School-of-Thought

I received a question this morning from a reader about South Dakota’s new high school graduation requirements.   The purpose of the change is to make education more meaningful for students, and at the same time prepare students for a world that seems to be changing faster each day. 

At the state level, one of the new graduation requirements will mean that by 2013 all schools will have to offer opportunities for students to enroll in a “capstone experience.” This amounts to service or project-based learning , such as an internship, pre-apprenticeship, or research project.  The capstone experience is meant to be the culmination of, or the “crowning experience” of a student’s high school years.  In our community, we’re just beginning to explore different avenues on how we can offer this, how it will impact our teachers and their schedules, as well as how it might impact local budgetary needs.  One of the nice things about Watertown is our long history of partnership with industry, and Dr. Hanson is planning to work with our Business Industry School Coalition Organization (BISCO) to help plan the process. 

The capstone experience is part of state’s new education equation to both expand educational opportunities, but also to get student more involved in researching career interests at a younger age.  Under the new rules, beginning in 8^th grade, all students and their parents will create “personal learning plans” through a state website that match their personal career interests to specific high school coursework and post-secondary training or careers.  A component of the learning plan will require students to select taking at least one credit from a menu containing foreign languages, career and technical education, or capstone. 

Locally, the administration is also investigating how we might make high school more meaningful through expansion of online learning opportunities.  Currently, online classes are only used for credit recovery or remediation.  However, if a student wants to take a online class outside of those parameters, like taking a subject that’s not offered here, there is no mechanism to do that — yet.  I look for that to change in the not too distant future.  I envision our students with even greater opportunities to take online classes like engineering, Greek, more AP classes, and a host of other academic subjects that fit into their personal learning plan.  

What we call school is changing.   The intent is to make it more meaningful.  Hopefully the change will be for the better. 

The question I’d ask you to think about and comment on dear reader, is what does “school” mean to you, what changes would you like to see, and why?

Is South Dakota Racing to the Top?  Seems nobody knows.  The education news is full of stories about states competing for the single largest amount of discretionary money ever directed toward education – 4.3 Billion dollars — but things are uncomfortably quiet here. 

The Race to the Top grant is competitive, with some 30+ criteria and a point system to weigh the factors.  The two most significant criteria are:

(1) That school districts make a significant buy-in to improve education (reform education), and;

(2) That to some degree, states evaluate teachers and principals based on student performance. 

Other factors include demonstration on how states use data to improve education (state maintains robust data system), and the friendliness of the state to charter schools (ie government supported public school competition).    

I imagine South Dakota could make a reasonable case to the Feds how we’re making strides to improve education.  On the teacher evaluation front, South Dakota assesses teachers like most other states – based on years of experience and training, not student performance —  so I imagine we’d lose points, along with most states, on this criteria.  To my knowledge, the state doesn’t have a longitudinal data tracking system to allow educators to track the academic performance of a student throughout their k-12 years, nor does the state have laws that allow for development of charter schools. 

 Maybe that’s enough of a point killer to eliminate us from the competition.  The point is, no one knows.  No one at the DOE is talking.  South Dakota could possibly receive between $20-75 million of the available money.  That’s a nice chunk of change to help our kids.   I wonder if it’s enough to get the DOE and the legislature moving.

 It sure would be nice if someone said something . . .

Tear down the wall between K-12 and postsecondary education, writes Bill Maxwell, a correspondent at the St. Petersburg Times: 

We have two separate cultures in education: elementary and secondary schools (K-12) and postsecondary schools (undergraduate and graduate institutions). This separation is expensive, wastes human capital and harms the public welfare.

Each year, we send more than a million freshmen from our high schools to our colleges and universities who are not “college-ready,” ill-prepared for the intellectual rigor of postsecondary study. They must take humiliating noncredit remedial courses, which many never complete, in their attempt to catch up.

As much as 30 percent of students enrolling at four-year colleges and 60 percent of those enrolling at community colleges take remedial courses, meaning that our colleges and universities spend millions of dollars annually to teach skills that should have been taught in K-12.

A major reason for this problem is that an overwhelmingly large number of U.S. educators have drawn a sharp line between secondary and post-secondary education, resulting in a lack of communication that has led to a paralyzing blame game.

Maxwell is right. The separation is expensive, wastes human capital, and harms the public welfare.  You would think that educated public servants from both sides of the fence could work together.  In South Dakota, the systems are far a part.  How is it in your state?

Blogging is one of the ways I reach out to folks.  I look at it a way to connect to people through what I write.  I also look at blogging as a way for me to learn.   

I use a RSS reader to subscribe to news sites, education experts, and policy makers. The stories that interest me the most are situations that develop in other school districts.  I try to imagine how I would respond as a school board member if I were called to make a decision in the same situation.  For example, just last week the suspension of a first grader caused a massive uproar in this youngster’s community. The little guy’s offense?  He brought one of those “camping utensils” to school to eat his lunch – you know, the kind that has a combo spoon, fork and knife. The district interpreted it as a lethal weapon and suspended him. What would I have done in that situation? (My motto: When in Doubt – Use Common Sence!). 

To help me stay current with what I read, every once in a while I prune my feedlist, cutting back the dead wood while adding the best of the new blogs. I did that this weekend.    My personal preference is to focus on the blogs with both good content as well as heart.  I look for blogs written by experts who care enough about their readers that they share about themselves.  That helps me connect. 

That’s also one of my goals as I write – to share with you a bit of who I am — so we can connect. 

To see the blogs I’m currently reading, click here, or go to the top of the home page and click on the “Blogs I Read” tab.   

The blogs I read inspire me, challenge me, and help me to look at education (and sometimes life) in new and sometimes exciting ways.  Ultimately, they help make me a better school board member.   

I hope you enjoy the list – they’re all linked so feel free to click away. I think of the sites as my top fifty-plus-1 education places to visit on the internet – sort of a virtual bucket list for school board members!

I know I’ve posted a lot of videos this past week, but I couldn’t resist one more — US Ed Sec Arnie Duncan on Colbert. Both informative and pretty darn funny!

Do you ever just take time to just ponder about things?  You know, sit in a chair, rest your head on a hand, and just reflect about big-picture type questions?  This morning I’m pondering a few education questions, like: 

1. What  do I value about education?
2. What more do I want from our schools? – and what can we do better?
3. What does a really, really good school look and feel like?
4. What’s the best way to educate our next generation? 

Do you ever think about questions like this?  Have any answers you care to share?  I’d love to hear from ya!

Until next time — just think of me as  . . . pondering in South Dakota . . .

Education recommendations for presumptive Republican pres. candidate John McCain, from Eduflack:

1.  National standards benefit the nation.  Such standards don’t mean we are denying local control.  They empower our local districts to remain competitive in their state, across the nation, and throughout the world.  National standards, both for students and teachers, are the only way today’s students can succeed in tomorrow’s global economy.

2. Invest in education R&D.  We all understand the value of investing in medical or technology R&D.  Now is the time to invest in research focused on improving our schools and educational quality in our classrooms.  Such investment is key to triggering true innovation at the state or national level, leading to improved economies, better jobs, and better lives.

3. Respect the practitioners.  It is easy for some to say our schools have failed because our teachers have failed.  If any Republican wants to engender change in our schools, they need to respect the teachers delivering the curriculum.  They are on the front lines.  Without their support, reform will fall flat, destined for a garbage heap of good but failed ideas.

4. Don’t fear additional spending.  NCLB scared off many a Republican, particularly with increased federal education spending.  The feds are still only responsible for about 8 cents of every dollar spent on public K-12 education.  Additional funding is good for the system, as long as we are spending it on research-proven instruction and improvements we know will boost student achievement.

5. Focus on what works.  For decades, our schools have been bombarded with the latest in snakeoils and silver bullets.  Today’s educators want to see what works in schools like theirs, with kids lke theirs.  NCLB is all about replicable school reforms.  Now is the time to spotlight what is going right in your hometown or your home state, and use it as the model for why we need to continue federal education reforms.  Many of today’s improvements are directly tied to NCLB efforts.  Take credit for it.”

Read the full post here.

Comments?

I came across this thoughtful reflection from Carolyn Foote, a librarian from Texas. Carolyn writies about an article in the Economist “about how people now are much more nomadic in thier use of spaces” due to things like “Wi-fi, mobility, and portability.”   This allows people the increased ability “to connect whenever they go in nooks and crannies” and other indoor and outdoor spaces.

The discussion from Carolyn’s perspective of a librarian is how the design of librarry and school spaces can facilitate learning and take advantage of the “nomadic” use of space.

The concept is fascinating to think about from the perspective of a school board member — because part of our duties of course include the construction of school buildings.

Perhaps equally important as the design of new space is how current space is used. At this week’s school board meeting we heard from teachers and administrators involved with development of the new alternative education plan for the middle school and high school. A component of the plan is to create warm and unique learning environments in each building.

Due to our 1:1 laptop program we already have wireless internet set up — students can connect via laptop anywhere in the high school. It will be interesting to see what these new alternative ed spaces will end up looking like.  I’m imagining it’s going to be different than the traditional desks-in-a-straight-row type classroom.

There are dozens of wonk blogs discussing national education policy, as well as thousands of blogs by teachers and parents (homeschoolers and public schoolers) looking at education from the classroom and home perspective. Principals and superintendents are blogging. Teachers and students are blogging.  And even an occasional School Board Member or two are blogging. But what effect has this new avenue of communication had on education reform?

Today I received an invitation to attend the first ever blogging and education summit in Washington DC on May 14th – 15th to discuss how the Internet is changing the discourse of education reform, and how those changes are affecting the 2008 presidential election.  If you’re interested in learning more, check out the ED in ‘08 Blogger Summit site. Wish I could go . . .

How much will the Department of Education’s new set of No Child Left Behind regulations effect the Watertown School District? Time will tell, but I’m guessing not much. But it clearly will affect many schools elsewhere in the US. The proposals would force states to finally begin calculating graduation rates in a uniform manner, and includes revisions ranging from after-school tutoring to student testing.

Here’s a quick summary of the new proposed regulations.

• Uniform Graduation Rates

Among the biggest changes is ED’s proposal to codify the recommendation made by the National Governor’s Association in 2005: By the 2012-2013 school year, all states must calculate their graduation rate using the same formula, allowing an apples-to-apples graduation rate comparison across states. The regulation would also require states to disaggregate graduation data by 2013-2014, to allow better comparison of disparities in graduation rates among certain student populations. South Dakota and our school district currently use the proposed formula.

The rules also would mandate states to adopt goals that would demonstrate “continuous and substantial” progress on improving their graduation rates.

• State Testing

The rules would clarify that states’ tests should assess students on more than basic skills. The proposal says that state tests should include questions “that measure both higher-order thinking skills … as well as knowledge and recall items to assess the depth and breadth of mastery of a particular content domain.”

The rules also would require states to publish their reading and mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress alongside the scores on their own tests such as the Dakota STEP.

• Changes In Choice, SES

The regulations also call for school districts to demonstrate they are doing all they can to notify parents of low-income students that Supplemental Educational Services (fancy name for free tutoring) is available to them in exchange for granting schools new flexibility in how they spend Title I funds.

• Final Thoughts

I have no concerns about any of the proposals, but as I’ve written previously, when NCLB is finally rewritten and reauthorized, I am hopeful and would be most grateful if Congress and the new Administration could see fit to reduce its “stick philosophy” in lieu of a greater “carrot philosophy.” In my opinion, a national education policy befitting our country should be one that creates hope, opportunity, and equity of learning for all students. To accomplish that, greater carrot and less stick would go a long way.

In April, 1983, an important education report A Nation at Risk, sounded an alarm that our schools were “drowning in a ‘rising tide of mediocrity.’” The report called for fundamental changes in the way America educates its children. Now 25 years later comes its sequel, Democracy at Risk: The Need for a New Federal Policy in Education. The report argues that the United States’ education system is even further behind than it was in 1983, with less children coming to school ready to learn, more children living in poverty, less graduating from high school, and less able to compete academically with children from other countries.

Pointing out our national achievement scores compared to other countries, the report calls for a fundamental reorganization of national education policy, stating:

There is a pressing need to redesign our schools to meet the demands of a global 21st century society in which knowledge and technology are changing at a breath-taking pace, and new forms of education are essential for individual and societal survival.

The call for redesign makes sense, but in this school board member’s opinion, it’s doubtful it’s politically feasible — at least to the extend called for by the authors. The problem is not everyone in America is an educational advocate, and not everyone believes in the urgency or prioritizes education policy like the authors. The truth is that politics and competing national interests have historically played significant roles in education. That being said, with both a presidential election and NCLB reauthorization looming in the not-too-distant future, the time is ripe for for a thoughtful national re-evaluation of education policy. Pessimism aside, could the next 24 months be a tipping point for educational reform???

The authors argue our educational system is so broken that it places our democracy at risk:

The challenge is clear: Improving education and improving democracy go hand in hand. We need to build upon the natural curiosity of children to help them make sense of the world. We need to arm them with the knowledge and skills, as well as the resourcefulness and inventiveness, that will be required to invent solutions to tomorrow’s problems. We need to give them the tools to live their lives respectfully and collaboratively with others, building communities that can tackle the challenges that lie ahead. We must think of education as more than a collection of standardized tests if we are to reverse the decline of democracy and create a stronger fabric for “We, the people” among the next generation of citizens

To resolve the dilemma of our current system, the authors call for a complete overhaul of the federal education system, focusing on four major priorities:

Federal Priority #1: Pay Off the Educational Debt

• Link federal education support to state progress toward opportunity to learn
• Meet the federal obligation for funding programs for students with special needs
• Invest in high-quality pre-school and health care that enable students to come to school ready to learn.

Federal Priority #2: Develop a World-Class Cadre of Skilled Educators

• Create incentives for recruiting teachers to high-need fields and locations.
• Strengthen teachers’ preparation by focusing on how to teach diverse
• learners, evaluating teacher performance, and creating professional development schools.
• Launch teaching residency programs in high-need communities.
• Support mentoring for all beginning teachers.
• Create sustained, practice-based, collegial learning opportunities for teachers.
• Develop teaching careers that reward, develop, and share expertise.
• Mount a major initiative to prepare and support expert school leaders.

Federal Priority #3: Support Educational Research, Development, and Innovation

• Document and disseminate promising practices.
• Invest in the development of higher quality standards and assessments for genuine accountability.
• Develop data bases, shared measures, and tools to advance educational practice.

Federal Priority #4:Engaging Local Communities

• Foster family engagement in school life and school improvement.
• Provide for genuine community involvement in school improvement processes.
• Place schools at the center of community education.

The report is very thoughtful and a great read.

The most human interview of ED Secretary Margaret Spellings that I’ve seen appears in the May issue of TexasMonthly.com, by Evan Smith.

Here is an exerp:

At the level you’ve operated, there’s an awful lot of pressure. You don’t strike me as the kind of person who would particularly enjoy wearing battle armor.

I believe in this. I love George Bush—I’ve been as loyal to him as any person around—but I believe strongly in the soap I’m selling, in No Child Left Behind, and I think Americans believe that education is the great equalizer. It is what we do that other countries haven’t done. It’s our shared value as Americans. It’s why we are the world’s innovator. Shame on us if we stop paying attention to it.

Click here is access the entire interview.