Education News: October 9, 2009

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending October 9, 2009.

New Federal Fund Offers Grants for Innovation
(New York Times, October 6, 2009)  On Tuesday, the federal Department of Education unveiled a new nationwide competition under which 2,700 school districts and nonprofit groups will compete for shares of a $650 million innovation fund.  The fund is called the Investing in Innovation Fund, and is completely separate from the $5.4 billion Race to the Top fund for education improvement.  The fund will be distributed in three categories: small development grants of up to $5 million that will support new ideas deemed worthy of exploration; validation grants of up to $30 million that will support existing programs that have shown evidence that they can work; and scale-up grants of up to $50 million that will go to programs with strong records of improving student achievement.  In a speech last month, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan indicated that organizations that might receive funding include Teach for America and Green Dot, a nonprofit charter school organization.  Applications will be due in the spring.

Duncan Calls for Army of New Teachers, Stressing Civil Rights Issue
(San Francisco Chronicle, October 9, 2009)  In a speech delivered Friday afternoon to prospective teachers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Arne Duncan stressed the need for a new generation of teachers.  He stated that veterans, retirees and professionals who are seeking a second career must heed the call to teach.  Duncan focused on the need to reduce the dropout rates among African-American, Latino and low-income students, referring to education as “the civil rights issue of our generation.”  He claimed that “if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality and social injustice, the classroom is the place to start.”  This is just the first of several recruitment talks that the education secretary is scheduled to deliver throughout the month, including a virtual town meeting with teachers across the nation.  Duncan cited the looming baby-boomer retirement, which could lead to the departure of almost a third of the nation’s teachers and administrators, as one of the causes for his efforts.

Washington Teachers’ Union Sues Rhee Over Layoffs
(Washington Post, October 8, 2009)  On Wednesday, the Washington Teachers’ Union sued D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee in an attempt to block last week’s teacher layoffs.  The suit asks that the school system be enjoined from dismissing 266 teachers, school social workers, librarians and counselors who are currently scheduled to be removed from the payroll on November 2. In total, 388 school personnel, including custodians, office staff and administrators were laid off in order to narrow the $43.9 million shortfall for the school district’s 2010 budget.  The union claims that the chancellor and public school principals targeted educators on the basis of age or their willingness to speak out against administrators.  The suit is related to previous claims by teachers that Rhee contrived the budget crisis to create an opening to purge veteran teachers.

Math Teachers Call for New Approach to Instruction
(Education Week, October 7, 2009)  The largest group of math teachers in the nation are advocating for a new approach to instruction in the high school classroom.  The group is called the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and is advocating a method that aims to build students’ ability to choose and apply the most effective problem-solving techniques.  The hope is that students will apply the learned skills in both the classroom and in life.  Additionally, it will help make math more useful and applicable in students’ everyday lives.  The case for the new approach is made in the NCTM’s “Focus in High School Mathematics: Reasoning and Sense Making,” which is a follow-up to their 2006 “Curriculum Focal Points.”  The 2006 document offered grade-by-grade content standards in math for pre-K through 8th grade and received praise from even the group’s strongest critics.  The new 2009 document has a different structure in that it attempts to show how reasoning and sense-making can be promoted across high school math.  It explains how reasoning and sense-making can be applied in different areas of math, and provides numerous examples.  While the guidelines acknowledge the importance of understanding math content and procedures, it says that the ability to apply that knowledge in different situations is mathematics’ true value in everyday life and in the work place.  NCTM officials also claim that the new method will lead to more students who are interested in and capable of going into math- or science- focused positions.  It is no coincidence that the document was released as federal and state policymakers call for greater consistency across classrooms.  While some fear the guidelines might be too vague and abstract, the NCTM plans to publish short, separate resources that translate the document for teachers, administrators, policymakers, and families, as well as “topic books” to explain how reasoning and sense-making can be cultivated in different areas of math. 

Subjective Grading Examined in Schools
(Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2009)  A recent study looked into how common grading subjectivity is in schools throughout the world.  The study was conducted by Douglas Reeves, an expert on grading systems, and looked at more than 10,000 educators.  Teachers and administrators in the United States, Australia, Canada and South America were given a set of grades, in the order a student received them, and asked to determine what the final grade should be for a student who had earned them.  Reeves found that the student received grades ranging from A to F.  This is likely because teachers consider different factors when assigning a final grade.  While some average letter grades, others value improvement or attendance.  Reeves claims that ineffective grading can lead to widespread failure.  He says the most effective grading offers accurate, precise and timely feedback with the aim of helping students to improve, not of penalizing them.  One of the biggest steps towards improvement, according to Reeves, is to eliminate “dumb errors” such as giving a student a zero for not completing an assignment.  A better solution is to make them do the work with you during their free time.

Hispanic Students Demonstrate Desire to Obtain Education but Don’t Execute
(USA Today, October 7, 2009)  In a recent survey, nine out of ten Hispanic students said that it is "necessary" to obtain a college education to get ahead in life.  This was a higher portion than any other racial or ethnic group in the US.  Fewer than half of Hispanic 18- to 25-year-olds, however, reported that they plan to get a bachelors degree.  This is well below the 60% of all young people who say the same.  The findings were released by the Pew Hispanic Center.  They site language barriers, parents' abilities to play an active role in education and students’ desires to help support their families, as possible reasons for the disparity.  The center hopes the findings will help change attitudes towards Hispanic students and figure out new ways for schools to work with parents of Hispanic students.

Mississippi Takes Aim at Racism with Mandated Civil Rights Classes in Schools
(Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 2009)  Mississippi will now require civil rights to be taught in all public schools as part of the US history curriculum.  The bill, passed in 2006, mandates that all K-12 students be exposed to civil rights education and is being unrolled in ten pilot programs this year.  Teacher workshops begin this month and taught by the state Department of Education in conjunction with the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State University, Teaching for Change in Washington, and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi.  This is tremendous step in an effort to end the state’s culture of silence on the topic, and the first of such reform in the nation.  Exposure will range from kindergarteners reading such books as “I Love My Hair” as a tool to discuss concepts like racial differences, to more in-depth topics such as how ordinary citizens shaped the civil rights movement and the long-term effects those changes had on the nation.  Some feel the bill is needed in an age where No Child Left Behind’s attention on math and science scores takes away focus from anything else.  Fears have arisen, however, that students will be force-fed a “white people bad, black people good” message, because the issue is such a personal one.