The Power of Demographics

The Enquirer - Waldorf School teaching by arts:

While Ohio requires that kindergartners in public school be "reading ready" by first grade, Waldorf lets youngsters learn to read at their own pace, even if it takes until third grade.

...

"School is not so much about learning factual information," she said. "It's about how you figure out how to learn and make good decisions, how you conceptualize and imagine."

School Demographics

White, non-Hispanic 87%
Black, non-Hispanic 10%
Asian or Pacific Islander 3%

Rich white people trip me out.

Jim Rex, superintendent of education

Brad Warthen's Blog: Jim Rex, superintendent of education

I listened to the debate. I have read their platforms. I have made my decision.

UC would admit 'broader swath' of students under proposal

MercuryNews.com 10/27/2006 UC would admit 'broader swath' of students under proposal

Colleges are constantly tweaking their entrant requirements to broaden diversity. At first they tried this:

Signed into law by Gov. Pat Brown in 1960, California's master plan of college eligibility guarantees a spot at UC for the top 12.5 percent of the state's high school graduates, who are ranked by test scores and GPAs earned in UC-approved college prep courses.

But that only made things worse:

But that approach has widened the ``achievement gap'' in the increasingly diverse state. Access to UC for many racial and ethnic minorities and for students at ``disadvantaged high schools,'' as defined by socioeconomics or geography, is consistently low.

Now they want to try this:

The recommendation means that a student with a C+ (2.75 GPA) average, who was likely to be shut out under the old system, would now be eligible to have their application reviewed -- giving them the opportunity to list leadership positions, jobs or ways in which they have triumphed over adversity. Low SAT scores, while still considered, would not close the door..

Of course it will be hard for the poor rich and middleclass kids to show that they triumphed over adversity when they had the misfortune to be born to parents with a college degree.

Sooner or later someone is going to propose to simply make college entrance a lottery system, which is the only way they will ensure balanced racial and geographic diversity. Of course this would only ensure that their entering Freshman class is balanced. In conjunction with the lottery, they would probably need to eliminate other hinderances to diversity such as grades. To account for the dismal graduation rates of minorities, they should eliminate the outdated requirement for a high school diploma. Instead just open up the lottery system to the entire population of California.

Of course instead, the UC system could throw their considerable influence around to help fix the current K-12 education system which disproportionately fails disadvantaged populations.

Its ironic that the same systems that decry the number of students who need remedial classes in math and english also continually try and find ways to lower the bar. Sometimes it seems like the whole education system has become a vicious circle.

Its Over!

Soccer season is finally over so we can return to our normal after school routine, and I can resume my extra-curricular tutoring. We also got our first report cards so I also know more specifically where I need to direct my efforts.

1st Grader - she got all proficients on her report card, but we disagree. We are not at all happy with her reading skills and are going to concentrate on phonics. We don't yet have a organized method of doing this, but are looking into several programs. Right now we just attack each word, one at a time.

3rd Grade Girl - Her only C was in reading. She is already getting after school tutoring and her reading has made some great strides. We are going to have her preform more out loud reading to us so we can monitor her progress. We are also going to work on her multiplication times tables. She is pretty good in math, but we want her to make sure that she is ahead of the power curve. We believe that multiplication facts are the key to almost everything at this level of math.

3rd Grade Boy - His lowest grade was in health which makes it hard for us to help him, since we have he hardly has any health homework. We will be more proactive about the subject. One thing that he could really use is some organizations skills... he really is a scatter brain.

6th Grade Girl - Our hardest worker. Math was her worst grade, but we have pegged it to a lack of mastery of the multiplication tables. We are continuing to work with her on this, because it will help her division and factoring skills. In reading she is way above grade level and is quite the book worm.

10th Grader -What a challenge she is. We recently pulled her off the cheerleading squad, because she 1. got caught smoking as school and 2. slacked off slightly in her English class. She is perhaps the most frustrating since her standardized scores are WAY above average. She, like me as a teenager, has a lazy streak. I wish I had parents like me when I was that age, because my life would of turned out a lot different. As long as we stay on her she will excel, but if we blink... then its back to mediocre. Hopefully, with several more years of nagging, she will internalize good work habits.

After spending two to three hours a night at the soccer fields, it is such a relief to have time at home for the little things. We were eating take out almost every night, but now we have to get back into the routine of cooking.

Closing the Gap, Child by Child - washingtonpost.com

Closing the Gap, Child by Child - washingtonpost.com

In 2004, Gates, the principal, was stunned by scores showing that just two-fifths of his black students had passed the state reading test, compared with three-fourths of his white students.

Even before that year, the school had sought to raise minority student performance. (Scores among Hispanics at the school and others in the county were also a problem.) Hollin Meadows offered after-school tutoring and recruited volunteers to mentor selected students. Gates said the school had energetic teachers. But it wasn't enough.

In retrospect, Gates blamed a tendency to "teach to the middle." He said lessons too often were aimed toward the majority and were not tailored enough to individual students. So teachers generally would march through the curriculum on the assumption that students would either learn the material or eventually catch up.

For most children, that approach worked. But in an increasingly diverse school, some fell through the cracks. "We had kids coming in with different needs, and we didn't say, 'We have to meet you where you are at,' " Gates said.

Why did it take NCLB to force educators to acknowledge what school reformists have been telling them for decades?

Ladson-Billings cited an elementary school in Madison where black students trailed white students. She found that some basic lessons -- such as learning sounds that correspond with letters -- went untaught.

"What teachers said to us is, 'We don't actually teach that,' " Ladson-Billings said. "Most middle-class kids were learning that at home."

Well duh! I know that many teachers and educators have their own kids. Is there some sort of disconnect between what they observe at home and what they do in the classrooms?

Educator's need to come over to my house someday and see what I have to supplement. I spend my afternoons teaching multiplication tables, factoring, algebra, phonics, history, and just about every other subject that should be taught at home. Somehow I manage to teach all these subjects to my five school age kids is a very limited amount of time. Is it too much to ask the teachers to do it at school?

Next leader of L.A. school district vows to remove 'bad teachers' - Los Angeles Times

Next leader of L.A. school district vows to remove 'bad teachers' - Los Angeles Times

"It's called the right teacher in the right classroom in the right school…. Some people do not belong in the classroom, OK? They don't belong there. We're gonna get them out. The question is how is the system going to react to the way we get them out."

I am assuming that all you education junkies are keeping up with the soap opera that is the LAUSD.

I have to wonder if Mr. Brewer (the new LAUSD school chief and former military office) is going to be more than the LAUSD Board of Education bargained for when they hired him.

Now if Major Villaraigosa can managed to shirk the United Teacher's Los Angeles union's influence, perhaps the LAUSD will have a chance.

Charters hurting IPS | IndyStar.com

White: Charters hurting IPS IndyStar.com

Got to love this story; charter schools doing exactly what they are intended to do... forcing a the Indianapolis Public Schools to improve, look outside the box, and compete.

A break in launching new charter schools, White said, would give IPS time to stabilize its enrollment and draw students to new academies and magnet schools. Those are among a wave of reforms and initiatives launched by White since he became superintendent in 2005.

Those improvements are coming, charter school advocates said, only because of the competition from charter schools and the alternatives they offer to parents.

"The very reason IPS is doing what they're doing is in response to these new choices at charter schools," said Kevin Teasley, who oversees two Indianapolis charter schools as president of the GEO Foundation. "I just hate to limit those choices. It's shortsighted and doesn't take into account the forces of the market."

Now the IPS is asking for a time out, a delay in opening more charter schools to help them fully implement their reforms. It's not like they have the last 100 years to reform is it now? Its hard for me to feel sorry for the IPS when there are successful school models out there (thanks to Charter Schools) that they can adopt to improve their system. It may be painful, but I have no doubt that they will find their way.

Sara Comes Around

As I noted a few weeks ago, Sara from the Quick and the Ed seemed to be against single sex education:

Its been fascinating--and disappointing--to me to see how conservatives, who are generally skeptical of conferring victim status, and critical of untested new educational ideas, seem to embrace both so uncritically when the "victims" are boys and the education "innovations" include single sex schools and implementing gender stereotypes in the classroom.

And here:

Educators, parents, and policymakers should therefore be skeptical of simplistic proposals aimed at fixing the boy crisis, such as expanding single-sex schooling, implementing gender-based instructional techniques, or funding new federal programs aimed at improving boys’ achievement.

But in her latest post she says:

...believe in giving children and their families more educational choices, and I think the bar for excluding an entire category of choices (such as single-sex schools) ought to be quite high, and that critics of single-sex education haven't met it yet.

Its what I have been saying for a while:

Any single sex education program in the country should be optional and benefit both genders.

Of course she doesn't come around completely... she is still skeptical about the application of gender differences to education, of course I am guessing that she doesn't have children or any long term experience in a classroom... but we hold out hope. The first step is always the hardest.

Educating School Teachers

Via Edspresso, I just read this report on Educating School Teachers.

Frankly, it is too depressing to quote, but can be summed up as saying that our current system of educating teachers leaves a lot to be desired.

I have seriously been considering a second career in education after I retire from the Air Force in a few years, but reading this report certainly makes it a tough decision.

-- deleted paragraph --

While Teachers unions fight against merit pay, I myself would prefer it. Of course I have never been accused of being modest, and have a competitive nature that would love the challenge of proving myself in a way that would allow me to see concrete results for any effort or skill I put into a job. I wonder how many other potential teachers there are out there like me; intelligent, hardworking, and looking for a challenge, but staying away from a job that doesn't provide any concrete feedback or award for accomplishments.

Homework assignment stolen from Instructivist.

Carolina School for Inquiry - Takedown

Carolina School for Inquiry

Lets take a closer look at this new charter school, the Carolina School for Inquiry. First of all, here is a bit of history from this article in The State.

When a group of Columbia parents considered expanding a popular private preschool and kindergarten program, they lit on the idea of a charter school. At first, they considered a partnership between the nonprofit Harmony School and a newly formed charter school.

"We realized you can't have a private board interfere with a public board and vice versa," said Jeannie Eidson, a Harmony parent and Carolina School planning committee member.

Plus, parents don't want anything to endanger Harmony's stellar program, Mandrell said. So the parents began planning a charter school separate from Harmony but based on its beliefs.

So many mistakes begin with the best of intentions. Poor rich people… a misguided set of parents who loved their private “inquiry learning” preschool and kindergarten, decided to create their own charter school based on the principle. I am sure they were a bit upset to learn that as a charter school they had to open up enrollment to the surrounding poor minority community. Of course I have no doubt they convinced themselves that “inquiry” based learning will work for everyone, and not just their high SES kids.

Of course, the private Harmony School knew that it might not be a good idea. From another article in The State:

Eventually, though, it became clear that yielding control of the charter school to a parent and employee-run governing board, which is required by law, was a bit risky for the intimate Harmony community, said Deborah Holmes, school director. "We don't know what conflicts could possibly happen," she said.

Gee whiz, what possible conflict could happen when you try and use an unstructured curriculum with poor urban kids… perhaps anarchy?

But not to be deterred, the Carolina School for Inquiry pressed on and opened its doors this year.

Now let’s see what sort curriculum they use at this new school. You guys are lucky that I love you, but I had to read through this drivel to extract some key points.

Unfortunately, our traditional educational system has worked in a way that discourages the natural process of inquiry. Students become less prone to ask questions as they move through the grade levels. In traditional schools, students learn not to ask too many questions, instead to listen and repeat the expected answers.

Straight away we can see where this is heading, anyone want to bet that they eventually say something to the effect that facts are over rated because they can change, and its more important to know how to learn.

Memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in today's world. Facts change, and information is readily available -- what's needed is an understanding of how to get and make sense of the mass of data.

Damn I am good, so basically inquiry learning is constructivism on steroids.

Unfortunately, the website doesn’t let us know what reading/ELA curriculum they are going to use, but we can make an educated guess based on their math curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space.

Among their many hair brained idea’s.

They choose from a variety of concrete materials and appropriate technology, including
calculators, as a natural part of their everyday mathematical work.

That’s it; forget the multiplication tables, because they can just use calculators.

They find more than one solution to many of the problems they work on

Someone explain to them that while there may be more than one “method” for solving a problem, there is only one correct “solution” to any given math problem (K-12 math that is), and that some methods are more effective than others.

They express their mathematical thinking through drawing, writing, and talking

Of course they do, because you know actually doing math in math class is sooooo overrated.

They move around the classroom as they explore the mathematics in their environment and talk with their peers

Wouldn’t want the kids to get bored sitting at their desks learning.

In Investigations, homework is a vehicle for connecting school mathematics with students’ everyday lives. Homework is an extension of classroom work. Students are asked to work on problems that extend and solidify their mathematical understanding. Sometimes homework offers review and practice of work done in class, sometimes preparation for upcoming activities, and sometimes numerical practice that revisits work from earlier units.

The real secret to Investigations… send home homework so that the parents can teach their kids what they should of learned at school. Great for high SES kids, but a disaster for low SES working parents.

I think Mathematically Correct best sum’s it up:

There is nothing to recommend about this program. The use of this program in our public schools is a strong argument for vouchers.

Unfortunately, since this school just opened, we won’t get any test results for at least a year, but somehow I have a feeling that it won’t be pretty. Unfortunately, charter schools like this will only serve to give successful charter schools a bad reputation. Perhaps the kindest thing I can say about this charter school is that its an option and not the only choice that parents have.

Stand and Deliver

Via Edspresso, I came across this article by Jesse Jesness on Jamie Escalante of Stand and Deliver fame.

While it’s a great article that tells the story of how administrators and bureaucrats effectively destroyed Jamie’s AP calculus program at Garfield H.S. in East Los Angels, I did detect one misconception.

In the article, Jesse writes the following:

Whether the administration will take it is another question. We are being primed for another round of "education reform." One-size-fits-all standardized tests are driving curricula, and top-down reforms are mandating lockstep procedures for classroom instructors. These steps might help make dismal teachers into mediocre ones, but what will they do to brilliant mavericks like Escalante?

insinuating that standardized tests limit the creativity of effective teachers, which is a common argument by the anti-NCLB crowd. Jesse misses one point… that he himself addressed earlier in the article.

Escalante’s students surprised the nation in 1982, when 18 of them passed the Advanced Placement calculus exam. The Educational Testing Service found the scores suspect and asked 14 of the passing students to take the test again. Twelve agreed to do so (the other two decided they didn’t need the credit for college), and all 12 did well enough to have their scores reinstated.

In the ensuing years, Escalante’s calculus program grew phenomenally. In 1983 both enrollment in his class and the number of students passing the A.P. calculus test more than doubled, with 33 taking the exam and 30 passing it. In 1987, 73 passed the test, and another 12 passed a more advanced version ("BC") usually given after the second year of calculus.

Emphasis mine. Notice the common theme? Jamie Escalante’s whole program was geared around teaching his kids to pass a standardized test. Testing does not and should not be deterrence to outstanding teachers; instead it should serve as a measurement stick for successful teachers to use to judge their performance.

Readability

Parentalcation's readability scores:

readability grades:
Kincaid: 7.4
ARI: 8.0
Coleman-Liau: 10.2
Flesch Index: 72.9
Fog Index: 10.5
Lix: 37.8 = school year 5
SMOG-Grading: 9.8

sentence info:
10872 characters
2464 words, average length 4.41 characters = 1.38 syllables
142 sentences, average length 17.4 words
40% (58) short sentences (at most 12 words)
16% (24) long sentences (at least 27 words)
21 paragraphs, average length 6.8 sentences
2% (4) questions
38% (55) passive sentences
longest sent 53 wds at sent 42; shortest sent 1 wds at sent 83

word usage:
verb types:
to be (78)
auxiliary (44)
types as % of total:
conjunctions 5(111)
pronouns 12(305)
prepositions 12(284)
nominalizations 2(55)

sentence beginnings:
pronoun (39)
interrogative pronoun (3)
article (8)
subordinating conjunction (5)
conjunction (2)
preposition (9)

Well its better than I thought. It appears I write at about a 10th grade level. According to the website, I should be aiming for an 8th grade level if I want to reach the general public.

Note: Sarcasm intended for last sentence. I always thought it was funny that we send kids through 12 -13 years of school with the intension of getting them all to read at the 8th grade level.

TAG: What a waste of time!

My son's Talented and Gifted program is a waste of time. My son's TAG teacher (the art major) called complaining that my son doesn't seem to be engaged in the class. Of course he doesn't, the program is a pull out model that only meets for 3 hours once a week. The teacher told me that my son doesn't seem to be up to speed on his Latin root words that he is learning and seems to be lost in class. I had to remind her that he has been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder, which means that he has problems processing information and instructions. I also reminded her that he was identified for the program because of his "math" skills and not because of his verbal skills (he is low average). I asked her what math she was teaching in the class... and she fed me some BS answer about decimal placement and fractions (obviously made up on the spot). Well duh... that’s what they are doing in his regular class. It doesn't take a genius to see that if they can't effectively teach concepts whether its math or latin if the kids are only being exposed to it once a week. I am so seriously considering pulling him out of the program. If he was struggling in reading or math he would get after school tutoring, direct instruction and all sorts of extra stuff, but because he is only "advanced" they put him in this class that pays lip service to education. Well let the other kids waste their time learning through "art" projects, I can and do teach him more by tutoring him for around 15 to 30 minutes a day once or twice a week. If I was rich or in an affluent district, he would be an accelerated math class every day... but no. My low rent school district ignores the needs of its strongest students because they are more worried about improving their "failing" students, which by the way are "failing" because of they don't use the most effective teaching methods.

Can you tell I'm a little pissed off?

Achievement First: Would it work in a rural area?

This morning I came across the Achievement First Charter School website. Not only does Achievement First appear to be highly successful, they have an excellent website that breaks down their philosophy, curriculum, expectations, and methods. One of the most interesting pages I came across was their "12 Lessons about School Reform". Here they are:

1. "These kids" CAN Learn
2. Leadership Matters - Mightily
3. Teachers Are More Important Than Curricula...
4. ...But Some Curricular Are Better Than Others
5. "Mere Mortals" Not "Superhumans"
6. An Unwavering Focus on Student Achievement
7. Interim Assessments and the Strategic Use of Data
8. One Hundred 1% Solutions
9. Serve ALL Urban Kids
10. Sweat the Small Stuff
11. Fidelity to a Clear, Consistent Model
12. Flywheel v. Doom Loop

I would love to see whether this model would work in the poor rural areas of South Carolina. Most charter school systems have targeted urban areas, since there is more money to be made there. It would be more difficult to attract the quality of teachers to rural areas, and their money per student is a lot less than urban districts, but if these charter school systems are truly out to prove that their methods work universally then the "corridor of shame" is the place to do it.

Career Choices

More and more, I have been considering going in to education after my retirement from the AF in 3 years.

After my retirement, my plan is to use my GI Bill to finish up my Bachelors degree at the University of South Carolina. For a year now, while I have been knocking out general education classes, I have been trying to decide what to get a degree in. Mechanical engineering would be the obvious choice since it’s closely related to what I do now, but I still haven't made up my mind. I have also debated getting a degree in Math, but I am also interested in Education.

I wouldn't mind being a teacher, but seriously, I don't know if I could take the pay cut. Lately, I have been considering aiming for a degree in education psychology or research. I read so much about education theory as it is, I figured I might as well get credit for it. Perhaps I could teach for a few years and then move into administration... reform from the inside. Of course, if I did go into education, I know I would have trouble keeping my opinions to myself during all the education classes.

More Advice for Teachers

mellowman, one of my commenter’s made a great suggestion/remark.

He said he liked class websites that allow parents and students to see and/or download homework assignments.

This is one of those great ideas that would require an extraordinary amount of discipline from the teacher. Updating a website can be a time consuming practice, but the benefits would be immense.

Perhaps teachers should create a blog for each class. With today’s web based tools, it would only take a few minutes to create a blogger post and upload it to a website. They could do a short post outlining the homework assignments and any class notes. If they had electronic copies of any worksheets it should be relatively simple to upload it as well.

Parental Struggles Update

Just clarification of my earlier post Parental Struggles. The school imposed punishment is for one day of in-school suspension.

The idea to attend school with my niece is our punishment in addition to the school punishment. I can think of nothing more embarressing than having your uncle sit in all your 10th grade classes with you and hang out with you at school. I expect I will get some funny stares and a few smart ass comments, but we can not accept behavior like this. Besides, I will get to see the quality of teaching that goes on at our local High School, and I might even learn something.

Need Advice/Help!

Teachers, experts, parents... we need some advice/help.

One of our 3rd graders is behind in her reading comprehension skills. She is already getting after school tutoring that utilyzes computer based instruction, but we would like to know what else we can do to help at home. One idea that we had was to have her read out loud to us for her daily 15 minutes of reading and her reading worksheets, but we are unsure if this is the most effective method. Truthfully, we have limited time to spend hours of one on one instruction (6 kids, including an infant) and we can not afford private tutoring. We are looking for things that we can do to help her get more out of her current assignments and extra things we could do that take up no more than 20 to 30 minutes.

Parental Struggles

Niece busted for smoking at school. One day in-school suspension. In addition, I am going to take a day off work and sit in every class with her one day next week. Nothing worse than having a parent attend school with you. We also e-mailed every teacher of hers and let them know to report any misbehaviour, missed assignments, or unusual behavior.

I am disappointed.