Partnership for 21st Century Skills (Video Contest 2010 Winners)
https://thepartnershipfor21stcenturyskills238.eduvision.tv/Default.aspx?q=trkxL8LvXknf8kDDdmJdOg%253d%253d
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
RTTT (Who, WHAT, WHY, When, Where)
State of Michigan (Phase 2 Application)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/michigan.pdf
RTTT State of Michigan (Scorecard)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/score-sheets/michigan.pdf
RTTT State of Michigan (Technical Review / Comments)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/comments/michigan.pdf
RTTT State of Michigan (Appendix / Reimagine Elements / Letters of Support)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/appendixes/michigan.pdf
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/michigan.pdf
RTTT State of Michigan (Scorecard)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/score-sheets/michigan.pdf
RTTT State of Michigan (Technical Review / Comments)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/comments/michigan.pdf
RTTT State of Michigan (Appendix / Reimagine Elements / Letters of Support)
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase2-applications/appendixes/michigan.pdf
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Investing In Innovation (i3) Grant Collaboratory
Who Plans to Apply for i3? Look Online Now
The U.S. Department of Education has posted a spreadsheet listing the more than 2,000 districts, schools, and nonprofits that plan to apply for the $650 million Investing in Innovation grant.
If the thought of opening an Excel spreadsheet intimidates you, there's also a convenient summary of the intents-to-apply.
This list is a compilation of those who told the department, by April 1, that they plan to apply for these competitive grants. This was more of a courtesy for the department so officials could figure out what kind of workload is in store for them and the peer reviewers. Those on this list are not bound to apply, and those who aren't on the list can still apply. The deadline for the one and only round of this competition is May 11.
The list, 2,045 organizations long, is tedious to wade through. But my quick and crude Microsoft Access query tells me that about 800 of these potential applicants are districts and schools, while the remaining organizations are nonprofits. The districts include Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, Hartford (Ct.), and Broward County (Fla.).
The list of nonprofits include some usual suspects—Teach for America and The New Teacher Project— but also includes some lesser-knowns, such as Clarksville, Tenn.'s "The Way Mission," and Brookline, Mass.' "Facing History and Ourselves."
A fair number of universities also make the list, including the University of Southern California and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
To receive an invitation and collaboratively participate in our i3 Collaboratory initiative please e-mail digitallearning@gmail.com with Count Me In in the Subject Line and you will receive an follow-on invitation to the Investing In Innovation (i3) Grant Collaboratory blog-site.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Ready, Fire, AIM!
Editorial
Connecting with at-risk kids is the key to a DPS turnaround
Many education problems facing Detroit students, teachers and principals loom outside the classroom, as underscored by a recent Free Press profile of teen mother Sade Lewis and her classmates at Detroit’s Catherine Ferguson Academy. Lewis’ childhood included searching for her mother in crack houses, handling her father’s incarceration and death from AIDS, and shuttling from relative to relative while attending 10 schools.
Yes, suburban schools have students with similar problems, but the concentration of such students at most Detroit schools raises challenges that administrators must confront in a more comprehensive and focused way. New parent resource centers are a good start, but providing individual mentoring and guidance in the schools — along with smaller class sizes — should become the centerpiece of education reform.
That’s true whether or not the Detroit school board wins its legal battle to halt emergency financial manager Robert Bobb’s plan to close 41 school buildings and make sweeping academic changes. Both sides claim to represent reform, and meaningful reform is impossible without a plan to ensure that Detroit’s dis proportionately disadvantaged students get the individual atten tion they need.
Keep the emphasis on students
Such changes are especially important for the DPS students most at risk, who are more likely to go to prison or jail than to college. Bobb’s reorganization plan, now under a preliminary in junction, would move most of them from four alternative schools into one building at the Northwestern High campus. Inadequate resources will continue to plague the district. Nevertheless, if it concentrates the most troubled students at one campus, lowering their class sizes is even more imperative.
Virtually all dropouts have one thing in common: They don’t talk to school staff and eventually disappear from class. Every high school ought to have designated staff members — advisers, mentors or homeroom teachers — responsible for the success of a group of students. Those teachers would talk to their students daily, ask them what’s going on in their lives, and call them or their parents when they’re not in school. One concerned and con nected adult can make an enormous difference in a troubled child’s life. Creating such a system in every Detroit school would not require significant increases in staff or money, but it would require renewed commitment to a student-centered mission.
Some successful Detroit schools, such as Catherine Ferguson and Frederick Douglas Academy, already provide that kind of in dividual attention and graduate nearly all of their students. DPS administrators need to talk to successful principals, teachers and students to assess what they’re doing right and determine wheth er they can duplicate their success. Other nearby districts also run innovative programs, such as cyber classrooms, that could benefit Detroit, said Sharif Shakrani, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University.
Find creative options
District officials are working to reduce class size, but it must become an immediate priority. Lowering class sizes can’t wait for the district’s financial problems to clear up, without abandoning the mission of public education. Classes of 18, instead of 25 or 30, and high schools with enrollments of about 400, instead of 2,000, enable teachers to provide the help and attention disadvantaged students need.
With scarce resources, Detroit and its leaders need to get cre ative. In St. Petersburg, Fla., former Mayor Rick Baker used his business connections to raise millions of dollars for disadvan taged schools, creating mentor, scholarship and other programs. While not in charge of his city’s school district, Baker found ways to help. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing can and must do the same.
Nearly 70% of the district’s students drop out. Still, given what many of them face daily, it’s a minor miracle they do as well as they do. Sade Lewis will graduate this year with a B average and plans to attend college in fall. That kind of tenacity and courage in overcoming adversity should inspire district reformers to give all Detroit students the education and opportunity they deserve.
Connecting with at-risk kids is the key to a DPS turnaround
Many education problems facing Detroit students, teachers and principals loom outside the classroom, as underscored by a recent Free Press profile of teen mother Sade Lewis and her classmates at Detroit’s Catherine Ferguson Academy. Lewis’ childhood included searching for her mother in crack houses, handling her father’s incarceration and death from AIDS, and shuttling from relative to relative while attending 10 schools.
Yes, suburban schools have students with similar problems, but the concentration of such students at most Detroit schools raises challenges that administrators must confront in a more comprehensive and focused way. New parent resource centers are a good start, but providing individual mentoring and guidance in the schools — along with smaller class sizes — should become the centerpiece of education reform.
That’s true whether or not the Detroit school board wins its legal battle to halt emergency financial manager Robert Bobb’s plan to close 41 school buildings and make sweeping academic changes. Both sides claim to represent reform, and meaningful reform is impossible without a plan to ensure that Detroit’s dis proportionately disadvantaged students get the individual atten tion they need.
Keep the emphasis on students
Such changes are especially important for the DPS students most at risk, who are more likely to go to prison or jail than to college. Bobb’s reorganization plan, now under a preliminary in junction, would move most of them from four alternative schools into one building at the Northwestern High campus. Inadequate resources will continue to plague the district. Nevertheless, if it concentrates the most troubled students at one campus, lowering their class sizes is even more imperative.
Virtually all dropouts have one thing in common: They don’t talk to school staff and eventually disappear from class. Every high school ought to have designated staff members — advisers, mentors or homeroom teachers — responsible for the success of a group of students. Those teachers would talk to their students daily, ask them what’s going on in their lives, and call them or their parents when they’re not in school. One concerned and con nected adult can make an enormous difference in a troubled child’s life. Creating such a system in every Detroit school would not require significant increases in staff or money, but it would require renewed commitment to a student-centered mission.
Some successful Detroit schools, such as Catherine Ferguson and Frederick Douglas Academy, already provide that kind of in dividual attention and graduate nearly all of their students. DPS administrators need to talk to successful principals, teachers and students to assess what they’re doing right and determine wheth er they can duplicate their success. Other nearby districts also run innovative programs, such as cyber classrooms, that could benefit Detroit, said Sharif Shakrani, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University.
Find creative options
District officials are working to reduce class size, but it must become an immediate priority. Lowering class sizes can’t wait for the district’s financial problems to clear up, without abandoning the mission of public education. Classes of 18, instead of 25 or 30, and high schools with enrollments of about 400, instead of 2,000, enable teachers to provide the help and attention disadvantaged students need.
With scarce resources, Detroit and its leaders need to get cre ative. In St. Petersburg, Fla., former Mayor Rick Baker used his business connections to raise millions of dollars for disadvan taged schools, creating mentor, scholarship and other programs. While not in charge of his city’s school district, Baker found ways to help. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing can and must do the same.
Nearly 70% of the district’s students drop out. Still, given what many of them face daily, it’s a minor miracle they do as well as they do. Sade Lewis will graduate this year with a B average and plans to attend college in fall. That kind of tenacity and courage in overcoming adversity should inspire district reformers to give all Detroit students the education and opportunity they deserve.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Perhaps the Last Word!
APRIL 12: 5:30 p.m. at Northwestern High School, 2200 W. Grand Blvd.
Schools impacted: Burton International , 5:45 p.m.;
Jamieson, 6 p.m.; Malcolm X,
6:15 p.m.; Sherrill, 6:30 p.m.; Thirkell, 6:45 p.m.; North western High , 7 p.m.; Owen Academy , 7:15 p.m.
Schools impacted: Burton International , 5:45 p.m.;
Jamieson, 6 p.m.; Malcolm X,
6:15 p.m.; Sherrill, 6:30 p.m.; Thirkell, 6:45 p.m.; North western High , 7 p.m.; Owen Academy , 7:15 p.m.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
RTTT (The Other Shoe)
Funds sought for school takeovers
$500,000 needed to start state effort
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
State Superintendent Mike Flanagan on Wednesday re quested a $500,000 supple mental payment by April 1 for the Michigan Department of Education to set up a reform office as prescribed by the Leg islature in December.
Flanagan, speaking before the state Senate Appropria tions Committee, said the of fice would need about $1.7 mil lion a year. A reform officer, or deputy state superintendent, is to run the office.
The office would take con trol of the worst-performing 5% of schools — about 200 statewide. Flanagan said the creation of a reform district would mean that the Department of Education could end up with the largest district in the state. He added that the new laws are the “boldest” he’d ever seen.
The Legislature passed a school reform law in an effort to qualify for about $526 mil lion in federal money from the Race to the Top program.
“This will be the best invest ment this state has ever made. It’s going to profoundly change Michigan’s schools,” Flanagan said.
In response to a question from Sen. Irma Clark-Cole man, D-Detroit, about how the office would affect Detroit, which has a state-appointed emergency financial manager, Flanagan said that the gover nance structure in Detroit Public Schools will be an issue. More than half of the high schools in DPS are on the draft list of the worst-performing 5% of schools that are subject to takeover by a state reform of fice. The decision on whether to take control of those DPS schools — or ultimately close them — will be affected by whether the mayor, school board or state appointee will run the system after 2011, Flan agan said.
He also said he is optimistic about Michigan’s chances to get Race to the Top funding. Regardless of the federal fund ing race, he said, “these re forms were needed.”
■ CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@FREEPRESS.COM
$500,000 needed to start state effort
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
State Superintendent Mike Flanagan on Wednesday re quested a $500,000 supple mental payment by April 1 for the Michigan Department of Education to set up a reform office as prescribed by the Leg islature in December.
Flanagan, speaking before the state Senate Appropria tions Committee, said the of fice would need about $1.7 mil lion a year. A reform officer, or deputy state superintendent, is to run the office.
The office would take con trol of the worst-performing 5% of schools — about 200 statewide. Flanagan said the creation of a reform district would mean that the Department of Education could end up with the largest district in the state. He added that the new laws are the “boldest” he’d ever seen.
The Legislature passed a school reform law in an effort to qualify for about $526 mil lion in federal money from the Race to the Top program.
“This will be the best invest ment this state has ever made. It’s going to profoundly change Michigan’s schools,” Flanagan said.
In response to a question from Sen. Irma Clark-Cole man, D-Detroit, about how the office would affect Detroit, which has a state-appointed emergency financial manager, Flanagan said that the gover nance structure in Detroit Public Schools will be an issue. More than half of the high schools in DPS are on the draft list of the worst-performing 5% of schools that are subject to takeover by a state reform of fice. The decision on whether to take control of those DPS schools — or ultimately close them — will be affected by whether the mayor, school board or state appointee will run the system after 2011, Flan agan said.
He also said he is optimistic about Michigan’s chances to get Race to the Top funding. Regardless of the federal fund ing race, he said, “these re forms were needed.”
■ CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@FREEPRESS.COM
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
WHOOPS! SERIOUS REAL-WORLD REALITY-CHECK! (Of Course the Devil is in the Details))
2009 photo by SUSAN TUSA/Detroit Free Press
DPS emergency financial manag er Robert Bobb has signed an executive order ending social promotion, the practice of mov ing students up a grade when they have not passed their current classes.
Real life in classroom may hamper plan
I will call her Jane Doe. She has taught in the Detroit Public Schools for 17 years. She teaches third grade. And she thinks that ending social promotion in the city schools is vital — and fantasy. “THAT would be a miracle!” she wrote to me.
I am sharing her story without using her real name because, like many teachers, she is afraid of losing her job if she complains about re forms in the school district, which has lost respect, resources and about 10,000 students a year for the past five.
Hers was among hundreds of e-mails and calls I’ve received from teachers as I write about schools. Most agree that DPS’s problems are bigger than what Robert Bobb, the district’s emergency financial manager, can solve.
Two Fridays ago, I wrote about a young woman who graduated from Denby High School in 2005 without being able to read her diploma. Last Fri day, Bobb signed an executive order ending social promotion, the practice of moving students up a grade when they have not passed their current classes.
The great irony is that nine years ago, I wrote about a woman who had graduated from King High School with out being able to read at all. It is not a new phenomenon.
Only now, people are paying attention.
No control
So while people are paying attention, Jane Doe wants people to know what really goes on in a typical DPS elementary classroom.
“While Robert Bobb may desire to hold me accountable for my students, unfortunate ly this cannot be so,” she wrote.
“I have no control over the fact that little Johnny has gone to several schools this year alone, not to mention the 10 others he has gone to be fore he even came to my school … “I have no control over the fact that the adult in the family does not work with their child.
I was a single parent for all of my children’s lives, and am sick of this excuse. I worked long hours and did homework with them. My own parents also worked, and did this for me … “I have no control that Johnny’s parents don’t be lieve in his doing ANY home work.
“I have no control over the fact that Johnny’s parents tell me on the phone that they will discipline their child (when he is cussing, using inappropriate gestures, refus es to do his work, or (engaging in) other ridiculous behavior), and then stomp into the principal’s office demanding that I tolerate their little angel …!
“So, little Johnny is al lowed to run wild and run free ... at all ages!”
Age over academics
In September, the third grade teacher greeted her students: seven children were at the kindergarten level; 12 were at the first-grade level, and six were at a beginning second-grade level.
Jane Doe couldn’t teach third grade because she spent most of her time trying to teach 19 children how to read. She suggests that Bobb survey district teachers to get their ideas. She said he would find that many agree with his goals, but not his methods.
For instance, she said, “Personally, I would like to put all of the K-5 children BACK into the grade they ACTUALLY should be in academically.”
Bobb plans to end social promotion with current pre kindergartners through third graders, not moving any up until they have mastered their current lessons. (He pledged to provide remedial help for older students.) But Jane Doe has other suggestions.
“It is interesting that other countries use ACADEMICS as a guideline. In the U.S., we group the children by AGE.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if we came into this century and LOOKED at the individual and placed them according to their ABILITY?”
Jane Doe loves teaching, and she loves her students.
But she hates politics. So she wants Bobb to explain one more thing: “Just how do I get around a principal who wants to have the perfect statistics and school for ‘show’? ” She said if Bobb convenes a committee of teachers from whom to get regular input, she has a message for him: “SIGN ME UP!! SERIOUSLY!”
For now, she said, she must remain anonymous and anonymously wish Bobb good luck.
“I care about my kids. It breaks my heart that most of my third-graders are even in this grade. All I can do is shut my door and teach.”
■ CONTACT ROCHELLE RILEY: RRILEY99@FREEPRESS.COM
“I HAVE NO CONTROL THAT JOHNNY’ S PARENTS DON’ T BELIEVE IN HIS DOING ANY HOMEWORK.”
JANE DOE , a Detroit Public Schools teacher for 17 years
Sunday, February 14, 2010
A SERIOUS Fellow, On a SEROUS Mission, DOING a SERIOUS JOB! SERIOUSLY!
Not more testing
If students are headed to college “without the critical-thinking skills, patience, and tenacity for even en try- level courses” and that this is “most notable in their writing,” then why are teachers being pushed just to teach to a multiple-choice test, whether it is the MEAP, the NAEP or any other acronym-laden, spit out- the-information test (“Fixing Michigan’s Schools,” Feb. 7)?
Multiple-choice, standardized assessments don’t teach children how to think creatively, how to syn thesize, analyze and make judg ments about information, or to build the tenacity to tackle realistic ongo ing projects such as those found in the real world. These skills are best taught using long-term projects that simply cannot be measured on a standardized test. Furthermore, these projects are far more captivat ing, thereby enhancing student in terest, achievement and even class room behavior.
We need to move away from stan dardized tests, not just entrench ourselves in them even deeper.
Sarah Jelinek
Warren
How pessimism fuels our greatest teachers
The people behind Detroit’s new est charter school think they’ve discovered the formula for great teaching — and one of the key in gredients may surprise you.
University YES Academy, a charter school that will open its doors this September to 125 Detroit sixth-graders chosen by lottery, is the first attempt to export the nationally recognized model pioneered by YES Prep Houston, whose seven campuses now serve 5,400 inner city students there.
The Detroit school’s first princi pal, a Cass Tech and University of Michigan alumna named Agnes Aleobua, says her academy will rise or fall on the strength of the 10 teachers she hopes to hire after a national search that began this month.
And she thinks she knows exact ly what qualities she’s looking for, thanks to a personality survey YES Prep Houston founders Chris Barbic and Jason Bernal conducted in an attempt to discover what the most successful teachers in their schools had in common.
“Surprisingly, one of the hall marks was a pessimistic outlook,” Bernal, now the chief operating officer of YES Prep Houston, told me during a visit to Detroit last week. A study by an outside consul tant found that YES Prep’s best teachers were significantly less optimistic than either the general population or their lower-perform ing colleagues, and concluded this pessimism led them “to take full responsibility for their actions and not to leave any outcomes to chance.”
‘Supertraits’ of super teachers
Aleobua, who spent five months in Houston studying the YES Prep model in preparation for the open ing of her own Detroit school, says good inner city teachers “are fixat ed on the possibility that things won’t work out for their students.”
“They’re pessimistic about the current system, which is obviously broken when it comes to educating low-income and minority students,” she said. “And there really isn’t hope for those students unless we create something very different.”
I’m not convinced pessimism is the right word to describe this sense of emergency. But it’s cer tainly a far cry from the “I’m OK, you’re OK” complacency that per vades many underachieving schools. This is more like “You’re light years from OK, but I’m not quitting until I’ve exhausted every trick I know to get you there.”
Indeed, a pessimistic outlook is just one of seven “supertraits” that distinguished the highest achieving teachers at YES Prep from their lower performing colleagues.
The same study found that top teachers were far likelier than their peers to be resilient, outspoken, perfectionistic and achievement oriented, more comfortable direct ingthe work of others and less averse to conflict and competition.
Just the beginning?
YES Prep Houston’s founders agreed to help launch a Detroit school after a joint appeal from University Preparatory Academy founder Doug Ross and Gov. Jenni fer Granholm, who flew to Houston together last spring.
Ross, who persuaded Macomb County developer Wayne Webber and his wife, Joan, to bankroll Uni versity YES’ $6-million start-up costs, says YES Prep is just the first of several nationally recognized charter school operators he and Henry Ford Academy founder Steve Hamp hope to lure to Detroit, with an eye to expanding charter school enrollment here to 25,000 students by 2020.
Ross says he supports the initia tives Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has undertaken at Detroit Public Schools and believes what he and Hamp are doing will ultimately buttress Bobb’s efforts to boost student performance throughout the district.
“What we seek to do,” Ross says, “is create a public marketplace for education where every student has good choices and where we hold every school accountable.”
And who knows? With enough high-achieving, perfectionistic pes simists itching for a good fight, maybe they can.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
DPS Goes DIGITAL! (Mission Accomplished!)
Posted: Tuesday, 09 February 2010 3:36PMHoughton Mifflin Harcourt Kicks Off Partnership with Detroit Public Schools |
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. Tuesday held a day of service to symbolically launch 'Destination: Detroit,' a multi-year partnership with Detroit Public Schools to provide a unique integrated education solution that combines advanced technology, customized lesson plans and educator training and development that will improve student learning. The one-day mass volunteer effort kicked off with an assembly at Douglass Academy for Young Men to rally 200 of HMH’s top executives, who heard remarks from Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief academic and accountability officer of Detroit Public Schools; Rita Schaefer, executive vice president of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. Following the rally, HMH volunteers fanned out to work in 23 DPS schools across the city chosen based on need. The volunteers will provide education expertise and assistance in critical areas, including professional development, reading and math tutoring, technology support, grant writing, adult literacy, library organization and building maintenance, among others. Additionally, HMH is donating more than 1,000 books to the district to supplement school library collections. 'Destination: Detroit' represents the umbrella name of HMH’s district-wide, integrated program that will reshape how the DPS approaches its curriculum, lesson planning and instruction of students to drive performance improvement. This program combines the entire portfolio of educational resources HMH has to offer, including instructional materials adapted for performance level, instructor professional development training and tools, a Web-based data system and a content management portal. This is the first time HMH has provided such an integrated, thorough offering of resources, including embedding 10 full-time support staff in the district to manage the system. The DPS program is creating the new model for how school districts will educate in the future by looking at education as a process, not just a set of tools. The Web-based data system gives instructors real-time assessments of student performance, allowing instructors to more efficiently target lesson plans to skill level. The content management portal, called Learning Village, is the heart of the program where teachers, administrators, parents and students can access instructional content that is customized for student proficiency by HMH. It also provides learning resources as well as best practices and professional development materials. The benefits of Learning Village are already being realized across the country in other large school districts, but never before has HMH used it in such a complete integrated solutions package like the DPS program, who use it to help teachers evaluate students’ needs and teaching opportunities, track progress throughout the curriculum, and identify students at risk. “With the power of technology, new integrated offerings and tools can unite teacher training and assessment, and online curriculum content for educators, parents and administrators to support and enrich today’s generation of learners, said Barry O’Callaghan, CEO and chairman of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “Our day of service is a critical first step toward this larger goal that will set in motion improvements across DPS.” HMH is committing to Detroit as a long-term customer by putting down roots in the city with a 10-person team to provide technical support, training and outreach. Additionally, the company relocated its executive internal strategy conference, originally scheduled for Austin, Texas, to Detroit on Feb. 10 to show employees firsthand the needs of its largest customer, Detroit Public Schools. The company booked 200+ hotel rooms for an average of 3 consecutive nights. At an employee dinner Tuesday night at the Marriott Renaissance Center, HMH through the DPS Foundation awarded four $2,500 scholarships to deserving DPS high school graduates to apply towards college. “Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is committed to working shoulder to shoulder with Detroit Public Schools to foster a true community of learning for the betterment of Detroit’s children,” said O’Callaghan. “Public-private partnerships such as this are a powerful way to accelerate progress in our country’s education system, as we hope to do for Detroit Public Schools.” |
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Fixing our schools
Innovations help districts across U.S. make difference
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Third of five parts
In Charlotte, N.C., the best principals and teachers are hand picked to lead the worst schools.
In Washington, D.C., the may or appoints the schools chancel lor.
In New York, Wisconsin and Florida, parents on public assis tance lose a chunk of their welfare benefits if their kids continually miss school.
These are some of the drastic solutions for schools with low stu dent performance, chronic truan cy and other issues affecting achievement. But the innovative changes have made a difference: Students are showing up for class and doing better on tests, and teachers are being held account able for making sure students succeed.
Would any of them work here? Education experts and observ ers say Michigan needs big, pro vocative ideas for turning around its low-performing schools and raising academic performance in general across the state.
Big ideas for Mich. schools
Solutions from other states can aid achievement
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY, ROBIN ERB and LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS
As the state considers new standards for statewide testing of students, some also see hope for Michigan’s educational system in the sweeping reforms recently announced by the state. Others see promise in the state’s application for $526 million in Race to the Top federal funds, meant to stimulate innovative school reform efforts.
Still others say Michigan can learn strate gies from other states that have found ways to improve learning and accountability.
Here’s a look at how some of them could work, especially in the state’s largest dis trict, Detroit Public Schools.
BOOSTING ATTENDANCE IN SCHOOLS
On any given day in DPS, 16% of students are absent. The average high school student missed 46 days of school, and nearly 10% of high school students missed more than 100 days of school, according to district data.
Yet the district doesn’t have an atten dance policy, and teachers say that affects achievement.
Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, says he favors an attendance policy such as the one adopted in New York, where students are required to attend school 90% of the school year in or der to graduate.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said, for a deficit-ridden district such as DPS not to have a policy, because state funding is tied to the number of students enrolled.
In addition, under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools nationwide face sanctions that could lead to a school closing if they don’t make annual progress toward academic and attendance standards.
Michigan should also consider a program under which parents lose public assistance if their children are chronically truant, John son said. That’s what New York, Wisconsin and Florida do, under a system called Learn Fare.
Wisconsin pioneered it in 1988. If a stu dent whose family is on public assistance misses 10 days of school, a monthly monitor ing system kicks in. If that student then has two unexcused absences, his or her family could lose a portion of their welfare benefits. Wisconsin’s program has appeared to close the enrollment gap between dropouts and school attendees by 41%, according to a report released last year by Thomas Dee, director of the Public Policy Program at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa.
SENDING THE BEST TO THE WORST
In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the best principals and teachers head to the worst schools.
And that may be the single most impor tant factor in turning around the district’s poorest performing schools, said Ann Clark, the district’s chief academic officer, who calls this strategic staffing “the most excit ing project I’ve worked on — absolutely.”
It works like this: Each year, the district identifies its poorest performing schools and its best school principals. Those principals are invited to head into those troubled schools — along with a handpicked team of seven teachers and support staff — to turn them around.
Principals are tapped based on their ex pertise: A principal with strong human re sources skills might be assigned to a school with a disgruntled or unhappy staff; a principal with expertise in instruction might be sent to a school where students are falling behind in certain skills.
“I have to say quickly we’re not a union state, we’re a right-to-work state,” Clark said. “But no one is forced to go.”
In fact, the initiative, now in its third year, has engaged teachers and school lead ers: “Now we’re at a place where principals want to be designated. … They’re intrigued and want to be part of a turnaround.”
Of 18 urban districts that took the nation wide National Assessment of Educational Progress test as part of a Trial Urban Dis trict Assessment in 2009, Charlotte-Mecklenburg scored best in fourth-grade math and second best in eighth-grade math. The fourth- and eighth-graders in Charlotte’s school district outperform the national average, as well.
ADDING TEACHER ACCOUNTABILITY
Teacher accountability is inescapable at Charlotte-Mecklenburg — teachers and students are linked through ID numbers to an online database. The user’s identity— teacher, student, parent — determines what information he or she can view.
The system is comprehensive — for ex ample, a math teacher can search test re sults to see how his or her class performed as a whole on a certain test or test question, or how a specific student performed. The teacher also can access attendance and discipline records.
A principal can see how students per formed in a particular teacher’s class, which in turn helps measure teacher effectiveness. Tying performance to teachers can be tricky, however, because test results don’t account for the fact that not all students start at the same mark or learn at the same pace, said Sharon Lewis, research director at the Washington-D.C. Council of the Great City Schools. Still, it’s a solid start.
Tying performance to teachers estab lishes goals and tracks who is meeting them and who is not, Lewis said.
“Charlotte was one of the first districts to have a strong accountability system … and each year, they’ve gotten more sophisticated in the way they examine the data,” she said.
DPS expects to have the same online system accessible district-wide by fall, in hopes of using the data to improve test scores and teacher accountability.
The system allows the kind of teacher accountability that the state also is seeking.
Michigan’s Race to the Top application includes plans for a separate statewide data base that would allow the public to see how individual teachers’ students performed.
NARROWING TEACHER CERTIFICATION
Changing the way the state certifies ele mentary school teachers would contribute significantly to improving the quality of teaching in Detroit, said June Green-Rivers, who retired in July as executive director of literacy for DPS.
Currently, teachers can get certificates that cover grades K-5 or K-8.
“But that’s too broad,” Green-Rivers said. What ends up happening, particularly in frequently downsizing districts such as DPS, is that teachers who have taught one grade for decades might end up teaching a grade they have never taught and with which they have no familiarity.
Narrowing the certification — to K-3 and 4-6 — would address that issue, she said.
Green-Rivers said she believes the change is crucial because students who have teachers who are unfamiliar with the grade they’re teaching “are crippled for the rest of their academic career.”
DEVELOPING TEACHERS Under a $39-million contract with Hough ton Mifflin Harcourt, DPS has purchased a system called Learning Village that will allow teachers and parents to access test results and textbooks as well as data from lesson plans and professional development materials.
This should help teachers understand what was confusing to students and what should be done differently in instruction, said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, DPS’s chief academic and accountability auditor.
“This technology is an equalizer,” Byrd Bennett said.
DPS teacher Kimberly Kyff, named Mich igan Teacher of the Year in 2006, says Web based training could work well because professional development works best on an ongoing, consistent basis, instead of once or twice a year.
“The power of online development is that it provides teachers with needed flexibility, removing time constraints,” she said. “Per sonally, I stay abreast of new research through podcasts and other online tools.
Learning new ways to enhance your profes sional repertoire is always a good thing.”
Everyone in the district should be able to access the new system by fall.
Sean Vann, principal at Frederick Doug lass Academy, an all-boys school in the dis trict, said professional development should be consistent and varied. Last month, he sent his staff to spend a day observing teachers at some of the best private schools in the area, including Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, University Liggett in Grosse Pointe Woods, the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills and the University of Detroit Mercy.
“They were impressed,” Vann said. “They saw that the successful schools are teaching skills and critical thinking.”
He also said there should be an exit exam for every grade, and teachers should be held accountable for their students’ performance.
LETTING THE MAYOR CONTROL SCHOOLS
In Detroit, some have debated whether Mayor Dave Bing should take control of the city’s schools. The mayoral-control model, which did little to improve achievement in Detroit from 1999 to 2005, has shown mixed results nationwide but is credited with con tributing to incremental aca demic gains in places such as Washington, D.C.
The District of Columbia Public Schools’ new chancellor, Michelle Rhee, has been lauded as a take-no-prisoners leader who has challenged unions, fired teachers at underper forming schools and imple mented new rules in daily op erations.
Rather than trying to please several members of a school board, answering to Mayor Adrian Fenty — and having his sup port — has enabled Rhee’s “attitude of just charging ahead,” said Jack Jennings, of the D.C.-based Center for Education Policy.
There and elsewhere, bullishness backed by the mayor may help school leaders plow through bureaucracy and step onto turf that others cannot.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has been a vocal schools advocate for years, telling voters in 1996 to “judge me harshly” if the schools didn’t improve. He appoints the school board, and more recently, he pushed for legislation that gives extraordinary pow er to the superintendent to overhaul the worst schools.
In Boston, eighth-grade math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam have risen by 16%, and fourth-grade math scores have increased by 18% since 2003.
The key might not be so much an issue of control, but that strong leaders share the same vision, said district spokesman Mat thew Wilder. “In any city where you have really educational innovations taking place, you have strong support from the mayor,” Wilder said.
Still, top-down control can be tricky, especially in a state like Michigan, where teachers unions and local school boards have long set the pace for issues such as curriculum. In Detroit, the state Legislature would have to approve a mayoral takeover.
Bing has said he would take control of DPS if Detroiters showed their approval by vot ing in favor of an advisory question on a ballot.
“You get a lot better buy-in when local people have a say in … decisions,” said Jen nings, at the Center for Education Policy.
REQUIRING PRESCHOOL Early childhood experts say a key to im proving academic achievement in Detroit is ensuring that children come to kindergarten prepared to learn. And that means they need to attend a quality preschool program.
Some states are pushing for universal preschool, which would guarantee a head start for every child. Michigan, though, is moving in the opposite direction: Funding for state-run programs was cut this school year.
Still, there might be a way to give more youngsters access to those programs, said former lawmaker Matt Gillard, who is now a consultant with the Lansing-based Early Childhood Investment Corp.
He said Michigan’s pre school programs mostly are separated into three catego ries: programs that are paid by federal Head Start funds, those paid with Michigan Great Start Readiness Program funds and those programs for which par ents pay tuition.
Low-income parents can’t afford some of the tuition based preschools; parents who can afford tuition don’t qualify for high quality schools that take dollars generally reserved for children at risk of starting school behind.
By merging the programs, tuition dollars could help offset some of the costs for chil dren in the subsidized programs. It’s not truly universal preschool, but “we might get close,” Gillard said.
Short of universal pre-school, there’s a need to make sure existing programs have teachers with specific training in early child hood development. That’s because preschool shouldn’t be about babysitting — it’s about laying a foundation for kindergarten, said Paula Wood, dean of education at Wayne State University.
It’s not that children need to know how to read, it’s that they should understand that books hold words and words convey mean ing. And they should know how to weigh options and know that decisions have conse quences, Wood said. “The research is so clear on the long term benefits,” said Karen Paciorek, profes sor of early childhood education at Eastern Michigan University. “It is one of the best things you can do.”
A quality preschool program, Paciorek said, teaches kids how to solve problems and work with others.
One Michigan preschool program has provided some of the best evidence of how much impact a quality program can have on disadvantaged children: Over the course of more than 40 years, research on children who attended the Perry Preschool in Ypsi lanti has found that the students not only were more likely to graduate high school and perform better academically than their peers who didn’t attend a similar program, but later in life, they were more likely to be employed and had higher salaries.
ALIGNING TUTORING AND STANDARDS
Federally funded small-group and one-on one tutoring is offered in many DPS schools, but gets poor grades from parents because test scores have not improved, according to teacher and parent surveys obtained by the Free Press.
The fix is easy, said Wesley Ganson, for mer principal at Trix Elementary in Detroit.
To make effective use of the money and time, the state and school district need to require that the tutoring is aligned with district, state and Michigan Educational Assessment Program test standards. The tutors should also be certified teachers, he said.
In DPS, 43 of the 172 schools must pro vide tutoring services. That’s because the federal No Child Left Behind law requires schools that receive funding for programs for low-income students — but fail to meet federal standards for three or more years — to use a portion of those funds to provide free tutoring.
The fees can cost up to about $2,000 per student per year.
The state approves the companies that can provide the tutoring, and parents choose the company that they want to tutor their children.
It sounds good, but in practice, it hasn’t made a significant difference in achievement or standardized test scores.
“A lot of times, there are people just do ing it for the money and it’s not always the best fit for the children,” said Ganson, who’s also executive director of the DPS Center for Student Advocacy. “You need the cream of the crop to work with these at-risk young sters who are already failing, already behind.”
Detroit schools
Faculty, officials protest testing
Some say Bobb might gain control
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Teachers, parents and school board mem bers wary of a new standardized test being administered this week in Detroit Public Schools tried to halt the testing Monday.
Some teachers said they were afraid that the test would be used as a political tool to help DPS Financial Manager Robert Bobb lobby the state Legislature for academic con trol over DPS.
“For such a test to have been imposed by a financial manager who is not an educator … without giving anybody else a chance to re view the test, it’s a stick for him to use against the students and teachers to further degrade and then privatize our public education sys tem,” said Joyce Schon, an attorney repre senting some of the teachers. Even though the teachers rallied outside DPS’ administrative offices, the test went on in some schools Monday.
“This is a standard practice across the country,” said Steve Was ko, a spokesman for DPS. “Are the critics, self-fo cused on their adult needs, not interested in knowing what students are learning and using that information to improve teaching and learning? What are they afraid of?”
Bobb, the state-appoint ed emergency financial manager for DPS, is in a political and court battle with the school board over academic control of the district. A Wayne County judge has said academic authority rests with the board, but Bobb has lobbied the Legislature to create a law to give him academic control. School board President Otis Mathis sent Bobb a letter on Friday requesting that he “cease and desist” making academic deci sions, “specifically, administering this bench mark assessment.”
Tracy Martin, the deputy chief academic and accountability auditor for DPS, said the test will be used to determine whether stu dents are progressing toward MEAP standards and the higher standards set by the Na tional Assessment of Educational Progress for fourth and eighth grade.
Without the testing, “we’re kind (of) just going blindly,” she said. “You absolutely need to have regular ongoing formative assess ments.”
Last year, DPS students scored the lowest in the nation in the 40-year history of the NAEP.
Martin said the test will not be used to evaluate teachers or determine good schools from bad. She said students are not expected to set aside time to study for the tests.
Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers union, said confusion and paranoia would’ve been minimized if the test had been explained to teachers before hand.
| CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@FREEPRESS.COM
EVEN THOUGH TEACHERS RALLIED, THE TEST WENT ON IN SOME SCHOOLS.
Innovations help districts across U.S. make difference
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Third of five parts
In Charlotte, N.C., the best principals and teachers are hand picked to lead the worst schools.
In Washington, D.C., the may or appoints the schools chancel lor.
In New York, Wisconsin and Florida, parents on public assis tance lose a chunk of their welfare benefits if their kids continually miss school.
These are some of the drastic solutions for schools with low stu dent performance, chronic truan cy and other issues affecting achievement. But the innovative changes have made a difference: Students are showing up for class and doing better on tests, and teachers are being held account able for making sure students succeed.
Would any of them work here? Education experts and observ ers say Michigan needs big, pro vocative ideas for turning around its low-performing schools and raising academic performance in general across the state.
Big ideas for Mich. schools
Solutions from other states can aid achievement
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY, ROBIN ERB and LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITERS
As the state considers new standards for statewide testing of students, some also see hope for Michigan’s educational system in the sweeping reforms recently announced by the state. Others see promise in the state’s application for $526 million in Race to the Top federal funds, meant to stimulate innovative school reform efforts.
Still others say Michigan can learn strate gies from other states that have found ways to improve learning and accountability.
Here’s a look at how some of them could work, especially in the state’s largest dis trict, Detroit Public Schools.
BOOSTING ATTENDANCE IN SCHOOLS
On any given day in DPS, 16% of students are absent. The average high school student missed 46 days of school, and nearly 10% of high school students missed more than 100 days of school, according to district data.
Yet the district doesn’t have an atten dance policy, and teachers say that affects achievement.
Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, says he favors an attendance policy such as the one adopted in New York, where students are required to attend school 90% of the school year in or der to graduate.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said, for a deficit-ridden district such as DPS not to have a policy, because state funding is tied to the number of students enrolled.
In addition, under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools nationwide face sanctions that could lead to a school closing if they don’t make annual progress toward academic and attendance standards.
Michigan should also consider a program under which parents lose public assistance if their children are chronically truant, John son said. That’s what New York, Wisconsin and Florida do, under a system called Learn Fare.
Wisconsin pioneered it in 1988. If a stu dent whose family is on public assistance misses 10 days of school, a monthly monitor ing system kicks in. If that student then has two unexcused absences, his or her family could lose a portion of their welfare benefits. Wisconsin’s program has appeared to close the enrollment gap between dropouts and school attendees by 41%, according to a report released last year by Thomas Dee, director of the Public Policy Program at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa.
SENDING THE BEST TO THE WORST
In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the best principals and teachers head to the worst schools.
And that may be the single most impor tant factor in turning around the district’s poorest performing schools, said Ann Clark, the district’s chief academic officer, who calls this strategic staffing “the most excit ing project I’ve worked on — absolutely.”
It works like this: Each year, the district identifies its poorest performing schools and its best school principals. Those principals are invited to head into those troubled schools — along with a handpicked team of seven teachers and support staff — to turn them around.
Principals are tapped based on their ex pertise: A principal with strong human re sources skills might be assigned to a school with a disgruntled or unhappy staff; a principal with expertise in instruction might be sent to a school where students are falling behind in certain skills.
“I have to say quickly we’re not a union state, we’re a right-to-work state,” Clark said. “But no one is forced to go.”
In fact, the initiative, now in its third year, has engaged teachers and school lead ers: “Now we’re at a place where principals want to be designated. … They’re intrigued and want to be part of a turnaround.”
Of 18 urban districts that took the nation wide National Assessment of Educational Progress test as part of a Trial Urban Dis trict Assessment in 2009, Charlotte-Mecklenburg scored best in fourth-grade math and second best in eighth-grade math. The fourth- and eighth-graders in Charlotte’s school district outperform the national average, as well.
ADDING TEACHER ACCOUNTABILITY
Teacher accountability is inescapable at Charlotte-Mecklenburg — teachers and students are linked through ID numbers to an online database. The user’s identity— teacher, student, parent — determines what information he or she can view.
The system is comprehensive — for ex ample, a math teacher can search test re sults to see how his or her class performed as a whole on a certain test or test question, or how a specific student performed. The teacher also can access attendance and discipline records.
A principal can see how students per formed in a particular teacher’s class, which in turn helps measure teacher effectiveness. Tying performance to teachers can be tricky, however, because test results don’t account for the fact that not all students start at the same mark or learn at the same pace, said Sharon Lewis, research director at the Washington-D.C. Council of the Great City Schools. Still, it’s a solid start.
Tying performance to teachers estab lishes goals and tracks who is meeting them and who is not, Lewis said.
“Charlotte was one of the first districts to have a strong accountability system … and each year, they’ve gotten more sophisticated in the way they examine the data,” she said.
DPS expects to have the same online system accessible district-wide by fall, in hopes of using the data to improve test scores and teacher accountability.
The system allows the kind of teacher accountability that the state also is seeking.
Michigan’s Race to the Top application includes plans for a separate statewide data base that would allow the public to see how individual teachers’ students performed.
NARROWING TEACHER CERTIFICATION
Changing the way the state certifies ele mentary school teachers would contribute significantly to improving the quality of teaching in Detroit, said June Green-Rivers, who retired in July as executive director of literacy for DPS.
Currently, teachers can get certificates that cover grades K-5 or K-8.
“But that’s too broad,” Green-Rivers said. What ends up happening, particularly in frequently downsizing districts such as DPS, is that teachers who have taught one grade for decades might end up teaching a grade they have never taught and with which they have no familiarity.
Narrowing the certification — to K-3 and 4-6 — would address that issue, she said.
Green-Rivers said she believes the change is crucial because students who have teachers who are unfamiliar with the grade they’re teaching “are crippled for the rest of their academic career.”
DEVELOPING TEACHERS Under a $39-million contract with Hough ton Mifflin Harcourt, DPS has purchased a system called Learning Village that will allow teachers and parents to access test results and textbooks as well as data from lesson plans and professional development materials.
This should help teachers understand what was confusing to students and what should be done differently in instruction, said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, DPS’s chief academic and accountability auditor.
“This technology is an equalizer,” Byrd Bennett said.
DPS teacher Kimberly Kyff, named Mich igan Teacher of the Year in 2006, says Web based training could work well because professional development works best on an ongoing, consistent basis, instead of once or twice a year.
“The power of online development is that it provides teachers with needed flexibility, removing time constraints,” she said. “Per sonally, I stay abreast of new research through podcasts and other online tools.
Learning new ways to enhance your profes sional repertoire is always a good thing.”
Everyone in the district should be able to access the new system by fall.
Sean Vann, principal at Frederick Doug lass Academy, an all-boys school in the dis trict, said professional development should be consistent and varied. Last month, he sent his staff to spend a day observing teachers at some of the best private schools in the area, including Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, University Liggett in Grosse Pointe Woods, the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills and the University of Detroit Mercy.
“They were impressed,” Vann said. “They saw that the successful schools are teaching skills and critical thinking.”
He also said there should be an exit exam for every grade, and teachers should be held accountable for their students’ performance.
LETTING THE MAYOR CONTROL SCHOOLS
In Detroit, some have debated whether Mayor Dave Bing should take control of the city’s schools. The mayoral-control model, which did little to improve achievement in Detroit from 1999 to 2005, has shown mixed results nationwide but is credited with con tributing to incremental aca demic gains in places such as Washington, D.C.
The District of Columbia Public Schools’ new chancellor, Michelle Rhee, has been lauded as a take-no-prisoners leader who has challenged unions, fired teachers at underper forming schools and imple mented new rules in daily op erations.
Rather than trying to please several members of a school board, answering to Mayor Adrian Fenty — and having his sup port — has enabled Rhee’s “attitude of just charging ahead,” said Jack Jennings, of the D.C.-based Center for Education Policy.
There and elsewhere, bullishness backed by the mayor may help school leaders plow through bureaucracy and step onto turf that others cannot.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has been a vocal schools advocate for years, telling voters in 1996 to “judge me harshly” if the schools didn’t improve. He appoints the school board, and more recently, he pushed for legislation that gives extraordinary pow er to the superintendent to overhaul the worst schools.
In Boston, eighth-grade math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam have risen by 16%, and fourth-grade math scores have increased by 18% since 2003.
The key might not be so much an issue of control, but that strong leaders share the same vision, said district spokesman Mat thew Wilder. “In any city where you have really educational innovations taking place, you have strong support from the mayor,” Wilder said.
Still, top-down control can be tricky, especially in a state like Michigan, where teachers unions and local school boards have long set the pace for issues such as curriculum. In Detroit, the state Legislature would have to approve a mayoral takeover.
Bing has said he would take control of DPS if Detroiters showed their approval by vot ing in favor of an advisory question on a ballot.
“You get a lot better buy-in when local people have a say in … decisions,” said Jen nings, at the Center for Education Policy.
REQUIRING PRESCHOOL Early childhood experts say a key to im proving academic achievement in Detroit is ensuring that children come to kindergarten prepared to learn. And that means they need to attend a quality preschool program.
Some states are pushing for universal preschool, which would guarantee a head start for every child. Michigan, though, is moving in the opposite direction: Funding for state-run programs was cut this school year.
Still, there might be a way to give more youngsters access to those programs, said former lawmaker Matt Gillard, who is now a consultant with the Lansing-based Early Childhood Investment Corp.
He said Michigan’s pre school programs mostly are separated into three catego ries: programs that are paid by federal Head Start funds, those paid with Michigan Great Start Readiness Program funds and those programs for which par ents pay tuition.
Low-income parents can’t afford some of the tuition based preschools; parents who can afford tuition don’t qualify for high quality schools that take dollars generally reserved for children at risk of starting school behind.
By merging the programs, tuition dollars could help offset some of the costs for chil dren in the subsidized programs. It’s not truly universal preschool, but “we might get close,” Gillard said.
Short of universal pre-school, there’s a need to make sure existing programs have teachers with specific training in early child hood development. That’s because preschool shouldn’t be about babysitting — it’s about laying a foundation for kindergarten, said Paula Wood, dean of education at Wayne State University.
It’s not that children need to know how to read, it’s that they should understand that books hold words and words convey mean ing. And they should know how to weigh options and know that decisions have conse quences, Wood said. “The research is so clear on the long term benefits,” said Karen Paciorek, profes sor of early childhood education at Eastern Michigan University. “It is one of the best things you can do.”
A quality preschool program, Paciorek said, teaches kids how to solve problems and work with others.
One Michigan preschool program has provided some of the best evidence of how much impact a quality program can have on disadvantaged children: Over the course of more than 40 years, research on children who attended the Perry Preschool in Ypsi lanti has found that the students not only were more likely to graduate high school and perform better academically than their peers who didn’t attend a similar program, but later in life, they were more likely to be employed and had higher salaries.
ALIGNING TUTORING AND STANDARDS
Federally funded small-group and one-on one tutoring is offered in many DPS schools, but gets poor grades from parents because test scores have not improved, according to teacher and parent surveys obtained by the Free Press.
The fix is easy, said Wesley Ganson, for mer principal at Trix Elementary in Detroit.
To make effective use of the money and time, the state and school district need to require that the tutoring is aligned with district, state and Michigan Educational Assessment Program test standards. The tutors should also be certified teachers, he said.
In DPS, 43 of the 172 schools must pro vide tutoring services. That’s because the federal No Child Left Behind law requires schools that receive funding for programs for low-income students — but fail to meet federal standards for three or more years — to use a portion of those funds to provide free tutoring.
The fees can cost up to about $2,000 per student per year.
The state approves the companies that can provide the tutoring, and parents choose the company that they want to tutor their children.
It sounds good, but in practice, it hasn’t made a significant difference in achievement or standardized test scores.
“A lot of times, there are people just do ing it for the money and it’s not always the best fit for the children,” said Ganson, who’s also executive director of the DPS Center for Student Advocacy. “You need the cream of the crop to work with these at-risk young sters who are already failing, already behind.”
Detroit schools
Faculty, officials protest testing
Some say Bobb might gain control
By CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Teachers, parents and school board mem bers wary of a new standardized test being administered this week in Detroit Public Schools tried to halt the testing Monday.
Some teachers said they were afraid that the test would be used as a political tool to help DPS Financial Manager Robert Bobb lobby the state Legislature for academic con trol over DPS.
“For such a test to have been imposed by a financial manager who is not an educator … without giving anybody else a chance to re view the test, it’s a stick for him to use against the students and teachers to further degrade and then privatize our public education sys tem,” said Joyce Schon, an attorney repre senting some of the teachers. Even though the teachers rallied outside DPS’ administrative offices, the test went on in some schools Monday.
“This is a standard practice across the country,” said Steve Was ko, a spokesman for DPS. “Are the critics, self-fo cused on their adult needs, not interested in knowing what students are learning and using that information to improve teaching and learning? What are they afraid of?”
Bobb, the state-appoint ed emergency financial manager for DPS, is in a political and court battle with the school board over academic control of the district. A Wayne County judge has said academic authority rests with the board, but Bobb has lobbied the Legislature to create a law to give him academic control. School board President Otis Mathis sent Bobb a letter on Friday requesting that he “cease and desist” making academic deci sions, “specifically, administering this bench mark assessment.”
Tracy Martin, the deputy chief academic and accountability auditor for DPS, said the test will be used to determine whether stu dents are progressing toward MEAP standards and the higher standards set by the Na tional Assessment of Educational Progress for fourth and eighth grade.
Without the testing, “we’re kind (of) just going blindly,” she said. “You absolutely need to have regular ongoing formative assess ments.”
Last year, DPS students scored the lowest in the nation in the 40-year history of the NAEP.
Martin said the test will not be used to evaluate teachers or determine good schools from bad. She said students are not expected to set aside time to study for the tests.
Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers union, said confusion and paranoia would’ve been minimized if the test had been explained to teachers before hand.
| CONTACT CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY: 313-223-4537 OR CPRATT@FREEPRESS.COM
EVEN THOUGH TEACHERS RALLIED, THE TEST WENT ON IN SOME SCHOOLS.
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