Articles in the Curriculum category

Regular reading, unfortunately, not a regular part of everyone’s day

1-1251554604ir6KFor most of us, the majority of the reading we do during the day probably involves looking over e-mails at work and checking Twitter updates on a smartphone. If we’re lucky, we might be able to squeeze in a few pages of a book before bed.

Unfortunately, it looks like this lack of emphasis on reading in real life has led to a lack of reading preparation in the classroom. The New York Times reported that test results released last week from the largest nationwide reading test show students have made little to no progress in reading achievement over the last 17 years.

The few students that did make gains in reading scores were those included in the lowest performing groups—students who already showed reading proficiency remained at the same level.

Susan Pimentel, a member of the governing board that oversees the test told the Times the reason progress is being made only at the lowest levels is because schools put all the emphasis on teaching basic reading skills, and almost none on developing advanced techniques for reading and comprehension.
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Naomi Dillon|March 30th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Leading Source, Student Achievement|Tags: , , |

Webinar helps educators understand autism

The rising number of students with autism is impacting schools across the country, but new resources are available to help school boards and school staff members work with these children to help them cope with educational and social challenges.

NSBA’s National Affiliate program held a webinar, “The Key is Leadership: Success in School for Students with Autism,” cosponsored by Autism Speaks and the National Association of Elementary School Principals, to help school officials understand the disability.

The rates of autism have risen exponentially in the past 20 years, and now one in 110 children, and one in 70 boys, have been diagnosed with the neurological disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Part of the reason for the increase is that pediatricians and school staff have become much more aware of the symptoms, which include social difficulties, communication challenges, and repetitive or odd behaviors.

The condition presents itself differently in each person, and each person acts and learns in different ways, noted Lisa Goring, the director of family services with Autism Speaks, an advocacy and educational group. “It’s often said if you’ve seen one person with autism, you’ve seen one person with autism,” she said.

The condition impacts a students’ schoolwork through their processing of concepts and behavioral disabilities. The challenge for schools is figuring out ways to work with their learning patterns. One example shown was a child who was offered pretzels, an apple, or graham crackers for a snack. The teacher always presented the options in that order and the boy always chose graham crackers, but he was usually unhappy and threw out his snack. A developmental specialist realized that the boy could not remember the choices and always chose the one that was presented last—so instead she showed pictures of each snack and the boy learned to choose the pretzels.

Like other disabilities, early detection and intervention is crucial to success—educators need to have a student evaluated if they suspect a developmental delay or specific sign of autism.

Another important factor for school officials to consider is the acceptance of the student with autism among their peers, said Peter Faustino, the school psychologist at Fox Lane Middle School in Bedford, N.Y. His school has set up a peer-buddy system to help students with autism better integrate into regular classes and socialize with their nondisabled peers. The program has also helped the other students empathize and accept the students with autism.

The Bedford school district also integrates information about autism into its professional development for teachers and administrators, who have been very receptive to the training, Faustino said.

“Autism can be looked at as another culture that we are trying to integrate into the school,” he said.

Autism Speaks offers a free kit to educators and advice on working with parents to provide a better educational experience, including a video, which can be downloaded at www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/talking_to_parents_action_kit.php.

This webinar, including the video, PowerPoint presentations, and additional resources, will be archived at www.nsba.org/webchannelNA.

Joetta Sack-Min|March 24th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, School Board News, School Boards, Special Education, Student Achievement, Teachers|

Don’t mess with Texas— or its version of history

ist1_3162960-flag-of-texasThanks to the patriots on the Texas Board of Education, the words of Jefferson will long be enshrined in that state’s social studies curriculum.

Jefferson Davis, that is: defender of states rights, bulwark against unwarranted federal intrusion, and, incidentally, president of the Confederate States of America.

That other Jefferson? The one who lived down the road in Monticello? He’s not so popular with the conservative majority on the board, which voted provisionally last week to adopt the standards. Might have something to do with his little line about “separation between church and state.”

At any rate, according to the Washington Post, Thomas Jefferson has been cut “from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century” …” (Pssst: He was also a deist!)

So why, for example, will Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address be studied alongside Lincoln’s?
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Naomi Dillon|March 23rd, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Governance, Leading Source|Tags: , , |

The week in blogs

Photo courtesy of Stockvault,com-

Photo courtesy of Stockvault,com-

Stocks and consumer spending may be rising, but the economic recession is still ravaging school districts, as budget woes and school closures dominated the news this week.

In Kansas City, Mo., the school board narrowly voted to close nearly half of its schools for budget reasons.

Commenting on the dismal budget situation nationally, NSBA Executive Director Anne L. Bryant told MSNBC that school boards will likely face deeper cuts in the fall and that their funding problems show no sign of abating anytime soon.

“There is no silver lining, at least in the next 18 months,” she said.

Meanwhile, teachers across the nation were incensed at the firings of all 93 teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island — and President Obama’s apparent endorsement of the move.

“I ripped the Obama sticker off my truck,” a Houston Federation of Teachers official said in a New York Times story. The quote was highlighted by Alexander Russo in his This Week in Education blog.

Employment prospects also weren’t looking up for New York’s embattled Gov. David Paterson, who announced recently that he will not seek re-election amid a series of investigations into his administration.

“Hubris is terminal,” Timothy G. Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, said in his blog this week, quoting someone who should know: former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. After assessing Paterson’s chances of survival, Kremer turned to a more immediate concern: a state budget that cuts $1.1 billion out of the schools. For more on the possible impact of these cuts, and NYSSBA’s response, go to “Be the Change for Kids.”
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Lawrence Hardy|March 12th, 2010|Categories: Assessment, Curriculum, Leading Source, Policy Formation, Student Achievement, Teachers, Wellness|

A new role for the Office of Civil Rights

Photo courtesy of Stockvault

Photo courtesy of Stockvault

It’s been more than 10 years since I visited the small city of Perry, Iowa, to do a story on how its public schools were adapting to a large influx of Hispanic students. There had been friction in this little railroad town over the new immigrants, but the schools were a refuge for all.

I remember how impressed I was by the dedication of the superintendent, the principals, and the ESL teachers: They were truly committed to giving the newcomers from places like Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala the very best education they could provide.

I wrote a pretty glowing story — and rightly so. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to some of these foreign-born students in a few years, especially those who had come to Iowa as middle or high schoolers with limited English skills. How many of them would graduate and go on to college or decent-paying jobs?   
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Lawrence Hardy|March 10th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Diversity, Leading Source|Tags: , , , , |

New Report Links Recess to Learning

Recess is often brushed off as just playing tag and kickball on the playground, but a Gallup poll released Feb. 4 shows it can be valuable to learning.

The poll, conducted in October 2009, took an online survey of almost 2,000 elementary school principals, asking questions about how they see recess affecting students’ ability to perform both in and outside of the classroom. More than 80 percent of those surveyed said recess has a positive impact on academic achievement.

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admin|February 5th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Obesity, School Board News, Wellness|

Math anxiety

BoardBuzz came across a recent article on Ars Technica about a new study which suggests that elementary school may be a breeding ground for math anxiety. Girls have long embraced the stereotype that they’re not supposed to be good at math. And according to the study they may be getting the idea from a surprising source—their female elementary school teachers. Yes, the study claims that female elementary teachers who display a high level of anxiety about math transmitted that anxiety to their female students:

Teachers with high math anxiety were shown to have a significant effect on the math achievement and stereotypes of their female students. Girls with anxious teachers scored lower on math achievement tests at the end of the year than girls with more confident teachers—the more anxious the teacher, the more likely girls were to confirm the stereotype that girls have less math ability when they took the year-end tests. Girls who agreed with the stereotype all had lower math achievement scores than girls who did not agree, as well as lower scores than boys in general, who remained immune to their teachers’ influence.

BoardBuzz isn’t quite sure what to make of this study. However, it does appear that in early elementary school, where the teachers are almost all female, teachers’ math anxiety would carry consequences for girls’ math achievement by influencing girls’ beliefs about who is good at math. What do you think? Could female teachers be passing on their own math inadequacies to their female students?

Andrew Paulson|January 29th, 2010|Categories: Boardbuzz, Curriculum, Student Achievement, Teachers|

Higher-Level Courses Increase Chances of College Acceptance Letter

The Center for Public Education’s report, “Chasing the College Acceptance Letter,” gives students, parents, and school officials new information about the credentials needed to get into a competitive college in today’s environment.

The thousands of high school seniors sending off college applications this month might be surprised to know that taking harder and higher-level courses, especially in math and science, would do more to increase their chances of being accepted than would a higher GPA. A higher score on college entrance exams (such as the SAT or ACT) also beats out a higher GPA.

Who earns the right credentials? CPE researcher Jim Hull found that minority and low-income students are less likely to earn the credentials that will give them a 50/50 shot of being accepted into a competitive college. For instance, while 66 percent of white students earn these credentials, only 37 percent of minority students and 38 percent of low-income students do.

And low-income students’ situation has worsened. While there was almost no difference between the acceptance chances of low- and high-income applicants with the same qualifications in 1992, by 2004 high-income students were more than 20 percent more likely than their low-income classmates (80 and 66 percent, respectively) to simply get admitted into a competitive college.

The good news is that “the right credentials” doesn’t have to mean straight A’s, a perfect ACT score, or spending 50 hours a week on extracurricular activities. It just means students should earn decent grades, take college-preparatory courses, and perform well on their college entrance exams. According to the most recent national data available, the average applicant earned a 21 on the ACT, completed trigonometry and chemistry, and earned a 3.12 GPA. This translated into a 75 percent chance of being admitted into a “competitive” college (as defined by Barron’s Profile of American Colleges).

Other highlights:

  • If an average applicant was able to pass pre-calculus instead of stopping at trigonometry, his or her chances would have increased from 75 to 79 percent.
  • Lower-achieving applicants could increase their chances from 52 to 57 percent if they simply completed trigonometry instead of stopping math at algebra II — a greater increase than if the student earned a 3.0 GPA.
  • If minority students earn the same grades, take the same courses, and score the same on their college entrance tests, they have just as good a chance of getting into college as their white classmates. However, minority students are much less likely (15 percent versus 39 percent) to earn the credentials of the average applicant.
  • Only 16 percent of low-income students earn the credentials of the average applicant. Even if they do, they are less likely to be accepted than their high-income peers.

The Center for Public Education, an initiative of NSBA, is a national resource for credible and practical information about public education and its importance to the well-being of our nation.

admin|January 27th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, School Board News, School Boards, Student Achievement|Tags: |

Making foreign language a top priority, merely lip service in U.S. schools

logo_wyySigh. There is something inherently disappointing in the tendency of American policymakers to talk about what needs to be done—and then fail to do it.

Latest case in point: We all know of the need to teach more students a foreign language before they enter tomorrow’s global economy. Yet, over the past decade, thousands of public schools have dropped all instruction in French, Spanish, and other languages.

So reports a study released by the Center for Applied Linguistics, which surveyed 5,000 public and private schools about their foreign language instruction. The study, conducted in collaboration with the research group Westat, was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

A closer look at the report reveals that the decline in foreign language classes hasn’t occurred at the high school, where officials are heedful of state mandates and the coursework students need to enter college.

No, the dramatic cuts are at the elementary and middle school, where foreign language educators have long argued is where instruction should begin—and must begin if more students are to truly master a language during their school years.
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Naomi Dillon|January 21st, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Governance, Leading Source, School Reform|Tags: , , |

Good spending habits should start, be taught early

sc_hom_topbg_0509These days, we’re all thinking a little bit more about our money, and in many cases how to save more or make do with less.

So when I got an e-mail promoting talk-show host Dave Ramsey’s curriculum for students, Financial Peace, I figured he’d be a great source to talk about financial planning and how it fits into the K-12 curriculum.

Like many financial gurus, Ramsey learned his lessons the hard way. At age 26, he’d amassed a real estate portfolio worth $4 million. In just a few years, though, his debt had wiped out his earnings, and the stress of his financial situation was taking a toll on his marriage and other relationships.

Those hard lessons led to his new career as a financial author and speaker. Late last year I interviewed Ramsey for ASBJ just before his daily radio show (based in my hometown of Brentwood,  Tenn.) A group of teenagers had just visited his studio, and he was thrilled that they’d asked his advice on retirement accounts.
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Naomi Dillon|January 20th, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Governance, Leading Source|
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