2012 senior class photos
2012 West Carrollton graduation
Home of the Week
Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > November
November 2005
The future of Montessori
I had very limited space in today’s paper to write about what parents told the school board Tuesday at an open forum at which they were invited to air any concerns they might have.
Instead. the board made news right away by announcing an about-face on the future of Horace Mann Elementary School. The announcement that the school would be rebuilt despite soil problems dominated the story that got in the paper.
What was left out was an equally important question — will Horace Mann still be a Montessori school? That question, and the future of Montessori instruction in the city school district, is up in the air.
A committee of administrators along with parents and teachers from the district’s three Montessori schools is expected to report recommendations to the board by the end of December.
Dayton is one of the few (in our area, I think the only) public school systems offering Montessori instruction. Currently, three schools — Horace Mann, Franklin and Jefferson elementary schools — are Montessori-themed, with curriculum based on the theories of Maria Montessori, a groundbreaking Italian doctor in the early 20th century.
Montessori believed education should start very young and that children learned best through hands-on experiences. Dayton’s Montessori schools accept children as young as age three. They are grouped in mutli-age classrooms (age three to six, age six to nine, etc.).
I have a unique perspective on this, because my daughter attended one of these schools beginning at age 3. First of all, I have to admit her experience made me a fan of Montessori instruction. It may not be a great fit for every child, but my daughter flourished academically in the program. And as a parent, I found this program a tremendous benefit. My friends in the suburbs were shelling out $6,000 to $7,000 a year for Montessori pre-school. In Dayton, I was getting it FOR FREE through my public school system.
In fact, parent affection for the program at Franklin made me wonder why more public school systems don’t offer Montessori pre-school/elementary schools? If it benefits kids’ learning and parents are willing to shell out thousands of dollars for it, doesn’t it seem sensible that suburban school districts should respond to that demand with their own Montessori offerings?
But even in Dayton, where the programs are popular and effective (Franklin and Horace Mann are always among the city’s best performing schools on state tests), the district is considering a more limited Montessori presence in the future.
One of the big problems is teacher training. Montessori certification is a fairly rigorous and time consuming program and the nearest college specializing in it is Xavier University in Cincinnati. Dayton is always struggling with a short supply of Montessori-trained teachers and principals for the three schools.
The board also is unsure how much demand there is for Montessori programs. While many of the parents in the current Montessori schools are fervent supporters, is there really demand for three schools? Or are parents choosing these schools because they are close to their homes as often as because they are Montessori-themed?
Additionally, Montessori magnets, open to any student in the city, complicate the board’s plan for all neighborhood schools in the near future. Franklin, for instance, largely serves kids in its neighborhood. Should it be a neighborhood school while the Montessori theme is switched to a more remote site?
One idea is to have one large Montessori school to replace three smaller ones. the Montessori trained staff could be consolidated and Montessori-minded families could have a one-stop shop.
I’d love to hear what Montessori fans, or parents at the Dayton Montessori schools, think about the decisions facing the school board.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: My Favorite Posts, Urban School Issues
Charters go on trial
In a case that will be closely watched nationally, the Ohio Supreme Court today is hearing testimony in a four year old lawsuit filed by teachers unions and other public education groups on behalf of Ohio families challenging the legality of charter schools.
The charter opponents make an interesting argument, one that echoes opposition to segregation. They argue that by creating a second public school system of charter schools, the state has in essence built a dual system of education — regular public schools on one side, charters on the other — with uneven accountability standards and funding. Proponents argue charters are merely a new public school option and that public education remains one system.
Given the politics of the high court, which leans heavily to the right, I’d be surprised if the suit prevailed. But it will still be interesting to hear the best arguments for and against charters out loud in a courtroom. We’ll see how closely they track to the arguments I made when I debated myself over the merits of Dayton’s charter movement.
Given Dayton’s experience with charters, I’d love to hear what Daytonians think about this court battle. Should charter expansion be stopped or should the state shut charters down entirely, as opponents might like? Or do charters need more resources and more freedom, as supporters often argue?
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Shooting for Harvard
We had an interesting Thanksgiving discussion at my house this week about college, and it was very timely, as high school seniors will begin to make their college choices soon. The question was: how important is it to shoot for Harvard? In my view, it’s more important than you think.
The conflict is this — if a kid has the qualifications to attend an elite school, should they always try to go there? Or when does it make sense to choose a lesser school? How much should money be a factor, or the student’s desire (or the parent’s desire) that they stay close to home?
I think this is a big issue in Dayton. All the time, I see kids with the grades, scores and activities to get into top schools who instead choose to stay home and attend the University of Dayton or Ohio State or other close by options. Often this is because they are afraid to leave home or don’t think they can afford other choices.
Let me start off by saying that the local and state universities here are good options. That is not my point at all. I am a UD grad, for instance, and got a great education there. I recommend the school all the time.
But last year, I had the good fortune to be one of just 12 American and six international journalists selected to participate in a year of sabbatical study at the University of Michigan through the Knight Wallace program.
I’ve mentioned here before how this experience influenced my thinking on the value of foreign language instruction and on raising self-confident girls.
It also changed my thinking about the value of an education at an elite school. I used to think it couldn’t make that much difference. No matter where you went, if you worked hard and learned what you were taught, I figured a smart kid would do well. But then I took a year’s worth of classes at Michigan.
Here’s the difference. In a typical UD class, my professor was a true expert in the subject with solid credentials and generally used the best course texts and materials available. At Michigan, It was amazing how often my professors had WORLD CLASS reputations and how often they had AUTHORED the top texts we were using.
I also met a lot of top journalists through the program. It was interesting to me how much it mattered to them where you went to school. At the elite newspapers, an incredible number of journalists went to a small handful of elite schools. And they would noticeably perk up when they discovered they were talking to someone who went to, say, Harvard or Yale. This is true in many fields.
That’s what those top schools offer. It’s both a quality of instruction that is simply on another plane when compared to other good colleges and the connection to other elite students who will go on to make their marks in the world. Your college friendships will help you even more down the line if you went to an elite school.
So that’s why I say if you can go to a top school, you should do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Great books as gifts for kids
Recently, I got a wonderful treat. I have a friend who is writing her first children’s book and another friend illustrated a proof for her. Because I have three kids, the illustrator sent me a copy, asking that I read it to them and give her feedback on how they reacted to the drawings.
It was great fun to see the creative work of both the author and illustrator in progress. It got me thinking about what makes a good children’s book.
With the holiday buying season upon us today and a bunch of family visiting for Thanksgiving, I asked everyone to offer up their favorite children’s books. In case you are shopping for young children this holiday, here are our suggestions:
My personal favorites to read to the kids are Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Moe Willems and Duck For President by Doreen Cronin. In Willem’s book, it’s up to you to stymie the pigeon’s ambition to drive the bus and Cronin tells the story of a duck who’s challenge to the farmer’s power leads to greater political battles.
For little kids, my mother suggests The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill. It’s a story of the the battle between vehicles and pushcarts in New York City that was a favorite when I was a kid.
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a great classic story of a hyperactive boy’s dream trip to an island of wild beasts.
For little kids at bedtime, you can’t beat the lulaby-style story of Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.
When our kids were smaller, we loved Hippos go Bezerk and all the other fun board books by Sandra Boynton.
A more recent hit with our kids is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. It’s a funny alphabet story.
There’s also How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague, suggested by my sister-in-law. This again is a series of books that’s lots of fun, but this one is our favorite.
She also likes The Naughty Bus by Jane Oke, the story of a toy double decker bus that creates havoc on the dinner table.
Of course, you can’t go wrong with Dr. Suess. My favorite is Green Eggs and Ham A Dr. Suess-like story that my brother likes is Go Dogs Go by P.D. Eastman.
For more sentimental stories, my wife likes Guess how much I love You by Susan McBratney and The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein.
For older kids, there is the series of five adventure books by Lloyd Alexander. I read these as a kid and loved them.
Another idea is Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Others suggested A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, a real classic.
So when you’re shopping, check these out. They’re also easily purchased online through Amazon. And tell us what is your favorite children’s book?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Young Children
What makes a genius kid?
Sunday’s New York Times magazine had a long article on the problems of gifted education. There are lots of interesting nuggets in the story, including a study that shows that the “troubled genius” is a myth. Exceptionally bright people often are products of stable, supportive homes and have normal growing up experiences.
The lack of quality gifted programs is a prime complaint I hear frequently from parents. Where gifted programs even exist in schools, it’s often just a once a week pull out program with a few activities. That is far short of what gifted advocates suggest — systems that identify true genius and immerse the student in an environment that will develop that potential.
In fact, the kids who are typically identified for school-based gifted programs are not usually truly gifted kids. That’s because they are often identified for the program by a classroom teacher, and teachers tend to pick the kids who are good students. But there’s a difference between a good student and a real genius. The gifted kids are harder to spot because they may be under achievers or very gifted in one area and typical in other areas.
School districts, on tight budgets, have a hard time justifying more extensive programs that serve just a few kids. But as a nation, don’t we need these exceptional students to develop their talents? Do districts have responsibility to do more?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
College grades don’t matter
Last spring, a close friend about my age (37) asked me to critique her resume. She is a talented journalist who has a truckload of prestigious awards and so many accomplishments it was a challenge to keep it all from growing beyond a few pages.
Under her college degree, I noticed she listed that she had graduated college magna cum laude with a 4.0 grade point average. One of my first suggestions was to drop this line and instead use the space for her professional accomplishments. Sorry, I told her, but at this point in our lives nobody cares about our grades in college.
“I was afraid you were going to tell me that,” the friend said. “I really like to keep that on there. I think it says something about me that I took college seriously, worked hard and didn’t just goof off.”
I was thinking about this conversation as I was reading this excellent blog post by Ramit Sethi in which he argues an obsession with grades while in college is both unhealthy and missing the point of higher education. If you know someone in college or headed there, insist that they read this post.
Stanford educated entrepreneur Ramit writes a great blog aimed at recent college graduates cleverly named I will teach you to be rich. It’s always a good read with good advice that I’ve referenced here before, including his tip for how to apply to colleges for free. Here he writes that it’s just as important for college students to meet people, build relationships and learn new things both inside and outside the classroom as it is to get high grades.
Except for maybe your first job, no one will ever hire you based on your grades, he says.
This is not to say the classwork is not important. You must learn the skills the professors are teaching. And my friend is right that “personal growth” is not an excuse for flat goofing off. There is many a college class I’d like to retake now so I could better learn the material I didn’t work hard enough to learn back then. And working hard in college is a good predictor that you will work hard later in life, as my friend’s accomplishments demonstrate.
But college also is a time to expand your horizons. Those who spend four years narrowly focused on taking the classes that will help them ensure they get straight As are missing out.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Sex ed’s quiet decline
Philadelphia Inquirer science writer and sex columnist (and one of my journalist pals) Faye Flam recently wrote a provocative column about the subtle steps backward in sex education. (Registration required at philly.com)
While groups on the political left have lined up to oppose the movement toward teaching intelligent design in science class, Flam points out there has been little outrage about the national movement toward “abstinence only” sex education in schools. Flam answers my question from a couple months ago: What should sex education actually look like in public schools?
Flam argues that abstinence only programs fail to give kids information they will need and also fails to convince kids that abstinence is the best choice. She say all we have to do is look at what kids are up to sexually (even at school!). And compared to other countries, the statistics show our kids end up with more sex-related trouble in life.
There’s no doubt abstinence works when kids adhere to it. The question is if its realistic to expect abstinence alone to work in the face of stats that say otherwise and if abstinence ONLY gives kids the information they need. Or would a more well-rounded sex ed programs do better?
Any advice for schools struggling with this issue?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Sex Education
Schools defend ad splurge
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
DAYTON — Dayton Public Schools has spent more than a half-million dollars in three years on television, radio, newspaper and billboard advertising.
The surge in ad spending — the district spent just $13,000 the year before the Kids First team won four seats, a majority of the seven-member school board — is being blamed on charter school competition. And even some of the board’s critics have no objection to the promotional push.
School officials say the amount spent is still just a fraction of the more than $200 million general fund budget. And they argue that advertising is nothing short of necessary in a district that is now one of the nation’s most competitive education markets, thanks to a flood of charter schools.
“It’s been forced upon us to compete for students,� school board President Gail Littlejohn said. “I get an ad for a charter school in the mail almost every week in the fall, and I don’t even have kids in school anymore.�
Selling the schools has even won the teachers’ union seal of approval.
“There’s no other way of showing the community we do want your child in Dayton Public Schools,� said Willie Terrell, president of the Dayton Education Association. “We have to do some- thing different.�
Dayton Public Schools spent $265,933 on advertising in the 2003-04 school year and $234,162 last year. So far this school year, the district has spent $98,129. The figures, which do not include publicity through direct mailings, were provided by the district at the request of the Dayton Daily News.
Television is the district’s preferred advertising venue. It spent $187,042 on TV ads in 2003-04 and $154,927 last year. Radio advertising cost the district $45,343 in 2003-04 and $56,164 last year. The district also spent $2,548 on ads with the Dayton Daily News in 2003-04 and $16,710 last year.
Jill Moberley, the district’s public information officer, said most of that spending has been concentrated in two areas: attendance and student recruiting.
The district is especially aggressive with advertising in advance of “count week,� the third week of October, during which the state uses attendance figures to determine enrollment. That enrollment figure is vital because the district receives state aid only for those students who attend during count week.
This fall, the district spent $55,938 on 1,150 TV and radio ads in the period before count week.
Moberley said the effort worked. During count week, the districtwide attendance rate was just under 96 percent, up from 93.39 percent on count week last year.
Moberley said school officials from other Miami Valley districts have thanked Superintendent Percy Mack for the ads because they believe the TV reminder boosted suburban attendance that week, too.
The district also saw a spike in truancy reports following its ads featuring a new truancy hot line for reporting students not in school, she said.
The final enrollment figure for Dayton, based on the October count, is still being rechecked, but the district expects to report enrollment of about 16,500.
That number should be about even with last year, an accomplishment for a district that’s been losing 1,000 kids or more each year to charters since 1999. Dayton’s public school system was helped significantly this year by the fact that no new charters opened for the first time in six years.
Charter schools are free public schools supported with tax dollars but run independently of the public school system by private operators.
Dayton is the nation’s top charter school market, with 22 percent of all schoolchildren attending 33 charter schools, all of which opened since 1998.
The district’s enrollment has plummeted by nearly 30 percent in that time, forcing 16 schools to close.
There are now more charters than the 28 traditional public schools in the Dayton district.
Moberley said the upswing in ad spending was partly fueled by a recommendation from the Council of Great City Schools, an organization of the largest urban school systems in the country. Three years ago, the council reviewed the district’s operations in a largely critical report.
“One of the recommendations was to increase our overall district activity and spending levels for promotional and community outreach,� she said. “Looking at Dayton, they saw the advent of charters and saw we were not doing a lot to compete with them at that time.�
Charter school competitors include national companies like National Heritage Academies, the nation’s biggest operator of charter schools. National Heritage uses billboards and mailings to promote its three Dayton schools.
And even locally-run charter schools, like the dropout-focused ISUS Trade and Tech Prep High School, use billboards and other high-profile ads promoting their schools.
Even critics of district spending, such as Terrell and newly elected school board member Joe Lacey, acknowledge the need to compete, even if it means buying more ads.
Lacey, who just defeated Kids First team member Doniece Gatliff in a campaign that emphasized a need for fiscal responsibility, said he would like to review the data on school advertising.
“I’d like to see if there is any evidence at all that (the ads) are bringing in kids,� Lacey said. “But if it does, then that is justifiable.�
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, My Favorite DDN Stories
Do ad dollars make sense?
Given the intense competition from charter schools in Dayton, school officials in today’s paper said they have no choice but to spend thousands on advertising.
Even the school board’s critics, like the teachers union and opposition candidate Joe Lacey told me for this story that they agreed with spending a half million dollars on ads over three years. Whether you think charter schools are a good thing or a bad thing, the simple fact is that money spent on ads is money that can’t be spent in the classroom.
So if the school board and its critics are all on board with ad spending, I’m wondering what our readers think, especially those who are Dayton taxpayers?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Dayton Public Schools
The Michigan fan in class
A big win for the Buckeyes yesterday in the greatest college football rilvary of all. A friend emailed me this Internet-forwarded picture. I thought it was pretty hilarious. This is what happens to Michigan fans who go to school in Ohio!
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Colleges and Universities, Sports and Athletics
Covering education in Ohio
One of the nice things about attending a big education conference in Columbus is I get a chance to see some of my education reporting colleagues from around the state.
Ohio is lucky to have a very strong group of reporters covering education at its major papers. I especially enjoyed seeing old friends Doug Oplinger from the Akron Beacon Journal and Jen Mrozowski from the Cincinnati Enquirer, and meeting Jennifer Smith Richards who is a fairly new transplant from Savannah, Ga., now covering education for the Columbus Dispatch. I didn’t actually see Reginald Fields from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who works in that paper’s Columbus bureau, but I know Reggie from his time covering education in Akron with Doug and his tag team partner Dennis Willard.
I thought it would be fun to gather the stories we all wrote here together and you can click through to see how each of us covered the conference differently. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find Doug’s story at the Becon-Journal website, and it doesn’t appear the Toledo Blade covered the event.
Cincinnati Enquirer: Charter Schools told they must do better
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Support qualified at charter school conference
Columbus Dispatch: Charter Schools freedom may slip away Unfortunately, the Dispatch is the only Ohio newspaper site you have to pay to read.
And here’s my story in the Dayton Daily News, headlined Tougher rules for charter schools?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Journalism, Journalism
Middle school mess
In this morning’s paper, I wrote about the charter school movement and the effort to raise charter school quality. The conference I attended included nearly everyone of any consequence in the charter school movement in Ohio and several of the movement’s most important national figures.
But one non-charter school issue caught my attention. Steven Adamowski, the former superintendent in Cincinnati superintendent, said off handedly that he is convinced middle school is an awful idea and that all elementary schools should go K-8.
Dayton schools have bought into this idea too. They are converting all their elementary schools to K-8 and phasing out middle school. One administrator told me the whole idea of walling off large groups of pre-teens, working their way though hormonal changes, by themselves was insane. Dayton’s view is that smaller groups of seventh and eighth graders will be easier to manage and hopefully will adopt a leadership roles in the schools, serving as models for younger kids.
So is there anyone out there who LIKES middle school?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Teaching and Learning
The school reform divide
Some of the biggest names in the charter school movement gathered in Columbus today for a conference seeking strategies for raising charter school performance. The conference was put on by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
One of the speakers I was most interested to hear was Steven Adamowski, the former superintendent in Cincinnati. Adamowski had a bumpy ride in Cincinnati, with a school board teetering between supporting and opposing him and he ultimately left after an epic battle with the teacher’s union over merit pay, or pay raises based on performance rather than education and experience.
But some of the ideas he tried in the late 1990s in Cincinnati were ahead of their time. For instance, the district was authorizing charters schools under its own umbrella when most school districts were out and out fighting charters. And Adamowski started breaking Cincinnati’s big comprehensive high schools into smaller, self-contained themed units.
His presentation went through the two big approaches to districtwide school reform.
The first he called “managed instruction.” This is generally a systemic approach where schools often use very scripted instruction, using the same curriculum and material, sometimes to the point where all schools teach the exact same lessons at the same time on the same day. This approach is obviously very centralized.
The other he called the “portfolio” system. This is a charter-like approach, where individual schools are themed and given freedom to experiment and create a unique atmosphere. This approach is very decentralized.
In Dayton, the district has taken one approach, the state has taken the other.
The Dayton school board, led by board president Gail Littlejohn has certainly tried a systemic reform. It adopted one curriculum for reading and math across all schools, for instance. The whole set up is designed around strong, central leadership.
On the other hand, charters schools in Dayton are permitted by the state and managed outside the school system. This is obviously a “portfolio’ reform in Adamowski’s terminology, with specialty schools all independently run and following their own designs and curriculum.
This would seem to be a contradiction. Two huge reforms are going on in Dayton, one heavily centralized and one very decentralized.
Interestingly, Adamowski said there is research that shows the two can work in tandem. Studies say the scripted, centralized systemic reform works best at early grades. The decentralized portfolio reform is better for high schools, he said.
In his vision, a school district should manage all of a city’s traditional or charter schools, with a systemic approach in K-8 and a portfolio for grade 9-12. He argued that there should be one, district-managed accountability system holding all schools to a common standard. (He also thinks districts should junk middle schools.)
I asked him why he thinks systemic reform works better for younger kids and portfolio for older kids. His own, unsubstantiated hypothesis, he said, was that learning to read and other basic skills is best done in a scripted manner. But learning content — reading to learn — is better when kids are given options to explore their interests.
It’s interesting to imagine what Dayton would be like if they could bring all schools under one managerial umbrella in the way Adamowski described and follow this sort of dual approach, rather than following the current dual system in which no coordination or common standards are in play.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Making charter schools better
I’m at a conference in Columbus today sponsored by the Thomas B. Fordham, Gates and Walton foundations. The goal is to find ways to make charter schools perform better. Lots of big shots in the school choice field are here. Ohio Speaker of the House Jon Husted was a morning speaker along with former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Gov. Bob Taft will speak at lunch.
I am at a session now moderated by Dayton school board president Gail Littlejohn that includes Steve Adamowski, former Cincinnati superintendent, and Greg Richmond, a charter school pioneer in Chicago who now heads a national charter school association.
In his speech, Husted called academic performance the biggest challenge for charter schools — getting students to perform and demonstrating that.
I’ll post some more details of what is discussed later.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
I’m moving to Michigan
I know that headline is sacrilege on OSU-Michigan week, but hey, what if it meant sending your kids to college for free? I first saw this at The Education Wonks blog.
In Kalamazoo, unnamed donors gave millions to send every student in the city’s schools to college for free. The hope is that this will revitalize the city by attracting new people to town and down the line creating a better educated workforce.
It’s an interesting idea. It’s too bad we’ll have to wait years to see how it all turns out. Dayton is about twice the size of Kalamzoo, but the problems are the same. Both are Midwestern post-industrial cities losing jobs and people while poverty grows. Wouldn’t you like to see some of Dayton’s wealthy elites get together and try this too?
I have three kids. The offer is good for any Michigan public university. So my kids could all go to the University of Michigan, the Ivy of the Midwest, without it costing me a dime?
Out of state tuition, room and board to attend Michigan is $34,503 a year or $138,012 for four years. If I moved to Kalamazoo and all my kids studied hard enough to get in, I could save $414,036 and they’d get an Ivy-quality education.
Look, I promise I’ll still root for the Buckeyes. I wonder what the Kalamazoo paper is called?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
The tents are up
The latest Carnival of Education is up at The Education Wonks blog. This is a weekly round up of the best education blog posts. Check it out.
Permalink | | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Girls and body image
We finally hit bottom with the Halloween candy this weekend. My wife told the kids that she was taking any candy still left on Monday with her to work.
The unanticipated effect was this — my seven-year-old somehow wolfed down half a bowl of candy over the course of the day rather than give it all up. When we figured this out I made a few cracks that she would be five pounds fatter by morning and that I could see her butt growing as we spoke. These were good natured cracks and we were all laughing.
But later my wife happened to be studying for a class and read me something that made me think twice about making these kinds of jokes to my daughters, even in good fun.
She is taking a class in childhood behavioral disorders and her textbook has some disturbing statistics about girls and body image. Quoting a 1992 study:
—31 percent of nine-year-old girls reported a fear of fatness
—46 percent of nine-year-olds reported restrained eating or dieting
—At age 10, 55 percent reported a fear of fatness
—81 percent of 10-year-olds reported restrained eating or dieting
The study surveyed girls age 9 to 19. It found distorted body image peaked at age 11. At that age, 58 percent of girls surveyed believed they were overweight when only 15 percent actually were.
With three daughters, I am especially sensitive to this issue. Any advice for what steps to take or not take to help ensure young girls develop a healthy body image?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Young Children
TeenScreen responds
I’ve been getting a ton of comments about my post on TeenScreen. And last week, the paper got an email from Leslie McGuire, who directs the program at Columbia University. Here’s her view:
I would like to correct some important inaccuracies about the TeenScreen program in Scott Elliott’s October 28th column, “Computer: your kid has disorders.”
TeenScreen is not a diagnostic tool or “test.” Rather, it is a screening method that was developed in response to research revealing that 90 percent of youth who die by suicide suffer from a diagnosable mental illness at the time of their deaths. The program screens for the risk factors that are associated with depression and other mental illnesses but it does not make a diagnosis.
The TeenScreen Program does not involve treatment and does not recommend or endorse any particular kind of treatment for the youth who are identified as at risk by the screening. Parental consent is required for students to participate in the screening and the results of the screen are confidential.
Parents of students considered at risk are informed and given help connecting to a health or mental health provider for a complete evaluation, should they wish to pursue this option.
The national TeenScreen Program is funded by private philanthropic individuals and organizations that are committed to the early identification of mental illness in youth and the prevention of teen suicide. The program is not affiliated with or funded by pharmaceutical companies.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among teenagers in Ohio. In any other area of medicine, if the cause of 90 percent of the mortality associated with a particular illness were known, we would certainly implement widespread screening for the associated risk factors.
Why shouldn’t we do the same to ensure the mental health of our youth?
Leslie McGuire
Director Columbia University TeenScreen Program
Permalink | Comments (54) | Categories: Student Health and Safety
Teacher poison try too close for comfort
Right here in our backyard of Richmond, Ind., we have a case of an angry student trying to poison a teacher. This kid poured an industrial cleaner into a coffee cup. The story doesn’t have much detail, but apparently the teacher did not drink it.
With Columbine now a comfortable six years behind us, it seems we have sort of moved on from our once intense fear of student violence. But the problem is still there. Just this weekend on HBO, I caught the creepy and bizarre movie Elephant, which was inspired by the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado.
So here’s the question. Did we learn anything from Columbine and are our kids any safer today than before it happened? Or is another such incident inevitable?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: School Violence
The charter debate
In the comments under my post about the Dayton school board race, there’s a little debate going on about charter schools and whether they are a good thing or a bad thing for Dayton.
I think the jury is still out on that one.
Dayton is a very interesting place to consider the question of charter schools because we have so many of them (33) and such a high percentage of the city’s school-age kids (22 percent) attending charters. And in fact, the movement here has had both wild successes and spectacular failures.
In fact, given what I know about charter schools, I think I could argue convincingly both for and against them based on Dayton’s experience. So I think I’ll do just that and let those who wish kick these opposing views around take their shots.
Later today, I’ll try to channel charter school supporters and post my best argument for why charter schools are good for Dayton. Then tomorrow, I’ll do the same thing for the opposition side.
So check back a little later today and then tomorrow and see which argument you find more convincing.
Update: Here’s part one, The case in favor of charter schools in Dayton. And here’s part two, The case against charter schools in Dayton.
Permalink | | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, My Favorite Posts
The case for charter schools in Dayton
This is the first half of my debate with myself over charter schools in Dayton. Here I argue in favor of charters.
Let’s start with exhibit A: Dayton’s ISUS Trade and Tech Prep High School.
Six years ago when Ann Higdon launched ISUS, there was almost no public discussion going on about Dayton’s dropout problem, even though the school district at that time had a graduation rate of about 50 percent. One out of every two Dayton high school kids was getting lost along the way!
Higdon, at that time, had started the Builder’s Academy in partnership with Dayton Public Schools. She was bringing together skilled tradesmen and at-risk youth from an alternative high school, teaching the kids construction skills as a supplement to their regular classwork.
But Higdon had bigger ideas. She wanted to partner with Sinclair Community College, so the kids could leave high school with actual construction certificates along with their diplomas. Administrators said it couldn’t be done. There was too big a funding wall between the district and Sinclair to overcome.
Higdon also wanted to pay kids who came to school prepared everyday, to simulate more realistically the way the workplace would work. This horrified school officials. Pay kids for coming to school? What a dangerous precedent. No way, she was told.
When the charter school law came along in 1997, Higdon saw her chance to be free of district bureaucracy and really try her ideas.
At ISUS, they aggressively recruit dropouts, through juvenile court, word-of-mouth or other referrals. These are kids nobody seemed to care about six years ago. The kids get intensive instruction to try to raise their test scores to the point where they can pass a state exam and graduate.
Those that stick with the program can get assigned to job experience. The school has carpentry, electrical, drywall and plumbing crews. Higdon persuaded the Dayton Rotary Club and individual donors to fund a purchase of 60 dilapidated homes along Wolf Creek. One-by-one, the kids are rehabbing the houses, learning from their tradesman crew chiefs and rebuilding a whole neighborhood in the process. And some even get a small stipend if they show up on time and prepared.
The whole story of ISUS was made possible by the freedom of charter schools. Once the bonds of bureaucracy were broken, Higdon was able to put her innovations into motion and create a remarkable opportunity for kids who were mostly overlooked and ignored in the past.
Innovation is a prime byproduct of the entrepreneurial spirit that independent school operators — their livelihoods depend on the success of their schools — bring to the table. Before competition, the school district had no incentive to pursue Higdon’s innovative ideas. Today, more educators in Dayton are thinking outside the box than ever.
Take the Richard Allen chain of charter schools. They’ve raised initially poor test scores to rank among the best performing elementary schools in the city — with two schools outdoing all of the school district’s elementary schools on state tests.
Families flocked to these new options. Poor families, who were tired of choosing among schools that scored low and at times even treated them rudely, were swept up in the warm feelings of new schools who actively marketed to them and who had great incentives to try to meet their needs.
Even the school district eventually got into the act. The charter-like Dayton Early College Academy is a partnership of the district and the University of Dayton, experimenting with a new school design that lets high school kids move quickly to college coursework.
And that is not the only change forced on the previously politically immobile school district. Consider this — from 1981 to 1999, Dayton school enrollment dropped by more than 27 percent and yet the board was unable to find the political will to close even one school!
From 1999 to 2005, under relentless financial pressure from enrollment losses to charter schools, the board closed 14 schools.
And the pressure brought other political changes. The old conventional wisdom in the business community said that the city’s political scene was such that the dysfunctional school board could not be radically changed. There were too many entrenched political interest groups to defeat.
But in the wake of charters, four professional women running as a team were able to raise $200,000, mostly from CEOs and large companies, and capture a majority of four school board seats by outspending their five opponents by a 20-1 margin combined! They took control, set about professionalizing the top administration, replaced half the district’s principals and began instituting a systemic curriculum and instruction reform.
Interestingly, charter schools even forced private schools to get their acts together. Take Catholic schools. Like the district, Catholic schools often lacked the will to make tough choices or respond to the needs of the families they serve.
Now finding themselves in a competitive environment, Catholic schools are working together more closely than ever, sharing resources, retooling their programs and refining their message. Even some on the inside believe the end result will be leaner, but also better, Catholic schools.
To sum up, charter schools:
—Created a sense of urgency about education and spotlighted important problems, like dropouts
—Spurred innovation
—Forced reform on the public school district
—Gave parents choices
—Spurred even private schools to raise their game
When in the last century has there been this much action on the education front in Dayton?
Update: The Richard Allen schools no longer use the Marva Collins curriculum. I’ve updated this post to reflect that.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, My Favorite Posts
The case against charter schools in Dayton
This is part two of my debate with myself over charter schools in Dayton. This is my argument against charters.
If charter schools are about free enterprise, markets and bringing business sense to the world of education, then I’ve got three words that the proponents should consider: return on investment.
Last year, Ohio spent $424 million on about 250 charter schools statewide. In Dayton alone, the cost was about $45 million on 33 charter schools. So what did we get for our money?
Statewide, 71 percent of charter schools were rated in “academic emergency,” the lowest rating category.
In Dayton, no charter schools were rated excellent or effective — the top two rating categories. Many Dayton charters, about 39 percent, got no rating for a variety of reasons, while another 40 percent were rated in academic emergency.
And this is part of a continuing pattern.
An annual analysis by the Dayton Daily News beginning in 1999 showed charters, collectively, have never outperformed the city’s public school system. And underperforming Dayton Public Schools is a challenge. During this time, the city school district fell to worst rated in the state — last out of 611 school districts!
Let’s look more closely at Dayton’s charter schools. There are 33 charter schools here. The district actually has fewer schools now — just 28. How do Dayton’s charters look? Well, there are a handful of very good ones. A few are very low performing. And most of them are in the middle with generally low end test performance compared the average Ohio school.
Funny, you know what that sounds like? It sounds a lot like the school district. The district also has a few very good schools, a few way down at the bottom and most in the middle, but comparatively low achieving.
So for $41 million what have we done in Dayton but simply spend a lot of money to replicate what we already had, with slightly worse test performance?
Part of the problem is that the education marketplace in Dayton, one of the few if not the only place in the country with enough competition to unleash true market forces, has not worked in the pure way proponents expected.
You see, schools are not mutual funds. If you pick a mutual fund, all you care about is performance. If it starts to lose money, you dump it. Schools are much more complicated. Once you pick one for your child, it’s awfully hard to switch. You arrange your life around the school’s schedule, your child makes friends. It’s more than a business relationship. It’s an emotional investment. And those ties are awfully tough to sever, even if the school’s performance is disappointing.
That’s why the market had not truly weeded out the poor performers. Only the catastrophic failures, like the Dayton Urban Academy which closed a couple years ago after a string of financial and management miscues, have been shuttered.
In the meantime, charters have had a negative effect on the school district. Every year since the advent of charter schools, the district has underestimated their cost, which leads has often led to a financial scramble at year’s end.
The uncertainty has created budgeting havoc and simply forced the diversion of much of the attention of district leaders away from the classroom as a matter of financial survival. Every year, there were schools to close and costs to cut. Three years after the first charter school opened, Dayton had slipped to last in the state’s rating system — worse even than Cleveland, the traditional testing doormat in Ohio. Three years later, Dayton still is at the bottom.
And unexpectedly, charters have also devastated private schools. The trend line is stark. Private schools were having a strong decade in the 1990s. Many hit 10-year enrollment peaks in 1999, just as charter were getting off the ground.
Five years later, private school enrollment was collapsing — better than three-quarters hit 10-year enrollment lows. I just pulled updated private school enrollment data last week — since 2003, 18 of 20 Dayton private schools saw enrollment drops. This is no coincidence.
Catholic schools are discussing widespread consolidations and closings. And last year, Dayton Christian Schools — one of the nation’s largest and most successful networks of private Christian schools — closed its two Dayton campuses and fled to the suburbs after more than 25 years here, mostly motivated by enrollment declines.
The city school district’s share of school age children in Dayton has dropped some, from just over 60 percent to 57 percent, in six years. But the private schools have taken an even bigger hit — down from 24 percent to 19 percent. Charter schools are now the second choice for Dayton families after the school district.
With the trends showing no sign of relenting — charter growth in combination with private school decline, I am forced to wonder if in the end the city will largely replace its private school options with charter options instead.
Doesn’t that seem like a bad idea? Catholic schools have been producing well-trained students in Dayton for 100 years. Dayton Christian also established a solid reputation over more than 25 years. Are we trading in that known quantity for the unknown? Charters have much shorter and much less distinguished track records.
To sum up the opposition position, charters:
—Are expensive
—Score poorly overall
—Are not weeding out bad schools as expected
—Negatively affect school district test performance
—Harm private schools
The bottom line is after millions of dollars spent, there is little evidence the charter experience has in any way raised the quality of education in this city overall.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, My Favorite Posts
In college for life
When I was in college, there was a guy in my fraternity who was in his sixth year that everyone referred to as Father Time. I think I just discovered Grandfather Time.
Sam Dillon wrote a hilarious story on the front page of today’s New York Times about a guy who’s been in college for 12 years!
Johnny Lechner goes to the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater where he has had four majors and amassed 242 credits — more than twice what is required to graduate. Last year, the state legislature passed a special law limiting state aid to students over 160 credits partly because of their embarassment that Lechner was collecting aid every year. They call it the Johnny Lechner rule.
So that should have put an end to it, right? Beyond the financial pinch, when the statehouse targets YOU with a special law, perhaps that’s the message you need to finally get your act together and move on with your life, right?
Think again. Instead, Lechner has become a celebrity.
He’s been on David Letterman and national morning news shows. National Lampoon magazine has offered to pick up his $9,000 tuition bill. And Monster Energy Drink is delivering cases of their stuff to his dorm room in return for his endorsement. He calls Monster the “official energy drink” of his 12th year in college.
They’re even talking about doing a reality show about his life.
Is Lechner an embarassment, as some at the school insist, or is it OK for him to remain a student because he just “loves to learn” as the Times story says some faculty supporters believe?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Go to the Carinval
The latest Carinval of Education, a compilation of the best education blog posts, is up over at The Education Wonks blog.
Lots of good posts there this week. I especially liked the story of a teacher dealing with a nine-year-old Katrina evacuee who had no idea what a pumpkin is, nor how seeds or plants grow. It goes to show you how hard a teacher’s job can be.
Permalink | | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Kids First stumbles
Well, the Kids First team may still control the Dayton school board, but it was weakened Tuesday by Joe Lacey’s stunning win and Doniece Gatliff’s corresponding defeat.
In an excruciatingly long night, the race was not over until final, unofficial results were posted at 6:43 a.m. Lacey ended up third. Littlejohn pulled about 24 percent of the vote while Tracy Rusch, Lacey and Yvonne Isaacs followed in that order but in a virtual tie as all had about 19 percent of the vote. Gatliff was a step behind with 17 percent of the vote, about 2,000 behind out of 94,000 ballots cast.
Lacey certainly deserves credit for a tough, smart campaign. He jumped on issues that he thought would fire people up, like the board’s purchase of the downtown Reynolds property for a new administrative office. He went after, and got, the teacher’s endorsement by advocating for better teacher pay. And he played political hardball, filing complaints that, even if they were dismissed, knocked Kids First off its stride.
Meanwhile, Kids First is open to the charge that they didn’t take Lacey seriously or run a very aggressive campaign. First, they didn’t raise anywhere near the money they raised in 2001. They were so slow to get their advertising off the ground that they had no yard signs anywhere in town just three weeks before the election. Their reasons why, that Lacey’s complaints caused delays, were flimsy. They declined to even be interviewed by the teacher’s union or participate in its endorsement process, so the teachers endorsed only Lacey.
In 2001, Kids First built a war chest and attacked by land and air. Their commercials seemed to run every five minutes and they filled Dayton mailboxes with their fliers. This time, I never saw a single TV ad and there were considerably fewer mailings.
Gatliff’s defeat is a real blow to the team. She has been a key player, especially on personnel moves and is a trusted right hand to Littlejohn. Kids First’s ruling coalition is still strong. Mario Gallin has joined many of their initiatives and new board member Lee Massoud seems inclined to do the same. But Lacey will add a contrarian voice which could make things interesting.
And critics will say Kids First has only itself to blame.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Breaking up the team?
With 86 percent of the vote in in the Dayton school board race, Joe Lacey appears poised to win a seat and knock Doniece Gatliff off the board.
This would be a big surprise and would break up the original Kids First slate of four school board candidates who won election four years ago on a reform platform. And the voters appeared to send a mixed message, making Kids First captain Gail Littlejohn the apparent top vote getter while defeating one of her key allies.
More to come when the results are final.
Permalink | | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
When teachers cheat
Boy, I really came away with some things to think about from the Education Writers Association seminar I attended last week.
In one of the best sessions, Dallas Morning News reporter Josh Benton talked about teachers and schools who cheat.
Benton won EWA’s grand prize for education reporting along with a couple of colleagues for a great investigation of cheating on Texas’ state test. The Morning News does some of the best education reporting anywhere.
They found teachers who had erased student wrong answers and fixed them to the right answers. They found teachers who had good students correct the wrong answers of poor students. And they found teachers who gave the kids score sheets before they took the test.
Exposing this cheating is both hard and easy. It can be hard to know where to look for it and to get your hands on the exact information that will prove what really happened. Benton and his colleagues used sophisticated data analysis to point to improbable test performance. Once they had the data, the cheaters stuck out for the wild inconsistency of their student’s scores from grade to grade and year to year. From there, the Morning News dug for more.
A lot of trust is placed in the hands of teachers and principals to administer standardized tests. Generally, there is little or no supervision from the state or testing company. The opportunity is there. As Benton and the Morning News showed, cheating happens. I expect it has even happened in Ohio.
I am most surprised that incidents like this don’t get out more. A lot of people have to play along to raise a whole school’s scores. It just seems to me like there would be more whistle blowers.
Cheating on this scale is sad and disturbing, but with more and more riding on standardized test scores, its bound to continue.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Teaching and Learning, Testing
Five tips for parents
Here’s more advice for parents from the Education Writers Association seminar I went to in Indianapolis over the weekend.
Someone asked teaching expert Kathleen Madigan what parents should be looking for in their child’s classroom. Here’s her top five list:
-Try to find out how your kid’s the teacher did with her class last year. If you can find any test results that show how much academic gain those kids made, that is ideal. If not, try to find other parents you know who’s kids had this teacher in the past and ask them, how much progress did their kids make?
-Go observe the classroom. Here’s what you’re looking for — how well does the teacher manage the class? A great way to measure is to notice how often she says positive things (“very good class” or “I like how Katie is listening”) vs. negative things (“boys and girls, you aren’t listening” or “James, I need you to sit down and pay attention, please”). Teachers should make three positive comments for every negative one to positively affect the kids’ test peformance, studies show.
-You should know where your child’s teacher went to college and what she got her degree in. If she studied math, ask her about how she prepared for teaching reading or other subjects if this is an elementary school class. For high school, their majors should match their subjects taught.
-Does the teacher assign, collect and grade homework? Good teachers do. Make sure to pay attention to your child’s homework. See what is being assigned and how it is being corrected.
-You should ask the teacher about her attitude toward testing. Find out what sorts of tests she is giving and how often she is giving them. Madigan says teachers should be testing often to see how the kids are progressing. I’d also advise parents to watch for too much testing. Just make sure the kids aren’t spending too much idle time while the teacher is giving tests to other kids.
Another panelist, math expert Johnny Lott pointed us to a website called Figure This!, which has a more extended list of questions for parents to ask teachers, some specifically about math.
Update: I incorrectly identified one of the speakers in this post earlier. I’ve updated it now so it refers to Kathleen Madigan, not Kitty Dixon.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Why homework matters
I’m in Indianapolis today at a seminar about No Child Left Behind sponsored by the Education Writers Association. Yesterday we mostly discussed testing and teacher quality. Both presentations were excellent, but for now I just want to throw out one fascinating tidbit about homework.
Kathleen Madigan, a teaching expert with Advantage Schools, told us one of the most important things for parents to pay attention to is homework. Here’s what she said:
-Kids who simply have homework assigned to them tend to score better on standardized tests.
-When teachers assign AND collect homework, kids scores go even higher.
-When homework is assigned, collected AND corrected, kids scores are as much as three to four times higher.
-The more feedback a teacher gives on a corrected homework assignment, the better for the student. Teachers who show their work, demonstrating how the problem should have been done correctly rather than simply marking it wrong with an “X” will raise the student’s standardized tests scores. Madigan was part of a very good panel that included a couple of classroom teachers and a math expert — Johnny Lott from the University of Montana. Lott said one of his concerns was that so few elementary school teachers have any expertise in math. They are never required to take much math. He gave the example of a college of education that allowed prospective teachers to fulfill their math requirement by taking a psychology class and their science requirement by taking anthropology.
Perhaps that part of the reason why kids get to college and can’t handle their math and science classes.
Update: I incorrectly identified one of the speakers in this post earlier. I’ve updated it now so it refers to Kathleen Madigan, not Kitty Dixon.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Why kids flunk out of engineering
Something like two-thirds of kids who enter college engineering programs don’t finish. Why? Because there is an incredible disconnect between the quality of math and science instruction in most high schools and the level of skill expected in college engineering. Most kids are quickly overwhelmed and crumble.
This is a great post by a blogger who explains exactly why our kids flame out in college engineering.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
A moment in blog journalism, and DDN was there
Yesterday, I hosted something called the Carnival of Education here at Get on the Bus. “Carnivals” in the blogosphere, are weekly or monthly gatherings of like minded bloggers. There’s now more than 60 carnivals out there for those who blog about history, health, comedy, poetry and lots of other areas. Bloggers offer up their best posts and one member of the group serves as host and editor, building a list of links to everybody’s work.
But what you almost never see on these carnivals are posts from the “mainstream media” (MSM in blogging vernacular). Just take a look at the reaction from this blogger. Traditional media are still trying to figure out this blogging phenomenon. First of all, there aren’t very many blogger journalists who work at mainstream news organizations, and those that are out there haven’t seemed to have discovered these subcultures, even in their specialty areas.
That’s why what happened this week was special. Two MSM blogs, for the first time ever, actually hosted these normally under-the-radar blogging carnivals on mainstream newspaper sites. The first was Mel’s Kitchen, a cooking blog at the Greensboro (N.C.) News-Record, which hosted The Tar Heel Tavern, a weekly carnival of North Carolina-based bloggers. Then four days later, I hosted the Carnival of Education here at DDN.com.
The News-Record has 16 staff written blogs. The DDN has 15. Both of these scrappy, medium-sized papers are ahead of the curve on blogging. This is a growing trend, and the MSM carnival hosting this week, I’d argue, is a fairly significant step toward blog/MSM convergence.
At a minimum, you have to say this — we participated in something that’s never been done before. That’s pretty cool.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Journalism
MSM hijacks the Carnival of Education!
Welcome to to the first-ever Mainstream Media edition of the Carnival of Education! Sure, blogging is supposed to be under the radar, snubbed by traditional media outlets. But not all of us in the MSM have overlooked you.
I started Get on the Bus in August, inspired by conversations with uber blogger Dan Gillmour and education journalism guru Richard Colvin about the power of blogging as a tool to inform education reporting.
The Carnival has been a great learning opportunity for me, and your posts have been both inspiring and informative.
Next week, they’ll be doing the midway back at The Education Wonks. The deadline is next Tuesday, November 8th by 9:00 PM (Pacific). Email submissions to owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net
So let’s get going. To start out, I wanted to highlight a few friends in the MSM you may not know about in a brief MSM editor’s choice round up.
The first MSM ed blog, and in my view still the best, was launched early this year by Patti Ghezzi, an education reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Patti’s blog, Get Schooled, has a following that most of us would kill for — I’ve seen her get more than 200 comments on her best posts.
This week, she got a mere 65 comment for this post comparing the attitude in American schools to that of school in other countries, especially China.
Another MSM pal, Bruce Buchanan, covers and blogs about education for the Greensboro (N.C.) News-Record. In this post from Chalkboard, he discusses North Carolina’s controversial plan to boost teacher pay over the next three years.
Ex-MSM journalist Jenny D asks this tough question — can having a education weblog hurt your career? This worry probably keeps more academics, and I suspect also other MSM journalists, from blogging.
In fact, the MSM really doesn’t yet understand blogging, which is why, as Tim at AssortedStuff points out, newspapers are more likely to write stories that focus on everything that is scary about blogging, rather than the incredible opportunities blogs offer. This also is probably part of the reason why there’s only a few of us out here ed blogging from the MSM.
Another ex-MSM journo, Joanne Jacobs analyzes a recent study of what works and what doesn’t in low income schools in California. And the results may surprise you.
So, does it mean you’ve arrived as a blogger if somebody sends you a cease-and-desist message for using their logo? If so, Alexander Russo has officially arrived, courtesy of the Council of Chief State School Officers. While you’re over at This week in Education, check in on Alexander’s pet project, mapping the education blogosphere. Make sure you’re listed!
And I’d humbly suggest my own post, inspired by Jenny D’s recent debate with the author of Schools Matter over testing. I ask can we trust the data we’re getting from standardized tests? If nothing else, check out this example from a series I co-wrote last year of what can go wrong when we automate test scoring, even for student essays.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Carnival, part 2
SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Jane Young at An Educational Voyage points us to a valuable resource for protecting children from sex offenders.
At Jones Blog, she tells the amazing story of a close friend’s personal struggles to become a success. Hang with this post to the end. It’s worth it.
Suppose you were a teacher and found out only after one of your students was expelled that he was a potential threat to your personal safety? Don’t you think would have liked to have known that sooner? Polaski3 does.
Jane takes a shot at narrow-minded parents over at Sheiss Weekly. Then she takes a bonus swipe at schools that were dumb enough to ban books.
SpunkyHomeSchool has some ideas for parents quoted in a USA Today story who discover their teenage kids have personal blogs that contain scary stories about sex and partying but mom and dad say they don’t know what to do with the information.
Editor’s choice: Anyone who has ever been in a school knows (and probably secretly wanted to choke) one of these kids. She’s the straight A student who tracks her GPA down to the .0001 and pesters the teacher for extra credit anytime she begins to slip close to an A-. Josh at Multiple Mentality explores the strange motivations of the “eager beavers”.
EDUCATION POLICY
Jerry at My Short Pencil provides a thoughtful analysis of New York’s state exams in light of the state’s performance on the NAEP that begs the question, are New York’s exams challenging enough?
Don’t you love education jargon? You’d think being a Super Freshman or a Super Sophomore would be a good thing. The Science Goddess explains it’s not.
Does President Bush’s education policy, as much as his Supreme Court selections, demonstrate that social conservatives are “hapless GOP dupes?” Eduwonk thinks so.
One of the chief challenges for a school, particularly a diverse school, is dealing with the cultural differences between what kids experience at home and the behaviors expected at school. At Right on the Left Coast Darren takes on the notion that schools must adapt their cultures to please everyone rather than training the kids in the culture of the school.
If you are in California, Radagast’s post deconstructing proposition 76 is a must read at the Rhosgobel blog.
In an op-ed in the local paper, two retired college professors argue in favor of tenure and at Friends of Dave they ask — is this news?
Mrs. Cornelius has come out with a radical idea, one she suspects will draw the ire of the NEA — she proposes … that bad teachers should be fired. Gasp!
Can you think of anything more ridiculous than a law requiring kids to wash their hands after lunch? At School Matters they can’t either.
Rhymes with Right, meanwhile, is trying to understand the actions of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University.
At Crossblogging they have a run down of where the Illinois gubernatorial candidates stand on Intelligent Design.
Editor’s choice: I like it when bloggers try out new ideas. Blogger Ed Wahoo got a good one — blog brainstorming. He wants us all to post our suggestions for what is the single most important reform needed in America today. I can’t wait to see the list.
And at Going to the Matt, they’ve already got an idea for Ed Wahoo — make school more like the real world.
Permalink | | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Carnival, part 3
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Are you just dying to give Margaret Spellings a piece of your mind? Or do you just have a burning question you’d like to ask her? Well, The Education Wonks prove you can. They did. And she answered! And here’s a bonus post from the Wonks looking at Denver, where the union gave its blessing to merit pay.
At me-ander, an English-teacher blogger in Israel suggests how you can use your computer to experience what it’s like to be dyslexic.
The Ruminating dude explores the dark side of teaching, especially the promise that schools will prepare all kids for college. He says the reality falls far short.
At MathandText, J.D. takes us down a path to understanding why math textbooks fall short when it comes to connecting math concepts and he does it using nice real world examples.
Imagine, a smart aleck superintendent! In Indiana, they’ve got one who posts at the Super’s Blog and this week he hilariously imagines a merger between a textbook company and Cliff Notes in the interest of keeping literature passages brief for the MTV generation.
Quincy at News, the Universe and Everything has some answers for how improved schools of education can make for better teaching.
It’s a stealth SEVENTH class Mr. Lawrence’s school requires that’s driving him crazy at Get Lost, Mr. Chips.
At Scholar’s Notebook, they highlight a parent’s frustration with a principal who says “In middle school, the product doesn’t matter.”
In the Common Room, the Headmistress points out how boring and unchallenging college can be, and asks, higher education means higher than what?
Editor’s choice:Want to see how a good teacher translates her daily life into a science lesson? Mrs. Frizzle’s post about her commute to work in the Bronx also demonstrates how good teachers are always thinking about how to make schoolwork more relevant to kids.
Quick aside: My favorite teacher blogger, also NY-based Mr. Babylon, recently decided to take a hiatus and it’s killing me. I need my fix. Come on, hombre, hurry back!
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Welcome to Dayton, ed blogosphere!
This post is anticipation of my hosting of the The Carnival of Education in this space tomorrow. The carnival is a weekly roundup of the best blog posts on education from the prior week. The usual host, California-based bloggers called The Education Wonks, have graciously allowed me to guest host.
So with all these bloggers from the edusphere coming to this site, I thought I would explain a little about why Dayton is an incredibly interesting place to write about education. So here goes.
With only a brief, nine-month respite, I’ve been covering education exclusively in Ohio since 1996. Dayton, located about 50 miles north of Cincinnati and 75 miles west of Columbus in southwest Ohio, has a population of about 166,000 and, as with many former Midwestern industrial towns, has seen a significant population decline and rise in poverty over the past few decades.
When I took over the education beat here at the Dayton Daily News in 1999, there was one charter school with less than 100 kids.
Today, Dayton has 33 charter schools and a total charter enrollment of 6,400, or about 20 percent of Dayton’s 32,000 schoolchildren. I believe that percentage is still tops in the nation. The city school district now enrolls just 53 percent (16,552) of all kids and private schools still enroll about 25 percent (7,500). The school choice championing Thomas B. Fordham Foundation was founded here and remains a big player promoting choice options.
The city also has a privately-funded voucher program, helping about 1,000 kids attend private schools on scholarship. It has a 100-year-old network of Catholic Schools and an outfit called Dayton Christian Schools, one of the nation’s largest networks of Christian schools.
Throw in a handful of other religious or private schools and you can see why I often describe Dayton as the school choice capital of the country. In fact, Dayton was the subject of a New York Times feature story by my friend Sam Dillon back in March which asked whether a city can have too many charter schools.
The city school board was in turmoil when I arrived in 1999, struggling with a big deficit and trying to get rid of the superintendent and treasurer. On the “state report card,” based mostly on tests scores, Dayton slipped to worst ranked in Ohio three years ago and is still there. That’s last out of 610 school districts — worse than Cleveland, the state’s longtime cellar dweller.
A business-backed reform slate won a majority on the school board in 2001 and has been trying to institute a systemic reform. The scores have been improving steadily the past two years, but critics argue they are not getting better fast enough. Oh, and along the way the district began a 10-year partnership with the state to build more than 25 new schools at a cost of $627 million.
Other than that, it’s been pretty quiet on the education beat over the past six years. :-)
Most interesting for me over this time has been to watch a true education marketplace emerge here and to see how those market forces have caused dramatic change on all schools — public, private and charter. I just don’t think there is anything like it anywhere in the country.
So that’s our story here. Welcome, and enjoy the carnival!
Update: I just got some updated private school enrollment numbers today, so the percentages above have changed. Dayton’s 33 charter schools have a total charter enrollment of 6,550, or about 22 percent of its 29,000 schoolchildren. The city school district enrolls 57 percent (16,552) of all kids and private schools enroll about 19 percent (5,550).
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Dayton Public Schools, The Carnival of Education, Urban School Issues
