Dispatches from Great Classrooms: Ruskin, Florida

This week’s blog post Dispatches from Great Classrooms: Ruskin, Florida; discusses how a teacher from Ruskin, Florida breaks language barriers for her students who speak English as a second language. The author, Liz Vidyarthi, completed a school visit.Vidyarthi wanted to see what great things that Kelly Zunkiewicz were doing in her classroom. Zunkiewicz was a veteran teacher, award-winning teacher, and was able to demonstrate tremendous student growth through advanced placement assessments. The students of Zunkiewicz were on a schedule and had structure.

With a solid foundation of classroom management, Zunkeweiwcz was able to have her students teach each other. Students were trained to grade each other assessments, by making the corrections to their peers mistakes. Zunkiewicz’s style of teaching provided room for students to make mistakes. Students were able to understand their role int he classroom and understand that collaborative learning creates a class of creativity and productivity. The students in the class had many positive things to say about Zunkiewicz.

Blogs that relate to this post (Summary):

Both of the blogs informs the reader about how an effective collaborative classroom should look. These resources provide educators new ways to have 21st-century classrooms to enhance student achievement.

• Classroom Management: Reconsidering Physical Classroom Structure
• Deeper Learning: A Collaborative Classroom is KeyDeeper Learning: A Collaborative Classroom is Key

 

 

 

-Aaron

“Report Connects Student Debt to Structural Racism”

This week I chose to focus on the last post of Latino Ed. Blog titled, “Report Connects Student Debt to Structural Racism”. The post reports on data released by Washington Center for Equitable Growth, stating that middle-class Latinos and African Americans are more prone to be unable to pay their student loan back. Relying on income data from Experian and the American Community Survey, and credit reporting from student debt, the researchers found out that there is a negative correlation between income and student loan delinquency. Surprisingly, middle-class minority students are the most affected because they tend to access to lower paid professional paths, and do not have enough family wealth to pay back. These population groups are more likely to access less-selective colleges that do not have an extensive offer of high-quality major programs, especially technology and science. Another important factor is that many Latinos and African American students to not graduate, acquiring a debt that they are not able to pay back. According to the post, the geography of student loan delinquency shows a pattern of “structural racism”, an issue that should be considered in any attempt of student loan reform.

Since February 24th, Latino Ed Blog has posted five new topics, including:

• San Francisco State University College of Ethnic Studies faces a major financial crisis http://www.ewa.org/blog-latino-ed-beat/historic-ethnic-studies-program-financial-trouble
• The pre-approval of computer coding as a foreign language in Florida: http://www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/florida-senate-votes-yes-coding-foreign-language
• The results of a survey indicating that Latino and African American parents value higher education more than White parents. http://www.ewa.org/blog-latino-ed-beat/study-hispanic-black-parents-value-college-degree-more-whites
• Discriminatory Trump-based hurls during a basketball game at a high school in Iowa http://www.ewa.org/blog-latino-ed-beat/rivals-hurl-trump-themed-insults-high-school-basketball-games
• The post chosen for this report about the correlation between student loans with racism upon minority middle-class students. http://www.ewa.org/blog-latino-ed-beat/report-connects-student-debt-structural-racism

Juliet Sanchez

Exposing the Effects of Child Poverty Hidden in Plain Sight

Summary of Weekly Blog Posts

This past week in the National Education Policy Center blog, the following topics were discussed: Houston’s Teacher Value-Added System discusses a $500,000 system that holds and processes data pertaining to teacher performance and holds instructors accountable for high-stakes testing results; Questioning  the Questions asked about Education addresses the need to question why students who are affluent can score poorly on standardized tests and why some impoverished students can test highly on standardized tests; and Student Sorting and Teacher Classroom Observations questions the validity of standardized tests when teachers are not always teaching in their perspective grades and uncovers the possibility that teacher accountability can be largely dependent of classroom observations.

Summary of Exposing the Effects of Child Poverty Hidden in Plain Sight

Jan Resseger, author of Exposing the Effects of Child Poverty Hidden in Plain Sight, discusses the obstacles that children growing up in poverty face and how it can affect them in many ways.  She references Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer’s book entitled $2.00 A Day, where they delve into the lives of 1.5 million Americans that are living solely on food stamps. They describe the common occurrence of families living in poverty residing with family and sometimes, succumbing to abusive environments. Aside from the fear of not having shelter, families living in poverty are worrisome of maintaining a job. Edin and Shaefer discuss how work schedules for single mothers are difficult to manage because of their children’s needs. All of these obstacles affect a child that is attending school. They take on the pressures of living in poverty as their own and carry them throughout the day. In a review of a book by Matthew Desmond, Jason DeParle describes “the eviction industrial complex” and its impact on children. He explains how the instability associated with constantly moving causes students to become truant and discombobulates their lives. Finally, Resseger refers to a proposal by Sean F. Reardon, a professor at Stanford University, as a possible way to relieve concentrated poverty and narrow the achievement gap. She quotes Reardon who says that schools cannot change policy on their own, but the educational system as a whole must contribute to the change. This includes economic, residential and school integration on a country-wide level.

Reflection

I think this post is very relevant to this course. It touches on the need for social supports so that students can excel academically. The lack of stability in a child’s home can lead to disengagement, anger and other behavioral problems that can develop into their adult years. While employed at Anacostia High School, I noticed that a lot of the issues the students came to school with were not school related. They were either hungry, or homeless, or had a parent or sibling they were taking care of. The impact it had on most of these students was very unfortunate. They were truant and usually hostile and disengaged when they did attend school, and even then it was only to eat or have shelter for the day. I believe this is a very prominent issue in urban education and initiatives surrounding integration of schools and communities over time could be advantageous.

 

By: Nicole Thomas

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/everything-bigger-and-badder

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/questioning-questions

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/student-sorting

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/exposing-effects

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/03/10/evicted-kicked-out-in-america/

Oakland: Another Broad Superintendent Takes Charge of the District, Promising Transformation

Dianeravitch.net
March 5th, 2016
Diane Ravitch blogs about a new Broad-trained Superintendent in Oakland, California, who promises to transform the school district like other superintendents before. Eli Broad has invested in many school districts around the country such as Boston, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In each scenario, a Broad-trained Superintendent has failed to live up to expectations or quit the job. Diane is implying that hiring another Broad-trained superintendent will not work because all the other ones failed to make a difference. Public education in Oakland, California has had its share of problems that many corporate education reformers have sought to fix. Eli Broad thinks his schools are performing well across the United States, but Ravitch points out that these improvements in education that Broad sees are not right.
This post by Ravitch highlights how corporate education reform has not solved many of the issues of education that continue to plague inner cities. In many school districts across the United States, superintendents are recycled in and out of education as schools grasp with meeting expectations. Lofty goals established but promises broken. Diane Ravitch wants to know “when should we start seeing the differences that they have made?”
http://dianeravitch.net/2016/03/05/oakland-another-broad-superintendent-takes-charge-of-the-district-promising-transformation/
Another topic that Diane Ravitch blogged about was on a group of teachers in Los Angeles who are struggling to form a union despite backlash from the charter chain at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools. This example of public versus charter schools illustrates the influence of Eli Broad. Broad funds the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools too.
http://dianeravitch.net/2016/03/05/los-angeles-how-the-biggest-charter-chain-fights-unionization/
Ravitch also blogged about opting out of state tests earlier in the week that were interesting and may raise some eyebrows. A Florida Superintendent delivered a strong message to school districts requiring all students in public schools to take state exams. None of the pupils in the public school districts can opt out of the state exams. Things can get fascinating in Florida.
http://dianeravitch.net/2016/03/03/florida-superintendent-to-schools-opt-out-is-not-permitted/

Tremayne Wooten

EducationNext

This week, the EducationNext blog contained posts concerning a wide range of topics including voucher programs, charter schools, the Common Core, reading gains, racism, and funding in technology. The post on reading gains titled “How to Fix Reading in the Era of ESSA.” may interest those studying scripted and narrowed curriculum including early childhood.  The post discusses the increase in reading gains over the past twenty years.  The blogger also discusses the spike and drop in scores due to a focus on boosting test scores.  Under ESSA, however, districts will now get a chance to emphasize on issues such as vocabulary and knowledge comprehension, which will produce longer lasting effects than the currently implemented strategies to help increase scores.

With a focus on technology and funding, I found the post titled “Blended Learning from the Top Down or the Ground Up?” very interesting.  The blogger discusses the growing number of schools receiving millions of dollars in grant money for technology investments in the classroom.  She stresses the point that no matter how much money is invested in hardware, a properly implemented blended learning model is needed in order to be effective.  A directory of profiles of schools that have already started implementing blended learning models, termed Blended Learning Universe (BLU), has been launched in order to help other schools hoping to effectively go blended.  Classrooms are becoming increasingly digital and it is necessary for classroom instruction to follow suit.

http://educationnext.org/how-to-fix-reading-in-the-era-of-essa/

http://educationnext.org/blending-learning-from-the-top-down-or-the-ground-up/

How school suspensions could engender racial disparities in academic achievement

This week, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute featured blogs on the following topics: next-generation tests, teacher demographics and student suspension rates, and the Louisiana voucher system. Each post relates to the current racial disparities that exist in education. This week’s blog review discusses the March 2 post titled “How school suspensions could engender racial disparities in academic achievement” by Andrew Scanlan. The University of Kentucky and Indiana University conducted a joint study on exclusionary school discipline practices, and its effects on racial differences in reading and math achievements. They sampled 16,248 students from grades 6-10 in 17 different public schools. Students’ demographics were representative of the southeastern region of the United States. The researchers collected data over a three-year span from August 2008 to June 2011. Some factors controlled for in the data were school size, free and reduced lunch percentages, race, and socioeconomic status.

The researchers found Black students are six times more likely to be suspended than white students. Schools with a higher percentage of Black students had a higher percentage of out-of-school suspensions. Furthermore, students with high suspension rates scored 15 percent lower in literacy and 16 percent lower in math. The research also showed that exclusionary practices have a direct relation to the racial achievement gap. Overall, the researchers questioned whether it is the punishment of the disciplinary practices, or the lack of instructional time, that contributes to the research findings.

Erica Baker

Has Teacher Evaluation Ruined Everything? Studies Say: No

This week I chose to read and analyze a TNTP blog post titled “Has Teacher Evaluation Ruined Everything? Studies Say No” by, Andy Jacob. Jacob, claims that more rigorous teacher evaluation created little to no buy-in from parents and teachers. However, data has shown that making teacher evaluations more rigorous has made an impact on students growth and increased the effectiveness of educators. School districts in Washington D.C., Cincinnati, and Chicago have all showed major improvements. Along with the three school districts discussed, five states also have shown progress with implementing new ad improved rigorous evaluation systems.

These evaluation systems focus on multiple measures to show how effective a teacher is aside a classroom observation. These evaluation systems focus on not only standardized test scores but student achievement and teacher pedagogy. In most school districts, teacher evaluation only focuses on the classroom observation. Evaluation systems that incorporated test scores created a fear in teachers being fired for student performance. However, there is no school system that only focuses on student performance for an only measure of teacher evaluations. Teachers being fired for performance is rare. The state of New York has only fired one teacher based off their performance. The post does not state that teacher evaluations are perfect, nonetheless, the evaluations are helping to make progress in student growth.

Interesting Reads from current post:

The posts below address the opinions of people who do and do not support teacher evaluations. Both opposing views make it hard to find a supporting side. These were interesting reads from my teacher perspective.

• ‘Met’ Made Simple
• John Thompson: The Utter Failure of Standardized Teacher Evaluation

-Aaron

The New SAT

Have the negative reports on standardized testing caused college admission recruiters to disregard SAT scores as a means of deciding a students’college readiness level? 

This week the Hechinger Report examined a closer look on how College Board tries to reclaim their credibility by revising the SAT test. Within the recent year College Board announced a new version of the SAT would be administered for the first time March (this past weekend the first test was administered).  From the reports, it seems that one of the top reasons for revising the assessment is associated with the increasing numbers of colleges that are not considering the scores to determine student readiness.  One reported benefit of colleges not using SAT scores to determine a student readiness, is that there has been rise in students of color applying to top tiered schools such as Brandeis. Some of the most top colleges such as Brandeis are interested in student’s GPA’s and writing skills as a means in determining their level of readiness for admittance. Another reason for the change is for the test to align with common core standards. Which I think is pointless since many states are being to opt out in using common core.

 

Unlike the old test, the new SAT focuses less on knowledge of vocabulary words. According to the Hechinger Report bloggers, Carapezza and Emmanouilidou, the focus is based upon comprehension and staying relevant with Common Core Standards. I think these adjustments may have benefits for students who come from impoverished backgrounds who may not have a strong background in knowing an extensive list of vocabulary words. Other sources support that the new version of the SAT is not the only change College Board is addressing.  College Board appears to be making aims in increasing opportunities for minority and impoverished students to have a fair opportunity in taking the test.  One adjustment is that students are able to receive waivers from community organizations instead of just guidance counselors, which allows students to take the SAT test for free and apply to four colleges for free as well.

Along with the changes, some states such as New York and Washington, D.C. are going to implement a SAT test-taking day instead of students going to a testing facility on the weekends in efforts to increase test-taking attendance. In order to increase scores, College Board decided to partner with a popular school resource, Khan Academy, to offer free SAT practice material for students. After learning about the new changes, I have indifferent feelings because I was admitted into this program without having test scores being the bases if I was ready for grad school.  Although the revisions are said to make the testing pool to be fair for all students, I think there could still be potential flaws in determining a students full potential.  I believe the test scores could be used as extra points to admit a student versus being the sole determining factor in not admitting a student.

 

 
The following resources were used in writing this blog post:

Why the new SAT is not the answer

Why the new SAT is not the answer

The new SAT lands, just as more colleges go test-optional

The new SAT lands, just as more colleges go test-optional

The following source is directly from the College Board website that provides a comparison of the new and old tests
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/inside-the-test/compare-old-new-specifications

C. Crowder

Shanker Blog: Student Attrition And “Backfilling” at Success Academy Charter Schools: What Student Enrollment Patterns Tell Us

This week on the blog for the National Education Policy Center, the following topics were covered:

• Scaling up and school reform was discussed by Larry Cuban. He discusses the evolution of different educational reform strategies such as No Child Left Behind, the integration of technology in the classroom and the decentralization of school authority in an attempt to satisfy the need for reform. Cuban says that although these attempts are necessary, they are short-lived and eventually are overshadowed by a seemingly more necessary reform strategy.
• Larry Ferlazzo discussed standardized tests and their effects on teacher performance. He challenges the pressures placed on teachers by expressing how limited they are in their instruction when they are forced to deal with a narrowed curriculum.

The blog topic I chose to focus on deals with student education patterns. The term that is used in the post is “back-filling” which means to refill. Leo Casey, author of the blog post explains how data derived from Success Academy Charter Schools in New York proves that the school does not back-fill its open positions. When a student leaves the school, a position opens up for another student to occupy that space. Yet, Casey explains that this happens less and less as the grades get higher. He proposes that this has to do with the school wanting to maintain a successful standardized test score average. Casey explains the correlation between the schools refusal to back-fill its open seats and the population of students that is most successful. He claims that the students that drop out most are those that come from low-income communities, so in turn the school has a predominately affluent population of students.

Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of the Success Academy Charter School chain, states that student drop out rates within her charter schools and lower than those of public schools. Although this is comendable, Casey explains that is does not negate the fact that student vacancies are not being filled at the same rate as attrition. And, although standardized test scores within charter schools such as Success Academy are better than surrounding public schools, it is questionable whether or not they manipulate their student populations.

In my opinion, this article is not surprising. The educational system seems to be shaped in a way where manipulation of the system in inevitable. I was very interested to read this post because I was unfamiliar with the term “back-fill” and it seems like it is similar to other terms used to create or add to the achievement gap. If a school is worried about maintaining its test score average, I can understand why they are weary of filling open positions, especially within the higher grade levels where the averages are measured. Although I understand the technique, I wonder if it is a practice that is also used within public schools? Or, because charter schools have more freedom to govern their own schools, is this something that would not be acceptable in a public school?

 

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/reflecting-school-reforms

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/another-study-shows-limitations

http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/student-attrition

By: Nicole Thomas

Helping Students Confront Obstacles Beyond The Classroom

The TNTP blog addresses education reform, parental support in literacy, and supporting student obstacles. These are a few concerns that the field of education face daily in different parts of the nation.

This week the TNTP Blog post I chose was Helping Students Confront Obstacles Beyond The Classroom, focuses on providing social and mental support for students beyond promotion from middle school. A high performing public charter school located in Massachusetts understands that education goes beyond the academic curriculum. This school informs their incoming 5th grade class of their college graduation year, however, they understand that the given year may not be for every student based off of obstacles students face after graduating from middle school. The school created a Graduate Services Department, whose goal is to meet the needs of students that cannot be helped by the graduates high schools because of the lack of resources or knowledge of supporting students from low-income backgrounds. It is rare that schools track their students progress post graduation. Students matriculate to their new school environment and meet new staff, friends, and problems. Students have to adapt to trusting new staff and building new relationships with others.Also, the teachers must get acclimated to the students and the problems they are facing. The schools had shown progress for those students who received the extra support from the GSD program.

 

Must Read:

Parent To parent: How are our kids learning

 

Aaron Cardwell