Big Education Ape

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

NYC Public School Parents: The NYC School Survey: Changes over time leading to possibly skewed results and how the survey could be improved

NYC Public School Parents: The NYC School Survey: Changes over time leading to possibly skewed results and how the survey could be improved

The NYC School Survey: Changes over time leading to possibly skewed results and how the survey could be improved

The following was written by the new research associate for Class Size Matters, Emily Carrazana. Take a look!

Since 2007, the NYC Department of Education has issued something called the “Learning Environment Survey,” administered to students, parents, and teachers to collect their views about each school's quality and the system as a whole. Every year between 2007 and 2014, when parents were presented with ten choices, class size came out as the top priority of 21% to 24% of parents when they were asked “Which of the following improvements would you most like your school to make (Choose ONE)?”

In 2015, this question related to parents’ top priority was completely left out of the survey, possibly because then-Chancellor Farina seemed uninterested in listening to parents in general and especially on the need to lower class size. In fact, her peculiarly unique view was that class sizes in NYC schools were too small.

After significant pushback from Class Size Matters and others, this question was resurrected the following year, but with a few other "tweaks". While class size was still offered as one of the choices, options relating to more or less state test preparation were removed, and “a safer school environment” option was added. The phrasing on the choice of more enrichment programs was expanded from “Stronger enrichment programs” to “Stronger enrichment programs (e.g. afterschool programs, clubs, teams)”.

This choice now became the only one that provided any additional descriptive information, including specific examples of what might qualify as an enrichment program. Before that point, the percent of parents choosing “enrichment programs” as their top priority had significantly fallen, from 19% in 2007 to 12% in 2014. Unsurprisingly, in 2016 for the first time, the number of parents who chose enrichment exceeded those who chose class size –with enrichment the top choices of 23% to 27% of parents from that year onward, compared to class size at 20% to 21%.

Which of the following improvements would you MOST like your school to make?

(Take note of the sharp uptick in enrichment programs in year 2016, the same year that the wording changed)

This is not to downplay the importance that schools should place on improving their students’ access to extracurricular and afterschool programs, especially to parents, many CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: The NYC School Survey: Changes over time leading to possibly skewed results and how the survey could be improved

NYC school diversity panel recommends ending gifted programs in public schools. One member explains the surprising decision. - The Washington Post

NYC school diversity panel recommends ending gifted programs in public schools. One member explains the surprising decision. - The Washington Post

NYC school diversity panel recommends ending gifted programs in public schools. One member explains the surprising decision.

A panel appointed by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) to find ways to diversify schools in the nation’s largest system just came out with a surprising recommendation: eliminate gifted programs in the city’s public schools. The mayor, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said he would take that suggestion under advisement.

The issue has been of concern for years in New York City, which has among the nation’s most segregated schools, with a lack of diversity extending to its gifted programs in the lower grades and to selective high schools that admit students based on a single standardized test score.

The recommendation by the panel includes gifted programs in elementary schools — which also select students based on a test score — and middle schools, as well as some high schools. It does not, however, include the city’s eight most elite high schools, even though they have diversity issues, as well.

For example, for the 2019-2020 school year, data released from the district in March showed that only seven of 895 students who received offers to attend Stuyvesant High School — the hardest of the selective schools in which to gain admittance — were black. Stuyvesant also initially offered admissions to 587 Asian students, 194 white students, 45 students of unknown race or ethnicity, 33 Latino students, 20 multiracial students and nine Native Americans.

[7 out of 895 — the number of black students admitted to NYC’s most selective high school. And there are more startling stats.]

De Blasio appointed the School Diversity Advisory Group two years ago. In its first report, it made some recommendations earlier this year on how to start diversifying the public school system, which has about 1.1 million students. The key recommendation was for the city to set diversity targets for all schools, such that they “reflect the diversity of the entire community.” CONTINUE READING: NYC school diversity panel recommends ending gifted programs in public schools. One member explains the surprising decision. - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape: Peter Greene: New York City's Radical Proposal For A Troubled Program - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/08/new-york-citys-radical-proposal-for.html

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Amount of Recess Time in Seattle Public Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Amount of Recess Time in Seattle Public Schools

Amount of Recess Time in Seattle Public Schools

Excellent story from KUOW's Ann Dornfeld about recess in Seattle Public Schools. It should come as no surprise to anyone that schools that are largely white have more recess time in the day than schools that have largely Black students.

SEA helped several years back during contract time:

Seattle Education Association, the teachers’ union, bargained a 30-minute recess minimum at all elementary schools to address the recess gap.

As well, national PTSA advocates for more recess:

The national PTA has called for schools to increase recess times, and mandatory recess minutes have become law in several states.

I'm not sure about WSPTSA or SCPTSA. Anyone?

I know what I believe - elementary kids need recess throughout the day. WHO recommends one hour. Recess helps on so many levels and when you trim it, you are not going to see the results you want in the classroom. However CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Amount of Recess Time in Seattle Public Schools

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Peter Greene: New York City's Radical Proposal For A Troubled Program

New York City's Radical Proposal For A Troubled Program

New York City's Radical Proposal For A Troubled Program

New York City schools have been a prime example of what happens when the problems of segregation intersect with the problems of gifted programs. Now it appears they are prepared to throw up their hands and untie the Gordian knot with a flamethrower.

In 2014, the UCLA Civil Rights Report found that New York schools were the most segregated in the nation. Like most things about the New York City system, the situation was complicated. The Bloomberg administration was supportive of school choice, and like many choice advocates, believed that choice could be a solution to equity problems. In NYC, as in the rest of the country, that has not turned out to be true. School choice's effect on segregation remains highly debated, but choice advocates can't point to any clear successes.

Gifted programs have been seen as a route to desegregation in many school districts. The theory is that selecting students for a school or program based on giftedness rather than address should bring together students from across all lines--geographic, racial and economic. In theory, gifted programs should also better meet the needs of high-functioning students who might be bored and unproductive in regular classes.

But gifted programs have problems of their own. In 2013, Andy Smarick of the reform-minded Bellwether Education Partners put together a report about gifted programs in the US. He points out that there is no real federal guidance or support for gifted education, and that states are largely left to their own devices. In many states, that CONTINUE READING: New York City's Radical Proposal For A Troubled Program

WALTON'S PLAN TO DESTROY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: The Charter School Strategy: Working as Planned

The Charter School Strategy: Working as Planned

The Charter School Strategy: Working as Planned

Enrollment is steadily increasing and charters have instigated new approaches to school governance.

The charter school movement today confronts a challenging political environment.This contrasts with nearly three decades of bipartisan charter support from governors and legislators who created charter laws in 43 states and the District of Columbia and bipartisan backing by four Presidents—Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

But this pushback against these independently run public schools isn’t as dire as charter opponents want the public—especially charter supporters—to believe.

In fact, there’s another—more important—story to tell: the charter school strategy is working as planned.

Charter enrollment is steadily increasing. From 2007 to 2017 enrollment more than doubled, from 1.3 million to 3.2 million students.

In 2017, 21 districts had at least 30% of students enrolled in charters — up from 1% in 2006. Another 214 districts had at least 10%, up from below 20 districts in 2006.

The charter strategy is spreading. And working.

This view is consistent with chartering’s “great promise” described by Ted Kolderie, a charter thought leader, in a 1990 report by the center-left Progressive Policy Institute.

Chartering is primarily a governance innovation fostering system change in how school districts manage schools rather than an educational innovation focused on schools.

Kolderie contrasts the district sector, which is governed by school boards setting policy, managing districts and running schools, with the charter sector, which is governed by a decentralized contract model allowing organizations other than school boards to offer public education. These authorizers include state charter boards, non-education government offices and other nonprofits.

This approach broadens public education’s definition from districts creating and running schools to authorizers creating schools and contracting with operators to run independent, self-governing public schools.

Since chartering is a governance—or institutional—innovation, the key question for assessing success is whether the strategy instigates new approaches to K-12 governance.

It does.

Governance innovations include state Recovery School Districts that restart low-performing schools as charter or charter-like schools. New Orleans is its most prominent example, with results showing improved student outcomes.

Public school governance in the District of Columbia is another prominent example. The district and charter sectors exist separately.

The mayor oversees the district and appoints the chancellor, who supervises 116 district schools enrolling nearly 49,000 students—53% of public school students.

The charter authorizer is the D.C. Public Charter School Board. The mayor nominates its seven members, with consent by the D.C. Council. The charter board oversees 123 charter schools enrolling nearly 44,000 students—47% of public school students. DON'T CONTINUE READING BOYCOTT WALMART: The Charter School Strategy: Working as Planned

What Happened to the Students Who Began KIPP-Philly in 2003? | Diane Ravitch's blog

What Happened to the Students Who Began KIPP-Philly in 2003? | Diane Ravitch's blog

What Happened to the Students Who Began KIPP-Philly in 2003?

Marc Mannella opened the first KIPP middle school in Philadelphia in 2003.

He started with 90 students in fifth grade.

KIPP promised that students who stuck with the “no-excuses” regimen would go to college.

Avi Wolfman-Arent of WHYY in Philadelphia tracked down 33 of those students to find out what happened to them.

The former KIPPsters are now about 25.

Of the 90, 25 dropped out in the first year of middle school.

The students entered a world of incentives and punishments, of strict rules administered strictly.

It wasn’t right for everyone.

Of the 90 students who enrolled in KIPP Philly’s first middle school class, about half were boys. By the time 8th grade graduation arrived, enrollment was whittled down to 34 students — and only 11 boys remained….

Almost none of the KIPP alumni we interviewed did four CONTINUE READING: What Happened to the Students Who Began KIPP-Philly in 2003? | Diane Ravitch's blog

On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers | EdSource

On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers | EdSource

On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers

Dear lawmakers:

Jason Sanchez

Before you make any law that affects public education, please talk to teachers — teachers from rural and urban areas as well as poorer and wealthier areas. Students, parents and teachers represent the largest proportion of the population that is directly affected by laws impacting public education. Please spend most of your time talking with them to understand how they will be affected.

Then talk to school and district administrators, lobbyists and other policymakers.

In May, after 10 years of teaching, I resigned and left a career I was passionate about. Even though I love teaching, I had to leave. Lack of support and ever-increasing job duties took their toll and cost me my motivation to continue.

A major tipping point was when I had a particularly challenging group of students, including some who were regularly purposefully defiant. I usually handled my own classroom discipline by working with students and their families, but this time those efforts failed to address the situation. All year long I begged my school district for support. I repeatedly suspended one of the students from the classroom because he CONTINUE READING: On reforming suspensions: a teacher’s plea to California’s lawmakers | EdSource

Teens, Screens And Mental Health: Scientists Debate The Link : NPR

Teens, Screens And Mental Health: Scientists Debate The Link : NPR

The Scientific Debate Over Teens, Screens And Mental Health

More teens and young adults — particularly girls and young women — are reporting being depressed and anxious, compared with comparable numbers from the mid-2000s. Suicides are up too in that time period, most noticeably among girls ages 10 to 14.

These trends are the basis of a scientific controversy.

One hypothesis that has gotten a lot of traction is that with nearly every teen using a smartphone these days, digital media must take some of the blame for worsening mental health.

But some researchers argue that this theory isn't well supported by existing evidence and that it repeats a "moral panic" argument made many times in the past about video games, rap lyrics, television and even radio, back in its early days.

To understand both sides of the debate, I talked in detail to three researchers: one who argues that teens' use of tech is a big problem, one who thinks the danger is exaggerated and an expert in research methodology who suggests the connection may not be so simple.
Very concerned about smartphones
Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, may be the researcher most associated CONTINUE READING: Teens, Screens And Mental Health: Scientists Debate The Link : NPR

Explore Life Kit

This story comes from Life Kit, NPR's family of podcasts for making life better — everything from exercise to raising kids to making friends. For more, sign up for the newsletter and follow @NPRLifeKit on Twitter.

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS

A Rise In Depression Among Teens And Young Adults Could Be Linked To Social Media Use

California Act To Save Lives Becomes California Law - Elk Grove Tribune

California Act To Save Lives Becomes California Law - Elk Grove Tribune

California Act To Save Lives Becomes California Law

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that an officer’s use of force must be reasonable. The new standard set by the California Act to Save Lives (CASL) goes even further, allowing police to use deadly force only when necessary. Additionally, prosecutors must now consider the behaviors of the officer(s) and suspect(s), leading up to the use of force.

The March 2018 shooting of Stephon Clark by Sacramento Police Department officers, Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, motivated the effort for more stringent laws. Earlier attempts by California legislators to address police brutality failed.

A separate but related effort to increase police officer training on the new standard also moved forward.

“It is the intent of the Legislature that peace officers use deadly force only when necessary in defense of human life. In determining whether deadly force is necessary, officers shall evaluate each situation in light of the particular circumstances of each case, and shall use other available resources and techniques if reasonably safe and feasible to an objectively reasonable officer.”

CASL provides for the use of deadly force by California police only in certain circumstances.

“A peace officer is justified in using deadly force upon another person only when the officer reasonably believes, based on the totality of the circumstances, that such force is necessary for either of the following reasons:

(A) To defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person.

(B) To apprehend a fleeing person for any felony that threatened or resulted in death or serious bodily injury, if the officer reasonably believes that the person will cause death or serious bodily injury to another unless immediately apprehended. Where feasible, a peace officer shall, prior to the use of force, make reasonable efforts to identify themselves as a peace officer and to warn that deadly force may be used, unless the officer has objectively reasonable grounds to believe the person is aware of those facts.”

Interestingly, CASL does not explicitly define “necessary,” which means the courts would likely have to weigh in, requiring another case where police use deadly force. Because of this, and other compromises, groups like Black Lives CONTINUE READING: California Act To Save Lives Becomes California Law - Elk Grove Tribune

Struggling Texas schools working with charters, nonprofits got F ratings | The Texas Tribune

Struggling Texas schools working with charters, nonprofits got F ratings | The Texas Tribune

Texas lets struggling schools partner with nonprofits or charters for improvement. But many got Fs this year.
Four public schools being run by private organizations under a partnership must drastically improve their state ratings over the next couple of years or else face forced closure.

Adrain Johnson was one of five Texas school superintendents last year to take a Hail Mary pass in order to improve two low-performing schools: He let a new nonprofit take over the management of Hearne ISD's elementary and junior high, both of which had failed to meet state academic standards for years.

The partnerships, an idea lawmakers approved in 2017, are supposed to give the outside organizations — charter groups, private nonprofits or universities — flexibility to try out new educational models and hopefully lead to major gains in student test scores. In return, the low-performing schools get more money per student and a two-year pause from any state penalties, which are required after a school has underperformed for five years or more in a row.

But after a year being run by Hearne Education Foundation, and managed by a separate appointed school board of regional educators, Hearne Elementary School received its seventh consecutive failing rating from the state this month, meaning it may have to shut down unless it passes over the next couple of years.

In fact, seven of the 12 schools across the state in similar partnerships with nonprofits or charters received F ratings this year, including four that, like Hearne Elementary, that could face state sanctions if they don't pass in the next couple of years. All 12 schools serve student populations that are between 70% and 100% economically disadvantaged, in school districts with higher rates of teacher turnover than state average.

Hearne Junior High, a rural Central Texas school with 100% economically disadvantaged students, had actually managed to improve significantly before the partnership even started and its performance remained relatively steady this year. That means it's safe for now from any state penalties.

Johnson said he's proud of the district's improvement, given the challenges an CONTINUE READING: Struggling Texas schools working with charters, nonprofits got F ratings | The Texas Tribune

How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery - Vox

How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery - Vox

How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery
Textbooks have been slow to incorporate black humanity in their slavery narratives. And they still have a long way to go.

Four hundred years ago, a group of about 20 Africans were captured in the African interior, probably near modern-day Angola, and forcibly transported on a slave ship headed to the Americas. After tumultuous months at sea, they landed ashore in the first British colony in North America — Jamestown, Virginia — in late August 1619.

Hazen’s Elementary History of the United States: A Story and a Lesson, a popular early 20th-century textbook for young readers, picked up the story of the first black Virginians from there.

“The settlers bought them,” explained the 1903 text, “... and found them so helpful in raising tobacco that more were brought in, and slavery became part of our history.”

Its barebones lesson plan included just two easily digestible factoids for the year 1619: the introduction of the Africans — with an illustration of two half-naked black people standing on a beach before a pontificating pirate and a crowd of onlookers — and the creation of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the first formal legislative body in the American colonies.

*Hazen’s Elementary History of the United States: A Story and a Lesson,* published in 1903, included very little about 1619 and the role slavery played in the formation of the United States.

But the history of Jamestown and slavery isn’t that simple. Even though the 1619 landing wasn’t the first arrival of Africans in the Americas, it fits within the history of colonial America, black America, the global slave trade, and ultimately the foundation of our country. So how textbooks summarized this history — one characterized by a scant documentary record and CONTINUE READING: How history textbooks reflect America’s refusal to reckon with slavery - Vox

Teaching First-Year Students Includes More than Disciplinary Content, Skills | radical eyes for equity

Teaching First-Year Students Includes More than Disciplinary Content, Skills | radical eyes for equity

Teaching First-Year Students Includes More than Disciplinary Content, Skills

I have two vivid memories of my father—one when I was an older child, the other when I was a teen.

Walking down Main Street of my hometown, my father and I stopped to talk to an adult, and when I didn’t respond with the obligatory “yes, sir,” my father slapped me hard across the face.

Years later, my father was playing in a pick-up basketball game on our home court with my teenaged friends and me. During the game, I crossed the respect line with him and he turned to once again hit me hard across the face—in front of all my friends.

I was raised that children were to be seen and not heard, and all child interaction with adults had to include “sir” and “ma’am.”

Eventually as I grew into roles of authority—teacher, coach, and parent—I took on a much different lesson than my father had intended; I am extremely informal in my clothing and speech, and I avoid formal situations like the plague (because they literally make me feel ill, triggering my anxiety).

Especially as a teacher and coach, I have always worked very hard to treat children and young people with full human dignity and respect; that is something I always wanted as a young person, and those adults who showed me that respect remain important in my life.

In short, while I think all people regardless of age should treat each other with something like respect (for our collective humanity, but not roles such as authority), I also believe that anyone in a position of authority should CONTINUE READING: Teaching First-Year Students Includes More than Disciplinary Content, Skills | radical eyes for equity

Latest News and Comment from Education