NGA Conference / Update Education

(AMY LEANG/DFP)

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is at the wheel of a 1960 Cadillac Eldorado convertible Friday with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who chairs this weekend's meeting of the National Governors Association in the Traverse City area.

2 governors share similar backgrounds

This weekend, they're in spotlight

July 21, 2007

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF

FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

She leads a state where she wasn't born and is an ex-federal prosecutor and attorney general who in her 40s was elected governor as a likable, moderate Democrat, replacing a Republican. Four years later she trounced a Christian conservative challenger.

Went to college in California. Earned a law degree from an elite Eastern school.

The description fits Jennifer Granholm, Michigan's governor. And Janet Napolitano, Arizona's governor. Their careers have had striking parallels.

As new governors in 2003, both faced billion-dollar deficits and Republican legislatures. Both stress education and innovative businesses as crucial to their economies.

Both will be in the spotlight at the National Governors Association conference in the Traverse City area this weekend, Granholm as host and Napolitano chairing a gathering that will mix policy with parties in one of Michigan's premier playgrounds.

It's Granholm's job to show off her state's best side.

It's Napolitano's job to oversee discussions of global warming, online child predators and -- her main focus -- education as the key to lucrative, innovative markets for the United States.

In an interview this week, Napolitano said improving college education is crucial as the United States competes with other nations. Still, she said, the issue hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. The federal No Child Left Behind law for K-12 schools dominates the debate but, Napolitano said, doesn't go far enough in its testing requirements.

"They don't really tell you if your students have the capacity for innovation and creativity, the things that will allow us to compete with the Beijings, the New Delhis, the Dubais, the Dublins of the world," Napolitano said.

"What helps here is the opportunity for governors to share with each other what they are doing. Frankly, my experience at these governors meetings is some of the valuable conversations are in the background, in the hallways, as to what you tried that didn't work very well or maybe cost way more money than it produced."

Napolitano chose Granholm to chair the NGA committee on economic development and federal energy policies. Granholm said they struck a friendship in 1999, after they were elected attorneys general.

Napolitano is Arizona's third woman elected governor. In 2005, she was named one of the five best governors in the country by Time magazine. Conservatives label her a big spender. Democrats considered her a possible running mate for presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004.

She bridged a polarized Arizona government and made friends with business, said Earl de Berg, a pollster with Behavior Research Center in Phoenix.

"She's a pretty savvy gal. She has an intuitive understanding of where the public is in Arizona with respect to their frustration with past politics," de Berg said. "She's slightly left of center, but she gives the impression she's open to all, and it's really struck a chord with the public."

Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.

NGA Conference/ Update

(AMY LEANG/Detroit Free Press)

From left, Governors Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Jennifer Granholm of Michigan speak during the National Governors Association 2007 Annual Meeting opening news conference at the Great Lakes Campus of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.

Governors' conference kicks off in Traverse City

July 21, 2007

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF

FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

TRAVERSE CITY -- Nearly 40 of the nation's governors kicked off their summer conference here Saturday, as Gov. Jennifer Granholm welcomed them against a backdrop of Grand Traverse Bay's blue surf and spectacular, sunny weather.

Granholm said the conference theme of innovation and the economy is especially pertinent to Michigan, which leads the nation in unemployment and, she said, is transforming from an auto-dominated economy, yet must retain the auto industry as part of its economic base.

"We know the importance of investing and diversifying an economy," she told reporters on the grounds of Northwestern Michigan College's Great Lakes Campus.

She said governors will discuss, among other things, how to use the creativity of state universities and as magnets for economic growth -- a topic led by NGA chairperson, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who joined Granholm at the opening event.

The opening event also drew comments on global climate change. Granholm said while it's important for states to limit carbon dioxide emissions, and said all 2008 presidential candidates should insist that U.S. trade partners agree to limit carbon emissions as well.

"We can do all we want in the Unites States, but if there is no global lessening of emissions out of China, than it is nothing," she said. "We have to have a global policy."

Also attending the press conference were Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, chair of the NGA; Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III. Ritter said some European nations are looking to U.S.states to take step that will drive this nation's debate on global warming.

Thirty-five governors were expected to attend the conference at the Grand Traverse Resort.

They were to hear presentations Saturday by Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt, and Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, on the topic of innovation and the economy.

Granholm used the occasion to tout her economic plan to diversify the state's economy using money from the new 21st Century Jobs fund to attract high-tech, innovative industries, and new, tougher high school curriculum standards.

Napolitano said states should focus more on higher education and producing products that no other countries produce and market.

"What do we need to do as governors, state by state, to make sure the next generation is fully prepared for the globalization of the 21st Century?" she said."How do we make the U.S.a place were jobs are in-sourced, not out-sourced, as a result of our mental capital?"

She added, "Governors have a key role."

Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.

AIM GREASE for Those Gears!

The Good Work Project: http://www.goodworkproject.org

The Good Work Project Overview (PDF)
http://goodworkproject.org/docs/papers/GW%20Overview%201_06.pdf

SOMETIMES things just aren't WHAT they SEEM!

NSF ITEST STEM Grant / UPDATE!

Proposed Revisions/Clarifications for Proposal, 07-37326, Fostering Interest in Information Technology, submitted by the University of Michigan

Project Design

Q1. The ITEST program mandates two consecutive years of participation in Youth-Based Projects. Although this is mentioned in the narrative, please confirm that students will participate for two years and provide an outline of activities for Years 1-2. Why do students not begin until 1 year after the program begins?

A1. We confirm that for the three-year duration, the proposed project will have two cohort groups, each participating in two consecutive years of project activities with an overlap in the second year so that all participating students will receive two years of enrichment activities.

The proposed project will be implemented from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2011. Participating students for the first cohort will begin the project in early fall of 2008. However, the project will implement a series of recruitment activities for the first cohort before the end of the previous school year in the winter and spring of 2008 and prepare over the summer for a fall start (before the 3-year “official” duration of the project begins in July 2008). Similar recruitment activities will be conducted for the second cohort in the winter and spring of 2009.

The outline of activities and events for the first cohort are as follows.

Year 1: Capacity Building (July 1, 2008 – August 30, 2009). The year starts with a preparation activity involving a summer course for K-12 STEM teachers, followed by a kickoff meeting as the school year begins, a set of IT intensive STEM area workshops for students during the year, and seminar meetings near the end of the fall and winter semesters. The year concludes with real-world field-based experiences during the following summer with opportunities for students to work directly with IT and STEM professionals and see examples of real-world workplace applications.

1. IT/STEM Summer Course

2. Kickoff Meeting

3. Level 1 Workshops

4. Seminar Meeting 1

5. Level 2 Workshops

6. Seminar Meeting 2

7. Summer Externship

By improving the IT/STEM readiness of participating students through capacity building activities and field-based experiences, all students will be prepared to undertake the work of designing IT-intensive authentic projects within the context of STEM, work that will start during the program explorations and continue into the second year.

Year 2: Design (September 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010). The design year consists of a series of site-based sessions for each individual design team and a whole-group seminar meeting near to the end of the school year. The overarching task of each design team in this year is to design inquiry-based authentic projects that are of at least science fair quality using one or more content-specific IT tools explored during the previous capacity building year and stimulating ideas/experiences gained during the field trips. The design year will end with a techno/career fair during the following summer of 2010.

8. Step 1: Ask (takes place during the summer externship)

9. Step 2: Investigation (takes place during the summer externship)

10. Step 3: Create

11. Step 4: Discuss

12. Step 5: Reflect

13. Seminar Meeting 3

14. Techno/Career Fair

The second cohort goes through the same set of activities in Year 1 (July 1, 2009 – August 30, 2010) and Year 2 (September 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011).

Q2. Funding is requested for materials development but the narrative does not adequately describe the curriculum materials to be produced. How many modules will be produced and by whom? Are there some existing materials that can be used?

A2. The proposed project will produce a total of four Curriculum Guides, one for each STEM subject matter area. They will be developed by the leadership of each design team (Drs. Zitzewitz, Medjahed, Orady, and Höft) in collaboration with the post-secondary STEM content expert and K-12 STEM teacher involved in each design team of the project. Each curriculum guide will include the following four modules:

1. The first one will be related to the summer course for teachers,
2. The second one will be related to the capacity building phase activities,
3. The third one will be devoted to summer externship activities,
4. The fourth one will deal with the design phase activities.

The project leadership will combine these four curriculum guides into a STEM guide book that will include a total of 4*4=16 modules.

We are not familiar with any existing curriculum guides for individual STEM subject matter areas that linked to the State content expectations and tested out with participating students.

Q3. How will the four student teams interact? How will student teams be organized if students self-select and the membership is not balanced?

A3. During Year Two: Design of each cohort, four student teams will interact through whole-group activities and events--Seminar Meeting 3 and Techno/Career Fair. Throughout the year, the project’s Web site, blog, and podcasting sites will also be utilized to extend student interaction outside the confines of the formal scheduled events.

Students’ interest in a specific STEM area is the main criteria for the organization of the design teams. At the end of the Level 1 Workshops, we will assist students to narrow down their interest to two specific STEM related fields. Level 2 Workshops will allow students to narrow down their interest to one specific STEM area. This multi-level structure is expected to provide a relatively balanced membership for four STEM area design teams. However, we will also ask students to provide an alternate team besides their main interest so that the project leadership could be more flexible with assigning students into four design teams in a balanced fashion. Possible multi-disciplinary projects from combined areas of STEM to be designed by students will help them find interest in more than one STEM area. This will also help the project leadership to balance the membership assignments for the design teams.

Q4. Please describe the student internship (what happens beside the field trips) and the teacher summer course in more detail.

A4. The student internship will consist of field-based experiences and preparation for Design activities.

During the two-week summer program, students will meet and observe the work of scientists and professionals in IT/STEM fields. The project will facilitate eight different day-long field trips (two for each STEM design team); each emphasizing IT related career and educational pathways within the context of STEM, and including debriefing activities after each one. Collaborating business, industry, government, and university sectors will host these sessions. This will help students to determine their real world projects and utilize the IT-STEM area professionals to research and develop meaningful projects that contribute to scientific advancement through collaboration and digital connectivity.

As part of the summer program, aligned with the Cyclic Inquiry Model’s 5 major steps (Ask, Investigate, Create, Discuss and Reflect), the project will also facilitate collaborative learning experiences where students learn how to design and conduct inquiry-based authentic projects; more specifically they learn how to Ask, Investigate, Create, Discuss, and Reflect. These theoretical discussions will then be linked to students’ authentic projects to provide practical applications. Step 1: Ask will take place during the summer program. Lead by one specialized member of the project leadership team, each STEM area will hold a series of meetings to discuss IT-intensive authentic project ideas aligned with appropriate federal and state standards within the focus area of each design team. At this stage, each student begins to focus on a question or problem, defining and describing it. Students will be assisted in the process by members of the leadership team, design team members, IT-STEM professionals from partnering business, industry, and government sectors, parents, and supporting partners. During this process, the project leadership team will closely survey the focus and interest of each participating student to facilitate individual, small-group, or multidisciplinary projects. Step 2: Investigate will also take place during the summer program and will be conducted in a similarly to Step 1. Students will begin to collect information about their questions. This process will include research using reading, observing, interviewing, or doing exploratory experiments.

The leading members of the STEM area design teams, Drs. Zitzewitz, Medjahed, Orady, and Höft will collaboratively design and teach an IT-intensive STEM area summer course for high-school STEM teachers. Ten to fifteen teachers from partnering school districts are expected to enroll in this three credit-hour summer course to learn, experience, and use information technologies within the context of STEM. The course will consist of presentations followed by hands-on activities to provide participating teachers the opportunity to learn advanced use of IT toolsets within the context of STEM. Four teachers (one from each STEM area) will be selected to participate in the proposed project based on their performance in this course. This will also allow the project leaderships to identify alternates for participating teachers those who would become unavailable to continue with the program.

Q5. What strategies will be used to identify parents with IT backgrounds to assist with the project? What evidence is there that a pool of parents with this expertise exists among the target population? How will parents access technology needed to participate electronically?

A5. Student recruitment information will identify parents’ work experience and parent/significant others’ willingness to assist in the program. In addition, the scheduled seminars and outreach opportunities will help us to survey parents and their professional background and expertise.

Participating school district, Detroit Public Schools is located in the Detroit Metropolitan area, where the “big three” automotive companies, their vendors and suppliers are located in Southeastern Michigan. Therefore, we have anecdotal information indicating that there is a considerable number of parents among the targeted population whose expertise are in IT-STEM fields.

The project will establish a parental Blog site to facilitate collaboration and exchange among parents, students, and other members of the project. Sponsored by the project’s participating school district, each student will have 24/7 access to a laptop and a Pocked PC throughout the program. This will allow parents to access these technologies at home for electronic communication as needed. Local libraries are also available for public access to Internet, WWW, and email.

Project Team, Management, and Audience

Q6. Who will serve on the project advisory board? Please provide letters of support to confirm commitment.

A6. The following individuals will serve on the project advisory board. Please see the appendix for the copy of the email confirmations of the commitment. We will provide official letters of support as we receive.

1. Charlotte A. Otto, Associate Provost and Professor of Chemistry, University of Michigan-Dearborn.
2. Dr. Bill Cobern, Director of t he George G. Mallinson Institute for Science Education
3. Patricia Pickett, Principal, Northwestern High School, Detroit Public Schools
4. Jeff Bush, Consultant, Design and Technological Studies, Oakland Schools
5. Michael Souden, Learning Services, Oakland Schools

In addition to the current members of the advisory board, we will continue our effort to include at least one representative from the region’s business, industry, and government sectors, and parents and volunteers.

Q7. What is the role of the industry collaborators?

A7. The primary role of the industry collaborators is to provide the "real world" applications. They will also have roles in other aspects of the projects. They will assist in providing the digital toolsets needed to do authentic research and development that contributes to the existing body of scientific knowledge. They will also provide technical tours and time of qualified personnel to mentor and guide student teams in the four areas of STEM. This would help provide real life problem solving techniques to the participating students. Industry collaborators have also a critical role to play in the development of what 21st century digital and academic toolsets are needed to facilitate a smooth transition from K-12 to college and then to the world of work. The cooperative relationship between business, industry and the education community is expected to result in the establishment of the following:

1. Permanent internships with participating businesses,
2. Greater sense of corporate responsibility
3. The creation of mutual advisory boards,
4. To inspire students to view the business world as part of their larger career path,

5. For all participating groups to demonstrate their products, projects, business plans, goals, strengths and weaknesses,
6. Businesses will help students to enhance their understanding of the general way in which participating businesses work, and
7. For businesses to receive students at the work place to see skills and STEM transferred to the world of work.

Q8. Which members of the project team (PI and Co-PIs) that are leading the science, technology, mathematics, and engineering design team, have expertise working with the target audience of high school youth?

A8. All members of the project leadership team who will be leading the STEM area design teams have previous experiences in working with high-school students and/or have been involved in funded projects in this area.

Dr. Mesut Duran, Associate Professor of Technology in the School of Education, will be overseeing the design team activities. He is a former high school teacher with three-year teaching experience in 9-12 grades. His current research titled Michigan Teachers’ Technology Education Network (MITTEN) has also involved considerable number of high school teachers and their students from six different school districts in Southeastern Michigan.

Paul Zitzewitz, Professor of Physics and Science Education in the Natural Sciences Department, will lead the Science design team. He has authored a high school physics textbook.

Dr. Brahim Medjahed, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science, will lead the Technology design team. He has previously designed and taught computer science labs to high school students.

Dr. Elsayed Orady, Professor and the Coordinator of the Manufacturing Engineering Program in the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, will lead the Engineering design team. He worked with Detroit area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) students.

Dr. Margret Höft, Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, will lead the Mathematics design. She worked with several K-12 teachers and their students in the MITTEN project.

Q9. One reviewer was concerned that objectives 2, 4, and 5 are overlay ambitious for a three-year project. How will they be accomplished?

A9. Working closely with higher education and industry experts, monitoring student activities and progress in two consecutive years will bring real-world experiences to K-12 STEM teachers. Their engagement in the development of STEM area Curriculum Guides will provide significant strategies for replication and expanded awareness of additional opportunities and possibilities for their future students. Similarly, post-secondary faculty members’ ability to design and deliver IT/STEM enrichment experiences and opportunities for K-12 STEM teachers will increase within this collaborative engagement.

The “Community of Designers” idea that the proposed project will implement promotes collaborative engagement among high-school students, K-12 STEM teachers, U/GSAs, and post-secondary STEM content experts. Utilizing new technologies such as videoconferencing, streaming video, Web-based enabled collaboration tools such as blogs and poscasting will accelerate traditional time consuming analog deliverables and methodologies allowing the formation of a self-sustaining professional development network.

Q10. What schools will be targeted for recruitment and what are the characteristics of the target audience?

A10. The incoming 9^th Grade students will be recruited from a total of 6 high schools within the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) system for the first cohort. The students from Northwestern, Southeastern, Mumford, Cass Technical, Martin Luther King, and Renaissance high schools will be invited to participate. In addition to DPS, project leadership will invite the Oakland Schools and other surrounding school districts to participate in the project’s second cohort as part of its long term vision. Students will have to maintain Grade Point Levels above the minimum of 2.0 in addition to having acceptable attendance and behavior for the school year (9^th Grade). Students will be required to proved evidence of their freshman year performance for completion of the application process.

For both cohorts, the target audience is minority students, students with special needs, and female students. These students will join the project at the beginning of their 10^th grade and complete the two-year-long project activities at the end of their 11th grade, transitioning into their senior year as future college students.

The recruitment of students will be done via visits to invited schools and/or classrooms by representatives of the program. These visits will include STEM courses and activities ongoing in the targeted schools, coupled with letters of invitation to students as selected and/or nominated by the STEM instructors and school administrators. Students will be provided an application for active participation in the project. To support and maintain the levels of student participation, an alternate list of students will be created and provide replacements for any student moving from the targeted school or otherwise unavailable to continue with the program. Incentives will be provided for all involved students for the duration of the program.

Q11. Will student IT and STEM knowledge be considered as part of the admission process? What criteria will be used for high school and college student participation?

A11. Students’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math will be the most important focus areas for admission to the project. We will survey students for math, science, and computer courses taken and grades earned. However, high GPA is not required to enter the program.

We will recruit college students from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Their STEM strengths, IT comfort levels, outstanding GPA with excellent communication and teaching skills will be considered as selection criteria. We will also take into account students’ prior experiences working with the target high-school youth (e.g., tutoring, volunteering activities, and community services).

Q12. What is the plan for student retention? The PI predicts that the project will have 100% retention which may be unrealistic.

A12. The retention plan includes combination of academic and financial support systems. The project will regularly emphasize the “goal oriented” nature of the program rather than a “degree/certificate” which is considered one of the working strategies for student retention. Student retention is also “high” when program activities highlight a competition. With their projects designed during the FI³T program, students will be encouraged, advised, and supported to participate in nationwide pre-college competitions such as the Intel Science Talent Search and the International Science and Engineering Fair. Provided by the project’s K-12 partner, Detroit Public Schools (DPS), and equipped with special software needed for their projects, students will have access to a laptop and a Pocket PC during their participation in the project. Providing such educational and motivational tools and resources will have a positive impact on student retention. The social environment surrounding students with supporting parents, teachers, content experts, project leaders, business partners, and community members will also positively impact student retention. We are also aware of that urban environments face great uncertainty every day and those factors, transportation, fractured families, economics, etc., pose the greatest threat to retention and most importantly are unpredictable.

Evaluation and Budget

Q13. What are the benchmarks for project success which are critical for the evaluation and sustainability plans?

A13. Each sub group involved with the proposed project will have group benchmark and self-imposed significant steps in their path toward success. The following benchmarks will help us identify student and project success.

Students:

1. Increased use of computers, handhelds and other personal computing devices.
2. Increased use of business technology: Display devices, Cameras, projection equipment, etc.
3. Increased understanding and use of 3D software and the significant application of same.
4. The growth of team work skills associated with working on a professional team.
5. Increased understanding of project benchmarks, time lines and accountability to the larger picture.
6. Develop better organizational skills relative to project management as it relates to all aspects of the larger picture.
7. Students will report out regularly on their project components and predetermined evaluation benchmarks.
8. Students will demonstrate enhance ability to self-evaluate based on their benchmarks and goals.
9. Students will demonstrate competence with internet technologies, such as Blogs, podcasting, and other meaningful open-sourced technologies.
10. Student Blogs and Web sites will spread the word to the “digital natives” about the program and this will help to benchmark the progress of each group.

Program Success:

1. The 2nd year applications from students and teachers will increase.
2. Additional districts will surface and request participation in the program.
3. The program will see greater participation from business and industry.
4. The legislature will increase their cooperative understanding and begin supporting the program in spirit and dollars.
5. The tentacles of understanding will have penetrated other educational institutions and requests for replication will be made.
6. Community groups will express interest in participating in the project in increased fashion.
7. Corporations will realize the value of seeking out young unencumbered minds to focus on real world issues.
8. Corporate student mentorship’s will develop as a result of this project and signify a small success.
9. Industry continues their willingness to cooperate with higher education and K-12.

Q14. Reviewers noted that the some aspects of the evaluation plan are not clear including the number of lessons to be evaluated, and the assessment of teacher STEM knowledge, resources, and the website. The evaluation might also be strengthened by including student interviews. Please address these concerns.

A14. Assessment measures for all stakeholders will be developed in collaboration with project staff as specific goals and activities are finalized. Collaboration is strengthened by the evaluators’ inclusion on the project management team. Assessments include teachers’ growth in skill and use of IT, understanding of STEM content, and changes in instructional practice. Evaluation of project-related professional development, learning resources, and websites will be done from rubrics based on specific objectives and applicable professional standards, as described in the narrative.

Assessment and documentation of participating high school teachers’ ability to design and deliver IT/STEM enrichment experiences for their students consist of multiple measures. One will be an annual pre/post survey addressing frequency of use of IT hardware/software and various instructional practices to look for changes that might occur because of project-related learning. Other pre/post questionnaires will be aligned with project-specific teacher learning goals. Observations of professional development will be conducted as feasible. Teacher interviews will be conducted at least annually, following up on specific project activities and exploring teachers’ thoughts about applicability of new learning to their teaching. Finally, transfer of teachers’ changing practice will be documented by conducting annual observations in their home school classrooms. The first observations would be conducted early in Year 01 of each cohort and the last ones late in Year 02.

Similarly, student learning about information technology and the STEM disciplines as well as their growing understanding and sense of fit within STEM will be also measured in a variety of ways. Pre/post surveys and tests of content knowledge can assess gains in understanding and use of target technologies and STEM content. In addition, student growth can be assessed from work they produce, performance tasks developed by teachers and other project staff, self- and other-reports, and personal interviews. Conducted in the course of the two-year cohort programs, observations and student interviews can yield formative data about students’ responses to the many learning experiences as well as their attraction to study and work in STEM-related fields.

Q15. How many teachers will be involved in the project and trained to work in the youth program?

A15. Each design team will include a STEM area high school teacher. Four high school teachers (one from each STEM area) will participate in each cohort. With in two cohorts, a total of eight teachers will participate in the three-year duration of the project life.

Q16. How will the project be sustained beyond the period of NSF funding, especially with the high salary request including the design personnel?

A16. The proposed project will sustain its impact over and beyond the three-year duration of the project life through the following:

1. Further use of IT learning resources and deliverables that the project will develop and disseminate—project Web site, blog, and podcasting site, student projects, teacher developed Curriculum Guide, STEM guide book, and faculty developed IT-STEM course syllabi and materials,
2. Further use of its self-sustaining professional development network among high-school students, school teachers, U/GSAs, and IT-intensive STEM content experts,
3. Further leadership roles of school teachers in their respective schools districts, and
4. Further leadership roles of post-secondary faculty in their respective colleges and schools.

NSF ITEST STEM Grant Urgent Response 7-20-2007 "Meanwhile in Traverse City the NGA...

"I'll be paying close attention to the ideas that businesses are putting forward," Gov. Jennifer Granholm said of the event.

Governors set to tackle hard issues

On the agenda of meeting in Michigan: Global competition

July 20, 2007

BY KATHLEEN GRAY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Thirty-five governors in the Traverse City area for the weekend all want stronger economic development in their states. Sometimes they are even bidders for the same companies, competing with tax breaks and other incentives.

But as the four-day National Governors Association conference begins today, the chief executives will try to set those rivalries aside to confront a different rival -- international competition.

"The idea is not so much about Michigan versus Indiana or Michigan versus Colorado in terms of economic development, but Michigan and Indiana and Colorado versus China or India," said Earl Ryan of the Livonia-based Citizens Research Council of Michigan. "From that perspective, there's some good rationale to put their heads together. They may be trying to attract business for themselves, but at the same time, the whole country is in competition with the rest of the world."

When Gov. Jennifer Granholm leads a session on global competitiveness Sunday, she'll be listening to business and government leaders as much as talking about what Michigan has done to diversify its faltering economy.

"I'll be paying close attention to the ideas that businesses are putting forward," Granholm told listeners Saturday in her weekly radio address.

Michigan is in a unique position to take the advice from business and government leaders. The decline of the auto industry has left the state reeling. Earlier this week, the state reported its unemployment rate had increased to 7.2%, highest in the nation and well above the national average of 4.5%. The state ranks third in mortgage foreclosures, according to a July report, and is the only state to have lost jobs in 2006.

"There are definitely things we can learn from other states on what they've done to help make their cities competitive," said Bill Rustem of the Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants.

Rustem, who'll be attending the conference today, cited efforts in Minneapolis and St. Paul to market the Twin Cities jointly for development, Seattle's pitching itself as a welcome home for immigrants and Traverse City's push to engineer a long-term development plan for the five counties surrounding the unofficial capital of northern Michigan.

"Traverse City gets it," Rustem said. "They've created the type of region that is competitive for young entrepreneurs. They're attracting people who understand that they can sit on the beach with their laptops."

The governors will talk about other weighty issues this weekend at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, including global warming, education standards and Internet safety.

On climate change, Granholm and governors from other major automotive states are expected to engage their colleagues on the push in Congress to require much higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. Michigan representatives argue the changes could further cripple the domestic auto industry.

On the official agenda, the governors also will discuss efforts to make medical records more portable through technology and improving math and science curriculums.

Unofficially and behind closed doors, the governors are expected to tackle a federal mandate to create an identification card for all U.S. citizens. It's better known as the Real ID card, which will be required to travel, drive and do any official financial business.

The states were supposed to have the cards ready to issue next year, but pending federal rules are expected to extend the deadline to 2013.

"But that may not be enough time to move 245 million people through the system," said David Quam, director of federal relations for the NGA. "The governors have been looking for reasonable solutions and a good financial partner to share in some of the costs."

The program is expected to cost at least $100 million nationwide. Michigan's cost isn't available yet, but more than 7 million people will have to get new driver's licenses or state identification cards.

Outside the official program, Michigan and Traverse-area officials get a chance to show off the region and state's best side with a classic car show, beach party and golfing, exploring the uniquely Michigan Dennos Museum and a getting a few sips from local vineyards.

"This is like the Super Bowl of government. It is an opportunity to showcase Michigan not just to the other states, but the business leaders who are there, too," Rustem said. "All of those people will go back to their states and talk about what they saw in Michigan. Right now, the national impression of the state is not very good, and this is an opportunity to change that impression."

Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at 313-223-4407 or gray@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Whaddya Hear! Whaddya Say!

New Generations, New Media Challenges

By Jonathan Fanton

Tuesday, Jun. 19 2007

Children coming of age today are the first generation to grow up digital. In
their world, the use of computers, the Internet, cell phones and interactive
video games is commonplace.

We used to worry that computer technology would remain in the hands of the
privileged; now it is carried in the backpacks and shirt pockets of those from
all walks of life.

On Saturday, the 2007 National Media Education Conference gets underway in St.
Louis. The theme of the four-day series of workshops and screenings — the
nation's largest gathering of media educators — is "iPods, Blogs and Beyond:
Evolving Media Literacy for the 21st Century."

Clearly, access to technology no longer is the central issue. More than 90
percent of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. The number of
high-speed Internet connections, necessary for the richest content experience,
is growing by 40 percent annually. Participation in the all-digital virtual
world known as Second Life has risen dramatically — from 500,000 to nearly 5
million people in two years.

Today's young people increasingly express themselves and build communities with these powerful tools of technology. The real gap between tomorrow's digital haves and have-nots will be a lag in competence and confidence in the fast-paced variegated digital universe building and breeding outside schoolhouse walls.

Research, some of it funded by the MacArthur Foundation, is just beginning to fathom how deeply our children have absorbed new technology: the role it plays in their lives and how it affects their learning, play and socialization. What this research suggests is that today's digital youth are in the process of creating a new kind of literacy; this evolving skill extends beyond the traditions of reading and writing into a community of expression and problem-solving that not only is changing their world but ours, too:

— They have created communities the size of whole nations by channeling personal affiliations through message boards or meta-games or dedicated
websites such as Facebook, Friendster and MySpace.

— They have mastered digital tools to create new techniques for personal
expression: modding, digital sampling, mash-ups and zines — not to mention new
paths of distribution for personal works of video and text.

— They have redefined the notion of "play" to include complex problem-solving, mentoring, the archiving of knowledge and real-time conversations on issues of policy and politics of global interest and importance.

Henry Jenkins, director of the media studies program at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, calls this a new "participatory culture," one that
presents low barriers to artistic expression and social engagement that suggests that a richer environment for learning may lie outside the classroom.

Online and after school, youths in this new participatory culture are
assimilating new languages and rules, vast troves of research and perspectives
on the nature of order and community that vault across traditional boundaries
of race or creed or culture.

In meta-games such as Civilization III and SimCity, participants develop and
manipulate dynamic models of real life; they teach and legislate, create and
share, connect and collaborate, reflecting the value of team-building and consensus over autonomous solutions.

Moreover, through virtual characters and identities — even some that disturb
parents — teens can experiment through trial and error, make poor moral choices
or learn the downside of risk-taking without jeopardizing actual careers or
lives. They learn to value challenge and appreciate complexity, even as they assimilate facts and assess developments at breathtaking speed.

The downside may be that in the sunset of the old information culture, we are not understanding this new media literacy soon enough. Those who have no opportunity or desire to be part of these revolutionary digital communities may be deprived of vital virtual skills that would prepare them for full
participation in the real world of tomorrow.

In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing. The children who truly will be left behind in the evolving digital culture are those who fail to bridge this participation gap.

Our challenge is to develop these educational forces, opening up our classrooms to the learning in which children now engage largely outside of school. In the end, we may find that the best way to institutionalize and encourage this new media literacy is to understand and harness what our young digital culture seems to be doing pretty well on its own.

Jonathan Fanton is president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which is funding a $50 million initiative to understand how digital technologies are changing kids and learning.

SPecial to the St. louis Post-Dispatch

ASPT ADVISORY ALERT!

A-PLAN (AIM PROGRAM) ON HOLD!

AIM Program INTERUPTUS 7-9-2007! But time & space wait for no man!

This special AIM Program issue focuses on trends, pressures, and evolutions shaping the future of education in all its forms, with particular consideration of the role of information technologies in creating that future.

The future of education; whether in public or private schools, colleges or universities, corporate training rooms, or other yet-to-be-imagined venues; is a vision dimly seen on an uncertain horizon.

Tectonic technological, social, economic, and political shifts, driven by the accelerating pace of information technology, globalization, and an evolving culture of knowledge, render already unstable futures largely unknowable.

Educational systems face even more immediate pressures arising from the increasing role of for-profit education providers, learner access to open content, and the growth of the "participation culture."

Change, even radical change, is unavoidable; tomorrow's education and training systems are not likely to resemble today's educational complex.

Whatever the future holds for education, information technologies will play a role. The creative use of information technology can enhance education processes, enabling educators to meet new challenges and reshape education's role in society. The technologies of education, and the use of technology in education, are both drivers of change and indicators of future directions.

Submissions for this special issue may address, but are not limited to, these key issues:

1. What does the "rise of the amateur" in media, music, and news industries suggest for education providers of the future?

2. What is the role of universities and colleges when the world's information is at the fingertips of learners, without the mediation of experts? Or when experts make those resources freely available through MIT's OpenCourseWare or Open University's OpenLearn?

3. Is a copyright system designed to protect physical objects; books, magazines, and journals; capable of serving the digital knowledge needs of the next generation?

4. How can technological tools be used by developed countries to assist emerging countries in educating their people?

5. How should governance and leadership be structured in educational institutions facing exponential change?

6. Are existing research agendas and methodologies capable of answering the knowledge needs of the next generation?

7. Do our existing theories of learning reflect how digital natives learn in the information age?

If you would like to submit a manuscript on this topic, please send it to the guest editor of this issue, George Siemans (gsiemens@elearnspace.org) and to me (jlm@nova.edu) no later than October 15, 2007.

Thanks!

Jim

Visual Literacy! (Students from Missouri, the SHOW ME State)

The Eye Generation Prefers Not to Read All About It

Students in Film Class a Microcosm of a Visually Oriented Culture

By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 6, 2007; C02

The breaking point for Perry Schwartz comes on Day 5 of the American Film Institute's three-week Summer Movie Production Workshop. Schwartz, a professor of theater and film at Montgomery College in Takoma Park and director of the AFI film course, is helping students envision the movie they are making together.

They sit in folding chairs in the college's Black Box Theatre and speak in strictly visual terms, citing specific actors and moments in cinema.

"He's more like Jack Black."

"That happens in 'Space Jam'!"

Of the 10 students, one is 40 years old; the rest are college age or younger.

Schwartz is describing how the two main characters in the student film will sit on a couch, simultaneously reach for popcorn and inadvertently touch hands, when Kit Reiner of Silver Spring and Max Simon of Potomac -- both 18 -- cry out, "Just like in 'Lady and the Tramp'!"

And Schwartz could take it no more. "Stop!" he yells.

"Try to think less about which movie scene you are reminded of and more about the way people really act in real life. Everything isn't related to a movie!"

Really?

To most of the workshop students, life has become totally visual. They are members of not so much the Me Generation as the Eye Generation.

"I really don't like reading a story. I like seeing it," says workshop student Craig Patterson, 17, of Grove City, Ohio. "I almost always prefer the movie version of a book. Movies can capture the beauty of an image more than books can."

Cecile Guillemin, a 17-year-old workshop participant who is in her last year at Lycee Rochambeau, the French International School, says, "I don't have time to read books. I am inspired by books to do movies."

* * *

Scene 1: Cut to Perry Schwartz, a bearded professorial type in his mid-60s, telling the students of his own background. He stands on a dark stage under bright lights. He has taught at Montgomery College since 1978. His focus has been live theater. He has made several short films, he says, including one based on "Our Little Trip," a play by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

When Schwartz mentions the beat poet, the camera closes in on students' faces. They are blank. Not one has heard of Ferlinghetti. Schwartz sighs.

* * *

It's no surprise that television, movies and video games have changed the way many absorb information. Now teachers are trying to harness that energy of the eye. This visually oriented generation "acquires much more of their knowledge -- some studies estimate that acquisition as 50 percent -- from visual texts" than from written sources, says Kathy Krauth, who is working on the Visualizing Cultures project at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology.

Therefore, she says, the Eye Generation "feels more comfortable expressing themselves in visual form."

Examples are endless. Vacation snapshots, collegians-gone-wild party pix and everything else go straight to a handycam or cellphone camera to the Internet. Today's job seekers post video résumés at Vault.com. In a Democratic debate this month and a September Republican debate, voters will be able to upload YouTube videos of themselves asking the candidates questions.

Through YouTubing, Facebooking, MySpacing and myriad other ways, people take in vast amounts of visual information. But do they always comprehend the meaning of what they see?

That's the problem, says Krauth, who lives in Tokyo and teaches at the American School in Japan. Students are taught how to read and how to react critically to literature, but not about visual images.

Because visual literacy is not required in schools, she says, "this generation's ability to assign meaning to the visual texts of others is passive and still needs a great deal more work. They are easily manipulated as students, consumers and citizens."

In other words, students today need to be taught, through images, how to think critically.

* * *

Scene 2: The students, sitting in a semicircle, are asked to name their favorite movies. They rattle off "Apocalypse Now" and "Psycho" and "Raging Bull."

"The Incredibles," says Kit Reiner.

"Pirates of the Caribbean," says Craig Patterson. "One."

* * *

In an e-mail, Krauth says the problem of visual illiteracy will be solved only "when being visually literate becomes central to current discussions and definitions of the literate individual in modern society."

Teachers must understand that students in the 21st century are receiving the bulk of their information through images, she says, and they must teach students how to be decisive and discerning about the images they see. "We should lean into the reality of this generation," she says, "and construct meaningful lessons using visuals."

And that's what Schwartz is trying to do: give meaningful literary lessons to his students using visuals. Over the nine or so years that he has been involved with the course, the students get younger and they come with more experience. This is the youngest class he has seen. Several have taken film classes at other schools.

In Schwartz's class, everyone comes up with an idea for a movie. Then they vote on the best one. This time, the only suggestion with a clear beginning, middle and end comes from the 40-year-old, David Hevey, who teaches middle school in Singapore. He suggests a story about a man with halitosis. After the plot is established, each student writes and directs one scene of the collaborative movie. They take turns performing other sundry tasks -- assisting with the camera, monitoring the sound, holding the boom microphone, making sure everybody is fed and watered.

For the major jobs, Schwartz brings in a couple of pros. Aerial Longmire, who handles the camera, is a star graduate of Schwartz's film courses. She works at Retirement Living Television Network in Columbia. Abba Shapiro, who helps the students with scripts and editing, trains people to use Apple's digital editing software.

Working sometimes 10 hours a day, students -- who paid $2,000 for the course -- write the movie, cast it, shoot it, edit it and gather to watch it at the end of the class; the film will be shown, free to the public, on Monday at 5 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.

* * *

Scene 3: Schwartz hunches over a box of photographs -- publicity pictures of actors being considered by the class for the four main characters in its movie, "Scent of Love." This is the way the casting process begins. Schwartz faces the students and flashes about 200 pictures of professional actors. He waves each picture in front of the class, pausing only a few seconds. Amazingly, the students seem to remember every face that blurs past.

"We've already seen him," somebody says, after whizzing through scores and scores of portraits.

"We said no to her," says someone else.

* * *

Loanne Snavely, a librarian at Penn State, was on a panel at this summer's gathering of the American Library Association in Washington titled: "Eye to I: Visual Literacy Meets Information Literacy." She and other librarians discussed "the connections between visual and information literacies." They exhorted colleagues to get "beyond traditional literacy; you know, reading and writing."

Like Kathy Krauth, Snavely believes that visual education should be expanded and enhanced. Textual information, Snavely says, has been the primary focus of libraries in the past, but with "so much graphical communication integrated into the huge wave of social networking our culture is experiencing, we need to broaden our focus to include images of all kinds." * * *

Scene 4: Schwartz leaves the moviemaking students alone in the classroom for a while. They talk about "Lord of the Flies" as they wait for the teacher's return.

"Piggy died," says Max Simon.

"Spoiler alert," Kit says.

Now they don't have to read the book, someone says.

"It was a book?" asks someone else. Fade to black.

AIM for STEM Center in Michigan!

NGA STEM Center Grant RFP

http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0702INNOVATIONSTEMRFP.PDF

NGA Awards $500,000 Grants to Six States to Improve STEM Education

Jul 2, 2007, News Report

Because the livelihood of today's workforce, as well as state economies across the country, rests on the ability to compete in today's global economy, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) today awarded Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia $500,000 grants to establish science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education centers in their states.

A new workforce of problem-solvers, innovators, and inventors who are self-reliant and able to think logically is one of the critical foundations that drive a state economy's innovation capacity. The grants will allow states to create new STEM centers, support the development of a network of STEM centers or repurpose existing STEM Centers. The centers will serve as the foundation for an improved workforce through:

• Aligning K-12 STEM education requirements with postsecondary and workplace expectations;
• Improving the quantity and quality of STEM teachers;
• Benchmarking state K-12 STEM standards, assessments and curricula to top performing nations in STEM education achievement and attainment;
• Garnering public will for change to implement a better aligned system; and
• Identifying best practices in STEM education and bringing them to scale.

"Governors recognize the links between a rigorous STEM education program and our leadership in the global economy," said Raymond C. Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association. "These grants will strengthen the economic competitiveness of the United States by improving our capacity for innovation."

STEM centers will help state K-12 education systems ensure all students graduate from high school with essential competencies in science, technology, engineering and math. These competencies are integral to improving overall high school graduation and college readiness rates and supporting a state economy's innovation capacity related to the businesses that operate within their leading economic clusters.

The STEM center grants are being awarded as part of NGA Chair Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano's Innovation America initiative. An independent national selection committee comprised of leading innovation and education experts selected the six states from submitted proposals. All states and U.S. territories were invited to apply for the grant and 24 applications were received.

The grants are made possible with the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Intel Foundation.

Old Friends Returning to ONE-D!

AIM PROGRAM / REALITY CHECK!

AIM for SMALL SCHOOL EXCELLENCE!

July 6, 2007

Editorial

Smaller, Better High Schools

New York City is making impressive strides toward the goal of replacing large and often dysfunctional factory-style high schools with smaller schools where children have closer contact with faculty members. The small schools quickly improved attendance and promotion rates. And a new analysis by the city shows that the 47 new schools opened since 2002 have also achieved significantly higher graduation rates.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg made small schools a central part of his education reform program and has committed the city to opening at least 250. In contrast to traditional high schools that sometimes have more than 3,000 students, the new schools have a target size of fewer than 500. That allows them to bring down class size as well. The goal is to create an intimate learning environment where course offerings are both novel and rigorous and every student knows every teacher.

Critics worry that the new schools would handpick the most desirable and most easily educated students, leaving behind children with special needs or limited language skills. But the city insists that more and more of those students would be included as the schools build their faculties and capabilities. The city will need to make good on that promise.

When it comes to graduation rates the new small schools are already a clear improvement. Schools in poor neighborhoods that once graduated less than half of their students are now seeing graduation rates of 80 percent or even 90 percent. The city, which calculates its overall graduation rate at 60 percent, still has a long way to go, especially in impoverished, minority communities. But the data so far suggest that the small school movement is at least part of the solution.

Let FREEDOM Ring! Re-Tool, Re-School, Re-Invent (America's Competitiveness)

Published Online: July 3, 2007

NEA President Uses Economic Competitiveness to Strike at NCLB

By Bess Keller

Philadelphia

Tapping into widespread concern about the nation’s economic competitiveness, National Education Association President Reg Weaver charged here yesterday that the federal No Child Left Behind Act won’t “prepare [our children] to compete with children from India and China.”

In a keynote speech before more than 8,000 delegates to the teachers’ union annual Representative Assembly, Mr. Weaver contended that the nearly 6-year-old law is eroding the “excellent education” most public school students now get while doing little to effectively close the achievement gaps that disadvantage black, Hispanic, and American Indian children.

“The so-called ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act assumed that schools by themselves could close the achievement gaps. But we can’t close the achievement gaps without bridging other chasms in our society,” such as the ones caused by poverty and unemployment, Mr. Weaver said to cheers.

On the other hand, he continued, even children who are not behind on their basic skills lose out in the more important realms of problem-solving and independent thinking as teachers endlessly prepare them for tests.

The NEA president, soon to begin his sixth and final year at the helm of the 3.2-million member union, called on citizens and policymakers to invest in the “human capital our nation will need to remain strong and prosperous.” Such investments would include many longtime goals of the NEA, for example, universal preschool education, smaller class sizes, and better pay for teachers.

Couching the goals as “an education bill of rights for children” as he spoke in the city where the U.S. Constitution was written, Mr. Weaver said that among the rights was that to have “multiple measures”—and not a single test score—used to determine student learning. Since the NCLB law’s enactment, the union has criticized reliance on state standardized test scores both as a means to chart options for students and to determine a school’s standing under the federal law.

Many delegates reflected the popularity of Mr. Weaver’s message by wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with the NEA logo and bearing the slogan: “A Child Is More Than a Test Score.” Also highly visible, this time on the curtains around the hall, were references to the group’s 150th birthday. The union had its beginnings when 43 educators joined together in Philadelphia in 1857 with the purpose of promoting education nationally.

A Proposal

One part of Mr. Weaver’s speech, though, seemed aimed more at those in policy circles than at his immediate audience of teachers, education aides, cafeteria workers, and other union members. In a long passage that failed to grip listeners, the president set forth the outlines of a plan for “an economic-development extension service” that he said would help increase productivity in the high-tech sector in much the same way the agricultural extension service helped boost it among farmers.

In contrast to Mr. Weaver’s statements over the past several years that he didn’t “know or care” where the money would come from for big-ticket changes such as a minimum salary of $40,000 for every teacher, this proposal specifies bankrolling the proposed new service with about $50 million in tax breaks states now use to attract industry—about the same amount currently lost through “federal tax loopholes.”

The plan, though vague, is in line with the NEA’s promise to drop its naysaying and focus on a new “positive agenda.” It is also a recognition that, in a climate of economic volatility and skepticism about public spending, costly changes to education will be difficult to make and need a hard-nosed rationale.

Mr. Weaver contended that the money now being saved by businesses would be better spent on designating economic-development centers at major universities, which would in turn establish research stations dedicated to fostering innovation in the businesses “that will drive the 21st-century economy,” such as alternative energy and biotechnology. The knowledge developed there would be made available at local schools and more broadly through extension agents, the union leader said.

“A program like this would empower millions of entrepreneurs across the United States to start businesses and create jobs,” Mr. Weaver asserted. It would also allow new money to flow to schools as part of upgrading the preparation of future entrepreneurs, he said.

Election Critical

“Our approach to education funding has not changed significantly in at least 30 years,” the NEA president said. “But we won’t be able to provide a great public school for every child without adequate resources and investments.”

Mr. Weaver even took a swipe at the trillion dollars he said had been spend on the war in Iraq, contending that the spending—whatever its worth for national security—threatened the nation’s economic security.

Reminding his members of “elements in our nation today who would like nothing more than to use the challenges of our schools as an excuse to destroy” public education, the union president urged them to “demand a seat at the table” in every discussion of education and to engage in politics. He pointed to last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down voluntary school desegregation by race as a reason to elect the right president in 2008.

Delegates are expected to hear from eight presidential candidates this week, seven Democrats and one Republican. Yesterday, they heard from Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., along with John Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina and former vice presidential nominee. All three took the opportunity to criticize the NCLB law.

Returning to favorite themes to cap his speech, Mr. Weaver declared that “on our 150th birthday, there ain’t no stopping us now.” He said he expected the union to help elect a president who is “a friend of education” and will help close achievement gaps, reduce the dropout rate, and fix the No Child Left Behind Law.

LEARNING 2.0 (YAPO Computer Learning Center 6-27-2007)

Having FUN (LEARNING) is a REWARD in ITSELF!

---

July 2, 2007

Op-Ed Contributor

Money for Nothing

By BARRY SCHWARTZ

Philadelphia

NEW YORK CITY has decided to offer cash rewards to some students based on their attendance records and exam performance. Diligent, high-achieving seventh graders will be able to earn up to $500 in a year. The plan is the brainchild of Roland G. Fryer, an economist who has been appointed as “chief equality officer” of the city’s Department of Education.

The assumption that underlies the project is simple: people respond to incentives. If you want people to do something, you have to make it worth their while. This assumption drives virtually all of economic theory.

Sure, there are already many rewards in learning: gaining understanding (of yourself and others), having mysterious or unfamiliar aspects of the world opened up to you, demonstrating mastery, satisfying curiosity, inhabiting imaginary worlds created by others, and so on. Learning is also the route to more prosaic rewards, like getting into good colleges and getting good jobs. But these rewards are not doing the job. If they were, children would be doing better in school.

The logic of the plan reveals a second assumption that economists make: the more motives the better. Give people two reasons to do something, the thinking goes, and they will be more likely to do it, and they’ll do it better, than if they have only one. Providing some cash won’t disturb the other rewards of learning, rewards that are intrinsic to the process itself. They will only provide a little boost. Mr. Fryer’s reward scheme is intended to add incentives to the ones that already exist.

Unfortunately, these assumptions that economists make about human motivation, though intuitive and straightforward, are false. In particular, the idea that adding motives always helps is false. There are circumstances in which adding an incentive competes with other motives and diminishes their impact. Psychologists have known this for more than 30 years.

In one experiment, nursery school children were given the opportunity to draw with special markers. After playing, some of the children were given “good player” awards and others were not. Some time later, the markers were reintroduced to the classroom. The researchers kept track of which children used the markers, and they collected the pictures that had been drawn. The youngsters given awards were less likely to draw at all, and drew worse pictures, than those who were not given the awards.

Why did this happen? Children draw because drawing is fun and because it leads to a result: a picture. The rewards of drawing are intrinsic to the activity itself. The “good player” award gives children another reason to draw: to earn a reward. And it matters — children want recognition. But the recognition undermines the fun, so that later, in the absence of a chance to earn an award, the children aren’t interested in drawing.

Similar results have been obtained with adults. When you pay them for doing things they like, they come to like these activities less and will no longer participate in them without a financial incentive. The intrinsic satisfaction of the activities gets “crowded out” by the extrinsic payoff.

An especially striking example of this was reported in a study of Swiss citizens about a decade ago. Switzerland was holding a referendum about where to put nuclear waste dumps. Researchers went door-to-door in two Swiss cantons and asked people if they would accept a dump in their communities. Though people thought such dumps might be dangerous and might decrease property values, 50 percent of those who were asked said they would accept one. People felt responsibility as Swiss citizens. The dumps had to go somewhere, after all.

But when people were asked if they would accept a nuclear waste dump if they were paid a substantial sum each year (equal to about six weeks’ pay for the average worker), a remarkable thing happened. Now, with two reasons to say yes, only about 25 percent of respondents agreed. The offer of cash undermined the motive to be a good citizen.

It is as if, when asked the question, people asked themselves whether they should respond based on considerations of self-interest or considerations of public responsibility. Half of the people in the uncompensated condition of the study thought they should focus on their responsibilities. But the offer of money, in effect, told people that they should consider only their self-interest. And as it turned out, through the lens of self-interest, even six weeks’ pay wasn’t enough.

Obviously, the intrinsic rewards of learning aren’t working in New York’s schools, at least not for a lot of children. It may be that the current state of achievement is low enough that desperate measures are called for, and it’s worth trying anything. And we don’t know whether in this case, motives will complement or compete.

But it is plausible that when students get paid to go to class and show up for tests, they will be even less interested in the work than they would be if no incentives were present. If that happens, the incentive system will make the learning problem worse in the long run, even if it improves achievement in the short run — unless we’re prepared to follow these children through life, giving them a pat on the head, or an M&M or a check every time they learn something new.

Perhaps worse, the plan will distract us from investigating a more pertinent set of questions: why don’t children get intrinsic satisfaction from learning in school, and how can this failing of education be fixed? Virtually all kindergartners are eager to learn. But by fourth grade, many students need to be bribed. What makes our schools so dystopian that they produce this powerful transformation, almost overnight?

Barry Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, is the author of “The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.”

AIM ARCHTYPE!