NCTAF News Digest:

A Weekly Digest of News Articles & Reports

Thursday, July 10, 2008

In this Issue:

--NCLB Watch

--Presidential Hopefuls Differ on K-12 Spending

--Margaret Spellings Column: Save D.C's Vouchers

--Teacher Pay Set By the Results

--Technology Reshapes America's Classrooms

--NEA President-Elect Pledges to Stay the Course

--Schools Resume Teacher Hiring

Greetings,

This is the NCTAF News Digest, a timely news service provided to our partner states, commissioners, and the education policy community. This Digest is for the personal educational use of the recipient. At publication time, all links were active. Some publications may require free registration. You may wish to bookmark links for future reference.

Presidential Hopefuls Differ on K-12  Spending

-Education Week; July 8, 2008

Educators are still waiting for the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees to put forth detailed plans on education that would allow a comparison of how the two would shape federal K-12 policy over the next four years. But in at least one area, the differences between Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are clear: education spending. Sen. McCain pledged in a speech last month “to make government in Washington more efficient” and to “freeze discretionary spending until we have completed top-to-bottom reviews of all federal programs to weed out failing ones.” Sen. Obama, meanwhile, has proposed about $18 billion annually in new federal education spending, including programs aimed at expanding early-childhood education and bolstering teacher training. While it’s unclear how he would reshape the No Child Left Behind Act, Sen. Obama has also advocated additional funding for the law’s programs. “We can’t afford to leave the money behind for No Child Left Behind,” he said in a June 3 speech in St. Paul, Minn., in which he unofficially claimed the Democratic nomination. “We owe it to our children to invest in early-childhood education [and] recruit an army of new teachers and give them better pay and more support.” By contrast, Sen. McCain thinks the NCLB law has been adequately funded, Lisa Graham Keegan, a top education adviser to the candidate, said at a forum June 12 at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank.

It isn’t clear whether Sen. McCain’s plan to freeze domestic spending for a year would include all federal education programs.Some analysts say level funding or cuts appear likely, given Sen. McCain’s plan to keep most of President Bush’s tax cuts in place and to balance the federal budget. “It’s impossible that he could make investments in education,” said Robert Gordon, who was Sen. John Kerry’s domestic-policy adviser during the Massachusetts Democrat’s 2004 presidential campaign. “It’s impossible to imagine he could do anything but cut spending on education, just because it’s the only way to begin to make the numbers add up.” Sen. Obama’s plan to repeal President Bush’s tax cuts for some high-income taxpayers “makes it possible to talk about investments in education,” said Mr. Gordon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the advocacy arm of the Washington-based CAP.  Edward Kealy, the executive director for the Committee for Education Funding, a Washington-based lobbying group, said that if Sen. McCain, as president, decided to level-fund education programs, that would amount to a cut, because increasing student enrollments and inflation would mean the same amount of funding wouldn’t go as far.Dan Lips, a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, based in Washington, said that federal education spending has risen by more than 40 percent since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind law more than six years ago, and that the boost hasn’t led to a significant increase in student achievement.He noted that federal appropriations account for just 9 percent of all K-12 education spending nationally, and he suggested that states and local governments would be better positioned to finance and implement many education programs. “Federal funding comes with strings,” Mr. Lips said. “I think people should recognize that there isn’t simply a pot of additional funding buried under Capitol Hill that could be used to improve schools.”

To view the full article, click here.

Margaret Spellings Column: Save D.C.'s Vouchers
-The Washington Post; July 8, 2008

Better schools. Higher scores. And satisfied parents. That's the record of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It is helping us keep our promise to leave no child behind in America. If Congress is thinking of breaking this promise, the nation deserves to know the story.  Signed into law by President Bush four years ago, the program is the first to provide federally funded education vouchers to students. It awards up to $7,500 per child for tuition, transportation and fees; in 2007-08 it enabled 1,900 students from the underperforming Washington public school system -- the highest total yet -- to attend the private or religious schools of their choice. For many, this was their first opportunity to receive a high-quality education. "They not only educate them, but they are teaching them to be young men and young women as well," Sheila Jackson, the mother of a 12-year-old scholarship recipient, told a reporter. An independent study of the program released last year confirms this parental satisfaction. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) found that parents of scholarship children express confidence that they will be better educated and even safer in their new schools. A study by Georgetown University found increased parental involvement and student enthusiasm for learning. The IES study reported academic gains in reading by three student subgroups, totaling nearly 90 percent of all students. They gained the equivalent of two to four extra months of learning. An IES report last year found increased math scores among some of the same subgroups.

This is especially impressive when you consider that nearly all of the participating students are from families that are at or below the poverty line; the average income of participating families is $22,736, only $2,000 above the poverty level for a family of four. Ninety-nine percent of the children are African American or Hispanic. Many escaped poorly performing public schools, where they worked below grade level in a city that has struggled for years to educate its young. Whether the children were failing school or the schools were failing the children, the District of Columbia's leaders finally became fed up with institutionalized failure. They designed a unique "three-sector" strategy that provided new funding for public schools and public charter schools and new educational options for needy children. Working with the District, Congress and the Bush administration then implemented the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act in 2004, giving birth to D.C. opportunity scholarships. The program has clearly filled a need. Evidence does not just appear on a chart. It is visible in the long lines of parents waiting to participate

To view the full article, click here.

Teacher Pay Set By the Results

-The Baltimore Sun; July 6, 2008

From rural Washington County to suburban Prince George's County, school systems around the state are beginning to wade into a promising but controversial topic in education: pay for performance. School officials are starting to offer teachers and principals extra pay or bonuses when they take on challenging assignments or raise test scores. So a Prince George's County teacher could earn a bonus of up to $10,000 a year, and a Baltimore principal might someday get an extra 10 percent for exemplary work. The move toward pay for performance, driven by increasing pressure for schools to improve student achievement as well as by shortages of teachers, comes despite the influence of Maryland's powerful teachers union. So far, the idea has not been embraced by union leaders. Here and around the nation, the unions are skeptical about the value of bonuses and worried that the rewards could be made in unfair ways.
"We have not seen any hard evidence yet that it improves achievement," said Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman for the Maryland State Teachers Association.

Across the nation, the cities of Denver, New York and Houston have offered additional compensation, but the practice is not widespread, educators said. Some systems such as Harford and Anne Arundel counties have taken small steps by offering merit pay to principals and assistant principals. Principals in Harford County, for instance, are reviewed every two years to see whether they will receive an additional 3 percent in pay. As part of the evaluation procedures, the principals put together a thick portfolio that contains everything from test scores to surveys of the school community, before sitting down with the superintendent for several hours, said Jon O'Neal, the Harford County assistant superintendent of human resources. Historically, only 12 percent to 20 percent of principals have received the merit increases, O'Neal said. Baltimore is expected to roll out an ambitious plan to pay principals up to 10 percent of their salary in an annual bonus. School officials have negotiated an agreement with the principals and administrators bargaining unit. But details have yet to be worked out because the role of city principals is changing as they gain greater autonomy in running their schools, said Laura Weeldreyer, who is negotiating for the city school system. The new incentives, Weeldreyer said, could be used as a "lever for school reform."

To view the full article, click here.

Technology Reshapes America's Classrooms

-The Washington Post; July 7, 2008

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in America's classrooms, reducing the need for textbooks, notepads, paper and in some cases even the schools themselves. Just ask 11-year-old Jemella Chambers. She is one of 650 students who receive an Apple Inc laptop each day at a state-funded school in Boston. From the second row of her classroom, she taps out math assignments on animated education software that she likens to a video game.  "It's comfortable," she said of Scholastic Corp's (SCHL.O) FASTT Math software in which she and other students compete for high scores by completing mathematical equations. "This makes me learn better. It's like playing a game," she said. Education experts say her school, the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Boston, offers a glimpse into the future.  It has no textbooks. Students receive laptops at the start of each day, returning them at the end. Teachers and students maintain blogs. Staff and parents chat on instant messaging software. Assignments are submitted through electronic "drop boxes" on the school's Web site.  "The dog ate my homework" is no excuse here. The experiment at Frederick began two years ago at cost of about $2 million, but last year was the first in which all 7th and 8th grade students received laptops. Classwork is done in Google Inc's free applications like Google Docs, or Apple's iMovie and specialized educational software like FASTT Math. "Why would we ever buy a book when we can buy a computer? Textbooks are often obsolete before they are even printed," said Debra Socia, principal of the school in Dorchester, a tough Boston district prone to crime and poor schools.

There is, however, one concession to the past: a library stocked with novels.

"It's a powerful, powerful experience," added Socia. Average attendance climbed to 94 percent from 92 percent; discipline referrals fell 30 percent. And parents are more engaged, she said. "Any family can chat online with teacher and say 'hey, we're having this problem'." Unlike traditional schools, Frederick's students work at vastly different levels in the same classroom. Children with special needs rub shoulders with high performers. Computers track a range of aptitude levels, allowing teachers to tailor their teaching to their students' weakest areas, Socia said. The Internet is also a catalyst for change. U.S. enrollment in online virtual classes reached the 1 million mark last year, 22 times the level seen in 2000, according to the North American Council for Online Learning, an industry body. That's only the beginning, said Michael Horn, co-author of "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns." "Our projections show that 50 percent of high school courses will be taught online by 2019. It's about one percent right now," said Horn, executive director of education at Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Massachusetts.

To view the full article, click here.

NEA President-Elect Pledges to Stay the Course

-Education Week; July 7, 2008

The new president-elect of the National Education Association says he is not seeking to change the direction of the 3.2 million-member union. Instead, Dennis Van Roekel says his priority when he takes office Sept. 1 will be to transform a flawed public school system that is leaving behind large numbers of minority students. “I am not coming in with a whole new list of things to do,” Mr. Van Roekel said in an interview July 6, the last day of the NEA’s annual convention here. “I don’t think it’s about me; it’s about the organization. I am going to do all I can during my time to move the mission of this organization along,” said Mr. Van Roekel, who is completing his second term as vice president under President Reg Weaver. During the four-day Representative Assembly, 10,000 delegates from around the country heard from the new executive leadership, including Mr. Van Roekel, Vice President-elect Lily Eskelsen, and Secretary-Treasurer-elect Becky Pringle. While Mr. Van Roekel and Ms. Eskelsen ran unopposed, Ms. Pringle defeated contender Marsha Smith with 80 percent of the vote. Delegates cheered for the likely Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, whom they voted to support, and who spoke to them via live satellite feed on the third day of the Representative Assembly. But they booed him for mentioning performance pay. They debated—and partly defeated—an attempt by the union leadership to allow private school workers to join the NEA. The delegates also lined up patiently to get their pictures taken with Mr. Weaver and asked Mr. Van Roekel for his autograph.

Mr. Van Roekel, 61, a former mathematics teacher from Arizona, laid out his priorities in his speech July 6 in which he said he would continue to unite members, in Mr. Weaver’s footsteps, and work for great public schools. The NEA last week released a list of its priorities for improving the federal No Child Left Behind Act, including support for the teaching profession, sustained federal funding for mandates, and support for innovation and best practices. “I imagine what it must feel like to be in a [school] building where the entire entity supports and believes in every child that walks through the door. I dream of the day when that happens. And it is our responsibility as an organization to make that vision real,” Mr. Van Roekel said.Earlier, speaking to Education Week, Mr. Van Roekel described himself as a “passionate man” who wanted to become a teacher from the time he was in 7th grade. “For 25 years, I lived the dream,” he said, adding that he went into teaching because “I wanted to make a difference.” But as he got involved with his local union, he said, he realized that it was by changing public policy that he could make a difference for children around the nation. “In the past six years, I have not been in a school anywhere where they did not want to talk about NCLB,” Mr. Van Roekel said.

To view the full article, click here.

Schools Resume Teacher Hiring

-Las Vegas Sun; July 9, 2008

The Clark County School District hiring freeze has melted. The Legislature’s decisions about budget cuts during its special session June 27 eliminated much of the uncertainty about the School District’s finances for the coming year, enabling the district to resume hiring, Superintendent Walt Rulffes decided late Monday. As reported first by the Sun, Rulffes froze all hiring, with the exception of teachers for high-need areas such as math and special education, a week before the special session convened. Lawmakers wound up trimming another $275 million from the budget, but the cuts did not result in the state’s largest school district having to lay off teachers or reassign specialists to cover classroom vacancies. The Legislature also decided to preserve funding for teachers’ cost of living raises. District officials had been worried the district would be on the hook to cover that cost if the state backed out of it. As of Tuesday, the district had hired 594 new teachers, with 797 vacancies remaining. The number of teacher vacancies changes daily as more people notify the district of plans to retire or resign before the start of the new academic year. The district is also waiting for the latest enrollment projections to determine how many students will be expected on the first day of school.

High-need classroom positions will continue to be filled first. Central office administrative vacancies will remain unfilled as long as possible, Rulffes said. News of the hiring thaw was hailed by teacher Maria Blois, who arrived Monday after a 1,400-mile drive from Corpus Christi, Texas, and was waiting to hear whether she would be offered a job. The district’s human resources office had asked her to be patient, Blois said. “I’m ready to go at the drop of a hat,” Blois said. “All I need is for the phone to ring.”  Blois spent 15 years in the Navy, including four years aboard the USS Salvor, a rescue and salvage vessel. She taught sailors and divers everything from emergency medicine to how to triage patients in the event of a large-scale emergency. Blois, who also has four years of experience working in Texas schools, hopes to teach allied health at one of the Clark County School District’s three career and technical academies, which include the new east region campus opening in August.

When asked whether it was risky to move to a new town without a guarantee of employment, Blois said she preferred to think of it as an adventure. “That’s the good thing about having Navy experience,” said Blois, who retired as a chief petty officer. “I wasn’t afraid to do this.”

To view the full article, click here.