Entries for May 2008

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has stepped up the talk on education. Some education folks thought the day would never come. Speaking at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton, Co. this week, the Illinois senator gave a sweeping speech that was a departure from all the pandering and short-on-specifics education talk we heard earlier in the primaries. It was titled "What's Possible for Our Children".

Obama described the American public-education system as "morally unacceptable" and talked about making a "truly historic commitment" to improve it. Some of the highlights included his proposals to train more teachers and pay them better, to make college more affordable for those who commit to public service, and to fix the "broken promises" of the No Child Left Behind law. It's not entirely clear how he plans to pay for some of these proposals. For example, he promised to make community college completely free and offer a $4,000 tax credit to cover two thirds of the tuition at an average public college. He also made this pledge to those who sign up to become teachers: "If you commit your life to teaching, America will commit to paying for your college education."

Check out the full text of the speech. And you can see how Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, responded.

Think a last-minute cramming session is going to help you score higher on the ACT exam? Think again. A new study from the University of Chicago found "no evidence that scores benefit from learning testing strategies or from practicing on test questions outside of taking a full, timed practice test."

In 2005, researchers set out to find out why juniors at three Chicago public high schools were not getting the ACT scores they needed to qualify for scholarships and admission to colleges. The students were apparently a highly motivated bunch. Most of them entered high school with grade-level academic skills. What the researchers found was that teachers spent too much time "emphasizing testing skills, practicing test questions, and doing broad, shallow content coverage" rather than focusing on "what really matters—deep analytic work in academic classes." Translation: You can't really "study" for the ACT. Students who take their high school education seriously will most likely do well on the test—assuming their high schools took their job seriously.

A growing number of medical schools are offering free or reduced-cost degrees. The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine is waiving tuition for all its future students. The University of Central Florida will pay all tuition and living expenses for the entering class of its new medical school. Harvard is cutting as much as $12,500 from the annual bills of medical students whose families earn less than $120,000. And the Mayo Clinic is granting all newly admitted students at least $25,000 in scholarships toward the school's $29,000 tuition.

The schools are trying to counteract the growing financial pressures that cause many med students to pursue high-paying specialties rather than, say, becoming a pediatrician in a low-income community. Public medical school graduates average about $120,000 in debt. Private school graduates typically owe about $160,000.

Do rewards such as pizza parties for kids who pass state tests really help students learn? A researcher at Stanford University collected data from nearly 200 charter schools in 17 states and found that, in a majority of cases, they do.

According to the study, schools that use rewards saw reading achievement improve by 4 percentile points a year. (There was no impact on math achievement.) Margaret Raymond, the author of the report, says the gains are more significant when teachers and administrators work together to support the use of rewards. Successful schools included those that rewarded good grades and good behavior with such gifts as concert tickets and MP3 players.

One of the Education Department's top higher education officials says there are significant problems with two of the most-trumpeted new loan forgiveness programs designed to help students afford college.

The public service loan forgiveness program that will begin in 2009 makes good headlines, Diane Auer Jones, assistant secretary for postsecondary education, told attendees of a Washington, D.C., College Savings Foundation conference this month. But many idealistic students hoping to get out from under their federal education debts will be sorely disappointed, she says.

What does it take to excel in grad school? Critics of standardized testing have long complained that the Graduate Record Exam doesn't measure some of the other essential ingredients for grad school success. The Educational Testing Service plans to address those concerns by introducing a new GRE component. Scheduled to debut in July 2009, the "Personal Potential Index" is designed to measure skills like communication, organization, and integrity.

The new index will require professors or supervisors of the student's choice to evaluate students on a scale of 1 to 5 in six areas: knowledge and creativity, communication skills, teamwork, planning and organization, ethics and integrity, and resilience. ETS has been careful not to overburden professors, emphasizing that the index should take only 15 minutes to fill out.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings hasn't always seen eye to eye with Sen. Ted Kennedy. Neither has President Bush, whose relationship with the Massachusetts Democrat soured after passage of the No Child Left Behind law. At various times and very publicly, Kennedy has accused the Bush administration of not giving schools enough money and flexibility to comply with the law and make sure every child learns to read and do math.

But since news broke earlier this week that Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor, that acrimony has given way to sympathy. In a statement, Spellings described the 76-year-old senator as "a lionhearted champion for our nation's schoolchildren." Drawing from her experiences working with him, she added, "I know he will respond to this challenge with his characteristic toughness and determination." Bush also had only good things to say, calling Kennedy "a man of tremendous courage, remarkable strength, and powerful spirit." Over at the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Chester Finn, who's been a patient at the same hospital where Kennedy is receiving treatment and who has worked with the senator on education policy, offered his thoughts on Kennedy's accomplishments. "One reason he's been so productive a lawmaker and crusader in so many spheres over so many years has been his adroit use of lots of able aides and advisers," Finn said.

Not surprisingly, Kennedy's staff stayed busy this week. While no doubt saddened by their boss's diagnosis, they continued to handle education matters on his behalf, and, yes, challenging the Bush administration to continue to make education a top priority.

A new report from the nonprofit WestEd group and the Gates Foundation for more details shows how three high schools have boosted their math scores and their reputations.

Interlake High School in Bellevue, Wash., had a 49 percent passing rate on the state's math assessment in 2003. But more recently the school's passing rate has jumped to 73 percent. How? The school encourages students to take four years of math, rather than the state requirement of three years. Teachers also challenge students to take more rigorous math courses through the school's Advanced Placement program, which was introduced in 2003. Support programs match the school's higher expectations, and instructors identify struggling incoming students in the eighth grade so they can get immediate help when they make the transition. At Granby High School in Norfolk, Va., fewer than 1 in 5 students a decade ago passed Algebra I, and only one in four passed Algebra II. Today, the passing rates in Algebra I and Algebra II are an impressive 84 percent and 90 percent, respectively. The school's emphasis on teacher training has made the difference. Math teachers no longer work alone but in teams, learning from each other and, as a result, holding each other accountable. According to the report, this team approach lets teachers develop lesson plans and evaluate student data more purposefully and accurately. The school offers different training for beginning and more experienced teachers: New teachers, for example, participate in a three-year induction program and work closely with a coach, who gives them feedback and mentoring.

Fenway High School in Boston started as a school for at-risk students. In 2004, only 35 percent were "proficient" or "advanced" in math. Today, 70 percent are in these two levels. Also, the school's graduation rate of 83 percent has skyrocketed past the district's 60 percent graduation rate. The key to the school's improvement has been a focus on its students' ability to comprehend and explain math concepts. Throughout their four years at Fenway, students are required to show how they solved math problems—sometimes in front of their parents. Students are also required to build a portfolio of their best work. At the end of each unit, every student must turn in a short report addressing the math skills they have mastered. So while doing well on quizzes and exams is important, the school also assesses students in other ways that are meaningful.

Imagine being the leader of a small school district. You arrive to work one day and discover that one in four students didn't show up for classes that day. What do you do? This happened to the superintendent of the 600-student Postville Community School District in northeastern Iowa. Since an immigration raid at a local meatpacking plant separated about 150 children from their families earlier this week, superintendent David Strudthoff has been trying to account for the children of those caught up in the raid. He has likened the situation to "a natural disaster where people lose their homes." "The only difference was that [this] was a man-made disaster, not a natural one," he told Education Week. "People were in shock. Children were without parents." This is not the first immigration raid to separate children and family members who are in the country illegally. And it likely won't be the last. As immigration authorities continue to step up enforcement efforts, there will be more superintendents like Mr. Strudthoff wondering where their students are.

What is it about teaching these days that has so many college graduates knocking on the doors of Teach for America? There are several reports today about a spectacular surge in new teachers who are headed for the classroom this fall—via Teach for America. For folks who don't know, TFA is a program that recruits top college graduates and trains them to become teachers in underserved communities.

The program, which has been around since 1990, is sending 3,700 new teachers into hard-to-staff schools this year, up from 2,900 a year ago. But guess how many applicants to the program didn't make the cut? A lot: This year, the program received 24,700 applications.