The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released a new report that finds that only 13% of undergraduate education schools require sufficient amounts of relevant math coursework for prospective elementary teachers. NCTQ rated 77 education schools in 49 states by studying entrance and exit requirements, course syllabi, textbooks, tests, and state licensing tests. The results of NCTQ’s study shed new light on why American kids fare so poorly on international comparisons. Math scores for American fourth graders haven’t improved since 1995 on the world’s “report card” (the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS), leaving U.S. students 12th out of the 25 countries whose students took the test (right above Cyprus). Kate Walsh, president of NCTQ stated, “As a nation, our dislike and discomfort with math is so endemic that we do not even find it troubling when elementary teachers admit to their own weaknesses in basic mathematics. Not only are our education schools not tackling these weaknesses, they accommodate them with low expectations and insufficient content. We simply must begin to appreciate the critical importance of elementary teachers gaining the knowledge and skills they need to effectively teach mathematics. It is what our children need in order to keep up with their peers around the world – and what our country needs in order to produce a skilled workforce that can compete in today’s global economy.”

The new report, “No Common Denominator: The Preparation of Elementary Teachers in Mathematics by America’s Education Schools,” is the most comprehensive picture to date of how education schools are preparing – or failing to prepare – elementary teachers in math. NCTQ found that the combination of state and individual school requirements result in very few teacher candidates taking a sufficient number of courses that prepare them well for teaching in elementary classrooms. This study is the second in NCTQ’s series about the quality of elementary teacher preparation; an earlier study looked at how well elementary teachers were prepared to teach young children to read.

Some of the report’s findings include:

Ø Low Expectations: Compared to other countries, the expectations for mathematics knowledge that aspiring teachers must have before they are admitted into a teacher preparation program are exceedingly low. One out of six schools in the study admits teachers without ever asking if they can successfully do grade school arithmetic. Nearly all of the remaining skills verify only that the teacher knows the math learned in middle school.

Ø Low Standards: The exit tests administered by states to award a teaching license assess virtually the same math used on admission tests. In other words, the math knowledge needed to get out is little more than the math knowledge needed to get in.

Ø Lack of National Consensus: Across the United States there is no consensus on how institutions should prepare elementary teachers in mathematics. Given that the job description of the elementary teacher does not vary much from state to state, there is an inexplicable range of course requirements from one institution to the next, from those that require none to those that require up to six.

Ø Irrelevant Coursework: Few programs cover the mathematics content that elementary teachers need. Only one in eight schools actually requires a sufficient amount of the coursework that elementary teachers will need.

Ø Haphazard State Guidance: State regulation and guidance for the preparation of elementary teachers is haphazard, further compounding the variation in institutional requirements.

Ø Algebra MIA: The nation's goal of building the foundation for algebra in elementary grades is not evident in the preparation that elementary teachers receive. In no other area of mathematics are aspiring elementary teachers more shortchanged.

The report includes specific recommendations to help states and education programs develop more focused and rigorous coursework ensuring that teacher candidates become skilled, confident mathematics educators well prepared to teach our nation’s children. These include:

Ø World Class Math Standards: Creating coursework standards for aspiring teachers that lay the foundation for teacher preparation that is truly world class.

Ø Tougher Admission Standards: Establishing higher admission standards for education schools that will ensure that only individuals who have a high-school level of math knowledge are admitted.

Ø New State Licensing Tests: Creating new state licensing tests for elementary school teachers in mathematics that would essentially force institutions to prepare teachers to get it right.

To view the full report, including all of the findings and recommendations, go to:

http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/nctq_ttmath_fullreport_20080626115953.pdf

State Test Scores in Reading and Mathematics Continue To Increase, Achievement Gaps Narrow

Positive Trends in State Test Scores Seen Since 2002

Student scores on state tests of reading and mathematics have risen since 2002, and achievement gaps between various groups of students have narrowed more often than they have widened, according to the most comprehensive and rigorous recent analysis of state test scores. These improvements have occurred during a period when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), state education reforms, and local school improvement efforts have focused on raising test scores and narrowing achievement gaps.

The report, Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?: State Test Score Trends Through 2006-07, was released today by the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy (CEP). It analyzes state test data from all 50 states as well as trends through 2007 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the only federally administered assessment of reading and math achievement. While expanding on a similar report from last year, this study continues the focus on two main questions: whether reading and math achievement has increased since 2002 and whether achievement gaps between subgroups of students have narrowed. The number of states included varies depending on the type of trend being reported. CEP excluded state data from years that should not be compared because a state introduced a new test, changed the passing score on its test, or made other major test changes. CEP also looked at two indicators of achievement on state tests – the percentage of students scoring at or above the “proficient” level and a statistic called “effect size,” which avoids some limitations of percentages proficient.

The report’s analysis found that, among the states with sufficient data, 21 states made moderate-to-large gains in math in both percentages proficient and effect sizes at the elementary level, while 22 states showed gains of this size on both indicators in middle school and 12 states posted such gains for high school. In reading, 17 states had moderate-to-large gains in percentages proficient and effect sizes at the elementary level, 14 states made such gains for middle school, and eight states showed gains for high school. Additional numbers of states made slight gains on one or both indicators or showed improvement on one indicator but lacked data on the other.

In general, the overall trends on state tests and NAEP moved in the same direction, though gains on NAEP tended to be smaller (NAEP tests are not aligned with any specific state’s academic standards). The most agreement was in grade 4 math. Of the 33 states with sufficient state test and NAEP data, 31 showed gains on both assessments. Achievement gaps have also narrowed more often than widened on state tests and NAEP, according to CEP. The exception to the pattern of more gaps narrowing was in grade 8 math, where gaps widened on NAEP more than they narrowed. In general, NAEP tended to show larger gaps between different demographic and economic groups than state tests.

It is impossible, notes the report, to determine the extent to which these trends in test results have occurred because of NCLB. Since 2002, many different but interconnected policies and programs have been undertaken to raise achievement and close achievement gaps – some initiated by states or school districts on their own, and some in response to federal requirements. Other possible explanations for increased test scores and narrowed gaps include, among others, districts and schools devoting more instructional time to reading and math, and students and teachers becoming more familiar with the content and format of state tests.

Full report:

http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=241

CHILDREN LEARN SMART BEHAVIORS WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THEY KNOW

Young children show evidence of smart and flexible behavior early in life – even though they don’t really know what they’re doing, new research suggests.

In a series of experiments, scientists tested how well 4- and 5-year-olds were able to rely on different types of information to choose objects in a group. In some situations, they were asked to choose objects based on color and in some cases based on shape.

Results showed children could be trained to choose correctly, but still didn’t know why shape or color was the right answer in any particular context.

The findings go against one prominent theory that says children can only show smart, flexible behavior if they have conceptual knowledge – knowledge about how things work, said Vladimir Sloutsky, co-author of the study and professor of psychology and human development and the director of the Center for Cognitive Science at Ohio State.

“Children have more powerful learning skills than it was thought previously,” he said. “They can show evidence of flexible learning abilities without conceptual knowledge and without being aware of what they learned.”

Sloutsky conducted the study with Anna Fisher, a former graduate student at Ohio State now an assistant professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Child Development.

Sloutsky gave an example of how children can show flexibility in thinking and behavior.

In a previous study by other researchers, 3- and 4-year-olds were found to be more likely to group items on the basis of color if the items were presented as food, but on the basis of shape when they were presented as toys.

“The argument has been that children couldn’t do this without understanding the properties of food and the properties of toys. So in order to be flexible you really need to understand what things are.

“But what we demonstrated is that children can acquire this flexibility without this deeper knowledge, and without realizing how they are being flexible.”

In their study, Sloutsky and Fisher had several groups of 4- and 5-year-olds participate in several experiments. In all of these experiments, children played a guessing game involving choosing objects on a computer screen. The game was played either in the upper right corner on the computer screen (with a yellow background) or in the lower left hand corner of the computer screen (with a green background).

They were shown one object and told it had a smiley face behind it. They then guessed which of the other two objects also had a smiley face behind it. In each case, one of the other objects had the same color but different shape as the original, while the other had the same shape but a different color.

The key was that when the game was in the upper right corner of the computer screen, the smiley face was always hidden behind the same-shaped item. When the game was presented in the lower left corner, the smiley face was hidden behind the item with the same color.

Some children were given training: after making a guess, they were told whether they were correct or not. These children soon learned where to find the smiley face.

Later, during testing, these children had no trouble correctly guessing where the smiley face was hidden, even though no feedback was given during the actual test.

But, Sloutsky said, “these children were not aware of what they learned. They didn’t know how they were making the correct choices.”

In several related experiments, the researchers tested whether children discovered the “rules” of this game – that shape was important when the game was played in the upper-right corner of the screen, and color was important when it was played in the lower-left corner– and whether they could follow the rule on their own.

The answer was that they did not figure out the rule or know how to use it.

Sloutsky said children in the experiments didn’t know the rules, but simply used associative learning – they figured out that in certain areas of the computer screen, they were better off choosing by shape, and in other areas by color.

“Children developed a running statistic about where they should choose color and where they should choose shape,” he said.

This type of learning goes on all the time with children, Sloutsky explained. For example, children learn that larger animals are generally stronger and more powerful than smaller animals, even though they know nothing about the biological reasons behind this.

The findings have implications for theories of how children learn and develop their cognitive abilities, he said.

“Children learn implicitly. They don’t need complex conceptual knowledge to show evidence of smart, flexible behavior.”

Most California Children Attend Center-Based Preschools; Educational Quality of Programs Falls Short

More than half of California's preschoolers attend center-based early care and education programs, but the children who have the most to gain from preschool frequently are those least likely to participate in the programs, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Researchers found that children from lower-income families, children whose mothers have less education and Latino children are significantly less likely than others to attend center-based early care and education programs, even though they are among the groups that consistently show a lack of readiness for school.

While research has demonstrated that high-quality preschool can help children prepare for kindergarten and later grades, RAND researchers found that the quality of preschools in California is mixed.

Most center-based programs meet quality benchmarks for class size and child-staff ratios. But only one in four children participates in a classroom that provides instruction that promotes thinking and language skills, key features that prepare children for kindergarten. Children from more-affluent families were no more likely to experience high quality environments -- especially those features linked to early learning -- than children from low-income families.

The findings are from the latest report in an ongoing research project intended to outline the adequacy and effectiveness of preschool education in California.

"It is now the norm for California's 3- and 4-year-olds to spend at least part of their day in a center-based early care and education program," said Lynn Karoly, the study's lead author and an economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Unfortunately, relatively few of the centers we studied provide the types of high-quality early learning experiences that can help prepare children to succeed when they enter school."

The RAND study is based upon a survey of more than 2,000 households of children eligible to enter kindergarten in the fall of 2007 or 2008. Researchers also conducted interviews with preschool teachers and administrators from more than 600 programs. In addition, researchers visited about 250 of the center-based programs to observe the nature of the interactions and activities in the classroom and check other measures of quality such as group sizes and child-staff ratios.

The study found that an estimated 59 percent of preschool-aged children in California attend center-based early care and education programs, including two-thirds of 4-year-olds and half of 3-year-olds. Participation is linked primarily to a family's socioeconomic standing, rather than race or ethnicity, according to the study.

Just 45 percent of children whose mothers have less than a high school diploma attended center-based programs, while 80 percent of children whose mothers have graduate degrees were in such programs. The chances a child will attend a center-based early care and education program also rise with a family's income.

More than 70 percent of the center-based programs evaluated by the RAND research team met quality benchmarks for class size and child-teacher ratios, but other quality benchmarks were achieved less often.

While two-thirds of children attended a program where teachers had an associate degree, only one in four children were taught by teachers with a bachelor's degree in the early childhood field or a related discipline. In addition, just 22 percent of children were in classrooms that were rated between good and excellent for space, furnishings and activities, according researchers.

The RAND study provides details about the nature and quality of California preschool programs that has not been available previously. Among the reports other findings are:

- Among children who could benefit the most from quality preschool, no more than 15 percent are enrolled in classrooms that meet quality benchmarks for instructional supports that promote higher-order thinking and language skills.

- Among 3 and 4-year-olds who did not attend a center-based preschool program, about 25 percent were cared for by parents and 16 percent were cared for by a nonparent in a home setting.

- About 22 percent of California's preschool-aged children attend publicly funded center-based programs such as Head Start, the California State Preschool program, or a public school prekindergarten; 28 percent attend private-school prekindergartens, preschools, or nursery schools; and 9 percent participate in a child care center.

- Public preschool program such as the California State Preschool and public prekindergarten programs were more likely to meet some of the quality benchmarks than private centers. Half of the children in public programs had a teacher with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, compared to one in eight children in private prekindergartens or child care centers.

"These findings should be useful to policymakers who are interested in improving the quality of early care and education programs in California," Karoly said. "This study provides the best information to date on the quality shortfalls that affect all groups of preschool-age children in California, and the missed opportunity that results from the low rates of participation among groups of children who stand the most to gain from a high-quality early learning experience."

The report is the third from the California Preschool Study, which was requested by the California Governor's Committee on Education Excellence, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Speaker of the California Assembly and the President pro Tempore of the California State Senate. Two studies released in 2007 examined gaps in school readiness and academic achievement in the early elementary grades and the system of publicly funded care and early education programs in California.

The study, "Prepared to Learn: The Nature and Quality of Early Care and Education Experiences for Preschool-Age Children in California," is available at

http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR539/

How To Educate English Language Learners

The staggering number of English language learners in the United States presents a profound challenge to our public schools. The summer issue of American Educator, a quarterly publication of the American Federation of Teachers, takes on the often contentious question of how best to help these students master English and meet academic standards.

The highly charged debate over how to teach English language learners often overlooks the available research. In his article in American Educator, Stanford University professor Claude Goldenberg highlights the most promising instructional approaches and discusses important questions that research has yet to answer. Based on the research, Goldenberg suggests the following instructional framework:

· If feasible, teach children to read in their native language and in English.

· Teachers should help students transfer knowledge from their native language to English.

· What we know about good instruction and curriculum for all students holds true for English language learners. However, modifications will be necessary as students master academic English.

· English language development is crucial but must be addressed in addition to—not instead of—academic content instruction.

American Educator is online at www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator

High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind

This publication reports the results of the first two (of five) studies of a multifaceted research investigation of the state of high-achieving students in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era.

Part I: An Analysis of NAEP Data examines achievement trends for high-achieving students (defined, like low-achieving students, by their performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP) since the early 1990s and, in more detail, since 2000.

Part II: Results from a National Teacher Survey gives teachers' own views of how schools are serving high-achieving pupils in the NCLB era.

Here are the key findings:

While the nation’s lowest-achieving youngsters made rapid gains from 2000 to 2007, the perfor-mance of top students was languid. Children at the tenth percentile of achievement (the bottom 10 percent of students) have shown solid progress in fourth-grade reading and math and eighth-grade math since 2000, but those at the 90th percentile (the top 10 percent) have made minimal gains.

This pattern—big gains for low achievers and lesser ones for high achievers—is associated with the introduction of accountability systems in general, not just NCLB. An analysis of NAEP data from the 1990s shows that states that adopted testing and accountability regimes before NCLB saw similar patterns before NCLB: stronger progress for low achievers than for high achievers.

Full report:

http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/20080618_high_achievers.pdf

Attitude determines student success in rural schools

Study investigates qualities of high-achieving schools

While most of the country focuses on ACT scores, student-teacher ratio and rigorous curriculum to increase student success, it may be the commitment to excellence that determines student achievement in rural schools. This is an overlooked, yet critical, factor when considering nearly half of American school districts are in rural areas, educating nearly 21 percent of all students.

Perri Applegate, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma K20 Center, recently investigated the qualities that differentiate a high-achieving school and low-achieving rural high school, focusing on high-poverty high schools with at least 51 percent of the population eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Applegate compared the scores on Oklahoma's Academic Performance Index, the state's annual school report of 367 Oklahoma high schools ranging from large, urban to small rural schools. She found no significant difference in achievement of rural schools and those in other settings.

Surprisingly, the top factors that did impact student achievement in urban high schools, ACT scores and dropout rates, did not determine student success in rural schools. Community involvement and the school's commitment to student excellence were the determining factors in whether a rural school was high- or low-achieving.

"In small-town America, the school and the community are dependent upon each other for success," said Applegate. In rural areas, schools tend to be the center of the community, acting as a gathering place and often social services. In larger towns, students have access to resources and support outside of their schools.

"Rural schools in the study listed the same factors as impacting student achievement: poverty, parental support, community, extracurricular activities and a caring school culture," said Applegate. "The difference between a high- or low-achieving rural school was how they -- both the school and the community -- met those challenges."

High-achieving schools had educators that embraced the role of being a rural teacher, which typically means wearing many hats and being creative with necessary resources. The schools had shared and supportive leadership, empowered stakeholders to take leadership roles and did not accept the idea that students were destined to fail based on their address. As one rural teacher pointed out, "Intelligence isn't geographically based."

Other factors included parents and community members who support the teachers, or if necessary, the school enacted programs to increase support. Another key factor was high-achieving schools gave students many opportunities to connect their learning to the well-being of the community, reinforcing the school-community bond.

While affected by the same variables, low-achieving schools felt that being a rural school was a handicap for student achievement and the lack of resources was a burden to school administration and the community. This attitude reflected in the educational approach of the school and in the student's probability to go to college.

According to Applegate, these finding have serious implications beyond education. Research shows that schools can save communities. The success of one can determine the success or failure of the other.

"We can't assume that student success in all schools, large and small, is impacted by the same issues," said Applegate. "So the question becomes how do we help schools in their environment become successful?"

For rural schools, Applegate suggests preparation programs need to provide specialized training for those who will serve in this setting. Policymakers need to acknowledge that rural schools have particular strengths and weaknesses. Finally, reform programs aimed at improving rural schools need to be tailored to meet their unique needs.

Complete study:

https://k20portal.ou.edu/Web_Documents/AERA%20Rural%20Paper.pdf

Engaging teachers means engaged students

To encourage and help teachers become more involved and enthusiastic about "inclusive teaching", the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recently funded an action research based project. Action research can be explained as making changes and studying the impact of those changes in order to bring about an environment where students feel included in their learning process.

According to the project's Co-director Dr Susan Davies, of Trinity College, Carmarthen, "Action research is an opportunity for teachers to look at their practice, reflect on it, and improve on it."

Dr Davies explained "Good action research can enable teachers to see their pupils differently and be a step towards creating a richer pupil–teacher relationship, which challenges the limitations of current teaching methods. For this to happen, there needs to be a model of action research which involves teachers developing shared ownership of an issue, taking action and paying attention to the consequences for pupils' engagement."

As part of the ESRC's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP), the project sought to explore how this approach could be used to assist teachers to put into practice the principle of 'inclusion' i.e. to increase the participation and achievement of pupils who may be marginalised as a result of circumstances such as disability, ethnicity, gender and social disadvantage.

The starting point for the TLRP project is that many secondary school teachers are unfamiliar with action research, and may be reluctant to become involved because it can be perceived as unfamiliar and too difficult. The researchers found that, unless teachers were given a real sense of ownership, action research became just another imposition on their time and energy. However, if that ownership was successfully developed, then teachers' energy and creativity was released.

Working with seven schools in Wales and England, the outcomes revealed that:

· collaborative action research can help engage all their pupils in learning,

· action research, as an aid to inclusion, can be stimulated by giving teachers a strong sense of ownership of the research and its outcomes, and

· the role of school leaders and educational psychologists as the research facilitators is crucial to the success of using action research to stimulate inclusive teaching.

The project involved asking questions about the engagement of young people in their learning and then taking appropriate action in terms of the organisation of schools, subjects and lessons. This includes:

· asking questions about how a school adapts to and works with the diversity of its student population,

· finding out about, and working with, what pupils bring with them to school rather than viewing differences in terms of deficits, and

· taking account of the understandings that young people have of school and education, rather than seeking only to engage more young people in existing school practice.

Dr Davies continued: "Conceived in this way, inclusion is not a quick fix that can be bolted on, but requires ongoing dialogue between teachers and learners. It requires teachers' active engagement, because inclusion and exclusion are processes that happen minute by minute and lesson by lesson. Also, crucially, senior management needs to appreciate this is a practice that needs to be given space to happen."

Can Middle School Reform Increase High School Graduation Rates?

Conclusions from this report:

Declines in motivation and school engagement are prevalent among students moving from 6th to 7th grade, except for those students in K-8 schools.

During early adolescence, declines in motivation may occur because typical intermediate schools— middle and junior high schools—are not providing appropriate educational and social environments.

Failing a single course in the middle grades substantially increases the likelihood of dropping out of high school. There is no stronger predictor of students' confidence in their academic ability than the grades they receive.

Many intermediate school teachers feel less effective as teachers, especially for low ability students, than elementary teachers and teachers in K-8 schools.

· When student engagement is accompanied by high quality instruction, academic failure should be preventable.

Full report:

http://lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/download.php?file=policybrief12.pdf

MORE CLASS TIME, EARLIER ALGEBRA AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION, TOUTED FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Middle school students need additional class time and more rigorous math instruction at earlier grades, according to a report being released today.

“The Critical Middle: A Reason for Hope,” the work of the Maryland Middle School Steering Committee, includes 16 recommendations designed to ignite greater academic improvement in grades six through eight.

The report also calls for increased instruction in foreign languages, improved programs in reading and writing, better teacher preparation, and integrated instruction in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Educational progress slows across the board in Maryland during the middle school years, mirroring a pattern found nationally. For example, 80.5 percent of Maryland third-graders score in the proficient range in reading and 78.6 percent in mathematics, while just 68.3 percent of eighth-graders score proficient or better in reading and 56.7 percent in math. Moreover, while all students are improving, the increases in achievement have been less dramatic at the middle-school level.

Strengthening student performance in the middle grades has been a desire among educators for decades. The advent of school accountability systems over the past 10 years pinpointed the fact that academic improvement slows once students leave elementary school. “Too many 8th graders are leaving middle school without the knowledge and skills they need to do high-school-level work,” the new report says.

To prepare students for the difficulty of secondary school, the middle school years need an upgrade in rigor. Additional instructional time, through an extended school day or more summer programs, is one way to accomplish this. As local systems add instructional hours, the report says there also should be increased professional time for teachers, so that interdisciplinary teams may engage in collaborative work and plan instruction.

Steering Committee members acknowledged the critical role that caring adults must play during the middle years. “While a connection to caring adults alone has been shown insufficient to promote achievement gains in the middle grades, a balance between supportive relationships and academic demands promotes both achievement and social/emotional well-being—a balance that is particularly important for the adolescent learner,” the report says.

The report calls for all Maryland middle school students to complete algebra by the end of the eighth grade. “The best preparation for the 21st Century’s global economy is a strong background in math, for today’s science and technical subjects require advanced mathematics, and algebra is the gatekeeper course for it,” the report says.

Among the other recommendations included in the report:

· Provide students integrated math, science, and technology instruction with a focus on problem-solving and real-world application.

· Enroll every middle school student into a world language course by the sixth grade.

· Provide all students instruction in the fine arts that develops literacy in music, dance, theater, and visual arts.

· Teach information literacy and use technology in all subjects.

· Provide accelerated and enriched instructional pathways for gifted and talented learners.

· Ensure that teachers are prepared to work specifically with middle school students.

The full report is available at:

http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/0000430a/nkjeqaqerynbvdvvdjsmhrkgbxzbvvtw/Middle_School_Task_Force_Report_6_4_08.pdf

Middle School Predictors of High School Achievement in Three

California School Districts

Conclusions from this report:

Academic achievement in middle school strongly predicts high school achievement and graduation.

Early middle school signals of academic success or failure include: grade retention, course failures, grades and test scores, and enrollment in algebra by 8th grade.

In each district in this study, only 1/3 of students who failed two or more courses in 7th grade graduated from high school.

Higher scores on the English portion of the 8th grade California Standards Test are strong predictors of passing the CAHSEE on the first attempt.

Schools and districts have the necessary information in middle school to identify students at risk of not completing high school or passing the CAHSEE.

Policymakers need to make sizeable investments for early interventions if they want to improve graduation outcomes and CAHSEE passing rates.

You can view the report at:

http://lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/download.php?file=policybrief13.pdf

What Happened to Seniors Who Did Not Pass the California High School Exit Exam?

According to the latest study from the California Dropout Research Project (CDRP), more than 70,000 high school seniors who did not pass the California High School Exit Exam (CASHEE) in 2007 chose to remain in school rather than abandon their education. The report, “Struggling to Succeed: What Happened to Seniors Who Did Not Pass the California High School Exit Exam?” examines the experiences of a random sample of these “persistent strugglers” from four California school districts. With graduations upon us, this report is quite timely.

Highlights from the report include:

· These “persistent strugglers” were disproportionately Latino students from low socioeconomic backgrounds; 79% of the participants were classified as English Language Learners—a much higher percentage than in their respective high schools.

· Almost 50 percent of the sampled students passed the CASHEE by the end of their senior year

· Among those non-graduates who did not pass the CASHEE, 31 percent still went on to community college while another 33 percent continued working to pass the CASHEE and earned their high school diploma or equivalent.

· The inability to pass CASHEE and graduate within normal time limits should not brand students as educational “failures.”

· Schools and the state have the responsibility to prepare students for the CASHEE and should provide early intervention and support for those who struggle with academics at an early age.

You can view the report at:

http://lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/download.php?file=policybrief11.pdf

Warning Signs Identify Children Likely To Fail High School Exit Exam

As Early as Fourth Grade, Predictions of Success or Failure on the High-Stakes Test Are Reliable

Children who are at risk of failing the California High School Exit Exam can be accurately identified as early as the fourth grade, according to a study released today by the Public Policy Institute of California with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The study suggests that shifting resources to struggling students in early grades will be a more effective way to improve achievement than the state’s current approach of focusing on students in the last year of high school.

Identifying both the characteristics that predict exam performance and the optimal age to give a student remedial help has important implications for parents, teachers, school administrators, and policymakers. The exit exam is the only part of the California accountability system with direct consequences for students, and the failure of many students to pass it, even after multiple attempts, is cause for concern. State-funded efforts to boost students’ skills are concentrated on students in 12th grade who are at risk of failing the test and those who already have left school and were unable to pass it. The study concludes that these efforts alone are unlikely to be effective. Of the students who leave 12th grade without passing the exam, few re-enroll in school or take the test again. Allowing students in the class of 2006 the option to retake the exam the following year raised the passing rate only marginally, from 90.4 percent to 90.7 percent.

“Now that we know we can identify students in the earlier grades who are likely to fail, it makes sense to help them while they’re still in school and while they’re being taught the basic skills that will be tested later on,” says Julian Betts, a PPIC adjunct fellow, who co-authored the study with Andrew Zau, a senior statistician at the University of California, San Diego. “We don’t have to wait until the 11th hour or even worse, after students have failed and left the system.”

Like high school exit exams in many other states, California’s has been the focus of legal and legislative challenges from the start. The test, which became a requirement for graduation in 2006, covers math up to the eighth-grade level and English language arts up to the 10th-grade level.

The PPIC researchers were able to follow individual students over time using detailed data from the San Diego Unified School District that included grades, test scores, and academic environment. SDUSD, the state’s second-largest school district, mirrors the demographics of other large districts and its students’ performance on the exit exam reflect those of the state as a whole: 75 percent pass the test in 10th grade, and students who are English language learners, African American or in special education are significantly less likely to pass by the end of 12th grade.

The study concludes that information available in the early grades is such a strong indicator of a child’s future performance on the exit exam that it is possible to predict who will fail nearly as accurately in fourth grade as in ninth grade. Among the key findings:

· Fourth-grade GPA is an especially strong predictor of success on the exam. For every one-point increase in GPA, students increase their likelihood of passing the test by 11.6 percent. In later grades, GPA is a less significant predictor of success on the exit exam.

· Classroom behavior in the elementary grades is nearly as important. Classroom behavior is more important than math and reading test scores in forecasting test performance. San Diego teachers evaluate students in categories such as “follows directions,” “classroom behavior,” and “self-discipline.” The PPIC study translates these measures into a “behavior GPA.” For every one-point increase in the behavior GPA in fourth grade, students increase their likelihood of passing the exit exam in 10th grade by 3.7 percent and in 12th grade by 5-6 percent.

· Test scores are less powerful predictors, and they differ across grades. Math test scores in grades 4-6 are better indicators of success than English test scores, probably because the exam tests eighth-grade math skills. In grades 7-9, English test scores are better forecasters of success, probably because the English section of the exam tests 10th-grade English skills.

· English learner status matters less in early grades than later on. Students who are classified as English learners in fourth grade are no less likely to pass the exam than their peers who are otherwise similar, but students who are still classified as English language learners in ninth grade are much less likely to pass the test.

· High school teachers’ qualifications play a minor role in test performance. Teachers’ demographic background, education level, years of teaching experience, and credentials have only a small effect on students’ chances of passing the exit exam. This is relevant in light of a lawsuit, Valenzuela vs. O’Connell, filed in 2006 and later settled, which contended in part that the exit exam should be not required because some students attend high schools where the teachers are not highly qualified. The PPIC study finds that even if teacher qualifications were equalized across high schools and among students within high schools, passing rates would change very little.

The study points out that it is not just the students who fail the exit exam who are a source of concern. There are many more who barely pass it. Roughly a quarter of students fail both parts of the test in 10th grade, a troubling result on an exam that tests relatively low-level skills. A student who can barely pass a test of eighth-grade math skills and 10th-grade English is probably not well-prepared for a successful career.

Providing remedial help to students in earlier grades when they are learning the material that will be on the exit exam would have a number of benefits beyond raising passing rates on the exit exam. It could improve results on the California Standards Tests and help schools meet achievement goals required by the federal No Child Left Behind law. Help with reading in early grades would benefit students in all other subjects, a particularly important benefit for English learners.

The study recommends an expansion of tutoring on a limited trial basis in randomly selected schools to identify the grade levels at which remedial help is most effective. Different approaches, from after-school tutoring to professional development for teachers, can be tested to pinpoint the most useful. These tests would provide a rigorous research basis for policymakers to determine when and how to best ensure the success of all students.

Full report:

http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=726

What Factors Predict High School Graduation in the Los Angeles Unified School District?

This study analyzed district data to track the educational progress of all first-time 9th graders from 6th grade through to their expected graduation in the spring of 2005. This group consisted of 48,561 students who attended 163 LAUSD middle and high schools. Combining transcript records and standardized test scores, together with characteristics of students and their schools, provided valuable insight into the middle and high school factors related to high school persistence and graduation. And because the LAUSD is home to more than 11% of all public school students in the state, most students who transfer still remain in the system, allowing these students to be tracked before and after they change schools.

Highlights:

In this study, a student's chances of graduating on time from an LAUSD high school were less than 50/50.

Academic experiences explained six times more of the difference in graduation rates among students in this study than demographic characteristics (such as race/ ethnicity, gender, language and socio-economic status).

Failing courses, especially Algebra 1, had a severe impact on on-time graduation.

On average, 65% of students in any given Algebra 1 class in LAUSD failed the class.

In 2001-02, more than 25% of 9th graders in LAUSD were retained and did not move on to 10th grade with their peers.

Only one in three students in high schools serving a high concentration of English learners ultimately graduated.

Attending a magnet school more than doubled a student’s odds of graduating on time.

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Full study:

http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/download.php?file=policybrief14.pdf

Results of Kansas Teaching, Learning & Leadership (KANTeLL) Survey

The Kansas State Board of Education contracted with the New Teacher Center last fall to conduct an online survey of Kansas educators regarding overall working conditions, time, decision-making, professional development and facilities and resources.

In January, all Kansas teachers, principals, and licensed school-based educators had the opportunity to privately and anonymously provide input on issues critical to student learning. The United School Administrators of Kansas and Kansas National Education Association partnered with the Kansas State Board of Education and the Kansas State Department of Education in getting the word out to educators regarding this survey. More than 16,600 Kansas educators (42 percent) from across the state participated in the KANTeLL survey. This includes 14,868 teachers, 474 principals, 133 assistant principals and 1,179 other education professionals.

The results of the survey were very positive. The teachers participating expressed the opinion that others in their districts look upon them as educational experts. Teachers are involved in collaborative decision-making and many school districts have put effective processes in place so that teachers’ voices are heard.

Kansas educators also believe that their schools are good places to work and learn as nine in ten teachers (89%) responding to this survey indicate that they want to continue teaching at their school.

“This is great information to have as we look at teacher retention and recruitment in our state,” said Alexa Posny, Kansas Commissioner of Education. She continued, “The impact of this survey bodes well for Kansas as we use the data to enhance school improvement planning, engage faculty conversations, and work collaboratively with Kansas communities to ensure that all students meet or exceed high academic standards and are prepared for their next steps after completing high school.”

Report: http://www.kantell.org/library/attachments/interimreport.pdf

Creative Collaborative Approaches Work to Maintain, Extend Arts Education in Six U.S. Urban Areas

Amid cutbacks in school arts education funding, public and private organizations in six urban regions have collaborated to expand access to arts learning for children in and outside of public school, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

The initiatives -- in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles County, New York City and Alameda County in Northern California -- have experienced varying degrees of progress, the study finds. But all serve as examples of how organizations that pool resources and coordinate activities can make it possible for more children to benefit from arts learning.

The study was commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by RAND, a non-profit research organization.

“Arts education in public schools has been a low priority for the last 30 years,” said Susan Bodilly, director of RAND Education and the study’s lead author. “But the results of our study demonstrate that, with the right leadership and the collaborative efforts of public and private organizations, children can enjoy the many benefits of arts education.”

“We believe every child -- and our broader society -- benefits from high-quality arts learning and that arts education deserves a secure place in our communities,” said Edward Pauly, director of research and evaluation at The Wallace Foundation. “Arts learning can enhance a child’s ability to ‘learn how to learn’; it can develop skills of persistence and teamwork; it can enhance the school experience for students -- sustaining their interest and enthusiasm for learning; and it can nurture empathy and foster imagination through experiences that the arts uniquely provide.”

The study finds that many trends -- including cuts resulting from state and local budget problems to the emphasis of the No Child Left Behind Act on reading and math -- have sharply reduced the number of arts teaching positions and the time available during the school day for arts courses.

The arts initiatives studied by RAND had one to 10 years of experience. Researchers identified four distinct patterns of leadership, organization and provision among the six urban regions:

· Alameda County and Los Angeles County initiated network-building activities from county offices – the Alameda County Office of Education and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Both have diverse participation and focus on increasing in-school arts education for all students. Seventy percent of the school districts in Alameda County are involved in the Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership, while in Los Angeles County one-third of the 80 school districts participate in the Arts for All initiative.

· Boston’s efforts focus on giving at-risk youth out-of-school-time programs, including arts programs. Local foundations and support from the mayor’s office are vital to this effort.

· The Chicago and New York City efforts are led or co-led by the local public school system’s central office and focus on increasing stand-alone arts courses in schools. Private foundations proved critical for the growth of these young initiatives.

· In Dallas, a community based organization, Big Thought, introduced integrated arts learning into all elementary schools, then expanded to support stand-alone and out-of-school time arts education programs. After 10 years of effort, all elementary school students in Dallas now enjoy integrated arts learning, and the city plans to hire 140 new elementary school arts specialists.

Five of the communities began work by conducting audits or surveys to assess the state of arts education in the schools or the community. The audits uncovered inequities in each case, which helped to galvanize support for arts education initiatives.

Additionally, five of the programs aimed to provide access for all students primarily during the school day, with some of them initially focused on elementary school children.

Five of the six communities also focused on attracting and leveraging funding and resources. In Los Angeles County, 10 to 15 organizations each year contribute to a pooled fund created by the arts education initiative, Arts for All, and meet quarterly to determine spending priorities.

“Taken together, the strategies of conducting audits, leveraging funding, increasing capacity for providing quality arts learning experiences, and engaging in coordinated advocacy efforts has provided great momentum in these regions for improving access to quality arts learning experiences,” said co-author Catherine Augustine, a behavioral scientist at RAND.

Researchers also found that each effort successfully placed an arts education coordinator within the central office of the school district. Rather than follow the traditional approach of hiring a teacher to serve as a part-time coordinator, the districts either had, or were in the process of securing, a senior full-time coordinator. The coordinator’s responsibilities include advocating for arts education and ensuring its place in the school district’s core curriculum.

“Ultimately, the study makes clear the importance of strong leaders developing collaborative efforts to unite a network of organizations -- schools, cultural institutions, community-based organizations, foundations, business and government agencies -- to make arts education in public schools a reality,” Bodilly said.

The study concludes that efforts to promote arts education are fragile, particularly in the face of changes in policy and political leadership, shortages in funding and other resources, and reduced time in the school day.

“Because research links early arts exposure to participation later in life, arts education plays a vital role in ensuring America has a robust cultural life in the future,” Windham said. “Its absence over the long term would be a great loss.”

The full report, “Revitalizing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination”:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG702/

‘Model Minority’ Stereotype Obscures Reality of Asian American and Pacific Islander Educational Experience

College Board/New York University/CARE Research Challenges Assumptions and Recommends Solutions

When “too good to be true” fails to be either good or true, long-term repercussions can be devastating and pervasive. That’s the urgent message found in a groundbreaking report challenging long-held beliefs about Asian American and Pacific Islander students’ academic success.   In collaboration with the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education, the College Board released “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight,” a report detailing why false assumptions can lead to misinformed policy and practice that can be harmful to AAPI students.

In exploring key prevailing fictions about the AAPI community, the report builds on the simple premise that educational policies and practices must be based on fact, not fiction. Without this basis, such policies and practices will have little value “to teachers, students, parents and society as a whole.”

In addition to dispelling the myths with empirical data, “Facts, Not Fiction” goes on to reveal how the “model minority” stereotype is detrimental, explaining that in assuming universal academic strength, teachers and counselors often do not extend help to their AAPI students in the same way they do to other students.

“To successfully meet the needs of all our young people, schools and colleges must recognize that students differ. Institutions must involve everyone in efforts to meet individual needs — students, parents, advocates, teachers and administrators,” said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board. “We also can help these students by recognizing the many wonderful contributions of Asian Americans and how they can assist the United States in becoming a better participant in the global society.”

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are now almost 17 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The umbrella term AAPI shelters 48 different ethnic groups, the report notes, from such historically different places as East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Historically, some individuals entered the country because U.S. employers needed their expertise, while others came as refugees with few resources and opportunities. Still others come to study and then return home. Yet they are all seen as the same studious, self-sufficient high achievers.

“In reality, there is no single AAPI composite,” according to Robert Teranishi, associate professor of education in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at NYU and co-principal investigator of CARE. “A single story does not represent the AAPI experience.”

With such varied backgrounds, Asians should not be lumped together as a homogenous group with uniformity in educational and financial attainment, culture, religion and histories. For example, AAPI students are evenly distributed in community and four-year colleges in the United States. They are not “taking over” U.S. higher education, as one myth suggests, although their concentration in a small number of institutions may create such an impression. Two hundred colleges and universities enroll two-thirds of all AAPIs attending college nationally, which is less than 5 percent of all postsecondary institutions in the United States. Nearly half of all AAPI students attend college in just three states: California, New York and Texas.

“Despite the growth in the number of AAPIs in the United States during the past two decades, it continues to surprise me how little we know about the population,” said Teranishi. “Prior to this report, there wasn’t even basic baseline information about AAPI participation in U.S. higher education.”

Another debunked myth is that AAPI college students only pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math. While there are a number of AAPIs who do pursue STEM fields, trends also show that a large proportion of AAPI students obtain degrees in the social sciences and the humanities.

Full report:

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/08-0608-AAPI.pdf

Writing Changes in the Nation's K-12 Education System

The purpose of this study was to learn whether there have been any changes in writing instruction across K-12 education in the past three years. A three-year time frame was chosen to structure the study as it included the time period subsequent to the College Board's first announcement of the SAT writing section (the 2002-03 academic year). The English/language arts teachers and district administrators surveyed reported major changes in writing priorities, attitudes, and expectations; how writing is taught; learning related to writing; writing resources; and the importance placed upon writing in the curriculum in their schools and districts.

Full report:

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/pdf/RN-34.pdf

College Board Claims That SAT® Studies Show Test’s Strength in Predicting College Success

SAT® scores, coupled with high school grades, provide colleges with a powerful barometer for predicting academic success, concluded the latest studies of the national benchmark test. Released today, the College Board’s 2008 SAT Validity Studies are the first to reveal information about the full cohort of students who have taken the SAT since the March 2005 addition of a required writing section.

The studies, which evaluated data of about 150,000 students from 110 four-year colleges and universities across the country, demonstrate that the SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform in their first year of college and revealed meaningful data specific to the writing section. The new section, which is mandatory for SAT takers, was shown to be the single most predictive section of the test for all students. The analyses also found the writing section to be the most predictive across all minority groups.

“Writing as a college-level skill is a crucial asset for student success, an important message reinforced by colleges that require admissions tests with a writing section,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton. “Colleges not requiring an admissions test with writing are overlooking one of the best predictors of college success to which they have access. Writing should not be optional.”

The purpose of the research was to determine the ability of the SAT to predict college success. These studies focused on the revised SAT, which was introduced in spring 2005. Among the most salient findings:

· The SAT continues to be an excellent predictor of how students will perform in their first year of college;

· The SAT is a better predictor than high school grades for all minority groups (African American, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian);

· The recently added writing section is the most predictive of the three SAT sections;

· Writing is the most predictive section of the SAT for every subgroup except ESL students;

· The three-hour and 45-minute SAT is almost as predictive as four years of high school grades; and

· The best predictor of first-year college GPA is a combination of high school GPA along with SAT scores.

The results are consistent for all types of colleges, with slight differences. (See Table 6 in the “Validity for the SAT in Predicting First-Year College Grade Point Average” study.) Grades are slightly better predictors of academic success at public or less-selective colleges; SAT scores are slightly better predictors at private colleges or more-selective colleges.

The complete studies are available at http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/validity-studies.

Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years

The DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 established the first federally funded private school voucher program in the United States, providing scholarships of up to $7,500 for low-income residents of the District of Columbia to send their children to local participating private schools. The law also mandated that the Department conduct an independent, rigorous impact evaluation of what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program.

The study's latest report, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years, found no significant differences in student achievement between those who were offered scholarships to attend a participating private school and those who were eligible for, but were not offered (as assigned by a lottery) a scholarship. However, being offered a scholarship may have improved reading test scores among three subgroups of relatively more advantaged students: those who had not attended a School in Need of Improvement (SINI) school when they applied to the program, those who had relatively higher pre-program academic performance, and those who applied in the first year of program implementation. Students in the program did not report being more satisfied or feeling safer than those who were not in the program. However, the program did have a positive impact on parent satisfaction and perceptions of school safety.

This same pattern of findings holds when the analysis is conducted to determine the impact of using a scholarship rather than being offered a scholarship and when estimating the effects of attending private school versus public school, regardless of whether an Opportunity Scholarship Program scholarship was used.

Full report:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pdf/20084023.pdf

Promises and Pitfalls of Virtual Education in the United States and Indiana

States should develop clear guidelines and policies to allow virtual education to succeed and avoid possible litigation, according to a policy brief from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at the Indiana University School of Education.

The report, "Promises and Pitfalls of Virtual Education in the United States and Indiana," examines the emergence of virtual education as a potentially viable public education tool and notes its value in reaching both low- and high-achieving students that schools may overlook because of the focus on meeting state and federal accountability requirements.

The release of the report comes as an interim study committee of the Indiana state legislature begins examining virtual schools, which are not currently covered by state laws or regulations in Indiana.

The Center for Evaluation and Education Policy is recommending guidelines and policies for virtual schools, which deliver the majority of their course content online.

Print-Quality Photo  Spradlin co-authored the report, along with Michael Holstead, CEEP graduate research assistant, and Jonathan Plucker, CEEP director and professor of Educational Psychology and Cognitive Science.

Virtual schools deliver the majority of their course content online. Full-time virtual schools allow students to take all classes online. Supplemental virtual programs provide online courses in addition to those that students take in their own schools. Programs offering virtual classes in Indiana include the Indiana Online Academy, Indiana Virtual Academy, and Indiana University High School.

The Indiana General Assembly ordered an interim study committee to examine virtual schools after lawmakers rejected funding for two cyber charter schools sponsored through Ball State University in 2007. Cost estimates for funding the schools through the state charter school funding system ranged from $11 million to $50 million per year, a "real eye-opener" for lawmakers, Spradlin said. The legislature placed a two-year moratorium on funding virtual charter schools.

While state law has not caught up to online learning yet, the study authors say many of the 42 states with some sort of public online learning program have taken steps Indiana can learn from.

"A lot of other states around the country have been dealing with this same issue and have been updating legislation and regulation policies," Holstead said. He added that large states like Florida and Michigan have introduced policies worth examining. Of those 42 states with virtual schools, 18 states have virtual charter schools.

The programs offer the possibility of customized education for students, Spradlin said, but all states are grappling with the issues such a program also presents, such as whether teachers should be certified and determining what level of training they receive as pre-service teachers. Funding such schools has also been challenging for states, Spradlin said, noting that virtual schools are grappling with the legal issues of charging fees while local school districts worry about receiving reimbursement from the state. Further, there are questions about quality and oversight as well as student accountability, and how well students can function without socializing with other students.

The authors offer eight recommendations:

*Virtual school course offerings meet or exceed Indiana state standards. Spradlin said the existing programs already do meet or exceed standards, but it should be a "blanket requirement."

*The Indiana State Board of Education approves all virtual school course offerings. "When school districts offer a course, it must meet an approved course title by the state board of education," Spradlin said. "That should hold true for the virtual programs as well."

*Professional development regarding teaching an online course be required for pre-service teachers or veteran instructors who want to begin online teaching.  Full licensure requirements for teachers who provide instruction in a virtual classroom and school.

*Students meet the same graduation requirements of any Indiana public school student.

*The state creates a specific funding mechanism for virtual charters, other full-time virtual programs, and reimbursement for the completion of supplemental virtual programs.  *The state commissions the evaluation of virtual school effectiveness using assessment data. "There really is a lack of adequate research or evidence-based research that validates the effectiveness of virtual learning," Spradlin said. "So moving forward, that is absolutely necessary."

*All Indiana students complete at least one online course to graduate from high school, a requirement in Michigan. More than 2.5 million college students take online courses annually, Spradlin said. "Since that's the case, it might make sense for our Indiana high school graduates to also have at least one online course completed."

Spradlin said passing some sort of regulation covering virtual schools is necessary, since the moratorium on cyber charters is about to expire.

"So the legislature really does need to take action to say once and for all whether cyber charter schools are going to be permitted," he said, noting that it's likely to happen in the upcoming session. "Without it, the state or local jurisdictions are likely to face litigation."

The full report may be viewed at: http://www.indiana.edu/~ceep/projects/PDF/PB_V6N6_Spring_2008_EPB.pdf

Technology-Based Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2002–03 and 2004–05

This report details findings from "Technology-Based Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2004-05," a survey that was designed to provide policymakers, researchers, and educators with information about technology-based distance education courses in public elementary and secondary schools nationwide. This report also compares these findings with baseline data collected in 2002-03, and provides longitudinal analysis of change in the districts that responded to both the 2002-03 and 2004-05 surveys. For these two surveys, distance education courses were defined as credit-granting courses offered via audio, video, or Internet or other computer technologies to elementary and secondary school students enrolled in the district, in which the teacher and students were in different locations. Findings indicate that 37 percent of public school districts and 10 percent of all public schools nationwide had students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses during 2004-05.

During 2002-03, 36 percent of districts and 9 percent of schools had students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses. About a quarter (26 percent) of school districts that existed in both 2002-03 and 2004-05 had students enrolled in technology-based distance education in both school years, 11 percent did not have students in this type of education in 2002-03 but had such enrollments in 2004-05, and an equal percentage of districts (11 percent) had students enrolled in technology-based distance education in 2002-03 but not in 2004-05. The number of enrollments in technology-based distance education courses increased from an estimated 317,070 enrollments in 2002-03 to 506,950 in 2004-05. The number of enrollments varied considerably among districts, although the majority of districts (57 percent) reported between one and 20 technology-based distance education enrollments in 2004-05.

Distance education was more commonly offered by high schools than by schools at any other level, with 61 percent of technology-based distance education enrollments at the high school level. Seventy-one percent of districts with students enrolled in technology-based distance education courses in 2004-05 planned to expand their distance education courses in the future.

Full report:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008008

The Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs: Findings After the First Year of Implementation

The report, Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs, is the first of two reports and presents implementation and impact findings after one year of program operation. This study tests whether interventions of structured approaches to academic instruction in after-school programs (one for reading and one for math) produce better academic outcomes than regular after-school services that consist primarily of help with homework or locally assembled materials that do not follow a structured curriculum.

Compared to students attending regular after-school program activities, the students selected for the after-school math program received, on average, an additional 49 hours of instruction; students selected for the reading program received 48 hours of additional instruction, on average. The evaluation found a statistically significant difference in student achievement between students in the math after-school program and those in the regular after-school activities. In study sites implementing the reading program, there was no statistically significant difference in reading achievement between students in the reading after-school program and those in the regular after-school activities.

Full report:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pdf/20084021.pdf

Closing the Skill Gap: New Options for Charter School Leadership Development

With 400 new charter schools opening their doors each year and 4,000 charter schools up and running, a strong supply of leaders is crucial to the sustainability of charter schools.

But charter school leaders face a unique set of challenges, and traditional principal training programs, where the majority of charter leaders are currently trained, often leave them with a daunting skills gap.

In response, a new crop of 13 specialty training programs for charter school leaders has developed in recent years. The National Charter School Research Project surveyed those programs to learn how many leaders they train and what types of training they offer. In Closing the Skill Gap: New Options for Charter School Leadership Development, researchers Christine Campbell and Brock Grubb analyze program offerings in specialized charter leadership programs. They find that these new training options show promise in their responsiveness, course relevance, and methods of instruction, especially when compared to traditional leadership training programs.

The charter school leadership programs offer a very distinct approach to leadership preparation. Most strikingly, they are light on lecture, while heavy on real-world experience such as field observations, project- and task-based learning, and discussion. They also are more likely to cover some topics—such as personnel and labor relations, financial management, and academic accountability—that seem fundamental to effective leadership, not just for charter schools. Traditional leadership training programs should take note.

Still, the programs miss or treat too lightly some of the issues charter leaders struggle with most, including engaging parents, raising funds and managing finances, and negotiating with local school districts. To better assess the quality of these programs, the programs themselves need to collect and review more data on whether their graduates improve student achievement and school management.

What’s more, the specialty training programs are few and small in size. Together, the full-time programs in the study train only 100 new charter school leaders each year. In contrast, the need for training is much higher: every year, approximately 400 new charter schools open, and approximately 20% of existing charter schools—800 schools—will experience turnover within the next year.

The report concludes with strategies to address the challenges of building a strong charter school leadership pipeline, including expanding successful programs and popular professional development programs; tapping into local university public administration, nonprofit, and business leadership training programs; and expanding online training options.

Full report:

http://www.crpe.org/cs/crpe/download/csr_files/pub_ncsrp_icslead_jun08.pdf

University of Minnesota study uncovers the educational benefits of social networking sites

Low-income students are in many ways just as technologically savvy as their counterparts

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The same study found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their counterparts, going against what results from previous studies have suggested.

The study found that, of the students observed, 94 percent used the Internet, 82 percent go online at home and 77 percent had a profile on a social networking site. When asked what they learn from using social networking sites, the students listed technology skills as the top lesson, followed by creativity, being open to new or diverse views and communication skills.

To watch a video about the study and a full interview with the lead researcher, visit: http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/Multimedia_Videos/social_network.htm

Data were collected over six months this year from students, ages 16 to 18, in thirteen urban high schools in the Midwest. Beyond the surveyed students, a follow-up, randomly selected subset were asked questions about their Internet activity as they navigated MySpace, an online forum that provides users with e-mail, web communities and audio and video capabilities.

"What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today," said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher in the university's College of Education and Human Development and principal investigator of the study. "Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology. The Web sites offer tremendous educational potential."

Greenhow said that the study's results, while proving that social networking sites offer more than just social fulfillment or professional networking, also have implications for educators, who now have a vast opportunity to support what students are learning on the Web sites.

"Now that we know what skills students are learning and what experiences they're being exposed to, we can help foster and extend those skills," said Greenhow. "As educators, we always want to know where our students are coming from and what they're interested in so we can build on that in our teaching. By understanding how students may be positively using these networking technologies in their daily lives and where the as yet unrecognized educational opportunities are, we can help make schools even more relevant, connected and meaningful to kids."

Interestingly, researchers found that very few students in the study were actually aware of the academic and professional networking opportunities that the Web sites provide. Making this opportunity more known to students, Greenhow said, is just one way that educators can work with students and their experiences on social networking sites.

The study also goes against previous research from Pew in 2005 that suggests a "digital divide" where low-income students are technologically impoverished. That study found that Internet usage of teenagers from families earning $30,000 or below was limited to 73 percent, which is 21 percentage points below what the U of M research shows.

The students participating in the U of M study were from families whose incomes were at or below the county median income (at or below $25,000) and were taking part in an after school program, Admission Possible, aimed at improving college access for low-income youth.

Greenhow suggests that educators can help students realize even more benefits from their social network site use by working to deepen students' still emerging ideas about what it means to be a good digital citizen and leader online.

Scientifically valid prevention programs cut rates of juvenile delinquency

Seventh-grade students in U.S. communities that have set up scientifically validated programs to reduce juvenile delinquency have a significantly smaller chance of engaging such behavior than do children in towns that have not adopted such programs.

Students in 12 Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Oregon, Utah and Washington towns that installed such prevention programs were 27 percent less likely to be involved in delinquency than were students in 12 matched towns in those states that didn't set up programs, according to a new University of Washington study published this week in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

The early finding comes from the Community Youth Development Study that is tracking the behavior of more than 4,400 students for five years in the 12 pairs of small-to moderate-size towns. The data come from the third year of the study, which is continuing.

"This finding is very important because early initiation of delinquent behavior in children before the age of 14 is a predictor of later substance abuse, chronic criminal behavior and mental health problems," said J. David Hawkins, lead author and director of the study. "It is exciting because we didn't expect to find these community-wide effects until about five years. The seventh grade is still pretty young and this may bode well for other behavioral outcomes."

The study is being conducted by the UW's Social Development Research Group, a part of the School of Social Work, with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

At the start of the study, all fifth-grade students in the 24 cities filled out questionnaires that included questions about delinquent behavior, asking for example whether they had stolen anything worth more than $5, purposely damaged or destroyed property that didn't belong to them or attacked someone with the intent of causing seriously harm. The questionnaires administered again when the students were in the sixth and seventh grades.

The study is an experimental test of the Communities That Care program developed by the Social Development Research Group. To set up the study, the researchers recruited and matched 12 pairs of cities by population, racial and ethnic diversity, crime rates and other factors. One city in each pair was randomly chosen to test Communities That Care and received training over the first year in how to implement it and build a supportive community coalition.

Part of the training included a process for each town to identify its risk factors that contribute to juvenile delinquency. Once these were identified, the communities were asked to select between two and five of them as their top priorities. After that they were given information about tested programs that addressed each priority risk factor, selected programs they would implement and were trained in how to implement these programs. The other cities were given no assistance.

"Communities That Care is designed to empower communities to collect and use data on the risks their children face, and also on strength of the community, and then use this information to choose prevention and early intervention programs that have been tested and shown to be effective," said Hawkins.

"Historically, this country has believed in building coalitions to deal with youth problems in a community, but they haven't been shown to be effective. What's exciting is that this demonstrates that if you provide a community coalition with the skills and tools of prevention science, that coalition can help its kids actually avoid delinquent behavior. We can use the resources of a community to solve its problems by working smarter."

Data from the study showed the intervention community's programs had little effect in reducing the number of children who began using cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and other substances by the end of the seventh grade. This was expected, according to Hawkins, because most young people initiate substance use at an older age.

Gaps in Teacher Quality Are Shrinking In Illinois;

Stronger Academic Backgrounds of New Chicago Teachers Fuel Trend

Changes Linked to Improved Student Performance

The gaps in teacher quality among Illinois schools are shrinking as more academically talented teachers are hired in Chicago, a comprehensive new study finds. The study, released by the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) at Southern Illinois University, also finds that schools serving large populations of low-income and minority students made significant gains in teacher quality, but that gaps between regions and demographic groups still remain.

The report, Leveling Up: Narrowing the Teacher Academic Capital Gap in Illinois, evaluates schoolwide teacher quality based on a measure referred to as the Index of Teacher Academic Capital (ITAC). The index represents teacher attributes that have been shown to be associated with student learning. The index combines five measures: teachers’ ACT scores (composite and English); teachers’ initial failure rates on the Illinois Basic Skills Test; teachers’ college competitiveness rankings; and the proportion of emergency or provisionally certified teachers at a school.
In order to determine how these attributes have been distributed over time, the researchers studied data from all public school teachers in the state between 2001 and 2006—or about 125,000 teachers a year. The study found that schools that had the lowest ITAC values—schools in Chicago and schools that serve high percentages of low-income and minority students—made the greatest gains in hiring teachers with stronger academic backgrounds. On average, most other schools statewide experienced little change in their teacher academic capital during the time studied.

As a result of these gains in high-needs schools, the gap between Chicago and the highest scoring region in the state closed by 27 percent. The gap between schools with the highest and lowest proportions of minority students closed by 21 percent, while the gap between schools based on their percentages of low-income students closed by 22 percent.

The IERC analysis finds a positive link between the academic backgrounds of teachers at a school and student achievement, even after controlling for other important factors. The researchers were able to show that schools with gains in teacher academic capital also had gains in student achievement. In addition, the positive gains from ITAC tended to offset the negative effects associated with teacher inexperience.

The new IERC study attributes the improvements in Chicago’s teacher quality largely to the hiring of new teachers with stronger academic backgrounds. For example, the district is hiring inexperienced teachers with higher ACT scores and college competitiveness rankings than in the past. Moreover, the gap in these characteristics between inexperienced and experienced teachers in the city is growing.

The researchers offer the following policy recommendations based on their findings:

· Pay attention to candidates’ academic qualifications. As districts begin to see an increase in applications for teaching positions, principals and human resource officers have the ability to be more selective in whom they hire. This study provides guidance on some of teachers’ academic characteristics that principals and human resources staff should consider when reviewing applicants.

· Do not discount inexperienced teachers. New teachers appear to be bringing with them the positive attributes that can boost schools’ teacher academic capital and raise student achievement. Focusing too narrowly on trying to hire more experienced teachers might come at the expense of equalizing teacher academic capital across schools.

· Enforce high standards for teacher qualifications. Schools appear to have benefited from the teacher quality provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the introduction in Illinois in 2001 of a more rigorous basic skills test needed for teacher certification, and the 2002 state requirement that all prospective teachers in Illinois pass the enhanced basic skills test before entering preparation programs. These policies have reduced the proportion of emergency-certified teachers in schools in the state and helped school districts and teacher preparation programs be more selective in the individuals they train, certify, and hire to teach in our public schools.

· Provide strong supports to keep new, academically talented teachers. If current teacher attrition trends continue, the teachers with the strongest academic backgrounds will be the least likely to stay in the profession or in their positions at the lowestperforming schools. State and district officials need to ensure that all school leaders are implementing effective mentoring and induction support for new teachers and striving to improve their schools’ teaching and learning climates.

The full research report and accompanying policy brief are available online at

http://ierc.siue.edu/documents/IERC2008-1.pdf

and

http://ierc.siue.edu/documents/IERC2008-1PB.pdf

Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Public Education

How Local School District Funding Practices Hurt Disadvantaged Students and What Federal Policy Can Do About It

The four papers that make up this volume explore perhaps the most important component of this mismatch of U.S. educational resources—inequality in the funding of local schools by their own school districts. Nationwide, local school districts account for about 50 percent of all public school operating costs, which means these districts’ budgeting practices have a greater direct effect than state or federal education investments. Indirectly, however, existing federal legislation condones and has historically supported the way local school districts fund their schools. Federal education funding requirements, in short, exacerbate existing inequality in education at the local level.

This happens because of language in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the so-called "comparability provision," which was supposed to promote equality of education but indeed does not. Its basic notion is that state and local funds for schools should be equitable before federal Title I funds are added to schools with large concentrations of low-income students. The comparability provision, however, also contains what some of us call a "loophole" that allows longstanding ways that local funds have been inequitably distributed to continue.

Specifically, districts have historically allocated funds to their schools not by giving a dollar amount to each school, but instead by allocating "staff" resources to schools. As Marguerite Roza points out in this volume, "Most teaching positions and other staff full time equivalents, or FTEs, are assigned on the basis of enrollments. The formula might, for example, call for a teacher for every 25 students. The problem arises when staff FTEs are translated to real dollars."

The difference in actual school expenditures are often substantial because teachers’ salaries are based on their experience and credits or degrees earned, and because high-poverty schools have many more less experienced, lower paid teachers and much more turnover than low-poverty schools. Roza found in her research in Baltimore "that when teachers at one school in a high-poverty neighborhood were paid an average of $37,618, at another school in the same district, the average teacher’s salary was $57,000." Assuming the same number of teachers in each school—say 20—the difference in dollars available for the two schools is $387,640.

Transferring highly paid teachers against their will to even out expenditures seems nonsensical, yet if such an extra amount were available to a high-poverty school then there are numerous good uses for it, including employing master and mentor teachers as coaches, offering bonuses to recruit and retain effective teachers, and lengthening the school day or year to expand learning time for students. This is a complex topic, however, as one would expect of budget processes involving local, state, and federal funding spread across thousands of school districts across the country. This package of reports includes:

Section I: The History of Educational Comparability in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, by Phyllis McClure
Section II: Strengthening Comparability: Advancing Equity in Public Education, by Ross Wiener
Section III: What If We Closed the Title I Comparability Loophole?, by Marguerite Roza
Section IV: Funding Schools Equitably: Results-Based Budgeting in the Oakland Unified School District, by Matt Hill

Full package:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/pdf/comparability.pdf