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As the discussion over the reauthorization of NCLB heats up, one New York educator wants to be heard. Nancy Close, a health teacher from East Islip, Long Island, writes in a Newsday commentary this week, “It’s important that Congress listen to teachers and, make sure that, this time, it gets the law right.” Without deeper consideration, Close fears, “…Congress could make a problematic law even worse.”

The unrelenting focus on test scores, she writes, is draining the creativity from teaching and learning. “Children and their schools are so much more than test scores…Yet, it appears the House Education and Labor Committee remains to be convinced.” According to Close, NCLB is “failing children and local schools, stigmatizing both with unfair sanctions driven by unscientific methods of adequate yearly progress.” She suggests a refocus on class size, teacher training and retention, access to early childhood programs, and funding for school facilities and materials.

“Teachers—and children—need the law to work. But it can’t work if it excludes the wisdom of teachers.” Close, a union teacher, is president of the East Islip Teachers Association. She visited the House Education and Labor Committee earlier this month.

Posted by Elizabeth Rich at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

This week, The Christian Science Monitor reported on the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress test results. Released Tuesday, the NAEP scores indicate that elementary and middle school students are making significant gains in math and marginal improvements in reading. The achievement gap between black and white students—27 points—is still large, but at an all-time low.

Many are quick to link the achievement gains to No Child Left Behind, particularly as Congress debates its reauthorization. Defending NCLB in light of the NAEP results, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, “[It’s]…working…Any efforts to weaken accountability would fly in the face of rising achievement." However, the NAEP results may not be enough to convince most. A September PDK/Gallup Poll suggests that, for the first time, most Americans view NCLB unfavorably.

Reflecting on the response to the NAEP scores, Gail Russell Chaddock of the Monitor writes, “The timing of the biennial release of fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores—as Congress takes up renewal of a controversial education law—could not be more politically charged.”

Posted by Amanda Jones at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Congress’ work on revising the No Child Left Behind Act is going right down to the name, according to The Washington Post, with lawmakers saying they are considering a new title for the law. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, says the “No Child Left Behind” brand is too closely associated with an unpopular president and, if that weren't enough, is demeaning to schools and teachers. “People find it an incredible insult … that we are deliberately leaving children behind,” he explains. There appears to be no shortage of suggestions for a new name for the legislation. Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, recommends the “Quality for All Children Act,” while Miami University President Donna Shalala has put forth “Children First.” Andrew Friedson, student body president at the University of Maryland, takes a more (shall we say) critical approach, suggesting the “No Child Left a Brain Act” or “All the Money Left Behind Act.”

What would you name it?

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

They say diversity is the spice of life—and apparently it’s also the key to greater achievement in the classroom, according to recent studies. Research conducted by professors at the University of Sussex, in London, found that children placed in mixed--ability math classes outperformed those grouped by ability.

One four-year study followed 700 U.S. teenagers in three high schools, and examined the results of different math-teaching methods. The approach that gave students a “shared responsibility for each other’s learning” saw significant improvement among both high- and low–achieving students. The mixed grouping also saw improved social skills, such as good behavior and respect among the group members.

Another Sussex study found that social class was more important than perceived ability and prior attainment, in determining a student’s ability grouping, and that working-class students are more likely to be placed in low-ability groups, than middle-class students with the same test results. This finding emphasized the necessity of mixed-learning environments, researchers said.

Posted by Danielle Woods at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

What can you learn from zero gravity?What does it feel like to be weightless? The Northrop Grumman Foundation gave teachers from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania the chance to find out. Its new 2007 Weightless Flights of Discovery Program offers the opportunity for teachers to experience simulated gravity.

The program hopes to inspire teachers to use technology in the classroom and students to pursue math and science. During the zero gravity experience, teachers completed experiments that they had started in class with their students. (To demonstrate mass and acceleration they tossed M&M’s and each other.) They videotaped their experiences for later use in classroom curriculum.

NPR’s technology reporter, Mario Armstrong, accompanied the educators on their “flight.” “Many of the teachers said they felt that this really would change the dynamic in the classroom,” he said. Armstrong also imagines such an experience could help combat the country’s shortage of technology professionals by “inspiring kids to really pay attention to these career tracks in these industries, by making these industries seem more cool.”

Posted by Danielle Woods at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Men who express physical affection for small children could be accused of being pedophiles. Men who are caring and nurturing are sometimes assumed to be gay. Men cannot make sufficient money as teachers.

These perceptions, says a Newsweek.com article, are among the reasons why the number of male teachers is at a 40-year low. Only a quarter of the nation’s teachers are men, and that number drops to just 9 percent in elementary schools, according to the National Education Association.

Bart Tittle, a 24-year-old preschool teacher who makes about $25,000 per year, says it would be difficult to make a long-term commitment to teaching. "Right now I don’t have a wife, I don’t have kids," he said in the article. "Later in life it’s going to be much more challenging."

Additionally, if boys do not see male teachers they will think it’s a profession only for women, thus perpetuating the problem, says Reg Weaver, president of the NEA. Some efforts are underway to address the issue, however. For example, Pennsylvania has authorized funds to create a statewide recruitment program aimed at African-American men.

Posted by Brian Freedman at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

This just in: Good teaching matters. Indeed, a new study out of Pittsburgh suggests that improving teacher quality across the board may be the surest way to close the racial achievement gap. The study, which looked at Pittsburgh students’ test scores over a two-year period, found that a student’s teacher was a better predictor of his or her performance than race. The scores varied widely depending on the teachers’ ranking, the study says, regardless of students’ race. “These … are not random effects,” said Robert P. Strauss, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who led the study. “In Pittsburgh, the teachers who are successful are successful with black kids and white kids.”

Still, school officials cautioned against reading too much into the report. “Poverty is a factor that affects achievement … race is a larger factor,” said Linda Lane, Pittsburgh’s deputy superintendent of schools. “And there’s a lot of variation in African-American achievement from one school to the next … but we don’t always know what that difference might be.”

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

While education-reform organizations typically occupy themselves with high-level policy and research issues, one group in Washington is gaining notice by working directly with the people who actually run the classrooms. The Center for Inspired Teaching, which opened in 1995 as teacher-training service, has recently begun working in partnership with individual schools in the Washington area to help teachers hone their practice.

“The most important thing that happens in a school is the quality of instruction,” says founder Aleta Margolis. “If you want to influence that, who do you work with? Of course you work with teachers.” That philosophy is showing some signs of success. Three years ago, CIT was hired to work with teachers at Tyler Elementary School in Southeast Washington, at the time one of the lowest-performing schools in the city. The group’s trainers helped Tyler’s staff develop a collaborative culture, design more effective lessons, and bring renewed enthusiasm to their work. Last year, Tyler was one of a small number of schools in Washington to make adequate year progress two years in a row. Other schools have started calling …

Posted by Danielle Woods at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For an entire year, Chicago Tribune education reporter Stephanie Banchero and photographer Heather Stone followed an 8th grade class at Sherman School of Excellence, a struggling school on the city’s South Side. The “failed” school was closed in June of 2006 and reopened three months later with an entirely new staff, according to NCLB regulations. Montie Apostolos, an uncompromising veteran with a record of raising reading scores and changing attitudes, was brought in to teach the 8th graders. Among her injunctions to the class: “Don’t blame Ms. Apostolos for your failures. I’m sorry your lives are hard, but that’s not an excuse to be lazy. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth either.” Not all teachers were as strong. Not all teachers would last the year.

The multimedia series offers a class photo that reveals a roomful of aspirations—students who plan to attend college, become professional athletes, chefs, and real estate moguls. On video, students speak openly of their efforts to get a decent education, against all odds. Asks one student, “Do I really want to let myself down, my momma down? My whole family comes from Section 8 [a housing-subsidy program], maybe they’re proud of it, but I’m not. It’s very difficult to become the first ...You have to carry the weight.”

Posted by Elizabeth Rich at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are children with mental health illnesses like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder being overtreated? No, according to a recent Washington Post article citing a mental health study that says most children who meet the criteria for ADHD do not receive medicine consistently enough. “There’s a perception that ADHD is overdiagnosed and overtreated, so we wanted to see if that was true among those who met the disease criteria,” says Tanya Froehlich, a doctor at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and lead author of the study.

The study found that more than two million participating children ages eight to 15 met the criteria for ADHD, but only a third consistently received medication last year. Only 16 percent of poor children received medication, and were two-thirds less likely to receive medicine consistently. Although the study counters overtreatment of ADHD, another study, reports the Post, questions the validity of the increase in the number of children diagnosed with mental illnesses like bipolar disorder.

Posted by Danielle Woods at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)