Archive for January 06, 2008 - January 12, 2008

The 5th annual WE LEARN (Net) Working Gathering and Conference on Women and Literacy, to be held March 7 and 8, 2008, in New York City, will revolve around the theme "Building Alliances." The Women Expanding--Literacy Education Action Resource Network (WE LEARN) promotes women's literacy as a tool for personal growth and social change.

For further information about the organization or the conference, visit the WE LEARN website.

“Perfect Peter has just finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” says his mother. “He taught himself to read over the holidays and now he can’t stop.” Perfect Peter is only four. He is also an exception. Teaching children to read and inspiring them with a love of books takes time and patience—something most of us lack.

It takes hours of M for Maisy Mountain, following Floppy the dog through the Oxford Reading Tree series and renditions of The Tiger who Came to Tea. No wonder one fifth of our children in the United Kingdom leave school unable to read and a quarter of the young haven’t read a book in the past year. For many hard-pressed families and schools, reading has become too much like hard work. Which explains why the government has become obsessed with encouraging everyone to pick up a book again.

But does it matter? Isn’t an obsession with books just an out-of-date, middle-class hang-up? Read this opinion piece at Telegraph.co.UK.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dealt a blow to educators, proposing $4.8 billion in cuts to California’s public schools and possibly restarting a fight that he hoped had ended with the state’s largest teachers union. Education advocates vowed to fight the cuts, which Schwarzenegger would accomplish by suspending the holy grail of California’s education system: Proposition 98, the landmark school funding guarantee voters approved in 1988.

“This is going to be one of the most painful, vocal, public, fierce debates about education funding that we have ever seen,” said Brian Lewis, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials. “We are going to come out of the woodwork opposing any suspension of 98 and any further undermining of this minimal guarantee to kids.”

Having to wield a budget ax over schools is a cruel irony for a governor who just months ago promised he would dedicate 2008 to wide-ranging education reforms in his “Year of Education.” Read more at SFGate.com.

The latest results from a seven-year Scottish study show that children taught how to put sounds together to read words, called synthetic phonics, had significantly better reading skills than their peers taught using analytic phonics, breaking whole words into their constituent sounds.

But Australian literacy researcher Allan Luke, from the Queensland University of Technology, questions the validity of using evidence-based research in assessing teaching methods. Luke, a former director-general of the Queensland Education Department and ministerial adviser on education, has dismissed scientific studies showing the benefit of phonics. Speaking at a curriculum symposium last month, he said the studies provided no evidence that alternate methods had failed. Read about the literacy controversy in The Australian online.

Since 1999-2000, the Institute for Social Research at the University of New Mexico has been following children who had attended a public preschool as they entered kindergarten and then moved on through Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). At the same time, APS changed from half-day to full-day kindergarten (FDK), introducing the full-day program gradually over a five-year period.

When researchers studied language and reading development for a group of children who started in 2002-2003, this group improved their reading skills considerably, moving up an average of 15 percentiles by the end of the year. The problem is that as these children proceed through the elementary grades their reading scores decline steadily. By third grade almost all the initial benefits of FDK disappear. Read more and find a link to the University of New Mexico study at The Mountain View Telegraph website.

Quality Counts 2008, this year's edition of Education Week's annual report on the status of public education in the United States, grades states on both performance outcomes and their efforts to better align policies across the various levels of education. This year's report also introduced a revised set of indicators on the teaching profession that looks more broadly at state efforts to attract, develop, and deploy talent in education, including some new indicators related to school principals.

To see how your state fares according to Quality Counts 2008, visit the Education Week website.

The state assessment that will replace the Delaware Student Testing Program should show student growth, require less testing time, and give immediate, diagnostic feedback to help teachers adjust their instruction to meet students’ needs, a new report based on a two-year pilot project recommends. Such a test “allows the educational system to be more responsive to kids,” said Nancy Doorey, coordinator of the Delaware Statewide Academic Growth Assessment Pilot.

The pilot included more than 30,000 students across four districts and charter schools in grades 2 to 10. They were tested three times a year in reading and math using Measures of Academic Progress, a computerized multigrade assessment aligned to Delaware standards that adjusts the difficulty of questions asked according to how accurately a student is answering them.

The pilot compared the improved proficiency, or growth, documented using the computer-adaptive tests to the growth identified using DSTP and found the computer-adaptive assessments documented student progress that the grade-level DSTP assessments missed, particularly among children who began the year well above or below their grade level. The report, released January 8, 2008, suggests Delaware develop a system similar to Oregon’s. Read more at delawareonline.com.

Latinitas magazine, the first digital magazine made for and by Latina youth, is launching a print magazine for "tweens" and older in 2008. As part of that launch, the magazine is sponsoring the Latinitas Magazine National Writing Contest seeking feedback from Latina youth ages 14 to 21 on "What it is to be Latina." Winning writers will see their articles published in the print and online issues of Latinitas magazine.

Submissions should be 800 to 1,000 words in first person or Associated Press style on one of the following subjects: What is it like to be a Hispanic/Latina female in your hometown? What does it mean to you to be a Hispanic/Latina female? As a Hispanic/Latina female, are you doing something in your community to make a difference; if so, what? Describe the biggest challenge facing young Hispanic/Latinas today. Applicants should submit articles to latinitasawards@yahoo.com by February 10, 2008, or mail a copy to Latinitas, PO Box 4284, Austin, TX 78765.

Latinitas magazine is a nonprofit publication. For further information, visit the magazine's website.

Drawing out shy students to participate in a lesson may be as simple as asking them to raise flash cards instead of hands. This and other tips were shared with a group of Martha B. King Middle School teachers Monday, January 7, 2008, their first day back to school after winter break. Like their peers around Manatee County, Florida, teachers at King Middle in Bradenton started the week with training and workshops.

Teachers at King Middle got a refresher course on how to differentiate their instruction—how they can reach out to both advanced and struggling students during lessons. It’s also part of a districtwide initiative to streamline all the effective teaching methods, said Lynn Gillman, the district’s executive director of academics. Read more about the use of differentiated instruction at Brandenton.com.

According to some surveys, roughly two-thirds of North American readers admit to reading in the bathroom. With that in mind, Robert Philpot of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram offers 20 reasons to continue doing so. The article was found on the website of The Arizona Republic.

Here is a sampling of Philpot's tongue-in-cheek reasons for bathroom reading: you can learn something, it's an intellectual pursuit, it promotes literacy, you can learn a lot about pop culture, and famous people have done it. To see the other reasons, read the full article.

 On the eve of the sixth anniversary of his signing of the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush urged Congress to reauthorize the law before he leaves office, but pledged to veto any bill that "weakens the accountability" measures, according to an article by Maria Glod in the Washington Post.

Speaking at an elementary school in Chicago, Bush said NCLB has worked and urged its renewal. As focus shifts to the upcoming presidential election, however, chances for the act to be reauthorized this year grow dimmer. For further information, read the full article.

On January 8, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasized that 2008 should be the year of the “bottom billion,” citing the need for renewed determination to address the needs of the world's poor who have been left behind by global economic growth.

“We must address ourselves to the needs of the weak, the disadvantaged, those who have been excluded from the mainstream international community,” he said during his first press conference of 2008. “And so I say, let 2008 be the year of the ‘bottom billion.’” The “bottom billion” refers to the phrase used by some economists to describe the poorest of the world’s poor—the nearly one billion left behind by global economic growth.

Noting that most of the world’s poorest people live in Africa or small developing islands of Asia with incomes of less than $1 a day, he pledged to work over the coming year to strengthen the UN's role in development. For further information, visit the United Nations Information Centre website.

In the mock primary held on the eve of the official January 8, 2008, New Hampshire Primary, 10,791 students in 85 New Hampshire schools chose Barack Obama and Mitt Romney as their presidential candidates. Two in three (64%) voted the Democratic Party ballot and 34% the Republican Party ballot.

•For the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama led with 57% of the votes; Hillary Clinton had 26%, and John Edwards 10%.
•For the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney led with 35% of the votes followed by John McCain, 20%; Rudy Giuliani, 15%; Ron Paul, 13%; Mike Huckabee, 11%.

Prior to voting, students had time to study curriculum materials that reviewed the qualifications not only of all current candidates but also of all our past presidents. For more about the mock election visit the website of National Student/Parent Mock Election.

A majority of urban-based First Nations and Metis people in Saskatchewan do not have the literacy skills to cope in today’s society, according to a Statistics Canada study. The study released Monday, January 7, 2008, found 70% of off-reserve First Nations and 56%of urban-based Metis scored below the benchmark considered to be the minimum for an individual to cope in a complex knowledge-based society. The study also found the proportion of low-scoring adults was much lower among non-aboriginals, at 37%, in urban Saskatchewan.

But as grim as the numbers are, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Literacy Network Inc. says the study doesn’t capture the full extent of the problem. “There’s nothing from the north, there's nothing from the reserve, nothing from any of the institutions where there are a lot of people who are struggling with literacy issues, so this is not an accurate reflection,” said Carol Vandale, executive director of the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Literacy Network. Read more about the study at canada.com.

Guyana’s Education Minister Shaik Baksh is proposing a nationwide literacy program in schools this year that involves classes being extended in the afternoons and on weekends and holidays, in an effort to improve the quality of education. A similar program targeting adults at the community level is also planned since, according to Baksh, the literacy level is declining across the country. He said this continues to be one of the major challenges of the education sector and is something that must be addressed.

“The results of the assessments in our primary and secondary schools over the past year have sent a strong signal to us about where we are in terms of literacy in our schools and even countrywide. But in addition to the program being implemented we need our teachers to dedicate more time to the children and for them to spend more time in the classrooms,” Baksh said. Read more at the Starbroek News website.

"Faced with the daunting challenges posed by the new global economy, the U.S. is squandering one of its greatest assets in the form of its gifted and talented students," writes guest columnist Walt Gardner in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Yet the issue remains curiously absent from public debate among presidential candidates."

Gardner's commentary places some of the blame at the federal level, where billions are spent on programs to bring all students up to minimal proficiency and only "a paltry $9.7 million" was spent in 2006 on the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, the only federal initiative specifically focused on this group of students.

Gardner goes on to discuss the pros and cons of Advanced Placement programs, the potential value of dual enrollment (high school and college), and the importance of professional development for teachers of the gifted. "Despite popular belief, not all gifted students learn by themselves," writes Gardner. "They need inspired instruction and a challenging curriculum specifically geared to their needs."

For further information, read the full article.

 In a ruling that could have significant ramifications for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 today to revive a lawsuit that challenges the law's funding.

In November 2005, a district judge had dismissed the lawsuit, which was brought by the Pontiac, Michigan, school district, and districts in two other states, along with the National Education Association. The suit argued that schools should not have to comply with "unfunded mandates" within the law. The majority opinion in today's reversal stated that "NCLB fails to provide clear notice as to who bears the additional costs of compliance" and remanded the case for further proceedings.

For further information, read the full text of the ruling.

A classroom of first-graders at Hamilton Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona, lost its teacher shortly after she was hired. So the principal called in a substitute. Then she called another. And still another. “I’d guess that we've had 10-12 substitutes in there,” Principal Mishay Tribble said.

Arizona’s teacher shortage is threatening the education of hundreds of children. In many schools, children spend a semester or an entire school year trying to learn from a string of substitute teachers, each with different rules and different skills. Children fail to create a relationship with one teacher or a community with their classmates. Kids can lose interest in going to school, and their learning can stagnate or slide backward, educators warn. Read more about the problem in The Arizona Republic online.

The mood was buoyant just a few months ago as some of California’s best minds in education gathered to debate what school reforms to make in 2008, a year Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had anointed California’s “Year of Education.” Since then, much of the enthusiasm has fizzled as the state’s fiscal outlook has deteriorated.

Schwarzenegger will release his proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year this week, providing the first detailed look at how he plans to close a deficit estimated at $14 billion over the next year-and-a-half.

Even before the deficit emerged, some education leaders were playing down expectations for the “Year of Education.” They cautioned that it would be impossible to overhaul a system that governs nearly 10,000 schools and 6.3 million students in just one year. Schwarzenegger told education advocates in November that his “Year of Education” is essentially off. Read more in The San Jose Mercury News online.

 Depending on which presidential candidate you ask, No Child Left Behind is a costly and disastrous foray into federal control of schools or a lofty plan that needs fixing. No matter who becomes the next president, expect significant changes to President Bush’s signature education program.

It’s rare that Democrats and Republicans agree on anything in a presidential election. But No Child Left Behind, the most sweeping and test-heavy federal education reform in history, may be the uniting issue of the campaign season.

Every candidate has said the law needs some work. Some, such as Democratic long shot Bill Richardson, want it thrown out altogether. Others, while saying they support the law, have promised changes in the same breath. Read more about what candidates have to say in this article in The Palm Beach Post online.

James Patterson's Cross, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People--these are a few of the most popular books among inmates in Massachusetts prisons, according to an article by Laura Crimaldi appearing on the Boston Herald.com website.

The article notes that the state's Department of Correction runs 11 full-service libraries providing legal and recreational reading materials to 11,000 prisoners. It also notes that the libraries are considered critical to prisons and that the American Correction Association will not accredit a prison that does not have a library. For further information, read the full article.