Open Your Own Charter School - Here's How

“Hey Everybody, It is Brian J. Dixon, founder of CharterSchoolStarter.com. And I am really excited to share with you my Charter Starter Success Formula. This is a video series that I’ve developed to help you create and launch your own charter school. "Helping you turn your Charter School dream into reality. "Starting your own charter school is a complicated process. That is, before the Charter School Starter Success Formula Video Series. This series includes 9 DVDs and one spiral bound workbook." All for only $299 plus tax.

Actually, these videos do offer good advice about how to engage your community in issues about education.  

http://charterschoolstarter.com/draft_preview/

So Many Options For Students' Career

David Brooks has an editorial in the New York Times about how our education affects our career paths. What assumptions do we hold that lead us to choose our life work. The following is a comment I thought was worth pondering. There are so many jobs out there that we do not know about. What kind of counseling program would tell students how wide the world is and how diverse their options are for earning a living. The NYT Pickes comments were really interesting.

Sally  Switzerland

"I live in Switzerland and am thankful that we have the opportunity to do apprenticeships here. One of my children just completed her BA in economics at the University of Zurich and has started her MA (tuition is about $1500 a year, the cost/benefit of education here is great). One daughter did an apprenticeship as an office worker, which meant organizing the payment of all the salaries for a family business with about 50 employees when she was 16, doing all sorts of correspondence, processing orders, etc. She now works at a large computer company and is getting a BA in business administration on the side. My 19 year old son already completed a three year apprenticeship as an electrician, and is adding another two years to become a fully licensed electrician - he will finish this training at age 20 and will have no trouble finding a job that will pay in the range of $50-60K a year. The sky is the limit for him - he is considering doing the training to become a master electrician (allowing him to train apprentices) or perhaps a degree in engineering.

When I look at the options open to parents in the US, I feel really sorry for them. There are only limited vocational opportunities, and many of them are expensive. The education of our two children who took the vocational path was free, except for the payment of books and the rail pass to get to school and work."

The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman - The Movie

Waiting for "Superman" would have audiences believe that free-market competition, standardized tests, destroying teacher unions, and the proliferation of charter schools are just what this country needs to create great public schools. — Grassroots Education Movement

"The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting For “Superman” highlights the real-life experiences of public school parents, students and educators to show how these so-called reforms are actually hurting public education. The film discusses the kinds of real reform – inside schools and in our society as a whole  – that we urgently need to genuinely transform education in this country."
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Students Stumble Again on the Basics of History

9% of fourth graders know why Abraham Lincoln was important. 30% if fourth graders know what the Declaration of Independence was for. Try some of the National Assessment of Educational Progress test questions online here. Historian David Mc Cullough recommends historic literature and poetry to teach students history. McCullough's ideas work well with the Common Core Standards requirement that students learn to read social studies texts for comprehension.

 

This Email Is Offensive

Another school board director, Michael Spear, filed a complaint with the rest of the board claiming I was abusive to staff, in the following email conversation. The January 3rd email was called out as mistreatment of a staff member. My only defense is transparency. Here are the offending emails. I have deleted most of the names so that no one else gets pulled into this drama.- SG

Audit Voucher Training" for the School Board Members

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May, Jan; Jan.May@highlineschools.org>	Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 11:23 AM
To:
Please let me know if you are interested in taking the Audit Voucher Training for the School Board Members.  I am going to schedule a time for Tyrone to learn how to access the system and would be happy to include any of you who would like a refresher course. Also, when you reply, if you want to participate let me know the best days and times for you.  Thanks. Jan May Executive Assistant to the Superintendent ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Susan Goding 12/14/11 to Jan I definitely need to go to this. 3 or later will work for me. Sue _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Susan Goding Jan 3 to               Hi       , Here are some questions I have about vouchers, and the budget in general, for the meeting: Questions about vouchers and the budget. 1) What significance are the separate stapled bundles of vouchers.  There are thick ones and thin ones, each needing a separate signature. Could the information in  be organized differently, or can we organize them online somehow? What are we looking at, I can't tell what each line means? Separate from the vouchers, and about the budget: 2) How many school psychologists does Highline employ? How many students per psychologist does that work out to? 3) School districts are funding based on the prototypical school model. For instance, Highline receives funding for 0.017 school psychologists per 400 student elementary school.  It looks like Highline has about 10 times as many school psychologists. Can you make a form that shows the difference between what Highline is funded for and what we actually have, by position, and what the difference costs the district? http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=28A.150.260 4) In other words can you chart a prototypical Highline elementary, middle, and high school side by side the state prototypical schools? 5) Can you list the properties owned by Highline that are rented out and their net profit. 6) Highline has a business making and selling science kit at Maywood Elementary. How much money does the science kits program net? How many subscribers does it have? Can Highline’s business endeavors be listed in their own section of the budget and how much money they each bring into the district? 7) How is money allocated for sports and clubs by school? How do we see how much the district is spending on each student group and a per student cost? 8) Can we get a separate accounting of all the district grants? 9) What are all of the parts of the budget, there is capital, salaries, the reserve, anything else? Any part called curriculum, classroom supplies, anything like that? How much goes to salaries for classroom teachers and how much goes to salaries for other positions? 10) Anything else that we should know that we may not know to ask? Sue Goding ____________________________________________________________________________ Hi Susan, Sorry I didn’t have a chance to respond to you right away.  I have shared your questions with ............  She mentioned that Alan will go over them with you.  In our training, I can go over the voucher question with all of you.  See you all soon! ................. C.P.A. ______________________________________________________________________________ On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 2:57 PM, May, Jan L; wrote: ........... is available the following dates and times for voucher training: Tuesday, January 10,                8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, January 18            3:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. Let me know you are unable to attend either of these training times,.  I will work our something for you. J You will need to bring your computer.   ____________________________________________________________________ Susan Goding Jan 4 to ................................................ The only thing that ....... can say is that you will not tell us. Sue Goding ____________________________________________________________________________ Spicciati, Alan D Alan.Spicciati@highlineschools.org Jan 8 to me, ............. Hi Sue, I’d like to have a conversation to better understand your questions. I want to make sure that the information we get you meets your needs. And some of the items below would take significant staff hours to gather, but maybe there’s another way to get the information you are interested in. Should I have Jan set something up? ____________________________________________________________________________ May, Jan L ......... Jan 9 to ...................... me, ,,,,,,,,,,,,, ........, because of your schedule, we will schedule a time that will work for you in March. VOUCHER TRAINING: Tuesday, January 10                8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. 1.    ................... Thursday, January 1210:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. 1.    ................. Wednesday, January 18       3:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. 1.      Susan Goding Monday, January 23              8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. 1.    .................... Reminder: You will need to bring your computer.  J  ____________________________________________________________________________ Susan Goding Jan 9 to Alan We need an accounting system that tells the board how well resources are used. The vouchers do not provide the information in a form that I can understand. The state funds education based on a prototypical school model. I would like expenditures put in the context of revenue from the state. Attached is a form that may explain better what information I think the board should have. Just that information would be great. Sue Goding ______________________________________________________________________________ Spicciati, Alan D Alan.Spicciati@highlineschools.org Jan 11 to me Hi Sue. This is actually in our plan for the year, for March. Ultimately, we will be required to report this information to the state and the state will publish it. We want to get a look at our data before the state reporting process begins, but it will require a lot of work to put in place. We will share this information once it becomes available. Alan Spicciati, Ed.D. Interim Superintendent ___________________________________________________________________________ Susan Goding Jan 11 to Alan Okay, thanks. ____________________________________________________________________________

Funding the Student Will Not Encourage Competition

Liz Finne at the Washington Policy Center wrote a post about my editorial and followed with their position their funding should be attached to the student.

I would like to respond to the idea that attaching funding to students will change education. In WA, most of the money does follow the student. And in WA, our laws allow a student to go to any school in the state, with few exceptions, as long as there is room.  Telling schools they can have the funding if they take the student is no incentive. No one wants our students, except the online schools. And I wonder if K12 Inc makes money on the students or the curriculum in their online schools. I have urged my school district to run ads for our schools against private school ads and everyone was repelled by that idea. Competition is not in public schools DNA. This is a good thing, I think.

There is one area where public schools in Washington would compete for students and that is athletics. This is why the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Associate has a rule prohibiting recruiting. This did not stop the coaches at Chief Sealth High School from causing a scandal a few years ago when they recruited girls for the basketball team, which went on to be undefeated  and was ranked among the top in the country. Athletic ability is the one attribute in students schools will compete for.

Also, as far as where the money is in education, it seems like the biggest margins in education are in curriculum, testing, and real estate. There is no profit in providing instruction. If we want to bring out the competitive altruists in educators, they need to be recognized for what we want them to do, that is to improve educational outcomes. Just like teacher evaluations have moved to measuring student progress, maybe we need to make student progress and the breadth of education the margins that schools are measure by. They are not motivated enough just by making money, Daniel Pink and others have shown this. 

Another part of the problem is that parents are convinced that their children are getting a good education at their local schools. They love their child’s teacher. Geoffrey Canada said we need to teach parents to love data. This is true for all the parents, including parents in Bellevue and Lake Washington, some of who are advocating for charters for poor and low achieving students.  The data shows that their monolingual, AP credit laden children are not high achieving when compared internationally, to all Finnish, or for that matter all Canadian, students. They love their schools and their child’s teacher. The data shows that Washington State children, even white children, are not getting an internationally competitive education. How will competition among schools for students fix that? How will charter schools fix that? What will raise student achievement for all students and get our students the kind of education they will need to be internationally competitive? How do we convince parents to love that data?

Students need to be knowledgeable, creative and have a sense of agency in their future. What will motivate the current education system to have that as its goal, despite standardized testing? We can’t control the Feds, but we can influence the outcomes in WA State, at least we have a better chance of changing what goes on in WA State in the short term. I do not know if paying for subjects per student and for badges will do that. Schools don’t want our students, but they may care about the funding and losing funding. I think we need to incentivize what we want them to do as directly as possible.

Puget Sound Skills Center Health Sciences Programs

This is an update about the new developments in the health sciences program at the Puget Sound Skills Centers, from Principal Sue Shields. The PSSC is the regional career and technical center
Puget Sound Skills Center has been awarded $1.5 million from the Washington legislature for the design of a new Health Sciences building.  The Highline School District Facilities Department along with PSSC administration is in the process of hiring architects.

Several years ago, the Highline School District purchased 3.1 acres from the Port of Seattle.  The property is adjacent to the south side of the PSSC campus on Des Moines Memorial Drive.  At the time PSSC sat on 5 acres with no expansion space.  The state criteria for capital projects include new buildings housing high demand fields – thus the selection of a Health Sciences building. 

A Nursing Assistant Certified program started three years ago with a state grant.  A regional committee toured and researched several programs in and out of the state.  This program has been so very successful, PSSC now has a waiting list of students.  Just this week, the NAC students took the state exam and passed the written portion with a 97% average and the skills demonstration with 92% making PSSC students score one of the best in WA State.  The program offers Highline Community College credit along with the University of Washington credit in the sciences.

The Dental Assisting program partners with the statewide Sea Mar Dental/Medical Clinics and the need of larger spaces for a growing number of clients.  Students in the program receive a unique hands on experience working with dentists and in a clinic setting on campus.  The new building will provide better access for clients who now must find their way to the Dental Clinic through the building which is a security issue for the staff.   The Dental Assisting program also has a waiting list for student enrollment and is a popular program for students as they can earn ten college credits at Renton Technical College.

Universal Design for Learning Fosters Expert Learners

I really think this is the lens we need to be looking through when we think about improving student achievement.

“In many classrooms, the focus is on an illusory average student. Many curricula are designed for that student. Cognitive neuroscience has shown us that there really isn’t an average student anywhere and that is why it is an illusory student. Universal Design for Learning, though, is particularly focus on making sure that we get those students who have been marginalized. For whom that designing for the average student has never worked well. And that certainly means students who have been struggling. Students for whom English is not their first language, students with disabilities. They’ve been typically marginalized by this illusory average curriculum.

Secondly, though, students at the other margins, students who are called gifted and talented, are also students who have been underserved by this mainstream curriculum. They haven’t been challenged. They’re bored. They’re underserved as well. 

UDL is a framework, based in the cognitive neurosciences, for designing learning experiences that work across a wide spectrum of learners. Its main purpose is to make sure everybody is a successful learner and reaches what we call an expert learner. That is, they know a lot, they know how to do a lot, and the love learning and they want to do it more. The key to Universal Design for Learning is that we are designing learning experiences which, from the beginning, are designed to be universal and to make sure everybody learns. And that design is primarily based on the power to be very flexible in allowing choices, in allowing different paths, in allowing for things to be presented in different ways. So that we reach those other two things, universal and everybody learns...”


When we began our work, we were focused on learners who were doing poorly, who looked like they had disabilities. Over time we began to change our focus, because we could see, when we were in classrooms that the classrooms were in fact disabling. That they were not designed properly to ensure that every child would succeed, and we began, more and more, to see that the curriculum itself was disabled. And that the work of the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines is to reduce the disabilities in the curriculum itself so that more students succeed, so that more students have optimum challenges, and come out as expert learners in the end.

Brookings Report, Choosing Curriculum Blindly

"Students learn principally through interactions with people (teachers and peers) and instructional materials (textbooks, workbooks, instructional software, web-based content, homework, projects, quizzes, and tests). But education policymakers focus primarily on factors removed from those interactions, such as academic standards, teacher evaluation systems, and school accountability policies. It’s as if the medical profession worried about the administration of hospitals and patient insurance but paid no attention to the treatments that doctors give their patients."

So begins a new report about by the Brookings Institute called Choosing Blindly: Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness and the Common Core. The report points out that professional development for teachers is expensive and time consuming. Choosing an effective curriculum has the potential to provide big improvements quickly and for no more money than an ineffective curriculum.

It suggests that a data base of all the curriculum in use along with the data collected about student achievement in the standardized tests would provide information that could push big increases in student achievement. Districts would be required to report purchases of curriculum in three core subjects, math, science and language arts. Foundations, such as the Gates Foundation, are being asked to pay to compile the data.

Globally Challenged, Charters and A+

"Within the United States, little change could be observed between the Class of 2009and the Class of  2011, apart from the astonishing shift upward in the already high-performing state of Massachusetts, where the percentage advanced rose from11 percent to 15 percent, a gain unequalled by any other state. Minnesota’s performance came in second place in both years, but its students’ performance budged northward by only 0.7 percentage points to 11.5 percent for the Class of 2011.

In four other states, scores improved by 2 percentage points or more: Vermont, Maine, North Dakota, and Wyoming (which made a 3.0 gain, the largest gain outside of Massachusetts). It is remarkable how concentrated in certain parts of the country these gains are to be found. If teaching to the talented is a skill, the teachers getting better at the task seem to be concentrated in a few states in New England and the northern plains." Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready To Compete?

States in peach do not allow charters, Maine does, but only as of this year. Louisiana scores no better than 45th out of 50 states in every score of proficiency around reading, math and science, after 10 years of charters. Richard Elmore, at Harvard, says, "There are only three ways to improve student learning at scale: You can raise the level of content that students are taught. You can increase the skill and knowledge that teachers bring to the teaching of that content. And you can increase the level of students' active learning of that content." The (Only) Three Ways To Improve Performance in Schools.

Excellent Schools Now, another education reform group brought to us by the same funders of Stand for Children and League of Education Voters, is promoting a plan called A+Washington: A Way Forward for All Students. There is a lot to like in the A+Washington plan. It calls for better teachers, greater flexibility in the classroom, more access to early childhood education and great choice in school programs. It does not specifically call for charter schools. All of these ideas are good. This plan takes us in the right direction.

The idea that holds the most promise for the biggest gain is the call for greater flexibility, which is what school districts need in order to redesign education to take advantage of adaptive software. The goals of education advocates need to be increased student achievement and international competiveness and how to get there. We need to look to states which are doing that and learn how they are doing that. Charter schools will not help Washington State one bit. The A+ plan provides a good vision of for the future of education reform in Washington State.

First There Was Google Earth, Now Google Art

Nice feature about Google Art. Shows a third grade class discussing Van Gogh.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Case For A Learning Lab To Improve Education

It is past time for Washington schools to start leveraging technology for efficiency and better learning in our schools. This economic situation is a new norm then we need to come up with ways to deal with this that do not make things worse.

I suggest that the legislature allow students to attend a learning lab for part of each school day and allow the time counted for instructional minutes.  A learning lab is a place where students learn in ways that does not require a teacher present. Students in a learning lab could engage in silent reading, watch teachers’ lectures on video, or access curriculum online.

In the elementary grades, students would spend 1/3 of each day at the learning lab, 1/3 with the Language Arts teacher and 1/3 with the Math/Science teacher.  The learning lab would be staffed by parent and community volunteers and community based organizations that would provide students with help and tutoring on demand. 

WA State would not be inventing the learning lab. The Rocketship Schools in California developed this model. They save $500,000 per year per school organizing the school day this way because teachers are able to teach 1/3 more students. The money saved is used to put enrichment programs back into the school. Their schools are in the poorest neighborhoods and their tests scores are similar to schools in the wealthiest neighborhoods.

The Seattle Education Association bargaining contracts permits a 150 student load per secondary teacher. Schools can reduce class size with a learning lab. If you are an advocate of smaller class size, here is the answer.  Class sizes could be no more than 15 students; in some subjects it can be lower. The way to do this is for students to meet with the teacher one to two times a week in class. The other 3 to 4 periods a week students would go to the learning lab. If teachers meet with 15-student classes twice a week, for a total of 4 classes per day, the remaining time could be for teacher planning. No more half day or full days off for teacher planning.  The learning lab would have lots of adult volunteers, peer tutors, and Americorp volunteers to provide help and encouragement.

There is nothing sacred about five - 50 minute periods spent with a teacher. Private music students spend 50 minutes per week with their private teacher and the rest of the week practicing. We think that is perfectly natural. And the fact is that our students would benefit from more time spent practicing math and writing and less time listening to lectures.

Our students deserve a better solution. Creating a learning lab in K12 education would provide a way for school districts to reduce costs, personalize education for all students especially for gifted and special education students, reduce class size, and at a minimum maintain the school year.

Teaching Below Grade Level Students With Khan Academy

Courtney Cadwell, Teacher, Los Altos School District talks about using her experience, the benefits and the challenges, using technology to teach struggling students. This is a clip from the conference Middle School Math - Why Algebra Matters and How Technology Can Help held at Stanford on February 2, 2012.

Blended Middle School Science Class

You can't always tell by looking when you are seeing good instruction or even when you are seeing bad instruction. But in this video, students look like they are learning. This classroom looks different, like students are investing in their own learning.

"Students and teachers at Mott Hall V Middle School in New York City experience a blended learning environment, which combines online learning and face-to-face instruction"

Five History Lessons Every High School Students Needs Before They Graduate - David McCullough

First, don't memorize dates and don't memorize quotations. You can look them up. What matters is what happened and why.

1) Understand that the United States of American did not begin with the Declaration of Independence.

2) Learn history through other means than books and teachers. I would like them to learn history through music, through plays, by doing drawings, through architecture.

3) Take on the lab technique. A teacher, Jim Percoco, does this by having students study statues. Give students a photograph or show them a building, or street corner, or neighborhood, and make a mini little documentary or write a play about it or write a paper about it. Don't give students everything. Let them figure it out.

4) Finally, let them have the chance to work with original documents or the nearest facsimile possible. Let them see that these were written by real people, with a paper and pen.

5) Take them to places where things happen. Take them to historic sites.

TeachingHistory.org is a great resource for teaching original documents and for ideas about how to incorporate Jim Percoco's ideas about using monuments to teach history.


Historian David McCullough takes a question from the audience at the National Book Festival, September 25, 2011. This is a clip from the C-Span


James Percoco's approach to monuments and memorials as "thought objects,". Instead of using them to teach only about the historical events they memorialize, look at how they memorialize those events, who erected them, who designed them, and how they've been related to and used by the community since their erection. Monuments and memorials are living pieces of history, not static markers on a timeline.

Comparing OECD vs Center for Education Reform Rankings of Student Achievement By State

If the US Department of Education graded states' educational competitiveness the same way that charter advocated do, education advocates would be in an uproar. Here is a chart that ranks states by international competitiveness, from very competitive to less competitive. The grade next to the state is the grade that the Center for Education Reform gives the state based on charter school implementation. "A" means lots of charters, "F" means unfriendly to charters. There are 9 states that do not allow charters. 21% of the states that do not allow charters are above average (6 out of 28), 25% if you count Maine. 18% of States do not allow charters.  I marked the 6 with red arrows, the purple arrow is Maine, which allowed charters last year. What is the priority of charter school advocates?

Charter Schools

The controversy over charter schools is a distraction from real education reform. I agree with the criticisms that charter school advocates level against Washington State education. Our poor students, immigrant students, and students of color do not get an adequate education. However, I would go further to say that our best students, from our top schools, are not getting a great education either.

                                        The 11 states in white do not allow for charter schools from LouisvilleKy.com


Education in WA State needs to be reformed top to bottom, statewide. There has been recent news about the improvement in New Orleans’ Recovery School District since implementing charters.  However, that fact must be tempered by the amount of room there was for improvement in New Orleans. We should still be grateful today if our child goes to school in Washington instead of New Orleans.

Massachusetts, arguably, is the top state in the country for K12 education. While Massachusetts does have charters, it was at the top long before allowing charters. Massachusetts state standards are high. States with high standards have students who learn more by the time they graduate. States with low standards have students who graduate knowing less. As charter advocates point out, most states allow charters. It is a state’s education standards that make the difference in student learning, not the presence of charter schools. Washington has raised its education standards in the last few years, but the Office of the Superintendent of Instruction needs to go bolder and raise Washington’s standards to match the toughest standards in the Nation.

Another reform that should be accelerated statewide is competency based learning. In competency based learning students know the work when they move on. It is similar to allowing students to skip a grade or requiring students to repeat a grade, except, instead of skipping or repeating the whole grade, competency based learning allows students to skip lessons they know or requires students to repeat every lesson until they learn it.

Education will need to change two things to do this. First, teachers will stop lecturing. Lectures were only invented because video was not available. Teachers need to spend their time doing what videos and computers cannot do, such as facilitate discussions, lead or mentor students in project based learning and provide one-to-one or small group tutoring.  And second, students will use computers for independent, personalized, mastery learning, with help on demand. Students will learn the material before they move on, rather than move on with their classmates whether they have learned the material or not. Conversely, students will move on when they are ready and not have to wait for their classmates. Learning becomes fixed with time-to-learn the variable, rather than as it is now, where time-to-learn is fixed and learning is the variable.

All students in Washington deserve a better education. The Innovation schools in Washington have been great for some students. However, change at a few schools, whether charter or Innovation schools, is not enough. Washington can increase student achievement for all of its students and close the opportunity gap by increasing education standards and doing more to encourage personalized, competency based teaching and learning. These state-wide reforms, more so than charter schools, will help prepare all Washington students for their future as independent, creative and knowledgeable citizens.

Elementary School Uses Computers to Save Money and Educate Students Better

The iLearn Project interviewed Mike Kerr, the founding principal of Kipp Empower Academy (KEA). Kipp Empower Academy opened with 120 students in August, 2010 and currently has K-1 grades. It will add a grade every year through fourth grade. The following quotes are excerpts.

                                                                            —Jonathan Alcorn/MCT


‎"After considerable reflection, I concluded that a rotational, blended learning approach could provide the best of both worlds—KEA would be able to overcome deep funding cuts while preserving the small-group, individualized instructional model.

Each of KEA’s classrooms serves 28 to 30 students. Each classroom is equipped with 15 computers. KEA’s instructional model centers on providing teacher-led, small-group instruction for all students in the four core areas of reading, writing, math and science. During this teacher-led instruction, group size is under 14 students. While on the computers, students use digital content that is individualized, can be paced for learning ability, and have strong integrated assessments for progress monitoring, such as iStation and Dreambox.

However, we realize that young children need to be actively engaged with their learning, which is why we balance these two computer rotations with 90 minutes a week of foreign language, 90 minutes a week of physical education/dance, an hour a week of art, and two blocks a day of recess. Furthermore, our math and science programs afford our students the opportunity to engage in hands on, active learning.

At the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year 36% of the KEA kindergartners were reading at a proficient or advanced level as measured by the STEP literacy assessment. By the end of the year, 96% were proficient or advanced on the STEP. According to the nationally norm reference MAP test, 96% of student in both Reading and Math are performing at or above the national average."

Mike Kerr talks about what motivates him in this video. “From my own experience, where my public school was not preparing me for school and to realize that, as a high school senior, when I was ill equipped for college, I was ill equipped for the competitive world, I was not being prepared as the same level as the kids that had privilege, as the kids that had a great deal of social capital. It was a feeling that was deflating. It made me angry and if felt disempowering. And I realized that for me if there is one word to describe what a school should do for its kids is to empower them for the future.”

 
Mike Kerr, Fisher Fellow from Rachel Young on Vimeo.

Sal Khan On The 60 Minutes Show

Sal Khan through his Khan Academy is the most watched teacher in the world.

The Flipped Classroom Infographic

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

What's Blended Learning?

Sal Khan describes a model of education where social promotion, retention, and skipping students as a way of dealing with diverse learners in the classroom are no longer an issue. All students learn what they need to learn, get lots of practice to master their lesson, and then move on. Each student's education is personalized. Learning is fixed, time to learn is the variable.



"In his trademark style, Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, walks viewers through the many ways digital technology can impact teaching and learning in a blended learning environment."

Highline School Board Selects Finalist for Superintendent

	Highline School Board Selects Three Finalists for Superintendent	less
	The School Board has named three finalists in its search for a new superintendent.   Dr. Susan Enfield   Dr. David Engle   Dr. Joshua Garcia

After Twenty Years - Charter Schools Have Not Reformed Education

Arne Duncan gave a speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Fighting the Wrong Education Battles. He said "I want to talk about advocacy that inadvertently becomes less about helping children and making tough choices—and becomes more about maintaining ideological purity and making false choices." Although Duncan supports charter schools, I wonder if the charter schools battle here is Washington state sidestep tough choices for a simpler message.

In his speech, Duncan mentions the research of Roland Fryer. Fryer's research suggests that implementing the practices of high performing charters in traditional public schools can increase student achievement. The League of Education Voters, Stand for Children, the Washington State PTA are all advocating for charter schools. Education advocates should advocate for the practices of successful charter schools for all children, rather than charter schools. As Duncan points out in his speech, Houston has done this with success. After one year, students in the Houston schools that are trying this, students gained five to nine months in math. The added cost per student is a little more than the increased cost per student for full day kindergarten compared to half day kindergarten, about $2500 per student. 20 years ago, Charter schools were created and given greater freedom with the plan that they would be incubators for best practices. After 20 years can't we go straight to best practices for all students rather than begin at the beginning as if we have learned nothing? Will we use the same arguments as proponents used 20 years ago?

When Roland Fryer looked at market based reforms he found that, “Early research estimating the impact of school competition on school efficiency … finds that schools losing more students to charter schools are largely unaffected by the competitive pressures of the charter option.” 

 Fryer’s conclusion:

“We show that input measures associated with a traditional resource-based model of education – class size, per pupil expenditure, the fraction of teachers with no teaching certification, and the fraction of teachers with an advanced degree – are not positively correlated with school effectiveness. In stark contrast, an index of five policies suggested by forty years of qualitative research – frequent teacher feedback, data driven instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and a relentless focus on academic achievement – explains almost half of the variation in school effectiveness. Moreover, we show that these variables continue to be statistically important after accounting for alternative models of schooling, and a host of other explanatory variables, and are predictive in a different sample of schools.

While there are important caveats to the conclusion that these five policies can explain significant variation in school effectiveness, our results suggest a model of schooling that may have general application. The key next step is to inject these strategies into traditional public schools and assess whether they have a causal effect on student achievement.”

One theme that comes up as a reason for favoring charter schools is that unions are weakened. This is an one of the false arguments that gets wrapped up in charter school advocacy. I will point out that the top performing states for student achievement are union states.

Charter schools are a crap shoot for improving education. Charter advocates slough off the low performing charter schools as if they don't count. Why not advocate for KIPP practices instead of hoping or assuming WA will get KIPP charters or charters like KIPP. Rocketship has been done. Bring the model for all students. Lynne Varner in the Seattle Times wrote today,  "Comparing public and charter schools in Pennsylvania over a 3-year period, the study found "60% of the charter schools performed with similar or better success than the traditional public schools in reading and 53 percent of charter schools performed with similar or better success in math compared to traditional schools. Cyber charts did significantly worse. Charter elementary school students outperformed their peers in traditional public school; but it was the exact opposite for higher grades. In the first 3 years, charter students show slower academic growth, but the gap shrinks considerably in math overtime and disappears entirely in reading by the third year. The story is less pat for Hispanic and black students with charters unhelpful to these students in math, but helpful to black students in reading growth." That is a crap shoot that is not fair to the students in the losing schools.

There will be winners and losers with charters. Colorado has the seventh strongest charter school laws in the country, Maine is number one. The Denver Post published a story yesterday, More Colorado graduates than ever not ready for college. The states that were tops in education, Mass and MN were tops before they opened their schools to charter schools. Charter schools are a one shot change that will not change the fundamentals for all of our students. And they are a crap shoot. The odds are only very slightly above 50/50 that our students will end up in a charter that is better than the traditional school. Charters have not reformed education.

Charters have not improved our students international competitiveness. Charter schools can't replicate the success of charter schools because success is so variable and advocates only want to talk about the high performing charters, so even talking about the data leads to anecdotes and feel good stories. When the Interim Superintendent of the Seattle Public Schools tried to remove the principal at a Ingraham High School because of low student achievement the fall out was huge. Charter advocates point to the passion of KIPP students and parents as indicative of school success, Ingraham HS evoked the same passion as KIPP schools. Parents and students rallied around that school even though the data showed it was poor performing.

Geoffrey Canada says we need to teach parents to love data. Education advocates need to learn to love data. Washington students need education standards, that match or exceed Massachusetts . Massachusetts still teaches 3 grade levels above other charter school states, and nothing about charters will affect that. Charters teach to the standards of the states they are in.

 In WA, The Basic Education Act needs teeth to force school districts to teach what the Act says they should. Washington needs a bill similar to the Williams Settlement in CA that requires school districts to have one up-to-date book per student in all the core subjects. And they need the 5 improvements at their schools that Roland Fryer's research has revealed. There are a lot of reforms that will would benefit our students that charters will not address.

Washington students need data driven, researched based reform for all students. Not all poor students benefit from charter schools, some are end up in a worse school. That is what the data shows. Some students end up in worse schools. I would add 24/7 access to curriculum, competency based grading and a broad liberal arts education to the wish list for our students before charter schools.

There is a lot of talk about the improvement in New Orleans. New Orleans was a broken corrupt system. As much as it has improved, it was so low, there was a lot of room for improvement. Our students get a better, higher quality education here. New Orleans is still in the bottom for education after 10 years of charters. I think there is a blind eye and lots of excuses for poor performing charters and not enough credit to state led initiatives, such as high educational standards. Another thing, I am pretty sure that most education advocates do not want charter schools for their child. Everybody wants them for Other People's Children. That right there is revealing about what a shallow solution charters are. Our top students are not getting that great of an education either. Top white students are not internationally competitive either. So charter schools are a 2 word education reform sound bite, as long as we ignore the fact they don't fix education.

Are American students better off 20 years on since charter schools? Is education better by any definition of the word? Do not tell me any more anecdotes, show me the data. I suspect charter school advocates will get charters into Washington some day. It is easier to market than high standards, but will Washington state students be better off? Education is broken, top to bottom. Charter schools have had no impact on American education. The storm is still gathering and our students have fallen in international competitiveness in the last 20 years, not improved.

American Indian Library Association Statement on Ethnic Studies Programs in Arizona

American Indian Library Association Statement on Ethnic Studies Programs in Arizona

The American Indian Library Association (AILA) wishes to publicly express its strong disapproval of the elimination of the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Mexican American Studies classes and removal of books associated with the program due to the State of Arizona Revised Statutes Sections 15-111 and 15-112. We write this statement in support of all students, educators, and families who have been negatively affected by this action.

All students have the right to develop critical thinking skills through a challenging curriculum. All students, regardless of their background, have the right to learn about the history of their own people, as well as the history of the land and peoples where they are currently living. In Tucson, this should include the history and literature of Mexican American people as well as the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples. The targeting of one ethnic group is an attack on all ethnic groups, and the elimination of a curriculum and books that encourage students to consider the perspectives of those who are often silenced should be a concern to all humanity.

The teaching of Mexican American studies cannot be separated from the teaching of the history of the Indigenous peoples who inhabited this land long before the arrival of Europeans. Indigenous communities have been artificially bisected by the US-Mexico border. People from these communities may speak Spanish, English, as well as their Indigenous languages. Their histories, their stories, and discussion of their contemporary issues have a place in our classrooms and libraries. The curriculum that has been banned in Tucson includes works written by highly acclaimed authors and Tucson residents Ofelia Zepeda (Tohono O'odham) and Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), in addition to a number of other Native American authors. The censorship of Native voices due to the prohibition of the Mexican American Studies curriculum is part of what prompts the American Indian Library Association to take a stand on this issue.

The systematic banning of ethnic studies and the discouragement of students learning about their own histories is reminiscent of the US federal government’s educational philosophy towards American Indians. As Native Americans, we have witnessed the destructive policies of the federal government in which Indian children were denied knowledge of their own cultures, histories, and languages through the abhorrent practices of the boarding schools and, later, through western educational systems. Because of this history, many Native Americans continue to struggle to maintain the knowledge of our elders and ancestors.

We have rights under the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and we assert that Arizona state law is in violation of these rights. Under Article 8, the UN Declaration says, “States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:

(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities; . . .
(d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration;
(e) Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.”

The banning of the Mexican American ethnic studies curriculum is in effect denying the students the opportunity to learn about their cultural values and identities as Indigenous peoples.

The American Indian Library Association supports the January 2012 American Library Association Resolution that

1. Condemns the closure of educational ethnic studies programs on the basis of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
2. Condemns the confiscation of the books associated with educational ethnic studies programs.
3. Condemns the censoring of historical, educational, and cultural and creative writings important to the development of critical thinking in students.
4. Urges the Arizona legislature to pass HB 2654, “An Act Repealing Sections 15-111 and 15-112, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to School Curriculum.”

The American Indian Library Association worked alongside a number of ALA committees, offices, and affiliates to draft the above mentioned resolution, including the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, ALA Committee on Diversity, ALA Committee on Legislation, American Association of School Librarians, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Chinese American Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, Social Responsibilities Round Table, and the Young Adult Library Services Association. We urge other national associations to also take a stand on this issue, particularly other national and international groups with a focus on Indigenous, tribal, Native American, and American Indian communities. 

While the issue in Tucson, Arizona may seem to be limited to the Mexican-American population, we recognize that Tucson, and the surrounding area, is home to several Indigenous groups, including the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui, and many students in this school district identify as Native American. According to TUSD enrollment statistics, 4% of students in the district are Native American, with most students identified as Tohono O'odham, Yaqui, and Navajo. Additionally, according to the independent audit of the disbanded Mexican American Studies program, conducted by Cambium Learning, Inc., 2% of the students who were enrolled in the program are Native American.

As a membership action group, AILA's focus is on the library-related needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including the improvement of library, cultural, and information services in schools and public and research libraries. As librarians and educators, and members of the American Indian Library Association, we write this statement in support of culturally based curriculum that includes libraries as institutions that can freely disseminate information about cultures, languages, and values to the community.

American Indian Library Association, January 31, 2012 

Contact: Sandy Littletree, 2011-2012 AILA President, Sandy505@email.arizona.edu

References: Cambium Learning, Inc. “Curriculum Audit of the Mexican American Studies Department Tucson Unified School District,” 2 May 2011. http://www.scribd.com/doc/58025928/TUSD-ethnic-studies-audit “Resolution Opposing Restriction of Access to Materials and Open Inquiry in Ethnic and Cultural Studies Programs in Arizona,” Approved by ALA Council III, 24 January 2012. http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=3157Tucson Unified School District. “Native American Studies,” 5 Dec 2011. http://www.tusd1.org/contents/depart/native/aboutus.asp UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” 13 September 2007. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html 

Service Learning, Technology and English Language Learners

I read about this wonderful project in Katie McKay's blog post on the Alliance for Excellent Education website. Katie McKay is also an ELL teacher, in Texas. Her blog post is Do Our Students Have Access?

"Philadelphia Writing Project teacher Robert Rivera-Amezola also turns to technology to engage his English Language Learner students, pull together curricular goals and teach around high-interest topics of change. In listening to Robert speak about a project in which his students used a myriad of technological tools to advocate for the environment, we hear resounding themes of service and justice.

In Robert’s videos, we see his students master the use of such tools as podcasts, blogs, internet research, and PowerPoint to educate and persuade authentic audiences. Robert makes sure that his students have their own email addresses and use doodle polls to vote on topics about which to explore in depth as a class. There is an undeniable brilliance in Robert’s pedagogy."