non-war budget, to $471 billion. The defense measure only funds core department operations. It doesn’t include Bush’s $196 billion request for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, except for a nearly $12 billion infusion for new troop vehicles that are resistant to roadside bombs. Read more at eSchool News online.

American students even in low-performing states like Alabama do better on math and science tests than students in most foreign countries, including Italy and Norway, according to a new study released yesterday (November 13, 2007). That’s the good news. The bad news is that students in Singapore and several other Asian countries significantly outperform American students, even those in high-achieving states like Massachusetts, the study found. The scores for students in the United States came from tests administered by the federal Department of Education in most states in 2005 and 2007. For foreign students, the scores came from math and science tests administered worldwide in 2003, as part of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, known as the Timss. Read about the study and its methodology in The New York Times.

Nathan Jesmore may not enjoy the 7 a.m. practices, but there’s a lot about band he does like. The senior who attends Olathe East High School in Olathe, Kansas, said marching while playing his saxophone honed his concentration skills. “Band lays a lot of the foundation and teaches you a lot of the fundamentals about how to prepare for life,” said Jesmore, who has been in school bands since fifth grade. He may be on to something. A poll released this week suggests that being involved in music programs—from orchestra to garage band—could be linked to greater educational attainment and bigger paychecks. Also, a recent study by a University of Kansas music professor found a possible link between high-quality school music programs and higher math and reading scores. Read more in The Kansas City Star.

A literacy program for children waiting to visit incarcerated relatives has been given extended life, thanks in part to donors and volunteers. “Start with A Story” is the brainchild of Lisa Harris, who runs the inmate literacy service at Santa Rita Jail. She originally had enough books to last through the end of September, but after a news story about the program, readers have donated books and money to purchase them. The program runs for about three hours Saturday and Sunday at Santa Rita Jail. Volunteers staff a table with books; each child who wants one can pick a book to keep. Volunteers also read to the children if they would like. The hope is kids will improve their reading skills, become more interested in reading and learn more about library services and programs. Read about the program at The Tri-Valley Herald.

A constellation of best-selling authors joined Barbara and George H.W. Bush at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center earlier this week for A Celebration of Reading Dallas. But the crowd at the literacy fundraiser wanted Jenna. Jenna Bush was there to read from her new book, Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope. She read a moving chapter about an HIV-positive teen mother she met while working for UNICEF in Latin America. As many guests wiped away tears, former President Bush said, “I used to worry about following Barbara; now I have to worry about following the grandkids.” Read the article in The Dallas Morning News.

AdLit.org, a new website that targets educators and parents of adolescent readers, was recently launched by WETA Learning Media. Building on the success of sister sites ReadingRockets.org, ColorinColorado.org, and LDOnLine.org, the new service focuses on helping students from fourth through 12th grades to read and write better.

AdLit.org offers research-based articles, instructional material for classroom teachers, tips for parents, book recommendations, exclusive interviews with top authors, and a free, monthly e-newsletter called Word Up! The project is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and by the Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation. For further information, visit AdLit.org.

Childhood is full of truths and myths, some of them perpetuated by moms to get something done, but learning to read as soon as possible really can help students do better in English 101. Earlier this year, in an effort to enhance student performance, the Utah Legislature passed a plan that made optional extended-day kindergarten available to more schools. Many Title I schools, which receive additional funds based on the number of students receiving free and reduced-cost lunch, already had the program. The goal of extended-day kindergarten is to promote literacy and give students extra help so they will be better prepared for first grade. Read about Utah’s plan in The Daily Herald.

Several schools in New Britain, Connecticut, including four elementary schools and the high school, are about to go through a major restructuring that school district officials hope will bring dramatic improvements in how students perform on standardized tests mandated by No Child Left Behind. The most sweeping changes will take place at the elementary and middle school levels, where district officials hope to provide more intensive individual instruction for students. To go into effect when the next school year begins in September 2008, the plan is designed to help improve the district’s rankings in standardized test scores, which consistently have been among the lowest in the state. Read the article in The Courant.

Reading coach Jamie Leach passed out a variety of news articles to her 20 pupils in a literacy skills class at South Medford High School, Medford, Oregon, but before they flipped a page, she interrupted them. “Before you read it, list three things you already know about this topic, make a prediction about what it’s about and set your purpose for reading it,” Leach said. The exercise helps students focus on the information they need to obtain from the article, enhancing comprehension, Leach explained. After seeing reading scores climb at its Reading First elementary schools, the Medford district added reading coaches to middle schools three years ago and to high schools two years ago. Reading coaches are becoming a fixture in more and more schools, from kindergarten to 12th grade. Read the article in The Mail Tribune.

Educators and psychologists have long feared that children entering school with behavior problems were doomed to fall behind in the upper grades, writes Benedict Carey in The New York Times. But two new studies suggest that those fears are exaggerated.

In one study, being reported in the journal Developmental Psychology, an international team of researchers analyzed measures of social and intellectual development from more than 16,000 children and found that disruptive or antisocial behaviors in kindergarten did not correlate with academic results at the end of elementary school.

In the other study, being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that the brains of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder developed normally but more slowly in some areas than the brains of children without the disorder.

For further information, read the full article.

Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country’s literary conscience and provocateur with such books as The Naked and the Dead, died Saturday, November 10, 2007, his literary executor said. He was 84. Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author’s biographer. From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as The Armies of the Night, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality. Read more of his obituary at MSNBC.com.

Once there lived a group of very poor people who could not read or write. Some started attending church, but their illiteracy kept them from joining fully in worship activities. Certain people who saw this wanted to help them learn to read. Others scoffed, saying this was unnecessary—that the illiterates could follow the church services just by hearing. The literacy advocates thought this argument ridiculous, so they started teaching people to read and write. A loosely knit movement helped many to become literate and better themselves, both socially and financially. Then people noticed others in the land also lacked literacy. Many were children living almost wild in great cities. The literacy societies expanded to teach those children also. The literacy movement was, at its heart, a missionary effort. Read about the the Sunday School movement in The Washington Times.

In January PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will launch a five-year literacy initiative for preschoolers and young learners aimed at teachers, parents, and caregivers. Funded in part through a grant from the United States Department of Education, the multi–pronged initiative, dubbed “PBS Kids Raising Readers,” will include a wide range of new tools and media, including television series, Web content, professional development, and a preschool curriculum, designed to develop literacy skills in kids aged 2 to 8. Read about the initiative in The Journal.

At Oakhill Elementary School in Streamwood, Illinois, teachers stress out annually to reach federal academic bars set by the No Child Left Behind Act. That’s especially true when it comes to those teaching students who have special needs, according to Sue Kellner, a special education resource instructor at Oakhill, who works with about 20 special education students on a weekly basis. The school has anywhere from 60 to 70 special education students per year, according to Kellner. Even though more than 78% of the students at Oakhill met or exceeded math and reading standards set by the act this year, the school failed to make “adequate yearly progress” because of a few special ed students not meeting the standard in reading. Read the article in The Courier News.

Every Monday, Ian Mackenzie, a 17-year-old student at Greenwood College, heads to Moss Park arena with a team of fellow students to help run a hockey program for kids in Grades 4 to 6 who attend inner city schools. His fellow student J.C. O’Connell, a 13-year-old in Grade 8, travels to Dundas Junior Public School every Wednesday to help teach reading to two children who have just emigrated from China. Their efforts are part of an innovative approach to education at Greenwood College, a Toronto private school for Grades 7 to 12 started in 2002. It combines community service, outdoor education, academic studies and a co-op program. The idea behind these initiatives, school leaders say, is to build strong and independent young men and women. Read the article in The Toronto Star.

Ask voters how they rate education in the upcoming presidential campaign, and it ranks among their top four concerns. According to a recent Pew Center poll, education outranked jobs, Social Security, and even terrorism as a key issue, says Larry Abramson of National Public Radio. But education won't emerge as a top-tier issue this campaign season. To find out why, listen to the NPR report.