One can see that this is for "discussion" purposes, but the nativist rhetoric is deafening. I am third-generation, U.S. born Mexican American and I am very offended by this. The newspaper, El Editor, wants discussion. I hope that this press is hearing about the stories and lives of those who come to this country out of sheer desperation, frequently escaping environmental and economic conditions that no one should suffer--a condition that Mr. Fobbs cannot begin to fathom. I hope the readership comes across The New American Pioneers: Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants? by Juan Hernandez instead of the hostile and inflammatory language that this opinion represents. -Angela
El Editor
Posted on 08-13-2006

America's News Alamo -- We Must Not Lose Again

This commentary is being posted for discussion purposes.

Kevin Fobbs
kevin@kevinfobbs.com
Sierra Times


Almost two centuries ago, a small band of national patriots joined Texans to launch a battle for freedom and sent a unifying rallying cry through out our nation “Remember The Alamo!”
Our nation is being threatened by a new Alamo, and the army is between 12 million and 20 million strong. The army is one that is creeping, walking, swimming and being driven in shadowy caravans across our nation’s state borders. Instead of being armed with weapons of violence, this army is simply overwhelming American health care, education, and justice systems by refusing to enter our country legally, but the damage being inflicted is real just the same.

Texas and other southern state border residents have been feeling the impact of this invasion for decades on their health care systems. For example, Parkland Memorial Hospital – the same historic Dallas, Texas hospital where doctors worked feverishly to save President John F. Kennedy’s life in 1963 is in the midst of a multi-million dollar budgetary meltdown. Hospital officials estimate that approximately 11,500 anchor babies being born to poor and uninsured illegal aliens coming through its doors are threatening it with millions of dollars of non-reimbursable costs and could well place it on budgetary life support due to ongoing escalating taxpayer subsidized care.

How would you feel, as a dad or mom as you rush your daughter or son to emergency care at Parkland -- or any neighborhood hospital -- expecting to receive quick professional health care for your toddler or young one, to be faced upon arrival with a hospital emergency room wait for hours only to learn eventually that your young one cannot be treated and must go elsewhere because there are literally dozens of illegals ahead of you? You’re just plain out of luck because people who are not even here legally have first precedence? Or worse yet, if you are in your car racing an expectant mother to the hospital only to find out that there’s no room at the inn and you better look elsewhere, because there are almost 11,000 illegal anchor babies and their illegal mommies ahead of you. How would you feel then?

This sounds tragically sad. Yet it can and does get sadder.

Last year, Dr. Madeleine Pelner Cosman authored a very critically acclaimed report in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that exposed the dramatic costs and impact of illegal aliens on our American health care system. Her results were stunning. Cosman found that 84 hospitals were shutting their doors directly due to the exponential increase in illegal aliens giving births to anchor babies. Some try to shrug off the notion the families are illegal, saying that they are cheap labor who work to keep our produce prices down.

“There are uncalculated costs involved in the importation of such labor –- public support and uninsured medical costs -- by spreading previously vanquished diseases and threatening to destroy America’s prized health-care system,” noted Dr. Cosman, who died earlier this year.

Cosman also pointed out some very disturbing facts, “many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and Chagas disease."

Is America and its healthcare system willing to be destroyed slowly from within, only to succumb to another type of Alamo -- a battle that is entirely preventable? The answer has to be yes. The consequences are too dire to consider otherwise. But there is another preventable notch in the Alamo belt and it directly impacts our children’s education; it necessitates a parental call to arms.

This new call to arms should be blaring loudly in PTA meetings dotting the landscape of our nation. From elementary schools, middle schools and high school meeting rooms across America, parents are tackling their children’s educational program budget cuts and after-school events being slashed or shut down, while much-needed tax dollars are being spent on illegal alien children because of an ill-conceived 1982 U.S. Supreme Court Case called. Plyer v. Doe.

The Plyer v. Doe decision created a U.S. Constitutional Equal Protection right for illegal aliens that is not found in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. By fabricating a right for illegal aliens, it snatched away a right of our own children’s equal protection. After 24 years with illegal aliens and their children crushing our state and local education budgets, we must correct this misdirected and misapplied constitutional decision by the U.S. Supreme Court by going to the heart of the Plyer v. Doe decision. And America will do it.

The economic impact of this decision is staggering. It is annually costing American kids and their families billions! According to the Federation for Immigration Reform, “The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states nearly $12 billion annually, and when the children born here to illegal aliens are added, the costs more than double to $28.6 billion.”

For example, children of illegal immigrants in California, who represent nearly 15% of the kindergarten through 12th grade public school students, are costing PTA parents and other taxpayers $2.2 billion annually to educate illegal immigrant students in those grades. That’s enough to pay the salaries of 41,764 teachers, or 14% of California's teachers!

Our America is being taken apart, state-by-state, city-by-city, school-by-school, hospital-by-hospital and job-by-job. Meanwhile, we willingly extend an olive branch because we have been convinced, tricked, hoodwinked, or guilt-tripped into believing that as a nation of immigrants we are supposed to open our outstretched arms to all, including those millions who willingly break our legal immigration laws.

That is not the American Way, nor is it the American Dream that our children should be forced to accept. True, we are a nation built upon legal immigrants who are proud to have sacrificed much, fought against all odds in many ways and abided by the rules so the nectar of the American Dream would be that much sweeter, that much more meaningful and that much more satisfying because the legal immigrant followed the rules and proudly swore allegiance to his or her new nation.

Instead, that noble concept of the American Dream has been hijacked in plain view and in sight of every American who takes the time to look up and see we are being told our laws, which protect our citizens and legal immigrants alike, should be stretched and compromised to fit the illegal alien who boldly crosses the border and brings along his pregnant wife and children.

This twisted notion is to apply for everything with a double standard because the illegal alien from Mexico knows that he will be fed, clothed, educated, employed -- and even defended -- because our nation of laws and rules don’t apply to him and his fellow illegals. The exception, of course, is if the immigrant has the individual or collective misfortune to been found at our borders originating illegally from countries like Haiti, China, Africa, India, Italy, or any other nation.

But this protected class of illegals -- otherwise known as criminals -- gladly expects our nation to use its city budgets to take money away from our kids’ classrooms, take housing dollars away from our own poor or our own hard-working single-parent households, who live from paycheck to paycheck and who also have a dream -- yes, a legitimate American Dream, backed by the Constitution and guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, that if their American-born or legally naturalized son or daughter studies hard enough, works hard enough and keeps his or her grades high, he may have the opportunity to go to college or to a trade school, or own and build a small business.

But, not so fast…there’s more!

The U.S. Senate “Dream Act” which is advocated by the National Parents Teachers Association (PTA) and by the Act’s chief proponent, National La Raza (The Race), believe your child may have to give up his or her getting into the college of choice so the illegal alien student can go to the head of the class and get the benefits that he and his parents feel he deserves: scholarships, tuition credits, preferences, etc. because, after all, he kept his nose clean and didn’t get into trouble; i.e. he and his parents were able artfully to dodge the INS while here illegally. I ask you, should that accomplishment be rewarded while legal American children struggle on the sidelines, again being put out of line?

So, what are we left with?

Tax payers throughout America who are being asked to support illegal alien children who, along with their parents, were able to dodge the INS and enroll in American public schools. Local school officials are forced to deal with a large population of children who do not speak english, nor do they possess legal documentation required of American-born or legally naturalized citizens; and local doctors and nurses are required to treat illegal aliens, but cannot not tell INS that they were treating these illegals. They are all being told, that ethically or morally, one set of rules apply for our American kids and their parents and another set of fabricated morality rules apply for families and kids who, after all, are really invisible because they really aren’t here, according to the school officials who can’t report them and the doctors, nurses, social workers and all the other “officials” who they come across in their daily and weekly coming and going.

Where is the equal protection for the parents and the families of Americans? Where is our American “Dream Act” if it is not found in our U.S. Constitution?

There is a solution to this nightmarish attack upon our nation, and it is born out of Section One of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” It must be fully addressed now.

The 1982 U.S. Supreme Court Plyer v. Doe decision is a companion piece to this crisis and must also be readdressed and overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The outcome would result in that the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution will again truly apply to its citizens and will allow for the renewed preservation of America’s educational integrity. The new result in Plyer v. Doe would erase the Burger Court surrender of the U.S. Constitution to political correctness at the Constitution’s expense.

Former president Teddy Roosevelt is a favorite of many Americans, and he put it so succinctly almost 100 years ago, at the height of the mass European immigration. He said very poignantly “In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else.”

Coming to America in “good faith” is key to President Roosevelt’s remarks, because to do less -- by coming under anything less than legal means -- is to disrespect our nation and its good charitable will.

Roosevelt went on to say, “Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.”

The illegal alien, who comes across our borders under a cloud of shadows, owes his or her allegiance to his country of origin and therefore America must draw the line in the sand between the notion that our citizenship, our borders, and our nation’s national language -- as well as our sovereignty -- is not up for barter, nor compromise, nor open to shadows.

So, let’s send a unifying rallying cry through out our nation: “Remember The Alamo!” We must not lose again, because our future depends upon it.

_________

Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac). View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info .

Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist to the Detroit News. He is also the host of The Kevin Fobbs Show -- see www.kevinfobbs.com . Write him at kevin@kevinfobbs.com.

http://eleditor.com/news.php?nid=495

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 5:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This is a good piece that compares the 3 gubernatorial candidates' views on high-stakes testing. What's interesting politically is that there appears to be no constituency FOR high-stakes testing. That is, it's not a political part issue, but rather cuts through them. -Angela

2006 ELECTIONS: PUBLIC EDUCATION
Perry challengers say TAKS isn't the answer

Governor's focus on testing poses a threat to learning, rivals say.

By Jason Embry
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, August 31, 2006

Here's a poll in the governor's race you can take to the bank: 80 percent of the candidates disapprove of the way Texas is using standardized tests.

Some of the details about what they would do instead are fuzzy, but Gov. Rick Perry's four challengers say the state needs to scale back its emphasis on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. They say the statewide test restricts teachers and puts undue pressure on students.

Candidates for governor also are talking about teacher pay, dropouts prevention and school vouchers. But their testing platforms would go furthest to shake up the state's $35 billion-per-year public education system.

"At some point, we're going to have to move away from the overall punitive nature of what we're doing in public schools," Democratic nominee Chris Bell said.

If voters go along, they'll change course on an issue that helped propel the previous governor to the White House six years ago.

"We live in a competitive world, and we are preparing our children for that competitive world with the testing program," Perry said. "We are teaching a curriculum, then we are testing that curriculum so we can measure their performance. That is the way the real world works."

The Legislature, pushed by then-Gov. George W. Bush, said in 1999 that students in certain grades would have to pass some sections of the state test to move on to the next grade. Bush billed it as a way to cut down on "social promotion," or the practice of moving students to the next grade regardless of whether they're prepared.

Students take the test in grades three through 11, and the state uses the scores to rank schools from exemplary to academically unacceptable.

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, running for governor as an independent, said she wants to move the test from the spring to the fall so teachers use it to see students' strengths and needs and teach them accordingly. She said she wants schools held accountable for their academic and financial performance, but did not spell out how she would do so.

"Nobody knows better than educators, teachers and parents, and I want them all involved in the schools and any so-called rankings of the schools," Strayhorn said.

Bell said he wants to "step away from" using the test for promotion decisions, teacher pay and school ratings, saying that schools could use other factors.

Independent candidate Kinky Friedman wants to do away with the test, although that would put the state at risk of losing millions of dollars in federal education funding because the federal government requires some form of state testing.

"It's not hard to get rid of the test," Friedman said. "You do it with a bully pulpit. You do it the same way JFK put a man on the moon."

Libertarian candidate James Werner called the test a poor substitute for real learning. He wants to drastically reduce the state's role in education, instead giving parents vouchers to use at the private or public schools of their choice.

Perry said the test is one example of the state setting high standards. He also pointed to a requirement implemented by the Legislature earlier this year that high school students take four years of math and science classes to graduate.

State leaders celebrated national test results last year that showed Texas students in each ethnic group scoring above the national average for similar students on a national math and reading test.

"Every time we've raised the bar, the schoolchildren in the State of Texas, with the help of those teachers and administrators, have cleared that hurdle by and large," Perry said.

He said the state has raised teacher pay, offered extra programs for teachers who get extra training in math, reading and science and created a vast performance-pay plan to reward teachers.

Perry declined to elaborate on his education agenda for the next four years, saying he would do so later.

"Let's just let it go in saying that we will continue to have public education, K through 16, at the forefront of the efforts that we make legislatively," he said.

Texas spent $6,217 per student on education in 2000 — the year that Perry took office — and $7,229 in 2005, according to Moak, Casey and Associates, a consulting firm that advises school districts.

But when adjusted for inflation, those numbers represent a real-dollar decline of $235 per student, according to the consultants' analysis.

That analysis did not include the roughly $2 billion increase in education spending the Legislature approved this year when it was ordered to change the school finance system by the Texas Supreme Court.

The court said the state's school finance system relied too heavily on local property taxes, and lawmakers responded by reducing property taxes and replacing that money with other tax increases, including an expanded business tax.

A National Education Association study last year said Texas trailed the national average in teacher pay of $47,697 by more than $6,000 per teacher. Since then, Perry has signed a $2,000 across-the-board raise for teachers.

•Friedman's plan: Friedman said he wants Texas to pass that national mark, and he'd raise money to do so by pushing for casino gambling where local voters approve.

He also said he wants to create a program that sends nonteachers into schools to talk about careers, art, shop and life experiences, and he thinks corporate sponsors should pay for school sports stadiums and school athletic directors.

He supports the Ten Commandments in schools and said schools should have prayer in the spirit of "may the God of your choice bless you."

He also would like to see a new education commissioner.

"I tell you who would be a good one is Carole Keeton Strayhorn," Friedman said, praising his foe's toughness and zeal.

•Strayhorn's plan: Strayhorn wants an across-the-board pay raise of $4,000 for teachers with an automatic increase every two years. She also said she wants to bring back a $1,000 health care stipend for teachers that the Legislature cut in half, then rolled into teachers' salaries.

And she says the state should pick up the cost of tuition, fees and books for two years at a community college or public technical college for anyone with a high school diploma.

"This state and the Austin political establishment have failed our children and failed our teachers," she said.

She says she can pay for her plans with $7.7 billion in savings and money-raising ideas that she laid out in April. But those ideas are rife with questions. For one, they include a cigarette-tax increase that the Legislature has since passed to pay for property-tax cuts, plus a broadening of a business tax that the Legislature has since replaced. Her plan also calls on the next comptroller to find $3 billion in government savings.

•Bell's plan: Bell also said he supports a $4,000 raise for teachers. He wants to expand access to pre-kindergarten programs in public schools, and he thinks talking about birth control as part of sex-education classes can decrease teen pregnancies and curtail dropouts. He pledged to name a bipartisan panel of educators and business leaders to study school improvement.

To pay for his ideas, Bell said he'd look to a higher or expanded business tax, or casino gambling where voters have approved it, ideas that could be a tough sell in the Legislature.

•Voucher program: Perry supports a pilot program to allow students in low-performing, low-income schools attend private schools with public money. Friedman and Bell oppose such programs, known as school vouchers. Strayhorn indicated in earlier races that she could support vouchers but now says they're off the table.

Werner said the state should give the parents of every child a voucher equal to the amount of per-student spending in the state. He said state control would ease over time.

"Schools that meet people's expectations will thrive, and those that don't will fade away," Werner said.

jembry@statesman.com; 445-3654

Politics updates available at statesman.com/postcards.

Perry's record

Gov. Rick Perry touts several laws passed by the Legislature during his tenure as educational improvements:

•Third-graders must pass the reading section.

•Fifth-graders must pass reading and math.

•Starting in fall 2007, eighth-graders must pass reading and math.

•Students must pass the 11th-grade test to graduate from high school.

•Public and private funding to improve high schools and create math and science academies

•Up to $400 for teachers to help pay for classroom supplies

•New barriers to lawsuits against teachers

•Pay raises. Perry's office says teachers who were in the field in 1999 and stayed teachers until 2005 saw their salaries increase $11,500 on average. That does not include $2,000 pay raise approved by Legislature earlier this year.

•Performance-pay programs aimed at teachers who work in low-income schools that show improvement, take on extra duties or take hard-to-fill jobs

Testing requirements

Students in some grades must pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills to move onto the next grade. They get three chances, and if they fail all three, a parent, teacher and administrator can vote to promote them anyway.


http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/31/31govschools.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:57 PM 1 comments Links to this post

Perfect for everyone? -Angela

August 31, 2006 - 12:27 p.m. CDT
Spellings Says No Child Law Near Perfect

By BEN FELLER
AP Education Writer
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday the No Child Left Behind Act is close to perfect and needs little change as its first major update draws near.

"I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory soap: It's 99.9 percent pure or something," Spellings told reporters. "There's not much needed in the way of change."

Spellings' comments signal what amounts to the Bush administration's starting position as the law comes up for renewal. That is scheduled to happen as soon as next year.

It is unsurprising that Spellings strongly supports the law. She helped craft it as President Bush's domestic policy chief and now enforces it as the top education official.

Yet her view that the law needs little change is notable because it differs so sharply from others with a stake, including many teachers, school administrators and lawmakers.

Already, the House education committee is holding hearings on how to improve the law. So is a prominent bipartisan commission, which is touring the nation to gather opinions.

More than 80 organizations have signed a statement urging fundamental changes, in areas such as how student progress is measured and how schools are penalized when they fall short. And the National Conference of State Legislatures has given the law a scathing rebuke.

"You cannot ignore reality," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country.

"The reality is that poll after poll speaks to the concerns that people have," Weaver said. "They are not arguing with the goals. They are not arguing with accountability. But they say something needs to be done to fix this law."

Signed by Bush in 2002, the law is widely considered the most significant federal education act since Congress approved its original version in 1965.

It aims to ensure that all children can read and do math at grade level by 2014, an aspiration that has placed unprecedented demands on schools. The law requires states to increase testing, raise teacher quality and give more attention to minority children.

Poor schools that get federal aid but don't make enough progress face consequences.

Spellings has made her mark as secretary by enforcing the law with flexibility.

In areas such as tutoring and testing, she has approved experiments to see what may work better — an approach that has won her praise.

"I think it would be foolhardy for me to sit up here and just say we're not going to react to anything that we're learning over time," she said in an interview with reporters at the Education Department.

Spellings said her job is to present Congress with good data to help lawmakers do their job. She said she is open-minded about ways to improve the law.

But when asked if she meant the law is truly "99.9 percent" close to working properly, she said, "I think it is that close."

She pointed as much to attitudes as test scores.

Now, she said, states and schools are debating how better to help children with limited English skills and students with disabilities.

"Just the level of sophistication of the conversation around these issues is, to me, the big news out of No Child Left Behind," she said.
Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared-gen/ap/US_Presidential_Cabinet/No_Child_Law.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:53 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Published: August 30, 2006
U.S. Test Developers Cashing In on Markets Abroad
Some regions of the world have no expertise in the assessment area.
By Mary Ann Zehr
A heightened global interest in education standards and accountability is helping U.S.-based testing organizations expand overseas in both K-12 and higher education.

At the primary and secondary levels, international-development groups that underwrite education projects are pushing countries to establish academic standards, and the assessments to go with them. Increased globalization is also encouraging countries to pay closer attention to student performance as a measure of their countries’ economic competitiveness. In both cases, such countries are turning to U.S. expertise in student assessment.

Meanwhile, the increased sale and export of U.S. college-admissions tests is due to more movement of students across regions to attend school—and the goal of universities and students to legitimize their academic records with standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT, experts say.

Officials from American testing organizations decline to give dollar figures for the amount of their business overseas, but acknowledge that their international business is growing.

“We are moving in a much more concerted and deliberate way to create organizations to work with other organizations around the world,” said Richard L. Ferguson, the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of ACT Inc., the nonprofit publisher of the ACT admissions test.

Precollegiate Focus
Much of the impetus for paying more attention to standards and assessments is coming from such major agencies as the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.

Partly because of the encouragement of international funders, for instance, Egypt is moving away from giving one high-stakes examination at the end of secondary school and toward assessing learning several times before the end of high school, according to Frank Method, the senior adviser for the education and systems group of RTI International, a nonprofit international-development firm based in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The push for more student assessment “certainly is coming from the funding agencies, who are beginning to put outcome measures in their program-management and -monitoring criteria,” said Mr. Method, who was the director of education for the USAID in the mid-1990s.

The Educational Testing Service, based in Princeton, N.J., has been particularly active in working with foreign governments to devise K-12 tests.

In 2003, the nonprofit organization, best known for producing and administering the SAT admissions exam for the College Board, signed a five-year, $25 million contract with the Middle Eastern country of Qatar to develop assessments for Arabic and for English as a second language for about 85,000 students in grades 1-12.

CTB-McGraw-Hill, a commercial testing company in Monterey, Calif., has a contract with Qatar for crafting tests in mathematics and science.

The tests in all four subjects were given for the first time in all grades in 2005, according to J. Enrique Froemel, the director of the office of student assessment for the Evaluation Institute of the Supreme Education Council in Qatar.

“There are no testing companies whatsoever in Qatar or the whole Arabic Gulf region, neither in the Arab world, and consequently ETS and CTB provided needed and nonexistent expertise,” Mr. Froemel wrote in an e-mail to Education Week, explaining why Qatar hired U.S.-based test developers. He said the assessments are part of a standards-based reform of the country’s school system.

The reform initiative was started in an effort to move away from rote learning and to help Qatari students become more competitive in the global arena, Mr. Froemel added.

In other countries as well, increased globalization has prompted closer examination of how education relates to economic competitiveness, according to Alan R. Ruby, a senior fellow for international education at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

As a result, some countries are becoming more concerned about their students’ performance on international achievement tests, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, and the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, he said.

“As governments look at their results on those kinds of tests, some say, ‘We’re not doing so well. We need to do better. We need better testing materials to see how our students are doing,’ ” Mr. Ruby added.

College Admissions
Meanwhile, the export of U.S.-made college-admissions tests is also growing as student mobility across regions increases, and as universities and students seek the academic legitimacy they believe such exams confer.

In the past two years, the Iowa City, Iowa-based ACT Inc. has created two for-profit corporations—ACT Education Solutions Limited, with headquarters in Sydney, Australia, and ACT Business Solutions BV, in Madrid, Spain—to promote its products and expertise abroad.

ACT Education Solutions is working with 55 schools in 13 countries to deliver a course called the Global Assessment Certificate Program, which prepares young people in non-English-speaking countries to attend college in countries where English is the dominant language. The course culminates with the students taking the ACT.

Other testing organizations or companies that have had subsidiaries or branches operating abroad for decades are also expanding their reach.

The ETS, for example, has subsidiaries in Canada and the Netherlands. ETS Global BV, which is based in Amsterdam, has for a long time also had offices in Berlin and Paris. Last year, it opened offices in London, Warsaw, and Amman, Jordan. This year it opened offices in Beijing, Madrid, Seoul, Singapore, and Hyderabad, India. All market a new test called the Test of English for International Communication; some are involved in the development of large-scale assessments.

International Orders
More than 40 years ago, the New York City-based College Board began selling a college-admissions test in Spanish that was similar to the English-only SAT.

“We developed the test because colleges in Puerto Rico needed an instrument to systematize the admissions process,” said Janning Estrada, who directs the work of the College Board in Latin America out of an office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. “Each university had its own test at that time, similar to what happened in the U.S. when the College Board began.”

Spanish Version
More than 40 years ago, the College Board started selling a college-admissions test in Spanish that was similar to the English-only SAT. While the test was initially devised for students in Puerto Rico, it is now used by universities in a number of Latin American countries.

• Bolivia
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Mexico
• Panama
• Uruguay

SOURCE: College Board
Today, Ms. Estrada works with universities all over Latin America that purchase and implement the Spanish-language admissions test each year.

The largest client for the test, Prueba de Aptitud Académica,is the University of Guadalajara, a public university in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, which administers it to more than 50,000 students each year.

Ms. Estrada said the test in Spanish has helped many institutions make their admissions process more fair. “Probably the most important contribution of this office,” she said, “is to make conscious that [universities] need something more structured to tell the student that you are admitted or not than only the perception that you are the son or daughter of X.”

The College Board also does a brisk business in selling the English version of the SAT abroad.

Canada buys the most English-language SAT exams, followed by Singapore, Egypt, and Lebanon, according to Brian O’Reilly, a College Board spokesman. “Lebanon is a small country and shouldn’t have more SAT-takers than in France or England, but it does,” he said. “That’s primarily because the colleges within Lebanon have an SAT requirement.”

The American University of Beirut, for example, has required the SAT in its admissions process since the early 1990s. The university has found that the combination of student grades and the SAT is the best predictor of how students will perform in college, said Salim Kanaan, the university’s director of admissions, who was interviewed before the recent conflict between the Lebanon-based Muslim group Hezbollah and Israel.

“The Lebanese baccalaureate tells us what the students know—what the schools are giving in terms of information,” Mr. Kanaan explained. The SAT helps, he said, because “we need more on the reasoning part of the students, how he thinks—this is where aptitude comes in.”

Mr. Kanaan added, though, that university officials put more stock in the math-reasoning part of the SAT than the verbal-reasoning section, particularly because of concerns over cultural bias on the verbal section, such as the use of unfamiliar English idioms.

Vol. 26, Issue 01, Page 10

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/08/30/01test.h26.html?levelId=1000

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:58 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Mason exempts top applicants from SAT

By Matthew Barakat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 24, 2006


George Mason University is becoming one of the nation's first four-year public universities to drop the SAT and other standardized tests from its admissions requirements for certain students.
High school seniors with at least a 3.5 grade-point average (GPA) and who are in the top 20 percent of their class can opt against submitting an SAT or ACT score in their application to George Mason beginning this year, dean of admissions Andrew Flagel said.
After three years of study, George Mason concluded that SAT scores are a poor indicator of collegiate success for high-achieving high school students. Applicants who don't have at least a 3.5 GPA will be required to submit a test score.
Dozens of private schools have stopped requiring applicants to take the SAT or ACT because of concerns that the test is not an accurate gauge of an applicant's potential for success.
Mason's stance is unique among public schools. It is the first public school in Virginia to drop the standardized test requirement for some of its applicants.
Several public universities across the nation, including the University of Texas, will guarantee admission to students who achieve a certain GPA or class rank in high school, negating the requirement to submit an SAT or ACT.
GMU's policy is different: It is not guaranteeing admission to anyone.
Applicants who do not submit an SAT or ACT score will be evaluated by the admissions committee. Those who do not submit test scores are required to submit two additional letters of recommendation.
Students interested in participating in intercollegiate athletics also must submit test scores, which are used by the NCAA to help determine eligibility.
Mr. Flagel said he is not aware of any other schools that have crafted a policy identical to Mason's.
The change sends the message to prospective students that the most important item on their transcript is grades and that fretting over the SAT is unnecessary, Mr. Flagel said.
At the same time, it ensures that admissions counselors at GMU won't place undue emphasis on bad test score for otherwise worthy applicants.
Mr. Flagel acknowledged that even though admissions counselors know intellectually that an SAT score is just one part of an applicant's profile, "it can be exceptionally hard for the committee to ignore" a low score on a transcript.
The SAT has come under fire in recent years by those who feel it is overemphasized and is biased against minorities.
Robert Schaeffer, public education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which opposes use of standardized tests in the admissions process, said that Mason is one of the first public schools to join the trend of private schools dropping the SAT.
Mr. Schaeffer's organization lists hundreds of schools that do not require the SAT or ACT scores for admission, though a spot check of his list revealed numerous errors and includes many schools that do indeed require applicants to take the SAT or ACT.
Mason, which has one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation, found that the SAT was a weak predictor for all races when applied to students with high GPAs, and Mr. Flagel said that racial and minority issues had nothing to do with the school's decision.
Caren Scoropanos, a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT test, said that both GPAs and SAT scores can be good predictors of collegiate success, but evaluating both is the best way to gauge an applicant's prospects.


Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20060823-103732-7289r.htm

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:07 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Improving Achievement for English-Learners [EdWeek Commnetary]
Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:54:28 -0400
 
Author Claude Goldenberg writes that the growing number of and the lack of adequate progress among English-learners is of critical concern given that some estimates predict that by 2025, one in four public K-12 students will come from a home where a language other than English is spoken. Goldenberg is the executive director of the Center for Language Minority Education and Research at California State University-Long Beach, where he is also an associate dean of the college of education. He was a member of the National Literacy Panel.


 
Education Week
July 26, 2006,
Vol. 25, Issue 43, Pages 34-36
 Commentary
Improving Achievement for English-Learners: What the Research Tells Us
By Claude Goldenberg
 
http://edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/07/26/43goldenberg.h25.html
 
The education of language- minority children has long been controversial and politically charged. Its challenges will grow in proportion to the numbers. Five million public school students—nearly one in nine—are limited in their English proficiency, an increase of 150 percent over the last decade. In some sections of the country, the increase has been staggering: In Southeastern states, the population of English-language learners grew by more than 400 percent between 1993-94 and 2003-04. By 2025, some estimates claim, one in four public K-12students will come from a home where a language other than English is spoken. Many will be limited in their English proficiency when they begin school; some will remain less than completely fluent for years.
 
In part because many English-learners never fully master their new language, they fare poorly in school when compared with children who are English-speakers. English-language learners consistently perform worse on tests of academic achievement—not just English proficiency—and score lower on critical state and national exams. This discrepancy bodes ill for the society as a whole, since the costs of large-scale underachievement among large sectors of the populace are very high. The growing number of and the lack of adequate progress among English-learners—even many who were born in the United States or have lived here for years—should concern us all.
 
Two major, government-funded reviews of the research on English-language learners have recently been completed, one by the 13-member National Literacy Panel ("Education Department Won’t Put Its Stamp on English-Learners Report," Aug. 31, 2005), the other by researchers from the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence, or CREDE. Three of the main conclusions from these reports can help forge a foundation for large-scale improvement in the education of these students.
 
1. Instruction in the primary language aids achievement. Academic instruction in the students’ home language should be part of the educational program of English-language learners, if at all possible. The National Literacy Panel conducted a meta-analysis of experimental studies and concluded—as had four previous meta-analyses—that teaching reading skills in the first language is more effective in terms of second-language achievement than immersing children in English. No other educational practice with which I am familiar can claim support from five separate meta-analyses conducted by researchers across the ideological spectrum.
 
The effects of instruction in the primary language are modest but real. The average “effect size” is around 0.40 (estimates range from about 0.20 to about 0.60). This means that primary-language instruction can boost student achievement in the second language by about 12 to 15 percentile points. To provide some perspective, the separate, congressionally mandated National Reading Panel estimated that the average effect size of phonics instruction is 0.44, only somewhat larger than the most likely average effect size of primary-language instruction. Let’s be clear: Primary-language instruction is no panacea, just as phonics instruction is no panacea. But, in general, it makes a meaningful contribution to cognitive and academic growth.
 
Beyond this, however, there is little we can say with confidence about the role of the primary language in English-language learners’ education. Is more instruction in the primary language, and for more years, more beneficial than less? (The CREDE report concluded yes; the NLP report concluded that we do not know.) Is primary-language instruction more beneficial for some learners than for others? In an English-only situation, what is the most effective way to use the primary language to support children’s learning in the second language? We cannot say.
 
The NLP review found that Spanish and English reading can be taught simultaneously (at different times in the school day), with mutual benefit to literacy development in both languages. “Transfer” is the likely explanation for this finding, and for the more general finding that primary-language instruction promotes achievement in a second language. Most people find this contrary to common sense: How can instruction in one language lead to better achievement in another? But this is why we do research. If we relied solely on common sense, we would still think the earth is flat.
 
In point of fact, evidence suggests that literacy and other skills and knowledge transfer across languages: If you learn something in one language (which is easiest to do in the language you know best)—phonological or comprehension skills, for example, or a concept like democracy—you either know it or can more easily learn it in a second language. There is also the added benefit that primary-language instruction helps maintain the first language (which studies have resoundingly demonstrated is an outcome of bilingual education). Being biliterate and bicultural confers clear advantages intellectually and economically.
 
2. Good instruction for English-language learners is similar to good instruction for other, English-speaking students. Primary-language instruction is often not feasible for any of several reasons. But educators still have some important principles and findings on which to base practice. The best evidence we have suggests that English-language learners learn much the same way as their non-English-learning peers, and that good instruction for students in general tends to be good instruction for English-language learners in particular. Even when taught in English, a language they are simultaneously learning to speak and to understand, English-language learners do well with instruction that is similar in important respects to what is effective instruction for non-English-learners.
 
Policies that block use of the primary language and limit instructional accommodations for English-learners are simply not based on the best scientific evidence available.
 


Just as their English-speaking peers do, ELL students benefit from clear goals and objectives, well-designed instructional routines, active engagement and participation, informative feedback, opportunities to practice and apply new learning and transfer it to new situations, periodic review and practice, opportunities to interact with other students, and frequent assessments, with reteaching as needed. Existing studies suggest that what is known about effective instruction in general ought to be the foundation of effective teaching for English-learners. But accommodations are needed when instructing these students in English.
 
With regard to learning to read, English-learners benefit from instruction in discriminating and manipulating the sounds of the language (phonemic awareness), decoding words (phonics), and instruction designed to enhance vocabulary, reading fluency, and comprehension—all of which are components of effective literacy instruction for English-speakers, as the National Reading Panel reported in 2000. Writing instruction also makes a contribution to English-language learners’ literacy development.
 
Progress in the development of literacy seems to be similar among English-learning and English-speaking students. Phonological skills, including phonological awareness and decoding, are foundational. With good, structured, explicit teaching, English-language learners can make progress comparable to that of other students in the early stages of learning to read. Their language limitations begin to slow their progress as vocabulary and content knowledge become increasingly important, around the 3rd grade. It is thus critical that, from the very beginning, teachers work to develop these students’ English-language skills, particularly vocabulary. Vocabulary development is important for all students, but particularly for English-language learners. What constitutes effective vocabulary instruction for ELLs is not well understood; but there can be little doubt that explicit attention to vocabulary development—everyday words as well as more specialized academic words—should be part of English-learners’ school programs.
 
3. English-language learners require instructional accommodations. While general principles of effective instruction should be the basis for instructing English-learners, these students do need certain accommodations. An important finding from the National Literacy Panel was that the impact of instructional interventions is weaker for English-learners than it is for English-speakers, suggesting that additional supports, or accommodations, are needed in order for ELLs to derive as much benefit from effective instructional practices. These additional supports or accommodations, which have not yet been adequately validated by research, might include the following:
 
• Strategic use of the primary language;
• Predictable, clear, and consistent instructions, expectations, and routines;
• Extended explanations and additional opportunities for practice;
• Redundant information, such as visual cues and physical gestures;
• Focusing on the similarities/ differences between English and the native language;
• Building upon students’ knowledge and skills in their native languages;
• Identifying and clarifying difficult words and passages;
• Consolidating text knowledge through summarization;
• Providing extra practice in reading words, sentences, and stories;
• Targeting vocabulary and checking comprehension frequently; and
• Paraphrasing students’ remarks and encouraging expansion.
 
Providing English-language-development instruction and opportunities to extend oral English skills is critical for ELL students. This places an increased burden on students and teachers alike, since every lesson should target both content and English-language development. It is essential for students to make rapid progress in their oral English skills if they are to enter the educational mainstream and derive maximum benefit from classroom instruction delivered in English. Unfortunately—and surprisingly—the CREDE report reveals that research to date can tell us very little about how to accelerate progress in oral English-language development among ELL students, or which English-language-development approach is most effective.
 
What is known about effective instruction in general ought to be the foundation of effective teaching for English-learners.
 


Accommodations must also be made because of ELL students’ different experiential bases. The National Literacy Panel found that when students read texts with more-familiar material, their comprehension improved. (Readers’ proficiency in the language of the text, however, influenced comprehension much more than readers’ familiarity with passage content did.) Given the formidable language challenges English-language learners face, teachers should be especially aware of how they can help these students experience additional success by regularly providing reading matter with some degree of familiarity.
 
Many educators have also suggested that effective instruction for ELL students must be tailored to the cultures of the students, that is, incorporate the behavioral and interactional patterns rooted in students’ cultures. Although some studies have indicated that culturally accommodated instruction can promote engagement and higher-level participation during lessons, the NLP found no research demonstrating that culturally compatible instruction enhances the achievement of English-language learners.
 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do these findings, collectively, mean for the education of this growing segment of the school population? In numerous areas, there is insufficient research on which to base policy and practice. We can, nonetheless, lay claim to some things that matter. Chief among these are that (1) primary-language instruction enhances English-language learners’ academic achievement; (2) in many important respects, English-learners learn in the same way as non-English-learners; and (3) certain accommodations must be made when ELL students are instructed in English, and these accommodations probably must be in place for several years, until students reach sufficient familiarity with academic English to permit them to be successful in mainstream instruction.
 
Local or state policies, such as those in California, that block use of the primary language and limit instructional accommodations for English-learners are simply not based on the best scientific evidence available. As a profession and as a society, we have useful starting points for a renewed national, state, and local effort to improve the achievement of this fastest-growing segment of the school-age population. We must insist that practice and policy be based on the best evidence we have, rather than on politics or predilections.
 
Claude Goldenberg is the author of Successful School Change: Creating Settings to Improve Teaching and Learning (Teachers College Press, 2004). He is the executive director of the Center for Language Minority Education and Research at California State University-Long Beach, where he is also an associate dean of the college of education. He was a member of the National Literacy Panel.
 





------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Multilingual Studies: Bilingual Education
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Austin, TX 78712
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posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Schools preparing for bilingual world


photos by HEATHER EIDSON / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
(From left) Sally Roig-Flores helps Rosita Gonzalez pick out borders for Gonzalez' English as a Second Language board with Gonzalez' daughter, Gina, at Brady Elementary School in Aurora. Both Gonzalez and Roig-Flores are kindergarten bilingual teachers, and have the task of teaching their students to read and write in English and Spanish by the end of the school year. The majority of students at Brady School can speak Spanish.

By Justina Wang and Tim Wagner
Staff WRITERS

AURORA — U.S. Census Bureau numbers released last week show that 44 percent of Aurora's residents speak a language other than English at home.

Those who have worked in Aurora's school districts for many years have long watched as surging numbers of bilingual students flowed into their classrooms.

Now, teachers say their English as Second Language programs are changing, and bilingualism may one day become the standard of education.

"I think there is a lot of parent interest in educating their children in both languages," said Sally Roig-Flores, a bilingual kindergarten teacher at East Aurora's Brady Elementary School. "I think, in the future, our whole society will be learning to be bilingual."

When Rosita Gonzalez, who team teaches with Roig-Flores, started teaching in the East Aurora School District in 1987, there was only one bilingual class in most elementary grade levels.

But at Brady last year, kindergarten and first-grade classrooms where lessons were taught predominantly in Spanish outnumbered regular English sections three to one.

East Aurora's director of bilingual services, Anne Benavides, said she's seen the trend repeat itself throughout the district during her career.

When Benavides left the bilingual program 13 years ago to serve in other district positions, there were only about 1,700 students in the program. This summer, she ended the school year with a count of more than 4,200.

In the West Aurora School District, almost 900 students partake in the English Language Learners program. The program has grown over the years, "but it's not unmanageable," said Cynthia Latimer, assistant superintendent for student services.

Of those students, nearly 700 are enrolled in the Self-Contained/Instructional Bilingual Program. It is a K-12 program where Spanish serves as the students' first language. The goal is to implement English into the curriculum and exit those students, especially the younger ones, through the program in three years, when they're mainstreamed into general education.

"But it's important to remember that students progress at their own rate," Latimer said.

More than 100 students are in the Itinerant Transitional Bilingual Program (K-8), which means they're participating in general education taught in English, but still have one or two hours per week of bilingual study — used as a contact for support.


More needs


With tremendous growth comes surging needs. District officials often have a tough time finding enough highly qualified bilingual teachers to keep up with the growing number of classrooms and now they also need nurses, speech therapists, psychologists — "a whole gamut" of specialists — who know Spanish, Benavides said.
As part of his recently introduced Teaching and Learning Plan, West Aurora School Superintendent Jim Rydland has conducted audits on the entire district. Every program is receiving attention, and the Bilingual Program this school year falls in the evaluation stage. Should changes be suggested or required, based on student progress, they'll be developed and implemented in 2007-08.

"I'm excited about the growth we've had, but I'm also looking forward to making more improvements," Latimer said.


Preparing for a bilingual society


As more students enroll in the program, district administrators have redefined how to teach English as a Second Language.
Whereas teachers in the East Aurora School District used to focus on training the student to speak English as quickly as possible before teaching them to read and then write in the language, Benavides said they now take a "balanced literacy" approach where students learn reading, writing and speaking in English at the same pace.

Teaching bilingual education is often a tricky task, Benavides said, because students need to learn more than conversational skills and learn the "academic language" needed to study subjects like science and higher-level mathematics.

Critics have argued that self-contained ESL classes only hinder students who should be mainstreamed into regular classrooms in order to pick up the language rapidly, but many bilingual educators say there are significant benefits to teaching younger students predominantly in their native languages.

"The reason, I believe, we use a transitional program is because it works," Latimer said.

The current bilingual program coordinator at West Aurora's Hill Elementary School, Claudia Rubio, moved to Aurora from Mexico in 1985 before the start of her freshman year at West High School. She spoke limited English, "just enough to have a conversation," she said.

During her first two years at West, Rubio studied in the bilingual program, while partaking in ESL daily. By her junior year, Rubio was a member of the National Honor Society, taking general education classes taught in English, "but still had the support of the bilingual program," she said.

"My goal was to become bilingual," Rubio said. "It really worked for me."

Maria Ponce, now a first-grade teacher in West schools at McCleery Elementary, is a product of the system. She partook in the bilingual education program in seventh grade at Jefferson Middle School and emerged in just a year and a half.

"Our teacher not only taught us English, but also about the culture," Ponce said. "I had a good base in Spanish, I knew how to develop my first language in both reading and writing, and it helped me in being able to transition it to English."

In East Aurora, young pupils just entering the bilingual program are first taught to read in their native language because educators have learned that it helps pupils develop the same skills needed to read in English. It also gives their parents, who often speak very little English, a chance to get involved and help with their students' school work, said Roig-Flores.

East Aurora administrators also have talked about one day exploring dual-language programs that would teach both Spanish and English in one class to students who are native speakers of either language.

"It's becoming more important for all individuals to be bilingual," Benavides said. "A person who is bilingual and biliterate will have greater opportunities."

08/21/06

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:45 PM 1 comments Links to this post

August 23, 2006

Voucher support weaker, poll finds
Question, used since the '90s, was slanted in Gallup survey for educators, critics say
By Staci Hupp
Staci.hupp@indystar.com
August 23, 2006

Public support for sending children to private schools at taxpayer expense has eroded at a time when more states have paved the way for vouchers, says a poll by an international professional educators' group.
Critics moved quickly to dismiss the report as a political ploy.

About 36 percent of Americans polled by Gallup and Phi Delta Kappa International, which is based in Bloomington, backed the voucher concept this year. The number plunged from nearly 1 in 2 Americans who supported vouchers in 2002.

Sixty percent of the 1,000 poll participants this year said they oppose vouchers, up slightly from last year.

"I think the answer is that what people want at the present time is to help the kids in the schools that we have," said Lowell Rose, a poll author who also lobbies for the Indiana Urban Schools Association, a vocal opponent of vouchers. "And that is not a good climate for vouchers."

Vouchers have caught on in many states as an option, particularly for poor students in failing public schools, but legislative attempts to launch them in Indiana have failed. The issue is expected to surface again in the next General Assembly, which begins in January.

Critics say vouchers siphon money from public schools, violate the constitutional separation between church and state and threaten to ruin the prestige of private schools. In Indiana, critics have ranged from public school supporters to lobbyists for Jewish Hoosiers.

Voucher supporters took aim at the poll, released Tuesday.

Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation officials said the voucher question was "slanted in a way that would encourage respondents to oppose choice."

The question -- "Do you favor or oppose allowing students and parents to choose a private school to attend at public expense?" -- has not changed since the poll findings showed growing support for vouchers in the 1990s, Rose said.
Robert Fanger, a Friedman Foundation spokesman, described Phi Delta Kappa as having "a vested interest in preserving the status quo" and said polls from the news media, including USA Today and CNN, showed majority support for vouchers.

____________________________________________________________
POLL'S FINDINGS
About 21 percent of respondents gave the nation's schools an A or B grade. Nearly half, however, gave their own local schools high marks.

• Those who want the school day extended by an hour jumped from more than a third in 1982 to 67 percent.

• Support has jumped for charter schools, which are financed by taxpayers but have more flexibility with curriculum and hiring than public schools. About 53 percent approved of charter schools, up from 42 percent six years ago. But the public has a foggy perception of charters. About half said they are not public schools -- they are -- and that they are free to teach religion -- they're not.

• Twenty-four percent said the biggest problem in public schools is a shortage of money, not crowded classrooms, lack of discipline or drugs.

• Thirty-nine percent said schools focus too much on testing. The percentage was higher -- 45 percent -- among public school parents.

Source: Phi Delta Kappa


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060823/NEWS01/608230474

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:38 PM 0 comments Links to this post

CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE.
An Aug. 21 article about immigration incorrectly said that Hispanics make up 48 percent of Phoenix's population, up from 34 percent five years ago. Hispanics constitute 41.8 percent of the city's population.

Here's the prediction: "Whites will become a minority in Arlington, Tex.; Charlotte; and Las Vegas within two years and in Austin within four years." I hope that we can as a city and state address these changes in an instruction (rather than in a fearful) manner. -Angela



Changing Face of Western Cities
Migration Within U.S. Makes Whites a Minority in 3 More Areas
By Anushka Asthana
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 21, 2006; A03

Anushka Figueroa recently decided to make a change. She gave up her life in California's Silicon Valley and headed to Phoenix to work in marketing. The 37-year-old, who is originally from Puerto Rico, said she was searching for a better quality of life.

Her new home, she says, offers all the benefits that California did when her family moved there in the '70s. "California became too expensive," she said, "and Phoenix has advanced dramatically. It is the best decision I have ever made, and I would not go back."

An influx of Hispanics such as Figueroa has reshaped many urban areas' demographics; demographers say white people soon will be a minority in 35 of the country's 50 largest cities.

An analysis of census data released last week has shown that the white non-Hispanic population in another three of America's 50 largest cities has become a minority. In Phoenix, Tucson and Denver, the white population has recently fallen below 50 percent, according to William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.

He predicts that another four cities will soon follow. Whites will become a minority in Arlington, Tex.; Charlotte; and Las Vegas within two years and in Austin within four years, he said.

Although these changes were once driven by "white flight," Frey said, something else contributed in the cities that most recently reached the tipping point. While they were still losing some whites, the more dramatic shift was the increase in Hispanics, some of whom were moving from California and elsewhere in the United States in search of a better -- and more affordable -- life.

Figueroa is part of a Hispanic population in Phoenix that has increased from 34 percent of the population to 48 percent in just five years.

"For years, Phoenix has been a retirement magnet, but now the big gain is immigration and secondary migration from California," Frey said. "Phoenix is still West but more affordable. All three cities are influenced by the exodus from California, and Hispanics are part of that."

He said Phoenix and Denver were "new-West cities" where economic change and new industries had created jobs.

Harry Garewal, president of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said part of the explanation for the growth in the Hispanic population is the area's "very robust economy."

Speaking from his Phoenix office, he said growth has created a greater demand for labor, particularly in construction. He said Arizona has 35,000 Hispanic-owned businesses, adding that the "Hispanic population in the state of Arizona have $26 billion in buying power." The local white population, he said, has benefited from a Hispanic-driven boost to the economy.

The demographic shift has social as well as economic consequences. Schools have to cope with more children who don't natively speak English, and politicians have to accept that their constituencies have changed.

"They will wake up one morning, and it will be a different city," Frey said.

The policymakers in Phoenix, Tucson and Denver could soon face issues similar to California's. Frey gave the example of Orange County. In 1996, after the population had become half Hispanic, Republican Robert K. Dornan was nudged out of the House seat he had held for 12 years by Democrat Loretta Sanchez. When he took her on again, Dornan tried to pitch himself as the "real Latino."

Lorraine Lee, an executive of the Tucson service organization Chicanos por la Causa Inc., said the demographic shift creates a new reality not only for politicians but also for the private sector.

"I think they realize we are here and that they need to take us into consideration," she said. "But to what extent will they go to address our needs?"

She said the huge increase in the Hispanic population is natural and should not cause alarm. "I think the people are drifting towards those communities that are more receptive to families, more receptive to diversity, and don't have populations that all fit into a box."

But Tucson has also suffered tension. Lee pointed to the rise of the Minuteman Project -- a group in the United States that has worked for the past year to deter illegal crossings from Mexico. "One thing that has changed is the overt demonstration of racism," she said. "The element itself is very small but can be intimidating."

But it is unlikely to stop the trend. James P. Allen, a professor of geography at California State University at Northridge, said this is a trend that will not stop in the West. He foresees a time when the 50 largest cities all will have whites in the minority.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:24 PM 0 comments Links to this post

My reading of this is not that TAKS will be abolished like the title suggests, but that it would count as one criterion among other multiple measures of student achievement when high-stakes decisions (graduation, retention, promotion) are made on students' behalf. This would be more valid and fair. -Angela

8/23/2006
NO MORE TAKS: Frustrated by standardized test, Raymond develops legislation to dump it
BY TRICIA CORTEZ , LAREDO MORNING TIMES

Worried about the growing amount of time and resources spent by school districts on getting students to pass the TAKS, state Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, said Tuesday he has drafted legislation that would abolish it as we know it today. "It's gotten to the point where every year the TAKS has done more harm than good," Raymond said from his downtown Laredo office at a press conference.

He was flanked by the superintendents of the Laredo and United independent school districts, as well as teacher union representatives, all of whom agree that the Texas accountability system, and its high-stakes standardized test, is shortchanging millions of students.

"We now spend a full six weeks preparing and testing students on the TAKS," UISD Superintendent Bobby Santos said. “And every year, the state comes up with additional tests."

Daniel Garcia Jr., LISD superintendent, agreed.

"Each year, unfortunately, we lose our way because the focus on the TAKS causes instruction to come to a standstill," Garcia said.

For weeks, classrooms are transformed into centers for TAKS worksheets and TAKS skillsheets, depriving students of developing "a strong foundation and knowledge base in a subject area," Garcia said.

The pressure to pass the TAKS has become severe, with stricter state and federal penalties imposed on schools with low TAKS scores. Students must pass TAKS to pass to the next grade level.

Campuses must now meet a certain overall score, or else face sanctions, state intervention teams, new principals, new teachers and possible reconstitution.

Raymond and Garcia said the pressure is unwarranted since TAKS is not an accurate measure of how much a student knows.

Studies show that just because students pass TAKS does not mean they are reading on grade level, or that they have good comprehension and thinking skills, Garcia said.

"Yet we continue to see that more effort, days and money are spent on a child passing a single test, rather than increasing their knowledge," Raymond added.

His legislation would require that multiple criteria be used to determine if a student can pass to the next grade level, such as six-weeks tests and teacher and principal evaluations.

It would not abolish TAKS completely because, according to the Texas Education Agency, the state would lose $2 billion to $4 billion in federal funding if the test is not administered at all, Raymond noted.

Because standardized testing in Texas and the rest of the country has become a billion-dollar industry, Raymond knows he faces an uphill battle.

"So?" he said, unfazed.

"This needs to be a priority. The system isn’t working," Raymond said. "I know there is support to change it.

"It’s going to happen. If not this session then the next," he said. "We just need a big enough uprising from the rest of the state to do it."

Previous attempts

This is not the first time such legislation has been introduced, and it has gained steady support over the years. Last session, it failed passage in the Texas House of Representatives by just a few votes.
Raymond is confident he will get a large number of legislators to sign on and pass the legislation.

"Look, we all want the education system to be better," Raymond added. "I supported former Gov. George W. Bush on his state accountability system, but we’ve had this system long enough to see that it’s become counter-productive."

(Tricia Cortez may be reached at (956) 728-2568 or by e-mail at tricia@lmtonline.com)

©Laredo Morning Times 2006
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17098717&BRD=2290&PAG=461&dept_id=569392&rfi=6

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 7:43 PM 1 comments Links to this post

Texas is starting to sound like Pennsylvania where such measures are behing considered. It is unfortunate that we do not seek binational solutions to common problems. -Angela

Residents clash over illegal immigrant plan
Farmers Branch: Backers cite quality of life; foes call measures racist

07:54 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 22, 2006
By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News

FARMERS BRANCH ˆ City Council members had little to say Monday night about suggestions from two of their colleagues that they adopt measures that would make it harder for illegal immigrants to live and work in the city.

But their constituents had plenty to say in a work session marked by heckling and interruptions by both sides. Many opponents cried "racism," and many supporters said the measures had nothing to do with race and only aimed to make the city less attractive to people who are here illegally.

Several dozen residents crowded into the council chambers to discuss whether the city should restrict illegal immigrants through such measures as making it illegal for landlords to lease property to them; fining businesses that employ them; making English the city's official language; and halting funding for children of illegal immigrants to participate in Summer Funshine and other youth programs.

Those ideas, by council member Tim O'Hare, were borrowed from ordinances adopted by Hazelton, Pa., and under consideration by cities in California, Florida and elsewhere.

Mayor Pro Tem Ben Robinson had more ideas. He suggested that the council also consider prohibiting the assembly of day laborers; requiring contractors to abide by all federal laws, including immigration laws; and having police who question the residency papers of people they encounter on traffic stops or accidents make copies of those documents and submit them to immigration officials.

The issue was only an item for discussion during the council's work session, with no action scheduled or taken.

If and when the council will take the matter up for discussion again was unclear Monday night.

Council member Charlie Bird said he supported the proposal.

But he said the city can't arrest and have deported every illegal immigrant, even if it does adopt the local ordinances.

"It will take time to do what the council wants to do," he said. "We've got work to do."

Mayor Bob Phelps said the council will take action.

"It's going to happen," he said. "I don't know when, but it will happen."

Will Harrell, director of the ACLU of Texas, said earlier Monday that the organization would sue if the city does pass such ordinances.

Representatives from the League of United Latin American Citizens and other groups last week also threatened lawsuits upon learning that Farmers Branch was considering ordinances restricting illegal immigrants.

"We definitely are going to engage this one," Mr. Harrell said. "It's painfully unconstitutional, hateful and grotesquely poor public policy. ... Hopefully, City Council reason will prevail. If not, we will meet them squarely in the courtroom."

Mr. Phelps said Monday night that he was not afraid of threats of lawsuits but didn't think it prudent to spend hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of taxpayer dollars on lawsuits.

He has said that before the council takes any action, it should wait until after proposed changes in federal immigration law have been adopted.

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Those who addressed the council during the workshop were about 2-to-1 in opposition to the proposals. But the overall audience was largely supportive, often yelling comments to speakers in opposition, interrupting them and prompting Mr. Phelps to bang his gavel several times to call for order.

"I want to live, Mr. Mayor, in a city that is resistant to lawbreakers," one resident said. "I want to live in a city that's not a haven for them. I want them to know in advance it will be tough for them to live in our city."

Opponents said the proposed measures would put undue hardships on people who were here working hard to make a living.

"We wouldn't want to do business with a city that is so racist," said Elizabeth Villafranca, whose husband owns Cuquita's Restaurant in Farmers Branch.

The nature of the debate concerned resident Kathleen Matsumura.

"The terrorists can go home and rest. We'll kill ourselves," she said. "We'll just fight each other."

E-mail ssandoval@dallasnews.com

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 5:28 PM 2 comments Links to this post

Mexico teachers extend protests
By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Mexico

Aug. 22, 2006


Striking teachers seized 12 private radio stations in the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca and set buses on fire, as a long-running protest worsened.
They acted after unidentified gunmen opened fire on a government radio station already under their control.

The strikers used the stations to tell parents to ignore Monday's start of the school year and keep children at home.

Teachers have been striking since May to demand higher wages and Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz's resignation.

Roads blocked

The shooting began at a government-owned radio station already in the hands of the striking teachers.


A number of rounds were fired by unknown gunmen, and the teachers say one of their members was injured.
The attack prompted a violent retaliation by the teachers, and a number of buses were overturned and set on fire.

Dozens of the protesters also took over the privately-run radio stations and started broadcasting messages of defiance.

Others armed with crude weapons blocked off some of the main roads into Oaxaca.

A spokesman for President Vicente Fox blamed the state government for attempting to take back the radio station by force.

He said the attack was carried out without consulting the federal authorities and described it as a unilateral decision by the governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz.

Widening protest

Governor Ruiz has become a key target for the teachers.

Although their dispute started out in May as a campaign for more pay, it has since transformed into an attempt to get the governor to resign from office.

The teachers say he is guilty of rigging the state election two years ago and of using heavy-handed tactics to deal with the strikers.

The governor, who belongs to the former ruling party, the PRI, has refused to step down.

Last week a number of people were taken hostage by activists after gunmen opened fired on a teachers' march.

They were later released.

The protests have also taken on a much wider context and have become woven into the continuing row over who won Mexico's presidential election.

Four months into this round of tension and parts of Oaxaca are starting to look ungovernable, and that could be a real challenge for the country's new leader.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/5272462.stm

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 5:15 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Read reactions to the Perry's state budget involving funding for education. I quote F. Scott McCown of the Center for Public Policy Priorities who offers: "the governor's overall figures amount to "irresponsible budgeting. ... It's exactly like an employee dreaming that his boss is going to give him a bonus at the end of the year, and then spending money all year long based upon the dreamed-up bonus." McCown has been a real champion for the poor in our state.

-Angela

Aug. 22, 2006, 9:37AM

State budget looks tight despite surplus

Lawmakers need to find ways to pay for the new school finance plan and property tax cuts

By PEGGY FIKAC
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Despite a strong economy and billions of surplus dollars, state leaders looking toward the next budget face a tight money situation driven by the need to fund the new school finance package, including a cut in property tax rates.

Advocates for lower-income Texans say those who need programs such as health care and who struggle to pay college tuition are among those who could pay the price and won't benefit from the tax changes.

Republican leaders say the package will benefit Texas and they'll still meet state priorities, although a top senator acknowledges it will be close.

Unofficial estimates from Gov. Rick Perry's office identify money totals — factoring in "conservative" revenue growth, an economic boost from tax changes and the balance in the state contingency fund — that come close to covering his staff's estimates of major spending needs in the coming two-year budget period. The needs, identified in May, include such things as Medicaid growth but not recently high-profile issues such as parks funding.

For the two-year budget period after that — the one lawmakers won't write until 2009 — forecasts are more uncertain.

In that period, the state would be $300 million short of paying just for the school and tax package under what Perry budget director Mike Morrissey called conservative revenue projections. He said the estimates don't fully account for factors such as potential economic growth.


Partisan disagreement

Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, House Democratic Caucus chairman, dismissed the figures from Perry's office as "ludicrous estimates."

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, Senate Finance Committee chairman, said: "The budget is going to be tight. But I don't think it's going to be anything that we can't manage.

"I think we're going to be fine. I'm not 100 percent sure," Ogden said. "I think the next biennium, we're going to be OK. I'm not ready to speculate on the biennium beyond that."

Even before the school and tax package championed by Perry was approved, many Democrats and Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn — an independent challenging Perry — voiced concern that it would dig the state into a big hole.

The package used state surplus funds and expanded state taxes, including business levies, to lower local school property taxes. The higher state taxes don't cover the entire cost of the property tax cut because leaders wanted to pass a net decrease.

Strayhorn estimated the effort would create a shortfall of $23 billion over five years. The nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board put it at $25 billion.

The comptroller is the only one who can make official revenue estimates, a point Morrissey noted. The comptroller is required to make such an estimate for the next Legislature, which returns in January 2007.


'Proof is in the pudding'

Deputy Comptroller Billy Hamilton emphasized that point when asked about Morrissey's figures, and he disputed the idea that there would be a huge economic response to the tax changes.
"You can come up with all sorts of scenarios, but really, the proof is in the pudding," Hamilton said. "And right now, the pudding says $23 billion to $25 billion short in the plan. That's $5 billion a year, and that takes a lot of economic growth to make up."

Ogden plans budget hearings starting after Labor Day. State agencies already have been told by Morrissey and Legislative Budget Board director John O'Brien to prepare spending requests that are 10 percent less than currently appropriated. There are some exemptions and agencies can seek to justify additional spending. A 10 percent cut would amount to about $1.5 billion, Morrissey said.

F. Scott McCown of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for programs for lower-income Texans, said the governor's overall figures amount to "irresponsible budgeting. ... It's exactly like an employee dreaming that his boss is going to give him a bonus at the end of the year, and then spending money all year long based upon the dreamed-up bonus."

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said leaders' priorities benefit the state, including cutting property tax rates to help people afford homes.

"The Center for Public Policy Priorities has never seen a dime of your money it didn't want to spend on government programs," Walt said.

McCown disagreed and shot back at Perry's priorities, saying his center wouldn't spend money on "giveaways to corporations through so-called tax incentives that don't provide jobs at good wages."


Spending vs. revenue

State Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, House Ways and Means Committee vice chairman, said his biggest worry is the budget lawmakers will write in 2009. He said the state doesn't "have a tax system that is adequate to cover the bill."
Higher property appraisals still will affect the taxes people pay, he said, despite the billions spent to lower local tax rates.

"Anybody who wants to send their kid to a state college, anyone who sends their child to a public school, anyone using health insurance from the state, anybody who drives on a highway, and anybody who wants to keep prisoners locked up and completing their full term, all these folks are going to be impacted" by the budget, he said.

Chief economist Byron Schlomach of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which supports limited government, said revenue isn't the problem.

"If there is any issue with a shortfall, it would be due to spending, not a lack of tax revenue," he said.

pfikac@express-news.net


http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4132190.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 5:14 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This merits a close reading. My sources tell me that this is a massive privatization ploy with minorities’ so-called interests legitimating this. Presumably, EMO’s (Education Management Organizations) will “help” our nations’ principals to manage all of this. Go to this link to see who has signed on. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this.

-Angela

Bipartisan coalition backs new school funding model
http://www.100percentsolution.org/fundthechild/news_detail.cfm?id=10

6/27/2006
WASHINGTON, DC—Key state and national education leaders, including three former Secretaries of Education, showed their support for a new school funding proposal released today by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, signaling a breakthrough in the decades-old war over the financing of public education in America.

“Closing the achievement gap is the civil rights issue of our time,” said former Secretary of Education Rod Paige, a trustee of the Fordham Institute. “Nearly everyone agrees that all young Americans should achieve at high levels regardless of class or special needs. But innumerable studies and plenty of direct experience show that a quality education costs more for some than it does for others. Under today’s school-funding arrangements, however, the children who need the greatest education resources frequently end up with the least.”

The proposal, Fund the Child: Tackling Inequity and Antiquity in School Finance (visit www.100percentsolution.org), is a “manifesto” that offers a comprehensive solution to the most pressing problems in American education, including funding disparities on many levels:

Between districts: 36 states have a funding gap between high poverty and low poverty districts that averages almost $900 per student, according to the Education Trust.
Within districts: The ten largest school districts in California alone have spending gaps between high- and low-minority schools that range from $64,000 to $500,000 per school (Education Trust).
Between school options: Students who opt out of their assigned district school (26 percent of students nationwide) often choose schools (e.g., charter schools) that receive markedly less—as much as 40 percent less—funding per child.

This new model, known as Weighted Student Funding (WSF), has three key elements that level the playing field for low-income students while widening their educational opportunities:

Funding follows the child to the public school that he/she attends.
Per-student funding is weighted to provide more resources based on a student’s specific needs and circumstances.
Resources arrive at the school as real dollars (not teaching positions, etc.) that can be spent flexibly with emphasis on results, not programs, activities, or other inputs.
“In this age of accountability,” Paige added, “school leaders need the authority to get the job done. Giving them more control over their budgets is a big part of the puzzle.”

In tandem with the release of the proposal, Fordham launched a new web site today, www.100percentsolution.org, where readers can learn more about Weighted Student Funding, add their name to the growing list of supporters, and see how this system stacks up against the so-called “65 percent solution,” which adds new regulations and further ties the hands of school leaders.

“The 65 percent solution is a gimmick that doesn’t begin to solve the biggest problems in school funding, much less education writ large,” remarked Fordham Institute president Chester E. Finn, Jr. “Weighted student funding isn’t a complete answer to every challenge that public schools face but it will eliminate the biggest funding disparities, foster equity, empower school leaders, and catalyze school choice. Reasonable folks from left, right, and center are rallying around WSF as the first serious, practical proposition to revolutionize the financing of U.S. public education for the 21st Century.”

To view the entire list of signatories, click here. To read the full proposal, visit www.100percentsolution.org.

For hard copies, media requests for interviews, or further information, please contact Jennifer Leischer, Communications Manager, at 202-223-5452.

Nationally and in our home state of Ohio, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute strives to close America's vexing achievement gaps by raising standards, strengthening accountability, and expanding high-quality education options for parents and families. For more information about the Institute’s work, visit http://www.edexcellence.net.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:58 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This piece is fueling the debate over charters. -Angela

The Future of D.C. Public Schools: Traditional or Charter Education?
By Lori Montgomery and Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 22, 2006; A01

Ten years after Congress imposed charter schools on a reluctant city, the District has emerged as one of the nation's most important laboratories for school choice and one of the first to confront a central tenet of free-market theory: Will traditional public schools improve with competition? Or will charters take over?

Both sides agree that the District is approaching a critical juncture. With public confidence in the schools at an all-time low, more than 17,000 public school students -- nearly one in four -- have rejected the traditional system in favor of 51 independently run, publicly funded charter schools. That share is one of the largest in the nation and is expected to rise when six more charter schools open their doors this fall.

As charters have proliferated, the number of students attending traditional schools has plummeted from 80,000 a decade ago to 58,000 last school year. Because tax dollars follow the student, charters now claim at least $140 million a year that might otherwise flow to neighborhood schools. That has led traditional schools to cut programs, lay off teachers and, for the first time in nearly a decade, close.

Powerful forces in the national debate are watching closely to see whether D.C. schools can win those students back.

"The hope has always been that the traditional school system would respond by getting better, by doing things that are politically painful, but we've never had a good test of it until now," said Michael Petrilli, a former Bush administration education official who is a vice president of the pro-charter Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

"We're going to see whether D.C. can compete," Petrilli said. "If that doesn't happen, you'll see charters continue to open. And you could wind up with the first system entirely composed of charter schools."

This month, D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey called for a moratorium on new charters, saying they threaten the traditional system while failing to offer a high-quality alternative. The chairman of the city's independent chartering authority rejected the idea, but Janey plans to press his point with city officials, educators and other civic leaders.

"We should stop growing just for the sake of growing," Janey said. "Charter schools were never conceived to replace a school district. They were conceived to add quality."

Charter advocates argue that D.C. Public Schools rank among the worst in the nation in student achievement and that charters, which are tuition-free to students admitted through lotteries, are a vital alternative.

Comparing achievement is difficult, because charter test scores cover a relatively brief period. But two recent studies show D.C. charters outperforming traditional schools.

Still, the District's charters -- like its traditional schools -- score well below the national average. D.C. officials said the most recent results under the federal No Child Left Behind law are equally disappointing for charters and other public schools. Nationally, studies have shown no significant difference in test scores between charters and other public schools.

Tired of seeing money siphoned from neighborhood schools into the uncertain hands of charter operators, a group of public school parents filed a lawsuit in 2004, accusing city and federal officials of "creating a two-track system" of education that favors charters and impoverishes children who remain in the D.C. school system. The lawsuit accused the city of promoting the Two Rivers Public Charter School east of Capitol Hill so white and middle-class parents could escape neighborhood schools that are "too black."

Last month, in a rare legal victory for anti-charter forces, a federal judge allowed the case to go forward, ordering D.C. officials to respond to the claim.

Meanwhile, charters, which once focused mainly on rescuing children from the worst schools in the city's poorest neighborhoods, are expanding to more affluent areas and appealing to middle-class families.

Next month, the Washington Latin School, a charter for grades five through 12, is scheduled to open in the same Northwest Washington neighborhood as St. Albans, Sidwell Friends and other exclusive private schools. Washington Latin will offer a "classical education" that is "rich in antique and global literary sources," according to its Web site.

"What will be difficult is if the next wave of charters ends up attracting essentially middle-class families, the people who bought into the District five years ago [and] want to stay in the city but can't afford private schools," said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century School Fund. "If that's the next wave of growth, then DCPS will lose the middle class. And when you lose the middle class from this universal public institution, you lose the quality control."

Individual public schools are fighting back. Each spring now brings a battle for students, with dueling open houses and recruitment drives. This year, Ross Elementary near Dupont Circle bought ads in community papers touting its new art program.

Charter operators have proven equally aggressive. When M.C. Terrell Elementary in Southeast was targeted for closure in the spring, the founder of Nia Community Public Charter School showed up on Terrell's doorstep with fliers.

The outcome is crucial not only for today's schoolchildren, but also for the future of a city where troubled schools have long sent families fleeing to the suburbs. A recent Washington Post poll found that 15 percent of D.C. voters have confidence in the regular school system, the lowest recorded in a Post survey.

A Success Story
Lisa Koker made her decision without looking back. When the time came for her daughter, Sierra, to start school, Koker didn't bother to visit the public school in their Northeast Washington neighborhood.

"The public schools don't have the best reputation," Koker said. "You see them featured on '60 Minutes' and '20/20.' "

So Koker, a human resources manager, went shopping for a charter. Word of mouth led her to Capital City Public Charter School, one of the District's most popular. Founded in 2000 by middle-class parents frustrated by administrative problems and crumbling facilities at Hearst Elementary in Northwest, Capital City has about 225 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade -- and a waiting list of more than 600.

Unlike traditional schools, charters have access to special facilities funds created by the city, Congress and nonprofit groups that allow them to borrow large sums. As a result, Capital City's founders were able to raise about $6 million to buy and renovate an imposing brick church in Columbia Heights.

The colorful, light-filled space has a state-of-the-art computer lab, a well-stocked library and a music room -- extras that have proven difficult to maintain in many traditional schools. Most classes have two teachers and access to a team of special education instructors, who offer discreet help in the regular classroom.

Free to control its budget and curriculum, the school follows an instructional model that organizes academic subjects around a broad theme each semester. Students studying the Chesapeake Bay, for example, might analyze water samples in science and read about the bay's history. When the semester ends, the students make a presentation to parents, who are strongly encouraged to attend and applaud their children.

That's what Koker was doing on a sunny afternoon near the end of the school year: waiting for Sierra, 6, to join other first- and second-graders in an oral report on the life cycle of bugs. Although the school produces excellent test scores, Koker said, she most appreciates the warmth and energy of the staff.

"Every day, I ask Sierra, 'Did you have a good day?' And she says, 'No, Mommy. I had a wonderful day,' " Koker said. "It puts one at ease as a parent."

About half of Capital City's students are black, a quarter are white and a quarter are Latino. Just over half come from low-income families, making it far more diverse than most traditional and charter schools, both of which are predominantly black and poor.

When Capital City opened, "there were no white students at all in charter schools. We were really worried we would be accused of creating a white school," said Anne Herr, one of Capital City's founders. But diversity has been a selling point among parents of all races, who praise the school as a model of integration.

"I've watched neighbors and friends say, 'I'm leaving Washington because of the schools,' " Herr said. "Now I think there are people who are coming to the city or staying in the city because they're happy with the school their child's in."

Some Excellent, Some Incompetent
The District's charters were approved by a Republican Congress in April 1996 over the objections of many school officials. Viewed as a politically palatable alternative to private-school vouchers, the legislation won bipartisan support, and President Bill Clinton signed it.

But the first year was not auspicious. Just two charters opened with a total of 160 students. One of those quickly made headlines when Mary A.T. Anigbo, principal of Marcus Garvey Public Charter School, was accused of assaulting a news reporter she had ordered out of the school. Marcus Garvey eventually closed amid allegations of financial mismanagement.

In the past 10 years, 12 D.C. charter schools have closed. Charter advocates say that is not a sign of failure but a willingness to end experiments that aren't working, a stark contrast to the bureaucratic barriers that make it difficult to address problems in traditional urban schools.

"We bury our dead," said Malcolm Peabody, founder of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a D.C. charter advocacy group.

After the 1997 appointment of an independent chartering authority, the movement began to take off. Charter advocates and their critics have since bickered over how best to measure performance, a task complicated by the wide variation among schools and a lack of extensive test data.

Looking at test results from the 2004-05 school year, the Progressive Policy Institute found that 54 percent of D.C. charter school students were reported as proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of students in traditional schools. Charter students also did better than their counterparts in reading.

On the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, D.C. charters once again outperformed non-charters, according to an analysis by Todd Ziebarth, senior policy analyst for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Overall, Ziebarth said, D.C. charters -- like schools across the country serving low-income students -- produce subpar scores.

More than 70 percent of D.C. charter students are from low-income homes, compared with about 60 percent of students in traditional D.C. schools. And hidden behind the averages are individual charters that range from excellent to incompetent.

One middle school, the KIPP DC: KEY Academy in Southeast, has the highest test scores of any middle school in the city and has recorded some of the largest gains in achievement by low-income students in the nation.

But other charters have been plagued by fraud and mismanagement. For example, the New School for Enterprise and Development in Northeast had its charter revoked in the spring as charter officials and D.C. auditors raised questions about board member Charles E. Tate.

Tate, who also served as school president, was receiving an annual salary of $100,000 and had a contract that required the board to pay him $500,500 for work he had done before the school's 2000 opening. In addition to alleging financial improprieties, teachers and other staff members said the school's principal tried to alter transcripts to inflate academic performance. The school closed in June, shortly after it was raided by federal agents.

The problems extended into the classrooms, according to teachers and students, who described a school plagued by violence, disorganization and a lack of textbooks. Twelve percent of students tested "proficient" in reading, and 24.5 percent met that standard in math. The principal blamed the problem on the poor schools that students previously attended.

Then in July, the independent charter board closed Sasha Bruce, a school serving grades seven through 11 on Capitol Hill, saying the school had overspent its budget in three years and was projected to have a $150,000 deficit this year. Also, reading and math test scores didn't meet annual standards under federal law.

"The charters stink, too. That's what nobody wants to talk about," said Gina Arlotto, an activist whose children attend public schools on Capitol Hill and whose organization, Save Our Schools, is the lead plaintiff in the Two Rivers lawsuit. Parents with children in charters "are wearing it as a badge of honor -- 'Well, I'm going to the charter school' -- as if this was a really good decision. And, man, it's not. People really are choosing very blindly."

Working to Improve
Supporters argue that charters are spurring improvements in the traditional school system.

This spring, Janey and the Washington Teachers' Union signed a new contract with a number of innovations, including pilot programs at up to 10 schools where teachers will work longer hours and earn bonuses tied to student performance. Union officials said they agreed to the changes to help traditional schools compete with charters.

Meanwhile, KIPP's newest middle school charter, the WILL Academy, is sharing space with Montgomery Elementary in Northwest, where the two staffs will collaborate on teaching practices, discipline and curricula.

And Janey last year promised more autonomy to the principal and parents at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Tenleytown after parents upset about budget cuts discussed converting the school to a charter.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who supports the expansion of charters, said he has tried to protect the traditional system by increasing its budget and authorizing $1 billion to modernize aging facilities.

Still, some public school parents look at the gleaming facilities, freshly hired teachers and other amenities at charters and complain that officials are doing little to help traditional schools compete.

"What I'm angry about is why is it so easy for them to get funding when it's so hard for us to get funding at the local schools, the schools that are working, the schools that are doing well," said Maureen Diner, a parent at Ross Elementary who is on the waiting list at Capital City. "Parents aren't going to charter schools because of the philosophy. Parents are going to charter schools because they know there will be art and phys ed and no teaching to the test."

The notion that traditional schools are being shortchanged is at the heart of the Save Our Schools lawsuit. The suit claims that school officials helped the mainly white and middle-class founders of Two Rivers avoid predominantly African American neighborhood schools. In addition to other support, school officials permitted Two Rivers to move into half of a building occupied by Eliot Junior High, an underenrolled school near RFK Stadium.

When the charter opened in 2004, the contrast was stark: Two Rivers students, many of them white, passed through a bright blue door to a freshly renovated space filled with art, bright lights and highly motivated teachers. Eliot students, all of them black, passed through a separate door into a dim and dingy building with roaches in the cafeteria and a stench in the bathrooms.

Two Rivers Principal Jessica Wodatch, a D.C. native who attended city schools, denies that the school was founded for white children. Instead, she said, parents wanted to create a place free of bureaucratic red tape where teachers could focus on educating children.

Two Rivers has attracted a diverse student body of about 200 children, about half black and a third white, and has a waiting list of 400. Among the students are Sondra Phillips-Gilbert's two children. She said she pulled her son out of nearby Gibbs Elementary after classmates assaulted him three times. The school was also plagued by mold and mildew, she said.

At Two Rivers, Phillips-Gilbert said, her son is thriving and the school welcomes her involvement.

"I don't have money for a private school. If you get rid of charter schools, you're telling the poor children that they're going to have to be locked up in this incompetent school district that doesn't care about them or their parents," she said. "Don't punish the charter schools because our children have an option. If you don't like to see thousands of students leaving DCPS, then do something."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/21/AR2006082101758.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:49 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Barkman points to the GOPs withdrawal of support from public schools saying, "public schools are now seen as a sinister conspiracy of secular humanists, Darwinists, evil teachers’ unions and homosexuals." This is a good complement to the piece I just posted. Cleburne is in Texas. -Angela

School is not like it used to be
by Patrick Barkman

“He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.”

— Psalm 78:5-6



School is back and my youngest has officially started kindergarten. A lot seems different than what I remember; for one thing, kindergarten has computers, which weren’t even invented when I was that age. We had to use an abacus or count rocks.

There seems to be an awful lot of school supplies required nowadays, including enough bottles of glue, coffee filters and manila paper to build a full-scale model of the Great Wall of China.

When I started school, the only supplies we needed were flint and tender to start a campfire and some sticks to make spears to fight off the saber-toothed tigers that were then known to roam the outskirts of Cleburne. Other things have changed, too. Once upon a time, not too terribly long ago, support for public education was one of the few reliably bipartisan issues in Texas and in the nation as a whole.

Both parties recalled the words of Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe in 1786, “I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness. The tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.”

In Texas, Sam Houston, a Jeffersonian by way of Jackson, stated, “The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government.”

During his otherwise execrable term as president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Lamar outlined a visionary system for free public schools that earned him the nickname Father of Texas Education. Such unity is gone now, seemingly for good. As the Republic Party has slowly been captured by the ultra-paranoid tin-foil hat crowd, public schools are now seen as a sinister conspiracy of secular humanists, Darwinists, evil teachers’ unions and homosexuals.

The GOP’s war on public schools was perhaps best exemplified when State Rep. Debbie Riddle bloviated, “Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever? It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell. And it’s cleverly disguised as having a tender heart. It’s not a tender heart. It’s ripping the heart out of this country.”

Or, if you prefer the statements of some of the Republican’s spiritual gurus, there’s Pat Robertson: “The public education movement has also been an anti-Christian movement …” or Jerry Falwell: “I hope to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we don’t have public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them.”

Actions, of course, speak louder than words. After ignoring school finance for years in favor of multiple special sessions to abolish democracy through redistricting, Texas Republicans recently passed a “reform” bill that doesn’t provide any new money for schools, and in fact will end up providing less funding and higher taxes.

The Bush administration tried hard to bury a Department of Education report showing that, despite their problems, public schools compare favorably with private schools. Our beloved former state representative, Arlene Wohlgemuth, has recently teamed up with millionaire anti-public school candidate sugar daddy Dr. James Leininger to lobby against “special interests” and their “pet causes,” like decent schools.

Wohlgemuth already did her part to kill affordable health insurance for children; so as long as they’re sick, why not keep them ignorant as well? Leininger, and many other Republicans, favor vouchers as a way to interject the “free market” and “competition” into public education, in spite of the fact that our most recent experiment in privitizing education through the use of charter schools has been a dismal failure. So why the Republican hostility toward learning?

The paranoid on the left might observe that ignorant peasants are obedient peasants. The reality, however, is more cynical: It’s just another way to scare votes out of decent people of faith who have legitimate concerns about real education issues — the lack of discipline, under-funded schools, a sometimes unresponsive bureaucracy and so forth.

Like the tele-Pharisees, the GOP deliberately misrepresents court decisions like Engel v. Vitale to suggest that prayer in school is now illegal. It isn’t, of course, and no court anywhere in America has ever ruled that individual students cannot pray in school. Texas Republicans rail about teachers’ unions, though unions in Texas as a whole are virtually powerless.

Fear is a great motivator, though, as is scapegoating. As Lyndon Johnson once said in another context, that of the Civil Rights movement, “If you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll even empty his pockets for you.”

In public education, the Republicans hope that if they can make you afraid of teachers, homosexuals and Charles Darwin, you won’t notice their hands in your wallet. This strategy is cynical, it’s shameful and harmful to society and our children and real conservatives, the few who are left, should rise up to denounce it.



Patrick G. Barkman is a

Cleburne resident who invites you to comment on this column, and enjoy additional wise-crackery and general political

incorrectness at his blog,

thelocalcrank.blogspot.com/.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:42 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Actions speak louder than words. I quote from this piece: "As people of faith, they know you don't have to talk about your faith to practice it. " -Angela

Devoted teachers show faith every day

DAVID WATERS, Religion
Saturday, August 19, 2006

The parking lot at a nearby elementary school began filling up in mid-July. It was a midsummer mystery to some, but as the son and husband of public school teachers, I knew exactly what was happening.

Teachers were quietly going back to work.

Believe it or not, most public school teachers are back at work weeks before our children show up at their doors.

They spend countless (generally unpaid) hours planning, cleaning, organizing, reorganizing, getting their classrooms, lesson plans and psyches ready for the onslaught of new students and parents, administrative edicts, political posturing and public ambivalence.

Most of us support public schools with our tax dollars. Many of us support them with our children. All of us rely on them to hold society together.

Despite the burdens we put on them and the abuse we pile on them, public schools remain our most valuable and powerful socializing force. More children go to school than to church. Children still spend more time in the classroom than in front of the TV - during the school year, anyway.

Even the Christian Educators Association International, or CEAI, recognizes the value of public schools.

"Public education has the benefit of local, state, and federal funding as well as the best educated and trained teachers in the history of this nation," CEAI explains on its Web site.

"Public schools are usually well funded and have an extensive state and federal system of accountability. Students are exposed to well-developed academic, athletic, and social opportunities far beyond home schoolers and Christian School students.

"For students with special needs, the services are almost endless."

For parents with special

needs, the services don't always measure up.

One of the biggest complaints about public schools is that they are "godless."

"Although not the intent of the First Amendment, many public school educators believe that they must make their schools godless under the banner of 'separation of church and state' to the extent that an environment is created that is hostile to religion," CEAI explains.

To put it in theological terms, that's a lot of hoo-ha.

The vast majority of the nation's 3.5 million elementary and secondary school teachers consider themselves to be people of faith.

As people of faith, they know you don't have to talk about your faith to practice it. They know that you don't have to say that you believe in God to behave as if you do.

Even the folks associated with CEAI know that. They recently held a conference to show teachers how to practice what they preach.

"Regardless of denomination," said Cary Vaughn, a minister and one of the organizers, "teachers wonder how they can share their faith in the workplace when it's prohibited by law in the public schools."

Nonsense. Millions of teachers do that every school day by showing up for work.

In classrooms full of children who are tired, sick, hungry, hyper, depressed or otherwise behaviorally challenged.

Does anyone do more "for the least of these" than public school teachers?

"When you pray, move your feet," says the African proverb. Faithful teachers move their feet all day long.

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/aug/19/devoted-teachers-show-faith-every-day/

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:34 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Did rally unleash new political power?

Hispanics hope interest converts to ballot box clout
02:59 PM CDT on Thursday, August 17, 2006

By FRANK TREJO / The Dallas Morning News
Aftershocks continue to rumble in Dallas this summer in the wake of April's immigration "megamarch" that brought as many 500,000 people to downtown Dallas.

Momentum from the march – the largest civil rights rally in Dallas history – has given area Hispanic activists hope for increased political participation. Some say they are already seeing results:

• Two coalitions are organizing major voter registration drives, called MegaVoto, before the Nov. 7 general election.

• The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a Latino civic education organization, recently opened a field office in Oak Cliff.

• A gay League of United Latin American Citizens chapter has formed in Dallas. LULAC officials believe it's the first of its kind in the nation.

• Hispanic teenagers have formed a political group.

Yet questions remain about the march's long-term effects on local politics. How many of the protesters are registering to vote? Will the large number of march participants cause non-Hispanics to take more than a passing interest? And will the march lead to the election of Hispanic candidates in city and county elections?

"[The march] energized the Hispanic community in a very positive way. But now comes the hard work of turning that energy and celebratory momentum into the hard work of naturalizations, voter registrations and turnout," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.


LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN
Marisela G. Vargas (right) gave Maria Armendariz voter registration information recently at Dallas Market Hall. Two Hispanic coalitions are organizing registration drives before the Nov. 7 election.
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services said the Dallas office noted an increase in the number of naturalization applications in the spring when the national immigration debate was at its height. In April, 1,482 applications were submitted. That compares with 1,269 applications received in April 2005.

In May, applications jumped to 1,647, up from 1,235 in May 2005.

In addition, the number of naturalization forms downloaded online nationally showed a dramatic rise. From October through July 2005, 684,697 were forms downloaded. For the same period this year, the number was 1,183,913.

Voter registration shift?
The effect so far on voter registrations, however, has not been as dramatic. Bruce Sherbet, Dallas County elections administrator, said about 1,500 new voters have registered since April. That's fairly normal for a year without a presidential election, he said.

Dr. Jillson said it's implausible to believe that a march will cause any group to suddenly take political control of the city, especially because at least 30 percent of the Latinos in Texas are not U.S. citizens, and many of those who are have not been politically active.

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"It is important to think of this as a very long-term effort at integrating Hispanics into the political and civic life of the city," Dr. Jillson said, adding that he does not expect immediate electoral effects. "But it's absolutely necessary to begin now in order to have an effect two and four years from."

Laura Gonzalez, who teaches cultural studies at Mountain View College and is director of the Oak Cliff Center for Community Studies, said she has been astounded by what has happened to her students and their parents. Area Hispanics, she said, are poised to make a difference.

Amazing transformation
"It's an amazing transformation of my students," said Dr. Gonzalez, an anthropologist. "They are wanting to learn more about politics and public speaking, about Mexican-American history, about social movements."

Recently, some of the leaders of the spring student walkouts, which some credit for raising awareness about the immigration issue, created Young Advocates Spreading Political Awareness. Only a handful of young people have joined the group, but it already has worked at a couple of voter registration drives and plans some of its own.

"There are so many issues now that directly affect us, we wanted our voices heard," said Greisa Martinez, 18.

Another group that traces its origins to the megamarch is the new LULAC chapter, or council, created by gay and lesbian Latinos. The council, based in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, was formed this summer with about a dozen members.

A council official said the new group would function just as any other LULAC council, working on education and civil rights issues. But it also will act as a bridge between LULAC members and gay and lesbian Hispanics. This fall, members will focus on voter registration.

Jesse Garcia of Dallas is one of the organizers. He said the idea for the council began last year when gay organizations were fighting against a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment eventually passed.

The idea for the council arose again on the day of the megamarch, Mr. Garcia said.

"Several of us went to the march, and it just hit me as we stood in the middle of all those people, what a beautiful thing it was and how we had some things in common," Mr. Garcia said. "Some of our nation's leaders are trying to paint gays and now immigrants as the root of all our country's evil."

At meetings of two voter registration groups this month, volunteers planned ways to increase the number of registered Hispanic voters by several thousand.

One meeting was in Oak Cliff at the new office of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. The other was at the Bill J. Priest Institute in South Dallas and attracted about 45 people, including elected officials, political candidates and community representatives. Their MegaVoto project is a direct tie to the April megamarch.

Among those attending the meeting in South Dallas were Democratic state Reps. Rafael Anchia and Roberto Alonzo, as well as several Dallas County judicial candidates.


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Mr. Anchia, who has been mentioned as a possible Dallas mayoral candidate next year, said that during the recent conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Dallas, the group conducted focus groups with megamarch participants.

Learning to connect
"People talked about previously feeling isolated in their views and not knowing how to connect, but that began to change with the megamarch when they saw these thousands and thousands of other people," he said.

Dallas lawyer Domingo Garcia, one of the megamarch organizers, said a voter registration drive being coordinated by the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education project is a result of the march. The group has produced results in the past.

Mr. Garcia and Southwest Voter conducted registration drives in 1988 in Cockrell Hill, just west of downtown Dallas. Before the effort, no more than eight Hispanics ever voted in city elections. In 1988, 191 Hispanics voted, and the City Council became majority Hispanic.

Mr. Garcia hopes the megamarch will produce similar results. "We had 500,000 people that marched for immigrants' rights on April 9," he said, "but that march won't mean much unless we translate those people into votes."

E-mail ftrejo@dallasnews.com

ON THE MOVE
March 27-29 – Thousands of students walk out of classes throughout North Texas to protest immigration proposals.

April 9 – As many as 500,000 people crowd into downtown Dallas in the city's largest civil rights protest.

June 12 – LULAC's first gay council is launched in Dallas.

Sept. 9 – A coalition of organizations plans "MegaVoto" rally at City Hall Plaza.

Sept. 16 – Several organizations will hold voter registration drives throughout city in what is being called the Day of the Latino Vote.

Nov. 7 – The first general election since April's "megamarch."

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/local/stories/081706dnmetmegamarchfolo.2964fe4.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:37 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Aug. 20, 2006, 6:18PM

When it comes to schools, Texas parents know best

Let them decide instead of politicians and bureaucrats

By DR. JAMES LEININGER

THERE are two sides to the school choice debate. On one side are those who believe politicians and government are best suited to make decisions for our children; on the other are people who believe parents are best suited to choose what is best for their children.

ADVERTISEMENT


School choice is just that: a chance for parents to choose the best school for their own child. The school choice option being considered in Texas would give parents in large urban school districts the option of changing schools if they prefer and if seats are available. If parents do not want to change or there are no seats available at other public or private schools, everything simply stays as it is today.

When wealthy Texas parents are not satisfied with the school their child attends they have a choice ˜ they move to a better school district or send their child to a private school. For most hard-working Texans, this choice does not exist because they simply cannot afford it. But all parents deserve the right to chose what is best for their child.

It is no comfort to parents who want to send their children to a different school to hear that their child's school will "eventually" improve. Parents and their children cannot afford to wait for their schools to improve; children either learn and develop today or, in most cases, stay a step behind forever.

Generations of Texas children and parents have found themselves with no educational options because they are not rich enough to change addresses or to pay private school tuition. Giving parents the choice of exploring better educational options today with the tax dollars they already pay puts our public policy where it properly belongs ˜ on the side of children hungry to learn and on the side of parents' ability to direct that learning.

There are many reasons why a parent might want to choose a different school for their child. Their current local school may be underperforming; or it may be unsafe and have gang or drug activity. Parents, knowing their own child better than anyone else, may want to choose a school that emphasizes music or the sciences or that has created a more structured academic or behavioral setting. Our public policy should allow the broadest possible menu of educational options because, finally, it is what is best for children that is most important.

Opponents of school choice claim that allowing parents to choose schools will drain money from the public system. This is factually wrong. The school choice pilot program will not be paid for from public education funds. It bears repeating ˜ not one penny will be taken from the Texas education system in order to give parents the choice of the best school for their child. Public education will continue to be funded at the same or greater levels and funding per pupil actually increases. Furthermore, any tax dollars, paid by Texans and spent on educating Texas children, must be tied to accountability measures.

The proposed Texas school choice pilot program is limited to large urban districts with a majority of students who are educationally and economically disadvantaged. To be clear, supporters of school choice support improving all schools. Academic research from scholars at Harvard University shows that school choice programs improve student learning for students choosing to transfer and for those remaining in the public system.

Giving all parents the same ability to find the best school for their child gives power to parents to fulfill to the needs of their children. Under such choice programs, schools are no longer able to take students for granted, but instead must compete to convince parents that they will do the best job in educating their children.

Our campaign has recently funded hundreds of billboards and radio ads inviting parents to participate in education policy and to help enact school choice because parents think first of what is best for their children and because these parents should have the strongest voice in this important public policy debate.

For too long too many legislators have denied parents educational choices while sending their own children to private schools. It's past time that low-income parents had the same education options as the politicians who represent them. It's time to give all parents a choice and every child a chance.

Leininger, a doctor and businessman living in San Antonio, has funded private scholarships for low-income children in San Antonio and other Texas cities and has advocated enactment of school choice programs in Texas for more than 10 years.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4129345.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:25 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Aug. 15, 2006, 9:51PM


Local Democrats blast national party panel over campaign spot
Ad mixes Osama bin Laden's image with 2 Hispanics climbing a fence

By ZEKE MINAYA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Harris County Democrats denounced their own party Tuesday after joining the national outcry over a political ad they said equates Hispanic immigrants with terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

The 35-second ad is posted on the Web site of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and attempts to show the failings of Republican leadership on the issue of national and international security. The ad mixes images of bin Laden, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with footage of two people scaling a fence while the screen flash the words "millions more illegal immigrants."

What began as an attempt to wrestle the traditionally Republican-dominated issue of security away during a hotly contested election year, instead risks driving Hispanic voters away from the Democratic Party, said Houston Councilwoman Carol Alvarado.

"You cannot compare people who come over for economic opportunities to people who are coming over to terrorize our country," she said. "They should not be in the same message, same video or even in the same conversation."

Alvarado wrote the committee chair, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to urge the removal of the ad and warn that the "Democratic Party can only stand to lose by alienating millions of Latino voters."

Gerry Birnberg, chair of the Harris County Democratic Party, also wrote Schumer and called for an end to donations to the campaign committee. "Give money to the candidates but not the (committee), because they are just wasting it," he said.

Birnberg and Alvarado said they agreed with the majority of the ad and its overall criticism of Republican leadership.

"The (committee) is correct in criticizing the Republicans," Birnberg said, "but (they were) over the top and out of line when they suggested that people coming to this country to work are somehow equivalently evil and dangerous as a madman terrorist."

The ad has produced a rare instance of bipartisan agreement during an election year. Hispanic Republicans have also attacked the ad. The Associated Press reported that Pedro Celis, chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said in a statement Tuesday that the DSCC should remove the ad because it vilifies illegal Hispanic immigrants and is ''appalling.''

Calls to Schumer's offices were not immediately returned.

zeke.minaya@chron.com


This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4119855.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:11 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Sunday, August 13, 2006

What's in a test? by Charles Murray, DALLAS MORNING NEWS

Deception and denial, when it comes to No Child Left Behind


Test scores are the last refuge of the No Child Left Behind Act. They have to be, because so little else about the act is attractive.

NCLB takes a giant step toward nationalizing elementary and secondary education, a disaster for federalism.

It pushes classrooms toward relentless drilling, not something that inspires able people to become teachers or makes children eager to learn. It holds good students hostage to the performance of the least talented at a time when the economic future of the country depends more than ever on the performance of the most talented.

The one aspect of the act that could have inspired enthusiasm from me, promoting school choice, has fallen far short of its hopes. The only way to justify NCLB is through compelling evidence that test scores are improving.

So let's talk about test scores.

The case that NCLB has failed to raise test scores had been made most comprehensively in a report from the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, released just a few weeks ago. The Civil Rights Project has an openly liberal political agenda, but the author of the report, Jaekyung Lee, lays out the data in graphs that anyone can follow, subjects them to appropriate statistical analyses and arrives at conclusions that can stand on their scholarly merits: NCLB has not had a significant impact on overall test scores and has not narrowed the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap.

Is it too early to tell? As a parent who has had children in public schools since NCLB began, I don't think so. The Frederick County, Md., schools our children have attended have turned themselves inside out to try to produce the right test results, with dismaying effects on the content of classroom instruction and devastating effects on teacher morale. We actually lost our best English teacher to the effects of high-stakes testing. "I want to teach my students how to write," he said, "not teach them how to pass a test that says they can write." He quit.

So, yes, I think that if we parents have had to put up with these kinds of troubling effects on our children's schooling for four years, we are entitled to expect evidence of results. After all, "accountability" is NCLB's favorite word, and the Department of Education is holding school systems accountable for improvements in test scores with a vengeance. Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

The Department of Education will undoubtedly produce numbers to dispute the findings of the Civil Rights Project, which brings me to the point of this essay. Those numbers will consist largely of pass percentages, not mean scores. A particular score is deemed to separate "proficient" from "not proficient." Reach that score, and you've passed the test. If 60 percent of one group – blondes, let's say – pass while only 50 percent of redheads pass, then the blonde-redhead gap is 10 percentage points.

A pass percentage is a bad standard for educational progress. Conceptually, "proficiency" has no objective meaning that lends itself to a cutoff. Administratively, the NCLB penalties for failure to make adequate progress give the states powerful incentives to make progress as easy to show as possible. A pass percentage throws away valuable information, telling you whether someone got over a bar, but not how high the bar was set or by how much the bar was cleared. Most important: If you are trying to measure progress in closing group differences, a comparison of changes in pass percentages is inherently misleading.

Take the case of Texas, from which George Bush acquired his faith in NCLB. As the president described it to the Urban League in 2003: "In my state, Texas, 73 percent of the white students passed the math test in 1994, while only 38 percent of African-American students passed it. So we made that the point of reference. We had people focused on the results for the first time – not process, but results. And because teachers rose to the challenge, because the problem became clear, that gap has now closed to 10 points." President Bush's numbers are accurately stated. They are also meaningless.

Any test that meets ordinary standards produces an approximation of what statisticians call a "normal distribution" of scores – a bell curve – because achievement in any open-ended skill such as reading comprehension or mathematics really is more or less normally distributed. The tests that produce anything except a bell curve are usually ones so simple that large proportions of students get every item correct. They hide the underlying normal distribution but don't change it.

Thus point No.1, that using easy tests and discussing results in terms of pass percentages obscure a reality that NCLB seems bent on denying: All the children cannot be above average. They cannot all even be proficient, if "proficient" is defined legitimately. Some children do not have the necessary skills.

Point No.2 goes to the inherent distortions introduced by the use of pass percentages: Because of the underlying normal distribution, a gain in a given number of points has varying effects on group differences depending on where the gain falls.

To illustrate point No.2, consider a test that has a hundred-point scale with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 15 (the standard deviation, a measure of the variability of the scores, tells you how tall and skinny or how short and broad the bell curve will be). How many students are involved when a range of, say, 10 points is at issue? The shaded areas in Figure 1 show two possibilities.

The total area under the bell curve includes all the students. The shaded area on the left includes all those with a score of 40 to 49 points – 24.8 percent of all students, if the distribution is perfectly normal. The shaded area on the right includes all those with a score of 80 to 89 points – just 1.9 percent of all students. Suppose we are still comparing redheads and blondes. If the mean score of redheads goes from 40 to 50, it has risen all the way from the 25th to the 50th percentile of all students. If the blonde mean goes from 80 to 90, it has moved merely from the 98th to the 99th percentile of all students.

You do not have to be a statistician to see that these built-in features of normally distributed scores – gains that are equal in points are not equal in the number of students they affect or in the percentile distances that students move – complicate the use of pass percentages when comparing groups.

If you want to get deeper into the math, you may visit a quirky and provocative Web site, www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com, run by someone who calls himself La Griffe du Lion. I surmise that he is an established scholar – a quantitative discipline seems likely – who once published on the fraught topic of group differences, learned how unpleasant and even professionally perilous that can be and decided to remain anonymous henceforth. In any case, his technical skills are first rate. Click on the topic line entitled "Closing the Racial Learning Gap" for a much more detailed version of the argument and data that I am presenting here.

For our purposes, you need know only this: If the real difference between two groups, measured as it should be with means and standard deviations, remains constant, the size of the pass-percentage gap between two groups changes nonlinearly in a mathematically inevitable way. In other words, if there really is a constant, meaningful difference between groups, you can generate a curve that predicts how the point gap will change as tests are made easier or harder or as students become more or less competent. La Griffe has done this, and his curve fits the Texas data almost perfectly. In Figure 2, the white pass rate is used as the basis for predicting the size of the white-black gap. The circles represent the observed sizes of the test score gap from 1994 to 2002.

Test scores in Texas went up for both blacks and whites. Maybe that's good news, representing real gains in learning for everyone, or maybe it's not so good, representing the effects of teaching to the test. The data Texas reports do not permit a judgment. But the black gains are almost exactly what would be predicted if the magnitude of the underlying black-white difference remained unchanged. If there really was closure of the gap, all that Texas has to do is release the group means, as well as information about the black and white distributions of scores, and it will be easy to measure it. Whatever the real closure may be, however, it cannot come close to the dramatic reduction that Mr. Bush found in the difference between black and white pass rates.

In this instance, the percentage-passed measure misleadingly showed a huge reduction in the black-white achievement gap. But look at the lefthand side of the curve. In a state that imposes tough standards – for example, one that establishes a threshold that only 40 percent of whites pass – across-the-board improvements in scores can misleadingly show an increase in the white-black achievement gap when none occurred.

Question: Doesn't this mean that the same set of scores could be made to show a rising or falling group difference just by changing the definition of a passing score? Answer: Yes.

At stake is not some arcane statistical nuance. The federal government is doling out rewards and penalties to school systems across the country based on changes in pass percentages. It is an uninformative measure for many reasons, but when it comes to measuring one of the central outcomes sought by No Child Left Behind, the closure of the achievement gap that separates poor students from rich, Latino from white and black from white, the measure is beyond uninformative. It is deceptive.

Charles Murray, W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author, most recently, of "In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State." This essay first appeared in The Wall Street Journal. His e-mail address is cmurray@aei.org.


Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-murray_13edi.ART.State.Edition1.2bdf91f.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:53 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Texas will soon require schools to spend at least 65 percent of their budgets on direct classroom costs. Another interesting experiment. -Angela

Aug 15, 2006
Modified: Aug 15, 2006 3:43 AM
Schools debate classroom spending rules

By APRIL CASTRO, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Linda Buffe can't imagine taking on another role at work.
She's already the superintendent, bus driver, counselor and special education teacher at the tiny Malone school district near Waco. But now she also has a bit part in a national debate over public school spending.

Texas is one of three states that will soon require schools to spend at least 65 percent of their budgets on direct classroom costs such as teachers and textbooks. Several other states also are moving toward adopting the measure. The idea was to spend more money on children without raising taxes.

But Buffe, like educators across the state, is stumped about where she can cut administrative costs.

"I don't know how much more we can cut those services and still maintain what we have to have," Buffe said. "I do a lot of praying."

Internet retail millionaire Patrick Byrne, founder of the political group First Class Education, kickstarted the movement and wants the so-called "65 percent solution" to be implemented in all 50 states by the end of 2008.

It's now required in Georgia, and Louisiana school officials are working on a similar requirement. Petition drives and television ad campaigns have led to ballot referendums this November in Colorado and Oklahoma. Efforts for 2008 ballot referenda are under way in Washington, Arizona, Missouri and Kansas.

Instructional materials such as laptops and field trips are considered classroom costs under the most widely accepted definition. Transportation, counselors and nurses are not.

"It's simply criminal that superintendents are making well above $200,000-a-year, driving Lexuses and BMWs, when teachers are paying for pencils and paper out of their own pockets," said Tim Mooney, spokesman for First Class Education.

Buffe, who makes about $71,000 a year, is among the administrators and educators who have criticized the proposal because there's little scientific research to back up claims that increased classroom spending improves test scores.

"There certainly doesn't seem to be any research that says spending in these categories means students are going to be more successful; it's one-size-fits-all politics," said Richard Kouri, a lobbyist for the Texas State Teachers Association.

Critics say shifting more money into the classroom will mean cuts to other programs, like nursing, counseling and transportation.

"It's a catchy line, a catchy proposal," said Mary Fulton, a policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States. "On the face of it, it's hard to be against it. It becomes more complicated when you really look into it."

Experts also said the requirement will be tough for small and rural districts.

"Look at some of the big rural isolated districts in Texas; they have really high transportation costs," Fulton said. "There are a lot of differences (among school districts) and Texas is along those lines."

A memo from Mooney to state politicians suggests Republican politics are just as important to the group as the issue.

He claimed the proposal will help policy makers by creating an issue on which school administrators and teachers might disagree. It also could help Republican politicians seem more credible on education issues, eventually helping them adopt more contested policies like private-school vouchers, Mooney said in the memo.

"Once additional fixing and funding of public education can be achieved ... voters may be more greatly predisposed to supporting voucher and charter school proposals, as Republicans address the voting public with greater credibility on public education issues," Mooney wrote.

For Texas, increasing the spending average will redirect about $1 billion into the classroom over the next two years, according to a review of 2004-05 spending data.

That's enough money to give each Texas public school teacher a $4,000 pay raise or hire almost 30,000 new teachers at a salary of $40,000. Or buy an $800 laptop for every public high school student in the state.

But that money might have to be shifted away from such programs as nursing and food services.

"You have to look at the things that might have to be cut by the school district to get to the 65 percent," said Joydeep Roy, an economist who specializes in education issues at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "You're making a choice between things that are going to be cut and instructional services that are going to be added."

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:52 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Marketing the Best Schools
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; 10:54 AM

I try to avoid anything having to do with school district administration. I consider myself a classroom reporter, watching what the best teachers do to help children learn. To me, school board meetings are death. Interviews with school district superintendents aren't much better.

But a new report dissecting the KIPP Foundation, a very unusual kind of school administration, has reached me, and I am obliged to stifle my boredom with back-office details and reveal what it says. KIPP, short for Knowledge Is Power Program, is the most interesting initiative in American public education at the moment, and I have tried to be first with any important news about KIPP founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin and their growing number of teachers and students.

The intriguing part of this report, "The KIPP Schools: Deciding How to Go to Scale," by Howard Husock for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, is its exploration of the relationship between the 52 KIPP schools in inner city and rural neighborhoods and the clothing store magnates, Doris and Don Fisher, who have bankrolled the foundation. They have left KIPP administrators a free hand and KIPP has set up an intriguing mechanism to rein in the schools that are not performing to the level they want. The Fishers created the GAP stores. I don't shop there, but I have worn some GAP items that I stole from my children's closets. They were comfortable, and I figure the Fishers must be smart because they are worth several hundred million dollars.

I did not realize until I read Husock's report, available at www.ksgcase.harvard. edu how powerful a brand name can be for a public charter school and how control of that name can be used to maintain high learning standards just as it is more commonly used to make sure the buttons on the front of my jeans don't fall off.

Levin and Feinberg had been building their schools for five years when Scott Hamilton, a new breed of educational entrepreneur, told the Fishers in 1999 that if they wanted to back a program with the best hope of improving public education, they ought to put their money on KIPP. Like all such initiatives, this was a big risk. Feinberg's fifth-to-eighth grade KIPP Academy in Houston and Levin's similar school in the South Bronx had produced the highest test scores in their areas for very disadvantaged children with a nine-and-a-half-hour school days, required homework, required summer school, trips, games, competitions and very energetic teaching. But they had only two schools with a total of about 600 children. Many small but hopeful school experiments like that had shriveled away, and there was no guarantee that KIPP would make much of an impact on the sluggish behemoth that is public education in inner city America.

Nonetheless, the Fishers handed Feinberg, Levin and Hamilton $15 million, since raised to about $25 million. Don Fisher told them, "I don't want to do something that just touches a few people. I want to be able to do something that can be expanded in size to do something major in public education." When Fisher asked if they really thought they could do that, Levin replied, "Well, Mr. Fisher, we're not sure, but we'd be more than happy to use your money to find out."

In April 2000, when they got the money, Feinberg was 31, Levin was 30 and Hamilton was 35. None of them had any business experience. They had no interest in running a network of for-profit schools, as Edison Schools Inc. had been doing. They also did not think the GAP's method of owning and operating each of its stores would work, because they could not attract the most creative principals unless they gave them the power to innovate in their schools just as Feinberg and Levin had done.

So they decided to use the money to recruit and train the best school leaders possible, and give them much control over not only how their school would be run, but what city it would be in. The first three principals they selected were Susan Schaeffler, Caleb Dolan and Dan Caesar. Caesar was happy to start a second KIPP school in Houston, where he was teaching, as the foundation asked him to, but when the foundation asked Schaeffler and Dolan to start KIPP schools in Atlanta, each refused. Schaeffler wanted her school in Washington, D.C., where she had been teaching and had family. Dolan wanted his in rural Gaston, N.C., where he was teaching. True to the new independent operator vision for KIPP, the foundation leaders said fine, and quickly saw several reasons why the District and Gaston would be great for KIPP.

John Kanberg, the foundation's chief legal counsel, calls this the "Johnny Appleseed" or "GM-certified mechanic" approach. They pick the best and most ambitious teachers they can find, give them a year's training (called a Fisher Fellowship) in school management, finance and the methods that had worked best for Feinberg and Levin, and then have them set up their school, usually as a public charter that lets them tap tax dollars but follow their own rules.

It has become clear that the KIPP name, and the favorable publicity associated with it, is a powerful tool in winning approval for these charter applications and recruiting good teachers. KIPP schools have been featured on "60 Minutes" and "Oprah." The achievement results from the schools continues to be impressive. So the foundation leaders have constructed a device giving them some leverage on those few occasions when a school proves to be a disappointment.

Husock, who has just become vice president for policy research at the Manhattan Institute, provides the full text of the KIPP Foundation's 10-page Trademark License Agreement for the 2005 to 2006 academic year. Husock said, "The agreement gave the foundation the right to inspect the operation of the school, review its results, and call for 'corrective action,' if found to be needed. What's more, if the school were found to be failing in either financial or educational ways -- the latter defined in terms of the number of students who were performing below appropriate grade levels on standardized tests -- it could take more drastic action," such as revoking the KIPP name. The foundation began a series of school inspections based on Hamilton's experience overseeing charter schools in Massachusetts.

The results from the five oldest KIPP middle schools, those started by Feinberg, Levin, Caesar, Dolan and Schaeffler, are so exceptional that many communities are begging for their own KIPP school. Houston KIPP officials have plans for as many as 40 schools in the next 10 years. The mostly low-income students in those five first schools who entered KIPP fifth grade in 2001 and graduated from eighth grade in 2005 improved on average from the 46th to the 80th percentile in reading and math. Students entering KIPP are now starting at even lower levels of achievement, about the 28th percentile on average. The other 47 KIPP schools, including an elementary school and two high schools, are mostly showing good results, although it will take a long time before most people who understand how schools work are satisfied that the data is solid and reveals an approach that will make a significant difference in the country.

The foundation has used the licensing agreement five times to defrock schools that KIPP did not think were moving in a promising direction. Two schools lost the right to use the KIPP name but continued as public charter schools -- the KIPP SAC Prep because the Sacramento, Calif., school wanted more local control than KIPP would allow and the KIPP PATH Academy in DeKalb County, Ga., because of what KIPP officials told Husock were "philosophical differences." The KIPP Achieve Academy in Atlanta lost the name because of financial problems and was closed by the local district at the end of this school year. Foundation officials said non-charter KIPP schools in Chicago and Asheville, N.C., lost the name in June because of relative low student enrollment and KIPP unhappiness with restrictive district contracts. The Chicago school also had disappointing test scores. Both will be folded next year into district schools housed in the same buildings.

How much this system will effect the growth of more KIPPs is uncertain. But the schools are now in 16 states, and have an open door policy for anyone who wants to take a look around. Whenever I am in a KIPP city, I try to stop by. When assessing a growing new franchise, it is always useful to see exactly what they are selling.

© 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/15/AR2006081500423.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:48 PM 0 comments Links to this post

California is revisiting the viability of bilingual education in the form of SB 1769 sponsored by state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier). I'm so glad to see this. Spanish is not a foreign language, but very much interwoven into our nation's fabric.

-Angela

Proposal Revives Bilingual Education Debate
A state Senate bill would add special reading and writing lessons for English learners. Foes say measure would lead to unequal standards.
By Carla Rivera
Times Staff Writer

August 11, 2006

Several politicians and educators called on the governor Thursday to support legislation that would allow school districts to include extra reading and writing lessons for elementary students struggling to learn English, in a debate that has rekindled California's dormant language wars.

The bill, SB 1769, sponsored by state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), additionally would restore about $1.6 million in funding for the state Board of Education that was eliminated in the 2006-07 budget, when a compromise could not be reached on textbook criteria.

Supporters of the bill argue that recently adopted standards for textbook materials do not address the needs of California's 1.6 million English learners, who trail their English-speaking counterparts on standardized test scores.

The new standards will govern textbook materials for elementary and middle school students from 2008 through 2014. They call for a curriculum of English and reading lessons geared to all students during the regular class period, plus an additional hour of instruction targeted at English learners.

Supporters of the legislation want to include an option allowing textbook publishers to submit materials designed to accelerate English reading, writing and comprehension skills for English learners during the regular class period, by incorporating more pictures and simple vocabulary.

Districts could choose to use the new materials, but they would not be mandatory. The Assn. of California School Administrators and more then 40 school districts have endorsed the legislation.

"Districts cannot continue to risk the development of literacy among English learners because of a lack of appropriate materials," Rosa Molina, associate superintendent of the San Jose Unified School District, said at a Sacramento news conference. "We want to move past the rhetoric and debate because we have the reality of children walking through our doors in September."

Escutia alluded to the politically charged nature of the debate. "There are people who look at this and say, 'Oh there she goes again with English learners, she must be pushing bilingual education,' but nothing could be further from the truth," Escutia said.

Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), chairwoman of the Assembly's Appropriations Committee, said that textbooks cost California $500 million, and she said the state can't afford to spend resources on books that don't address student achievement gaps.

The question of how best to teach English skills has devolved into a debate over bilingual education, a contentious issue in California. Opponents accuse the bill's supporters of fostering a bilingual approach and say it would lead to separate classrooms and unequal standards for English learners.

Proposition 227, which passed in 1998, mandates that all students learn to read and write in English. Ron Unz, who drafted that measure, said he suspects that SB 1769 is a stealthy attempt to bypass some of its provisions.

"I'm awfully suspicious that this may, in fact, represent an attempt to sneak bilingual education back into California through the back door," said Unz, a Palo Alto software developer who is chairman of the group English for the Children. "All of the leading people pushing this effort were among the leading advocates of bilingualism."

It is a politically sensitive issue for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself an immigrant, who has spoken of his struggle to learn English. And recently, former Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis sent an open letter to Schwarzenegger expressing their support for uniform standards and defending the state board's English-language curriculum.

The governor has taken no formal position on the legislation but is concerned that it might lead to isolating students based on their language ability, said spokeswoman Margita Thompson.

"He fears that using separate books and curriculum for subjects that all students take will lead to segregating and separating kids just because English is not their first language," Thompson said.

The governor is open to working with Latino legislators to explore other options, including after-school programs or supplemental materials to assist students, said Thompson. He has also included $20 million in this year's budget for a pilot project to help identify the best teaching practices for English learners.

Schwarzenegger is also intent on restoring funding to the state board and its nine staff members, whose salaries have been picked up by the administration and the state Department of Education. Roger Magyar, the board's executive director, said his office is continuing to function but that the impasse threatens to hamper other critical work such as overseeing the state's testing system and implementation of the education code.

He said the board is not inclined to give in to the demands of SB 1769 supporters but is hoping for some sort of compromise.

"Perhaps," Magyar said, "we can give some instructions to publishers to help clarify issues and bridge some of the gap."


Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-english11aug11,1,3733437.story?coll=la-news-learning

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:42 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Kids' English fluency flourishes
Language skills soar in young Spanish speakers, while adults falter

By David Washburn
and Danielle Cervantes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER / RESEARCH ANALYST
August 15, 2006

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune

Diana Citron taught her 11th grade English Language Development class yesterday at San Ysidro High School. Attending her class were Brenda Bedoy, 16, (left) and Wendy Gonzalez, 14. English skills have been improving for children from Spanish-speaking households.
School-age children from Spanish-speaking households in San Diego County and throughout California are gaining English fluency at record rates, while fluency among adults – especially seniors – is slipping, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.
From 2000 to 2005, San Diego County's percentage of children ages 5 to 17 from Spanish-speaking households who speak English “very well” has jumped to 71 percent from 60 percent.

Meanwhile, English fluency among adult Spanish speakers dropped from 50 percent in 1990 and 2000 to 48 percent in 2005. The census reports a more precipitous decline for those 65 and older. The fluency rate for this group dropped from 45 percent in 1990 to 35 percent in 2005.
Statewide, English fluency rates among Spanish-speakers across all age groups largely mirror those in San Diego County.

These divergent trends materialized while the number of Spanish-speaking immigrants increased at identical 12-percent clips locally and statewide during the first half of the decade, according to the Census Bureau. San Diego County was home to roughly 35,000 more foreign-born Spanish speakers in 2005 than in 2000.

The data comes from the 2005 American Community Survey, part of the Census Bureau's effort to modernize the decennial census and provide annually updated socio-economic data.

Numbers on language ability, experts say, can be explained by both a big push among school districts to boost English fluency and larger, more established immigrant communities in San Diego County where adults have an increasingly easier time getting by with only basic English, or none at all.

This phenomenon has demographers, community leaders and school officials at once rejoicing and wringing their hands.

Fluency will give Latino youths better chances at college degrees and good-paying jobs, experts say. But their parents and grandparents, by not learning English, run the risk of becoming more isolated and stuck at the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.

“My first response when I saw this data was, 'Yahoo! We are going in the direction we need to be going,' ” said John Weeks, the director of San Diego State University's International Population Center. “Key to success in this country is fluency in English, and we see that happening with children of immigrants.”

Consider Abden Goméz, 16, and his family in San Ysidro.

Abden, his parents and four older siblings all immigrated here from Tijuana in 2004. Two years on, only Abden, a junior at San Ysidro High School, is proficient in English.

So in addition to keeping up with his course work, Abden has another, sometimes all-consuming, responsibility: family interpreter. If an English speaker phones the Goméz household, Abden is summoned. When his mother goes to the grocery store, he tags along to translate. Dad often will call from work with a question about an English word.


CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Silvia Sanchez washed dishes yesterday at Lola's Market-Deli in Carlsbad. Sanchez is one of a growing number of Spanish-speaking immigrants settling in the county.
Heads of households are responsible for responding to the census surveys, and reporting the English ability of other members of their household. The reporting method leaves open the possibility that heads of households will overstate the English-language ability of other household members.
School officials say the increase in fluency among students is real, and they credit new laws at the federal and state levels for the improvement.

Proposition 227, which California voters passed overwhelmingly in 1998, changed the focus of schools from bilingual education to an English-immersion model. Now, parents who want their English-language learners taught in a bilingual setting must go to the school and sign a waiver. Otherwise, the children are “immersed” in English in the regular classroom.

Since 2002, the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act has required schools to report test scores of English-language learners, and other special-needs children, in their own subgroup rather than lumping them in with the scores of all students.

Both laws have placed significant pressure on schools, and more specifically classroom teachers, to raise the English proficiency level of their students. If schools don't, they risk being cast as “underperforming” and face sanctions.

“Every teacher now realizes that we are all responsible for English learners,” said Alma Pirazzini, director of Academic Support Programs for the Sweetwater Union High School District. “Before, it was assumed that bilingual education programs would take care of them.”
The gains in English fluency over the past several years eventually should translate into better educational attainment among San Diego County Latinos, but the data does not show that yet. Countywide, nearly two-thirds of Latino adults 25 or older have not attended any college, according to the new census data.

“We've seen in the past children gaining language proficiency,” said Fernando Soriano, a professor of human development at Cal State San Marcos. “(But) there seems to be a wall that doesn't allow Hispanics to go beyond a few years of college.”

Soriano and other demographers acknowledge that because census takers only ask educational attainment questions of those 25 and over, they may be missing younger Latino adults who are attending college now and will show up as college educated in the coming years.

There is not as much optimism for gains in fluency for older adults who have come in recent years to San Diego County's established immigrant communities. Not only do they have less incentive to learn, but adult English-language learning programs have been cut from state and local budgets, said Deborah Reed, an economist for the Public Policy Institute of California.

“Studies have shown that a vast majority of Spanish-language adults want to learn English,” Reed said. “But if the programs aren't there, it's going to be one of those things you put off.”

Maritza Cruz, 27, a cook at Lola's Market-Deli in Carlsbad, wants to learn more English so she doesn't have to depend on her 11-year-old son to translate. Even though Cruz emigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, 10 years ago, she has failed to do so thus far.

She took a class once for five months and quit because “I didn't have much time,” she said, given the demands of work and family.

Now that her younger son is no longer a baby, Cruz plans to enroll in English as a Second Language classes at nearby Jefferson Elementary School next month.

Cruz and others like her face an uphill battle, experts say, because they lived for so long in an insulated immigrant community.

Olivia Rosillo calls such communities “capsules” that continue to expand and allow newcomers to exist within them.

“There are rigid boundaries,” said Rosillo, director of family therapy and social communications at the Villa Nueva Apartments, a low-income housing complex in San Ysidro. “They don't intermingle with Americans. How many people who don't speak English have American friends? They are segregated.”

That feeling of isolation has motivated young Abden Goméz to go from almost no English two years ago to the highest English language development class at San Ysidro High. He'll enroll in a standard English class next year.

After graduation Abden plans to enroll in Southwestern College and eventually become a U.S. customs agent.

“I like English, and I need it to work, because bilingual is better than one language,” he said. “It can pay more.”


Staff writers Chris Moran, Janine Zúñiga and Lola Sherman contributed to this report.

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20060815-9999-1n15speak.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:22 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Aug. 12, 2006

Appeals court upholds exit exam
STATE SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT HAILS RULING
By Dana Hull
Mercury News
The California Court of Appeal issued a ruling Friday that upholds the controversial California High School Exit Exam for the class of 2006.

But attorneys for a group of students who brought the suit said they would file a petition for review in the California Supreme Court within 10 days.

The legal back-and-forth has alternately frustrated and given hope to thousands of students, many of them English language learners, who are still struggling to pass the exam. In May, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled that many students had not had an equal opportunity to learn the material being tested; that decision has now been effectively overturned.

Friday's ruling by justices in the court's 1st District in San Francisco hands a huge victory to state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell, who was traveling in Phoenix but quickly arranged a teleconference with reporters. O'Connell has long argued that awarding diplomas to this year's seniors who failed the exit exam would hurt them more than help.

``The court's decision affirmed what I have long said: The purpose of an education is not to equip students with diplomas, but with essential skills they need to survive in a competitive global economy,'' said O'Connell, a former high school teacher. ``Students have a right to an education. They do not have a right to a diploma.''

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also issued a statement applauding the ruling and stressed that this year's state budget includes $75 million for support services to help students who are still struggling with the exam.

But the plaintiffs' attorneys said many of the measures designed to help students are too little and too late.

``As a result of this ruling, one of our clients will be unable to attend college at California State University,'' said attorney Arturo Gonzalez in a statement. ``In addition, the 40,000 students who have not passed the exit exam are unlikely to benefit from any remedial measure that might be implemented at this late date.''

Student advocates have argued that students, particularly those who attend schools in poor neighborhoods, often lack trained teachers and adequate textbooks and are being tested on material they were never taught.

But ``the skills tested on the CAHSEE are neither esoteric nor highly advanced,'' wrote the Court of Appeal panel in its ruling.

Students first take the exit exam as high school sophomores and can take it again as juniors and seniors if they are struggling to pass it.

They must earn a 60 percent score on a test of 10th-grade English skills and a 55 percent score on a test of math, which includes some algebra. In January, the pass rate for the Class of 2006 was 89 percent; state education officials said Friday that figure has inched up to 91 percent.

But just 83 percent of African-American students and 77 percent of English language learners have passed it.

Still, O'Connell defends the exam, saying all students should be held to the same high standard.

Contact Dana Hull at dhull@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-2706.

The Mercury News is pleased to let readers post comments about an article at the end of the article. Please increase the credibility of your post by including your full name and city when commenting.


http://www.mercurynews.com

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:24 PM 0 comments Links to this post

The Chancellor of the University System of Maryland cautions us that unless we address access to higher education, "our national ethos of social upward mobility will be lost and we will devolve into a two-tier society with a permanent underclass." -Angela

By William E. Kirwan
Monday, August 14, 2006; A13

A national security crisis is brewing, and if our country doesn't take immediate action, it could be devastating for the future of the United States.

Consider these facts: Worldwide, the United States ranks seventh in high-school completion rates and ninth in the percentage of high-school graduates who enroll in college. Of every 100 current eighth-graders in America, just 18 will receive a college degree during the next 10 years. Based on current participation and completion rates, the education pipeline reveals alarming holes.

The "prescription" for what ails education in this country enjoys widespread consensus: Improve the performance of our primary and secondary school students and provide access to affordable, high-quality higher education to more people. But how the country goes about filling this prescription is a matter of significant debate.

Clearly, a "fix" to the problem requires the combined and coordinated efforts of various sectors. Central to the effort, however, must be higher education. Higher education, after all, prepares the teachers for the schools and sets the standards for the degrees.

What should higher education do to help plug the holes in the education pipeline and enable our nation to address its most pressing long-term national security issue: the development of a robust and superbly educated workforce?

First, higher education must become more engaged in improving primary and secondary school performance. Colleges and universities need to encourage more students to pursue teaching careers and, in partnership with local school districts, better prepare prospective teachers with the content knowledge and pedagogy skills to succeed. Universities must work more effectively with the K-12 sector to ensure that student assessment in high school is closely aligned with college entrance requirements, and that the transition from high school to college is as seamless as advancement from 11th to 12th grade.

The best way to achieve such transformational changes is through so-called statewide K-16 councils, which bring educational leaders from all levels -- superintendents, principals, university presidents, deans -- together with business and community leaders on a regular basis to develop reform agendas. Such an approach is working in Maryland and a few other states.

As a second means of plugging the holes, state governments and higher education need to rethink the way they distribute financial aid. During the past two decades there has been a huge shift in the allocation of university-based aid, away from students with demonstrated financial need and toward high-ability students -- often from upper-middle-class families -- whom universities seek in order to improve their SAT profiles and "vanity" rankings. Too many low-income students are either discouraged from attending college or must work such long hours that their progress toward a degree is unreasonably delayed or, worse, terminated.

Fortunately, we have seen several "enlightened" universities -- including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University, the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland, College Park -- introduce programs to ensure that students from families at the lower end of the economic ladder can graduate debt-free. At the University System of Maryland, we recently adopted a policy requiring that students from families with the lowest levels of income graduate with the lowest debt. Planned expenditures on institutional need-based aid by USM institutions have increased more than 30 percent in the past year.

Finally, higher education -- especially public higher education -- must learn to operate with a more cost-conscious budget model. Most other sectors have experienced significant productivity gains through rigorous attention to cost containment. Higher education can no longer afford to ignore this strategy.

Investment of state funds in higher education on a per-student basis is at a 25-year low. It has fallen from about $7,100 in 2001 to just over $5,800 in 2005. As state investment on a per-student basis has declined, the tuition burden on students and their families has increased. In more than a quarter of our states, tuition revenue is now greater than the state's investment in its public colleges and universities. In the coming decades, areas such as health care, energy, and social services for an aging population will require an ever greater proportion of available tax dollars, accelerating the decline in public investment in higher education.

With that decline and without serious attention to cost containment, colleges and universities will face two highly undesirable alternatives: Accept more students at generally affordable tuition levels and see quality erode or protect quality by driving up tuition to levels that will be prohibitive for low-income students.

With the leadership of its Board of Regents, the University System of Maryland has incorporated cost containment as a formal part of its budget development process. These efforts have reduced the "bottom line" by more than $40 million for the system's 13 institutions during the past two years.

Filling the holes in America's education pipeline must become an urgent national priority. Nowhere is strong, unified action more necessary than at our colleges and universities. In partnership with others sectors, higher education must be held accountable for embracing its role and responsibilities to help improve K-12 education, increasing its need-based financial aid substantially, and containing costs more aggressively. If this doesn't happen, U.S. leadership in the global economy will erode. Perhaps even more threatening, our national ethos of social upward mobility will be lost and we will devolve into a two-tier society with a permanent underclass.

The writer is chancellor of the University System of Maryland.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company\http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/13/AR2006081300721.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:21 PM 0 comments Links to this post

TEA adds 241 schools with suspect scores

Campuses not likely to be part of inquiry into possible TAKS cheating
11:40 PM CDT on Friday, August 11, 2006

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News
Texas officials have released the names of 241 more schools with suspicious patterns in their test scores. But none are likely to be targeted in the upcoming round of state investigations into possible cheating.

The new list, released Friday, brings the total number of schools with suspicious scores to 699. That's almost one-tenth of all the Texas schools that administered the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in 2005.

Earlier, the Texas Education Agency had released the names of only 442 schools that had at least one classroom with suspicious scores.

But Caveon – the test-security company the TEA hired to look for cheaters – also looked for schools that had suspicious score patterns schoolwide. Because of differences in the ways Caveon analyzed the scores, some schools were flagged as suspicious schoolwide without raising red flags in any specific classroom.

DallasNews.com/Extra
Schools where Caveon found suspicious score patterns schoolwide

Schools where Caveon found suspicious score patterns in one or more classrooms

The TEA had not asked Caveon for the schoolwide list until The Dallas Morning News revealed its existence three weeks ago.

"We wanted to be able to look at all the schools as we think about how to move forward," spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said.

Later this month, a new task force will decide which of the schools with suspicious scores will be subject to on-site investigations by agency staff members. The TEA is tripling its number of investigators in anticipation of inquiries taking months to complete.

But TEA officials have said they do not consider campuses with suspect schoolwide patterns to be as high a priority as those with classroom-level anomalies.

"We think the original list is the one we need to focus on," Ms. Ratcliffe said.

Statistically, it is somewhat easier for an entire school to be flagged than for an individual classroom. That's because the margin of error in Caveon's analysis grows smaller as the number of students grows larger.

For example, if a 30-student classroom has three suspicious answer sheets, that could just be the result of random chance. But if a 3,000-student school had 300 suspicious answer sheets, that would raise a red flag.

The agency will formulate a recommendation on which schools to investigate in the coming weeks. The task force will make the final decision. Investigations are expected to begin in September.

Even with the new schools, Houston – the state's largest district – still has the most suspicious schools in the state, 83. Dallas, the second-largest district, is next with 49 schools.

On the previous, shorter list, Dallas had only 39 suspicious schools. Most area suburban districts also saw small increases in the number of schools making the list.

In other large urban districts, El Paso now has 20 schools on the list, Austin has 12, Fort Worth has 11, and San Antonio has six.

The new list also includes 16 schools that had suspicious classroom scores but were not included on the TEA's initial list.

Caveon looked for a variety of suspicious patterns in a school's test scores. For example, a classroom might be flagged if a large number of students had suspiciously similar answer choices on the TAKS. Large numbers of erasures on student answer sheets, unexpected gains in student performance, and unusual answer patterns could also earn a school a place on Caveon's list.

The suspicious schoolwide scores show some schools where test-security problems may be systemic. For example, in Dallas, several high schools had suspicious scores schoolwide in all four subjects tested – reading, math, science and social studies.

Those schools were A. Maceo Smith, Carter, Spruce, Kimball, Lincoln, Molina, Roosevelt, Samuell, South Oak Cliff and Sunset.

Well-off suburban districts continue to be flagged primarily for big jumps in test scores, mostly in their high schools. Many of those districts' superintendents have said those gains are the result of quality instruction, not cheating.

Urban districts were much more likely to be flagged for students who had identical or nearly identical answer sheets, suggesting that students were copying one another's answers on the high-stakes graduation TAKS test. Explanations for those patterns have been harder to come by.

E-mail jbenton@dallasnews.com

ON THE LIST
The Texas Education Agency has released the names of the 699 Texas schools that the test-security firm Caveon has identified as having suspect scores on the 2005 TAKS. The TEA initially identified only 442 of them. Here's how many schools in major North Texas districts appeared on the list.

Allen: 3 schools
Arlington: 4 schools
Carroll: 4 schools
Carrollton-Farmers Branch: 4 schools
Charter schools: 10 campuses
Coppell: 3 schools
Crowley: 5 schools
Dallas: 49 schools
DeSoto: 1 school
Fort Worth: 11 schools
Frisco: 3 schools
Garland: 3 schools
Grand Prairie: 4 schools
Grapevine-Colleyville: 5 schools
Highland Park: 3 schools
Hurst-Euless-Bedford: 3 schools
Kennedale: 1 school
Lake Dallas: 1 school
Lewisville: 11 schools
Lovejoy: 1 school
Mansfield: 1 school
McKinney: 6 schools
Mesquite: 4 schools
Plano: 13 schools
Ponder: 1 school
Richardson: 10 schools
Rockwall: 2 schools
Royse City: 1 school
Wilmer-Hutchins: 2 schools*
Wylie: 2 schools

*Wilmer-Hutchins has since been shut down.

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/081206dnmettakscheat.2126ecc.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:19 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Learning From Boston: A Bad School Made Good
Richard J. Murphy School shows how mayoral control and accountability can get results.

August 10, 2006

NEARLY 80% OF THE STUDENTS at Richard J. Murphy School, a worn but clean building in a neighborhood that's slightly more worn and slightly less clean, are poor. The vast majority are minorities. Many of them come from risky neighborhoods. In other words, Murphy is like many schools in Los Angeles — except that it's in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. And most of its students go on to astounding academic success.

Murphy School's standardized test scores have surged upward in the last seven years. Its students score in the top 5% in reading and math among all Boston schools. About 70% of them are promoted into one of Boston's three elite "exam schools," the coveted high school seats open only to students who get top scores on an entrance test.

Not every Boston school has improved as much as Murphy. Yet the transformations there illustrate how dramatically a strong system of mayoral control can change schools. Murphy has benefited from an unfettered mayor who envisions goals for the district and fights for the money to reach them; a strong superintendent who sets the standards and curriculum and demands results; and an empowered and talented principal focused on parents, teachers and students.

Of course, there are many successful schools in L.A. too, and they use some of the same strategies that have worked for Murphy. But the school's achievements can be directly linked to the change in accountability and attitude that mayoral control brings about. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to take some control of the L.A. Unified School District, which the state Senate will consider next week, doesn't go far enough in changing the culture — and the lines of responsibility — to have such an effect.

Like the neighborhood that surrounds the school, Murphy's 900-plus student body is ethnically mixed, with African Americans making up the single biggest group. Many of the students wear uniforms — a light blue shirt and khakis — that are so popular with parents that they will be mandatory in the fall.

Parental involvement is one area that has improved markedly under mayoral control. At Murphy, parents persuaded the school district to extend what was once an elementary school to eighth grade, as many other Boston schools have done. The extended grades provide students with long-term relationships with teachers and a more consistent program through their first nine years of education.

Like the rest of Boston public schools, Murphy has full-day kindergarten. It runs an academic after-school program for students whose parents work and gives them one-to-one help with their homework. This fall, like a growing number of elementary schools, it will offer pre-kindergarten.

Murphy's teachers, after some initial skepticism, appear to be thriving. Boston, like Los Angeles, has its own program to credential teachers. But in L.A., trainees are in charge of their own classrooms. In Boston, they work as aides to highly regarded teachers, learning by example and through feedback.

Even the district's centralized curriculum and strict standards are accepted as a day-to-day campus reality. One of the most striking features of Murphy School is to see those standards made manifest not only in the classrooms but in the library and hallways.

The standards are in black and white everywhere a visitor looks: The Boston curriculum puts great value on critical thinking and writing. Pictures and phrases glued to poster board aren't enough. Students must be able to articulate in writing not just their thoughts about literature and history but how and why they got their math answers. So student writing, along with student artwork, is posted everywhere at Murphy. Next to each piece of work is an excerpt from the city's learning standards, explaining how the assignment helped students master the goals.

Student achievement is encouraged in less subtle ways as well. During lunch, the students are asked to bring their books and spend 15 minutes reading after they've finished eating. It's more than an hour of extra reading each week, the teachers point out. The school holds Saturday sessions to prepare its students for the entrance tests to the exam schools.

Much of Murphy School's culture comes from Mary Russo, its principal. Russo is a passionate believer in parent involvement (if parents want school uniforms, they get them) and in a strong central curriculum, carried out by teachers who are continually trained by coaches and each other. Russo visits classrooms daily and gives weekly informal evaluations to each of the school's five dozen or so teachers.

These weren't easy transitions. When Russo arrived at Murphy seven years ago, teachers were accustomed to working in private, teaching what they wanted to teach and how they wanted to teach it, with no one looking over their shoulders. They were surprised when Russo asked them to provide a writing sample from each of their students and resentful when, appalled by the poor writing, she brought in a writing coach to train the teachers. She then sat in on the coaching sessions.

Because of the dramatic improvements at Murphy, it is among the Boston schools with the authority to make many of its own budget decisions. Last year, Murphy teachers decided to save money by doing without substitute teachers. Instead, they covered for each other when someone was out sick. And what did they decide to buy with the saved money? More time with teaching coaches.

It may sound like a minor detail, but the teachers' newfound respect for coaching — a practice that L.A.'s teachers would restrict under Villaraigosa's plan — shows just how much has changed in Boston schools since they came under mayoral control almost 15 years ago. That kind of change is possible in Los Angeles too. But it's more likely to happen when the mayor runs the schools.

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-ed-murphy10aug10,1,2665569,print.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:10 PM 0 comments Links to this post

State's teacher incentive pay plan ready to reward
Hundreds of campuses, including 78 in Dallas school district, invited to participate

11:40 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 9, 2006

By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – Let the classroom competition begin.

Texas' first full-fledged attempt to reward teachers for students' performance is under way this school year, with 1,162 public schools – 15 percent of all campuses – invited to participate in the state's new incentive pay plan.

Schools must let the state know today if they want a piece of the merit pay pie, and few are expected to turn down an offer that could fatten teachers' paychecks by $3,000 to $10,000 a year – if their students perform well on next spring's state assessment.

Proposed state grants for individual schools have already been posted by the Texas Education Agency, with amounts ranging from $40,000 at many elementary schools to $295,000 for one of the largest high schools in the state.

The Dallas school district has 78 schools on the list for grants, the largest a $230,000 grant to W.T. White High School. Other local districts – Arlington, Richardson, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Plano, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Mesquite, McKinney, Irving, Grand Prairie, Garland, Fort Worth and Duncanville – all had anywhere from one to a handful of campuses on the list.

Statewide, more than 33,000 teachers could get incentive pay from the $100 million Educator Excellence Fund if most districts opt to spread the money around and award the minimum bonus of $3,000.

"It will be a nice back-to-school present for a lot of teachers," said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the state agency.

DallasNews.com/Extra
Complete list of schools selected for the merit pay program (.pdf)

In Texas, the average teacher salary is just under $42,000.

The program is limited this year to schools that have a large proportion of low-income students. To be eligible, a school must be in the top half of campuses in the state with the highest percentages of "educationally disadvantaged" children.

Those schools were then evaluated based on their state performance ratings from last year. Schools qualified if they were rated "exemplary" or "recognized" – the top two grades in the accountability system – or if they were in the top quartile in math or reading improvements on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

Once school districts agree to participate in the program, educational teams on each campus will devise the specifics for doling out the money with an eye toward rewarding teachers who have the greatest impact on student achievement, as measured by this year's TAKS scores.

Dallas Independent School District spokesman Celso Martinez said the district is working on a plan to award the grant money.

"It's not going to be a complicated formula," Mr. Martinez said of the distribution. "It will be unique to each campus."

Mr. Martinez said performance would play a role in how the money is divvied up on some campuses.

"We're definitely working ... to ensure there's some equality," he said. "But at the same time, there has to be some performance-rated faction built in."

State Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley and her staff, who are drafting guidelines for the program, also will review and approve each of the plans submitted by schools that participate.

While state teacher groups opposed the merit pay scheme when it was approved by the Legislature in a special session in May, proponents of the idea said it was time for Texas to start rewarding its best teachers and thereby encourage them to remain in the classroom.

"This is the best way I know to show gratitude to those who do excellent work in the classroom," said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who authored the legislation that created one of the nation's largest incentive pay programs for educators.

"This will really make a difference for kids in high-poverty schools."

Brock Gregg of the Association of Texas Professional Educators, on the other hand, said it "makes no sense" to single out campuses with large numbers of poor students, and then give money only to those with higher performance ratings from the state.

"It seems like schools that are struggling more with their students ought to get some of that money," he said.

Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association said another problem is that the performance ratings are from 2005, nearly a year before the incentive plan was passed by the Legislature.

"Not only is this program heavily dependent on a single standardized test, but it is also based on work done by people who had no knowledge of the incentive pay plan at the time they performed their work," he said. "That defies the definition of an incentive."

Although the education agency originally proposed a minimum $60,000 grant for schools that qualify for merit pay, Ms. Ratcliffe said some smaller schools felt it would be difficult to distribute such a large sum in the coming school year.

So the minimum grant was dropped to $40,000, freeing up some of the funding and allowing an additional 200 campuses to participate.

At least 75 percent of the $100 million in incentive funds this year must be spent on teachers who teach core subjects measured by the TAKS. Schools will have discretion in distributing the other 25 percent, which could go to teachers in other subjects or school administrators.

Schools could not issue bonuses to employees whose primary responsibilities are in the athletic department.

The merit pay program will be expanded to other schools in the 2007-08 school year when total annual funding will reach $260 million. Bonuses in the second program will also be based primarily on student test scores. All districts will be eligible.

A $10 million pilot program was launched last year at the direction of Gov. Rick Perry, who has long advocated incentive pay for teachers. A total of 98 districts participated in the pilot program, which will continue this year.

Staff writer Tawnell D. Hobbs contributed to this report.

E-mail tstutz@dallasnews.com

ELIGIBLE SCHOOLS IN DISD
Dallas public schools invited by the state to participate in the Texas Educator Excellence Grant program:

$230,000
W.T. White High

$215,000
Carter High

$210,000
Hillcrest High

$170,000
Titche Elementary
Marcus Elementary
Lincoln High

$165,000
Frank Elementary
Casa View Elementary

$135,000
Hotchkiss Elementary
Urban Park Elementary

$130,000
Chavez Elementary
Ireland Elementary

$125,000
Kiest Elementary
Kahn Elementary
Preston Hollow Elementary
Winnetka Elementary

$120,000
Walker Vanguard Elementary
Medrano Elementary
Peabody Elementary
Donald Elementary
Mount Auburn Elementary
Reinhardt Elementary
San Jacinto Elementary
Tolbert Elementary
Blair Elementary

$100,000
Arcadia Park Elementary
Macon Elementary
Edison Learning Center Middle
Caillet Elementary
Moseley Elementary

$90,000
Seguin Elementary
Highland Meadows Elementary
Peeler Elementary
Reagan Elementary
Pershing Elementary
Conner Elementary

$75,000
Sanger Elementary
Bayles Elementary
Alexander Elementary
Rice Elementary
Allen Elementary
Ervin Elementary
Hogg Elementary
Carpenter Elementary
Rhoads Elementary
Dorsey Elementary
Cochran Elementary
Zumwalt Middle
Business and Management High
Health Professions High
Marsalis Elementary
Field Elementary

$60,000
Lee Elementary

$50,000
Earhart Elementary
Pease Elementary
Lisbon Elementary
Dunbar Elementary
Government/Law/Law Enforcement High
Science and Engineering High
Gooch Elementary

$45,000
Milam Elementary
Carr Elementary
City Park Elementary
Carver Elementary
Jill Stone Elementary
McMillan Elementary
De Zavala Elementary
MLK Elementary
Williams Elementary
Miller Elementary

$40,000
Arlington Park Elementary
Dade Elementary
Environmental Science Academy Middle School
James Learning Center Elementary
Rangel Middle
Harllee Elementary
Wheatley Elementary
Education and Social Service High

SOURCE: Texas Education Agency

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/081006dntexmeritpay.20b40a7.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:08 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Neil Bush was in the Houston papers from Mon through Thurs last week. Check out all the pieces and also the ignitelearning website at for upcoming events, testimonials, sample curriculum and "ignited" schools. Some are in the Austin area.

-Angela

Houston Chronicle News

HISD buys Neil Bush's software

Neil's deal
Chron Editorial Op-ed


Bush's software defended


Teachers' aid or cash cow?

Houston Press
Help a Bruddah Out


Houston Press
History for Dummies

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 7:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Also go to this website on American Community Survey in order to see how your community is changing. -Angela

August 15, 2006
Census Shows Growth of Immigrants /NYTimes
By RICK LYMAN
The number of immigrants living in American households rose 16 percent over the last five years, fueled largely by recent arrivals from Mexico, according to fresh data released by the Census Bureau.

And increasingly, immigrants are bypassing the traditional gateway states like California and New York and settling directly in parts of the country that until recently saw little immigrant activity — regions like the Upper Midwest, New England and the Rocky Mountain States.

Coming in the heart of an election season in which illegal immigration has emerged as an issue, the new data from the bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey is certain to generate more debate. But more than that, demographers said, it highlights one reason immigration has become such a heated topic.

“What’s happening now is that immigrants are showing up in many more communities all across the country than they have ever been in,” said Audrey Singer, an immigration fellow at the Brookings Institution. “So it’s easy for people to look around and not just see them, but feel the impact they’re having in their communities. And a lot of these are communities that are not accustomed to seeing immigrants in their schools, at the workplace, in their hospitals.”

By far the largest numbers of immigrants continue to live in the six states that have traditionally attracted them: California, New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois.

Immigrants also continue to flow into a handful of states in the Southeast, like Georgia and North Carolina, a trend that was discerned in the 2000 census.

But it is in the less-expected immigrant destinations that demographers find the most of interest in the new data.

Indiana saw a 34 percent increase in the number of immigrants; South Dakota saw a 44 percent rise; Delaware 32 percent; Missouri 31 percent; Colorado 28 percent; and New Hampshire 26 percent.

“It’s the continuation of a pattern that we first began to see 10 or 15 years ago,” said Jeff Passel, senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center, who has examined the new census data. “But instead of being confined to areas like the Southeast, it’s beginning to spill over into some Midwestern states, like Indiana and Ohio. It’s even moving up into New England.”

Over all, immigrants now make up 12.4 percent of the nation’s population, up from 11.2 percent in 2000. That amounts to an estimated 4.9 million additional immigrants for a total of 35.7 million, a number larger than the population of California.

Unlike the full census, which measures all population, the American Community Survey covers only what census officials call “household” population — that is, people living in households, rather than in “group quarters” like universities, long-term care facilities and prisons.

Thus, the 16 percent increase in immigrants since 2000 refers only to the household population. (The nation’s household population in 2005 was 288,378,137, up from 273,637,296 in 2000.)

From 1990 to 2000, the total population showed a 57 percent increase in the foreign-born population, to 31.1 million, from 19.8 million.

Still, the rise in the immigrant household population since 2000 seems to indicate that the blazing pace of immigration seen throughout the 1990’s has continued into the first half of this decade.

And along with the increase in the overall number of immigrants, the survey found an increase in the numbers who are not United States citizens — an estimated 2.4 million more since 2000. The survey did not try to distinguish between noncitizens in the country legally, like students or guest workers, and those in the country illegally.

Georgia and North Carolina, states that had already seen significant increases in their immigrant population in the 1990’s, continue to see rising numbers. In Georgia, for instance, foreign-born residents accounted for 7.2 percent of the state’s population in 2000, and 9 percent in 2005.

“We’ve been getting very diverse down here,” said Judy Hadley, statistical research analyst for the Georgia Office of Planning and Budget. “You name any country and we’ve got it.”

Ms. Singer pointed out that much of the growth in immigrants was in “suburban areas and a lot of other places that really have no history of immigration.”

Immigration was just one area covered by the first release of data from the American Community Survey, which also covered such demographic information as race, age, education and marital status.

The survey detected a significant increase in the number of Americans over age 25 who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher — 27.2 percent of that population in 2005 compared with 24.4 percent in 2000.

This contributes to what has been a half-decade surge in Americans’ educational attainment. In 1940, only 4.6 percent of Americans held a bachelor’s degree.

The survey found that the percentage of Americans who are 65 or over is shrinking, from 12.6 percent of the population in 1990 to 12.4 percent in 2000 and 12.1 percent in 2005.

Partly, this is driven by the huge influx in immigrants, who tend to be of working age or younger. But demographers caution against seeing this as a long-term trend.

“It’s more like the lull before the storm,” said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “Before long, the baby boomers are going to start getting into that age group in large numbers and the percentage will shoot up.”

The survey is intended as an annual bolster to the bureau’s constitutionally mandated census of the country’s population every 10 years. It began as a test program in 1996 and has gradually expanded to where it can now provide detailed data for nearly 7,000 geographic areas, including all Congressional districts and counties or cities of 65,000 or more.

In coming months, more data from the survey will cover income, poverty and housing.

Besides getting larger, the survey found shifts in the composition of the nation’s immigrant population.

“Essentially, it’s a continuation of the Mexicanization of U.S. immigration,” said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. “You would expect Mexicans to be increasing their share in places like Georgia and North Carolina, which already saw some increases, but they’ve also increased their share of the population, and quite dramatically, in states like Michigan, Delaware and Montana.”

More of America’s immigrants, legal or not, come from Mexico than any other country, an estimated 11 million in 2005, compared with nearly 1.8 million Chinese and 1.4 million Indians.

Conversely, the percentage of immigrants who were born in European countries has dropped sharply — 29.4 percent in the last five years, demographers say, because immigrants who came to the United States in the mid-20th century are now dying.

A study of this data by Mr. Passel for the Pew Hispanic Center showed that while 58 percent of the immigrants who arrived in the United States since 2000 settled in 5 of the traditional gateway states, 24 percent settled in 9 second-tier states (including Georgia, Massachusetts and Washington) and 11 percent found homes in 11 third-tier states, many of which have seen little immigration before (stretching from Connecticut to Minnesota to Nevada).

And while many of those first- and second-tier states saw the largest numbers of new arrivals from Mexico, Mr. Passel found, it was some of the third-tier states that saw the largest percentage increases: Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Two decades ago, demographers said, some 75 percent to 80 percent of new immigrants settled in one of the half-dozen gateway states and tended to stay there. Then, in the last 10 to 15 years, the pattern shifted and increasing numbers began to stay in the gateways briefly and then move. Now, they say, the pattern is that more immigrants are simply bypassing the gateways altogether.

“The biggest thing that drives immigration to specific destinations is that the immigrant already knows someone who is living there,” Mr. Camarota said.

The common pattern, demographers said, is that a handful of immigrants move to a new region from one of the gateway states and put down roots. Then, once settled, they become a pipeline for others in their family or their home village to move directly into the same area.

“It’s looking like what happens is that a person from a given community, say in Nicaragua, is getting established,” said Bob Coats, the governor’s census liaison in North Carolina. “And then they send word home that they have a good job and other people — neighbors, family members — come to join them and you have these enclaves of people from one country, one region, becoming established in the same area.”

Brenda Goodman contributed reporting from Atlanta for this article.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/us/15census.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:56 AM 0 comments Links to this post

August 15, 2006
Essay
How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate / New York Times

By LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS
Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.

This is a victory for public education and sends a message nationwide about the public’s ability to see through efforts by groups like the Discovery Institute to misrepresent science in the schools. But for those of us who are interested in improving science education, any celebration should be muted.

This is not the first turnaround in recent Kansas history. In 2000, after a creationist board had removed evolution from the state science curriculum, a public outcry led to wholesale removal of creationist board members up for re-election and a reinstatement of evolution in the curriculum.

In a later election, creationists once again won enough seats to get a 6-to-4 majority. With their changing political tactics, creationists are an excellent example of evolution at work. Creation science evolved into intelligent design, which morphed into “teaching the controversy,” and after its recent court loss in Dover, Pa., and political defeats in Ohio and Kansas, it will no doubt change again. The most recent campaign slogan I have heard is “creative evolution.”

But perhaps more worrisome than a political movement against science is plain old ignorance. The people determining the curriculum of our children in many states remain scientifically illiterate. And Kansas is a good case in point.

The chairman of the school board, Dr. Steve Abrams, a veterinarian, is not merely a strict creationist. He has openly stated that he believes that God created the universe 6,500 years ago, although he was quoted in The New York Times this month as saying that his personal faith “doesn’t have anything to do with science.”

“I can separate them,” he continued, adding, “My personal views of Scripture have no room in the science classroom.”

A key concern should not be whether Dr. Abrams’s religious views have a place in the classroom, but rather how someone whose religious views require a denial of essentially all modern scientific knowledge can be chairman of a state school board.

I have recently been criticized by some for strenuously objecting in print to what I believe are scientifically inappropriate attempts by some scientists to discredit the religious faith of others. However, the age of the earth, and the universe, is no more a matter of religious faith than is the question of whether or not the earth is flat.

It is a matter of overwhelming scientific evidence. To maintain a belief in a 6,000-year-old earth requires a denial of essentially all the results of modern physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology and geology. It is to imply that airplanes and automobiles work by divine magic, rather than by empirically testable laws.

Dr. Abrams has no choice but to separate his views from what is taught in science classes, because what he says he believes is inconsistent with the most fundamental facts the Kansas schools teach children.

Another member of the board, who unfortunately survived a primary challenge, is John Bacon. In spite of his name, Mr. Bacon is no friend of science. In a 1999 debate about the removal of evolution and the Big Bang from science standards, Mr. Bacon said he was baffled about the objections of scientists. “I can’t understand what they’re squealing about,” he is quoted as saying. “I wasn’t here, and neither were they.”

This again represents a remarkable misunderstanding of the nature of the scientific method. Many fields — including evolutionary biology, astronomy and physics — use evidence from the past in formulating hypotheses. But they do not stop there. Science is not storytelling.

These disciplines take hypotheses and subject them to further tests and experiments. This is how we distinguish theories that work, like evolution or gravitation.

As we continue to work to improve the abysmal state of science education in our schools, we will continue to battle those who feel that knowledge is a threat to faith.

But when we win minor skirmishes, as we did in Kansas, we must remember that the issue is far deeper than this. We must hold our elected school officials to certain basic standards of knowledge about the world. The battle is not against faith, but against ignorance.

Lawrence M. Krauss is a professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University.


Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/science/sciencespecial2/15essa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:28 AM 0 comments Links to this post

More from Stephen Krashen: As some of you are aware, a report was issued by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) condemning teacher education. The report assumes that the conclusions of the National Reading Panel are correct. Here are Richard Allington’s remarks on the NCTQ report. He has said it can be shared with "any and all." Richard Allington is the immediate past president of the International Reading Association.

ALLINGTON’s COMMENTS:

The kicker in the NCTQ report for me, at least, is
their assertion about the report of the NRP that: "No
subsequent work of serious scholarship has challenged
its findings" (p.8).

What about these published challenges?

Almasi, J. F., Garas, K., & Shanahan, L. (2002).
Qualitative research and the report of the national
reading panel: No methodology left behind? Elementary
School Journal, 107(1).

Camilli, G., Vargas, S., & Yurecko, M. (2003).
Teaching children to read: The fragile link between
science and federal education policy. Education Policy
Analysis Archives, 11(15), Retrieved, May 20, 2003.

Cunningham, J. W. (2001). The national reading panel
report. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(3), 326-335.

Garan, E. M. (2001). What does the report of the
national reading panel really tell us about phonics?
Language Arts, 79, 61-70.

Hammill, D., & Swanson, L. (2006). The nrp’s
meta-analysis of phonics instruction: Another point of
view. Elementary School Journal, 107(1), 331-339.

Hiebert, E. H., & Fisher, C. W. (2005). A review of
the national reading panel's studies on fluency: The
role of text. Elementary School Journal, 105(5),
443-460.

Krashen, S. (2001). More smoke and mirrors: A critique
of the national reading panel report on fluency. Phi
Delta Kappan, October, 119-123.

Pearson, P. D. (2004). The reading wars. Educational
Policy, 18(1), 216-252.

Pressley, M., & Allington, R. L. (1999). What should
educational research be the research of? Issues in
education: Contributions from educational psychology,
5(1), 1-35.

Pressley, M., Duke, N. K., & Boling, E. C. (2004). The
educational science and scientifically based
instruction we need: Lessons from reading research
and policymaking. Harvard Educational Review, 74(1),
30-61.

Samuels, S. J. (2002). Reading fluency: Its
development and assessment. In A.
Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to
say about reading instruction (3rd ed., pp. 166-183).
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Strauss, S. L. (2003). Challenging the NICHD reading
research agenda. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(6), 438-442.

Edmondson, J., & Shannon, P. (2002). The will of the
people. Reading Teacher,
55(5), 452-454.

Yatvin, J. (2002). Babes in the woods: The wanderings
of the national reading
panel. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(5), 364- 369.

Each of these blistering critiques was published in a
leading peer reviewed journal, something the NCTQ
cannot claim.

Then there are the book length critiques, published
after peer review by leading academic publishers
(again something NCTQ cannot claim).

Allington, R. L. (2002). Big brother and the national
reading curriculum: How ideology trumped evidence.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Coles, G. (2003). Reading the naked truth: Literacy,
legislation, and lies. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Smith, M. L., Miller-Kahn, L., Heinecke, W., & Jarvis,
P. F. (2004). Political spectacle and the fate of
American schools. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

I don't know how many research excellence awards these
various authors have received but I'll bet there are
at least 10 award recipients on the list. I don't know
how many of these folks have received funding from the
USDE/NICHD for their research but again I'll bet at
least 10 have (I know for a fact that at least 8
have). Virtually all of these authors serve on
editorail advisory boards of educational research
professional journals.

So what would the NCTQ authors consider "serious
scholarship"? These authors criticize the methodology
of the NRP from several points of view (meta-analysis
incorrectly done, meta-analysis results not correctly
interpreted, restriction to experimental methologies,
missed studies, etc.).

Perhaps the most common criticisms of the NRP report
are; the meta-analysis, done incorrectly yielded a
"small" effect size (ES) not a"moderate" effect size
as the report states (systematic phonics accounted for
only 4% of the variance in achievement using their
data and for only 1% of the variance when the
meta-analysis is done correctly. But neither suggests
phonics instruction as shown by the NRP report
produces much difference in reading outcomes; most
outcomes for phonics were observed only when subjects
read nonsense words or regular words from a list (no
effect on readinmg fluency or comprehension);
thatmost studies reviewed involved add-on, pull-out
interventions not reform of classroom lessons and so
few inferences can be drawn about what effects might
result from adding systematic phonics, or phonemic
awareness lesson to classroom instruction; that the
NRP reviewed only a subset of the research available
although they noted some dozen or so areas of research
that they felt needed to be reviewed.

So, in my view, you've got a poorly designed and
conducted study based on a widely criticized federal
report. Then, that "study" was sent directly to the
press and to deans with no peer review.

What the NCTQ did not investigate, but I would, is how
many of the people teaching these courses met the IRA
standards for reading/literacy professors (e.g.,
doctorate in reading/literacy) and how many were
education "generalists", graduate teaching assistants,
adjuncts, and so on?

Shame on AACTE for uncritically promoting the
distribution of this fundamentally flawed piece of
propaganda.

Dick Allington

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:16 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Scroll down and you can read about Schwartzenegger's acquisition of the English language provided by Stephen Krashen. -Angela

A state Senate bill would add special reading and writing lessons for English learners. Foes say measure would lead to unequal standards.
By Carla Rivera
Times Staff Writer

August 11, 2006

Several politicians and educators called on the governor Thursday to support legislation that would allow school districts to include extra reading and writing lessons for elementary students struggling to learn English, in a debate that has rekindled California's dormant language wars.

The bill, SB 1769, sponsored by state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier), additionally would restore about $1.6 million in funding for the state Board of Education that was eliminated in the 2006-07 budget, when a compromise could not be reached on textbook criteria.

Supporters of the bill argue that recently adopted standards for textbook materials do not address the needs of California's 1.6 million English learners, who trail their English-speaking counterparts on standardized test scores.

The new standards will govern textbook materials for elementary and middle school students from 2008 through 2014. They call for a curriculum of English and reading lessons geared to all students during the regular class period, plus an additional hour of instruction targeted at English learners.

Supporters of the legislation want to include an option allowing textbook publishers to submit materials designed to accelerate English reading, writing and comprehension skills for English learners during the regular class period, by incorporating more pictures and simple vocabulary.

Districts could choose to use the new materials, but they would not be mandatory. The Assn. of California School Administrators and more then 40 school districts have endorsed the legislation.

"Districts cannot continue to risk the development of literacy among English learners because of a lack of appropriate materials," Rosa Molina, associate superintendent of the San Jose Unified School District, said at a Sacramento news conference. "We want to move past the rhetoric and debate because we have the reality of children walking through our doors in September."

Escutia alluded to the politically charged nature of the debate. "There are people who look at this and say, 'Oh there she goes again with English learners, she must be pushing bilingual education,' but nothing could be further from the truth," Escutia said.

Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), chairwoman of the Assembly's Appropriations Committee, said that textbooks cost California $500 million, and she said the state can't afford to spend resources on books that don't address student achievement gaps.

The question of how best to teach English skills has devolved into a debate over bilingual education, a contentious issue in California. Opponents accuse the bill's supporters of fostering a bilingual approach and say it would lead to separate classrooms and unequal standards for English learners.

Proposition 227, which passed in 1998, mandates that all students learn to read and write in English. Ron Unz, who drafted that measure, said he suspects that SB 1769 is a stealthy attempt to bypass some of its provisions.

"I'm awfully suspicious that this may, in fact, represent an attempt to sneak bilingual education back into California through the back door," said Unz, a Palo Alto software developer who is chairman of the group English for the Children. "All of the leading people pushing this effort were among the leading advocates of bilingualism."

It is a politically sensitive issue for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself an immigrant, who has spoken of his struggle to learn English. And recently, former Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis sent an open letter to Schwarzenegger expressing their support for uniform standards and defending the state board's English-language curriculum.

The governor has taken no formal position on the legislation but is concerned that it might lead to isolating students based on their language ability, said spokeswoman Margita Thompson.

"He fears that using separate books and curriculum for subjects that all students take will lead to segregating and separating kids just because English is not their first language," Thompson said.

The governor is open to working with Latino legislators to explore other options, including after-school programs or supplemental materials to assist students, said Thompson. He has also included $20 million in this year's budget for a pilot project to help identify the best teaching practices for English learners.

Schwarzenegger is also intent on restoring funding to the state board and its nine staff members, whose salaries have been picked up by the administration and the state Department of Education. Roger Magyar, the board's executive director, said his office is continuing to function but that the impasse threatens to hamper other critical work such as overseeing the state's testing system and implementation of the education code.

He said the board is not inclined to give in to the demands of SB 1769 supporters but is hoping for some sort of compromise.

"Perhaps," Magyar said, "we can give some instructions to publishers to help clarify issues and bridge some of the gap."

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sent to the Guardian, August 11, 2006
Did Arnold kearn English by immersion? (no)

Arnold Schwarzenegger claims that he learned English
“by immersion, (taking) every opportunity to spend
time with friends who spoke English and practice
English all the time.” (“English classes for Hispanic
students branded as 'return to segregation',” August
11)

This is not quite accurate.

In a speech delivered in 2005, Schwarzenegger said
that soon after he came to the US (in 1968), he took a
number of classes in English as a second language at
Santa Monica Community College, and he described the
classes as excellent. He also had the advantage of a
basic education in Austria, in his first language.
The ESL classes, his education, and his real-world
experiences helped him understand his English-speaking
friends and take advantage of “immersion.”

Bilingual programs provide the same advantages to
children: Classes in English as a second language and
academic knowledge gained through the first language
help make instruction delivered in English much more
comprehensible.

This explains why research consistently shows
bilingual education to be more effective than
English-only approaches in helping children acquire
English. The same principles explain why Gov.
Schwarzenegger acquired English so rapidly and so well

Stephen Krashen

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 3:05 PM 0 comments Links to this post

These findings on the importance of teacher experience have enormous policy implications. -Angela

Poorest students get weakest teachers, national study finds

Web Posted: 08/11/2006 01:05 AM CDT

Jenny LaCoste-Caputo / S. A. Express-News Staff Writer
Nearly every state, including Texas, has been ignoring a federal law requiring them to monitor the number of inadequate teachers in the nation's poor and minority schools and come up with a strategy to make sure those students are getting the teaching they deserve, according to a report released Thursday by Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.
"Most states aren't acknowledging the disparity," said trust policy director Ross Wiener.

No Child Left Behind, the sweeping education reform signed into law by President Bush in 2002, mandates that states address the practice of disproportionately assigning inadequate teachers to work in the poorest schools.

Until July 7, however, when the U.S. Department of Education required states to present plans to remedy the problem, the federal government never enforced that portion of the law.

The lack of policing by the federal government has had profound results, according to the Education Trust study of plans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The study found that only three states reported all the required data and 40 did not analyze whether minority students were being shortchanged. Education Trust supports the goals of No Child Left Behind.

Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said Texas officials were collecting data but didn't have enough guidance from the feds.

"Now we're collecting it so it shouldn't be an issue in the future," she said. "We're doing our best to comply with this law."

Texas reported the percent of classes taught by highly qualified teachers in high-poverty versus low-poverty schools and in high-minority versus low-minority schools. Like most states, however, Texas failed to measure and report on the percent of inexperienced teachers in those schools. Education Trust considers teachers with three years or less classroom time to be inexperienced.

Ed Fuller, a researcher for the University of Texas at Austin and former director of research at the Texas State Board for Educator Certification, conducted a statewide analysis of teacher data for the San Antonio Express-News last year.

His Teacher Quality Index ranks schools from 1 to 10 — with 10 being the worst — by assessing the percentage of inexperienced teachers, rate of teacher turnover and percentage of teachers working outside their subject area.

"They just had to download it," Fuller said of Texas education officials.

Fuller's analysis found that, in general, the higher the teacher quality index score, the higher student achievement. He also found that students at low-income, high-minority schools were more likely to have teachers new to the profession, unfamiliar with their subjects, or on their way out the door, than kids at low-poverty schools with a majority Anglo population.

That's why addressing the problem of inadequate teachers for the neediest students is so important, Wiener said.

"We cannot close achievement gaps if we don't close gaps in teacher quality," he said.

The Education Trust study also criticizes states for their plans to address inequality in classrooms. Two states, Nevada and Ohio, presented solid data and targeted plans to solve the problem, according to the study.

Ratcliffe said Texas has plans to ensure the best teachers are attracted to the schools that need them most. This spring state lawmakers approved an incentive program that will provide money for bonuses at high-poverty schools that achieve academic success. The program is being modeled after a $10 million pilot program created by Gov. Rick Perry that will reward teachers at a handful of schools across the state this year.

Heather Peske, co-author of Education Trust's study, praised the Texas Legislature for the incentive program, but chastised the state for failing to report information on experience levels of teachers in poor and minority schools.

"Texas can make as many proposals as they want," she said, "but if they don't know what the picture of teacher quality looks like for poor and minority students, then they're making plans in the dark."

jcaputo@express-news.net

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA081106.01B.teacher_equity.2248e1b.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teachers figure into the school gap

Web Posted: 05/22/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Jeanne Russell
Express-News Staff Writer

If you go to school in a predominantly black Texas community, your teachers likely are new to the profession, unfamiliar with their subject or on their way out the door.

The Teacher Quality Index (TQI) is a 1-10 rating derived forall Texas schools using three measures: the percent of teachers teaching subjects in which they are not certified, the percent of of teachers with fewer than three years experience, and the school's teacher turnover rate. Poor and minority schools scored lower than affluent, Anglo schools. The lowest ranking is 10; the highest, 1.

High schools showed the strongest relationship between the TQI and test scores.

*Database: Texas TQI for Elementary Schools
*Database: Texas TQI for Middle Schools
*Database: Texas TQI for High Schools
*Note: Databases may take several minutes to load.

The failure to ensure that the nation's classrooms, especially those in disadvantaged schools, all are staffed with qualified teachers is one of the most serious — and unaddressed — problems in American education, experts say.

That's because teaching plays a major role in how students, and ultimately schools, fare. Students at low-income schools forced to rely on weak teachers fail important tests. The schools then are branded poor performers and have an even harder time attracting strong educators. And the cycle continues.

Lancaster High School in Southwest Dallas County, where 77 percent of the 1,400 students are African American, starkly illustrates a pattern that repeats itself to a lesser degree in schools serving mostly poor and Hispanic children, according to a statewide analysis of teacher data conducted for the San Antonio Express-News by Ed Fuller, a professor of educational administration at the University of Texas.

"The real bottom-line problem is that we're dooming kids who live in certain ZIP codes because we don't provide them the quality teachers they deserve," said Fuller, who's also the former director of research for the State Board for Educator Certification.

The Dallas area school ranks 10 — the lowest ranking on Fuller's Teacher Quality Index — and tied for last place statewide. He devised the 1-10 rankings by assessing a school's percentage of beginning teachers, rate of teacher turnover and percentage of teachers working outside their subject area.

At Lancaster, more than 60 percent of the English 1 students studied with a teacher who was not certified in English. Sixty-eight percent of students in Algebra 1 had a teacher who wasn't certified in math.

The students who took Advanced Placement chemistry last year prepared for a rigorous exam with a teacher who was not certified in chemistry. That may explain why just 6 percent of all Lancaster students took any AP exam.

The lowest scoring Bexar County high schools on Fuller's index were both predominantly low-income and minority. Kennedy had an 8.3 ranking; Sam Houston a 7.3. Their poor showing is reflected in student achievement. Last year, only 25 percent of Sam Houston and 34 percent of Kennedy ninth graders passed all the state's exams.

Teachers gravitate toward kids of the same ethnicity and background, experts agree.

In Texas, 70 percent of teachers are Anglo, compared to 39 percent of the students. Nineteen percent of the teachers are Hispanic, compared to 44 percent of the students. And 9 percent of the teachers are African American, compared to 14 percent of the students.

Research shows that effective teaching is the single greatest influence on a child inside the school. Still, Texas brands its worst schools "low-performing" but doesn't take the obvious next step of pairing the best teachers with struggling students — despite decades of talk about the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students.

"You've got your least capable people working in those schools," said Carrol Thomas, superintendent of the Beaumont School District. "They don't have the creativity that's necessary to succeed with those kids. A whole community effort is needed to help those African American kids."

What the data show

Fuller created his Teacher Quality Index (TQI) for all Texas elementary, middle, and high schools. He chose the three factors to determine TQI because each one was statistically significant, showing a strong relationship with student test scores.
The study found that the higher the TQI, in general, the higher the student achievement, even when comparing schools of similar demographics.

Charter schools and schools with high percentages of African American students clustered at the very bottom of the state on a scale of 1 to 10. Fuller ranked student test scores on a similar 1 to 10 scale to demonstrate the link between teacher quality and student performance. Lancaster also scored a 10 on that scale.

"They come from homes where the parents may have less time, no magazine subscriptions, fewer books," said John Cole, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers, a statewide union. "Then they come to a school located in an area where there is violence, drugs and problems associated with poverty. When they come to that school, they often find out that it is staffed by people who are young, or teaching on emergency certificates. They have to jump three major hurdles that other people don't have to face."

Statewide, a handful of impoverished and predominantly African American schools fare better on the index, and also on student test scores, particularly at the elementary school level. But many of the top-scoring schools, including some in the poor, Hispanic Rio Grande Valley, are magnet schools.

Among the state's top-ranked schools was San Antonio's Health Careers High School, a premiere local magnet high school with tremendous teacher loyalty. The International School of the Americas, another small magnet, also scored near the top of the list, with a 1.3, as did Randolph and Madison high schools.

Research consistently shows that teacher certification matters, especially at the high school level and in subjects such as math and science. Teachers win certification in particular subject areas by completing a preparation course and passing a test proving they have mastered the material.

And while Hollywood has popularized the stories of exceptional beginning teachers, it typically takes five years for teachers to hone their skills. Turnover often signals that teachers are fleeing ineffective leadership or poor working conditions, experts on effective teaching say.

Wayne Dickey graduated from Highlands High School and went to student teach at Sam Houston three years later. Some 32 years later, he's "fat, bald and ugly," but just as dedicated to the school as when he started, and convinced that those teachers who survive the first two years fall in love with the students and the community.

"The biggest kick I get out of teaching is when someone tells a kid, 'You can't do that,' and we prove them wrong," said Dickey, who teaches U.S. history and coaches boys' basketball. "I want Sam to get back to where it was 10 to 15 years ago, and especially for the community to feel like their kids are really getting a good education and reaching up the social ladder and grabbing the American Dream."

Race matters

Teachers prefer kids whom they can relate to, Fuller said. That's problematic, given that most Texas teachers are middle class white women.
Carrol Thomas, the Beaumont Superintendent and president of the Texas Association for Black School Educators, remembers growing up in Lockhart during desegregation. The kids were sent to the white schools and the black teachers lost their jobs.

"Teaching was not the friendliest position for African Americans," said Thomas, who described an exodus of black teachers as new fields opened up for educated African Americans. "So the counseling and support you would have gotten from having those African American teachers, you just didn't get. As a result we lost a whole generation of kids. We're still trying to recover from that."

That phenomenon was true throughout the South, and meant the loss of some of the teachers who best understood how to help African American kids, said Michéle Foster, author of the book "Black Teachers on Teaching."

Sam Houston is San Antonio's only predominantly African American high school, and like most schools on San Antonio's historically black East Side, it has long battled low test scores.

Trustee James Howard, who represents the area, has fought to reform languishing schools like Martin Luther King Middle School.

The district recently remade the middle school, a onetime perennial on the state's low-performing list, as a pre-K through 8 academy. This year, test scores are good enough that the campus may move up two notches on the state's report card, earning a "recognized" stamp.

A few weeks ago, Superintendent Rubén Olivárez moved in with similarly strong medicine for Sam Houston, naming a new principal, who will re-interview teachers and ask them to commit to activities such as tutoring and summer workshops.

Beaumont's Thomas pays tuition for paraprofessionals and aides who want to train to become teachers. And he offers schoolwide bonuses to schools that improve test scores, with a larger potential bonus for high-poverty schools.

That may be why Beaumont's elementary schools are among the state's few predominantly African American schools that score relatively well on the TQI. So far, student test scores show modest improvements.

"The goal (at Sam Houston) is to have the best program," Olivárez said. "Best programs are basically defined by high quality teachers. Teachers become high quality teachers when they have good leaders, good support, and a high level of professional collaboration within the school."

Measuring quality

Experts disagree on the merits of the Teacher Quality Index.
The index is most powerful when used to show patterns, least so when focusing on individual teachers, said Foster, an education professor at Claremont Graduate University.

The best teaching can't be easily measured, Foster said. Commitment is among the many intangible but critical ingredients in effective teaching.

"Those things matter, but the question is, are they sufficient?" Foster said. A teacher can be very prepared, but is she prepared to communicate with those kids? Can you fall back on the 3.75 GPA you got at Princeton?"

Like Foster, Kate Walsh, president of the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality, said other credentials or experience may prepare a teacher just as well as education coursework. Her group promotes performance pay for teachers, among other initiatives.

But on one point there is no question, Foster said: "The least prepared teachers tend to end up in the most vulnerable schools."

The federal No Child Left Behind law contains a provision that kicks in next year and is designed to ensure that districts do not send their least qualified teachers to their most needy schools.

In the meantime, local districts have been taking steps of their own.

Edgewood has struggled for years to overcome the stigma of poverty and to pay competitive salaries, said Elizabeth Garza, executive director of personnel and pupil services for the district. That hurts in a county with 16 competitive school districts, Garza said.

Like Sam, Kennedy High School has had a virtual revolving door of principals.

Principal Owen Kelly, in his second year, said a key goal is to develop a core group of teacher leaders.

The district also has begun offering signing stipends for hard-to-staff areas, and bonuses for those who return. Still, it begins every year with vacancies, and fills about 80 of its 800 teacher slots each year with new teachers, about 25 of whom are working on their certification.

"The fact is that hiring teachers is very competitive," Garza said. "There's a lot of places people can go."

Why would a top teacher go to a low-performing school? There's seldom extra pay, indeed, salaries are often lower. The work is harder. And at the end of the day, the students may still score poorly.

"With high-stakes testing, you can go and work your heart out and the kids don't perform, and everyone is looking at you like you didn't perform," said Beaumont's Thomas.

Solutions not tried

Fuller argues that the current system in Texas entices teachers to suburban or wealthy districts with nicer facilities and greater parental support and stability than poor districts.
Others agree.

"I don't know how anybody in education could not be aware about (the gap in teacher quality)," Thomas said. "It's just a question of how much people want to take on that problem."

The end result, said Howard, is that "not just African American, but minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students are really being educated on a subpar level."

Fuller, Thomas and Howard believe that state money is needed to help poorer districts to compete with their more affluent peers.

The solution is not merit pay, said Fuller. He criticizes Texas lawmakers who sought to link pay to student test scores, saying that change would likely reward suburban teachers more than those working in challenged schools.

Tougher certification laws won't solve the problem either, said Foster. As an example, he cites an African-American sixth grade math teacher who turned around a class of low-performing students yet failed the math subject area test in California.

Nationally, what California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unflatteringly termed "combat pay" — incentive pay for teachers working in difficult schools — is mostly in its infancy.

But in Chattanooga, Tenn., state and county leaders have begun a dramatic turnaround of the highly problematic inner city schools, said Foster, who wrote an evaluation of those efforts to improve teacher quality through pay and other incentives.

"There's a lot of conversation about this and substantial public acceptance of it," said Walsh, whose group is tracking such experimental programs around the country.

Chattanooga won support and funding from its state Legislature. Foundations, local associations and the local university offered mortgage, legal and tuition assistance to help, and keep, teachers in challenging schools.

The united front went beyond teacher pay, Foster said, signaling a clear community commitment to education.

jeanner@express-news.net
Database Researcher Kelly Guckian contributed to this report

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/stories/MYSA052205.1A.teacher_quality.299e89fd3.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:17 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Higher earning? Teachers fare better than many other professionals
By AMY JETER AND DEIRDRE FERNANDES, The Virginian-Pilot
© August 7, 2006
Last updated: 12:20 AM

Karen DiDomenico, a teacher for 28 years, works as a server five days a week during the summer at Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant in Virginia Beach. She makes $50,000 a year teaching but has needed the extra income to put her two daughters through college. sonya N. hebert photos/the virginian-pilot

William Kane left teaching to start a home- repair and renovation business with a friend. He said he works the same hours as he used to but makes more money.


More graphics: Teachers' wages compared; increasing earnings



Public school teachers used to earn less than just about everyone else with a college degree.

No longer.

Years of lobbying state and federal lawmakers have paid off. In Hampton Roads and throughout the nation, teachers' hourly earnings rival or exceed that of accountants, librarians and engineers.

As state employees, teachers receive retirement and health benefits that surpass many professions in private business. Plus, teachers work almost two months less a year than most other college-educated workers.

Salary, compensation and jobs data culled by The Virginian-Pilot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center for Education Statistics and other clearinghouses show that making a career in the classroom may not make someone rich, but it can provide a comfortable living with job security, time off and a sizeable retirement paycheck.

"If you take the average pay in Virginia Beach, you add the benefits and you bring it out over a year, it's a pretty significant income," said Del. John Welch III, a Virginia Beach Republican, who has questioned high raises for teachers. "The job of a public teacher is not to get wealthy."

Teachers and their powerful unions counter that shaping future generations is an awesome responsibility. Few political priorities locally or nationally trump the desire for good schools and qualified teachers.

In Virginia, teacher lobbyists are particularly adept at conveying that message. In most years, they persuade state lawmakers to increase teacher pay, even when money is scarce for road construction, public safety and other pressing needs.

"A teacher molds a life of a child," said Princess Moss, the president of the Virginia Education Association. "I don't know of any other profession in which that happens."

Locally, teacher salaries have outpaced inflation and risen more than the average professional salary. South Hampton Roads' 14,458 public school teachers will receive pay increases this year that range from an average of 4 percent in Norfolk to 8 percent in Portsmouth.

South Hampton Roads school divisions also pay nearly all of teacher health care benefits; Chesapeake pays the most at 98 percent and Norfolk the least at 89 percent. That trumps the 82 percent that most companies pay for employees in private businesses, industry studies show.

One of the most authoritative sources on the issue of pay and benefits, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Compensation Survey, pegged the nationwide public school teachers' average annual salary at $46,629 in 2004, the latest figures available. Other organizations, such as the National Education Association, cite slightly different numbers.

That was more than the average worker and government worker and $8,700 less than the average for all occupations requiring the equivalent of a college degree or extensive practical knowledge.

In the Norfolk-Virginia Beach metropolitan area, which includes 15 Virginia localities and Currituck County in North Carolina, public school teachers' average annual salary in 2005 was $44,961, according to the survey.

That is $6,382 higher than the average worker; $1,459 lower than the average professional. The survey includes 44 occupations other than teachers; seven of them are considered professionals.


Teachers often bristle at suggestions that they have a sweet deal. Making it on a teacher's salary alone can be difficult, some say.

Karen DiDomenico, a single mother who put two daughters through college, counts herself among those struggling to pay the bills.

For the last decade, she has worked as a waitress on weekends and holidays while teaching at Norfolk's Sherwood Forest Elementary School.

Last year, she made $12,000 waiting tables. After 28 years of teaching, her annual salary was $50,000.

"Sometimes I think, 'I really don't want to work today' because I've worked all week," DiDomenico said.

Teachers are widely envied for having summers off. On average, professionals work 232 eight-hour days a year, including paid holidays and vacation, the federal survey shows. Teachers work an average of 187 days, 7.5 hours a day.

That allows them to make some extra money - if they want to - teaching summer school or working in other summer jobs.

Or they can simply relax.

Most teachers don't choose to find other employment in the summer, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

In summer 2003, 15.9 percent of teachers reported working in summer school, 5.5 percent did non teaching jobs such as administration in school, and 15.1 percent worked jobs unrelated to school.

On average, they made $2,300 to $4,300.

Paul Sarandria, an eighth-grade science teacher at Portsmouth's Cradock Middle School, said he has worked 12 summers in his 17-year teaching career.

Employment as a camp instructor or crew member on a dive boat helped his family cover their expenses, he said.

"We're never truly on vacation," said Sarandria, whose wife also teaches in Portsmouth but stays home during the summer. "I've never had the entire summer off."

This summer, Sarandria isn't working, but he is attending two science conferences in Alaska and San Diego that will provide him with credits toward recertification. The school division is paying for Sarandria's travel to San Diego.

"I see it as more of a perk sort of thing," Sarandria said about his summers. "It gives you an opportunity to do something different in the summer time and get paid for it."

Teachers receive other perks.

They get up to 20 unpaid holidays. Virginia teachers also get 10 paid sick days per year and can save up to 90 of those days. The national labor survey shows private workers get about eight paid holidays a year. They also receive an average of nine sick days, according to the 2006 Mercer/Marsh Survey on Health, Productivity and Absence Management Programs.

The Virginia Education Association and other teacher advocates argue that their summer breaks offset the extra, off-the-books time teachers work during the school year.

The average required work week for a teacher is 37.7 hours, according to a 2003-04 survey from the education statistics center.

Public school teachers work on average 52.8 hours a week when other school-related activities are factored in, according to the study, which relied on figures reported by teachers.

Testing and accountability movements such as No Child Left Behind add extra responsibilities to a teacher's day, state education association officials said.

"It seems like they're always adding more to what the teachers should do, and they're never taking away," said Rob Jones, a former Virginia Beach and Norfolk teacher, who is now a lobbyist for the association.

Others say you can't assume everyone works after the final bell.

"Good teachers put in lots of hours," said W. Randy Wright, a Norfolk City Council member for 14 years, who has been vocal on school issues. "Some not-so-good teachers don't put in the same hours. Unfortunately, we don't have a pay scale that's reflective of that."

Richard Vedder, a professor of economics at Ohio University, said teachers fare well.

"I reject the argument that teachers are underpaid as a group," Vedder said. "In most comparisons, teachers look pretty good."

In 2005, southeastern Virginia public school teachers worked an average of 1,441 hours. Professionals on average worked 1,805 hours, including paid vacation and holidays.

Teachers' hourly wage was $5.49 more.

They made more per hour - $31.21 - than all other occupations in the labor survey, except some managers.


© 2006 HamptonRoads.com/PilotOnline.com

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 4:53 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Learning From the Masters
Some of the best lessons in teaching happen after ed school
By Jay Mathews
Sunday, August 6, 2006; W33

Jason Kamras, the 2005 National Teacher of the Year, made regular visits to his students' homes in Southeast Washington, showing up unannounced if he couldn't reach a parent by phone. Rafe Esquith, a Disney national teacher of the year, developed a system for his low-income Los Angeles fifth-graders that pays them virtual dollars based on their work. Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg, award-winning creators of the Know-ledge Is Power Program (KIPP) for low-income fifth- through eighth-graders, require students to call their teachers' cellphones after school if they have questions about homework.

These practical, if unorthodox, teaching methods have helped produce some of the largest achievement gains in the country. Yet none was learned at an education school. Kamras, Esquith, Levin and Feinberg say their ed school classes primarily taught theory, and they had to develop their most powerful methods through trial and error or watching other teachers.

Why is that? Why can't university teacher training programs pass on more practical, field-tested ideas to help kids in our lowest-performing neighborhoods?

Well, I thought, maybe they are passing them on, and I haven't noticed. So I did an informal e-mail survey, running a number of winning classroom strategies by some education schools to see if they were teaching any of them.

The best practices included expanding the school day with before- and after-school teaching. In the District, one very successful inner-city boys school, Washington Jesuit Academy, begins the day with 7:30 a.m. breakfast and does not finish until 7:30 p.m., after dinner and supervised homework. Only about 13 percent of its students enter the school on grade level, but after three years more than 90 percent reach that mark.

The strategies also included giving significant amounts of homework and swiftly punishing failure to do it, speeding the grading and return of homework by checking only a few answers, standing beside students in class while calling the students' parents to praise good work and collecting parents' contact numbers personally rather than counting on overburdened school clerks.

Kamras says his marking of just a few homework questions helped raise test scores by enabling him to cover more lessons without getting bogged down in grading papers. Perhaps surprisingly, Kamras, Levin and Feinberg found low-income parents pleased by unannounced visits (the teachers always had something good to say before getting to the problems). Kamras didn't make cellphone calls to praise students without the students' permission, and Esquith's virtual dollars are an entire economic system that not only motivates with privileges won through hard work but teaches about housing costs, taxes and other financial mysteries.

To be fair, it is summer break, and the response to my survey was scant. But the few ed school people I heard from seemed unfamiliar with many of the strategies, and more than once I was told that teaching methods in the curriculum must be confirmed by research. The problem is that education research is often so vague, impractical and controversial that it isn't much help to a new teacher.

The most forthcoming of my ed school correspondents, a professor at a leading university, approved in general of collecting home numbers and lengthening, with care, the school day. He knew much about the research on increasing time for effective learning. But the same professor said he did not like most of the other suggestions from expert teachers. "No one wants someone just showing up at their home unannounced," he said. "Teachers must treat parents with respect."

He advised against requiring students to call teachers after school. "Teachers usually have class preparation and grading to do at home," he said. "Students should contact their teachers via Blackboard [a Web site] or e-mail." He also opposed Kamras's selective homework marking: "Teachers should be willing and able to grade all homework. If they are not, then they should not assign so much homework."

Fair enough. Not every strategy is for every teacher. And there is much that education schools teach that is worthwhile. But most ed school professors do not have as much urban classroom experience as Esquith, Feinberg, Levin or Kamras do. I think future teachers would benefit from hearing what they think works.

Jay Mathews covers schools for The Post. He can be reached at mathewsj@washpost.com.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 4:50 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This is a pretty good news story about a concept that is frequently understood--Aztlan, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs (located in North America by most accounts). I think that it helps to dispel concerns that lots of folks have about a reconquista. I think that the term, "re-Mexicanization" that Navarro uses is yes, provocative, but also interesting because of the actual "re-coloring" of the U.S.

Along this theme, I urge folks to read Juan Hernandez' recent book titled, The New American Pioneers: Why Are We Afraid of Mexican Immigrants? It's a very positive read for a general audience regarding the current immigration situation. Scroll down to "Books that I'm reading" on the right hand side of the blog to find out how to purchase it. -Angela


Myth of Aztlan lures Hispanic people home
Though its definition is murky, term from Aztec folklore has asserted itself in the language of today's immigration battles.

By David Kelly
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Friday, August 04, 2006

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — In the U.S. debate over immigration, there is perhaps no word as controversial as "Aztlán," the name of the mythical Aztec homeland.

For many it carries potent political overtones, for others it is a romantic ideal, and to those opposed to illegal immigration it represents an effort to reclaim land that was once part of Mexico.

"Aztlán is a state of mind for some people. It's a point in history. For some, it's a political place. For some, it's a separate nation," said Armando Navarro, a University of California at Riverside ethnic studies professor whose views have generated controversy. "It represents land lost. You are sitting in a city, Riverside, that used to be in Mexico. That gives us a sense of entitlement. This was our land."

Though its definition is murky, the term has asserted itself in the language of today's immigration battles.

In Aztec folklore, Aztlán was believed to have been in northern Mexico, possibly along the western coast. Other accounts put it farther north, perhaps in what is now Arizona, Colorado or New Mexico.

During the Chicano rights movement of the 1960s, Aztlán became a powerful rallying cry for militants who spoke of a "reconquista," or reconquest, of the Southwest, turning it into an independent homeland for Hispanic people.

Now, a generation later, the word has lost is radical edge among Hispanic activists but continues to evoke emotions on both sides of the immigration debate.

"Up until recently, I dismissed the idea as a kooky fringe element, but if you look at the demonstrations and see the flags and hear people chanting that this is stolen land and 'We are reclaiming our lost land,' it sounds more serious," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports tough enforcement of immigration laws.

Mexico suffered huge territorial losses after its defeat in the U.S.-Mexican war. In 1848, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceding California, Utah and Nevada along with parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming, to the United States.

But demographer Wayne Cornelius said he had seen little evidence that immigrants are looking to take back anything. "The overriding goal for Mexicans coming into U.S. today is, 'How can I succeed in this society?' There is no incentive for them to behave in the ways that the anti-immigration people allege they are behaving," said Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego. "There is no economic point to it."

But Aztlán is about more than lost land, it's about identity.

Over the decades, its name has been tacked onto Hispanic organizations such as MEChA (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán) which has more than 300 chapters on college campuses nationwide. The group has been attacked by those who claim its 1969 "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán" is a separatist call for reconquest.

"Aztlán belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans," according to the plan. "We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent."

MEChA leaders say it is a historical document from a more radical time distorted by critics who focus on a few lines while missing the broader picture. "When did we say we wanted a separate nation? We never did," said Graciela Larios, who recently retired as head of the UC Riverside MEChA club. "We know about the spiritual plan for Aztlán. It reflects the time it was written in. We are not ashamed of it. We stand by it."

Some Hispanic scholars and activists see Aztlán as the birthplace of the Mexican people, a real place with a real history, not some legend.

"For us, it represents the migration of our people from the northern area," said Olin Tezcatlipoca, director of the Mexica Movement, an indigenous rights group based in Huntington Park, Calif., that believes North America is occupied by illegal immigrants from Europe. "The migration is a reality, the language is a reality, the reasons people migrate are a reality."

Even the definition of the word is debated. Some say Aztlán means "land of egrets," "land of herons" or "land of whiteness" in the Nahuatl language, spoken throughout Mexico and related to Hopi, Comanche and Paiute.

"It is a real place, it is also a cry from young Chicanos in America who go to school and never hear about their ancestry," said Cecilio Orozco, a retired professor at California State University, Fresno, who spent 27 years exploring the rivers and canyons of the American Southwest in search of Aztlán.

Orozco, 77, said he believes these early people migrated from the Great Lakes to southern Utah near the Four Corners region, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet. Perhaps spurred by drought, they eventually moved into Mexico, he said.

Roberto Rodriguez, a writer and expert on indigenous geography and human migration at the University of Wisconsin, has used old maps and oral tradition to do his own study of Aztlán. He also believes early Mexicans migrated from north to south.

"There is no doubt people have migrated and clear evidence that ancient Mexicans lived in the north," Rodriguez said. "Mexicans can never be alien because we are native people. We are part of a civilization that never went away. We all belong here."

But he dismisses talk of reconquista. "The right wing thinks there is some massive superstructure out there trying to retake Aztlán," he said. "If that were true, (such activists) would need a huge organi- zation."

Or just time, say some.

Navarro, the ethnic studies professor at University of California at Riverside, said his research showed that within 10 to 25 years, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas and Utah will be 50 percent Latino.

"I call that re-Mexicanization, not reconquista," said Navarro, 64. "A new majority is forming. Everything will change. The White House will be within our reach. We might have to change the name to the Brown House."

That kind of talk — along with his latest book "Mexicano Political Experience in Occupied Aztlán" — has made Navarro the chief suspect for those who see reconquest afoot.

"We are keenly aware of the aggressive, militantly anti-American approach of many leaders of the Latino movement," said Chris Simcox, leader of the Minutemen, a volunteer border watch group. "Armando is one of the most militant leaders of that movement. They openly advocate violence."

Navarro's protests against the Minutemen and his predictions of a violent showdown between whites and Hispanics have earned him hate mail.

In David Horowitz's book "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America," Navarro gets his own chapter. The author writes that Navarro "advocates the overthrow of the U.S. government by Latinos and reclamation of the southwestern United States by Mexico."

Navarro, in his office surrounded by photos of himself with Fidel Castro and former Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega, shakes his head. "I never said that," he said.

Still, he tries to allay fears of a resurgent Aztlán.

"There is no reconquista conspiracy. I have no CIA — no Chicano Intelligence Agency. There is no evidence to suggest there is some secret plan," he said.

"We are returning as a people to a place that was once ours. Does that mean I have dual loyalty? I was an officer in the U.S. Army for eight years. This is all a fabrication of fear-mongers."

Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/nation/08/4aztlan.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:21 AM 1 comments Links to this post

The most important aspect for Latina/o children is their having not simply a "role model," a rather vacuous term, but rather someone with whom they can relate and who shares a similar "location" with them in terms of shared backgrounds, experiences, language, dialect, values, predispositions. While any teacher can be a good or even great treacher to these children, these psychological and emotional qualities that come with the presence of Latina/o teacher has incalculable value.

I personally get this all the time from my own students who have never in their lives had a Latina teacher, much less a Latina professor. I, too, remember having this same experience of having a Latino or Latina professor and realized its profound impact on me. The stuff of culture is often very subtle but ever so powerful. I hope for our nation that this doesn't constitute a prospect that is threatening--particularly when Latino representation is so devastatingly low--but rather an opportunity that we need to find ways to exploit.

Angela

Hispanic teachers still a rare find
Districts trying to match student diversity but lack the candidates
09:41 AM CDT on Thursday, August 3, 2006

By KAREN AYRES / The Dallas Morning News
Sometimes a lesson in fractions can be a cultural affair.

Fourth-grade teacher Mariana Castelblanco often skips metaphors about slicing pizza. Instead her students visualize the division of an oblea , a popular Mexican snack.

"They really understand what I'm talking about," said the Garland teacher, an emigrant from Colombia who primarily teaches Hispanic students. "I know how to talk to them – what words to use."

That kind of lesson is exactly what school leaders want for Hispanic students, but few youngsters will experience it when school opens next month.


REX C. CURRY / Special Contributor
Bilingual teachers Paloma Pola (left) and Rosario Celaya — both from Mexico City — work on classroom materials at the Dallas school district’s School Support Service Center.

Hispanics are fast becoming the dominant ethnic group in many Dallas-area schools, but Hispanic teachers are still a rare find, school officials say.

In the Dallas area, more than one-third of the students in the 2004-05 school year were Hispanic, according to a survey of area districts.

But less than one in 10 teachers was Hispanic.

Experts and administrators say improving that ratio goes beyond aggressive recruiting. There are not enough Hispanic teacher candidates to go around, and there won't be until more Hispanic students make it through college.


Anglo candidates

"We want our teaching population to mirror our student population," said Neil Dugger, an assistant superintendent in the Irving school district, where more than half of the students are Hispanic.

"We take that goal very seriously, but we also know the hurdles that are there in meeting that goal. The overall problem is that the pool of talent out there is heavily Anglo."

Education experts say Hispanics are more likely than their white peers to drop out of high school or stop short of a college degree.

As a result, only 9 percent of Hispanic adults over the age of 25 have a college degree, compared with 30 percent of white people of the same ages, state statistics show.

The problem is also generational: Young Texans are a more diverse group than adults; there is a smaller percentage of Hispanics in the pool of potential teachers.

With Hispanic growth projected to continue, state demographer Steve Murdock said major changes are needed.

"There is no doubt as you go forward in time you will see some diversity in the teaching population," Mr. Murdock said. "But at the same time, we're going to need much more success getting minority kids through high school and into college to get to the level it should be."

Does it really matter if a Hispanic student has a Hispanic teacher? Many think so.

A study by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that roughly 70 percent of people think Hispanic youngsters don't perform as well as white students at least in part because many white teachers don't relate well to Hispanic children.

"I think they feel more comfortable with their own race learning," said Dallas resident Robert Hernandez, who prefers that his two sons have Hispanic teachers.

Experts say there is no definitive research on whether such a match boosts test scores, but many of them agree that there are obvious perks to having a Hispanic face in the classroom.

Sometimes it's just a matter of talking about Mexican history, food or holidays. Other times it's more complex. When one of Ms. Castelblanco's students misbehaves, she has her own way of shutting the problem down.

Also Online
Graduation rates (.pdf)

Hispanic growth in schools (.pdf)

En español

"I tell them right away, 'You have to change because that kind of behavior is why people don't want us here,' " she said.

Most of her students' parents work in restaurants or construction. She presses youngsters to one day become president.

Educators say Hispanic teachers often serve as role models, helping Hispanic youngsters see that they can succeed.

"If children see themselves personified in a principal or a teacher or a nurse, they know they can also be that person," said Hector Flores, a human resources director for Dallas ISD and former president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "You need those positive images."

Hispanic teachers can often communicate better with Hispanic parents, educators say. Many can speak Spanish, but they also settle parents' nerves with their shared cultural background.

"You want to get the parents involved in their children's education, and it certainly helps," Dr. Dugger said. "There is a built-in comfort level."

Ms. Castelblanco's daughter, Veronica Plata, 22, plans to follow her mother's path when she graduates from college in December.

"I just want to show them that I'm Hispanic, I don't speak English perfectly, but here I am teaching math," Ms. Plata said. "You need to show you care about them and you know where they're coming from."


Early inspiration

Experts say more Hispanics need to be sold on a teaching career at a young age.

Some local districts, including McKinney and Irving, have started programs in high schools to encourage students, particularly Hispanics, to teach.

This afternoon, Irving is holding an emergency teacher job fair, a last-ditch effort to hire teachers only weeks before school starts. Officials are particularly searching for bilingual teachers, as well as math and special education instructors.

Some districts bring in Hispanic teachers from other states and countries to fill the gap. But experts warn that picking the right teachers matters more than simply picking people of certain ethnicities.

"You can't just put a Latino teacher in there," said Judy Radigan, a researcher at Rice University's Center for Education. "It has to be someone who understands the place from where these kids come."

Many districts are focusing on boosting Hispanic student performance, but any significant jump in the number of Hispanic teachers is likely to come slowly. Regardless, experts say, teachers of all races need to be taught how to relate to students of other cultures.

"Many schools have been working on it, but it hasn't flourished to a large extent," said Suresh Appavoo, a professor at the Dominican University of California. "Culture is the one thing we really don't test empirically."

Teaching educators to respect other cultures may be enough for students, said Candie Segura, 17, a Mexican-American from Plano.

"As long as they respect me and I respect them," she said, "their race shouldn't matter."

Email kayres@dallasnews.com

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/080306dnmethispanicteach.220deaf.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:06 AM 0 comments Links to this post

It's interesting that the states that were approved for the testing of English language learners did not include Texas (but rather: Tennessee, Indiana, California, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

This needs to be looked at closely because here are the 4 types of options that the states will be considering: (1) tests completely in languages other than English; (2) tests in English but with accommodations, such as being allowed to consult a foreign language dictionary; (3) tests using simplified English; and (4) testing systems that use the English proficiency test as the reading test.

Even if option 1 is chosen--certainly the best option among the four according to research--there still a lot that has to be considered. For example, the level of academic competence that the child himself/herself has in their native tongue and also whether the test itself has been normed against a population similar to the test-taking one. Also, since the language of the assessment should optimally be the language of instruction, consistency across these should be held.

Hopefully, this level of sensitivity will be built into this process.

Angela

Six states with approved systems were invited to share their programs:
Monday, July 31, 2006
States, feds partner on English testing
By Pauline Vu / Stateline.org Staff Writer

Twenty-four states are being invited to work with the U.S. Department of Education to develop acceptable math and reading tests for students with limited English proficiency (LEP).

Eighteen were chosen because a review last month found their testing systems, particularly those for LEP students, did not meet standards of the No Child Left Behind law. Six states with approved systems were invited to lend their expertise.

“Homework is due…on implementing various provisions, including assessment systems,” Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said, unveiling the program during a conference call with reporters on July 27.

Last month the Education Department revealed that, because of inadequate testing methods, several states might lose part of their Title I administrative funds, which then would go straight to their districts. The 18 states invited to the program were chosen because problems were found with the LEP portion of their systems.

However, Spellings said, states that participate in the pilot program could regain control of the lost money.

The news was welcomed by some state education leaders. “We have sought technical assistance, plus a clear path and timelines, from the feds in this area, so I am appreciative that they are responding to this call to work as partners with us,” Illinois State School Superintendent Randy Dunn said in an e-mail.

No Child Left Behind, the federal education law that passed with widespread bipartisan support in 2002, seeks to bring every child to grade level in reading and math by 2014. States must put acceptable testing systems into place to measure annual progress for all students, including English-language learners.

Other benefits from the new program include technical help coming up with a plan, access to experts, and exchanging ideas with other states, said Ray Simon, the deputy education secretary. He expects a “smorgasbord” of testing methods for states to consider and choose from in time for the next round of testing in the spring.

“It’s technical assistance that the states have been begging for,” Simon said. “States have done a lot of work. They just haven’t gotten as far as they want to get. We just want to take them the rest of the way.”

Of the states invited to participate, 14 were told last month they could lose control of some administrative funds, and seven – Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas – were informed the department intended to give a portion of their fiscal 2006 money directly to their school districts, unless persuaded otherwise. Texas would lose almost $1.2 million, Illinois $540,228.

But some of the fines would be “taken off the table, and left off the table as long as the state is a willing participant” in the program, Simon said.

Betty VanDeventer, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Education, said the state has not been informed of the program, “but if it is true, we will be delighted to participate.” Nebraska stands to lose $126,741 to its districts.

Minnesota could lose control of $109,437, but officials from the state’s Department of Education said that wasn’t why they were excited about the program.

“It isn’t so much the money that’s the enticement as much as sharing the knowledge that we have with others,” said Dirk Mattson, acting director of research and assessment. “We’ll certainly be looking to have some other folks share the wealth of their knowledge, as well.”

Minnesota is eager to share its work in developing an alternate version of its math assessment test for English language learners, called the MTELL (Mathematics Test for English Language Learners). The regular math test uses word problems to place the math in real-world situations, and the MTELL will customize it for LEP students. The state will try out the test this fall, and plans to use it in the spring.

The program will look into four types of testing systems for LEP students: tests completely in languages other than English; tests in English but with accommodations, such as being allowed to consult a foreign language dictionary; tests using simplified English; and testing systems that use the English proficiency test as the reading test.

Six states with approved systems were invited to share their programs: Tennessee, Indiana, California, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

Other states invited to participate were Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico. Eventually, any state will be permitted to join.

The Education Department is inviting states to a meeting in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28-29 to kick off the program.

The National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, was one of several groups urging such a partnership. The group was troubled when some states begin asking to exclude test results of their LEP students in measuring annual progress under No Child Left Behind, said Raul Gonzalez, the group’s legislative director.

“We were concerned that if they could get these waivers they wouldn’t develop better assessments, curriculum and instructional strategies” for English language learners, Gonzalez said. “This is kind of meeting the states in the middle.”

Send your comments on this story to letters@stateline.org. Selected reader feedback will be posted in the Letters to the editor section.

Contact Pauline Vu at pvu@stateline.org.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:06 AM 0 comments Links to this post

It's interesting that the states that were approved for the testing of English language learners did not include Texas (but rather: Tennessee, Indiana, California, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

This needs to be looked at closely because here are the 4 types of options that the states will be considering: (1) tests completely in languages other than English; (2) tests in English but with accommodations, such as being allowed to consult a foreign language dictionary; (3) tests using simplified English; and (4) testing systems that use the English proficiency test as the reading test.

Even if option 1 is chosen--certainly the best option among the four according to research--there still a lot that has to be considered. For example, the level of academic competence that the child himself/herself has in their native tongue and also whether the test itself has been normed against a population similar to the test-taking one. Also, since the language of the assessment should optimally be the language of instruction, consistency across these should be held.

Hopefully, this level of sensitivity will be built into this process.

Angela

Six states with approved systems were invited to share their programs:
Monday, July 31, 2006
States, feds partner on English testing
By Pauline Vu / Stateline.org Staff Writer

Twenty-four states are being invited to work with the U.S. Department of Education to develop acceptable math and reading tests for students with limited English proficiency (LEP).

Eighteen were chosen because a review last month found their testing systems, particularly those for LEP students, did not meet standards of the No Child Left Behind law. Six states with approved systems were invited to lend their expertise.

“Homework is due…on implementing various provisions, including assessment systems,” Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said, unveiling the program during a conference call with reporters on July 27.

Last month the Education Department revealed that, because of inadequate testing methods, several states might lose part of their Title I administrative funds, which then would go straight to their districts. The 18 states invited to the program were chosen because problems were found with the LEP portion of their systems.

However, Spellings said, states that participate in the pilot program could regain control of the lost money.

The news was welcomed by some state education leaders. “We have sought technical assistance, plus a clear path and timelines, from the feds in this area, so I am appreciative that they are responding to this call to work as partners with us,” Illinois State School Superintendent Randy Dunn said in an e-mail.

No Child Left Behind, the federal education law that passed with widespread bipartisan support in 2002, seeks to bring every child to grade level in reading and math by 2014. States must put acceptable testing systems into place to measure annual progress for all students, including English-language learners.

Other benefits from the new program include technical help coming up with a plan, access to experts, and exchanging ideas with other states, said Ray Simon, the deputy education secretary. He expects a “smorgasbord” of testing methods for states to consider and choose from in time for the next round of testing in the spring.

“It’s technical assistance that the states have been begging for,” Simon said. “States have done a lot of work. They just haven’t gotten as far as they want to get. We just want to take them the rest of the way.”

Of the states invited to participate, 14 were told last month they could lose control of some administrative funds, and seven – Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas – were informed the department intended to give a portion of their fiscal 2006 money directly to their school districts, unless persuaded otherwise. Texas would lose almost $1.2 million, Illinois $540,228.

But some of the fines would be “taken off the table, and left off the table as long as the state is a willing participant” in the program, Simon said.

Betty VanDeventer, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Education, said the state has not been informed of the program, “but if it is true, we will be delighted to participate.” Nebraska stands to lose $126,741 to its districts.

Minnesota could lose control of $109,437, but officials from the state’s Department of Education said that wasn’t why they were excited about the program.

“It isn’t so much the money that’s the enticement as much as sharing the knowledge that we have with others,” said Dirk Mattson, acting director of research and assessment. “We’ll certainly be looking to have some other folks share the wealth of their knowledge, as well.”

Minnesota is eager to share its work in developing an alternate version of its math assessment test for English language learners, called the MTELL (Mathematics Test for English Language Learners). The regular math test uses word problems to place the math in real-world situations, and the MTELL will customize it for LEP students. The state will try out the test this fall, and plans to use it in the spring.

The program will look into four types of testing systems for LEP students: tests completely in languages other than English; tests in English but with accommodations, such as being allowed to consult a foreign language dictionary; tests using simplified English; and testing systems that use the English proficiency test as the reading test.

Six states with approved systems were invited to share their programs: Tennessee, Indiana, California, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

Other states invited to participate were Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico. Eventually, any state will be permitted to join.

The Education Department is inviting states to a meeting in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28-29 to kick off the program.

The National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, was one of several groups urging such a partnership. The group was troubled when some states begin asking to exclude test results of their LEP students in measuring annual progress under No Child Left Behind, said Raul Gonzalez, the group’s legislative director.

“We were concerned that if they could get these waivers they wouldn’t develop better assessments, curriculum and instructional strategies” for English language learners, Gonzalez said. “This is kind of meeting the states in the middle.”

Send your comments on this story to letters@stateline.org. Selected reader feedback will be posted in the Letters to the editor section.

Contact Pauline Vu at pvu@stateline.org.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:53 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Please look into this concern and contact your congressional representatives and the U S Department of Education, etc. and insist that LNESC continue receiving funding. This is a program that renders positive results, effectively addressing the low college-going rate that Hispanics have. I quote: "While less than half of the graduates of some Dallas Independent School District schools go on to college, he said, about 80 percent of the center's students enroll in a college program." I am very familiar with the Dallas office and can vouch for this, as well as Rey de los Santos' credibility.

Also see the memorandum on this from Brent Wilkes, National Executive Director and Richard Roybal, LNESC Executive Director to the National LULAC Board on this very topic.

-Angela


LULAC may lose education program funds
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – A multimillion-dollar federal grant for a program that steers low-income Hispanic students in Dallas and 16 other cities toward college is on the verge of termination, the League of United Latin American Citizens announced Tuesday.

Nearly 2,500 students in the Dallas area have come through the doors of the LULAC National Educational Service Center in Oak Cliff during the past four years, getting academic counseling and advice about selecting a college, and filling out applications and financial aid forms.

Similar centers in seven other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have helped 52,542 students over the past four years, LULAC says.

The counseling and other programs at the centers – including English courses for parents, computer classes and student leadership training – are in jeopardy as a result of the Education Department's apparent decision to cease its 27-year relationship with LULAC, the organization's officials said.

"They are getting a great bargain by contracting with us. We are just flabbergasted that they are thinking about not funding us," said Rey de los Santos, director of the Oak Cliff center. While less than half of the graduates of some Dallas Independent School District schools go on to college, he said, about 80 percent of the center's students enroll in a college program.

The Education Department wouldn't confirm that it is ending its $3.4 million annual grant to LULAC – the largest recipient of Talent Search Program funding. Official notification of the grant awards isn't expected until this week, said Education Department spokesman Jim Bradshaw, who declined to discuss LULAC's status.

But Matthew Looney, national development coordinator for the LULAC centers, said organization officials have been unofficially notified that their funding is being terminated for the upcoming four-year grant cycle. And with the Education Department's grant accounting for two-thirds of the program's budget, it will be very hard to replace that money, he said.

"We are currently exploring ways to downsize each of the centers and see over the next 30, 60, 90 days what kind of operations we can maintain," Mr. Looney said. "Certainly, some of the markets will close outright. And some that are able to secure funds at the local level and the national level will be able to remain open in some form – but they will not be able to serve a fraction of the students they are currently serving."

The centers do what many school districts can't, Mr. de los Santos and other LULAC officials said. At DISD, some schools have a 500-1 ratio of students to counselors, twice the recommended rate, Mr. de los Santos said. "It's not their fault. It's just that they can't get to everybody," he said.

At the LULAC center in Oak Cliff – located in the first store in the 7-Eleven empire, which the Dallas-based chain later donated to the organization – students are rattled.

"I don't want them to take away the money," said Veronica Hernandez, a 15-year-old entering the 10th grade at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. The center is "helping me get started," she said. "It helps me think about my future. And the people here are very nice. It's really, really helpful."

LULAC is making a last-ditch effort to restore the grant.

"We are working with congressional allies and anybody, really, who is willing to listen to us and see how we can attempt to reverse this process," Mr. Looney said.

E-mail mmittelstadt@dallasnews.com


League of United Latin American Citizens

National Office
2000 L Street, NW, Suite 610 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 833-6130 • FAX (202) 833 6135
MEMORANDUM



To: LULAC National Board of Directors


From: Brent Wilkes, National Executive Director

Richard Roybal, LNESC Executive Director


Date: July 28, 2006


Subject: LNESC Talent Search Funding

As you are aware, the LULAC National Educational Service Centers has been funded in large part by the U.S. Department of Education’s Talent Search program since 1979. Periodically, LNESC must apply for new funding through a grant competition administered by the Department. This past December, LNESC submitted a proposal to continue the Talent Search program through its 16-site network serving low income students who are potentially the first in their families to go to college. In addition, LNESC submitted 8 other proposals to open new Talent Search projects.


Unfortunately, we have now learned through our Congressional allies that the Department of Education does not have LNESC listed on the slate of projects funded for the new grant cycle. Although, we have yet to receive official notification from the Department, we expect to hear from them sometime next week.


For the first time, LNESC’s proposal was limited to 75 pages for this grant cycle and while all the other proposals in the competition were limited to 75 pages as well, only the LNESC proposal covered 13 separate Talent Search projects. The vast majority of the other proposals covered only one project. The feedback we are receiving is that the 75 page limit did not give LNESC adequate space to describe the need of our 16 distinct target areas and the unique programming each center brings to their communities. In prior years, the proposal numbered over 1,000 pages and contained detailed information about the need in the target areas and programs operated by each center. However, the bottom line is that we won’t know exactly why LNESC did not receive funding until we get the proposal scores back from the Department which may take several weeks.


Nevertheless, the LNESC and LULAC staff are taking immediate action to pressure the Department to reconsider its decision. Already we have met with Ruben Barrales, the Director of Inter-governmental Affairs at the White House and Kathleen Leos, Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director for the Office of English Language Acquisition at the Department of Education and asked for their immediate personal intervention. We have been in contact with Sen. Boxer, Sen. Feinstein, and Sen. Reid’s offices and they in turn have contacted the Department to express their concern and ask for an explanation as to why LNESC would not receive funding.

In addition, we are contacting every single member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Conference as well as every member of Congress whose district or state is served by an LNESC center. We are asking them to champion our cause and to contact Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and pressure her to reverse the Department’s decision. Congressman Hinajosa’s staff has scheduled a meeting on Monday to rally the support of the Hispanic members of Congress behind LNESC and to discuss the best strategies to secure refunding.

This weekend we plan to launch a grass-roots campaign to have our members, program participants, corporate partners, and allies on both sides of the aisle contact their members of Congress, the Department of Education, and the White House and urge them to save LNESC. We are currently developing a web site www.SaveLNESC.org that will contain fact sheets, talking points, sample letters, financial and program data, and background information about the program.

We are also exploring the possibility of obtaining discretionary funding and/or a legislative earmark for LNESC that will keep the centers in operation, should our efforts to get the Department to reconsider the grant fail.

Most important, we will need your full support as a member of the LULAC National Board of Directors to help us make calls to Congress, the Department of Education and the White House and to rally our members and friends to support LNESC. This is not the first time we have faced a funding challenge to our educational centers, but each time, through our collective efforts, we have been able to maintain and, in fact, grow the funding of our centers.

We will be contacting you individually to develop Congressional target lists and our grass roots strategy in your region. Thank you for your full support.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:47 AM 0 comments Links to this post

I previous post refers to House Bill 1 that passed during the last special legislative session. A piece of that refers to college readiness. I'm posting this piece in light of current concerns of the apparent poor quality of the senior year in high school that the college readiness segment of HB1 is attempting to address (see previous post; TEA document).

Anyway remediation rates at the college level in Texas are really high and costly. The solutions include offering more dual credit options for students, and also raising educational standards and expectations. As soon as the school year begins, I'm sure that there will be much more discussion on these things. In the interim, we should all make inquiries of our local school boards and superintendents regarding college readiness to see what the districts themselves are during to assure a higher quality learning experience for our youth.

-Angela



FALLING SHORT: PROBLEMS IN TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION
High schools failing college students
Half must take remedial classes in Texas colleges, and even with help, only a fraction of them succeed.


(enlarge photo)

Kelly West/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
(enlarge photo)
Students like Tina Phillips, who is taking a basic math class at Austin Community College's Rio Grande campus from Don Lavigne, face a huge challenge. Some take a remedial course three times before they pass.

MORE ON THIS STORY


02.06.05: Texas lagging on college goals
04.03.05: For Latinos, path to college is steep one
05.15.05: High schools failing college students | Try the remedial quiz
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz, Laura Heinauer

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Third in an occasional series

It's a Friday morning, and students are filing into Room 122 at the Austin Community College campus on Rio Grande Street. Some of them have tattoos. All of them carry backpacks. It's an unremarkable scene except for one thing:

These college students are here to learn high school math. On this day, instructor Don Lavigne will explain how to calculate the volume of a cylinder. For Corey Ferguson, one of the students, mastering the basics of algebra and geometry is at once satisfying and a tad embarrassing.

"I hate carrying this book around," Ferguson said. " I always try to make sure the cover is hidden, but sometimes you get some 16-year-old kid who sees it, and I just want to be, like, 'Yeah, I don't know fractions, dude.' "

He's not alone in needing remedial education, also known as developmental education.

Half of the students entering public colleges and universities in the state are ill-prepared for college-level work in math, reading or writing and must therefore take at least one remedial course, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Ninety percent of the students in higher education in Texas attend public universities and community colleges.

Underpreparation for college is a problem throughout the nation, but Texas faces a special challenge because of its shifting demographics.

Texas' challenges

College enrollment is rising in Texas among those who historically have not attended in great numbers and who often have weaker academic backgrounds, including Hispanics, blacks and low-income students. Even more such students — especially Hispanics, the fastest-growing population group in the state — will have to enroll if Texas hopes to educate its citizens on a par with other states.

And so, the demand for remedial education is likely to increase.

But the harsh reality is that academic success eludes most students taking such courses. Just 16 percent of underprepared students in Texas earn a certificate, a two-year degree or a four-year degree within six years of enrolling, compared with 47 percent of college-ready students.

Improving the success rates for developmental education will take time, money and a multifaceted approach. Among other things, scholars recommend more tutoring by faculty members and fellow students, creation of formal study groups, more frequent academic advising sessions, better preparation in middle school and high school, and intensive study sessions between high school and college to shore up areas of weakness.

Going the wrong way

In some ways, Texas is heading in the wrong direction. A survey by the coordinating board found that colleges have reduced the frequency and amount of advising they provide in recent years. In 2003, the state Legislature cut the two-year budget for developmental education by $12 million, to $173 million, even as the demand for such education was increasing. Lawmakers have not finalized a budget for the next two years, but developmental education is expected to remain flat or rise modestly.

Perhaps the most urgent need is for wider recognition of the problem, especially among college officials. The coordinating board found that a third of public colleges listed developmental education as a minor or nonexistent part of their strategic plans.

Raymund Paredes, the commissioner of higher education, says a survival-of-the-fittest approach to developmental education students is simply unacceptable.

"We can't practice what constitutes a kind of academic Darwinism," Paredes said. "We've got to help these students. We should make a commitment as educators that we are going to do everything we can to ensure the academic success of the students we admit. Right now, we're not anywhere close to that."

Paredes plans to convene a summit of sorts on developmental education in the fall, to explain the urgency to college presidents and other campus officials.

ACC officials say developmental education is a high priority on their campuses. About 8,000 of the nearly 30,000 students are involved in remedial studies. One sign of ACC's focus on the developmental mission: Sixty-eight percent of entering students who need remedial courses return the following semester, compared with 65 percent of students who did not receive remediation.

Study groups needed

On the other hand, ACC falls short in using study groups led by a student who has already taken the course to reinforce what students are learning in class. That would be a worthwhile initiative, said Kathleen Christensen, ACC's associate vice president of student services and retention, but study group leaders must be paid, and there isn't money in the budget to do so.

It's not unusual at ACC for a remedial math class to start out with 18 students and wind up with a dozen, the rest having dropped out because of difficulty with the material, distractions at home or pressures resulting from full- or part-time employment. Some students must take a remedial course two or even three times before they pas — a heavy toll in time, money and frustration. Such courses do not count toward a two-year or four-year degree.

"A lot of students have a bitter taste in their mouth about developmental education to start with," Lavigne said. "You take a test, you're told you have to go to basic math — how is that going to make you feel?"

On the recent Friday, five of the original 18 students showed up on time for his class. A few more drifted in as Lavigne reviewed formulas for measuring the volume of boxes, cylinders and spheres. His low-key manner and patient explanations seemed to put students at ease.

"I always thought math was interesting, but I didn't understand it," said Liz Ruggles, a journalism major. "Now I'm getting it."

Anne Praderas, who teaches developmental math at ACC's Northridge campus, said her students often need guidance to improve their study skills.

"Teaching this, it's not so much that you have to be a brilliant mathematician," Praderas said. "You need to be a good teacher. You have to be able to communicate clearly. You have to explain things three different ways."

Students lack skills

In many cases, students taking remedial courses don't lack ability; they lack skills. Sometimes, they've simply forgotten material they learned years ago.

June Reynolds, 40, who is working on an accounting degree, signed up for college-level business math but realized on the first day of class that she wasn't prepared for it. So she switched to a developmental course in elementary algebra.

"I haven't had algebra since high school," Reynolds said. "Luckily, I have an A in the course."

Others have only recently graduated from high school. Alli Crews, who is pursuing a degree in sociology, said math is something she has struggled with since grade school. She said she has probably been taught the same basic principles of algebra six times, but they never seemed to stick. When she found out she would have to take remedial math in college, she was not surprised.

"In the beginning I felt like, 'God, I'm so stupid. I should know this at this point in my life, and I just suck at it,' " she said. "Now I'm starting to figure out that I just wasn't taught right."

Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, acknowledged that the coordinating board's findings about the number of students in need of remedial education were troubling, especially because many of these students are just coming out of high school.

Ratcliffe said educators are aware that some classes, such as introductory algebra, are difficult for many students. Increasing class times for algebra and turning it into a two-year course haven't seemed to help, she said. It's too early to tell if the newest strategy — to start teaching basic principles of algebra while students are in elementary school — will succeed.

Several other changes aimed at improving high school education are just beginning. This year's senior class is the first that had to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test in order to receive diplomas. Those results, Ratcliffe said, should better help educators identify problem areas and develop strategies for improvement.

High school tougher

The state's course requirements for high school students also are beginning to get tougher. This year's high school freshman were the first in Texas who will be required to take an advanced algebra course and an upper-level physics course to graduate.

"After several years of improvement at the lower grade levels, I think the focus is finally beginning to shift to the upper grades," Ratcliffe said, noting how in the last several months, President Bush and U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings have advocated expanding the accountability changes in the No Child Left Behind Act to the nation's high schools.

It's a cause championed in the private sector as well. Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates, who has contributed more than $2 billion to education since 1999, made headlines earlier this year when he said he was "appalled" by the state of high schools in the country.

Gates' focus is on creating small "learning communities" in high schools to promote stronger relationships between students and teachers.

In Texas, Gates' foundationhelped pay for a multimillion-dollar high school redesign and restructuring program launched this year at numerous high schools rated academically unacceptable, including Johnston in the Austin school district.

"Most high schools in Texas won't graduate a single student who will get an engineering degree in a decade," said Geoffrey Orsak, dean of engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "People who walk the halls of the state Capitol don't realize how broadly uneducated the state is.

"Neither higher education nor public education wants to take ownership of these students who have graduated from high school but are not prepared for college. Both need to take ownership."

rhaurwitz@statesman.com; 445-3604

lheinauer@statesman.com; 445-3694
Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/05/15highed.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:10 AM 0 comments Links to this post