This is an interesting approach. Take note that this is happening in a private school where class size averages are 17 students. Not at all representative of most California pubic schools. -Patricia
J.M. BROWN | Santa Cruz Sentinel
December 20, 2007
Kaia Huseby is convinced students learn better when they know how they learn. The new third-grade teacher at Gateway School in Santa Cruz has been showing her students the simple basics of what she learned in a Harvard University graduate program that studies how the brain learns and stores information.
The idea is that if children get a little insight into how the brain works, they will be all the more invested in the idea of filling their heads with a lot of good stuff. New material is more likely to be lost "if you're not emotionally engaged in learning," Huseby said.
The Vermont native and Bryn Mawr alumna, who taught in Mexico and Connecticut before coming to Santa Cruz this summer, entered the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Mind, Brain and Education Program because she wanted to know how students comprehend math.
She thought if she better understood how her students process new information, she could better "bridge the cognitive with the practical," as she said the Harvard program seeks to do.
The former textiles designer largely spares the students a complicated explanation about neurons and synapses, and opts instead for a white rope with knots. As she holds the rope up like a net, she explains how learning happens when the gaps in the net are filled through messages sent between the knots along the rope.
"They get it when they see the model," she said.
Huseby recently explained the Mind, Brain and Education Program concept to faculty colleagues. Head of School David Peerless said he supported Huseby incorporating details about brain functioning into the classroom because it fits with the 37-year-old independent school's mission to encourage students to be inquisitive "self-advocates."
"We want them engaged in their learning, not in pleasing the teacher," Peerless said. "Here they are learning for themselves."
Huseby said that when she began the Harvard program, "I thought of the brain more as an engine." She said she didn't realize that the brain actually changes as experiences, information, images and emotions pass through it.
"Learning actually changes the structure of the brain," she said.
Huseby learned that there are three major functions of the brain important to learning: recognition, visual and emotional, the latter of which she said has not been as highly linked to learning capability as the others.
Although most brains look the same from the outside, they are shaped by cultural experiences, childhood growth and other emotional factors on the inside. With various levels of student capabilities, teaching children that brains process information in varied ways helps them "understand and respect individual differences in learning."
"Every brain is different," she said.
Lauren Tobin, whose 10-year-old son Jonah is a student in Huseby's classroom, said the teacher has taken what could have been a complicated notion and made it "very accessible" for the children.
"It's taught in a way they will remember it," Tobin said. "She has made it interesting and engaging for the kids."
Thursday, December 20, 2007
School Recess Gets Gentler, and the Adults Are Dismayed
Adults can't ever seem to find enough ways to hurt children. -Angela
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
Published: December 14, 2007
MONTVILLE, Conn. — Children at the Oakdale School here in southeastern Connecticut returned this fall to learn that their traditional recess had gone the way of the peanut butter sandwich and the Gumby lunchbox.
No longer could they let off their youthful energy — pent up from hours of long division — by cavorting outside for 22 minutes of unstructured play, or perhaps with a vigorous game of tag or dodgeball. Such games had been virtually banned by the principal, Mark S. Johnson, along with kickball, soccer and other “body-banging” activities, as he put it, where knees — and feelings — might get bruised.
Instead, children are encouraged to jump rope, play with Hula Hoops or gently fling a Frisbee. Balls are practically controlled substances, parceled out under close supervision by playground monitors.
The traditional recess, a rite of grade school, is endangered not only in the Oakdale School here in Montville, a town of 18,500. From Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wyckoff, N.J., recess — long seen as a way for children to develop social competence, recharge after long lessons, and resist obesity — is being rethought and pared down.
In the face of this, a national campaign called Rescuing Recess, sponsored by such organizations as the Cartoon Network, the National Parent Teacher Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Education Association, has taken hold at many schools where parents and children fear that recess will go the way of the one-room schoolhouse.
At Oakdale, Mr. Johnson finally relaxed some prohibitions after a parade of parents complained. Now, twice a week when a parent or grandparent is present, fourth and fifth graders are allowed to play a modified version of kickball as long as the score is not kept. Many parents are still not satisfied, however, saying that such coddling fails to prepare children for adulthood.
“Life is competitive,” said Shari Clewell, the mother of a fifth grader. “Kids compete for attention. They compete for grades. You compete for a job. You compete from the time you’re little all the way to the end.”
Pretending otherwise is pointless, she said. “They’re kids. They are competitive. They can play jump rope and jacks and make it competitive.”
But the principal is determined. “I’m honestly one of the most competitive guys in the world, having coached sports for a long time,” said Mr. Johnson, who has coached youth basketball and softball. “But I honestly don’t believe this is the place for that.”
Acknowledging that the changes caused “quite an uproar,” he defended his policy as a way to build skills and camaraderie rather than competition and conflict, and said that it had nothing to do with insurance costs. He said he had seen too many recesses where children “want all the good kids on one side and they want to win at all costs, and kids are made to feel badly.”
Children are still encouraged to move about, he said, and are free to walk the grounds with the school nurse, or depending on the day, sing in the chorus, play chess or pick up litter. And he insisted that children could still play competitive games in their weekly gym classes or in extracurricular programs.
But Ms. Clewell was dismissive of the alternatives. “I’m not having my son pick up trash around the school,” she said. “This is recess.”
For now, the superintendent of schools, David Erwin, has not intervened in the dispute, although he acknowledges that the public outcry has caught his eye.
Connecticut is one of only a handful of states that require some type of break, or recess, but its law does not spell out how long they should be or what pupils should be doing. Because of the free hand that schools have across the country, some pinch minutes once used for recess to prepare students for standardized tests. Others, citing liability concerns, have banned sports like dodgeball, where children are the targets.
In Cheyenne, Wyo., one school has banished tag from the playground as being too rough but allows other contact sports, like touch football. Several schools in Colorado have banned tag for the same reason.
There are also financial reasons for the changes in recess. In Broward County, Fla., one of the nation’s largest school systems, to comply with expanded phys ed requirements that the state mandated but did not provide extra money for, the time “is being transformed into a structured activity,” said Elly Zanin, a district official. She said she wished that were not so.
In Wyckoff, N.J., freestyle recess has become a “midday fitness” class. Student have fewer options for activities and are told to keep moving. By applying recess to the gym requirement, the schools have freed up time for academics.
Such changes worry educators like Joe Frost, a professor emeritus of education at the University of Texas, who has spent 30 years researching children’s play. He defended the traditional recess as a way to give children the freedom to make their own choices and said that it was “terrible, ill-advised and damaging” to inject so much structure and oversight.
“Children need to engage in games such as this in order to develop social skills, to learn to handle themselves, to avoid obesity, and to get the activities they need, and these are traditional games, going on for centuries,” Dr. Frost said. “It’s just difficult to imagine how a person in education could come up with such a bad idea.”
As for playground bullies, he said: “There are ways for teachers to handle bullying without stopping the play for all the children. This is a teacher problem. This is not a child problem.”
But to Mr. Johnson, who has been a school principal for five years, it is the lack of structure that places recess out of sync with the educational and moral instruction provided the rest of the day. “We’re really responsible for what kinds of people these kids will be,” said Mr. Johnson, who has raised two children. “We can produce lots of kids who are skilled academically, but they aren’t skilled as people.”
The approximately 400 pupils at Oakdale in grades one through five seem to have adjusted to the redefined recess better than their mothers and fathers have.
“Parents are in disbelief,” said Jill Santacroce, the mother of an avid soccer player who, she says, now spends too many recesses bored or wandering around. And although one playground monitor, a part-time employee, said in a letter to the editor of The Day, a newspaper in New London, that only a fraction of the parents were upset, Ms. Santacroce insisted, “It’s a lot of parents, not just a few.”
She said her son was scolded while playing Frisbee. “They were throwing it too hard at each other and they were too close together,” she said.
Mr. Johnson said the game “had an edge to it.”
Mr. Johnson, who insists that students are having fun despite the constraints, was offered hugs as he strolled through the playground recently. Just as often, he jumped in to make sure that the play did not get rough.
Did one second grader call another a mean name? he asked a reporter.
First graders who were engaged in what he called a punching game assured him, “We’re just pretending.”
“Someone might get hurt,” he warned.
Michael Lopez, a fifth grader who misses his soccer game, is making do. “At first,” he said, “it wasn’t fun, because no one had anything to do.” Things improved once the school bought inflatable hurdles and other equipment, he said.
Don Twitty, a father in nearby Groton critical of the retooled recess, said children should not have to be Bubble Wrapped before they could have fun.
“Bumps and bruises are part of any activity that you do,” he said.
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
Published: December 14, 2007
MONTVILLE, Conn. — Children at the Oakdale School here in southeastern Connecticut returned this fall to learn that their traditional recess had gone the way of the peanut butter sandwich and the Gumby lunchbox.
No longer could they let off their youthful energy — pent up from hours of long division — by cavorting outside for 22 minutes of unstructured play, or perhaps with a vigorous game of tag or dodgeball. Such games had been virtually banned by the principal, Mark S. Johnson, along with kickball, soccer and other “body-banging” activities, as he put it, where knees — and feelings — might get bruised.
Instead, children are encouraged to jump rope, play with Hula Hoops or gently fling a Frisbee. Balls are practically controlled substances, parceled out under close supervision by playground monitors.
The traditional recess, a rite of grade school, is endangered not only in the Oakdale School here in Montville, a town of 18,500. From Cheyenne, Wyo., to Wyckoff, N.J., recess — long seen as a way for children to develop social competence, recharge after long lessons, and resist obesity — is being rethought and pared down.
In the face of this, a national campaign called Rescuing Recess, sponsored by such organizations as the Cartoon Network, the National Parent Teacher Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Education Association, has taken hold at many schools where parents and children fear that recess will go the way of the one-room schoolhouse.
At Oakdale, Mr. Johnson finally relaxed some prohibitions after a parade of parents complained. Now, twice a week when a parent or grandparent is present, fourth and fifth graders are allowed to play a modified version of kickball as long as the score is not kept. Many parents are still not satisfied, however, saying that such coddling fails to prepare children for adulthood.
“Life is competitive,” said Shari Clewell, the mother of a fifth grader. “Kids compete for attention. They compete for grades. You compete for a job. You compete from the time you’re little all the way to the end.”
Pretending otherwise is pointless, she said. “They’re kids. They are competitive. They can play jump rope and jacks and make it competitive.”
But the principal is determined. “I’m honestly one of the most competitive guys in the world, having coached sports for a long time,” said Mr. Johnson, who has coached youth basketball and softball. “But I honestly don’t believe this is the place for that.”
Acknowledging that the changes caused “quite an uproar,” he defended his policy as a way to build skills and camaraderie rather than competition and conflict, and said that it had nothing to do with insurance costs. He said he had seen too many recesses where children “want all the good kids on one side and they want to win at all costs, and kids are made to feel badly.”
Children are still encouraged to move about, he said, and are free to walk the grounds with the school nurse, or depending on the day, sing in the chorus, play chess or pick up litter. And he insisted that children could still play competitive games in their weekly gym classes or in extracurricular programs.
But Ms. Clewell was dismissive of the alternatives. “I’m not having my son pick up trash around the school,” she said. “This is recess.”
For now, the superintendent of schools, David Erwin, has not intervened in the dispute, although he acknowledges that the public outcry has caught his eye.
Connecticut is one of only a handful of states that require some type of break, or recess, but its law does not spell out how long they should be or what pupils should be doing. Because of the free hand that schools have across the country, some pinch minutes once used for recess to prepare students for standardized tests. Others, citing liability concerns, have banned sports like dodgeball, where children are the targets.
In Cheyenne, Wyo., one school has banished tag from the playground as being too rough but allows other contact sports, like touch football. Several schools in Colorado have banned tag for the same reason.
There are also financial reasons for the changes in recess. In Broward County, Fla., one of the nation’s largest school systems, to comply with expanded phys ed requirements that the state mandated but did not provide extra money for, the time “is being transformed into a structured activity,” said Elly Zanin, a district official. She said she wished that were not so.
In Wyckoff, N.J., freestyle recess has become a “midday fitness” class. Student have fewer options for activities and are told to keep moving. By applying recess to the gym requirement, the schools have freed up time for academics.
Such changes worry educators like Joe Frost, a professor emeritus of education at the University of Texas, who has spent 30 years researching children’s play. He defended the traditional recess as a way to give children the freedom to make their own choices and said that it was “terrible, ill-advised and damaging” to inject so much structure and oversight.
“Children need to engage in games such as this in order to develop social skills, to learn to handle themselves, to avoid obesity, and to get the activities they need, and these are traditional games, going on for centuries,” Dr. Frost said. “It’s just difficult to imagine how a person in education could come up with such a bad idea.”
As for playground bullies, he said: “There are ways for teachers to handle bullying without stopping the play for all the children. This is a teacher problem. This is not a child problem.”
But to Mr. Johnson, who has been a school principal for five years, it is the lack of structure that places recess out of sync with the educational and moral instruction provided the rest of the day. “We’re really responsible for what kinds of people these kids will be,” said Mr. Johnson, who has raised two children. “We can produce lots of kids who are skilled academically, but they aren’t skilled as people.”
The approximately 400 pupils at Oakdale in grades one through five seem to have adjusted to the redefined recess better than their mothers and fathers have.
“Parents are in disbelief,” said Jill Santacroce, the mother of an avid soccer player who, she says, now spends too many recesses bored or wandering around. And although one playground monitor, a part-time employee, said in a letter to the editor of The Day, a newspaper in New London, that only a fraction of the parents were upset, Ms. Santacroce insisted, “It’s a lot of parents, not just a few.”
She said her son was scolded while playing Frisbee. “They were throwing it too hard at each other and they were too close together,” she said.
Mr. Johnson said the game “had an edge to it.”
Mr. Johnson, who insists that students are having fun despite the constraints, was offered hugs as he strolled through the playground recently. Just as often, he jumped in to make sure that the play did not get rough.
Did one second grader call another a mean name? he asked a reporter.
First graders who were engaged in what he called a punching game assured him, “We’re just pretending.”
“Someone might get hurt,” he warned.
Michael Lopez, a fifth grader who misses his soccer game, is making do. “At first,” he said, “it wasn’t fun, because no one had anything to do.” Things improved once the school bought inflatable hurdles and other equipment, he said.
Don Twitty, a father in nearby Groton critical of the retooled recess, said children should not have to be Bubble Wrapped before they could have fun.
“Bumps and bruises are part of any activity that you do,” he said.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Afirman que hace falta más por hacer en aprendizaje del inglés
Expertos señalan que la inmersión total no ofrece los mejores resultados
Rubén Moreno | La Opinión
Viernes, 14 de diciembre de 2007
A casi 10 años de que los votantes de California aprobaran la Proposición 227, los expertos en educación hacen hincapié en que la fórmula de aprender todas las materias sólo en inglés no ofrece los resultados esperados en organismos educativos. Esto vale sobre todo para el Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles (LAUSD), que alberga a un alto porcentaje de alumnos clasificados como aprendices del idioma.
"Los datos nos dicen que la forma en cómo ha afectado a los estudiantes no ha sido la mejor. Antes sólo el 29% de los alumnos estaba en programas bilingües", dijo a La Opinión Patricia Gándara, codirectora del Proyecto de Derechos Civiles de la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles (UCLA), después de participar en un panel durante la cumbre que el Distrito Escolar celebra hasta hoy sobre inglés y rendimiento académico.
En la actualidad, más de 250 mil estudiantes de secundaria en California son aprendices de inglés, y el 83% de ellos habla español como primera lengua. En el LAUSD, el 38% de los alumnos está adquiriendo aún el idioma y otro 20% adicional habla un inglés considerado como no académico.
"La diferencia entre el inglés estándar es que los alumnos sólo hablan un lenguaje donde el vocabulario es en inglés, pero que es una combinación que ha recibido la influencia de otros idiomas, mientras que los aprendices lo hablan como segunda lengua", explicó Norma LeMoine, directora de la división encargada de cerrar la brecha académica en el LAUSD.
De acuerdo con LeMoine, partiendo del ejemplo de un estudiante inmigrante recién llegado sin ningún conocimiento sobre el inglés, "a ese alumno le toma dos años adquirir la habilidad para poder comunicarse, pero le lleva de cinco a siete años aprender el idioma de una forma competente".
"Sería una ventaja para los estudiantes estar en una clase bilingüe. Para ellos sería más fácil aprender el inglés, pero estamos también robándoles el lenguaje cuando sabemos que toda persona tiene una capacidad increíble de poder desarrollar varias lenguas, incluso tres o cuatro al mismo tiempo", agregó Gándara. "Estamos pisando la riqueza que tiene este país impidiendo que crezca el español".
La Proposición 227 requiere desde hace una década que las instrucciones en los salones de California se desarrollen completamente en inglés y que, en el caso de quienes no comprenden nada del idioma, no exceda de un año el tiempo de inmersión en el que deben adquirirlo. Sólo en esos casos se facilita la enseñanza en su idioma natal para enfrentarse a la educación exclusivamente en inglés un año después.
"Falta una política adecuada del aprendizaje del inglés por parte del estado, que es el que nos limita los materiales y los métodos que se pueden utilizar para enseñar el inglés académico en las escuelas", señaló Mónica García, presidenta de la junta directiva del LAUSD. "Como distrito no hemos puesto la presión, pero tiene que haber más conciencia a nivel estatal y un mayor enlace con los expertos para que nos informen".
Al igual que muchos analistas, García coincidió en que también "faltan maestros preparados" que sean conscientes del tipo de alumnado al que tienen que enseñar.
"Los maestros no tienen el entendimiento de que los alumnos son nativos. Este problema tiene raíces históricas", dijo María Brenes, directora ejecutiva de La Lucha del Pueblo, al referirse a que el inglés que hablan los estudiantes está contagiado por muchas culturas, implicando que los niños fallen en la gramática y la sintaxis.
Otro de los argumentos expuestos durante la jornada de ayer apunta a que los niños que proceden de familias de bajos recursos o donde sus padres no hablan el inglés también tardan más en tomar confianza con el idioma, aunque la raíz de la situación sea mucho más grande que una simple cuestión racial.
"Muchos dicen que es un problema cultural, pero eso sólo es una parte. Los estudiantes blancos y los que son más saludables [económicamente] también están por detrás de las estadísticas respecto a otros estados", expresó Jeanne Oakes, profesora del Instituto para la Democracia, Acceso y Educación de UCLA.
La cumbre, en la que participan más de 200 expertos tanto locales como a nivel nacional, concluye hoy y servirá al LAUSD para evaluar las necesidades escolares de cara a mejorar el rendimiento del alumnado que está aprendiendo el inglés o que aún no es proficiente, en un Distrito Escolar donde se hablan 93 idiomas diferentes.
Rubén Moreno | La Opinión
Viernes, 14 de diciembre de 2007
A casi 10 años de que los votantes de California aprobaran la Proposición 227, los expertos en educación hacen hincapié en que la fórmula de aprender todas las materias sólo en inglés no ofrece los resultados esperados en organismos educativos. Esto vale sobre todo para el Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles (LAUSD), que alberga a un alto porcentaje de alumnos clasificados como aprendices del idioma.
"Los datos nos dicen que la forma en cómo ha afectado a los estudiantes no ha sido la mejor. Antes sólo el 29% de los alumnos estaba en programas bilingües", dijo a La Opinión Patricia Gándara, codirectora del Proyecto de Derechos Civiles de la Universidad de California en Los Ángeles (UCLA), después de participar en un panel durante la cumbre que el Distrito Escolar celebra hasta hoy sobre inglés y rendimiento académico.
En la actualidad, más de 250 mil estudiantes de secundaria en California son aprendices de inglés, y el 83% de ellos habla español como primera lengua. En el LAUSD, el 38% de los alumnos está adquiriendo aún el idioma y otro 20% adicional habla un inglés considerado como no académico.
"La diferencia entre el inglés estándar es que los alumnos sólo hablan un lenguaje donde el vocabulario es en inglés, pero que es una combinación que ha recibido la influencia de otros idiomas, mientras que los aprendices lo hablan como segunda lengua", explicó Norma LeMoine, directora de la división encargada de cerrar la brecha académica en el LAUSD.
De acuerdo con LeMoine, partiendo del ejemplo de un estudiante inmigrante recién llegado sin ningún conocimiento sobre el inglés, "a ese alumno le toma dos años adquirir la habilidad para poder comunicarse, pero le lleva de cinco a siete años aprender el idioma de una forma competente".
"Sería una ventaja para los estudiantes estar en una clase bilingüe. Para ellos sería más fácil aprender el inglés, pero estamos también robándoles el lenguaje cuando sabemos que toda persona tiene una capacidad increíble de poder desarrollar varias lenguas, incluso tres o cuatro al mismo tiempo", agregó Gándara. "Estamos pisando la riqueza que tiene este país impidiendo que crezca el español".
La Proposición 227 requiere desde hace una década que las instrucciones en los salones de California se desarrollen completamente en inglés y que, en el caso de quienes no comprenden nada del idioma, no exceda de un año el tiempo de inmersión en el que deben adquirirlo. Sólo en esos casos se facilita la enseñanza en su idioma natal para enfrentarse a la educación exclusivamente en inglés un año después.
"Falta una política adecuada del aprendizaje del inglés por parte del estado, que es el que nos limita los materiales y los métodos que se pueden utilizar para enseñar el inglés académico en las escuelas", señaló Mónica García, presidenta de la junta directiva del LAUSD. "Como distrito no hemos puesto la presión, pero tiene que haber más conciencia a nivel estatal y un mayor enlace con los expertos para que nos informen".
Al igual que muchos analistas, García coincidió en que también "faltan maestros preparados" que sean conscientes del tipo de alumnado al que tienen que enseñar.
"Los maestros no tienen el entendimiento de que los alumnos son nativos. Este problema tiene raíces históricas", dijo María Brenes, directora ejecutiva de La Lucha del Pueblo, al referirse a que el inglés que hablan los estudiantes está contagiado por muchas culturas, implicando que los niños fallen en la gramática y la sintaxis.
Otro de los argumentos expuestos durante la jornada de ayer apunta a que los niños que proceden de familias de bajos recursos o donde sus padres no hablan el inglés también tardan más en tomar confianza con el idioma, aunque la raíz de la situación sea mucho más grande que una simple cuestión racial.
"Muchos dicen que es un problema cultural, pero eso sólo es una parte. Los estudiantes blancos y los que son más saludables [económicamente] también están por detrás de las estadísticas respecto a otros estados", expresó Jeanne Oakes, profesora del Instituto para la Democracia, Acceso y Educación de UCLA.
La cumbre, en la que participan más de 200 expertos tanto locales como a nivel nacional, concluye hoy y servirá al LAUSD para evaluar las necesidades escolares de cara a mejorar el rendimiento del alumnado que está aprendiendo el inglés o que aún no es proficiente, en un Distrito Escolar donde se hablan 93 idiomas diferentes.
Gates funding gives boost to HISD program
Sounds like 4.5 million new reasons to promote teaching to the tests. -Patricia
$4.5 million to help train teachers new way to analyze student test scores
By ERICKA MELLON | Houston Chronicle
December 7, 2007
The Houston school district's push to grade teachers on their students' progress got a $4.5 million boost Thursday from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The grant, the second multimillion-dollar award the district has received for this effort in recent months, will help fuel what school and foundation leaders call a major reform plan to improve teaching and ensure that all students are prepared for college.
"This project is about helping teachers help kids perform at their highest rates," said Steven Seleznow, an education director for the Seattle-based foundation started by the Microsoft Corp. chairman and his wife.
The district plans to use the grant mostly to train teachers on a different way of analyzing test scores. The "value-added" method evaluates how much progress individual students are making on standardized tests year after year — or whether teachers are adding value to students' education.
Value-added models
Under the performance-pay plan, unveiled amid controversy last year, teachers, principals and even Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra are eligible for bonuses based on this student growth.
This year, the district has revised its program and contracted with William Sanders, the pioneer of value-added models, to crunch the numbers. The school board approved paying his company no more than $473,000 this year.
Some teachers, however, say the bonus program still is unfair and too complicated. Various education researchers also question whether value-added models truly identify the best teachers and whether bonuses should be linked to them.
"I'm a skeptic because these are not perfect measures of teacher performance," said Dale Ballou, an associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "It doesn't mean it's a bad idea to try this. The question is whether we get something out of this that is good enough that it motivates teachers."
Sanders developed his model in Tennessee, where it has been part of the school accountability system since the early 1990s.
The Houston district also has hired Battelle for Kids, an Ohio-based nonprofit, to train employees about the data and create user-friendly online charts showing which schools are making progress and which aren't moving students along fast enough.
Parents and the public will have access to some of the color-coded charts, which could be a helpful, if confusing, tool to evaluate a school's performance. The district plans to use some of its grant money to produce documents to help parents understand the system, which confounds even veteran educators.
Traditionally, parents could find out only the percentage of students at a given school who passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
"Parents don't simply want their child to pass, and yet the existing systems — No Child Left Behind, the state accountability system — are all about passing," said school board vice president Harvin Moore. "When schools are judged on what percentage of the children passed, people focus on the 'bubble' kids, kids that are just under passing and the ones that are just over passing, to make sure they don't slip back. It's not that anybody intends to do this."
The board approved paying Battelle a maximum of $10.4 million over three years, with grants funding most of the tab.
The district has named its latest reform effort ASPIRE (Accelerating Student Progress, Increasing Results and Expectations).
Lisa Auerbach, who teaches at Herod Elementary, supports the new focus on student growth. She typically tries to calculate her students' progress on the national Stanford test.
"I have kids who may not yet be on grade level, but, by gosh, I've taken them further than a year's growth," she said. "I call that success because, if the next teacher can do the same thing, then over time that gap is going to narrow."
Complexity 'biggest flaw'?
Steve Antley, a social studies teacher at Marshall Middle School, said that even after attending training on the value-added system, he finds it too complicated to be helpful.
"It reminded me of being in a statistics class during graduate school," said Antley, who is president of the Congress of Houston Teachers. "I think the complex nature of the plan is its biggest flaw in terms of using it for performance pay. To create a performance-pay model, teachers should be able to clearly understand how the money's being awarded."
Sanders makes no apologies for his complex formula, though he wouldn't say whether he supports HISD's decision to award bonuses based on it.
"I'm not going to trade simplicity of calculations for the reliability of the information," he said. "Before groups of teachers, I often hold up a cell phone and I say, 'I don't have a clue what's inside this, but I have to have trust that when I punch the numbers, it's going to call the right number.' "
$4.5 million to help train teachers new way to analyze student test scores
By ERICKA MELLON | Houston Chronicle
December 7, 2007
The Houston school district's push to grade teachers on their students' progress got a $4.5 million boost Thursday from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The grant, the second multimillion-dollar award the district has received for this effort in recent months, will help fuel what school and foundation leaders call a major reform plan to improve teaching and ensure that all students are prepared for college.
"This project is about helping teachers help kids perform at their highest rates," said Steven Seleznow, an education director for the Seattle-based foundation started by the Microsoft Corp. chairman and his wife.
The district plans to use the grant mostly to train teachers on a different way of analyzing test scores. The "value-added" method evaluates how much progress individual students are making on standardized tests year after year — or whether teachers are adding value to students' education.
Value-added models
Under the performance-pay plan, unveiled amid controversy last year, teachers, principals and even Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra are eligible for bonuses based on this student growth.
This year, the district has revised its program and contracted with William Sanders, the pioneer of value-added models, to crunch the numbers. The school board approved paying his company no more than $473,000 this year.
Some teachers, however, say the bonus program still is unfair and too complicated. Various education researchers also question whether value-added models truly identify the best teachers and whether bonuses should be linked to them.
"I'm a skeptic because these are not perfect measures of teacher performance," said Dale Ballou, an associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. "It doesn't mean it's a bad idea to try this. The question is whether we get something out of this that is good enough that it motivates teachers."
Sanders developed his model in Tennessee, where it has been part of the school accountability system since the early 1990s.
The Houston district also has hired Battelle for Kids, an Ohio-based nonprofit, to train employees about the data and create user-friendly online charts showing which schools are making progress and which aren't moving students along fast enough.
Parents and the public will have access to some of the color-coded charts, which could be a helpful, if confusing, tool to evaluate a school's performance. The district plans to use some of its grant money to produce documents to help parents understand the system, which confounds even veteran educators.
Traditionally, parents could find out only the percentage of students at a given school who passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
"Parents don't simply want their child to pass, and yet the existing systems — No Child Left Behind, the state accountability system — are all about passing," said school board vice president Harvin Moore. "When schools are judged on what percentage of the children passed, people focus on the 'bubble' kids, kids that are just under passing and the ones that are just over passing, to make sure they don't slip back. It's not that anybody intends to do this."
The board approved paying Battelle a maximum of $10.4 million over three years, with grants funding most of the tab.
The district has named its latest reform effort ASPIRE (Accelerating Student Progress, Increasing Results and Expectations).
Lisa Auerbach, who teaches at Herod Elementary, supports the new focus on student growth. She typically tries to calculate her students' progress on the national Stanford test.
"I have kids who may not yet be on grade level, but, by gosh, I've taken them further than a year's growth," she said. "I call that success because, if the next teacher can do the same thing, then over time that gap is going to narrow."
Complexity 'biggest flaw'?
Steve Antley, a social studies teacher at Marshall Middle School, said that even after attending training on the value-added system, he finds it too complicated to be helpful.
"It reminded me of being in a statistics class during graduate school," said Antley, who is president of the Congress of Houston Teachers. "I think the complex nature of the plan is its biggest flaw in terms of using it for performance pay. To create a performance-pay model, teachers should be able to clearly understand how the money's being awarded."
Sanders makes no apologies for his complex formula, though he wouldn't say whether he supports HISD's decision to award bonuses based on it.
"I'm not going to trade simplicity of calculations for the reliability of the information," he said. "Before groups of teachers, I often hold up a cell phone and I say, 'I don't have a clue what's inside this, but I have to have trust that when I punch the numbers, it's going to call the right number.' "
Monday, December 17, 2007
Program allows students to transfer from 831 deficient schools
Dec. 13, 2007, 4:51AM
Program allows students to transfer from 831 deficient schools
© 2007 The Associated Press
AUSTIN — Students at 831 Texas public schools will be allowed to transfer to other campuses next school year because their schools were among the lowest rated in the state, the Texas Education Agency said.
Schools on the list had more than 50 percent of their students fail the TAKS in any two of the last three years or had an "academically unacceptable" rating in any one of the last three years.
Under the Public Education Grant program, schools that accept transfer students receive an extra 10 percent in funding per pupil.
Houston led all districts with 89 schools on the list, while Dallas came in second with 74. More than 10 percent of the state's schools made the list, but the total number decreased from 924 last year, according to the TEA.
Education officials said tougher performance standards implemented in recent years have caused problems for some schools. This is the third year in a row that least 10 percent of schools made the list of low performers.
"Math and science were the most common reasons for a school to be unacceptable," said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the TEA.
Education officials estimated that as many as 500,000 students are enrolled at the 831 schools.
The number of students who take advantage of the transfer option is expected to be low, because the program doesn't provide funding for transportation to a new school. Fewer than 3,000 students have used the program to move to transfer since it was implemented in the late 1990s.
The Senate Education Committee has called on lawmakers to encourage participation in the transfer program by funding transportation.
Officials have said transportation is a major obstacle for students and parents who are considering transferring under the program.
___
On the Net: Texas Education Agency list of eligible schools, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/taa/perfreport121207a.pdf
___
Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.comhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5374790.html
Program allows students to transfer from 831 deficient schools
© 2007 The Associated Press
AUSTIN — Students at 831 Texas public schools will be allowed to transfer to other campuses next school year because their schools were among the lowest rated in the state, the Texas Education Agency said.
Schools on the list had more than 50 percent of their students fail the TAKS in any two of the last three years or had an "academically unacceptable" rating in any one of the last three years.
Under the Public Education Grant program, schools that accept transfer students receive an extra 10 percent in funding per pupil.
Houston led all districts with 89 schools on the list, while Dallas came in second with 74. More than 10 percent of the state's schools made the list, but the total number decreased from 924 last year, according to the TEA.
Education officials said tougher performance standards implemented in recent years have caused problems for some schools. This is the third year in a row that least 10 percent of schools made the list of low performers.
"Math and science were the most common reasons for a school to be unacceptable," said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the TEA.
Education officials estimated that as many as 500,000 students are enrolled at the 831 schools.
The number of students who take advantage of the transfer option is expected to be low, because the program doesn't provide funding for transportation to a new school. Fewer than 3,000 students have used the program to move to transfer since it was implemented in the late 1990s.
The Senate Education Committee has called on lawmakers to encourage participation in the transfer program by funding transportation.
Officials have said transportation is a major obstacle for students and parents who are considering transferring under the program.
___
On the Net: Texas Education Agency list of eligible schools, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/taa/perfreport121207a.pdf
___
Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.comhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5374790.html
Calls Grow for a Broader Yardstick for Schools
This is an important, but actually very long, unending battle. -Angela
Calls Grow for a Broader Yardstick for Schools
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 16, 2007; A11
For nearly six years, the federal government has defined school success mainly by how many students pass state reading and math tests. But a growing number of educators and lawmakers are pushing to give more weight to graduation rates, achievement in science and history and even physical education.
The debate over the formula for rating the nation's public schools has stalled efforts in Congress to revise the No Child Left Behind law. At issue: What's the best way to measure whether schools are doing their job?
Unlike questions on the state math and reading tests taken by millions of children, this one has no clear answer. Reaching consensus in the coming election year is expected to be difficult. Without congressional action, the 2002 law will stay as it is.
"Lots of stakeholders have different answers to this question," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a D.C.-based coalition of urban school systems. "The tug of war is over, if not state assessments, then what? You're ultimately going to get as many answers to the question as there are people to answer it."
The American Society of Civil Engineers wants science tests added to the mix. The NAACP and other groups say schools should get credit for achievement in subjects other than reading and math, as well as for improvement in graduation and college admission rates. Some want to give schools points for progress on locally developed tests and for increasing the number of students who excel in Advanced Placement classes.
Reps. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) say the law should push children to exercise more than their brains. They introduced a bill to give schools points if students spend more time on physical education.
Advocates for "multiple measures" say that learning is too complex to be judged by annual tests and argue that spontaneity and creativity in classrooms are being lost to test preparation and drills.
"There ought to be more in determining students' success than just one test score," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union. "Preparing a child for the 21st century means reading and math. But it also means science; it means civics; it means art."
But the Bush administration and some civil rights, education and business groups say that too many tweaks would weaken a law credited with revealing pockets of struggling students, especially among poor children, minorities and those with disabilities. In their view, an overly complex rating system would mask problems in schools with many students who haven't mastered basic reading and math, skills they call the building blocks to success.
"Proponents of multiple measures say it will give a richer, fuller view of a school, but this isn't about a rich view of a school. It's about failures in fundamental gate-keeping subject areas," said Amy Wilkins, a vice president of the Education Trust, a D.C.-based advocate of better schools for the disadvantaged. "Parents know, 'My school is in trouble because it's not teaching reading and math.' "
At Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince George's County, where test scores in reading and math have usually met state benchmarks, the principal, Helena Nobles-Jones, said: "It's okay to add other factors, but they can't replace reading and math." The two subjects, she said, "are so very critical to any career a child would choose."
The law requires annual reading and math tests in third through eighth grades and once in high school. Schools and subsets of students -- including ethnic minorities and students from poor families -- must make gains over time. High schools also must reach target graduation rates, but the state goals have been criticized as weak and inconsistent.
Certain schools that don't meet standards are required to allow students to transfer or face other sanctions. The law aims to have 100 percent of children proficient in reading and math by 2014. But the ratings are more about identifying struggling schools than rewarding excellence.
George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, has been trying to craft a definition of school success that goes beyond standardized tests. In a draft bill he circulated last summer, math and reading scores would remain the biggest factors in rating schools. But schools also could gain points for raising science, history, civics or writing scores or increasing the number of students who succeed in college preparatory courses. The proposal would establish a national system to measure graduation rates, and high schools could be rewarded for progress.
Miller said such changes would encourage schools to lower dropout rates, broaden the curriculum and encourage more disadvantaged students to enroll in challenging classes. He said he aims to provide a "better, fairer picture of what's happening in schools."
But some GOP leaders say the picture would only become murkier. Under the law, parents can see how their school stacks up against others across town or across the state on the same exams. If some groups of students struggle, it shows.
Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (Calif.), the top Republican on the education committee, said the law lets parents "cut through the clutter and see clearly how their children's schools are performing." Add too many measures, he said, and accountability would be lost.
Many advocates for children with disabilities agree. Ricki Sabia, associate director of the National Down Syndrome Society's Policy Center, said the law has forced schools to focus more on children with special needs. "What we've seen in the past five years is kids with disabilities are doing better than anyone expected," Sabia said. "We are very wary of seeing things roll back."
Likewise, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund applauds the law for drawing attention to Latino student achievement. The organization isn't opposed to adding measures, said Peter Zamora, a regional counsel for the group, as long as the system "can't be easily gamed."
But many educators report increasing pressure to tailor lessons to annual state exams, leading students to miss out on other educational opportunities.
"The fear is you have this narrowing of the breadth and depth" of the curriculum, said Elizabeth Burmaster, Wisconsin's state superintendent. Burmaster, president of the Council of Chief State School Officers and a former music and drama teacher, supports using local assessments together with state tests. "It's much more complicated," she said. "But it's more accurate."
Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the challenge is creating a rating system that includes a range of measures and provides a clear picture of a school's effectiveness.
"Most schools people -- and a lot of people who think about schools -- think school is about a bunch of different things, not just reading and math," Loveless said. "The problem is . . . as you list all those things, suddenly it's not as clear-cut what's a successful school and what's a failing school."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501747.html
Calls Grow for a Broader Yardstick for Schools
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 16, 2007; A11
For nearly six years, the federal government has defined school success mainly by how many students pass state reading and math tests. But a growing number of educators and lawmakers are pushing to give more weight to graduation rates, achievement in science and history and even physical education.
The debate over the formula for rating the nation's public schools has stalled efforts in Congress to revise the No Child Left Behind law. At issue: What's the best way to measure whether schools are doing their job?
Unlike questions on the state math and reading tests taken by millions of children, this one has no clear answer. Reaching consensus in the coming election year is expected to be difficult. Without congressional action, the 2002 law will stay as it is.
"Lots of stakeholders have different answers to this question," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a D.C.-based coalition of urban school systems. "The tug of war is over, if not state assessments, then what? You're ultimately going to get as many answers to the question as there are people to answer it."
The American Society of Civil Engineers wants science tests added to the mix. The NAACP and other groups say schools should get credit for achievement in subjects other than reading and math, as well as for improvement in graduation and college admission rates. Some want to give schools points for progress on locally developed tests and for increasing the number of students who excel in Advanced Placement classes.
Reps. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) say the law should push children to exercise more than their brains. They introduced a bill to give schools points if students spend more time on physical education.
Advocates for "multiple measures" say that learning is too complex to be judged by annual tests and argue that spontaneity and creativity in classrooms are being lost to test preparation and drills.
"There ought to be more in determining students' success than just one test score," said Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union. "Preparing a child for the 21st century means reading and math. But it also means science; it means civics; it means art."
But the Bush administration and some civil rights, education and business groups say that too many tweaks would weaken a law credited with revealing pockets of struggling students, especially among poor children, minorities and those with disabilities. In their view, an overly complex rating system would mask problems in schools with many students who haven't mastered basic reading and math, skills they call the building blocks to success.
"Proponents of multiple measures say it will give a richer, fuller view of a school, but this isn't about a rich view of a school. It's about failures in fundamental gate-keeping subject areas," said Amy Wilkins, a vice president of the Education Trust, a D.C.-based advocate of better schools for the disadvantaged. "Parents know, 'My school is in trouble because it's not teaching reading and math.' "
At Charles H. Flowers High School in Prince George's County, where test scores in reading and math have usually met state benchmarks, the principal, Helena Nobles-Jones, said: "It's okay to add other factors, but they can't replace reading and math." The two subjects, she said, "are so very critical to any career a child would choose."
The law requires annual reading and math tests in third through eighth grades and once in high school. Schools and subsets of students -- including ethnic minorities and students from poor families -- must make gains over time. High schools also must reach target graduation rates, but the state goals have been criticized as weak and inconsistent.
Certain schools that don't meet standards are required to allow students to transfer or face other sanctions. The law aims to have 100 percent of children proficient in reading and math by 2014. But the ratings are more about identifying struggling schools than rewarding excellence.
George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, has been trying to craft a definition of school success that goes beyond standardized tests. In a draft bill he circulated last summer, math and reading scores would remain the biggest factors in rating schools. But schools also could gain points for raising science, history, civics or writing scores or increasing the number of students who succeed in college preparatory courses. The proposal would establish a national system to measure graduation rates, and high schools could be rewarded for progress.
Miller said such changes would encourage schools to lower dropout rates, broaden the curriculum and encourage more disadvantaged students to enroll in challenging classes. He said he aims to provide a "better, fairer picture of what's happening in schools."
But some GOP leaders say the picture would only become murkier. Under the law, parents can see how their school stacks up against others across town or across the state on the same exams. If some groups of students struggle, it shows.
Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (Calif.), the top Republican on the education committee, said the law lets parents "cut through the clutter and see clearly how their children's schools are performing." Add too many measures, he said, and accountability would be lost.
Many advocates for children with disabilities agree. Ricki Sabia, associate director of the National Down Syndrome Society's Policy Center, said the law has forced schools to focus more on children with special needs. "What we've seen in the past five years is kids with disabilities are doing better than anyone expected," Sabia said. "We are very wary of seeing things roll back."
Likewise, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund applauds the law for drawing attention to Latino student achievement. The organization isn't opposed to adding measures, said Peter Zamora, a regional counsel for the group, as long as the system "can't be easily gamed."
But many educators report increasing pressure to tailor lessons to annual state exams, leading students to miss out on other educational opportunities.
"The fear is you have this narrowing of the breadth and depth" of the curriculum, said Elizabeth Burmaster, Wisconsin's state superintendent. Burmaster, president of the Council of Chief State School Officers and a former music and drama teacher, supports using local assessments together with state tests. "It's much more complicated," she said. "But it's more accurate."
Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the challenge is creating a rating system that includes a range of measures and provides a clear picture of a school's effectiveness.
"Most schools people -- and a lot of people who think about schools -- think school is about a bunch of different things, not just reading and math," Loveless said. "The problem is . . . as you list all those things, suddenly it's not as clear-cut what's a successful school and what's a failing school."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501747.html
Latino Immigrants’ Children Found Grasping English
To read the entire survey entitled: "English Usage Among Hispanics in the United States" click here. -Patricia
By JULIA PRESTON | NY Times
Published: November 30, 2007
Most children of Hispanic immigrants in the United States learn to speak English well by the time they are adults, even though three-quarters of their parents speak mainly Spanish and do not have a command of English, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
Only 23 percent of first-generation immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries said they spoke English very well, the report found. But 88 percent of the members of the second generation in Latino immigrant families described themselves as strong English speakers, a figure that increased to 94 percent for the grandchildren’s generation.
“The ability to speak English and the likelihood of using it in everyday life rise sharply from Hispanic immigrants to their U.S.-born adult children,” the survey reported.
The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization that does not take a position in the contentious immigration debate. The new report is based on an analysis of six surveys the center conducted from April 2002 to October 2006, covering more than 14,000 Latino adults over 18 years old.
The findings address rising worries among some voters that immigrants arriving from Latin America in the last two decades have resisted learning English and are failing to assimilate into American society. Advocates of tighter borders and reduced immigration have said that Spanish may be competing for dominance with English in states like Texas and California with large Latino populations.
At least one state, Kansas, adopted a law this year declaring English its official language and eliminating requirements that official documents be produced in Spanish as well as English, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Measures favoring English have also proliferated in counties and towns.
The Pew report found that Hispanics are generally eager to master English, believing it is “necessary for success in the United States.”
Many Hispanics believe they will face discrimination if they speak Spanish and lack strong English skills, according to the report. In the analysis, 46 percent of Latinos cited poor English skills as the leading cause of discrimination against them, a far more significant cause than race or immigration status. In a survey this year, 54 percent of Latinos said they saw discrimination as a major obstacle to their progress.
The report sought to measure English skills as “a marker of attachment” to American society, said D’Vera Cohn, a Pew center researcher who wrote the report with Shirin Hakimzadeh, another Pew researcher.
The English skills of recently arrived immigrants varied widely depending on the countries they came from. Among Mexicans, who are by far the largest national group among recent immigrants, 71 percent said they spoke little or no English. Of Hispanics born outside the 50 states, Puerto Ricans were the most likely to speak English well.
Even as many Latinos learn English, they continue to retain and use Spanish. According to the report, 44 percent of Latino adults, whether born abroad or in the United States, said they were bilingual, while 41 percent said they spoke mainly Spanish. Only 15 percent of Latino adults said they were “largely English speakers.”
By JULIA PRESTON | NY Times
Published: November 30, 2007
Most children of Hispanic immigrants in the United States learn to speak English well by the time they are adults, even though three-quarters of their parents speak mainly Spanish and do not have a command of English, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.
Only 23 percent of first-generation immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries said they spoke English very well, the report found. But 88 percent of the members of the second generation in Latino immigrant families described themselves as strong English speakers, a figure that increased to 94 percent for the grandchildren’s generation.
“The ability to speak English and the likelihood of using it in everyday life rise sharply from Hispanic immigrants to their U.S.-born adult children,” the survey reported.
The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization that does not take a position in the contentious immigration debate. The new report is based on an analysis of six surveys the center conducted from April 2002 to October 2006, covering more than 14,000 Latino adults over 18 years old.
The findings address rising worries among some voters that immigrants arriving from Latin America in the last two decades have resisted learning English and are failing to assimilate into American society. Advocates of tighter borders and reduced immigration have said that Spanish may be competing for dominance with English in states like Texas and California with large Latino populations.
At least one state, Kansas, adopted a law this year declaring English its official language and eliminating requirements that official documents be produced in Spanish as well as English, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Measures favoring English have also proliferated in counties and towns.
The Pew report found that Hispanics are generally eager to master English, believing it is “necessary for success in the United States.”
Many Hispanics believe they will face discrimination if they speak Spanish and lack strong English skills, according to the report. In the analysis, 46 percent of Latinos cited poor English skills as the leading cause of discrimination against them, a far more significant cause than race or immigration status. In a survey this year, 54 percent of Latinos said they saw discrimination as a major obstacle to their progress.
The report sought to measure English skills as “a marker of attachment” to American society, said D’Vera Cohn, a Pew center researcher who wrote the report with Shirin Hakimzadeh, another Pew researcher.
The English skills of recently arrived immigrants varied widely depending on the countries they came from. Among Mexicans, who are by far the largest national group among recent immigrants, 71 percent said they spoke little or no English. Of Hispanics born outside the 50 states, Puerto Ricans were the most likely to speak English well.
Even as many Latinos learn English, they continue to retain and use Spanish. According to the report, 44 percent of Latino adults, whether born abroad or in the United States, said they were bilingual, while 41 percent said they spoke mainly Spanish. Only 15 percent of Latino adults said they were “largely English speakers.”
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Editorial: Science, not faith, belongs in schools
Editorial: Science, not faith, belongs in schools
Web Posted: 12/10/2007 12:26 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released the results of a test that assesses science and math skills of students in 30 industrialized countries. The results showed American students scored in the bottom half — worse than their peers from 16 other countries, and better than only those from Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Mexico.
U.S. students do not reach "the baseline level of achievement ... at which students begin to demonstrate the science competencies that will enable them to participate actively in life situations related to science and technology," the report says. The comparative results for math were even worse.
Many explanations exist for the lagging performance in science by American students. One that cannot be avoided is that some of the adults who are responsible for their science educations don't take science seriously enough.
Christine Comer was a science teacher for 27 years. And for nine years until last month, she was the Texas Education Agency's director of science. She says she was forced to resign because — hold on to your monkey trials — she failed to show impartiality in the debate between advocates of intelligent design and evolution.
Specifically, the Austin-American Statesman reported, she forwarded an e-mail to a pro-evolution group announcing a speech by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. Forrest served as a key witness in a Pennsylvania court case that found intelligent design lacked sufficient evidence to be included in a scientific curriculum.
That puts Forrest and Comer at odds with some members of the State Board of Education. "Employees have to be able to work with all the members in a fair way without the perception that they are siding with one group or another," spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe told the newspaper. "That's why it's important for us to be neutral on issues and just to say what the policy is and not to create it ourselves."
Ratcliffe obviously didn't catch the irony of the "create it ourselves" line. The real issue, however, is not group dynamics. There's a place for faith, and a place for science. And the two shouldn't mix in public school classrooms.
Do Texans truly want their educators to be neutral on the teaching of religious faith versus science in schools? If so, then the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency are well on their way to making students in Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Mexico feel proud.
Web Posted: 12/10/2007 12:26 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released the results of a test that assesses science and math skills of students in 30 industrialized countries. The results showed American students scored in the bottom half — worse than their peers from 16 other countries, and better than only those from Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Mexico.
U.S. students do not reach "the baseline level of achievement ... at which students begin to demonstrate the science competencies that will enable them to participate actively in life situations related to science and technology," the report says. The comparative results for math were even worse.
Many explanations exist for the lagging performance in science by American students. One that cannot be avoided is that some of the adults who are responsible for their science educations don't take science seriously enough.
Christine Comer was a science teacher for 27 years. And for nine years until last month, she was the Texas Education Agency's director of science. She says she was forced to resign because — hold on to your monkey trials — she failed to show impartiality in the debate between advocates of intelligent design and evolution.
Specifically, the Austin-American Statesman reported, she forwarded an e-mail to a pro-evolution group announcing a speech by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. Forrest served as a key witness in a Pennsylvania court case that found intelligent design lacked sufficient evidence to be included in a scientific curriculum.
That puts Forrest and Comer at odds with some members of the State Board of Education. "Employees have to be able to work with all the members in a fair way without the perception that they are siding with one group or another," spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe told the newspaper. "That's why it's important for us to be neutral on issues and just to say what the policy is and not to create it ourselves."
Ratcliffe obviously didn't catch the irony of the "create it ourselves" line. The real issue, however, is not group dynamics. There's a place for faith, and a place for science. And the two shouldn't mix in public school classrooms.
Do Texans truly want their educators to be neutral on the teaching of religious faith versus science in schools? If so, then the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency are well on their way to making students in Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Mexico feel proud.
Could another scientific illiterate replace Bush?
Could another scientific illiterate replace Bush?
By Robyn Blumner
Tribune Media Services
Article Last Updated: 12/08/2007 12:48:25 PM MST
What happened to Christine Comer makes me wonder whether America is really emerging from its Age of Unenlightenment.
Comer was forced to resign her position as director of science at the Texas Education Agency because she forwarded an e-mail about a lecture on the fallacy of "intelligent design" and creationism as a scientifically grounded alternative to evolution. Comer, who spent 27 years as a science teacher and had been in her post at the agency for nine years, was told that the agency must remain "neutral" on the subject.
Neutral? Are they kidding? On the one hand you have a theory that has been successfully tested using the scientific method for more than 100 years and whose accuracy has been repeatedly affirmed by the vast fields of biology and genetics. On the other hand you have a hypothesis that relies on supernatural intervention for which there has been no legitimate scientific testing or objective proof.
Florida is also now in a dust-up because the teaching of evolution has been included in its proposed science standards. Donna Callaway, a member of the state Board of Education - appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush - said she'll oppose the new standards because of it.
Really folks, in this information age, when scientific innovation is the key to our nation's future, we don't have the time to be mucking around in this tired debate. You don't produce doctors and
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scientists by teaching science from the Bible. Period.
Not surprisingly, a former advisor to George Bush as Texas governor, who also worked in his federal Department of Education, provoked the Comer witch hunt. Lizzette Reynolds, deputy commissioner for statewide policy and programs, complained about Comer's e-mail and called for her termination.
These are the kinds of dim-witted people that have been elevated to key posts in the Bush administration, marking it as one promoting loopy religiosity over fact and evidence.
Think about some of the administration's policies that have emanated from President Bush's radical religious views:
The suspension of most federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. (Bush to Parkinson's patients: Drop dead!)
The spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on demonstrably useless abstinence-only sex education. (Why Johnny has herpes.)
The effort to prevent emergency contraception from being sold over the counter. (How to guarantee increased abortions.)
And the retraction of appropriated international family planning money. (Ditto.)
Bush's Iraq "crusade" is perhaps the most disturbing example of his Christian Manichaeism, but even his administration's long-standing antagonism toward the evidence of manmade global warming has religious overtones, with a hint of The-End-Times-Are-Nigh lack of interest in its consequences.
Yet in every case where the administration ignored objective fact or science in favor of religion, Bush took this country down the wrong path, harming people's lives and endangering health.
The "salvation" for those of us in the reality-based community is that the Bush administration is soon looking at its last year in office, and maybe, finally, the war on science is also coming to an end.
But maybe not.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is gaining as a GOP presidential contender. He may be a friendly face, but the ordained Baptist minister is no friend to reason. In the Republican primary debate last May, he was one of three in the field to raise his hand to proclaim that he does not believe in evolution.
In a later debate, Huckabee rejected for himself the belief that we are "descendants of a primate," magnanimously suggesting that it was OK if others chose to believe it. Gee, thanks.
Pretty much all the presidential candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, are freely spouting off about the centrality of faith in their lives (with Mitt Romney promising that his is not too weird), but it is only Huckabee who is the dogma-driven real deal - a man who as president would follow in Bush's anti-science, anti-intellectual footsteps, a man who would feel "chosen" for the job and licensed by a power higher than the will of the voters.
The mission-zeal with which Bush has arrogated power and his maniacal unwillingness to compromise is packaged righteousness, pure and simple. Remember that Bush said he appealed to a "higher father" for strength when journalist Bob Woodward asked him if he'd consulted his father before invading Iraq.
Who needs information grounded in experience when you have prayer and prophesy?
And Huckabee would be Bush redux.
Here is something scary-ignorant. Last week, the Web site ChristiaNet.com, which bills itself as "the world's largest Christian portal," cheered the results of a survey it took finding that half of its 1,400 Christian respondents said that dinosaurs and man roamed the Earth at the same time.
Putting aside that the schoolteachers of these people should be slapped silly, these are Huckabee's peeps. We can't afford to put this kind of backward thinking and scientific illiteracy in the driver's seat again.
---
You can respond to Robyn's column at blumner@sptimes.com.
By Robyn Blumner
Tribune Media Services
Article Last Updated: 12/08/2007 12:48:25 PM MST
What happened to Christine Comer makes me wonder whether America is really emerging from its Age of Unenlightenment.
Comer was forced to resign her position as director of science at the Texas Education Agency because she forwarded an e-mail about a lecture on the fallacy of "intelligent design" and creationism as a scientifically grounded alternative to evolution. Comer, who spent 27 years as a science teacher and had been in her post at the agency for nine years, was told that the agency must remain "neutral" on the subject.
Neutral? Are they kidding? On the one hand you have a theory that has been successfully tested using the scientific method for more than 100 years and whose accuracy has been repeatedly affirmed by the vast fields of biology and genetics. On the other hand you have a hypothesis that relies on supernatural intervention for which there has been no legitimate scientific testing or objective proof.
Florida is also now in a dust-up because the teaching of evolution has been included in its proposed science standards. Donna Callaway, a member of the state Board of Education - appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush - said she'll oppose the new standards because of it.
Really folks, in this information age, when scientific innovation is the key to our nation's future, we don't have the time to be mucking around in this tired debate. You don't produce doctors and
Advertisement
scientists by teaching science from the Bible. Period.
Not surprisingly, a former advisor to George Bush as Texas governor, who also worked in his federal Department of Education, provoked the Comer witch hunt. Lizzette Reynolds, deputy commissioner for statewide policy and programs, complained about Comer's e-mail and called for her termination.
These are the kinds of dim-witted people that have been elevated to key posts in the Bush administration, marking it as one promoting loopy religiosity over fact and evidence.
Think about some of the administration's policies that have emanated from President Bush's radical religious views:
The suspension of most federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. (Bush to Parkinson's patients: Drop dead!)
The spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on demonstrably useless abstinence-only sex education. (Why Johnny has herpes.)
The effort to prevent emergency contraception from being sold over the counter. (How to guarantee increased abortions.)
And the retraction of appropriated international family planning money. (Ditto.)
Bush's Iraq "crusade" is perhaps the most disturbing example of his Christian Manichaeism, but even his administration's long-standing antagonism toward the evidence of manmade global warming has religious overtones, with a hint of The-End-Times-Are-Nigh lack of interest in its consequences.
Yet in every case where the administration ignored objective fact or science in favor of religion, Bush took this country down the wrong path, harming people's lives and endangering health.
The "salvation" for those of us in the reality-based community is that the Bush administration is soon looking at its last year in office, and maybe, finally, the war on science is also coming to an end.
But maybe not.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is gaining as a GOP presidential contender. He may be a friendly face, but the ordained Baptist minister is no friend to reason. In the Republican primary debate last May, he was one of three in the field to raise his hand to proclaim that he does not believe in evolution.
In a later debate, Huckabee rejected for himself the belief that we are "descendants of a primate," magnanimously suggesting that it was OK if others chose to believe it. Gee, thanks.
Pretty much all the presidential candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, are freely spouting off about the centrality of faith in their lives (with Mitt Romney promising that his is not too weird), but it is only Huckabee who is the dogma-driven real deal - a man who as president would follow in Bush's anti-science, anti-intellectual footsteps, a man who would feel "chosen" for the job and licensed by a power higher than the will of the voters.
The mission-zeal with which Bush has arrogated power and his maniacal unwillingness to compromise is packaged righteousness, pure and simple. Remember that Bush said he appealed to a "higher father" for strength when journalist Bob Woodward asked him if he'd consulted his father before invading Iraq.
Who needs information grounded in experience when you have prayer and prophesy?
And Huckabee would be Bush redux.
Here is something scary-ignorant. Last week, the Web site ChristiaNet.com, which bills itself as "the world's largest Christian portal," cheered the results of a survey it took finding that half of its 1,400 Christian respondents said that dinosaurs and man roamed the Earth at the same time.
Putting aside that the schoolteachers of these people should be slapped silly, these are Huckabee's peeps. We can't afford to put this kind of backward thinking and scientific illiteracy in the driver's seat again.
---
You can respond to Robyn's column at blumner@sptimes.com.
2007 Comprehensive Annual Report on Texas Public Schools
New Research Report from Texas Education Agencyþ
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is pleased to
announce the publication of the 2007 Comprehensive
Annual Report on Texas Public Schools (Publication No.
GE08 601 04). The Comprehensive Annual Report
describes the status of Texas public education, as
required by Texas Education Code §39.182. The report
contains an executive summary and 15 chapters on the
following topics: state performance on the academic
excellence indicators; student performance on the
state performance assessments and a study of the
correlation between course grades and state
assessments; students in alternative education
settings; performance of students at risk of dropping
out of school; student dropouts; grade-level retention
of students; district and campus performance in
meeting state accountability standards; status of the
curriculum; deregulation and waivers; school district
expenditures and staff hours used for direct
instructional activities; district reporting
requirements; TEA funds and expenditures; performance
of open-enrollment charters on the academic excellence
indicators, accountability measures, and student
performance, in comparison to the performance of
school districts; character education programs; and
student health and physical activity.
The report is available on the
TEA website.
Additional information about the report may be
obtained by contacting the Division of Accountability
Research at (512) 475-3523.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is pleased to
announce the publication of the 2007 Comprehensive
Annual Report on Texas Public Schools (Publication No.
GE08 601 04). The Comprehensive Annual Report
describes the status of Texas public education, as
required by Texas Education Code §39.182. The report
contains an executive summary and 15 chapters on the
following topics: state performance on the academic
excellence indicators; student performance on the
state performance assessments and a study of the
correlation between course grades and state
assessments; students in alternative education
settings; performance of students at risk of dropping
out of school; student dropouts; grade-level retention
of students; district and campus performance in
meeting state accountability standards; status of the
curriculum; deregulation and waivers; school district
expenditures and staff hours used for direct
instructional activities; district reporting
requirements; TEA funds and expenditures; performance
of open-enrollment charters on the academic excellence
indicators, accountability measures, and student
performance, in comparison to the performance of
school districts; character education programs; and
student health and physical activity.
The report is available on the
TEA website.
Additional information about the report may be
obtained by contacting the Division of Accountability
Research at (512) 475-3523.
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
Carol S. Dweck is right on target. This is a MUST read. -Angela
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than
three decades of research shows that a focus on
effort-not on intelligence or ability-is key to
success in school and in life
By Carol S. Dweck
Scientific American
A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade
school. He completed his assignments easily and
routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of
his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he
had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however,
Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to
do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his
grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son's
confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But
their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a
composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork,
their son maintained, was boring and pointless.
Our society worships talent, and many people assume that
possessing superior intelligence or ability-along with
confidence in that ability-is a recipe for success. In
fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific
investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect
or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful
of challenges and unwilling to remedy their
shortcomings.
The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who
coast through the early grades under the dangerous
notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them
as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit
belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making
striving to learn seem far less important than being (or
looking) smart. This belief also makes them see
challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort
as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to
improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and
motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.
Praising children's innate abilities, as Jonathan's
parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also
prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and
even marriages from living up to their potential. On the
other hand, our studies show that teaching people to
have a "growth mind-set," which encourages a focus on
effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make
them into high achievers in school and in life.
The Opportunity of Defeat
I first began to investigate the underpinnings of human
motivation-and how people persevere after setbacks-as a
psychology graduate student at Yale University in the
1960s. Animal experiments by psychologists Martin
Seligman, Steven Maier and Richard Solomon of the
University of Pennsylvania had shown that after repeated
failures, most animals conclude that a situation is
hopeless and beyond their control. After such an
experience, the researchers found, an animal often
remains passive even when it can affect change-a state
they called learned helplessness.
People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone
reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered: Why do some
students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas
others who are no more skilled continue to strive and
learn? One answer, I soon discovered, lay in people's
beliefs about why they had failed.
In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of
ability depresses motivation more than does the belief
that lack of effort is to blame. In 1972, when I taught
a group of elementary and middle school children who
displayed helpless behavior in school that a lack of
effort (rather than lack of ability) led to their
mistakes on math problems, the kids learned to keep
trying when the problems got tough. They also solved
many of the problems even in the face of difficulty.
Another group of helpless children who were simply
rewarded for their success on easy problems did not
improve their ability to solve hard math problems. These
experiments were an early indication that a focus on
effort can help resolve helplessness and engender
success.
Subsequent studies revealed that the most persistent
students do not ruminate about their own failure much at
all but instead think of mistakes as problems to be
solved. At the University of Illinois in the 1970s I,
along with my then graduate student Carol Diener, asked
60 fifth graders to think out loud while they solved
very difficult pattern-recognition problems. Some
students reacted defensively to mistakes, denigrating
their skills with comments such as "I never did have a
good rememory," and their problem-solving strategies
deteriorated.
Others, meanwhile, focused on fixing errors and honing
their skills. One advised himself: "I should slow down
and try to figure this out." Two schoolchildren were
particularly inspiring. One, in the wake of difficulty,
pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked
his lips and said, "I love a challenge!" The other, also
confronting the hard problems, looked up at the
experimenter and approvingly declared, "I was hoping
this would be informative!" Predictably, the students
with this attitude outperformed their cohorts in these
studies.
Two Views of Intelligence
Several years later I developed a broader theory of what
separates the two general classes of learners-helpless
versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different
types of students not only explain their failures
differently, but they also hold different "theories" of
intelligence. The helpless ones believe that
intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain
amount, and that's that. I call this a "fixed mind-set."
Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they
attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel
powerless to change. They avoid challenges because
challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart
less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the
belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.
The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think
intelligence is malleable and can be developed through
education and hard work. They want to learn above all
else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your
intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because
slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they
can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are
energizing rather than intimidating; they offer
opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth
mind-set, we predicted, were destined for greater
academic success and were quite likely to outperform
their counterparts.
We validated these expectations in a study published in
early 2007. Psychologists Lisa Blackwell of Columbia
University and Kali H. Trzes-niewski of Stanford
University and I monitored 373 students for two years
during the transition to junior high school, when the
work gets more difficult and the grading more stringent,
to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math
grades. At the beginning of seventh grade, we assessed
the students' mind-sets by asking them to agree or
disagree with statements such as "Your intelligence is
something very basic about you that you can't really
change." We then assessed their beliefs about other
aspects of learning and looked to see what happened to
their grades.
As we had predicted, the students with a growth mind-set
felt that learning was a more important goal in school
than getting good grades. In addition, they held hard
work in high regard, believing that the more you labored
at something, the better you would become at it. They
understood that even geniuses have to work hard for
their great accomplishments. Confronted by a setback
such as a disappointing test grade, students with a
growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a
different strategy for mastering the material.
The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were
concerned about looking smart with little regard for
learning. They had negative views of effort, believing
that having to work hard at something was a sign of low
ability. They thought that a person with talent or
intelligence did not need to work hard to do well.
Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability,
those with a fixed mind-set said that they would study
less in the future, try never to take that subject again
and consider cheating on future tests.
Such divergent outlooks had a dramatic impact on
performance. At the start of junior high, the math
achievement test scores of the students with a growth
mind-set were comparable to those of students who
displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more
difficult, the students with a growth mind-set showed
greater persistence. As a result, their math grades
overtook those of the other students by the end of the
first semester-and the gap between the two groups
continued to widen during the two years we followed
them.
Along with Columbia psychologist Heidi Grant, I found a
similar relation between mind-set and achievement in a
2003 study of 128 Columbia freshman premed students who
were enrolled in a challenging general chemistry course.
Although all the students cared about grades, the ones
who earned the best grades were those who placed a high
premium on learning rather than on showing that they
were smart in chemistry. The focus on learning
strategies, effort and persistence paid off for these
students.
Confronting Deficiencies
A belief in fixed intelligence also makes people less
willing to admit to errors or to confront and remedy
their deficiencies in school, at work and in their
social relationships. In a study published in 1999 of
168 freshmen entering the University of Hong Kong, where
all instruction and coursework are in English, three
Hong Kong colleagues and I found that students with a
growth mind-set who scored poorly on their English
proficiency exam were far more inclined to take a
remedial English course than were low-scoring students
with a fixed mind-set. The students with a stagnant view
of intelligence were presumably unwilling to admit to
their deficit and thus passed up the opportunity to
correct it.
A fixed mind-set can similarly hamper communication and
progress in the workplace by leading managers and
employees to discourage or ignore constructive criticism
and advice. Research by psychologists Peter Heslin and
Don VandeWalle of Southern Methodist University and Gary
Latham of the University of Toronto shows that managers
who have a fixed mind-set are less likely to seek or
welcome feedback from their employees than are managers
with a growth mind-set. Presumably, managers with a
growth mind-set see themselves as works-in-progress and
understand that they need feedback to improve, whereas
bosses with a fixed mind-set are more likely to see
criticism as reflecting their underlying level of
competence. Assuming that other people are not capable
of changing either, executives with a fixed mind-set are
also less likely to mentor their underlings. But after
Heslin, VandeWalle and Latham gave managers a tutorial
on the value and principles of the growth mind-set,
supervisors became more willing to coach their employees
and gave more useful advice.
Mind-set can affect the quality and longevity of
personal relationships as well, through people's
willingness-or unwillingness-to deal with difficulties.
Those with a fixed mind-set are less likely than those
with a growth mind-set to broach problems in their
relationships and to try to solve them, according to a
2006 study I conducted with psychologist Lara Kammrath
of Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. After all, if
you think that human personality traits are more or less
fixed, relationship repair seems largely futile.
Individuals who believe people can change and grow,
however, are more confident that confronting concerns in
their relationships will lead to resolutions.
Proper Praise
How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children?
One way is by telling stories about achievements that
result from hard work. For instance, talking about math
geniuses who were more or less born that way puts
students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of great
mathematicians who fell in love with math and developed
amazing skills engenders a growth mind-set, our studies
have shown. People also communicate mind-sets through
praise. Although many, if not most, parents believe that
they should build up a child by telling him or her how
brilliant and talented he or she is, our research
suggests that this is misguided.
In studies involving several hundred fifth graders
published in 1998, for example, Columbia psychologist
Claudia M. Mueller and I gave children questions from a
nonverbal IQ test. After the first 10 problems, on which
most children did fairly well, we praised them. We
praised some of them for their intelligence: "Wow .
that's a really good score. You must be smart at this."
We commended others for their effort: "Wow . that's a
really good score. You must have worked really hard."
We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed
mind-set more often than did pats on the back for
effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for
example, shied away from a challenging assignment-they
wanted an easy one instead-far more often than the kids
applauded for their effort. (Most of those lauded for
their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from
which they would learn.) When we gave everyone hard
problems anyway, those praised for being smart became
discouraged, doubting their ability. And their scores,
even on an easier problem set we gave them afterward,
declined as compared with their previous results on
equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for
their effort did not lose confidence when faced with the
harder questions, and their performance improved
markedly on the easier problems that followed.
Making Up Your Mind-set
In addition to encouraging a growth mind-set through
praise for effort, parents and teachers can help
children by providing explicit instruction regarding the
mind as a learning machine. Blackwell, Trzesniewski and
I recently designed an eight-session workshop for 91
students whose math grades were declining in their first
year of junior high. Forty-eight of the students
received instruction in study skills only, whereas the
others attended a combination of study skills sessions
and classes in which they learned about the growth mind-
set and how to apply it to schoolwork.
In the growth mind-set classes, students read and
discussed an article entitled "You Can Grow Your Brain."
They were taught that the brain is like a muscle that
gets stronger with use and that learning prompts neurons
in the brain to grow new connections. From such
instruction, many students began to see themselves as
agents of their own brain development. Students who had
been disruptive or bored sat still and took note. One
particularly unruly boy looked up during the discussion
and said, "You mean I don't have to be dumb?"
As the semester progressed, the math grades of the kids
who learned only study skills continued to decline,
whereas those of the students given the growth-mind-set
training stopped falling and began to bounce back to
their former levels. Despite being unaware that there
were two types of instruction, teachers reported
noticing significant motivational changes in 27 percent
of the children in the growth mind-set workshop as
compared with only 9 percent of students in the control
group. One teacher wrote: "Your workshop has already had
an effect. L [our unruly male student], who never puts
in any extra effort and often doesn't turn in homework
on time, actually stayed up late to finish an assignment
early so I could review it and give him a chance to
revise it. He earned a B+. (He had been getting Cs and
lower.)"
Other researchers have replicated our results.
Psychologists Catherine Good, then at Columbia, and
Joshua Aronson and Michael Inzlicht of New York
University reported in 2003 that a growth mind-set
workshop raised the math and English achievement test
scores of seventh graders. In a 2002 study Aronson, Good
(then a graduate student at the University of Texas at
Austin) and their colleagues found that college students
began to enjoy their schoolwork more, value it more
highly and get better grades as a result of training
that fostered a growth mind-set.
We have now encapsulated such instruction in an
interactive computer program called "Brain-ology," which
should be more widely available by mid-2008. Its six
modules teach students about the brain-what it does and
how to make it work better. In a virtual brain lab,
users can click on brain regions to determine their
functions or on nerve endings to see how connections
form when people learn. Users can also advise virtual
students with problems as a way of practicing how to
handle schoolwork difficulties; additionally, users keep
an online journal of their study practices.
New York City seventh graders who tested a pilot version
of Brainology told us that the program had changed their
view of learning and how to promote it. One wrote: "My
favorite thing from Brainology is the neurons part where
when u [sic] learn something there are connections and
they keep growing. I always picture them when I'm in
school." A teacher said of the students who used the
program: "They offer to practice, study, take notes, or
pay attention to ensure that connections will be made."
Teaching children such information is not just a ploy to
get them to study. People do differ in intelligence,
talent and ability. And yet research is converging on
the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what
we call genius, is typically the result of years of
passion and dedication and not something that flows
naturally from a gift. Mozart, Edison, Curie, Darwin and
Cézanne were not simply born with talent; they
cultivated it through tremendous and sustained effort.
Similarly, hard work and discipline contribute much more
to school achievement than IQ does.
Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For
instance, many young athletes value talent more than
hard work and have consequently become unteachable.
Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs
without constant praise and encouragement to maintain
their motivation. If we foster a growth mind-set in our
homes and schools, however, we will give our children
the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become
responsible employees and citizens.
The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than
three decades of research shows that a focus on
effort-not on intelligence or ability-is key to
success in school and in life
By Carol S. Dweck
Scientific American
A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade
school. He completed his assignments easily and
routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of
his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he
had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however,
Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to
do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his
grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son's
confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But
their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a
composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork,
their son maintained, was boring and pointless.
Our society worships talent, and many people assume that
possessing superior intelligence or ability-along with
confidence in that ability-is a recipe for success. In
fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific
investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect
or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful
of challenges and unwilling to remedy their
shortcomings.
The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who
coast through the early grades under the dangerous
notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them
as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit
belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making
striving to learn seem far less important than being (or
looking) smart. This belief also makes them see
challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort
as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to
improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and
motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.
Praising children's innate abilities, as Jonathan's
parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also
prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and
even marriages from living up to their potential. On the
other hand, our studies show that teaching people to
have a "growth mind-set," which encourages a focus on
effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make
them into high achievers in school and in life.
The Opportunity of Defeat
I first began to investigate the underpinnings of human
motivation-and how people persevere after setbacks-as a
psychology graduate student at Yale University in the
1960s. Animal experiments by psychologists Martin
Seligman, Steven Maier and Richard Solomon of the
University of Pennsylvania had shown that after repeated
failures, most animals conclude that a situation is
hopeless and beyond their control. After such an
experience, the researchers found, an animal often
remains passive even when it can affect change-a state
they called learned helplessness.
People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone
reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered: Why do some
students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas
others who are no more skilled continue to strive and
learn? One answer, I soon discovered, lay in people's
beliefs about why they had failed.
In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of
ability depresses motivation more than does the belief
that lack of effort is to blame. In 1972, when I taught
a group of elementary and middle school children who
displayed helpless behavior in school that a lack of
effort (rather than lack of ability) led to their
mistakes on math problems, the kids learned to keep
trying when the problems got tough. They also solved
many of the problems even in the face of difficulty.
Another group of helpless children who were simply
rewarded for their success on easy problems did not
improve their ability to solve hard math problems. These
experiments were an early indication that a focus on
effort can help resolve helplessness and engender
success.
Subsequent studies revealed that the most persistent
students do not ruminate about their own failure much at
all but instead think of mistakes as problems to be
solved. At the University of Illinois in the 1970s I,
along with my then graduate student Carol Diener, asked
60 fifth graders to think out loud while they solved
very difficult pattern-recognition problems. Some
students reacted defensively to mistakes, denigrating
their skills with comments such as "I never did have a
good rememory," and their problem-solving strategies
deteriorated.
Others, meanwhile, focused on fixing errors and honing
their skills. One advised himself: "I should slow down
and try to figure this out." Two schoolchildren were
particularly inspiring. One, in the wake of difficulty,
pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked
his lips and said, "I love a challenge!" The other, also
confronting the hard problems, looked up at the
experimenter and approvingly declared, "I was hoping
this would be informative!" Predictably, the students
with this attitude outperformed their cohorts in these
studies.
Two Views of Intelligence
Several years later I developed a broader theory of what
separates the two general classes of learners-helpless
versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different
types of students not only explain their failures
differently, but they also hold different "theories" of
intelligence. The helpless ones believe that
intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain
amount, and that's that. I call this a "fixed mind-set."
Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they
attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel
powerless to change. They avoid challenges because
challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart
less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the
belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.
The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think
intelligence is malleable and can be developed through
education and hard work. They want to learn above all
else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your
intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because
slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they
can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are
energizing rather than intimidating; they offer
opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth
mind-set, we predicted, were destined for greater
academic success and were quite likely to outperform
their counterparts.
We validated these expectations in a study published in
early 2007. Psychologists Lisa Blackwell of Columbia
University and Kali H. Trzes-niewski of Stanford
University and I monitored 373 students for two years
during the transition to junior high school, when the
work gets more difficult and the grading more stringent,
to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math
grades. At the beginning of seventh grade, we assessed
the students' mind-sets by asking them to agree or
disagree with statements such as "Your intelligence is
something very basic about you that you can't really
change." We then assessed their beliefs about other
aspects of learning and looked to see what happened to
their grades.
As we had predicted, the students with a growth mind-set
felt that learning was a more important goal in school
than getting good grades. In addition, they held hard
work in high regard, believing that the more you labored
at something, the better you would become at it. They
understood that even geniuses have to work hard for
their great accomplishments. Confronted by a setback
such as a disappointing test grade, students with a
growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a
different strategy for mastering the material.
The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were
concerned about looking smart with little regard for
learning. They had negative views of effort, believing
that having to work hard at something was a sign of low
ability. They thought that a person with talent or
intelligence did not need to work hard to do well.
Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability,
those with a fixed mind-set said that they would study
less in the future, try never to take that subject again
and consider cheating on future tests.
Such divergent outlooks had a dramatic impact on
performance. At the start of junior high, the math
achievement test scores of the students with a growth
mind-set were comparable to those of students who
displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more
difficult, the students with a growth mind-set showed
greater persistence. As a result, their math grades
overtook those of the other students by the end of the
first semester-and the gap between the two groups
continued to widen during the two years we followed
them.
Along with Columbia psychologist Heidi Grant, I found a
similar relation between mind-set and achievement in a
2003 study of 128 Columbia freshman premed students who
were enrolled in a challenging general chemistry course.
Although all the students cared about grades, the ones
who earned the best grades were those who placed a high
premium on learning rather than on showing that they
were smart in chemistry. The focus on learning
strategies, effort and persistence paid off for these
students.
Confronting Deficiencies
A belief in fixed intelligence also makes people less
willing to admit to errors or to confront and remedy
their deficiencies in school, at work and in their
social relationships. In a study published in 1999 of
168 freshmen entering the University of Hong Kong, where
all instruction and coursework are in English, three
Hong Kong colleagues and I found that students with a
growth mind-set who scored poorly on their English
proficiency exam were far more inclined to take a
remedial English course than were low-scoring students
with a fixed mind-set. The students with a stagnant view
of intelligence were presumably unwilling to admit to
their deficit and thus passed up the opportunity to
correct it.
A fixed mind-set can similarly hamper communication and
progress in the workplace by leading managers and
employees to discourage or ignore constructive criticism
and advice. Research by psychologists Peter Heslin and
Don VandeWalle of Southern Methodist University and Gary
Latham of the University of Toronto shows that managers
who have a fixed mind-set are less likely to seek or
welcome feedback from their employees than are managers
with a growth mind-set. Presumably, managers with a
growth mind-set see themselves as works-in-progress and
understand that they need feedback to improve, whereas
bosses with a fixed mind-set are more likely to see
criticism as reflecting their underlying level of
competence. Assuming that other people are not capable
of changing either, executives with a fixed mind-set are
also less likely to mentor their underlings. But after
Heslin, VandeWalle and Latham gave managers a tutorial
on the value and principles of the growth mind-set,
supervisors became more willing to coach their employees
and gave more useful advice.
Mind-set can affect the quality and longevity of
personal relationships as well, through people's
willingness-or unwillingness-to deal with difficulties.
Those with a fixed mind-set are less likely than those
with a growth mind-set to broach problems in their
relationships and to try to solve them, according to a
2006 study I conducted with psychologist Lara Kammrath
of Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. After all, if
you think that human personality traits are more or less
fixed, relationship repair seems largely futile.
Individuals who believe people can change and grow,
however, are more confident that confronting concerns in
their relationships will lead to resolutions.
Proper Praise
How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children?
One way is by telling stories about achievements that
result from hard work. For instance, talking about math
geniuses who were more or less born that way puts
students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of great
mathematicians who fell in love with math and developed
amazing skills engenders a growth mind-set, our studies
have shown. People also communicate mind-sets through
praise. Although many, if not most, parents believe that
they should build up a child by telling him or her how
brilliant and talented he or she is, our research
suggests that this is misguided.
In studies involving several hundred fifth graders
published in 1998, for example, Columbia psychologist
Claudia M. Mueller and I gave children questions from a
nonverbal IQ test. After the first 10 problems, on which
most children did fairly well, we praised them. We
praised some of them for their intelligence: "Wow .
that's a really good score. You must be smart at this."
We commended others for their effort: "Wow . that's a
really good score. You must have worked really hard."
We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed
mind-set more often than did pats on the back for
effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for
example, shied away from a challenging assignment-they
wanted an easy one instead-far more often than the kids
applauded for their effort. (Most of those lauded for
their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from
which they would learn.) When we gave everyone hard
problems anyway, those praised for being smart became
discouraged, doubting their ability. And their scores,
even on an easier problem set we gave them afterward,
declined as compared with their previous results on
equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for
their effort did not lose confidence when faced with the
harder questions, and their performance improved
markedly on the easier problems that followed.
Making Up Your Mind-set
In addition to encouraging a growth mind-set through
praise for effort, parents and teachers can help
children by providing explicit instruction regarding the
mind as a learning machine. Blackwell, Trzesniewski and
I recently designed an eight-session workshop for 91
students whose math grades were declining in their first
year of junior high. Forty-eight of the students
received instruction in study skills only, whereas the
others attended a combination of study skills sessions
and classes in which they learned about the growth mind-
set and how to apply it to schoolwork.
In the growth mind-set classes, students read and
discussed an article entitled "You Can Grow Your Brain."
They were taught that the brain is like a muscle that
gets stronger with use and that learning prompts neurons
in the brain to grow new connections. From such
instruction, many students began to see themselves as
agents of their own brain development. Students who had
been disruptive or bored sat still and took note. One
particularly unruly boy looked up during the discussion
and said, "You mean I don't have to be dumb?"
As the semester progressed, the math grades of the kids
who learned only study skills continued to decline,
whereas those of the students given the growth-mind-set
training stopped falling and began to bounce back to
their former levels. Despite being unaware that there
were two types of instruction, teachers reported
noticing significant motivational changes in 27 percent
of the children in the growth mind-set workshop as
compared with only 9 percent of students in the control
group. One teacher wrote: "Your workshop has already had
an effect. L [our unruly male student], who never puts
in any extra effort and often doesn't turn in homework
on time, actually stayed up late to finish an assignment
early so I could review it and give him a chance to
revise it. He earned a B+. (He had been getting Cs and
lower.)"
Other researchers have replicated our results.
Psychologists Catherine Good, then at Columbia, and
Joshua Aronson and Michael Inzlicht of New York
University reported in 2003 that a growth mind-set
workshop raised the math and English achievement test
scores of seventh graders. In a 2002 study Aronson, Good
(then a graduate student at the University of Texas at
Austin) and their colleagues found that college students
began to enjoy their schoolwork more, value it more
highly and get better grades as a result of training
that fostered a growth mind-set.
We have now encapsulated such instruction in an
interactive computer program called "Brain-ology," which
should be more widely available by mid-2008. Its six
modules teach students about the brain-what it does and
how to make it work better. In a virtual brain lab,
users can click on brain regions to determine their
functions or on nerve endings to see how connections
form when people learn. Users can also advise virtual
students with problems as a way of practicing how to
handle schoolwork difficulties; additionally, users keep
an online journal of their study practices.
New York City seventh graders who tested a pilot version
of Brainology told us that the program had changed their
view of learning and how to promote it. One wrote: "My
favorite thing from Brainology is the neurons part where
when u [sic] learn something there are connections and
they keep growing. I always picture them when I'm in
school." A teacher said of the students who used the
program: "They offer to practice, study, take notes, or
pay attention to ensure that connections will be made."
Teaching children such information is not just a ploy to
get them to study. People do differ in intelligence,
talent and ability. And yet research is converging on
the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what
we call genius, is typically the result of years of
passion and dedication and not something that flows
naturally from a gift. Mozart, Edison, Curie, Darwin and
Cézanne were not simply born with talent; they
cultivated it through tremendous and sustained effort.
Similarly, hard work and discipline contribute much more
to school achievement than IQ does.
Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For
instance, many young athletes value talent more than
hard work and have consequently become unteachable.
Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs
without constant praise and encouragement to maintain
their motivation. If we foster a growth mind-set in our
homes and schools, however, we will give our children
the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become
responsible employees and citizens.
Texas biology professors voice support for evolution education
Dec. 11, 2007, 2:31AM
Texas biology professors voice support for evolution education
© 2007 The Associated Press
AUSTIN — Biology professors from across Texas stressed the importance of educating students about evolution in a letter to the state education commissioner and said Texas Education Agency employees shouldn't be required to stay neutral on the subject.
More than 100 faculty members from the universities of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas State, North Texas, Houston, Rice and Baylor signed the letter. It was sent Monday to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott.
"I'm an evolutionary biologist, and I and many others simply feel that good evolution education is key to understanding biology as a whole," said Daniel Bolnick of the University of Texas, who started collecting signatures last week.
The professors sent the letter in response to the departure of Chris Comer, who said evolution politics were behind her forced resignation last month as the state's director of science curriculum.
Comer said she came under pressure after forwarding an e-mail that her superiors felt made the agency appear to be biased against the instruction of intelligent design. Intelligent design holds that the universe's order and complexity is so great science alone cannot explain it.
UT integrative biology professor David Hillis said the Comer's ouster shows the country is slipping into "scientific illiteracy."
"It is extraordinarily unfortunate and inappropriate that religious views are dictating hiring and firing decisions at the Texas Education Agency," he said. "This is an enormous black eye in terms of our competitiveness and ability to attract researchers and technologies."
Education officials say Comer's resignation came after repeated acts of misconduct and insubordination. Scott and other officials declined to comment specifically, because they feared being sued.
"I am really frustrated with the issue, knowing the truth and not being able to talk about it," Scott said.
According to TEA documents, Comer's superiors recommended she be terminated because of comments she made about the agency's leadership and her failure to get approval for making presentations outside the agency.
The documents show that Lizzette Reynolds, the agency's senior adviser on statewide initiatives, notified Comer's superiors after Comer forwarded an e-mail announcing a presentation by an author who argues that creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools
"This is something that the State Board, the Gov.'s Office and members of the Legislature would be extremely upset to see because it assumes this is a subject that the agency supports," Reynolds said in the e-mail to Comer's supervisors.
Comer said her only recent reprimand was in February after she attended a meeting of science educators without getting prior approval.
"Did I question them when they said things that I thought were wrong? Yes, I did that," Comer said Monday. "I did speak up for myself. I was not a shrinking violet. But then, as the director of science, I thought it was important to hear my expert opinions of what is going on."
Next year, the State Board of Education begins a review of the state science curriculum, which will set standards for classroom instruction and textbook selection.
___
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Texas biology professors voice support for evolution education
© 2007 The Associated Press
AUSTIN — Biology professors from across Texas stressed the importance of educating students about evolution in a letter to the state education commissioner and said Texas Education Agency employees shouldn't be required to stay neutral on the subject.
More than 100 faculty members from the universities of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas State, North Texas, Houston, Rice and Baylor signed the letter. It was sent Monday to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott.
"I'm an evolutionary biologist, and I and many others simply feel that good evolution education is key to understanding biology as a whole," said Daniel Bolnick of the University of Texas, who started collecting signatures last week.
The professors sent the letter in response to the departure of Chris Comer, who said evolution politics were behind her forced resignation last month as the state's director of science curriculum.
Comer said she came under pressure after forwarding an e-mail that her superiors felt made the agency appear to be biased against the instruction of intelligent design. Intelligent design holds that the universe's order and complexity is so great science alone cannot explain it.
UT integrative biology professor David Hillis said the Comer's ouster shows the country is slipping into "scientific illiteracy."
"It is extraordinarily unfortunate and inappropriate that religious views are dictating hiring and firing decisions at the Texas Education Agency," he said. "This is an enormous black eye in terms of our competitiveness and ability to attract researchers and technologies."
Education officials say Comer's resignation came after repeated acts of misconduct and insubordination. Scott and other officials declined to comment specifically, because they feared being sued.
"I am really frustrated with the issue, knowing the truth and not being able to talk about it," Scott said.
According to TEA documents, Comer's superiors recommended she be terminated because of comments she made about the agency's leadership and her failure to get approval for making presentations outside the agency.
The documents show that Lizzette Reynolds, the agency's senior adviser on statewide initiatives, notified Comer's superiors after Comer forwarded an e-mail announcing a presentation by an author who argues that creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools
"This is something that the State Board, the Gov.'s Office and members of the Legislature would be extremely upset to see because it assumes this is a subject that the agency supports," Reynolds said in the e-mail to Comer's supervisors.
Comer said her only recent reprimand was in February after she attended a meeting of science educators without getting prior approval.
"Did I question them when they said things that I thought were wrong? Yes, I did that," Comer said Monday. "I did speak up for myself. I was not a shrinking violet. But then, as the director of science, I thought it was important to hear my expert opinions of what is going on."
Next year, the State Board of Education begins a review of the state science curriculum, which will set standards for classroom instruction and textbook selection.
___
Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com
Dropout-Prevention Program Sees to The Basics of Life
Families just need guidance on how to take control of their lives, says Andrill Harris, dropout prevention coordinator at the Patricia R. Harris Education Center. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)Dropout-Prevention Program Sees to The Basics of Life
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 10, 2007; Page B01
Word was getting around about the new problem solver on campus. So the mother tracked her down one recent day in a makeshift office on the second floor of a Southeast Washington public school.
"I don't know if you are the right person to come to," the mother said, "but I have this situation. I haven't eaten in the last day and a half so that my children would have enough to eat."
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Families just need guidance on how to take control of their lives, says Andrill Harris, dropout prevention coordinator at the Patricia R. Harris Education Center. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Andrill Harris, dropout prevention coordinator at the Patricia R. Harris Education Center, knew what to do. She set up a food-bank delivery. For another parent in a tight spot, Harris found subsidized housing. The two families had a total of five children at the school. All, with help from Harris, were spared at least some of the stress that makes it hard for some inner-city students to concentrate on reading and math, hard even to stay in school.
In the struggle to improve schools in the poorest neighborhoods, experts say no problem is more challenging than the high dropout rate. Some educators have raised test scores. Others have repaired leaking roofs and gotten new computers. But the latest estimates this year indicate that only 58 percent of D.C. public school students graduate on time with a high school diploma.
Communities in Schools, the nonprofit organization that employs Harris, has gained a national reputation for reducing dropout rates since its founding in 1977. Based in Alexandria, the organization has nearly 200 affiliates in 27 states, reaching more than a million students in 3,400 schools. In the District, it operates in eight schools.
The organization confronts the dropout issue at its main source: impoverished families who need jobs, health care, housing, food, reading tutors and often simply a friendly ear. It sounds simple and obvious, but in many ways it is an innovation. School systems traditionally have depended on teachers and principals to connect with bored or troubled students and try to persuade them to stay. Few outside groups offer help to beleaguered school administrators.
"Many times, students don't have a caring adult in their lives at school," said Daniel J. Cardinali, president of Communities in Schools.
To be sure, other factors can lead students to drop out. Some adolescents or teenagers dislike sitting in classrooms and want to get out into the world as soon as possible. Some feel lost in humongous high schools or turned off by boring lessons.
Many educators in the Washington area and beyond are starting to recover from years of denial about dropouts. Often, statistics have buried the magnitude of the problem. For years, many school systems have reported dropout rates of 2 or 3 percent, using a formula for what is known as the event rate, or the percentage of students who leave school each year. Nationally, the event rate is 4.7 percent. It ranges from 6 to 10 percent in low-income communities.
But scholars have persuaded the National Governors Association to embrace a statistic known as the cohort rate, or the percentage of ninth-graders who graduate within four years. That, experts say, is a more depressing but also more realistic figure. Nationally, the cohort graduation rate is about 70 percent, declining to 50 percent in some urban areas. An analysis of data on the nation's 50 largest school systems, published by Education Week in June, shows that the graduation rate in Prince George's County is 67 percent and that Anne Arundel County's is 75 percent. Montgomery County and Fairfax County were virtually tied at about 80 percent.
In a new book, "The Last Dropout: Stop the Epidemic!," Communities in Schools co-founder Bill Milliken says he does not have enough data to calculate a cohort graduation rate for students helped by his program. But he reports that his event rate appears to be about 3.5 percent, roughly half of what low-income schools usually report.
Harris, 40, joined Communities in Schools in August after many years as a social worker in the District and Prince George's. She works on a laptop computer at a table in a small special-education classroom. She has no school phone extension yet, so she uses her cellphone to reach out to organizations that might help families at two Southeast schools: Patricia R. Harris, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and Terrell Elementary, which serves students through sixth grade.
Communities in Schools focuses on what it calls the five basics: providing mentors, good health, safe places to grow and learn, opportunities to give back to the community and marketable skills. Harris's bible is a pocket-size volume, "The Emergency Food, Shelter and Health Care Directory," published by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.
That is just a start. Harris keeps a list of community groups and businesses that have offered help. She uses even the smallest gifts to build strong family relationships with her schools. Having received a donation of 100 children's books, she is organizing a "read-in" to give away books "with moms and dads in the morning, coffee and doughnuts," she said. She added: "We might have a reading night with the parents. Another option is having a book club."
Jeffrey Grant, principal of Patricia R. Harris, said the connection with Communities in Schools is "a partnership made in heaven."
All good principals, he said, try to do what Communities in Schools does: contact outside organizations that might help enrich student lives. Every D.C. school has a list of volunteer partner organizations, but the administrative and academic burdens on principals leave little time for the e-mails and phone calls needed to make the partnerships work. With Harris working for him, Grant said, his partners -- often reluctant to intrude without an invitation -- hear what he needs, when they can come and what they should bring.
Cardinali said Communities in Schools is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, federal grants and various other sources. The organization is working with four D.C. high schools -- Anacostia, Ballou, Eastern and H.D. Woodson -- but also sends coordinators to elementary schools because that is where problems begin. "We have done a bunch of research on the risk factors that correlated strongly with dropouts going back to the third grade, so we look for tutors, mentors and after-school programming," Cardinali said.
So far, smaller high schools, or small academies within larger high schools, have had the most success in increasing graduation rates. For example, 88 small high schools have opened in New York City since 2002 under the New Century High Schools initiative. They report that 78 percent of their students are graduating after four years, much higher than the citywide average. Some small charter high schools in the District report similar success, although scholars caution that the New Century and charter schools might benefit from attracting more motivated students, who are less likely to drop out wherever they go.
Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said groups such as Communities in Schools provide promising short-term solutions. But she said she looks forward to long-term changes, including universal access to pre-kindergarten, that could reduce the dropout rate by raising achievement for students from the poorest families.
Harris said her work has convinced her that families want to take control of their lives and just need guidance on how to do that. The mother who sought help finding food, Harris said, first became aware of possible aid at a PTA meeting during which Harris led a discussion of what could be done to help neighbors. The mother offered to help on Thanksgiving. Days later, she asked for help herself.
"Everybody has circumstances," Harris said. "It is not necessarily something they have done intentionally to put themselves in that situation. It is not always your responsibility to know what to do at that time and how to fix the situation. So that's why you have others in the community who will help and support you."
Staff writer Jay Mathews sits on the board of directors of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit publisher of Education Week.
DNA Pioneer’s Genome Blurs Race Lines
Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press
James D. Watson, a discoverer of the structure of DNA.
In light of the earlier post, "All Brains Are the Same Color (see below)," this is pretty funny. Enjoy! -Angela
December 12, 2007
DNA Pioneer’s Genome Blurs Race Lines
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Now, this is awkward.
James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and winner of the Nobel prize, raised a storm recently when a British newspaper quoted him saying that black Africans are not as intelligent as whites. But his own brilliant DNA seems to blur the lines.
A new analysis of Dr. Watson’s genome shows that he has 16 times the number of genes considered to be of African origin than the average white European does — about the same amount of African DNA that would show up if one great-grandparent were African, said Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of deCODE Genetics of Iceland, which did the analysis.
“This came up as a bit of a surprise,” Dr. Stefansson said in an interview, “especially as a sequel to his utterly inappropriate comments about Africans.”
After the news of Dr. Watson’s genetic ancestry was published in The Times of London on Sunday, much of the British media played the news for a lark, with headlines like “Revealed: Scientist Who Sparked Racism Row Has Black Genes” and “DNA Pioneer James Watson Is Blacker Than He Thought.”
But the news, straddling the uncertain boundary of genetic science and society, is more than a Southern gothic drama of racial identity played out on the world stage.
“The irony is bigger, and broader, than his having made derogatory comments and having an ancestral relationship with the folks he insulted,” said Kathy Hudson, the founder and director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington. As people see what happens to Dr. Watson and others as they undergo what she called the “molecular Full Monty,” the inevitable surprises might “help people make the decision about whether they want their information for themselves, and to ask, Who will I share this with?”
Dr. Stefansson’s company is one of several marketing genome scans that promise to reveal anyone’s genetic propensities for disease, origins and more, for a price. Dr. Watson had already placed his own genome information online, as has another genetics pioneer, J. Craig Venter. Dr. Stefansson said he simply ran the data through his company’s analytical system.
Dr. Stefansson said that because his company had not produced the original data, “I am reluctant, personally, to make much of the analysis.” He added, however, that “on my face, it would elicit smiles.”
The controversy began with an article in The Times of London in October that quoted Dr. Watson, who was on a book tour, as saying that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.”
According to the article, he said that “there are many people of color who are very talented,” and he hoped people were equal, but that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”
A publicity agent for Dr. Watson, Fraser Seitel, said that his client had no comment on the most recent turn of events, but noted that Dr. Watson, who is 79, “regrets very much what was attributed to him” in the original article and has repeatedly apologized for the comments while also disavowing them.
“Dr. Watson has never believed that the color of someone’s skin, or where they come from, or any other human quality gives any indication whatsoever of a person’s intelligence or potential to succeed in life,” Mr. Seitel said. While not stating explicitly that his client was misquoted in the original article, Mr. Seitel said, “he doesn’t have a recollection of it.”
George M. Church, a professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School and the director of the Center for Computational Genetics, said he questioned the accuracy of any of the current scanning and analytical services.
Professor Church predicted that as the science of genetics advanced, fuzzy categories like race would become less important because genetic characteristics would point to factors like disease at an individual level.
Meanwhile, he said: “There are still a lot of bigots in the world. Maybe showing these things are more nuanced than they’d like it to be makes them think about it.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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High Schools for Equity in California: A Progressive Education Agenda
For the study report and policy brief click here -Patricia
By Susan Sandler | California Progressive Report
November 21, 2007
Do you feel that enough attention is paid to racial justice in schools? Is education policy in touch with communities of color?
With so many inequities and problems in our school system, it is difficult to cut through to the policies that are most strategic to transforming the learning experience for students of color.
Justice Matters and Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Friedlaender of the School Redesign Network at Stanford University have released a new study, and accompanying report card, that get to the heart of this issue. High Schools for Equity: Policy Supports for Student Learning in Communities of Color seeks to answer fundamental questions about how education policy can best bring about racially just schools.
High Schools for Equity starts by looking at five California high schools that are giving low-income students of color the kind of education they deserve. These schools interrupt the status quo by providing learning experiences for students of color that are intellectually rigorous, responsive to their cultures, and relevant to their lives, communities, and specific learning needs. These schools connect learning to students’ interests, passions, and concerns.
For example, June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco offers a course that focuses on the literature surrounding immigration to the United States where students explore questions such as “When do immigrants choose to assimilate? When do they reject conforming to American standards?” Such courses combine college-prep level thinking and skills with content that addresses questions that students and their families confront on a daily basis.
It was important that the study selected schools that took a wide range of factors into account rather than just choosing schools by test scores alone. Test scores are not necessarily connected to the high quality learning experiences that students of color deserve.
After selecting the schools, the study then identifies the policies that are most important to enabling all schools to provide the education that students received in these exemplary schools. Researchers asked what supports were provided by the district and the state that enabled these schools to carry out their work. What aspects of the policy environment were obstacles that the schools had to overcome in order to carry out exemplary practices? What policies are needed to move from a tiny number of isolated schools who are doing good work in spite of the system, to having all schools do such work in part because of the school system?
The resulting findings lay out a policy agenda that can not only move us away from the deep problems in today’s schools, but that also moves us toward a system that is centered on a vision of what learning should be like for students of color and all students. Rather than tackling each isolated problem in our school system in a piecemeal fashion, this policy agenda lays out a coherent set of policies that are most important for getting us to the schools that we ultimately want to have.
Justice Matters has also created a vehicle for bringing the ideas from the High Schools for Equity study into current public discussions on California education policy. Governor Schwarzenegger has named 2008 the “Year of Education.” A clear opportunity for big change has been spotlighted in California education policy, and in response, policy makers, committees, and organizations will be issuing policy agendas. Justice Matters has translated the ideas and lessons from High Schools for Equity into a report card framework for grading these policy agendas.
It is important that policy makers be held accountable for how their actions help or hurt students of color. The Racial Justice Report Card does this. It also brings important ideas into the discussion that are often left out. Mainstream education policy is often disconnected from an understanding of what strong learning experiences for students of color really look like.
Last Wednesday, we gave our first grade using the report card. We gave a C- to Superintendent O’Connell’s draft recommendations for closing racial gaps in education. We plan to issue a grade for the forthcoming recommendations of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence, as well as other proposed policy agendas.
The ideas behind the Racial Justice Report Card grew out of what is happening in schools that are doing right by students of color, and they keep policy connected to how it affects on-the-ground learning experiences.
The report card and the study are two steps in our long-term plan to make education policy focus on racial justice and get connected to the on-the-ground learning experiences of students of color, which we believe is at the center of a better education for all students in California.
Susan Sandler is President of Justice Matters, a San Francisco-based organization that works for racially just schools by developing and promoting education policy rooted in community vision. Justice Matters conducts research, develops policy ideas, and carries out public education activities and campaigns for policy change.
By Susan Sandler | California Progressive Report
November 21, 2007
Do you feel that enough attention is paid to racial justice in schools? Is education policy in touch with communities of color?
With so many inequities and problems in our school system, it is difficult to cut through to the policies that are most strategic to transforming the learning experience for students of color.
Justice Matters and Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Friedlaender of the School Redesign Network at Stanford University have released a new study, and accompanying report card, that get to the heart of this issue. High Schools for Equity: Policy Supports for Student Learning in Communities of Color seeks to answer fundamental questions about how education policy can best bring about racially just schools.
High Schools for Equity starts by looking at five California high schools that are giving low-income students of color the kind of education they deserve. These schools interrupt the status quo by providing learning experiences for students of color that are intellectually rigorous, responsive to their cultures, and relevant to their lives, communities, and specific learning needs. These schools connect learning to students’ interests, passions, and concerns.
For example, June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco offers a course that focuses on the literature surrounding immigration to the United States where students explore questions such as “When do immigrants choose to assimilate? When do they reject conforming to American standards?” Such courses combine college-prep level thinking and skills with content that addresses questions that students and their families confront on a daily basis.
It was important that the study selected schools that took a wide range of factors into account rather than just choosing schools by test scores alone. Test scores are not necessarily connected to the high quality learning experiences that students of color deserve.
After selecting the schools, the study then identifies the policies that are most important to enabling all schools to provide the education that students received in these exemplary schools. Researchers asked what supports were provided by the district and the state that enabled these schools to carry out their work. What aspects of the policy environment were obstacles that the schools had to overcome in order to carry out exemplary practices? What policies are needed to move from a tiny number of isolated schools who are doing good work in spite of the system, to having all schools do such work in part because of the school system?
The resulting findings lay out a policy agenda that can not only move us away from the deep problems in today’s schools, but that also moves us toward a system that is centered on a vision of what learning should be like for students of color and all students. Rather than tackling each isolated problem in our school system in a piecemeal fashion, this policy agenda lays out a coherent set of policies that are most important for getting us to the schools that we ultimately want to have.
Justice Matters has also created a vehicle for bringing the ideas from the High Schools for Equity study into current public discussions on California education policy. Governor Schwarzenegger has named 2008 the “Year of Education.” A clear opportunity for big change has been spotlighted in California education policy, and in response, policy makers, committees, and organizations will be issuing policy agendas. Justice Matters has translated the ideas and lessons from High Schools for Equity into a report card framework for grading these policy agendas.
It is important that policy makers be held accountable for how their actions help or hurt students of color. The Racial Justice Report Card does this. It also brings important ideas into the discussion that are often left out. Mainstream education policy is often disconnected from an understanding of what strong learning experiences for students of color really look like.
Last Wednesday, we gave our first grade using the report card. We gave a C- to Superintendent O’Connell’s draft recommendations for closing racial gaps in education. We plan to issue a grade for the forthcoming recommendations of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence, as well as other proposed policy agendas.
The ideas behind the Racial Justice Report Card grew out of what is happening in schools that are doing right by students of color, and they keep policy connected to how it affects on-the-ground learning experiences.
The report card and the study are two steps in our long-term plan to make education policy focus on racial justice and get connected to the on-the-ground learning experiences of students of color, which we believe is at the center of a better education for all students in California.
Susan Sandler is President of Justice Matters, a San Francisco-based organization that works for racially just schools by developing and promoting education policy rooted in community vision. Justice Matters conducts research, develops policy ideas, and carries out public education activities and campaigns for policy change.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
4 schools on border among best in the U.S.
Read the report on the best high schools. This is great news for at least some Valley Schools.-Angela
"Students leave elementary school fluent in two languages"
4 schools on border among best in the U.S.
Web Posted: 12/01/2007 12:26 AM CST
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News
Four public schools in one of the poorest regions in the country have been named among the top 100 high schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
The schools, all in Hidalgo County on the Texas-Mexico border, were recognized for high test scores, their success with at-risk students and college-level course work.
Ten Texas schools made the top 100, including Highland Park High School, located in an affluent enclave of Dallas. But the South Texas schools face unique challenges: Nearly 90 percent of the roughly 363,000 school-age children in the region come from poor homes, and 40 percent come to school speaking little or no English. Just 52 percent of students graduate from high school in four years.
"The lesson seems to be that lots of schools can be great," said Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News & World Report.
Hidalgo Independent School District's lone high school was the highest-ranked Texas school on the list at No. 11.
"It's exciting," said Eduardo Cancino, Hidalgo's superintendent. "We work very hard every day to provide the best education for every single student, and it's nice to be recognized for that."
The other three schools are all part of South Texas ISD, a magnet district that covers three counties in the Rio Grande Valley. Three of the district's four schools — South Texas Business Education & Technology Academy in Edinburg; South Texas High School for Health Professionals; and the Science Academy of South Texas, both in Mercedes — also made the list.
The magnet schools are open to students who live in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties and provide a focused and rigorous education. South Texas Superintendent Marla Guerra said some students ride a bus three hours a day to attend the schools.
"We've found that our students rise to the occasion," Guerra said. "Our expectations are high. Students take calculus. They take physics. The rigor is there."
No San Antonio schools made the top 100.
U.S. News & World Report is known for its annual college rankings, but this is the first time the magazine has published a list of high schools.
Newsweek magazine ranks high schools each year based on student performance on advance placement and International Baccalaureate tests. Critics say that method doesn't reflect the quality of education for every student at the school.
Kelly said U.S. News & World Report looked at the broad mission of public schools.
"They need to serve the top kids and the at-risk kids and the average kids," Kelly said. "You can have a very good, wealthy school that brings in pretty smart kids and turns out pretty smart kids. They're doing their jobs but they're not exceeding expectations. That's what we were looking for."
The magazine profiled four of the top 100 schools, including the No. 1 ranked Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, two schools in Boston and Hidalgo High School.
"It's truly important for us to make it known that every single child that enters our school has value and worth, and every single child has potential," said Edward Blaha, Hidalgo High's principal. "Our kids here are as capable as anyone else of success, given the opportunity."
Hidalgo has received national attention for its stellar test results and high college-going rates, despite the fact that it serves a mostly poor, minority population. Last year, H-E-B honored the district during the company's annual Excellence in Education awards, with a $100,000 prize.
The district, which serves roughly 3,200 students, is sandwiched between McAllen and Reynosa, Mexico. About seven out of 10 children begin school speaking no English and many walk to school from neighborhoods of shanty houses and camper trailers that hug the banks of the Rio Grande.
Still, district leaders have adopted a rigid "no excuses" mantra and accessed every resource possible to enhance their schools. Every 3-year-old in Hidalgo has access to free, full-day prekindergarten with a certified teacher.
Students leave elementary school fluent in two languages, and high school students earn up to 60 hours of college credit through a $1.2 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to start an early-college high school program.
South Texas ISD's schools also are unique to the Valley. The district is the only one of its kind in Texas and was created to give kids in the Valley an alternative to a traditional high school setting.
Guerra said South Texas limits its campuses to no more than 700 students. Students are already required to take four years of math and science — something the Texas Legislature recently mandated for all students beginning with this year's freshmen — and juniors and seniors have a chance to intern in professional settings, from engineering firms to hospitals.
"They get a lot out of their education," Guerra said. "It's truly college prep."
jcaputo@express-news.net
"Students leave elementary school fluent in two languages"
4 schools on border among best in the U.S.
Web Posted: 12/01/2007 12:26 AM CST
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News
Four public schools in one of the poorest regions in the country have been named among the top 100 high schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
The schools, all in Hidalgo County on the Texas-Mexico border, were recognized for high test scores, their success with at-risk students and college-level course work.
Ten Texas schools made the top 100, including Highland Park High School, located in an affluent enclave of Dallas. But the South Texas schools face unique challenges: Nearly 90 percent of the roughly 363,000 school-age children in the region come from poor homes, and 40 percent come to school speaking little or no English. Just 52 percent of students graduate from high school in four years.
"The lesson seems to be that lots of schools can be great," said Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News & World Report.
Hidalgo Independent School District's lone high school was the highest-ranked Texas school on the list at No. 11.
"It's exciting," said Eduardo Cancino, Hidalgo's superintendent. "We work very hard every day to provide the best education for every single student, and it's nice to be recognized for that."
The other three schools are all part of South Texas ISD, a magnet district that covers three counties in the Rio Grande Valley. Three of the district's four schools — South Texas Business Education & Technology Academy in Edinburg; South Texas High School for Health Professionals; and the Science Academy of South Texas, both in Mercedes — also made the list.
The magnet schools are open to students who live in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties and provide a focused and rigorous education. South Texas Superintendent Marla Guerra said some students ride a bus three hours a day to attend the schools.
"We've found that our students rise to the occasion," Guerra said. "Our expectations are high. Students take calculus. They take physics. The rigor is there."
No San Antonio schools made the top 100.
U.S. News & World Report is known for its annual college rankings, but this is the first time the magazine has published a list of high schools.
Newsweek magazine ranks high schools each year based on student performance on advance placement and International Baccalaureate tests. Critics say that method doesn't reflect the quality of education for every student at the school.
Kelly said U.S. News & World Report looked at the broad mission of public schools.
"They need to serve the top kids and the at-risk kids and the average kids," Kelly said. "You can have a very good, wealthy school that brings in pretty smart kids and turns out pretty smart kids. They're doing their jobs but they're not exceeding expectations. That's what we were looking for."
The magazine profiled four of the top 100 schools, including the No. 1 ranked Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, two schools in Boston and Hidalgo High School.
"It's truly important for us to make it known that every single child that enters our school has value and worth, and every single child has potential," said Edward Blaha, Hidalgo High's principal. "Our kids here are as capable as anyone else of success, given the opportunity."
Hidalgo has received national attention for its stellar test results and high college-going rates, despite the fact that it serves a mostly poor, minority population. Last year, H-E-B honored the district during the company's annual Excellence in Education awards, with a $100,000 prize.
The district, which serves roughly 3,200 students, is sandwiched between McAllen and Reynosa, Mexico. About seven out of 10 children begin school speaking no English and many walk to school from neighborhoods of shanty houses and camper trailers that hug the banks of the Rio Grande.
Still, district leaders have adopted a rigid "no excuses" mantra and accessed every resource possible to enhance their schools. Every 3-year-old in Hidalgo has access to free, full-day prekindergarten with a certified teacher.
Students leave elementary school fluent in two languages, and high school students earn up to 60 hours of college credit through a $1.2 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to start an early-college high school program.
South Texas ISD's schools also are unique to the Valley. The district is the only one of its kind in Texas and was created to give kids in the Valley an alternative to a traditional high school setting.
Guerra said South Texas limits its campuses to no more than 700 students. Students are already required to take four years of math and science — something the Texas Legislature recently mandated for all students beginning with this year's freshmen — and juniors and seniors have a chance to intern in professional settings, from engineering firms to hospitals.
"They get a lot out of their education," Guerra said. "It's truly college prep."
jcaputo@express-news.net
Study of state's teachers looks at what best helps students advance
Experience matters, even after taking degrees into account. -Angela
Last updated December 3, 2007 8:59 p.m. PT
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Teacher experience, and not advanced degrees, has a greater effect on how well students succeed, a new state report says.
"In the first few years on the job, a teacher gains considerably in her or his ability to improve the academic performance of students," said the report, issued Sunday by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy.
Combining the results of 15 studies on teacher pay, the researchers found a dramatic improvement in student achievement between one and five years of teacher experience and a more gradual boost in the years following. Student achievement in these studies was mostly tracked through scores on standardized reading or math tests.
A similar analysis of studies concerning teachers getting graduate degrees found that the degrees seemed to have little or no effect on student outcomes.
The report makes a preliminary recommendation that any changes in the way teachers are paid should emphasize financial rewards for experience rather than higher pay for teachers with graduate degrees.
The report was made for a state task force looking at basic education funding. The Legislature assigned the task force to find the best way to pay for education that improves student achievement and graduation rates.
The task force has until early 2009 to make its recommendations, in part because that's when a state court plans to hear arguments on an education funding lawsuit brought by school districts and education organizations across the state.
Researchers at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy are still working on their analysis of the effectiveness of other financial incentives for teachers, such as bonuses for completing a national certification program; proposals for extra pay for teaching in high-poverty, low-performing schools; or higher pay for teaching certain subjects like math and science.
The institute also will study the effectiveness of voluntary all-day kindergarten, smaller classes, professional development for all staff members, focused instructional support and extended day and school year options.
Former state legislator Dan Grimm, chairman of the task force, said it will spend next year coming up with proposals for the 2009 legislative session.
"There are no guarantees, but I think it's a worthwhile effort or obviously I wouldn't be on the task force," Grimm said.
© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Last updated December 3, 2007 8:59 p.m. PT
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Teacher experience, and not advanced degrees, has a greater effect on how well students succeed, a new state report says.
"In the first few years on the job, a teacher gains considerably in her or his ability to improve the academic performance of students," said the report, issued Sunday by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy.
Combining the results of 15 studies on teacher pay, the researchers found a dramatic improvement in student achievement between one and five years of teacher experience and a more gradual boost in the years following. Student achievement in these studies was mostly tracked through scores on standardized reading or math tests.
A similar analysis of studies concerning teachers getting graduate degrees found that the degrees seemed to have little or no effect on student outcomes.
The report makes a preliminary recommendation that any changes in the way teachers are paid should emphasize financial rewards for experience rather than higher pay for teachers with graduate degrees.
The report was made for a state task force looking at basic education funding. The Legislature assigned the task force to find the best way to pay for education that improves student achievement and graduation rates.
The task force has until early 2009 to make its recommendations, in part because that's when a state court plans to hear arguments on an education funding lawsuit brought by school districts and education organizations across the state.
Researchers at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy are still working on their analysis of the effectiveness of other financial incentives for teachers, such as bonuses for completing a national certification program; proposals for extra pay for teaching in high-poverty, low-performing schools; or higher pay for teaching certain subjects like math and science.
The institute also will study the effectiveness of voluntary all-day kindergarten, smaller classes, professional development for all staff members, focused instructional support and extended day and school year options.
Former state legislator Dan Grimm, chairman of the task force, said it will spend next year coming up with proposals for the 2009 legislative session.
"There are no guarantees, but I think it's a worthwhile effort or obviously I wouldn't be on the task force," Grimm said.
© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
All Brains Are the Same Color
One would think it unnecessary to re-hash this "debate" all over again but here goes.... -
Angela
December 9, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
All Brains Are the Same Color
By RICHARD E. NISBETT
Ann Arbor, Mich.
JAMES WATSON, the 1962 Nobel laureate, recently asserted that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” and its citizens because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.”
Dr. Watson’s remarks created a huge stir because they implied that blacks were genetically inferior to whites, and the controversy resulted in his resignation as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. But was he right? Is there a genetic difference between blacks and whites that condemns blacks in perpetuity to be less intelligent?
The first notable public airing of the scientific question came in a 1969 article in The Harvard Educational Review by Arthur Jensen, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Jensen maintained that a 15-point difference in I.Q. between blacks and whites was mostly due to a genetic difference between the races that could never be erased. But his argument gave a misleading account of the evidence. And others who later made the same argument — Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in “The Bell Curve,” in 1994, for example, and just recently, William Saletan in a series of articles on Slate — have made the same mistake.
In fact, the evidence heavily favors the view that race differences in I.Q. are environmental in origin, not genetic.
The hereditarians begin with the assertion that 60 percent to 80 percent of variation in I.Q. is genetically determined. However, most estimates of heritability have been based almost exclusively on studies of middle-class groups. For the poor, a group that includes a substantial proportion of minorities, heritability of I.Q. is very low, in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent, according to recent research by Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia. This means that for the poor, improvements in environment have great potential to bring about increases in I.Q.
In any case, the degree of heritability of a characteristic tells us nothing about how much the environment can affect it. Even when a trait is highly heritable (think of the height of corn plants), modifiability can also be great (think of the difference growing conditions can make).
Nearly all the evidence suggesting a genetic basis for the I.Q. differential is indirect. There is, for example, the evidence that brain size is correlated with intelligence, and that blacks have smaller brains than whites. But the brain size difference between men and women is substantially greater than that between blacks and whites, yet men and women score the same, on average, on I.Q. tests. Likewise, a group of people in a community in Ecuador have a genetic anomaly that produces extremely small head sizes — and hence brain sizes. Yet their intelligence is as high as that of their unaffected relatives.
Why rely on such misleading and indirect findings when we have much more direct evidence about the basis for the I.Q. gap? About 25 percent of the genes in the American black population are European, meaning that the genes of any individual can range from 100 percent African to mostly European. If European intelligence genes are superior, then blacks who have relatively more European genes ought to have higher I.Q.’s than those who have more African genes. But it turns out that skin color and “negroidness” of features — both measures of the degree of a black person’s European ancestry — are only weakly associated with I.Q. (even though we might well expect a moderately high association due to the social advantages of such features).
During World War II, both black and white American soldiers fathered children with German women. Thus some of these children had 100 percent European heritage and some had substantial African heritage. Tested in later childhood, the German children of the white fathers were found to have an average I.Q. of 97, and those of the black fathers had an average of 96.5, a trivial difference.
If European genes conferred an advantage, we would expect that the smartest blacks would have substantial European heritage. But when a group of investigators sought out the very brightest black children in the Chicago school system and asked them about the race of their parents and grandparents, these children were found to have no greater degree of European ancestry than blacks in the population at large.
Most tellingly, blood-typing tests have been used to assess the degree to which black individuals have European genes. The blood group assays show no association between degree of European heritage and I.Q. Similarly, the blood groups most closely associated with high intellectual performance among blacks are no more European in origin than other blood groups.
The closest thing to direct evidence that the hereditarians have is a study from the 1970s showing that black children who had been adopted by white parents had lower I.Q.’s than those of mixed-race children adopted by white parents. But, as the researchers acknowledged, the study had many flaws; for instance, the black children had been adopted at a substantially later age than the mixed-race children, and later age at adoption is associated with lower I.Q.
A superior adoption study — and one not discussed by the hereditarians — was carried out at Arizona State University by the psychologist Elsie Moore, who looked at black and mixed-race children adopted by middle-class families, either black or white, and found no difference in I.Q. between the black and mixed-race children. Most telling is Dr. Moore’s finding that children adopted by white families had I.Q.’s 13 points higher than those of children adopted by black families. The environments that even middle-class black children grow up in are not as favorable for the development of I.Q. as those of middle-class whites.
Important recent psychological research helps to pinpoint just what factors shape differences in I.Q. scores. Joseph Fagan of Case Western Reserve University and Cynthia Holland of Cuyahoga Community College tested blacks and whites on their knowledge of, and their ability to learn and reason with, words and concepts. The whites had substantially more knowledge of the various words and concepts, but when participants were tested on their ability to learn new words, either from dictionary definitions or by learning their meaning in context, the blacks did just as well as the whites.
Whites showed better comprehension of sayings, better ability to recognize similarities and better facility with analogies — when solutions required knowledge of words and concepts that were more likely to be known to whites than to blacks. But when these kinds of reasoning were tested with words and concepts known equally well to blacks and whites, there were no differences. Within each race, prior knowledge predicted learning and reasoning, but between the races it was prior knowledge only that differed.
What do we know about the effects of environment?
That environment can markedly influence I.Q. is demonstrated by the so-called Flynn Effect. James Flynn, a philosopher and I.Q. researcher in New Zealand, has established that in the Western world as a whole, I.Q. increased markedly from 1947 to 2002. In the United States alone, it went up by 18 points. Our genes could not have changed enough over such a brief period to account for the shift; it must have been the result of powerful social factors. And if such factors could produce changes over time for the population as a whole, they could also produce big differences between subpopulations at any given time.
In fact, we know that the I.Q. difference between black and white 12-year-olds has dropped to 9.5 points from 15 points in the last 30 years — a period that was more favorable for blacks in many ways than the preceding era. Black progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows equivalent gains. Reading and math improvement has been modest for whites but substantial for blacks.
Most important, we know that interventions at every age from infancy to college can reduce racial gaps in both I.Q. and academic achievement, sometimes by substantial amounts in surprisingly little time. This mutability is further evidence that the I.Q. difference has environmental, not genetic, causes. And it should encourage us, as a society, to see that all children receive ample opportunity to develop their minds.
Richard E. Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, is the author of “The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently and Why.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
Angela
December 9, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
All Brains Are the Same Color
By RICHARD E. NISBETT
Ann Arbor, Mich.
JAMES WATSON, the 1962 Nobel laureate, recently asserted that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” and its citizens because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.”
Dr. Watson’s remarks created a huge stir because they implied that blacks were genetically inferior to whites, and the controversy resulted in his resignation as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. But was he right? Is there a genetic difference between blacks and whites that condemns blacks in perpetuity to be less intelligent?
The first notable public airing of the scientific question came in a 1969 article in The Harvard Educational Review by Arthur Jensen, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Jensen maintained that a 15-point difference in I.Q. between blacks and whites was mostly due to a genetic difference between the races that could never be erased. But his argument gave a misleading account of the evidence. And others who later made the same argument — Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in “The Bell Curve,” in 1994, for example, and just recently, William Saletan in a series of articles on Slate — have made the same mistake.
In fact, the evidence heavily favors the view that race differences in I.Q. are environmental in origin, not genetic.
The hereditarians begin with the assertion that 60 percent to 80 percent of variation in I.Q. is genetically determined. However, most estimates of heritability have been based almost exclusively on studies of middle-class groups. For the poor, a group that includes a substantial proportion of minorities, heritability of I.Q. is very low, in the range of 10 percent to 20 percent, according to recent research by Eric Turkheimer at the University of Virginia. This means that for the poor, improvements in environment have great potential to bring about increases in I.Q.
In any case, the degree of heritability of a characteristic tells us nothing about how much the environment can affect it. Even when a trait is highly heritable (think of the height of corn plants), modifiability can also be great (think of the difference growing conditions can make).
Nearly all the evidence suggesting a genetic basis for the I.Q. differential is indirect. There is, for example, the evidence that brain size is correlated with intelligence, and that blacks have smaller brains than whites. But the brain size difference between men and women is substantially greater than that between blacks and whites, yet men and women score the same, on average, on I.Q. tests. Likewise, a group of people in a community in Ecuador have a genetic anomaly that produces extremely small head sizes — and hence brain sizes. Yet their intelligence is as high as that of their unaffected relatives.
Why rely on such misleading and indirect findings when we have much more direct evidence about the basis for the I.Q. gap? About 25 percent of the genes in the American black population are European, meaning that the genes of any individual can range from 100 percent African to mostly European. If European intelligence genes are superior, then blacks who have relatively more European genes ought to have higher I.Q.’s than those who have more African genes. But it turns out that skin color and “negroidness” of features — both measures of the degree of a black person’s European ancestry — are only weakly associated with I.Q. (even though we might well expect a moderately high association due to the social advantages of such features).
During World War II, both black and white American soldiers fathered children with German women. Thus some of these children had 100 percent European heritage and some had substantial African heritage. Tested in later childhood, the German children of the white fathers were found to have an average I.Q. of 97, and those of the black fathers had an average of 96.5, a trivial difference.
If European genes conferred an advantage, we would expect that the smartest blacks would have substantial European heritage. But when a group of investigators sought out the very brightest black children in the Chicago school system and asked them about the race of their parents and grandparents, these children were found to have no greater degree of European ancestry than blacks in the population at large.
Most tellingly, blood-typing tests have been used to assess the degree to which black individuals have European genes. The blood group assays show no association between degree of European heritage and I.Q. Similarly, the blood groups most closely associated with high intellectual performance among blacks are no more European in origin than other blood groups.
The closest thing to direct evidence that the hereditarians have is a study from the 1970s showing that black children who had been adopted by white parents had lower I.Q.’s than those of mixed-race children adopted by white parents. But, as the researchers acknowledged, the study had many flaws; for instance, the black children had been adopted at a substantially later age than the mixed-race children, and later age at adoption is associated with lower I.Q.
A superior adoption study — and one not discussed by the hereditarians — was carried out at Arizona State University by the psychologist Elsie Moore, who looked at black and mixed-race children adopted by middle-class families, either black or white, and found no difference in I.Q. between the black and mixed-race children. Most telling is Dr. Moore’s finding that children adopted by white families had I.Q.’s 13 points higher than those of children adopted by black families. The environments that even middle-class black children grow up in are not as favorable for the development of I.Q. as those of middle-class whites.
Important recent psychological research helps to pinpoint just what factors shape differences in I.Q. scores. Joseph Fagan of Case Western Reserve University and Cynthia Holland of Cuyahoga Community College tested blacks and whites on their knowledge of, and their ability to learn and reason with, words and concepts. The whites had substantially more knowledge of the various words and concepts, but when participants were tested on their ability to learn new words, either from dictionary definitions or by learning their meaning in context, the blacks did just as well as the whites.
Whites showed better comprehension of sayings, better ability to recognize similarities and better facility with analogies — when solutions required knowledge of words and concepts that were more likely to be known to whites than to blacks. But when these kinds of reasoning were tested with words and concepts known equally well to blacks and whites, there were no differences. Within each race, prior knowledge predicted learning and reasoning, but between the races it was prior knowledge only that differed.
What do we know about the effects of environment?
That environment can markedly influence I.Q. is demonstrated by the so-called Flynn Effect. James Flynn, a philosopher and I.Q. researcher in New Zealand, has established that in the Western world as a whole, I.Q. increased markedly from 1947 to 2002. In the United States alone, it went up by 18 points. Our genes could not have changed enough over such a brief period to account for the shift; it must have been the result of powerful social factors. And if such factors could produce changes over time for the population as a whole, they could also produce big differences between subpopulations at any given time.
In fact, we know that the I.Q. difference between black and white 12-year-olds has dropped to 9.5 points from 15 points in the last 30 years — a period that was more favorable for blacks in many ways than the preceding era. Black progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows equivalent gains. Reading and math improvement has been modest for whites but substantial for blacks.
Most important, we know that interventions at every age from infancy to college can reduce racial gaps in both I.Q. and academic achievement, sometimes by substantial amounts in surprisingly little time. This mutability is further evidence that the I.Q. difference has environmental, not genetic, causes. And it should encourage us, as a society, to see that all children receive ample opportunity to develop their minds.
Richard E. Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, is the author of “The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently and Why.”
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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