Sunday, February 27, 2011
Ed Week, February 23, 2011
This tidbit is a part of the Research Roundup: "Exercise and Math Skills". In a study published in Health Psychology researchers divided 171 overweight children ages 7 to 11 into three groups. One group of kids got 20 minutes of aerobic activity in an after school program. The second group got 40 minutes. The third group got no exercise. The study revealed that the more exercise the children got the greater the brain activity in the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of the brain used for complex cognitive processes, moderating social behavior, and making decisions. Apparently a regular exercise program can help overweight children do better in math and goal-oriented tasks. Researchers at the Georgia Prevention Institute at Georgia Health Sciences University will be looking at this in greater depth, by extending this study from this initial 3 month project to a full year. This study makes me really question the wisdom of reducing or taking away recess time or P.E. I do not think that only overweight children reap the cognitive benefits from moving their bodies. I have seen recess and P.E. taken away as a "consequence" and because of budget cuts. I have also noticed that if I allow my own children time after school to hang out on the playground, play tag, or go for a walk, when they come home and sit down to do their homework they get it done much faster! On the days we go straight home and the kids try to get their homework done, they struggle and it seems to take much longer. Viva la Recess! Viva la bike rides! Viva la P.E.!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Ed Week, January 26, 2011
The article "No-Pass, No-Drive Laws Spreading" by Mary Ann Zehr is very interesting. I had no idea that 27 states now have a system that requires students to attend school, behave, and study in order to get their driver's license before the age of 18. It makes sense to me that a driver's license would be a very enticing carrot for high school students. Apparently, critics are saying that although these policies seem to make intuitive sense and anecdotal evidence indicates they are successful, they are not supported by research. I think critics rightly argue that "No-Pass, No-Drive" policies fail to address the underlying reasons that a student may skip school (housing issues, family problems, lack of social-emotional skills, academic difficulties etc.). One study published in the Educational Research Quarterly in 2000 found that "No-Pass, No-Drive" policies combined with counseling in Kentucky were effective. One of the very disappointing aspects of this issue mentioned in the article is that some parents will try to get around this policy and truancy laws by enrolling their kids in "homeschooling" programs. Some parents are thus undermining schools attempts to get kids to come to school. If the students are not there they cannot learn. I do think, however, that New Mexico may be carrying this all a little too far by requiring "near proficiency" or better on state tests for reading and math before a minor is allowed a driver's permit. What do you think?
Thoughts on Physical Education
As part of the News in Brief section, ED Week reported that a California appeals court ruled that parents can require public schools to offer physical education. Apparently the state education code in California requires elementary schools to offer 200 minutes of P.E. every 10 days. Middle schools and high schools are required to offer 400 minutes every days. I thought this was interesting for many reasons. Although I had for the most part not great experiences in P.E. in school myself, as a parent I want my children to have P.E. I can see that kids today need to get up and move! I want them to be healthy and find physical activities they love. I wonder if the increasing pressure to have students perform well on state tests is behind the move to eliminate P.E. classes that prompted these parent's lawsuit? Could budget cuts be behind the attempt to do away with or reduce P.E.? I know that my nephew, Andrew, who attends a public school in Davis, California, lost his second recess this year. Apparently due to the fiscal crisis in California, teachers have had a furlough week added onto their furlough days. Teachers decided to do away with the second recess because they felt they did not have enough time for academic subjects with all of the lost instructional time. It seems to me that schools and teachers are being squeezed both ways. They are being held accountable for making sure their students pass state tests on the one hand. On the other hand, the situations in schools are becoming more challenging due to the budget crisis.
Thoughts on Special Education
After taking the Exceptional Learners course I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to attend her daughter's yearly IEP meeting. I attended this meeting both to learn more about IEPS and the process of crafting one and to support my friend. This article was extremely interesting because I have been thinking quite a bit about the importance of the IEP as a legal contract or document that really shapes and determines a child's educational growth. The article is titled
"Special Educators Look to Align IEPS to Common-Core Standards" by Christina A. Samuels. It discusses the movement towards linking IEPS for students with disabilities directly to the grade-level standards that are in place for general education students. Apparently, this standards based IEP-movement was part of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997. This mandated access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities. I was fortunate enough to be able to observe in an ERC for deaf and hard-of- hearing children at a school here in Salem. This classroom was for children in Kindergarten through second grade. I was absolutely impressed by the teacher and the high academic level of the work the students were engaged in. They were essentially working with the second grade curriculum, with some modifications. They also spent more time on each unit. The students had read a story with the teacher called "New Shoes for Silvia". The day I observed, the teacher used re-telling beads to model re-telling the story. She used sign language, exaggerated speech (lip-reading), and speech to provide rich language input. The students then re-told the story. The students also crafted their own sentences, using what I thought were relatively sophisticated grammatical structures for second graders. ( Sentences like: Silvia's shoes were as _____ as _____). The students were then asked to personalize this ability to compare by making up sentences about themselves. One student came up with this sentence: "My hair is as brown as mud." It was brilliant! The students were also working on punctuation, capitalization, and reading. It was a vibrant, academically-oriented learning community. In this classroom I could sense that this teacher had high expectations and was serious about her students learning. Although I think it is important to hold all children to high academic standards, I can see that a policy which dictates this may be a cause for concern. The whole point of an IEP is that children with disabilities need individualized instruction. Although a child may be 8 years old in terms of chronological age, she may be developmentally at the level of a 3 year old in terms of letter recognition. It would be unfair to expect this child to be reading, just because this is the standard for a third grader. From the article it sounds like it is critical that the goals written in a student's IEP be specific and thoughtfully constructed. These goals also need to be academic. It is too vague to say that "Tommy will have preferential seating" or "Lucy will work on communication skills." In my friend's IEP meeting for her second grader, the teacher spelled out that she would like for her student to start using more complex 5+ word sentences like " I would like to have the purple crayon", now that she has met the goal of being able to articulate what she wants using 3 word sentences like "I want purple."
"Special Educators Look to Align IEPS to Common-Core Standards" by Christina A. Samuels. It discusses the movement towards linking IEPS for students with disabilities directly to the grade-level standards that are in place for general education students. Apparently, this standards based IEP-movement was part of the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997. This mandated access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities. I was fortunate enough to be able to observe in an ERC for deaf and hard-of- hearing children at a school here in Salem. This classroom was for children in Kindergarten through second grade. I was absolutely impressed by the teacher and the high academic level of the work the students were engaged in. They were essentially working with the second grade curriculum, with some modifications. They also spent more time on each unit. The students had read a story with the teacher called "New Shoes for Silvia". The day I observed, the teacher used re-telling beads to model re-telling the story. She used sign language, exaggerated speech (lip-reading), and speech to provide rich language input. The students then re-told the story. The students also crafted their own sentences, using what I thought were relatively sophisticated grammatical structures for second graders. ( Sentences like: Silvia's shoes were as _____ as _____). The students were then asked to personalize this ability to compare by making up sentences about themselves. One student came up with this sentence: "My hair is as brown as mud." It was brilliant! The students were also working on punctuation, capitalization, and reading. It was a vibrant, academically-oriented learning community. In this classroom I could sense that this teacher had high expectations and was serious about her students learning. Although I think it is important to hold all children to high academic standards, I can see that a policy which dictates this may be a cause for concern. The whole point of an IEP is that children with disabilities need individualized instruction. Although a child may be 8 years old in terms of chronological age, she may be developmentally at the level of a 3 year old in terms of letter recognition. It would be unfair to expect this child to be reading, just because this is the standard for a third grader. From the article it sounds like it is critical that the goals written in a student's IEP be specific and thoughtfully constructed. These goals also need to be academic. It is too vague to say that "Tommy will have preferential seating" or "Lucy will work on communication skills." In my friend's IEP meeting for her second grader, the teacher spelled out that she would like for her student to start using more complex 5+ word sentences like " I would like to have the purple crayon", now that she has met the goal of being able to articulate what she wants using 3 word sentences like "I want purple."
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Ed Week, December 8, 2010
Budget cuts are on my mind these days. "K-12 Funds Caught in Federal Budget Drama" by Alyson Klein and Christina A. Samuels describes the education budget situation at the federal government level. States and school districts around the country are still waiting to find out whether they can hope for any more funding from the federal government this year. From what I can glean from the article and other reports on NPR, Congress has passed a temporary stop-gap budget called a "continuing resolution" that funds programs based on the 2010 budget levels. I believe this stop-gap measure was originally set to expire in December, but was then extended until March 4. After Democrats lost their party's majority in the House in the November elections, Congress has had trouble coming up with a budget both sides can agree on. There are a couple of possibilities: the continuing resolution could be extended which would mean that federal funding would remain at the level of the 2010 budget for the 2011 fiscal year until next September 30. Congress could also pass another shorter term stop-gap measure.
With all of the budget difficulties here in Oregon, school districts face terrible financial difficulties. Gasoline prices are rising due to the political unrest in Egypt, Libya etc. and school districts can also expect higher transportation costs. It sure would be nice to have the federal government budget worked out. As a parent of two children in Salem-Keizer Public Schools and a hopeful future teacher, I find all of the budget woes extremely distressing. It requires an effort on my part not to allow anxiety to take over. I feel especially sorry that all of the dedicated, passionate, hard-working teachers who have taught my children and I am learning from in my observation hours, have to deal with the stress and worry of wondering whether they will have a job next year!
With all of the budget difficulties here in Oregon, school districts face terrible financial difficulties. Gasoline prices are rising due to the political unrest in Egypt, Libya etc. and school districts can also expect higher transportation costs. It sure would be nice to have the federal government budget worked out. As a parent of two children in Salem-Keizer Public Schools and a hopeful future teacher, I find all of the budget woes extremely distressing. It requires an effort on my part not to allow anxiety to take over. I feel especially sorry that all of the dedicated, passionate, hard-working teachers who have taught my children and I am learning from in my observation hours, have to deal with the stress and worry of wondering whether they will have a job next year!
Ed Week, December 8, 2010
The Commentary in this Ed Week got my attention because I have been thinking quite a bit about reading, writing, and cognitive skills since starting my Literacy class. The article called "Let's Spread the Blame for Reading Underachievement" by Sandra Stotsky discusses the lack of a common national core curriculum in high school English classes. Not only does there not seem to be a canon of texts that high school teachers generally assign, the texts that students do read, do not increase in difficulty from grade 9 to 12. This really surprised me! I thought all American high school students read "Beowulf," "The Scarlet Letter," and Mark Twain's collected works. I happen to be a big reader and loved reading all of these in high school. According to the article, 72% of students in standard or honors courses read "Romeo and Juliet," 68% read to "Kill A Mockingbird,"59% read "The Crucible," and 48% read "Julius Caesar" in their high school careers. Percentages for most of the other works read in high schools fall below 30%. My husband pointed out that three of the four works listed above that are often read are actually plays. They are thus, relatively short and not as demanding as "Moby Dick" or "Life on the Mississippi." I think students would benefit from reading across all genres, from Graphic novel to Jane Eyre. Fiction and Non-fiction should also be included. I also think that Reading is critical to the development of writing and cognitive skills. Reading is a kind of input, that is a pre-requisite for production of quality writing.
What is perhaps of even greater concern is the way texts are being dealt with in high school English classes. Students are not being explicitly taught how to do analytical close readings of texts. High School teachers are instead favoring personal responses or focusing on the historical or biographical context of literary works. This would explain to me why many college students I have encountered struggle with developing an argument and citing evidence from the text to support their thesis. These are critical analytical and thinking skills. Stotsky calls for several measures to deal with this situation, including a revision of the English curriculum, teaching the analytical study of literature, and professional development to train teachers how to do close, analytical readings. I am still a bit surprised that all of this would be necessary, because I thought that the Core standards established by the State of Oregon would have already made these things requirements.
What is perhaps of even greater concern is the way texts are being dealt with in high school English classes. Students are not being explicitly taught how to do analytical close readings of texts. High School teachers are instead favoring personal responses or focusing on the historical or biographical context of literary works. This would explain to me why many college students I have encountered struggle with developing an argument and citing evidence from the text to support their thesis. These are critical analytical and thinking skills. Stotsky calls for several measures to deal with this situation, including a revision of the English curriculum, teaching the analytical study of literature, and professional development to train teachers how to do close, analytical readings. I am still a bit surprised that all of this would be necessary, because I thought that the Core standards established by the State of Oregon would have already made these things requirements.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Ed Week, December 1, 2010
I am busy trying to catch up on my Ed Week blogging... Even though this article on budget woes and class size is from December, it is still a hot, current topic. See "Class-Size Limits Targeted For Cuts" by Sarah D. Sparks. In the dark days of this current financial crisis with painful budget cuts looming, this article offers some comfort. According to the Tennessee Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio or STAR project, smaller class sizes in the early years produced students with better academic and personal outcomes throughout their school years and beyond. This study followed more than 7,000 students in 79 schools over 4 years back in 1984. Students in K-3 were randomly assigned to either classes of 13-17 kids or more typical classes of 22-25 students. The children in smaller classes performed better than their peers in the larger classes on tests at the end of the study. Apparently this is a linear relationship: Every student removed from class improves the situation of those remaining. This study and others spurred the nation-wide efforts to reduce class size. The U.S. Department of Education currently guesstimates that the current average class size for general education classrooms in the U.S. hovers around 25 students. Because of financial concerns, many states have relaxed their class-size capping policies since 2008. Critics of class size limits make the case that the improvements in academic success are not significant enough to warrant the extra expense. Data from the OECD show that several "high-performing" Asian countries actually have very large class size averages: Japan: 33 and South Korea: 36. Past class size reduction policies have also not been implemented in ways consistent with what the research indicates is best, i.e. classes of 13-17 as in the STAR project. Other researchers argue we should spend money on improving and training current teachers. A school in New York was described that is utilizing trained parent volunteers and instructional aids to teach 90 minute chunks of core subjects such as reading, math, science, social studies, and foreign language in the mornings. The afternoons are devoted to electives with larger class sizes. These electives, i.e. art, build on the lessons from the morning. Perhaps there are some creative ways to get around the increase in class sizes that is definitely coming to Salem-Keizer in Fall of 2011.
I myself attended both public schools and Catholic schools. My 6-8th grade classes at St. Eugene's had 40 kids in each class (20 boys and 20 girls). The nuns ran a tight ship, with a very strict classroom management style. Learning was definitely taking place. Although as a parent I would definitely prefer to keep the number of students in my children's classes down to between 20-25, I recognize that our school district is in hot water. I would hope that the administrators will consult the teachers, the ones in the trenches, to ask for their input on how to make the best out of this situation. The article I read in the the Statesman Journal today indicated that although class size was going up, the numbers were no where close to the 45 kids in a class that were rumored as possible!
I myself attended both public schools and Catholic schools. My 6-8th grade classes at St. Eugene's had 40 kids in each class (20 boys and 20 girls). The nuns ran a tight ship, with a very strict classroom management style. Learning was definitely taking place. Although as a parent I would definitely prefer to keep the number of students in my children's classes down to between 20-25, I recognize that our school district is in hot water. I would hope that the administrators will consult the teachers, the ones in the trenches, to ask for their input on how to make the best out of this situation. The article I read in the the Statesman Journal today indicated that although class size was going up, the numbers were no where close to the 45 kids in a class that were rumored as possible!
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