Web Watch

A Memphis 6th grader returned to her former elementary school a hero last week, after having convinced Hewlitt-Packard to donate 67 computers to her alma mater, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

As part of a persuasive writing assignment for her 5th grade class last year, Kristina White wrote to the executive vice president of HP's $42 billion personal systems division, suggesting that HP could generate community support in Memphis by donating computers to her school, Sherwood Elementary.

HP responded in spades, donating 67 HP Thin Client computers to the school, along with sufficient electrical conduit to allow the school to rewire two classrooms and the school library.

The students haven't taken HP's generosity for granted. They're using the donation to start a school-wide recycling project. They've been collecting boxes of office paper for recycling and tracking the data on their computers.

"What you notice is the enthusiasm and energy of the students," said Brian Becker, head of HP's education division.

When she asked whether or not she would be motivated by her accomplishments with HP, White replied, "I did once; I can do it again."

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation delivered a $40 million offer to the Pittsburgh Public Schools this week to boost teacher effectiveness, reports the post-gazette.com. According to officials, it is the largest direct grant ever made to the school district. Pittsburgh is one of four "intensive partnership sites" that could soon receive money from the Gates Foundation for their efforts to improve teacher effectiveness.

"For us, it's the perfect partnership at the perfect time," said school Superintendent Mark Roosevelt.

The district, Roosevelt acknowledged, sees the foundation's support as an endorsement of its initiatives to improve teacher effectiveness and school conditions.

Over the past four years, the district has shut the doors on low-performing schools, introduced standardized curricula, and with the support of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, helped to launch the Pittsburgh Promise, which offers college scholarships to select graduates of city high schools.

The $40 million grant will go towards financing the district's $85 million-plus plan to overhaul their methods for recruiting, training, and compensating teachers. Under the new plan, the district will implement performance-based pay for faculty members, establish a teachers' academy, renovate the tenure system, and broaden teacher recruitment efforts.

The plan rolled out with the approval of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.

"The PFT is very proud of the efforts made by our members every day, and this recognition by Gates underscores the reasons why we have that pride," PFT President Jack Tarka said.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With online trading communities such as Craigslist and eBay facilitating millions of transactions, teachers have entered the online marketplace with personalized lesson plans in hand, according to a much talked-about story in the New York Times.

These "teacher-entrepreneurs" place their own lesson plans for sale online, either on their own blogs or on commercial sites, such as Teachers Pay Teachers or We Are Teachers. (See Teacher Magazine's 2006 profile of Teachers Pay Teachers.)

But school administrators have begun raising questions about whether or not teachers have full ownership of the material.

"To the extent that school district resources are used, then I think it's fair to ask whether the district should share in the proceeds," said Robert N. Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.

Teachers who place their lesson plans online currently take home all of the profits and technically have no responsibility to spend that money on their classrooms. However, some teachers split the profits between school and personal life. For example, Erica Bohrer, an elementary school teacher in New York, says she used the money she earned from selling lesson plans to add books to a reading nook in her first-grade classroom and to help with mortgage payments.

"Teaching can be a thankless job," Bohrer said. "I put my hard-earned time and effort into creating these things, and I just would like credit."

While districts analyze the new online marketplace in an effort to establish guidelines or policies, some educators also fear that the act of selling lesson plans will undermine the ability for educators to create online professional development communities where ideas and lesson plans are traded freely.

"Teachers swapping ideas with one another, that's a great thing," said Joseph McDonald, a professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development at New York University. "But somebody asking 75 cents for a word puzzle reduces the power of the learning community and is ultimately destructive to the profession."

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Many struggling students in high schools throughout New Jersey must take test-prep classes in place of electives like music or art, according to The Record.

With all students required in the state to pass the High School Proficiency Assessment in order to graduate, those deemed at risk of failing must often enroll—sometimes semester after semester—in intensive review courses that use workbooks supplied by testing companies and instruct them in test-taking strategies.

While critics of standardized testing decry the trend as yet another example of curriculum narrowing, educators in New Jersey appear to have more mixed feelings.

"It's all about the tests—it's unfortunate, but that's the way it is," said Joseph Mastropietro, a math supervisor in the Hasbrouck Heights district. "The key is we want them to graduate from high school and move on to college."

Mastropietro added that the separate courses have the benefit of allowing teachers in regular core courses to limit the amount of time they have to spend on test preparation.

Others noted that the testing regimen has improved schools' ability to ensure that all kids are at an acceptable skill level before they move on. The focus on tests has "made everyone's job a little more difficult, but I think the kids have these essential skills now, for the most part," said Elmwood Park schools Superintendent Joseph Caspulla.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

With policies aimed at separating students based on ability flourishing in schools, educators have noticed a correlation between ability-based grouping and the continuation of the minority achievement gap, according to NPR.

Schools like Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J., which place struggling students in remedial classes, have created an environment where predominantly minority students continue to end up in the lower-level classes, while their white counterparts succeed in higher-level classes.

"What you're seeing in suburbia and how it is playing out along racial lines is testimony to the fact that race still matters quite a bit in a society and very much so in education," says Amy Stuart Wells, a sociology and education professor at Columbia University's Teachers College.

This racial division can have profound effects upon the minority students' levels of motivation, some educators believe.

"Black children in higher-level classes were ignored, or perceived that they were being ignored, or did not feel comfortable going to the teacher after school to get help," Lovie Lilly, principal of Columbia High School says. "They gave up and decided to go to level three classes where at least there were other black children."

When minority students opt to drop themselves down into lower level classes, the NPR report says, they often opt out of a solid education, as teachers in the remedial classes expect less from their students. A former student of Columbia High, Jerry Mornvil, recalls his time spent in a lower-level class: "Our first day, going to that class, we made a nickname for that class. We called it the retarded class."

District Superintendent Brian Osborne recalls, on his second day on the job, asking a group of students what their teachers' expectations are for them. "The very first thing that one of the students told me was 'It depends what level you're in.' "

Osborne believes all is not lost for students in these remedial classes—he has created a task force to study the technique of separating in Maplewood's schools.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In response to the sickening news of gang rape occurring outside a Calif. high school's homecoming dance, a USC professor is calling attention to role of student tips and reports in efforts to stop school violence.

Ron Avi Astor, Ph.D, a professor in USC's Schools of Social Work and Education, writes an opinion piece on CNN.com that says instead of asking questions such as "Why are our kids so messed up?" and "What's happening in our schools?," we should be asking, "What can we do to prevent such heinous acts from happening?"

Astor believes that students themselves hold the power to stopping school violence. He cites research showing that students typically know where and when violence on campus will occur, largely due to the prominence of online social networks, text messaging, and widespread cellphone use.

Since the tragedies of Columbine in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007, Astor believes students to have become more vigilant in noticing potential safety threats. Student reports halted a Columbine-style massacre at a high school in Green Bay, Wisc. a few years back; and in August, student tips and an alert teacher stopped a potential tragedy from occurring at Hillside High School in San Mateo, Calif.

"Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware of these frequently heroic acts by high school students and their teachers because they don't often get national media attention," Astor explains. "That lack of information has helped obscure the important roles that students and their responsive teachers play in preventing school violence."

Ultimately, Astor believes school administrators and teachers must answer the call and teach students procedures about how to handle reporting incidents of violence in schools. If the schools provide the backbone, he thinks students will do the rest when it comes to preventing school violence.

Posted by Bryan Toporek at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)